![]() Within the city limits the western shore of the lake runs nearly due north and south, trending about two points to the west of north. River," about which the world has heard so much, is a misnomer. ![]() With such conditions it is evident that the term "Chicago The city is surrounded by what is, relatively, almost a dead-level the prairie stretching away to a distance of several hundred miles south, west, and north, with scarcely an undulation of importance. The Court-house square, which is situated about midway between the north and south limits of the city, and half a mile west of the lake-shore, is in north latitude 41° 52' 20". The average annual fall of rain is 31ž inches the average temperature is about 50 degrees. It is only within the past few years that the place has been raised from seven to ten feet by the process of filling in, so as to give a drainage that permits of the cleanliness that is necessary to the health of the inhabitants. What is now the business portion of the city was originally but a few inches above the lake-level, and the surface was often covered with several inches of water for months together. Geographical Position of Chicago.ĬHICAGO is situated on the south-western bend of Lake Michigan, at the head of the great chain of American lakes, and is nearly 600 feet above the sea-level, the height of the lake-surface being 574 feet. It contains a concise resume of her previous history a statement of her condition just before the fire a graphic account of the great conflagration a carefully-revised summary of losses of life and property a description of the aspect of the city after the sad event a history of the exertions made to aid the sufferers with a review of the subsequent efforts made to rebuild the city 'mid the ashes of its former greatness. The present volume is intended to supply the wide-spread popular desire to obtain full and accurate information, in permanent form, about Chicago in her prosperity and affliction. ![]() Her fame had spread far and near, and not even Solomon, in all his glory, ever excited so much admiration among those who went to see and found that the half had not been told them. As the greatest primary market for produce on the face of the globe, Chicago had long been regarded as the cornucopia of modern civilization, while the energy and enterprise of her citizens had made her an object of envy to many other cities, and the wonder of the world. In the United States, but in other countries. And, indeed, the calamity was universally recognized as affecting every one, not only Such intense anxiety to catch every item of intelligence about the great conflagration, such a spontaneous outburst of liberality in aiding the sufferers, has never before been exhibited, except in times of national disaster. Without a peer in her almost magical growth to what seemed to be an enduring prosperity, the city of Chicago experienced a catastrophe almost equally without a parallel in history, and the sad event awakened into active sympathy the whole civilized world. In the evening of Sunday, October 8, 1871, a stable took fire, and within twenty-four hours thereafter the flames had swept over an area of more than twenty-one hundred acres, destroying nearly three hundred human lives, reducing seventeen thousand five hundred buildings to ashes, rendering one hundred thousand persons homeless, and sweeping out of existence two hundred million dollars' worth of property. THE terrible conflagration in Chicago will long be remembered as one of the most prominent events of the nineteenth century. North-East Corner Clark and Randolph Streets.Ĭorner Clark and Randolph Streets. Download the plug-in here, if you do not already have it. Some Images in this document are in DjVu format and require a free DjVu plug-in to view.
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