August 2024 – Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries

Chicago’s Plank Roads or being stuck in the mud

Back in the day, if you were a farmer bringing your goods into the city to sell , your horse and wagon would often sink deep into muddy rutted roads. This was especially true during the spring snow melt and torrential summer rains.

The solution were Plank roads radiating out of the city often called “the farmers railroad”. They were a very important part of Chicago’s transportation for a few years, with 50 miles were built between 1848-1855 at a cost of approximately $150,000. Although they were a huge improvement over mud and ruts, Plank roads were so rough that they were often called “corduroy roads”.

Plank roads were cheap to build, usually heavy planks a few inches thick and eight feet long attached crosswise to wooden stringers set into the roadbed.. Pine and hemlock were sometimes used for planking, but oak and black walnut, although more expensive, were more durable and long-lasting.

Plank Road companies recouped their investments by collecting tolls at toll gates at regular intervals infuriating farmers who needed to bring their products to market without added costs. As one example, Amos J Snell made a ton of money charging farmers on the Elston and Northwest (Milwaukee Avenue) plank roads. More about him later. Some farmers were really good at finding ways to bypass the toll roads, hence streets named Dodge. Other farmers simply burned down the toll house.

Chicago’s own Gold Spike Ceremony

On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit in Utah, the famous Golden Spike was “hammered” into the last railroad tie, celebrating the birth of the Transcontinental Railroad.

79 years later beginning on July 20 1948, the “Wheels A-Rolling” pageant, a feature of the Chicago Railroad fair, re-created the Golden Spike ceremony each day at the Chicago Railroad fair . It was held in both 1948 and 1949 on 50 acres along the lakefront, (where McCormick Place would be built decades later) and set an attendance record of 5,233,552 visitors

I was only four or five years old when i was one of those visitors, often referred to as “the last great railroad fair” celebrating 100 years of Chicago railroad history. I actually remember a bit of it, like Paul Bunyon and the pageant, but most of the rest is a blur. Join me as I revisit the fair that entertained and educated us all about trains.

How us kids stay cool on hot summer days

In our youth, beating the heat and entertaining oneself on a Chicago summer day required some creativity. Playing tag, long bicycle rides, softball in the alley, would just have to wait until cooler weather, so the answer was squirt guns and water balloon fights. Not only were they such fun, but they kept us cool.

Squirt guns have been around since J.W. Wolff’s with a June 30, 1896 patent.

And on Aug 20, 1897 Russell Parker, a business man in Brooklyn New York, with his business, PARKER STEARNS & SUTTON at 230 South St, , New York. He applied for and received a patent for the U.S.A. Liquid Pistol dated march 15 1898 and again dec 17 1901 to squirt water, ammonia, or any liquid.

The patent documents reveal that it was made of nickel and contained a refillable bulb within the handle and, when compressed by the trigger, pushed air into the bulb, forcing the liquid through the discharge tube. Parker sold these for 40 cents apiece, and advertised it as protection for cyclists.