4. Destination Chicago
4
DESTINATION CHICAGO
Dwight left Boston with mixed emotions. Once more, he had little money but high hopes.
His mother didn’t know of his new plans to leave Boston, so he wrote her a letter telling her of his decision: “Uncle S.S. objected to my going, but I was fairly drove out of Boston.” Evidently Uncle Samuel had not approved of his nephew’s plans to go farther west but also refused to increase his salary.
Dwight paid five dollars for his ticket on an immigrant train which took him within twenty miles of his Northfield home. Sadly, he couldn’t even stop to say good-bye to his family.
Arriving in Chicago, Dwight’s spirits lifted. Another uncle, jovial Uncle Calvin Holton, soon arranged a position for him with Wiswall’s shoe store on Lake Street.
He quickly got involved in various activities. The first week after his arrival, he met a Mr. King, a lawyer, at prayer meeting. Mr. King’s impression of Dwight provides an interesting observation: “Mr. Moody is one of the happiest looking people I ever saw. His cheeks are full, so red and rosy, and he possesses such a pleasant smile and look, he attracted much attention.”
Chicago and Dwight formed an almost immediate bond. He relished nearly every aspect of this sprawhng, raucous city. Its stockyards, slaughterhouses, and tanneries filled the air with foul odors; factories and foundries saturated the atmosphere with pungent, thick smoke; and Lake Michigan coated Chicago with mud. But none of Chicago’s citizens cared. Like Dwight, they appeared to thrive on all their city’s seemingly offensive elements.
CHICAGO AND DWIGHT FORMED AN ALMOST IMMEDIATE BOND.
Writing home, Dwight exclaimed: “The streets are all lade out strate and broad. You can stand and look as far as the eye can reach and try to walk out of the city.” Neither were the buildings as close together as Boston’s. Even so, fires were frequent and devastating. Hungry flames would leap from building to building, devouring entire city blocks before being brought under control.
It wasn’t long before Dwight found himself caught up in one of Chicagoans’ main goals: making money. Tops in selling shoes, he also benefited from personal habits of thrift and exactness. Soon these traits combined with an intense ambition to possess large sums of money.
Because of Dwight’s energy and enthusiasm, Wiswall’s shoe store appointed him to meet immigrant trains and sell boots to the newcomers. His plain speech and friendly grin worked like a charm to make sales. So intent was he on making money, Dwight prayed that “God would give me one hundred thousand dollars.”
He wrote to his mother cheerfully: “I can make money faster here thin I can in B. I have one of the best situations in the city. I hav done the very best thing in coming here.” Some of Dwight’s money-making strategies included putting savings into land, then selling it at a profit. He also made loans at high rates. He was well on his way to becoming a millionaire.
His brother George received a letter from him exulting in Chicago’s opportunities: “I tell you, hear is the place to make money, and that is not all. I have enjoyed more Religion hear thean I have ever in my life. I find the better I live the more enjoyment I have.”
The city of Chicago also experienced a spiritual revival early in 1857. Dwight’s natural enthusiasm now turned to taking part in the revival. Renting four pews at Plymouth Church, he filled them with young men from Wiswall’s shoe store and other nearby stores, and sometimes with people simply walking by the church. On Sunday afternoons, Dwight and a friend often passed out religious literature to sailors and in saloons, boardinghouses, and the shacks of many poor people.
Dwight wanted so much to share his faith! But his efforts in church always seemed to be thwarted. “I want so much to be part of Plymouth Church,” he confided to a new friend. His downfall always came when he opened his mouth and his poor speech came tumbling out. He noticed how people “squirmed their shoulders when I get up to pray at prayer meeting.” The church board even notified Uncle Calvin, forbidding Dwight to speak at church because his grammar was too poor!
A new position opened for Dwight near the end of 1857. He became a traveling salesman and debt collector for the wholesale boot and shoe house of C. H. Henderson. His brother Luther, visiting him in Chicago, told him, “Dwight, I think it’s foolish of you to leave such a secure position with Wiswall. Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”
“I have got me a situation that is worth five of that and if I have my health and my God is with me I shall suckseed better here in Chicago than ever I thought I should,” boasted Dwight confidently. With that, Dwight was off and running, soon covering the six states of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.
He loved his new job, calling it “better than anything I have ever done—it is nothing but excitement all the time!” This job made him even more prosperous, and when back in Chicago, he boarded at an excellent boardinghouse run by Mrs. Hubert Phillips. Many of Chicago’s fashionable young bachelors roomed there as well; Dwight’s social status had greatly improved.
In his spare time, Dwight sought for a Christian activity in Chicago. Someone suggested he go to Wells Street Mission and ask the people there if he could help with something. When he told the man in charge that he couldn’t teach, the man said offhandedly, “Why don’t you go out into the alleys and streets and see what boys you can bring in?”
“WHY DON’T YOU GO OUT INTO THE ALLEYS AND STREETS AND SEE WHAT BOYS YOU CAN BRING IN?”
With that directive, Dwight set out to see what boys he could find. Rounding up eighteen ragged, barefoot boys on his first trip to Chicago’s seamier side, Dwight joyfully delivered them to the Wells Street Mission. Dressed in a checkered gray suit which covered his stocky frame, Dwight no doubt impressed the boys. He asked them: “Don’t you want to go with me to Sunday school?” One of the boys replied, “Are you going to have a picnic?”
Dwight responded, “Come along with me and we will find out.” Later Dwight confessed, “That was the happiest Sunday I have ever known! After searching for two years trying to find out what my work was before I succeeded, I finally had found out what my mission was.”
Like everything he did, Dwight threw himself wholeheartedly into this new venture of “finding boys.”
“Notwithstanding his crude and somewhat uncouth appearance, we became close friends at once,” one of the boys remembered about Moody in his later years. “And we found him to be a most agreeable companion—good humored, ready and witty in speech, simple, unaffected and kind, with a charm of manner and a personality so winning and interesting that we all immediately swore allegiance to our new found stranger friend.”
Calling his new occupation “drumming up scholars,” Dwight often appeared late for the Methodist Episcopal young men’s class on Sunday mornings. He had joined the class much to the consternation of his fellow Congregationalists and Plymouth Church.
Another class member, John V. Farwell, disdained the young man who came late to class every Sunday. Farwell, one of the most successful and wealthy men in the city, had arrived in Chicago on a hay wagon with four dollars to his name. At thirty-three, he now owned the lading store in Chicago. But when another class member mentioned to Farwell that “young Moody brings all these ragamuffin boys to Wells Street Mission every Sunday before class,” Farwell felt ashamed.
His criticism of Dwight turned back to himself as he wondered why “I wasn’t doing something for others as well as this young man?” Soon after that, the two men became good friends, and Farwell began to help in Dwight’s enterprises.
As Dwight came with his boys to the Wells Street Mission one Sunday, he glimpsed a new teacher for the girls, a good-looking young woman who possessed grace and elegance. He had noticed her a few years earlier at another church.
DWIGHT GLIMPSED A GOOD-LOOKING YOUNG WOMAN WHO POSSESSED GRACE AND ELEGANCE.
Although only fifteen, Emma Revell seemed mature beyond her years, and almost before he realized it, Dwight found himself calling at the Washington Street home of Fleming H. Revell, a recent English immigrant. Emma’s open acceptance of Dwight in spite of his uncouth, awkward ways won his heart early on.
In spite of his new romantic interest, Dwight soon faced a new dilemma.