Whiting: A Pioneer Land of Plenty October 2019

With the hustle and bustle of the Amoco refinery and other modern manufacturing industries, it is very easy to overlook the fact that Whiting was once a frontier town teeming with flora and fauna. In fact, in the 1890’s and early 20th century, Whiting was once a hunting and fishing retreat for sportsmen. The City Almanac of 1911 indicates that hunting retreats were recognized institutions, “and many a dollar was put into circulation by the hunting fraternity.” These lodges were centered near where the Eggers Park triangle intersects Lake and 119th Streets. Among these were two famous resorts—one owned by the notoriously rowdy railroad worker Bill Reese and the second, on the shore’s of Lake George, Charles Kreuter’s resort. But the hunting and fishing of the day was unmatched by the beauty of the Berry Lake lodge built by Henry Eggers.

Mr. U.G. Swartz in his history of Standard Oil’s Whiting refinery states, “Whiting remained a community of hunters for nearly 40 years. Soon after 1860 the deer had somewhat disappeared, but the supply of ducks and wild turkeys continued undiminished apparently inexhaustible.” He continues with, “Old Mrs. Henry Egger’s mother, the story goes, was trying one afternoon to get her son’s small children to sleep, while the ducks in the slough outside were making enough noise to wake the dead. So she went outside with a gun and took a shot at the ducks to scare them away—and with that one random shot brought down nine mallards.”

The local woods and underbrush were home to pheasant, turkeys and foxes as well as wild strawberries, raspberries and huckleberries. Controversy raged in the early 1900’s whether Berry Lake took its name from the hunting lodge keepers, the Beary’s, or from the numerous berry crops that provided a living for many of the early settlers. The Almanac describes it thusly: “From the time the first strawberries came until the snow fell, there was a succession of berry crops. Strawberries were distributed over most of the region and raspberries were especially plentiful near Berry Lake. When Huckleberry season came, it was necessary to go farther east. The last crop of the year was that of the cranberries, which grew in the famous marshes east of Berry lake and extended as far as Clarke station.”

As transportation improved to the area and more pioneers came to Whiting to build

Barns, plant fruit trees and planted hay along the railroad tracks to feed their cows, the sandy soil of Lake Michigan defeated many a farmer. Early settler Ernst Vater, himself a local hunting and fishing legend, explained, “This was really not good farm land. There were a few places where you could raise potatoes and watermelons and stuff that would grow in part sand. People in Chicago called this the Devil’s Kitchen, it was so wild.” His sister came from Germany to try farming in the sand at Whiting and when her potatoes grew no larger than marbles, legend has it that she threw the barren sand in her brother’s face and moved on to Iowa.

Twenty four local residents fought in the Civil War, and during the hardships of those times, Henry Reese would carry a load of butter to Chicago, on foot. Whiting was not an actual station stop for passengers but the steam engines were replenished with wood and water here. The Almanac relates the story of Henry Schrage and his father who would “walk ten miles east following the Pennsylvania embankment, to pick huckleberries. After picking their berries it was necessary to walk to Ainsworth, 15 miles, and there take the train to Chicago. The fare from south Chicago was 50 cents for the father and 25 cents for the son. It was, therefore, necessary besides picking the huckleberries to walk 25 miles and pay out 75 cents in carfare in order to get to market.”

As more settlers and workers came with the building of the refinery in June of 1889, cinder roads and sewers were built because the oxen drawn carts couldn’t navigate the rutted sandy roads. One Mr. Henry Theobold reported, “People made a good living selling frogs and fish and wild game. John Klint, the bridge keeper at 106th Street bridge used to walk up and down the bridge with a gun. By the time I passed there on my way to work early in the morning, he would have already bagged 15 to 20 ducks.”

Today, while many of our local citizenry are avid hunters and fishermen, the days of foraging and fishing for a living may be long gone but the traditions are carried on by the local boat and hunting clubs, most notably the Whiting/Robertsdale Boat Club and the Southeast Side Sportsmen’s Club as well as the Hammond Mohawks.