The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
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REVISED, and then REVISED again
Part 5b. Little Sanford Proctor finds a new home.
Sanford Proctor was a six-year old boy whose mother died of influenza during the 1918 pandemic. Having already lost his father, Sanford was now an orphan. On her deathbed, his mother had contacted the Chicago Daily Tribune to ask for help in finding a home for her son. Scores of people contacted the Tribune with offers to adopt the boy.
On November 16, 1918, the Tribune announced that Sanford had a new home. The doctor who had been treating Sanford at St. Luke’s Hospital had obtained custody of the little boy.
This doctor, whose name was not revealed in the article, had cared for the boy daily, often neglecting his outside practice to do so. Not only was Sanford’s pneumonia on the mend, the doctor also believed that expert care would help his crippled leg.
The doctor and his little patient had become great friends. When the time came for Sanford to be discharged from the hospital, the doctor realized he could not watch Sanford go.
“I can’t think of letting my little companion go into another’s home,” said the doctor. “I have grown attached to him. I can cure his shriveled leg and make a fine young man out of him.”
The article reported that Sanford would be going to a fine city residence and a spacious country home where he could romp and play. The doctor and his wife intended to adopt the boy and give him their family name.
Who was this kind-hearted physician? The story wouldn’t be complete without further research. This happened in 1918, so the assumption was made that Sanford should be in the 1920 U. S. Census under his new name. A search through the census records on Ancestry.com for Sanfords in Chicago in 1920 found him – he was now Sanford Watkins, living at 4943 S. Blackstone Ave., one of the finest addresses in the entire city.
Sanford was adopted by Dr. Thomas James Watkins and his wife Catherine. Dr. Watkins was head of the gynecology department and a professor of medicine at Northwestern University. He was also one of the heads of St. Luke’s Hospital and affiliated with Mercy Hospital. He was a past president of the American Gynecological Society and a presenter and author of renown.
Research also found that Thomas and Catherine Watkins had lost their only child, a seven-year old boy named Carman (Catherine’s maiden name) in 1901. The child was buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery on 115th Street here on the Ridge.
Dr. and Mrs. Watkins and Sanford lived at the Bryson Apartment Building, one of Chicago’s exclusive, grand buildings where the apartments had eleven huge rooms, soaring ceilings and marble entryways. The building, which no longer stands, was sold in 1923 to be turned into a hotel. The Watkins family moved to another fine new apartment building on Chicago’s Gold Coast at 219 East Lake Shore Drive, which today houses multi-million-dollar condos.
Dr. Watkins died of a heart attack at his office in 1925 at the age of 62. His remains were returned to New York where he was from originally. At the time of his adopted father’s death, Sanford, 12, was a student at St. John’s military academy in Wisconsin. Dr. Watkins left a trust fund of $50,000 for Sanford, which would equate to more than $700,000 in 2020.
We found further information on Sanford. In the early 1930s, he was a student at the University of Illinois – Urbana. For a while, he lived in rooms at the South Shore Country Club, where he was an avid golfer.
It appears he spent time in New York in the mid-1930s. He did travel from New York to England and Germany in the early 1930s.
The 1940 census found Sanford, 27, with his wife Barbara and son Thomas James, presumably named for Dr. Watkins, living in Beverly Hills, California. His occupation was listed variously as writer and stenographer.
Barbara was the daughter of Charles Helsell, an executive with the Illinois Central Railroad. The Helsells lived in Flossmoor.
On his 1940 draft registration card, Sanford listed his employer as John Truesdell. Truesdell was a young man in his late 20’s from Ohio who wrote a Hollywood gossip column that was carried by several Midwest newspapers. We’re assuming that Truesdell dictated his material to Sanford who transcribed it for publication.
Alas, though, we are sorry to report that Sanford died in December 1941 in California, at the age of 29, leaving a young widow and baby son. We are researching the death certificate to learn the cause of death.
We found that Barbara remarried in 1957 to John Whit Foster. Barbara died in 2003 in San Diego. Barbara’s and Sanford’s son Thomas James died in 1996. We do not know if he left descendants.
So many stories of individuals from the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 had sad endings. It was nice to find this one “feel good” story from the 1918 Tribune about the orphan Sanford Proctor. And it looked like life was going well for Sanford for a time. In a twist of fate, just as Sanford never knew his father, his son never knew him.
We’ll do one more post to look at some miscellaneous stories and information about the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic in Chicago.
Updated. Reposted.
Patch ran a feature by Tim Moran on the house at 10520 S. Longwood Drive. This home, which was built around 1898, is on the market right now for $1.6 million. There are scores of pictures of this beautiful home that can be accessed on the Internet.
One important historic fact about this estate is that a complete landscaping design was done there in 1913 by Jens Jensen. Jensen (1860-1951) was the foremost landscape architect for the naturalistic or Prairie-style movement. The Ridge Historical Society has copies of the original landscape plans for this house.
The estate, which originally extended to Seeley Avenue on the west, was owned at the time by William Hinman Roberts, an executive with the Continental Casualty Company and the Continental Assurance Company. Roberts retired in 1937 and sold the house, moving to Seattle where he died in 1944.
Jens Jensen was born in Denmark and came to Chicago in the 1880s. He took a job with the park system and eventually became superintendent of the West Park System which included Garfield Park and Douglas Park. He was very instrumental in founding the Forest Preserves of Cook County. He also helped preserve the Indiana Dunes.
His private practice included designing private estates and municipal parks throughout the country. He did numerous projects with Henry Ford. He worked with architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, George Maher and Howard Van Doren Shaw.
In addition to the work for Roberts, Jensen did several other projects in Beverly/Morgan Park, including Crescent Park and the Hopkinson-Platt House. He was known to have led hiking groups that came by train from downtown Chicago to visit the wooded Ridge.
The aesthetic of wandering through a natural environment was a key characteristic in Jensen’s work. An ardent conservationist, he used native plants and ecology systems. This is reflected in the gardens he designed for the 10520 S. Longwood Drive estate.
https://patch.com/illinois/beverly-mtgreenwood/most-expensive-home-market-beverly
Part 6: What happened to the Spanish flu, and some things never change
The “Spanish Flu” infected the world’s population from 1917-1920. Then it pretty much just disappeared.
At the time, no one really knew what viruses were. They knew there was something smaller than bacteria that could not be seen even with microscopes. They knew these pathogens could infect, be transmitted between, and cause grave illnesses in humans. They knew viruses needed living cells as hosts unlike bacteria that could be cultured in a nutrient medium. Some illnesses they knew resulted from viruses included rabies, polio and influenza.
1931 saw big breakthroughs. The electron microscope was invented allowing ever smaller sub-microscopic matter to be viewed. Influenza and other viruses were grown in fertilized chicken eggs. This led to the “golden age of virus discovery” which has resulted in where we are now in identifying viruses and treating the illnesses they cause.
In the 1990s, the strain of influenza that caused the 1918 pandemic was extracted from old tissue samples. The virus, kept in secure laboratories with top level clearance for admittance, is used for research. One conjecture as to why the virus “disappeared” from humans is that the structure of the virus mutated, or changed, into a less lethal form.
There are many similarities between the 1918 influenza pandemic and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Certainly one example is the reaction of some people to taking precautions not to spread the contagion.
This Chicago Daily Tribune article from Dr. Evans is a timely reminder that some attitudes from then are still around today. Some things have not changed – but maybe they will this time.
Chicago Daily Tribune, October 22, 1918
Responses to the post on Jens Jensen and his 1913 landscape plan for the house at 10520 Longwood Drive raised interest in other projects Jensen did on the Ridge.
Documentation shows Jensen did work for three private estates: 10520 (then 10560) Longwood Drive; the Hopkinson-Platt House at 10820 S. Drew St.; and 9900 S. Longwood Drive, the home of Orlando J. Buck.
Jensen and/or associates in his company did plans for two local institutions. In 1918, his company designed plans for the sports grounds around the gym south of 122nd Street for the Morgan Park Academy (attached). In 1924, his associates developed a planting plan for Oakhaven Old People’s Home, which is today’s Smith Village.
It was his work for Morgan Park’s public parks that benefited “the people.” He planned Crescent Park in 1915. Prior to that, he designed Prospect Gardens Park and Bohn (Depot) Park in 1906.
Jens Jensen immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1884, after attending agricultural school and serving a mandatory time in the Prussian army. In Chicago, he started as a laborer with Chicago’s West Park Commission and was soon promoted to foreman.
In a famous story, Jensen designed and planted a garden of exotic flowers. When the flowers all died, he went out into the surrounding prairie and gathered native wildflowers, which he transplanted into a corner of Union Park, creating his first “American garden” in 1888.
This became his signature, a natural style with open meadows and horizontal lines bringing the Midwestern prairie into the city. He became the Prairie School landscape architect equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom he collaborated.
By 1905 Jensen was the general superintendent of the entire West Park District. His expertise was sought by other communities, and Morgan Park, part of the Calumet Park District, asked for his help in 1906. [All of the parks were consolidated as the Chicago Park District in 1934.]
Jensen designed a plan for Depot Park, which is to the immediate west of the 111th Street Metra train station. An article in the Morgan Park Post (attached) described the project. The park was renamed as Bohn Park in 1933, for Henry J. Bohn, a publisher and first president of the Calumet Park District. Bohn was president when Jensen did his work. A real picture postcard ca. 1910 (attached) gives an idea of the park from that time.
Prospect Gardens Park was a real jewel in its time but Jensen’s plans, and pictures of the features he designed, are all we have left now. The planting plan lists the type of plans and locations. He also designed tennis courts, footpaths and a rock pool.
Happy Easter from the Ridge Historical Society with some charming vintage postcards.
One of the most beautiful magnolia trees on the Ridge is the one in Mount Greenwood Cemetery. It is right inside the gate by the historic chapel. The tree must be a good age to be this big. It's blooming now, even today with snow flurries!
Today, Wednesday, April 22, is Earth Day. Its purpose is to support environmental protection world-wide. It was first celebrated in 1970.
The Blue Island Ridge was once a pristine wilderness. It was described as "a vast vegetable solitude" more than 150 years ago.
Today you can still see glimpses of the "wild Ridge" here and there.
Notable features are:
– Dan Ryan Woods
– Ridge Park Wetlands
– Hurley Park oak savanna
– Ancient sand dunes in Mt. Hope Cemetery
On April 21, 1967, the deadliest tornado in the history of Northern Illinois ripped through the area, killing 33 people in Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park. The tornado passed through North Beverly and Dan Ryan Woods, uprooting hundreds of trees and damaging roofs.
This picture and map appeared in the RHS newsletter in 2017.
Old street names in Beverly/Morgan Park: A question came into the Ridge Historical Society. In a photo from the 1920s, an Irving Street was mentioned. Where was this?
Answer: Irving was the original name of Bell Avenue in Beverly. Many of the streets in Beverly and Morgan Park had different names before the communities annexed to the City of Chicago. Bell is a good example. In Beverly it was known as Irving and in Morgan Park it was known as Crescent.
If you look closely, you can still find the old street names stamped into some of the sidewalks. These pictures from past RHS newsletters show two examples. The corner of 107th Place and Bell Avenue has a stamp for Crescent Ave. (Bell) and Remington Ave. (the previous name for 107th Place).
Another stamp is at 108th and Drew Street, for Groveland Court, the pre-annexation name for Drew.
103rd Street was previously known as Tracy Ave., and indeed, the entire area around 103rd and Longwood was known as Tracy before the name Beverly caught on. The train station at 103rd Street was the Tracy stop and there was a famous Tracy Hall right by the tracks, but alas, that is gone now.
Old street names in Beverly/Morgan Park: A question came into the Ridge Historical Society. In a photo from the 1920s, an Irving Street was mentioned. Where was this?
Answer: Irving was the original name of Bell Avenue in Beverly. Many of the streets in Beverly and Morgan Park had different names before the communities annexed to the City of Chicago. Bell is a good example. In Beverly it was known as Irving and in Morgan Park it was known as Crescent.
If you look closely, you can still find the old street names stamped into some of the sidewalks. These pictures from past RHS newsletters show two examples. The corner of 107th Place and Bell Avenue has a stamp for Crescent Ave. (Bell) and Remington Ave. (the previous name for 107th Place).
Another stamp is at 108th and Drew Street, for Groveland Court, the pre-annexation name for Drew.
103rd Street was previously known as Tracy Ave., and indeed, the entire area around 103rd and Longwood was known as Tracy before the name Beverly caught on. The train station at 103rd Street was the Tracy stop and there was a famous Tracy Hall right by the tracks, but alas, that is gone now.