CA. 'ix^rruz**"* 
 
 AUSTIN 
 
 I k==(li..|l||iT7x^=(i 
 
EARLY AUSTIN 
 
 FROM ITS BEGINNINGS UNTIL THE TIME OF 
 ANNEXATION TO THE CITY OF CHICAGO, 1899 
 
 by 
 
 ANNE N. DANEGGER 
 
 Assistant, The Chicago Public Library 
 Henry W . Austin Branch 
 
 Illustrated by the Author 
 
 Austin Friends of the Library 
 1944 
 
Copyright, 1944 
 AUSTIN FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY 
 
 • 
 Twenty-five cents per copy 
 
^7 • ^i 9Ja.fi- 
 
 AUSTIN FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY 
 
 ACTIVE COMMITTEE 
 Mr. Lester D. Castle 
 
 President, National Bank of Austin 
 
 Mrs. L. F. Dunstan 
 
 Former Chairman of Literature, 
 Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs 
 
 Mrs. Herbert E. Foster 
 
 Former Chairman, Women's and Girls' Activities, 
 
 Austin Department, YMCA of Chicago 
 
 Mrs. Louis Millar 
 
 President, Austin Woman's Club 
 
 Mr. William T. Rowe 
 
 Executive Secretary, 
 
 Austin Department, YMCA of Chicago 
 
 Mrs. Willis Silverstein 
 
 Library Chairman, 
 
 Austin High School Parent-Teacher Association 
 
 Mr. Warren D. Stevens 
 Editor, The Austinite 
 
 OFFICERS 
 
 Mrs. F. Percy Boynton 
 
 Chairman 
 
 Katherine J. Sturrock 
 
 Secretary-Treasurer 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/earlyaustinfromiOOdane 
 
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 T I ^HE purpose of this pamphlet is to present 
 ■*- in usable form the important facts concern- 
 ing the early life of Austin, a community that 
 is rich in tradition and old in Chicago's history. 
 
 The need for such a work has been evident in 
 the many requests for authentic data on this 
 period. Since such material exists only in scat- 
 tered sources, not easily available to the public, 
 it was necessary to bring together the facts now 
 in print and to unearth additional information 
 as to schools, churches, public utilities and 
 streets by use of their original records. The re- 
 sulting information was indexed on cards and 
 from these were gleaned the most salient facts, 
 now set forth. Assistance from the Chicago His- 
 torical Society and the Reference Department 
 of the Chicago Public Library is mentioned with 
 appreciation. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgment is made to Charles 
 E. Tench of the Charles E. Tench Printing 
 Company, who in a spirit of public service has 
 contributed the printing of the pamphlet as his 
 part in the preservation of local history. 
 
 Maude Blake, 
 
 Branch Librarian, Henry W. Austin Branch. 
 
 The Chicago Public Library 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Early Days 
 Transportation 
 Road Making . 
 Six-Mile House 
 Railroads 
 "Dummy Line" 
 Early Settlers . 
 Government 
 Annexation 
 Henry W. Austin 
 Village Growth 
 Early Homes . 
 Holden and Merrick 
 Tree Planting . 
 Schools 
 Churches . 
 Social Life 
 "Oaks Club" . 
 Music 
 
 Organizations 
 Business . 
 Bibliography 
 
 Parks 
 
EARLY AUSTI 
 
 Early Days 
 
 The origins of Austin lie in that period when great 
 ice-sheets covered the northern part of this continent. 
 When these glaciers melted, a huge lake was formed 
 many feet above the present surface of Lake Michigan. 
 The receding water as it flowed to the south and found 
 its way to the Mississippi and then to the sea, left sand 
 ridges along the way, and on one of these elevations 
 which, supposedly, once eons ago, marked the ancestral 
 shores of Lake Michigan, grew the village of Austin. 
 This long sandy ridge rose abruptly about seven feet 
 above the surrounding prairie land and can be traced 
 today as the high ground that stretches in a great wide 
 curve, crossing Lake Street at about Pine Avenue, and 
 from there running in a northwestwardly direction. 
 
 [i] 
 
Indians who first traversed this territory as they por- 
 taged between the Great Waters and the Des Plaines, 
 belonged principally to the Potawatomi, Ottawas, 
 Chippewas (Ochepewag) and "Kickapoos" or Miami. 
 A traveler in the environs of Chicago in 1832, at the 
 time Indian territory in Michigan and Illinois was 
 ceded to the white man, recorded that the five thousand 
 Indians who were said to have collected near the village 
 for the prosecution of the treaty were camped all over 
 the open prairie lands. His party came upon the first 
 Indian settlement about five miles outside of Chicago, 
 which would be the territory in and around what is 
 now Austin. They made camp on a vast and desolate 
 prairie, the land later called Sandy Ridge by the first 
 white settlers. 
 
 Plant life consisted of certain species of slough grass 
 and a few patches of shrubs and willows, whose falling 
 leaves formed humus to enrich the soil in preparation 
 for the verdant lawns and gardens now seen. Long 
 stretches of swamp and marsh were resting and breed- 
 ing grounds for wild ducks and other waterfowl. Deer 
 were found in great numbers along the Des Plaines even 
 in the 1840's. Early residents recall the migratory 
 flights in spring when songbirds, snipe and the now rare 
 
 [2] 
 
golden plover alighted in the marshes and prairies. Not 
 until the late 1890's did the quail and prairie chicken 
 disappear from Chicago's hinterland. Wolves prowled 
 the prairie and watched with wary eye the human in- 
 truders who were taking over their native habitat. 
 Pioneer settlers hunted these marauders down in packs 
 as recently as eighty years ago. 
 
 Transportation. 
 
 By 1840 the City of Chicago had been incorporated. 
 Mail coaches and the Frink and Walker stage traveled 
 on the Lake Street turnpike past the land which later 
 developed into the village of Austin, six miles west of 
 Chicago. On June 25, 1835, Henry L. DeKoven ob- 
 tained title from the government to 280 acres of land 
 embracing the territory bounded by what is now Cen- 
 tral Avenue, Austin Boulevard, the Chicago and North- 
 western Railroad and Augusta Boulevard. Frink and 
 Walker's stage coaches rumbled over Lake Street across 
 the prairie, through the woods and principal farming 
 districts. This was the first state road from Chicago to 
 Galena, then one of the leading cities of the middle west. 
 The ten passengers who could be accommodated in the 
 wooden coaches of the stage line left Chicago from Lake 
 
 [3] 
 
and West Water Streets before dawn, and for the first 
 few hours saw nothing of the country. The continued 
 splashing caused by the four horses gave riders the im- 
 pression of low land nearly under water. Enterprising 
 business men interested in developing a better mode of 
 transportation leading westward to the mining districts 
 of northwestern Illinois and southern Wisconsin had 
 been granted in 1836, a charter to build a railroad out 
 of Chicago to Galena, the chief commercial center of 
 the rich lead deposits in this vicinity. An option was 
 granted under the same charter for the construction of 
 a turnpike instead, on which toll could be collected. 
 
 Roadf Malting 
 
 Although Lake Street had become a leading road run- 
 ning in a westerly direction there was little more to 
 recommend it than its ditches, which allowed the water 
 to run off. The committee of Cook County citizenry 
 appointed June 15, 1840, to consider the ways and 
 means of maintaining a better road from the city to 
 Sand Ridge, decided on plank roads, then the type of 
 road improvement popular throughout the country. 
 Bids were published July 24, 1840, but Lake Street was 
 not graded until 1842. September 4, 1849 it became a 
 
 [4] 
 
planked road as far west as Oak Ridge, the first name 
 of Oak Park, eight miles out. 
 
 With an eye toward further road improvement Lake 
 Street became a toll road in the early 1850's, under 
 a private corporation. Collections were made by the 
 keepers of toll-gate houses scattered at intervals along 
 the line. The toll house at Sand Ridge (Lake Street 
 and Central Avenue) was later moved to Harlem Ave- 
 nue, and the story is told that it afterwards became 
 a mission house called Onward Mission. Ira G. Sibley 
 was gate tender of the Lake Street County Line Road 
 Company in 1874. The company's president was James 
 W. Scoville, one of the original board of officers of 
 Cicero Township. Stockholders in the company in- 
 cluded Henry W. Austin, Seth P. Warner, and others 
 prominent in the early history of Austin. 
 
 Road making was of first importance to the town of 
 Cicero, and the entire annual appropriation bill levy- 
 ing $500 over the lands of the township in 1858 was 
 spent on road repairs. The next year the highway com- 
 mission established roads on section lines within the 
 limits of the township, naming them Kedzie, Fortieth 
 (Crawford), Forty-eighth (Cicero), Fifty-sixth (Cen- 
 tral), Sixty-fourth (Ridgeland), and Seventy-second 
 
 [5} 
 
(Harlem) Avenues. Austin streets were little more than 
 paths until 1869, when Cicero Township made serious 
 efforts toward road improvement. There was little 
 reason for paved roads when goats, cows and horses 
 pastured in the grasses and cottontails hid in the bur- 
 rows found along the ditches. Wagons left to stand 
 frozen in the mud all winter were a familiar sight. 
 
 Even as late as 1890 many of the roadways were im- 
 passable after heavy rain or snow. Parkside Avenue, 
 the business center of the day, was paved with cedar 
 blocks for a short distance. Great changes have since 
 been made in street names. Rural paths once named 
 after trees planted on them have been changed, some- 
 times to honor the memory of some early resident, as in 
 the case of Race and Waller Avenues. 
 
 Sidewalks were a luxury and village residents recall 
 that although there were wooden walks in the 1870's, 
 their exact location was obscure because flood waters 
 frequently moved them from one street to another. In 
 the late 1870's a continuous wooden sidewalk was com- 
 pleted on the south side of Lake Street all the way to 
 Oak Park. Stone walks here and there along Central 
 Avenue replaced those of wood in the late 1880's. 
 
 [6] 
 
M 
 (I 
 
 i i 
 
 
 
 Six~Mile House 
 
 About the time Lake Street turnpike was thrown 
 open and drained, a tavern keeper, named John Pierson, 
 attracted by the pike, moved his modest settler's cabin 
 from Whiskey Point to Lake Street where Austin now 
 is, and called it Six-Mile House. Taverns or inns, such 
 as Six-Mile House, provided the only accommodations 
 for food and lodging known to travelers of the period. 
 
 [7} 
 
There were no crossroads between Chicago and the 
 Des Plaines, merely trails leading to different habita- 
 tions, and Pierson's two-story tavern built of logs, 
 probably the first house in this section, stood along- 
 side a row of cottonwood trees near the northwest 
 corner of Lake Street and Pine Avenue, originally an 
 old Indian trail. 
 
 Railroads 
 
 The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad chartered 
 in 1836, did not become an actuality until November 20, 
 1848. Chicago's first locomotive, the "Pioneer," was 
 run out of Chicago on wooden rails with a strip of iron 
 on top, to a point near the Des Plaines River, 10 miles 
 west of the city. The complete distance was covered 
 in about an hour, and on the return trip the first ship- 
 ment of wheat to reach Chicago by railroad was trans- 
 ferred from a farmer's wagon on the banks of the Des 
 Plaines and shipped to the city. It is said that the 
 "Pioneer" stopped at Six-Mile House, later known as 
 the village of Austinville, although there was no station 
 at the time. After the road became the Chicago and 
 Northwestern Railroad, Austin's first depot was opened 
 to service April 24, 1866. 
 
 [8] 
 
"Dummy Line" 
 
 According to authorities, in the late 1870's the 
 "Dummy Line," a steam road more properly desig- 
 nated as the Chicago, Harlem and Batavia Railroad, ran 
 along Fortieth (Crawford Avenue) from a point near 
 Madison Street to Randolph (West End) and west 
 through Oak Park and River Forest. During the 
 World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, when the road 
 was known as the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, 
 special cars conducted visitors to the fair grounds. 
 The picturesque "Dummy" engine, which in its heyday 
 carried commuters to and from the city and picnickers 
 to the groves at the Des Plaines, was in later years 
 reduced to hauling materials in the storage yard of a 
 house wrecking concern. Charles Higgley, whose wife 
 was ticket agent at the east end of the line, was super- 
 intendent of the road, and George Smith was employed 
 as conductor. 
 
 The Lake Street "L" began operation from Califor- 
 nia Avenue to Fifty-second (Laramie Avenue) on April 
 29, 1894. Service from Laramie Avenue to Austin 
 Boulevard was opened April 5, 1899. Street cars were 
 introduced in the community on February 12, 1891 
 when the Chicago Surface Lines started running elec- 
 
 [9] 
 
trie cars on Madison Street west of Crawford Avenue. 
 Service on Lake Street did not begin until 1894. 
 
 Early Settlers 
 
 A few farmers located in the area and cleared the 
 land, but no community developed until the arrival of 
 a group of families from Cicero Corners, New York, 
 in the 1850's. Together these settlers living in the six- 
 mile square, from the cit}^ limits at Western Avenue 
 to Harlem Avenue and from North Avenue to Thirty- 
 ninth (including present Cicero, Austin, Oak Park and 
 Berwyn), organized the Cicero town government on 
 June 23, 1857. Fourteen voters cast their ballots in 
 that first election, and ten out of the fourteen were 
 elected to office. The result in each instance was a vote 
 of 14-0. 
 
 [10] 
 
Old Town Ha 
 
 Govern latent 
 
 By an act of legislature in 1867, Cicero was incor- 
 porated as the Town of Cicero, thus giving its gov- 
 erning body corporate powers created under the city 
 and village act. The State Assembly in 1869 granted 
 
 [11] 
 
Cicero a special charter, giving it self-governing rights, 
 privileges and powers enjoyed by only one other city 
 or village in the state. At the same session the western 
 limits of Chicago were extended to include a two-mile 
 strip off the eastern edge of Cicero. Township board 
 meetings up to that time were held either at Four- 
 Mile House at Lake Street and Fortieth (Crawford 
 Avenue) or at the railway station in Austin, near which 
 the majority of the local board lived. In 1871 Cicero 
 Town Hall was built in the center of Holden Park, and 
 from then on it became the regular meeting place of 
 the town board and the center of political as well as 
 social activities in the village. 
 
 Previous to its annexation to the city, Austin's fire 
 protection was under the jurisdiction of the Cicero 
 Fire Department. When Austin organized a volun- 
 teer fire department, Freeborn Kellogg was appointed 
 its Chief. There were no horses but everyone turned 
 out to help at a fire. Two paid firemen, Jess Persley 
 and Nat Spofford, together with eighteen volunteers, 
 guarded village property against damage by fire until 
 the Waller Avenue fire station was taken over by the 
 Chicago Fire Department in 1899. 
 
 The wagon belonging to Charles Kampp, the un- 
 
 [12] 
 
dertaker, substituted for a police patrol until Austin 
 became part of Chicago. Henry Hankermeyer was con- 
 stable, and police protection was the job of the Cicero 
 police force. The names of five of these early officers 
 of the law are recorded as : Captain L. E. Hansberry, 
 Lieutenant Joseph Sandman, Jake Hohman, Patrick 
 Clark and Joseph Gunger. When Austin was annexed 
 to Chicago, Town Hall became a police station, and on 
 October 29, 1899, Sergeant George W. Pearsall and 
 members of the Chicago police force took possession 
 of Town Hall. 
 
 Annexation 
 
 Rivalry between the villages led to many bitter po- 
 litical battles over elections, the distribution of offices 
 and various civic issues. Oak Park residents were 
 irritated by the Austin community's support of the 
 Lake Street "L" extension to Austin Boulevard, and 
 Ciceronians felt that citizens of Austin held the plums 
 of office. The resulting situation caused the annexa- 
 tion of the village of Austin to Chicago. At a special 
 session of the town board in 1899, Austin was voted 
 into Chicago. Anti-annexationists carried the case to 
 the Supreme Court, but contrary to their wishes the de- 
 cision was confirmed, and Austin became officially and 
 
 [18] 
 
legally annexed to Chicago. At the first aldermanic 
 election held for the old Thirty-fifth ward in the spring 
 of 1900, Frank L. Race and Thomas M. Hunter were 
 elected aldermen. 
 
 Henry W. Austin 
 
 In the early 1860's public improvement was the ma- 
 jor occupation of Chicago, and the city's engineers de- 
 creed that buildings must be raised to keep them out 
 of the water. As a salesman for jack screws for lifting 
 buildings "out of the mud," Henry W. Austin, whose 
 name the community of Austin perpetuates, came to 
 Chicago in 1860. The surplus from his business was 
 invested in lands in and around the outskirts west of 
 Chicago. He built his home in Oak Park in 1864, and 
 on November 14, 1865, purchased from Henry L. De- 
 Koven the 280 acres in Cicero Township which were to 
 become the principal part of the land on which Austin 
 developed. Henry W. Austin has been described as 
 bearing, at that time, a striking resemblance to General 
 U. S. Grant. When in Washington he was often mis- 
 taken for the General, and on one occasion an artist 
 working on a portrait of Ulysses Grant asked to borrow 
 Henry Austin's coat "so that he might get the shape of 
 his shoulders." 
 
 [14] 
 
Village Growth 
 
 Partially because of Mr. Austin's financial interest, 
 the United States Clock Manufacturing Company was 
 established in a three-story building in 1866 on what 
 is now Waller Avenue, just north of the railroad. An 
 officer of the clock company, C. C. Merrick, added 
 forty of his eighty acres to the holdings of Mr. Austin. 
 The ground was platted into blocks, streets and parks, 
 and the name Austinville recorded May 12, 1866. The 
 clock company failed and the building, after transfer- 
 ring from a shoe factory to a tannery, to a rolling mill, 
 to a foundry, finally was destroyed by fire in 1868. 
 
 Besides the acreage added by Mr. Merrick, Clayton 
 E. Crafts somewhat later added another thirty-six 
 acres, Henry Waller added forty-three, and the estate 
 of John Frink still later added seventy-two acres to the 
 original subdivision. The village then included territory 
 one mile square, bounded on the north by Chicago Ave- 
 nue, on the east by Robinson Avenue (Laramie), on 
 the south by Madison Street, and on the west by Austin 
 Boulevard. William A. Giles and Seth Warner, both 
 officers of the clock company, were early property 
 owners in Austinville. The block bounded by Lake 
 Street, Parkside, Race and Waller Avenues was pur- 
 
 [15] 
 
chased in 1867 by William A. Giles. Land values near 
 the depot were about five dollars a front foot in 1869. 
 
 T 
 
 [16] 
 

 Seth Warner Homestead 
 
 Early Homes 
 
 Austin's first few pretentious homes were built on 
 Central Avenue, a well traveled pike road which had 
 been graveled over a distance of three miles as early 
 as 1850. Very early in the community's history a sewer 
 was built in Central Avenue, although it was first 
 drained by sluices which extended to the famous Ogden 
 ditch. Good well water could be secured in abundance 
 
 [17] 
 
and many of the early wells possessed artesian pressure. 
 Utility operations, including both gas and electric, were 
 established in Austin in the early 1890's. The Cicero 
 Gas Company erected a water gas plant and began 
 service in 1893. Its distribution system was gradually 
 extended throughout Cicero Township. Electricity was 
 furnished to the environs of Austin in 1892 by the 
 Cicero Light, Heat and Power Company. Both com- 
 panies later became part of the Public Service Company 
 of Northern Illinois. 
 
 The fine old Seth P. Warner house at 631 North 
 Central Avenue, standing today as the Austin Academy 
 of Fine Arts, and a monument to a business man and 
 devotee of the fine arts, was the first house built in 
 Austin. Others who erected homes in early Austin, some 
 still standing, were those of Will Rossiter, music pub- 
 lisher; Frederick Schock, architect; George A. Phil- 
 brick, John W. Bennett and E. J. Whitehead, township 
 officials ; Thomas H. Wilson, carpenter ; George W. 
 Kretzinger, attorney ; L. S. Pinney, F. E. Bartelme, 
 E. A. Adams and Harry Emerson, merchants ; Clarence 
 Wanzer, broker ; Paul G. Biggs, real estate dealer ; Em- 
 ory B. Moore, wood carpet manufacturer ; and others. 
 In two years over 200 residences dotted the landscape. 
 
 [18] 
 
"Yankee Row," a block of undetaehed buildings lo- 
 cated on Chestnut (Race Avenue) between Parkside 
 and Waller Avenues, came into existence soon after 
 the clock company was started. Austin's early families 
 created the apt name for this row of "frame shacks" 
 as descriptive of the villagers and houses in that loca- 
 tion. The eyesore remained to plague civic minded resi- 
 dents of the community who hoped it would be wiped 
 out by a fire that swept the area, but it survived until 
 demolished some time later. 
 
 ¥1 olden and Merrich. Paries 
 
 Austin was little more than a prairie at the begin- 
 ning of the 1870's with not a building south of the rail- 
 road tracks. When Chicago's railroad station was 
 built, trains were visible from the observation tower on 
 the second floor as far away as Austin, six miles distant. 
 The land, originally flat and wet, had been made dry by 
 ditching. The first assessment for this work was re- 
 corded in 1868. Four acres of land in the center of 
 the community were contributed to the village and im- 
 proved as a park by Henry W. Austin. The tract 
 was called Holden Park after C. C. Holden, president 
 of the United States Clock Manufacturing Company. 
 
 [19] 
 
C. C. Merrick donated another piece of property for 
 public use, which later became designated as Merrick 
 Park. Through its western boundary ran a row of 
 cottonwood trees, landmarks of the old Indian trail and 
 later marking the stage road for drivers of ox drawn 
 carts and wagons hauling grain and cattle to Chicago 
 before the completion of the railroad. 
 
 Tree Planting 
 
 There were few trees at the time Austin was founded, 
 but Mr. Austin and others who helped subdivide the 
 village made tree plantings, some of which today, in 
 spite of street widenings and other local improvements, 
 still beautify the parkways. George Ingle, forester and 
 tree-planter, worked for Henry Austin three and a half 
 years and is responsible for the landscaping in this 
 area. Quantities of saplings were brought from the 
 Mississippi River bottoms and transplanted. Midway 
 Park was landscaped and thousands of trees planted 
 in the stretch of prairie between Austin Boulevard and 
 Waller Avenue and north from the railroad to Augusta 
 Boulevard. The twenty-seven miles of street row plant- 
 ings of elms, evergreens and nut-bearing trees made 
 on both sides of the railroad, won special mention in a 
 
 [20] 
 
report made in 1883 by the Commissioner of Forestry 
 of Connecticut who recorded that the plantings "ex- 
 ceeded anything he had seen in the West." 
 
 Schools 
 
 The first school master in Austin was Luther E. Race. 
 He taught school for fifteen years while the village of 
 Austin was part of Cicero township. Classes were held 
 near Central Avenue and Lake Street in a frame build- 
 ing which was later moved to a location around Chest- 
 nut (Race Avenue) between Central and Parkside Ave- 
 nues, and finally was converted into a residence on North 
 Waller Avenue by Mr. Race. In 1872 the North School, 
 a two-story red brick structure, was erected on what is 
 now the site of the Key School property and stood 
 until the present building was opened for classes in 
 1907. 
 
 Austin High School had its beginnings on the second 
 floor of the old North School. Miss Julia Hughes and 
 Howard Bowen were the first high school graduates in 
 1876. The position of North School principal was 
 held by Homer Bevans from 1871 until 1874, and other 
 early instructors were D. L. Buzzell, principal in 1877 ; 
 Emma Baxter, Antoinette Pool, Edith Haggard, Mrs. 
 
 [21] 
 
E. M. Zahn and Taylor A. Snow. Schools were graded 
 in 1871 when North School was opened and a thor- 
 oughly systematized course of study was supervised by 
 the Board of Trustees. The winter of 1873 saw the 
 installation of the first school library of 700 volumes, 
 with George Philbrick, clerk of Cicero Township, ap- 
 pointed as school librarian. The work was delegated 
 to Howard Bowen who is said to have received the sum 
 of $300 for his first year's services. The South School, 
 known today as the Robert Emmet School, was built 
 in 1879 on the present grounds. 
 
 [22] 
 
..._i vil aga Church — Austin K'ethodist 
 
 Churches 
 
 Reverend J. H. Baylis, pastor of a Chicago Meth- 
 odist Church, delivered the first sermon in Austin in the 
 fall of 1867. He discontinued preaching to his small 
 class, and although services were resumed under Rev- 
 erend S. N. Griffith in 1870, the Austin Methodist 
 Church building was not completed until 1872. 
 
 [23] 
 
First Presbyterian Church of Austin, Illinois, was 
 founded in 1869, and the First Baptist Church of Aus- 
 tin in 1871. The latter church building was erected 
 in 1872 at Pine Avenue opposite Chestnut (Race Ave- 
 nue). Services of the Austin Presbyterian Church were 
 conducted first in the old frame school house, and then 
 at Town Hall before the church was built on Lake 
 Street in 1881 on lots donated by Col. John W. Ben- 
 nett and Will Hecox. St. Paul's Episcopal Church was 
 built in 1880 on property at Chapel and Waller Ave- 
 nues, donated to the society by Henry W. Austin. The 
 church later became the parish house of St. Martin's 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Until the time of annexation in 1899 the following 
 churches had been founded by residents of the village 
 of Austin: Austin Methodist Church, First Presbyte- 
 rian Church of Austin, Illinois, First Baptist Church of 
 Austin, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Evangelical Luth- 
 eran Church of St. Paul, Central Avenue Baptist 
 Church, Austin Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 Mandell Methodist Church, Trinity Presbyterian 
 Church, Asbury Methodist Church, and St. Catherine 
 of Siena Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 [24] 
 
Social .Life 
 
 Good times were abundant when Austin was young. 
 The family was the center of social life in the 1870's, 
 and the community spirit which has become a tradition 
 today prevailed then at every social gathering. The 
 population boasted of a beautiful village where the 
 
 [25] 
 
homes belonged to men who, though they were for the 
 most part engaged in some occupation which took them 
 back and forth to the city daily, preferred to give their 
 families the advantages of country life. One of these 
 commuters, contrasting the atmosphere of early Austin 
 with the dust and smoke of the city, described the air 
 as "clear and fragrant with sweet clover which grew 
 near the station." This was a small frame structure 
 built even with the rails which were not elevated until 
 1909. Homeward bound steps reverberated on wooden 
 sidewalks that oozed resin after a hot summer's day. 
 Bees hunted honey and butterflies flitted among the 
 field daisies, New England asters and Queen Anne's lace 
 that grew in the ditch by the side of the road. The 
 gates of white picket fences opened to paths that led 
 to old fashioned gardens and pleasant homes. Excur- 
 sions for hazelnut gathering as nearby as Rice and Cen- 
 tral Avenues, wild strawberry picking south of the rail- 
 road and ice-boating on the prairies northwest of Wal- 
 ler and Chestnut (Race Avenue) occupied seasonal 
 leisure hours. School girls picked violets for their May 
 baskets in Warren's Woods, destined to become Colum- 
 bus Park in 1910. Dancing instructions were given by 
 Beebe Baird at Town Hall. 
 
 [26] 
 
"Oaks Clttb" 
 
 Early in 1880 the exclusive "Oaks Club" for men 
 was organized under the leadership of Frederick R. 
 Schock. Its limited membership was drawn from homes 
 located between Fifty-second (Laramie Avenue), Aus- 
 tin, Madison and Chicago Avenue. A club house was 
 built by the group at Lake Street and Waller Avenue 
 on ground donated by Henry W. Austin. With a club 
 building which was a credit to Austin, the organization 
 soon gained an enviable reputation as one of the finest 
 clubs west of Chicago. 
 
 Music 
 
 Popular concerts were given in the drawing room of 
 the Oaks Club House by musical societies of the era. 
 In 1894 the Cicero Military Band, under the direction 
 of Dr. C. W. Coltrin, conductor, gave band concerts at 
 both the Town Hall and the Oaks Club. Austin Phil- 
 harmonic Club, also under Dr. Coltrin's direction, was 
 an amateur musical organization of thirty-two musi- 
 cians whose concerts were held at the Oaks Club or 
 Library Hall in Town Hall. Choral concerts of the 
 Derthick Musical Club, the Handel Oratorio Society, 
 Beethoven Club, and Rubenstein Club were also con- 
 ducted in the Oaks Club parlors. 
 
 [27] 
 
Organizations 
 
 The Austin Woman's Club was organized in January 
 1896, with social and intellectual culture as objectives. 
 One of its definite aims was the establishment of a public 
 library in Austin. The following April the club became 
 properly affiliated with the Federation of Women's 
 Clubs. Other popular clubs of the period were: Few 
 Friends Club, Matheon Club and Three O'Clock Club, 
 both organized in 1894; Tuesday Club, which was 
 founded in 1891, and the Q. P.'s, a quilting club. 
 
 Considerable opposition on the gridiron was furnished 
 in 1894 by the Austin Juniors Football Team and Aus- 
 tin's Champions scored on the baseball diamond in 1885. 
 Some of the members of these teams played important 
 roles in the business and civic life of early Austin. 
 
 Nimrods of the day held target and shotgun practice 
 on the grounds of the gun club, located in the prairies 
 southeast of Lake Street and Central Avenue. 
 
 Business 
 
 Business in early Austin was transacted for the most 
 part on Park Avenue (Parkside) opposite Town Hall 
 Park. Nissen Brothers Grocery and the model drug 
 store of R. H. Traill, where Austin's first telephone 
 was installed, were the principal business establishments 
 
 [28] 
 
in the 1880's. Oakdale Hotel was on Lake Street be- 
 tween Parkside and Waller Avenues, and Bowen's Hotel, 
 an old-time tavern or inn, was at Park (Parkside Ave- 
 nue) and Ohio Street. Austin State Bank, first located 
 next to the village post office about five doors north 
 of Lake Street on Parkside Avenue, was founded by 
 Charles S., Percy V., and Perley D. Castle, three broth- 
 ers, and chartered in 1891. The bank's current presiding 
 officer, Lester D. Castle, is a son of "P.D.," one of the 
 founders. "Along the Line" and the "Austin Vindicator" 
 (forerunners of the "Austinite") carried the news and 
 business advertisements of the day. Records exist of 
 other early news sheets, including "Austin Reporter," 
 "Enterprise," "Cicero Independent," and "Ciceronian." 
 Dr. Charles E. Jones is said to have started his med- 
 ical practice in Austin around 1881, and in August, 
 1887, Dr. R. C. Newell from Iowa began practicing. 
 Hartless Linen Towel & Supply Company located in 
 Austin in 1892. When the Austin Business Men's As- 
 sociation was organized in 1894, R. H. Traill was 
 elected its first president. The membership included 
 John P. Garner, druggist ; Joseph P. Kampp, under- 
 taker ; S. J. Noble, baker ; H. J. Van Keuren, carpenter 
 and contractor; and other business men and shop keep- 
 
 [29] 
 
ers. The principal headings listed in the local business 
 directory of 1897 were bicycles, blacksmiths, building 
 contractors, druggists, flour and feed, grocers, paving, 
 plumbers, real estate, wagons and carriages. 
 
 Although Austin has become absorbed in the chang- 
 ing life of a great city, some of the aspects of the early 
 suburb still characterize its civic life. The same en- 
 thusiastic community spirit that was responsible for the 
 organization of numerous churches, clubs and societies 
 prevails today and has remained to sustain the features 
 which typified Austin as a village. Much is due the fore- 
 sighted merchants and business men whose optimism in 
 that early period of Austin's history contributed to 
 its growth and development. 
 
 [30] 
 
Je/e&fati ,J3u'/wara/inii 
 
 [31] 
 
BOOKS 
 
 Andreas, Alfred T., History of Cook County, Illinois. Alfred T. 
 Andreas, 1884. 
 
 Bishop, Glenn A., and Gilbert, Paul T., Chicago's Accomplish- 
 ments and Leaders. Bishop Publishing Company, 1932. 
 Campbell, Edna Fay, Smith, Fanny R., and Jones, Clarence F., 
 Our City— Chicago. Scribners, 1930. 
 
 Chamberlin, Everett, Chicago and Its Suburbs. T. A. Hungerford 
 and Company, 1874. 
 
 Chicago's First Half Century, 1833-1883. Inter Ocean Publishing 
 
 Company, 1883. 
 Courses of Study-Rules and Regulations of the Public Schools of 
 
 Austin, 187T. 
 
 Currey, Josiah Seymour, Chicago, Its History and Its Builders. 
 S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912. 
 
 Drury, John, Old Chicago Houses. University of Chicago Press, 
 1941. 
 
 Gale, Edwin Oscar, Reminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity. 
 F. H. Revell and Company, 1902. 
 
 Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, and Healy, Daniel D., History of 
 Cook County, Illinois. Goodspeed Historical Association, 1909. 
 
 Hall, Jennie, Storv of Chicago. Rand McNally and Company, 
 1911. 
 
 Haydon, James Ryan, Chicago's True Founder, Thomas J. V. 
 Owen. Lombard, Illinois, 1934. 
 
 Hurlbut, Henry Higgins, Chicago Antiquities. Chicago, Illinois, 
 
 1881. 
 
 Halley, William, Halley's Pictorial Oak Park. Wm. Halley, 1898. 
 
 Lewis, Lloyd, Chicago, The History of Its Reputation. Harcourt, 
 1929. 
 
 Masters, Edgar Lee, Tale of Chicago. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1931. 
 
 Moses, John, and Kirkland, Joseph, History of Chicago, Illinois. 
 Munsell, 1895. 
 
 Quaife, Milo Milton, Chicago's Highways Old and New. D. F. 
 Keller and Company, 1923. 
 
 Riley, T. J., Higher Life of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 
 1905. 
 
 Sheahan, James & Upton, G. P., Great Conflagration. Union Pub- 
 lishing Company, 1871. 
 
 White, Mrs. Marian Ainsworth, Book of Western Suburbs. 
 J. Harrison White, 1912. 
 
 {32} 
 
DIRECTORIES 
 
 Cicero City Directory. Atlas Printing Company, 1940. 
 
 Directory of Austin and Street Directory. Isaac Herr, 1897. 
 
 Directory and Handbook of Austin. Vindicator Publishing Com- 
 pany, 1903. 
 
 Directory and Bluebook of Austin. Vindicator Publishing Com- 
 pany, 1907. 
 
 Guide to the City of Chicago. T. Ell wood Zell and Company, 
 1868. 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 
 
 Chicago Historical Society 
 Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association 
 West Side Historical Society 
 
 NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES 
 
 Justin, Its People and History. Austin Branch Library Historical 
 
 Files. 
 Austinite, 1907, 1919, 1921, 1923-1928, 1930, 1931. 
 Chicago Daily News, 1922, 1923. 
 Chicago Times, 1938, 1939. 
 Chicago Tribune, 1929, 1930. 
 Oak Leaves, 1921, 1936. 
 Surface Service Magazine, 1931. 
 
 ORIGINAL SOURCES 
 
 Chicago and Northwestern Railway 
 Chicago Surface Lines 
 Commonwealth Edison Company 
 Illinois Bell Telephone Company 
 Municipal Reference Library 
 Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company 
 Public Service Company of Northern Illinois 
 United States Post Office — Austin Station 
 
 Proceeds from the sale of this 
 limited edition of "Early Austin 1 ' 
 will be added to the funds of the 
 Austin Friends of the Library. 
 
 [33] 
 
FROM THE PRESS OF THE 
 CHARLES E. TENCH PRINTING CO. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 004787211