| Captain George Streeter |
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Information AboutCaptain George Streeter |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GEORGE STREETER | |
| people from chicago | |
| history of chicago | |
| 1837 births | |
| 1921 deaths | |
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That summer, Nathaniel K. Fairbank , who claimed rights to the area, arrived to inform Streeter he was an illegal squatter and would have to leave. Streeter chased Fairbank off with a shotgun. Shortly thereafter, Streeter also chased away the constables who had come to evict him. Further attempts to remove them were met with gunfire and scalding hot water. After one such raid resulted in an arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, Streeter was acquitted on the grounds that buckshot was not considered deadly. Since the downtown clean-up after the Great Fire in 1871, Lake Michigan had been used as a dump by building contractors. Streeter invited such contractors to dump their waste on the sandwar where the Reutan sat, extending the size of his land considerably. As the landmass grew, Streeter began to issues deeds to the land to others who saw themselves as "homesteaders" in the growing city of Chicago. City planners and founders saw otherwise. Although Fairbank sued Streeter in 1890 and won, Streeter maintained his hold on the District, which was now home to prostitutes, transients and other "undesirables." During the World Columbian Exposition , Streeter refloated the ''Reutan'' and used it to ferry passengers between Streeterville and the Exposition grounds at Jackson Park . From 1894 on, there were many attempts to forcibly remove Streeter from the District. In cases in which police were injured by axe and gunfire, Streeter and his men were invariably found not guilty due to acting in self-defense. Streeter's fight for what he considered his land continued until his death on January 24 , 1921 , although he and his second wife left Streeterville to move to East Chicago, Indiana in 1918 . Streeters' heirs continued to lay claim on the land until April 1928, when the courts ruled in favor of Chicago Title and Trust. The site of Streeter's shanty is currently occupied by the John Hancock Building . EXTERNAL LINKS The Chicago Public Library maintains an extensive Streeterville Collection. {Link without Title} |
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