Back to Document 5
Up to Document List
Ahead to Document 7

Document 6 –

An Abstract of Title, Lot 2, Block 44, Original Town of Chicago
 

September 27, 1830–January 2, 1839
 


Document 6
Click for larger image

Transcription

              332

Abstract of Title
to
Lot 2 in Block 44 Original Town of Chicago,


1. 		Lot 2 above named was purchased of the Canal
Commissioners Sept. 27th. 1830 by Lyon Bourrissa
for $41.                            Patent not found.
Lion Bourrissa
2.      to
Joseph La Framboise 		Warrantee Deed. dated July 11th. 1834.
Consid. $5. Conveys Lot 2 in Block 44 in the
Town of Chicago.
Recorded July 2d 1835. Book D. page 218.
Joseph La Fromboise
3.        to
Ashbel Steele 		Warrantee Deed. dated June 29th. 1837 Consid.
$22 000. Conveys same Lot.
Deed not acknowledged.
Recorded July 5th. 1837 Book S. page 261.
Ashbel Steele
4.     ads
Wm H. Stow Byran King
Wm Jones & H.B. Clark 		Judgment in Municipal Court of the City of
Chicago. July 15th. 1837. for $850.06 & costs $23.12
Exon. 146 isued Aug. 19.th. 1837. levied on Lot 2 in
Block 44. Origl. Town of Chicago, with buildings thereon,
Nov. 19th. 1837. and returned for vend. exponus.
Exon. 414 issued April 28th. 1838. Returned satisfied
by sale Jany. 2nd 1839. to Wm. H. Stow for $986.

Explanation

The property in question was located just west of the South Branch of the Chicago River on the southeast corner where Randolph Street intersects. When the lot first was sold by the canal commissioners on September 27, 1830 it went for $41 (see document 5 explanation). This price was in line with the average lot selling for $34 in that sale. When the same lot was resold for $5 on July 11, 1834 the canal’s future was far from certain. No construction had taken place yet and the canal commissioners, who had been established by the General Assembly to oversee the canal’s financing and construction in 1829, were disbanded by that same authority in 1833.

When this lot was sold again on June 29, 1837 it brought the huge sum of $22,000. Although buildings probably had been erected on the site since its last sale, this tremendous increase also reflected regional and national speculative fever. New arrangements for the canal’s financing had been made and actual ground had been broken on July 4, 1836. In Chicago expectations for phenomenal growth were at an all time high. Then came the Panic of 1837. Banks and many factories in the East virtually had shut down in May of 1837 but national despair took another month or so in reaching exuberant Chicago.

Ashbel Steele was forced to forfeit his property due to unpaid taxes on July 15, 1837. At a tax sale held on January 2, 1839 William H. Stow, Byran King, William Jones, and H. B. Clark, all partners in an iron foundry business, were able to pick up the lot at the bargain price of $986.

To locate Chicago lots and blocks, see Exhibit B.

Points To Consider

What is an abstract of title?

Which circumstances made the lot’s value fall from $41 on September 27, 1830 to $5 on July 11, 1834?

Which circumstances made the lot’s value rise from $5 on July 11, 1834 to $22,000 on June 29, 1837?

How might real estate speculation both have benefited and damaged the local economy for the period covered in this document?

Back to Document 5
Up to Document List
Ahead to Document 7

Back to Illinois and Michigan Canal Introduction page
Back to Illinois State Archives home page