Windy City (1883)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    It's even earlier!
    This is from American Periodical Series online (it's also on microfilm, if you want to check the old way), a new electronic database from ProQuest, available here at Columbia University (but not at that cheapskate NYU Bobst Library).

   20 October 1883, NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, pg. 11:
   It was here that the late lamented Hulbert, president of the Chicagos, saw him and signed him for the Windy City club, where he has been playing ever since.--_Cincinnati Enquirer._

   14 June 1884, NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, pg. 11:
   Several members of the Chicago team indulged in stimulants to an excess, and Al Spaulding let out his indignation in a letter to Babe Anson the other day.  In it he says he is tired of making excuses for the team's poor showing, and directs Anson to assess a heavy fine on any player for the slightest infraction of a rule.  The Windy City crew will now have to conduct themselves very straight, or pay for their fa(illegible--ed.) in the shape of fines.--_Philadelphia Item._

   There's also this:

   17 July 1880, NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, pg. 7:
   The little village of Degraff, Ohio, is situated in the beautiful valley of the Miami, tne miles west of Bellefontaine, and while it only has a population a little less than one thousand, according to the veracious census enumerator, it certainly can develop enough pure cussedness within its limits to entitle it to be classed as the little "Windy City," a name not inappropriate, as every now and then a cyclone or tornado strikes and almost annihilates it.


   The New York Sun Charles A. Dana 1893 Columbian Exposition myth should be long dead now, but no, you gotta check this thing every day...


11/03/2002
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

All
1H

Winter winds don't chill fest fever
By SUSAN BLINKHORN Special to the Journal Sentinel


Sunday, November 3, 2002
Windy City, indeed. When old man winter appears in Chicago, the gusts that blow off Lake Michigan and through the city's skyscraper canyons are enough to knock the Marshall Field's shopping bag right out of your hand.

Windy as it may be, however, Chicago's infamous moniker has nothing to do with the weather (Milwaukee, on average, has higher wind speeds) and everything to do with the city's passion for hosting great parties. Legend has it that back in 1893, the city's lobbying efforts to host the World's Fair were so verbose and long- winded that the New York City press dubbed Chicago the "Windy City."
(...)