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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A
COLLECTION MADE BY
BENNO LOEWY

1854-1919
AND BEQUEATHED TO
CORNELL UNIVERSITY

 
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THE INTER OCEAN BUILDING.
A HISTORY

OF THE

CITY OF CHICAGO

ITS MEN AND INSTITUTIONS

Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens

 

ILLUSTRATED

 

1900
PUBLISHED BY THE INTER OCEAN

PRESS OF THE BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY
CHICAGO
SEF

A 76279 @
  
    

Prefatory

IN presenting this book to the public the claim is not made that it
is the complete, comprehensive history that Chicago ought to have,
but that it contains more important facts concerning the beginning
and growth of the city than any other like publication. It is also
believed that the arrangement of facts and events will be found

superior. The book would have been more complete and published
earlier but for the sudden death of the Hon. Frank Gilbert, who was
engaged in writing it when, on the fourth day of November, 1899, he
was called to the other world. His plans for the work, however, were
carried on to completion. It was a part of his plan that after the chap-
ters on the early settlement of the city, its growth and development
should be treated topically. It was his thought that facts and events
would thus be placed before the reader more attractively and the book
be better adapted for the purpose of reference. It is hoped that this
method of treatment will find favor with readers. The great public un-
dertakings which are closely connected with the life and growth of the
city are especially exploited and the private and personal enterprises which
have been great aids in the building of the city are given the attention
they so justly deserve. The men, too, whose ability, genius and forethought
have added to the city’s character, wealth and renown have been re-
membered, and not the least interesting, historically considered, are the
biographies of these city-makers. This is not a pretentious or great work,
but it is hoped that it will be found useful and be given a place in many
libraries.

Chicago, March 19, 1900.
 

 

 

 

 

LINCOLN PARK VIEWS.
CHAPTER I.

 

 

EARLY CHICAGO. |

 

 

   
 
 
  
   
   
  

’ LITTLE ridge, only from eight to
ten feet above lake level, just west of
the present limits of Chicago, may be
noted as nature’s first entry in the
history of this city. It served as the
@ starting point of an aquatic revolu-
tion, or evolution. Gradually dry
land was formed where hitherto the
waters of our unsalted, mid-continent
sea, had held undisputed sway, making for
itself an outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. Slowly
the soil was prepared for one of the mightiest
urban growths of the globe.

But the rescue of a little patch of earth from the
domain of water was not of itseli enough to ever serve
as the germ of a city. It was the short and slug-
gish stream now called the Chicago River which was
the decree of fate. It is no exaggeration to say that the
metropolis of the Middle West rests on the river which
bears its name. How long the ridge stood and the
river flowed before the first step was taken in the fulfill-
ment of this municipal destiny, science cannot deter-
mine. The beavers and the Indians made some joint use
of the property—just enough to be a prophecy of what
civilization would do when the time should come for
their realization.

Chicago may be said to have been discovered by
Sieur Joliet. It is one of the more notable evidences of
man’s ingratitude that not even a street in the city bears
the name of this prescient discoverer. La Salle, who
came eight years later, had a vague yet inspiring vision
of the heart of the continent. He caught foregleams
of what might be and has been developed from the St.
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, but the importance of
this portage escaped his observation. Joliet reached it
December 14, 1674, and when he returned to Montreal
he reported this portage as the most important discovery

 

of his entire trip, extending as far West as the Mississippi
River.

The illustrious Frenchmen named, and their com-
peers, Father Marquette and Tonty, were mere warfar-
ing observers. The first settler who was in any sense
a connecting link with civilization was a negro from
Hayt a .cae was How he came to drift so far from his
original moorings is a mystery, but here he was found,
living solitary and alone, by Colonel Arent Schuyler de
Puyster, commandant at Mackinaw, in the summer of
1779. The record of this curious find bears the date of
July 4, 1779. It is a noteworthy and suggestive fact
that the military achievement which added the “Illinois
country” to the United States, preventing this vast
prairie region from sharing the political fate of Canada,
also dates from Independence Day. The name of this
first settler was Jean Baptiste Point de Saible. He is
supposed to have lived here twenty years, but, tired of
waiting, apparently, for the coming of the white man, he
removed to Feoria, where his death occurred. The
commandant described him as “a handsome negro,” and
again as a Haytian mulatto, “well settled at Eschika-
gceu.” The humble dwelling of this pioneer was at the
corner of Pine and Kinzie streets, a spot hardly less
deserving of commemoration than the site of Fort
Dearborn.

A little before Saible is stypposed to have settled
here the first Chicago real estate transaction occurred.
One William Murray, then living in Kaskaskia, con-
ceived a grand land speculation worthy of George Law.
He organized “the Illinois Land Company” in 1773,
and in its behalf made a purchase from the Indians of
a tract. The vast tract bought had for its northeast
corner mete and bound, as described of record, ‘‘Chica-
gou, or Garlick, Creek.” The enterprising Haytian
was just over the line, on the north bank of “Garlick
Creek.” Mr. Murray and his company would hardly
8 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

have been heard of more but for the casual mention of
“Chicagou.”

The first white pioneer was John Kinzie, a name
conspicuous in the early days of the city, and still
familiar. In 1804 he bought the cabin of Saible. It is
true that Major Whistler came here the year before and
built the first Fort Dearborn, the log structure burnt
at the massacre of 1812, but he cannot be said to have
been instrumental in promoting Chicago, as a mart of
trade and center of population.

Moving on and shifting our viewpoint, it may be
fairly said that Chicago was born at Greenville, Ohio, in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

of general observation was the Fort Dearborn massacre,
if even that did it. Massacres quite as revolting and soul-
harrowing were not so very unusual in pioneer days as
to attract universal attention, and news traveled slowly.
It was not, however, so much a part of the price of
progress in national expansion as an incident of the
second war with England.

The United States declared war June 12, 1812, and
on the 9th of August succeeding Captain Heald, com-
mander at Fort Dearborn, received orders from General
Hull to evacuate the fort and take his women and chil-
dren to Detroit by land. The departure was set for the

 

 

Copyrighted,

FORT DEARBORN IN 1808 FROM THE WEST.

the year 1795. It was at that point that General Wayne,
the “mad Anthony” of military history, met the repre-
sentatives of twelve Indian tribes, and, as the agent
of the United States government, bought the original
site of Chicago. One of the minor provisions of the
treaty of Greenville was that the United States goverr-
ment should have several isolated pieces of ground for
trading posts. In this list is found the following entry:
“One piece of land six miles square at the mouth of
Chicago River, emptying into Lake Michigan, where
a fort formerly stood.” That treaty fixed both the
geography and the orthography of the city.

The first event to bring Chicago within the scope

fifteenth of the same month. Some of the women and
children were sent by boat. notwithstanding the order.
That they were not all quietly dispatched in the same
Way was one of the mistakes of Hull. The evacuation
itself was due to indications that British emissaries from
Canada had begun to tamper with the Indians. The
party which started out to make that overland march
consisted of 110 white men, 10 women, 20 children and
100 Indians supposed to be friendly. This mixed com-
pany had proceeded only about a mile when a large
body of Indian warriors fell upon them. The friendly
Indians either joined in the attack or skulked; most of

them were downright treacherous. In ten minutes
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 9

every white man, woman and child was dead except
fifteen. Many a heart-rending tale is still told of that
massacre, slightly relieved by a rescue by one genuinely
friendly red man. On that day of horror Chicago
received its baptism of blood, as October 9, 1871, it
received its baptism of fire. The slaughter occurred in
the vicinity of Eighteenth street and Prairie avenue. A
large elm tree was supposed to mark the spot as near
as possible. The massacre tree survived until 1887,
when it shed its last leaf, unable to respond again to the
quickening call of spring. It was cut down and a fitting
monument in bronze commemorative of the tragic event
was erected in its place by Mr. George M. Pullman, who
owned the ground. Many conflicting reports were made
of the massacre, but the account here followed was set
down, with many omitted details, by an eyewitness.

For two years Chicago dropped out of sight, and
it was four years that the bodies of the victims of the
butchery remained unburied. John Kinzie left his home
and the Indians had their own way in all this region.
Chicago was a scene of desolation. No attempt was
made to reéstablish civilized life on the banks of
“Garlick Creek” until after the second war with England
was over.

It was in July, 1816, that the order to rebuild
Fort Dearborn was issued, and in accordance with said
order Captain Hezekiah Bradley, with two companies
of infantry, took possession of the old ruined fort and
proceeded to rebuild the same. One of the first duties,
however, of the captain and the men under him was the
burying of the skeletons of the dead victims of the
massacre at the time of the evacuation of the fort. This
done, they proceeded to rebuild their home, which was
done in a more careful and substantial manner than
before. John Kinzie and his family came back, and
occasionally other settlers straggled in to renew the
process of civilizing the six-mile tract belonging to the
government. The Indians were still numerous, but so
far as the record goes were never afterward unfriendly.
In 1818 the American Fur Company established a
branch office here, which enlarged the commercial
transactions about the fort. By 1820 there was quite a
village, a half dozen or more comfortable cottages,
which, together with the soldiers of the fort and the
Indians about, made things appear quite lively. About
this time (1820) Chicago was honored with an unusual
visitation. Governor Cass, with a number of other
gentlemen, was making an official expedition through
the Northwest and visited Chicago. Accompanying
this expedition was Henry R. Schoolcraft, who seemed
delighted with Chicago and its surroundings. Mr.
Schoolcraft, although he went out as a minerologist,
seems to have been the scribe and reporter for the party.
He says that General Cass and party reached the village
(Chicago) about 5 o’clock on the morning of August

29, 1820. “We found four or five families living here,
the principal of which were those of John Kinzie, Dr. A.
Wolcott, J. B. Beaubien and J. Crafts, the latter living a
short distance up the river. The Pottawottamies, to
whom this site is the capital of trade, appeared to be
lords of the soil, and truly are entitled to the epithet if
laziness and an utter inappreciation of the value of time
be a test of lordliness.” “We found the post, Fort Dear-
born, under the command of Captain Bradley, with a
force of 160 men. The river is ample and deep for a
few miles, but is utterly choked by the lake sands,
through which, behind a masked margin, it oozes its
way for a mile or two till it percolates through the sand
into the lake.” Mr. Schoolcraft seems to have been
something of an artist, and while he was there he took a
sketch of the village, as he says, “from a standpoint on
the flat of sand which stretched out in front of the place.”’
The cut herewith presented is a copy of Mr. School-
craft’s sketch, which he says ‘‘embraces every house in
the village, including the fort.” Of the country he says:
“The country around Chicago is the most fertile and
beautiful that can be imagined. It consists of an inter-
mixture of wood and prairies, diversified with gentle
slopes, sometimes attaining the e'evation of hills, and it
is irrigated with a number of clear streams and rivers,
which throw their waters partly into Lake Michigan and
partly into the Mississippi River. As a farming country
it presents the greatest facilities for stock-raising and
grain, and is one of the favored parts of the Mississippi
Valley. The climate has a delightful serenity, and it
must, as soon as the Indian title is extinguished, become
one of the most active fields for the emigrant. To the
ordinary advantage of an agricultural market town it
must add that of being a depot for the commerce
between the northern and southern sections of the
Union, and a great thoroughfare for strangers, mer-
chants and travelers.”

From this it will be seen that Mr. Schoolcraft was
much more enamored with the situation of Chicago than
most of the early travelers through this region. He
saw, too, the advantages of this location from a com-
mercial point of view, and the years since have shown
that he was correct in his estimates of the importance
of this location for commerce and enterprise. It is in
fact true of nearly all the early visitors of Chicago that
they saw great commercial advantages for Chicago—
even when it was only a site it seemed to warm the
imaginations of the Jesuit fathers, Marquette and Joliet,
more than any other point they visited in all their
wanderings. Already Chicago has more than justified
their far-sighted wisdom, but the present has more
promise for the future than 1820 or 1830 had. The
indications now are that in the next seventy years wealth,
population, commerce, education, art and all things that
relate to the higher life and civilization of a people will
10 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

increase more rapidly than they have in the last seventy
years. It will require more wisdom to prepare the
present city to become the wonderful city Chicago
should be in 2070 than were required of its founders and
builders to produce the city of to-day. Faith and energy
were the principal requirements of the founders, but the
men that make this city what it should be at the end of
the next seventy years must have, in addition to those
qualifications, intellectual culture, practical wisdom, high
ideals and courage to do and dare. The place where
Chicago stands was created for great things, and if citi-
zens of the city and state do their duty that design will
be realized before the close of the twentieth century.
Up to 1823 the place was more generally known as
Fort Dearborn than as Chicago, the military post being
the principal feature of the settlement, but in 1823 the
post was again evacuated and for five years continued

vey, sent the following letter to Congress in regard to
the same, inclosing the sketch:

GENERAL LANDOFFICE, March 22, 1830.

“Sir:—I take the liberty to inclose you a diagram,
exhibiting the survey of the public lands lying on Lake
Michigan, at the mouth of Chicago Creek, and would
recommend that an act be passed, authorizing the
President to lay off a town at this point. Section 9 has
been allotted to the State of Illinois, under the act grant-
ing to her certain lands for the purpose of making a
canal,

“Should the United States establish a town at the
mouth of the creek, the state would probably derive
much benefit by extending the lots into Section 9, as
Chicago Creek affords a good harbor through the whcie
of this section.

“It is understood that the waters of Lake Michigan
may be drawn into the Illinois River, by a thorough cut

 

 
 
  
  
   
  

 
   
   

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VIEW OF CHICAGO IN 1820, By Henry R. ScHooccrart.

vacant. During that time the designation “Fort Dear-
born” almost entirely disappeared, and the place got its
proper name, Chicago. After the evacuation of the
fort the only government representative that remained
was Dr. Alexander Wolcott, the Indian agent, who still
retained his office here. Chicago was then a part of
Peoria County, and in the congressional election of 1826
cast 35 votes.

In 1830 William Howard, a United States civil
engineer, made a survey of the general location of
Chicago, with especial view as to its relations to the
Chicago River and the lake. His drawing and repert
give the best idea of the Chicago River of that early day
that can anywhere be found. The sketch is here repro-
duced, and the beach of sand from which Mr. School-
craft drew his sketch of infant Chicago, ten years
previous, is plainly shown. The Commissioner of the
General Land Office, at the time of reporting this sur-

of moderate length, and not more than seventeen feet
deep at the summit; when this is effected, and the
bar on the outside of the mouth of Chicago Creek is so
deepened as to admit into the harbor with facility vessels
of the largest class navigating the lakes, Chicago must
inevitably become one of the most important depots and
thoroughfares on the lakes.
“The government are about bringing into market
a vast extent of country between Lake Michigan and
the Mississippi River, which, as to advantages of local
position, fertility of soil, healthfulness of climate and
mineral resources, is not perhaps excelled by any other
tract of country of equal extent in the United States.
The deepening of the inlet of the harbor of Chicago
would essentially facilitate the sale of these lands and
promote the settlement of the country.
ok ok ok ok *

“With great respect, your obedient servant,

x

‘GEORGE GRAHAy.”’
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 11

It will be seen by the above that the writer took a
great interest in the embryo city of Chicago, and that
even then, when nobody ever thought of Chicago need-
ing any other drainage receptacle than the lake, he
called attention to the fact that the waters of Lake
Michigan could be easily turned into the Illinois River
by making a cut of moderate length and not more than
seventeen feet deep at the summit; in fact, nearly all the
pioneers were especially attracted to Chicago on account

  
   
 

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PROPOSED PLAN 0

FOR.IMPROVING THE MOUTHOF CHICAGO RIVER

Drawn by
F. Harrison Jr U.S Assist Civil Engineer.

Feby 24 1830
Wm. Koward U.S.Civi! Engineer

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stream then required no such a great waterway as our
present drainage board have provided. Now, however,
that Chicago has spent $33,000,000 in beginning this
great work, it will be stranger still if the national govern-
ment does not follow it up and carry out the idea of the
early pioneers and connect the great chain of lakes with
the Mississippi River. In no other way can such an
extent of navigable water communication be created on
the continent.

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THIS SKETCH OF SURVEY OF CHICAGO SENT TO CONGRESS WITH REPORT IN 1830.

of the ease with which a waterway could be made join-
ing the lake with the Mississippi River through the
Chicago, Desplaines and Illinois rivers. With this fact
so prominent in the minds of the earlier explorers, it
seems strange that such an enterprise should have been
delayed so long as it was. Of course, in those days they
did not have such big ships and boats as are now neces-
sary on the Jakes and rivers, and to make a navigable

After the evacuation in 1823 the fort remained
unoccupied until 1828, when a new garrison was
stationed here, remaining until May, 1831. But it only
remained vacant about one year. Owing to the emer-
gencies of the Black Hawk war, the government again
stationed a force at this port, and the action proved very
fortunate, as the fort afforded a refuge for frightened
settlers for long distances around. After the peace that
ie THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

followed the Black Hawk war had become apparently
permanent, the troops were again,on December 29, 1836,
removed from the fort, and Chicago from that time on
took care of herself without the assistance of the war
department. Chicago now became a place of compara-
tive activity, looking forward to a position in the
commercial world. The year 1837 was quite an
important year. Chicago was incorporated as a city
and elected her first mayor. In later years the “old
settlers’ were those who had come to Chicago in 1837
or previously. Anybody that came later was barred that
title, or at least barred out of the association as ineligible
to membership. In fact, however, it was as far back as
1830 that Chicago began to show evidence of ambition
to realize the dream of Joliet and to display signs of
commercial life. Before that, however, it had gained
very slowly. From 1816 to 1830 it had gained only
twelve or fifteen houses and a population of about 100.

A side light is thrown upon the Chicago of that
period by the records of the assessor of Peoria County
in 1825, seven years after Illinois became a state. There
were only fourteen taxpayers in the “Chicago precinct,”
including John Jacob Astor’s fur company. More than
one-half the assessable property of the place belonged
to Astor, whose name now figures as that of one of the
shortest but most aristocratic streets of the city. Astor’s
tax was $50, on a valuation of $5,000. The totals, with-
out counting Astor’s fur company, were: Valuations,
$4,047; taxes, $34.47.

Tt was not until the last vestige of Indian occupation
in bulk had disappeared from Illinois that’ Chicago
began to grow. The Keokuk treaty of 1830 was
designed to rid the state of these obstructions, but
Blackhawk refused to go. His people occupied a large
area of Northern Illinois. The Blackhawk war closed
with his capture in 1833. Soon after in the same year
not less than 5,000 Indians assembled at Chicago to treat
for the sale of their remaining lands in Northern Hlinois
and Southern Wisconsin. It was a tedious process. The
Indians did not want to sell, but the hour had come and
the assembled red men finally bowed to the inevitable.

The original town of Chicago was laid out in 1830.
It extended from Chicago avenue on the north to Madi-
son street on the south and from State street on the
east to Halsted street on the west. All east of State
street was subject to overflow from the lake. The West
Side was substantially unbroken prairie. Real estate
speculation began, in a mild form, not reaching the fever
point until the red men were well out of the way. The
first bridge was erected over the south branch. That
was in 1831. Three years later a drawbridge was erected
which spanned the main river at Dearborn street.

The first census of Chicago was taken in 1835. It
was taken by the town authorities. It showed a popula-
tion, in November of that year, of 3,255 souls. There

were 398 dwellings, 4 warehouses, 29 dry-goods stores,
19 grocery and provision stores, 5 hardware stores, 3
drug stores, 19 taverns, 26 saloons, 17 law offices. The
first Cook County courthouse was erected that year, and
on the northeastern corner of the present courthouse
square. Chicago-was then beginning to get on.

The first step toward a city charter for Chicago was
taken in October, 1836. The town trustees and dele-
gates from the three divisions met in conference to frame
a charter. Their work done, it was submitted to the
people in mass meeting assembled. With slight changes
it was approved. The charter was then taken to the
General Assembly, which convened at the beginning of
1837. It was passed and approved March 4, 1837, ihe
same day that Martin Van Buren was inaugurated
President of the United States. That original city of
Chicago had six wards. William B. Ogden was elected
mayor. The whole number of votes cast at the first
municipal election in Chicago was only 7og. It was
between the time that Chicago decided to ask for a
city charter and the time it actually got it that it really
ceased to be Fort Dearborn, for the garrison was with-
drawn December 29, 1836.

It was about this time that the great era of specula-
tion in town lots and of internal improvement by states
set in. Chicago was included in one, Illinois in the
other. It was a wild storm of great expectations. Noth-
ing could stand before it. Its fury was unabated till the
crash of 1837 came. The city of Chicago was still in its
cradle, its age counted by months, when the collapse
came. Lots which had been bought only a little while
before for a few hundred dollars were sold for thousands
of dollars, and everything seemed to betoken wonderful
prosperity. The collapse came and the fall was greater
than the rise. From 1837 to about 1840 was a period of
great depression and hardship. Chicago was what the
vernacular of to-day calls “a busted boom town.” To
make the misery more complete, drought fell like a
blight upon the prairie farmers and an epidemic of
cholera visited the little poverty-stricken city. It was
not until 1842 that Chicago gave signs of recovery from
the depression, and then only faint and feeble.

The decade of the forties may be set down as a period
memorable for its beginnings. In his “Story of Chicago”
Major Joseph Kirkland makes this brief summary on
this point:

“The forties saw the beginning, in a small way, of
nearly all the great institutions Chicago now enjoys. in
1841 the first waterworks were built. The first propeller
was launched in 1842, in which year the exports were for
the first time greater than the imports. The first book
compiled, printed, bound and issued is said to have
been in 1843. The first meat for the English market was
packed in 1844. The first permanent public school!
building was built in 1845. In 1846 the River and

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Harbor Convention met and Chicago was made a port
of entry. In 1847 the first permanent theater was
opened (Rice’s; south side of Randolph street, between
State and Dearborn streets), and McCormick’s reaper
factory was started. In 1848 the first telegram was
received, being a message from Milwaukee, and later
the ‘Pioneer,’ our first locomotive, was landed from the
schooner ‘Buffalo’ and started out on the Galena rail-
way. In the same year the Board of Trade was estab-
lished and the canal opened. In 1849 the ‘Chicago &
Galena Union Railroad’ was opened to Elgin.”

 

 

i,

FORT DEARBORN IN 1853

We have now reached a point in the history of
Chicago where we must deal with a great city, not the
beginnings of one. As the ground on which it stands
was long in getting out from under the dominion of the
lake, and our river was long a mere pool slowly rising to
the dignity of a fresh water estuary, so the city itself
made hard work of getting a start. There were at least
three cities in the state, Shawneetown, Galena and Alton,
which gained no inconsiderable importance while
Chicago was having a baffling struggle for bare exist-
ence. But about the time the city charter was granted
the municipality entered upon its career, and from this
time on we are not to deal with a rivulet. The municipal
river is not only widening, but really has an ever-increas-

 

13

ing number of branches, each of which invites to
historical exploration. They will be explored, so far
as practicable, in the order of their beginnings. This
topical indistinction from chronological method seems
best suited to a presentation of the past experiences of
a great city, as the biographical method is to a presenta-
tion of its present life.

CHRONOLOGY.

From 1673 to 1686 the site of Chicago was visited
and commented upon by Pere Jacques Marquette. a

FROM THE SOUTHWEST.

Jesuit, and Sieur Louis Joliet. Marquette ended his life
as a missionary in this region, dying May 18, 1675, only
thirty-five years of age. Joliet returned to Canada and
died in Quebec in 1700. Rene Robert Chevalier de la
Salle also visited this section in a tour of exploration, and
was said to have frequently come to the site of Chicago.
He was assassinated by his discontented followers in
1687,

In 1684 the French had a small fort (St. Louis) at
this point, garrisoned by sixty men commanded bv
Captain de la Durantaye.

In 1689 a thriving Jesuit mission existed here, and
near by were two large Indian villages.

From 1700 to 1770 the Indian wars so disturbed the
14

 

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

roa) tee

Olga ara

 

LINCOLN PARK VIEWS.
fie CITY OF CHICACO., 15

country that the site of Chicago and its portage seemed
to be well-nigh forgotten and deserted by white people.

In 1773 the chiefs of the Illinois sold land covering
Chicago to a Scotchman named William Murray, who
afterward disposed of it to the Illinois Land Company.

The sales were afterward declared void.

1779. Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible, a native of
San Domingo, settled here, and twenty years later moved
to Peoria. His white successor was a Frenchman named
le Mai.

1803. In July a company of United States troops
arrived from Detroit under command of John Whistler,
who erected. the first Fort Dearborn, named in honor of
the then Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn.

1804. John Kinzie, born in Quebec in 1773, came
to Chicago from Detroit, to trade with the Indians.
With him were his wife and young son. He died here
in 1828.

1812. In April two men living on the farm of Charles
Lee, on the west side of the south branch of the river,
were killed by Winnebago Indians. This was the
precursor of war between the United States and Great
Britain, that was formally proclaimed the 18th of the
June following. August 15 of that year was the day
of the terrible massacre that occurred, when Captain
Nathan Heald, who commanded Fort Dearborn, obey-
ing orders, evacuated the fort and started to retreat to
Detroit.

1816. Captain Hezekiah Bradley, with two com-
panies of infantry, arrived and rebuilt Fort Dearborn.

1818. The American Fur Company established an
agency here.

1823. The garrison evacuated Fort. Dearborn and
Dr. Alexander Wolcott remained in charge as Indian
agent.

1825. Chicago still a part of Peoria County.

1826. At congressional election, August 2, only
35 votes cast.

1827. First lawyer arrives in Chicago.

1829. The first ferry was established across the
river and the famous Wolf Tavern was erected.

1831. Chicago was designated the county seat of
the newly organized Cook County, and a postoffice was
established.

1832. Militia company was organized. General
Winfield Scott and troops arrived July 8, en route for
Rock Island, the Blackhawk war then being in progress.

1833. The number of inhabitants had increased to
200 and it was decided to incorporate Chicago as a town.
The first public school was opened, with an enrollment
of 25 pupils, a log jail was built, five town trustees were
elected and a code of laws adopted. The block on which
the new Government building is now being erected was
sold for $550. First newspaper was published.

1834. Population, 1,600. Number of votes cast at

city election, 528. First piano in the town imported by
George J. B. Beaubien.

1835. One-story and basement brick courthouse
was built on the southwest corner of Clark and Ran-
dolph streets. School census showed a population of
3,279.

1836. The garrison quartered in Fort Dearborn
since 1828 was withdrawn and the site abandoned as an
army post. Presidential vote of Cook County, 1,043.

1837. Chicago incorporated as a city. First mayor
elected. Daniel Webster visited the city.

1838. The James Allen, first Chicago side-wheel
steamer, built. Population, 4,070. Congressional vote,
2,500.

1839. First job printing office, first brewery, first
observance of Thanksgiving, first daily paper, the
American.

1840. Scammon’s Reports issued. First book pub-
lished in Chicago. First Clark street bridge built.
Presidential vote, 1,429.

1841. Bridge built at Wells street.

1842. Works of the Chicago Hydraulic Company,
chartered in 1836, put in operation. The Independence,
the first propeller, launched. It was the first steamboat
to run on Lake Superior.

1843. <A tri-weekly express
between Chicago and the East.
Medical College.

1844. Over 600 hundred houses built. Population
increased to over 12,000. First fire alarm bell. Dear-
born School, first permanent school building erected,
cost $7,500.

1846. Chicago made a port of entry. Holy Name,
St. Peter’s, St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s churches estab-
lished. First levy made for special assessments.

1847. River and Harbor Convention assembled in
Chicago. Rice’s Theater first opened.

1848. April 15 first telegraph dispatch sent between
Chicago and Milwaukee. April 10, first boat passed
through the Illinois and Michigan Canal. October
25, first trial trip was made on Chicago’s first railroad,
the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad.
demic. Presidential vote, 3,832.

1849. Great floods. Waters of Desplaines and
Chicago rivers united, caused a great overflow, and
many steamboats were crushed by the ice.
torn away. Cholera still prevails.

1850. Opening of the Galena & Chicago Union
Railroad to Elgin. Lighting of city by gas. Some lead-
ing streets planked.

1852. First train through on the Michigan South-
ern Railroad, arrived from the East February 20. May
21, first train of the Michigan Central road. City water-
works operated for first time. Presidential vote, 5,024.

service established
First session of Rush

Cholera epi-

All bridges
16

THE CITY

 

OF CHICAGO.

 

LINCOLN PARK VIEWS.
THE

CITY OF

CHICAGO. 14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CITY

New courthouse occupied. Ole Bull given
First labor strike.

1854. First train on Chicago & Rock Island road
arrived June 5. Cholera epidemic.

1855. May 30, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail-
road was opened to Burlington, Iowa, and the main
road of the Illinois Central was completed.

1856. The Chicago Historical Society organized.
First ordinance for street railway on State street, from
Randolph street to southern city limits. First direct
clearance made for European port by the schooner Dean
Richmond. First sewers laid. An iron bridge built at
Rush street. Presidential vote, 11,615.

1857. Great financial crisis. City orders go to
protest. McVicker’s Theater first opened.

1858. Paid fire department organized. :

1860. Loss of the steamboat Lady Elgin, Septem-
ber 8. Two hundred and ninety-three persons perish.
‘Population, United States census, 109,206. Presi-

dential vote, 18,985.

1853.

an ovation.

 

1861. Outbreak. of the rebellion. Famous Camp
Douglas established at Thirty-third street and Cottage
Grove avenue.

1863. City limits extended to include Bridgeport
and Holstein.
1864. Work commenced at the land shaft of the

first lake tunnel, March 17.

1865. Tunnel crib launched, July 24. On June 2
first fire alarm telegraph was inaugurated.

1867. Lake tunnel completed. New waterworks
building and tower erected.

1869. January 1, the completion of Washington
street tunnel celebrated. Courthouse of 1851 enlarged;
two wings and an additional story added. Total tax,
$3,990,373; bonded debt, $7,882,500.

1870. Population, United States census, 306,605.
This year the bonded debt advanced to $11,041,000.

1871. Was the year of the great fire, which was the
most disastrous visitation of that kind of modern times.
The weather had been very dry and most of the time
18 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

very hot for some weeks. Everything that was exposed
to the air and would burn was in a condition to become
easily ignited and be quick food for the flames. There
were in reality two fires. The fire of October 7 broke
out near the corner of Clinton and Van Buren streets,
and all the territory between that and the river and
Adams street was burned over. That in itself was a
great fire and would have been considered a very disas-
trous one but for the overshadowing greatness of the
one that began on Sunday night, October 9, on De
Koven street, on the West Side, a little east of Jefferson
street. For two days and nights Chicago was a sea of
flames and then a blackened desert. Everything seemed
favorable for the destruction of the city. In addition to
the tinder dried condition of all woodwork, a strong
southwest wind prevailed, and as the fire increased the
wind seemed to increase with it. Whole blocks of
buildings were carried away, as if they had melted in
the flames. The number of acres burned over by the
fire of Saturday night was 27, but the great fire of
October 9 burned over 194 acres on the West Side, 460
acres on the South Side and 1,470 acres on the North
Side. Over 3,650 buildings were burned on the South
Side and 13,300 buildings on the North Side. On the
North Side, by something like a miracle, a large frame
building, the residence of Mahlon B. Ogden, standing in
the center of a block, was saved from the flames. At
the time of the fire the city comprised an area of 11,520
acres. The population of the city was something over
300,000. Fully 100,000 of these were left houseless and
homeless, many of them penniless. The pecuniary dam-
age by these fires is estimated at $290,000,000. On the
property thus destroyed there was $100,000,000 of
insurance, on which $45,000,000 were realized. Fifty-
six insurance companies were ruined. The marvelous
extent of the disaster and the ruin wrought was pub-
lished far and wide. All the world became familiar with
it within forty-eight hours. The benevolence and
philanthropy of the world was stirred as it seldom has
been and relief came pouring in from every quarter—
money, clothing and provisions. .\ more prompt and
noble response to distress has perhaps never been
known. Over $4,000,000 was contributed in money for
immediate relief, almost all nations, from England to

Japan, contributing a portion, but, of course, the great
mass of the relief funds came from American citizens.
This wonderful response of the people of the world
aroused the Chicago people to immediate action, and
they organized not only for the purpose of properly
distributing the great relief fund which came to them,
but for the purpose of rebuilding the city. The prompt
action of the solvent and energetic business men of the
city soon restored confidence, not only to their fellow
citizens, but to the people abroad, and capital was
offered from all financial centers for the purpose of
rebuilding Chicago. No city ever presented a busier
scene than Chicago did for the next eighteen months.
Within one year from the time of the fire, it is said that
more than one-half of the 80,000 feet frontage which
had been burned in the south division was rebuilt with
buildings more substantial and better than before. It is
estimated that over $30,000,000 within that time was
put into rebuilding the city, and it is quite probable that
at least $50,000,000 were spent in rebuilding within two
years from the time of the fire. The rapidity with which
the rebuilding was accomplished and the great influx of
population on account of the demand for labor, tended
to keep Chicago before the whole country all the time.
It was hardly less talked about in social circles or written
about in the newspapers during that time than it had
been during the excitement of the fire itself. What was
a great disaster to individual citizens, and at the time
seemed to be so to the city itself, turned out eventually as
the most efficient promoter of Chicago’s greatness.
Taken as a whole, the fire was the most wonderful adver-
tisement that ever any city had, and the prompt action
and energy shown by the people in rebuilding the city so
suddenly destroyed turned it into a most favorable
advertisement, and Chicago became a synonym for
energy, determination and business sagacity. No inter-
nal city in any nation is so well known among other
nations to-day as Chicago, and in large part it owes this
general information in regard to itself to the great fire
and its succeeding resurrection from its ashes. The
great fire in 1871 and the World's Columbian Exposition
in 1893 each marks an epoch in the progress and fame
of the city.
CHAPTER II.

 

OEE

~

 

| THE GROWTH AND THE MAYORS OF CHICAGO.

een Gy RS

 

 

AVING taken note of the beginning and
% present attainments of Chicago from
, the more important angles and
" coigns of observation, its territorial
growth and a general survey of
its condition will fittingly con-
clude the introduction to the
graphics which are to follow and
form the main body of this work.
The city of Chicago originally con-
sisted of an area of 10.63 square miles.
» It now has 190.64 square miles. This
growth in area was by fifteen annexations.
The first of these annexations was in 1847, when the city

was ten years old. The city gained in territory at that
time 3.37 square miles. Another ten years elapsed
before any further enlargement of border, when 6.28
square miles were added. Six years later came 11.38
square miles. From that date, 1869, to 1887, there were
no changes of boundaries, and in the latter year only one
square mile was added. The great annexation was in
1889, during which year two additions were made. The
first took in only 7.15 square miles, but the next, the
seventh in the general series, extended the area nearly
three hundred per cent. It was increased from 43.8
square miles to 169.8. That was when the city of Lake
View and the still more populous towns of Hyde Park
and Lake were brought into the city, together with the
town of Jefferson and a part of Cicero. In 1890 three
additions were made, the villages of Gano, Washington
Heights and West Roseland. That year brought the
total up to 179.15 square miles. Next year the village
of Fernwood came into the city, bringing the total up to
180.138 square miles. Two years later the villages of
Rogers Park and West Ridge and Norwood Park
knocked for admission and the door was opened to them.
Those three annexations brought the figures up to

     
 
 
 

Kis 7

 

19

| (
|

186.13 square miles. Just one square mile was added
from Calumet in 1895. Last of all came the village of
Austin, with its 3.5 square miles of territory, bringing
the aggregate up to 190.6.

The city government of Chicago, as elective, con-
sists of a mayor, city treasurer, city attorney, city clerk
and sixty-eight aldermen. All these seventy-two elected
city officials hold office for two years, half the aldermen
being elected each spring.

The latest census, taken in 1898, showed a popula-
tion of 1,851,588, divided in point of nationality. The
most numerous nationality is the German, including
those whose parents were born in Germany, but them-
selves in America. They number 490,542. The Irish,
figured on the same basis, number 248,142. The
Americans whose parents were also Americans number
488,683. This leaves 624,221 to be distributed among
the other nationalities. The Swedes head this second
list, I11,190. Then come the Poles, 96,858; the
Bohemians, 89,280; Norwegians, 45,690; English,
44,223; Russians, 38,987; Canadians, 34,907; colored,
25.814; Italians, 23,061; Scotch, 22,942; French,
21,830; Danes, 21,711; Hollanders, 19,148. The small
remnant very nearly completes the circle of the world.
Truly, a cosmopolitan city, where the miracle of
tongues constantly repeats itself. All these nationalities
are represented in the voting population, save only that
of the 2,445 Chinese, none of whom have the elective
franchise.

The total expenditures of the city in 1898 were
$33,316,184. The indebtedness of the city is only
$19,457,904. The number of miles of streets and alleys

in the city is 3,946. Of these streets 1,134 miles are
paved, and of these alleys 114 miles are paved. The
mileage of the sidewalks is 5,354 miles. There is one
street in the city, Western avenue, 22 miles long, and
another, Halsted street, lacks less than a mile of being of
20 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

equal length. The city owns 318 school buildings and
rents 332 schoolrooms besides. The latest statistics give
the number of pupils in public schools as 236,239, and
in private and parochial schools 114,180. During the
school year ending June 30, 1898, the expenditures for
the Chicago public schools were $6,785,501. The teach-
ers numbered 5,268. The police force consists of 2,676
men, in the uniformed service, and the other city
employes, not counting the fire department, with its
1,090 men, are, including women, 3,294. The city has
1,388 miles of sewers. The lake tunnels, through which
the supply of water for the city is drawn, measure 19
miles, with nearly three miles more in process of con-
struction. There are six miles of land tunnels in use and
ten miles more in process of construction, making all

TABLE OF GROWTH.

The following table shows the municipal growth,
both in area and population. The basis for the popula-
tion figures is the school census of the respective years,
which is the only official basis since 1890. The figures
for 1900 are, of course, estimated, but it is probable that
the increase between 1898 and 1900 is greater than
between 1896 and 1898:

SQUARE MILES. POPULATION.

1835 (original town)...... ferteaie indie iltaeansiee B55.  “aaaoundy
DS cess atetenss sciacensimaniarnang. o arezeraienaissaress aimnenase 10.70 4,170
TBS Greta yn acai $8 eure Veuve a hy Ed ea ReEaR 17.93 59,130
TOA creed ae Ve eanamane te ee ARS aa 35-75 169,353
TESS oo. we dee oem aha Meh ake Renee 43-94 802,651
TS0Oucrenuen cae eosanemeemmsapea eee aus 176.08 1,208,669
806). musnaavnamemnans sa wabade did 186 13 1,600, 433
TSOS:, a accawerey gaa x wwateurncing o Saowaneunery: oie 186.13 1,851,588
1goo (estimated),............... 0.02 ee 190.64 2,000,000

 

 

 

 

 

HUMBOLDT PARK VIEWS.

told about 38 miles of tunnels for our water system.
The total cost of the city’s water system, including the
original purchase price, is $30,220,953, and the total
income from water service since the city owned and
operated the system has been about $50,000,000, the net
revenue being fully $20,000,000. These things relate
to the physical growth of the municipality of Chicago.
Ina later chapter will be taken up the growth of Chicago
in population and in commercial importance. Still other
chapters will show its growth in other important direc-
tions.

THE MAYORS OF CHICAGO. :

a

Since 1836 Chicago has had 45 mayoralty terms, |

which were filled by 31 individuals. It is a little peculiar
that 10 men filled 24 of these 45 terms, and that 21 men
filled the other 21. B. W Raymond served two terms, -
-\ugustus Garrett two terms, James Curtis two terms,
W. S. Gurney two terms, John Wentworth two terms,
F.C, Sherman three terms, John B. Rice two terms.
Monroe Heath two terms, Carter H. Harrison (the first)
five terms, Carter H. Harrison (the second) two fen

a
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 21

These 10 men, as above stated, served 24 terms. The
other 21 served only one term each.

William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago, was
born in Delaware county, N. Y., in 1805. In 1834
he was a member of the New York Legislature and took
an active part in legislation in behalf of the Erie Canal,
being an earnest advocate of that enterprise. He came

the Elgin National Watch Company. Mr. Raymond
was one of the pioneers in developing Lake Forest as
a suburb of Chicago.

Alexander Lloyd, fourth mayor, was elected on the
Democratic ticket in 1840, and was a prominent figure
in politics of the day.

Francis C. Sherman was the fifth mayor and was

 

 

 

 

 

 

FLORAL DESIGNS—DOUGLAS PARK.

to Chicago in 1835 and became extensively interested in
real estate, and was one of the few men who weathered
the great financial crash of 1837. He was for many
years prominent in all important movements in Chi-
cago, but later returned to New York City, where he
made his home until the day of his death, which occurred
August 3, 1877.

Buckner S. Morris, the second mayor of Chicago,
elected in 1838, was a Kentuckian and settled in this
city to practice law in 1834. In 1840 he and Abraham
Lincoln were chosen by the Whig convention as can-
didates for state electors, and in 1860 he was a candidate
for governor of the state. In 1864 he was arrested,
among others, for conspiracy to release the rebel pris-
oners at Camp Douglas, but was honorably acquitted.

Benjamin W. Raymond, the third mayor, and also
the sixth, being elected in 1839 and afterward in 1842,
was born in New York City, and came to this city in
1836. He erected the first woolen factory in the state
at Elgin, and was afterward prominent in establishing

twice afterward elected to the same office, being the
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, his elections taking
place in 1841, 1862 and 1863. He came to Chicago in
1834; began business in a small frame hotel on Randolph
street, near Fifth avenue. In 1860 he built the Sherman
House. For a long period he was prominent in the
affairs of the city.

Augustus Garrett was seventh and ninth mayor, hay-
ing been elected in 1843 and 1845. He came to Chi-
cago in 1836 a very poor man, but amassed a large for-
tune before his death, which took place in 1848. He
bequeathed a large portion of his estate to found Gar-
rett Biblical Institute of Evanston.

Allison Smith Sherman was the eighth mayor,
elected in 1844. He was born in Barre, Vt., April 21,
1811, was married February 26, 1833, and arrived in
Chicago November 1, 1836. He was a_ successful
builder, making a specialty of masonry, and erected
many of the early buildings of Chicago. He was a pub-
lic-spirited man, was elected alderman twice, one time
22 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

chief of the fire department, ten years on the board of
water commissioners and also school trustee. He was
one of the organizers of the Illinois Stone & Lime Com-
pany. He retired from business in 1873, and now resides
at Waukegan, II.

John C. Chapin, the tenth mayor, elected in 1846,
was a prominent commission merchant. He was a mem-
ber of the city council previous to his election as mayor.

James Curtis, the eleventh mayor, was also the four-
teenth mayor, first being elected in 1847 and again in
1850. He wasa prominent lawyer, and, like Mr. Chapin,
represented his ward, the Third, in the city council pre-
vious to his being made chief magistrate.

James \Woodworth was the twelfth and thirteenth
mayor, being elected in 1848 and 1849. He was born in
Washington County, New York, and came to Chicago
in 1833. Ee was a member of the legislature in 18.42,
was elected to Congress in 1854 and assisted Stephen A.
Douglas in obtaining the appropriation for the Chicago
postoflice and customhouse.

Isaac L. Milliken, the eighteenth mayor (1854),
began his career as a blacksmith, served two terms in
the city council and was on the judicial bench when
he was elected mayor.

Dr. Levi D. Boone was the nineteenth mayor of Chi-
cago (1855). He was a grandnephew of Kentucky’s
famous pioneer of that name. He came to Chicago in
1836, and was made city physician in 1848. He was
elected mayor in 1855 by the native American party.
He also was arrested, like Mayor Morris, in 1864, for
supposed conspiracy to free the rebel prisoners in Camp
Douglas, but was honorably acquitted.

Thomas Dyer, twentieth mayor (1856), had been a
prominent citizen of Chicago for many, years. In 1848
he was president of the Chamber of Commerce.

John Wentworth (“Long John’’) was the twenty-
first and twenty-fourth mayor, being elected first in
1857 and afterward in 1860. He was born at Sandwich,
N. H., in 1815, and came to Chicago in 1836. He soon
became a well-known character. He was a lawyer and

 

 

vas
WF

as aaa) = J :
reaueeea tae

 

 

GARFIELD PARK VIEWS.

Walter S. Gurney was the fifteenth and sixteenth
mayor, being elected in 1851 and 1852. He was a
prominent man for many years in Chicago, and one of
the original directors of the Board of Trade.

Charles M. Gray, the seventeenth mayor of Chicago,
was elected in 1853. He was a pioneer in the manufac-
turing of farming implements.

editor. He was a Democrat, but a strong anti-slavery
man, and both times he was mayor was elected on the —
Republican ticket. He was a large man, standin
feet six inches in his stockings.

John C. Haines, the twenty-second and twenty-third
mayor (1858 and 1859), was born in New York and
came to Chicago in 1835. In 1848 he was elected a

g six
THe CITY OF CHICAGO. 23

member of the city council and served for six years.
He was a member of the constitutional convention in
1869 and a member of the Illinois Senate in 1874.

Julian S. Rumsey, twenty-fifth mayor (1861), was
long a prominent man in business and municipal circlés
in the city. He was twice president of the board and
occupied several important offices.

1873 he relinquished the office of mayor, and on account
of his health took a trip to Europe. Lester L. Bond was
elected by the council to serve out his term of office,
which he did with great credit under embarrassing cir-
cumstances.

Harvey D. Colvin was the thirty-second mayor
(1873). He was elected on the People’s ticket. He was

 

RECEPTORY AND LILY PONDS—HUMBOLDT PARK.

John B. Rice, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth
mayor, elected in 1865 and 1867, settled in Chicago in
1847. He built a theater on Dearborn street, near Ran-
dolph, which was probably the pioneer playhouse, which
he managed until 1857. He was nominated and elected
mayor in 1865 on the ticket of the Union party, and was
reélected in 1867.

Roswell B. Mason was the thirtieth mayor (1869).
Mr. Mason was elected on a People’s ticket. Municipal
affairs were in a bad shape and there were charges of
corruption and peculations by officeholders and con-
tractors, and an aroused public sentiment brought about
an era of reform, and Mr. Mason was elected as a reform
executive.

Joseph Medill, thirty-first mayor (1871), elected on
the Fireproof ticket, while the city was still a mass of
smoking ruins. He was for many years the principal
owner and editor of the Chicago Tribune, and brought
that paper to a high state of prosperity. He was born at
St. Johns, N. B.. of Scotch-Irish parentage, in 1823. In

one of the organizers of the United States Express
Company in 1854, and was a long time its general agent
in this city. His term of office was rather a stormy one.

Monroe Heath was the thirty-third and thirty-fourth
mayor of Chicago, being first elected at a special elec-
tion under the amended charter of the city in the sum-
mer of 1875, and reélected April, 1877. He was born in
New Hampshire in 1827 and came to Chicago in 1850.
He was a painter and a dealer in paint materials. His
firm was first Heath & Hurd, and afterward Heath &
Milligan. He was a man of good executive ability,
public-spirited, taking an active part in municipal affairs.
He died at Asheville, N. C., October 21, 1894.

Carter H. Harrison, the first, was the thirty-fifth,
thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth mayor,
having been elected successively in 1879, 1881, 1883 and
1885. He was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, Feb-
ruary 25, 1825, and came to Chicago in 1855. He did
not appear very much in public matters until 1871, when
he was elected a member of the board of county com-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

24

SMHIA MUVd NIOONIT

»

 

 

 

 

, NO INLETS EAN |

H

    
 

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 25

missioners. He soon became an active and influential
member of the board and developed great popularity
with the Democratic party, and was elected to Congress,
where he managed to increase his popularity with his
party and secure a stronger hold on the political organ-
ization. In 1879 he was first elected mayor of the city,
and, as said before, was reélected three times, continu-
ing mayor for eight years. While he was severely criti-
cised during this time for his leniency toward gamblers
and other violators of the law, he was very successful in
managing the business and financial interests of the city,
and, although a strong partisan, he never permitted pol-
itics to interfere with the character of the school board,

death of Mayor Harrison, the city council selected
George B. Swift as acting mayor. A special election
for mayor, however, was held in December. George B.
Swift was the Republican candidate and John P. Hop-
kins the Democratic candidate. Hopkins was elected.

John A. Roche, the thirty-ninth mayor, was born in
Utica, N. Y., August 12, 1844. He came to Chicago
in 1869 as the representative of a manufacturer of
machinery. While Mr. Roche was quite well known
in business circles, still with the people his name was
quite new when he was nominated in 1887. He was
elected and made a very creditable administration. He
made political mistakes, however, and though renomi-

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON BOULEVARD, ENTRANCE GARFIELD PARK.
STATUE IN HUMBOLDT PARK.

and husbanded the earnings of the waterworks with
great care, managing this branch of the city’s busi-
ness successfully. In 1887 he was not a candidate for
reélection, but retired from the field. In 1893 he ran
as an independent candidate and was elected, defeating
both the Republican and regular Democratic tickets,
thus becoming the forty-second mayor. He was mayor
at the time of the World’s Fair, and was given great
credit for the very satisfactory manner in which he per-
formed the duties of his office. In October of that year,
just before the close of the World’s Fair, he was assassi-
nated at the door of his house by a half-crazy imbecile,
who imagined that he had been slighted by the mayor
in not receiving some political appointment. Upon the

VIEW IN GARFIELD PARK.

nated in 1889 was defeated by DeWitt C. Cregier, who
was at that time the Democratic candidate. Mr. Roche
still resides in Chicago; is an active business man, being
manager of the Otis Elevator Company.

DeWitt C. Cregier was the fortieth mayor, elected
in 1889. He was born in New York June 1, 1829, and
came to Chicago in 1853, where he lived until his death,
which occurred November 9, 1898. He had been quite
prominent in municipal affairs. He was for many years
superintendent of the waterworks of the city and made
a very efficient and satisfactory officer. Afterward he
was commissioner of public works. He was a prominent
Mason and had as many personal acquaintances as any
man in the city. His administration, however, proved
26 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

not only unsatisfactory to his own party, but especially
so to the Republican. He did not seem to have the
firm hand or strong will of Mr. Harrison, and failed to
keep the business of his office entirely under his own
control. He was one of the most prominent Masons
in Chicago and was well known to the fraternity
throughout the country. Though he was nominated by
the Democratic convention for reélection in 1891 he
was defeated.

Hempstead Washburne, son of the Hon. Elihu
Washburne, and the forty-first mayor of Chicago, was
born in Galena, Ill., November 12, 1852. He fitted for
college, but went abroad and entered the university at
Bonn, Germany, in the fall of 1871, and remained there
two years, returning in 1873. He came back in 1873
and began the study of law, graduating at the Union
College of Law in Chicago in 1875. He then entered
actively into the practice. In 1885 he was elected city
attorney of Chicago, and in 1887 reélected to the same
office. In 1891 he was nominated by the Republicans
for the office of mayor. The administration of DeWitt
C. Cregier, the Democratic mayor, had been displeasing
to Democrats generally and to Carter H. Harrison,
former mayor, especially, and upon Mr. Cregier’s re-
nomination Mr. Harrison announced himself as an
independent candidate. This divided the Democratic
vote and elected Mr. Washburne mayor. He was
appointed one of the municipal civil service commis-
sioners in 1897, but in 1898 resigned the position. He
is still in active business in the city.

John P. Hopkins, the forty-third mayor of Chicago,
was elected to that position in December, 1893, defeat-
ing George B. Swift, the Republican nominee, both
being candidates for the unexpired term of Carter H.
Harrison, who had been assassinated, as mentioned
above. Mr. Hopkins was the youngest man that ever
held the position of mayor of Chicago. He was born
in Buffalo, N. Y., October 29, 1858, being just past his
thirty-fifth year at the time of his election. His biog-
raphers say that he is a self-made man. His father and
brothers being deceased, he had to start out not only

to make a living for himself, but to take care of his
mother and the family. His first employment as a mere
boy was working in a foundry. Afterward he worked
in the grain elevators at Buffalo. In 1879 he came to
Chicago, bringing his mother and sisters with him. For
a time he worked in the Pullman works, and in 1883
became the paymaster of the Pullman interests, which
position he filled until 1885. His administration of the
office of mayor was much more satisfactory to the Dem-
ocrats than to citizens generally.

George B. Swift, the forty-fourth mayor, was born
in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 14, 1845. His parents
early removed to Galena, and from Galena to Chicago,
where young Swift graduated from the West Chicago
High School. He served several terms in the city coun-
cil and became very familiar with municipal affairs while
there. He was afterward, under Mayor Roche, made
commissioner of public works. In 1895 he was made the
Republican nominee for mayor and was elected. It was
generally admitted that no man had ever entered the
mayoralty chair who was so familiar with the details of
the business affairs of the city as Mr. Swift. He gave ihe
city an excellent business administration, but failed to
please the politicians, and was not given an opportun-
ity of reélection by his party.

Carter H. Harrison, the son of the former mayor —
of the city, was the forty-fifth and forty-sixth mayor of
Chicago. He was born in this city April 23, 1860, and so
far as the records show is the only mayor of Chicago
that was born in the city. He was educated in the pub-
lic schools and graduated at St. Ignatius’ College in
1881 and Yale Law School in 1883. He seems to have
made very little effort, however, in the practice of law,
but, in company with his brother, went into business.
When his father purchased the Chicago Times in 1891
this son took a leading part as editorial writer, and after
the untimely death of his father he took the laboring
oar as editor, and continued to act as such until the
paper was sold to the Chicago Herald. He was elected
mayor April 6, 1897, and reélected in 1899.
CHAPTER IIL.

1 ee

 

|

| THE CHICAGO PRESS.

 

 

HE first newspaper printed in Chi-

/ cago bears the date of Tuesday,
November 26, 1833. It was called
the Chicago Democrat and had for
its motto Franklin’s splendid aphor-
ism, ‘‘Where Liberty Dwells, There
Is My Country.” The pioneer jour-
nalist of the city was John Calhoun,
who came west for the purpose
are of starting a paper in this vil-
He was a sturdy admirer of Andrew Jackson.
his paper was the
His monopoly was not
In the summer of 1835 a Whig

 

lage.
Having the field all to himself,
official organ of the town.
long enjoyed.
paper, the American, was established by F. O. Davis.
Neither of these newspaper founders had any very con-

siderable career in the profession. The first citizen of
Chicago to make himself a power in journalism was
John Wentworth, one of the most unique characters in
the early history of the city. He came here fresh from
Dartmouth College, and soon bought out Mr. Calhoun.
His original intention was to be a lawyer, but he found
journalism suited to his taste. He was an ardent Demo-
crat, with an aptitude for politics. As a writer, he had
a biting wit, pungent personal paragraphs being his
forte. For a long time he had associated with him
Joseph K. C. Forrest, also a pungent writer, but a man
of varied gifts, writing fluently and often brilliantly on
all current topics. The Democrat became a morning
daily just before the presidential campaign of 1840. It
continued in existence and under Mr. Wentworth’s con-
trol until its discontinuance in 1861, going out of exis-
tence just as the era of newspaper prosperity was about
to begin. The name Democrat was used to the end, but
with the organization of the Republican party Mr. Went-
worth espoused the Republican cause.

The American, and a little later the Express, hai

27

 

~~

each a short and inconsequent existence, but the Chi-
cago Daily Journal, called later the Evening Journal,
which was started April 22, 1844, still lives. It was
really, but not nominally, started by Thurlow Weed
and a small coterie of close friends of William H. Seward
for the unavowed purpose of promoting the presidential
ambition of that great statesman. Mr. Richard L. Wil-
son, who as a young man was well known to Mr. Weed,
became its editor. He was often, and deservedly, called
the Prentice of the Northwest. His paragraphs were
models of keen wit. Between Wentworth and Wilson
was kept up a running fire of lampoonery. There was
no real malice in their warfare. Their sharp thrusts
contributed much to the enjoyment of the community.
Mr. Wilson died in 1850, when his brother, Charles L.
Wilson, who had been associated with him for several
years succeeded to the editorship, which he retained
until his death, more than twenty years later. The.
Journal remained true to Seward, even though Mr. Wil-
son was a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Lincoln’s friendship for the editor was, however,
unshaken. The Journal was a very influential and prof-
itable newspaper so long as it remained Republican in
politics. The managing editor for many years, Andrew
Shuman, was elected lieutenant-governor in 1876 in
recognition of the service rendered to the party by the
Evening and Weekly Journal. The Journal continued
under the control of the Wilson family until the year
1895, when John R. Wilson, a nephew of the founder of
the paper, sold the controlling interest to James E.
Scripps and others of Detroit. Mr. Wilson, at the time
he sold, had been in control of the Journal for several
years and had continued to conduct it as a Republican
newspaper. The new purchasers, however, at once
changed it into an independent paper of a sensational
character. The change lost it many of its old subserih-
ers, but eventually largely increased its subscription list.
28 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Numerous newspapers of a mushroom growth
sprang up in the forties, some of them dailies, but only
two gained permanent foothold, the Chicago Daily
Tribune and the Staats Zeitung. The first number of
the Tribune was issued July 10, 1847. To Mr. Forrest,
so long the able assistant of Mr. Wentworth, belongs
the honor of being the most prominent of its founders,

as the leading money-maker among the morning jour-
nals of Chicago.

The Staats Zeitung was started in 1848, and was the
first Chicago newspaper of importance printed in the
German language. The first editor of it to achieve dis-
tinction was Captain George Schneider, who came to
Chicago from St. Louis in the summer of 1851 to assume

 

 

 

PAGODA BUILDING—GARFIELD PARK.

but his connection with it was brief. Many changes
were made in a few years. In 1853 Mr. Joseph Medill
came to, Chicago from Cleveland, and became part
owner of the paper and one of its editors. Soon after
Dr. C. H. Ray and William Bross became associated
with him, and for some years those three eminent jour-
nalists were co-editors, with neither paramount in
authority. Dr. Ray was an accomplished and brilliant
writer, elegant in diction and ardent in temperament.
The great triumvirate worked together harmoniously,
albeit each was a man of pronounced individuality.
With them was associated as publisher Mr. Alfred
Cowles. <All four, except Dr. Ray, continued their con-
nection with the paper until death, and for nearly a quar-
ter of a century Mr. Medill was editor-in-chief and
enjoyed the distinction of being the dean of Chicago
journalists. At his death, early in 1899, he was suc-
ceeded by Robert W. Patterson, long the managing
editor of the paper. The Tribune easily holds its place

the editorship. He made it a daily and a great power.
Being a strong advocate of freedom in all its breadth of
meaning, Captain Schneider was one of the founders of
the Republican party. During the Know-nothing craze
he rendered great service to the country in saving the
Republican party from alliance with it. He retired from”
journalism to accept a lucrative civil appointment under
President Lincoln. He was succeeded by two powerful
men, .\. C. Hesing, publisher, and Herman Raster,
editor. With Mr. Raster to wield the pen and Mr.
Hesing to “do politics,” the Staats Zeitung was for about
ten years the greatest power in the Republican politics
of Illinois and the West. They broke from the party
in 1876 and afterward the paper was independent in
politics. Being published in the German language, it
gradually suffered from the fact that the American-
born Germans naturally drift away from that language,
both spoken and written. But the Staats Zeitung has
filled so large a place in the history of Chicago that it
THe CITY OF CHICAGO: 29

deserves a permanent place in the press annals of the
city.

The next important newspaper of Chicago in chron-
ological order was the Daily Times, founded in 1854.
From the beginning it was strongly Democratic in
politics. Four years later another Democratic morning
daily was started, called the Herald. The Times was a
Douglas organ, the Herald a Buchanan organ. Both
ran until 1860, when Cyrus H. McCormick, proprietor
of the Herald, bought the Times and merged them
under the name of the Herald-Times, the intention being
to drop the latter name. The next year, however, Wil-
bur F. Storey bought out McCormick, and, not carry-
ing out the intention of the former proprietor, dropped
the Herald and retained the name of the Times. Under
the editorship and management of Mr. Storey the Chi-
cago Times entered upon a great career as a newspaper.
Mr. Storey was a strong and daring character, and
devoted himself to building up the Times with a reck-
less disregard for morals and religion. He had a genius

decease. After that it had an uncertain life, appearing
a great deal in the courts, where various people were
trying to get possession of what remained of it. It lived
a sickly life, however, until about the close of 1894, when
it suspended publication and became a part of the Her-
ald, under the name of the Times-Herald.

The Chicago Daily Herald was started in 1881 by
Frank W_ Palmer and some other Republican politi-
cians, together with a few aspiring young journalists,
with James W. Scott as publisher. It had a trying sort
of existence for a few years until John R. Walsh joined
with Martin J. Russell and James \W. Scott, purchased
it and put it on its feet. Mr. Russell was the editor and
Mr. Scott the publisher. It proved a great success.
Typographically it was the handsomest paper printed in
Chicago, if not in the United States. It grew rapidly in
favor as an independent Democratic paper, and even-
tually took position as the leading organ of the party.
Late in 1894, Mr. Russell having some time befere
ceased his connection with the paper, Mr. Scott and a

 

 

 

JACKSON BOULEVARD.

for newspaper work, and with enterprise unprecedented
at that time used the telegraph to collect news from
all portions of the country, especially those portions
tributary to Chicago. Sensational and salacious matter
was given special prominence and the paper increased
rapidly in circulation and held an important place until
the failure of Mr. Storey’s mind and his eventual

syndicate of gentlemen purchased Mr. Walsh’s interest,
at the same time purchasing what remained of the Chi-
cago Times, and consolidated the two papers as the
Times-Herald. The new parties that came into the deal
were led to do so by their confidence in Mr. Scott’s
ability as a publisher and manager. That gentleman,
however, very suddenly died in April, 1895, before he
30 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

had secured any of the fruits of his great work. The
Evening Post, an afternoon paper that had been started
by the Herald and published as an afternoon edition,
was also a part of the Times-Herald property. On the
death of Mr. Scott both papers were sold to H. H.
Kohlsaat, who at once changed the papers from Demo-

Inter Ocean, and a new company, with William Penn
Nixon as editor and manager, took possession of the
property. Mr. Nixon continued from that time editor-
in-chief and general manager of the paper until 1897,
when a controlling interest was purchased by Charles
T. Yerkes. The paper continued, as it had been for

 

 

VIEW IN

cratic organs to independent papers with Republican
tendencies, and such they have continued.

The Inter Ocean was the first daily Chicago news-
paper born after the great fire of 1871. The first num-
ber was published March 25, 1872. The founder of
this Republican journal was J. Young Scammon, one
of the pioneeers of Chicago. As a lawyer, banker and
philanthropist he had stood in the forefront almost ever
since Chicago had a name. He had had something to
do with the founding of more than one of the pioneer
papers of the city, but The Inter Ocean was his individual
enterprise, at least for the first few years of its exist-
ence. It was radically Republican from the beginning.
The Chicago Tribune, which was the leading Repub-
lican newspaper of the Northwest, having bolted the
nomination of General Grant in 1872, gave great oppor-
tunity for The Inter Ocean to secure a strong hold on
the party throughout the Northwestern country. And
being ably edited, it did much toward supplanting the
Tribune in Republican households. In 1875 Mr. Scam-
mon retired altogether from any connection with The

 

GARFIELD PARK.

twenty-five years, the ablest and most aggressive expo-
nent of Republican principles west of the Alleghany
Mountains. After the purchase by Mr. Yerkes, Mr.
Nixon was succeeded as_ editor-in-chief by George
Wheeler Hinman of New York. Mr. Hinman is a
trained newspaper man, a vigorous and able writer,
haying been for several years under the tutelage
of that great editor, Charles A. Dana of the New York
Sun. Under his editorship the paper showed increased:
vigor and aggressiveness and attracted wide attention.
In January, 1898, Mr. Nixon was appointed by Presi-
dent McKinley collector of customs, but still continues
with The Inter Ocean as publisher. The weekly edition
of The Inter Ocean secured the widest circulation of any
political and secular paper published west of the Alle-
ghany Mountains. It is the boast of the publishers that
it has subscribers in every state and territory of the
Union and many in foreign states. It is especially valu-
able as an advocate of Republican principles, and prob-
ably exercises a wider influence in the states composing
the northern portions of the Mississippi and Missouri
THE CITY

valleys than any other half dozen publications. Its pop-
ularity as a family paper added greatly to its influence
as a political organ.

The first one-cent paper published in Chicago was
the Chicago Daily News. The first number was issued
on Christmas day, 1875. At first it was a paper devoted
almost entirely to local matters, being entirely outside
of the Associated Press, and being unable to spend much
money in securing telegraphic service. In spite of all
this, as a cheap evening paper, it grew in favor and early
fell into the hands of Victor F. Lawson and Melville E.
Stone. These men pushed it forward with great skill
and energy, and by purchasing the franchise of the Daily
Evening Post, which failed and was sold in 1878, it
became a member of the Associated Press. From that
day its forward step was rapid and until it became the
greatest money-making publication west of New York.
On March 21, 1881, a morning edition of the Daily News
was first published. On March 13, 1893, the name of
the morning edition was changed to the Chicago Record.

OF CHICAGO. 31

of the Herald, and H. W. Seymour, at one time man-
aging editor of the Daily Times, with the aid and assist-
ance of a prominent capitalist, started the Chicago
Chronicle. From the beginning it was ably edited and
grew in favor as a straight Democratic organ. It
declined to follow the party in 1896 and headed the bolt
of the Gold Democrats. While continuing radically
Democratic, its chief characteristics are great independ-
ence in action and in the advocacy both of men and
principles.

In addition to the above there are several daily
papers published in foreign languages. Among these
the most important are: The Freie Presse, published
both morning and evening in the German language.
Richard Michaelis is editor and proprietor. It was at
one time Republican, but later supported the Demo-
cratic party. The Abendpost, also German, 1s published
as an evening paper. Fritz Glogaur is editor and gen-
eral manager. The paper is conducted with consider-
able vigor and with German-Americans has considerable

 

VIEW IN

Both these papers are of the class called independent,
and support such policies and men as best please the
tastes or serve the interests of their proprietor.

When Mr. Kohlsaat purchased! the Times-Herald
and made it an independent newspaper it left the Denio-
cratic party without any newspaper to advocate its prin-
ciples. To fill this want Martin J. Russell, former editor

DOUGLAS PARK.

influence. ‘The Skandinavan, John Anderson, editor
and proprietor, is the most influential newspaper among
Norwegians and their descendants of any publication
in the West or Northwest. It is independent in its ten-
dencies, but is generally with the Republican party. It
is published daily and weekly.

The religious newspapers of Chicago are probably
32 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

second to those of no other city of the nation. They
are numerous and many of them prosperous. Outside of
the daily papers there are about 500 weekly papers—
political, religious, agricultural, sporting, mercantile,
manufacturing, banking and social—published in Chi-
cago. A number of these are published in foreign lan-
guages. All classes of newspapers are large contribu-
tors to the revenue of the postoffice. The total news-
paper and periodical mail sent out from Chicago for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, was 43,461,123
pounds, for which the amount of postage paid was $434,-
611.23. In addition to this 31,215 pounds were deliv-
ered in the county without charge.

Chicago has made a number of attempts at high-

grade literary magazines, but none of them have met
with noteworthy success. While it has proved a great
center for success in daily and weekly newspapers of
various classes, those of an exclusively literary character
have generally been short-lived. This is probably owing
to the fact that literature is not of a local character, and —
the difference between the delivery in Chicago of a
magazine published in New York or Boston and one
published in Chicago is so small as to give no advan-
tage whatever to the home publication. The older pub-
lications of the East, having been long established, con-
sequently have the great advantage over new candidates
for public favor.

 

 

 

VIEW IN HUMBOLDT

PARK.
CHAPTER IV.

 

 

 

| CHICAGO AND ITS SCHOOLS.

   

HE ordinance of 1787” has made

that year forever memorable in
American history. In that immor-
tal “compact” between the thirteen
original states and the newly-or-
dained territory northwest of the
Ohio River, it was decreed that
“religion, morality and knowledge,
being necessary to good govern-
ment and the happiness of man-
aa ‘caine and the means of education shall for-
ever be encouraged.” From the very beginning Chi-
cago’s loyalty to this educational idea has been conspicu-
ous. In its public school system, its universities and
its various professional schools Chicago is to-day one
of the foremost educational centers of America.

The original school section, as provided for by the
ordinance of 1787 and located by Illinois legislation,
was placed in the heart of the city, within what are now
Madison, State, Twelfth and Halsted streets. In 1833
this was divided into 142 blocks. With the exception of
four blocks reserved, all the rest was sold at auction for
$38,619.47. It would be a smart arithmetician who
could ‘compute their value now.

The first “public school’ in Chicago was the one
started by Miss Eliza Chappel, from Rochester, New
York. She had first come west as a teacher at Macki-
nac. When Mayor Wilcox came from there to Fort
Dearborn she came with him and opened a school for
children in the fort and the little settlement about the
fort. Chicago was not then even a village. There had
previously been a number of family and more or less
private schools. In 1834 the town made an appropria-
tion for Miss Chappel’s school, making it the first public
school of Chicago. The following year, 1835, Rev. Jere-
miah Porter, who had organized the first church in
Chicago, was married to Miss Eliza Chappel, who had
taught the first public school. And it may be added

3

a;

33

 

 

~~

with the utmost emphasis that they “lived happily ever
after’ for some sixty years. Miss Chappel was suc-
ceeded as teacher by Miss Ruth Leavenworth, when
Mr. John S. Wright built at his own expense the first
schoolhouse. As Mr. Wright, thirty years later, said:
“The honor is due to my sainted mother. Having then
plenty of money it was spent very much as she desired.
Interested in an infant school, she wanted the building
and it was built.” The next teacher was Miss Frances L.
Ward, who afterward married Rev. John Ingersoll,
father of Col. R. G. Ingersoll.

In 1835 the state legislature passed an act to estab-
lish a ‘‘special school system for township 39, range 14,
east of the third principal meridian.” As Chicago was
not incorporated until the following year that was as
near as the lawmakers could designate it. The next
legislature having incorporated the city, or city with a
name at least, made haste to provide for it a more thor-
oughly organized common school system, with trustees
having full power to assess and collect taxes and with
inspectors with more or less power to manage school
affairs. One of the provisions of the city charter,
approved March 4, 1837, reads as follows:

“Sec. 85. The common council shall annually
appoint a number of inspectors of common schools in
said city, not exceeding twelve and not less than five,
which inspectors, or some of them, shall visit all the
public schools in said city at least once a month, inquire
into the progress of the scholars and the government
of the schools, examine all persons offering themselves
as candidates for teachers, and, when found well quali-
fied, give them certificates gratuitously, and remove
them for any good cause; and it shall be the duty of
said inspectors to report to the common council from
time to time any suggestions and improvements that
they may deem necessary.or proper for the prosperity
of the school.”

While the inspectors were to be appointed by the
34

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 

 

BISMARCK SCHOOL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOETHE SCHOOL.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 385

common council, the trustees who had the power to
assess and collect the taxes were to be elected by the
legal voters in each school district.

In 1839 the city charter was so amended by the
legislature as to turn over to the common council the
entire responsibility for school matters. Not only the
Seven persons to be inspectors, but the three persons
in each district to be trustees, were to be appointed by
the common council. In 1840 the city was divided
‘into four districts. The four teachers that year were
‘each given a salary of $400. Only one school building

are all the while being imperatively demanded. Chang-
ing conditions make necessary continued readaptation
of means and methods. Of course it is not possible
to overestimate the value of such a system of public
schools, especially in such a city, whose population is
so mixed, where not less than fifty different languages
are spoken and where universal suffrage prevails. The
power of the public schools in transforming children
of whatever nationality, race or speech into American
citizens awakens constant wonder and continued admi-
ration.

 

 

 

 

NORTHWEST DIVISION HIGH SCHOOL.

was then owned by the city. That was in District No. 1,
where the Tribune now stands. There were reported
that year 317 pupils in all, of whom 64 were studying
geography, 29 grammar and 57 arithmetic. The num-

- ber of white persons in the city under twenty years of
age was then 2,109.

The first high school was established in 1856. The
normal department in connection with it was made, in
1871, an independent school. Whether, all in all, there is
any city anywhere which has a better system of public
schools than Chicago may be an open question. That
the public interest in it is watchful and at times acutely
critical is taken as a wholesome sign. Improvements

The latest total annual appropriation of Chicago
for school purposes was $7,524,160. Of this amount
$2,000,000 was for buildings, grounds, permanent
improvements, repairs, etc. For salaries of teachers and
direct education the amount was $5,024,161. This
is more than $500,000 advance upon the salary list of
the previous year. The total school appropriation was
more than $1,000,000 beyond that of the preceding year.
The total enrollment in all departments for May, 1899,
was 242,319. The total attendance, 200,052. The
whole number of teachers was 5,527. Of the teachers
only a little over 400 were men. Of the 10,000 pupils in
the high schools the number of males was not quite one-
36 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

half that of the females. In the Chicago Normal School
there were 558 females and only 15 males. There are
about 320 school buildings owned by the city and 550
schoolrooms rented. The number of kindergarten
schools in connection with the several public schools
is 70. Manual training departments are being provided
for in connection with most of the schools. Under an
act passed by the Forty-first General Assembly of Ih-

vary much from 225,000. These figures do not exhaust
the subject, however, for there is no inconsiderable per-
centage of the children of Chicago being educated in
either parochial or private schools. The school census
of 1898 presents these statistics on this point, grouping
parochial and private schools: Male teachers, 285 ; female
teachers, 1,016; male pupils, 41,544; female pupils,
27.445. Combining public schools with the private and

 

 

 

 

GLADSTONE SCHOOL.

nois parental schools are to be established for truants.
There is also, as a part of the city’s public school system,
a school maintained at the bridewell for boys sentenced
to that institution for petty violations of the law.

At the present time, with the annexation of \ustin,
Chicago has 246 public schools, of which fifteen are high
schools. The number of principals and teachers
employed is 5,606. The enrollment of pupils does not

parochial schools, and making fair allowance for the
increase of a year in the two latter, we may state in
conclusion that there are not less than seven thousand
persons in Chicago whose occupation is teaching the
children of the city the rudiments of knowledge, and
that there are 400,000 pupils under their instruction.
Surely Chicago makes a good showing from the stand-
point of popular education.
  
 
  
  
   
   

+

CHAPTER V.

 

 

 

CHICAGO AND ITS CHURCHES.

 

 

S La Salle, with his dream of a vast
commercial empire, must share with
Father Marquette, with his religious
devotion, the honor of discovering and
making known the portage of Chi-
cago, so in the actual building of the
city, church enterprise has kept pace
with secular interest. The first reli-
gious service was conducted by a
Catholic priest. Father Badin, who, it is
claimed, had the distinction of being the first
Catholic priest to be ordained in the United
_ > States. His first visit to Chicago was in 1796,
three years after his ordination at Baltimore. His sec-
ond visit to this place was in 1822, at which time he
performed the first baptism that ever occurred here.
Three years later Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist clergy-
man, then located in Michigan, came to Chicago and
preached the first sermon ever delivered here, at least
the first in the English tongue. The next year Rev.
Jesse Walker, of the Fox River Methodist Mission,
came to Chicago in the prosecution of his general work.

The Illinois conference established the “Chicago
mission district” in June, 1831. That was in one sense
the first distinct recognition of Chicago as a field for
religious work. <A regular prayer meeting was estab-
lished, and the following summer a Sunday-school. But
the honor of priority in actual church planting does not
belong to that denomination. It was not until 1833 that
Chicago had a church, and in that year it acquired three,
namely, St. Mary’s Catholic in May, the First Presby-
terian in June, and the First Baptist in October. Father
John Mary Irenaenus St. Cyr founded the first, Rev.
Jeremiah Porter the second, and Rey. Allen B. Free-
man the third. This triumvirate have the distinction of
being the first resident clergymen of Chicago to found
each a permanent individual church of his denomination.
The First Methodist Church followed in 1834.

Two years later the Episcopalians, the Universalists

 

37

 

and the Unitarians established each a church of their
own faith. The St. James was the pioneer Protestant
Episcopal Church. It was nine years before any other
denomination entered the field. In 1845 the few Jews
then living in the city organized a religious society.
The same year the German Lutherans organized a
church. Two years later the Norwegian Evangelical
Lutheran Church was founded. The New Jerusalem, or
Swedenborgian, Church had its first house of worship in
Chicago in 1849. The year following the first Christian
Church was started.

These different denominations may be said to have
fully met the ecclesiastical requirements of early Chi-
cago. There were many Congregationalists among the
early settlers, but until the year 1851 they found church
fellowship in the Presbyterian organizations, of which
by that time there were several. The founder of the
First Presbyterian Church, and nearly, if not quite all,
of its original members were Congregationalists. But
for some inexplicable reason the Presbyterian polity
was considered by the descendants of New England
Puritans as better suited to the West than the Con-
gregational polity. This Presbyterian tendency of the
Congregationalists continued until arrested by a cause
wholly apart from denominational differences—namely,
the growth of anti-slavery sentiment. As there had
never been any Congregational churches in the South,
while Presbyterianism flourished in those states, it fol-
lowed that those who were unwilling to fellowship slave-
holders naturally turned to Congregationalism. The
first church of that denomination in Chicago was organ-
ized in 1851, hard upon the passage of the fugitive s'ave
act. For the next ten vears Congregationalism flour-
ished in Chicago in proportion to the growth of anti-
slavery sentiment. Since then it has stood like all other
denominations, upon its intrinsic merits, as a branch of
the general church.

Such were the diverse beginnings of Chicago from
the ecclesiastical point of view. It would be imprac-
38 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

cago avenue on the north and
Twelfth street on the south, there
are scarcely a dozen churches of
all denominations.

The latest complete  ecclesi-
astical data available are for 1808.
At that date Chicago had 751
churches. Of these 113 were
Roman Catholic. The Catholic
population at that time was sup-
posed to be about 650,000. There
were at that time 22 synagogues
in the city, 24 Salvation Army sta-
tions and nine stations of Volun-
teers of America. Counting these
stations as churches, and they are
entitled to be thus counted, the
total number of churches foots up
784. There were, no doubt, by
the middle of 1899, over 800
churches in Chicago. The most
numerous of these is the Meth-
odist Episcopal, 150. There are
only four Unitarian churches and
five of the Universalist denomina-
tion. There are three Greek
churches. The following table of
the so-called Evangelical churches
is from a collection of denomina-
tional statistics compiled by the
Rev. J. C. .\rmstrong, under date
of January 1, 1898. (It will be
noticed that he makes the number
of churches less than the authority
above quoted, but as he dates his
report January 1, 1808, his figures
represent the condition in 1897):

 

 

 

 

THE WOMAN'S TEMPLE.

ticable within the space of this chapter to follow, step

a 5 } * CHURCH, NO. MEMBERS. S §S MEMBERS.
by, step, the church growth of this city, but having Wa ehROh ccd. deosanimarzenebente 3 ade ti ‘ei
pointed out the pioneer stage of the different denomi- Baptistsarcadeannnats vesaretart 62 19,434 93 22,102
nations which gained a foothold in the early years of Christian... ... 6.6... cece eens ue 2,500 113 agit
be eae ; ‘ : ae Congregational.............0.. 75 15,275 87 23.291
Chicago, it only remains to give some idea of the growth siscueel a ae esd as 8.480
to which Chicago has now attained in its religious de- Episcopal Reformed........... 9 2,500 ‘10 2,356
velopment. Evangelical Association........ 12 7,500 23 8,129
A st er visiting Chicago is likely to be surprised pits MSDE nne eKeRhs z oe 8 os
Haug eS ey g\ ; 7 sal Sl Greeks wiaiecesaeen Sn sien 3 350 3 250

at not seeing any churches in the central, or down- Luthetanecsnrcvcmasaaiaeae 76 38,000 85 24,503
town, portions of the city. In the earlier days of Chi- Lutheran Evangelical United... 26 12,000 28 9,650
: 5 : . ‘i Methodist Episcopal........... 150 30,000, 155 35,259

cago churches in the business district were compara- Présbyterlati.;s ac acevaaswes 49 «19803 97 20.38t
tively, numerous. As the city grew, some of these Presbyterian Cumberland...... 5 850 5 501
d t the herter + 1 1 Presbyterian United........... 7 1,250 10 3,371

were removed up cw, ne better to accommodate the Reformed nandien cigs ec ivaguas 20 2,200 20 4,696
people. In the great fire of 1871 all that were left were Swedenborgian................ 5 450 5 350
" 5 : : sab. Swedish Mission... ... Gk sewoes 17 7,500 20 5,735

swept away. The scattered, and for the time impover Tinted: Hvevarbel 2 ae 2 Gas
ished, members found it necessary to rebuild elsewhere Union Evangelical...........4. 5 1,050 5 1,200
nearer their own new homes. Now, between the lake Miscellaneous.......+.-+-+ ++. 9 Tee 4a 8,500

 

on the east and Halsted on the west, and between Chi- 605 166,262 758 eOseag

 

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 39

But in any estimate of the religious forces of Chi-
cago much more is needed to be taken into account than
any mere statement of the number of churches, with
their membership and church edifices. Every ordinar-
ily live and enterprising church has, besides its Sun-
day-school, numerous associated educational agencies.
Moreover, many of the churches have their own parish
schools. Nearly all the denomi-

Dr. Simeon Gilbert, still keeps its lead as the representa-
tive paper of its denomination. The Interior is consid-
ered the leading journal of the Presbyterian denomina-
tion in America. It was started through the influence
of the late Cyrus H. McCormick two years after the Ad-
vance. Dr. W. C. Gray has been its editor ever since
1871, and it may be said of him that he has few superiors

 

nations have their own theological
seminaries, and several of these
are richly endowed and of national
importance. One of these is the
Chicago Theological Seminary
(Congregational), on Ashland
boulevard, at Union Park. The
Presbyterians have their McCor-
mick Theological Seminary, which
the C. H. McCormick family
founded and have done so much to
enrich; their Presbyterian Hos-
pital and the Lake Forest Uni-
versity. The latter, though lo-
cated a few miles north of the city,
is in fact a Chicago Presbyterian
institution.

The Methodists have their
great Northwestern University,
with its Garrett Bible Institute, at
Evanston. The Baptists have
their University of Chicago, which
already has property and endow-
ment of about $10,000,000. Al-
though many of the munificent
gifts for its buildings and endow-
ments have come from members
of other religious organizations,
the majority of its trustees must
always be members of the Baptist
Church.

It is moreover necessary in
this connection to make mention
of the strong denominational press
of the several leading denomina-
tions. The Baptist Standard, of
which Mr. Edward Goodman and
the Rev. Dr. J. A. Smith were re-
spectively publisher and editor for
over forty years, still stands as one
among the best periodicals of the
denomination. The Congrega-
tional organ, the Advance, which
was started in October, 1867, and
has numbered among its editors
such men as Dr. W. W. Patton,
General Charles H. Howard and

 

 

 

 

 

THE MONADNOCK BUILDING,
40 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in the line of editorial work in this or any other country.
The Northwestern Christian Advocate, as the organ of
the Methodist Church, is also among the best publica-
tions of its kind. Dr. Arthur Edwards, who has been its
editor for over thirty years, is one of the most able
and popular men in the denomination. <All these, with
the Living Church (Episcopal), the Catholic World and

many other denominational journals, very ably repre-
sent the religious influences of the city.

Taken as a whole, the churches of Chicago have from
the first shared abundantly in the vigilant and out-push-
ing enterprise characteristic of Chicago. Their influ-
ence in many ways has not only penetrated and influ-
enced the life of the city, but has gone out into all parts
of the country tributary thereto.

 

 

MANZ

 

 

 

 

THE MASONIC TEMPLE.
CHAPTER VI.

 

 

ORGANIZED CHARITY IN CHICAGO.

 

 
  
   

HERE is no more distinguishing
>) feature of the modern civiliza-
M& tion than the extent to which
M~ organized charity is being carried.
It takes almost every conceivable
shape. Chicago has a record in this
regard which is as remarkable as
» any feature of our municipal his-
; Oy tory. There was nothing out of the
2 am 2 ordinary, however, in the experi-
ences of this city from the standpoint of charity until
the great fire. Previous to that time nothing had
occurred to call out anything remarkable in that line.
The general prosperity was such, and the freedom from
any great distress so great, that benevolence flowed in
narrow channels, almost unobserved.

Early in 1857 the Chicago Relief and Aid Society
was formed. It was only one of several organizations
of the same character. For ten years it remained such,
but in November, 1867, it absorbed three organizations
of a kindred nature, and undertook to be the one central
charitable organization of the city, wholly disconnected
from any and all churches, the friend of all, the auxiliary
of none. It was a great thing for the city that such
an organization existed when the general distress inci-
dent to the fre of 1871 came upon the community.
That emergency found a charitable organization in
operation which could not have been better adapted
to afford relief and aid had it been formed with a clear
understanding in advance of what would be needed.
The territory had been divided into fourteen districts,
preparatory for the winter campaign against poverty
and destitution. This division of the city into relief
districts, coupled with the equipment of the districts,
was at once made use of in alleviating the distress of
fire victims. While yet the fire was burning, Mayor
Mason turned over to it all the contributions for char-
ity which began to pour in as soon as the extent of the

 

41

mighty conflagration became known. Leading citizens
of executive ability took matters in hand, and the result
was most satisfactory. There was never any scandal
or suspicion of dishonesty, nor was red tape allowed
to hinder the emergency work. During the first four
days after the fire no less than 330 carloads of relief sup-
plies were received by rail from neighboring towns.
These goods came without waybills, or invoices, the
railroads making no charge for transportation. The
receiving directly from the cars and distribution to the
people in need proved of the greatest benefit in mini-
mizing distress.

Relief was supplemented in a few weeks with aid.
About the first aid was assistance extended to poor
women in buying sewing machines to replace those
which were lost in the fire. From November 6, 1871, to
May 1, 1873, the society disbursed for special relief,
$281,489.03 ; for sewing machines, $138,855.26; for rent
paid, $6,371.80; for tools bought, $10,742, a total of
$437,458.09. The number of persons who applied for
relief during that time was 16,299, and the applications
approved numbered 9,962. But these figures give no
idea of the grand total of relief'and aid actually afforded.
Over 20,000 persons secured employment through the
agency of the society's free employment bureau. Hos-
pitals and dispensaries were enabled to provide for the
indigent sick who needed institutional relief, and many
thousands of patients were ministered to in their homes.
Twenty-five charitable institutions were the recipients
of nearly half a million dollars. The cash contribu-
tions received by this society from the American people
was $3,846,250.36; from other countries, $973,897.80,
making in all $4,820,148.16. The society gave an
account of this great stewardship April 30, 1874, show-
ing that besides these receipts and $50,000 as a special
fund from A. T. Stewart, it had received $126,634.58
from the banks as interest on deposits. At the time

the account was rendered the balance on hand was
42 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 

THE MARQUETTE BUILDING.

them all, but some idea of this feature
of Chicago’s activity at the present
time can be presented.

Of course, it is not possible to
name, or even to accurately classify,
all the charities of the city. To meet
the obvious necessities of the more
destitute and suffering, a very great
number of institutions, associations
and specific agencies have been orig-
inated. With the rapid growth of the
city existing institutions and agencies
soon become painfully inadequate.
The older ones need enlargement and
new ones have to be formed. Munifi-
cent gifts for the purpose, more than
anybody knows, are constantly com-
ing into these charitable treasuries.

According to the city directory for
1899 there are 41 hospitals, 31 dispen-
saries, 54 asylums and homes. This
is a very imperfect classification and
gives but a faint idea of the manifold
and total effort of the humane people
to meet the aching exigencies of the
more unfortunate and dependent.

In the first place, there are what
may be termed medical charities, such
as hospita!s, dispensaries, training
schools for nurses, nursery associa-
tions, the ambulance service, etc.
The County Hospital, alone occupy-
ing some eight acres in the heart of
the city, is an exceedingly well-ap-
pointed institution. The Marine
Hospital has an operating-room, the
furnishing and equipment of which
cost some $10,000. Among other
hospitals are Mercy Hospital, the
Presbyterian, St. Luke's, Hahnemann,
St. Joseph, Alexian Brothers, Ayo-
stera, St. Anthony, Home for Incur-
ables, Maurice Porter Memorial,
Provident, Mary Thompson, Michael
Reese and German.

In many ways the charity of the

$581,328.66, the disbursements having been $4,415,- city goes out toward needy, dependent, abandoned, |
454.08. wronged and delinquent children. There are the

Gradually the demands upon this society lessened.

When the extraordinary needs incident to the fire were Chicago Foundlings Home.

over there was still a great work to be done. “The poor
ye always have with you.” That central organization
continues to be a great factor in the charitable work of

The Faimouth School.

Crippled Children’s Home.
Illinois Industrial School for Girls.
Chicago Orphan Asylum.

Chicago, but the mighty river of relief and aid flows Glenwood Industrial School.
in innumerable channels. It is impossible to enumerate Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum.
Home for the Friendless.

St. Mary’s Home for Children.
Margaret Etter Creche.

Hull House Creche.

St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum.
Newsboy’s Home, and others.

Some of the child-saving so-
cieties for children are especially
worthy of note. Particularly de-
serving of mention is the new law
for the creation of a special juve-
nile court, or ‘“‘act to regulate the
treatment and control of depend-
ent, neglected and delinquent chil-
dren.”

For the purposes of this act
the words “dependent child” and
“neglected child” mean any child
who, for any reason, is destitute
or homeless or abandoned; or de-
pendent upon the public for sup-
port; or has not proper parental
care or guardians; or who habitu-
ally begs or receives alms; or who
is found living in any house of ill
fame, or with any vicious or dis-
reputable person; or whose home,
by reason of neglect, cruelty or de-
pravity on the part of parents,
guardian or the other person in
whose care it may be, is an unfit
place for such a child; and any
child under the age of twelve years
who is found peddling or selling
any article, or singing or playing
any musical instrument upon the
street, or giving any public enter-
tainment.

The words delinquent child
shall include any child under the
age of sixteen years who violates
any law of this state or any city
or village ordinance. From this
law great benefit is expected. The
law certainly had its origin in
anxiety to save the young, and
there is no higher form of genuine
charity.

In this connection mention
should also be madeof the Humane
Society, whose vigilant ministries
on behalf, not only of suffering
animals, but especially of wronged
and suffering children, have been

eminently important alike in preventive and corrective

ways.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 
 
  

   

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FOR RENT

THE CHAMPLAIN BUILDING.

It is to be noted that the municipality does nothing

directly in the way of public charities, with the single
44 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

THE FISHER BUILDING.

So many are the chari-
ties of Chicago that there is
constant danger of demoral-
izing duplication. To guard
against this a bureau of as-
sociated charities was or-
ganized in 1894. Its aim
and purposes are to pro-
mote such co-operation
among charitable agencies,
that each shall be permitted
to do what it can do best,
and that the field of each
shall exactly fit in with the
fields of others, leaving
neither overlapping edges
nor untouched need. A sys-
tem of friendly visiting, .
through which those who _
desire to give personal serv- 4
ice are brought into the
homes of the very poor, is
maintained. The theory is |
to investigate reports of dis-4
tress and secure relief for
each case of need, from the
proper agencies, the bureau
itself giving material relief
only in emergencies; sec-
ond, to guarantee adequate
relief where relief is needed;
third, to protect the public
from imposition and fraud.
It cannot be claimed that
this lofty ideal has been sat-
isfactorily attained, but
wholesome and encourag-
ing progress is being made
in the solution of what must
be set down as the supreme
problem of municipal char-
ity, how to so administer it
as to afford the greatest im-

exception of the $10,000 a year given by the city to mediate relief and permanent aid with the least danger

the St. Vincent’s Asylum for Orphans. of abuse.
CHAPTER VII.

panes

 

—~

 

 

 

CHICAGO AND ITS LIBRARIES.

 

  
  

)HICAGO'S first library was that of
which young Mr. John S. Wright,
whose mother built, at her own ex-
pense, the first building devoted: to
the uses of a school, was librarian. It
was the library in connection with
the first Sunday-school, in 1832. Mr.
Wright used to carry this library tied
up in his handkerchief.

The first donation for a public
library in Chicago was that of a
couple of gentlemen from New York, who
had dated this place with an eye to real estate interests.
They sent a package of 200 books, which had cost
some $50.

The Chicago Lyceum was started in 1835. Mr.
Thomas Hoyne wrote of it: ‘It was the foremost insti-
tution of the city when I came here in 1837. At the
time I became a member not a man of any note, not a
man of any trade or profession, who had any taste for
intellectual and social enjoyment, but who belonged to
the Lyceum. It had a library of over 300 volumes.”

The Mechanics’ Institute, which had been organized
in 1837, and incorporated in 1843, had for one of its
aims to “create a library and museum for the benefit
of mechanics and others.” By the end of the year it had
gathered a library of over 1,000 volumes. Its books and
other property were swept out of existence by the fire
of 1871.

The Young Men’s Association, organized in Janu-
ary, 1841, also had as one of its objects to ‘establish
a library.” Walter L. Newbury was chosen president.
Mark Skinner was also one of the leading spirits. A
reading-room was secured and a nucleus of a library
provided by Mr. Newbury. In 1851 it was incorporated
when it had 2,500 volumes. In 1866 it had 9,000 vol-
umes. It had also a really sp'endid lecture course,
including the most famous lecturers of the period—Hor-
ace Greeley, Emerson, Beecher and the rest.

a

45

 

In 1868 the Young Men’s Association was reorgan-
ized under a charter granted in the name of the Chicago
Library Association. This also, by the fire of 1871, was

 

 

 

 

THE Y. M. C. A. BUILDING.
46

 

 

THE GIFY OF

CHICAGO.

 

 

% |

kt

 

 

TE EU UE EEE

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY.

extinguished. But during its last year special efforts
had been made to enlarge its scope and found a Free
Public Library.

In April, 1856, the Chicago Historical Society was
formed. Rev. William Barry was the fine genius of
the movement. He was its secretary and devoted him-
self to its interest with contagious enthusiasm. He
secured the collection of over 3,000 volumes the first
year. The society was incorporated in 1857. Within
two years it had over 18,000 volumes. The fire of 1871
consumed 60,000 volumes, 1,738 files of newspapers
and a vast number and variety of documents, many of
which could never be replaced. Another fire in 1874
proved similarly disastrous. The present building is
deemed absolutely fireproof. It cost $150,000 and was
opened May, 1894. It has now a collection of over
20,000 volumes and 45,000 unbound volumes and

pamphlets, besides numberless documents and other.

insignia of value. The Union Catholic
was organized in 1868.

It is a fact of more than local, indeed of international,
interest that the initiative in the establishment of the

Chicago Free Public Library was taken by an English-

Library

man, Thomas Hughes, author of “Tom Brown at
Rugby,” etc., of London.

The great fire of 1871 had well nigh swept Chicago
out of existence. Never before in the history of the
world had such a passion of sympathy swept over the
country and manifested itself in such unprecedented
Ways in all civilized countries. At a meeting of the
Association of English authors, of which Thomas
Hughes was chairman, the immediate needs of the
afflicted city were discussed. It was not thought that
anybody then could want for bread; it was felt that
they would suffer for a time at least for want of books.
\n appeal, headed by the Queen, signed by Thomas
Hughes, Thomas Carlyle, Gladstone, Disraeli, Spencer,

Tyndall, Tennyson and others, addressed to authors, ~

publishers and booksellers, was sent forth. The result
was that 7,000 volumes were collected and forwarded
to Chicago. These formed the beginnings of what was
presently to be the Chicago Free Public Library.

Mr. Hughes appealed to the people of England to

give to Chicago “a new library as a work of sympathy.

now and a token of that sentiment of kinship which,
independently of circumstances and irrespective of every
other consideration, must ever exist between the differ-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 47

ent branches of the English race.’ As Mr. Azel F.
Hatch, the president of the board of directors of the
library, said at the dedication of the new building of
this movement: ‘“‘It crystallized the sentiment that a
public library was a necessity, and prompted our citi-
zens to express their appreciation of the generous and
sympathetic donation by founding this library and pro-
viding a place to receive and forever keep sacred this
testimonial of universal brotherhood.”

At a public meeting in Plymouth Church, Mayor
Medill presiding, January 8, 1872, measures were taken
to secure from the State Legislature, then in session,

an act enabling the city to provide by taxation for a

The new library building was open to the public
October 11, 1897. The total cost of the building, with
its fixtures, machinery, etc., was $2,125,000. It had
been formally dedicated two days before, the anniversary
of the fire.

In 1896 the four libraries of the world having the
greatest home circulation were:

Birmingham, England .....40.00 sscacpagerasacereans 818,312
Boston Public Library............0 ccc cece eee 847,321
Manchester, England. oi icaagialawind amewuiacded anavs 975,944
Chicago: Publi Libratyeccsds acavisewsee sence ees 1,173,589

The total number of volumes January 1, 1898, was
235,385. The annual attendance at the reading-room

 

 

 

 

TAA

 

 

THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY.

free library. It was what was known as the splendid
action of Thomas Hughes and others in England which
was the immediate occasion of this action on the part
of the city.

The library was opened January 1, 1873. Mr. Wil-
liam F. Poole, author, but not finisher, of that invaluable
and never-ending work, “Poole’s Index,” was the first
librarian, a man of extraordinary ability and experience,
fitting him for the great task of creating and organizing
the library. He continued in this position until 1887,
when he became librarian of the new Newbury Library.
He was succeeded by Mr. Frederick H. Hild, who
remains in place to date.

is about 600,000. There are over 200 persons in the
employ of the library. There are over thirty delivery
stations in different parts of the city, where books may
be obtained without going to the main library.

Walter L. Newberry, who died November 6, 1868,
gave by will one-half of his estate to found a “free public
library,” to be located in that part of Chicago known
as the North Side. In 1885, when the conditions of the
will made it possible to divide the estate, there was
assigned to the library enterprise property estimated at
$2,149,403, the larger part of this being in real estate,
which has since then increased in value to over $3,000,-
000. In 1889 the “Ogden block,” surrounded by Dear-
48 THE CITY

born, Walton place, Clark and Oak streets, was chosen
for the site of the library. The magnificent building
of gray granite was completed in 1894. The original
trustees were William H. Bradley, E. \W. Blatchford
and Mark Skinner. In 1892 the library was incor-
porated, when the trustees were increased to twelve,
Mr. E. W. Blatchford still remaining as president.

Mr. William Poole was librarian from 1887 until his
death (1893), when he was succeeded by Mr. John Vance
Cheney. The various reading-rooms are most attractive.
No books are taken away from the library. In the
departments of music and medicine and costly works of
art and antiquity this library is especially strong. The
reading-rooms are supplied with many hundreds of
periodicals, in many languages.

Mr. John Crerar of Chicago left by will property
valued at somewhat over $3,000,000 to form a library.
“T desire,’ he said, “that books and periodicals be
selected with a view to create and sustain a healthy,
moral and Christian sentiment. I want its atmosphere
that of Christian refinement and its aim and object the
building up of character.” He specially objected to
works of the “French” sort. In accordance with a wise

OF CHICAGO.

mutual understanding between the two great reference
libraries, the Newberry on the North Side and the Crerar
on the South Side, the trustees of the Crerar Library
decided to give to it a distinctively scientific character.
The term “scientific,” however, is taken with a good
measure of freedom, including historical, theological, all
kinds of sociological and educational works. It also
covers the chief periodical literature of the world for
the uses of its reading-room.

For the present the library occupies a commodious
suite of rooms on the sixth floor of Marshall Field’s
immense retail store building. A portion of the income
of the well-invested endowment funds of the library is
each year reserved as a building fund. When erected
this building and the great library it will contain will
be a fitting monument to the far-sighted and noble
founder.

There are other great and growing libraries in Chi-
cago in connection with the several theological semi-
naries, universities and other richly endowed schools‘
in the city. There are also besides these a large and
fast-increasing number of private libraries of great cost- !
liness and special value.

1

 

 

 

 

 

THE ART INSTITUTE,
CHAPTER VIII.

 

 

THE CHICAGO

VeTEM |

PARK SYSTEM.

 

 

.

  
    
 
  

N laying out and arranging the park system
of Chicago the enterprising men of the
earlier days of the city builded even
better than they knew. Certainly no
city in the nation has a better park sys-
tem. There are three sets of parks—
the South Side, the West Side and
the North Side. The only thing to be

..., regretted is that this system had not
Oy been projected ten years earlier, when
~ | the South and West parks could have
been placed much more nearly the center
of the city at less cost. The South parks, which are com-
pesed of Washington Park and Jackson Park, contain
a greater area than either one of the other systems—
about 1,500 acres. They are connected by a broad
boulevard with the West Side park system. The parks
of the West Side are Douglas, Garfield and Humboldt,
and some other smaller parks. All these are connected
by boulevards. The system is connected from the north
boundary by boulevard with Lincoln Park in the North
Division, which makes a complete circuit of the city.
Diversey avenue boulevard, which connects Lincoln
Park with the West Side boulevard, is not yet quite
completed. When it is there will be a magnificent drive
over beautifully shaded roads entirely around the city.
The value of these parks, with their boulevards, as pleas-
ure-givers and health-preservers, cannot be estimated.
The amount of money invested in them amounts to a
great many millions of dollars, but no money has been
better invested for the city. It is an investment for the
permanent good of the whole people.

LINCOLN PARK.

Lincoln Park was the beginning of the park system
of Chicago, and, strange to say, it seems to have been
largely the result of the purchase by the city of fifty-nine
acres, which now make the central part of the park, on
account of emergencies arising from an epidemic of

4

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49

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cholera. The purchase’ was made in 1852, when the
city was terror-stricken. The land was intended to be
used as a cemetery, hospital grounds and quarantine
station. The cost of the fifty-nine acres was $8,851.50.
A hospital was built upon it, which was not torn down
until 1870, when the park commissioners began turning
the cemetery proper into a park. The cemetery was
used as a place of burial until 1866. After the hospital
was torn down the bodies were ordered removed from
the cemetery grounds and interred at various other
cemeteries in the vicinity of the city. Originally a por-
tion of the ground had been divided into burial lots,
many of which were sold to and used by citizens, but
as the population increased the protests were loud and
strong against having burials in ground that would soon
be surrounded by the city. To the protests of the citi-
zens the physicians added theirs, and in 1859 the city
council passed an ordinance directing that sales of lots
in the city cemetery should cease after May 1 of that
year.

Soon after, in 1860, citizens began to agitate the
question of using this ground for a public park. Asa
result the city council passed an ordinance limiting the
cemetery entirely to that part of the park which had
been subdivided into burial lots. The same ordinance
prohibited burials in the north sixty acres of the grounds
owned by the city, and reserved them to be used for a
public park, or for such public purposes as the common
council might devote them. This practically confined
the cemetery to a small corner of the tract south of
Menominee street and west of the line of Dearborn
avenue. The ground reserved for park purposes looked
very unpromising, being composed mostly of sand waste
and sand hills, on which little but scrub oaks and other
trees of that character would at all prosper. Neverthe-
less it was to be slowly transformed into what is believed
to be the handsomest park in the country.

In 1862 some roads and walks were laid out and
made, and the scrub trees were thinned out and trimmed.
 

THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

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THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 51

and the first official reference was made to “the park”
in the council proceedings. The total expenses for the
year were put down as a little over $3,000. In 1864
the council passed an ordinance declaring that this prop-
erty should be set aside as a public park, to be known
as “Lake Park.” The same year they prohibited the
further sale of cemetery lots, and in 1866 burials were
prohibited in the cemetery. in June, 1365, the city
council passed a resolution changing the name from

soon became apparent that if the park was ever to
become what its friends and promoters desired and
intended it should be, it must be put under control of
a board of commissioners, with full power to develop
and control it. With that argument the legislature of
the state was appealed to, and the first Lincoln Park act
was passed and approved February 8, 1869. This act
appointed as the commissioners of Lincoln Park E. B.
McCagg, John B. Turner, Andrew Nelson, Joseph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LINCOLN PARK VIEWS.

“Lake Park” to “Lincoln Park,” appropriating $10,000
for its improvement, and a landscape gardener was
employed to develop it by laying out drives and walks,
planting trees, draining the low land and making lawns.
But the total expenses for the year were only $4,546.05.

In 1868, $20,000 was spent by the city in improving
the park, and it began to give promise of becoming a
real pleasure ground. Music stands were erected, but
the concerts given were through private liberality. It

Stockton and Jacob Rehm. They were to hold their
offices for five years and their successors were to be
appointed by the judge of the Circuit Court of Cook
County. This last feature of the law was afterward
changed so that the Lincoln Park board is now
appointed by the governor by and with the consent of
the State Senate.

The first commissioners had rather a troublesome
time and were harassed with lawsuits and had obstruc-
52 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tions thrown in their way in almost every direction.
They persevered, however, and the result is a park that,
including its 9 miles of boulevards, has 409 acres of
land and a water front of 43 miles, and is without a
rival in the city. It is surrounded on all sides, except
the water side, with the business houses and residences.
It is within immediate reach of more residents of the
city than any other of the large parks. It is only two
miles from the city hall, while Garfield Park, the nearest
one of the West parks, is four miles and the South parks
about seven miles. It has been laid off and improved
artistically, and its great water front makes it the favor-
ite resort of all who can reach it, particularly in the
summer months. Unfortunately for the park the law-
makers made a great mistake in making the commis-
sioners dependent on the supervisors of the town of
Lake View and the North Town for the funds with
which to support and improve the park. This weakness
in the law has been especially manifest in the last three
years, when the supervisors, being of different political
faith from the park board, have continually stinted the
supply of money. The result is that the roads in the
park and walks, as well as the boulevards outside of
the park, are in a very greatly deteriorated condition,
the commissioners being without money to put them
in proper condition. Unless something is done to
change the situation the park will necessarily continue
to deteriorate each succeeding year.

The horticultural features of Lincoln Park are espe-
cially attractive. The old English, or country, garden
is a most delightful place to loiter in on summer davs.
The propagating houses are new and very extensive.
The greenhouses, fernery and palmhouses can hardly
be equaled in this country.

The zoological collection is perhaps the most attrac-
tive feature of the park, and is one of the best and most
instructive collections of animals in America. The herd
of buffalo is prosperous and increasing and ought to
have a thirty-acre field instead of being confined to a
five-acre lot.

Herman B. Wickersham was born at La Porte,
Indiana, July 3, 1859. He is the son of James
and Susan (Saunders) Wickersham. He received his
education in the public schools of that city, and, follow-
ing his graduation from the high school in 1879, he
came to Chicago and entered the Union College of
Law. After completing his studies in this institution
in June, 1881, he entered the law office of the Hen.
Lyman Trumbull, under whose direction he pursued
the practice of his profession for eight years. He then
practiced under his own name until 1894, when he asso-
ciated himself with Mr. Frank E. Hayner, under the
firm name of Wickersham & Hayner. This partner-
ship still exists.

Mr. Wickersham has always taken an active interest
in the progress of the Republican party, and, although
he has never held any political office other than mem-
bership on various county and state committees, he has
been a power in its affairs. He has been a member
almost from its foundation of the Marquette Club, that
organization famed throughout the nation for its activ-
ity in American politics. In its affairs he has been
honored at different times by election to the offices of
director, first vice-president, and, in March, 1899, to
that of president. Throughout his long connection with
this organization he has been on several of its important
committees, notably the committee on political action,
of which he was for some time chairman, and he has

 

HERMAN B. WICKERSHAM.

also appeared frequently as a speaker at the banquets :
given by this club.

In his professional work Mr. Wickersham has built
up a substantial practice. His frank and unostentatious |
manner has won for him a large circle of friends, who
recognize in him a born leader of men, and one who
is thoroughly sincere in all that he says and does. In
his practice of the law he has gained a reputation of
being a fighter, and his stubbornly-contested cases are
proof of this. He is one of the comparatively young
men in his profession, and is an-example of those to
whom reference was made when it was said that most
of the renown that has come to Chicago has been
through the efforts of men not yet in the full prime of
life—men whose hair is not yet tinged with gray.

Mr. Wickersham was appointed by Governor Tan-
ner in September, 1899, a member of the trust confer-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO, 53

ence from the state of Illinois, and in the following
November he was also appointed by him a member of
the Board of Commissioners of Lincoln Park. He was
elected president of the board on November 16, 1899.
He is a member of the Union Club and other social
organizations of Chicago. He was married June 7,
1899, to Mrs. Fannie L. Sneider.

THE SOUTH PARKS.

The movement in 1869 in favor of placing Lincoln
Park under the control of a state corporation, stirred
up the whole city on the subject of parks, and action was

vards.

as to what the parks should be. Two million dollars
were realized by the sale of the first issue of bonds. Olm-
stead & Vaux, landscape architects, were employed to
submit plans for the laying off of the park. The law gave
the commissioners authority to either purchase land at
private sale or to condemn it, as in their wisdom was
thought best. Active work was at once begun on what
is known as Washington Park and connecting boule-
For a time all effort was suspended by reason
of the great fire in 1871, but was resumed again in 1872.
The funds, however, were then very low, and the com-
missioners had to call upon citizens to come to thcir

 

 

 

“GATES AJAR” FOLIAGE VIEW—WASHINGTON PARK.

taken for the creation both of the West and South Side
park systems. The promoters of both these systems
were wise enough to see the necessity of placing the
power to levy taxes for park purposes in the hands of
the commissioners in charge of them. The act for the
appointing of South Park commissioners and providing
for the purchase of land, etc., for said parks, was passed
February 24, 1869, and on the 23d Governor Palmer
appointed John M. Wilson, George W Gage, Chauncey
Bowen, L. B. Sidway and Paul Cornell commissioners.
They were leading men of the city and had large ideas

aid, and they did not call in vain. Contributions were
solicited from abroad, and plants and seeds came from
the botanical gardens of Europe and Asia, it is said, in
abundance. Greenhouses were erected and the grounds.
plowed and fertilized, lakes were excavated, and the
work through the seventies went on with great success.
In 1880 the total improved area of Jackson and Wash-
ington parks and the fourteen miles of boulevards was
1,057 acres, leaving 455 acres still unimproved. At the
close of the year 1884 the floating debts of the park
had been paid. From the beginning to the close of 1884
54 THE CITY

CF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

FOLIAGE AND FLOWERS—WASHINGTON PARK.

the special assessments for the South park purposes
amounted to $4.709,632.

In 1889 a portion of Jackson Park and the Midway
Plaisance were turned over to the commissioners of the
Columbian Exposition. The amount turned over as the
site of the World’s Columbian Exposition was 666 acres,
with a frontage of two miles on Lake Michigan. <A por-
tion of it was swampy and unsightly, but the whole was
soon transformed into a most admirable location for
that wonderful exposition. After three years’ work by
engineers and gardeners and architects there was a won-
derful transformation. Magnificent buildings clustered
about the court of honor, quaint structures had spare
space in the wooded island, and the northern portion
of the park was given up to a vast variety of buildings,
representing the states of the Union. The Midway was
flanked by the curious architecture of the occident and
the orient and the islands of the sea.

Within two years after the closing of the exposition
not a vestige of the wonderful White City remained,
save the Fine Arts building, now the Field Museum,
and the building erected by the German government
and called the German building. The wreckers, assisted
by the fire, made a clean sweep and the park commis-

sioners have since been busy in bringing it to-a state
of beauty far surpassing the site originally given to the
World’s Fair.

The total area of the territory included within the
limits of the South parks and the boulevards belonging
to them is 1,500 acres.

THE WEST PARKS.

The legislature created the Board of West Chicago
Park Commissioners in February, 1869. On April 26 of
the same year Governor John M. Palmer appointed
Charles C. P- Holden, Henry Greenebaum, George W.
Stanford, Eben F. Runyan, Isaac R. Hitt, Clark Lipe
and David Cole members of the first commission. The
law under which the new park board was authorized
required the location of a boulevard starting at the Chi-
cago River north of Fullerton avenue, running to a
point a mile or more west of Western avenue, and thence
southward, by whatever course the board might think
proper, to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail
road. Along this driveway three parks were provided
for; one near the north end, to cover not less than 200
acres and cost not more than $250,000: another at the
southern extremity, with an area of more than 100 acres
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 5d

at a similar cost, and a third midway between the two,
embracing at least 100 acres and involving an expendi-
ture of $400,000.

Commissioners Hitt, Runyan and Greenebaum were
entrusted with the work of selecting and securing sites
for these pleasure grounds, and in so doing encountered
no end of adverse litigation. Then came the great fire
of ’71, bringing ruin to a majority of the property-own-
ers of the West Side, and scarcely had the city begun
to recover from this disaster when the panic of 1873
depreciated values and for a time paralyzed industry.

Despite this flood tide of adversity the close of 1873
saw the new park system well under way. As a result

Legislation by the state rehabilitated the treasury, the
commission was reorganized, and under the guidance
of President Suddard and his colleagues the affairs of
the West parks have followed the strictest business lines,
and, by the harmonious action of the commissioners on
all important measures, made greater progress during
the last three years than ever before.

Up to the time the new organization took up the
reins of park management not a working, drawing or
ground plan of the various portions of the park system
had been prepared. In consequence repairs and
improvements met with endless delays and countless
obstacles. Almost the first act of the new president was

 

 

 

 

 

VIEWS IN UNION PARK.

WASHINGTON BOULEVARD. COMMISSIONERS’
of the exhibition of thirteen suggestions for the loca-
tion of the proposed public gardens and driveways dur-
ing the summer of 1869 land for a portion of the boule-
vard had been donated. After much discussion the park
sites were finally decided upon, and the first steps toward
improvement begun by sinking artesian wells, digging
lakes, sloping lawns and planting trees. The work pro-
gressed favorably until 1877, when a scandal, growing
out of charges of mismanagement, brought about a
reorganization of the commission.

Again in 1896 the West park system received a hard
blow by the defalcation of its treasurer, which impaired
the credit of the board and left it financially crippled.

BUILDING.

LILY POND AND BRIDGE.

to order a thorough survey of the parks and boulevards
and the preparation of plans showing to the fraction of
a foot where every building, water pipe, manhole or tree
is located, and this, in a great measure, accounts for
the increased rapidity and greater economy with which
improvements have been made in the last two years.

But probably the most appreciable reformation made
by the new administration was its change of attitude
toward the city streets adjoining or running through
park property. The policy of the board had hitherto
been against the expenditure of public funds for the
improvement of thoroughfares leading through or bor-
dering on the parks. Realizing that these boundary
56 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

streets were but little sought for residence purposes and
the injustice of saddling the entire cost of improvement
on the owners of abutting real estate, the president stic-
ceeded in convincing the board of-its duty to cooperate
with the property-owners. As a result, Ogden avenue,
Madison and Lake streets, leading through the parks,
and Homan avenue, bordering on Garfield, have been
paved, and the balance of the adjacent streets are being
cared for as fast as the limited means within the control
of the park board will permit.

To-day the West Chicago park system bears as little
resemblance to the design planned in 1869 as does the

adopted distinctive styles. That portion north of Lake
street is but sparsely wooded, with rolling ground, wind-
ing roadways and shallow brooks, in close imitation of
New England farm lands. The area south of Madison
street, at first intended as the home of a museum and
as a park for deer and fancy stock, has been given over
to an elaborate system of drives and promenades, twin-
ing about a massive marble bandstand and splendidly
equipped cycling and trotting courses. The central por-
tion is of ornate design, yet so closely has nature been
followed that it is difficult for the visitor to detect in
the winding lake, the sloping lawns and nodding trees

 

Se

  

 

 

 

 

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CONSERVATORY—GARFIELD PARK.

modern boulevard mansion to the rude dwellings of the
early pioneers. In place of the partially improved pleas-
ure grounds and five and a half miles of crude drive-
ways, comprising the system in the first years of its
growth, there are now nine beautifully picturesque parks
and twenty-two miles of boulevards, paved for the most
part with asphalt or macadam, fringed by well-groomed
lawns and spreading trees, and walled in many parts by
long rows of stately edifices.

Garfield, the most highly improved of the larger
parks, covers 188 acres, lying four miles directly west
of the city hall. This was formerly known as Central
Park, the name being changed in memory of President
Garfield. It is cut into three parts by Madison and Lake
streets, for each of which the landscape gardeners have

any trace of the handiwork of those who have built a
beautiful rural scene upon what was a stretch of level
prairie. .\ refectory and boathouse stand on the shore
of the lake, and the slope to the west is crowned by a
conservatory, surrounded in summer by a fairyland of
blooms. This park has ninety-four acres of finished
lawns and nineteen acres that are covered by lakes.

To the north of Garfield is Humboldt and to the
south Douglas, the three connected by the boulevard
system planned in ’69. Humboldt Park is, the largest
on the West Side, comprising some 206 acres, while the
area of Douglas is a few acres short of that of Garfield.
Both have undergone vast improvement during the
present administration. In Humboldt the lake has been
enlarged, until it now extends over twenty-three and
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 57

a half acres, lily ponds have been laid out, a new boat
landing erected, driveways and walks added, the hot-
house equipped with many modern improvements, and,
by permitting the land tunnel contractors to use tem-
porarily a corner of the park, the president secured the
limestone for the new walks and drives free of charge.
This park is the home of an extensive nursery, contain-
ing some 7,300 trees and shrubs, with hundreds of seed-
lings and cuttings, embracing 1,184 distinct varieties.
It gets its name in honor of the great German naturalist,

cation of its contract. Appreciating the fact that a sav-
ing to either board would be a gain to the taxpayer at
large, the West park president sought for and obtained
an equitable bargain, materially reducing expenses for
either side and making possible the accomplishment
within a year, of work that would otherwise have taken
a decade to complete. Dirt excavated from the canal,
which could be delivered at a much lower cost than it
could be purchased for elsewhere, was furnished by
the sanitary trustees for filling in Douglas Park and

 

 

 

 

CONSERVATORY—HUMBOLDT PARK.

Alexander von Humboldt, and is bounded by Augusta
street, Grand, Kedzie, California and North avenues.
Douglas park, so called in respect for Lincoln’s
famous opponent, is cut in two by Ogden avenue, and
much of that portion lying south of this thoroughfare
had been unreclaimed from its natural uncouth wildness
when the present board was organized. To improve
this and to complete Southwest boulevard, that long-
delayed and most-desirable connecting link between the
West and South park systems, were among the objects
of President Suddard’s ambition when he took office.
Action of the legislature in preventing the sanitary dis-
trict from using fixed bridges furnished an opportunity
to further these improvements by compelling the drain-
age trustees to go to the West park board for a modifi-

Southwest boulevard. In return the park board made
concessions in the construction of the Southwest boule-
vard bridge that worked a saving to the trustees com-
mensurate with the additional labor of furnishing the
filling. .
~The lake in Douglas Park, more than twenty-six
acres in extent, is the largest in the system, and has
recently been beautified by a boulder bridge and new
boat landing. During the last two years a lily pond,
spanned by a bridge of cut stone, has been built in
the southern portion of the park, granite walks have
been laid along the frontage on Twelfth street, Cali-
fornia and Ogden avenues, the city’s overhead wires on
the last-named street submerged, and the greenhouse,
with its 500,000 plants, made more picturesque by the
58 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

substitution of rock work for the old wooden benches
formerly used in displaying flowers.

In addition to the three greater park areas, six
smaller breathing spots in various parts of the West Side
have been from time to time turned over by the city
to the park board. These are Union, Jefferson, Vernon,
Wicker, Campbell and Shedd’s. Union Park, along
with Jefferson, Vernon and Wicker, was placed under
control of the commissioners in 1885. It contains
fourteen and a half highly improved acres lying between
Lake street, Ashland boulevard, Warren and Ogden
avenues. <A little lake sparkles in the center of a beat-
tifully kept lawn, shaded by shrubs and stately trees;
while partially hidden behind the foliage in the north-
east corner is the home of the park board, built in the
style of an English country residence. When the park
was under city management an unsightly iron bridge
crossed the lagoon, but this has since been supplanted
by an elaborate structure of blue Bedford stone.

Jefferson Park, with its tiny lake, covers less than
five and a half acres between Adams, Monroe, Throop
and Loomis streets. Vernon, smaller by an acre than
Jefferson, and without a lake, stretches between Gilpin
and Macalister places, from Center avenue to Loomis
street. Wicker, a triangular plot, scarcely four acres
in extent, at the intersection of Robey and Fowler
streets, has recently been encircled by a belt of electric
lights. Campbell, adjoining Oakley boulevard, and
Shedd’s, south of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
tracks, between Lawndale and Millard avenues, contain
approximately an acre and a quarter each. The latter
came under park control during the present administra-
tion, and plans for its improvement have been prepared
and are being executed.

Twelve boulevards are now included in the West
park system, these being Humboldt, Central, Douglas,
Southwest, Washington, Jackson, Ashland, Twelfth
street, Ogden, Central Park, Homan and Oakley. The
three first-named are those contemplated in the original
plan. Douglas, more than a mile and a half in length,
250 feet in width, with a central lawn 130 feet broad,
connects Garfield and Douglas parks. Central boule-
vard links Humboldt to Garfield and is a mile and a half
long, crossing the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
tracks on a lofty stone viaduct, approached on either
side by gentle slopes. Humboldt boulevard, starting
at the northern end of the park of the same name, is
nearly three miles long, and its improvement has but
recently been completed. \Washington is the longest

of the boulevards, being nearly five miles in length, and -

a few blocks to the south is paralleled by Jackson for a
distance of nearly four miles. Both driveways are
fronted by costly residences along almost their entire
length. Oakley, the latest addition to the system, is
just now on the point of becoming a finished driveway.

All the boulevards, with the exception of South-
west, together with most of the parks, are lighted by
electricity. The electric lighting plant is located on the
northern portion of Garfield Park and operates 1,054
lamps on an underground circuit, making it the largest
system of its kind in the world. When the plant was
erected and the system installed it was very much in
the nature of an experiment, and many were the
obstacles and failures that were encountered. But
improvements and skillful management during the last
two years have brought it to a degree of excellence
unsurpassed anywhere.

The West Park Commissioners—i1go0.—F. M.
Blount, Frank T. Fowler, Andrew J. Graham, Charles
B. Pavlicek, Anton Petersen, Joseph W. Suddard.

Officers—Joseph \WV. Suddard, President; Charles
W. Kopf, Auditor; F. M. Blount, Treasurer; Ernest
G. Schubert, Secretary; William J. Cooke, General
Superintendent; Francis A. Riddle, Attorney; Thomas
P. Kennedy, Assistant Secretary; Alfred C. Schrader,
Engineer.

President Joseph Wenham Suddard of the West
Chicago park board is one of the successful men of
commerce in Chicago who are willing to devote a por-

 

PRESIDENT JOSEPH WENHAM SUDDARD.

tion of their energy and ability to the service of the
public.

Of energy Mr. Suddard has an unlimited supply and
the records of the West park commission during his
administration, as well as his success in the business a
world, attest to his ability. For nearly a quarter of a
century he has lived in Chicago, having taken up his
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 09

residence in Lawndale when that part of the city was
but a scantily-peopled suburb. He was born in Syden-
ham, Ontario, September 4, 1855. Joseph Wenham,
at that time president of the Bank of Upper Canada, at
Montreal, was a close friend of the Suddard family. and,
by an odd coincidence, he who was destined to promi-
nence among Chicago’s bankers was named after the
foremost financier of Canada.

Thus far Mr. Suddard’s life has been one of cease-
less activity. As a youth he spent the days from early
spring until late fall in farm work, studying in the even-
ings and attending school during the winter. At the
age of twenty he came to Chicago, but feeling the need
of further educational advantages, returned to his native
land, and, after a successful season of phosphate mining,
qualified as a teacher, and thus worked his way through
the higher branches of study. In 1880 he again came
to Chicago, and on the 22d of February, 1882, was mar-
ried to Miss Victoria, a daughter of Samuel Youmans,
Esq., of Frontenac, Ontario.

For nearly nine years Mr. Suddard has been iden-
tified with the American Trust and Savings Bank, where
he now holds the responsible position of trust officer.
In February, 1897, he accepted the appointment as West
Chicago park commissioner, and two months later was
elected president of the board, three times since having
been called upon to succeed himself in that office.

Ernest G. Schubert, the painstaking and ever-genial
secretary of the Board of West Chicago Park Commis-
sioners, is a native-born Chicagoan. Mr. Schubert was
born on June 9, 1863, and after graduating from the
public schools took a course in Bryant & Stratton’s
Business College. Later in life he turned his attention
to legal studies, graduating from the Chicago College
of Law. Though scarcely yet in the prime of life he
has already attained prominence in the world of politics,
having served several terms in the Illinois House of
Representatives. He was the unanimous choice of the
Cook County members for speaker of the Fortieth Gen-
eral Assembly, but, after having been pledged enough
votes to assure his election, withdrew from the race in
order to secure the United States senatorship for Chi-
cago, thereby assisting his friends in the United States
senatorial fight that was then on.

As legislator he served as chairman of the commit-

tees on municipal corporations and parks and boule-
vards, and was instrumental in securing the passage
of several important measures for the West park board
and Lincoln Park board. In the Thirty-ninth General
Assembly he put through a $600,000 appropriation to
the West Chicago park commissioners, and followed
this up, during his second term, by getting the favorable
consideration of the legislature to a bill adding $300,000
to West park funds.

Mr. Schubert organized the Chicago Printing Com-
pany and was its vice-president and manager for a

 

ERNEST G. SCHUBERT.

period of five years, when he disposed of his interest and
purchased vessel property. He is himself a practical
printer, having thoroughly mastered the various
branches of the business. Huis knowledge of the com-
mercial art is shown in the annual reports of the West
Chicago park commissioners for the last two years,
which, for neatness and typographical beauty, are unsur-
passed. Yet, by carefully supervising all the details of
their preparation, Secretary Schubert has succeeded in
keeping the cost below that of the less elaborate editions
of former years.
CHAPTER IX.

 

| THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. |

— ee

aD) HICAGO is the county seat of one of
the best agricultural counties of Tlli-
nois, but has never had a county
» fair. That pride and joy of the aver-
| age farmer’s heart was denied the
tillers of the rich soil of Cook County.
Once the state fair was held in Chi-
cago, but it was not a success. For
several years an Interstate Exposition,
as it was called, was held on the lake
front, but it was not particularly
creditable. At least, it made a poor

   

~

showing as compared with the somewhat analogous

exposition given by St. Louis. It was only natural that
when this city entered the list as a competitor for the
great Columbian Exposition, in honor of the fourth cen-
tennial of the discovery of America, there should be a
strong opposition. The selection was to be made by
Congress, and New York insisted that it was entitled
to it, as the great metropolis of the new world. The
decision in favor of Chicago was made in April, 1890.
The fair itself was opened three years later.

By the terms of the act of Congress the “World's
Columbian Exposition” was to be “an exhibition of
arts, industries, manufactures and products of the soil,
mines and sea.” The sum of money to be guaranteed
by Chicago under the act was $10,000,000. One-half
of this amount was raised by subscription. The other
half was raised by an issue of city bonds. There was
a great obstacle in the way of a bond issue. The con-
stitution of the state had to be amended before the city
could incur the indebtedness, and the initiative had to
be taken by the General Assembly, in special session,
called for that purpose by the governor, Joseph Fifer.
To remove these obstacles was quite as formidable a
task as to raise the $5,000,000 by subscription. Jn
August of that same year the special session was held,
and the amendment was ratified at the state election of
that November.

 

60

Another perplexing problem was, where should the
fair be held? In looking back upon the exposition it
is a matter of surprise that there should have been the
slightest hesitation on the subject. The site selected
was ideal. If it had been made for that purpose it cou'd
not have been improved upon. That portion of Jackson
Park facing on the lake afforded every advantage. But
for a long time it seemed to many that the best place
would be the lake front, between Randolph and Twelfth
streets, making such addition by filling in as might be
necessary. The decision of the question was not, made
until nearly one year after the act of Congress had been
passed. From that time on the work of preparation
was prosecuted with astonishing vigor, and on a very
large scale. The grounds were laid out and beautified
at great expense, and no less than fourteen exposition
buildings proper were erected, each in itself a grand
example of architecture. Some of them were marvels
of beauty, and each was admirably adapted to its specific
purpose. The Manufactures and Liberal Arts building,
1,687x787 feet, was the most gigantic of them all, and
the Administration building the most artistic, but each
Was in its way most admirable.. If built of the whitest
marble, instead of perishable “staff,” they would have
presented no more entrancing effect. “The White
City,” as it was called, was a sight well worth a journey
around the world to see, even if one saw only the bui!d-
ings and grounds. No permanent city could vie with it
as a triumph of architecture.

Besides the buildings erected by the exposition
company, and their annexes, the government of the
United States had a magnificent structure for its own
exhibits. So, too, did seventeen foreign countries,
thirty-eight states and three territories. Many exhibit-
ors and concessionists put up structures of their own.
Many foreign nations and colonies, which had separate
buildings of their own, contributed to the exhibits.
Foreign governments expended, it is estimated, $6,000,-
000 for the cost of their exhibits. No doubt private
THE

CITY OF CHICAGO. 61

 

OG CHC

 

a

 

 

 

oO SS reenter CF en a ep

SHAKESPHARE MONUMENT.

exhibitors from abroad expended more than _ that
amount.

The exposition opened May 1, 1893, and closed
October 31. During those six months the total attend-
ance, as shown by the turnstile registries, was 27,539,-
521. The actual paid admissions were 21,478,218. Of
course many persons made many visits. It is impossible
to estimate how many different persons saw the expo-
sition, but there must have been several millions. The
greatest number of any one day was on October 9, the
twenty-second anniversary of the great fire. That was
called Chicago day, and it seemed as if the whole city
swarmed into the White City. The turnstile records
of that one day showed 716,881 visitors.

 

LINCOLN PARK VIEWS.

The condensed balance sheet of the auditor showed
a grand total of funds of $28,151,168.75. It is a lew
estimate to place the cost of the fair, including public
appropriations and expenditures of exhibitors, at
$50,000,000. The cost to visitors cannot be computed.
But no one can intelligently doubt that the general
benefits were incomparably greater than the actual cost.
Many persons lost money in business ventures which
proved unprofitable, and much disappointment was
experienced, but the general public derived enormous
benefits from the exposition.

In the management of the exposition many persons
deserve very great credit, but a few names are entitled
to distinct recognition and grateful remembrance. No
one individual did more to make the exposition a bril-
liant success than Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, presi-
dent of the Board of Lady Managers. She had never
been tried in any public duty, but she proved to have

 

   
62 FHE GIT}

remarkable executive ability and a broad, clear and
far-reaching judgment. Lyman J. Gage, Ferdinand W.
Peck, Harlow N. Higinbotham, Thomas P. Bryan,
George R. Davis and T. W. Palmer each gave much
time to the enterprise and did much in his own way
to make the exposition a great success.

One of the more notable features of the exposition
was the series of “congresses” gotten up in connection
with the exposition. Charles C. Bonney deserves to he
called the author and finisher of this auxiliary part of
the fair. He and the late Professor Swing each sug-
gested this department, but neither knew anything of
the other's plan. Professor Swing was an idealist and
was content to merely suggest the plan, but Mr. Bonney
took a practical view of the matter, and the managers
gave him every facility for carrying out his project.
The most notable of these congresses was the Parlia-
ment of Religion. The head of the committee having
this in charge was the Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows,
then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chi-
cago, now president of Oberlin College. Eminent

 

OF CHICAGO.

religionists from all over the world were in attendance
and the public interest in the proceedings was wide-
spread and intense. The cause of religious unity and
fellowship was materially promoted.

As for the exposition as a whole, it was conceded to
be the grandest and most successful world’s fair ever
held. Jt did much to establish the reputation of Chi-
cago as one of the greatest cities of the world. From
that time on it has been wholly free from the belittle-
ment of a provincial reputation. That celebration of
the fourth centennial of the discovery of the new world
was a mere episode in the history of the city, but it will
ever stand as one of the more memorable landmarks of
Chicago’s great municipal career.

This exposition occasioned some financial disap-
pointment to individuals, but to the city as a whole it
was of incalculably great benefit. It gave a wonderful
stimulus, to population and contributed powerfully to
the general development of Chicago as a center of
trade and industry.

Sodth Releclor :

VIEWS IN LINCOLN PARK.
CHAPTER X.

 

 

 

| CHICAGO IN WAR. |

   

HE part taken by Chicago in the
“> Civil war and the war with Spain
deserves distinct recognition in any
history of Chicago, however brief.
It was wiped off the map by the
war of 1812 and was too feeble to
help much in the Blackhawk war,
of which it was almost within can-
non shot, and when the Mexican

. war came it was still too small to
be taken account of. But by the spring of 1861 it was
an important city, and by the spring of 1898 it was a
very great city.

The first public meeting in Chicago, called out by
secession, was held January 5, 1861, before the electoral
colleges of the several states had met at their respective
capitals to choose a president. The rebellion was ram-
pant at Charleston. The people of Chicago, irrespec-
tive of party, proclaimed their loyalty to the flag at that
time. When the first call for volunteers came and Gov-
ernor Yates issued his proclamation April 15, 1861,
announcing Illinois’ quota, Chicago lost no time in
Tesponding. At noon on the 21st day of that month
General Swift left Chicago with 595 men and four six-
pound pieces of artillery, going directly to Cairo.

Three days before the first Chicago troops turned
to the front a mass meeting was held in Chicago, at
which a Union defense fund was started, which, before
the close of the next day, reached $36,000. The banks
of the city tendered Governor Yates a loan of $500,000
in advance of the assembling of the legislature. Mili-
tary companies, which had been organized in time of
peace, sometimes sneered at as mere dress parade
affairs, promptly tendered their services. The most
conspicuous of these organizations were the Chicago
Zouaves, who, under the gallant Ellsworth, won a
renown hardly less than that of the Rough Riders in
Cuba, although the Roosevelt of the organization did

63

 

not survive to receive political honors at the hand of
a grateful people.

The first call for 75,000 volunteers for three months
opened the way for six regiments from Hlinois. Chi-
cago had only about 110,000 inhabitants then, but had
the spirit to gladly supply the entire quota, if allowed
to do so. The six Illinois regiments were numbered
seven to twelve. The state had sent six regiments to
the Mexican war, and the enumeration was a continu-
ance. Chicago contributed two companies to the
Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; the Zouaves and
Swift’s men were later incorporated in the Nineteenth
regiment and mustered into the three years’ service
May 4, 1861. The Twenty-third was a Chicago regi-
ment, led by the brave Colonel James A. Mulligan.
That was the first Chicago regiment to see service on
the battlefield. It was the Irish regiment of Chicago.
Through it Chicago received its baptism of bloodshed
in the holy cause of the Union at Lexington, Missouri,
September 18, 1861. The German regiment was the
Twenty-fourth, commanded by Colonel Hecker, who
had fought for liberty in his native country. The Thir-
ty-seventh was organized by a well-known and highly-
honored Chicagoan, Julius White. The Thirty-ninth,
known as the Yates’ Phalanx, was mustered in during
the summer. A young Chicago lawyer, Thomas O.
Osborne, was elected colonel, but modestly chose to
be major. He worked his way up to general. The
Forty-second was organized in Chicago. It entered the
service in September of the first year of the war, William
A. Webb being colonel. The Chicago Legion, as it was
called, the Fifty-frst regiment, entered the service
December 4, Colonel Gilbert W. Cumming command-
ing. The Fifty-seventh, the last of the Illinois regi-
ments of the first year of the war, who were made up
in whole or in part of Chicago troops, was mustered in
December 26, Silar D. Baldwin, colonel.

Hardly had 1862 opened before the “McClellan
61

Brigade,” as it was popularly called, came into military
existence as the Fifty-eighth regiment. Colonel Wil-
liam F. Lynch commanded it. In May the Sixty-fifth,
or Scotch regiment, was mustered in, Daniel Cameron
at its head. In August the famous Board of Trade
regiment, the Seventy-second, moved into battle line,
Colonel F A. Staring in command and Joseph Stock-
ton next in rank. The Eighty-second was called the

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THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ment,” commanded by Colonel George B. Hoge, and

the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh, under Colonel

John Van Arnam.
and the latter won the distinction of having marched

3,000 miles and been under fire in one hundred engage- -

ments. Every one of these regiments rendered gallant
service on the field.
Chicago was well represented in three cavalry regi-

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A FEW STATUES IN LINCOLN PARK.

“Second Hecker Regiment,” being German in_ its
make-up, and at first under the command of Colonel
Hecker, who was succeeded by Colonel E. S. Soloman.
This regiment entered the service early in the fall of
1862. So did the Eighty-eighth, or “Second Board of
Trade Regiment,” commanded by Colonel Francis T.
Sherman. Also the Eighty-ninth, or “Railroad Regi-
ment,” Colonel Hotchkiss; the Ninetieth, the “First
Legion,” under Colonel Timothy O’Meara; the One
Hundred and Thirteenth, “Third Board of Trade Regi-

All these were infantry regiments,

a

ments, which were early in the field, the Fourth, Eighth, <
Ninth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth. 4

They were mainly recruited from Northern Illinois,

outside of Chicago, but this city was represented in them
all, but more especially in the Eighth, which had for
its major WW. H. Medill of Chicago. The Board of
Trade Battery was mustered in August 1, 1862, and the
Chicago Mercantile Battery four weeks later. No less

than forty-six commissioned officers, who were either. :
killed in battle or died soon after of wounds, entered .
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 65

the service from Chicago. These are dry facts, but
to go into further particulars without invidious dis-
crimination would take too much space. For a city
of only little more than 100,000 inhabitants it is a proud
record to have been represented in so many regiments
and batteries.

But the most prominent feature of the military rec-
ord of Chicago during the war of the rebellion was
the Camp Douglas affair. That camp was designed

 

See SE

 

 

fund for providing the prisoners with the comforts
required, and our physicians gave them medical care.
But many died. Still later came smallpox. Out of
12,000 prisoners, 1,150 died.

But the feature which made it specially famous was
the great conspiracy that was concocted in 1864. The
funds for it and the details of it were attributed to
Jacob Thompson, then in Canada, but formerly Secre-
tary of the Navy under Buchanan. Knights of the

 

ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN—LINCOLN PARK.

to be a rendezvous for Illinois volunteers, but it was
actually used as a military prison. Fort Donelson ‘fell
in February, 1862, and Island No. 10 was captured
about the same time. Between 8,000 and 9,000 prison-
ers, who fell into our hands in consequence of those
two victories, were sent here to Camp Douglas. Many
of these prisoners died. The season of the year was
unfavorable. Southern men were not accustomed to the
rigor of the winter on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Many died of pneumonia. Chicago raised a generous

5

Golden Circle were in the plot. The conspiracy had
for its diabolical object not simply the delivery of
the prisoners, but the burning of the town. Buckner
T. Morris, the second mayor of Chicago, was arrested
on the charge of being one of the conspirators, but he
was acquitted. The plot was discovered only just in
time to save the city. Colonel B. J. Sweet, the com-
mander of the camp, has received a great deal of credit
for saving the city, but not as much as he deserves.
One of the parks should perpetuate the glorious rescue
66 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in fitting bronze, Colonel Sweet being the central fig-
ure. Richmond fell only a few months after the great
deliverance of Chicago.

In the Civil war, as has been shown, Chicago boys,
whether infantry or cavalry, were scattered through
regiments largely rural, but in the Spanish war regi-
ments were made up largely on geographical lines. The
strictly Chicago regiments of infantry were the First,
led by Col. Henry L. Turner; the Second, commanded
by Colonel George M. Moulton; the Fifth, Colonel
Culver’s regiment; the Seventh, Colonel Marcus Kav-
anaugh. The Eighth (colored) had four companies
from Chicago and four from the rest of the state. Its
gallant colonel, John R. Marshall, was from Chicago.
All officers, from colonel down, were colored, and both
the regiment as a whole and every officer made a good
record. It was the first colored fegiment in the country
to be officered by men of the same race, and a great
deal of interest was felt in the result. It was so satis-
factory as to be highly creditable to all concerned.

Chicago was well represented in the famous Rough

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WINDING PATH—LINCOLN PARK.

Riders, and Companies E and F of the Second United
States Volunteer Engineers were supplied by Chicago,
and through them Chicago should have the honor of
being the first to land in the province of Havana.
Colonel Edward C. Young was commissioned by Gov-
ernor Tanner to raise a regiment of cavalry, and of it
Companies A, C, E, F, H, [ and M were recruited
in Chicago. [Illinois took an honorable part in the
naval battles of the war through the naval reserves,
largely a Chicago organization. These “jackies” did
not ask to be kept together, but patriotically consented
to be distributed and placed where they could do the
most good.

These meager facts give little idea of the hercic
part taken by Chicago either in the Civil war or the
later war with Spain. It would trench too much the
limited space of this municipal history to recount inci-
dents in detail, however glorious. For such details,
especially of the Civil war, the reader is referred to
‘Andreas’ Awakening of the War Spirit in Chicago.”

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CHAPTER XI.

 

ee

 

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| THE ILLINOIS AND

   
 
 
  

HEN the genius and executive
; ability of DeWitt Clinton put
. 3 New York City in all-water
<a). communication with the
‘Great Lakes and the great
West, he started a system of
East and West commerce
rf. Which was of the highest na-
tional importance. The early
coming of the then undreamed
of railroad cut short the
career of the canals, but

water continues to be a
very great factor in overland transpor-
tation, contradictory as the statement may seem. What
the Erie was to New York in the early days of the
century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was to Chi-
cago in its municipal youth.

It was a citizen of New York who first, after Joliet
himself, recognized the importance to commerce of the
portage of Chicago. In 1810 a member of Congress
from that state, Hon. Peter B. Porter, drew the atten-
tion of Congress to the importance of connecting the
Mississippi River and Lake Michigan by building a canal
to supply the missing link in the chain of waterways
which was to extend from New Orleans to New York.
But the United States government had other matters
more pressing to look after. The second war with
England was near at hand. Four years later, however,
President Madison called the attention of Congress to
the subject, and the government organ of the day, the
Niles Register, caught a glimpse of the great possi-
bilities latent in the President’s suggestion. “By the
Illinois River,” it said, “it is probable that Buffalo in
New York may be united to New Orleans by inland
navigation through Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan
and down that river to the Mississippi.” It was pre-
cisely that which the Illinois and Michigan Canal did

MICHIGAN CANAL. |

67

|

do. And the ecstatic exclamation of the Register has
also been justified, “What a route! How stupendous
the idea! How dwindles the importance of the artificial
canals of Europe compared to this water communica-
tion! If it should ever take place—and it is said the
effort can easily be made—the territory of Illinois will
become the seat of an immense commerce and a market
for the commodities of all regions.” That could hardly
have been a truer prophecy had it been a veritable case
of history read backward.

It was in 1816 that the first practical step was taken.
One of the necessary preliminaries was to get rid of the
Indians. <A people stolidly set against accepting civili-
zation must be removed from the path of. progress. A
strip of land twenty miles wide, extending from Ottawa
to Chicago belonged to the Pottawatomies. In August,
1816, they relinquished their title to that slip. Then
the government set about exploring and getting ready
to carry out the Porter-Madison plan, or the DeWitt
Clinton plan applied to the West. The first thing was
for a United States civil engineer, Major S. H. Long,
to make a trip from Fort Clark, or Kaskaskia, to Chi-
cago. It was a long journey by boat, all the way against
the current. When he reached the Chicago River he
found it “discharged itself into the lake over a bar of
sand and gravel, in a rippling stream ten or fifteen
yards wide and only a few inches deep.” The Calumet
was still worse, for the sandbar down there was a com-
plete blockade. Huis report struck no responsive chord
in Congress. Eight years later, when the state had
been in the Union four years, Congress did pass an act
granting the state authority to cut a canal through the
public lands, donating ninety feet on either side and
appropriating $10,000 for the survey. In considera-
tion of this permit and the appropriation of land and
money the state agreed to allow all articles belonging
to the United States, or to any person in its employ,
to pass toll free forever. The legislature of Illinois

ee
68

lost no time in getting down to business. It was con-
ceived at that time that Indiana might join and open up
lake communication by way of the Wabash, and Ohio
by way of the Maumee, but, as a matter of fact, each of
the three propositions was independent of both of the
others. It required a great deal of surveying and expert
calculation to reach a definite plan. The state act incor-

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porating the Illinois and Michigan Canal Company was
passed early in 1825, with a capital stock of $1,000,000.
This act was amended in the next year, in the hope of
facilitating operations. But the necessary capital could
not be raised. In 1827 Congress was induced to grant
a liberal land subsidy, namely $284,000.

Fortunately there was no credit mobilier to absorb
this subsidy. The state itself took it. The acts of 1825
and 1826 were virtually dead and the corporations

WCOWW

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

which they contemplated existed only on paper. In
1828 the legislature started the enterprise on a feasible _
basis. Still further legislation followed in 1829. The
most important preliminary work of the first board of
canal commissioners was to lay out towns at each end
of the canal that was to be—Ottawa and Chicago.
Practically nothing was done except to lay out these two

Pa Aden sées

Q

 

terminal towns until 1836, when more legislation was
had. In the meanwhile obstacles of the most serious
nature were encountered, and it looked as if the canal,
then so long talked about, never would be built. The
first spadeful of earth was thrown out on the 4th of
July, 1836. Never was Independence Day more joy-
fully celebrated than on that ever-glorious Fourth by
the people of Chicago. Everybody turned out and
went down to Bridgeport to witness the inauguration
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 69

of the enterprise. The honor of wielding the spade

on that occasion fell to the lot of Canal Commissioner
Archer, whose name lives in the diagonal avenue, or
“road,” as then called, which leads from State street to
Bridgeport.

But the beginning was far from the end. More
years of weary waiting and baffling toil were destined
to roll by before the canal became an accomplished fact.

    

contractors who were working along the line when the
state credit was exhausted had to suspend. The total
cost up to that time, as finally ascertained, was $5,139,-
492.03. This was too much money to be thrown away.
Despite the old adage warning against throwing good
money after bad, the idea of giving up entirely was
not entertained. A great many bonds had been sold,
and the bondholders could not afford to let the expen-

“Sty woe?
ae
GQ.

A FEW STATUES IN LINCOLN PARK.

The estimates of cost had been wild guesses, at least
they bore no relation to actual cost. It was not before
the crash of 1837 came and put clogs on every wheel of
internal improvements and killed forever many of the
projects. The state tottered on the brink of bank-
ruptcy. The debt incurred in building this canal was the
heaviest burden of all. The bad kept getting worse all
the time, and in 1842 came a collapse of state finances.
There seemed to be nothing left but to use the big
ditch as a grave for state honor. More than a hundred

diture go to waste. It was estimated that $1,000,000
more would finish the work, making, all told, nearly
ten times the original estimate. It took a vast deal of
negotiation to get the work started up. The Barings
of London thought well enough of the proposed bonds
to entertain a proposition, provided a satisfactory report
upon the enterprise was made. Who in this country
could be found to make the investigation whose report
would be accepted? Captain W. H. Swift, a United
States engineer, was one, and Senator John Davis of
70 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Massachusetts another. Mr. Davis was known in his
day as “Honest John.” He was at one time the modest
colleague of the “Godlike Daniel’ Webster. After pro-
digious labor bonds were placed on the institutional
plan, not only English, but French, capital helping on
the enterprise. Obstacle after obstacle was encoun-
tered, but at last the canal was actually opened, and the
first boat arrived in Chicago from Lockport April 1o,
1848. Of all the great internal improvements in this
country none had so hard a struggle against such des-
perate odds as the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

When projected it was absolutely indispensable to
the growth of Chicago to the dimensions of a great
city, and it has certainly proved of very great advan-
tage, but by the time it was finished it was no longer
indispensable. The morning star of railways had
appeared and the new day of transportation by rail was
dawning full upon the land. By that time it was plain
that however much Chicago might be benefited by canal
boats its great dependence, aside from the lakes them-
selves, was to be upon the railroads. As will be seen
in another chapter, the canal, by involving the state in
debt, which was in danger of repudiation, was the indi-
rect cause of the great railway extending its entire
length.

In this connection it may be remarked that about
the time the completion of the canal became a fore-
gone conclusion, Wisconsin, then coming into the
Union as a state, laid claim to a slip of Northern Illinois,
which, if allowed, would have brought Chicago into

Wisconsin. The claim was not without a shadow of
justice. But an insuperable practical objection was
found in the fact that to allow it would involve the com- _
plication dividing the ownership of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, the great enterprise of Illinois, with
Wisconsin. Thus it is that Illinois owes a great debt
to the canal.

It is not necessary to the purposes of this history
to pursue this subject much further. Its large part in
developing the city may be said to have passed before
it went into the carrying trade. The main canal, from
Bridgeport to La Salle, is ninety-six miles long, and
the river route from Bridgeport to the Chicago harbor
is four miles. Illinois, through its great metropolis, has
indeed become, as the Niles Register forecasted, “the
seat of an immense commerce and a market for the com-
modities of all regions,” and in a fundamental way the
“stupendous idea” of Peter B. Porter, a second Joliet,
contributed largely to this result. But the canal itself
came very, very near accomplishing its supreme pur-
pose before it became an accomplished fact. In a sense
its builders builded better than they knew; in another,
their costly edifice proved largely an air castle. During
all the long years of construction it served to inspire
confidence in Chicago’s future, but before it came into
place as an agency of transportation the shadows of
evening were gathering about the day of canals and
Chicago was entering upon its higher destiny of being
the great focal center of railway traffic.

 

 

A VIEW IN LINCOLN PARK.
CHAPTER XII.

 

a ree

 

THE CHICAGO

 

 

HE first waterworks Chicago had
“~ consisted of a single well, dug in
November, 1834, in Kinzie’s addi-
tion, at an expense of $95. This
proving inadequate, the water-cart
appeared. This consisted of a hogs-
head mounted on two wheels and
drawn by a horse, which was backed

 

Pes bucket, and then hauled around the
village. The water sold for ten and fifteen cents a bar-
rel, and the number of water-carts constantly increased.
They did not go entirely out of use for twenty years.

In 1836 the Chicago Hydraulic Company was incor-
porated with a capital of $250,000 to supply the city
with water by pumping and piping. But, owing to the
panic of 1837, the work was not begun until 1840. The
pumping house, which was located at the foot of Lake
street, and the appliances were completed in the spring
of 1842, at a cost of $14,000. There was an intake con-
structed 700 feet out in the lake, and it was connected
by a six-inch wooden supply pipe with a well fifteen
feet deep in the pumping house.

It was not until 1841 that the company undertook
to supply water for the fire department, and in 1848 not
over one-fifth of the city was reached by the supply
pipes. The water-carts were still necessary, and poor
people used the river water. From 1846 there were
complaints that the hydrant water was impure and fre-
quently filled with small fish.

In February, 1851, the Chicago City Hydraulic Com-
pany was incorporated to succeed the Chicago Hydrau-
lic Company. The construction of the waterworks,
which were located at the foot of Chicago avenue, was
begun in 1852, and the buildings were completed the
next year. The engine house was on the beach, and
had a square brick tower 136 feet high, in which were
both the standpipe for the water and the smokestack.
The water was pumped into three reservoirs, one on
each side of the city. Water was first pumped in De-

WATERWORKS. |

into the lake, filled with water by a-

7s

 

cember, 1853. In 1855 forty-one miles of pipe had been
laid, and the total cost of the works had amounted to
$496,849. The number of buildings supplied with
water was 7,053. The Board of Public Works was
established and took charge of the works May 6, 1861.

Although in 1858 the pumping works supplied
3,000,000 gallons of water daily, and the amount was
increasing, it became evident that a much greater supply
would be needed. There were also constant complaints
of the impurity of the water furnished. In 1862, there-
fore, City Engineer C. E. Chesbrough began to agitate
for a water tunnel under the lake to a point where good
water could be secured. In September, 1863, the city
government adopted his plan, and let the contract for
the construction to Doll & Gowan of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, who agreed to complete it by November
1, 1865, for $315,139, and broke ground March 17,
1864.

The water tunnel was to be five feet in diameter, and
to run in a straight line at right angles to the shore, at
the pumping station, two miles out into the lake, and
to be sunk twenty-six feet below the level of the lake.
At each end there was to be a well nine feet in diameter,
the one out in the lake being an intake, and the one on
shore being a pumping well. The work was prosecuted
from both ends of the tunnel at once. The final blow
was struck December 6, 1866, instead of November 1,
1865, and the cost was $464,866 instead of $315,139.

The completion of the tunnel was celebrated as a
great event. The mayor and the city officials traveled
through the tunnel in mule carts to a point one and a
half miles from the shore, where the workmen met, and
where a memorial tablet was inserted in the wall, after
considerable speech-making, Mayor Rice pronouncing
the tunnel “the wonder of America and the world.”

At the same time that the construction of the tunnel
was decided on steps were taken for the construction
of the pumping station as it now exists at the foot of
Chicago avenue. The new building was erected piece-
meal on the same site as the old one in such a way as
72 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

not to interfere with the old water supply until the new
one was ready. The water was let into the tunnel
March 25, 1867, and on the same day was laid the corner-
stone of the water tower, 100 feet west of the pump
house. This tower is 130 feet high and contains a
standpipe three feet in diameter, encircled on the outside
with a winding iron stair to the top. The water was let
into the pumping well and the pumps began to work
July 20, 1867. In this month a new engine had been
put in place at an expense of $112,350, with a capacity
of 18,000,000 gallons of water a day.

the total income was $4,127,419. The total cost of ad-
dition to the works was $432,719. The total expense
of the waterworks to date was $4,712,615. The cost of
delivering water per million gallons was $12.

In 1873, the pumping station proving inadequate, a
new engine, designed by City Engineer Cregier and
constructed by Knapp Fort Pitt Foundry Works, was
provided. Its cylinders were seventy inches in diameter,
and had a stroke of ten feet. The working beams were
twenty-eight feet long and weighed twenty tons each.
The fly-wheel was twenty-five feet in diameter and

 

Pas
ie

 

 

 

 

CHICAGO AVENUE WATERWORKS.

The great fire of 1871 nearly destroyed the pumping
station, and three of its engines were disabled. The
damage to the engine house was speedily repaired, the
machine shop was built on the same site, and the engines
put to work, one after another, within three months.
The loss on the pumping station, reservoirs and piping
by the great fire amounted to $248,910.

In the year 1871-72 the quantity of water delivered
was 8,423,890,966 gallons, or 497,206,126 gallons more
than in the preceding year. There were 91,129 feet of
pipe laid, at a cost of $316,165, making the total amount
of piping in the city 287 miles. There were 115 fire
hydrants erected, making a total of 1,667. The receipts
from water assessments and taxes were $445,834, and

weighed forty tons. Its three boilers were each twenty
feet long and twelve feet in diameter. The engine cost
$188,400, and during the first six and one-half months
pumped 6,448,000,000 gallons of water.

As the consumption of water continued to increase
rapidly, it became evident in 1871 that a new tunnel
was imperatively demanded. It was therefore deter-
mined to build a tunnel seven feet in diameter from the
crib to the pumping station, parallel to the first tunnel.
But the second tunnel, instead of stopping at the pump-
ing station, was continued on land to Ashland avenue
and Twenty-second street, where a new pumping station
was provided to pump the water into the mains of that
part of the city. The land tunnel is 3.92 miles in length.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 73

The work on this land and water tunnel was begun Jan-
uary 12, 1872. The lake section was completed July 7,
1874, and the final connection with the land section was
made February 1, 1875, when the water was let in. The
lake section cost $411,510, and the land extension $545,-
000; total, $956,510.

The demand for more water continued to exist, but
after 1875 there were constant complaints that the water
wasimpure. The city government, therefore, decided to
satisfy both demands by constructing a new tunnel sys-
tem which should draw its supply from four miles out
into the lake, where it was believed the lake water was
forever safe from contamination. The new crib, called
the four-mile crib, was erected in the lake four miles off
shore from Peck court. The first two miles of the tunnel
under the lake, counting from the crib, are eight feet in
diameter. But as the nature of the ground changed at
that point, and became much safer, the tunnel at that
point was bifurcated, and two six-foot tunnels were built
the remainder of the way to the shore.

The land portion of the tunnel system has two sec-
tions. One of these runs from a shaft at Park Row, to
a shaft at Indiana avenue and Fourteenth street, where
there is a pumping station. The other extends in a
northerly direction to the Peck court shaft, and thence to
a shaft in the central pumping station. In Jefferson
street there is a by-pass running from this tunnel to the
seven-foot land tunnel. The total length of the system
is 5.75 miles, and the cost of the land and lake tunnels,
by-pass, crib and breakwater was $1,526,143. This
great work was begun in 1887, and completed in 1892.

Tunneling now became chronic with the city, and in
1887-88 a seven-foot tunnel was constructed from the
North pumping station, eastward to the breakwater, and
an extension of the same diameter was made between
1895 and 1897 from the breakwater crib to the shaft
at the two-mile crib, at a cost of $259,832. In 1890 a
crib was erected two miles off shore, at the foot of Mont-
rose boulevard, and a tunnel built to the pumping sta-
tion at a cost of $530,097. The work was completed
in 1896.

The greatest work of tunneling in connection with
the water system was undertaken in 1892, and finished
in 1897. This starts at the great crib called the Carter
H. Harrison crib, located two miles off shore at Sixty-
eighth street. The tunnel connection with the crib is
somewhat complicated. A seven-foot tunnel connects
the crib with the pumping station at Yates avenue;
a five-foot tunnel from the station extends to and con-
nects with a seven-foot tunnel about 5,000 feet from
shore; and a six-foot tunnel runs to a submerged intake
_ about 4,500 feet from the shore. The total cost of the
tunnel and crib construction was $727,471.

What is called the northeast crib is located two and
one-half miles off the foot of Oak street, and is con-
nected with a shaft on shore by a ten-foot tunnel. A

laud tunnel runs from Oak street to Green street and
Grand avenue, connecting with the shaft in Green street.
The second section runs from this point to a shaft and
pumping station at Central Park avenue and Fillmore
street. This is eight feet in diameter. A third section
begins at Green street and Grand avenue, and extends
to the shaft in the pumping station at Springfield ave-
nue and the Bloomingdale road, with a diameter of eight
feet.

In this system the land and lake tunnels measure
twelve miles, and the cost was $4,000,000.

These heroic efforts of the city of Chicago to obtain
an abundant supply of pure water were successful as to
quantity, but disappointing as to the purity. It was
discovered after years of effort and failure that it was
impossible to draw pure water from the lake as long as
the city sewage was poured into it. This failure led at
Jast to the greatest engineering feat of the century, the
construction of the drainage channel to Lockport, at a
cost of $33,000,000.

At the close of 1898 the amount of piping in the
water system was 1,801 miles, and the number of gal-
lons of water pumped in that year was 99,665,372,884.
Since the purchase of the waterworks from the Chicago
Hydraulic Company, in 1854, their cost up to December
31, 1898, including the cost of the company’s property,
has been $30,220,952, of which sum $2,713,878 were de-
rived from general taxes, and $19,652,574 from water
earnings. The remainder of the cost is represented by
bonds and water certificates. The actual earnings of
the waterworks from the beginning to 1899 was
$48,556,042.12, while the cost of maintenance and run-
ning for the same time was $28,166,298.89, which shows
a profit of $19,689,743.23. That the water department
has been a money-maker is- evident from the following
table, showing the net receipts and expenses and per
cent of expenses to collections for the years 1891 to
T&98, inclusive:

YEAR. RECEIPTS. EXPENSES. PER CENT.
T8OL cased tera awiaes $2,331,286 $303,879 13.
T9O2Q ced a HAdeesdeavers 2,592,111 336,956 13.
898s waned owaeiinees 2,837,827 294,968 10.5
USO A isiciavcdiiamoenaemes sg 3,010,259 287,306 9.5
T8OS ta cceesen aoneangiss 3,215,137 309,273 9.5
1806.55 scicaitcoxoadammea es 3,003,692 288,497 9.6
TSOP casa cane paciamrencamaee 3,177,706 281,378 8.8
T8O8). woven nen paws 3,489,390 298,982 8.5

At the same time that the water department earns so
much money, it also furnishes water cheaper than any

other large city in the country, whether tested by water
rates per 1,000 gallons, or the water tax for average

eight-room residence, as shown in the following table:

METER RATES PER WATER TAX FOR 8

CITIES.

1,000 GAL. ROOM RESIDENCE
Kansas: Citys as creer y Menon $0. 36 $26.50
Omaha ve2.c5 seman catig seinen daeed BBO ih ca
SE Louis jess weit e Re Saxe 30 27.00
Milwauk6es scccs: yiow.ce nine ceeausibee > 20 24.50
BOSON s 255; ue nogne sedteorinat ends 18 22.00
CHIiCAZOs wien aaar eae EMO PRR 04 I1.50
CHAPTER XIII.

 

 

| CHICAGO SANITARY DISTRICT.

 

  
  
  
 

was ever confronted with a more serious
problem than Chicago in the matter of
drainage. During even its earlier years
it was a difficult task to get rid of the
sewage. Nature not only rendered
no assistance, but put obstacles in the
way. After the establishment of the

z« waterworks it was practicable to
XU) flush the drains and sewer pipes,
- forcing the sewage into the river and the
lake. For some time the pollution did
not extend far enough into the lake, or at least was
not supposed to do so, to contaminate the supply, but
when the population reached the half million point
and more it was discovered that under certain condi-
tions the contamination was such as to be a serious
menace to sanitation, and the bad was becoming worse
in proportion as the city itself increased in population.
For several years the question of a remedy was seri-
ously discussed by experts and agitated by the press.
At last it was decided that the only really feasible way
was to divert the sewage from the lake down through
the Desplaines and Illinois rivers, adding sufficient
volume to the flow of water to prevent its being a
nuisance to the people of the valley. In 1885 and
again in 1887 legislation was enacted by the State Legis-
lature at Springfield, which may be said to have been
the opening wedge for relief through this policy. But
it was not until 1889 that the solution was reached.
At that time the General Assembly passed, after a great
deal of discussion, an enabling act authorizing, through
a popular vote of the citizens of Chicago, the creation of
the Chicago Sanitary District. There were very for-
midable constitutional difficulties to be overcome. The
municipality of Chicago could not incur the additional
indebtedness necessary to defray the expense of the
system of drainage proposed. For that reason resort
was had to the creation within the boundaries of the city

 

74

 

 

of a district and independent municipality, to be known
as the Chicago Sanitary District. That was one of the
great legislative achievements of record. The act has
been somewhat amended since, but in the main it was
found to be adequate and judicious in its provisions.
As a statute it challenges admiration. Law, no less
than literature and the arts, has its monumental tri-
umphs of genius, and this creative act is clearly of that
high order.

The people approved the plan and it was adopted
in due form. Then came the election of the officers
provided for under the act—namely, nine trustees. In
that board of trustees was vested all the authority of
the new municipality. The legislature adopted a unique
elective system. It provided that the voter could cast
one vote for nine trustees. or accumulate his nine votes
on five candidates by casting one and five-ninths of a.
vote for five candidates. The intention was to so adjust
matters that the majority party would elect five and the
minority party four trustees, thus securing a non-par-
tisan board. .\s the board is now constituted that is
the practical result, and, as a consequence, it is an essen-
tially non-partisan board, and the business is conducted
on strictly business principles, to the satisfaction of the
public, irrespective of party. But at the first election
affairs took a very remarkable turn. Several of the first
nominees of both parties were unsatisfactory, and an
independent ticket, with six names, was put in the field,
composed of three Republicans and three Democrats.
The six independents were elected and were thus in en-
tire mastery of the situation. It proved, however, to be
a dismal failure. That first board did little but quarrel
among themselves, and four of them early handed in
their resignations.

Under the law, the water was not to be permitted
to go through the channel until after an examination .
and report by .a commission, appointed by the governor
of the state, and the channel found to comply in all
respects with the provisions of the Jaw. Such a com-
THE CITY OF

mission was appointed by Governor Tanner in June,
1899. It made several careful and laborious investiga-
tions. There was great anxiety by citizens and by the
Sanitary board to have the water turned into the canal
as early as possible, to prevent the action of St.
Louis from securing any intervention through the
courts to delay. The governor’s commission would
not make an official report and the governor would not
give a regular permit, but by and with the consent of
the commission the Sanitary board let the water into
the channel through a collateral branch near California
avenue, on the morning of January 2, 1900. On Jan-
uary 6, it had risen high enough to begin to flow over
the sills of the controlling works at Lockport. The
gates were then closed. On the morning of January
15 the earth dam at Campbell avenue was cut through,
making a continuous connection by way of the direct
channel from Lake Michigan to Lockport. The great
bear-trap dam, however, was not to be opened until
a permit was issued by the governor himself. This per-
mit was not issued until January 17, and at 11:16 a. m.
of that day the bear-trap dam was lowered and _ the
waters of Lake Michigan began to flow direct to the
Gulf of Mexico.

This practically settled the question of stopping
this great enterprise. The full flow of water, of course,
was not secured at first and the sanitary trustees soon
found that in order to secure the necessary flow there
would have to be much done toward enlarging the
capacity of the Chicago River. The effect upon the
water in the river, however, was felt almost at once, and
within ten days after the lowering of the bear-trap dam
there was a remarkable change in the character of the
water in the Chicago River. Within a month there-
after the flow through the Illinois River had been suff-
‘cient to convince most skeptics that the engineers had
been correct in their statement that the water would
purify itself and work little or no injury through the
valley of the Illinois and much less in the Mississippi
Valley.

Up to this point the actual cost of construction of
this great undertaking has been $23,693,014.20, item-
ized as follows:

Diversion of Desplaines river.........++.-.0000- # 1,000,156. 38
Main channel, Robey street to Lockport......... 18, 318,609.43

Controlling works. 2... 0... cee e cnet eee 261,750.67
Chicago river, dredging and by-pass............ 537,975 -92
Desplaines river improvement, controlling works

tO JOC... 6c. curate: a kgs dt eeaunes 790,126.12
Railroad and highway bridges... ..... ..-..... 2,611, 348.00
Miscellaneous sicierves ndesehiemeye sean 73,047.68

Contingency fund........... cece eens eee eee 100, 000.00

Otel i250 seaueag se meaaatirs $23,693,014.20

 

 

Additional expenses increased this sum total to
$33,525,691.20. These additional expenses are itemized
as follows:

CHICAGO. 75

Capitalization of railroad bridges.............-. $
RAghtOk Waycdssmascsdande: snes aimed orate ee
Estimated cost of administration

410,000.00
3, 175,000.00
2,190,000,00

 

 

Maintenance account........... cece eee eee eee 96,000.00
General account. c.c.c00s00c-aoer mands coewaxawes 457,000.00
Estimated interest charges to January 1, 1900.... 3,504,677.00

Grand total.............- $33,525,691.20

As large as this sum is, there is much still to be done
that is going to add very considerably to it. It will
be necessary to increase the flow of water to comply
with the law. Not only must the capacity of the Chi-
cago River be increased, but in all probability other
connections with the lake have also to be made.

Besides the primary object of affording a solution
to the sanitary problem of Chicago, the canal is expected
to develop two things of scarcely less importance than
the primary object itself. One is a commercial water-
way, that will be of inestimable value, not only to Chi-
cago, but to all peoples all along its line, from the
lake to the gulf. The second is a great waterpower
which, distributed by means of electricity, may yet line
the banks of the canal with factories of great impor-
tance. While the board has not developed this water-
power, it has conserved it, so that it can be developed
whenever there is a demand for it. The board has also
very wisely taken title to much of the land along the
banks of the canal, so that it will not have simply the
power to supply, but also the sites themselves. In this
great work Chicago has asked no assistance, either from
the nation or the state, but the further development of
the waterway project to the gulf will undoubtedly have
to be done by the general government. It is estimated,
however, that this waterway completed to the Missis-
sippi River will not involve as great a cost as the canal
has already cost Chicago.

The first election of trustees was held December 12,
1889. The result was the election of John J. Altpeter,
Arnold Gilmore, Richard Prendergast, W. H. Russell,
Frank Wenter, Christopher Hotz, John A. King, Mur-
ray Nelson and H. J. Willing. The board proved to be
anything but harmonious. To many of the gentlemen
on the board the important and practical questions were
entirely new, and they found it impossible for a major-
ity of them to agree. The result was that Murray Nel-
son resigned June 19, 1891; John A. King, July 22,
1891, and Henry J. Willing, September 23, 1891. On
November 3, 1891, William Boldenweck, Lyman E.
Cooley and Bernard A. Eckhart were elected to fill the
three vacancies. On January 16, 1892, Christopher
Hotz resigned, and at the next election, November 8,
1892, Thomas Kelly was elected his successor. By
special provisions of the law, the first term of the trus-
tees was six years. After that a new board was to be
elected every five years. November 5, 1895, William
Boldenweck, Joseph C. Braden, Zina R. Carter, Ber-
nard A. Eckhart, Alexander J. Jones, Thomas Kelly,
76 THE CITY

James P. Mallette, Thomas A. Smyth and Frank
Wenter were elected trustees. It was under the super-
intendence and direction of these nine gentlemen that
most of this great work has been done. The present
officers of the board are: William Boldenweck, chair-
man; Joseph Haas, clerk; Fred M. Blount, treasurer;
Isham Randolph, chief engineer, and C. C. Gilbert,
attorney.

This stupendous work, involving an outlay of more
than $33,000,000, in what may be called creative work,
has been brought to a practical completion without
provoking so much as a rumor of corruption or jobbery,
or even of political favoritism in the disbursement of its
vast revenues. It is the greatest and most important
municipal undertaking of modern times, whether we
consider the sum expended or its revolutionary effects.
As a drainage enterprise it has attracted the attention of
the world and gives assurance to the future millions of
Chicago of pure and health-giving water—one of the
greatest boons that can be granted to the denizens of a
great city. The waterway feature of this enterprise,
however, is, to the commercial world, of greater impor-
tance than the mere local one of drainage. From its
first inception far-seeing men have seen in this under-
taking the beginning of the great waterway from the
lakes to the gulf long ago dreamed of by Humboldt and
Goethe, and advocated by distinguished engineers before
the advent of railroads. The Drainage Board, in con-
structing this great canal, have carefully conserved all
the necessary features of a waterway for commerce and
everything is ready for the national government to
complete the work to the gulf by deepening the Illinois
and Mississippi rivers. “The portage,” so much talked
of by Marquette, Joliet and other early visitors to this
region, has disappeared, and in its place is a waterway
that will float great ships, thus inviting the nation to
hesitate no longer, but to so act that the dream of centu-
ries may be realized.

William Boldenweck, president of the drain-
age board, is the son of Carl G. and Christina
(Yent) Boldenweck, and was born at Jettingen, Ger-
many, August 9, 1851. His father was a railroad and
canal contractor, having entire charge of the Ludwig's
Canal in 1837, connecting the River Danube and Main,
and appointed in 1846 by the king of Bavaria to take
charge of the National Railroad work. The family, which
consisted of four sisters and three brothers, came to
Chicago in the latter part of June, 1854, but both parents
died in the following month from cholera, then epidemic
in the city. Mr. Boldenweck acquired his education in
the Dearborn School, on Madison street between Dear-
born and State streets, in a private German school and
in the Dyrenfurth College, at that time located on the
corner of Wells and Lake streets. He was too young
for service in the Civil War, but in 1863 his patriotic

OF CHICAGO.

enthusiasm got the better of his youthful years, and he
tried several times to enlist. He was stout and strong
for a boy of twelve, but on account of his lack of years
he was not accepted. Undaunted, however, at having
his services refused by the enlisting officers, he endeay-
ored, a little later, to stow himself away on the gunboat ©
“Michigan,” then anchored at Chicago, but he was dis-
covered before the boat left port and sent home.

He left school at the age of thirteen, and began
learning the tinsmith trade, at which he served until
he was fifteen. He then took a position as bookkeeper
in the wholesale hardware house of Holz & Hartman,
continuing at this and other clerical work until he was
nineteen years of age, when he accepted a position as
book and time keeper for his brother, Louis H. Bolden-

 

WILLIAM BOLDENWECK.

weck, who was engaged in the cut-stone contracting
business. In 1875 he purchased the business from his
brother, giving notes on long time in payment, and
associated with himself Mr. P. Henne, the firm being
known as Boldenweck & Henne until 1882, when the
partnership was dissolved and another formed with Mr.
Ernest Heldmaier, under the firm name of Boldenweck
& Heldmaier. This association continued until 1887,
when Mr. Boldenweck retired from active business.

Mr. Boldenweck has the distinction of having been
the first and only mayor of Lake View. He was elected
supervisor of the town of Lake View in the spring
of 1887, the city organization being voted on and car-
ried at the same time. He was elected mayor of the
new city government, and in 1889 reélected for a second
term, during which time the annexation to the city
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 77

of Chicago took part. In the spring of 1891 Mayor
Washburne appointed him a member of the Board of
Education, in which body he served for three years. In
the fall of the same year he was nominated for drainage
trustee, serving four years and being reélected in the
fall of 1895. He became president of this body on
December 6, 1897, and reélected in 1898 and 1899.

Mr. Boldenweck is prominent among the German
associations of Chicago, being a member of the Ger-
mania Club, the Lake View Maennerchor, Krutzer Quar-
tette, the North Chicago Turners and other similar
organizations. He*is also associated with Welcome
Lodge, No. 1, Knights of Pythias, and is a thirty-second
degree Mason.

He was married March 25, 1873, to Miss Adelheid
G. Samme, only daughter of Captain Frederick Samme,
one of the large vessel-owners of Chicago. Three chil-
dren have been born to them, all of whom died in
infancy.

Frank Wenter, member of the Board of Trus-
tees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, was born in
Bohemia, of German parentage, in 1854, and came to
this country and to Chicago when he was thirteen years
of age. His ambition to perfect his education and mas-
ter the English language prompted him to attend night

 

FRANK WENTER.

and private schools for a number of years. Before he
had become of age he had established himself in the
furniture business, at which he continued for a period
of twenty years, and, although he started in a very small
way, his undertaking eventually became one of the most
important industries of its kind in Chicago. During

this period Mr. Wenter also became one of the best-
known men in the manufacture of furniture in Chicago,
and his prominence in this line of mercantile life led
to his appointment to many positions of trust in the
different furniture associations. He was also president
of the Chicago Furniture Exposition, which was held
here in 1891. His business connections, which were
extensive, made it incumbent upon him to make numer-
ous trips throughout the United States, in which he
always combined a desire to see and gain knowledge of
affairs. Within the past ten years he has also made
two trips to Europe, but nowhere did he find a land to
be compared with his own adopted country.

Mr. Wenter has been serving the city in various
capacities for many years. In 1883 he was appointed a
member of the Board of Education, a position to which
he was twice reappointed, and from which he resigned
in 1890, after seven years of active and conscientious
service. He is the father of physical culture in our
schools, having introduced the same by resolution, and
it was subsequently given a trial in four of our schools
and ultimately universally adopted. At the close of his
labors in this important branch of the city government
Mr. Wenter received a testimonial in evidence of the
appreciation in which his services and ability had been
held.

In public life, however, he has become best known
as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sanitary
District of Chicago. He was elected in December, 1889,
receiving the largest vote of any candidate on the Demo-
cratic ticket. His term expired in the fall of 1895, and
he was renominated by his party and _ triumphantly
reelected again, receiving the highest vote and running
twenty thousand ahead of the lowest and ten thousand
votes ahead of his nearest competitor on the ticket.
In the spring of 1895, after urgent solicitation, he con-
sented to accept the Democratic nomination for mayor,
and made a most magnificent campaign, polling over
one hundred thousand votes, but the tide went strongly
the other way.

Mr. Wenter is the only member of the original
Board of Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago
that has served continuously from the time this immense
project was first begun. He has never shirked the
responsibilities which have devolved upon him in this
capacity. Being convinced that the task before the
board was one which required all the energy and ability
that could be brought to bear upon it, he has always
been an ardent advocate that the members should devote
their entire attention to it, if possible, and for many
years he himself, during four years of his incum-
bency as president of the board, gave practically all of
his time to the duties of his position in this body.
Throughout the early days of the canal, when affairs
were ina critical shape and some of the members became
78 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

appalled at the immensity of the task, Mr. Wenter never
faltered and never departed from the idea that however
stupendous the undertaking there were sufficient men
of brains in Chicago who could carry out the project.
His faith in the ultimate success of the construction of
this canal and his unceasing labors in this behalf, won
him the respect and esteem of all those who have been
his associates during the different administrations.

In the month of December, 1891, after the reorgan-
ization of the board, Mr. Wenter was elected president,
and served continuously in that capacity for four terms,
until December, 1895. On September 3, 1892, Mr.
Wenter turned the first shovel of earth, in the presence
of the board of trustees and thousands of representa-
tives from city, state and nation, thus exemplifying the
first manual labor on an enterprise which afterward gave
employment to thousands of men. At the time when he
retired as president, over seventy-two per cent of the
work was completed, and Chicago’s great drainage
canal and waterway had become a matter of fact.

His subsequent services as chairman, for two years,
on the committee on finance, and for one year as chair-
man of federal relations, gave him a deep insight into
all matters relating to these questions, and he was the
first to see the necessity for securing more financial
assistance from the State Legislature in 1896 before
the canal could be completed. His stand on this question
met with great opposition from sources within and
without the board, although ultimately the necessity
for taking the steps urged by Mr. Wenter became plain
to them, but had-the assistance not been granted the
work would have come to a standstill during the year of
1897 for lack of funds.

Mr. Wenter is one of Chicago’s most loyal citizens
and his many services in behalf of the city have always
been given in the spirit of loyalty to her best interests
and prosperity.

Bernard Albert Eckhart was born in Alsace,
Germany. He is the son of Jacob and Eva
(Root) Eckhart. Soon after his birth his parents came
to America and settled on a farm in Vernon County,
Wisconsin, where, in his youth, Mr. Eckhart acquired
a thorough knowledge of agriculture. He was given
a substantial common school education, and at the age
of eighteen entered college at Milwaukee, where he
pursued his studies for three years, and from which he
was graduated with honors.

Mr. Eckhart began his business career in 1868 as a
clerk in the employ of the Eagle Milling Company of
Milwaukee. His faithful services were recognized a
year later by his appointment as Eastern agent of the
company, in which capacity he had charge of the chief
cities of the Atlantic seaboard. The following year he
was appointed manager of the Chicago branch of the
same company, where he remained until he founded

the Eckhart & Swan Milling Company, of which men-
tion is made elsewhere.

Mr. Eckhart has lead an active life. A stanch
Republican, possessing the entire confidence of his
party, he has always been in the front rank in move-
ments where men of brains and ability were needed to
carry out its principles. In 1886 he was nominated and
elected state senator from the First Senatorial District.
His two sessions in the Senate, as a member of the
Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth general assemblies were
remarkable for his efforts in behalf of the district he
represented. Among other things during this time, he
was a member of the senate committee appointed to
investigate the subject of a pure water supply and per-

 

 

BERNARD ALBERT ECKHART.

fect drainage for Chicago, and he subsequently took a
prominent part in framing the bill, which was presented
to the Thirty-sixth General Assembly, establishing the
Sanitary District of Chicago. He was also the author of
the law providing for state inspection of building and
loan associations, and for closing them when found
insolvent. He drafted the law suppressing “bucket
shops” and also that providing for the refunding of the
West Park bonds at a lower rate of interest than they
bore originally. His services in the Senate were devoted,
above all else, to guarding the rights of the people and
Opposing corporate greed.

Mr. Eckhart declined a second nomination, because
of pressing business duties. In 1891, however, he was
again induced to enter public life, but only because the
matter was one in which he took the deepest personal
interest. His nomination and subsequent election by
tHe CITY OF CHRCAGO, 79

10,000 votes ahead of his ticket as a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago
shows the appreciation in which his public services were
held. Since his election to the drainage board, Mr. Eck-
hart has given much time to a personal study of the
questions involved in the construction of this waterway,
and his connection with the board was of such value
that he was reélected in 1895 for a second term of five
years. During his first term he was chairman of the
finance committee, and it was while he was at the head
of this body, and also of the joint committee of finance
and engineering, that bonds of the district, amounting
to $12,000,000, were issued and sold. These committees
also secured about 7,000 acres of right of way, at a sav-
ing of about $1,000,000 over the estimated cost.

In December, 1895, Mr. Eckhart was elected presi-
dent of the Board of Trustees of the Sanitary District.
In his first message he urged that steps be taken by
the city to secure aid from the federal government for
the improvement of the Chicago River. The Chicago
River Improvement Association was subsequently
formed, and obtained an appropriation of $700,000 from
the government for this purpose.

Mr. Eckhart was a director of the Chicago Board
of Trade from 1888 to. 1891. In 1896-97 he was
appointed by that body as a delegate to the National
Board of Trade, which met at Washington, D. C., and
in 1895 he was also sent as a delegate to the Deep
Waterway Convention at Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Eckhart is prominent in the social circles of Chi-
cago, and claims membership in the Illinois, Commer-
cial and Merchants’ clubs. He is also affiliated with the
Union League Club, of which he has been vice-presi-
dent, and of the Country Club of Lake Geneva. He
was married in 1874 to Miss Katie L. Johnston, a niece
of Captain John N. Bofinger of St. Louis. They have
two sons and two daughters.

Zina R. Carter. The life story of Zina R.
Carter, through his boyhood and early manhood, is a
history of struggle against odds—of courageous striving
in the face of adversity. Born in a log cabin in the
woods of Jefferson County, New York, on October 23,
1846, Mr. Carter was the eldest in a family of four chil-
dren, whose parents were Benajan and Isabelle (Cole)
Carter. Working on a small, stony farm in summer,
working in the woods in winter, and between seasons
attending the district school for a brief period, was the
routine of his early life. His father died when Zina
was but nine years of age, which left him the sole sup-
port of his mother and a family of three beside himself,
but, with the same characteristic courage that has
marked his later years, he took up the burden and shoul-
dered the responsibilities of a grown person.

When Mr. Carter was eighteen years of age the fam-
ily moved West and took up their residence on a farm

in Du Page County, where, for several years, he devoted
himself to farming until such time as the younger mem-
bers of the family should be able to care for themselves.
At that time, becoming convinced that the city offered
him a wider field and greater opportunities, he came to
Chicago, and shortly after his arrival here opened a
small store at the corner of Polk and Desplaines streets.
This store, of which he was half owner, was intended, in
the first place, as a grocery store, but a small flour and
feed business, which was carried on in connection with
it, eventually grew to such proportions that the grocery
portion of the business was sold, and every effort made
toward the development of a substantial grain business.
Mr. Carter purchased his partner’s interest and took
his brother, James, into the firm. It was the “recon-
struction period” of Chicago, and the business kept pace
with the rapid growth going on everywhere. By hard
work and by careful attention to detail, which has

 

ZINA R. CARTER.

always been one of Mr. Carter’s characteristics, the firm
of Z. R. Carter & Brother soon became one of the lead-
ing wholesale establishments of its kind in the city.
The nature of the business required that Mr. Carter
become a member of the Board of Trade, and ever since
his first connection with that body, in 1872, he has been
an active operator. He has, however, never been a
speculator and has always dealt in actual commodities.

Mr. Carter has been recognized as one of the fore-
most men in his line on the board, and at the annual
election of that body in 1897 he was elected its presi-
dent by the largest majority ever given a president
at an election, and by the largest vote in its history.
80 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Always interested in public affairs, and ready to do
his duty by his fellow-citizens, Mr. Carter has been ten-
dered public office many times, though he himself has
never sought one. The people of his ward elected him
alderman, and he served in the council with the same
ability and honesty that have always characterized his
public and private acts. His nomination as the repre-
sentative Republican candidate for mayor in 1899 came
to him without his seeking, and his campaign, while
unsuccessful, was marked by enthusiasm on the part
of the people and by a straightforward canvass on the
part of the candidates upon the issues at stake.

Mr. Carter is a member of that important body, the
Board of Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago,
to which office he was nominated at a time when the
people were especially anxious that business men of
broad minds and unimpeachable integrity should be
chosen. He has been a most conscientious worker in
the interests involved in this great undertaking.

Thomas Kelly was born in Providence, Rhode
Island, January 3, 1843, and is the son of John and
Margaret Kelly, both of whom were natives of the
Emerald Isle. His father, who was a dyer by trade,
brought his family from their home in County Kilkenny
to this country in 1832 and took up his residence in
Providence, where he found employment with Sprague
& Co., one of the oldest and best known firms of its
kind in that historical city. Here he remained until
1845, when the desire to go further West became too
strong to be longer resisted, and he accordingly started
with his family and all his effects toward the Great
Lakes region and finally made his choice of a homestead
in the fertile country of Wisconsin. It was here, amid
the rural surroundings of his home in the Badger State,
that Thomas grew to manhood. It did not fall to his lot
to receive an extensive education, since his course at
the district schools was brought to a rather abrupt close
by the marriage of an older brother, and his own subse-
quent recall home to take the place of this brother on
the farm. Like many young men of ambitious tempera-
ments, Mr. Kelly was not satisfied to follow the life of a
farmer, and, like many others who lived within the
sphere of influence which radiated from the great Chi-
cago, he was attracted to this city while he was still
young.

There are numerous instances of men now promi-
nent in Chicago who are said to have made their start in
life at the bottom of the ladder. This figurative “bottom
round” has, in many cases, been a position of some
degree of responsibility to which the person in ques-
tion was helped by some influence of a business nature,
and from which it was comparatively easy to gain pro-
motion in later years. But how different it was in the
case of Mr. Kelly, who, without influential friends and
without means, and who, for the first five years that he

was a resident of the city, which of late years has seen fit
to honor him with one of its highest and most responsi-
ble trusts, was forced to turn his hand to whatever he
could find by which to earn an honest livelihood. He
was not disheartened, although it was only after several
years that he obtained his first really permanent employ-
ment, an humble position in a grocery store. He
remained with this firm for ten years, during which
time he rose to occupy a prominent place in the house
and in the respect of his employer.

Mr. Kelly was appointed superintendent of the
Brighton cotton mills in 1876, an establishment located
in the suburb of Brighton Park. He remained in this
capacity for three years, leaving this firm in 1879 to

 

 

 

 

 

THOMAS KELLY.

engage in the contract business under his own name.
He continued in this line of business until a few years
ago, since when he has devoted his attention to real
estate.

Mr. Kelly is a liberal-minded Democrat in his polit-
ical affiliations and has been an active worker in the
interests of that party. He was elected a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Town of Cicero in 1882, and
in September, 1888, he was chosen a member of the
city council, being reélected for a second term in 1890.
His greatest public honor, however, has been his elec-
tion to the responsible position as a member of the
Drainage Board of the Sanitary District of Chicago, to
which he was elected in November, 1892. His services
on this board were of such value that at the expiration
of his term in November, 1895, he was again chosen
for an additional term of five years. In December of
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 81

the following year he was elected to the presidency
of this board, a position which he held until December
6, 1897.

Mr. Kelly was married to Miss Ann McCahill of
County Cavan, Ireland, on November 14, 1864. Two
children have been born to them, Rose and Maggie, the
former of whom is married. His home is on Western
avenue, in Brighton Park, a residence which he has
occupied for thirty-four years.

Thomas A. Smyth. Conspicuous among the
names which have most completely been identified with
the growth and development of the great metropolis
of the West that of Smyth must needs be granted a
distinguished and honorable station. The progenitors

 

 

 

 

THOMAS A. SMYTH.

of the family on both sides were of Irish blood and
Irish nativity. The father was Michael K. Smyth, an
Irish importer of lumber and tobacco, who, in the year
1828, removed to Quebec, Canada, and engaged in the
fur business. A few years afterward, accompanied by
his wife (Bridget McDonald Smyth) and their elder
son, he came to the United States and embarked in the
wholesale grocery business in Buffalo, New York. Sub-
sequently removing to Chicago, it was here, on Septem-
ber 27, 1848, that his son, Thomas Alexander, was born.

Thomas A. Smyth received his education in the pub-
lic schools of Chicago, and, having finished the gram-
mar school course, proceeded to learn business. His
attention was first given to the molding business, but
finding this neither agreeable nor profitable he appren-
ticed himself to the trade of the mason, in which he

6

continued until the year 1867. Engaging then in the
business of an independent contractor, success soon
crowned his efforts and laid the foundation for his steady
advancement. Subsequently he entered into the retail
furniture business on West Madison street with his
brother, John M. Smyth, and continued for many years
to aid in establishing that which has since become the
largest business of its kind in the United States. He
sold out his interest in this business to his brother in
1888. Thereafter he engaged in the business of real
estate, loans and insurance.

While a man of close application to his business
affairs, Mr. Smyth has always manifested keen interest
in the affairs of the Democratic party. It is one of the
joys of his life that he is able to say that his devotion
to the Democratic party and its principles has been of
unswerving allegiance. He has always been an active
and consistent advocate of his party’s principles, and
has frequently contributed to its material welfare. Of
a hearty and sanguine temperament, he is possessed
of a happy faculty of making friends. His unquestioned
integrity and keen business qualifications frequently
inspired his friends to urge him to become a candidate
for public office. He steadfastly refused, however, until
the fall of 1895, when his name was presented to the
Democratic county convention as a candidate for the
office of drainage trustee. He was nominated on the
first ballot, and a better testimonial of the esteem of
his fellow-citizens could not be given to any man than
the vote by which he was elected as trustee of the
sanitary district of Chicago on November 7, 1895.

As a member of the drainage board he has served
on its most important committees. He has been a
member of the engineering committee of the board, and
has also served as a member of the finance committee,
the committee on federal relations and the joint com-
mittee on finance and engineering.

His domestic life has been an unusually happy one.
On August 27, 1879, he was married to Miss Sarah
Elizabeth Usher at Boston, Massachusetts. She was
a daughter of Thomas and Mary Usher, and was born
in Lancashire, England. Her parents were of good
Irish stock for several generations back. Of intellectual
ideas and strong religious temperament, Mrs. Smyth
was a very kind, graceful and beautiful woman. Seven
children were born of the marriage. In February, 1894,
Mrs. Smyth died. This loss was a stroke of terrible
grief to Mr. Smyth and his children.

Mr. Smyth is a member of many organizations. He
is a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chi-
cago Real Estate Board, the Knights of Pythias, the
Royal Arcanum, the Knights of Columbus, the National
Union and the Royal League. He is also sachem
of the Tammany Society of the Twelfth Ward. In
religion he is a Roman Catholic.
82 THE CITY

Joseph C. Braden is a native of the great State
of Illinois. He was born in Joliet, Will County, Janu-
ary 29, 1858. His father was the late Joseph L. Braden,
for fourteen years editor and publisher of the Joliet
Republican, and who was a noted politician in his day, a
stanch Republican and an ardent abolitionist. The
senior Braden was one of the electors for Mlinois who
voted for Abraham Lincoln for president.

It is natural, therefore, that the subject of this sketch
should be an ardent and uncompromising Republican.
Mr. Braden’s father died February to, 1869. After
attending the public schools of his native town the
subject of this sketch entered the University of Notre
Dame, later reading law in Joliet. But Mr. Braden did

 

JOSEFH C. BRADEN.

not take up the legal profession. He took up the busi-
ness of insurance in 1877 and has made a success of it
ever since. The agency of Park & Braden was founded
by him in Joliet in 1879. The business grew to vast
proportions, owing to the energy and enterprise of its
founders. Old-established agencies were outrivaled and
the firm of Park & Braden became noted as doing the
largest business of its kind in the city of Joliet. In 1881
Mr. Braden soid out his interest in that agency and
came to Chicago.

He at once associated himself with the firm of Moore
& Janes, fire insurance agents, at 157 and 159 La Salle
street. With this well-known agency Mr. Braden has
remained ever since, and has done, and is doing, a most
successful business.

In 1889 Mr. Braden took the agency of the North-
western Mutual Life insurance Company of Milwaukee,

OF CHICAGO.

Wisconsin, and since that time has always been found
in the forefront of the line of the company’s successful
agents.

It was in 1884 that Mr. Braden moved into the then
Hyde Park district, which has since become a part of
the great city of Chicago. He has resided in the same
block ever since, and now makes his home at No. 3931
Prairie avenue.

When Mr. Braden became a resident of Hyde Park
he at once dived into Republican politics, and he has
been an ardent and active worker ever since. In 1894
he became county central committeeman from the
Thirty-second \Ward, and was elected secretary of the
Cook County campaign committee in the fall of 1894,
which, in that year, rolled up a grand Republican plu-
ralty in Cook County of more than 44,000.

He also served as secretary of the Republican cam-
paign committee in the spring of 1895, when George
B. Swift was elected mayor by a Republican majority
of 43,000. Later on Mr. Braden’s ability was recognized
by the Republican party, and he was nominated as
one of the candidates for trustees of the Sanitary Dis-
trict of Chicago, and on November 5, 1895, he was
elected to that important and honorable position. Since
then he has discharged the duties of that office in a
manner that is greatly to his credit. He has always been
found on the side of economy, and insisted upon the
district receiving full measure of value for every dollar
expended. Mr. Braden is the friend of the toiler and
just in his dealings with all men.

Isham Randolph, chief engineer of the Sani-
tary District of Chicago, was born on a farm in Clark
County, Virginia, March 25, 1848. His parents were
Robert Carter and Lucy (\Vellford) Randolph, descend-
ants of the old Southern family of that name. He was
educated chiefly by his mother, a woman of rare edu-
cation and marked ability, his attendance at regular
schoois being linited to a few months at a private acad-
emy, of which Mr. Thomas Williamson was tutor, and
one term in a school taught by Dr. Robert Page, in
Millwood, Virginia. His engineering education has
been acquired entirely in the school of experience. Mr.
Randolph worked upon his father’s farm until after the
close of the Civil War. He was not a participant in the
struggle between North and South, but was an eye-
witness to many of its horrors and hardships, as his
home was in the Shenandoah Valley, that debatable
ground, which was the scene of so many battles and
skirmishes. When he was twenty years of age he secured
work as an axman upon the Winchester & Strasburg
Railroad, then being built by the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad. Wis next employment was with the Wash-
ington & Ohio as a leveler on location through the
Blue Ridge Mountains, and later he was employed as
a transitman on location of the Lehigh Valley Railroad
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 83

from Jugtown Mountain to Perth Amboy. In 1872 he
returned to the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail-
road and located a branch of that road, called the West
Division of the Baltimore, Pittsburg & Chicago Rail-
road, building about twenty-seven miles of this branch,
and also the roundhouse and shops in South Chicago.

 

 

 

 

ISHAM RANDOLPH.

From 1872 to 1888 Mr. Randolph was engaged
almost entirely in railroad engineering work, serving
during this period as assistant engineer for the Scioto
Valley Railroad, as chief engineer on the Chicago, West-
ern Indiana & Belt Railroad of Chicago, and as chief
engineeer of the Chicago, Madison & Northern Rail-
road, a branch of the Illinois Central. From 1888 to
1893 he was engaged in private practice in Chicago
and vicinity, and on June 7 of this last-named year was
elected chief engineer of the Sanitary District of Chi-
cago, less than five per cent of the work having been
done at that time.

In politics Mr. Randolph is a Democrat as far as
national issues are concerned. In local matters he votes
for the candidates and the measures which he believes
are for the best interests of the community, regardless of
political affiliations.

In fraternal organizations he is a Master Mason.
He is also a member and past president of the Western
Society of Engineers and a member of the Technical
Club,

He was married June 5, 1882, in the Cathedral of SS.
Peter and Paul, in Chicago, to Miss Mary Henry Taylor,
daughter of Captain George E. and Elizabeth Taylor of
Lewisburg, Virginia. Four sons have been born to

them—Robert Isham, born April 4, 1883; Oscar De
Wolf, born September 28, 1884; Spottswood Wellfred,
born August 5, 1892, and George Taylor, who was born
January 22 and died in infancy.

Thomas Taylor Johnston, assistant engineer of
the Sanitary District of Chicago, was born at
Cincinnati, August 8, 1856. He is the son of Alexander
and Margaret (Taylor) Johnston. He received his edu-
cation at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy,
New York, where he was graduated with the class of
"77, receiving the degree of C. E. He subsequently
attended post-graduate classes at Washington Univer-
sity, St. Louis, the subjects of his special study being
heat, higher mathematics and electricity.

Since his graduation from college Mr. Johnston has
been engaged in various branches of civil engineering,
but following more particularly the lines of hydraulics
and kindred work. For the first nine years of his pro-
fessional life he was assistant engineerin the services of
the engineer corps of the United States army, stationed
first at Washington, D. C., and subsequently on the
Missouri and Mississippi rivers. During the last two or
three years of this period his attention was devoted
to the study of the physical characteristics and hydraul-
ics of Western rivers. In June, 1886, he entered the

 

 

THOMAS TAYLOR JOHNSTON.

service of the Chicago Drainage and Water Supply
Commission, having charge of the miscellaneous and
water supply work for that body, and incidentally mak-
ing the study upon which the dimensions and elements
of the Chicago Drainage Canal have since been based.
In the winter of 1887 to 1888 he was assistant city engi-
84 THE CITY

neer of Chicago and had special charge of the city water
supply. In May of the last-named year he took charge
as chief engineer of the construction of the new artesian
waterworks at Memphis, Tennessee, and has been engi-
neer since then for the company owning the plant.
This work, which has cost $800,000, constitutes the
most extensive and elaborate artesian water supply vet
undertaken, and has proven entirely successful. He also
had charge of the construction of the artesian water
supply for Savannah, Georgia, from the time the work
was begun, in 1891, until its completion in 1893. This
plant, costing over $400,000, has also been a success.
Mr. Johnston entered the services of the Sanitary Dis-
trict of Chicago in April, 1890, serving as principal
assistant engineer until December 10, 1890, and having
special charge during this period of the hydraulic work
and physical research. He reéntéred the services of the
Sanitary District in January, 1892, as assistant chief
engineer, which position he has since continued to hold,
having special charge of designs for work, surveys, hy-
draulic and sanitary elements involved, and, incidentally,
supervision of the plans. In addition to his position
with the Sanitary District of Chicago he has charge as
engineer of the design and construction of the work for

OF CHICAGO.

the Snoqualmia Falls Power Company of Seattle, Wash-
ington. This work involves the development of a very
large water power and the transmission of this power to
the cities of Seattle and Tacoma and their vicinity, in the
form of high tension electricity. The power is to be used
for lights, street cars, flour-mills and other industries
using electricity in any ofitsforms. He is also engineer
for the design and construction of a work similar to that
of the Snoqualmia Falls Power Company at Marseilles,
Illinois, the water power at which point will be as exten-
sive as that at Minneapolis. He is also interested in
the construction of a miscellaneous water supply and
structural works.

Mr. Johnston is a member of the Western Associa-
tion of Engineers of Chicago, of which organization he
was president in 1897, having also served as first vice-
president the year previous, and as second vice-president
in 1895. This association has a list of over five hundred
members, living not only in Chicago and the West, but
throughout the United States and in foreign countries.

Mr. Johnston was married at Philadelphia, August
18, 1876, to Miss Wilhelmina Breuninger, daughter of
William and Henrietta Breuninger. They have three
children—Alexander, William and Thomas.

 

 

CACTUS DESIGN OF THE

 

 

WORLD—WASHINGTON PARK.
CHAPTER XIV.

 

 

 

 

 

CHICAGO AND ITS CLUBS.

lO

 

 

 
  

 

~ HE Chicago
Club may be
said to have
grown out of the
old Dearborn
Club, a congrega-
tion of two or
three score con-
aa genial spirits,
who began to meet toward the close
of the war in rooms on State street,
opposite where the Palmer House
now stands. The Dearborn Club was
closed in the fall of 1868, and in the
winter of 1869 a few of its former
members met and determined upon
the formation of a new organization,
to be known as the Chicago Club. A
membership of one hundred and one
was secured, and on March 25, 1869,
the act to incorporate the Chicago
Club, having passed both House and
Senate, was approved by Governor
Palmer. From 1869 to 1871 the club
occupied the old Farnam mansion,
which stood on Michigan avenue, be-
tween Adams and Jackson streets.
This building was destroyed in the
great fire, and on November 23, 1871,
the club moved into a frame dwelling
at 279 Michigan avenue. Here it
maintained a somewhat precarious ex-
istence, until 1873, when it moved to
the Gregg House, 476 Wabash ave-
nue. From 1876 to 1893 the Chi-
cago Club was well housed on Monroe

street, between Wabash avenue and THE CHICAGO
55

 

 

 

 

 

      

CLUB.

 
86 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

State street, where a commodious home had been
erected for it; but, in 1893, having outgrown its quar-
ters, the Art Institute building, corner of Michigan
avenue and Van Buren street, was purchased and re-
modeled, and the club took possession in May. This
handsome structure is the present home of the Chicago
Club.

The men who have filled the executive office in this
organization since its foundation are as follows: Ezra
B. McCagg, 1869-1871; Philip A. Hall, 1872-1874; Na-
thaniel K. Fairbank, 1875-1888; Robert T. Lincoln,
1889; John DeKoven, 1890-1891; Henry W. Bishop,
1892-1893; Norman Williams, 1894-1895; Henry C.
Bannard, 1896-1897; Arthur J. Caton, 1898-1899.

The position the Chicago Club has occupied in its
own sphere is unique. It has not only been the pioneer
club of the West, and the parent from which many sim-
ilar institutions have been modeled, but it has been prac-
tically without a rival in its own field. Being for many
years the only club in the city, it may be said, without
boasting, to have included all of Chicago’s prominent
men who have had any use for a club, a patronage
which in other cities is usually found divided.

Arthur J. Caton was born at Ottawa, Illinois,
in 1851, the son of John Dean and Laura A.
(Sherrill) Caton. When he was sixteen years old he

 

ARTHUR J. CATON,

entered Phillips Exeter Academy, at Andover, Mas-
sachusetts, and after being graduated from this institu-
tion in June, 1869, he matriculated at Hamilton College,
in New York state. where he remained four years, re-

ceiving his degree in 1873. Shortly after this he was
admitted to the bar in the same state, but, following his
father’s example, he took up his residence and began
the practice of his profession in Chicago. While in ac-
tive practice Mr. Caton was engaged in several impor-
tant litigations, and as receiver of the Chicago & South-
ern Railway Company closed up its affairs successfully.
He abandoned the law, however, and devoted himself to
the management of his father’s estate.

Mr. Caton has traveled extensively abroad, and has
spent considerable time in China and Japan. He is de-
voted to out-of-door sports, especially coaching, and
is considered one of the best whips in the country. He
is also extremely fond of golf, which is his chief sport
in summer, and in 1897 he was elected president of the
Chicago Golf Club. He is a great clubman and a po-
tent factor in many of Chicago’s affairs. He has been
a member of the Chicago Club since 1881. In February,
1898, he was elected its president, an office to which
he was reélected without opposition the following year.
He is also a member of the Washington Park, Calumet,
Chicago Golf and the Onwentsia clubs of this city, and
of the Union Club of New York. In all these organiza-
tions his fortunate temperament makes him a universal
favorite, and it can be justly said that few men have a
wider circle of friends.

A Brief History of the Union League Club of Chi-
cago. By Hon. John S. Miller. The Union League
Club of Chicago was organized as the Chicago Club of
the Union League of America in 1880. It was incor-
porated January 17, 1882, under the name of “The Union
League Club of Chicago.” Its articles of association
state its purposes, as follows:

“The primary objects of this association shall be:

“First. To encourage and promote, by moral, social
and political influence, unconditioned loyalty to the Fed-
eral Government, and to defend and protect the integrity
and perpetuity of this nation.

“Second. To inculcate a higher appreciation of the
value and sacred obligations of American citizenship ; to
maintain the civil and political equality of all citizens in
every section of our common country, and to aid in the
enforcement of all laws enacted to preserve the purity of
the ballot box.

“Third. To resist and oppose corruption and pro-
mete economy in office, and to secure honesty and efh-
ciency in the administration of national, state and mu-
nicipal affairs.”’

The club is a force in promoting the above objects in
Chicago and the Northwest. The members of the club
are the active men in Chicago, who have, during the last
twenty years, been making its success and history. Its
resident membership is limited to twelve hundred, and is
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB.

full; and there is a considerable waiting list of applicants
for membership. It has also a large non-resident mem-
bership, composed of active leading men in the West
who are in sympathy with its purposes and work.

The Union League clubhouse is on the corner of
Jackson boulevard and Custom House place, and is
owned by the club, which has also lately purchased a lot,
50 by too feet, adjoining the clubhouse on the south,
for the purpose of enlarging its house.

The present officers of the club are: President, Eu-
gene Cary; first vice-president, Marvin A. Farr; second
vice-president, Theodore W. Letton; secretary, Robert
P. Walker ; treasurer, John McLaren.

The Marquette Club of Chicago was incorporated
March 18, 1886, for the advancement of political econ-
omy, of friendly and social relations among the members

 

87

 

thereof, to exert influence and render service in
behalf of good government—local, state and na-
tional—and to promote the growth and spread
of patriotism and of Republican principles. The
club, which began with about a dozen members,
had its first meeting in the old Revere House
on North Clark street. Its first permanent
home, and one which it occupied until 1888, was
at the corner of Ohio and Cass streets. In 1889
it purchased its present home at the corner of
Dearborn avenue and Maple street.

By 1888 the club membership had increased
to over 300, and it had commenced to interest
itself in national politics. Its banquet in that
year, at which Benjamin Harrison was present,
did much toward his nomination and election,
and also gave a further impetus to the club
itself. Under the presidency of Alexander H.
Revell, and subsequentiv of John H. Run-
nells, the Marquette Club held its own until
the panic of 1893, when the membership be-
came reduced to about one hundred, and _ it
promised to become a serious question as to
whether the club could survive. Owing to the
efforts of Arthur H. Chetlain, its next president,
John Worthy, J. M. Roach, Edward O'Brien,
H. B. Wickersham, E. G. Pauling, Dr. E. M.
Smith and James S. Moore, interest was revived,
and before the close of the year the membership
had more than doubled. During the adminis-
tration of E. C. DeWitt, who was president
from 1896-1898, the club membership increased
to over 500, and this enthusiasm, continuing
through the term of E. G. Pauling, who became
president in 1898, resulted in a membership in
excess of 700 at the time Herman B. Wicker-
sham, the present executive, was elected in

March, 1899.

 

The Marquette Club is one of the truest, stanchest
and most powerful agencies in the country for the pro-
motion of patriotism. It observes three annual events,
either with banquets or dinners, and the services of the
most distinguished men of this and other countries are
secured for these occasions. The annual banquet oc-
curs on Lincoln's birthday, February 12, and on Octo-
ber g is given the Chicago Day dinner. Many of these
have passed into history as the greatest events of their
kind, particularly the banquet in 1896, when 1,150
guests listened to speeches from William McKinley and
others, which resulted in uniting almost the entire West
In 1898 the club gave
another famous dinner, at which ex-President Harrison
was the guest of honor; and the Chicago Day dinner in
1899, at which President McKinley and his entire cabi-

for his nomination for President.
88 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

net were present, will always be remembered as one liam F. Zibell, F. J. Lange, James McNally and T. G.
of the greatest achievements of this organization. Corlett. The organization of the club is further com-

The officers of the Marquette Club are: Herman B. pleted by committees on’political action, finance, house,

 

 

 

THE MARQUETTE CLUB.

Wickersham, president; Henry T. Smith, vice-presi- entertainment, banquet, membership, library, art and
dent; Abel A. Putnam, second vice-president; Feno E. athletics. The broad scope of the activity of this club
Smith, secretary; John A. Ahern, treasurer. Its direct- may easily be comprehended by the variety of work
ors are: Edwin F. Haywood, John W. Kennedy, Wil- thus outlined for its members.
CHAPTER XV.

 

 

 

GOVERNMENT OFFICES OF CHICAGO.

 

 

   
   

.HE growth of business in the
o> offices of the national govern-
\ ment in a city is one of the best evi-
dences of an increase of its com-
mercial importance. This is cer-
tainly true of Chicago. After Fort
Dearborn was evacuated in 1823
the national government was repre-
sented only by one official, Dr.
Wolcott, the Indian Agent. It was
not until 1831 that another civil officer of the national
government was added, and he was the first postmaster
of Chicago. He then had small duties to perform; in
fact, nothing to do except to receive the mail, which was
sent to him twice a week by a horseback rider and dis-
tribute it to the few citizens of the place. Chicago was
no point for any kind of distribution. Niles, Mich.,
was then the center from which the mail was distributed
to the various settlements within 150 miles, one of
which was Chicago.

Now, however, all branches of the national govern-
ment are represented here, and Chicago is the great dis-
tributing point for the Mississippi Valley, the West and
the Northwest. The principal national officials that are
located here are: Collector of Customs, Collector of
Internal Revenue, Sub-Treasurer, Postmaster, Pension
Agent, Appraiser, and the representatives of the Depart-
ment of Justice, which includes Judges of the U. 5S.
Circuit and District Courts, the District Attorney and
the U. S. Marshal. The U. S. Appellate Court also
holds sessions in Chicago. Chicago is also the head-
quarters of the military department of the lakes, which
consists of the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. A number
of the most distinguished generals of the army have
been in command of this department. The territory
under the Collector of Customs extends over the greater
part of Illinois and a portion of Northern Indiana. The

 

Cloprcana

Fs

89

 

 

district of the Collector of Internal Revenue also covers
several of the northern counties of the state. The dis-
trict of the Pension Agent is also very large. The juris-
diction of the District Courts is extended over the entire
northern district of Illinois, consisting of thirty-four
counties in the most populous portion of the state. The
service. of the postoffice, of course, is exclusively for
the city.

THE CHICAGO CUSTOM HOUSE.

The Collector of Customs is charged with the col-
lection of duties on all foreign goods consigned to this
port, and with the enforcement of all laws in regard to
both imports and exports. He also has charge of marine
affairs, both foreign and domestic. All vessels entering
the harbor must report to him both when entering and
departing. All sales, mortgages and documents in
regard to vessels are issued from his office, and it is his
duty to see to it that vessel-owners live up to the
requirements of the law. For the enforcement of the
laws and regulations in regard to marine matters and
importations the Collector is endowed with almost arbi-
trary powers, but there always remains the right of
appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, under whom
the Collector acts. In all questions of difference in
regard to customs duties the importer has a right also to
appeal to the Board of U. S. General Appraisers, a body
created and appointed to settle such disputes between
the government and importers.

The U. S. Appraiser is appointed by the President
and confirmed by the Senate, and, under the customs
administrative law, is directed to appraise all goods
imported at the port—that is, to ascertain and report
to the Collector the market value of such imported
goods. Under the treasury regulations and practice
he is also required to report the character and descrip-
tions of goods, the discrepancies, if any, between the
goods and the invoices, the deficiencies or excesses, the
v0 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

articles which are imported in violation of law, or pro-
hibited, the violation of domestic trade marks, and the
packages and their contents which are not plainly
marked so as to indicate the country of origin. Under
him are all the examiners and openers and_ packers.
The Appraiser reports directly to the Collector and not
to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Chicago was created a port of entry by an act of
Congress July 16, 1846. At first business was very
small, the collection of duties for the first year being
only $22.75. It was five years before the duties grew

ports use every effort to keep their ho'd on the foreign
business. They have so long controlled that business
that they think they have a vested right in it, and view
with a jealous eye every attempt to take it away from
them. Then, too, the importing merchants of the
interior having become accustomed to doing their busi-
ness at the ocean ports, they do not feel fully assured
that they will have the same advantages in importing
at their home ports. The New York Customhouse is
by far the most important in the country, collecting
a larger amount of duties than is collected at all the

 

 

   

EE PTE

 

 

THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

to be $5,000, but in the fifth year (1852) they amounted
to $10,610.85. They did not reach the million point
until 1872, when they increased from $827,964.81 in
1871 to $2,115,927.33. That year, however, seems to
have been exceptional, as the collections did not again
reach the $2,000,000 point until 1880, when they were
$2,548,406.87. From that point there was a gradual
increase until 1890, when they reached $5,060,603.20.
For the calendar year 1899 they reached the sum of
$7,551,400.17. The largest collection of duties ever
made at this port was during the year of the World's
Fair, 1893, when they amounted to $8,229,222.52. The
hindrance to Chicago’s growth as a port of entry is the
fact that it is so far inland, and also that the old ocean

other ports combined. Notwithstanding these hin-
drances Chicago has steadily grown in business and now
ranks as the fourth port in collections, New York being
the first, Philadelphia the second, Boston'the third. San
Francisco is the only other port that in any way makes
contention for the fourth place. William Penn Nixon,
the present Collector, took charge on January 7, 1808.
lis Special Deputy, John Hitt, has been continually in
the service at this port since June 1, 1867, while Mr.
W’ J. Jewell, who is Deputy Collector, in charge of the
entry and warehouse department, has been continually
in the service since July 8, 1867. The total number of

employes, exclusive of those in the Appraiser’s office,
is &1,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 91

LIST OF COLLECTORS AT THIS PORT.

Wm. B. Snowhook, August, 1846, to May, 184q.

Jacob Russell, May, 1849, to March, 1853.

Wm. B. Snowhook, March, 1853, to July, 1855.

Philip Conley, July, 1855, to March, 1857.

Jacob Fry, March, 1857, to June, 1858.

B. F. Strother, June, 1858, to March, 1861.

Julius White, March, 1861, to October, 1861.

Luther Haven, October, 1861, to March, 1866.

Thomas J. Kinsella, Acting, March, 1866, to June,
1866.

Walter B. Scates, July, 1866, to June, 1860.

James E. McLean, June, 1869, to July, 1872.

Norman B. Judd, July, 1872, to October, 1875.

J. Russell Jones, October, 1875, to October, 1877.

Wm. Henry Smith, October, 1877, to October, 1881.

Jesse Spalding, October, 1881, to October, 1885.

Anthony F. Seeberger, October, 1885, to February
1890. *

John M. Clark, February, 1890, to March, 1894.

Martin J. Russell, March, 1894, to January, 1808.

Wm. Penn Nixon, January, 1898.

The following shows the collections by fiscal years:

DOA caisaianee-s eRe $ 22:95 ISIA see seaarwyes . $1,358, 496.62
1848 casi sy ee ywsnnas TjTO400 T8975 weet cadence eins 1,609, 157.21
EBAG wiisie land wivia/ csannaests ZOAGAO?  TBZG wire wxcsvcasgam nok 1,454,725.85
T850 i duwanies axaanus AA25007 TOTP sncscane aamaces I, 448,705.00
POSE gocsume ne Reunion 4,924.48 1878 .........0ccee ee 1,451, 535.87
TO52 neni ac uscaaes 10,610.85 1879 saiscieaseuavead 1,891, 357.10
TOSS niin ost taqumaree 110,885.46 1880........-....... 2,548, 406.87
ESSA: settee eaten canes 332,894.28 F882 ass cvcawnee cevcn 2,931,030.61
VOSS iesade cnc sarcee 57302T 75 * 1882 csc dcwedinwmaaire 3,696, 711.09
185 Oeedeuaisin sa oemmeravays ZO5 IOSSOO. “HASBS wes oteuddenenee oe 4,075, 166.85
TOS 7 achctcanine tease 143,000:23. 1884 x4 cncwasae deco 4,071, 188.78
IB58 axes aint te aaniea 80,149.91 IBB5 2. sees enesaees 4,163,785.17
TBS Oh iicce mies au tuoeans ZxTSU8O ABBOiwsse-escacmecesed 4,099, 550.00
POO sicrnarseia scion ane 68,0TO:53 T8387 soni rvenavagaes 4,622,952.29
LSOT wartime deena A5:TA0:35 2888.00 02200-nanea haw 4.850, 697.44
T8022 aeea hay xtc ZEO2B:05 WEB cess sieves arenas got 4,983,001.83
TSO 3 steno thie Setanta 65,080.00 18900420. 0i0ne haga ven 5, 060,603.20
1804. crvo-naadisunnorabavers T5S 45495 TSO scncny eevee eras 5,794,515.51
PSG5 gchar nanenen ea eae I27/O3174. WSO2 aeacnce danse oe 6,573,940.17
TSO0) ccrmccnncer aeoanna 303,400.55 1803 aan teecexewses ss 8,510, 342.50
1807 innscnegeien wea x SLT, 081.89 » L894 saaiccuursi «mate 5,899, 786.80
TSOS: ct st cvarotiunreeeia iy ales 659,380-73 F895 86% anscawes van 5,742,317.98
1860) is rsiiarenrensssi sg avdrevees “683; 835770 TW89O-sc84 dance. ve. Ho 5,471,003.39
TS 70). ccarasaneun eocres 695,666.82 1897 osccaiavenan 405 5,050, 370.61
TO7 Ten syoesies Gam iex 827,004:81 1898-cc0n neveanaunnoe 4,179, 898.27
DB 7.2 en id cect coutauin 6 ced cus 2,555,027-33 1899 necewesaaegacines 6,417,497 .59
1873 asc mirieomaen rods 1, 535,631.63

APPRAISER’S OFFICE.

The office of the Appraiser at the port of Chicago
was not created until the immediate transportation act
of July 14, 1870. The first appointee was Dr. Charles H.
Ray, one of the former editors of the Chicago Tribune,
but at the time of his appointment editor of the Evening
Post. He was taken ill and never qualified for the posi-
tion, his illness resulting in death within a few weeks.
He was succeeded by Lincoln Ingersoll of the Evening
Post, and he by Charles H. Ham, who held the position
for a number of years. The present Appraiser is Gen-
eral H. H. Thomas, who was appointed to succeed
Frank G. Hoyne early in 1898. The following is a list
of the Appraisers at this port from the beginning:

L. Ingersoll, 1870 to 1871.

Charles H. Ham, 1871 to 1875,

R. C. Feldkamp, 1875 to 1877.
Charles H. Ham, 1877 to 1886.
Francis A. Hoffman, Jr., 1886 to 1888.
Frank G. Hoyne, 1888 to 1890.

R. N. Pearson, 1890 to 1894.

Frank G. Hoyne, 1894 to 1898.

H. H. Thomas, 1898.

General Horace H. Thomas, the present appraiser,
is a native of Vermont, and a graduate of Middlebury
College of that state. After graduation he studied law,
was admitted to the bar, and removed to Chicago,
where he entered upon the practice of his profession in

 

 

 

 

GEN. HORACE H. THOMAS.

1859. On the breaking out of the war he entered the
army and was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the
Third Division, Twenty-third Army Corps. At the close
of the war he resigned to accept the position of quarter-
master-general of Tennessee and private secretary to
Governor Brownlow of that state. In 1870 he returned to
Chicago and resumed the practice of law. He became
active in Republican politics, and in 1878 was elected to
the House of Representatives, Illinois Legislature, was
reélected in 1880, and was chosen speaker of that body.
In 1888 he was elected to the Illinois Senate. When
General James A. Sexton was appointed postmaster by
President Harrison, he chose General Thomas as his
secretary, which position he he'd until the close of Post-
master Sexton’s term. He was appointed United States
appraiser by President McKinley March, 18908.
92 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

INTERNAL REVENUE.

The office of Collector of Internal Revenue was estab-
lished in Chicago in 1862. Hon. George Schneider was
first Collector of Internal Revenue, having been
appointed August 28 of that year. The establishment
of the whole Bureau of Internal Revenue was caused
by the necessities of an increased revenue in the time
of the great war that was then taxing the energies of
the whole country. The Chicago office has always col-
lected a good percentage of the internal revenue of
the country, but its receipts during the last fiscal year
were greater than at any time for twenty years. The
following is a table of the receipts for the last thirteen
years:

TSB T scni’s sence warty $ 8\851j922.56 TBF cesiescernsis die seus $ 8,614,476.09
9j)403,818.28 1895 cca anew v od 7,601, 198.07

& O1134;585:06 1806 i esacacmewsiar's 8, 393,685.47

LO/BZS25s02. T807' onnaawmasewreinse 5,550, 327.15

13,964,833.21 1898............. 5,884, 597.76

. 10,883,986.71 1899........00005- 14,648,625.95

 

10,194,716.90

The present Collector of Internal Revenue is Mr.
F. E. Coyne, who was appointed to the position in the
fall of 1897.

Frederick E. Coyne, collector of internal revenue,
was born at East Orange, New Jersey, in 1860, and
received his early education in that city. Leaving
school while still young, he engaged in various occu-
pations until he reached the age of nineteen, when,
following the oft-quoted and sage advice of the late
Horace Greeley, he came West to grow up with the
country. But in this instance the West was not growing
fast enough to suit Mr. Coyne, and he returned east,
where he remained until 1883, when he again ventured
West, and this time took up his permanent location in
Chicago.

After clerking for a short time, Mr. Coyne opened
a small bakery on North State street, and, as he met
with considerable success, he was able to enlarge his
business and later to purchase the old Dennett restau-
rant on Madison street, near La Salle, which he turned
into a bakery lunchroom, and which he still conducts.
He is also the proprietor of a lunchroom at 179 Lake
street and of a large wholesale bakery business, at the
same place, from whence bread is daily distributed to
all parts of the city and adjacent towns.

Mr. Coyne is a thorough-going and positive Repub-
lican, and, as he is of that strong, rugged type that wins
success in spite of all obstacles to the contrary, he has
been a most valuable and trustworthy man in the coun-
cils of his party. He is one of the original McKinley
men, and it is a matter of history that on the night of
the November election in 1892 he prophesied the nomi-
nation and election of Major McKinley by the Repub-
lican party four years hence. Although he has never
been a candidate for an elective office, and has never

held a public trust other than that he now so ably fills,
Mr. Coyne has taken a prominent part in the campaigns
of the Republican party, and has been a most influential
factor in many of them. It will be remembered that
in the campaign preceding the election of Senator Wil-
liam E. Mason as the successor of Trumbull and Doug-
las, that Mr. Coyne was the directing head in a series
of moves that resulted in a triumphant victory for the
Republican party. It was a splendid instance of what |
energy and perseverance can accomplish. Mr. Coyne’s
personality is also felt in local and state politics, and
he was for two years president of the Twelfth Ward
Republican Club.

In August, 1897, President McKinley gave evidence
of his warm appreciation of Mr. Coyne’s ability and

 

FREDERICK E. COYNE.

integrity by appointing him to the most responsible
position of collector of internal revenue. The usual
amount of collections of this office averages about
$5,000,000 annually, but the addition of the war revenue
law increased the work of the office to a great extent,
and the collections have increased to about three times
that sum. These additional burdens have been largely
borne by Mr. Coyne, but the increased responsibilities
have in no way interfered with the prompt discharge of
the duties of his office.

Mr. Coyne was married in 1886 to Miss Pauline
Niehans of Chicago, and they have a family of four chil-
dren.

SUB-TREASURY.

The U. S. Sub-Treasury was officially established in
Chicago in March, 1874, in response to the demands of
j THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 93

the Chicago banks for a place of exchange and to meet
the increasing importance of Chicago as a money center.
Before that there were United States government depos-
itories at Chicago for the purpose of receiving gov-
ernment funds, but they had become inadequate for the
purposes for which they were intended. General Joseph
D. Webster was the first Assistant Treasurer. He was
succeeded by W. C. Nichols, who was succeeded by
George S. Bangs of Aurora, Ill. In 1877 Frank Gilbert
was appointed Sub-Treasurer, and held the office until
October, 1881, when he was succeeded by General John
L. Beveridge. In 1890 General Daniel Dustin was
appointed to the position. In 1891 General Dustin died
and John R. Tanner, now governor of the state, was, in
March of that year, appointed his successor. In 1894
President Cleveland appointed D. P. Phelps Sub-Treas-
urer. He held office until January, 1898, when William
P. Williams was appointed by President McKinley, and
fills the place at this time. The Sub-Treasury of the
city is constantly growing in importance both to the
government and to the business community. The
transactions for the last fiscal year exceeded over $400,-
000,000.

William P. Williams, assistant treasurer of the
United States, is a son of Porter B. and Mary H. Wil-
liams, and was born at Pompey, Onondaga County,
New York, July 2, 1855. When he was about two years
old his parents settled in Buffalo, where they remained
until 1869, when they removed to Aiken, South Caro-
lina. Mr. Williams prepared for college at Charleston,
South Carolina, and in 1877 entered Union College,
Schenectady, New York, from which he was graduated
in 1881. After leaving college he began the study of
law, but various matters obliged him to turn his atten-
tion to business, and in 1883 he came to Chicago as the
agent for a large Eastern car-spring concern. He con-
tinued in the railway supply business until 1889, when
he became president and treasurer of the Art Marble
Company of this city, with which he is still identified.

Like his father, who was a most uncompromising
Republican, Mr. Williams has always supported the
principles of this party.
McKinley men, and in December, 1895, delivered the
first McKinley speech made in Chicago. This oration,
which was delivered before the Marquette Club, was
published by Robert Porter of Cleveland, and after-
ward given a wide circulation during the campaign.
Later in the same winter, at the banquet of the Ham-
ilton Club, he was called upon by the chairman, Mr.
S. W. Allerton, to fill the vacancy caused by the absence
of Senator Foraker, who was to have responded to the
toast, “The Republican Party.” Here also he took
occasion to champion the McKinley cause, and the
press notices of the event were very flattering. Mr.
Williams was one of the organizers and chairman of

He is one of the original .

the finance committee of the William McKinley Busi-
ness Men's Club, which was so powerful and influential
throughout the campaign, both in Chicago and the state
at large. He also assisted in establishing the McKin-
ley and Hobart National Wheelmen, and was vice-presi-
dent of the organization. He made the pilgrimage to
Canton, and on that occasion delivered the oration to
Major McKinley in behalf of this body. This address
was also published and used as campaign literature. Mr.
Williams campaigned for the national committee in
Indiana, Nebraska and Illinois, and his services at this.
time were especially valuable in the cause for “McKin-
ley and sound money.” Indeed, throughout the entire
campaign, there was no one in the Middle West who
was more thoroughly in the thick of the fight than Mr.

 

 

 

WILLIAM P. WILLIAMS.

Williams, and his subsequent appointment by the Presi-
dent, on December 20, 1897, to the office of assistant
treasurer of the United States was considered by all as
nothing more than a just recognition on the part of the
chief executive of the valuable aid given by Mr. Williams
during the days of doubt in ’96.

Mr. Williams has been a member of the Union
League Club since 1887, and served as its secretary
during 1896-97. He is a member of the Alpha Delta
Phi college fraternity, and was one of the six members
of his class at Union College to receive the Phi Beta
Kappa. In his religious beliefs he is an episcopalian.
He was married in 1892 to Miss Grace Greenwood Jack-
son of Glenwood, Iowa. They have no children. Mr.
and Mrs. Williams reside at 4467 Woodlawn avenue,
but they spend the summer months at “Kesekoq,” their
beautiful summer home on Lake Beulah, Wisconsin.
Ot

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT AND CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES.

PETER §. GROSSCUP. S JOHN H. BAKER.
WILLIAM H. SEAMAN. Pa eee ROMANZO BUNN.
WILLIAM A. WOODS. Ne . i CHRISTIAN C, KOHLSAAT,

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 95

Mr. Williams is well known as an after-dinner
speaker, and he is the recipient of more invitations of
this kind than it is possible for him to accept. He is
thoroughly public-spirited, and has been a member of
many important committees, both of a civil and political
nature. Personaily he is one of the most approachable
of public men and has a host of friends, who admire
him for his sincere and earnest manner in carrying out
everything he undertakes. —

UNITED STATES COURTS.

Chicago may be called the business center of the
Seventh Judicial Circuit of the United States. It com-
prises the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The Circuit Court judges are three in number, viz.:
on. William A. Woods of Indianapolis, appointed
March 17, 1892; Hon. James G. Jenkins of Milwaukee,
appointed March 23, 1893, and Hon. P. S. Grosscup of
Chicago, appointed February, 1899. S. W. Burnhan
is clerk of the Circuit Court, and in addition is widely
known as an astronomer. He is said to be the most
accomplished star photographer in the world.

The judges of the Circuit Court are also judges of |

the Court of Appeals, which has its meeting-place in
Chicago. This Court of Appeals reviews cases taken up
from either the District or the Circuit courts. The clerk
of the Court of Appeals is E. M. Holloway, formerly of
Indianapolis, who succeeded the late Oliver T. Morton.

There are in the Seventh Judicial Circuit five District
Courts. The state of Indiana is one, while the states of
Illinois and Wisconsin are each divided into two. The
judges aud clerks of these districts are as follows:

Indiana: Hon. John. H. Baker, judge, Indianapo-
lis; Noble C. Butler, clerk.

Illinois—Northern District: Hon. Christian C.
Kohlsaat, Chicago, judge; Thomas C. MacMillan,
clerk. Southern District: Hon. William J. Allen,
judge, Springfield; Mervin B. Converse, clerk.

Wisconsin—Eastern District: Hon. William H.
Seaman, judge, Sheboygan; Edward Kurtz, clerk, Mil-
watkee. Western District: Hon. Romanzo Bunn,
judge, Madison; Franklin. W. Oakley, clerk, Madison;
Henry J. Peck, clerk, La Crosse.

The Northern District of Illinois is composed of the
following counties: Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, De
Kalb, Du Page, Grundy, Jo Davies, Kane, Kankakee,
Kendall, Lake, La Salle, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephen-
son, Whiteside, Will and Winnebago. The remaining
counties of the state compose the Southern District.

The business of the Northern District of Illinois is
much greater than that of any other district in the cir-
cuit. It is the general opinion of attorneys that there
should be two district judges in this district. In lieu of
appointing an additional judge here when business is too
pressing, the presiding judge of the Circuit Court can

designate any one or more of the other district judges
to act as an additional judge in this district.

The other representatives of the Department of Jus-
tice of the United States are Solomon H. Bethea of
Dixon, Illinois, United States district attorney, who
was appointed by President McKinley and took office
on January 1, 1899. The other is John C. Ames of
Streator, Illinois, United States marshal, a'so appointed
by President McKinley, who assumed the duties of the
office January 1, 1898. These gentlemen have charge
of the business in their respective lines for all the United
States courts held in Chicago.

Hon. Thomas C. MacMillan, clerk of the United
States District Court, was born in Stranraer, Wigton-
shire, Scotland, October 4, 1850. His father’s family trace

 

HON. THOMAS C. MacMILLAN.

their ancestry back to Lochaber in the Highlands, and
his mother’s back to the Cumming family of the historic
Galloway district. In 1857 the family settled in Chi-
cago, where they have ever since resided. Mr. Mac-
Millan was educated in the public and high schools of
this city, and was, until the fire of 1871, a student in the
old Chicago University. In January, 1873, he began
his life as a newspaper reporter on the Inter Ocean, and
was connected with that journal until he was appointed
clerk of the United States District Court, in December,
1895—continuous service of twenty-three years. Among
the public positions he has held have been: Member of
the County Board of Education, three years; member
of the Chicago Public Library Board, five years; mem-
ber of the Legislature, four years; State Senator, four
96 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

years; member of the Board of Managers of the Illinois
State Reformatory at Pontiac; president for several
years of the Illinois Congregational Home Missionary
Society; moderator in 1899 of the Ilinois General Con-
gregational Association; is president of the Chicago
Congregational Club; was a charter member of the
Chicago Press Club; in 1885 Hlinois College, at Jack-
sonville, the oldest institution in the state, conferred on
him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1883
he was married to Miss Mary C. Goudie of Na-au-say,
Kendall County, Ill. In December, 1895, Mr. MacMil-
lan was appointed clerk of the United States District
Court.

Solomon Hicks Bethea, the present United States
district attorney, was born in Lee County, Illinois, and
has resided there all his life. He was educated in the
schools of Dixon, the county seat of Lee County, the
high school of Ann Arbor, Michigan, afterward graduat-
ing from the Literary Department of the University of
Michigan. He studied in the law office of Eustace,
Barge & Dixon of Dixon, was admitted to the bar and
afterward became the law partner of the Hon. John V.
Eustace. His life has been devoted since his early youth

 

SOLOMON HICKS BETHEA.

to the study and practice of law. He was a member of
the House of Representatives of the Illinois Legislature
of 1882-83, and was afterward elected mayor of Dixon.
He was appointed United States district attorney for
the Northern District of Illinois by President McKin-
ley, and assumed the duties of that office January 1,

1899.

John C. Ames, United States marshal for the North-
ern District of Illinois, was born in Freedom Town-
ship, La Salle County, Illinois, July 17, 1852, and
up to the time he was fourteen years of age remained
on the farm with his parents. Following this he
attended the State University at Normal, Illinois, for

 

JOHN C. AMES.

three years, and, after completing his education, joined’
his father’s family at Streator, whither they had removed
while he was attending school. In this city Mr. Ames
has since made his home and has become identified with
its progress in many ways.

Shortly after the completion of his studies Mr. Ames
became interested in the drug trade, but later opened
a large hardware store, and, while operating it, organ-
ized the J. C. Ames Lumber Company, of which he
still continues to be the executive head. He was suc-
cessful in all these business ventures, and in 1891 organ-
ized the City National Bank of Streator, of which he
became president, and so remained until he resigned
his position to take that of United States marshal, to
which he was appointed by President McKinley in
January, 1808.

Mr. Ames brought to this office a ripe experience,
which well qualified him for the duties that have involved
upon him. <As a business man, a banker, officeholder,
and, above all, as a representative citizen of Northern
Illinois, Mr. Ames possesses both the respect and esteem
of his fellowmen and associates. He has always been
accounted one of the strong men of the Republican
party in Illinois, and his appointment by President
McKinley as United States marshal of this district was
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 97

one of the most fitting tributes within the power of the
chief executive to give.

In 1885 the citizens of Streator nominated and
elected Mr. Ames to the position of mayor, repeating
the proceeding two years later. It was also desired
that he become a candidate for a third term, but this
honor he declined. He was canal commissioner for four
years under Governor Fifer, and in this position gave

the same satisfaction as a public servant that has been

so characteristic of his public life. Mr. Ames’ career
as a public official stands without a blemish to obscure
the brilliant record he has made.

He was married on March 2, 1875, to Miss Minerva
Ross, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Ross of Lacon,
Illinois, and has one son, Isaac Carlos Ames.

THE CHICAGO POSTOFFICE.

No one of the government offices so plainly shows
the great growth of Chicago as a city as does the post-
office. Beginning in 1831 with a mail twice a week, car-
ried by a lone horseback rider from Niles, Michigan, it
is now the second postoffice in the United States, and in
some points of the service the first. In fact, the growth
of the mail service of Chicago has been so great that it
has been almost impossible to secure proper recognition
of the needs of that service, and it has only been within
a few years that such recognition has been given. The
city having grown so large and spread over such a
large territory, for the convenience of the people sub-
stations some years ago were placed in various parts of
the city. These sub-stations have grown in number,
until now they number 113. Forty-one of these are
carrier stations, and the free delivery system now prac-
tically covers the entire area of Chicago—igo square
miles. There are now employed in the postal service
at Chicago 2,891 persons, of which number 1,225 are
carriers, the remainder clerks. The street railways have
been pressed into service for carrying mail. A certain
number of mail cars are used for the collection and car-
rying of mails between the various sub-stations and the
main office, and continual improvements are being made
for the early and sure delivery of the mail to every part
of the city. For the year 1899 the receipts of the Chi-
cago postoffice were $6,352,657.68 and the disburse-
ments $2,523,000.65.

The volume of mail, too, has continued to grow.
For the fiscal years 1898-99 it is estimated that the mail
handled by the Chicago postoffice amounted to 1,000,-
000,000 pieces. In addition to this there are 300 tons
of mail which pass through Chicago daily by way of the
transfer system of the railway mail service. The num-
_ ber of pieces of registered mail handled by this office
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, amounted to
3,929,599. Mr. Charles U. Gordon, the present post-

7

master, was appointed to the position as successor to
Washington Hesing, who had resigned. Mr. Gordon
took office April 1, 1897.

Charles Ulysses Gordon, postmaster of Chicago, was
born near the village of Dunlap, Peoria County, Illinois,
April 3, 1865, the youngest son of Andrew Jackson
and Eliza Jane (Stokes) Gordon. Both of his parents
died while he was still in infancy—his father in
1865 and his mother five years later, after which
he went to live with his uncle, Iradell Gordon, in
Peoria County, where he remained until 1873, when he
went to the home of another uncle, R. C. Stokes, a
farmer, near Greencastle, Indiana. Here he remained
until he was fifteen years old, when he returned to

 

 

CHARLES ULYSSES GORDON.

Illinois and supplemented his common school educa-
tion by attending the Maquan High School, from which
he was graduated in 1881. He then went to Peoria,
took a course in the Parish Business College, and later
read law with Senator A. J. Bell of that city. Mr. Gor-
don came to Chicago in December, 1881, and early in
the following month entered the Bryant & Stratton
Business College. Three weeks later he was forced to
give up his studies on account of illness, but as soon
as his health would permit he secured a position as
teacher in a district school near Jamestown, Indiana,
where he taught the rest of the school year. In the
following autumn he returned to Chicago and com-
pleted his course in the business college, after which,
on January 1, 1883, he began his business career in the
employment of Stevens, Wilce & Co., manufacturers of
lumber. He remained in their employ for two years,
98 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

following which he worked for a short time in a real
estate office, but on March 9, 1885, he organized the
firm of C. U. Gordon & Co., which soon became promi-
nent in Chicago real estate transactions. He continued
in this line until January 1, 1896, when he gave up the
general real estate business and devoted himself to his
extensive interests in North Shore residence property.
Mr. Gordon has always taken an active part in politics,
and he was one of the seven men who met at the Revere
House, February 2, 1886, and organized the Marquette
Club, which has since become the leading Republican
organization in Chicago. He was its first secretary,
serving three years, and he also served as chairman
of the banquet committee in March, 1888, and went to
Indianapolis to arrange with General Harrison for the
famous banquet held here by that club at that time.
In March, 1894, he was elected president of this organi-
zation, a position that no man was better qualified to fill
than he who was among the originators of the club. He
was one of the first to unfurl the standard of William
McKinley for the Republican presidential nomination,
and his actual work in the National League of Repub-
lican Clubs and the Marquette Club was undeniably a
factor in Mr. McKinley’s success at the St. Louis con-
vention. Mr. Gordon was appointed postmaster of Chi-
cago by President McKinley, March 19, 1897.

His administration has been characterized by energy
and progressiveness. The carrier sergeant system was
introduced on July 15, 1897, and has proved a most
useful and valuable aid in preserving discipline and
bringing about improvements in the service. In Octo-
ber, 1898, the minimum salary of clerks in the Chicago
postoffice was raised from $400 to $500, and on July 1,
1899, from $500 to $600 per annum. The territory
covered by the free delivery system has been increased
from 125 to 183 square miles; the number of postal sta-
tions has grown from 23 to 40, the number of carriers
from 1,096 to 1,225, the number of clerks from 1,269
to 1,317, and the number of sub-stations from 54 to 128.
The receipts of the office for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1898, were $5,641,854.87, and for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1899, $6,149,470.15.

Mr. Gordon is a member of the Union Leagte Club,
the Marquette Club, the Hamilton Club, the Chicago
Real Estate Board, the Chicago Art Institute, the Civic
Federation and the Knickerbocker Club of New York.
He was one of the originators of the State League of
Republican Clubs, and during the presidential campaign
of 1892 he was the Illinois member of the National Exec-
utive Committee of the National Republican League
Clubs of the United States, and was placed in charge of
the branch headquarters of the league established in Chi-
cago. He has a long record as a member of the First
Regiment, I. N. G., and is an honorary member of Com-
pany “E.” He enjoys a wide acquaintance with leading

men in the Republican party throughout the United
States, but although he has been an enthusiastic fol-
lower of the principles of the Republican party, he has
never held an office other than his present one. Mr.
Gordon was married June 23, 1898, to Miss Gertrude
Wilson Pate, daughter of Mr. Alexander Pate, a mer-
chant and banker of Wellington, Illinois.

James Edwards Stuart, chief inspector of the Post-
office Department for the Northwest, was born at For-
far, Scotland, July 8, 1841. His father, who was from
Aberdeenshire, emigrated with his family to this coun-
try and settled in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1851, and
Mr. Stuart supplemented the education he had _ al-
ready received in Arbroath, Scotland, by a course

 

 

 

 

JAMES EDWARDS STUART.

through the Oshkosh public schools. Deciding upon
the study of law, he entered the office of Hon. Gabriel
Bouck, one of the prominent lawyers of Wisconsin, and
he was still pursuing his legal studies when the Civil war
broke out. He enlisted, and in August, 1862, was mus-
tered in as a private with Company “B” of the Twenty-
first Wisconsin Volunteeers. \When the regiment left
Oshkosh he was first sergeant of his company, and at
the close of their second engagement with the enemy
at Stone River he was promoted second lieutenant.
After the fall of Atlanta, in which his regiment partici-
pated, Lieutenant Stuart was commissioned captain, and
took charge of his company. This was of brief duration,
however, as he was soon after detailed as aide to Gen-
eral Harrison C. Hobart, commanding the First Brigade,
First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, in which capac-
ity he served until the general muster-out at Washing-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 99

ton in the summer of 1865. During his service Captain
Stuart participated in many engagements, including
those at Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Look-
out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, the assault on
Kenesaw, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesboro and Siege of
Atlanta, the March to the Sea, Siege of Savannah,
Bentonville, N. C., the advance on Raleigh, N. C.,
and at the latter place he received the surrender in
person. ‘

After being mustered out Captain Stuart returned
to Oshkosh, but instead of resuming his law studies he
accepted an appointment as postal clerk on the route
between Chicago and Green Bay, where he continued
until 1868, when he was detailed to the work of estab-
lishing the railway mail service west of the Mississippi
River. In 1870 he was promoted to the office of chief
clerk of the railway mail service of Iowa, with head-
quarters at Iowa City, and in 1873 he was appointed
special agent of the Postoffice Department, in which
capacity he served until November, 1876, when he was
made chief inspector of the Postoffice Department for
the Northwest by Postmaster-General Tyner. This
position he now holds.

During his career as chief inspector, Captain Stuart
has gained a reputation that has made his name familiar
in every state of the Union. All depredations, losses,
irregularities, etc., of the Postoffice Department in the
Northwest have been in his charge, and it is said he has
never undertaken the prosecution of an individual who
committed a crime or misdemeanor against the depart-
ment who has not been convicted of the charges pre-
ferred.

During his long service he has always been held in
the highest esteem by the heads of the Postoffice
Department in Washington. He has succeeded in run-
ning down many of the most gigantic frauds and swin-
dies in the history of the department, and is credited
with ferreting out and causing the conviction of an
incredible number of persons who have used the mails
for the purpose of fraud.

For fifteen years Captain Stuart has been actively
interested in the affairs of the Second Regiment, Illinois
National Guards, and during that time has successively
held the rank of captain, major and colonel in this body.
In May, 1898, this regiment enlisted in the government
service and was mustered in as the Second Illinois Vol-
unteer Infantry, being sent to Jacksonville, Florida,
where it was assigned to Lee’s Seventh Army Corps.
After the protocol was signed, Major Stuart was detailed
on detached duty, and at the request of the postmaster-
general was sent to Porto Rico by the secretary of
war as chairman of the military postal committee, and
in that capacity established the postal service on that
island. He remained on detached duty from August,
1898, to April 1, 1899, at which time he rejoined his

regiment in Cuba, and was mustered out on April 26,
at Augusta, Georgia. He returned to Chicago with his
regiment, and subsequently reéntered the state service
as a member of the Second Illinois National Guards, of
which organization he was elected colonel in July, 1899.

Colonel Stuart is a member of the Union Veteran
League, Loyal Legion, and Grand Army of the Repub-
lic. He was married October 3, 1870, to Maria E.
Roberts, daughter of the late Hon. Peter Roberts of
Iowa City, Iowa.

U. &. PENSION DEPARTMENT.

The United States agency for paying pensions at
Chicago carries on its rolls some 75,000 pensioners. Of
this number, 57,460 are invalids and the balance widows.
Of the invalids, 549 are survivors of the Mexican war,
and 59 survivors of the Indian wars, 1832 to 1842.
Of the widows, 73 are of the War of 1812, 549 of
the Mexican war and 217 of the Indian wars, and 5,136
children included in widows’ allowances. There are 66
army nurses from the Civil war, 18 pensioners of the war
with Spain, 6 invalids and 12 widows with 8 children.
All original cases issued to army pensioners residing in
the state of Illinois, and navy pensioners residing in
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Min-
nesota, Iowa and Wisconsin and territories of New
Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian, are paid through the
Chicago agency. After the first payment in the case,
however, there is no restriction as to residence, vouchers
being paid in all parts of the United States by this
agency.

Prior to 1872 agencies existed in the state at Cairo,
Centralia, Salem, Quincy and Springfield, in addition
to Chicago. In the year mentioned, the first five agen-
cies were abolished and consolidated with the Chicago
office. On August 10, 1893, an executive order was
issued, transferring all navy pensioners from Columbus,
Des Moines, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Mil-
waukee and Topeka districts to Chicago, through which
agency they have been since paid.

Quarterly payments are due and payable at the Chi-
cago agency on and after January, July and October 4.
Payments are made during the entire vear, the pen-
sioners not being restricted to these specific dates in so
far as filing their vouchers for payment.

The regular quarterly payments, during the
months above mentioned, average $2,600,000, and dur-
ing the fiscal year the average disbursements amount to
between $11,000,000 and $12,000,000. The largest
amount paid on first voucher, due in an individual case,
was $12,790.80, and the smallest, 14 cents, being the
amount due to a pensioner from the date of last quarterly
payment to his death, which occurred two days after.

The system of paying pensioners has been so thor-
100

oughly developed that the entire number of vouchers
received on the 4th, 5th, and 6th days of the month,
amounting to some 70,000 in number, are audited,
charged up on the rolls and a check for payment, to-
gether with a voucher for the ensuing quarter, mailed to
the pensioner by the 11th or 12th of the same month,
and payments of vouchers on the same day as received
are resumed as in ordinary months.

Jonathan Merriam, United States pension agent
for Illinois, comes of good old fighting stock, that has
been prominent in all the great military struggles
of the country. His father, Rev. Jonathan Merriam, a
Baptist clergyman, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and
his grandfather, Jonathan Merriam, was a soldier in the

 

 

JONATHAN MERRIAM.

War of the Revolution. Mr. Merriam himself was an
active participant in the Civil War, and possesses a war
record of which he may well be proud. Born in Ver-
mont, November 1, 1834, Mr. Merriam made the jour-
ney to Illinois by wagon, with his parents, when only
two years old. The family settled in Springfield for
a time, but in 1838 moved to Upper Alton, and, in 1841,
to Tazwell County, where a house was built in the wil-
derness and a farm established on virgin soil. Here Mr.
Merriam spent his boyhood, receiving his education in
the common schools, and later at Wesleyan University,
at Bloomington, and McKendree College, Lebanon,
Illinois, where he paid his way by sawing wood. The
death of his brother, Henry M. Merriam, terminated his
studies, and he returned to the farm, where he remained
until he entered the army, in the autumn of 1862. Mr.
Merriam was elected lieutenant-colonel of the One Hun-
dred and Seventeenth Hlinois Volunteer Infantry, and

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

held this rank until the close of the war, declining a
brevet promotion that was offered him. During the
war his regiment marched 2,300 miles, traveled 6,907
miles by rail and water, and participated in thirty-three
battles and skirmishes, the most important of which
were those in the Meridian and Red River campaigns
and the engagements at Tupelo, Mississippi, and Nash-
ville, Tennessee. He was mustered out with his regi-
ment on August 5, 1865, and returned to his former
occupation of farming.

Colonel Merriam has always been active in politics,
and cast his first vote for Fremont in 1856. He was
a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1869-70,
and in the latter year was the unsuccessful candidate for
Congress from the Eighth Congressional District, being
defeated by James C. Robinson of Springfield. In 1873
he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the
Springfield district by President Grant, and held this
office, to which he was appointed without solicitation,
until 1882. He was for four years a member of the
Republican State Central Committee, and in 1894 was
elected to the State Legislature from the Twenty-sixth
Senatorial District, comprised of Tazwell and Fulton
counties. He served in the Thirty-ninth General Assem-
bly, was reélected to the Fortieth General Assembly, but
resigned his legislative position in order to accept the
appointment of United States pension agent for Illinois,
tendered him by President McKinley, and of which he
assumed the duties February 1, 1898.

Colonel Merriam’s career in the State Legislature
received the hearty endorsement of his constituents.
Among the many important measures that came up for
settlement during those years were the legislation creat-
ing the drainage canal, the establishment of the civil
service law in the city of Chicago, and the measures
creating the Lake Front Park, all of which he cham-
pioned. He opposed the legislation connected with
what was known as the Humphrey bill, the Allen law
and the gas consolidation bill, as he did also all similar
measures that came before the House. He is an ardent
believer in the expansion policy of the present admin-
istration, and is opposed to hauling down the stars and
stripes where the blood and valor of American soldiers
and seamen have planted them. While he is a strong
believer in, and an advocate of, true civil service reform, .
he believes that the present law is utterly devoid of
any element of merit, and for that reason he heartily
endorses President McKinley's action in modifying it,
and considers that he used great discretion and demon-
strated a thorough knowledge of the defects of the
system.

Although Colonel Merriam has for so many years
been a prominent figure in state affairs, he claims no
occupation save that of farming, and his residence is
still kept on the farm his father first settled upon nearly
sixty years ago in the then wilderness of Illinois.
 

CHAPTER XVI.

 

 

a N.

 

| THE CHICAGO OF THE PUTURE. |

 

 

 

ah
, F all the great cities of the world
y © Chicago is the only one which
has had all its growth in the nine-
teenth century. From the urban
point of view it is the phenom-
enal product of the century.
What gives special significance
to this fact is the further fact that
this century has been remarkable
for its urban development. It has
been the city century of all the ages. To
appreciate Chicago one must take in this municipal
characteristic of the century now about to close.
Nothing could more strikingly illustrate this urban
tendency than a comparison between the first census
of the United States, taken in 1790, and the last census
of Australia, taken in 1891. The two populations were
almost identical, that of the United States in 1790 being
3,929,214, and that of Australia in 1891, 3,809,895. But
when it comes to the number of people living in cities of
10,000 inhabitants or more, the difference is marked.
The United States in 1790 had only 123,551 thus
domiciled, while Australia had 1,264,283. In one case
three persons in every hundred were found in such cities ;
in the other 33 in every hundred. By 1890 the city ratio
of this country was almost as high as that of Australia.
The broad truth is that Australia simply shows the nine-
teenth century tendency to city life. A further analysis
shows that this city tendency began in this country just
about the time Chicago began to show its metal. In
1800, as in 1790, the United States had only six cities
of over 8,000 inhabitants: Philadelphia, New York,
Boston, Baltimore, Charleston and Salem, and in 1800
it had still only these six. It had only 11 in 1810 and
13 in 1820, but in 1890 it had 448. In 1840, when the
city of Chicago was three years old, the total population
of the 44 largest cities of the country was only 1,453,994,
or nearly half a million less than Chicago will show in
1900.

    
   

IOI

 

+ }

The urban growth of this country got its first
impetus from canals. As has been shown in a previous
chapter, this was largely true of Chicago. The early
settlers of this city had a very keen appreciation of what
canal commerce could do for a city which was naturally
its point of final discharge. New York had been enabled
by the Erie Canal to overleap Philadelphia. But in
the case of Chicago the canal came too late. By the
time the Illinois and Michigan Canal was constructed
the railroad system began to supersede the towpath, and
then began, in good earnest, the era of cities. Before
their day New England had made something of a start
in manufacturing, but the country generally produced
almost nothing except agricultural products, and those
only to supply the immediate neighborhood. Trans-
portation was necessary. Turnpikes and canals were
swallowed up in railroads, and then came cities, many’
and large.

Railroads have sought Chicago so eagerly that the
city has never had occasion to put forth effort to secure
them. They have been drawn by a magnet stronger
than subsidy. Roads like the Baltimore & Ohio, which
had no thought originally of going farther west than
Cincinnati, were compelled by the demands of commerce
to reach out for Chicago. In the case of no railroad were
inducements offered in the way of bonuses or special
privileges. On the contrary, the city government of
Chicago has for many years thrown obstacles in the way
of exacting hard conditions, and the boodle gangs have
levied tribute on a merciless scale. But the exigencies of
traffic compelled submission to these exactions. Com-
mercial connection with Chicago was so valuable that
every real trunk line felt compelled to secure it at any
cost. Thus the number of railroads entering the city
marvelously increased, and each one of them, no matter
from what direction it came, contributed to the city’s
growth and added to its prestige. Located at the head
of lake navigation, it was bound to be the greatest ex-
trepot for the entire Middle West. Manufactures
102

thrive in proportion as transportation facilities are
afforded for cheap raw material and a good market for
their products.

But besides the natural advantages and their result-
ant developnient of railways and industries, Chicago has
had the advantages of extraordinary advertising. The
great fire made it famous the world over, and drew
to it people from all parts of the country, especially the
East; also from Europe. Some came with money to
invest; others to work at their various occupations.
Later the World’s Fair served much the same stimu-
lating purpose. Prodigious strides were made in con-
sequence of this second promotion of municipal fame.
Judging from indications and the estimates of careful
and well-informed persons, it is reasonable to assume
that the city will enter the twentieth century with not
less than 2,000,000 inhabitants.

Some conception of the future of Chicago can be
formed from noting the growth of other great cities.
Take the greatest of all cities, London. Its census, taken
the first year of the present century, showed less than
half the present population of Chicago—864,845. Ten
years later it was almost precisely that of Chicago, as
shown by the census of i890, namely, 1,009,546. It
showed a steadily enlarging increase each decade, until
in 1891 it had reached 4,232,118. It is undoubtedly at
least 5,000,000 by the present time. When once a city
reaches the million point its own momentum carries it
on, providing there are no counteracting causes of
repression and destruction. The possibility of these has
greatly decreased. There is no longer danger from war.
Civilized warfare stops short of razing cities. But there
were other retarding causes formerly which are no
longer to be feared. One was pestilence. Before the
days of sanitation the death rate increased with the
growth of the city. Bad water and inefficient drainage
were the bane of large cities. Chicago is on the eve of
having in operation a drainage system which will
effectually remove these hindrances to urban growth.
But hardly, if any, less important are the facilities for
suburban expansion. The area of Chicago, large as it
is, leaves out numerous suburbs already developed, and
there is indefinite room for further expansion. Between
the steam cars and the trolley lines there is hardly a limit
to the increase of population which can come without
congestion. Until these facilities were enjoyed the
people were obliged to huddle together, very few indeed
being abie to live beyond walking distance from their
regular place of business or employment. But now all
that has changed. If Chicago had had no suburban
trains and no street cars it would have been congested
beyond endurance before it had reached half its present
population. As it is, its population can go right on very
nearly doubling each decade without crowding. Con-
centration is the general tendency of our age. The

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

same great underlying cause which impels indus-
trial enterprise to unify and concentrate impels popula-
tion to centralize and nowhere is this centralization
more marked than in the central portion of the United
States. Chicago is an irresistible magnet, drawing all
sorts and conditions of people into itself. But with the
suburban system the people are able, if so inclined, to
combine the advantages of city and country life. Chi-
cago, more than any other city in the world, is realizing
the dream of Kingsley, “‘a complete interpenetration of
city and country, a complete fusion of their different
modes of life, and a combination of the advantages of
both.”

When nature ordained that the Chicago River
should flow into Lake Michigan, it was the last stroke
necessary in the preparation of the site for a great city.
That unpretentious river was the incipient harbor that
now, grown and developed, floats more ships than any
other in the world. Chicago, sitting at the foot of one
branch of the chain of great lakes, has water communi-
cation with the commercial East and with the nascent
Northwest, full of promise of great things to come. Not
only that, but the natural lines of travel and commerce
between the thickly populated states of the East and the
rapidly growing states of the West and the Pacific Coast
lead through Chicago. Be the travel or trade either by
land or by water, it must pay its golden tribute to the
city whose founders had the wisdom to wisely interpret
the leadings of nature. Knowing these things, and that
Chicago is already the metropolis of the best and most
populous portion of the Mississippi Valley—the most
prosperous and productive and ambitious region of the
world, ready and willing to raise the wheat and corn
and cattle and hogs to feed the world—one can with his
eyes wide open dream of Chicago as a city outstripping
all other cities, ancient and modern. Beside all these
Chicago is blessed with abundant water and cheap fuel,
the two necessities for successful manufacturing. The
great lakes furnish the water, and within a radius of
three hundrel miles engineers say there is sufficient coal
to run the machinery of the world for centuries, and
manufactures are no less important in building up a
great city than commerce itself. Then, too, the drain-
age canal, besides giving good drainage and pure water.
and thus insuring the health of the future millions which
may make Chicago their home, has an undeveloped
water power which may yet fill its shores with manu-
facturing industries, with ships from the North and ships
from the South loading and unloading at their doors.
If all these advantages are conserved and wise prepara-
tions made to take care of the people and the business
that will naturally seek a lodgiment within its borders,
it is hardly possible to overestimate what the Chicago
of the twentieth century will be.
CHAPTER XVII.

 

 

| RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION. |

~~

HE first railroad legislation in Ili-
“> ois, passed in 1831, had for its
real purpose the facilitating of trade
between Southwestern I!linois and
St. Louis. It was five years later
before the first railway charter was
granted in the interest of Chicago.
That pioneer road was the Galena
& Chicago Union. Its charter was

issued January 16, 1836, and the
name indicates the two terminal points. It will be
observed that Galena comes before Chicago, and that
was right. It was then the more important town of
the two.

The incorporators were clothed with large powers.
They had only to ask and they would receive. They
could use animal or steam power, whichever they pre-
ferred, and could be three years in getting to work. The
capital stock was placed at $100,000, with power to add
a cipher. The terminal point in Chicago was fixed at
the south end of Dearborn avenue. A little work was
done, but not much, just enough to vitalize the charter.
Ten years passed before the enterprise was fairly placed
ona practicable basis. From that time on it went ahead
prosperously, developing into the Chicago & North-
western system, with its network of lines. It could not
have a more appropriate name than it now bears, for it
brings the Northwest and’ Chicago into close relation-
ship. Galena is still afforded an outlet by this route, but
the road was slow in reaching there. By 1850 it had
only got as far west as Elgin. Only two days after the
charter of the Galena & Chicago Union was granted the
Legislature granted a charter for a railroad between
Cairo and Peru. It was a project making rail connec-
tion subsidiary to water transportation. A link was
supposed to be needed between the point where the
Ohio River empties into the Mississippi, and the lower

  

 

end of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Nothing came
of that charter, although the route was the same, so far
as it went, as that of the Illinois Central.

Practically the era of railroads began about the time
that the Mexican war had expanded our national domain
to the Pacific Ocean. The idea of depending on canals
was very nearly abandoned by that time. It is a remark-
able, but little remarked, fact, that hardly had this
country become continental in area, reaching from ocean
to ocean, before the idea of a railroad from Lake Michi-
gan to the Pacific, that is, from Chicago to San Fran-
cisco, took formal but not immediately tangible form.
Sidney Breese, then United States senator from Illinois,
urged such a project and the Legislature of Illincis
indorsed it. But Breese’s colleague, Stephen A. Doug-
las, while not opposed to the Pacific project, took
greater interest in securing a north and south railroad
the entire length of Illinois. That was the more imme-
diate demand, especially from the standpoint of the state.
Senator Breese, afterward Judge Breese, lived to see
his idea carried out, but he took no part in its execution,
and before it was put into operation several east and
west railroads having Chicago as their eastern terminus
had been constructed ; and the Missouri River, not Lake
Michigan, had come to be regarded the terminal line on
the east. But the Illinois Legislature of 1847 was clearly
right in heartily concurring in the idea of a grand Pacific
railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean, and
Senator Douglas was also clearly right in giving a
subsidy for the [linois Central precedence over a subsidy
for a cross continent line.

With that hard sense in legislation which made him
a great power in Congress, Mr. Douglas combined three
states in his project, Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama.
His bill was for a right of way and land subsidy for a
railroad from Chicago to Mobile. In the interest of
Iowa it was amended to include a branch “‘to the Missis-

103
104

sippi River opposite Dubuque.” This bill was introduced
in 1848 and became a law in 1850. That was the begin-
ning of the land grant railway system which has done
much to develop the West, and thus to build up Chicago.
The total grant in this state was 2,595,000 acres, most of
it the best of agricultural land.

The Legislature of Illinois repealed the inoperative
act of 1836, incorporating the Illinois Central Railroad
Company, and complied with the provisions of the
congressional grant, so far as the same related to this
state, using the name of Illinois Central. Right here
comes in the part played by the state debt, incurred in
large part in the construction of the [Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal. The holders of the state bonds conceived
the idea of utilizing the Illinois Central project to make
sure that the state should be ina condition to meet the
interest on those on its debt. They secured, through
the influence at Springfield of their attorney, Robert
Rantoul, one of the great New England lawyers of the
day, a provision to the effect that in lieu of all other tax-
ation the company should pay into the state treasury
5 per cent of its gross earnings. This was a good
arrangement for the state also, and is now made per-
petual by constitutional guarantee.

The Illinois Central was completed in the summer
of 1854. Then’for the first time and for all time Chicago
became the veritable metropolis of Illinois, affording the
surplus products of the state its entire length their best
outlet to the populous East and the Atlantic seaboard.
From this time on Chicago had no occasion to be at
all anxious about its future. The railway system of the
West was compelled by self-interest to literally “make
tracks” for this city. The eastern trunk lines, the Michi-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

gan Central and Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, were
obliged to come here with and for their business. New
Buffalo, Fort Wayne and such points to the east, were
obliged to content themselves with being way stations.

When the great fire of 1871 came it was the network
of railroads centering in this focal point which made the
rebuilding of the city inevitable. If every structure in
the city had been leveled to an ash heap it would have
been the same. Not only was the Chicago River here
to renew its invitation to lake commerce, but the rail-
roads were intact. Their depots only were gone, and
not all of them.

Important as Chicago had become at the time of the
fire as a railway center, it may be said to have entered
upon a new railway era with 1872. Its mileage was
about doubled in a decade, and from the Grand Trunk
on the north to the Baltimore & Ohio on the south the
necessity of reaching this city was recognized. Nor is
it too much to say that the entire Western system of
railroads, including Mexico and Canada, center directly
or indirectly in Chicago.

In order to give further clearness to the conception
of Chicago as a railway center there is herewith
appended a table presenting the more important general
facts about the railway systems which have in this city
a common meeting-place.

Here we have grouped twenty-two railroads, with
an aggregate length of nearly sixty thousand miles and
representing more than two and a half billions of cap-
ital. These figures were gleaned from Poor's Manual
of Railroads for 1899. and abundantly justify the claim
that Chicago is the great local point of American traffic.

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Total Length | Total Assets. Passengers cris Passenger Freight Gross Net

(Miles). Carried. (Tons). Earnings. Earnings. Earnings. Earnings.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé¢...... 6,946.21 $420,012,679.82 4,001,078 9,979,510 $7,347,361.59 | §$28,588,716.76 | $39,214,099.24 | $10,707,764.12
Baltimore & Ohio .......... ...eaee 2,023.88 159,293,688.15 8,569,546 21,986,240 4.247,159.00 20,000,215.00 27,722.788.00 7,446,697.00
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy....... 7,179.97 269,993, 456.00 15,000,000 20,000,000 8,153,042.00 | 30,543,640.00 | 42,800,162.00 | 16,527.944.00
Chicago & Alton ............000 sas 843,54 39,935,887.00 1,996,270 2R88,517 2,011,911.00 3,853,884.00 6,286,569.00 2,416,772.00
Chicago & Eastern Illinois........... 648.27 35,529, 74.28 2.798 465 4,781,375 709,343.00 3,379,462.00 4,221,438.00 1,816,434.00
Chicago & North-Western........... 5,076.89 220,434 464.00 14,036,388 19,693, 684 7,256,299.00 | 27,035,105.00 | 36,050,561.00 | —_ 13,406,682.00
Chicago, Great Western ........ ee 929.51 50, 086,690.88 1,192,720 1,814,750 1,075,845.78 4,102,516.70 5,386.044.00 1,608,671.00
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville... 535.46 5,630,207.20 914,345 1,998,039 787,322.00 2,281,294.00 3,328,671.00 967,663.00
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul ..... 6,191.00 233,520, 125.00 7.095.641 14,230,742 5,986,840.00 25,468,852.00 34,189,664.00 14,122,228.00
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific ...... 3,619.39 124,125,407,06 5,678,621 8,193,409 5,053,581.00 | 14,851,656.00 | — 20,667,915.00 7,905,207.00
ee eee . ee ! 2,284.19 98, 178,644.00 5,093,978 9,630,159 3,850,126.00 | 9,237,507.00 ) 14,320,094.00 | 3,949,844.00
NT 1 Sls ocean RS woes ceed AERA end 2,271.41 B21, 244,479.45 15,001,653 23,643,425 5,957,704.00 | 25,440,904.00 | 33.740,860.00 9,180,743.00
Grand “Trunk ¢ ccccsinagcaad os Ganaise 4,183 23,782,281.17 6,843,255 9,198,654 5,118,435.00 | 13,372,650.00 | 20,061,570.00 6,702, 155.00
Tilinois' Céntralicenveecdgaaa ceawwsnccin 3,774.85 194,103,422.00 13,772,221 12,694,058 5,103,812.00 | 18.918,729.00 27,317,820.00 9,954,763.00
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. . 1,413.44 108.917,770.00 4,292,573 15,551,976 4,281,422.00 | 14,022,756.00 | 20,753,683.00 7,520,554.00
Michigan Central .......... ....00. 1,657.53 46,937,035.00 2,600,082 8,682,110 3,215,296.00 9,939,553.00 | 14,046,149.00 3 908,275.00
New York, Chicago & St. Louis...... 523.02 51,295,018.23 493,622 3,816,686 962,966.00 5,330,676.00 6,391,421.00 “946,898.00
Pennsylvania Co... eee a ee ie Va aaah 4,008.25 63,005,497.12 16,370,011 59,478,775 9,669,372.00 | 31,117,093.00 46,957,906.00 14,699,748.17
ee one a t 1,151.01 102,520,681 .00 5,620,813 13,468,789 3,595,626.00 | 11,247,546.00 | 16,236,979.00 4,644,090.00
Wabashisinds cx ahaa onyat ee teow. 2,326.0 187,499,734.00 3,517,682 6,382,831 3,528,746.00 8,524,733.00 18,207,862.00 3,903,083.00
Wisconsin Central..........0..0c08- 993.94 43,826,655.21 933,322 3,541,953 1,031 ,942.06 3,649,886.60 4.939,724.72 1,918,918.25

58,530.76 —_|$2,658,873,526 52; 125,820,245 271,603,612 | $89,944,151.43 | $310,407,875.06 | $437,836,979.96 | $144,255,133.54

 

 

 

 

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

CHICAGO TERMINAL TRANSFER RAILROAD
COMPANY.

Although chartered as recently as June 4, 1897, the
history of this property dates from 1867, when the old
La Salle & Chicago Railroad Company was granted the
power by the Legislature to construct a line of road
between the points named in its title. No determined
effort was made to construct the line until 1885, when
parties secured an interest in the organization, with a

105

1897, when the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad
Company, chartered on June 4 of that year, acquired,
through sale under foreclosure, all the property owned
by this road, and subsequently also acquired the prop-
erty of the Chicago & Calumet Terminal Railway Com-
pany, a consolidation, brought about in 1888, of the
Calumet River, Hammond & Lake Michigan and Chi-
cago & Calumet Terminal Railroad companies. These,
in brief, have been the principal steps leading up to the

 

 

 

 

GRAND CENTRAL PASSENGER STATION.

view of constructing the line and employing it as a link
in a through route from Chicago to the Northwest.
The Chicago & Great Western Railroad Company was
the title under which operations were continued until
1890, when the Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad
Company, organized the previous year, purchased and
consolidated under one management the Chicago &
Great Western Railroad Company, the Chicago, Harlem
& Batavia Railway Company and the Bridgeport &
South Chicago Railroad Company, together with the
property on which is located the Grand Central Passen-
ger Station in Chicago. The road was operated as the
Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad Company until

formation of the most extensive terminal company oper-
ating in and about Chicago.

The Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company
is a company formed to acquire and lease facilities to
other roads and to transact a local suburban and switch-
ing business. The property of the company consists
of passenger and freight terminals in the business center
of the city, lines of railway leading thereto, and a belt
line about the city, just outside the corporate limits.
At the present time the terminals of this company are
used by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company and
the Chicago Great Western Railway Company. It also
leases a considerable trackage to the Chicago Junction
106

Railway Company, Wabash and Suburban Railroad.
The Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company has
direct connection, by means of its 244.5 miles of track,
with every railroad entering Chicago, and it thus affords
a rapid transfer of freight between different lines. Start-
ing from South Chicago, its belt line runs through Whit-
ing, Indiana, and thence in a western and northwestern
direction to McCook, Illinois, thus reaching the leading
industries and manufacturing plants located at South
Chicago, Whiting, East Chicago, Hammond, Blue
Island, Harvey, Thornton, Chicago Heights, Chicago
Ridge, Chappell and McCook. It also has connections
with the industries at La Grange, Broadview, Bellewood,
Melrose and Franklin Park. An extension from the
latter point to Mayfair is now under construction, and
when that is completed it will afford direct connections
outside corporate limits with all the railroads centering
in the city. The amount of traffic originating on this
railroad and delivered daily to the railroads by this com-
pany is very large. By its facilities for prompt transfer,
its motive power and equipment it has attained a front
rank in its particular field among the roads dependent
upon it.

From Blue Island the Chicago Terminal Transfer
Railroad Company has a line running directly north into
the city to Western avenue and West Twelfth street,
and from thence to the Grand Central Passenger Sta-
tion, at Harrison and Fifth avenue, thus affording a
second connection with many of the trunk lines within
the city limits. From Blue Island the road extends
south to Harvey, and it is under further construction to
Thornton and Chicago Heights, both of which are thriv-
ing manufacturing and industrial centers.

When it is considered that the railroads entering Chi-
cago are by far the greatest factor in the city’s trade
and commerce, the importance of the road under con-
sideration, with its facilities of track, terminals, connec-
tions, etc., is the more easily understood. Besides oper-
ating nearly 250 miles of track, this company also owns
over 760 acres of real estate in and adjacent to the city,
of which more than 50 acres are in the center of the
business portion. It owns about 7,500 feet of frontage
on the Chicago River, and also the Grand Centrat Pas-
senger Station in the heart of the city. The latter, which
covers nearly four acres of ground, is one of the best
specimens of the highest type of modern architecture
to be found in the United States, and it is classed among
the great buildings which have made Chicago famous.
Constructed of pressed brick and Connecticut brown-
stone, it is surmounted by a tower, 242 feet high above
the foundation, 27 feet square, and weighing
6,000 tons. This tower contains the second largest clock
in the United States, having four dials, each 134 feet in
diameter. The hours are struck by a hammer, weighing
250 pounds, on a 53-ton bell. The building, which was

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

opened to the public on Monday, December 8, 1890, has
a frontage on Harrison street of 228 feet and of 482 feet
on Fifth avenue. The main waiting-room, situated on
the ground floor, is 267 feet long, 71 feet wide, and with
a ceiling 25 feet high. A ladies’ parlor, 32x40 feet,
adjoins the same. To enter trains, passengers do not
have to climb stairs, but enter the trainshed directly
from the waiting-room. Another feature of its con-

‘struction, worthy of special notice, is the carriage court,

146x167 feet, by which carriages, buses and automo-
biles in large numbers at once can enter and discharge
their passengers at the entrance to the waiting-room and
trainshed. A dining-room, 56x73 feet, is located on the
second floor, and the remainder of the upper floors are
taken up by a hotel and the general offices of the Chi-
cago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company.

A noteworthy feature, which should be mentioned in
regard to this company, is the commanding position
which it occupies with respect to freight terminal facili-
ties, as well as passenger accommodations. Its tracks
penetrate the heart of the manufacturing district of Chi-
cago, and the growth of its switching business, so-
called, has been phenomenal, consequent upon the in-
crease in the number and extent of such manufactories.
Its tenant lines have benefited in this regard, they enjoy-
ing the right to handle the traffic with their own engines
to and from tracks to industries tributary to the
main tracks, which they have the use of under their
respective leases. But other railroads entering Chicago,
alive to the situation in this regard, have not been s!ow
to appreciate the advantage which follows direct con-
nection with the manufacturing interests spoken of;
hence there is a constant demand from what may be
termed outside railroads for branch freight terminal
facilities in the district referred to, and the day is not
far distant when the larger proportion of the railroads
reaching Chicago will of necessity have established
facilities for the receipt and delivery of freight on the
rails of this terminal company.

The officers of this company are: Chairman of the
board, Edward D, Adams, New York; president and
general manager, John N. Faithorn, Chicago; vice-presi-
dent, Fred. T. Gates, New York; comptroller, John H.
McClement, Chicago; treasurer and assistant secretary,
Henry S. Hawley, Chicago; secretary and assistant
treasurer, George P. Butler, New York; general attor-
ney, Jesse B. Barton, Chicago. The directors are:
S. R. Ainslie, James H. Eckels, Jahn N. Faithorn,
Henry S. Hawley, Charles L. Hutchinson, Kemper K.
Knapp, Edward R. Knowlton and Henry A. Rust, all
of Chicago; and Edward D. Adams, Fred. T. Gates,
Colgate Hoyt, Henry R. Ickelheimer, Henry Budge,
Charles H. Godfrey and Charles T. Parker, all of New
York City.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

THE CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY
COMPANY.

In the early days of the Northwest the possibility
of Chicago could not have been predicted, nor its mar-
velous growth dreamed of, except by one endowed with

the power of foreseeing the result of railway develop-

ment. In those days Galena, Hlinois, at the head of
navigation on the Fevre River, was the most thriving
town in the West, and dominant in the enterprise of the
time, a fact recognized by the prominent use of its name

107

Railroad, a line projected and partly built from Beloit,
Wisconsin, to Madison, Wisconsin, a distance of forty-
seven miles. This road, the name of which was changed
about this time to the Rock River Valley Union Rail-
road Company, was consolidated in 1855 with the IIli-
nois & Wisconsin Railroad Company, which was incor-
porated in Illinois in 1851, with power to build a rail-
road from Chicago north to the Illinois state line, and
to consolidate with any railroad in Wisconsin. The
title adopted after this consolidation was the Chicago,

 

 

 

 

THE CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN DEPOT.

in the title of the first railway west from Chicago, the
Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which might be
called the acorn from which the great oak, the Chicago
& North-Western Railway, has grown.

The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was char-
tered January 16, 1836, to run from Chicago to Galena,
and thus connect navigation on the lakes with naviga-
tion on the Mississippi. The road was completed to the
Desplaines River in 1848, and to Elgin in 1850, and
Freeport in 1853. Previous to 1854 the Galena &
Chicago Union Railroad Company had built a branch
line from Belvidere, Illinois, to Beloit, Wisconsin,
and in that year it leased the Madison & Beloit

St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad Company. In
1857 the last-named company was consolidated
with the Wisconsin & Lake Superior Railroad Com-
pany, still retaining the name of the former road,
but the panic of 1857 put a stop to further construction
or development of its properties. In 1859 the Legisla-
tures of both Illinois and Wisconsin authorized the reor-
ganization of the, by this time, bankrupt Chicago, St.
Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad Company, and on June
6 of that year a new company was organized, under the
name of the Chicago & North-Western Railway Com-
pany, to which passed all the franchises and rights of
the old road and its branches. This, then, was the
108

real beginning of the present corporation known as the
Chicago & North-Western Railway Company.

From that period the newly-formed corporation
continued to grow, until, out of the original ten miles
of road from Chicago to the Desplaines River, with its
one locomotive and six freight cars, there has been de-
veloped the present vast system radiating from Chi-
cago to all points of the Northwest. The mileage has
increased to 8,332 miles, the single locomotive has
multiplied to 1,391, and the six freight cars to over
52,000 of all descriptions. This vast system of railway,
which has the distinction of being the first road west
aud northwest from Chicago and to the Missouri River,
brings into contact with the markets of the world the
pineries, iron ore and copper regions of the North, the
granaries and milling centers of the Northwest, the
agricultural and dairy sections of the North and West,
and the diversified resources and _ live-stock ranches
of the far West. It has on its lines many of the
largest manufacturing establishments in the United
States, while the territory it traverses is by far the
richest section of the country. In Chicago, the road’s
chief terminus, there are splendid facilities for handling
the immense freight business which the company en-
joys, included in which are nearly 800 acres of land,
miles of siding and track, numerous docks on the Chi-
cago River, seven large freight stations and a number
of receiving platforms, located at various points in the
city.

Its passenger service is maintained at the highest
standard of excellence, and the familiar Wells Street
Station is one of the largest and best appointed in the
city. From this terminal 245 passenger trains arrive and
depart every week day, among which are the celebrated
twentieth century trains, the Colorado Special, requir-
ing only one night to Denver; the Overland Lim-
ited, reaching California and Oregon in three days; the
North-Western Limited, electric lighted, to St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and the Duluth & St. Paul Fast Mail to
Duluth and the Superiors.

Its through car lines extend from Chicago to Mil-
waukee, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Marinette,
Menominee, Ishpeming, Marquette, Ashland, Duluth,
St. Paul, Minneapolis, Winona, La Crosse, Madison,
‘Janesville, Rockford, Freeport, Elgin, Dixon, Sterling,
Clinton, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Sioux
City, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Denver, Cheyenne, The
Black Hills, Ogden, Salt Lake, San Francisco, Los An-
geles, Portland, and to numerous other points in the
great West.

The very finest suburban territory tributary to Chi-
cago is served by frequent fast trains of the North-West-
ern line.

VHE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Albert Keep was born April 30, 1826, in the town
of Homer, Cortland County, New York. He was the
fifth of seven sons, all of whom became noted for their
high character and good business attainments. Much
advantage was derived by the boys from the excellent
business judgment and practical instructions of their
father, who, for the time and place in which he lived,
was a man of wealth. Albert Keep’s educational advan-
tages were such as the common school of the village
afforded, supplemented by a two years’ course of study
at the Cortland Academy. When fourteen years of age
he entered a store in Homer, where he remained five
years. His employer was a man ot great native shrewd-
ness and untiring application, and the lesson of his

 

 

 

 

 

ALBERT KEEP.

daily life was not lost upon young Keep. It is said
that in the five years he was thus employed he was never
absent from the store a single day, although he was
required to be on hand at 7 o'clock in the morning and
to stay until 9 o'clock at night.

In 1846 young Keep, then twenty years of age,
came west to Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he ac-
quired an interest in the mercantile establishment of
Philander Peck and Henry Keep. He remained in
Whitewater until 1851, the business meanwhile being
highly successful. However, the firm having more cap-
ital than the needs of the situation required, they deter-
mined to close up their business, and, after careful inves-
tigation, concluded that Chicago, of all the cities of
the West, held out the most alluring prospects. Here,
therefore, they determined to locate, and without unnec-
essary waste of time they opened a wholesale dry-goods
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

store, under the firm name of Peck, Keep & Co. The
business was fairly successful, but the great activity in
real estate in Chicago in 1856 attracted attention and
induced the firm to close up its affairs. After this time
Mr. Keep devoted himself to making investments in real
estate and loaning money for himself and others. Sub-
sequent events have proven the correctness of his judg-
ment. In 1864 Mr. Keep was employed by the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern and the Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific railroads to acquire greatly increased
right-of-way and depot facilities, which they needed in
and about Chicago. The task was a very difficult under-
taking, as the property was covered with improvements
and holders were unwilling to sell. Negotiations, while
greatly prolonged, were in the end entirely successful
and highly gratifying to the railroad companies inter-
ested. In 1865 Mr. Keep was elected a director of the
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company,
and was made a member of its executive committee.
He held the position of director for eighteen years,
finally resigning because of press of duties in other direc-
tions.

In 1873 transpired what will probably be considered
the greatest event in Mr. Keep’s life. It was his election
as president of the Chicago & North-Western Railway
Company. He continued in this office until 1887, when
he relinquished the position to become chairman of the
company’s board of directors, which office he has since
held. The property under Mr. Keep’s administration
as president, and afterward as its chairman, has become
one of the greatest in the country. Its dividends are
adequate and stable, and each year a safe amount has
been set aside to meet needed improvements and exten-
sions. He found the property, as is well known, poorly
maintained and equipped; to-day it is as perfect in both
these respects as any railroad in the country.

Mr. Keep is still in vigorous health, and, while he
does not interest himself in details of business to the
extent he did formerly, he yet watches with unflagging
attention the many interests that devolve upon him.

ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.

Among the railroads that for nearly half a century

have been identified with the commercial and industrial °

development of the United States, none is better known
or enjoys more fully the confidence of the general pub-
lic than the Illinois Central. Other lines have been
conspicuous in their respective localities, but this road
was not only one of the pioneer lines of the West, but
it came into existence during the early days of the great
state whose name it bears, and it has become so intt-
mately connected with the growth and commerce of
Illinois and other states in the Mississippi Valley as to
be indeed a part of the warp and woof of its commercial
fabric,

109

After nearly twenty years of discussion relating to
governmental aid by land grants, which was partici-
pated in by some of the ablest men in the nation, Con-
gress, in September, 1850, made a grant of Jand to the
state of Illinois to aid in the construction of a railroad.
This grant was subsequently transferred by the state to
the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which was char-
tered on February 10, 1851. The charter provided for
the construction of 704 miles of road, extending from a
point opposite Dubuque, Iowa, to Cairo, Illinois, which
was known as the main line, and a branch from Cen-
tralia to Chicago. There was also provision for a land
grant of 2,595,000 acres, the company to be given each
alternate section of land for a distance of six miles on
either side of the track. This land, for the most part,
was typical of the fine farming lands which have made
Illinois famous as one of the best agricultural states in
the Union, and, although to-day its value is unques-
tioned, it by no means signified that the possession of
this land enabled the Illinois Central to pass through its
early days without a hard struggle for existence. The
country throughout the state was sparsely settled.
Towns and villages were few, and not a mile of railroad
was in existence west of the Mississippi. The charter
provided that the road be completed with all possible
haste, and by the end of 1854 there had been 300 miles
of track completed. The earnings, however, were in-
sufficient to pay operating expenses, and a crop failure
left the farmers without money to pay for what they had
already purchased. Then came the panic of 1857, at
which time everything would have been lost, had it not
been for the stanch character of the men who composed
the directory of the road.

Following this period came the era of prosperity,
when the farmers of the East were moving West. Rail-
road lands were in demand, and the Illinois Central,
having driven its last spike on September 26, 1856, was
in a position to meet and co-operate with the tide of
immigration. New towns sprang up along its line, and
when the war of ’61-’65 taxed its capacity to the utmost
to carry troops and supplies, the Illinois Central Rail-
road was no longer an experiment. Its success was
assured.

This is but a single chapter in its history. Each
succeeding year has brought advancement, and the road
has grown in wealth, usefulness and extent, until it now
reaches one-fourth of the states in the Union. It tra-
verses the corn belt and wheat sections of the North-
west, the dairy sections of the North, the fruit and lum-
ber sections of the Central, and the cane and cotton
belts of the extreme South. And this great system,
organized in 1851 under unfavorable circumstances and
conditions, now owns or controls lines aggregating
5,022 miles. This continuous line of road, reaching, as
it does, from the lakes and the Missouri River to the
110

Gulf, comes directly in contact with a population ex-
ceeding 24,000,000 people, and constitutes the great
thoroughfare between the North and South.

Not only has the Illinois Central exceptional facili-
ties for an exchange of domestic products between the
different sections of the country, but it has become a
great factor in the handling of grain for export through
the port of New Orleans. Considering the fact that
nearly every point on the line of this road is nearer this
port than any other port in the United States, it is not
strange that the company has devoted much energy to

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ILLINOIS CENTRAL DEPOT.

 

advertising this fact, and to furnishing the best possible
facilities at that point for the rapid handling of their
large and growing freight business. The storage capac-
ity of the Illinois Central terminal yards at New Orleans
is in excess of 4,000 cars, and their present elevator
capacity for handling grain exceeds 200 cars daily. In
recent years a great trade in imports has grown up at
this center and the Illinois Central has had to make vast
improvements to keep pace with the rapid growth in
that direction. One of the many improvements which
they have instituted has been the construction of the
Stuyvesant docks, for the handling of fruits and espe-
cially bananas. Here the fruit is passed to a train, which

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

stands in waiting, almost before the vessel has come to
a stop, and the cars are loaded and started North within
an hour, being sold while en route, and sent to their
destination from various transfer points along the line.

While every effort has been made to accommodate
the ever-increasing freight traffic over its lines, there
is no branch of its service where the improved condi-
tions are more manifest than in the passenger depart-
ment. Large engines, capable of handling a dozen or
more cars, have taken the place of smaller ones. Ves-
tibuled trains of elegant sleepers, chair cars, coaches,
baggage and mail cars are now on fast time between all
the commercial centers on the system, and, by reason of
these greatly improved conditions and facilities for busi-
ness, the Illinois Central now ranks as one of the best
passenger roads in the country. As a passenger route
this line is favored by having twelve prominent terminal
cities. The fact is sometimes lost sight of that this road
operates so many lines of through traffic on which, for
the most part, there is a double daily service of solid ves-
tibuled trains. To the West they have a double daily
service between Chicago, Dubuque, Sioux City and
Omaha, connecting with other lines to all points in
the North and West. Between Chicago and St. Louis
they operate solid vestibuled trains and have a double
daily service between Chicago and Memphis and New
Orleans, reaching also Vicksburg, Baton Rouge,
Natchez and Jackson, Mississippi. They also have a
separate service between St. Louis and these last-named
points.

The Illinois Central also operates through service
from Cincinnati,in connection with the Baltimore & Ohio
Southwestern Railway, and its own line from Louisville,
by which they are enabled to give a double daily service
between these points and Memphis, Vicksburg, Natche:
and New Orleans, and they have an arrangement witl
the N. C. & St. L. Railway, which enables them tc
operate a double daily service from St. Louis to Jack:
sonville, Florida, via Nashville, Chattanooga and At
lanta, over which line is run the celebrated “Dixie
Flier,” one of the best-known trains in the South.

These brief points will make it plain, even to the
casual observer, that in the workings of the through pa
senger service of this road every pains have been used
to make it the best in the country, and especially com
venient to those whose business or pleasure takes them
from North to South, or vice versa, or from one part
of the great Mississippi Valley to another.

Ina “History of Chicago” it is but proper that some
mention should be made, however brief, of the superb
suburban service of this road. This service, which. is
world-wide, has had much to do with the building of the
great South Side of Chicago. Including both express

and local trains, there are considerable over 200 trains
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

operated in and out of the Randolph street terminal on
week days, and nearly 100 on Sundays.

The interests of the Illinois Central in Chicago are
more or less familiar to the greater majority of our citi-
zens. The most conspicuous of these are the new
$1,600,000 depot at Park Row and the $100,000 subur-
yan depot at Van Buren street, both of which are sub-
stantial additions to the beauty of the Lake Front Park.

In conclusion, it is only fair to say that the influence
of this great road, reaching out, as it does, far beyond
the state in which it was originally chartered, has been
an important factor in the successful growth of Chi-
cago by bringing the city in close touch with a large,
rich and productive territory.

Stuyvesant Fish, president of the Illinois Central
Railroad Company, was born in New York City on June
24, 1851, and is descended on both his father’s and his

 

STUYVESANT FISH.

mother’s side from the oldest families in New York
State. He received a good education in the preparatory
schools of his native city, and later entered Columbia
College, where he pursued a regular course and was
graduated before reaching the age of twenty.

Mr. Fish began his railroad career in October, 1871,
by entering the New York office of the Illinois Central
Railroad in the capacity of a clerk. He so continued
until June, 1872, at which time he became private secre-
tary to the president of the road. He entered the employ
of Morton, Bliss & Co. of New York, and remained with
this well-known firm, and its London house of Morton,
Rose & Co., until March, 1877, during the latter two
years of which period he was their managing clerk and
he'd their power of attorney.

111

Mr. Fish first became a member of the directory of
the Illinois Central Railroad on March 16, 1876, at
which time he was also appointed treasurer and agent
for the purchasing committee of the New Orleans, Jack-
son & Great Northern Railroad. The following No-
vember he was elected secretary of the Chicago, St.
Louis & New Orleans Railroad, and in March, 1882, he
was elected vice-president of the same road. This posi-
tion he held until January 7, 1883, when he became sec-
ond vice-president of the Ilinois Central Railroad, con-
tinuing as such until April, 1884, when he became vice-
president. He was elected to the presidency of this road
on May 18, 1887.

James T. Harahan, now second vice president of
the Illinois Central Railroad Company, is qualified for
the onerous duties of the office by nearly forty years of
experience in railroad work, mostly on Southern lines.

Mr. Harahan entered the railway service in 1864,
and by December, 1883, had risen to the position oi
general superintendent of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad, south of Decatur; on the Ist of July, 1884,
he gained a further promotion, becoming general man-
ager of the entire system. This responsible post was
held:by him until January 1, 1885. From that date until
April 1, 1885, he served as general superintendent of the
Pittsburg division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad;

 

JAMES T. HARAHAN.

from April 1, 1885, to October 1, 1885, he was assistant
general manager of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad,
and from October, 1885, to October, 1888, general man-
ager of the same road; from October, 1888, to Novem-
112

ber, 1890, he served successively as assistant general
manager of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail-
way, general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
way, and general manager of the Louisville, New
Orleans & Texas Railway. From November 1, 1890, to
date, he has been second vice-president cf the Illinois
Central Railroad Company.

Few railroad men have so intimate a knowledge ot
transportation affairs in general as Mr. Harahan, and
none are more intimately acquainted with the great and
constantly increasing volume of traffic between the
Southern and Northwestern states and cities.

He is a member of the Chicago Club, the Washing-
ton Park Club and the Hyde Park Club of Chicago; the
Noonday Cluh of St. Louis; Pendennis Club of Louis-
ville; Tennessee Club of Memphis, and of the Pickwick
and Boston clubs of New Orleans. He is known as a
most public-spirited and energetic citizen of Chicago,
and has, since his residence there, been identified with
almost every movement of interest and of public benefit.

CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY.

This road had its origin in the Rock Island & La
Salle Railroad Company, which was chartered Febru-
ary 27, 1847. Although nothing was done toward the
construction of the road under this charter, attention
was drawn to the project, and enthusiastic meetings and
conventions were held during the year in Chicago in
favor of a railroad to the Pacific. In 1850, during the
marked revival in railroad matters, occasioned by the
Illinois Central land grant, Mr. Henry Farnum came
to Chicago to assist in the construction of the Galena &
Chicago Union road. While here he examined the
Rock Island route, and was so impressed with its ad-
vantages that he wrote to his friend, Joseph E. Shef-
field, a capitalist of New Haven, Connecticut, asking
him to come to Chicago and look over the proposed
road. The result of this visit was that on February 7,
1851, the charter of the Rock Island & La Salle Rail-
road Company was amended and the name changed
to the present title. The surveys were made immedi-
ately following this, and by October 18, 1852, the road
was open to Joliet, a distance of 40 miles. . By the mid-
dle of February, 1854, it had been completed to Rock
Island, Hlinois, and the nucleus of the present magnifi-
cent system was firmly established.

The next great step forward in the history of the
road was taken in 1866, when the Mississippi & Mis-
souri Railroad was purchased, by means of which addi-
tional mileage the Rock Island was able to run its trains
through from Chicago to Council Bluffs by the summer
of 1869. From 1869 to 1899, a period of thirty years,
the history of the Rock Island road has been one of con-
tinual progress, a constant striving toward the attain-
ment of perfection in transportation. In that period,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

also, various lines of road have either been leased or
purchased, with an aim of extending its already mag-
nificent system, so that to-day the great Rock Island
route stands without a peer in the matter of facilities
for Western, Northwestern and Southwestern traffic.
Although it is one of the greatest freight roads west of
Chicago, it is, however, as a passenger road that it comes
most in contact with the general public, and since a
greater number of people are to-day using the railroad
for purposes of business, or for seeking points of rest
and quiet, it is of greater interest to view this system
from the point of its passenger accommodations.

In no field of mechanical endeavor has there been a
greater advancement within the past twenty years than
in that relating to the prompt and careful transportation
of passengers. The modern roadbed resembles that of
earlier times, but it is not the same. Stone and gravel
have taken the place of dirt as ballast, and steel rails
have supplanted those of iron. Even the coaches, that
were thought to be magnificent ten years ago, bear no
comparison with those now in common use, and the
difference is still more marked in the general features
of train equipment and in all that pertains to the pru-
dent and systematic operation of an important line of
railroad.

Beginning at Chicago, the Rock Island & Pacific
Railway passes through most of the states of the Mid-
dle West, with branches extending to the Northwest.
West and Southwest, connecting, so that tourists from
all parts of the country enjoy the unending variety of
natural beauty to be seen along its line and connections,
particularly in Colorado. To all pleasure-seekers the
resorts of this state extend an invitation that may be
accepted with profit and advantage, and for reaching
them the Rock Island offers unsurpassed means of
transportation. For travel from the interior points to
the mountain resorts of the West, this line has scheduled
its famous “Big Five” train to meet the demand and
to make the trip in fast time, ease and security. This
train has modern chair cars and high-back coaches, and,
in addition to the usual equipment on through service,
the trains are provided with composite library buffet
cars. In order that the accommodations and service
shall be complete in every particular, dining cars are
attached from early morning until late at night, and
in making the trip between Chicago and Denver, Col-
orado Springs or Pueblo, in either direction, only one
full business day is required. The “Big Five” train
leaves Chicago at 10 o'clock p. m. daily, enabling pas-
sengers who arrive from the East to make close connec-
tion, and also giving those who reach Chicago in the
morning the benefit of an entire business day in the
city. Des Moines, Iowa, is passed at the breakfast hour
next morning, and a daylight ride through Nebraska
and Kansas follows. Denver, or Colorado Springs, is
THE CITY OF CHICAGO, 113

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CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC R. R. DEPOT.
114

reached at 7:35 a. m. the second morning out, and the
trip has practically been accomplished in a day. The
time card of this train provides for good connections
at important points on the Rock Island system, by
means of the many auxiliary lines which cover the
greater part of the territory between Chicago and the
mountains. These include a line from Peoria, another
from Keokuk, the Albert Lea route from the North, and
numerous others.

The Rock Island is foremost in adopting any advan-
tage calculated to improve speed and give the luxury,
safety and comfort that popular patronage demands.
Its equipment is complete and its vestibuled trains are
all of the most improved patterns. At its terminal in
Chicago the Rock Island is now able to offer its patrons
an additional advantage, without which, in the past, it
has been difficult for strangers in'the city to secure con-
venient facilities for reaching its distant sections. This
is now happily accomplished by means of the Union
Elevated Loop, recently completed, whereby, on arriv-
ing at Chicago, one can enter an elevated train at the
door of the Rock Island Station, and be carried direct
to any one of a hundred or more stations of the elevated
system, thus reaching almost any part of the city speed-
ily and without inconvenience.

Besides the through service given the public by the
Rock Island road of Pullman palace sleepers from Chi-
cago to St. Paul and Sioux Falls in the Northwest, from
Chicago to Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo in
the West, from Chicago to Kansas City and Fort Worth
in the South, this line has also had in operation for
many years a system of through sleeper service, called
“Personally Conducted Pullman Tourist Excursions.”
The routes of these cover a vast territory. One route
of this system runs from Chicago, via Omaha, Colorado
Springs, Pueblo and the popular scenic route, to Port-
land, Oregon, in the Northwest, San Francisco in the
West, and Los Angeles in the Southwest. Another runs
from St. Paul, via Omaha and the scenic route, to Port-
land, Oregon, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while
still a third runs from Chicago, via Kansas City, Wichita,
Fort Worth and the Southern route, to El Paso, T.os
Angeles and San Francisco. A manager in the service
of the Rock Island road accompanies each excursion,
as does a Pullman conductor, and there is also a Pull-
man porter with each car.

CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY
COMPANY.

The beginning of the present Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railway Company dates from 1849, when
the Milwaukee & Mississippi Company was formed for
the purpose of connecting that city by rail with the
Mississippi. In April, 1857, the road was completed
to Prairie du Chien, but two years later, the company

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

being unable to pay its interest, a mortgage sale was
ordered, and a new company, which had been chartered
by the Legislature in 1860, under the name of the Mil-
waukee & Prairie du Chien Railway Company, pur-
chased the property January 21, 1861. This company
operated the road until 1866, when it was absorbed by
the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company.

The Milwaukee & Watertown Railroad, now part of
the La Crosse division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railway, was incorporated in March, 1851, and by
the latter part of 1856 trains were running from Mil-
waukee to Columbus. After going through a variety
of changes, the road became the Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad in 1863, and the La Crosse division of the
present company in 1866. In April, 1852, the La Crosse
& Milwaukee Railroad Company was incorporated, and
in June, 1853, by a consolidation of two other railroad
charters, the Milwaukee, Fond du Lac & Green Bay
Railroad Company was formed, and work begun on the
line from Milwaukee toward Fond du Lac. Two years
later the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad Company
was consolidated with the Milwaukee, Fond du Lac &
Green Bay Railroad Company, assuming the name of
the latter company, and after a series of litigations the
Mijwaukee & St. Paul Company gained final possession,
by purchase, of the property in 1867. This same com-
pany also acquired the Milwaukee & Horicon road by
purchase in 1863.

The present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway
Company grew out of the organization formed May 5,
1863, for the purpose of purchasing all the roads thus
far mentioned, but the word “Chicago” was not prefixed
until February, 1874. the line between Milwaukee and
Chicago having been constructed during the previous
year. The policy of the new management was one of
expansion, and from 1875 to 1880 several small roads
were either leased or purchased, among them the
Dubuque & Southwestern Railroad, in Iowa; the Min-
nesota Midland Railway Company, in Minnesota; the
Madison & Portage Railroad, Viroqua Railway Com-
pany, and Oshkosh & Mississippi Railroad Company,
all of Wisconsin. During 1880 eight roads, with a total
of 1,195 miles, were added to the system, which was
further increased during the year by the construction
of 349 miles of branches and extensions. In 1881, 442
miles of road were added; in 1882 the system was further
increased by 303 miles; in 1883, by 240 miles; in 1884,
by 44 miles, thus making a total, on January 1, 1885, of
4,760 miles of road under operation by this company.
Since 1885, nearly fifteen years, further lines have been
leased or built, until there are now operated 6,300 miles
of thoroughly-equipped road in the states of Illinois,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Da-
kota, Missouri and the peninsula of Michigan.

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Com-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

pany has been the foremost line in the West in adopting
every possible appliance for the safety and comfort of
its passengers, including an absolute block system,
Westinghouse train signals, steam heat, electric light,
vestibuled and compartment cars. Its train service is
unsurpassed, and its celebrated train, The Pioneer Lim-
ited, which leaves Chicago every night at 6:30, reach-
ing St. Paul and Minneapolis early the following morn-
ing, is well entitled to the claim made for it, that it is the
only perfect train in the world.

PULLMAN’S PALACE CAR COMPANY.

Pullman’s Palace Car Company was organized un-
der the laws of the state of Illinois in February, 1867,
by the late George M. Pullman, with a capital of $1,000,-
ooo. As originally founded, it was a comparatively
small industry in proportion to its present magnitude,
and from the company, as it was first
established for the purpose of con-

115

of any cars in the Pullman service is from Washing-
ton to San Francisco, a distance of 3,626 miles. The
total number of employes of the company in its
operating and manufacturing departments for that
year was 13,617, and the wages paid during the year
$6,996,283.94.

The town of Pullman, which is now part of the Thir-
ty-fourth Ward of Chicago, is about two miles long in a
no th and south direction, and its average width is one-
half mile. There are eight miles of paved streets and
twelve miles of sidewalks. The rents of dwellings range
from $4.50 to $50 per month, the average being $11.63
per month, and there are hundreds of tenements, rang-
ing from $6 to $9 a month. These rents are consid-
erably less than those for similar homes with as many
conveniences in the city. The Pullman Loan and Sav-
ings Bank showed savings deposits, July 31, 1899, of

 

structing sleeping-cars after the pat-
tern of Mr. Pullman’s invention, it has
grown to a corporation with a capital
stock of $54,000,000, and facilities for
building, not only sleeping-cars, but
passenger, freight, and street cars of
all descriptions. A few figures re-
garding this great industry cannot fail
to be of interest. The shops at Pull-
man have a capacity of turning out an
average of 3 sleeping-cars, 12 passen-
ger coaches, 300 freight cars and 20
street cars per week. In the shops
about 50,000 tons of coal are con-
sumed annually; over 100,000 tons of
iron and about 50,000,000 feet of lum-
ber The total amount of wages paid
by the company to its employes at
Pullman, from September 1, 1880, to
July 31, 1899, was $44,402,208.60, and
the value of materials consumed dur-
ing the same period was $102,692,-
268.23. The number of cars owned
and controlled by the company at the
close of the fiscal year ending July 31,
1899, was 2,526, consisting of 2,119
standard cars and 407 tourist, or sec-
ond-class, cars. The total mileage of
railways covered by contracts for the
operation of cars of the company dur-
ing that year was 122,410; the num-
ber of miles run by Pullman cars
was 219,011,905, and the number of

 

 

 

|) on | ae | ee /

 

 

 

passengers carried was 6,015,818
The longest regular unbroken run

PULLMAN BUILDING.
116

$948,453.65, an average for each depositor of $274.50,
and the enrollment of pupils in the public schools of
Pullman for the fiscal year was 1,525, the staff of teach-
ers numbering 27.

In October, 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court
handed down a decision to the effect that the company
had exceeded its charter powers in holding certain
property and exercising certain functions not contem-
plated in its organization license. The principal effect
of this decision is to deny the company’s right to hold
the real estate at Pullman not used in its manufactur-
ing business, and as a result that property will be dis-
posed of in due course. The Pullman Company has al-
ways been liberal in its dealings with its employés, and
although employing a small army of men, it has been
particularly fortunate in its relations with them. The
only serious trouble ever experienced was the great
strike of 1894, which involved the greater portion of
all the railroads in the country. In this case the com-
pany’s position was maintained, and the result, which is
now history, “settled the broad principte that the own-
ers of a business are the men to shape its policy, and
not professional agitators, whose only real labor con-
sists in fomenting trouble.”

In pursuance of authority given by the stockholders
of the company at a special meeting held December 5,
1899, the capital stock of the company was increased
from $54,000,000 to $74,000,000; the name of the com-
pany was changed from Pullman’s Palace Car Company
to The Pullman Company, and the number of the board
of directors was increased from seven to eleven. On
December 30, 1899, the company acquired by purchase
(using in payment therefor the additional issue of 200,-
000 shares of its capital stock) all the assets and property
of the Wagner Palace Car Company, including its cars
and equipment and its contracts with various railway
companies.

The officers of The Pullman Company are: Robert
T. Lincoln, president and chairman of executive com-
mittee; T. H. Wickes, vice-president; A. S. Wein-
sheimer, secretary. The directors are: Marshall Field,
J. W. Doane, O. S. A. Sprague, Henry C. Hulbert,
Henry R. Reed, Robert T. Lincoln, Norman B. Ream,
Wiiliam K. Vanderbilt, J. Pierpont Morgan, Frederick
W. Vanderbilt and W. Seward Webb.

The general offices of the company are in the Pull-
man Building, which was erected in 1883, at the corner
of Michigan avenue and Adams street.

George Mortimer Pullman was born at Brocton,
Chautauqua County, New York, March 3, 1831, and
died at Chicago, October 19, 1897. He was the third
child of James Lewis Pullman, a native of Rhode
Isiand, and of Emily C. (Minton) Pullman, the latter
a daughter of James Minton of Auburn, New York.
Mr. Pullman received an ordinary common school edu-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

cation. At the age of fourteen he was employed in a
country store at Westfield, New York, and three years
later went to Albion, New York, where he entered into
the cabinet-making business with an elder brother. He
varied this line of work during the next ten years by
undertaking contracts of various sorts; among others,
for moving buildings along the Erie Canal, which at
that time was being widened by the state. In 1858 he
came to Chicago, where, for several years, he was en-
gaged in raising buildings to conform with the new
street level, then recently established by the city. But,
as a recent writer has said, ““Mr. Pullman’s true mission
was the creation of the sleeping-car system.”

It was in 1857, when he was taking a sixty-mile

 

 

 

 

GEORGE M. PULLMAN.

ride in one of the “night cars” of that time, and while
seeking repose on the comfortless shelf provided as a
bed, that he evolved the idea of the modern sleeping
car. His knowledge of cabinet-making here came to
his aid, and he met and overcame many difficulties in
the preparation of a model. After coming to Chicago
he gave much time and thought to a series of experi-
ments in perfecting his ideas. He secured two old pas-
senger coaches from the Chicago & Alton Railroad, and
in an unused railway shed, on the present site of the
Union Depot, in Chicago, he remodeled them to conform
with his plans. The result was the first pair of real sleep-
ing cars in the country, which were put in successful op-
eration on the night train between Chicago and St.
Louis. From 1860 to 1863 he was engaged in mining en-
terprises in Colorado. Upon his return to Chicago he set
about to improve upon his first attempt, and in the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 7

spring of 1865 he produced the first real “palace car,”
which he named the “Pioneer,” which is now in hon-
orable retirement at Pullman. But this car, which cost
$18,000, or some $14,000 more than the best “night
cars” previously in use, was found to be too high to
pass under some of the viaducts spanning the railroad,
and its wide steps would not permit it to pass the plat-
forms of many stations. It began to look as though he
must build a railroad to accommodate his invention.
Just at this time the body of the martyred President,
Lincoln, was to be brought from Washington to his na-
tive state, and the obstacles to the passage of the
“Pioneer” were removed in order that it might be em-
' ployed in that funeral journey. From that time the
Eastern lines were open to it and its counterparts.

Through the inventive genius and perfect under-
standing of Mr. Pullman, improvement after improve-
ment was added to the new sleeping-car service, and
the sleepers were eventually followed by the dining car
and the drawing-room car, which were truly a revela-
tion to the business and tourist world. His next im-
provement was the device for a vestibule, thus placing
the train employing it practically under one roof, and
rendering almost perfect immunity from danger in col-
lisions. Next to the air-brake, this application was per-
haps the most important of any in modern railroad his-
tory.

It is very rarely that an inventor’s name becomes
so permanently attached to his creation as to outlive
all possibilities of competition. The glory for the inven-
tion of the printing press, the sewing machine, the
steam engine, and even the electric telegraph, is divided
among many, but the Pullman car is so well known that
its mere name is descriptive of its character.

With a practical foresight characteristic of the man,
Mr. Pullman purchased, in 1879, some 3,500 acres of
land, fourteen miles from Chicago, but which is now
included within the limits of the city. Here, with the
greatest skill, the most indomitable perseverance and

_ persistent industry, there was gradually planned and
constructed the present town of Pullman. Mr. Pullman
himself superintended every detail of this great under-
taking. Gradually there grew upon the once dreary
prairie land a beautiful town, with shaded avenues,
groupings of tasteful homes, churches and public build-
ings, carefully mown lawns, beds of brilliant flowers,
and withal such an application of the best economic
principles that this is one of the great model labor set-
tlements of the world. The town of Pullman has more
than 12,000 inhabitants. Its retail trade is carried on
ina handsome arcaded building; it possesses a fine mar-
ket-house, beautiful public squares, a handsome school-
house, a valuable public library, a savings bank, and
finally a theater, which, for architectural and artistic
beauty of design and structure, will bear comparison

with any building of the same class in any part of the
world. No possible commune could ever have the stabil-
ity which is an essential part of the organization of Pull-
man. Here it has been found possible to give to the
operative whatever he required, of a better quality and
at a far lower price, than he could obtain 1t elsewhere.
The result has been that during its existence the town
of Pullman, due to the far-sightedness of its founder,
has grown to be a solid, self-respecting and wholly ad-
mirable community, whose population of workingmen
are believed to be better off in all their conditions of life
than is the workingman in any other part of the country.
Mr. Pullman was identified as an initial force in
other large enterprises than the Pullman Company. Ie
was instrumental in the construction of the Metropol-
itan Elevated Railway of New York City, and he was
always an earnest believer in the Nicaragua Canal. Jn
private life he was a patron of art and literature. He
was married in 1867 to Miss Hattie A. Sanger, a daugh-
ter of James Y. Sanger. Four children were born to
them: Florence Sanger, the wife of Frank O. Lowden
of Chicago; Harriett S., the wife of Francis J. Carolan
of San Francisco; George M., Jr., and Walter Sanger.
Thomas H. Wickes, vice-president Pullman’s Pal-
ace Car Company, was born August 28, 1846. Entered
the railway service in April, 1868, as assistant to agent
Pullman’s Palace Car Company, since which time he has

 

THOMAS H. WICKES.

been continuously connected with the same company in
the following capacities: Assistant to agent, assistant
superintendent, division superintendent, Western gen-
eral superintendent, general superintendent, second
vice-president and vice-president.
118 THE CITY

EXPRESS COMPANIES.

THE ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY.

The “Old Reliable’ Adams Express Company first
opened its office in Chicago March 1, 1879, entering
here by the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway,
and has ever since operated this line, together with the
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway
(Pennsylvania Railroad lines) for its Eastern business.
On January 1, 1893, it acquired the Chicago, Burling-
ton & Quincy system.

The Adams Express Company began its present ex-
tensive express system in the year 1840, under the title

 

- WILLIAM H. DAMSELL.

of Adams Company, originally operating a service be-
tween New York and Boston, and later extending its
lines to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington. Charles-
ton, Savannah and on through to New Orleans and
southwest, and then, in a westerly direction, to Pitts-
burg, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and Denver, mean-
while spreading its routes over the principal railroads in
the New England states, thus covering the most popu-
lous and active business centers of the country.

The railroad systems operated by the Adams Ix-
press Company are principally the New York, New
Haven & Hartford system, with all its branches and
direct connections, embracing nearly 2,000 miles of rail-
road and 500 miles of water routes; the Pennsylvania
Railroad system, in connection with the Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy system, embracing together about
15,000 miles of railroad, forming a direct and through
route from New York to the far West, and penetrating

OF CHICAGO.

with their various branches and affiliated railroads the
greatest manufacturing centers and the largest cities,
and coal, iron, farming, fruit and other productive re-
gions throughout the United States. It also operates
over the Louisville & Nashville and Queen & Crescent
systems, and numerous other railroads, covering a grand
total of nearly 30,000 miles, and by its arrangement with
the Southern Express Company for interchange of busi-
ness, it practically expands over 50,000 miles of railway,
water and stage routes.

Of all the express companies represented at the
World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago during 1893,
the Adams Express Company was the only one which
received a diploma, accompanied by an award. a

William H. Damsell, one of the board of man-
agers of the company, resides in Chicago, the headquar-
ters of the Western department of the Adams Express
Company, comprising all lines operated by the com-
pany west of Pittsburg-—over 18,000 miles. He has
resided in Chicago since January 1, 1893, but has been
in the employ of the company since boyhood. He suc-
ceeded Mr. L. C. Weir, formerly of Cincinnati, as man-
ager of the Western department, in 1894, at which time
Mr. Weir was elected president of the company, and
moved to New York City.

THE AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY.

The origin of the express business dates back to
1839, when William F. Harnden, the pioneer express-
man of the United States, undertook to earn a livelihood
by doing errands and carrying parcels between New
York and Boston...

Several years afterward Alvin Adams started an
express in direct competition with Harnden, and only
by dint of the strongest perseverance was able to obtain
a share of the public patronage sufficient to pay his
expenses. Indeed, very many people regarded him as
an interloper upon a field fairly won by Harnden and
of which there never would be enough business of the
kind for more than one expressman.

These men managed to eke out a precarious living
for several years, and, as the business began to grow,
other small companies, or copartnerships, sprang into
existence throughout New York and the New England
states.

In 1841 Henry Wells, then the agent of Harnden,
of Albany, New York, and George Pomeroy conceived
the idea of starting an express from Albany to Buffalo.
After making three trips the service was discontinued
for some time. Later on Crawford Livingston pro-
posed to Henry Wells that they should join hands and
resume the enterprise. Wells consented, and there-
upon Pomeroy & Co.’s Albany & Buffalo Express was
established, the trip from Albany to Buffalo being made
only once a week, occupying four nights and three days.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

At that time Wells, who served as messenger, carried
all his valuable parcels in a carpetbag.

In 1843 transportation facilities had increased and
the business had grown to the point where it becaine
necessary to make the trip each day.

In the course of a year or two the style of the firm
of Pomeroy & Co. was changed to Livingston, Wells
& Pomeroy, and again to Livingston, Wells & Co., when
Pomeroy retired.

On April 1, 1845, the Western Express, from Buf-
falo to Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago and intermediate
points, was commenced by Henry Wells, William G.
Fargo and Daniel Dunning, under the name of Wells &
Co. There were no railroad facilities west of Buffalo,

 

 

CHARLES FARGO.

New York, and the express business was carried on by
use of steamboats, wagons and stages.

In 1846 Henry Wells sold out his interest in the
Western Express to William A. Livingston, and that
concern assumed the name of Livingston & Fargo.

In 1847, upon the death of Crawford Livingstcn,
the firm name of Livingston, Wells, & Co. was changed
to Wells & Co. In the same year a formidable opposi-
tion express was started over the New York Central
Railroad by Butterfield, Wasson & Co., with a capital
stock of $50,000. A bitter competition was waged, and
early in 1850 negotiations were entered into by Wells
& Co., Livingston & Fargo and Butterfield, Wasson &
Co. for the consolidation of the three concerns into one
grand line. The result was that the property and good
will of Wells & Co. were put in at a valuation of $50,-
000, those of Livingston & Fargo at the same, and

119

Butterfield, Wasson & Co. at $25,000, and the difference
in cash. Two firms were then made of the three,
namely, Wells, Butterfield & Co. and Livingston, Fargo
& Co., but comprised in a joint stock concern under the
style of the American Express Company.

In 1854, in order to satisfy the demands of compet-
ing railroad companies, the lines embraced in the organ-
ization of the American Express Company were divided
and a new company organized under the name of the
United States Express Company. In the same year the
capital of the American Express Company was increased
to $750,000.

In 1860 the American Express Company was reor-
ganized and the capital stock increased to $1,000,000,
its officers being as follows:

Henry Wells, president; John Butterfield, vice-
president; William G. Fargo, secretary; Johnston Liv-
ingston and Alexander Holland, directors; superintend-
ents, James C. Fargo, Charles H. Wells, E. W. Sloan,
J. H. Talbott, R. B. Peckham, Charles Fargo, Daniel
Butterfield.

In 1860 the Merchants Union Express Company
was organized, with a capital of $20,000,000, in opposi-
tion to the older established companies. The stock of
this concern was largely subscribed to by merchants in
the territory through which the new company was to
operate, and in this way it was expected that they would
secure and control a large proportion of the express
business of the country. After a short and disastrous
career the Merchants’ Union Express Company found
itself stranded, and in 1868 a consolidation was effected
with the American Express Company, under the title
of the American Merchants Union Express Company,
the capital stock of the new company being fixed at
$18,000,000.

In 1873 the name of the company was again changed
to the American Express Company.

From this time on the history of the American Ex-
press Company is a continual succession of extensions
and mergers, until to-day its service reaches from Nova
Scotia and Atlantic Coast states to and including New
York in the East, and westward to the Rocky Moun-
tains in Wyoming, and on the north from the Dominion
of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico on the south, extend-
ing into twenty-seven states, the Indian Territory and
to four provinces in Canada, embracing a country of
45,000,000 population, operating over 40,000 miles of
railroad, steamboat and stage lines, with 7,500 agencies,
employing in its service more than 13,000 persons and
over 3,000 horses and wagons.

The development of the volume of the express busi-
ness has been accompanied by a wonderful extension
in the scope of the service performed, and embraces
to-day not only the transportation of freight, parcels,
live stock, money, bullion, go!d and silver coin, bank-
120 THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

bills, drafts, bills of exchange and other property, but
also includes the handling of C. O. D. transactions and
collections of all kinds, transfers of money by telegraph,
order and commission business, sale of money orders
and travelers’ checks for domestic and foreign use, sale
of foreign drafts available in all parts of the world, and
the purchase and sale of foreign exchange.

' Owing to the constantly increasing volume of busi-
ness between the United States, Canada and European
countries, it was found that export and import business
by express could not be handled with satisfaction
through steamship lines or forwarders in foreign coun-
tries. The American Express Company, therefore, in
pursuance of the same enterprising policy that has char-
acterized its management from the start, perfected ar-
rangements for the transportation of express business
on all of the fast transatlantic steamers, and to-day
maintains independent agencies, fully equipped in every
respect with experienced and capable employés, in Paris,
France; London, England; Liverpool, England; South-
ampton, England; Hamburg, Germany; Bremen, Ger-
many, and contemplates still further extensions on the
continent of Europe. By means of these exclusive agen-

cies abroad the American Express Company is able to of-,

fer facilities and advantages unequaled by any other for-
warder for the handling and transportation of merchan-
dise, parcels, valuables and securities to and from Eu-
rope and the United States and Canada, providing abso-
lute guarantee of safety, promptness and _ satisfaction
and without many of the additional petty shipping
charges exacted by other foreign forwarders.

The organization of the American Express Com-
pany in January, 1900, is as follows:

James C. Fargo, president; Theo. M. Pisiceee, first
vice-president; Charles Fargo, second vice-president ;
Francis F. Flagg, third vice-president ; Charles G. Clark,
treasurer; William H. Seward, secretary.

THE UNITED STATES EXPRESS COMPANY.

One of the oldest institutions of Chicago is the
United States Express Company, as it began business
here in 1854, and its history is one of progress, in com-
mon with other institutions of our city. Express busi-
ness in 7854 was a small matter as compared with what
it is to-day. At that time the United States Express
Company occupied a very few railroads, the principal
ones being the Erie and the Lake Shore. Three days’
time from New York to Chicago was considered express
time, while now twenty-four hours seems too long. In
1854 the company had in service in Chicago but two
wagons.

In the forty-five years’ existence of the United
States Express Company, a great many changes have
occurred. Very many prominent men have been iden-
tified with the company, among whom will doubtless

be remembered ex-Mayor Colvin of Chicago, who for
many years held the position of general agent in Chi-
cago. Mayor Colvin, in the earlier years of his connec-
tion with the express company, was one of the most >
prominent figures in Chicago, a man of wonderful en-
ergy, and he projected himself into the affairs of his day
with great force.

The first president of the United States Express
Company, Danforth N. Barney, was one of the old pio-
neers, an associate of such men as William G. Fargo, of
the American Express Company; W. B. Dinsmore, of
the Adams Express Company, and many other pioneers
of sterling merit. On his death, in 1874, he was suc-

 

 

 

 

U.S. SENATOR PLATT.

ceeded by his brother, Mr. Ashbel H. Barney, a gentle-
man of very high culture, an earnest piilanthtopist and
a magnificent business man.

The third president of the United States Express
Company, and by far the most prominent, is the present
incumbent, Hon. Thomas Collier Platt, who has filled
the position since 1880. Mr. Platt’s career in public life
has been far more striking and well known than his
career as an express president. In the, latter position
he has been unobtrusive, and yet untiring, at all-times
in his devotion to the vast business interests of which
he is the executive head. Under his wise and energetic
management the company has grown from an area of
about 10,000 miles to one of nearly 30,000 miles. Much
of this advance, of course, was due to the operation
of natural business laws, but the greater part of it would
not have been achieved had it-not been for the far-
seeing sagacity of the man at the head of affairs. Sen-
ator Platt, whose portrait is here given, has twice rep-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

resented the state of New York in the United States
Senate, and still holds that position. He is beyond all
doubt the great and controlling mind in the Republican
politics of his state, and his influence in national af-
fairs is no less marked. It is indeed remarkable to wit-
ness the ease with which the Senator discharges both his
business and political duties. Nothing but a naturally
strong constitution, with a rigid adherence to the laws
of health, enables him to accomplish his tasks. That
they are well accomplished, in a business sense, may
be inferred from the success of the United States Fx-
press Company, and that they are well accomplished
from a political point of view is well known to the ma-
jority of the people of the United States. Senator Platt
has been dubbed by his opponents with the title of
“Boss,” but, as he himself states, he is an “easy’’ boss.
He makes no apologies for the title thus bestowed upon
him, which his friends have learned to admire. He
claims that the highest employment of an American
citizen is to be engaged in public affairs, and in this we
must agree with him, assuming, of course, that this in-
terest is taken purely from a desire for the public wel-
fare, and this, unquestionably, has been the animating
principle of the Senator’s career.

While Senator Platt is not a resident of Chicago, he
is unquestionably the commanding figure in the affairs
of his company, and in this way is a representative Chi-
cago man.

Joseph Stockton was born at Pittsburg, Pennsyl-
vania, on August 10, 1834. Attracted by the stories of
the “Great West,” he came to Chicago before he was
eighteen years of age, and found his first employment
in this city with the commission house of George A.
Gibbs & Co., on South Water street, near Wells. After
several years spent in the employ of this establishment
he accepted a position as clerk in the office of the
American Transportation Company, and from there
went to the freight office of the Fort Wayne Railroad,
where he was still employed at the time he enlisted in
what was then known as the First Board of Trade Regi-
ment. This body was organized in July, 1862, as the
Seventy-second [Illinois Infantry Volunteers, and a
month later was mustered into service. Mr. Stockton
became first lieutenant of Company A, at this time, and
was shortly afterward made captain of the same com-
pany. His promotions from this on were rapid, his
next advancement being only a few months later, when,
upon the resignation of Major Chester, he was made
major of the regiment. His command was assigned to
the Seventeenth Army Corps, the history of which is
the history of the Western army until the close of the
war. .

In April, 1863, two companies of Major Stockton’s
regiment were detailed as General Grant’s bodyguard,
and he was offered command of them, with the position

121

of provost marshal on General Grant’s staff. This he
declined, however, preferring the more active service
with his own regiment, which remained a part of Grant’s
army throughout the entire campaign in the West, end-
ing with the capture of Vicksburg.

On the death of Lieutenint-Colonel Joseph A.
Wright, who was mortally wounded during the assault
on the enemy’s works May 22, 1863, Major Stockton
was promoted to his place, and after the fall of Vicks-
burg, when Colonel F. A. Starring was detailed on de-
tached service, Lieutenant-Colonel Stockton took com-
mand of the regiment, and retained it until the close of
the war.

 

JOSEPH STOCKTON.

Colonel Stockton was wounded at the battle of
Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 1864, and came
home on a furlough, but within a month he was again
in the field with his command, and so continued until
the close of hostilities. For meritorious services he was
breveted colonel, and subsequently brigadier-general.

On his return to Chicago, in 1866, General Stock-
ton became the agent of the Empire Transportation
Company, a position he has since continued to hold.
His civil life has been an active one along many lines.
He was a member for nearly a quarter of a century of
the Board of Commissioners of Lincoln Park, serving
continuously from the appointment of the first board in
1869 until January, 1893. During this time he made
the improvements of Lincoln Park a personal study and
one to which he devoted his time and energy. Indeed,
many of the permanent features of this park are in-
debted to his work and influence. Such is the Grant
122

Monument, which was dedicated October 7, 1891, with
impressive ceremonies. The success of this undertaking
was such that the trustees of the Grant memorial fund
made General Stockton a present of a handsome testt-
morial in regard for his services.

General Stockton has always taken much interest in
the success of the Republican party, with which he has
been connected from its earliest inception. He has,
however, invariably refused public office, although it
has been frequently offered him. He has been the chief
marshal of every Republican procession in Chicago since
the war, including that grand demonstration in favor of
national honor, credit and prosperity that preceded the
election of President McKinley. This was the largest
parade ever held in this or any other country, taking five
hours and fifteen minutes to pass a given point, at the
rate of 300-500 men a minute. General Stockton was
chief of staff to General Sheridan on the reception of
General Grant on his tour of the world; to General For-
syth, on the occasion of the Garfield funeral procession
in Chicago; to General Miles at the unveiling of the
Grant monument, and the civic demonstration known
as the World’s Fair parade, in October, 1892. He was
also chief marshal in the peace jubilee parade in the
fall of 1898.

General Stockton is a member of the Union League
Club, the Loyal Legion, Grand Army of the Republic,
and several other semi-military organizations.

He is a true citizen, in which capacity he has always

tried to do his duty for the best interest of local, state .

and national prosperity.

H. Claussenius & Co. This firm, established in
1864 by the late Consul Henry Claussenius as a Ger-
man banking-house, foreign exchange, collection and
steamship agency, has succeeded, during the thirty-five
years of its existence, by virtue of a careful and judicious
management, and by the conscientious fulfillment of all
orders entrusted to its care. It now ranks with the most
important German business houses in Chicago, and
stands second to none in the United States in volume
of business transacted in its special branches.

In recognition of meritorious services rendered for
years by Mr. Claussenius, founder of the firm, in the
discharge of his duties as secretary of the Prussian con-
sul-general in New York, he was appointed consul to
Chicago for Prussia, Saxony, Baden, Wiirtemberg and
various other German states, in 1864. In order to be
in a position to still better guard and further the inter-
ests of the Germans in their business relations with the
fatherland, he added to his consular office the above-
mentioned business branches, and associated with him-
self at that time two well-known Chicago business men,
Messrs. E. Canda and Robert Schnitzler. the latter at
one time having been the Austro-Hungarian consul.
For a short period the original style of the firm was

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Claussenius, Canda & Schnitzler. Mr. Canda soon re-
tired, having been called to Mexico on an important
railroad deal in which he was interested, and the name
of the firm was then changed to its present title of H.
Claussenius & Co. Mr. Schnitzler died in 1875, but
under the able management of Consul Claussenius and
his assistants, among them being several of his sons,
the firm rapidly rose to great prominence and gained
renown throughout the entire Northwest. In 1878 Mr.
Claussenius accepted the appointment of Austro-Hun-
garian consul. He succeeded during his tenure of office
in guarding the interests of the Germans and Austrians
of the Northwest in the most satisfactory manner, and
so ably fulfilled his diplomatic missions that he was the

 

 

 

 

GEORGE W. CLAUSSENIUS.

recipient of numerous honorable and valuable decora-
tions from various European monarchs. During his
long career as consul, Mr. Claussenius represented all
the states of the present German Empire; as also the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, and he officiated as acting-
consul for the Russian Empire and the republic of
Switzerland, in the absence of the regular diplomatic
representatives.

Mr. Claussenius retired from business in 1894, owing
to his advanced years and his desire to pass the remain-
ing years of his life free from business cares. He trans-
ferred the firm to his sons, Edward Claussenius and
George W, Claussenius, who, after graduating from
American and foreign colleges, had been engaged with
him in the business, and who, since then, have carried
it on with an ever-increasing success. ‘The consul died
in Berlin, Germany, in 1896.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Edward Claussenius, during his father’s term as
Austro-Hungarian consul, held the important office of
Austro-Hungarian vice-consul, besides acting as cashier
for the frm. Mr. George W. Claussenius, manager of
the steamship and railroad ticket department of the
firm, was recently appointed a member of the Board of
Education by Mayor Harrison.

The firm of H. Claussenius & Co. has successfully
weathered the financial storms that at various times
have swamped rival enterprises. Pursuing the even
tenor of its way, it has in times of panic held the public
confidence. When the necessity arose to appoint a gen-
eral Western agency for the greatest of transatlantic
lines, the North German Lloyd Steamship Company,
it was tendered to H. Claussenius & Co., who have made

128

it a success in every way. The yearly increasing volume
of their foreign money order and exchange business
has necessitated the inauguration of special Italian,
Scandinavian, Polish, Bohemian and other foreign
branches, with able managers to superintend each de-
partment. In all matters of international law pertaining
to the regulation of estates and the collection of claims
the firm is considered an authority, and enjoys a repu-
tation on two continents for the extent of its business
in this line. Since 1864 the firm has collected over
30,000 claims and inheritances, among them being a
recent one, amounting to over $123,000, probably the
largest single inheritance ever collected in this manner.

The office of H. Claussenius & Co. is at go-92 Dearborn
street.

 

 

 

 

THE AUDITORIUM BUILDING.
CHAPTER XVIII.

 

a

 

 

 

CHICAGO STREET CARS. |

|

 

 

, HE intramural transportation facil-
“2 ities of Chicago are of two gen-
M eral kinds, surface and elevated.
« Between the two systems this city
has been enabled to expand without
any serious inconvenience or em-
barrassment. To go over the en-
tire length of all these lines would
require fully the amount of travel
that it would take to go from Chi-
cago to New York. The mileage of the surface roads
is 938; of the elevated, 97. Small as is the mileage of
the elevated systems, as compared with the surface, it
represents three-fourths as large an investment as the
surface systems. The capitalization of all the elevated
lines reaches $79,269,800. This includes the new
Northwestern elevated, now in process of construction.
The capitalization of the surface lines is $108,093,300.
The completion of the extensions now in progress, sur-
face and elevated, will bring the grand total of capital-
ization up to fully $200,000,000. These figures are not
the dry stubble of dead facts, but the very pith and mar-
row of municipal vitality.

The first city railway ordinance of Chicago bears date
March 4, 1856. It ran in favor of Roswell B. Mason,
afterward mayor of the city, and Charles }. Phillips.
The panic of 1857, as it is usually called, coming on
soon aiter, the project did not materialize. It was pre-
mature. Two years and a half later another ordinance of
the same general character was passed. That second
charter was issued to three prominent citizens of that
day—Henry Fuller, grandfather of Chicago’s brilliant
novelist, Henry B. Fuller, Frank Parmelee and Liberty
Bigelow. It was later found, or at least feared, that
the city had no authority to grant the charter rights
set forth in this ordinance. To remove all doubt of a
legal character these three men and David A. Gage
secured from the next General Assembly of Illinois a

 

corporate charter as the Chicago Railway Company.
That charter was liberal in its provisions. The company
set to work promptly to build its line, and April 25,
1859, the original line, extending on State street as far
as Twelfth street, was opened to business.

At the same time that the legislature created the Chi-
cago City Railway Company it also created and gave
franchises to the North Chicago City Railway Company.
Two years later the legislature created the Chicago West
Division Railway Company. These three grants made
the great trunk lines of intramural transportation in this
city. In 1865 the legislature extended the franchises of
all three corporations for 99 vears, or until 1964.

The geography of the city naturally gave rise to three
distinct companies. Each grew with the growth of its
division of the city. The South Side line was the first
to adopt the cable system, which, in its turn, was the
first substitute for horsepower. To C. B. Holmes, then
president of the Chicago City Railway Company,
belongs the honor of inaugurating the cable system.

The expense was very great, but from the first the
saving in operating expenses more than justified the
outlay, and to the public the economy in time was so
great as to be almost revolutionary. It brought large
areas of outlying territory within easy access. The
introduction of the cable system on the State street and
Cottage Grove avenue lines of the road dated from 1882.

In 1890 the Chicago City Railway Company took
practical control of the Chicago & South Side Rapid
Transit project, then generally known as “the Alley
Elevated,” and furnished the capital necessary for con-
struction of the elevated road in Sixty-third street,
and for the completion of the unfinished work of
the road north of that street. In February, 1898,
certain leading stockholders of the Chicago City
Railway incorporated the Chicago City Railway Rapid
Transit Company, with the avowed intent of con-
structing an elevated road along Dearborn. street,

124
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

from a point at the heart of the city to Thirty-
ninth street. This road is intended to be used as a trunk
line for the City Railway Company’s trolley cars. This
great project, however, is at present but in the embry-
onic stage of existence, though its completion may be
regarded as a certainty of a not very remote date.
Between 1884 and 1898 all of the chief feeding lines of
the Chicago City Railway Company, other than the
cable routes, were converted from horse to electric
roads. The authorized capital stock of the Chicago City
Railway Company is $14,000,000, of which $12,000,0c0
are outstanding. The gross earnings of the company

125

speedy means of intramural travel to more than five-
eighths of the people of the city. It operates 202.70
miles of cable, trolley and horse road, of which some
parts are under lease from the Chicago West Division
Railway Company and the Chicago Passenger Railway
Company. Of the total trackage owned and controlled
by the West Chicago Street Railway Company, 30.42
miles are operated by cables, 165.68 by electricity and
6.60 by horsepower. The organization dates from
July 10, 1887, when Mr. Charles T. Yerkes and his asso-
clates acquired possession of 6,251 shares, which con-
stituted a majority of one share of the total stock of

 

have risen from $1,956,035 in 1886 to $4,832,806 in
1898, and in this period its outstanding capital stock
has been increased from $3,000,000 to $12,000,000, and
its bonded debt from $2,999,500 to $4,619,500. In
1898 the company paid $1,083,526 in wages to train-
_men, exclusive of large sums for the construction and
repair of roadbed and for work done on its powerhouses.
The company operates 34.75 miles of cable, 157.36 of
electric and 4.74 of horsepower road. During the year
‘ending December 31, 1898, it carried 38,482,628 pas-
‘sengers on its cable lines, 57,032,173 on its electric lines
and 477,313 on its horse cars.

The West Chicago Street Railroad Company, in
conjunction with two lines of elevated road, affords

FOOTBALL GROUND, LINCOLN PARK.

the Chicago West Division Company. The price paid
by the Yerkes syndicate was $515 per share. On Octo-
ber 20 of the same year the West Division Company
leased all its lines for a term of 999 years to the new
West Chicago Street Railway Company, which agreed
to pay as rental 35 per cent per annum on the capital
stock of the old West Division Company, and also to
meet the interest due on about $4,000,000 of West Divi-
sion bonds. With the transfer of the trackage of the
West Division Company, the new organization acquired
also all rights of the West Division in a fifteen-year
lease of the Chicago Passenger Road; this lease was
extended to a period of fifty years in 1897. By a sub-
sequent agreement, dated May 15, 1899, the Passenger
128

Railway Company became, for all practical intents and
purposes, absorbed thoroughly by the West Chicago
Street Railroad Company. Mr. Yerkes and his asso-
clates also acquired at various times controlling inter-
ests over the Ogden Street Railway, the Cicero & Pro-
viso Street Railway, the Chicago & Jefferson Urban
Transit Company, the Chicago Electric Transit Com-
pany, the North Chicago Electric Railway and the
Suburban Railway. These outlying systems practically
cover all the suburbs of the great West Division of the
city, and, with the exception of ‘the suburban,” all
were merged, February, 1899, in the Chicago Consoli-
dated Traction Company. The authorized capitatiza-
tion of the West Chicago Street Railway is $20,000,000,
of which $13,180,000 is outstanding.

The North Chicago Street Railway Company, with
an-authorized capital of $10,000,000, of which $7,920,000
is Outstanding, operates 94.33 miles of road, of which
18.12 are run by cable, 75.27 by electric, and less than
ene mile by horsepower. The gross receipts for 1898
were $3,015,323; net earnings, $1,624,642. It carried
58,422,071 passengers during this year and the miles
traversed by its cars were 10,916,737.

The North and West systems, excepting the subur-
ban lines controlled by the Chicago Consolidated Trac-
tion Company, were merged, in June, 1899, into a cor-
poration known as the Chicago Union Traction Com-
pany. The rights of Mr. Charles T. Yerkes in the
North and West lines were secured at a cost of $10,000,-
ooo. The total capitalization of the new corporation
is $32,000,000. The stock is divided into preferred and
common, of which $20,000,000 is common. The North
lines of the new corporation are guaranteed a 12 per
cent dividend, and those on the west side of the city
a & per cent. The officers first elected by the stock-
holders of the Chicago Union Traction Company are:
Jesse Spalding, president; W. H. Wilson, vice-presi-
‘dent; James T. Eckels, treasurer; J. Charles Moore,
secretary; F. E. Smith, auditor, and R. A. C. Smith
(New York), second vice-president.

The elevated roads of Chicago are known as “the
Lake Street ‘L,’” “the South Side ‘L’” and “the Met-
ropolitan” and “the Northwestern ‘L.’”) “The Union
Loop” is, as its name implies, a bed, or loop, road, with
double tracks, which run east along Lake street from
Fifth avenue to Wabash, then south to Van Buren,
thence west to Fifth avenue, thence along Fifth avenue
to its starting point at Lake. It is owned by the Union
Elevated Company, has an authorized and outstanding
capital of $5,000,000 and a bonded debt of $4,387,000.
It is used by all the trunk lines of elevated road, each
of which pays to the Union Loop Company one-half
cent for every passenger carried in its cars to and from
stations on the line of the loop. Its gross earnings for
the year ending November 30, 1898, were $337,602.68.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The Lake Street Elevated Company, capital $10,000,-
000, operates seven miles of double track, from Wabash
avenue to West Fifty-second street. It carries about
35,000 passengers daily and its gross receipts for 1898
were $633,403. The South Side Elevated Railroad
Company operates rather more than eight miles of
double track, exclusive of its loop connections. It runs
from Congress street to Sixty-third street. During
March, 1899, it carried an average of 63,878 passengers
daily. Its capital stock is slightly in excess of $10,000,-
000. The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad
Company, with a capital of $16,500,000, and a bonded
debt of $10,000,000, owns and operates 12.90 miles of
double tracks and 1.81 miles of four-track road. It car-
ried about 77,000 passengers per day during the last
month of 1898. The Northwestern Elevated Railway is
as yet an incomplete structure, though operations to-
ward its completion are in active progress. Its capital
stock is $10,000,000 and its bonded debt will be $5,000,-
ooo. When finished it will operate about twelve miles of
double tracks.

Besides the roads already mentioned, the Calumet
Electric, the Hammond, Whiting & East Chicago Elec-
tric, the South Chicago City Railway and the Chicago
Generai Railway Company operate lines that center in
the city or connect with lines that are exclusively in the
limits of the municipality. These suburban roads oper-
ate more than 160 miles of single tracks and are valu-
able feeders to the general trade of the city proper. It
safely may be affirmed that no city in the world is more
amply supplied with means of intramural and suburban
transportation than is Chicago, and certainly in none is
a higher rate of speed attained or a higher degree of
comfort afforded or a more economical rate of fare
levied.

THE CHICAGO UNION TRACTION COMPANY.

The Chicago Union Traction Company came
into existence July 1, 1899, upon the consolidation of
the North Chicago and the West Chicago Street Rail-
road companies, together with their leased lines, the
North Chicago City Railway Company, the Chicago
West Division Railway Company and the Chicago Pas-
senger Railway Company.

The North Chicago Street Railroad Company, which
was the leading transportation line on the North Side,
was incorporated May 18, 1886. This road bought a
controlling interest in the North Chicago City Railway
Company and secured possession of the latter company
by lease. The West Chicago Street Railroad Company
was chartered July 12, 1887. It was at that time a new
company, organized to lease and operate lines of street
railways already existing in the West Division of the
city. A controlling interest in the capital stock of the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Chicago West Division Railway Company was pur-
chased by the new organization, and, as the former road
owned at this time a controlling interest in the Chicago
Passenger Railway Company, it also became, by lease,
a part of the West Chicago system.

Both the North Chicago and the West Chicago
Street Railroad companies were controlled by Mr.
Charles T. Yerkes and his associates from 1886 and
1887, respectively, but they were operated under differ-

127

comfortable the year ’round than the old style of rolling
stock in use a few years ago. The tracks have been laid
with rails that are heavier than those in use on most
steam roads, and the chance for delays is reduced to a
minimum by superior executive and working forces. It
is interesting to look back and note the changes that
have been brought about in the two branches of the
present system during the past dozen years or more.
In 1886 the North Chicago system extended north from

 

 

 

 

OFFICES OF THE CHICAGO UNION TRACTION COMPANY.

ent managements until July 1, 1899, when the roads
were leased and consolidated by Chicago and New York
capitalists, under the title of the Chicago Union Trac-
tion Company.

The entire system, as it stands to-day, is one of the
best properties of its kind in the West, and it is a vast
improvement over the transportation facilities enjoyed
by the North and West divisions of the city fifteen years
ago. The small coaches, operated by horse power, have
been replaced by the cable train and the electric car,
both of which are larger, warmer in winter, and more

the center of the city on Clybourn avenue to Fullertcn
avenue, on Lincoln avenue to Sheffield avenue, and on
Clark street to Diversey avenue. There were supple-
mentary Jines on State, Wells, Market, Sedgwick and
Larrabee streets and Racine avenue, and cross-tracks
on Chicago avenue and Division street, and on Center,
Garfield and Webster avenues. The longest ride then
given for five cents was three miles, and there was no’
transfer system, so that if a passenger got on the wrong
train he must either walk to his destination or pay an
additional fare. All this is now changed. The Cly-
128

bourn Avenue line extends to Belmont avenue; the Lin-
coln Avenue line has been carried to Belmont on Lin-
coln, and thence to Graceland avenue on Ashland, and
on Belmont avenue and Roscoe boulevard to Western
avenue. The Clark Street line has been extended about
four and one-half miles further north to Devon street,
the new city limits. Additional north and south lines
have been built on Dearborn and La Salle streets in the
downtown districts, and on Halsted street, Sheffield,
Southport and Ashland avenues on the North Side,
while new cross-lines have been run on Kinzie and Jn-
diana streets, North avenue, Fullerton, Belmont and
Graceland avenues, and on Roscoe boulevard. Trans-
fers are issued to any intersecting line, and the longest
ride afforded for five cents is now twelve miles.

On the West Side a more difficult problem has been
solved because of the great expanse of territory. Twelve
years ago the longest ride possible on the street rail-
ways of the West Side for a single fare was four miles,
and no transfers were given anywhere. The West Side
is so large that a very extensive horse-car system was
required, even in those days. Lines were run on Blue
Island, Ogden, Chicago, North and Milwaukee avenues
to Western avenue; the latter line, as well as that on
Division street and North avenue, extending west to
California avenue. Other lines, reaching to Western
avenue, were those on West Twelfth, Harrison, Van
Buren, Randolph and Lake and Indiana streets. The
Madison street cars ran to West Fortieth avenue. There
were cross-town cars on Canal, Clinton and Halsted
streets, and on Center, Western and California avenues.
The general terminus of all horse-car lines was Western
avenue, three miles from the city hall.

At the present time the terminus is at West Fortieth
avenue, or two miles west of Western avenue. With
few exceptions, all east and west lines run to the termi-
nus, and the Lake Street, Armitage Avenue and Ogden
Avenue lines run one mile further west. In fact, the
extensions are being made so rapidly that it is not pos-
sible in an article like this to keep pace with them. New
lines have been built in Grand and Colorado avenues,
Erie, Indiana, Taylor, West Fourteenth, West Fight-
eenth and West Twenty-first streets, and in \West For.
tieth avenue, Kedzie, Western and Ashland avenues,
Leavitt, Robey, Paulina, Sangamon and Desplaines
streets. In short, the West Side is now fairly gridironed
with street-railway tracks.

The officers of the Chicago Union Traction Com-
pany are Jesse Spalding, president; R. A. C. Smith,
first vice-president; John M. Roach, second vice-presi-
dent and genera! manager ; \Walter H. Wilson, third vice-
‘president; James H. Eckels, treasurer; Markham B.
Orde, secretary and assistant treasurer; George A.
Yuille, assistant general manager; F E. Smith, auditor;
W. W. Gurley, general counsel. The directors are:

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Jesse Spalding, Charles L. Hutchinson, C. K. G. Bill-
ings, Walter H. Wilson, William Dickinson, H. B. Hol-
lins, R. A. C. Smith, P A. B. Widener, William L.
Elkins, Walter S. Johnston, John V. Clarke.

Jesse Spalding, president of the Chicago Union
Traction Company, was born in Bradford County,
Pennsylvania, April 15, 1833, and received his education
in the common schools and in an academy at Athens,
Pennsylvania. His father was a farmer, and in his early
years Jesse aided in the labors of the fields, continuing
under the parental roof until he had attained his major-
iy. He desired, however, to devote his time and energy
to some other pursuit than that to which he had been
raised, and shortly after becoming of age he engaged

 

 

 

 

 

JESSE SPALDING.

in rafting lumber down the Susquehanna River and
Pine Creek to Marietta, Middletown and Port Deposit,
where it was distributed for further shipment to all
parts of the world. He mastered the intricacies of the
lumber trade in a short time, and at the age of twenty-
three established himself in business, selecting Chicago
as his location.

In 1857 Mr. Spalding purchased a mill at Mene-
kaunie, Wisconsin, and a few years later extended his
first field of operations by purchasing a mill at the
mouth of the Cedar River, in Michigan, thirty miles
north of Menominee. Soon after the purchase of his
first mill a yard was established at the corner of Lum-
ber and Twelfth streets, but later Mr. Spalding was
one of the first to remove to the new lumber district,
which at that time was a region entirely devoid of im-
provements. This change came about in the following
THE GITY OF CHICAGO.

way: Colonel R. B. Mason made a very liberal propo-
sition to Mr. Spalding to induce him to remove into this
new district, and, through his instrumentality, H. Wit-
beck, N. Ludington and James Farr all removed to the
proposed lumber center, while Colonel Mason, acting
as their agent in the matter, agreed to connect their
yards with the various railroads entering the city. This
was done, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail-
road secured switching facilities connecting the new
lumber district with every railroad entering the city.
Shortly after the establishment of the yards in the new
locality, Mr. Spalding joined the gentlemen before men-
tioned, and, with a few others, formed a joint stock com-

pany, which built the first planing-mill in that part of

Chicago, its location being at Fisk and Twenty-second
streets. Since 1882 Mr. Spalding has devoted himself
entirely to the wholesale manufacturing business, sell-
ing direct from the mill.

Among the more important works that Mr. Spald-
ing has accomplished, and one which shows his interest
in all that pertains to the lumber trade, was done in
connection with the Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michi-
gan Canal & Harbor Company, and had for its object
the construction of a canal connecting Sturgeon Bay
with Lake Michigan. So dangerous was it to enter
Green Bay that the place was given the name of
“Death’s Door,” and the condition of things then exist-
ing attracted the attention of William B. Ogden, of the
Peshtigo Company; H. B. Gardner of Pensaukee, Mr.
Spalding and the N. Ludington Company, who made
an examination to determine the feasibility of opening a
canal across the peninsula from Sturgeon Bay to Lake
Michigan. Surveys were made, and, with the help of
the Government, the canal was dug, a work that has
resulted in the saving of many hundreds of thousands
of dollars to lumber shippers, and probably, also, pre-
vented many deaths. In the spring of 1892 Congress
made an appropriation for the purchase of the canal,
and, with the opening of 1893, it was made free to the
shipping interests of the country. Mr. Ogden was the
first president of the company, and served four years,
after which Mr. Spalding was at the head of the enter-
prise for the following eight years.

Mr. Spalding has been prominently identified with
the various interests of Chicago since locating here.
He was largely instrumental in the building of Camp
Douglas during the Civil war, and in later years held
several important government offices. He was ap-
pointed collector of customs of the port of Chicago by
President Arthur in 1883, and in 1889 President Har-
tison made him one of the directors in the matter of
the Union Pacific Railroad. He was for three years a
member of the city council of Chicago, at a time when
the city’s finances were at the lowest ebb, and, as chair-
man of the finance committee, he restored the city’s

9

129

credit. He has proved himself an able organizer and
director in many financial undertakings, and his recent
election as president of the Chicago Union Traction
Company demonstrates the confidence that is felt in his
ability as the executive in charge of large and com-
plicated interests.

Mr. Spalding was married at Athens, Pennsylvania,
to Miss Adelphia Moody. To them have been born
six children, three sons and three daughters.

John Millard Roach, vice-president and general
manager of the Chicago Union Traction Company, and
son of John M. and Sarah Ann (Mackey) Roach, was
born at Lowell, Ohio, January 30, 1851. He received
his education at academies in Beverly and Athens, Ohio,

 

JOHN MILLARD ROACH.

and in 1867 came to Rockford, Illinois, where he re-
mained until 1869. In this year he was attracted to the
far West by stories of the rich mines then being devel-
oped in Montana Territory, and, together with a few
companions, who were likewise in search of nature’s
hidden treasure, he started for the distant West. The
journey was made entirely on horseback, and was one
wherein the hardships of overland travel were by no
means absent. From Belvidere, Lllinois, the starting
point of their expedition, their first objective point was
Potash Springs, Wyoming Territory, from whence they
pushed on to Corinne, Utah, and thence to Virginia City.

On their arrival there they found that the best days
of this town as a mining camp were passed, and the
reports which reached them of the rich mineral deposits
still being opened up near Helena, Montana, where
such great wealth had been found in the famous “Last
130

Chance” Gulch some years before, led them into that
district. They staked out a claim in the Prickley Pear
Valley, near Jefferson City, and some forty miles south
of the present capital of the state. The mine, known as
the “Legal Tender,” gave evidence of being rich in ore,
and they erected a mill, smelting works and all other
accessories necessary for the carrying on of their work,
only to lose all through the failure of their mine to give
back as much gold as they had expended for its devel-
opment.

Much wiser, and much poorer, Mr. Roach turned
his face toward Chicago, arriving here in the autumn
of 1872. Without acquaintances, and without means,
he took the first employment he could find, which hap-
pened to be a position as conductor on the North Chi-
cago Street Railroad. Shortly afterward he was taken
into the office of the company as cashier, and seven
years later he was promoted to the position of purchas-
ing agent. In 1887 he was appointed assistant superin-
tendent of the road. His rise from that time on was
rapid, he being made superintendent of all the roads in
which Mr. Yerkes was interested, in 1890, and, in 1893,
being made second vice-president and general manager
of the North Chicago Street Railroad Company’s lines,
and general manager of all the outside roads controlled
by Mr. Yerkes on the North and Northwest sides. In
January, 1897, Mr. Roach succeeded to the position of
vice-president and general manager of the West Chi-
cago Street Railroad Company, and at the same time
he became president of the Cicero & Proviso Street
Railroad Company. In July of the same year he was
elected president of the Suburban Railway Company.
In July, 1899, upon the consolidation of the North and
West Chicago Street Railroad companies, he became
general manager of the new organization known as the
Chicago Union Traction Company, and in November
became its vice-president.

Mr. Roach has certainly made rapid advancement
in the street railroad world, all of which has been due,
for the most part, to his skillful management of the
interests placed in his hands.

George A. Yuille, assistant general manager of the
Chicago Union Traction Company, was born in Dane
County, near Madison, Wisconsin, in 1861. Six years
later his parents removed from the Badger State and
located in Mobile, Alabama, where, until he was thir-
teen years of age, he attended the public schools. He
then secured a position as office boy in a cotton factory,
but within seven months he had risen to the position
of bookkeeper and cashier, in which capacity he con-
tinued until 1881. His health failing him at this time,
he came to Chicago for a change of climate, and entered
the offices of the Chicago Packing & Provision Com-
pany, then controlled for the most part by B. P. Hutch-
inson, S. A. Kent and Ira S. Younglove. He remained

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in the services of this company for six years, during
which time he held the position of secretary and treas-
urer.

In 1887, when Messrs. S. A. Kent, C. R. Cummings,
C. T. Yerkes and others purchased the several gas com-
panies of Chicago, Mr. Yuille was selected to act as
secretary and treasurer of the consolidation. Four
years later he became president of the organization
known as the Chicago Economic Fuel Gas Company,
and so remained until 1893, when Mr. Yerkes offered
him the opportunity to become connected with the
street-railroad interests of the West Side.

Entering the services of the West Chicago Street
Railroad Company as secretary and treasurer, he later

 

GEORGE A. YUILLE.

became vice-president and general manager of that
company, and in July, 1899, he became assistant gen-
eral manager of the Chicago Union Traction Company.
He ts also vice-president of the Cicero & Proviso Street
Railroad Company and the Suburban Electric Railroad
Company; president of the Columbia Construction
Company, now building the Northwestern Elevated,
and he is an officer and director in several other railroad
corporations,

CHICAGO CITY RAILWAY COMPANY.

In 1856 R. B. Mason and C. B. Phillips obtained
an ordinance permitting the laying of street-car tracks
in State and Dearborn streets. Only a little work was
done, and in 1858 Frank Parmelee, Liberty Bigelow
and Henry Fuller obtained a more extensive privilege
from the city and a special charter from the State Legis-
THE GITY OF CHICAGO.

131

 

lature creating the Chicago City
Railway Company. Between 1865
and 1875 the lines of this system
were not extended to any great
extent, but during the latter year
the Wabash Avenue line was
built, also a line on Indiana ave-
nue, from Thirty-first to Thirty-
ninth street, and one on Thirty-
ninth street, from Cottage Grove
avenue to State street. In 1877
cars were placed on Halsted
street, and in October, 1880, Mr.
Samuel W. Allerton, one of the
directors, visited San Francisco,
where he witnessed the successful
operation of the cable system,
with the result that it was decided
to change some of the principal
lines from horse power to cable.

On January 17, 1881, the city
council granted the company the
right to operate the cable, and on
June 27 ground was broken near
Harmon court. The State Street
line was ready for use to Thirty-
ninth street early in January, 1882,
and on January 28 the first pub-
lic trial took place. Shortly
after, or in May, 1882, the ground
was broken for the Wabash and
Cottage Grove cable, which was
completed during the same season.

In 1887 new cable lines were
constructed in State street and
Cottage Grove avenue, south of
Thirty-ninth.

From 1891 to 1898 all horse-car lines owned by the
company were equipped for electric operation. At the
present time the company operates 165 miles of electric,
35 miles cable and 2 miles horse road, with a rolling
stock equipment consisting of 2,000 cars.

In February, 1898, leading men in the company
incorporated the Chicago City Railway Rapid Transit
Company, with a capital of $1,000,000, for the purpose
of building an elevated road in Dearborn street from
the heart of the city to Thirty-ninth street, to be used
as a trunk line in bringing into the city the Chicago
City Railway’s trolley cars. Nothing further, however,
has been done in that direction.

The officers of the Chicago City Railway Company
are: President, D. G. Hamilton; first vice-president,
Joseph Leiter; second vice-president, William B.
Walker; secretary, F. R. Greene; treasurer, T. C. Pen-
nington ; auditor, C. M. Duffy; general manager, Rob-

 

OFFICES OF THE CHICAGO CITY RAILWAY COMPANY.

ert McCulloch. The directors are: Samuel W. Aller-
ton, Arthur Orr, Joseph Leiter, D. G. Hamilton, George
T. Smith, William B. Walker and Otto Young.

David Gilbert Hamilton, president of the Chicago
City Railway Company, was born at Chicago, Janu-
ary 10, 1842. His parents are Polemus D. and Cyn-
thia (Holmes) Hamilton. His education was begun in
private schools, and, upon arriving at mature boyhood,
he entered the Chicago High School, from which he
was graduated in July, 1862. In the following Septem-
ber he entered Asbury University, now known as De
Pauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, from which
institution he received his degree in 1865. He then
returned to Chicago and took up the study of law in the
law department of the University of Chicago, and, fol-
lowing his graduation there, in 1867, he opened a law
office on the very spot where he was born, 126 South
Clark street, and continued the practice of his profes-
132

sion at that location for nearly twenty years. His office
was destroyed in the great fire of 1871, but he returned
to his former place of business a few months later, on
the completion of a new building. In his law practice,
Mr. Hamilton’s specialty has been the examination of
titles and the management of estates and trusts, a branch
of the profession for which his careful and exact busi-
ness training preéminently fitted him. His advice in
matters pertaining to investments is considered espe-
cially valuable by capitalists, and his experience in or-
ganizing and conducting financial transactions of mag-
nitude has gained for him the confidence of investors
in this class of properties.

In 1868 Mr. Hamilton associated himself with Gen-
eral R. K. Swift, under the name of D. G. Hamilton &

 

 

 

 

DAVID GILBERT HAMILTON.

Co., but this partnership was dissolved in 1871 and he
continued thereafter alone. About this time he became
president, in the nature of receiver, of the Anglo-Amer-
ican Land & Claim Association, a corporation organ-

ized for colonization of lands in Texas, and also for the.

construction of railroads in that state. After success-
fully closing up the affairs of this organization, his atten-
tion was again taken with local matters, and he subse-
quently became quite an investor in real estate, and
identified with many important financial undertakings.
During the last fifteen years he has been actively en-
gaged in the management and operation of street-rail-
way properties, and has had valuable experience in the
building and equipment of some of the most important
street-railway enterprises in the country. When he he-
came interested in the Chicago City Railway Company

TRE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in 1885 it was comparatively insignificant to what it is
now. For five years he devoted much of his time to its
affairs, and was a director during that important period
in its history.

Ten years ago, in company with other Chicago cap-
italists, Mr. Hamilton formed the National Railway
Company of Illinois, which has since proved such an im-
portant factor in the transportation affairs of St. Louis,
Missouri. The object of this organization was to ac-
quire and operate street-railway properties. Mr. Hamil-
ton was elected director at the time of organization,
and the following year was chosen president. He con-
tinued at the head of the company until January 25,
1899, when he relinquished control of the property. For
ten years the “Hamilton Syndicate,” as it was called,
engaged in the development of street railways in St.
Louis. It absorbed the Citizens’ Railway Company,
Cass Avenue & Fair Grounds Railway Company, with
which the Northern Central Railway Company and the
Union Railroad Company were consolidated; the St.
Louis Railroad Company, the Southwestern Railway
Company and the Baden & St. Louis Railroad Com-
pany. Mr. Hamilton was president of each of these
companies, as well as the National company, but he
continued to reside in Chicago. The system controlled
by the Hamilton Syndicate in St. Louis was extended
and completely rebuilt during Mr. Hamilton’s adminis-
tration, and the value of the property increased every
year. Recently Mr. Hamilton was induced to return
to the directory of the Chicago City Railway Company,
and he was elected second vice-president at the Janu-
ary meeting in 1899. In April, 1899, on the death of
President M. K. Bowen, he was elected to the office
he now holds.

\side from his professional work and his. street-
railway interests, Mr. Hamilton has many important
financial connections. He is resident director of the
Union Mutual Life Insurance Company of Maine,
director of the Title & Trust Company of Chicago,
director of the Farmers’ & Mechanics’ National Bank
of Texas, and he is interested in other enterprises. He
is a member of the Chicago Club, the Union League
Club and the Washington Park Club, but gives
very little time to club matters, and has never taken
an active part in their management or direction. He
is a member of the board of trustees of the University
of Chicago and of De Pauw University. In religion, he
is a Baptist and a member of the Immanuel Baptist
Church, with which he has been connected almost since
its organization. He was married December 9, 1870,
to Mary Jane Kendall, daughter of Dr. Lyman Ken-
dall of Chicago. Two children bless their marriage,
Bruce and Adelaide.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Joseph Leiter, son of Levi Z. Leiter, was born in
Chicago in 1868 and received his early education in the
schools of this city and at St. Paul’s School, Concord,
New Hampshire. Following this, he spent four years
at Harvard College, after which he came directly to
Chicago to enter his father’s office.

Mr. Leiter first came prominently before the public
in the latter part of the summer of 1897, when he began
those vast dealings in wheat that eventually shook the
grain markets of the world. The veterans of the trade,
not alone in Chicago, but throughout the land, were
astounded at the magnitude of his operations, and the
far-reaching scope of his plans, alike remarkable for
comprehensiveness and the novelty of the methods em-
ployed. While unfortunate circumstances prevented
the attainment of the complete success anticipated, it
must be recorded that every contract was fulfilled and
every obligation discharged. —

Within the last few months Mr. Leiter has carried
to a successful issue financial transactions of consider-
able magnitude, and proved himself a keen and capable
man of affairs, equal to the requirements of any emer-

133

gency. He is actively interested in several Chicago
corporations, prominent among them being the Chi-
cago City Railway Company, of which he is first vice-
president. He is a director of Spaulding & Co. and of
the Chicago Edison Company.

Mr. Leiter is a popular clubman, and holds member-
ship in the Chicago, Argo, Calumet and Saddle and
Cycle clubs of this city, and the Hope Club of Provi-
dence, Rhode Island.

THE METROPOLITAN WEST SIDE ELEVATED
RAILWAY COMPANY.

The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway
Company was formed in January, 1899, by the reor-
ganization committee of the Metropolitan West Side
Elevated Railroad Company, from which its title dif-
fered only by the substitution of the word “railway” for
“railroad.” It acquired all the property and franchises
of the old company at foreclosure sale, and began oper-
ating the road February 3, 1899. The original Metro-
politan Elevated was organized in March, 1892, and
soon afterward the West Side Construction Company

 

 

 

 

FOUR-TRACK SCHERZER ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE, CHICAGO RIVER.
Invented and designed by Wm. ScuErzEr, C. E. Completed May rst, 1895.

Used by Metropolitan Elevated Railroad.

.

Patented.
134

was organized to build the road. Two years later the
first train was run over the new elevated structure, the
downtown terminal of which was on the east side of the
Chicago River, on Franklin street, just south of Van
Buren street. In October, 1897, the road began run-
ning its trains over the new Union Loop, whereby its
passengers are carried direct to any portion of the busi-
ness district of the city, and by which a most convenient
means of transfer is established for persons desiring to
go from the West to the South Side and vice versa.

The Metropolitan is the pioneer elevated electric
railroad, it having been the first to give its patrons the
advantage of electric traction, an advantage which has
become so apparent that all other elevated railroads
either have made, or will make, the change from steam
to the electric system. In the equipment of its struc-
ture, tracks and rolling stock, the claim is made that it
is superior to any elevated railroad in the world, and,
further, that no expense has been spared to insure the
safety and comfort of its passengers. The structure is
of steel and of ample strength. The tracks are laid with
steel rails and are thoroughly protected by guard rails
from the possibility of derailment. The trains are con-
trolled by air-brakes, and a failure of a motorman to no-
tice any of the signals is further provided for by an auto-
matic braking device. The cross-overs are supplied
with safety interlocking switches and appliances, and
the most modern devices are used in every way.to ren-
der travel on the road as free from accident as can be
made by the most skillful, modern engineering. It is
an interesting fact in this regard to note that, while
statistics prove one person to be injured to every 34,324
passengers carried on steam railroads, and one person
for each 172,889 passengers carried on street railroads.
the number on the elevated systems are only one person
injured for each 7,374,790 pasengers.

Having exercised the utmost care and diligence in
the matter of equipment, the road is managed with the
aim of affording the public a superior service, both in
point of speed and comfort, and reliability. Being oper-
ated by electricity, there is entire freedom from cinders,
dirt and noise, while in the matter of lighting and heating
the best results are obtained by the use of the mast
modern means of utilizing the electric current. Trains
are run every hour in the twenty-four, the longest inter-
val between them being from midnight until 5 a. m.,
when they are run on all branches thirty minutes apart.
At all other times, and especially at rush hours, the
trains follow each other at stich short intervals that no
one need wait over a minute or two for a car to any part
of the West Side. Being above the traffic of the streets,
with a thousand chances for delay and accident thus
eliminated, the service is constantly uniform, and delays
are only possible at the bridge crossing the river. But

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

here, too, owing to the rapidity with which the four-
track Scherzer rolling lift bridge can be operated, the
chance for long waits is reduced to a minimum.

No sketch of the Metropolitan would be complete
without an account of its transportation facilities and
the opportunity afforded by it of reaching, almost with-
out exception, any portion of the West Side. Leaving
the Union Loop at Fifth avenue and Van Buren street,
the road crosses the river and runs in a straight line
west to Marshfield avenue, all of which distance it is
operated as a four-track road, thus greatly facilitating
the ease with which a large number of trains can be han-
dled. At Marshfield avenue the line divides. To the
south and west is the Douglas Park branch, which
runs south to Twenty-first street and then west to West-
ern avenue. .\s a continuation of the main line beyond
Marshfield avenue is the Garfield Park branch, which
holds its course in a western direction to West Forty-
eighth Avenue, which at that point marks the city lim-
its. To the north from Marshfield avenue is another
line, which, after running north to Division street, turns
to the northwest and continues in that direction as far
as Robey street, where it divides—one line, the Hum-
boldt Park branch, going west as far as Lawndale ave-
nue, while the other, the Logan Square branch, con-
tinues northwest to Logan Square. It will be seen from
this that people living in the vicinity of any of the three
great parks on the West Side can have access to this
great Metropolitan system and its unrivaled transporta-
tion facilities.

The officers of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated
Railroad at the present time are: Dickinson MacAllis-
ter, president; William W. Gurley, general counsel;
George Higginson, Jr., secretary and treasurer. Its
board of directors is composed of the following gentle-
men: Charles F. Dietrich, William W. Gurley, John P.
Wilson, R. Somers Hayes, James J. Higginson, Byron
L. Smith, George B. Harris, George Higginson, Ir.,
Dickinson MacAllister.

Charles Tyson Yerkes was born in Philadelphia, June
25th, 1837. His ancestors on his father’s side were
among the Dutch settlers who settled in Eastern Penn-
sylvania prior to the advent of the Penn colony. At the
time of the coming of William Penn and his Quaker fol-
lowers the Yerkes family joined the Society of Quakers,
and the descendants of the original Yerkes belonged to
that sect.

On his mother’s side the ancestors were English, who
came to this country about 1720.

His early education was at the Quaker schools in
Philadelphia, and he was graduated from the central
high school of that city.

Immediately after he had finished at school he ob-
tained a position in the commission and forwarding
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

house of James P. Perot & Brother. At that time it was
very difficult for a young man to obtain a place in a
large mercantile house where important business school-
ing could be had; consequently he was obliged to enter
without salary. However, at the end of the year he was
complimented by a gift of fifty dollars, which was con-
sidered a great concession on the part of the firm. His
second year’s salary was the large amount of one hun-
dred dollars, and this in three years was advanced to the
amount of three hundred dollars. At this time he was
chief bookkeeper and cashier, being at the office at 7:30
in the morning and leaving at 6:30 in the evening, ex-
cept when business was very active, and then it was from
7 in the morning until late in the evening, and some-

 

CHARLES TYSON YERKES.

times all night. This experience, however, was of great
benefit to him in after years, and it made him not only
used to work, but fond of it. In 1859 he resigned his
position with Perot & Brother, and entered the note
brokerage business in Philadelphia, and shortly after
joined the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. His busi-
ness was so prosperous that at the end of three years he
had made sufficient money to buy a banking house at
No. 20 South Third street, and there started in the regu-
lar banking business, dealing in all kinds of securities,
stocks and exchange. During the succeeding nine or
ten years he was very successful and had established a
credit second to no young man in the business, and, in
fact, the older houses in Philadelphia looked on him as
one entitled to the best of credit. His business with the
banks, trust companies and moneyed institutions was
very large, and he was at the head of the dealers in state

135

and municipal securities. It was during the year 1865
that Mr. Yerkes was invited to formulate a plan by which
the city’s credit (which had sunk very low during the
civil war) could be improved. This he did successfully,
and the bonds of the city, from selling at 65 per cent
were in time advanced to over par. It was from his
financial connection with the city that brought about
the climax which threatened to prove his ruin.

At the time of the Chicago fire in 1871 there was a
great panic in the money centers of the East, and Mr.
Yerkes was caught with a large amount of securities
on hand, which depreciated enormously in value; to such
an extent that it took all his available means, and also
money which he had belonging to the city, to tide it
over. It was when things were at their worst that the
city made demand on him for the money which he had
on deposit and which it had been the custom for six
years, for him to have, and he was unable to pay the
same. This precipitated his failure, which was most
disastrous. Besides losing all of his fortune, criminal
suit was brought against him, and it was only after he
had been made to suffer loss of all he had and much
degradation, which, to his sensitive nature, was such a
blow it almost prostrated him, that his many friends
came to his assistance, and through their aid and con-
fidence he was again re-established in his former busi-
ness.

For the second time he started on the road to pros-
perity, and the same banking people and financial men
who had been his friends in the past were more than
friendly now. The consequence was that his business
soon revived, and with borrowed capital, supplied by
some of his stanchest friends, he again built up a large
and successful business. The failure of Jay Cook &
Company two years later was taken advantage of by him
to make a large amount of money in speculation on the
stock exchange, and after continuing in his speculative
element for a period of about five months he closed all
his ventures and settled down to legitimate business,
refusing to ever speculate again. Mr. Yerkes not only
did a banking business, but early in the 60s was induced
by Anthony Drexel, then the most active of the firm of
Drexel & Company, Philadelphia, to purchase some
shares of stock in the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street
Passenger Railway Company of Philadelphia for a mere
song. The result of this purchase was that Mr. Yerkes
commenced to take a great interest in the street railway,
which was in a very bad condition, and he eventually
owned about half of the capital stock of the company.
His experience with this road and the lessons he learned
in building up the broken-down corporation served him
in good stead in after life. Ten years later, in 1871,
when he failed, he lost his street-railroad stock, which
went to pay his debts, but in 1875 there was formed the
Continental Passenger Railway Company, and he had
136

not only his original share in that company, but bought
out a number of his associates, and was the largest
holder of stock in that road. He continued to work
actively with the road until five years later, when it was
absorbed into the Union railroad system.

In 1880 he made his first visit to Chicago and was
then much impressed with the activity and growing
anancial standing of the city; and late in the autumn
having made his fortune practically back again, con-
cluded to visit the Northwest and go to the end of the
Northern Pacific road, as it was then built. When he
reached Fargo with some of his business friends they
were snowed in by a severe storm and were obliged to
remain there for almost two weeks. It was then, while
sitting around the stove in the hotel, that he heard the
tales of the Dakota boomer, who had, in small numbers,
reached Fargo, with the intention of booming Dakota
and the principal towns along the line of the railroad
when the spring would open. Before the snow was
entirely cleared away he had purchased quite an amount
of land and also acres in the city of Fargo, and returned
to Philadelphia with the intention of going to Fargo
as soon as the weather would permit the active trading in
real estate. The expectations of the dealers were more
than realized. Purchasers flocked into the country, and
by the middle of July property was selling for over
double, and in many instances triple, what it had been
selling for in the early spring. He made a rule to
always sell when he could double his money, no matter
what the prospects were for making more, consequently
most all of his property was sold. To help the boom
along he bought a large tract of land on the outskirts of
the city of Fargo, and there held the first territorial fair
that was ever held in Dakota. Well laid out grounds
and buildings had been erected, and it was a great
success. The exhibition of cattle, farm products, and
particularly farm machinery, was a surprise to all the
visitors. After leaving Dakota he concluded to open
a banking house in Chicago and make it a part of
the Philadelphia house, which at that time was being
run by his partner, Mr. John P. Bell. He, therefore,
opened offices at the corner of Madison and La Salle
streets, and afterward went to the new Board of Trade
building upon its completion. His venture in the bank-
ing business in Chicago was not profitable, on account
of some of his customers being caught in two of the
Board of Trade panics, and he really lost more than he
gained.

At this time Mr. Yerkes married Mary Adelaide
Moore, a daughter of Thomas Moore, then connected
with the firm of Powers & Weightman of Philadelphia.

He remained in the banking business until March,
i886, when he purchased the majority of the stock of the
North Chicago City Railway Company, and, together

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

with some of his former associates, reorganized the
company and applied the cable principle to the impor-
tant lines. One year later he obtained control of the
Chicago West Division Railway Company and treated
that inthe same manner. In 1895 the remaining horse-
car lines were changed to electric, which event entirely
changed the svstems of the two roads. The opposition
to Mr. Yerkes’ progress in Chicago at the time he took
hold of the street railroads is well known to all of the
oldest citizens, and has been a mystery to them. The
vilification which he received and the ridicule thrown
at his improvements, and the course of the various
newspapers of Chicago, were the talk of the whole city.
It never stopped him, however, but he proceeded on his
way, attending to his business, and building up his great
system of railroads. The surface lines were increased
to about 500 miles. The prairies were covered with
tracks, suburban towns were built, millions of dollars of
acre property transferred into lots, increasing their
value ten and twenty fold, until Chicago had the greatest
system of street railways that existed anywhere in the
world. Afterward he turned his attention to the ele-
vated railroads, and after building the much-needed
loop line, which was only done after the most bitter
warfare, went on to bring all of the lines together, mak-
ing a most perfect system.

His great ambition has been to perfect the intra-
mural transportation in the city of Chicago by com-
bining all of the surface roads and also the elevated
roads, to the end that at some time the surface roads
might again combine with the elevated roads, so that
the people of Chicago may ride anywhere and every-
where within the city limits for a single fare of five cents.

As he has within the last few months parted with
his holdings in the North and West Chicago Street
Railroad companies, and given up the management of
those roads, and with his suburban lines. it will not be
he who finishes this grand plan, but as he has laid out
the work there can be but one resu't, and that is the
combinations to which he has given so much thought.
Everything points in that direction, and it is next to an
impossibility to divert the final outcome. It is a matter
of pride among his friends that, notwithstanding the fact
that there never was in Chicago a man who was more
thoroughly opposed than Mr. Yerkes, where spite and
envy were so hurled at him by the daily press, who has
achieved such results, and all in a calm, good-natured
sort of way, allowing nothing to interfere with his prog-
ress. It is said of him that he never attacked any man,
but always defended himself against the attacks of
others, and in such a manner that the attacking party
often regretted that he had ever made the attack.

In 1892 Mr. Yerkes presented to the University of
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Chicago a telescope and buildings, located at Lake
Geneva, Wisconsin. This is the largest observatory in
the world and cost about half a million dollars.

Stewart §. Neff, general superintendent of the
Union Elevated Railroad Company, was born at Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, October 24, 1858. He received his edu-
cation at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy,
New York, and, following his graduation from this insti-
tution, entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad
as transitman. He later became assistant engineer on
the construction of the Western Pennsylvania division
of the same road, and in September, 1883, he became
assistant engineer in the office of the principal assistant
engineer of the same road, and so continued until
March, 1884. From this time, until March, 1887, Mr.
Neff served as assistant supervisor of the Pennsylvania
road, and for the next four years he was superintendent
of the Cornwall road. In March, 1891, he became
superintendent of the coast lines of the Great Northern
Railway, in which capacity he served until June, 1892.
From 1893 to the spring of 1894, Mr. Neff was general
manager of the Pacific Navigation Company; from 1894
to October, 1895, he was assistant engineer of the Van-
dalia line; from October, 1895, to October, 1896, he
was superintendent and chief engineer of the Lake Su-
perior & Ishpeming Railway, and from October, 18096,
to October, 1897, he was chief engineer of the Rio
Grande, Cripple Creek & Northern Railway.

Mr. Neff terminated his connection with this com-

“pany in order to accept his present position with the
Union Elevated Railroad Company, then just’ com-
pleted and about to be opened for the traffic of the
three elevated systems of the city. Mr. Neff organized
the service on the Union Loop, over which trains were

137

first run October 4, 1897. To-day he is handling 1,400
trains every twenty-four hours, with a precision and
accuracy of time which is nothing short of marvelous
when it is remembered that the great railway lines, in
the dispatching of trains, deal with minutes, while his

 

STEWART S. NEFF.

schedule of running trains over the loop deals with sec-
onds. It is the largest train service in the world, and
the record for the past two years stands unequaled for
safety, dispatch and comfort to a city of 2,000,000 in-
habitants.
CHAPTER XIX.

 

~oS

 

 

CHICAGO AND ITS BANKS. |

 

 

*

    
   
 
  

N those early days when Chicago was an
Indian trading post and had no other
claim to commercial recognition on any
scale, however small, it did a rude kind
Wy of banking business. The Indian trades
. issued a kind of currency in the na-
ture of written promises. None of
that kind of paper ever failed to be

_.g redeemed. It was, in its way, as
Loy” good as gold and passed current at
‘7 its face value. This primitive scrip was

the first shadow cast before by the great
Chicago banking system of later years. But the issu-
ing of a currency is by no means all, or even the chief
part, of banking. It is not too much to give Gordon S.
Hubbard, who lived to see Chicago a city of a million
people, as the first banker of Chicago. He had funds
on deposit at Buffalo, and his bills of exchange were
always honored. He was able to do his neighbors an
important neighborly service by selling them Buffalo
exchange, and in those days Buffalo was the metropolis
of the “Middle West,” to use a modern term. All
through the East such bills were acceptable money
remittances. The first bank in Illinois, called the “Bank
of Illinois,” was located at Shawneetown, which, for all
practical purposes, was about as far from Chicago as
Manila is to-day. Its charter was granted two years
before the state was admitted into the Union. It was
renewed by the State Legislature, the state itself becom-
ing a partner in the business. That institution failed,
involving considerable loss to the state. Branches were
established, but Chicago was too small to have even
a branch until late in the year 1835, when the “Chicago
Branch of the Illinois State Bank” was announced.
That was the first real banking house in the history
of the city. It was located at the corner of La Salle
and Water streets. W.H. Brown, whose name is fitly
borne by one of the public schools of the city, he being

ae

SS

 

eminent in the promotion of our educational sys-
tem, was the practical head of the bank, having the
title of cashier. The deposits for the first three months
averaged about seven hundred dollars a day. It flour-
ished until the spring of 1837, when the great crash
which came to the whole country brought distress. The
state undertook to rescue the bank by plunging into a
grand system of internal improvements, but the inevit-
able bankruptcy came to a head in 1843, and the Chicago
branch went out of existence finally in 1843. Even
before this it had been reduced to an agency, the branch
proper being removed to Lockport. The actual cur-
rency of the period from 1837 to 1843 was largely made
up of city and private scrip, with a very considerable
infusion of bank notes issued under the banking laws
of other states.

The first really great banker of Chicago was George
Smith, a preéminently “canny” Scotchman, a man of
remarkable business ability and unimpeachable integ-
rity. Not a dollar of the millions of paper bearing the
signature of “Geo. Smith” ever failed to be redeemed
on demand. No run ever broke him. His system was
fiercely assailed as illegal, but it had no taint of dishon-
esty. Private banking, as conducted by him in Chicago
for twenty years, while it yielded him a great fortune,
was of incalculable benefit to Chicago and the region
round about.

It was in the spring of 1834 that Mr. Smith reached
Chicago to seek his fortune. He found it and returned
to London to enjoy it in 1860, where he still resides.
He belonged to Milwaukee almost as much as Chicago,
for his banking career really began with securing from
the legislature of Wisconsin in 1839 a charter for the
Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company,
authorized to receive deposits and issue “certificates”
to the sum of $1,500,000. That institution had _ its
headquarters at Milwaukee, but Mr. Smith resided in
Chicago, where he conducted a private bank under the

138
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

name of George Smith & Co. For twenty-one years he
was the leading banker of the West, and the certificates
which bore his name were always redeemed on demand.
It was a great thing for Chicago banking to have its
foundations laid by so sound and sagacious a banker.
Many of the banks, private and chartered, which
were doing business here when the crash of 1857 came,
went down with the general crash. Others went out vol-
untarily and still others reorganized under the national
bank act. J. M. Adsit, who began as a private banker
in 1846, continued the business thirty years and then
retired, the last of the private bankers who survived the

 

ENTRANCE TO LINCOLN

storm of 1857. Of the banks then doing business under
state charters all are gone and have been for many years,
except the Merchants’ Loan and Trust Bank, which
declined to go into the national system, and has always
been one of the great banks of the city. During the
period of “wild-cat”’ banking Chicago made, as a whole,
a good banking record. Besides the bankers named
honorable mention should be made of J. Young Scam-
mon, J. H. Burch, E. J. Tinkham, R. K. Swift, H. A.
Tucker and Solomon A. Smith.

The national bank act dates from March 25, 1863.
It found Chicago, in common with the country gener-
ally, in woeful need of a larger and, above all, a better
medium of exchange. The legal tender notes of the

139

government were utterly inadequate to the currency
needs of trade. The country had fully recovered from
the depression which began almost simultaneously with
the year 1857, and was rendered more pronounced dur-
ing the early period of the war. Many of the banks
whose bills circulated largely here when the Civil War
began were located in the South. Those which con-
tinued to do business suspended specie payments. It
is not too much to say that the national bank system
was born of necessity. The government needed the
money, which would have to be paid for its bonds, to
serve as a base of circulation, and the people needed

 

 

LEE J Praia y NHK,
PARK, ROSLYN PLACE. .

the bills for use as a sound medium of exchange. Still
for more than a year the change from state banknotes
to a national bank currency went on slowly. Finally,
patience exhausted, the Chicago Board of Trade
announced, in a notice signed by all the leading mem-
bers of that body, and dated May 9, 1864, “that on and
after the 15th inst. the base of transactions, either buy-
ing or selling, should be legal tender notes or their -
equivalent.” Three days later the bankers of the city
announced that “on and after Monday, May 16, 1864,
we will receive on deposit at par, and pay out at par
only, legal tender notes, national banknotes and the
notes of such other banks as redeem at par in the city
of Chicago.” That ended the era of wild-cat money
140

in this city. The national bank system received a veri-
table boom. By the close of 1864 Chicago had seven
national banks—namely, the First, Second, Third,
Fourth, Fifth, Mechanics’ and Northwestern. Of these
only three survive, the First, Northwestern and Fifth,
the latter under a change of name. An eighth, the
Manufacturers’, long since defunct, was organized about
that time. One of the newspapers of the period
remarked at the time: ‘One million of dollars a day
goes into the country from Chicago to the producers.
Well may the bankers rejoice that the days of rag money
are over.”

On those days, and for many years after, there was
profit in the national bank circulation, and it was issued
as the needs of business required, but of late years
the policy of our banks has heen to put in circulation
only the minimum amount of their own notes. Bonds
are so high and the rate of interest so low that there is
no profit in it.

The adoption of the national bank system caused a
few bank failures, but from the close of 1864 to the
great fire of October 9, 1871, the banking business of
Chicago went on prosperously. The seven national
banks had become seventeen, and there were also ten
private banking institutions. The national bank cap-
ital at that time was $6,800,000, not including the
undivided surplus, amounting to $2,715,000. The total
bank capital of the city was $12,250,000.

In this connection should be given a memorable,
but little remembered, episode. While yet the ruins of
the smoking city were hot and no bank vaults were
opened, the bankers of the city held a conference. The
question was, How shall we open and what per cent of
deposits shall be paid on demand? A committee was
appointed. No one on that committee dreamed of pay-
ing dollar for dollar. Some said 15 per cent, others
25 per cent and still others a little more. It looked as
if the 25 per cent plan would be adopted as a compro-
mise. Suddenly, but in a very quiet way, the president
of the Merchants’ National Bank, Chauncey B. Blair,
remarked, without rising from his chair: ‘Gentlemen,
I always like to agree with my brother bankers, and in
ordinary matters would yield to the majority, but when
it comes to paying my debts or the debts of my bank T
have only this to say, I have always paid in full and
always shall if I can. Perhaps I shall not be able to
pay even 25 per cent. The vault is still closed. It may
contain only ashes, but I shall do the best I can to meet
all the demands of my depositors.” That was a thunder-
bolt. It created consternation. An adjournment was
had without action, in the hope of convincing Mr.
Blair that the banks ought to stand together.

The next day the comptroller of the currency put
in an appearance, and without knowing what Mr. Blair
had said notified the national banks that they must pay

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in full, or he would not let them open at all. He was
inexorable. When the country correspondents and local
depositors found that this decree had been issued they
were greatly relieved, and when the banks did open
there was no run on them. The vaults all stood the
fire test, and in a very short time the deposits were
larger than ever.

The stringency which began in the fall of 1873 grad-
ually developed until it weeded out several national
banks, without, however, weakening the system; but the
failure of the State Savings Institution, the leading sav-
ings bank of the city, which occurred in 1877, and of
some minor banks, produced a far-reaching effect. It
seemed as if the very foundations of Chicago’s confi-
dence in savings banks were shaken and overthrown.
For years this branch of banking was depressed. The
recovery from the shock was slow. It was not until the
state adopted a policy of supervision of all banks doing
business on state charters that confidence was regained.

When the bank panic of 1893 swept over the coun-
try it toppled over a few weak banks, but it did not work
anything like general havoc. The Chicago clearing-
house showed most excellent coolness. The storm was
severe, but not desolating. There was an admirable
spirit of mutual helpfulness shown all through the try-
ing ordeal. While some weak banks were obliged to
go out of business, that panic had at least one good
effect in Chicago. It is hardly too much to say that it
put an end to private banking. Individuals and partner-
ships doing a banking business felt constrained by the
pressure of self-preservation to organize under the state
banking act, thus sharing in the strengthened public
confidence which results from state inspection. At
the present time (1899) Chicago is second only to New
York in the magnitude of its banking capital and busi-
ness,

At the close of the fiscal year 1899, June 30, the
banks of Chicago, national and state, made this show-
ing: Capital stock, $28,472,000; surplus, $14,881,212;
deposits subject to check, $169,171,018; certificates of
deposit, $11,434,334: savings deposits in state banks,
$40,407,141. These figures are distributed between the
two kinds of banks, thus: Capital stock of all national
banks, $18,650,000, and surplus of $9,426,212; capital
stock of all state banks in the city, $9,822,000, and sur-
plus of $5,455,000; deposits in the national banks sub-
ject to check, $96,565,000, and in the state banks, $72.-
606,068; demand certificates in the national banks,
$3,379,512, and in the state banks, $1,900,658; time cer-
tificates of the national banks, $656,851, and of the
state banks, $5,497,313; savings bank deposits subject
to notice, $40,407,141. From this it will be seen that
the banks of Chicago on the date named had, all told,
their own capital and the funds intrusted to them, $264,-
365,765. One need not be so very old to remember a
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

time when the banking capital and funds of all the banks
west of the Alleghanies did not equal this amount. The
total capital, including surplus of the banks, is $43,-
353,222, divided thus: National banks, $28,076,222;
state banks, $15,277,000. The funds intrusted to them
by depositors amount to $221,012,543, something less
than 20 per cent of the grand aggregate being their
own money. In the case of the state banks over 93
per cent of the total consists of trust funds. These
figures eloquently attest the confidence of the public in
the banks of Chicago.

In the years from 1890 to 1899 Chicago banks passed
through trying days to end in a period of great pros-

141

000, the principal floating of which was done in Chi-
cago. Then during the active promotion year of 1898
Chicago acted either in whole or in part as trustee for
enterprises floated with a total capital amounting to
$304,000,000. ,

These flotations included some of the most widely
known trusts in the country. Among them, in addition
to the Glucose Sugar Refining and National Biscuit
companies, were the American Steel & Wire Company,
the American Tin Plate Company, the National Steel
Company, the National Carbon Company, the Chicago
Union Traction Company and the American Linseed
Company.

 

perity. In that time Chicago emerged from the pro-
vincial in banking to the metropolitan, and became the
depository of funds for large flotation enterprises. In
this latter particular, however, it must be said that the
Illinois Trust and Savings Bank stood as the particular
representative.

The first instance in which the banks of Chicago
acted as a depository of trust funds in the matter of
company promotions was at the time of the floating of
the Glucose Sugar Refining Company, with a capital of
$40,000,000. In this promotion the principal state bank
mentioned received jointly with a New York institu-
tion the underwriting deposits. Next followed the
National Biscuit Company, with a capital of $55,000,-

PICNIC GROUNDS—LINCOLN PARK.

In addition to furnishing a good portion of the cap-
ital for these enterprises, Chicago, through its banks,
became a large lender of money, not only in New York
but in London and Berlin. When, in 1898, money was
stringent in Germany and the bank rate was advanced
to 6 per cent, Chicago banks carried credits of per-
haps $10,000,000 in the German capital.

In 1899, when through the fluctuations of the New
York stock market and the heavy transactions on
that exchange, money advanced rapidly, Chicago was
accustomed to loan daily from $2,000,000 to $8,000,000
on call, an experience which five years previous had been
unknown.

An evidence of the esteem in which Chicago banks
142

were held by other Western institutions was afforded in
the period of the Spanish-American war in 1898, when
there was a general disposition to withdraw deposits and
strengthen reserves. Between February 12, 1898, and
April 30, 1898, the deposits of the New York associated
banks showed a decrease of $80,180,500. The with-
drawals began immediately after the explosion of the
Maine, February 15, 1898, and ended with the battle
of Manila, May 1, 1898. New York bank deposits in
that time decreased from $738,683,800 to $658,503,300.

While country institutions were drawing their depos-
its from New York banks they were increasing their
balances with Chicago institutions. According to offi-
cial statements there were in Chicago institutions about
February 1 total deposits of $266,481,246. According
to ‘similar statements three months later there were,
about May 1, $272,934,242. There was increase there-
fore, of $6,452,996.

This preference on the part of country banks for
Chicago institutions as depositories for funds rather
than the New York banks probably grew out of the
fact that in 1893, when the industrial depression began,
New York institutions issued clearing-house certificates.

The growth in deposits by years of Chicago banks
from 1890 to June 30, 1899, are shown in the following
table:

CHICAGO BANK DEPOSITS.

 

 

 

December. National. State. Total Both.
1890 $ 94,470,800 $ 35,753,854 $130, 224,654
1891 118, 154,700 44,442,399 162, 597,099
1892 130,058,550 58, 363,226 188,421,776
1893 122,354,131 56,854,484 179,208,015
1894 129,626,653 67,062,067 196, 688,720
1895 120,705, 569 72,686,890 193,392,459
1896 I10, 298, 369 66,963,345 177,261,714
1897 150,042,071 90, 502, 701 240,544,772
1898 188,131,143 113,958,404 302,089, 547

June, 1899 216,751,193 136,858,157 353,609, 350

 

 

 

From December, 1890, to June 30, 1899, deposits of
the national banks of Chicago grew from $94,470,800
to $216,751,193, being an increase of 129.43 per cent.
The state banks in the same time increased from $35,-
753,854 to $101,104,303, or 282.77 per cent. The total
increase in deposits in the period mentioned was $223,-
384,696, or 171.53 per cent. The changes are shown
in tabular form, as follows:

 

 

National. State. Both,

 

$136,858, 157.00
35,753,854.00

$101, 104,303 00

$353,609, 350.00
130, 224.654.00

June 30, 1899....... $216, 751,193.00
December, 1890..... 94, 470,800.00

 

Increase.......... $122,280, 393.00 $223, 384.696.90

Increase per cent: 129.43 282.77 171.53

 

 

 

 

The foregoing illustrates the greater growth of state
institutions. This development was due probably in

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

large part to the latitude which the state laws offer
with reference to reserves, compared with the national
banking act. This, however, is only in part the cause.
Led by the unusual success of the one institution named
a coterie of capitalists founded other state institutions
and adopted similar banking methods, resulting in
development of state banks shown.

Taking them as a whole, it will be seen that the
national banks had in 1890, $58,716,946 more in depos-
its than the state banks, being an excess over the latter
of 164 per cent. In 1899 the national banks had $79,-
893,036 more than the state institutions, being an excess
over the latter of 58 per cent, so that it appears that
of the total percentage of growth the relative gain is
31.40 per cent for the national and 68.60 per cent for
the state banks.

Previous to 1899 the record in the matter of clear-
ings in the history of the clearing-house association was
made in 1892. After the latter date, or until 1898,
Chicago, instead of advancing, went backward, and in
1896 the clearings were but about $100,000,000 better
than 1894, the latter being the low year after 1892. The
total clearings for nine years and ten months, together
with the nine months’ business of the year in which the
clearing-house was organized, follow:

CHICAGO BANK CLEARINGS.

 

 

 

Year. | Amount. | Year. Amount.
*1865 $ 319,606,228.00 1895 $4,614,979, 203.00
1890 4,093,145,904.00 1896 4,413,054, 108.00
1891 4,456,885, 230.00 1897 4,575,993, 340.00
1892 5,135,771, 187.00 1898 5:517,435,476.00
1893 4,676,960, 968.00 +1899 5,413, 310,958.00
1894 4,315,440,474.00

 

 

*Year of organization of Clearinghouse, nine months.
+Ten months.

The days of suspensions, liquidation and consolida-
tions in the period under review began late in 1896.
The most important failure was that of the National
Bank of Illinois. A complete showing of the changes
immediately prior to and following the failure of that
institution follows:

 

 

State Banks. Capital.

 

Central Trust and Savings Bank, suspended first
QUATIER 1896. cscs ns, eameteg 20.44 Ro6a soe edie
Dime Savings Bank, suspended third quarter eet

$200,000.00,

1896%5 6 5 esas es Pence
ee big Sas. 8 EG Rainy: Gis ek Rta Na niecs “aac ges ora

oe hae suspended first quarter 200,¢00.00
Bank of Commerce, principal assets purchased ‘by

the Union National Bank, November, 1897. ... t poe oe
International Bank, purchased by the Continental

National Bank, February, 1898 .......... 2... Seen
Commercial Loan and Trust Company, purchased

by the Royal Trust Company, October, 1898 ... t Seen O?

 

$2,000,000.00

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

National Banks. Capital.

 

National Bank of Illinois, suspended, December,
1896. . baieserses
Atlas National Bank, voluntary ‘liquidation, first

$1,000,000,00

quarter, 1897 slojace gai Wyse SS 418 Seacoe & o-tea See POO1900700
Prairie State National Bank, consolidated with
Prairie State Savings and Trust Company, Au- 200,000.00
gust, 1897, under new name of Prairie State Bank.
300,000.00

Union National Bank, December, 1897....
American Exchange National Bank, consolidated
with the National Bank of America, under new
name of America National Bank, Feb. 18, 1898.
Home National Bank, eee liquidation, Janu-
ary, 1898
Globe National Bank, ‘purchased by Continental
National Bank, November 18, 1898

I,000, 000,00

250,000.00

Hide and Leather National Bank, purchased a
ag 1,000, 000.00

 

$4,450,000.00

 

According to the foregoing the decreases in banking
capital in the ten years through suspension or volun-
tary liquidation amounted to $4,450,000 on the part
of national, and $2,000,000 on the part of the state
banks, making a contraction from the causes) named
of $6,450,000,

148

But in the meantime there were increases in old
capital, as well as new additions.
as follows:

These changes were

Illinois Trust and Savings Bank $2,000,000

10 $3,000,000. 64 cae ven eae tesa osbberswend t Tnerense: $1,006,000;00
National Live Stock, $750,000 to $1,000,000 { Increase, 250,000.00
Foreman Bros. Banking Company... | New Capital, 500,000.00
Home Savings Bank, $5,000 to $100,000, . | Increase, 95,000.00
Prairie State Savings and Trust Saieong

under new name of Prairie State Bank, } Increase, 50,000.00

$200,000 to $250,000 ..........00e eee ee
Western State Bank ....... eta saree eae ea | New Capital, 300,000.00

$2, 195,000.00

Deducting the foregoing from the contractions
noted the net decrease was $4,255,000.

As a matter of record the conditions of the national
and state banks of Chicago, June 30, 1899, are here-
with presented:

CONDITION CHICAGO NATIONAL BANKS, JUNE 30, 1899.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

RESOURCES.
U.S. Bonds Real UBstate Due from hecks for Cash
Banks. rere. Overdrafts. Circalati on for Deon a Hand era i sinuonae Offi ene ea ahanwen tS cleetinghouse and Treasury:
America National ... $ 6,280,198.09] $ 16,384.45] 8 150,000 $10,000 | $ 270,865.80}... ...... 8 1,866,192.86| $ 508,825.29] $ 1,761,157.49
Bankers’ National... 5,299,816.83 3,070.02) 250,000}... | eae 24,375 248,286.16] $ 23,707.66] — 3,080,363.35 304,668.24] 1,679,762.45
Chicago National........ 4,698,971.59 5,902.12 50,000] $50,000) ....]) eee 2,452,725.33) wee eae 3,970,811.52| 246,272.98] 3,058,563.71
Commercial National....| 11,996,898.97 1,057.36 BO000 | eecsaece | saree | carenee 1,244,387.73 65,487.38} 4,992,918.22] 573,526.45] 3,359,176.16
Continental National....! — 16,018,642.95 3,015.43 50,000 50,000} ...... sateiae 500,620.39 47,142.28]  4,726,711.97/ 918,739.89] 5,876,605.24
Corn Exchange National.! —10,021,024.77 58,276.72 50,000) deen Stall aacxace |) -dauckn 396,200.00]... sees 2,500,901.38)  1,088,570.26}  2,476,478.72
Drovers’ National . 1,970,784.98 382.62 50,000} ........ meee | Useeaay beers 6,000.00] 813,972.85} 328,838.51 545,407.62
First National ........... 25,576,248.38 4,132.88 50,000] ..... ee $135,550 vee | 4,006,086.74] oes 9,118,720.21]  2,548.076.14] 10,938,919.85
Fort Dearborn National.. 2.504,818.55 9.46 50,000 250,000 | we eee 27,000 153,608.58 15,604.50 378,533.80) 83,289.77, 900,379.90
Lincoln National......... 567,374.38 685.05 50,000 | veseeeee | cena 5,000 15,551.18 34,947.73 196,814.68 17,974.49} .151.594.16
Merchants’ National...... 8,623,538.60 554.87 50,000 Ecol) Jantuae'||) sina 1,036,610.00] 245,614.35] 2,813,611.17] 522,118.42] 2,782,113.30
Metropolitan National .. 12,241,508.41 2,312.81 60,000 100,000] Seer 699,520.08 91,000.00] — 3.253,718.83 904.045.96]  3,624,234.52
neath 5,464,012,44 6,038.18; 50,000] 150,000] —...... 13,125 24,032.97 55,558.01| 4,611,175.26|  494.623.15| _1,753,796.76
National Live Stock 5,076,076.91 56,404.80 50,000 | vee. | ee eee ge 74,251.72 31,659.45) 1,113,782.14 18,928.78]  1,089,445.21
Northwestern National ..| _4,440,308,28 6,752.85] 200,000 300,000] ss 637,207.85 147,142.89] 1,483,997.81 408,293.28]  1,829,087.25
Oakland National ........ 388,012.75 53.07 12,500} eee | cee ee 32,174.63}... W8C411] eee 32,323.28
Union National .......... 9,421 372.35) 2,450.38 50,000 |... oe. 800 216,372.43/ 332,046.98! 2,716,033.78| 587,222.24] 2,614,975.24
FirstNational,Englewood 455,620.31 1,575.42 45,000 |... eee | cee ee 3,500 4,634.93 19,500.00 85,431.30]... eee 36,827.77
Totals.........0ceeeee ee 131,004,224.64] $164,058.49] $1,317,500 | $900,000 | $136,350 $83,000 | $12,013,356.47] $1,115,911.23| $47,800,495.24) 89,539,008.85] $44,008,261.63
LIABILITIES.
Banks. capital. | “Uuaivides | Ciysule | Unpaid, | Individual [Cessinenterof] Gertiged | oaneee’ | aml. | peposits. | Deposits
TO: .

ea eer
America National ........ $ 1,000,000] $ 599,349.62] $223,850] $ 30,066.00] $ 3,545.484.60] $  66,000.85| $ 203,556.21] 8 75,601.60| $ 5,302,978.20 | .......... $ 9,223,687.46
Bankers’ National........ 1,000,000 131,982.83) 10,000] 26,325.00] + 3,837,910.99 sux 88,924.34 261,207.38} 5,343,849.17 |... 2... 9, 558,216.88
Chicago National ........ 500,000] 647,692.09] 45,000} ~—-7,590.00} 10,507,275.52| 617,335.50 71,540.49 27,992.20] 2,098,821.45 | $ 45,000.00) 18,875,555.16
Commercial National..../ 4,900,000] 1,213,125.82| 45,000] .......... 10,100,346.94 151,923.80 83,419.41 691,561.00] 8,998,075.30 | .......... 20,025,826.45
Continental National ..... 9 .000,000/ 534,463.18] 45,000] 60,150.00] _7,821,382.62 134,634.34] 205,598.65} 595,762.36] 16,244,487.00 | 45,000.00} 25,107,014.97
Corn Exchange National.| 1 999,000| _1,261,082.46|........ 30,000.00] 9,614,128.83] 438,289.47] 550,912.68 83,188.12] 3,608,850.29 | -......... 14,325,369.39
Drovers’ National ........ 250,000 184,352.62) 45,000] .......... 754,707.63} 265,834.73 4,507.40] 446,587.77] 1,759,396.43 | .......... 3,281,033.96
First National .... -| 3,000,000} 2,326,857.98] ........ 90,000.00] 19,103,375.57/ 893,743.90] 410,632.55) 274,110.20] 26,268,964.00 | .......... 47,040,826.22
Fort Dearborn National. 500,000 104,541.08} 45,000] 7,642.50, 2,318,214.81 31.588.01 22,112.20 7,580.10] 1,076,724.81 | 249,891.05 3,713,703.48
Lincoln National.......... 200,000 19,615.77] 45,000 .........- 545,930.48 7,626.80 2,685.75 7,454.89 211,627.98 | see. 175,325.90
Merchants’ National...... 1,000,000] 1,703,711.87/ ........ 33,530.00]  4,737,898.29 83,930.20 67,134.73 61,359.69] 8,386,595.93 | .......... 18,870,443.84
Metropolitan National.. 2,000,000] —1,210,456.80 9,875]  19.216.50}  8,343,890.34| 427,165.35 108,622.00] 172,963.05] 8,589,146.52 | 95,000.00] —17,756,003.76
sede os | 1,000,000 157,680.82) 45,000] 25,000.00} + 3.187,202.65 58,704 05] 227,316.49| 223,983.18] —-7,557,024.58 | 142,500.00) ‘11,421 680.95
1,000,000] 1,061,001.66] 41,000] 21,183.00] —1,937,509.03) 348,195.45 14,830.00... eee 3,087,099.87 we 5,408,817.59
1,000,000] 569,130.62} 90,570] .......... 8,124,230.36 71,686.79 40,131.49] 418,177.19] 3,856,553.17 | 282,610.59 17,793, 389.35
50,000 33,076.31] 11,250] .......... 420,377.36 26,593.47) ee eee B70:70| cee sere xe 447,941.53
2,000,000] 333,435.52] 34,000] 30,036.00] 6, 228,091.52 52,134.68 177,322.37| 148,921.23} 6,987,332.08 13,573,837.88
First National,Englewood 100,000 19,591.14! 40,500] —«-2,304.00/ 885,649.44 14.743.87 3,550.58 25,750.70| eee cee | cece eee ee 491,998.59
Totals... $18,600,000] $12,111,148.19] $731,045] $383,043.00] $96,513,601.98/ $3,750,131.26] $2,282,797.34| $35,226,671.36] $109,327,526.78 | $860,001.64] $216,639,773.36

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
144

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

CONDITION CHICAGO STATE BANKS, JUNE 30, 1899.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES.
Overdrafts , x i Jurr Checks and 7
Banks. and Dipesnnia: ae id Sonth ae “nanae Obnbe Banks: Estate. ahd PEE Bepersce Canta Collections,
American Trust &Savings| $ 5,730,936.65] $13,116.99] 8 32,578.53| $ 1,239,658.75] $ 1,243,234.31| 8 2,815,470 69] 8 33,500.00] § 7,258.45]............ $ 338,581.87|...........,
Chicago City Bank ....... 404,350.04 iG A1BPBE|"| “gars veel) Twonieantaes 30,088.33] 184,463.81 75,972.18] 3,855.00}... eee] cee eeee eee fee
Foreman Bros. Bank’gCo.| = 2,551,458.01 85737:56) ee sete sieves 140,000.00 163,753.63} 352,736.34 Viceaiggsiaittredl wiles wlanrin reise] ‘sales. tame how 79,887.51] ..
Garten ety, Banking &})  2.194,013.66 109.13 80.00] 149,717.61 85,389.69] 344,655.44 95.757.33|  3,600.00|............ 62,514.39] ..
Hibernian Banking Ass’n.| _3,872,542.35 5,152.80] ke see 772,665.03| 475,488.57] 1,620,728.41 108,691.45] 11,116.92]............ 49,243.35) ..
Home Savings Bank......]  ...0cccceeee] eens cess eene| cece ee enee 803,204.88 35,536.36) 227,264.18) «wee eee ABO 7D site: Soe» orenaal” “outdo Saiomineias’ eae
Ilinois Trust & Savings..| 29,808,301.41] 0.0.0.0... 67,082.92} 9,215,053.17| 9,370,570.36/ 16,978,042.26 1,175,673.65] ...
Meneuanes Loan 18,818,306.23 9,162.34 35,490.00] 2,185,119.86} 3,414,365.51) —3,601,398.81 846,012.00]...
Milwaukee Av.State Bank| — 1,046,556.05 2,279.18) eee 4,406.25] 197,875.99] 169,003.80 27,722.01]...
Northern Trust Co...... .| 7,828,486.94 3,129.63] 1,036,670.00| 3,282,154.79| 2,887,834.85] 3,358,955 20 379,884.92
Prairie State Bank 1,956,095.63 983.29 1,360.00) 604,703.63} 325,850.41) 376,777 68, 15,109.19] 10,079.00]......2. 2.22] sees cess eres
Royal Trust Company....] _ 2,116,367.70 114.89) 0 eee 113,017.05] 187,249.82) 565,590.82 UC 2THOB| sss coe inaallecaeuaa esc 275,493.32
State Bank of Chicago....|  3,296,213.19 2,277.01 69,747.50]  388,463.83| 591,026.28] 1,019,777.43] we. oe wee [eee eee eteefeeeeeeee eee 362.567.83
Union Trust Co..........-.}  2,928.356.42 409.04). eee 1,196,237.30|  355.326.21) —1,571,051.05 15.333.79| 5,000.00)............ 8,373.55)
Western State Bank......] 547,639.20 958.7 4,235.76 70,447.56 56,249.72 86,414.15 51,202.70] 1,150.00}........ 2. 31,658.93]...
Totalsevssseveuseaerees $78,100,613,48) $48,744.52] $1,247,244.65| $19,915,749.73 $14,919,789.99| $33,222,325.03| $580,654.05] $44,199.12|............ $3,637,563.33
a
LIABILITIES.
Vapi san i Savings De- |Individual De-| Demand Time Cashier’s
Bans. See! | “Uavadea! | Poppers | weplbece posts sbjct | cortitontes | certicates | Seeks? | Checks’ | omer Banks. | papostts
American Trust &Savings| $1,000,000] 8 188,736.38|............] 8 605,124.82] $ 4,921,177.47/8 39,777.71| $ 213,042.43; & 159,020.99) $ 74,012.93] $ 4,253,393 51] 8 10,265,549.86
Chicago City Bank ...... 200,000 52,771.33| $ 8,020.00].............. 283,911.87]  105,849.89]........ 0.2... 418.40) aca otero-esiye 5,021.75 395,201.91
Foreman Bros,Bank’gCo.| 500.000} 600,247.48).....2......[eecc cee 1,849,260.71] 60,235.10] 237,364.59 38,457.95 8}087-22 | 2x6 cages was 2,191 ,386.57
Garden City Banking &1) — 509,000 83,577.15] 15,435.00 84,288.74| 2,142,708.10] 12,123.20 49,305.07 19,795.75 28,604.24)..............] 2,836,825.10
Hibernian Banking Ass’n.| 222,000 302,629.20|.........| 5,266,424.58| —1,050,752.28)  23,058.05|.............. 14,392.56 1,467.54 29,904.69]  6.385,994.70
Home Savings Bank...... 100,000 15,823.44] ........-... 678,579.25 TBA AB | vaceeare Sie (cession haswracdaccsare.aecheyeeds| ere cebreterk we save SMA NNGISAB He ase aevcuensral oe even areas Slspety 752,321.68
Illinois Trust & Savings..| 2.000.000] 3,350,815.29] 60,000.00] 24,074,787.62] 31,423,186.46] 175,207.71 2,561,687 26) 275,173.86! 867,289.16} 1,909,295.84] —_61,286,717.91
Merchants/Loan & || 2,000,000) 1,708,868.89|  60,000.00].............. 18,792,588.15] 897,659.25) 177,435.95] 188,748.89] 258,251.14) 4,826.302.48] -20,140,985.86
Milwaukee Av.StateBank| — 250.000 96,683.17/ 7,500.00/ 674,043.89] 454,889.70) 21,752.84 4,146.50 21,941.96 6,885.22} 0... 1,183,660.11
Northern Trust Co........ + 1,000,000] 835,408.83) 30,000.00] 3,462,516.58| —9,820,963.62| 421,588.08] 1,811,379.47| 120,687.43 58,368.35] —1,166,228.97|_16,361,707.50
Prairie State Bank........ 250,000 23,854.38)... 0... 2... 1,793,036.13| 1,188,402 70]............[.. vo abhee cane 29,057.36 471111 7,797.15] —8,018,004.45
Royal Trust Company... 500,000 250,194.74 170.00] 124,668.26) 1,458,199.74] 17,152.49 85,780.85)  156,620.8% 2,307.94, 680,916.€8] —2.525,616.84
State Bank of Chiéago....) 500,000] 317,344.26 15.00] 1,854,649.92] 1,983,807.26| 41,618.80] 142,619.27 18,309.20 62,314.47] 809,894.86] 4,912,713.78
Union Trust Co... ......} 500,000) — 1,067.689.27|............ 1,578,791.48}  2,833,209.34] 82,130.67} 193,020.73 25,169.47 58.203.80| 246,872.59] 4,512,398.08
Western State Bank. ....] 300,000) 10,889.85]... 0... 00s. 215,280.28] 28 4.834.54| 2,423.86 21,534.53 6,289.84 8 812.55 81.29 530,156.89
Totals..........+.+++++-} $9,822,000] $8,905,533.66] $181,140.00] $40,407,141.55] $72,556, 104.37|$1,900,662.65] $5,497,316.65] $1.074,064.54| $1.437.265.67| $13,935,654.81| _$136,808,210 24
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK. came vice-president, and the institution moved into its

The First National Bank, the oldest of the national
banks in Chicago, was organized May 1, 1863, with a
paid-in capital of $100,000. Its first officers were: E.
Aiken, president ; Samuel M. Nickerson, vice-president ;
E. E. Braisted, cashier. Its board of directors at that
time consisted of E. Aiken, S. M. Nickerson, S. W.
Allerton, S. G. D. Howard, B. P. Hutchinson, Tracy J.
Bronson, John B. Sherman, Byron Rice and E. G. Hall.
During the period from its organization until the fire
in 1871 the institution occupied quarters at the corner
of Lake and Clark streets, and the chief events which
marked its successful growth were the election of Mr.
Nickerson as president to succeed Mr. Aiken, who died
in January, 1867; the appointment of Lyman J. Gage
as cashier in August, 1868, and the increase at the same
time in its capitalization to $1,000,000.

After the fire the bank moved into a new structure on
the corner of Washington and State streets, where it
remained until May, 1882. At this time, upon the expi-
ration of its charter, a new organization was effected,
with a cash capital of $3,000,000; Lyman J. Gage be-

new building at the corner of Dearborn and Monroe
streets. A few years later Mr. Gage was elected to the
presidency, in which capacity he remained until he
resigned to become a member of President McKinley’s
cabinet, Samuel M. Nickerson succeeding him as the
chief executive.

At the present time the bank possesses a capital stock
of $3,000,000 and a surplus fund of $2,000,000, while
its deposits on January 1, 1900, amounted to $43,345,-
878.57. The officers of the institution are: James B.
Forgan, president; George D. Boulton, vice-president ;
Richard J. Street, cashier; Holmes Hoge, Frank E.
Brown, Charles N. Gillett, assistant cashiers; Emile K.
Boisot, manager foreign exchange department; John E.
Gardin, assistant manager foreign exchange depart-
ment; Frank O. Wetmore, auditor. The board of
directors is made up as follows: Samuel M. Nickerson,
Samuel W. Allerton, Nelson Morris, A. A. Carpenter,
Norman B, Ream, Eugene S. Pike, James B. Forgan,
Geo. T. Smith, Geo. D. Boulton, Otto Young, Chas. H.
Conover.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Samuel M. Nickerson was born of Puritan stock at

Chatham, Mass., in 1830. Both of his parents, Ensign
and Rebecca, were of Puritan ancestry. His mother

145

little more than a boy Mr. Nickerson went to Florida,
which was a very long way from Boston in that time,
when railroads were few, and, from the present point of

 

 

 

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK.

was a Miss Mayo and his father was a lineal descendant
of that William Nickerson who left his home in England
and settled at Chatham, Mass., in 1660. Mr. Nicker-

judgment, exceedingly slow.
years, acting as clerk in his brother’s store.

He stayed there for ten
He went

son received his education in the public schools of Bos-

ton, to which city his parents had removed. While still
Io

into business on his own account as soon as he attained
legal age, and carried on a large country business until
1857, when the store was destroyed and himself appar-
146

ently ruined. But with a few hundred borrowed dollars
he made his way to Chicago and established himself
in 1858 in what proved to be a very profitable business.
Within six years he had acquired the basis of a magnifi-
cent fortune. In 1863 Mr. Nickerson began to devote
his time, capital and energy to the promotion of those
great enterprises with which his name has become inti-
mately connected. In this year he assisted in the organ-

 

SAMUEL M. NICKERSON.

ization of the First National Bank of Chicago and was
elected its first vice-president. He served in this capac-
ity until 1867, when he was elected president. He
voluntarily resigned his place in 1891 in favor of Lyman
J. Gage, but again resumed it in 1897 after the appoint-
ment of Mr. Gage to the office of secretary of the
treasury, and in October, 1899, again resigned, being
succeeded by James B. Forgan. Mr. Nickerson also
was a promoter in 1864 of the Chicago City Street Rail-
way and acted as president of that corporation from 1864
to 1871. In 1867 Mr. Nickerson associated himself
with other capitalists in the formation of the Union
Stock Yards National Bank and was the first president
of that institution.

Mr. Nickerson has manifested great interest in art
and music and was a promoter of and liberal contributor
to those ‘‘May festivals” that were among the earliest
developments of musical culture in Chicago. He has
acted as member of the Lincoln Park Board of Com-
missioners, and was very active in the transformation
of what, during his time of office, was little more than
a stretch of waste sand into an artistic pleasure place.
Mr. Nickerson has traveled extensively in Europe and

TRE CITY OF CHICAGO,

once has circumnavigated the globe. He was married
in 1858 to Miss Matilda P. Crosby of Brewster, Massa-
chusetts, and has one son, Roland Crosby Nickerson,
who is engaged in banking pursuits.

George D'Arcy Boulton, born in Cobourg, in
the Canadian province of Ontario, June 13, 1844, and
educated in Upper Canada College, Toronto, is a son
of a family that has been identified with Canadian history
for a century and a quarter. The Boultons were well
known in Toronto when the present commercial metrop-
olis of the western half of the Dominion was known as
“Little York.” The late Sir John Robinson, Bart.,
whose eminent services as chief justice are well remem-
bered in Canada, was an uncle of the subject of this
memoir. His grandfather and great-grandfather also
were judges; his brother, C. A. Boulton, sits in the Par-
liament of the Dominion of Canada as senator from
Manitoba; his father was D’Arcy E. Boulton, and his
mother, née Emily Heath, was a daughter of Colonel
Heath of the Honorable East India Company’s services.

At the age of sixteen Mr. Boulton entered the serv-
ice of the then famous firm of William Cavan & Co.,
sugar planters and manufacturers of British Guiana,

 

GEORGE D’ARCY BOULTON.

South America; Mr. Boulton’s cousin, the late Sir
William Rennie, being a member of the firm of Cavan
& Co., and also of Overend, Gurnie & Co., regarded at
that time as the largest private banking company in
London, and therefore probably in the world. The
well-remembered failure of Overend, Gurnie & Co.
involved the failure of Cavan & Co., and upon the termi-
nation of their affairs Mr. Boulton returned to Canada.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

In 1863 he settled in Chicago and at once engaged in
the work of the First National Bank, which at that
time was under the direction of its first president, the
late Edmund Aiken. With the exception of one year
Mr. Boulton has been intimately associated with the
affairs of that great financial institution from the day
of his entrance until now. The value of foreign ex-
change as a factor of banking business was impressed
upon the mind of Mr. Boulton in the beginning of his
career as a financier, and under his judicious manage-
ment the foreign exchange department of the First
National Bank has assumed the magnificent proportion
of $70,000,000 a year. Upon the appointment of Mr.
Lyman J. Gage to the office of secretary of the treasury
of the United States, Mr. Boulton relinquished the
charge of this department and assumed the duties of
director and second vice-president. Mr. Boulton also
is a large shareholder and director in the South Side
Rapid Transit Company.

Though not an active politician in the general sense
of the word, Mr. Boulton contributed largely to the
election of Major McKinley to the presidency by his
authorship of a pamphlet on the fallacy of the free silver
policy of the Democratic and Populist parties. Mr.
Boulton’s work ran through many editions and was
regarded as unanswerable by the friends of a gold
standard. He also has been a frequent contributor to
magazines that deal with political economies. He is
vice-president of the Illinois National Bankers’ Asso-
ciation and of the Illinois Bankers’ Association. Mr.
Boulton regards free trade as the ultimate destiny of
all prosperous commercial nations, but is aware of the
wisdom of making haste slowly in the change of a
national policy.

Mr. Boulton is a gentleman eminently of literary
and domestic tastes. The Bankers’ Club and the Ex-
moor Golf Club are the only organizations that have
his name on their books. Mr. Boulton was married
September 16, 1868, to Miss Emily A. Street of Ham-
ilton, Canada, and a sister of Mr. R. J. Street, cashier
of the First National Bank of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs.
Boulton are both lovers of a country life and have for
the past twenty years lived at Oakurst, their home on
the lake shore at Highland Park, Illinois.

Samuel W. Allerton has all the characteristics of the
New York Yankee. He is quick to conceive an idea,
cautious in determination of its value, resolute in its
accomplishment when once he has decided upon a course
of action, and it must also be said that he is public-spir-
ited as well as mindful of his personal welfare. Born
in Duchess County, New York, in 1829, of farmer par-
ents, and with only such advantages of education as
could be gained from the somewhat inefficient public
schools of the first half of the century, Mr. Allerton has
attained commercial, social and political distinction.

147

He is a director of the First National Bank and of the
Chicago City Railway Company and has large interests
in the principal stockyards of the United States. Mr.
Allerton has not achieved wealth of any gigantic specu-
lation ; he has built his fortune on the sure and honorable
foundation of industry, economy, sound judgment and
resolute action.

He worked on a farm until he was eighteen years of
age; then he began stock-raising on his own account.
By the time he was twenty-one he had accumulated
nearly $5,000. That was nearly sixty years ago, and
sixty years ago $5,000 had a larger operative power
than it now has. With this capital Mr. Allerton pur-
chased a stock farm in Piatt County, Illinois. Yet even

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAMUEL W. ALLERTON.

then Chicago had its fascinations for Mr. Allerton. He
was a frequent visitor to the future metropolis, but
always with intent to sell or buy. He soon became
famous as a successful breeder and raiser of stock. His
farms increased in number and his flocks and herds in
value and magnitude. He also was a shrewd purchaser
of real estate in what was to be the great city of the
West. He was among the first to discern the needs
and uses and profits of stockyards as centers of the
cattle trade and was among the earliest and most active
promoters of the system. And thus, by the exercise of
strict industry, strict integrity and sound-judgment, Mr.
Allerton has achieved rank among the millionaires of
the country.

But it is not alone as a financier that Mr. Allerton
is known and respected. His political acumen is as
remarkable as his commercial capacity. Few moves
148

are made on the Republican checker board of Illinois
without the knowledge of Mr. Allerton. He never has
sought office, but in 1893 the Republican nomination
for mayor literally was thrust upon him. He made a
gallant fight, but it was an “off year’ for Republicans.
and that past master of political tactics, the late Carter
H. Harrison, defeated him. Inthe same year Mr. Aller-
ton rendered great service to the public as a member
of the World’s Fair directory. Mr. Allerton has been
twice married. He has two children, Robert H. and
Katie R.

Augustus Alvord Carpenter, president of the Kirby-
Carpenter Company, and whom the Northwestern Lum-
berman regards as the “acknowledged captain of the

 

 

 

 

 

AUGUSTUS ALVORD CARPENTER.

Chicago lumber brigade,” was born in Franklin County,
New York, June 8, 1825, the son of Alanson and Gulia
Elma (Nichols) Carpenter. His early school days were
passed in attendance at the common schools of \Western
New York, but as his parents were in circumstances
which rendered them unable to give him the education
they wished, he left school at an early age and set out
in search of fortune. Reports of the wonderful discov-
eries of gold in California attracted his attention, and
allured by these stories of sudden wealth he made his
way thither, braving the dangers of the journey by way
of the Isthmus of Panama. Arriving at the gold fields,
he engaged in mining and trading with his brother, who
had preceded him there by several months.
In 1855, having acquired considerable capital by his
enterprise, he returned from California and located in
Monroe County, Wisconsin, where he set himself up

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in the dry-goods and lumber business. In this venture
he was also successful, but as time went on he became
more and more convinced that there was to be a great
future in the lumber trade. Accordingly, in 1860,
together with Mr. Abner Kirby of Milwaukee, S. M.
Stephenson of Menominee, Michigan, and W. O. Car-
penter of Chicago, he assisted in the organization of
the well-known lumber firm of Kirby, Carpenter &
Co., which later became ‘The Kirby-Carpenter Com-
pany.” Of this business enterprise Mr. Carpenter has
had the principal management from its start, and under
his charge it has developed until it is considered at the
head of the lumber trade in Chicago.

Mr. Carpenter has been a resident of this city since
1864, during which period he has given valuable aid in
the promotion of many measures of public utiity. He
is a Republican of the most thoroughgoing kind and
thoroughly public-spirited in all that he undertakes. He
has been one of the foremost advocates in Chicago of
reform in civil government and the establishment of
the election law in 1885 was due in great part to him.

A gentleman who has been intimately connected with
Mr. Carpenter, both in a business and personal way, pays
him the following well-merited tribute: “He is a man
of firm character, of clear insight into affairs and con-
scientious in the discharge of all obligations. A master
in his particular line of business, his mind is yet broad
enough to be concerned in all the great questions which
stand related to social life as expressed in municipal or
national government.”

Mr. Carpenter is a member of the Commercial Club
and Chicago Club and has been president of the Citi-
zens’ Association and other social organizations, of most
of which he has at one time or another been president.
He was married in 1863 to Miss Elizabeth Kempton, of
New Bedford, Massachusetts. They have one son,
Augustus .\. Carpenter, Jr., and one daughter, Anne,
the wife of John E. Newell.

George T. Smith was born at Providence, Rhode
Island, May 10, 1849. When he was eight years old -
his parents moved to Lockport, Illinois, and in 1865
they came to Chicago. He received his education in
the public schools of Lockport and at Eastman’s Busi-
ness College at Poughkeepsie, New York, devoting
himself to his studies with such earnestness that he was
able, when only sixteen years of age, to accept a posi-
tion as bookkeeper and general clerk in the office of
Spruance, Preston & Co., then a prominent firm on the
Board of Trade. He remained with them for eight
years and in 1873 went into the commission business
for himself. Two years later he formed a partnership
with Mr. Henry G. Gaylord, under the name of Smith
& Gaylord, but this association only continued for two
years, since which time Mr. Smith has conducted his
business individually.
THE

 

GEORGE T. SMITH.

Asa member of the Board of Trade Mr.
Smith has always been active in its best
interests. In 1878 and 1879 he was ap-
pointed a member of the arbitration com-
mittee of that body and the following two
years served on the committee of appeals.
He was elected second vice-president in
1884 and first vice-president in 1885.

Several times efforts have been made to
induce Mr. Smith to become president of
the board, but he has always declined the
honor because of his own large business
interests that claim his attentions and often
demand his absence from the city. These
interests, aside from his business on the
board, include large real estate and finan-
cial enterprises in this and other cities.
He is also a member of the board of di-
rectors of the Diamond Match Company,
the City Railway Company, First Nationai
Bank, Equitable Trust Company and other
corporations. Ile has been an extensive
traveler and has completed the circuit of
the globe by visiting the principal coun-
tries of Europe, China, Japan, Palestine
and the Indies.

THE CONTINENTAL NATIONAL BANK
OF CHICAGO.

The Continental National Bank of Chi-
cago was organized February 20, 1883.
It is the first bank ever founded in this

 

 

CITY OF CHICAGO. 149

city with a paid-in capital of $2,000,000. The gentle-
men who took part in its organization, and who consti-
tuted its first board of directors, were Philip D. Armour,
Henry Botsford, A. G. Van Schaick, R. T. Crane, James
H. Dole, \W. G. Hibbard, Marcus C. Stearns, Calvin T.
Wheeler and John C. Black.

Calvin T. Wheeler, formerly president of the Union
National Bank, was chosen the first president, with John
C. Black as cashier and Douglass Hoyt of East Saginaw,
Michigan, as assistant cashier. The bank opened for
business on Monday, March 5, 1883, with twenty-nine
country bank and one hundred and seventy city accounts.
Since then the progress of the institution has been most
satisfactory to those interested, semi-annual dividends
of three per cent having been paid on its capital each
year from June, 1884.

On January 11, 1887, Mr. Black was elected to the
office of vice-president and Mr. Hoyt to the office of
cashier; Ira P Bowen, being taken from the ranks of
the employes, was appointed to fill the position of assist-
ant cashier.

 

 

 

 

THE CONTINENTAL NATIONAL BANK.
180

Calvin T. Wheeler resigned as president on June 2,
1888, and at a meeting of the directors, held the follow-
ing July, Mr. Black was chosen to the executive office,
John R. Winterbotham being elected to fill the position
of vice-president made vacant by Mr. Black's promotion.

Mr. Isaac N. Perry, formerly cashier of the Union
National Bank of La Crosse, Wisconsin, was elected
second vice-president January 13, 1891, and a year later,
on the resignation of Mr. Winterbotham, was chosen
to fill the position of vice-president.

Mr. Hoyt, after being connected with the bank for
ten years, resigned his position as cashier in April, 1892,
owing to ill health.

In November, 1897, George M. Reynolds, the then
president of the Des Moines National Bank, was elected
cashier. Mr. A. V. Shoemaker, who had been appointed
assistant cashier in 1892, resigned his position in Janu-
ary, 1898, and Benjamin S. Mayer, the discount clerk
of the bank since its organization, was appointed to fill
the vacancy.

The bank moved to its present quarters at the cor-
ner of Adams and La Salle streets in 1885, purchasing
the building in which its offices are located in 1892.
On three former occasions it has been necessary to
extend its working space, and to enlarge its offices has
taken the floor above its present banking room.

The entire business of the International Bank was
purchased February 21, 1898, and the late president of
that institution, Berthold Loewenthal, was elected a
member of the board of directors.

On November 5, 1898, the Continental National
Bank purchased the assets of the Globe National Bank.

-\t the present time the bank is carrying $16,000,000
of loans and deposits approximately of $23,000,000. It
is also the depository of the Board of Trade Clearing-
house and United States depository.

The present officers are: President, John C. Black;
vice-president, Isaac N. Perry; cashier George M. Rey-
nolds ; assistant cashier, Ira P. Bowen; assistant cashier,
Benjamin S. Mayer. The directors are: John C.
Black, Isaac N. Perry, Berthold Loewenthal, Roswell
Miller, J. Ogden Armour, William G. Hibbard, James
H. Dole, Henry Botsford and Henry C. Durand.

Isaac Newton Perry. Among the enterprising
men of the typical American city is one who
by his indomitable enerey and persevering work
has deeply impressed his personality upon it and
its institutions during the past eight years. Born
in the Empire State,of parents of good English ancestry,
who during his early years moved to the heart of the
Great West and settled in Kane County, Hlinois, where,
as a boy, Isaac N. Perry lived on a farm and formed
those habits of industry that have proven the best inheri-
tance of the American boy. Here he attended the com-
mon school at Kaneville, where independence and indi-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

viduality were developed as mental qualities, while the
pure air of the prairies, the simple habits of farm life
and the freedom of the country developed a physique
sufficient for the battle of life. Later, this sturdy edu-
cation was supplemented by the advantages of Jenning’s
Seminary at Aurora.

Mr. Perry entered on his business career as a clerk
in a dry-goods store at Aurora at the age of sixteen,
and before arriving at his majority secured a position
in the First National Bank of that city, but after two
years’ service there he resigned his position to embark in
the dry-goods business on his own account, as a member
of the firm of Perry Brothers of Rochelle, where he soon
became a leading young business man. In 1873 he

 

ISAAC NEWTON PERRY.

was tendered the position of cashier of the Rochelle
National Bank. This was the tide in his affairs and was
taken at the ebb.

After serving the Rochelle National Bank in the
capacity of cashier twelve years he was invited to a
larger field at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he organ-
ized the Union National Bank and became its cashier.
During the following six years he saw this institution
grow to become one of the leading banks of Western
Wisconsin. On January 10, 1891, he was offered the
position of vice-president of the Continental National
Bank of Chicago, an institution of such standing in the
commercial world as to give the widest opportunities
for work and development in his chosen business.

Mr. Perry is identified with a number of interests
outside the banking business, and has, during the past
fifteen years, been vice-president and treasurer of the
THE CITY

OF CHICAGO.

151

 

_ Star Coal Company of Streator, Il-
linois, one of the large coal-pro-
ducing concerns in this state. He
is an indefatigable worker, and,
aside from the cares of business,
has given much careful study to
the financial questions that from
time to time disturb the country
politically and financially, in addi-
tion to having kept abreast of cur-
rent topics.

Mr. Perry finds time to identify
himself with such organizations of
this city as the Union League
Club, the Hamilton Club and the
Bankers’ Association.

Now in the prime of life, holding
a most responsible position among
the busy men of this busy city, the
subject of this sketch illustrates
the possibilities of the young man
of the great West, whose sole cap-
ital is a clear head and a sound
body, supported by indomitable
courage and constant persever-
ance.

THE MERCHANTS’ NATIONAL
BANK.

The Merchants’ National Bank
was organized in 1864 by Chaun-
cey B. Blair, who at that time was
a private banker. He held the
controlling interest until his death
in 1891 and since that time the
estate interest has been under the
management of his son, Chauncey
J. Blair.

The bank has an enviable reputation and is known
as one of the most conservative in the city. It receives
the accounts of banks, bankers, merchants, manufac-
turers and individuals on the most liberal terms consis-
tent with sound banking, and advances money at all
times upon approved securities or names.

The capital stock is $1,000,000 and the surplus of
like amount, while the undivided profits at the close of
business December 2, 1899, amounted to $778,688.49.
Deposits at that time amounted to over thirteen and a
quarter million dollars. The bank also has a large
number of safety deposit vaults in the basement, which
are well patronized.

The officers of the bank are Chauncey J. Blair, presi-
dent; Frederick W. Crosby, vice-president; Henry A.
Blair, second vice-president; John C. Neely, cashier;
Edwin H. Gamble, assistant cashier.

The directors are John P, Wilson, Chauncey J. Blair,

 

BANK

Pte ee

 

 

THE MERCHANTS’ NATIONAL BANK.

Martin A. Ryerson, Watson F. Blair, Henry A. Blair,
Frederick W. Crosby, John C. Neely.

THE CHICAGO NATIONAL BANK’S NEW
BUILDING.

A glance at the illustration of the new home to
be erected for the Chicago National Bank shows that
it meets the two essential requirements of bank archi-
tecture—solidity and taste. The adaptability of the
structure to the business for which it was specially
designed may be better understood by reading the fol-
lowing description of the design, prepared by the archi-
tects, Messrs. Jenney & Mundie of Chicago:

“The motive of the architects was to produce a
building that would suggest to the casual passer that
the building was unquestionably a bank.

“The lot is ninety feet frontage on Monroe street,
fifty feet east of La Salle street, by a depth extending
152 THE -CITY OF CHICAGO.

south 188 feet. The building covers the entire lot and “The roof over the bank is of saw-tooth shape, tak-
will be fireproof. ing its light entirely from the north, so as not to be

“For the sake of appearance the front of the building inconvenienced by direct sunshine. These skylights

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHICAGO NATIONAL BANK.

is three stories, or about sixty-five feet high, for a depth extend entirely across the building, so as to give abun-
of about fifty feet. The balance of the building is the dance of light. The ceiling is of ornamental glass in
bankrcom, and is but a single story in height. panels. The bankroom wi!l be 86x136 feet
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

“The front is entirely of Bedford stone and divided
into five bays or tiers of openings. The three central
are built on the lot line. The two side ones recede six
feet, so as to give a marked prominence to the entrance
pavilion. The order of architecture is Corinthian, the
entablature eight feet wide, extending entirely across
the front. The central portion consists of four huge
Corinthian columns, fifty feet in height, four feet in
diameter at the base, surmounted by a pediment. The
two extremes to the east and west are terminated by a
Corinthian pilaster.

“Tnterior.—The first story, including the bankroom,
will be wainscoted the entire height of the walls in
marble; the ceiling in ornamental glass in panels. The
woodwork will be mahogany. The use of the two upper
stories in front is not yet determined.

“The basement will be fitted up for safety-deposit
vaults, with fine broad marble entrance and stairway
from the first floor. The finish of the basement will be
largely in marble.

“The vault work will be all that is most modern and
that offers the greatest security.

“The work on the designs will be commenced imme-
diately on the building the first of May, which is as soon
as possession can be obtained.

“The cost of the building proper—i. e, without
vaults or vault fixtures—is estimated at $250,000.”

It may be justly said that the Chicago National Bank
deserves to be thus fitly housed, for its career has been
one of marked success. Commencing business Janu-
ary 9, 1882, it has paid annual dividends as follows: For
the first five years, 6 per cent; for the second five years,
8 per cent; for the third five years, 12 per cent, and
since then, 15 per cent. On a capital of $500,000 it has
accumulated, in addition, a surplus of $500,000, and
undivided profits of $194,972.

THE COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK.

The organization of the Commercial National Bank
was begun at a meeting held December 12, 1864. The
bank was authorized by Hon. Hugh McCulloch, then
comptroller of the currency, to begin business January
13, 1865. Those who were active in its beginning were
P. R. Westfall, who was the first president of the bank;
R. B. Ennis, Moses S. Bacon, Charles Ennis, W. H.
Ennis and Nicholas O. Williams. These gentlemen
composed its first board of directors. On May 16, 1868,
the following additional directors were elected: Henry
F, Eames, Wm. H. Ferry, H. Z. Culver, Henry H.
Taylor, Henry W. King, Alonzo Campbell, Wm. H.
Kretzinger, Bacon Wheeler, R. B. Mason and Alfred
Cowles, all of whom were representative citizens of
Chicago at that time, and they added greatly to the
future success of the institution. The capital stock
paid in was $200,000 and the report for September, 1866,

153

shows the deposits at that time to have been $506,-
302.50. At the beginning of the next year Mr. Albert
Keep and Mr. E. F. Pulsifer were added to the board
of directors and the capital stock was increased to
$500,000.

The growth of the bank was constant and uniform
from the start, and among its customers were many of
the most substantial men of the city; all of which was
the direct result of the standing and ability of the men
who stood as the representatives of the institution and
directed its wise and conservative policy.

 

 

 

 

 

“THE COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK.

From time to time important additions were made
to the directory. S. W. Rawson became a director in
1868; D. K. Pearsons in 1873; N. K. Fairbank in 1876;
Franklin MacVeagh and George L. Otis in 1880;

‘Henry Field, O. W. Potter and Jesse Spalding in 1885;

Norman Williams in 1888; \Wm. J. Chalmers in 1891;
and James H. Eckels, John C. McKeon and Robert T.
Lincoln in January, 1898. Mr. Wm. H. Ferry was
vice-president from May, 1866, to March, 1880, and
George L. Otis from January, 1881, to 1885; Mr. Henry
Field from 1885 to 1890; Mr. O. W. Potter from 1890
to 1896.
‘154

The office of president was filled continuously by
Mr. Henry F. Eames from 1867 to 1897, and under his
guidance the bank prospered and became one of the
leading financial institutions in Chicago. Deposits in-
creased during his term from $506,300 to more than
$9,000,000, and to his wise and careful management,
supported by the directory, is due in a large measure
the success which the bank has enjoyed.

On March 20, 1886, the capital was increased to
$1,000,000, which was done entirely from accumulated
earnings. :

On January 1, 1898, Mr. James H. Eckels, former
comptroller of the currency, was elected president. The
reputation as a financier which he brought to the insti-
tution caused a marked increase in its business, which
is best shown perhaps by the increase in its deposits
from about $9,000,000, at the time he took charge, to
over $19,000,000 at the close of his second year, as chief
executive. The statement of December 2, 1899, shows
a surplus fund of $1,000,000, in addition to the capital
stock of like amount, and undivided profits of $262,-
321.63. .

The present officers of the Commercial National
Bank are: James H. Eckels, president ; John C. McKeon,
vice-president; David Vernon, second vice-president,
and Joseph T. Talbert, cashier, N. R. Losch, assistant
cashier. The directors are Franklin MacVeagh, Jesse
Spalding, N. K. Fairbank, Wm. J. Chalmers, James H.
Eckels, John C. McKeon and Robert T. Lincoln.

James H. Eckels, president of the Commercial Na-
tional Bank, is a native of Illinois and was born at Prince-
ton, on November 22, 1858. After a course through
the public schools of Princeton he entered the Albany
Law School at Albany, New York, graduating there-
from in 1880 and returning immediately to the West to
engage in the practice of his profession at Ottawa, Ili-
nois. He was successful from the start and gained
more than local renown and distinction as an orator of
ability.

He first came into national prominence, however, in
1893, when President Cleveland appointed him comp-
troller of the currency, a position second only in impor-
tance to that of secretary of the treasury. The appoint-
ment of so young, and, as yet, an untried man, brought
severe criticism upon the chief executive, but the Presi-
dent was confident in the wisdom of his selection and
asked those who deprecated the appointment to suspend
judgment until judgment was warranted by the logic of
events.

It was only a few weeks after Mr. Eckels took charge
of the office of comptroller that the great panic of 1893
burst upon the land. One hundred and sixty-five na-
tional banks failed during the following ten weeks and
a period of apprehension and anxiety such as the finan-
cial interests of the country never knew before followed.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Out of these one hundred and sixty-five banks, one
hundred and fifteen resumed, of which number only
fifteen fell back again, leaving one hundred saved from
the original number. There was collected and paid out
to depositors of failed banks over $28,000,000, or over
36-per cent of all that had been paid out in the history
of the system. There were many other banks that had
to be carefully nursed and protected in order to enable
them to pull through and altogether it was a time of
unceasing strain and anxiety.

It was a herculean task for the new comptroller, but
his strength and sagacity were equal to the emergency.
The statement has been made of him that he “never
made a mistake” during the four years and a half that

 

 

JAMES H. ECKELS.

he was at the helm. Certain it was that by his admin-
istration of the arduous duties devolving upon him he
won the respect and admiration of financiers both at
home and abroad and has taken rank as among the
ablest of those who ever held the office of comptroller.
After the election of President McKinley, when it
was known that Mr. Eckels would return to private life,
he was the recipient of many flattering offers from finan-
cial institutions. Being an Illinoisan by birth, he con-
sequently felt more at home here and accepted the presi-
dency of Commercial National Bank of this city and
assumed his duties on the first of January, 1808.

He associated with him as vice-president John C.
McKeon, who had been national bank examiner and
receiver of the National Bank of Illinois under him, and
as cashier, Joseph T. Talbert, who had also been one of
his national bank examiners,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 155

Mr. Eckels was married in 1887 to Miss Fannie Reed
of Ottawa, and has one child, Phoebe, aged eight years.
David Vernon, second vice-president of the Com-
mercial National Bank, was born in Kendall County,
Illinois, December 10, 1837, the son of William and
Sarah W. Vernon. His early life was spent on the farn.

 

DAVID VERNON.

and his education was acquired in the district school
near his home, and later in the public schools of Chi-
cago, to which city he came with his parents when but
a lad of ten years of age.

When he was seventeen he secured a position with
the exchange bank of H. A. Tucker & Co., then doing
business on the corner of Clark and Lake streets, a loca-
tion which in those days was the center of the banking
interests of Chicago. He remained in their employ as a
bookkeeper until 1861, when he left in order to accept a
more promising situation with a transportation com-

pany, of which Thomas Hale was the head, and where

for three years he filled the numerous and sometimes
extremely arduous duties of bookkeeper, cashier and
general manager.

His next business experience was with the Chicago
branch of Dolber, Bott & Co. of Albany, New
York, manufacturers and dealers in fancy papers. He
remained with them for several years and finally, in con-
nection with Mr. T. S. Gillett, bought them out and
continued the business under the name of Gillett &
Vernon until 1869, when Mr. Vernon disposed of his

interest and accepted a position as bookkeeper with the
Commercial National Bank.
For nearly thirty years Mr. Vernon has been contin-

uously in the service of this financial institution, and in
this time he has worked his way up through the various
positions in the bank to that of second vice-president,
to which office he was elected January 1, 1898. His
promotions have been gradual, but due in every case
to his faithful, conscientious work and the appreciation
of his efforts by his superior officers.

Mr. Vernon was married to Miss Julia R. Graves,
daughter of Warren M. Graves of Sunderland, Massa-
chusetts. They have a family of five children.

THE FORT DEARBORN NATIONAL BANK.

The Fort Dearborn National Bank commenced busi-
ness in 1887 with a capital of $500,000. It was first
located at No. 185-187 Dearborn street, but in May,
1895, it moved into the large twelve-story building at
the corner of Clark and Monroe streets.

 

 

 

 

 

THE FORT DEARBORN NATIONAL BANK.

Mr. John A. King, the present president of the
bank, assumed that position in 1889, about two years
after its organization. The cashier and second vice-
president, Mr. L. A. Goddard, dates his connection with
the institution from August 1, 1892. The other officers
of the bank are Mr. J. H. Witbeck, vice-president, and
156

Mr. Nelson N. Lampert, assistant cashier, with the fol-
lowing as constituting the board of directors: John A.
King, H. E. Bucklen, Walter S. Bogle, George Keller,
P. H. Rice, John H. Witbeck, E. D. Stevens, Frank
J. Smith, W. P. Rend, L. A. Goddard, Chas. A. Pla-
mondon.

The Fort Dearborn National Bank, as will be seen,
is not an old institution, yet it has paid in dividends
to stockholders to date $210,000 and established a sur-
plus fund of $100,000, and its business is on a larger
basis now than at any time during its existence.

John A. King. A thoroughly typical American, of
the class that has been so prominent in the upbuilding
of the great West, is John A. King, president of the

 

 

 

 

JOHN A. KING.

Fort Dearborn National Bank. For nearly forty years
he has been a representative business man and citizen
of this city, completely identified with all that is to the
best interest of the city and an honest worker at ail
times for its advancement and improvement. For many
years he was counted among the leading whelesale mer-
chants of this great Western metropolis and achieved
an enviable reputation for ability, integrity, business
foresight and capacity for the management of large
affairs.

Like so many of America’s famous men, Mr. King
comes of good old colonial stock on both sides. The
King family came originally from France, while the
Hadleys were of English extraction. Both branches
were among the earliest settlers of New England. John
A. King’s father, William M. King, was born at the old
town of Salisbury, Connecticut, and spent his early

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

years in the Puritan environment of the “Land of
Steady Habits.” In 1821 he removed from Salisbury
to the town of De Witt, in Onondaga County, New
York, where he bought a farm and also engaged in the
manufacture of lime and plaster. In 1829 he married
Hannah Hadley, daughter of Hiram Hadley of Middle-
bury, Vermont, a descendant of another distinguished
New England family.

John A. King was born on his father’s farm in the
town of De Witt, Onondaga County, New York, in
1834. He was but six years old at the time of his father’s
death, and he passed from the sports and frolics of
healthy boyhood to the stern realities of life at a very
early age, for in 1843, when he was but nine years old,
the family necessities obliged him to seek employment
in order to assist in its support. In that year he went
to work for Ansel Murray of Syracuse and was employed
in drawing pump logs. During the winter months he
attended the local schools and strove earnestly to acquire
a practical education. For several years he continued
to work at teaming in the summer, attending school in
the winter. At the age of fifteen he entered the em-
ployment of the grocery firm of D. B. Brickford &
Son and was soon recognized as a valuab!e employe.
From Brickford’s he went to the Mechanics’ Bank of
Syracuse as messenger, remaining with this bank for
several years and rising through various grades to the
position of teller. On leaving the bank Mr. King en-
gaged in mercantile business in Toledo, Ohio, meet-
ing with considerable success, but after two years he
so!d out and made a trip through Kentucky, Tennessee
and Missouri, seeking a suitable opportunity for the
employment of his business ability and untiring energy.
In 1861, not finding the opening he sought, he came
to Chicago. In a short time after his arrival here he
secured employment with the leading distilling firm of
S. M. Nickerson & Co. as bookkeeper and remained
with that house for some years, later becoming the
treasurer of the corporation in which it was. finally
merged. Myr. Nickerson, the head of this firm, is the
well-known president of the First National Bank of
Chicago,

In March, 1867, Mr. King went into the wholesale
drug business with two partners. Two years later he
bought out the interest of one and some time afterward
that of the other, continuing the business as sole pro-
prietor. The great fire of October 9, 1871, swept away
his store with thousands of others. Mr. King did not
know of the fire until six o’clock Monday morning, when
it was still burning furiously in the heart of the city.
He at once had a team hitched up and started out to
see what could be done, and what he accomplished is
not only strikingly characteristic of the man, but affords
a clue to the secret of the remarkable success which has
always attended his business ventures. Meeting on the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

street a man who was in his employ, he told him to
instruct all the other employes he could find to go to
his partner’s house, which was nearer than his own.
On his way to his store, then a heap of ruins, he met a
director of the bank with which he did business and
asked him for a loan of money, enough to buy a new
stock of goods. Mr. S. M. Nickerson, the director in
question, told him he was surely the first applicant. He
went to his partner’s house about eight o’clock and soon
the men in his employ began to come in, as he had
ordered. Mr. King asked his partner if he had got a
store, and the latter replied, ‘““No; there are no stores.”
Mr. King insisted that there were stores to be had and
that he was going to have one. His partner remon-
strated, saying, ‘““We will get no insurance; the insurance
companies will all stop.” ‘It matters not,” said Mr.
King, “my wife and children -must live.” In an hour
he had a store on West Lake street. Before noon his
books were in the store and he was at work fitting it up
for business. Two weeks from that day his men were
selling goods in all the Western states. He was the
only whotesale druggist among those burned out who
got a store.

Mr. King carried on the drug business successfully
until January, 1888, when he sold out to Morrisson,
Plummer & Co. and the firm of John A. King & Co.
- went out of existence. ,

In the fall of 1888 Mr. King and John J. McGarth
bought a controlling interest in the McAvoy Brewing
Company, and the following March sold the property to
‘an English syndicate for $1,400,000. Mr. King’s re-
markable business ability was conspicuously shown in
carrying out this big transaction to a successful and prof-
itable conclusion.

In April, 1889, a committee of the directors of the
Fort Dearborn National Bank waited on Mr- King and
asked him to take charge of its affairs. The bank was
then two years old and had not made a success. He
was not even a stockholder in the bank when asked to
become its president. On April 22, 1889, he took
charge of the institution, made a careful examination
and assessed the stockholders for an amount sufficient
to restore its impaired capital and place the bank on its
feet. Under his management the bank has grown and
prospered. Its business is now four times as great as
when Mr. King took charge and it has earned six per
cent since that time and pays regular quarterly divi-
dends. As a banker Mr. King holds high rank, being
universally considered one of the safest and most con-
servative men charged with the direction of Chicago’s
Principal financial institutions.

Mr. King is a man of very strong opinions and has
in the highest degree the courage of his convictions.
He has long been recognized as one of the leading Dem-
ocrats of the city, a liberal contributor to the support

157

of the party’s policies and candidates, and a power in
its councils. Like all financiers of his standing, how-
ever, he is a stanch supporter of the gold standard.
He has often been solicited to accept political office,
but with one exception has always declined. In 1889
he accepted the Democratic nomination for trustee of
the Sanitary District and was elected in December of
that year. The great Drainage Canal was justly regarded
as an enterprise of supreme importance to the health
and future welfare of the city, and as the head of the
Democratic ticket Mr. King hoped to be instrumental
in carrying this mighty work to a successful conclusion.
A citizens’ movement, however, elected six out of the
nine trustees, leaving the Democratic members a helpless
minority of three. The majority proved incapable and
the affairs of the board became chaotic. Mr. King, find-
ing himself powerless in this situation, resigned in July,
1891. Other resignations fol!owed and Mr. King took
an active interest in the campaign in the fall of that
year, by which the board was reorganized on a non-
partisan basis and the great work successfully inaugu-
rated. His interest in the enterprise has continued and
he has been prompt to act in its behalf whenever he
could be useful in any way in aiding its progress.

Mr. King is a charter member of the Illinois Club
and is also a member of the Iroquois and Union League
clubs. He is a Mason of high degree and prominent
among the Knights Templar for many years. Mr. King
has resided for many years on the West Side of the city,
having a beautiful home on Ash!and boulevard, where
he dispenses an o!d-fashioned hospitality. Wholly with-
out ostentation, straightforward, plain-spoken and
always going directly to the point of the matter under
consideration, Mr. King impresses those who meet him
for the first time as a man of much solidity of character,
positive in his views and firm in holding any position
he may take up. His personality is notable for its
strength and stability and fully accounts for the promi-
nent place he has attained in the business world.

THE DROVERS’ NATIONAL BANK.

The Drovers’ National Bank was organized in 1883
with a capital of $100,000, and began business in the
building two doors north of the corner of South Hal-
sted and Forty-second streets. Its officers at that time
were Solva Brintnall, president; A. D. Lamb, vice-presi-
dent, and William H. Brintnall, cashier.

The location which it had chosen near the main
entrance to the Union Stock Yards seems to have been
particularly fortunate, and one which supplied a long-felt
need for a banking house within convenient reach of this
great center of activity. From the time it first opened
its doors for business its growth has been encouraging,
and less than four years after its establishment, its capital
was increased to $250,000, and it was only a matter of
158

a few years longer, until it was found that more com-
modious quarters were necessary for the transaction of
its business. Accordingly, a substantial structure was
erected by the Drovers’ Safe Deposit Company on the
southeast corner of Halsted and Forty-second streets,
which was taken possession of in 1895. Special atten-
tion had been given to the construction of this building
to the needs of the bank, and the result is one of the most
conveniently arranged banking offices in the city.

The business of the institution is about equally
divided between the firms of the stockyards proper, of
manufacturers, and of individuals. Its deposit vaults
are always secure and offer every comfort to its patrons.

The last statement of the institution shows the results
of.careful and judicious management on the part of its
executive officers. In addition to its capital it has a
surplus fund of $100,000, and undivided profits to the
amount of $102,150.84, while the deposits at the close
of business, December 2, 1900, amounted to $2,962,-
882.26.

Its present officers are William H. Brintnall, presi-
dent; John Brown, vice-president; William A. Tilden,
cashier. Its board of directors consists of Edward Til-

 

 
  
 

“epepeer it ctrtctr iy irt cred

ko

THE CITY GF CHICAGO,

den, Charles L. Shattuck, James P. Sherlock, M. F. Rit-
tenhouse, John Brown, Solva Brintnall, William H.
Brintnall.

Solva Brintnall. It is always interesting to study
the lives and characters of men who have risen, through
their own efforts, to positions of prominence, and when
we trace the careers of those who stand highest in public
esteem and who are acknowledged by ail to be successful
men, we find, without exception, that they are the ones
who have made their way, step by step, from the bottom
of the ladder, overcoming obstacles and opposition by
their energy, perseverence, and self-reliance, and event-
ually winning the success for which they had so long
striven.

Such a man is Solva Brintnall, until January of this
year president of the Drovers’ National Bank. ‘Born in
Schoharie County, New York, October 24, 1817, the son
of Solva Brintnall, a soldier of the War of 1812, and of
Betsy (Stannard) Brintnall, he comes from old Colonial
families on both his father’s and mother’s side, the
members of which were remarkable for their longevity.
His parents were among the pioneers of that part of
New York state now known as Lewis County, where
they had taken up new
land, when he was about
five vears of age, and from
which they had been
| obliged to clear the native
| timber in order to prepare
| the ground for the sowing

of the seed for their first

crop. Until he was nine-
| teen vears of age, he as-
 sistedshis father on the
| farm, and his schooling
was therefore limited to
attending a district school,
one winter, in Watertown,
New York. Leaving the
farm at the age of which
we have just mentioned,
Mr. Brintnall began his
career as a railroad builder
on the New York Central
Railroad, and two vears
later found him engaged
in the same kind of work
on the New York & Lake
Erie Railroad. He was
also. employed on_ the
great canal system in the
construction of the Black
River Canal, and in 1839

 

THE DROVERS’ NATIONAL BANK.

and 1840 doing some par-
ticularly heavy work on
 

 

 

 

SOLVA BRINTNALL.

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

that canal at Jordan in the same state. In.1841, however,
he returned to the construction of railroads and assisted
in the building of a road from Auburn to Canandaigua,
and from 1843 to 1846 he was engaged on the extension
of the Miami Canal, then being constructed from Cin-
cinnati to Fort Wayne.

It was in this last-named year that Mr. Brintnall

began his career in the hardware business, which he fol-_

lowed for a period of thirty-seven years. His first loca-
tion was in Batavia, New York, from which he afterward
removed to Attica, and from there again in 1854, to Sus-
pension Bridge, where he remained until 1863. In this

159

Mr. Brintnall was married in 1846 to a daughter of
Thomas H. Hurd of Alexander, New York. Three
children were born of this marriage: William H. Brint-
nall, who now holds the position of president of the
Drovers’ National Bank, to which position he was
elected to succeed his father, January 9, 1900; George S.
Brintnall of McPherson, Kansas, who died in 1886, and
Mrs. M. F. Perry of Seattle, Washington.

Mrs. Brintnall died in October, 1875, and in 1878
Mr. Brintnall was married again, this time to Miss
Leonice Woodford (daughter of the late O. F. Wood-
ford of this city), who died in October, 1896.

 

 

THE ILLINOIS TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK.

year he came to Chicago, establishing himself in the
hardware and stove business. After three years he
entered into partnership with Messrs. Terry and Belden,
and began a wholesale hardware business, under the style
of Brintnall, Terry & Belden. In 1876 Mr. Lamb pur-
chased Mr. Terry’s interest, and the firm became known
as Brintnall, Lamb & Co. Thus it remained until 1883,
when the entire business was disposed of to Messrs.
Keith, Benham & Desendorf.

Mr. Brintnall organized the Drovers’ National Bank
shortly after disposing of his interest in the hardware
business, and became president of it at that time. To
his sound and careful judgment is due the great success
of this institution and its recognized stability.

THE ILLINOIS TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK.

The Illinois Trust and Savings Bank was organized
May 7, 1873, commencing business on the northwest
corner of Madison and Market streets. The capital
stock at that time was $100,000, and the first president
of the bank was Mr. L. B. Sidway. In 1875 a change of
location was made to Clark street, between Washington
and Madison, and the bank’s growth continuing with
increased force, a second change became imperative in
1878, when the quarters so long occupied by the Old
Fidelity Bank were taken after the failure of the last-
named institution. During that year President Sidway
retired from the control of the affairs of the bank, and
160

H. G. Powers assumed the direction of the financial
management. Je continued in charge until 1880, when
the present president, John J. Mitchell, was chosen to
succeed him. Under the wise and energetic administra-
tion of President Mitchell the deposits soon reached the
sum of $1,000,000, an excellent showing for that time,
and especially by so comparatively a young concern.
Here the Hlinois Trust and Savings Bank did a con-
stantly increasing business for ten years, eight of which
were under the active and personal management of
President Mitchell. No better illustration of Mr.
Mitchell’s success could be cited than the fact that when
the increased demands for greater facilities, in 1888,
demanded and made imperative a third removal, the
capital stock had been increased to $2,000,000, a sum
twenty times greater than the original capital, and a sur-
plus of $2,500,000 had been accumulated, and at a later
date again increased to $3,000,000. The ground floor cf
the Rockery was chosen as the new location, and so
commodious and extensive were these quarters that the
most sanguine friend of the bank would have declared
no further change ever would become necessary. But
such has been the success of the bank, both in its bank-
ing, trust and savings departments, under its present
efficient management, that even the commodious quar-
ters in the Rockery proved too small. An opportunity
was afforded for the building of a permanent home on
La Salle street, between Jackson and Quincy streets, and
this building, which was completed in the early part of
1897, at a cost of about $600,000, is probably one of the
most complete banking structures in the world.

The officers of the bank are as follows: John J.
Mitchell, president; William H. Mitchell, vice-presi-
dent; WH. Reid, second vice-president; F. T. Haskell,
third vice-president; James S. Gibbs, cashier; B. M.
Chattell, assistant cashier; William H. Henkle, sec-
retary.

John J. Mitchell.

hereditary.

It is often said that genius is not
If the rule be sound as a generality, Mr.
Mitchell's career must be taken as an exception to it.
At the time of his election to the office that he now holds,
that of president of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank,
he was the youngest presiding officer of any metro-
politan bank in the United States. Under his manage-
ment the institution has attained financial eminence
that falls little, if at all, short of the degree of preémi-
nence. He was barn at Alton, in this state, November
3, 1853, and is the son of William H. Mitchell, who for
many years was president of the First National Bank of
that city, and who was one of the earliest and largest
stockholders of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank,
with the management of which he is still connected.
Though the circumstances of his parents were such
as to render his early entrance on a business career

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

unnecessary, the inherited financial tendency of Mr,
Mitchell was so strong as to impel him to follow in his
father’s steps; accordingly, after a common school edu-
cation and a brief period of study in the Waterville,
Maine, Institute, he entered as messenger boy in the
bank of which he is now president. The step was charac-
teristic—he cdloubtless might have gone into the bank, at
least, as clerk, but he preferred to make himself familiar

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN J. MITCHELL.

with every detail of the business. His promotions were
gradual, the functions of teller, cashier and president
having been performed by him. In addition to the
pressing duties of his office in the Illinois Trust and
Savings Bank, Mr. Mitchell acts as director of the
Chicago Stock Exchange and of the Traders’ Insurance
Company.

William Hamilton Mitchell was born March 9, 1817,
in Belmont County, Ohio. His father, James Mitchell,
and his mother, prior to her marriage Miss Elizabeth
McCollough, resided on a farm, which, after the manner
of \Western farms eighty years ago, was not productive
of revenue sufficient for production of many of the
luxuries of life, and eighty vears ago Ohio was regarded
as in “the far West.” Mr. Mitchell worked on_ his
father's farm until he was twenty-three vears of age, and
then assayed a trip to New Orleans on a flatboat laden
with flour. Five or six trips were made by the young
adventurer and future leader in finance before he left
Ohio and chose Illinois for his home in 1848, and at
least one trip was made after he had settled in his new
home. Toward the close of 1848, Mr. Mitchell and his
brother John, in association with others, bought out
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the Alton Manufacturing Company. This company had
done alittle of everything ; it had loaned money on lands,
had traded in lands, and had established a milling busi-
ness at Alton, then one of the chief cities of the state.
Singularly enough, considering that he was destined
to acquire fame and fortune as a dealer in money, Mr.
Mitchell advised and prevailed on his partners to re-
linquish the money loaning and land trading branches
of the Alton Manufacturing Company’s business, and to
confine their efforts to devetoping the milling trade,
which appears to have been made profitable in their
hands. In 1849, leaving the Alton business in the hands
of his brother John, Mr. Mitchell set out for California
by way of the then arduous overland route. Seven

 

 

WILLIAM HAMILTON MITCHELL.

months were spent in the journey to and from the Golden
State—the two trips now can be made in seven days.
Fifteen months were spent by Mr. Mitchell in trading
with the miners at Colonna, the point at which gold was
first discovered in California. On his return to Illinois
Mr. Mitchell became an active promoter and _ stock-
holder in the Alton Packet Company. The steamboats
of this company ran between Alton and St. Louis, the
river then being the only practicable highway between
these cities. About this time Mr. W. H. Mitchell and
his brother John sold out their interests in the Alton
Manufacturing Company and the Alton Packet Com-
pany. Mr. W. H. Mitchell threw himself with charac-
teristic energy and foresight into the construction of the
Alton & St. Louis Railway, the completion of which
established the first complete railroad connection
between Chicago and St. Louis. Mr. W. H. Mitchell
II

161

was instrumental in the sale of the Alton & St. Louis
road to the corporation now favorably known as

Chicago & Alton; he has retained his original shares of

stock in this grand corporation, though he never has
been active in its management. While at Alton Mr.
Mitchell made his first essay in banking. Like all of his
other financial ventures it was successful. ‘The First
National Bank of Alton, of which Mr. Mitchel! was
president, closed out by paying its stockholders 160
cents on each dollar of investment, in addition to having
paid a good dividend during each year of its existence.

The large scale of Mr. Mitchell's operations had
brought him into connection with capitalists in Chicago,
and in 1874 he became a resident of this city, being
moved thereto in part by the preference of his family
for the growing city of the West. Mr. Mitchell became
a stockholder and director of the Illinois Trust and Sav-
ings Bank at the time of its organization, which was
prior to the adoption of Chicago as his permanent home.
Upon his arrival here he became active in the manage-
ment of its affairs and soon was elected third vice-presi-
dent, to succeed the late Mr. Drake. Since then, as
second and first vice-president, he has been in con-
stant touch with the management of this great finan-
cial concern. The unbounded confidence of the people
in the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank is largely
due to the constant adherence of its directors to
Mr. Mitchell's sound theory of loans—‘‘Names, how-
ever good they may be, are not securities; loan nothing
except on good collateral; the deposits entrusted to the
bank are sacred trusts that must not be endangered
by speculative or personal loans.”

In politics Mr. Mitchell is Republican. By religious
affiliation he is an Episcopalian, and holds membership
in Trinity Church. He is not a club man; even the
famous Union League has not attracted him to its mem-
bership. The Churchman’s Club is the only social organ-
ization that holds his name on its books. His tastes are
preéminently domestic and rural; indeed, he still spends
a great portion of his time in the country, and is more
enthusiastic upon the topic of crops than of currency.
The passion for farm life with its simple pleasures and
healthful mode of life is strong in him, and doubtless
has been conducive to the prolongation of his bodily
and mental vigor into years that pass the psalmist’s
allotted “threescore years and ten.” Mr. Mitchell comes
of Scotch-Irish stock, his father having moved from a
Scotch-Irish district in Pennsylvania just one hundred
years ago to Belmont County, Ohio, where in company
with others of like origin they formed a settlement that
is known to this day as Scotch Hill, and where many
descendants of the pioneers still hold the land purchased
by their ancestors from the government.

Mr. Mitchell has been thrice married: firstly, in 1852,
to Mrs. N. Small; next in 1858 to Miss Barnes of Wills-
162

burg, Virginia, and again in 1868 to Mrs. Jennie L.
Plaisted. The surviving offspring of the first marriage
are John J. Mitchell, associated with him in the manage-
ment of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, and Mrs.
Chauncey Blair. Mrs. Elizabeth Adams (Dr. Adams)
of Kenilworth is a child of the second marriage, and
Guy Hamilton, Hortense Lenore and Margurite of the
third.

THE MERCHANTS’ LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY.

No institution can be more justly called a represent-
ative one, or is more closely identified with the city’s
financial prosperity, than the Merchants’ Loan and
Trust Company, the oldest banking institution in the
state of Illinois. Organized in 1857, at a time when the
monetary circulation of the Northwest consisted mainly
of “wildcat” currency of various degrees of worthless-
ness, and surviving in subsequent years disasters
which proved financial maelstroms to hundreds of
less fortunate organizations, it has, during its forty-
three years, of busy existence successfully coped with
almost every variety of calamity known in the annals of
banking. The bank’s doors were thrown open for busi-
ness in May, 1857, on the first floor of the old Board of
Trade Building at the corner of Water and La Salle
streets. The state charter fixed the capital stock at
$500,000, an amount that has since been increased at
various times to $2,0c0,000. Mr. John H. Dunham was
its first president and Mr. A. J. Hammond its- first
cashier. The thirteen original trustees were Isaac N.
Arnold, W. E. Doggett, D. R. Holt, William B. Ogden,
John H. Foster, Walter L. Newberry, Henry Farnum,
Jonathan Burr, George Steele, J. H. Dunham, F. B.
Cooley, A. H. Burley, and John High—names that must
awaken a host of recollections to the Chicago resident
of antebellum days. Most of these have passed to the
“great beyond,” and of those surviving only one, Mr.
A. H. Burley, is now actively identified with the institu-
tion.

A coherent account of the old “wildcat” or “stump-
tail” currency troubles, in their relation to the history
of this bank from 1857 to 1862, would fill a volume.
It can, however, be said that the Merchants’ was from
the start a pronounced and unyielding advocate of the
expulsion of the irresponsible system of banking which
ultimately flooded the country with so much irredeem-
abie currency, and inasmuch as the trustees possessed the
courage to shape the practical policy and methods of
the bank in accordance with their convictions they made
enemies. Their path was anything but a bed of roses,
and it is said that more than once bitter and determined
efforts were made to “down” the new institution, which,
however, stood its ground bravely and came through
these trying periods with flying colors.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. D. R. Holt, who had taken Mr. Hammond’s
place as cashier, resigned in 1862, and was succeeded by
Mr. Lyman J. Gage, now secretary of the treasury, and
about this time Solomon A. Smith was elected president,
discharging the duties of that office until his death in
1879. Charles Henrotin, who followed Mr. Gage, was
cashier through two calamitous periods—the great fire of
t&71 and the panic two years later. At the time of the
fire all the books were burned, but upon resuming busi-
ness a few days later the bank placed to the credit of each
depositor as he appeared the amount he claimed to have
had in their keeping and over 1,000 accounts were thus
reopened without a single note of dissatisfaction. So
prosaic and commonplace is the routine of banking
ordinarily that an incident of this kind seems almost
dramatic.

The Merchants’ seems to have been a sort of train-
ing school for bankers, for not only Mr. Gage and Mr.
Henrotin received their education behind its counters,
but Mr. M. D. Buchanan, later cashier of the Com-
mercial Bank, Mr. W. M. Scudder, at the time of his
death cashier of the Hyde and Leather Bank, and others
who have won high places in the financial world, were
also identified with this institution at one time or
another.

The last statement of the Merchants’ Loan and Trust
Company, dated December 30, 1900, shows, besides the
capital stock of $2,000,000, a surplus of $1,000,000,
undivided profits of $739,679.29, and deposits of $19,-
558,610.21. The officers are Orson Smith, president;
E. D. Hulbert, vice-president; J. G. Orchard, cashier;
F. N. Wilder, assistant cashier. The directors are:
Marshall Fie'd, Albert Keep, Lambert Tree, E. T.
Watkins, Orson Smith, Enos M. Barton, Cyrus H.
McCormick, J. W. Doane, A. H. Burley, Erskine M.
Phelps, Moses J. Wentworth, E. D. Hulbert. The Mer-
chants’ Loan and Trust Building, now being erected at
the northwest corner of Clark and Adamis streets, will
be the future home of this company. It is expected that
the building will be finished by May, 1900, and the
Merchants’ will occupy the entire bank floor with the
exception of a portion at the west end of the building,
which will be given over to the clearinghouse.

Orson Smith, president of the Merchants’ Loan and
Trust Company, has been conspicuous in all the great
movements, changes and evolutions that have tended to
make Chicago a financial center. Born in Chicago.
December 14, 1841, he received his education in the
public and private schools of this city. His ambition to
begin to battle for himself induced him to leave his
studies at an early age. When but thirteen years old he
entered the retail store of Potter Palmer as a “bundle
boy.” He remained there one year, when he secured a
position as clerk in the private banking house of F.
163

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 

 

THE MERCHANTS’ LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY.
164

Granger Adams. Had he, even at that early day, deter-
mined to become a banker, he could hardly have found
a better instructor in the intricacies of the business than
the gentleman into whose employ he entered at this time.
Mr. Adams was a successful banker, and had organized
his house in 1852. Here Mr. Smith labored for eleven
years, rising from one clerkship to the next in impor-
tance until, in 1863, a change was made in the name and
character of the bank. Mr. Adams had concluded to go
to New York City; a charter was then taken out for the
Traders’ Bank, and Mr. Adams’ private institution
became merged into a state bank of that name. Later on
the name was again changed to the Traders’ National
Bank. Mr. Smith remained through all these changes,

 

 

ORSON SMITH.

until the year 1870, reaching the position of chief clerk
and assistant cashier.

For many years Mr. Smith had been interested in the
affairs of the Board of Trade, and when, about this time,
there was organized the Corn Exchange National Bank.
the intention of the promoters being to cater largely to
Board of Trade business, he resigned from the ‘Traders’
National Bank and took a position in the new concern.
The Corn Exchange National Bank was organized with
Julian S. Rumsey as president, S. A. Kent as
vice-president, and Orson Smith as cashier. In 188
this bank went out of existence, but upon its foun-
dation another institution was started. This was a state
organization and was called the Corn Exchange Bank.
Mr. Smith was retained as cashier and held that position
until the spring of 1884, when he resigned to accept the
vice-presidency of the Merchants’ Loan and Trust Com-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

pany, and remained in that position until elected to the
presidency in 1898.

As has been mentioned, Mr. Smith was for many
vears closely identified with the affairs of the Board of
Trade. He has held many positions of trust in this body,
among them that of treasurer, to which office he was
reelected annually irom 1872 to 1878. He is interested
in the Chicago Stock Exchange and has been a member
of its governing committee, and for several years has
also been a member of the executive committee of the
Chicago Clearing House Association. Socially Mr.
Smith is well known in Chicago, and holds active mem-
bership in several of the prominent club and _ social
organizations of the city. He has never had any inclina-
tion to enter public life. His early education and busi-
ness training fitted him for a financier, and it is as a
banker that he prefers to be known.

THE AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK.

The American Trust and Savings Bank was organ-
ized in 1889 by Gilbert B. Shaw, who was for many years
its president. On -August first of that year it opened
its doors at the corner of Dearborn and Adams streets,
in the Owings Building, removing two years later
to the corner of La Salle and Madison _ streets,
where it remained until its removal in 1899 to its pres-
ent location in the New York Life Building. Besides
transacting a general banking business this institution
devotes much attention, as its name signifies, to its trust
and savings departments. Its capital stock amounts to
$1,000,000, with a surplus of $200,000; the undivided
profits on December 4, 1899, amounted to $154,655.14,
and its deposits amounted to $9,353.852.69. Its officers
are E. A. Potter, president; G. B. Shaw, vice-president ;
Joy Morton, vice-president; J. R. Chapman, cashier;
John J. Abbott, assistant cashier; O. C. Decker, second
assistant cashier: Frank H. Jones, secretary, and W. P.
Kopf, attorney trust department. Its board of directors
are: .\. Montgomery Ward, F. H. Head, E. A. Potter,
C. T. Trego, WH. MeDoel, V. A. Watkins, C. T. Nash,
G. I. Shaw, Ferd. W. Peck, Joy Morton, William Kent,
Benjamin Thomas, C. W. Requa and J. R. Chapman.

Edwin A. Potter, president of the American Trust
and Savings Bank, was born at Bath, Maine, in 1842.
His parents were William and Pamelia (Gilmore) Potter.

Mr. Potter, who was the next oldest child ina family
of six, was given a substantial business training in con-
nection with his father’s lumber and ship-building busi-
ness, in which he remained actively engaged, in his
native city, until he was thirty years of age. Following
this he came to Chicago, arriving here in the midst of
the reconstruction of the city subsequent to the great
fire of’71. Shortly after his arrival he became interested
in establishing here a branch of the old Boston crockery,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

china and glassware house of A. French & Co., which
still continues as the French & Potter Company,
although Mr. Potter has not been active in its affairs for
several years. His long connection with this well-known
house, however, gave him a very wide and influential
acquaintance. This, together with the fact that his
special province in this firm was that of mercantile

 

EDWIN A. POTTER.

credits, as also in the well-known piano house of Lyon,
Potter & Co., of which he was later a member for several
years, renders his services particularly valuable, as ex-
ecutive officer of a great financial institution.

Mr. Potter was one of the original stockholders in
the American Trust and Savings Bank; and for several
years has been one of its officers, serving as vice-prest-
dent, director and chairman of the finance committee.
He was elected its president in January, 1898. Mr.
Potter was treasurer of the Union League and Mid-
lothian Golf clubs in 1899, and a member and past presi-
dent of the Kenwood Club. He is also a member of the
Chicago Athletic Association, and as president of that
organization brought it out of its financial difficulties.

He was married in October, 1873, to Miss Harriett
A. Berry, daughter of Colonel Alfred Berry of George-
etown, Maine.

Gilbert B. Shaw, vice-president of the Americai
Trust and Savings Bank, first saw the light of day in
Ontario, New York, in 1837. He was educated at
Genessee College, Lima, New York, from which he was
graduated in 1860. Meanwhile, his parents had moved
to Illinois, settling in Moline, where his father engaged
in the lumber manufacturing business. Mr. Shaw came

165

West soon after completing his studies, and in 1865 he
was engaged in logging and manufacturing in Wood
County, Wisconsin, but in 1869 he came to Chicago
and entered the employ of Kelley, Wood & Co., with
whom he remained for about five years. During this
time, in 1870, he opened a retail lumber yard at Kan-
kakee, Illinois, in connection with Mr. S. A. Brown.
This yard was disposed of a year or so later and another
one started at Burlington, Kansas, on the advance line
of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, then in
course of construction. This was the beginning of a
policy of establishing a chain of retail yards throughout
the rapidly developing West, and especially in Kansas,
Nebraska and Western Iowa, which subsequently
became quite popular among Chicago wholesale dealers.
Extending their venture, Messrs. Shaw and Brown fol-
lowed the lines of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Rail-
road, and also that of the Leavenworth, Jawrence &
Galveston Railroad, establishing vards in advance of
settlement, and thus becoming pioneers in this new ter-
ritory. The firm of S. A. Brown & Co., and its opera-
tions, continued for about ten years, when, upon its dis-
solution, a division of yards and territory took place,

 

GILBERT B. SHAW.

each party retaining one-half of the sixty yards then
under the control of the firm. In 1881 Mr. Shaw asso-
ciated with him Mr. F. C. Jocelyn, and the firm of G. B.
Shaw & Co. continued for about six years, during which
time their Western yards were increased to the number
of seventy-five. In 1887 Mr. Shaw, discovering that
the days of such widely diffused interests had passed their
prime, decided to close up the business, which, being
166

accomplished during the next year or so, brought his
active interest in the lumber trade to a close.

Mr. Shaw was elected vice-president of the Metro-
politan National Bank in 1883, and devoted a consider~
able portion of his time to the interests of that institu-
tion until the spring of 1889, when he undertook the
organization of the American Trust & Savings Bank, of
which he was elected president. He remained at the
head of this institution until March, 1898, when, at his
own request, his resignation as president was accepted.
Mr. Shaw still remains one of the directors of the bank
and was elected vice-president immediately after his
resignation as president.

THE ROYAL TRUST COMPANY.

The Royal Trust Company Bank was organized and
commenced business in the basement of the Royal Insur-
ance Building, August 1, 1891, with a paid-in capital of
$500,000. The company was organized by James L.
Wilbur, its present president, who has had the active
management, with the assistance of William O. Good-
man, George R. Thorne, Walter H. Wilson, Albert G.
Spalding and J. W. Butler, who constitute the board of
directors, and Albert L. Coe, the bank’s first president,
Jerome G. Steever, Clarence I. Peck, Robert Lindblom,
Isaac U. Camp and John W. Gary, former directors.

Notwithstanding the financial panic that com-
menced soon after the bank was opened for business, it
has had a steady and substantial growth. In 1898 it
was obliged to extend its quarters, and it now occupies
the first floor and basement of the Royal Insurance
Building, Jackson boulevard and La Salle street—hav-
ing in connection with its bank one of the largest safety
deposit vaults in the city.

  

5s cae

THE ROYAL TRUST COMPANY.

 

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The bank’s growth is shown by its deposits, which
are five times its capital, and its management by a sur-
plus account earned of $250,000, in addition to five
per cent annual dividends paid depositors. Its present
officers are: James B. Wilbur, president; Walter H.
Wilson, vice-president, and Edwin F. Mack, cashier.

 

JAMES B. WILBUR.

James B. Wilbur is truly a self-made man. He was
born in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 11, 1856. Desir-
ing to make his own way in the world, he left a luxurious
home when he was fifteen years old.

From 1871 to 1876 he occupied several posi-
tions of trust seldom given to a man so young.
It was while he was cashier of the New York,
New Haven & Hartford Railway that he was
offered and accepted a position with a large iron
company of New York, with factories at Meri-
den, Connecticut. During the eight years he
was connected with this company he worked his
way through the different departments to a com-
manding position, which he was obliged to re-
linquish in 1882, on account of a failure of his
health, caused by too close attention to business.

After a year spent in the open air of Colo-
rado, his health not permitting his return
East, he was invited to take charge of the
finances and wholesale department of Daniels &
Fisher, in Denver, the largest dry-goods house
west of Chicago. After a year of this work he
was again obliged to seek the open air, and, not
enjoying an idle life, he went into ranching, and
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

a year later started a national bank, of which he became
president.

When the Rock Island road was built into Denver,
it opened up a new country for settlers, and Mr. Wilbur
operated several banks and grain elevators on this road,
and was also interested in banks in Kansas City and
Denver. Desiring to educate his children, he sold out
his interests in the West and was offered the vice-presi-
dency of one of the large national banks in Chicago.

It was in 1890, when he came to Chicago to investi-
gate this offer, that he was requested to organize a
trust company here. This he did in 1891. At the time
he undertook the organization of the Royal Trust Com-
pany, of which he is now president, he was known to
but a few of Chicago’s prominent men. The endorse-
ments of those who knew him, however, enabled him to
interest men in the bank who stand at the head of busi-
ness and financial matters in Chicago, the bank’s list
of stockholders being second to none for most represent-
ative Chicago citizens. He has taken a high position
among Chicago’s bankers for the able manner in which
he has conducted the affairs of the bank of which he is
president.

David Brainerd Lyman, president of the Chicago
Title and Trust Company, was born March 27, 1840, at
Hilo, Island of Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, and is the son
of Rev. David B. and Sarah (Joiner) Lyman, both
natives of Connecticut. His father, who, together with
his wife, went to the Sandwich Islands in 1831, as a mis-
sionary for the American Board of Commissioners of
Foreign Missions, was a man of many scholarly traits,
and a graduate of both Williams College and Andover
Theological Seminary. It was due to him, no doubt,
that his son, David, early acquired that spirit of inde-
pendence and self-help which has been a characteristic
of his successful life. The elder Lyman was of those who
believed that youth should develop these qualities at an
early age, and the subject of our sketch was thus taught
to provide for his own wants at a time when the rising
generation of to-day has little thought of such responsi-
bility. It was through his own efforts that he acquired
his earlier education, and later it was through his own
efforts that he secured an appointment under the gov-
erninent of the Sandwich Islands, whereby he was
enabled to accumulate sufficient money to come to the
United States, and pursue a course of study in some
higher institution of learning. His desire in this regard
was accomplished by the time he was nineteen years of
age, and he accordingly left Honolulu in a sailing ship,
and after a voyage lasting over four months, during
which the dreaded Cape Horn was navigated in safety,
he disembarked at New Bedford, Connecticut, in the
early part of May, 1860.

After spending the summer in familiarizing himself
with the many new things which he saw about him, Mr.

167

Lyman entered Yale University the following Septem-
ber and began his four years’ course of study, from which
he was graduated in 1864, receiving the degree in Arts.
Upon the completion of his course in this institution he
began the study of law in the Harvard Law School,
where he was graduated two years later. His examina-
tion for admission to the bar was successfully passed a
little later before the Supreme Court at Boston, after
which he began to consider a suitable location for the
practice of his chosen profession. His decision was in
favor of Chicago, and within a short time after he became
a full-fledged disciple of Blackstone, he took up his resi-
dence here, securing a clerkship in the law offices of
Waite & Clark, prominent members of the Cook County

 

 

 

 

DAVID BRAINERD LYMAN.

bar, with whom he remained for about two years. He
then affiliated himself with Colonel Huntington W.
Jackson, under the firm name of Lyman & Jackson,
which, so unlike the great majority of such associations,
continued for over a quarter of a century and became, in
time, the oldest law partnership in Chicago.

-Mr. Lyman’s career has been typical of the old say-
ing that “some men’s lives are shaped by circumstances,
while others rise above circumstances and shape their
own lives.” Born in a foreign land, without capital and
influential friends, he has risen through his own efforts
and achieved a record before the bench which will stand
for all time as a monument to his sterling qualities of
mind and heart. Such a career, however, could not have
been possible had he not possessed the fine literary
attainments which have always marked him as a
thorough scholar in his chosen work. Successful in all
168

branches of jurisprudence, and thoroughiy at home in
all of them, he is best known, perhaps, as a specialist in
real estate and commercial law. Although his argu-
ments always carry the weight of a master mind and a
thorough preparation, it may also be said, with no
thought of depreciating his oratorical powers, that his
reputation as an able and learned counselor is more
extended than his fame as an advocate before a court.

Mr. Lyman retired from the active practice of law on
October 1, 1895, to assume the executive management
of the Chicago Title and Trust Company, of which he
was one of the founders. His withdrawal has been much
regretted by his fellow members of the bar, although
they regard his call to this position of trust as a most
fitting honor and one which his mental and professional
equipment enables him to fill in a most satisfactory
manner. 7

Mr. Lyman has held no public office since coming to
Chicago, except as a member of the Board of Educa-
tion of La Grange, where he resides. It was largely
through his efforts and influence that the Lyons Town-
ship High School was erected, after four years of
campaigning, and after the plan had been repeatedly

rejected. Like all of the eminent men of Chicago, he is
identified with a large number of social and professional
organizations. He has for years been a member of that
prominent body known as the Chicago Bar Association,
and in 1893 was chosen its president. He was also the
first president of the Church Club, in which, to hold
membership, one must be affiliated with a Protestant
Episcopal church.

Mr. Lyman was married October 5, 1870, to Miss
Mary E. Cossitt, daughter of F D. Cossitt of Chicago.
Four children have been born to them, two of whom are
living.

THE STATE BANK OF CHICAGO.

The State Bank of Chicago was incorporated Febru-
ary 8, 1891, succeeding the private banking house of
Haugan & Lindgren, which was organized in 1879. The
bank has had a prosperous existence, and has paid 6 per
cent dividends regularly since organization, in addition
to having accumulated a surplus in excess of $300,000.
Its capital stock is $1,000,000, and at the close o busi-
ness, June 30, 1899, the deposits reached $4,91 2,713.78.
The State Bank of Chicago is fortunate in that it occu-
pies the corner ground floor of the Chamber of Com-
merce, one of the finest banking corners in Chicago. It
is also conspicuous in financial circles as being one of
the four Chicago banks that buy and sell high-grade
bonds and securities, often purchasing outright entire
issues.

The officers of the bank are: H. A. Haugan, presi-
dent; John H. Dwight, vice-president ; Charles L. John-

son, secretary; John R. Lindgren,

cashier; Frank I.

THE CITY OF

CHICAGO.

Packard, assistant cashier. The directors are: Thomas
Murdoch, Moses J. Wentworth, John H. Dwight,
Charles L. Hutchinson, Henry C. Durand, A. P. John-
son, H. A. Haugan, Theo. Freeman, John R. Lindgren.

Helge Alexander Haugan, president of the State
Bank of Chicago, was born at Christiania, Norway,
October 26, 1848. When he was eleven years of age his
parents emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where they
remained for three years, during which time he was
apprenticed to learn the steamfitting and brass finishing
trade.

Mr. Haugan came to Chicago in 1862, and began
working at his trade, going into business for himself
some years later, and so continuing until 1879, when,

 

 

 

HELGE ALEXANDER HAUGAN.

with Mr. John R. Lindgren, he established the banking
house of Haugan & Lindgren, at the corner of La Salle
and Randolph streets. Success crowned their efforts,
and the business increased so rapidly that in 1891 it was
decided to reorganize under the state banking law. This
was done and the new organization, the State Bank otf
Chicago, soon came to be considered as one of the safest
and soundest of the financial institutions of this city.
Mr. Haugan is also a director of the Security Title
and Trust Company, and he is treasurer of the Board of
Commissioners of Lincoln Park. He is a member of the
Union League Club. Mr. Haugan’s characteristics as
a banker are an intuitive perception of business condi-
tions, excellent judgmert in estimating the value of
collaterals, considerate treatment of the bank’s custom-
ers, and a wise, yet liberal conservatism in the conduct
ofits business. In financial circles he is highly esteemed,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and his advice and counsel are often sought by investors
and business men. [le is a man of pleasing personality,
enjoys a wide acquaintance, and counts a host of warm
friends. Among the citizens of his own nationality, who
constitute one of the best elements of Chicago’s cos-
mopolitan population, he has long been a prominent
figure.

THE MILWAUKEE AVENUE STATE BANK.

The Milwaukee Avenue State Bank, situated at the
corner of Milwaukee avenue and Carpenter street, was
incorporated September 15, 1891, succeeding the private
banking firm of Paul O. Stensland & Co. The paid-in
capital amounts to $250,000, and in addition to this there
has been accumulated a surplus of $100,000, without
interfering with the regular semi-annual dividends of
3 per cent.

The bank does a large business in real estate loans
on property in the Northwest Division of the city, and
also in foreign exchange with the German, Scandinavian,
Polish and Italian residents of that portion of Chicago.
Savings deposits, however, constitute the bulk of the
business, due to the fact that the surrounding popula-
tion is mostly of the laboring class.

In connection with the bank is a safety deposit vault
department, second to none in the city in the point
of security and comforts offered its patrons, while from
a financial point of view, it is without doubt the most
successful in Chicago.

The quarters of the bank, which were greatly en-
larged and entirely refitted three years ago, are very
pleasing in appearance and afford ample facilities for the
handling of the business of the institution.

The officers of the bank are: Paul O. Stensland, presi-
dent; Francis S. Peabody, vice-president; Charles E.
Schlytern, cashier; H. W. Hering, assistant cashier.

Paul O. Stensland, banker, was born at Sandeid,
Stavanger, Norway, May 9, 1847, the son of Ole and
Karen Stensland. His father was a farmer. The rural
homestead on which the boy grew up is situated in a
beautiful region, diversified by deep fjords that penetrate
into the Jand from the sea. He attended the schools
of his native district and received such education as they
could give. At an early age, and before attaining his
majority, he started out in life as a sailor boy. He fol-
lowed the sea for about a year only. A voyage having
brought him to India, he there gave up the seafaring
life and was employed by an English house as a selecter
and buyer of cotton. He spent nearly five years in this
occupation, visiting nearly every part of that vast coun-
try. He also traveled in Persia, Arabia and Abyssinia.
In these travels he acquired an extensive knowledge of
the character, customs and peculiarities of the inhabit-
ants of those countries; and, continually coming in con-
tact. with the most diverse classes of men, he gained,

169

during those years, an experience that has been of the
greatest value to him in his subsequent career.

In 1871 he returned to Norway. His parents died
shortly afterward, and this circumstance would have led
to his setting out for the orient again, if it had not been
for the opposition of the lady who soon after became
his wife. The young couple finally decided to go to
America. Mr. Stensland arrived in Chicago a short
time before the great fire, and has been a resident of that
city ever since. Shortly after his arrival in Chicago
he engaged in the dry-goods business, in which he was
very successful, and which he carried on until 1885. He
then took up the real estate and insurance business, and
before many years had elapsed, he became recognized as

 

 

PAUL O. STENSLAND.

one of the foremost and most influential citizens. Four
years later he opened a private bank. The volume of its
business soon became so large that he determined to
organize a bank under the state law. Of the bank
thus organized—known as the Milwaukee Avenue State
Bank—Mr. Stensland became, and has ever since re-
mained, the president. The founding of this bank was
of great importance to the northwest part of the city,
and has had much to do with the subsequent develop-
ment of this great manufacturing and business district.
Mr. Stensland is also identified with many other large
and important business interests, in which his energy,
rare judgment and ability find full scope.

From 1889 to 1894 he was the publisher of the Nor-
den, a newspaper which had a large circulation among.
the Norwegians of the West and Northwest. In 1879
he was appointed a member of the Board of Education
by Mayor Harrison, and served three terms—a period
170

of nine years—during which time he was chairman of
the most important committees. Later on he was ap-
pointed a member of the commission to draft a revision
of the city charter of Chicago, being associated in this
work with Ferdinand W. Peck, Washington Hesing and
General Fitzsimons. He was one of the most ener-
getic advocates of the World’s Columbian Exposition,
and was elected a member of the Board of Managers
of that great enterprise. .

Mr. Stensland is a member of the Lutheran church
and a Democrat in politics. Though he has often been
requested by his party to accept nomination for office
he has steadily refused to do so, being unwilling to
take more than a private citizen’s interest in political
affairs.

Mr. Stensland is a man of strong personality, gen-
erous in his impulses and exceedingly charitable. He
enjoys the high regard and esteem of many personal
friends and the confidence of all who know him. He
is prominent in social life, is a member of the Iroquois
Club, the Union League Club and several Scandinavian
social organizations. His home is the center of hos-
pitality, culture and refinement.

He was married in 1871 to a daughter of Torris
Eide. They have two children—a daughter, who is mar-
ried, and a son, Theodore, who is a graduate of Phillips
Exeter Academy and of Harvard College, of the class
of 1898, and who is now studying law at the Harvard
Law School.

THE HIBERNIAN BANKING ASSOCIATION.

The Hibernian Banking Association was founded in
1867 by the late John V. Clarke, Sr., and was known for
the first two years of its existence as the Merchants’
Banking Association. It first opened its doors for busi-
ness at the corner of Clark and Lake streets, and its
officers at that time were John V. Clarke, president; R.
Prindeville, first vice-president; Thomas H. Beebe,
second vice-president, and Hamilton Dox, cashier.

John V. Clarke, Sr., who was a man widely known
throughout the world of finance as a man of sound ideas
and strict business principles, remained at the head of
the institution until the time of his death, which occurred
August 7, 1892, at which time his son, Tohn V. Clarke,
Jr.. became president.

The Hibernian Banking Association transacts a gen-
eral banking business, in connection with which is a
special department devoted to savings deposits. In fact,
the institution, which is the oldest savings bank in Chi-
cago, offers every encouragement and facility to those
who are desirous of saving, and in this connection they
have inaugurated the idea of having the bank open each
Saturday evening from six until eight o’clock for the
special convenience of such depositors whose occupa-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tion would make it impossible for them to visit the bank
at any other time.

The last statement of the institution shows a health-
ful condition of affairs, and an encouraging growth over
the previous year. Its individual deposits amount to
$1,200,000, while its savings deposits are $6,000,000,

The Hibernian occupies offices on the bank floor of
the Ashland Block, northeast corner of Clark and Ran-
dolph streets, and its officers are J. V. Clarke, president;
Harry B. Clarke, vice-president and manager of the say-
ings department; Louis B. Clarke, second vice-presi-

 

 

 

 

THE HIBERNIAN BANKING ASSOCIATION.

dent; Hamilton B. Dox, cashier, and Jno. W. Mac-
Geagh, assistant cashier. Its board of directors are
H. B. Clarke, J. V. Clarke, Hamilton B. Dox, E. T.
Watkins, James R. McKay, Jesse Spalding and L. B.
Clarke.

John V. Clarke, president of the Hibernian Bank-
ing .\ssociation, was born in Chicago, October 15, 1863,
and is the son of John V. Clarke, Sr., founder of the
Merchants’ Banking Association of Chicago, afterward
changed to the Hibernian Banking Association.

Mr. Clarke was educated in the public schools of
Chicago, and subsequently attended St. Ignatius and
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Barnes’ Academy until he was about eighteen years of
age, when he put aside his studies and entered his
father’s bank. It seems to have been his good fortune
in this regard that he was first given a most humble
position, and through his own efforts made to demon.
strate whether he was cleserving of reward and promo-
tion. That talent is hereditary has certainly been weli
illustrated in the case of Mr. Clarke. Even in the per-
formance of his duties as messenger, to which work he
was first assigned, he displayed many of the same quali-
ties which had brought his father into prominence as a
successful financier. Faithful in the execution of all
trusts which were given to his care, and with a great
capacity for work, he was soon promoted to a position

 

 

 

JOHN V. CLARKE.

behind the desk, from which he arose step by step, pass-
ing through all the minor grades in the bank and thor-
oughly mastering each before he was allowed to take the
next in order. His grasp of affairs was phenomenal, as
was his ability to oversee every minute detail connected
with the successful continuance of a large financial insti-
tution.

John V. Clarke, Sr., died in 1892, and the subject of
our sketch succeeded him as executive officer. There
could scarcely have been a more inopportune time for a
new man to step into this position, as it was only a few
months prior to the panic of 18g3. The period which
followed was one which fully tested his ability as a
financier. It was a time which required the exercise of
the utmost skill in order to successfully weather the
storm, which was felt even more keenly by the savings
banks of the country than by other organizations of a

171

financial nature. That he was well fitted by his years of
experience under the teaching of a master hand was
shown by the results. The Hibernian Banking Associa-
tion was at that time, as it is to-day, the second largest
institution of its kind in the city, and, like every savings
bank in Chicago, it was threatened with a disastrous run
upon its resources. Mr. Clarke rose to the occasion.
Foreseeing the results that a few weeks’ time would
bring about in public sentiment, and believing that after
the first force of the storm was spent confidence would
replace fear in the hearts of the people, he adopted a
conservative policy with the customers of the bank,
which carried the institution through the days of uncer-
tainty anid left it stronger than before. After this experi-
ence, which so thoroughly tested the sagacity of the head
of every banking house, Mr. Clarke, then but thirty
years of age, found himself the center of all eyes in the
financial world, and it was a most deserved comment
when he was openly complimented, just prior to the
close of the panic, as being at the head of the strongest
bank in the city at that time.

Socially, Mr. Clarke is popular and deservedly so.
He is one of those men who are capable, not alone of
making friends, but of keeping them. The organiza-
tions, both social and professional, to which he belongs
are numerous, as are also the offices therein with which
he has been honored, but while he is the recipient of
many trusts of this nature, he may be said to devote his
whole time to the cares which are entailed upon him in
the management of the large institution of which he is
the head.

Vincent C. Price, president of the Lincoln National
Bank, Price Flavoring Extract Company, and Pan Con-
fection Company, was born at Troy, New York, Decem-
ber 11, 1832. He received his preliminary education in
the public schools of that city, and was graduated from
college in 1852. Soon after this he commenced the
study of medicine, and received his degree of M. D. in
1856. Four years later he removed to Waukegan,
Illinois, and there engaged in the practice of his profes-
sion, meeting with pronounced success.

Dr. Price will always be remembered as the pioneer
in the manufacture of ptre cream of tartar baking
powder. While a student he enjoyed unusual advan-
tages in his study of chemistry, and the chemical labor-
atory of his college was the place above all others where
he was most often to be found. Here, amid the sur-
roundings that were so congenial to him, he made his
first experiments, and discovered a chemical combina-
tion for a baking powder that should be at once healthful
and adapted to universal use. Long research and experi-
ment were rewarded by the discovery of the ingredients
which meet these requirements. In 1865 he gave up
his practice of medicine, formed a partnership for the
powder, and successfully

manufacture of baking
172

launched the plan he had had in mind for so many years.
The growth of the business was rapid, and Dr. Price’s
baking powder soon became a household necessity. At
the commencement of the business the sales were fre-
quently by ounces, while tons are now the unit of meas-
urement of the daily manufacture. Dr. Price purchased
his partner’s interest in February, 1884, and formed an

 

 

 

 

 

VINCENT C. PRICE.

incorporated company under the name of the Price Bak-
ing Powder Company, which has since carried on the
business. In 1893 he disposed of his own interests in
this company and formed the Price Fiavoring Extract
Company, for the manufacture of flavoring extracts.

Dr. Price was one of the founders of the Lincoln
National Bank, and has been its president since its organ-
ization. This institution is strong in the confidence of
the North Side public, and ranks among the leading
banking institutions of the city.

Dr. Price brought to the business of banking the
same practical mind, keen business instinct and intuitive
judgment which had made him so successful in other
lines. His business and social standing are of the high-
est, and he is esteemed as one of the wisest and most
conservative financial managers in Chicago, and is a
man of sound counsel and prudent action.

Norman W. Harris was born at Becket, in Berkshire
County, Massachusetts, August 15, 1846. He is the
son of Nathan Waite and Emeline (Fadsworth) Harris.
His education was received at the famous Westfield
Academy, from which many men of note in commerce,
law and politics have been graduated.

When he was eighteen years of age Mr. Harris began

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

his business career in Cincinnati, Ohio, as a solicitor for
the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. So
successful was he that two years later he was appointed a
general agent of the company.

His inclinations, however, were toward the organiza-
tion of great commercial institutions, and in 1866,
together with others, he helped to establish the Union
Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati, of which
he became secretary and general manager.

Mr. Harris continued in this capacity for thirteen
years, and it is due in great part to his efforts that this
now substantial institution has been safely guided
through the troublous times that followed shortly after
its organization. II] health, however, compelled him at
last to sever his connections with this company, in which,
at the time, he was one of the largest shareholders.

The following year or two were spent in Europe,
where he took a much-needed rest. He returned to the
United States in 1881, and located in Chicago, where he
established the banking house of N. W. Harris & Co.,
having for its specialty the dealing in state. county and
city bonds.

_ Mr. Harris is a gentleman of singularly unobtrusive

 

 

 

 

 

NORMAN W. HARRIS.

habits and mixes little in political or public affairs,
though his opinion is influential with the leaders of some
of the most successful movements for social and political
reform. He is a member of the Union League, Uni-
versity and Chicago clubs, and a trustee of the North-
western University. He is also connected with many
societies of a charitable and benevolent nature.

He was married January 1, 1867, to Miss Vallanding-
HE CITY OF CHICAGO,

ham of Cincinnati, Ohio. She died in 1874, and in
1879 he married Miss Emma S. Gale, a daughter of Dr.
J]. G. Gale of Newton, New Hampshire.

Clement Lavurn Boon was born at Hamilton, Madi-
son County, New York. He is the son of William H.
and Sarah C. (Staples) Boon. He was educated in the
schools of Hamilton, where he was graduated. Immedi-

 

CLEMENT LAVURN BOON.

ately afterwards he was called to Binghamton, New
York, where he was for two years principal of Lowell’s
Commercial College, next in size then to Eastman’s of
Syracuse. Mr. Boon devoted his spare time to the study
of iaw with Hon. Neri Pine of Binghamton; and on sev-
ering his connection with the commercial college, he
entered the office of Hon. Alexander Cummings, who
was then considered the best lawyer in the southern part
of the state. He was admitted to practice before the
Supreme Court of the state of New York after an exami-
nation by a committee appointed by Judge W. L.
Learned, May 3, 1877. After practicing law for a time,
Mr. Boon became private secretary, and later general
agent for Hon. Sherman D. Phelps of Binghamton, then
one of the wealthiest men in New York state. In the
conduct of his duties he became familiar with the bank-
ing business of Mr. Phelps, and with all the books of the
Susquehanna Valley Bank, afterward known as the Sus-
quehanna Valley National Bank. Mr. Boon went West
after the death of Mr. Phelps, and was for some years
engaged in investing money for large Scotch and Eng-
lish companies, and the handling of warrants. In 1892
he located in Chicago, engaging in the municipal bond
business. His efforts, however, have not been confined

173

to securities exclusively, as he has placed on a cash basis,
with English capitalists, two of the largest mining prop-
erties in the United States, aggregating in value nearly
eight millions of dollars, and he has also procured capital
for the purchase of several gas, electric light and traction
plants.

LIFE AND FIRE INSURANCE.

Charles H. Ferguson, son of George and Mary
(Boes) Ferguson, was born in the town of Oswego, in
the county of that name, New York, August 13, 1846.
His education in books was such only as the common
schools of his state afforded, but he is a graduate in
honors from the university of the active world. The
war found him a stripling, but he offered himself to his
country and was enlisted as a private in Company A,
Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteers. Upon the close of
the war Mr. Ferguson was attracted to the business, or
profession, of life insurance, and for thirty years or more
has served as agent, or general agent, of some of the
most favorably known companies of the United States.
For twenty-eight years Mr. Ferguson has been solely
connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of

|

 

 

 

 

CHARLES H. FERGUSON.

New York. Entering the services of this famous com-
pany as solicitor, he successively became cashier, local
agent for Chicago, district manager for Cook County
and general agent for the state of Illinois, which last-
named place he still fills. The high esteem in which
Mr. Ferguson is held by the members of his profession
is evident by the fact that he has served as president
both of the Chicago and the National Association of
Lite Underwriters, and also by his election as a life mem-
174

ber of the executive committee of the National associa-
tion.

Though an ardent Republican and a wise counsellor
in politics, Mr. Ferguson never has held or sought
office, though opportunities have not been wanting.
Mr. Ferguson stands high in Masonry. He is a mem-
ber of Apollo Commandery of Knights Templar, and
for two years acted as treasurer of that organization.
He is a member of the Mystic Shrine. and is one of the
original members of Medinah Temple of Chicago. He
is a member of the Union League, Germania, Calumet,
Washington Park, Athletic and Hyde Park clubs. He
is also a member of the St. .Andrew’s, Caledonian and
Scotch-Irish societies of Chicago, and is a life member
of the Second Illinois Infantry of the National Guards.

Mr. Ferguson was married in 1870 to Miss Sarah L.
Miller, daughter of Jonathan and Almira Miller of
Auburn, New York. There are three sons living,
George Miller, James Larnard and Charles H. Ferguson,
Jr. One daughter, Jessie May, departed this life in her
infancy.

George Miller Ferguson, son of Charles H. Fer-
guson and Sarah L. (Miller) Ferguson, was born at

 

 

 

 

GEORGE MILLER FERGUSON.

Auburn, New York, October 22, 1870, and was edu-
cated at Allen’s Academy, Chicago, and at Peekskill
Military Academy, New York, from which he carried
away the honors of a first-class diploma and the com-
mission of a second lieutenant. The diploma and com-
mission were presented to him in the presence of the
students and faculty of the academy by the Hon.
Chauncey M. Depew. Subsequently to this, Mr. Fer-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

guson entered Viewland Academy and underwent a
course preparatory to entering the class of 1892 in
Yale College, but after creditably passing the exami-
nation for matriculation he yielded to the wishes of his
father, and, relinquishing his ambition for a literary
career, returned to Chicago and entered the services of
the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, of
which the elder Mr. Ferguson then was, and still is,
general agent. Mr. G. M. Ferguson’s first experience
of insurance work was in the general supply depart-
ment of the company; thence he has risen through the
various stages of cashier, bookkeeper and solicitor to his
present office of general superintendent.

Mr. Ferguson is a pronounced reformer in local pol-
itics and is proud of the fact that he first suggested
the nomination of John M. Harlan as mayoralty can-
didate in the campaign of 1897; but he is more assidu-
ous in business than politics, and is justly regarded as
one of the rising young men in insurance circles. Mr.
Ferguson was elected secretary of the Calumet Club
in March, 1897. He is a member of the Washing-
ton Park and Union clubs of Chicago, of the Lamb’s
Club of New York, and of the Kappa Sigma college
fraternity. He has been a successful exhibitor of ter-
riers at the Mascoutah Club's bench shows, and is an
enthusiast in all matters canine. Mr. Ferguson is a
member of Grace Episcopal Church, and was confirmed
at St. Peter’s, Peekskill, New Jersey, by Bishop Potter,
in 1880. He was married January 25, 1898, to Miss
Grace Lawrence of Saginaw, Michigan.

James Larnard Ferguson, the second of three
members of a family that is distinguished for ac-

 

JAMES LARNARD FERGUSON.
THE GI’Y OF CHICAGO,

tivity and ability in the profession of life insurance,
was born at Norwood, Charlevoix County, Michigan,
November 5, 1874. Heisason of Charles H. Ferguson,
general agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company
of New York, and a brother of George M. Ferguson,
general superintendent of the Chicago office of the same
company. Mr. James L. Ferguson was educated in the
public schools of Chicago, and afterward at the Harvard
School of this city, and at the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor. In 1893 he entered the services of the
company with which his father and brother are con-
nected, and has risen from the position of assistant
bookkeeper to that of cashier. Mr. Ferguson is Repub-
lican by affiliation in politics, and holds to the Episco-
palian creed in religious matters. He is a member of
the Sigma Phi Greek letter fraternity. He was mar-
tied May 6, 1895, to Miss Catherine Chase of Chicago.

Charles H. Ferguson, Jr., the youngest son of
Charles H. Ferguson, Sr., was born at Chicago on
August 15, 1878. He was educated in the public
schools of Hyde Park, and later attended Phillips Acad-
emy at Andover, Massachusetts. Mr. Ferguson is now
engaged in the general agency office, in which he he-
came a partner on his twenty-first birthday. He is an
Episcopalian in religious matters and a member of the
Sphinx Society. He was married October 26, 1897, to
Miss Alice Jane Critchell of Chicago.

THE NORTHWESTERN LIFE ASSURANCE
COMPANY.

The Northwestern Life Assurance Company was
organized in 1874, and for the first twenty-two years of
its existence was known as the Northwestern Masonic
Aid Association. Like all companies organized on the
assessment plan, the Northwestern found itself in trouble
as it came to be twenty years old, or thereabouts, due
to the great mortality among its old members, a fact
which was to have been anticipated, but which had
never been provided against. Various attempts were
made by the managers then in charge to keep the mem-
bership together, none of which were satisfactory.
The Northwestern had a large list of policyholders, and
its membership was worth saving, but it was recognized
that this could be done only by eliminating the element
of assessmentism and by placing the company on the
same basis as the old-line companies that have long
stood the tests of actual experience. It was at this time,
December 16, 1898, that the founder of the company,
James A. Stoddard, who for many years had been its
vice-president and general manager, together with the
remaining members of the board of trustees, resigned
from office. On the same date there were elected to
succeed them nine of the twenty-one members of the
directory of the Iowa Life Insurance Company. Of
these Mr. C. E. Mabie was elected president. The task

175

which confronted the new management was by no
means an easy one, but it was one which permitted
of radical treatment, with a fair chance of success. Soon
after he had assumed control, President Mabie an-
nounced that it would be the purpose of the new man-
agement to readjust the business of the company and
place it upon an unquestionably sound basis by offering
to its members the opportunity of exchanging their
assessment certificates for legal reserve policies, based
on the actuaries’ table of mortality, with interest at
the rate of four per cent per annum. For this exchange
was utilized the well-known and entirely legitimate
practice of legal reserve companies in loaning moneys
upon the security of the reserve accumulations. Had
the contract originally been based on a legal reserve,
the holder would have accumulated a certain deter-
minable reserve, and the security afforded by a loan
against such would, of course, be of the best. Presi-
dent Mabie utilized this principle in this way. The
policyholder gives a note, interest five per cent, for the
reserve that it would have accumulated, and henceforth
pays the premium that he would have paid from the
start. The company has the premium income that it
would have had had the contract originally been issued
on the legal reserve basis, and it has invested on the
best of security the reserve that it would have accumu-
lated under those conditions. The member is thus re-
lieved from uncertainty as to future premium payments,
is henceforth meeting the cost of his insurance by a level
premium, and has the security of an established reserve
behind him. It was a simple, businesslike way of dealing
with a perplexing question, and the fact that it met the
approval of the members of the Northwestern is attested
by the change of many millions of insurance, and a cor-
responding increase in the assets of the company. The
plan as outlined met with the approval of the insurance
commissioner of Illinois, and there seems to be no
doubt whatever but that it has saved the Northwestern
from a premature burial in the common grave of all
assessment companies. This first effective measure for
the reorganization of assessment associations on a sound
basis induced the management of the Northwestern Life
Association, also of Chicago, to enter into negotiations
for the transfer of its policyholders to the older com-
pany, which were successfully closed in November, 1899,
thereby adding $2,000,000 of insurance in force. In
December, 1899, the Covenant Mutual Life Association
of Illinois followed suit, voting to reinsure its $47,000,-
ooo of insurance in the Northwestern, and in February,
T900, a deal was closed by which the $2,000,000 of
insurance of the Masonic Mutual Benefit Society of
Kansas were transferred to the Northwestern.

On February 9, 1900, negotiations were completed
by which President Mabie and his associates purchased
outright the National Life Insurance Company of the
176

United States of America, thereby securing its peculiarly
valuable charter, the only life insurance charter ever
granted by Congress, and acquiring assets of over $1,-
800,000 and $1,200,000 insurance in force, the capital
stock, all paid in, being $1,000,000. This important
transaction will undoubtedly lead to the upbuilding of a
magnificent business. The first step will be the reinsur-
ance of the business of the Iowa Life Insurance Com-
pany, which has a well-organized agency force which will
enable the new officers of the National Life to make
more rapid progress than would otherwise be possible.
The absorption of the Lowa Life will be followed by
that of the Northwestern, when the business has been
placed upon the standard basis. In the meantime nego-
tiations are under way for the taking over of a number
of other important companies, all of which will result
in Chicago at last having practically a home life insur-
ance company with over $100,000,000 of insurance in
force. a

The officers who at present control the affairs of the
above institutions are as follows: C. E. Mabie, president ;
_O. D. Wetherell, vice-president and treasurer, James H.
Stowell, M. D., second vice-president and medical
‘director; Stewart Goodrell, third vice-president; R. E.
Sackett, secretary; E. L. Barber, counsel.

Charles Elias Mabie, president of the Northwestern
Life Assurance Company, was born at Onion River,
Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, July 1, 1855, a son of
Daniel K. and Ann Eliza (Hyatt) Mabie. The name
of Mabie is an ancient one, and the family dates its
commencement in this country from the time of the
war between Holland and Spain, when an ancestor of
that name came over as a privateersman on a vessel
fitted out by the Spanish nation. This ancestor settled
on the New York coast, and the family in due time
became numerous and well known in New England his-
tory. Daniel K. Mabie, the father of Charles, was born
in Putnam County, New York, in 1818, and was the
eldest of a large family of children. He was a physician
of high standing, and removed to Wisconsin in 1855,
and from there to Illinois in 1871, in which state he
practiced for many years with marked success. [is
son, Charles Elias, acquired his education in the schoo's
of Pecatonica, Illinois, and at the age of nineteen com-
menced business as a fire insurance solicitor. Following
this, he took up life insurance, and in 1878 accepted
the position of general agent for the Equitable Life
Assurance Society of New York City.

In 1881 Mr. Mabie assisted in organizing the Life
Indemnity & Investment Company of Iowa, and became
its secretary and manager, with headquarters at Sioux
City. Three years later this company changed its name
to the Iowa Life Insurance Company, and in 1891 Mr.
Mabie was elected its president. Under his manage-
ment the company reorganized on its present basis, and

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

its chief directing offices were removed to this city.
In December, 1898, Mr. Mabie was elected president of
the Northwestern Life Assurance Company of Chicago,
thus assuming still greater burdens and responsibilities
as an executive officer. His election to this office has
been a wise action, and under his able direction the
business is rapidly increasing.

 

CHARLES ELIAS MABIE.

Mr. Mabie is a gentleman of fine social, as well as
business qualities, and he is a member of the Hyde
Park, Hamilton and Marquette clubs, and a member of
the Knights of Pythias and Masonic orders. He is a
widower and has two daughters, Litta and Dorothea.

Robert E. Sackett, secretary of the Northwestern
Life Assurance Company, was born at Pittsford, New
York, on November 11, 1852, the son of Robert and
Laura (Smith) Sackett. Removing to Michigan with
his parents when but two years old, Mr. Sackett re-
ceived his education in the common schools of that
state and in Olivet College, where he was a student
at the time of his father’s death in 1872. He then gaye
up his studies, and for the next two years or more
devoted himself to carrying on the work of the farm.
but at the end of that time, his mother having married
again and being no longer in need of his support, he went
West and located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he
found employment with the Sioux City & Pacific Rail-
road Company, and remained with this road in the
capacity of bookkeeper and paymaster until it was ab-
eae by the Chicago & North-\Western Railroad in
T88o,

Mr. Sackett was then offered, and accepted, the posi-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tion of cashier with the First National Bank of Den-
nison, Iowa, but in 1882 he resigned this office and
returned to the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, and was
placed in charge of the company’s lands at Sioux City,
Iowa. A few years later he gave up business life in order
to enter the political arena, and for a period of eight
years he served as clerk of the courts of Sioux City,

 

ROBERT E, SACKETT.

continuing as such until he came to Chicago in 1894 to
become the secretary of the Iowa Life Insurance Com-
pany. Although this was his first position of any im-
portance in the insurance world, Mr. Sackett had, nev-
ertheless, made a deep study of insurance for some years,
and he was therefore well qualified for the duties of
his new office. Such was his success in this capacity,
that in the latter part of 1898 he was elected to a sim-
ilar position with the Northwestern Life Assurance
Company, and was installed at the same time with Presi-
dent Mabie.

Mr. Sackett is a man of sound business principles ;
shrewd, honest and thoroughly capable of discharging
the many and onerous duties of secretary of a great
insurance corporation.

James H. Moore, of the underwriting firm of Moore
& Janes, was born at Windham, in New Hampshire,
July 4, 1840. His parents were Silas and Hannah
Moore. Mr. Moore was educated in the public schools
of Windham and at Chester Academy, where he con-
tinued his studies until 1856. Although but a lad at
that time, he gave up his books and came West, locat-
ing at Mendota, Illinois, where he remained for three
years, continuing his studies at Mendota College. He

I2

177

then went to Elgin, Illinois, and until July, 1861, was
employed in the Elgin Bank. At this time, having
just passed his twenty-first birthday, he laid aside his
peaceful pursuits, and, following the dictates of his con-
science, enlisted in the army. He joined the Thirty-
sixth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a pri-
vate, and served until 1862, when he was promoted to
quartermaster of the Seventy-second Regiment of Illi-
nois Volunteers, with rank of first lieutenant, and served
his country until September, 1863, when, on account
of ill-health, caused by malaria, contracted in the army,
he returned to private life.

Mr. Moore came to Chicago at the expiration of his
term of service in the army, and secured a position with
the underwriting firm of L. D. Olmsted & Co. By
careful attention to the duties intrusted to him, he
worked his way to a partnership in the firm, which was
later known as S. M. Moore & Co., and finally as Moore
& Janes. Mr. Moore takes a just pride in his long
and active careér in the insurance circles of Chicago,
for in the thirty-seven years of his residence here he has
witnessed no small part of the magnificent growth of
the city, and he has also, in that period, seen the local

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES H. MOORE.

underwriting profession develop from small proportions
to one of the vast branches of the city’s industry. The
firm with which he is connected represent some of the
largest and best insurance companies in the world,
among them the “Old Hartford,” which they have rep-
resented continuously since January, 1864, the longest
term any company has ever been represented by any one
agent in Chicago. He has in all these vears contributed
178

his share toward Chicago’s greatness, and his deep in-
terest in insurance matters is well shown by the fact
that he has been connected with nearly every underwrit-
ing organization which has ever existed in Chicago.

He has held many positions of trust in these bodies,
and for two years he was president of the Chicago Fire
Underwriters’ Association. Mr. Moore is a thoroughly-
equipped insurance man. He has a wide acquaintance
and a legion of friends, who admire him for his fine
business ability and his personal qualities.

THE TRADERS’ INSURANCE COMPANY OF
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

This company was organized in April, 1872, with
a paid-up cash capital of $500,000, all invested in United
States bonds. ‘

The officers were: B. P Hutchinson, president, and
William E. Rollo, secretary. In the early part of 1874
Mr. Rollo, the secretary, resigned, and in July, the same
year, R. J. Smith was elected secretary and manager
of the company.

This company suffered severely, for one of its age
and strength, in the Boston fire of ’72 and the second
great fire in Chicago, July, 1874, paying in the two
fires over $200,000 in losses, and wiping out its net
surplus entirely.

The management, however, kept on in the even
tenor of its conservative way.

The following table will show the financial history
made by the Traders’ Insurance Company of Chicago,
Mlinois, during the last twenty-eight years, after paying
regular dividends to its stockholders and providing for
every liability, including a reinsurance reserve, calcu-
lated on the New York state basis, and the capital stock

of $500,000:

NET SURPLUS, GROSS ASSETS,

TOT OE iti ra daca esac ta atunlacuscednentcne $ 8,438.59 $$ 586,039.18
TOTS a sicncisnue stokegianliglar areinivGuioleleiazee 125,940.51 746,109.25
TOTA sect, baeteeminauins eaten wens 92,542.96 727,963.95
1O75 sn smace aa nneadanee ieee Ae 164,507.15 812,929.13
VB ZO ssa ante ein tetetaatestie. oa arth hae loses OH 178,950.62 824,359.13
DOT DSH Ahad cute fievidse erdvawnianiovieacbtnhate aus 138,242.05 812,321.43
BOIS eek o. a csustsldraraveseueviciwecvoseienaclead antes 166,239, 38 822,736.20
TS 7s ficial ons anatesnaciariadatibearto Ragas canine 131,416.81 851,183.11
LOSO es Sstrovsy condeors cb gutsy siuraratele beats tele 234,057.20 942,013.16
BOM SS nieie alesse HOS Hay Wee A 263,566.66 1,031, 598.17
VEB2 00 nneeegars Rediiate 2 hake es 339,696.44 1,057,217. 33
TOSSiscie airreminie  b-aelevensvise ocawse oun 361,831.05 1,165,378.10
EB OAS aire set iiensuchien esau aaroneol 306,572.35 1, 164,818.02
LOB Gieveracias. th uncial inbianinncoasan nanwingt 359,902.78 1,228, 345.42
TSS Oe se scteitercstich meas cs “avitagebesiareiausaue ios 503,123.66 1, 368,271.48
TBO censhronansnsieseansicts apavntelntonsiieaatauss hats 435,472.31 1, 380, 334.58
TOBB: comie xy sedge ax eee 422,493.67 1, 345,574.75
1880), dwesais- ie eRe Sa ETE bcaers 406,052.42 1, 334,267.64
TO OO saccade ci tas schcassunrs ansaedaasgee techs 417,500, 19 1,406, 406.09
1891. oa a Sh ble ali ae esata ave 528,705.46 1,568,519.13
DBO 2 ack aviv sara tosses spent pieian ele iohesumepsunis 621,118.05 1,608,651.64
TBO S: conscotsiahorerads ahs. carlo mmueTeNeae 705,025.07 1,705,007 46
TOA ais wiaraaradaiengigte aer Aiea 577,471.64 1,635,629.01
DSO Seecwag Mateus eRe earn ses 663,522.77 1,731,945.03
BOO O 5 ots 1.08 pavteas Raxiatideas B soaieveteanta whdeeare 679,526.54 1,747,792.45
TSOP aes slatcaie eavereanscessncnay in waaleeh aeedens 619,554.04 1,684,258.57
LOGS cwinacckivame die  —-xeaddaner 825,515.46 1,894,054.72
TOQQeccdvcgnrsyeueeee anes cave I, 000,752.57 2,134,176.37
1goo (January ist, Annual)....... 1,025, 553.05 2,285,847.06
LossES PAID DURING THIS TIME... ..... $8, 430, 582.61

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

From this table it will be seen that the net surplus
of the company, January 1, 1898, exceeded the gross
assets the company had when the present management
took hold. The officers now are: E. Buckingham,
president; John J. Mitchell, vice-president; R. J. Smith,
secretary, and S. A. Rothermel, assistant secretary.
The directors are: A. N. Young, Charles L. Hutchinson,
Ebenezer Buckingham, William G. Hibbard, Abram
Poole, John J. Mitchell, T. J. Lefens, William Dickin-
son, Ernest A. Hamil.

Robert Jordan Smith was born in St. Clair County,
Illinois, July 12, 1837, and has lived in this state con-
tinuously ever since. He is the son of Nathaniel Smith
and Marinda R. Carr. His early years were spent on a

 

ROBERT JORDAN SMITH.

farm and in Belleville, Illinois, where he attended the
county and high schools. After leaving Belleville he
attended Shurtleff College at Upper Alton.

His business career began in a country store, but
this possessed but little attraction for a young man of
his energetic disposition, and he left for Springfield,
where he acted as the local and state agent of the Etna
Insurance Company of Connecticut. From thence he
came to Chicago, in November, 1866, as general agent
for the Putnam Fire Insurance Company. On July 6,
1874, he was elected secretary of the Traders’ Insurance
Company, which position he holds at the present time.

Mr. Smith was for years an ardent Democrat, hav-
ing cast his lot with Douglas, during the memorable
campaign of 1860. He continued to follow the fortunes
of that party until 1896, when the disturbing “free sil-
ver’ issue was raised. Then, as a believer in sound
THE

money, Mr. Smith came out as a McKinley man. He
is at present a ‘“‘gold” Democrat, but his sympathies are
not with either the Harrison or Altgeld factions of the
party. He has been a potent factor in political and
social life in Chicago, and his name has often been
prominently connected with high offices, particularly
that of governor.

He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, but has
never taken interest in other secret organizations. The
Union League, Illinois and Iroquois clubs claim him as
a valued member. He was president of the Illinois
Club and of the Iroquois Club, and served as president
of the Cook County board in 1891-92.

He was married forty-one years ago to Miss Susan
O. Barker, in Randolph County. The issue of this
marriage is three children, two girls and one boy, viz.:
Mrs. Bertha B. Titus, Irma L. Smith and Robert Eagte
Smith, all of whom are living.

Although prominently connected with politics, Mr.
Smith has never been identified with the office-seekers,
and has only once held an elective office, that of presi-
dent of the county board in 1891 and 1892. He is
known as a public-spirited citizen, ever ready to en-
gage in any movement that may be for the benefit of
the community in which he resides.

Goodwin, Hall & Henshaw. The underwriting firm
of Goodwin, Hall & Henshaw, which was established in
Chicago May 1, 1894, is composed of Warren F. Good-
win of Chicago, and the firm of Hall & Henshaw of
New York City. M1. Goodwin is a man of experience
in the field of fire insurance, having been engaged in
this business since 1873. For several years prior to his
connection with the present firm he was the associate
manager of the Western department of the Northern
Assurance Company of London. Hall & Henshaw
have been the leading and most successful fire insurarice
agency in New York City for many years. They repre-
sent the largest aggregation of insurance capital in that
city, and command a large clientage, not only in this
country, but abroad.

The present firm started out with the intention of
placing their business on an equal basis, from the start,
with the leading underwriting firms in Chicago, and
took a lease of large offices on the bank floor of the
New York Life Building, equipping the same in the
handsomest manner and with every modern office con-
venience. During the four years that the firm has
been in existence, their business has been a matter of
constant progress, and they have been obliged to en-
~ large their office premises by taking additional rooms
on the second floor of the same building.

The firm act as managers of the entire West for the
following companies: Union Assurance Society of
London, State Fire Insurance Company of Liverpool,
Law Union and Crown Fire and Life Insurance Com-

CITY OF CHICAGO.

179

pany of London, Victoria Fire Insurance Company of
New York, Citizens’ Insurance Company of New York
and Virginia Fire and Marine Insurance Company of
Richmond.

In addition, the firm represents, as agents, for the
city of Chicago, the Grand Rapids Fire Insurance Com-
pany of Grand Rapids, Commercial Union Assurance
Company of London, Northern Assurance Company
of London, Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool,
and Commercial Insurance Company of Cincinnati.

 

 

 

 

 

WARREN F. GOODWIN.

The aggregate assets of the companies represented
reach the enormous figure of $97,789,932.32. The firm
does a general insurance business, and, in connection
with their New York house, have corresponding agen-
cies in all parts of the world. Their facilities are there-
fore exceptional for handling large or special lines of
insurance.

THE PHENIX INSURANCE COMPANY.

The Phenix Insurance Company of Brooklyn, New
York, was organized September 10, 1853, as the
Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, the name being
changed to its present title by an act of the Legislature,
under date of February 19, 1866. Stephen Crowell was
its first president, and the men associated with him as
charter members were twenty-seven in number and rep-
resentative of the best financial ability in the East.

By its charter the company was authorized to write
inland navigation and transportation insurance, as well
as fire risks, and in 1859 it added inland insurance to :ts
business.
180

The Phenix was a heavy sufferer in the great con-
flagrations in Boston and Chicago in the early "70s, the
aggregate losses of the two amounting to $939,779.
These were met with the usual promptness for which
the Phenix is noted, and it is a matter of record that
this company was the first to pay a loss at the time of
the Chicago fire. One of the chief events in the his-
tory of this company occurred in 1887, at which time,
through exceptionally heavy losses, its capital became
impaired to the extent of nearly fifty per cent. This
deficiency was immediately made good by the stock-
holders, and to-day the company has a net surplus of
$1,520,708.51. The insurance in force in January, 1899,
amounted to $576,325,901, and the premium income
was $3,637,074.77.

The Chicago agency was established some years
prior to 1870, and is now the headquarters for the West
and Northwest and for the South and Southwest.

Mr. Thomas R. Burch was for many years the gen-
eral agent at this point, and it was under his manage-
ment that the business in the West was built up. Mr.
Eugene Harbeck, the present agent, took charge June
15, 1892.

Eugene Harbeck, general agent of the Phenix In-
surance Company of Brooklyn, New York, was born
at Batavia, New York, February 19, 1853. Very early
in life he removed with the family to Battle Creek,

 

 

EUGENE HARBECK.

Michigan, and he was educated in the public schools of
that place and at the famous Le Roy Academy, at Le
Roy, New York. When he was seventeen years old he
entered an insurance office at Battle Creek, where he

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

remained for ten years, leaving his employer in 1879 in
order to establish a local agency of his own. In 1881
he was appointed special agent of the Detroit Fire and
Marine Insurance Company, and two years later became
Michigan state agent of the Phenix Insurance Company
of Brooklyn, New York. In 1887 he accepted the posi-
tion of secretary with the Michigan Fire and Marine
Insurance Company, but in 1892 he resigned in order
to become general agent of the Phenix Insurance Com-
pany, at Chicago.

Mr. Harbeck has been president of the Western
Union of Fire Underwriters, and during 1892 and 1893
he held a similar position in the Fire Underwriters’
Association of the Northwest.

Charles Walter Elphicke, senior member of the firm
of C. W. Elphicke & Co., marine underwriters, is the
son of John and Elizabeth Elphicke of Tenterden,

 

 

 

 

CHARLES WALTER ELPHICKE.

County Kent, England, where he was born, in January, |
1845. His early education was received in the English
village schools, and afterward supplemented by a thor-
ough commercial course in one of the Chicago business
colleges.

After following the water for several years, he was,
at the age of twenty-five, commander of the largest ves-
sel on the lakes, being at the same time the youngest
captain sailing on fresh water. He now became ambi-
tious for a more lucrative and less dangerous calling,
and accordingly, in 1872, he left Buffalo, New York, of
which city he had been a resident for some vears, and
located in Chicago, where he connected himself with
the marine department of the Traders’ Insurance Com-
THE GIT¥Y OF CHICAGO,

pany. He remained in the service of this well-known
corporation for three years, following which he asso-
ciated himself with Messrs. Hibbard & Vance, of Mil-
waukee, and established the firm of Hibbard, Elphicke
& Co., in Chicago, which continued until the fall of
1878. Since that time he has conducted a _ general
marine insurance agency, under the name of C. W. EI-
phicke & Co.

In 1891 he accepted the general marine agency for
the great lakes of the London Assurance Corporation
of London, which company ranks with the largest in
the world. He still holds this general agency, and also
the local agency of several other companies. His ves-
sel interests are extensive, and he is now ranked as the
largest vessel owner in Chicago. Mr. Elphicke has
acquired a liberal education by travel and by associat-
ing with all sorts and conditions of men, For a long
period his business has taken him to England once in
every two years, and his acquaintance with the leading
ship owners and freighters of the chief cities of Britain
and the United States is very extensive.

Mr. Elphicke has a pleasant home in the suburb of
Evanston. He is a man of quiet tastes, and although
belonging to the different clubs of that suburb, is likely,
when not engaged in business, to be found under his
own roof tree. His family consists of a wife and two
daughters.

Edward G. Halle was born at Leipsig, Germany,
January 5, 1844. He received a good education in the
schools of his native land, and when he came to this
country, in 1866, was well equipped to begin life upon
his own responsibilities. Soon after his location in
America Mr. Halle became interested in the insurance
business, and accepted a position as special agent with
the Germania Fire Insurance Company of New York.
His strong and pleasing personality won friends among
those he met in the course of his business, while his
will power and perseverance paved the way to the suc-
cess he has achieved in his life work. His businesslike
methods, and his ability to grasp the ideas of success-
ful underwriting, attracted the attention of the company,
and a few years later he was promoted to a state agency,
in which ‘capacity he continued until 1883, when he was
appointed manager of the Western department of the
company, with residence in Chicago. It is not neces-
sary to say that Mr. Halle fairly won the position which
he now holds, and that the well-known corporation with
which he has been associated so long regards him as one
of its most valuable men.

Mr. Halle has always been interested in educational
and other matters of a public-spirited nature, and has
given his time and support freely to enterprises of this
kind. In 1891 he was appointed a member of the Board
of Education, and in 1896 he was honored by election

181

to the presidency of the board, a position he held until
he resigned from the board, in June, 1898.

In politics Mr. Halle is a Republican, but has never
held an elective office. During the last presidential
campaign he was chairman of the German-American
Republican Advisory Committee to the National Repub-
lican Committee. He was also honored at the World’s
Fair by the appointment as president of German Day.

 

 

EDWARD G. HALLE.

In social affairs he is identified with many of the
German societies of the city, among them being the
German Society and the Germania Club; of the latter
he was for three years president. He is also a member
of the Union League and Marquette clubs.

He was married in 1869 to Miss E. Gutenberg.
They have two children, Frank E. and Fannie F Halle.

THE ROYAL INSURANCE BUILDING.

The Royal Insurance Building, which ranks among
the very largest and most attractive of Chicago’s mod-
ern office buildings, was erected in 1885 for the Royal
Insurance Company of Liverpool, England, by Henry
Parish, Osgood Welch and Frederick Dobbs Tappen,
trustees. Situated at the financial center of Chicago, it
is by far the most convenient building for entrance
and exit of any in its immediate locality, having spacious
entrance-ways, not alone on Quincy street and Jackson
boulevard, but also from La Salle street, by means of a
passageway through the Gaff Building. The building,
as it stands to-day, after its recent extensive remodeling,
is one of the best in point of construction that can be
found in the city, and no pains have been spared to
182

make it as nearly fireproof as modern architectural sci-
ence permits. The lower floor and rotunda are finished
throughout in white marble, giving it a very pleasing
appearance, and in the upper floors the same impression
is carried out by the extensive use of mahogany and
other rare wood finishings.

The Royal Insurance Building has mail, telegraph,
telephone and messenger facilities of the best class, and
all its floors are accessible by means of six rapid ele-
vators of the most improved construction, and provided
with every appliance to insure safety. The upper floors
are lighter than corresponding offices in other first-class

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

buildings, and the offices are furnished with numerous
advantages for the convenience and comfort of its ‘ten-
ants. Of these latter, it may be said the Royal has always
attracted a superior class, most of them being export-
ers, Board of Trade members or insurance companies.
The Royal Trust Company Bank occupies the bank
floor and operates the extensive safety deposit vaults in
the basement. In the recent remodeling of the building
three additional floors were added, making thirteen in
all, and new plumbing put in throughout. A private
electric-light plant provides light and power, and the
provisions for heat are perfect. Exteriorly, the building
is among the most artistic in Chi-

 

Te
ap
i

Cae
ae

 

 

 

cago, the entrances being espe-
cially superior from an architec-
tural point of view.

REAL ESTATE.

Albert Lyman Coe was born
at Talmadge, Ohio. His father,
David L. Coe, who married Miss
Polly Hayes, was among the
pioneers of the district in which he
resided. Mr. Coe was educated at
Grand River Institute, and at
Painsville Academy, both of which
are in Ohio. The glamour that
surrounded the name of Chicago,
even in its early dawn, attracted
Mr. Coe, and in February, 1853, he

 

 

L
CHICAGG:

THE ROYAL INSURANCE BUILDING.

 

was in business here as a member
of the firm of Thomas R. Clark &
Co., coal dealers, which afterward
gained a favorable reputation un-
der the firm name of Coe & Car-
penter. But in 1861 Mr. Coe an-
swered promptly to the nation’s
call to arms, and with his entrance
upon military life the firm dis-
solved. Though offered a commis-
sion, Mr. Coe enlisted as a private
in the Fifty-first Regiment of IIli-
nois Volunteer Infantry, choosing,
as he said, to learn thoroughly the
“alphabet” of military affairs be-
fore undertaking to act as an in-
structor of others. Mr. Coe’s en-
listment is dated September 10,
1861. He was not mustered out
of service until November, 1865.
He was appointed commissary ser-
geant September 17, 1861; com-
missioned second lieutenant of
Company K. September 20, of
THE -CITY OF

the same year: promoted to be first lieutenant and
regimental quartermaster, June 9, 1862, and further pro-
moted to captain, June 14, 1864. Mr. Coe’s regiment
participated in some very notable engagements. It was
in action at New Madrid, March 14, 1862; took part

 

 

 

 

 

ALBERT LYMAN COE.

in the siege of Island No. 10, March 16; was a part of
the expedition to Fort Pillow, from April 13 to 18; took
part in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, April 28: was
‘in action at Farmington, May 3 to 9; participated in
the pursuit of the Confederates to Boonville, June 1 to
12; and, after serving at Tuscumbia and Decatur, Ala-
bama, marched from the last-named place to. Nashville,
September 4 to 12. This is a history of very active
movement and heroic endurance on the part of men
who, less than a year prior to their arrival at Nashville,
were engaged in the peaceful arts of trade and agricul-
ture.

Mr. Coe was detached from his regiment at Nashville
and assigned to duty as acting assistant quartermaster-
general on the staff of General J. D. Morgan, com-
manding Second Division of Fourteenth Corps, Army
of the Cumberland. In this capacity he assisted in the
action at Columbia, the siege of Nashville, the repulse of
Forrest's attack on Nashville, the advance on Mur-
freesboro, and the engagements waged at Stone River,
from December 30, 1862, to January 3, 1863. General
Morgan’s command was on duty at Murfreesboro until
1863. Subsequently Mr. Coe participated in the affairs
at Hoover's Gap, Tallahama, Chattanooga, Orchard
Knob, Mission Ridge, Buzzard’s Roost, Resaca, Kene-

CHICAGO. 183

saw Mountain, Pine Knob, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta,
and in all the other episodes that culminated in Sher-
man’s famous and triumphant march to the sea, and was
mustered out in November, 1865, after somewhat more
than four years of active and distinguished service for
the national cause. His services were further recognized
by act of Congress in appointing him brevet major,
United States Volunteers, from March 13, 1865, ‘for
long and gallant services.” In 1875 Mr. Coe was com-
missioned major and quartermaster-general, Illinois Na-
tional Guard, an office which he resigned in July, 1880.

On his return to peaceful life Mr. Coe engaged in
real estate operations, and in 1868 became a member of
the well-known firm of Mead & Coe. In politics Mr.
Coe is Republican, and has been active in all those re-
formatory movements of which the Union League is
considered as the chief promoter. Mr. Coe also is a
member of the Marquette Club. He was one of the
promoters of the Union League Club, and served for
ten years as a member of its board of directors. He it
was who selected and secured the ground upon which
the palatial structure of the Union League is built. Mr.
Coe has also been active in Y. M. C. A. affairs. He
was married in 1864 to Miss Charlotte E. Woodward
of Mansfie'd, Conn.

 

WALTER HERBERT WILSON.

Walter Herbert Wilson, son of \William Henry and
Elvy Margarette Wilson, was born at Boston, Massa-
chusetts, May 15, 1856, and is descended on his father’s
side from an ancestry which is traced to the south of
Scotland, and on his mother’s side from a line which had
its origin in the north of Ireland. His parental grand-
184

father settled in Western New York and his maternal
grandparents migrated to Sydney, Australia, shortly
after his mother was born.

Mr. Wilson was fitted for Harvard College at a
preparatory public school in Chelsea, Massachusetts,
but he gave up his studies in the early part of 1873 to
accept a situation with the firm of Abram French &
Co., wholesale dealers in crockery and glassware, of
Boston. This position was one of the most humble
in this well-known house, but young Wilson applied
himself diligently and entered into his work with more
than the usual enthusiasm. His energy and persever-
ance were rewarded from time to time by suitable pro-
motions, and in 1879, when Abram French & Co. estab-
lished a branch house in Chicago, Mr. Wilson, although
then but twenty-three years of age, was taken into the
firm, the name of which was changed at that time to
French, Potter & Wilson. He continued a member of
this house until January 1, 1888, when he disposed of
his interest and entered into the real estate business.
In this latter undertaking he has met with great success
and is among the foremost real estate men in Chicago.
Mr. Wilson is a member of the Chicago, Onwentsia,
Midlothian, Church and Union League clubs, of which
latter he was secretary for two years. He is also a
member and secretary of the Merchants’ Club, an cr-
ganization of the younger men who are active in mer-
cantile pursuits, and one which is doing much for the
best interests of the city. He is a governing member of
the Art Institute; vice-president of the Royal Trust
Company. Mr. Wilson has of late become interested
in the street railways of Chicago, and is at present vice-
president of the Chicago Union Traction Company,
operating the railways on the North and West sides of
the city. He was married in 1882 to Miss Mary B.
Otis, a daughter of Judge Lucius.B. Otis. He has a
family of four children.

Henry A. Knott. Conspicuous among the success-
ful business men of Chicago is Henry A. Knott, senior
member of the real estate firm of Henry A. Knott & Co.
This well-known firm transacts a general real estate and
loan business, is the Chicago agent of the Massachusetts
Mutual Life Insurance Company, and possesses a large
clientage in all parts of this country and abroad.

Mr. Knott has been a member of the Chicago Real
Estate Board since 1888, and during his connection with
this body has taken an active part in its affairs. He
served on the Membership and Va'uation committees for
two years, being chairman of the latter committee for
half that period; has also been treasurer for one year,
and was elected to the presidency of the board at its
annual election in 1808.

Mr. Knott has been very active in legislative mat-
ters at Springfield, and his associates consider that he
was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

special assessment bill, which, since it has become a law,
has proved one of the most beneficial measures passed
by the Legislature in recent years.

In revenue matters he has taken much interest, and
he was chairman of the committee that did such good
work during the special session of the Legislature when
the present revenue law was up for passage.

Another matter of which he is a warm advocate is
the subject of small parks for the poor in the crowded
tenement districts, and he hopes to be able to give this
considerable attention in the near future.

For many years Mr. Knott has been prominent in
the affairs of the Union League Club, having been sec-
retary of that representative organization for three years,
including the year of the World’s Fair. His position as

 

 

 

 

 

 

HENRY A. KNOTT.

secretary at that time was important, because of the
many prominent visitors from all over the world that
were entertained by the club.

He was also secretary of the Citizens’ Committee
that entertained the representatives from Washington
when the Government appropriation for the fair was
under consideration. The same committee was contin-
ued and assisted in entertaining representatives from the
different states at the opening of the exposition. Be-
sides being a member of the Union League Club, Mr.
Knott is connected with the University, Saddle and
Cycle and Onwentsia clubs and various other organ-
izations.

John George Shortall, son of John and Charlotte

(Towson) Shortall, was born at Dublin, Ireland, Sep-
tember 20, 1838. When he was between two and three
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

years of age his parents emigrated, with their family, to
this country, joining an elder branch that had been long
settled in New York City.

After the death of his parents, the subject of this
sketch was employed by the late Horace Greeley in
the editorial rooms of the New York Tribune, and here,
for the following three years, he was brought in close
contact with Mr. Greeley and other master minds who
molded the public opinion of the day. This period in
his life proved to be a period of education that he feels
he could in no way have dispensed with.

In the summer of 1854, following the advice of Mr.
Greeley, he came West, and located in Galena, Illinois,
where he was engaged for a short time upon the con-

 

JOHN GEORGE SHORTALL.

struction and survey work of the Illinois Central Rail-
road, then building between that place and Scales
Mound. Late in the fall, however, he came to Chicago
and secured a position on the Chicago Tribune, but soon
afterward withdrew from the newspaper business to
enter the office of J. Mason Parker, where he took up
the study of real estate law and titles, a profession he
has followed to the present time. He is a member of
the Illinois bar. When Mr. Shortall entered this office
Mr. Parker was engaged in preparing the real estate
abstract books, afterward known as the Shortall &
Hoard Abstracts, and which are now the property of
the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of Chicago,
of which Mr. Shortall is a director.

At the time of the fire of 1871, the firm in which
Mr. Shortall was interested was one of the three ab-
stract firms in Chicago. Each saved a portion of its

185

records, but no one set was complete. A consolidation
was therefore effected between them, and Mr. Shortall
remained actively connected with his associates in the
conduct of the business until 1873.

Mr. Shortall has led an active life along other than
purely business lines. In musical, literary, educational
and social circles he has been especially active. For
years he was one of the directors of the old Philharmonic
Society, and afterward president of the Beethoven Soci-
ety, during almost its entire existence. For years also he
was a director of the Chicago Public Library, and served
three terms as president of the board. It was under his
administration that plans for the present superb Library
building were selected and that the negotiations were
conducted which finally secured Dearborn Park as the
site for the erection of the structure.

Along few lines of work, however, has the name of
Mr. Shortall become so widely known as through his
connection with the Illinois Humane Society. He was
one of the organizers of this commendable institution
in 1869, and in 1877 was chosen its president, a position
to which he has ever since been annually elected. Mr.
Shortall was also instrumental in the founding of the
American Humane Association in 1877, and was elected
its president in 1884, being reélected in 1892, and annu-
ally thenceforward to 1898, inclusive. At the World's
Fair he was chairman of the Men’s Committee on Moral
and Sociai Reform of the Auxiliary Congresses, and
conducted the Humane Congress in October, 1893,
which was so successful.

In social circles he is a member of the Chicago Club,
the Chicago Literary Club and the Reform Club of New
York. He is also an honorary member of the Amateur
Musical Club of Chicago and of the Pennsylvania So-
ciety for the Prevention of Crueity to Animals. He
was married September 5, 1861, to Miss Mary Dunham
Staples of Chicago, who died August 24, 1880, leaving
one child, John L. Shortall.

Marvin A. Farr, well known in the real estate circles
of Chicago, was born in Essex County, New York, in
1853. He is the son of George W and Esther (Day)
Farr. Through both parents he traces his ancestral
lines back to the colonial times of the seventeenth cen-
tury.

While he was still a child Mr. Farr’s parents left
the Empire State and took up their residence in the
state of Michigan. After the customary attendance in
the common schools, Mr. Farr entered Carrol! College
at Waukesha, Wisconsin, at which institution of learning
he pursued the regular course, and was in due time
graduated. He then continued his education under spe-
cial instructors, and subsequently supplemented his
studies with extensive travels through the United States
and other American, as well as European, countries.

In 1873 Mr. Farr located in Chicago, entering the
186 THE

employ of Messrs. H. H. Porter and James B. Good-
man, who were engaged in the lumber and real estate
business. His interest in real estate matters has always
been keen, and his wide experience along these lines
has well qualified him for an active and influential part
in these affairs. As a fitting tribute to the esteem in
which he is held, he was elected president, in 1897, of
that important institution, the Chicago Real Estate

 

 

MARVIN A. FARR.

Board. He was also, at one time, the manager of the
West Chicago Land Company, but at present he con-
fines his attention entirely to real estate.

Mr. Farr is a member of many of the social organiza-
tions of the city. Among them are the Union League
Club, the Chicago Literary Club, the Midlothian Coun-
try Club, the Kenwood Club, of which he was for two
years president, and the Illinois Club, of which he was
for some time secretary. He is a stanch supporter of
the principles of the Republican party; has taken
an active part in public matters pertaining to property
interests and civic decency, but has never been a candi-
date for a political office. He holds membership in the
Kenwood Evangelical Church.

Mr. Farr was married in 1886 to Miss Charlotte
Camp, only daughter of the late. Isaac N. Camp. They
have one child, Newton Camp Farr, aged eleven years.

Frank G. Hoyne, son of Thomas and Lenora (Tem-
ple) Hoyne, claims Chicago as his native city, having
been born here July 17, 1854. Both his parents were
among the pioneers of the present metropolitan city,
his mother having come here as early as 1833, while
his father’s residence began in 1837. He has thus been

CITY OF CHICAGO.

thoroughly imbued with the energy and “push” that
is so characteristic of the West.

Mr. Hoyne received his education at Palmer’s Acad-
emy, one of the early preparatory schools of the city,
and at the old Chicago University. While pursuing his
studies at the last-named place he became intimately
acquainted with Professor Safford, then Professor of
Astronomy in that institution. The latter, being selected
by the war department to make certain observations in
the states of Kansas and Colorado, invited Mr. Hoyne
to accompany him. This trip, which enabled him to
see a great deal of the undeveloped West, is one that
he will never forget.

On his return to Chicago in the fall of 1872 he de-
cided to enter the business world, and secured a posi-
tion in the establishment of Culver, Page, Hoyne & Co.,
as assistant shipping clerk. He was an apt student of
the methods of this firm, and his ability was rewarded
by rapid promotions through the different departments,

 

FRANK G. HOYNE.

until in 1884, when the firm dissolved. He then held
the position of manager of the city manufacturing de-
partment. Mr. Hoyne then entered the real estate busi-
ness, in partnership with his brother, James, under the
firm name of Hoyne Brothers. The business has been
very successful, and since the death of his brother, in
1895, Mr. Hoyne has conducted it under his own name.

Mr. Hoyne has always taken much interest in the
THE CITY OF

Illinois National Guard, having been actively connected
with it for nearly ten years. Enlisting as a private in
Company C of the First Regiment Infantry, in 1875, he
was promoted, three years later, to regimental quarter-
master-sergeant, and in 1880 commissioned captain and
brigade quartermaster, by Governor Cullom, and as-
signed to the First Brigade, Brigadier-General Tor-
rence commanding. He resigned his commission and
retired from service in 1884. Since then his only con-
nection with the state militia has been that of an honor-
ary nature, he being an honorary member of Company
C, First Regiment Infantry, and a member of the vet-
eran corps of the same regiment.

In the fall of 1887 Mr. Hoyne was appointed United
States appraiser for the port of Chicago by President
Cleveland, and held this office until his successor was
appointed by President Harrison in 1890. Four years
later, at the earnest request of the merchants of the city,
President Cleveland again appointed him to this posi-
tion, which he held until March 26, 1808.

In social affairs Mr. Hoyne has always taken an
active part. He was one of five to organize the Iroquois
Club, serving as its first treasurer, and later acting as
secretary and vice-president for several years. He was
also one of twenty-five to organize the Calumet Club,
and was among the first one hundred members of the
Chicago Athletic Association. Besides these, he holds
membership in the Midlothian Golf Club, the Wau-
saukee Hunting and Fishing Club of Wisconsin, the
New York Democratic Club and the Art Institute: of
Chicago.

_ Mr. Floyne was united in marriage April 24, 1884, to
Miss Florence A. Ashton, daughter of Washington and
Helen Ashton of Chicago. They have two daughters.
Leonora Temple, aged twelve, and Helen Ashton, aged

two years.

Samuel Brown, Jr. Because of its size, growth and
location Chicago will always have prominent real estate
interests in the future, as it has had in the past. This is
particularly true with suburban property, where the field
is constantly widening, because of the gradual move-
ment out of and away from the closer and more densely
populated sections of the city.

Among those in Chicago whose careers have been
closely connected with the real estate world, and who
are best known, perhaps, in their connections with the
better class of suburban property, is Samuel Brown, Jr.,
whose offices are situated in the Association Building,
on La Salle street. He was born at St. Louis, and
came to Chicago when but a lad of nine years. During
the past fifteen years he has established an enviable
reputation in his chosen field, and has become recog-
nized as one of the leading real estate men of the city.

CHICAGO. 187

 

 

 

 

 

SAMUEL BROWN, JR.

William Hale Thompson, one of the most active
among the younger members of the Real Estate Board
of Chicago, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 14,
1869. His parents, who were of sturdy New England
stock, came to Chicago during his infancy. The elder

 

 

WILLIAM HALE THOMPSON.

Mr. Thompson, who also was William Hale Thompson,
acquired large real estate interests in Chicago and in
other parts of the great West. After going through the
public schools of this city, and attending supplementary
188

courses in the Fessenden Preparatory School and in the
Metropolitan College, the younger William Hale
Thompson ventured at the early age of fifteen upon the
rough but character-building experiences of a frontier
life. Between his fifteenth and twentieth birthdays, Mr.

_ Thompson spent five seasons on the ranches of the

Standard Cattle Company in Colorado, Montana and
Wyoming, returning each winter to Chicago for the
further prosecution of his scholastic studies. For three
years more he was engaged in the management of a
large cattle ranch, owned by his father and himself, in
Nebraska. Since the death of his father, Mr. W. H.
Thompson has been occupied in the management of the
real estate left by the decedent and in real estate affairs
of his own.

a ti ana ap — In

i” Anes VA SKN e\\. . ee ance X

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Thompson’s inherent and acquired love of and
skill in outdoor sports is symbolized by his membership
in the Chicago Yacht Club, the Washington Park Club
and the Chicago Athletic Club, in the last-named of
which institutions he has held positions of honor, vary-
ing between “tackle” of the football team and vice-presi-
dent of the club. He is also a member of the Marquette
Club and of the Real Estate Board.

Mr. Thompson’s stalwartness in politics and his emi-
nently practical nature have made him a marked per-
sonage in Republican circles. He is unmarried.

Mr. Thompson was, on April 2, 1900, elected alder-
man to represent the Second Ward in the Chicago City
Council.

 

Sama ACK ES ee Or \anest
  

CHAPTER XxX.

ae eee eee a > TO

 

UNION STOCK YARDS AND TRANSIT COMPANY. |

 

Sl ea taal aN re

HE old “Bull’s Head” stock vards,

situated at the corner of Madison
® street and Ogden avenue, were
/ opened in 1848, and gave Chicago
its first regular cattle market. In
1854 the Michigan Southern Rail-
way opened stock yards at the cor-
ner of State and Twenty-second
streets, which were closed in the
spring of 1866. John B. Sherman
made what was, up to 1866, the boldest venture in this
direction in opening the Myrick yards on Cottage Grove
avenue, with a capacity for 5,000 cattle and 30,000 hogs.

After the failure of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy Railroad stock yards, which had been established
a mile and a half west of the city by that company, to
attract business to any extent, it became manifest that
the live-stock interests of Chicago must be concentrated
in some suitable and convenient quarter, to facilitate and
lessen the expense of transfers of cattle and hogs. The
delays occasioned by the location of the yards at long
distances from one another suggested the enterprise of
the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company. A pros-
pectus was issued in the autumn of 1864, which resulted
in the subscription of stock to the extent of $1,000,000,
the greatest portion of which was taken by the nine rail-
ways chiefly interested in the live-stock trade. A special
charter was granted by the State Legislature, which was
approved on February 13, 1865, and upon the organiza-
tion of the company, Timothy B. Blackstone was chosen
president; -F. H. Winston, secretary, and Robert Nol-
ton, assistant secretary.

The site chosen for the location of the yards was at
Halsted street, in the town of Lake, and 320 acres were
purchased from Hon. John Wentworth, the price being
$100,000. This land was considered an almost value-
less marsh, impossible to be drained. Work was com-
menced on June 1, 1865, and by Christmas of that year

 

the yards were thrown open for business. The yards
were laid out as a rectangular figure, with streets and
alleys crossing one another at right angles. The yards
virtually form a small city in themselves, covering, as
they now do, some 475 acres, with 25 miles of brick
and plank paved streets, and with the utmost regularity
and system observed in the conduct of everything done
there. They contain 38 miles of water troughs, 50 miles
of feeding troughs and 100 miles of drainage and water
supply, and possess a capacity for caring for 75,000
cattle, 50,000 sheep, 300,000 hogs and 5,000 horses.
The pens for the various descriptions of stock, which
hold from one to ten carloads each, are laid out in
divisions distinct from each other, much after the man-
ner of city wards, the intersecting streets running
through them at right angles. The plant represents an
outlay of $10,000,000, and the company employs more
than 1,000 hands, while the 200 commission firms
doing business there employ some 1,500 assistants.
About 100 firms of packers do business here, about 20
per cent of whom are more or less prominent as curers
of meat. The plants of these 100 concerns are estimated
to be worth $40,000,000, while the capital invested in
their business falls little, if at all, below $75,000,000.

In and about the houses 30,000 men find employ-
ment, the annual wages paid reaching the sum of $25,-
000,000, while the total value of the products exceeds
$200,000,000 in a single year. One thousand two hun-
dred cattle pens and 1,000 sheep and hog pens
were found sufficient for the accommodation of stock
in the early history of the yards. At the present time
more than 8,500 of the former and 4,500 of the latter
are scarcely enough to meet the requirements of busi-
ness.

One of the chief difficulties encountered by the com-
pany at the outset of this enterprise was the obtaining
of a sufficient supply of pure water. It is now amply
secured from six artesian wells, 1,250 to 2,250 feet deep,

189
190

with reservoir capacity of 8,000,000 gallons; 7,000,000
gallons of water are consumed here on the hottest days.

A complete system of overhead viaducts connects
with every part of the yards and the immense packing-
house district, situated immediately back of and adjoin-
ing the Union Stock Yards proper.

Every railway entering Chicago is connected directly
with the stock yards by the company’s own belt line of
296 miles of main tracks and switches, with its own
equipment of engines and employés and complete man-
agement, handling all the live and dead freight in and
out from the vast live-stock and meat-packing district,
together comprising the busiest square mile known.
THe company receives and delivers the loaded cars, guar-
anteeing both the safety of the cargo and the payment
of freight. Over four miles of platforms connect the
cars with 625 chutes, for loading and unloading stock,
and so complete are the arrangements that an entire
train may be unloaded at once, an average of less than
two minutes per car being consumed in the operation.

In the center of the yards stands an immense ex-
change building, in which are the offices of the com-
pany, as well as those of the commission firms and buy-
ers, telegraph companies, railroads and other dependent
interests. Among other prominent buildings owned by
the company and devoted to the accommodation of
those interested in the live-stock trade are the Na-
tional Live Stock Bank; the Transit House, a first-class
hotel of 300 rooms; the Drovers’ Journal building;
division offices, car repair shops, blacksmith and car-
penter shops, water tower and works, a large electric
light plant, Horse Exchange offices, restaurants, pas-
senger station, fire-engine houses, feed barns, etc.

After the cars have been unloaded and the feeding
and watering have been accomplished, the selling be-
gins. Most of the stock is consigned for sale on com-
mission, though owners not infrequently conduct their
own sales. There are few busier scenes than that pre-
sented at the yards from five o'clock in the morning until
about three in the afternoon, the great bulk of the
stock arriving in the night. To a casual onlooker all
is confusion, yet each man in the busy throng, nearly
300 of whom are buyers, has a distinct aim in view.

Another feature of the yards, constantly appreciating
in interest and importance, is the horse market. Here
are 25 immense brick stables, covering an area
of about 1,800x200 feet, separate space being allotted to
each of the different dealers. So rapid has been the
growth of this department of stock business within the
past few years, that it was found necessary to construct,
in addition to the stables, a sales pavilion, 530x185 feet
in dimensions, costing over $100,000. This edifice is
designed for the holding of auction sales, as well as for
giving agricultural, and particularly live stock, com-
petitive exhibits.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Direct wires connect the Chicago yards with those
of New York, Jersey City, Albany, Buffalo, Kansas
City, St. Louis, Omaha, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, hav-
ing a capacity of several thousand messages an hour.
In addition to these, many of the leading firms maintain
private wires to the East. By these means it is possible,
within half an hour after a message leaves an Eastern
buyer, for its execution to be under way, and gener-
ally the purchase is en route before the work of the day
is over.

Few peop!e, excepting those directly interested, have
any conception of the magnitude of the business car-
ried on at the Union Stock Yards. The comparison
between it and other leading yards is also an item that
causes wonderment to the uninitiated. A glance at the
official reports for the year ending December 31, 1808,
is of interest. In that period there were received 2,61 37
630 cattle, or 4o per cent of the total receipts at all
the stock centers in the country, and its proportion of
the total slaughter was 46 per cent, showing that a
considerable part of the receipts of other markets are
sent to Chicago for slaughter. Its receipts for hogs
were 9,357,114, or 51 per cent of the total receipts of all
markets, while of sheep it received 3,589,439, or nearly
58 per cent of the total amount, and s!aughtered 65 or
70 per cent of the receipts of all other markets. The
va.uation of these receipts during 1898 reached the enor-
mous figures of $229,301,296.

The first president cf the Union Stock Yards and
Transit Company was T. B. Blackstone. Mr. B'ackstone
retired. in 1866, and was succeeded by J. M. Douglass,
but the latter resigned the same year. His successor
was B. B. Chandler, who held the office until 1873.
James M. Walker followed, and retained the presidency
until 1881. He was succeeded by Nathaniel Thayer,
who remained president of the company until 1899,
when John B. Sherman was elected to the office, which
office he resigned January 1, 1900. The officers at the
present time are: John A. Spoor, president; Frederick
S. Winston, vice-president; N. Thayer, chairman board
of directors; C. D. Mover, secretary and treasurer; R. B.
Thomson, assistant secretary and treasurer; A. G.

Leonard, general manager; James H. Ashby, general
superintendent.

John B. Sherman, former president and founder of
the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company, was born
in January, 1825, at Beekman, Dutchess County, New
York, and spent his early days on a farm, receiving only
a common school education. At the age of nineteen he
made his first start in business life as clerk in a country
store, and continued in this occupation for several years.
In 1849 he went to California in search of gold, making
the trip by way of Mexico, and engaged in mining near
the point where the first discovery of gold was made.
He was moderately successful and returned to his home
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in New York the following year a few thousand dol-
lars better off in this world’s goods. But his love for
the West was unsatisfied, and in the same year he came
to Illinois and purchased a farm in Kendall County,
but later he removed to Chicago and entered into the
commission business as a member of the firm of Black
& Sherman.

In December, 1855, Mr. Sherman rented the old
Bull’s Head Stock Yards, then located on West Mad-
ison street, and in the following year he leased the My-
rick yards, Thirty-ninth street and Cottage Grove ave-
nue, and continued in business there with Mr. D. K.
Belding, and later with his brother, I. N. W. Sherman,
until the expiration of his lease in the fall of 1865.

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN B. SHERMAN.

At that time there were four different stock-yard
markets in Chicago, and with a view of improving the
live-stock market of Chicago, Mr. Sherman conceived
the plan of consolidating all the markets at one point, a
movement which resulted, in 1866, in the organization
of the great Union Stock Yards and Transit Company of
Chicago. Before the completion of the yards Mr. Sher-
man determined to retire from business, and removed
to Poughkeepsie, New York, but in 1867, upon the
death of Mr. I’. E. Bryant, Mr. Sherman returned to
Chicago and succeeded him as general superintendent,
thus continuing his active connection with this great
enterprise of which he was the founder.

For years Mr. Sherman could be seen daily in the
saddle, on his favorite black horse, riding through the
different portions of the yards, inspecting the workings
of the organization, and giving particular attention to

191

all such details as would insure the best accommoda-
tions to the patrons of the yards and to the railroad com-
panies, his aim being to make the Union Stock Yards
the greatest live-stock market in the world, an object
and ambition which have been fully realized. It maycon-
fidently be asserted that no other man could have been
selected who could so well have met all the difficult
requirements of that responsible position. Mr. Sher-
man was afterward elected vice-president and general
manager and a director of the company. His manage-
ment from the first has been characterized by a liberal
spirit toward all parties concerned among the railroads
and packers, without any discrimination. He has always
been a public-spirited man, especially with regard to the
public improvements of Chicago, and has taken a great
interest in the improvement of the suburbs of the city, and
particularly the public parks and boulevards, and, as a
member of the Board of South Park Commissioners, has
rendered valuable service in bringing Chicago’s park sys-
tem to its present state of perfection. In the accomplish-
ment of this, and in all plans for the improvement of our
park system, Mr. Sherman takes supreme delight, anil
well deserves all the commendation that has been so
freely bestowed. His selection as president of the board,
in succession to Mr. J. W. Ellsworth, on the latter’s re-
cent retirement, received the warm approval of the
press and public.

Although Mr. Sherman ranks among the million-
aires of Chicago, he is one of the plainest and least
ostentatious of our citizens. He has a beautiful hore
in the South Division, and a valuable farm and other
property at Washington Heights, and is largely inter-
ested in banking and other moneyed enterprises. He
is essentially a home man and finds his chief pleasure in
the home circle. His family consists of his wife, one
son and one daughter, the wife of Mr. D. H. Burnham,
the distinguished architect.

Jephtha C. Denison, for many years secretary and
treasurer of the Union Stock Yards & Transit Com-
pany, was born in Vermont, and comes of good old
New England stock. In early life Mr. Denison removed
to New York State, and later to Mendota, Hlinois,
being a resident of Elgin, Illinois, at the outbreak of
the war. Enlisting in the Thirty-sixth Hlinois Volun-
teers, he served until the close of hostilities, part of the
time as hospital steward on the medical staff. He was
ranking hospital steward of the field hospital at Chat-
tanooga, and later was detailed for duty in the office
of the medical director at Nashville, receiving his honor-
able discharge for this latter service at the direction of
President Lincoln.

Returning to civil life, Mr. Denison engaged in
business at Elgin, but in 1874 he came to Chicago and
entered the services of the Union Stock Yards and Tran-
sit Company. With that corporation he has worked his
192

way up through every position, but one, in the general
office. For thirteen years he was assistant secretary
and treasurer, and became secretary and treasurer some
years ago, upon the retirement of George T. Williams,
which office he resigned January I, 1900.

There are probably few men who have a more prac-
tical equipment of knowledge and experience in all mat-
ters relating to the live-stock trade than Mr. Denison.
He headed the Chicago delegation to the last conven-
tion of the Cattlemen’s Association at Denver, Col-
orado, and the distinguished places held by the Chicago
representatives at that gathering were largely due to
his influence and personality.

Mr. Denison was identified with other interests than

 

 

 

 

JEPHTHA C. DENISON.

being secretary and treasurer of a great corporation.
He is secretary and treasurer of the Union Rendering
Company, and was one of the first directors of the Na-
tional Live Stock Bank. He has for many vears been
president of the Englewood Building and Loan :\ssocia-
tion, and is at the head of the Eye Printing Company,
a well-known and popular publication. Personally, Mr.
Denison is a man with unostentatious bearing, genial
and courteous, direct in speech and of unswerving loy-
alty to friends or connections—a man whose word may
be absolutely relied upon.

James H. Ashby, general superintendent of the
Union Stock Yards, was born November 17, 1847, in
Dutchess County, New York. His parents, James N.
and Sarah (Van Benschoten) Ashby, were farmers, and
it was on this farm in the Empire State that Mr. Ashby

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

was raised and spent the first thirty-three years of his
life. In 1880 he left his Eastern home and came to Chi-
cago, entering the services of the Union Stock Yards
as yardmaster, a position he held for some six years,

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES H. ASHBY.

when he was appointed assistant superintendent. He
became general superintendent in 1887.
Few men are better known about the yards than

Mr. Ashby, and few in that busy center have a better

 

D. I. LUFKIN.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

knowledge of the practical workings of this. great
market.

He was married in 1875 to Miss Maria S. Rogers of
New York State.

The Lufkin Stock Yards and Feeding Company
was organized by D. I. Lufkin, and is located at the West
city limits and the new canal, having a connection with
the principal railroads entering into Chicago. The office
is at No. 26 Rialto Building.

PROVISIONS.

Philip Danforth Armour, son of Danforth and Juli-
anna (Brooks) Armour, was born at Stockbridge, Mad-
ison County, New York, May 16, 1832. His parents,

 

 

 

 

 

PHILIP DANFORTH ARMOUR.

who were farmers, gave their family of six boys and two
girls such educational advantages as were to be ob-
tained in the nearby country schools, and some of the
children also attended a neighboring village seminary.
Among them was Philip, and many anecdotes have been
told of his boyish pranks while a student at that insti-
tution.

During the winter of 1851-52, Mr. Armour was one
of a small party that succumbed to the California gold
craze, and in the early spring of 1852 this band of gold-
seekers began their journey toward the far West. Six
months later they reached their destination, having trav-
eled by the overland route, and encountering all the
hardships incident to making the trip in this manner.

Mr. Armour returned to the East in 1856, after hav-
ing had a varied experience in mining enterprises, and it
was conjectured at the time that he brought back with

I

1938

him considerable of the golden dust, but the facts of
this interesting matter are known only to himself. He
devoted a few weeks to visiting his parents, after which
he again started West, this time locating in Milwaukee.
Tere he formed a partnership with Frederick B. Miles
in the commission business. This firm continued until
1863, when Mr. Armour became associated with John
Plankinton in the pork-packing industry. This ven-
ture was probably the turning point in Mr. Armout’s
career, since Mr. Plankinton.had for many years been
connected with Frederick Layton, one of Milwaukee’s
pioneer residents, and not only stood high and com-
manded the respect of the citizens of Milwaukee, but
had also built up an industry of no small magnitude.
This partnership enjoyed a thriving business, and the
fluctuations in the price of provisions at the close of the
war left the firm a fortune.

Mr. Armour’s brother, Herman ©. Armour, had
established himself in Chicago in 1862 in the grain com-
mission business, but three years later he was induced to
surrender his interests here to a younger brother, Joseph
F. Armour, and take charge of a new firm in New York,
under the name of Armour, Plankinton & Co. The
firm name of H. O. Armour & Co. was continued in
Chicago, however, until 1870. They continued to han-
dle grain, and commenced packing hogs in 1868. This
part of the business, however, was conducted under
the firm name of Armour & Co., and in 1870 the firm
of Armour & Co. assumed all the business transacted
at Chicago.

In 1871, in order to keep abreast of the demands of
the market, the firm of Plankinton & Armour was
established at Kansas City, under the charge of Simeon
B. Armour, and in 1875 Philip D. Armour came to Chi-
cago, where he has since resided. The growth of the
business of Armour & Co. has been marvelous, the
firm doing a larger business than any other of its kind
in the world. Mr. Armour remains its active head, and,
while he has dealt out many of the larger responsibili-
ties to able assistants, he still dictates its general policy.
Mr. Armour has given largely of his wealth to various
charitable and educational institutions, to say nothing
of his numerous gifts toward other worthy enterprises,
and the various other endowments of which no public
mention has been made. In 1881, upon the death of
his brother, Joseph F. Armour, he was given charge
of a trust of $100,000, with which to found an institu-
tion whose purpose should be to reach the people with
the teachings and influences of the gospel of Christ, and
to insure the care and development of the children and
youth of that part of Chicago where it should be located.
Mr. Armour took his brother’s bequest as a sugges-
tion, and his benefaction has multiplied the amount
many times, his own gift reaching the sum of two mil-
lions of dollars. The result has been, not only the
194

building of the Armour Mission, but the Armour flats,
and later the Armour Institute, the public being made
aware of the latter gift on Christmas Eve, 1892.

Mr. Armour was married at Cincinnati in 1862 to
Miss Belle Ogden, daughter of Jonathan Ogden. Two
sons have been born to them, Jonathan Ogden Armour
and Philip D. Armour, Jr., who died January, 1goo.

Nelson Morris. The proportion of men is compara-
tively small who can point to a vast and successful busi-
ness enterprise and say: “I created that with no other
capital than my own efforts and a willingness to go slow
and build surely.” And yet, according to Mr. Nelson
Morris himself, the way is still open for the rising gener-
ation to emulate his example, for, as he believes, ‘there

 

 

 

 

 

NELSON MORRIS.

are more and better opportunities to-day than there
were forty and fifty years ago.”

Born in the Black Forest, Germany, January 21,
1839, Mr. Morris was the son of wealthy parents, whose
property, unfortunately, was confiscated during the
revolution of 1848. Thus reduced to poverty, life be-
came a struggle for existence, and at the age of twelve
Mr. Morris came to this country alone, and almost with-
out friends, but, moved with a firm determination, even
at so young an age, to replace the lost fortunes of his
parents. Following the custom of those days, a cus-
tom which, in later years, Mr. Morris has been influ-
ential in having stopped through acts of legislation, he
was sold out to peddle until he should become of age,
and he began his career in this country by trudging
from place to place through Litchfield County, Con-
necticut. After three months of this work the boy’s

THE CITY. OF CHICAGO.

spirit rebelled, and he ran away, going to another part
of Connecticut, where for a year or more he found em-
ployment in burning charcoal and other work of a
humble nature.

In 1854 Mr. Morris came to Chicago, working his
way here as best he could. His services on a canalboat
carried him as far as Buffalo, and from there to Michi-
gan City he worked for his passage on a lumber vessel.
The last part of his journey was completed on foot.
Arriving in this city, he secured work in the old Sherman
Stock Yards, then run by John B. Sherman, later founder
of the Union Stock Yards, receiving for his services the
sum of five dollars a month and his room and board.
This amount, however, was increased by thrift and a de-
sire to help his parents, and accordingly, by selling his
bed three nights in the week in winter, and engaging at
those times to keep the hogs in the vards from freezing
to death, he was enabled to send home more than the
amount of his salary.

Mr. Sherman offered Mr. Morris $100 a month at
the beginning of the second year, but this the latter
refused, preferring to go into business for himself. An
arrangement, however, was agreed upon whereby Mr.
Morris was to receive his bed and board, provided he
would watch the yards three nights in the week. This
agreement was faithfully kept for several years. Being
now free to employ his time between sunrise and sunset
as he chose, Mr. Morris found a number of ways to
earn money. His first business venture was buying
smothered hogs for rendering purposes, and later, as he
came to command still larger and larger capital, he be-
gan to slaughter a few cattle.

The future growth of his packing industry was but
the natural result of exercising the same qualities of
thrift and self-denial that characterized his humble be-
ginning at the yards. Within eight years after reaching |
Chicago Mr. Morris had not only repurchased his
former home in the old country for his parents, but he
had also accumulated sutficient means to warrant his
getting married, and in 1863, a year after his matriage |
to Miss Sarah Vogel of this city, he built his present
home on Indiana avenue.

In later years, after the now well-known packing
business of Nelson Morris & Co. became securely estab-
lished, Mr. Morris became interested in a number of
other enterprises. He was one of the organizers of the
stock-yard banking system, and is a director in sev-
eral of these banks. He also owns packing houses at
St. Louis, St. Joseph, and a part interest of one at San
Francisco. One of his enterprises connected with his
packing industry is his extensive system of ranches for
the breeding of cattle. One in Texas measures 70
miles by 30 miles in extent, while another in Jasper
County, Indiana, which he reclaimed from a marsh,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

contains 30,000 acres.
extensive, in Nebraska.

Mr. Morris is a thorough American in his love for
his adopted country, to which he feels he is greatly
indebted for his success in life. This debt he has tried
to pay by acts of good-will toward his fellow-men, and
these are especially directed toward the great army of
men in his employ. He believes the best way to render
assistance to the needy is to help only those who help
themselves, and in this way he accomplishes a double
charity. He takes a bright view of life, and is thor-
oughly sincere when he says he believes that any young
man can succeed if he possesses a thorough foundation
in honesty, industry and temperance.

He has still another, quite as

195

cial pride in the regard shown him by his associates.
For half a century, lacking but five years, he has been
identified with the stock-yard interests of Chicago, and
in all that time it is said he has never made other than
friends among the many with whom he has dealt.

SWIFT & CO.

The meat-packing business is one of large figures.

An example of this will be found in the case of Swiit
& Co. of Chicago, which is more than ordinarily re-
markable, as the business has all been of recent devel-
opment.

Ten years ago it was confined chiefly to local ter-
ritory, now it is represented all over the world.

 

 

 

 

 

BIRDSEYE VIEW OF SWIFT & CO.’S PLANT.

Mr. Morris’ married life has been an especially happy
one. Five children have been born to him, of whom
four survive. The eldest is the wife of A. M. Roth-
schild, and of the others, Edward and Ira are in busi-

ness with their father, while the youngest, Maud, is still -

in school. One of the sons, Edward, married Miss
Helen Swift of Chicago, and the other, Ira, married
Miss Lillie Rothschild of New York City.

He is a man of friendly disposition, and takes espe-

Swift & Co. have packing plants in Chicago, Kansas
City, Omaha, St. Louis, St. Joseph and St. Paul, branch
houses in all of the large cities of America, and direct
representation in every country of the globe.

The six packing plants cover an area of over 65
acres, with a floor space of over 150 acres.

All this naturally involves a small army of employés,
and there are 18,433 people on the weekly pay-roll,
which runs up to about $200,450.
196

During 1898 Swift & Co. handled live stock as fol-
lows:

CAtO 0 pisidivines £4 See tee PERS OOS OHM ETE ey’ S 1,437,844
Sheep... cceec eee c cen e tern cee cece eee ete eeene 2,658,951
LOGS is eins. chee Sake gas neers OentE: ARERR 3,928,659

‘Totaled savas nduasin dees athe 8,025,454

107,684 carloads of dressed meat and other products
were shipped during 1898. Swift & Co. operate 5,127
cars, of which 4,000 are refrigerator cars.

The six packing plants have cold storage capacity
for 15,116 cattle, 18,600 sheep, 47,460 hogs.

The record for the largest day’s killing in 1898 is:

 

CAtlGt poe cecccds Gs $550 Bkee ad RCRD TOE HN aN eRe 10,973
SHEEP) cc sae gaadered daca se ehatawes arte teas wees 16,911
HOgS. cee cece eee eee eee ee enter eee nest enees 27,250

Totaliees seacenie sigisien Sues erases 55,140

Aside from the meat business, the sale of by-prod-
ucts mounts up to large figures in a year. During 1898
Swift & Co. manufactured:

196,244,585 pounds of lard.

6,472,857 pounds of wool.

3,888,983 pounds of neatsfoot oil.

5,487,540 pounds of glue.

8,116,338 pounds of butterine.
26,009,453 pounds of tallow and grease.
61,635,047 pounds of vil.

90,079,748 pounds of hides.
86,226,586 pounds of fertilizer.

The company’s stock is largely held by business
associates and employés, and they now have 2,590 stock-
holders.

The annual sales for 1898 exceeded $150,000,000.

LIBBY, McNEILL & LIBBY.

The name of Libby, McNeill & Libby has long been
a household word in all parts of the civilized world,
having been made famous by the uniformly excellent
meats bearing this brand, sold in all the markets of the
world for almost a third of a century. There is scarcely
aman, woman or child under the sun who has not, at
some time or other, eaten some of Libby’s delicious
cooked canned meats, and whose mouth does not water,
so to speak, at the mere mention of one or another of
the various wholesome and delicious table specialties pre-
pared by this company. Any facts relating to Libby,
McNeill & Libby cannot, therefore, fail to be of interest
to all our readers. This concern is distinctively a Chi-
cago institution, a striking example of what Chicago
push and energy, coupled with brain and strict business
integrity, can accomplish, and one in which much pride
is felt by the citizens of Chicago.

Prior to the year 1867 the curing of beef was done
exclusively in cold weather, but in the summer of 1867
Mr. Arthur A. Libby demonstrated the practicability of
curing beef in summer, and early in the following year
the business of Libby, McNeill & Libby was founded

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

by Messrs. Arthur A. Libby, Archibald McNeill and
Charles P. Libby. Mr. Arthur A. Libby and Mr. C. P.
Libby, brothers, hailed from Portland, Maine, and Mr.
McNeill from Buffalo, New York, and became the
pioneers in the great meat-canning industry of to-day.
Their capital, as Mr. Arthur A. Libby once expressed
it, consisted of but little cash, three pairs of strong and
willing hands, and an indomitable determination to
succeed. The name of the firm was first A. A. Libby &
Co., which was subsequently changed to its present
style. For many years the business was confined almost
exclusively to the packing and preserving of beef, but
during the last few years, pork, mutton, veal, poultry,
etc., have been added. The average number of car-
casses of beef handled daily during the first year was only
about 6 1-3. The second year showed a material increase
over the first, and so did each succeeding year over
its predecessor, until now the capacity has been increased
to 3,000 head of cattle per day, exclusive of the other
lines.

Libby, McNeill & Libby are not only the largest, but
also the oldest, concern in the world in the line of canned
meats. In 1868, when this company was established, the
process of preserving meats by hermetically sealing was
unknown, and to Libby, McNeill & Libby, therefore,
and chiefly to Mr. Arthur A. Libby, belongs the credit
of bringing this process, by tireless energy and innumer-
able experiments, to the state of perfection which it has
now reached—a process which, thoroughly understood
and properly applied, knows no failure.

The business was commenced in a small frame build-
ing situated on State street, between Fifteenth and Six-
teenth streets, but a rapid increase in business soon ren-
dered larger quarters necessary. The firm then removed
to the premises now known as 1646-48-50-52-54-56
State street, and a short time later, to meet the growing
demands, the entire Burlington warehouse, extending
from State street to Dearborn street, and from Sixteenth
street to the railroad track north, was engaged} in addi-
tion to the premises at 1646-56 State street. Here the
business was continued until 1888, when it was incor-
porated with a capital stock of $600,000—since in-
creased to $1,000,000, with a surplus of about the same
amount—and removed to its present spacious plant,
shown in the illustration above, located at the corner
of Exchange and Packers avenues, Union Stock Yards.
Limited space prevents a full description of this mam-
moth plant, but briefly, it is a compact model of com-
pleteness and cleanliness, equipped with all the special
facilities that inventive genius can devise, or mechan-
ical skill construct. Its floor space is equivalent to ten
and one-half acres, and it has a capacity for handling,
in addition to pork, mutton, veal, poultry, etc., 3,000
cattle daily, not merely to slaughter and distribute in
carcasses and fresh cuts, as is done by other packers,
THE CITY OF

but to convert into special products, comprising beef
hams, plate and extra plate beef, mess and extra mess
beef, corned beef rumps, select brisket beef, pickled
beef tongues, smoked beef, all kinds of sausage, extract
of beef, mincemeat, plum pudding, and about fifty vari-
eties of canned meats and soups, including Libby’s ox
tongues, compressed cooked corned beef, Peerless
wafer sliced smoked beef, lunch tongues, lambs’
tongues, brisket beef, veal loaf, compressed boneless
pigs’ feet, breakfast bacon, Vienna sausage, turkey and
tongue, boneless chicken, New England Club House
sausage, potted and deviled ham, beef and tongue, pork
and beans, a dozen kinds of soups, etc., and it may be
added that Libby, McNeill & Libby's brand of canned

CHICAGO. 197

retire from active business, and Mr. C. P. Libby was
made president and general manager; Mr. G. F. Swift,
vice-president, and Mr. W. F Burrows, secretary. In
1893 Mr. A. A. Libby, Jr., was succeeded by Mr. Chas.
H. True of Portland, Maine, as treasurer. In 1896 the
death of Mr. C. P. Libby vacated the presidency, and
the management devolved upon the broad and able
shoulders of Mr. W. F. Burrows, secretary then and now.
In 1897 Mr. Charles H. True was succeeded by Mr.
Edward Tilden, the present treasurer, who had for
many years been connected with the Drovers’ National
Bank of Chicago. The present chief executive officers
are: Mr. William F. Burrows, secretary, and Mr. Ed-
ward Tilden, treasurer, and to them and their staff of

 

LIBBY, McNEILL & LIBBY’S PLANT.

meats stands preéminent and is recognized universally
as the highest standard for purity, wholesomeness and
deliciousness. They are staple foods among all the na-
tions on the globe and among all classes; they have been
thoroughly tried in all climates and have never been
found wanting.

Another special line in which Libby, McNeill &
Libby are the pioneers is to supply hotels, restaurants,
etc., with the choicest cuts of beef (boneless), and they
number among their customers hundreds of the best
hotels throughout the United States and Canada.

When this business was incorporated Mr. Arthur A.
Libby was elected president; Mr. C. P. Libby, vice-
president and general manager; Mr. A. Libby, Jr., treas-
urer, and Mr. L.. C. Young, secretary. In 1890 failing
health made it necessary for Mr. Arthur A. Libby to

able assistants is due the credit of forging forward and
keeping fully abreast of the times one of the best and
greatest of Chicago’s business enterprises, and the old-
est and largest packing company in its special line in the
world.

THE G. H. HAMMOND COMPANY.

The G. H. Hammond Company was established in
1869 by George H. Hammond, a native of New Eng-
land, who had come West at an early age and located
in Detroit. In the year mentioned he associated him-
self with Marcus M. Towle, George Plummer and Caleb
Ives, and together they began operations on the site
of the present plant at Hammond, Indiana. Although
they expended some $200,000, which constituted in
those days no inconsiderable capital, they still found
198

their conveniences and appointments incomplete, and
their products correspondingly limited. Only a small
force of men were employed, and twenty-five head of
cattle constituted the average number slaughtered in a
day, while the annual business did not exceed $350,000.

At the time of the foundation of this plant the
dressed beef industry was an unknown quantity, and the
G. H. Hammond Company is entitled to the credit of
having been the pioneer in this particular trade, as
well as having been the first company to make use of
refrigerator cars for shipments.

Subsequently, as it was found that the enterprise
was destined to become a factor in the beef trade of
the country, the concern was incorporated under the
title of George H. Hammond & Co., with a capital of
$1,000,000. Mr. Hammond died in 1886, and three
years later the entire plant, with ‘slight exception, was
destroyed by fire. The business was recapitalized the
same year at $2,500,000, a larger and more modern
plant was erected on the original site, and in the fol-
lowing year the company was incorporated under the
laws of the state of Michigan as the G. H. Hammond
Company.

The present plant of the G. H. Hammond Com-
pany at Hammond, Indiana, possesses all that could
be desired in the way of economical and speedy meth-
ods for operating on the large scale now necessary 1n
the conduct of the business. Besides the slaughtering
facilities maintained at this point, there are separate
plants for the manufacture of butterine and other pack-
ing products, a fertilizer factory, canning factory, car
shops, etc. An idea of the extent of the business con-
ducted by the G. H. Hammond Company can be gained
from the total figures for a year. During the twelve
months there are slaughtered about 400,000 cattle,
500,000 sheep and 850,000 hogs. Five million pounds
of oleomargarine are manufactured, 30,000 tierces of
oleo oi] and thousands of barrels of tallow and stearine
are placed on the market, besides immense quantities
of such other products as may have commercial value.
In 1898 the sales of beef and provisions amounted to
about $50,000,000. Fourteen hundred refrigerator cars
carry the dressed products of the G. H. Hammond
Company to all parts of the country, and twelve of the
Cunard & Leyland line steamers are fitted with refrig-
erating facilities for their use, the export business of
the company being enormous. In addition to the main
plant at Hammond, which covers 125 acres and which
has a daily capacity of 2,500 head each of cattle and
hogs and 3,500 head of sheep, there is an extensive plant
at South Omaha and another at St. Joseph, Missouri,
each of which is capable of handling about 800 cattle
3,000 hogs and 1,500 sheep daily.

In March, 1890, the English corporation known as
the G. H. Hammond Company, Limited, was organized

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

under the English companies act to acquire the business
of the G. H. Hammond Company in the United States
and of William Murray in England. Most of the stock
of this company went into the hands of English capital-
ists, but there is an American directory who manage the
business. Still another company, bearing a somewhat _
similar name, is the Hammond Packing Company,
which was organized in 1898, with a capital of $1,000,-
000, to handle the Omaha branch and the new St.
Joseph branch, which are leased from the Michigan cor-
poration. The Hammond Packing Company is an Illi-
nois corporation and is wholly owned in this country.
Its business operations are entirely distinct and sep-
arate from the other corporations bearing the Hammond
name.

The officers of the G. H. Hammond Company are:
J. C. Melvin, president; IE. Chapman, vice-president;
J.P Lyman, general manager; J. D. Standish, secretary
and treasurer; K. H. Bell, assistant general manager;
E. A. Allen, assistant secretary; J. A. Ostion, assistant
treasurer. Its .\merican directors are; J. C. Melvin,
George Hotchkiss, T. H. Wheeler, E. Chapman,. F. S.
Winston, James D. Standish and F. P. Comstock.

J. P. Lyman, general manager of the G. H. Ham-
mond Company, was born at Alburgh, Vermont, in
1862, and when four years of age moved, with his par-

 

J. P. LYMAN.

ents, to Chateaugay, New York, where he was edu-
cated. When he was seventeen years old he left home
to begin his business career, and went to Boston, where
he spent some two years with a produce house. A like.
period was spent in the employ of George H. Hammond
THE CITY OF

& Co., after which he went into business for himself
in Boston as a member of the firm of Bartlett, Lyman
& Co. In 1886 he was appointed Eastern manager
for George H. Hammond & Co., and in 1891 he was
transferred to Chicago to assume the duties of his pres-
ent position.

John Cudahy, son of Patrick and Elizabeth (Shaw)
Cudahy, was born at Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland,
November 2, 1843. His parents came to this country
when he was but six years of age, and after a short
time spent in the New England states came West and
settled in Milwaukee. He attended the public schools
of that city until he was fourteen years of age, when
he secured a position in the packing house of Ed. Rod-

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CUDAHY.

dis, and started in to learn the rudiments of the busi-
ness, with which he was to become so closely identified
in after life. He remained in the employ of this house
for about three years, leaving them to enter the estab-
lishment of John Plankinton, afterward known as
Plankinton & Armour.

His connections with this firm lasted until he was
twenty-one years of age. At that time he became asso-
ciated with Thomas Grynne of Milwaukee in the nur-
sery business, dealing in fruit and ornamental trees,
and a few years later purchased the business, conducting
it under his own name until 1870. He paid but a small
sum down at the time of securing control, but managed
it so well that at the time he disposed of it he had not
only cleared himself of debt, but made a considerable
bit of money: besides.

Having disposed of this business, he once more en-

CHICAGO. 199

tered the packing industry, this time in the employ of
Layton & Co., packers. While in their service he was
appointed Board of Trade provision inspector for the
city of Milwaukee, and later became foreman and Board
of Trade inspector for Van Kirk & McGeough.

In 1875 he purchased an interest in the business of
John Plankinton, but a few months later, deciding that
the field of operations was not just what he wanted at
the time, he secured a release from his contract, and
came at once to Chicago, where he formed a partner-
ship with Mr. E. D. Chapin, under the firm name of
Chapin & Co., packers, the business being under this
name for two years, when it became known as the firm
of Chapin & Cudahy. A few years later Mr. Chapin
withdrew, and since that time Mr. Cudahy has con-
ducted the business under the name of the Cudahy
Packing Company. Some years ago Mr. Cudahy, to-
gether with his brother Patrick, purchased the business
of John Plankinton of Milwaukee, which has been car-
ried on under the name of Cudahy Brothers Company,
packers.

In the life of Mr. Cudahy we certainly find a good
example of what can be accomplished by industry, per-
severance and, above all, business integrity. These
qualities would have made him prominent, no doubt, in
other lines of business, and it may be truthfully said
that the success he has achieved and the prominence he
holds to-day are the natural results of these character-
istics, together with others which are to be found in men
that have made their own way.

Chicago certainly owes much of her prosperity to
men like Mr. Cudahy. A liberal-minded citizen, pos-
sessed of the highest ideals in all things, he has freely
contributed his wealth in the aid of many charitable
and public undertakings. Personally, he is a genial
companion, and, although his entire attentions are given
to his business, he finds time to mingle with his fellow-
men. He is very fond of outdoor recreation, and has
a beautiful summer home on Mackinac Island, where
he spends much of his time during the summer months.
He is a member of the Washington Park Club, the
Union League Club and the Chicago Club, besides hold-
ing membership in many other social organizations.

Mr. Cudahy has been twice married, the first time
in 1873, to Miss Mary Nolan of Bridgeport, Connec-
ticut, and the second time, in 1881, to Miss Margaret F.
O'Neil, daughter of the late Mr. John O’Neil, one of
Chicago’s most respected citizens. He has two daugh-
ters and one son.

Michael Cudahy, president of the Cudahy Packing
Company, was born December 7, 1841, at Callan, an
historic old town in County Kilkenny, Ireland. His
mother’s family were residents for some time of Dublin,
but removed to Callan about 1840, where they estab-
lished a pottery for the manufacture of crockery. His
200

father, Patrick Cudahy, with his wife, Elizabeth (Shaw)
Cudahy, and family, came to America in 1849, and
shortly afterward located at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mr. Cudahy is the eldest of five brothers and one sister,
Catherine, who entered the Convent of the Good Shep-
herd, in Milwaukee, in 1883, and was known as Sister
Stanislaus. She died in January, 1892. One brother.
William, died when thirty-seven years of age. John
and Patrick succeeded John Plankinton & Co., pack-
ers, of Milwaukee, under the firm name of Cudahy
Brothers, and Edward A. is vice-president and gen-
eral manager of the Cudahy Packing Company.

Mr. Cudahy grew to manhood in Milwaukee, and
there acquired his first experience in the packing-house

 

MICHAEL CUDAHY.

and stock-yard business. When but fourteen years of
age he entered the employ of Messrs. Layton & Plank-
inton, packers, in Milwaukee, and when he was nine-
teen years old he took a position with Ed. Roddis, who
was also engaged in the packing industry in that city.
He remained in his employ until 1866, when he went
into business for himself, but being offered sufficient
inducements by Mr. Frederick Layton, he disposed of
his business and entered the employ of Layton & Co. as
private meat inspector, and at the same time holding
the position of meat inspector on the Milwaukee Board
of Trade. Three years later he accepted a position with
Messrs. Plankinton & Armour of Milwaukee, and took
charge of their packing-house. His successful manage-
ment of this business induced Mr. Armour, in 1873, to
offer him a partnership in the now celebrated firm of
Armour & Co. of Chicago. Mr. Cudahy accepted the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

opportunity and took control of the stock yard end of
Armour & Co.’s business, managing it in a successful
and practical way for seventeen years. He with-
drew from this firm in November, 1890, and has since
devoted himself to the executive management of the
Cudahy Packing Company, whose plants are situated
in Kansas City, Omaha, Sioux City and Los Angeles.

Personally, Mr. Cudahy is a man of exceedingly
robust constitution and fine physical proportions. He is
of a social disposition, and a lover of the fine arts and of
music, for which he has a natural instinct. He owes
his success in life to perseverance, hard work and a
determination to succeed—qualities that are found in all
men who have attained eminence in business or profes-
sional life. He was married in 1866 to Miss Catherine
Sullivan, a daughter of Mr. John Sullivan, a well-to-do
farmer residing near Milwaukee. They have been
blessed with seven children—four daughters and three
sons.

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PROVISION COMPANY.

The Anglo-American Provision Company, pork
packers and lard refiners, was organized December 31,
1878, by Robert Fowler, who became its first president,
together with Anderson Fowler, John Fowler, William
Fowler and George Fowler. In 1889 the company
passed into the hands of an English corporation, at
which time it was recapitalized for $3,750,000, and since
then it has been known on the other side of the Atlan-.
tic as Fowler Brothers, Limited, 3 Victoria street, Liver-
pool.

The Anglo-American Provision Company deal ex-
clusively in hog products, of which they are the third
largest packers in the country, and the largest in the
point of export trade. Their business exceeds $40,000,-
000 a year, and the number of hogs packed 1,100,000.
Six hundred special refrigerator cars carry their prod-
ucts to the seaboard and to different parts of the United
States.

The present officers are: Anderson Fowler, presi-
dent; S. A. McClean, Jr., vice-president ; F. Cowin, sec-
retary; B. R. Irving, assistant secretary.

Mr. S. A. McClean, Jr., who is the vice-president of
the Anglo-American Provision Company and general
manager of the Chicago end of the business, was born in
Belfast, Ireland, about thirty years ago, and has been
with the company since 1880.

HATELY BROTHERS.

The firm of Hately Brothers, general commission
merchants and exporters of provisions, grain, tallow,
oils and feedstuffs, was established by Walter C. Hately
and John A. Bunnell in 1872. The business has always
shown a steady and healthy increase since its organi-
zation, and the brand of Hately Brothers has become
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

well known as a_guarantee of purity and excellence.
They are large shippers of lard and other pork prod-
ucts to European markets, and, in addition to their
own house in Liverpool, the firm is represented abroad

 

 

 

 

 

WALTER C. HATELY.

by agents in all the principal cities. Hately Brothers’
products are, almost without exception, marketed in
Europe, being purchased in Chicago and the West and
shipped in response to the demands of foreign trade.

201

THE CHICAGO PACKING AND PROVISION
COMPANY.

The Chicago Packing and Provision Company was
organized in 1872 by B. P. Hutchinson, who was its first
president, together with S. A. Kent, D. L. Quirk, Ira S.
Younglove and Owen Farguson.

As its name implies, this company does an extensive
packing-house business, dealing exclusively in hog prod-
ucts, and, inasmuch as they operate plants at Chicago,
East St. Louis, Illinois, and Nebraska City, Nebraska,
they are in a position to furnish three different grades
of meats—heavy, light and medium—and thus cater to
the demand in all parts of the world. The company does
an extensive foreign, as well as domestic, business, and
are ably represented in all the leading centers by old-
established connections. For the better and safer trans-
portation of their products to the seaboard and other
points, they operate their own line of special refriger-
ator cars.

Among other things, the Chicago Packing and Pre-
vision Company make a specialty of the well-known
“Botsford” brand of hog products, which has enjoved a
reputation for excellence the world over for upward
of a quarter of a century. ,

In 1892 the company was reincorporated, and its
present officers are: William LL. Gregson, vice-presi-
dent; Gilbert C. Pryor, secretary and treasurer. Its
directors are: H. Botsford, Levi Mayer, D. S. Googins,
William J. Dee, G. C. Pryor and William L. Gregson.
CHAPTER XXII.

 

 

 

 

BOARD OF TRADE.

 

HE subject of establishing a Board

mee brought to public notice in 1841,
e« but it was not until 1848 that defi-
nite steps were taken toward organ-
ization, and an attempt made to se-
cure uniformity in grades and guar-
antee the quality of any merchant-
able products. In February, 1849,
a general law relating to the estab-
lishment of boards of trade was passed by the State
Legislature, and in April, 1850, the members of the
board resolved to reorganize under its provisions.
The corporate life of the board began April 13 of the
same year, and the following week the new organization
was completed by the election of officers.

Speaking in a general way of the early life of this
body, and making mention of its more prominent
achievements, Andreas’ “History of Chicago” says, in
part: “The early history of the Board of Trade was
uneventful and uninteresting, except that it is the his-
tory of an institution which has, from a small and ap-
parently insignificant beginning, come to be the great
central force which controls the business of half a conti-
nent, and an important factor in the commerce of the
whole civilized world. The crude methods, often blindly
made, to systematize business interests and energies of
the city, did not then show the wonderfully intricate
and powerful instrumentality in directing and control-
ling trade and commerce it has since become. Nearly
all the modern means, methods and facilities for transact-
ing business or carrying on either local trade or foreign
commerce had their inception in the board, and were,
in their perfection, evolved from its action. The in-
spection, warehousing and shipping of grain in well-
defined and standard grades, the standard of inspection
of flour, pork, beef, lard, butter, lumber, etc., were all
primarily established and ultimately perfected through
its action. The rapid dissemination and interchange of

 

 

reliable commercial news and market quotations were
evolved from the mutual necessities of the boards of
trade in the business centers of the world. The system
of gathering all important commercial statistics has
been carried to a point of comprehensiveness and accu-
racy far beyond that of the government bureau of sta-
tistics. It has also become an established agency in the
direction of state and national legislation on all com-
mercial questions. Its resolutions and suggestions carry
with them a tone of authority, which seldom passes un-
noticed. Much of the commercial Jaw of to-day has
grown out of questions brought to the notice of the
courts through the transactions of its members and the
rules established by the board. The statutes pertaining
to inspection, warehousing and many others were the
direct outgrowth of its action. The daily gathering on
the floor, the babel of trade, where more business is
done than in any like place in the world, is, although the
most conspicuous, but one of many phases of its execu-
tive work. In all great crises the board has come to
be the true index of the patriotism, benevolence and
humanity of its members, no less than that of their
combined business force. Witness their acts of human-
ity when Chicago went up in flame and smoke, and
their never-failing loyalty and patriotism in the dark
and troublous times of the Rebellion. The history
of these years constitute the brightest pages in its an-
nals." * * * Speaking of the growth of specula-
tion on the board, the same article continues: “In
the efforts to facilitate legitimate trade, it is curious
to note how it has necessarily evolved the most
tempting facilities for speculative trade. So long as a
trade involved the necessity of an actual delivery or
receipt of the goods sold, there was little inducement for
speculators to overtrade, since the consummation of each
trade involved the expenditure of such large amount
of labor and time. The storing of wheat in specified
grades of an acknowledged standard, and the issuing

202
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

of warehouse receipts for the same, placed wheat on
the list of speculative articles so soon as the receipts
came to be acknowledged as a delivery or sale, thus
mobilizing the article to that extent that large deliveries
could be momentarily tendered on a sale at any specified
hour. One after another, the various food products, as
they came to be stored in sufficient quantities, have
been added to the speculative list. Wheat, corn, rye,
barley, oats, flour, pork, lard, butter, oil, etc., have

208

James Nicol, first vice-president; William N. Eckhardt,
second vice-president; Ernest A. Hamill, treasurer:
George F. Stone, secretary; directors, John A. Bunnell,
Frank Harlow, Frederick W. Smith, Joseph G. Sny-
dacker, Frank E. Winans, Thomas M. Hunter, William
L. Gregson, Elzear A. Beauvais, Charles W. Buckley,
Thomas M. Baxter, H. M. S. Montgomery, William
Nash, Israel P. Rumsey, Charles H. ReQua, Robert
Bines. gfe

 

 

 

 

THE BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING.

come successively to add volume to the speculative
material, and the volume of speculative trading has
grown in tenfold ratio to that of the increasing basis. It
is not now uncommon, on an excited market, for the
available stock of these articles to be sold and resold
a dozen times in a single day.” The officers and
directors of the Chicago Board of Trade at the present
time are as follows: William S. Warren, president;

William Seymour Warren, president of the Board of
Trade, was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1853. He is
the son of E. S. Warren and Maria Spalding Warren.
In his early years his parents removed to Davenport,
Iowa, where Warren went to the public schools. After
graduation he came to Chicago, and in 1869 entered
the employ of Spruance, Preston & Co. asa clerk. He
remained with this frm until 1874, when he went to
204

work for William Young & Co., one of the most promi-
nent of Board of Trade firms. In 1877 he went into
business for himself, but in 1883 he retired and went to
live on a farm near Geneva Junction, Wisconsin. Here
he remained until 1893, when he returned to Chicago,
and with Charles H. Hulburd, A. C. Davis, D. H.
Winans and C. J. Northup formed the corporation of
Hulburd, Warren & Co., commission merchants, of
which he is president.

His energy and activity in Board of Trade politics
brought him into prominence, and when he was nomi-
nated for the presidency of that institution he was
elected by a good majority, and is gaining strength daily
by his administration of the board’s affairs. He has
never taken part in politics outside of the board, how-
ever, and has never before held an office of any kind.
He is an active member of the Union League Club, but
otherwise is an essentially domestic man.

John Dupee, of the Board of Trade firm of Schwartz,
Dupee & Co., was born at Bangor, Maine, and is the
son of John and Eleanor Winslow (Pratt) Dupee. He
was educated in the Boston public schools. in which
city his parents resided except for a brief period, and
after his graduation from the Park Latin School he
began his business career as an employé of the house of
Howe & Leeds, wholesale grocers. In 1883, together
with the late Mr. Charles Schwartz, Mr. Dupee organ-
ized the firm of Schwartz & Dupee. In 1884 Mr. G. A.
Schwartz was admitted as a partner, and in 1891 Mr.
John W. Conley, who for a long time was connected
with John W. Rumsey & Co., and Mr. I. J. Bloom were
admitted to membership. Mr. Charles Schwartz died in
1893, and Mr. G. A. Schwartz retired September 1,
1899.

Mr. Dupee, who has been a familiar hgure on the
board for over twenty years, is a man who stands high
in the esteem of his associates and friends. He is a
member of several of the social organizations of Chicago,
including the Chicago Club, the Chicago Athletic Asso-
ciation and the Washington Park Club, of which latter
organization he was one of the founders. Some years
ago Mr. Dupee married Miss Evelyn M. Walker, and
has one son, Walter H. Dupee.

Charles Counselman, son of Jacob and Mary Coun-
selman, was born at Baltimore in 1849. The family of
Counselmaan is of Dutch origin, and is on the list of
the pioneers of Maryland. Mr. Counselman received
sound rudimentary education in the public schools of
Baltimore, and in early youth pursued the study of law
under the preceptorship of the late Judge Hammond of
Howard County, Maryland. His health gave away
under the stress of close application to books, and under
advice of physicians he started westward in quest of a
business less sedentary than that of law. Arriving in
Chicago in 1869, Mr. Counselman engaged himself as a

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

clerk in the then well-known commission-house of Eli
Johnson & Co.; thence he transferred his services to the
oil firm of Hlandford & Co., but soon returned to the
commission trade, in the services of his first employers.
Early in 1871 Mr. Counselman was encouraged to begin
business on his own account, and was enrolled as a
member of the Board of Trade. The great and historic
fire that year drove him out of his first quarters, but he
speedily opened a new office on Canal street, to which
locality the board was removed, pending the recon-
struction of its ruined building. From then, until now,
Mr. Counselman has been a prominent factor of the vast
grain business yearly transacted in Chicago. He is
senior partner in two firms—that of Counselman & Day,

 

 

 

 

CHARLES COUNSELMAN.

and that of Charles Counselman & Co. The first-named
firm confines itself to commissions and purchases on
the Board of Trade and New York Stock Exchange, the
latter conducts one of the largest elevator businesses
in the country. The city elevators operated by Counsel-
man & Co, comprise the large plants at South Chicago
and the famous Rock Island elevators on Twelfth street.
The former are owned by the Counselman firm, the
latter are leased property. The two systems have a
yearly storage capacity of 6,000,009 bushels. In addi-
tion to these the firm manages several elevators in out-
side towns, with a yearly capacity of 4,000,000 bushels.
The Counselman firms have experienced, and gone suc-
cessfully through, several storms of commercial panic,
always paying one hundred cents on the dollar in the
worst times, and always making their fair share of profit
in flush seasons. To-day they are among the most
favorably regarded of the enterprises in their domain
of business.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Counselman is what Charles Lamb describes as
“a clubable sort of man.” He is a member of the Chi-
cago, Union League, Washington Park and Athletic
clubs, and, as a golfer, he belongs to the Midlothian
‘and Onwentsia clubs. He is also a member of the famous
and genial fraternity that is known as the Fellowship
Club. He is stanchly a Republican, but has refused to
take an active part in local politics, though often urged
by the leaders of city, county and state affairs to “come
to the front.” Mr. Counselman is married and has two
children. His home on Greenwood avenue is the theater
of frequent social functions, over which the genial host
and hostess preside with pleasure to their guests and
themselves.

Rumsey, Lightner & Co., commission merchants,
was organized in 1892 by Israel P Rumsey, M. C.
Lightner and F P. Schmidt.

Mr. Rumsey, the senior member, has been in the
commission business in Chicago continuously since
1866, excepting about two years, between 1889 and
1892, and has been at various times the head of different
firms, some of which have done the largest flour and
grain receiving business on the Board of Trade.

Mr. Lightner died in 1895, and Frederick Dickinson
was admitted to the firm, and Mr. Lightner’s interest
purchased. The firm is doing a strictly commission
business, receiving grain, flour and seeds from Western
shippers, and also buying and shipping for Eastern
mills and grain men on a commission basis. Connected
with the business is the buying and selling for future
delivery, which enters largely into the Board of Trade
commission business. The city offices of the firm are at
226 La Salle street, in addition to which they operate
branch offices at Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Peoria.

Israel Parsons Rumsey, of the firm of Rumsey,
Lightner & Co., commission merchants, was born Feb-
ruary 9, 1836, in the town of Stafford, New York, the
son of a Genesee County farmer. At the age of seven-
teen, after an academic education, he was placed in the
wholesale and retail dry goods store of Howard & Whit-
comb of Buffalo, New York, at the meager salary of $25
and board for the first year. He remained in Buffalo
until 1857, when. he celebrated his majority by going
as tar West as Keokuk, Iowa, where he obtained a
situation in April of that year. It was about this time
that whole armies of young men were coming West.
Seeking employment, and failing to find it, the greater
number of them returned to their Eastern homes.
Rumsey, however, determined never to ‘“‘take the back
track,” as it was called, and upon the failure of the firm
that had employed him, he bought the delivery route of
the principal daily paper of Keokuk, “The Gate City,”
and went to delivering papers, working thereat from one
o'clock in the morning until seven. It was not long,
however, before he was called back to the same store

205

at much advanced wages, and at the same time being
made the acting proprietor, or agent, of the party who
purchased the stock, in which capacity his former em-
ployers found themselves as clerks under his charge.
Here he remained until the spring of 1858, when he was
ordered to move the stock to Chicago.

This change brought him to the city which has
since been his business home. He obtained a situation
in the fall of 1858 with the grain and provision house
of Flint & Wheeler, one of the largest receiving houses
in the city. He made rapid progress in mastering the
position of salesman, and in 1860, when Flint & Wheeler
changed their business more into the line of banking
and exchange, they gave much assistance to Mr. Rum-

 

ISRAEL PARSONS RUMSEY.

sey’s first commission firm, which was organized under
the name of Finley, Hoyt & Rumsey.

Mr. Rumsey was. fairly well established in the com-
mission business, and rapidly making a name for himself,
when the Civil war broke out. His patriotism would
not allow business prosperity to keep him from giving
his services for the suppression of the Rebellion. His
forefathers had fought for their country in 1776 and
in 1812. Rumsey felt it was a duty he owed his country
to fight for it in ‘61, and in April of that year he helped
to organize ‘Taylor's Chicago Battery,” which was mus-
tered into the United States service July 16, 1861, as
Company B, First Illinois Light Artillery. Mr. Rumsey
was elected its junior second lieutenant.

The battery left Chicago for Cairo in May, 1861,
and was camped at Bird’s Point, Missouri, during the
fall of ’61, and Rumsey’s first engagement was in the
206

battle of Belmont, Missouri, on November 7. of that
year, which was General U. S. Grant’s first battle of the
Rebellion. When General Grant’s army was organized
for the Tennessee campaign, in February, 1862, Mr.
Rumsey was assigned to the Second Brigade of General
John A. McClernand’s division, and was acting assist-
ant adjutant-general for General \WW. H. S. Wallace
during the campaign, until reaching Shiloh, Tennessee,
which included the battles of Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson.

On April 3, 1862, General W. H. L. Wallace was
assigned to the command of the Second Division of
General Grant's army at Shiloh (known as General C. F.
Smith's division), and Mr. Rumsey was retained on
General Wallace’s personal staff, he being such a favor-
ite of the general’s that the latter kept him close to him,
and even insisted on their lying under the same blankets.
Late in the afternoon of the memorable day of April 6,
1862, General Wallace fell mortally wounded, and his
body lay upon the field of carnage all night. Mr. Rum-
sey was detailed among those to accompany the re-
mains to Ottawa, Hlinois, where they were interred, and
upon his return to his battery found that he had been
promoted during his absence to the rank of senior sec-
ond lieutenant.

The battery was assigned to General W. T. Sher-
man’s division, just before the battle of Shiloh, and
remained in the same Second Division, Fifteenth Army
Corps, until July, 1864. During this time Lieutenant
Rumsey took part in all the battles and marches of that
most active and reliable division of Sherman’s Army of
the Tennessee, and “which was never whipped,” from
Shiloh, Tennessee, April, 1862, to “Atlanta, Georgia,
July, 1864, and which included the siege of Corinth,
battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, siege ot
Vicksburg, Jackson, Louisiana, the movement of Gen-
eral Sherman’s army from Vicksburg to Memphis by
boats, the march from Memphis to Chattanooga, Ten-
nessee, Mission Ridge, General Sherman’s march to
relief of Burnside at Knoxville, and the campaign to
Atlanta. During the siege of Vicksburg he was again
promoted from senior second lieutenant to captain of
the battery.

Captain Rumsey returned from the war in the fall
of 1864, and entered into the flour brokerage busi-
ness with his brother, John W. Rumsey, whose enlist-
ment in Battery A had just expired, under the name
of . P. & J. W. Rumsey. Two years later they entered
upon the receiving of flour, later adding grain, and the
firm name was changed to Rumsey, Williams & Co.
The name has been changed several times. The next
change was to I. P Rumsey & Co., then to Rumsey
& Walker, then to Rumsey & Buell, in all of which firms
Mr. Rumsey remained at the head, and continued so
until 1889, when he sold his interest to Messrs. A. C.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Buell and James Templeton, and retired from the Board
of Trade.

This retirement, however, was but temporary, for
after two years of engaging in the manufacturing busi-
ness, his losses convinced him that the saying still held
good, and that “old men should not change their busi-
ness.”

He accordingly reéntered the commission business,
in 1892, organizing the firm of Rumsey, Lightner & Co.,
which still exists under the present title, although Mr.
Lightner died in 1895.

Mr. Rumsey is a large stockholder in, and vice-presi-
dent of, the Cleveland Grain Company of Cleveland,
Ohio. This company controls and owns several ele-
vators on the “Big Four” Railroad, that at Cleveland
holding over half a million bushels of grain and doing a
business of over $2,000,000 a year.

Mr. Rumsey has at times been quite active in local
politics. He organized the campaign for high license
in Eugene Cary’s run against Carter H. Harrison for
mayor of Chicago, the outcome of which was the in-
crease of the liquor license from $100 to $500, and
which yields the city over $3,000,000 annually. Mr.
Rumsey was a power in the politics of the Fourth Ward,
where he resided. He was instrumental in nominating
S. D. Foss for alderman on the Independent ticket some
years ago, and was made chairman of the campaign com-
mittee which carried Foss to victory, much to the sur-
prise of the Republican party, which was especially
strong in that ward. The election of O. O. Wetherell
on the Independent ticket, against both party nominees,
is another example of Mr. Rumsey’s enthusiastic work
in local politics. He has been closely identified with
“The Citizens’ League for the suppression of the sale of
liquor to minors and drunkards,” since its organization
in 1877, and its president since the death of its first
president, Mr. F. F. Elmendorf, in 1883. The history
of this league is phenomenal.

Mr. Rumsey was on a number of important commit-
tees and active in the preliminary work of securing the
World's Fair for Chicago. In this connection he made
several visits to other states, and was sent to Wash-
ington to look after the expenses there, as the motto
of the finance committee was “A million for success,
but not a dollar for boodle.”

He is prominent in Presbyterian church life and
work, and was for eight years one of the board of man-
agers of the Presbyterian Hospital. He is a trustee of
the Presbyterian League, chairman of the finance com-
mittee that raised the money to build the Grace Pres-
byterian and Sixth Presbyterian churches, in which he
was for many years an elder. He is also identified with
the Loyal Legion and Thomas Post, No. 5, of the
Grand Army, also a member of the Union League Club.
THE CITY

His home is in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he has
resided for the past eleven years.

Mr. Rumsey was married in 1867 to Miss Mary M.
Axtell of Batavia, New York. They have three daugh-
ters and two sons. The eldest daughter, Juliet Lay, is
the wife of the Rev. Grant Strok, pastor of the Presby-
terian church at Woodhull, Illinois. Lucy Ransom, the
second daughter, is the wife of William Arthur Holt,
alumberman of Oconto, Wisconsin, and the youngest
daughter, Minnie May, is at home. Henry Axtell, the
eldest son, is employed in the offices of the Holt Lum-
ber Company of Oconto, Wisconsin, and the youngest
son, Wallace Donelson, is attending school.

Henry H. Carr, of the Famous Farmer Commission
House. Among the large membership of the Chicago
Board of Trade there is no more striking personality
than that of Henry H. Carr, head of the firm of H. H.
Carr & Co., the well-known ‘Farmer Commission
House.” Mr. Carr has been connected with the Board
of Trade since 1870, and long ago had won an enviable
reputation as a commission dealer. He gained special
prominence, however, from the fact that he was the
originator of the system of direct consignments from
farmers, which places the producer in the closest pos-
sible touch with the consumer, makes him a saving on
every bushel of his grain, and renders the farmer per-
manently independent of the middleman, with all the
profits in favor of himself.

Henry H. Carr was born at Northville, La Salle
County, Ill., June 20, 1844. Soon after his birth his fam-
ily returned to New York state to look after some prop-
erty interests, but when he was nine years old they again
removed to Illinois, and took up their residence in La
Salle County. Mr. Carr’s father founded the flourishing
city of Sandwich, IIl., and established a grain and gen-
eral merchandise business, and Henry, during the spare
hours and vacations of his school life, got his early
training here in a mercantile career. At the age of
fifteen he entered a commercial college at Chicago, re-
maining there during the winter of 1859-60. On com-
pleting his course he returned home and went to work
in his father’s store. At the outbreak of the war he
was anxious to enlist, but was considered too young.
In the following year, however, being then eighteen, he
gained the consent of his parents and enlisted in Com-
pany H, One Hundred and Fifth Regiment, Illinois Vol-
unteer Infantry, for three years’ service. His regiment
was chiefly engaged in the campaigns of the Army of
the Cumberland, and, during his three years’ service,
took part in nearly all of the battles of the Southeast,
marched with Sherman to the sea and up the coast, and
participated in the grand review of the Federal armies
at Washington at the close of the war. Mr. Carr was
mustered out at Chicago in June, 1865.

He selected the West for his field of action. He was

OF CHICAGO.

207

at Leavenworth, Kansas, when it was the chief distribut-
ing point of the Southwest. Later he was financial
man with the wholesale house of W. H. Johnson & Co.,
Quincy, Illinois. From this he stepped to a place in the
great house of Field, Leiter & Co. of Chicago. A little
later he was interested in the Board of Trade firm of
E. F. Pulsifer & Co., the connection lasting six years.
It was after several visits to the Black Hills, combining
business with health-seeking, and a short experience in
sheep-raising in Texas, that Mr. Carr, in 1879, returned
to Chicago and associated himself with the Board of
Trade firm of N. B. Ream & Co., with whom he con-
tinued until 1884, when he established the house of
H. H. Carr & Co. Associated with him as special part-

 

 

HENRY H. CARR.

ner was N. B. Ream. With the retirement of Mr. Ream,
two years later, Mr. Carr departed from the old-fash-
ioned methods of the trade, and originated the system
of direct consignments from farmers. The movement,
slow at first, soon acquired momentum, until to-day
the firm of which he is the head stands unrivaled. Al-
ready thousands of intelligent farmers are disposing
of their crops in this way. In fact, the enormous busi-
ness which Mr. Carr has built up within the last few
years has been developed along most progressive lines.

'When he began to advocate his shipping reform he

encountered all sorts of opposition. The country buy-
ers, seeing in the success of his direct shipping plan
the probable dispensing with middlemen’s services by
farmers, fought him bitterly at every point. He was
sneered at and ridiculed as “the farmers’ friend.” His
opponents little thought they were conferring an hon-
208

orable title, which in five years was to be the inspiration
of a million farmers over a dozen great states. Mr.
Carr accepted the title from the first. The system in-
augurated by Mr. Carr rests upon the theory that the
farmer’s success depends as much upon the intelligent
disposal of his crops as upon the care and judgment
exercised in raising them. By offering to the producer
a quick and economical method of putting his product
upon a broad, competitive and distributive market, he
effects a valuable agricultural reform and saves to the
farmer the profits which have heretofore gone to others,
who, under the old system, were considered necessary
intermediaries in every transaction.

A leading agricultural journal, in discussing the
future importance of Mr. Carr’s work, makes this com-
ment: “The greatest objection raised by farmers
against this plan has been the labor of handling their
grain, they drawing comparisons between unloading
into the local elevator, or shoveling it into the car by
hand. The Farmer Commission House has been
studying for years how to overcome this objection, ex-
perimenting with various kinds of machinery, such as
small elevators, which have proven rather too expensive,
and the difficulty of obtaining from the railroad com-
pany the necessary site beside the track to build on has
prevented their coming into general use. We under-
stand that Mr. Carr of the Farmer Commission House
is developing a plan which will prove effectual and
much less expensive than the experiments made here-
tofore. He has at last combined a cheap power, already
in successful use, with the additional machinery neces-
sary for the easy and economical transfer of the farm-
er’s grain from his wagon into cars, avoiding the labor
and the time necessary to shoveling into cars by hand.
It is thought that with this device a carload of grain can
be easily loaded direct from wagons, or vice versa, in
from thirty to sixty minutes, and it is hoped that the
cost of this machine, which is portable, will not exceed
$350. This device is constructed especially for farmers’
use, and it will depend upon the producers themselves
whether they will adopt it or not. If not, we believe
that the arrangement is so cheap and practical that the
grain buyers will want it, who, in justice, should be per-
mitted to have it if the farmers will not avail themselves
of it. We believe farmers are wise enough to be cog-
nizant of the advantages through possessing these ma-
chines themselves for their own use, and head off a
monopoly. By successful codperation with Mr. Carr in
the introduction of his new labor-saving invention, and
his untiring efforts in their behalf, there is opened to
the producers of the West a future of great hope and
benefit.”

For nearly thirty years Mr. Carr has been actively
identified with every reform that has tended to promote
the interests of the grain business, and has always main-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tained the highest standing both in business and social
circles.. For several years he was secretary of the Grain
Receivers’ Association, and did much to assist. in im-
proving the terminal facilities of the railroads entering
Chicago. He has always striven for the best interests
of the city of his adoption, and in the undertaking upon
which he is now engaged, which has for its object the
further development of Chicago as a grain center, as
well as the permanent improvement of the conditions
surrounding the tiller of the soil, he certainly deserves
the approbation and support of all those who have the
welfare of the West at heart, and to be ranked as one
of Chicago’s most useful business men.

Frank G. Logan. Chicagoans are apt to date life
and history from the great fire catastrophe of 1871,
since which time almost all of success and growth has

 

 

 

 

FRANK G. LOGAN.

taken place in their city, Mr. Logan of the Board of
Trade, though no patriarch, having been born in Cayuga
County, New York, October 7, 1851, may yet, on this
plea, be counted an old settler, since in the fall of 1870,
and before the great fire, he severed himself from rural
surroundings, with all they mean toward the formation
of rugged constitution and character, and essayed for
four years the role of merchant behind a dry-goods
counter, first on the West Side, and later with Field,
Leiter & Co. Opportunity favored a change in 1876
into the grain business with an old-established firm,
which he left a year and a half later to found one of the
most successful grain and stock commission houses in
the history of the exchange, and which, for twenty-two
years, has borne his name at its head. The secret of life
THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

and growth in all lines of business may be stated to be
integrity, energy and an ability to keep abreast.of fast
changing conditions. These three are exemplified in
this instance in public confidence and success and the
great system of private wires which the firm adopted and
extended ahead of all competitors. In knowing such
men one wishes, outside of their office success, to know
something of their home life and their heart leanings.
He was married in 1882 to Josie H., youngest daughter
of Colonel Hancock, and they have one daughter and
four sons, who are growing gracefully in that richly
mingled air of courtesy, poetry and art which a queenly
mistress, an acknowledged poet, musician and scientific
enthusiast imparts to a home. Honored by his fellow-
members of the Board of Trade as officer and on im-
portant committees; member of the New York and Chi-
cago Stock exchanges; director of the Union League
Club, of which he is a member; a trustee of Beloit Col-
lege, whose museum, in grateful remembrance, is named
after him; a governing member of the Art Institute, and
director in such worthy, philanthropic organizations as
the Bureau of Charities, he lives a busy life, and yet, per-
haps, joys most in the good accomplished by the helping
hand given to many young men of promise, who have
repaid later by success what at first seemed but experi-
ments.

Granger Farwell & Co. This firm, which was or-
ganized in 1898, succeeding Lobdell, Farwell & Ceo.,
is composed of the general partners, Granger Far-

 

 

 

 

GRANGER FARWELL.

well, Albert G. Lester, George A. McClellan, and
of the special partners, Charles H. Deere, Gilbert B.
Shaw and Arthur J. Richardson.

14

209

Granger Farwell was born in Chicago in 1857, a son
of the late Judge William W. Farwell. He attended
the Chicago public and high schools and entered Yale
College in 1875, from which he was graduated in 1878.
After studying law for two years, he entered the employ
of James H. Pearson & Co., manufacturers and dealers
in lumber, became a partner in this concern in 1882, and
so continued until the dissolution of the partnership in
1890. At that time he became associated with Edwin
L. Lobdell in the management of the corporation known
as Lobdell, Farwell & Co. This corporation went out
of active business in 1898, when Mr. Granger Farwell
became the head of the present banking and brokerage
firm of Granger Farwell & Co. He is a member of the
New York and Chicago Stock exchanges, and is a mem-
ber and one of the governors of the Chicago Club, a
member of the University Club of Chicago and of the
University Club of New York City. He resides at
Lake Forest, Illinois.

Albert G. Lester was born in 1857 in Chicago, where,
after attending the Chicago public and high schools, he
entered business with Messrs. Dwight & Gillette, one
of the largest firms on the Chicago Board of Trade, and
with whom he occupied an important and confidential
position for several years. He was later the office man-
ager of Lobdell, Farwell & Co., and in 1898 became
associated with Mr. Farwell and Mr. McClellan as a
partner in the firm of Granger Farwell & Co.

George A. McClellan was born in 1852 in Lake
County, Illinois, and soon afterward removed to EI
Paso, Illinois, where he resided until about seventeen
years of age. In May, 1871, he came to Chicago and
entered the employ of Chandler, Pomeroy & Co., a
Board of Trade house, where he remained for several
years, following which he was in the employ of J. S.
Peironet & Co. and Lyon, Lester & Co., and for eteven
years, up to 1890, with Cyrus H. Adams & Co. In
1890 he entered the employ of Lobdell, Farwell & Co.,
where he remained until 1898, at which time he became
associated as partner in the firm of Granger Farwell &
Co. Mr: McClellan was one of the early members of
the Chicago Stock Exchange, and represents the inter-
ests of the house in that body as a member and one of
its governors.

Charles H. Deere of Moline, Illinois, is not only at
the head of the largest p!ow business of the world, but is
also interested financially, and more or less actively, in
many industrial, railway and financial institutions in the
United States.

Gilbert B. Shaw was for many years intereste:l
in the lumber business, being one of the pioneers in
establishing yards throughout the West at the time
of the settling up of Kansas and Nebraska. He
withdrew actively from this business, however, in 1890,
210

and established and became president of the American
Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago, of which institution
he is now vice-president, devoting his time partly to the
trust company and partly to affairs in connection with
the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad Com-
pany, in which he is largely interested.

Arthur J. Richardson is a son of the late D. M. Rich-
ardson of Detroit. He is actively interested, not only in
the management of one of the largest farms in the state
of New York, but also in the development of gas and
oil properties in that state. Mr. Richardson is and has
been for many years the largest stockholder of the Dia-
mond Match Company of Illinois, of which, many years
ago, his father’s business was a portion of the nucleus
upon which the original company was based.

Ware & Leland. Among the many firms operating
on the Chicago Board of Trade, none has gained a
higher standing or won more substantial success than
that of Ware & Leland. Organized as recently as Janu-
ary I, 1898, by J. H. Ware and E. F. Leland, the firm
now transacts one of the largest businesses on the Chi-
cabo board, and in the conduct of its operations controls
a system of private wires to various parts of the country
that, in extent, is not exceeded by any similar firm in
the world. Orders are executed on the Chicago Board
of Trade, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the New York
Stock Exchange, the New York Cotton Exchange and
the New York Coffee Exchange. The New York office
of the firm is at 52 Broadway.

 

JOHN HERBERT WARE.

John Herbert Ware was born at Brantford, Canada,
February 2, 1862. His parents, Paul Taylor and Louisa

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

(Dudley) Ware, moved to this city when he was but six
years of age, and he was educated in the. Chicago public
schools; was graduated from the high school in 1878.
He then entered the office of Fowler Bros., where he
remained for a year or more, after which he became iden-
tified with Irwin, Orr & Co., and later with Irwin, Green
& Co. His relations with this latter firm continued
until January 1, 1898, when he assisted in organizing the
present firm of Ware & Leland. Mr. Ware is a member
of the several financial organizations on which the firm
of Ware & Leland operate, and is also a member of the
Chicago Club, Washington Park Club, Chicago Athletic
Association and the Midlothian and Exmore Golf clubs.

Edward F. Leland, son of G. A. and Anne (Fairfield)
Leland, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, May 16,
1862, and came to Chicago with his parents in 1866. He

 

EDWARD F. LELAND.

received his education in the public schools of this city,
but at an early age entered the commercial world as an
employe of the firm of .\. T. Stewart & Co., and later
with Libby, McNeill & Libby. In October, 1881, he
became identified with Parker, Martin & Co., later with
W. W Catlin & Co., and finally with Rumsey, Lightner
& Co., in which latter firm he became a partner, and
so continued until 1892, when he associated himself with
Mr. J. L. Ward and organized the firm of Ward & Le-
land, which operated successfully on the Chicago board
until 1896, when it was dissolved. Mr. Leland contin-
ued in business under his own name, until January 1,
1898, when, together with Mr. J. H. Ware, he estab-
lished the present firm of Ware & Leland. Mr. Leland
1s a member of several social organizations, among them
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the Chicago Athletic Association, the Chicago Club and
the Glenview Golf Club, besides being identified with

the Chicago exchanges and with the Chicago Board of
Trade.

Zenophile P. Brosseau, an active and_ successful
member of the Board of Trade, is a descendant of one
of the oldest Arcadian families. He is the son of Louis
and Marguerite Brosseau, and was born October, 1840,
in the French-Canadian town of La Prairie, in the
county of the same name, in the province of Quebec,
and received his education in the schools of his native
place. At the early age of fifteen he moved to Malone,
New York, and was employed in mercantile pursuits.
In 1860 he was attracted by the commercial loadstone

 

ZENOPHILE P. BROSSEAU.

of Chicago, and in the following year became a member
of the Board of Trade, in the operations of which he
soon became a prominent factor. Like most of his rivals
and coadjutors on the board, Mr. Brosseau was a suf-
ferer by the great fire of 1871, in which both his house
and office were destroyed. He followed the fortunes of
the board, which resumed business temporarily on Canal
street, pending the reconstruction of the burned build-
ing, and upon the return of the board to its new edifice
on the old site he opened an office within its walls,
where he laid the foundation of the firm of Brosseau &
Co., which stands as a testimonial of his ability and
sterling integrity.
Mr. Brosseau is a past director of the Board of
’ Trade, and has been a valuable member of most of its
impertant committees. He is a Democrat in politics,
and is an ex-member of the Public Library Board, and

211

is a member of the Chicago and Columbus clubs, and
president of the Franco-American Publishing Company,
from the office of which the Courier de I’Ouest, the lead-
ing Western journal published in the French language,
is issued. Mr. Brosseau’s residence, on the North Side,
is one of the most elegant in that peculiarly elegant resi-
dent quarter.

The Albert Dickinson Company was organized in
1888, succeeding the business of Albert Dickinson, the
latter of which was the outgrowth of a general grain,

_ produce and seed business, founded in 1854 by Albert

F. Dickinson. Its founder, who was one of the oldest
members of the Chicago Board of Trade, was engaged
in business between Dearborn and State streets, on
Kinzie street. In the great fire of October, 1871, every-
thing was lost, excepting a memoranda of the debts
which the firm owed. The blow was a severe one, and
the elder Dickinson's health was failing, but in 1872 his
two sons, Albert and Nathan, who had been engaged
with him in the business, together with their brother,
Charles, who at that time was but fourteen years of age,
gathered up the remnants of the business and carried
it on for sixteen years, under the name of Albert Dick-
inson. Doing all the work themselves, the three broth-
ers, aided by their sister, Melissa, who did the book-
keeping, were able to wipe out the debts with which
they started, and place the business on a substantial and
paying basis. The quarters on Kinzie street were
finally outgrown, and the company rented part of the
old Empire warehouse on Market street, only to again
remove a few years later to the corner of Clark and Six-
teenth streets, where large elevators and commodious
offices were erected. In time, however, even these quar:
ters became too small, and an office, built especially for
their purposes, was erected by the Chicago Dock Com-
pany, on their property on Taylor street, into which the
company moved on May 1, 1898. The business of the
Albert Dickinson Company extends over a large part
of the world, and. they are buyers, as well as sellers, in
all the large foreign markets where goods in their line
are handled. They make a specialty of clover, flax
and grass seeds, and do an extensive business in bird
seed, popcorn, grain bags, seed grains, etc.

The officers of the company are: Albert Dickinson,
president; Charles Dickinson, vice-president; Nathan
Dickinson, treasurer; Charles D. Boyles, secretary. Its
board of directors consists of Albert Dickinson, Charles
C. Boyles, Charles Dickinson, Nathan Dickinson,
Charles D. Boyles.

Albert Dickinson, president of the Albert Dickin-
son Company, was born at Stockbridge, Massachu-
setts, October 28, 1841, and is the eldest son of Albert
F. and Ann Eliza (Anthony) Dickinson, both of whom
were natives of Western Massachusetts. Mr. Dick-
inson came to Chicago with his parents in 1855, and
212

was educated in the public schools of this city, being
a member of the first class to be graduated from
the Chicago High School. After graduation he en-

 

 

 

ALBERT DICKINSON.

tered the office of his father, who had established him-
self in the grain and produce business shortly after
coming to Chicago, and remained there until the out-
break of the war in 1861. In April of that year he
enlisted in Company B of the Chicago Light Artillery,
known as Taylor's Battery, and later as Company B
of the First Regiment, Illinois Light Artillery, and re-
mained in active service some three years and three
months. He was among those who saw a great deal of
action. He was engaged in the first fight at Frederick-
ton, Missouri, and he was also in the engagements at
Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg. After the
victory at the latter point his battery was sent to Mem-
phis, from whence they marched to Chattanooga, arriv-
ing in time to take part in the battle of Mission Ridge,
and later moving to the relief of General Burnside at
Knoxville. He served throughout the Atlantic cam-
paign the following spring and was mustered out in
July, 1864.

Upon his return to civil life, Mr. Dickinson com-
menced business at Durant, Iowa, but was shortly after-
ward called to Chicago by his father’s failing health,
and at once took the responsibilities of the business
upon himself, and actively commenced the duties of
manager, continuing it in his own name, with the assist-
ance of his brothers and sister, all of whom worked to-
gether.

The misfortunes felt by the great fire had to be

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

shouldered by Albert Dickinson and his associates, but
under his management past disasters were wiped out,
and, through continual efforts, the business has been
built up to its present large proportions. Until about
1874 a general commission business was transacted, but
after that time the handling of seeds was made an ex-
clusive business. The business was run in the name of
Albert Dickinson until 1888, when a stock company
was formed, and the firm became known as the Albert
Dickinson Company, which to-day does the largest
business in seeds, particulariy grass and field seeds, of
any establishment in the world.

Mr. Dickinson finds his greatest recreation, strange
as it may seem, in hard work, and it is to this that he
attributes the greater share of his success in the business
world. His whole efforts are, and always have been,
given to the development and management of the Albert
Dickinson Company.

Mr. Dickinson has for some years been much inter-
ested in the welfare of the Chicago Academy of Sci-
ences and has been a liberal contributor to its needs.
He is also president of the Timewell Sack Filling and
Sewing Machine Company, a new labor-saving device,
and the only successful machine in the world, for filling
bags and sewing them.

Charles Dickinson, vice-president of the Albert Dick-
inson Company, was born at Chicago on May 28, 1858,

 

CHARLES DICKINSON.

and is the youngest son of Albert F. and Ann Eliza
(Anthony) Dickinson. He attended the public schools
of this city until he was fourteen years of age, attending
the high school in the mornings and working for Charles
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Gossage & Co., dry goods merchants, in the afternoons,
at the very meager salary of $1.50 a week.

In 1872 Mr. Dickinson became associated with his
two brothers, Albert and Nathan, who were engaged in
carrying on the business originally started by their
father, Albert F Dickinson, and which needed their
united attention, due to the losses sustained in the great
fire of the previous year.

The business was then being conducted on a general
commission basis, and it was not until some years later
that seeds came to be handled exclusively. Charles
Dickinson was thus thrown into contact with the world
at a very early age, and it stands as a matter of record
that he was one of the youngest operators on the Board
of Trade, he having begun active trading in his seven-
teenth year. The Albert Dickinson Company was or-
ganized in 1887-88, and his connection with this com-
pany, of which he is vice-president, has continued unin-
terruptedly. _

Mr. Dickinson has been fortunate, in that he has
traveled extensively, and has gained much from the
broadening influence which always results from a wide
contact with one’s fellow-men. His first trip abroad
was in 1880, at which time he spent some months in
traveling through Europe. Three years later he again
visited Europe, and this time extended his travels south
into Africa, not neglecting the many other points which
could be conveniently touched while en route.

Again in 1894-95 he spent ten months in Russia,
Germany, France, Denmark, Turkey and other coun-
tries of continental Europe. While his travels have
been extensive, and for the most part of a business
nature, Mr. Dickinson has not failed to visit points of
commercial and historical interest, thus combining
pleasure with busiriess, and receiving a twofold benefit.

Mr. Dickinson is vice-president of the Chicago Dock
Company, is president of the Chicago Moto-Cycle Com-
pany, and is president of the Chicago Polyphone Com-
pany, an organization for the manufacture of an im-
proved talking machine, and one which will doubtless
bring great changes in these instruments. He is a
member of the Union League, Chicago Athletic, Illinois
and Menoken clubs, and a trustee of the Chicago Acad-
emy of Sciences. He is married and resides at 1292
Washington boulevard.

Nathan Dickinson, treasurer of the Albert Dickin-
son Company, was born at Curtisville, Massachusetts,
in February, 1848, and is the second son of Albert F.
and Ann Eliza (Anthony) Dickinson.

He came to Chicago with his parents in 1855, and
was educated in the public schools of this city, being
graduated from the Dearborn School in 1865. It was
soon found that his services were needed in the busi-
ness then being conducted under his father’s name,
and he accordingly began business life under the lat-

218

 

 

 

 

NATHAN DICKINSON.

ter's instructions. He has remained continuously in
the establishment ever since, and for many years has
occupied the position of treasurer.

Charles Dickinson Boyles, secretary of the Albert
Dickinson Company, was born in Chicago, August 1,

 

CHARLES DICKINSON BOYLES.

1865. His parents were Charles C. and Hannah (Dick-
inson) Boyles.
Mr. Boyles received his education in the public
214

schools of this city, which he attended until he was six-
teen years of age, at which time he entered the employ-
ment of the Albert Dickinson Company as an office
boy. He has since remained continuously in the serv-
ice of this company, and became secretary of it in 1889.

He is a member of the Union League and Ashland
clubs.

The Chicago Dock Company was organized in the
early part of 1863 by several prominent men of Chi-
cago, among whom were Dean Richmond, John Young,
Burden B. Sherman, John H. Dunham, Peter L. Yoe,
George Watson, Soloman A. Smith, W. F. Coolbaugh,
C. B. Blair, Harry C. Durant and H. G. Powers. The
company was founded with a view of obtaining legis!a-
tion which would give bankers and others an absolute
lien on property, upon which advances had been made,
until such advances were redeemed, and, by its charter,
“the said company shall have power to receive, upon
storage, deposit or otherwise, grain, flour, provisions,
freight, stocks, bonds, merchandise, warehouse receipts,
bills of lading, railroad and transportation certificates,
and evidences of debt and other property, and to take
the management, custody and control of the same, and
to advance moneys, give receipts, grant credits and give
security upon any property, real and personal, and guar-
antee payment upon freight bills, bills of lading, ware-
house receipts and evidences of debt, on such terms
and at such rates of interest, not exceeding ten per
cent per annum, as may be agreed upon. All warehouse
receipts, certificates, or other evidences of deposit of
property, issued by said company, shall be deemed, in
the hands of the holder thereof, as absolute title to the
ownership of said property, both in law and equity.”
The charter, which was approved and signed by Gov-
ernor Richard Yates, on February 13, 1863, is perpetual
and allows for a capital stock not to exceed $1,000,000.

Immediately thereafter real estate was purchased on
the corner of Beach and West Taylor streets, and the
erection of warehouses begun, which were so far com-
pleted by the end of the year that the company was
ready to receive property on storage by January 1,
1864. The officers of the company at that time were:
George Watson, president; J. H. Dunham, vice-presi-
dent; P. L. Yoe, secretary and treasurer; Charles II.
Durphy, superintendent of warehouses. The board of
directors consisted of J. H. Dunham, P. L. Yoe, George
Watson, W. F. Coolbaugh, H. G. Powers.

The capital stock of the concern was at first $250,-
000, but later this was increased to $500,000, at which
amount it remains to-day.

The first business of the company consisted largely
in rolling freight, and the first year of the Chicago
Dock Company's existence there were p!aced in store
some 88,000 barrels of.flour, 40,000 tierces of lard and
a considerable amount of provisions and miscellaneous

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

merchandise. The increase of business, which naturally
came as soon as the advantages possessed by the com-
pany became recognized among business men, made
it necessary to increase the warehouse facilities, and
additional adjoining real estate was purchased and ware-
houses erected on the same, so that the company is to-
day owner of six acres of property on the corner of
Beach and Taylor streets, which is not only accessible
to all railroads entering Chicago, but by its 400 feet
of river front can be reached by all steamers plying
on the great lakes.

The company enjoyed a prosperous existence up to
the time of the Chicago fire in 1871, when their ware-
houses and the contents of the same were destroyed,
involving a loss of several millions of dollars. After
the fire the warehouses were rebuilt, and the business
has been continued along the same general lines to
the present time, although the bulk of the business is
now given to the storage of grain and seed, particularly
flax and grass seeds.

The warehouse receipts of the Chicago Dock Com-
pany are recognized as positive security for the property
which they represent in all money centers of the world.
They were so held by the Supreme Court some years
ago in what was known as the “Goldman case.”

During the years of its existence many of the promi-
nent business men of Chicago have been financially
interested in the company, and such men as George
Watson, J. H. Dunham, Clinton Briggs, C. B. Blair,
C. J. Blair and Lester Carter have been its past presi-
dents.

The present owners of the company first began to
acquire an interest therein some eleven years ago, at
which time Albert Dickinson was elected a director.
Later Charles and Nathan Dickinson became stock-
holders, and in the course of a few years the three broth-
ers found themselves with a controlling interest. Un-
der their management the business has been increased
considerably, and to-day the Chicago Dock Company
stands at the head of like establishments in the country.
The present ofhcers are: Henry F Vehmeyer, presi-
dent; Charles Dickinson, vice-president; Charles H.
Durphy, secretary and treasurer. The board of direct-
ors consists of Henry F. Vehmeyer, Charles Dickinson,
Albert Dickinson, Nathan Dickinson and Charles C.
Boyles.

Henry F. Vehmeyer, president of the Chicago Dock
Company, was born in Hanover, Germany, March 7,
1845, the son of Christian and Elizabeth (Meverding)
Vehmeyer. When he was six years old his parents
came to this country, and settled in Chicago, where,
until he reached the age of fourteen years, he attended
the publit schools. At this time, however, he secured
a humble position in a grocery store, on the West Side,
where he was employed for about two years, at the
end of which time he engaged in the management of
a small grocery, which his father had purchased, on
the corner of Adams and Throop streets. For thirteen
years he continued in the grocery business, half of the
time at the previously mentioned location, and half -of
this period at the corner of Ann and Lake streets.

In 1877 he disposed of his grocery stock and entered
into the wholesale handling of broom corn, on Kinzie
street, removing to Michigan street, between State
street and Dearborn avenue, in 1882, where he erected
the “Vehmeyer Block,” and where he is still engaged in
this business,

Mr. Vehmeyer first became a stockholder and di-
rector in the Chicago Dock Company in 1890. Some

 

 

HENRY F. VEHMEYER.

three years later he assumed the executive charge of its
affairs, in which capacity he still continues.

Charles H. Durphy, secretary and treasurer of the
Chicago Dock Company, is a native of Stark County,
Ohio, of which locality his parents, Charles Henry and
Philipine (Gross) Durphy, were among the earlier set-
tlers.

Mr. Durphy spent his youth following the fortunes
of a sailor boy, visiting many foreign lands in his travels.
When about twenty years old he cast his anchor in
Cleveland, Ohio, where he became engaged in the
freight department of the Cleveland & Pittsburg Rail-
road.

In 1854 young Durphy came to Chicago, where
he became connected with the Northern Transporta-
tion Company, at that time one of the principal pro-
peller lines on the lakes. He was in charge of the

fHE GITY GF CHICAGO,

215

warehouses and docks of this line in Chicago until
January 1, 1864, when he entered the service of the

 

 

 

 

 

CHARLES H. DURPHY.

Chicago Dock Company, as this company’s first ware-
houseman and superintendent, becoming, in 1869, the
secretary and treasurer of this company, an office he
has since continued to hold and now occupies.

 

 

 

 

 

CHARLES ASHLEY WEARE.

Charles Ashley Weare was born in Iowa, September
7, 1852, and is the fourth son and sixth child of John
and Martha (Parkhurst) Weare. Mr. Weare has been
216

identified with the commercial life of Chicago for many
years, and in association with his brother, Portus B.
Weare, is widely known as a member of the Weare Com-
mission Company. He was married May 26, 1880, to
Miss Lillie Compson. Three children have been born
to them, of whom two survive—John Weare, born De-
cember 28, 1883, and Pauline Weare, born July 21, 1892.
A daughter, Martha Compson Weare, died in 1891, aged
five years.

Charles H. Hulburd, president of the Elgin Watch
Company, was born at Stockholm, St. Lawrence County,
New York, May 28, 1850. After a thorough education

 

 

 

CHARLES H. HULBURD.

in the common schools he entered Oberlin College in
Ohio, from which he graduated with the class of ’71.
The following fall he enrolled as a student in the law
department of the University of New York, where he
remained for two years; was graduated in 1873.

Mr. Hulburd then came to Chicago and entered upon
the practice of his profession, but as his inclinations were
rather toward a commercial than a professional life, he
gave up his practice after two years or more and entered
into the grain commission business with his uncles, un-
der the name of Culver & Co. This firm did a success-
ful business on the Chicago Board of Trade until the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

fall of 1888, when, on account of the impaired health of
all the members of the firm, they retired from business
and made up a party for an extended sojourn abroad.

For the next few years Mr. Hulburd traveled ex-
tensively in Europe, although he frequently returned
to this country during this period on matters of busi-
ness.

His health being finally restored, he organized the
firm of Hulburd, Warren & Co. in 1893, of which he
is treasurer. He is also vice-president of the Equitable
Trust Company of Chicago and a director of the Corn
Exchange Bank.

Mr. Hulburd has been a stockholder in the igi
Watch Company for over twenty years, and when, in
December, 1898, the directors of this company met to
receive the resignation of Mr. T. M. Avery, who had
been its head for upward of thirty years, they elected
Mr. Hulburd by a unanimous vote to fill the vacancy.

His ability to readily understand the details of a busi-
ness and his thorough knowledge of financial matters
will enable him to direct this great industry in a con-_
servative and trustworthy manner.

Baldwin, Gurney & Co. The firm of Baldwin, Gur-
ney & Co., stock brokers and commission merchanis,
was organized July 1, 1897, as successors to the firm of
Baldwin, Farnum & Co., and closed out its business in
1899, and established a reputation of being one of the
most substantial commission houses operating on the
Board of Trade. Its spacious offices were on the ground
floor of the Board of Trade Building here. he firm
was composed of George F Baldwin, Charles HI.
Gurney and Charles G. Gates, all of whom were members
of the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Cof-
fee Exchange, the Chicago Stock Exchange and the
Chicago Board of Trade.

Allen, Grier & Zeller Company. The Board of Trade
firm of Allen, Grier & Zeller Company was organized
January 1, 1896, and went out of business December
31, 1898. It was composed of Messrs. Arthur W. Allen,
John P. Grier and William F Zeller. Mr. John P Grier,
of this firm, was born at Peoria, Illinois, in 1868, and
received his education in the public schools of this state
and in Washington University, St. Louis. He first
established himself in business in the latter place, but in
1896 he came to Chicago and organized the firm of
Allen, Grier & Zeller Company, which later took a most
active part in the great wheat deal of 1897-98.
CHAPTER XXII.

 

a

 

— ee
i STOCK EXCHANGE, BANKERS AND BROKERS.

 

 

 

~~

   

HE Chicago Stock Exchange is a
Y > natural outgrowth of the remark-
M able financial development that has
taken place in Chicago in recent
years, and which is comparable only
to the phenomenal commercial
growth of the city in its earlier days.
Although the exchange has risen to
a foremost place among the finan-
: cial institutions of the country, and
its ae is fully assured, yet the various movements
that preceded its organization were, almost without ex-
ception, crowned by failure rather than success. .

The first attempt to form an association for dealing
in stocks in Chicago was made in 1864, but even then
the principal commodity traded in was gold. The next
step occurred some five-years later, when several specu-
lative brokers obtained a special charter for a stock ex-
change, but in this case the promoters met with the same
experience that had characterized the failure of the first
undertaking—the impossibility of trading in stocks that
were held in New York. In the spring of 1880 the Chi-
cago Mining Board, later known as the Chicago Stock
Board, was organized, and it really seemed that the
business in legitimate investment securities had come
to stay. There was, however, for some time, a growing
feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of several of the
brokers, which finally culminated in January, 1882, when
a meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the
situation. At this meeting a committee, consisting of
Edward L. Brewster, George E. Wright and William
O. Cole, was appointed to formulate and suggest a plan
of relief. The Chicago Stock Exchange was the direct
outcome of this meeting, but it was only after many ob-
stacles had been overcome that the new project was an
assured fact, and the new institution, with 750 mem-
bers, opened in April, 1882, in the National Bank of Ih-
nois Building, 115 Dearborn street. Subsequently the

 

 

pA ee eRe aN

exchange purchased 322 memberships, so that to-day it
numbers 428 members, which is expected to be suffi-
ciently limited to make the privilege of member-
ship each year more valuable. On May 1, 1883,
the exchange was removed to 126 Washington street,
and a change was inaugurated in the system of selling
stocks, by which it was hoped to overcome some of the
many stumbling blocks which had proved so disastrous
in the past, and which were even now beginning to creep
into the new order of things. The result, however, was
discouraging, and day by day witnessed a weakening in
its influence and a loss of interest on the part of its
members.

Things dragged along in this rut until 1885-86, when
the securities of the various Chicago gas companies
greatly stimulated speculation. Still greater impetus
was given to the exchange in 1887 and 1888 by the
change in management of the North and West Side
Street Railway systems, and the subsequent issue of
stocks and bonds on a liberal scale by the new enter-
prises. These and other securities gave new life to
the exchange, which, in May, 1890, again changed its
location to more convenient quarters, at the corner of
Dearborn and Monroe streets. But even these quarters,
with the constant increase of business which now came
as the result of the listing of numerous new securities,
did not prove suitable, and other arrangements were
undertaken, which resulted in a change being made on
April 30, 1894, to the quarters now occupied in the Chi-
cago Stock Exchange Building, at the corner of La
Salle and Washington streets.

The present exchange-room is certainly one of the
finest in the country, 1oox60 feet in dimensions, and
complete in the highest style of the decorator’s art,
mahogany finished woodwork, a solid mahogany ros-
trum for the chairman and record clerk, beautiful in its
simplicity, and one of the most artistic features of the
room. Four great Sienna marble pillars with gilded

217
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

218

 

 

 

 

 

INTERIOR OF CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE.

 

 

 

SEPH R. WILKINS, Secretary.

j

ALFRED L. BAKER, President.
THE CITY

capitals add to the beauty of the hall, and both ceiling
and girder are rich in mural work in many different
shades, blended into a soft, harmonious combination.
With its large and influential membership, and its
close connection with the financial institutions of Chi-
cago and the country in general, the Chicago Stock

OF

CHICAGO. 219

indicate an increase in the number of shares traded in
of 250 per cent over the same period of a year ago. A
continuation of business on this large scale ought soon
to make the exchange stock membership very valuable.
Those who have held the position of president of the
Chicago Stock Exchange are as follows: Charles Hen-

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE.

Exchange is too firmly established to repeat the re-
verses of fortune that characterized it and its predeces-
sors in the years past. As an institution, it has come
to stay, and, indeed, its prosperity may be taken as the
best proof and indication of the city’s financial progress.
In January, 1899, memberships sold at $2,000 each, and
the statistics for the six months ending June 30, 1899,

rotin, four terms; A. M. Day, one term; William O.
Cole, one term; Edward Koch, three terms; Edward L.
Brewster, one term; William B. \Walker, two terms;
A. ©, Slaughter, oné terms C. C. Yor, one term; M. M.
Jamieson, one term; C. C. Adsit. one term; Alfred L.
Baker, two terms. Its present officers are: Alfred L.
Baker, president; R. H. Donnelley, vice-president;
220

John J. Mitchell, treasurer; Joseph R. Wilkins, chair-
man, secretary and manager of clearing-house; Henry
C. Hackney, vice-chairman.

Alfred L. Baker, president of the Chicago Stock
Exchange, was born in Massachusetts April 30, 1859.
He is the son of Addison and Maria (Mudge) Baker.
He received his education in the schools of Lynn, Mas-
sachusetts, and after his graduation from the Lynn High
School, in 1876, he went to Boston, where he began the
study of law in the office of George W Smith. He was
admitted to the Essex County bar at the age of twenty-
two, following which he returned to Lynn and associ-
ated himself in the practice of his profession with Mr.
John R. Baldwin, under the firm name of Baldwin &
Baker. During his residence at Lynn, which continued
until 1886, Mr. Baker took an active part in the affairs
of that city, and was a member of both the school board
and the city council.

Like many other young men who first chose the
East as their place of residence, Mr. Baker decided to
seek new fields in the Middle West, and in 1886 he came
to Chicago, where, shortly afterward, he became senior
member of the law firm of Baker & Greeley. This asso-

elation, which was largely engaged in real estate matters,
had a successful existence for several years, and was dis-
solved only when Mr. Baker had fully determined to
engage in the banking and brokerage business. Ac-
cordingly, he severed his active connection with the
legal profession and became a member of the Chicago
Stock Exchange, later extending his operations to the
Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Stock Ex-
change. For some time he conducted his business indi-
vidually, but later he took into partnership Messrs.
Solomon Sturges and Tracy C. Drake; and in January,
1899, he organized the present firm of Alfred L. Baker
& Co., with offices on the ground floor of the Rookery
Building.

Since his connection with the financial circles of Chi-
cago, Mr. Baker has been a prominent figure in all mat-
ters that have interested his brother members on the
exchange, and has made a name for himself as a con-
scientious and enterprising stock broker. It was his ac-
tive participation in such matters and his high standing
as a citizen that led to his election, in June, 1898, as
president of the Chicago Stock Exchange, and his sub-
sequent reclection to this office in June, 1899. Socially,
he has won a warm place in the hearts of his fellow-
operators. He is a member of the Chicago, Union
League and University clubs of this city.

Joseph R. Wilkins, chairman and secretary of the
Chicago Stock Exchange, was born at Philadelphia,
September 17, 1841. His parents were Joseph R. and
Maria (Runyon) Wilkins. He attended the schools of
his native city until he was twenty-one years of age, after
which he was engaged for several years as a convey-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ancer of real estate. In 1866 he started in the stock-
brokerage business as a member of the firm of Mc-
Dowell & Wilkins, but some years later he became off-
cially connected with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange
in the capacity of first vice-chairman, and subsequently
as chairman.

In May, 1882, on the opening of the Chicago Stock
Exchange, Mr. Wilkins came to this city to accept the
position of chairman of that institution. Since that
time he has been closely identified with the exchange,
has watched it pass through its various periods of pros-
perity and adversity, but has never doubted its ultimate
success. For the past eight years he has also been
secretary of exchange and manager of the clearing-
house, and has, in fact, been the Pooh-bah of the institu-
tion since its inauguration.

Mr. Wilkins, who is said to be among the best
authorities on financial matters in the country, is most in
his element when the market is wildly excited and when
trades are being made with the greatest rapidity. His
rulings in cases of dispute are accepted as final, since
none of them have ever been reversed when an appeal
to arbitration has been taken. Personally, he is a gen-
tleman of commanding presence; affable and genial to
the extreme. Heisa member of the Union, Washington
Park and Saddle and Cycle clubs, and also of the
Wheaton Golf Club. He was married in 1864 to Miss
Mary L. Hand of Philadelphia, and has two daughters.

Edward Lester Brewster, of the firm of Edward L.
Brewster & Co., was born at Brockport, Monroe
County, New York, in 1842. He is the son of Freder-
ick W. and Jeanette (Downs) Brewster. His grand-
father was Judge Henry Brewster of Genesee County,
New York.

Mr. Brewster attended the Brockport Collegiate In-
stitute until he was fifteen vears of age, at which time
he left school to become a clerk in a dry-goods store.
After spending a little over a year in this position, he
went to Buffalo, New York, where he obtained a situ-
ation as clerk in one of the large insurance agencies.
While in the services of the latter he devoted his leisure
time to study and his evenings to attending a night
course in a commercial college. He was, therefore, well
equipped, both practically and otherwise, when he came
to Chicago in November, 1860.

Within a short time after his arrival here he secured a
position with the banking house of Messrs. Edward I.
Tinkham & Co., at the corner of Clark and Lake
streets, thus beginning a connection with the financial
interests of Chicago which has continued almost unin-
terruptedly to the present time.

His first business venture was in January, 1868,
when, in connection with Mr. Samuel P. Farrington,
he established the wholesale grocery house of Farring-
ton & Brewster, at the corner of Dearborn and South
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Water streets. A prosperous career apparently was
before him in this line of mercantile business when the
fire of 71 occurred. The firm lost heavily, but was able
to pay dollar for dollar. Mr. Brewster continued with
the firm until July 1 of the following year, when he
retired, and, with Mr. John H. Wrenn, opened a gen-
eral banking and brokerage business on Wabash avenue,
near Congress street, under the name of Wrenn &
Brewster. Although organized but a short time, they
successfully weathered the panic of 1873, and con-
ducted a prosperous business until the dissolution of
the firm in January, 1876.

Mr. Brewster then continued alone in the same line
of business for several years. In 1881 he admitted Mr.
Charles C. Yoe as a partner, and two years later he took
over the Chicago business of Messrs. Gwynne & Day,
bankers and brokers. Mr. Edward P. Russell became a
partner in 1896 and in 1899 Mr. Walter S. Brewster
was admitted to the firm. The business has continued,
however, under the name of Edward L. Brewster & Co.,
and its guiding hand has been the same that organ-
ized it.

Mr. Brewster has been a member of the Board of
Trade since 1873, and of the New York Stock Ex-
change since 1881. He was married to Miss Mary
Niles, daughter of Hiram Niles of Buffalo, New York.
Six children have been born to them, of whom three
survive.

Malcolm M. Jamieson, of the firm of Jamieson &
Co., bankers and brokers, was born in Castleton, Ver-
mont, on May 27, 1846. His father, Dr. Egbert Jamie-
son, was an eminent surgeon, and held the chair of
surgery in both Castleton (Vermont) and Albany (New
York) Medical colleges. His mother, who before her
marriage was Miss Caroline Woodward, was a daugh-
ter of Professor Theodore Woodward, president of the
Castleton Medical College.

Young Jamieson was one of nine children. His par-
ents came West when he was about three years of age
and settled in Racine, Wisconsin. It was here he re-
ceived his education, passing through private schools
and later attending Racine College. His father, who
had become surgeon of-the First Wisconsin Regiment
at the outbreak of the war, died while in service, during
the latter part of 1863, and Mr. Jamieson was thus com-
pelled to shift for himself.

The following spring he came to Chicago and
secured a position in the offices of the Chicago, Mil-
waukee & St. Paul Railway, where he remained for two
years, leaving at the close of that time to accept a
position as cashier in the wholesale dry-goods house of
S. T. Jackson & Co. He continued in the employ of
this then well-known establishment until it failed in
1869, and through the influence of this firm he was
offered, and accepted, the position of receiving teller

221

in the Fourth National Bank, and some few months
later, when this institution sold out to the Manufactur-
ers’ National Bank, he continued in the same position
with them until the panic of 1873 swept them out of
existence. He was then offered a position with the
First National Bank as teller, where he remained until
1886, Mr. Jamieson then resigned his position with
that bank and went into the banking and brokerage
business for himself, becoming associated with Mr. Wil-
liam S. Morse, under the firm name of Morse, Jamieson
& Co. Mr. Morse, however, withdrew from the firm
some years later, because of ill-health, and at that time
Mr. Jamieson entered into partnership with Mr. R. C.
Nickerson, under the firm name of Jamieson & Co.,

 

 

MALCOLM M. JAMIESON.

which is to-day one of the best-known banking and
brokerage houses in Chicago.

Mr. Jamieson is popular in social circles, and claims
membership in the Chicago Club, the Union Club, of
which he has been secretary; the Saddle and Cycle Club,
the Glenview Golf Club, the Saginaw Club of Philadel-
phia. He is an old member of the Chicago Stock Ex-
change, of which he has been vice-president and presi-
dent.

Roland Crosby Nickerson, son of Samuel M. and
Matilda (Crosby) Nickerson, was born in Chicago on
July 27, 1859. He received his education partly in this
city, but went abroad when he was but thirteen years
of age, and spent five years in study at various institu-
tions of learning in Switzerland, Hanover and Paris.
Upon his return to this country in 1877 he entered the
First National Bank as receiving teller, remaining in
222

this position for about two years, at the end of which
time he again went abroad and spent a year in traveling
extensively throughout continental Europe.

Returning from his second trip abroad, he asso-
ciated himself in the banking and brokerage business
with Mr. Malcolm M. Jamieson, under. the firm name
of Jamieson & Co., in which firm he still continues
as a member.

Mr. Nickerson is a member of the Chicago Stock
Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, as well

 

ROLAND CROSBY NICKERSON.

as the Chicago Board of Trade. He is also affiliated
with many of the social and business organizations of
Chicago.

Charles C. Adsit, one of the most prominent and in-
fluential members of the Chicago Stock Exchange, was
born at Chicago, on the site of the present Columbia
Theater, July 14, 1855. He is a son of the late James
M. Adsit, Chicago’s first banker, and who was often
spoken of as her “father of banking.” Mr. Charles C.
Adsit was reared in an atmosphere of stocks, bonds and
money. He was educated at the old Chicago Univer-
sity and at Cornell University, and in 1877 began his
business career with the Merchants’ Loan and Trust
Company. Later he became receiving teller of the Com-
mercial National Bank,and still later he held the position
of paying teller with the Northwestern National Bank.

Mr. Adsit entered into business for himself as a
dealer in stocks, bonds and investment securities in
1887. He has met with a high degree of success in this
undertaking, and has gathered about him as customers
many of the wealthy citizens of Chicago, who were his

t

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

father’s friends and business associates. He is one of
the most active brokers on the floor of the local ex-
change, and for several years he has been a power of

 

CHARLES C. ADSIT.

influence in its affairs. He was a member of its board
of directors for a considerable period, and in 1897 his
fellow-associates honored him by electing him president.
Mr. Adsit is a member of the Union and Chicago clubs,
in both of which organizations he is extremely popular.
He was married in 1890 to Miss Mary B. Ashby of
Louisville, Kentucky, and has a family of two children.

Joseph E. Otis, Jr., of the firm of Otis, Wilcox &
Co., stock brokers, was born at Chicago, March 5, 1867.
He is the son of Joseph E. and Maria (Taylor) Otis,
who were among the pioneer residents of Chicago.

Mr. Otis was educated in the Howard School of this
city, at Phillips Exeter Academy, Andover, Massachu-
setts, and at Yale University. Leaving the latter in the
spring of 1889, he went abroad. On his return from
Europe he became engaged in the real estate business
as a member of the firm of Joseph R. Putnam & Co.,
but in 1891 he retired in order to take charge of his
father’s interests in Chicago. Three years later, to-
gether with Messrs. FS. Wheeler and Charles H. Wil-
cox, he assisted in organizing the Great Western Tin
Plate Company, of which he became president. A four-
mill plant was erected at Joliet, Illinois, and operated
until the fall of 1898, when the company was absorbed
by the consolidation known as the American Tin Plate
Company.

On January 1, 1899, the-present firm of Otis, Wilcox
& Co. was organized, Mr. Otis being associated in the
THE CITY OF

enterprise with Mr. Charles H. Wilcox, his former part-
ner in the Great Western Tin Plate Company. Their

offices are in the Temple Building, on La Salle street,

and they also operate a branch office in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Otis is a member of the New York Stock Ex-
change, Chicago Stock Exchange and is a member of
the Financial and Law Governing committees of this
body. He is also identified with the University, Chicago
and Calumet clubs of this city, and with the Chicago

 

JOSEPH E. OTIS, JR.

Real Estate Board. He was married in 1891 to Miss
Emily Porter Webster, a daughter of George H. Web-
ster of Chicago.

Alexander L. Dewar, of the firm of A. L. Dewar
& Co., bankers and brokers, was born at Glasgow, Scot-
land, in 1852. His parents, Plummer and Eliza (Pew)
Dewar, moved to Canada in 1855, and their son, Alex-
ander, was educated in the schools of that country,
remaining there until he was about nineteen years old,
when he went to New York to accept a position as
paying teller with a Wall street banking house. Four
years later he returned to Canada, where a more invit-
ing opportunity in a bank had been offered him, and
_ he remained there until 1881, when he came to Chicago
in order to take charge of the Chicago agency of the
Canadian Bank of Commerce. In 1887 he assisted in
organizing the American Exchange National Bank, of
which he became cashier. The firm of A. L. Dewar
& Co. was established by him in 1895.

Mr. Dewar is a member of the Chicago and Union
League clubs, of the New York and Chicago Stock ex-
changes, and of the Chicago Board of Trade. He was

CHICAGO. 223

 

 

ALEXANDER L. DEWAR.

married in 1875 to Miss Grace MacKenzie of Hamilton,
Ontario, and has a family of seven children. They
reside at North Edgewater.

James Joseph Townsend was born at Lima, Dela-
ware County, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1862. Ile
is the son of John and Margarette (Galliger) Townsend.
He received his early education in the public schools
of Lima, but at the age of sixteen he left home and
came to Chicago, where he became apprenticed to
H. H. Martindale, in order that he might learn the
trade of horseshoeing. He spent three years in service
at the forge, and at the end of that time began business
for himself on the West Side of the city, continuing
at this trade until 1891, when, upon the advice of Presi-
dent John A. King, of the Fort Dearborn National
Bank, he purchased a membership on the Chicago
Stock Exchange and entered into the brokerage busi-
ness at 175 Dearborn street. Mr. Townsend has been
particularly fortunate as a stock broker, and he transacts
as large a volume of business as any similar firm in the
West. Private wires to 66 Exchange place, New York
City, enable the firm to execute all orders on the New
York Stock Exchange, while everything in the line of
grain and provisions is purchased on the Chicago Board
of Trade. Options are bought and sold on the London
Exchange, and, in fact, the firm trades in all securities
that are listed on the various exchanges in this and
other countries.

Mr. Townsend has in years past been active in the
affairs of the Democratic party, but of late years he
has withdrawn from the political field and devoted
himself entirely to matters that are purely of a business
224

nature. His first and only elective office was gained in
1890, when he was elected to the Illinois House of
Representatives, from what was then the First Sena-
torial District, receiving a majority of over 5,000 votes
in a locality that had never before been known to go
Democratic. His record in the State Senate was in no

 

 

JAMES JOSEPH TOWNSEND.

way open to criticism, and his vote, in the contest for
United States Senator, was cast for General John M.
Palmer. In 1894 Governor Altgeld appointed him a
member of the West Park Board of Commissioners, a
position in which he served for two years, finally resign-
ing in 1896. He has also served on the various Demo-
cratic central committees, and was, for ten years or
more, active in the councils of his party.

Mr. Townsend is a member of the Washington Park
Club, the Illinois Club, the Monticello Club, and was
one of the first members of the Chicago Athletic Asso-
ciation. He was married April 24, 1897, to Miss Mar-
garette Deering, daughter of Joseph Deering of Chester,
Pennsylvania.

John C. King, of the firm of John C. King & Co.,
was born at Ithaca, New York, November 23, 1863.
He is the son of Francis C. and Clara (Corley) King.
Mr. King was educated at the Polytechnic Institute,
Brooklyn, but in 1882 he became employed with Rob-
ert Winthrop & Co., bankers and brokers, New York.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

He was identified in various capacities with the financial

interests of Wall street for about ten years, part of the

time being engaged in business under his own name,
and in 1891 he came to Chicago to embark in the lum-
ber trade. The inclination was still strong, however,
to reéngage in his former occupation, and in 1892 he
gave up his lumber interests and began operations on
the local exchange. On November 1, 1896, he asso-
ciated himself with Mr. Herbert Alward, under the firm
name of King, Alward & Co., a partnership that con-
tinued until the death of Mr. Alward in December,
1897.

The present firm of John C. King & Co. was organ-
ized February 1, 1898, with Messrs. Orville E. Bab-
cock and Sidney C. Love as partners. It has attained
a high place in the esteem of the investing public, and
its business transactions are among the largest of any
similar firm in the city. Its offices are on the street
floor of the Rookery Building.

 

JOHN C. KING.

Mr. King is a member of the New York Stock Ex-
change, Chicago Stock Exchange and the Chicago
Board of Trade. He is also a member of many leading
social organizations, among them being the Chicago
Club, Chicago Golf Club, the Onwentsia Club, Union

Club, Saddle and Cycle Club and the Exmoor Country
Club.
CHAPTER XXIII.

 

 

 

 

a

HE McCormick Harvesting Ma-
‘’ chine Company. The felt need
MK for a practical reaping machine was
BX so evident that great interest was
’ taken in the early field trials of Mr.
McCormick's reapers. As soon as
their practical utility had been dem-
onstrated, there was a demand for
the machines, which was further
manifested by lis aggressive busi-
ness malades: in bringing them to the attention of the
East and the West. In their introduction, however, he
made haste slowly. For ten years after the invention
of his reaper, he continued to work upon its special
devices, to get them into more practical form, “deem-
ing it best not to attempt sales, either of machines
or rights to manufacture” them, but to devote his time
to their construction and proportions, which required
“much effort to make them, whilst light, yet simple,
strong and durable.”

The blacksmith and carpenter shop on the Virginia
plantation soon became inadequate to meet the needs
of the rapidiy enlarging demand for reapers, and the ex-
periment of having them manufactured by firms in
widely different parts of the country did not insure
equally conscientious workmanship in their construction,
nor promptness in their delivery. The best organiza-
tion of the business demanded the localization of the
industry, and Mr. McCormick early noted the advan-
tages of the city of Chicago, and located his factory
here in 1847. The growth of this plant has been steady,
but rapid and wonderful. By 1850. the annual output
had reached 1,500 reapers. A quarter of a century
later the greatly enlarged works had a capacity of 12.-
000. To-day the McCormick workshop comprises 75
acres of Chicago land, and turns out 1,200 machines
daily. This means over 1,000,000 pounds of finished
machines sent out of the works every work day. Over
100 freight cars daily are required to transport this prod-

15

 

MANUFACTURERS. ;

a

uct in and out.
sive scale.
While very little wood enters into the mechanism of
the harvester, a small forest is annually consumed in mak-
ing the poles, or tongues, for drawing these machines,
and great, ugly lumber schooners annually bring 20,-
000,000 feet of pine lumber to the McCormick docks, to
be used exclusively in boxing and crating. To make
room for this great business, the 70 acres of floor space
have to be carefully utilized, and to this end architects
planned the foundry for the fifth and sixth floors of a
stanch building, and allotted eight acres to the molders
of metal. Each day 280 tons of gray iron are made into
castings. No other foundry in the land turns out such
an enormous supply of finished pieces. Intricate ma-
chines, costing thousands of dollars each, and requiring
years to perfect them, receive the materials and turn out
finished parts of harvesting machinery with an accuracy
and precision that could not be obtained by hand labor.
One battalion of this army of machines, for example,
turns out 50,000,000 of bolts each year, receiving the
blank rods and finishing the bolts and nuts ready for
use. Another machine receives canvas from rolls, and
the buckles, leather straps and wooden slats, and turns
out finished aprons and elevators at the rate of three
Other machines make into springs

Everything is conducted on an impres-

miles per hour.
enough wire to fence the island of Cuba. To provide
the harvesters with reciprocating cutters, over 8,500,000
sections of knives and sickles are made every year by the
workmen. The yearly consumption of linseed oil at the
big plant is 600,000 gallons. Eight hundred tons of
white lead are ground in the paint shop every twelve
months. One thousand barrels of varnish are annually
consumed in providing the finished product of the work
with its fancy dress.

To keep the public in touch with this great work, a
paper is circulated gratuitously in the agricultural dis-
tricts, and the printer receives order to put it out in edi-

225
226

tions of 500,000 copies. Catalogues descriptive of the
productions of the works are printed in all the modern
languages at the rate of 2,000,000 annually.

To furnish the motive power, engines of 6,000 horse-
power and boilers capable of developing 10,000 horse-
power have been installed during the past year. The
McCormick interests are represented in the markets of
the world by 1,100 salaried salesmen; in the United

wy, Wis aes Sf Godlee
RELL Ye vy Ye

C

States alone 10,000 local agents distribute the product
of the works to the farmers, and there are also 1,500
agents in foreign countries.

When all machines were hand-made farmers fre-
quently experienced exasperating delays because of the
breaking or loss of some simple part, which the lack of
skill and technical knowledge on the part of the local
blacksmith did not enable him to satisfactorily replace.
This difficulty has been obviated by the introduction of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

interchangeable parts. Many men in the McCormick
Harvesting Machine Company’s works devote their at-
tention to making these duplicate parts, which are made
with wonderful accuracy by machines that far surpass
hand labor. The casual observer will be greatly inter-
ested in this large and important department. Every
piece is submitted to the most accurate test. Flaws are
detected and the proposed part relegated to the scrap-

an aa

 

pile, or, if it is a sound piece, it is examined at every
point where there could possibly be a misfit, and dressed
so accurately that it may be used equally well on any
one of the many thousand machines of that pattern that
are annually produced and distributed to all parts of
the world. The great depots of supplies throughout
the country, often keeping in stock many thousand dol-
lars’ worth of such supplies, insure the farmer against
possible delay and accident, for a word to the nearest
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

McCormick agency is a guarantee that the interchange-
able part wanted will be shipped by the next train, and
the delay in the busy harvest field made as short as
possible. The purchasers of “cheap machines,” built

by companies without the ability to produce, or the
capital necessary to maintain, these great depots of sup-
plies, have found to their own loss that the best machine
is the cheapest in the long run. In the construction and

227

a machine that, when set up for use, with ball bearings
and every part thoroughly tested and tempered, is a
marvel of mechanism and ingenuity still unequaled in
gathering in the world’s harvest.

Cyrus Mall McCormick, inventor, manufacturer and
benefactor, was born February 15, 1809, at Walnut
Grove, Rockbridge County, Virginia. The surround-
ings of his early life were extremely picturesque, the

 

production of binders, reapers, mowers, corn harvesters,
hay rakes, corn huskers and fodder shredders and all
other products, the McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company has constantly and persistently maintained
the standard of the inventor, who insisted that these
machines should be made “light, yet simple, strong and
durable.’ To secure these ends the best material,
manufactured into machines by the highest skilled labor
and the most modern appliances, cooperate to produce

Blue Ridge towering above the valley to the east, the
Alleghanies not far away on the west, and the valley
itself presenting a panorama of fields of waving grain,
interspersed with streams, hills and comfortable homes.
Such environments, and the inherited genius of his
father, together with the practical ability of his mother,
all combined to fit him for his life task.

His father, Robert McCormick, was a_ farmer,
possessing 1,800 acres of excellent land, upon which he
228

operated, in the patriarchal fashion of the South, a num-
ber of industries, including a flour mill and saw mill and
a carpenter and blacksmith shop. Characterized by tire-
less industry and imbued with mechanical talent, he
invented a number of devices to simplify the labors of
the farm, including a hemp break, a thrashing machine
and a tub-shaped bellows for the blacksmith shop. The
idea of constructing a reaping machine as a means of
saving much of the heavy work and time consumed in
harvest had engaged his attention for many years. In
1816 he made a crude machine in his own shop, in
which he sought to obtain his object by means of a row
of upright cylinders, armed with sickle blades, rotating
against a stationary cutting edge. The severed stalks fell

 

 

 

 

 

CYRUS HALL McCORMICK.

on leather straps, which carried them to one side and
threw them on the ground. The contrivance illustrated
the inventor’s ingenuity, but was not operative, and after
another unsuccessful trial in 1831 it was abandoned.

The son, Cyrus H. McCormick, who had gained,
partly by inheritance, partly by practice, a love for the
mechanical arts, watched his father’s experiments and
mechanical work in many lines with a boy's interest. He
attended an old field school every winter, and in the open
months of the year learned, by his own experience in the
work of the farm, the importance of a machine which
would relieve the husbandman of his heaviest toil in
harvest time.

At the age of fifteen he constructed an ingenious,
light and symmetrical grain cradle, which enabled him
to keep pace in reaping with the workmen.

In 1831 he patented a hillside plow, to throw a fur-
row alternately to the right and left, and in 1833 another
improved plow. which he called “self-sharpening.’

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The father’s experimental reaping machine, laid
by, was a familiar object to young Cyrus in his
early years, as he has often said. In 1831 Cyrus
H. McCormick, filled with the idea of a success-
ful reaper, conceived a machine upon an entirely
different plan, and with remarkable energy constructed
it and tried it in the field during that harvest.
The operation was successful and the machine thus
brought forth, by meeting the difficulties which had
baffled previous efforts, determined. the line of future
development of harvesting machinery. So well had he
wrought that the essential features of the first reaper
have never been departed from. The inventor used in
this machine the vibrating blade, operating in fiu-
gers, or supports, to the grain being cut, a principle
which has been retained throughout the development
of the reaper. The platform for receiving the cut grain
after it had been severed by the cutting apparatus, and
from which it was raked to the side in gavels, ready to
bind, remains the same in principle to-day. The neces-
sity for the reel to bring the standing grain to the
knife, and finally incline it upon the platform, was
also recognized in this first machine. The divider also
was made a part of this machine, to meet the difficulty
found in separating effectively the grain which was cut
from that left standing. The construction upon two
wheels, like a cart, thus avoiding the awkwardness of
some previous attempts, has been preserved, as well as
the concentration of most of the weight of the machine
upon the driving wheel, a feature which is readily seen —
by the practical man to be important.

Much thought and repeated improvements during
the first twenty years had combined to produce a ma-
chine that, when exhibited at the World’s Fair in Lon-
don, in 1851, astonished the world and saved the Amer-
ican exhibit from being regarded as commonplace, al-
though the London Times had ridiculed the McCormick
reaper before the exhibition as a ‘‘cross between an Ast-
ley (circus) chariot, a wheelbarrow and a flying ma-
chine.” It was compelled to acknowledge, after a test
had been made in the fields, that this machine was
“worth to the farmers of England the whole cost of the
exhibition.” Writing of this glorious success, Honor-
able William H. Seward said: “So the reaper of 1831, .
as improved in 1845, achieved for its inventor a triumph
which all then felt and acknowledged was not more a
personal one than it was a national one. It was justly
so regarded. No general or consul, drawn in a chariot
through the streets of Rome by order of the Senate,
ever conferred upon mankind benefits so great as he
who thus vindicated the genius of our country at the
World's Exhibition of Art in the metropolis of the
British empire in 1851.”

Important improvements were added to Mr. McCor-
mick’s machines, and they constantly led in the race to
produce the best machines for reaping the great har-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

vests of the world. The raker and driver had been given
seats on the machine by 1847, and the one was relieved
of the drudgery of walking and the other of riding a
horse. In 1858 experiments were made with the sellt-
rake of McClintock Young, and machines with this in-
vention were put upon the market in 1860. Scylla &
Adams had in 1853 conceived the idea of making a ma-
chine upon which the binders could ride. Marsh
Brothers further improved this in 1858, and Mr. McCor-
mick had such a machine on the market in 1873, but not
much was done with this, for he had experimented with
a wire binder in 1872, and had such harvesters ready to
sellin 1875. The twine binder was already planned, and
he began to supply them to the trade in 1881.

While Mr. McCormick thus saw the modern ma-
chine develop from his original invention, he built up a
manufacturing business for the introduction of his reaper
to. the markets of the world, and thus guided its subse-
quent development to meet the demands of each succes-
sive period. He had the satisfaction of developing in this
manner the largest business of its kind in the world. In
nearly every national and international exhibition of the
century Mr. McCormick’s reaper was awarded the first
honor, and he himself was the recipient of many marks of
distinction. From the first machine of 1831 up to the
latest Right-hand Automatic Binder of 1900, there has
been a gradual evolution in the McCormick machines, so
natural, so important and so far-reaching in their bene-
fits to bread-winners, as to place his name high on the
scroll of the illustrious men of our land. But his life-
work would not be adequately apprehended if we should
stop here. He was a philanthropist and benefactor as
well. In 1859 he proposed to the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church to endow, with $100,000, the
professorships of a theological seminary, to be estab-
lished in Chicago. This was done, and during his life-
time he gave about half a million dollars to this institu-
tion—the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, now
McCormick Theological Seminary. The McCormick
professorship of natural philosophy in Washington and
Lee University of Virginia, and gifts to the Union
Theological Seminary at Hampden-Sidney, and to other
colleges under Presbyterian influence, also attest his
solicitude for the church in which he had been reared,
and of which he had been a member since 1834. In 1872
he came to the aid of the struggling organ of the Presby-
terian church in the Northwest, the “Interior,” and used
it to foster union between the old and the new schools in
the church, and to aid in harmonizing the Presbyterian
church in the Northwest. Under his care and advice
the “Interior” grew to be a mighty voice, expressing the
convictions, the aspirations and hopes of a great church.

In 1858 Mr. McCormick was married to Miss Nettie
Fowler, a daughter of Melzar Fowler of Jefferson

229

County, New York. Seven children were born to them,
of whom five are yet living. Mr. McCormick died May
13, 1884, in Chicago, leaving an honored name to his
family.

Cyrus Hall McCormick, the eldest child of Cyrus H.
and Nettie (Fowler) McCormick, was born at Washing-
ton, D. C., May 16, 1859, while his parents were in tem-
porary residence at the national capital, where his
father’s presence was required in the interest of patents
upon his reapers.

After passing successfully through the grammar
and high schools of the Chicago public schools, from
which he was graduated with the honors of his class, he
entered the class of 1879 at Princeton University. He

 

 

 

 

 

CYRUS HALL McCORMICK.

entered the employ of the McCormick Harvesting Ma-
chine Company in the fall of 1879, and filled various posi-
tions both at the manufactory and in the office.

Upon the death of his father, in May, 1884, he was
elected to succeed him as president of the company, an
office which he has since held. Large as are the interests
and demands of the company upon him, he yet finds
opportunity to devote a portion of his time to other in-
terests, where he has held positions of trust.

He is a director of the Field Columbian Museum, the
McCormick Theological Seminary and of the Merchants’
Loan and Trust Company of Chicago. He is a mem-
ber of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University,
was for several years vice-president of the Young Men’s
Christian Association of Chicago, and has just retired
from the position of president of the Commercial Club
of Chicago. He is also a member of the Metropolitan
230

and University clubs of New York; of the Chicago and
University clubs of Chicago, of the Union and Onwentsia
Country clubs, and of the Chicago Athletic Association.

He has surrounded himself with much of the best in
art, and is a plain, unassuming, democratic man, genial
and approachable.

In 1889, as a representative of the McCormick Har-
vesting Machine Company, he attended the Paris Ex-
position, and was there decorated with the order of “Le
Merite Agricole,” a decoration rarely bestowed upon
other than citizens of the French republic.

During the same year he was united in marriage to
Miss Harriet Bradley Hammond, niece of Mrs. Eliza-
beth Hammond Stickney of Chicago. They have two
sons, ,Cyrus and Gordon, and a daughter, Elizabeth.
During the summer months Mr. McCormick and _ his
family reside at “Walden,” his country home at Lake
Forest, Illinois.

Harold Fowler McCormick, the sixth child of the
late Cyrus H. and Nettie (Fowler) McCormick, was born
at Chicago May 2, 1872. While, therefore, still a young
man, Mr. McCormick has already been called to assume

 

 

 

 

HAROLD FOWLER McCORMICK.

a large responsibility by his election to the vice-presi-
dency of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.
Before assuming this office he took advantage of his
opportunities to secure a thorough education and a prac-
tical experience that would fit him for his life work. His
preparation for college was made in the University
School of Chicago, and the Browning School of New
York City, which he attended from 1889 to 1891. He

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

entered the freshman class of Princeton University in
the fall of 1891, and was graduated in 1895.

Before his graduation he had already commenced to.
familiarize himself with the company’s business. Parts
of one summer were spent in the field with local agents,
and parts of another at the works. Three months were
spent with local agents during 1896, and in August of
that year he assumed control of the general agency at
Council Bluffs, where he managed the company’s busi-
ness for the next year. After his experience at Council
Bluffs he entered the general offices of the company,
and was elected vice-president January 4, 1898. He
brings to the interests of the company a vigorous energy
and good judgment, which will help to maintain its
prestige among manufacturers of harvesting machines.

Mr. McCormick is a member of the Chicago and Uni-
versity clubs of Chicago, of the Chicago Athletic Asso-
ciation and of the Onwentsia Country Club, of the Uni-
versity Club of New York, and he is a trustee of the Uni-
versity of Chicago and of the McCormick Theological
Seminary.

He was married November 26, 1895, to Miss Edith
Rockefeller, daughter of John D. Rockefeller. Mr. and
Mrs. McCormick have two children, John and Fowler.

THE PLANO MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

The original harvester works at Plano, Illinois, were
established in 1863 by Marsh, Steward & Co., for the
manufacture of the Marsh harvester. About 1870
Messrs. E. TH. Gammon and William Deering be-
came interested in the works. and later purchased
them. The machine manufactured at that time
carried two men, who rode and bound the grain
as cut and delivered to them by the apron car-
riers. In 1874 an automatic wire binder was ap-
plied to the machine, taking the place of the men.
This and other automatic devices were successfully de-
veloped upon the Marsh harvester, which, by 1877-78,
had come into common use. In 1879, the partnership of
Gammon & Deering having expired, Mr. Deering de-
termined to remove to Chicago. This he did the follow-
ing year, and established the works at Deering. The old
works at Plano having thus been abandoned, Mr. W. H.
Jones and Mr. E. H. Gammon organized the Plano
Manufacturing Company, and began building harvesters
and binders in 1881. The business of the concern was
phenomenally successful, and rapidly expanded to such
an extent that a larger and more modern plant became
necessary, as also a more convenient location.

West Pullman was decided upon as the site for the
new plant, and the removal took place in 1893 to the
extensive and modern plant illustrated herewith. It
has been gradually enlarged and improved, until it to-
day affords as perfect manufacturing facilities as can be
found in the world. The Illinois Central Railroad runs
THE CITY

OF CHICAGO.

231

 

 

along the south side of the plant, and the Panhandle
and Rock Island roads intersect it, thus affording abun-
dant shipping facilities to all points. The buildings
themselves are imposing, and constructed of brick, with
heavy, deep-set foundations. The foundry, which fornis
the east end of the square upon which the buildings
are placed, is 585x75 feet, without a post to obstruct
and with splendid ventilation. West of the foundry is
the blacksmith shop, 260x60 feet, and the main building,
bounding the north side of the square, is 800x56 feet,
three stories in height, except the center, which is four,
and contains the offices.

Within these buildings are employed some 2,000 op-
eratives in the construction of the famous light-running
Plano machines, which are known in every city, town
and crossroads in America and Europe. No company
has done more to advance, improve, simplify and bring
harvesting machinery to a point of perfection than the
Plano company, much of which has been due to the
liberal ideas and business foresight of the gentleman
who, since its formation, has been the guiding hand that
has led to such wonderful growth.

William H. Jones, president of the Plano Manufac-
turing Company, was born in Wales in 1845, and emi-
grated to Columbia County, Wisconsin, in 1857. After
his arrival in Wisconsin he engaged to work on a farm,
and continued in this employment until 1866, when he
became an agent for the Dodge reapers and Champion
mowers, at Berlin, Wisconsin. Two years later he he-

came a traveling salesman for L. J. Bush & Co. of Mil-
waukee, and remained in that position until 1870, when
he became employed by Mr. E. H. Gammon, who was
then, and had been for some years, manufacturing and
selling the Marsh harvester, then the only machine of its
class on the market. He remained with Mr. Gammon,

 

WILLIAM H. JONES.
232

and subsequently with Mr. Deering, until 1881, when, in
connection with Mr. Gammon and others, who had pre-
viously been interested in the harvester works at Plano,
Illinois, he established the Plano Manufacturing Com-
pany, of which he became president, a position he has
continuously held ever since.

Mr. Jones is a thoroughly practical gentleman, who
has had the closest possible connection with both the
dealer and farmer ever since the introduction of im-
proved harvesting machinery, and possesses a keen com-
prehension of their wants in every detail. He was mar-
ried in 1867 to Miss Elizabeth Owens, and has a family
of three boys.

DEERING HARVESTING MACHINE COMPANY.

Among the great industries which have contributed
to the development of Chicago and the great West, the

 

 

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

sequently figured honorably in the history of New Eng-
land, as recorded in Elwell’s “History of Maine,” Sav-
age’s “Genealogical Dictionary,’ Cushman’s “New Eng-
land” and Williamson’s “Genealogy of New England,”
where the name “Deering” receives repeated and honor-
able mention.

Mr. Deering’s boyhood was not uncommon with
that of the boys of his time. His parents atforded him
a thorough scholastic education, a course which included
attendance in the common and graded schools, and was
completed at the high school of Readfield, Maine.

While yet in his “teens” he began his business career
and made such rapid progress that early manhood found
him in his first important position of trust, as manager
of a woolen mill in Maine. Every duty was discharged
to the eminent satisfaction of his directors, and at the
termination of his services he engaged in various busi-
ness enterprises, in which, no doubt, he acquired that

Peete

=

ma
seal i F

 

DEERING HARVESTING MACHINE WORKS.

manufacturing of harvesting machinery holds a promi-
nent place.

It is inseparably connected with the phenomenal
growth of Chicago, and, like that city, in a compara-
tively short time has assumed mammoth proportions.

To the men whose business ability and enterprise
have builded up the vast harvester industry of Chicago
and the West all honorable commendation is due. Of
these none is held in higher esteem than the subject of
this sketch, a man whose sterling integrity and inde-
fatigable efforts have wrought much for the betterment
of humanity and the progress of city and country.

Mr. William Deering is a son of rugged New Eng-
land, and was born in Oxford County, Maine, April 24,
1826. His father and mother were James and Eliza
(Moore) Deering. He comes of a distinguished ances-
try, which immigrated from England in 1634, and sub-

marked fertility of conception and genius for handling
the minutest manufacturing details that were afterward
displayed in a marked degree iu the conduct of his
great business interests.

In 1871 he became interested for the first time in
harvesting machinery. Recognizing in the Marsh har-
vester the possibilities of a great future, he undertook
its manufacture at the town of Plano, Illinois. In 1873
he moved his family to Evanston, Illinois, and in 1880,
through stress of rapidly increasing business, removed
his harvester plant to Chicago, where railroad facilities
were better.

Mr. Deering’s religion is Christian in theory and
practice. Politics have no charms for him. He has
eschewed office, and only once served in a public capac-
ity, as a member of the councils of Governors Perham
and Chamberlain of Maine. \Vorthy charities, both
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

public and private, find in him a liberal contributor. He
is a man of thoroughly philanthropic tendencies, and
_many educational institutions have been liberally en-
dowed by him—notably, the Northwestern University
of Evanston, of which he is president of the board of
trustees.

Mr. Deering was twice married. First, October 31,
1849, to Miss Abby Barbour of Maine, daughter of
Charles and Joanna (Cobb) Barbour. Charles, the son
of the first union, is now secretary of the great Deering
Harvester Company. The second marriage, to Miss
Clara Hamilton of Maine, daughter of Charles and Mary
(Barbour) Hamilton, was celebrated December 15, 1857.
Two children were born of this union, James and Abby.
Mr. James Deering is treasurer of the Deering Har-
vester Company.

Mr. Deering’s life has been an eventful and useful

233

distribution of improved harvesting implements. To-
day the traveler in foreign lands can see Deering
machines at work in South Africa, or, if he journey
north, in the wheat fields of cold Siberia.

Words will scarcely suffice to give an insight into
the marvelous workings of this great plant, where 1,319
machines are completed in a day. The impressions of
the visitor who first enters the Deering works are of
wonder and admiration. From foundry to construction
room he follows a machine through all its evolutions
from the raw material to a state of mechanical perfec-
tion, and he marvels at the simple and harmonious
operation of the system which, at first glance, seemed
vastly intricate.

Within the enclosure of the plant are two, three and
four story brick structures, which are the scenes of
almost incessant activity. Locomotives and electric cars

 

   

 

 

one, and the great Deering Harvester Works, on the
north branch of the Chicago River, the largest harvester
manufacturing plant in the world, stands as an inspiring
example of what honest, industrious effort can achieve.

The Deering factory is the largest single manufac-
turing plant of any kind in America. In size, capacity
and number of men employed, it surpasses any two
other harvester works in the world. Its area comprises
eighty-five acres of ground space. It is a veritable city
in itself, with a busy, bustiing population of nearly 7,000
souls, who toil night and day to supply the popular
and ever-increasing demand for standard harvesting
machinery. During the year 1898, 21,326 carloads,
aggregating nearly 600,000,000 pounds of material and
machines, entered and left the Deering factory.

Deering machinery is favorably known in every por-
tion of the globe, and all countries share in this great

DEERING HARVESTING MACHINE WORKS.

hurry forth and back over miles of tracks, which traverse
the entire works. An electrical power house furnishes
hight and transmits the current over miles of telegraph
wire. <A private fire department is thoroughly equipped
to fight fire at a moment's notice. Several powerful en-
gines, ranging from 500 to 2,500 horsepower, supply the
motive power to countless machines of the best and most
modern design. Here labor is brought to the highest
point of development. System characterizes every-
thing. Energy is economized as it is nowhere else.
Thus the quality of Deering products is insured, and
Deering machines, binder twine and other goods have
gained an enviable prominence throughout the world.
The enormous demands for Deering products have
made the demand for a system which could economize
time and energy to a minimum an absolute necessity.
Vast and extensive as are the Deering works, modern
234

and scientific as their equipment is, the demands of 1898
taxed them to the utmost and necessitated the addition
of over eleven acres of floor space during the winter of
that year. Every year the expansion goes on. The
fame of Deering machines is world-wide. They have
carried the name of the founder of the Deering Har-
vester Company to every country in the world, and have
made it a household word wherever grass and grain
grow.

All that Mr. William Deering accomplished has been
achieved by attention and application to the work in
hand and by honest and honorable dealings always.
That he is a man who knows as well how to give as to
get, he has amply demonstrated.

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM DEERING.

President Rogers, of the Northwestern University,
on the occasion of the dedication of Fisk Hall, built
through the munificence of Mr. Deering, in his tribute
to the benefactor of that university, gives a keen insight
into the character of the man:

“Above all, we thank to-day Mr. William Deering,
who has given us this building as another evidence of
his deep interest in this institution and in the cause of
learning. The Northwestern University never had bet-
ter friend or a more generous benefactor. May he see
in the gratitude and love and honor which this genera-
tion of teachers and students and the friends of learning
pay him, the gratitude and love and honor with which
generations that are to come will perpetuate his name
and hold him in lasting remembrance. This admirable
man—generous, kind, unassuming, modest—is one of
the great captains of industry who holds his wealth as a

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

public trust, and who seeks to so administer it as to
benefit mankind.

“We hear much-in these days of the disparagement
of wealth, but the wealth that is disparaged is of the
kind that is accumulated with no sense of the obligations
which its possession imposes. Grover Cleveland said at.
Princeton, in 1897: ‘We have a right to complain of
the rich if, after spending their lives in gathering wealth,
they find in its possession no mandate of duty, no pleas-
ure save in the inactive and sordid contemplation of their
hoard.’ Mr. Deering has accumulated riches, but he
finds in their possession the mandate of duty. As a
community, and as teachers and students, we are always
debtors. So will be the generations which shall follow.
us, and the good that he has done will live long after
he has gone.”

DAVID BRADLEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

In one sense the flourishing town of Bradley is a sub-
urb of Chicago, from which it is but fifty-two miles re-
moved, and with which it is directly connected by the II-
linois Central Railroad. In another sense, it is a suburb
of the very flourishing city of Kankakee, from the center
of which it is but a mile distant. The Illinois & Iowa
Railroad forms a junction with the Illinois Central at
Bradley, and that gives to its merchants and manufactur-
ers unsurpassed facilities for importation and transporta-
tion, by placing them in direct connection with more
than twenty leading Eastern and Western trunk lines.

Bradley owes its origin as a thriving and growing
center of manufacture to the genius and enterprise of the
late David Bradley, a sketch of whose honorable career
is given subjoined. There were not wanting, however,
public-spirited citizens of Kankakee, who foresaw the
advantages of the establishment in their neighborhood
of a business of such vast proportions as that of the
Bradley Manufacturing Company. The ground now
occupied hy this great corporation spreads over an area
of about ten acres. The ten main buildings are each
40ox8o feet, three stories in height, with basements.
The blacksmith shop is 380x80 feet, and adjoining this
is a grinding-room that extends over 30x400 feet. The
dry house of the company is 160x8o feet. There is a
one-story building, 200 feet long by 50 feet deep; a
foundry, 200x80 feet, and in addition to these spacious
buildings there are the power house, the paint shop, coal
sheds, ete. Sidetracks from the Illinois Central and
Illinois & Towa railways enable the company to receive
its supplies of steel, iron, lumber, coal, paint and other
materials, without cost of transportation from depots.
On the other hand, the finished products of the company
are loaded direct from the company’s factory, without
the costly labor of cartage. Several cars can be loaded
at the same time, under cover of a spacious railroad
THE CITY ‘OF CHICAGO.

shed, that is the exclusive property of the enterprising
company. In all, the Bradley Manufacturing Company
occupies over 500,000 square feet of flooring. In tanks
and reservoirs it controls a daily supply of more than

235°

firm name of Furst & Bradley, they began the improve-
ment of the old plow, which, at that time, was an ill-
shaped, cumbersome and unsatisfactory implement of
agriculture. The plow, under their management, took

 

 

DAVID BRADLEY MANUFACTURING WORKS.

150,000 gallons of water, for use in its business and as
a protection against the possibility of fire. The army of
men employed by this great establishment are well paid,
and they live in houses free from the smoke and din of
Chicago, and yet in a community to which none of the
concomitants of highly civilized life are wanting.

David Bradley, founder of the David Bradley Manu-
facturing Company, was at once an inventor, genius, in-
structor and workman; a man of wonderfully progres-
sive ideas, and one who labored not alone for the pres-
ent generation, but for posterity. The name of Bradley
has been prominent in the history of America since its
earliest settlement. William Bradley, the progenitor of
the family in this country, settled in New Haven, Con-
necticut, in 1637, and David Bradley was of the eighth
generation in descent of this Puritan forefather. Born
November &, 1811, Mr. Bradley received his earlier
business education in the manufacture of stoves and
agricultural implements at Syracuse, New York, but
while still a young man he came West to assist in estab-
lishing the first foundry in Chicago, and he was the first
man to bring pig iron to this city. A few years later,
however, he turned his attention to other pursuits, and
for four years engaged in farming in Lake County, Ihi-
nois.

It was in 1854 that Mr. Bradley founded the great
industry which now bears his name, embracing at first
a continuation of, and improvement in, the manufacture
of the “Garden City Clipper” plows. In the same year
he became associated with Conrad Furst, and under the

new shapes and qualities, and the sulky plow was one of
their early inventions. Later, stalk cutters, sulky rakes,
cultivators and other forms of farm machinery were

 

DAVID BRADLEY.

taken up, remodeled and perfected. There was a great
demand for their products, and their field of action grew
as their wares became known, necessitating a continual
increase in working space and force. In 1872 the firm
236

was incorporated under the name of Furst & Bradley

Manufacturing Company, but in 1884 the name was.

changed to its present style.

It is impossible to measure the beneficial results of
an active, inventive and honorable career like that of
David Bradley. His services have been of inestimable
value to mankind. His was a life of hard work and
years of patient endeavor, but the results were a crown-
ing glory to his efforts. His mind was ever striving fo
grasp new ideas, which would lighten, and, at the same
time, increase the value of labor. He succeeded, and
the vast prairies and farm lands of the West stand to-day
as a monument to his genius.

Mr. Bradley was not alone an inventor. He was
a philanthropist and a benefactor. He was charitable to
all, and it has been said no needy person ever turned
from his door without relief. He was married in Chi-
cago, Iebruary 25, 1838, to Miss Cynthia Abbott, a
native of Barry, Vermont. Five sons and a daughter
were born to them, of whom two sons and a daughter
were living at the time of his death, which occurred
February 19, 1899.

J. Harley Bradley, son of David and Cynthia (Ab-
bott) Bradley, and president of the David Bradley Manu-
facturing Company, was born at Racine, Wisconsin, in

 

J. HARLEY BRADLEY.

1844. Removing to Chicago with his parents in 1845,
Mr. Bradley received his education in the schools of this
city, and in 1865 he became a partner in the firm of
Jones, Ellinwood & Bradley, which succeeded Hooker
& Jones, wholesale and retail dealers in implements and
seeds. Some three vears later he disposed of his interest

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in this enterprise, and associated himself with Mr. Harry
Banks, in a general jobbing business in farm imple-
ments, under the firm name of Bradley & Banks. He
sold his interest in this business in 1872, in order to
become secretary of the Furst & Bradley Manufactur-
ing Company, of which his father was a partner. When
the firm name was changed to the David Bradley Manu-
facturing Company in 1884 Mr. Bradley became its vice-
president and treasurer, and so continued until the death
of his father, when he assumed the duties of president.

Mr. Bradley is also interested in numerous enter-
prises engaged in the jobbing business of agricultural
implements, among them being: Bradley, Clark & Co.,
Minneapolis, Minnesota; David Bradley & Co., Council
Bluffs, Iowa; Bradley, Alderson & Co., Kansas City,
Missouri, and Bradley, Holton & Co. of Indianapolis,
Indiana. He is also a director of the Northern Trust
Company of Chicago.

Mr. Bradley has been active in the affairs of the
Relief and Aid Society, of which he was a director in
1883-84. He was also one of the organizers of the Chi-
cago Freight Bureau, and in 1891 was president of the
Citizens’ Association. He is a member of the Univer-
sity, Commercial, Chicago, Union League and IIlinois
clubs, and was president of the latter during 1883-85.
He was married in 1872 to Miss Margia Peugeot of
Brooklyn, New York, who died in 1896. He has a fam-
ily of four daughters.

 

B. C. BRADLEY.

B. C. Bradley, son of David and Cynthia (Abbott)
Bradley, and general superintendent of the David Brad-
ley Manufacturing Company, was born at Libertyville,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Ilinois, in 1839. Removing to Chicago with his par-
ents in 1845, Mr. Bradley received his education in the
public and private schools of this city and the North-
western University at Evanston. Mr. Bradley had
charge of the books of the company until the war broke
out, and April 21, 1861, he enlisted in Barker’s Dra-
goons. His company was ordered to Western Virginia,
and was engaged with General McClellan in the battle
at Rich Mountain, and afterward acted as bodyguard
to General McClellan, when he was ordered to Wash-
ington to take charge of the Army of the Potomac.
After his service in the army he went West, to Pike’s
Peak, during the craze, remaining there two years, and
then returned and took position as assistant superin-
tendent of the factory, where he continued until 1884 and
1885, when he tried his hand in the mercantile business
in Dakota. After remaining there one year he returned
to Chicago, and became superintendent of the Chicago
Screw Company. When the David Bradley Manufac-
turing Company moved to Bradley, he again returned to
his first love, and is now general superintendent of their
works at that place. Many of the improvements, both
for manufacturing and for the implements, are due to
the ability and inventive genius of Mr. B. C. Bradley.
He was married in 1869 to Miss Alice M. Wilbur of
Madison County, New York.

AMERICAN STEEL AND WIRE COMPANY.

The American Steel and Wire Company was organ-
ized January 13, 1899, with a capitalization of $90,000,-
ooo, and with plants situated at the following points:
Worcester, Massachusetts; Crown Point and New-
burgh, New: York; Pittsburg, Allegheny, Allentown,
Newcastle, Beaver Falls, Braddock, Rankin and Dun-
cansville, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Salem
and Find!ay, Ohio; Anderson and Crawfordsville, Indi-
ana; Chicago, Evanston, Waukegan, Joliet and De
Kalb, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Lawrence, Kansas;
San Francisco, California; Everett, Washington. The
company owns extensive iron ore mines in Minnesota,
Michigan and Wisconsin ; coal and coke lands and ovens
in Pennsylvania; and the annual capacity of finished ma-
terial for all the plants reaches 1,500,000 tons. The
principal articles manufactured by the American Steel
and Wire Company are: Coke, pig iron, steel, wire
rods, bar steel and shapes, horseshoes, plain wire of
every kind and description, barb wire, wire nails, woven
wire fencing, poultry netting, electrical wires of every
kind, wire springs, and all kinds of wire specialties.

The Chicago officers of this company are: John W.
Gates, chairman; John Lambert, president; William
Edenborn, first vice-president; I. L. Ellwood, second
vice-president; W. A. Green, treasurer ; FL. Watson,
assistant treasurer; C. S. Roberts, secretary; O. Owen,
assistant secretary; A. M. Crane, assistant to chair-

237

man; I. C. Lott, district manager; C. A. Honecker,
auditor; C. A. Vogt, assistant auditor.

The American Steel and Wire Company is the larg-
est in Chicago and one of the three largest in America.
It pays dividends at the rate of 7 per cent—1# per ceuit
quarterly. It ships its goods to every country in the
world where its materials are used, and its exports
amount to about 1,000 tons per day.

John Warne Gates, chairman of the American Steel
and Wire Company, was born in Du Page County, IIli-
nois, May 18, 1855, and is a son of A. A. and Mary
(Warne) Gates. After completing his preliminary edu-
cation in the public schools, he entered the Northwest-
ern College at Naperville, Illinois, from which he was

 

JOHN WARNE GATES.

graduated in 1873. He then engaged actively in com-
mercial pursuits—first as a dealer in grain, and later in
hardware. While interested in the latter business he
became impressed with the importance that the wire
trade was destined to attain, and he finally embarked
exclusively in the sale of this article, under the firm
name of J. W. Gates & Co. In 1881.he organized the
Southern Wire Company, of which he became president.
Three years later he enlarged his field of operation by
organizing the Braddock Wire Company of Pittsburg,
and, in cooperation with his associates, acquired inter-
ests in the Iowa Barbed Wire Company of Allentown,
Pennsylvania; the St. Louis Wire Mill and the Baker
Wire Company of Lockport, Illinois. In December,
1892, Mr. Gates was instrumental in merging all these
concerns into the Consolidated Steel and Wire Com-
pany, with a paid-in capital of $4,000,000. During this
238

transition stage he assisted in the organization, and be-
came the first president, of the Columbia Wire Com-
pany, which was the outcome of the long and bitter
litigation over wire patents. The Columbia company
brought the struggle to an amicable conclusion, by the
purchase of every existing barbed wire patent of value,
and by licensing the contestants who became stock-
holders.

In 1895 Mr. Gates resigned the presidency of the
Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, though he still
retained his financial interests therein. In the same
year he became president of the Illinois Steel Company,
succeeding Mr. Jay C. Morse, and holding this position
until September, 1898, when the Hlinois Steel Com-
pany became a part of the new organization known as

the Federal Steel Company. Meanwhile the Consoli- .

dated Steel and Wire Company had continued to ex-
pand, and in April, 1898, when it joined with five other
similar companies, under the name of the American
Steel and Wire Company, Mr. Gates was chosen chair-
man of the new concern, a position he still retains.

Few men have done so much in so few years toward
the successful organization of a multitude of struggling,
rival, and, in many instances, unprofitable companies,
as has Mr. Gates. His work has not been that of a
speculator, but that of a constructor and creator of a
vast industrial force, the operation of which has been
beneficial to all classes of the community.

In politics Mr. Gates is an active Republican, and at
one time was chairman of the state committee of Mis-
souri. He managed the Republican campaign of 1888
in St. Louis, and he has held several offices of trust
in his party. Mr. Gates was married February 25, 1874,
at St. Charles, Illinois, to Miss Dellora R. Baker, daugh-
ter of Edward and Martha E. Baker of that place. Mr.
and Mrs. Gates have one son, Charles G. Gates, formerly
a partner in the late Board of Trade firm of Baldwin,
Gurney & Co.

John Lambert, president of the American Steel and
Wire Company, was born on January 12, 1847, in
Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He received a com-
mon school education, like a vast majority of American
boys, and was obliged to depend upon his own efforts
to make his way in the world. In 1874 he took up his
residence at Joliet, Illinois, and engaged in business.
In 1879 he entered into the manufacture of wire as a
member of the Lambert and Bishop Wire Fence Com-
pany. When the Consolidated Steel and Wire Com-
pany was formed in 1892, by the merging into one com-
pany of the Lambert and Bishop Wire Fence Company,
the St. Louis Wire Mill Company, the Braddock Wire
Company and the Iowa Barb Wire Company, he became
vice-president of the new organization, and later was
elected vice-president and general manager. The Amer-
ican Steel and Wire Company began corporate existence

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

January 1, 1899, and Colonel Lambert was elected

president. He has always been assiduously devoted to
business, and has, therefore, had no time to give to
public office in any way, although his name has fre-_
quently been mentioned in connection with political
honors. The only approach to anything of this kind
was the acceptance of an appointment -by Governor
Tanner of Illinois as colonel on his staff. He is a good
talker, is gifted with ready wit, has a brain well stored

with practical information, accumulated during his ac-  -

 

JOHN LAMBERT.

tive business career, and makes exceedingly good
speeches on industrial topics. He is also of quiet tastes
and domestic habits, and is blessed with a generous dis-
position. His liberality was especially conspicuous in
assisting to relieve the hardships of Illinois troops re-
cently in the country’s service.

William Edenborn, first vice-president of the Amer-
ican Steel and Wire Company, was born in Westphalia,
Prussia, March 20, 1848. As a youth he learned the
trade of wire-drawing, and when he came to this coun-
try in 1867, he found employment at his trade in a mill
at Pittsburg. Two years later, when the St. Louis Wire
Mills were erected, he accepted a position with this firm,
and while in their employ drew the first piece of wire
ever produced west of Cincinnati. Mr. Edenborn be-
came associated with Ludlow, Saylor & Co, in 1871, but
six years later, together with Mr. O. P. Saylor, he be-
came actively interested in the St. Louis Wire Mill Com-
pany. This enterprise was conducted successfully under
Mr. Edenborn’s direction for several years, and in 1882
he disposed of a half interest in the business to Messrs.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

John W. Gates and A. Clifford, owners of the Southern
Wire Company. At the time of this transaction Mr.
Edenborn acquired a half interest in this latter company,
and a few months afterward, the Western Union Wire
Company, in which Mr. Edenborn also possessed an in-
terest, was absorbed by the Southern Wire Company.
Later, these plants and others were united under the title
of the Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, and of this
corporation Mr. Edenborn became president. He heid
this office until April, 1898, when he retired from business
and sailed for Europe to enjoy a much-needed rest.
But in the latter part of the year, when the greater share
_ of the wire interests of the United States were being
consolidated under the name of the American Steel and
Wire Company, his lifelong associates, who were the
principals in this movement, requested his assistance,
and he returned to this country and reéntered active
work as first vice-president and a member of the execu-
tive committee of this new corporation.

Mr. Edenborn is extensively interested in other en-
terprises. He is president of the Shreveport & Red

 

WILLIAM EDENBORN.

River Railroad Company, and he is a large stockholder
in the Superior Pressed Brick Company, the St. Louis
Iron and Machine Works and the German Savings In-
stitution, all of St. Louis. He owns timber land in
Louisiana, coal fields in Arkansas, and is possessed of
several minor interests in various parts of the South
and West. But his life work has been in the wire trade,
and in this he has best shown his master mind and his
superior ability. He is the inventor of many patents,
that have done much toward advancing the wire trade,

239

and he is also the inventor of the basic patents used in
feld-fence machinery, which have revolutionized this
branch of the wire industry.

Isaac L. Ellwood was born at Salt Springville, Mont-
gomery County, New York, August 3, 1833, a son of
Abram and Sarah (De Long) Ellwood. In the early
seventies Mr. Ellwood became interested, with Mr. J. F.
Glidden, in the manufacture and sale of barbed wire. In
1876 Mr. Glidden sold his interest to the Washburn and
Moen Manufacturing Company, and the business was

 

ISAAC L. ELLWOOD.

afterward carried on under the firm name of I. L. Ell-
wood & Co., Mr. Ellwood being the managing partner.
Later he became exclusive owner of the large manufac-
turing establishments at De Kalb, doing business under
the names of the I. L. Ellwood Manufacturing Company
and the Ellwood Wire and Nail Company, both of whose
plants were disposed of to the American Steel and Wire
Company when it was organized in the spring of 1898,
in the management of which Mr. Ellwood assumed a
responsible position. He is at the present time a mem-
ber of the board of directors and chairman of the execu-
tive committee. is

He was married January 27, 1859, to Miss Harriett
Miller. His family consists of Mrs. Ellwood, William
L., Mrs. H. E. Mayo, Mrs. J. H. Lewis, Mrs. B. F. Ray
and E. P. Ellwood. .

Albert M. Crane, assistant to chairman of the Amer-
ican Steel and Wire Company, was born at Os-
wego, August 31, 1855. He was educated in the schools
240

of his native town, and at the age of twenty-three began
his business career as a stenographer in the Boston office
of Naylor & Co. In 1885 he was transferred by this
company to their New York office, and three years later
he went to Pittsburg, where he continued in their employ
until 1890. In that year Mr. Crane accepted a position
with the Illinois Steel Company at Chicago, his serv-
ices with that corporation continuing until the early part
of 1899, when he became identified with the American
Steel and Wire Company. His long connection with
the Mlinois Steel Company, during which period he be-
came assistant general sales agent, and later general
sales agent, gave him a remarkable insight into the iron
and steel trade of the world, and this made his services

 

ALBERT M. CRANE,

of great value to the corporation with which he is now
identified.

Possessed of an extraordinary capacity for hard
work, together with a rare judgment and a power of
discrimination that is both keen and sound, Mr. Crane
has worked his way, unaided, from the lowest round
of the commercial ladder to a position of prominence
and trust. Although a man of business, first and always,
he has found the time and grasped the opportunity of
delving deep into the mysteries of the Masonic order.
He is a member of Covenant Lodge, No. 526, A. F &
A. M., and he has taken all the degrees of the Ancient
Accepted Scottish Rite, in the Oriental Consistory, be-
ing proclaimed a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret
and a worthy noble of Medinah Temple, Ancient Arabic

Order of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of

pany owns five plants, as follows:

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the Chicago Club and of other social organizations in
this city.

Mr. Crane was married in 1881 to Miss Winnefred
Faye, a native of England. They have three sons—AI-
bert Maynard, Luther Little and Frederick Sloan.

ILLINOIS STEEL COMPANY.

Among the astonishing developments of this period
in the American iron trade is the appearance of the IIli-
nois Steel Company as a serious competitor for business
in the world’s markets. Although its works are nearly
1,000 miles from the Atlantic seaboard, being located
on the shores of Lake Michigan, and assembling the raw
materials from distances of 300 to 700 miles, it has over-
come all apparent disadvantages, and is making its influ-
ence felt beyond the seas. In the remarkable reductions
in the cost of producing iron and steel in this country,
the Illinois Steel Company has taken a prominent part,
its able technical staff having steadily made improve-
ments in plants and methods.

The corporation known as the Illinois Steel Com-
North Chicago
works, established in 1857; South Chicago works, estab-
lished in 1880; Milwaukee works, established in 1868;
Joliet works, established in 1870; Union works, Chi-
cago, established in 1863. These plants occupy over
700 acres of ground, and the company also owns coal
lands and coke ovens in Western Pennsylvania and West
Virginia, iron ore properties in Michigan and Wisconsin,
and limestone quarries in Indiana, adding considerably
to the acreage above stated.

The company also owns the controlling interest in
the Chicago, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway Company,
which operates the internal transportation at the differ-
ent plants, and connects directly, by means of its own
tracks and leased trackage, the South Chicago works
and the Joliet works, with the coal supply in Indiana and
Nlinois. This railway also connects, by means of its
own and belt lines, with all of the railroads terminating
in Chicago, and with the extensive docks in the Calu-
met region. It has 124 miles of track in the various
yards, and operates altogether 369 miles. . Its equipment
consists of 57 locomotives and 3,127 cars. A large num-
ber of the latter are actively engaged in the coke traffic
from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In addition to
this, the Ulinois Steel Company has 17 miles of narrow-
gauge track and 32 locomotives operating thereon at
various points.

The authorized capital stock of the Illinois Steel
Company is $50,000,000, of which $18,650,635 has been
issued. The works comprise, in all, 17 blast furnaces,
four Bessemer steel plants, a very large open-hearth
steel plant, two modern rail mills, billet mills, four rod
mills, plate mill, merchant mills and slabbing mill,

There has been, during the year just closed, the larg-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

est production of iron and steel in the history of the
United States, and the Illinois Steel Company has con-
tributed its share, having made between 1,100,000 and
1,200,000 tons of pig iron and spiegeleisen, and about
1,000,000 tons of finished product. This large output
has been accompanied by moderate prices and has com-

pelled American manufacturers to look to the markets

of the world for absorption of their surplus.

During the past year the Illinois Steel Company has
shipped its products to not only every state and terri-
tory in the United States, but also to Canada, Mexico,
South America, Africa, all the principal cities in Europe,
Siberia, Corea, Japan, China and Australia. The export
feature of its business has grown to such proportions
that it is an almost daily occurrence to bill goods to
points varying from 5,000 to 15,000 miles distance.

In common with other steel mills, the staple of its
manufacture until the last few years has been rails and
fastenings for same, bars and shapes, plates, wire rods,
billets, blooms, ingots, slabs and pig iron, but the com-
pany has shown a most progressive policy, and, in addi-
tion to an enormous annual output of the foregoing,
now manufactures fitted steel structures, such as bridges
and framework for modern buildings, tie plates, hoops,
cotton ties, cement, mineral wool and railroad spikes,
bolts, nuts and washers.

In September, 1898, the Illinois Steel Company, to-
gether with the Minnesota Iron Company, the Lorain
Steel Company and their allied railroad and steamship
lines, became consolidated plants of the Federal Steel
Company.

The officers of the company are: E. J. Buffington,
president; C. H. Foote, first vice-president; T. J. Hy-
man, secretary; W. H. Thompson, treasurer. The
directors are: E. H. Gary, C. C. Cuyler, E. Shearson,
Nathaniel Thayer, Robert Bacon, Morgan Rotch, Mar-
shall Field, W L. Brown, E. J. Buffington, T. J. Hy-
man, C. H. Foote.

Hon. Elbert H. Gary. Ex-Judge Elbert H. Gary,
president of the Federal Steel Company of New York
City, was born at Wheaton, Du Page County, Illinois,
on October 8, 1846, the son of Erastus Gary, formerly
of Pomfret, Connecticut. He is a descendant of Arthur
Gary (spelled Gerry), who emigrated to this country
from England in 1620. Mr. Gary was educated in the
public schools of his native town, and in Wheaton Col-
lege, after which he entered the law department of Chi-
cago University, graduating from the latter with the
class of 67. He successfully passed his examination for
admission to the bar, before the Supreme Court of the
state, on the day he became of age, and for the following
four years served as chief deputy clerk of the Superior
~ Court of Cook County. He was admitted to the Su-
preme Court of the United States in 1876.

In 1871 he entered upon the active practice of his

16

241

profession, forming a partnership some two years later
with his brother, N. E. Gary, which continued until 1879,
under the name of E. H. & N. E. Gary. In the year last
mentioned Hon. H. H. Cody retired from the Circuit
bench and became a member of the firm, which then
became known as Gary, Cody & Gary. Judge Cody
retired in 1886, and Mr. Gary continued in practice with
his brother until 1890.

Mr. Gary early became recognized as one of the most
capable trial lawyers in Chicago, and for many years his
practice kept him constantly in court. For the past six
or eight years of his professional life, however, he has
been engaged almost exclusively in the capacity of
counsel. He was for many years the general coun-

 

HON. ELBERT H. GARY.

sel for the Northwestern Elevated Railroad, the West-
ern department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and
several large manufacturing companies, and has been
engaged as general or special counsel for various insur-
ance and railroad companies. Among his clients have
been the American Bonding and Trust Company, the
Maryland Casualty Company, William Deering & Co.,
the American Steel and Wire Company, and the Illinois
Steel Company; also serving as a director in the two
companies last named.

Mr. Gary is also president and principal owner of the
Gary-Wheaton Bank, at Wheaton, Ilinois, which he or-
ganized in 1873. He has also been president of the
town council of Wheaton several times, and was its first
mayor when it was organized as a city. He has been
president of the Board of Education of Wheaton for a
number of terms, and he served two terms as County
judge, from 1882-1888.
242

Mr. Gary is a born organizer and his talents in that
direction were well illustrated in the formation of the
American Steel and Wire Company, which included the
manufacturers of 75 per cent of the entire steel and wire
products of the United States. He was also prominently
connected with the organization of the Federal Steel
Company. The theory of the organizers was that by
owning mines, manufactories and means of transporta-
tion, the work of the company could be more effectually
and economically done, than by leaving these several de-
partments in the hands of separate companies. This has
actually been accomplished. The company owns inex-
haustible iron ore mines in Minnesota, manufactories in
Chicago, Milwaukee, Joliet, Illinois; Lorain, Ohio, and
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, railroad and steamship lines
connecting them, and coal mines and coke works in
Pennsylvania, from which to derive their power. The
responsibility of this great corporation, which repre-
sents a capital of $200,000,000, has been placed
in the hands of Mr. Gary, who removed to New
York in order to take charge of the same. Chi-
cago’s loss is New York's gain, but the friends and ac-
quaintances of Mr. Gary will always think of him as
a Western, rather than an Eastern, man, and particularly
as a fitting representative of a high type of American
manhood which Chicago produces.

During his residence in this city Judge Gary was
active in social and professional circles. He was for
many years a member of the Chicago Law Institute, the
Chicago Bar Association, of which he was president in
1895-96; the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Na-
tional Bar Association. He is also a member of the
Chicago, Union League, Chicago Athletic and Chicago
Golf clubs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church and a trustee of Northwestern University, located
at Evanston, Illinois. He was married in 1867 to Miss
Julia E. Graves of Aurora, Illinois. They have two
daughters, Mrs. Dr. H. W. Sutcliffe of Denver, Col-
orado, and Bertha L. Gary, at school in Ogontz, Penn-
sylvania.

THE REPUBLIC IRON AND STEEL COMPANY.

The Republic Iron and Steel Company was incorpor-
ated May 3, 1899, under the laws of the state of New
Jersey, with a capital stock of $55,000,000. The follow-
ing plants were consolidated: Andrews Brothers Com-
pany, Youngstown, Ohio; the Brown-Bonnell Iron
Company, Youngstown, Ohio; Mahoning Valley Iron
Company, Youngstown, Ohio; Cherry Valley Iron
Works, Leetonia, Ohio; Lake Erie Iron Company,
Cleveland, Ohio; Corns Iron and Steel Company, Mas-
sillon, Ohio; Toledo Rolling Mill Company, Toledo,
Ohio; Mitchell, Tranter & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio; Eagle

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Iron and Steel Company, Ironton, Ohio; Indiana Iron
Company, Muncie, Indiana; Muncie Iron and Steel
Company, Muncie, Indiana; White River Mills, Muncie,
Indiana; Union Steel Company, Alexandria, Indiana;
Marion Steel and Iron Company, Marion, Indiana;
Westerman Stewart Iron Company, Marion, Indiana;
Wetherald Rolling Mill Company, Frankton, Indiana;
Indiana Forge and Rolling Mill Company, New Albany,
Indiana; Central Iron and Steel Company, Brazil, Indi-
ana; Wabash Iron Company, Terre Haute, Indiana;
Terre Haute Iron and Steel Company, Terre Haute, In-
diana; Tudor Iron Works, East St. Louis, Missouri;
Springfield Iron Company, Springfield, Illinois; Inland
Iron and Forge Company, East Chicago, Indiana; Syl-
van Steel Company, Moline, Ilinois; Alabama Rolling
Mill Company, Birmingham, Alabama. Blast furnaces
are located: 1, Haselton furnace, of Andrews Brothers
Company, Youngstown, Ohio; 2, Hannah furnace, of
Mahoning Valley Iron Company, Youngstown, Ohio;
3 and 4, Thomas furnaces, of Pioneer Mining and Manu-
facturing Company, Birmingham, Alabama. The Re-
public Iron and Steel Company also owns the following
mining properties: 1, Franklin, Victoria, and Bessemer,
Mesaba Range; 2, Cambria; 3, Lilie, Negaunee, Mar-
quette Range; 4, the ore fields of the Pioneer Mining and
Manufacturing Company of Birmingham, Alabama, the
latter of which includes 25,600 acres. Of this, 14,700
acres are coal lands, 4,980 acres are red and brown ore
lands, ete.

During the year 1898 the 29 rolling mills of this
company produced a total of 698,217 tons of finished
product, while the blast furnaces during the same period
produced 225,916 tons of pig iron.

The officers of the Republic Iron and Steel Company
are: President, R. S. Warner; first vice-president,
George D. Wick; second vice-president, Samuel
Thomas; third vice-president, James C. Corns; fourth
vice-president, George M. Bard; secretary, Silas J.
Llewellyn; treasurer, John F. Taylor; assistant treas-
urer, .\. P. Bartlett; general counsel, Harry Rubens.
Those composing the executive committee are: Myron
C. Wick, Alexis W. Thompson, John F. Taylor, T. A.
Meysenburg, G. Watson French, George D. Wick.
Harry Rubens, S. J. Llewellyn, Randolph S. Warner.
The board of directors is composed of the following:
August Belmont, Myron C. Wick, Grant B. Schley, Ran-
dolph S. Warner, George R. Sheldon, J. D. Caldwell, G.
Watson French, Alexis W. Thompson, George D. Wick,
John F. Taylor, Harry Rubens, T. A. Meysenburg, L. E.
Cochran, James C. Corns, H. W. Hassinger, P. LL.
Kimberly, George M. Bard, George M. Clark, Samuel
Thomas, S. J. Llewellyn. Its general offices are in the
Stock Exchange Building in Chicago.
THE GITY OF CHICAGO.

THE AMERICAN TIN PLATE COMPANY.

The American Tin Plate Company was organized in
December, 1898, under the laws of the state of New
Jersey, with an authorized capital of $50,000,000, and is
a consolidation of thirty-eight separate properties, oper-
ating a total of 278 tin-plate mills. The properties ac-
quired were the tna Standard Iron and Steel Com-
pany, Bridgeport, Ohio; American Tin Plate Company,
Ellwood, Illinois, and Montpelier, Indiana; Atlanta
Steel and Tin Plate Company, Atlanta, Indiana; Balti-
more Tin Plate Company, Lisbon, Ohio; Beaver Tin
Plate Company, Lisbon, Ohio; Blairsville Rolling Mill
and Tin Plate Company, Blairsville, Pennsylvania; Brit-
ton Rolling Mill Company, Cleveland; Cincinnati Roll-
ing Mill and Tin Plate Company; Crescent Sheet and
Tin Plate Company; Cumberland (Maryland) Steel and
Tin Plate Company; Ellwood Tin Plate Company, EIl-
wood City, Pennsylvania; Falcon Tin Plate and Sheet
Company, Niles, Ohio; Great Western Tin Plate Works,
Joliet, Illinois; Hamilton & Co., West Newton, Penn-
sylvania; Humbert Tin Plate Company, Connellsville,
Pennsylvania; Irondale Steel and Iron Company, Mid-
dletown, Indiana; Johnstown Tin Plate Company,
Johnstown, Pennsyivania; La Belle Iron Works, Wheel-
ing, West Virginia; Laughlin Nail Company, Martin's
Ferry, Ohio; Marshall Bros. & Co., Philadelphia;
Monongahela Tin Plate Company, Pittsburg; More-
wood Company, Gas City, Indiana; Morton Tin Plate
Company, Cambridge, Ohio; National Tin Plate Com-
pany, Anderson, Indiana; National Tin Plate Company,
Monessen, Pennsylvania; Neshannock Sheet and Tin
Plate Company, Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Newcastle
Steel and Tin Plate Company, Newcastle, Pennsylvania;
Ohio River Sheet and Tin Plate Company, Remington,
Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Tin Plate Company, New
Kensington, Pennsylvania; Pittsburg Tin Plate Com-
pany, New Kensington, Pennsylvania; Reeves Iron
Company, Canal Dover, Ohio; Shenango Valley Steel
Company, Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Somers Bros.,
Brooklyn; Star Tin Plate Company, Pittsburg; Stickney
Iron Company, Baltimore; United States Iron and Tin
Plate Manufacturing Company, Demmler, Pennsyl-
vania; Wallace, Banfield & Co., Irondale, Ohio; Wash-
ington Steel and Tin Plate Mills, Washington, Pennsyl-
vania.

To acquire these properties and provide about
$5,000,000 cash working capital, $28,000,000 of common
and $18,000,000 of preferred stock were issued. The an-
nual output of the consolidated mills is about 12,000,-
000 boxes of 100 pounds each. The company is closely
allied with the National Steel Company, from which
it gets a considerable part of its raw material.

The officers of the American Tin Plate Company are:
D. G. Reid, president ; William B. Leeds, vice-president ;
William T. Graham, second vice-president; Warner

243

Arms, third vice-president; Frederick S. Wheeler, treas-
urer; William F. Dutton, secretary; E. G. Applegate,
assistant secretary and treasurer; W. P. Beaver,-auditor.
The directors are: D. G. Reid, W. H. Moore, W. B.
Leeds, W. T. Graham, J. H. Moore, James McLean,
C. A. Robinson, J. B. Dill, W. E. Reis, F. S. Wheeler,
J. A. Matthews, Warner Arms, R. R. Quay, George
Greer, W. H. Donner.

Daniel G. Reid, president of the American Tin Plate
Company, was born at Richmond, Indiana, August I,
1858, the son of Daniel and Ann (Gray) Reid. He
received his education in the public schools of his native
town, but when he was fifteen years of age he gave
up his studies and entered the service of the Sec-

 

DANIEL G. REID.

ond National Bank of Richmond, where he continued
in various positions for a period of twenty-two years.
He was vice-president of this bank at the time he severed
his active connection with it, and although his time is
now wholly given to the executive duties of far more
important and extensive interests, he still retains his
official position in this institution.

Mr. Reid has been identified with the tin-plate indus-
try since 1891, at which time he became treasurer of
the original American Tin Plate Company, whose mills
were at Ellwood, Indiana, and Montpetier, Indiana. He
continued in this capacity until December, 1898, when
the leading tin-plate companies of the country were con-
solidated under the name of the American Tin Plate
Company, of which corporation he was elected presi-
dent. He is also interested in several others of the large
corporations of the country. His name appears in the
244

directory of the National Steel Company and in that of
the American Steel Hoop Company, while he also holds
a similar position in the affairs of the Bankers’ National
Bank of this city.

Mr. Reid is possessed of a strong and pleasing per-
sonalty. He is a thorough believer in the principles of
the Republican party, and although he has never ven-
tured into the political field himself, he has always given
his hearty codperation to those who have been strug-
gling to advance the interests of the party. Socially, he
is held in high esteem by those who know him, and while
he cannot be called a clubman, he enjoys membership in
several of the leading social organizations of this city,
among them being the Chicago, Calumet and Union
League clubs and the Chicago Athletic Association.

CRANE COMPANY.

The great corporation now known as the Crane Com-
pany, which, in its chosen lines, is the largest manufactur-
ing company in the world, had its origin in 1855, when
Richard T. Crane opened a small brass foundry in a lum-
ber-yard belonging to his uncle, Martin Ryerson. Shortly

 

 

RICHARD T. CRANE.

after this, a brother, Charles S. Crane, joined Rich-
ard, and the business developed rapidly, rendering
it a necessity that additions and improvements should
be made. Their quarters in the lumber-yard being lim-
ited, a change of location was made to West Lake street,
where it was thought sufficient accommodations had
been secured for years to come. But even these quar-
ters were found too small, and in 1865 a new factory

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

was built on Jefferson street, between Lake and Ran-
dolph streets, which has been their headquarters ever
since. Large factories have also been erected on Des-
plaines street, Judd street, Wilson street, Twelfth street,
and at the corner of Desplaines and Fulton streets,
while branch stores are located at San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Portland, Kansas City, Omaha, St. Paul, Min-
neapolis, Sioux City, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New
York. Forty-four years have passed since the small
brass foundry was started, and, in the meanwhile, the
business has developed into a corporation that employs
3,500 workmen. A pioneer of its kind in the Northwest,
the Crane Company manufactures a full assortment of
goods for steam and gas fitters, numbering over 7,000
articles. This fact illustrates the enormous growth in
varieties and sizes of their products, as well as the com-
plications that the business has undergone within a com-
paratively few years. It has been their aim to supply
every want that the trade in its progress has demanded,
and they have succeeded in producing a complete assort-
ment of goods, of uniform excellence, on a large scale.
The manufacturing departments are each under the
direction of able and efficient men, who are thoroughly
familiar with the requirements of the trade. A rigid in-
spection of material and tools in all stages of production,
and a constant attention to details, have made the name
‘Crane Company” a guarantee more valuable than any
testimonial that can be written.

WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY.

In the fall of 1871 the Western Electric Manufactur-
ing Company was organized, a consolidation of the fac-
tory of Gray & Barton of Chicago and the shops of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, at Ottawa, form-
ing a nucleus, which rapidly developed into a manufac-
turing establishment at that time second to none in the
country.

The company was capitalized at $150,000, a capital
which was soon found too small to suit the rapidly in-
creasing business, and within three years from its organ-
ization the capital was doubled. General Anson Stager,
formerly vice-president of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, was the first president of the new organiza-
tion, and continued in that capacity up to the time of
his death.

The manufactory of the company was originally lo-
cated at 220 to 232 East Kinzie street, where it was
continued until the winter of 1883, the name of the com-
pany being changed in the meantime by dropping the
word “Manufacturing.” During the period from 1872
to 1883 the principal lines of manufacture engaged in
by the company were printing telegraph instruments,
Morse telegraph instruments, fire and burglar alarms
and batteries. Electric lighting was taken up in 1880,
the company first acting as agents for other manufac-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

turers, and afterward engaging in the manufacture of
apparatus of their own design. They were among the
first to enter the field of series arc lighting, and the
rapid increase in the demand for this apparatus, together
with telephone apparatus, which they had taken up
about the same time, made it necessary to increase their
facilities, as well as their capital.

In the year 1883 the Western Electric Company
erected its first building on the site of its present works.
The buildings had a frontage of 249 feet on Clinton

 

 

245

In 1897 five stories were added to the two-story build-
ing formerly erected on Jefferson street. The upper
part of the building on Jefferson and Congress streets
was designed for the general offices of the company. In
the spring of 1899 the building, ten stories high, was
completed on Clinton street, south of Congress street,
the eighth story of which forms a continuation of the
general offices.

Numerous other buildings have been erected, until
at the present time the buildings occupy the greater part

 

THE WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY BUILDING.

street and were four stories high. In 1887 an exten-
sion of 60 feet was made on Clinton street. This gave
the company a four-story building, extending from the
alley south of Van Buren to Congress street, with a
frontage of 309 feet. In 1889 and 1890 two stories were
added to the entire block, making the building six stories
high. From this time on new buildings were gradually
being added to the original building.

In 1892 and 1894 the building on Clinton street,
south of Congress, was purchased. In 1895 work was

commenced on the building facing on Jefferson street.

of the two blocks extending between Jefferson and Clin-
ton streets, and from Van Buren to Harrison streets.
The floor space of the buildings now in use approxi-
mates 1,000,000 square feet.

In 1808 a steel stack resting upon a brick and stone
foundation was erected. The brick portion is 75 feet
high. The remaining portion is of steel, lined with fire-
brick. The extreme height of the stack is 203 feet. Its
internal diameter is 12 feet. This chimney has a capacity
for 3,500 horsepower. ,

The Western Electric Company manufactures arc
246

and incandescent lighting dynamos and power appar-
atus, arc and incandescent lamps, telegraph testing and
measuring instruments, fan motors, electric-light fix-
tures, wires, cables, electric light and general supplies.

Mr. E. M. Barton is president of the company and
Mr. C. D. Crandall is the manager at Chicago. The
company has additional offices and factories in New
York, London, Antwerp, Berlin and Paris, the head-
quarters of the company being in Chicago.

CHAS. KAESTNER & CO.

For a period of over thirty-six years the house of
Chas. Kaestner & Co., manufacturers of general machin-
ery, has had a successful history. Their present plant,

 

CHARLES KAESTNER.

 

THE CHAS. KAESTNER & CO. PLANT.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

located at 241-249 South Jefferson street, possesses a
floor area of about 300,000 square feet, and is equipped
throughout with electricity, thus doing away with the

 

FRANK Al HECHT.

loss of light and the dirt attendant upon the transmission
of power by means of belts or shafting.

Chas. Kaestner & Co. make a specialty of the build-
ing of complete brewing, malting, distilling, starch and
glucose plants and of their equipments. Owing to the
many superior facilities enjoyed by the firm, its prod-
ucts are marketed in nearly every known country in the
world. During the past year a special depart-
ment for the building of coal-handling and dredg-
ing machinery has been added, and it is already
meeting with well-deserved success,
since many of their new machines
are far in advance of any yet pro-
duced for handling materials in
large quantities.

At the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia in 1876 the goods of
this firm were awarded diplomas
and gold medals, and they likewise
received substantial recognition at
the World’s Columbian Exposition
at Chicago, in 1893.

The firm, in February, 1900,
placed on the market a complete
line of worm gear, steam, electric
and hydraulic elevators, for all pur-
poses. Charles Kaestner and Frank
A. Hecht compose the personnel of
the firm.
THe GiTY OF CHICAGO.

A. FEATHERSTONE & CO.

The well-known firm of A. Featherstone & Co.,
makers of high-grade bicycles, was organized by Al-
fred F. Featherstone and Joseph E. Bromley, suc-
ceeding Henry Will & Co, manufacturers of baby
carriages and toys. This latter firm was organized
in 1871, and for a period of seventeen years the busi-
ness was developed along these lines, and an extensive
jobbing trade built up in small vehicles, toys and other
articles of manufacture of a kindred nature. In 1888,
two years after the change in management took place,
the manufacture of velocipedes, tricycles and bicycles
was begun. This branch of the business was developed
in line with what has seemed to be the general demand,

 
 
 
 
 
  

THE A. FEATHERSTONE & CO. PLANT.

until, at the present time, the firm devotes its entire atten-
tion to the manufacture of high-grade wheels. Until
1898 most of the bicycles of their manufacture were dis-
posed of to the jobbing trade throughout the country,
but hereafter the Featherstone wheels will only be sold
through regular accredited agents, and every wheel
leaving the works will bear the Featherstone name-plate.

The large factory, erected in 1887, at Clark and Six-
teenth streets and Armour avenue, is the most complete
and best arranged for the manufacture of bicycles in
the West. The main building, five stories in height and
containing a working space of some 153,000 square
feet, is of heavy warehouse construction, and fitted with
every convenience and facility, in the way of improved

247

machinery, for the successful handling of a large. busi-
ness. The capacity of the factory is 500 bicycles a day,
while the yearly output averages about 60,000 wheels,
although this varies to some extent with the fluctuations
in the market demand. The number of employés aver-
ages from 1,100 to 1,400.

A. Featherstone & Co. have always taken a leading

position in the bicycle trade of the country, not alone
in the quality of their machines, but in their grasp of
new ideas and their quickness in putting these ideas into
practical use. In the matter of using pneumatic tires
on their wheels they were the pioneers in America, in-
troducing the Dunlop pneumatic tire in 1890, by special
arrangement with the English manufacturers. Their
support of this, as yet untried, novelty was the cause of
considerable discussion on the part of the bicycle trade
throughout the country, but time and experience have
since substantiated the value of this important feature
of the bicycle’s make up.
Alfred Featherstone, president of A. Featherstone &
Co., was born November
4, 1855, at Somerset, New
York. He is the son of
Robert and Rebecca
(Preston) Featherstone.

After a course in the
public schoo!s of his na-
tive town and in the high
school of Middleport,
New York, Mr. Feather-
stone entered the railroad
business in the employ of
the New York Central &
Hudson River Railroad.
his headquarters being in
Buffalo. In 1881 he
came to Chicago, and in
1886 he succeeded to the
business of Henry Will &
Co., makers of baby car-
riages and toys, the firm name being changed to A.
Featherstone & Co. at that time. He associated Mr.
J. E. Bromley with him in the enterprise, and both have
since continued to give their undivided attention to its
development. In 1888 the manufacture of bicycles was
begun, and their attention is now devoted exclusively
to the manufacture of high-grade wheels.

Joseph Eddy Bromley, secretary and treasurer of A.
Featherstone & Co., and son of Daniel and Mary (Stev-
ens) Bromley, was born at Cambria, New York, on July
4, 1854.

He received the benefit of a good common school
education and a course in the high school at Lockport,
New York, but left school at an early age to accept a
248

position with the Erie Railroad at Buffalo, in whose serv-
ices he remained for some years, leaving them to engage
in the lumber business. A few years later he went to
Denver, where he entered the services of the Denver &
Rio Grande Railroad, continuing with them until he
came to Chicago in 1885. The following year he be-
came interested with Mr. Featherstone in the firm of
A. Featherstone & Co., of which he became the secre-
tary and treasurer.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The chief advantage of the Scherzer rolling lift
bridges over the ordinary swing bridge is the absence
of any center pier, thus affording an unobstructed chan-
nel. The supports for this bridge are supplied by piers
placed upon the sides of the navigable channel and |
upon these the movable parts of the bridge roll in a
vertical direction, and in the passage thus obtained
vessels are enabled to pass rapidly, and as a partial open-
ing of the bridge will usually suffice, the power ex-

 

an

a 2
a ae

De a ae

 

 

 

 

SCHERZER ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE.
Chicago River at North Halsted Street. Invented by Wm. Scuerzer, C. E. Completed February, 1897. Patented.

THE SCHERZER ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE COMPANY.

The Scherzer rolling lift type of bridge is the inven-
tion of the late William Scherzer, C. E. It fulfills every
requirement of a movable bridge, eliminating, in so
doing, all the objectionable features of the swing bridge
and spanning navigable waters in the simplest and least
expensive manner. The efficiency of this type of bridge
for the accommodation of heavy land and water traffic,
and its many points of superiority over a swing bridge,
have been demonstrated beyond a doubt by the three
large Scherzer bridges now in successful operation in
this city and which stand as monuments to the genius of
their inventor.

pended and the time occupied in the opening and closing
of the bridge are both reduced to a minimum. The
large bridges of this type now in use are usually opened
or closed in thirty seconds and receive highway or rail-
way trafmce in less than one minute from the time the
bridge begins to close.

The first bridge of this type to be constructed was
across the Chicago River at Van Buren street. It was
completed in the spring of 1895, and has been used
continuously by the city of Chicago for the heaviest
highway traffic, and is now carrying both highway and
electric car traffic and giving complete satisfaction.
The river span is 115 feet, center to center of bearings,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the channel between the piers being 109 feet. The
roadway is 41 feet wide and the sidewalks are each 8
feet in width.

The North Halsted street bridge of the Scherzer
type was completed in February, 1897,/and is similar
to that at Van Buren street. The span is slightly
larger, being 127 feet, center to center of bearings, and
the channel between piers being 121 feet. The roadway
is placed between two trusses, which are spaced 34 feet,
center to center, and the sidewalks are each 7 feet in
width,

The four-track railroad bridge of the Scherzer type
conveying the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Rail-
way Company’s lines across the Chicago River, midway
between Jackson and Van Buren streets, was com-
pleted in May, 1895. It is composed of two similar or
duplicate bridges placed side by side and firmly coupled
together so as to operate either as one bridge, or, when
so desired, may be uncoupled in less than ten minutes
and be operated separately, thus insuring a crossing for
trains at all times. The movable span of this bridge is
114 feet, center to center of bearings, and the channel
108 feet between the piers. This bridge is operated by
electricity, as are all the others which have been men-
tioned, and is opened or closed within thirty seconds.
The satisfaction which this bridge has given can be no
better shown than by an extract from-a letter to Mr.
Scherzer from Mr. W. E. Baker, general manager of the
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company,
under date of July 12, 1897, in which he says, referring
to this bridge: “It was completed some time before
May 6, 1895, at which date the road was opened and the
bridge placed in active service; since which time it has
operated continuously and of itself caused no delays to
trains, of which there are and have been, since shortly
after the date of opening the road, about 1,200 trains
daily crossing the bridge. We do not make any charge
for motive power for operating the bridge; it is too
small to be considered. The bridge is operated, as you
know, by motors, using the current with which we
operate the trains. The bridge has proved rigid. It
is rapid to open and shut, has never shown any signs of
failure; it requires little power to move it and shows
no evidence of a depreciation, and we are satisfied
with it.”

Firmness and rigidity under very heavy loads is a
marked feature of the Scherzer bridge, and is due to a
great extent to the simplicity of the bridge structure as
compared with other movable bridges now in use,
which is at once apparent upon inspection of
the bridge itself or the views herewith presented.
Whether compared with the best class of swing bridges
now in use, with the direct lift bridge, of which that at
South Halsted street is an example, or with the various
plans of experimental structures intending to do away

249

with the center pier, the Scherzer bridge has no equal
for simplicity, safety, rigidity, rapidity of operation,
economy, efficiency or durability.

The Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company has
made the designs and plans of, and has been awarded
the contract for, the construction of an eight-track rail-
road bridge for the Sanitary District of Chicago, across
the main channel of the drainage canal on Section O,
near Campbell avenue. This bridge, which will be used
by the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago,& St. Louis Rail-
way Company, the Chicago & Northern Pacific Rail-
road Company, the Union Stock Yards & Transit
Company, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com-
pany, will be the largest movable railroad bridge in the
country and will consist of four double-track bridges of
the Scherzer type, which can either be operated singly
or as one united structure, while the channel between
the piers will be wide enough to allow two of the largest
lake steamers to pass at one time. It will be operated
by electricity and can be opened or closed in about thirty
seconds. In a report of Mr. Frank Wenter, made to
the board of trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago,
under date of August 6, 1898, regarding the awarding
of this contract, he says: “The Scherzer type is the
bridge of perfection. It is recognized by the engineer-
ing profession as the most perfect bascule bridge in
existence. It is a monument to the inventor. It will
stand to the credit of this district for all time.”

A six-track bridge of the Scherzer type is in opera-
tion for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail
road Company across Fort Point Channel at the en-
trance to the new Terminal Station at Boston, Mass.
It is imperative that there should be as little delay at
this point as possible, as this is the largest and one of
the most important terminal stations in the world. The
Scherzer rolling lift bridge was selected because it ful-
fills the highest requirements of a movable bridge.

The Scherzer Company has designed a number of
other bridges under construction and nearly completed,
notably the very large span railroad bridge across the
Chicago River at the entrance to the Grand Central
Station.

Albert H. Scherzer, president of the Scherzer Roll-
ing Lift Bridge Company, was born at Peru, La Salle
County, Illinois, and is the son of William and Mina
Scherzer. After completing his preliminary education
at the high school of his native city, he went to Europe,
where considerable time was devoted to study at the
universities in Zurich, Switzerland. Returning to this
country in 1882, he became identified with the Illinwis
Zine Company of Peru, Illinois, one of the largest firms
in the world engaged in the smelting and rolling of sheet
zinc, remaining with that company for the following
eight years. In 1890 Mr. Scherzer came to Chicago
and entered the Union College of Law, pursuing the
250 THE CITY
regular course leading to the degree of LL. B., and
graduating therefrom with the class of ‘92. He subse-
quently entered upon the practice of his profession, but
in 1893, upon the death of his brother, the late William
Scherzer, C. E., the inventor and patentee of the Scher-
zer Rolling Lift Bridges, he gave his attention to the
development of the business established by him.

 

 

ALBERT H. SCHERZER.

Mr. Scherzer has made an exhaustive study of mov-
able bridges, and in the pursuit of his studies along this
line has traveled extensively throughout both this coun-
try and Europe, visiting all the principal structures of
that class.

Under Mr. Scherzer’s management the scope of the
business has been very widely extended. In addition to
the large railroad and highway bridges of the Scherzer
type in successful operation, the three largest movable
bridges in the world are now under construction upon
the designs and plans and under the supervision of the
Scherzer Company. The very high standing which this
company has attained as engineers has caused them to
be entrusted with the complete construction, erection
and equipment of the largest bridges designed by them,
notably the colossal eight-track railroad bridge at
Chicago.

JOHN MOHR & SONS.

The firm of John Mohr & Sons, boiler-makers,
was established by John Mohr in 1882, and unti!
May, 1892, was known as John Mohr & Son. At
the date last mentioned, however, it was incorporated,
with a capital stock of $100,000, and the nanie

OF CHICAGO.

changed to its present title, several other sons of Mr.
John Mohr being admitted to the business at that time.

John Mohr & Sons is, without exception, the largest
and best-equipped house of its kind in the country, and
their manufactured articles include everything that can
be made from plate iron and steel, among them being
water tubes, marine and stationary boilers of all kinds,
converters, hot stoves for rolling mills and blast fur-
naces, steel trucks, coolers, tanks and numerous other
articles. Since its establishment, in 1882, the firm ha
occupied the factory and buildings erected at 32-42 IIli-
nois street, and some three years ago additional shops
were built at the intersection of Ninety-sixth street and
Calumet River, South Chicago.

The officers of the company are: John Mohr, presi-
dent; Joseph Mohr, treasurer and general manager;
Louis Mohr, secretary; Albert Mohr, general manager
of the South Chicago shops. Edward and William Mohr
are also interested in the business.

John Mohr. The men who are to-day prominent
in the business or professional life of Chicago, and who
can number their years of residence in this city as two-
score years and ten, were, for the greater part, possessed
of little or no capital when they first settled in the village

 

JOHN MOHR.

which stood on the site of the present city. A strong
heart, an industrious disposition and an ambition to
provide for the future were the requirements with which
success was most often won by those who early cast their
lot in Chicago.

Conspicuous among this class stands John Mohr,
president of John Mohr & Sons, boiler-makers. Mr.
Mohr was born in Germany on March I4, 1826. He is
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the son of Joseph Mohr, who followed the occupation
of a farmer. He was given a good education in a real
schule in Germany, but when only sixteen years old he
came to America, landing in New York, and going from
thence to Philadelphia. For some years he was en-
gaged in the marine transportation business, making
trips from points in South America to prominent sea-
board towns in New England and Canada, carrying
fruits on the voyage north, and returning south laden
with vegetables and other products of a colder climate.
He was later engaged on a steamboat running between
New Orleans and St. Louis, and from there went to
Canada, where he remained until the spring of 1848,
when he came to Chicago.

Upon his arrival here he began working as a black-
smith, a’trade he had learned in Canada, and for about
three months was employed in the shop of P. W. Gates.
At the end of this time he found a place in the boiler
shops of James W. Cobb, situated on the corner of Kin-
zie and Canal streets, and it was here that he first began
to learn the business of boilermaking. At the time Mr.
‘Mohr entered the employ of Mr. Cobb, H. H. Warring-
ton, who later founded the Vulcan Iron Works, was the
superintendent of the shops, and Carlile Mason, who
afterward was among those to establish the Excelsior
Iron Works, also worked shoulder to shoulder in the
blacksmith shop with Mr. Mohr. The works last men-
tioned were started in 1852, and Mr. Mohr entered the
establishment as foreman of the boiler shop, a position he
held for some five years, at which time he was taken into
the firm, where he remained for twenty-five years. In
1882, however, he established the firm of John Mohr
& Son, this being later changed to John Mohr & Sons,
and in which he still continues as the executive head.

Mr. Mohr, being one of the elder settlers of Chicago,
has many amusing and interesting events to relate con-
cerning the village as it was when he first came here
fifty years ago. At that time there was but one bridge
across the Chicago River, and it was intended only for
foot passengers. At what is now Randolph street there
was then an old flatboat ferry, which Mr. Mohr, being
temporarily out of work, undertook to operate shortly
after he came to Chicago, and which he did successfully
for some two weeks or more, his career in that direc-
tion, however, being cut short by a collision with a large
freight boat, which landed himself and his ferryboat
above high-water mark on the river bank.

Mr. Mohr: has always taken an active interest in
the welfare of Chicago, and may be counted as one of its
stanchest supporters. He has never held public office,
nor is he much of aclubman. He says his life has been
too busy to allow of such recreation. He was married
in 1856 to Miss Theresa Mayer, a native of France, and
has a family of eight children, five sons being interested
in the business with their father.

251
AMERICAN LINSEED COMPANY.

The American Linseed Company was organized un-
der the laws of the state of New Jersey, in December,
1898, with a capital of $33,500,000. The company ac-
quired the property of the National Linseed Oil Com-
pany, consisting of 35 mills, with 250 presses, iron stor-
age tanks, capable of holding 9,000,000 gallons of oil,
elevators, warehouses, etc., and of the Dean Linseed Oil
Company of New York, 84 presses; the Cleveland Lin-
seed Oil Company, 52 presses; Metzger Linseed Oil
Company, Toledo, 10 presses; same company, Chicago,
18 presses; Campbell & Thayer, New York, 24 presses;
Toledo Linseed Oil Company, 12 presses; Leonards &
Daniels Linseed Oil Company, Piqua, Ohio, 12 presses;
Douglas & Co., Minneapolis and Cedar Rapids, 25
presses; Archer & Co., St. Paul, 16 presses. It also
acquired the stocks of flaxseed, oil, etc., of the above.

The officers of the American Linseed Company are as
follows: Guy G. Major, president ; J. A. Dean, vice-presi-
dent ; George G. Metzger, vice-president ; G. E. Highley,
secretary; D. W. Trotter, assistant treasurer. The
directors are: B. F. Mills, G. E. Highley, Guy G. Major,
A. H. Larkin, John L. Severance, Joseph A. Dean,
Augustus N. Eddy, W. P. Orr, Arnold Thayer, George
G. Metzger, George A. Archer, J. W. Daniels.

CHICAGO VARNISH COMPANY.

Chicago Varnish Company was founded in the year
1865, and, until its incorporation in 1883, was known as
“The Chicago Varnish Company; Potwin & Morgan,
proprietors.”

Mr. A. C. Potwin, the senior member of the firm,
was elected president at the time of incorporation, and
his partner, Mr. O. H. Morgan, became vice-president,
although later, upon the death of Mr. Potwin, he suc-
ceeded him as the executive officer.

The business was first established on what was known
at that time as “The Sands,” on Pine street, fronting
Lake Michigan, between Chestnut street and Delaware
place. The office of the company remained here until
1893, although larger and more extensive works of the
most modern construction were erected in 1889 on EI-
ston avenue, between Paulina and Lincoln streets. The
present fine office building, at the corner of Dearborn
avenue and Kinzie street, was built in 1895. In design
it is of the old Dutch type, pleasing and artistic in ap-
pearance, and said to be the only business block of this
style of architecture in the country.

In 1884 a branch was established in Boston, where a
fine trade has been built up, at the corner of Pearl and
High streets, and in 1892 the New York branch, at
215 Pearl street, was established. In both places a large
stock of goods is carried, and the business is steadily
growing.
THE

CITY OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

CHICAGO VARNISH COMPANY.

The special lines of goods manufactured by this com-
pany are varnishes for railroad equipment; for coaches
and carriages; for the interior finish of buildings, from
the costly residence to the humble cottage; for omni-
buses, wagons and agricultural implements of every de-
scription, and also for pianos, furniture, caskets and
various other purposes. It manufactures the remark-
able marine varnish known as “Navalite,”’ which has a
world-wide reputation for its beauty and durability, this
latter quality being one of which the company boasts in
all its productions.

The ground work of fine varnishes is a fossil resin,
which is found buried in the earth in distant parts of the
world. In its Chicago office the company exhibits the
finest collection of these resins that is to be seen any-
where. Even the most extensive museums of England
and Europe do not contain an exhibit equal to this,
which, for its singular beauty, is well worth a visit from

anyone. In some of these trans-
parent pieces of resins are em-
bedded superb beetles, preserved
for all time from the action of the .
air, and thus displaying them in
the natural beauty of life. ‘These
insects thus buried are perhaps
thousands of years old. ‘The com-
pany has been gathering this col-
lection fer over a quarter of a cen-
tury, and is continually adding new
specimens of interest and value.

The present officers of the Chi-
cago Varnish Company are:
O. H. Morgan, president; B. C.
Chambers, vice-president; W. S.
Potwin, treasurer and general
manager, and A. C. Morgan, sec-
retary. The directors are: O. H.
Morgan, B. C. Chambers, W. S.
Potwin, A. C. Morgan and T. H.
Morgan.

Seneca D. Kimbark, one of the
pioneer merchants in the iron and
steel trade of Chicago, and a son
of Adam C. and Sarah (Masten)
Kimbark, was born at Venice, Ca-
yuga County, New York, March
4. 1832. His father, who was a
descendant from prominent fam-
ilies of Ulster County, New York,
was a farmer, merchant and hotel-
keeper of moderate means, and it
was therefore only with difficulty
that the son, Seneca, was able to
obtain an education in the public
schools and in the Genesee and
Canandaigua academies, in which latter institutions he
defrayed his expenses by teaching school. From the
time he was twelve years of age, until he reached ~
his majority, he bore a part in the work of his
father’s farm. In 1853, however, he left home and
came to Chicago, where he began life as clerk in a
ladies’ dry-goods bazaar. A few months later he ac-
cepted a position as bookkeeper with the firm of E. G.
Hall & Co., then just starting in the iron and steel trade.
and by 1858 he had made his services so valuable to his
employers that he was taken into the firm as junior mem-
ber. The firm of Hall, Kimbark & Co. retained its place
as one of the leading houses in its particular line of busi-
ness, and not only kept pace with the growth of the
great West, but led the way where others followed. In
1867 Mr. Kimbark’s brothers, George M. and Daniel
A., joined the firm and the name was changed to Kim-
bark Bros. & Co., but in 1876 Mr. Kimbark became

 
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

sole proprietor, and the business has since been con-
ducted under his own name.

In common with many other Chicago merchants, Mr.
Kimbark was a heavy loser by the great fire of 1871.
He was also among the first to secure a license to erect
a temporary building on the Lake Front Park, where,
within a week, the business was resumed in a rough shed
that had been hastily constructed. His indomitable en-
ergy and keen business tact enabled him to overcome
his misfortune and to successfully reéstablish the busi-
ness, which is now one of the largest of its kind, not

 

 

 

 

 

SENECA D. KIMBARK.

alone in the West, but in the whole United States. He
has made Chicago the distributing center of heavy hard-
ware, and also the exporter of large quantities of mer-
chandise to Australia, South America and Mexico.

In Chicago the business occupies a seven-story ware-
house, and, as an adjunct, a factory is operated at Elk-
hart, Indiana, that is capable of producing several hun-
dred complete piano-box buggy bodies per day.

Mr. Kimbark is a public-spirited and patriotic citizen,
and during the stirring times of the Civil war he con-
tributed in many ways to the success of the Union cause.
He is in no sense of the word a politician, but he takes
an active interest in all municipal reform movements.
He is noted for his kindness of heart and for his hos-
pitality. He isa thorough business man, with high ideals
and broad views, self-reliant and energetic. His two-
score and more years of untiring application have placed
him in a position of influence, and in all assemblies where
iron and cognate interests are investigated and consid-

253

ered, his voice is especially potent. He is heartiiy iden-
tified with the progress of Chicago, and was one of the
committee of three to locate the South Park system, the
wisdom of whose work is now fully acknowledged, and
he has also been most persistent in his defense of the
Lake Front Park from the encroachment of corpora-
tions.

In earlier years a Democrat, Mr. Kimbark became an
active Abolitionist upon the repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise, following in this respect his. maternal ances-
tors, who, though Southerners and slaveholders, had
emigrated to the North with their slaves, and liberated
them from bondage. Since 1856 he has been a most
earnest Repubtican, and has done much to further the
interests of the party in times of peril. Mr. Kimbark
was married September 25, 1856, to Miss Elizabeth
Pruyne, daughter of the late Senator Peter Pruyne of
Chicago. They have had four children, two daughters
and two sons, Charles and Walter, both of whom are
associated with their father in business. Charles, the
elder, is financial manager of the business, and Walter
is at the head of the carriage goods department.

Henry Cribben, president of Cribben & Sexton
Company, was born in the Isle of Man, Septem-
ber 19, 1834. When he was four years of age his
parents, Thomas and Jane (Carran) Cribben, came to
America and took up their residence in Rochester, New
York, where they both died when the subject of this
sketch was still a boy. At the age of twelve, therefore,
young Cribben was supporting himself. His first em-
ployment was on a farm in Oneida County, New York;
then in a brush factory at Rochester, New York, but
after a short experience there he secured a position in
the woodworking department of the Joseph Hall
Thrashing Machine Works. Here he remained until he
was seventeen years of age, at which time he began
learning the trade of ironmolder. He was still working
at his trade when he entered the army in 1862, enlisting
as a sergeant in Company F of the One Hundred and
Fortieth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry. He
was successively promoted to second lieutenant, first
lieutenant and captain, for meritorious services per-
formed in the line of duty. His service with this regi-
ment was one of activity, including all the battles in
Virginia, from August, 1862, in which the Army of the
Potomac participated, down to and including that of
Cold Harbor, where he was captured.

The next eight months were spent in captivity within
the walls of seven different prisons and three jails in
the Confederacy. On February 11, 1865, he managed
to escape from prison near Charlotte, North Carolina,
and after a further period of suffering and exposure
during thirty-seven days and nights of travel through
254

the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, in the
months of February and March, finally reached our lines
at Knoxville, Tennessee, on the evening of March 17,
1865. From Knoxville he proceeded to his home at
Rochester, New York, and after a short visit with his
family, rejoined his regiment and served with it until
the close of the war. He returned to Rochester after
peace between the North and South had been restored,
and for a brief period worked at ironmolding in the stove
foundry of E. E. Sill.

In 1867 he went into this business for himself, organ-
izing the Rochester Codperative Foundry Company, of
which he was president for nearly seven years.

Shortly after the Chicago fire Mr. Cribben caine

 

HENRY CRIBBEN.

West to collect the company’s outstanding accounts
in Chicago, which finally resulted in his opening a branch
house in this city for the distribution of their goods.

In January, 1873, he purchased the business he had
so recently established for the company, and became
a wholesale dealer in stoves, furnaces, ranges and gen-
eral hollowware.

In the month of March of the same year he formed
a partnership with Mr. James A. Sexton, who had been
in the employ of the Rochester Company as salesman
during the year 1872, and organized the firm of Cribben
& Sexton, with a very limited capital. The firm name
continued until January, 1879, when his son, William
H. Cribben, was admitted to membership in the firm, and
the name changed to Cribben, Sexton & Co.

In 1878 they purchased the property on Erie and
Ontario streets, known as the John McArthur Archi-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tectural Iron Works, 150 feet front on each street, and at
once began the manufacture of stoves and enameled hol-
lowware. In 1880 Mr. Charles T. Boal of Chicago be-
came a partner, and continued in the firm for five years,
when he retired. The business continued to grow, and
they purchased the properties east and west, until it now
occupies some 800 feet frontage, covered with foundry,
warehouse and office buildings, necessary for the con-
duct of their business, and where they manufacture a
full and complete line of steel and cast-iron ranges,
cooking stoves, for both wood and coal, also a full and
complete line of coal and wood heating stoves of every
description, which are well and familiarly known as the
Universal line of stoves and ranges among the stove
dealers of the West, Northwest and Southwestern por-
tion of the United States and territories. .

In addition to their stove and range business, they
manufacture a full line of white enameled bath tubs,
enameled iron kitchen sinks of all kinds and styles, and
enameled iron lavatories, etc., that are well and favorably
known in Chicago and the Western states.

“In 1885 they met with a severe loss by fire, which
was only partially covered by insurance, but the loss
was quickly regained through the perastent energy of
the members of the firm.

Early in 1898 the late James A. Sexton sold his in-
terest in the business, on account of failing health, to
Henry and William H. Cribben, who formed a corpora-
tion under the laws of the state, known as the Cribben &
Sexton Company, of which Henry Cribben is president
and William H. Cribben is secretary and treasurer.

This business, which was of very modest proportions
in 1873, has steadily increased, now employing nearly
500 workmen in the different manufacturing depart-
ments of their works, and the goods they- manu-
facture are favorably known to the trade throughout
all sections of the Western country through the united
efforts of the members of the firm.

Mr. Cribben is considered among his competitors in
business, his associates and business men who know
him as a man of sterling honesty and integrity, a man
who can be relied upon to carry out any agreement he
makes. He was one of the organizers of the late Com-
mercial Loan and Trust Company Bank, and was a
director and member of the Finance Committee during
the entire period of its existence.

His associate competitors in the stove business have
shown their appreciation of his worth by selecting him
as president of the Stove Manufacturers’ National De-
fense Association in 1886, and reélecting him annually
to fill the position for eleven years, when he declined re-
election on account of failing health. Mr. Cribben at
present takes no active interest in politics, except to
vote on election days, although in 1867 he was a member
of the New York Legislature, elected on the Republican
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ticket from one of the largest and strongest Democratic
districts in the state. Neither is he a clubman, prefer-
ring to spend his leisure hours under his own roof.

Joseph Bond, president of the American Radiator
Company, was born at Ware, Massachusetts, February
13, 1852, the son of Benjamin and Louisa (Eaton) Bond.
He is descended from one of the earliest families that
settled in Massachusetts, and the old Bond homestead,
which still stands at Ipswich, was built only about a
decade after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and
is to-day one of the historic landmarks of that state.

After a thorough preparatory training in the public
schools of his native town, Mr. Bond became a student
at Kimbel Union Academy at Meriden, New Hamp-

 

JOSEPH BOND.

shire, where he remained until he was eighteen years of
age. Immediately after leaving the academy he entered
into business on his own account, and in September,
1875, established himself in the hardware trade at Wal-
tham, Massachusetts, where he remained, being very
successful, until he disposed of his interests in the aut-
umn of 1880.
The following summer Mr. Bond removed to Buf-
falo, New York. Here he became a promoter in, and as-
' sisted to organize, the Pierce Steam Heating Company,
manufacturers of heating appliances, and at once be-
came the treasurer of this organization. This position
he held until January 1, 1892, when he came to Chicago
to take executive charge of the American Radiator
Company, which was organized at this time. Under his
management this company has grown to be much the
largest of its line in the world. Its branch houses are

255

found in the principal cities of the United States, and it
also has factories situated in several European countries.

Mr. Bond is a member of the Union League and
Quadrangle ciubs, in both of which he takes a consider-
able degree of interest, but he can hardly be called a
clubman. He is one of those who believe that no one
can make a success of their lifework without devoting
themselves to it without restraint and making a study
of it in all its different parts. Following this idea, Mr.
Bond, who has been intimately connected with the
growth of steam and water heating from its earliest con-
ception, has always been a close student of this particu-
lar line of industry, and he is an acknowledged special-
ist in this field. In matters of religion he is a member
of the Baptist faith, and has always been identified
more or less actively with that church and, since his
location in Chicago, with the Immanuel Baptist Church
in particular. In politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Bond was married in 1879 to Miss Mary Adelia
Olney of Waltham, Massachusetts, and has a family of
two daughters.

Morris Sellers. A narrative of the career of Mr.
Morris Sellers is full of interest to the student of biog-
raphy. Mr. Sellers was born at Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, November 14, 1832, the son of Charles and Eliza-
beth (Morris) Sellers. He is a lineal descendant of an
old Quaker family, the emigrant of which, John Sellers,
came from England with William Penn on his second
voyage, in 1682. This man was an expert mechanic,
and from him has descended a long line engaged in the
mechanical arts, many of whom have achieved interna-
tional reputations. To this mechanical vein was added
new blood by the marriage of Mr. Sellers’ paternal
grandfather, to Sophonisba, daughter of the noted artist
and scientist, Charles Wilson Peale, whose masterful
reputation in art, especially in portraiture, is second only
to his scientific labors in that collection of mechanical
novelties and historical specimens, known as the “Peale
Museum” of Philadelphia.

During the decade prior to 1839 Mr. Morris’ father,
Charles, and uncle, George, were engaged in a manufac-
turing business, to which they succeeded from their
father and grandfather, the works of which were situ-
ated at Cardington, now a suburb of Philadelphia. Their
line of work was the manufacture of carding machines,
hand, steam and fire engines, and in 1835 and 1836 they
constructed several locomotives for the Pennsylvania
State Railroad, the predecessor of the present Pennsyl-
vania Railroad, and for other pioneer lines. These were
among the first locomotives built in this country in
competition with the English makes.

The tide of disaster, which resulted in the panic of
1839, and which crippled most of the American indus-
tries, left this old establishment stranded in the general
wreck. The two brothers then moved their families and
256

located in Cincinnati, where Charles, with his associates,
built the Globe Iron Rolling Mill, to which was attached
the first wire-drawing mill west of the Alleghanies.
After a preliminary course in the public schools, fol-
lowed by a full course in Woodward College, Mr. Morris
Sellers joined his father, who had purchased a large tract
of mineral land in Middle Tennessee, in the construc-
tion of a blast furnace, for the making of charcoal pig
iron. Leaving there after a short experience, he was
next employed by the celebrated Duff Green, editor of
the Congressional Globe, and later began his railroad
career by obtaining employment upon the old Georgia
State road. Wishing, however, to get back to the North,
he secured a position on the Bellefontaine & Indiana

 

MORRIS SELLERS.

Railroad, now a part of the C.,, C., C. & I. Railroad,
where he ran the first passenger locomotive purchased
by the company. After the road was completed to In-
dianapolis, Mr. Sellers was taken off the train service and
employed in placing the engine shafting and tools in
the Galion repair shop. That service being completed,
he was employed for a time in a locomotive works in
Cincinnati, but in the winter of 1854-55 he secured a
position with the Michigan Central Railroad Company,
and came to Chicago.

Mr. Sellers’ first employment in this city was that of
locomotive engineer, in charge of the work of hauling
gravel from Hyde Park to the foot of Randolph street,
and making the first filling of the large tract now occu-
pied by the eastern tracks of the Illinois Central and
Michigan Central railroads, the Lake Front Park and
numerous costly buildings. At this time the waters of
Lake Michigan reached what is now the east side of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Michigan avenue, and water twelve feet in depth stood
against the east wall of the old Illinois Central depot.
Thousands upon thousands of carloads of sand were
dumped into the lake before grade was estab‘ished for
the new tracks, some of which ran more than a mie
east of the original water line. The tracks stood on
piling all the way from the old “Weldon” depot, now
Sixteenth street, and Mr. Sellers frequently saw Indians
bathing themselves in the lake, a favorite place for ablu-
tion having been under the shadow of the tree that long
served as a landmark of the Fort Dearborn massacre.

From service in Chicago, Mr. Sellers was transferred
to Michigan City, where he took charge of the repair
shops of the Michigan Central. Later he removed to
Peoria as master mechanic and assistant superintendent
of the old Peoria & Oquawka road, now part of the Bur-
lington system, and from there was employed by the
Pennsylvania Railroad as foreman in charge of all pas-
senger locomotives between Pittsburg and Harrisburg.
Shortly after this Mr. Sellers, who was barely 28 years
of age, accepted the position of assistant superintendent
of a new road, known as the Des Moines Valley Rail-
road, and under his management the road was extended
to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and is now a part of the Rock
Island.

By this time Mr. Sellers had acquired a wide and
valuable acquaintance with railroad men. He was
known as a person possessed of great executive ability,
as well as mechanical skill, and this led, in 1871, to his
introduction to the directors of the Westinghouse Air
Brake Company, by whom he was engaged to introduce
their meritorious, but then scarcely known, device to the
great railway systems. In three years Mr. Sellers had
placed the Westinghouse brake on go per cent of all
roads then operating in the United States and Canada.

Mr. Sellers returned to Chicago in 1875 and opened
an office in the old Ashland Block, as the representative
of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, the Pitts-
burg Locomotive \Vorks and other great concerns. The
following summer his attention was attracted to a device
for the fastening of the ends of railroad bars, thus mak-
ing a practically unbroken track. His mechanical mind
discovered the inherent value of the idea and the need
of some improvements on the original design. With this
end in view, he secured a controlling interest, and after-
ward purchased all the rights to its use, effected the de-
sired improvements, and built the first mill for the ex-
clusive manufacture of “‘splice bars” in Chicago. In
this, as in all other matters relative to the mechanical:
appliances of railway work, Mr. Sellers met with marked
and instant success. More than 15,000 miles of track
in the United States, and a considerable mileage in
Mexico, are equipped with splice bars from the mill on
Chicago avenue. Until 1894 the establishment was con-
ducted as Morris Sellers & Co., but in that vear the
THE. CITY OF CHICAGO.

business was incorporated as the Sellers Manufacturing
Company, of which Morris Sellers is president, and his
only son, John Sellers, is vice-president and general
manager.

Among the other Chicago enterprises in which Mr.
Sellers has taken an active part are the Hewitt Manu-
facturing Company, of which he was president for a
term, and the Chicago Drop Forge and Foundry Com-
pany, of which he has also been president. He is an
active director in the Harvey Steel Car and Land As-
sociation, and was a director and one of the committee
to construct the Grant Locomotive Works, lately occu-
pied by the Siemens & Halske-Company.- Mr. Sellers
is nota clubman. A happy domestic circle and home, a
well-stocked library and a choice collection of works of
art afford him rest from the cares of business life. He
is, however, an ardent follower of sports afield, and holds
membership in two shooting clubs—the Nee-Pee-Nauk
of Wisconsin and the Swan Lake of Illinois. Mr. Sellers
has been twice married, the first time in 1854 to Miss
Manda Patterson of Cincinnati, who left one daughter,
now Mrs. P. A. Largey of Butte, Montana, and the sec-
ond time to Miss Rosa McCune, daughter of one of the
oldest residents of Keokuk, Iowa. There are three
children of this last union—John M. Sellers, Blanche,
now Mrs. Rudolph Ortmann, and Miss Elizabeth M.
Sellers.

Frank Thomas Fowler, who has achieved both
commercial and political distinction while still in the
prime of early manhood was born at Beverly, Wash-
ington County, Ohio, February 7, 1867, the son of Royal
Arch Fowler and Mary, his wife, formerly Miss Mary
J. White. Mr. Fowler owes but little to academic dis-
cipline, his scholastic education having been limited by
the curriculum of the common schools, or, rather, to that
part of it which is open to boys of twelve years of age.
Nevertheless, Mr. Fowler not only is a shrewd and suc-
cessful man of business, but also is a well-informed poli-
tician, who makes a good impression as a public speaker,
and, furthermore, he has proved himself to be a capable
contributor of important articles to the daily press.
After all, there is no university like that of the every-
day world, provided that the student has the courage,
the ambition and the aptitude to avail himself, as Mr.
Fowler has done, of its vast and varied, through dift-
culty attained, resources.

Mr. Fowler came to Chicago when he was but 18
years of age, and with less than $5 in his pocket, or
in all his pockets. He lost no time in useless search
for “something easy,” but at once entered the employ of
the Crane Elevator Company, and afterward that of the
Eaton & Prince Elevator Company. While thus
engaged he was saving his money, adding to his stock
of general information, and watching his chances.
They came with the advent of the bicycle. Mr. Fowler

17

257

was one of the first to foresee the great utility and uni-
versal popularity of this new mode of locomotion. He
became. interested in the manufacture of bicycles in
1890-91, and was the maker of the first light wheel
introduced in the United States. The name of the
“Fowler” grew famous the world over for the highest-
class bicycle, and from a small business employing some
twenty men. In 1896 he sold out for a large amount the
concern that had grown to some 600 employes, with
branches in all parts of the world. He went East shortly
afterward and started the Trinity Cycle Manufacturing
Company at Worcester, Massachusetts, but, having a
natural liking for the “breezy,” hustling, Western ways,
sold out and returned to Chicago in time to repurchase

 

FRANK THOMAS FOWLER.

the Fowler Company, which had not made a success
during his absence.

The Fowler Cycle Works, of which he is now presi-
dent and treasurer, does an immense business, and the
magnitude of their operations made it a peculiar object
of desire to the Bicycle Trust, which offered large sums
for its purchase. Mr. Fowler, however, preferred an
independent course of action, and, by his influence, the
purpose of the trust was baffled, and the Fowler Cycle
Works remains at the head of the anti-trust firms.

In politics Mr. Fowler has been always and actively
Republican since his attainment of years of discretion.
His counsel has been sought after and highly appre-
ciated by the voters of his neighborhood. In 1899,
without his solicitation, and almost without his knowl-
edge, he was nominated by his Republican friends as
alderman from the Thirteenth Ward, and was elected
258

by a majority of 1,600, although his Democratic pred-
ecessor had carried the ward by a plurality of 2,000.
In 1899 he was appointed by Governor Tanner to the
honorable and arduous, though unpaid, office of West
Park commissioner. Mr. Fowler’s business and political
career is finely indicative of the possibilities that await
the “man of action,” whose actions are guided by pru-
dence and by an intellect that is always in pursuit of
useful knowledge. Mr. Fowler is a Mason of the
32d degree, a Mystic Shriner, a member of the
Illinois Club, of the Chicago Driving Club, of the West
Side Driving Association. He is married to Minnie E.,
daughter of Mark W. and Caroline D. Hill. Two chil-
dren, Edith Hill Fowler and Frank T. Fowler, Jr., con-
tribute to the happiness of their home.

Henry §. Burkhardt, assistant general manager of
the National Malleable Casting Company, was born at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July, 1842, and has been
a resident of Chicago since 1874, at which time he came
here to assist in the organization of the Chicago Malle-
able Iron Company. He has continued with that cor-

 

 

 

 

HENRY S. BURKHARDT.

poration, which is now known as the National Malleabie
Casting Company, to the present time, and is numbered
among Chicago’s most successful men. In addition to
his duties with this company, he is also president of the
Chicago Railway Equipment Company, manufacturers
of the National Hollow Brake Beam.

Mr. Burkhardt is an enthusiastic member of various
fraternal orders, among them the Masonic, of which
he is a Knight Templar, and also a member of the Scot-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tish Rite, 33d degree, Southern Jurisdiction. He 1s
one of the foremost leaders in the Royal Arcanum, hay-
ing been closely identified with it since 1880, and having
held numerous positions of distinction in its various
bodies, including membership in the Supreme Council.
He is a member of the Union League, Washington Park,
Chicago Athletic Association and Illinois clubs, of which
latter he was president during 1896-97.

Ernest W. Neath, president and manager of the
Heath & Milligan Manufacturing Company, was born
in Chicago on January 21, 1858, the son of ex-Mayor

 

 

ERNEST W. HEATH.

Monroe Heath and Julia (Dickerman) Heath. Mr.
Heath acquired his education in the public schools of
this city; was graduated from the high school in 1874.
He then entered the employ of the Heath & Milligan
Company, which was organized by his father in 1851,
and has continued his connection with that enterprise
to this day, serving as secretary and treasurer since its
incorporation in 1881, until the death of his father in
October, 1894, at which time he succeeded him as presi-
dent and manager.

Mr. Heath is essentially a business man, and as such
has devoted himself without reserve to the further de-
vetopment of the substantial business built up by his
father, which now holds a position in the front rank of
establishments of a similar nature in the United States.
He is a member of the Union League and Washington
Park clubs, the Chicago Athletic Association and the
Midlothian Country Club. In politics he is a Repub-
lican when national issues are in question, but in local
matters he is independent, wisely choosing to cast his
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

vote for the candidate he considers most able to dis-
charge the duties of the position. He was married No-
vember 15, 1881, to Miss Florence Hamilton, of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, daughter of William B. Hamilton, a
widely known packer of that city. They have one child,
Hazel Hamilton Heath.

Christoph Hotz, of the firm of Schuttler & Hotz,
was born at Wertheim on the Main, Grand Duchy of
Baden, January 25, 1842. His father, who was a grain
merchant, gave him the advantage of a liberal education,
and after he had passed through the public schools and
the Lyceum or Latin School, he entered the Polytechnic
School at Karlsruhe, where he made a specialty of me-
chanical engineering, and from which he was gradu-
ated three years later.

After several attempts he succeeded in finding em-
ployment as draughtsman in Ruti, Canton of Zurich,
where he remained until June, 1863, gaining an exten-
sive and practical knowledge of mechanical construction.
Upon the date last mentioned, Mr. Hotz became em-
ployed in a large machine shop at Winterthur, where he
was engaged in designing steam engines, pumps, heat-
ing apparatus, and various smaller machinery.

Letters from a friend in America told him of the
many opportunities offered in this country, and in
March, 1866, he resigned his position in order to take
passage for New York. He arrived there on May 2,
and two weeks later came to Chicago. His experience

as a draughtsman enabled him to secure employment

in the machine shops of P. W. Gates & Co., where he
remained for nearly a year, leaving at the end of that
time in order to open an office of his own as a mechanical
engineer and architect. His venture met with remark-
able success, but in 1868 he accepted an offer of partner-
ship with his brother-in-law, Mr. Peter Schuttler, and
became interested in the manufacture of farm wagons.

The fire of 1871 destroyed their factory, which stood
at the corner of Randolph and Franklin streets, but
within seven months after that time the first wagon was
shipped from the new manufacturing plant that had been
erected at Monroe and Clinton streets. Mr. Hotz has
since continued in business with Mr. Schuttler.

Mr. Hotz has taken an active part in various matters
closely associated with the welfare of the city. He was
elected a trustee of the old Chicago University in 1874,
but only served in this position for a short time. He has,
however, always had a keen interest in educational mat-
ters, and, as an appointee of Mayor Heath, served a full
term of three years as a member of the Board of Educa-
tion. Asan illustration of the esteem in which his pub-
lic services are held, it should be stated that while travel-
ing abroad in 1889, Mr. Hotz learned for the first time
of his nomination and election to the board of trustees
of the Sanitary District of Chicago. His record in this
body was one of the best and his labors in behalf of this
great waterway in its early days can never be lost sight

259

of when one considers the almost insurmountable ob-
stacles that had to be overcome before it could be said
that the enterprise was, in fact, under way. The early
meetings of this board were stormy and dissensions arose
among its members. One after another his associates
withdrew and finally Mr. Hotz did likewise, feeling that
he could best serve the interests of his party by doing
so. His resignation was tendered January 16, 18092.
On June 22, 1895, Mayor Swift appointed Mr. Hotz
a member of the newly created Board of Civil-Service
Commissioners, the other appointees being John M.
Clark and the late Robert A. Waller. Shortly after
Mayor Harrison's election, in April, 1897, Mr. Waller
was appointed comptroller and Messrs. Clark and Hotz

 

 

 

 

 

CHRISTOPH HOTZ.

found themselves confronted with an alternative amount-
ing to a notice to vacate. Their resignations were re-
quested, but with this demand they refused to comply,
rightly holding that the office was not intended to be
political and amply justifying their action by saying that
they considered it their duty not to establish a precedent
by so doing. They were therefore removed by Mayor
Harrison on May 3, 1897, on the grounds of incom-
petency and neglect of duty.

Mr. Hotz is a director of the Illinois Trust and Sav-
ings Bank and a member of the Commercial Club. As
a member of the latter organization he was with the
board of trustees of the Chicago Manual Training
School, an institution that owes its origin to this body,
until the school became a part of the Chicago University.

Mr. Hotz was married January 6. 1868, to Miss
Kate Schuttler, daughter of the late Peter Schuttler,
and has two children, Robert S. and Clara J.; the latter
is the wife of William H. Rehm.
260 THE CITY

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

The Chicago interests of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company are well represented by the magnificent
office building bearing its name. Located between Clark
street and Pacific avenue, with the main frontage and
entrance on Jackson Boulevard, it occupies a ground
space of 216x50 feet, and towers eleven stories above
the street. The building was erected in 1885-86, at a
cost of about $800,000, is of fireproof construction
throughout, and is much better finished than the average
building erected at that time.

It is of the Roman style, and from an architectural

OF CHICAGO.

standpoint is said to be the best example of a large
office building, constructed wholly of brick exterior,
that there is in the city. The archway over the main
entrance is of exceptionally beautiful design and har-
monizes well with the remainder of the exterior.

In 1893 the building was remodeled, and the two up-
per stories added, one of which is used as a mammoth
operating-room by the Western Union Telegraph Com-
pany. A portion of the ground floor is used as a re-
ceiving-room, and the general offices of the company are
also located in the building. The officers of the Western
Union are: Thomas T. Eckert, president and general

manager; Robert C. Clowry, vice-

 

 

 

oie

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY BUILDING.

 

president and general superinten-
dent; C. H. Sommers, electrician;
C. H. Bristol, general superinten-
dent of construction; E. M. Mul-
ford, business manager.

CHICAGO EDISON COMPANY.

Only twelve short years have
passed since the dynamos of the
first central station, for the general
supply of electricity in the city of
Chicago, were started and the
newly laid underground system
warmed into life with the passing
of the light-bearing currents, but
notwithstanding the short period
of existence, wise management
and the demands of a progressive
people have built up an industry
which is little short of marvelous.

The field where but yesterday
the flickering gas flame held full

/sway now blazes nightly in the
glow of myriads of electric lamps,
aggregating in intensity the illum-
inating power of 15,000,000 of
candles, a sufficient number to il-
luminate with one-candlepower
lamps, placed at intervals eight
feet apart, a pathway extending
completely around the globe;
while in almost every building may
be heard the whir of the motors
(13,000 horsepower in aggregate
capacity), operating small machin-
ery which performs the various
services required in the operation
of modern buildings and manufac-
turing industries, and which are
gradually crowding out the indi-
vidual boiler and engine plants.

7

|

LL

 

a
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Conditions in Chicago are such as to rapidly pro-
mote the lighting business. Lake Michigan fogs, in-
tensified by the mingling smoke of great factories, and
the prevailing tendency to buildings of extreme height,
have combined to make artificial light a necessity, even
at midday, in a countless number of shops, counting-
rooms, offices and manufacturing concerns which make
up the business portion of the city; while department
stores, quick to seize upon any new scheme for adver-
tising, have developed the electrically lighted shop win-
dow almost to a state of perfection, and vie with each
other in lavish displays of electrical illumination.

261

The company immediately turned its attention to the
construction of a modern station; land was obtained,
and the foundation for a suitable building laid at 139
Adams street, in the heart of the business center, during
the summer of 1887. Work was pushed as rapidly as
was possible, and in August, 1888, the new engines
were started, and the company began furnishing elec-
tricity 10 about 12,000 lights, which had previously been
contracted and wired for. From the very start the
growth was rapid, and within three years the Adams
street station, in which it was thought, at the time of
building, the most ample provision for the growth of

 

ae A BA L

 

The Chicago Edison Company was formed early in
1887, by local capitalists, most of whom had been promi-
nently connected with the old Western Edison Electric
Light Company, a company which at that time had for
some years been interested in the sale of electric machin-
ery and the installation of isolated lighting plants
throughout the Central West. This company was dis-
solved soon after the incorporation of the new com-
pany, which succeeded to its business of selling machin-
ery in the territory covered by Cook County, a highly
profitable branch, in addition to the primary function
of the new company, viz., that of supplying electricity for
commercial uses.

 

A SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE CHICAGO EDISON COMPANY’S WORKS.

years had been made, was overloaded and a new plant
was immediately necessary. This need was heightened
by the consolidation at that time with two or three com-
panies, the largest of which was the Chicago Arc Light
and Power Company, which had been for a year or two
operating a high-tension arc lighting plant at Wash-
ington street and the Chicago river. Accordingly, land
was purchased on the west bank of the Chicago river, at
Harrison street, and the designs and _ preliminary
arrangements were made for an immense plant, in
which only the most modern and efficient machinery
should be used. The Harrison street station was the
result.
262

It did not seem practical to raise all the feeders
which had formerly centered at Adams street plant,
and, consequently, Harrison street was connected to
the Adams street plant by an immense trunk line suf-
ficient to carry several times the current then being
turned out from the old station, and as soon as it was
ready for operation the old plant was dismantled and
the building was remodeled to accommodate the general
offices and some of the operating departments of the
company.

In the meantime, a demand had sprung yp in the
southern residence section of the city, and to meet this
a station had been built on Wabash avenue, just south
of Twenty-sixth street, and a new system of conductors,
reaching nearly to that of the downtown system, was
laid.

In 1894 a corresponding station was erected for the
northern residence district. This is located immediately
in the rear of the Newberry Library, and supplies a sec-
tion of the city bounded by the river, North avenue and
Lake Michigan.

The system of operation employed by the company
is principally the three-wire Edison system of about
115 volts pressure, although through consolidation it
has acquired high-tension are lighting systems, and also
500-volt direct-current and alternating-current systems,
which it is still operating in those sections of the city
best adapted for those forms of distribution. In the
Washington street station, in which at first was operated
only the class of machinery necessary for generating the
kind of currents last mentioned, the company has
recently installed low-tension direct-current machinery.

The gradual expansion of the underground systems
has resulted in the interconnection of them all, so that
at the present time the two downtown stations can in
case of emergency take care of the entire low-tension
systein, or either one could take care of any given por-
tion of it.

The company, however, was not satisfied even with
this careful arrangement to prevent possibility of the
consumers being without current, and in 1898 a huge
storage battery was installed in the basement of the
Adams street building, capable of taking care of the
downtown portion of the city for a considerable period,
even though all plants were incapable of being operated.

The growth and character of the business taken care
of by the Chicago Edison Company is quite unique.
Large installations, which in the Eastern cities are gen-
erally operated by their own plants, are in this city, ia
many cases, supplied from the central-station company.
A few of these are the Marquette building, Old Colony
building, Schlesinger & Mayer building, the Hub Cloth-
ing House, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific office build-
ing, temporary postoffice, and a large portion of Mar-
shall Field & Co.’s properties, the most prominent

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

theaters, a number of the large hotels and numberless
offices, factories and stores.

Of late years the supply of power has attracted a
great deal of attention, and this branch of the business
has increased enormously. Electricity for elevator
power has placed the cost of operating elevators on such
an extremely low basis that it is the saving clause in
many of the smaller, old-fashioned office buildings,
which could not exist without elevator service, and
where elevators, operated by the old method, would be
so expensive as not to be practical.

The .Chicago Edison Company has been fortunate
in a board of directors consisting of some of the
wealthiest, most able and prominent of Chicago's busi-
ness men, and also in the superior ability which has at
all times guided its fortunes.

With a tendency in the direction of electrical illumi-
nation and electrical power equipment, its field seems
broader than ever, and electric vehicles, which are just
coming into use, will add no small amount to its money-
making possibilities.

The present officers of the company are: Samuel
Insull, president; Robert T. Lincoln, vice-president;
F. S. Gorton, secretary and treasurer; W. M. Anthony,
comptrolier; L. A. Ferguson, general superintendent.

Frank Sanford Gorton was born August 1, 1847, in
Rochester, Monroe County, New York. His father,
John Gorton, was a well-known contractor and builder.

 

 

 

FRANK SANFORD GORTON.

His mother, born Amanda Gorton, was a descendant of
the earliest settlers of New England. The American
Gorton was Samuel of that name, who came to this
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

country when the love of freedom, rather than the desire
for gain, was the impelling motive of immigration. Mr.
Gorton’s father, although but a boy, assisted the patriot
cause as a guard over British prisoners who were con-
fined at New London during the war of 1812.

Mr. Gorton was educated in the public schools and
collegiate institute of his native town. He began his
business career as a clerk in the First National Bank of
Rochester, and remained there until, seeking a larger
field of operations, he went to New York City, where
for three years he was respectively employe and seven
years a partner of Baldwin, Sexton & Peterson.

Mr. Gorton moved to this city in 1883. He became
connected with companies engaged in electric service,
and his lot was early cast. with gentlemen whose capital,
influence and business skill led to the formation of the
Edison Company. He was one of the founders. When
this great company was incorporated Mr. Gorton was
elected its secretary and treasurer, positions which he has
held ever since.

On June 29, 1880, he married Louise Stager, daugh-
ter of General Anson Stager, who was known for years
as the head of the Western Union Telegraph Company
in this city, as well as numerous other electrical enter-

prises, notably the company which is now known as the

Central Union Telephone Company, Chicago Tele-
phone, Western Electric Company.

THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTRIC COMPANY.

The years from 1885 to 1890 witnessed the establish-
ment of a very large number of central stations for the
supply of electricity for lighting and power pur-
poses. In the small towns, where gas was unavailable
or expensive, or where pole-line systems of conductors
were permitted, the earliest installations were made and
the progress was most rapid, but the demand for elec-
tricity for illuminating purposes in the larger cities soon
became so great that it appeared very attractive to capi-
talists and stations were erected on expensive property,
underground systems were installed at immense cost,
and the citizens of the large cities began to enjoy what
their country neighbors had been enjoying for some
years. There was, however, a class of territory which
was neglected even then and which was last to enjoy the
advantages of electricity. We refer to the outlying sec-
tions of the large cities.

About the year 1889, in the small towns then exist-
ing around Chicago, which have now become a part of
the city, a number of small companies or individuals
almost simultaneously obtained franchises for the erec-
tion of poles for systems of electrical distribution in the
various sections, and small lighting businesses were
started. Many of these districts overlapped each other,
and all were in contact with competitors, so that 1896
found no less than ten small companies operating in

263

what had now become the new portion of the city. Most
of these properties were not very profitable to the hold-
ers of their securities, and some were hardly able to pay
their bond interest. Continuous requirements for addi-
tional investment for extensions, taken perforce from
earnings, and a ruinous competition had seriously inter-
fered with the success which promised at the time of
their establishment. About this time certain gentle-
men of discriminating judgment in the matter of light-
ing fields and of wide experience in the electric-lighting
business generally, controlling ample means of financing
any proposition which received their indorsement,
began the movement which, in 1898, resulted in the
purchase of all the companies by a corporation formed
at that time, named the Commonwealth Electric Com-
pany. This company was possessed of a broad and lib-
eral franchise for the installation and operation of
underground systems of conductors for the distribution
of electricity in the finer portion of the old city, and pole-
line systems in the balance of the old city and all of the
new city. The following plants were thus consolidated:
People’s Electric Light and Motor Power Company, Peo-
ple’s Electric Light and Power Company, Hyde Park
Thomson-Houston Light Company, Hyde Park Elec-
tric Company, Englewood Electric Company, Mutual
Electric Light Company, The West Chicago Light and
Power Company, The Western Light and Power Com-
pany, Edgewater Light Company and the Miller Elec-
tric Light Company.

The new company found itself the owner of a most
heterogeneous assortment of plants and systems, supply-
ing all kinds of electric light over a district comprising
about seventy-five square miles of territory, a field
which promises exceedingly well for the future, but
which, at the present time, can be profitably operated
only in the way in which it is now covered. The sys-
tems employed are principally alternating-current aud
high-tension arc light, although there is some little 500-
volt power apparatus. A little judicious expenditure has
resulted in the closing down of all but four of the plants,
and steps are now in progress which will result in hand-
ling the business from a still fewer number. The two
finest plants are the one in the southern district, located
at Fifty-sixth and Wallace streets, and the one in the
northern district, located on Lincoln avenue, near
Diversey street. These are new buildings, erected for
the purpose and well appointed. The company is, how-
ever, passing through a transition period and the rapid
development of the alternating-current machinery which
will be used by the company makes it necessary to most
carefully consider every step taken. It is the company’s
intention to cover the entire district more thoroughly
with a well-installed system and do everything in their
power to afford their consumers the best of service.
The business has grown very rapidly since it has been
264

taken over, and good service and a new basis of charge,
which enables consumers to buy electric light at a very
low rate if they comply with the conditions which govern
its cheaper manufacture, it is believed, will soon estab-
lish the electric light in the outlying section of the city
on the same firm basis which it now enjoys in the old
portion.

THE CHICAGO TELEPHONE COMPANY.

It has often been stated that nothing marks the gen-
eral condition of business more clearly in an American
city than the telephone. If business is dull, the number
of telephones does not increase, and their use also dimin-
ishes; if business is good, the contrary is the case. The
condition of the business of the Chicago Telephone
Company for the past year has illustrated in a most prac-
tical and unusual manner the truth of this saying. More
new business has been handled-in the Chicago exchange
and the territory of the company surrounding the city,

 

 

 

 

THE CHICAGO TELEPHONE COMPANY BUILDING.

 

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in the way of installing new telephones and extending
new lines, etc., than in any two previous years, and the
telephones now operated are used a greater number of
times than ever before, so that frequently in the city of
Chicago in one day over 300,000 people make calls by
telephones. This is a number which has never been
reached in any other city. The plant of the company
has increased to 65,000 miles of wire in Chicago alone,
of which 41,000 miles are operated in underground
cables and less than 10,000 in overhead wires. On the
first of February about 21,600 telephones were operated
in Chicago, and nearly 7,000 in the surrounding
exchanges, principally in Joliet, Evanston, Englewood,
Elgin, Oak Park, Aurora and other important suburbs,
making a total of nearly 29,000 telephones operated by
the company.

To provide for this rapid increase in business, and to
meet the requirements of the immediate future, the com-
pany has built an addition to its main office building at
203 Washington street, which more than doubles the
size of that building. The new operating-room on the
eighth floor will have an area of 80xgo feet, and will be
one of the finest rooms ever provided for that purpose.
Another new exchange, known as “Monroe office,”
has been completed, and is located on Sangamon
street near Monroe street. New buildings are also
being built this year on Chicago avenue near Clark
street, Stewart avenue near Sixty-third street, on
Union street near Root street, and in the Lake View
district. The present mark in the number of telephones
has been set by the company at 50,000, and with its
varied list of rates, by means of which the service of the
small user, as well as the large, may be equably provided
for, it is apparent that this grand total will be reached in
the near future. The comprehensive system of under-
ground subways, which the company has installed dur-
ing the past six years, makes it possible to extend the
plant of wires in every direction upon the most perma-
nent and best known basis, and with the completion of
the new exchange offices now under way, it is certain
that Chicago will lead American cities in the number of
telephones operated, as it does now in the number of
daily telephone messages.

John Marshall Clark, president of the Chicago
Telephone Company, was born at White Pigeon, St.
Joseph County, Michigan, August 1, 1836. He is
a son of Robert, Jr., and Mary E. (Fitch) Clark.
Mr. Clark came to Chicago in 1847, but in 1852
he went to Troy, New York, and entered the Rens-
selaer Polytechnic Institute. Remaining there for four
years, he was graduated as a civil engineer. Return-
ing to this city, he entered the service of the Illinois
Central Railroad, in whose employ he remained until
1859. He then went to Colorado, and for some time
was interested in and part proprietor of the original
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

townsite of Denver. While there he practiced his pro-
fession, and in 1862 went to Santa Fé in the employ of

 

JOHN MARSHALL CLARK.

the Government, to survey Government land in Arizona
and New Mexico.

During the time he was engaged in this work the
Confederate general, Sibley, made a raid into New Mex-
ico, and Mr. Clark was instrumental in securing the

265

valuable records and documents of the department,
which were taken by him, under military escort, to Fort
Union, for safekeeping. He was, at this time, an aide
on the staff of General Donaldson of the regular army,
and was afterward present, with the same rank, under
Brigadier-General Stough, at the battle of Apache
Cafion.

Mr. Clark was recalled to Chicago by the illness
of his brother, and after the death of that relative he
bought an interest in the leather firm of Gray, Mar-
shall & Co., afterward Gray, Clark & Co., and still later,
Gray, Clark & Engle.

Mr. Clark has been active at times in local politics.
He was elected to the common council in 1869, and
served one term. In 1881 he ran for mayor, as the regu-
lar Republican candidate, against Carter H. Harrison,
but was defeated, the only defeat he ever suffered in an
attempt to obtain a political position. He has served as a
member of the Board of Education, and upon the elec-
tion of President Harrison was appointed to the col-
lectorship of the port of Chicago. Mayor Swift ap-
pointed him one of the original members of the Board of
Civil Service Commissioners, and he was its first presi-
dent. He held this office with credit until 1897, being
removed at that time, together with Mr. Christoph Hotz,
by Mayor Harrison.

Mr. Clark is a member of the Union League, Univer-
sity, Literary, Calumet, Chicago and Commercial clubs.

He was married in 1873 to Miss Mary Louisa Qua of
New York City.

 

VIEW IN GARFIELD PARK.
CHAPTER XXIV.

 

 

 

 

i BUSINESS INTERESTS.

 

  
   

OHN V FARWELL, SR., a pioneer
and a chief among the whotesale dry-
goods merchants of Chicago, was
born in Steuben County, New York.
July 29, 1825, the son of Henry and
Mary (Jackson) Farwell. While he
was in his thirteenth year he. with his
parents, migrated to Illinois and set-
tled on Rock River. in Ogle County.
and engaged in farming. Like many
ft others of our great merchants and
’ eminent professional men, Mr. John V.
Farwell was inured to labor in his youth. Indeed, unti!
the latter half of this century had begun, comparatively
little trade was done without reference to the value of
farm products. The country merchant took grain from
his customers in exchange for other goods, and fre-
quently offered it as payment in whole, or in part, to the
jobber from whom he purchased his stock. Mr. Farwell
relates that in his youth he sold wheat at forty-five cents
a bushel, after hauling it a hundred miles, to Mr. Wads-
worth, head of the then great firm of Wadsworth &
Phelps, and after selling it he helped to store it in an ele-
vator which was worked by a rope. Wadsworth, Phelps
& Co., which became the commercial parent of the far
greater firm of J. V. Farwell & Co.. dealt, until 1851, in
dry groceries, as well as in textile fabrics. In the panic
of 1857-58, when stumptail money was the only cur-
rency in the Northwest, this firm paid its debts by buying
and shipping wheat to New York.

After a preliminary education in the common schoo!s
of New York and Illinois, Mr. Farwell became a student
in the seminary at Mount Morris, Ilinois. He came to
Chicago in 1845, and after several years of service as
clerk in various dry-goods stores he became a partner
in the firm of Wadsworth & Phelps, in 1851. The firm
of Wadsworth & Phelps was established in 1835, and
thus its great offshoot, the incorporated firm of J. V

Farwell & Co., lays claim to the title of the oldest whole-
sale dry-goods house in Chicago. From the time of Mr.
Farwell’s entrance as a partner the business of the firm
was confined solely to the sale of dry-goods and their
legitimate adjuncts. In 1870 the headquarters of the
firm were at 72, 74 and 76 Wabash avenue, and in this

 

JOHN V. FARWELL, SR.

i

year their stock was all but completely destroyed by fire.
Scarcely had this disaster been overcome before the
great fire of 1871 involved the firm in new difficulties.
Undismayed by these calamities, the firm, now John V.
Farwell & Co., temporarily stored its remnant of goods
and kept its trade together in a building that it previously
occupied as a stable and warehouse on Market street,
and within six weeks from the destruction of their prem-

266
THE CITY OF -CHICAGO.

ises on Wabash avenue, they completed and moved into
the spacious building now known as the “Old Farwell
Block,” on Monroe, Market and Franklin streets. Ten
years later the new Farwell Block, that occupies all the
space on Monroe street between Franklin street and the
river, with a 400-foot frontage on Market street, was
built and occupied. Here, as he sits in his private office,
that is occasionally darkened by the towering hull of
some great iron-built steamer, Mr. Farwell calls to mind
that he saw and assisted in the joyful celebration of the
event of the first canal boat to enter the Chicago River.
The circumstance was regarded as prognostic of great
enlargement of the trade between the city and country,
and for many years after this arrival of the first boat, the
advent of a barge was regarded as important. The firm
of John V. Farwell & Co. became an incorporated con-
cern in 1891. It has grown with the city’s growth, and
has strengthened with its strength, and stands in the
front rank of the commercial institutions of a metropolis
of 2,000,000 inhabitants, just as it stood in the first rank
when Chicago was but a flourishing and ambitious city
of the third class. In addition to his labors as manager
of the great firm with which his name is associated, Mr.
Farwell was active in the establishment of the Union
National Bank, and served as one of its directors until
several years after the great fire.

In politics Mr. Farwell is Republican. He was a
member of the electoral college that cast its vote for
Lincoln in 1860, and for six years held the honorable and
arduous, though unprofitable, office of Indian Commis-
sioner during the first and second administrations of
President Grant. Though frequently solicited to accept
a nomination for various political affairs, Mr. Farwell has
declined to become a candidate for any elective office, or
to hold any lucrative federal appointment. His political
work has been of unpaid and patriotic order. During
the progress of the war for the Union Mr. Farwell served
as chairman of the Northwestern Christian Commissions,
and in that capacity devoted most of his time to ad-
vancing the temporal and spiritual welfare of the soldier
in the field. There is no nonsectarian, religious or phil-
anthropic movement to which Mr. Farwell has not given
liberal and unostentatious aid. Old ‘Farwell Hall,” now
the finest Y. M. C. A. building on earth, is, perhaps, the
most widely-known manifestation of zeal and munifi-
cence toward the propagation of Christian doctrine.

Mr. Farwell has been twice married; firstly, to Miss
Abigail Taylor of Illinois, and, secondly, to Miss Emerett
Cooley of Hartford, Connecticut. There are five surviv-
ing children.

Abram M. Rothschild was born at the village of
Nordstetten, Germany, in the year 1853, and in that
place he spent the earlier years of his life, until he came
to America in 1866. On reaching this country he went
direct to. Davenport, Iowa, where he joined his elder

267

brother, Emanuel, who had preceded him to the United
States by several years and who by this time was well
established in a business of his own. Abram worked in
his brother’s store for several years, at the end of which
time; as a reward for his energies, he was taken into the
firm, which then became known as E. Rothschild &
Brothers. ;

Although a member of this establishment, he was as
yet but nineteen years of age, and after attending to his
business duties in the daytime he improved his oppor-
tunities by attending a night school and thus securing a
substantial common school education.

At the time of the Chicago fire Mr. Rothschild and
his brothers were quick to see the possibilities. that

 

 

ABRAM M. ROTHSCHILD.

would result from the reconstruction of the city and they
opened a branch house here in connection with the one
in Davenport. So successful were they in this ven-
ture that in 1875 the firm withdrew altogether from the
retail business and began the manufacture and sale of
clothing on an extensive scale.

Mr. Rothschild devoted himself to the development
of this business with characteristic energy and enthusi-
asm and as a result succeeded in building up a trade
amounting to several millions of dollars annually.

Some years ago he organized and established the
well-known department store of A. M. Rothschild &
Co.; associated with him in this enterprise are Messrs.
Nelson Morris, Edward Morris and Ira Morris. This
venture was remarkable for the radical difference in the
way it was organized from other stores of a similar
character. In this case the entire establishment was
268

equipped complete from the beginning and not added
feature by feature as the demands of trade required.
To complete such an immense project required ability
of the highest degree and an intimate knowledge of the
wants of the market. But it was successfully accom-
plished and its existence has since been as remarkable as
the career of the man who founded it.

Mr. Rothschild has numerous other business in-
terests of considerable magnitude, being a director and
former vice-president of the National Bank of the Re-
public, and officer in several large local and outside cor-
porations. In March, 1891, he was chosen a director of
the World's Columbian Exposition and as a member
of that body gave valuable assistance in this greatest of
modern enterprises. He has been an extensive traveler,
and, although he is a native of Germany, he is neverthe-
less a thorough American in his love for the institutions
of his adopted country. He was married in December,
1882, to Miss Gusta Morris, daughter of Mr. Nelson
Morris, the prominent packer of this city.

Morris Selz, the founder of an American industry
and trade that has gained far more than American repu-
tation, was born at Wurtemburg, Germany, October 2,
1826, and was educated in the public schools. At the
age of seventeen he came to the United States, and in
his eighteenth year engaged as a clerk and salesman in
a dry-goods house at Hartford, Connecticut. In the
year 1848 he was employed in a store doing a general
business in the state of Georgia. In 1851 he migrated
to California, and there engaged with considerable suc-
cess in mining and trading on his own account. The
year 1854 found him settled-in Chicago, and in 1871 he
founded the firm of M. Selz & Co., dealers in boots and
shoes. In the year 1878 the firm name and style was
changed to that of Selz, Schwab & Co., and in 1890 the
firm became a corporation, of which Mr. Selz was and
still is president. From the very small beginnings of
M. Selz & Co., the business over which the subject of
this memoir presides has grown to be the greatest of its
kind in the world. From the stage of mere dealers in
goods that others made, Mr. Selz and his partners have
passed into that of a corporation that now makes in its
own factories a larger number of shoes on every working
day of the year than were made in a week by the com-
bines of all the factories that were in existence in 1871.
The factories of Selz, Schwab & Co., at Chicago, Joliet,
Genoa, and Elgin, all in this state, turn out 12,000 pairs
of boots and shoes daily. Over fifteen hundred persons
are employed in the factories of this great corpora-
tion, and one hundred and twenty-five in its central
office, at the corner of Market and Monroe streets, in
this city. Its goods are distributed by an army of sales-
men and agents through all the towns and villages
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and from Winni-
peg in the frozen North to the sunny region of old

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mexico. When Uncle Sam annexed Hawaii he found
an agent of Selz, Schwab & Co. in control of the shoe
trade of that country. This great corporation now is
reaching out after a larger export trade, and contem-
plates an establishment of an agency in Germany. Mr.
Morris Selz was the first man who manifested faith in
the capacity of what then was the far West to support
a great manufacturing industry. His prudence, energy,
and courage have more than vindicated the well ground-
edness of his faith.

The success of Selz, Schwab & Co. is “solid.”
“Solid” has been the motto of Mr. Selz. Solid leather
goes into every shoe made by this corporation; it imi-
tates nothing; everything made by it really is what it

 

MORRIS SELZ.

looks to be; there are no shoddy pretenses in workman-
ship or material. The managers of the business are proud
of the honorable reputation that it has gained during
the twenty-seven years that the name of Mr. Selz has
been associated with it, and they inspire their employes
with a like sentiment. Mr. Selz has declined all offers
to associate himself in the promotion of other business
than that of his own firm. He holds that to do one
thing well requires the best effort of a life, and, acting
on this belief. he has built up one of the great trades
and industries of this state and nation.

Mr. Selz is a member of the Standard and of the
Union League clubs. He is married and has three sons.

Spaulding & Co. The house of Spaulding & Co.,
jewelers, was established and incorporated in 1888. Mr.
Henry A. Spaulding, one of the founders, and the first
president of the company, had for years been promi-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

nently identified with the jewelry house of Tiffany &
Co. in Paris. He, together with a party of gentlemen,
including Levi Z. Leiter and Edward Foreman, of Chi-
cago; Edward Holbrook of New York; E. J. Smith,
then of Detroit, and George St. Amant of Paris, or-
ganized and established the present well-known house.
The business was incorporated with a paid-in capital of
$500,000, and the following officers chosen: Henry A.
Spaulding, president; Edward Foreman, secretary, and
Edward Holbrook, treasurer. These were all men of
business experience and ability, and all thoroughly in-
formed in the special departments to which they gave
their attention. Mr. Lloyd Milnor of New York became
treasurer in 1890 and president in 1896, succeeding Mr.
Holbrook, who had been chosen to that office in 1894.
Edward Foreman died April 14, 1898, and Mr. E. J.
Smith was made secretary.

Within a short time it was demonstrated that Chi-
cago could support such an establishment as it was
the intention of the promoters to make it, and soon
Spaulding & Co. became to Chicago what Tiffany &
Co. are to New York. Located on the southeast cor-
ner of State street and Jackson boulevard, the firm
occupies a six-story-and-basement building, two floors
of which, each with a space of 147x40 feet, are utilized
as salesrooms. On the upper floors are the manufac-
turing departments, and here all of the diamond mount-
ings are made, and the special designs in gold and sil-
verware, for which the house has established such a wide
reputation. There is also a very complete stationery
department, and everything connected therewith, in-
cluding the embossing, is done in the building. The
main floor is devoted to the sale of jewelry, diamonds,
silverware, gold and silver mounted leather goods, sta-
tionery and a full line of English hall and mantle clocks.
On the second floor is to be found the art department,
where everything in the way of statuary, bronzes, rich
cut-glass and costly bric-a-brac, are gathered in pic-
turesque display. Throughout the entire building one
is impressed with the taste shown in the furnishings, as
well as the artistic arrangements, making it one of the
best-appointed stores of its kind in the world.

Spaulding & Co. also operate a branch estabtish-
ment in Paris at 36 Avenue de l’Opera, said to be the
most conspicuous American addition to that city in the
way of adornment and trade. The showrooms are
handsomely decorated in white and gold, and the “even-
ing room,” draped in black velvet, is, like the “gem
boudoir” of the Chicago house, of special interest to
the large number of visitors who throng the place. The
Paris house is of special value in connection with the
American house, as it enables them to secure all the
newest Parisian novelties as they make their appearance.
And in this regard, it may be said that Chicago, with

269

its close proximity to the mineral wealth of the great
Northwest, is rapidly becoming the center of the jewelry
trade of the country.

Lloyd Milnor, president of Spaulding & Co., jew-
elers, was born at Baltimore, April 6, 1856. His father
was John Nelson Lloyd Milnor, a leading merchant of
Baltimore, and his mother, whose maiden name was
Susan Johns Semmes, was a first cousin of Raphael
Semmes, the Confederate naval hero. His paternal
grandfather was Joseph Kirkbride Milnor, a native of
New Jersey, and for many years an extensive importer
of Chinese merchandise and the owner of mercantile
houses both in New York and China.

Mr. Milnor received his education at private schools

 

LLOYD MILNOR.

in Baltimore and New York, but left school at the age
of sixteen to enter the world of business as an office boy
in the banking house of Morton, Bliss & Co., New York
City. He remained in their employ for about five years,
and in 1881 became connected with Moses Taylor &
Co., one of the oldest and most substantial mercantile
houses in New York, and continued with them until they
went out of business in 1889.

Mr. Milnor came to Chicago in January, 1890, and
entered the house of Spaulding & Co., in the capacity
of treasurer. Huis connection with this well-known firm
has been a most successful one, and in February, 1896,
he became president, retaining the office of treasurer as
well. Since his location in Chicago Mr. Milnor has
become identified with several of the more prominent
social organizations, among them the Union Club, the
Chicago Club, the Washington Park Club and the Chi-
270
cago Athletic Association. He is a sound money
Democrat inhis political affiliations, but has taken no
active part in politics since he came to Chicago.

He was married October 7, 1896, to Miss Gertrude
Louise Palmer, daughter of Frederick E. and Harriet
H. Palmer of New York. They have two children,
Dorothy Semmes and Joseph Kirkbride.

Benjamin Allen, of the wholesale jewelry house of
Benjamin Allen & Co., is justly considered one of the
pioneers in his particular trade in Chicago, having come

 

 

BENJAMIN ALLEN.

here in 1865 with the old firm of M. T. Quimby & Co.,
whose place of business was on, Lake street, then the
principal business street of the city. In 1872 Mr. Allen
succeeded to their business and organized the firm of
Benjamin Allen & Co., which, in the passing years, has
expanded from a small beginning until it is now one
of the largest, if not the largest, wholesale jewelry house
in the United States, its business extending over the
greater part of the country. For twenty-five years the
firm was located at 141-43 State street, but with the
expansion of the neighboring business of Schlesinger
& Mayer, it was found necessary to seek a new location.
Mr. Allen accordingly erected the Silversmiths’ Build-
ing, a modern structure on Wabash avenue, south of
Madison street, which is occupied in part by Benjamin
Allen & Co., the Gorham Manufacturing Company and
other large firms in the line of jewelry, silverware and
kindred trades.

Mr. Allen has been largely interested in the street
railroads of Chicago, as well as in various banking in-
stitutions of the city. He is also interested in the Elgin
Watch Company and the Gorham Manufacturing Com-

THE- CITY OF CHICAGO.

pany of Providence, Rhode Island. He is a membe-
of the Union League, Chicago and Calumet clubs, and
has served as a director and vice-president of the latter
for several years. ;

George B. Carpenter & Co. The old firm of George
B. Carpenter & Co., ship chandlers and sail makers,
was founded in 1840, and has maintained from the first
the leading position in this trade in the West. Panics,
wars and the great fire of 1871 have been weathered
and safely passed, leaving them unscathed—in fact, add-
ing strength and renown to their already strong position.
Of late years the wholesale, or jobbing, end of the busi-
ness has been largely developed, and to-day they are
the unquestioned Western headquarters for everything
which can possibly come under the head of cordage,
twines, netting, cotton duck, mill supplies, tents, flags
and marine hardware.

In their manufacturing department are made in im-
mense quantities, for shipment all over the world, sails,
tents, flags, waterproof covers, horse blankets, cots and
camp furniture. In the Civil war, as well as the late
war with Spain, they were large contractors for Gov-
ernment tents and army supplies.

The company issues a splendid catalogue of some

 

 

 

 

THE GEORGE B. CARPENTER & CO. BUILDING.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

700 pages, a marvel of compactness, covering every-
thing which they manufacture or sell, the publication
alone of which cost over $10,000. The main stores and
offices of the firm are situated at 202, 204, 206 and 208
South Water street. Their storage warehouse and net-
ting factory is on the corner of Indiana and Orleans
streets, and they also operate a branch store in South
Chicago, at 160 Ninety-second street, which was estab-
lished in 1893 to meet the requirements of the growing
trade at Chicago’s southern port, the Calumet River.

Mr. George B. Carpenter, the senior member of the
firm, in speaking generally on the subject of commer-
cial success, said to the writer a short time ago: “Young
man, I attribute the success of our house very largely
to our old-fashioned method of doing business on the
square, insisting that agreements must be kept and
bargains lived up to, no matter what the cost. Of
course, it is well,” he continued, with a twinkle in his
eye, “to have around you men who will not make agree-
ments which they cannot fulfill, or bargains which are
not bargains, and who are not always watching the
clock.”

George B. Carpenter was born in Conneaut, Ohio,
in 1834, came to Chicago with his father’s family in
1850 and graduated from St. Mary's College in 1852.

 

 

 

 

GEORGE B. CARPENTER.

His father, Benjamin Carpenter, was one of the pioneers
in the packing and lake shipping business in the West,
was the first commissioner of public works in the city
of Chicago, and was also one of the eleven men who
founded the New England Congregational Church.
After completing his education George B. Carpen-

271

ter was connected for a few years with the house of
Marsh & Carpenter, packers, the firm being composed
of Sylvester Marsh and Benjamin Carpenter, but in
1857 he purchased a third interest in the ship chandlery
house of Gilbert Hubbard & Co., and upon the death
of Mr. Hubbard, in 1881, assumed his interest, the
firm name being changed at this time to George B.
Carpenter & Co. Associated with him in business at
the present time are his sons, Benjamin Carpenter,
Hubbard F. Carpenter and John A. Carpenter.

Mr. Carpenter is a member of the Union League
and other Chicago clubs, and resides in the summer
at Park Ridge, Illinois, and in the winter at 293 Dear-
born avenue, Chicago.

Joy Morton, senior member of the firm of Joy Mor-
ton & Co., was born at Detroit, Michigan, September
27, 1855. His father, J. Sterling Morton, was a mem-

 

 

 

 

JOY MORTON.

ber of President Cleveland’s cabinet and Secretary of
Agriculture during the latter’s second administration.
His mother, who before her marriage was Caroline Joy,
died in 1881.

Mr. Morton’s parents removed to Nebraska in No-
vember, 1854, and settled on what has since been known
as the family homestead, Arbor Lodge, near Nebraska
City. Here his early life was spent in typical frontier
fashion, for Nebraska City at that time was nothing
more than a frontier post, and his earlier experiences
were consequently touched with a spirit of adventure
almost unknown to the rising generation of the pres-
ent day. He and his brothers spent their youth in
freighting on the plains, and the only education he
272

received, aside from the severe knocks administered
by an unsympathetic world, was at Talbot Hall, an
Episcopal boarding school, near Nebraska City. At the
age of sixteen he entered the Merchants’ National Bank
of this last-named place as errand boy. He was steadily
promoted during the six years in which he was in the
employ of this institution, working his way up to the
responsible position of teller, and acquiring an interest
in the business, which he has always retained, in later
years in the form of a directorship. He next entered
the employ of the Burlington & Missouri River Rail-
road in the treasurer's office at Omaha, acting in the
capacity of the only clerk in that department, which
now employs a large force of men. The Nebraska
lines of the Burlington were less than two hundred
miles in length at that time, and after two years at
Omaha, Mr. Morton was transferred to Aurora, Illinois,
as supply agent of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.
He remained here a short time, having, within a year
after removing to Aurora, arranged to engage in the
salt business in Chicago, as a member of the firm of
E. I. Wheeler & Co., then the oldest and largest firm
in Chicago in that line of business. By reason of the
death of Mr. Wheeler, the last of the original members
of the firm originally established by Dean Richmond
of New York, Mr. Morton became head of the house,
and in 1885 the name was changed to Joy Morton &
Company, Mark Morton, second brother of Joy Mor-
ton, being the ‘‘company” in the firm.

The steady growth and increase of the present firm
has been such that it occupies to-day, as forty years
ago, the most prominent position in the salt trade of
the West, and, in fact, of the whole United States.

The warehouses of the company, which are situated
both at South Chicago and at Pier No. 1, just to the
south of the entrance from Lake Michigan to the Chi-
cago River, cover a total space of more than eleven acres,
and are equipped with the most complete machinery
for the handling of salt and other heavy merchandise,
having a capacity for receiving and forwarding 500 car-
loads of salt in twenty-four hours. The firm is distribut-
ing agents for the Michigan Salt Association, one of
the oldest and largest industrial corporations in the
country, dating from 1867, and for the Retsof Rock
Salt Mining Company of New York,

Mr. Morton is interested in several other business
enterprises, both in the city and outside. He is president
of the Argo Manufacturing Company, a starch factory in
Nebraska City, and he is also the executive officer of the
Nebraska City Cereal Mills—the two concerns giving
steady employment to between three and four hundred
people. He is also treasurer of the Western Cold Stor-
age Company of Chicago, the largest company of its
kind in the United States; vice-president of the Amer-
ican Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago, one of the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

best-known financial institutions in the city, having a
capital of $1,000,000, and is also vice-president of the
Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad Company, the gen-
eral offices of which are in the Rookery Building.

Mr. Morton was married in Omaha, September 23,
1880, to Miss Carrie Lake, daughter of Chief Justice
George B. Lake of Nebraska. Two children bless their
union—a daughter, Jean, and a son, Sterling.

Egbert W. Gillett, prominent in the manufacturing
circles of Chicago, was born at Dexter, Jefferson County,
New York. His parents moved to Chicago when he was
but five years of age, and this city has been the field
in which he began his business career, and in which
he has won recognition as one of the most successful

 

EGBERT W. GILLETT.

business men of the West. His father, Paul W. Gillett,
had been in the mercantile business at Watertown, New
York, prior to his location in this city. He came to Chi-
cago, believing that it was destined to become a great
commercial center as soon as the West should expand
and develop its resources. Seeing an opportunity for
the successful growth of such an industry, he began, in
a small way, the. manufacture of extracts, the “Gillett’s
Double Extracts” having since become a household
word throughout the land.

When Egbert had finished his education by supple-
menting his training in the public schools with a course
at Wheaton College, his father took him into his employ,
the factory then being in its original location at 257
South Clark street. Egbert took great interest in the
business, and soon afterward purchased a partial interest
THE CITY

from his father, an investment which time has shown to
have been a most fortunate one.

Increase in trade necessitated an increase in working
space, and so new quarters were engaged at 61 Michi-
gan avenue, where the factory continued until the time

/of the fire in 1871, when it shared the same fate as did
hundreds of other enterprises on that disastrous night.
Undaunted, however, by the sight of charred timbers
and smoking embers, which was all that was left of the
former factory, they began business anew the day follow-
ing at 51 West Lake street, where they remained until
after the South Side was partially rebuilt, when they
once more took quarters at 38 to 42 Michigan avenue,
near their former location.

Mr. Gillett purchased his father’s entire interest in
the business in 1882, and for many years devoted himself
to continuously enlarging it and increasing its produc-
tion. During the last few years, however, he has given
only a part of his time to business affairs, and spends
much of his time in other ways, among which and favor-
ite with him, is traveling with his family.

The present commodious factory at 9 to 15 River
street, six stories high and occupying a ground space of
67x100 feet, he erected in 1887, it being considered one
of the finest wholesale buildings in that vicinity. At
present there are about 250 hands employed, and its
trade extends throughout the United States, the volume
of business being about $1,000,000 annually. The spe-
cial line of goods manufactured consists principally of
the celebrated “Gillett’s Double Extracts,” baking pow-
ders, essences, and a line of grocers’ sundries.

In 1887 a branch factory was established at Toronto,
Ontario, for supplying the Canadian trade. Mr. Gillett
is the founder and president of the Champion Chemical
Works, established in 1885 and located at 38 to 40 Michi-
gan street, Chicago, and 177 Franklin street, New York
City. He is president of the Northwestern Yeast Com-
pany, 879 to 891 North Ashland avenue, the largest fac-
tory of the kind in the world. He is interested to some
extent in the banking business, having been one of the
founders, and for several years a director, of the Lincoln
National Bank, and at present is a director of the Amer-
ica National Bank, and of the Chicago Opera House
Company. He has been a fortunate investor in Chicago
real estate, and has large interests of this nature both
here and in Ohio.

Mr. Gillett is a member of the Union League Club,
Illinois and Washington Park clubs, a trustee of the
Plymouth Congregational Church, and of the Illinois
College, located at Jacksonville, Illinois. He is also a
director of the Illinois School of Agriculture and Man-
ual Training for Boys, at Glenwood, Illinois.

He was married July 25, 1868, and has two children,
Lillian May and Charles W. Gillett. His handsome

18

OF CHICAGO.

273

brownstone residence, at 3334 Michigan avenue, is one
of the finest in that part of the city.

Charles Frederick Gunther. The name of Charles
Frederick Gunther, the manufacturer of the celebrated
Gunther candies, which are so distinctly a Chicago prod-
uct, is a houschold word throughout the country, and
with the mention of this great Western metropolis
it is unconsciously connected.

Mr. Gunther is a native of South Germany, born at
Wildberg, in the kingdom of Witirttemberg, March 6,
1837. His parents removed to the United States, being
fifty-two days on the ocean in a small sailing ship, when
he was five years of age, settling in Columbia, Lancas-
ter County, Pennsylvania; but after a residence there

 

CHARLES F. GUNTHER.

of six years they moved to Somerset County. In this

mountainous district of the Keystone State Mr. Gun-

ther was reared and educated, and it was here that those

traits in his character which have been so marked in after

life were developed. In this region he led a life of
considerable adventure and secured, while yet a small

boy, a position as mail carrier over the mountains, mak-

ing a round trip of forty miles daily, which was both

arduous and dangerous, and receiving as compensation

for his work the sum of twenty-five cents a day.

In the spring of 1850 the family moved to Peru, Illi-
nois, making the journey by way of the Pennsylvania
Canal and cable roads over the mountains to Pittsburg,
thence by river to St. Louis, and thence up the Mis-
sissippi and Illinois rivers to the headwaters of the latter.
Mr. Gunther attended school for a short time at Peru,
but he was still a mere lad when he secured a position as
274

clerk in a general store, with the meager salary of $2.50
a month. His ambitions, however, far exceeded his
salary, and he soon became a competent clerk in a
grocery house, acquiring, in addition, a considerable
experience in general business. He fully decided to
make this work his future business career, but circum-
stances changed his plans, and he left the store to be-
come a clerk in a drug store at this place, although
soon afterward he became an employé in the banking
house of Alexander Cruikshank, who at that time rep-
resented the Chicago banking house of George Smith &
Co. Here he remained for five years, rising gradually
through various positions to that of cashier.

The town of Peru was an important headquarters
for ice at that time, and large quantities were shipped
to the Southern States from this point. During his con-
nection with the bank Mr. Gunther had made many
acquaintances in the South, and finally, in 1860, he
accepted a position with Messrs. Bohlen, Wilson & Co.,
then the oldest ice firm of the South, and whose offices
were located in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Gunther was
still in the employ of this company when the war broke
out between the North and South, and, like many,
thought it would be of short duration. Finding, how-
ever, as time went on, that such was not the case, and
that mercantile trades were at a standstill, he accepted
the position as purchasing steward, and afterward as
purser, on the Confederate steamer Rose Douglas. He
served three years on this steamer in active war duties,
being in New Orleans, Vicksburg, Belmont and on all
the tributaries of the Mississippi, and lastly on the Ar-
kansas River, where he was captured by the Union
troops under the command of General Blunt. Upon
being liberated he was entertained at the headquarters
of General Scofield, and afterward journeyed north on
horseback to Fort Scott, and thence to Fort Leaven-
worth, finally arriving at his old home in Peru.

Soon after his arrival home he accepted a position in
a bank at Peoria, but left this institution to take a posi-
tion as traveling salesman for the Chicago candy house
of C. W. Sanford. He traveled extensively for this
firm, making his first trip to Europe while in their em-
ploy. This position, however, was changed to one in
the wholesale grocery house of Thompson, Johnson &
Co., for which firm he traveled the next two years. Re-
entering the wholesale candy business, he represented
Greenfield & Young of New York throughout the
United States.

Mr. Gunther’s connection with the candy houses of
C. W. Sanford and Greenfield & Young had convinced
him that the field was ripe for the manufacture in Chi-
cago of a superior grade of confections, and in the fall
of 1868 he opened a small retail store at 125 Clark
street, and gained his first reputation as a maker of
fine candies, and by his manufacture of caramels, which

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

were then something new, the first to make them in the
world as made in America, and also other inventions
in his line. Here the business grew, and at the time of
the fire in 1871, was one of the most prosperous in the
city. In this fire Mr. Gunther lost practically all he
had, but his determination was not thwarted, and he
soon started in business again, temporarily at the corner
of Twentieth and State streets, and afterward locating
in the McVicker Theater Building, where he remained
until he removed to his present well-known location on
State street.

Mr. Gunther has been a great traveler, visiting all
parts of America from Alaska to South America, Japan,
China, Egypt, Algiers, Morocco, Syria, Holy Land, all of
Europe and the West Indies, collecting from time to time
many relics, curiosities, pictures and books, and espe-
cially historical manuscripts. He speaks German, French
and Spanish. He has the best collection of Washington
and Abraham Linco'n relics in the United States. He is a
deep student of history, and in these manuscripts, which
are of great value, he takes interest and pride, especially
so his autographs of Shakespeare, Moliere and rare
Americans. <All matters of historical value are of much
iiterest to him, and he was the prime factor in the pro-
motion of the plan to bring the Libby Prison to Chicago.
He is president of the Coliseum Company.

In local politics Mr. Gunther is non-partisan, always
casting his vote for the candidate who is best fitted to
conscientiously perform the duties of his office. His
first vote in Chicago was for Abraham Lincoln and
second for General Grant. He has never sought office,
but has served two terms as a member of the city coun-
cil. In national politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Gun-
ther stands high in social circles, being a member of
the Chicago Historical Association, the Academy of
Science, of which he is one of the trustees, is a member of
the Art Institute and he is also a member of the Iroquois
and Union League clubs.

He was married in 1869, to Miss Jennie Burnell of
Lima, Indiana. They have two sons, Burnell and Whit-
man.

McNeil & Higgins Company. = The_ well-known
wholesale grocery house of McNeil & Higgins Com-
pany was organized in 1872 by Malcolm Me-
Neil and _ his brother, John, both of whom had pre-
viously been mutually interested in a general mercan-
tile business, conducted at Elgin, Illinois, under the
name of M. & J. MeNeil; and by Charles Higgins, pre-
viously of the wholesale grocery house of Mead &
Higgins. For the first three years the business was
conducted at the corner of Michigan avenue and South
Water street, but an enlarging trade made it advisable
to locate in more commodious quarters, and in 1875-
the business was removed to Nos. 11-13 Lake street,
where it remained until 1897, when it was again re-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

moved to its present large building at 19-25 Market
street.

From a small beginning the business has had an
existence which has been most encouraging, inasmuch
as the close of each year has shown a proportionate
increase over the year before. Its trade in the early
‘70s was almost entirely local, but time has increased
the field of its operations, until to-day it does a large
volume of business throughout the entire West and
Northwest, its extreme limits of trade being difficult
to define, because of the constantly increasing territory
which is being opened.

The business was incorporated in 1888, with a
paid-in capital of $500,000. Malcolm McNeil became
president of the company at this time, with John Mc-
Neil as vice-president, and Charles Higgins as secre-
tary and treasurer. Within the past few years the firm
has been doing a large business in staple brands of
their own manufacture. These special lines, of which
may be mentioned the “None Such,” “Empire” and
“Blossom” brands, have found favor among the con-
suming class, and the production of them has been a
source of much pride and satisfaction to the firm.

At the present time the company engages the serv-
ices of about seventy traveling salesmen, and a force of
over two hundred clerks and other help are employed
in the store. While the firm has passed its first quarter-
century of successful business, it does not believe that
all possible fields have been conquered, and, following
their usual custom of winning the patronage of the
great American people by fair and honest dealings, they
aim to continue their business with an increasing trade
in the future, as they have done in the past.

Malcolm McNeil, president of the wholesale
grocery house of McNeil & Higgins Company, is a
native of Ardrie, Scotland, where he was born
September 12, 1832. His father and mother, Daniel
and Jane (Crichton) McNeil, were both of the thrifty,
intellectual class, and Malcolm, in common with the
other children, inherited from them the many traits
of character which enabled him to make his start in
life, and pursue it successfully with no other capital
than a strong heart, a steady mind and an abundance
of perseverance and independence. At the time of Mal-
colin’s birth his father was a merchant in Ardrie, and
was also interested in the operation of extensive coal
mines in that vicinity. It was due to his mother, how-
ever, that the family, which consisted of father, mother
and three children, came to America. The country
across the seas, with its wealth of possibilities, seemed
to present an ideal place for her two sons and one daugh-
ter to grow to manhood and womanhood, and it was
through her influence that the business in Scotland was
brought to a close and the journey toward the new
home begun. An ocean voyage of six weeks brought

275

them to New York, and a further trip of ten days car-
ried them to their destination, the little village of Dun-
dee, Illinois, where they arrived in the summer of 1848.
A piece of land three miles north of here was pur-
chased, and the family took up their work anew, amid
strangely different surroundings and conditions from
those of their native land.

Malcolm spent his early manhood on the farm, and
it was not until he was twenty-six years of age that he
turned his attention to the mercantile business, in which
he has since been successful to a marked degree. In
1858 he went to Elgin, Illinois, and there established
a small grocery store. It was on a very small scale that
he began his business career, for he had no capital, and

 

 

 

 

MALCOLM McNEIL.

it was with the feeling that his success should come
through his own efforts entirely, rather than through
the use of another's capital, that he launched forth and
placed his foot on the first round of the ladder leading
to the success which came later. It was slow and hard
work, but his honest efforts and upright dealings found
favor with the citizens of Elgin, and little by little

the business was enlarged, until it became a general

store, dealing in everything usually handled by a mer-
chant in a small town. Prosperity seemed to shine on
everything he did, and at the close of thirteen years
he found himself proprietor of a business controlling
the largest trade of its kind in the city of Elgin.

It was at this time that Chicago suffered the almost
entire loss of its business interests through the disas-
trous fire; and with the determination of repeating his
success, he disposed of his Elgin business, and, together
276

with his brother, John, and Mr. Charles Higgins,
located in Chicago, establishing the present wholesale
firm of McNeil & Higgins Company, in the spring of
1872. Through all the financial troubles which have
come to pass in the quarter of a century and more that
this firm has had a place among the wholesale interests
of Chicago, it has had the guidance of the master-mind
of Malcolm McNeil. How well he has accomplished
his work can be no better shown than the present
house, which stands solidly upon its reputation—a suc-
cess financially and otherwise.

Mr. McNeil has had many business interests from
time to time, both in Elgin and in this city, but for
the most part he has preferred to devote his entire
time to the one business, which is the result of his own
genius, and which has grown from the smallest possible
beginning to its present proportions. His one invest-
ment, aside from the firm which bears his name, in
which he takes a just amount of pride, is his interest in
three large dairy farms near Elgin. These he considers
well worth the time and attention which he gives to
them, and they are regarded by him as giving good re-
turns for the money invested. Adjoining the farms is
his beautiful country residence, named Glenora Springs.

Mr. McNeil has been twice married, the first time,
in 1859, to Catherine Dempster, a daughter of A. R.
Dempster of Dundee. She was the first white girl born
in Dundee, and was a woman much beloved by all who
knew her. She died at the close of twelve years of happy
wedded life. Her one child—a boy—died when but
four years of age.

The year before locating in Chicago Mr. McNeil
was married again, this time to a Miss Orel Martin, a
daughter of Charles W. Martin of Wayne, Illinois.
Seven children have been born of this union, six of
whom survive, three girls and three boys.

Charles Higgins, secretary and treasurer of the Mc-
Neil & Higgins Company, was born in Staffordshire,
England, May 28, 1831. He is the son of William
Tether Higgins, whose wife, Jane Poiser Higgins, was
the daughter of Mr. Poiser, a French prisoner of war on
parole, who settled in Staffordshire in the early ‘20s.

Mr. Higgins received his education at private
schools in England, but he left school at the age of
thirteen to accept a position as clerk in a store. Like
many other young men of that period, he was attracted
to the United States by stories which he had heard, but
more particularly, perhaps, from the glowing letters
which came from an older brother, who had come here
some years previous and located at Waterford, New
York. Accordingly, in the fall of 1853, Mr. Higgins
turned his face westward, and began the long voyage
to this country. He landed at Philadelphia, but went
from there to Waterford, where, in a short time, he
became interested in business with his brother, and

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

where he remained for the following three years, coming
to Chicago in 1856. Arriving in this city, he entered
the establishment of Bailey & Mead, wholesale grocers,
then located on South Water street, near Wells. Some
years later Mr. Bailey died, and the firm then became
known as Mead & Johnson. In all this time Mr. Hig-
gins had had an interest in the business, but it was not un-
til the death of Mr. Johnson that his name appeared in
the firm title. The business was then located in larger
quarters, at 50 South Water street, near Wabash ave-
nue, and in this location, under the firm name of Mead
& Higgins, the firm remained until the fire of 1871.
A year later Mr. Higgins became interested with
Messrs. Malcolm and John McNeil in the present firm

 

 

 

 

 

CHARLES HIGGINS.

of McNeil & Higgins Company, of which he is secre-
tary and treasurer.

Since then his life has been wholly devoted to the
interests of his business, with the exception of such
short periods as he takes for hasty vacation trips. Al-
though never away from his business for any great
length of time, Mr. Higgins has been an extensive trav-
eler, and has crossed the Atlantic no less than seventeen
times, visiting all the more important parts of Europe,
from Norway to Egypt. He has likewise traveled to
all points of interest in this country, including Alaska.

Mr. Higgins takes much pride in the fact that he is
the oldest wholesale groceryman in Chicago in the point
of active service.

He was married in 1853 to a sister of Judge Gary.
His wife is still living, and they occupy a pleasant home

at the corner of Ontario and St. Clair streets, on the
North Side.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

John McNeil, who occupies the responsible posi-
tion of vice-president of the firm of McNeil & Hig-
gins Company, wholesale grocers, was born in Ardrie,
Scotland, May 22, 1839. His parents, Daniel and
Jane (Crichton) McNeil, came to this country with
their family of two sons and a daughter, when John
was nine years of age, and took up their residence a
few miles north of the village of Dundee, Illinois, where
they engaged in agricultural pursuits. Here it was that
their son John grew to manhood, acquiring, through
the many hardships common to all settlers at that time
in this region, the many qualities of industry and per-
severance which have since marked his career in the
business world as that of a successful merchant. He

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN McNEIL.,

was given an opportunity at an early age to make use
of the educational advantages offered by the district
schools of his locality, and upon completing all the
work which they offered, he came to Chicago at the
age of twenty-three, and entered a well-known com-
mercial college, where he pursued a thorough business
course and gained many practical ideas of business and
business methods, which were valuable and enabled him
to begin his career in the commercial world without
much hesitation because of any lack of experience.

His attendance at this college continued until his
graduation in June, 1863, at which time he went to
Elgin, Illinois, where his brother, Malcolm, had estab-
lished himself in business in a small way some four or
five years previous. During this period the business
had grown, little by little, and when the younger brother
arrived there was ample work to which he could turn

277

his attention and abundant opportunities for him to
demonstrate his ability and aptitude for this kind of
work. Being possessed of a quick and intuitive mind,
it was not long before he succeeded in making his serv-
ices of particular value, and in a few years the business,
which had hitherto been known under the name of
“Malcolm McNeil,” was changed to that of “M. & J.
McNeil.” Since then Mr. McNeil’s connection with this
firm has continued uninterruptedly and no small
share of credit is due him for the success which has at-
tended the growth of what is now one of Chicago’s
oldest and best-known wholesale grocery houses.

In 1872 the Elgin business of M. & J. McNeil was
disposed of, and the brothers came to Chicago, where,
with Mr. Charles Higgins, who had been in the whole-
sale business here for some years, the present firm of
McNeil & Higgins Company was _ established.
Throughout the early years of its existence, Mr. John
McNeil was unceasing in his efforts to advance the
interests of this firm along the lines of unquestioned
stability and superiority, his labors not being limited to
his place at his desk, but, sample case in hand, he was
no stranger to the trials of a traveling man representing
a house, the merit of whose goods had yet to be estab-
lished.

Mr. McNeil still claims Elgin as his residence, al-
though his career in Chicago dates back to the time of
the present firm’s establishment. While his labors in
this period have been chiefly along mercantile lines, he
has, nevertheless, become prominently identified with
many of the financial interests of the former place,
among them being the Home Savings and Home Na-
tional Banks, in both of which institutions he is a
director, and the West Elgin Improvement Association,
of which he is one of the principal stockholders. Like
his brother, Malcolm, he also owns a large and well-
stocked dairy farm near Elgin, from which large quan-
tities of cream and milk are sent daily to the condensing
factory.

He was married in 1864 to Miss Janet Crichton
of Dundee, Illinois, and four children have been born
to them, three of whom are boys. Two sons, both
recently have been graduated from Harvard College,
are interested in the business with their father, and the
third son is now completing his course at the same
classic institution of learning.

Mr. McNeil is a man of much public spirit, earnest
in thought and endeavor, and belongs to the ranks of
those, who, by their combined efforts, have made Chi-
cago renowned as a city, where business industry and
integrity find their reward, if conscientiously pursued.

Charles A. Morrill. If one were to go into any vil-
lage, town or city, seek out the successful and represen-
tative men and learn the story of their lives, he would
generally find a striking similarity among them. Nine
278

out of ten of the men who have been successful in their
callings have fought the battle of life uphill. Instead
of bemoaning their hard lot, they have bowed to the
inevitable, and sought to turn it to their advantage.
Instead of begging for an impossible chessboard, they
have taken the one before them and played the game.
The obstacles in their paths have been converted into
stepping-stones to higher places, thus illustrating most
_ aptly one of the salient features of our American civiliza-
tion—the opportunity offered everyone of working out
and developing the best there is in him.

For a type of the successful man, self-made and rising
from amid surroundings that would have been the un-
making rather than the making of a less sturdy individ-

 

CHARLES A. MORRILL.

ual, we could scarcely find a more fitting example for
illustration than Charles A. Morrill, of the firm of C. A.
Morrill & Co., importers and jobbers of teas. The Pine
Tree State, which has produced so many men of worth,
was the birthplace of Mr. Morrill, November 20, 1845.
Being “bound out” for a period of years, ending with
his coming of age, he was raised on the farm of his foster-
parent, David C. Morrill, in Farmington, Maine, and
here he remained until he was sixteen years of age, en-
gaged in the work of the farm under a harsh taskmaster,
and receiving no educational advantages worthy of the
name. It was not until the outbreak of the Civil war
that an opportunity presented itself for bettering his
condition. In July, 1862, he enlisted in Company G,
Seventeenth Maine Volunteer Infantry, as a private.
This regiment was mustered into the United States serv-
ice on August 18 following, and participated in all the
battles in which the Potomac army was engaged, from

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the first battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862,
to Appomattox. Out of 2,000 regiments in the Union
army, the Seventeenth Maine is ranked, in the official
records, as twenty-first in point of killed and wounded
in battle.

Mr. Morrill was stunned by a shell at the battle of
Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, and was left on the field
for dead. Upon regaining consciousness he found him-
self a prisoner, and the Confederate Army occupying
the position formerly held by the Union forces. From
the battlefield of Chancellorsville he walked to Rich-
mond, with other prisoners, where he was incarcerated
in Libby Prison and afterward on Belle Isle. Several
months later he was taken to Parole Camp at Annapolis,
Maryland, and finally returned to his regiment in the
autumn of 1863 in time to participate in the fall cam-
paigns.

At the battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, Mr.
Morrill was seriously wounded, a minie ball passing
through his body, and for seven days and nights he lay in
an army wagon on the field. He was subsequently re-
moved to Mount Pleasant Hospital, at Washington, later
transferred to Fort Schuyler, in New York Harbor, and
finally returned to his regiment while the army was in
front of Petersburg, but being too weak for field serv-
ice was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps in
Washington, where he remained until the close of the
war.

Upon his return to civil life, having saved his money
while in the army, Mr. Morrill was able to give himself
an education at the celebrated seminary at Kent’s Hill,
Maine. After leaving school he was appointed, by
reason of his faithful service throughout the war, United
States consular agent to Canada, which office he held
until the spring of 1869, at which time he went West and
took a position as traveling salesman with a St. Louis
tea importing house. He remained with this firm ten
years, and having acquired a considerable capital by his
industry and economy he began business for himself.
His first venture was in Omaha, where, together with
Mr. John Guild, he established the firm of Guild &
Morrill. A year later the firm removed to Chicago, and
the business was conducted under the same title until
December 31, 1881, when Mr. Morrill purchased his
partner's interest and established the firm of C. A. Mor-
rill & Co.

Mr. Morrill is a progressive and representative citi-
zen of Chicago. Having been the builder of his own
fortunes, he is, as a result, one of the most philosophic
of men, while his varied contact with peop!e and events
has broadened his nature and his views, and rendered
him a most interesting and entertaining companion. Of
a liberal and generous nature, he is a warm supporter
of many philanthropic and charitable movements, and
is deeply interested in everything destined to elevate
and enrich the lives of his fellow-men. He is a member
of several social organizations, among which are the
Chicago Athletic Association, the Hamilton Club and
the Masonic fraternity. He was married in 1878 to
Miss Selina Roberts of New York State, by whom he
has one daughter, Nina.

William Vernon Booth. Occupying a most promi-
nent position among Chicago’s business men is the
president of the A. Booth Company, William Vernon
Booth. Mr. Booth was born in Chicago December 22,
1856, and received his academical education in this city.
After being graduated from college, he entered the
offices of the A. Booth Packing Company, where he ap-
plied himself to mastering every detail of the business.

 

 

 

WILLIAM V. BOOTH.

This he did with characteristic energy and thorough-
ness. He accepted a position at the head of the com-
pany, after making himself perfectly familiar with the
care and handling of the different lines of products in
which this company makes a specialty—oysters, fish and
canned goods.

While he is only forty-three years of age, he has held
his present position for eleven years, and his executive
ability is shown in the wonderful success made by this
company during that period, the business being ex-
tended until it has over thirty branch houses, situated
in every city of any prominence in the country, extend-
ing from Baltimore, where are located the company’s
oyster, fruit and vegetable packing houses, to Astoria,
Oregon, where the company cans its famous Columbia
River salmon, and reaching as far north as Winnipeg,
Canada.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

279

In the conduct of its business the company operates
the well-known “Booth’s Line” of steamers, carrying
United States and Canadian mails and furnishing regu-
lar passenger and freight service on several of the routes
on the Great Lakes. They also own two of the largest
can-making factories in the country, supplying not only
the many millions of cans used annually by themselves,
but also manufacturing cans for outside custom, and
they are the largest buyers of tin plate for packing
purposes in the world. They largely control the prin-
cipal oyster beds of the country, and they are generally
recognized. as in fact they are, the largest packers of
oysters, fruits and vegetables in the world.

The company has an extensive system of cold stor-
age houses located in many of the principal cities in the
country for the accommodation, not only of its own
products, but doing a regular cold storage and ware-
house business. These houses are equipped with the
most modern machinery for chemical refrigeration. In
its various departments the A. Booth Company employs
over five thousand men, and its products reach the
markets of the entire civilized world.

Few men possess the executive ability and mental
force sufficient to enable them to successfully direct and
control such a vast business, and particularly with the
careful management required in handling perishable
goods. Many people express astonishment at the im-
mense amount of work Mr. Booth accomplishes, and
with such seeming ease, but this is explained by his sys-
tematic method and his remarkable ability in organiz-
ing. With all his responsibilities he is always pleasant,
genial and cordial.

Mr. Booth has been president and director of a num-
ber of social organizations. He is at present a member |
of the Chicago Club, Chicago Athletic Association, Chi-
cago Golf, Chicago Yacht, Onwentsia, Washington
Park, Union, Saddle and Cycle and other clubs.

He is an adept in a number of branches of athletics
and has a handsome array of go!d medals and silver cups,
won in numerous athletic contests. He keeps an un-
usually fine stable of horses, and has won many blue rib-
bons, particularly with his string of polo ponies.

Mr. Booth has a handsome house at 31 Bellevue
place, and at Forest Lake is his beautiful country place.
He was married in 1886 to Miss Helen Lester, daughter
of John T. and Mary (Shergold) Lester of Chicago.
They have two children, Agnes and Alfred.

Adolph Nathan was born May 8, 1844, at St. Soar, on
the Rhine, in Germany, the son oi Jacob and Helen
Nathan. Ee came to this country while still a boy, and
at the early age of twenty established himself upon bor-
rowed capital in a retail grocery and meat market in Lan-
caster, Wisconsin, and, as was the practice of the enter-
prising country traders of thirty vears ago, became a
buyer of cattle, hogs and farm produce of all sorts. In
280

a few years Mr. Nathan had built up one of the largest
businesses in southwest Wisconsin, and was regarded
as one of the rising financiers of what then vaguely was
spoken of as “the West” by all who lived on or east of the
headwaters of the Ohio. He justified the good opinion
of his friends and admirers by financiering the construc-
tion of the Chicago & Tomah Narrow Gauge Railway,
which afterward was purchased by the Chicago &
North-Western, and by it converted into a broad gauge
and made a part of the grand system controlled by that
great corporation. But a crisis came, in which the
voice of personal interest pleaded for one course of
action and that of public duty for another. Mr. Nathan
gave heed to the nobler call and enlisted in the Forty-

 

ADOLPH NATHAN.

first Wisconsin Volunteers, a regiment that partici-
pated in Sherman’s immortal march to the sea.

Upon the close of the war Mr. Nathan successfully
resumed a business career, and before long was attracted
to Chicago. In the spring of 1880 he became a perma-
nent resident of the Western metropolis and was one
of the organizers of what has developed into the great
wholesaling and manufacturing institution known as the
Kuh, Nathan & Fischer Company. During the whole
period of the development of this firm from a compara-
tively humble beginning to the attainment of national
renown among members of the clothing trade, Mr.
Nathan has been and still is its financial manager. In
1885 Mr. Nathan raised the first half million requisite
for the establishment of Street's Stable Car Company,
and was the first president of the corporation, serving

in that capacity from 1885 to 1888. He resigned

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

because of nervous prostration, induced by too close
application to business, and took a much-needed rest by
a six’ months’ tour in Europe.

The project of the World's Fair, which took definite
form in 1890, again called Mr. Nathan into the public
service. His eminent ability as a financier was recog-
nized by his appointment as a member of the first board
of directors of the World’s Columbian Exposition, and
he still is a member of that honorable body. Mr.
Nathan was a very active member of the ways and
means committee of the board, and finally was appointed
chairman of the committee on adjustment. This com-
mittee was charged with the very difficult task of con-
verting a deficit of $8,000,000 that stared the committee
in the face in June, 1893, into a state of solvency. As in
the war time Mr. Nathan-had left a prosperous busi-
ness to follow and defend the flag of his country, so in
1893 he gave his whole time, without recompense, to
the service of his adopted city, often wrestling unti! mid-
night with the vast and discouraging financial problem
that he had undertaken to solve. Through the agency
of Mr. Nathan's committee of adjustment more than
$4,000,000 of revenue was brought into the World’s
Fair treasury, and this, too, in the panic year of 1893.
None but those who were connected with the man-
agement of this greatest of modern enterprises knew
how perilously close to disaster its wheels ran for several
months, and by all of these Mr. Nathan is honored as
the man to whose financial skill and ceaseless industry
the escape from failure mainly was due. We have dweit
at some length upon this episode because we consider it
as affording a fine example in refutation of a charge too
frequently preferred against “the selfishness of business
men.’’ Mr. Nathan sacrificed every one of the comforts
of the wealthy position that he had won by his unaided
skill to serve the people in the \World’s Fair season, just
as he had risked a brilliant commercial future by aban-
doning his business in the war time.

Like many of our most distinguished men, Mr. Na-
than’s early educational advantages were limited to the
common schools, the high school and the business college.
His later opportunities have been in the university of the
world, and he has made good use of them. In politics
Mr. Nathan is Republican, but his main efforts in poli-
tics have been along the line of municipal reform. A
charter member of the Civic Federation, he was presi-
dent of that noble organization from May, 1897, to May,
1898. During his period of office the Federation bills
for reform of the primary election law and of the munici-
pal revenue law were passed by the General Assembly.
Mr. Nathan is general treasurer of the National -\ssocia-
tion of Merchants and Travelers. He also is a promi-
nent member of the Union League Club and the Stand-
ard Club. He also served as state commissioner for
Illinois to the Nashville Exposition.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Nathan was married early in life to Miss Rosa
Schreiber. They have three children, Louis A., Jean-
nette P. and Columbus E.

Vincent L. Price, secretary and manager of the Pan
Confection Company, and a son of Dr. V. C. Price, was
born at Waukegan, Illinois, July 30, 1871, and received
his early education in the schools of that city. At the
age of fourteen he entered Racine College, at Racine,
Wisconsin, where he remained five years, and later com-
pleted his studies at Yale.

In January, 1893, Mr. Price entered the Pan Con-
fection Company and undertook the manufacture of
candy by means of machinery. Although this enter-
prise was begun in a very small way, its business has so

 

VINCENT L. PRICE.

increased that it is now probably the largest concern of
its kind in the United States, and it has been found
necessary to construct a new plant, where, with increased
facilities, it will be possible to meet the demands of the
trade. Mr. Price has shown great ability, both as a
manager and in an executive capacity. He is popular
in trade circles and was recently honored by being
elected president of the Western Confectioner's Asso-
ciation, and at the last convention of the National Con-
tectioner’s Association of the United States he was
elected a member of the executive committee of the
Western division of that body.

Mr. Price was married in 1896 to Miss Margarette
Wilcox of Mineral Point, Wisconsin, a granddaughter
of the late George Cobb, one of the pioneers of that
State and a man of much prominence in the early history
of the West.

281

American Book Company. Among the publishers
of school and college text-books of the country, the
American Book Company undoubtedly stands first, by
reason of the volume of its business and the charac-
ter and number of its productions. Organized in 1890,
and purchasing from several of the oldest houses the
school books which were then the recognized favor-
ites in the principal lines of study, the company has
steadily increased the number of its publications, retir-
ing the older and substituting the newer as rapidly as
educational needs and public demands required. For
this reason the policy of the American Book Company
has ever been toward expansion, and in carrying out
this policy the company has been a pioneer in many
lines, in all of which its books have been conducive to
advanced educational progress.

This company was the first to recognize the vary-
ing needs of different parts of the country from an edu-
cational standpoint. A line of books which will meet
most fully the educational requirements of one section
may prove by no means the best suited for another, as
the school systems of the different commonwealths dif-
fer in many important particulars. While most publish-
ing houses turn out books prepared by educational
leaders of a single section of the country for a single
educational scale, the American Book Company is pub-
lisher, by appointment, to the whole American people.
It selects its authors in every quarter of the educational
world. If a book is such as will supply an educational
want anywhere, it is brought out and made known to
every school official or teacher to whom it is likely to
appeal. It is the policy of the American Book Com-
pany to reach out for the new, while preserving all that
is best in the old. /

Among the authors of the American Book Company
are counted sttch men as the late Professor Asa Gray of
Harvard, the eminent botanist; Professor J. D. Dana,
whose work in geology is monumental; the Honorable
William T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, Wash-
ington; President William R. Harper, University of
Chicago; Professor John Bach McMaster, University
of Pennsylvania; Dr. E. E. White of Ohio, the recog-
nized authority on pedagogics and in all matters of
educational theory and practice; Dr. Jacques W. Red-
way, F. R. G. S.; Professor Harkness, Brown Univer-
sity; Professor David B. Todd, Amherst College; Pro-
fessor Lucian A. Waite, Cornell University; Professor
Brander Matthews, Columbia College, and many other
equally well-known, eminent scholars and educators.

The American Book Company believes in new
authors, and in educational advancement. Its recent
venture in publishing the Cornell series of mathemat-
ics is illustrative of this. The mathematical department
of Cornell has become one of the foremost of the coun-
try, and its strong points have been brought to the
282

notice of the public schools of the country through the
publications of the American Book Company.

A survey of the list of publications of this company,
as well as the names of the authors of its books, will
reveal many interesting facts, and it will be easily seen
that this company is giving great attention to the mat-
ter of securing new literature, not only as regards its
school and college text-books, but in the line of supple-
mental books for reading purposes, and other educa-
tional aids. Among this class of authors we find James
Baldwin, one of the most delightful of story-tellers; Ed-
ward Eggleston, the Hoosier novelist and historian;
Frank G. Carpenter, well known as an artist and nat-
uralist and story-writer; Joel Chandler Harris, whose
“Uncle Remus” is a classic in every civilized land;
William Dean Howells, easily the first American novel-
ist; Frank R. Stockton, and others of equal note and
ability. It is a great achievement to draw such men
into the work of preparing books for the schoolroom.

The importance of keeping the editorial department
closely in touch with the educational world is shown by
the fact that in publishing houses generally the books
that succeed are in the minority. The American Book
Company never seems to have proved this rule, and
prides itself on the small percentage of failures; and the
excellent financial standing of the company is due in no
slight degree to the fact that very few of its publications
have failed to be profitabie, while many of them have
been remarkably successful. In the number and
strength of its editorial force, this company ranks first
among the school-book publishing houses of the world.

The editorial department is complete in every par-
ticular. Aside from its chief, who is a man of large ex-
perience in every line of school and college text-books,
this department has competent assistants in every
branch, including classical languages, modern lan-
guages, science, history, geography, literature, etc., and
in additional to all this, the company owns a reference
library amounting to over fifty thousand volumes, which
is placed at the disposal and use of the editorial depart-
ment.

The claims of the American Book Company to be
the greatest national book-publishing firm are substan-
tiated by its policy in extending active operations to
every important center of the country. There are three
principal central offices, viz., New York, Cincinnati and
Chicago. These three places are as convenient as any
for reaching the needs of the entire country; but he-
sides these the company maintains branch offices at
several other important points, viz., Boston, Philadel-
phia, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, and Portland, Ore-
gon, all of which are made depositories from which the
publications of the company are sent to adjacent cities,
towns, villages and country school districts.

The officers of the American Book Company at this

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

time (1899) are: Harry T. Ambrose, president; Gen-
eral Alfred C. Barnes, vice-president; Gilman H.
Tucker, secretary; Charles P. Batt, treasurer; Henry H.
Vail, chief of editorial department.

The Blakely Printing Company. It is a trait of
human nature that men like to do business with a suc-
cessful firm. It gives an object additional value if the
trademark or imprint upon it shows it to be the produc-
tion of a house which has attained success in its line.
The accumulated reputation won by years of honest ef-
fort is no small matter, and it is not the least valued
asset of The Blakely Printing Company.

“Despise not the day of small things” was said long
ago, and this company takes a pride in recalling its start,

Tet ii Cw 5

 

some twenty-eight years back, in a modest building on
a side street. In 1871 they established a primitively
equipped printing office, which by 1899 has grown to
be one of the leading houses in America for the pub-
lication of periodicals, newspapers, commercial printing
and bookmaking of the highest possible grade.

\ matter which is a source of pride to The Blakely
Printing Company is this, that among their patrons to-
day are business firms who first dealt with them twenty-
five years ago. That is something which goes to bear
witness to the honorable, energetic and satisfactory
treatment characteristic of the company.

But it is not alone on a past reputation that The
Blakely Printing Company asks continued patronage.
it is because they are alert, progressive and_ fully
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

equipped for the most exacting work, be it large or
small. At Nos. 126, 128, 130 and 132 Market street
they have a manufacturing plant large enough to meet
any demand, with an equipment of modern machinery,
devices, and all that skilled ingenuity can perfect, and a
force of experienced and artistic craftsmen competent to
execute the most difficult job. This volume of the His-
tory of Chicago is from their press.

A cordial invitation is given to all who wish to
inspect a model establishment. A personal visit or a
note of inquiry will be appreciated.

The Lakeside Press was established in 1864 by R. R.
Donnelley & Sons Company, and to-day is the most mod-
ern in equipment, and one of the largest printing and
binding plants in the country. The new building, fin-
ished May, 1897, was constructed especially for the occu-
pancy of the Press, and no pains or expense have been
spared to make it a model printing plant. It covers a
lot 100 feet square, is seven stories
high, and lighted on three sides. It
is absolutely fireproof.

The motive power is distributed by
electricity from large dynamos in the
basement, and each press and machine
is run by an individual electric motor,
attached to its driving wheel, thus
avoiding all the dust and dirt of shaft-
ing and belts. In a printing office,
where a soiled sheet is a spoiled sheet,
the great saving of this method of
transmitting power over the old-fash-
ioned methods is apparent.

The machinery in all departments
is strictly up to the times, and selected
to produce the finest work. In the
pressroom, on the third floor, where
the finest work is done, every machine
fronts a window, giving the pressman
the advantage of the best light for the
proper performance of his work. In
the pressroom in the basement are the
fast-running and self-feeding presses,
on which are run the large editions of
catalogues.

The composing-room is supplied
with large and carefully selected fonts
of all book types. Special care is
given to the electrotype fonts, which
are used for electrotyping only, and
which are never put on the press.
thus insuring perfect type for each
book.

The larger pieces of typesetting
are done by machinery, the two lead-
ing methods being employed, viz., the

283

“Empire” machines, which set type itself, as in hand-
work, and automatically “distribute” it, and the “Lino-
type’ machines, which assemble a line of matrices and
cast it as a slug or bar, whence the name—line o’ type.
When the slug has been cast the matrices forming the
line are at once automatically distributed, or returned to
their proper channels.

The linotypes are employed in getting out the —
Lakeside City Directory, which vast amount of typeset-
ting is done in the short time of one month.

The R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company make more
first-class books than all other printing offices west of
New York, and have every facility for producing the
work required by high-class publishing houses. They

also make a specialty of private editions, editions de luxe

and all books requiring taste and careful workmanship.
In the execution of fine illustrated catalogues, espe-

cially in large editions, they are practically without com-

 

 

 

 

 
284

petition, almost all of the issues during the past few
years bearing their imprint.

Their location is at the corner of Plymouth place and
Polk street.

John Marder, manager of the American Type Foun-
ders’ Company, was born at Greentown, Stark County,
Ohio, on March 5, 1835, the son of German parents,
who were pioneers in the development of the Middle
West. His schooling was not extensive and his edu-
cation came more from early contact with the world
than from books.

Mr. Marder began his business life at the age of
sixteen, when he secured a situation as clerk in a book
store in Akron, Ohio. His employers were also pro-

 

 

JOHN MARDER.

prietors of a printing office, and in his spare moments
he devoted himself to acquiring a knowledge of the
printing business. At the age of twenty-two he went
to Davenport, Iowa, where he secured a position, and
where he remained until 1860, when he came to Chi-
cago.

Arriving here, he found himself with almost no
means at his command and with no influential friends
to assist him. His search for employment was not en-
couraging, and it was some months before he secured
a position as bookkeeper in the office of the Chicago
Type Foundry, then owned by a New York firm.

In 1861 came the outbreak of the Civil war, and in
April of that year President Lincoln's call for 75,000
“ninety-day men” rang across the country. Mr. Mar-
der was among the first to respond, enlisting in Com-
pany A of the Chicago Light Artillery, and serving the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

required time. After the expiration of his enlistment he
returned to Chicago and helped to organize the artillery
company connected with the Fifty-first Regiment, Illi-
nois Volunteers, but did not go to the front with them,
as he was urged to return to his position in the type
foundry.

Two years later Mr. Marder was taken into the firm
as a partner, the business having been purchased by
Messrs. D. Scofield & Co., from the New York owners.
The new firm met with success, and in 1869 became
known as Marder, Luse & Co.

In the great fire of 1871 everything was lost, but
work was immediately resumed to place the firm upon
its former footing, and the machinery was soon in mo-
tion again. From that time on the business has grown
continually, and in 1892, the time when Marder, Luse_
& Co. became a part of the American Type Founders’
Company, it had become recognized as first among its
kind in the West.

The American Type Founders’ Company was or-
ganized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, in
November, 1892, and is composed of the various type
foundries in the country, which sold out to it on the
date of its organization.

Mr. Marder has held various offices in his company,
as Western manager and secretary, and treasurer, but
for the past few years has taken the position of Chicago
manager, which he now holds.

In politics, Mr. Marder has always been a Repub-
lican, having first voted for General Fremont for Presi-
dent. In 1886 he was elected alderman from the
Twelfth Ward, on an independent ticket, and served
two years in the council.

Jacob Manz, president of J. Manz Engraving Com-
pany, engravers, was born at Marthalen, canton of
Zurich, Switzerland, on October 1, 1837. His father
was an architect and civil engineer. After he had
completed his studies in the schools of his native place,
Mr. Manz went to Schaffhausen, a neighboring town,
where he entered the establishment of Lips & Spa-
linger, in order to learn the art of wood engraving.
After having perfected himself as much as possible in
this work, and being anxious to see the New World, he
emigrated to the United States in the summer of 1855.
Upon his arrival in this country he came directly to
Chicago, where he found employment in the firm of
S. D. Childs & Son, then the only engraving house in
the city. With the rapid growth of Chicago the de-
mand for good illustrations increased correspondingly,
and about the time of the close of the Civil war Mr.
Manz, together with Mr. A. Maas, opened a new en-
graving establishment, under the firm name of Maas &
Manz. Their first location was on the northeast cor-
ner of Clark and Washington streets, but as their trade
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

increased they moved into a larger building on the
southwest corner of Madison and Dearborn streets.

A few years later Mr. Manz purchased his partner's
interest and conducted the business at the same loca-
tion, until the fire of October, 1871, when the building
he occupied shared the fate of all the others in the busi-
ness district. Nothing daunted, however, he reopened
his establishment in the fall of 1871, choosing a
location on West Madison street, but it was not
long before the demands of the business required its
removal to a more central part of the city. A place was
found at the southwest corner of La Salle and Ran-
dolph streets, and afterward at the corner of La Salle
and Washington streets, in the Merchants’ Building,

 

 

JACOB MANZ.

and it was while in this latter location that Mr. Manz
took as partner Mr. A. Bersbach, and a few years later
F. D. Montgomery, both of whom are still interested
in the business.

During this period the new processes of zinc etch-
ing, halftone, etc., became known, and the firm were
not tardy in availing themselves of these new and im-
proved methods of producing engraved plates. Excel-
lence of work, which was always the chief aim of the
house, brought a steady increase of trade and necessi-
tated further enlargement and frequent removals to
more desirable quarters. To avoid these annoying
changes in location, the firm set about to find a build-
ing that would afford ample room for the growth of
their business, and at the same time be within a reason-
able distance of the heart of the city. The Springer
Building, at the corner of Canal and Jackson streets,

285

was finally decided upon, and in this structure, which
covers 175x200 feet, they occupy two floors, that
are specially arranged for the most expeditious and
economic handling of their large trade. A force of
nearly 150 artists and artisans are employed, and only
the most efficient methods known are used in seeking
the best results. The work of the different depart-
ments covers commercial photography, designing and
drawing, wood, metal and wax engraving, zinc etching,
halftone, color work, litho- and photo- gravure, electro-
typing and printing. Each detail of this extensive
business comes directly under the supervision of Mr.
Manz and his associates, who, by their thorough knowl-
edge and ripe experience, have placed the firm in the
foremost rank of engraving institutions in the country.

Socially, Mr. Manz holds a conspicuous place in
the German and Swiss circles of the city. He is a mem-
ber of several lodges, including the Knights of Pythias
and the Masonic Order, and he is identified with the
Schweizer Mennerchor, of which he has been president
for ten years, and with the United German Singers, of
which organization he has also been president.

W. M. Hoyt Company. The present firm of
W. M. Hoyt Company, wholesale grocers, like most
of the successful business enterprises of Chicago,
is the outgrowth of a small beginning. In 1857 Mr.
W. M. Hoyt, then a lad of twenty, opened a
small fruit business, which developed, by progres-
sive evolutions, until he was able in 1865 to pur-
chase the business of James A. Whitaker, at 101 South
Water street, where he engaged in the wholesale
grocery business. At the time of the fire of 1871 Mr.
Hoyt’s place of business was located on River street,
foot of Wabash avenue, but notwithstanding the loss
of his property there, and of his two stores on North
Dearborn street, he leased a new location at 63 South
Canal street, even while the fire was still raging across
the river.

The following year Mr. Hoyt purchased the site of
the old Fort Dearborn, Michigan avenue and River
street, opposite Rush street bridge, where he erected the
present salesroom and warehouse, so admirably adapted
to the requirements of the business. In addition to this
the company now owns Nos. 6 and 8 River street, di-
rectly opposite, in which they have their coffee and
spice mills.

The W M. Hoyt Company was incorporated under
the laws of Illinois in 1882, and the business has been
conducted in the corporate name since that time. The
officers of the company are: W. M. Hoyt, president;
R. J. Bennett, vice-president ; Arthur G. Bennett, secre-
tary and treasurer; Albert C. Buttolph and Graeme
Stewart, managers, and all of these are directors.

As this business house occupies one of the most
interesting historic spots in the Northwest, Mr. Hoyt
286

caused to be prepared and set in the wall of the build-
ing a memorial tablet, on which is engraved a sketch
of the blockhouse of the fort erected on the site in 1816,
after the massacre of 1812. On the occasion of the
unveiling this tablet in 1881, Hon. John Wentworth de-
livered an address, eulogizing the enterprise that had
erected a great emporium and conducted in it a great

 

 

 

 

THE W. M. HOYT COMPANY BUILDING.
(Site of Old Fort Dearborn.)

business of several millions annually, on the site of a
blockhouse, but recently erected for the utmost defense
against the savages.

The business of the W. M. Hoyt Company is con-
ducted without traveling men. They buy as closely as
pessible and discount all bills; sell on short time and
require prompt payment. The stability of this house
has never been questioned. It is not seriously affected
by a monetary stringency or panic, and its prominence
among the great business enterprises of the West is a
lasting monument to the pluck, industry and energy of
the men who created and continue to manage it, and
well exemplifies what was written three thousand years
ago: “‘Seest thou a man (or men) diligent in business,
he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before
mean men.”’

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The E. L. Mansure Company is one of the compara-
tively new industries of this country, within whose large
factories, filled with the most complex machinery, is
manufactured everything in the line of fringes, bindings,
ribbons, and all the little accessories required to trim
draperies, or finish the upholstery of the modern home,
the up-to-date public building, or the luxurious palace-
car. The company was founded by Mr. Mansure in
1890, believing that a sufficiently broad conception of
art had developed among the people to create a demand
for decoration in the home which should be artistic in
the highest sense. The old green and black carpet of
English manufacture had been superseded by the taste-
ful rug, and there was also a demand for draperies and
wall coverings, the proper trimming of which was an
obstinate question, inasmuch as the slow and expensive
process of making fringes by hand placed them at once
beyond the reach of all but a few. Mr. Mansure saw
that machinery must take the place of hand labor to
reduce the price of production, and that in order to
overcome the prejudice against machine-made goods
only the best materials should be used.

He selected Chicago for his business location, and in
the eight years of his establishment here his trade has

 

 

E. L. MANSURE.

been an increasing one, the specialties manufactured by
him being sold in every section of the country. In the
large factory of the company the most complex machin-
ery weaves every material, from cotton to silk, from gold
to silver, into trimmings and fringes of the most intri-
cate designs. The modern woman with “ideas” can put
into her home all of the personality of her own artistic
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

expressions, and that, too, without the necessity of using
imported goods, for in these days it is an honor to
handle American-made goods, as well as an honor to
use them. She can select her decorations and such
draperies as are necessary, take them to any dealer,
who will in turn send direct to the manufacturer and
have them embroidered in special designs, or supplied
with such trimmings as their character determines. She
is no longer compelled to take ‘stock goods because
there is no other.”
The E. L. Mansure Company may well take pride,
not only in the successful outcome of their business
enterprise, but in the appreciation of art which they are
developing among the people. The officers of the com-
pany are: E. L. Mansure, president; H. F. Walliser,

287

vice-president; P. R. Rudhart, secretary; E. R. Rowe,
treasurer.

Eckhart & Swan Milling Company. In 1874 B. A.
Eckhart and James Swan bought out the Chicago
branch of the Eagle Milling Company of Milwaukee,
and established a wholesale flour business under the
name of Eckhart & Swan. In 1884 the firm erected
extensive flouring mills at Canal and Fulton streets,
which, by subsequent additions, became the largest in
Chicago, having a daily capacity of 1,000 barrels.

Recently, however, a new mill has been erected
whose capacity is double this amount. The product

is of a high grade and finds a ready sale in the principal
markets of the United States and Europe. The annual
business of the establishment is considerably in excess
of $3,000,000.

 
CHAPTER XXV.

ee

 

 

MALTING AND BREWING.

 

 

 
 
   

HE American Malting Company
Y> was organized under the laws of
the state of New Jersey, in Septem-
ber, 1897, with a capital stock of
$30,000,000, divided equally be-
tween common and preferred 7 per
cent accumulative. Malthouses
.. Were acquired from the following:
©) The W. H. Purcell Company, L. I.

- ss Aaron Malting Company, J. Weil
Malting Company, John Carden, Jr., Carden Malting
Company, Hales & Curtiss Malting Company, Chicago
Pneumatic Malting Company, Brand, Bullen & Gund
Malting Company, Fred F. Bullen Malting Company,
all of Chicago; Milwaukee Malt and Grain Company,
Kraus-Merkel Malting Company, Hansen Hop and
Malt Company, all of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Wm.
Buchheit Malting Company of Watertown, Wisconsin;
Sohngen Malting Company of Hamilton, Ohio; How-
-ard-Northwood Malt Manufacturing Company of De-
troit, Michigan; Estate of Jacob Weschler of Erie,
Pennsylvania; Estate of C. G. Curtis of Buffalo, New
York; W. D. Matthews Malting Company of Le Roy,
New York; C. M. Warner Malting Company of Syra-
cuse, Auburn, Clyde, Jordan and Weedsport, New
York; Charles A. Stadler of New York City; the New
York and Brooklyn Malting Company of Brooklyn, New
York; Des Moines Malt House of Des Moines, Iowa;
Messrs. Neidlinger & Sons of New York, Rondout, Cay-
uga, Oswego, Sodus Point and Brooklyn, New York,
and several smaller plants. The company has recently
purchased the O’Neil line of elevators in Minnesota,
comprising some fifty elevators. These plants acquired
by the American Malting Company include about 80 per
cent of the total malting capacity of the country. The
officers of the company are: Charles A. Stadler, presi-
dent; C. A. Purcell, first vice-president and general
manager; C. M. Warner, second vice-president: Fred.

 

I, Bullen, assistant general manager; E. R. Chapman,
treasurer; Seymour Scott, general superintendent. The
directors are: A. M. Curtiss, C. A. Purcell, E. R. Chap-
man, C. M. Warner, A. C. Zinn, C. A. Stadler, Charles
Sohngen, T. L. Hansen, D. D. Weschler, R. Nunne-
macher, Seymour Scott, Grant B. Schley, George F.
Neidlinger.

Charles A. Purcell was born at New Baltimore,
New York, in 1854. His father died while the
son was in infancy, and his mother removed to

 

 

 

 

CHARLES A. PURCELL.

Freehold, near the Catskill Mountains, where he
grew up, working on a farm in summer and attending
school in winter. In 1872 he came to Oak Park and
entered the graded schools. In 1874 he went to North

288
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Bend, Nebraska, and began his life work in grain ship-
ping and general merchandise, but returned to Chicago
to go into business with his brother, Mr. W. H. Purcell,
in grain shipping. The copartnership thus formed con-
tinued till 1893, when the business was incorporated
under the name of the W. H. Purcell Company. The
Purcell brothers built the first pneumatic malt house,
when the process was in its experimental state. As it
proved to be successful, they proceeded to build the
largest malt house in the world, locating it at Chicago.
In 1897 the W. H. Purcell properties were sold to the
American Malting Company, of which Charles A. Pur-
cell was elected first vice-president and general man-
ager. In 1879 Mr. Purcell was married to the only
daughter of Dr. W. C. Gray, the widely known journal-
ist. He has two sons. The eldest lately entered Cor-
nell University.

The qualities which have given Mr. Purcell his re-
markable business success are the habits of industry
acquired on the farm, the habit of close attention to
details, exactitude and promptitude in business transac-
tions, an unvarying adherence to fair and honorable
principles, and a kindliness and generosity, which, in
addition to the confidence which his business ability
and integrity inspire, have made warm friends of his
business competitors, as well as his associates. Mr. Pur-
cell was in control of the large business of the W. H.
Purcell Company. His brother practically retiring, the
former carried it through the panic of 1893 without a
hitch, and was the unanimous choice of the stockholders
of the American Malting Company for the control of
that great interest. For recreation he takes to hunting
and boating. His record for long-distance rifle shots at
game in the Northern woods is among the best. Cool-
ness, nerve, clear-sightedness and calculation are as
characteristic of him in the woods as in the marts of
trade.

Fred F. Bullen, assistant general manager of the
American Malting Company, was born at Delaware,
Ontario County, Canada, November 25, 1853. His
parents were W. F. and Anna (Mullen) Bullen.
Mr. Bullen received his education in the common
schools of Canada. When he was fourteen years old he
came to Illinois, but shortly afterward he located in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he became employed in the
malt house of his brother, George Bullen. Three years
later he came to Chicago and accepted a partnership
in the Lill & Bullen Malting Company, later known
under the name of Geo. Bullen & Co. He held his
interest in this establishment until 1889, when he built
a malt house of his own at Fifty-second and Moffett
streets and established the firm of Fred F. Bullen Malt-
ing Company, of which he became president and treas-
urer. Mr. Bullen sold his business in September, 1897,
to the American Malting Company, and at that time

19

289

accepted the position of assistant general manager with
this corporation. He is well qualified for the duties of
his present office, as he has spent a lifetime in the
malting business, and he is thoroughly conversant with
all the details of the trade. He is also interested in the
Merchants’ Distilling Company of Terre Haute, Indi-
ana, and he is the owner of two extensive plantations of
5,000 acres each on the isthmus of Tehauntepec, Mexico.

Mr. Bullen is a member of the Chicago Athletic
Association, the Menoken Club and the Chicago Board
of Trade, in all of which organizations he possesses a
host of friends, who admire him for his business integ-
rity and ability. He has a wide acquaintance with lead-
ing men in all the branches of commerce, and he is a

 

 

 

 

 

FRED F. BULLEN.

well-read and well-versed business man, typical of the
kind that are bred amid the enterprise and thrift of
Chicago. He was married in 1883 to Miss Cora Belle
Landers, daughter of Thomas Landers of New York
City. They have one daughter, Mabel LaClare Bullen,
aged fourteen years.

Watkins, Fretts & Vincent. The origin of the
firm of Watkins, Fretts & Vincent, dealers in hops,
barley and malt, dates from 1873, when Mr. William
W. Watkins purchased a one-third interest in the firm
of Hull & Lidell, afterward known as Hull, Lidell &
Watkins. This partnership continued about four
years, when Mr. Watkins bought out the inter-
ests of his partners and continued the business under
his own name until 1886. At this time he ad-
mitted Mr. Herman Mueller to partnership, the firm
being known for a time as Watkins & Mueller.
290

A few years later Mr. G. W. Fretts became interested
in the business, and the firm title was changed, first to
Watkins, Mueller & Co., and subsequently to Watkins,
Mueller & Fretts. Mr. Mueller withdrew in 1890, and
about this time Mr. J. R. Vincent entered the firm,
which continued as Watkins, Fretts & Co. and as Wat-
kins, Fretts & Vincent, its present title.

The firm does a large business in its particular line,
and is a generous buyer on the local board. Its mem-
bers stand high in business circles and possess the re-
spect and confidence of the public. The offices of the
firm are in the Royal Insurance Building, 169 Jackson
street.

William W. Watkins, of the firm of Watkins,
Fretts & Vincent, dealers in hops, barley and malt,
was born at Trenton, New York, July 24, 1834.

 

‘WILLIAM W. WATKINS.

He is the oldest child of Phineas and Sarah Wat-
kins. He received his education in the public schools,
completing his studies in the academy at Prospect, New
York. At the age of fourteen he had the misfortune to
lose his father through death, and four years later lis
mother also died. Thus at the age of eighteen he was
left alone to battle with the world. Mr. Watkins chose
the occupation of a clerk, and entered a general mer-
chandise store at Prospect, receiving for his labors the
compensation of $15 a month. At the age of twenty-
two, four years from the time he began life for himself,
he had accumulated, through the strictest economy,
sufficient means to enable him to enter into the general
merchandise business at Prospect with his half-brother.
This partnership lasted about four years, at the end of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

which time he purchased his brother's interest in the
business, and conducted it alone until 1864. He then
removed to Franklin, Pennsylvania, where he purchased,
and became proprietor of, the United States Hotel, but
in April, 1867, he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, and
bought out what was then the Palmer House, over
which he presided until July, 1868, when he again moved
further West. This time he went to Macon City, Mis-
souri, where he purchased the North Missouri Hotel,
which he managed until.1873.

In September of that year Mr. Watkins came to
Chicago and invested in a one-third interest in the hop,
barley and malt firm of Hull & Lidell. This was the
beginning of his long and existing connection with this
industry.

Mr. Watkins has been an active member of the Chi-
cago Board of Trade since 1876. He is also a member
of various social and fraternal organizations, including
Landmark Lodge, No. 422, A. F. & A. M.; Fairview
Chapter, No. LL., R. A. M., and Montjoie Command-
ery, No. 53, K. T. He isa member of the Union League
and Douglas clubs, of which latter he was president
from 1891 to 1897. He was married in 1862 to Miss
Joanna Fretts of Richfield Springs, New York.

P. H. Rice was born in County Wexford, near to
the city of Dublin, September 9, 1847, the son
of W. R. Rice, who married Miss Mary Furlong.
As is the case with many successful men, the influence of
heredity is discernible clearly in the business career of
Mr. P. H. Rice; his father was an adept in the trade
of which he himself has proved to be a master. When
P. H. Rice was but three years of age his parents emi-
grated to the United States and settled at Belvidere.
In the public schools of this little city, and afterward
in the famous University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Mr.
Rice received his scholastic education. The larger and
higher education, that has given him a mastery over
business affairs, was gained in the university of the world.

He is a typical and thorough-going Chicagoan, hav-
ing resided in this city for thirty-five years. Mr, Rice
started in the malting and distilling business at Elgin,
Mlinois, in 1868. In 1876 he bought out the Chicago
Alcohol Works. About ten years ago he built the larg-
est malt plant in the West at Cragin, Illinois. He sold
this plant out about six years later, and now has just com-
pleted the largest malting plant in the United States, on
twenty acres, at the junction of the St. Paul, Chicago &
North-Western Railway and inner Belt lines. Mr. Rice
is deservedly proud of this, his latest, venture in the
malting business, as he now stands preéminent as a
leader of leaders in the malting world. Mr. Rice also
owns and is president of the Star Brewery. He has
done his share toward building up the great Garden City
of the West, and this fact alone has given him the right
to stand in the front rank of the most solid commercial
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

men of the day. P. H. Rice was one of the first men
to advocate the construction of elevated railroads in
Chicago. He started the Lake Street “L,” and was
president of the same for eight years. Mr. Rice is one
of the most aggressive, energetic and enterprising busi-
ness men in Chicago. He has amassed a competency

 

P. H. RICE.

by diligent labor, and to-day is one of the most solid
of all Chicago’s large property-owners. He is generous
to a fault, and has done his share in the charitable
way, looking after the orphan boys, and was largely in-
strumental in establishing the Feehanville Training
School for Boys. Mr. Rice has for the past ten years
resided on the South Side, in the Fourth Ward. He is,
however, one of the largest property-owners on the
West Side, and has always done his part to promote
the prosperity of this section of our great city.

In politics Mr. Rice is a Democrat, though he sup-
ported McKinley’s financial policy. While active in
the councils of his party, Mr. Rice steadily has declined
to hold office. He is emphatically ‘“‘a home man,” and
his name is on the roster of very few clubs. Mr. Rice
was married in July, 1878, to Mary J. Walsh, daughter
of John R. Walsh, the eminent banker of Chicago. Six
children add to the domestic gaiety of the family man-
sion, 3312 Wabash avenue.

The Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company was es-
tablished by the late Peter Schoenhofen in 1859, on
Canalport avenue, between Seward and Eighteenth
streets, the site of its present location. When the little
brew-kettle boiled for the first time forty years ago, the
whole plant occupied a single lot, 25x100 feet, which had

291

been purchased for $400. To-day the brewery buildings
cover 112,825 square feet. Every unit of this immense
piece of mechanism is perfectly balanced and_ recip-
rocally adapted to every other unit. An annual capac-
ity of 750,000 barrels is easily reached. That is the
direction in which the aims of the founder had been, and
likewise his successors, and it has been found to have
been correct.

There are few perfect breweries in the world, but the
Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company prides itself on
having one of them. It not only prides itself on its im-
mensity, but on the perfection of its equipments, and
if there is a piece of mechanism which overshadows all
others for ingenuity, it is here that it is to be found. In
the bottling department this is especially true, for here
bottling is found to be reduced to a science and the great
capacity is scarcely to be estimated by the observer, be-
cause of the clock-like regularity with which the work is
done.

The officers of the company are: Joseph Theurer,
president and superintendent ; Carl Buhl, vice-president ;
B. J. Nockin, Jr., secretary and treasurer.

Peter Schoenhofen, founder of the Peter Schoen-
hofen Brewing Company, was born at Derbach, in
the Wittlich Circuit of the Rhenish province of Prus-

 

PETER SCHOENHOFEN.

sia, on February 2, 1827, and died in Chicago,
January 2, 1893. After a common school education
he found employment in a distillery, where he remained
until he entered the army, and, following his military
service, being then twenty-four years of age, he came
to this country and secured his first situation in the
292

cider mill of a farmer, near Poughkeepsie, New York.
Remaining there for only a short time, he drifted west-
ward with the tide of progress, and during the early
fifties went to work in a small brewery operated by the
Brothers Mueller in the town of Lyons, Cook County,
Illinois. Later, he was employed by Best Bros., who
had an establishment on the lake front, near Sixteenth
street, about where the Illinois Central roundhouse now
stands, and following this he became engaged as a driver
of a beer wagon for Seipp & Lehmann. It was while
employed here that Mr. Schoenhofen was married. and
the moderate dimensions of the now extensive Seipp
establishment can be judged from the fact that on the
day of the wedding Mr. Seipp himself drove the beer
wagon and made the rounds to his customers.

Mr. Schoenhofen began business for himself in 1858,
when, together with Mathias Gottfried, he founded a
small brewery at Jefferson and West Twelfth streets,
and one year later established on Seward street, between
Sixteenth and Eighteenth streets, the nucleus of the
present enormous concern. He purchased his partner's
interest in 1872, and from that time on the business re-
mained in his control until the time of his death.

Mr. Schoenhofen was in every respect a self-made
man. Possessed of no capital, beyond good health,
frugal habits, firm resolutions and a great tenacity of
purpose, he made his way unaided from obscurity and
poverty to eminence and wealth. Pluck, energy, unre-
mitting zeal and an ever-unsatisfied ambition to get
ahead were the elements of his character that led to
his ultimate success. Of a retiring disposition, he
shunned notoriety, and, although his life was marked by
many acts of private charity, these were known only to
a few of his most intimate friends. He was a leading
member in the German circles of Chicago, and identi-
fied with several of the prominent societies. He was
married to Miss Eliza Knepper, a native of Baden, Ger-
many, a union that was blessed by seven children, five
daughters and two sons. Of these children, one son
was accidentally killed several years ago, and the other
died the year preceding his father’s death. Two of the
daughters are married to officers in the German army,
a third is the wife of Joseph Theurer, now president of
the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company, and a fourth
wedded Carl Buehl, who is vice-president of the same
establishment.

Joseph Theurer, president of the Peter Schoenhofen
Brewing Company, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, on May 24, 1852, and after a course in the public
and private schools of that city he came to Chicago in
the autumn of 1869. Up to the time of the great fire in
the month of October, two years later, Mr. Theurer was
apprenticed to Adam Baierle and K. G. Schmidt, under
whose direction he acquired his first knowledge of the
brewing business. After the fire, which destroyed the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Schmidt Brewery, Mr. Theurer returned East and re-
mained for a year in Philadelphia. In the fall of 1872
he again came to Chicago and became apprenticed at
the Bartholomae & Leicht Brewery, in whose employ
he continued for the following two years. He then
worked a season at the Clybourn avenue malt house
of J. Wacker & Co., and after that spent two years in
Philadelphia, but came to Chicago again in the early
part of 1880, and at that time became associated with
the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company, accepting
the position of vice-president and superintendent, which
he held until the death of Mr. Schoenhofen, in 1893,
when he succeeded him in the capacity of president.

Mr. Theurer occupies a position of prominence and
influence among the American-Germans of Chicago,

 

 

 

 

 

JOSEPH THEURER.

and, being one of the city’s representative and pro-
gressive citizens, he has often been urged to compete
for political honors. He has, however, invariably de-
clined to enter the political arena, much preferring to
devote himself entirely to the management and devel-
opment of the large business enterprise of which he is
the executive officer, and which, under his able direc-
tions, has continued to steadily increase.

Being of a sincere and kind-hearted nature, Mr.
Theurer is a most genial gentleman, and his striking
personality has made him popular, not alone with the
small army of employés with whom he comes in daily
contact, but also with everyone who has dealings with
him, whether of a personal or business nature. He is
a member of several of the better-known German soci-
eties and American clubs, and is vice-president of the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

United States Brewers’ Association and a.member of the
Chicago and Milwaukee Brewers’ Association.

Mr. Theurer was married in 1880 to Miss Emma
Schoenhofen, the eldest daughter of the late Peter
Schoenhofen, and has a family of two boys and two girls.

Charles H. Wacker, president of the Wacker & Birk
Brewing Company, was born at Chicago, August 29,
1856. He received his early education in the public

 

CHARLES H. WACKER.

schools of this city, and in the Lake Forest Academy,
where he remained until he was sixteen years of
age, at which time he left his studies to become
an office boy with one of the prominent Board
of Trade commission firms. Some three years later he
severed his connection with this firm, and for the fol-
lowing three years gave himself to extensive traveling
throughout the United States and Europe, returning to
Chicago after he had visited most of the European
countries and Africa.

Mr. Wacker again entered into business upon his
return, and in 1880 joined his father in establishing the
malting firm of F. Wacker & Son, which later became
known as the Wacker & Birk Brewing and Malting
Company. In addition to being the president of this
well-known establishment, Mr. Wacker is also the exe-
cutive head of the McAvoy Brewing Company and is a
director of several firms and institutions, among them
being the Corn Exchange National Bank, the Chicago
Title and Trust Company, the Western Stone Company
and the Chicago Heights Land Association, the latter
of which he is also president. He is a member of the
Commercial, Union League, Fellowship, Bankers’,

293

Merchants’, Iroquois, Germania and other clubs, and is
identified with the Chicago Athletic Association, the
Chicago Commercial Association, of which he is vice-
president, and the Art Institute, of which he is a gov-
erning member. He was a prominent director of the
World’s Columbian Exposition, and served on the Ways
and Means and other committees.

Mr. Wacker has been offered several honorable ap-
pointments and nominations, which, however, he has
invariably declined, not feeling justified in accepting any
office to which he could not devote the tine he thought
necessary for the proper discharge of all its duties.

Charles J. Vopicka, president and manager of the
Atlas Brewing Company, was born in Bohemia, Novem-

ber 3, 1857. He received his education at the high

school and at a business college at Prague, but while he
was yet a young man he came to this country and set-
tled in Racine, Wisconsin.

Mr. Vopicka came to Chicago in February, 1881, and
engaged in the dry-goods business. A year later, how-
ever, he established himself in the real estate and bank-
ing business, in which he subsequently took his brother-

 

 

CHARLES J. VOPICKA.

in-law, Mr. Otto Kubin, as a partner, and from that time
continued the business under the firm name of Vopicka
& Kubin. This firm continued until January, 1899. In
the month of April, 1891, the above firm, together with
John Kralovec, established the Atlas Brewing Com-
pany, which was formerly known as the Bohemian Brew-
ing Company of Chicago. This brewery, situated at
the corner of Blue Island avenue and West Twenty-first
street, is one of the largest and most modern in Chi-
294

cago, having a frontage of 250 feet, a depth of 125 feet
and a height of six stories. Its capacity is 125,000 bar-
rels annually. Its two brands of beer, “Genuine Bo-
hemian Lager” and “Magnet,” are claimed to be the
purest and healthiest on the market.

Mr. Vopicka was appointed a West Park commis-
sioner in 1894 by Governor Altgeld, and during his term
of service was instrumental in securing the erection of
the gymnasium and natatorium in Douglas Park. He
is a member of several of the social organizations of
Chicago, among them, the Iroquois and Illinois clubs.
He is also an honorary member of the Pilzen Cycle Club.

He was married February 3, 1883, to Miss Victoria
Kubin of Chicago. They have a family of four children.

Peter Fortune, president of the Fortune Bros. Brew-
ing Company, was born in County Wexford, Ireland,
the son of John and Dora (Dean) Fortune. Mr. For-
tune received his education in the schools of his native
land, where he remained until the summer of 1854, when
he came to this country, landing in New York and going
from thence to Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore,
and finally reaching Virginia, in which latter state he
remained until he located in Chicago in May, 1855. He
first secured employment in the freight department of
the old Galena depot, but the following year he opened
a general grocery and liquor store on the corner of Polk
and Desplaines streets, removing some years later to
the corner of Harrison and Desplaines, at which loca-
tion he continued in the same business until 1866.

In this year, together with his brother, John, he
established a small malting business near the same loca-
tion for the brewing of ale and porter. This venture
promised at the start to prove a successful one, but the
events of a few years showed a different result. It was
then decided to make a change from the brewing of ale
and porter to that of lager beer. At first people scoffed
at the idea of an Irishman launching into such a dis-
tinctly German industry, but the Fortune brothers made
up their minds that lager beer of Irish brew could be as
good in quality as that made by those from the father-
land. Success, however, crowned their efforts in time,
and a substantial business was created, the annual sales
at the present time amounting to over 90,000 barrels.

Mr. Fortune is a Democrat in his political affilia-
tions, and has held but one elective office, that of county
commissioner, to which he was elected in 1886, serving
a term of two years. His life has been too active to
permit of his engaging in much besides his regular
routine of business, all details of which come under his
personal supervision.

William O. Tegtmeyer, president of the Northwest-
ern Brewing Company, was born in Chicago on May 14,
1862, the son of Christopher and Christine (Meyerding)
Tegtmeyer.

He was educated in the public schools of Chicago

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and at the college of Bryant & Stratton. His first experi-
ence in business was obtained with his father, who was
engaged in the brick business, and later in the lumber
business, planing mill and manufacturing of packing
boxes. He became president of the Tegtmeyer Lumber
and Box Company, and continued until 1891, when he
sold his interest to his brother, Charles W. Tegtmeyer,
who is now conducting said business. After two years
of travel he returned to Chicago and became interested
in the Northwestern Brewing Company and is now presi-
dent of that organization. He is also interested in other
large enterprises and has considerable invested in real
estate in this city. He is regarded as an able financier
and ranks high among the business men of Chicago,

 

WILLIAM O. TEGTMEYER.

especially among its German-American citizens. He is
a Republican in politics, but has never aspired to
political honors. Mr. Tegtmeyer was married in 1890
to Miss Bettic Hahne, a daughter of William Hahne, a
prominent old settler of Chicago. He resides in the fine
residence district of Lake View.

Ernst Hummel was born in Wurtemburg, Germany,
April 7, 1842, the son of Frederick and Katherine
(Bayha) Hummel. When he was fourteen years of age
his parents came to America, arriving in Chicago in
May, 1856. Young Hummel was apprenticed to learn
the trade of a brewer and five years later entered the
Lill brewery in that capacity, remaining there until 1864,
when he left this establishment to accept a more respon-
sible position of a like nature with the Busch & Brand
Brewing Company. He remained in the employ of this
firm until 1880, when, together with Mr. Charles Brand,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

he established the Brand & Hummel Brewing Company
at South Chicago, the name of the establishment being
changed, in 1888, to the South Chicago Brewing Com-
pany, of which he is now president.

Mr. Hummel’s public career dates from 1876, when
he was elected north town collector, a position he filled
for a period of one year. In 1885 he was elected to the
Legislature from the Third District and served two
years. [lis next office was that of alderman, in which
capacity he served from 1890 to 1&94. In 1897 he was
elected city treasurer and served as such until the spring
of 1899.

Mr. Hummel is an enthusiastic member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Masonic

 

 

ERNST HUMMEL.

order, in which latter organization he has taken all the
degrees up to and including the thirty-second. He is
also a member of and was the first president of the
Schwaben Society, and is identified with the Harugari
Lodge, a prominent German fraternal order.

He was married in 1865 to Miss Mary Allmendinger
of Chicago. and has two children, a son, Ernst, and a
daughter, Clara.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee
was established in that city in 1848, by August Krug,
who continued it until his death in 1856. Two years
later Joseph Schlitz, a native of Mayence on the Rhine,
and who had come to Milwaukee in 1855, purchased the
brewery from the Krug estate and gave it his own name,

carrying on the business alone until 1874, when the

present stock company was organized. At this time
the four Uihlein brothers, nephews of Mr. Krug, and
who had been employed previously in the business, took

295

stock in the new company and assumed the manage-
ment of it with Mr. Schlitz as president.

On April 27, 1875, Mr. Schlitz sailed from New York
on the steamship Schiller, for the purpose of visiting
his brothers in Mayence, and on May 7 the ill-fated
steamer was lost off the coast of Scilly Islands and Mr.
Schlitz was among those who went down with the ship.
Such had been his business exactness, however, that
before his departure for Europe he made a will in which
he provided that the brewery should be continued under
the same firm name and under the management of the
Uihlein brothers, who had so long been associated with
him and had possessed his entire confidence. How well
they have conducted its affairs is perhaps best shown
by the extent of the business then and now. At the
time of Mr. Schlitz’s death the annual sales amounted to
something like 60,000 barrels, whereas, at the present
time, about 700,000 barrels of “the beer that made Mil-
waukee famous” constitute the average year’s output.
The present large brewing plant, with all its accessories,
and which is so familiar to all citizens of the cream city,
and to countless others who visit there, has been erected
under their supervision, and its great growth in the
twenty-five vears and more since the death of Mr.
Schlitz has been entirely due to their efforts.

The officers of the company remain to-day as they
were in 1875, and are as follows: Henry Uihlein, presi-
dent; Edward G. Uihlein, vice-president and manager
of the Chicago agency; August Uihlein, secretary and
treasurer; Alfred Uihlein, superintendent.

Edward G. Uihlein, vice-president of the Jos. Schlitz
Brewing Company of Milwaukee, was born at Wert-
heim, on the river Main, Baden, Germany, October 19,
1845, and is the son of Benedict and Katherina (Krug)
Uihlein. He was educated in his native town, was
graduated from the gymnasium there in 1861, after
which he entered the mercantile business, in which he
remained until he came to this country in June, 1864.

Upon reaching America he went to St. Louis, where
he obtained employment in the grocery business. He
remained there only about three years, coming to Chi-
cago in 1867, he engaging in the manufacture of oils,
supplying the house of Chase, Hanford & Co., until
January 1, 1872, at which time he took charge of the
Chicago agency of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company,
a position he still continues to hold, and in which he has
increased the sales of this agency from about 4,000
barrels a year to nearly 100,000 barrels, or about one-
seventh of the entire output of the brewery at Mil-
waukee.

Mr. Uihlein has held all the offices in the gift of the
Chicago and Milwaukee Brewers’ Association, having
been in turn secretary, treasurer and president, and holds
to-day a position of trust in the same. He has also been
a trustee of the United States Brewers’ Association. In
public affairs he has never held office, except as com-
296

missioner of the west parks, to which he was appointed
by Governor Altgeld, and in which capacity he served
three years.

He is a director of several commercial enterprises
and first vice-president of the Chicago Horticultural
Society, as well as charitable institutions, among them
being the German Hospital, Deutsche Gesellschaft, Old

 

 

EDWARD G. UIHLEIN.

People’s Home and Orphans’ Home, and is united in
membership with the Germania, Orpheus, Teutonia,
Maennerchor and German Press clubs. He is also a
member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Oriental
Consistory, S. P R. S., thirty-second degree, and is a
life member of the Art Institute.

Mr. Uihlein has traveled extensively and visited
almost all parts of the world, including Russia, Italy,
West Indies, South America, Cuba, Mexico, and has
gone as far north as Alaska on one side of the globe and
up to Spitzbergen on the other, the latter place being
visited only two weeks after Professor Andree made his
departure by balloon in his attempt to drift over the
north pole.

Mr. Uihlein’s collection of especially tropical palms
and orchids contains some of the rarest specimens found
in our lately acquired possessions, the Philippine Islands,
also Borneo, Sumatra, Ceylon, as well as from the South
and Central American states, including Mexico. The
collection is certainly one of the finest in the United
States.

He was married in January, 1875, to Miss Augusta
Manns of St. Louis, Mo. They have a family of one
son, Edgar, who is at present attending Cornell Uni-
versity, and four daughters, Clara, Olga, Ella and Melita,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

all of whom are receiving a most careful education,
especially in music and languages, of which latter are
included English, German, French and Spanish.

Henry Mayer, manager of the Chicago branch of the
Val. Blatz Brewing Company, of Milwaukee, was born
in Southern Bavaria, Germany, on March 25, 1863. His
father, Ernst Mayer, was a grain merchant, and the
owner of a large flour mill at Aichach, Bavaria, and his
mother, who before her marriage was Miss Emilie Hem-
berle, was a sister of Edward Hemberle, the distin-
guished engineer, who designed and built the Point
Bridge, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Mayer is the
second oldest in a family of twelve children. He received
the usual educational advantages afforded by the schools
of his native land, and he supplemented this training by
a course at the Polytechnic Institute, at Munich. At
the age of twenty-three he came to America, and after
reaching Chicago, which was the objective point of his
journey, he found employment as a mechanical drafts-
man with the Fred Wolf Company, manufacturers of ice
machines. A year and a half later he became book-
keeper in the bottling department of the Chicago branch
of the Val. Blatz Brewing Company, from which posi-
tion he was advanced, a short time afterward, to that of
head bookkeeper. In July, 1897, he became manager

 

HENRY MAYER.

of the Bartholomae & Roesing Brewing & Malting
Company, but in May, 1899, upon the death of Mr.
Henry Leeb, who for over twenty years had been the
Chicago manager of the Val. Blatz Brewing Company,
he returned to the employ of this company and assumed
the duties of manager. Mr. Mayer is a member of the
Germania Club, and is well known in the German-Ameri-
can circles of Chicago.
CHAPTER XXVI.

a

 

 

 

LUMBER, BUILDING AND ENGINEERING.

 

 

    
  
  
 

& DWARD HINES. No more remark-
able and extraordinary, not to say
phenomenal, instance or illustration
of the pluck and enterprise which
has made Chicago a synonym for
all that is pushing and enterprising
in the business world can be found
than represented in the history of
‘Edward Hines and the Edward
Hines Company. The earlier de-
velopment of the lumber trade of the
4 city was through men who had been edu-

cated in the carpenter or other trades in
which the whilom merchant had learned from practical
experience in the handling of lumber for construction
purposes of the needs of the building world. With the
vast increase of the business at Chicago there sprang up
a class of young men, who, from long experience in office
work in connection with the business, became, if possible,
more intimately acquainted with the wants of the con-
suming public than had been their employers and edu-
cators.

Of this class Edward Hines is one of the most con-
spicuous illustrations. Born at Buffalo, New York, July
31, 1863, the eldest of seven children and the only son
of Peter and Rose (McGarry) Hines, both of whom
were natives of the Emerald Isle, he removed with
them to Chicago in 1865, and was given the advantages
of an education in the schools of that city. At fourteen
years of age he left school to engage as a tally-boy with
the lumber inspection firm of Peter Fish & Brother, re-
ceiving a salary of $4 per week. No better school of
preparation for what was to be the future work of the
young man could have been found, his employers rank-
ing among the best in the profession of lumber inspect-
ors, and in their service the young man laid good founda-
tions for proficiency in his acquirement of a knowledge
of lumber and the conditions connected with its handling

from the vessel to the yard of the dealer, and its assort-
ing into the various grades recognized in the Chicago
market. After a few months in this occupation he en-
tered the employ of S. K. Martin, one of the largest
lumber dealers of the city, and commenced as office
boy ata salary of $4 per week, steadily worked up to and
through the various grades of office service until he
became bookkeeper and general office man, rounding
out fourteen years of faithful and diligent service, with

 

 

 

 

EDWARD HINES.

four years upon the road in the capacity of traveling
salesman, thus becoming personally acquainted with a
vast concourse of retail lumber dealers throughout all
portions of the Northwest, and learning from actual
contact with them the individual needs of the several
sections in which they were established; thereby becom-

297
298

ing of inestimable value to his enterprising employer,
while being industrious and frugal in his habits, he was
enabled to save from his salary until he had accumulated
quite a sum of money.

In 1884 the corporation known as the S. K. Martin
Lumber Company was formed, and so valuable had Mr.
Hines proved to his employer, and so great the confi-
dence felt in him by Mr. Martin, that he was taken
into the company and elected to the responsible position
of secretary and treasurer, in which position he contin-
ued until April 15, 1892, when he withdrew from the
company and proceeded to organize the corporation
which has since been known as the Edward Hines Lum-
ber Company, of which he became (and still continues)
president, with L. L. Barth (for many years his fellow-
employé with the S. K. Martin Company) as vice-presi-
dent, and C. F. Wiehe as secretary; and at once pro-
ceeded to build up a business which, within a very few
months, had attained proportions which not only aston-
ished his competitors in the trade, but won from them
the appellation (as applied to Mr. Hines) of “the young
Napoleon” of the lumber trade of Chicago. Regarding
the phenomenal success which attended the efforts of
the company during the first two years of its marvelous
development, the Northwestern Lumberman of January
6, 1894, said in an editorial, commenting upon what
was considered a marvel, even among the many exten-
sive and enterprising efforts of Chicago lumbermen:
“The sales of this company during 1893 (the second
year of its existence) reached the enormous quantity of
102,525,679 feet of lumber, with a proportionate quan-
tity of shingles and lath, the largest volume of business
recorded by any Chicago house during that year.”

Considering the business depression which prevailed
during 1893, involving all classes of commercial indus-
try, and the fact that this was but the second year of
the company’s business, the historian warmly indorses
the assertion of the Chicago Timberman of about the
same date in the statement: ‘This is an impressive
showing, and it is safe to say that no firm of equal age
in this or any other country can show results of any-
thing like a parallel nature. As a matter of fact, the
Edward Hines Lumber Company has outrivaled all the
oldest houses in the trade.” The later record of this
company but emphasizes these conditions shown for its
earlier years, their shipments in the year 1896 reaching
129,682,633 feet, while those for 1897 were 138,429,000
feet, the largest quantity of lumber handled in one year
by any one firm or company in this country, or in the
world, so far as the historian can find any record.

The life of Mr. Hines and his phenomenal business
success for the past years since the above statements
were made, have caused the reputation of the company
to suffer nothing, either in the extent of its operations
or in the excellent reputation which it has sustained

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

from the outset. This is an example of what industry,
intelligent perception of the details and conditions of a
business can enable a young man of energy and honest
purpose to accomplish. Beginning at the bottom round
of the ladder, with an eye fixed upon the possibilities
of later years, with no outside help, depending wholly
upon his own native talent, he has climbed to a most en-
viable position as one of Chicago’s leading merchants,
even before attaining the meridian of life. With all due
credit to his worthy and able coadjutors of the company,
it is no disparagement of their energy and enterprise
to assert that the. master and controlling mind in the
development of what is conceded to be the most exten-
sive strictly yard business in lumber in the world, is
due to the energy and business acumen of the subject
of this sketch. “

The Soper Lumber Company was established in
1884, succeeding the firms of Soper Bros. & Co., and the
Soper & Pond Company, both of which were reorganized
and incorporated at this time under the above title, with
a capital of $300,000. Albert Soper was made presi-
dent; James Soper, vice-president; Alexander C. Soper,
treasurer, and James P. Soper, secretary. The business
of the company had previously been confined to an ex-
tensive wholesale trade, which extended over all the
Northern states, but by the absorption of the Soper &
Pond plant, the firm succeeded to the manufacturing
branch of that company, then located at Muskegon,
Mich. These mills were continued up to 1890. Some
time previous, however, the company had purchased ex-
tensive timber lands at Menominee, Mich., and when the
above mentioned mills were discontinued new ones were
erected at that point. These mills have an annual capac-
ity of 30,000,000 feet of lumber, with shingles and lath
in proportion, and are among the most extensive in
Michigan.

Mr. Albert Soper died in May, 1890, at which time
James Soper became president, in which capacity he con-
tinued up to the time of his death, in October, 1891.
Mr. Alexander C. Soper then became the executive head
of the firm, with James P. Soper as vice-president ; Chas.
W. Hinkley, treasurer; Charles G. Poggi, secretary, and
Charles Rudderham, assistant secretary.

The yards, planing mills and docks of the company
have been located at Laflin and West Twenty-second
streets since an early day and are very extensive. The
annual sales amount to nearly 50,000,000 feet, confined
exclusively to pine and dressed lumber.

Albert Soper, founder and for many years president
of the Soper Lumber Company, was born at Rome,
N. Y., in the month of February, 1812, and died in Chi-
cago in May, 1890. Descended from English ancestors
who were early settlers on Long Island, Mr. Soper was
raised on his father’s farm near Rome, in the public’
schools of which place he received his education. Al-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

though he first learned the carpenter trade and applied
himself to it for several years, he subsequently became
engaged in the lumber business and while thus employed
erected the first planing mill in the Mohawk Valley.
Until 1865 Mr. Soper continued in the lumber and lum-
her manufacturing business at Rome, but at this time,

 

ALBERT SOPER.

desiring a larger field for his operations, he decided to
locate in Chicago, which was then coming to be regarded
as a commercial center, having a remarkable future be-
fore it.

Forming a partnership with Mr. George H. Park,
under the firm name of Park & Soper, he entered upon
the wholesale lumber business, in which he continued
to be a prominent figure until the time of his death.
The firm of Park & Soper was dissolved in 1878, Mr.
Park disposing of his interest to Mr. James Soper, a
brother of the subject of this sketch, and the firm was
continued for the following six years as Soper Bros. &
Co. In 1884 the present company was organized, of
which Mr. Soper became the president and so continued
until 1890.

Mr. Soper was a thorough business man in every
way and established a most honorable name in the busi-
ness world. Although he was not endowed in youth
with the advantages that are thrown open to the rising
generation of to-day, he was able to forge his way to the
front by the sheer force of character and ability.

He was married in 1836 to Miss Esther Farquharson
of Cherry Valley, N. Y. Five children of this union
are living: Arthur W., now president of the Safety
Heating and Lighting Company of New York; Alexan-
der C., James P., Etta A., wife of William P. Smith.

299

James Soper, a son of Philander Soper and a brother
of Albert Soper, was born at Rome, N. Y., March 18,
1830, and received his education in the common schools
and academy of that city. At the age of eighteen, hav-
ing completed the studies then offered in those institu-
tions, he entered the employ of his brother, Albert, who,
being some eighteen years his senior, was already well
established in a business of his own at Rome. Seven
years later, however, he came West and took up his
residence in Chicago, where he found employment as
foreman in the planing mill of Cobb & Gage. Being
ambitious, and moreover, of a saving disposition, it was
only a few years before he had accumulated a sufficient
ainount to purchase Mr. Cobb’s interest in the business.
The firm then became known as Gage & Soper, and so
continued until 1866, when Mr. Gage sold his interest to
Col. Wesley Brainard.

A new organization was then effected and the firm
name changed to Soper, Brainard & Co., Jonathan Slade
being the silent partner. The business was conducted
at the corner of Beach and Polk streets until 1878, at
which time Mr. Soper disposed of his interest and became
associated with his brother in the wholesale lumber busi-
ness. The firm of Soper Bros. & Co. was organized

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES SOPER.

and later became merged into the corporation known
as the Soper Lumber Company, of which Mr. Soper, at
the time, became vice-president. On the death of his
brother, Albert, in 1890, Mr. Soper. succeeded him as the
executive head and so continued until his death, in
October, 1891.

Mr. Soper was a man of the strictest integrity, pos-
300

sessing the confidence of all who knew him. He was a
member of the Presbyterian Church of Riverside, in
which suburb he resided at the time of his death, and
was a trustee of that institution.

He was twice married. The first time to Miss Mari-

etta Pond of Camden, N. Y. She died in 1875 and in
1878 he married Miss Mary E. Craighead of Dayton,
QO. One son survives of the first union and two sons and
a daughter of the second.

Alexander C. Soper, president of the Soper Lumber
Company, was born at Rome, N. Y., January 5, 1846.
He received a substantial education in the schools of his
native town and subsequently attended Hamilton Col-
lege, from which he was graduated in 1867.

He then removed to Chicago, where he found em-
ployment in the old Merchants’ Loan and Trust Com-
pany Bank. Following this he entered his father’s
lumber firm and began to learn the business, a trade
to which he has since devoted his entire time and atten-
tion.

In 1870 Mr. Soper associated himself with Mr. W. M.
Pond, and established the Soper & Pond Company,
which was later consolidated with the firm of Soper Bros.
& Co., as the Soper Lumber Company.

Mr. Soper has a thorough knowledge of the Jumber
trade and is a superior business man. For many years
he has been a prominent figure in the development of
the lumber trade in Chicago and has been honored by
being elected as president of the Lumbermen’s Ex-
change. For several years he was also president of the
Michigan Shingle Company and secretary and treasurer
of the Illinois and Georgia Improvement Company.

In politics Mr. Soper is Republican and in his re-
ligious affiliations a member of the First Presbyterian
Church. He was married in 1871 to Miss Mary E.
Pope of Rome, N. Y., a daughter of Dr. G. W. Pope of
that city. They have two children, Alexander C. Soper,
Jr., and Edward Huntington Soper.

The John Spry Lumber Company was organized in
1885, succeeding the Gardner & Spry Lumber Company,
whose affiliations with the lumber trade of Chicago date
back many years. Situated on Ashland avenue, to the
south of Twenty-second street, its yards extend along
the former thoroughfare for a distance of about 3,000
feet, reaching from the waterworks to the south branch
of the river.

This company is one of the foremost in Chicago and
has an extensive and rapidly increasing business through-
out many states. Their rule has been never to refuse an
order, and they make a specialty of supplying anything
in the lumber line direct to consumers.

John Spry, who was for many years president of the
John Spry Lumber Company, was born in Cornwall,
England, August 3, 1828, and died in Chicago, Febru-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ary 5, 1891. Coming to America in childhood, he be-
came a resident of Chicago at the age of thirteen and in
1841 secured employment in the lumber yard of An-
drew Smith.

Naturally, this position was of a humble character,
but it was the beginning of a career in the lumber world
that was both long and remarkable. Learning the
business from the bottom and gaining more and more
of an insight into it as he grew older, he was able to se-
cure a working interest in the yard of F. B. Gardner by
the time he had become twenty-seven years of age and in
1866 he purchased a general interest in the concern.

The firm of Gardner & Spry was then organized, with
H. H. Gardner as senior partner. Some three years

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN SPRY.

later this firm was succeeded by the Gardner & Spry
Lumber Company. In 1885 Mr. Gardner retired and
the John Spry Lumber Company was organized with
Mr. Spry as president. a position he continued to hold
until his death.

Mr. Spry was a man of large financial resources and
of commanding influence in the community. For many
years he was prominent in public affairs. He was one
of the earliest members of the Board of Trade and was
a prominent and influential member of the Masonic
fraternity. :

John C. Spry, president of the John Spry Lumber
Company, was born in Chicago in 1857, a son of John
Spry, one of this city’s pioneer lumbermen. He received
a liberal education in the public schools and later com-
pleted a commercial course at one of the leading business
colleges. Being the eldest son it was intended by his
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

father that he should become his associate as soon as pos-
sible, and, accordingly, when he had completed his
studies, he entered the firm of Gardner & Spry in the

 

JOHN C. SPRY.

capacity of bookkeeper. From that day to this Mr. Spry
has devoted himself to the lumber business, becoming
president of the John Spry Lumber Company upon the
death of his father, in 1891. As executive of this com-
pany Mr. Spry transacts a large business, does it quickly,
and is very progressive in his methods. In addition to
the lumber business he has extensive interests in pine
lands and devotes much of his attention to this branch
of the trade, which he understands thoroughly. He has
very liberal ideas in political and religious matters, but
he has never accepted nor been a candidate for any
elective office. His interest in politics, however, is keen,
although it serves only as a means of recreation and to
fulfill his duties as a citizen. He was married in 1879 to
Miss Jennie Wilce, daughter of the late Thomas Wilce,
also a pioneer lumberman. He is a member of the IIli-
nois and Union League clubs.

T. Wilce & Co. The lumber firm of T. Wilce & Co.
was established in 1873 by the late Thomas Wilce, then a
well-known builder and contractor; his son, Edwin P.
Wilce, being his partner in the undertaking.

Although for many years this firm handled a general
lumber business, of late years it has come to deal almost
exclusively in hardwood and is to-day perhaps best
known as the manufacturer of maple and other hard-
wood floorings, of which they are the most extensive
dealers in the country. Situated at Throop and West
Twenty-second streets, the plant of the T. Wilce Com-

301

pany is right in the heart of the lumber district, and their
yards which extend along the former thoroughfare have
a dock front of about 1,600 feet and a piling capacity of
30,000,000 feet of lumber. Tracks connecting with the
‘“Q” system extend the entire length of the yards and
afford room for the loading of fifty cars at once. The
large planing mill, 266x266 feet in dimensions, contains
twenty-two machines, all of which are employed in the
manufacture of maple and hardwood flooring.

With a view of promoting the sale of this latter ma-
terial, they began the boring of their flooring, so that it
could be nailed in place without splitting, devising a
machine of their own for that purpose. This proved to
be a success and there was an increasing demand for
their product and to-day it is shipped to all parts of this
country, and, at times, even abroad.

The firm owns and operates one double circular mill
in Leelanau County, Michigan, being at Empire. Their
total capacity is 120,000 feet a day. The yearly busi-
ness of the firm amounts to the handling in excess of
30,000,000 feet of lumber, and since it is for the greater
part hardwood, this figure represents considerably more
than an equal amount of pine.

Since the death of Mr. Thomas Wilce the affairs of
the company have been conducted by his sons, E. Har-
vey Wilce, George C. Wilce and Thomas E. Wilce.

Thomas Wilce was born at Bacastle, Cornwall, Eng-
land, July 28, 1819. He is the eldest of four children,

 

 

 

 

 

THOMAS WILCE.

and was but three years of age when his mother died and
he spent the greater part of his life, until he was twenty
years of age, at the homes of his two uncles.
802

In 1839 Mr. Wilce went to Padstow, England, where
he learned the trade of a carpenter and builder, but in
April, 1842, he took passage in the “Clio,” a sailing
vessel, for Quebec, Canada, going thence to Montreal,
where he worked at his trade for a year or more on a
salary, associating himself at the end of this time with
William Walker in opening a carpenter shop. He con-
tinued in business at Montreal, until 1848, at which time
he came to Chicago.

He at once began working at his trade and was
known here as a successful contractor and builder for
a period of nearly twenty years, when he retired with a
competency. But his retirement was not for long; he
realized that as he had a family growing up about him,
the time was fast approaching when he must needs give
a thorough business training to his sons. Accordingly,
in 1873, he purchased a planing mill at the corner of
Throop and West Twenty-second street, and with his
son, Edwin P. Wilce, began the business which is to-day
known as T. Wilce & Co.

Mr. Wilce was a liberal giver of his wealth at all
times in the interests of charitable and philanthropic en-
terprises. He also took an active interest in the welfare
of Chicago and was one of the staunchest supporters of
every movement that was intended for the general ad-
vancement of the city and its citizens.

BUILDING.

George A. Fuller Company. While New York was
still seriously considering the practicability of eighteen
and twenty-story buildings, Chicago had ceased to ex-
periment with them, and in the development of the
skeleton form of construction its architects and builders
had succeeded in obtaining a degree of perfection which
their fellows in the East have not as yet excelled. The
new lake city, which has risen, Phcenix-like, from the
ashes of the old,is a monument to the skill and enterprise
of its engineers, architects and builders. The Western-
ers saw the possibilities of the modern high building, and
with the untrammeled and unhampered energy peculiar
to their section, they set themselves to work to develop
them so far as possible.

The first great structures which arose on the shore
of Lake Michigan were in a sense a revelation to the
world, and showed the results to be attained by the in-
dulgence of a combination of genius and daring, when
not fettered by conventional conditions and restrictions.
The example of the West was not slow in being followed
in the East, but it is to Chicago: pre-eminently that we
owe to-day the pioneer development of the mammoth
structures which are so familiar to us all. No other firm
in the world perhaps has played so large a part in this
revolutionizing of the building trade as the George A.
Fuller Company, and to them primarily is due the credit
of having originated many of the actual construction
methods now in general use. Although recognized as a

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Chicago firm, they have met the large demands made
upon them for their services, by establishing branch of-
fices in New York and Boston and are thus much better
equipped to look after the details of their large business
than would be otherwise possible.

The firm has always been noted for the rapidity with
which they carry forward their operations. They have
done much to make Chicago famous in the work of rapid
construction. It is also safe to say that a major part of the
famous buildings in Chicago may be credited to them.
Among the structures they have erected for the well-
known firm of Chicago architects, Burnham & Root (now
D. H. Burnham & Co.) are the Monadnock and Kear-
sarge buildings, two of the greatest office buildings in
the world, the Rand, McNally building, the Masonic
Temple, the Woman’s Temple, the Ashland block, the
Marshall Field building, the Reliance building, the Great
Northern Theater building, and the Stewart building, and
they also erected the Equitable building at Atlanta, Ga.,
for the same firm. For Messrs. Holabird & Roche they
have built the Tacoma building, the Pontiac building, the
Wachusett and Katahdin building, the Caxton building,
the Venetian building, the Marquette building, the At-
wood building, and the State Safety building, and also
the D. S. Morgan building at Buffalo, N. Y. Among
the work done for Henry Ives Cobb, the magnificent
Chicago Athletic Club and the residence of Mr. Henry
Dibble deserve to be mentioned. For the well-known
firm of Jenney & Mundie they erected the Association
building, the New York Life building, the Trude build-
ing and the Fair building. They also erected the West-
ern Bank Note building and the Hlinois Steel Company’s
laboratory, Chas. S. Frost architect; the Lees building,
Jas. Gamble Rodgers, architect ; the Columbus Memorial
building, W. W. Boyington & Co., architects; Steinway
Hall, D. H. Perkins, architect; the Newbury building,
Jules I. Wegman, architect; and the Real Estate build-
ing, Julus Huber, architect.

Many of the structures at the World’s Fair were built
by the George .\. Fuller Company and include the work
for many well-known New York architects. For Messrs.
Mckim, Mead & White of that city they erected the
New York State building, the Puck building and the
White Star building, and the Walter Baker pavilion was
built for Carrere & Hastings. Their most noticeable
work in other cities are the construction in New York
of the Coe building, George M. Post, architect ; the Cush-
man building, Charles T. H. Gilbert, architect: the Mills
House, Earnest Flagg, architect; and the Cheesbrough
building, Clinton & Russell, architects. In Boston they
constructed the Brazer building, Chas. Gilbert, architect ;
the Wells Dana building, Winslow & Wetherall, archi-
tects; the Dean building, the Merchants’ building and
the Real Estate building. Their work in St. Louis is
well represented by the Fullerton and the Lincoln Trust
buildings. In Pittsburg they have erected the Kaufman
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

building and in Baltimore the Massachusetts building.
They also erected the new twelve-story Montgomery
Ward & Co. building in Chicago.

As an example of how rapidly the George A. Fuller
Company carry on their work, the following may be of
interest. In the erection of the New York Life building,
twelve stories high, the foundations were begun on Au-
gust 3, 1893, the steel frame was completed on Septem-
ber 29, and on December 2, steam heat was furnished the
entire building. At the Champlain building, fifteen
stories high, the foundation iron work was begun on
October 10, 1893. Between October 15, and 25, work
was stopped, pending decision as to the party wall, but
the building was ready for tenants in March, 1894.

As an instance of the ease with which this firm over-
come obstacles in building construction we may men-
tion the Reliance building, fifty-five feet wide and 200
feet high, which was erected in sections. In 1891 the
foundations, basements, and first story of this building
were slipped under the five story building which occu-
pied this site, without disturbing the tenants. Three
years later, when the leases of the upper floor expired,
the old building was pulled down and the new fourteen-
story building was erected from the second story up,
without interfering in the least with the business of the
retail dry goods store which occupies the first floor.
This building is located in the most crowded thorough-
fare in the city, and thousands of tons of material had
to be hoisted from the street, as there was no alley, and
yet there was not a single complaint from the tenant that
his business was interfered with, to the slightest degree.

The firm illustrates very forcibly the modern ten-
dency to convert the builders’ art into a great manufac-
turing industry. Under some circumstances this ten-
dency might be something to be deplored, and without
good reasons it might not seem best to have the art
turned into a trade where traffic seems to be the exclusive
object. But since the builder, as well as the architect,
is rising to a more commanding influence, it is not a
subject for regret, but for a feeling of satisfaction.

George A. Fuller, president of the George A. Fuller
Company, was born in the town of Templeton, Massa-
chusetts, in 1851. He was educated in the common
schools of Baldwinsville and Worcester, and entered
Andover College at the age of seventeen. After being
graduated from there, he entered the Boston School of
Technology, taking a special course of one year.

His first business experience was in the architect’s
office of Mr. J. E. Fuller of Worcester, his uncle. One
year later he entered the office of Messrs. Peabody &
Stearns, the prominent architects in Boston, and at the
age of twenty-five, was made a partner and given charge
of their New York office. His important work in New
York was his entire charge of the designs and construc-
tion of the Union League Club in Fifth avenue and the

303

First National Bank building, corner of Wall and Broad-
way. In 1880 he severed his connections with Messrs.
Peabody & Stearns and engaged in the building busi-
ness in partnership with Mr. C. Everett Clark, the promi-
nent Boston contractor, and opened an office in Chicago.
Tt was then his wonderful business career began. His
first contract in Chicago was the Union Club, on the
North Side. Shortly after that, he erected the Chicago
Opera House block. In 1882 the partnership of Clark
& Fuller was dissolved, and Mr. Fuller organized the
great company which now bears his name. Mr. Fuller
is the originator of the modern steel skeleton building
and he is the builder of the first building of this char-
acter that has been constructed in this country, namely,

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGE A. FULLER.

the Tacoma. He is also the first builder to adopt the
system of general contracting. He early perceived the
importance and advantage of having one firm assume
the entire responsibility. Since he started the system
of general contracting, it has become the popular method
of constructing buildings at the present time.

Mr. Fuller is a member of the Union League Club,
the Union Club, the Chicago Athletic and Washington
Park Club. He built a palatial residence for himself on
Drexel boulevard, corner of Forty-fourth street, but has
occupied it very little since its completion, as ill health
has compelled him to be absent from Chicago the
greater part of the time.

His family consists of wife and two daughters, both
of whom are married. One is the wife of Mr. H. S.
Black, the vice-president of the George A. Fuller Com-
pany, and the other is the wife of Mr. Horace Chenery
of Belfast, Me.
304

Harry 8. Black, vice-president of the George A. Ful-

ler Company, was born in the town of Cobourg, Ontario,
Canada, in 1862. He acquired his education at the
common schools of his native town. At the age of
eighteen he left home to join one of the first surveying
expeditions that went to the British possessions of the
far Northwest. On his return to civilization the cele-
brated real estate boom at Winnipeg was in full swing,
and, like many enterprising young men, he was attracted
by the possibilities that this field offered as a place for
investment and business. He spent a year in this thriv-
ing center of Northern Canada, but left there to accept a
position as traveling salesman for a wholesale woolen
house, doing a large business in British Columbia and

 

HARRY S. BLACK.

the United States. In 1882 he came to Chicago, enter-
ing the employ of Henry W. King & Co., with whom he
remained until 1885. He then associated himself with
John G. Miller & Co., and traveled extensively in their
interests through Montana and the Pacific Coast states
for the following ten years.

He entered the George A. Fuller Company in 1895
and was elected at that time to the position of vice-presi-
dent and general manager. Since his connection with
this well-known company the entire responsibility of
its management has rested upon his shoulders, due, for
the great part, to the ill health of its president, Mr. Ful-
ier. Mr. Black’s management has been most wise and
under his direction it has extended its operations to every
prominent city in the United States, and its previous
reputation for being one of the largest and most re-
sponsible construction companies has been maintained.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Black is a member of several prominent. social
organizations of the city, among which are the Chicago
Club, the Washington Park Club, the Iroquois Club, the
Illinois Club, the Chicago Athletic Association and the
Exmore Country Club. He is also identified with the
Garfield Lodge, A. F. and A. M. Politically he is a
Democrat. Mr. Black was married in 1895 to Miss
Allon M. Fuller, daughter of George A. Fuller.

McArthur Bros. Company. The well-known con-
tracting firm of McArthur Bros. Company was estab-
lished in New York state in 1855, by Archibald McAr-
thur, together with his two brothers, James and William,
and until 1893 was known under the name of McArthur
Bros. Up to 1884 its specialty was the construction of
railroads and canals, but since then the firm has under-
taken successfully all kinds of construction work, includ-
ing that of railroads, canals, streets, sewers, and all kinds
of other heavy work of this nature, as well as the erection
of buildings and bridges and the laying of their founda-
tions. The firm located in Chicago in 1874, and since
that time has done a great deal of important work
throughout the West and Northwest, although its field
of operations is by no means limited to this portion of the
country. In the line of railroad construction, which they
have donesince their establishment here twenty-five years
ago, may be mentioned the building of the larger pcrtion
of the heavy work of the Santa Fe extension from Chi-
cago to Kansas City; the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
extension to St. Paul; many of the smaller extensions of
the Manitoba Railroad in Minnesota; and similar work
for the Chicago Great Western Railroad. In 1891 and
1892 seventy-five miles of road for the Chicago. & East-
ern Illinois Railroad were constructed in the central part
of the state and there has also been considerable work of
alike nature done for the Illinois Central Railroad. Be-
tween 1884 and 1890 the company had an established
office in St. Paul; and during that time completed over
half of all the street improvements then being made in
that city, and between 1886 and 1890 about a million
dollars of street work was also done for the city of Du-
luth. For the World’s Columbian Exposition the firm
executed contract No. 1, which included a large amount
of dredging and grading of the entire grounds. They
aso erected the Horticultural building, the Dairy build-
ing, the police station, the docking on the lagoons and
numerous smaller buildings. They have recently com-
pleted Section 2 and Section 4 of the Drainage Canal for
the Sanitary District of Chicago and are now engaged on
joint contracts for portions of Sections N and O.

Among the more important building contracts in this
city which they have executed are those of the Silversmith
building, and the three-story addition to the retail store
of Marshall Field & Co., which has recently been com-
pleted without any interference with the business trans-
acted on the other floors of the building. Their con-
THe CIfY OF CHICAGO.

tracts at present are numerous and extensive, the most
prominent, perhaps, being that of the construction of
the foundation for the new Postoffice building of this
city and the building of two immense locks for the gov-
ernment on the Cumberland River, near Nashville,
Tenn.

In 1893, shortly after the death of James McArthur,
the business was incorporated under the name of McAr-
thur Bros. Company. The officers of the firm as it
stands to-day are Archibald McArthur, president; Ar-
thur F. McArthur, treasurer, and Frank M. Montgom-
ery, secretary.

Archibald McArthur, president of the firm of McAr-
thur Bros. Company, was born at Mount Morris, N. Y.,
in 1834. His father was a prominent contractor in New
York state at that time, and from him his son gained his
first knowledge of the contracting business; his educa-
tion was academic, in which he pursued a course of civil
engineering, but never followed civil engineering as a
profession.

At that time the contracting business was far differ-
ent from what it is now; without definite headquarters,

 

ARCHIBALD McARTHUR.

contractors traveled from place to place, wherever a piece
of work could be secured; these temporary locations
were generally retained only so long as was necessary
to complete the contract. In this rather itinerant mode
of life contractors saw a considerable portion of the
world. Mr. McArthur traveled through all of the United
States and Canada, Mexico, Central America, South
America, West Indies and the principal countries of Eu-
rope.
20

305

At the age of twenty-one, together with his brothers,
James and William, he became one of the firm of Mc-
Arthur Bros., which, for nearly a quarter of a century,
engaged successfully in business, with its headquarters
in New York state; its location being removed to Chi-
cago in 1873. Mr. McArthur is the principal stock-
holder in and chairman of the W. & A. McArthur Lum-
ber Company of Cheboygan, Mich., who are successors
of the firm of McArthur, Smith & Co., established in
1866.

Arthur F. McArthur, treasurer of McArthur Bros.
Company, was born at Ormal, N. Y., October 24, 1860.

 

ARTHUR F. McARTHUR.

His parents are Archibald and Keturah (Pratt) McAr-
thur.

He came to Chicago in 1874 and prepared for a col-
legiate course at the Chicago Academy, entering Har-
vard in the fall of 1878, from which institution he was
graduated with the class of 82, receiving the degree of
A. B. He then returned to Chicago and for the follow-
ing two years was connected with the Chicago yard of
the W. & A. McArthur Lumber Company of Cheboy-
gan, Mich. In 1884 he moved to St. Paul, Minn., to
take charge of the large street contracts under execution
for the city of St. Paul by the McArthur Bros. Company,
contractors, but returned to Chicago in 1890 in order to
take charge of the work being done by them in prepar-
ing the grounds of Jackson Park for the World’s Fair.
He was admitted to the firm in 1887, and in 1893 became
its treasurer.

Mr. McArthur has traveled quite extensively. In
1888 he made a trip through Egypt, the Holy Land, and
306

Continental Europe and in the winter of 1889 he spent
some months in visiting the countries of South America.
He was married in 1889 to Miss Mary S. Barnum, daugh-
ter of Mr. David Barnum of New York City.

Joseph Downey, the well-known contractor and
builder, is a self-made man in the truest sense of the
word. From his father and grandfather, both of whom
were noted contractors and builders in their time, he
has inherited much of the talent which has made his
name prominent in his chosen profession, but his success
has been chiefly won by his own individuality and the
exercise of the traits of perseverance, pluck and integrity
which were developed early in his career.

 

 

 

 

JOSEPH DOWNEY.

Mr. Downey was born at Birr, Kings County, Ire-
land, April 23, 1849. His father died when he was but
five years old, and iminediately thereafter his mother
came to America with her three children—Joseph,
Thomas and Mary. After a year or two in Cincinnati,
where she first settled, she removed to Chicago, and
in the public schools of this city Joseph received his edu-
cation. On becoming of age he determined to learn a
trade and entered into the employment of James Mc-
Graw,-a prominent contractor of that time. Mr. Dow-
ney's ability and energy were soon recognized by his
employer, and in 1874 he was taken into partnership.

Mr. Downey’s name was connected with much of
the large amount of building that was done in Chicago
after the great fire, and it is worthy of remark in this
connection that he laid the foundation of the first build-
ing erected after the fire, situated on Madison street,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

about fifty feet west of Fifth avenue, the ground at that
time being so hot as to burn the boots of the workmen.

He was the builder of the Columbia, Criterion and
Lyceum theaters, the contract for the former requiring
its completion in eighty-seven days, under a heavy pen-
alty for each day’s delay. The completion of the work
within the specified time illustrated Mr. Downey’s char-
acteristic energy. He also constructed the Polk Street
Depot, the Minnesota Block, the Franklin School Build-
ing, the Cook County Poor House, the Government bar-
racks at Fort Sheridan, the Van Buren street tunnel for
the West Chicago Railroad Company and the new IIli-
nois Central Station in this city, costing over $1,500,000.

Mr. Downey is quite a club member, being a member
of the Union League, Hlinois, Menoken and Builders’
clubs.

He has been honored by being called to fill the posi-
tion of commissioner of buildings and commissioner of
public works by Mayor Swift, during the latter’s term
in office. He was also honored by Mayor Harrison in
being named as a member of the Board of Education,
which position he is filling at present.

Mr. Downey has retired from active business and
now devotes himself to managing his own property. He
was married to Miss Lena Kleine of this city in 1885
and is now enjoying the fruits of his labors.

Charles W. Gindele. There is no city in the world
where the services of skilled engineers and experienced
general contractors are in more active demand than in
Chicago, where, owing to its rapid and marvelous
growth and development, municipal improvements and
vast private enterprises are conducted upon the most ex-
pensive scale. A leading and prominent representative
devoted to this department of industrial activity is Mr.
Charles W. Gindele, president of the Charles W. Gindele
Company, occupying spacious and eligibly situated
premises, located at 3333 La Salle street, from which
point he arranges and directs his operations, which are
national in their scope.

The inception of this business dates back to 1857,
when it was established by Mr. J. G. Gindele, father of
Mr. Gindele, who, in the early history of Chicago, car-
ried through to successful completion a greater number
of municipal improvements than any other man identified
with the contracting interests of this city. He was not
only prominent as a contractor, but was thoroughly
identified with the material growth and development of
the city, and during the years from 1861 to 1867 he
was a member, as well as president, of the Board of
Public Works of this city, and from 1867 until Decem-
ber, 1869, was president of the Illinois- Michigan Canal
Board, and from 1869 until January, 1872, when his
death occurred, he was county clerk of Cook County.
Among the enduring monuments to his engineering skill
may be mentioned the Washington and La Salle street
THE €1TY OF CHICAGO.

tunnels, as well as the first lake tunnel for water supply
for the city, of which he was a promoter. And in Mr.
Gindele’s office at the present time there hangs the origi-
nal copy of the vote of thanks passed by the city council,
January 6, 1869, which he received for the thorough and
conscientious manner in which he engineered important
undertakings for the city. In 1868 his son, Mr. Charles
W., was taken in as a member of the firm of J. G. Gindele
& Sons, and being the beginning of the business in which
he has achieved not only most substantial success, but
marked distinction. In May, 1894, he took possession
of the present premises, which he erected and arranged
especially for this purpose, and which cover an area of
100x140 feet, upon which are numerous buildings, util-

 

 

 

 

 

CHARLES W. GINDELE.

ized as offices, drafting departments, shops, warehouses,
etc., comprising the most complete establishment of its
kind in the West, and possessing every facility and con-
venience, being located on the lines of six different rail-
roads. Here he employs a competent corps of drafts-
men and assistants, while an army of experienced work-
men are given employment on the contracts which are
always inhand. In addition to numerous important con-
tracts in the way of private enterprises and for railroad
corporations, both in Chicago and throughout all sec-
tions of the country, Mr. Gindele has executed many im-
portant commissions in his line for the United States
Government, and he is at present engaged upon the
United States postoffice and courthouse at South
Omaha, Nebraska.

He constructed the battleship “Illinois,” which at-
tracted thousands of visitors at the World’s Fair, and

307

recently completed the new Calumet clubhouse, one of
the finest structures of its kind in the United States. He
commands facilities of the most complete character, en-
abling him to execute promptly and efficiently all com-
missions entrusted to his care, and bears a high reputa-
tion for the fidelity with which he guards all confided
interests. Mr. Gindele was born in Bavaria, coming to
Chicago with his father in 1852, where he has since held
a prominent position in business and social circles. He
received his education in our public schools. He is a
member of the Builders’ and Traders’ Exchange, of
which organization he was president during the World’s
Fair year (1893), being reélected to that office in Janu-
ary, 1899. He has been honored by the Masons’ and
Builders’ Association of our city (of which he is a mem-
ber) by being elected to the presidency for two terms,
and he was also a member of the joint arbitration com-
mittee who settled the great lockout strike in 1887.
He is a director of the National Association of Builders,
representing the Builders’ and Traders’ Exchange of
Chicago, and he has also been highly honored as a dele-
gate to most all the conventions held by the National
Association of Builders. He is in every way a distin-
guished representative of the important interests in
which he is successfully engaged, his wide experience,
together with thorough practical and technical knowl-
edge having enabled him to fully maintain for his estab-

lishment the high reputation and the prominent position

which it has he'd for the last half of a century.

Warren A. Wells, of the contracting firm of W. A.
& A. E. Wells, was born in 1830 in Bradford County,
Pennsylvania, of parents who were descendants from
heroes of the Revolutionary period. Attracted by the
vast resources of the undeveloped territory of the Mis-
sissippi Valley, his parents started West in 1844, reach-
ing Chicago in the fall of this year by way of the Great
Lakes. Mr. Wells’ father, who was a farmer of the thrifty
Eastern type, was not attracted by the conditions as he
found them in and about Chicago at that time, and, like
many others, he pressed on toward the more fertile re-
gions of Wisconsin, traveling by wagon, and finally locat-
ing on a tract of land near the small settlement now
called Clinton Junction. It was here that Mr. Wells
completed his common school education, which had been
begun in the East, and it was here also that he served
his first apprenticeship at the mason’s trade, thus laying
the foundation of his future success.

Mr. Wells removed from his Wisconsin home to St.
Paul, Minnesota, in the sixties, where he became en-
gaged in business until 1871, when he brought his wife
and family to Chicago. He arrived here just in time
to take an active part in the reconstruction of the city
after the great fire in October of that year, and during
this period he undertook and completed many important
contracts. Among the buildings with which he was
308

more prominently identified at that time were the old
Ixposition Building, the Times Building, the Schles-
inger & Mayer Building, the building now occupied by
Sprague, Warner & Company, and the Fowler Brothers’
packing house, which at that time was the largest estab-
lishment in the Union Stock Yards.

Several years later Mr. Wells established the present
firm, in which his sons, Addisone and Frederick A.
Wells, possess an active interest. Since that time they
have extended their operations and have become well
known in St. Louis, Detroit, Duluth and other cities
where they have executed contracts.

Among the buildings in this city which they have
erected are the Adams Express Building, the Alhambra

 

 

 

 

 

WARREN A. WELLS.

Theater Building, the Metropolitan Business College,
the Lexington Hotel and the Sibley warehouses. One
of the most difficult undertakings which they have ever
executed, and which was carried out in the most success-
ful manner, was the removal and reconstruction of Im-
manuel Church. This gigantic piece of work was exe-
cuted without a single mishap. The Studebaker Build-
ing on Wabash avenue and the entire reconstruction
and remodeling of the Studebaker Building on Michi-
gan avenue were done by this firm, as well as the con-
struction of the Hart, Shaffner & Marx Building, the
Ayer Building, the Eckhart & Swan flour mills, the
Wells Building, the Cable Piano Company’s Building
and the Monarch Cycle Building.

In St. Louis their work is ably illustrated by the
Commercial Building, in Detroit by the Hammond
Building, and in Duluth by the Palladio Office Building.

?BE GITY OF CHICAGO.

The firm has established for itself a reputation second
to none, and all the more deservedly so, perhaps, for
the reason that all contracts are executed under the
personal supervision of some member of the firm.

The Chicago Star Construction and Dredging Com-
pany is a consolidation of the two contracting compa-
nies, Hiero B. Herr & Co. and McMahon & Montgom-
ery Company, the former established in 1884 and the
latter in 1890. Both before and since consolidation they
have executed many large contracts, establishing for
themselves a reputation of being one of the most reli-
able companies of this kind in the country, and able to
successfully carry to completion all kinds of difficult
construction work.

During the vears of their existence they have com-
tributed largely to the solution of the numerous engi-
neering problems incident to the great growth of Chi-
cago. A large portion of the work pertaining to the
construction of the Lake Shore drive at Lincoln Park
and vicinity and almost all of the pile-driving and dredg-
ing in preparing the grounds, foundations and piers for
the World’s Fair at Jackson Park were done by them.

The company has completed the excavation of two
sections of the Drainage Canal, and in 1898 secured the
contract with the city for constructing the twenty-foot
tunnel from Lake Michigan to Halsted street, on Thirty-
ninth street, to conduct water from the lake to the canal.

Much work has also been done by them in Chicago
on the foundations for the heavier buildings and sub-
structures of bridges, as well as the lake tunnels for the
city, and other work of a similar nature for private cor-
porations.

Further examples of the excellent results obtained
by them are the many harbor improvements they have
executed at different points on Lake Michigan, among
others being the sea wall in the Chicago harbor, extend-
ing from Randolph street to Twelfth street, which, when
filled in, is to protect the Lake Front Park.

The company is well equipped to undertake all
classes of heavy construction work, including, besides
the various items that have been mentioned, the build-
ing of railroads. canals and docks. Many miles of the
latter have been erected by them on the Chicago and
Calumet rivers.

The officers of the company are: Hiero B. Herr,
president; James A. McMahon, vice-president ; Charles
P. Montgomery, secretary; R. S. Walsh, superintendent.

Meacham & Wright. The firm of Meacham &
Wright, manufacturers’ agents and dealers in hydraulic
cements, stucco, etc., was organized in 1874 by Florus
D. Meacham and Frank S. Wright. It is the sole dis-
tributing agents for the Utica Cement companies of La
Salle County, Illinois, and its business ramifications ex-
tend to all points throughout the country where the
Utica hydraulic cement has been known and used for
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

upward of fifty years. The firm is likewise one of the
largest dealers in imported and domestic Portland ce-
ments in the Central and Western states, and for years
it has furnished the cementing material for a large ma-
jority of the celebrated engineering and architectural
works executed in Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Kansas
City, St. Paul, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc., and
for practically all the railroads radiating from Chicago.
The well-known Utica cement, whose entire output of
3,000 barrels per diem is alone controlled and distributed
by this firm through its Chicago and St. Louis houses,
“has been exclusively used since 1853 in the construction
of the entire water supply and sewerage systems of the
city of Chicago, and largely in its gas works and cable
traction and other street railroad systems, and in its
roadway and sidewalk paving foundations.

Florus D. Meacham, of the firm of Meacham &
Wright, was born at White Hall, Washington County,
New York, on April 26, 1843. He is the son of Florus
D. and Lucinda (Church) Meacham.

 

FLORUS D. MEACHAM.

Mr. Meacham came to Chicago with his parents in
1857, and up to the time of the Civil war was engaged
‘as a clerk in the offices of the Illinois Central Railroad.
When the war broke out he would have been one of the
first to enlist had he followed his own inclinations, but
he yielded to the entreaties of his parents and remained
at home. A year later, however, when it was found that
the suppression of the rebellion was not to be as easy
as was at first thought, a number of young men, com-
posed for the greater part of employes of the large mer-
cantile houses of the city, organized the Chicago Mer-

309

cantile Battery. The name of Florus D. Meacham was
on the enlistment roll, and he went to the front with
others who had lain down their work that they might
help save the Union.

Mr. Meacham served until the close of hostilities. In
the first year of army life he took part in the Mississippi
River campaign, and in the following year went through
the siege at Vicksburg from its commencement in the
early spring until the final surrender on July 4. After
the capitulation of this place he was with General Banks
on the Red River campaign, and after this his battery
was sent to New Orleans, and subsequently took part,
under General Davidson, in the land operations against
Mobile, which was among the last of the Southern ports
to fall.

Returning to Chicago in 1865, Mr. Meacham was
mustered out with the remaining members of his battery
who had survived the three years of service in the field.
Taking up civil life where he had left it, he was engaged
in various mercantile pursuits until 1874, when, with
Mr. F. S. Wright, he organized the firm of Meacham &
Wright, dealers in Utica and Portland cements. This
business has been very successful, and is by far the largest
of its kind in the country.

Mr. Meacham is a Republican in his political affilia-
tions, and, although he has never sought office, he was
honored by the Republican County Convention of 1898
with the nomination for member of the Board of Re-
view, to which position he was elected November 8,
1898. This office, which is one of the most important to
the taxpayer, is the arbiter in all matters that pertain to
both real and personal taxation, and his election was but
a just recognition of his executive ability and his success-
ful business career.

Mr. Meacham is a member of the Loyal Legion and
of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is also identi-
fied with the Ilinois and Lincoln clubs, and has a high
standing among the business men of Chicago.

Frank §. Weight, of the firm of Meacham & Wright,
is a native of the Badger State, having been born at
Milwaukee, July 27, 1846. Heis the son of Peter B. and
Elizabeth (Ledden) Wright. Mr. Wright received his
education in the common schools of his native city and
in those of Sheboygan in the same state, to which latter
place his parents removed when he was ten years of
age. When he was fifteen, however, he gave up his
studies and came to Chicago in search of work. His
first employment was with the commission house of
Shackford & How, afterward better known, perhaps,
under the name of George M. How. Here he remained
until the spring of 1867, when, although not yet of age,
he formed a partnership with Mr. A. C. Scoville, under
the name of Scoville & Wright, and engaged in the com-
mission business at No. 44 West Lake street. This firm
had a prosperous career until January 1, 1869, when Mr.
310

Wright withdrew and entered the employ of Haskin,
Martin & Wheeler, wholesale dealers in salt and cement.
He remained with them until the formation of the pres-
ent firm of Meacham & Wright, some few years later.
Mr. Wright is a strong Republican in his political
views and a member of the Illinois Club. He takes
much interest in the welfare of the fraternal order known

 

FRANK S. WRIGHT.

as the Royal League, and as a member of its Supreme
Council was very active during its early years in building
it up and placing it on its present secure footing.

He was married January 4, 1866, to Miss Mercy A.
McClevey, daughter of Colonel Smith McClevey of Chi-
cago, and has a family of four daughters and one son.

Ernest V. Johnson, president of the E. V. Johnson
Company, son of the late George H. Johnson, an emi-
nent architect, builder and designer, and of Marie (Sal-
keld) Johnson, was born February 14, 1859, at New
York. Both parents were natives of Sheffield, England.

Mr. Johnson was educated in the common schools of
Buffalo, Ernst Academy of that city and Cooper Insti-
tute of New York City. At the age of thirteen he began
an apprenticeship in the New York office of Stephens &
Spilsbury, civil engineers, where he remained until 1878,
when he joined his father in business in Chicago. The
well-known firm of Johnson & Co. had George M. Moul-
ton as a silent partner, and upon the death of the elder
Johnson in 1879, Mr. E. V. Johnson took his father's
place, and so continued until 1880, when the Pioneer
Fire Proof Construction Company was organized, with
a capital of $400,000. Of this company Mr. Johnson
became treasurer and general manager, and from the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

date of its organization until July, 1893, had charge of
its manufacturing and contracting department. During
this time the business of fireproof construction increased
wonderfully, and many of Chicago’s large buildings, such
as The Fair, Woman’s Temple, Leiter and others, were
erected, consuming large quantities of fireproofing ma-
terial, made under patents granted to Mr. Johnson.

The large manufacturing works of the Pioneer Fire
Proof Construction Company, situated at Ottawa, IIli-
nois, and covering a ground space of over nine acres,
were designed and built under the direction of Mr. John-
son. Their annual capacity is over 50,000 tons of hollow
fireproof tile.

In May, 1892, Mr. Johnson, as president of the Hart-
ford Deposit Company, began the erection of the Hart-
ford Building, at the southwest corner of Madison and
Dearborn streets. In the success of this enterprise Mr.
Johnson takes much pride, for at the time of taking the
lease this corner had the highest ground rental of any
in the city, and it was not believed any building erected
thereon would prove a money-making investment. The
results, however, have shown otherwise. In 1889 Mr.
Johnson organized the Peerless Brick Company, of

 

ERNEST V. JOHNSON.

which he was chosen president. In 1890 he was elected
treasurer of the Great Northern Hotel Company, and
for five years served on its financial and building com-
mittees. In 1893 he sold his interest in the Pioneer Fire
Proof Construction Company, and commenced business
under his own name. He is at the present time manager
and treasurer of the Illinois Valley Clay Company, manu-
facturers and contractors of fireproof material, with a
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

large plant located at Twin Bluffs, Illinois, two miles
west of Ottawa.

Mr. Johnson is affiliated with the Union League
Club, the Chicago Athletic Association, the Builders’
Club, and is amember of the Master Masons’ Association
and of St. Bernard Commandery, 35, K. T.

The Bermudez Asphalt Paving Company takes its
name from the state of Bermudez, in the northeastern
portion of the republic of Venezuela, South America,
where the company owns and controls a vast asphalt
lake. This lake, which is in the same latitude as the
island of Trinidad, from whence comes the Trinidad
asphalt, contains a seemingly inexhaustible supply of
pure, rich asphalt, which needs no artificial treatment
to render it available for commercial purposes, and which
is shown, both by physical tests and chemical analysis,
to be far superior to all competing brands.

The use of asphalt for paving purposes may be said
to be still in its infancy, although it has gained an impetus
in the past few years that promises soon to do away with
competition from other sources. As a paving for resi-
dence and business streets, it wins its way because of
its serviceability and beauty. It will not decay, and when
made by the latest improved processes retains its elas-
ticity, even in the coldest weather. It will not chip or
grind to dust, and can be easily taken up and relaid when
repairs are necessary. The streets of Washington, New
York, Buffalo, Philadelphia and many other American
cities are object lessons of the merits of asphalt, and
it would seem that sanitary causes, if nothing else, should
make it a universal necessity. Chicago is just learning
the lesson that other American municipalities have ex-
perienced, namely, that street improvements’ should be
permanent, and that nothing short of a concrete founda-
tion will answer requirements of this kind.

It is toa great extent because of these conditions that
the Bermudez Asphalt Paving Company has assumed
a position of such power in the trade. Possessing a lim-
itless supply of the pure material, and being equipped
with every facility that is necessary in the conduct of such
a business, it has demonstrated its ability of meeting
the demands of the public with a superior grade of pav-
ing. Through its efforts, also, it has reduced the price of
street paving from $3 and $4 per square yard to $2.25,
and, in some instances, even $1.85, when it has been
found necessary to meet severe competition. As an ex-
ample of this company’s work in Chicago, its most note-
worthy achievement, perhaps, is the paving of Jackson
boulevard from the river east to Michigan avenue, one
of the finest strips of asphalt in the city. By this and
other contracts in Chicago and elsewhere the Bermudez
company has demonstrated the lasting quality and
superiority of the Bermudez asphalt, which as yet has
not been found wanting in the exacting tests of actual
experience.

311

John McGillen, vice-president and general manager
of the Bermudez Asphalt Paving Company, was born
at Chicago, November 13, 1861. He received his educa-
tion in the public schools of this city, and after complet-
ing his course in the high school, began his business
career as manager of an abstract office. Some years
later he associated himself with Mr. John Agnew, and
assisted in establishing the contracting firm afterward
known as Agnew & Co. This firm executed many large
contracts, most notable among which was the con-
struction of the Liberal Arts and Manufactures build-
ings at the World’s Columbian Exposition. In 1896 he
severed his connection with Agnew & Co. and identified
himself with the Bermudez Asphalt Paving Company, of
which he is now vice-president and general manager.

 

 

 

 

«

JOHN McGILLEN.

Mr. McGillen has been exceedingly active in local
politics. He was one of the organizers of the Cook
County Democracy, and served six years as alderman
from the Twenty-first Ward. He was at one time chair-
ian of the Finance Committee, and in addition to his
active work in the city council served his party in the
capacity of campaign manager for the elder Harrison and
for John P. Hopkins. Mr. McGillen is at all times an ac-
tive and public-spirited citizen, thoroughly interested in
everything pertaining to a higher standard of govern-
ment, and never backward in giving his support in a
good cause. He has a host of friends and is a member
of several social and political organizations, among them
the Germania and Wabansia clubs.

Rudolph Sedlaczek Blome, proprietor of the well-
known firm of Stamsen & Blome, cement paving and
concrete contractors, 1s one of the best examples of what
312 THE CITY
a young man possessing business ability can accomplish
in the metropolitan city of the West. The adage of
‘young blood will tell” seems to be especially appropriate
in this instance, for although not yet thirty years of age
it is his energy that has been the life of the firm ever
since he became connected with it.
Mr. Blome completed his course of studies in the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, following which
he pursued further work at the University of Detroit.
He then came to Chicago, intending to establish here a
branch of his father’s wine business, the main office of
which had been conducted for some years at Monroe,
Michigan. The opportunity offered, however, for him
to become identified with Mr. Joseph Stamsen in the

 

 

RUDOLPH S. BLOME.

cement paving business, and investigation showed him
that there was a more promising ‘field in Chicago for
such an undertaking, with its various branches, than
there would be in the wine business, and so he became
associated with Mr. Stamsen under the firm name still
retained. Mr. Stamsen’s health was not of the best, and
he was frequently absent from Chicago in hopes of re-
gaining strength. At these times Mr. B!ome had entire
charge, and soon gained a command of the business
which enabled him, at the subsequent death of Mr.
Stamsen, to carry it on without the slightest hesitation.

Since Mr. Blome’s connection with the business his
firm has executed nearly all the large contracts of ce-
ment paving and concrete construction in and about
Chicago and surrounding cities, besides introducing

many notable improvements in concrete construction.’

Some idea of the magnitude of this concern may be

OF CHICAGO.

gained from the fact that it has laid more than 10,000,000
feet of concrete walk, driveways, floors and pavements,
besides corresponding quantities of other cement work
for private individuals and corporations, including many
large park contracts; one of which for the West Chicago
park commissioners being the largest contract for the
construction of cement sidewalks on record. The con-
tract for the concrete work, executed by this firm in and
about the new Public Library building, also was the
largest for any public building in this country.

The firm occupies convenient and well-appointed
offices on the bank floor of the Unity Building, 79 Dear-
born street, where all business comes under the per-
sonal supervision of Mr. Blome. It may here be re-
marked that the success and envied reputation of this
firm are partially due to the fact that they solicit and
execute a first-class and superior grade of work only, as
is proven by the vast amount of their work now in use.

It is to be surmised from his middle name that Mr.
Blome is of foreign extraction. His father is Joseph
Sedlaczek, but on account of the difficulty in spelling,
as well as pronouncing, the name ‘“Sedlaczek,” Mr.
Blome secured a legal right to his mother’s maiden —
name, though still retaining his father’s patronymic by
writing it Rudolph Sed!aczek Blome.

Mr. Blome is‘a member of the Builders’ and Traders’
Exchange, the Germania Club, the Y. M. C. A. and the
Marquette Club, in all of which he takes an active in-
terest.

ENGINEERING.

Lyman Edgar Cooley, of national renown as a civil
engineer, was born at Canandaigua, Ontario County,-
New York, December 5, 1850, his parents being Albert
B. and Acksah (Griswold) Cooley. Few men of his pro-
fession in the West have been more prominently before
the public in engineering enterprises, or taken a more:
active part in the deliberations of scientific men on sub-
jects of public importance than Mr. Cooley.

As a civil and sanitary engineer, his opinion is.
eagerly sought and his services as an editor and con-
tributor to scientific journals have always elicited praise
from professional men. He was educated in the district
schools of Ontario County, in the Canandaigua Acad-
emy, and in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at
Troy, New York, from which institution he was gradu-
ated in 1874, from the civil engineering course, com-
pleting his work in two years, the only case on record:
since the school was organized in 1824.

Soon after graduation he accepted the chair of civil
engineering in Northwestern University at Evanston,
which he held until the close of the school year in 1877.
During the last two years of this time he was also en-
gaged as assistant editor of the Engineering News in
Chicago. In the following year he became chief assist-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ant to General William Sooy Smith on the bridge be-
ing constructed by the Chicago & Alton Railroad over
the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri, and from 1879
to 1884 he was engaged in a similar position on Govern-
ment improvements of the Missouri and Mississippi
rivers, with headquarters at St. Louis. In October,
1884, he returned to Chicago and became the editor
of the American Engineer, then one of the most promi-

 

LYMAN E. COOLEY.

nent engineering journals in the country. From 1885
to 1889 he was engaged in miscellaneous professional
work, serving during these years as chief assistant of
the drainage commission, consulting engineer of the
mayor upon drainage, and of the commission on the
sanitary district, boundaries of Chicago. In 1890 he
was elected chief engineer of the sanitary district, and
for the following year served in this capacity. In 1895
he became an engineering member of the Deep Water
Ways Committee, and in 1896 he was appointed a
member of the City Inspecting Sewerage Commission.
He was appointed the consulting engineer of the sani-
tary district in 1897, also organizing the Nicaragua ex-
pedition in that year, and in the early part of 1898 was
appointed advisory engineer of the Erie Canal Investi-
gating Commission.

Mr. Cooley was elected in the fall of 1891 as a trustee
of the sanitary district, to fill a vacancy, and held this
position until the fall of 1895. He was elected as a
Democrat, being the only Democrat elected that year
in Cook County or in the state of Illinois. His many
other public positions have been professional without
regard to politics. In engineering circles of the country

313

Mr. Cooley has always been prominent. He has been
a member of the Western Society of Engineers since
1876, and was secretary of this society in 1887 and 1888
and president from 1890 to 1891. He is also a member
of the American Society of Engineers. From 1886 to
1888 he was chairman of the General Committee of the
Engineering Societies of the United States on National
Public Works, an office he still continues to hold. He
is also the American vice-president of the International
Deep Water Ways Association.

Mr. Cooley was married to Miss Lucena McMillan
of Canandaigua, New York, December 31, 1874. Three
children have been born to them—W. Lyman Cooley,
born in Nebraska, October 17, 1878; Charles Albert
Cooley, born in Missouri, August 22, 1884, and Rebecca
Cooley, born in Illinois, January 7, 1886.

Alfred Noble, son of Charles and Lovina Noble,
was born near Detroit, Michigan, August 7, 1844. He
acquired his education in the common schools near his
home, in the high school at Plymouth, Michigan, and
at the University of Michigan. His first engineering
work was appointment as an assistant in the Govern-

 

 

ALFRED NOBLE.

ment survey of the Great Lakes and in the construction
of harbor works on the east shore of Lake Michigan.
In October, 1870, six months after his graduation
from the university, he was placed in charge of the
improvements of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, more famil-
iarly, perhaps, known as the Soo Canal, an enormous
piece of engineering, and one which kept him actively
engaged for a period of twelve years. Upon the com-
pletion of this work in 1882 Mr. Noble took charge of
314

a bridge for the V.S. & P. R. R. across the Red River
at Shreveport, Louisiana.

Mr. Noble went to Washington Territory in the
spring of 1883, where he took charge of the building of
a large bridge over the Snake River for the Northern
Pacific Railroad, and after its completion he engaged in
other work of a similar nature until 1886, when he went
to New York City and became the resident engineer of
the Washington bridge, across the Harlem River. In
1887, after the completion of the foundations of the
Washington bridge, he went to Cairo, Illinois, and took
charge of the Illinois Central Railroad bridge over the
Ohio River at that point.

From there he went to Memphis, Tennessee, where
he was resident engineer during the construction of a
large bridge across the Mississippi, and after its comple-
tion in 1892 he became assistant chief engineer of the
Bellefontaine bridge, then building across the Missouri
River near St. Louis for the C., B. & Q. Railroad, and of
the Alton bridge across the Mississippi near the same
place. He also held the same position during the con-
struction of a bridge across the Missouri River at Leav-
enworth, Kansas. Upon the completion of these bridges
in 1894 he returned, for the time being, to private prac-
tice. In 1895 he was appointed a member of the Nic-
aragua Canal Board by President Cleveland, to report
on the feasibility and cost of the canal, and he spent
some months in Central America studying the problem,
and after his return to the United States joined in the
preparation of the report of the board. In 1896 he was
engaged for several months on different foundation
work in New York City.

Mr. Noble was appointed a member of the United
States Board of Enginers on Deep Water Ways in 1897,
a position he still retains. He is a member of the Amer-
ican Society of Civil Engineers, of which he has served
as a director; of the Western Society of Engineers, of
which he is president, and of the Chicago Academy of
Sciences. He is also a member of the Chicago and
Technical clubs of this city and of the University and
Engineering clubs of New York.

Ralph Modjeski was born at Cracow, Poland, on
January 27, 1861, the son of Gustave and Helena Mod-
jeski.

At the age of twenty he entered the “Ecole des
Ponts et Chaussées,” at Paris, France, where he pur-
sued a course of civil engineering and from which he
was graduated in the spring of 1885 at the head of his
class. The following summer he came to America, and
in October of the same year he was appointed assistant
engineer, under George S. Morison, on the construc-
tion of the Union Pacific bridge, then building at Omaha,
Nebraska. He continued in this capacity until the com-
pletion of the bridge in the fall of 1887, when he was
sent to Athens, Pennsylvania, by Messrs. Morison &

THE CITY OF ‘CHICAGO.

Corthell of New York and Chicago, as shop inspector of
the superstructure of the Willamette (Portland, Ore.),
Nebraska City, Sioux City and Cairo bridges, all of
which were then being erected under the direction of
that firm.

In August, 1888, he returned to New York, where he
became chief draughtsman in the office of the same firm,
and in March of the following year he was transferred
to their Chicago office, where he served as assistant
engineer and chief draughtsman until May 1, 1889. At
this time the firm was changed, Mr. George S. Morison
conducting the business under his own name. Mr.
Modjeski continued in his service for the following year,
having charge during this time of the designing of the

 

 

RALPH MODJESKI.

Memphis (Tennessee) bridge, the largest pin-connected.
bridge in the world, and of various other structures.
From November, 1890, until January, 1892, he was en-
gaged as assistant engineer and chief inspector of the
Memphis (Tennessee) and Winona (Minnesota) bridges,
and from January to the following March he was assist-
ant engineer in charge of the erection of a portion of
the Memphis bridge. The following few months he
spent in California, where he was consulting engineer
in the design and construction of an irrigation plant.
Mr. Modjeski returned to Chicago and opened an
office as consulting civil engineer in the fall of 1892, and
a year later became senior member of the firm of Mod-
jeski & Nickerson, consulting engineers. This firm
continued in active practice for about a year, since
which time Mr. Modjeski has continued to practice
under his own name. In March, 1895. he was appointed
consulting engineer by the Chicago, Rock Island &
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Pacific Railroad, to design the new double-track rail-
way and highway bridge at Rock Island, consisting of
seven spans and a draw-span, the total cost of which
was $500,000. The draw-span is one of the heaviest
of its kind ever built. Six months later he received the
appointment as chief engineer of this structure on behalf
of the United States Government, in which capacity he
continued until February, 1897, when the bridge was
completed. Mr. Modjeski has designed a complete set
of standard bridges for the Northern Pacific Railway.
In the latter part of 1898 he was appointed consulting
bridge engineer to represent jointly the three railway
companies in the construction of their eight-track roll-
ing lift bridge over the Drainage Canal. He is a mem-
ber of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the
Western Society of Engineers, of the Technical Club,
and of the Union League Club. He is also a member
of the Paris ‘“Societé Amicale des Ingenieurs Civils,
Anciens Eleves cle l'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées.” He
was married in 1885 to Miss Felicie Benda of Poland
and has a family of three children.

Robert W. Hunt & Co. The engineering and in-
specting firm of Robert W. Hunt & Co., with their gen-
eral offices in The Rookery, Chicago, and branch ones
in New York, Pittsburg and Detroit, was established in
April, 1888. The firm is composed of the following
gentlemen: Robert W Hunt, John J. Cone and A. W.
Fiero. It also has a business connection with James C.
Hallsted of New York and D. W. McNaugher of Pitts-
burg, the latter gentlemen being associated under the
name of Hallsted & McNaugher.

The principal business of the firm is the inspection of
railway materials, such as rails, splice bars, bolts, nuts,
spikes and cars. They also have a special department
for the testing of the efficiency of engines and boilers,
notably city waterworks engines. In this connection
they have been employed by the city of Chicago to
supervise the construction and erection of the engines
purchased by it during the last two years, and in addition
have represented the city in the final duty tests on which
the engines were accepted. They also represented the
city of St. Paul in the same capacity, and later the city
of Buffalo.

The investigation and reporting upon manufactur-
ing establishments has become a very important branch
of their business. Some of the largest industrial con-
cerns in the United States have been reported upon by
them, and on such reports the reorganization and the
placement of bonds have been based.

In connection with the growing export trade of the
United States in both metals and machinery, the firm
has been employed by foreign purchasers to supervise
the execution of their contracts. This covers not only
railway materials, but pumping engines, cars and
bridges.

315

The senior member of the firm, Robert W. Hunt,
was identified with the manufacture of Bessemer steel
in America from its earliest introduction, and had charge
of the first Bessemer steel plant operated in America,
located at Wyandotte, Michigan, and afterward the steel
works of the Cambria Iron Company, Johnstown, Penn-
sylvania, and the Troy Steel and Iron Company, Troy,
New York. In fact, the earliest steel rails manufactured
in this country on a commercial basis were under his
direction, and it was based upon his long experience
as a manufacturer that the firm of Robert W. Hunt &
Co. was established, and the business developed. The

 

 

 

 

 

ROBERT W. HUNT.

other members of the firm are all educated engineers and
men who have had long practical experience in manu-
facturing and inspection, as well as other engineering
work. /

Mr. Hunt is a past president of the American Insti-
tute of Mining Engineers, the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers and the Western Society of Engi-
neers, and is also a member of the American Society
of Civil Engineers, and acted as secretary of the com-
mittee of that society which designed and recommended
the rail sections, which are now recognized as the
standard ones by the majority of the railroads of
the United States. Mr. Hunt’s specifications for
the ‘manufacture of steel rails are recognized as
standard ones, and his papers, contributed to
the several scientific societies to which he be-
longs, have had a very large influence upon the devel-
opment of the steel industry of America. In fact, he is
recognized as an authority on that subject, both in this
country and in Europe.
316

As necessary to their business, the firm have thor-
oughly equipped chemical and physical laboratories, in
which the assaying of ores and the analyses of metals,
oils, paints, etc., as well as the physical testing of materi-
als, are conducted. So well is the firm’s reputation es-
tablished, that they have for their patrons nearly all the
most prominent railway systems of the country, fully
75 per cent of the rails manufactured in America being
subject to their inspection.

Horace E. Horton, president of the Chicago Bridge
and Iron Company, was born in Herkimer County, New
York, on December 20, 1843, and is a descendant of
English ancestors who settled in New England prior to
1640. While still a youth he removed to Rochester,

 

 

 

 

b,

 

HORACE E. HORTON.

Minnesota, with his parents, and there remained until
he came to Chicago in 1889. Mr. Horton was for many
years prior to his location in this city engaged in the
general practice of his profession, that of civil engineer,
in conjunction with which he established a general con-
tracting business, particularly in the line of metal
bridges and structures. He became well known as a
successful bridge builder, and his name is sponsor for
many prominent structures of this character throughout
the West, and especially across the Mississippi River.
Since coming to Chicago Mr. Horton has been iden-
tified with the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company, as its
president, operating a manufacturing structural iron
plant at One Hundred and Fifth and Throop streets,
Washington Heights. His long connection with the
engineering circles of the Northwest has rendered him
admirably well fitted for the discharge of the duties
of this office, and the increased success of the Chicago

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Bridge and Iron Company has demonstrated that he
is eminently the right man in the right place. Mr. Hor-
ton is prominent in the professional and social life of
Chicago. He is a member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, the Western Society of Engineers, of
which he has been president, the Technical, Builders’
and Union League clubs and also of the Sons of the
American Revolution. He resides at 10206 Longwood
avenue, in the beautiful suburb of Tracy, on the subur-
ban line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad.

General Charles Fitz Simons was born at New York
City, December 26, 1835. At an early age he removed
with his parents to Rochester, New York, where he at-
tended the common schoo!s and later studied engineer-
ing. Mr. Fitz Simons resided in Rochester until the
outbreak of the Civil war, when he entered the Union
army as a captain in the Third New York Cavalry, being
promoted to the rank of major in May of the following
year. A month later he was wounded, and early in
1863 was obliged to resign on account of his wound.
After a few months’ rest he had sufficiently recovered
to reénter the service, and at this time he was commis-
sioned lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Fitz Simons went
to the front in October of 1863 with the Twenty-first
New York Cavalry and took part in the Shenandoah
Valley in various engagements, until July 19, 1864, when
he was again wounded during the fight at .\shby's Gap.
He was afterward placed in command of the ‘“Re-
mount” cavalry camp at Pleasant Valley, Md., where he
remained until the close of hostilities in 1865.

In June of that vear he was commissioned colonel
and ordered with his command to the Western plains.
His service then continued until July 26, 1866, when he
was mustered out of the army at Denver, Colorado, re-
ceiving the brevet rank at that time of brigadier-general.

General Fitz Simons came to Chicago soon after this
and engaged in the contracting business. For many
years he has been the senior member of the Fitz Simons
& Connell Company, contractors for public works and
other heavy work of a similar nature. This firm has car-
ried on some of the most difficu!t and important public
works in Chicago, among which are the Fullerton ave-
nue conduit, the rebuilding of the Washington street
tunnel, the substructure of all of the modern wide bridges
over the Chicago River, commencing with that of the
Rush street bridge in 1884. They have also constructed
the Van Buren street, West Division railroad tunnel,
the “Four-Mile Intake Crib” and two sections of the
Northwest lake tunnel, and various other works of im-
portance. .

General Fitz Simons has always taken an active in-
terest in the welfare of the Illinois National Guard. He
was elected colonel of the First Regiment in 1882, and
in the same year was appointed brigadier-general by
Governor Collum, and p'aced in command of the First
Brigade.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

At the outbreak of the war with Spain, in the spring
of 1898, when the quota of Illinois was called to mobilize
at Springfield, in answer to President McKinley’s call
for troops, General Fitz Simons and his staff were among
the first to respond. But when, in the so-called ‘“mobili-
zation” of the National Guard, it was found that only
regiments would be accepted—thus excluding the bri-

 

 

 

 

GENERAL CHARLES FITZ SIMONS.

gade commanders and their staffs—a new proposition
presented itself.

General Fitz Simons was finally, about the middle
of June, appointed by the President, and confirmed by
the Senate, as a brigadier-general. By this time, how-
ever, the National Guard of Illinois were scattered, as
it were, to the four winds. The large and unsanitary
camps, such as Alger, Thomas, Tampa and Jacksonville,
were doing their deadly work, and it seemed that instead
of war, pestilence was really the foe our armies encoun-
tered. Under such conditions medical skill, and not
tactical ability, was what was needed, and General Fitz
Simons declined to become a burden on the already
over-weighted roster of the army, and retired to private
life.

In the many years of his residence in this city General
Fitz Simons has taken an active and prominent part in
its growth, and his influence, both socially and profes-
sionally, has been widely felt.

Eyvind Lee Heidenreich, one of the most prominent
members of his profession, was born on Stord Island,
near Bergen, in Norway. He was educated in public
and private schools, preparatory to his matriculation
in the Polytechnic College of Throndhjem, in his native

317

country, where he graduated as mechanical engineer in
1879, and as civil engineer in 1880.

After graduation Mr. Heidenreich spent a year as
assistant chief engineer in the great establishment of
Nobel Brothers, St. Petersburg, Russia, and was spe-
clally engaged in the department of their mineral oil
works at Baku. In 1881 Mr. Heidenreich came to the
United States, bringing with him recommendations that
secured him a position as draughtsman with the Joliet
Steel Company. He was with this corporation during
the period of the construction of its great, and then un-
rivaled, ten-ton plant, and aided in its construction and
design. From 1883 to 1887 Mr. Heidenreich acted as
chief draughtsman for Mr. McLennan, who was famous
as a builder of grain elevators. By this time Mr. Heid-
enreich had acquired such confidence in his ability, and
such a circle of friends, as encouraged him to start in
business on his own account. Accordingly the firm of E.
Lee Heidenreich & Co., engineers and contractors, was
established in 1887, and after a prosperous career was
merged into the Heidenreich Company, and later the
Heidenreich Construction Company. In 1897 Mr.
Heidenreich determined to sever himself from all co-

 

EYVIND LEE HEIDENREICH.

partnerships, and opened the office of E. Lee Heiden-
reich, contracting engineer. Already he had gained high
repute as the builder of ten of the great buildings that
were attractions of the World’s Columbian Exposition,
among them were the Catifornia and Arkansas buildings
and the Art Gallery annexes. Mr. Heidenreich’s firm
was the constructor of sections L and M of the Chicago
sanitary drainage canal. The successful completion of
this great work was greatly hastened, and its cost largely
318

reduced by the use of the Heidenreich incline, now well-
known by descriptions in engineering magazines here
and abroad. Mr. Heidenreich is well known to railway
men and grain dealers as designer or contractor for not
less than thirty elevators of capacities varying from 300,-
000 to 1,500,000 bushels. Among these are the famous
Counselman elevator at South Chicago, the C. H. & D.
R. R. elevator at Toledo, Ohio, and the Mobile (Ala-
bama) elevator. Mr. Heidenreich also has been in-
trusted by the Federal Government with the construc-
tion of important works on the Hennepin Canal. He
is the patentee of the rope transmission system in grain
elevators, of the Heidenreich electric system of logging,
and of other mechanical appliances.

The enviable reputation of Mr. Heidenreich is not
confined to this country. He is favorably known to
the engineering profession of Europe through articles
contributed by him to scientific magazines, and espe-
cially by his exhaustive description and classification
of the American system of grain elevators. He is a
member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers
and of the Western Society of Engineers, and served as
president of the Scandinavian Engineering Society dur-
ing the World’s Columbian Exposition. He also is a
member and past master of South Park Lodge, No. 662,
of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons, and
holds membership in Fairview Chapter, N. A. M., is a
Knight Templar and belongs to Oriental Consistory
of S. P. N. S. of Chicago and the Medinah Temple
Shriners.

Mr. Heidenreich married, July 27, 1884, Miss Inge-
borg Kristine, daughter of Johan and Wilhelmine Behr.
There are three children, Walter Frederick Lee, Wanda
Lee and Edwin Lee.

Charles E. Loss. The theory of heredity is exemplified
finely in the business career of Mr. Charles E. Loss, who
holds a deservedly eminent position among the railroad
contractors and engineers of the Northwest. Mr. Loss
was born at Albion, Orleans County, New York, May 17,
1860, the son of Lewis M. and Eliza A. Loss. The elder
Loss was one of the oldest and most widely-known con-
tractors in the Empire State. Mr. Charles E. Loss was
educated, firstly in the public schools of his native town,
then at the high school, and subsequently at the college
in Worcester, Massachusetts, whence he graduated with
honor in the civil engineer course.

After personally supervising the construction of the
first fifty-eight miles of the E. J. & E. Railway, and
bringing to a successful conclusion other large con-
tracts in the Eastern States, Mr. C. E. Loss came to
Chicago in 1885, and built, first, seven miles of the Calu-
met Electric Railway, on Ninety-fifth street, afterward
fifty additional miles for the same company. These
were the first electric roads built in this city.
He also was builder of the Pullman Electric, the Ham-
mond, Whiting & East Chicago Electric, all in Cook

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

County, and all of them practically parts of the great
intramural system of transportation in this city. Mr.
Loss was the originator and builder of the Chicago &
Milwaukee Electric, and contractor of the Copper Range
road; and he was the builder of the Fort Dodge &
Omaha road from Tara, Iowa, to Carnarvon, in the same
state. The reduction of grades on the Chicago division
of the B. & O. road also is in process of completion
under his direction. The Olean & Salamanca (New
York) Railroad, the Ironton (Ohio) Railway, the Jalapa’
& Coatepec (Mexico) Railroad all bear impress of the
engineering and business skill of Mr. Loss. He was also
interested in the construction of section 3 of the Lachine
Canal (Canada), and in the construction of the Georgian

 

 

 

 

CHARLES E. LOSS.

Bay branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the
substructure of the great bridge of the Illinois Central
Railway over the Mississippi River, at Cairo, Illinois.

Few men, even in Chicago, though it is a city pecul-
larly generous in its welcome to strangers of ability,
have achieved success more rapidly and more deservedly
than Mr. Loss. The late George M. Pullman, Mr. T. H.
Wickes, vice-president of the Pullman Company, and the
late Columbus R. Cummings, and many others famous
in the financial and industrial circles of Chicago, have
borne testimony to the sterling ability and integrity of
Mr. Loss.

Mr. Loss has held membership in the Union, Athletic
and Iroquois clubs of this city, but has been compelled
to resign from them all on account of frequent and pro-
longed absences by pressure of business in distant states
and countries, and partly on account of the feeble health
of his late wife, who died September 30, 1899.
CHAPTER XXVIII.

 

 

 

! THE INTER OCEAN.

 

 

   

HE INTER OCEAN may be said
Y > to have been born of the great
& fire of October, 1871. When the
first number was issued, March 25,
y 1872, the remnants of the great fire
were still smoking and smoldering
and the ashes floated everywhere
on the breeze. The paper received,
too, its Associated Press franchise,
é which gave it actual life and possi-
bility of living, by purchase from the old Republican,
which, after a varying struggle, received its deathblow
in the great disaster. The Republican was started in
1865, and, notwithstanding it had two of the greatest
newspaper editors of the times successively at its head,
it had a struggling and unsatisfactory existence, which
resulted in a condition in 1871 that only a good, sound
bodyblow was necessary to end its troubles. Charles A.
Dana was the first editor of the Republican and brought
with him a great reputation, but he failed of success, and
after two or three years resigned and went back to his
Eastern home. He was succeeded by Joseph B. Mc-
Cullough, another gentleman of high reputation as a
newspaper man, but he, too, was unable to successfully
push the Republican forward. With his departure it
went from bad to worse, when the fire found it. The
stockholders and creditors were glad to receive a paltry
$10,000 for the Associated Press franchise, which ap-
parently was the only asset the paper had left. J.
Young Scammon, well known throughout the state as
lawyer, banker and capitalist, purchased this franchise
and started The Inter Ocean. Notwithstanding the
failure of Messrs. Dana and McCullough on the Re-
publican, they both afterwards made great successes,
the one as the editor and builder up of the New York
Sun, the other as the editor of the St. Louis Globe
Democrat.
' The Inter Ocean, from the beginning, was radically

Republican and earnestly American in all things. The
Chicago Tribune, which for years had been the leading
Republican paper of Chicago and the Northwest, in
1872 bolted the nomination of General Grant, thus
leaving a wonderful field open to The Inter Ocean.
This great advantage was seized upon, and before the
campaign of 1872 was over The Inter Ocean had largely
supplanted the Tribune in Republican households.
The Weekly Inter Ocean gained an enormous circula-
tion, especially throughout the Northwest. It was
earnest, full of ideas and aggressively for Republican
principles, which greatly pleased the sturdy Repub-
licans of the country. In 1873 Frank W. Palmer, then
a Representative in Congress from the Des Moines
(lowa) district, purchased an interest in the paper and
became the editor. Mr. Palmer was a popular gentle-
man, with a wide acquaintance, and added to the popu-
larity of the paper. The financial troubles of 1873 were
disastrous, however, to the fortunes of Mr. Scammon,
and the troubles of The Inter Ocean began, coming to a
crisis in the fall of 1875, when the old Inter Ocean
Company, on account of an accumulation of debts,
failed, and the paper was sold to a new corporation
called the Inter Ocean Publishing Company and came
under the control of William Penn Nixon and _ his
brother, Dr. O. W. Nixon. There were three more
years of struggle, when, if it had not been for the income
of the weekly edition, which then had a circulation of
nearly 150,000 copies, the daily must have failed, but,
with the advent of new perfecting presses and other
labor-saving machinery, it was brought safely through
in good condition in readiness to catch the better times
that came in the early eighties. In all its troubles The
Inter Ocean never lost its place as the leading Re-
publican paper of the West. By both leaders and the
rank and file of the party it was looked to as a guide
and a mouthpiece. One of the most marked features
showing the influence of the paper was in the change

319
820

of sentiment on the question of protection in the great
Northwest. The Chicago Tribune, the St. Paul
Pioneer-Press and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, three
leading papers of the Northwest, had for years been
talking tariff reform and tariff for revenue until almost
the entire Republican press of the Northwest was more
or less tainted with their heresies. At the very begin-
ning of its existence The Inter Ocean combated these
heresies and became the untiring advocate of the pro-
tective policy. As a result, within ten years, there was
a complete change in the tone of the press of the
Northwest. For a long time after Mr. Medill secured
control of the Tribune he still continued to throw the
weight of his influence for tariff reform, which generally
meant free trade in disguise, but eventually even he
was compelled by the great revolution that had been pro-
duced among the people to change the entire tone of
his paper.

It was through its devotion to the cause of protec-
tion that The Inter Ocean was brought in close associa-
tion with Major William McKinley, then a Representa-
tive in Congress from Ohio. Major McKinley was the
able and persistent advocate of protection principles,
and a common purpose brought the paper and the man
together, and long before the people had considered
him for the presidency his fame was being systematic-
ally built up through its columns. Whether he was
candidate for Congress or for governor or campaign-
ing only for the good cause, a representative of The
Inter Ocean was with him, and through the columns of
the paper the man and his deeds became household
words among the Republicans of the Northwest.

The first office of The Inter Ocean was on Con-
gress street, between Wabash and Michigan avenues,
where the Auditorium now stands. In 1873 it moved
to Lake street, near the corner of Clark. In 1880 it
removed from Lake street to 85 Madison street, be-
tween State and Dearborn. From the time of its estab-
uishment at the last-mentioned place it became a pros-
perous institution, although it still lacked the abundant
capital to push forward so great an enterprise. With
the exception of a period of three years in the early
ninéties, Mr. Nixon was in absolute control of the paper
as general manager and editor, from 1875 to 1897.
Speaking of that period, a recent writer says:

“The Inter Ocean has always been a reliable and
clean newspaper. Through all the changes which
newspaper-making has undergone during the past ten
years, changes mostly for the worse, it has never been
tainted with sensationa!ism or yellowness. It has been
edited with a regard for the moral and religious senti-
ment of the public. It has observed with great watch-
fulness the amenities and the decencies of life. It has not
trespassed upon the private rights of citizens, has not
intruded upon the personal affairs of citizens, has not

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

smirched private character through sheer wantonness,
and I may truly say of it that all its failings have leaned
to virtue’s side. Withal, it has been none the less a
good newspaper. I don’t think it has ever failed to
print a valuable piece of news. It has been fair in polit-
ical discussion. An extreme Republican newspaper and
an ultra-protectionist, it has wielded an immense in-
fluence among the solid, conservative, thinking people
of Chicago and the Northwest, not by resorting to
abuse, but by making the utmost out of arguments cal-
culated to appeal to a reasoning constituency. There
is not a stain upon its career. There is nothing in its
record that Mr. Nixon or his associates need feel
ashamed of. It has fought a good fight and been an ob-
ject lesson to the peopie of Chicago and of the country.
It has never deviated a hair’s breadth from the path
of rectitude.”

The Inter Ocean had always been conservatively and
economically managed until May, 1891, when Mr.
Nixon sold a large block of stock to H. H. Kohlsaat,
and he became publisher and manager of its finances
and business. He was entirely new to newspaper busi-
ness and newspaper work. He had been very success-
ful as the proprietor of a bakery and also in real-estate
speculations and brought with him to the new task a
confidence born of his previous successes. He started
The Inter Ocean on a new career in the way of spending
money. He ran it for three years on the high-pressure
plan, and the result was that in those three years the
paper lost more money than the entire losses and costs
of the paper and plant for all the years previous to the
time at which he came into the company. There
seemed but one way for Mr. Nixon to protect himself
and the minority stockholders, and that was by repur-
chasing the stock held by Mr. Kohlsaat. This he did,
and on the third day of May, 1894, again took over
the complete control of the paper. The heavy debt that
those three years left on the concern and the advent of
three years of unexpectedly hard times made it neces-
sary for him to relinquish control, which he did through
sale of the majority of the stock to Charles T. Yerkes,
in July, 1897.

This sale brought an abundance of capital into the
concern and insured the future of the paper. Although
this purchase was made in midsummer, there was no
publication of the fact, nor was there any change in the
editorial force or management until the following
November. On the 18th day of that month Mr. George
Wheeler Hinman, late of the New York Sun, became
editor-in-chief and manager of the paper. Under the
new arrangement Mr. Nixon continued as publisher.
In announcing the change in the ownership, on No-
vember 21, 1897, The Inter Ocean said:

“The Inter Ocean appears to-day for the first time
under the active management of its new owners, and it
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

will endeavor to maintain the high standard long ad-
hered to in its columns.

“Tt will give special attention to literature, politics,
art, sciences and the welfare of this city. It will oppose
the Chicago newspaper trust, whose evils it recognizes
and whose abuses it has experienced. It will advocate
giving to all newspapers who desire it Associated Press
news and any other news which it will be desirable for
the people to have.

“Tt will take special care that this news shall be
truthful; that facts only beneficial to the people shall
be printed, and it will oppose and expose false and
sensational articles, which are used so generally nowa-
days for catch-penny purposes.

“Tt will combat falsehood and hypocrisy wherever
they are exposed, whether in a newspaper, a public
office, or a pulpit. It will criticise public officials fear-
lessly and fairly, but the sanctity of the home will be
recognized and private character will be respected.

“Tt will be loyal to the principles of the Republican
party and will fight to retain them intact against the
assaults of socialists, anarchists and their allies in the
Democratic party. It will defend at all times the sys-
tem of protection and the gold standard, the bulwarks
of our prosperity. It will be an unwavering advocate
of a strong, though pacific, foreign policy, and will
never surrender a point of national honor.

“It will assist in building up Chicago and in show-
ing to the world the advantages of this coming metrop-
olis of the continent. Its columns will not be in the
service of any man or party who would use them for
selfish ends, and its policy will be straightforward, inde-
pendent and courageous, without fear or favor.”

This announcement made quite a sensation among
the newspaper fraternity that was not confined to the
city of Chicago. Independent, thinking people were
pleased at the announcement that the trust newspapers
of Chicago were to be combated and exposed by a news-
paper in their own city, one, too, that was in the hands
of men who were fearless and capable and well informed
as to what they had to contend with.

The general public, both in Chicago and the coun-
try at large, know how well that promise has been
kept. Carrying out its own idea in regard to the news
business, the management of The Inter Ocean sought
every available source for the collection of news. The
only prominent newspaper in the country that was not
in the power of the Associated Press was the New York
Sun. It was well known that that newspaper had one
of the most complete and valuable news services, both
foreign and domestic, that any paper in America en-
joyed. The managers of the Associated Press had tried
in every way to induce the management of the Sun to
join it. When, however, all their importunities failed,
they pronounced the Sun “antagonistic” and forbade

ai

821

any of its members from buying of or selling to the
Sun. The foreign news at that period was very im-
portant, and the foreign news of the Associated Press
was very inefhcient and meagre. To supplement this
Associated Press news the management of The Inter
Ocean made arrangements for the purchase of the for-
eign news of the Sun. As soon as they learned of this
action there was a great hubbub among the officials and
managers of the Associated Press, and The Inter Ocean
was warned to cease having any dealings with the Sun
and to publish no more of that paper’s foreign or do-
mestic news, threatening it with deprivation of the As-
sociated Press news and expulsion irom the associa-
tion. To prevent this, The Inter Ocean began a suit to
enjoin the Associated Press from carrying out its inten-
tion to cut off The Inter Ocean's news service. _ The case
was fully argued before Judge Waterman of the Circuit
Court. While he refused to grant the injunction, he
pronounced the By-Law under which the officers of the
Associated Press took this action illegal and the con-
tract based upon it void. This decision was rendered
Friday, March 4, and, though notice of appeal was
given, the Associated Press, without any notice or
warning, at midnight, Saturday, March 5, 1898, sud-
denly and unexpectedly stopped serving news to The
Inter Ocean. Anyone at all familiar with newspaper
work will know that at that time of night and at that
time of week was the very worst period at which such
action could have been taken. But for the fact that sev-
eral wires from the New York Sun office were placed at
the service of the paper, The Inter Ocean, on Sunday
morning, must have made a poor showing to its readers.
As it was, however, the absence of the Associated Press
news was hardly missed.

At that time an Associated Press franchise in Chi-
cago was considered worth at least $100,000, and it is
doubtful if one could have been purchased at double that
sum. It was thought by many, both inside and outside
the Associated Press, that no newspaper could live with-
out that service, and, in fact, had not The Inter Ocean had
the money to buy and the energy and determination to
collect the news, the action of the Associated Press man-
agement would have proved disastrous. As it was, in
alliance with the New York Sun, it built up a news
service for itself different from that published by the
other Chicago newspapers, and by many of the best
judges considered very superior to any of them.

Recurring to the suit, the Appellate Court, meekly
bowing to the influence of the trust press, affrmed the
judgment of the court below. The case was then taken
to the Supreme Court of the state, and after nearly two
years from the time of the beginning of the first suit, the
judges of the Supreme Court sent down a unanimous
decision, which sustained every position of The Inter
Ocean, declaring the By-Law under which the officers
322

of the Associated Press acted illegal and the contracts
between the Associated Press and its members void. It
further decided that the Associated Press was a com-
mon carrier of news and must deliver the goods with-
out partiality to all newspapers that desired it and would
pay for it. This decision was like a thunderbolt in the
camp of the trust newspapers, and as it affected nearly
all the important newspapers of the country, the atten-
tion of the whole world was called to this triumph of
The Inter Ocean—a triumph, in fact, of a single news-
paper against an organization composed of all the other
papers of the country. The principle involved in that
case is so important that it will probably be for years
one of the leading cases in trust litigation.

This decision, coming so closely on the verdict of
“Not guilty” in the case of Mr. Hinman, editor of The
Inter Ocean, who was charged by Mr, Kohlsaat, edi-
tor of the Times-Herald, with criminal libel on him
(Kohlsaat), gave a prestige to The Inter Ocean before
the people that it had never before enjoyed. In that
case, like the case of the-Associated Press, all the trust
newspapers had combined to aid Mr. Kohlsaat in se-
curing the conviction of Mr. Hinman, and his defeat
was a practical verdict against them. It is very rare for
a newspaper to win two such very important cases in so
short a time. They were little more than a month
apart.

On the heels of the decision of the Supreme Court
The Inter Ocean brought suit against the Associated
Press for $500,000 damages. This suit is being pressed
with the vigor and energy characterized by the news-
paper, and it is difficult to see how the newspaper can
fail of success. The overbearing manner of the Asso-
ciated Press, its dictatorial course, and the evident de-
sire of its managers to do all possible injury to The
Inter Ocean at the time of stopping the service, will
certainly bear hardly on the organization when it gets
before the courts.

In the meantime The Inter Ocean has aggressively
pursued the way marked out, and has added to its fame
as a leader in American thought. Always Republican
and always American, it has led in the movement for
national expansion, and proved itself an able and force-
ful defender of the administration of President McKinley
during the troublesome times of the Spanish war and
the agitation over the new questions resulting from that
war. Whether it was the crushing of the rebellion in
the Philippines, the acceptance of Porto Rico at the
hands of her people, the settlement of the troubles in
Cuba, or defense of the conduct of the war, The Inter
Ocean has stood by the administration, fighting its bat-
tles in the name of the American people. When a con-
spiracy was formed to disgrace Secretary of War Alger
and smirch the administration on account of the con-
duct of the war, The Inter Ocean was one of the few

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

metropolitan dailies that bravely fought the combina-
tion until General Alger was vindicated and the course
of the administration approved. When the coun-
try was shocked—almost paralyzed—by the news of the
horrible crime, the sinking of the Maine, The Inter
Ocean, quick to see the results foreshadowed, said:
This is the beginning of a contest, the end of which will
be the expulsion of Spain from the West Indies. With-
in six months these words were proved prophetic.
By this course The Inter Ocean has made its hold upon
its Republican constituency more secure than ever, and
it stands to-day, as it did twenty years ago, for Repub-
lican principles and American ideas, and is their repre-
sentative champion.

William Penn Nixon came to Chicago in 1872 to accept
the position of business manager of The Inter Ocean, and
has continued in the service of that paper ever since. Most

 

WILLIAM PENN NIXON.

of the time, from 1875 to 1897, he had entire control of the
paper, being both editor and general manager. Since Mr.
Nixon became connected with The Inter Ocean the city of
Chicago has grown from a population of 300,000 to one of
2,000,000, and in the enterprise and energy that caused this
wonderful growth and prosperity he was not an unim-
portant factor. Few citizens are better known. He was
born in the little town of Newport, Wayne County, Indiana.
He was the youngest child of his parents. Graduated at
Farmer's College, Ohio, afterward took the four years’
course in the law department of the University of Penn-
sylvania, graduating in 1859. Practiced law in Cincinnati
with good success from 1860 to 1868, when he became inter-
ested with others in establishing a new paper, called the
Cincinnati Evening Chronicle, of which he was business
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

manager. In 1871 the Chronicle was consolidated with the
Evening Times and:‘Mr. Nixon disposed of his interest. He
had shown ability for newspaper work that attracted the
attention of Chicago journalists, and resulted in Mr. Scam-
mon asking him to become business manager of The Inter
Ocean. From his early youth Mr. Nixon has been active
in Republican politics. In 1860 he was secretary of the
Wide-awake organization of Cincinnati, which exercised a
potent influence in that campaign. He was a member of
the Ohio Legislature in 1865, 1866 and 1867. In 1869 he
was married to Miss Elizabeth Duffield, daughter of Mr.
Charles Duffield of Chicago. In December, 1897, he was
appointed by President McKinley collector of customs for
the port of Chicago.

George Wheeler Hinman, the present editor and
manager of The Inter Ocean, was born in western New
York and is thirty-six years old. In 1879, when sixteen
years of age, he entered Hamilton College and took the
regular course, graduating in 1883. Immediately after-
ward he began newspaper work in Chicago as a reporter.
After a year of this experience he went to Europe and
studied in the universities of Berlin, Leipsic and Heidelberg
for four years, graduating from the latter institution in
political economy, civil government and international law,
and winning next to the highest degree. He took the de-

grees of Ph. D., M. A. and M.S.

 

GEORGE WHEELER HINMAN.

Upon his return to this country, in 1888, Mr. Hinman
went to the New York Sun and remained with that paper
until he came to Chicago. While on the Sun Mr. Hinman
wrote a large number of signed articles for the more con-
spicuous weekly magazines, and he was one of three men on
the Sun staff who were permitted to sign articles appearing
in that paper on subjects of foreign politics and interna-
tional affairs. He also had an editorial connection with two

323

weekly papers, and he wrote a considerable number of the
Sun editorials, dealing with foreign politics.

Oliver W. Nixon, M.D., LL. D., was born in Guilford
County, North Carolina. In 1830, when he was a small
boy, his parents moved north and settled in the village of
Newport, Wayne County, Indiana. He prepared for col-
lege at a school conducted by Barnabas Hobbs at Rich-

 

OLIVER W. NIXON, M.D., LL. D.

mond, in the same county and state, and afterward gradu-
ated at Farmer’s College, near Cincinnati, Ohio, at that
time an institution of considerable fame. After graduation
he traveled much, spending some time in California and a

“year or two in Oregon, afterward visiting Central America.

‘Returning east, he entered Jefierson Medical College, at
Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1854, and settled to the
practice of his profession in Cincinnati, Ohio. On the
breaking out of the war in 1861 he was appointed surgeon
of the Thirty-ninth O. V. I. (Groesbeck regiment), and went
into active service with the regiment. Upon the organi-
zation of the Army of the Mississippi he was appointed
medical director upon the staff of Major-General John
Pope, in which capacity he served until his resignation. At
the battle of New Madrid his ear-drums were ruptured by
the bursting of a bomb, which affected his hearing to such
an extent that he was compelled to give up his profession.
In 1863 he was elected treasurer of Hamilton County, Ohio,
in which the city of Cincinnati is located, and served his full
term. General Parry, who was elected his successor, dying
soon after assuming charge, Doctor Nixon was asked to
take charge of the office in behalt of General Parry's family,
which he did, which kept him engaged about two years
longer. In 1875 he became interested with his brother,
William Penn Nixon, in The Inter Ocean, and in 1877
moved to Chicago, was made literary editor of the paper,
324

and has continued to hold that place ever since. He was a
large stockholder in The Inter Ocean Publishing Com-
pany, and for seventeen years its president.

The Doctor is a versatile writer and his graphic war
letters, written for the Cincinnati Commercial, are yet
remembered and spoken of by older readers. In 1895 he
wrote the book, “How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon,”
which had a great run and has now passed to its sixth edi-
tion. The Doctor was well fitted for the task he undertook
in that book. He taught school among the old Oregon
pioneers and became familiar with all the events of the early
history of that state, and did not have to depend on what
was in the books to know what Whitman did and how he
died. The book was written to correct false and malicious
statements in regard to Whitman and other pioneers pub-
lished in a so-called history of Oregon. Few books written
for such a purpose have been so entirely successful. There
has been an entire revolution created in the public mind
in regard to Marcus Whitman and his wonderful labors.
His grave, which for fifty years had been neglected, has
been changed into a beautiful mausoleum, and a marble
monument forty feet high has been erected to Whitman's
memory upon the hill above it, while a beautiful memorial
church marks the historic scene of the massacre in which
he fell. This has been done by the old Oregon pioneers
and their children, roused to action by the thrilling recitals
of the book. But this is not all. Christian people from
the Atlantic to the Pacific have been aroused to do tardy
justice to Whitman and a more permanent monument to
his memory is being erected and endowed in Whitman
College at Walla Walla. Two hundred thousand dollars
have been raised as a college endowment; a memorial hall
costing $50,000 has been erected by Dr. D. K. Pearsons
of Chicago. It is a grand thing to have accomplished so
much, and to Doctor Nixon’s book the friends of Whitman
attribute the movement that has accomplished so much.

William Harrison Busbey, editorial writer on The Inter
Ocean, was born in Clarke County, Ohio, February 24,
1839. He went from school work in April, 1861, to the
Union army, serving from April 30 of that year to June
19, 1864, in Company C, First Kentucky Volunteer In-
fantry. While in the army he served as newspaper cor-
respondent, writing from the standpoint of the man who
carrieda rifle. At the close of the war Mr. Busbey became
city editor of the Ohio State Journal, at Columbus, Ohio,
and remained in that position until March, 1867, when
he was appointed private secretary to Governor J. D.
Cox. Under Governor R. 13. Hayes Mr. 3usbey was re-
tained as secretary until April, 1868, when he returned
to the city editorship of the Journal,

In 1871 Mr. Busbey removed to Toledo and was asso-
ciate editor of the Blade until October, 1873, when he
came to Chicago as the Western editor and manager of
the American Agriculturist and Hearth and Home. He
was with the Chicago Tribune for six months in 1875, but
came to The Inter Ocean in April, 1876, and has been in
continuous service ever since.

THE CITY OF

CHICAGO.

 

WILLIAM HARRISON BUSBEY.

Lansing Warren, managing editor of The Inter
Ocean, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, December 29, 1857.
He was educated at Lake Forest Academy and is a mem-
ber of the class of ‘80 at Princeton College. He became
a reporter on The Inter Ocean in the fall of 1880; was

 

LANSING WARREN.

financial and commercial editor of The Inter Ocean for
seven years between 1884 and 1891. Became editor of the
Denver Evening Times in 1891; left Denver in 1896 and
became managing editor of The Inter Ocean May 4, 1898.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

John Dickinson Sherman is a native Chicagoan. He
was born in 1859 in the home of his great uncle, Mayor
James H. Woodworth, Wabash avenue, near Sixteenth
street, then the best residence district of Chicago. His
father is P. L. Sherman, one of the old-time lawyers of
Chicago, and his mother is president of the Chicago
Woman’s Club. His parents built a home in Kenwood
in 1859 and still live in the old homestead. Mr. Sherman
was graduated from the Hyde Park High School in 1876
and from Hamilton College in 1881. In 1882, while study-
ing law in his father’s office, he became Hyde Park cor-
respondent for the Chicago Tribune merely as a diver-
sion. Becoming interested in the work he turned his at-

 

JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN.

tention seriously to the newspaper business, and by 1890
had worked his way up to the position of city editor.
He held this position for five years. He came to The
Inter Ocean upon its reorganization in 1898 to take charge
of the local department.

Dwight Whitney Bowles, business manager of The
Inter Ocean, was born November 15, 1864, in Springfield,
Massachusetts. He took his degree of A. B. at Harvard
University in 1887 and almost immediately thereafter be-
gan newspaper work. His first experience was with the
Minneapolis Tribune, which at that time was owned by
Col. E. B. Haskell of the Boston Herald. He spent nearly
a year in Minneapolis, doing the usual routine editorial
work on the Tribune, and in the fall of 1888 went to the
staff of the New York Times. He spent two winters in
Albany as the political correspondent of that paper and
then became editor of the Sunday edition of the Times, a
position which he continued to occupy until December,
1896, when he resigned to become general manager of the
Illustrated American, a weekly publication in New York.

825

He came to The Inter Ocean in March, 1898. Mr. Bowles

is the youngest son of the late Samuel Bowles of the
Springfield Republican.

 

DWIGHT WHITNEY BOWLES.

Hon. Frank Gilbert was born in Pittsford, Ver-
mont, September 28, 1839. He was descended
from sturdy New Englanders, both his grandfathers hav-
ing served as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. His
parents, Simeon and Margaret Gilbert, lived on a farm,
and each of their seven sons was given the advantages of
a college education—a fact which tells its own story of
the thrift, culture, breadth and healthful ambition of the
industrious Vermonters. Every one of the seven sons
has achieved prominence as thoroughly useful citizens
—lawyers, clergymen and journalists. One of them,
Rev. Dr. Simeon Gilbert, was for some twenty years
identified with the editorship of the Chicago Advance.

Mr. Gilbert attended the University of Vermont,
where he graduated, and early in the sixties left the Green
Mountains for the West. His training was thorough
and his varied attainments kept pace with the spirit and
advance of the age. Upon coming to [linois he made
his home for a season in Peoria. Thence he removed
to Dubuque, Iowa, where he began what really became
his lifework—journalism. After several years of service
there, he came to Chicago, which continued to be his
home until decease, Saturday evening, November 4,
1899.

For eleven years he was associate editor of the Chi-
cago Evening Journal, and thus became identified prom-
inently with public men and affairs, not only in Chicago,
but also throughout the state—a relationship which was
326

very greatly widened and strengthened on account of
and during his service as associate editor of The Inter
Ocean, the Tribune, and again The Inter Ocean. In the
year 1877, when he was still on the Journal, he was ap-
pointed by President Hayes to be assistant United States
treasurer at Chicago, and served in that important office
for a full term of four years.

In 1881 he was invited by Hon. Wm. Penn Nixon to
become associate editor of The Inter Ocean, and, ac-

 

HON. FRANK GILBERT.

cepting, he remained in that capacity for three years,
during which period he was several times called upon
to fill important town offices, when such men as Hon.
Robert T. Lincoln were active in great and important
local movements. For four or five years succeeding
1884 he was associate editor of the Tribune, and was a

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

trusted adviser of the late Hon. Joseph Medill, who re-
tained for Mr. Gilbert until his death the highest esteem
and admiration as a thinker and writer. In 1889 he re-
turned to his old position of associate editor of The Inter
Ocean, and was warmly welcomed by his old friends of
the editorial staff, and where he remained without change
until his decease.

In 1890 he was appointed by President Harrison to
be United States supervisor of the census for Cook
County, and his work in that position was conducted
with the same conscientiousness and capacity as char-
acterized all his public and private life. In the year
1897 Governor Tanner appointed Mr. Gilbert to be one
of the board of managers of the Illtnois State Reforma-
tory at Pontiac, to succeed his friend and associate,
Thomas C. MacMillan, an office which he held until his
death.

About the time, or soon after he came West, Mr.
Gilbert was married to Frances L. Baker, daughter of
Hon. Marcena Baker of Cattaraugus County, New York,
who still survives him. He was a man of singularly in-
genuous character; his circle of acquaintance was large;
his friends were many and devoted; in his profession he
was held in high esteem for his fine mind and his gen-
erous spirit; as a public official he was faithful, indus-
trious, capable; his literary attainments gave his mind,
already broad and clear, a rare cast that made his views
much sought after: he was remarkably free from preju-
dice, and to whatever subject he addressed himself, he
brought to it a freshness, strength and breadth which
were invigorating and convincing. His reading went
far afield, and wherever it led, it was making for the up-
lift of mankind, the gospel of helpfulness, the good to
others less fortunate. His was a highly religious mind
and heart, which sought for truth at whatever cost, and
accepted wherever found; but always with a most gen-
erous thought and tender regard for others who were
engaged in the same quest.
CHAPTER XXVIII.

 

 

 

THE CHICAGO MUSICAL COLLEGE.

 

 

HE Chicago Musical College, organ-
Y’> ized in 1867, has entered upon
, the thirty-fourth year of its long
and successful career, under the
auspices of its president and foun-
der, Dr. Florence Ziegfeld. It first
opened its doors when Chicago was
a city of about 200,000 people, and
it has grown with the municipal
growth and strengthened with its
It is now the musical educational center

 

strength.
of a city of nearly two millions of people and in
all its departments it has kept even pace with the marvel-

ous growth of this Western metropolis. It long ago
passed the tentative stage, and has now become a perma-
nent educational institution, holding the same prominent
position in music as the Chicago University, the Art
Institute and the Academy of Science, in their respective
departments of education labor.

In 1867 the Chicago Academy of Music, as it was
then called, was a little local school. In 1899 the Chi-
cago Musical College enjoys both a national and inter-
national reputation, summoning its pupils from every
part of the Union, and calling upon the United States
and Europe for professors and teachers of the highest
class. Its influences are boundless, for its graduates are
teaching in every portion of the United States.

The history of this college in its different locations—
for the demands of growth have several times necessi-
tated change of site—is well known to the public. It
was humble in its beginning in the Crosby Opera House
in 1867, but in 1871 Dr. Ziegfeld secured more com-
modious rooms at 253 Wabash avenue. Then came the
great conflagration, but the Chicago Musical College
rose, phenix-like, from the ashes of that monumental
disaster within three weeks afterward. It was supposed
that music would be the last thing to receive attention
in the reconstruction of the city, but in this short time
the college doors opened, the teachers had resumed

 

their duties, and the new quarters at 800 Wabash ave-
nue were filled with pupils so speedily that more com-
modious rooms were secured at 493 Wabash avenue,
where the college remained until the Central Music
Hall building was erected. In that conspicuous struc-
ture it had its headquarters until last year, when, on
May 1, it removed to its present location at 202 Michi-
gan boulevard. Here it occupies a magnificent build-
ing, erected especially for its own use, and which may
be said to be the most beautiful, commodious and ar-
tistic building of its kind in existence. Even the loca-
tion may be said to be artistic, for on the one side is a
noble structure, filled with artists’ studios; nearly ap-
posite is the Art Institute, and a few doors away is the
stately Auditorium. Well removed from the noise of the
busy streets, the college fronts the lake, and, therefore,
has a superb outlook to the east and south along the
Lake Front Park.

While no expense or trouble has been spared in
decorating and furnishing the rooms of the college,
equal attention has been given to its educational de-
mands. Every branch of the faculty has been strength-
ened. To the vocal department, for instance, has been
lately added Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, who came from
Milan, Italy, with the enthusiastic indorsement of such
musicians as Verdi, Puccini, Tamagno, Boito, Tosti and
others. The allied arts have not been neglected, as is
shown by the incorporation of Hart Conway’s School
of Acting to the college. Every department, indeed,
has been made as perfect and complete as possible by
the addition of tried and successful instructors, the
most recent example of which has been the engagement
of Mr. Arthur Friedheim, the great pianist, who ranks
in Europe with Paderewski and Rosenthal, and who is
said to be the finest exponent of Liszt, whose pupil he
was.

The college catalogue bears testimony to the com-
pleteness of this great school of musical learning, both
in the list of the faculty, composed of experienced teach-

327
328

ers and many virtuosi of international reputation, and
in the system of instruction and arrangement of courses,
which represent the outcome of thirty-three years’ ex-
perience. Dr. Ziegfeld stands at the head of the college
as its president, the post of honor he has occupied since
it was organized. With him in the active management

 

THE CHICAGO MUSICAL COLLEGE,

are associated two of his sons, Carl and William IX., the
former of whom is secretary and treasurer, and the lat-
ter manager. The board of directors for 1&gy-1900 in-
cludes the following well-known gentlemen: Rey. Dr.
H. W Thomas, Hon. Richard S. Tuthill, Dr. F. Zieg-
feld, William M. Hoyt, Edwin A. Potter, Alexander
H. Revell, A. E. Bournique, Alfred M. Snydacker, Carl
Ziegfeld and William K. Ziegfeld. The names of the
musical directors are in themselves a guarantee of the
high character of the institution. They are: Dr. F,
Ziegfeld, Dr. Louis Falk, Hans von Schiller, William
Castle, Bernard Listemann, S. E. Jacobsohn, Arturo

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Buzzi-Peccia and Arthur Friedheim. The Chicago
Musical College will soon enter upon its thirty-fourth
season, completely equipped in all its departments, with
one of the largest and most brilliant faculties ever
brought together in a conservatory of its kind, and with
a curriculum that includes every department of musical
study, as well as the allied arts.

Dr. Florence Ziegfeld, president of the . Chicago
Musical College, was born at Jever, in the grand duchy
of Oldenburg, Germany. His father, who occupied a
position of honor at the ducal court, was a passionate
lover of music, and the son inherited the same admira-
tion for the art. When six years of age he began
the study of the piano, to which he devoted himself
with enthusiasm, under the training of the best teachers,
and with such success that at the early age of ten he
played with great credit to himself and his instructors.
At the age of fifteen he visited America, but shortly
afterward returned to Leipsic, where he continued his
studies at the old Leipsic Conservatory, under such
renowned masters as Moscheles, Plaidy, Papperitz,
Wenzel, Richter, David and others. After his gradu-
ation he was offered the directorship of the Musical
Conservatory of Russia, but this honor he declined,
since he much preferred to choose a field for his labors

 

DR. FLORENCE ZIEGFELD.

in America. Accordingly he once more crossed the
Atlantic, and shortly after arriving in this country
located in Chicago, where, in 1867, he founded the Chi-
cago -\cademy of Music, now known as the Chicago
Musical College.

For more than thirty years Dr. Ziegfeld has been
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

one of the central figures in the development of music
in America, and his prominence in this field has been
recognized not only by Americans, but by the govern-
ments of Europe and the great masters of the world.
He has been the recipient of many honors, both at home
and abroad, and among them may be mentioned a gold
medal and diploma, presented to him by the Bellini
Royal Society of Letters, Art and Music of Italy. Among
all his decorations, however, there is none more highly
prized than the diamond-studded cross, inscribed, “To
Dr. F. Ziegfeld, from the Citizens of Chicago,” pre-
sented to him at the twenty-fifth anniversary of

329

Dr. Ziegfeld has a military record in the Illinois
National Guard of which he may be justly proud. For
many years he was brigade inspector of rifle practice,
and later assistant inspector-general. He was also
colonel, commanding the Second Regiment. His name
is among those on the veteran roll of the state. In Ma-
sonic matters, also, he is prominent, being a Knight
Templar of the Chevalier Bayard Commandery, a mem-
ber of the Oriental Consistory, thirty-second degree, and
a Noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic
Shrine, Medinah Temple.

 

the founding of the college, February 23, 1891.
While striving constantly for the best inter-
ests of music in America, Dr. Ziegfeld keeps in
close touch with his art in the old world, and
enjoys the personal friendship of the most cele-
brated musicians abroad. At no time was this
fact illustrated to better,advantage than when
preparations were being made for the peace
jubilee in Boston in the early part of 1897, when
the doctor was chosen to go to Europe in
order to engage artists for that occasion. He
brought back with him Frau Peschka-Leutner,
Franz Abt, Franz Bendel, Strauss, Emperor
William’s Cornet Quartet and several of the
most famous military bands of the old country,
thus demonstrating his great personal influence
with the world’s leading artists. Nor is it be-
stowing too much praise upon him to say that
much of the success of the jubilee was due to
his labors in this direction. In connection with
the World’s Columbian Exposition, the doctor
was chairman of the Jury of Piano and Organ
Awards, a position to which he brought the
very highest artistic and professional knowl-
edge. In speaking of his wonderful success as
president of the: Chicago Musical College, no
higher tribute can be paid him than allowing
the growth and reputation of this institution
to speak for itself. He was its founder, its
creator, and it has been due to his ability as an
organizer and his reputation in musical circles
that Chicago has gained the distinction of pos- ~
sessing the leading college of music in the coun-

try.

 

 

 

MONUMENT IN LINCOLN PARK.
CHAPTER XXIX.

~~

 

| CITY AND COUNTY OFFICIALS.

 

 

 

 

 

  
 
 
   

N Philip Knopf, the clerk of Cook County,
we find a worthy representative of the
class of men who have made Chicago
prosperous. Springing from no elevated
rank in life and with no advantages,
save those created by his own energy
and industry, he has arisen to social,
business and political distinction, and
won a proud position in the esteem of
his fellow citizens.
: Mr. Knopf was born in Lake County,
Ilitnois, November 18, 1847. When only
sixteen years of age he answered his country’s call, and
enlisted in Company I of the One Hundred and Forty-
seventh IHlinois Volunteer Infantry. Fle remained in
active service until the close of the war and after receiv-
ing his honorable discharge at Savannah, Georgia, came
to Chicago. He then entered a business college, where
he remained for a year, and following this engaged in
the teaming business until 1880. Jn this year Mr. Knopi
was appointed a United States gauger, in which position
he continued until 1884, when he became chief deputy
coroner of Cook County. This office he held for the
following eight years.

In 1886 Mr. Knopf was elected to the THlinois Senate
and during the eight years in which he was identified
with this body, he distinguished himself as one of its
hardest and most conscientious workers. His record
as a State senator stands without a blemish and is one of
which he and his constituency have the just right to be
proud. In 1894, shortly after the close of his service in
the Legisiature, he was elected to the important position
of clerk of Cook County, which position he still holds,
having been reelected in 1898. Here, as in his other
official trusts, he has performed the duties devolving
upon him with the same fidelity which has been charac-
teristic of his whole life.

 

Throughout his entire public and private career Mr.
Knopf has had the happy faculty of making friends, and
especially so among the common people, for his sym-
pathies are, and always have been, with the masses. He
is respected and admired by all who know him. Men
may disagree with him and corporate power may not

 

 

 

 

 

PHILIP KNOPF.

always like him, but no one ever questioned the honesty
of his conviction or the integrity of his action.

Of him it may be said that he has never shirked a
duty or proved false toa trust. If his fellow citizens have
summoned him to bear the burdens of public office he
has responded with all his strength and ability. If the
Republican party, of whose principles there is no more
ardent advocate than Mr. Knopf, has claimed his efforts,

330
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

his time, or his means, he has loyally laid the best that
he possessed upon the altar of party and country, whose
interests, in his judgment, are identical. In his civil,
military and political life he has always stood ready to
take the bitter with the sweet, and for such alone he
merits all the esteem in which he is held by the people of
Chicago and the state of Illinois.

Mr. Knopf is identified with several fraternal organi-
zations. In Masonic circles he is especially conspicuous,
holding membership in Covenant Lodge, Wiley M.
Egan Chapter, Chicago Commandery, Consistory and
Shrine. He is a!so a member of the Grand Army of the
Republic, Royal League and Royal Arcanum.

He was married in 1880 to Miss Carrie Fehlman,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Fehlman of Lake
County, Mlinois.

Ernest John Magerstadt, sheriff of Cook County,
is certainly one of the self-made men of Chicago.
Born in Germany, on December 26, 1864, a son of
Frederick J. and Lena (Caster) Magerstadt, he has lived
in Chicago since he was a year old, and has made
his way to business and political prominence through
efforts that have been entirely his own. Indeed,
it is one of his characteristics to always depend
upon himself rather than upon others, and in this fact
lies one of the greatest secrets of his success. Mr.
Magerstadt received a good education in the Chicago
public schools, but he was forced to give up his studies
when he was about fourteen years old, because of the
death of his father. After leaving school, he became
interested in the coal business with his brother, and
from 1878 to 1887 the firm of Magerstadt Brothers,

. 2131 Archer avenue, was a successful and paying under-
taking. In 1887 Mr. Magerstadt became sole pro-
prietor of the establishment and conducted it under his
own name until May, 1899, when he disposed of it in
order to give his attention more exclusively to the
duties of his present office.

Mr. Magerstadt first came into public notice as an
officeholder during Mayor Washburne’s administration,
when he was made superintendent of streets for the
South Division. Since then he has been almost con-
tinuously before the public in one capacity or another,
invariably giving satisfaction and each time creating a
larger and larger circle of friends, who have recognized
his worth and ability, and given him their support in
his efforts to advance the interests of his party. In
1892 he was elected as delegate to the National Ke-
publican Convention, and in 1896 he was again elected
as such, but withdrew in favor of George Schnider, of the
Illinois National Bank. In 1896, and again in 1898, he
was elected a member of the Republican State Central
Committee, and he has been a member of the Cook
County Republican Central Committee for the past
eight years, and has served on the executive commit-

331

tee of this body since 1895. In the fall of 1894 Mr.
Magerstadt was nominated for clerk of the Criminal
Court, to which office he was elected by a majority of
over 41,000. He completed his term of service in the
spring of 1899, and at once assumed the duties of
county sheriff, to which office he had been elected in
April, his opponent in this contest having been George
Kersten.

Mr. Magerstadt has been a most active worker in
the Republican cause, and it is believed by many that
he is the coming dominant man in the party in Cook
County. Since he has represented the Republican in-
terests in the Fifth Ward there have been five Repub-
lican aldermen elected to the city council, and it can be

 

ERNEST JOHN MAGERSTADT.

said with certainty that his efforts made it possible to
elect, and to reélect, Belknap for Congress, and to send
Daniel May to the State Senate. Mr. Magerstadt’s per-
sonal honesty has never been questioned, and his con-
duct of the affairs of the Criminal Court clerk’s office
has been the subject of much praise, as has also his
service thus far as sheriff. The cleanliness of his pri-
vate life leads to the belief that his unexpired term will
be conducted on the same order.

No one that has come within the range of his mag-
netic personality can fail to-be impressed by the mag-
nificent earnestness and determination that are written
in his bold, bright eye. Still in the flush of youth,
he has reached a height in the estimation of public citi-
zens of Illinois never before attained by so young a
man. Born from among the multitude, he has had no

golden prop to urge him up the rugged heights of
332

political advancement. Depending on a shrewd, cool
brain and a strong, vigorous arm, Mr. Magerstadt is the
builder of his own fortunes, and in the erection of those
fortunes no man can say he was injured in the process
of building. Too broad for petty intrigue, he is known
by even his political opponents as a whole-souled man.
The details of his life work are as open books to his
fellow-citizens. He has lived his life among them.
They know him as a man and they esteem him for his
worth and brilliancy.

Mr. Magerstadt is a member of the Hamilton Club
and of the Masonic order. In the latter he is a member
of the Dearborn Lodge, A. F. & A. M.; of Lafayette
Chapter of the Consistory, and of Chevalier Bayard
Commandery. In the order of Foresters he is past
chief ranger of Court Apollo, No. 96, and as a member
of the National Union, he is identified with the Mc-
Clellen Council. He was married in March, 1886, to
Miss Hattie Hutt, a daughter of Louis Hutt, of this
city. Five children have been born to them, of whom
two survive, Earl, George and Madaline.

James J. Gray, president of the Board of Cook
County Assessors, is a product of Chicago. It may
perhaps more properly be said that he is a product
of the Twenty-first Ward of Chicago, for it was in

 

 

 

 

JAMES J. GRAY.

this portion of the city that he was born, that he re-
ceived the greater part of his education, and that
he still claims as his residence. After leaving school,
Mr. Gray learned the printing trade with the firm of
J. M. W. Jones & Co., in whose employ he remained
continuously until 1893. In that year he became dep-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

uty Probate clerk, a position he held until 1895, when
Circuit Clerk Gaulter requested him to become one of
his deputies. He accepted the offer and was assigned
to Judge Tuley’s court, where he became the judge’s
minute clerk and record writer. Mr. Gray held this
position until 1897. At the time of his becoming dep-
uty Probate clerk he began the study of law. He was
admitted to practice in 1896, and soon after this asso-
ciated himse!f with Mr. M. J. Moran, under the name
of Gray & Moran, with offices in the Ashland Block.
Mr. Gray was elected assessor of the town of North
Chicago, on the Democratic ticket, in 1897. In this
campaign he received 4,000 more votes than Carter H.
Harrison in the North Town, and a surplus of — in
his own ward. As North Town assessor, Mr. Gray
inade a brilliant record. His reélection in 1898 was a
suitable endorsement of his capacity as a public servant,
as was also his election the same year as a member of
the Cook County Board of Assessors, he being the
only Democratic member of this body.

 

 

 

 

CHARLES ELLSWORTH RANDALL.

Charles Ellsworth Randall, member of the Cook
County Board of Assessors, was born at Woodstock,
Vermont, June 29, 1861. His parents were Dr. Na-
thaniel and Sarah (Sprague) Randall.

Mr. Randall was educated in the grade and high
schools of his native town, and shortly after his gradu-
ation from the last-named institution came to Chicago,
where he continued his studies in a business college.
For a period of about six months after his location in
Chicago, Mr. Randall was employed as a compositor in
various newspaper offices, but later he obtained a posi-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tion in the lumber business of George B. Hannah, in
whose employ he remained for about four years.

This length of time, spent in a busy lumber-yard,
- should give one a good knowledge of the business, but
Mr. Randall continued for ten years longer in the em-
ploy of various lumber firms, such as Doyle & O’Brien,
O’Brien & Green, Tegtmeyer, Goodwillie and others,
before he ventured to embark in the business under his
own name. In 1893 he associated himself with Mr.
Charles H. Windheim, and established the firm of
Windheim & Randall, with yards at Lumber and Canal
streets. This business was disposed of in 1896, and Mr.
Randall continued thereafter in the lumber commission
business. .

Mr. Randall has led too active a life along business
lines to have become a prominent politician. He was
assessor of Hyde Park from January 1, 1896, to Janu-
ary I, 1899, at which time he became one of the Board
of Assessors of Cook County, having been elected on
the Republican ticket the previous November.

Mr. Randall is a member of the Masonic and Odd
Fellows orders, and has been active in cycling circles,
serving a term each as president of the Chicago Cycling
Club and of the Associated Clubs.

He was married in April, 1892, to Miss Harriet S.
Booth, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Booth of
Chicago. They have one child—a boy.

August William Miller, of the Cook County Board
of Assessors, was born June 8, 1861, at Chicago. His
father, Captain George M. Miller, was one of this city’s
veteran police officers, having been’ a member of the
local force for considerably over a quarter of a century,
and his mother, who, before her marriage, was Miss
Barbara Blettner, was also a pioneer resident of Chicago.

Mr. Miller received his education at St. Ignatius’
College and at the general high school, following
‘which he became employed as an entry clerk in the
wholesale millinery house of Ascher, Barnard & Co.
He remained with this establishment for a period of
twenty-one years, rising through various positions to
that of general manager, which he held at the time he
severed his connection with this house, in January, 1898.
He then became senior‘partner of the wholesale milli-
nery firm of Miller & Probst, 144 Wabash avenue, and
still continues as such.

Mr. Miller has held but one public office aside from
that which he now holds. He was elected, in 1896, by
the people of the Tenth Ward to represent them in the
city council, and, upon his record, was reélected to this
office in 1898. In this same year, when the citizens of
Cook County were looking for honest, upright and
thoroughgoing business men to fill the positions on
the newly-created Board of Assessors, Mr. Miller was
selected as a candidate, and in the election that followed
received the second highest number of votes cast for

333

any member of the board. He therefore resigned his
position in the council in order to qualify, under the
law, for his new office. No better representative of
the people could have been chosen for this most diffi-
cult and laborious position than Mr. Miller. Thor-
oughly honest, and possessing a high personal and busi-
ness standing, he has shown himself to be the right man
in the right place, and abundantly able to discharge
the difficult duties that are constantly arising in the ad-
ministration of the new assessment law.

Mr. Miller not only ranks high as a business man,
but he has a delightful personality that makes friends
on every side. He has a wide acquaintance, and holds
membership in a number of fraternal and social organ-

 

 

 

AUGUST WILLIAM MILLER.

izations, among which are the Royal League, Royal
Arcanum, Knights of Pythias, Order of Foresters, Co-
lumbian Knights and the Masonic order. He is also
a member of the Lincoln Club and of the Douglas Club.
He was married in 1884 to Miss Pauline Steinhagen,
and has a family of two sons and one daughter. He
resides in Douglas Park, at 865 South Kedzie avenue.

William H. Weber, member of the Cook County
Board of Assessors, was born in Orland. Township,
Cook County, Illinois, August 7, 1856, the son of
Justus and Mary (Shields) Weber. Receiving his early
education in the district schools near his home, Mr.
Weber subsequently attended the Cook County Nor-

.mal School, from which he was graduated in 1875.

Following this, he taught school in different parts of
the county, until 1880, at which time he entered the
county treasurer's office as tax clerk. He remained
334

in this position until January, 1883, when he became
secretary of the collector of internal revenue, and con-
tinued as such until December, 1886. He was then
made chief clerk and record writer to the clerk of the
Criminal Court, and in 1890 became chief clerk in the
sherifi’s office, serving in this capacity under both Sher-
iffs Gilbert and Pease for the following eight years.
In November, 1898, he was elected, on the Republican
ticket, as a member of the Cook County Board of As-
sessors, receiving in the neighborhood of 150,000 votes.

 

WILLIAM H. WEBER

Mr. Weber has spent nearly a score of years in
political offices, and his record is a particularly clean
one. He has given his services for neariy the same
period of time as a member of the Board of Education
of Blue island, having been a member of that body
since 1885.

Mr. Weber is identified with all prominent Masonic
bodies, is a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the
Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was married
in 1878 to Miss Minnie A. Schoentgen of Chicago, and
has a family of three children.

Adam Wolf, member of the Cook County Board of
Assessors, was born in Germany, January 5, 1857. His
parents, Nicholas and Marianna (Zimmerman) Wolf,
came to this country in 1864 and settled in Chicago.

The public and private schools of this city afforded
Mr. Wolf his early education, and he was also a student
in Bryant & Stratton’s Business College, from which
he was graduated. He then found employment as cash-
boy in a dry-goods store, and for the following ten
years devoted himself to mastering the details of this

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

business, gradually working his way to the position of
manager. In 1882, together with Mr. E. Wilken, he
established the dry-goods firm of Wilken & Wolf, No.
516 West Chicago avenue, of which he remained a mem-
ber until January 1, 1899.

Mr. Wolf has been an active member of the Repub-
lican party in Cook County for many years. His only
defeat in the struggle for political honors was in 1892,
when he was a candidate for West Town collector. In
the following year, however, he was again nominated
for this office, and this time elected. In 1895 he was
nominated on the Republican city ticket as a candidate
for city treasurer, and was subsequently elected to this
office by a plurality of 44,000 votes. This office he
held for the term of two years, and in 1898 he became
a candidate for county assessor. In this contest he was
also successful, leading the assessor’s ticket and receiv-
ing approximately 155,000 votes. He is a member of
the Republican State Central Committee, on which he

 

 

ADAM WOLF.

is now serving his second term, and prior to this he was
for two years a member of the Cook County Central
Committee.

Mr. Wolf was married March 20, 1884, to Miss
Anna Enders, and has a family of five children.

Albert N. Lange, superintendent of the Cook County
Poorhouse, the Asylum for the Insane and the Con-
sumptive Hospital, at Dunning, was born at Chi-
cago, January 20, 1860, the son of Carl and Henrietta
(Behrend) Lange. Until reaching the age of fifteen,
Mr. Lange attended the public schools, but in 1875
he entered a printing establishment, where he learned
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the rudiments of the printer’s trade, and devoted him-
self to setting type until 1879, at which time he be-
gan work in the pressroom, and so continued until
1890. In this year Mr. Lange was appointed United
States gauger by President MHarrison, a position
which he held until May, 1891, when Mayor Wash-
burne appointed him division superintendent of streets.

 

 

 

 

 

ALBERT N. LANGE.

This position he resigned December 5, 1892, in order
to become deputy sheriff under Sheriff Gilbert. He
was reappointed to ‘this office by Sheriff Pease, and
served until December 31, 1896, when he became super-
intendent of the county institutions at Dunning. This
appointment he received at the hands of President
Healy, of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
He was reappointed to this position in December, 1898,
by President Irwin. Mr. Lange was married May 3,
1888, to Miss Minnie Perwit of Chicago, and has a fam-
ily of three boys and one girl.

James Clarke Irwin, who holds the honorable posi-
tion of president of the Board of Commissioners of
Cook County, presents a fine example of the suc-
cess that honesty, industry and intelligence of a high
order often bring to those whose beginnings are dis-
couraging. Mr. Irwin was born in the county of
Sligo, Ireland, October 10, 1855, and received such
rudimentary education as the village schools of that
country afford. In 1880 he resolved to try to
brighten his fortunes in the New World. He came al-
most direct to Chicago, after landing in New York; and
after clerking for others for about nine years invested
his savings in a butcher shop, 5825 State street. Mean-
while, moved by a sense of affectionate duty, he brought

335

his aged parents and his brothers and sisters to share
his comparative prosperity. The entire family aided
in the promotion of the business that Mr. Irwin had
established. Honesty and industry had their reward;
trade prospered, until Mr. Irwin was able to purchase
the property that he had rented. It was enlarged and
improved, and where one carcass of beef had been suf-
ficient for a day’s demand, one hundred were none too
many. Enterprise begets enterprise, and before long
the State street business was relegated to the condition
of a branch concern, and a larger establishment, con-
ducted under the firm name and style of Irwin Bros.,
was opened at 334-336 South Clark street.

From the day of his domestication in Chicago, Mr.
Irwin has taken an interest in politics, and has acted
in unison with the Republican party. He has served
as a central committeeman from the Thirty-fourth
Ward, and in November, 1896, was elected to the Board
of County Commissioners. His energy, intelligence and
integrity in the discharge of the important duties of

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES CLARKE IRWIN.

this office insured his nomination to the place of presi-
dent of the board. He was elected near to the head of
his ticket in November, 1898.

Mr. Irwin is a member of the Woodlawn Club and
of the Hermitage Club, and of the Republican March-
ing Club. He was married March, 1883, to Miss Fanny
Walsh. <A family of three—two girls and a boy—are

the results of the happy union.

Frank J. Lindsten’s career is finely illustrative of
a successful use of those opportunities which the
social and political life of this country offer to the immi-
336

grant who comes here endowed with no capital except
that of honesty, industry and intelligence. Mr. Lind-
sten was born at Jankoping, Sweden, June 7, 1846, the
son of Carl M. and Mary Eliza Lindsten. His edu-
cation was such as the excellent public schools of his
native country afford.

Mr. Lindsten spent very little time in the East after

 

FRANK J. LINDSTEN.

his arrival in the United States, but came almost
straight on to Chicago, which he reached August 9,
1868, and in this city he has lived up to the present
time, and here he is likely to die, for here his home, his
family and his dearest interests are centered. Though
he holds an important political office, Mr. Lindsten’s
life has been far removed from that of the professional
and place-hunting politician. His first efforts were to-
ward the acquirement of financial independence for him-
self and family. Accordingly, in 1869, one year after
his arrival, he went into business as a manufacturer of
clothing, the wholesalers supplying him with cloth,
which he made into garments, for the construction of
which he was paid agreeably to contract with them. The
excellence of his work and the promptness of his meth-
ods soon brought an increase of trade, and in 1879 he
moved from his original quarters on Oak street to a
larger and more convenient building further north. He
was fortunate enough to save all his machinery and all
the cloth intrusted to him by the manufacturers with
whom he had contracts from destruction by the great
fire of 1871, though the building occupied by him was
destroyed. He at once recommenced business, and by
1898 was the happy possessor of a comfortable fortune.
He now turned his manufacturing establishment over to

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

his two sons, and devoted a large portion of his well-
earned leisure to public affairs.

As early as 1896 Mr. Lindsten had been elected to
the office of supervisor of the town of Lake View, and
his faithful discharge of the important functions apper-
taining thereto led to his nomination and election as
county commissioner in 1898. In politics Mr. Lindsten
is, and always has been, stanchly Republican. He is a
member of the Swedish Glee Club and of the Columbia
Club of Fox Lake, and is high in the esteem of the an-
cient and honorable order of Odd Fellows, and the more
modern orders of the Royal Arcanum and the Knights
of Pythias. -

Mr. Lindsten has been twice married; firstly to Miss
Sarah Samuelson, who departed this life April 25, 1886,
leaving two sons and two daughters, all of whom sur-
vive, and, secondly, to Miss Alma Hadner. Two girls
are the surviving issue of this second marriage. The
two sons carry on the business established by their
father. Mr. Lindsten's home is at 1728 Belmont avenue.

Adam Ortseifen, treasurer of the city of Chicago,
and vice-president of the McAvoy Brewing Company,
was born at Montabaur, Province Nassau, Germany,
December 2, 1854. He is the son of Christian and

 

ADAM ORTSEIFEN.

Annie (Roth) Ortseifen. He was educated in the pub-
lic schools of his native city, and also took a course in
the business and architectural departments of Monta-
baur College, from whence he went to the architect oftice
of Kontzen, at Linburg on the Lahn, remodeling the
bishop’s palace, after which he was recalled to work in
the government architect's office at his home city, un-_
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

der Maurer & Schueler, government architects. He
then decided to come to America, and on his arrival in
this country he came West to Chicago, reaching this
city March 30, 1873. After a short search for work he
secured employment in an architect’s office on Milwau-
kee avenue. He remained there for a few months, but
later he became engaged in a sign painting shop on
North Clark street, where he worked in the daytime and
spent his evenings in study at the Art School, then lo-
cated on the corner of Monroe and State streets. Ina
few years he established a shop of his own at the corner
of Twelfth street and Michigan avenue, removing in a
short time to a better location at the corner of Seven-
teenth and State streets. Here he did quite a business
in the painting of signs for brewers, and it was while
painting a large “Germania” picture in a hall in 1877

- that he met Mr. McAvoy, who eventually engaged him
to take charge of the sign painting for the McAvoy
Brewing Company. Some two years later the Brewing
Company ceased to paint their own signs and Mr. Ort-
seifen was appointed agent for the South Side, becom-
ing general agent for the entire city, and sulsequently
being appointed manager. In 1892 he became vice-
president of the company.

Mr. Ortseifen is prominent among the German socie-
ties of Chicago, and is secretary of the Chicago-Milwau-
kee Brewers’ Association. He is also a Mason, and has
taken all the degrees of the Scottish Rite in the Oriental
Consistory, and is a member of the Shrine of this city.

He was married in 1879 to Miss Josephine Krieger
of Chicago, and has a family of four children, Adolph J.,
George, Josephine and Margueritte A.

Mr. Ortseifen has never heid public office other than
that of city treasurer, to which he was elected in 1899.

William Loeffler, city clerk, was born at Domazlice,
Bohemia, on January 1, 1857, the son of Frank and
Minnie (Reach) Loeffler. He acquired his education
in a Latin school at Prague, from which he was gradu-
ated in 1872. The opportunities afforded ambitious
young men in the New World attracted him, and he
decided to cast his lot with those who were coming
to America in search of fortune. He accordingly left

his home in the old country in the early part of 1873,
landed in New York City, and in the fall of that year
came to Chicago. He first secured employment in
the wholesale meat firm of A. Bondy, as an assistant
butcher, at the meager salary of one dollar per week.

Mr. Loeffler remained continuously in their employ
until 1883, by which time his economical habits and
industry enabled him to establish himself in the meat

business at the corner of Canal and Seventeenth streets.

This beginning was on a very small scale, but as time
went on it was enlarged, and to-day the wholesale mar-
ket conducted by him, on the same corner and under the

22

337

name of William Loeffler, does a business of $1,000,c00
per annum,

Mr. Loeffler’s only public office aside from the posi-

 

WILLIAM LOEFFLER.

tion which he now holds, and to which he was elected
in 1897, and reélected in 1899, was that of alderman
from the Eighth Ward, in which capacity he served
from 1893-95.

Denis J. Swenie. It has been said that “The world
loves a good fighter.” Whether the scene of action be
the hall of debate, the field of battle, or the top rung
of a swaying ladder, with a fire hose in hand, is not of
so much importance; it is the pluck and daring of the
act that excites the admiration. Hence the love of the
people of Chicago goes out to the man who, for nearly
fifty -years, has been fighting the fires of the city, and
who has so often faced death in the interests of the
people, whose lives and property have been threatened
by conflagration. Chicago, with its history of disastrous
fires, has abundant reasons to remember the services of
men like Denis J. Swenie, through whose untiring ef-
forts a system of fire defense has been created that ranks
second to none in the world.

Mr. Swenie was born of Irish parents, at Glasgow,
Scotland, July 29, 1834. He received his education in
the public schools of that city, where he remained until
he was fourteen years of age, coming to this country
with his parents and locating in Chicago in 1848. He
was apprenticed to learn the saddlery and fireman’s sup-
ply business in the establishment of C. E. Peck, on Lake
street, and his attention was thus centered at an early
age along the lines which were to become his life work.
338

In the year following his location in the city he joined
the volunteer fire department, as a member of the hose
company attached to “Niagara Engine Company, No.
3,” thereby beginning a connection with the public serv-
ice of the city, which has continued to this day. The
work of a volunteer at that time was dangerous, as well
as difficult, but Mr. Swenie never knew what fear was,
and from the time he first assisted in pulling his hose
cart through the streets in answer to a fire call, became
recognized among the leaders in acts of daring and
bravery.

In 1852 he was elected assistant foreman of “Red
Jacket Engine Company, No. 4.” This latter com-
pany disbanded in the fall of 1854, and he then re-
turned to the “Niagara’’ company.

After the great fire of October 17, 1857, the agita-
tion for the establishment of a paid department was
commenced with vigor, and in November of that year
the common council ordered a steam engine. It arrived
February 5, 1858, and was christened “Long John,” in
honor of Hon. John Wentworth, who was mayor about
that time.

In March, 1858, Mr. Swenie, who at that time was
first assistant engineer of the volunteer department, was
elected chief of the department, and when the ordinance
providing for a paid department was passed in June,
he was selected to carry it into effect as the first chief
engineer of the paid fire department.

Three additional engines were purchased during the
year and placed in service—the “Enterprise” in Septem-
ber, the “Atlantic” in November, and the ‘Island
Queen” in December. The “Long John,” although the
first engine purchased, was not put in service until
the following January, the company to which it be-
longed having run the “Enterprise” until that time.

In February, 1859, U. P. Harris was nominated
for chief engineer, and elected in March, after which,
for two years, Mr. Swenie ran with “Engine Company
No. 3,” as an exempt member. In 1861 he was ap-
pointed foreman of “Liberty Engine, No. 7,” and in
1867, when this engine was transferred to another house,
he received a new one, called the “Fred Gund, No. Tel
still retaining his old members and holding his position
as foreman.

Chief Harris resigned in February, 1868, and R. U.
Williams was appointed to fill the vacancy. Mr. Swenie
was tendered the position as first assistant at this time,
but preferred for the while to retain his old position.

In 1875 the entire department was reorganized,
through the efforts of Mr. Swenie, establishing the man-
agement under one directing head, who should be
known as fire marshal and chief of brigade. Two years
before this he had been appointed first assistant marshal
under Chief Benner, and continued in this position at
the time of the reorganization. The latter retired from

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

active service in 1879, and Mr. Swenie was appointed
by Mayor Harrison to the vacancy thus created, a posi-
tion he has since continued to hold.

Among the thousand or more men under his charge
Mr. Swenie is regarded with confidence and affection.
In action he is not found giving his commands from a
distance, but leading his men where there is the most
danger, and it has been said by a man under his com-
mand, ‘That he never sends the boys into a dangerous
place where he is not willing to lead the way.” It is
leaders of this stamp that get the best work out of
their men. Always cool and cautious, he is quick to
see the right moment for a decisive action, and pos-
sesses the daring necessary for its performance.

 

DENIS J. SWENIE.

Being of an inventive turn of mind, he has sug-
gested many useful and valuable appliances, among
which may be mentioned the standpipe method of fight-
ing fires in the tall office buildings, and the efficient
telegraph system of reporting alarms. The fire depart-
ment, as it stands to-day, is due entirely to his executive
ability as an organizer and manager.

Mr. Swenie takes no part in politics. “Our object
and our aim in this department,” he is quoted as say-
ing, “is to put out fires, and not to put out parties,” and —
while taking an interest in all that goes on about him,
he gives his whole attention to the one duty which the
people of the city have intrusted to his care. It will
be seen from this brief account that his early education
from books was slight, but regardless of this fact he has
found time somewhere in his busy life to do much study-

ing and reading, and is to be found well informed on all
subjects.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

He was married October 16, 1853, to Miss Martha
Toner, of this city. Seven children have been born
to them, and it has been one of the greatest pleasures of
his life to give them a substantial education and assist
them to take their places among the helpful men and
women of the world.

John E. Ericson, the present city engineer of Chi-
cago, was born in Sweden, October 21, 1858, his par-
ents being Andrew and Sophia Ericson. After com-
pleting his collegiate education he entered the Royal
Polytechnic Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, from which
he graduated in 1880. Immediately thereafter he was
appointed assistant engineer of the Vasa_ bridge,
Stockho'm, remaining in that employ for the period

 

JOHN E. ERICSON.

of one year. He came to America in 1881, in which
year he was appointed resident engineer of the
Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad. In 1882 he
was employed by the well-known firm of Hopkins &
Co., of St. Louis, as bridge designer. From 1882 to
1884 he was assistant engineer of the Illinois & Mis-
sissippi Canal. In the last-named year he entered the
service of the city of Chicago as draftsman, and through
his ability and fidelity he was promoted in 1886 to the
position of assistant engineer. In 1893 he was again
promoted to the position of first engineer.

On July 6, 1897, he was appointed by Mayor Har-
rison, city engineer, which position he now holds.
~ While acting in the different positions named in Chi-

cago he superintended the construction of the Fifth
“avenue approach to the viaduct, and many other pub-
lic works of that city. He was in local charge of the

339

Lake View, North Shore and Sixty-eighth street tun-
nels. He was also assistant chief engineer for the loca-
tion and design of the new waterworks of Seattle, Wash-
ington.

As an engineer, Mr. Ericson stands in the foremost
rank. In all the public positions which he has held he
has given eminent satisfaction, and many of these stand
as monuments to his engineering skill.

He is a member of the Western Society of Engi-
neers and of the American Society of Swedish Engi-
neers.

He has traveled extensively through Sweden, Ger-
many, Holland, England, Scotland, British Columbia
and the United States.

In politics, he is a Democrat, being a member of the
Cook County Democracy.

On July 11, 1888, he married Miss Inez Malmgren
of Chicago, who died February 1, 1893. On June 20,
1896, he married her sister, Miss Esther. He has one
daughter, Mildred, now eight years of age.

THE COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL.

The Cook County Hospital is an outgrowth of the
old City Hospital, which was erected in 1856-57, on the
corner of Arnold and Eighteenth streets, at a cost of
$80,000. Dr. Brockholst McVicker was the prime insti-
gator in this enterprise, and it was chiefly upon his rec-
ommendation that the city council authorized its erec-
tion. Among the physicians who were on the medical
board of the institution at this time were Drs. Joseph P.
Ross and George K. Amerman, and at the time the
City Hospital was confiscated by the United States mili-
tary authorities in the summer of 1863, these gentlemen
were assigned to duty as acting assistant surgeons. After
the war was over the institution reverted to the manage-
ment of its original proprietors, but in the summer of
1865 the scope of treatment was limited to the diseases
of the eye and ear, and the hospital was renamed the
“Des Marres Eye and Ear Hospital.”

On November 11, 1865, the last two of its patients
were discharged and the doors were closed. Drs. Ross
and Amerman immediately interested themselves in re-
establishing the hospital as a public charity institution,
and to them belongs most of the credit for the foundation
of the present Cook County Hospital. Deciding that
it would further their plans, Dr. Amerman put himself
forward as a candidate, and was elected as supervisor.
In 1866, the first year of his service, he organized the
movement which resulted in the building of the hospital,
and was elected a member of its first board, but ill health
compelled him to resign the direction thereof. His co-
worker, Dr. Ross, was elected to the position of super-
visor and chairman of the hospital committee in 1866,
and occupied it for two years. Under his direction its
future was assured.
340 THE CITY

The ground occupied by the hospital, lying between
Wood and Lincoln streets on the east and west, and West
Harrison and Polk streets on the north and south, was
purchased in 1874 at a cost of $145,000. The general
design for the grouping of the buildings was adopted in
May, 1875, and in that year the two medical pavilions
were erected. The clinical amphitheater and connecting
corridors were built in 1876-77. The cost of the struc-
tures, including laundry, boiler house and other im-
provements, was about $436,874. The new administra-
tion building on Harrison street, and which contains the

OF CHICAGO,

robe, a diet kitchen, a linen room and four operating
rooms, equipped in the most scientific manner possible,
and also two beautiful dormitories for the use of sur-
gical patients when in shock, or in a too weak condition
to be transferred to their wards. With the erection of
this building the different pavilions were all brought, as
it were, under one roof, and arrangements completed
which render it one of the best-planned hospitals in the
country.

New rules and regulations were adopted in 1878 for
the government of the hospital, by which the entire or-

 

 

 

 

THE COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL.

offices and main entrance, was erected in 1882-84, at
a cost of $282,700. The receiving ward was built in
1897, at a total cost of $80,000, and is the finest build-
ing of its kind in the world. On the first floor is located
a receiving clerk's office, an examining physician's office,
a large ambulance room and two special examining
rooms, one for male and one for female patients. The
second and third floors are used as a home for the house
physicians and surgeons. The fourth floor is divided into
a nurses’ office, two anesthetizing rooms, an instrument
room, a sterilizing room, in which is located three large
dressing sterilizers, one large instrument sterilizer and
one catgut sterilizer by the Cumol method, all of Kny-
Scherer’s most modern patterns; a lavatory and ward-

ganization and conduct of the institution was placed in
the hands of the Board of County Commissioners. This
applies to the warden, clerk, apothecary and engineer,
all of whom are responsible to this board for the proper
discharge of their duties. It has been due, to a great
extent, to the efforts of the different wardens that the
hospital has been so well managed at all times since
its establishment. Hugh McLaughlin, D. W. Mills,
J. H. Dixson, William J. McGarigle and others have
held this position in the past, and James H. Graham is
to-day performing the duties of this office.

The regular school of medicine is represented by 24
physicians, surgeons and specialists; the Homeopathic
school by 10 physicians, surgeons and specialists, and
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the Eclectic school by 9 physicians, surgeons and spe-
cialists.
There are 30 house physicians and surgeons, who
receive their appointment by competitive examination.
The hospital has accommodations for goo patients,
and there are about 8,000 patients treated on an average
each year.

James H. Graham, superintendent of the Cook
County Hospital, was born at the town of Warren,
Washara County, Wisconsin, December 5, 1858. His
parents were William and Mary (Malony) Graham.

Mr. Graham was raised on a farm, but at an early age
accepted a position in Rochester, Minnesota, where he
remained for two years, leaving there to engage in rail-
roading, his chief work in this line being on the recon-
struction of the large bridge at St. Peter, Minnesota,
which was comp!eted in 1878. In this year Mr. Graham
came to Chicago.

Upon his arrival here he engaged as a grocery clerk
for John Le Fevre, 651 West Indiana street, and later
represented Philip Guenther, then a North Side who!e-
sale baker, as city salesman. Leaving there in June of the
same year, and going to St. Paul, Minnesota, he engaged
as a laborer for the Chaska Brick Company. Returning
to Chicago a year and a half later, he again started in
as a grocery clerk at the old stand, and later represented
the various large wholesale bakeries as city salesman.
Since that time he has been clerk in the coroner’s office
under Henry L. Hertz, foreman of water-pipe extension
under Mayor Washburne, and deputy sheriff under both
ex-Sheriffs Gilbert and Pease, in which capacity he

 

bd]

served until July 1, 1895, when he was appointed to the
position he now holds by President Healey, of the Board
of Commissioners of Cook County. Mr. Graham takes

 

 

 

JAMES H. GRAHAM.

much pride in the performance of the duties devolving
upon him, and the results of his excellent administra-
tion are to be seen in all the various departments of
this institution,
CHAPTER XXX.

 

 

ee

 

 

THE BENCH AND BAR OF CHICAGO.

 

 

 

 
  
   
  

HE bench of ‘Chicago is twelve
“> years older than the bar. The
first lawyer to make the practice
Z0f his profession in Chicago his
regular business was Giles Spring,
who came here and opened a law
office in June, 1833. Before the
month was over a second lawyer
came, John Dean Caton, whose
name holds a large place in the
judiciary of Illinois, and who was one of the million-
aires of the state at a time when such fortunes were
rare. Both were young men just starting out in life.
They are entitled to share about equally the honors
of being the pioneers of the Chicago bar.

No such dualty marks the beginnings of the bench
in Chicago. One man, and he famous long as the fore-
most citizen of Chicago, holds singly and alone the
distinction of being the pioneer of the judiciary of this
city. John Kinzie, a name familiar to all who know
anything of early Chicago, was the first justice of the
peace who ever held court in Chicago. His first
appointment dates back to June 5, 1821. At that time
Chicago was a part of Pike County, a county which, in its
present limitations, is sandwiched in between Adams
and Calhoun counties. Two years later, when he was
reappointed, Chicago was in Fulton County, and two
years later still, when his third commission was issued,
this city was a part of Peoria County. It was not until
1831 that Cook County was organized. It follows the
bench of Chicago is older by twelve years than the bar
of Cook County.

From these two little acorns have grown a whole
forest of legal and judicial oaks. The bar consists of
about four thousand lawyers, the bench of twenty-five
justices of the peace and twenty-eight judges of courts
of record and original jurisdiction, their jurisdiction
being confined to Cook County. Such, in brief, are the

 

extremes of then and now presented by this branch of
our general subject of historical Chicago.

For four years Squire Kinzie was the only person
in Chicago who was addressed officially as “Your
Honor.” Early in 1825 a second justice was allowed
this outlying nook of Peoria County. The next year
the office was made elective, and the number of jus-
tices increased to four. One would suppose that a
bench consisting of so many justices would have devel-
oped a bar, but, according to Andreas, it was not until
seven years later that the bar, properly speaking, com-
menced its career.

When Cook County was organized in 1831, with
Chicago as its county seat. it was made one of fifteen
counties constituting the Fifth Judicial District of Illi-
nois. Just when the first court of record was held in
Chicago seemis to be a disputed point. Experts in the
pioneer history of Chicago cannot agree. So small and
inconsequent was the amount of court business done
here in those days that it has not left a trace behind.

At the time Chicago was made a city Cook County
belonged to the Seventh Circuit, and so remained until
the constitution of 1870. That organic law went into
minute details in its provisions for the Cook County
judiciary, but provided for indefinite expansion. The
General .\ssembly was authorized to add one Circuit
Court judge and one Superior Court judge for every
additional 50,000 inhabitants in Cook County over and
above a population of 400,000. There are now fourteen
Circuit judges and twelve Superior Court judges, all
the twenty-six having the same jurisdiction, except as
some may be assigned to law, some to equity and others
to criminal cases, or others again to the Appellate
Court. There is also a county judge and a probate
judge. The business of all these courts is largely in
excess of what these twenty-eight judges can do, and
it has been found necessary to call in outside judges to
help clear off the congested dockets.

342
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Chicago has been very fortunate in its bench. It has
never had a judicial scandal. Not one of all its many
judges of courts of record have ever brought the ermine
into disrepute by being open to the suspicion of ve-
nality. Chicago may well be proud of its judicial record.
Although the judiciary is elective, it is not partisan.
The policy of dividing the judgeship about equally
between the two parties, and both parties uniting in
supporting the entire Circuit and Superior Court tick-
ets, has become an established custom. The county
judgeship is largely political in its character, for the
machinery of the election law is under the jurisdiction of
the county judge. There have been only three judges of
this court since these political duties were entrusted
to it, the first and second being Democrats and the
third a Republican. There have been only two Probate
Court judges in this county, both Republicans, but
supported quite largely on non-partisan grounds. It
is not too much to say that the entire judiciary of Chi-
cago is practically non-partisan, as truly so as if chosen
by the bar itself, the politicians of neither party having
a voice in the selection.

Before dismissing the bench and giving the bar its
day in court, the Federal judiciary of Chicago calls for
consideration. Judge Thomas Drummond was the first
United States judge in Chicago. He was appointed
United States District judge in 1850. His home at that
time was in Galena, and he continued to reside there
until 1854. He was originally judge of the District
Court of Illinois. In 1855 the state was divided into
two districts, the Northern and Southern, and he made
the judge of the Northern district, a position to be
held until 1870, when he was made Circuit judge and
Henry W. Blodgett District judge. Both served in
their respective positions until retired under the law.
Judge Drummond was succeeded by Judge Walter Q.
Gresham, who became Secretary of State in 1889, and
was succeeded by John W. Showalter, the only Chicago
Federal judge to die in office.
Peter S. Grosscup, who had succeeded Judge Blodgett
on the District bench. The vacancy created by his pro-
motion was filled by the appointment of Christian C.
Kohlsaat, who at the time of his appointment had been
for over ten years judge of the Probate Court of Cook
County.

The highest judicial distinction of Chicago can be
claimed by the bar and not the bench. The vacancy in
the Supreme Court of the United States, created by the
death of Chief Justice Waite, was filled by President
Cleveland during his first term by the appointment of
Melville E. Fuller of Chicago, who had had large experi-
ence as a lawyer, but none at all as a judge. His career
has abundantly justified his selection.

To undertake to name the leading lawyers of the
Chicago bar would be hardly less in order than to name

He was succeeded by_

343

some of our Circuit and Superior Court judges to the
exclusion of the rest. The list, at the longest, would
omit many lawyers of very high standing in their day.
But at no time during the sixty-six years since Giles
Spring and J. D. Caton began to practice law in Chi-
cago has this bar been without men of mark. Mr.
Spring was a very able lawyer, and Judge Caton became
an eminent jurist. In the early days Chicago had
besides these two pioneers, Grant Goodrich, Isaac N.
Arnold, Alonzo Huntington, Buchner S. Morris, Ebe-
nezer Peck, Lish Smith, Justin Butterfield, Mark Skin-
ner and John M. Wilson. Later came Condon S. Beck-
with, Emory A. Storrs, Wirt Dexter, Judge Charles B.
Lawrence, Leonard Swett, George C. Campbell, W. C.
Goudy, James L. High, J. A. Jameson, Elliott Anthony
and many others, hardly, if any, less worthy of mention,
who, like all these, have filed their last briefs and given
their last professional advice. The mention of those
still in the land of the living belongs to current, rather
than historic, Chicago. But it may be truly said that
no time in its history has Chicago had so many men
on the bench and in the bar, distinguished for legal
acumen and ability, as in this closing year of the nine-
teenth century. Both in the past and present of bench
and bar Chicago has abundant reason to take great
pride.

Hon. Oliver H. Horton. Among the many factors
which combine to form that body which we call ‘the
state,’ there is none more indispensable to its growth,
prosperity and permanence than that particular factor
which we know as jurisprudence. The very cornerstone
of a stable government, and that about which center the
great forces of civilization, it affords, of all professions,
the grandest opportunities for the development of
one’s ability and for the subsequent advancement to
positions of sacred trust. Whether considered as a
citizen, as a lawyer, or as a jurist, the life of Judge Hor-
ton is an example of what may be accomplished by the
exercise of the sterling qualities of perseverance and in-
tegrity and the cultivation of one’s higher sensibilities.

Born in Cattaraugus County, New York, October
20, 1835, the son of Henry W. and Mary H. Horton,
he came to Chicago at the age of twenty and found
employment in the lumber business. It was not until
some five years later, at an age when the young man of
to-day considers himself unfortunate if he is not fairly
well established in business, that young Horton entered
the law office of Hoyne, Miller & Lewis and served
in the several capacities of office attendant, student
and clerk. He devoted himself closely to his duties,
undertaking and successfully pursuing, at the same
time, a regular course in the Jaw school of the old Chi-
cago University, from which he was graduated with
the class of 1863. His diligent study, however, had
344

enabled him to pass the examination for admittance
to the bar some little time previous to this, and when,
in the early part of 1864, the firm of Hoyne, Miller &
Lewis was dissolved, a new partnership was formed by
the late Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Benjamin F. Ayer and
Mr. Horton, in which Mr. Horton’s name appeared as
junior member. Mr. Ayer withdrew the following year
and the firm of Hoyne & Horton was organized, the
naine being changed again in 1867 to that of Hoyne,
Horton & Hoyne, and thus it remaitied until the death
of Mr. Hoyne, the senior partner, in 1883. From then
until 1887, when Mr. Horton went on the bench, it
was known as Horton & Hoyne. It is of interest to
note, and it is a fact in which Judge Horton takes a

 

 

HON. OLIVER H. HORTON.

just amount of pride, that he began reading law in the
same office and in a building which stood on the same
Jot, from which just twenty-seven years and five days
later he was to leave as a senior partner to accept the
responsibte judicial trust to which he had been elected.

Judge Horton received his first judicial nomination
to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1887 by a vote
of the members of the bar, at which ninety per cent of
the ballots were in his favor. Although a Republican
in his affiliations, he was a candidate on the non-par-
tisan ticket in the election which followed. In the twice
that he has been renominated, however, his name has
appeared on both Republican and Democratic tickets,
a fact which shows the esteem in which he is held by
the bar and by the pubtic generally, and in March, 1808,
he was selected as a judge of the Appellate Court of the
First District, a legal honor of considerable magnitude,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and which further indicates the respect with which he
is regarded by the bench.

Since entering upon his duties as a jurist, Judge
Horton has been a most active and earnest worker.
Probably in the same length of time no other judge in
the state has ever become better known through the wis-
dom of his decisions and rulings. Possessing a clear
conception of the spirit and scope of jurisprudence, he
is also endowed with an intuitive perception between
right and wrong, which almost amounts to inspiration.

Judge Horton is not a politician and has held but
one public office, and in that instance, as he says, “only
because there was no help for it.’ This was the posi-
tion of corporation counsel, to which Mayor Roche
nominated him without his knowledge and while he
was absent from the city. Notwithstanding that he
withdrew his name as soon as he heard of it, the nomi-
nation was confirmed by the unanimous vote of the
common council, and, under these circumstances, he
finally decided to accept. It was only a matter of some
two months, however, after this that he was released
from these duties, which came to him so unsolicited, by
his nomination to the bench.

In social and professional circles Judge Horton has
taken a prominent place. He has been a member of
the Union League Club since its organization, and is
identified with the Chicago Literary Club, the Mar-
quette- Club, the Hami!ton Club, the Forty Club, the
Chicago Athletic Club, the Veteran Union League and
the Glen View Golf Club. He is a member of the Bar
Association ; was for years an active member of the Law
Instittite ; served several terms as its treasurer and after-
ward as president. He has served as president of the
Union College of Law and of its Alumni Association,
was a charter member and was president of the Medico-
Legal Society, is now one of the five trustees of the
Lewis Institute, and has been for many years a trustee,
and is now first vice-president, of the Northwestern
University. He is a trustee of fhe Garrett Biblical Insti-
tute and a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, having held every official position therein to
which a layman is eligible. In 1880 he was sent as
a delegate to the general conference of that denomina-
tion, which met in Cincinnati, and in the year following
was elected a lay delegate to the ecumenical conference
which met in London. He is president of the Rock
River M. E. Layman’s Association, which originated
the resolutions making equal lay representation in the
M. E. General Conference. He has been a member and
a trustee of the Grace, and afterward Trinity. M. EF.
Church for many years.

Judge Horton's wife was Miss Frances B. Gould, a
daughter of Philip H. Gould, one of Chicago’s pioneer
residents. They have had two children, neither of
whom are now living.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Hon. Abner Smith, a judge of the Circuit Court
of Cook County, is of thoroughly American lineage.
His ancestors, alike on the mother’s and father’s side,
were among the earliest settlers of Massachusetts. The
future judicial was born at Orange, Massachusetts,
August 4, 1843. His mother, prior to her marriage,
was Miss Sophronia Ward. The head of the Ward fam-
ily settled in Massachusetts as early as 1839, and has
produced scions that have been distinguished in the dis-
charge of judicial, military, legislative and clerical func-
tions. While Abner Smith was but a child his parents
moved to Midd'ebury, Vermont, being attracted thither
by the superior advantages that town offered for the
education of their family. After due preparation in the

 

HON. ABNER SMITH.

public and other schools, Abner Smith was enrolled
as a student of Middlebury College, and was gradu-
ated in 1866. The Undergraduate, a college journal,
as its name indicates, in a review of the professional
career of Judge Smith, reverts to the memory of his
student life, and characterizes him as ‘‘one who never
aimed at ephemeral brilliancy or at the attainment of
signal momentary results, but careful to avoid errors of
judgment and wisely distrustful of mere temporary
achievements.” These attributes have distinguished
the judge through life, and have been the dominant
factors of his successful career. He is eminently a
sound man.

After leaving college Mr. Smith was in charge of
Newton Academy, at Shoreham, Vermont, for about a
year. Then he decided to exchange the pedagogic for the
forensic robe, and turned his face Westward. Arriving

3456

at Chicago, he became a student in the law office of Je dee
Stark. Mr. Stark himself was from the Green Mountain
State, and was a descendant of that Colonel Stark who,
in the Revolutionary war, had come to the aid of Judge
Smith’s maternal ancestor, Major-General Ward. There
was a warm feeling of friendship between preceptor and
pupil, and in due time Abner Smith was admitted to
the practice of law and became a partner with Mr. Stark.
The firm of Stark & Smith was dissolved by the death
of its senior member, whose estate was settled by the
junior partner, by whom the business of the late firm
was continued and enlarged. Subsequently Mr. Smith
formed a partnership with Mr. John M. H. Burgett,
and the firm of Smith & Burgett was well known to
lawyers and clients for a period of ten years. Since
then Mr. Smith has formed other partnerships of brief
duration, but since 1887 has practiced as an individual,
and has won his most notable legal victories by his own
generalship. While eminent as a general practitioner,
Mr. Smith attained the highest measure of success as
a commercial and corporation lawyer, and has been
retained as standing counsel by some of the most famous
corporations of this and other states. In 1893 he was
elected to the bench of the Circuit Court, a position
that he has filled with honor to himself and to his con-
stituents, and to which, doubtless, he will be reelected,
if he so desires, at the expiration of his term.

Judge Smith was married in 1869 to Miss Ada C.
Smith, daughter of the late Sereno Smith, of Shoreham,
Vermont. He is of eminently domestic and elegant
tastes, and his home, No. 15 Aldine Square, is replete
with articles and instruments that minister to the lit-
erary, artistic and musical disposition.

Hon. Henry Varnum Freeman, presiding jus-
tice of the Branch. Appellate Court, First. District of
Illinois, was born at Bridgeton, New Jersey, Decem-
ber 20, 1840. His parents, Henry and Mary (Bangs)
Freeman, were both of Puritan ancestry, his father being
a lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster and of
Governor Thomas Pence, both of whom were promi-
nent in the affairs of Plymouth colony at an early date.

Judge Freeman began teaching district schools in
Stevenson and Ogle counties, Illinois, when he was
sixteen years of age, and later equipped himself for
college in the preparatory department at Beloit, Wis-
consin. He had just completed this portion of his edu-
cation and passed his examinations for admittance to
the university grades when he gave his services for the
suppression of the rebellion, and enlisted in the sum-
mer of 1862 as a private in Company K, Seventy-fourth
Ilinois Volunteer Infantry. He remained with the
Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war,
and returned to his home with the rank of captain in
Company D, Twelfth Infantry, U. S. C. T.

In the fall of 1865 he entered the freshman class of
346

Yale University, from which institution he was gradu-
ated in June, 1869, with the degree of A. B., and has
since received the degree of A. M. from his alma mater.
He then came to Chicago, arriving here in October,
and for the following year studied law in the offices of
King, Scott & Payson, and also with Rich & Noble,
and was admitted to the bar in 1870. Shortly after

 

HON. HENRY VARNUM FREEMAN.

the Chicago fire Mr. Freeman was offered the principal-
ship of a high school at Charleston, Illinois, a position
he accepted and filled for one year. He returned to
Chicago in July, 1872, and the following January began
the active practice of law. P

Mr. Freeman remained in active practice for a period
of twenty years, and during this time was engaged in
many of the more important cases which came before
the courts for settlement. The “annexation litigation”
of some years ago received much of his attention, as
he was at that time the village attorney of Hyde Park,
then the largest village in the world, and his views con-
cerning this important matter were fully sustained by
the Supreme Court, to which body the case was car-
ried.

In the spring of 1893 Mr. Freeman was nominated
for judge of the Superior Court, a position to which
he was elected in the following fall, and to which he
was reelected in the fall of 1898. His services on the
bench were of such a character that in the early part
of 1898 the members of the Supreme Court selected
him as one of the judges of the Branch Appellate Court,
of which he is now presiding justice.

Judge Freeman was for many years the senior mem-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ber of the firm of Freeman & Walker. He is a member,
and now president, of the Chicago Literary Club, and
a member of the University Club, the Quadrangle Club,
Hamilton Club. of the Geo. H. Thomas Post, Grand
Army of the Republic, and of the [linois Command-
ery of the Loyal Legion, of which he has recently been
made commander. He was married in 1873 to Miss
Mary L. Curtis, daughter of Rev. William S. Curtis,
D. D., then of Rockford, Illinois, and has a family of
four children.

Hon. Jesse Holdom, judge of the Superior Court of
Cook County, was born in London, England, August
23, 1851. He received a thorough academic training in
the schools of his native place, where he remained until
he settled in Chicago in 1868. At the age of twenty
Judge Holdom entered the law office of Judge Joshua
C. Knickerbocker, under whose guidance he studied for
two years, being admitted to the bar September 13,
1873, just after passing his twenty-second birthday.
Law schools were at that time not as popular as they
are at the present day, for the reason partly that they
had not as yet attained their present state of efficiency,
but more particularly because lawyers had not ceased to

 

 

 

 

HON. JESSE HOLDOM.,

give their clerks and students careful and thorough
guidance in the elementary branches of the profession.
Hence a clerkship in the office of a prominent legal firm
at that time was of considerable value, as the student was
expected to take part in the practical work of the office
and had the advantage of a large amount of personal
counsel and aid from men of high attainments. It was
from an office of this kind that Judge Holdom went out
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

into. the legal world, and he later found that the training
he had received was of vast assistance to him. For two
years after his graduation in law he was chief clerk in
the office of Tennys, Flower & Abercrombie, a firm
at that time doing the largest bankruptcy and commer-
cial business in Chicago, and here again he was much
benefited through his personal contact with men of abil-
itv and high standing in his profession. At the close of
two years in this office he began practice upon his own
responsibility and was successful from the very start.
He became the junior member of the firm of Knicker-
bocker & Holdom in 1878. This firm had a prosperous
career for ten years, during which time Judge Holdom
established himself more firmly than ever in his chosen
profession and came to be looked upn as one of the
strongest men at the Cook County bar. His aggressive
methods, together with his breadth of practical experi-
ence and his thorough equipment in all branches of
jurisprudence gained him the reputation'of being a for-
midable antagonist before either court or jury. For
over ten years Judge Holdom practiced under his own
name, and during that time he built up an excellent
practice, which was not confined to any specialty,
although in matters of real estate and probate law his
counsel was widely sought. In 1898 he was nominated
for a judgeship in the Cook County Superior Court,
and in the election that followed he was successful. His
judicial temperament, his natural ability and his equable
disposition have enabled him to fill the office with credit
not alone to himself but to his constituents. Judge
Holdom is a prominent member of the Hamilton Club,
of which he was president in 1897. Under his manage-
ment the club took a new start and moved downtown
to its present commodious quarters. He is also a mem-
ber of the Union League Club, and a member of its
political action committee. He has been secretary and
treasurer and is one of the oldest members of the Law
Club, and he is further identified with the American,
Illinois and Chicago Bar associations. He also holds
membership in the Marquette, Kenwood, Caxton and
Midlothian clubs, and in the Law Institute, the Art
Institute and the Field Columbian Museum. He is a
vestryman of Trinity Episcopal Church. Judge Holdom
is married and has a charming wife and two beautiful
daughters.

Hon. Jonas Hutchinson, judge of the Superior Court
of Cook County, was born in Milford, New Hampshire,
on January 10, 1840, and received his education in the
academy at Mount Vernon and at Dartmouth College,
where he was graduated in the class of 1863. After the
completion of his college course he became assistant in
the high school at Columbus, Ohio, and at the end of his
first year’s service was elected principal, in which capac-
ity he continued for the succeeding two years. In the
autumn of 1866 he came to Chicago as the Western

347

agent of the school-book publishing house of Messrs.
D. Appleton & Co. In the following year he began the
study of law in the office of Sweetzer & Gardner, in
Boston, and afterward continued his studies with Bain-
bridge Wadleigh, in New Hampshire, where he was
admitted to the bar in March, 1869. He then returned
to Chicago and practiced his profession until his eleva-
tion to the bench. Hon. DeWitt C. Cregier, mayor,
appointed him to the position of corporation counsel in
1889, and in this capacity he discharged the responsible
duties incumbent upon him for two years, with satisfac-
tion to all. ; .

On November 3, 1891, he was elected judge of the
Superior Court of Cook County, to succeed the Hon.

 

HON. JONAS HUTCHINSON.

John P. Altgeld, resigned. His election by the Demo-
crats for this judicial honor was endorsed by'the Repub-
licans, and his election by a majority of over 100,000
votes was practically non-partisan. Judge Hutchinson
brought to the bench all the qualities of mind and heart
that were so characteristic of his successful practice, and
his career as a jurist was marked by such high motives
of fairness and judicial capacity that he was reelected in
1892 and again in 1898, each time for a period of six
years. ‘The Illinois Political Directory of 1899, with
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Party Leaders,”
says of Judge Hutchinson, among other things: “Judge
Hutchinson of the Superior Court of Cook County is
one of the two Democratic judicial nominees who were
elected in 1898. Chicago forgot politics and placed the
seal of popular approval on the splendid record that has
been made on the bench by this eminent jurist. The
348

returns of November, 1898, told the story of public
appreciation of one of the best judges that ever sat on
the bench in the state of Illinois.”

Judge Hutchinson was married November 14, 1876,
to Miss Letetia Brown, a great-granddaughter of
Colonel William A. Dudley of Lexington, Kentucky, a
distinguished soldier in the War of 1812. They have
two children, He‘en and Jonas.

Judge Arthur Henry Chetlain was born at Galena,
Illinois, in 1849, and is descended from a_ not-
able ancestry. His father, General Augustus L. Chet-
lain, is a Huguenot, of French-Swiss extraction, his
parents having emigrated to America from the canton
of Neufchatel, Switzerland, in 1821. They came by

 

JUDGE ARTHUR HENRY CHETLAIN.

way of Hudson Bay to the Red River of Selkirk settle-
ment of British America, thence to St. Louis, Missouri,
in 1823, and in 1826 to the then celebrated lead mines at
Galena, where the old homestead was founded. In that
locality General Chetlain was reared and became the
first commander of the regiment raised by General
Grant. He participated in all the battles of his division
in the War of the Rebellion, and when hostilities had
ceased was breveted major-general of volunteers. Dur-
ing President Grant’s administration he was appointed
United States consul to Brussels, Belgium. He was the
founder and first president of the Chicago Home Na-
tional Bank, and has been a prominent figure in busi-
ness and military circles for years.

Reared in his native city, Judge Chetlain acquired
his preliminary education in its public schools, and
then entered the University of Wisconsin, where, on

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the completion of a two years’ course, he was graduated
with the degree of bachelor of arts. In Brussels, Bel-
gium, he completed the full course in natural science
in the “Universitie Libre,’ and won the degree of
bachelor of science. After his graduation from that
institution he served as a bearer of dispatches between
the American legation of Paris, France, and the United
States authorities in London, England, during the
Franco-Prussian war.

Returning to his native land in February, 1871,
Judge Chetlain took up the study of law in the office —
of William Lathrop of Rockford, Illinois, and on pass-
ing an examination before the Supreme Court of the
state, June 20, 1873, was admitted to the bar. Not
content, however, with this preparatory training, he
returned to his parents’ home in Chicago and continued
his studies in the law office of Edward A. Small. In
July, 1874, he formed a partnership with Stephen S.
Gregory, which continued for five years, when it was
consolidated with the firm of Tenney & Flower, this
relationship being maintained until 1881, when Judge
Chetlain was forced to withdraw on account of ill-health.
He then spent a year and a half in travel through the
Western States and Mexico for rest and recuperation,
and in 1883 resumed practice in Chicago. His practice
has covered a wide range, and in it he has traversed
the entire domain of the lav. While a member of the
firm of Tenney & Flower he acquired a wide familiarity
with commercial and contract law, and also with the
law of private corporations. After his return to Chicago
he was in general practice until the spring of 1891,
when he was appointed by Mayor \Washburne first
assistant corporation counsel. In that capacity he was
called upon to assume active charge of a vast amount
of litigation of the most important character. He rep-
resented the city in much complicated litigation con-
nected with the lake front in suits brought by the rail-
roads to enjoin the opening of public streets across
their tracks and in many other cases involving the city’s
rights of property and the exercise of its powers of
police. In these cases constitutional questions of great
importance and difficulty were involved. He dealt with
them exhaustively and ably, and was generally  suc-
cessful.

Judge Chetlain speaks and reads French, and has
been counsel in Chicago for the French, Belgium aud
Turkish consulates.

As a lawyer he has always been diligent, thorough
and intelligent. In the preparation of his cases no mere
superficial view contents him; he is not satisfied until
he feels that he has carefully considered every phase of
the questions presented and given them the most thor-
ough and conscientious examination of which he is
capable. He does not jump at conclusions, but main-
tains those he has reached with vigor and tenacity.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Of studious habits, and with the instincts and train-
ing of a scholar, he regards the law as a noble and
reasonable science, in which results are to be attained
by logical and intellectual processes of reasoning. He
does not ignore cases, but studies them patiently in the
effort to grasp their underlying principles and then to
make intelligent application of those principles to new
questions. He does not, in dull and slavish effort to
follow the letter of the law, miss its entire spirit and
purpose, that which alone makes it a living beneficent
force in human society.

Of singularly fair and impartial mind, always cour-
teous and considerate in his treatment of others, it was
natural that he should be considered for the bench. In
1892 he was nominated by the Republican party for
judge of the Superior Court, but went down to defeat
with his. ticket before the great tidal wave of Demo-
cratic success which rolled over the country that year.
In 1893 lie was again nominated for the same position,
and in November of that year was elected to fill out the
unexpired term of Judge George H. Kettelle, who died
during that summer. Judge Chetlain has just been
reelected for another term, receiving a larger number
of votes than any other judicial candidate on the ticket.
He has been a painstaking, diligent and conscientious
judge, and has earned and commands the confidence,
respect and regard of the bar and the esteem of the
community. His fairness, justness and universal cour-
tesy and urbanity are recognized and appreciated by
all who practice before him. An incident in a local
cause celebre, which occurred eariy in his judicial career,
shows that he is not wanting in that sterner stuff which
judicial duty sometimes requires. Prendergast, who
killed Mayor Carter H. Harrison, in October, 1893,
had been tried for his crime, had interposed insanity
as a defense, had been convicted and sentenced to death.
The Supreme Court had denied him a supersedeas. The
afternoon of the day before that set for his execution,
his counsel having applied to various other judges to
hear such an application, finally appeared before Judge
Chetlain, then sitting in the Criminal Court, for a trial
as to the prisoner's sanity, upon affidavit that he had
become insane since sentence, and in order to give time
for such trial moved for a judicial reprieve or postpone-
ment of the execution. The state’s attorney appeared,
conceded in open court that the prisoner was entitled
to a trial by jury under the statute, but insisted that it
proceed at once. After some discussion the court took
a recess until eight o’clock that evening. On coming
in at that hour he held that, notwithstanding this admis-
sion of the state, he was not satisfied that a prima facie
case had been made under the statute, but would hear
evidence as to whether the affidavit was true. Three
disinterested witnesses were accordingly sworn, whose
testimony tended to sustain the allegations of the affi-

349

davit which had been sworn to by the prisoner’s brother,
and the court then held the prisoner was entitled to a
trial on the issue thus raised. The state denied the
power of the court to postpone the execution. In the
midst of the discussion the news came that the executive
had refused a reprieve. The argument proceeded
until nearly midnight. The courtroom was crowded
to suffocation and a great concourse gathered in the
street, attracted by the strange battle for a human life
that hung by so slight a thread.

The proposition was plain; the prisoner was en-
titled to a trial, the power of the court to postpone the
execution for the purposes of such a trial was plenary
and was demonstrated by the argument. However,
judges are but men, and the entire community seemed
to demand the immediate execution of this wretched
man. Most judges would have gone with the tide; not
so Judge Chetlain. Considering the questions pre-
sented calmly, as if seeking the solution of an intel-
lectual prob!em, he saw clearly that the prisoner was,
as indeed the state conceded, entitled to this trial; that
it could not be conducted decently in the few hours
intervening. before the time set for execution, and that
the power of the court to postpone the execution was
undoubted. He dared to do his duty, and, just before
the day set for the execution began, in such an atmos-
phere of suppressed excitement as rarely exists in a
courtroom, even in a capital case, he entered an order
for such a trial, and postponed the execution for two
weeks. This was a thing unprecedented in this state,
and almost unheard of in modern criminal jurispru-
dence. It was severely criticised by the press and the
unthinking generally. But it has passed into precedent
and is now recognized as admissib'e and proper pro-
cedure in this county and e’sewhere in this state, and
has been followed in several instances.

In the Dreyer case Judge Chetlain refused to hold
that public moneys in the hands of a treasurer became
absolutely his if he paid, or agreed to pay, interest
thereon under the statute, and accordingly refused a
motion to quash the indictments in that case. Since
this ruling Dreyer has been tried, convicted and sen-
tenced before another judge, who followed the law as
laid down on this subject by Judge Chetlain, and
although that conviction was reversed in the Suprerne
Court, that tribunal fully sustained, in its opinion, the
views expressed by Judge Chetlain on this point.

Judge Chetlain is not connected with any church,
though he is a man not only of high principle, but of
much genuine religious feeling.

He has always been a Republican, active and influ-
ential in the counsels of his party, president of the Mar-
quette Club, and, February 12, 1896, at the great dinner
given by that organization to William McKinley, prior
to his nomination for the presidency, Judge Chetlain
350

was the member of the club chosen to represent it
among the speakers of the evening. He is nota partisan
on the bench, and his political sentiments never color
his judicial conduct.

He is married and has an interesting family of five
children. He resides in the North Division of the city
of Chicago, of which he has been a resident for over
twenty-five years.

Hon. Axel Chytraus, judge of the Superior Court
of Cook County, was born in the province of Werm-
land, Sweden, September 15, 1859. He came to the

 

HON. AXEL CHYTRAUS.

United States with his father in 1869. The father
located in Chicago, and it was in the schools of this city
that his son, the future jurist, continued the studies he
had already begun in Sweden. At the age of fourteen
Judge Chytraus entered the law office of Howe & Rus-
sell as an office boy and clerk. He proved himself to
be a bright boy, with a desire for knowledge, and he
began reading law under the direction of his employers,
with the result that he was admitted to the bar Novem-
ber 7, 1881. For some two years after this he was
engaged in the office of Mr. Francis Lackner, but in
1885 he formed a partnership with Mr. George F.
Blanke, under the name of Blanke & Chytraus, which
continued until the election of Mr. Blanke to the bench
of the Superior Court in 1893. Meanwhile Mr. Charles
S. Deneen, now state’s attorney for Cook County, had
become a member of the firm, and this association was
henceforth continued, under the firm title of Chytraus
& Deneen. Judge Chytraus was elected to his present
position as a Republican in April, 1899. It is the first

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

office he has ever sought or held, as he has always
devoted himself, heretofore, exclusively to the duties
of his profession. As a lawyer he has been engaged in
many important litigations before the Supreme, Appel-
late and lower courts. Asa jurist he has already gained
the highest esteem of the Cook County bar, due in great
part, no doubt, to his having brought to his present
position those qualities of legal and judicial tempera-
ment that go hand in hand with the successful discharge
of the onerous duties of the bench.

Judge Chytraus is a member of the Union League
Club, the Marquette Club, the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and of the Masonic order. He was mar-
ried in 1894 to Miss Laura Haugan, daughter of H. A.
Haugan, president of the State Bank of Chicago. They
reside at 1932 Arlington place, near Lincoln Park.

Charles Samuel Deneen, state’s attorney for Cook
County, was born May 4, 1863, at Edwardsville, Madi-
son County, Illinois. His father, Samuel H. Deneen,
Ph. D., was professor of Latin and history at McKendree

 

 

CHARLES SAMUEL DENEEN.

College, Lebanon, Illinois, for thirty years, and his
mother, whose maiden name was Mary F. Ashley, was
a graduate of a well-known woman’s college at Cincin-
nati. Mr. Deneen’s paternal grandfather, Rev. W illiam
L. Deneen, was a pioneer Methodist preacher in the
early days of Illinois, and his great-grandfather, Risdon -
Moore, who was a resident in this state as early as 1812,
was a member of the First Territorial Legislature of Illi-
nois, and also of the First, Third and Fourth State Legis-
latures. Mr. Deneen was a student in the public schools
of Lebanon, and at McKendree College, where his edu-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

cation was continued under the personal supervision of
his father. Following his graduation in 1882 from this
institution, he taught school in Jasper and Madison
counties for about three years, and at the end of that
period came to Chicago and entered the office of Master
in Chancery Waller as clerk. Mr. Deneen has been a
member of several law firms, his first association having
been with Mr. H. Waldo Dikeman, under the title of
Dikeman & Deneen. He was later a member of the
firms of Deneen & McEwan, of Blanke, Chytraus & De-
-neen, of Chytraus & Deneen, and he is now
associated with Mr. Charles H. Hamill in the
firm of Deneen & Hamill. While he was a mem-
ber of the firm of Blanke, Chytraus & Deneen,
both Messrs. Blanke and Chytraus were called to the
bench of the Superior Court. In 1892 Mr. Deneen was
- elected a member of the Ilinois Legislature from the oid
Second Senatorial District. He served one term. In
December, 1895, he was appointed attorney for the
Sanitary District, a position he held until April, 1893.
when, receiving the nomination for state’s attorney, he
resigned, in order to be free to engage unreservedly in
the activities of the canvas. He was elected state’s at-
torney by the largest vote ever cast for a Cook County
candidate. Mr. Deneen has won a high place in the
popular estimation by his energetic and fearless conduct
of this office. An unusually large number of prosecu-
tions have fallen to his lot, and his vigcrous con-
duct of them has been in the highest degree satisfac-
tory. Mr. Deneen was married May 10, 1891, at Prince-
ton, Illinois, to Miss Bina Day Maloney of Mount Car-
roll, Illinois. They have three children—one son, Ash-
ley, and two daughters, Dorothy and Frances.

Thomas Nevin Jamieson of Chicago, clerk of the
Appellate Court, First District, was born in Durham,
county of Grey, province of Ontario, Canada, February
29, 1848, of Scotch parents. He received a good edu-

cation in the famous schools of Ontario, and at the age

of fourteen he was apprenticed to a druggist. At the
age of eighteen he went to Chicago, his ambition being
for a larger field. In 1870 he embarked in the drug
business on his own account, and ever since has been.
identified with the drug business in Chicago. For three
years he was president of the Retail Drug Association of
Chicago, and for five years was president of the State
Board of Pharmacy. Notwithstanding the prominence
he has attained in politics, he still retains his drug stores
in Chicago. He was city sealer under Mayor Washburn,
and later was superintendent of public service of Cook
County for two years. Dr. Jamieson is happily married,
and has two sons and two daughters.

Dr. Jamieson early identified himself with the Repub-
lican party, and, being endowed with a natural genius
for political organization and management, he soon
came to the front among the political leaders of that

351

organization, and his skill, sagacity and good judgment
soon became recognized. He was secretary of the
Republican State Committee during the campaign of
1888, when ‘Private Joe” Fifer was elected governor of
Illinois, and was the principal manager of the campaign
which made James H. Gilbert sheriff of Cook County;
also of the campaign which resulted in the election of
Hempstead Washburn, mayor of Chicago. During
the Washburn administration Dr. Jamieson was en-
trusted with the distribution of the offices, and exerted
an important influence on the general policy of the
administration. In the election of 1894, which resulted
in such notable triumph of his party, Dr. Jamieson ex-
erted a powerful influence. He was chairman of the

 

THOMAS NEVIN JAMIESON.

state committee in 1896, which he resigned to accept the
position of national Republican committeeman for Ili-
nois. In this capacity he was frequently called into
counsel with Chairman Hanna of the national committee
and was one of the most prominent figures in the polit-
ical world during the fierce battle between the Republic-
ans and Democrats. For clerk of the Appellate Court
he received 218,853 votes to 153,272 for Thomas G.
McElligott, Fusion.

John Arkell Cooke. There is no more popular or
efficient officer connected with the administration of the
affairs of Cook County than John Arkell Cooke, clerk of
the Circuit Court. He was born August 28, 1857, at
Chicago, where he received his education in the public
schools, being graduated from the high school with hon-
ors. About the time young Cooke finished his early edu-
cation his father died and left him at the head of the fam-
352

ily. For several years he was employed on South Water
street, but at the age of eighteen he succeeded to his
father’s livery and sales stable business, which for several
years he managed with great success. Finally disposing
of this, however, he entered into the grain and commis-
sion business on South Halsted street, where he con-
tinued until 1&90, since which time he has been a mem-
ber of the real estate firm of Murphy, Lorimer & Co.

 

 

JOHN ARKELL COOKE.

Mr. Cooke has been an active participant in local

political matters for several years; always an earnest

Republican and a hard worker in behalf of the candidates
and politics of his party. Yet in all the campaigns in
which he has borne so prominent a part he has appar-
ently made no enemies. In 1890 Mr. Cooke was sent
to the city council from the Seventh Ward, which, up
to that time, had never elected a Republican. His suc-
cess as an organizer and the fact of his lifelong ac-
quaintance and high standing in the community ena-
bled him to win an election by 700 votes in a ward that
had before been Democratic by at least 1,500. Since
18g0 he was reclected twice, and previous to the close of
his third term was nominated and elected to the office
he now holds—clerk of the Circuit Court.

Mr. Cooke has proven himself competent and faith-
ful in every way and gained the confidence and approval
of the best elements in our citizenship. That he will yet
receive still higher promotion and be chosen to repre-
sent the people in more important positions may be
looked upon as certain. Being wholly without ostenta-
tion, straightforward and plain-spoken, Mr. Cooke im-
presses those who meet him as a man of much solidity of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

character, positive in his views, and firm in holding any
position he may take. His integrity and ability are
unquestioned, and his geniality and generosity have
made him a multitude of friends who will always be
enthusiastic in his support whenever he may become
a candidate for public office.

Mr. Cooke is a committeeman of the Cook County
Republican Central Committee, and is chairman of the
sub-committee on halls and speakers. He is a member
of the Knights of Pythias, Royal Arcanum, Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, and is identified with the
Poyagon Gun Club, the Pistaque Yacht Club and the
Columbian Yacht Club.

THE BAR.

Hon. Thomas A. Moran, LL. D., dean of the
Chicago College of Law, was born at Bridgewort, Con-
necticut, October 7, 1839. \When he was seven years
of age his parents removed to the town of Bristol in
Kenosha County, Wisconsin, where until he was about
nineteen years of age voung Moran followed the usual
occupations of a farmer’s boy—attending school perhaps
a few months in the winter when there was less to be
done on the farm. He subsequently engaged in teach-

 

 

HON. THOMAS A. MORAN, LL. D.

ing school, but when he was twenty years of age he
began to study law in the office of J. J. Pettit at Keno-
sha; later continuing the same under the guidance of
Hon, J. W. Webster of the same place. Much of this
time he was engaged in teaching through the winter
months and was thus enab'ed to meet the expenses inci-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

‘dent to preparing himself for the legal profession.
During this time he took an active interest in debating
clubs and his fame as a boy orator and debater was
more than local. This quality was so well recognized
by those about him that a future in law was predicted
for him even at that time, and it is a matter of interest
to note that even while he was still a boy, scarcely
twenty years of age, he was stumping his county in the
presidential campaign of 1860, making speeches in sup-
port of Stephen A. Douglas, of whom he was an ardent
admirer.

In 1862 his father became ill and Thomas returned
to the farm and took charge of its management for one
year, but on his father’s death the farm was sold and the
family settled in Kenosha. Wis mother died in 1864
and in the summer of that year he went East and in the
fall entered the famous Albany Law School, from which
he graduated in May, 1865, one of the leaders of his
class. In November of the same year he came to Chi-
cago and began the practice of his profession. For a
short time he was in the office of H. S. Monroe, but later
he was successively a member of several different firms
—Schoff & Moran, Moran & English, Moran, English
& Wolf, and he was at the head of the last mentioned
when he was elected to the circuit bench in 1879 for a
term of six years—-being the first Irish-American ever
elected to the Cook County bench. He was reélected
in 1885 and again in 1891. After having served with
distinction for seven-years as judge of the Circuit Court
he was assigned by the Supreme Court to the judgeship
of the Appellate Court of the First District of IMlinois—
and served in that position until he resigned his office in
March, 1892. His experience as a judge embraced the
common law, chancery and criminal branches of the
court, in each of which he achieved honor and won the
commendation of the bar and public. At the bar Judge
Moran became, and has since continued, as a successful
jury lawyer, eloquent, logical, sagacious and with a clear,
intelligent and comprehensive grasp of all the points
in a case.

At the present time Judge Moran is associated with
Levy Mayer, Isaac H. Mayer, Carl Meyer, Alfred S.
Austrian, Abraham Meyer and Thomas A. Moran, Jr.,
composing the firm of Moran, Mayer & Meyer, with
offices in the Unity Building. He was married in 1868
to Miss Josephine Quinn of Albany, New York. Eight
children have been born to them, Alice, Thomas A.,
Margaret, John P., Eugene, Josephine, Arthur and
Kathryn.

Benjamin F. Ayer has taken to heart the aphor-
ism, “Law is a jealous mistress,” and has waited
on her assiduously and wooed her successfully. He was
born at Kingston, Rockingham County, New Hamp-
shire, April 22, 1825. His parents are Robert and
Louisa (Sanborn) Ayer. After preliminary education

23

353

in the schools of his native town and the Albany (N. Y.)
Academy he entered Dartmouth College, and graduated
with the class of 1846. Having determined upon the
profession of law he prepared himself by three years of
close study, attendance upon the lectures delivered at
the famous Dane Law School, which is the legal branch
of Harvard University, being a part of his training. In
July, 1849, Mr. Ayer was admitted to practice in the
courts of New Hampshire, opened an office in Man-
chester, a flourishing town of that state, and soon
acquired a fair share of practice. In 1853 Mr. Aver was
chosen a member of the General Assembly of New
Hampshire, and in the next year was appointed prose-
cuting attorney for Rockingham County. This office

 

 

 

 

 

BENJAMIN F. AYER.

he held until his removal to Chicago in 1857. In little
more than three years after his arrival in this city, Mr.
Ayer was appointed to the highly important position of
corporation counsel. At this point of his career Mr.
Ayer seems to have apprehended more fully than at an
earlier period the magnitude of the scope of corporation
law and the lucrative quality of its practice. At any rate,
from this time on, whether as a member of the law firm
of Beckwith, Ayer & Kales, or of its successor, Ayer &
Kales, or as an individual practitioner, we find him draw-
ing always more closely to a predominant, if not
exclusive, cultivation of corporation practice.

As early as 1876 the high reputation of Mr. Ayer had
been influential with the Illinois Central Railway Com-
pany, which in that year appointed him to be its general
solicitor, and in the next year elected him as one of its
directors. In 1890 Mr. Ayer was made general counsel
B54

of the company, and he still holds this important place.
His name is associated, and almost always with the
victors, in most of the legal battles in defense of railway
controversies. Mr. Ayer has been honored by his
brethren of the bar by election as president of the Chi-
cago Bar Association and as vice-president of the
American Bar Association. In 1878 Dartmouth, a
college always chary of its honors, bestowed upon him
the degree of LL. D., by way of expressing approvai of
the distinguished success of one of its graduates. Since
1879 Mr. Ayer has been chairman of the Western Rail-
road Association. He is a member of the Chicago
Literary Club, the Chicago Historical Society, the Chi-
cago Law Institute and the Chicago Club. In 1868 Mr.
Ayer was married to Janet A., daughter of the Hon.
James C. Hopkins of Madison, Wis., for many years
judge of the United States Court for the Western Dis-
trict of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Ayer have four
children, one son and three daughters.

George R. Peck is one of the Eastern-born men
who, while still in the prime of life, have attained emi-
nence in the political, legal and social life of the great
West. With no educational advantages other than
those that the common schools and academies of half
a century ago afforded, Mr. Peck had fitted himself
to serve as a teacher before he had reached his seven-
teenth birthday. At the age of nineteen he enlisted
as a private in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery.
Later he was promoted lieutenant and captain of the
Thirty-first Wisconsin Infantry, marched with Sherman
to the sea, and, after three years of active service in the
field, at the age of twenty-two, put himself in training
for participation in those great forensic battles that
have made his name famous in the courts. He spent six
years as law student, law clerk and practicing lawyer
in Janesville, Wisconsin, and then sought a wider field
of action in Kansas, where, from 1871 to 1874, he occu-
pied a leading position at the bar in the then prominent
town of Independence. In January of the latter year
President Grant appointed him United States attorney
for the district of Kansas, with headquarters at Topeka.
Within a month of the date of his appointment he was
instructed by the Attorney-General at Washington to
bring a suit for the establishment of the claim of the
Iederal government to 960,000 acres of land. The
energy and skill with which Mr. Peck conducted this
and other important suits for the government soon led
to his recognition as the leading lawyer of the state.
In 1879 it became apparent to him that far greater emol-
uments than those of a government office, however hon-
orable its character, awaited his return to private prac-
tice. He therefore withdrew from. public life and,in 1881,
was appointed general solicitor for the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fé Railroad Company, and from then until
1895, with the exception of two years, managed the

THE CIZY OF CHICAGO.

legal affairs of that great corporation. While resident
in Kansas Mr. Peck attained eminence in the manage-
ment of the higher issues of politics. When, in the
early months of 1893, upon the accession of Governor
Lewelling to power, the capitol at Topeka was filled
with angry legislators, many of whom were as ready
to draw weapons as to produce arguments, and the
State House and surrounding grounds were more like
an armed camp than the gathering place of lawgivers,
Mr. Peck’s force of character was made manifest, and
by his wise counsel and resolute courage, temporary
anarchy, with its unvarying accompaniment of blood-
shed, was averted. For ten years Mr. Peck was one
of the leaders of the Republican party of Kansas. In

 

GEORGE R. PECK.

1892, upon the death of Senator Plumb, Governor
Humphry offered the vacant seat to Mr. Peck, but the
spiendid honor was declined.

In September, r894, Mr. Peck resigned the general
solicitorship of the Atchison system of roads, and ac-
cepted the position of general counsel of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company. Judge Cald-
well of the Eighth United States Judicial Circuit, in
accepting the resignation of Mr. Peck, passed a warm
eulogium upon his management of the legal affairs of
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway, and ex-
pressed a hope that the benefit of his counsel would be
extended to it during the period of reorganization
through which it was then passing.

Amid his various occupations as soldier, statesman
and lawyer, Mr. Peck has cherished a love of letters. He
has been honored by two universities with the degree
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

of LL. D., and his orations before the students and fac-
ulty of Knox College in 1894, and before the University
of Virginia in 1895, were printed and commented upon
by the leading newspapers of Virginia, Texas, Kansas
and Illinois. Mr. Peck was born in Steuben County,
New York, in 1843, and thus is still in the prime of
life, the future of which may be predicted from its past.

 

CHARLES A. DUPEE.

Charles A. Dupee, senicr member of the firm of

Dupee, Judah, Willard & Wo!f, was born at West Brook-

. field, Massachusetts, in May, 1831, the son of Jacob and
Lydia (Wetherbee) Dupee. He was prepared for col-
lege in the best schools, and at the age of nineteen he
entered the freshman class at Ya'e, from which institu-
tion he was graduated in June, 1854, with the degree of
A. B. He later received the degree of A. M.

Shortly after graduation, Mr. Dupee came to Chi-
cago and engaged in teaching at the Edwards Acadenny ;
but this position he resigned a year or so later in order
to spend some time in travel. On his return he was
elected principal of one of the public schools and the
following year he accepted a similar position in the then
recently established Chicago High School.

After four years of teaching Mr. Dupee resigned and
entered the law department of Harvard University,
where he completed the specified two-year course in one.
He then returned to Chicago and continued his studies
in the law offices of Gallup & Hitchcock. A year later
he was admitted to the bar.

He then began the practice of his profession, and
although he was not connected with any leader of the
bar to give him prestige, he attracted clients from the

359

very beginning of his career. :\n increasing business
made it seem best that he associate himself with
others, and accordingly he practiced with Jacob A. Cram
for a year, at the close of which time the firm of Hitch-
cock, Dupee & Evarts was organized. Eight years
later Mr. Evarts retired and the firm continued as Hitch-
cock & Dupee until the admission of Noble B. Judah.
Mr. Hitchcock died in 1881 and the surviving members
associated with themselves Monroe L. Willard, under
the firm name of Dupee, Judah & Willard, which con-
tinued as such until the admission of Mr. \WWolf some
years later.

Mr. Dupee is a lawyer of marked ability. His knowl-
edge of jurisprudence is profound, his respect for the
judiciary is undoubted, his bearing toward opposing
counsel is courteous and his resources are practically
inexhaustible. Ambitious to win an exalted position in
his profession, he has never been tempted to leave it for
the chances of politics or the rewards of public office.

Mr. Dupee has been married twice—first in 1853. to
the daughter of Henry G. Wells, a pioneer resident of
Chicago. She died in 1881. He later married Miss
Bessie B. Nash, a niece of the famous poet, author and
newspaper writer, Don Piatt.

 

 

NOBLE B. JUDAH.

Noble B. Judah, ineinber of the law firm of Dupee,
Judah, Willard & Wolf, was born at Vincennes, Indiana,
September 7, 1851. His father, Samuel Judah, was
a distinguished lawyer, resident most of his life at Vin-
cennes, Indiana, to which place he came immediately
after the state was created out of the Northwest Terri-

tory. His mother, who before her marriage was Miss
356

Harriet Brandon, was a descendant of one of the first
families to emigrate into the Northwest Territory from
Virginia after the war of the Revolution and her father
was the publisher of the first newspaper in Indiana.

Mr. Judah received his education in the public schools
of Vincennes, at Vincennes University, the Indiana State
University at Bloomington, and at Brown University,
Providence, Rhode Island, from which latter institution
he was graduated in 1872. He then returned to Chicago
and in September of that year entered the law offices
of Hitchcock & Dupee, where he studied until 1874,
part of which time, however, he attended the law depart-
ment of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In
the early part of 1875 Mr. Judah became a member of
the firm above mentioned, but his name did not appear
as stich until some years later, When the firm of Hitch-
cock, Dupee & Judah was organized and so continued
until the death of Mr. Hitchcock, after which it was
known for several years as Dupee & Judah.

Although Mr. Judah was for a considerable period
engaged in general practice in the courts, he has devoted
himself for a number of years past almost entirely to
the affairs of particular corporations. For several years
he gave most of his time to the business of the First
National Bank and at present is for the greater part of
the time engaged with the affairs of the South Side
Elevated Railroad .Company, the Corn Exchange
National Bank, N. W. Harris & Co., the Western Stone
Company and several other concerns for which he is
counsel.
Association and of several of the social organizations of
this city, although he is too busily engaged with the
duties of his law practice to be much of a club man.
He is married and has a family of several children.

Henry M. Wolf, of the law firm of Dupee, Judah,
Willard & Wolf, was born at Rock Island, Illinois,
November 15, 1860, the son of Moses and Bertha Wolf.
Removing to Chicago with his parents while still very
young, Mr. Wolf received his academic education in this
city, graduating from the Chicago Central High School
in 1878. During the following two years he studied
under private tutors and at the old Chicago University.

In the autumn of 1880 Mr. Wolf entered Yale Col-
lege, from which he was graduated with the class of
1884. He then returned to Chicago and began the study
of law in the offices of Dupee, Judah & Willard. In 1886
he was admitted to the bar and in October of the same
year he became a member of the firm under whose
direction he had pursued his legal studies.

Mr. Wolf soon became recognized at the bar as a
man of much ability and one having a thorough knowl-
edge of law. He has appeared in many important cases
and numbers among his clients some of the largest
corporations in the West. He is a member of many
organizations of a social nature, among them being the

THE CITY .OF

Mr. Judah is a member of the Local Bar.

CHICAGO.

 

HENRY M. WOLF.

University, Chicago Athletic, Sunset, Yale and Standard
clubs. He is also a member of the Chicago Bar Asso-
ciation and the Illinois State Bar Association, and of
Phi Beta Kappa and other college fraternities.

Monroe Livingstone Willard, of the firm of Dupee,
Judah, Willard & Wolf, was born at Metamora, Illinois,

 

 

 

 

MONROE LIVINGSTONE WILLARD.

February 26, 1853, the son of Peter H. and Elizabeth
O. G. Willard. When he was some three or four years
of age his parents moved to St. Louis, but at the out-
THE CITY

break of the rebellion in 1861 they came North and took
up their permanent residence in Chicago.

Mr. Willard acquired his education in the public
schools of this city, and after his graduation from the
Chicago High School in June, 1871, he entered Harvard
University in the following fall. After three years at
college he left and went to Philadelphia, where he
remained until the middle of August, 1877, engaged for
the most part in private tutoring.

Part of this period, however, he read law under
Francis Rawle, Jr. On returning to Chicago in 1877,
he entered the employ of Hitchcock, Dupee & Judah,
becoming a member of the firm of Dupee & Judah in the
fall of 1882.

Herrick, Allen, Boyesen & Martin. It is only
fitting that more than passing notice should be
paid to the law firm of Herrick, Allen, Boyesen &
Martin, a firm that has the prestige of being among the
oldest in Chicago, and whose members have all been
recognized by bench and bar as leaders in the legal
profession. As early as 1850 George Sedgwick and
James M. Walker, both just admitted to the bar of
Michigan, had formed a partnership and begun practice
in that state. Three years later the firm removed to
Chicago, where it was known for several years under
the name of Sedgwick & Walker.

Mr. Sedgwick retired early in the sixties and Mr.
Walker formed a partnership with the late Wirt Dexter,
who had been a student of law in the offices of Sedgwick
& Walker as early as 1855. Before the close of the war
Mr. John Van Arman was admitted to membership, the
style of the partnership changing from Walker & Dexter
to Walker, Van Arman & Dexter, and finally a few years
later to Walker, Dexter & Smith.

After the withdrawal of Mr. Walker to engage in
other business, the firm continued for some time as
Dexter & Smith, and after the withdrawal of Mr. Smith
it was continued until 1878 under the name of Wirt
Dexter. In this year Mr. John J. Herrick was admitted
to membership and two years later Mr. Charles L. Allen
was taken in, the name being then changed to Dexter,
Herrick & Allen.

Mr. Dexter died in May, 1890, and for the following
three years the firm was known as Herrick & Allen. At
the end of this time Mr. I. K. Boyesen was received as
a partner, the name becoming Herrick, Allen &
Boyesen; this being again changed in May, 1893, when
Mr. Horace M. Martin was taken in, to its present title
of Herrick, Allen, Boyesen & Martin.

John J. Herrick, senior member of the well-known
law firm of Herrick, Allen, Boyesen & Martin, was born
at Hillsboro, Illinois, May 25, 1845, a descendant from
sturdy English ancestors, prominent in the history of
early colonial times. His great grandfather, Jacob
Herrick, was an officer in the Continental army and

OF CHICAGO.

367

prominent also in the civil life of New England during
his lifetime. His father, Dr. William B. Herrick, was
held in high esteem by the medical profession, of which
he was an earnest practitioner. Tor thirteen years he
was a member of the faculty of Rush Medical College
and at the time of the formation of the Illinois State
Medical Society he was honored by being made its first
president. Mr. Herrick's mother, before her marriage, |
was Miss Martha Seward, a daughter of John B. Seward
of Montgomery County, Illinois. She was a woman of
many rare qualities, and married Dr. Herrick early in
the forties, shortly after he took up his residence in
Tllinois.

When Mr. John J. Herrick was twelve years old his
father placed him in an academy at Lewiston Falls,

 

 

 

 

JOHN J. HERRICK.

Maine, where he remained until he was sufficiently well
equipped to enter Bowdoin College. From this institu-
tion of letters he was graduated in 1866.

Immediately thereafter he came to Chicago and for
a year devoted himself to teaching school in the then
suburban village of Hyde Park. His tastes, however,
were for the law rather than for teaching, and the fall
of 1867 found him enrolled as a student at the Union
College of Law. At the same time he entered the offices
of Higgins, Sweet & Quigg, attorneys at law, under
whose direction he supplemented his studies. So well
was he equipped by his previous collegiate training that
he was able to finish the required course in law in one
year and was graduated in June, 1868, the valedictorian
of his class. He passed his examinations before the bar
shortly afterward and became fully entitled to practice
358

in the courts of the state. Notwithstanding this, how-
ever, he remained in the office of Higgins, Sweet &
Quigg until 1871, at which time he began practice under
his own name.

Few men come to the active practice of law better
fitted to struggle with its intricate problems than was
Mr. Herrick. .\ thorough training from the ground up,
academic, collegiate, legal—the latter including not only
the theoretical work of a law school, but several years
of practical work in a busy law office—had fitted him to
take responsible trusts and ably champion them.
Although so voung, he soon had a large clientage and
was employed in several important cases. Within a
few years he had established a reputation at the bar
and in 1878 he accepted a partnership with the Hon.
Wirt Dexter—then, and until his death, one of the
leaders of the Chicago bar. Thus began a connection
with one of the oldest and best known firms in the West,
at the head of which Mr. Herrick now continues after a
connection of nearly a quarter of a century.

Mr. Herrick possesses a wealth of knowledge of the
law, an unsurpassed familiarity with authorities, and an
unerring judgment. The highest courts in many of the
Western states have recognized his ability as a lawyer
possessing the highest talents and his voice has heen
frequently heard in the Supreme Court of the United
States.

Charles L. Allen, of the law firm of Herrick, Allen,
Boyesen & Martin, was born at Kalamazoo, Michigan,
October 22, 1849, a descendant of an historical family
that traces its emigration to this country in the famous
“Mayflower.” His father was Dr. J. Adams Allen, among
the early residents of Chicago, and his mother before her
marriage was Miss Mary Marsh, a daughter of John P.
Marsh, a pioneer citizen and legislator of Michigan, and
a sister of Professor Marsh of Denison University.

Mr. Allen removed to Chicago with his parents at an
early age. Iie received a substantial education in the
public schools of this city and was also a student in the
old Chicago University. From there he became enrolled
in Denison University at Granville, Ohio, where he
compteted his collegiate course under his uncle's diree-
tion, and was graduated in 1870.

On his return to Chicago, Mr. .\Wlen pursued the
study of law in the offices of Walker, Dexter & Smith,
and upon his admission to the har he became a member
of that firm. Mr. Smith retired in 1879 and Mr. Allen's
name then appeared in the firm of Dexter, Herrick &
Allen, which was continued for many years after Mr.
Dexter's death as the firm of Herrick & Allen.

Mr. Allen has won success in his chosen profession
by devoting himself to it without reserve. Combining
all the requirements of the successful lawyer, he has,
moreover, established a reputation for veracity and
honesty of purpose that has caused him to be everywhere

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

recognized as the highest ideal of the attorney and man
of affairs. The clientage of the firm of which he is a
member is large, comprising both corporations and
individuals, and much of their business is of an advisory
nature. It is in this field, perhaps, that Mr. Allen is
best known, and the frequency with which he is sought
as an arbitrator in cases involving very large interests
demonstrates how great is the confidence in his judg-
ment and his fairness to all concerned.

Mr. Allen was married in 1873 to Miss Lucy E.
Powell of Belleville, Illinois, a daughter of General W.
HH. Powell of Civil war fame. They have one daughter,
Dora Alice Allen.

Mr. Allen is devoted to the pleasures of home life.

 

CHARLES L. ALLEN,

He is an ardent lover of music and his library of musical
literature is one of the best in the West. Although a
club man and holding membership in the University,
Chicago, Chicago Literary and Union League clubs, it
is rather because of his literary taste than his love of
club life. His political ideas are of the broadest nature,
he believing in casting his vote independently, rather
than supporting a party slate of machine made candi-
dates. He is thoroughly public-spirited and his interest
in all that pertains to the welfare of Chicago is strong
and steadfast.

Edwin Walker. .\mong the justly distinguished
members of the Chicago bar—a bar which is to the great
West all, and possibly more than all, that the famous
Essex bar of Massachusetts is, or ever has been, to the
East—no one holds a more honored place than Mr.
Edwin Walker. A complete record of his legal services
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

would be little less than a transcript of most of the
famous cases that have been determined by the state or
federal courts sitting in the Western metropolis.

Edwin Walker was born in Genesee County, New
York, A. D. 1830, the son of Obadiah and Phoebe
(Cushman) Walker. His father was of New Hampshire
stock, and his mother was from a Massachusetts family ;
each was a descendant of parents notable for mental and
physical vigor. Mr. Edwin Walker, himself, at the
present time, stands straight as a well-drilled soldier
and towers in height above the common run of men, and
his mind is clear and elastic, though he is well on toward
the seventieth milestone of life’s journey. Mr. Obadiah
Waiker removed to the state of New York when in his
eighteenth year and attained the great age of ninety-two
years; his life was spent in agricultural pursuits, except-
ing only the period of his patriotic service as a soldier
in the War of 1812.

Edwin Walker was afforded the best academic edu-
cation that was to be obtained in the neighborhood of
his father’s home, and after a thorough theoretical and
practical training in a law office in Batavia, New York,
he was admitted in 1854 to practice at the bar of Buffalo,
then by all odds the most famous of the Northwest. The
glamor of the West, however, attracted him, and soon
after his admission to the bar he moved to Logansport,
Indiana, where he gained a lucrative practice, which he
maintained until his removal to Chicago in 1865. Even
while in so small a town as Logansport, Mr. Walker
acquired high repute as a master of the theory and prac-
tice of law as applied to great corporations, and as early
as 1860 we find him holding the responsible position of
general solicitor of the Cincinnati, Richmond & Logans-
port Kailroad Company. We are inclined to believe
that there is not another instance on record of a young
lawyer practicing in a city of less than 10,000 inhabitants,
and in a-city to which he had come as a stranger, with
little money, and with no influential friends, attaining
the place of general solicitor of an important railway
company in rather less than six years from the date of
his license to practice. In 1865 the road was extended
to Chicago and its general offices located in this
metropolis; the new title of the road was “The Chicago
& Great Eastern.” In 1870 the Chicago & Great East-
_ ern was merged in the great systems known as “The
Pennsylvania.” Mr. Walker maintained his legal rela-
tions with this branch of the Pennsylvania service until
1883. Meanwhile, he had been appointed solicitor gen-
eral of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railway in
1869, and in 1870 he was made the Illinois attorney of
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Road, and with this
system he has been intimately identified for more than
a quarter of a century. He also is retained as special
counsel for several insurance companies and other
important corporations.

309

Although, as presently will be seen, Mr. Walker has
a masterly grasp upon the general principles of law, it
is as a corporation lawyer that he is most generally
known; yet, perhaps, his admirable management of the
Debs case, or rather of the case of the United States
against Debs, may be regarded as the most enduring
laurel in the chaplet of his legal renown. In this the
widest application of law to the general welfare and to
conservation of the true liberties of the people was
asserted and discussed by Mr. Walker and carried to a
successful conclusion by the determination of the
Supreme Court of the United States, which affirmed the
decision of the courts for the Northern District of Illinois.
A brief history of this case, which forms an enduring

 

 

 

 

EDWIN WALKER.

precedent, may be stated thus, it being premised that
Mr. Walker appeared as special counsel for the Govern-
ment and supervised or originated the preparation of
the legal pleadings upon which issues were joined, and
participated with the Attorney-General of the United
States in the arguments upon the issues.

The American Railway Union was an organization
intended to include all classes of railway employes, its
purpose being to extend its jurisdiction over all the rail-
ways in the United States. Under its constitution, its
board of directors had authority and power to order
strikes and boycotts, and to discontinue the same at their
pleasure.

The promoter and organizer of the union was
Eugene V. Debs. It had a board of directors of nine
members, of which Debs was president. The union was
organized in 1893, and its second annual convention was
360

held in the city of Chicago, commencing on the r2th
of June, 1894. For several months prior to this date,
the employes of the Pullman Manufacturing Company
had been engaged in a strike. As early as the 15th of
June, at the instance of some of the Pullman delegates,
the matter was brought before the convention for con-
sideration. Debs as president presided at the meeting,
and then advocated that something in the nature of a
boycott should be deciared.

Efforts were made to bring about an arbitration
between the Pullman Company and its employes.  Fail-
ing in this, on the 26th of June, a boycott was declared
on all the cars owned and operated by the Pullman Com-
pany. A sympathetic strike immediately followed upon
the part of the members of the American Railway Union.
The locomotive engineers, firemen, conductors and
other employes in the passenger service generally
refused to follow the orders of the union. Practically all
other employes of the railroad companies terminating
in the city of Chicago joined in the strike.

At this time, the organization of the union extended
from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Pacific Coast—its member-
ship was about 150,000. The usual violence and intimi-
dation followed the strike, and before the first of July
there was practically a forced suspension of business
upon most of the railway lines radiating from Chicago.

On the 2d of July, by direction of the Attornev-
‘General of the United States, a bill of complaint was filed
in the Circuit Court for the Northern District of IMlinois
against Debs and the directors of the union, for a writ
of injunction, restraining Debs and others from inter-
fering with the movement of trains engaged in inter-
state commerce and the transportation of the mails.
The order was entered by Judges Woods and Grosscup,
and upon the same day the writ was served upon Debs
and other defendants.

The order of the court was entirely disregarded, and
the court finding it impossible to enforce its orders, the
President ordered the Federal troops stationed at Fort
Sheridan to report in the city and assist the marshal in
enforcing the orders of the court. Even with the aid
of the Federal troops, the execution of the orders of the
court could not be enforced.

A special grand jury was called about the middle of
July, and several indictments were returned against Debs
and other officers of the union.

The court, at the reyuest of counsel representing the
government, entered an order directing the telegraph
companies of the city to bring in all telegrams trans-
mitted by Debs and the other defendants after the entry
of the injunction order. More than six thousand tele-
grams were brought to the grand jury room, and these
furnished all necessary evidence against the defendants.

On the 17th of July, an information for attachment
for contempt against the defendants was filed in court.
Writs of attachment were issued against the defendants,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the court ordering that they be committed to jail, but
they were at once released from custody upon giving
bail.

Other writs were issued, and the defendants were
also arrested under the criminal indictments, until finaily
they preferred to pose “as martyrs to the cause of labor,”
and remained in jail for about two weeks.

The hearing in the contempt proceedings was had
in October, continuing for about three weeks, Jus-
tice Wood presiding. His opinion was filed Decem-
ber 14, 1894, holding all the defendants guilty of
contempt, and ordering that they be committed to jail—
Debs for the term of six months, and the other defend-
ants for the term of three months. This case is reported
at full length in 64 Federal Rep., 174, and is regarded
asa classic by lawyers. Mr. Walker appeared as special
counsel for the Government, and United States District
Attorney Milchrist as its regular legal agent.

On the 14th of January, 1895, the defendants applied
to the Supreme Court of the United States for a writ of
habeas corpus. During the pendency of the petition,
bail was accepted and the defendants released from
custody.

The matter was argued on the 25th and 26th of
March, an extension of time having been granted by the
court for oral argument. On May 27 the Supreme
Court denied the petition. The opinion of the court by
Justice Brewer is an exhaustive review of all the
authorities bearing upon the matter. It is reported in
T58 UL S. Rep., 564.

In the United States Court MIr. Walker appeared as
special counsel for the Government, the .\ttorney-Gen-
eral taking part in the argument, in person.

It is to be regretted that the space to which this
article is limited prevents an elaborate review of the
momentous decisions upon these historical cases. It
only remains to be said that since the Supreme Court
has fully sustained the equity jurisdiction of the Federal
and Circuit courts, holding that they may restrain by
injunction unwarranted and unlawful interference with
interstate commerce and the transportation of the
United States mails, there has been no railway strike in
the country. .\s a preventive, this quiet, orderly pro-
ceeding is much more effective than the exercise of the
undoubted power of the Government to protect both
commerce and the transportation of the mails by the
aid of Federal troops and the police powers of the execu-
tive department.

If Mr. Walker had never appeared as counsel in
another important case, his skillful and successful pre-
sentation of the cases of the United States against Debs
would be sufficient to establish his reputation as a
master builder in that edifice of law which not only,

“Slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent.”
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

but which also expands with what the poet, whose lines
we have quoted. aptly calls “the increasing purpose” of
the ages. The attributes of the statesman, as well as of
the lawyer, were exercised by Mr. Walker in his man-
agement of the case of the Government against a band
of conspirators.

It would require a volume, rather than a sketch, to
review the numerous cases of note in which Mr. Walker
had been engaged prior to his management of the Gov-
ernment’s cause in the conspiracy trials. Among them
are that of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail-
road vs. the Chicago & Pacific Railway. This case
figures as the only one in which the redemption of a rail-
way and all its property, after actual freedom under
mortgage, has been accomplished by or in the name of
the bankrupt defendant company.

The proceedings in the case of the foreclosure of the
Danville & Vincennes Railway also are historical in legal
circles and establish precedents that are regarded to
this day by all state and federal courts. In the famous
case of Carter vs. Carter, Mr. Walker made a sudden
and unexpected display of ability as a jury lawyer. This
divorce case was notorious in its time, and is not yet
forgotten. It is sufficient to say that Mr. Walker’s man-
agement of his client’s cause showed the great master
of corporation law, the pleader whose acute, yet broad,
presentation of legal principles so often had swayed the
quick but cautious intellects of judges sitting “en banc,”
to be as strong before a jury of his county as before a
conclave of jurists. We can but allude to Mr. Walker's
connection with the famous “Sunday closing” case of
the World’s Columbian Exposition. It was intricate of
itself and was further complicated by interlocutory pro-
ceedings. Mr. Walker brought it and several other
cases involving the interests of the exposition company
to a satisfactory conclusion. His interest in this mag-
nificent undertaking was ardent. He was chairman of
the exposition sub-committee on legislation, and took
charge of the work in Washington while Congress was
making its choice of location. Afterward he was made
chairman of the committee to draft measures of neces-
sary legislation; he was a director of the exposition and
a member both of its executive and conference com-
mittees.

In politics Mr. Walker is stanchly Republican, but
discriminates wisely between issues that are political in
and of themselves and those that properly are merely
local and business-like, though partisans in quest of
place and power may cast the mantle of politics over
them. He invariably has declined to become a candi-
date for any public office, but has pursued with
singleness of purpose his bright and successful legal
course. Mr. Walker is an earnest churchman, a Protes-
tant Episcopal, a communicant of Grace Church, a

member of its vestry, and its senior churchwarden.

361

John Sumner Runnells, who has been a member of
the Chicago bar during the past twelve years, was born
in New Hampshire, and is a descendant in the fourth
generation of the last survivor of the battle of Bunker
Hill. Reared in New England, Mr. Runnells became a
student in Amherst College when only sixteen years of
age and was graduated from that institution with highest
honors, both in scholarship and extemporaneous speak-
ing and debate. His law studies were pursued at Dover,
New Hampshire, and in 1867 he removed to Iowa, where
he became private secretary to the governor of that state,
after which, in 1869, he went to England under a con-
sular appointment by General Grant.

 

 

JOHN SUMNER RUNNELLS.

Returning to Iowa in 1871, Mr. Runnells was
admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his
profession in Des Moines. Four years later he was
elected reporter of the Supreme Court. The duties of
this office, which during his incumbency included the
editing and publishing of eighteen volumes of the court’s
decisions, he performed in addition to his regular prac-
tice. In 1881 he was appointed United States district
attorney for Iowa by President Arthur, a position he
filled with credit for the following four years.

Almost from the beginning of his law practice Mr.
Runnells has given his attention largely to corporation
law and his time has been occupied almost exclusively
with railway litigation and suits involving telegraph law.
A prominent case, although in another branch of juris-
prudence, which attracted much interest because of its
importance, was that involving the constitutionality of
one branch of the prohibitory law of Iowa. This suit
362

he successfully carried through the state courts and ulti-
mately won it in the Supreme Court of the United
States.

While in Towa Mr. Runnells became actively inter-
ested in political questions and took a prominent place
among the leaders of the Republican party, serving as
chairman of the state central committee in 1879 and
1880. He was a delegate to the national convention of
his party in the latter year and was a member of the
Republican National Committee from 1880 to 1884.
During his residence in Chicago he has taken no promi-
nent part in politics, but is deeply interested in the
political problems of the day and the success of the party
whose principles he espouses.

Mr. Runnells is an entertaining, forceful and eloquent
public speaker, whose grace of diction and ready com-
mand of language have charmed many hearers. He is
frequently called upon to deliver public addresses, having
performed such a service at the dedication of the Audi-
torium and at the annual Grant banquet in New York in
1893. He is a valued member of the Chicago, Union
League, Literary, Fellowship, Union and Marquette
clubs, the last two of which he has been president. He
is also a member of the University Club of New York.
He is a man of pleasing personality, courteous, genial
and approachable, and in social, as well as political
circles, occupies an eminent position.

John Stocker Miller, son of John and Jane (Mc-
Leod) Miller, was born at Louisville, St. Lawrence
County, New York, May 24, 1847. Pursuing his earlier
studies in the common schools and academy in his native
town, he later entered the St. Lawrence University at
Canton, New York, and received his bachelor’s degree
from that institution with the class of ’69. He then
entered upon the study of law in the legal department
of the same university, and in the following year was
admitted to the bar at Ogdensburg.

Mr. Miller did not at once enter upon the practice
of his profession, but devoted himself to teaching,
becoming professor of mathematics in his alma mater
during the school year of 1871-72, and of Latin and
Greek for the two years, 1872-74. He then resigned,
and in the early part of the year last mentioned came
to Chicago.

Mr. Miller’s preparation in the law had been most
thorough and his preceptors men of high standing at
the bar. As a natural result of this he had no difficulty
in securing a foothold and building up a satisfactory
clientage from the beginning of his career in this pro-
fession. From 1874-76 he practiced alone, and, fol-
lowing this time, in association with George Herbert
and John H. S. Quick, under the firm name of Herbert,
Quick & Miller. After the death of Mr. Herbert, some
years later, the firm was continued under the name of
Quick & Miller, until 1886, when Mr. Miller became

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

associated with Senator Henry W. Leman. Four years
later Merritt Starr was admitted to the firm, and since
then George R. Peck has succeeded Mr. Leman, the
style of the firm name being now Peck, Miller & Starr.

Mr. Miller has come to be ranked among the ablest
and most successful chancery lawyers in Chicago, and
his connections with numerous important cases of this
nature, among them, the ‘Flagler,’ “Riverside” and
“Phillips and South Park” litigations, brought him
prominently before the public. The manner in which he
acquitted himself in these and other cases led to his
being appointed corporation counsel of Chicago by
Mayor Washburn in the spring of 1891.

This most important post Mr. Miller held for the

 

 

JOHN STOCKER MILLER.

following two years, and in this time was exceedingly
active in behalf of the interests of the city in several
cases against railroad companies, involving the eleva-
tion of tracks and extension of the city streets over
the same. The celebrated “lake front” case against
the Ilinois Central Railroad Company was a'so argued
by Mr. Miller in behalf of the city during this period.
He retired from this office in 1893 and has since then
devoted himself to general practice.

Mr. Miller is an influential Republican and a mem-
ber of St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Ken-
wood. He is affiliated with the Union League, Chi-
cago, Hamilton, Kenwood and other clubs. He was
married December 12, 1887, to Miss Ann Gross of this
city, and has two children, a son and a daughter.

Norman Williams, who died June 19, 1899, dur-
ing his life was in every way prominent in the
civic and legal history of Chicago, was born in the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Canadian city of Montreal in February, 1835. He
entered the University of Vermont while yet in his teens,
and was graduated with the class of 1855, and on attain-
ing his majority became a citizen of the United States
by virtue of the well-known “enabling act” of Congress.
In 1856 Mr. Williams was admitted to the bar of Ver-
mont and entered into partnership with Messrs. Tracey,

 

NORMAN WILLIAMS.

Converse and Barnett; the firm was remarkable for the
successful career of all its members. Mr. Tracey became
a distinguished member of Congress; Mr. Converse was
elected lieutenant governor of his state, and Mr. Barnett
rose to the supreme bench. If Mr. Williams had not
acquired political distinction, it is because he had not
sought it; his services to the Republican party of Cook
County and Illinois as a member of the city, county and
state central committees have been of inestimable value,
but when it came to a question of office-holding he
invariably declined the honor with thanks, and continued
to pursue the even, profitable and distinguished course
of his legal career.

Mr. Williams came to Chicago in his early manhood,
and after a course of study of local law in the then well-
known firm of King & Kales, he became a partner, but
soon afterward went into practice alone. The firm of
King & Kales had for a time Corydon Beckwith, after-
ward well known as Judge Beckwith, for one of its
members. It was the good fortune of Mr. Williams
to be associated exclusively with successful men and
firms. About 1860 Mr. Williams became head of the
law firm of Williams, Soule and Thompson; afterward
Messrs. Charles S. Holt and Arthur Wheeler became
associated with Mr. Williams.

363

Mr. Williams was one of the organizers of the
famous Pullman Car Company. He served for many
years as attorney for the company, and as special counsel
for the Santa Fe Railroad; Mr. Williams was also one
of the founders of the Telephone Company of Chicago.

The public services of Mr. Williams were worthy of
notice—he was a member of that group of able lawyers
by whose influence upon the early legislatures of Illinois
the commercial law of the state was shaped into its
present liberal form. For a time Mr. Williams served
as colonel of the Eighty-eighth Regiment of Illinois
Volunteers. He was president of the Chicago Club,
was a charter member of the Calumet Club, and aided
in the establishment of many other social and political
organizations.

Mr. Williams was married to Caroline Caton, daugh-
ter of the late Chief Justice Caton of the Supreme Court
of Illinois. There was one son, Norman Williams, and
two daughters, Laura Caton and Mary Wentworth, of
whom the first named is married to General Merritt,
ULS.A.

Edward Swift Isham inherits legal ability from his
father, Pierpont Isham, who was a justice of the
Supreme Court of Vermont. The Ishams are of English

 

EDWARD SWIFT ISHAM.

extraction. John Isham, the founder of the American
branch of the family, came from England to Newbury-
port, Massachusetts, and afterward moved to Barn-
stable, where he married in 1667, Jane, daughter of
Robert Parker. Mr. John Isham died in 1713. Isaac
Isham, his second son, born at Barnstable, 1682, married
Thankful, daughter of Thomas Lumbert, in 1716, and
364

died in the place of his birth A. D. 1771. John Isham,
third son of John Isham, before mentioned, was born at
Barnstable, 1721, married Dorothy, daughter of
Ephriam Foote of Colchester, 1751, and died at Col-
chester in 1802. During the French and Canadian war
the second John Isham saw active service as captain in
command of a company. His son, Ezra Isham, born
at Colchester, March 15, 1773, settled in Manchester,
Vermont, and there achieved distinction as a physician.
He married Nancy (Anna) Pierpont, daughter of Robert
Pierpont, of Litchfield, Connecticut, and afterward of
Manchester, Vermont, and died in 1835. Dr. Isham's
son, Pierpont, justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont,
was born at Manchester, August 5, 1802, resided the
greater portion of his life at Bennington, Vermont, and
died in New York March 8, 1872. He married
Semanthe, daughter of Dr. Noadiah Swift of Benning-
ton, Vermont, and his eldest son, Edward Swift Isham,
is the subject of this biography. He was born at Ben-
nington, January 15, 1836. Robert Pierpont, whose
daughter married Dr. Ezra Isham, was a grandson of
the Rev. James Pierpont, pastor of the first church of
New Haven, and of Mary Hooker, his wife, who was a
granddaughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, who led
into Connecticut the colony which founded the city of
Hartford, and he was a cousin therefore of the famous
Jonathan Edwards, president of Princeton University,
and one of the most subtle metaphysicians and most
learned theologians of this or any other country. He
was a cousin, also, of the less agreeably famous Aaron
Burr, and of President Timothy Dwight. What has
been called ‘the Brahminism of New England” there-
fore finds a typical representative in the subject of this
sketch. The Ishams, both of New England and Vir-
ginia, are of English descent, the original seat of the
family being in Northamptonshire, John Isham, first
American ancestor of Edward Swift Isham, being first
of the line in New England.

After nearly a year and half at the Burr Seminary
in Manchester, Vermont, Mr. Isham was sent in January,
1850, to South Carolina for the benefit of his health.
Returning, after a sojourn in that state of more than
two years, he completed his college preparation at |.aw-
rence Academy in Groton, Mass., and entered Williams
College, where he graduated in 1857, and where he
delivered the “Master's Oration” at the commence-
ment exercises of 1860. He is a member from his class
of the Phi Beta Kappa. After pursuing his legal studies
in the office of his father and at the Harvard Law School,
Mr. Isham was admitted at Rutland to the bar of his
native state, and came to Chicago in October, 1858.
After a brief term in the office of Hoyne, Miller & Lewis,
Mr. Isham became associated, in 1859, in the firm of
Stark & Isham, with James L. Stark, an older lawyer,
then coming to Chicago from Vermont. In February,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

1872, however, the partnership with Robert T. Lincoln
began, under the firm name of Isham & Lincoln, which
subsequently changed by the admission in 1884 of Mr.
William B. Beale to Isham, Lincoln & Beale, and has
continued to the present time.

Mr. Isham has been chief counsel in many historic
cases. His management of the litigation concerning the
distribution of the estate of the late Walter L. New-
berry, terminating in the establishment of the Newberry
Library; the case relative to the mayoralty of Chicago,
immediately after the incorporation of the city under the
general law of Illinois; Brine vs. Insurance Co., 96 U. S.,
627, with its connected case of Warren vs. Insurance
Co., 109 U. S., 357; Pickard, Comptroller, vs. the Pull-
man Southern Car Co., 117 U. S., 34; Union Trust Co.
vs, Ill, Midlaid Ry. Go., 117 U. S., 434; Central Trans-
portation Co. vs. Pullman’s Palace Car Co., 139 U. S.,
34, and Pullman’s Palace Car Co. vs. Central Trans-
portation Co., 171 U. S., 138, may be cited in consider-
ing his enunent ability. His practice is chiefly in Federal
courts and in appealed cases.

Mr. Isham is known as a writer in literary fields by,
among other things, an article on “The Social and
Economic Relations of Corporations,” contributed to
the “Encyclopedia of Political Science ;” by an address
on “Frontenac and Miles Standish in the Northwest,”
which was delivered before the Historical Society of
New York and was published by that society; and by
an address delivered before the Historical Society of
Vermont at its annual meeting, November 2, 1898, at
Montpelier, in the hall of the House of Representatives,
on “Ethan Allen; a Study in Civie Authority,” pub-
lished by the society. In 1893 he was honored by Wil-
liams College with the degree of doctor of laws. Mr.
Isham was elected a member of the General Assembly of
Illinois in 1864, and served there as a member of the
judiciary committee. He is trustee and vice-president
of the Newberry Library board. He was married in
1861 to Fannie, daughter of Hon. Thomas Burch of
Little Falls, New York. She died February 9, 1894,
at Manchester, Vermont, at-their country residence.
There are two sons: Pierpont, formerly lieutenant
Third U.S. Cavalry, and Edward, who graduated from
Yale in 1891, and now in New York, is engaged in com-
mercial pursuits. There are also two daughters.

Hon. Simeon P. Shope, ex-justice of the Supreme
Court of Illinois, was born at Akron, Ohio, December
3, 1837. When he was two years of age his parents
moved to Tlinois, arriving in Marseilles, La Salle
County, on November 3, 1839. He went through the
usual vicissitudes of an Illinois boy of that period,
receiving an ordinary academic education, and later
teaching a district school, pursuing his own studies in
the meantime and devoting his odd hours to the study
of law. At the close of three or four years’ teaching he
THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

entered the law office of Judge Elihu Powell, and later
that of Judge Norman H. Purple of Peoria, where he
studied until he was admitted to the bar in 1858. He
then commenced the practice of his profession in Meta-
mora, Wood County, but shortly afterward moved to
Lewistown, Fulton County, where he continued in prac-
tice until his election to the Circuit bench in 1877.
After serving two terms as Circuit judge of the old

 

HON. SIMEON P. SHOPE.

Tenth Circuit, Judge Chauncey L. Higbie being one
of his associates, Judge Shope was, in June, 1885, elected
to the Supreme bench of the state for a term of nine
years. Two or three years before the expiration of his
term he notified the Supreme Judicial District that he
would not be a candidate for reélection, and as the
time approached declined a renomination.

At the close of his judicial career Judge Shope
removed to Chicago, where he again took up the prac-
tice of law. Since becoming a member of the bar of
this city he has taken an active part in legal matters and
come to be considered one of the leading members
of the Cook County bar. He has, in fact, always been
prominent as a lawyer in his immediate locality.

Judge Shope has taken an active part in public
affairs and is well known throughout this and adjoining
states. Politically he had always been a conservative
Democrat. At the breaking out of the war he was a
Douglas Democrat, and up to the time of his election
to the bench took a somewhat active part in political
affairs. Since that time, while he has been prominently
before the public in many matters, he has done little or
nothing in party politics. He is a Mason, Knight Tem-
plar, Elk and Knight of Pythias.

365

He was married about the time of his admission
to the bar. There were four children born to them,
the two youngest of which are still living. His wife
died in Florida January 4, 188r.

Judge Shope has had a successful career as a busy
working lawyer, and retains all of the activity and men-
tal force of his middle life. His wide experience not
only as a practicing attorney but as a judge, enables him
to present an intricate subject and the law governing it
in a manner which is at once forcible, agcurate and easily
understood. In this lies the secret of his success as a
trial lawyer. Above all else, however, he is a patriotic
American, and no member of the bar of Illinois is held
in higher or more cordial esteem.

He is now the senior member of the firm of Shope,
Mathis & Barrett.

Thomas L. Chadbourne, Jr., was born in 1870 at
Houghton, Michigan; educated at Harvard and the
University of Michigan. In 1890 he went to Chicago,
where he entered the law office of Wing & Carter. In
1892 he organized the law firm of Bottum & Chad-

 

THOMAS L. CHADBOURNE, JR.

bourne, in Milwaukee, where he remained until 1895,
when he returned to Chicago, forming a partnership
with Russell M. Wing, which still continues under the
firm name of Wing & Chadbourne.

Hon. Russell M. Wing. For many years Russell
Merritt Wing, more familiarly known as “Judge Wing,”
has been a prominent character as a practicing lawyer
inthe courts of Mlinois. Russell Merritt Wing was born
in Big Grove township, Kendall County, Illinois, on
June 2, 1852 He is the son of Russell Wing and Mary
366

(Hoag) Wing. As a boy, he attended a country school,
then went to Fowler Institute, at Newark, and finished
his general education at Hillsdale College, Michigan.
About the time of completing his studies, Mr. Witig de-
cided to take up the practice of law as his lifework,
and, with this object, came to Chicago, where he at-
tended the Northwestern University Law School, and

 

 

 

 

HON. RUSSELL M. WING.

nad the advantage of private advice and instruction from
John Van Arman, who, in those days, was one of the
ablest lawyers in the Northwest. Finishing his studies
in Chicago, Mr. Wing removed to Morris, Grundy
County, Illinois, where he formed a connection with
A. L. Doud, now one of the most prominent lawyers in
Denver, Colorado. Later Mr. Wing opened an office
in Joliet, Will County, Hlinois, and, following this, prac-
ticed his profession at various points in Will, Grundy,
La Salle and Kendall counties. The success thus
achieved induced him to accept the advice of his friends
at the bar and settle permanently in Chicago, where he
organized the firm of Wing, Stough & Carter, which se-
cured a large and profitable practice almost from the
first day. Since coming to Chicago “Judge” \Ving has
been an active figure in the Cook County courts. He
has been both prosecutor and defender in many sensa-
tional and prominent cases, both civil and criminal, and
has well earned the name universally accorded him
among lawyers of “the Legal Bulldog.” At present Mr.
Wing is a member of the firm of Wing & Chadbourne,
which has offices in the New York Life Building. Mr.
Wing has always been a Democrat, and, without being
a seeker for office, is an active participant in the coun-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

sels of his party. He belongs to the Iroquois Club and
also to the various Masonic orders. On September 8,
1875, Mr. Wing was married at Lisbon, Illinois, to. Miss
Amelia S. DeLand, of Jamestown, New York, daughter
of Washington and Sarah A. DeLand. He has four
children—Frederick Merritt, Albert DeLand, Stella
Flecta and Bessie DeLand, all of whom live at the fam-
ily home in Evanston, Hlinois.

Hon. John Dean Caton. Few men _ have left
a deeper impress upon the early history of Chi-
cago and the state at large than the late John
Dean Caton, who came to Chicago when it was but
4 rude hamlet of log huts, with a population of about
two hundred, and who lived to see it an imperial
metropolis, the second city of the western continent.
Judge Caton was born at Monroe, Orange County, New
York, March 19, 1812, and died at Chicago, July 30,
1895. His father served in the Revolutionary war, after
which he settled down as a farmer in Orange County,
New York. He died in 1815, and soon after the family
moved to Paris, Oneida County, where his son, John,
commenced going to the district school at the age of

five. When he had reached the age of nine years he was

 

HON. JOHN DEAN CATON.

put to work on the farm during the summer months,
and sent to school in the winter. The necessities of
the family rendered the strictest economy imperative.
and from his seventeenth to his nineteenth year he main-
tained himself, and accumulated means to complete the
education he was bent on acquiring, by teaching a com-
‘mon school in the winter. Between these two terms of
teaching he worked on a farm near Utica, and when he
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

was nineteen years old he had saved enough money to
enable him to enter the Grosvenor Grammar School at
Rome, in the same county, where he studied the higher
mathematics and surveying. After he left this institu-
tion he began to read law with Beardsley & Matterson,
one of the most prominent law firms of Utica, New York,
and having completed his course he determined to locate
in the West. He had heard something of the frontier
settlement called Chicago, and he finally determined to
bend his course thither. Coming from St. Joseph on
a lumber schooner, he landed here June 19, 1833, when
the future metropolis was a collection of rude huts, with
a population not exceeding two hundred. The outlook
was not particularly promising for a young lawyer, but
he resolved to make the best of it. Clients were few and
far between, and it was not until the following December
that he finally secured an office, in a rear room of a small
frame building on South Water street, near Franklin.
This was the first law office opened in Chicago, and it
should be mentioned in this connection that Judge Caton
was the first lawyer who tried a suit before a court of
record in Cook County. The first term of the Circuit
Court in Cook County was held in Chicago, in May,
1834. The terms of this court were held until 1848 by
eight judges, of whom Judge Caton was one.

In 1836 Judge Caton formed a partnership with
Norman B. Judd, but three years later he was forced
to retire for the time from active practice, and upon the
advice of his physician he moved to a farm near Plain-
field, Illinois, where for some years he led the life of a
country farmer. He had already acquired such a reputa-
tion as a lawyer that, in 1842, a vacancy occurring on
the Supreme bench, Governor Carlin appointed him to
fill the remaining term. He was thought to be too
young for so responsible an office, and the General
Assembly did not reappoint hirn at the expiration of his
term, but another vacancy occurred soon after, and
Judge Caton was then appointed by Governor Ford.
Having in the meantime demonstrated his fitness for the
office by his legal ability, sound judgment, and sterling
integrity, he was reélected by the Legislature on the
expiration of his second appointment. The Supreme
Court of the state then consisted of nine judges, each of
whom presided over a circuit. Judge Caton’s circuit
consisted of twelve counties, and at Ottawa, the county
seat of one of them, he decided to make his home. In
1848 the Supreme Court was reorganized under the new
constitution and consisted of three judges, elected by the
people and re‘ieved of Circuit duties. Judge Caton was
clected one of the judges of the new Supreme Court,
his associates being Judges Trumbull and Treat. He
was reélected in 1855, and served until 1864, when he
resigned, after having served nearly twenty-two years
upon the Supreme bench, and more than six years of
that time as chief justice of the state.

367

While thus voluntarily resigning the highest judicial
position in the state at the early age of fifty-two, when
still in the prime of his physical and intellectual vigor,
Judge Caton did not retire into a life of inactivity. He
had become, in 1849, a stockholder in the Illinois and
Mississippi Telegraph Company, and was afterward
elected a director. He found himself a member of a
board that knew little about the business and less about
the art of telegraphy. The company’s line was cheaply
built, and of poor materials, and its business was not
sufficient to pay expenses. Judge Caton had become
president of the company about 1852 and under his
management it began to pay dividends. In 1864 he
negotiated a lease of these lines to the Western Union
Telegraph Company, from which he subsequently
derived an income which enabled him to accumulate an
ample fortune. Besides his telegraph property, Judge
Caton engaged in a variety of other business enterprises,
the success of which materially aided the development
of the city of Ottawa, in which he had fixed his home.
He devoted much time to natural history, and his park
at Ottawa was well stocked with deer and American
elk, whose habits he noted and watched with the eye of
a naturalist. He was the author of several interesting
and valuable volumes, and his public addresses were
inodels of vigorous and elegant diction. Judge Caton
left the impress of his learning, research, logical reason-
ing and analvsis of the law upon the jurisprudence of
the state, and his decisions, which cover many pages of
the Illinois reports, have constituted precedents for more
than.a third of a century. His name will always be
remembered as that of one of the strong men who helped
to build up the greatness of Illinois, and as a pioneer of
Chicago.

Albert H. Veeder, son of Henry Veeder, who was
married to Miss Rachel Lansing, was born at Fonda,
Montgomery County, New York, April 1, 1844, and
after a preliminary education in the local schools he
entered as a student of Union College, Schenectady,
whence he graduated with his class in 1865. Mr. Veeder
had charge of the public schools of Galva, Illinois,
during the scholastic session of 1866, 1867 and 1868.
In the last named year he was admitted to practice as
an attorney in the courts of this state, and until 1874 had
his office in Galva. Chicago then attracted him, as it
has attracted, and ever will attract, many an ambitious
youth. He soon became known as a practitioner whose
learning was directed by sound judgment, and acquired
an enviable reputation as a corporation lawyer. He was
attorney for the town of Lake, since incorporated with
the city of Chicago, from 1874 to 1885. Mr. Veeder’s
successful management of the law affairs of Lake, which
long was known as the largest and most wealthy muni-
cipality that refused to accept the dignity of the title of
“city,” but preferred to be known as “the Town of
368 THE City

Lake,” gained him the confidence of the owners of many
of the great corporations doing business in that part of
Chicago, and brought to him a large practice. Mr.
Veeder is a director of the Chicago Junction Railway
Company, and of the Union Stock Yards Company;

also is general counsel and director of the St. Louis’

National Stock Yards Company, the St. Joseph Stock

 

 

ALBERT H. VEEDER.

Yards Company, the San Francisco Stock Yards Com-
pany, Swift and Company, the Consumers’ Cotton Oil
Company, of Libby, McNeill & Libby (incorporated),
and for other equally well-known corporations. His
eldest son is associated with him in practice and the firm
of Albert H. and Henry Veeder stands in the very first
rank of lawyers engaged exclusively in corporation
cases,

Mr. Veeder is a member of the Kenwood and of the
Athletic clubs. Te is a Mason in the thirty-second
degree, Knights Templar, member of the Scottish Rite,
and of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a Republican,
and in religion is affiliated with the Congregational
church. Mr. Veeder married Helen L., daughter of
Rev. Isaac G. Duryea, of Schenectady, New York.
They have four children, of whom the eldest, Henry, is
engaged with his father in practice, and by whose aid
it is likely that the honorable reputation of the firm long
will be maintained.

Luther Laflin Mills. There is no name in every way
better known in Chicago than that of Luther Lafin
Mills. By all he is admired as an orator, by many he
is esteemed as a sound and learned jurisconsult, and by
a smaller class, to whom his yet higher qualities are

OF CHICAGO.

known, he is revered as a practical and philosophic
humanitarian. Mr. Mills was born September 3, 1848,
at North Adams, Mass. He is the son of Walter N. and
Caroline J. Mills. Mr. Walter N. Mills came to Chi-
cago in 1849 and opened one of the first dry goods
houses of the future metropolis. His son, Luther L..,
received a fair preliminary education in the public
schools of Chicago, and proceeded thence to the State
University of Michigan. Upon completion of his ccl-
legiate course Mr. Mills studied law for three years in
the office of the late Homer N. Hibbard, and in (871
entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1874 he
associated himself with Messrs. Ingham & Weber,
under the firm name of Mills, Ingham & Weber. In
1876 he was elected state’s attorney for the County of
Cook, and in 1880 was chosen to serve for another term
of four years. In the very outset of his career Mr. Mills
won and established an unrivaled reputation as a foren-
sic orator. No lawyer in the Western states, or per-
haps, in any of the United States, has excelled him as
“a verdict getter” from, sometimes, unwilling jurors.
It would be impossible to recapitulate in the space
assigned to this biographical sketch even the most
famous criminal cases in which Mr. Mills was successful

 

 

LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS.

as counsel for the state or for the defense. Much of
his strength unquestionably proceeds from the deeply
conscientious nature of the man. Mr. Mills does not
impress himself upon a jury merely as a lawyer striving
to gain a point, but mainly as a patriot zealous for the
protection of society against the damages of triumphant
iniquity, or for the vindication of an individual from
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

falsely preferred charges that jeopardize his liberty or
that asperse his reputation. Mr. Mills invariably be-
lieves in and for and by himself all that he desires a
jury to believe with him. He is a moralist as well as a
scholar and an orator in law.

It was to him that the reforming element of the
Democracy of Ohio turned, though he himself is a
Republican, when it desired to purge itself of the per-
jurers, forgers and thugs that had attained mastery over
the organization, and it was largely due to the exercise
of his masterly oratory that the conviction and impris-
onment of some of the chief criminals was obtained.

Many of Mr. Mills’ orations upon topics of national
import have become classic. Among these may be men-
tioned his speech at the Kossuth and Grant memorial
services in 1895; his response to the toast of “The
Memory of Lincoln,” at the banquet of the Republican
Leagues in 1890, at Columbus, Ohio, and his address on
“American Citizenship,” delivered at a Sherman House
banquet in 1890.

It would be improper to close this sketch without an
affirmation that Mr. Mills ‘practices what he preaches.”
He is an active member of the Civic Federation, is a
trusted friend and counselor of several labor organiza-
tions, is a stanch and professing member of the Pres-
byterian Church, and is a liberal of the liberals, and yet
an orthodox Christian. Mr. Mills married Miss Ella J.
Boies of Saugerties, New York, in 1876. They have an
interesting family of five, of whom four are daughters.
The son now is a student of Yale University, and is said
to inherit many of the humane tendencies and much of
the intellectual force of his father.

Frederick §&. Winston, well known in legal circles
throughout the country as one of the ablest of cor-
poration lawyers, is a native of Kentucky, in which
state he was born October 27, 1856. His father was
Frederick Hampden Winston, a prominent attorney of
this city and minister to Persia during President Cleve-
land’s first administration. His mother was Miss Maria
G. Dudley, a daughter of the well-known General Am-
brose Dudley of Frankfort, Kentucky.

At the age of sixteen Mr. Winston entered Yale
College, from which he obtained his degree upon three
years’ study. He then attended the law school of
Columbia College in New York, returning to Chicago
in 1877. He was admitted to the bar in 1878.

He at once entered into the practice of his chosen
profession in partnership with his father, under the firm
name of F. H. & F. S. Winston, and soon became rec-
ognized as one of the most successful of the younger at-
torneys then practicing before the Cook County bar. .

_Mr. Winston was appointed assistant corporation
counsel for the city in 1881, and in April, 1884, was
appointed by the late Carter H. Harrison, mayor, to the
position of corporation counsel, being the youngest man

24

369

to ever receive this appointment in Chicago. While
he held these positions he conducted a large amount
of important litigation and saved the city many thou-
sands of dollars.

Upon severing his connection with the city law
department in 1886 he retired to private practice, form-
ing a partnership at this time with Mr James F.
Meagher, under the name of Winston & Meagher. This

 

 

 

 

 

FREDERICK S. WINSTON.

partnership still exists and is among the best known in
the West. Since the year last mentioned Mr. Winston
has been counsel for the Michigan Central Railroad,
and at present is a director of that company. He is also
counsel and a director of the People’s Gas Light &
Coke Company and of a large number of other cor-
porations, and his practice is almost entirely devoted
to that branch of jurisprudence.

James Francis Meagher, of the law firm of Winston
& Meagher, was born at Brooklyn, New York, Janu-
ary 26, 1858. His parents, James F. and Mary (Nagle)
Meagher, removed to Chicago while he was yet in early
youth, and this city has since been his home.

The death of his father compelled Mr. Meagher, at
an early age, to seek employment, and in 1871 he en-
tered the office of George C. Campbell, then general
solicitor for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail-
road Company. Within a year or two Mr. Campbell
allied himself with three of the foremost practitioners
in the city, and the firm of Lawrence, Winston, Camp-
bell & Lawrence at once took position among the very
first law firms of the West. Association with these
brilliant legal minds, and acquaintance with the exten-
370

sive practice of the firm, could not but direct and
impress the mind of the young student in their office,
the subject of this sketch. Mr. Meagher was admitted
to the bar in 1881, and the history of the first five years
of labor is a record of that struggle which every lawyer
knows must bring out the qualities that shall lead to

 

JAMES FRANCIS MEAGHER

success or failure. In May, 1886, the firm of Winston
& Meagher was organized, the senior member of which,
Frederick S. Winston, had just resigned the office of
corporation counsel of the city of Chicago in order
to engage in the general practice of the law, and the
partnership then formed still exists.

Mr. Meagher is a careful, painstaking, industrious
lawyer, devoted to his profession and the care of the
varied interests committed to his firm.

Henry Dodge Estabrook was born at Alden, New
York, October 23, 1854, and is of the eighth genera-
tion in direct line of descent of John Alden and Pris-
cilla Mullen of Plymouth Colony. His father, the late
Hon. Experience Estabrook, was among the pioneers of
the West, having been a member of the Constitutional
conventions of both Wisconsin and Nebraska, serving
also as one of the first attorney-generals of the former
state, and afterward being United States attorney of the
latter, appointed by President Pierce in 1854.

Mr. Estabrook resided in Omaha from the time he
was six months old until he removed to Chicago in 1896,
and his academical education was received in the public
schools of that city. In 1873 he entered the St. Louis
Law School, supporting himself while there by singing
in a church choir and clerking of nights, and upon

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

receiving his degree of L. B. from that institution at
once began the practice of his profession. He is more
widely known, perhaps, as a public speaker than as a
lawyer, although his practice has always been extensive
and successful. He first spoke in Chicago in 1892,
when he was invited, at very short notice, to take the
place of Hon. J. J. Ingalls at the Lincoln banquet of the
Marquette Club. His eloquent oration on “The Mission
of America’ gave him a wide reputation and led to his
being invited, later in the year, to take part in the Repub-
lican ratification meeting, held in the Auditorium, Wil-
liam McKinley of Ohio and Senator Thurston of Ne-
braska being the other speakers on this occasion. In
February of the next year he spoke before the Union
League Club, selecting as his subject “The Vengeance
of the Flag,” and shortly afterward made an address
at the Methodist Conference in Omaha that was widely
copied by the newspapers of the country. In 1894 he
spoke before the Lincoln Club of New York, and on
his return West delivered an oration on “Lafayette” at
the banquet of the Republican Club in Detroit. He
delivered the oration on Grant on the unveiling of
Thomas Nast’s painting, “Appomattox,” in Galena, and
more recently he delivered the oration at the unveiling
of the Franklin statue in Lincoln Park.

 

HENRY DODGE ESTABROOK.

Mr. Estabrook has been engaged in many important
legal battles, the most conspicuous, perhaps, being one
before the Supreme Court of the United States, where
he appeared as counsel for Governor Boyd of Nebraska
in a case involving his citizenship.

Although a resident of Chicago only a short time,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

he has built up a substantial practice, which is rapidly
increasing. At present he is local counsel for the West-
ern Union Telegraph Company and a member of the
firm of Lowden, Estabrook & Davis. He takes much
interest in educational matters and was a member of
the board of regents of the State University of Ne-
braska from 1893 until his removal to Chicago. He
was married October 23, 1880, to Miss Clara C. Camp-
bell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Campbell of
Omaha. They have one daughter, Blanche Denel Esta-
brook,

Frank Orren Lowden was born at Sunrise City,

Minnesota, January 26, 1861. He comes of a sturdy
pioneer family of Scotch descent, his great-grandfather,

 

FRANK ORREN LOWDEN.

Joshua Lowden, having been born of Scotch parents in
Vermont in 1783. His grandfather, Orren Lowden,
came West in 1832 to what was then the frontier, and
settled in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Here Lorenzo

Orren Lowden, the father of Frank O. Lowden, was

born. At an early age Mr. Lowden’s father settled in
Chisago County, Minnesota, and in 1856 married
Nancy Elizabeth Bregg, formerly of Steuben County,
New York.

In 1868 Mr. Lowden’s parents removed to a farm
at Point Pleasant, Hardin County, Iowa, and here, like
most farmers’ sons, he tilled the soil in summer and
attended the public schools in the winter. At the age
of fifteen he began teaching, and while thus engaged
prepared himself for college, entering the freshman
class of the Iowa State University in the fall of 188T.
He earned his own way through the university, and,

371

although at times he was obliged to drop his work and
resort to teaching to obtain sufficient funds to con-
tinue, he persevered, and was graduated with his class,
of which he was valedictorian, taking the highest rank
ever attained in that university up to that time. He
then resumed teaching, and for a year held a position
in the high school of Burlington, Iowa.

Mr. Lowden had long cherished an ambition to be-
come a lawyer. With this idea in mind he came to
Chicago in July, 1886, and entered the law office of Dex-
ter, Herrick & Allen, at whose head stood the Hon.
Wirt Dexter. At the same time he took a course in the
Union College of Law, where he completed the two
years’ course in one and was graduated in July, 1887.
Here also he was valedictorian of his class, and received
the highest honors.

Shortly after graduation in law Mr. Lowden was
admitted to the bar, upon examination before tne Appel-
late Court of the First District of Illinois. He then
returned to the office of Dexter, Herrick & Allen, and
practiced law with them until 1890, when he formed
a partnership with Mr. Emery S. Walker, under the
firm name of Walker & Lowden. In 1892, having dis-
solved partnership with Mr. Walker, he became asso-
ciated with Mr. William B. Keep, the firm being known
as Keep & Lowden. Severing his connection with Mr.
Keep in September, 1893, Mr. Lowden practiced alone
until April, 1898, when he united his practice with that
of Henry D. Estabrook and H. J. Davis, under the
firm name of Lowden, Estabrook & Davis.

Mr. Lowden is a Republican in his political affilia-
tions. He takes an active interest in many prominent
social and professional organizations, among them the
Calumet Club, the Chicago Club, the Union League
Club, the Marquette Club, Chicago Literary Club, the
Washington Park Club, the Saddle and Cycle Club,
Chicago Golf Club, Sunset Club and Thousand Islands
Yacht Club. He also belongs to the Law Club, the
Chicago, the Illinois and the American Bar associa-
tions, and is a member of the Beta Theta Pi and Phi
Delta Phi college fraternities.

Mr. Lowden was married April 29, 1896, to Miss
Florence Pullman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George
M. Pullman. They have two children, George M. Pull-
man and an infant daughter.

John P. Ahrens was born in Germany, October
1, 1851. He is the son of Edward A. and Elizabeth M.
Ahrens. His paternal grandfather was a leading phy-
sician in Hamburg, and his maternal grandfather was
the Rev. H. Paulsen, a Lutheran clergyman, noted for
his theological learning and practical piety. His father
emigrated to America in 1854, settling at Davenport,
Iowa, where Mr. Ahrens received his education in the
grammar and high schools, and also began the study
of law in the office of General J. B. Leake in 1868.
.

372

Circumstances making it necessary, he resorted to school
teaching for a livelihood and also to secure means to
complete his legal education. He came to Chicago in
1872 and was admitted to the Illinois bar June 7, 1873.

Not seeing his way clear to begin the practice of his
profession just at that time Mr. Ahrens secured an ap-

 

JOHN P. AHRENS,

pointment as deputy clerk of the Superior Court and
took every available advantage of the position to acquire
all the knowledge possible to qualify himself for his life
work. In 1875 he entered the list as an active and
aggressive practitioner, fully equipped to win where
positive merit and honorable means could command
success. In 1882 he was admitted to practice in the
United States Supreme Court. Among the many
important cases in which Mr. Ahrens has been employed
as counsel are the International Bank vs. S. J. Walker;
Howe vs. The South Park Commissioners, a case involv-
ing the title of a considerable portion of Jackson Park ;
and also the case against the Board of Trade, in the
decision of which the Supreme Court required the Board
to completely change its system of doing business;
Pickering vs. Lomax, involving the title to a large tract
of land held by what is known as the “Indian Title.”
While Mr. Ahrens has not confined himself to any
particular line of practice, yet his work has largely been
devoted to real estate matters, in which he is regarded
as peculiarly proficient and authoritative. He is
decidedly social in his nature and has held positions of
honor and trust in various orders and societies. He is
a member of the Masonic Order, the Ancient Order of
United Workmen, Royal Arcanum, Royal League,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

National Union, Chosen Friends and Independent
Order of Mutual Aid. He was married in 1877 to Miss
Fanny Hamblin, daughter of Edward and Mary J.
Hamblin of Portland, Me. Four children have been
born to them, Edith Louise, Leila M., Edward H. and
John P. Ahrens, Jr. Although not a politician, Mr.
Ahrens has always adhered to the principles of the
Republican party, and in church relations he is a member
of the Baptist denomination.

Max Pam, senior member of the well-known law
firm of Pam, Calhoun & Glennon, was born in the
empire of Austria, July 16, 1865, and came to this
country with his parents when he was two years old.
He received his education in the public schools of Chi-
cago, and as soon as he had completed the required
course in the high school, he began to study law in
the office of Adolph Moses, pursuing by himself, at the
same time, a collegiate course of study. He was fully
equipped to practice law before he became of age, but
was forced to wait until that time before taking the
examinations for admittance to the bar.

In 1889 Mr. Pam entered into partnership with his
former instructor, under the firm name of Moses, Pam
& Kennedy. This partnership continued until March,
1897, at which time he associated himself with Mr.

 

 

 

 

 

MAX PAM.

Charles H. Donnelly, under the title of Pam & Don-
nelly. Mr. Edward T. Glennon, Harry Boyd Hurd, Al-
bert E. Dacy and Hugo Pam were later admitted to the
firm, which continued until October 1, 1899, as Pam,
Donnelly & Glennon. At that time Judge Donnelly
withdrew because of his elevation to the Circuit bench,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and Mr. William J. Calhoun entered the firm, which is
now known as Pam, Calhoun & Glennon.

Mr. Pam possesses much more than the usual
amount of adaptability for the law, a fact that has in
great measure been responsible for his rapid rise in
his profession. He has, moreover, a gteat capacity
for hard work, and the more difficult the problem at
hand the more enjoyment does he take in its solution.
As an advocate his command of the details of a case
when addressing court and jury, and his accurate knowl-
edge of the law bearing upon each particular fact
presented for their consideration, has won the admira-
tion of the bar. His practice is one of the largest in
the city and he numbers among his clients many of
the largest corporations and railroads in the country,
among them being American Steel and Wire Com-
pany, Federal Steel Company, American Bonding and
Trust Company of Baltimore, Maryland Casualty
Company, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company, N. Y.
C. & St. L. Railroad Company (Nickel Plate), Omaha
& St. Louis Railroad Company, Omaha, Kansas City
& Eastern Railroad Company, Kansas City & Omaha
Connecting Railroad Company, and reorganized Kan-
sas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad Company, Daven-
port, Rock Island & North-Western Railroad Com-
pany.

Mr. Pam is a thorough American in his ideas and
sentiments. He is a Republican in his political affilia-
tions, but he is not a politician, preferring to give his
whole attention to his practice. He holds member-
ship in several of the social and professional clubs of
the city, but he is not a club man for the same reason
that he is not a politician.

William J. Calhoun, of the firm of Pam, Cal-
houn & Glennon, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsyl-
vania, October 5, 1848. He received his early education
in the schools of his native city, and later entered upon
the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1875.
Shortly after this he opened an office at Danville,
Illinois, where, by close and faithful attention to his pro-
fessional duties, he established an extensive practice and
acquired an enviable reputation as one of the leading
attorneys of Illinois.

Mr. Calhoun enjoys prominent recognition in the
state and national affairs of the Republican party, and
he has been entrusted with several important and deli-
cate missions by President McKinley. Notable among
these was a visit made to Cuba, a few months prior to the
declaration of war with Spain, for the purpose of investi-
gating the noted Ruiz case. Shortly after his return
from this mission, the President appointed him a member
of the Interstate Commerce Commission, a position he
has filled with much ability and wise discrimination.

Mr. Calhoun early attained wide renown as a corpo-

3873

ration lawyer. For many years he has been the general
attorney for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad,
and prior to taking up his residence in Chicago he was
local attorney for both the Big Four and the Wabash
Railroad companies. On October 1, 1899, Mr. Calhoun
became associated with Max Pam and Edward T. Glen-

 

 

WILLIAM J. CALHOUN.

non in the firm of Pam, Calhoun & Glennon. This
association is a particularly fortunate one, as both Mr.
Pam and Mr. Glennon have long been prominently
established in the legal circles of Chicago. The clientage
of the firm is composed for the most part of large cor-
porations and other interests of equal magnitude.
William &. Forrest was born at Baltimore July 9,
1852. He received a careful education in the public
schools of that city, and at the age of nineteen entered
Dartmouth College, where he pursued a classical course
and was graduated with honors in 1875. He then went
to Boston, where he read law for the following three
years, at the end of which time he came to Chicago.
He passed his examinations for admittance to the bar
soon after his arrival here, and at once began the prac-
tice of his profession. Equipped with a thorough knowl-
edge of the various branches of law, endowed with a
clear and logical mind, and possessed of a forcible and
eloquent manner of speaking, he has been eminently
qualified to succeed. An ambitious student, not only
of books, but of men and the impulses which move them,
and a hard worker in whatever he undertakes, he has
become recognized for his ability throughout the land.
Mr. Forrest is best known to the public as a crimi-
nal lawyer, for he has devoted most of his energies to
374

the study and practice of this branch of jurisprudence.
At the same time, however, he has been eminently
successful in his general practice, which is large and
of a most satisfactory nature. Among the more impor-
tant cases in which he has been engaged, and one that
gave him a national reputation, was the celebrated
Cronin trial of several years ago. His determination and

 

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM S. FORREST.

perseverance were well shown in the case of the People
vs. John Lamb, who was indicted for both burglary
and murder. There was a general belief, backed by
strong circumstantial evidence, that Lamb was guilty.
Mr. Forrest appeared for the defense at the time of the
trial, and for four years contested every step of the
prosecution. Lam) was first tried for murder, con-
victed and sentenced to be hanged, but upon appeal
to the Supreme Court a new trial was granted. He
was tried in the meanwhile for burglary and acquitted,
and was subsequently acquitted also on the charge of
murder. The decision handed down by the Supreme
Court was of special interest to lawyers because it de-
fined the extent of the liability of a conspirator for the
acts of his co-conspirator.

Another important case in which Mr. Forrest will
be remembered was that of the People vs. Charles
Schank, where he also appeared for the defense. The
defendant was indicted for the murder of Frederick
Kandzia, and was acquitted on the ground that the
deceased met his death, not through the dagger of
Schank, but by the malpractice of the surgeon after
the stabbing.

Mr. Forrest also defended successfully Charles

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Spalding, in his first trial, Thomas J. O’Malley, John D.
Snearly and James Maney, lieutenant of the Fifteenth
United States Infantry, and Baron von Beidenfeld.
He has prosecuted several men charged with murder:
Mannow and Windrath, who were hanged for the mur-
der of Carey B. Birch; Lake and Griswold, who were
sentenced to the penitentiary for life for the murder of
Patrick Owens, and Healy and Robbard, who were
tried at Dubuque, Iowa, for the murder of two private
policemen, and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.
Mr. Forrest has participated either for the defense or the
prosecution in two hundred and fifty homicide cases.
William Sidney Elliott, Jr., was born at Niles, Michi-
gan, May 1, 1849. His father, William Sidney Elliott,
who died October 17, 1899, was a member of the old
Tippecanoe Club of Chicago, and a lineal descendant
of John Eliot, the Indian missionary of the Plymouth
colony, who is celebrated as the translator of the Bible
into the Indian language. His mother, Caroline
(Morse) Elliott, was the daughter of Daniel Morse, a
drummer-boy of the \Var of 1812, a son of Nathan
Morse, captain in Shay’s rebellion, 1812, and a grandson
of Nathan Morse, the Revolutionary patriot, a private in

 

WILLIAM SIDNEY ELLIOTT, JR.

Captain Amarial Fuller's command at Cambridge, April
'9, 1775, and Lucretia (Sawyer) Morse, granddaughter
of Jacob Sawyer, a patriot of the Revolutionary war,
enlisted from Nobleborough, Maine, and wounded at
the siege of Boston, under the command of Captain
Rounds and Colonel Bond Mitchell. Mr. Elliott’s
mother was a schoolmate and playfellow of President
James A. Garfield, and her father, Daniel Morse, above
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

referred to, is the Morse with whom Garfield spent a
portion of his early life, as mentioned in the biographies
of the martyred president. In 1857 his parents moved
to Quincy, Illinois, and before he had passed his six-
teenth birthday he had acquired all the educational
advantages afforded by the public and academical
schools of that city, which he then left, intending to
resume his studies at the U. S. Military Academy at
West Point, an appointment to which he had been pro-
moted through the kindly offices of the late Nehemiah
Bushnell and O. H. Browning, Secretary of the Interior
under President Andrew Johnson, but owing to a partial
failure of eyesight he was compelled for several years
to abandon his ambitions for a scholarly career, until
he was enabled to resume them, as hereinafter men-
tioned. He then entered the banking establishment of
L. and C. H. Bull of Quincy, in whose employ he
remained four years, during which time he obtained a
thorough knowledge of the banking business, with its
infinite attention to details, order and caution, to which
fact he attributes, in a great measure, his subsequent
success in life. Leaving them, he came to Chicago in
1869 to accept a position with the old State Insurance
Company, under ex-Mayor Roswell B. Mason, its then
president. This position not offering him a sufficiently
wide field for his ambitions and ability, he resigned, a
year later, and entered into an insurance brokerage
business, which, during the next ten years, became one
of the most important in the city.

He had made up his mind, however, to study law,
and in 1879, through the assistance of Luther -Laflin
Mills, he entered the law office of the late Emery A.
Storrs, where he remained until he was admitted to the
Ulinois bar in March, 1882, and to the District and Cir-
cuit courts of the United States, Northern District of
Illinois, July 12, 1882. He later formed a partnership
with Mr. Storrs, under the firm name of Storrs &
Elliott, which continued until the death of the former.
In 1887 he was appointed assistant state’s attorney of
Cook County, under Judge Longenecker. During the
five years he held this position he conducted an average
of twelve hundred prosecutions a year. A history of
Mr. Elliott’s public service for the five years from 1887
to 1892 would include almost every celebrated criminal
trial in Cook County during that period of time.

In the fall of 1892 he returned to private practice,
and since then he has appeared in a large number of
important criminal cases. Out of forty-five persons
defended by him before juries for murder, to date,
thirty-six have been found ‘not guilty.”

Mr. Elliott may be said to be a self-made man and
self-educated. Although not able to obtain a college
education, he has always been a student, and especially
may this be said of him in his profession. Opposing
counsel are slow to question his accuracy when he cites

375

a decision or authority. He is gifted naturally in many
ways, but his success has been the result of hard work,
tenacity and perseverance in whatever he set out to do.
His remarkable power as a trial lawyer is due to his
careful preparation of each case and his ability and good
judgment in its management. His great skill in cross-
examination has won for him the high esteem of the
Illinois bar, and his selection of the jury is denominated
a work of art.

Politically Mr. Elliott is a Republican, and although
his law practice always receives his attention before
politics, he has given substantial aid to his party in many
campaigns, both in the city and throughout the state.
As a campaign orator Mr. Elliott has achieved marked
distinction. He is an honorary member of the cele-
brated City Repub'ican Club, a member of the county,
city, ward and precinct organizations of his party, and
holds that it is here and at the party caucuses that the
citizen must make his influence felt, if at all.

In social, professional and fraternal organizations Mr.
EMiott holds a prominent place. Among those which
claim him in membership are the Washington Park
Club, the Illinois Club, the Menoken Club, the Mar-
quette Club, the Hamilton Club and the Lincoln Club,
of which latter he has been a director and vice-president.
He is a member of the Art Institute of Chicago, a mem-
ber and director of the Sons of New York, a member
of the Chicago Commercial Association, and a member
and ex-director of the Chicago Law Institute. In
Masonic circles he is affiliated with Garfield Lodge, No.
686, A. F and A. M.: York Chapter, No. 148, Roval
Arch Masons; Tyrian Council, No. 78, Royal and Select
Masters; Columbia Commandery, No. 63, Knights
Templar, and a member-and grand lecturer of Medinah
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine. He is also a member and past regent of Gar-
den City Council, No. 202, Royal Arcanum, and an ex-
grand chaplain of the Grand Council for Ilinois of said
order. He is a member and ex-president of Stephen
A. Doug’as Council, No. 66, National Union; a member
and past archon of Alpha Council, No. 1, Royal League,
and has the distinction of having been elected the first
Supreme Chief Ranger for the United States of the
Ancient Order of Foresters of America, and in 1899 was
elected an associate member—*bushwhacker’—of the
nationally-famed Columbia Post, Grand Army of the
Republic.

Mr. Elliott was one of the early promoters of the
wor.d-famed Apollo Club of Chicago, was one of its
board of directors during its formative stages, and to his
untiring energy, business management and enthusiasm
during the period of his connection with said club the
organization is greatly indebted for that preéminent suc-
cess which it then and subsequently attained and now
enjoys.
376

Mr. Elliott was married at Chicago, October 14, 1871,
to Miss Alinda Caroline Harris, daughter of James and
Salome Harris of Janesville, Wisconsin. Mrs. Elliott
is a lady of refinement and culture, a prominent and
zealous member of several social, ethical, religious and
charitable organizations of Chicago, among them the
Arche Club, the Woman’s West End Club and the

Chicago Culture Club, and is a tireless worker in the

domestic circle. Their children are Lorenzo B. Elliott,
a graduate of the Kent College of Law and a post-
graduate and bachelor of laws of Lake Forest Univer-
sity, and Daniel Morse Elliott, a graduate of Kent Col-
lege of Law, both of whom have already achieved mer-
ited distinction in their profession; Emery S. Elliott,
Jessie Florence Elliott and Birdie Leon Elliott. Charles
Sumner Elliott, third son of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott, was
accidentally killed September 26, 1896, in his nine-
teenth year. He was a student of the Lewis Institute,
beloved of all his associates, and gave promise of an
exceptional career.

Jacob R. Custer, who is among the best-known of
practicing lawyers in this city, has won his place by
efforts to which the circumstances of birth and social

 

JACOB R. CUSTER.

affiliations gave little or no aid. Like many of the suc-
cessful merchants and professional men of Chicago, he
came here a stranger. Mr. Custer was born May 27,
1845, near Valley Forge, Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania. His father was David Y. Custer, and his mother,
prior to her marriage, was Miss Esther F. Rambo. The
family of Custer is of German origin, while that of
Rambo is of Swedish extraction. These families set-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.. -

tled in Eastern Pennsylvania prior to the days of Wil-
liam Penn.

Mr. Jacob R. Custer, after the usual attendance of
the public schools, was prepared for college at Wash-
ington Hall, an academy of considerable note in Penn-
sylvania. It was conducted at that time by Dr. Abel
Rambo, who was an uncle of Mr. Custer. From Wash-
ington Hall Mr. Custer went to Pennsylvania College
at Gettysburg, and was graduated in 1867 with third
honors of his class: He read law in Philadelphia during
the year 1867-8, and in 1869 was graduated from the
famous Albany Law School, at Albany, New York.

Two years before the great fire Mr. Custer came to
Chicago. He was then but twenty-four years of age,
and with the self-reliance that has been characteristic
of his whole career he opened an office without a part-
ner. Ten years later, when his industry and ability
had ensured a considerable measure of success, he
formed a partnership with the Hon. William J. Camp-
bell, who was as well-known a politician as a lawyer,
and who for several years was the Illinois member of
the Republican National Committee. This partnership
continued until Mr. Campbell's death, in March, 1896.
In 1880 Mr. Custer was appointed master in chancery
of the Superior Court of Cook County, and for twelve
years discharged the responsible duties of that office
in such a manner as to win an enviable reputation as a
judge, for the office of master in chancery is judicial.
He also served for eight years as chief counsel to the
sheriff of Cook County. Mr. Custer is an effective
speaker and an excellent jury lawyer. He has devoted
himself exclusively to the civil practice and office con-
sultation.

Mr. Custer is a Republican in politics. He is a mem-
ber of the Union League and Calumet clubs and of the
Phi Kappa Psi college fraternity. He was married
December 1, 1879, to Miss Ella White, daughter of
C. B. White of this city. They have one daughter,
Esther R. Custer.

Lester O. Goddard, of the firm of Custer, Goddard &
Griffin, was born at Palmyra, Wayne County, New York,
in 1845, and when a youth of ten years accompanied his
parents on their removal to Michigan. His education,
begun in the public schools of the Empire State, was
continued in the common schools of Michigan, and
later was supplemented by a course in the University
of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he matriculated in
1863, and from which he was graduated in 1867. In
1869 he began the study of law in the same institution,
and in 1870 he came to Chicago and entered the office
of James M. Walker, general counsel for the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. All in all,
Mr. Goddard’s relations with this corporation contin-
ued for a period of twenty-six years, during which time
he was connected with both the legal and operating
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

departments. In 1881 he was admitted to the bar, and
from 1883 to 1887 he was the assistant solicitor of the
road, while from 1887 to July, 1896, he was assistant
to the first vice-president. Mr. Goddard assisted in the
growth of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
from 1,000 to 7,500 miles, during which time—being

 

LESTER O. GODDARD.

the formative period of Western railroads—all the prob-
lems affecting the life and death struggles of railroads
for existence and for protection from excessive granger
legislation in the Western states passed through his
office.

On the death of William J. Campbell, who had been
associated with Messrs. Jacob R. Custer and Joseph A.
Griffin, he became a member of the present firm of Cus-
ter, Goddard & Griffin. In taking this step his actions
were governed largely by the advice of Philip D. Ar-
mour, who, for a number of years, has retained the
firm as general counsel for Armour & Company. The
immense volume of business done by this company nec-
essarily involves considerable litigation and need of
legal advice, and in this connection Mr. Goddard has
been engaged in many of the most important cases
which have appeared before the courts. He also car-
ries on a private practice as a general practitioner, his
efforts, however, being principally in the department
of civil law. He is a clear and logical reasoner, and
possesses the ability to simplify intricate questions and
present the law governing them in an accurate and for-
cible manner. He is noted also for the precision and
care with which he prepares his cases and his readiness
in any emergency that may arise.

377

Mr. Goddard is a member of the Chicago and Union
League clubs and of the Society of Colonial Wars and
Mayflower Descendants. His genial nature, kindly man-
ner and freedom from ostentation have made him popu-
lar in social circles, but he can hardly be called a club-
man. He was married in October, 1871, to Miss Martha
E. Sterling of Monroe, Michigan.

General John C. Black was born at Lexington, Mis-
sissippi, January 27, 1839. He is the son of Rev. John
Black and Josephine (Culbertson) Black. His ances-
tors emigrated to America about the middle of the
eighteenth century, and William Findley, his great-
grandfather, was a member of the first Congress, and
the first man who, on account of his length of service,
was called “The Father of Congress.” He was an officer
in the Revolutionary Army and a near friend of Presi-
dent Washington. His daughter, Mary, married Rev.
John Black, the grandfather of General Black. This
Rev. John Black was a graduate of Princeton College
in 1768, and later became a doctor of divinity in the
Presbyterian Church. His son, John Black, the father
of General Black, was also a minister of the Presby-
terian Church and received the degree of doctor of
divinity when scarcely thirty-five years of age. His
career, which gave great promise of eminence and use-

 

GENERAL JOHN C. BLACK.

fulness, was ended by death at the early age of thirty-
seven years, leaving a family of four children, the eldest
of whom was John C., the subject of this sketch, aged
seven years.

Soon after the death of her husband Mrs. Black
removed to Danville. Young Black attended the com-
3878

mon schools, as he could gain opportunity, and by exert-
ing his energies to the utmost was able to save sufficient
money by the time he was seventeen years of age to
enter Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Supporting himself by teaching and otherwise he spent
nearly five years within the walls of that institution, and
gained distinction as a scholar and orator, but the news
of the firing of the first gun on Fort Sumter aroused
his spirit of patriotism to such a degree that he cast
aside his books, and on April 14, 1861, enlisted for three
months as a private in the Montgomery Guards, an
organization which was mustered into service as Com-
pany I, Eleventh Indiana Zouaves, Colonel Lew
Wallace commanding. \t the expiration of the term
of his enlistment he returned to his home at Danville,
MTlinois, and recruited a company for the Thirty-seventh
Illinois Regiment of Volunteers,’of which regiment he
became major. \Vith his regiment he participated in
thirteen battles and skirmishes and in two great sieges.
His bravery in these events was recognized and he was
three times promoted for distinguished and meritorious
service—to lieutenant-colonel, June 9, 1862; colonel,
February 1, 1863, and brevet brigadier-general, U. S. V.,
April 9, 1865, “for gallantry in action at the storming of
lakely batteries.”

After the close of the war, and on August 15, 1865,
General Black resigned his commission and returned to
his home at Danville, and subsequently came to Chicago,
where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in
1867, and immediately located at Danville, soon becom-
ing recognized as one of the most able and eloquent
lawyers in the state..

Important and complicated litigation was intrusted
to his care and was conducted with an ability and suc-
cess gratifying to his clientage and complimentary to
himself. His rank among the lawyers of the Prairie
State is very high, and he is recognized as the prince
of her orators. Before juries he is earnest, candid and
eloquent in urging and defending the rights of his clients
by apt legal citation and forcible appeal. To opposing
counsel he is courteous and kind. To presiding officers
he is urbane always, though firm when he believes that
the just rights of his clients are improperly imperiled.

In the numerous political struggles in which he has
taken part General Black has been a consistent and
earnest Democrat. He was a candidate for Congress
in 1866, 1880 and again in 1884, and in 1872 was a
candidate for lieutenant-governor. In 1879 he was
nominated for United States Senator against General
John A. Logan, and in this contest received the entire
Democratic vote of the Illinois Legislature.

On March 6, 1885, President Cleveland tendered
General Black the commissionship of the bureau of pen-
sions. This office he accepted and soon demonstrated
his peculiar fitness for the position. No public official

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

has ever given greater satisfaction to the clientage of
his bureau or department than did General Black during
his tenure of office, and none has ever received more
general or more gratifying assurance of the popular
approbation of his conduct as an executive officer.

In 1892 the Democratic party of Illinois nominated
General Black for Congressman-at-large, and in the sub-
sequent election he received a large. majority of the
votes. He served in this position until December 12,
1894, making a number of speeches, which were ex-
tensively noticed. He resigned his seat in Congress
to hecome United States Attorney of the Northern Dis-
trict of IHlinois, in which capacity he continued for nearly
four years. During that time he was nominated for
governor of Illinois by the National Democracy, but
declined this honor.

Since retiring from his last public position General
Black has been engaged in the practice of law in Chi-
cago, his office being in the Monadnock Block. He
was recently elected by his comrades as commander of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery
of Illinois, and is also commander of the Department
of Illinois, Grand Army of the Republic.

James McCartney, who for over forty years has been
a member of the Illinois bar, was born in the north of
Ireland, February 14, 1835. His parents, who were
Scotch, came to this country when he was two years of
age, and located in Perry County, Pennsylvania, but
some eight years later they came further west and set-
tled on a farm in Trumbull County, Ohio, where Mr.
McCartney spent his boyhood days and remained until
he became of age. His educationaal advantages
throughout this period were limited to a few terms at
the county high school, although, like many other
men who have made their mark in life, he subsequently
devoted considerable time to teaching a district school,
acquiring more direct benefit. perhaps, from this experi-
ence than he would from a like time spent in the study
of higher educational branches.

Shortly after he had passed his twenty-first birthday
Mr. MeCartney began reading law in the office of the
Hon. Matthew Birehard at Warren, Ohio, but in the
spring of 1857 he removed to Monmouth, Illinois,
where he continued his course of study in the office of
Harding & Reed, remaining under their instruction until
he was admitted to the bar, January 28, 1858. He at
once formed a partnership with Mr. Philo E. Reed at
Monmouth, under the firm name of Reed & McCartney,
but this association was dissolved in November of the
following year, at which time Mr. McCartney removed
to Galva, Illinois, where he established himself under his
own name, and practiced successfully until the outbreak
of the Civil war.

Four days after the issue of President Lincoln's
proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers, Mr. \McCart-
THE CITY

ney enlisted his services for the suppression of the rebel-
lion in what afterward became Company D of the Sev-
enteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and upon the
organization of this body he was elected and commis-
sioned as first lieutenant, in which capacity he served
until April of the following year, when he was forced
to resign because of ill-health. A rest of a few months

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES McCARTNEY.

found him so much improved that he reénlisted the fol-
lowing September in Company G of the One Hundred
and Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he
retained his former rank as first lieutenant, and in which
he served until March, 1863, when he was promoted
to the captaincy of his company, a command he retained
until the close of the war. Throughout the four years
of strife between the North and South, Captain McCart-
ney’s experience in the field was of a most varied
nature. His knowledge of legal forms and methods
enabled him to serve with credit for a large portion of
the time as judge advocate of court-martials, while for
a period of a year or more he was engaged as adjutant-
general of the Third Brigade, Third Division, Cavalry
Corps, Army of the Ohio.

After the close of hostilities in 1865 Captain McCart-
ney again took up the practice of law at Fairfield, Ili-
nois, where he continued to practice until the spring of
1881, when he went to Springfield to take up his official
duties as attorney-general of the state, a position to
which he had been elected the previous November.
Throughout his official career Captain McCartney was
very active in the discharge of the duties which his
position entailed upon him. He became especially con-

OF CHICAGO. 379

spicuous in his prosecution of the “lake front” suits
against the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which
he began in March, 1884, and which he carried on vigor-
ously until the expiration of his term in 1885, when
he turned them over to his successor. At the close
of his term he continued his practice in Springfield until
1890, when he removed to Chicago. During the eight
years of his residence here he has taken rank as one
of the soundest thinkers before the bench, while his
extended career of over twoscore years has given him
a ripe experience, which makes his services of much
value either as a counselor or for the courtroom.

Mr. McCartney is associated with the various law
societies and bar associations and takes an active interest
in all matters which in any way relate to the legal
profession. He has been for the last three years attorney
for Lincoln Park in Chicago, and for many years attor-
ney for the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company
and for several fraternal insurance societies.

George Everett Adams, a descendant of William
Adams, who settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in
1628, and moved to Ipswich, in the same state, in 1642,
was born in the town of Keene, county of Cheshire,

 

 

 

 

GEORGE EVERETT ADAMS.

New Hampshire, June 18, 1840. His father, Benija-
min Franklin Adams, had visited Chicago as early as
the year 1835, and, with New England sagacity, had
purchased lands in and near to the site of what is now
the Western metropolis. He fixed his residence in Chi-
cago in 1853. Mr. George E. Adams was favored by
all the advantages of a liberal education. After attend-
ing school in Keene he passed on to Phillips’ Exeter
380

Academy, then, as now, recognized as one of the best
preparatory schools in the country. From the academy
he proceeded to Harvard, and was graduated with the
class of 1860. Thence he went to the famous Dane Law
School, and in 1865 was admitted to the bar. During
the war Mr. Adams served a short time as a member of
Battery A, Illinois Artillery.

After his admission to the bar Mr. Adams settled
down to the practice of law, from which he has been
diverted only by the duties of the legislative offices to
which he has been elected. He was a member of the
Senate of the General Assembly of Illinois in the session
1881-82, and participated actively in its proceedings.
In 1882 he was nominated and elected to Congress,
taking his seat in March, 1883. He held places on such
important committees as those on banking, currency
and judiciary. He represented’ his congressional dis-
trict for four consecutive terms, retiring in 1891. Mr.
Adams has more than a local reputation as an authority
on questions of finance, and, though out of Congress,
is one of those whose opinions have weight with legis-
lators. Mr. Adams is a member of the board of over-
seers of Harvard College, a trustee of the Newberry
Library and of the Field Columbian Museum. He is
also a member of the Chicago Board of Education, and
is president of the Chicago Orchestral Association. He
and his family occupy a prominent position in the social
circle of Chicago, and their residence on Belden avenue
is one of the architectural attractions of the North Side
of the city. ,

Frederick Augustus Smith, senior member of the
law firm of Smith, Helmer, Moulton & Price, was born
at Norwood Park, Cook County, IlHnois, February 11,
1844. His parents were Israel G. and Susan (Pen-
noyer) Smith. After receiving his early education in
the common schools of Chicago, he entered the Uni-
versity of Chicago in 1860, and was well advanced in
his course in that institution, when, in 1863, he gave up
all thoughts, for the time being, of completing his edu-
cation and enlisted as a private in Company G of the
One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Hlinois
Volunteer Infantry.

He remained with this regiment throughout its
entire service, participating in the Kentucky and Mis-
souri campaigns. Upon being mustered out in 1864
he returned immediately to the university, where he
resumed his course and was graduated with high honors
in 1866, receiving the degree of A. M. He was now
ready to realize a well-formed plan to study law, and
entered the Union College of Law, from which he was
duly graduated with the degree of LL. D. in 1867. He
at once entered upon the practice of his profession, form-
ing a copartnership with Judge C. C. Kohlsaat, under
the name of Smith & Kohlsaat.

This partnership continued until 1872. He then
practiced alone until 1890, when he became senior mem-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ber of the firm of Smith, Helmer & Moulton, later
known as Smith, Helmer, Moulton & Price.

Mr. Smith is distinctly a self-made man and has had
a successful career ever since he became admitted to
the bar. The untiring attention he has given to his
profession, and the faithful manner in which he has
guarded the interests of his clients, have won for him a
large practice and the good will of all who have sought
his counsel.

Politically he has always been a stanch Republican,
and was one of the Republican nominees for Circuit
judge of Cook County in 1898, but failed of election. A
man of great public spirit, he has always been actively

 

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS SMITH.

connected with many benevolent and educational meas-
ures intended for the public good.

Mr. Smith is a member of many of the social and
professional organizations of the city, among which may
be mentioned the Union League Club; the Hamilton
Club, of which he has been president; the Chicago Bar
.\ssociation, to which he was also chosen president in
18go, and the Chicago Law Club, one of the most select
and successful organizations of lawyers in Chicago,
and in which he has also filled the executive office, being
elected to that position in 1887. He is a member of the
board of trustees of Rush Medical College, and has also
been a member of the board of trustees of the University
of Chicago since its foundation, and has participated
actively in the organization and growth of that great
educational institution.

Mr. Smith was married July 25, 1871, to Miss
Frances B. Morey, daughter of Rev. Ruben and Abby
Clemons Morey of Merton, Wisconsin.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Ephraim Banning comes of good legal stock, his
mother, who was a Kentuckian, being a sister of the
late Judge Pinkney H. Walker of the Supreme Court
of Illinois, and having among her people others who
attained distinction in the science of law. Her father,
Gilmer Walker, had a large practice, and his brother,
Cyrus Walker, was a distinguished practitioner in Ken-
tucky until he removed to Illinois, where he achieved
still more noteworthy success—Lincoln, Douglas, S. T.
Logan and Cyrus Walker ranking at one time as the
four leading lawyers of the state.

Mr. Banning’s name may be placed on the long
roll of successful men whose characters have been
formed largely by maternal influence, but the character
of his father, after whom he was named, was far above
the average. A Virginian by birth, and of the class
to which in that early day few opportunities of educa-
tion were offered, he became a person highly esteemed
among the early settlers of Illinois and Kansas. He
turned his back upon slavery, and at a very early day
settled in McDonough County, Ilinois, where the sub-
ject of this sketch was born, July 21, 1849. Subse-
quently the family moved to Kansas, and in that terri-
tory the early boyhood of Ephraim was spent, and by
the incidents of his life among the early, sturdy, free-
dom-living settlers of “John Brown’s Commonwealth,”
his earnest devotion to the cause of civil and religious
liberty doubtless was largeiy determined. From Kan-
sas the Banning family moved to Missouri, and while
there the Civil war broke out. Two of Mr. Banning’s
brothers promptly enlisted for service in the cause of
the Union, Ephraim—then about twelve years of age—
becoming his father’s “right-hand man” on the farm.
One of the brothers gave his life to the national cause,
the other served with honor till the close of the war.
The educational advantages of a frontier settlement in
Missouri during the war times were not of the best, but
young Banning made the most of them, and in his seven-
teenth year had learned all the schools of the neighbor-
hood could teach, and afterward attended the Brook-
field, Missouri, Academy, where, under the tutorship of
the Rev. J. P. Finley, D. D., he studied the classics
and other courses of a liberal education. Subsequently
he became a student at law in the office of Hon. Samuel
P. Huston of Brookfield.

In 1871 Mr. Banning came to Chicago and acted as
student and clerk in the law office of Messrs. Rosenthal
& Pence, and was admitted to the bar of [linois by
the Supreme Court in June of the following year. In
October he opened an office for himself, and without
the advantage of influential friends or political patron-
age soon succeeded in gaining a fair clientage as a suc-
cessful practitioner. Speaking of his early experience,
Judge Henry W Blodgett has said that “he had a large
and varied practice’ in his court, and that “he showed

381

himself a good admiralty lawyer, was well equipped on
all questions arising under the bankrupt law and in com-
mercial cases generally, as well as in real estate law;”
and Mr. Frank J. Loesch, one of his early associates
at the bar, has said: ‘His preliminary training for
admission to the bar was solid, his industry, both then
and since, has been nothing less than wonderful, and,
while he has in later years confined himself and obtained
eminent success as a patent lawyer, his career as a gen-
eral practitioner during the first ten or twelve years
of his practice was beyond the most sanguine expecta-
tions of any of our lawyers. He has fulfilled the prom-
ise of his youth in being not only a sterling man, but a
lawyer who has lived up to the highest ideals of our

 

EPHRAIM BANNING.

profession, whose integrity has never been questioned,
whose faithfulness to his clients’ interests attained that
measure of success which it deserved, and whose ability
as a lawyer none can dispute.”

Mr. Banning’s mind was directed by circumstances
attendant on his practice and by natural tendency to
a special study of the law of patents, and after about
ten years he practically withdrew from general prac-
tice and made a specialty of patent cases. There is
no doubt that Mr. Banning would have achieved
marked success as a general practitioner, for he has an
iutellect that is both quick and cautious, and is a very
convincing speaker; but he did well in following the
bent of his nature. In 1877 he was joined in practice by
his brother, Thomas A. Banning, and in 1888 by George
S. Payson, who was succeeded in 1894 by Thomas F
Sheridan, who is still a member of the firm. For fifteen
382

years or more the firm has been not only eminent, but
prominent, in the management of litigations relative to
patents and other intellectual property. Their briefs
are familiar in the Supreme Court of the United States
and in the Federal courts at Chicago, Detroit, Cleve-
land, Pittsburg, St. Louis, St. Paul, Cincinnati, Kansas
City, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans
and other places.

Though an ardent Republican, Mr. Banning re-
mained ‘a private in the ranks” until elected a McKinley
presidential elector in 1896. In 1897 he was appointed
by Governor Tanner to the unpaid, but honorable and
responsible, office of member of the State Board of
Charities, the duties of which he is peculiarly well fitted
to perform. Itarly in 1899 he was strongly urged for
the office of United States District judge at Chicago, for
which he was supported by Senators Cullom and Mason
and a majority of the Chicago congressmen—five out
of seven—and, as stated by one of his opponents,
endorsed by “the Republican organizations of the state,
county and city, together with the bar association and
the leading citizens of Chicago.” The President, how-
ever, had other plans, and, in pursuance of these, made a
personal appointment.

Mr. Banning is a member of the Union League,
Lincoln and Illinois clubs, and of the American, State
and Chicago Bar associations, in the latter of which
he is an active factor. For several years he has been
a member of the committee of the Chicago Bar Associa-
tion on legislation with reference to Federal judges and
practice in the Federal courts. He was also a member
of its committee on legislation to establish a juvenile
court in Chicago and revise the laws relating to the
care of delinquent and dependent children in Illinois.
He served as chairman of the committee on organiza-
tion of the Congress on Patents and Trademarks, held
under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary of
the World’s Columbian Exposition, in 1893, and which
was presided over by Judge Blodgett, formerly of the
United States Court at this city. He was chosen by
this congress as one of five to present certain industrial
questions, specially relative to patents and trademarks,
to the Congress of the United States.

In religion Mr. Banning is a Presbyterian, and is
an elder in that church. He has been twice married-—
first, to Miss Lucretia T. Lindsley, who died in 1887,
leaving three sons, all of whom survive; and, second,
to Miss Emilie B. Jenne. He resides on Washington
boulevard, near Robey street, and has been a resident
of that vicinity for nearly a quarter of a century.

Thomas A. Banning was born on a farm in McDon-
ough County, Illinois, January 16, 1851. His father was
Ephraim Banning, born in Virginia. His mother was
Caroline Louisa Walker, born in Kentucky. She was
a daughter of Gilmer Walker, a prominent lawyer in
the early history of Illinois, and a sister of Judge Pink-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ney H. Walker, who for many years occupied a seat
on the Supreme bench of Illinois. Her paternal ancestor,
John Walker, was born in Scotland and came to this
country in 1731. From his father the subject of this
sketch inherited the perceptive and optimistic qualities
of his mind, and from his mother the reflective, philo-
sophic and deliberate qualities. From them both he
received by inheritance and training a reverence for
sacred things and a belief in a future existence influ-
enced by the present. He was educated in a manner
similar to that of other boys of his time and circum-
stances. He studied law and was admitted to the bar
in Illinois by the Supreme Court, September 15, 1875,

 

 

 

 

THOMAS A. BANNING.

and by the Supreme Court of the United States, Janu-
ary 8, 1880. Since his admission he has been actively
engaged in the practice of the law, and chiefly in the
Federal courts and in the Supreme Court of the United
States. His practice has been varied and important, and
has been characterized by the usual vicissitudes of an
active lawyer's practice. He has been a Republican in
politics, and has devoted enough time to political mat-
ters to enable him to discharge his duties as a citizen.
He has never held political office of any kind. He has
always considered that a man owed something to the
immediate community in which he lived, and so has
been active in the social, educational, moral and religious
interests of the part of the city in which he dwelt. He
was married December 31, 1875, to Sarah J. Hubbard,
born in Kentucky, and has a family of six children. His
life is representative of that of the average lawyer who
tries to live rightly, do good, contribute to the welfare

of others and improve the immediate community in
which he lives.
THE C7fY OF CHICAGO.

Judge Lucius Bolles Otis, son of Joseph and Nancy
(Billings) Otis, was born at Montville, New London
County, Connecticut, on March 12, 1820. Emigrated
with his parents to Ohio in 1822, and settled in El-
dredge Township, in what is now known as Berlin,
Erie County, Ohio.

Lucius B. Otis received a good common school edu-
cation and continued his education at the Huron Insti-
tute in Milan, at the Norwalk Seminary and at Gran-
ville (Ohio) College. He studied law in Norwalk, Ohio,
and attended the law school in Cincinnati in the winter
of 1840-41. Was admitted to the bar at the August
term of the Supreme Court in Huron County in 1841.
In September, 1841, he settled as a young lawyer in
Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), Sandusky County.

He made acquaintances rapidly, and soon had many
friends. On January 4, 1844, he was married, at Fre-
mont, Ohio, to Lydia Ann Arnold, daughter of Nathan
Allen and Phebe Waterman (Allen) Arnold of East
Greenwich, Rhode Island. She was born February 9,
1823, at North Kingston, Rhode Is!and.

Lawyers in those days were all more or less politi-
cians. Mr. Otis was nominated upon the Democratic
ticket and elected prosecuting attorney of Sandusky
County in 1842, to which office he was reélected three
times, holding that office for eight years.

In 1851 he was elected judge of the Court of Com-
mon Pleas for that subdivision—namely, the counties
of Huron, Erie, Sandusky, Ottawa and Lucas—by a
majority of about eight hundred. Having a good legal
mind, he made an excellent judge.

Among the members of the bar who practiced at that
time in his court were: Ebenezer Lane, formerly chief
justice of Ohio; Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward Presi-
dent of the United States, and Morrison R. Waite, after-
ward chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Otis inherited a talent for money-making and
accumulating property. About 1850, in connection with
Sardis Birchard, the uncle of President Hayes, they
started the first bank in Fremont, under the firm name
of Birchard & Otis. This bank afterward became, and is
now known as, the First National Bank of Fremont,
Ohio.

During the vacation of the courts in August, 1853,
he took a trip around the lakes to Chicago, and was cap-
tivated with the place at first sight. It then had a popu-
lation of about 50,000, and with such intense activities
of every kind that he was impressed that it was to be
a great city, and the greatest on the continent. He
has never changed that first-formed opinion. At the
same time he purchased half a section of land (now
within the city limits), which he subsequently sold and
exchanged for inside central property.

Upon the expiration of his last term of court in
Ottawa County, Ohio, in December, 1856, he removed

383

with his family to Chicago. His first office was on
Clark street. His first purchase of central property was
(in connection with Henry Keep and Albert Keep, life-
long friends) of the old Unitarian Church lot on the
north side of Washington street, now (1900) occupied
by the U. S. Express Company and others. They im-
proved the property and had their offices there for sev-
eral years. Afterward he made several purchases of
property on State, Adams, Madison and La Salle streets.

At the time of the great fire of 1871 he had thirty-
two buildings, many of them of wood, destroyed. He
was only able to collect $90,000 in insurance, but it was
a great help at that time.

 

 

 

JUDGE LUCIUS BOLLES OTIS.

He never resumed the practice of law in Chicago.
His loan business and real estate interests occupied his
whole time. He frequently said: “I never had time to
practice law in Chicago, but my knowledge of it has
been of great value in accumulating property.”

In August, 1865, with his eldest brother, James Otis,
he purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Madison
and La Salle streets, where they afterward erected a
building known as the Otis Block, and where his office
has been for the past thirty years.

On account of his familiarity with buildings and
property he was sought about 1869 by the presidents
of the L. S. & M. S. Railway and the C., R. I. & P.

‘Railway to become president of the Pacific Hotel Com-

pany and to construct the Grand Pacific Hotel, which
was built, and, after the great fire, rebuilt.

He exchanged with Potter Palmer, before the great
fire, a lot on State street (now a part of the Palmer
384

House) for the lot on the southwest corner of Van
Buren and State streets.

On August 28, 1877, the State Savings Institution
of Chicago failed for $3,000,000. This was the largest
failure up to that time that occurred in the West. A
few days afterward Judge Otis was appointed receiver,
and qualified by giving (what few men at that time could
do) a bond in the sum of $2,000,000. The best judges
at the time of the failure predicted that the institution
could not pay more than eighteen cents on the dollar to
the 13,600 depositors. John Wentworth reported in
a public meeting of the stockholders, held in Metropol-
itan Hall, that “In my opinion the institution will pay
from nothing to ten cents.” By strict economy, good
judgment and advantageous sales, the desperate assets
yielded an amount in cash sufficient to pay nearly 50
per cent to the creditors of the’ institution. The cost
of the receivership was but a small fraction of the
receipts, and was said at that time to be the most
economically managed receivership in the West.

For many years Judge Otis has taken an active part
in the Diocesan and General conventions of the Protes-
tant Episcopal church, and for twenty years was an
authority on canon and church law, holding many impor-
tant offices in the church organization. He was an
attendant and large contributor to Grace and Trinity
churchies.

Thomas Maclay Hoyne, senior member of the law
firm of Hoyne, O’Connor & Hoyne, was born at Galena,
Illinois, July 17, 1843. His father was Thomas Hoyne,
one of the leaders in the legal profession in Chicago,
and his mother, who before her marriage was Miss
Lenora Temple, was a daughter of the late John T.
Temple, M. D.

Mr. Hoyne came to Chicago with his parents while
still very young and received his education in the public
schools of this city, was graduated from the then only
high school in existence here. After completing his
course in this institution he went to New York City,
where for a time he was engaged in business; but he soon
returned to Chicago and began the study of law in the
offices of Hoyne, Miller & Lewis, of which firm his
father was the senior partner. Here, for three years,
he applied himself to a general course of legal reading,
and during a portion of this period attended the law
school of the old Chicago University, from which he
was graduated in 1866. The following year he became
admitted to partnership in the firm, which then became
known as Hoyne, Horton & Hoyne. The elder Mr.
Hoyne died in 1883 and the business was continued as
Horton & Hoyne until Mr. Horton was elected to the
bench in 1887.

Mr. Hoyne then associated himself with Messrs.
George A. Follansbee and John O'Connor, as the firm
of Hoyne, Follansbee & O'Connor. This connection

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

continued until January 1, 1899, when the present firm
was formed, in which Mr. Maclay Hoyne, son of the
subject of this sketch, is the junior member. All of these
firms mentioned have been prominent in legal circles of
Chicago, transacting for the most part a general busi-
ness, although they have been, and still continue to be,
best known, perhaps, in matters relating to real estate
and commercial law.

Mr. Hoyne is a Democrat in his political views. He
was one of the originators of the old Chicago Demo-
cratic Club, which in 1881 became what is now known as
the Iroquois Club. Of this latter organization he was
president in 1897. He is also a member of the Illinois

 

 

 

 

THOMAS MACLAY HOYNE.

State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the
Law Institute and the Union League Club.

He was married in 1871 to Miss Jeanie T. Maclay,
daughter of Moses B. Maclay of New York, and has
a family consisting of four boys and two girls.

Thomas E. Milchrist has for thirty years been an
active factor in Illinois’ political and legal circles. He
is the son of John and Ann Milchrist, and was born in
the town of Peel, on the Isle of Man, immigrating to
this country with his parents when a child, in 1848.
The Milchrist family settled in Peoria County, Illinois,
and it was there young Milchrist got his first ideas of
American institutions. He attended the common
schools and worked on a farm until 1862, when he en-
hsted in the One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Infantry,
and served with that command all through the war, re-
tiring in 1865 with the rank of captain. Mr. Milchrist
saw service in East Tennessee under Burnside, in Ken-
THE CiTY OF CHICAGO.

tucky under Gilmore and Wright, in the Atlanta cam-
paign under Sherman, at Franklin and Nashville under
Schofield and Thomas, and in North Carolina under
Schofield. Following his honorable discharge, in 1865,
he took up the study of the law and was admitted to
practice in 1867, since which time he has made an envi-
able record as counsel and pleader. In politics Mr. Mil-

 

 

 

 

THOMAS E. MILCHRIST.

christ has always been a Republican. After the war he
settled in Henry County, Illinois, where he was elected
state’s attorney in 1872, and served five terms, being re-
elected without serious opposition in 1876, 1880, 1884,
1888. He resigned the office in 1889, having been ap-
pointed assistant United States attorney for the North-
ern District of Illinois. One year later, August 2, 1890,
he was made United States attorney for the same district
and served out the full term of four years. It was during
Mr. Milchrist’s incumbency of the office that the great
riots of 1894 occurred, resulting in many important
prosecutions in the Federal courts, which were conducted
to the satisfaction of all concerned. Mr. Milchrist is a
Knight Templar, a member of the Grand Army and of
the military order of the Loyal Legion. He was mar-
ried in October, 1867, to Charlotte Ayres, daughter of
John A. and Mary B. Ayres, formerly of Galva, Hli-
nois. Four children are the result of this union—Wil-
liam A., Eleanor Lottie, Dorothy and Frank Milchrist.
At present Mr. Milchrist is practicing law in Chicago and
has a large clientele, especially among people who have
causes in the Federal courts.

Elijah B. Sherman, LL. D., who is now best known
as master in chancery of the Circuit Court of the United

25

385

States, has achieved distinction in military, social, legal
and academic life. Born in Vermont, and passing his
early years upon a farm, he was graduated with high hon-
ors from Middlebury College in 1860. At the breaking
out of the rebellion he enlisted in the Ninth Vermont
Infantry, in which he served as lieutenant. After taking
residence in Illinois he served as lieutenant-colonel and
judge-advocate of the First Brigade of the Illinois
National Guard and twice as member of the General
Assembly of this state.

In 1885 his alma mater, always very cautious in her
choice of the objects of her special favor, bestowed upon
him the honorary degree of LL. D., in recognition of
his professional and literary abilities. Asan author Mr.
Sherman is favorably known by many essays and
addresses, among which may be mentioned a biograph-
ical sketch of Dr. Charles V. Dyer, a famous abolitionist
and one of the most picturesque figures in the early
history of Chicago. He is a master of style, and his
decisions as master in chancery, as well as his essays and
addresses, are marked by terse and elegant diction. He
was graduated from the law department of the original
University of Chicago, and was admitted to the bar in

 

 

 

 

ELIJAH B. SHERMAN, LL. D.

1864. His ability and industry soon won for him a
profitable recognition. For twelve years he was coun-
sel for the state auditor, and conducted a series of
litigations on behalf of the commonwealth that resulted
in the winding up of several insurance companies which
had been doing business in Chicago. Several points
raised by Mr. Sherman in the course of these cases
were so important as to lead to final and favorable
386

adjudication by the Supreme Court of the United
States. In 1871 the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of
Illinois elected Mr. Sherman a member of its committee
for relief of the sufferers by the great fire, in which
capacity he efficiently employed the same executive
ability which marked his work as a soldier and man of
affairs. Since 1879 Mr. Sherman has served as master
in chancery of the Federal Court of this judicial dis-
trict, and during his incumbency he has decided some
very important cases. His reputation as an equity jur-
ist extends beyond the limits of this state, and the par-
ties to complicated cases are fortunate in having their
causes referred to Mr. Sherman for adjudication.

In 1881 Mr. Sherman was elected president of the
Illinois Bar Association, and the annual presidential
address which he delivered attracted alike the atten-
tion of scholarly laymen, of the legal fraternity and of
the legislators and reformers interested in improving
our system of legal procedure. In politics Mr. Sherman
isa Republican, is a member of the Union League Club,
and has been president of the Vermont Association, the
Alliance Club, the Oakland Culture Club and other
literary and social clubs and societies. He also holds
a high degree in Masonry, is a member of the Grand
Army of the Republic and of the Loyal Legion, and
has been honored by many high positions in Odd Fel-
lowship and other fraternal bodies.

Mr. Sherman was chief supervisor of elections under
the national election laws for about ten years, during
which occurred the hotly-contested Cleveland-Blaine
and Cleveland-Harrison campaigns, in which he decided
many difficult questions, and in which his strong, execu-
tive and judicial qualities were of great service to Chi-
cago and to the country. He continues to perform the
duties of Federal master in chancery to the satisfaction
of courts and parties alike, and holds a very high place
in public esteem, and, rarer still, in the estimation of
the profession whose members appear before him.

Edwin M. Ashcraft, son of James and Clarrissa Ash-.

craft, was born near Clarksburg, Harrison County, Vir-
ginia, August 27, 1848. His education was acquired
chiefly in the common schools of his native state.
Shortly after hostilities between the North and South
had been concluded Mr. Ashcraft came to Southern
Illinois, and as the vicissitudes of this period had left
him almost penniless, he took the first employment he
could find and began life hauling ties and working as a
section hand on the Illinois Central Railroad. A year
later he began teaching a country school, and continued
at this for several years, during which time he used his
spare moments in the study of law. In 1871 he entered
the law office of Henry & Fouke at Vandalia, where
he remained until he was admitted to the bar, in Janu-
ary, 1873. From that time he has devoted his entire
energy to his profession,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Ashcraft was elected prosecuting attorney of
Fayette County in the fall of 1873, which position he
held until 1876. In this year he was nominated on the
Republican ticket as congressman from the Sixteenth
Congressional District, and although unsuccessful he
reduced the former Democratic majority of this district
from five thousand to less than two thousand. His
successful opponent in this contest was W. A. J. Sparks,
who later served as land commissioner during Cleve-
land’s administration.

Mr. Ashcraft practiced successfully in Vandalia for
fourteen years, coming thence to Chicago in 1887 and
forming a partnership with Thomas and Josiah Cratty,
under the firm name of Cratty Brothers & Ashcraft.

 

 

 

 

EDWIN M. ASHCRAFT.

Four years later he withdrew and became associated
with Newton F. Gordon, the firm being known as Ash-
craft and Gordon. Their offices, which are spacious
and among the best equipped in Chicago, are in the
First National Bank Building. Mr. Ashcraft takes
much pride in the fact that he commenced practice
with, and was compelled to meet in debate, such men as
Anthony Thornton and S. W Moulton of Shelby; B. W.
Henry of Fayette; WW. H. Snyder and William Under-
wood of St. Clair; John M. Palmer of Sangamon, and
many others, who will always be recognized as among
the pioneers of the Illinois bar. It was his close contact
with such men as these that has made him a successful
trial lawyer. His practice is a very extensive one, most
of it being devoted to corporation and commercial law.
He is a persevering and industrious worker, never relax-
ing his energy until his case has been completed.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

He was married in 1875 to Florence M. Moore of
Belleville, [llinois. They have one daughter, Florence
V., and three sons, Raymond M., Edwin M. and Allan E.
Mr. Ashcraft attributes much of his success as a lawyer
to the elementary principles of the law learned while
teaching school.

Charles H. Aldrich. The attorney-generalship and
the solicitor-generalship of the United States are the
blue ribbons of the lawyer in practice. The chancery
bar, the practice of commercial or corporation law, or
even a reputation as a specialist in real estate law, may
bring more money to the purse of a practitioner, but
there is no field in which the learning and skill of a
lawyer are so severely tested as that in which the two
chief legal officials of the nation are exercised; their
duties are both advisory and executive, and they take
in their scope the functions of all law, from the com-
parative simplicity of the criminal code to the subtlest
niceties of international disagreements. Mr. Charles
H. Aldrich, who, before he attained the age of forty-
two years, was called by President Harrison to the
office of solicitor-general, was born in La Grange, Indi-
ana, August 26, 1850. His parents, Hamlin M. and
Harriet (formerly Sherwood) Aldrich, were natives of
Indiana, to which state the former had immigrated from
Vermont and the latter from New York. The family
of Aldrich is of English stock, though native to Amer-
ica through several generations. The elder Aldrich
was a farmer at a time when farming in Indiana was a
round of constant labor; the future solicitor-general
had done much hard work in the fields, as well as
acquired all the knowledge that the common school of
his neighborhood could give him, when, at the age of
sixteen, he entered the seminary at Orland, Steuben
County, Indiana, whither his parents had removed with
the intention to secure a good education for their chil-
dren. From the seminary at Orland Charles Aldrich
passed to the high school at Coldwater, Michigan, and
thence to the university at Ann Arbor, from which he
was graduated with the class of 1875. His proficiency
in the studies of the classics, which he elected to take,
is proved by complimentary letters from the president
and faculty of his alma mater, and by the honorary
degree of M. A. which a few years ago was bestowed
upon him.

- Soon after leaving college Mr. Aldrich commenced
the practice of law at Fort Wayne, then the second town
of Indiana in the scale of wealth and population. His
success as a practitioner may be estimated by the fact
that in 1884 he was urged by leading Republicans to
become a candidate for nomination to the office of
attorney-general for the state, and, that, though he did
not visit a single town or county by way of promoting
his candidacy, he fell short of the nomination by a very

387

few votes. Mr. Aldrich moved to Chicago in 1886, and
at once took high rank at the bar. He gained national
reputation by his vigorous prosecution of the claims of
the United States against the Central and Southern
Pacific Railroad, and later by his victory on behalf of
the United States over the Union Pacific Railroad and
the Western Union Telegraph Company. In all of
these cases he was opposed by some of the most deservy-
edly eminent lawyers in America, and, as an inevitable
consequence, his skillful management of the Govern-
ment’s cases brought him both professional reputation
and profitable practice, and, indirectly at least, led to his
selection as solicitor-general by President Harrison.

 

 

CHARLES H. ALDRICH.

Upon his return to private practice Mr. Aldrich resumed
his high standing at the Chicago bar, and, indeed, be-
came one of its leaders.

His practice mainly is in cases involving the interests
of great chartered corporations, but, with commendable
and characteristic prudence, he has declined all offers
of engagements as standing counsel for any of these
bodies, and has preferred to select his clients from the
large and wealthy body of corporate interests.

Mr. Aldrich has served as president of the Chicago
Law Club and as trustee of the Chicago Law Institute,
and as vice-president and member of comunittee of polit-
ical action of the Union League Club.

He married, October 13, 1875, Miss Helen Roberts
of Indiana, a lady of very engaging personality, to whose
sympathetic encouragement Mr. Aldrich attributes a
large measure of his success in life. Mr. and Mrs.
Aldrich have a family of one son and two daughters.
388

Lysander Hill comes of straight and vigorous Pur-
itan stock. His ancestors were among the earliest set-
tlers of the old commonwealth of Massachusetts. He
was born on the auspicious day of July 4, 1834, in the
town of Union, Maine. His parents were anxious and
able to give him a good education, and he made the
best of the opportunities presented to him. After pass-
ing through the common schools he entered the acad-
emy at Warren, and there prepared himself for matric-
ulation in Bowdoin College, entering himself as an
undergraduate in 1854. Four years later he took his
degree with honors. In 1860 he was admitted to the
bar of Maine, after a long and thorough course of study
and rudimentary practice in the office of the late A. P.

 

LYSANDER HILL.

Gould of Thomaston, Maine. Immediately upon receiv-
ing his license to practice he formed a partnership with
J. P. Cilley. The young firm of Cilley & Hill gained
and held a fair share of practice, but in 1862 Mars
became more attractive than Blackstone to Mr. Hill, and
he entered the military service of his country as captain
of the Twentieth Maine Infantry. .\ year later he
unwillingly accepted a discharge on account of physical
disability, and settled as a practitioner of law at Alex-
andria, Va.; his business necessitated the opening of an
office at Washington, and Mr. Hill became the mouth-
piece at the capital of the law firm of Hill & Tucker.
Mr. Tucker attended to most of the routine business at
Alexandria. In 1867 Mr. Hill was appointed registrar
in bankruptcy for the Eighth Judicial District of Vir-
ginia. He resigned this function upon his appointment

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in 1869, at the early age of thirty-five, to the bench of
the same district.

In 1874 he withdrew from all connection with prac-
tice in Alexandria, and, as the head of the firm of Hill
& Ellsworth, devoted himself entirely to practice in
the courts at Washington. By this time the remarkable
bent of Mr. Hill’s mind in the direction of patent law
had become apparent, and it was but a short time until
the firm of Hill & Ellsworth had gained much more
than a local reputation for clear understanding of pat-
ent law and for ability in the conduct of cases. But
Washington soon proved to be too narrow a field for the
exercise of Mr. Hill’s legal skill. Inventions are more
numerous in commercial than in political centers, and,
therefore, with a clear discernment of its nascent great-
ness, Mr. Hill selected Chicago as his final base of
operation. He came to this city in 1881 and founded
the patent law firm of Hill & Dixon, which endured for
nine years. Since its dissolution he has had no partner.
Mr. Hill stands in the first rank of patent lawyers, and
his retainers come from all parts of the country. Mr.
Hill is stanchly Republican, and in his younger days
was very active in politics. For two years he served as
chairman of the Republican State Committee of Vir-
ginia, and in 1868 was delegate to the convention that
nominated Grant. In this distinguished body he was
honored by election as a member of the committee on
resolutions, and the resolutions embodied in that con-
vention justly may be considered as epoch making.

Mr. Hill was married February, 1864, to Miss Ade-
laide R. Cole of Rothburg, Massachusetts, who died in
February, 1897.

Ira Warner Buell was born December 9, 1830, at
Lebanon, Madison County, New York. He is the son
of the late Elijah and Elizabeth Buell. His boyhood
was spent on the farm of his parents and in attendance
at the country public school, which was a very different
institution in the thirties and forties to what it is in
the closing vears of this century. Mr. Buell, however,
was of those of whom the old rhyme says, “A, B, C
never did satisfy me.” Accordingly we find him teach-
ing school in his sixteenth year, and in his nineteenth
im attendance at Madison University. From college he
proceeded to the study of law, and in September, 1855,
was admitted at Rochester to practice in the courts
of New York. In 1856 he acted upon Greeley's advice
and“went West to grow up with the country.” He wisely
selected Chicago as his future home. In 1860 he was
elected supervisor of North Chicago, and in 1861 was
elected city attorney. In 1871 the nomination of judge
of the Circuit Court was tendered to him by a joint
convention of Democrats and Republicans, but he
declined the honor, prudently preferring to enlarge and
confirm his growing law practice, already yielding him
an independence, rather than to assume thus early the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

onerous and exacting duties of a judge. In 1879 he
accepted the Republican nomination for judge of the
Circuit Court, being chosen on the first ballot by 177
out of 190 votes, and by a majority of the delegates
from every township and from every ward, with one
exception.

Erastus Williams, Henry Booth, Charles H. Reed
and Julius Rosenthal were his colleagues on the Re-

 

IRA WARNER BUELL.

publican ticket, all of whom, except Mr. Rosen-
thal, have passed into the silent land. The year
1879 was not a Republican year, and Mr. Buell
shared the common fate of his co-nominees and of all
the other Republican candidates in Cook County of
that year. From the present standpoint he regards his
defeat as a good fortune, enabling him to enjoy the
pleasure, profit and freedom of a successful practice at
the bar, with consequent relief from the grave duties
and responsibilities of judicial office. During the last
twenty years Mr. Buell has taken no further action in
politics than is incumbent upon all good citizens, but
has devoted his business hours to his legal practice and
his leisure to the pleasures of domestic and social life.

Mr. Buell was one of the founders of the Union
League Club of Chicago, and drafted the declaration of
principles first adopted by this most famous and influ-
ential of civic clubs, of which he was one of the directors
during the first three years of its existence. He is one
of the oldest members of the Law Institute. Mr. Buell
is high in Masonic honors, being a Knight Templar
and a past master of Blany Lodge, No. 271, F. & A. M.

As a lawyer Mr. Buell is famous for success in

389

chancery, insurance and commercial cases. This the
reports of the decisions of our Supreme courts fully
attest.

Mr. Buell has no sons to inherit his fame and prac-
tice. His one daughter, Elizabeth Averell Buell, is the
wife of Mr. Harry C. Patterson, a resident of Chicago.

Clarence A. Knight, well known among the suc-
cessful members of the Chicago bar, is a native of
Illinois, having been born in McHenry County, October
28, 1853. Receiving his early education in the schools
near his home, he afterward took a course in the Normal
School of Cook County and fellowing this he devoted
his energies for some time to teaching.

While yet only nineteen years of age he came to Chi-
cago and entered the law office of Spafford, McDaid &
Wilson, where he applied himself to the study of law
until he was admitted to the bar in 1874 upon examina-
tion before the Supreme Court of Illinois. In 1877 he
formed a partnership with Mr. McDaid, in whose office
he had studied, which existed until 1879, when he was
appointed assistant city attorney under Hon. Julius
S. Grinnell. Five years later, upon Mr. Grinnell’s elec-
tion as state's attorney, Mayor Harrison appointed Mr.
Knight to the office of city attorney and that of assistant
city attorney. This position he held for the following

 

 

 

 

CLARENCE A. KNIGHT.

four years. In 1888 Mayor Roche tendered him the
office of assistant corporation counsel and in this
capacity he continued to serve the city until 1889, when
he resigned to engage in private practice. During the
ten years of Mr. Knight’s connection with the city
law department many measures of great importance
390

were enacted, the most prominent, perhaps, being the
law permitting the annexation of Hyde Park, Lake
View, Jefferson and a portion of Cicero to the City of
Chicago. The original act having been declared uncon-
stitutional, Mr. Knight prepared a bill to cover the case,
which was passed by the Legislature of 1888-89.

Upon his retirement from public life he entered into
partnership with Mr. Paul Brown, under the name of
Knight & Brown. This firm handles a large practice,
mostly of corporation, municipal and insurance law.

In 1893 Mr. Knight was appointed general counsel
of the Lake Street Elevated Railroad Company, and
in 1898 of the Union Elevated Railroad Company,
Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company and of all the
surface street railways comprising the Yerkes’ system,
except the North and West Chicago Street Railway
companies. <s attorney for the Union Elevated Rail-
road Company he successfully conducted the litigation
involving the right to construct the “Union Loop.”

Mr. Knight is a member of the Iroquois Club, the
Union League Club and the Chicago Athletic Associa-
tion. He also belongs to the Chevalier Bayard Com-
mandery, Knights Templar, the Royal League and Inde-
pendent Order of Foresters.

Paul Brown, junior member of the firm of Knight
& Brown, belongs to that class of lawyers whose pro-
fessional life exalteth the profession. Mr. Brown is an
Mhnoisan by birth, having been born in McHenry
County, the son of Doctor Henry T. Brown and Almira
M. Brown. His father was one of the first settlers of
Illinois, having come to this state from New York, while
his mother is a native of Vermont. His primary and
higher English education was obtained in the common
and high schools of his native county. Naturally of a
studious mind, he learned thoroughly whatever he found
in the course of instruction, thus acquiring food for
thought and a mental training that well qualified him for
the exactions of the profession in which he now labors.
\fter completing his education, he came to Chicago, and
studied Jaw in the office of Hoyne, Horton & Hoyne,
then one of the most prominent firms in the city. [n
the spring of 1885 he was admitted to the bar and a few
months after he was appointed master in chancery of
the Circuit Court of Cook County—an unusual bestowal
of confidence in the ability of one so young. So admir-
ably did he meet the requirements of the position, which
in its duties and responsibilities is wholly judicial, that
he was thrice reappointed. In the fall of 1893, after
eight years of service, he resigned, in order to devote his
entire time to his private practice.

In 1889 he formed a partnership with Mr. Clarence.\.
Knight, an association that has been an especially profit-
able one and which still continues. Mr. Brown is a man
of plain manners, with fixed convictions, sterling integ-
rity and a firm purpose to do right. He possesses a well-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

balanced judgment, keen sense of honor, and a mind
strongly concentrated. Asa lawyer he is distinguished
for his thoroughness and careful attention in the prepa-
ration of his pleadings, his plain presentation and logical
arrangement of the issues involved, his terse and telling
argument and withal his knowledge of the law, supple-
mented by an ingenuousness in stating its principles
that inspires confidence. Mr. Brown, in common with
his learned partner, is especially noted for mastery of
corporate law. They are the general solicitors for some
of the most extensive railway corporations in the West,
and rare is the occasion when even partial defeat attends
their effort along this line of practice.

 

PAUL BROWN.

Mr. Brown is a close student of the law and studies
each case as if he never had one at all similar, but
expected to have many more involving the same ques-
tions. He is yet a young man in his profession, but with
the foundation so well laid there can be no doubts as to
the future. He is popular socially and is a member of
the Union League Club and Chicago Athletic Associa-
tion. He is also a member of the Masonic order and of
various other social and fraternal societies. He was
married in 1888 to Miss Grace A. Owen, daughter of
O. W. Owen, of McHenry County. They have a family
of two boys and a girl.

E. Raymond Bliss was born at New Brunswick,
New Jersey, September 3, 1846, the son of George
Ripley Bliss, D.D., an author and Professor of Theology
in the Upland Seminary in Pennsylvania, and of Mary A.
(Raymond) Bliss, a daughter of Eliakim Raymond of
New York. Through his mother he is descended from
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

one of the best known families of New York state, and
particularly of Brooklyn, where for generations the Ray-
monds were leading factors in educational and other
philanthropic matters. Among them was John H. Ray-
mond, an uncle of Mr. Bliss, who was the founder of
Vassar College, and who, not content with this achieve-
ment alone, labored hard and long that there might be
no doubt as to its being established on a firm and per-
manent basis.

E. Raymond Bliss was educated in the university at
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, alter which he came to Chi-
cago, arriving here in 1863. He later attended the old
University of Chicago, but in 1870 went to Washington,
D. C., and entered the Columbia Law School, from

 

 

 

 

E. RAYMOND BLISS.

which he was graduated three years later. He was ad-
mitted to the bar shortly after, but did not begin practice
in Chicago until 1876. For some years Mr. Bliss was
engaged in the law office of Bently & Quigg, but he
subsequently began practice under his own name and
so continued, either alone or in partnership, until Sep-
tember 1, 1882, when he was appointed county attor-
ney by the Board of Commissioners of Cook County—
a position he held from 1882-84 and again from 1886-89.
During these five years many reforms were accomplished
through his efforts. To him is due the passage of the
law establishing the purchasing agency, under which
the county is now acting, and to him also is due the
placing of the finances of the county on a firm basis at
a time when it was in debt for current expenses and had
attempted to pledge the taxes for a year or two in
advance. It was also due to the painstaking efforts of

391

Mr. Bliss that a large sum was saved to the county in the
great boodle cases then before the public.

During his second term of office Mr. Bliss established
the plan of transacting business under which the county
is now acting, and in this connection it must be said that
the law relating to the county board was so changed as
to create a number of restrictions upon its power, and
so prevent a repetition of the boodling methods of
previous years. He also materially reduced the number
of suits against the county on the contracts of the old
courthouse, and he introduced the present fee bill,
through which the county derives more than sufficient
revenue to run the Probate clerk’s office, which had
hitherto never been self-supporting. During his last
year as county attorney, he established the validity of
the law permitting the annexation of Hyde Park, Lake
View and other towns to Chicago.

Mr. Bliss is a member of the State Bar Association
and of the Union League, Chicago Athletic, Hyde Park
and Hamilton clubs. He is prominent in Masonic affairs,
and is a member of all the subordinate bodies of that
order, and of the Supreme Council, more often spoken
of as the Thirty-third degree. He was one of the three
Masons appointed to carry out the plan of erecting the
Masonic Temple, and after the death of Norman T.
Gassette, who was the prime mover in the enterprise, the
work of securing the funds and completing the building
fell largely upon his shoulders. This was successfully
accomplished, and the Masonic Temple is to-day the
most productive large building property in Chicago.

Hon. Samuel Parsons McConnell was born near
Springfield, Illinois, July 5, 1849. He is the son of John
and Elizabeth (Parsons) McConnell. The grandfather
of the subject of this sketch came from County Down,
Treland, during the first decade of the present century
and settled in New Jersey, where he established a plant
for the manufacture of gunpowder. After the close
of the War of 1812 he disposed of his interests in New
Jersey aud moved to Madison County, New York, but
later he located in the fertile prairie county of Sanga-
mon, Illinois. His son, John McConnell, was a Civil
war veteran, who recruited a company at the outbreak
of hostilities and entered service with the rank of cap-
tain, but from which he rose by various promotions to
that of general.

Samuel P McConnell received a substantial com-
mon education, and after graduating from the Spring-
field High School at the age of seventeen, he entered
Lombard University at Galesburg, where he received
his bachelor’s degree with the class of ‘71. Following
this he read law in the offices of Stewart, Edwards &
Brown of Springfield, until he was admitted to the bar
some two years later.

Mr. McConnell came to Chicago in December, 1872,
and began the practice of his profession, to which he
392

devoted himself without reserve for the following six-
teen years. For some time he was a member of the firm
of Crawford & McConnell, and subsequently of McCon-
nell, Raymond & Rogers. In 1889 he was elected a
judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Judge McAllister, and,
upon the expiration of the term in 1891, he was re-
elected. Many important cases came up for trial before

 

HON. SAMUEL PARSONS McCONNELL.

Judge McConnell, among the more noted of which may
be mentioned the first Cronin trial, the case of Ross vs.
White, and the receivership of the J. H. Walker Com-
pany, in which latter case property to the amount of five
millions of dollars was involved. After a judicial career
of six years, wherein he earned the respect of attorneys,
jurors and litigant alike, Judge McConnell resigned
from the bench and helped to form the present firm of
Tenny, McConnell & Coffeen.

In his political affiliations Judge McConnell has
always been a Democrat, and at various times he has
taken a prominent part in behalf of his party, although
declining ever to accept any nomination except that of
judge. He was president of the City Convention which
selected the delegates to the State Democratic Con-
ference, held in Springfield in June, 1895, to determine
the attitude of the party on the silver issue. He was
also made permanent chairman of this conference, which
wholly sustained his views upon the question at issue.

Judge McConnell was married February 16, 1876.
to Miss Sarah Rogers, daughter of Judge John G. Rog-
ers, an ex-judge of the Circuit Court of Chicago. They
have three children, Julia, James and Eleanor.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Anson B. Jenks, who was born at Berkshire, Tioga
County, New York, in the year 1836, is the son of
Calvin and.-Annis (Brown) Jenks, the first people to
settle in that county.

He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1858,
upon examination at Norwich, New York, and imme-
diately began practice at Owego, where he remained
until the fall of 1859.

In this year he came to Chicago and opened a law
office, in partnership with Hon. G. C. Walker, since
governor of Virginia, under the firm name of Walker &
Jenks. Two years later this partnership came to a close
and Mr. Jenks continued in practice by himself until
1865, when he became associated with Mr. F. G. Brad-
ley, the firm being known as Jenks & Bradley. This
partnership was dissolved at the time of the fire in
1871, and since then he has practiced alone. Mr. Jenks’
professional career has been highly successful, he hav-
ing been identified with many important cases. During
the twoscore years that he has been a member of the
Chicago bar he has devoted his entire energy to his pro-
fession, and, by so doing, built up a large practice, com-
posed, for the most part, of civil cases. He is thor-

 

 

ANSON B. JENKS.

oughly Democratic in his political beliefs, but prefers
not to take an active part in political matters.

William Prentiss was born at Davenport, Iowa, in
the fall of 1848. When a babe his parents removed to
Schuyler County, Illinois, and afterward to Fulton
County, where his father, who was a physician, died in
1854. His ancestors on his father’s side, who were
Scotch and English, came to America more than two
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

hundred and fifty years ago and settled in New Eng-
land. His great grandfather, Captain Stanton Prentiss,
was a Revolutionary soldier, as was also his great-grand-
father on his mother’s side, who came from Ireland. His
mother, whose maiden name was Gapen, was of Irish
and German ancestry, so that William Prentiss is thor-
oughly American, being of the best European blood and
a mixture of these four nationalities. His grandfather,
William Prentiss, was a soldier of the War of 1812, and
fought under General William Henry Harrison. The
diary kept by him during the war is in the possession
of Mr. Prentiss and is highly prized.

In 1860 Mr. Prentiss’ mother married James Manley,
a farmer, of McDonough County, Illinois, and William,

 

WILLIAM PRENTISS.

then a lad of eleven, went to live on the farm, where
he remained for a number of years. He attended the
public schools in the winter and afterward went to
school at Abingdon, Bloomington and at Knox College
at Galesburg, but ill-health compelled him to leave this
latter institution before graduation. He removed to
the more invigorating atmosphere of Minnesota in 1869,
where he took up wild government land in the south-
western part of the state. He remained there for seven
years, during which time his chief occupation was
farming, although he also taught school and was for
three years county superintendent of schools of Cotton-
wood County.

While in Minnesota he began to study law, being
urged to do so by Hon. Daniel Buck, then a lawyer of
Mankato, and late one of the judges of the Supreme
Court of that state.

393

In 1876, having regained his health, he returned to
McDonough County, this state, and located at Macomb,
where he continued the study of law. He was admitted
to the bar in June, 1878, and in the same year was
elected state's attorney for that county, to fill a vacancy,
and in 1880 he was reélected for a full term of four
years.

Mr. Prentiss had a very large practice while resid-
ing in Macomb, which extended through all the sur-
rounding territory. He took part in nearly all of the
important litigation in McDonough County until 1891,
when he became a resident of Chicago. He was elected
mayor of Macomb in 1881 on the Democratic ticket,
being the only Democratic mayor of that city in over
twenty years. In 1885 he had the unanimous support
of the McDonough County bar for Circuit judge, and
was nominated for that office by the Democratic Judicial
Convention, while a bill was pending in the legislature
creating the fourth judgeship in that circuit. The bill
was thought certain to become a law, but failed to pass
the House by a few votes. He was nominated for Con-
gress three years later in the old Eleventh, or Rock
Island, district, and, although defeated, made a remark-
ably strong canvass.

In 1893 he was one of the Democratic nominees for
Circuit judge in Cook County, but failed of election
because that proved to be a Republican year.

In 1898 he was again nominated and defeated for
the same position. He was a delegate to the National
Democratic Convention of 1896, and took a_ strong
stand for the principles of the Chicago platform and
made many speeches in this and other states during
the following campaign. He is a natural orator and is
regarded as one of the ablest Democratic speakers in
the state. Since coming to Chicago he has been very
active in his profession and has a large and steadily
growing practice. Although taking much interest in
political matters, he holds his profession first, and is
more of.a lawyer than a politician. He took a leading
part in the defense of Tommy Crosby and his mother
for the killing of Deputy Sheriff Frank Nye, and the
skill and ability there displayed gave him a national
reputation, and he stands without question in the first
rank of his profession. He has been prominently men-
tioned as a candidate for governor of the state in 1900,
but has no political ambitions except possibly of a
judicial character.

Lewis L. Coburn is one of the sons of New England
who have distinguished themselves in arms and at law,
and who have been strong factors in the development
of Chicago from a thriving town to a metropolitan city.

Mr. Coburn was born at East Montpelier, Vermont,
November 2, 1834. His father, Larned Coburn, was a
forehanded and wealthy farmer, with somewhat of a
turn for the management of public affairs. He served
394

for several terms as a member of the Legislature of his
state. Lewis L. is the youngest of his children. He
attended the district school of his neighborhood in the
winter, and in the fall and spring studied at the local
academy, which in that time was regarded as a sort of
high school, but, with true New England thrift and
wisdom, his parents, though well-to-do, insisted on his
taking part in the lighter labor of the farm during sum-
mer and harvest. It is to the domestic training in habits
of industry that the success of the New Englander, who
has acquired a liberal education, often is as much
attributable as to the teachings of the professors of col-
lege. At the early age of sixteen Mr. Coburn became
a teacher of the district school, and he achieved an

 

LEWIS L. COBURN.

enviable reputation as a pedagogue. After a prepara-
tory academic course at Barre, Mr. Coburn entered the
University of Vermont, and proceeded to the degree
of B. A. in 1859. His inclination toward law already
was manifest. He had read much from the masters of
jurisprudence during his college vacations, and so hardly
was to be considered as a neophyte when he entered
the Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated
in 1861, and thereupon was admitted to practice at
Boston and became a member of the Essex County bar,
than which none more graced by eloquent and scholarly
advocates and pleaders is to be found in America, nor
yet in England, which is the birthplace of the common
law.

Directly after his admission to practice Mr. Coburn
set out for Chicago, in the rising fame of which he
correctly saw a prospect of commercial greatness before

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

which that of Boston itself should pale. The needs of
the West had served as a stimulus to invention, and Mr.
Coburn at once resolved to make patent law his spe-
cialty. Entering into partnership with the late William
E. Marrs, Mr. Coburn soon found himself at the head
of a firm where practice was both large and profitable.
But a voice came that called him for a time from the
court to the camp. While on a visit to his ancestral
home, Vermont, in common with the whole nation, he
was stirred by the President’s call for more troops.
He went into active service as captain in a Vermont
regiment that was in the front during the great fight
at Gettysburg. Returning to Chicago, he resumed his
practice, which had been kept together during his
absence by Mr. Marrs. The years immediately succeed-
ing the war were times of phenomenal industrial and
mental activity, and the increase of patent law business
was phenomenal. The practice of Coburn & Marrs grew
to marvelous proportions; indeed, its pressure was too
strong for the feeble constitution of Mr. Marrs, who
broke down from overwork and died in 1868. Left
alone, Mr. Coburn conducted the business by the aid of
an efficient and large staff of clerks until 1875, when
his old friend and classmate, Hon. John M. Thatcher,
became his partner. The magnitude of Mr. Coburn’s
business may be inferred from the fact that Mr. Thatcher
resigned the office of United States commissioner of
patents to take part in it. Since then there have been
few really great patent litigations in which Mr. Coburn’s
office has not been retained on one side or the other.

Outside of his legal associations Mr. Coburn is well
known as a_ public-spirited gentleman of scholarly
tastes. He was one of the founders of the Chicago
Atheneum, and was the first president of the Union
League of Chicago. Mr. Coburn is a large prop-
erty holder, and has manifested a vital interest in all
matters relative to state and municipal government.
Though frequently solicited to become a candidate for
congressional honors, he has preferred to enjoy the
decorous honors of a private life.

Jacob Newman, one of the able and_ successful
members of the Chicago bar, was born in Germany,
November 12, 1853. When he was four years of age
his parents came to this country, settling on a farm in
Butler County, Ohio, where he remained for a short
time, but soon left home to begin life upon his own
responsibility. His only capital at this time was his
independence and_ perseverance, qualities, however,
which were bound to lead to his ultimate success. He
first went to Noblesville. Ind., where he remained for
Six years, coming to Chicago in 1867. Here he labored
ciligently for two years, by the end of which time he had
saved sufficient money to enable him to attend college.
He entered the University of Chicago, and with the aid
of the money he had saved and what he made outside
THE CITY OF

of school hours was able to graduate with his class
in 1873.

An opportunity was soon offered him to become as-
sociated in the practice of law with Judge Graham,
which he accepted, the firm being known as Graham
& Newman. Some few years later Judge Graham re-
moved to the far West and left Mr. Newman a well-
established practice, which he not only retained, but

 

 

 

 

 

JACOB NEWMAN.

increased. In 1881 he entered into partnership with
Adolph Moses, under the firm name of Moses & New-
man, a partnership which continued until 1890 and
which was highly successful.

Mr. Newman is one of those lawyers who may with
truth be said to be a specialist in all branches of law, so
wide is his knowledge of each of them. He has been
identified with many important cases, but is remembered
most prominently, perhaps, with the litigation of the
Chicago Gas Trust.

In all matters pertaining to politics he is a stanch
Republican. In social and fraternal circles, he is a
Mason and associated with several of the leading clubs
of the city, among them the Union League. He was
married May 30, 1888, to Miss Minnie Goodman,
daughter of Mr. Hugo Goodman, one of Chicago’s early
settlers.

George W. Northrup, Jr. Among the younger
members of the legal profession in Chicago, who
have demonstrated their ability in many important
cases, is George W. Northrup, Jr. He is a son
of the Rev. George W. Northrup, D.D., LL.D., for
twenty-five years president of the Baptist Union Theo-

CHICAGO. 395
logical Seminary of Chicago and now Head Professor
of Theology at the Chicago University. His mother
was Mary Moulton Northrup of Watertown, N.Y. Mr.
Northrup was born January 29, 1861, at Rochester,
N. Y., and received his education at the University of
Chicago, where he remained until the close of his sopho-
more year, and at the University of Rochester, from
which latter institution he obtained his degree of A. B.,
graduating with the class of 1881. He has since been
awarded the degree of A. M. by the latter institution.

Shortly after graduation he came to Chicago and
began the study of law, being admitted to the bar in
1884. The year following he accepted an opportunity
to engage in the practice of law with William C. Grant
and Matthew P. Brady. This partnership, known in
legal circles as the firm of Grant, Brady & Northrup,
continued for four years, during which time Mr. North-
rup became recognized as an attorney of exceptional
ability.

After the death of Mr. Grant he continued in partner-
ship with Mr. Brady, under the firm name of Brady &

 

GEORGE W. NORTHRUP, JR.

Northrup. Upon the dissolution of this firm in 1889, he
practiced alone until 1891, when he became a member
of the firm of Newman, Northrup & Levinson, com-
posed of Jacob Newman, George W. Northrup, Jr.
S. O. Levinson and Benjamin V. Becker. This partner-
ship) exists to-day and is among the best known in the
city. 3

Mr. Northrup is a shrewd and able lawyer and one
who is most conservative in his methods and of extreme
396

loyalty to his clients. It is not strange, therefore, that
his practice is successful.

He is an active worker in the interests of several of
the professional organizations of the city, among which
are the Law Club, the Chicago Bar Association and the
Chicago Law Institute. He is also identified with the
Quadrangle Club, the Sons of the American Revolution,
the Psi Upsilon college fraternity and the honorary
fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa.

In politics Mr. Northrup is a Republican, but has
never held an office, with the exception of having been
village attorney of Morgan Park for about ten years.

He was married July 17, 1890, to Miss Louise F.
Layton, daughter of Reuben P. and Harriet N. Layton
of Chicago. Their two children are Louis Layton
Northrup and Foster V. Northrup.

 

RICHARD WATSON BARGER.

Richard Watson Barger, son of Rev. John S. and
Sarah Lee (Baker) Barger, was born in a log cabin
in the village of Waynesville, DeWitt County, Illinois,
November 11, 1847.

At the outbreak -of the Civil war Mr. Barger,
although only thirteen years of age, became a drummer-
boy in Company K of the Seventy-third Regiment,
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, of which regiment his father
was chaplain. He was not enlisted at this time, because
of his lack of years, and only remained with this body
until after the battle of Perryville, Kentucky. His
patriotic enthusiasm continued high throughout the fol-
lowing years of the struggle between the North and
South, and although under age he succeeded in enlist-
ing as a recruit March 5, 1864, in Company D of the

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

First Battalion of Cavalry of the Mississippi Marine
Brigade, the duty of this corps being to keep open the
Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans, in
order that traffic might not be endangered from the
attacks of the Confederate guerrillas. This service, of a
perilous nature, was a continual series.of engagements,
which, though small, and more properly perhaps might
be called skirmishes, were remarkable in that the num-
ber of killed and wounded was always large in pro-
portion to the number engaged. The most important
engagements that Mr. Barger participated in were those
at Milligen's Bend and at Coleman’s plantation back of
Rodney, Mississippi. He received his discharge at
Vicksburg on January 2, 1865, and immediately returned
to his home in Illinois.

Tn the fall of 1865 he entered the preparatory course
of the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington,
Illinois, and was graduated from that institution in June,
1871, receiving the degree of A. B., and subsequently
the degree of master of arts. After entering the fresh-
man year of his college course he taught school regu-
larly four months in each year in order to make his way
through college, in the meantime keeping up with all
classes and passing with credit all examinations. He
took great interest in his literary society, and at the end
of his course had acquired first rank as an orator and
debater.

Immediately after graduation he commenced the
study of law in the office of ex-Governor Joseph Fifer,
who had preceded him one year in his college course.
Admitted to the bar at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in the spring
of 1873, he immediately commenced practice there, but
after two years he moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where
he continued to practice until 1890, when he removed
to Chicago.

Upon entering his professional career his only cap-
ital was a stout heart, a level head, integrity of char-
acter and a good general and professional education.
His bearing was quiet and there was nothing in his
appearance, except a simple and manly directness, to
indicate that more than an ordinary career awaited him.
He adopted the specialty of insurance law, and upon his
removal from Des Moines to Chicago was unanimously
conceded to be the best authority on this subject, not
only in Iowa, but in the country anywhere. His income
at this time was said to be the largest of any lawyer
at the Des Moines bar.

Mr. Barger has taken high rank at the Chicago

His opinions are authority with insurance man-
agers, and when he rises to address a judge upon an
insurance case, he addresses a man who knows less in
that line of legal study than himself. His practice is
very extensive, not only in Chicago, but all over the
country, and the record of his ability as a lawyer is for-
ever preserved in the official reports of cases in the

bar.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Supreme courts of most of the Western and Middle
states.

Mr. Barger is a Republican “first and always,” but
has never been a politician and never held office. He
was married to Miss Isabel Moore of Des Moines in
1887. Mrs. Barger has a large circle of friends to whom
she has endeared herself by her many noble qualities of
mind and heart. She is an accomplished and refined
woman, and has doubtless added much to her husband's
success. They reside at 4052 Grand boulevard, where
they have a handsome residence.

George Washington Kretzinger was born in the state
of Ohio and owes his German name to his paternal
grandfather, who came from Frankfort to Virginia. His
father, Rev. Isaac Kretzinger, is a clergyman of the
United Brethren denomination. The usual poverty of
a minister's family in those days obliged George W.
to support himself by manual labor during his college
course, so that in this he followed the tradition of many
other American boys who have won their way to high
places. In his first college year the War of the Rebel-
lion broke out, and, though far under age, he dropped
his books and went to the front as a member of the
famous Black Hawk Cavalry. After being captured
and paroled he went back to his college, staying there

_ until he was exchanged, when he returned to the service
and remained until nearly the close of the war. He
returned again to college, and, still under age, graduated
with high honors. Immediately after his graduation
he obtained a position in a classical school in Keokuk,
where he taught for two years with marked success, and
at the same time was engaged in the study of law. His
legal studies were continued under the direction of the
Hon. George W. McCary, who was Secretary of War
under President Hayes and afterward judge of the
United States Circuit Court in Iowa. Mr. Kretzinger
subsequently entered the office of Henry Strong for a
short time. After he was admitted to practice he formed
a partnership with Judge R. L. Hannaman of Knox-
ville, Illinois, which lasted until 1873. He then accepted
an offer of partnership with the late John I. Bennett of
Chicago. Later Albert H. Veeder became a member
of the firm. Upon its dissolution Mr. Kretzinger and
Mr. Veeder continued in partnership in the practice of
law for several years, when Mr. Kretzinger withdrew
for the purpose of associating his brother, the late
Joseph T. Kretzinger, with him. It will be observed
by the foregoing that Mr. Kretzinger pursued his
studies with gentlemen who are prominent in railroad
and corporation law. Mr. Kretzinger has paid particular
attention to these branches of the law, and his identifica-
tion with many of the prominent railroad legal controver-
sies of the last twenty years has established him as a cor-
poration lawyer second to none in the West. In 1877 he
accepted the general solicitorship of the Chicago & Iowa

397

Railway and at the same time became general counsel of

the Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern and the Chicago &

Paducah railroad companies. At the time of his appoint-
ment as general counsel of the Chicago & Iowa Railway
it was involved in difficulties which were considered
beyond legal redress. Mr. Kretzinger’s genius, how-
ever, is well known to be fully aroused only in emergen-
cies, and in these famous contests he gained for himself
an eminent position and won for his client the right
to redeem itself from hopeless bankruptcy to a condi-
tion from which its stockholders could realize its full
value. Since the close of the litigation involving the
above three companies, he has been engaged in many
important controversies, and is acknowledged to be a

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGE WASHINGTON KRETZINGER.

lawyer of almost inexhaustible resource and energy.
These qualities are supplemented by analytical powers
of remarkable clearness and a wonderful memory which
has become a proverb among brother lawyers and
judges who know him. As an orator, he is possessed
of an extraordinary and convincing eloquence, and,
though sternly logical and terse, and a contemptuous
rejector of every flavor of rhetoric, his speeches all
bear the stamp of an illuminating imagination which
brings every outline of the subject into distinctness
under its lightning flash, and lays all the weap-
ons of logic or ridicule or biting sarcasm close to his
hand. Mr. Kretzinger is in the prime of life. He pos-
sesses, with his splendid abilities, a tireless industry ard
unblemished character. His services are in constant
demand by corporations. At present he occupies the
position of general counsel of the Monon road, of the
398

Diamond Jo line of steamers, plying the Mississippi
River from St. Paul to St. Louis, of the Hot Springs
Railroad Company and of the Santa Fé, Prescott &
Pheenix Railway Company of Arizona, which is the
only north and south road through that territory. This
road he incorporated and has continuously, from its
incorporation in 1891 to the present time, been one
of its directors. He was married on August 29, 1878, to
Miss Clara J. Wilson of Rock Island, Ill. They have one
son, George Wilson, and a daughter, Clara Josephine.

John Gorin Rogers, a descendant on the paternal
side of Giles Rogers, and on the maternal of Captain
William Byrd, who came from England to Virginia
about 1692, was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, December
25, 1818. Giles Rogers was a planter and surveyor.
Captain Byrd received from the English crown a patent
to lands upon which the greater parts of the cities of
Richmond and Manchester, Virginia, now stand. Byrd
Rogers, son of John and Mary (Byrd) Rogers, and
grandson of Giles Rogers, settled in Fayette County,
Kentucky, early in the year 1800. He had two daugh-
ters and four sons, of whom one, George, the father of
the subject of this notice, became eminent as a physi-
cian. The mother of Mr. John Gorin Rogers was a
daughter of that John Gorin who served as a soldier in
the Revolutionary war and as a major in the War of

1812. She died in 1870, in the seventy-first year of her
age. Two of her sons attained the dignity of the judiciat
bench. George Clark Rogers, who died in 1871, served

for many years as Circuit judge in Kentucky, while John
Gorin Rogers was elected Circuit Court judge of Cook
County in 1870, on the occasion of its being created a
judicial circuit, under provision of the new constitu-
tion ratified by the people in that year. He was re-
elected in 1873, 1879 and 1885.

After a period of tuition, which lasted until he was
sixteen years old, in a private school at Glasgow, Ken-
tucky, Mr. Rogers was enrolled as a student at Center
College, Danville, Kentucky. At that time the college
was somewhat famous for the excellence of its law fac-
ulty. From Center College Mr. Rogers proceeded to
Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, and
graduated as LIL. B. in 1841. For about sixteen years
he followed his profession with marked success in his
native town, Glasgow, a part of the time in association
with his uncle, Hon. Franklin Gorin, one of the oldest
and best lawyers in the state. But Glasgow was too
narrow a field for the proper exercise of Mr. Rogers’
abilities. Accordingly, he came to Chicago in 1857, and
almost instantly took front rank among the practitioners
in the courts of Cook County. His promotion to the
bench followed in the very nature of things. His mind
was preéminently judicial in tone, his bearing was both
kindly and dignified and his language was almost classic
in its elegance.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Though a Democrat by birth, education and natural
disposition, Mr. Rogers was able to divest himself
entirely of political ties when legal questions were under
consideration, and, indeed, many Republican votes were
cast for him, although he was always the nominee of
Democratic conventions. After his accession to the
bench Mr. Rogers abstained from all active manifesta-
tions of interest in current politics, yet he held to his old
faith, voted as a Democrat, and in private conversation
expressed himself clearly as a Democrat. Nor were
his counsels unsolicited or unheeded by the leaders of his
party; but he justly held that the judicial ermine should
be kept free from the odor, as well as from the slime, of
what often is called, or rather miscalled, “practical poli-
tics.” Yet he had in him the stuff of which the higher
class of politicians is made. In 1848, being then only
thirty years of age, he was national elector from Ken-
tucky on the Taylor ticket, and in 1852 he was honored
with a like position on the Scott ticket. He also was
a member of the Democratic National Convention of
1856, by which Fillmore was nominated as presidential
candidate.

Judge Rogers was an active member of the
I. O. O. F., and in 1871 he was chosen treasurer of
the relief committee of the association, through the
agency of which $125,000 was received and disbursed
for relief of the sufferers of the great Chicago fire. Prior
to this he had been elected grand master for the state
of Illinois and grand representative to the Sovereign
Grand Lodge of the United States. He was one of the
founders of the charity organization of Chicago, was
elected first president of the Illinois Club, and also was
prominent in the Iroquois Club.

But no political or social affairs were allowed to
impinge on the domestic circle of Judge Rogers. He
was peculiarly a family man, and was peculiarly fortu-
nate in his family surroundings. His wife, formerly
Miss Arabelle Crenshaw, was a daughter of Judge Ben-
jamin Mills Crenshaw, judge of the Circuit Court and
afterward of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Her
cultured intelligence and native instinct stimulated and
sustained him in every trying crisis—and the life of no
man is free from trying crises. The four children of this
happy union were Henry; Geo. Mills Rogers, who fitly
upholds the legal fame of his father; one daughter is
the wife of Mr. Joseph M. Renee. manager of the
Queen Fire Insurance Company; while the younger

daughter, Sarah, is married to Judge Samuel P. McCon-
nell.

George Mills Rogers, who has attained eminence in
law and politics while yet in the prime of manhood, and
who is regarded by competent judges of the qualities
of men as being yet far from the height of his possibili-
ties, was born at Glasgow, Kentucky, April 16, 1854.
He is an inheritor of political and legal skill, his father,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

John Gorin Rogers, having twice been honored by a
place in the Electoral College, beside having acted as a
prominent member of the convention that nominated
Fillmore to the presidency. Afterward the elder Rogers
held the high position of judge and chief justice of the
Circuit Court of Cook County. His mother’s father
was the Hon. B. Mills Crenshaw, formerly chief justice
of Kentucky.

George Mills Rogers came with his parents to Chi-
cago in 1858, when he was barely four years of age.
The present metropolis of the great Northwest was then
an ambitious but crude city of 100,000 inhabitants. He
received a preliminary education in the public schools of
this city, passed thence to the old University of Chicago,

 

GEORGE MILLS ROGERS.

and finally entered as a student of Yale College, from
which he graduated with the class of 1876. After this
thorough academic training he took a law course in the
Chicago Union College of Law, and graduated with
honor. But while mastering the theory of law in college
he had been studying the details of practice in the office
of Crawford & McConnell. Admitted to the bar in 1878,
Mr. Rogers entered into partnership with one of his
former preceptors, Samuel P. McConnell, who afterward
earned the distinction of Circuit judge. The partner-
ship endured until Mr. Rogers was appointed assistant
city attorney, a position for which he had demonstrated
his fitness by the eminent service that he performed as
attorney for the Citizens’ Association, a volunteer organ-
ization of the reforming and progressive elements of
the municipality. As attorney for the Citizens’ Associa-
tion Mr. Rogers assisted in preparing and promoting

399

the passage of the original reform city election law, and
was the author of the first primary election law that was
enacted, and which generally is spoken of as the “Craw-
ford primary bill,’ doubtless because of its introduction
to the General Assembly by Senator Crawford. In 1880
Mr. Rogers was honored by a nomination as a candidate
for the State Senate, and demonstrated the influence of
his character for integrity and ability by reducing the
usual Republican majority of 2,000 to less than 800.
For several years he acted as vice-president of the Cook
County Democracy, but, becoming weary of his fruitless
efforts to effect reforms in party methods, he allied him-
self with the eminent Democrats who founded the Iro-
quois Club, which was organized for effect upon national
politics, leaving local issues to local politicians. He was
elected vice-president of this club. Early in 1886 Mr.
Rogers was appointed city prosecuting attorney, but
resigned the office in April of the next year in order
to travel with his wife, whose health demanded change of
air and scenery. On his return, in November, 1887, he
was appointed assistant United States district attorney.
He resigned this position in March, 1888, and reéngaged
in private practice. In 1889 he was appointed a master
in chancery of the Circuit Court of Cook County. This
office he still holds. In 1893 Mr. Rogers was named
as one of the four Democrats nominated on a non-
partisan judicial ticket by the lawyers of Cook County,
and though the ticket failed to secure the endorsement
of the Democratic convention, which refused to endorse
a ticket upon which four first-class Democrats were asso-
ciated with an equal number of first-class Republican
lawyers, yet, at the bar election, he received the highest
number of votes cast for any-of the non-partisan candi-
dates. Since then Mr. Rogers has pursued the even
tenor of his way as a highly successful practitioner. Ile
is now at the head of a firm of which State Senator
Joseph P. Mahoney is the junior member.

Mr. Rogers is a highly influential member of the
Chicago Bar Association; he is a member of the board
of managers and is secretary of the association. He is
a member of the Iroquois, University, Saddle and Cycle
and Law clubs, is eminent in the I. O. O. F., and is
now serving his fourth term as president of the Order
of Phi Delta Phi, an organization with chapters in all
the chief law colleges of the United States and Canada.
Mr. Rogers was married June 3, 1884, to Miss Philippa
Hone Anthon of New York City. The family of Anthon
has given many celebrated men to the learned profes-
sions, one of whom is well remembered as a professor in
Columbia College, and others standing high as lawyers
and clergymen.

Leander D. Condee was born in Athens County,
Ohio, September 26, 1847. His parents were Henry
M. and Jane (Rickey) Condee. Like many of the em1-
nent men of this country, Mr. Condee is of Huguenot
400

descent, his father, Henry M. Condee, being of the
fourth generation in descent from Adam Condé, who
came from Holland and settled near Schenectady, New
York, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and
who belonged to the great Condé family, exiled from
France by Louis XIV.

Mr. Condee obtained his education at Kankakee, in
the public schools and in St. Paul’s Academy, and
studied law at the University of Michigan, from which
institution he received the degree of LL. B. in March,
1868, six months before he came of age. From 1869
to 1873 he practiced law at Butler, Bates County, Mis-
sourt, from which place he came directly to Chicago
shortly after the great fire. Since that time he has been

 

LEANDER D. CONDEE.

continuously engaged in active practice in this city,
some of the time alone, and some of the time as a
member of several law firms, the best remembered of
which is probably the firm of Condee & Rose, of which
the junior partner was Mr. John A. Rose, now general
attorney for the North and West Chicago Street Rail-
road companies.

Mr. Condee devotes most of his attention to cor-
poration law and chancery practice, and is well known
‘to both bench and bar as an expert in these important
. branches of jurisprudence. Among the more important
cases in which Mr. Condee has been retained in recent
years are the suits of Weir, McKechney & Co. against
the City of Chicago, involving claims amounting to
nearly a million dollars, growing out of the construction
of the Northwest Land Tunnel, in which Mr. Condee
has been pitted against some of the ablest members of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

his profession, and the American Opera Company case
in the United States Circuit Court, which constitutes an
important precedent in corporation law. In the latter
case, Mr. Condee appeared as attorney for the McVicker
Theater Company, the legal affairs of that theater having
been in his charge for the last twelve years.

Although devoting himself first to his profession,
Mr. Condee has not altogether escaped political honors.
From 1879 to 1883 he was attorney for the village of
Hyde Park, which was then the largest village in the
world, having a population of about one hundred and
sixty thousand, and from 1891 to 1894 he acted in the
same capacity for the town of Hyde Park. In 1880
he was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the
Second District, comprising the South Side of Chicago
and the towns of Hyde Park and Lake, and served four
years. During his first session as a member of the State
Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Ware-
houses and a member of the committees on Judiciary,
Corporations, Railroads and Municipalities, while during
his second session he was chairman of the Committee
on Corporations and a member of the other committees
previously named. In 1892 Mr. Condee was nominated
for judge of the Superior Court of Cook County, but
suffered defeat common to all Republican nominees in
the landslide of that vear. Since that time he has refused
to allow his name to be used as a candidate for any
public office.

Although busily engaged in the practice of the most
exacting of all professions, Mr. Condee has managed to
find time to devote to the improvement of his fellow-
lawyers and the purification of the bar. As a member of
the Committee on Grievances of the Chicago Bar Asso-
ciation he has had an active share in the work of dishar-
ring unworthy attorneys and checking the career of
unlicensed practitioners. And as a lecturer in the Chi-
cago Law School he has helped to educate a new gen-
eration of lawyers. At its last commencement this insti-
tution recognized the standing of Mr. Condee in his
chosen profession by conferring upon him the degree of
LL.D. On October 1, 1899, Mr. Condee formed a
copartnership with Colonel L. W. Perce, under the
firm name of Condee & Perce.

Mr. Condee is married and resides with his family
in Kenwood. He is a member of the Union League,
IXenwood and Hamilton clubs, and is one of the trustees
of St. James’ Methodist Episcopal Church. .

David Spencer Wegg. In the allotment of human
life, few attain to eminent positions. It is a curious and
interesting study to note how opportunity waits on fit-
ness and capacity, so that all at last fill the places for
which they are best qualified. In the legal profession
there is no “royal road” to promotion. Its high positions
are gained by diligent study and long and tedious atten-
tion to elementary principles, and are at last awarded
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

only to those who develop, in the arena of forensic strife,
characters of integrity and moral worth. We all fall into
the niches in the elaborate edifice of life that we are best
qualified to fill. Such thoughts spontaneously occur as
we contemplate the career of a successful and eminent
lawyer, such as that of the one who is the subject of our
present consideration.

David Spencer Wegg is a native of the province
of Ontario. He was born on December 16, 1847, at the
village of St. Thomas. His parents, John W. and Jeru-
sha (Duncombe) Wegg were of English lineage. His
mother’s family—the Duncombes—traces its descent
from Sir Charles Duncumbe (Lord Feversham), who
came to America in 1730. His father was born in Nor-

 

 

 

 

 

DAVID SPENCER WEGG.

folk, England. ' His ancestors were mainly engaged in |

mechanical pursuits, although among them were an
admiral of the English navy and a representative of the
crown on the island of Trinidad.

Mr. Wegg, when he had grown to sufficient strength
and maturity to make his labor serviceable, worked in
his father’s carriage shop and acquired proficiency at

the trade. He aspired, while yet a boy, to a higher
avocation, and took every opportunity to obtain an edu-
cation. By hard study, before and after his hours of
labor, he qualified himself for teaching, and, while ful-
filling his duties as a teacher in the schools of St.
Thomas, he began the study of law. At the age of
twenty-five years he went to Madison, Wisconsin, where
his uncle, Chief Justice Lyon, resided, and, availing him-
self of the kind offer of this relative to make his house
his home, he entered the law school of the University
26

401

of Wisconsin, and was graduated therefrom with the

class of 1873. He was immediately employed by the
law firm of Fish & Lee of Racine, and soon became a

partner. In 1875 he accepted an offer of partnership

from ex-Chief Justice Dixon of Milwaukee, and the
firm of Dixon, Hooker, Wegg & Noyes will be remem-
bered as one of the most brilliant law firms of the North-
west.

When this association was dissolved on account of
the ill-health of Judge Dixon, Mr. Wegg entered the
firm of Jenkins, Elliot & Winkler, which was largely
employed in railroad interests and made the law of cor-
porations a specialty. From this agreeable and lucra-
tive partnership Mr. Wegg was called to the position of
assistant general solicitor of the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul Railroad Company, and in 1885 he took charge
of the law department of the Wisconsin Central Rail-
road Company, a position which necessitated his removal

_ to Chicago, where he has since resided. Here, without

relinquishing the legal duties which the department
required, there was added a vast financial and man-
agerial responsibility. It became necessary, in order for
the Wisconsin Central to obtain a terminal in Chicago,
to organize a new corporation, the Chicago & Northern
Pacific Railroad Company, and of this road Mr. Wegg
became president. Later, when the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company acquired possession of the Wisconsin
Central, he was elected a director of that great corpora-
tion, a position which he subsequently voluntarily relin-
quished.

Asa lawyer Mr. Wegg seems to have assimilated the
principles of jurisprudence and to be able to supply from
his judicial mind a correct solution to any new com-
bination of details that will stand the test of severest
criticism. In the earlier years of his practice he excelled
most of his competitors in his skill in the presentation
of cases to juries, while before the court his mastery of
legal principles, familiarity with precedents and power
of logical and forcible argument made him well nigh
invincible. He has been a trustee of many large estates
and has held numerous positions of trust and confidence
with corporations other than those mentioned. As
counsel, his services have been in great demand, and
he has been extensively retained in important and com-
plicated litigations in New York and other Eastern
cities.

Outside of professional studies Mr. Wegg is well
informed, and, in some lines of literature and science,
anadept. He isa free and interesting conversationalist,
an agreeable comrade, and a most fascinating compan-
ion. He is a member of the Literary and Union League
clubs of this city, the Milwaukee Club of Milwaukee, and
the Manhattan Club of New York. He was married in
1878 to Miss Eva Russell, daughter of Mr. Andrew
402

Russell of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. They have two
sons, Donald Russell Wegg and David Spencer
Wegg, Jr.

Samuel Shope Page was born on a farm near
Metamora, Woodford County, Illinois, January 27,
1851, and is the son of Thaddeus Page, a native of New
Hampshire, and of Cordillia Ellen (Shope) Page, a
native of Mississippi. He is descended from a family
whose first American ancestor, John Page, was born at
Dedham, England, in 1586, and came to America in
1630, settling in Dedham, Massachusetts. His grand-
father was John Page, a man well known in public life
in his time; a member of the New Hampshire Legis-
lature and later of the Legislature of Illinois. He set-
tled in Woodford County, Illinois, about 1835.

 

SAMUEL SHOPE PAGE.

When Mr. Page was six years of age his parents
removed to Spring Bay, in Woodford County, and three
years later they removed to a farm in Tazewell County,
where he spent his boyhood, until he had reached the age
of fourteen, when he returned to Metamora to attend
school. He began teaching school at eighteen and
taught until in 1870, in which year he also began the
study of law in the office of Charles H. Chitty, of Meta-
mora, under whose instruction he continued until he
was admitted to the bar in 1872. For the following
eight years he practiced Jaw in Metamora, being in part-
nership a portion of this period with his former
preceptor, under the firm name of Chitty & Page and
later, for a number of years, was the senior member of
the firm of Page & Ellwood. In 1876 he was elected
state’s attorney and served as such for four years.

In January, 1880, Mr. Page removed to Peoria,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Illinois. In the following year he became a member
of the frm of Worthington, Page & Bassett, the senior
member of which was ex-Congressman Worthington,
now a judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The third
member of this partnership was afterward elected a
Senator of the Illinois Legislature. Mr. Worthington
was elected to Congress and Mr. Page gave up active
practice in 1885 to accept a judgeship on the Circuit
bench of the Eighth Judicial District—one of the largest
in the state and embracing the counties of Peoria, Taze-
well, Stark, Putnam, Marshall and Woodford. He was
on the bench a little less than five years, resigning his
judgeship in the spring of 1890 to come to Chicago,
where he has since been located. The first two years
of his residence here, he was engaged in practice as the
senior member of the firm of Page, Eliel & Rosenthal,
but since then he has been alone. He was one of the
special counsel for the World’s Columbian Exposition.
His practice is large, and, for the most part, confined
to corporation law, general counseling and defending .
personal injury suits.

Mr. Page is a member of the Union League and
Iroquois Clubs, also the Midlothian Golf Club. He is
also identified with different bar associations and
Masonic and other orders. He is married and has a
large family.

Robert 5. Iles, ex-county attorney of Cook County,
was born at Alexandria, Kentucky, January 20, 1848.
He received his early education almost entirely at the
hands of his father and mother, Nicholas and Martha
(Smith) Iles, both natives of the Blue Grass State, and
up to his seventeenth vear had attended school but a
few months all told. Nevertheless he was sufficiently
advanced at this time to undertake the work of a teacher,
and he taught a number of terms in the country schools,
and subsequently held the position of first assistant in
the Ralls County Academy at New London, Missouri,
where he was also instructor in mathematics and allied
branches. In 1869, just after becoming of age, he
determined upon a more extensive education than his
own private study could avail him, and he accordingly
entered the North Missouri State Normal School at
Kirksville, Missouri, pursuing higher mathematics and
political economy in addition to the regular courses.
He was graduated in 1875, and shortly after graduation
was elected to the position of superintendent of schools
at Hiawatha, Kansas, a position he held for the following
six years. During all this time he was intimately con-
nected with educational matters throughout the state,
serving in the meantime as a member of the executive
committee of the State Teachers’ Association, and he
was, upon examination, granted a life diploma as a
teacher in Kansas. Later he took a_ post-graduate.
course at the State Normal School of Missouri and
received the degree of A. M.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Iles’ ambition to become a lawyer dates from
the time he was sixteen years of age, when he used to
borrow such law books as he could, devoting his spare
evenings and other moments to what most boys of that
age considered the dryest kind of reading. In 1878 he
began a regular course of study in the office of the dis-
trict attorney of Brown County, Kansas, at Hiawatha,
and was under his tutelage until 1880.

In the spring of the following year he went to the
Black Hills in Dakota, where he bought a ranch and
a herd of cattle, and for the next year and a half he
was engaged in roughing it on the plains, meanwhile
continuing his legal studies. It was during this time
that he was admitted to the bar, at Rapids City, upon

 

 

 

 

ROBERT S. ILES.

examination before the United States Territorial Court,
Judge Moody presiding. Disposing of his interests in
Dakota in the fall of 1882, he came to Chicago and
began the practice of law. For three years he practiced
alone, forming a partnership at the close of this time
with Henry A. Davis, a graduate of the University of
Michigan and of Columbia University, New York. This
partnership continued until the latter’s death, which
occurred in 1887. Since then Mr. Iles has continued
to practice alone.

Mr. Iles is not an aspirant for political honors,
although he has taken an active part in every cam-
paign since he was old enough to vote. In 1880 he
was secretary of the Republican Central Committee of
Brown County, Kansas, and he was selected as one
of the speakers in the interests of the national ticket in
opposition to the greenback movement. Throughout

403

this campaign he discussed the currency question in
Northern Kansas, in company with Major E. N. Morill,
then a candidate for Congress and afterward governor
of Kansas. In 1891 he was elected a member of the
Cook County Central Committee from the Thirty-first
Ward of Chicago, and in 1894 he was chairman of the
committee for the prevention and detection of fraud,
which waged such a successful campaign against cor-
ruption.

Mr. Iles was appointed to the office of county attor-
ney in the fall of 1894 and continued as such until
January 1, 1900. During the period in which he had
been in charge many reforms were instituted. The
affairs of the office were systemized and the several
departments united under one management, which
enabled the office to handle all legal work expeditiously.

Among the more important matters of litigation
which were disposed of during his term was the inherit-
ance tax suits, made in order to test the constitutionality
of the Illinois inheritance tax law. The suits of John
S. Drake (deceased), Jesse Torrence and the estate of
Charles M. Sawyer were carried up through various
courts to the Supreme Court of the United States,
where a decision was rendered sustaining the constitu-
tionality of the law. Mr- Hes represented the county
treasurer in all these cases and sustained the burden of
the defense. As a constitutional lawyer,Mr. Iles stands
high at the bar and enjoys the confidencé and esteem of
his clients and the members of the bar alike. He is active
and influential in fraternal and social affairs. He was
supreme archon of the Royal League for three terms,
and he has been supreme president of the North Amer-
ican Union since June, 1895. He is an authority upon
the subject of fraternal insurance. -

Hon. Hiram T. Gilbert, senior member of the law
firm of Gilbert & Fell, was born Mav 9, 1850, at Troy
Grove, La Salle County, Illinois. He is the son of Dr.
Alson G. Gilbert. He received his early education in
the public schools, and from September, 1865, to July,
1869, attended the high school at Ottawa, Illinois, after
which he entered Cornell University at Ithaca, New
York. He remained at this institution until July, 1871,
and in September of this same year went abroad and
studied in the University of Leipsic, Germany, for the
following two years.

Mr. Gilbert then spent some months in Switzer-
land and France, returning to his home in Ottawa early
in 1874, and commencing the study of law in the office
of Charles H. Brush, Esq., of that place. He was ad-
mitted to the bar in September, 1875, and began prac-
tice at Ottawa.

In November, 1882, Mr. Gilbert was elected county
judge of La Salle County and served in this capacity
until December, 1886. Upon leaving the bench he asso-
ciated himself with James \W Duncan, Andrew J.
404

O’Connor, Vincent J. Duncan and James H. Eckels,
under the firm name of Duncan, O’Connor & Gilbert,
and so continued until May, 1888, when he came to
Chicago, and, with Mr. James Duncan, established the
firm of Duncan & Gilbert.

 

 

 

 

 

HON. HIRAM T. GILBERT.

Judge Gilbert has taken an active part in legal cir-
cles, and the present firm of Gilbert & Fell, which was
organized in 1897, with Mr. Timothy J. Fell as junior
member, is one of the prominent law firms of Chicago.

Henry Alansin Gardner. Prominent in legal circles
of Chicago, and known as a lawyer of marked ability and
integrity, is the gentleman whose name heads this
sketch.

Mr. Gardner was born at Lisbon, Kendall County,
Illinois, September 7, 1843. His father, Henry A.
Gardner, was a well-known engineer, and at the time
of his death in 1875 was in charge of the engineering
department of the Michigan Central Railroad. Through
his mother, Sarah (Morgan) Gardner, he is a great-
grandson of the noted Unitarian divine, George Cado-
gan Morgan.

Mr. Gardner received his education in the public
schools of Dwight and in the University of Chicago,

being graduated from the latter with the class of 1868.”

He then studied law, and two years later received the
degree of LL. B. from the Harvard Law School at Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts. After graduation from the law
school he located in Chicago, where he was admitted to
the bar in May, 1870. He entered at once upon the
practice of his profession. A few years later he became
associated with the firm of Gardner, McFadon & Gard-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ner, and after this partnership was dissolved became
senior member of the firm of Gardner & McFadon.
Since this partnership came to a close he has continued
to practice by himself.

Although Mr. Gardner has always conducted a gen-
eral practice, his specialty has been corporation law, he
having been counsel for the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern Railroad, the Carnegie Steel Company and
various other corporations. At present he is the local
counsel for the Chicago Great Western Railway.

Mr. Gardner is one of those lawyers who. believe
that success is only to be obtained by hard, faithful labor,
and because of his rigid adherence to this principle he
has achieved the reputation of being one of the brightest

 

 

 

 

 

HENRY ALANSIN GARDNER.

members of the Chicago bar, and won the respect and
confidence of all who know him.

Mr. Gardner was married to Miss Deborah C. Fes-
senden, daughter of Hon. Samuel C. Fessenden of
Maine, a former member of Congress. Five children
have been born to them—three daughters, Mary, Sarah
and Grace, and two sons, Henry A., Jr., and Robert.

Henry. Sherman Boutell, congressman from the
Sixth District of Illinois, was born at Boston, Massa-
chusetts, March 14, 1856. He is the son of Louis Henry
and Anna (Greene) Boutell. He comes of an old New
England family, dating back to 1630, at which time
James and Alice Boutell, his earliest American ances-
tors, came from England and settled at Lynn, Massa-
chusetts. On his mother’s side he is descended from
Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, for whom he was named. Mr. Boutell’s particular
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

branch of the family always clung to the East, and all
of his ancestors have been of New England birth. His
father was, at the time of his death in 1899, one of the
oldest lawyers of the Chicago bar, and a well-known
writer on historical subjects, came west during the Civil
war and served as major in the Forty-fifth Missouri
United States Volunteers. Young Boutell arrived in
Chicago with his mother December 31, 1863.

He was given a substantial common school educa-
tion in the public schools of Evanston, and later entered
Northwestern University at Evanston, from which he
was graduated in 1874 at the age of eighteen. The year
following he entered Harvard University, where he
remained two years, receiving the degree of A. B. with

 

 

HENRY SHERMAN BOUTELL.

the class of 76, and subsequently that of A. M. in 1877.
He then returned to Chicago and began the study of
law.

Mr. Boutell passed his examination for admission to
the bar in 1879 and shortly after this he began active
practice as junior member of the firm of Boutell, Water-
man & Boutell, of which firm his father, Major Louis
Henry Boutell, was the senior member.

Mr. Boutell has always been a Republican, with
strong Federalist feeling. In 1879 he was private secre-
tary of the lieutenant-governor ofthe state during the
session of the legislature of that year, and in 1885 he
was chosen a member of the House of Representatives
_ of the Illinois Legislature, the year of the great fight
for Logan's election to the United States Senate and
the passage of the municipal election law. He was one
of the “103” who voted for Senator Logan. Upon the

settled in Massachusetts in- 1630.

405

close of his term in the State Legislature he returned to
the active practice of his profession.

On November 23, 1897, Mr. Boutell was elected a
representative to the Fifty-fifth Congress to fill the
unexpired term of Congressman Edward Dean Cooke
(deceased), an office to which he was reélected Novem-
ber 8, 18098.

Mr. Boutell was for three years secretary, and for
two years president, of the Harvard University Club
of Chicago. He has been vice-president of the Law
Club, and a director of the Union League and Literary
clubs. He is a life member of the University Club, and
has twice been elected its president. He is also a mem-
ber of the Chicago Club, the Military Order of the Loyal
Legion, the Society of the Sons of the American Revo-
lution, the Society of Colonial Wars, and he is an
esteemed member of Rho Chapter of Beta Theta Pi, one
of the most prominent Greek letter college fraternities.
He has always been an active worker of the Chicago and
State Bar associations, and took a prominent part in
the preparation of the municipal election law and in the
independent drainage trustees movement at the first
election of trustees of that board. He was married
December 29, 1880, to Miss Euphemia Lucia Gates,
daughter of Charles Horatio and Sarah Gates of Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, and has three children.

George Peck Merrick was born at Manteno, Illinois,
October 4, 1862. He is descended from one of the oldest
colonial families, his original American ancestor having
His father was Dr.
George C. Merrick, a graduate of Rush Medical College,
and his mother was Mary (Peck) Merrick, a sister of
Mr. George R. Peck, general counsel of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company.

After being prepared for college by private tutors,
and at the Northwestern Academy at Evanston, Mr.
Merrick entered the Northwestern University, gradu-
ating with the class of 1884. He then read law in the
office of Hon. Elbridge Hanecy, and was admitted to
the bar in May, 1886. In November of that year Mr.
Merrick was appointed assistant attorney for the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad, with headquarters
in Chicago, which position he held until 1889, when he
resumed general practice in partnership with Mr. Han-
ecy. under the firm name of Hanecy & Merrick. In
1893 Mr. Hanecy became one of the judges of the Cir-
cuit Court of Cook County, and since then Mr. Merrick
has practiced alone and in partnership with Lynden
Evans and Max Whitney, the firm being known as
Merrick, Evans & Whitney.

Although one of the younger members of the Cook
County bar, Mr. Merrick has won success because of the
hard, earnest labor he gives to the matters that come
under his charge, and of his untiring industry in protect-
ing the interests of his clients. Though general in its
406

nature, his practice is comprised largely of corporation
law. He has become well known at the bar by his
success in the long and important litigation over the
Lake Front Park case, finally securing an opinion from
the Supreme Court establishing the lake front as a park,
to be preserved forever to the people. He is not a
politician, having held but one elective public office—
that of alderman in the council of Evanston, where he

 

 

 

 

GEORGE PECK MERRICK.

resides, to which he was unanimously chosen. He was
appointed civil service commissioner at Evanston, but
resigned his office because of pressure of business.

Mr. Merrick is a member of the University Club of
Chicago, the Evanston Club and Evanston Boat Club,
the Glen View Golf and Polo Club and the Alumni
Association of the Northwestern University, of which
he has been president. He is also a member of the
Sigma Chi Greek letter fraternity, and has explored the
mysteries of Masonry as far as the Commandery of
Knights Templar. He was married in 1885 to Miss
Grace Thompson, daughter of James S. and Nancy
Thompson of Galesburg, Illinois. They have two chil-
dren, Clinton and Grace W.

William Vocke was born at Minden, Westphalia,
Germany, in 1839. His father, who was a government
secretary in the Prussian service, died during the early
youth of lis son William, and when the latter was
scarcely seventeen years of age he decided to try his
fortune in America, where he had heard that splendid
opportunities awaited young men of ability and industry.
It was therefore with a firm determination to leave no
stone unturned that might bring advancement and to

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

make the best possible use of such of these opportunities
as should present themselves, that Mr. Vocke turned
to the New World with an expectation of there winning
success and distinction in some particular field of
activity. It was in 1856 that he landed in New York
alone and without friends. He spent some little time
there, but like thousands of others came further West
and made Chicago his final choice of a location. Cast-
ing about for employment, it was but natural he shouid
be most successful among those of his own nationality.
We find him first employed, therefore, as a newscarrier
for the Staats Zeitung, a company in whose employ he
remained some time. It was during this period, when
he worked from 2 to 6a. m. distributing papers along his
route, that Mr. Vocke first began the reading of law
under the preceptorship of Prof. Henry Booth. The
latter had recognized the sterling character of the Jad
and. had offered him this opportunity, believing that in
so doing he was assisting one who possessed the proper
requirements for becoming a useful and influential mem-
ber of the bar. The opportunity thus offered Mr.
Vocke accepted and made the best possible use of.

 

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM VOCKE.

In 1860 Mr. Vocke left the Staats Zeitung and
became a collector for Ogden, Fleetwood & Co., then a
leading real estate firm in this city. Before he had been
in their employ quite a year the war broke out, and Mr.
Vocke joined the army, at once, first as a private in one
of the three-month, or what were then called “ninety-
day regiments,” and later became a member of the
Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which
organization he continued until it was mustered out,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

being present in every engagement of the Army of the
Cumberland. During this period he had gained recogni-
tion as a valiant soldier, and when he was mustered out
bore the shoulder straps of a captain's rank.

He had continued his studies of law on his return
to civil life, and was admitted to the bar in 1867, but he
preferred to continue for some time in his labor in the
literary field, which he had entered, upon his return to
the city, at which time he became the city editor of the
Staats Zeitung. In 1865 he became clerk of the Police
Court, which position he held until 1869. Since then
he has been engaged in the practice of the law.

Mr. Vocke early evinced a love of letters, and while
in the army gained much distinction as a writer of more
than ordinary ability. Since 1869 Mr. Vocke, has come
to be recognized as one of the ablest leaders of the legal
profession. He has continued, however, to devote some
time to literary work, although of late years his writings
have been for the most part in the line of law. His ear-
liest published work was a volume of excellent transla-
tions of the lyrics of Julius Rodenberg. His ablest pro-
duction is a volume entitled, “The Administration of
Justice in the United States and a Synopsis of the Mode
of Procedure of Our Federal and State Courts and All
Federal and State Laws Relating to Subjects of Interest
to Aliens.” This was published in the German language
at Cologne, and has not only received the praise of Ger-
man jurists, but has also proven of much interest to
German lawyers and business men.

Mr. Vocke was elected to the State Legislature in
1870, and while a member of the House was instrumental
in framing, at the extra session held shortly after the
fire of 1871, what is known as the “burnt record”’ act.
This has been his only political experience, although he

takes a keen and active interest in all things relating to”

the welfare of the United States in its national, state and
local affairs. He was from 1877 to 1880 a member of
the Board of Education, and ‘has been president of the
German Society of Chicago for the Aid of Emigrants.
He is a man of wide and accurate information, and to
these qualities combines those of a specialist in matters
of history and the science of government. He was mar-
ried in 1867 to Miss Eliza Wahl. They have two sons
and four daughters.

Perry A. Hull, the well-known lawyer and master in
chancery, is one of the most prominent men at the
Chicago bar because of his legal attainments and
his ability as an active practitioner. He has long been
known as a successful trial lawyer and able counsellor.
He was born at Williamsfield, Ashtabula County, Ohio,
December 22, 1850, the son of William M. and Saman-
tha C. (Dodge) Hull. He attended the common schools
until seventeen years of age, and then entered Kings-
ville Academy, where he remained two years and finished
his preparatory course. He then entered Hillsdale Col-

407

lege, Michigan, and remained a year and a half, during
and following which time he read law for a consider-
able period with Colonel R. W. Ricaby, then prosecut-
ing attorney for Hillsdale County.

Mr. Hull removed to Chicago in 1871, and con-
tinued the study of law, and was admitted to the bar the
same year. In January, 1872, he began the practice of
law, and since that time has devoted himself exclusively
to the development of his extensive practice, and soon
gained prominence as an exceptionally successful trial
lawyer. In 1894 he was appointed master in chancery
for the Circuit Court of Cook County, a position which
he still holds. Since then some of the most important
litigation that has occurred in Cook County has been

 

PERRY A. HULL.

carried on before him, notably the foreclosure of the
South Side Alley “L” road, which terminated by his
selling the property for $4,100,000.

Mr. Hull has always taken an active part in Repub-
lican politics, although he has been a candidate for elec-
tive office only once. He was nominated by acclamation
for State Senator in 1892 in what was then the Second
Senatorial District, but notwithstanding he led all the
candidates on the Republican ticket in that district, he
suffered defeat by 955 votes in a total vote of over
seventy thousand. As a member of the Republican
Cook County Central Committee, Mr. Hull drafted the
first constitution and by-laws under which the party
perfected a systematic organization in the county, and
he is to-day the oldest member of this influential body,
having been first elected in 1887.

Mr. Hull has become well known in financial and
408

business circles throughout the country for his tact and
ability in handling, promoting and developing large
business interests, and his clientage and following in
this regard have made him one of the leading public
characters of Chicago. He was instrumental in promot-
ing the General Electric Railway Company, for which,
in 1896-97, he secured valuable ordinances from the city
of Chicago for the operation of a system of street rail-
ways over a large portion of the South Side. This
enterprise was the object of some of the most vicious
attacks from competing interests, and, as a consequence,
was involved in most serious litigation, relative to its
stock and franchises. All this litigation, including more
than forty suits, was conducted under Mr. Hull’s per-
sonal direction, without the loss of a single suit, until
June, 1898, when, having established the validity of the
company’s franchises, the Eastern capitalists whom he
represented disposed of their interests at a large profit.
The conservative management of this enterprise, and
the successful termination of this widely renowned liti-
gation, well demonstrated the skill and ability of Mr.
Hull as an eminent lawyer and a practical business man-
ager and promoter. Among other enterprises which
secured their franchises through the efforts of Mr. Hull
were the Metropolitan Traction Company, for which he
obtained a grant from Cook County of the right to con-
struct and operate street railways in upward of two
hundred miles of roads, and also the Illinois Telephone
& Telegraph Company, which, in February, 1899,
secured a franchise to construct and operate a teie-
phone system in Chicago.

Mr. Hull’s wife, Ella G. Hull, is one of the promi-
nent public-spirited women of Chicago, especially in
movements of a charitable and educational nature. She
has always been a friend of the teacher in the public
schools, and while a member of the Board of Education
secured, by means of an act passed at the special session
of the legislature in 1897, an increase in the salaries of all
the grade teachers in Chicago.

Mr. Hull has three daughters, Nellie, the wife of
Samuel H. Trude; May Louise and Maybell, and one
son, Perry A. Hull, Jr., who is the youngest child.

Kickham Scanlan was born in Chicago, October 23,
1864, and is the son of Michael Scanlan, the well-known
poet and composer of music. When he was still a child
his parents removed to Washington, D. C., and in the
public schools of that city he acquired the basis of his
earlier education. Later he entered the Notre Dame
University at South Bend, Indiana, pursuing a three
years’ course in that institution, following which he
entered the Washington High School, and after his
graduation there he took a course of special studies
under a private tutor.

In 1882 Mr. Scanlan came to Chicago and entered
the office of the well-known coal operator,.Colonel W. P.
Rend, in whose employ he remained for the following

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

four years, obtaining a knowledge of business methods
and affairs in this time that has since been of the greatest
value to him in professional life. Mr. Scanlan entered
into the coal business with the same enthusiasm that
has always marked his undertakings, and thoroughly
mastered the details of it, but his tastes he found were
more in the way of a Jearned profession than for a busi-
ness life, and in 1886 he gave up a lucrative position for
a young man of twenty to have and started to study law,
entering the offices of Luther Laflin Mills and George
C. Ingham, men of high rank and standing in the legal
profession. While he was a student in this office he
also attended the Chicago College of Law and was
graduated with the first class from this institution. Mr.

 

KICKHAM SCANLAN.

Scanlan identified himself with the firm of Mills &
Ingham for seven years and as a natural result his train-
ing and studies were mostly in the direction of criminal
law and he soon became recognized as one of the
brightest young criminal lawyers in Chicago. During
his association with them’ he was connected with all of
the important cases that they handled, including the
McGarigle case, the first Cronin trial, the Ohio tally-
sheet fraud case in Columbus, Ohio, where he took part
with Mr. Mills and Allen G. Thurman in the prosecu-
tion of that famous election case, the Millington poison-
ing case at Denver, Colorado, in 1891, and the many
other celebrated cases that this famous firm were inter-
ested in either as prosecutors or defenders.

He severed his connection with the firm in 1893 and
opened an office in the Ashland Block, where he has
continued practicing under his own name with uninter-
rupted success. In this time he has been engaged
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

either in the defense or prosecution of a large number
of prominent criminal cases. He was identified with
the prosecution of both Cronin cases and in the second
trial his argument, which extended over a period of three
days, for analysis and logic has been acknowledged to
have been one of the most brilliant efforts in the history
of the Chicago bar. Among his many cases might be
mentioned the Thomas J. McNichols case, in which the
defendant was charged by Judge John Barton Payne
with bribery, the trial resulting in the acquittal and exon-
eration of McNichols; the trial of Harry Featherstone
and the Sharkey brothers, charged with the robbery of
the Western Foundry Company, the defendants being
acquitted; the cases of Patrick Shay, Martin Patton,
Yon King and two other Chinamen, William O’Connor,
Michael Gaynor, Frank Atkinson, Patrick Hogan, John
Burke and a dozen other cases where defendants charged
with murder were acquitted. In the celebrated
Kenosha, Wisconsin, arson case, Mr. Scanlan’s client,
Louis Jacobson, charged by the prosecution with being
the head and front of the conspiracy, was the only one
acquitted of five defendants tried.

Mr. Scanlan and his partner, Edgar L. Masters, are
of late years devoting much of their time to civil cases.
Mr. Scanlan’s career is exceptional, but since he is only
now in his thirty-sixth year it may be truthfully said
that it has only just begun. He was married in 1890
to Miss Saddie Conway, daughter of Michael W. Con-
way, the fire inspector of Chicago. Two daughters
have been born to them.

D. Harry Hammer, prominent in the legal circles of
Chicago, comes of a family whose forefathers were long
identified with the development of the United States and
intimately connected with its Colonial and Revolution-
ary periods. Of good Holland stock, his ancestors emi-
grated to the English and German colonies on the At-
lantic coast some two hundred years ago, from which
places they have spread out over the States and borne
a prominent and honorable part in the business, educa-
tional and professional circles of their various localities.
His father, John Hammer, was a respected and revered
citizen of Hagarstown, Maryland, where he pursued the
occupation of a merchant. His mother, before her mar-
riage, was Eliza Witmer, a descendant of a worthy Eng-
lish family, whose ancestors were also participants in
the Revolution and War of 1812.

Mr. Hammer was born in 1840 and received his early
education in the Rock River Seminary in Illinois. De-
ciding upon the law as his life work, he entered that
eminent institution, from which so many remarkable
men have been graduated, the law department of the
University of Michigan, and, after completing the re-
quired course, went to St. Louis, and there began prac-
tice. A year later, however, he removed his location to
Chicago and formed a partnership with Mr. F. J. Smith,
which association continued for a period of three years.

409

From the time of his dissolution with Mr. Smith he has
continued to practice alone.

Mr. Hammer soon became recognized as a man of
deep understanding and wide knowledge of the law. His
office practice is large, and he has frequently appeared
in the Supreme Court of Illinois and that of the United
States as the representative of Eastern capitalists and
corporations.

In 1879 Mr. Hammer was appointed justice of the
peace and served continuously in that position until
1887. In this year he was appointed master of chancery,
in which capacity he remained for six years. He served
in the city council through Mayor Roche’s administra-

 

D. HARRY HAMMER.

tion and at the close of that time was appointed police
magistrate. ;

Mr. Hammer is a member of the American Bar
Association, Illinois Bar Association, the Union League
Club, the Calumet Club, Twentieth Century Club, and
the Masonic order. He is a Republican in his political
views.

He was married in 1874 to Miss Emma L. Bowers
of Athens, Ohio, and has a family of two daughters and
one son.

Clayton Edward Crafts, senior member of the well-
known law firm of Crafts & Stevens, was born at Auburn,
Ohio, July 8, 1848. He is descended from one of the old-
est Colonial families, embracing a long list of soldiers
and pioneers—his great-grandfather, Edward Crafts,
having fought in the Revolution, and his grandfather,
William Crafts, having been the first white settler in the
county where he lived, and where Mr. Crafts’ father,
Edward, was born.
410

At the age of sixteen he entered the Eclectic Insti-
tute of Hiram, later known as Hiram College, of which
James A. Garfield was at one time president. Ill health
compelled him to give up his studies, being graduated,
but a year later he entered the Ohio State and Union
College of Law at Cleveland, Ohio, from which he was
graduated with honors in 1868. He passed his examina-
tion for admittance to the bar before the Supreme Court
of that state soon after, and in the fall of this year went
to Watkins, New York, where he entered into the prac-
tice of law with Judge John J. Van Allen. A year later
he located in Chicago, and became associated with
Henry Lincoln, under the firm name of Lincoln &
Crafts. This partnership continued until 1873, and from

 

 

 

 

 

CLAYTON EDWARD CRAFTS.

that time until 1885 he continued, to practice alone. In
the last-named vear he united his practice with that of
George M. Stevens, under the name of Crafts & Stevens.
This partnership still exists, engaged, for the most part.
in the practice of corporation and real estate law,

although handling a considerable business of a general:

nature.

Mr. Crafts has been prominently before the public
for many years, not only as a lawyer of exceptional
ability, but as a member of the State Legislature. He
was elected a member of the House of Representatives
from the Seventh District in 1883, and served for seven
consecutive terms, being speaker of the House in the
sessions of 1891 and 1893, and the acknowledged Demo-
cratic leader of this body from 1887 until his retirement
from politics in 1895.

During this time his party won its only victories in
the state since the Civil war; a condition brought about

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

by Mr. Crafts’ stand for the nomination of Palmer for
United States Senator, the possibility of which he first
suggested in an interview with an Inter Ocean reporter
during the State Fair at Peoria, in the fall of 1889, the
sentiment spreading rapidly through the state after its
publication.

In the session of 1891 he not only successfully man-
aged the election of Senator Palmer, but so manipu-
lated the proposed legislation on compulsory education
as to prevent a compromise measure from going
through; thus keeping it an issue in the. campaign of
1892, and by this means securing the anti-compulsory
school vote for the Democrats in that year, and in the
following year securing the passage of a law satisfactory
to all. :

Personally, Mr. Crafts is of a social and genial dispo-
sition, and takes an interest in many organizations of a
fraternal nature. He isa member of the Royal Arcanum,
the Royal League and of the Masonic order, and is also
associated with the Oaks Club of Austin.

He was married September 15, 1869, to Miss Cor-
delia E. Kent, daughter of Oscar M. and Charity Kent
of Aurora, Illinois. Four children have been born to
them: William C., at present practicing law with his
father; Fred A., who died recently at the age of seven-
teen; Helen, married to Mr. F. W. Job, and Harry K.,
now a student at the University of Michigan.

George Marsden Stevens was born near Waterloo,
in the province of Quebec, Canada, April 4, 1846. His
parents, John and Sybil Stevens, were farmers, and he
spent most of his early life at home, working on the farm
in the summer and attending the country school during
the winter. In 1865 Mr. Stevens, then a boy of seven-
teen years, went to Vermont, but after two years spent
in the Granite State he came West, locating at Spring-
field, Illinois, in the early part of 1867.

Like many other men who have achieved success, he
was forced to depend upon his own resources to gain the
education which it was his ambition to possess. He per-
severed, however, and after a vear spent in attending the
Springheld High School and two years more spent in
teaching a country school, he was able to enter the Uni-
versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which he was
graduated with the class of 1872. He then returned to
Illinois and opened a law office in Nokomis, Mont-
gomery County, where he practiced successfully for sev-
eral years.

In the fall election of 1882 Mr. Stevens was chosen
a member of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-
third General Assembly of Illinois, to which office he
was reelected in 1884. While serving in the Legislature
he formed an intimate acquaintance with the Hon. Clay-
ton E. Crafts, later speaker of the House, and when his
term expired, in 1885, he formed a law partnership with
him, locating in Chicago. This partnership still exists,
the name of Crafts & Stevens being well known among
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the leading law firms of this city. In October, 1887, Mr.
Stevens was appointed a master in chancery of the
Superior Court, which position he still holds. He is
thoroughly Democratic in his political ideas, affiliating
himself with that party in its local, state and national
affairs, and has rendered effective services on the stump
in many campaigns. He is an enthusiastic member of
the Masonic order, being identified with the St. Bernard

 

GEORGE MARSDEN STEVENS.

Commandery of Knights Templar, and with
Medinah Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

He was married September 15, 1875, to Miss Jennie
Blue, daughter of William M. Blue of Nokomis, Illinois.
~. Frank. &. Weigley. Some professions have a great
many modes of ingress. The physician and the clergy-
man are oftentimes recruits from some other calling.
This is not so frequently the case with the legal profes-
sion, although there are coming to be recruits from
mary of its allied callings. One of the most prominent
of these latter is the occupation of court stenographer, a
position which has become of the greatest importance
of late years, and one which has attracted some of the
most skillful and talented young men of our day. The
successful court reporter must be a man of broad infor-
mation, a man of the quickest and most reliable mental
processes, and one whose large grasp of affairs is equal
to any emergency. It was the possession of such quali-
ties as these that gave Mr. Weigley prominence as a
court reporter, and finally led to his equally wide reputa-
tion in the law.

Mr. Weigley is a Western man, both by birth and
education, and comes of a family devoted to the practice
of law. His father, Wellington Weigley, was for many

the

411

years a prominent lawyer of Illinois, with his home at the
old and famed city of Galena, whose name is indis-
solubly connected with that of America’s greatest gen-
eral. Here Mr. Frank S. Weigley was born in 1854, on
the fourth day of April, so he is now scarcely more than
forty-five years of age. At an early age he began his
advanced work in education at Hamilton College, in the
state of New York, and after customary preparation hie
was admitted to the bar in 1875, at the age of twenty-
one. Attracted to the work of a court stenographer,
which has taken so high a rank in our times, he spent
several years in eminent success in reporting proceed-
ings of cases in the courts of Cook County or Chicago.
This proved a unique experience in the highest kind of
what may be called post-graduate study of the law, in
which, as in a laboratory, he had under the closest obser-
vation the methods, principles and procedure of the
highest talent afforded by the bench and bar of the
metropolis of the West. In consequence, when Mr.
Weigley decided seven years later, in 1882, to begin
practice for himself in Chicago, he stepped into promi-
nence from his first appearance. His career has been
that of a general practitioner, and his abilities as counsel

 

 

 

 

 

FRANK S. WEIGLEY.

and as an advocate are evenly balanced. His practice ts
extensive, and includes a large number of home and
foreign clients, both individual and corporate.

Mr. Weigley was married in 1879 to a lady in West-
ern New York, Miss Emily L. Card, a daughter of the
late Hon. Dennison Card of Rochester, who for many
years represented the United States Government as a
diplomatic agent in Latin-America during the trying
days of the administration of Abraham Lincoln,
412

Newton H. Fairbanks, who is among the well-known,
although younger members of the Chicago bar, was born
ona farm near Unionville Center, Ohio. Heisa brother
of Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, United States Senator
from Indiana, and is of New England descent. The old
saying, that Ohio people are born lucky, may be
explained in his case, by the fact that he is descended
from a long line of industrious ancestors, who came from
sturdy New England stock,.and who settled in the fertile
valleys of Ohio a hundred years ago, at a time when that
state was as isolated from the rest of the world as was
New England itself a century or so earlier. The strug-
gle for supremacy amid the hardships of pioneer life
developed a race of men, whose descendants have inheri-

 

NEWTON H. FAIRBANKS.

ted in great part qualities of character that distinguish
them from their more peacefully bred fellow Americans.
Thus we have the secret of their successful start in life.

Mr. Fairbanks spent the first eighteen years of his
life engaged on the farm. He received the benefit of
attendance at the district school in winter, and by means
of devoting his spare time throughout the remaining
seasons of the year, he was able, on leaving the country
school, to enter the Ohio Wesleyan University at Dela-
ware, Ohio. Here he pursued the regular classical
course, and in 1884 he was graduated with the degree vf
B. AA., receiving that of M. A. from the same institution
.two years later. Having decided upon the study of law,
Mr. Fairbanks went to Cincinnati and entered the Cin-
cinnati Law School. He completed his legal studies in
that institution, in May, 1885, and immediately afterward
was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Mr. Fairbanks practiced his profession at Kansas

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

City, Missouri, from November, 1887, to 1890, meeting
with such success that he decided to seek a larger field.
Accordingly. he removed to Chicago, and in the nine
years of his practice here has demonstrated the wisdom
of his action. He is a brilliant speaker, and a strong
advocate, which, together with his business training, ren-
der his services valuable, both as a counselor and as a
trial lawyer. He possesses a firm grasp of the principles
of law; he is quick to see an advantage and even quicker
to take advantage of it, and it is only when the solution
of a legal problem is most intricate that he finds the full-
est enjoyment in his profession. By his energy and faith-
fulness to the interests of his clients he has achieved a
record of which he may well be proud, since it has gained
for him a recognized position in a metropolis where the
legal ta'ent is admitted to be unexcelled. Mr. Fairbanks
was married in 1897 to Miss Lucy Cruickshank, a
daughter of George H. and Mary A. Cruickshank of
Delaware, Ohio. j

The Chicago College of Law was organized in Janu-
ary, 1888, as the Chicago Evening School of Law, but
in the following year it was reorganized under its pres-
ent name, and became affiliated with Lake Forest Uni-
versity. In the ten years of its existence it has had a
remarkable career, and has forced its way to the front
solely because of its powerful faculty and its superior
methods of teaching. For a long time there has been a
controversy among the law schools of America as to
the proper system of instruction. Some are devoted to
the “inductive system,” favored by Harvard. This sys-
tem teaches altogether by the study of reported cases.
Others cling to the “Dwight system,” which is a system
of teaching chiefly from textbooks. Others have the
“lecture system,” whereby the instruction is wholly oral,
or nearly so. The Chicago College of Law has a system
which, for lack of a better name, might be called the

“eclectic.” It teaches by cases, by textbooks and by
lectures. In other words, it has taken the most useful

features of all the systems and made them its own. The
results obtained by this method have demonstrated the
wisdom of the course. It is the effort of the faculty to
teach the fundamental principles of the law which give
logical shape to our system of jurisprudence, to teach
how laws are enacted, how to extract ruling principles
from adjudicated cases and how to apply them. A reg-
ular course is given in drafting pleadings and other legal
instruments. Its “college court” is made a forum for
the discussion of legal questions, and one of the means
of familiarizing its students with the rules of practice and
pleadings in various forms of judicial proceedings. Its
students are required to draft pleadings, prepare briefs
and make oral arguments, stating clearly principles
applicable to the case, together with citation of authori-
ties sustaining position taken, in the manner and form
pursued in the state courts. Besides the study of stand-
ard treatises and ruling cases, a large number of lectures
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

are given on the different branches of law, both by mem-
bers of the faculty and by special lecturers.

But the best methads and courses may be valueless
unless presided over hy a faculty whose hearts are in the
work. In this respect the Chicago College of Law has
been particularly fortunate and has gathered together
a corps of men, each distinguished in his own particular
field and well filled in every way by brain force, by edu-
cation, by practice and by temperament for the work
assigned. This faculty is composed of the following

men: Hon. Thos. A. Moran, LL.D., late justice of the
Appellate Court, First District of Illinois, Dean;
Elmer E. Barrett, LL.B., secretary; Hon. Henry

M. Shepard, justice of the Appellate Court, First
District of Illinois; Hon. Edmund W. Burke, judge of
the Circuit Court of Cook County; Hon. S. P. Shope,
late justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois; Hon. O. N.
Carter, judge of the County Court of Cook County;
_Hon. John Gibbons, LL.D., judge of the Circuit Court
of Cook County; Adelbert Hamilton, LL.D., member
of the Chicago bar; Charles E. Kremer, member of the
Chicago bar; Frank F. Reed, member of the Chicago
bar; Charles A. Brown, LL.D., member of the Chicago
bar; Edward C. Higgins, LL.B., member of the Chicago
bar; William J. Pringle, LL.B., member of Chicago bar;
M. H. Guerin, LL.B., member of Chicago bar,
and Hon. W. G. Ambrose. Since the organiza-
tion of the college, two members of the faculty
have been lost by death, Judge George Driggs, in 1893,
and Judge Joseph Meade Bailey, its dean, in 1895, both
men of great wisdom and universally beloved by the
students.

The Chicago College of Law is preéminently a pros-
perous institution, and its strength will advance with
years. It has set the pace in the West in the way of
advancing the requirements for its degree of Bachelor
of Laws from a two years’ course to that of a three years’
course. It aims to keep the standard high, and its
present course is as broad as that required in many
institutions for the degree of Master of Laws. At pres-
ent it only confers the Bachelor degree upon its grad-

_uates, but it expects in the near future to add to its

curriculum a course leading to the higher degree of -

Master of Laws, at which time the instruction offered by
this college will be as thorough and complete as any in
the country.

In September, 1900, this institution will organize a
day course, independent of its evening school, giving the
students an opportunity to attend either day or evening
sessions, as they may elect, subject to certain restrictions.

Elmer E. Barrett, secretary of the Chicago College of
Law, was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, June 2, 1863,
and is the son of James Henry and Sarah (Hop-
kins) Barrett. Of Irish descent on his father’s side and
of Welsh ancestry through his mother, he comes of a
race of fighters, who were conspicuous, not only in the

413

late war between the North and South, but in that of
t8r2, and in the struggle for independence.

Mr. Barrett obtained his earlier education in the
public schools of Illinois. He was admitted to the bar
of this state in 1889, and entered at once upon the active
practice of his profession in Chicago. He soon demon-
strated his ability in his chosen work, and within a short
time had established a practice of considerable magni-
tude.

Mr. Barrett is a member of the firm of Shope,
Mathis & Barrett, which is comprised of Hon. Simeon
P. Shope, late justice of the Supreme Court of
Mlinois; Mr. John C. Mathis and Mr. Barrett. His
great work since his location in Chicago, aside from

 

ELMER E. BARRETT.

his purely professional practice, has been in the interests
of the Chicago College of Law, the law department of
Lake Forest. University, of which he has had executive
charge since its organization. To it he has devoted his
utmost energy, and its success is to a great extent due
to his efforts. He is also president of the Law Journal
Printing Company, under whose management is pub-
lished the Chicago Law Journal, one of the best known
legal publications in the country.

In addition to his professional duties he finds time to
give his attention to social affairs, and is a member of
many leading organizations of this nature, among which
are the Chicago Athletic, Union League, Marquette and
Law clubs. He takes much interest in art and sub-
jects of kindred interests, and is one of the governing
members of the Art Institute of this city. He was mar-
ried in October, 1883, to Miss Helen Marie Walters of
this city. His home is in Western Springs, a suburb of
Chicago.
 
  
   
 

CHAPTER XXXII.

 

 

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

 

 

 

R. DE LASKIE MILLER was born in
Niagara County, New York, on May 29,
1818, and up to his nineteenth year
lived on a farm, attended school and
acted as teacher. He then resolved
to study medicine and commenced a
private course under Dr. Thomas G.
Catlin, teaching school in the winter
and clerking in a general store in the
summer season. After four years of hard

  

yy work, in the winter of 1840-41 he found
Vy himself in a position to take a regular medical
course at the Albany Medical College, and in the follow-
ing year at the Geneva Medical College, from which he
graduated in 1842.

Dr. Miller first commenced practice in Lockport,
New York, but moved to Flint, Michigan, where he
was prominently identified with educational movements,
as well as being highly regarded as a physician. In
the fall of 1852 he came to Chicago, and at once took
his place among the physicians of the West. In 1854,
during the cholera epidemic, he rendered valuable aid
in his chosen profession, and in 1854, when the first gen-
eral hospital was established in Chicago, Dr. Miller was
chosen as its physician and surgeon. In 1859 he went
to Rush Medical College to lecture and teach obstetrics
and diseases of women and children, and for thirty
years he continued to occupy this professorship.

In 1863, not satisfied with the facilities for research
in this country, he made a trip to Europe for the pur-
pose of securing material for the illustration of his lec-
tures. In 1881 Dr. Miller was a delegate to the Sev-
enth International Medical Congress, which convened at
London, England, and in 1887 was honored by an elec-
tion to the presidency cf the obstetrical division of
the Ninth International Congress, held in Washing-
ton. In 1889 Dr. Miller, then in his seventy-second

 

year, was elected emeritus professor by Rush Medical
College, and was also elected president of the board
of trustees. In 1894 his portrait was presented to the
college, and on that occasion Professor John B. Ham-
ilton paid the following high tribute to Dr. Miller's
long and faithful service and his high standing as a man.

 

DR. DE LASKIE MILLER.

Dr. Hamilton said: ‘We accept this faithful representa-
tion of an ideal teacher, an accomplished obstetrician,
a scholar, a sagacious counselor and a_ patriotic
citizen. Professor De Laskie Miller has been
identified with Rush Medical School almost fram its
beginning, and, although still vigorous in mind and
body, he has been actively associated with every move-
ment which, step by step, has placed this college in the

414

ms
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

advance rank of American educational institutions.
His early career as a medical journalist and his presi-
dency of the section on obstetrics of the International
Medical College at Washington extended a knowledge
of his worth and ability beyond the confines of his city
to other lands, for at the close of that now historic con-
gress he had acquired friends and admirers almost to
the ends of the earth.”

Dr. Miller has held so many positions of honor in the
different institutions of this city that it would be super-
fluous to pick out any one as of special honor. He is
a member of the American Medical Association, of the
illinois State Medical, the Chicago Medico-Legal and
the Chicago Medical societies, being president of the
latter in 1856. Heis a life member of the British Gyne-
cological Society of London, is connected with the local
gynecological society, of which he was president in
1881. He was long identified with St. Luke’s Hospital
as obstetrician, and with the Woman’s Hospital of the
State of Illinois as consulting physician. He has also
served as obstetrician in the Cook County, the Presby-
terian and Michael Reese Hospitals, and as consulting
physician to the Home for the Friendless and Hospital
for Incurables.

Dr. Miller is perhaps more prominent as a Mason
than of any other order.. He is a Knight Templar anda
33d degree of the Supreme Council of the Scot-
lish Rite. He is also an honorary member of
Ancient Ebor Preceptory of York, England. He was
director of the medical staff during the Masonic con-
clave held in Chicago in 1880, and in a similar capacity
served with Apollo Commandery, No. 1, Knights Tem-
plar, on its pilgrimage in the summer of 1883.

Dr. Miller has retired from the active practice of his
profession as well as from the management of the many
institutions with which he has been for so many years
connected, and the many who have known him are free
to say that his long and faithful service in the cause of
humanity entitles him to a much-needed and well-earned
rest in his old age.

Samuel J. Jones, M.D., LL.D. Ranking high asa
practitioner of more than local renown is Dr. Samuel J.

Jones, who, for over thirty years, has been
actively identified with the medical profession
and the medical institutions of Chicago. Known
to the public generally as a_ skillful surgeon

in the special field to which he has long given his
attention, and tothe professionas a man of broad culture,
thoroughly equipped with a knowledge of the principles
and practice of medicine, he has also labored faithfully
for advancement of his profession in efforts to raise the
standard of medical education, and, by cordially
co-operating with other practitioners, to keep pace with
the rapid development and improvements of medical
science.

415

Dr. Jones was born at Bainbridge, Pennsylvania,
March 22, 1836. He is a son of Dr. Robert H. Jones,
who was graduated from the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania in 1830 and who practiced
in that state up to the time of his death, in 1863. His
mother, whose maiden name was Sarah M. Ekel, came
from one of the oldest families of Pennsylvania, being a
descendant of an officer of the Revolutionary war, and
of Swiss and Huguenot ancestry.

Dr. ‘Jones received a liberal education, completing
his preparatory studies at the Marietta (Pennsylvania)
Academy, being graduated from Dickinson College,
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with the degree of A. B. in 1857,
receiving the degrees of A. M. in 1860 and LL. D. in
1884 from the same institution. After graduation he
began to read medicine with his father at his home in

 

 

 

 

 

SAMUEL J. JONES, M. D., LL. D.

Bainbridge and spent two years at the medical school
of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he ob-
tained his degree of M. D. in 1860.

He had for some time been considering the United
States naval service as a desirable field for a young prac-
titioner and shortly after graduation in medicine he suc-
cessfully passed an examination for the position of as-
sistant surgeon in the navy, receiving his appointment in
December, 1860. In April of the following year he was
ordered to the United States frigate Minnesota, flagship
of the Atlantic blockading squadron, and three months
later was present at the battle of Hatteras Inlet, which
resulted in the capture of the Confederate forts, with fif-
teen hundred prisoners; it also being the first battle in
whichsteamships were ever used and kept in motion while
416

in action. Throughout the war he saw active service. In
1862 he was on Flag Officer Goldsborough’s staff as sur-
geon on the Burnside and Goldsborough expedition
against Roanoke Island. Later he was detailed as staff
surgeon of Commander Rowan, afterward vice-admiral,
and was present at the capture of Newbern, Washington
and other points in North Carolina. In 1863 he accom-
panied Lieutenants Cushing and Lamson on the Nanse-
mond River expedition, and later in 1863 he was as-
signed to duty at Philadelphia, where he was ptomoted
to the rank of surgeon and shortly afterward assigned
to duty at Chicago. While on duty in this city he vis-
ited the military prisons and examined more than three
thousand Confederates, who applied for admission to
the Federal service and who were accepted and as-
signed to men-of-war on foreign stations. In 1864 he
was ordered to the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, of Admiral
Farragut’s West Gulf blockading squadron, and was
soon after assigned to duty as surgeon of the naval hospi-
tal at New Orleans, where he served through an epi-
demic of yellow fever and where he remained until after
the close of the war.

Later, in 1865, he was on duty in the naval hospital
and navy yard at Pensacola, Florida. In 1866 he was
again on duty in Chicago, remaining here until the
marine rendezvous was closed. In 1867 he was surgeon
of the frigate Sabine, the practice ship for naval ap-
prentices, cruising on the Atlantic. He resigned from
the naval service in 1868, having served eight years, and
began the practice of medicine in Chicago.

Since his location in this city Dr. Jones has been ac-
_ tively engaged in many philanthropic causes outside of
the regular routine of his profession and has been promi-
nent in the educational and literary movements in which
his profession is interested. He was professor of oph-
thalmology and otology in Northwestern University
Medical school from 1870 to 1897; established the Eye
and Ear Department of St. Luke’s Hospital in 1869;
of Mercy Hospital and South Side Dispensary in 1870
and had charge of all of them until 1880. He is still sur-
geon to that department of St. Luke’s Hospital, having,
on March 4, completed thirty-one years of continuous
service init. He was on the medical staff of the Ilinois
Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary from 1874 to 1882,
and has been surgeon to the Illinois Naval Reserve, and
he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois
Naval Reserve Association, having taken an active in-
terest in the reserve since its first formation. He orig-
inated the National Pure Food Association, incorpo-
rated in 1897, under the laws of Illinois; is its president,
and is active in efforts to secure state and federal legis-
lation to protect the public against the deleterious ef-
fects of adulterated food.

Few Western physicians have participated so actively
as Dr. Jones in the deliberations of noted gatherings of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

medical men from all parts of the world. In 1868 he was
a delegate of the American Association to the meetings
of the medical associations of Europe and was com-
missioned at the same time by Governor Geary of Penn-
sylvania to report on hospital and sanitary matters of
Great Britain and the continent. He attended the meet-
ings at Oxford, Heidelberg and Dresden, and at the
latter place participated in the organization of the first
Otological Congress ever held. He served again in
1870 as a delegate to the same foreign ineetings, repre-
senting the American Medical Association as before, and
in 1881 he was one of the American representatives at
the Seventh International Medical Congress, held at
London, and was president of the section of otology in
the Ninth International Medical Congress, in Washing-
ton, in 1887. In all these important conventions he has
been an active, working member, and has become noted
for the large amount of work he is able to accomplish
without apparent haste.

He is a member of the Chicago Medical Society, the
Chicago Ophthalmological and Otological Society, the
American Otological Society, of the Illinois State Medi-
cal Society, the American Academy of Medicine, of
which he was vice-president in 1887 and -president in
1889 ; of the American Medical Association, the Chicago
Academy of Seiences. of which he has been vice-presi-
dent and president of its board of trustees. He was
one of the founders of the Chicago Folk Lore Society
and president of the Illinois \lpha Chapter of the Phi
Beta Kappa Society, founded in 1776, whose member-
ship is limited and only conferred in recognition of
scholarship.

Dr. Jones edited the “Chicago Medical Journal and
ixaminer” from 1887 to 1892 and has contributed
numerous papers and reports to various medical journals
and before gatherings of medical men.

Nicholas Senn, M.D., LL. D., Ph. D., was born in
the canton of St. Gall, in eastern Switzerland, October
31, 1844. His parents, who belonged to the industrious
and hardy type of agriculturists, were in humble circum-
stances, and, wishing to give their children the benefit
of the greater advantages to be found in America, they
came to this country in 1852 and settled in Washington
County, Wisconsin. Here in the district schools the
boy Nicholas acquired his earlier education, after which
he went to Fond du Lae and attended the grammar
school, from which he was graduated in due time. Fol-
lowing this he taught for several yearas, and in 1864
began his medical studies in the office of Dr. E. Munk of
Fond du Lac. Two years later, however, he came to
Chicago and entered the Chicago Medical College, from
which he was graduated in 1868. He then passed a
competitive examination and secured the appointment
of resident physician to Cook County Hospital, and
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

served in this capacity the regular term of eighteen
months,

In 1869 Dr. Senn removed to Ashford, Fond du Lac
County, Wisconsin, and took up the practice of his
profession, but five years afterward he settled in Mil-
waukee in order to obtain a wider field than is allotted
to the country physician. He soon became attending
physician to the Milwaukee Hospital, and afterward, as
his practice was directed into channels almost purely
surgical, he became either attending or consulting sur-
geon to nearly all the important charities of the county.
Within a few years his fame as a surgeon extended even
beyond the confines of the great Northwest.

Dr. Senn was actively engaged in professional work

 

NICHOLAS SENN, M. D., LL.D., Ph. D.

in Milwaukee for several years. In 1878, desiring to
come in contact with the scholars and investigators in
_medical science in Europe, he went abroad and studied
for a year at the University of Munich, receiving from
that institution the degree of M. D. Upon his return
to this country he was elected by the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons to the chair of practice of surgery
and clinical surgery, in which capacity he served the in-
stitution three years, after which he accepted the chair
of principles of surgery in Rush Medical College. Since
1891 he has occupied the chair of practice of surgery and
clinical surgery. He is also professor of surgery in the
Chicago Polyclinic, attending surgeon to the Presby-
- terian Hospital and surgeon-in-chief to St. Joseph’s hos-
pital. He has served as president of the American
Medical Association, and is ex-president of the Amert-
can Surgical Association, an honorary fellow in the Col-
lege of Physicians (Philadelphia), a life member of the

27

417

German Congress of Surgeons, a corresponding mem-
ber of the Harveian Society (London), an honorary
member of La Academia de la Medicina de Mexico, an
honorary member of the D. Hayes Agnew Surgical
Society (Philadelphia), a member of the British Medical
Association, and of the prominent national, state and
local medical societies.

Dr. Senn is also surgeon-general of the National
Guard of Illinois, ex-president of the Association of Mili-
tary Surgeons of the United States, and in the
late Spanish-American war was chief surgeon of
the United States Volunteers and chief of oper-
ating staff with the army in the field. He received
official recognition from the War Department for meri-
torious service in surgical work during the Cuban cam-
paign and for scientific study of typhoid fever among
the troops.

A mere mention of Dr. Senn’s publications will indi-
cate to some extent their scope and value. Among
them are the following, all of which are accepted as high
authorities, not only in America, but Europe: ‘Prin-
ciples of Surgery,” “Experimental Surgery,” “Surgical
Bacteriology,” ‘Intestinal Surgery,” ‘‘Tuberculosis of
the Bones and Joints,” “The Pathology and Surgical
Treatment of Tumors,’ and “Tuberculosis of the
Genito-Urinary Organs.”’ At present he is engaged
on a voluminous work entitled ‘Practical Surgery.”

Dr. Senn has conferred a lasting benefit on Chicago
and the West generally by his presentation to the New-
berry Library of the famous Senn collection of rare
medical works. A large share of them were gathered
from year to year by himself, but the most valuable por-
tion of them constituted at one time the library of the
celebrated Dr. William Baum, late professor of surgery
in the University of Gottingen, and one of the founders
of the German Congress of Surgeons. This collection
of rare books, the result of half a century of careful
accumulation, were saved from the fate of a public
auction by Dr. Senn, and were donated, together with
his own extensive library, to the Newberry Library,
where they are separately shelved and catalogued and
known as the “Senn Collection.”” Recently he pur-
chased and presented to the Newberry Library the
library of the famous physiologist, Du Bois Raymond of
Berlin, Germany.

John B. Murphy, A. M., M.D., LL.D., was born at
Appleton, Wisconsin, December 21, 1857, and received
his early education in the public schools of that city.
Having decided early in life to become a physician, he
began his medical studies soon after graduation from the
high school under the preceptorship of Dr. J. R. Reilly, a
leading physician of that city, and subsequently came
to Chicago, where he entered Rush Medical College,
from which institution he was graduated in 1879.

Dr. Murphy was a successful candidate in the com-
418

petitive examination which entitled him to an interne-
ship in Cook County Hospital. He began his duties as
resident physician and surgeon in February of the same
year, continuing until October, 1880. He then engaged
in private practice for a year or more, after which time
he went to Europe, where, for nearly two years, he
studied in the universities and hospitals of Vienna,
Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg, acquiring a valuable
experience from his practical work in these medical cen-
ters of the old world.

Dr. Murphy returned to this country in the early
part of 1884, and resumed his practice in Chicago. His
ability as a surgeon was early recognized by the mem-
bers of his profession, and in the same year that he

 

 

 

JOHN B. MURPHY, A. M., M. D., LL.D.

returned to Chicago he was elected lecturer of surgery
in Rush Medical College and appointed attending sur-
geon to Cook County Hospital, which position he has
Hiled continuously from that time. Other honors were
not slow in coming to him, and in 1890 he became
attending surgeon to the Alexian Brothers’ Hospital.
‘\ year later he was elected president of the medical
staff of the Cook County Hospital. In 1890 he also
became professor of surgery in the Post-Graduate Medi-
cal School and in 1892 professor of clinical surgery in the
College of Physicians and Surgeons.

As an author Dr. Murphy is well known, and _ his
numerous contributions to the medical press of the
country have given him an international reputation as
a scholar and student in his profession. Most of his
books and papers have to do with abdominal surgery
and are considered standard works.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Dr. Murphy was vice-president of the International
Medical Congress at Rome in 1894, and is a life member
of the Surgical Society of Germany and the Surgical So-
ciety of Paris. He is a member of the International Con-
gress for Gynecology and Obstetrics of Berne, of the
American Medical Association and of the International
Association of Railway Surgeons, of which he was
chosen president in 1895. At the forty-fourth annual
meeting of the American Medical Association in 1893
Dr. Murphy gave a paper on the “Surgery of the Gall
Tract,” in which he illustrated the utility of his Anas-
tomosis Button. This article attracted great attention,
and the button, as a means of intestinal approximation,
has been adopted by the profession all over the world.
Other papers and articles from his pen that have
attracted considerable attention are numerous, and
among them may be mentioned: ‘Early Operation in
Appendicitis,” of which he is considered the foremost
exponent; ‘Intestinal Approximations, with Especial
Reference to the Use of the Anastomosis Button ;” “Sur-
gery of the Gasserian Ganglion,” “Original Research in
the Suture of Arteries and Veins’ and “Actinomy-
cosis.” (Dr. Murphy was the first to recognize this
disease in the human in America.) His surgical address
before the American Medical Association in Denver in
1898 on the “Surgery of the Lung” was an epoch-mak-
ing paper and showed his great versatility in surgery.

Although a young man, Dr. Murphy is already
recognized as one of the masters of his art, with an inter-
national reputation. He is a striking representative of
the material that has brought Chicago into prominence
as a great center of medical advancement and medical
education.

Nathan Smith Davis, Jr., M.D., son of Nathan S.
and Anna M. (Parker) Davis, was born September 5,
1858, at Chicago, Illinois. After receiving a prelimi-
nary education in the schools of this city, he entered
Northwestern University, from which institution he was
graduated in 1880, receiving the degree of A. B. at that
time, and in 1883 the degree of A. M. Immediately
after completing his college course he began the study
of medicine under his father’s guidance, and also at-
tended three courses of lectures at Chicago Medical
College, now Northwestern University Medical School,
where he received his degree of doctor of medicine in
1883.

Dr. Davis then commenced the practice of medicine
in Chicago, and, with the exception of one year spent
abroad in post-graduate study at Heidelberg and Vi-
enna, he has continued to make this city his home.
During this period he has been an active member of
his profession and has attained high rank, not alone
as a general practitioner, but also as a medical author
and teacher. In 1884 he was made associate professor
of pathology in Northwestern University Medical Col-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

lege, and two years later was transferred to the pro-
iessorship of principles and practice of medicine and of
clinical medicine in the same school. He has been
physician to Mercy Hospital since 1884.

Dr. Davis is the author of numerous contributions
to current medical literature on subjects pertaining to
therapeutics and clinical medicine. One of his best-
known works entitled, “Consumption; How to Prevent

 

NATHAN SMITH DAVIS, JR., M. D.

Jt and How to Live with It,” is intended for physicians
and consumptives, and deals with the hygienic treatment
of this. disease. He is also the author of another work
on “Diseases of the Lungs, Heart and Kidneys.” To
these subjects he has given especial attention, but is
a well-known consultant in the whole field of internal
medicine. His practice is widely scattered, patients
coming to him from all parts of this and the neighboring
states,

As a member of various medical societies and asso-
ciations, Dr. Davis is especially prominent. He was
formerly secretary of the section of practice in the
American Medical Association, and a member of its gen-
eral business committee. He was formerly a member of
the counci! of the section of pathology, Ninth Inter-
national Medical Congress, and of the council of the
section of practice, Pan-American Medical Congress.
He is also a member of the American Academy of Medi-
cine, the American Climatological Society, the Illinois
State Medical Society, of which he has been chairman
of the section of practice; the Chicago Medical Society,
the Chicago Society of Internal Medicine, the Chicago
Medico-Legal Society, the Chicago Academy of

419

Sciences, the Chicago Literary Club and Illinois State
Microscopical Society. He is a trustee of Northwest-
ern University, and a member of the general board
of management of the Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion.

Dr. Davis was married in 1884, at Madison, Wiscon-
sin, to Miss Jessie B. Hopkins, daughter of the late
Judge Hopkins of that city. They have three children
living.

Plumer Morton Woodworth, M.D., born at \Warren-
ville, Du Page County, Illinois, in 1851. He is a son of
Jacob and Ellen D. (Bird) Woodworth. His father.
who settled in Chicago in the early fifties, was a physi-
cian, and practiced here until the beginning of the Civil
war, when, his health failing, he abandoned the bur-
dens of his Chicago practice and removed to Aurora.
He continued his professional work at this place for a
few years, but was finally forced to abandon it entirely in
1864, following which he purchased a farm in McHenry
County and settled there with his family. His son,
Plumer, who was one of four children, remained on the
farm until he became of age, receiving his education in

 

 

PLUMER MORTON WOODWORTH, M. D.

the public schools and at Jennings’ Academy, in Aurora.
Tn 1873 he came to Chicago to accept an appointment
as hospital steward in the United States Marine Hospi-
tal service, in which capacity he continued four years.
During this time, having decided to follow in the foot-
steps of his father, he studied medicine, and in 1875,
while still engaged in the marine hospital service, he en-
tered the Chicago Medical College. from which he was
graduated in the spring of 1878.
420

Having now completed his professional studies, Dr.
Woodworth began the practice of medicine in Chicago.
For a year or more he was acting assistant surgeon in
the marine hospital service, and for four years after leav-
ing college he was engaged, under contract, to provide
the poor of the town of North Chicago with medical at-
tention. Dr. Woodworth has built up an extensive
practice of a general nature, to which he devotes him-
self with unflagging zeal. He was one of the three
men who, in 1883, organized the Augustana Hospital,
and for six years was attending physician to that insti-
tution. For two years he occupied a similar position to
the Marcus Porter Memorial Hospital, and at the pres-
ent time he is a member of the consulting staff of St.
Joseph’s Hospital. He has been identified with the
American Medical Association for over twenty years,
and he is a member of the Illinois Medical Society, and
also a member of the Chicago Medical Society and the
Physicians’ Club. He is a 32d degree Mason and a
member of the Medinah Shrine.

On June 10, 1897, Governor Tanner appointed Dr.
Woodworth a member of the Board of Commissioners
of Lincoln Park, an appointment that came almost
wholly as a surprise, since, although he has always been
a stanch Repubtican, he had never before held or
aspired to hold potitical office. When the appointment
was tendered him, Dr. Woodworth accepted, believing
that, with his professional experience, he could materi-
ally add to the health of Chicago by making Lincoln
Park one of the finest places for recreation in the coun-
try, and thus benefiting, both morally and physically,
the thousands whose means or occupations will not per-
mit their leaving the city during the heated months. As
a member of this body Dr. Woodworth made a most
efficient official He is a man of excellent taste and
judgment, a lover of the beautiful in art and nature, and
one who found the reward for his services in the know!-
edge that this extensive pleasure ground is each day, for
the greater part of each year, the source of inestimable
benefit to the thousands who visit it. In December,
1897, the members of the Board of Commissioners be-
stowed upon Dr. Woodworth the greatest honor in their
power by electing him president of this body. He
served as such until November, 1899, when he resigned

from the board because of the pressing duties of his -

profession.

Dr. Woodworth was married July 9, 1878, to Miss
Esther Harriet Teare, a daughter of John Teare, M. D.,
one of the early residents of Chicago, and a native of
the Isle of Man.

Eli Stillman Bailey, A. M., M.D., dean of the faculty
of Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, was born at
Little Genesee, Allegany County, New York, Sep-
tember 2, 1851. His parents were Rev. James and

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Tacy Hubbard Bailey, for many years residents of Plain-
field, New Jersey, and of Milton, Wisconsin.

Dr. Bailey prepared for college at Alfred Academy,
in New York, and in 1873 was graduated from Milton
College, in Wisconsin, as valedictorian of his class. He
then fitted for newspaper work by a year of post-gradu-
ate study at Amherst College, in Massachusetts, but cir-
cumstances arose that turned his attention from jour-
nalism to medicine, and he subsequently entered Hahne-
mann Medical College in Chicago, where he took all
the required courses, and from which he received his
degree in the spring of 1878, being graduated as vale-
dictorian in a class of ninety-nine students.

Immediately after his graduation, Dr. Bailey became

 

ELI STILLMAN BAILEY, A. M,, M. D.

associated with Dr. George A. Hall in the practice of his
profession. This partnership lasted three years, since
which time he has practiced alone, and for nearly twenty
years occupied a single location, at the corner of
Thirty-first street and Michigan avenue. The last loca-
tion has been in the Marshall Field Building.

Few, if any, members of the medical fraternity have
been more closely connected with the growth of Hahne-
mann Medical College and Hospital than Dr. Bailey.
His services were first given to this institution in 1881,
when he was elected instructor in microscopy. Since
then he has successively occupied the lectureships of his-
tology and minor surgery, has been full professor of
physiology, and for fourteen years was associate pro-
fessor in the department of gynecology, being intimately
connected in this work with the late Dr. R. Ludlam.
Upon the death of the latter, in May, 1899, Dr. Bailey
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

was elected to entire charge of the department of gyne-
cology, both medical and surgical, and in June of the
same year he was elected dean of the faculty of this in-
stitution, a position of honor that his long and untiring
services in the advancement of the homeopathic school
well qualify him to fill. He also served as registrar of
the Hahnemann Medical College for ten years, and was
for same time business manager of the Clinique, a
monthly journal devoted to the proceedings of the Clini-
cal Society of the Hahnemann Hospital of Chicago.

Dr. Batley has enjoyed the privileges of European
travel and hospital work in Vienna and Paris and in this
country in Johns Hopkins University. He is a member
in good standing in several state medical societies and
in the American Institute of Homeopathy, the oldest of
the national associations. Dr. Bailey is without family,
having never married, and the death of an only sister and
parents have deprived him of any living relatives in the
West.

Alexander Hugh Ferguson, M. D., C. M., professor
of surgery in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School
and Hospital, was born in Ontario County, Canada,
February 27, 1853, the son of Alexander and Ann (Mc-
lvadyen) Ferguson, both natives of Scotland. He re-
ceived his education in the common schools, Rockwood
Academy, Manitoba College, Toronto University and
Trinity Medical School, from which latter institution he
was graduated in 1881. He received post-graduate
training in New York, Glasgow, London and Berlin,
where he took a thorough course in bacteriology under
the celebrated Professor Koch.

Dr. Ferguson began the practice of his profession in
Buffalo, New York, but in 1882 he went to Canada and
settled in Winnipeg, where, in the same year, he was
appointed registrar of the College of Physicians and Sur-
geons of Manitoba, and in the following year he took
a most active part in founding the Manitoba Medical
College, which has a phenomenal success, and now enjoys
the name of being one of the high-grade medical schools
in Canada. He was professor of physiology and _his-
tology in this institution for three years, and in 1886
he took the professorship of surgery upon the resigna-
tion of Dr. James Kerr, who now holds a similar chair
in Columbia University, Washington, D. C. He was a
member of the staff of the Winnipeg General Hospital,
surgeon-in-chief to the St. Boniface Hospital, and also
the chief operator at Brandon and Mordon hospitals
in the same province. He was the first president of the
Manitoba branch of the British Medical Association,
and he was also appointed by the Governor as a member
of the Provincial Board of Health. His connection
with the Manitoba Medical College covered a period of
eleven years, and he was identified with it, not alone
as registrar, but also as treasurer and a member of the
University Council. He enjoyed the respect and con-

421

fidence of the profession and people, as well as the loyal
devotion and veneration of his students, and when he
severed his connection with the Hospital of the Sisters
of Charity before leaving Canada to locate in Chicago,
his resignation was not accepted, in the hope that some
day he might return.

On December 18, 1893, Dr. Ferguson was offered the
chair of surgery in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical
School and Hospital, which, after due consideration, he
accepted, and assumed his duties in June, t894. Since
locating here his services have been in great demand,
and he now holds the position of surgeon to the Post-
Graduate Hospital, surgeon-in-chief to the Chicago

 

 

ALEXANDER HUGH FERGUSON, M. D., C. M.

Hospital, also surgeon to the Cook County Hospital for
the Insane, and consultant to the Provident Hospital.
It has been as a teacher of surgery and as an operator
that Dr. Ferguson has gained his wide reputation.
There is hardly a major operation on the body but that
he has performed. His work on ‘‘Hydatids of the Liver”
has been the most extensive of any man in America, and
was instrumental in first bringing him into notice. He
has successfully performed partial hepatectomy, splenec-
tomy, nephrectomies, craniectomies, thyroidectomies,
hip-joint amputations, excisions, — thoracoplasty,
(Schede), cholecyst duodenostomies, appendicectomies,
etc., all of which would be too numerous to mention.
Suffice it to say that Dr. Ferguson has opened the ab-
domen over a thousand times. He was the first to use
Murphy’s button to unite the duodenum to the stomach
after removing a cancerous pylorus, and he was also the
first to make an anastomosis with Murphy’s button after
422

excision of a cancerous cecum, in both of which cases
he was successful.

The doctor has been an extensive contributor to the
medical press. It is only possible to mention a few of
his more important papers, among which are: ‘*Hydatids
of the Liver,” “Operative Treatment of Diseases of the
Gall Bladder,” “Pylorectomy in America,” “Thoraco-
plasy in America and Visceral Pleurectomy, with Report
of a Case,” “Typic and Atypic Operations for the Radi-
cal Cure of Hernia.”

Dr. Ferguson is recognized as one of the best sur-
geons in Chicago, and all his time is devoted to the
teaching and practice of surgery. He is a member
of the British Medical Association, International Medi-
cal Congress, American Medical Association, Chicago
Medical Society, Chicago Gynecological Society, the
Physicians’ Club of Chicago, Chicago Surgical Society,
Military Tract Medical Association, Wayne County
Medical Society, and also a fellow of the Chicago
Academy of Medicine and of the American Association
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

In religion he is a Presbyterian. He is a member
of the Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree, A. F. and
‘A. M., and other societies. He was married in 1882 to
Miss Thomas, daughter of the late Edward Thomas,
Esq., a wealthy pioneer of Nassagaweya, near Guelph,
Ontario, Canada. His family consists of two sons, Ivin
Havelock and Alexander Donald.

 

CHARLES ADAMS, M. D.

Charles Adams, M. D., son of John and Elizabeth
(Clarke) Adams, was born at Northamptonshire, Eng-
land, May 29, 1847. His early education was acquired

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

in the grammar school at Wellingborough, in his native
country, but when he was about ten years of age his
parents removed to the United States and settled in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he continued his studies.
In 1861 his father removed to Chicago to engage in the
live-stock business, and at that time the boy, Charles, be-
came his bookkeeper, in which capacity he continued
until 1869. At that time, having previously decided
upon the practice of medicine as his lifework, he entered
the office of Dr. J. S. Mitchell, and after remaining there
for some time as a student, was enrolled in Hahnemann
Medical College, from which institution he was gradu-
ated in 1872. He then spent a year in a hospital as
house surgeon, and, following this, devoted a like period
of time to study in London, after which he returned
to Chicago and took up the practice of his profession.

As might have been expected from a man of Dr.
Adams’ ability, he has been active in the educational
circles of Chicago. In 1873, shortly after his return
from abroad, he accepted the chair of surgical pathology
in his alma mater, and so continued until the organi-
zation of the Chicago Homeopathic College in 1875,
when he became professor of the principles and practice
of surgery in that institution, which position he now
holds. The doctor is also attending surgeon to the
Chicago Homeopathic Hospital, Cook County Hospital
and to the Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum,
and consulting surgeon to the Chicago Baptist Hospital.
He is a member of the Association of Military Surgeons
of the United States, of the Illinois Homeopathic As-
sociation, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and is a
fellow ofthe Royal Microscopical Society of London. He
was surgeon-major for nearly fifteen years to the First
Mlinois Infantry, served as major and brigade surgeon,
U.S. V., in 1898, and is now lieutenant-colonel and as-
sistant surgeon-general to the Illinois National Guard.
He has been a frequent contributor to the medical press
and ranks high as a surgeon and general practitioner.
In 1898 the ad eundem degree of M. D. was conferred
upon Dr, .\dams by Rush Medical College, Chicago.

Dr. Adams was married in 1875 to Miss Mary Curtis,
daughter of Thomas S. Curtis of Wellingborough, Eng-
land. She died in 1888, and he was married a second
time, some years later, to Mrs. Elizabeth (Mitchell) Gay-
lord, widow of Henry Gaylord and a daughter of W. H.
Mitchell, vice-president of the Illinois Trust and Savings
Bank. One son survives the first marriage.

Dr. Fernand Henrotin, a leading physician of Chi-
cago, was born in Brussels, Belgium, September 28.
1847. His father and grandfather were both physicians,
the former, J. F. Henrotin, being still well remembered
among the old citizens of Chicago as one of the promi-
nent practitioners from 1847 to 1875.

Fernand received his education entirely in Chicago,
and, after-graduating from the high school, studied
THE CITY OF

medicine at Rush Medical College and graduated in
1868 after a three years’ course.

From the very evening of his graduation he has led
a most active professional life, and is fond of claiming
that he never lost a day from physical disability in over
thirty-two years of practice. For two vears after
graduation he was prosecutor at Rush Medical College,

 

DR. FERNAND HENROTIN.

after which he served two years as county physician of
Cook County. Then he became surgeon of the police
and fire departments. He remained connected with the
former fifteen years and the latter for twenty-one, for a
number of years also serving as surgeon of the First
Brigade of the Illinois National Guard. He was con-
nected with the medical staff of the County Hospital as
physician for several years, and later as gynecologist.
At present the doctor is surgeon at the Alexian Brothers’
Hospital, gynecologist at the Chicago Polyclinic and
consulting gynecologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital, as well
as acting gynecologist at the German and St. Luke's
Hospitals. With all these positions he manages a very
large practice, almost entirely surgical, and finds time
to do an incredible amount of society work.

He is a member of all the local societies and of the
most prominent national societies, and was for many
years secretary-general for America of the International
Gynecological and Obstetrical Congress. He was
elected president of the Chicago Medical Society in 1897;
unanimously re-elected the following year, but declined
to serve, believing there should be rotation in office.

He has written many monographs of importance,
which have made his name well known, most of them

CHICAGO. 423
treating of gynecological subjects. The doctor is a
worker full of energy and practical sense, and as he fre-
quently says: “The boys don’t forge very far ahead of
him yet.” Heisa broad man in every sense of the word,
a genial, helpful friend, with a kindly feeling toward the
world, never carrying resentment, but withal gifted with
an excellent judgment and a great stock of good, every-
day common sense.

The doctor married Miss Emile B. Prussing in 1873
and, though having no children, he and his wife are
made happy by an unusually large circle of warm per-
sonal friends. They reside on the North Side, at No.
353 La Salle avenue.

His numerous articles on “Pelvic Septic Diseases in
Women” have been quoted the world over, and he was
the first to perform a deliberate vaginal hysterectomy for
suppurative pelvic disease in America. His ‘Ectopic
Gestation in the Practice of Obstetrics by American
Authors” and his treatment of the subject of gynecology
in “The International Textbook of Surgery” are par-
ticularly worthy of note.

Lemuel Conant Grosvenor, M. D., as his name indi-
cates, is descended from two noted colonial fami‘ies, the

 

LEMUEL CONANT GROSVENOR, M. D.

Grosvenors and the Conants, whose prominence in
medicine, in the ministry and as anti-slavery workers is
a matter of history. His father, Deacon Silas N. Gros-
venor, was a leading business man of Paxton, Massa-
chusetts, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary
A. Conant, was a daughter of Rev. Gaius Conant, for
twenty-five years pastor of the Paxton Congregational
Church. It was his mother's wish that her eldest son,
424

Lemuel, should become a clergyman, but the boy’s in-
clination was in another direction, and from an early
age it was his earnest desire to enter the medical pro-
fession. Prior to his thirteenth year the doctor, who
was born at Paxton in 1833, attended Williston Sem1-
nary, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, but upon the re-
moval of his family to Worcester, he entered the high
school at that place, where he remained a student four
years. During this period he took an active part in the
work of the local literary societies and received the
valuable training that, in his later life, has gained for him
the prestige of being among the ablest public speakers
in Chicago. It was here also that he found time to
cultivate his musical talents, acquiring what has since
been to him one of the greatest sources of recreation
during the busiest years of his professional life. When
he was seventeen years old his parents moved to Sauk
County, Wisconsin, then considered well toward the
Western frontier, and the rugged pioneer life that he
there entered upon exercised considerable influence to-
ward the development of the strong side of his character
and prompting him to his noblest and best endeavor.
The desire to acquire a high position in life and to live
for some noble purpose encouraged him to make the
most of his time and opportunities, and the first winter
after settling in Wisconsin he secured a district school
at West Point, in Columbia County, the first ever held
at that point, where he began his career as a teacher.
He found himself in every way adapted to his new duties
and at the close of his winter's work, wherein he had
followed the custom which is still retained in certain
parts of the West, of “boarding around,” he found him-
self the owner of sixty dollars in gold. Not content
with his own education, he obtained his father’s con-
sent, and, with his pack upon his back, started on foot
for Milwaukee, a distance of one hundred miles, and
from there made his way to his old home in Worcester.
There he again entered the high school to perfect him-
self in higher mathematics and surveying, and in the
winter of 1849 he resumed teaching. The next ten
years of his life were devoted to this profession, which
he followed with marked success, having charge during
this time of the district school of Scituate, a select school
at Rutland, the Union high school at Scituate Harbor,
and the South Hingham grammar school, of which he
was principal. He was also head master of the old
Mather school, in Dorchester, a position he held for
seven years of this time, and from which he could have
stepped to higher honors as a teacher had he so chosen.
These years, spent in and near Boston, were years of
great activity and development to Mr. Grosvenor. He
often heard the famous orators of the day, Charles Sum-
ner, Edward Fverett and Wendell Phillips, and had
many other rare opportunities for culture and refine-
ment. By this time also his ability as an educator had

‘

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

become widely recognized, but, nevertheless, while in
Boston, his resolution to enter the medical profession
became firmly fixed. He, therefore, returned West, de-
clining a chair in the Brooklyn Polytechnic School, and
took up the study of medicine in the Cleveland Medical
College, from which he was graduated in the spring of
1864. He began practice in Peoria, Illinois, soon after-
ward, and remained there three years. His next home
was in Galesburg, but in 1870 he located in Chicago,
where he has become widely known as a leader in his
profession. He enjoys a large general practice and as
an obstetrician has no superior. He has given this
branch of the profession his special attention, and his
services in alleviating the discomforts of infant life and
reducing the drudgery of motherhood should class him
among the benefactors of the race and bring him ever-
jasting renown.

Dr. Grosvenor has for many years been connected
with the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, in
which he now holds the chair of clinical obstetrics. For
many years also he held the chair of sanitary science in
the same institution, a chair which was created especially
for him and which was the first full professorship in that
department created by any college in the country. He
has been on the executive board of the college for a con-
siderable period, and for twenty-five years was a member
of the Chicago Academy of Physicians and Surgeons,
having served for three terms as its president. He was
ior two years president of the American Paedological
Society, and for many years has been an honored mem-
ber of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

During the great Chicago fire, in 1871, Dr. Gros-
venor performed a noble service for the destitute and
homeless that should never be forgotten. He was the
only physician on the North Side whose house was not
destroyed, but his own good fortune did not blind him
to his duty toward his fellow-citizens, and for months he
labored unceasingly to provide food, shelter and medical
attention for the thousands who were sufferers from the
conflagration.

As a lecturer the doctor is well known, and his work
among young people has been one of his greatest
achievements. Several of his lectures, notably those en-
titled, “Our Boys,” “Our Girls” and “The Value of a
Purpose,’ have been delivered quite extensively
throughout the country and proven especially popular.
He is a member of the Lincoln Park Congregational
Church and is president of its board of trustees. He is
also a charter member of the Chicago Congregational
Club. He has been twice married. His first wife was
Miss Helen M. Prouty of Dorchester, Massachusetts,
whom he married in 1865. She was a daughter of
Lorenzo Prouty and a granddaughter of David
A. Prouty, the inventor of the first iron plow. Mrs.
Grosvenor died in 1874, leaving three children; two sons,
THE CITY

Lorenzo M. and Wallace F., both of whom are prac-
ticing physicians, and one daughter, Ellen Elfreda, who
died early. In 1877 the doctor wedded Miss Naomi
Josephine Bassett of Taunton, Massachusetts. Four
children have been born of this second marriage, of
whom Inez and Gertrude died when two and three years
of age respectively. The two surviving children, David
Bassett, now in his eighteenth year, and Lucy Ella, now
in her sixteenth year, are beautiful and interesting chil-
dren.

Partly from his ancestors and partly from the result
of his youthful training, Dr. Grosvenor possesses a
rugged constitution, which has carried him through the
arduous duties of a busy life. He has a host of friends
to whom he has endeared himself by his. kindly and
genial manner, his warm-hearted and sympathetic na-
ture and his untiring and ceaseless efforts in behalf of
suffering humanity. While he has achieved renown in
his profession and is considered the leader in his own
particular field, yet it is as a citizen whose thoughts and
deeds are always for others, and as a man among men,
that the doctor is held in the highest esteem, both by his
closest friends and by the great public, who know him
by reputation.

Edwin Hartley Pratt, A. M., M. D., LL. D., was
born at Towanda, Bradford County, Pennsylvania,
November 6, 1849, and is the son of Leonard Pratt,
M. D., and Betsey (Belding) Pratt, both of whom
were descended from an ancestry of English origin. Dr.
Leonard Pratt, who for many years was one of the most
distinguished physicians of the West, was naturally solici-
tous that his son should follow in the same profession,
and, in order that his subsequent career should be of the
lighest usefulness and honor, he was given all the ad-
vantages of a liberal and thorough education. Prior to
his fifteenth year he attended a district school in Rock
Creek, Carroll County, Illinois, after which he passed
a year at Mount Carroll Seminary and a like period at
Wheaton College. Following this he entered the sec-
ond-year class in the preparatory department of the Chi-
cago University, and subsequently completed his col-
legiate education in the latter institution and was gradu-
ated with the class of 71, receiving the degree of bache-
lor of arts.

It was his own choice to then fit himself for the prac-
tice of law, but, knowing the disappointment his father
would experience, he yielded his own wishes, and in the
following autumn entered Hahnemann Medical Col-
lege, an institution with which his father had for many
years been connected. Being graduated in 1873 as vale-
dictorian of his class, Dr. Pratt was invited by the board
of trustees of this college to become demonstrator and
adjunct professor of anatomy, and, in order to better
equip himself for this position, he visited Philadelphia
and spent one term in Professor Keene’s School of

OF CHICAGO. 425
Anatomy and at Jefferson Medical College, after which
he returned to Chicago and took up his duties as a
teacher.

In the spring of ’74 Dr. Pratt was elected full pro-
fessor of anatomy and demonstrator of anatomy, and
continued in these positions until the spring term of °77,
when he accepted an identical chair in the Chicago
Homeopathic Medical College, resigning in 1883 to
take the chair of surgery. It was during his initial
period of service with this now well-known college that
the members of the homeopathic school were admitted
to the wards of the Cook County Hospital, and Dr. Pratt
was then elected a member of the attending surgical statf
of the hospital, a position he still fills.

 

 

EDWIN HARTLEY PRATT, A. M., M. D., LL.D.

It was while handling the complicated and obscure
cases of a college clinic that Dr. Pratt discovered what
has at once marked an era in the treatment of chronic
diseases and made his own name famous. This new
method of treatment, to which Dr. Pratt gave the name
orificial philosophy. was pronounced a marvelous suc-
cess, and the spread of the new idea brought so many
inquirers that he organized a class of his professional
brethren in order to instruct them in this work. These
classes, which have become a permanent feature of Dr.
Pratt’s practice, are now held semi-annually for one
week, during which time he publicly operates on the
difficult cases that are brought before him.

His treatment is now so well known that the Chicago
Homeopathic College has established a chair of orificial
surgery, an example that has been followed by several
of the foremost medical colleges in the country. He is
426

also the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Orificial Surgery, to which he contributes a
monthly series of articles upon this branch of surgical
work.

For several years Dr. Pratt was at the head of the
Lincoln Park Sanitarium, an institution that he estab-
lished in 1889 for the treatment of difficult and critical
cases by the new philosophy, and which attracted pa-
tients from all parts of the country. He also conducted
at a later date the Pratt Sanitarium, on Diversey avenue,
a smaller, although a well-known, resort for the treat-
ment of chronic cases.

As an example of the position held by Dr. Pratt in
the medical circles of the country, it may be said that
he is an honorary member of the Missouri State Medical
Society, the Ohio Medical Society, the Kentucky Medi-
cal Society, and the Southern Association of Physicians
and Surgeons. He is an active member of the Illinois
State Medical Society, the Chicago Academy of Medi-
cine and the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is
also an honorary member in the National Association of
Orificial Surgeons, one of the largest medical societies
in the United States, and of which he is the only one
to have been thus distinguished.

 

 

JOHN ELLIS GILMAN, M. D.

John Ellis Gilman, M. D., who for more than a
quarter of a century has been identified with the medical
profession of this city, was born at Harmer, a suburb of
Marietta, Ohio, on July 24, 1841. His parents, John C.
and Elizabeth (Fay) Gilman, were both of New England
descent, and on his father’s side he traces his ancestry
back to the year 1638, when the emigrant of the Ameri-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

can branch of the Gilman family landed on the shores of
the New World. His immediate ancestors, following
the example of their own forefathers, were among the
pioneer settlers in the West, and his grandfather, Bar-
tholomew Gilman, was a resident of Kentucky before the
close of the first quarter of the present century. When
he was five years of age Mr. Gilman’s parents removed
to Westboro, Massachusetts, and the boy received his
early education in the schools of that city. By the time
he had reached the age of seventeen he had been gradu-
ated from the high school, prepared for college, served
an apprenticeship at piano-making in Boston, and ob-
tained quite a knowledge of music. At this period of his
life his father died, and, being thrown upon his own
resources, he taught music for a considerable time and
subsequently returned to Marietta and opened a piano
store. It was his ambition, however, to follow in the
footsteps of his father and become a physician, a career
for which he had been preparing himself for several
years. His studies along this line were continued while
in Marietta, under the guidance of his brother, and when
he removed to Toledo, some years later, he found a
medical instructor in the person of Dr. George Hart-
well. Contrary to the precedent established by the sev-
eral members of his family who were physicians, the
young man adopted the principles of the homeopathic
school, and in 1867 came to Chicago and entered Hahne-
mann Medical College, from which institution he was
graduated in 1871.

Dr. Gilman at once established himself in practice,
only to have the misfortune of losing all his posses-
sions in the great fire of the following October. It re-
mains vastly to his credit, however, that at this time he
was not thinking of himself. but was the first physician in
the city to offer his services to the Citizens’ Relief Com-
mittee and was appointed chairman of the medical de-
partment. In this capacity he instituted the opening
of hospitals and dispensaries and attended personally
to the care and relief of the many sufferers sheltered in
the various churches left standing. Later the Chicago
Relief and Aid Society took charge of matters, and in
this society Dr. Gilman still continued his services for
the relief of the afflicted as secretary of the body during
the following winter and spring.

In the educational circles of the medical profession
Dr. Gilman has held a prominent place for many years.
In 1883 his alma mater called him to the chair of physi-
ology, sanitary science and hygiene, and in 1893 the
same institution tendered him the chair of materia
medica, which he still holds. He has also been a fre-
quent contributor to the medical press and was for some
time one of the editors of the Chicago Art Journal. He
is also a member of many of the societies composed of
the members of the homeopathic school.

Dr. Gilman was married at Adrian, Michigan, in July,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

1860, to Miss Mary D. Johnson of Westboro, Massachu-
setts. They have one son, William T. Gilman, who is
also a physician and in practice in this city.

Allen Corson Cowperthwaite, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D.,
F. &. &., son of Joseph C. and Deborah Cowper-
thwaite, was born in Cape May County, New Jersey,
May 3, 1848. When he was but a few months old his
parents removed to Toulon, Ilinois, and in the common
schools and seminary of this village he acquired such
education as was afforded at that time. Upon the com-
pletion of his course in the seminary he became em-
ployed in a bookstore in Kewanee, Illinois, and re-
mained there for four years, availing himself, outside of
working hours, of the opportunity thus presented for an
extensive and thorough course of reading. It was while
he was thus engaged that he decided upon entering the
profession of medicine.

Dr. Cowperthwaite began his medical studies in the
office of Dr. Bacmeister at Toulon, but later he went
to Philadelphia and studied under Dr. Constantine Her-
ing, one of the most celebrated of homeopathic physi-
cians. He was graduated from the Hahnemann Medi-

 

ALLEN C. COWPERTHWAITE, M. D., Ph. D., LL.D., F. 5S. S.

cal College in that city in 1869, and soon after located in
Galva, Illinois, where he took up the practice of his pro-
fession. Four years later he removed to Nebraska City,
Nebraska, in which place he resided for several years, and
during that period he was exceedingly active in the med-
ical circles of the state. He was one of the founders of
the Nebraska State Homeopathic Medical Association
and he was also instrumental in organizing the homeo-
pathic profession throughout that locality.

427

Dr. Cowperthwaite early became recognized as an
able writer on medical subjects, and he has been a fre-
quent contributor to various medical journals, as well
as being the author of several books. His first com-
plete work, “Insanity in Its Medico-Legal Relations,”
was published in 1876 and in 1880 the first edition of
his ‘Materia Medica” appeared, a work that has since
passed through several editions and come to be used
extensively as a textbook. This was followed in 1888
by another textbook on gynecology that was equally
well received by the profession.

As a lecturer and a teacher Dr. Cowperthwaite has
had a wide experience. In 1877 he was elected dean
and professor of materia medica in the homeopathic
medical department of the State University of Iowa, a
position he held for fifteen years. In answer to numer-
ous calls, he also accepted, in 1884, the chair of materia
medica and therapeutics in the Homeopathic College of
the University of Michigan and held both positions for
ayear. He resigned from the latter, however, in order
to devote himself more exclusively to his work in
the University of Iowa. Dr. Cowperthwaite removed to
Chicago in August, 1892, in order to avail himself of
the wider field and greater opportunities afforded men of
his profession in a metropolis. His services were at once
sought by the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College
and he accepted the chair that was offered him, that of
niateria medica and therapeutics.

The doctor is a member of several state and national
medical associations and has been president of the state
societies of Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. He has also
been president and vice-president of the American Insti-
tute of Homeopathy and is a member of several of the
local societies of this city. In 1876 the Central Univer-
sity of Iowa conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy and in 1885 his scientific and literary at-
tainments were recognized by Shurtleff College, which
institution honored him with the degree of Doctor of
Laws. Two years later he was also elected a fellow of
the Society of Science, Letters and Arts of London,
England.

Dr. Cowperthwaite was married June 2, 1870, to
Miss Ida E. Erving of Oskaloosa, Iowa, daughter of the
late Dr. Joel F. Erving. Two children have been born
to them, a son, Joseph Erving Cowperthwaite, M. D.,
now practicing in Butte, Montana, and a daughter, Flor-
ence Elfleda Cowperthwaite.

DENTISTRY.

James E. Low, D. D.§., son of Rinald and Susan
(Maywood) Low, was born in Otsego County, New
York, in 1837. His early life was devoid of many of the
educational advantages enjoyed by the average Ameri-
can boy, as his father died when he was six years old,
428

after which, as soon as he was able, he was obliged to
assist in the maintenance of the family. His invincible
will, which has been a leading characteristic of his whole
life, was not to be overcome by these obstacles, and he
early entertained the ambition of obtaining an education
which would fit him for a professional career in life.
With this in view he entered Cooperstown Seminary,
near his home, and subsequently took up his profes-
sional studies in one of the Eastern dental colleges.

Dr. Low came to Chicago in 1865, and within a
short time he built up a practice that was both re-
munerative and highly distinctive. He early .became
identified with several of the prominent dental societies,

 

 

JAMES E. LOW, D. D. S.

among them the Illinois State Dental Society, which he
joined in 1870; the American Dental Society, of which
he became a member in 1873, and of the Chicago
Dental Society. From all of these organizations, how-
ever, he eventually withdrew, owing to differences of
opinion among his professional brethren with reference
10 the patenting of some of his many inventions.

Dr. Low is the inventor of one of the most ad-
vanced methods of dentistry, namely, that of bridge and
crown work, for which he received a patent in March,
i881. This process was introduced by him through-
out the various states, not only by reading papers be-
iore dental societies and colleges, but also by many
clinical demonstrations. At first his ideas did not meet
with the approval of the profession, but the opposition

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

that he received only increased his activity and made him
all the more determined. Many times he said to those
about him that he would never rest until the success
of his method was assured and recognized by all. He
has lived to see his wish fulfilled. The very men who
opposed it most are to-day not only using it, but they
are also in many instances its greatest advocates. Dr.
low entered into a contract with an Eastern firm in 1882
by which the latter assumed control of his patent.
Soon after this, however, litigation was commenced,
which continued until July 31, 1899, at which time Judge
Townsend, of the United States Circuit Court, rendered
a decision confirming the validity of the patent so long
in controversy. In 1886 the doctor brought before the
dental profession another valuable invention that is now
in extensive use. This latter is a method of crowning the
six front teeth with porcelain and is much stronger and
more perfect than any other ever introduced. This, to-
gether with many other dental appliances and devices,
the doctor has been manufacturing in his own labora-
tory, which is especially fitted and equipped for such
work. It is claimed by his friends that he has originated
more improvements in the line of practical dentistry than
has any other member of his profession.

Dr. Low became interested in the Columbian Dental
College, now the Illinois School of Dentistry, in 1893,
and subsequently became its president and _ treasurer.
During the several years of his connection with this in-
stitution he has been professor of the practice of den-
tistry and also professor of crown and bridge work. He
has always been a hard student, not only in dentistry, but
he has also given much time to the study of medicine.
He is now writing a book, entitled: “Disease and Its
Origin.”

The doctor is a man of most amiable qualities and
one who is thoroughly popular with his students and
patrons. He has devoted himself throughout his ma-
ture years to that which he loves, his family and his
profession. His pleasant and genial manner wins him
friends wherever he goes, haughtiness and ostentation
finding no part in his composition. His years rest
lightly upon him and the fine physique which he de-
veloped in his earlier days has the vigor of a man many
years his junior. He is a typical representative of the
age in which he lives and of the city which is his home.
His place in the annals of his profession is secure, for
he may well be placed among the benefactors of his
race.

Dr. Low was married at Milford, New York, to Miss
Roena Knapp, a woman of rare qualities and attain-
ments. Two children are the fruit of this union—Maud,
born July 24, 1858, and Mabel, born September 30, 1861.
CHAPTER XXXII.

 

 

 

 

PROMINENT MEN, PAST AND PRESENT.

 

 

    
 
 
 
 

ENRY W. KING. The life of Henry
Py ~=W. King is full of instruction to the
youth whose future is all before him.
Mr. King was in the fullest and best
a sense of the phrase ‘'self-made,”
but, unlike many who boast of their
achievement in self-construction,
he was neither a narrow nor a one-
<“S sided man. That he built up one
~ of the great businesses of a great city
and acquired wealth is true, and it also
~ is true that his financial belongings were self-
made; but it is true also that as he acquired
wealth he also acquired culture, and that he made both
wea‘th and culture subservient to the welfare of his less
fortunate or less high!y-endowed fellow-creatures. Mr.
King was born at Martinsburg, Lewis County, New
York, December 18, 1828, and was educated in the pub-
lic schoo's of Martinsburg and in Lowville, New York,
Academy. His father was Mr. William King, who did
business as a general merchant in Martinsburg, and, prior
to her marriage, his mother was Miss Christina Rockwell.
Upon completion of his academic term Mr. King en-
tered his father’s store as a clerk, whence he moved into
the larger sphere of Utica, New York, engaging as clerk
and salesman in the store of Kellogg & Rae. In 1854
he settled in Chicago and established the clothing house
of Barrett, King & Co., River street. This firm endured
for about four years, at the expiration of which time,
by mutual agreement, the partnership was dissolved.
Mr. King then founded the firm of King, Kellogg &
Co., the Kellogg of the new firm being Mr. King’s old
employer in Utica. The firm of King, Kellogg & Co.
existed and prospered from 1858 until May, 1868, in
which month Mr. King organized the firm of Henry W.
King & Co. Henry W. King & Co. occupied the build-
ings known as 2, 6, 8 Lake street as their first place of

eee ON Nm t$mmimM a

business and held them until the great fire of 1871. The
nearness of the business place of Henry W. King & Co.
to the great lake was fortunate, as the firm was able
to convey a considerable part of its goods beyond the
reach of the flames; its losses nevertheless were large.
The firm at once resumed business, its new abode being

 

 

 

 

 

HENRY W. KING.

on Market street, near to Monroe; thence it was soon
moved to the corner of Madison and Franklin, and again
in 1890 to the spacious offices and warehouse on the
corner of Adams and Market. During all these vears
the business of Henry W. King & Co. had increased
steadily until the firm had assumed a commanding place
among the clothing houses of the West. The well-
known house of Browning, King & Co. conducts the

429
430

retail business, and has establishments in Chicago, New
York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati,
Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha,
Brooklyn, Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode
Island. In addition to the management of the affairs of
the great firm that was the creation of his thought and
enterprise, Mr. King served as director of the Commer-
cial National Bank from 1865 to 1898, and also for a con-
siderable period as director of the Liverpool, London
& Globe Insurance Company.

Mr. King was a promoter of that worthy institution,
the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and during the
years 1870-71-72-73 was its president. During the
last three years of his presidency the society distributed
the $5,000,000 that were the sum of the world’s con-
tribution for relief of the surviving victims of the great
Chicago fire. The prudent and indefatigable services
of Mr. King in the distribution of this vast sum caused
the Chicago Relief and Aid Society to be regarded as a
model for like organizations throughout the country.
On resigning the office of president, Mr. King was
elected treasurer of the society, and so continued for
many years.
president of the Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan
Home Asylum and as director of the Old People’s Home.
But, indeed, his charities were almost universal. He
was an unostentatious, prudent and liberal giver to all
worthy charities, public or private. By religious affilia-
tion Mr. King was Presbyterian, and gave largely of
time and money in aid of the local and general work
of the Fourth Church, in which he held membership.
.\s a member of the Commercial Club, of which he was
president in 1896, and of the Literary and Historical
societies of Chicago, Mr. King gave evidence of dis-
tinct aptitude for literary work. His addresses to the
Commercial Club and the papers contributed by him to
the literary and historical societies were regarded by
competent judges as models of terse eloquence.

Mr. King was married June 22, 1858, to Miss
Aurelia R. Case, daughter of the late John R. Case of
this city. Three children survive—one son, Francis,
now managing partner of the firm founded by his father,
and two daughters—Elizabeth, married to Mr. Cyrus
Bentley, and Christina, married to Mr. S. H. Pomeroy,
both of this city. Mr. Henry W. King died April 13,
1898, leaving behind a memory fragrant of good works.

Martin Ryerson, who died full of years and honors at
Boston, September 6, 1887, was among the last of the
group of men who saw and aided in the transition of the
great West from a series of frontier settlements into a
group of highly prosperous and cultivated states. Mr. Ry-
erson was born in Bergen County, near Patterson, New
Jersey, January 6, 1816. His parents were Tunis and
Jane Ryerson, descendants of a Dutch family that emi-
grated to America from Amsterdam in the year 1646.

He also served for several years as vice-'

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The childhood of Martin Ryerson was marked by all
the incidents of hardship and of pleasure that fell to the
lot of a country-born boy in the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century, and his book learning was such as the
country schools of that period afforded. But Mr. Ry-
erson was destined to be thoroughly educated in the
university of the world, and, like Homer’s favorite hero,
to become acquainted with many cities and to know the
minds of many men.

At the early age of sixteen, he left his Eastern home
and made his way by the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes
to Detroit, where he engaged his services to Richard
Godfrey, an Indian trader, and with him went to Grand
Rapids, which was then little more than a hamlet on the

 

 

 

 

 

MARTIN RYERSON.

verge of civilization. In 1835 Mr. Ryerson transferred
his services to Louis Campan, another Indian trader,
and in 1836 he went to Muskegon, where for three years
more he helped Joseph Trottier to barter such manufac-
tured commodities as the aborigines desired in exchange
for furs and peltries. During ali these years Mr. Ryer-
son maintained the most friendly relations with the In-
dians and made himself familiar with their language and
modes of life. He formed a very favorable opinion of
the character of the red men and at a later day, when he
had acquired wealth and had become a noted citizen of
the great metropolis of the West, he testified to his ad:
miration of his old untutored friends by the erection of
that spirited bronze group which is one of the chief
adornments of Lincoln Park, and which perpetuates the
memory of the once powerful Ottawa nation. The
group is one of the best works of the sculptor, J. J. Boyle.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

As early as 1831 Mr. Ryerson had discerned the ca-
pacities of the lumber region of the Northwest, and had
purchased a saw mill at Muskegon, Michigan. In 1851 he
came to Chicago and founded the firm of Williams, Ry-
erson & Co., his partners in this venture being John M.
Williams and Robert W. Morris. The firm went into
business at the corner of Canal and Fulton streets, but
soon afterward the business was enlarged by the estab-
lishment of another yard on Beach street, between De
Koven and Bunker streets. In 1865 Mr. Ryerson re-
organized his business interests in Michigan, Henry H.
Getty, Ezra Stevens and Charles T. Hills being admitted
to partnership. The new firm was known as Ryerson,
Hills & Co. In 1867 the Chicago house took the name
of Martin Ryerson & Co. After the death of Mr. Ste-
vens in 1869, the business of the firm was conducted by
the surviving partners until 1880, when Mr. Ryerson’s
son, Martin A. Ryerson, was admitted to membership.
A rigid honesty, a tireless energy and a wonderfully ac-
curate foresight were the attributes that were character-
istic of Mr. Ryerson’s business career and that crowned
it with marvelous success.

But Mr. Ryerson was not merely a man of business.
His intellect was capacious and his spirited nature uni-
versal in its sympathies. As soon as ample means gave

ample leisure he spent much of his time in travel in this
country and in Europe, and by exercise of his extraor-

dinary faculty of observation and of his exceedingly
sound judgment, both of them leavened and tempered
by native refinement, he attained a polish of manner and
an elegance of diction that many a traveled graduate of a
famous college has failed to acquire.

Mr. Ryerson has left a memory fragrant with the
flowers of charity. While living he was a generous con-
tributor to every worthy cause, and at his death he left
property valued at more than $225,000 for the use of
eight of the charitable institutions of Chicago. The
capital sum is known as “The Martin Ryerson Charity
Trust,” the income of which is divided equally between
four Protestant and four Roman Catholic hospitals and
asylums. The beneficiaries of this more than princely
endowment are the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, the
Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, the Old
People’s Home, the Chicago Hospital for Women and

‘Children, the Alexian Brothers’ Hospital, St. Vincent’s
Infant Asylum and Mercy Hospital. Mr. Ryerson never
identified himself with any church, nor did he confine his
gifts to any sect. He was universal in his mental and
spiritual sympathies. ‘‘Nothing that is human is alien
to me” will be taken as the aphorism most descriptive
of his character. ;

Mr. Ryerson was married in 1851 to Louisa W. Du-
vernay, and after her death in 1855 to Mary T. Caimpan,
daughter of Antoine Campan of Grand Rapids, Mich.

431

Albert Merritt Billings was born in Royalton, Wind-
sor County, Vt., April 21, 1814, son of John and Hannah
Brown Billings. His mother was the daughter of Judge
Jonathan Brown of Pittstown, New York. He tacked
two and a half months of being 83 years old at the time
of his death, February 7, 1897. His ancestors on the
paternal side settled in Plymouth County, Massachu-
setts, soon after the Mayflower landed her first passen-
gers; from that time down the family has been hon-
orably associated with the history of the nation. Deacon
John Billings, of the Connecticut militia, fought under
Generals Stark and Washington, as did Jonathan Brown
of Pittstown, New York (later a judge). John Billings,
Jv., father of Albert Merritt, served in the War of 1812;

 

 

 

ALBERT MERRITT BILLINGS.

aided in defeating the British at the battle of Plattsburg,
New York, September 11, 1814, which ended the in-
vasion through Canada of Northern New York by the
British. When peace was declared he went back to the
Vermont hills to cultivate his farm, and before many
vears had passed his son Albert joined him in the work.
The latter, however, was at that time too delicate to
make a good farm hand, and as some indoor occupation
seemed to be best for him, he was apprenticed to a har-
ness and trunk maker in Royalton. Having mastered
the trade, at the age of nineteen he removed to Clare-
mont, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, and there took
up a different line of work, joining his brother Edwin
A., who was a manufacturer of looms. He was held in
such high esteem by his fellow-townsmen that at the age
of twenty-one he was elected sheriff—was reelected an-
nually for eleven years. Mr. Billings resided in Clare-
432

mont until 1853, acquiring considerable property in real
estate and becoming interested in various patents. In
1854, having sold with profit his possessions in Clare-
mont, he removed to Groton, Mass., where he engaged in
the manufacture of yeast. Later he became interested in
business at Saratoga Springs, New York, locating there
in 1859. Financial matters in which he was largely
interested necessitated his personal attention and occa-
sioned his coming to Chicago in 1860. He entered into
the business life of the rapidly growing and ambitious
city without fear of defeat in any enterprise, and did not
withdraw from active business pursuits until within a few
hours of his decease, being compelled to desist only by
his last illness. Among the patents he owned was one
for gas-making. Associating himself with Cornelius K.
Garrison of New York, he acquired the franchise of the
West Side Gas Company, which was embarrassed finan-
cially. At that day the population on the West Side of
Chicago was small, and it seemed unlikely that it would
increase materially for many years, but Mr. Billings
thought otherwise, and began to plan for the future.
The charter of the company was amended, ample funds
secured, new works were built, and nearly every street
between the Chicago River and the extreme limit of West
Chicago was supplied with service pipes. At the same
time Mr. Billings, in conjunction with Commodore Gar-
rison, built and operated the first elevated railroad in
New York City; and soon after he constructed the St.
Louis, Kansas City & Colorado Railroad, subsequently
disposing of it to the Santa Fé Company. In 1873 the
Home National Bank of Chicago was on the point of
dissolution; Mr. Billings secured control of it, and at
ence placed it and the Home Savings Bank on so firm a
basis that the official examiners invariably found their
condition satisfactory, a full dollar of too cents being
en deposit for every dollar of liability to all deposit-
ors (excepting Mr. Billings himself) resting against the
banks. Both banks were conducted on the same prin-
ciple and passed safely through more than one financial
crisis. In March of 1890 Mr. Billings made a loan of
$175,000 to the manager of the Citizens’ Street Railroad
of Memphis, Tennessee, but soon found that the collat-
eral securities were worthless. He thereuponsecured con-
trol of the Citizens’ road, and later purchased the remain-
ing short disconnected lines, brought them under one
management, and introduced electricity as a motive
power, as well as other modern appliances, the total
outlay exceeding $2,000,000, and made the system a
model for other cities. Although Mr. Billings’ name
was ordinarily associated only with business transactions,
there was a department of labor less known to the public
to which much of his time was given, and in which he
expended money with a liberal hand. From early youth
until the day of his death he took a practical interest in
religious matters, both as a regular attendant of a house

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

of worship, and as a contributor to the spread of the
gospel. In the spring of 1869 his attention was called
to a part of Chicago where the population, originally of
the reputable class, had changed, and was then composed
of criminals and outcasts. He immediately purchased
and repaired a building afterward known as “Green
Street Church,” and sustained the mission work that cen-
tered there until his death, frequently appearing in the
pulpit himself for the purpose of giving familiar talks
on the Bible. He assisted work of like character in
other cities with similar generosity, especially that car-
ried on in New York by the Jerry McAuley Mission.
Loyalty to the interests of his old friends and associates
in business was a characteristic of Mr. Billings. In
1864 Com. Garrison failed in health and business. Al-
though his assets greatly exceeded his liabilities, it
seemed probable that his whole estate would pass from
the possession of the family. Mr. Billings went to the
rescue with his accustomed promptness and vigor, his
own interests being secondary for a time. Having so
arranged his business that he could leave Chicago, he
secured the services of Judge Corydon Beckwith, and
proceeded to New York City. After a year of hard fight-
ing in the courts he gained his end, the larger part of
Com. Garrison’s estate being rescued for his family.
Mr. Billings was married first in Claremont, New Hamp-
shire, September, 1837, to Lucinda A. Corbin. She bore
a son, and a daughter who died in childhood. The son,
Henry A. Billings, is a resident of Chicago. June 1,
1859, Mr. Billings married Mrs. Augusta S. Farnsworth
Allen of Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont. Both
Mr. Billings and his wife, Augusta S. Billings, who still
occupies their homestead, inherited strong mental and
physical constitutions. It was his habit to speak with
emphasis of the great assistance he continually received
from her in the conduct of all his varied interests, busi-
ness as well as personal. She bore him two daughters
and ason. One daughter died in infancy. The other,
Sarah Augusta, the wife of Charles H. Ruddock, died in
1869, leaving a son. Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Bil-
lings, the son of A. M. Billings by his second marriage,
is prominent in commercial circles of Chicago, and dis-
plays the business ability that was characteristic of his
father. He was married in 1885 to Blanche Elizabeth
McLeish, daughter of a well-known business man of
Chicago. They have two children, Blanche Paulina and
Albert M. Billings.

With the exception of an appointment to the Library
Board in 1873 Mr. A. M. Billings did not ac-
cept any of the many proffers of public office
during his residence in Chicago, being prevented
by the demands made upon his time and_at-
tention by his own manifold business interests.
His large personal influence and assistance, however,
were repeatedly sought by and many times rendered to
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

sticcessive mayors and comptrollers of the city in bring-
ing Eastern financial circles to an acceptance of Chi-
cago city securities at times when the city was in urgent
need of funds. Enjoying the most extraordinary finan-
cial credit himself in prominent banking circles, Mr. Bil-
lings was in a position to, and often did, render signal
service to the city of Chicago in many of its financial
matters.

Mr. A. M. Billings possessed an imposing and com-
manding personality. Huis voice was round and full, and
his style epigrammatic usually. Having a great fund of
personal experience and anecdote, as well as a remarkable
memory and a keen sense of the humorous, Mr. Bil-
lings was a most entertaining conversationalist. These
same qualities, however, added to his keen insight into
and knowledge of human nature, his indefatigable indus-
try, perseverance and long experience in all matters of
importance, accentuated by his bold versatility of re-
source, mental as well as financial, made Mr. Billings a
most formidab!e antagonist, and naturally won for him
in some instances cordial hostility, as is the case always
with men of powerful individualities.

Being asked what he considered to be the secret of
success in financial matters, Mr. Billings replied that in
his opinion it was “to understand matters just as they
are, not as you may wish them to be, not as others may
seek to make you believe them to be, or fool themselves
into thinking them to be, but just as they actually are.”
In his own case he ascribed the desire to be successful
in all his undertakings, rather than any inordinate love
of money, to be the main incentive in the accumulation
of his own large fortune. .

Mr. Billings had the most pronounced opinions on
many subjects, and naturally some eccentricities. He
was well posted on Bible, topics, and quoted Scripture
readily and accurately, and was able to turn without
hesitation to any desired passage. He made no use of
profane language. He believed that personal injury
accidents were largely inexcusable and governed his
many business interests accordingly. He was very fond
of music and of children and the latter were fond of him.
A good horse was an especial delight and he drove a
fast and spirited mare in and about town, long after his
physicians had warned him that the exercise and ex-
citement in his case were harmful to him. He drove
with tight lines and sat bolt upright far out on the edge
of the open buggy seat, looking straight ahead and more
often than otherwise tranquilly drove down the wrong
side of the roadway, a habit probably due to his many
vears of railroad operating. where the track custom is to
pass to the left instead of the right.

Mr. Billings was often careless beyond credence in
the matter of tolerance of continued losses growing out
of the unsuccessful efforts of some of his subordinates, in
whose good intentions at least he had entire confidence.

28

433

While he often sought to instruct and correct them, yet
in case of lack of any good results from such measures,
he did not hesitate to resort to entreaty, warning, keen
ridicule, sarcasm or perhaps the tonic of praise or the
hope of reward; but actual punishment was often with-
held by him in the most remarkable manner. Speaking
of such losses Mr, Billings would say: “Oh, well, we will
make them all up on the next big enterprise we get into.
Give me a good big stake at issue and a wide field and
I will take care of myself and the rest of you, too.” This
speech illustrates another of the many varied phases of
his character. Even in talking to the smallest office
hoy in his employ, Mr. Billings always included the boy
conversationally by speaking of “our matters,” “we”
must do thus and so, etc.

During his whole residence in Chicago Mr. Billings
was never known to sell a piece of real estate which he
had bought for his personal account, unless he was
obliged to do so against his inclination by condemnation
proceedings for some public benefit. His reply to all
offers of purchase was: “Well, if it’s worth that much to
him, it’s worth that to me.”

Samuel Harkness McCrea, son of William and Abi-
gail (Harkness) McCrea, was born at:Goshen, Orange
County, New York, August 16, 1826, and died in Chicago,
February, 1891. His parents, both of whom were of
Scotch-Irish descent, immigrated to America from the
counties of Armagh and Tyrone, in the north of Ireland,
and settled in Orange County in 1820, where they re-
mained until 1839, when the family removed to Roch-
ester, in the western part of the state. While still a lad,
Mr. McCrea was apprenticed to learn the tinsmith trade,
but finding this occupation not entirely suitable to his
tastes, he relinquished it, and, in 1846, went to Canada,
where he remained three years, going from there, in 1849,
with his brothers, Abram and John, to the newly dis-
covered gold fields of California. A winter devoted to
the lumber-carrying trade on the bay of San Francisco,
and two years spent in the search for gold, comprised
his experience there and he returned East in 1852, hav-
ing won more than average ‘success as a miner. His
next undertaking was as superintendent of the construc-
tion of the New Orleans & Opelousas Railroad in
T.ouisiana. While he was thus engaged his headquarters
were on Bayou de la Fourche, in the heart of the sugar
region, where the climate is said to be fully as trying as
that of the Isthmus of Panama. The strong constitu-
tion and indomitable spirit of Mr. McCrea wrought a
change in the history of the enterprise, and although
it had previously been thought impossible for anyone
to remain there longer than a few weeks at a time, he
never left his post until two years later, when the work
had been compieted:and there was no longer any neces-
sity for his services. ;

From Louisiana, Mr. McCrea came to Illinois an
434

located in Rockford, where, in 1854, he took part in the
construction of the Dixon Air Line Railroad. From
Rockford he went to Sterling, and in 1855, when the road
had been completed to that point, he went to Morrison,
Whitesides County, and there engaged in the grain and
lumber business. He remained in Morrison seven years,
removing to Chicago in 1862 and establishing the firm

 

 

SAMUEL HARKNESS McCREA.

of S. H. McCrea & Co., which later became one of the
most extensive commission houses in the city. Mr.
McCrea was closely identified with the Chicago Board of
‘Trade at a time when that organization took the initiative
in all matters of interest and importance:to the welfare
and growth of Chicago. He was a director of that body
irom 1866-68, and in the last-named year was elected
first vice-president, becoming president in 1870. On
many occasions he served as a delegate from the Chicago
Board of Trade to the National Board of Trade, and he
was also a delegate from the same body to the conven-
tion at Boston which organized the National Board.

Mr. McCrea was a life-long Republican, being a
worker, and at various times being honored by the party
with offices of importance. [1e was a member of the
finance committee of the well-remembered reform coun-
cil of 1876-78, during Mayor Heath's administration,
which has the credit of restoring the city’s credit, then
at avery low ebb. Associated with him on this commit-
tee were Jacob Rosenberg, D. K. Pearsons, Jacob Leng-
acher and J. B. Briggs. Later he was elected county
treasurer, and during the latter years of his life had much
to do with the West Side system of parks and boule-
vards, on the board of which he was a commissioner
for several years. He took great interest in these af-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

fairs, as he felt that, if properly maintained and managed,
the parks and boulevards were destined to be of the
greatest possible benefit and enjoyment to the people.

A long and active life was allotted to Mr. McCrea, and
to his memory, as to that of others who toiled ever on-
ward and upward while the present metropolis was in
its infancy, belongs a proportionate share in the glory of
its present institutions. He was married in 1856 to
Caroline Isabel Johnson, a daughter of Daniel H. John-
son of this county. Surviving them are Willey S. Mc-
Crea, Charles M. McCrea and Samuel H. McCrea.

James McKindley, one of the pioneer merchants of
Chicago, was born at West Charlton, Saratoga County,
New York, February 22, 1827, and died at Chicago,
March 31, 1896. He was the son of John and Sarah
(Mairs) McKindley, natives of Argyle, Washington
County, New York. Mr. McKindley received his edu-
cation in the district schools and he later at-
tended an academy at Galway, New York. He
was scarcely of age when he entered his uncle's
store at that p'ace as a partner. An _ experience
of four years in the mercantile business gave him an
understanding of the opportunities afforded in a wider

 

 

 

 

JAMES McKINDLEY.

field, and wishing to see more of the great world and to
learn more of its ways, he gave up his business at Gal-
way and went to New York City, where, for a short time,
he was employed in a dry-goods house. The same desire
that had led him to New York turned his attention else-
where, and a year or so later he came West, locating in
Chicago in 1852. For a short time after taking up his
residence in this city Mr. McKindley was engaged in
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the insurance business, but he soon re-entered mercantile
life as a clerk in the wholesale grocery house of Flanders
& Wadsworth. No doubt this was the turning point
in Mr. McKindley’s business career, for some time later,
when the firm of Flanders & McKindley was established,
he found himself well on the way toward commercial suc-
cess. This firm was in turn succeeded by that of James
McKindley & Co., in which Mr. McKindley associated
himself with Messrs. George and Charles W. Church of
Hartford, Conn. Still later, when these gentlemen re-
tired, the firm was again reorganized, Mr. Granville 5.
Ingraham being admitted as a partner, the firm con-
tinuing until the early sixties as McKindley, Ingraham &
Co. After Mr. Ingraham’s retirement, Mr. McKindley
continued in business under his own name, although hav-
ing associated with him in partnership Messrs. James M.
and J. Montgomery Gilchrist. The latter retired shortly
after the fire of 1871, and the firm of McKindley, Gil-
christ & Co. was organized and so continued until 1883,
when the business was sold:to Reid, Murdock & Fisher.
“At this time Mr. McKindley retired, having spent over
thirty years in the wholesale grocery trade in Chicago
and having seen his own business increase from small
proportions to among the largest in the West.

Throughout the years of his long residence in this
city Mr. McKindley was deeply interested in all that
was done toward increasing the prestige of Chicago as a
financial and commercial center, as well as in all that
tended toward its advancement as a center of education
andart. He was the second president of the Merchants’
Exchange, having been e‘ected in 1864, and he was fur-
ther identified with many other organizations, among
them the Washington Park and Union League clubs.
In this latter body he felt great interest, especially in the
various patriotic movements undertaken by it. He was
also vice-president of the Oakwoods Cemetery Associa-
tion for five years.

Mr. McKindley was a man of indomitable will and
energy, inheriting his robust qualities of mind and body
from his Scotch ancestors. No better expression of his
character and life can be given than to quote from the
resolutions passed after his death by the Old Tippecanoe
Club of Chicago, of which he was a member: “He was
a gentleman in the full sense of that term, * * * a
steadfast friend and loyal citizen. He gave liberaliy of
his means during the war of the rebellion, and at its close
contributed generously toward the success of the Chi-
cago Fair for the benefit of the widows and orphans of

the brave men who had sacrificed their lives on the altar

of their country. »* * * Successfully passing through

the commercial crises of 1857 and 1873, and although a
heavy loser by the great fire of 1871, he met his engage-
ments at maturity, at 100 cents on the dollar.”

Mr. McKindley was not a member of any church, but
he always expressed great interest in religious matters,

435

and his Bible was his daily companion. He was mar-
ried July 11, 1865, to Miss Effie Gertrude Beall of Chi-
cago.

Voluntine C. Turner, an old resident of this city and
one of its pioneer street railway men, was born in Malta,
Saratoga County, February 25, 1823. His father was
a railroad man, having contracts for the construction of
the Erie Railroad and the Galena division of the Chicago
& North-Western road. While preparing for college
Mr. Turner was employed in his father’s office, and
gained there much of:the experience which served him
later when he became an organizer of the North Chi-
cago City Railway.

He studied at Oxford and Troy academies, and then
went to Williams College, from which institution he was

 

 

 

 

 

VOLUNTINE C. TURNER.

graduated in 1846. In the fall of that year he started
West, and on reaching Chicago took up the law, and for
twelve years made that his occupation. From 1848 till
1858 he was in partnership with H. A. Clarke. Then
followed a short business association with Benjamin F.
Ayer, after which Mr. Turner struck out for himself.
Early in 1859 he, with his father, William B. Ogden,
Charles V. Dyer and James H. Rees, secured a charter
for a street car line on the North Side. The company
was called the North Chicago Street Railway Company,
and Mr. Turner became its secretary and treasurer. He
acted in that capacity until July, 1865, taking an active
part in the management of the corporation. The ven-
iure proved a success, and in that year Mr. Turner was
made vice-president of the company, and in January,
1867, its president. From that time until Charles T.
436

Yerkes came to Chicago as the representative of an East-
ern syndicate and purchased the property Mr. Turner
was its ruling spirit. The horse railway had grown into
a rich investment for its promoters, and had been a pow-
erful factor in developing the North Division. As that
part of the city grew the lines of the company were ex-
tended, till the corporation attracted the atten-
tion of capitalists in the East and was purchased.

With the sale of his company Mr. Turner retired
from active business. He was fond of fishing and hunt-
ing, and these pastimes were his chief methods of recrea-
tion. Books and travel, too, took up much of his spare
hours, for he was a student by nature. He was for a
time president of the Pelee Club, whose members are all
enthusiastic sportsmen. Their clubhouse was on a Cana-
dian island in Lake Erie, off Sandusky, where they met
twice a year, in May and October, for a week of sport.
Among his fellow members were General Sheridan and
George M. Pullman. Although a member of the Union
and other clubs in this city, they occupied little of his
time.

In politics Mr. Turner was a strong Democrat, al-.

though he never held office. In the Tilden campaign
of 1876 he took an active part, and to his exertions many
were disposed to credit the large vote of the Democrats
in Chicago that year.

In May, 1851, Mr. Turner married Miss Eliza Smith,
daughter of Colonel Henry Smith, a former partner of
William B. Ogden. She died in 1886 and Mr. Turner
married a second time, his wife being a Mrs. Green.

Mr. Turner and his first wife were for twenty years
prominent members of St. James’ Episcopal Church.
Upon the organization of Professor Swing’s church they
left to become members of his organization.

James Otis, oldest son of Joseph and Nancy (Billings)
Otis, was born April 1, 1818, in Montville, Conn., a town
not far from New London, and died in Chicago, Septem-
ber 14, 1895. He was a descendant in, the eighth gen-
eration of John Otis, who came from Glastonbury, Som-
ersetshire, England, and settled in Hingham, Mass.,
in 1635. His ancestors on all sides were of the best
New England stock, among whom were the Pilgrims,
John Alden and Elder William Brewster and the Chester,
Billings, Comstock, Grant, Gardner, Miner, Raymond,
Griswold, Wolcott and Lynde families; all noted for
their integrity, perseverance and Puritan faith.

His grandfather, Asahel Otis, traded in 1821 one
nundred acres of his Montville farm for two thousand
acres in Erie and Huron counties, Ohio, being a portion
of a great tract of 500,000 acres set apart in 1792 by the
Connecticut Legislature for the relief of the inhabitants
of New Haven, Fairfield, Greenwich, Danbury and other
towns near the coast, who suffered by fire and pillage
from the incursions of the British troops, during the
Revolutionary war. These lands in Ohio were divided

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

pro rata among the sufferers, and for a long time were
called “Sufferers’ Lands” or “Fire Lands.”

Joseph Otis, father of James, brought his wife and
two children, Lucius B. and Elizabeth, from Montville
to Ohio in 1822. James came in the following year.

The place selected for their home was Eldredge
Township, afterward known as Berlin Township. For
six months they lived in a log house, with a blanket for
the front door; then they moved into the first frame
house built in the township.

The lives of those sturdy pioneers were devoted
mainly to hard work and there was little time or
opportunity for the education of the children. Such
knowledge as they acquired was obtained from

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES OTIS.

the district schools and around the fireside in the winter
evenings. James had the benefit of a few terms at the
Huron Institute in Milan, O.

His first venture in life was as a merchant in connec-
tion with Ahira Cobb, at Vermillion, O., on Lake Erie.
The partnership was finally dissolved, Mr. Cobb going
to Cleveland. Mr. Otis, with Judge Andrews, then es-
tablished the first bank in Milan, under the name of
Andrews & Otis.

While still a young man he perceived the growing
possibilities of the West. Between the years 1840-1850
the great tide of immigration, which has made Illinois,
Wisconsin and the states across the Mississippi what they
are to-day, was pouring steadily across New York and
Ohio. James and his brother, Lucius B., then a lawyer
in Fremont, O., decided to join the current of immigra- -
tion and go West. There were three cities at that
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

time in the West, of almost equal size and importance,
Milwaukee, Chicago and Kankakee. Mr. Otis visited
each of these and for a time was undecided as to the one
promising the greatest future. His final decision was in
favor of Chicago, a city which has since become the me-
tropolis of the West.

In 1856 he purchased from Charles Follansbee fifty
feet of ground on Wabash avenue, fronting east, midway
between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets, for
his new home. He arranged that all the joists, flooring
and casings for the construction of this house should be
brought from Ohio. The timber was cut on his farm,
dressed at the mill in Bérlin Heights and then carried
by boat from Huron, O., to Chicago.

When Mr. Otis first arrived here he entered into
partnership with his brother, Lucius B., under the firm
name of L. B. Otis & Co., for the purpose of loaning
money on real estate security. The business was pros-
perous and was carried on until the beginning of the war,
when the partnership was dissolved and the brothers in-
vested their capital in real estate.

When he was still a young man (1842) Mr. Otis had
the good fortune to establish a warm friendship with
Missionary Marcus Whitman, who saved Oregon to the
Union. The latter was on his way to Washington to see
Daniel Webster and President Jackson, and Mr. Otis
traveled with him from Buffalo to Cleveland. The his-
tory of the Oregon trouble was thus obtained first hand
by him from Whitman and was an event which Mr.
Otis was always fond of relating.

Although he lived a very quiet life, Mr. Otis was
a great worker in educational and religious matters.
He was treasurer, from 1870 to 1884, of the board of
trustees of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of
the Northwest, now known as the McCormick Theo-
logical Seminary. He furnished the means for plant-
ing the Chicago Tribune. He was one of the founders
of Calvary Presbyterian Church, which was organized in
the schoolroom of the Chicago Orphan Asylum in 1859.
Among those associated with Mr. Otis in the work of
this church were Messrs. B. B. Chambers, Joseph Mee-
ker, W. F. Myrick,, Daniel A. Jones, Ebenezer Jenkins,
W. S. Ingraham and George Gilbert, all of whom have
passed away. Joseph N. Barker is still living. After the
fire in 1871 Calvary Presbyterian Church united with
the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Otis was chairman
of the building committee of the present edifice at the
corner of Indiana avenue and Twenty-first street.

Rev. Edward Anderson, the second pastor of Cal-
vary Presbyterian Church, came to Chicago from St.
Joseph, Michigan, in 1859. He was present at the
funeral of Mr. James Otis, and afterward wrote to Mr.
Philo A. Otis, giving some interesting experiences in
Chicago in 1860:

“It is interesting to remember that at that time (1860)

437

all beyond my house, which was on Michigan avenue, a
iew blocks south of Ringgold place (now Twenty-second
street) was given to market gardens and that Mr. Myrick
had the stockyards at Cottage Grove avenue, at about
what is now Thirtieth street, and that all thereabouts was
country roads. Your father used to prophesy the great-
ness that he lived to see of this South Side; but I could
not credit him in what seemed to me wild hopes. Yet
now I am writing at Fifty-fifth street and seem yet to be
in the heart of the city. I do not know where in the
present city was the reform school, but we rode through
wild roads then to reach it and all about it were farms,
with little promise of streets, still less of a great city.” An
interesting incident in the career of James Otis was his
visit to President Lincoln as a member of the Chicago
committee, to urge the emancipation of the slaves. The
committee consisted of Rev. John Dempster, D. D., pres-
ident of the Garrett Biblical Institute, Rev. William Pat-
ton, D. D., of the First Congregational Church, and Mr.
James Otis, who represented the Presbyterian church.
The committee had a long interview with Mr. Lincoln,
who told its members he was glad of the support which
was assured from the Christian people of the Northwest.
He said the time was not then ripe for issuing such a
proclamation, but intimated that it might not be far off.

Mr. Otis was married in 1845 to Miss Margaretta
Adams, daughter of Deacon Philo Adams of Huron, Ohio,
a man well known throughout that part of the country
for his piety and integrity. His wife died in 1866. Five
children were born to them: Philo Adams Otis; Lu-
rena Baldwin Otis, wife of Charles H. Starkweather, died
in 1877; Dr. Walter Joseph Otis, now residing in Bos-
ton; Arthur J. Otis, died in 1870; Nancy Billings Otis,
died in infancy.

Mr. Otis was one of those valuable characters who was
strong enough and broad enough to be of equal service
to the community, the church and the country. The
city owes much to him for its prosperity, for he possessed
the most unbounded faith in its future, and through this
enthusiasm alone worked a wonderful amount of good
among his fellow-men.

Col. George R. Davis, deceased, son of Benjamin
and Cordelia (Buffington) Davis, was born at Palmer,
Massachusetts, January 3, 1840. Hereceived a good
education in the public schools of his native state
and in Williston Seminary at East Hampton, from
which he was graduated at the age of twenty.
Following this he was engaged in business with
his father at Springfield, Massachusetts, until the
outbreak of the war, when he accepted a cap-
tain’s commission in the Eighth Massachusetts Regi-
ment; his command being assigned to the Eighteenth
Army Corps and participating in active service through-
out the campaign in the Carolinas during 1862-63. In
1863 Colonel Davis’ term of enlistment expired, and after
438

being mustered out, he was authorized by the governor
of Massachusetts to organize a battery of light artillery,
which he did; but when the time came for being mustered
in, it was found that they were to be assigned to the
heavy ordnance, instead of the lighter service, and as
this promised a life much less active than he had antici-
pated, he resigned his captain’s commission and accepted
another with the Third Rhode Island Cavalry. In De-
cember of the same year he was promoted major and
commanded this regiment during its entire active service
in the field until the close of the war.

Hostilities over, he was mustered out at New Or-
leans, but he immediately re-entered the regular army in
a civilian capacity. He was assigned to duty at the head-

 

 

 

 

 

COL. GEORGE R. DAVIS.

quarters of General Sheridan as superintendent of rail-
roads, river and ocean transportation in the Department
of the Gulf, and so remained until General Sheridan was
transferred to the Department of the Missouri, when he
accompanied him to his new headquarters at Fort Leav-
enworth, Kansas. .

Colonel Davis remained with General Sheridan
through the Indian campaign of 1866-69, and in the lat-
ter year removed to Chicago with him and spent two
years in his service at this point. He resigned, however,
in 1871, and for the following few years turned his at-
tention to insurance, successfully managing the West-
ern field for several large Eastern companies.

A man of Colonel Davis’ ability and public acquaint-
ance could not very well keep out of politics and it is not
surprising that a few years after leaving the army he
shou‘d be induced to accept the nomination for Congress

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

from the Republicans of the old West Side Second Dis-
trict. His successful opponent was the late Carter H.
Harrison. In 1878, two years later, he was again nom-
inated, and this time elected by a good majority and sub-
sequently re-elected for two additional terms. His
career while in Washington was one to reflect honor not
only upon himself, but upon his constituents, and when
his last term expired, in 1884, he was selected to head
the county ticket as a candidate for county treasurer.
His election followed almost as a matter of course, and
his administration of the city’s funds was as far above
reproach as his career in Congress had been a lasting
credit to those who elected him.

Colonel Davis was prominent in the national deliber-
ations of the Republican party. While he was a mem-
ber of Congress he represented the Third District of
Illinois at the national convention of 1884, and he wasa
delegate at large to the convention of 1888, at which
he led the Gresham forces. He was a member of the
Republican national committee and of the executive
committee of that body.

In 1890 he accepted the position of director-general
of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The responsi-
bilities of this office were many, but Colonel Davis’ long
experience in positions of trust enab!ed him to cope suc-
cessfully with them and bring success to the exposition
and renown to Chicago.

As is but natural from his prominence in affairs in
Chicago for so long a period, Colonel Davis was a mem-
ber of many of the social and professicnal organizations
of the city, among them being the Chicago Union
League, Washington Park, Illinois and Fellowship clubs.
He also was a member of the Masonic order and military
order of the Loyal Legion, of the Grand Army of the Re-
public. Colonel Davis was married July 25, 1867, to
Miss Gertrude Schulin of New Orleans, and died at Chi-
cago, 1899.

Matthew Laflin was born at Southwick, Massachu-
setts, December 16, 1803, and died in Chicago May 25,
1897, at the ripe age of 93 years. He was a son of Mat-
thew Laflin, who was of Irish extraction, and of Lydia
(Rising) Laflin, who came of English ancestry. Mr.
Matthew's early life did not differ materially from that
ef the average New England boy and his facilities for
obtaining an education were somewhat limited, although
he attended school a portion of each year from the time
he became of school age until he was sixteen years old,
and in his seventeenth year attended school for nine
months at “Old Hadley.” At the end of that time he
entered the store of Laflin & Loomis, at Lee, Massachu-
setts, as a clerk, and remained there one year.

When Matthew Laflin was ready to start out in the
world on his own account, he formed a partnership with
his elder brother, Roland, for the sale of powder, manu-
factured at his father’s mills. He himself took charge
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

of the sales, which were made largely from wagons travel-
ing through the country. This partnership continued
for one year, and at the end of that time he had saved
‘enough money to enable him to purchase an interest in
the Canton (Conn.) Powder Works, which he retained
for seven years. In the winter season, when the powder
trade did not require his attention, Mr. Laflin interested
himself in other kinds of trade, such as the purchase of

 

Om
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P(e
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439

parent plant of the great corporation now known as the
Laflin-Rand Powder Company, located at Kingston,
New York. It was with a view of supplying powder,
which would be used along the line of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, then building, that occasioned Mr.
Laflin’s first visit to the West, in 1857. A short stay
in Chicago impressed upon him the fact that it was a
town of great possibilities, and in 1859 he severed his

 

 

THE MATTHEW LAFLIN MEMORIAL BUILDING, ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, LINCOLN PARK-

furs and skins, and on one occasion he traveled several
imonths in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick selling
“bark mills,” a patent device for crushing the bark used
in tanning leather. After disposing of his business in
Canton he went to Saugerties, New York, where he en-
gaged in the manufacture of axes. This enterprise,
however, proved a losing venture, and he returned again
to the powder business, this time associating himself
with another brother, Luther Laflin, and with Solomon
Albert Smith. The establishment thus founded was the

connection with the powder business and took up his
location here. Having some means at his command, Mr.
Laflin began making purchases of real estate in and
ebout the town. The rapid development of the country
tributary to Chicago convinced him that the growth of
the chief city of the region would be great, and, while
some purchasers were hesitating about getting away
from the recognized business center, he was purchas-
ing outlying lands, his investments proving greatly to
his profit.
°

440

Mr. Laflin was ever a progressive spirit, and many
of Chicago’s earliest enterprises gained impetus from
his energy. The first stock yard, the first omnibus line,
the first system of city waterworks and many other of the
things so necessary to a city’s growth and well-being
were the results of his public-spiritedness . While he was
many times a millionaire, his vast fortune represented,

 

 

 

 

 

MATTHEW LAFLIN.

as a recent writer aptly states, ‘the accumulation of
something more than threescore years of active business
life, fifty-seven years of that time having been spent in
Chicago. Itwas the legitimate fruit of industryand econ-
omy in early life, and of investment wisely and judiciously
made at a later date, as the result of a careful estimate of
Western progress and development.”

There was no one who stood higher in the esteem of
his fellow-citizens than Matthew Laflin. His business
integrity was never impeached, and in every walk of
life his record was that of an upright and honorable
citizen. Although never ostentatious in his charities
he was known to his most intimate friends as a generous
and kindly man, full of sympathy for the unfortunate
and ever ready to give liberally of his ample means to
the relief of the distressed. In the Matthew Laflin Me-
morial Building in Lincoln Park he has left an imperish-
able monument of his great desire for the betterment
and uplifting of his fellow-men.

Mr. Laflin was married in 1827 to Miss Henrietta
Hinman of Lee, Massachusetts, who became the mother
of his two sons, now living, and a daughter who died
in infancy. She died soon after he began business at
Saugerties, and he married for his second wife Miss

THE CITY OF

CHICAGO.

Catherine King of Westfield, Massachusetts. His two
sons, George H. and Lycurgus, both live in Chicago, and
their sons have also grown to manhood in this city.

Orsemus Morrison. Few of Chicago’s picneers
rounded up a life of personal success and public useful-
ness more completely than the late Orsemus Morrison.
Born June 24, 1807, and died, while yet in the prime of
life, January 4, 1864. Mr. Morrison left a large fortune
to his heirs, and a memory that ever will be held in
esteem by those who cherish the ideal of a stalwart, yet
kindly natured manhood. The family of Morrison, of
which Orsemus was a scion, is of Scotch origin, and of
great antiquity. The Island of Lewis, the largest and
most northerly of the Hebrides, was governed at a very
early date by the confederate clans of the MacLeods,
Macaulays and Morrisons. In due time the adventur-
ous younger sons of the chiefs of these settled in Eng-
land, and afterward in the United States. We find John
Morrison, the first of the American family, settled as a
land owner in New Hampshire as early as 1735. Eph-
raim Morrison, the father of the subject of this memoir,
was in business as a farmer and as a manufacturer of
the real beaver hats—the woolly kind that to-day are

 

 

 

ORSEMUS MORRISON.

represented as the head covering of the typical “Uncle
Sam'’—in Cambridge, New York, at the time of the
birth of his afterward distinguished son, Orsemus.
“Home-keeping youths,” says Shakespeare, “ever
have homely wits,” but Orsemus Morrison was not of
this kind. While still a youth he left home in search of
a wider field of enterprise than a New York farm could
offer in the first quarter of the last century. After fill-
IGE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ing with credit the position of overseer on the construc-
tion of the famous Erie Canal, he came from Buffalo
to Chicago in the opening of 1833.

The population of the village, or rather the hamlet,
of Chicago was a trifle over 200. Mr. Morrison started
in business here as a carpenter and contractor, and with
some others took a contract for dredging the mouth
of the Chicago River. This was the small beginning
of the series of improvements that have made Chicago
the greatest fresh water harbor in the world.

Mr. Morrison’s energy and integrity soon made him
a marked character, and he was elected as the first

_coroner of Cook County. During his term of office he
held an inquest on the body of a man who was found
frozen to death in the woods; “the woods” covered the
tract now bounded by La Salle, Washington and Ran-
dolph streets. Subsequently Mr. Morrison was elected
street commissioner, and afterward alderman. He had
a firm belief in the “future great” city, and invested
largely in real estate. Among his purchases was in-
cluded the property now occupied by the Hotel Morri-
sen, corner of Clark and Madison streets; this, together
with some adjacent lots, he bought for $250, receiving
a title by patent, signed by Andrew Jackson, president
of the United States. This valuab‘e property is still in
the hands of his direct heirs, and is one of the few large
income-bearing realties that have remained in direct
family descent from the original patentee. Mr. Mor-
rison also purchased block 7, on the old schoo! section,
cornering on Harrison and Halsted streets; half of
this he afterward sold to his brother, the other half still
remains in the hands of his children.

Mr. Morrison was instrumental in bringing two of
his brothers, and his parents also, to Chicago; the
who'e family was eminent’y successful.

The “corner lot,” now occupied by Dale & Sempill,
was at one time owned by Orsemus, James and Ezekiel
Morrison, but Orsemus afterward sold his, interest to
James and Ezekiel. At the time of their death the par-
ents of Mr. Orsemus Morrison were owners of some fine
property on Monroe, near Halsted street; he re-
linquished his share to the younger members of the fam-
ily, who. at that time were not so well established as him-
self.

Mr. Morrison was a man of very large charities, and
he was as modest as he was generous. During the war
time his contributions in support of the wives aud chil-
dren of Union soldiers were really on a princely scale,
though he seldom or never allowed his name to appear
on subscription lists. In politics he was originally a
Whig and a practical abolitionist ; when the Republican
party took form he became one of its earliest and most
ardent workers. On his deathbed he said: “In all my
life I never have injured anyone willfully, and I die ow-
ing no man anything.” He was married to Lucy Paul

441

at Aurora, Erie County, New York, April 7, 1836. He
left two daughters, Hannah, now Mrs. Spofford, and
Lucy, now the wife of ex-Congressman Mills.

Albert Allison Munger, the late well-known capital-
ist and art collector, was born at Chicago, January 23,
1845, and died at the Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island,
Michigan, August 26, 1898. He was the only son of
Wesley Munger, a pioneer in the elevator business, and
of Marion (Allison) Munger.

Mr. Munger attended the public schools of Chicago
and in 1862 went abroad with his parents to complete
his education, returning in 1865. Three years later, on
the 23d of January, 1868, Mr. Munger’s father died, and
the former succeeded to a large estate, assuming his

 

 

 

 

ALBERT ALLISON MUNGER.

father’s interests in the elevator firm of Armour, Dole
& Co. and Munger, Wheeler & Co. Mr. Munger con-
tinued in active business. in Chicago for the following
fifteen years or more, but since that time his love for
travel took him from the city a great portion of the time;
and in 1890 he retired from active business entirely,
disposing of his interests in the elevator business, and
giving the management of his extensive real estate hold-
ings into the hands of his attorney, while he himself de-
voted his time almost entirely to his favorite method
of recreation—travel and the collection of fine works
of art.

- Mr. Munger began acquiring his collection of paint-
ings in 1886 and at the time of his death his collection,
the greater part of which in recent years had been loaned
to the Art Institute of Chicago, comprised sixty-three
paintings, including ‘“The Vidette” by Meissonier and
442

“The Bathers” by Bouguereau. Mr. Munger by his
last will bequeathed his collection of pictures and paint-
ings to the Chicago Art Institute, and the collection will
remain permanently with the Art Institute and will be
known as the “A. A. Munger collection.”

Mr. Munger was a citizen of much public spirit and
gave freely to the support of many charitable and philan-
thropic movements. His great love of pictures and his
thorough appreciation of everything pertaining to art
was the incentive for his enthusiastic: work in every
movement toward the betterment and elevation of the
human race by the influence of art in its various depart-
ments. He left a large estate, much of which, by the
terms of his will, was bequeathed to various charitable
organizations in the city of Chicago.

Genial at all times and with a strong personality
thoroughly mellowed by his extensive travel and contact
with people of the world, he was’ a valued member of a
number of organizations of a social nature, among them
the Chicago, Calumet, Union and the Washington Park
clubs. He also took an active interest in Company F,
of the First Regiment, I‘linois National Guard.

Mr. Munger was a bachelor and left no nearer rela-
tives than cousins.

Kasper George Schmidt, deceased, was born near
Wiesbaden, Germany, February 20, 1833, and died De-
cember 10, 1898. He was the son of John and Elizabeth
(Dinges) Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt acquired his: education
in the common schools of his native land and was later
apprenticed to learn the trade of a machinist, an occupa-
{ion in which he was still engaged at the time he reached
his majority. It was shortly after passing this ‘“mile-
stone” in his life that Mr. Schmidt came to America,
landing first at New York and from there coming to Chi-
cago. Fora few years after his arrival here he worked at
nis trade, part of the time in a machine shop on the corner
of Polk and River streets, owned by a man named Moses,
and a year or so for a man by the name of Gates, who
owned a shop near the intersection of Washington and
Canal streets.

In 1857, through some change in fortune, Mr.
Schmidt found himself out of employment and took to
peddling beer for one of the large brewing houses, travel-
ing from one part of the city to another with a team and
wagon. In this decidedly humble sphere of labor he
was more than ordinarily successful, and by 1860 had
saved sufficient money to embark in the brewing busi-
ness, although on no elaborate scale. In his first ven-
ture of this kind he associated himself with a Mr. William
Siebert, and the establishment, which was situated on
North Clark street, between Chicago avenue and Su-
perior street, was conducted under the name of Siebert
& Schmidt.

It was only a matter of two years or thereabouts when
it was found necessary to enlarge the brewery, and a new

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

location was chosen at the corner of Grant place and
Cleveland avenue, where larger and more commodious
buildings were erected. Mr. Siebert continued in the
firm until 1864, when Mr. Schmidt purchased his interest
and at this time changed the name of the establishment
to the K. G. Schmidt Brewing Company.

At the time of the Chicago fire, in the month of Oc-
tober, 1871, Mr. Schmidt lost everything except the land
upon which his brewery stood. His loss, however, did
not deter him from rebuilding on a more elaborate scale
than before, $65,000 being expended in the erection of
buildings equipped with modern and improved machin-
ety for the brewing of fine grades of beer.

 

 

 

 

 

KASPER GEORGE SCHMIDT.

For a period of neariyv twenty vears after the fire Mr.
Schmidt devoted himself to the interests of the business
which he had established, but in 1890, having at that
time nearly reached the age of threescore years, he dis-
posed of his entire interest in the brewing company and
retired, for the time being, from active business. —

Having always been accustomed to a life of hard work
rather than ease, Mr. Schmidt found it more of a task
to be free from the cares and worries of business life than
he had anticipated, and although he devoted much of his
time to the management of a fancy stock farm at Twin
Lakes, Wisconsin. he did not find therein a real substitute
for the life to which he had hitherto been accustomed.
It is not strange then that he again entered the business
world. In August, 1897, together with his son, George
K. Schmidt, he established the North Chicago Safety
Deposit Vaults, on the northwest corner of Clybourn
and North avenues, where he continued in active busi-
ness almost to the day of his death.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The North Chicago Safety Deposit Company is con-
tinued by his son. A general business is conducted in
real estate, loans and insurance, in addition to offering a
secure place for the storage of valuables. The vaults of
this company are the only safe deposit vaults in Chicago
equipped with the Bankers’ Protective Company’s auto-
matic electric burglar alarm system.

Mr. Schmidt was a Republican in his political affilia-
tions and served as alderman from the Thirteenth Ward
for two and a half terms, dating from the spring of 1868.
He was also county commissioner from 1874-77.

He was married in 1856 to Miss Barbara Wagner, a
native of Bavaria. There are four children of this union
living: Mrs. Barbara Kellner, Mrs. Herberth, Mrs.
Ernst Wohl and George. K. Schmidt.

Levi Ziegler Leiter is one of the few millionaires of
Chicago who are of Southern origin. The Leiters were
sufficiently strong in Maryland to have a town named
for them, and the subject of this biography was born in
1834 at Leitersburg, in that state. The family is of
Dutch Calvinistic extraction. At the early age of eight-
een Mr. Leiter started for what then was considered the
Far West, and tarried for one year in Springfie!d, Ohio.
In 1854 he came to Chicago, a city with the industrial,
social and political history of which his name will be
imperishably connected. Mr. Leiter’s first business
connection in Chicago was with the firm of Dows &
Van Wyck. After two years in the service of this firm
he passed on to that of the then famous house of Cooley,
Wardsworth & Co. Here he formed the acquaintance
of Marshall Field, and, acting in concert, they became
possessors of a controlling interest in the business, and
fmally transformed it, with great advantage to them-
selves, to John Farwell, under whose judicious man-
agement it soon attained to yet greater proportions.
Messrs. Field and Leiter then associated themselves with
Mr. Potter Palmer in the dry-goods business. Mr.
Palmer withdrew at the expiration of two years, and
from 1867 to 1881 the firm of Field, Leiter & Co. was
known as easily leaders of the wholesale and retail trade
of the West and as but slightly inferior in its volume
of trade to some of the more pretentious firms of the
East. The disastrous fire of 1871, while it crippled,
did not destroy the great trade that Messrs. Field and
Leiter had created. Ten years later Mr. Leiter, Mr.
Mield and Mr. Palmer could count their money by mil-
lions. The rapidity with which these three men achieved
fortunes seems to be magical, yet none of them were
“plungers” or “boomers.” Mr. Leiter, like his asso-
ciates, is distinguished by a rare combination of caution
-and courage. Prudence devises his plans; courage coins
them into execution. After retirement from the labori-
ous task of direction of the details of a vast commercial
business, Mr. Leiter gave his attention to the real estate
market, and thus acquired a second fortune.

443

It would be improper, however, to consider Mr. Leit-
er's career solely as that of a successful moneymaker.
He is the possessor of a magnificent library, and is better
versed in the science of economy as applied to politics
than is many a man who plays at statesmanship. The
benevolence of Mr. Leiter has found expression through
many channels, but chiefly through those of the Relief
and Aid Society, of which he was a director for many
years, and through those of the American Sunday-School

 

LEVI ZIEGLER LEITER.

Union. Mr. Leiter was first president of the Com-
mercial Club of Chicago, and he is a prominent member
of the Union League, Iroquois, Calumet and Washing-
ton Park clubs. Of late years Mr. Leiter has spent
much of his time in Washington, where he is reported
to bea friendly counselor of many noted Senators. Mr.
Leiter has one son, Joseph, and three daughters, Mary,
Nancy and Marguerite.

John Galt McWilliams was born at Peterboro, Mad-
ison County, New York, June 15, 1839. He is the son
of Hugh and Mary (Wilson) McWilliams. His parents,
who were of Scotch-Irish descent, were both born in
the north of Ireland and came to this country at an
early age.

Mr. McWilliams received his education at the Peter-
boro Academy, but he was only sixteen years o!d when
he left his books and began his business career as a
clerk in a dry-goods store in his native town. The work
proved congenial to him and in 1857, when he came to
(Chicago in search of larger opportunities, he sought and
found employment in the same branch of mercantile life,
becoming a salesman in the retail dry-goods house of
444

W. R. Wood & Co. Mr. McWilliams remained in the
employ of this then well-known establishment until Sep-
tember, 1861, when he laid aside the pursuits of civil
life, and enlisted in the army in defense of his country.
He joined Company E of the Fifty-first Illinois Infantry
as captain, and participated in the fortunes and misfor-
tunes of this regiment until the close of the war. On
March 24, 1864, he was promoted major and as such

 

 

~ JOHN GALT McWILLIAMS.

served until March 6, 1865, when he was honorably dis-
charged. Mr. McWilliams returned to Chicago and re-
sumed his business career as a salesman in the whole-
sale dry-goods house of Field, Palmer & Leiter. While
in their employ he organized the first notion department
ever established in a dry-goods house in this country, of
which he was later placed in charge. In January, 1867,
ihe firm-of Field, Leiter & Co. was estab'ished, and in
January, 1881, the name was again changed to Marshall
Fie'd & Co. Exactly two years later Mr. McWilliams
was taken into the firm as a partner. His connection
with this establishment continued until January, 1895,
when he retired, having completed nearly thirty years’
service with the house, twelve of which were on a part-
nership basis. Since then he has spent much of his
time in travel, and it has become his custom to go
abroad each year.

Mr. McWilliams is strongly Republican in his polit-
ical views, but he has never sought or desired to ho!d
public office. He has, at various times, held membership
in most of the prominent clubs and social organizations
of this city, but in late years he has allowed them to drop
one by one, and at the present time he is affiliated only

THE CIF OF CHICACG.

with the Union League Club, the Chicago Athletic As-
sociation, Grand Army of the Republic and Loyal
Legion. He has been twice married. His first wife was
Miss K. M. Wellard of Chicago, whom he married in
1867. She died in November, 1884, leaving one child,
Roy. His second wife, whom he married in the autumn
of. 1886, was Mrs. Caroline Wilson (Beall) Lee. Mr.
and Mrs. McWilliams reside at 3945 Lake avenue.

Orrin W. Potter, whose name will ever be promi-
nent in the history of the development, almost in the
creation, of one of the great industries of Chicago, was:
born at Rochester, New York, on Christmas Day, 1836.
Indeed, it would not be improper to speak of Mr. Potter
as among the chief factors in the creation of Chicago’s
greatest industry, for the famous North Chicago Rolling
Mill Company, of which he was president from 1871
until its consolidation with the companies forming the
Illinois Steel Company, has, in prosperous seasons, done
a business of $15,000,000 per annum and paid to its
workmen as much as $3,000,000 in wages for the
year’s work. This great commercial institution, now
merged in the Federal Steel Company, with an author-

 

ORRIN W. POTTER.

ized capital of $200,000,000, grew from small to over-
shadowing proportions under the prudent, yet energetic
management of Mr. Potter.

After receiving such an education as the public
schools afforded, Mr. Potter commenced a course of
self-education in the higher mathematics and civil en-
gineering. When but fifteen years of age he joined a
surveying party and traveled with it over considerable
portions of his native state and Canada. At this time
JHE CITY .OF CHICAGO.

he assisted in locating a good portion of the line of the
Great Western Railway, now a part of the Grand Trunk
system. In 1856 he moved westward and was employed
as a clerk in the rolling mill at Wyandotte, Michigan, that
once famous capitalist and steamboat owner, the late
Captain E. B. Ward, being proprietor. A year later
Captain Ward decided to build a plant in Chicago, and
so thoroughly had Mr. Potter earned the confidence of
his first employer in the iron trade that he was promoted
to the position of bookkeeper and paymaster of the new
institution. Upon the organization of the Chicago
Rolling Mill Company, in 1864, Mr. Potter was elected
secretary and general superintendent. In 1871 he was
elected president of the company, reorganized under the
title of the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company, a
position he held for more than a quarter of a century.
During all depressions in trade, panics and excitements
of all kinds, the master hand of Mr. Potter was feit in
the management of the company’s affairs. With one
exception, the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company
was the only corporation in the iron industry that did
not pass through bankruptcy at least once. Quick to
seize all advantages of new markets, new applications of
science to the process of manufacture, or new methods
of business,,he was also prudent to guard against rash
ventures. In business and in war the successful di-
rectors of industrial or military projects must possess
courage and prudence in nearly equal proportions. Mr.
-Potter’s successful career has demonstrated his posses-
sion of both these qualities in a remarkable degree.
Much of his success also has been due:to his quick and
correct judgment of the qualities of his subordinates and
to his unerring instinct in selecting the right man for
the right place. He has also been aided, during the
latter portion of his career, at least, by the zealous and
capable efforts of his son, Mr. Edward C. Potter. A
marked characteristic of Mr. Potter throughout his
career, and one which gained him an almost unique repu-
tation, was his great respect for any sympathy with the
rights of the wage-earners. And in return, no one was
held in higher esteem than was Mr. Potter by his em-
pdloyes.

Mr. Potter was married in 1858 to Miss Ellen Owen,
daughter of the late B. F. Owen of Marine City, Michi-
gan. There are four children of this marriage: Edward
C., who, after completing his education at the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, now is his father’s right-
hand man in business affairs, and three daughters, Agnes
Lyon, Gertrude Whiting and Margaret Horton, all of
whom have homes in Chicago. Mr. Potter has prac-
tically retired from active business and spends the better
share of the pleasant months of the year at his summer
home at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Potter Palmer comes of English ancestry, his
family having been among the first settlers of New Eng-

445

land. About the beginning of the present century his
grandparents removed from New Bedford, Massachu-
setts, to Albany County, New York, where they took up
their residence upon a farm on the western bank of
the Hudson River. It was in this county that both Mr.
Palmer’s father and himself were born. The former was
a farmer and the father of a family of seven children, of
whom Potter Palmer was the fourth.

Mr. Palmer attended school until he was eighteen
years of age, but at that time, having shown consider-
able aptitude for business, he entered a country store at
Durham, Green County, New York, where he began
his business career in the capacity of a junior clerk. At
the end of three years, however, he had developed such

 

 

POTTER PALMER.

rare capabilities for mercantile affairs that he was placed
in charge of the establishment. A few years later he
removed to Oneida County and embarked in business
for himself. He met with considerable success at that
place, as he did also at Lockport, Niagara County, which
was the next locality where he engaged in trade. Hav-
ing gone from the extreme east to the furthest western
point of the state of New York, he soon began to turn
his attention toward the then comparatively undevel-
oped region around the southern end of Lake Michigan,
which was at that time commonly spoken of as the “Far
West.” He appeared to comprehend, intuitively, what
were the future prospects of the then struggling village
of Chicago, which sat low down in the mud ofits sluggish
bayous. That his judgment was well founded was dem-
onstrated within the first decade of his residence here,
446

during which time Chicago had come to rank as twen-
tieth among the cities of the Union.

Mr. Palmer's first business venture after reaching
this city was in the dry-goods trade, in which he invested
all his means. It was not long before his became the
leading retail store in dry-goods, not alone of Chicago,
but also of the entire Western country, and it was but
a natural result that in time he should become a whole-
sale as well as a retail merchant.

It was in 1867 that Mr. Palmer, then about forty
years of age, retired from mercantile life with a large
fortune, having seen the business increase from $70,000
to $7,000,000 per annum, and having no rival in the
United States outside of New York City. He disposed
of his business to Marshall Field and Levi Z. Leiter, and
the house that he had founded was thereafter continued
successively by the firms of Field, Leiter & Co. and Mar-
shall Field & Co..

Mr. Palmer had amassed almost a princely fortune,
but the habits of a lifetime would not permit him to
remain long at leisure. He operated largely in real es-
tate, some of his ventures attracting criticism because
of their boldness, yet in no instance did the final result
show his judgment to have been at fault. At this period
Chicago, although standing in the front rank of the
commercial centers of the country, had found little time
ii which to consider improving her architecture or her
thoroughfares. State street was then extremely narrow
and unimportant. Mr. Palmer was quick to see the bene-
fits that would come to that section of Chicago by the
widening of the street and the erection thereon of hand-
some business blocks, and he also realized that the man

who should inaugurate the movement and successfully -

carry it to completion would realize very great profit from
the enterprise. He determined to be that man, and
went to work with characteristic energy. Within six
months he acquired title to a frontage of three-quarters
of a mile in length. Old buildings were moved back a
hundred feet or more, as might be necessary, while
upon unimproved lots new ones were erected fronting
upon the new line. By the end of four years the entire
street had been widened upon the lines which he had
originally conceived, with the result that the narrow and
irregular thoroughfare had become a broad avenue, a
mile or more in length. Mr. Palmer himself erected
many handsome buildings on this street, among them
being the first Palmer House. Affairs were in this
condition when occurred the great fire of October, 1871.
Probably no individual citizen suffered more heavily
through that disaster than did Mr. Palmer. What haa
cost him upward of two millions of dollars, besides years
of labor, vanished in a single night. A rent roll ot
$200,000 was wiped out, and his total revenue fell $15,-
000 below the amount required to pay his annual taxes.
It was not long before his iron will began to assert

THE CITY OF

CHICAGO.

itself, and, uniting with his fellow-citizens in their efforts
to rebuild what had been swept away, he led rather
than followed. His example inspired those of his fellow-
sufferers who had less confidence than he in the rehabili-
tation of the city, and it was such men as Mr. Palmer
and a few who acted in sympathy with his efforts that
caused that which had been at first supposed to have
been an irretrievable calamity to prove a blessing in
disguise.

Mr. Palmer has been a liberal contributor in all
of the great enterprises, patriotic,, benevolent, educa-
tional and philanthropic, that have been carried on for
the advancement of Chicago and its citizens. He is a
generous patron of science and art, and his handsome
home on the Lake Shore Drive contains one of the finest
private art collections in America. He was married in
July, 1870, to Miss Bertha Honore, daughter of Henry
H. Honore of Chicago. They have two sons, Honore
and Potter, who are still pursuing their studies.

Henry J. Willing, in whom everyone recognizes the
high type of citizenship to which Chicago owes much
of her world-wide renown, was born in the township of
Westfield, Chautauqua County, New York, on July 10,
1836, the son of Samuel and Mary Jane (Mayborne)
Willing.

When he was but seven years of age his father died
and the responsibility of instilling those traits of char-
acter which afterward marked him as one among many
fell entirely upon his mother.

A lineal descendant of the French Huguenots, she
so directed his early life that his later years were full
of many incidents which reflected the efforts of a fond
mother, whose only wish was that her son should be-
come one highly respected.

When Henry was ten years of age the family re-
moved to Chicago, and it was not long after this that
he secured his first employment in a store conducted
at that time by U. P. Harris, later so prominent as the
head of the city’s fire department. From the day that
young Willing first stepped across the threshold of this
store, he may be justly said to have begun his lifework,
for although his position in the mercantile world was for
many years of a most humble nature, still his own un-
aided efforts brought him into prominence in later
years as a partner in one of the greatest wholesale houses
that the West has ever known.

It was slow work, however, and, as time is often
reckoned, it was almost a score of years before his efforts
were rewarded by his being made a junior member in the
house of Field, Leiter & Co. During this period he
had passed from grade to grade in the mercantile busi-
ness and had gone from the little store of U. P. Harris
to the dry-goods house of Thomas B. Carter & Co. ; from
there to the larger and more extensive establishment of
Cooley, Wardsworth & Co.,and finally became employed
THE CITY OF GHIGAGO.

in the wholesale house of Field, Leiter & Co. His long
years of training in the mercantile business made his
services especially valuable to these well-known mer-
chants.

From that time on for many years the history of Mr.
Willing’s life was a part of the history of this great mer-
cantile house.

It is always difficult for some who are not familiar
with our largest mercantile establishments to under-

 

 

 

 

 

go HENRY J. WILLING.

stand how important a part is sometimes taken in a firm
of this kind by members whose names are never openly
connected with it, except by those who know of the
relations of affairs within. Few junior partners ever
won the recognition of those high in authority than
Mr. Willing, and few, indeed, ever possessed more sa-
gacity or good judgment than he.

At this time a marked degree of success began to at-
tend the firm.

For a period of fifteen years Mr. Willing devoted
himself without restraint to the business in which he
had gained an interest.

Although it is as a merchant that Mr. Willing is best
known, he has also been prominent in many matters
which find their support best served by liberal-minded
and philanthropic men. Among these should be men-
tioned his connection with the Presbyterian Hospital as
2 director, with the Northwestern Theological Seminary
as a trustee, and with the Chicago Home for Incurables,
to all of which he is, and has been, a liberal contributor.
He is also prominent in the directory of several of the
social and business organizations, and is identified in
membership with the Chicago Historical Society, the

447

American Historical Association, the Newberry Library
and with the Archeological Society of America. He is
much interested in matters of this kind.

Mr. Willing was a member of the first Board of
Drainage Trustees for the Sanitary District of Chicago,
being elected in 1889. Although first unwilling to un-
dertake such a responsibility, he at last yielded, and as he
became more and more in touch with the magnitude of
the problem, he became one of its most enthusiastic
supporters.

He was married in 1870 to Miss Frances Skinner,
daughter of the late Hon. Mark Skinner. Two children,
ivelyn Pierrepont and Mark Skinner, have been born
to them.

Lafayette McWilliams was born on June 11, 1843,
in the town of Peterboro, Madison County, New York,
the son of Hugh McWilliams and Mary McWilliams,
formerly Miss Mary Wilson. Both parents of the sub-
ject of this notice emigrated from Ireland to the United
States, and, as their names indicate, were of Scotch-
Irish and Protestant origin. After a period of prelimi-
nary education in the district school of Peterboro, Lafay-

 

LAFAYETTE McWILLIAMS.

ette McWilliams went to the academy in the same town,
which at that time had something more than a strictly
local reputation as a scholastic institution. After pass-
ing through the academy Mr. McWilliams, as has been
customary with the ambitious, but not wealthy, youths
of America, essayed the role of teacher in the village
school of Madison, New York, being engaged in that
work for one year, with a view to financial preparation
for a collegiate course. The fame of Oberlin, Ohio, at-
448

tracted Mr. McWilliams, and he enrolled himself among
its undergraduates. But other voices than that of Virgil
were beginning to sing of “Arms and the Man,” and Mr.
McWilliams was of those who heard and were entranced
by the patriotic strains. To drop metaphor, he left
Oberlin after a residence of but a few months, and re-
turned to his home, from which he enlisted as a private,
early in June, 1862, in the One Hundred and Fifty-sev-
enth Regiment of New York Volunteers. The meri-
torious character of Mr. McWilliams’ military career
is disclosed by a simple recital of its chief events. En-
listed as a private, and, wholly without political or social
influence to aid toward promotion, he successively and
successfully held the offices of third sergeant, first ser-
geant, second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain in
his regiment, and at the close of the war was recom-
mended for brevet promotion for honorable service. In
accordance with that sincerity of character which has
been the mainspring of his success in life, he declined
the “glittering generality” of brevet rank and went out
of the service as plain captain. Mr. McWilliams was
severely wounded at the battle of Honeyhill, South Caro-
lina, November 30, 1864.

The end of the war left Mr. McWilliams temporarily
lame from the wound in his leg. He rested and re-
cuperated at his home in New York until August, 1865,
and then came West “to grow up with the country.”
Arriving in Chicago he entered the service of the then
famous dry-goods house of Field, Palmer & Leiter, and
has stayed with it through the evolutions that have
culminated in the establishment of the predominant firm
of Marshall Field & Co. The same fidelity to duty,
quickness of comprehension of the details of a situa-
tion and promptness in execution of the requirements
of the moment that resulted in a series of promotions in
inilitary life have ensured to him corresponding ad-
yancements in the army of commerce and industry.
After holding various responsible positions in the great
firm whose employ he entered in the month of August,
1865, Mr. McWilliams was admitted to partnership with
it about ten years ago, and continued as such until
February, 1900, when he sold. out his interest and re-
tired.

In politics Mr. McWilliams is an ardent Republican.
In religion he holds to the Presbyterian faith, and is
one of the elders of the Sixth Church of that denomi-
nation. The military order of the Loyal Legion, the
Grand Army of the Republic, the Union League Club
and the Midlothian Golf Club ho!d the name of Mr.
McWilliams on their roll of membership. His out-of-
door recreations are golfing and driving.

Mr. McWilliams was happily married June 29, 1871,
to Miss Mary F. Goodman of this city. Four children—
three sons and one daughter—add to the pleasures of
the McWilliams’ home, 3961 Lake avenue.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Daniel Kimball Pearsons, M. D., LL. D. Those
who read the biographies of this volume cannot fail to
notice one prominent fact, and:that is, the nearly uni-
versal testimony that the leaders in every grand depart-
ment of society have been recruited from the ranks.
Under the laws of our favored land, there is. no eldest
son inheriting a vast estate of lands, and ‘money, and
honors, while the younger members of the family are
turned over to poverty, but all are given an equal
chance. True, we have in this country many mill-
ionaires. but how seldom it is that men promi-
nent in the arts, the sciences, in the literary world,
in the learned professions or in the marts: of trade
and commerce, are recruited from homes of opu-
lence. Great wealth to the young man, or a pros-

 

 

DANIEL KIMBALL PEARSONS, M. D., LL. D.

pective inheritance of great wealth, seems to give a
deadly blow to mental growth and that vigor of manhood
which are required to battle with life in the nineteenth
century. The rich young men are not in it. They
may know enough to hide their treasure and use its in-
terest for themselves, and spoil their children as they
have been spoiled; but they are not the men who hold
the nation’s pulse, prescribing for its health, and moving
the great engines that direct and control the social,
moral, physical and redeeming forces that move the
world. Chicago is a typical city, notable the world over
for its push and enterprise, but it is true that nine in ten
of the leaders in the moral, social, educational and com-
mercial life are men who have been architects of their
own fortunes. Not one in all the long list more certainly
illustrated this truth than does Dr. D. Kk. Pearsons. He
is the son of John and Hannah Pearsons, of Bradford,
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Vermont, in which place he was born April 14, 1820.
His father was a farmer, a man of intelligence, and his
mother was of the good old Revolutionary stock, a con-
nection of General Putnam, and her father was one of
the “Green Mountain boys,” famous for their courage in
the trying years of the Revolution. She lived to the ad-
vanced age of ninety-three, and died at Holyoke, Massa-
chusetts, honoredandloved. Evenat that early date, Mt.
Holyoke had an inspiring atmosphere which the younger
generation breathed. Dr. Pearsons’ early education was
in the common schools of his native state, and was so far
advanced that at the earlyage of sixteen he began teach-
ing as a means to support himself while taking a college
course. Five years he labored in that field, and others,
until he had accumulated sufficient to enter the medical
department of Dartmouth College, where he took a two
years course. He afterward pursued his literary studies
al Hanover, New Hampshire, and finally returned to his
native state, and at Woodstock, Vermont, completed his
inedical studies and was granted his degree of M. D.
Ife at once entered upon the practice of his profession
and met with marked success. Honorabte as is this
time-honored profession, it did not, even with its success
in practice, satisfy Dr. Pearsons, and he cast about in
a restless way for wider and more attractive fields. It
was in this mood that in 1860, the year prior to the great
war, he settled in Chicago and began a real estate busi-
nessasanagent. He soon had as his friends and helpers
some of the largest real estate dealers in the West, such
as Michael Sullivan, known as “the Farm King of the
West,” the large Sturges estate, and the Illinois Central
Railroad, which owned vast tracts of land. He at once
entered upon a broad fie!d of work and his sales in IIh-
nois alone were over one million acres. He came in
contact with farmers from all sections, and by fair dealing
secured their confidence, and afterward, when he had
joined his real estate with the business of a loan agent,
he was able to place $1,000,000 per year loans for ten
years, with profit to the companies he represented, and
to the great benefit to the farmers who were opening and
developing their farms and in need of capital. During
all these years, Dr. Pearsons had the best of opportunities
for making personal investments, in timber lands in
Michigan and in real estate, which he felt assured would
increase in value. _His judgment, which had proved so
acceptable to add to the fortunes of others for twenty
years, proved equally successful for himself. It was not
until 1887 that he gave up working for others and found
his whole time necessary to look after his own large in-
terests, covering a wide field. Dr. Pearsons was a
public-spirited man and took a deep interest in
public affairs, but had no time for public office-
holding. He was, however, induced to stand for alder-
man and was twice elected from the First Ward, and
wasamemberof the Finance Committee, where he made

29

449

a great reputation. It was at a time when the city credit
was impaired by reason of the city having borrowed
money beyond the legal limit and the corporation certifi-
cates had their validity called in question. Dr. Pearsons
visited New York and saw the capitalists there and as-
sured them that every dollar would be paid without re-
gard to what the courts decided regarding their validity;
and to assure them of this he offered to pledge his entire
fortune as security. He was thus enabled to secure the
money needed. He returned to Chicago and appealed
to the moneyed men of the city so effectually that they
raised $500,000 in the city, and its treasury was saved
from disgrace. His services met with enthusiastic ap-
plause from the people, who appreciated the gallant work
done. The city council caused to be engrossed a series
of resolutions expressive of the value of his services and
presented them to Dr. Pearsons. He was urged to enter
political life. To all appeals he said no. Political life
was not to his taste and his love of home and his increas-
ing business required his attention. We have no _ac-
curate knowledge of Dr. Pearsons’ wealth. He is not
the kind ofa man who talks of it, or makes any boast, and
his simple, economical habits would only convince any-
one knowing him that he was other than a well-to-do
man of business enjoying a competence. It is, how-
ever, well known that he is the owner of much valuable
real estate in the city of the productive class, that he is
a million-dollar owner of stock in the Chicago City Rail-
way, and has large holdings in five different banks. He
has also valuable holdings in other first-class financial in-
stitutions. Years ago he reached the conclusion that
his fortune was large enough. And white he was the
owner by law and right, having accumulated by fair
business transactions, yet he regarded himself only as a
tenant for life, and it was his responsible duty to see to
its wise distribution in the interest of his fellow. It was
then he began his systematic study of the situation, and
settled upon the wise plans of distributing his increasing
income. He made a business of it, and no earnest busi-
ness man who desired to make money has more steadily
and persistently studied the best way to give away his
money than Dr. Pearsons has. In the outset, before he
had formulated and studied the condition of education in
the West, he gave largely to build up the struggling theo-
logical seminaries in and about Chicago. Then Beloit
and Mt. Holyoke came in for large attention and to both
he has given princely gifts, which have made both insti-
tutions independent, because Dr. Pearsons’ generosity
has only excited others to liberal giving. For some
years past Dr. Pearsons has given large attention to
the young struggling colleges of the West, in the newer
states, where the people were poor and unable to get a
start. In every instance he has made a full study of the
situation and all its surroundings, present and prospec-

tive. He has built “science halls,” “dormitories,” l-
450

braries, etc., until he knows the cost of each and the
necessities for each class of buildings. He has plans and
specifications for all such buildings in his desk, and he
can give valuable pointers to nine-tenths of college presi-
dents who call upon him. Dr. Pearsons’ plan in aiding
struggling institutions is by giving a stipulated sum,
provided other friends of the institution would give three
times as much more. Thus he offers to give $50,000, if
others can be induced to add to it $150,000. It is thus
he has encouraged liberal giving in endowments to many
colleges all over the West, which his gift alone would not
have placed upon its feet and saved for usefulness. The
plan has been criticised, but the facts are, that in nearly
every instance the offer thus made has been accepted
by the people, and those who have not received their
money from Dr. Pearsons are working for it, and hopeful
of results. The biographer has not an official statement
of the gifts of Dr. Pearsons, but from various published
statements we have amounts given during the last few
years which foot up $1,900,000, to say nothing of the
smaller sums of five and ten thousand often repeated.
The largest gifts have been to the Chicago Theological
Seminary, $230,000; Beloit, $300,000; Mt. Holyoke,
$100,000; Lake Forest University, $100,000.

To other and smaller institutions he has given from
$25,000 to $50,000 each always with the proviso that
the friends of each should contribute three times as
much more. As tothe wisdom ofthis pian, it may be said
in near.y every case the college hassucceeded and claimed
the pledge. Many of these institutions are closing up
their finished work, and Dr. Pearsons expects to be
called upon for upward of $300,000 the current year, to
redeem his pledges. His theory is that the more men
and women become interested in an institution of learn-
ing the better, and that there is no surer way to do
this than for them to be persuaded to contribute of their
means for their upbuilding and permanence. Nothing
seems to please Dr. Pearsons more than the announce-
ment that the terms of his gift have been complied with.
He requires an itemized statement from the college
authorities. If it is endowment, the assets must be cash
or interest-paying securities. If all prove correct his
check goes by the first mail. He has thus placed on
their feet a dozen or more struggling colleges, whose
outlook for good work in the new states is most hope-
iul, of which Drury Colorado College, Pomona and
Whitman are examples. The last-named college, Whit-
man, Dr. Pearsons has taken a deep interest in. It was
a new college in a new state, founded by the admirers
of the old hero and Christian martyr, Dr. Marcus Whit-
man, and in memory of his patriotic life and services. Its
story touched Dr. Pearsons’ heart, and when he found
that its doors would likely be closed he put his hand
to his pocket and paid off the unpaid salaries of the
professors and a small mortgage upon the building, in

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

all $13,500. Then he said: ‘Now raise $150,000 cash
for endowment and I will add $50,000 to it.”

The idea seemed so large and the prospect so hopeless
to raise that amount that the president and faculty were
stunned at the proposition. The president resigned, and
a new and wide-awake Yale man was called to his place,
who at once set about the task. To-day the money is
all raised and is bearing interest, and a movement has
been started to raise money for new buildings in place
of those which are entirely inadequate to accommodate
the classes. The new life to the college has inspired
new life to the people in the great states Whitman saved
to the Union. Not only $200,000 cash for endowment
has been raised East and West, but during the three
years since the agitation began the people of Washington
and Oregon have erected a beautiful marble monument
upon the spot of Whitman’s massacre, built a handsome
little church and made a splendid mausoleum of “the
great grave,” which had been utterly neglected for fifty
years. It cannot be less than gratifying to a man who
is administering upon his own estate to see such an ap-
preciation of the public. How fortunate it would be to
the best interests of the world if muititudes of rich men
should thus conclude that they are but tenants or agents,
and resolve not to trust the business they can do better
to courts and executors and the doubtful process of
wills after they have gone. A will which has millions
at stake oftener falls than stands. Courts seem organized
to defeat rich men’s wills. Dr. Pearsons is now in his
eighty-eighth year, and yet he is as active and as fully
interested in all that concerns his fellows as the men
twenty years younger. He lives in a beautiful, retired
nome in the suburbs of Hinsdale, sixteen miles distant
from Chicago, but he is at his desk in the city at an early
hour each working day of the vear. His table is cleared
up before his visitors begin to arrive, and they come from
all sections of the land—ministers, presidents of colleges,
professors and agents of various charitable institutions.
He is a most approachable man, talks directly tothe point
and leaves no visitor in doubt. His work is mapped out
and clearly defined. He is not a church builder, or an
aider in paying out burthensome church debts, or adding
to the wealth of established colleges. His aim is to aid
and build up weak institutions, in localities mainly in the
growing West, where they are most needed, and he often
astonishes his auditors by the accuracy of his information
in regard to building up a college at the place desired,
and as to how it can be done. He loves to help those
who are doing their best to help themselves. Dr. Pear-
sons is a man remarkable for regular habits. He leaves
the city at noon every day and takes his lunch at home,
enjoys a nap and then drives over the beautiful country
roads about Hinsdale, frequently stopping to pass a word
with neighbors. He requires no coachman, but handles
the reins himself. Mrs. Pearsons (nee Miss Marietta
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Chapin) is a member of an old and time-honored family
ef Massachusetts. An unmarried sister, Miss Chapin,
resides with Dr. and Mrs. Pearsons, and makes up the
family group. She has long been an invalid, and they
are devoted to her interests and comfort.

In the years past they were great travelers, having
three times visited Europe and all sections of the United
States, and spent one winter, that of 1890, in Egypt.
We mention these things, which many regard as trivial,
but, in fact, they give the best insight into the real life
of a man who to-day is an object lesson to the world
along novel lines. There are multitudes of rich men and
women in the world, but there are few, who, after ac-
quiring a fortune, are as united as Dr. and Mrs. Pear-
sons in arranging wisely to give it away where it will
do the most good when they are gone. Who will say it
is not better than to wait and allow lawyers and courts
to squander it in endless litigations?

Harvey T. Weeks is a very creditable graduate of the
“self-made-man” college. He was born in Lockport,
Wills County, Illinois, and received his scholastic educa-
tion in the public institutions of his native town. His
father, Joseph M. Weeks, and his mother, who prior to
her-marriage was Miss Martha Lane, were estimable
people, though not largely endowed with riches. After
leaving school Mr. Weeks worked for a while in the
plow factory of his uncle, John Lane, and afterward
as clerk in a store where general merchandise was
bought and sold. It was now and here that the real
education of Mr. Weeks commenced, and he soon
proved himself to be a close student and a quick learner
of the practical affairs of business. In 1859, being
then but seventeen years of age, Mr. Weeks cut himself
adrift from the village life of Lockport and launched his
boat on the sea of commercial life in Chicago. For a
while he worked in a mechanical bakery, but soon en-
tered the employ of A. L. Hale & Co., wholesale furni-
ture dealers. He moved from Chicago to Pentwater,
Michigan, where he acted as clerk in the store of Mr.
Charles Mears, general merchant. His stay in Pent-
water seems to have been brief, for in August, 1862, he
was back in Chicago, in which place he enlisted in the
famous ‘Mercantile Battery,” and served his country
until the close of the war for the preservation of the
Union. Upon the restoration of peace he returned to
his native town of Lockport and entered into business
upon his own account. While here he was appointed
postmaster by President Andrew Johnson. He held this
office for about a year, though, owing to the historic
opposition of the Senate to all the acts and appoint-
ments of President Johnson, the nomination of Mr.
Weeks was not confirmed. After disposing of his busi-
ness interests in Lockport, Mr. Weeks returned to Chi-
cago, and, for a second time, accepted employment with
the firm of Hale & Bro., manufacturers of furniture.

451

The intimate and creditable connection of Mr.
Weeks with the larger business affairs of Chicago dates
irom about 1874, in which year he formed a partnership
with the late Carter H. Harrison. The business of the
new firm was confined to real estate, which at that time,
and for several years after, was one of the most active
of merchantable commodities. On November 20, 1884,
Mr. Weeks was chosen to act as president of the ‘‘Chi-
cago Horse & Dummy Railway,” which was the pro-
genitor of the great system of street transportation be-
tween the business center and the West Side of the city.
The title of the corporation soon was changed, on sug-
gestion of J. R. Walsh, the eminent banker, to that of
“The Chicago Passenger Railway.” The affairs of the

 

HARVEY T. WEEKS.

concern were financiered and managed during the period
of its conception and establishment by Mr. Weeks, who
still manifests an active interest in civic transportation as
one of the directors of the West Chicago Street Railway
Company. Upon the death of Mr. Norman T. Gassette,
Mr. Weeks was elected president of the Masonic Temple
Association, and was active in the financial work by
which that magnificent enterprise was brought to a suc-
cessful termination.

In May, 1894, Mr. Weeks was appointed by Gov-
ernor Altgeld to serve as a member of the West Side
Board of Park Commissioners, and was elected by his
associates as president of the organization. He held
this place for two terms, during which many notable im-
provements in the West parks and in the boulevards
connecting them were effected. For example, an elec-
tric plant, adequate to the production of light sufficient
452

for the illumination of all the parks and boulevards on
the West Side, was constructed. Jackson street was
converted into a boulevard, and thus a free and safe
passage for light vehicles and family carriages was
opened between all the West Side parks and Michigan
boulevard, which is the connecting link between all the
South Side parks and the business districts of the city.
When Mr. Weeks assumed the duties of president of the
Board of West Park Commissioners none of the boule-
vard street car crossings were furnished with groove
rails; when he resigned his position, upon the request
of Governor Tanner, ninety per cent were equipped
with the improved rails. The magnificent cycling track
and bandstand in Garfield Park; the natatorium in
Douglas Park, in which 4,468 men and boys and 542
women and girls bathed on Labor Day, September 7,
1896; the splendid conservatories in Humboldt and
Douglas parks, and the improvements of Ogden avenue
and Twelfth street boulevards are but a few of.the endur-
ing monuments to the energy and ability of the Board
of Commissioners over which Mr. Weeks presided.

Mr. Weeks is Democratic in politics, but is wide and
liberal in his views as to the management of all purely
local affairs. He has enlarged his knowledge of men
and things by extensive travel in Japan, China, the
Australian colonies, New Zealand, Hawaii and Mexico,
and in all the states and territories of this republic. He
is a director of the Bankers’ National Bank of Chicago
and of the West Side Street Railway Company. He isa
Mason of high standing, and holds membership in Gar-
den City Lodge, Chicago, and Oriental Consistory. He
also belongs to the Illinois Club, Union League Club,
Chicago Athletic Association and to the Cook County
Club. Mr. Weeks was married, June, 1870, to Miss
Joanna E. Marcy of Cape May, New Jersey.

Joseph Edward Otis, son of Joseph and Nancy (Bil-
lings) Otis, was born in Berlin, Erie County, Ohio,
April 30, 1830. His education was received, other than
that obtained by his contact with people and his ex-
tensive travels in later life, in the common schools of
his native town and a three years’ academic course in the
Huron Institute at Milan, Ohio. In 1851, just after
reaching his majority, he was appointed postmaster at
Berlin, serving in this capacity until 1855, when he
accepted a position as cashier of the Milan Bank, at a
salary of $600 a year. A short time later he bought a
half interest in this institution, and continued to be
actively connected with it until 1862, when the business
was brought to a close.

Through the vicissitudes of the banking business a
couple of vessels on the Great Lakes came into the pos-
session of the firm in 1860, and in July of this year Mr.
Otis came to Chicago to look after them. They were
principally used in shipping grain from Chicago to Buf-
falo and Oswego, New York, bringing back coal from

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Erie, Pennsylvania, and from Cleveland, Ohio. At this
time the prices for carrying wheat from Chicago to
Buffalo were very high and the business profitable.
The return trips, when coal was carried, were invariably
successful, cargoes being bought at Erie and Cleveland
and being sold in Chicago at a good profit. One of the
partners in the business died in 1864, and in the settle-
ment of the firm’s affairs the vessels were sold.

Mr. Otis then began his investments in Chicago real
estate, generally purchasing vacant central property and
subsequently improving it. These investments have,
without exception, been fortunate, because of his fore-
sight in the estimation of present and prospective values,

 

 

 

 

JOSEPH EDWARD OTIS.

and he stands to-day among the most conservative real
estate owners of Chicago.

His interests in Chicago have not been entirely con-
fined to real estate matters. In 1868, in connection
with Matthew Laflin, John V. Farwell, P Willard, James
Woodworth and others, he assisted in the organization
of the Chicago Fire Insurance Company. The company
was chartered under the laws of the state of Hlinois, with
1 paid-in capital of $100,000, and he was chosen presi-
dent of the Board of Directors, holding this position
for three years. Mr. Otis was elected a member of the
Board of Aldermen from the Second Ward in the spring
of 1870, and during his term of two years served on
the Finance Committee and the Committee on Streets
and Alleys in the South Division. Although elected on
the Republican ticket, he is not a partisan in the strict
sense of that term, especially in municipal affairs.

Of late years Mr. Otis has retired from active busi-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

ness and spends much of his time abroad. He has
always been an extensive traveler—has visited most of
the civilized countries, the winter of 1888 having been
spent in Egypt, studying the country and its interesting
antiquities, and in 1894 he made a trip around the world.
He has been particularly interested in Cuba, and has
made an extensive study of the industries of the island
and the conditions under which they exist. He has made
two trips through that country, and in the spring of
1898 he was at Key West, just returning from a similar
trip through some of the adjacent West Indian islands,
at the time the battleship Maine was destroyed.

Mr. Otis’ wife was Miss Ellen Marie Taylor, a daugh-
ter of Judge S. F. and Judith (Kellogg) Taylor of Milan,
Ohio. Four children survive, Joseph E. Otis, Jr., Ralph
C. Otis, Mrs. J. E. Jenkins and Mrs. H. W. Buckingham.

Portus Baxter Weare was born at Otsego, Allegan
County, Michigan, January 1, 1842, and is descended
from one of the oldest colonial families, the first of the
name in this country having been Nathaniel Weare,
who was settled in the town of Newberry, New Hamp-
shire, as early as 1638. From him have descended many
who have attained eminence in military, professional
and commercial life.

Mr. Weare’s grandfather, John Weare, who was of
the sixth generation in descent from the progenitor,
Nathaniel Weare, was a soldier in the War of 1812. His
wife, whose maiden name was Cynthia Ashley, was the
daughter of Colonel Samuel Ashley, an officer of the
colonial government, and the head of an influential fam-
ily of wealth. She was a woman of great courage and
heroism, and, when her husband was severely wounded
before the battle of Plattsburg, she rode day and night
for thirty-six hours through the enemy’s country, car-
rying a babe in her arms and a small boy on the horse
in front, that she might reach the side of her husband.
During the second night, when she had come to hope
her journey was almost over, she was brought to a
halt by a voice out of the darkness, demanding, “Stand
and deliver the password.” Her reply, “I have a
wounded husband beyond you. Is not that a password
sufficient for friend or foe?” probably saved the lives of
the little party and enabled her to pursue her journey to
its end.

John Weare, Jr., the son of the heroine mentioned
above, and the father of Mr. Portus B. Weare, was one
of the early pioneers of the West. Soon after his mar-
riage, in 1841, to Miss Martha Parkhurst, a native of
Vermont, he moved into a log cabin in the heart of a
Michigan wilderness, where the only neighbors were the
Pottawatomies and Winnebagoes, who occasionally vis-
ited the homestead. Here it was that Portus B. Weare
was born, and it was amid these surroundings that he
passed the first few years of his life. When he was three
years old he went with his parents to Cedar Rapids,

453

Iowa, where he grew up and received the most of his
schooling, but he was still only fairly in his teens when
he entered upon the adventurous and nomadic life of a
pioneer trader. His frequent trips into what was then
the Sioux country, on the Upper Missouri, and his life
and experiences amid the hardships and dangers of the
frontier have left an impress on his character that is
ineffaceable. He still loves the freedom of Western
life. It appeals to him as the luxuries of civilization
can never do, and it was this longing for the prairies
and the mountains that led him, in later life, to enter
upon the development of Alaska, as the founder of the
North American Transportation and Trading Company.

In 1862 Mr. Weare came to Chicago and engaged

 

 

PORTUS BAXTER WEARE.

in the grain and commission business in connec-
tion with Henry W. Rogers, Jr. Three years later he
commenced business under the name of P. B. Weare &
Co., which was the foundation upon which has been
erected the present Weare Commission Company. At
first the firm was largely engaged in exporting prairie
chickens from the Western states to England, Ger-
many and France. Later, when the country becaine
more settled and this business was no longer flourishing,
the firm handled buffalo robes. Time put an end to
this also, and the Weare Land and Live Stock Company
was organized, which at one time had as high as 50,000
head of cattle in Northern Wyoming and Eastern Mon-
tana. Next, Mr. Weare engaged in the grain business.
He maintained sixty-five stations for storing grain in
Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, and he also built the Globe
Elevator of West Superior, having a capacity of 5,000,-
454

000 bushels. He has also, of late years, been man-
ager of the Chicago Railway Terminal Elevator Com-
pany, comprising eight of the largest local elevators,
whose combined capacity exceeds 10,000,000 bushels.
His next venture was the foundation of the suburb of
Morton Park, six miles west of the court house, where,
in ten years, a model town, with all the advantages of
city life has been evolved. Of late years Mr. Weare has
been most conspicuous as one of the foremost men
interested in the development of Alaska.

The North American Transportation and Trading
Company was organized in 1891, and in the summer of
1892 Mr. Weare and his son, W. W. Weare, took from
Puget Sound to Saint Michael’s Island, at the mouth of
the Yukon, all the timbers, materials and machinery for
the 500 tons burden river steamer, the P B. Weare,
which was built and launched in’time to take a cargo
from an ocean steamer and to ascend the Yukon that
fall. The result of this enterprise was to open up rich
and extensive gold placer mines, as well as quartz, coal,
copper and other materials, to the people of the world.
This company is now represented in nearly every sta-
tion in Alaska, and in seven years it has increased its
output of gold dust over a hundredfold. Mr. Weare has
been a prominent factor in the history and growth of
Chicago. ‘Aside from his large business interests here,
he has taken an active part in the development of many
of her institutions. He was one of the organizers and
a member of the first board of trustees of the Illinois
Clib, and he has been identified with the Chicago Board
of Trade since 1862. He is also a member of the New
York. Produce Exchange, the Lawyer’s Club of New
York, the Art Institute, Union League and Chicago
clubs of this city. He was married January 2, 1866, to
Susan Wheelock Risley, daughter of Levi and Sophia
Ann Darling Risley of Cedar Rapids, lowa. Two chil-
dren have been born to them—William Walker Weare,
who is interested in business with his father, and Nellie
Darling Weare Webster, who died in 1892.

Ohio C. Barber, president of the Diamond Match
Company, was born at Middlebury, a suburb of Akron,
Ohio, April 20, 1841. His father, George Barber, was
a native of Connecticut, and came to Middlebury at an
early date, where he engaged in the cooperage business
until 1847, when he began the manufacture of matches.
He is one of the first who engaged in this business in
the West, and his beginning was necessarily on a small
scale, but it was the foundation of a great manufactur-
ing establishment.

Ohio C. Barber is the only surviving son of George
Barber. He was brought up in Akron, Ohio, attend-
ing the common schools of that city until he was sixteen
yearsold. He then began selling matches for his father,
traveling in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania,

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and his efforts in these states had no little part in estab-
lishing the reputation of the Barber match. When he
became of age, the entire management of the business
was left to his dictation. In 1880 this company was
making over one-fourth of all the matches manufactured
in the United States, and about this time Mr. Barber saw
the advantage in consolidating a number of the leading
match factories. Through his business sagacity such an
organization was effected, under the laws of Connecticut,
in 1881, and the syndicate thus formed was called the
Diamond Match Company. From this time the busi-
ness grew enormously, and in 1887 the company was re-
organized under the laws of Illinois. Mr. Barber was
elected president of the new syndicate, which still re-
tained the name of the Diamond Match Company, and

 

OHIO C. BARBER.

at this time the general offices were removed to Chi-
cago.

Mr, Barber is also interested in numerous other large
enterprises. He was one of the founders of the Portage
Straw Board Company, organized in 1872, and in 1889
he also assisted in organizing the American Straw Board
Company, of which he became president, at Wafren,
Ohio. He has organized two large industries, the Page
Tube Company, manufacturers of gas, steam and water
pipe, and the Neracker-Hill Sprinkler Company, which
was, some few years ago, merged into the General Fire
Extinguisher Company. In 1891 Mr. Barber founded
the town of Barberton, Ohio, and has since organized
there a number of manufactories, one of the most impor-
tant of which is the Sterling Boiler Company. Others
also located there are the National Sewer Pipe Company,
the largest manufactory of the kind in the world; the
Creedmore Cartridge Company; the Alumina Company,
manufacturers of alum; the Kirkman Tile C ompany, and
the Akron Heating and Ventilating Company. Mr.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Barber is president of the Barberton Belt Railroad Com-
pany, and he also founded the Barberton Bank, a sub-
stantial institution of that town.

Mr. Barber is an indefatigable worker, and_ his
“life has always been one of great activity. Huis suc-
cesses may be attributed to a high moral character,
hard work, good judgment and great executive abil-
ity. He is a wonderful man as an organizer, and
is a good judge of human nature, as is evident
by his selection of first-class assistants in his many
business enterprises. His personal magnetism and
enthusiasm in whatever he undertakes are imme-
diately imparted to those about him. Mr. Barber was
married October 10, 1866, to Laura L. Brown of Akron,
Ohio. To them have been born two children, a daugh-
terandason. The latter died in infancy. Although a
thoroughly busy man, Mr. Barber finds time to enjoy so-
cial life, and is a member of the Chicago Club, the Calu-
met Club and the Washington Park Club.

John Kelly Robinson, son of John Carter Robinson
and Margaret Maria, his wife, was born in Springfield
Township, Summit County, Ohio, May 26, 1842. The
family of Kelly, of which his mother was a member, was
prominent in the Revolutionary war and in the Indian
wars which preceded it. Col. John Kelly held an im-
portant command in the patriot army. The Kelly family
history has ties which connect it with the memory of that
brave, but unfortunate, British officer, Major Andre, for
Robert Hanna of Chester, England, grandfather of Mrs.
M. M. Robinson, was brother of Andre’s mother. Mr.
John Kelly Robinson is of English and Irish descent on
the mother's side and of Scotch origin on the paternal
line, thus blending the strains of the three great branches
of the English-speaking race in one stock.

Mr. John Kelly Robinson entered upon a business
career at the early age of seventeen, after having ac-
yuired a rudimentary education in the common and high
schools of Akron, Ohio. His first engagement was as
clerk at $5 a month in his brother's bookstore at Akron.
While there he mastered the then somewhat rare art of
telegraphy, and served as operator for about two years.
His next venture was in 1862 as a seller of matches for
the firm of George & O. C. Barber, whose factories were
the foundation of the great Diamond Match Company,
though at the time of Mr. Robinson’s engagement with
them they were among the smallest manufacturers in the
country. After six months’ service as salesman with a
wagon, calling on country storekeepers and selling to all
who would buy, Mr. Robinson undertook the sale of his
ware upon and by means of the rapidly developing rail-
ways of the country. Before long he had established a
trade that taxed to the utmost the productive capabilities
of the factory. In the second year of his engagement
with the Barber firm Mr. Robinson was admitted to

partnership. In 1871 he took out a patent upon a

465

process for the manufacture of a diamond-shaped match.
he new match, being strong and a quick burner, be-
came a great favorite with the public, and gave prestige
to the firm that produced it, and finally gave a name to
the greatest match manufacturing concern in the world.
Mr. Robinson remained in control of the selling depart-
ment of the Barber Company, and in 1880 he had the
satisfaction of knowing that the Barber factories pro-
duced more than one-quarter of all the matches sold in
the United States. This conclusion was not a mere esti-
mate, but a fact, established by the sure and simple plan
of comparing the Barber purchase of revenue stamps,
one being required at that time for each box sold, with
the government sales to all match manufacturers. In

 

JOHN KELLY ROBINSON.

1881 the Barber Company, of which Mr. Robinson was
then president, merged with the Diamond Match Com-
pany. Mr. Robinson, as one of the directors of the new
corporation, took charge of sales in the Western states,
and soon afterward of all sales in the United States and
its territories. He now is, and for the last ten years
has been, treasurer of this great concern, which, from a
beginning with $2,250,000 capital, now has $15,000,000
invested in its home and foreign factories, including, of
course, its rights in American and foreign patents and its
ownership of pine forests, sawmills and the other requis-
ites for the production of the articles of raw material for
the finished output of the match factories.

One of the largest Diamond Match Company's fac-
tories is at Liverpool, England. In this establishment
15,000 gross of boxes can be turned out daily. It is pe-
culiarly worthy of notice that this great corporation has
456

been so solicitous for the comfort and health of its em-
ployes as to have gained the approval of the commis-
sion appointed by the British government, and to have
been officially held up as a model to all firms and cor-
porations employing labor in occupations where danger-
ous chemicals are used. Indeed, the commission ad-
vised and procured the passage of a law compelling all
match factories in Great Britain to adopt and conform to
methods of sanitation and protection similar to those
that the Diamond Match Company voluntarily employed
for the benefit of its work people.

In addition to his large interests in the Diamond
Match Company, Mr. Robinson is vice-president of the
Sterling Boiler Company and the Diamond Rubber
Company. He also organized the Tropical Fibre Com-
pany, the Palmetto Brush Company and the Carrara
Paint Company. All of these now are profitable con-
cerns. :

Always a Republican in politics. During the war he
served for awhile in the Ohio Home Guards, that, under
General Lew Wallace, prepared to capture Morgan,
though their laudable intention was prevented by his sur-
render to another general. Mr. Robinson is a member of
the Washington Park Club, the Calumet Club, the Es-
sex (Mass.) Club and of several golf clubs. He was
married in 1868 to Miss Henrietta E. Barber, daughter
of George Barber, the founder of the Barber Match
Company. Four daughters, Margaret, Frances, Laura
and Eleanor, and one son, John K. Robinson, Jr., are
the offspring of this happy, matrimonial alliance.

Frederick Raymond Otis is a descendant in the
eighth generation of John Otis, who came from Glaston-
bury, Somersetshire County, England, and settled in
Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1635. The founder of the
American branch of the Otis family was a pioneer of the
type to whom the country owes much of its prosperity,
and the hardy qualities of the frontiersman, so predomi-
nant in his make-up, were inherited by his subsequent de-
scendants, who, in their turn, were among the first in
the settlement and building of the great West.

Prior to the time of the Revolution Asahel Otis, the
erandfather of Mr. F. R. Otis, lived in Montville, Con-
necticut, and in about the year 1817 he traded land which
he owned in that locality with some of the heirs of the
sufferers of the New London fire of September 6, 1781,
receiving in exchange several thousand acres of land
in what was then called the “fire lands” of the Connec-
ticut Western Reserve, but which is now a part of Erie
and Huron counties, Ohio. Joseph Otis, the father of
the subject of this sketch, removed from Connecticut
and settled on this land in 1822, He was a well-to-do
farmer, a man of fine abilities and sterling integrity, and
in his political views a Jackson Democrat. From 1829
to 1835 he held the honored position of justice of the
peace in the town of Berlin, where he had settled, and

‘THE CITY QF CHICAGO,

‘n this last-named year received the appointment as post~
master from Amos Kendall, then postmaster-general,
a position he held until the time of his death, which
occurred April 16, 1844. His wife, whom he married
in 1815, was a daughter of Stephen Billings of Montville,
a woman of many rare attainments and much force of
character.

Their son, Frederick Raymond Otis, was born in
their new home in Berlin, February 10, 1825. He re-
ceived all the educational advantages then offered by
the schools of that part of Ohio, and divided his time
between study and farm work, until he had reached his
majority. He continued dealing extensively in live
stock and farming in Ohio. Shortly after becoming of

 

FREDERICK RAYMOND OTIS.

age he and his brother, James, founded the first bank
to be established at Milan, Ohio, which had a pros-
perous existence.

Rumors of the “new city” on the Great Lakes, called
Chicago, had reached the attention of Mr. Otis, and in
1849 he decided to investigate the possibilities to be
found there. As there were no railroad connections
with Chicago at that time, he drove overland, reaching
here in September of that year and remaining some
weeks, making a general observation of the locality and
the existing conditions. From that time on he made
frequent trips to Chicago, investing occasionally in real
estate, before he located here permanently with his fam-
ily in December, 1869. Since he had first visited here
in 1849 he predicted a great future for the city, and
after his location here he continued buying real estate,
making his investments with much care and judgment.
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

So great was his faith in these investments that he would
never sell any of his property, and time has proven his
remarkable wisdom in this particular. His investments,
like those of his three brothers, were mostly made in cen-
tral property, and consequently at the time of the fire in
1871 he suffered a considerable loss. This, however,
was largely repaired within a short time, and since then
the history of Mr. Otis’ holdings in real estate has been
similar to the history, in this time, of Chicago’s wonder-
ful progress.
Mr. Otis was married December 27, 1848, to Miss
Emeline Tillinghast, a daughter of Oliver Cromwell Til-
-linghast of Berlin, Ohio. Their children, all of whom
are living in this city, are Charles T. Otis, Margaretta
E. Otis, Lucius J Otis, Mrs. H. H. Deming, Mrs. L. A.
ine and Mrs. W. G. Sage.

William Walden Shaw, better known, perhaps, as
W. W. Shaw, was born at Swineshead, near the city
of Boston, Lincolnshire, England, on December 14,
1832. Mr. Shaw, who received his early education in
his native country, came to the United States in the au-
tumn of 1853, going first to Cleveland, Ohio, where he
secured employment as a member of a party surveying
for a railroad between Cleveland and Tiffin. He re-
mained with this party for a season, and following this
was employed for a short time in the freight office of the
Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad, but in August, 1854,
he came to Chicago and obtained a position in a flour
and feed store on the corner of Canal and Randolph
streets, where he remained for three years.

Mr. Shaw's long and successful connection with the
bakery interests of Chicago began in 1857, when he se-
cured a situation as bookkeeper in the old Mechanical
bakery. He continued in the employ of this establish-
ment for twelve years, and in 1869, when the property
was leased by Joseph M. Dake, for the purpose of doing
away with its competition, Mr. Shaw was placed in
charge of his office. Mr. Dake died the following year,
and a new company, composed of E. Nelson Blake, F. M.
Herdman, Samuel B. Walker and Kilby Page, was or-
ganized to carry on the business. The firm continued
as Blake, Herdman & Co. until 1870, when Mr. Herd-
man retired. At that time Mr. Herdman’s interest was
partly absorbed by Mr. Shaw, and the new organization
then effected was known as Blake, Walker & Co., a title
that was decided upon by the tossing up of a cent.

In 1878, upon the retirement of Mr. Walker, Mr.
Shaw increased his interest on a par with the other part-
ners and the firm of Blake, Shaw & Co. was then estab-
lished, which continued until 1889, at which time the
Dake Bakery Company was incorporated, with E. Nel-
son Blake, president ; C. H. Marshall, vice-president, and
W. W. Shaw, secretary and treasurer.

In January, 1890, Mr. Shaw purchased the interest
of Mr. Blake. And in the following June, the Dake

457

Bakery was absorbed by the American Biscuit and
Manufacturing Company. Of this corporation, which
was the largest cracker and biscuit manufactory in the
West, Mr. Shaw was one of the largest shareholders, a
director and treasurer. In February, 1898, the Ameri-
can Biscuit and Manufacturing Company became a part
of the new National Biscuit Company, and at the close
of the year Mr. Shaw retired from active business, having
spent over twoscore years in the cracker trade, and dur-
ing that time having been closely connected, almost frorn
its beginning, with the growth of one of the largest in-
dustries of to-day.

With no capital but his natural ability, his industry
and his perseverance, Mr. Shaw has achieved success

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM WALDEN SHAW.

in life and retired with a competency. As such alone his
life is worthy of imitation by the youth of to-day who
would obtain wealth, prominence and the esteem of
their fellow-men.

Mr. Shaw is a striking example of the representative
business man of Chicago. He is, however, as remark-
able for the personal side of his character as he is for his
business ability. Being of a very pronounced and posi-
tive nature, kind-hearted and thoroughly frank in his
speech and actions, he is one of the most enjoyable and
companionable of men. His actions are everywhere
marked by the same qualities of energy, perseverance
and straightforwardness that assured his success in the
business world.

Mr. Shaw resides at 385 Ashland boulevard, where
he owns one of the handsomest of the manv beautiful

homes in that locality. In his political beliefs he is a ~
458

most conservative Republican, supporting at all times,
irrespective of party, the principles he believes to be
just. In his religious affiliations he is a member of the
Second Baptist Church and is a great admirer of the
Rev. Dr. William M. Lawrence, who is so ably carrying
on the work of that body.

Mr. Shaw has been twice married. The first time
in 1857 to Miss Mary Ann Harrison, a native of his
own country. She died in 1859. And in 1863 he mar-
ried Miss Sarah Elizabeth Bogardus, a daughter of Eli
Bogardus, the celebrated broom corn grower of Belvi-
dere, Illinois. There was one child by the first marriage,
William H., and three by the second, Eli B., Robert and
Walden W.

Augustus H. Burley, whose business career is inter-
esting as marking the development of one of the most
important branches of the trade of Chicago from a very
feeble beginning, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Ie passed from the public schools of his native town to
the Pinkerton Academy at Derry, and thence to the
Phillips Exeter Academy, an institution that still re-
tains much of its ancient renown as a seat of learning.
His entrance to the commercial world was by way of an
engagement with Messrs. Bumstead & Son, paper hang-
ers, of Boston; thence he proceeded as clerk in the book-
store of Mr. Simon Rodenbaugh, bookseller, of Charles-
town, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Burley
came to Chicago and entered the employ of his half-
brother, Stephen F. Gale, who was at that time the only
stationer and bookseller in the youthful city, and, as
clerk, partner and proprietor-in-chief, Mr. Burley re-

mained in connection with the business whose foundation -

was laid by Mr. Gale, until his comparatively recent re-
tirement from active commercial life.

In these days, when one enters a luxurious palace
car and is whisked to the Atlantic seaboard in about
thirty hours, it is interesting to note the incidents of
Mr. Burley’sjourney from the East. Bv stage to Boston;
thence by railway to Providence, Rhode Island; thence
by steamboat to New York; thence by another steam-
boat to Albany, New York; thence by railway to Utica,
New York; thence by canal packet-boat to Buffalo;
thence by wagon to Silver Creek; thence by steamboat
Thomas Jefferson to Detroit; thence by wagon to Chi-
cago; Mr. Burley arrived in Chicago May 25, 1837; the
journey from Detroit alone occupied seven days.

Mr. Gale’s store was on South Water street, about
halfway between Clark and La Salle. Mr. Burley took
iis meals at the house of John Boyer, next door to the
store. He slept in the store, and each morning rolled
up his mattress and placed it in a big box, the lid of which
served as a writing-desk by day. At this time South
Water street, from State to Lake, was occupied mainly
by retail stores. The postoffice was on this street, a
little west of Franklin; J. S. C. Hogan was postmaster.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

The branch establishment of the State Bank of Illinois
was on La Salle street, just off Water street, in one
of the few brick buildings of the time. The shores of
the river were free from buildings and grass-covered,
excepting a small wooden building at the corner of La
Salle and State streets, and a small dock at La Salle. An
impassable slough stretched from the river at State
street to the head of Lake street. There were no build-
ings east of State street, excepting Fort Dearborn and
the house of Jean Baptiste Beaubien. The United States
Government had just begun to build piers, some of
which, after a while, were swept away by storms. But
the work marked the beginning of Chicago’s future
supremacy as a port and harbor. All the land east of

 

 

 

 

AUGUSTUS H. BURLEY.

State and north of Madison was then owned by the
Government, and known as “The Reservation.” Beau-
bien, it is true, claimed some proprietary rights, but his
claim was disallowed by the courts, and ultimately the
Government had the land laid off in city lots, which were
sold to the early settlers.

The society of a city emerging from such a contest
with the prairie and the swamps hardly could be expected
to afford great patronage to a bookstore, especially
when it is remembered that books were far more costly
then than now. Hence it was necessary for Stephen F.
Gale to sell other things than books and stationery. Chi-
nese punk was one of the articles largely dealt in. This
was a substance like which the children now buy in sticks
to “touch off” their fireworks on “the glorious Fourth.”
It then was sold in square blocks inclosed in boxes made
of Chinese paper; a leather pocket holding a piece of
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

flint went with each package, and on one side of the
parcel was a piece of steel. The punk was ignited by a
spark from the flint and steel, and by a good deal of
blowing dry tinder was ignited from the punk. Mr.
Burley and his partner, Mr. Gale, sold large quantities
of punk, especially to hunters and to persons going on
a journey. But the era of matches was at hand. There
were two or three kinds of matches. The first on the
market in point of time were wooden splinters tipped
with sulphur, which ignited on being dipped into a bottle
of acid. Then came “paper matches,” packed in boxes,
in each of which a piece of sandpaper was folded; a light
was obtained by drawing a match through the sand-
paper. Next in order was the “Loco Foco.” This
match had an evil odor, but it would ignite by friction
against any rough surface. “Loco Foco” sold at ten
cents a box, and there were about fifty matches in a
box. Ten, or at the outside twelve, gross of matches
was considered an ample stock for the winter’s sale of
a “leading merchant of Chicago” in the early days of
Mr. Burley’s business career. In 1842 he was admitted
into partnership with Mr. Gale, the firm name being
S. F. Gale & Co. In 1845, in connection with his
brother, Mr. Charles Burley, he bought out the Gale
business, and what soon became the well-known and
highly-successful firm of A. H. & C. Burley was estab-
lished. Before passing from further incidental notice
of Mr. S. F. Gale it must be said that he was the first to
sell pianos in Chicago.

Little is to be said of Mr. A. H. Burley’s business
career, except that it was characterized by the energy,
prudence and integrity that have brought fortune to
many of Chicago’s pioneer merchants. For some time
past Mr. Burley has lived in elegant and well-earned
leisure in his residence on Dearborn avenue, his main
business interest now being in the Merchants’ Loan and
Trust Company, of which he is a director, in company
with such merchant princes as Marshall Field, Lambert
F. Tree, C. H. McCormick and others. Mr. Burley
is so replete with information concerning the early days
of Chicago that it will be a pity if he does not contribute
a paper to the archives of the Chicago Historical; but of
the great and creditable part that he has played in the
development of the city’s social and mercantile life he
modestly refrains from saying as much as his friends
would like him to say.

Charles Banks Shedd, son of Joshua R. Shedd of
Boston, Massachusetts, and Susan M. Shedd (formerly
Susan M. Darling of Sandusky, Ohio), was born June
18, 1846, at Michigan City, Indiana, at a time when it
promised to become the great city at the foot of Lake
Michigan, but when it became evident that Chicago was
destined to attain this honor, Mr. Shedd sold out his
dry-goods business and all his other property in Michi-
gan City and sailed to Chicago. Mrs. Shedd followed

459

in a few days, bringing her year-old son in her arms in a
prairie schooner, the only land conveyance of those days,
as there were no railroads so far west. In 1856, after
the death of the father, Mrs. Shedd moved to Oberlin,
Ohio, to give her three sons the advantage of a liberal
education, where the eldest son graduated with the class
of 1868.

Immediately upon the close of his collegiate course
Mr. Shedd returned to Chicago, and engaged in the
book and stationery trade with the firm of Cobb, Pritch-
ard & Co., whose place of business was on Lake street,
then the center of business, under the old Tremont
House, which was destroyed in the memorable fire of
1871. After spending about a year in the service of this |

 

CHARLES BANKS SHEDD.

firm, Mr. Shedd went into the banking house of Jacob
R. Shipherd & Co., on La Salle street. From this firm
Mr. Shedd passed on to the larger field of business of the
Mechanics’ Savings Bank on Twenty-second street, and
took charge of its management. This bank was the only
institution of its kind that was able to do its usual
measure of business and meet all its obligations on the
very day after the great fire of October 9, 1871. This
practical demonstration of the soundness of the bank,
coupled with the great influx of business toward Twenty-
second street, occasioned by the temporary establish-
ment of the headquarters of Field, Leiter & Co., Mandel
Brothers and other firms at that point, greatly enlarged
the scope of its operations, and its continued success led
to the offer, which Mr. Shedd accepted, of the position
of manager of the Wabash avenue branch of the State
Savings Institution, which was one of the largest estab-
460

lishments of its kind in the Northwest, although it finally
succumbed in 1877 to the after-results of the great finan-
cial crash of 1873, which engulfed nearly half of the
banks of Chicago. Retiring from the banking business
while the hard times following 1873 continued, and
about a year before the failure of the great State Sav-
ings Institution, Mr. Shedd connected himself with his
brother in the ice business, under the name of E. A.
Shedd & Co., building up a large business under that
name, which was finally incorporated as the Knicker-
bocker Ice Company in 1885, gradually increasing by
healthy growth until it became the largest concern in
the city, and finally, in 1898, increased its capital so
as to take with it almost all of the other companies en-
gaged in the ice business in Chicago, making one of the
largest companies in this line of business in the world, of
which corporation Mr. Shedd acted as a director and
treasurer.

Mr. Shedd is a member of the Union League Club
and a Republican in politics, but has abstained from ac-
tive participation in the management of party move-
ments. He is eminently domestic in tastes and habits,
and prefers the pleasure of home to those of club life.
Mr. Shedd was married October 11, 1888, to Miss Mar-
garet B. Cossitt. The family circle comprises four chil-
dren, Charles Cossitt, Katharine Darling, Lilian Malone
and Margaret Edward.

Washington Porter is a fine representative of a class
much more numerous in Chicago and throughout the
United States than is suspected by the politicians and
professional traders in nationalities. He is of good Eng-
lish stock, both on the paternal and maternal side. The
family of Porter was known for full three hundred years
among the large landed proprietors of the English
County of Norfolk, whence Thomas W. Porter, father of
Washington Porter, came to the United States in 1830.
Tle married Miss Charlotte Lane, also of English birth.
Mr. Thomas W Porter settled firstly in Buffalo County,
New York, in which place he engaged actively in mer-
chandise, but in a short time the hereditary instinct for
land owning and management of agricultural affairs as-
serted itself, and he moved to Boone County, in this
state, and became a successful farmer on a large scale.
Washington Porter was born at the Boone County
homestead, October 26, 1846, and was educated firstly
in the public schools of the neighborhood, and after-
wards at the high school of Belvidere.

After some preliminary commercial experience in the
country, Mr. Washington Porter came to Chicago in
1869. He was then twenty-three years of age, and, true
to the instincts of his family, began to exploit the great
fruit-growing resources of the far West. During his
first year of residence in this city he shipped the first
full carload of fruit that ever came to Chicago from
California. This was simultaneous with the opening of

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

the first transcontinential railway. At a later period
Mr. Porter furnished the money for the planting of
the first orchard and vineyard in Fresno County, Cali-
fornia. Fresno is now one of the great fruit-producing
regions of this continent, but in 1869 it took men with
such perseverance and courage as Mr. Porter always
had displayed in the management of business affairs to
promote what seemed to many a visionary project. In
1869 Mr. Porter also brought the first full carload of
bananas to Chicago from the Isthmus of Darien, or of
Panama, as it now generally is called. Mr. Porter main-
tained an active commercial interest in the fruit trade
between the Pacific States and the states of Central
\merica and Chicago, until his retirement a few years

 

WASHINGTON PORTER.

ago from active business. He now enjoys the ease and
dignity of a large property owner, whose fortune is the
result of foresight, energy and honesty.

The public life of Mr. Porter has been of signal bene-
fit to the citizens of Chicago. He was one of the small.
resolute and brainy coterie to whose efforts the estab-
lishment of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chi-
cago was due. He was a member of the committee
appointed to wait upon Congress with intent to secure
legislation favorable to Chicago, and from the first day
of the session of 1890 until the passage of the act by
which the metropolis of the West was designated as
the place to which the eyes of the world should be turned
in 1893, as the center of the most wonderful exposition
ever made of the arts, sciences, agriculture and manu-
factures of all nations, Mr. Porter was incessant in argu-
ment with Representatives and Senators from all the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

states. During the constructive period of the great en-
terprise Mr. Porter was an active member of the Ways
and Means Committee, and when the great exposition
was an accomplished fact he was chairman of the sub-
committee of directors, under whose management the
first half-dollar souvenir coin was sold for the fabulous
sum of $10,000. He -was also a member of the com-
mittee for reduction of expenditures, by the efforts of
which the running expenses of the great institution were
reduced. from $23,000 to $15,000 per day. At the close
of the exposition Mr. Porter made strong efforts to have
the great Manufactures Building removed from the ex-
position grounds to the Lake Front, there to remain as
one of the attractions of the park that is taking the place
of the old dreary waste of cinders that used to stretch
from Randolph to Twelfth street. The destruction of
the World's Fair buildings by fire rendered the public-
spirited plan of Mr. Porter nugatory. It may be said,
in passing, that Mr. Porter was among the first, and
probably absolutely the first, to advocate and champion
the permanent improvement of the Lake Front into a
spacious and elegant plaisance.

Mr. Porter has a good war record. He enlisted at
the age of sixteen years in the Ninety-fifth Illinois Vol-
unteers, and was in action at Champion Hill and at the
Siege of Vicksburg, participated in the Red River Ex-
pedition and was seriously wounded in the affair at
Gunstown, Mississippi, June 10, 1864.

Mr. Porter is a Mason of high degree, a member of
the Washington Park and Athletic clubs, and of several
other social organizations. He married, June 11, 1891,
Miss Frances Paulina Lee of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs.
Porter have three children, Paulina C., Washington and
Frederick C. Porter.

Edward Avery Shedd, the founder of the greatest
corporation doing business in ice throughout the North-
west, and possibly throughout the Union, was born in
Chicago, March 1, 1851. His father was Joshua R.
Shedd, one of the pioneers of this city, and his mother
prior to her marriage was Miss Susan M. Darling. Mr.
Joshua R. Shedd died while his son, Edward A., was
but a child, and Mrs. Shedd, who was extremely anxious
to secure the advantages of a good education for her
children, moved to Oberlin, Ohio, in the well-known
college of which place Edward entered in due course
as a student, and from which he graduated with the
class of 1873.

In the year succeeding his graduation Mr. Shedd
returned to Chicago and founded the firm of E. A.
Shedd & Co., ice dealers. The beginning of the firm
was in a small way; two wagons were sufficient for
‘the distribution of its trade during the first year, but
by steady and rapid movements forward its trade en-
larged, the business of other firms was purchased and
consolidated, and the firm of E. A. Shedd & Co. became
recognized as the largest dealers of ice in the city. In

461

1885 Mr. Shedd organized and incorporated the Knick-
erbocker Ice Company, twelve or more firms having
been purchased by E. A. Shedd & Co., including the
old firms of Swett & Crouch and O. & W. Guthrie and
others being merged in the then new company. Mr.
Shedd served as president of the company from the
late of its incorporation in 1885 till April 1, 1898, when
he retired from the more active duties of management,
although he still acted as a director of the company
and chairman of its Finance Committee, until the follow-
ing October, when the stock of the company was sold
to Eastern capitalists. When he severed his active con-
nection with the company the yearly consumption of
ice in Chicago was estimated at 2,000,000 tons, of which

 

EDWARD AVERY SHEDD.

the greater part was supplied by the Knickerbocker Ice
Company, which drew its supply from the eighty-one
plants that it owned in the states of Illinois, Indiana and
Wisconsin. The successful development and manage-
ment of this great corporation is a monument to the
tact and business genius of Mr. Shedd, who is now a
director of the America National Bank and of the Chi-
cago Title and Trust Company, and supervises the
management of his large interests in real estate.

As might be expected of a graduate of Oberlin, Mr.
Shedd is an ardent Republican, though he has abstained
from participation in the management of political af-
fairs. He is a member of the Union League, Athletic
and Calumet clubs. Mr. Shedd was married in 1881
to Miss Helen Cowles Wheeler, a niece of Alfred Cowles
of the Chicago Tribune and Edwin Cowles, the famous
editor of the Cleveland (Ohio) Leader. Mrs. Shedd

died in 1884, leaving no issue.
462

James 8. Dunham, the most prominent authority
upon matters relating to the lake commerce of Chicago,
was born in Washington County, New York, January
30,1837. Heistheson of James and Rebecca Dunham.
The only academic education imparted to Mr. Dunham
was through the medium of the common schools of West
Troy, which half a century ago were far from being the
competent institutions that they now are; but in the
great university of life Mr. Dunham has taken a gradu-
ate and post-graduate course, and has gained honors in
each. As early as 1851, he being then but fourteen
years of age, the youthful Dunham was in service on a
steamboat on the Hudson River, and to the steamboat
service he has been constant throughout his life.

 

 

JAMES S. DUNHAM.

In 1854 Mr. Dunham came to Chicago and engaged
as engineer on a tug boat. A year or two later he in-
vested his savings in the purchase of a two-thirds in-
terest in the tug boat A. C. Gunnison, of which he acted
as captain. In the fall of 1857, in company with his
partner, he went to New Orleans. Mr. Dunham sailed
the A. C. Gunnison through the Illinois and Michigan
Canal, and thence through the Illinois and Mississippi
rivers to New Orleans, and there engaged in the towing
business. Good fortune attended his efforts in this
Southern port, and in the spring of 1859 he took a tow-
boat to Mobile. He prospered in his business and by
1861 was the leading partner in a large towing com-
pany. In the early part of this year the Southern Con-
federacy chartered one of his boats to go to Pensacola,
Florida. Mr. Dunham went with it, but immediately
on his arrival in that port he was arrested as a Union

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

sympathizer, and was sent North on the first train. His
whole property, worth over $10,000, no small sum in
itself in those days, and doubly large when considered
as the capital of a young man, barely twenty-six years
of age, who had created it out of nothing, or out of so
near to nothing as a beginning at $3 per week implies,
was lost to him.

Mr. Dunham spent a short time at the home of his
parents in West Troy, New York, and after a brief sur-
vey of the situation went to Philadelphia, where he built
a tug that deserves a place in history. Mr. Dunham
named his boat “The Little Giant,” in compliment to the
late Stephen A. Douglas. As soon as it was completed
he set out on a voyage that seldom or never has been
paralleled. He sailed down the Delaware River and
Raritan Canal; and thence through the Hudson River
to the Erie Canal; thence through the great lakes to Chi-
cago, the predominance of which city in vessel traffic
had become plain to him. His sagacity, enterprise and
courage were rewarded and he eventually became by
far the largest tug and vessel owner in Chicago, as well
as one of the most trustworthy authorities upon lake
matters. In the course of time he founded the Dunham
Towing and Wrecking Company, of which he became
president, his son Robert being secretary. Mr. Dun-
ham was interested in the ownership of fourteen tugs;
but in August, 1899, he disposed of his tug interests to
the Great Lakes Towing Company, and he has since de-
voted himself to the management of his extensive vessel _
and steamboat interests. He is ex-president of the
Lake Carriers’ Association; of the Chicago River Asso-
ciation; of the Chicago Steamship Company; and the
Chicago Transit Company. For vears he was an ac-
tive member of the Chicago Board of Trade, and in-
variably selected by it as a delegate to any convention
or conference at which marine issues were to be dis-
cussed. He has also served as a member of many com-
mittees sent from Chicago to plead with Congressional
committees on lake affairs. In politics Mr. Dunham is
stanchly Republican. He is a member of the Union
League and Marquette clubs and has represented his
ward as alderman. It is the opinion of Mr. Dunham
that, had the city authorities given heed to the warnings
with which he besieged them for years prior to 1871,
the fire of that year would not have extended north of
Adams street. There were no fire tugs then, though
Mr. Dunham had urged the need of them upon many
mayors and councils of Chicago. Soon after the dis-
astrous fire of 1871 Mr. Dunham equipped one of his
own tugs with pumping apparatus for fire service, and
by its aid extinguished a furious conflagration in the
lumber district. A month later the city followed suit
and built its first fire tug. It now has several such ves-
sels, among them being the largest and finest steel fire
tug in the world. Nearly every lake city now has its
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

marine fire service, but Mr. Dunham was the pioneer in
this matter.

Mr. Dunham married Miss Mary Ellen Brown of
Ashtabula, Ohio, in January, 1867. There are three
surviving children.

Franklin Harvey Head, a gentleman who has demon-
strated the compatibility of literary instinct and culture
with business acumen, was born January 24, 1835, at
Paris, Oneida County, New York. His father, Harvey
Head, and his mother, who prior to her matriage was
Miss Calista Simons, came of families long resident in
the vicinity of Paris. Mr. F. H. Head received a sound
preparatory education at the Academy in Cazenovia,
New York, and afterward enrolled as a student in Ham-

 

 

 

 

FRANKLIN HARVEY HEAD.

ilton College, and was graduated as B. A. in 1856, and
in the degree of M. A. a year later. He was also gradu-
ated from the law school of his alma mater in 1858, and
subsequently was honored by it with the degree of
LD .

In 1858 Mr. Head settled in the West, and in con-
junction with his uncle, Mr. O. S. Head, founded the
law firm of O. S. & F. H. Head, at Kenosha, Wis-
consin. The firm continued in existence and enjoyed a
lucrative practice for about nine years, when Mr. F H.
Head was compelled by failing health to retire from so
sedentary a business. After spending a time in Europe
he went to Utah and to California, in which states he
acquired proprietary interests in a cattle ranch and in
amine. Supervision of their business occupied his at-
tention, and was productive of profits for three or four
years, when, his health being restored, he returned to

463

what in those days were called “The States” by settlers
in the Far West, and entered into partnership with
Messrs. Wirt Dexter and N. K. Fairbanks in the
manufacture of lumber and charcoal iron at Elk Rapids,
Michigan. While exercising a general supervision over
these large industries, Mr. Head made his home in
Evanston, Illinois, for several years. In the meantime
he acquired interests in banking and manufacturing en-
terprises in Chicago, of which city he became a perma-
nent resident about ten years ago. Mr. Head served for
several years as president of the Chicago Malleable Iron
Company, and as director of the American Trust and
Savings Bank, and of the Northwestern National Bank,
in all of which institutions he retains a considerable
interest.

In addition to the successful management of numer-
ous business enterprises, Mr. Head has found time to
contribute many interesting articles on financial and
commercial questions to The Forum, the New England
Magazine, Current Topics and to other high-class pe-
riodicals. ,Though actively Republican in politics, Mr.
Head never has aspired to office. He was, however, in-
trusted by the national administration with the superin-
tendency of Indian affairs while resident in Utah. He
has twice been president of the Union League Club, and
is a member of the Chicago, University, Literary and
Fellowship clubs. Mr. Head was married in 1860 to
Miss Catherine Putman Durkee of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
There are three daughters. He has an e'egant home at
No. 2 Banks street.

Ferdinand W. Peck. An adequate biography of
Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck woutd be a history of the re-
constructed and modern city of Chicago. There is
scarcely an institution or achievement of the higher
civilization of Chicago with which his name is not di-
rectly or indirectly connected. He was a promoter of
the Art Institute; he was one of the originators of the
Chicago Atheneum, and he has served as a director or
president of its board of managers since the day of its
incorporation; he is vice-president of the Illinois Hu-
mane Society; he conceived and created the Chicago
Auditorium; and to him, as much as to any other indi-
vidual, Chicago is indebted for that majestic monument
of civic glory, the World’s Columbian Exposition. This
bald and imperfect statement of the claims of an Ameri.
can citizen to the grateful esteem of his contemporaries
and of posterity 1s far more eloquent than the roster of
titles bestowed by a monarch upon any so-called “noble-
man” of the old world.

The crowning honors of Mr. Peck’s useful snd
eventful life are the Auditorium and the World’s Co-
lumbian Exposition. His efforts toward the completion
of both of these undertakings were inspired by wholly
unselfish motives, though it is true that the Auditorium
has unexpectedly, but most deservedly, developed into
464

paying property. The intent of Mr. Peck and his asso-
ciates in the construction of the Auditorium was to pro-
vide the city with the most spacious, majestic, luxurious
and best arranged theater on this continent, if not in the
world; a temple of musical and dramatic art in which
comfortable seats in full view and hearing of the stage
and the performers should be furnished cheaply to the
multitude, while the luxuriously furnished boxes should
give more showy, though not essentially better, accom-
modations to the gilded youth and stately dames and
sires that throng the courts of fashion. But it was not
expected by the promoters of the scheme that the de-
mands of grand opera or the higher class of scenic drama
would be frequent enough to pay interest upon the

 

 

 

 

 

FERDINAND W. PECK.

$2,000,000 invested in its construction and endowment;
the capital was invested as a willing and perpetual tribute
to education in high art. The success of the hotel con-
nected with the Auditorium and the demand for offices
in the structure have surprised the promoters agreeably.
Mr. Peck’s enthusiastic and intelligent services in the
construction of the great building are acknowledged
by an inscription on a marble bust, presented by the
shareholders, that stands in the foyer of the peerless
theater; but in sober truth, it might be written in the
Auditorium concerning Mr. Peck, as is written in St.
Paul's Cathedral concerning Sir Christopher Wren: “If
you would behold his monument look around you.”

Mr. Peck was one of the seven gentlemen who in-
corporated a society for the establishment of a World's
Fair in Chicago, and it was under the charter obtained
by them that the vast enterprise eventually was brought

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

to a glorious completion. In 1891 he was appointed a
member of the commission sent to Europe by the United
States Government in behalf of the exposition. And
at every stage of the progress of this enterprise the clear
head and strong will of Mr. Peck were employed in re-
moval of obstructions or in completion of designs. He
was ceaseless in arguments and negotiations with Con-
gressmen for the selection of Chicago as the place of the
gathering of the world’s treasures, and when the selec-
tion was made he was chosen as first vice-president of
the Columbian Exposition Corporation and chairman of
the Finance Committee. |

Mr. Peck, though actively Republican, has not
sought legislative or administrative honors. He has
held during four years the congenial office of member
of the Board of Education, and as vice-president thereof,
but with this exception he has held neither national, state
nor civic place. He was the prime mover in the erec-
tion of the monument to the Confederate dead buried at
Oakwoods Cemetery, Chicago—an act which has done
muchto promotethe fraternal union of North and South.
On the 22d day of July, 1898, President McKinley ap-
pointed Mr. Peck to act as United States commissioner-
general to the great exposition to be he!d in Paris in
1900. The choice of the President doubtless was in-
fluenced by his intimate knowledge of Mr. Peck’s capac-
ities, as measured by his share in the management of
the World’s Fair and other great undertakings. Mr.
Peck was married in 1872 to Miss Tilla Spaulding; four
sons and two daughters make up the household over
which Mr. and Mrs. Peck preside.

Patrick Augustine Feehan, D.D. The Most Rev-
erend Patrick Augustine Feehan, D. D., present arch-
bishop of Chicago, was born in County Vipperary, Tre-
land, August 29, 1829, the son of Patrick and Judith
Feehan. Destined for the priesthood by his parents,
he was given a careful training by the best teachers
within reach, and in his sixteenth year he entered the
Ecclesiastical Seminary at Castle Knock, where he re-
mained for the following two years, at which time he
became enrolled in St. Patrick's College at Maynooth:
In both of these institutions he was a distinguished
student.

In 1852 he entered upon the duties of priesthood,
being ordained on November 1 of that year and as-
signed to duty in the archdiocese of St. Louis, where
he taught in the Ecclesiastical Seminary and preached
in the Cathedral, alternating in the latter with Arch-
bishop Hendrick. In July of the following year he was
appointed assistant at St. John’s Church, St. Louis, and
one year later was made president of the seminary al-
ready mentioned. During his charge at St. John’s an
epidemic of cholera raged in St. Louis, and at that time
he especially distinguished himself by his self-sacrifice.
spending days and nights in administering to the pocr
THE ‘CITY OF “CHICAGO.

sufferers, and sometimes even preparing them for burial
where friends and kindred deserted them.

-His duties as president of the seminary continued
for four years, when he resigned his position to become
pastor of St. Michael’s Church, at St. Louis. A year
later he was again promoted, this time to the pastorate
of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in the
same diocese, where he continued his labors until No-

 

 

 

 

THE MOST REVEREND PATRICK AUGUSTINE FEEHAN.

vember 1, 1865, when he was consecrated bishop of
Nashville, Tennessee.

Bishop Feehan had been in Nashville but a year’

when the cholera made its appearance there. His
former experience had taught him to have no fear of
the pestilence, and he was among the hardest workers

during the continuance of the scourge, laboring un-
ceasingly, as he had done before, to console the sick
and dying.

He remained in Nashville until September, 1880,-

when the news came from Rome that he had been ap-
pointed first archbishop of Chicago, to fill the place
left vacant by the death of the Right Reverend Thomas
Foley, D. D. This charge comprised eighteen counties
in the northern part of the state of Illinois, with one
hundred and eighty priests and an almost equal
number of churches. Upon assuming his new position,
Dr. Feehan found that, although his predecessors had
done much to meet the wants of the times, still the great
fire had: destroyed nearly all the Catholic structures in
the city of Chicago, and new ones could scarcely be
erected fast enough to keep pace with the rapid growth
of the population. Under the administration of Arch-

30

465.

bishop Feehan, churches have been built, homes for the
aged have been erected, houses of providence for young
women, orphan and foundling asylums established,
while, under his farseeing care, the Chicago Industrial
School for Girls and the St. Mary’s Training School for
Boys have been organized. And yet for all he has ac-
complished, the venerable archbishop will hear no word
of praise in his own behalf.

Dr. Feehan has been a prudent legislator. He par-
ticipated in the proceedings of the Second Plenary
Council of Baltimore, in 1866, took an active part in
the general council of the Vatican, was one of those sum-
moned to Rome to formulate the Schemata of the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore, and deserves great credit
for the part taken in the wise deliberations of that body.

Dr. Feehan is honored, both as a man and as a
priest, by all denominations, while among those of his
own faith he is especially beloved for the wisdom of
his acts and for the careful administration of all things
relating to the success of the Catholic church and the
spiritual interest of its members.

Francis T. Wheeler, son of Moses F. and Mary Ann
(Perry) Wheeler, was born at New Haven, Vermont,

 

 

 

 

 

FRANCIS T. WHEELER.

April 23, 1829. At the age of sixteen he left home and
went to Middlebury, Vermont, where he secured em-
ployment as a clerk in a dry-goods store. In 1849 he
accepted a position in the New York office of a straw
goods concern, and two years later was sent to Rich-
mond, Virginia, by his employers to take charge of a
branch house located at that point. Mr. Wheeler came
West in 1853, first settling in Illinois, and securing work
466

as paymaster for the contractors grading the Illinois
Central Railroad, then under construction from Kanka-
kee to Urbana. This work was completed in 1855 and
he then went to Beloit, Wisconsin, as cashier of the Rock
River Bank, a position he held until the institution failed
in 1857. The early part of 1860 found Mr. Wheeler at
Pike’s Peak, Colorado, whither he had gone with a party,
carrying a quartz mill to the mountains. A few months
later he retraced his steps, expecting to return West
within a short time, but the war breaking out changed
his plans. When the new internal revenue law was
passed in 1862 he was appointed deputy collector for
the Second District of Wisconsin, with headquarters at
Madison. Here he remained until the expiration of
his term of office in 1866, at which time he came to Chi-

cago and entered into the manufacture of paper bags,

establishing the firm of Wheeler & Hinman. In the
fall of 1871 Mr. L. G. Fisher purchased Mr. Hinman’s
interest and the firm was changed to Wheeler, Fisher
& Co., and so continued until 1875, when the Union Bag
and Paper Company was organized. Mr. Wheeler be-
came president of this company and Mr. Fisher secre-
tary, so continuing until December, 1892, when the
Union Bag and Paper Company became associated with
three other large concerns under the same name. At
this time Mr. Fisher became president and Mr. Wheeler
retired from active participation in the business, al-
though still retaining his former interests. Mr. Wheeler
has led a long and active life as a citizer’ of Chicago,
and has seen the village of his earlier years expand to the
present metropolis. He was among the sufferers in the
great fire, but although the damage to the firm at that
time was total, all debts were paid in full, dollar for dol-
lar. Mr. Wheeler is a member of the Calumet and
Washington Park clubs, and is also identified with the
Tolleston Club. °

James Hobart Moore, whose success, both as a law-
yer and financier, has called forth so much admiring
comment, was born at Berkshire, Tioga County, New
York, June 14, 1852. His father, Nathaniel F. Moore,
was also a native of the Empire State and for many
years a prominent merchant and banker of Utica, where
he died in 1890. His mother, whose maiden name was
Rachel A. Beckwith, came of a well-known family and
was the daughter of George Beckwith of Triangle, New
York.

Receiving his early education in local schools and
finishing at the Cortland Academy in Homer, New York,
Mr. Moore entered his father’s banking establishment
at Greene, New York, when he was nineteen years of
age. Subsequently, however, he became an employe
of the Susquehanna Bank at Binghamton, New York,
and in 1873, becoming impressed with the advantages
to be found in the West, he removed to Chicago and
has since made this city his home.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Here he found employment and for a period of five
years occupied several positions of trust. In 1878,
however, he decided to study law and became a student
in the office of Small & Moore, where he applied himself
with great earnestness. In 1881 he was admitted to
the bar and, shortly after, upon the death of Mr. Small,
he formed a law partnership with his brother, William
H. Moore, the latter having been the junior partner in
the firm under whose guidance he had studied.

Mr. Moore has made a remarkable success of his
profession. He is primarily a counselor, having a keen
legal mind, strong practical sense, and a ready insight
into the most intricate legal. complications. The firm
of which he is a member has made a specialty of cor-

 

 

 

 

JAMES HOBART MOORE.

poration law, and at an early date in its career became
counsel for such great corporations as the Adams and
\merican Express companies, the Vanderbilt fast
freight lines, and others.

Both Mr. Moore and his brother have the genius
for the promotion of great business enterprises, and sev-
cral years ago began the organization of great and suc-
cessful corporations. Their. greatest prominence and
most remarkable success in this line came to them as
the promoters of the Diamond Match Company, the
same corporation which a couple of years ago was the
cause of their apparently irretrievable downfall and com-
plete financial ruin. The first estimates of the losses
sustained in this disaster by Mr. Moore and his brother
were given at about $8,000,000, but the subsequent ap-
preciation in value of the securities they held reduced

the actual loss to a round sum of $4,000,000, An ac-
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

count of the lifting of this enormous debt in the shori
space of one year reads like a fairy tale, but, by their
successful financiering of the National Biscuit Com-
pany and the American Tin Plate Company, the two
institutions alone representing a capital in excess of
$100,000,000, they were able to win victory from disaster
and make settlement upon all outstanding accounts.

Mr. Moore is a prominent club member both in Chi-
cago and in New York. He is a Democrat in his po-
litical preferences, but takes no active part in politics.
He was married in April, 1883, to Miss Lora Josephine
Small, daughter of the late Edward A. Small of this
city. They have one child, a son.

Conrad Henry Matthiessen was born at Cornwall-
on-the-Hudson, Orange County, New York, March 16,
1865. His father, Mr. E. A. Matthiessen, was alive to
the advantages of a liberal education, and consequently
Mr. Matthiessen was trained successively at Cobb’s

 

 

 

 

 

CONRAD HENRY MATTHIESSEN.

School, Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, at the Berkley School,
New York City, at the “Real Schule,” Wiesbaden, Ger-
many, at College de Genieve, Geneva, Switzerland, and
healsospent three years in the Sheffield Scientific School,
of Yale University, from which institution of learning he
graduated in 1886. The bent of Mr. Matthiessen’s mind
is scientific and commercial, and at an early age he asso-
ciated himself with the Chicago Sugar Refining Com-
pany and was active in the promotion of its interests
from 1881 to 1887. The great value of his services was
appreciated by the stockholders, and in 1893 he was
elected president of the corporation. In August, 1897,
Mr. Matthiessen was chosen president of the Glucose

467

Sugar Refining Company, which office he still holds.
Mr. Matthiessen, though sufficiently public spirited, has
abstained from active participation in party politics. He
is of those who take pleasure in business and find relaxa-
tion in the society of their family and their friends. He
was married, May 24, 1888, at his birthplace, Cornwall-
on-the-Hudson, and has three children—Ralph, aged
ten years; Henry, six vears, and Constance, aged three
years. Mr. Matthiessen is an ardent college fraternity
man, and is enrolled in the chapter of Sigma Delta Chi
at Yale.

John Brackett Lord, president and manager of the
Ayer & Lord Tie Company, was born at Newton Upper

 

 

 

 

JOHN BRACKETT LORD.

Falls, Massachusetts, June 5, 1848, a descendant on both
his father’s and mother’s sides from prominent colonial
families.

Mr. Lord’s paternal grandfather, Wentworth Lord,
was an early resident in the state of Maine, but went from
Augusta, in that state, to South Tamoorth, New Hamp-
shire, while still a young man. His son, Brackett Lord,
the father of Mr. Lord, was born in the state last men-
tioned, from whence he subsequently removed to New-
ton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, where he met and mar-
ried Miss Clarasa Williams Wins!ow, a direct descendant
from Knelham Winslow, a brother of Governor Edward
Winslow of Massachusetts.

Mr. Lord received his education in the schools at
Newton, Massachusetts, and at the Wesleyan Academy
at Wilberham, in the same state, at which institution he
remained until 1867, when he gave up his studies in
order to assist his father in the grain and flour business
468

at Newton. Here he continued to be actively engaged
until 1872. At this time he came West, locating at
Kansas, Illinois, where his father owned a large grain
warehouse, which he offered to give his son on condition
that he would settle there and build up a business.

After a trial of a few years, Mr. Lord became con-
vinced that there was not enough business at this point
to warrant his remaining there longer; and accordingly,
in 1875, he ceased to confine his efforts to this limited
territory, and became a general buyer and shipper of
grain throughout the entire central section of the state,
continuing as such until 1882. In this year he became
connected with Mr. C. W. Powell, a retired cross-tie con-
tractor, establishing the firm of Powell & Lord, with
headquarters at Paris, Illinois. Two years later the firm
removed to Chicago, where it carried on a prosperous
business in railroad lumber suppties until its dissolution
in 1893.

Mr. Lord then associated himself with Mr. Edward
E. Ayer and organized the Ayer & Lord Tie Company,
of which he became the president and manager. This
new association added very materially to the business,
so that at the present time the firm is doubtless the
largest oak tie dealers in the United States, handling
an average of 6,000,000 ties annually. The connection
with Mr. Ayer has also proved a particularly happy and
profitable one, Mr. Ayer having had an extensive experi-
ence in the cedar business, which, combined with Mr.
Lord’s extensive experience in oak tie business, resulted
in building up the extensive oak tie business the firm
now enjoys.

Mr. Lord is a member of the Chicago, Union League,
Kenwood and Midlothian clubs, and he is a stanch sup-
porter of the Republican party. Ile was married in
1874 to Miss Anna E. Steele of Grand View, Edgar
County, Illinois, daughter of Dr. James M. Steele, a
prominent physician of that part of the state.

Webster Batcheller, who justly ranks among the pio-
neer lumbermen of Chicago, was born at Adams, Massa-
chusetts, in 1834. Like several of the other early lum-
bermen who figure in these pages, he is descended from
an old colonial family, the earliest ancestors of which
were settlers of the Massachusetts colony. Mr. Batch-
eller obtained his education in the common schools of
his native place and at Glens Falls, New York, whither
his parents had removed in 1842. Shortly after gradua-
tion from the Glens Falls Academy, where he completed
his studies at the age of sixteen, he came West and lo-
cated in Chicago, entering the employ of Chapin, Marsh
& Foss, whose establishment stood at the corner of Canal
and Monroe streets. Here he remained until the first
day of January, 1858, at which time he formed an alli-
ance with James H. Pearson, under the title of Pearson
& Batcheller. This connection existed until 1862, when,
his health failing, he retired for the time being from

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

active business and went to California for rest and re-
cuperation.

Upon his return, in 1864, Mr. Batcheller entered
into partnership with Mr. Byron Rice, establishing the
firm of Batcheller & Rice, which continued in business
until 1870. For the following two years he was senior
member of the firm of Batcheller & Benton, but in 1872
he purchased Mr. Benton’s interest, and, in connection
with Mr. Nathaniel Slaght, purchased the Ferry & Hop-
kins saw mill at Ferrysburg, Michigan, which was oper-
ated by them, until 1875. At this time Mr. Batcheller
purchased Mr. Slaght’s interest and operated the mill
under his own name until 1880, when he disposed of it
to the Akeley & Boyden Lumber Company, together

 

 

WEBSTER BATCHELLER.

with the extensive pine lands that he had in the mean-
time accumulated.

Since his retirement from active business in the lum-
ber trade Mr. Batcheller has become extensively inter-
ested in real estate and has devoted the last score years
of his life to the purchase and sale of such, both in Chi-.
cago and elsewhere. In conclusion, it is but just to
say that Mr. Batcheller has led an extremely busy life
and one that has been marked throughout by the high-
est qualities that go to make up the successful man. A
progressive and public-spirited citizen, he has always
taken his part in matters pertaining to the advancement
and betterment of his fellow-men, and in the lumber
world, of which he was for so long an active and moving
spirit, he is still esteemed by all.

George Farnsworth. Chicago has her pioneers in
all the various lines of industry, and it is with interest
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

we note the story of their lives—lives that have been
closely and intimately connected with her history. There
is something even in the homeliest account of the lives
of such men that appeals to the admiration. This is
particularly true of the early lumbermen—those hardy
spirits, who, by sheer force of will and strength of char-
_ acter conquered the wilds of the new Western country
and achieved success with no other capital than these
qualities of mind and heart.

Among this class we find a typical example in George
Farnsworth, who, as a lad of fifteen, came West from
Vermont, sixty years ago, and began the molding of
his future life, a life not all sunshine and flowery paths,
but one in which he rose superior to the obstacles that
he found in his way.

Mr. Farnsworth was born at Fairfax, Franklin
County, Vermont, May 22, 1825, the son of James and
Joanna (Keith) Farnsworth. From his father he inher-
ited the qualities of the sturdy and aggressive Anglo-
Saxon race, while from his mother he received the qual-
ities of determination and grit of a Scotch ancestry.
On both sides, therefore, he came of stock renowned
for its ability and character. His father, who was dis-
tinguished in the history of Fairfax, Vermont, in the
tilitary and business affairs of his period, was also a
lumberman, engagedinrafting timber from Lake Cham-
plain, through the Sorrel and St. Lawrence rivers to
‘markets at Montreal and Quebec. He accumulated a
considerable fortune, but, through the failure of several
parties for whom he was a heavy indorser, he finally
became involved, and through the losses of others was
dragged into failure himself. George, the subject of
this sketch, was thus thrown upon his own resources
at an early age, and was forced to leave school when but
twelve years old. For a time he worked in a store at
Burlington, Vermont, but in 1840, being then fifteen
years of age, he came West to Racine, Wisconsin, from
which point, with another boy of about his own age
whom he met at this place, he walked to Chicago, arriv-
ing here with but $3.00 in money between them. They
sought a night’s lodging and breakfast at the old Sauga-
nash Hotel, corner of Lake and Market streets, and
in the morning found their bill amounted to exactly
their total sum of money. Accordingly, they paid out
their last cent, and set out in search of work. Mr.
Farnsworth’s companion was fortunate in securing
work immediately, but he, himself, was disappointed.
His friend gave him shelter for the night and the next
day he started on foot for Grand de Tour, a small town
on the Rock River, where he had heard that a boy was
wanted. His journey of a hundred miles on foot through
an unbroken country was most difficult, and he was dis-
appointed when he got there. A boy had been en-
gaged. A few days later, however, he was again walk-
ing overland, this time for Southport, now the city of

469

Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he was more fortunate and
secured employment in a store. Here he remained for a
year, and, his father dying at this time, he returned East,
but soon after was again working his passage West,
having left all his earnings with his mother. This time
he made his way to Racine, where he secured employ-
ment in the lumber yard of Mr. Lewis. Because of his
rather delicate physical appearance his employer soon
took him into the office and placed him at work on the
books. Here he remained for another year, not ex-
pecting or receiving more than his board, although, to
his surprise, at the end of this time he found that his
employer had placed $600 to his credit.

At the age of nineteen Mr. Farnsworth bought out
the Lewis yard with borrowed money and formed a part-

 

GEORGE FARNSWORTH.

nership with Horatio Monroe. They were successful
in their undertaking and a year later Mr. Farnsworth
was the sole proprietor of the business, having purchased
his partner’s interest. He then went to Muskegon,
Michigan, where he leased a mill for a year and cleared
considerable money. Soon after this he selected a site
at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River, erected a
mill of his own and took up Government land densely
covered with pine. This mill he operated for several
years, but he finally became involved, because of the
low price of pine, and the mill passed into other hands.
With undaunted courage, however, he set about clear-
ing off his indebtedness, and in a short time, through
fortunate speculations, he once more found himself finan-
cially unencumbered.

Mr. Farnsworth made large investments in pine
470

land on the Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers, and in
1858 bought a half interest in a mill at Oconto, Wis-
consin. This firm went through several changes, Mr.
Farnsworth remaining at the head of it. Under the di-
rection of the firm of Farnsworth, Mears & Co. a large
business was established, the assets of the firm grew to
$250,000, and the “Oconto Company” was incorporated,
of which Mr. Farnsworth was the first president, and so
remained until 1886, when he retired from active life.
The capital of the “Oconto Company” was finally in-
creased to $1,000,000, and the Bay de Noquet Company
was formed to make a division of the property. Of this
company Mr. Farnsworth was also for many years
president.

Since his retirement from active business life Mr.
Farnsworth has spent much of his time in travel, at
home and abroad, enjoying the fruits of a long and
active career.

George W. Spofford, born August 9, 1831, at Peter-
boro, New Hampshire, is the son of Ira Spofford,a soldier
of the war of 1812, and his wife, Miriam Atwood, born
at Chester, Vermont. Amos Spofford, grandfather of
George W., served in the Revolutionary war. The Spof-
fords are of a very ancient lineage and of Saxon origin,
the name being of record in English archives prior to
the Norman invasion. John Spofford, who married
Elizabeth Scott, came to the United States A. D. 1638,
and settled at Georgetown, Massachusetts. The Spof-
ford family has perpetuated its memory in New England
by “Spofford’s Gap,” a pass in the White Mountains,
that derives its name from Abijah Spofford, great-grand-
father of the subject of this notice, and his brother
Eldad, whose farms it separated.

George W. Spofford gained a preliminary education
in the public schools of Boston, and then proceeded to
preparation for Harvard by a course of tuition at the
still famous Phillips Exeter Academy. Too ardent
devction to study threatened him with partial loss of
eyesight, and he, though unwillingly, was induced to
leave before the completion of the baccalaureate course.
After a period of legal reading under the late E. S. Cut-
ter, then county solicitor, as the office of state’s attorney
was designated in New England, Mr. Spofford came to
Chicago, and in 1856 was appointed principal of the
Foster school. This school district then embraced all
the territory between the river on the east and Western
avenue, which then was the western boundary of the
city, and between Jackson street, now Jackson houle-
vard, and the north bank of the river. This important
post was held by him until July 1, 1870, by which time
his original jurisdiction was ripe for subdivision into
several school districts. Meanwhile Mr. Spofford had
discerned the future greatness of Chicago and had made
prudent investments in real estate, and had offices in
what now is the Hotel Morrison and at Englewood.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Since then he has devoted his time and energy exclu-
sively to real-estate transactions, excepting at such times
as he was engaged in public service. For many years
past the management of his own affairs, which involve
large real-estate interests, has claimed his exclusive
attention. Four times has the building at the corner of
Madison and Clark streets, now known as the Hotel
Morrison, been built and rebuilt under the direction of
Mr. Spofford.

Mr. Spofford’s public services, though arduous and
productive of great good to the public, have not been
of the sort that bring profit to the official. Indeed,
public spirit, not personal ambition, has been the motive
of Mr. Spofford’s career. He has served two terms as

 

 

 

 

GEORGE W. SPOFFORD.

county commissioner, being elected in 1877 and again
in 1888. During both of these periods the salary of the
office was but $1,500, certainly a sum that could very
inadequately compensate the expenditure of time and
energy by a man whose every minute could be made pro-
ductive of personal profit. At the time of Mr. Spof-
ford’s entry upon his first term as commissioner, the
courthouse was under construction, the basement being
already built, and contracts let for the construction of
the whole building. He was made chairman of the
Dunning poorhouse and asylum committee, and was a
member of Cook County Hospital committee, and, in
fact, of the whole system of outdoor relief service. By
his unflagging efforts great reductions were made in
the expenditure of these departments, while at the same
time the quality of the food, clothing and medicines
furnished to deserving objects of charity was improved
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

greatly. He introduced to the public service the same
judicious economy that he, like every successful busi-
ness man, exercises in transactions of private business.
The good effect of this policy was manifested by the
result of the next election, when a Republican majority
was achieved in all branches of the county service. By
request of Governor Fifer, Mr. Spofford attended the
Farmers’ Congress at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1891,
and was successful in carrying the votes of 700 delegates
in favor of Chicago as the place for the World’s Colum-
bian Exposition, against 17 cast for New York. This
was the more notable as an achievement when it is con-
sidered that at that time New York regarded the South
asa commercial appendage. Subsequently to this, Mr.
Spofford did good missionary work in Texas and Missis-
sippi for Chicago and the exposition. To those who
know him it will be needless to say that Mr. Spofford
performed this important public service at his own cost.

Mr. Spofford is a director of the Menoken Club, and
is a member of the St. Bernard Commandery and of the
Mystic Shrine. His religious affiliation is with the Con-
gregational church. He was married Christmas Eve,
1859, to Miss Hannah Morrison, daughter of Orsemus
Morrison, whose fame as a pioneer of Chicago’s great-
ness and as a practical abolitionist endures in local
archives. There are two children, Percy M. and Flor-
ence M. The Spofford mansion, with its magnificent
outlook upon Garfield Park, is one of the picturesque
features of the West Side.

Daniel W. Mills, who comes of good old Quaker
stock, stands high among the men who have availed
themselves successfully of the opportunities that the
United States at large and the city of Chicago in par-
ticular present to young men of ambition, ability and
integrity. Beginning with no capital other than that
of good character, intelligence and industry, Mr. Mills
has attained a prominent place in the business and
political circles of Chicago.

He was born February 25, 1838, on a farm near
Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. He inherited from
both parents a strong constitution of mind and body,
and a name identified with the history of the struggles
of the early pioneers of what was once spoken of as
“the West,” but which now is the eastern part of the
Middle States. His mother, Susanna Mills, born Su-
sanna Brown, was brought up on a farm, whose boun-
daries reached near to what is now the city of Cincin-
nati. Indian raids were common enough in those days,
and while in the third year of her age the future mother
of an alderman and congressman of Chicago was for a
time held in captivity by savages, and this within sight
of the Ohio River. The maternal great-grandfather of
Mr. Mills was Joseph Brown, one of the band of English
Quakers who accompanied William Penn to this country

in 1682.

471

The death of his father, who left a widow with but
limited means of support, entailed upon the boyish D. W.
Mills many of the responsibilities of manhood. Hiring
out to farmers during the summer months, and availing
himself of such educational advantages as the neighbor-
hood afforded, Mr. Mills had passed through the com-
mon schools of the village of Raysville and the more
pretentious high school of Waynesville before he had
finished his nineteenth year. When only eighteen years
old he accepted employment as clerk in a general store,
and by the time he was twenty-one had saved a little
money, and, what was of quite as much importance,
had gained the confidence of the best part of the com-
munity in which he resided. Partly by his own sav-

 

 

DANIEL W. MILLS.

ings, but more largely by the aid of a rich Quaker, Oscar
Wright of Waynesville, who discerned the ability and
appreciated the integrity of the young man, Mr. Mills
was enabled in 1839 to embark on his own account in
general trade at Corwin, Ohio. Here he sold all things
that the country folks needed and bought all that they
had to sell. He was storekeeper and pork packer. Just
when he had brought this business into a highly profit-
able condition the war for the Union was proclaimed.
Mr. Mills did not hesitate for a moment, but went out
with Company D, One Hundred and Eightieth Ohio
Volunteers, and served to the close of the war, com-
ing out a captain.

With about $5,000, most of which he had saved
from his salary as an officer, Mr. Mills came to Chicago
in the spring of 1866, and engaged, first, in the manu-
facture of candy, afterward in the lake shipping trade,
472

and finally in the purchase and sale of real estate, in
the transaction of which business he has been eminently
successful. ,

An abolitionist by heredity, a Republican by educa-
tion in the school of war, and a manager of affairs by
force of personal character, Mr. Mills soon became a
strong factor in the politics of the city. He has served
as warden of the Cook County Hospital from 1877 to
1881, and was one of the best the hospital has ever had.
He has been elected twice as alderman of the Twelfth
Ward and represented the Fourth Congressional Dis-
trict of Illinois in the Fifty-fifth Congress.

Mr. Mills isa member of Loyal Legion, Grand .\rmy
of the Republic and is a Knight Templar and Thirty-
second Degree Mason; also a member of the Ilitnois,
Menoken, Hamilton and Lincoln clubs of Chicago.

He was married December 25, 1871, to Miss Lucy
Morrison, daughter of the eminent philanthropist and
citizen, Orsemus Morrison.

Henry C. Rew, who is prominent among the ener-
getic, far-seeing, reliable and successful business men of
Chicago, is a native of Ohio, and was born in 1839.
While quite young he was thrown upon his own re-
sources by the death of his parents. His life history
illustrates what may be attained by faithful and con-
tinued effort in carrying out his honest purpose of mak-
ing and maintaining a good reputation first and a for-
tune afterward, the latter being considered by him only
a secondary consideration.

At the age of fourteen he was appointed deputy post-
master of the Newark (New York) postoffice. As the
postmaster was old and infirm, Mr. Rew was virtually at
the head of the office, and had every detail at his fingers’
ends. is activity and faithfulness attracted attention
among the business men of Newark, and at the expira-
tion of the postmaster’s term he received numerous offers
of employment. He accepted the position of cashier
for Esbon Blackman, a leading grain and produce buyer.
In 1858 he removed to Albany, New York, and entered
the office of William P. Irwin. His promotion was
rapid, and by 1866, Albany being too small for his active
mind and spirit of enterprise, he moved to Buffalo and
began business on his own account as a grain dealer
and commission merchant.

In 1868 he located in Chicago and became a member
of the Board of Trade firm of D. W. Irwin & Co., and
to Mr. Rew’s sterling qualities and exertions is largely
due the good reputation and great prosperity that was
enjoyed by that firin during its existence (1868 to 1880).

Mr. Rew, since 1878, has been interested in improve-
ments in the new art of the manufacture of carbureted
water-gas, which was first developed on a commercial
scale in New York in 1875, by the use of costly anthracite
coal and naphtha. Since 1883 he has been actively en-
gaged in the mysterious but fascinating work of inven-

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

tions and improvements in that line of industry, with a
view of reducing the cost, improving the quality and in-
creasing the use of gas by utilizing cheaper and more
plentiful materials for its production. After encounter-
ing and overcoming many serious obstacles, he has finally
put into successful operation on a large commercial
scale a new process and apparatus for the scientific and
economical utilization of cheap bituminous coal, crude
oil and water, for the manufacture of the highest quality
of carbureted water-gas, in one operation and apparatus.

After first thoroughly investigating the state of the
art at the patent office at Washington, during 1883, 1884
and 1885, his first practical experiment was tried at the
Potrerostationofthe San Francisco Gas Light Company
in 1886. This resulted in the discovery of the second
important step to take in his line of thought. His sec-
ond experimental apparatus was built and tested by the
Consolidated Gas Company of New York in 1889, and
the operation of this apparatus made clear the final steps
necessary to a complete success.

His first entirely successful apparatus was built at
Mattoon, Illinois, in 1892. This was followed by the
construction and operation of a large commercial plant,
which was built for the Cicero Gas Company in 1892-93.
This company supplies high candle power gas to Oak
Park, Ridgeland, Austin, River Forest, Clyde, La
Vergne, Berwyn and Riverside, adjoining Chicago on
the west.

Since then the fine plant of the Missouri Gas Com-
pany has been built in Kansas City under his patents,
resulting in a reduction in the price of gas from $1.60 to
$1.00 per thousand cubic feet, an improvement in the
quality of the gas sent out, and an increase in the output
of about 500 per cent in one vear (1896). As a result
of his labors, cheap and abundant gas of the finest quality
is now within the reach of all aspiring towns and cities in
all parts of the world, as cheap bituminous coal is the
principal fuel of all nations, and crude petroleum is found
to be plentiful in all countries.

He has traveled extensively throughout the United
States, Europe and Mexico, visiting the principal cities.
Through his varied business experience, travel and ob-
servation, he has become a man of broad general in-
formation and of liberal and progressive views. He has
made an untarnished record and an unspotted reputation
as a business man.

He is a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, Chi-
cago Stock Exchange, Citizens’ Association, Union
League, Calumet and Washington Park clubs, a govern-
ing member of the Art Institute, and holds a life mem-
bership in the Chicago Athletic Club. He takes great
interest in all movements intended for the betterment
of the working man and the development on a broad
scale of his resident city.

In politics he is independent, although an ardent
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

free trader, believing, as he does, that the opening of our
ports to the trade of the globe is the one thing above all
others necessary to make the United States the greatest
commercial nation in the world.

He was married in 1863 to Miss Theresa M. Irwin
at Albany, New York, and now resides at 2619 Prairie
avenue, Chicago. He maintains a suite of offices at
218 La Salle street, Chicago.

Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor, son of Henry Hobart
Taylor, a well-known business man of Chicago, and
Adelaide (Chatfield) Taylor, was born at Chicago,
March 24, 1865, and is the seventh in descent, on his
father’s side, from William Taylor, who settled in Marl-
boro, Massachusetts, in March, 1651, and on his moth-

 

 

HOBART C. CHATFIELD-TAYLOR.

er’s side the eighth in descent from George Chat-
field, who is recorded as having settled in Guilford, Con-
necticut, as early as 1640.

Mr. Chatfield-Taylor comes of an ancestry which
is replete with colonial and Revolutionary heroes,
among them being Lieut. John Chatfield, who fought
during the invasion of Canada by the English; Asa Tay-
lor, who was a private in the same war; Col. Timothy
Robinson, who commanded a regiment of Massachusetts
troops in the Revolution; Capt. Eli Buttler, of the First
Connecticut Regiment; Lieut. John Eames, of Capt.
Nickson’s Company of minutemen, Framingham, Mas-
sachusetts; Oliver Chatfield, a private in the Fifth Bat-
talion of Wodsworth’s Connecticut Brigade; and some
twenty-five others who were either officers or privates
in the different colonial wars. His ancestry is entirely
American, as he traces it through fifty-four. lines, all

473

of whom were settled in this country before the year
1700.

Mr. Chatfield-Taylor received his early education at
Trinity School, Tivoli, New York, and in Europe under
various tutors, where he prepared himself for a colle-
giate course, and later entered Cornell University, from
which he was graduated with the class of ’86. Shortly
after leaving college he established a weekly political lit-
erary review called “America,” of which he became
editor and so remained until he sold the publication some
years later. He then entered upon regular newspaper
work, and during a two years’ residence abroad he acted
as special correspondent of the Chicago Daily News.

Mr. Chatfield-Taylor is best known, however, as the
author of several delightful books, the first of which,
called “With Edged Tools,” was published in 1891 by
A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. This was followed in
1893 by “An American Peeress,” London, Chapman &
Hall; Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co.; and in 1895 he
published “Two Women And A Fool,’”’ London, George
Routledge & Son; Chicago, H. S. Stone & Co., a novel
which met with an enthusiastic reception from the pub-
lic and the press. Two other books have been brought
out since then, “The Land of the Castanet” (Spanish
sketches), which was published in 1896, and “The Vice
cf Fools,” which came out in 1897.

Mr. Chatheld-Taylor has been a contributor at va~
rious times to the “North American Review,” “Harper’s
Weekly,” “Cosmopolitan” and other magazines. Dur-
ing the World’s Fair he was Spanish consul and a mem-
ber of the Spanish Commission to the exposition. He
has been an officer of many of the clubs and social or-
ganizations of Chicago and at the present time is
president of the Onwentsia Club. He was married in
1890 to Miss Rose Farwell, daughter of ex-Senator
Charles B. Farwell, of Illinois.

D. G. Rush, secretary and treasurer of the Masonic
Fraternity Temple Association, was born at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, February 12, 1836. His parents were
David aud Susan (Gall) Rush.

Dr. Rush attended the public schools of Lancaster,
and at the age of seventeen he entered Jefferson Medical
College, from which he was graduated with the class of
1858. He then began practice at Lancaster, but in
1861, on the outbreak of the war, he accepted a commis-
sion as surgeon in the One Hundred and First Regi-
ment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. One month
iater he was placed on detached service and assigned to
General Keim’'s brigade as brigade surgeon. After the
death of General Keim he continued in the same capacity
under General Henry H. Wessells until March, 1864,
when the command was captured at Plymouth, North
Carolina, and sent to the prison at Andersonville.
Brigade Surgeon Rush, together with the other cap-
tured officers, was sent to Libhy Prison, where he
474

remained until exchanged some two months later. He
then took charge of the officers’ hospital at Fortress
Monroe, and a year later he became medical purveyor
of the Department of North Carolina, serving as such
until July, 1866.

Dr. Rush came to Chicago shortly after leaving the
army and resumed the practice of medicine. He retired

 

 

 

 

 

D. G. RUSH.

{rom the active duties of his profession some ten years
later, since which time he has traveled extensively and
has been engaged in caring for various interests of a
business nature. He has always been an enthusiastic
member of the Masonic Order, in which he is a member
of the 32d degree. In 1890 the Masonic Fra-
ternity Temple Association was organized for the
purpose of erecting a building in Chicago that would
suitably represent the order, and in 1894 Dr. Rush was
elected its secretary and treasurer. This office he still
holds.

David Francis Bremner, vice-president of the Na-
tional Biscuit Company, was born at Ottawa, Canada,
June 30, 1839. His parents were Robert and Rachel
(Brooks) Bremner, the former of whom was a native of
Scotland, the latter of Ireland, and emigrated to Canada
about 1832.

When he was about nine years of age, Mr. Bremner
removed from Ottawa with his parents and located in
Chicago, where he was educated in the parochial schools
and at the University of St. Mary’s of the Lake. His
education completed, he entered into business, but at
the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South,
he enlisted for three months with the “Highland

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Guards,” an organization which enlisted as a body and
of which he had been a member for sometime. At the
expiration of the three months this organization re-en-
listed for three years, becoming Company E, of the Nine-
teenth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. Mr. Bremner
was second lieutenant of the company.

The Nineteenth Illinois soon became one of the best
drilled in the Western army and was always in the ex-
treme front, where it invariably gave a good account of
itself. At the battle of Murfreesboro it had the honor
of leading the assault which saved the Union line, and in
the several days’ fighting, in which it lost heavily in offi-
cers and other men, Lieutenant Bremner won his cap-
tain’s shoulder straps. At the assault on Missionary
Ridge the Nineteenth was one of the fifteen Union regi-
ments that carried the Ridge and in this engagement

- Captain Bremner was the one to carry the regiment flag
over the last entrenchment on the Ridge, after three of
its bearers had been shot down in quick succession. He
escaped unharmed, although his army overcoat was
pierced by five balls. His gallantry in this fierce struggle
attracted wide attention and was made the subject of a
stirring war poem by the Rev. S. F. Smith, author of the
national hymn, “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.”

 

 

 

DAVID FRANCIS BREMNER.

Captain Bremner served with his regiment until it
was mustered out, and upon his return to civil life en-
gaged in the cracker manufacturing business at Cairo,
Illinois. Not being satisfied with his location, however,
he sold out and established himself in Chicago in 1872,
where he has since been identified with the cracker in-
terests. At the time of the formation of the National
THE CITY

Biscuit Company, Mr. Bremner was president of the
American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company, which
became a part of the new company.

Mr. Bremner was for three years a member of the
Chicago Board of Education, in which capacity he
showed himself to be a friend of the best interests of the
community. He was married in 1865 to Miss Catharine
Michie, daughter of James Michie of Lyons, Illinois.
They have a family of four sons and three daughters.

Otto C. Schneider was born December 5, 1856, at
Kusel, Rhenish ‘Palatinate, Germany, where his father
was editor and proprietor of a newspaper. His parents
died when he was only nine years of age, and he was
sent to a Latin school in his native city until he was

 

OTTO C. SCHNEIDER.

fourteen, at which time he came to this country and
located in Chicago. He soon became enrolled as a
student in Dyrenfurth’s College, where he remained
until the Chicago fire, in October, 1871.

He then went to St. Louis, where he became an
apprentice in a drug store. Finding a natural liking
for the work, he later entered a pharmaceutical college
in that city, and pursued a regular course, after which
he passed the state board examinations and became a
registered pharmacist.

In 1877 Mr. Schneider returned to Chicago, and
two years later purchasel a drug store on the corner of
Clark and Van Buren streets, which he successfully con-
ducted until 1883. In that year he married the daugh-
ter of Mr. August Beck, and shortly after entered the
firm of Aug. Beck & Co., manufacturers of tobacco and
snuff, in the capacity of bookkeeper and cashier. He

OF CHICAGO.

475

purchased the entire interest of Mr. Beck in 1892 and
became president of the firm, which is the second largest
tobacco factory in the state of Illinois. In 1899 Mr.
Schneider disposed of his business to the American
Tobacco Company and retired to private life.

Mr. Schneider was appointed a member of the Board
of Education by Mayor Swift in 1895 and served until
1808.

On January 18, 1899, he was appointed by Governor
Tanner a member of the Board of Commissioners for
Lincoln Park and served until resigning the following
October.

He is identified with many of the more promi-
nent social organizations of Chicago, among them being
the Union League Club, the Chicago Athletic Associa-
tion, the Marquette Club, and the Germania Mzenner-
chor, the latter of which is the most influential club of
German-Americans west of New York City, and of
which he is president. His married life has been a par-
ticularly happy one, and two sons have been born to
him.

Alonzo Clark Mather, president of the Mather
Humane Stock Transportation Company, is a direct
descendant of the Mather family which held such a dis-
tinguished place for nearly one hundred years in the
early history of New England. The first of the name
to come to this country was one Richard Mather, who
arrived in Massachusetts August 17, 1635, from Toxteth
Park, near Liverpool, England, and who, together with
his son, Increase, and grandson, Cotton, may be named
as those best known of this name in colonial days. Cot-
ton Mather, who was distinguished for his observance
in a single year of more than sixty days of fasting and
prayer, was almost the last, and at the same time, per-
haps, the most remarkable, of all the great Puritan
divines. An editorial in the Boston Herald of a recent
date, speaking of the Mather family in Boston in the
early days, says of them: “The Mathers were two cen-
turies ago so prominent in New England that the
snapping of the little finger of one of them could bring
about a revolution” and of Cotton Mather, “With his big
wig, with his beaming eyes, with his grave yet comely
face and scholarly dignity of bearing as he walked about
the streets of Boston, he had at least the port and bear-
ing of a nobleman, and it is in this aspect that he is
known and honored today.’’ With the generation fol-
lowing Cotton Mather the name died out almost com-
pletely, as has been the case with so many other family
names then prominent, and to-day there are few indeed
who can trace their descent from the Mathers of colonial
fame.

Mr. Mather, the subject of this sketch, is a son of
William and Mary Ann (Buell) Mather of Fairfield, Her-
kimer County, New York, where he was born April 22,
1848. His education was obtained in the Fairfield pre-
476

paratory school, an institution originally founded by his
grandfather, Moses Mather, at a medical college, and
which had a prosperous career as such from 1802 to
1825. His father, who, for nearly forty years, was known
as one of the foremost writers and lecturers on natural
sciences and chemistry, was also identified with this
institution, serving as its president for nearly a quarter
of a century. Mr. Mather entered this school in 1860
and remained there until 1864, with the exception of
one year, during which time he filled a position in
Springfield, Massachusetts. His course of study com-
pleted, he went to Utica, New York, and for a period of
about a year was employed in the mercantile business.
tis inclinations were strong toward this line of work,

 

 

‘ALONZO CLARK MATHER.

and, although his father wished to make a professional
man of him, he started out in business for himself at the
age of nineteen, and began the molding of his own
fortunes at Little Falls, New York. Ambitious, how-
ever, for a larger field, he came west to Quincy, Illinois,
a year later, but his ambition to operate on a still more
extensive scale led him to establish himself in Chicago
in 1875. Here he engaged in the wholesale men’s fur-
nishing business on Madison street, and for twenty years
was numbered among the successful merchants of the
city.

Mr. Mather’s stock car company is a matter of very
recent growth, and it is interesting to know how he
became engaged in it. In 1880, while making a trip
to New York for the purpose of buying goods, an acci-
dent caused the sleeping car in which Mr. Mather was
w passenger to be side-tracked several hours beside a

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

stock train. He was kept awake all night by the moans
of the cattle, and in the morning he saw in the car oppo-
site that there were no less than five dead bullocks,
and three that were badly wounded, caused by their rest-
less and famished condition, and from the larger and
more powerful animals fighting and goring the weaker
ones in their frenzy and efforts to work their way from
one end of the car to the other in search of food and
water. This suggested to Mr. Mather the idea of build-
ing a stock car in which cattle could receive such atten-
tion while in transit as would insure their being deliv-
ered at the end of their journey in an uninjured and
healthful condition. Working entirely from a humane
standpoint, he sketched a design of such a car, had it
patented, and used every effort to get the railroads inter-
ested init, but without avail. At last, however, he had a
car built and equipped at his own expense, and in 1881
it was sent on its first trip, filled with cattle, from
Chicago to New York. The trip, which was favorable
in every respect, attracted much attention from the rail-
roads, the shippers and the public generally, and in
recognition of his successful efforts to improve the con-
dition under which cattle were transported, the Ameri-
can Humane Association awarded Mr. Mather a gold
medal of beautiful design in 1883, which he justly prizes
above the many which have since come to him.

Being engaged in other business at the time, Mr.
Mather was unable to give his stock car business the
attention it deserved. Other companies sprang up,
however, which seriously threatened his prospects, and
consequently he began to pay more and more attention
to the matter, with the result that in 1895 he sold out his
mercantile business and devoted his whole time to pro-
moting the interests of what has come to be known as
the Mather Stock Car Company. To give an idea of
the extent and magnitude of this business, it may be
said that at present there are from one to three trains
a day carrying nothing but the Mather car, dispatched
from Chicago to New York. Besides these, the com-
pany owns about three thousand of these cars, operated
over different roads throughout this country and in
“anada, with complete success, an injured animal being
almost unheard of. This is a great contrast between
the condition of twenty years ago, when every car reach-
ing Chicago invariably contained dead or crippled ani-
mals.

Mr. Mather is also interested along other lines, one
of which is that of developing the power of Niagara
River at the city of Buffalo proper. Believing that his
idea possesses many advantages over the method of
obtaining power at the falls and its subsequent trans-
mission to Buffalo at considerable loss, Mr. Mather,
some years ago, purchased land on both sides of the
river within the city limits of Buffalo, and in 1895 a bill
was introduced into the New York Legislature seeking
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

to grant him the privilege of putting his idea into opera-
tion. The bill, which passed the lower house by about
eighty-five votes out of one hundred and twenty, and
the Senate by about thirty-five votes out of fifty, and
which was approved by the mayor and common coun-
cil of Buffalo, was vetoed at the last moment by Gov-
ernor Morton through political influence; but the same
perseverance which characterized the introduction of
his car will eventually insure his success in this under-
taking also. Mr. Mather is of a very inventive turn of
mind, and has patented many inventions which are
to-day in general use, among them being the Mather
automatic car coupler, with which his own cars are
equipped, and which is extensively used by various rail-
roads. He is also the inventor of a glove fastener, of
which over a million pairs have been sold and are still
in universal. use.

Some years ago Mr. Mather designed and patented
a plan for operating the boats on the Erie Canal with
electricity and using the towpath for the roadbed of an
electric train service between Buffalo and Albany.
This, he believes, is one of the possibilities of the future.
He has also devoted much thought and study tending
toward developing the great tidal and wave power of
the sea into commercial utility.

Mr. Mather is a member of the Union League Club
and of the Marquette Club, and was also one of the
first members of the First Regiment, Ilinois National
Guard, when they had their armory on Lake street
over a store, and he still endeavors to give them his
hearty support, both financially and morally, although
he is not much of a clubman, preferring to spend his
leisure hours reading, in study and working out his
various inventions.

William Lorimer, member of Congress from the Sec-
ond Illinois District, is a man of deeds. During the
thirty-seven years of his life he has built up an influence
which makes him one of the Republican leaders in Con-
gress. He is a member of the House committees on
labor, agriculture, postoffices and post roads. He
secured the passage of the bill by Congress making
available the appropriation for Chicago’s new federal
building. He championed through the House the bill

- appropriating $650,000 for the improvement of the Chi-
cago River and the completion of the great drainage
canal. He assisted in the enactment of the eight-hour
law as related to federal contracts. He is one of the
five members appointed by Speaker Reed on the United
States Labor Commission. He organized the one hun-
dred and twenty-five Congressmen who demanded the
declaration of war against Spain, and who supported the
President in the successful management of that war.
He is representing in Congress a district having a nor-
mal Democratic majority of 6,000. Mr. Sorimer car-
ried this district in 1894 by a plurality of 4,000, in 1896 by

477

a majority of 6,500, and in 1898 by a plurality of 3,797,
his circus-tent, brass-band concert and picture-show
campaign for re-election last November being the most
conspicuous Congressional campaign in the country.
The Second Illinois District is the largest industrial
district in the United States. Double the number of
men, women and children engaged in industrial pursuits
in any other Congressional district are employed in Con-
gressman Lorimer’s. In it are the great Chicago pack-
ing-houses and the Union Stock Yards, the Lemont
stone quarries, foundries, harvesting-machinery _ fac-
tories, rolling mills, railroad yards and street-car barns.
It is the greatest railroad district in the country. It
extends from the dairy and farming country near Elgin,

 

 

 

WILLIAM LORIMER. ©

along the drainage canal, to Will County. It embraces
the Tenth and Twenty-eighth wards on the West Side,
the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth wards on the South
Side and a dozen country towns. Mr. Lorimer was
reared in the district. He graduated from newsboy,
packing-house employe and street-car conductor to
real-estate dealer and brick manufacturer in this same
district. He has subdivided and improved large areas
in the Town of Lake section of the district. He knows
the people and watches their interests.

C. Herman Plautz, secretary of the United Breweries
Company, was born at Klein Sabow, Germany, on
(October 20, 1844. His parents, John and Wilhelmine
(Krueger) Plautz, brought their family to this country
in 1855 and settled on a farm near Ixonia Center, Wis-
consin, where the boy, Herman, remained until he was
sixteen years of age. Spurred by his ambitions, how-
478

ever, to see more of the world than is allotted to most
of those who gain their livelihood by tilling the soil, he
set out in search of employment, going first to Ocono-
mowoc, Wisconsin, where he found employment in a
drug store. A few months later, in hopes of finding
better opportunities, he went to Milwaukee, where he
remained until he came to Chicago, in the early part of
1862.

Mr. Plautz followed his inclinations and found em-
ployment as a drug clerk ina drug store at 165 Milwau-
kee avenue. Four years later, although but twenty-two
years of age, he purchased the establishment and con-
ducted it successfully under his own name until 188r.
By this time he decided that the retail business did not

 

 

C. HERMAN PLAUTZ.

allow him sufficient scope for his ability; he had
outgrown it, and desired larger and wider fields for his
business dealings. Accordingly, he disposed of his
store on Milwaukee avenue and established a whole-
sale business at the corner of Randolph and Franklin
streets. Here he continued until 1885, when, upon his
election to the office of city clerk, he disposed of his
interest in this establishment, and brought to a close his
long and active connection with the drug trade of Chi-
cago.

Mr. Plautz served as city clerk until 1887, and
following this continued in office as city treasurer, to
which position he was elected on the Republican ticket
by a plurality exceeding 27,000. Upon his retirement
from politics in 1889—for Mr. Plautz has never aspired
to other offices than those he has held—he entered into
the brewing business, erecting the Northwestern Brew-

THe CITY OF CHICAGO,

ery on Clybourn avenue, and becoming its first presi-
dent. His connection with the Northwestern Brewery
continued until 1898, with the exception of three years
that he was at the head of the National Brewery. In
1898 he accepted the position of secretary of the United
Breweries Companies, and as such is still identified with
the brewing interests of Chicago.

Mr. Plautz is a member of the Germania Society and
of the D. C. Cregier Lodge, A. F. and A. M. He was
married in 1872 to Miss Minnie Jungblut of this city,
and has two sons, H. W. Plautz, who is assistant mana-
ger of the Northwestern Brewery, and H. F. Plautz,
who is now studying medicine at Rush Medical College.

James Pease, ex-sheriff of Cook County, was born
near Kenosha, Wisconsin, July 12, 1851, and is next
youngest of six children, whose parents were Anson and
Julia (Wellington) Pease. He is descended from an
o:d New England family that first settled in Connecticut,
and from which sprang many who were prominent in the
early history of the country. Among the first of the
name was one John Pease, who, in 1694, buiit the first
sailing vessel ever constructed in America, and it is
also worthy of note that another of the same name,
Marguerite Pease, subscribed the money with which
the first church in the Eastern colonies was built.

Mr. Pease acquired his early education in the public
schools near his home, after which he worked on a
farm until 1865. The life of a farmer did not seem to
offer many inducements to him. In the year last
mentioned he came to Chicago in search of more con-
genial employment. This he found in a position as
bookkeeper with the firm of MecGlauchlin & Dean,
wholesale dealers in flour. He remained with them
until the time of the fire in 1871, when the firm was
burned out, and he found himself without employment.
The fact that he had no capital and was entirely depend-
ent upon his own resources did not dismay him in the
least. Like hundreds of others, he did the best thing
he could have done under the circumstances, by grasp-
ing the first opportunity which presented a means for
earning a livelihood. This opportunity was simply an
apprenticeship at the painter's trade, but Mr. Pease
entered into it with his whole heart and energy, and in
the following five years, during which time he was
industrious and economical, he had acquired enough
capital to begin business for himself. It was only a
small beginning, but the trade of his little shop in Lake
View increased from month to month, and it was not
many years before he obtained control of one of the
leading wall-paper and painting houses on the Norti
Side. His systematic business methods, his enterprise
and his integrity brought him the success which he
deserved, and he continued at the head of the business
which he had established until the first of January, 1895,
disposing of his entire interest at this time because of
THE CITY OF CHICAGO,

the official cares which were then claiming his atten-
tion.

Mr. Pease has always been a Republican, and has
labored faithfully to advance the best interests of his
party. For nine years he was assessor for the Town of
Lake View, serving in this capacity with fairness to all
and partiality to none. In 1894 he was elected sheriff of
Cook County by a majority of 35,000, and has dis-
charged the duties incumbent upon him in this office
with a view to always serving the best interests of the
county. He has always taken much interest in educa-
tional matters, and has served four years on the Board of
Education of Lake View.

Mr. Pease is a member of the Royal Arcanum,
Knights of Pythias, Royal League, National Union and
Independent Order of Foresters. He is also identified
with the Marquette and the Chicago Athletic Clubs.
He is fond of hunting, claims membership in the Evans-
ton Shooting Club, Sheridan Shooting Club and the
Lake Poygan Gun Club, of which he is president. He
was married in 1884 to Miss Theresa Houlihan of Chi-
cago, and is the father of two children. Mr. Pease is

 

JAMES PEASE.

a generous-spirited citizen, a broad-minded man and a
tvpe of the true American.

George O. Nagle, former superintendent of the Chi-
cago City Railway Company, was born at Milton, Penn-
sylvania, December 31, 1869, and received his education
for the most part in the schools of Lima, Ohio, to which
town his family removed when he was seven years of age.
In the autumn of 1886 he came to Chicago, and after
attending the Chicago Atheneum he began his business

479

career in the employment of the Cragin Manufactur-
ing Company. A few months later, however, he ob-
tained a position in the office of the general auditor of
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company,
where he remained until February 8, 1891, when he en-
tered the services of the Chicago City Railway Company
as assistant to M. B. Starring, assistant general counsel
of the company. Later in the same year he became
private secretary to S. T. Pope, then the superintendent

 

GEORGE O. NAGLE.

of the system, but two weeks later, when Mr. Pope was
succeeded by the late M. K. Bowen, Mr. Nagle assumed
the same duties under him. In 1897 Mr. Bowen was
appointed general manager, and from that time Mr.
Nagle was virtually assistant superintendent, although
it was not until January 18, 1898, when Mr. Bowen
became president of the road, that he was appointed to
the position of superintendent, holding same until Janu-
ary, 1900, when he resigned.

J. Foster Rhodes. The name of Rhodes, derived
from the Greek, meaning a rose, is one of the oldest
names in history, being known as far back as 408 B. C.,
when the city of Rhodes was founded on the island of
the same name, now belonging to Asiatic Turkey. It
was not until a much later period, however, that there
is any record of it being used as a family name. _When
William the Conqueror embarked from Normandy in
1066 to lay claim to the English crown, he brought with
him a large army of warriors, descendants of the old
Vikings. Probably as a recognition for acts of special
bravery, two of these Norman warriors, \Willemus and
Hugh, were granted the moiety of Rode, which name
480

they adopted as their own. Situated about four miles
southwest of the present town of Macclesfield, County
of Chester, it was originally a part of the forests of
Leck and Macclesfield, and during the reign of King
John was divided into two parts, one of which became
the seat of the Rode family.

J. Foster Rhodes, the subject of this sketch, is de-
scended from the before-mentioned Hugh, who afterward
went to live in France, and from whom sprang the
numerous Counts de Rodez mentioned in that country
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Francis Rhodes, the seventeenth in lineal descent
from the Norman warrior of the house of Rode, subse-

-quently became the founder of the house of Rhodes,

 

J. FOSTER RHODES.

ot Rodez, as it was spelled in France, and from him
descended numerous branches in England, New Zea-
land and the United States. From the French also
came the German branches, the Schleswig-Holstein,
Palatinate and Switzerland branches. In German his-
tory we read of numerous Counts von Rhode, all of
whom were members of this house.

Through intermarriage the Rhodes can trace their
descent from legitimate issue of five reigning kings;
Rhodri Mawr, King of All Wales, who died in 876; Tnir,
King of Gwentland; David [ and Robert II, Kings of
Scotland, and Henry I, King of France.

The first of this name to come to America was one
Henry Rhodes, the great-great-grandfather of J. Foster
Rhodes, who emigrated from the Palatinate about 1750.
From him have descended many men who have been
distinguished in the nation’s affairs, among them Samuel

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Rhodes, at one time mayor of Philadelphia, and a score
of others, who have been prominent in both business
and professional circles.

J. Foster Rhodes was born at Brownsville, Penn-
sylvania, September 14, 1850, and began his business
life in 1868 as a boy in the banking house of Andrews,
Bissel & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio. After six years spent
in their employ, during which time he rose to the posi-
tion of cashier, he came to Chicago and engaged as a
bookkeeper with the Hibernian Banking Association.
While in this establishment he pursued a course at the
Union College of Law, being admitted to the bar in
i877. He then practiced for about six years in Chi-
cago, but, becoming interested in promoting fireproof-
building enterprises, he gave up his practice to devote
his whole attention to the former, in which he has been
very successful.

Mr. Rhodes is prominent in Masonic circles, being
a charter member of Chevalier Bayard Commandery, a
member of the Corinthian Chapter, Lakeside Lodge, the
Royal Order of Scotland and Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine. He betongs to the Chicago Club, the Washing-
ton Park Club, the Chicago Athletic Association, and
holds membership in the Parmachnee Hunting and
Fishing Club of Maine and in the Lakota Club, a hunt-
ing organization of Vermont, in which state he has a
beautiful summer home.

Mr. Rhodes was knighted March, 1895, by the King
of Portugal, receiving the Royal Military Order of
Christ. He was married in 1877 to Miss Margaret W.
Paterson. Two children have been born to them,
Joseph Foster and Margaret Elizabeth.

George Barton French, son of the L. B. French, who
married Miss Mercer Herndon, was born in Richmond,
Wayne County, New York, February 12, 1864. After
attendance on local schools he was enrolled as a student
of Princeton University, where he completed his edu-
cation. In 1885 he entered the New York Stock Ex-
change, and was an active dealer until 1893, when he
sold his membership, and came to Chicago. His first
work in his new sphere of life was in the freight house
of the Chicago & St. Paul Railway Company.
Though a stranger to the city and wholly without
influence, his ability and industry soon won recognition;
he was promoted to clerk in the general office in 1895,
and in the same vear was appointed traveling freight
agent for Minnesota, and in 1896 was made chief clerk
n the general freight office of the company at Chicago.
But his inclination was strongly toward the speculative
movements of the Stock Exchange, and, doubtless, his
experience as traveling freight agent for Minnesota had
given him a clear insight into the mysteries of the grain
trade. In 1897 an opportunity presented itselfi—he be-
came associated with Joseph Leiter, and in conjunction
with him engineered with greatest, and in every way the
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

most remarkable, wheat trade of which commercial his-
tory makes record. Mr. French has taken no active
part in political or social movements, but is, neverthe-

 

GEORGE BARTON FRENCH.

less, a gentleman of as pleasant mood when business is
done with as he is energetic in negotiating deals “on
“change.”

CEMETERIES.

Graceland Cemetery, situated tive miles north of
the city hall, was established in 1861 to meet the
necessities which had been created by a general de-
mand for extramural interments. Thomas B. Bryan,
in 1860, purchased the eighty acres of land which
to-day comprise the principal portions of the
beautiful grounds, and in the year following the
Legislature conferred upon Mr. Bryan, William B. Og-
den, Edwin H. Sheldon, Sidney Sawyer, George P. A.
Healey and others the power to incorporate as the
“Graceland Cemetery,” of which the five persons named
constituted the first board of managers. This charter
granted to the company the privilege of acquiring a
tract of land not to exceed five hundred acres, to be
used for cemetery purposes; that all burial lots are ex-
empt from taxation, execution and attachment; no
thoroughfare can be laid through the cemetery, and no
part of the grounds can be condemned for right-of-way
by any corporation.

Shortly after the organization of the company it
acquired forty-five acres of ground west of the original
section, and, three years later, five acres more on the
east side, while in 1867 the entire territory was in-

31

481

creased by one hundred and nine acres which were sit-
uated north of it. The executive management of the
company has always been of the best. Mr. Bryan was
the first president of the board, serving until 1865, and
subsequently from 1868 to 1878, James L. Reynolds
serving during the period from 1866 to 1868, and
Thomas E. Patterson from 1878 to 1881. Since then
this office has been filled by Mr. Bryan Lathrop, he also
discharging the duties of treasurer at the same time. A
number of years ago Mr. O. C. Simonds, whose reputa-
tion as a landscape gardener is of more than local re-
nown, became the superintendent of the cemetery, and
under his careful direction the grounds have been em-
bellished according to the latest ideas in landscape gar-
dening, and, while all the beauty and grandeur of nature
in her utmost simplicity has been retained, it is no less
a fact that her charms have been heightened by the
touch of art which has everywhere been bestowed in
a most judicious manner.

Situated upon a wooded ridge, and endowed by na-
ture with more than average beauty, Graceland is justly
famed as one of the finest among Chicago’s many cities
of the dead. In the development of the general effect,
which everyone finds so pleasing and restful to the eye,
nature has been left to do the greatest part of the work.
Its principal charm, no doubt, lies in the large, rolling
lawn, which appears to cover all as a velvety green car-
pet. Nothing can be compared with the impressive sim-
plicity which is over all. And this is especially well
exemplified in the eastern portion of the grounds. In
the northeastern part of the cemetery the landscape is
embellished by a fine lake, containing a wooded island
in the center and surrounded on all sides by fine trees
and blooming shrubs. In the immediate neighborhood
of this lake are found the most desirable family lots,
which are grouped in sections and given such names as
“Lakeside,” “Bellevue,” “Fairlawn,” etc.

Near the center of the cemetery is the new chapel,
reared in rich Wisconsin granite and roofed in red tile.
Within its walls all is harmony, the floral conservatory
replacing the outdoor effect of nature and nature’s quiet.
In the lower part of the chapel, built under a hill, is the
receiving tomb, containing nearly three hundred slate
receptacles.

The beauty of Graceland is enhanced by a large num-
ber of costly monuments and vaults, among the latter
of which may be mentioned those of Martin A. Ryerson,
Henry H. Getty, William H. Mitchell, and those of the
Huck and Shoenhofen families. Like many other
things, the last resting-places of the dead may be car-
ried to extremes, and so it is usually found in such
cemeteries where no effort is made to oversee and assist
in this work. A successful attempt has been made in
Graceland to overcome this, and consequently the re-
sult is harmony with the decorations erected by loving
482

friends and the surroundings as provided by the ceme-
tery officials.

Under this charter the company, throughout its ex-
istence, has set apart 10 per cent of the gross proceeds
of all burial lots to form a permanent fund, the income
of which shall serve for the adornment and preservation
of the cemetery grounds. This fund is held and con-
trolled by a corporation known as the “Trustees of the
Graceland Cemetery Improvement Fund,” and is com-
posed exclusively of lot owners. This body is also
authorized by charter to take any grant or bequest in
trust, and to apply the same in such manner as a donor
or testator may prescribe for the care and embellish-
ment of any particular lots.

Calvary Cemetery, situated a little south of Evans-
ton and ten miles north of the city hall, is the
largest and oldest of the Roman Catholic bury-
ing grounds in this diocese. It contains one hun-
dred and ten acres of heavily-wooded ground, which
were purchased in 1856 by Bishop O’Regan, although
not consecrated as a last resting-place for the dead until
three years later. Since then the grounds have been
under constant care and improvement, and to-day the
result is a vast “garden of the dead,” artistic in design
and imposing in appearance.

On either side of the broad avenues, which radiate
to all parts of the cemetery from the magnificent arch-
way at the entrance, are many beautiful and costly
monuments, marking the last resting-places of some of
Chicago’s most respected citizens of the Catholic faith.

Quite a significance is given to this cemetery
through its number of monuments erected over the
graves of heroes who gave their lives in their country’s
cause, among them being that of the brave Colonel
Mulligan, renowned as the leader of the famous Mul-
ligan Brigade. Other handsome shafts stand in honor
of William M. Devine, Thomas Lynch, Charles O’Neil
and John Cudahy, while the costly mausoleums of the
late Richard Hooley, P. J. Sexton and Mrs. Catherine
McCarthy are especially noticeable. .

Mount Olivet Cemetery, half a mile west of Morgan
Park, contains eighty acres of well-wooded, rolling
ground. The land was purchased in 1884, and the first
burial took place in June of the following year.

Both cemeteries are under the same management,
being in charge of Mr. Thomas Brenan, the financial
agent of the bishop, who personally superintends the
large force of men that care for the grounds and make
such improvements as from time to time seem best.

No attempt is made to make money out of either of
the cemeteries. Lots are sold, graves cared for and
improvements kept up, but no effort is made to make
the revenues exceed the cost, any surplus that may arise
being turned over to the archbishop, who directs its
investment for the aid of such improvements as may be
decided upon in the future.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Thomas Brenan. Few men, if any, have been more
closely identified with the growth of Chicago than
Thomas Brenan. During an almost continual residence
here for half a century, including a period of over thirtv-
five years spent in the official life of the city, he has been
associated with many of the events and movements that
mark the various stages of Chicago’s social, civic and
political development. That he has been an important
factor in many of these is well known to those who are
familiar with the history of this city, and yet there are
none who speak with more modesty of their own lives
than he. Ever unpretentious of his own merits, he
pursues, year in and year out, the even tenor of his

 

 

 

THOMAS BRENAN.

ways, and always doing, as best he can, whatever labor
falls to his lot in the orderly course of affairs.

Thomas Brenan was born of Irish parents, on Prince
Edward Island, in Nova Scotia. His father, Martin
Brenan, was a farmer from Wexford, Ireland, who sailed
for \merica shortly after his marriage, in order to seek
a better place for the investment of his money than he
could find in the old country.

An accident caused the party to land on Prince Ed-
ward Island, and here he remained for some years, en-
gaging in a general merchandise business, during which
time his son, Thomas, was born. Determined, how-
ever, to obtain a wider field for his ambitions, he dis-
posed of his business, and, in 1844, brought his wife and
child to Boston. Not finding a suitable business here
for his capital, he started alone on a tour through the
West, and in 1849, having decided upon locating in
Chicago, sent for his family, and on their arrival opened
a general store at the corner of what is now Lake street
THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

and Wabash avenue. Here is was that Thomas, who
was then old enough to earn his own living, began his
business life. A little later he obtained employment as
clerk and bookkeeper with the firm of Sterns &
Springer, dealers in hardware, on Wells street (now
Fifth avenue), near Washington street. He continued
in their service for some time, leaving them to accept
a position as head clerk in a hotel at Peoria, Illinois,
where he remained for two years. The Bureau Valley
Railroad was then building from Peoria to Rock Island,
and he was offered the position of accountant and pay-
master, which he accepted. Two years later, when the
work of construction had been finished, he returned
to Chicago and became a bookkeeper in a liquor house,
doing a jobbing business on South Water street. The
head of the firm died shortly after, and Mr. Brenan pur-
chased the estate’s interest, conducting the business un-
til the outbreak of the war under the firm name of
Brenan & Gillen.

During these years he took a little part in politics,
although he was a near friend and supporter of Senator
Douglas in the fierce struggles that preceded the war.
Another man of whom he was a great admirer was Gen-
eral Shields, and he was one of .the promoters and a
member of the famous Shields’ Guards. He also has
the distinction of having been a member of the historic
volunteer fire department, known as Red Jacket, No. 4,
of which D. J. Swenie, the present fire marshal, was then
captain.

When the war broke out Mr. Brenan was among the
number of patriotic young Irishmen who came together
in considerable numbers, under the leadership of James
A. Mulligan. He saw active service with this brigade
until it was mustered out at Springfield, in 1865.

He then returned to Chicago, where he once more
entered commercial life, this time in the employ of Peter
Smith, a dry-goods merchant, on Clark street.

A few years later, when his friend, W. J. Onahan,

483

became city collector, he accepted a responsible position
in that office, and remained there until he was appointed
assistant city treasurer, under Mr. Dan O’Hara. This
position he held through several administrations, re-
signing at last to take the office of assistant county
treasurer, a more important trust, and one which he
filled with equal success. Upon leaving the county
office Mr. Brenan became financial agent of the bishop,
in charge mainly of the real estate and cemeteries of
the diocese. He did not retire from politics, however,
and since then has held several other public offices.

. From the time of his location in the city Mr. Brenan
has had an active part in all matters pertaining to the
Catholic church. The various Catholic literary soci-
eties have received a large share of his attention, and in
1866 he was instrumental in organizing the Union Cath-
olic Library Association, which exists to-day.

The one thing in his whole life of which, perhaps,
Mr. Brenan takes more pride than any other is his long
connection with the public schools. His appointment
to the school board dates back to 1878, and since then
he has labored diligently and faithfully in the discharge
of his trust. A glance at the statistics of the present
school system, as compared with what it was at that
time, shows the great changes and improvements that
have taken place during the period in which he has
been identified with the board. In 1878 we find the
number of school buildings to have been 54; the num-
ber of teachers employed, 797; the number of pupils
enrolled, 55,109, and the monthly payroll, $49,184. In
1898 the number of school buildings had increased to:
320; the number of teachers to 5,203; the pupils en-
rolled to 230,591, while the payroll now reaches the
enormous figure of $454,559 per month.

Mr. Brenan is justly proud of his service rendered
to the community in behalf of the education of the chil-
dren of Chicago, and rightly does he feel that it reflects
lasting credit upon him.

 
ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
Inter Océan Building? <.c4.e e200 04 orem es sor awneee Frontispiece
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Fort Dearborn, 1868...s..08iee ose eaecekaee essere woemaress 8
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Stirvey of Chicago, 1830.60.04 saccceeeascn hacen a es saendieaces 3a It
Fort: Déearborit, TSSSic oc vastness dwn dee neha den med tenelnd os 13
City EIA 23a, papain sn a aaa adiann Ria a lagna Wiehe Ramen weeuasaraemen ieee 17
Jackson Boulevardisccsscacsaceewsi nia eae wad Seg wee we Re 29
Public: Schools...icsregas ss su se nite ws eeawk yavanna atea 084) 35, 30
Worm~anis 1 empl ese veadeeabsugi siesta or eae mites 38
Masonig. Temp] Qs cgpaxcas avaspe ata ay os BER oa aman 40
Marquette. Buildings. sich goed) eee Sud de pegeige eae 42
Champlain Building.............-..., farts tonite om eee teNnete tees 43
Fishér Bitthdin@ecs cic c0 eas eeiovac secs day eee Mea Ray welereals ny ees 44
VooOM. C) Ay Building sca sane vaesrs eta ae chee ea iaele wee aces 45
Public: luibtarysawie: 5 .cdsesecaea dy cpu cad nie <eeaqs gies cana eey 46
Newberry Dibrary. c.c4 saseuet seve tad entdees ee ous tee we tee 47
Abtts ARSHUUTEs Soccccrd potas deduced ate apasacd Vag PRL RR aaa Te eee 48
WAterwOES <8 cc 4 ahen€ 224 aterm alaaededs bud ngeden RRA Te eeatecnaouades 52
Chicago: ClaDseuinsk. 29 2a Eaacale bonded aie Ce abana ia as Res 85
Marquette? Clubs ck dene eavetueralakeds enuceaee aieadietanglgtd Lan 88
Union, Teagie Chibi. c.vsrsaesesetaceeneeed tend sewae pee ad 89
United States Government Building... tease 90
Grand Central Passenger Station, Hareisos “Beeeet Depot: Pagies 105
Chicago & North-Western Depot... -..........0 cece ee eee ene 107
Minos: Central Depot: 3. ateues sensed sar reeseshe samc seveaie 110
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Depot................ 113
Pullinan Buildings voc.ecesed senses oy iicstae ee Mebde ds weds 15
Auditorium Building. «21 .:00sserecveas aves tee eea neers acess 123
Chicago Union Traction Company’s Offices...........2...0.005 127
Chicago City Railway Company’s Offices....--....... 0.0. .0 00 131
Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge, Van Buren Street................ 133
First National Bank Building................... Mid aOieaiishe aiid 145
Continental National Bank Building............. cece cece eee 149
Merchants’ National Bank Building............. 0.0.00 eee eee 51
Chicago National Bank Building. ........ 0... cece eee eee 152
Commercial National Bank Building. ........ 0.0.0.0. ce ee eee 153
Fort Dearborn National Bank Building....................0., 155
Drovers’ National Bank Building. ........ 0... cece cece erences 158

PAGE
Illinois Trust and Savings Bank Building..................... 150
Merchants’ Loan and Trust Building...............0. 00s teense 163
Royal: Lrust: Company’ .2 oc sc cecsad usta aueeSas caudal pees adden 166
AShiland: Build ties viscesse cscs ddcsunee deta 8 @locace on ses tadeanwn a Benes 170
Hibernian Banking Association..........0....ccee eet eeneees 170
DWM ED IGE COn es ctcteca os. dhe bore d-4t kwanda genes oe Oona Daten eee 195
Libby, McNeil & Libby. ........ 0... ccc cece c eee eee enn 197
Boatd Ob Trades s.sckis sins eseeiecnie ges tnead tb onda ued aa aelaedes 203
Stock Exchange Interior......... 060. ccceecse teeceseveveuess 218
Stock Exchange Building. .........0... 00.0 cece ees ce ec ee ees 219
McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Works........226, 227
Plano Manufacturing Company Works............00eseee eres 231
Deering Harvesting Machine Works..................0005 232, 233
David Bradley Manufacturing Company Works............... 235
Western Electric Company Building................00. 000.0055 245
Charles Kaestner & Co. Plant.......-..... 00 ccc cece ence neces 246
A. Featherstone & Co. Plants... c004 ccaasca se ce c¥amende vanese es 247
Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge, North Halsted Street............ 248
Chicago Varnish Company..........-00cc ccc cece cece eeseeees 252
Western Union Telegraph Company Building.................. 260
Chicago Edison Company............++....0ee0ees Ryan A iinaten sce 261
Chicago Telephone Company.............cccc cee cecceaeeeeees 264
George B. Carpenter & Co....-- cece ccc wean eeee 270
Blakely Printing Company..... 2.0.0.0... ccc cece eee ce ec eeeee 282
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company...-.....0..0. 00. c cece eee 283
eakkesidé: BresSilas. e-scscearsaentuadde, Sone toil seston akeulan ve cack catesioy os 283
William M. Hoyt Company Building......................... 286
Chicago College of Music... 02.2... 0... cece cece cece eeeeces 328
Cook County Hospital..........0 00.0 .c ccc i cece cece ee ueues 340
Matthew Laflin Memorial............. 000... c cece cece ee eaaee 439
Academy of Sciencesicog egies sess odeye sents aad aaa Kesan ve oes 439
Liticola “Parkisns ewe vas vacances 54s ad iea keane a oS 14, 16,

24, 50, 51, 61, 62, 64, 65. 66, 68, 69, 70, 125, 130, 141, 188, 287, 329
Humboldt: Path: ssceveveee an chine xecay sae ests ods 20, 23, 25, 32, 57
Douglas: Patkasvscdes sacs stades of Gh nawets a6e abn ea eceesan 21, 31
Garfield. Park vccsa enue vs aaen eeenk dade oo ..22, 25, 28, 30, 56, 265
Wasinngton” Parks cs oeee wey wy fee ectenne woudmlowachan: 53, 54, 84
Warton. Par kis scsitrarsiig one aoss 9 ty oailoa a6 eeamueg ee eae oa wae! 55

484
INDEX.

PAGE
PRE PA TORY cigniunngeeeal anennsecnmome Dusan eae ee eae as 5
CHRONOLOGY > gales a umeaisanis arene mutitude we pions viet Ba 13
CHAPTER I—Earty CHICAGO..... 0.0.0.0. ccc ee ee eens 7-18
CHAPTER II—Mayors oF CHICAGO... .. 00.0. c eet e eee ene 19-26
CHAPTER ILI—CuiIcaco PRESS... 1... 0. cece cece eee ee eeee 27
CHAPTER IV—CHIcAGO SCHOOLS.......0. 0000 e eee ee eee eee 33-36
CHAPTER V—Cuicaco AnD ITs CHURCHES......... 000.000 37
CHAPTER VI—ORGANIZED CHARITY. ...... 0000 ec ce cee e eens 4{-44
CHAPTER VWII—LIBRARIES............0 20 ec et teesnseeeeeees 45-48
CHAPTER VIII-—Park SYSTEM....... 0.0.00 cece eect eee eees 49
CHAPTER IX—CoLuMBIAN EXPOSITION.........0000008 te eee 60
CHAPTER X—CHICAGO IN THE WAR... .... ee cece ce ee eee nee 63
CHAPTER XI—ILiinots AND MICHIGAN CANAL.............. 67
CHAPTER XII—CHIcAGO WATERWORKS.......00 00 0c eeeeeeees 71
CHAPTER XIII--Sanitary DISTRICT........... 0000000 eee 74-84
CHAPTER XIV-—Cyicaco AND ITs CLUBS..........00000 0000. 85
CHAPTER XV—-UnitEep States GOVERNMENT OFFICERS...... 89
CHAPTER XVI—THE CuIcAco OF THE FUTURE...........-65 101
CHAPTER XVII—RaILroaps AND TRANSPORTATION.......-+-- 103
CHAPTER XVIII—Cuicaco STREET CARS......... 00.0 eee eee 124
CHAPTER XIX—Cuicaco AND ITs BANKS.........0-.000 0 138
CHAPTER XX—Union Stock Yarps & Transit Co........ 189
CHAPTER XXI—BoarD OF TRADE... 1.6... cece eee cece eens 202
CHAPTER XXII—Stocx ExcHaNncE, BANKERS AND BROKERS.. 217
CHAPTER XXIJI—MANUFACTURERS..... 0.0.00 tee eee eee 225
CHAPTER XXIV—BusIness INTERESTS..........- 00 eee eeeee 266
CHAPTER XXV—MALTING AND BREWING....... 0-0 cece eee 288
CHAPTER XXVI-—-LuMser, BUILDING AND ENGINEERING......- 207
CHAPTER XXVII—THE INTER OCEAN....... 0.0 e eens 319-326
CHAPTER XXVIII—Curicaco CoLiecE oF MUSIC.......... 327-320
CHAPTER XXIX—Ciry anv CouNTY OFFICIALS..........2-55 330
CHAPTER XXX—BENcH AND BAR..... eee eee eee te cee eee 342
CHAPTER XXXI—MEDICAL PROFESSION........0. 0000s eens 414
CHAPTER XXXII—Prominent MEN, PAST AND PRESENT.... 429
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY............... 000 scene 46
CUSTOM. HOUSE wanes ceases cota 884458004 054 Mea avad anus 89
REAL ESTA LEY caches ve nnge saaennay idan es Soe tee pt aes 182
"PACKING INTERESTS........ 00. cece ccc eet teeters 1G3
CEMETERIES—
(GRACEDAND sc 2. broaela nes beue ee Wee a aieeG ater gele as ae at tee 481
CREVARR:. silo i ceasnn 34 9O RE Coe Ghle beaded ode regen Seas mem 482
MOUNT OLIVET. 0... sc eee eee eee ent teen eee eens 482
Adams, Charles, M. D.....-- 0... ete e eee renee ees bedding tera da 422
Adams Express Company.....-..... sees cece ence eet tee eens 118
Adams, Hon. George E..... 6... cece teen eee eet eens 379
Adsit, Charles C.-.:. 00s se sere ee eee c ee eet tee cette eens 222
Adsit, Tq MC vcieenssn104 Crom sang rannsrsaiowone xa aneay resin 130
Ahrens, Jolin P...---ercrce rece e eee e tet teeter erences 371, 372
Aldrich, Charles H..---- +2020 00 te eeeeee sees ce ee eee teen ee ees 387
Allen, Benjamin... -. +1600: se sees et teeter ener 270
Allen, Charles Teese way Fake ATG eitbeeae yas Babee Sabha dune eee 358
Allen, Grier & Zeller COMP Aahy is :a¢ tates tude eared edar tons om eas 216
Allen? Jamesscavataees eer ses esas te ascertain ye ones 15

PAGE
Allen, Hort. William J......0.0cccc.ccceesbaues vat Oonevsenecave 94
Allerton; Samuel Wisie cgi seas «eos domme 'ssksan waar esnet es EAP
Altpetén. ohn: Pa cesar: connialananblovane ¢deteee ne cea ca season 75
American Book Company: 4 aceu es ciacee sw tag oetaneeeensavten 281
American Express Company.............00ccccueeee ett eeaees 118
American Fur Company isi ige0v.cicrae cians i secvi@ewasesccen 5
American Linseed Company...........0000 0c ccc e eee eeeeeeuaee 251
American Malting Company, The.......-... th a spitetine womuneaeenaees a OO
American Steel and Wire Company............0.. cece ue ee eaee 237
American Tin Plate Company, The.................40. fe share ducie 243
American Trust and Savings Bank. .....--. 0.0.0.0 ccc ee cence cues 164
Ames. (Hom. JOH Cs. < 34 dws aden cao nied ex Seu peAR eh eeeaes 96
ANMELSOHiy. [ONM, ..ieree sah? qd iuraeeneanm twee ss o2 Sak puae area 31
Anglo-American Provision Company.......+.....0..c0cceeeeee 200
Memoir, Phillip Diss snis cas ceeaeg oa ck avaeeie neds een teehee eeayad 193
Armstrong, Rev. J. C.......- Ag ealareccle Win van aN Ree GMMR Bea OM 38
Axshibys. James: Els sess cage oa ue's ct-4 Cages senna koe ee hase 192
Ashétatt, Edwin Mics vecisis anid anaes ea Dawed Seeder S yee seas b BOO
Aston, John JacoDidisos<aeuareses co46 sb Sa ae yoaeNg wee eats 12
Ayer Benjamin Page ss 294 sean vd osx o4 Setudy eaeES os daly boobs Sas 353
Badiris: Tapers ow send of Geen hota Gees enscan vs oe aha, Saaaebibisesre Bectncan Ses 37
Bailey, Eli Stillman, A. M., M.D...... 0.0 cece eee 420
Baker, Alfred: Toss ois ded sac ett adam aucsandndied od bande ene 218-220
Baker. Hons. John His ays aed ccithors ones paeacin vp o waactasas ath aan 94
Baldwin, ‘Gurney & CO... 42 pi wine aicomdls pod cea aie ie aw ea necwens 216
Baldwin, Colonel Silat Dis sisi isin a2 sc ccas a0 Biwnad ¥au dna cane 63
Haniing: EBphhatitecccccy «uss a oakiathe Wore t4hadedlbaccnee gece 381
Baniitiey THOS: Ay aces caew ne 08 ca anwmaw 4 nai 3 Oanmard eee aes and 382
Barber: (ONiGtHC. cence chos soenay ohaeas aden Ded eG adie ee ewe oe Game 454
Batgen Richatd "Wasic.uneriess ees Gy SUAS emi arama se tomes 306
Barnett, Elin 617 VE ace wig Sania on c/ouate Gelided a ny ania Maate saws Se egeeens 413
Barrows: Rev. Des Je ihn wait ecled ep taGtenh a<ey salen wees taS 62
Barry, Rev. William...... itMSeesan MRR Eee ees e ROME NSE See 46
Batcheller, “Wiebstete< 205. Grane s eves calor raed aatinis Hs eased: 468
BeauBiet. Jie. Bis acest 2% stags ty eacg a gta iow sate nachoavauet he oa se aeenans 9
Bermudez Asphalt Paving Company, The...................00- 311
Bethea, Hon. Solomon: Hes wise cecasv ak Siaghowrmeeead ss ceaacels 96
Billings, Albert "Miss occenaceaua ares aaa eaue Betas koe aaeanders 431
Black Hatty' Sp aaueveces see ves dauesi yi yee See eae cde hs 304
Black, Genetal: John: Cece sconusayecedy ames spades le nateats 377, 378
Blakely’ Printing Company: isis sss: vanes bev seeea cused sewewess 282
BlatehiOrd,, Hi. W sccacthe te ecale oad saat Res RBec ates Sawant as 48
BSS: Fis FRA VATGH he. iis: sins: ius desaslar® Ga atepanes tee woke G avanqiey vie ae bow ecotdamnisoe en Pa 391
Biome, Rudolph Sice sees sssowss sone sewn anes tee ences eae 311, 312
Blount, “Bred. 2M.. sive ataa0d wets enone ne Ae we O44 eee 76
Boldenweck; Williatte 0. .¢4 s¢wese ecw wee trae ween ee cae ny 76
Bond: Josephs satu aea ses vemesyevar be Coes te eeneleas' sabes aes 255
Boon, Clement Lass ss cescseaenvev ss aves cv eas* =e tenses ave ey oe 173
Booé, Dr. levi Da eicess ee ey cave aoa cease wee oveae tees dees 22
Boriney,:C. Gis ssn.nte va eas waead oe thus ote Ke eRe Rees Bede aes 62
Booth, Williait VeriOn, 0...cseais pecs eta ees eee acess Gasca aoe 279
Boulton; George: Dice seine site bs cpitenaradeag gations es wa nniaelads 146
Boutell Gh iy" Si. atiatam seamen dpad nd gael oat terae tenes 64 aled 404, 405

485
486 INDEX.
PAGE PAGE
Bowen, Chauncey.............4% hee Weis Nike Belge Wee a Saw EE SEs 53  Golvin; Hatvéy Devseocseckeeweees areas agp algab's veex ine ase 23
Bowles; Dwight “Wass sesatedn ces serieeyd ans Ava oe sanéaewadecn den 325 6s Cotidee,. Leéatidér: De ecisaneniee crs dates canoe eae wns cae 399, 400
Boyles, ‘Cliarles: Desc ehcdsconcwudan See okie eel ok beeen ack 213 Continental National Bank... i... cia de coke dienes eed ee wees 149
Bradeny Joseph Cc gc Gecccaccal hy dua aeioapeleein eeu necinuiali-nine ote 75-82 Cook County Hospital. ....... cece eee eect ee ee eee 339, 340
Bradley Bi Core. 5 cca thondaiad aeckosyitoansad Qed HegunWen deetoe adestelaihe 336). (COOKE: < JOM, Ais icausciis. Sieve teh Gunner aa ban tac saccled umpanee Fao 351, 352
Bradley, David howiict or ineeuwn sd Ryeke uae awa gee pace oz | (Cooley: eymati: Es aseuiccsdsednuultnt coe whee oe. etl danemes seas 75, 312
Bradley, David, Manufacturing Company...........0.ee cece eee aga (Cornell, Pattl soc ccee chon saoi ade eer neaaawe sain eiaieAtG Gack arava 53
Bradley: Hezekiah c.1anviegsee aes woraeaees sao eee ne eee eee g Counselman,. Chatlesisciics ca sg sdele oa ee seegariees vegies mee dzin 204
Bradleys 1... Phar ley avec aesketis Sh cceh cap vacs seec samo? oe dae 236 Cowperthwaite, Allen C., M. D., Ph. D., LL. D................ 427
Bradley, William Hii ssgasccoastesbagceudieescesnan wave bond wan a8 ‘Coyne; Frederick: “Haan caesar neds tes casenie x ean dp wade eeelegs 92
Brenner: (David: Wik sc. 6 Sie ass ca vc.aeernen ca. v5 needa eens 474 Grafts, Glayton, Bus ois ccpav cis ca nies tes 0ss eames ee cas dew 409, 410
Brenmian,, “THOMmMa Sk ties iy shes a dark dans wleancreic dean st Saas 482, 483. Crafts, Jesciwes eee eee ediaa’s ee ee ee are ee 9
Brewster, Edward. diy. oii ceteinnceuiavamed sites ween ot godoed p20 Crane, Albert: MM... . sacs dance tian cain te ee aeearee ee eee 239, 240
Brintnall;: S@lwascovsaiesag vada vas oaan dione ni sean manars oeaws 158 Crane Company.......-- 2. eee eee ete cece eee n ene n cece eens 244
Bromley: Jeseplt: Buwes's ecvaaxqadlaawtaweiae swsewads ate ena Day “CTAME: ANG BERL alate srs cut aieclcuan oath drpatd te. oa enuiesbapited a senta Searels a 244
Brosseau, Zenophile Ps. cccciaenscag aa cuen nv ivadsensweuegeeess giv Crésiet, DeWitt Cs sciicuaeace i. 35 sdee ena wes ee dene aeeescs 25
Brow Paul; ¢ureeteeee s See oe seas oie en eee ee ee a ew 390° Crear, JONI wieeasia cae acioiseas She AeA iva Recewaale eure Poaceae 48
Brown; Samuel, Ut: vessincscn see b takcg Meee Wha eae on teas Ga dae 187 Cribben, Henryuicya.eseteascua rere cduuee ecaans nee es 40253, 254
Brown: Woe He sane ug sea inecesaa pe tana seinen oe Beh ed ona ei 38 Gudahy, Johitiyisces.svcegieeneet coals peewee sees eee cere omerien 199
Bryane Thomas: Bi scic Acie vs Gia t tdoee sve amataundad eck Rue haere 62: “Gudahy: Michaeleuiccecsvea sowie sya dvaieess tase guess eras 199, 200
BGM, lia Wivaedud shies cusp aeunaasdanendeakamesineax kaa 388, g86 Cumming, Cal. G, Waris. asavaneovtseianwan ta ay evans oeenwres 63
Bullen. Pred) Fig ies v.15 add panes ea aae pacar aie ase bea eae entioa 28q Curtis, James vx qsaore ss sate neue ne vows taeda Ws eee yee ak 4 ae 22
Bunt: “Elen. Romanz0scssccatindsn b seauinn aapowels a2 ok ennnte new ne 64. Custer; Jacob). Ri snc casera seriatan ses sauitucamees eadieiie cate auinn 376
Burch) Jil a aco so sikenamian ta-ae eae RN OL INE Ot Wine wee ee T3Q0 | Warnisell, Walliaitis.<.5. cassie: ago oid aielane bea amie aedauansdy ge ole Bebbier acovenaeatand 118
Birekhardt; Henty S acieives tt paswasy.o Gaede sae ieee « ova camden Be@e | Wana. (CHAP ES Ay css wihtieucdacnetlaaa yn dwuieimmielesn Gatun eadaldwa des 30
Bigeye, Aweustas: Plo ects tia ne Gnameednas cae ae ee ace ee edieaanies ASS “ADANIS: PY Owac eed va teulsoneeres seein 1644 eke EIN geliunee aes 27
Busbey;. Walliatn: He ancncicoe ss ca aunneaniaiey sega deiedlble ik oo*e scene aoa Davis; George. Riz Soc, wass viridans qoevedaua es Aa ee 437, 438
Calhotin;, JONI ins ececsy Gidea y ootae ae oe boawe uke ess dae eae ay Davis, Senator Johnie oa occ swciawae aes dee sv ede eam kaenee a 69
Calhoun, William: -Jisnsnen sys axdd giaueea satan eanadaie xe oda Mente 373, Davis; Nathan S.,, Jr, M. Doves. acasxecesscaaeveseenaeree 418, 419
Cameron, Col, Datiéliiics. ssc. se cctscsin yee seen welaedae ba eae 4 anes 64 Dearborn, General Henry........... 0.0. c ccc ee ene e ences 15
Carpenter; Augustus: Assia: sn accitaew nade gedlens mide: t2acky ous 4d Deere; Charles: His cecccgusn secede does cab ch eeoa nae entry 209
Carpenter. George Bisco. vate ac dea c seas a reer ein 4 eis 271 Deering Harvesting Machine Company.................44+ «232-234
Carpenter, George By & CO.gs va eineisgeccesaseiwersesceveuee 270 Deering, Willian. ces. dice sa ce pclae dese anes hese ai wesw aeeas 234
Carr Penry His vee We es os sa eeu Ee ba sages CaS 207° De la Durantayé, ‘Captaltis 2... : éisecingn cea auveniaw eda aiicemdnas we 13
Carlet. Zina Riis ysuicwnwe eumiewa aes en One tad bee an cise BRAN 75-79 Dela Salle, Rene Robert Chevalier.....-......... 000 cece eeaee 13
Gass) (GOVE RIOT SiG Acsiyse Aisa son 5 eis AdSense Re eed Se oO ‘Deéeneéen, Hom; ‘Chases: Siac cue ceases scan well tae een cca tes 350
Caton; Arthur: Ji icosaecckice seis takeover ys xe aweee ates too 86. Dennison; Jephitha Cy siccnsiccaccsctnervaa eenig agua cas aeaw gees 191
Catotiy John D ssa saiato i st cada spew Oeh eds yakst doe eB ed ees 366 De Puyester, Colonel Arent Schuyler..........0.0.0.0.ec eee ee 7
Chadbourne, ‘Thomas: Io. Jittess2ess-sneessdsacud salkedev eens eda 365 De Saible; Jean: ‘Baptiste Points... ccceee crs saveses seas cees ees 7
Chapin, JoHW Ce csccavuccens sees rated bad treseckans se eeawas 22 Dewar, Alexander L.............- Stich dong bacleigat taeda da Ako hy 223
Chappel, Muss Eli zaeséa.csa eau taaeadiiodie nha oty,< aun ba Seika 38) “Dickinson, Alberton. \wy dumaanes 4 kGaied wee Uleetie cn tametees 21
« Ghatheld-Taylor, Hobart Ci cic ac sicinde ed aeenc as anaede saewens 473 Dickinsom, Ohatel 6S... dst ayiaenieta ain olen ielgieed bere, eater ee enone eae 212
Chesborough, “Cs. I. 45 sisati rec cana dieieony adnan aeaiens fi “Dickinson; “Nathditusss'eso sense +a gtnenas ees Sasa aes canon ease 213
Chetlain, Hon: Arthur Ai ccc ca diane a ceceanwaie eaceeec 348 Dickinson, The Albert, Company........... 0 cccceeeeccccceues atl
Chicago City Railway Company.............cceceeeeeeaeeeeee 130 ~=Donnelley, R. R., & Sons Company....... 0.0... cece cece eeces 283
Chicago: Ch Di.css twine aeauii 38 cndd aia ee ak dos OMe HemeRES 85 Downey; Josepliees coca siansaadas sruieletwe Sesetacri anes gemmees 4: 306
Chicago College of Law, The...........ccceccccessesceeeaene 412 Drovers’ National Bank. .... 0.0.0.0... ce cece ccc ccc ceveeee 157, 158
Chicago Dock Company. .... ccc ccc cc seer ee cree renee e ene tee 214, Dunham, Jamies: Secs oc coin gs ccadwsnincya eee cs es de wenn er ess 462
Chicago Edison Company......... cc cece cece cece cece tee eens 260.  Dipeé (Charles. cs. aa a sauna cu poaween oy hsacdune ee mkv ea noes 355
Chicago Gey ceuiie.ntn aelnciulen st acuart-dunath oun paca hte coed AS. “Duipeee VGlitthengsccn wes) on gases vw uanvideaseanune agate wee sat eicthinoke 204
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway......... ce cece eee e eee Iya), “Durpliy, (Charles: sist) aan cAqenra madness v4 Siege vcs ein eee 215
Chicago Musical College... 0... 0. cece cece cence teens eeseens Dyer, UNO aS ison beis wari Si wmiete een ke baa’ ene ee cache be 22
Chicago: National Bank, siiseciiescceieaausinemine open eae dyes ISty 52 Hekhart, Berard Av cccics cau pulse eee cd saawspccu¥d ve cuucaun 75-78
Chicago & North-Western Railway Company..............00005 107.) Eckhart & Swan Milling Company....--. 000... 0. ccc cc ceeeeee 287
Chicago Packing & Provision Company...........eeseee eens 200 ‘Bekleés. James) Hevsses5 shed code dang feet aciiatse ec dusseon coos s 154
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway............0..0. 000s + 112) Edenborn, William. isi ccccceecconceccavscavucevcecanenns 238, 239
Chicago Telephone Company..........cceceeesesecveeeeeners 264 Elliott, William S., Jr... . 0.0.00 coe ccec cece ceeeecceeee 374, 375
Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company........00.00004 005 “Ellsworth, Golenely-cs..rxcasicagronierassgarecr asses 63
Chicago Union Traction Company. .........ces ce eee eee eee 120: VEllWood, IsadesTh. yon: ae nccecumcodveiee vis on Sgpbeeiviesictesumk oe 230
Chicago Varnish Company...........seeeeee sees eens eens aol, 252 : Biphicke, Charles: Wesvinweanisa seas suas gawwiees ei fdawaicdec ak 180
Chytraus, Hon. Axel... +... eee cece cece eee cee eee es pew Goo" .Mriesony: JOU Eis 64. 44aney serena cane ether o docs dood cssinlacasua asad 339
Clark, John M......... se seer eee eee eee teen eens sess. 264, 265 Estabrook, Henry De... .. 0 oie ceeecceeceeeeee eee, ee
Clarke; JG) Wo igsiese sseled Gin ciads ack tiesoneraeuecestieca eles «vacates bone 171 Express Companies. ........... 0.0 cccececceceuacecccccccc cee, 118
Claussenius & CO... ... eee cere ee cece cece eee eee e cece t22° Farrbanks, Newton: H j.ceves sedis es auuinvevevsaied ccesak 412
Clatissenius “George Wo iscse hi cisco eee ceae dene abawies peony HBS CBR eOy Canes oz 644 hataieinwieed eons tanned ow eat haces. II
PONE Covenants Nap ca aetna ate adumtie veda Zen (CNateO MChabl esi ta: aig bere caniri Wrasse Buanich iy dain a Moec ls a 9
Clinton, DeWittinccacccsssoutdud vies a daickdn. ewes gale Poseas 67 Farnsworth, George....... 0... ccecececeeecececeeee. 468
Cobutn,, Léwis: Dieescd cae een Skee oageu ea cba ney aaees Ose G04. Wants Maruti Pinte sc: <caus¥ inguin van cdbwevaccrcccccc I 8s. 186
Coe, Albert [U3 soca oun we gta kis oseeid denier nexeed abe teeeuas m82 Farwell, Granger. <<. cassis 45 sesdvvevdaeie ds ccncs...,, 209
Gol. Dail + pageisuis ose niel gnu ne aed oon Same he a ebaemadd abe aa 54 Farwell, CNET CC Grcana cee y Shuiees vadRecn een. te 209
Commercial National Bank. .......... cece cece cece cee ee eee BES | Darwell, JONG Wig SF. caiaaiescvey semwiiakexeriacs ave weeasd conse 366
Commonwealth Electric Company. ...... 00.0 cece eee cece neuen POG, Citeatlierstinnte: AG sc: Sassi eves segue ood ee ace ac heloacc
INDEX.

PAGE
Featherstone & Coy Access edeuenaSaeskeiedaap een geeneun ee 247
Feehan, The Most Reverend Patrick Augustine............... 404
Ferguson, Alexander H., M. D., C. M.1 2... ec. eee cece eee 421
Ferguson, Charles. Hiss cavacccna. ctecettaanewas can eedeeies 173-175
Ferguson, Charles H., Jr........ 0c. cee eee eee eee eee 173-175
Ferguson, George M....... cece ce cece ene ne ee 193-175
Ferguson: James. Lisauarecendaduasttacaaiane mguaeee Sue encracmaaumee 173-175
First (National) Batt keagoceccd wera ex dunurdlsneie aialieuh ale Cerda evesrcicls' als 144
Fish, Stuyvesant... wnesi<s avs escsaeaencssmmaressenaaaness oye IIL
Fitz Simons, Gen, Charles... 0... .... 0c ccc cece cece eeeeeeees 317
(MOFLESE: JOSE PUT RC. Coen dscisea eeasata conan dewaiscaptieace:canaiel orswn. a. achvam@lauiate Ridon 27
Bortést;, Wathiditt Since caccawaciendia dane waaantsee mudnne 4 373, 374
Fort Dearborn: National Bank....... 0... ccc cece eee eee eee 155
Fortune, Petetis< cscuiew co ieulsine salami a yntuinaiiewe eeauadts ea dain 204,
Fowler, Frank Tsecsws cance ves osasaae es weeds caw awa ties saawate 257
Freeman, Rev. Allet: Be stscacc csdaies ce tec einn heer aeieaiciens Gane’ 37
Freeman, Hon. Henry V........... ccc ee ce eee neces 345, 346
Hretich; (George: Bi, cc caveawanes whedednd pone dahioeienseka 480, 481
Fuller Company, George A....... cece cence eee 302, 303, 304
Buller, (Georgie Ay oie cuacdutioteen salssroens Sokarenye sem 302, 303, 304
Gage, George W.......... teriv hs ebieg ve ea eA tatearch devas en aan cheat a 53
GeO. Sy at Ys: dco sscarserersiceescgee tA ae ARES S ROE See mar a 62
Gardnef; Hetty Awencs es iacenunndduc ahmedcte nine diy WHORES 404
Garrett: AtGUSHISG ic cc erate as orieminned ao auraalmaaiam meanest Say 21
Gary; Hon: Elbert Fe sccaccuvcaandes asa ae co enee cane neanae eee 24
Gates; TJOHR Winwesce psig aap sdguiaisediammarente spa Wicd Ponies 237
GilberiieG: Gx odenc ny cupetnas Sedaiay oan amidermnd de a elesenes 76
Gilbert, Prank Wea. scsdeexsacsssemeas ce4ane ge ogee sore neat teen 325
Gilbert, Hiram Tiss: sneer irecagetay aannens pats gaseennes 403
Gilberts -Sim@Otiwicc. caine same an ene eeRoeaE Asie ye 39
Gillett Robert: Woe. ontensndnanien | cauceeat stan eins Vawter eas 272
Gilman, John E., M.D... i. ccc cece eee ee teen eee 426
Gilmore, Arnold... 0.0... cc cece cece eee e cere ee ods sce CPO EY 75
Gindele, Charles W....... cess cee e ee ee teeter en tenet nets 306, 307
Glogaur, Fritz... 02. cece cece cect tee teen eens 31
Goddard, Lester O........ 0c. c cece eet e eee n teen tenn nee 376, 377
Goodman, Edward......... cc cece eee e tee enter en enes 30
Goodwin, Hall & Henshaw. .......... cece cece eer teen eee eee 179
Goodwin, Warren F....- 1c. ce cece eee eee eee nnes 179
Gordon, Hon. Charles U..... 1... se cece tere eee cern ence eens 97
Gorton, Frank S.-... cece cece ee eet n ence ees 262
Graham, George..... 6. cece cece cee ete tenet tees 10
Graham, James H........ 0... cece eee eee eee een cnee Lexan a4I
Gray, Charles M.... 10... ccc cece ence teen cee e etn e ener 22
Gray, James Jo. +... ccc ccc eee ce eee ene eee een nee es 332
Gray, Dr. W. Co.cc ccc cece eee teen ene e ene nee e ener et tenes 30
Greenebaum, Henry. -..... 0.2 cece eee e nent e teen tenets 54
Grosscup, Hon. Peter S..... 0... cece cece eee ee ene tenn e eens 04
Grosvenor, Lemuel C., M. D....... cece eee e eee eeeeeeeeen es 423
Gunther, Charles F..... 06. cece cece eee e ee teen eee ee tnaee 273
Gurney, Walter S....... cece cece eee eee eee n eet tenn enes 22.
Haines, John C..... cece cece eee ee tenet eter en ees 22
Halle, Edward G..... sce cece eee ence ee eee tenet ne es 181
‘Hamilton, David G..... 0. cee cee eee eee eee States e ee RRUBe SL 131
Hammer, D. Harry....... 0. cece cere cee eee nae 40)
Hammond, G. H., Company..... 6.0.00 tee cece cece een ences 197
Harahan, James To... ee cece cee cee eee net te eee eens 11I
Harbeck, Eugene......... ccc eee cece eee cee nett e terete 180
Harris, Norman W.....--.. eee te erence eee eee een tenets 172
Harrison, Carter H......- ec cece cree cece cen en eee tees 26
Harrison, Carter H., Sr... se. eee ee eee eeceeees 23
Hass, Joseph. ....seseee eee eee eee etter eee 76
Hatch, Azel F... see eee e etter eee teen ene tener neers 47
Hately Bros...seee cece ee tte e teen eee eee n teen nent nee 200
Hately, Walter Corceeee ccc e eter reer eee eee e ete e en ne cnet 201
“Haugan, Helge A..++- sere crete etter etter ete 168
Head, Franklin Ps ca diein eae ag oeeeeen Sng madrL neonate teens 463
Heald, Captaitticgsss ++ ormcdinic nya ie teen tos ae munlasetestin 33 iansananel SF Boatacae 8
Heath, Ernest W.---.ee ee eeee eee eect tenet ree nees 258
Heath, Monroe .-.--.esee etre tree terete etree teen es 23

Hecht, Frank IN casceosceareccatcssy 4 a fasslauaayeeng e's DAA RAGIN- Re aueO GA tutdanat 246

487

PAGE
Hecker: Golonelsicccnenrns sheen soe pyneee besorgen sae Tad 64
Heidenreich, Fy Vetacws snes deucae sme ecu oarinend Bee Rees 317
Henrotin, Fernand, M. D......... 0. cece cence eee eens 422, 423
Herrick, Allen, Boyeson & Martin. .....--... ccc cece cece eee ee 357
PERCHES, SV ORTT To cosy a tantstnecs to 4 lates tanve cock doce Qylecasaalinva- onc ath av eeogacetedeaoone 357
Hesines Ax. Cana stadsiowxiee y ohm hg ealbeeiniipon daasoniGess« 28
Hibernian Banking Association...........c0cce eee eee cceeeees 170
Phigonis,. (Charles cccmacn ns cd ane awnurios setae eels once wenmeneas 276
Hild. Bredetiele ‘Heesos sania saneihaiend at eee esas ymin kat 8 47
Till: “Teysandet-sse <cesdowadss sbeanonnan ac Paaadacens Shame eas 388
Hines, FP WAR Ge suse Janendc: x) gious leisy stnsinza cay nyauipnonsesidearsins 4 avauaseuduvenaceay aie 297
initivati;, GeO: Wo iseiiess: don os tigen wotvecncrds oid arsimnenvdeds gatde wanticeretond & 30, 323
DTG, SARC EA oes ttc chasers am 3 abt dosucer chins siceravaio Wauraner lh esi Shcw aedutivatn 54
EME: . OM Biss hc, senesced aieerdoeeis coradie oo Bho veLogaarans eoecanRlnmeRNM Gee Pea 90
Hoje; Colonel: George: By. eiceeonias caavauheeuee ¢eaucaideneeurnd ss 64
Holden, Charles iG. 'Pheswavcotosny ds ok eyes eee beads 54
Holdom,. Hon: Jess@iccvs eng cadens oeeeeeeeeecramdee teases 1, 346
Hopkins, Johti, Pixs cucciceice Read cuaaians eaten ite ends 26
JLOLtOn,. ELOraGe: Bass. c.f avicineatadiaanhvad seiuagesinae See arsasaning eee 316
Horton, Hon Olivet Ge 4 oidiagcardecimmiveniatoae se aasakeas uid O, 343, 344
FIGtERKISS, CO] BIEL cas iain eee teon de epeinudhcehateves doin 5 Spleicand leds phieadt nda neo 64
HGtz: CHHStOp inca gucivantaakmacuerbardasaanaaqornamn anaes 75, 259
Howard, General Charles H......... cece cece cece cence cenee 30
Howard, “Wallac roorcte se carstitea/ ne: caludaisisan oes Haralgagritee ied cane Io
oye. Brat ke Gist rs tras. airetee wavease eiueeetate aaueete nec neeee 186
Moyes Dhomagetare sataanigmeienwes aaswisauten seuvara cured peeked 45
Hoyne;, “Ehomas: Wea sccsensnyerdevsadeoranateimeaurdes ccioen 384
Hoyt; Wy Ma; Companys cccavesasesamansm ans angiiacainniees 285, 286
Hughes, Thomash... cscs ewes vawwowey esas pnw ees ee cig aNURS 46
Hulburd,. Charles: Hissccccsauane civaiaeae naaeis ti ataye si ectees 216
Hull; (General cscs. avescaeve ccs aeaweetio ideas casted tame 8
Teta, AP GER Aisa avsicrca. th aa aceinddia savas 3 be bcavepaeslabioe Apaakcd mule ebagusenisce d Shadesiaase 407
amine |), ors toca acanauka aaeb wudtusnsonraies aseduretanel ete bastiandaan ee Secae 2905
te, RODERE W5 CO sisiiiverdciad-otenneirn ane aula ountaieacnanes 315
Hutchinson, Hon. Jonas......... 0... c cece eee eee een ee eee 347
VES; TROD er Siscereccseacaantnhon sao enaeee acne menberianhy coma 402, 403
Mlinois, Gentral Railroads ic ocus csauacmqne venom one sane oie 10g, 110
Iilinois; Steel Companyinsssicaicsncaninene cys saws nie y anawanmes 240
Illinois Trust Company........ a cbbstas ccanaia at Ncudleleda lala ao ah hadnwlexe 159
Tngersoll, Revs Jolitvs cicoccssceeacneaus axed clans emits 33
Ingersoll, Colonel Ri Gy ccsscease ens cxsqmumeecn ss osaeeslonsies 33
Trewit, Jamies ‘G,sescerosnss we cere eereseeade ke eau aeenens'ss 335
Isham, Edward Swecacrcs cvhve arenes caeeeaenenes awe enene 363
Jackson, Andtew..Jascccs anes ocewtodecedeceekeadteesaarnangss 27
Jamieson, Thotnas: New... cccavacan: sieeds cadets Se eesensyets aH 351
Jamison, MaleOlii- Me... weal egincsadedoncaes saa caine ateaume 221
Jenkins, HOt, JATIeS Ge. ao cedecads + aucieanandeed athbeceed.as eave 04
Jerks) cATISOM Biswas doh secnlaie wives te dwoauguatsena ier nabasadessswarees Secu 392
Jiewellk: (Wre Jrecsacidenspacnsee Ba ouloncen ah eleienles dia mnacitene atirieuRean orb annie 90
Johnson, Ernest Vio. sstoacsancs wind dao seis toate anki saws 310
Johriston, Thotmass'T ¢ .cinciatecrecive naiesomoats vcacw areesie wseony aavarema mies 83
Joliet Sieur: Loisicios cssaearageriys nee aamnincoatatin secon aehe 7-13
Jones; Alex. Ji4 xe no cwmeekanes's ec actekie es geeg waroataeeeeaie 7
Jones, Samuel. J.,. M..D., LLs Daswiaens cca ceeeeneeadee eres 415
Jones; Williatti) Pon. scccicnaodas epee eer s Sees okie sees 231
Judah; (NODE Bsc ccs.caned-scidt nda Mane Mandate PRA NE § 355
Kaestnety: (CHarle sin. crude ain siteausivnanens. Renae SERN eye 246
Kaestnet:: (Charles, Gi. Costes vissrcsucnes aig aaa eet ae RRR REE 246
Kavanaugh, Colonel Marcus......- +... seeese cece cece e teen ee es 66
Reep, Albert... 6... cc cc cece ccc et eee ene eee tence enn en ens .. 108
Kelly, Thomas: scans <cémehavarzakagee see teem ea griawaie 75-80
Kimbark, Seneca D.wciscecsceeececcee er enee ener enet teres 252, 253
King, Henry W.nnsicscssersocaacs peeeaioceuseese ences eae 429
Katia Jolin Acs sc :asitssavanga denainedinccnna See ote ieee eae y 75, 156
Kings Joh 1G. sucicdctcatneneuincas saute ag shale Ree ted Be Ry 224
Kaniste), John. 5 iasiescceyatsinenratnnee newness sinentetasieens meh 8
Kirkland, Major Joseph. ...... 0... ccc cece center eee renee 12
Knight, Clarence Aw... ccc cece cence cece ene e ee en ence ne ennes 389
Knopf, Phillips ...ccccaae ieee tears see nne wes gadawisigens shamans 331
Knott, Henry A... ccc cee nee nee nen een en ees 184
Kohilsaat, Hoi GC. (Gi ai-cccccere+aiaieians itu mat meeas seemeons 04
488

PAGE
KRohtsaat:. Ay Als oh cess wean ce vations Fad ake Sacer dota ORES 30
Rretzinger, GeOrge Woe. suc de es edaiued pi eae pommad a bamnedlains 307
Laflin,. MatthéwWiisiscia anent seniaiies swab eae eae ts she 438, 439, 440
TsaESide™ PESSS, DT Gia 5 sists Ac a ncaa olacninles od Soe Sd huodeaacmaraica aie eres 283
Leambent:, JOlitie.cuts. Sy aweeieues ia be Moises hes bagianeeoedaneaeana 238
Lange JA beih Nuss cea ie tenl ciworned ea tate ame a alaeense 335
TLawsOtt, Wictoir Exe cue ciasaitie: 2 veaeasa ancient sale ais grenagin gihes waren 30
Leavenworth,. Miss Ruthin... cs. cc ces cewaee cere se nemmes eewece aes 33
Lee, Charless...c0v2s20 tnawadiaraada Meme ke ew cae need Tee cee sens 15
Leiter, JO@S@phis sen aoscinniasieied in ise wae amie ee hs eek aS 133
Theiter, (Revi. Laces ace ean ee oteds ae ees one Tee eee 443
Leland: Edward’ Fis. spyigmatiaied heanenee se iehaseanea ale tees % 210
Lester, Albett ‘Gaus tie sta picnic danas een utha san times eee I 209
Libby, McNeil & Libby. .... 0.0... cc cece ee eee een eee eeeee 196
Litrcolny Abrahait. cas cacagevesn goa seas 044 On ehaw trees 27.
Teindston, Frank Jiecs v2 veka simak goecea tienes mite eee eo 335, 330
Eipe,: Clarksacsasees exeedyanahad bowers woken ea eheea renee ayaa. 54
Lloyd, Alexander: .2 s0c+aduesg ces phe cseie sooo reds ye Rweas 2
Loeffler, William... 02... cc cee c cece ee een ee een eens nen neetee 337
Logan, Prank Gia. cn. ae skaianeeeerss naa e Pagdaye eRe ee ees 208
LGing;, Major Sy Has: cota veka vids keen Bee e ete a pence ses 67
Lord, Joh, Brackett. oi. ancien cee aaeeee see qsoes aioe goss 407
Lorimer, William. ........ 060. c cece ere eee ee ene e eee nnes 477
ihoss, Charles: Buss acyi ees oiea de tangs aueaee aie Fae meee tee 318
ow, James: E., Di Di Siiicesscaucees etnies nancies bag sis iemecget 427, 428
Lowden, Brank:-Q ses seckamaesacecsnd by eoauletid ape ae aaa 371
Iymani,.. David Bios i: fiee5g eee tree FLERE Ae atone oes 167
Lyman; Jy Ps cseieweseieesadoaget as eters aamew be heenaaomenie he 198
Lynch, Col. William Foo... ce. ccc cece cece eee renee ee Feaagaeeceecs 64
Mabie:, Charles: Bovi.ss ips uraiines ieosecsaqnarieberedcqmatens 176
Magerstadt, Hon. Ernest J... .... cece cece eee eee ee en eens 331
Mallette,. James: Pivccusc ce ciueid ves nenniigacien ses eee eames 76
Mansure Company, The FE. L....... ccc ce ce cee renee 286
Matiz; Jacob: scncesiaceas wea ed cas soled este aioe 284,. 285
Marder. JGhnssscssas ys saa tannorge ts ies asoedd ves eau eens 284
Marqiietté: (Clubiuesecs ess ss wiicese rns cdeks deeeda steed alae 87, 8&8
Marquette, Pere Jacquesicccic cs oneu sy 0d so ou deena vee aa denne 7, 13
Marshall, Col. John Mis... ccaccscessas svete oa ce eeeamasene ee 66
Masons -ROSwell, Beciva doen ee oenacieieaeeaaeess 5 aaa 23
Mathér, Alonzo Csesuicee ns .ceigeimdat ae tac aeeete 8 SOE 475, 476
Matthiessen, Conrad H........ cece cece ee ce teeter e ene eees 467°
Mayer. Henry sciences s can cambcade dts ecyinon aad cad. salaniee's 3 296
McArthur. Archibaldin sc ccsciaoss wes sae owenaW en canes 305
MeAgthur, Arthur Bigwevec se ontsckeraicsid anette vad. Raed 305
McArthur Bros. Company, The.....-....c cece cece eee ee eee 304
MeGase: (Ee Bo vsssesacar cased: tina cyacde Sai ei aeet orks 51
MecGartney, Jiditiess «neuer ax cee aameke crcuaee gases reser ast 378, 379
MeGlellan, Geo, Avssam sys ssnas sriegecteoseSaanag ce eee ea teen 209
McConnell, Hon. Samuel P....... cece cee cece eens 301, 392
McCormick, Cyrus Hall (deceased).............085 2y, 30, 227, 228
MeCormick, Gyrus: Halllns cece st udedon ce sev 4 dhgae le dese eee 229
McCormick, Harold. Pevcveci case naaw serge s i asal unaided veeeuils 230
McCormick Harvesting Company........... ee eeeee eee eee 225, 230
McCormick Reaper Works. .....c ccc cece eee eee ences 13
McCormick Theological Seminary. ......c ccc ce cece cena 39
McCoy, Reve Tsaae ne: ceyies hes sa aided pmandanagmedlanaemureg ® dus 37
McCrea, Samuel Howicgccacsedes ee ee tite nites amen eens ee 433, 434
McGillin, John. ...... cece eee cece eee Esai aneaannees eee ee 311
MeKindley: James. saicsicccoaa aoe giao oe.bw an gaint sie one ec ear 434
McKinley; “Williant,.cscceircke as cvesaies 09 boiaane es ceecad sir 30
MeMillan, Thomas: ‘Ge aseasscovpiw osawrdae iden @ pling eee earewats 95
McNeil & Higgins Company. ........ cee cece cece ee cee en ee ene 274
MéNetl, Johittvsesssssydvteolecennaw pease oc eae ean ed sig eaes 277
MeNeil, Malooliticcscs ssacse ce ceen genni ences ewes ee ndenene 275
McWilliams, John: Galts cs.cvow shee scar aueeweaesecgersw esd 443. 444
McWilliams, Lalayette.ccicessosesseciniea reas towee we aaws se 7
Meacham, Florus D....... cece cece teen en te nee ennes 309
Meacham 6. Wrights as auageisch doe oeeg ccciged aes 6 haa eae a4 308
Measher, James Fy viscwiacsvorstos asain deiaeaeaeaen ess 369
Mechanics’ Institute oo .ceféiinns ahs ea semieee end Fa Se nd See Kas 45

Medill, Joseph an os si0s sadewanes bende aaedes cane deeds vet eal wie 23

INDEX.

PAGE
Medill, Major W. H..... cc cece cece cence teen ee cee ee eee e ees 64
Merchants’ Loan and Trust Company..........0ee ee eeeeeeettee 162
Merchants’ National Bank: «0.0.0... .susas toca ate wd coven. 15
Merriam, Col. Jonathan cscs ccacca cornice, oo eeeete online dele 100
Merrick, George cP. 2 sais scotenon gees seas ds ne Gieeein das 405, 406
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway Company........... 133
Michaélis;,” Richard j..0¢ oSa4 a cane eos nnaadie a. eemeneled ecg sam 31
Milehrist, (thomas ie ue Mace caterenasy weed base ooda 384, 385
Malls. Hon, Daniel Wide sere cethtiinau adios seen nigdmektestsaes 471
Miller, August Wisscosecvesssevecase te igtes vee steaces een as 333
Miller; De Laskié; M,. Diciciossecs cade taneias dels ce oreo tees o23 414
Mallet: JOHN, Siu aeetcescuehs «ccatiewinn cetaceans Cea eaters hey 362
Weitlikenty, sae Weis oxi wiaacis erin eassuaiaie sieudcsct tarebeay deernlane aneoeusiace cdr @ 22
Mills; Tather-Laflitis: fic niwate seaasw sia we eee hb tana want ee 368
Milnor: Lloyds s eau ausieg sees guard evies ge omGeee salamat ees 269
Milwaukee Avenue State Bank. ........ 2. cece ce cece eee ee eee 169
Mitchells Johitt Jcie< ovis atewsncc ase segues oaesunteeies 4oataee es 160
Mitchell, Willian “Ely vs actuga vena avek ces eaieaee re kee a quasar 160 -
Modjeski; Ralpliss:<:+<sneneess 225.5 seewi s toe cabeee case usee ees 314
Moht, Johny ecscss seas snieew ss coagateare 3 Pigadh maga ¢ead sues 250
Mohr’ & Sons, JGlitcceiccckate cia xdende tic. taeda osée aed e 250
Moore: Jamies: Oba rt. 3 is uideddiesds ed erica sss F4 a aston ota tot eee eueaean’s 466
MioOre:, ARTES: TA seis 'c aan oertacadelan'y dees Guitenevaigr boa lave aieunia ae eitalace Riven 177
Moran, Hon, Thomas, LL. D............. 0.0... eee eee 352, 353
Morrill, Chatlés: Avid. i neancedacideanen tat peeae es cal 277, 278
Morris; Buckneéy Seki. Magee niaee oaneee eee wees ae 21, 65
Morris: N@lS Ott siaiae is ous Gutiee eid nave Siclnereli ya aleeentvte een ‘diets 194
Morrison, Orsemuss sc cies semegsla sd tawabae seen ahuewee she Ralek 440
Morton: JOY: 4a dngids<e4s-s anus whases Sie ht rataeeraed oo aves 271
Moulton, Col. George Misissccceiessvededesge seaeevnceca nae 66
Mulligan; ‘Col... James Ave cess csiswees eee ceed a ee es eee Mes ee eee 63
Munger, Albert: Awccaccis adimieeese tietace sys SAA elites ans 4Al
Murphy, John B., A. M., M. D., LL. D...... ee ee. 417
M triiciys Wollia ttn. gsiso2 2 3ie'¢ aisvesodea dbo o 3 Guandey goed Wd mdae emis aed a ave eless 7
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York................ 173
Nadel: (George Ok caciuniobiss aeaciaraaunod a ae Aauiee Gan mOOwEe Row x 479
Nathatiy 2X Ol plies cp csneianigus dag a oauelcusia ey Fag wee Gry a ceelae a 279, 280
INET: “SUE WATECS: aa pndMegne ac adernan aden tae nate Catv ance dale sevens 137
Nelsori, Andrew 'scsinsie cae ae aopaeen des os whee Gea Sa ada ea 51
Nelson, Murray: acciceeicaviaa asnioe ss ebybkivasuean eoaereowaty ae 75
Newberry). Williattl LL. uence ca cnew teenies were eee cas eens 5 47, 48
Néwitian, JacOb. i .s4 escecwcasacawesaces. Se aes ek de cee wes 394, 395
Nickerson, Roland: © ca sco. guecawiasan Veoh eee sie s ekee ens 221
WNickérsen, Samuel! Miva ccacan waegin comb aden nossa eee ee 146
Nixon, Oliver Wig Mi Dig Tos Dis icusts aie untiota osc aaeesee ek es 323
Nixon, Willian, Pentts vn ccenca vs aadsancs vee eee ve saa yeas ees 30, 322
Noble; Alired ics yo nn asain vaca sume eyed ee Sage orks Siuad Reed 313
Northrup;George: Ws, Jfiwessanewseesscaaudedse sda tee aca 395
Northwestern Life Assurance Company...............0.e0eeee 175
Ogden, Willan B 3.2.3 sesaycecs ves o Wiens thous tneeesal Sond eayielons 12, 21
O'Meara, Col, ‘Timothygs ve oy ca deseds tocecsenecua anwoae caves 64
Ortseitény -Adatite vex pcs seq: s i008 Vatead dan au deals oe abganncsawiees 336
Osborne). Thonids Ov scccc ccc iwiea dees ueeeaubeesawedeewuun 63
Otis, Frederick R........... eID Grmatela huh tite dintearenca tie ean weet 456
OTIS, JANTES) cscaiolennerneniaetae yo ss ada aaeos Smee ewe duane ea wn 436
Os, Joseph Big Jiias aaenicees 44woad i eeam cava s cacaseebea ay 223
Otis; JOSEPH la SE. : memsiiee sd teaaieis salons nary ees aie dees 452
Otis; Hons, hucins, Biueeasuetan gaseee sake abeed feck ieee oa cus 383
Page; panniiell: Sisaevssseu sa vee a Gta a Saeew evans Ua edn ed oa ok 402
Palmer; Franke Wess gucae :¥aqs Mieenieay gan Waeeea walanbins Pawan 29
Palmer, Governor John M......... 0.0. cc ccc cce cece eaaveeens 53
Palmer, Potters os. s42 vaeacveves sacs Liege Boa whee teas 445
Palmer, Thomas: Ws tics dves-cciea oe cee padowab 8a Goa adhainstied vo aerate 62
Pati Max emi S eviews cede ated tates &otityauice emia vous aay 372
Patters@n,, RODEGrt: W vicina cin gaeuaonieeeek aaigateey acamaes ceed mee 28
Patton, Wr «We Wiss scensune so etvonti ue cet gau ehenaena ex aqaenie 39
Pearsons, Daniel K.. M. D., LL. Do... eee eens 448
Pease, Hon) Jamies) ccc Mann wana eek xo eRe S eee os 478, 479
Peck, Fetditian d, ‘W sis waa congas Webaies s heaigatianwsemaaenes 403, 464
PECK; George: Res a indatclava wiewoy kaa healed Ge tees se waaryadbeace joa ok 354
Perry; sade: Newtons ics gonads crevasses na mney Cha tative aay Polen 150
INDEX.

PAGE
Phoenix Insurance Company...........0 ccc cece e tence eee eee 179
Plano Manufacturing Company............cce cence eee e nn eeee 230
Plautze (Cs, Pleriianjcs oauccon avin Goreme tatinneanee edgier dara acubar cote 477
Platt: Hon, Thomas Evccecescncnatd reeves adeaentneeeeany 5 120
Poole; Williaitt. Hh nccns sche venues ccduoes One. Gare ee eS 47
Porter, Rev. Jeremiah.......... 0c ccc ccc eeee ent eens 33, 37
Porter: Hon: Peter Bw hc ccciscccee cis as nasurdd.ccrad adie eaumderiee's 67
Porte ty. Washington sa iscoa see een sv ewaarta wad Janne ae eae wane 460
Potters Ed witts Avi aeaisnae sistaatioere ances a loaiay alana a oie weenie 164, 165
Potters (Orci Weeerse cua dace wid s yacuadnras see clon manworecotenms 4a4
_ Pratt, Edwin H., A. M., M. D., LL. D....... eee 425
- Prendergast, Richard............e ccc ccc c eee e eee cee e ee enenees 75
Prentiss, Walltatits.sncscdacaiaroay Hadenedaeas anuuabeawecheacand 392, 303
Price: Vincent Cy ceaiaccng taney e aemgnietere g ebinsdte iinet 171, 172
Pricé;, Vincettt Lacessssarsenivaiduuads oe regees seecunes serene 281
Pullman: George: Ms esiwian en ocuensuuchoatenrs aces ceased 9, 116
Pullman Palace Car Company............. eee ee eee eeees 115, 116
Purcell: “CHAGIES: sAss 5.siagaseeziseninn Acadacaaahegn twee Schaerer aawanh Laas 288
Randall. ‘CHa rlés- Bex. cacecnda- wmv apes oettnue giivarn: pb wae harass bavwiala aesenn iy 332
Randolpht Isham. csoscaarc ad entamenp estan denies 76, 82, 83
Raster, Hermans vane eceiedatseicqu simp apuiyeshee dante a wine ecumal eee 28
Ray; Dre Co Haswwerswex dna grind seenbete seem anaes aeeaniee- von BB
Raymond, Benjamin Wssjcsniscris sesscve tern dere pactwyeae res 21
Rehini, Jacob. occa doce dia ates Pea eE NTs ese eC ORME Bee 51
Reid: Daniel Gi iowceisa coon naniu ie eam bahaliine hued oars YRS ERTBS RONG 243
Republic Iron and Steel Cerne TDS Ehescecesierchisdeacsg 0d Gaus iecdevaese serene 242
Rews Henty Gardive qaciigdeninnnansa oha8 yebeesannene meagre 472
Rhodes: Je. Bostetivnmevskitinansetuadienn gown pan omedtuielag al ABO
Rice; John Bvcsceuiaeeees wweasdnudtis pein eae aia 23
Rice, Patrick: Hl. .ascaccecnsrescuresswe sige pews toreeaey s+ 290, 291
Roach, John M.....-. 1... cece eee eee ee eee ee ee eee enters 129
RiobinsOti; POH n Ke csvaw/danwonnallcoour atu vie Mier sae tee 455
Roche: John Ag cgsdcmoren ees deers aves Gnepeumnee Meee 25
Rogers, George Mills......... cece eee eee tee ee eee eee 398, 399
Rogers, John Gossecisusnaney nearest edd eian veneak Gale omeed eam 308
Rothschild, Abram M....... 0... ce cece eee eee e eee eee eens 2607
Royal Insurance Building. ..........0. eee eect ee eee tees 181, 182
Royal Trust Company...........- i tcasiea bare x Rin hal shat dia ab tiivieeeag 166
Rumsey, Israel Po... . see e cece eee nett ee eee 205
Rumsey, Julian S..... 1 cece eee cee ee 23
“Rumsey, Lightner & Cow... cece eee net nee ences 205
Rutinells, John Sicssrentesceagae rs saiwesed s repens tawaeto ns 361
Runyan, Eben, F.......-- 02sec cece eee eee rete ee eens 54
Rush; DED). Gweio. canine cs oct eee tees eee eee een 473
Russell, Martin J....... cc cece cece cece cece renee nen neceeenns 29
Russell, William H......... eee cece ee eee cee eee nee 75
Ryerson, Martin. ......... 0. cee cence ence eee teen ees 430
Sackett, Robert J... ccc cece eee ene eee teen nent enes 176
Scammon, J. Young...........ce cece cece ence eee eens 15, 30
Scanlan, Kickham.......0. 0... c eee ee ee ee ee ete e eee e eee 408
Scherzer, Albert H....... 0. cece cece ee eee ee eee eet tee 248-250
Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company, The....--.......... 248-250
Schlitz Brewing Company, The Joseph...-...........eeeeeeeee 205
Schmidt, Kasper G..... cece cece eee eee ee eee et tenes 442
Schneider, George... .... cece eee ene en eee tenet n ee ne es 28
Schneider, Otto Crrcsecc ec cece cece reece eee e nent e een en eee 475
Schoenhofen Brewing Company, The Peter.............++-.5-- 291
Schoenhofen, Peter. ...... 0. cece cece e cnet teen enn eens 201
Sehaolératt, Henty Reccnsecsenod can cond poten x ee Ree Eas 9
” Schubert, Ernest G..... se eee eee eee eee eee eee n eens 59
Scott, James Wo... see ee cece cece cee e eee cnet ee eee te eens 29
Scott, Gen, Winfield. .... 0.0.6... cece cece eee eet e eee es 15
Scupps, James E.....-eee cece eee e cece cette e tenner teens 2
Seaman, Hon. William H........... eee e eee cece neers 04
Sellers, Morris...---+-+-> is kedevae csc aeneatec arene ins canteen egy 255, 256, 257
Selz, Morris... .-11essse teeter terete ee eee etter ene e tees 268
Senn, Nicholas, M. Diy Tis Di -Phe Diceausatnndwegieiee 416, 417
Seward, William H....... eee eee cece ee eee ce ee eee ec ee eee 27
Seymour, H. W..-+seereeeecr eres teeter ee ee ee eee eneneneens 31
Shaw, Gilbert B....sseer eee sete eee eect ee ce ee teen eee ee es 165, 209

Shaw, William Wise eeu iat di ratte Reema ea mane mees 457

489

PAGE
Shédd;, Charles: Biiicicois aaitads scat vee nen hana adaeennt see 459
Shedd, Hd waltidl Aux. ccaceaunnaiceuiaaond na ak awisheie scuirs, d Rasvouasetanacta secs 461
Shérinan; Allison: Siccincav cacwt aacae vce tducnmdavseterlaxdacen arse 21
Sherman, Elijah: Bis Lilo. Diet ac ai aeileatiew avnany o aeunweainray sp eee 385
Sherman; Francis; Gyscas easeqeerss e800 vier s pense peas rates 2q
Shéetman; ‘Col, Francis: Tesscacsiessnsaacases é teesnsane anes 64
SHERMAN, JOM Bisscave-ave: crcransesdliaue vues avaraue ejateneudiquire susdualaraveayeeuslanannined 190
Shetiian;, NOW, Dimsssdacsadencarioe aa walenemhown dude goa gnwuley 325
Shope, Hon, Simeon: Py seis nccoasawanwelee mds ahowsumeees 364, 365
Shortall:. Johti, Gevsers sanceuseceaprwasie en gers Saoe Peewee Y 184, 185
Sidway; Lb. Busesvaetedereenieraddices aehiactaaemcnnualeeeen ts 53
SK ive ie, Mabe els ase a. a-Se scnhssinren cic, Ao ep sieial dtodd eens eal vdtelveuath ccaioie eas 48
Smithy, Hom, ADC Rs cacnadnnncantvonouricalse tenes «eaten a eceeede 345
Smith), PredehHok Ava wssacadnaws swasnchanss secdde cieaurncdewwres 380
Siri bh Georg 6s ence nae wivenecvursuhienueie tetas a nagomalesnalaiin alata lanieker 138
Smithy. George: “Te caassomsmexs samo vnades sobeeseuee ch gueeediees 148
Sniith; “Rews, Jc Aes ox casi sensu sad acuta tees dts Menara arsndaleas 39
Smith, OKSOMy cee ccssciosti: tne Geaddeastndsdessbh deaeeandl dairasd-slernareaoabimes 162-164
Siiitliy, RIGDERE Jaci ioadar ser saute sistoeaetaadeodad San uienaruten 178
Simithy SolOmOi A... sz. wevscnswo vy dankg his peg paimerna Hinge aie eaeacnoen 139
Sinythy Pho mais: Air asasxgvenne: cde Nace wee aceda@nanm an abe ates 76, 81
Soloman: Col. "Ey Sy ceca guus eles age ses eeee anaes se eneeueay 64
Sopets Alberts seccccedenmsien ceria tential cua ussemantudeiaoanr & 298-300
Soper, Alex Cy scien ieddaa oe dean seesaw nae ee ie, Snauanssleaten ieeanetiac nS 298-300
SOPEH, MAME Ss cas sissadiscdvouses Ahad DRAM AP cA eR aomuaolandes SMa 298-300
Soper Lumber Company, he............. 0.00000 ee eee es + 298-300
Spalding, JOSSE> sscaaveudiuns sandahatel seas aak seas wlerred warned Gabeeies oaue 128
Spalding & COs. .cawcacsasoucesid ease eavacaan Gfeacacn sd Giroansaseuahave aac 268
Spofford, Ion. George W..... Pistsausk centres hed aston nena aclanseneg ci eh oer 470
Spry Lumber Company; These sxc cs sveccsanss ca need nevtes cises 300
SPLVs JOH hcientguid senna isl eantunian stave wea aa een ateavereeoin. 300
Spiys Joh ‘Goeevensne ees ane cheese eee ian be Nees ind anaes 301
stanford, (Geo: Woasicsioe woves as. cewawves cealedse aoa 8es tees 54
Staring, Col: Fo Amsco; onmems sma veeen ad LeeeNGa mean tana giana _ 64
State Bank of Chica god wewv ews. sensei <8 a coud ne nando anaes 168
St. Gyr, Father John MM. Qiiics iad, cassie ace tue weg eens aon ovaina ove 37
Stensland: Path Oi 2 wasacsmewaepn ena dedahanteomnemacetealates 169
Stevens, GéGrge Mis. 300 ssa scans crm awrnnciguenvana medoes 410
SEOCKtOMs JOSEP Mie vg astess ae setecmn is pee atiree mods Zari aon eenlgen 51, 121
Stories, Melville: 18... éacgasscnnauiin aha eect detain yaaemenbe ne a1
Storey... Wilbur: dhs cei ies ctinrevcsintsesattonaeesoesetssens wean eanites 29
Stuarh Col; James 1: ca xeaessotekma secede seine ces pehereeiee < 98
Suddard, Joseph W................ SPIE Gia Re Seman daa iyaitsbias 58
Sweet: Col. Bs Jovi seswosw anak tisewar ia awe Methods the aoslodiutincs 5
SWET1E) DEMIS! Js, ded aeeninparaneianttaavnpiaan daseeune awagiancbar enews 337, 338
Switt (GeOree: Bits wstuisncias piiaanieen ga Wedel heniiseobemantomans 26
Swifts (Ry Wivesacedemdoahas adh armen eho wheiuaanxaecesinmaiie 139
Swift, Capt. W. i. fahren ue ise aes ecced ohana aeaeR A OS aaa hema 69
S Witt! GC Ono saauannasnncevancenncn a omeesae Pimaeelmaias 1G5
S Wine PhO seusetavicns prideetinatusensaaws tewewe saadaalsmenn aie 62
Tanner, (Governor J. Revesvisseetsacts sess terse ccd aeetee es 66
Tegimevyer, William: 0)... s.case.0 oc.d oceans eeee eee se Sema 204
Theater, JOS Pls cd- css acces dievsase iriuaie tananing pir bias iabatiaaneovaetayctas 292
Thomas, General Horace H....... 2. eee eee eee nee QI
THOMPsotiy TACO icscvciiswatincyinss mausnpsivosnted sid maabiel doves acaveleoses 65
‘Thompson, William, Haleicccauerrdoenamaapnien maga ennan a 187
Tinkhaiy, By Vsawamcceids sega geal waa cate aadbaangaiens 139
TONty accctepavetes (enbedeeeans Seabee ete Seg ed wine 7
Townsend, Janes J.....scnscecsss snes 2eee cx cemaaceuev ews 223, 224
Traders’ Insurance Company of Chicago, I. bie ace bmgna es eens ses 178
TUG ts, Elec A es cence Aenscth poner di teseaasachas ceases dunitarha ure ee naaseyee dtaeresehcasesselt as 139
Turner: ‘Colonel. Fle IM caccsctisng ouanua sineng eh adonddins aban artuacgoe. ive 66
Tirers Johnt Bice cq enewiacae rains howd Mayet ee needa teuiee 51
‘Tiirner Voluntine (Gosscuce esti Mekoess eed aomenheewendedes 435
Uihlein, Edward Giosccscyexersgasds coos otsger caver cena s2Q5, 200
Union Gatholic: Libtatys orcs cso acieraesa naan cntucadsacsiies oon 40
Union Lease: Clb. .c.c.5 saseeeeeeeenes yrsee ee ekeeadaek nats 86, 87
United States Express Company..... 0.0... cece cece cen eee 120
Van Atnam, ‘Colonel. John .....32ke.c0er cree error deeteneoeas s 64
Main Biteit, MaPtiti. 5. 1.c.cdikc, son sincae eh benny coe ONES RA SME ME LAS 12
Weeder ADEE Flies ces iclivost ud one taadeont iene he MER SSOLEAS 307, 368
490

PAGE
Vehineyer: Henry Bi seess aiitacs beac danni cca taadsun nbs 214, 215
V-GPniOtis Dawid vas. Mstaccrn. cbse a Gpleuciaral ea deea ann tne RA wk ane tage wise daa a 155
WVoeke, Wilhiatiin:, cscccccanietagaavsenea cumini se boteates wavs 406
WVopicka, Charles: Vises. veccdaane Scare sachs oe eee) < dea 293
Wacker; (Charles Hesciscise naewhes abs eiuies oo ook pa aee eee 293
Walker:.. Edwin: suceds es es sg snien ae catsy we alee eldcece Gia Sianuiay een ees 358
Walker, Rev. Jess@ies.ascocawoudvegy ees 30be oe nese nabds Tees 37
Walshy Joh Reiss ainedccgd evans i ceed ween a Huda es Ty 4 29
Ware, JOH Tels sis anu cve va pane AG ia aaa 2 ae ea ae na eee 210
Ware .& Weelattd : scada tance va aepete boda onn natn ga tandems be 210
Watkins, Fretts & Vincetit. ss-soccisccars paces gee niamianne ss 289
Watleins: “William Wi six sans Seed srenaad od dcomanarenae é 290
Ward: Miss: Frances: Lis cuss gopetes saiee casas ope ena trends 33
Warten, ToansinGines. sso. s40 casei eve gie ieee’ te ee nei es 324
Warren, Williant Si vccs.sctses westses on eene cece aedeaee eases 203
Washburne, Hempstead. s..cjccsee svc.sssaaee cs eas dagen rene 20
Wiayite, (Geieral enccsnciyeyaacisace ws eegen 1temwe be 2 e450 Wesel sas 8
Weare, Charles Aww... ccc cere e cece ene ee cure neeneeenees 215
Weare: Potttis Bacnac sacs siuacad Bias mednaniey come bate ss 453
Wheeler, Eran¢is: Ticcdi acon coe na ee ee cenune boiod ea Radi’ £89 405
Webb,” Walliaam Atco: wacca.co veces sete bks aunwtnceinte eo8ibued deanayente ectiw 63
Weber: William; Hi eee ciceccaean hatch ssa peed eam petces andes 333, 334
Websters “Daniel cacaascciaaaicresn. sates po. wynleee Fehon a aaekadine-ce 15
Weeds Churlowiwcuaws shored aeaiie pe awootmonsle ot ganamatina ta 27
Weeks, Harvey T reese accens waainicic oes saminda ham isis cates 451
Wiese: David S: owas apeciatiagnanivans 49 ne aes Ge ante 400, 401
Weigley;, Prank Soo vasi sis cihdcane ieee aa geuigurete ees Mo gna 4Il
Wells, Warten Aven evrveyengamn rhe caew asia ene cau seeaianee 3 307
Wenter: Frank... sccies oie tees ae ds Crvan ddake se nnoaee nearness 75-77
Wentworth, Jolt. .ssscisesscesesssees tonsa: oe eee Faeeudears 22
Western Electric Company seci.ascssesvscie see ca saacionee ces 244

Western Union Telegraph Company............cececee ee eeeee 260

INDEX.

PAGE
Whistler, Major... ... 0... ccc ieee cee nee e rece eee e an eenes 8
Wickersham, Hermann B......... ccc cece teeter een ee eenee 52
Wilbur. James) Ba naan deat acta eead dius caus bared Gaines 166
Wilee Ty & Coiacs tiase sie rcenuity cpa seed) Se teekolseewd sean 301
Wales THOMias:. sisusca..ccids gst Sapatapnhil esas eiececba nicer ara nrelioabie ate oarsua tases 301
Wickes: “Thomas; Hien: seckss pee nh es yams ey eeuae eae eed ae 117
Wilcox; MiayOrtes. anise dens e«onewees ak eeeoa vee ee wenn eta a Hs 33
Wilkins, Joseph Raveciseuise reach ake sees eee ed 218-220
Wallard,, Monroé Li teudas saa ccwaice stan. come tas fed tales bene es 356
‘Walliams, INGrimaily.; «2c34 ac ecancitundecd wen alamendes ame dawae 362, 363
Williams, “Walliditi, Posicihyence 3a ticedal sai acs dolous 3 sa enciewule’ 93
Walling: Henty: Va. .2 saacatn ceca tin. ccvke, ee ceeed euenee ature save 75, 446
Walson; :Chatlés he. scr aassaacceee dochelias ote qa anaaet we ene 27
Walson,, Voli Mis ont nner Gita ss ccecnaiorere eens stele wed» ote eae « 53
Walsony -JiOhith: Rian oancatecaiatiers bee's Sibeoa¥ Sots bphaanite s erhde Seineisie 27
ANalson,. Richatd: doen cana ys diac aime ee 1 aa Eee eee kee 27
‘Wilson, Walter ing sc ease nnn sateen seaen Hwee dae e Bares 183
Wing: Hon. Russell Mas. c2e.aceeisanspanersesedeaese races 305, 366
Winston. Prederick: Sioa iaeis oie ed diavagitrs bein ibherands, ote. ace wlasete 369
WG ICO tt: De Ns cianeosine: shaq theese ab ok Bik Ganon eae Raphi ea Soe aR 9
Wolf A GAM sistas dae ac gigs AN noise ans eva ais ada Re Aie oot tae 334
Wolfs Fl eiity: Mi iiircs-e Jtenna nu ta ¥ 2 venelbaibin Sea ASA Mts ae 350
Woods, Hon. William A...... ec ccc cece eee O4
Woodworth; Jatiies. 1.00 s200 atx cesparecese siamese de eaus sai 22
Woodworth, Plumer M., M. D..... 0... ce eee 419-20
Wright, Frank S....: Salix: | @ededre cia aun Me areeiae eee eae 309
Woight. John Si cnamaca nace ceaiaeen ono are a armtacw scan mee ene a eet 33
Yerkes: “Chacles: LySOttic.c: susiteettsn: wa suiatiss cya ee dwera cn ble naire 134
Nouilles GeorgesA ccc oe vs tis waisuriedle sng aplewiene dak dete navies a aee 130
eI Aa aod ns areca 8 on ies heel aa sh SR ap ch encheh ia tye » 45
Young; Colonel Edward! Gi wie... osc. esos eens cee ba eva ates 66
Ziégteld, Dr: PIOCEnCéscca 3 ac dove stay ea Sa. RG wits ws PR ees 328
    
    
  
 
  

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