John R. Schmidt

The story of the Grant Park guillotine

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 16, 2012

Jan. 16, 2012

Crime was on the minds of Chicagoans on this January 16th in 1925.

The city was earning a reputation as the wildest metropolis in the world. In the past five years robberies had gone up 35%, while the numbers of rapes, bombings, and arson cases were rising at an alarming rate. In just the last two years, murders had more than doubled.

Many experts blamed the crime problem on the Prohibition act. Alcoholic beverages had been banned, and bootlegger gangs now controlled the liquor trade. Violence was part of their business. Everyday citizens were losing respect for the law, too.

Still, Prohibition wasn't going to be junked any time soon. So what could be done about Chicago's crime? A visiting priest had one answer.

Abbe Ernest Dimnet was the canon of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was a respected French author whose books were becoming popular in English translation. The abbe was stopping in Chicago on a lecture tour.

Mayor Lewis Shank of Indianapolis was also in town to give a speech to a business breakfast. Shank had said the way to fix Chicago crime was to hire smarter policemen.

…Read Full Entry

The Blizzard of '79

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 13, 2012

Jan. 13, 2012

We've had the first real snowfall of the season. Today we remember the blizzard of January 13, 1979. It was Saturday the Thirteenth that year. But the storm proved unlucky for one Chicago mayor.

The snow came down all that Saturday. When it stopped on Sunday morning, 20.3 inches had fallen.

The Blizzard of 1967 had dumped 23 inches of snow in a 24-hour period. The new storm didn't break that record. However, in 1979 there was already 9 inches sitting on the ground, making the snow cover nearly 30 inches.

And on January 14, the wind kicked up and the bottom fell out of the thermometer. The low temperature was 14-below-zero. The wind chill dropped to 49-below. Those were records for that particular date.

Still, Chicago was lucky in two ways. Unlike 1967, the storm had come on a weekend. Monday was also a holiday, Martin Luther King Day. The city would have plenty of time to clean things up.

Michael Bilandic was the mayor. He was running for re-election. As soon as the snow began falling, he was all over TV, talking about the wonderful job his administration was doing in this weather emergency.

Trouble was, the snow was not getting cleared. Days went by. A week went by.

…Read Full Entry

The con-man buried in Lincoln Park

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 11, 2012

Jan. 11, 2012

If you've read Huckleberry Finn, you know about the King and the Duke. They're the two con men who latch onto Huck and Jim, claiming to be European nobility.

About the same time Huck and his companions were going down the Mississippi, the young city of Chicago had its own version of the King and the Duke. His name was David Kennison. He said he was the last survivor of the Boston Tea Party.

David Kennison spelled his name various ways--"Kinniston" is just one of the variations. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. He came to Chicago about 1845.

Those are the facts historians accept. Now for Kennison's version.

He said he was born in 1736. Besides taking part in the Boston Tea Party, Kennison claimed to have been a dispatch runner for George Washington, and to have been present at most of the important events of the Revolutionary War--the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Surrender of Cornwallis, and so on. He'd even been "near West Point" when Benedict Arnold's betrayal was discovered.

Chicago welcomed Kennison with great joy. Nobody seems to have questioned his stories.

…Read Full Entry

The 'L' smoking war

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 9, 2012

Jan. 9, 2012

The protesters were angry and vocal in the fall of 1909. Their target was one heartless Chicago capitalist named Clarence Knight. He was trying to end smoking on the 'L' trains.

Knight was president of the Chicago & Oak Park Elevated Railroad (today's Lake Street Green Line). His trains always ran at least one smoking car. So did Chicago's other privately-owned 'L' companies. Since about 80% of adult males smoked at least one cigar a day, this was understandable.

But few women smoked in 1909. In the middle of the day, when most of the passengers were female, the smoking cars were running empty and losing money. Knight knew that other cities banned smoking on transit vehicles. He announced that all his trains would go smokeless on November 1.

There was no trouble at first. The smokers simply went on smoking. A few conductors tried to enforce the new rule, but gave up in the face of the mass civil disobedience.

On November 5 the excrement hit the fan. That day "L" security guards removed two smokers from a train at the 44th Avenue (Kostner) station.

…Read Full Entry

Finding your way in Chicago's present

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 6, 2012

Jan. 6, 2012

 

How well did you find your way around the Chicago of 1947?

The building with the clock tower is Grand Central Station. Built in 1890, for many years it was the Chicago terminus of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Grand Central closed in 1969, and was demolished two years later.

But other landmarks remain. Looking further north on Wells Street, you can make out the 'L' at Van Buren and the top of the Insurance Exchange Building.

A lot fewer cars around 65 years ago--and no parking meters!

…Read Full Entry

Finding your way in Chicago's past

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 5, 2012

Jan. 5, 2012

Could you find your way around the Chicago of the past?

The picture above was taken somewhere in the general vicinity of downtown. If you want to take a guess at the location, send it in via the "Comments" section of this post. I'll run a contemporary photo of the same spot tomorrow, so you can compare what has changed, and what remains the same.

No prizes. Just for fun!

…Read Full Entry

Reversing the Chicago River

By: John R. Schmidt | Jan. 2, 2012

Jan. 2, 2012

In case you hadn't noticed, the Chicago River flows backwards. It's been doing this for over a hundred years.

Like any normal river, the Chicago River used to flow into a larger body of water--namely, Lake Michigan. This became a problem in the middle of the 19th Century. As Chicago grew into a major city, the raw sewage of civilization was dumped into the river and flushed through to the lake. And the lake was where Chicagoans got their drinking water.

Besides being gross, this was dangerous. All those germs in the drinking water produced outbreaks of cholera or typhoid or other diseases.

You'll often hear the story of the Great Chicago Plague. It's said that cholera wiped out 70,000 people in a single year, about 20% of the city's population. Don't believe it. Someone cooked up the tale to make a point.

In any case, the solution to the pollution was simple. Just reverse the flow of the river so that it didn't empty into the lake.

Build a barrier at the east end of the Chicago River to block it off from the lake. At the same time, connect the west end to the Des Plaines River.

…Read Full Entry

Fire at the Iroquois

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 30, 2011

Dec. 30, 2011

The Great Chicago Fire destroyed over four square miles of the city and killed 250 people. On this date in 1903, more than twice that number died from a fire in a single building.

The Iroquois Theatre opened in the fall of 1903. Located on Randolph Street just west of State, it had more than 1,700 seats and was a state-of-the-art playhouse. Ads claimed that it was "absolutely fireproof."

On this Wednesday afternoon, the Iroquois was featuring the musical comedy "Mr. Blue Beard," starring Eddie Foy. Every seat was filled - school was out for Christmas vacation, and the audience was mostly women and children. About 200 more people were standing in the aisles and in the rear.

Midway through the second act, a defective lamp set a backstage curtain on fire. The flames quickly spread to props and scenery which were stored nearby. The audience didn't realize anything was wrong. They thought the glow coming from behind the stage was part of the show.

Then the truth began to sink in. The audience grew restless. From the stage, Eddie Foy asked for calm. He ordered the asbestos fire curtain lowered. The curtain stuck halfway down. A piece of burning debris fell on stage.

…Read Full Entry

Pages