Tablet presented to
historical society
Voices
from afar off call us
To
pause and listen.*
*Inscription on bronze tablet, rendered by Mrs. Julia
Bracken Wendt, and presented to the Chicago Historical Society by Mrs. Hubbard
shortly before her death in 1909. Giant oak trees frame Gurdon Hubbard’s
portrait, in bas-relief. Perhaps these
oak trees suggest the very day when a young Gurdon Hubbard first arrived in the
Prairie State. Oak trees can also
be read as a symbol of strength and endurance.
Happy 200 Years, Illinois!
Illinois’
Bicentennial celebration can be launched with the history of one man: Gurdon
Saltonstall Hubbard, born 1802 in Vermont and buried 1886 in Graceland
Cemetery.
Gurdon
Hubbard first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818; the year Illinois became a
state. He was sixteen and newly
employed as a clerk for the American Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor.
When
young Gurdon and the fur company’s “brigade” of twelve boats landed at Chicago
that fall, he climbed a tree to better view the prairie “through the oak woods.”
He later wrote, “The waving grass, intermingling with a rich profusion of wild
flowers, was the most beautiful sight I have ever gazed upon.” A herd of wild
deer and a pair of red foxes gave “animation to the scene” and looking north he
saw the “whitewashed buildings” of Fort Dearborn.[i]
In reading
Hubbard’s life story, we can envision Chicago and Illinois in their youth and more
fully comprehend their transformations, from settlement and frontier to great
metropolis and flourishing state.
From
our 2018 vantage, it is both difficult and enchanting to imagine Gurdon’s many thrilling
adventures: viewing the untouched prairie; portaging Mud Lake; visiting the
American Bottom (southern Illinois land along the Mississippi); trading furs with Indians; forging trails in the wilderness; operating
as pioneer meat packer, plus an impressive number of other commercial and civic pursuits.
Fairly
well known history is his establishment of a trading route from Vincennes,
Indiana to Chicago, through Danville that on old maps was named “Hubbard’s
Trail.” Hubbard regularly worked
this route in the 1820s and claimed that he once walked seventy-five miles in
one day. For this, Indians who
knew him called him “Pa-pa-ma-ta-be” which means “The Swift Walker.”[ii]
Less
known, yet particularly consequential to Illinois, is the role Hubbard played
in the building of the Illinois Michigan Canal.
As
a representative in the 1832-33 Illinois General Assembly in Vandalia, Hubbard
introduced a bill for the construction of the Illinois Michigan Canal, which was
ultimately defeated. At every meeting
of the legislature thereafter, he continued to urge passage of the canal bill until
it successfully passed in the session of 1835-36.
At
one point, in the planning of the canal, the location of its northern terminus
was debated. Consideration was given to connecting the canal to the Calumet
River rather than to the south branch of the Chicago River. On this question,
according to Judge Henry W. Blodgett (1821 – 1905), Illinois is indebted to Mr.
Hubbard. The judge explained:
“After
hearing the arguments upon this point, Mr. Hubbard took a map and called the
attention of the members to the fact that the mouth of the Calumet River is
within a few hundred yards of the Indiana state line, and suggested that it was
expected that wherever the canal terminated a great city would grow up, and
pertinently asked whether it was desirable that the coming city, at the
terminus of the canal, should be as much of it in the State of Indiana as in
Illinois, when the entire expense of constructing the canal would devolve upon
Illinois. This practical business view of the question settled it, and the
mouth of the Chicago was made the terminus instead of the mouth of the Calumet.
So
you will see that the State of Illinois is indebted to the sagacity of Gurdon
S. Hubbard for locating this great city where Illinois gets the principal
benefit of it.”[iii]
When
digging the canal ceremoniously commenced July 4, 1836, Gurdon Hubbard spade up
one of the first shovelfuls of earth.
Original marker 1834, replaced 1936
Memorials
to Hubbard are few. In downtown
Chicago, we have the portrait tablet at the Chicago History Museum as well as Hubbard Street. * When “Hubbard’s Trail”
became the basis for the first state road, today State Route 1, historical
markers were placed to commemorate its history. On Chicago’s north side, we have Hubbard’s tomb in Graceland
Cemetery, Section D, Lot 50.
Through Gurdon Hubbard we better know and understand
our great city and state. Hubbard
“was able to adapt himself to civilization, and to infuse into others something
of the fire which burned within him.... If we have moved at a rapid pace, it is
perhaps because that pace was set by Pa-pa-ma-ta-be, ‘The Swift Walker.’”[iv]
Bibliography
Hamilton, Henry Raymond. The
Epic of Chicago, Chicago: Willett, Clark & Co., 1932.
Hubbard, Gurdon. The
Autobiography of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, Chicago: R.R. Donnelley &
Sons Co., 1911
[i] Hubbard, The Autobiography, 32 - 33
[ii] Hubbard, The Autobiography, 142.
[iii] Hamilton, The Epic of Chicago, 346-347.
[iv] Hubbard, The Autobiography, x.
* I’m assuming the tablet is still in the museum’s
collection. I have submitted an
inquiry via email, however it may take several weeks to receive an answer.
By Krista August, author of Giants in the Park: A Guide to Portrait Statues in Chicago’s Lincoln
Park.
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