Whirlwind on the Prairie: Part 3
Uncovering the stories behind one of the earliest recorded tornadoes in Chicago area history
Click here for Part 2 of Whirlwind on the Prairie, where the location of the May 22, 1855, tornado is finally found.
Maine Township in 1855
Location of Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois in relation to Chicago. Road networks, railroad networks, land cover, and built-up areas are approximation of how they existed in 1855, based upon multiple historic maps.
Maine Township, in northwest Cook County, lies approximately 16 miles from the Chicago Loop (the location of Chicago in 1855). Although today Maine Township is heavily developed by suburbs of Chicago, the area was very rural in 1855. The first settlements began in the 1830s, with farm homesteads scattered across the landscape. A river bisected the tornship from north to south, roughly in half. Areas near the river were often referred to by multiple names, including Des Plaines, Des Plaines River, Aux Plaines, and O’Plaines.
In 1854, the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad began service from Chicago northwest through Maine Township toward Carey Station (1) on the Fox River. The railroad brought economic and population growth to the area, and a small village containing businesses and residences soon developed near the rail depot, a bridge over the Des Plaines River, and a mill operated by Socrates Rand (2).
Local farmers benefited from the railroad’s arrival and the new markets that it opened for their goods. No organized cemeteries or churches existed in the area. Sermons were provided by traveling preachers, and services held in private homes by unofficial congregations. Burials occurred on private property. In addition to the railroad, only a few dirt roads crossed Maine Township.
The Mill
Settling near the Des Plaines River in Maine Township, northwest of Chicago, around 1840, the Jefferson family quickly became prominent and prosperous. Hiram Jefferson operated a large farm, while brother Luther operated a windmill just to the north. The windmill, which powered a gristmill and lumber mill, sat along a dirt road near a bridge over the Des Plaines River south of the small village at the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot (3). The mill would serve as a local landmark for a number of years.
The Pages and Wheelers
Southeast portion of Columbus Township, Chenango County, New York from the L. Fagan 1855 map.
The descendants of the combined Page/Wheeler family originally resided in Chenango County, New York, prior to moving to northeast Illinois.
Joseph Page, a captain in the American Revolution, moved his family to Chenango County in 1804, settling near Shawler Brook between the Beebe and Reynolds farms. Captain Page had two children prior to his death in 1834, Hubert and Harriet. Son Hubert Page later married Samantha Finch, daughter of long-time area doctor Isaac Finch. Daughter Harriet later married Abner Gillett. Hubert's growing family continued to occupy the family farm through the 1830s and 1840s while he worked as an area blacksmith.
Hubert and Samantha's first child, Sarah Page was born in 1830. At age 18, she married young farmer Ransom Lee Wheeler. The Wheeler's established their residence next door to the Page residence. In late 1848, Sarah gave birth to a son, Walter, who lived just 21 days and was buried in the nearby Columbus Corners Cemetery. In 1850, Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Mary, and in 1852 another daughter, Lilian. By the early 1850s, at least 12 people resided in the two Page/Wheeler homes.
Early in 1855, the Page and Wheeler families decided to move to Illinois, settling northwest of Chicago in Maine Township, just south of the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot and west of the mill operated by the Jefferson family. Shortly after their arrival, Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Eveline. Hubert and Ransom quickly built a frame house sitting upon large granite boulders, within which the entire family lived. A barn was constructed which soon housed a pair of oxen. Construction then began on a second home which was to sit next to the first on the same property.
Location of the Page/Wheeler farm near the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot and the property owned by the Jefferson family in Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois.
The Day Laborer
Born in 1836, William Thacker was just 3 years old when his family moved to Maine Township, northwest of Chicago, in 1839. Thacker's father died when he was just 11 years old, leaving his mother to run a household of seven children at their residence near Jefferson Mill, south of the village at the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot. At age 19, Thacker worked as a day laborer on farms near his home. In the spring of 1855, Thacker was hired to plant potatoes on the Rand farm, about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile northwest of the depot.
Location of the Rand farm near the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot and the property owned by the Page/Wheeler family in Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois.
The Doctor
John Kennicott. Grove Heritage Association.
Born in New York in 1802, John Kennicott was educated as a doctor. Kennicott moved around multiple times, first from eastern New York to western New York, then to Mississippi, then to New Orleans, developing interests in botany and education. By age 27, now married with two sons, Kennicott moved to Northfield Township, 18 miles northwest of Chicago in Cook County, in 1829. Upon their land stood a large grove of trees which was the inspiration for his homestead name "The Grove." By the 1840s, the Kennicotts had created a nursery on their land using plants collected during the doctor's travels. Kennicott was well known in the area, for many years being one of the only doctors for several miles. His interest in botany and nature growing through the years, he eventually helped create the Illinois State Agricultural Society.
Location of the Kennicott property and orchard near the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot and the property owned by the Page/Wheeler family in Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois.
The Young Farmer
Born in New York 1836, Allen W. Phillips eventually moved with parents Reuel and Eliza to Northfield Township, north of Chicago, in the 1840s or early 1850s.
Location of the Phillips property and orchard near the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot and the property owned by the Page/Wheeler family in Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois.
The Politician
John Wentworth in 1847. Multiple attributions.
Born in New Hampshire in 1815, John Wentworth moved west to Chicago in 1836, being among the first settlers to the rapidly growing town. Wentworth became heavily affiliated with Chicago's first newspaper, the Chicago Democrat, eventually becoming editor and manager. Wentworth used the paper to help elect William Ogden as first mayor of Chicago in 1837, and then was appointed to his administration. Just a few years later in 1843, Wentworth began a multi-year career as a legislator, being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives six times. Wentworth's final term in office ended in March of 1855, after which he moved back to Chicago. Wentworth resided in the building housing his newspaper on LaSalle Street near the courthouse.
Location of the John Wentworth's residence, also the office of the Chicago Democrat, as indicated by the 1855 Chicago Directory. Wentworth's residence at 45 LaSalle Street (390 North LaSalle) was in the business district of Chicago in 1855.
The Inventor Turned Scientist
Joseph Henry in the 1840s. National Museum of American History.
Born into a poor family in 1797, Joseph Henry had widely-varying interests in his lifetime, ranging from theatre, to medicine, to engineering, to environmental science. Despite starting out as a watchmaking apprentice in his teen years, Henry became interested in the theatre and planned to pursue acting, until a strong interest in the sciences developed a few short years later. While attending the Albany Academy, he planned to pursue a career in medicine, but then was swayed to study engineering after assisting with construction of a local road. For most of his 20s and early 30s, Henry taught courses at the Albany Academy where he previously studied and performed research on magnetism. His research into magnetism led to multiple discoveries, including an electric wire doorbell and the electric relay, the latter of which later led to the invention of the telegraph.
In 1835, Henry became chair of the Natural History department at what is now known as Princeton University. In 1846, he was appointed the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a position he held until his death in 1878. While at the Smithsonian, Henry's interest in meteorology led to a effort to collect weather information across the country from volunteer observers, an effort which eventually evolved into today's National Weather Service. Working with the US Navy in 1848, Henry began soliciting daily observations of temperature, dewpoint, wind, and more from volunteers. By spring 1855, over a dozen such observers across Illinois and neighboring states were sending monthly forms to the Smithsonian Institution.
Each of these people would soon be part of one of the earliest tornadoes in Chicago area history.
Click here for Part 4 of Whirlwind on the Prairie, where the May 22, 1855, tornado carves its path through Maine Township.
Footnotes
Carey Station is known today as the village of Cary. The Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad was eventually extended farther northwest toward Janesville, Wisconsin, and changed names multiple times over the decades that followed. It is today known as the Union Pacific Northwest Railroad.
Two years later in 1857, the small village at the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad depot was platted as Rand, named after Socrates Rand. The village of Rand was renamed Des Plaines in 1869.
Today, only Hiram’s 1850s farmhouse remains, which serves as the headquarters of the Des Plaines chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a national conservation organization.
References
Chicago Public Library. Mayor John Wentworth Biography, https://www.chipublib.org/mayor-john-wentworth-biography/#:~:text=Mayor%20of%20Chicago%2C%201857%2D1858,Gurnee%20(Democrat).
Ernst, E.A., 1981: John A. Kennicott of the Grove: Physician, Horticulturalist, and Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Illinois. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 74, 109-118.
Fagan, L., 1855: Map of Chenango County, New York. Lafayette Leal, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3803c.la000482/?r=0.741,0.534,0.28,0.162,0
Hall, E.H., 1855: The Chicago City Directory and Business Advertiser, Fourth Annual Edition. Robert Fergus Printing.
Kennicott, John. Letter to Smithsonian Institution regarding tornado of May 22, 1855. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Accession 11-032: Joseph Henry Papers project, X336.
Phillips, Allen. Letter to Smithsonian Institution regarding tornado of May 22, 1855. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Accession 11-032: Joseph Henry Papers project, X336.
Smith, J.H., 1880: History of Chenango County. http://chenango.nygenweb.net/books/h-clmbus.htm
Smith, J.H., 1880: History of Chenango and Madison Counties, NY. http://chenango.nygenweb.net/books/col1784h.htm
Smithsonian Institution Archives. Joseph Henry Portrait, https://siarchives.si.edu/history/joseph-henry.
Thacker, William. Letter to Arlington Wash about tornado of May 22, 1855. Des Plaines History Center archives.
Wentworth, John. Letter to Smithsonian Institution regarding tornado of May 22, 1855. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Accession 11-032: Joseph Henry Papers project, X336.
More on this topic
For a more technical look at how the location of this tornado was determined, see Determining the Location of the 22 May 1855 Chicago Area Tornado (2022) in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
For more maps and background information, see Des Plaines Tornado of May 22, 1855, an ArcGIS Online Storymap.