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.
All Posts
Mother’s Day One Hundred Years Ago
The modern Mother’s Day in the U.S. grew out of the peace movement following the U.S. Civil War. Peace activists Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe called for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” when mothers collectively would advocate that their children not be sacrificed as soldiers in wars.
When Ann Reeves Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her and all mothers, and started a liturgical service in West Virginia. She proposed a national Mother’s Day, and President Woodrow Wilson declared the first officially recognized Mother’s Day in the U.S. in 1914.
Anna Jarvis always wanted the day to be one of prayer, thanks, honor, and personal reflection, and was opposed to the commercialism that crept into the holiday. She protested at a candy makers convention in 1923 and against the sale of carnations for Mother’s Day in 1925, where she was arrested for disturbing the peace.
At this time on the Ridge and nearby areas, the church influence was still very strong, but the commercialism that would come to own Mother’s Day was in evidence.
The Protestant community spent most of their Sundays in church back in those days, and in 1924, the local churches led the way in recognizing Mother’s Day. Everyone was encouraged to attend services “for mother’s sake.”
Church started with Sunday School and one topic that year was “What We Owe Our Mothers.”
The first service of the day offered sermons on topics like “Mother’s Unfeigned Faith” and “A Mother’s Heart.” Printed copies of the sermon “A Godly Mother” were distributed to the congregants at one church.
Choir programs included “Songs Mother Used to Sing.” Duets and solos included “My Mother’s Bible” and “Wear a Flower for Mother.”
Special christening services for children were held.
After Sunday dinner at home, people returned to church for evening services.
Evening services contained entertainment/educational programs as well as liturgical services. At one church, a large men’s chorus sang Mother’s Day songs, followed by a testimony meeting honoring mothers. Another church gave every mother who attended evening service a rose or a tribute booklet. A third church showed a stereopticon on “A Child and His Mother.”
Other social events also went on, usually on weekdays, not on Sunday, because Sunday was for church. Sororities and other groups gave annual Mother’s Day parties, luncheons, and teas that included music and drama programs. At one event. the local paper reported that “Miss Sadie Minrath danced the ‘frisco’ with Miss Anne Green at the piano.” The “frisco” was a popular contemporary dance, the first one set to jazz music.
At the same time, commercial gifts and services were beginning to take hold in the community, and advertisements were appearing in the newspapers.
Greenhouses and florist shops promoted blooming plants and flowers as good gifts for Mother’s Day. Novelty shops promoted commercially made cards, started by the Hallmark Company, and items like stationery. Candy stores promoted special boxes for the day.
Photography studios promoted their services for portraits. Dance studios promoted dancing lessons.
Frank’s Department Store at 63rd Street and Ashland, a popular shopping spot, used the day to advertise women’s shoes, handbags, gloves, and “dotted voile and tissue gingham dresses, trimmed with lace and organdies,” on sale for $2.98, down from $3.50.
As one advertiser put it, the question wasn’t whether or not to recognize your mother on this day, the question was how to do it.
Image from a flower ad, May, 1924.
History and Art This Weekend
I’ve been remiss with sharing stories on this Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Facebook page lately because I’ve been very busy doing research on topics that will lead to interesting new stories.
Tomorrow, May 19th, is the Beverly Area Planning Association (BAPA) Home Tour, where five homes and one facility will be open for touring. I don't know all the houses (it's a surprise!) but I know the historic Hopkinson-Platt House at 108th and Drew Street will be open, and that is not to be missed!
This is one of the best home tours in the city. The tours were actually started many years ago by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), and then RHS ran them for a while, and now BAPA does a superb job with them.
The tour will start at Smith Village Senior Living facility at 113th Place and Western Avenue. This is where people will pick up their packets and have a chance to tour the first-floor common areas. One sight to see is the mural by the late Jack Simmerling called “Life on the Ridge” that covers a wall in one of the dining rooms.
I will be there from 12 to 3 p.m. to discuss the mural and help people identify locations, so please stop by! As one viewer said, “This was like taking a walk through the neighborhood of my youth.” There are current buildings and some that are now gone depicted in the mural.
The other place to visit is the historic Eugene S. Pike House at 91st and Longwood Drive, which the community has adopted for preservation. The Beverly Area Arts Alliance will be holding an outdoor event there, “Arts in the Yard@the Pike House”, with music and art activities, including Robin Power demonstrating ceramics.
One of the highlights will be a new painting of the Pike House by Beverly artist Judie Anderson. Judie has captured the Pike House in its whimsical, “fairy-tale” persona. The American Institute of Architects once commented about the house that you expect to see Hansel and Gretl come skipping down the path, and Judie’s watercolor brings that to mind. Judie is calling the painting “The Watchman’s Residence,” because that is what it was known and used as by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, which owns the house. Prints will be available for a donation, and Judie will be there to sign them.
Topics coming up next on the RHS Facebook page are many: the return of the 17-year cicadas known as Brood XIII; the next installment in the “Lost and Found” series; more posts on James H. Gately; the 100th anniversaries of Smith Village and St. Barnabas Parish; and stories about the many families who called the Pike House “home” are just a few. Stay tuned.
Lost or Found? – FOUND – Building #2 (Part 1)
A few months ago, the “Lost or Found?” series was started on this Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Facebook page as part of the current exhibit at RHS, “Louise Barwick’s Lost Ridge.”
Historical images of buildings in Morgan Park from an 1889 book of photographs are being shared. Some of these buildings still stand but some are gone. Viewers are invited to identify the buildings, and their locations if the buildings still exist.
Several commenters correctly identified the second building in the series as “found,” that is, still here, although it has been moved from its original location and substantially altered from its original look.
The building is known today as “Casa del Loma,” translated as the “House on the Hill.” It is located at 11057-59 S. Hoyne Avenue, just to the north of the Walker Branch of the Chicago Public Library at the northeast corner of 111th Street and Hoyne Avenue.
This building has one of the more interesting histories in the community, with two other “lives” before it was transformed into the Casa. In 1927, the Weekly Review, the local newspaper that eventually became the Beverly Review, published a special supplement on the building, giving its detailed history.
The building was originally built as the physics laboratory for the Baptist Union Theological Seminary. The Seminary was founded in 1865 as part of the “Old” University of Chicago, that is, the first attempt to form an institution of higher learning in the city, started by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas.
Originally classes were taught in buildings near Douglas’ Oakenwald estate at 35th Street and Cottage Grove. In 1877, a generous offer of free land (five acres) from the Blue Island Land & Building Co. (BILBCo) caused the seminary to relocate to Morgan Park and build its facilities there.
This was part of the BILBCo’s plan to establish Morgan Park as a prestigious religious, education, and temperance community. It was anticipated that additional educational facilities would follow, creating a new University of Chicago. Morgan Park Academy, started as the Mount Vernon Military Academy, and the Chicago Female College, were already established in Morgan Park.
An imposing three-story office and classroom building, now long gone, was built on the site, and in the early 1880s, the “physical laboratory” was built on a corner of the land, on the west side of Hoyne Street across the street from its present location, facing 110th Place, which was called Arlington Avenue back then.
However, the plans for establishing the “new” University of Chicago in Morgan Park never became a reality. The land in Hyde Park was chosen instead, due to another generous gift, this time from the Rockefeller family.
In 1892, the Baptist Theological Seminary became part of the Divinity School of the new University and relocated from Morgan Park. Other institutions used the Morgan Park buildings for a while, but shortly after 1900, the main building was demolished.
The old laboratory was then purchased by the Church of the Mediator at 10961 S. Hoyne Avenue, and physically moved across the road to its present location.
Buildings were often moved back then, as this was easier than building a new building. The process was to raise the building on to cut logs used as rollers, and have horses pull the house to its new location, where a new foundation had already been dug. This process could take days depending on the distance the building had to be moved, but in this case, it was just across the road.
The Church of the Mediator was a thriving church one hundred years ago, and it still stands but has not been used since the congregation closed its doors in 2007.
The laboratory building became the parish center. It was not used for religious activities but became more of a community center. A dancing school, amateur theatricals, bazaars, and other functions were centered there. The building needed only slight alterations to be used for this new purpose.
Eventually, additions were made to the church itself, allowing the parish to hold events on site, and after about twenty years, the building was no longer needed as the parish center.
It was then sold to Charles Curtis and Blanche Dunlap Battles, who converted it into Casa del Loma, also known as the Battles Apartments.
In the next post, the building’s transition from a physics laboratory/parish house to modern, state-of-the-art apartments in 1927 will be shared.
The RHS exhibit is free and open for viewing on Tuesdays and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment. RHS is located at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue in Chicago and may be contacted at 773-881-1675 or ridgehistory@hotmail.com.
The Ridge Historical Society will be closed on Sunday, May 26, 2024, for the Memorial Day week-end.
Let us take time to remember and honor those who have died in military service to the U.S.
Enjoy the Beverly/Morgan Park Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27.
Lost or Found? – FOUND – Building #2 (Part 2)
Building #2 in the “Lost or Found?” series was identified as the current Casa del Loma apartment building at 11057-59 S. Hoyne Avenue.
From the last post, the building was constructed as the physics laboratory for the Baptist Theological Seminary in the late 1800s. After that institution closed in 1892 to join with the University of Chicago Divinity School, the building was purchased by the Church of the Mediator, moved across the street to its present location, and used as a parish center.
Eventually the church was enlarged to include a parish center on site, and the old laboratory/parish center was sold to Charles Curtis and Blanche Dunlap Battles, who repurposed the building into modern apartments in 1927.
Charles Curtis Battles (born 9/12/1878) and Blanche Dunlap (born 10/20/1879) were both born in Iowa, and knew each other growing up in Perry, Iowa.
Charles was the son of a well-known and well-liked farmer who was a U.S. Civil War Union Army veteran, and Blanche the daughter of a dry goods merchant who was also the postmaster. Both families were members of the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church. An 1896 newspaper article has Charles and Blanche both listed as guests at a surprise 18th birthday party for a friend. By 1903, Charles and Blanche were married.
Charles was employed as a messenger, or agent, of the United States Express Company, a shipping and delivery company. During World War I, the government urged the consolidation of the numerous express services into one company to aid the war effort. Charles became an employee of the new American Railway Express Co., where he worked his entire adult life. He would have traveled quite a bit in that job.
A newspaper article reported in 1906 that Charles was the first man to arrive in San Francisco with a relief train following the San Francisco earthquake. The day after the natural disaster, he left Chicago in charge of a train full of supplies, accompanied only by a newspaper reporter and a member of the Chicago relief committee.
The paper reported that Charles started with the company as an agent out of Des Moines and was later assigned to Chicago, likely a promotion.
Blanche was known for her drama and music talents, and volunteer work with churches. She had a notable career as a performer, pageant director, drama coach, lecturer, columnist, and critic in the field of religious drama and music.
In 1894, at the age of 15, Blanche won first place in a “declamation contest” in which contestants deliver speeches that have been written and delivered before, usually from a famous source. The subject of her presentation was not mentioned. The prize was a $50 scholarship to the Soper School of Oratory in Chicago. It was stated then that “she possesses genius of a high order, and if her talent is developed will make a bright record.”
Blanche went on to many other accomplishments.
One example of her work was the production at multiple venues of a concert, “The Challenge of the Cross,” in which she starred and directed, and which included singing disciples and angels descending from the balconies.
A review of one of the concerts stated, “Those who attended had nothing but the highest praise for the offering,” and that Mrs. Battles’ “work and personality stamp her as an artist of unusual accomplishment.” At another venue, the reviewer wrote, “So impressive was the visual presentation … that tears fell from the eyes of people. It will always be remembered as a great spiritual uplift to all present.”
Another undertaking she was known for were “ladies’ kitchen bands,” where pots and pans and utensils were adapted into musical instruments. The concerts she arranged got good reviews, not only for the ingenuity of the band members but because they produced good music.
Some of Blanche’s work was as a volunteer, often for church fund raisers, but there were professional endeavors, also. For example, she was a columnist of repute for the “Musicians’ Magazine” published out of Chicago. The assumption is made that at least some of these had to be paying jobs, but curiously, the U.S. Censuses always listed her as not being employed.
In 1910, Charles and Blanche lived at 9907 S. Prospect Avenue and by 1920, they lived at 11336 S. Lothair Avenue.
They bought the old parish house, and a special feature in the 1927 Weekly Review, the local newspaper that eventually became the Beverly Review, described its repurposing into the “Battles Apartments.” Those articles are shared here. [This is a quick electronic “cut-and-paste” job in Publisher from the scanned newspaper. Note that the old newspaper is very fragile and faded.]
Charles and Blanche Battles lived in one of the apartments, and Blanche opened her studio on the third floor. She used it for both professional and social purposes. It was full of antiques, which she had collected.
They operated a “tearoom” in the building, which was used by many groups for events and programs, from luncheons to artist exhibits. An event was often followed by a tour of Blanche’s studio to view the antiques. It was a very popular place in the early 1930s.
By 1940, the Battles moved to 1400 Lake Shore Drive, and by 1950, they retired to San Diego, California.
In 1941, it was announced that new residents of Casa del Loma were Dr. Noor R. Beshir and Dr. Nellie A. Beshir. They were chiropractors and used the space as a dwelling, office, and clinic. They lived there for several decades, and their son Alton was a graduate of the Morgan Park Military Academy.
Many other tenants called Casa del Loma home through the years. The building on the hill, with its Spanish facade shining in the sun, contributes to the interesting variety of architecture found in the Beverly/Morgan Park community. It's a good example of repurposing an old building, which possibly would have been demolished otherwise.
The History of Brood XIII Cicadas in the Chicago Area – Part 1
The Blue Island Ridge is experiencing a spectacular display from Mother Nature that will go on for the next six weeks or so: the emergence of insects known as Brood XIII or the Northern Illinois Brood of periodic cicadas.
The natural world is an integral and important part of the community’s history and development, and this is an extraordinary natural history event that has occurred every 17 years for a very, very long time.
As promised to the entomophiles (insect lovers) in the community, or to those who at least have accepted Brood XIII even if with qualms, here is some research on the history of cicadas in the Chicago area, starting with some basic information on cicadas.
Today there are over 3,000 species of cicadas worldwide. They all live the major part of their lives underground as nymphs, or juveniles, feeding off the sap of the root systems of deciduous trees, those trees that shed their leaves annually. Cicadas are important parts of eco-systems, aerating and enriching the soil, allowing the trees to grow and flourish.
At the end of their life span, cicadas emerge from the soil, molt into an adult form, mate, and die. The eggs laid by the females hatch and the nymphs burrow into the soil and begin a new lifecycle. While breeding, the males are known for their very loud “song.”
The earliest cicada fossils that have been identified date to the last period of the Paleozoic Era, some 260 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs. Modern cicadas have been around for 40 million years.
The earliest documentation of human use of cicadas dates to the Chinese about 3,500 years ago. Cicadas were considered a sign of rebirth and images of them were carved out of jade.
Cicadas were mentioned in Homer's “Iliad,” and were described by Aristotle in his “History of Animals.” They were eaten in Ancient Greece, and the shells were used in traditional Chinese medicines. They have been used for money and to forecast the weather.
In Ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of the dawn, Eos, asked Zeus to let her lover Tithonus live forever as an immortal, but she neglected to ask Zeus to make Tithonus ageless. As a result, her lover grew old but never died. He became so tiny and shriveled that he turned into the first cicada, and he became the emblem for music.
A genus of cicadas called the Magicicada exists only in North America. These are known as the “periodic cicadas,” and the species within this genus have some unique features that set them apart from other cicadas.
All species of cicadas live underground for the major part of their lives, with lifecycles from one to nine or more years. Nearly all of the species outside of the U.S. are “annual cicadas” with some members of each species reaching maturity every year and emerging from underground.
What makes the North American “magic cicadas,” a play on the genus name, unique is two things. First, some of the species have evolved 13- or 17-year lifecycles, making them the longest living insects on the planet. Second, these species have synchronized emergence – almost all of the members of the species emerge at the same time.
Insects are part of the diets of many countries and cultures. The role of insects in the diets of the Indigenous Peoples of North America, however, is for the most part poorly documented.
One paper published in 1910 in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society, “The Use of Insects and Other Invertebrates as Food by the North American Indians,” by Alanson Skinner, reported that insects did not form any substantial part of the diet of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River because other food sources, both plants and game, were so plentiful.
This would include the Blue Island Ridge, and surrounding territory, an area known for its natural bounty such as fruit and nut trees and shrubs and edible wild plants including rice in the wetlands; game including deer, many small mammals, prairie birds, and migratory waterfowl; and abundant fish from the Calumet River and Stony Creek.
The Potawatomi, the Indigenous People who lived in the area when the European settlers came, were also cultivators of crops, growing the “three sisters,” corn, beans, and squash. Although they did not rely on insects for their main diet, what is not known is if any insect species were considered delicacies for them, as some insects are considered in other cultures. They certainly would have been familiar with the periodic cicadas, which are described as having a sweet, nut-like flavor.
It was documented that the Cherokee in North Carolina enjoyed cicadas as a treat. They dug up the nymphs and fried them in hog fat, baked them into pies, and salted and pickled them to save for later.
The Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York calls cicadas Ogweñ•yó’da’ and considers them a great snack. When their crops, orchards, food supplies, and homes were burned and many of their people killed by the Continental Army during the American Revolution in retaliation for some of the Native American tribes siding with the British, they were faced with starvation as they tried to rebuild. Then thousands of cicadas emerged from the ground, providing a much-needed food source. They consider cicadas a gift from the Creator.
American Indians in the western and southern sections of North America, with more sparse resources, did include many different insects in their diets.
Cicadas do have a place in some Native American folklore. The mythology of the Hopi people of northern Arizona believes that two cicadas, known as maahu in the Hopi language, led the Hopi people into the fourth world. The fourth world is the world they live in now, believed to follow previous worlds that were underground. The maahu played flutes, creating the buzzing of the cicadas, which healed the humans when shot with arrows from the eagles that guarded the fourth world. Today Hopi artists create kachinas, or spirit figures, of the maahu.
The next post of this series will look at the reactions of the European colonists who encountered the periodic cicadas when they arrived in the “New World.”
A lot of events are going on in June that focus on history and community. Right now, I am promoting Bloomsday, Sunday, June 16, the annual holiday that celebrates the novel "Ulysses" by James Joyce because WE NEED READERS for the event.
Now, let's be honest. "Ulysses" is the most famous novel ever written that very few people have actually managed to read. More people have read about the novel than have actually read it. Reading this novel is mandatory to include on bucket lists along with swimming with sharks.
I was "afraid" to get involved in a Bloomsday event in the past because I've started the novel at least four times in earnest and I've only completed the first chapter so far. (I have managed to read some other Joyce-related stuff – "The Dubliners" short stories are a great place to start, the nuns had us reading those in high school English classes, plus there are many study guides on "Ulysses" and loads of info on James Joyce).
It's a really tough novel to get through, and Joyce did that on purpose. He said, “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”
Around the world, Bloomsday is celebrated. In Dublin, Ireland, where "Ulysses" takes place, people go around visiting all the sites of the action in the novel, and re-enactments are the big thing.
When I was in Dublin, I did visit some of the sites, like the Martello tower where the story begins (so I can picture chapter 1 – four times), but I was not there on Bloomsday. Bloomsday is named for one of the characters, Leopold Bloom, and all the action takes place on one day, June 16, 1904, thus the date.
Beverly/Morgan Park/Mt. Greenwood will have a Bloomsday event on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at Lanigan's Irish Pub at 3119 W. 111th Street, from 2 to 5 p.m. The highlights will be readings from the novel and Irish music from Pat Boarders and Pat Finnegan.
We're fortunate to have MaryAnn Ryan in our community. She has a Ph.D. in English and Irish literature and SHE HAS READ "ULYSSES" AND EVEN TAUGHT COLLEGE-LEVEL CLASSES ON THE BOOK!
Dr. Ryan is coordinating the readers for this event and has put out a call for people to contact her if interested. Believe me, you do not have to be any kind of expert to get involved in this! Mary Ann will help you pick a passage to read, and help you understand Joyce and this book.
It's loads of fun to do Bloomsday, whether you do a reading or not. The comradery is great, the music is great.
This year it falls on Father's Day, and this will be a nice alternative event for an entertaining afternoon.
Copies of "Ulysses" are available through Bookie's Chicago on 103rd and Western, and the store and Keith Lewis are co-sponsors of this event.
Also on the team is Tim Noonan, who is a champion not only of social causes in the 19th ward, but also of Irish culture. Tim ran the Bloomsday event two years ago, and brought together this year's event, also. Through him, another co-sponsor is the Ancient Order of Hibernians fraternal organization.
(By the way, Keith and Tim haven't gotten all the way through "Ulysses," either. That doesn't stop any of us from having fun at this event.)
So contact MaryAnn Ryan at ryan.maryann@gmail.com to do a reading, and plan to attend this event. There is no charge but voluntary donations to offset the costs will be very appreciated.
Bloomsday was a way of re-energizing "all things Joyce" and I know I will leave the event with new resolve to finish the novel – or at least to tackle chapter 2.
My article this week in the Beverly Review:
https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_2479546e-2291-11ef-91e0-73d8666dc901.html
June 6, 1944, headlines in the Chicago Tribune. That summer, the news was dominated by the war in Europe. Many servicemen from Chicago and the Ridge fought bravely to stop the Nazis and fascist regimes from taking control. There are few World War II veterans still with us today.
The History of Brood XIII Cicadas in the Chicago Area – Part 2
The missionaries, explorers, traders, and settlers who came from Europe to the Americas had varying degrees of experience with cicadas in their home countries.
There are over 3,390 species of cicadas identified today, and they are found on every continent, except Antarctica, in habitats with deciduous trees. Cicadas prefer more tropical climates, and there are at least 800 species of cicadas in Latin America, but only sixty species are found in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
The common, or ash, cicada, which often lays its eggs in ash trees, is one of the most familiar species in central and southern Europe. It was officially named in 1758. It is found in Italy, France, and Spain, countries of origin for early travelers to the Americas. The ash cicada has a three-year lifespan underground, with some specimens maturing and emerging every year.
Farther north in Europe, cicadas are scarcer.
In England, where many of the early colonists came from, only one species of cicada is found. This is a different species from the ash cicada, and like many other species of these insects around the world, this one has a very limited geographic range. It is confined to the New Forest in the southern part of the country, a 71,000-acre tract of forest, heathland, and pasture, declared a royal forest more than 1,000 years ago.
This same species was once found throughout Europe as part of a complex of species, each one distinguished by its “song.” Now it is considered endangered. The New Forest cicadas haven’t been seen or heard in England since 2000, a source of worry and study for the experts. The species does still exist in limited places in East Europe.
No species of cicadas appear to be listed as native to Ireland, which has a cooler climate than many insects and reptiles can tolerate.
Although some Europeans who came to the “New World” might have had some experience with cicadas in their countries of origin, many, including the English, likely did not. They had to learn about and adjust to the native flora and fauna in their new country.
The periodic cicadas found only in North America were new to them. The unique characteristics of the periodic cicadas is that distinct species and combinations of species, called broods, have evolved 13- or 17-year lifecycles, and they emerge almost all at once in synchronization.
Cicadas were commonly identified as “locusts” in the beginning. They were viewed as the biblical pests who appeared in large swarms, traveling across an area and devouring crops. Cicadas are not in the locust family, and do not behave like locusts. There are true locusts in the Americas, however, and the size of the periodic broods of cicadas and their clumsy flying resulted in their being considered together at first.
The first known account by an English settler that referred to cicadas was a 1633 report by William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, in which he stated: “… there was a numerous company of Flies which were like for bigness unto wasps or Bumble-Bees; they came out of little holes in the ground, and did eat up the green things, and made such a constant yelling noise as made the woods ring of them, and ready to deafen the hearers; they were not any seen or heard by the English in this country before this time ….”
During the 1700s, the details of the lifecycles of the periodic cicadas, that is, the 13- and 17-year lifespans underground and the emergence en masse of large numbers from holes in the ground, started to be recognized and documented.
In 1775, Thomas Jefferson reported on one brood’s 17-year cycle, mentioning that an acquaintance remembered “great locust years” in 1724 and 1741, and Jefferson recalled one in 1758, and now they were emerging at his estate at Monticello in 1775. He noted the females laid their eggs in the small twigs of trees.
In 1800, a Black tobacco farmer in Maryland, Benjamin Banneker, who was a self-taught naturalist and mathematician, wrote in his journal about experiencing the emergence of cicadas in 1749, 1766, 1783, and 1800.
Articles that appeared in 1809, attached to this post, described the current knowledge about these “American locusts.”
As early as 1715, it was also observed that these insects were a favored dietary course for animals. One Philadelphia-based minister reported that “swine and poultry ate them, but what was more astonishing, when they first appeared some of the people split them open and ate them.”
Settlers started putting down roots in the Chicago area in the late 1700s, and on the Blue Island Ridge in the 1830s. They encountered what today is known as Brood XIII of the 17-year cicadas, also known as the Northern Illinois Brood, the largest group of cicadas in the world.
The next post in the series will look at how Chicago embraced this natural phenomenon through the years.
The History of Brood XIII Cicadas in the Chicago Area – Part 3
By the time settlers from Europe started putting down roots in the Chicago area in the late 1700s, the people on the East coast had been documenting and discussing the periodic cicadas for over a century.
The periodic cicadas of the genus Magicicada, found only in North America, have characteristics that make them unique in the animal kingdom.
These characteristics are the 13- or 17-year lifecycles they have evolved, and the synchronized emergence of almost all the insects in a species at the same time in the same year.
In the early 1800s, cicadas were still confused with locusts, but really the two insects were very different. Cicadas did not descend upon and destroy crops the way the biblical swarms of locusts did, and this difference was starting to be slowly recognized.
The thinking about the cicadas was shown in a succession of articles in the Chicago Tribune in 1871, a year that the same species of cicadas emerged that are emerging now. By that year, the communities of Beverly and the new Morgan Park were being built, so these insects certainly would have been noticed on and around the Blue Island Ridge.
Some excerpts from those articles are:
May 30: “The much-dreaded seventeen-year locust has already appeared in Illinois. They will probably be found all over the northern part of the State, in greater or less numbers, and will undoubtably make immense havoc among the fruit trees and shrubs, while they threaten but little damage to the grain. The locust is reported to have last appeared in this section in 1854, so that it is due in 1871.”
June 19: “The insects are said to be really no locusts at all, no more than a horse is a hog. [They are] scientifically quite distinct. We saw them on the trees in myriads, and the smaller limbs and twigs were bored by them and millions of eggs deposited in the wood. The noise made by them in the forest is wonderful…. Of all the curious creatures that we have seen, they ‘beat all nature.’”
June 28: “The mission of the seventeen-year locusts has apparently been discovered. It having been ascertained that these celebrated insects have not visited … for the purpose of devouring the crops, as the farmers had anticipated, it came to be a question what under heaven they did come for.” With tongue in cheek, the article decided the cicadas came to entertain schoolboys, providing them with a means to disrupt classroom activities.
In 1888, seventeen years later, the newspapers covered the next emergence of the periodic cicadas in the Chicago area. By then much of its lifecycle was documented, but still not well understood.
Chicagoans were familiar enough now with the cicadas, however, to start thinking of them in more entertaining ways. An article in the June 13 Chicago Tribune, included as an attachment to this post, used illustrations giving them some human characteristics.
They were still having trouble with a common name for the insect, however. On July 5, the Inter Ocean newspaper reported: “The insect known as the seventeen year locust is not a member of the locust but of the cicada family, and its correct name is the harvest fly.”
By 1905, Chicagoans were starting to get downright blasé about the cicadas, and the comments were sarcastic or ironic.
Some examples were:
Chicago Tribune, April 24: “The seventeen year locusts … are due again this spring. They will have to come early if they expect to hold their own with the every-year insect pests.”
Chicago Tribune, June 7: “’What are you making such a hideous racket about?’ asked the caterpillar. ‘Mind your own business!’ retorted the seventeen year locust. ’This is the first chance I’ve had to make a noise since 1888!’ Whereupon he started up his buzz saw again.”
Chicago Tribune, June 8: “If the seventeen year locust could be grafted on the mosquito there might be sixteen consecutive years worth living, anyway.”
Chicago Tribune, June 26: “In addition to its other objectionable qualities the seventeen year locust labors under the hallucination that it can sing.”
However, with every emergence, new facts about the cicadas were being learned. In 1905, it was reported that sometimes the 17-year cicada “gets dates mixed up and comes out ahead of time.”
Scientists have observed that some of the periodic cicadas emerge one or four years too soon, or four years too late. Why this occurs is still a mystery. One theory is that these “stragglers,” as they are called, may be developing too quickly or too slowly, but that does not explain why this occurs in four-year cycles.
By 1922, the value of cicadas was starting to be recognized, and actual praise and fondness for the insects started to creep into reports about them.
In the Chicago Tribune on July 9, an article called them a “magnificent visitor” with “rich coloring” and “intense coral eyes,” “the least pestiferous pest that ever swarmed over the country.”
The article noted the fondness animals had for eating them, from birds to cats and dogs. It was noted that animals filling up on cicadas left their usual food uneaten, and “if the cherries hang in rich, red clusters it is because the birds and squirrels are too fed up with locusts to notice their former favorite food.”
Photos of the cicadas started being used in the papers.
This was also their first emergence year when they started being referred to regularly as Brood XIII of the 17-year cicadas. This numbering system started in 1893, developed by Charles Marlatt to replace the very complex and difficult system that existed previously.
A “brood” has been described as like a graduating year for a classroom of cicadas that have all grown up together. In the system, the numbers 1 to 17 denote the 17-year cicadas, and 18 to 30 the 13-year cicadas.
An illustration by Marlatt of the “Seventeen Year Locust” which is now known as Brood XIII appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1922.
The next emergence of Brood XIII was in 1939. That would be the earliest year that people who remember it are still around. The next post will look at cicadas in “recent memory.”