By John J. Lothian
ELMHURST, IL - (JLN) - When I mentioned the news about my cousin Tom being hired as the new manager of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club ("LGYC") yesterday in JLN, I mentioned Thomas "T" Freytag, a co-founder of Geneva Trading, as a contemporary reference to give it relevance to the normal newsletter fodder. However, the history of Chicago's futures markets and the LGYC have a common founder in Julian Sidney Rumsey.
In fact, the City of Chicago, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and the LGYC share an intertwined history dating back to the mid-19th century, with the Sheridan Trophy serving as a symbolic link between these institutions.
In 1848, as Chicago was experiencing rapid growth, the CBOT was established to bring order to the city's burgeoning grain trade. The CBOT quickly became a central force in Chicago's economic development, coinciding with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the city's first railroad. These transportation innovations positioned Chicago as a major hub in the international grain trade. Shortly before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a railroad line to Lake Geneva was completed, allowing Chicago's elite to access their lakeside summer homes by rail.
Julian Sidney Rumsey, a founding member of the CBOT, played a pivotal role in connecting Chicago's business world with Lake Geneva's leisure community. Rumsey served as president of the CBOT in 1858 and 1859, and later became mayor of Chicago at the outbreak of the Civil War. His influence extended beyond Chicago to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where he maintained a summer home.
Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank was the first commodore of the LGYC, president of The University of Chicago board of trustees, a founder and president of The Chicago Club and a founder of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He was also a major trader at the CBOT, where he served as an officer. His company produced soap and baking products. He was also involved in one of the greatest squatting incidents in Chicago when ship captain George Streeter's schooner went aground off Fairbank's property that is now called "Streeterville." There is a Fairbanks Court on the western edge of Streeterville.
In 1874, Rumsey and Fairbank became founding members of the LGYC. That same year, an event occurred that would cement the connection between Chicago's business elite and Lake Geneva's sailing community. On August 31, 1874, Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan, a famous Civil War hero stationed in Chicago, visited Lake Geneva.
To celebrate Sheridan's visit, local residents organized a yacht race in his honor. Rumsey's boat, the Nettie, won this inaugural race. The participants had collected about $200 for a trophy to be called the Sheridan Prize, intended as a perpetual award for annual races. The trophy that has been awarded since is modeled after Rumsey's boat Nettie.
The Sheridan Prize became the genesis of the LGYC. The trophy, along with three trustees chosen to oversee it, marked the formal beginning of the club. This event solidified the connection between Chicago's business community, represented by figures like Rumsey, and the recreational pursuits at Lake Geneva.
The Sheridan Trophy race at the LGYC is considered the second-longest continually raced sailboat race in the United States, having been established in 1874. It follows the America's Cup, which is the oldest.
The Sheridan Trophy continues to be a prestigious award in LGYC competitions Labor Day weekend every year to this day, serving as a tangible reminder of the historical ties between Chicago's business elite and Lake Geneva's sailing community. This connection, forged in the late 19th century, exemplifies how the economic power concentrated in institutions like the CBOT influenced the development of leisure activities and communities in the surrounding region.
If you need more convincing, I suggest taking one of the guided tour boat rides from Gage Lake Geneva Cruise Line, where you can hear about all of the 19th century Chicagoans who had huge summer homes on the shores of Geneva Lake. If you are lucky, your captain on one of those cruises might be Captain Jack Lothian, the brother of the new LGYC manager. If your captain is seven feet tall, that is Jack.
Many members of CBOT and CME, along with their children, have learned to sail at the LGYC and the Geneva Lake Sailing School, founded in 1938. My cub-boat racing instructor was former CBOT bond-pit trader John Porter. Thomas F. Cashman, son of FIA Hall of Fame member and longtime CBOT soybean pit broker Thomas J. Cashman ("TJC"), also learned to sail there. Despite never sailing, TJC was a long-standing club member and part of the Old Guard.
T. Freytag is the retiring commodore (immediate past commodore) of the club and a former president of the Geneva Lake Sailing School. I sailed against his brother Billy and sister Kate when I was a kid. Later, I was a longtime member of the club as well and raced a C Scow with many friends and with my wife Cheryl, served as C fleet captain for a couple of years and served on the board of the Geneva Lake Sailing School, including as treasurer.
My uncle, Thomas A. Lothian II, who gave me his 1970 wood Johnson Boatworks C-scow when he retired from racing and after I graduated from college, was the commodore in 1974 when the LGYC celebrated its 100th anniversary and the 100th running of the Sheridan Trophy race. He started sailing on Geneva Lake, after first racing in his home state of Ohio, when he and my aunt would stay on the property in Fontana that then belonged to the Glenview Community Church. Some of my earliest memories are from being at the church camp.
When the church sold the property, my parents bought property in Williams Bay, where the church property caretaker was village president. My uncle also bought a home in Williams Bay. TJC and his family moved in across the street from him and they became good friends and served together on the village board.
In 1973, the Cashmans moved across the bay to a home a couple of houses away from our summer home and TJC coached my older brother Scott in little league.
T. Freytag's grandfather lived just down towards the lake from the Cashmans and he served as my father's lawyer when my father was president of our lake home subdivision.
The LGYC has come a long way from Julian Rumsey's days and the founding of the club and the start of the Sheridan Race, but the seeds that Rumsey and Fairbank planted continue to grow through the CBOT and Chicago today.
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