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The Ogden Archive
Since as early as the 17
th
Century, the area southwest of the tip of Lake Michigan has appeared
on maps as
“Chikagou.”
The word is the French version of the Miami-Illinois word
“
shikaakwa
,” named for the leek or wild onion plants that were indigenous to the area. While the
French explored the area for over a century, the first non-native settler didn’t arrive until Jean
Baptiste du Sable built a farm near the mouth of the Chicago River in the 1780s. The first
American presence came with the establishment of the Ft. Dearborn military post in 1803.
Though the post was destroyed by Native Americans during the War of 1812, it was rebuilt in
1818 and used well into the 1830s, which is when this collection begins.
In 1830 a surveyor by the name of John Thompson created and filed a plat to officially
recognize a new municipality to be known as Chicago. On August 12, 1833 the town of Chicago
was incorporated with a population of 350 people. The following year a schooner from New
York became the first to enter the harbor of Chicago, foreshadowing a host of Yankee
entrepreneurs ready to invest in Chicago as an emerging transportation hub for commercial and
industrial goods.
One such investor was Charles Butler, who in 1833 visited the newly incorporated town of
Chicago with his friend Arthur Bronson. They stayed at the Green Tree Tavern where they met
James Kinzie. Two years later, Butler spent $100,000, on 50 acres of local land, to be converted
into 1,000 city lots. He did not reside in Chicago, but instead he sent his new brother-in-law
William B. Ogden to oversee the development of his investments. Over the majority of Ogden’s
lifetime, he became a well-known figure who played an integral role in developing Chicago
from a town of less than 1,000 to a booming metropolis built on its ability to fully utilize its
geographic position to become a hub of transportation for a growing country.
This collection begins with the only known copy of a manuscript map of one of the earliest
subdivisions within the town of Chicago, prepared for its proprietor, James Kinzie. The bulk of
the collection then focuses on manuscript survey maps of Chicago’s near north side from North
Water Street to as far north as Belmont Avenue. The majority of the maps were made between
the 1840s and 1880s providing nice bookends to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. There is a
fabulous group of pre-fire working maps for the Chicago Dock and Canal Company that show
plans to manipulate the shoreline to create more docking canals and shipping basins in order to
accommodate the growing demand to import raw materials and other goods from the east.
One thing that nearly all of these maps have in common is the presence of William B. Ogden,
which is why we have elected to name this collection, “The Ogden Archive.” In one way or
another, William B. Ogden’s presence can be seen or interpreted on nearly every map in this
collection, whether he played the role of attorney for Charles Butler, a proprietor for himself, or
a partner in the Chicago Dock and Canal Company. Even after his death he is noted in maps
produced according to his last will and testament, and as a namesake of the Ogden, Sheldon &
Co. This collection of one of-a-kind maps well illustrates the life work of William B. Ogden, a
man who can arguably be touted as the father of the city of Chicago.