shaft marks the last resting place of this worthy pioneer, while a memorial panel in St. James' Episcopal church serves to further perpetuate memory.

his

Since his death rare oil paintings of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, which Mr. Hickling had purchased while traveling abroad,

have been placed in the historical society rooms by Mrs. Hickling, in compliance with the previously expressed wish of her husband, and to his own generous gifts to that institution she has added a handsome contribution.

HOWARD LOUIS CONARD

THE early settlers of Chicago, with practical unanimity, bear testimony to the fact that in its infancy it was by no means the most promising of western towns. Considered as a place of residence, it was anything but an attractive location, and there were times when the most enthusiastic believers in its future almost despaired of its ever becoming a trade centre of any consequence. Hundreds of men who visited the town in those days, seeking profitable investments in western realty, or looking for homes or business locations, made up their minds that it would be a waste of their time and energies to stop in Chicago, and they passed along to other settlements, which. were better known to the eastern public at that time than they have ever been since.

It was only the class of men who seem to be endowed by nature with remarkable foresight, who could look beyond the hardships and inconveni

ences which they were compelled to undergo at that period, to the unrivaled commercial and industrial prosperity which was to follow in the near future. Only those men who were possessed of rare good judg ment in matters of business, who were able to outline with a considerable degree of precision the channels. through which a commerce, at that time undeveloped, was to flow in later years, and who noted in addition the point at which these channels must converge, had sufficient faith in the future of Chicago to become identified with it permanently prior to 1840.

No small number of these men even found it necessary, for a time, to seek more profitable fields, not for investments in realty, but for engaging in the particular line of business or employment which afforded themselves and their families a livelihood.

There were other towns and settlements in the west which afforded,

from time to time, more profitable employment to mechanics and laborers, and better opportunities for merchants and tradesmen, than Chicago, and some of those who left the little town by the lake side in those days, have been finding fault with themselves ever since for not taking advantage of their early opportunities for building up fortunes.

As a rule, however, the men who came to Chicago between 1835 and 1840, who had a genius for the accumulation of wealth, and who were adepts in the conduct of business enterprises, only absented themselves from the place temporarily, if they did so at all, and always clung to the idea that it was ultimately to become the centre of the trade and commerce of the northwest.

To the class of pioneers who had this sort of confidence in the future of Chicago, John D. Jennings, one of the millionaires of the city, who died in 1889, belonged. His acquaintance with Chicago began at the most inauspicious period of its early existence. The monetary panic of 1837, which had produced general business depression throughout the United States, had had a particularly disastrous effect upon western trade, and when Mr. Jennings arrived in Chicago that year, with a small stock of merchandise which he had purchased in New York, he ́found it necessary to seek another location for profitable business of the kind in which he proposed to engage. Even under

these discouraging circumstances he was impressed with the idea that the village which had failed to furnish a market for his wares was destined to become a city of consequence, and he became a property owner and taxpayer here, while carrying on the business of merchandising elsewhere. A few years later he became a resident of the city, with the business interests of which he was so prominently identified from that time to the date of his death.

John Drake Jennings was born at Benson, Rutland county, Vermont, April 10th, 1816. The family is of English origin, but that branch to which Mr. Jennings belonged took root in what is now New York State, in colonial days, half a century or more before the American revolution. His great grandfather, Samuel Jennings, whose will, bearing date of 1795, is on file in the town of Windsor, was a large land-owner in New York State, and his grandfather and father contributed their full share to the development of its resources. His father, who was also named Samuel Jennings, was one of the early settlers of Lockport, New York, and built the first frame building in that city. This building was known as the Lockport Hotel, and Samuel Jennings himself was the proprietor of the famous old hostelery from 1820 to 1832.

It was at Lockport that John D. Jennings received his education, which was of the character deemed

necessary in those days to fit a young man for a business career. When he was eighteen years of age he began business on his own account, by going to Buffalo, where he engaged, in a small way at first, but later on a somewhat extended scale, in the real estate business. At the end of two years he had succeeded so well in this line of business that he concluded to seek a wider field, and with this object in view he went to New York city, where he remained one year. This brought him down to 1837, when the financial crash paralyzed for a time everything in the way of speculation, and put a stop to investments in realty.

Finding it necessary to turn his attention to some other kind of business, Mr. Jennings concluded to come west, and fixed upon Chicago as the place where he would locate. Merchandising in this western town might, it seemed to him, be engaged in with fair returns, and he purchased a stock of goods, which he brought with him to Chicago. His disappointment in this connection has already been alluded to. When he reached his destination he found himself in a town suffering severely from the "hard times." The few people who were here at that time were poor. Their earnings were scant, and they were in no condition to either extend liberal patronage to merchants, or pay promptly for what they bought. After looking over the field Mr. Jennings decided to locate his store else

where, and moved on to Cass county, Michigan, where he began business in a country town.

After a time he turned the management of this establishment over to a brother, who had accompanied him to the west, and spent a considerable portion of his time in Chicago, where he began making investments in real estate. In 1838 he returned to New York State, and was married to Miss Hannah W. Brizse, a daughter of Stephen Brizse, of Lockport, one of the distinguished pioneers of that city.

Returning with his wife to Michigan, he made his home in Cass county until 1843, when he removed to Chicago. During the summer of that year he determined to erect a “store building," as the business blocks were called in those days, and as he was satisfied the business of the city must soon extend beyond the narrow limits which it then occupied, he began the erection of the proposed building on Lake street, between the lake shore and State street, in what was looked upon as the finest resident portion of the city. This was the first business house opened in this locality, and some of Mr. Jennings' neighbors were inclined to look upon it as an unwarranted invasion of a residence neighborhood. In a comparatively short time, however, all were compelled to make room for an expanding commerce, and this locality is now one of the busiest portions of the city. At a later date Mr. Jen