" The signature act of Richard Daley's 22 years in office was the midnight bulldozing of Meigs Field ," according to Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn.

Fresh off his huge re-electoral mandate, one of Daley's first major acts was ordering the demolition of Meigs Field, a small, downtown, lakefront airport used by general aviation aircraft and helicopters.

Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport was a single strip airport that operated from December 1948 until March 2003.

The airfield was named for Merrill C. Meigs, publisher of the Chicago Herald and Examiner and an aviation advocate.

The runway at Meigs Field was nearly.

On June 30, 1950, the airport was officially renamed " Merrill C. Meigs Field ".

On October 15, 1992 a Boeing 727 that was donated from United Airlines to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry made its final landing at Meigs, on its way to be transported to the museum to become an exhibit.

This was notable because Meigs ' runway was somewhat shorter than others that this type of aircraft normally uses.

Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. ( December 2, 1924 – February 20, 2010 ) was a United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

He was the middle of three children of Alexander Meigs Haig, Sr., a Republican lawyer, and his wife Regina Anne Murphy.

Before 1819, the area that is now Meigs County was Cherokee territory.

Col. Return J. Meigs, who was to become the county's namesake, operated an Indian agency across the river in Rhea County until 1817, when the agency moved east to the area that is now Meigs County.

The quilt initially was displayed at the Meigs-Decatur Public Library, and as of 2010, now hangs in the Meigs County Historical Museum, in Decatur, Tennessee.

A new building on Smith Avenue in Decatur, Tennessee, was built to house the collection of the Meigs County historical Museum.

The county was named for Captain Eleazer D. Wood, the engineer for General William Henry Harrison's army, who built Fort Meigs in the War of 1812.

Badly needed new homes were constructed beginning in 1942 by Clifford Meigs and his associates to provide adequate facilities for commissioned officers assigned at the rapidly-expanding Eglin Field, immediately north of what was initially referred to as " Shalimar Park ".

Clifford Meigs served as mayor until his death in 1960, and was succeeded by his brother Clyde Meigs in November, who had served as a councilman.

Some of the land that Clifford Meigs owned was donated to Okaloosa County for the establishment of a school.

The previous school was renamed to Clifford Meigs Junior High School, later Clifford Meigs Middle School ( Meigs Middle School for short ).

During the American Revolution it was the site of two conflicts including Meigs Raid in which Americans burned Sag Harbor and captured 90 British soldiers and an incident which Isaac Van Scoy killed a British soldier with a pitchfork.

In 1805, Colonel Return J. Meigs, who operated out of Southwest Point, was appointed Cherokee Agent, effectively moving the agency from the Tellico Blockhouse to Southwest Point.

On May 14, 1861, Meigs was appointed colonel, 11th U. S. Infantry, and on the following day, promoted to brigadier general and Quartermaster General of the Army.

After the war Meigs was appointed surveyor of the Ohio Company of Associates.

* Return J. Meigs, Sr. ( 1740 – 1823 ), a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and an Indian agent with the Cherokee in Tennessee

Return Jonathan Meigs December 17 ( old style ) or December 28 ( new style ), 1740 ; died January 28, 1823 was a colonel who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was one of the founding settlers of the Northwest Territory in what is now the state of Ohio, and later served as a federal government Indian agent working with the Cherokee in Tennessee.

Colonel Douglas died on May 28, and Meigs received appointment as colonel of the 6th Connecticut by Governor Trumbull on September 10, 1777, with a date of rank of May 12.

( General Meigs was a great grandson of Continental Army Colonel Return J. Meigs, Sr .).

* 3rd Regiment, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs ( 6th Connecticut Regiment ): eight companies of Connecticut troops

When a Corps of Light Infantry was formed under General Anthony Wayne in July 1779, Meigs was given command of its 3rd Regiment, which he led at the Battle of Stony Point.

In 1984, General Meigs commanded the 1st Squadron, 1st Armored Cavalry Regiment.

In the late 1970s Air Illinois operated the 44-passenger turboprop Hawker Siddeley HS 748 at Meigs, the largest aircraft to use it on a regular basis.

After the 2003 closure, the Friends of Meigs Field introduced a new plan, " Parks and Planes ", which promoted the idea of an aviation museum, small operating runway, and park land on the property.

Residents ' devotion to the cause during the War of 1812 led to the formation of the Petersburg Volunteers — who distinguished themselves in action at the Siege of Fort Meigs on May 5, 1813.

" " The Fort Walton Beach-Fort Walton did not become Fort Walton Beach until June 1953 places were doing a booming business on the weekends while there were rumors that the sheriff might enforce the law in Shalimar and close the place there ," Meigs told the Playground News in 1959.

During the American Revolutionary War, American raiders under Return Jonathan Meigs attacked a British garrison on May 23, 1777, on a hill at what today is the Old Burying Ground next to the Whaler's Church, killing six and capturing 90 British soldiers in what was called Meigs Raid.

Fort Meigs was constructed on a bluff above the Maumee River, and created from a design by the army engineer Captain Eleazer D. Wood, for whom the county would be named.

The old Meigs County Bank building on Court Square, built in the early 1900s

A statue was erected in Pomeroy ( Meigs Co .) Ohio for the effect he had on the town and its people.

Accessed on Meigs Family History and Genealogy website, December 16, 2007

Chittenden married Elizabeth Meigs, also of East Guilford, Conn., on the 4th of October, 1749.

Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome's Palazzo Farnese and the Palazzo della Cancelleria.

When Tennessee voted on a referendum calling for secession in February 1861, more than 80 % of East Tennesseans voted against it, including majorities in every county except Sullivan and Meigs.

Meigs died in Marietta on March 29, 1825, and is buried in Marietta's Mound Cemetery.

Timothy's son, Return J. Meigs IV, married Jennie Ross, daughter of principal Cherokee chief John Ross, and emigrated to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

Meigs was the Army engineer responsible for building the Washington aqueduct and getting the dome on the U. S. Capitol.

The first American victory in New York after the Battle of Long Island was Meigs Raid on Sag Harbor ( sometimes called the Battle of Sag Harbor ) when continentals from Connecticut raided the British earth works in the village and burned the ships and wharfs on the East Hampton side of the village.

South of Athens, US 33 continues as a limited-access highway, bypassing Pomeroy, intersecting Ohio State Route 124 and Ohio State Route 7, and continuing to the Ohio River in Meigs County, crossing the Ohio on the two-lane cantilever Ravenswood Bridge, and entering West Virginia in Ravenswood.

During the American Revolutionary War, there were many whaleboat raids, including one with 230 men led by Return J. Meigs, Sr. to sack Sag Harbor on Long Island in 1777.

The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in northern Georgia ( as the Hiawassee River ) and flows northward into North Carolina ( there assuming its more common moniker Hiwassee ) before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee River a few miles west of State Route 58 in Meigs County, Tennessee.