An Epilogue

Soon after the 1855 riot, Chicago would, predictably, reduce the liquor fees and ditch the Sunday bar closures. Disgusted with what had transpired, the city then voted for a new Mayor, Thomas Dyer, with German and Irish support. And all would move on, leaving old Levi and his Know Nothings behind.

And though this tale may be but a footnote in one American city’s early history, it still highlights the power and influence that people can have, together with their life experiences and unique ancestral journeys, challenging early comfortable worldviews and providing the seeds from which urban neighborhoods would take root.

And what remains, even as city neighborhoods and comfortable worldviews evolve over time, is the lasting impact and influence of those early inhabitants, inexorably part of any urban neighborhood’s DNA.

Sort of like that old saloon that the newly arrived German immigrants opened in 1853, Klugel’s Lager Beer Saloon, which exists as a bar even today, only under a different name …

Wells on Wells.

That favorite Old Town watering hole of mine, where you can go to have a drink without pretense and are just as likely to see residents from the neighborhood as you are those passing through for the first time.

Even on Sundays.