I am not going to even attempt to write a encyclopedic entry for Octave Chanute, but I will give an overview for those who are not familiar, along with a few personal notes. For the record, I was only vaguely familiar with the name Octave Chanute until I visited the Smithsonian’s Air & Space museum in Washington D.C. a few years ago.

Paris born Octave Chanute moved to the United States at the age of six. He did not have a formal education but learned engineering through a series of apprenticeships and built his first (rail) bridge across the Illinois River at Peoria in 1856. He also designed the Chicago and Kansas City stockyards., along with the first bridge to cross the Missouri River.

Interesting to me is the story I have always been told about St. Joseph and Kansas City, Mo. The story goes that the high falutin’ citizens of St. Joe, (”where the Pony Express began and Jessie James ended” so goes their official slogan) weren’t real thrilled with the idea of a dirty black smoke blowing railroad going through town. Kansas City, which had approximately the same population and resided about 50 miles to the south, had no such objections. The rail was routed through KC and Octave Chanute built the first bridge spanning the Missouri River and opened rail to the west.

Octave Chanute is most well known for his contributions to aviation. The Wright Brothers “Kitty Hawk” was based on Chanute’s earlier built glider.

Wilbur Wright: “If he (Chanute) had not lived, the entire history of progress in flying would have been other than it has been, for he encouraged not only the Wright Brothers to persevere in their experiments, but (his) private correspondence with experimenters in all parts of the world was of great volume. No one was too humble to receive a share of his time. In patience and goodness of heart, he has rarely been surpassed. Few men were more universally respected and loved.”

To answer commenter jl’s question of why he is buried in Peoria, all I could find was that he married Annie Riddel James, of Peoria, around the same time he built the rail bridge here. They had three children together, so while he seemed to have projects going on all around the east and midwest, I would surmise that Peoria may have been his home and where his children were raised. I cannot confirm this. I will also add that there are other family members buried at Springdale, but I did not think to notice who they were or take pictures at the time.

Notice the little thing stuck to the top of the gravestone? That’s a tiny compass attached a piece with of gum. The only reason I know it’s gum is because there was another piece of gum stuck on the left-hand side, but with nothing attached to it. I was annoyed and pulled it off before realizing it was being used as glue. I don’t know what was attached on the left, but it tickles me to think someone might have driven from a long distance to visit and pay respect to someone that most Peorians, including me until a few years ago, had no idea had roots and is buried here.

Octave Chanute, the “Father of Aviation.”

I had no clue what this thing was until Bruce E. Hamilton suggested it was a water intake, which septboy clarified: “took a cruise on the Spirit with the family a month or so ago. A man sitting with the Capt. was pointing out different areas of interest. I asked him about this… it was an intake for the water co. they now get the water from the san koty aquifer.”

It’s easier to see up close than I thought. Park your car near the Water Works building by the McCluggage bridge and walk along the outside of the fence near the railroad tracks, following it towards the river. A short walk through the woods and you can’t miss it.

It does resemble the NTPL #164 in that it is round and is located nearby, but #164’s purpose still remains a mystery, as it sits above the waterline, and has a stairway leading into it. I would suggest that it has something to do with the ferries that used to operate in this vicinity, but I have not been able to confirm that.

Alan says: “Jacob Gale House. Downtown Peoria across from the Labor Temple.”

According to the original National Register of Historic Places application {pdf} this house was built in the time period of 1839/1840 and is the oldest remaining single family home remaining downtown. According to Historic Peoria.com, it is also one of only three pre-civil war era buildings remaining downtown. (Can you name the other two?)

Judge Jacob Gale was elected Peoria’s Mayor for the years 1848/49 and again for the two year stint of 1864/65. He was Superintendent of Public Schools from 1857-61 and 1866-70.

This building, located at 403 NE Jefferson, was the former home of the Peoria Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, and is now houses the law offices of Prusak Winne & McKinley.

Two in a row for Msgem… “Bishop Chase founder Jubilee College.”

The 1903 book “The life of Philander Chase” can be read online in its entirety {here}.

What follows is the “Timeline of events concerning Bishop Philander Chase and this Historic Site” from genealogytrails.com:

12-14-1775 …. Philander Chase born in Cornish, New Hampshire

1795 …. (1) When Chase graduated Dartmouth College in 1795, the Episcopal Church in was still in its infancy in the United States, having split from the Church of England during the American Revolution.

1798 …. Chase married Mary Fay of Stockbridge, Vermont, and their first son, George, was born. In 1798, Chase was ordained a deacon and he spent the next year traveling throughout western New York organizing parishes. When admitted to the priesthood in 1799, Chase took charge of Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, New York.

1804 …. (2) In 1804, the year after Ohio was admitted to the Union, St. John’s Church, the first Episcopal church in the new 17th State, was organized at Worthington by a missionary, The Rev. James Kilborn. Other missionary priests, notably Joseph Doddridge, Roger Searle, and especially Philander Chase, began to establish new congregations throughout Ohio. Among the churches Chase alone established prior to 1818 were Trinity Church, Columbus; St. Peter’s Church, Delaware; St. Paul’s Church, Chillicothe; St. James’ Church, Zanesville; and Christ Church, Cincinnati where, among the founding members, was a future U. S. President, William Henry Harrison. On January 5, 1818 a convention of Ohio Episcopal clergy and lay people was held in Columbus for the purpose of organizing the Diocese of Ohio. On June 3 the convention met again and elected The Rev. Philander Chase as the first Bishop of Ohio.

1805 …. In 1805, Chase accepted an invitation to help establish the first Episcopal parish in New Orleans, Louisiana. He hoped that the warmer climate would help alleviate his wife’s consumption (tuberculosis). Mary’s health did not improve, however, and the Chases desperately missed their children, whom they had left with relatives in Vermont. Thus, in 1811, Chase returned to the New England to take over the rectorship of Christ Church in Hartford, Connecticut, and to oversee his sons’ education.

1817 …. (1) In 1817, this urge, coupled with growing tensions between he and John Henry Hobart, bishop of New York, compelled Chase to follow the migration west. He settled in Worthington, Ohio, a small pioneer community established in 1803 by a group of fellow New Englanders. There, Chase purchased a tract of land for a farm and was appointed principal of Worthington Academy. It was also there, in 1818, his wife Mary succumbed to her illness.

1819 …. Chase consecrated in February 1819 and later that year married his second wife, Sophia May Ingraham. He struggled to support his family financially in Worthington and in an attempt to better his finances, he accepted the post of President of Cincinnati College in 1821.

1821 …. Chase realized that since the split with the Church of England, Episcopalian priests were very scarce and not enough attention was being given to the Western expansion of the church.

Quote from Bishop Chase:

“The few clergy we have may keep us alive, under Providence, a little longer; but when they die or move away, we have no means to supply their places…We may think of the privileges at the east, of the means of education there; but this is all; they are out of our reach. Besides, if our young men were there, if we could find the money in our woods, or drag it from our streams, to send and maintain them at the eastern seminaries, who could insure us that they would not be enticed, by the superior offers held out to them, to settle there, and leave us in our wants?

In short, unless we can have some little means of educating our pious men here, and here being secure of their affections, station them in our woods and among our scattered people, to gather in and nourish our wandering lambs, we have no reason to hope in the continuance of the Church in the west.”

1824 …. By July, 1824, Chase had raised nearly $30,000 dollars for his seminary. Donors included the Lords Gambier, Bexley, and Kenyon, Lady Rosse, and Hannah More. In December, the Ohio legislature incorporated Chase’s theological seminary, which he would name Kenyon College, after one of its chief benefactors.

1825 …. (2) Through an aggressive program of fund-raising in England, he was able, by 1825, to establish Bexley Hall Seminary and Kenyon College and locate them in a community he named Gambier after one of the benefactors. He became the President of these schools, and during his tenure, the schools and the Diocese each grew rapidly.

1831 …. In 1831, the Ohio Convention demanded he relinquish some control. Chase, both frustrated and exhausted, instead resigned the presidency of Kenyon College and the episcopacy of Ohio on September 9, 1831.

1835 …. In 1835, without his knowledge, a group of Illinois parishes gathered to form the Diocese of Illinois, and elected Chase its first bishop. As before, Chase received little help from the East, so he quickly formulated plans for a new theological seminary to be established near Peoria. To England again Chase would go to raise the necessary funds.

1839 …. Less successful in raising funds in England the second time, Chase returned to America and began a fundraising tour of the southern United States. This proved successful enough to allow him to lay the cornerstone of Jubilee College in 1839. Chase continued his travel and fundraising and left his cousin, Samuel, in charge of the day-to-day operations of the new college. In 1840-1, the chapel at Jubilee was finished.

As with Kenyon, Chase wanted Jubilee to be a self-sufficient community. Chase’s sons, Henry, Philander, and Dudley, managed the college farm and a large flock of sheep. Chase also built a sawmill and a gristmill on Kickapoo Creek. Chase’s daughter, Mary, ran a small girls’ school. Along with the seminary, there was also a college and a grammar school.

1849 …. In 1849, fire destroyed the Jubilee saw and grist mills, thus eliminating a significant source of income. Three years later, its most important source of income would also be lost.

1852 …. By 1852, Chase, now seventy-seven, had lived a hard pioneer life and as a result, his health was failing.

In September, Chase was pulled from his carriage by his horse. He lingered for a few days, but on September 20, Philander Chase died. Without Chase at the helm, Jubilee had no chance of survival. It struggled on for a few more years and finally closed its doors in 1862.

1862- 1871… Samuel Chase, after serving as chaplain during the Civil War, attempted once more to open Jubilee, but was forced to begin selling the lands in 1871.

tls1995: “The Commerce Bank Building reflecting off of the Becker Building downtown Peoria.”

Exactly; although I did have to drive past to confirm this. I’m not always so artsy with my photographs, but I am trying and I like the way the window bends the angles of the Commerce building. I can’t find evidence in my brief search, but I’m fairly confident that the light atop the building gave the weather forecast, such as red for storms or white for sunny skies.  Can anyone confirm this?

What follows is an interesting article and photo from the Journal Star dated July 19, 2008.

The elevators in the Commerce Bank building stop at the 16th floor. That’s where business and public access ends, but the journey doesn’t stop there.

A flight of stairs opens into an abandoned 17th floor that once housed an office, now dilapidated from years of sitting vacant. Past a locked gate and behind a door stands a tightly-wound spiral staircase that time has seemingly forgot. Rare visitors to this part of the 90-year-old building cling tightly to the railing, which imparts a grimy layer of history onto the hands.

Climbing farther up the cylindrical passageway lit by bare, yellow light bulbs, gusts of wind howl outside what would be the 20th floor. Tucked inside a dome that looks like a bell tower, a narrow door opens. A creeping sense of claustrophobia gives way to a feeling of vertigo and one of the best views the city has to offer.

A catwalk no more than two-feet wide circles the highest point of the building, where the steady blink of a bright light warns airplanes.

It’s an unobstructed, 360-degree view from the brick ledge with a railing, surrounded by decorative stones and nothing but 20 stories of air between the viewer and the streets of downtown Peoria.

It’s an impressive view, and only a handful of people have seen it during the course of about 90 years. The Peoria County Courthouse, the businesses on Main Street, the stop-and-go flow of traffic all take on a new persona from that angle.

“It makes you appreciate our city,” said Jon Walker, property manager with Huber Brothers Corp. Walker formerly managed the Commerce Bank building and now manages others in town.

From time to time, Walker will make the trip to the top and look out across the city.

“You realize when you’re up there how many amenities we have in town,” he said. “You see what a beautiful city we live in.”

Msgem: Jubilee College

aka Jubilee College State Historic Site.

Jubilee College State Historic Site preserves a remnant of the school founded in 1839 by Philander Chase (1775-1852), the first Episcopal Bishop of Illinois. At one time, Jubilee College occupied a dozen or more structures on a 3,500-acre tract. The school included a theological seminary, a college, a classical preparatory school for boys, and a “seminary” for girls, as well as small farming operations.

The site’s centerpiece is an L-shaped building, the design of which was adapted from an Anglican chapel near London, England. Constructed between 1839 and 1844, the two-story native sandstone building housed the school’s chapel, classrooms, and dormitory space. Today the “restored” building’s chapel wing contains representations of an 1840s Episcopal chapel, a first-story chapel extension that served during the week as classroom space, and a second-floor dormitory room. The recreated schoolmaster’s office and library are located in the larger west wing, which also contains a video theatre and museum exhibits. In 1972 the Jubilee College site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Jubilee Cemetery, which adjoins the site, is private property.

This might shock some of you, but this was the first time I had ever been out there. Dang – pretty darn cool place. I can’t wait to go back and take the tour.

*Photo courtesy of A. Janson

Well, now we know that there are at least two in existence.  This one is at Junction City.  The other (NTPL #286) is on High Street.  As the plaque there says “The fountains were placed along the riverfront road downtown to give Peorians and their horses water as they traveled.”

Anyone know of any others?  I don’t.