Suggested Reading
Ballard, E[verett] G[uy]. Captain Streeter: Pioneer. Chicago: Emery Publishing Service, 1914. This meandering biography of Streeter was written by one of his lawyers.
Broomell, Kenneth F. and Harlow M. Church. "Streeterville Saga." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 33 (June, 1940), pp. [153]-165. A fine older history of Cap Streeter that unfortunately contains no bibliography or notes.
[Eddy, Mrs.] My Twenty Year's Experience in Streeterville: District of Lake Michigan. Privately printed, N.d. A sensational and vitriolic diatribe against the Chicago Title and Trust Company in which "Mrs. Eddy" appears to make several inaccurate statements. For example, she claims that the title company lost its records in the Chicago Fire, when actually these materials were saved from destruction. (To read about my research on the cause of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, go to www.thechicagofire.com. To read about my book, The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, go to my publisher's website, www.mcfarlandpub.com.)
Millard, Joseph. "George Wellington Streeter--All This Out Here Is My Land." In No Law but Their Own, by Joseph Millard, pp. 111-58. Evanston, Ill.: Regency Books, 1963. A fictionalized account of the story of Cap Streeter that also appeared in the December 1947 issue of True magazine. Millard's story is a gripping tale of the Streeter saga. Joseph Millard is perhaps best known for his novels based on the professional killer, "The Man with No Name," who was portrayed by Clint Eastwood in a series of films that included "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." Millard died in 1989. His Streeter novel is clearly based on fact. Whatever happened to his research notes?
Miller, Francesca Falk. The Sands: The Story of Chicago's Front Yard. Chicago: Valentine-Newman, 1948. This novel that is set in Streeterville contains an "historical appendix" that details the life of Cap Streeter.
Niles, W[illiam] H. A Brief History and the Legal Standing of the District of Lake Michigan. Chicago: C. Swanberg & Co., N.d. William H. Niles was the "military governor" of Streeterville. Niles states in the preface to this pamphlet that "the object of this book will be to present to the thinking public a brief history of our case and to show how we have been deprived of our property and political rights by the power of money." [emphasis in original]
Tessendorf, K.C. "Captain Streeter's District of Lake Michigan." Chicago History 5 (Fall, 1976), pp. 152-60. Although this article contains a few errors, it remains a fine modern account of the saga of Cap Streeter. I relied heavily on this article in writing my story of Streeter.
Weber, Jessie Palmer, ed. "Captain George Wellington Streeter." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 13 (January, 1921), pp. 571-74. A short account of the life and death of Streeter.
