Ogle County Newspapers / oglecountynews.com • Friday, February 19, 2021
OGLE COUNTY NEWS
6
LOCAL HISTORY
Pullman connection helped build Ogle County
Editor’s note: Otto Dick, Oregon has researched the people, places and events important in the Oregon area’s history for the Ogle County Historical Society. The following is one of a series of the articles he has written.
BY OTTO DICK The Pullman Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars and played an important role in the development of Oregon and the surrounding area. In 1845 George Pullman and his father James helped widen the Erie Canal. George took over the family business of moving houses out of the way for the canal. This canal was used by many of our early settlers bringing their belongings and families to Ogle County. Frank Lowden and his wife Florence Pullman left their footprints, still very visible today. George Pullman’s two daughters Florence and Harriet both lived at the Sinnissippi Farms located near Daysville, southeast of Oregon. At the depot I remember African American Pullman Porters . The following is a summary of the Pullman Car Company. George Pullman, the son of a cabinetmaker, recalled an uncomfortable train ride from Buffalo to Westfield New York caused him to realize there was a market for a more comfortable train travel. In 1857 he converted two railroad cars into comfortable sleeping cars. When Pullman moved to Chicago he built the sleeping car Springfield and named it after the town it was built in and President Lincoln’s home town. In 1868 he built the first hotel on wheels named the President. The President was a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. In 1870 he started leasing, not selling, Pullman Cars to railroads and provided complete service for the traveling public. Pullman formed his luxury railcar manufacturing company in 1867. Chicago, the railroad center of the country, was the perfect place for his national headquarters. In 1880 he purchased 4,000 acres near Lake Calument some 14 miles south of Chicago on the Illinois Cen-
ABOVE: George Pullman founded the Pullman Car Company. LEFT: This photo shows the inside of one of the Pullman sleeping cars in the heyday of train travel. BELOW: This is the administration building in the Pullman District in Chicago. BELOW LEFT: The hotel Florence opened in the Pullman community in 1881. It was used as a gathering place for friends, visiting dignitaries and clients. Photos supplied by Otto Dick
tral Railroad for $800,000 establish ing the Pullman Factory and Pullman Administration Building. He set aside 600 acres for housing, stores and recreational facilities for his employees. The hotel Florence opened in this Pullman community in 1881 and was used as a gathering place for friends, visiting dignitar-
ies and clients. In 1892 the population of this industrial town was 14,702. This Industrial City of Pullman contained a market, restaurants, hospital, bank, church, library, theater and a three-acre lake called Lake Vista. This was one of the Nation’s first
planned communities, built as a self-contained industrial village or company town. In February 2015 the Pullman Historic District was designated a National Monument by U. S. President Barack Obama. The Florence Hotel is the headquarters for this National Historic Landmark.
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