Editing Blue Island, Illinois (section)

===The Portland question===
[[File:PortlandILLINOIS.JPG|425px|thumb|right|This sketch was derived from the plat of Portland which was registered by Peter Barton with the state of Illinois on April 13, 1839.
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Barton hoped to develop Portland as an important river town. "It was thought that the lake commerce by the Calumet and the inland commerce by the feeder, which was planned to be enlarged into a water-way equal to the canal, would make this location of wonderful commercial value. These expectations were never to be realized, however, as the construction of the railroads spoiled these early calculations. The Rock Island swung its line away from the river and built its depot close to the hill, and Portland was forgotten."<ref>{{cite book |title= Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois – Cook County Edition – Illustrated – Volume II| last= Bateman |first= Newton|author2=Selby, Paul |year= 1905| publisher= Munsell Publishing Company| location= Chicago| page= 778 }}</ref>{{pb}}<!--

-->Most of the streets shown east of Division Street and all of those shown on the eastern bank of the [[Calumet River]] do not exist to this day, and several of those that were constructed elsewhere deviate significantly from the way they are charted here. The section of Portland north of the township boundary line (the phantom line in the middle of the map) and west of Division Street was included within the boundaries of the village when Blue Island incorporated as a village in 1872.
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Some sources state<ref>{{Cite news | last = Stevens | first = R.R. | title = Circuit Court – New Suits | newspaper = Chicago Daily Law Bulletin | page = 2 | date= June 25, 1877  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.greatchicagorealestate.com/Comm_Blue_Island.htm| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030808160918/http://www.greatchicagorealestate.com/Comm_Blue_Island.htm| url-status=dead| archive-date=2003-08-08| title=Blue Island Illinois Real Estate| publisher=greatchicagorealestate.com| access-date=2010-07-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.illinois.com/city/Blue-Island| title=Blue Island| publisher=illinois.com| access-date=2010-07-19| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230151409/http://www.illinois.com/city/Blue-Island| archive-date=2010-12-30}}</ref> that the city of Blue Island was once officially (or commonly) known as Portland. This claim is erroneous.

*Norman Rexford became the community's first permanent resident when he established the "Blue Island House" at the southern edge of the ridge in November 1836, where in 1838<ref>{{cite book |title=Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois : with portraits – Eighth Edition, Revised and Extended |year= 1897 |publisher= Calumet Book and Engraving Co.| location= Chicago|pages=481–483| url=https://archive.org/stream/albumofgenealogy1897calu#page/480/mode/2up |access-date=December 11, 2010}}</ref> he became the settlement's first postmaster.<ref name="The First Hundred Years – 1835–1935"/>{{rp|23}} In his reminiscences published in the Blue Island ''Standard'' in 1876, Heber Rexford (who first came to the area in 1834 and was Cook County treasurer at the time of the [[Great Chicago Fire]] in 1871)<ref>{{cite book |title= History of Chicago – From the Earliest Period to the Present Time – Complete in One Volume |last= Andreas |first= A.T.|year= 1984|publisher= A.T. Andreas Publishing Co., Publishers|pages=637–638}}</ref> related the following:
<blockquote>
"The north end of the bench of land on which Blue Island stands was originally covered with a dense forest, and from Chicago, before the view was obstructed by buildings, this timber presented a blue appearance like smoke. Water was like-mirrored forth by the mirage which almost always prevailed, giving the timber the appearance of land surrounded by water, and it was from this circumstance that the hunters called it Blue Island, which name was perpetuated by my brother getting a Post Office located there, which was also called Blue Island – so much for the name."<ref name="Southern Cook County and History of Blue Island before the Civil War">{{cite book |url=https://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/collection/data/270784489 |title=Southern Cook County and History of Blue Island before the Civil War |last= Schapper |first= Ferdinand |year= 1917 |publisher= Manuscript |location= Chicago History Museum |access-date=April 25, 2017}}</ref>{{rp|232}}</blockquote>
*On April 13, 1839, Peter Barton and his partners (who included [[Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard|Gurdon Hubbard]] and [[John H. Kinzie]])<ref>[http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/Image.asp?PatentDocClassCode=STA&Accession=IL0900%5F%5F%2E490&Format=PDF&Page=1&Index=30&QryID=72237%2E98 Bureau of Land Management – General Land Office Records]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Accessed 1/20/2010</ref> registered the plat of "Portland" with the state of Illinois. Portland had been laid out on land purchased from the federal government adjacent to the settlement of Blue Island which was situated south of Vermont Street (more or less) and east of Wabash Road (what is now Western Avenue uptown, again, more or less). The [[Little Calumet River]] ran through the center of the platted area, and its promoters felt with this advantage that it would become a prosperous river town. They used their influence to have the local post office name changed from Blue Island to Portland (a circumstance that as time went by would be a source of aggravation to the people of Blue Island), and on May 1, 1839, this was accomplished. The post office, however, wasn't located within the platted area of Portland since there were no buildings in which to operate it, but in fact was on contiguous property to the west at the Blue Island House. Portland was never incorporated – it existed for many years by and large only as a [[Lot and Block survey system|plat of survey]]. No buildings of any consequence were erected there for nearly half a century. While some of the street names from Portland remain (although sometimes not entirely on their original courses), any of them that ''were'' laid out (and in fact a majority of them never were) waited in most cases for many years until they were needed. About half of the area was eventually annexed within what would become the corporate boundaries of Blue Island as time went by, and significant other sections of it became parts of the villages of [[Calumet Park, Illinois|Calumet Park]] and [[Riverdale, Illinois|Riverdale]], the Joe Louis the Champ golf course, and unincorporated [[Calumet Township, Cook County, Illinois|Calumet Township]]. According to John Volp, whose family had lived in Blue Island since 1862:
<blockquote>
"'Portland' did not become a river town. Neither did the name 'Portland' ever come into general use. In spite of all the efforts of its promoters to popularize the locality the people preferred to live on top of the hill and call the place 'Blue Island'..."<ref name="The First Hundred Years – 1835–1935"/>{{rp|32}}</blockquote>
*For reasons that remain unclear (but most likely because all of the development that was taking place in the area was occurring in the as yet unincorporated settlement of Blue Island to the north and west), the state legislature changed the name of the platted "town" of Portland to correspond with that of its neighbor. From the ''Laws of Illinois – 1842 and 1843'':
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"An Act entitled AN ACT TO CHANGE THE NAME OF PORTLAND IN COOK COUNTY TO THE NAME OF BLUE ISLAND: Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly that the name of the place called Portland in Cook County, Illinois is hereby altered and changed to Blue Island and the same shall hereafter always be known and called by such name of Blue Island. Approved February 24, 1843."<ref name="Southern Cook County and History of Blue Island before the Civil War"/>{{rp|137–138}}</blockquote> At the same time, the post office department in Washington, D.C. changed the name of the post office to "Blue Island". In the 1903 edition of ''Blue Book for the State of Illinois'', the state shows 1843 as the year Blue Island was granted "incorporation under special acts",<ref>{{cite book |title= Blue Book of the State of Illinois| last=Rose| first=James A., Secretary of State  |year= 1903| publisher= Phillips Bros., State Printers| location= Springfield|pages=381–383 }}</ref> recognizing the existence of Portland, but not as an incorporated entity. (Blue Island would not officially incorporate for almost another three decades – see below.)
*On April 20, 1850, the post office name was changed to "[[Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois|Worth]]",<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10787.html ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', Map of Cook and DuPage, and parts of Kane, Kendall, and Will Counties, 1851]. Retrieved December 17, 2009</ref> this time to coincide with the name of the township in which it was located.
*The [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad|Rock Island Railroad]] inaugurated service to the community in 1852. From the Chicago ''Journal'', May 27, 1852:
<blockquote>
"The work of laying ties upon this Road (sic) between Chicago and Blue Island will be commenced next week. Mr. H. Fuller... will complete the work in the course of ten or fifteen days. Two hundred and thirty-six men are now employed on it."<ref name="Southern Cook County and History of Blue Island before the Civil War"/>{{rp|117}}</blockquote> 
:The "Rocket", as the train was called, pulled into the Vermont Street station (the only one in town then) for the first time on October 10, 1852. The Rock Island called the station "Blue Island".
*On January 10, 1860, the post office name reverted again to "Blue Island".
*On October 26, 1872, Blue Island incorporated as a village using the name by which it has always been known. Although about twenty percent of Portland was included within the corporate boundaries of the new village, that Portland was not an incorporated entity can be determined from the following excerpt that was taken from the petition that was submitted to the state to permit the election to consider incorporation: "...&nbsp;Your petitioners further represent that the territory herein described and bounded is not more than two (2) square miles, and that no part of the same is now included within the limits of any incorporated town, Village or City&nbsp;..."<ref name="The First Hundred Years – 1835–1935"/>{{rp|123}}