Hurlbut & Edsall Building

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Tuttle, Hibbard & Co. I, Hurlbut & Edsall, C. M. Henderson & Co., George E. Congdon, J. H. Reed & Co.
Life Span: ~1857-1871
Location: 32 Lake
Architect:

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory for the Year 1859

Tuttle, Hibbard & Co.

Congdon George E.

Halpin & Bailey’s City Directory for the Year 1863
Henderson C. M. & Co., (Charles M., and Wilbur S. Henderson, and Edmund Burke, jr.,) whol. boots and shoes, 32 Lake.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1866
Reed J. H. & Co. (Josiah Reed, Horace A. Haribut and Burton Edsall), whol. druggists, 32 Lake

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Hurlbut & Edsall (H. A. Hurlbut and B. Edsall), drugs, whol. 32 Lake

Western Railroad Gazette, March 5, 1859

George E. Congdon, Wholesale Dealer in Boots, Shoes and Rubbers,
32 Lake St., Corner Wabash Avenue, (Up Stairs,) over Tuttle, Hibbard & Co.
The Subscriber having been engaged in the Retail Boot and Shoe Trade for a number of years in other cities, also having been the Proprietor of the Philadelphia Boot and Shoe Store, at 54 South Clark Street, in this city, for three years past, being thereby fully conversant with the wants of the Retailer, now enters into the Wholesale Trade with the disposition to consult the interests of all dealers who may favor him with their patronage. He is receiving his Spring Stock of first-class work which is offered to the trade at low prices for cash.

The city and country dealers will please call.
Geo. E. Congdon, 82 Lake Street, Cor. Wabash avenue, over Tuttle, Hibbard & Co.’s.

Chicago Tribune, February 5, 1864

REMOVAL.
J. H. Reed & Co.
Have this day removed to their store, 32 Lake Street, Corner of Wabash.

Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1871

THE MYSTERY
Early Yesterday Morning
there occurred in the North Division of this city a most deplorable and mysterious calamity—one which has suddenly plunged a happy family into inexpressible grief, and occasioned an unusual excitement generally throughout the community. Mr. Barton Edsall, of the firm of Hurlbut & Edsall, wholesale druggists. No. 39 Lake street, one of our most promising and prosperous merchants, was found, about 3 o’clock, at the foot of the hall stair in his own house, expiring from the effects of a pistol shot in the head. Death ensued in a few minutes. His wife was aroused from sleep by hearing two reports of a pistol, accompanied by a noise as of persons in the hall below, and soon followed by a heavy fall on the floor. Rushing down she found her husband lying with his feet toward the inner door, which was partially open, and expiring fast. She took his head in her lap and held it till be expired. The servants, who had also been aroused, came down from their room on the upper floor: a policeman was soon upon the spot, and the doctor was sent for. But it was too late for medical aid.

The circumstances surrounding the unhappy event are involved in such mystery as to create a good deal of speculation as to the cause of death. It was generally received yesterday that a murder had been committed of a character to furnish a striking parallel to the memorable Nathan murder in New York, and many circumstances conspire to favor the supposition. There was but one other explanation of the mystery, namely, that the deceased fell by his own hand, a victim to temporary derangement of mind. The friends of Mr. Edsall are naturallyreluctant to give credence to such a theory. unsupported as it appears to be by anything in his life, habits, or disposition, to give color to it. Without expressing an opinion on a subject which is likely to cause a prolonged and searching investigation, we proceed to give a statement of the facto as near se could be ascertained.

The scene of the calamity was No. 3 Washington place, near the corner of North Clark street, and fronting Washington Park. In times not long past this has been the scene of a good many burglarious exploits, and although for a considerable time the neighborhood has been free from such visitations, the residents, including Mr. Edsall, had always kept a lively look out for robbers, and were constantly armed with weapons of self-defence.

The Evening Before.
On Thursday evering Mr. Barton Edsall and his wife were present at the wedding of the former’s brother-in-law, Mr. Hurlbut, at the corner of State and Superior streets. They returned home at about 8 o’clock in the evening. At half-past 9 o’clock Mrs. Edsall retired to rest, followed by her husband a few minutes afterward. It was usually the custom in the house for Mr. Edsall to shut and secure the doors, but whether, on this occasion, he actually did so his wife cannot distinctly assert. She admits that the door is not unfrequently left open through inadvertance, and thinks it quite possible that, on Thursday night, it was not locked. Mr. Edsall, though he had been suffering from ague, was, during the whole day, feeling particularly well, and in excellent spirits. He went to bed, however, suffering lightly from toothache. The servant girls, one of whom had been receiving the attentions of a gentleman friend during the evening, went to bed at 11 o’clock. Margaret Green, one of them, asserts that when she retired both doors were locked. The inner door, it will be understood, is closed with a lock with handles on each side, the outer handle being rendered powerless by the raising of a catch. Whether this catch was raised or not the servant girl does not know, nor does she definitely state that she examined the outer door. Thus much explanation is necessary for a full understanding of the circumstances. During the night—unfortunately, Mrs. Edsall cannot remember the hour—Mr. Edsall, who was suffering from toothache, got out of bed for the purpose of taking a sedative. The lamp in the bath-room was lighted, when the little boy who was sleeping in the same room, asked for a drink of water. This his father gave him. Mr. Edsall then took a dose of hydrate of chloral, from a bottle containing that drug, which was in the room, the amount of the dose not being known. Mrs. Edsall asked her husband if he had taken much, and he replied in the negative. The light was extinguished and Mr. Edsall got into bed.

The Pistol Shot.
Some time afterward—from other persons it is discovered to have been a few minutes before 4 o’clock, at which hour the moon was shining with considerable brilliancy—Mrs. Edsall was awakened from sleep by the report of a pistol. Filled with undefined horror, she felt for her husband, and, not finding him in bed, got out to look for him. There was no light in the house, that in the hall having been extinguished before Mr. Edsall went to bed. She heard a noise down stairs, which she describes as suggesting to her mind the idea of “people,” which probably indicated a scuffle. In less than a minute after the first report she heard a second, and then a fall. She flew to the door of her bedroom, which leads out into the passage upstairs, forgetting in her excitement that it had been bolted on the inside but a few hours before. Without drawing the bolt she ran to the bath-room and out of the door, gaining admittance to that apartment from the passage. She ran into the room of her mother, Mrs. Wilson, which was situated on the same floor, and adjoining the Edsall chamber, and exclaimed to her that her husband had been shot by burglars—she knew it was so instinctively. Without losing a moment she lighted the gas at the head of the stairs, and then, in company with her aged mother went down stairs. By the light of the gas up stairs the two ladies saw the form of Mr. Edsall stretched out lengthwise. Both the outside and vestibule doors were partially open. The latter was open about half way. Mr. Edrall’e feet were touching it, his body lying partly on it» side and partly on the back, almost parallel with the staircase. He was still breathing irregularly, but was quite unconscious when his wife found him. He had on his night-shirt, with a flannel wrapper under it. He wore a pair of pants, the suspenders hanging by his side an if the garments in question bad been very hastily put on. His feet were bare. Mrs. Edsall bent down and took his head in her lap and retained it there. A revolver—seven-shooter, Smith & Wesson pattern. size No. 1—lay at his left side, his right hand being on his abdomen. He moved his head from side to side, speechless, and. without doubt, totally unconscious.

Blood trickled slowly from bullet hole in his right temple.

In less than a minute the two servants, also awakened by the firing, ran down stairs, and found the three persons in the attitude described. Mrs.. Edsall told the first girl to shut the door and keep the night wind from blowing upon the mortally-wounded man. The girl obeyed instantly, when Mrs. Edsall despatched her for Dr. Bogue, who lived at No. 7, only two doors away. The girl obeyed that injunction. As she went out she met Officer Mallory, who asked her what was the matter. She replied that Mr. Edsall was shot. It appears that Officer Patrick, Maloney was on the corner of Locust and LaSalle streets, just at three minutes to 4 o’clock. He was walking rapidly to the corner of Clark street, in order to “rap,” as policemen are expected to do hourly, when he heard a shot fired.

It appeared mulled, and he walked on without quickening his pace. He had walked a little further—about one hundred feet or thereabouts—when he heard a second shot, and then he changed his walk to a run. He ran toward the house from which the noise seemed to proceed, when. on the east side of Clark street, about half a block north of Washington place, he met two men walking leisurely north. As he approached them the two men appeared to be unconscious of anything wrong, and halted they while he looked them in the face. Seeing that they appeared to be respectable men, the officer passed on until he caught sight of the girl running into the next house but one to summon the doctor. When he came in Mrs. Edsall exclaimed ” Oh. why did you not come here before?”

Dr. Bogue arrived and found tbe party as the servant had left them,

Mr. Edsall still lived, and was moving his head from side to side, his wife holding it in her lap and bending over it. He lived for about ten or twelve minutes. Dr. Bogue picked up the pistol and laid it on the stand in the parlor.

When he went back to the hall he found that the body bad been taken up stairs. The officer made a report at the Huron Street Station, and Sergeant Hathaway came over immediately, The sergeant examined the pistol and found two vacant cartridges. He then examined the walls for the other bullet, and found on the inner or vestibule door, almost at the edge, fronting the staircase.and about four feet six inches from the
ground, a small bullet hole. This hole he probed with a match. It ran almost horizontally through the wood-work, to a depth of an inch and three-quarters, lacking only a quarter of an inch of piercing the door. This bullet had also been fired out of a Smith & Wesson pistol, of No. 1 size.

A thorough search of the premises disclosed upon the casing of the parlor door. which opened on to the hall, and almost across which the dying man had been found, the marks of a human hand. There were four fingers imprinted on the white paint—apparently dirty fingers, though an equally dirty mark was made on the same door door by a comparatively clean hand, later in the day.

From a point exactly opposite the west wall of the hall no mark could be discovered upon it; but from a position where the light falls slantingly on the wall can be observed the imprint of another human hand. This wall is smooth and glazed, and the appearance indicates a wet rather than a dirty hand placed against it, as a dirt one would be visible from a direct view. The arm to which the hand belonged has also left a mark while lower yet it seems as if somebody had rubbed against it. In fact, it looks like a smear. These marks were evidently made by the same hand, but whether that hand was larger or smaller than that of the deceased it would be difficult to state, so that no probable identification of the owner could be made through its agency.

The sergeant having note the above particulars, returned to the station, made his report to the Captain, and sent in a report of a suicide to the Central Station.

The consternation of the neighbors and inmates of the house cannot be pictured. The news spread that Mr. Edsall bad been murdered by burglars in his own house, and the neighbors were aroused. It was stated that an assault had been made upon the house by burglars some months ago. Very recently burglars had also entered the residence of General Strong, No. 1 Washington place. One of the number had been captured, and General Strong had appeared to prosecute him. It was therefore generally supposed that the nocturnal prowlers bad returned to the house, as they thought, and, having aroused the occupant, had, either from hatred or fear of the consequences of capture, fired at and killed the owner.

The Detectives.
The fact that the door had been found open appears to strengthen this supposition, and as burglars never enter a house without leaving some trace of their appearance behind them, Detectives Joe Dixon (who unearthed Zuegenmeyer) and Horace Elliott were sent over to the house. They were received with politeness, but the occupants were rather unwilling to admit them, even though aware of their errand. The detectives were requested to wait for the arrival of Mr. Hurlbut, for whom a servant had been despatched. On his arrival they were let into the house and made a complete examination of the surroundings.

From the fact that the door was found open it was naturally believed that an entrance into the house had been effected through it. If, as the servant girl stated, it was locked, it cannot either have been pried open, or the key turned with nippers. No marks of injury were found upon it. Had it been subjected to the pressure of the nippers there would undoubtedly have been marks, no burglars’ tool for this purpose having yet been found which would leave a key uninjured. Entry by this approach was rejected by the detectives, their reasons for the rejection being further strengthened by the fact that the vestibule door had a night-latch, which could only be moved from inside. The lower windows of the house disclosed the fact that they had not been tampered with. Access to the upper windows could only have been obtained through the adjoining house, No. 5, which is at present vacant. This house was carefully examined by the two officers. They found that not one of the windows could have been passed without leaving a trace as they were nearly all hung with cobwebs, and the sills of ail were coated with dust. A hand or a foot would have left its mark on the sills, and a disturbance of the cobwebs would have been inevitable in passing from one house to another.

That the murderous invader had not entered from the scuttle in the roof was also made clear to Joe Dixon by similar reasoning.

Coroner Stephens and Detective Ellis, accompanied by members of the press, were admitted to the house about noon, and the above facts gathered.

Chicago Evening Post, November 27, 1871

A sensational article in the Times this morning, of a column in length, goes into a circumstantial account of the murder of Mr. Edsall, which occurred just before the great fire, and concludes with a particular detail of several theories by which the death of his wife, Mrs. Edsall, which, it says, occurred a few days after the fire, may be accounted for! That a lady of so widely related a circle of friends as Mrs. Edsall, and of whom it is everywhere creditably known that her strength of character and unyielding fortitude preserved her even from illness in the presence of her sea of troubles—should have been consigned to death, and the illness from which she succumbed circumstantially set forth, is a striking evidence of the character of the sensational literature for which the Times is celebrated, and au excellent criterion of the reliability of its news. Mrs. Edsall is residing with her brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Hurlbut, and other friends, on Michigan avenue, and gives abundant promise of continuing to be a solace and comfort to her many friends.

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