degree to indirect taxes—such as licenses, fees, fines, etc. Property, real and personal, is now assessed on the basis of 20 per cent. of its full value. The budgets are determined by committees of the council. The total debt is $35,164,000, or the comparatively modest per capita amount of $19.42. The following are the principal items of the receipts and expenditure for the year 1900: The actual income was $26,867,000, of which $14,295,000 was from property tax, and over $3,000,000 each from liquor licenses, water-works, and special assessments. The total expenditure, including loans repaid, was $22,673,000, of which $19,518,000 was for maintenance and operation—the largest items being: Schools, $6,200,000; police department, $3,773,000; fire department, $1,617,000; interest on debt, $1,313,000; and water-works, $1,240,000. There are certain items of county and township government not herein included—e.g. the county maintains the charitable institutions at an annual cost of $800,000.
Population. No other city has attained anything like the magnitude of Chicago in so short a time. With but 4470 inhabitants in 1840, the city had increased in 1870 to 298,997, ranking fifth among American cities; in 1880, to 503,185, ranking fourth; in 1890, to 1,099,850, standing second; in 1900, to 1,698,575, still holding second place. Greater New York alone had as great an absolute growth during the last decade; but New York's per cent. of increase was much less. Chicago's phenomenal growth seems quite natural, however, when compared with the development of the ‘Great West,’ of which it is a part. Chicago has a remarkably high per cent. (34) of foreign-born population, and of the native-born, 59 per cent. are of foreign parentage. Of the foreign nationalities the Germans are most numerous, aggregating more than twice the number of Irish—the latter having shown a decided inclination to remain in the Eastern towns, Chicago contrasts also with Eastern cities in that it has a large number of Swedes and Norwegians, Bohemians, Poles, and Canadians, while the number of Italians, Russians, and Austrians is comparatively small. The negro population is given at 30,150. Certain of the foreign nationalities, notably the Germans and Swedes, are well distributed over the city; others tend to congregate in limited districts which are overcrowded—chiefly those adjoining the central business section of the city. Chicago boasts of the healthfulness of its situation and sanitary conditions, having the lowest death-rate (14.68) of any of the large cities in the United States.
History. The name ‘Chicago’ is probably derived from an Indian word meaning ‘wild onion’—a plant which grows abundantly in this locality. Before the coming of the whites, the place was a rendezvous for various Indian tribes, and a favorite meeting-place for voyageurs and traders. In 1673 both Marquette and Joliet stopped here for a few days, and the former spent most of the winter of 1674-75 here. Later, the locality was visited by La Salle, Hennepin, and others; and on a map (Franklin's) published in Quebec, in 1685, it was designated as Fort Chicagou, which would seem to indicate the existence thus early of a trading-post.
Jean Baptiste Point de Saible, a mulatto refugee from Haiti, who came about 1779, is generally considered the first settler. In 1790 he sold his cabin to Le Mai, a French fur-trader, who in turn sold out early in 1804 to John Kinzie, the first white man of American birth to make his home here. The military importance of the place was quickly recognized by the Government, which in 1795 forced the Indians to cede a tract of land “six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River,” and late in 1804 erected Fort Dearborn (q.v.) on the south bank of the river, near its mouth. On August 15, 1812, in accordance with orders received several days earlier. Captain Heald and the garrisons evacuated this fort, but were ambushed by their Miami escorts and other Indians, and 38 soldiers, two women, and 12 children were killed, and many others captured. On the following day the fort was burned, but it was rebuilt in 1816. In 1830 the town was laid out, and the first map, dated August 4, gives its area as three-eighths of a square mile. There were then twelve families here, besides the garrison. Three years later Chicago was incorporated as a town, its population being 550, and its area 560 acres; and in 1837, then having 4170 inhabitants, it was chartered as a city. In 1833, 7000 Indians assembled here and sold a large tract of land in this vicinity, agreeing to move across the Mississippi. This they did two years later; and the fort, being no longer necessary, was abandoned in 1837 and demolished in 1856.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal, begun in 1836, was finished in 1848; and in the same year the first railroad, the Chicago and Galena Union, was completed. Four years later the Michigan Southern and the Michigan Central, the first roads leading to the East, entered the city, which from this time grew with unprecedented rapidity. In 1860 the Republican National Convention, by which Lincoln was nominated, was held in Chicago. In October, 1871, the most destructive fire in the history of the country occurred here. Breaking out in a barn in De Koven Street, and fanned by a gale, it spread with the greatest rapidity, and raged uncontrolled for two days and nights, sweeping over 2100 acres, destroying 17,450 buildings, and causing 200 deaths, besides the greatest destitution and suffering. Out of a population of 324,000, more than 70,000 were rendered homeless, and almost one-third of the property in the city ($190,000,000 out of $620,000,000) was destroyed. Relief poured in from all sides, $7,000,000 being quickly contributed in Europe and America, and within a year the city was largely rebuilt.
In July, 1877, the railroad riots, caused by discontented laborers, necessitated the calling out of militia and United States troops, and in May, 1886, occurred the celebrated ‘Haymarket riots’ (q.v.), consequent upon the labor troubles of 1885-86. On May 4, while the police were attempting to break up an Anarchist meeting, a bomb was thrown among them, and 27 of their number were wounded, of whom seven subsequently died. In 1893 the great World's Fair (see World's Columbian Exposition) was held here. In 1894 a large number of laborers went on a strike, destroying property valued at $1,000,000, and again making it necessary to call out the militia and a detachment of United States troops.
Bibliography. Mason (editor), Early Chicago and Illinois (Chicago, 1890); Kirkland, The History of Chicago (Chicago, 1892); and Moses
