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Not bad for a city named after an onion...

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The name "Chicago" comes from the Native American "Checagou," their word for the wild onions that grew in the area. Although Sauk, Mesquakie, and Potawatomi tribes inhabited the greater region around what is now Chicago, they do not seem ever to have settled in the region where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haitian trader, was the first person to settle there permanently, sometime in the 1770s.

In 1803, the United States government built Fort Dearborn in Chicago to protect the link from inland areas to Lake Michigan. During the War of 1812, the fort was destroyed after all of its soldiers and settlers fled and were killed by Native Americans (who were allies of the British). The U.S. government rebuilt Fort Dearborn in 1816, and two years later made Illinois a state. Most newly-made Illinoisians lived in the south of the state near the Mississippi River; Fort Dearborn and the area around it were sparsely populated until the 1830s.

Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833, and as a city in 1837. In 1837, its population was 4,000, and it had begun to grow rapidly with the initiation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which would connect Chicago with the Mississippi River. 20,000 people lived in Chicago by the time the canal was completed in 1848.

In the 1850s, the railroad came to Chicago, which along with the canal promoted continued rapid growth of the city. The Civil War only stimulated Chicago's economic expansion. In 1865, the Union Stockyards opened, bringing together scattered smaller meat operations from all over the city. This was an important development, since it soon made Chicago the major supplier of meat to all parts of the United States.

Immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia flocked to Chicago as the economy kept on booming. Later, immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia followed suit. The population reached 1,000,000 in 1890. As the city spread north, west, and south, its government continually annexed new territory.

In October of 1871, Chicago's Great Fire raged for three days and destroyed about a third of the total area of the city. It killed at least 250 people and left 90,000 homeless. The fire had an enduring effect on Chicago's city planning and development. Its citizens seized the opportunity to rebuild their city, and rebuild it better than before. Blocks of solid, brick buildings replaced the blocks of wooden buildings that had burned; and architects and city planners competed to dictate plans for the city's future growth. 13 years after the fire, William Le Baron Jenney secured Chicago's architectural significance forever, by building the world's first steel-framed skyscraper. This monument to architectural history, the Home Insurance Building, still stands proud and (sort of) tall -- at ten stories, or 138 feet.

In 1893, Chicago celebrated its full recovery from the fire by hosting the World's Columbian Exposition. The Exposition commemorated the 400th anniversary of European arrival in America. Several of Chicago’s important buildings and museums were designed for this Exposition. Daniel Burnham, its chief architect, was also the developer of a Plan of Chicago in 1909, which served as a guide for Chicago's physical expansion in the 20th century. His plan involved the creation of parks along Lake Michigan and a user-friendly street grid.

The elevated railway, or El, began to run in 1892. But Chicago's chief concern in the late 1800s was its industrial workers' fight for better working conditions. Strife between labor groups and the police erupted periodically for about 50 years, starting in the 1870s. The 1886 Haymarket Riot rocked the city, resulting in a number of deaths on both sides. Poor working conditions for many immigrants did not stop the continual influx of new Chicago-dwellers -- often as many as 10,000 a week toward the end of the 19th century.

Next Page: Chicago in the 20th century and today

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