FERNANDO JONES.

"One man has stronger arms, or longer legs; another sees by the course of streams, and growth of markets, where land will be wanted, makes a clearing to the river, goes to sleep and wakes up rich."—Emerson.

FERNANDO JONES came to Chicago in the spring of 1835-his fifteenth birthday - and since that time, has been more or less connected with the real estate business. There is probably no other man in the city who is better posted in the history of land values, and title deeds, or has a better knowledge of old citizens, than he.

The great fire of 1871, which, in less than twenty-four hours, burned down over twentyfour hundred acres of buildings—a great number of them being substantial brick or stone structures also, destroyed records of the Recorder's office, the Probate records, and the proceedings of the courts, together with all maps of subdivisions. A portion of the books

of the abstract firms were saved, however,

and are the only means now in existence of ascertaining the original title to land in Cook county.

If any one wishes to find out anything about an old resident of the city, or to hunt up an obscure title, he gets an interview with Mr. Jones, who can not only tell the facts, but every detail connected with them. He recites the history traditionally, and is perfectly at ease when conversing upon the subject of Chicago Real Estate. One question brings

forth a volume of information. For instance: "What do you know about the real estate of Chicago?" says the questioner. Mr. Jones sits down in his arm-chair, for he is a man of leisure, and gives the following interesting information:

"Chicago was the first locality in the world. that adopted a method of posting titles to real estate by placing all conveyances of the same, consecutively under the head of a certain tract, block or lot, instead of depending upon an index of names of grantor or grantee. For instance: All conveyances of Lot 1, in Block 1, in the original town of Chicago as found upon record in the Recorder's office are posted

upon the same page together with mortgages and releases of the same, thus making search of titles, etc., expeditious.

"Edward A. Rucker, the originator of the system, in connection with James H. Rees, formed the Abstract firm of Rees & Rucker, afterwards Rees & Chase, and finally Chase. Brothers. Two other firms, Shortall & Hoard and Jones & Sellers, had been engaged in the business twenty-five years before the destruction of the public records. The books of the latter firm were stored in fire proof vaults and were taken out several days afterward unharmed. The former firm saved only a portion of their books.

"These firms united after the fire, forming a co-partnership known as the Title Guarantee and Trust Company. Their office is a veritable. hive of industry, where two hundred busy workers are preparing abstracts of titles, or guaranteeing the title, to lots in the county.

"The Indians who first occupied the land in Chicago had no title deeds, but when the war for Independence of the United States closed in 1783, it was found that the State of Virginia claimed a title, through a cession of

In 1784,

the King of England, to the whole territory northwest of the Ohio river. Virginia 'ceded it to the United States, the government of which recognized the rights of the Indians, and in 1795 sent General Anthony Wayne to confer with them. He made a treaty with various tribes of Indians, including the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottowattomies of Illinois, ceding one piece of land at the mouth of the Chikago river emptying into the southwesterly end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood.' It was laid out according to the rectangular system, which was adopted by Congress, in 1784, and of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman of the committee that reported it.

"Fort Dearborn was built in 1804 and occupied by a garrison until August 15, 1812, when the troops abandoned it, and retreated. to Fort Wayne. They had proceeded a little over a mile when they were attacked and captured by hostile Indians, and over a hundred persons including a number of women and children were killed and scalped. The fort was rebuilt in 1816, but was finally abandoned as a military post in 1837. In 1830 the

Commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal surveyed a part of section 9 in township 39, north of the base-line of range 14; east of the 3rd principal meridian on the Chicago river near its mouth, into Blocks and Lots, and named it the town of Chicago. Lots were sold to officers in the garrison, to the few settlers around the fort, and to fur traders.

"The marvelous growth of Tadmor in the wilderness,' in the deserts of Asia has been one of the wonders related in history, but is nothing compared with the growth of Chicago. Less than one hundred years ago the State of Illinois was a part of Illinois County of the State of Virginia. When Illinois was organized in 1818, the present County of Cook was part of Peoria County, the county seat being Peoria. Chicago, in 1832, was organized as a village with less than one thousand inhabitants. There was only one bridge across the river, and no wharves, no sidewalks, no public buildings, except a jail and a hog pound on the public square.

'My father, William Jones, purchased of John Baptiste Beaubien the first lots in Chicago sold to a non-resident. He