As of the 1830s, when Chicago was just rising up from its status as a mudhole on the prairie, the law in Illinois was that anyone could vote in the state as long as they’d lived here for sixth months (Well, provided that they were white, male, and over 21). This included people who weren’t Read More…
Tag: history
Henry Rhines: The Chicago Slave-Catcher
The career of Henry Rhines, an early Chicago villain.
Uncollected Frederick Douglass Speech Discovered
I love research. I feel like Indiana Jones when I’m digging around in a box crumbling paperwork at the legal archives. And, though it’s a lot easier to search old newspapers that have been digitized, it’s more of an adventure to browse the microfilm reels. For one thing, it’s the closest you can get to Read More…
Was John Stone Chicago’s First Serial Killer? (podcast)
John Stone was the first murderer hanged in Chicago – and suggested the murder wasn’t his first. An “oral history” of his Chicago crime.
Jefferson Davis in Chicago
While researching an upcoming article, I noticed something that struck me as odd: a first-hand account of Jefferson Davis coming to Chicago in 1829. I had never heard of the future Confederate president being in the area. That year, then-Lt. Davis had been stationed at Fort Winnebago, near what is now Portage, Wisconsin, and apparently Read More…
Jo Anderson: The Mysterious Slave of Cyrus McCormick
Investigating the story of Joe Anderson, the slave whom some say deserves credit for inventing McCormick’s reaper.
“Brutality of a Policeman:” The Murder of Henry Harris, 1867
Stories of police brutality in Chicago aren’t new
Burnham’s “Make No Little Plans” Quote: Apocryphal No More!
Locating and reprinting the original speech in which Daniel Burnham told city planners to “make no little plans.” Reprinted for the first time since 1910!