Under Every Tombstone: THE FATHER OF HOWARD STREET

Back in 2012 I told you the story of the man Howard Street in Chicago was named after: Howard J. Ure.

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2012/11/he-was-howard-of-howard-street-howard-j.html

Recently, Mike Kelly, the world's greatest researcher, sent me a selection from The Howard News newspaper from July 10, 1930 with the following headline:

Although I lived within walking distance of Howard Street for most of my life, I had never heard of C. W. Ferguson, or of anyone being called "The Father of Howard Street." I realized that he would probably be a good subject for this blog, and I was right. So this month I will tell you the story of Charles W. Ferguson, the Father of Howard Street.

Charles William Ferguson was born April 3, 1870 in North English, Iowa to Rev. Stephen Robert Ferguson (1845-1924) and Louvenia Elizabeth Thomas (1850-1933). Stephen and Louvenia had married in Iowa in 1869. They were the parents of seven children: Charles William (1870-1930), Luella Helen/Mrs. Edwin W. Lanham (1872-1910), Mary Elizabeth/Mrs. George L. Hess (1877-1963), Freddie (1880-1887), Robert W. (1881-1900), Purlie (1882-1882) and Donald Vincent (1886-1937). Stephen Ferguson was a farmer and a Methodist minister by trade.

The first time we see Charles W. Ferguson is in the 1870 US Census. The Ferguson Family lived in South English, English River Township, County of Keokuk, State of Iowa. The family consisted of: Robert (25 years old), Livinia (sic) (20), and Charles W. (3/12). Robert Ferguson listed his occupation as "Farmer," Livinia was "Keeping House." They reported that they owned no Real Estate but they did report $565.00 in Personalty ($13,659.00 in today's funds).

The 1880 US Census finds the Ferguson Family still in Iowa - but this time in Chester Township, Poweshiek County, Iowa. The family now consists of: S.R. Ferguson (34 years old), Louvinia (30), Chas. W. (10), Luella H. (7), Mary L. (3) and "Babe" (2/12). Charles' father listed his occupation as "M.E. Clergyman." Louvinia is "Keeping House," and the older children are "At School."

The 1885 Iowa Census shows the Fergusons now living in Cedar Township, Washington County, Iowa.

In about 1888 Charles Ferguson enrolled at Cornell Academy, then four years later at Cornell College, in Mount Vernon, Iowa - not to be confused with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Now a liberal-arts institution, at that time Cornell College was mostly a seminary for the Methodist Church. It looks like Charles was considering following his father into the Methodist ministry.

He did take time off from school in 1892 and 1893 to take a job as a Guard at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In later years he described his time at Cornell in this way: I had to work my way through Cornell. I tended fires in the dormitories and was the caretaker of the president's vineyard. I also operated a lunch stand at the edge of the campus and raised my own vegetables for the stand. Before dawn I was out to weed my garden and hoe the plants in the first glimpse of the sun.

This increased his revenue, but he needed it. He related that by the time he graduated from Cornell in 1898 he had assumed the responsibilities of providing for a wife and daughter.

On December 29, 1896 Charles Ferguson had married Lucinda "Lucy" Corbin (1878-1960) in Knoxville, Illinois. The groom was twenty-six; the bride was eighteen.

Lucinda "Lucy" Corbin was born February 14, 1878 in Illinois. Her father was Edwin A. Corbin (1845-1915) and her mother was Elizabeth Utter (1855-1915). They married in 1880. They had four children: Lucy (1877-1960), Lee (1883-1973) and twins Hortense/Mrs. Kenneth C. Hawkins (1889-1943) and Harold (1889-1914). Edwin Corbin was a Lawyer by trade.

Charles and Lucy were living in Mount Vernon, Iowa when their first child was born. On September 22, 1898 they were blessed with a daughter they named Dorothy Maye Ferguson. They had three children altogether: Dorothy Maye (1898-1966), Robert Edwin (1901-1937), and Stephen Bentley (1904-1979).

Note: At birth, Stephen was named Stephen Bentley Ferguson. Up through the 1920 US Census he continued to be referred to as "Stephen B. Ferguson." Sometime later he started calling himself "Stephen Corbin Ferguson," Corbin being his mother's maiden name.

Dorothy Ferguson married several times.

1915: John C. Schmidt, Jr.

1923: Edir Donald Hargroeves

1931: Charles A. Jardine

1937: John C. Schmidt, Jr.

After graduation Charles Ferguson took on his first "real" job - the rehabilitation of a country newspaper. Neither history nor extensive research has revealed the name of the newspaper. The paper's only chance for survival was to collect on its overdue subscriptions. None of the farmers had any available funds to pay their overdue bills so Ferguson borrowed a truck and tooks cords of firewood, bushels of corn, eggs, chickens, or anything else that could be traded or turned into money.

The 1900 US Census dated June 6, 1900 finds William and Lucy Ferguson living with William's parents in Albion Township, Parkersburg, Iowa. The family consisted of: S. R. Ferguson (54 years old), Louvenia (49), Charles W. (30), Luella (27), Mary (23), Donald V. (13), daughter-in-law Lucinda (21), and granddaughter Dorothy (2). William listed his occupation as "Traveling," and traveling he was.

After saving the newspaper, Ferguson moved on - selling books for a while but then he came to Chicago in the second half of 1900 and organized Ferguson's Dixie Jubilee, six African-American singers in a program of the spirituals and folk songs of the South.

This was so successful it evolved into the Chautauqua Managers' Association, an important booking agency for lyceum attractions. Ferguson was President, and handled the bookings for over 150 attractions. Former President William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Billy Sunday and the great Houdini were just some of the people that Ferguson represented. Lucy Corbin Ferguson had originally been a lyceum bureau organizer - perhaps that is where Charles Ferguson met his future wife.

Chicago Tribune - 10 Oct 1906

History does not record what first attracted Charles Ferguson to the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. It had been around for a long time - since Phillip Rogers from Ireland purchased 1,600 acres between 1830 and 1856 but the northernmost part - up toward the Evanston border had not been developed and this was the area Ferguson felt had so much potential. The Rogers Park Women's Club opened the first library in 1894 and this turned out to be the first piece of real estate that Ferguson bought in Rogers Park after the Women's Club had outgrown it. He was a "flipper" before the concept had even been dreamt of. He bought the cottage, remodeled it and sold it. He then bought several more, renovated, remodeled and sold them. Then he bought Birchwood Subdivision, between Rogers and Howard, Ashland and Greenview.

The Birchwood Subdivision - Rogers to Howard and Ashland to Greenview

It was a success and then he bought the land called "North of Howard" - the area from Howard Street north to Calvary Cemetery. Others looked and only saw the cemetery and said nobody would go there but the dead. Ferguson instead saw the great future population that would come there at the end of the elevated line where there was sunshine, open spaces and the lake for their children.

North of Howard

Howard Street is the border between Chicago and Evanston, so technically the land North of Howard that Ferguson bought was part of Evanston, not part of Chicago. This was unsatisfactory to Ferguson. In those days with its conservative government and one of the strictest zoning codes in the country, Evanston (rightly) earned the reputation of being very hard for developers to deal with. Charles W. Ferguson was used to doing business in "one hand washes the other" Chicago. Something had to be done, and Ferguson set out to do it. He figured that the best way to proceed was to convince Evanston that the land North of Howard had little value. It was already referred to as "No Man's Land" and had not had streets laid out, nor utilities brought into the area. It was raw prairie and Ferguson began his project in 1912 to have Chicago annex the 80 acres from the Howard "L" Station east to the lake, and from Howard north to Calvary Cemetery.

In November of 1912, Ferguson as president of the Birchwood Improvement Association asked the City of Evanston to locate a site for a school in the No Man's Land parcel to meet the needs of the rising population of the nearby community. In addition, they asked Evanston for police and fire protection, and that paved streets, sidewalks, sewers, water, gas and electrical infrastructure be installed. Perhaps due to the large number of German settlers in this area the parcel began to be referred to as "the Germania Addition," and then as just "Germania."

The controversy came to a head over the delivery of mail. The few residents of Germania at first asked Chicago for mail service and were refused because Germania was not part of Chicago, it was part of Evanston. Then they asked for Rural Free Delivery but were refused because there was no RFD route in the area. Then the residents began using Evanston as their return address. Mail addressed to Evanston got as far as the Evanston post office where it was held for pickup since there were no postal routes in Germania. When the residents asked that their mail be delivered to them like it is to everyone else, the Assistant Evanston Postmaster, Margaret Hermes refused. She said, "This Germania place has appeared since our postal routes were mapped out. It is way out of the way of our carriers. It has no street signs. Besides, we do not have enough carriers (to add Germania to our territory)."

The population of Germania also had problems with the phone company. If they called Chicago, it was a 10 cent toll call. When they called Evanston it was also a ten cent toll call. It was even worse when someone tried to call into Germania. They were transferred around all over the place. They were shifted to Evanston, then back to Chicago, to the local exchanges then to the toll department. Finally they are transferred to the Rogers Park Exchange, then to a Birchwood sub-exchange. The Chicago Tribune reported that one must really want to speak to someone badly if they were willing to to go through all the rigamarole necessary to speak to a Germania resident.

Evanston seemed more than willing to let Germania go. Ald. James Turnock of Evanston's 4th Ward said, "Take 'em in. They've pestered us for lights and policemen and firemen and schools and all sorts of things. We gave 'em two street lights and a cop and they still aren't satisfied. Let Chicago have 'em."

Under Illinois state law in effect at that time, a section of one city could separate from the city and merge with an adjoining city with two-thirds approval of the City Councils of both cities.

On May 6, 1913 the Evanston City Council voted to let Germania go "only if the sale of intoxicating beverages was forbidden in Germania in perpetuity." Remember, Evanston was founded by tee-totaling Methodists and was the national headquarters of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Illinois passed a law effective July 1, 1913 that provided that the city councils of both effected cities could vote approval if one-half of the voters and one-half of the property owners of the district petitioned for annexation. Each of the city councils would have to approve the annexation petition by a two-thirds majority.

The matter bounced back and forth between Evanston and Chicago for several years. Charles Ferguson then wrote a 12 page booklet: An Evanston Problem, and mailed a copy to every Evanston voter.

Finally the separation of Germania was approved first by the City of Evanston and on Monday, February 8, 1915, by Chicago’s City Council. Germania was now officially part of Chicago and the liquor prohibition was gone. Now Charles W. Ferguson was ready to make a lot of money. He bought and sold over 300 parcels of real estate in the district. By 1922, a local newspaper described Germania as the “busiest spot in the city from a building viewpoint.”

Where was Charles Ferguson living while all this was happening? All over the place. I was unable to find Charles W. Ferguson or his family in the 1910 US Census. Records show these addresses as where Ferguson was living during the period from 1911 to 1916:

1911: 1615 Farwell, Chicago:

1615 W. Farwell, Chicago

1913: 6733 Bosworth, Chicago - a school occupies that parcel today

1914-1915: 133 Shurtz Court, Evanston (now 7633 N. Bosworth, Chicago) Some sources spell the street name "Shurz."

133 Shurtz Court, Chicago

In 1916, Charles Ferguson built a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house containing 2,154 square feet of area at 1542 Juneway Terrace, Chicago, in the heart of the "North of Howard" neighborhood he loved so much:

1542 W. Juneway Terrace, Chicago, IL

Charles W. Ferguson's next big project was the construction of a theater on Howard Street. It would be the first commercial building built on Howard Street and established it as a business district. You may remember from the article I wrote about Howard Ure that the land used to build the theater had originally been part of the Ure Family's dairy farm.

To design his theater Ferguson hired noted architect Henry L. Newhouse. Newhouse has designed twenty-one theaters in the Chicago area, mostly for the Ascher Brothers theater chain. Unlike many of Ferguson's other projects, the theater was not built on land that was part of Germania - the theater was built on the south side of Howard, from Marshfield west to the Howard El Station. The theater was built with commercial spaces on the first floor and two floors of apartments above.

Here is the architect's rendition of the Howard Theater - or as they preferred to spell it the Howard Theatre:

The Howard Theatre opened for business on May 4, 1917 (some sources say May 4, 1918). To say the the building was ablaze with lights would be an understatement. Here is a photo of the building at night, shortly after it opened:

You can see the vertical sign on the Norshore Theater in the background on the other side of the elevated tracks.

Charles Ferguson's son Robert said that the Howard Theatre would always be a monument to his father.

The building still exists, though no longer as a theater (or theatre). In 1999 the auditorium was razed and only the commercial spaces and the apartments remain. Here is a recent photo:

The 1920 US Census found the Ferguson Family living in the house Charles built at 1542 W. Juneway Terrace in Chicago. The family consisted of: C.W. (49 years old), Lucy (39), Dorothy (22), Robert (18) and Stephen (15). Charles listed his occupation as "Real Estate Salesman." They of course, all could read and write and speak English. Charles and Lucy were married, the boys were single, and Dorothy reported that she was divorced (from John C. Schmidt, Jr. who she had married in 1915). Charles said that they owned their home and that it did not have a mortgage. Charles' parents, Rev. Stephen and Louvenia lived just up the street from them at 1500 W. Juneway Terrace in a house that Charles had built in 1916.

Very often people who work as hard as Charles W. Ferguson worked don't have a lot of time for their family. Over time this can lead one of the married partners to stray. Unfortunately this was splashed all over the newspapers in August of 1922 when Charles W. Ferguson filed for divorce from his wife Lucy. According to Ferguson, Lucy had been engaging in an illicit love affair with Herschel L. Bradshaw. Lucy was forty-four years old, her paramour was twenty-seven.

The first notice of this was in the Waukegan (IL) News from August 10, 1922:

I have personally been to Fox Lake numerous times but I have never seen the infamous "love bungalow." Of course once the news of the scandal got out, all of the newspapers were quick to pick it up. This is from the Chicago Tribune, also from August 10, 1922:

Here is a photo of Herschel L. Bradshaw from the Philadelphia Enquirer of September 5, 1922:

When he registered for the draft in 1917 he was described as "medium height, slender build, gray-blue eyes and auburn hair." He was not bald and had no noticeable physical defects.

Further details were available in the Waukegan (IL) News-Sun on August 11, 1922:

The Lake County (IL) register went into even more detail when they wrote about the triangle on August 12, 1922:

By November 20, 1922 Lucy Ferguson decided she had had enough of her illicit affair and vowed that she would "never leave" her husband as reported in the Chicago Tribune of November 21, 1922:

Charles Ferguson's father The Rev. Stephen R. Ferguson died July 13, 1924 in Chicago. I was unable to locate an obituary in any of the Chicago newspapers; here is one from the Davenport-Rock Island-Moline Daily Times from July 18, 1924:

He was buried in the North English Cemetery in North English, Iowa:

Charles W. Ferguson did not limit his efforts to Rogers Park. While all of his real estate business was going on, he was also one of the organizers and a vice president of the Phillip State Bank. Ferguson's son Stephen Ferguson was also a developer. He was developing 1800 acres in swampy Florida when he got malaria and had to return to Chicago for his convalescence. His father Charles stepped in and completed the Florida development. Charles Ferguson also rebuilt his sister Helen F. Lanham's hotel in Belle Glade, Florida after is was destroyed by a hurricane, and he rebuilt his brother Donald's gas station also in Belle Glade.

The 1930 US Census found what remained of the Charles Ferguson Family still living in the home he built at 1542 W. Juneway Terrace in Chicago. The family now consisted of just Charles and Lucy. Charles said he was sixty years old and Lucy said she was fifty-eight. They owned their home which they said was worth $20,000.00 ($372,000.00 in today;s funds). Just a FYI - the house is currently valued at $1,037,000.00. They did own a radio. Charles listed his occupation as "Real Estate Broker."

Charles William Ferguson died in Chicago on July 8, 1930. He was sixty years old. Here is his obituary from the Chicago Tribune of July 9, 1930: