Around Chicago and Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is the largest lake completely within the United States. The Great Lakes are the major geographical feature of the Midwest, and are in turn an important part of the Midwest’s being America’s Heartland, both geographical and economic. The scene of much of the country’s industrial development from the days of the Northwest Ordinance (which predated the Constitution of 1787) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the region wealth-creating abilities were a driving force behind the success of the Warringtons and others.

A 1900 chart of Lake Michigan. We’ve highlighted some of the places that are especially important to our narrative. At the bottom of the lake is Chicago, the metropolis whose explosive growth was so important to the Warrington family. In 1890 the city had just passed a million inhabitants; at one point it was the fifth largest city in the world.

Mackinaw City during the 1860’s. At the opposite end of Lake Michigan, every ship entering or leaving the lake had to pass by the city and through the Straits of Mackinac. The Straits beckoned Chicago yachtsmen for a lake-long race, but it wasn’t until 1898 that the Chicago Yacht Club first organised such a race.

Winter Quarters: the Civil War was fought far from Lake Michigan’s shores, but many of her sons would serve in the Union army. A sketch by George’s brother William H. of winter quarters during that conflict.

Henry Warrington came to Chicago in 1842; ten years later, he started the Vulcan Iron Works. All the while he raised his family. Henry had four sons to reach adulthood. Below is his son Samuel Warrington, who died at age 22, a reminder that the steed of mortality galloped more quickly then than now.

At home in Chicago: from right to left, George, his mother Isabella MacArthur Warrington, and Minnie. All of them are under the watchful gaze of Isabella’s magnificent Victorian portrait. Scanned directly from the glass negative.

Partying, Victorian style. Looks more like a family gathering.

George Warrington’s House in Chicago. The 1900 Census listed his house at 1706 Kenmore Avenue (now 4303 Kenmore Avenue,) in the Buena Park area. There were four occupants of the house: George, his wife Minnie, their ten-year old son Chester, and the servant Julia Carlson. One thing that is striking about these photographs is how “suburban” they look; the American ideal of what a nice neighbourhood looks like hasn’t changed that much, even though places like Chicago have urbanised to the point where such neighbourhoods are unattainable to the vast majority of people.

Partying, Victorian style. It has the look of a New Year’s celebration.

The house at 127 (later 1840) Park Avenue, Chicago, where Henry Warrington raised his family. This is a sketch of the house by William H. Warrington dated around 1863-4.

The house at 127 (later 1840) Park Avenue, Chicago, where Henry Warrington raised his family. This is a photo dated August 1904. Both Henry and his wife Isabella died the year the photograph was made, leaving William H. the only family member in the house.

Click here for more of William H. Warrington’s artwork.

He designed things too: a proposed offshore driveway, dated 11 January 1899.

A monument to Gen. McArthur at Vicksburg, MS.

One of the more illustrious officers to serve in “Mr. Lincoln’s Army” was Brevet Major General John McArthur, U.S. Volunteers. He was Isabella’s brother and George and William H.’s uncle.

Born 17 November 1826, his service (documented by his nephew James N. Warrington) can be outlined as follows:

Joined Highland Guards of Chicago, IL, May 1855;
Promoted 3rd Lieutenant of Company 10 August 1855;
Promoted 1st Lieutenant 1 November 1856;
Promoted Captain 20 April 1857;
Elected Lieutenant Colonel of the “Washington Independent Regiment of Chicago” April 1861;
Commissioned Colonel, 12th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 3 May 1861;
Re-commissioned Colonel (3 year service) 1 July 1861 from 3 May 1861;
Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers, 21 March 1862, “For conspicuous gallantry and efficiency at the Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee”;
Brevet Major General U.S. Volunteers, 15 December 1864, “For conspicuous gallantry and efficiency during the battle of 15-16 December 1864 before Nashville, Tennessee;
Regiment mustered in for three months service at Springfield, Illinois, 2 May 1861;
Ordered to Cairo, Illinois, with First Brigade Illinois Volunteers 10 May, duty at Cairo until 5 September 1861;
Regiment re-organised for three year service at Cairo, Illinois, 1 August 1861;
Occupation of Paducah, Kentucky, 6 September;
Assigned to Third Brigade, District of SE Missouri, 14 October;
Expedition against Thompson’s forces, 2-12 November;
Demonstrations against Rebel defences at Columbus, Kentucky, 25-28 January 1862;
Assigned to command of First Brigade, Second Division, District of West Tennessee;
Advance on Forts Henry and Heiman: Fort Henry, 2-5 February; occupation of Fort Heiman, 6 February;
Operations against Fort Donelson 12-16 February, capture of Fort Donelson 16 February;
Assigned to command of First Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Tennessee, 21 February 1862;
Expedition to Nashville, 22 February;
Return to Clarksville and thence to Pittsburg Landing;
First Brigade, Second Division, Army of Tennessee, April: Battle of Shiloh, 6-7 April 1862;
Severely wounded 6 April, musket ball through foot. Rejoined command in May;
Assigned to command of First Brigade, Sixth Division, Army of Tennessee;
Siege of Corinth until 30 May, duty at Corinth until September;
Iuka 17-18 September, Corinth 3-4 October;
Horse shot from under him; severely injured by fall;
Assigned to Sixth Division Seventeenth Corps, Army of Tennessee, 6 October 1862;
Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign: Operations on Mississippi Central Railroad from Corinth to Bolivar, to Coffeeville, Mississippi, November-December 1862;
Engaged in organising divisions and corps until 20 February 1863;
To Lake Providence, Louisiana, and duty there until May 1863;
Champion Hills, 16 May, Black River Bridge, 17 May;
Assaults on Vicksburg, 19-22 May 1863; Siege of Vicksburg, 22 May-4 July 1863, Jackson, Mississippi, two weeks;
Assigned to command of Post and Defences of Vicksburg. Commanding Post, Defences and District of Vicksburg, Department of Tennessee, August 1863-April 1864, Relieved 27 April 1864;
Commanding expedition to Benton and Yazoo City;
Reported to General Sherman the day after Battle of Altoona;
Ordered to Missouri; back in time for Battle of Nashville;
Operations in Missouri covering St. Louis from threatened attack by General Price, September and November 1864;
Campaign against Rebels under General Hood, December;
Commanding First Division, Sixteenth Corps, Right Wing, Detachment Army of the Tennessee, Department of Missouri: Battle of Nashville, 15-16 December 1864;
Pursuit to Pulaski, 16-28 December;
Eastport, Mississippi, until February 1865;
Movement from Eastport, Mississippi, to New Orleans, 6-21 February 1865;
Mobile campaign, 7 March-13 April 1865, Fish River 21-23 March, Siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakley 26 March-8 April, storming of Fort Blakley 9 April;
Movements on Montgomery, Alabama, 13-25 April 1865, Occupation of Montgomery April-August 1865;
Mustered out 24 August 1865.

He married Christina Cuthbertson (born 6 January 1825). They had eight children as follows:

John McArthur
Cuthbert McArthur (1851-1932)
Bessie Denham Heaton
Ada Jane McArthur
Colin Campbell McArthur
Arthur Wellesley McArthur
James Nielson McArthur
Walter Scott McArthur

Before the war he operated the Excelsior Iron Works. After the war he was Chicago’s Public Works Commissioner during the 1871 Great Fire. He died 15 May 1906.

And while on the subject of the Civil War…