Editing Chicago (section)

===19th century===
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| caption1          = The location and course of the [[Illinois and Michigan Canal]] (completed 1848)
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On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200.<ref name="Timeline: Early Chicago History" /> Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with [[Edmund Dick Taylor]] as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11480.html |title=Act of Incorporation for the City of Chicago, 1837 |publisher=State of Illinois |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-date=March 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307032921/http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11480.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city.<ref>Walter Nugent. "[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/962.html Demography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012204646/https://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/962.html |date=October 12, 2022 }}" in ''Encyclopedia of Chicago''. Chicago Historical Society.</ref>

As the site of the [[Chicago Portage]],{{sfnp|Keating|2005|p=27}} the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, [[Galena and Chicago Union Railroad]], and the [[Illinois and Michigan Canal]] opened in 1848. The canal allowed [[steamboat]]s and [[sailing ship]]s on the [[Great Lakes]] to connect to the Mississippi River.{{sfnp|Buisseret|1990|pp=86–98}}{{sfnp|Condit|1973|pp=30–31}}{{sfnp|Genzen|2007|pp=24–25}}{{sfnp|Keating|2005|pp=26–29, 35–39}}

A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and [[Immigration to the United States|immigrants]] from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the [[American economy]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Conzen |first=Michael P. |chapter=Global Chicago |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300132.html |title=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=December 6, 2015 |archive-date=November 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151112152124/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300132.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Chicago Board of Trade]] (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called [[futures contract]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cmegroup.com/company/history/timeline-of-achievements.html |title=Timeline-of-achievements |publisher=[[CME Group]] |access-date=January 20, 2013 |archive-date=January 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107030442/http://www.cmegroup.com/company/history/timeline-of-achievements.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator [[Stephen Douglas]], the champion of the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]] and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stephen Douglas |url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/douglas5.html |publisher=University of Chicago |access-date=May 29, 2011 |archive-date=June 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609004224/http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/douglas5.html |url-status=live }}</ref> These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, [[Abraham Lincoln]], to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the [[1860 Republican National Convention]], which was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the [[Wigwam (Chicago)|Wigwam]]. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the [[American Civil War]].

To accommodate [[#Demographics|rapid population growth]] and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved [[Ellis S. Chesbrough|Chesbrough]]'s plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sedm1912/chn.html#y1856_m02_d14 |title=Chicago Daily Tribune, Thursday Morning, February 14 |publisher=nike-of-samothrace.net |access-date=May 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325060713/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sedm1912/chn.html#y1856_m02_d14 |archive-date=March 25, 2014}}</ref> The project [[Raising of Chicago|raised much of central Chicago]] to a new grade with the use of [[jackscrews]] for raising buildings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sites.austincc.edu/caddis/bull-moose-from-a-bully-pulpit |title=5 Bull Moose From a Bully Pulpit |publisher=Austin Community College |access-date=March 21, 2021 |author-first=Cameron |author-last=Addis |date=August 22, 2015 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227004439/http://sites.austincc.edu/caddis/bull-moose-from-a-bully-pulpit/ |url-status=live }}</ref> While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the [[Chicago River]], and subsequently into [[Lake Michigan]], polluting the city's primary freshwater source.

The city responded by tunneling {{convert|2|mi|km|spell=in}} out into Lake Michigan to newly built [[Water cribs in Chicago|water cribs]]. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the [[Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal]] that connects to the [[Illinois River]], which flows into the Mississippi River.{{sfnp|Condit|1973|pp=15–18, 243–245}}{{sfnp|Genzen|2007|pp=27–29, 38–43}}{{sfnp|Buisseret|1990|pp=154–155, 172–173, 204–205}}

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about {{convert|4|mi|km}} long and {{convert|1|mi|km|adj=on}} wide, a large section of the city at the time.{{sfnp|Buisseret|1990|pp=148–149}}{{sfnp|Genzen|2007|pp=32–37}}{{sfnp|Lowe|2000|pp=87–97}} Much of the city, including railroads and [[Union Stock Yard|stockyards]], survived intact,{{sfnp|Lowe|2000|p=99}} and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bruegmann |first=Robert |chapter=Built Environment of the Chicago Region |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/181.html |title=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=December 5, 2013 |author-link=Robert Bruegmann |year=2005 |archive-date=May 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505235245/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/181.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnp|Condit|1973|pp=9–11}} During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the world's [[Home Insurance Building|first skyscraper]] in 1885, using [[steel frame|steel-skeleton]] construction.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Allen |first=Frederick E. |date=February 2003 |title=Where They Went to See the Future |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2003/1/2003_1_68.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220103637/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2003/1/2003_1_68.shtml |archive-date=February 20, 2007 |journal=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |volume=54 |issue=1 |access-date=December 5, 2013}}</ref>{{sfnp|Lowe|2000|pp=121, 129}}

The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the [[Hyde Park Township, Cook County, Illinois|Hyde Park Township]], which now comprises most of the [[South Side of Chicago]] and the far southeast of Chicago, and the [[Jefferson Township, Cook County, Illinois|Jefferson Township]], which now makes up most of [[Northwest Side, Chicago|Chicago's Northwest Side]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/53.html |access-date=December 14, 2015 |year=2005 |encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |author=Cain, Louis P. |title=Annexations}}</ref> The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents.

Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from [[Europe]] and migrants from the [[Eastern United States]]. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. [[Germans]], [[Irish people|Irish]], [[Polish people|Poles]], [[Swedes]], and [[Czechs]] made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population).<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Chicago |volume= 6 | pages = 118–125; see page 124; first para |quote= Population.—Of the total population in 1900 not less than 34.6% were foreign-born; the number of persons either born abroad, or born in the United States of foreign parentage (i.e. father or both parents foreign), was 77.4% of the population, and in the total number of males of voting age the foreign-born predominated (53.4%). }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012}}</ref>

[[Labor history of the United States|Labor conflicts]] followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the [[Haymarket affair]] on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the [[Pullman Strike]]. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led [[Jane Addams]] and [[Ellen Gates Starr]] to found [[Hull House]] in 1889.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Hull House Maps Its Neighborhood |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/410008.html |title=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=April 11, 2013 |archive-date=May 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509185234/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/410008.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of [[social work]].<ref name="hullhouse">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Mary Ann |chapter=Hull House |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/615.html |title=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=April 12, 2013 |archive-date=March 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328134724/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/615.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of [[cholera]], [[smallpox]], and [[yellow fever]] were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Clinton |last=Sandvick |year=2009 |title=Enforcing Medical Licensing in Illinois: 1877–1890 |journal=Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine |volume=82 |issue=2 |pages=67–74 |pmid=19562006 |pmc=2701151}}</ref>

The city established many large, well-landscaped [[Chicago Park District|municipal parks]], which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was [[John Henry Rauch|John H. Rauch, M.D.]] Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created [[Lincoln Park]] by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.<ref>{{cite journal |first=William K. |last=Beatty |year=1991 |title=John H. Rauch&nbsp;– Public Health, Parks and Politics |journal=Proceedings of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago |volume=44 |pages=97–118}}</ref>

In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals.{{sfnp|Condit|1973|pp=43–49, 58, 318–319}}<ref>{{Holland-Classic|pages=66–91}}</ref> In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American [[time zone]]s.<ref>{{cite book |author=United States. Office of the Commissioner of Railroads |title=Report to the Secretary of the Interior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmfNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA19 |year=1883 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=19 |access-date=July 8, 2020 |archive-date=July 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709122354/https://books.google.com/books?id=GmfNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA19 |url-status=live }}</ref> This system for telling time spread throughout the continent.

In 1893, Chicago hosted the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] on former marshland at the present location of [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]]. The Exposition drew 27.5&nbsp;million visitors, and is considered the most influential [[world's fair]] in history.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chicago's Rich History |url=http://www.choosechicago.com/attendees/about_chicago/Pages/chicago_history.aspx |publisher=Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau |access-date=June 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610015848/http://www.choosechicago.com/attendees/about_chicago/Pages/chicago_history.aspx |archive-date=June 10, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfnp|Lowe|2000|pp=148–154, 158–169}} The [[University of Chicago]], formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the [[Midway Plaisance]], a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the [[Washington Park (Chicago park)|Washington]] and Jackson Parks.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Exhibits on the Midway Plaisance, 1893 |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11421.html |title=Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=April 12, 2013 |archive-date=October 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029013143/http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11421.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=midway |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/midway |work=Chicago Manual Style (CMS) |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=April 12, 2013 |archive-date=June 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616220151/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/midway |url-status=live }}</ref>