Isa's Blog - America 1854 - Chicago
Lynn B. Connor - Adventures in History
LINK: ebook THE ENGLISH WOMAN IN AMERICA at Gutenberg.org (free)
Chicago - a wonderful place on the edge of western civilization. Wide streets crowded with horse drawn carriages, ox drawn wagons, and men on horseback. Wooden sidewalks filled with people.
Mexicans and hunters on horseback dash down the crowded streets at full gallop. They wear scarlet caps or palmetto hats, and high jack-boots. Knives are stuck into their belts, and light rifles are slung behind them. Wagons setting out for the Far West, a medley of different nations and costumes in the streets -make the city a spectacle of great interest.
The only hotel room I could find was small without a fireplace and very dark. There was a small bed with a dirty buffalo skin on it. When I lifted it, swarms of living creatures fell out. I decided not to spend the night.
Even one day in Chicago was worth a voyage across the Atlantic, and a land-journey of eighteen hundred miles.
Mexicans and hunters on horseback dash down the crowded streets at full gallop. They wear scarlet caps or palmetto hats, and high jack-boots. Knives are stuck into their belts, and light rifles are slung behind them. Wagons setting out for the Far West, a medley of different nations and costumes in the streets -make the city a spectacle of great interest.
The only hotel room I could find was small without a fireplace and very dark. There was a small bed with a dirty buffalo skin on it. When I lifted it, swarms of living creatures fell out. I decided not to spend the night.
Even one day in Chicago was worth a voyage across the Atlantic, and a land-journey of eighteen hundred miles.
Next - not yet
How Chicago got its name: the most accepted theory is the name came from the Indian word shikaakwa, meaning "skunk" or "smelly onion."
Chicago's population & trivia:
* 1831 population 60
* 1833 population350, 1st jail built
* 1853 population 59,130
* 1854 railroad reaches Chicago
* 2016 population 2.5 Million
In 1855, the city council ordered all downtown streets to be raised out of the mud. The buildings had to be raised to the new street level. A British traveler wrote, after watching workmen raise a hotel 4½ feet, "The people were in it all the time, coming and going, eating and sleeping..."
Chicago's population & trivia:
* 1831 population 60
* 1833 population350, 1st jail built
* 1853 population 59,130
* 1854 railroad reaches Chicago
* 2016 population 2.5 Million
In 1855, the city council ordered all downtown streets to be raised out of the mud. The buildings had to be raised to the new street level. A British traveler wrote, after watching workmen raise a hotel 4½ feet, "The people were in it all the time, coming and going, eating and sleeping..."