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James Hutchinson Woodworth (December 4, 1804 in Greenwich, New York - March 26, 1869; buried in Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago), a former member of both the State Senate and the State House of Representatives in the Illinois General Assembly, served consecutive terms as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1848-1850) as an Independent Democrat, and served one term in the US House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party. He is a member of the Woodworth political family.
[edit] Personal lifeHe was born in Greenwich in Washington County, New York, the son of Connecticut natives Eleazer and Catherine Rock Woodworth.[1] His father died when Woodworth was young and he assisted an older brother in maintaining the family farm. When Woodworth was 19 his brother arranged the exchange of the family farm in Washington County, NY for a farm in Onondaga County, NY. Woodworth was married to Almyra Booth, the daughter of Walter Booth of Paris, Illinois. Woodworth is buried in the Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, together with his wife Almyra and three of their children.[2] [edit] Early business careerAfter leaving the family farm in Washington County at the age of 19, he continued to work on the new family farm in Onondaga County, NY and for his older brother, until he was 21. In his last two years of farming in Onondaga County, we worked to clear land and erect buildings for the family's working farm within a tract of land known at the time as the "Indian Reservation."[3] Upon leaving farming, he struck out initially to run a dry goods business. Despite a limited education which ceased at the age of 14, he also became a school teacher in the local school district of Fabius, New York. He then briefly considered a career as a physician and worked briefly for another brother, Dr Robert Woodworth. In 1826 he was appointed inspector of the common schools. In 1827 he left the professions of teaching and medicine to work on the Erie Canal. There he and another Woodworth brother operated a small scale dry goods or trading business and lived in Erie, Pennsylvania. From 1829 to 1832 he served as a justice of the peace in Pennsylvania.[4] His combined experience as a dry goods merchant and on the Canals would serve him well when he moved to Chicago, Illinois. Woodworth arrived in Chicago in 1833, the first year of its incorporation as a city in Cook County, when its population totaled 500. He immediately began operating a dry goods business which continued until 1840. In 1835, while operating his dry goods business, he applied for, and received, wharfing privileges. He eventually contracted to work on the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. He briefly left Chicago for Marseilles, LaSalle County, Illinois, to oversee his interest in saw-mills; the Marseilles mills were considered among the most advanced mills of their time.[5] He returned to Chicago in 1842 when the mills were destroyed in a fire.[6] His various business endeavors in this period sometimes included other business partners including at least one of his brothers, Dr. Robert P. Woodworth. After he returned from LaSalle County he purchased a flouring milling operation that was connected to the pumps and reservoirs of the Chicago Hydraulic Co. He was invited at various times to serve the community in a series of elected political offices. [edit] Political lifeWoodworth began his political career in Chicago in 1839. He first served in the Illinois State Senate from 1839 to 1842, when he was elected to fill a vacancy from the Chicago district. He then served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842 to 1847, representing LaSalle, Grundy, and Kendall counties.[4] He was a Chicago Alderman and served as a member of the Chicago City Council, known then as the Common Council, from 1845 to 1848. He ran for mayor in 1848 and was elected in a landslide, and then was re-elected for a second consecutive term with a substantial majority in the face of limited organized opposition. He was the first politician elected to two successive mayoral terms in Chicago.[4] [edit] Mayor of ChicagoWoodworth ran for mayor as an Independent Democrat during a period when the national political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats, experienced great upheaval. His Mayoral campaign represented a stunning blow to the Democratic party of Chicago, unseating the Democratic Party's Mayor, James Curtiss; it would take the Democrats and Curtiss two full election cycles to regain the Mayoral office. The short lived Independent Democrats of Chicago is an early example of a successful large city "fusion party."[7] As mayor, Woodworth presided over the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal on April 16, 1848. Woodworth was instrumental in opening Chicago to all major railroads.[8] His political opponents had preferred restricting the railroads' access to Chicago; the more liberal policy adopted by Woodworth, which permitted each railroad to have its own terminal in addition to access, enhanced the position of Chicago as a central trading location for the entire Midwest. He also facilitated the installation of telegraph lines to the west; on January 15, 1848, the first telegraph message to be received in Chicago was sent from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and received in Chicago, Illinois. By 1849, Woodworth's pro-commerce policies had established Chicago as an outfitting center for gold seekers heading west to seek their fortunes. During his terms the city's population grew to 20,000. By the end of his two mayoral terms Chicago had been transformed from a bustling frontier trading town to one of the major centers of commerce in the Midwest with a major stake in the opening of the West to the entire country. During Woodworth's terms as Mayors, Chicago suffered two disasters in addition to the outbreak of cholera that prompted him to build a municipal sewer system.[9] On March 12, 1849 there was a great flood caused by excess ice on the waterways. On July 21, 1849, Chicago was ravaged by a major fire which destroyed Tremont House in addition to a sizable number of other buildings.[10][11] Woodworth's two inaugural addresses displayed consistent attention to several issues central to the development of Chicago. He voiced concern over the city's deficit financial position and in his second term shored up the finances through new loans. He requested additional funding for the Fire Department, the employment of physicians in the city's hospitals, repairs and improvements to the city's roads, waterways and wharfing facilities, the city jail, the city cemetery and the Chicago Public School system. [edit] U.S. House of RepresentativesIn Illinois, the Whigs eventually became the Republican Party. Woodworth held anti-slavery views, and the short-lived fusion Independent Democratic party he headed in Chicago merged with the Whigs to form the Illinois GOP . Woodworth did not stand for re-election in 1850 and returned briefly to private life as a banker in Chicago, but returned to public service in 1853, serving as the Water Commissioner,[4] until his election to the United States Congress in the elections of 1854. He served one term as the Representative of the Second District of Illinois in the 34th United States Congress from 1855 to 1857 and there served as a member of the Republican Party. At the end of his term in Congress, Woodworth did not stand for re-election, stated that he sought "a release from public cares,"[citation needed] and returned to private life in Chicago for the second time in his life as a banker. [edit] Later business careerFinance and banking became a growth industry in its own right in the city's continued rapid expansion as a major Midwest trading center. The status of Chicago as a financial center was challenged in the 1850s as there were many "runs on banks" and several outright bank failures. [edit] Merchants & Mechanics Bank of ChicagoAfter his consecutive terms as Mayor of Chicago, Woodworth served as President of the Merchants & Mechanics Bank of Chicago. His appointment to the bank is noteworthy as commentators of the day ascribed the bank's return to health, and even vigorous success, during a time of banking crisis, to Woodworth's character and the benefits of his great many personal business relationships in the Chicago trading community. He buttressed the bank's finances at one point in 1852 by taking a $ 50,000 loan from his father-in-law Walter Booth, the one time Mayor of Paris, Illinois. Booth's loan to the bank was secured by the "current worth of the owners of the Merchants' Bank."[12] His tenure at this bank ended in 1855 when he took his seat in Congress. [edit] Treasury Bank of ChicagoAfter his term in Congress, he returned to banking in Chicago and became the President of the Treasury Bank of Chicago. During the Civil War Woodworth remained a private citizen and, as can be verified by his public record, held neither elected political office nor military position. Woodworth accepted a part-time appointment from Illinois Governor Richard Yates to oversee federal financial transfers to the state during the Civil War as a member of the Board of Auditors of War Claims, known also as the Commissioners of the War Fund.[13] The War Fund and the Board of Army Auditors were authorized under a special session of the Illinois General Assembly.[14] This was a role Woodworth played while principally occupied at the Treasury Bank of Chicago. He continued as President of this bank until his death. [edit] LegacyMany landmarks and institutions remain in Chicago reflecting his career contributions. It is a testament to his popularity that he counted working relationships with both Democrat and Republican politicians of the Civil War and mid-1800s era in Chicago: He had accepted service at the request of Governor Yates, a Republican, in a wartime Board of Auditors of War Claims. [edit] Chicago UniversityWith Stephen A. Douglas, possibly the most prominent Democrat of his era, he was a founding trustee of Chicago University, the precursor to the University of Chicago. As university trustee, and its treasurer, he was credited with financially sustaining the university during its early years when its finances were precarious. [edit] Lincoln funeralWoodworth served as a member of Chicago's "Committee of One Hundred", which marched in the funeral cortege of Abraham Lincoln during its passage through Chicago, on its way to Springfield, Illinois.[15] [edit] Chicago Astronomical SocietyHe also served as a founding trustee of the Chicago Astronomical Society, an appointment made under the Society's act of incorporation passed by the Illinois General Assembly; a full copy of the act of incorporation can be found on the Society's website.[16] [edit] James Woodworth Prairie PreserveIn more recent years, his grandson, John Woodworth Leslie, was instrumental in saving a virgin prairie preserve near Chicago to serve as an historical reminder of how the region appeared when Woodworth was mayor. That prairie preserve is known as the "James Woodworth Prairie Preserve," or the "Woodworth prairie." It is located off Milwaukee Avenue in Glenview, Illinois. The University of Illinois at Chicago and its Department of Biological Sciences oversee the prairie. The prairie covers "5 acres... of original tallgrass prairie... [and]... the only natural area owned by the University of Illinois at Chicago.... [The Woodworth prairie] serves the community by providing an opportunity to experience prairie plants and animals that are now rare... [and it provides] a challenge to understand how communities can be preserved."[17] [edit] References
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