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Gurdon S. Hubbard, one of the stalwarts in the development of
the state, came to Illinois as an apprentice with the American Fur Co., to
learn the Indian ways and dialects and to establish stations for trading
with them, according to a study by Robert Wright, based on research be
Earle Aston Stilton of Chicago.
Hubbard also left his imprint on Danville and Vermilion
County. By 1828, while he was living in Danville, Hubbard had bought
out the entire Illinois unit of the Astor company and was known throughout
the state.
Presently the fur business began to wane, so Hubbard began to
haul produce and pork to the garrison of Fort Dearborn and the growing
village around it. The route he followed became known as the Hubbard
Trace, which the present Dixie Highway parallels closely.
Hubbard started the route in 1822, but first ran it south to
old Fort Vincennes, Indiana. When he extended it northward, it came
into Chicago by the present Vincennes Avenue and on into the present State
Street, thereby reaching Fort Dearborn, which stood along the Chicago
River at the present intersection of Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue.
While living in Danville, Hubbard performed one of his
greatest feats. He was in Chicago on business during the Winnebago
War when word came from friendly Indians that an attack on the fort was
imminent. He offered to ride to Danville and raise the Vermilion
County Militia battalion.
He left Chicago on horseback at 4 p.m. in the rain. By
midnight he had covered the 80 miles to his Iroquois post, where he
obtained food and a remount. At Sugar Creek the horse refused the
ford. Hubbard waited until daylight, saw that a huge fallen tree
blocked the way, and swam the flood-swollen stream. He shouted his
news at Denmark (now covered by the waters of Lake Vermilion) and at
Danville, then rode two miles further to another settlement. he had
covered 140 miles in 20 hours.
The next day Hubbard, with 50 armed men on horseback, started
to Chicago's rescue. It took four days to make the trip. On
arrival, he was made captain of defense; but the anticipated attack failed
to materialize. In a day or two word came from Gov. Cass that the
war was over.
In 1834, Hubbard moved permanently to what he described as
"that smaller town up on the lake." For most of the next
52 years of his life, he was to be identified with almost every
progressive action of the growing city.
He built the city's first warehouse at the corner of what is
now LaSalle and Wacker Drive. It was all of brick and so large that
it was dubbed "Hubbard's Folly." But the young businessman
knew what he was doing. Soon, with two partners, he formed a trading
company and established a line of lake steamers, serving Buffalo and the
upper Great Lakes.
In a corner of his second warehouse, Hubbard established the
first bank in Chicago. It was here, too, that the first insurance
policy in the city was written.
In 1835, on his own responsibility, he ordered the first fire
engine from the East, underwriting its cost. During the same year,
he and his friends built the first modern hotel, the Lake House, a
three-story brick building at the corner of what is now Rush and E. North
Water Sts., the block presently occupied by the north annex of the Wrigley
Building.
It was also Hubbard, who, as a member of the State
Legislature from Vermilion County, initiated plans for the Illinois and
Michigan Canal. He persisted in promoting his bill until it passed in
1836. The canal was not completed until 1848. It linked the
Chicago river with the Illinois and opened the way to trade between the
city and New Orleans. Hubbard turned the first spade of dirt.
He became wealthy, largely through land speculation, but was
made virtually bankrupt by the fire of 1871. Meanwhile he
helped organize the St. James Episcopal Church, ad been elected an
alderman, had helped raise funds to build the Wigwam (where Lincoln was
nominated for President) and had seen combat in the Civil War.
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