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THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHICAGO

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Contents

LIST OF MAPS..............................................................XISTAFF AND CONSULTANTS.....................................................XIIIACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................XVCONTRIBUTORS..............................................................XXVINTRODUCTION..............................................................XXXMETROPOLITAN CHICAGO REFERENCE MAP........................................1A - Z ENTRIES.............................................................206THE CITY AS ARTIFACT......................................................542TIMELINE AND YEAR PAGES...................................................782MAPS IN COLOR.............................................................909DICTIONARY OF LEADING CHICAGO BUSINESSES, 1820 - 2000.....................955BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY...................................................1001CHICAGO MAYORS............................................................1005CHICAGO METROPOLITAN POPULATION...........................................1047CREDITS...................................................................1053MAP SOURCES...............................................................1057INDEX

Chapter One

Abolitionism. Chicago's antislavery community included a variety of activists and sympathizers, including former slaves and evangelical Christians from northeastern states. Among white Chicagoans, opposition to the extension of slavery into new territory was more popular than abolition. To many whites, abolitionist crusades seemed as much a threat to the Republic as slavery itself.

African American Chicagoans voiced unanimous opposition to slavery but risked reprisal if their actions brought individuals to public notice. Even so, the community, which included many former slaves, took seriously its commitment to UNDERGROUND RAILROAD activity assisting fugitive slaves. John Jones, a prosperous free black tailor, often served as a link between African Americans and white abolitionists. It was to John and Mary Jones's house that John Brown brought his band of militant abolitionists when they came through Chicago in 1859 on their way to Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Abolitionists first organized in Chicago through churches, beginning around 1839 with prayer meetings led by the minister of the First Presbyterian Church. Members of other churches also participated, on the grounds that slaveholding was a sin. Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church also sponsored abolitionist activities, including an organized watch for slave catchers. Institutional support for the abolitionist movement culminated in 1862 when several Chicago churches voted to send a delegation to plead with President Lincoln for an emancipation policy.

Secular abolitionist institutions included the Chicago Anti-Slavery Society and the Chicago Female Anti-Slavery Society. Chicago abolitionists circulated petitions against slavery to be sent to the U.S. Congress. The Western Citizen, a Chicago-based NEWSPAPER, served as the official organ of the Illinois Liberty Party and was the primary abolitionist press for Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Abolitionism enjoyed little success at the ballot box, although one alderman, Ira Miltimore, was elected in 1844, with Liberty Party support. In 1848, the Western Citizen endorsed Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil Party's presidential candidate, as the best chance to elect an antislavery man and found itself in step with a majority of Chicago voters. Thereafter, most Chicago abolitionists who voted became a small, radical portion of the free-soil, anti-Nebraska, and Republican Party coalitions.

Linda J. Evans

See also: Civil Rights Movements; Fenianism; Politics; Whigs

Further reading: Gliozzo, Charles A. "John Jones: A Study of a Black Chicagoan." Illinois Historical Journal 80.3 (Autumn 1987). Mahoney, Olivia. "Black Abolitionists." Chicago History 20.1-2 (Spring-Summer 1991).

Accounting. Chicago's emergence as a major center of professional accountancy began during the 1890s. Initially, Chicago businesses relied on semiprofessional bookkeepers who were usually ill-prepared to develop innovative responses to the bewildering measurement problems associated with new technologies, legal contracts, transactions, management practices, or organizational forms.

A major focus of the early drive to professionalize accounting centered on the founding in 1897 of a state professional association that later became the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants. Public accountants provided three distinct services: (1) certification of financial statements; (2) consulting services concerning accounting systems; and (3) tax compliance and planning services after the passage of the federal corporate excise tax (1909) and the federal corporate income tax (1913). The Illinois licensing law (1903) was similar to New York's-both required an examination and practical experience-but the Illinois law provided for reciprocal licensing for practitioners certified in other jurisdictions. Besides encouraging more competitive markets, reciprocity facilitated the building of branch offices and interstate practices.

A unique aspect of Chicago's leading accounting practices was the importance of consulting. The central role of consulting was illustrated by the experience of two early public accounting firms that eventually grew to be giants, Arthur Andersen & Co. and McKinsey & Co. The initial impetus came from a plethora of small- and medium-sized businesses in the Chicago area whose managements were often skilled in either manufacturing or marketing but were not knowledgeable about finance and accounting.

To help clients overcome these weaknesses, Arthur Andersen created a new service in the 1920s known as financial and industrial "investigations." These were specialized studies employing accounting analysis to evaluate markets, organizational structures, plants, or products. Besides assisting business operators, they were also used by bankers in planning mergers or new securities issues. In 1932, this proficiency led to Andersen's selection as the monitor for the financial restoration of Samuel Insull's bankrupt utilities empire. Beginning in the 1960s, Andersen Consulting registered strong, sustained growth because of the advent of new opportunities attributable to the use of electronic data processing. Under the leadership of Leonard Spacek, the firm assisted clients in converting from manual-mechanical to computer-based accounting systems. In 1989, Arthur Andersen & Co. elected to spin off Andersen Consulting, later renamed Accenture, which had grown to become the world's largest consulting practice. The remaining firm, known simply as Andersen, lost its accounting business suddenly in 2002 because of its association with a financial fraud scandal at Enron corporation, one of its clients.

McKinsey & Co. was formed by James O. McKinsey, a CPA and University of Chicago professor. McKinsey's pioneering Budgetary Control (1922) established the intellectual underpinning for a service specialization that supported the formation of his firm three years later and eventually drew it into consultancy. Although budgeting was a practice then thought primarily relevant to the fund accounting procedures of governmental enterprises, McKinsey demonstrated...