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Ridge Historical Society

The First Country Club on the Ridge: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club – Part 4 – Hare Coursing with Greyhounds

By Carol Flynn

The first country club to open on the Blue Island Ridge was the Ellerslie Cross Country Club at 91st Street and Western Avenue, founded by a group of Irish American businessmen in 1899. Although it was technically located in Evergreen Park, the address was often given as Beverly.

The Ellerslie Club introduced golf to the Ridge, covered in Part 3 of this series. Two other sports were also of great interest to the founders of the club – hare coursing and equestrian events.

This post and the next will discuss coursing, then a look at equestrian events will show why “cross country” was part of the name of the club.

Hare coursing is an ancient practice that uses dogs known as “sighthounds,” that hunt by sight, speed, and agility, instead of scent and endurance, to pursue hares for hunting, sport, and pest control. The best-known sighthounds are greyhounds.

The practice was first written about in Greece more that 2,000 years ago, but it was the English nobility under Queen Elizabeth I in the 1500s who turned coursing into a competitive sport.

For centuries in Great Britain, “commoners” were not allowed to own sighthounds and engage in coursing, but by the 1800s, that social order had broken down, and the sport had become more a favorite of the working classes in England and Ireland and less of one for the aristocracy. It really came down to being able to acquire and breed greyhounds.

Greyhounds came to America with the European settlers. Thomas Morgan brought greyhounds with him from England that he used for hunting deer and wolves on the Ridge. The dogs were also used by farmers to control jack rabbit populations.

By the late 1800s, hare coursing was a popular sport in the U.S., with governing organizations, clubs, and numerous competitions, formal and informal.

When the Ellerslie Club started holding events, the formal competitions in Chicago were usually “closed coursing,” that is, held in confined spaces with escape routes built into the “walls” for the hares. There was also “open coursing” where there was sufficient outdoor space, with the rabbits released with the chance to outdistance and outmaneuver the dogs.

Two dogs at a time competed against each other, chasing a released hare, and judges awarded the dogs points for speed and skill in manipulating the hare’s movements (“turning”) and for catching the hare. The dog with the most points advanced to the next round, until there were only two undefeated dogs left for the final round and the grand prize. In large competitions, as many as 400 dogs might be entered and the competition took days to complete.

The hare was given a head start and was more agile than the dogs, but the hounds were larger and could cover the ground faster. Each competition lasted only seconds, and it did not matter if the hare managed to escape because the point of the competition was not killing the hare, it was judging the dog’s performance in trying to catch the hare. A true “sportsman,” in theory, celebrated the hare’s escape, but the hare rarely won.

Coursing was a brutal “bloodsport” for the hares, raising obvious objections from humane groups. Other bloodsports were also tolerated back then, including dog fighting and rat baiting. In fact, John B. Sherman, who started the Union Stockyards, had an experimental stock farm on the land that is now Dan Ryan Woods, and held parties there that featured dog fights for entertainment.

Hare coursing was eventually mostly replaced by greyhound racing, where the dogs chase mechanical rabbits, but some countries still allow live hare coursing. It is banned in England, but in Ireland, it is still allowed, and even though the dogs wear muzzles it still results in severe injuries and fatalities for the hares. In some western states in the U.S. where there are large populations of jack rabbits, it is legal – and highly controversial. Even where banned, hare coursing, like dog fighting and other bloodsports, goes on illegally.

Back in 1899, the sport using live rabbits was legal, and people with prized dogs traveled around the country to compete in events.

Some of the founders of the Ellerslie Club owned greyhounds and actively participated in competitions. Fred Higbie was one of those men, and he was introduced in Post 2.

The first coursing event at Ellerslie was held in October of 1899 and described in the Inter Ocean newspaper as “the first genuine exhibition of the well-known old country sport on a large scale ever seen around Chicago, and the details were carried out to perfection.”

Jackrabbits were brought in from Wichita, Kansas to be used as the lures, and competitors came from as far away as Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

The final round came down to a competition between Higbee’s prize dog named “Bright Eyes” and a dog named “St. Clair” bred from a champion in England, owned by a man named Michael Allen. St. Clair was the winner.

Michael Allen, born in Ireland, was a famous and successful hare coursing sportsman who lived in Chicago.

He had a kennel of greyhounds that the newspapers called the best in the city and one of the best in the country. He competed all over the country and his dogs won many prizes.

The next post will cover how the success of Ellerslie’s coursing events led the Ellerslie founders to also form the Chicago Coursing Club and build a coursing park in Mount Greenwood on land west of Mount Greenwood Cemetery. Not only were Michael Allen and his dogs major players in this story, so was the famous gambler Big Jim O’Leary, son of Catherine O’Leary, famous for her now known to be innocent role in the Great Chicago Fire.

Image from Inter Ocean newspaper, March 6, 1904. Joseph Crennan, from Ireland, was the first president of the Ellerslie Cross Country Club, and he was a founder of the Chicago Coursing Club that built a park in Mount Greenwood.

Happy Easter from the Ridge Historical Society.

RHS will be closed tomorrow, Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025.

Some lovely springtime views can be found around Beverly and Morgan Park. This is the Reuben P. Layton House at 10324 Longwood Drive, glimpsed through magnolia, forsythia, and Siberian squill.

Siberian squill and forsythia were introduced into the U.S. by English settlers, and both became popular for gardens in the late 1800s.

Magnolias traveled in the opposite direction – the magnolias native to the southern U.S. were introduced into England and Europe by returning explorers and traders.

Edited: There are daffodils here, too – also introduced into the U.S. In fact, most of the gardens we build are full of plants not native to the U.S. They come from tropical areas so they only last through the summer, or they have been hybridized to withstand our northern climate. Too many people still think of our native prairie plants as "weeds."

Spring Bonnet Tea 2025

Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 2pm

RHS is happy to continue to hold this popular spring annual fundraiser event. Join us for a Full Victorian Tea featuring a fine selection of savories, scones and pastries. Ladies, please wear a spring hat or bonnet!

A wonderful multi-generational event — come with friends, bring your daughters or granddaughters for a lovely afternoon! A fun addition is a drawing for door prizes.

This Full Victorian Tea is set in the Historic Graver-Driscoll House, on the Ridge in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Chicago.

Space is limited, advance ticket purchase or RSVP required.

Adult Guests $30 Guests Under 12 $15

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Limited Capacity. Get tickets here: https://bit.ly/RHS_tea

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675

Ridge Historical Society

Letter to Metra about 115th Street Station

By Carol Flynn

Metra, the state agency that runs the Rock Island commuter line through Beverly and Morgan Park, recently announced projects for the Rock Island stations along the Beverly line.

The major project that has prompted concern in the community relates to the 115th Street station.

Metra announced it has earmarked $8.69 million for a multi-year plan that includes a new plaza and sidewalks, parking lot resurfacing, accessibility improvements, new lighting, bicycle parking, and landscaping improvements. The funding includes any environmental analyses required by law and will address stormwater management needs.

Most significant, the plan includes building a new warming shelter to replace the historic station built in 1892 that was destroyed by fire in 2017.

An illustration of the proposed shelter from Legat Architects was shared publicly at the time of the announcement.

The design of the structure raised concern among members of the Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Historic Buildings Committee (HBC). This prompted them to write a response to Metra, detailing the committee’s concerns and recommendations.

The letter was supported by 19th ward alderman Matt O’Shea, and was signed onto by the Beverly Area Planning Association.

The letter to Metra is attached to this post.

To better understand the situation and the letter, here is background Information.

The reason the design is of concern to RHS is that the train stations are historic buildings, and their look is very important for preserving the visual cohesiveness of the neighborhoods around them and reinforcing the unique historic identity of the Beverly/Morgan Park community. The Historic Buildings Committee feels the proposed structure could be better designed from a historic perspective.

The Metra Rock Island railroad commuter line has always been more than just a convenient means of transportation to downtown Chicago, it is a vital part of the history, tradition, and culture of Beverly, Morgan Park, and Mount Greenwood.

The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, the original branch to the east of the Beverly branch, running between Chicago and Joliet, began in 1852, and by 1866 had expanded into the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P) connecting Chicago to Denver and Houston.

In 1869-70, the men who owned and operated the CRI&P formed the Blue Island Land and Building Company and bought most of Thomas Morgan’s original estate north of the city of Blue Island.

They built a new branch of their railroad west along 99th Street from the original line to this new land, then south to merge with the original line in Blue Island, creating the route used today.

The land was developed into Beverly and Morgan Park, creating “railroad suburbs” along the commuter line that allowed people to live in the idyllic countryside and easily travel to downtown for jobs, business, shopping, and social and cultural events.

In 1889, the commuter line was extended north to 91st Street.

The train stations along the route, designed to fit in architecturally with the community, became hubs for local business and society and influenced the placement of parks, public buildings, and residences.

In the early 1980s, the state of Illinois took over the line from the declining railroad company through the newly formed Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). Metra is a division of the RTA.

The train stations that mark the stops along the Rock Island commuter line from 91st Street to 115th Street were designated the Beverly/Morgan Park Railroad Stations District by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in 1995. They are also included in the national Ridge Historic District.

The six stations in the original Chicago landmarks district at 91st, 95th, 99th, 107th, 111th, and 115th Streets created a “thematic-style” landmarks district, with the buildings connected to each other by common purpose, not by geographic closeness.

The stations were built between 1889 and 1945, and, according to Commission staff, “are rare survivors of a once common nineteenth century building type.” They share the scale, materials, and architecture style of nearby buildings, making them “strong visual features” in the community.

The station at 103rd Street was not included in the original landmarks district because it was built in 1967, replacing an 1890 building.

In 2017, the station at 115th Street, built in 1892, was demolished following irreparable fire damage, so that station became another loss to the landmarks district.

At the time the115th Street station was badly damaged by fire in 2017, it was no longer in use for ticket sales and was only occasionally open in winter as a warming house.

The replacement structure is not required by law to meet any historic standards, so Metra’s intent to honor the community’s history is voluntary.

The letter to Metra details several areas that need change.

The concerns and recommendations stated in the letter relate to the roof form and proportions, the loss of rounded corners that were distinctive to the original building, the window orientation and division, the dormer configuration, the lines of the exterior walls, and the lack of a strong structural appearance.

The committee recommended that hardscape design elements be used that better interpret the historic time period of the original building.

Several early pictures of the 1892 building were included with the letter to Metra.

Call to Action

RHS preservationists have raised a call to action, and encourage commuters, residents, and other interested parties to submit public comments on the proposed design to Metra. Please send email comments to the Metra Board at metraboard@metrarr.com.

Another option is to use the Metra "contact us" form at:

https://metra.com/contact-us

Metra also announced other projects along that line as follows:

– 95th Street – Beautification landscape work

– 99th Street – Accessibility and state of good repair improvements

– 101st Street – Crossing replacement

– 103rd Street – Beautification landscape work

– 111th Street – Accessibility and state of good repair improvements

These improvements may include ramps, handrails, curbs and gutters, parking lots, pavement markings, signage, retaining walls, canopy alterations, and other alterations required to meet accessibility criteria.

In 2024, Metra announced that the historic station at 107th Street would undergo rehab, but did not set a date for that project or provide other details. That structure was built in 1908, and any changes to it would have to meet landmarks criteria.

Metra announced the work on the 115th Street station would begin in 2025.

According to Tim Blackburn, RHS Board member and member of the Historic Buildings Committee, the new 115th Street Station was unveiled and approved with no public debate or feedback at the Metra board meeting on February 19, 2025. Given that Metra plans to start construction in 2025, the committee members knew they needed to act fast to influence changes to the design.

Although the project page for the 115th Street Station reports that Metra will use "distinctive architectural elements and materials that are appropriate for the historic neighborhood," the committee members feel the current plans do not achieve that goal.

Any questions about this should be sent directly to the RHS Historic Buildings Committee at ridgehistory@hotmail.com or 773/881-1675.

And please feel free to share this with any groups that may be interested. Thank you!

Ridge Historical Society

The First Country Club on the Ridge: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club – Part 3

By Carol Flynn

The Ellerslie Cross Country Club was the first country club to open on the Blue Island Ridge. Posts 1 and 2 of this series covered the history of country clubs and the men who started the Ellerslie Club.

Country clubs formed around the sport of golf, which, although it had been around in Scotland since the 1400s, became very popular in England in the mid to late 1800s, and spread to the U.S. by the 1880s.

Large plots of land were needed to play golf, so groups set up “courses” outside the city limits, “out in the country,” hence “country clubs.” The first country club to open in the Chicago area was the very-exclusive Chicago Golf Club in 1893 in Belmont (Downers Grove).

In the summer of 1899, a group of young Irish American businessmen rented about 85 acres of land at the southwest corner of 91st Street and Western Avenue. The land extended south and west from that point. This was, and still is, in Evergreen Park, but the location was often referred to as Beverly Hills.

The land was described as about 25 acres of woodland and the rest as meadowland, but there were also considerable wetlands there and the land had to be drained to build the clubhouse and course.

A nine-hole golf course was laid out, described as full of natural hazards including trees and water. Two of the holes were played over railroad tracks. Golf champion James Foulis supervised the layout of the course.

Ellerslie member architect Zachary Taylor Davis designed the clubhouse and the grounds. He was the supervising architect for Armour and Co., and his later projects included Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field, and Mount Carmel High School. He became famous for creating innovative ballparks.

The clubhouse Davis designed for the Ellerslie Club stood “in the center of a shady grove” with “spacious verandas” that provided good views of the course. It was designed and decorated in a “rustic” style with “thorough comfort.” The clubhouse included reception rooms and a billiard room on the first floor, and sleeping rooms on the second floor. A stable was also built on the site.

The name “Ellerslie” was selected because it was the name of an ancient Scottish chieftain, acknowledging the origin of modern golf.

The full name of the club was the Ellerslie Cross Country Club.

Although golf was the impetus to start the club, the real passion and expertise of the founding members of the club were equestrian sports and “coursing” with greyhounds. “Cross country” referred to riding horses across the fields in fox hunts like they did in Ireland and England. More on the coursing and equestrian aspects of the club will be covered in the next posts.

The links officially opened on July 22, 1899. The club was accessible by the Rock Island train line, and the club had a coach that met the trains that came in each day.

The club founders were all avid competitive sportsmen and sportswomen, and although golf was new to them, they caught on to it quickly. The country clubs were built as people were just learning how to play the game. On the day the Ellerslie Club opened, introducing golf to the Ridge, it was packed with people holding a putter for the first time.

Golf was considered an allowable sport for women, as were croquet, tennis, and badminton. The sisters and wives of the young men who founded the club were active participants in the sports, cross country riding as well as golf, and social events there; in fact, they were the "influencers" behind the concept of the club. As was mentioned in the last post, there were several instances of young men and young women from the club marrying each other.

The first “professional” at the club was Bert Coffey, “a graduate from the caddy ranks of Washington Park,” and he was considered “very capable” according to the city newspapers. His role included greenskeeper and instructor.

There are several publications still available from that time period that offer details about the club.

First, the “Golfers’ Green Book” of 1901, published by the National Golf Bureau, lists the Ellerslie Club along with thirty other Chicago-area clubs. The six-page spread on the Ellerslie Club is attached here, including an image of the club house and diagram of the course.

In 1905, the Ellerslie Club printed a little book that described “some special features” of the club. Some photos from that book are included with this post.

The book reported that William “Willie” Hoare was the golf professional on staff; he was there to assist and give instructions. He was a known, successful competitor in contests throughout the U.S.

Food service, from snacks to full meals, was available at any hour. A piano, near the ballroom door, always had the sheet music of the latest popular songs.

Besides golf, there were tennis, hammocks, and swings, and activities for children on the lawn. Members could bring guests at any time.

While golf was a summertime sport, the Ellerslie Club planned to offer year-round activities.

In their first autumn, following the close of the golf links for the year, they held a country fair with displays of livestock and farm equipment, competitions like sack races and catching a greased pig, entertainment from “a one-legged fiddler,” and dinner and dancing into the evening. They offered five dollars in gold to any couple willing to be married in front of the crowd, but it was not reported if anyone took up that offer.

This event was followed by their first coursing event, featuring greyhounds owned by some of the members. The coursing part of the Ellerslie Club will be explored in the next post.

Cook County Forest Preserves & Friends of The Forest Preserves

Friday, April 4, at 7:00 p.m.

– Benjamin Cox, Presenter

It’s spring (finally) and time to get out into nature. Ben will cover information on recent and ongoing programs that Friends of the Forest Preserves are involved with and the Engagement Corps program being launched in 2025.

About the Presenter: Benjamin Cox became Friends’ first Executive Director in 2004.

As Executive Director, Benjamin leads the advocacy and policy efforts, works to bring resources to the forest preserves in Cook County, and builds partnerships and coalitions to maximize community impact.

Members: $10 | Non-members: $20 | Students under 18: $5

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Limited Capacity. Get tickets here: https://bit.ly/CCforest

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675

Ridge Historical Society

Irish-American Heritage Month: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club – Part 2

By Carol Flynn

Golf was introduced to the Blue Island Ridge when a group of Irish American businessmen founded the first country club in Beverly/Evergreen Park, the Ellerslie Cross Country Club, in 1899.

The Ellerslie Club grew out of another Irish club in Chicago, the Sheridan Club. As was discussed in Part 1, the Sheridan Club was founded to honor General Phillip Henry Sheridan, the son of Irish Catholic immigrants, who had an outstanding career as a U.S. Army officer.

In the late 1800s, clubs were very important for networking and socializing. They were formed for everything from professions to politics to poetry.

Since most clubs were men-only, and the ones formed by the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment excluded Jews and Blacks, and usually Catholics, women and these other groups formed their own clubs.

By 1900, there were hundreds of clubs in the Chicago area.

Irish Catholics formed clubs focused on political issues like Irish nationalism, working for Ireland’s independence from Great Britain. Like other ethnic and nationality groups, they formed clubs around culture and identity, such as the Irish Music Club, founded in 1902, and the Irish-American Athletic Club, founded in the late 1870s.

The Sheridan Club formed upon the death of General Sheridan in 1888. Although it was called a “social club,” with the Irish, it was not possible to separate out politics and religion. Sheridan was an avowed “Fenian,” an Irish American Catholic dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic.

The founders of the Ellerslie Club were active members of the Sheridan Club, and they illustrate the advances that the Irish were making in business, education, politics, and society by the late 1800s, in the big cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Here are brief biological sketches of some of the men who founded the Ellerslie Cross Country Club.

Joseph Michael Crennan was the first president of the Ellerslie Club. He was born in 1865 in Ireland and came to the U.S. at the age of 21.

In 1891, Crennan married Jean (Jennie) Walsh, who was born in Chicago to parents from Ireland. Her father, William Walsh, one of Crennan’s fellow members at the Sheridan Club, was listed on the U.S. Census as “captain of a lake vessel.” The maritime professions, sailors and fishermen, were natural for many men from Ireland.

Crennan and Jennie lived at 4825 Vincennes Avenue. Their house is still standing, a stone and brick row house, fashionable for the day, that they hired architect Maurice G. O’Brien to design in 1894, and they moved into in 1895. They had three children, Ruth, William, and Elizabeth.

Crennan became a naturalized U. S. citizen on April 1, 1895.

He was the owner of a successful cigar manufacturing and import business, the exclusive U.S. representative for fine products from Cuba and Key West. His signature products were the “world-renowned” La Carina and Golf Club cigars. He sold wholesale to shops. His business spread; he advertised for salesmen for Iowa and Michigan.

Thomas Francis Keeley was the first treasurer of the Ellerslie Club. He was born in Chicago in 1866. His father, Michael Keeley, was born in Ireland, and his mother, Catherine McCarthy, was born in Chicago in 1840 to parents from Ireland, making her a very early native of the city. He lived at his family’s home at 2829 Prairie Avenue.

Keeley’s father Michael owned Keeley Brewing Company, and when Michael died in 1888, Keeley took over running the company as president and general manager. He also took over his father’s role as vice president in the Dallas (Texas) Brewery, Inc.

Keeley was also president of the Metropolitan-Hibernia Fire Insurance Company, which offered fire and tornado coverage in six states. The family also had large interests in a hotel, and in coal and iron mines in Utah.

In 1894, the first Irish Catholic Mayor of Chicago, John Patrick Hopkins, appointed him to the Board of the Chicago Public Library.

Keeley married Margaret Gahan in 1918 when he was 45 (she was 30) and they had one daughter. Gahan was the daughter of a prominent leader of the Democrat party.

Keeley’s younger brother Eugene also worked with the brewery as secretary and treasurer and was a member of the Ellerslie Club. Their sisters Clara Gertrude and Kate were directors with the company and were sportswomen at the club. Both married men from the Ellerslie Club.

As no surprise, Keeley was anti-Prohibition and worked against that movement. With Prohibition, the brewery closed and sat vacant and decaying for over a decade while Keeley advocated for ending Prohibition and creating legitimate jobs and taxes. He died shortly after Prohibition ended, while in the process of reopening the brewery.

Walter Thomas (W.T. or W. Thomas) Nash was the Ellerslie Club’s first secretary. He was born in 1859 in Chicago, and both of his parents came from England. His father was a meat packer. Nash attended the University of Chicago. It appears the family was not Catholic.

In 1885, he married Nellie C. Fuller, born in Chicago in 1865. They had one daughter.

Although Nash owned a meat packing company, his primary interest was in real estate as part of the company Nash, Trego, and Helliwell, which started in 1888.

Frederick (Fred) Kellogg Higbie, a founder of Ellerslie and member of the first Grounds Committee, was born in New York in 1866.

Like Nash, Higbie doesn’t fit the mold of the others. His family had been in the U.S. for several generations already. He married Julia Pausinsky, whose parents came from Germany, in 1890, and they had two daughters. It appears Higbie was not Catholic, or at least not practicing as one, but he was a very active member of both the Sheridan and Ellerslie Clubs.

Higbie was a manufacturer and merchant dealing in woodenware and meat packing supplies with a regional presence. His company, named for him, earned over $1 million in 1903, and he incorporated a new company, the American Meat Packers’ Supply Company, in 1909. He was owner and officer of salt and coal mines in Kansas.

Higbie lived at 6431 Greenwood Avenue.

Patrick James Lawler, one of the first directors and a member of the first Sports and Pastimes Committee, was born in Chicago in 1873. His father Patrick was born in Ireland, his mother in Illinois. Patrick, the father, was a teamster with the stockyards.

Lawler became a livestock commissioner with his own company, part of the Union Stockyards of Chicago.

In 1903, he married Catherine (Kate) Keeley, the sister of Thomas Keeley. They had two daughters.

They lived at the Keeley family home on Prairie Avenue, then later had their own home at 4925 Woodlawn. The purchase of the Woodlawn House, “a high class Kenwood residence,” for $40,000 in 1919 earned a headline and article in the Chicago Tribune.

Another founding director was William A. Lydon, born in New York in 1863. Both parents, Michael Lydon and Anne Hopkins, were from Ireland. His uncle, his mother’s brother, John Patrick Hopkins, was the first Irish Catholic Mayor of Chicago.

In 1897, he married another Keeley sister, Clara Gertrude. They had three children. They lived at 4758 Prairie.

Lydon was a civil engineer and president of the Great Lakes Dredge and Docks Company. He was a major contributor to the development of Chicago’s vast waterworks systems, including the tunnels and pumping apparatus. He was involved in numerous high profile projects throughout the Great Lakes region.

He was “a widely known yachtsman” and built the Lydonia II, one of the largest yachts on the Great Lakes. During World War I, he turned the yacht over to the U.S. Navy for military use and it was commissioned as the USS Lydonia in 1917. It was used as an escort and later as a coastal survey ship and retired from service in 1947.

Other beginning directors and committee members included Henry J. Fitzgerald, owner of the Fitzgerald Trunk Co.; John Julius Kinsella, owner of the glass company famous for fine church stained glass windows; James Joseph Wade, plumbing contractor and sanitary engineer who worked with the city; John Francis Clare, lawyer who was the prosecuting attorney for the city of Chicago; Michael Joseph Nelson, owner of an interior decorating company that produced fine furniture, draperies, and wallpaper; and Alfred Daniel Plamondon, manufacturer of machinery.

All of these men were not only successful businessmen, they were accomplished sportsmen, which led to the founding of the Ellerslie Cross Country Club. The women mentioned – the Keeley sisters, the Walsh sisters, Nellie Fuller Nash – also excelled at sports.

The Ellerslie club was started as a golf club, but the major passions of these Irish sports folks were actually coursing, that is greyhound racing and hunting; and equestrian sports, “riding to the hounds.”

There will be three more posts in this series: Ellerslie as a golf club; greyhound coursing; and cross-country horseback riding through the southwest suburbs.

Women’s History Hindsight: The Struggle for Suffrage

Sunday, March 23, at 4:00 p.m.

– Ellie Carlson, Presenter

For Women's History Month, RHS is featuring a talk by historian and performer Ellie Carlson of Ellie Presents, on the history of the suffrage movement that won the right to vote for women.

Her presentation will focus on the influence of trade and teacher’s unions, women in higher education, fundraising through cookbooks and bazaars, marches, songs, letter writing campaigns and how women’s influence over the voting men in their lives brought about the reform.

About the Presenter: Elizabeth Carlson, also known as Ellie, is a historian and a performer with concentration in the domestic arts. For over thirty years, she has worked as a curator in small to mid-sized museums. Ellie has a B.A. with honors from Roosevelt University and a Masters of Historical Administration and Museum Studies from the University of Kansas. She completed her professional internship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in the Division of Costume in 1987. She is the recipient of over twenty-five Illinois Association of Museums, Illinois State Historical Society and American Association for State and Local History awards.

Members: $10 | Non-members: $20 | Students under 18: $5

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Limited Capacity. Get tickets here: https://bit.ly/RHS-suffrage

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675

YES! We are up to 3,001 followers! Thank you to Sue Gildea and Kevin Hannan, our most recent sign-ons, for allowing us to reach our goal. We appreciate it, and hope you will continue to enjoy our stories.

Ridge Historical Society

Irish-American Heritage Month: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club

By Carol Flynn

March is Irish-American Heritage Month, and a new research project has revealed another connection that the Irish had to the Blue Island Ridge in the early days.

The Irish were an important presence in Beverly decades before they started building their homes and churches here in appreciable numbers in the 1920s. They first came here for sports and socializing.

It was a group of wealthy Irish American Catholic businessmen who introduced golf to the Blue Island Ridge by starting the first “country club” here, the Ellerslie Cross Country Club, in 1899.

The club was located at the southwest corner of 91st Street and Western Avenue, where today a strip mall stands. The land is part of Evergreen Park, but back then, it was often referred to as Beverly. The club itself identified its location as “between Beverly Hills and Evergreen Park, Chicago.”

Country clubs started being established in the U.S. in the 1880s due to the newfound interest in the sport of golf. Clubs in the U.S. followed golf clubs started in Great Britain.

Stick and ball games had been around for centuries when “modern” 18-hole golf evolved in Scotland in the mid-1400s. The word “golf” is a Scottish derivation of the Dutch word “colf” meaning stick, bat, or club.

Scottish royalty, including Mary Queen of Scots, enjoyed the game, and brought it to London, but it didn’t become popular there until the late 1800s. By 1887, England had 50 golf courses and in 1890 held the first Open Championship.

Golf came to America with the English colonists, but again, did not become really popular until the 1880s.

By this time, the basic philosophy concerning exercise was changing. Sports were considered a distraction from more important activities, but as lifestyles switched from rural to city, that is from farming to industrial, the need for exercise started to become apparent. Not only was this for physical health, but it was believed that regular exercise would improve people’s “civic morality” and make them better “American citizens.”

Athletic clubs existed in the cities as men-only indoor gymnasiums that offered gymnastic exercises and weightlifting equipment, and some had boxing rings. At this same time, rowing, swimming, track and field, football, and baseball were becoming college sports.

Tennis, also imported from Great Britain [note: Mary Queen of Scots enjoyed tennis as well as golf], was catching on in the U.S. at the same time as golf, and tennis courts were popping up on estates and other locations.

However, golf necessitated large outdoor spaces, leading to private golf clubs established on the outskirts of cities, in the “country,” giving rise to "country clubs."

The term “country clubs” had been used informally to refer to rural baseball teams, and a group of writers had started an organization they called "The Country Club,” but the term primarily became associated with “golf clubs.”

The first such club established in Chicago was the Chicago Golf Club founded in 1893 in Belmont (Downers Grove) and later relocated to Wheaton.

Country clubs established elite subcommunities and are considered the forerunners of gated communities. They almost always had a limited, exclusive membership, and high membership fees.

Membership in the majority of clubs formed by those of the Anglo Protestant establishment was open only to fellow Anglo Protestants and excluded Catholics, Jews, African-Americans, Native Americans, and other groups.

The names associated with the Chicago Golf Club were from Chicago’s highest social echelons, including Marshall Field, Potter Palmer, and Eugene S. Pike.

Country clubs looked and worked differently than traditional clubs. They were more family oriented. Women were allowed to participate in golf and some clubs even allowed women to subscribe on their own without going through a male family member.

There were also activities for children, including play areas. Family picnics were typical social events at country clubs.

By this time in Chicago, the Irish had advanced in education, business, and politics, creating a growing subcommunity of wealthy Irish Catholics. They formed their own clubs, such as the Sheridan Club in 1888.

The Sheridan Club was founded in honor of General Phillip Henry Sheridan, the son of Irish Catholic immigrants, who had an outstanding career as a U.S. Army officer. He was a Union Army general during the Civil War; commanded the Illinois troops when martial law was declared in Chicago following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871; was named Commanding General of the U.S. Army in 1883; and was promoted to the equivalent of today’s five-star general in 1888, the year he died.

The “leading spirit” of the Sheridan Club, as he was referred to in the Chicago papers, was Michael Cudahy who had emigrated from County Kilkenny, Ireland, as a child.

Starting employment at the age of 14, Cudahy worked his way up to meat inspector, then into a partnership in the Armour and Co. meat-packing business, before starting his own meat-packing house. He developed oil fields in Oklahoma, and real estate in Mackinac Island, Michigan, and Los Angeles, California.

Sheridan’s and Cudahy’s careers were examples of how the Irish were advancing in the U.S.

Other members of the Sheridan Club, friends and fans of Sheridan and Cudahy, all successful Irish Catholic businessmen, started the Ellerslie Cross Country Club. They did not live in Beverly, but they were making their homes on the south side of Chicago.

In the next post, we’ll look at some of the people involved in the Ellerslie Cross Country Club and the events held by the Club.