The Uprising · May 1, 1890
The Toll House Uprising
On Wednesday night, May 1, 1890, forty to fifty men in wagons drove up to the Fullerton toll gate, smashed the gate house, and pushed the wreckage into the ditch. Two nights later, 200 men burned it to the ground.
Source: Wurlington Bros. / Lyndale History
The Origins of Milwaukee Avenue
The long diagonal route of Milwaukee Avenue is a clue that this road existed before the right-angle grid of city streets was built around it. Centuries before Chicago existed, Native Americans walked paths across the prairie along the west side of the Chicago River toward villages and hunting camps in what is now Forest Glen.
In 1849 the state granted a 99-year charter to the Northwestern Plank Road, the first of several long-distance toll roads connecting outlying towns to Chicago. The new road cut diagonally eighteen miles across open land from the Des Plaines River near Wheeling to the west side of downtown, not far from Haymarket Square on Randolph Street where farmers sold their produce.
The Toll Gate at Fullerton
West of the Chicago city limits at Western Ave, the Plank Road was a toll road. The frame toll house stood there and was moved in the 1870s to the northeast corner of Fullerton Ave. Seven other toll houses were located every few miles at Belmont, Jefferson Park, and farther down the road.
The toll-keeper lived in the six-room house and was on duty 24 hours a day. The toll house stood partway across the roadway, and at night a pole was lowered and padlocked to block passage.
Toll Rates
Carriage, four horses
4¢ per mile
Wagon, one horse
2¢ per mile
Horse and rider
1¢ per mile
Sheep, hog, or goat
Smaller amounts per head
William Ringler — Toll Keeper
"I was on the job for 14 years and I guess I took in more money than any other gatekeeper. One Sunday — Polish and Bohemian picnics at Niles in Des Plaines, and the new cemeteries then opening up — my receipts were $790. The average from all gates at that time was about $300 to $500 a day."
— William Ringler, Toll Keeper at Fullerton, 1870s–1880s
The Night of May 1, 1890
"Smash Them Down!"
Local residents grew tired of waiting for a legal judgement. Rumors spread that someone should burn the hated toll houses down. Later, saloonkeeper Joseph Kandlik claimed the plot was hatched at his barroom at the southeast corner of California and Milwaukee.
On Wednesday night, May 1, 1890, a posse of forty to fifty men in wagons drove up to the Fullerton toll gate and confronted toll keeper Ed Smith, telling him to pack his bags and get out. They smashed the small gate house and gate pole and pushed the wreckage into the ditch, then rode on to the Belmont toll gate and did the same.
That Friday around midnight an even bigger crowd of as many as 200 marched on the toll house, shouting "Smash them down!" Ed Smith and his wife ran to alert the fire department. The crowd first placed many of the Smith family's belongings out on the curb and then set fire to the toll house. As the flames grew, the people ran excitedly around the bonfire. Police and fire crews soon arrived, doused the flames and arrested six men for arson.
The Legend Lives On
Two weeks after the burning of the toll house, the Illinois Supreme Court decided: Snell's toll road charter could not be inherited and all of the toll booths must go. Milwaukee Avenue would become a regular city street.
72-year-old Charlie Kandlik retold the tale in all its detail to a skeptical Tribune reporter in 1955. In his version he knew all the leaders of the plot personally. He saw them all dancing around the fire in Indian headdresses like a latter-day Boston Tea Party. And in the famous photo from the next morning, that was him right there on the left.
Primary Source
Wurlington Bros. — Marvelous Lyndale: The Toll House Uprising. wurlington-bros.com