Hibbard, William Gold
William Gold Hibbard Soundex Code H163
William Gold Hibbard (1825 - Monday, October 12, 1903) was born in 1825 in Dryden, N.Y. to Joel B. Hibbard and Elizbeth Hibbard, nee: Elizabeth Gold. Eight years before Chicagoans started calling their settlement a town. He completed high school in central New York and set out for the West in 1849, at the age of 24. This was the year of the California Gold Rush. The west was beginning to grow and expand, and Chicago was becoming a part of the boom.
William Gold Hibbard married Lydia Beekman Hibbard, nee: Lydia Beekman Van Schaack, and they had 5 children. Francis Hibbard, Frank Hibbard, Adelia Vanderpool Hibbard, Nellie Brewer Hibbard, and William Gold Hibbard 2.
William Gold Hibbard arrived in Chicago after a trip across the Great Lakes from Buffalo. The railroads had not yet reached Chicago. He had $3 in his pocket. More than enough money, when coupled with his indomitable “I Will” spirit, to make a fortune in what was soon to become a boom town and a hub of commerce for the nation.
William Gold Hibbard became a junior clerk in the hardware firm of William Blair & Co. His salary was $300 a year plus sleeping quarters in the back room of the store. He worked there for six years.
By 1853, when Chicago had grown to a town of 15,000 people, Hibbard had saved enough money to join with several other men to form the Tuttle, Hibbard Co. at 62 Lake Street.
In 1857, the first of three fires that were to affect him burned out his company. Within 25 days, the store had been rebuilt and his business bounced back so quickly he was able to move to larger quarters at the corner of State and Lake Streets.
Franklin Fayette Spencer and Adolphus Clay Bartlett later joined the firm. The three names, Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett have stayed above the door of the firm since 1881.
Hibbard had built a large brick home to house his family of four girls and two boys at 1701 Prairie Avenue in 1868, just a year after another fire had partially destroyed his warehouse.
In the early morning of Monday, October 9, 1871, he and his family were aroused from their beds by a watchman from his store and warehouse which was located on Michigan Avenue between Lake and Randolph Streets. The watchman brought news of the beginning of the Great Chicago Fire.
Hibbard sprang into action, mustering as many men as he could to transfer his hardware goods from the warehouse to his stable and home. By the next day, he had to abandon the building.
In that year, the firm had been doing about $800,000 worth of trade throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For the next six weeks, this vast company did business from Hibbard’s Prairie Avenue home. Even the family was pressed into service stamping and sealing envelopes while some clerks stood guard behind the home to protect the business from looters.
A new store, if it could be called that, was set up in a shack in the shanty town of business firms that grew up in what is now called Grant Park. It was “business as usual” for Hibbard despite the fire’s destruction.
Hibbard was one of the pioneers of commerce in Chicago who had the strength, the skill, and above all, the determination to make “a town in the mud” grow into a metropolis that would draw hundreds of thousands of immigrants from around the world.
As a director of several banks, he fought periodic runs on the banks by personally guaranteeing depositors’ money. His philanthropic work included large contributions of time and money to St. Luke-Presbyterian Hospital. He was one of the founding members of the Commerce Club, which contributed $100,000 to the Commerce Club to finance the Burnham Plan, the city’s first long range plan.
William G. Hibbard Elementary School at 3244 W. Ainslie Avenue, bearing his name was dedicated on Wednesday, May 3, 1967.
Employment
William Gold Hibbard was a salesman for the Brown, Tuttle Co. Hardware, Michigan Avenue, 1853-54.
William Gold Hibbard joined Tuttle to create Tuttle, Hibbard Co. Hardware, Michigan Ave. 1855.
Hibbard, Spencer & Co., opened at 92-94 Michigan Avenue, 1865.
