Front page flashback:<\/strong> Aug. 16, 1914<\/p>\n 1914:\u00a0 <\/strong>A servant at Taliesin<\/a>, architect Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s famed sanctuary in Spring Green, Wisconsin, set it on fire<\/a> and attacked the occupants with a hatchet as they fled. Seven people \u2014 Martha \u201cMamah\u201d Borthwick Cheney; her children, Martha, and John; and four others \u2014 died from their injuries.<\/p>\n Julian Carlton, the handyman who carried out the attack, swallowed acid and died later.<\/p>\n Flashback: Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s Taliesin was a refuge for illicit romance. But tragedy tore apart the love he built.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Weather records <\/strong>(from the National Weather Service, Chicago<\/a>)<\/p>\n 1812: <\/strong>Some 500 Potawatomi and their allies encircled 110 men, women and children who had marched out of Fort Dearborn<\/a> at the mouth of the Chicago River, heading for Fort Wayne in Indiana Territory. Soldiers from the garrison formed a line and advanced on the Native Americans.<\/p>\n Sixty-eight of the Fort Dearborn contingent lost their lives in the fighting and its aftermath. The Potawatomi losses are unknown but were certainly far fewer. The next day, the Indians burned Fort Dearborn.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the Fort Dearborn Massacre<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Though the bloody clash took place somewhere between what\u2019s now Roosevelt Road and 18th Street, it was traditionally known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Recently it was renamed the Battle of Fort Dearborn, acknowledging that both sides committed atrocities in the centuries-long struggle between Native Americans and European colonizers for control of what became the United States. In 1899, Simon Pokagon, a Potawatomi writer, observed, \u201cWhen whites are killed, it is a massacre; when Indians are killed, it is a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n 1967:<\/strong> Pablo Picasso<\/a> \u2014 who never visited Chicago \u2014 presented a \u201cgift\u201d to the city. The octogenarian Spanish artist had been wooed by architects of the Civic Center (now named for Daley) to create a focal point for its plaza.<\/p>\n After a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a poetic tribute recited by Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks, about 50,000 Chicagoans got their first glimpse of Picasso\u2019s present.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we were willing to experiment along many lines in other situations, we wanted the sculpture to be the work of the greatest master alive,\u201d said William E. Hartmann, senior partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,\u00a0in 1967<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOh mommy, it\u2019s terrible,\u201d a young Bob Wadell told his mother.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it\u2019s a phoenix,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hideous, it means nothing, it\u2019s like a cow sticking out its tongue at Chicago,\u201d an elderly woman told everyone within earshot.<\/p>\n Others suggested the 50-foot steel sculpture was a bird, a horse, a Viking ship, a baboon or a modernistic representation of Picasso\u2019s dog. Nobody really had an answer \u2014 especially since Picasso himself didn\u2019t show up for the ceremony.<\/p>\n The Tribune summed up the untitled masterpiece like this: \u201cFor decades, possibly for generations, Chicagoans will dispute about this huge semi-abstract\u00a0head of a woman<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 or is it something else? \u2014 which will be like a brooding presence in the center of the city. It will be derided, defended, laughed at, and \u2014 who knows? \u2014 maybe eventually loved.\u201d<\/p>\n 2006:<\/strong>\u00a0Ordered to be deported, Elvira Arellano and her U.S.-born son\u00a0took refuge<\/a>\u00a0inside Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago\u2019s Humboldt Park neighborhood.<\/p>\n Arellano\u00a0had been arrested<\/a>\u00a0in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweep of O\u2019Hare International Airport, where she was working as a cleaner. Authorities discovered she had been using a fake Social Security number and had been previously deported to Mexico. Arellano would spend a year living in the church with her story receiving national attention.<\/p>\n Want more vintage Chicago?<\/p>\n Subscribe to the free\u00a0Vintage Chicago Tribune<\/a>\u00a0newsletter, join our\u00a0Chicagoland history Facebook group,<\/a> stay current with Today in Chicago History<\/a> and follow us on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for more from Chicago\u2019s past.<\/p>\n Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@chicagotribune.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0mmather@chicagotribune.com<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t![\""Mamah"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CTC-L-HATCHET-ATTACK-TALIESIN-1914-01.jpg\")
“Mamah” Borthwick, her two children and four others were killed in a hatchet attack on on Aug. 15, 1914, by a servant at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. (Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n\n
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![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CTC-L-CTHIST-fort-dearborn-print_229049611.jpg\")
Old Fort Dearborn and surroundings in 1856 Chicago. This print shows a blockhouse at center with a lighthouse to the left, a large tree in the right foreground and a smaller building labeled “Lake House” behind it. There are smokestacks and masts on a side-wheeler labeled “The Traveler,” possibly at dock, beyond the lighthouse, and a large building in the background. (Library of Congress)<\/p>\n\n
![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CTC-L-almanac-picasso-0815-mh_181789111.jpg\")
Mayor Richard J. Daley and Architect William Hartmann unveil Chicago\u2019s Picasso sculpture on Aug. 15, 1967. (George Quinn\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Elvira](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CTC-L-ZORN-ELVIRA-2C-11PM-MET-0820-ALL02-KOZ20_189725747-e1755208427294.jpg\")
Elvira Arellano hangs up the clothes donated to her by supporters in the small room where she sleeps at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago on Aug. 17, 2006. (Abel Uribe\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n