Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago<br><br>Chicago is thus not only a wonderful city in herself but Apostolic in her character preaching the truth in the desert and sowing the seed which has now blossomed forth into the fruits of a Garden of Eden. She it was who first planted in the prairie like the staff of St. Patrick has since grown forth even more wonderfully than his wand becoming not a trefoil but a banyan tree whose shoots ?ourish from ocean to ocean. Chicago was the surveyors'' station from which the land beyond was prospected and the villages and cities subsequently laid out that now dot the West. Her example has stimulated to wondrous enterprise in city building elsewhere and while in her proud position at the head of the great chain of Lakes she is the central point to which all else converges as the meridian lines towards the poles she is still more distinguished as the originator of Western progress - the maker of Northwestern history.<br><br>Thirty-one years since Chicago was first called''a city and Mayor Ogden looked round on the new-born corporation and with true prophetic eye noted its future magnitude. That is nearly one generation ago; a few months more and we shall have turned the first leaf in our civic history. The early workers-out of the great problem of Western commerce are even now passing away from among us breaking through the death cloud seen in the vision of Mirza into the great ocean of eternity. It is a grateful task to turn the camera on the little throng who are now walking over the senior arches in the bridge of life and photograph for preservation the prominent features in the lives of that little band who have made so much of our history. We essay the work in the following pages; they contain life sketches of over one hundred of the leading citizens of Chicago - the men to whose foresight energy enterprise and in?uence. The proud municipality of to-day so largely owes its greatness.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.