Whirlwind on the Prairie: Part 5
Uncovering the stories behind one of the earliest recorded 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.
Joseph Henry and the Smithsonian
Within a few days of May 22, Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry wrote a letter to the Chicago Democrat requesting information from anyone who observed the tornado. Although no copy of Henry's request has yet been found, evidence suggests that he requested data covering temperature, dewpoint, whether or not hail occurred, and the general direction of storm movement.
Three replies to Henry's request are known to exist, which became part of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. These letters came from John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, Dr. John Kennicott, proprietor of The Grove Nursey, and A.W. Phillips, farmer and neighbor to Kennicott.
Weather reports across the Midwest region collected by volunteers as part of Joseph Henry's meteorological observations project were vital for the later reconstruction of weather conditions on May 22, 1855. The volunteer weather observation effort started by Henry eventually evolved into the cooperative observer program which continues today as part of the National Weather Service.
John A. Kennicott
Dr. John A. Kennicott helped organize the Illinois State Agricultural Society, eventually becoming its secretary. Kennicott died at age 61, 8 years after the tornado.
Kennicott's son, Robert Kennicott, became a naturalist similar to his father. He facilitated the colletion of numerous natural specimens which were sent to the Smithsonian Institution museums. In 1866, Kennicott died mysteriously while traveling in the arctic, and his family donated his remains to the Smithsonian where his bones are on display.
The Kennicott property is today preserved as the Kennicott Grove preserve.
Dr. Daniel Brainard
Dr. Daniel Brainard, who assisted Dr. Joseph Freer in tending to the victims of the 1855 tornado, was an early immigrant to Chicago in the 1830s. He became well-known and was friends with Chicago's first mayor, William Ogden. Shortly after the founding of Chicago, Dr. Brainard helped found Rush Medical College.
On October 10, 1866, 54 year old Brainard gave a lecture on the effects of cholera to students at the college, only to become seriously ill and die of the disease several hours later.
William Thacker
After the tornado, William Thacker moved around to multiple locations across Illinois. He then served in the civil war. After the war, Thacker remained in Illinois, settling his family in the town of Virginia where he was justice of the peace. After Illinois, the Thacker family briefly lived in Kansas before moving briefly to Idaho, and then to San Juan Island in Washington state.
 May 22, 1855, was not Thacker's only run-in with a tornado. While residing in Virginia, Illinois, in 1883, a significant tornado outbreak occurred across Illinois which included a tornado that hit the village of Literberry, just to the south. Thacker assisted with caring for the injured and cleanup of the town. Then, shortly after a move to western Kansas in 1888, Thacker was seriously injured after the building in which he resided was hit by a tornado. Some injuries sustained from the later storm remained with Thacker for many years.
After moving to Washington, Thacker worked as an attorney and served in the state legislature.
John Wentworth
John Wentworth was a well-known figure in Chicago History. Just a few years after the May 22, 1855, tornado, the Chicago Democrat was absorbed into the Chicago Tribune. In 1857, John Wentworth was elected mayor of Chicago. Then, in 1860, he was again elected mayor for another 2-year term. In 1864, Wentworth campaigned for a 6th term in the US House of Representatives and was elected, but served just one term. Wentworth retired from politics in 1868 and moved to his country estate just west of Chicago (near the intersection of today's Harlem Avenue and Archer Avenue). At the time, a substantial amount of property west of Chicago was owned by Wentworth.
In 1871, Wentworth worked with nearby land-owner William B. Ogden (another former Chicago mayor) to drain a shallow marsh which covered portions of their rural properties, in an attempt to build waterfront docks and raise land value. This marshy area, known as Mud Lake, straddled the drainage divide between the Lake Michigan Basin and the Des Plaines River Basin (which flowed toward the Mississippi River) with flow leaving the wetlands both to the east and west. Mud Lake and its odd hydrology was known to Chicago residents at least as far back as 1849 - when flooding occurred on the Des Plaines and some flowed east through Mud Lake toward the South Branch Chicago River and Lake Michigan (2). This new man-made waterway made the process much more efficient, and the ditch was eroded and widened over time by the force of floodwaters.
Location of the land owned by John Wentworth and William B. Ogden on the W.L. Flower 1861 map of Cook County. Mud Lake and its associated wetlands stretch from the Des Plaines river at left to the South Branch Chicago River, out of view to the right. During times of high water on the Des Plaines River, water would flow both and the main channel to the south and west as well as to the east through Mud Lake toward Chicago.
The Ogden-Wentworth Ditch gained the ire Chicagoans in 1872 when a significant Des Plaines flood heavily eroded the ditch, causing significant pollution and contamination of the city's water supply. After several years of political debate in the city, a dam was constructed in 1876 at the west end of the ditch, despite the objections of Ogden and Wentworth. The dam failed in late 1882, was quickly rebuilt, then failed again during a flood in spring of 1883, causing floodwaters to push Chicago's polluted river water into Lake Michigan and threaten the drinking water supply. Even with the construction of the dam, overflows into the Chicago River watershed remained common; significant overflows were noted in 1888, 1889, 1892 (twice), 1893, 1894, 1895.
The situation was not completely remedied until the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal opened in 1900, which, along with its embankments, permanently reversed the Chicago River's flow and blocked overflows from the Des Plaines.
The Page/Wheeler Family
The Page/Wheeler’s local church congregation raised $116 (approximately $4,000 in 2023) and collected bedding and clothing to help the family start over. The Wheeler family remained in Des Plaines for many years after the tornado. In the late 1850s, Ransom and Sarah Wheeler had three more children, one of whom was born in May 1856 and named Lillian after one of their daughters who had died in the tornado the previous year. Ransom Wheeler died in 1862 at age 36, just 7 years after the tornado. It is not known how he died or if injuries sustained during the storm contributed. Abner Gillett, Harriet's widow, remained in New York and remarried. Hubert Page, Samantha's widow, moved away from his surviving children to Lawrence, in McHenry County, Illinois. He soon remarried, then operated a grocery store in his later years.
Hubert Joseph Page
Details of Hubert Joseph Page's life after the tornado are somewhat sparse. He remarried just a few years after the tornado killed his wife, Samantha, and moved away, while his children remained on the land owned by Ransom Wheeler. His new wife, Abia Bennett, was also originally from New York. They were married between 1855 and 1859. Land they owned in northern Indiana was auctioned off after failure to pay the mortgage in 1859. Their only child, also named Abia, was born in late 1859. By this time they had moved to or near the village of Lawrence, just northwest of Harvard, in McHenry County, Illinois.
Mr. Page operated a store in Lawrence until his death in 1877. Abia took over the store after her husband's death. The elder Abia was well known in the small community, being mentioned in the local newspapers on multiple ocassions as an "older, long-time resident." Local newspapers reported on her declining health and numerous illnesses as early as 1900. Abia died in 1905.
The Page Children
Almost all of the children of Hubert and Samantha Page are assumed to have been present at the time of the tornado. Son Devillo J. Page, 22 at the time of the tornado, became a police officer in Chicago in the 1860s, then in 1868 partnered with brother Levi H. Page, age 18 at the time of the tornado, to create the D.J. Page & Co. detective agency. The arrangement didn't last long, as they soon found themselves pulled into the multi-year legal affair of the Philander Peck estate which ultimately resulted in Devillo filing suit against Levi.Â
Location of the land owned by the Philander Peck estate on the J. Van Vechten 1870 map of Cook County. Peck's property eventually became the site of Homan Square and the 1900s-era headquarters for Sears Roebuck & Company.
Philander Peck was an early Chicago resident who died in 1852 without a will for his estate of about $100k (approximately $3.8 million in 2023). One of Philander's three children died before reaching adulthood, leaving the entire estate to the remaining boys, George E. Peck and Henry B. Peck, and Philander's wife, Clarissa. George and Henry were well known around Chicago's saloons and gambling dens for spending money without restraint. Henry died at a young age, after which George was convinced by his mother to sign away his rights to the land portion of the Peck estate to his mother. George eventually entered into an apparent common-law marriage with a prostitute named Margaret Campion, who eventually sued Clarissa Peck for George's portion of the Peck estate. Campion hired D.J. Page & Co. to help her compile evidence for her case. In the background, Campion was making secret deals with attorneys hired by D.J. Page & Co. as well as executors of the Peck estate, and never paid for the detective work. Numerous legal suits were filed from 1869 until at least 1885, between lawyers, executors, family members, alleged family members, and more (1), during which time the estate grew in trust to over $1.5 million (approximately $46 million in 2023). At least one of the lawsuits involved Devillo Page suing Levi Page claiming that Levi was secretly paid for assisting with the case, but failed to share the payment with the rest of the company.
Levi H. Page was married at least 4 times during his life, and may have resided briefly in multiple states. U.S. patent 573911 from 1896 is registered in Levi's name for an "electric arc lamp," and another patent is mentioned in a newspaper article from 1876 for a "planter." In April of 1900, Levi was sentenced to a 1-14 year prison term at the Illinois State Penitentiary Joliet after being convicted of perjury, of which about 12 months was served. The perjury conviction may be connected to his testimony in the Dr. Cronin murder trial.
Son Joseph Hubert Page, also 22 at the time of the tornado, may have later served in the civil war. He moved to Walworth County, Wisconsin, (across the state line from McHenry County, location of his father's new residence) by 1870. Joseph became an attorney and lived there the remainder of his life.
Son James M. Page, 15 at the time of the tornado, later served in the civil war. In 1887, he became a doctor, residing near Union Park in Chicago.
Mary Isabelle Wheeler, the only child of Ransom and Sarah to survive the tornado, married William Stockwell in 1866. Like the Wheelers, the Stockwells were originally from New York and arrived in Maine Township in the mid-1850s. During their early marriage, the couple made their home in Des Plaines and Mary’s widowed mother and three younger siblings lived with them. By 1880, Mary and William Stockwell moved to Jefferson Township, which was eventually annexed into Chicago. The home where Mary and William Stockwell resided for many years was located near Berteau Avenue and Lowell Avenue in the Irving Park Community Area, which was eventually razed for construction of the Kennedy Expressway. After William died in 1909, Mary moved in with her daughter in Wisconsin and remained there until her own death in 1920. Family histories indicate that Mary frequently mentioned the tornado to her grandchildren and showed scars she received from her injuries. Mary Isabelle Stockwell was buried at Town of Maine Cemetery in Park Ridge, Illinois, one of the few family members with a known burial location. Mary and William had numerous children and granchildren; some individuals named Stockwell still reside in the Des Plaines area.
Ada Page, age 10 at the time of the tornado, eventually married Henry William Mills and they lived together with their children in a separate house on the Page/Wheeler land until at least 1870. After her first husband died, Ada moved to the Near West Side Community Area of Chicago, re-married, and had another child. Her brother Charles later resided with her briefly.
Charles S. Page, age 10 at the time of the tornado, later served in the civil war. He was married with 3 children by the 1880s, but briefly resided alone with sister Ada in 1910. In 1930, he was residing with the family of a grand-niece in Chicago.
The Page/Wheeler Farm
Location of the Page/Wheeler farm on 1930s aerial imagery. Background imagery from Illinois State Geological Survey.
Location of the Page/Wheeler farm on 2020s aerial imagery. Background imagery from US Geological Survey.
The Page/Wheeler property eventually became part of modern-day Des Plaines, Illinois. Aerial imagery collected in November 1938 shows numerous residential streets covering the property, with a couple residences. By the 1950s, most of the Page/Wheeler property was covered by a residential subdivision. The location of their previous residence was near the intersection of Oakton Street and Lee Street. A bank drive-through now sits near the assumed location of their home. Although accounts suggest that only one residence was impacted by the May 22, 1855, tornado, if it were to recur today, hundreds of structures would be impacted.
Epilogue
In conducting the genealogical research necessary to determine the location of the May 22, 1855, tornado, many interesting details about the Page/Wheeler family were discovered. These details were not necessary for the technical discussion of the tornado, but seemed prudent to share for the potential future benefit of the descendants of those impacted. While attempts were made to keep the presented information as true to the source material as possible, some limited instances of dramatization and inference were necessary.
While researching personal details about the lives of those impacted by the tornado, the author was surprised to discover a distant relationship to many mentioned invidivuals.
Name
Relation to Author
Notes
Hubert Joseph Page
5th Cousin, 7 times removed
Patriarch of Page/Wheeler family upon moving to Maine Township
Dr. Joseph Warren Freer
Husband of 6th Cousin, 6 times removed
Doctor that tended to those injured by the tornado
Dr. Daniel Brainard
6th Cousin, 6 times removed
Doctor that tended to those injured by the tornado
John Hollowell Rand
5th Cousin, 7 times removed
Owned land just northwest of the Des Plaines River depot where William Thacker was planting potatoes at the time of the tornado.
John A. Kennicott
Husband of 5th Cousin, 7 times removed
Observer of the tornado and the weather conditions of the day. One of three responses to Joseph Henry's letter in the Chicago Democrat.
Allen William Phillips
8th Cousin, 5 times removed
Observer of the tornado and the weather conditions of the day. One of three responses to Joseph Henry's letter in the Chicago Democrat.
John Wentworth
4th Cousin, 7 times removed
Illinois politician and mayor of Chicago a few years after the tornado. Observer of weather conditions the day of the tornado. One of three responses to Joseph Henry's letter in the Chicago Democrat.
The author would like to thank many groups, efforts, and individuals for the information that made this series possible, including FamilySearch, the Chicago Tribune archives, the Library of Congress digital collections, the Page/Wheeler family descendants for sharing family histories via platforms such as FamilySearch, and my BAMS coauthors.
Footnotes
In the end, efforts to contest the Peck estate were unsuccessful. Of Peck's assets, $625,000 (approximately $19.9 million in 2023) was donated for the creation of the Chicago Home for Incurables. This facility eventually evolved to become part of the University of Chicago Medicine.
https://givetomedicine.uchicago.edu/2022/06/a-legacy-of-transforming-care/The first known photograph of Chicago, a "daguerreotype," was of a flood in March 1849 caused by an overflow of the Des Plaines River. Thick ice cover on the Chicago River was broken up by the floodwaters coming through Mud Lake, leading to a combined flow of water and ice that damaged bridges, wharves, ships along the Chicago River. Damage was estimated at about $108,000 (approximately $4.9 million in 2023).
References
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1865: City Comptroller's Monthly Statement of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Chicago for the Month of October 1865. Chicago Daily Tribune. November 15, 1865.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1869: Circuit Court: The Peck Widows. Chicago Daily Tribune. April 21, 1869.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1870: The Law Courts: Result of a Family Misunderstanding - Dividing the Spoils. Chicago Daily Tribune. September 5, 1870.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1871: Real Estate: Plan and Progress of the Desplaines (Ogden) Canal. Chicago Daily Tribune. September 10, 1871.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1873: The Courts: Another Ante-Fire Case. Chicago Daily Tribune. November 15, 1873.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1874: The Courts: A Complicated Land Suit. Chicago Daily Tribune. February 4, 1874.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1885: In General: Mrs. Peck's Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune. January 11, 1885.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1885: A Strange Claimant. Chicago Daily Tribune. January 27, 1885.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1885: The Peck Romance. Chicago Daily Tribune. January 28, 1885.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1885: Clariss Peck: The Alleged Grandson Puts in his Bill Contesting the Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune. September 2, 1885.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1885: The Courts: Who is George Peck. Chicago Daily Tribune. December 8, 1885.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1886: The Domain of Justice: More litigation Concerning the Clarissa Peck Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune. May 29, 1886.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1886: The Courts: Denying that George E. Peck Has Any Legal Claim on the Peck Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune. April 10, 1886.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1887: Jammed Ice and Floods. Chicago Daily Tribune. February 10, 1887.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1888: The Effects of the Recent Rains: The Des Plaines River Transformed into a Raging Torrent. Chicago Daily Tribune. March 30, 1888.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1889: Flood Water and Drainage. Chicago Daily Tribune. August 1, 1889.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1891: The Court Record: Circuit Court - New Suits. Chicago Daily Tribune. August 18, 1891.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1892: Pollutes the Water. Chicago Daily Tribune. May 6, 1892.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1892: Thrown Out of Work: Five Thousand Laborers Idle Owing to the Flood. Chicago Daily Tribune. June 26, 1892.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1893: Is Worse Than Ever - The Condition of the River and its Probable Causes. Chicago Daily Tribune. June 29, 1893.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1894: Canal Walls Break. Chicago Daily Tribune. March 8, 1894.
Chicago Daily Tribune, 1895: Trustees Inspect the Canal. Chicago Daily Tribune. December 22, 1895.
FamilySearch, 2011: Pedigree resource file, entry for Samantha Finch, file 2:2:2:MM4M-81C. FamilySearch, accessed January 2023, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S1RR-V6V.
FamilySearch, 2011: Pedigree resource file, entry for Sara Maria Page, file 2:2:2:MM4M-81C. FamilySearch, accessed January 2023, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S1RR-2M8.
FamilySearch, 2011: Pedigree resource file, entry for Ransom Lee Wheeler, file 2:2:2:MM4M-81C. FamilySearch, accessed January 2023, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S1RR-L1N.
FamilySearch, 2011: Pedigree resource file, entry for Mary Isabelle Wheeler, file 2:2:2:MM4M-81C. FamilySearch, accessed January 2023, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S1RR-PYJ.
Flower, W.L., 1861: Map of Cook County, Illinois. S.H. Burhans & J. Van Vechten, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4103c.la000104/?r=0.557,0.487,0.093,0.057,0
Harvard Herald, 1899: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. April 27, 1899.
Harvard Herald, 1890: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. January 11, 1900.
Harvard Herald, 1890: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. January 18, 1900.
Harvard Herald, 1904: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. January 14, 1904.
Harvard Herald, 1904: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. November 3, 1904.
Harvard Herald, 1904: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. December 8, 1904.
Harvard Herald, 1905: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. January 12, 1905.
Harvard Herald, 1905: Lawrence. Harvard Herald. April 27, 1905.
Harvard Herald, 1905: Demise of a Bright Woman. Harvard Herald. July 20, 1905.
Harvard Independent, 1876: Illinois Items. Harvard Independent. February 16, 1876.
Harvard Independent, 1889: Corruption's Coin. Harvard Independent. October 19, 1889.
Orthoimagery: Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, Illinois State Geological Survey, http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/
Thacker, William. Letter to Arlington Wash about tornado of May 22, 1855. Des Plaines History Center archives.
Vechten, J.V., 1870: Map of Cook County, Illinois. Chas Shober Printing House, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4103c.la000106/?r=0.66,0.489,0.131,0.081,0
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.