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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

 

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT
FUND GIVEN IN 1891 By

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

 

 

 

 
vornell University Library

F 5484 B97

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OLIN LIBRARS- ou... veATICN ©

DATE DUE

GAYLORD PRINTEDINU.S.A.

 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF SOME OF THE

FAKLY SETTLERS

OF THE

ClTly OF CHICAGY.

PART I.
S. LISLE SMITH, GEORGE DAVIS,
Dr. PHILIP MAXWELL, JOHN J. BROWN,
RICHARD L. WILSON, Cot. LEWIS C. KERCHIVAL
URIAH P. HARRIS, HENRY J. CLARKE,

SAMUEL J. LOWE,

Stay Vi Betas JA <

CHICAGO:
FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY,
244-8 ILLINOIS STREET,

1876.

: ag
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5BFS
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Bo7

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
Fercus Printinc Company,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtonr

SEP a FIT

¥ 2
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INTRODUCTION.

THE following pages are intended merely as sketches of
character—not labored biographies. In the inception, the
object was simply to prepare a few newspaper articles, to
be read and thrown aside, as other ephemeral literature.
But partial, very likely over-partial, friends, who saw the
earlier manuscripts, believed them worthy of abetter fate—
believed them (how could I question the verdict?) to be
recollections of the fast-growing dim past, that should be
garnered, and would be cordially received and valued by
the olden-time citizens of Chicago. This being the case,
and my friend of “auld lang syne”, Mr. Robert Fergus,
having determined to give them the dignity of a book, no
one can regret more sincerely than the writer that greater
care was not taken in the preparation—that they were not
given more at length—that more of birth and family had
not been gathered. That would have made them interest-
ing—to their descendants. j

The general public, however, may fancy them as well in
the present form. They, at least, care little or nothing
where the accident of birth occurred, or whether the name
of the father was John or Jehosaphat, and that of the
mother Mary or Jerusha! They simply require a mental
photograph of those who walked the streets when Chicago
was a derra incognita,—who filled the places they now fill,
—who passed through the same trials and had the same
hopes and fears—the same clothing and passions of mor-
tality. Birth or nation, we take it, has little to do with
how each “acts his part.” It is the maz only that sut-
vives—save with the loving hearts of kindred.

Of thé knowledge of what I have feebly attempted, I
was part of all. Though not among the earliest, yet I
was an early citizen of the now famous “Garden City,”
and my business was such as to throw me into intimate
association with all classes, more than was generally the
case, and the lines written upon the memory of the boy
have not been obliterated from that of the gray-headed
man any more than the city can be blotted from the map
of the world,—such a thing could never be. Love for
INTRODUCTION.

those still living, and graves (may they be ever green ones)
by the lake side forbid such a thing.

Of my adility to do justice to those who “have gone
on before,” I feel its want to the extreme, and, had I
known what was to follow, would have burned the first
pages of manuscript and shrank from the task,—what It
was I realized too late. But one thing I do know—
nothing untruthful, no single word of bitterness (no matter
what might have occurred in other days, when hearts beat
high and passions ran strong,) has been permitted to be
here set down. Indeed, I can say—and that with my
hand upon my heart—that nothing of the kind remains.
Looking backward, one almost shudders as he learns that
what he considered the fault of another was his own, and
the blame rests upon his shoulders alone!

Chicago, it must be remembered, was a very different
affair thirty and forty years ago from what it is now. Then

everybody knew everybody, as in village society. Conse- ,

quently, one could not but be familiar with the men who
stood the highest in the community—with their acts as
their faces—could not but be interwoven with them in
daily life—could not but have stamped upon memory their
individuality. Then, there were comparatively few who
marked themselves above their fellows, and to forget them
would be to forget, almost, one’s self—and writing of them
is as turning open the book of your own life. _

It would be impossible for any to write of so long ago
without having their statements questioned, and I do not
expect to escape. Human memory at best is treacherous,
and the same witnesses often look at the same transaction
from a different standpoint. To anyone in the least familiar
with courts of justice this explanation will be sufficient.
To any others who may quibble, I can say, in all honesty,
that any statement of fact made in these pages is a fact
“according to the best of my information and belief,” and
that we may have looked at the same object at a different
time or from an opposite side.

As to opinions of character, they are my own. Not a
single person has made any suggestion—not one attempted
the slightest influence. If I have erred in my judgment
of men, I am alone responsible. My study of character
may be wrong, but, as I have judged others, I am willing
to be judged.
HON. S. LISLE SMITH.

‘There was no one better known to the “old citizens”:

of Chicago, nor justly more famous for brilliancy and
innate kindness of heart, than SamMUEL LisLE SMIrH—or.
as he was familiarly called, “ Lisle.”

Gifted by nature far above the great majority of his
fellows, with a rare education, striking ideality, and love

and appreciation of the poetic and beautiful, with the |

most retentive of memories—one so marvelously perfect
that he could quote the words, section, page, and book
of almost anything he had ever read, and his simple zfse
dixit would be taken as law in any court in the city—a
natural as well as finely cultivated orator, he was, indeed,
at the head of his compeers at least in that respect.

In stature, Mr. Smith was about mediurh size, with a
slightly florid complexion, rather light hair, active in his
movements, rapid as forcible in speech, graceful in every
gesture, wonderful in imagery, the very soul of pathos,

and could hold an audience spell-bound for any length |

of time, as was proven again and again.
As to his eloquence, the entire wisdom and the selected
“best speakers” of the nation bowed unanimously to it,

at the famous “ Harbor and River Convention.” Horace’

Greeley said he was “the star speaker of the vast assem-

bly—stood without a rival,” and the writer of this has often

seen a letter from Henry Clay, avowing that he “was the

best orator he had ever heard.” Could better testimony

be required to prove a fact? In short, Mr. Smith stood

head and front above all he met at that time (as, indeed,
rE

\
2 S. LISLE SMITH.

at any other) for magnetic influence over the masses, for
flow of language, for all that goes to make up the orator
—stood without the approach of a rival—without it might
have been S. S. PRENTISS.

When Lisle Smith spoke, the house was certain to be
crowded, no matter what its size or what the occasion.
All who resided in the “Garden City” (“Urbs in Zorto,”
as the motto upon the Corporate Seal has it) at the time,
and were fortunate enough to hear him, will remember
_with pleasure his eulogy upon JoHN Quincy ADAMS, when

the Methodist Church (then standing on the corner of
Washington and Clark Streets) was so jammed that the
speaker had to be taken in at a window and carried over
the heads of the audience to the pulpit; also his famous
oration before the “Sons of Penn,” at the little wooden
church of the Second Presbyterian Society (situate on
Randolph Street, midway between Clark and Dearborn),
and, also, his address at the “Irish Relief Meeting,” at
the Baptist Church on the corner of Washington and
LaSalle Streets.

Of the “Penn” oration, I remember well the incidents
preceding it. It was delivered upon the .afternoon of
the funeral of Jupce Jressze B. Tuomas. After the ser-
vices, Mr. Smith and myself left together—he to keep his
appointment and I to listen. Benjamin F. Taylor, the
poet of the day, had finished, and the large audience was
anxiously -waiting. Mr. Smith entered, walked rapidly to
the pulpit, and prefaced his oration with the following
fitly-chosen words, and in a voice tremulous with emo-
tion :—

“Returning from the funeral obsequies of a dear, tried,
and trusted friend, I appear before you with a mournful
heart and sorrowing spirit to perform the duty allotted to
me.”

Then he plunged, zz media res, into the subject, by
quoting, ‘‘Saint John upon the Isle of Patmos, said: write
S. LISLE SMITH. 3

to my friends in Philadelphia,” and for an hour not a
sound was to be heard save his own voice, unless when
the pent-up enthusiasm could no longer be restrained, and
applause caused the very roof to vibrate.

His power over an audience was wonderful—matchless
—his flights of fancy sublime, and have never, I think,
been surpassed. He was bitterly severe when he chose
to indulge in invective, as shown in his numerous politi-
cal speeches, but it was the keen cutting of the razor
rather than the dulled edge of the sword; and he had no
equal in pathos, as the not-to-be-checked tears of the
multitude at the “Irish, Relief Meeting” most faithfully
attested. Not one there, I venture to assert, has forgot-
ten, or ever can forget, his vividly terrible description of
the approach of gaunt, skeleton famine, of hollow-eyed
starvation, as it stalked resistlessly through the land, touch-
ing first the finger tips, and then creeping slowly on until
it reached and fastened upon the heart—the wildly fear-
ful Nemesis that bowed strong men and loving women
and innocent childhood, and turned the ‘Green Isle of
the sea” into a horrible graveyard! It was too living a
reality—too minutely faithful and eloquently voiced a
description ever to be effaced from memory.

There was, also, a vast fund of humor in the character
of Mr. Smith, though permitted to show itself more in
private than public—not broad, Falstaffan, grotesque
humor, but a subtle, delicate appreciation of mirth, which
his power of mimicry made irresistible, and-of which many
instances might be adduced. This, with a charity that was
as unostentatious as it was lavish, underlaid all his actions
and assisted much in giving the magnetism that instantly
made him en rapport with any audience.

But notwithstanding his powers of oratory—his brilliant
flow of language, that was always chosen from the inevi-
tably best words, and always poetic in imagery as pure
in diction and logical in argument, nothing—literally noth-
4 $s. LISLE SMITH.

ing—remains of his speeches save a glowing, though sad,.
memory. ‘The perfume of the rose lingers around the
broken vase, but, alas! that is all,
‘* Appealing by the magic of #zs name,
To gentle feelings, and affections kept
Within the heart, like gold.”

Shortly after his death, his lifetime friend, RicHarRp L.
Witson, (of the Evening Fournal,)—another brave heart
and true,—-and others endeavored to obtain data for their
publication, but nothing could be found. He never wrote
a single word even of his greatest efforts. It was_ his.
custom, when preparing a speech, to walk up and down
the shore of the lake, talking to himself-—shaping the crude
material into form, and, with the matter once fluxed in
the subtle crucible of his brain, it was never forgotten.

In political life, he stood among the foremost, ever in
the van; though never either asking or accepting an office
when proffered, while working devotedly for his party and
his friends. Of this let me give a single instance out of
the multitude, one that will show more clearly the man
than any words of my own could do. He was—could
not conceal the fact—disappointed in the nomination of
GENERAL TayLor, but when the old warrior was fairly in
the field for the Presidency, he threw all his influence in
his favor and did much towards securing his election.
That accomplished, and the inauguration over, he visited
Washington and paid his respects to the Chief Magistrate.
Again and again he called, chatting interestingly, as he so
well could do, and left without a word of business. ‘Then
he called yet once more, to say farewell, and as he was
about leaving, the old war horse said, in his bluff and
hearty way, .

“Mr. Smith, J like you.”

“The admiration is more than mutual,” replied Lisle -
“but why, General?”

“Because you are very different from anyone who has
s. LISLE SMITH. 5

‘called upon me. Everybody wants an office, and you have
.asked for nothing.”

“And would not accept the highest in your gift.”

“But can I do nothing for you, sir?”

‘Nothing personally, but, if you please, General, it would
be a great pleasure to me if you would appoint
Post Master at Chicago;” and he eloquently presented the
-claims of the candidate.

Need I say the appointment was made?

Were space permitted, I could fill pages with such pleas-
‘ant memories of the man—memories that deserve to be
perpetuated; but a brief notice is all that is permitted.

His political speeches were, truly, a power in the land.
An old-line Whig of the strictest school, he loved—wor-
‘shipped were, perhaps, the more fitting term—‘“ Harry of
the West,” as he delighted to call Clay; and, probably, did
more for his party than any of his time in Illinois. Right
-or wrong he carried his hearers with him, and spent his
money freely in the cause. So much was he interested in
the political struggles of the country that he gave up the
practice of his profession (law) at an early day, though, had
he been so disposed, he would have been without a rival as
a jury lawyer—would have occupied the place at the Chi-
-cago Bar that James T. Brady occupied in New York.

In social intercourse, no man was (or is) to be found
who could more charm or hold fast the attention. That
this was the case, all who ever shared his open-handed
hospitality, and that of his beautiful and accomplished wife,
will attest. His conversation was of the character that
-made one a willing listener, and compelled regret when he
had finished, for—

“‘On every point, in earnest or in jest,
His judgment, and his prudence, and his wit,

Were deemed the very touchstone and the test
Of what was proper, graceful, just, and fit.”

‘This I saw proven again and again, even among strangers.
6 S. LISLE SMITH.

When the frst ‘Sherman House” (created from the “City
Hotel”) was standing, Mr. Smith entered, one evening, with
a friend, and their conversation drifted upon the life and
character of Henry Clay. The reading-room was filled
with men engaged with their own particular topics, but, as
he enlarged upon his idea, everyone became silent, and
remained so until a very late hour. Of that night I have
a perfectly distinct recollection, and especially of the con-
clusion. The dust of the years that have fallen have failed -
to dim its individuality.

“T tell you,” said the enthusiastic orator, “that Harry
Clay will never die, but will be translated, like Elijah of
old. When the Lord wants him, he will send down angels
with a golden chariot, and one of them will tell his errand.
‘Wait a moment,’ will be the courteous reply, ‘I must bid
my wife farewell.’ Entering the house, he will tell of the
kingly summons, and say, ‘Mary, I must go—farewell. Tell.
everyone that the Union must and shall be preserved,’ and:
stepping into the heavenly car will be borne aloft from
glory unto glory!”

I feel that I have failed in giving the beauty of his
words—the sublimity of his imagery,—indeed I might as well
attempt to chain a sunbeam. The hour and the “man
eloquent,” the burning eye, the wrapt face, the impassioned
gestures—all are wanting—can never be reproduced. But
this may give a feeble conception of the reality. :

I think I am perfectly safe in asserting: that Lisle Smith
never had an enemy, even though far from faultless. But
his errors never injured others. He was loved by the high
and low, and the cold-blooded, cynical, and fault-finding
dared not deny his greatness as an orator and his large-
hearted and sympathetic liberality asa man. At his death
one of the old and most striking landmarks was blotted
out. He was a member of the “Old Settlers’” and many
other societies, and was universally regretted. As far as T
know his place has never been filled, and he who is worthy
S. LISLE SMITII. 7.

to step in his shoes will, indeed, have a proud record. Ah!
how many hearts beat sadly as the bell tolled for him, and
how many trembling lips whispered, “Brave heart, true
friend, hail and farewell.”

GEORGE DAVIS.

The musical population of Chicago—zd est, old Chicago
—will remember, with feelings of pleasure as well as regret,
the man whose name stands at the head of this brief
biography.

Though English by the accident of birth, Mr. Davis

_came early to this country—was a thorough and patriotic
American at heart, and his popularity enabled him to secure
and long retain the office of County Clerk.

A “fellow of infinite jest,” with a kind word and smile
for everyone who approached him, he had troops of friends,
who remained firm until the very last, and sorrowed truly
when death called him hence ;—but it could not pave been
to the land of silence, for from the choir of earth he must
have been welcomed by the sweet singers above.

Mr. Davis was the prime mover in all charitable con-
certs, as he was the most noted leader of his time in the
Episcopal Church (first Saint James’, and, subsequently,
Trinity), of which he was a member, and no entertainment
of which vocal music was a part was complete without
him. Though gifted with uncommon powers in rendering
the plaintive (who does not remember the “Surf”? and
how he would have given expression to “Annie Laurie” !)
yet it was in the grotesque—the serio-comic—the broadly
humorous—that his rare mimicry could best be brought
8 GEORGE DAVIS.

into play, and his facial expression used—that he most eX-
celled, and will, perhaps, be the best remembered. ‘There
he stood, without a rival—if, indeed, any could be found
in the “Garden City” at the present time.

Of this, I need but mention “The Great Mogul”—sung
as it was by him—acted as it was by him—I think it has
never been equalled upon the stage, and certainly not
surpassed. Of course, there were many others, the words
of which he himself set to music, that ever caused laughter,
and never failed to “bring down the house,” but the song
I have mentioned was the most riotous in expression,
although

“*A merrier man,
Within the limits of becoming mirth,
I ever spent an hour’s talk withal.”

Of the power exercised by his singing, I mention one
striking instance, showing, as it does, not alone the charm
of a rich and cultivated voice, but the respect and love
in’ which he was held by the citizens—one so great as to” ’
subdue even the wild waves of land speculation and ever-
grasping avarice—to make the might of Orpheus no fable
and the lures of the Sirens no myth.

At the time of the sale of Canal lands and lots in Sep-
tember, 1848, Mr. Davis lived upon Canal Street, between
Randolph and Madison, holding a gwasi preémption upon
the lot on which his house was builded. The property
was even then valuable, though the fabulous prices at which
it has since been sold were never dreamed of, and many
were anxious to purchase. The adjoining property had
been disposed of at an extreme figure, and when the auc-
tioneer (James A. Marshall) put up that particular lot,
“George” trembled, for fear it would be run up beyond
his ability to purchase. It was well known that he was
not the possessor of a very bountiful supply of this world’s
goods (so liberal, so open-handed and open-hearted a man
never could be), and he whispered his trouble to some of
GEORGE DAVIS. 9

his friends, and it instantly became known to the crowd,
whose sympathy was not slow in being aroused. His bid
(the valuation) was made and then a song was called for,
and, mounting upon the top of an omnibus, he sang as,
perhaps, he never did before, or after, in his life-—sang
with his whole heart, and eyes misty with gratitude. There
was no bid against him-—music carried the day, and, though
David Leavitt (the President of the Canal Board) fumed,
he was powerless. to stem the tide of popular feeling, and
was forced to see a valuable lot sacrificed for a merely
nominal sum—in fact, sold for a song!

It may be urged that Chicago was young at that time
—the people uncultivated, and not competent judges ot
music; but those who assert such a thing know little of
what they are talking about, and are overwise in their own
conceit. Ask anyone who lived then and is living now,
and he will tell you that the amateur concerts of those days
shame many of the professionals now; that Mrs. Harring-
ton, Mrs. Dr. J. Jay Stuart,) Henry Tucker, George Davis,
“the sweet girl singer of St. James’,” and others,* have never
_ been surpassed for purity of voices and skill of execution.
Ah! what a bright galaxy have passed away, and what an
addition has been made to that matchless choir “whose
strains are immortal and whose vibrations are eternal.”

Mr. Davis was essentially a social man, and one whose
presence was ever felt, or missed. This was owing to his
genial face, his ever-bubbling wit, and suave manners, as
much'as to his great musical ability, liberal charities, and
warm friendship. No sorrow or want ever appealed to him
in vain, and if it was little he could bestow, that little
seemed to carry with it a blessing and a benediction. With
his leaving Chicago (to settle in Detroit) one of the olden
links was broken—one of the most familiar of the old faces

* Wm. M. Larrabee, Moss Botsford, Charles Collier, Augustus H.
Burley, and Charles Burley.
10 GEORGE DAVIS.

gone; but those who remember the little, two-story brick
building that stood upon the North-East corner of the
Public Square, and was dignified with the title of “Court
House,” will rarely think of it without associating him with
it—forming, as he did, the attraction for so many years.

Mr. Davis was, in the strongest meaning of the term, a
friend; and, as far as my recollection serves, never had an
enemy—save such as might have grown up from his fer-
vent espousal of the case of the Rev. William F. Walker,
in the then celebrated church trial, and of which it may be
said, ez passant, was bitter in the extreme,—long-contin-
ued — argued with great eloquence, but which left a bale-
ful shadow over the congregation for a long time.*

He was of fine physique and presence and carriage,

something of a Jon vivant in his manner of living, and
it was a matter of wonder that he did not take’ a place
as speaker as well as singer, for certainly he had all the
requisites—except, perhaps, assurance. But he loved
“sweet melodies married to words,” better than all else,
and though there was much of the artist in his nature,
and he sketched well, yet music absorbed all his spare
time, and even trespassed upon the hours of business.
-. His name-—the few thoughts here jotted down will
re-open the pages of the past to those of the olden time,
and his friends (and who were not?) will drop another
tear upon his grave, and kindly brush the moss from the
marble above it.

e
* The array of legal learning present it would be difficult to -dupli-
cate now, for in it were interested such men as Justin Butterfield,
General James A. McDougall, Isaac N. Arnold, John J. Brown, and
Patrick Ballingall.
II

PHILIP MAXWELL, M.D.

The Medical Faculty of Chicago would, and justly, deem
themselves neglected if no mention was made of the Fal-
staff of the Profession who, to use one of his own argu-
ments why he should be elected to the Legislature, “carried
weight with him!”

In Physique, at least, this was true. Dr. Maxwell wasa .
man of more than ordinary stature and unctuousness; yet
barely approximating to the gross. He carried his two
hundred and eighty pounds very easily and gracefully,
though that is more than could have been truly said of the
favorite grey horse upon which he was accustomed to dash
through the streets with all the chic and erectness of a sol-
dier and the abandon and insouciance of an Indian. In-
deed, so active and light were his movements, for one of
his figure, that it was always a subject of remark, especially
when mounting and dismounting. So, too, was it when he
trippingly danced in those “good old days” when Chicago
Society was a unit and unbroken by cliques—by the with-
drawal of the créme de la créme from the “‘promiscous gath-
erings,” and the setting up for themselves of a standard
blazened with the motto “I am better than thou,”—a most
sublime piece of egotism. =

Of this permit a word.

The last general, free, and genial reunion of the votaries
of Terpsichore was held at the “Sherman House,” and (I
think) known as the “Mechanics Ball.” It was gotten up
as an offset to that of the “Young Bachelors,” a very select
and (supposed to be) vecherché affair, and the tickets placed
at the merely nominal sum of one dollar, including car-
12 PHILIP MAXWELL, M.D.

riages and refreshments. To carry out the intention of the
originators (and who, by the way, had a large deficiency of
funds to make up)—all prominent citizens were enlisted as

- managers, and a difficulty arose as to how they could be
classed as Mechanics.

“Put down Doctor Maxwell as a Butcher,” quoth Col.
Swift. .

“And Dick Swift as a Barber!” (ze, Money-lender—
shaver) was the ready retort of the Physician.

In this way all trouble was overcome and the ball was
large—immense, enthusiastic, and enjoyable. It was, how-
ever, the final gasp of general sociability, and the united
Chicago of the old was known nevermore. But to return
to the subject proper.

The face of Doctor Maxwell was in keeping with his
ponderous frame. It was broad, massive, pleasant, and.
beaming with mirth—the last being the key-note of his
character. It had, like his person Falstaffian breadth, and
depth, and proportion. He was constantly upon the guz
vive for objects of merriment, was a

‘*Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun,
Who relished a joke and rejoiced in a pun.”

Even at the most solemn times it was next to impossible
for him to keep the bubbles from rising to the surface—the
gas of frivolity from escaping. Nature had cast him in the
mould of “Sir John,” and study and love of the character
had perhaps tinged his own until it had grown to resemble
the would-be lover of Madame Ford and “sweet Mistress
Page.”

I know such was the charge against him—that he ever
aped the burly guzzler of sack and fancied himself the suc-
cessful rival of the wonderful creation of Shakespeare.
Granted that the charge was true, the idiosyncrasy was
perfectly harmless. But the Doctor cared little for such
insinuations, though he could be “testy” at times and
PHILIP MAXWELL, M.D. 13

pour out the vials of his wrath like the bursting forth of a
volcano. He was contented to go along “larding the lean
earth,” enjoying a laugh, no matter at whose expense, and
making merry at life, come in what shape it might, though
the sunshine and shadows in such lives are very marked.
But, for the most part, he was remarkably genial,—feeling
his own weaknesses as well as those of others ; and, in his
limited sphere, was a very “king of misrule.” If he had
made the peculiarities of Falstaff a study, and reproduced
them in his daily walk and conversation, it was without
malice to others—on the contrary, for their amusement.

As arule, he carried sunshine in his face and heart and
a quilp upon the end of his tongue—was at his richest,
when he could get a good joke upon his brother professors
of the curative art—-STUART, Ecan, AND, ELDRIDGE—when
firing double shotted guns and entire batteries at a time at
the Faculty of Rush Medical College—and what stories
thé old wooden office in Clark Street could tell were speech
given and had it not long since been dust and ashes.

Perhaps the highest relish of the Doctor was humbug-
ging the credulous with Munchausen stories, equalling any
of the “Fat Knight.” Instances of this rise thickly as
memory turns back to the man and the past is vividly pict-
ured again. But one must suffice, though the temptation
to fill pages is great:

Qn a bitter morning in early winter, he entered a hotel,
drank a glass of water (he was habitually temperate), rub-
bed his hands complacently and discoursed pompously
upon the merits of bathing.

“Surely,” exclaimed one of the loungers around the
glowing stove, “you have not been bathing this cold morn-
ing?”

“OF course I have —swimming, Sir, swimming,” was the
answer.

“Where Doctor?”

“In the lake.”
14 PHILIP MAXWELL, M.D.

“The lake? Impossible! It must be frozen along the
shores.” ‘ :

“Yes—certainly—yes, but I make it a practice of going
in every morning as long as my weight will break the ice;”
and he departed leaving his hearers puzzled as to the truth
of the story—and which did not contain a particle of it.

It was Doctor Maxwell who made the sweeping and far
from complimentary criticism upon the late Edwin Forrest.
Although already published let me introduce it here in
brief:

The “great tragedian” was playing his first engagement.

in Chicago, had finished for the night, was going to his
‘hotel down the street immediately preceded by the Doc-
tor and his party. His opinion was asked and the answer
given in such boisterous tones that Forrest could not fail
to have heard it— ‘A brute force and native stupidity
actor!” Whether just or not, it was his opinion, and the
world was never kept in doubt as to what he thought.

There was much in the character and mannerism of Dr.
Maxwell that reminds me very forcibly of the Lawrence
Baythorn of Dicken’s “Bleak House” more than Falstaff.
‘There was the same bluff, hearty, brusque fashion of greet-
ing—the same noisy explosions—the same extravagant ex-
pressions and denunciations—the same tremendous bursts
of laughter—the same ferocious threatening—and the same
tender heart breathing within the massive breast that would
turn aside for fear of trampling on a worm, even while
breathing tornadoes of wordy wrath and hurling wordy
thunderbolts of wholesale destruction. But these things
(when not uttered and acted in jest, as was frequently the
case, served the more to clear the sky; and, the man—whom
a stranger might have looked upon as bloodthirsty—was as
kind in reality, as incapable of doing harm as a child—a
singular combination of Baythorn and Falstaff.
15

ove om JOHN J, BROWN.

My introduction to the subject of this brief memoir was
so peculiar and striking that it could not be forgotten, par-
ticularly when taken in connection with the man—one al-
most saz generis. It must have occurred very soon after his
advent in the Garden City, for I had never seen or even
heard of him.

I was returning late one evening from a visit to a sick
friend. There was a wild storm abroad. Clouds were
flying in tumultuous confusion, driven by the fierce North-
wind; rain was falling heavily; the lake was lashed into
foam and tossing in great billows upon the shore; the thun-
der was booming and crashing, and ever and anon the light-
ning played around with dazzling and fitful fury. It was
not such a night as one would willingly be abroad, and I
was breasting and struggling against the elemental war up
Michigan Avenue, in the vicinity of Randolph Street, when
a more than usually terrific burst of thunder caused me to
pause—a vivid flash of lightning to glance anxiously around
and I saw a man standing upon the lake-side of the Avenue
gesticulating fiercely, and in the lull that followed, I could
distinctly hear him talking to himself.

Curiosity could not be repressed. I fancied it must be
‘one insane; and, forgetting the storm and darkness, the
fearful pealing of the thunder, the rain, and the dangerous
play of the lightning, I crossed and drew near to his side.
And as I did so, there came to my ears the well-known
words of Byron:
16 JOHN J. BROWN.

“The sky is changed ! and such a change! Oh! night,

And sto¥in and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,
Yet lovely in your strength, as in the light

_~ Of a dark eye is woman! Far along,
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among
Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now.hath found a-tongre, lps
And Jura answers, through her misty’s ‘shroud, oy)
Back to the joyous Alps, who called to her aloud!”

Oem

Who_could be quoting poetry at such a time and in such
a situation? If curiosity had been aroused before, it stood
toptoed now. I drew back, thrilling with a strange fear,
and waited-for the next flash to reveal form and feature...
When it came, I looked upon a stranger who would have:
-impressed himself upon any assembly. The -picture rises
Before mie now, weird almost as then, when the background
—- was foaming and hissing waters, and black chaos of sky,
and the shadows following the flashes eerie ones.
The figure was tall, angular, slightly bent, and wrapped.
‘in a cloak; the face sallow, somewhat hollow, with highly
_ cheek bones;-and eyes deep set, heavily browed and lashed,
and with more than usual power of focusing and penetrat--
ing. The head. was held firmly, straight, defiantly, and
covered with long, Teonine hair, blown fitfully about by the:
wind. ‘The voice sonorous and emphatic.
‘That man was John J. Brown, a newly arrived lawyer, as
I came later to know, and the impression of him then re-
ceived (almost boy as I was) without doubt ever after
colored my view of his character, and ‘something of it may
linger even now, despite the dust and iconoclastic power of
so many years. as ae bs
John J.._Brown was naturally a a retiring, eatinepie man.
‘The lenses through which he looked _at life seemed to be
ever clouded—the glimpses of sunshine rare. Whether his
nature was naturally morbid—whether untoward circum-
stances had made it so, I never had the means of knowing;
but that he was uncommonly shy and sensitive, and cver-
JOHN J. BROWN. 17

looked at the darkest side, 1 am of opinion will not be
“questioned. He lacked, perhaps, the rebound, the recu-
perative power to recover from a blow or loss; and he made
its sting deeper by brooding upon it. Asa boy, I think this
must have been the case—as a man, standing breast-high
and proud-headed in genius, learning, and eloquence
among his fellows it certainly was so; and none who knew
him will deny the-assertion. ‘Aver: Aim?” I have said;
but were there any who did so? I doubt it very much—
doubt if he ever had any intimate associates—any to whom
he fully unbosomed himself—to whom he revealed his
inner heart and’ the motives that were the mainspring of
his actions. And if the olden mythological fables had in
them aught of truth, it was Pluto that hovered about his
cradle, and Niobe and Melpomene that were his attendant
spirits through life.

This gave a sombre coloring to almost his every act and
thought. The shadows were so dense behind the sunrays
that they could never be entirely hidden—the gold not suf-
ficiently bright to’ effectually curtain the gloom. In all his
forensic efforts this was apparent (at least to my mind), and
the highest flights of fancy seemed to be made with wings:
against which beat the rain. But, notwithstanding this,
they were of great power, legal acumen, and sound law.
His mind in this respect was singularly critical and analyti-
cal. The very things that militated against general socia-
bility and the power of -self-forgetfulness—in drinking in
the perfume of the flower, unmindful of the cruel thorn and
poisoned root, gave him the more taste and ability for
research—more concentration of mind upon the salient
points he intuitively and keenly appreciated, and ever after
retained; and this was so, not alone in the law, but in all
he read—history, poetry, philosophy, theology—and the
most apropos quotations were ever at his command.

I have spoken of his hair being long and tawny as the
mane of alion. It was so in fact, was very noticable and

2

N
18 ‘JOHN J. BROWN.

first called attention. But it was his eyes that unwaveringly

fixed it, for, at times, when his soul was fully aroused, they

literally appeared to burn. I use the term advisedly, and
can find none more _ appropriate. When indulging in his
wonderful and bitter powers of sarcasm; when forgetful of
self, and the ebb and flood of sorrowful waves, in the mas-
tery of his subject—when all the shadows were exorcised,
his eyes gleamed with a strange phosphorescent light and
exerted a strong, subtle, magnetic power that was not to be
resisted. In that respect, he was very like Rufus Choate,
of whom it has been said, ‘‘7o one could report if they looked
at him!’ The same thing was, in a great measure, true of
John J. Brown, as -I learned by experience when attempt-
ing to reproduce his words upon paper, during a celebrated
trial. I watched the speaker and forgot pencil and paper !
Looking calmly back now, after a decade and more have
passed, I am inclined to believe his greatest power was in
scathing denunciation and intense bitterness. I would not
be understood that such was the natural status of his mind,
for I do not believe it. On the contrary, I had occasion to
know that the milk of human kindness had not soured
within his veins, and there was much of the gentleness and
tenderness of woman: in his composition. But he was un-
doubtedly the great master of withering and remorseless
irony when aroused, of satirical and scornful gibe then at
the Chicago Bar—of sarcasm that when given full rein , had
something almost sardonic in it. To this end, his vehe-
ment gestures, his eyes, his tall, flexible person, and his
leonine hair, all added emphasis, and woe to those upon
whom the razorlike edge of his tongue fell when unbridled.
'Two particular instances drift up from the depths of
memory. The first is that of the trial of Rev. Wm. F,
Walker, elsewhere mentioned :
The opening of his speech was calm, graceful, even beau-
tiful. He said, “‘I did not expect. to be present at this
trial. I thought the blue waves of the lake would have

-
JOHN J. BROWN. 19

rolled and sparkled between me and it.” But as he pro-
gressed, as he fully gave himself up to the subject he
warmed, grew deeper, stronger in thought, more forcible in
imagery, his nerves quivered, his hair was disordered, and
his eyes flashed as burning steel. Any looker on must
have been reminded of the gathering and bursting of a
storm. And when at its height it was terrible. When he
pictured the manufacturing of the “‘ patchwork slanders’—
of those professing the broadest humanity and Christianity,
coming “‘to the altar with the word of God in their hands
and the devil in their hearts”—when he hurled wholesale
scorn and infamy upon their heads—when he spoke of
their ‘‘supreme and besotted ignorance and’ worse than
heathenish bigotry” he rose to such an altitude of invective
that; few who had awakened his wrath could remain, and
even the ordinary listener felt a shivering awe and dread.

‘he second time was in a strictly legal encounter, and
with foemen worthy of his steel :

One of his antagonists’ he (figuratively) held up by his
long hair, so that all could see him, and painted him in
such colors as made even the fiends appear more just and
pure—made him act the most vile monster possible with
humanity—cut so deeply that the audience could not but
pity. Turning from the fierce wirlwind of denunciation, he
addressed the other in low and measured tones—reminded
him of his position in the Church, and saying: “I have no
words for him. The reproof must come from a higher
source, even from the God he pretends to worship,” he
fixed him with his eyes, and opening a bible read the’most
bitterly appropriate chapter contained between its lids.

They had raised the lion, and having felt the full weight
of his claws and power of his teeth, paid dearly for their
attack.

I know it was customary to compare John J. Brown with
Justin Butterfield in this respect, but I never thought the
comparison tenable. Butterfield was a man of undoubted
20 JOHN J. BROWN.

power of retaliation, and legal knowledge, but he lacked
(in my judgment) the keenness of Brown. Were I to in-
dulge in a simile, I should say, that, while from his heavy
blows he might have been Richard, his rival was the Sala-
din—the one would crush with a gigantic battle-axe, the
other cut to the heart with a blade of Toledo temper.

As to legal requirements, John J. Brown stood high.
His mind was a treasure-house as was shown during the
‘brief time he taught a law school. Had his natural tem-
perament been different—had his health been better—had
life been more roseate, he would, as the years rolled on, have
made for himself a high and honored name. But he never
mingled much with his fellows; and it was only when inter-
ested and awakened in the argument of a case that he re-
vealed what he truly was—only then that the shadow was
ever lifted from heart and brain. :

The particulars of his death were not familiar to me. I
have a faint recollection of some mystery shrouding it—-
that his soul found the Nepenthe, the ‘“surcease from sor-
row” otherwise than surrounded by loving hearts. Be that
as it might, his life appeared to be a fitful one, and May he
sleep well! More sunny natures have gone before, and
have followed him, but no stronger, no more legal, none
more intense have taken their places in the green tent
“whose curtains never outward swing.” Aye, and in the
younger ranks of his profession who can claim the place he
left vacant? When some one shall write at length the his-
tory of the Bar of Chicago, upon its highest page will be
found the name of John J. Brown. Peace, eternal peace
to his ashes. :
21

RICHARD L. WILSON.

The name of Richard L. Wilson was so long and inti-
mately connected with the Chicago FYournal that it is
familiar as “household words”, not only to the olden time
readers of that paper, but to all who dwelt in the City,
‘County, and it might almost be said, State.

His personal popularity, as well as his political influence,
was widespread and universally admitted, although it was
an impossibility for any one occupying the position he held
to be without enemies. Yet these came from tilts in the
arena of politics far more (if not entirely) than any other
‘cause. For what he thought right he labored manfully—
wielded a caustic pen, and threw hot-shot directly into the
‘camp of the enemy, regardless of the consequences. But
it was the cause, not the individual, he would cripple—the
batteries he would unmask and silence—the rrifle-pits he
would cause to surrender, not the men of which they were
‘composed. He believed the salvation of the country de-
pended upon Henry Clay and the Whig Party; and it
would have been very difficult for a “ trumpet-tongued
angel” to have convinced him to the contrary, for his was
a positive nature.

To those who stood out of the reach of the flying splin-
ters and débris, it was amusing to see how he would de-
molish the long “leaders” of his antagonists with a few
words. As a writer of short, pithy, pointed paragraphs I
never knew his equal among the Chicago editorial fraterni-
ty. This was his forte, and in it he resembled PRENTICE,
of the Louisville Fournal, more, than any other of his day.
22 RICHARD L. WILSON.

If grape-shot, and canister, and shrapnel were fired by
broadsides, he answered with a single shot from a well-
aimed rifled gun, which caused more havoc than all their
noise and wholesale missiles. ‘Grandpa Dutch” might fire
column after column of “double-leaded” matter at his
head, and “ Dick” would send back three lines that.would
drive even “Banks! Banks! BANKS!” from the brain of
the old gentleman, for a time at least.

In this, more than any other way, he made his editorial
power felt, though he was sometimes tempted to indulge in
it to excess, with regard to the Democrat, and its elongated
proprietor, and laughingly own that he might as well have
attempted to perforate the thick skin of a rhinoceros with. °
mustard seed. It was, however, a favorite pastime with all
the knights of the quill of the day—did no harm—served
as a safety valve, and “Long John” continued to wax fat
and rich and carry the Congressional district in his breeches
pocket the same as before.

Save for these pointed squibs that generally pierced
through the armor of his antagonist as if it had been but
silken folds, Mr. Wilson (to the best of my knowledge):
indulged but little in authorship, though famous for writ-
ing toasts, and good ones, for public dinners. The only:
instance of his “book making” that came under my obser-
vation was “Short Ravelings from a Long Varn”—a story.
of Spanish life and adventure, and even that, I believe,
was “licked into shape” by another. But Mr. Wilson
furnished the data, supervised, and was entitled to the lion’s
share of the credit.

As I have already stated, long articles were not either
his forte or his propensity. His spirit was too restless for
such drudgery. It was with him aim and fire. He could
not patiently still-hunt—could not follow a long trail Ind-
lan-like to secure a scalp. His nature was too ardent—he
leaped over boundaries too rapidly for any such plodding,
and if an enemy he was an open one. Every fibre of his
RICHARD L. WILSON. 23

soul would have scorned lurking in ambush, striking with-
out giving an opportunity of defense, stabbing from behind
the back in the dark. Such things were altogether foreign
to his nature. If impulsive he was honorable; if prone to
criticise, just.

Of what his position would have been in the late un-
happy fratricidal struggle no one who knew him will for a
moment question. It could have been but one thing, and
into the side he espoused he would have thrown himself
body and soul. A divided country would never have been
tolerated by him, even in thought. The Union, as he
looked .upon it, was ever to be a unit, and rested upon a
foundation as lasting as time.

His patriotism was shown in the fatal rejoicing that crip-
pled him for the remainder of his life. The news of the
battle of Buena Vista, that sent an electric thrill through
the land, stirred his breast to its lowest depths. He threw
himself into the ranks of those who celebrated the victory
—was the moving and master-spirit; but the premature
explosion of the cannon used left a terrible personal record.
And it showed, too, the iron nerve of the man—a will
almost matchless in firmness—a scorn of physical suffering
unparalelled—a power to endure that was beyond belief.

I was among the first to reach him, after the accident,
having been a looker on at but a little distance. I helped
to carry him into the Sherman House, and, consequently,
know of what I write. To describe his injuries here would
not only be useless, but create doubt. No one, who did
not see him, would believe a man could be so mangled and
live. It was a sight that made many a heart sick, and
many a strong nature grow faint. This was the case with
his regular physician. He attempted the necessary surgery,
shook like an aspen, and was forced to give up the task to
another. And during the lengthy ordeal, one of most
terrible suffering, Mr.. Wilson lay, with compressed lips
—uttered no groan—never spoke of what he was so hero.
24 RICHARD L. WILSON.

ically enduring, save once. As a large, ragged splinter
of the ramrod was being removed from its place under and
intertwisted with the biceps muscles of the right arm, he
said, in answer to a question of a friend: “Yes, that hurts.”
That was all; and, taken as a whole, it was a masterly in-
stance of patient endurance—a literal triumph of mind over
matter. And this same indomitable will and nerve enabled
him to soon again resume his duties; but the injuries ever
after affected him and sapped his life.

Mr. Wilson was a genial companion and a true friend,
was liberal beyond his means when his sympathies were
enlisted, and never stopped to coldly count the cost of a
favor. There was nothing selfish or phlegmatic about him.
Every action sprang from the dictates of a manly-beating
heart, and the faults (if they can justly so be called) that
always cling to such men were attributable to the mental
combination—to the actual necessity of excitement and ac-
tion—to the never letting “I dare not wait upon I would,”
to (in practical life at least) the Napoleonic motto that
—‘“the end justifies the means”— to the more than usual
social element—to a remarkably vivid appreciation of the
humorous—to his peculiar surroundings—to the association
into which he was forced—to the age in which he lived.

Sportsmen of the days of Richard L. Wilson will remem-
ber him with pleasure. He was a keen lover of the gun
and skilful in its use. If prairie chickens arose within rea-
sonable distance, it was bad for the chickens! Had his
early life been different, he would have enjoyed, as only
such enthusiasts can enjoy, living with nature in her wildest
moods and made his mark as hunter, pioneer, even “Indian
fighter,” for fear was not a component part of his being.
Te was the life of the camp fire as he was foremost in
quest of game, and though he never “strung rhymes” had
much of the poetic, and saw all that was beautiful in sky, |
water, woodland, and treeless plain. (limmerings of this
crop out in the little book I have mentioned, and it was
RICHARD L. WILSON. 25

when afar from the haunts of men that it shone the bright-
est, sparkled the most brilliantly, rather than when weary
and chafed by the editorial harness. Then he gave loose
rein to his thoughts, flung aside the rare power of conden-
sation that made his newspaper paragraphs mosaics of
terse pointednes:—indulged freely in anecdote, :nd jest,
and repartee—gave graphic descriptions of hunter’s life
that spiced to perfection the birds broiling upon the glow-
ing coals. ‘Then, also, he showed as he never did at
any other time, the wealth of his imagination, the power (if
trained) to throw off page after page of brilliant matter—to
make a remarkably readable book. ‘That he never did was
often a wonder to his friends. It might have come with
his years (if spared) had it not been for the accident that
made penmanship severe labor, and despite his buoyant
heart and resolute will must have left a legacy of shadows.
That he did not is to be regretted. It could not have been
otherwise than valuable and interesting.

Mr. Wilson was an ardent admirer of and believer in the
destiny of Chicago. He always. predicted for it a bright
and glorious future, and he foresaw something of its great-
ness. Not all—perhaps not one tithe. Who could?
There was no prophetic ken keen enough, no imagination
sufficiently vivid to grasp the possibilities when the terrible
baptism and purification of fire should have been perfect.

Any who foretold what would arise from the ashes would
have been deemed insane. But the'mind of Richard L..
Wilson grasped much of what has been—what will yet be.
He realized the importance of its geographical position—
its immense business resources and activity, and that, sitting
as it did, drinking in the commerce of the chain of lakes
upon one side, and stretching out its. broad arms of prairie
upon the other, it must become great. And in every way
he assisted to its present. This his paper enabled him to
do—for this he labored in season and out of season—for
this he created friends by his personal attractiveness—and

 
26 RICHARD L. WILSON.

for this, if the departed have power to return to the earth
and minister to the wants of the living, his loyal spirit yet
lingers over the city of his love and haunts the inner shrine
of the Chicago Fournal.

 

 

LEWIS G KERCHIVAL.

Probably, véry few of the younger generation in Chicago
have any distinct remembrance of Lewis C. Kerchival.
But such as do must have been impressed by the striking
points in a character that stood out strongly from his fel-
lows.

The elder citizens—those who still linger in green old
age and mpe usefulness, and it is to be hoped with plenty
of this world’s goods, after the great majority of their associ-
ates have passed away, will recall him as “Inspector of the
Port” (with commerce that was a laughable burlesque upon
the present), and later as Justice of the Peace, with an of-
fice in the second story of the tumble-down wooden tene-
ment (Clark’s Hardware Store), on the north-east corner of
Lake and Clark Streets, and directly facing the famous
“Saloon Building,” a history of which would be a history of
almost all the public meetings, and gatherings, and socie-
ties of early Chicago. ,

Lewis C. Kerchival rises before me to-day as distinct a$
when I used to meet him in the streets, straight as a pine,
unbending as an oak, defiant and tough as a hickory; with
his tall, muscular form, his grizzled hair, blue, brass-but-
toned coat, and his soldier-like bearing, proud as Julius
Ceesar and imperious as the Czar; always neatly dressed,
with cleanly-shaved face and—a rara avis in those muddy
times—well-polished boots.
LEWIS C. KERCHIVAL. 27

Should I compare him with any other well-known char-
acter it would bé Andrew Jackson. The mental calibre of
the men, as well as their AAysigue, was much the same.
Each knew and did not shrink from ‘taking the responsi-
bility” of any act they thought right—had no dread of, per-
haps never even gave a thought to the consequences. ‘The
“by the Eternal” of the President was the animus of the
citizen, and I often fancied (as did others) that they were
very alike in looks.

The hair of Col. Kerchival was a true index of his charac-
ter. It was kept cut short, and every “particular one” of
the dense growth stood stiffly, savagely erect, without de-
pending upon, and as if scorning the support of, the others;
and had an: individuality of its own—-had a gladiatorial
presence and a challenge to combat. So, too, was it with
the man. He appeared to snuff the battle from afar, like
an old war-horse, and had the most sublime contempt for
those who did not agree with him. There was something
grand in his attitude, whether right or wrong, though it is’
very much to be doubted if he ever admitted the possibility
of’ the latter. That would have been a human weakness,
of which he could never have believed himself guilty. What
he thought and said must be right, and it was impudence of
the most gross character in any to question. , And if the
disputant happened to be young! Ah! then Lear was
rivalled. But his passion was like

‘*A full ‘hot horse, who being allowed his way,
Self-mettle tires him.”

And he soon became the calm gentleman again; for under
all. the heat there was a tender, almost womanly heart, and
the eyes that one moment flashed baleful lightnings une
the next be misty with genuine tears.
Of the more than iron will, memory will reproduce many
examples to the minds of those no longer young, whose
_ eyes kindly rest upon these pages. A few are so strikingly
28 LEWIS C. KERCHIVAL.

characteristic of the man that I cannot refrain from giving
them place. And I do so the more willingly as one 1n-
stance proves beyond all cavil his inward, native goodness,
no matter how warped at times, and a determination for
the right.

The habits of Mr. Kerchival, in the matter of drinking,
had not been good. It was the crying sin of the era—the
most serious blight upon the escutcheon of the fair young
City. His indulgences had grown upon him. Inebriety
became the rule rather than the exception, and a speedy
and dishonored grave appeared to be his inevitable doom,
unless there was a radical change. And it came when least
expected by his friends. He decided to drink no more—
and instantly stopped. Severe sickness followed, as a natu-
ral sequence to the sudden lack of stimulant; and when a
physician prescribed and held the “poisoned cup” to his
lips, and told him he must drink if he would live,-the old
Roman dashed it aside, and vowed “he would die before he
tasted a single drop’—and he kept his word.

Subsequently he became the president of the Temperance
Society, and one night, when a meeting was in progress,
some, one brought forward a negro to sign the pledge, his
face flamed with indignation, he declared the meeting ad-
journed, and rushed from the room. It was touching him
in a very tender spot. His hatred for a colored person was
too intense for him to admit the slightest association. In-
deed, it was laughable how peculiarly sensitive he was upon
the subject, and his loathing was so great that had he then
(his views became somewhat softened at a later date) been
convinced that that particular race would have been ad-
mitted into heaven, he would have considered it a good
and sufficient reason and ample justification for going in
the contrary direction.

‘The same imperative will—the same strong, overmaster-
ing prejudice controlled his judicial acts and legal decisions,
even more than he was himself awarc. Though I believe
eee

LEWIS C. KERCHIVAL. 29

him to have been honest to his heart’s core, yet there was
an irresistible bias that sometimes ran away with his better
judgment, and bordered upon the ludicrous, and he made
law quite a different affair from that laid down in the stat-
ute book and held to os sound by higher authority. I give
an instance: .

It was claimed, and justly, that active firemen were ex-
empt from street tax, and custom, at least, had made it
binding. But “Squire Kerchival” argued otherwise. He
permitted a suit to be brought against one of the “fire fight-
ters” for the amount, and sternly overruled the exemption.
Then the defense produced three of the most prominent
physicians, who swore point blank, that on account of bod-
ily injuries, the defendant was not able to work upon the
streets and consequently not liable. There was nothing in
rebuttal. But “the Squire” ignored the testimony entirely.
He had made up his mind and that was sufficient—said
“he had seen the defendant dance half the night, and any
one who was able to dance was able to work on the streets,
and he’d be (well, say blessed!) if he shouldn’t either do it
or pay!”— vowed he wouldn't permit an appeal, and forth-
with issued an execution.

But nothing came of it; and his books, if now to be
found, will reveal the judgment unsatisfied. Sober second-
thought had shown him the impracticability and absurdity
of his course, and I presume he laughed as heartily as did
others -at his high-handed defiance of law and testimony.
It was simply one of the furious storms that the soonest
clear the sky.

Next to, if not equal with his hatred of ‘our brothers
carved in ebony” was that of dogs. He had the most mor-
tal antipathy to them. ‘They never entered into his con-
ception’ of Paradise. In that particular, if in no other, he
was “close communion,” and would have cut off the best of
his friends among the Red Men from the happy hunting-
urcunds, for their love of and close intimacy with their use-
30 LEWIS c. KERCHIVAL,.

ful four-footed companions. ‘This feeling was no secret,
and it was made use of to annoy the old gentleman, though
truth to tell more from the fun that would arise out of it
than malice.

The prime mover was Doctor (he might not fancy
having his name given to the public, so I’ll e’en whisper it
very lowly and confidentially upon the solemn pledge that
you'll “never tell nobody”)—- Doctor Max Myers. He
caused an advertisement to be inserted in one of the
papers, that Squire Kerchival was very anxious to purchase
a good dog, and requested any who had one for sale to
bring it to his office between the hours of nine and twelve
upon the following day. And such a collection as ap-
peared, mirabile dictu!’ Dutch men, and dutch women,
and dutch girls, and dutch boys from the neighborhood of
“Lill’s Brewery”; Milesian men, women, girls, and boys
from the North, South, East, and West, and ragged juve-
niles from every alley. And dogs? No race appeared
unrepresented. The “School Section” (old settlers will
understand the meaning of the term) were in full force,
terriers, Newfoundland, pointers, setters, hounds, bulldogs,
“Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart,” big, little, useful, worth-
less were all there, and the office was taken by storm, and
the street crowded, and a human and canine Babel reigned
and Bedlam was outdone!

But the reception they received! It beggars all the power
of description, let imagination run riot ever so madly; the
motley crowd was hurried, driven, hustled, not very gently,
down the stairs amid the wildest jargon and carnival of
denunciation, and curses, and vows of vengence from Teu-
tonic, Irish and—that was the feather that crushed the
spine of the camel—colored lips; the door locked, and the
scales of Justice that day left untended. And “wrathy”
indeed was the Squire when he found it was a practical
joke—blew hot and blew cold—but when the waves had
lashed their fury out he bore no malice.

 
LEWIS C. KERCHIVAL. 31

Despite his peppery temper, Lewis C. Kerchival—Colonel
Kerchival—was a man to be respected. None of us are
without faults, and his came from natural organization—
from the want perhaps of proper training when young—
from his head rather than heart. He was of the ancient
regimé—had the manners of a “gentleman of the old
school”—the will that would have caused him to march
triumphantly to the stake for'a principle, and the nerve to
endure torture without a groan. He was as much a part of
his times as the buildings—has left a name that is indis-
solutly connected with Chicago—was true as steel in his
friendships and when the sod was placed over him, many
of what the world called “better men” would have been
less missed.

URIAH P. HARRIS.

Nature created Uriah P. Harris for a fireman, and I am
inclined to the belief that his playthings in the cradle must
have been miniature trumpets, spanners, and wrenches, and
that the first use he made of his limbs was to “run with the
machine,” and of his hands, to hold a pipe and a butt!
This may seem an idle delusion of the fancy, but the after-
life of the man would appear to prove the theory.

Mr. Harris, I am quite confident, owed his nativity to
New York City. During his younger days he was a mem-
ber, and we may be certain an active one, of engine number
27, “Old North River,” and in the rough school of the Vol-
unteer department, the constant calls for energy and cour-
age, and the not unfrequent difficulties with rival companies,
he learned, and learned well, the stern lessons that fitted
him for his after career.
32 URIAH P. HARRIS.

Upon his arrival in Chicago, he joined “Osceola, num-
ber 3,” then having a house upon the river bank on the
north side, at the foot of. Dearborn Street—the “Kid Glove
Company,” as its enemies dubbed it. It was composed for
the most part of the “solid men” of the North Division
(with a few from the South side), and represented much
wealth, and the very first of social standing; a distinctive
feature it retained in a great degree to the very ‘last, al-
though the first members bore away the palm in these re-
spects, and the names to be found upon its (then) roll stood
and stand to-day as high as any in the city, and the paid
department do no nfore severe work than was done by the
“hand engines” then—if they equal it.

‘The coolness, the power to control and direct others, the
far-sightedness, the quickness of decision, the knowledge of
the fantastic moods of the flames, the scope and force of
water, the best point of attack, the surest way to defeat, all
belonged to Mr. Harris, and he was dowered with the
strength and stamina to defy the excesses of heat, and cold,
and exposure, inseparable to such a life.

All will remember him, for he was a part of the new as
well as the old Chicago. His figure was tall and presence
commanding—a shade too heavy in his later years for the
arduous duty, but never shirking it. The strongest, the ab-
sorbing passion of his life was to be a fireman. ~It was his
beau ideal of perfect manhood—the achme of human bliss—
the highest aim of his ambition. No general ever felt more
happy than he in marshalling his forces against the “‘de-
vouring element”—none were more jubilant in victory.

But it must be remembered that his was no common
conception of what constituted a true fireman. It had
been the study of his lifetime—he had consecrated himself
to it, as it were, and the one who reached his mark had to
combine all -the elements of daring, even to recklessness,
coolness, amid the most trying circumstances, trained judg-
ment, a quick eye, a firm hand, untiring muscle, an iron
URTAH P. HARRIS. 33

constitution, to know by intuition what was right, and the
nerve to carry it out, unheeding the clamor of the populace
or the intermeddling of those who held guasi power in
municipal affairs,

That Uriah P. Harris combined in a remarkable degree
these rare qualities, his repeated election to the office of
Chief Engineer (and no more important one can be ad-
duced), I think, conclusively proves. In this even the
outcry of party was strangled, and though there were plenty
of seekers after the “‘loaves and fishes” connected with it,
yet to the praise of Chicago be it recorded, the better judg-
ment permitted no swelling and fury of political waves to.
turn them from what was believed their best interests and
the most certain means of safety. The fiat was then, what-
ever it may be now, that life and property, when weighed
against fire, was above and paramount to all party feeling.

I think, none will question the ability with which Mr.
Harris managed fires. And it must be taken into consider-
ation, how often and much he was crippled for want of nec-
essary machines and an adequate supply of water. Human
muscle is not as tireless as steam, human nature not as reli-
able as steel, human passions have no safety-valve that-can
be chained down and control them, humanity is ever subject
to the overthrowing powers of jealousy, envy, malice, and in-
subordination. And all these were against him, at least in
the early part of his career, and I remember well a remark
from his lips, when the change came from the Volunteer de-
partment and breath of fire, lungs of steam and sinews of
iron were substituted; when horses did the heavy labor of
drawing and machinery of working—when men arrived at
the scene of destruction without being already tired out.

“T tell you,” he said, “steamers don’t get exhausted or
drunk, and can be depended on every time.”

This was immediately after what was then termed “a
great fire” (ah! how fearfully the memory of it was blotted
out at a later day, when a second Sodom swept away acres

°
34 URIAH P. HARRIS.

of buildings, and in a breath crumbled even the most sub-
stantial to ashes or melted them as wax in a thrice-heated
furnace!) in Lake street (on the north side of the street
between Clark and Dearborn), when tired nature strove to
sustain itself, by stimulants, and there was left behind a sad,
sad record of destruction and death—heavy pecuniary
losses and monumental marbles in the graveyard.

Mr. Harris was a man of intense feelings and strong pas-
sions. They were the requisite fuel to drive him on in his
chosen career, just as much as coal and wood are to the
locomotive. Without them he could never have been what
he was. But passion with him was no long-lingering feel-
ing. It would have been impossible for him to have
“nursed wrath to keep it warm.” He was too great-
hearted for that. Beside his inherent love of mirth—his
rollicking nature would never have permitted such a thing.
His laugh was most hearty and contagious; his play bois-
terous, and the very corner-stone of his being was socia-
bility. Condemned to a hermit life—sundered from genial
companionship, he would have been the most unhappy of
mortals and not long known to the living. Asa Crusoe,
he would not have survived to see a “Friday,” whether
day or man! Generous he was to a fault—-far too much
so for his own good in a pecuniary point, and was some-
thing of a gourmand in eating, while exceedingly dainty in
taste and not to be charged with gluttony. Like many
men of his mould, he was tender*hearted— unusually so.
Charity with him was more than a name—was not simply
a spasm, but an ever-living and breathing reality, and tears
in. the eyes of woman, no matter who she might be, ever
caused his own to flow.

Mr. Harris was perhaps too much of the order of Sans
Souci, to have claimed the motto of Bayard, but to that can
be attributed much of the personal popularity which, in
connection with his ability in his chosen profession, en-
abled him so long to retain his high position as Chief.
URIAH P. HARRIS. 35

His friends were very warm and lasting ones. He threw
his whole soul into his intercourse, as indeed he did into
everything else—was fond even to extremes of the amuse-
ments that go very far toward relieving the dullness of life
—to compensate for its trials. A good horse had in him a
good friend and protector, and the drama an ardent ad-
mirer. Indeed he was enthusiastic concerning it, and
chess might almost have been called a passion. And,
though the fact is probably not widely known, he was quite
literary in his tastes.

His faults, whatever they may have been, sprang from
‘an excess of warmth in his nature, from too much carbonic
acid, I might say, in his organization, from impulse not to
be resisted, from the whip and spur of too rapidly bound-
ing blood—never from premeditated wrong. No one ever
yet heard so hearty and spontaneous a: laugh come from a
villian’s throat.

But whatever his errors, the mantle of that broad charity,
with which he ever so liberally shrouded others, should be
extended to him. His virtues counterbalance them, and it
has been well written, ‘‘none are perfect, no not one.” He
has passed “beneath the veil,” but will not soon be for-
gotten—cannot be. As long as there is a Chicago Fire
Department, he will be remembered with pleasure. What
it now is (without detracting one iota from the fame of
others), he assisted greatly to make it, and no true fireman
will hesitate to lay a wreath of asphodel upon his resting
place.
36

HENRY B. CLARKE.

No one among the olden time hunters will ever pass the
grave of Henry B. Clarke save reverently and with uncov-
ered head.

Mr. Clarke was, de facto, one of the “old settlers.” About
forty years ago he erected his (then) famous mansion,
dwarfing all others, on the South side of the river, and
equalled only by that of William B. Ogden on the north—
of which it was the rival. Its cost was some ten thousand
dollars—a mere bagatelle now, but at the time was looked
upon with alarm, and designated by many names, the most
gentle of which was, perhaps, “folly.” The building was.
fashioned after, and to a great degree a reproduction of,
that of the first Mayor of Chicago (William B. Ogden,
A.D. 1837), with broad, pillared porch; inviting, comfort-
able, substantial, and a marked object in the almost wilder-
ness of prairie.

One can scarcely conceive, at this day, the enterprise
and energy necessary to successfully carry out such an
undertaking, when the city was yet in its swaddling clothes.
(with only about two thousand inhabitants), the country
unsettled, the trail of the Indians yet unobliterated, their
corm growing at “Wolf’s Point,” their camp fires nightly
burning, and their war cry scarcely stilled; when skilled
labor was difficult to command, and when much of the
interior wood-work had to be transported from the State of
New York. Indeed, everything taken into consideration,
it might well have been looked upon as Herculanean labor,
and one bordering even upon insanity. But the South side
HENRY B. CLARKE. 37°

gloried in it, as they did in everything that tended, in the
least, to break the somewhat arrogant power of the North,
and lessen its prestige.

When Mr. Clarke builded his home it fronted to the
East, and was sentinelled by tall Lombardy poplars—strik-
ing objects amid such surroundings. It was distant a mile
and one-half from the nearest neighbor, was in a streetless
plain, and to be reached only by the road along the lake
shore—the highway from the Wabash. And it is recorded
as an instance of his goodness of heart, and ‘thoughtfulness
for the welfare of others, that he every night hung out a
lantern to guide belated and perplexed travellers, and save
them from the treacherous and almost bottomless sloughs.

The location of the house was near the scene—a trifle to
the south, if I remember correctly—of the massacre of
1812, and amid the mimic mountains of ever-shifting sand

“rested the bones of the soldiers ruthlessly slain by Indian
treachery and—why should it not be written?—by the
‘obstinacy and incompetency of white leaders.

Not here, perhaps, is the proper place to discuss the
merits of that fatal evacuation of Fort Dearborn; but a
decade and a half of years since investigation of the. facts
(after gathering the most authentic information possible)
forced this conclusion: the massacre was the result of self-
‘opinion, suspicion, and jealousy of inferiors, the destruction
of stores, the want of knowledge of the Indian character
and contempt of their power. But whatever the cause, its
history was written in blood.

Mr. Clarke combined shrewdness with energy of char-
acter. He was a partner of William Jones and Byram
King (notable names in the early history of the Garden
City) in the Hardware business (on South Water Street),
and a director in the Chicago Branch of the State Bank.
In his later years he withdrew from active business associa-
tions, and devoted his time to the cultivation of the soil and
to the sport his very soul loved—that of hunting; having
238 HENRY B. CLARKE.

for companions such men as D. D. Stanton, Harvey
Blakesley, L. C. Hugunin (“Len”), Ashley Gilbert, and
others.

Judging from his treatment of me, and from what I heard
from others, Mr. Clarke must have been a remarkably
genial companion—one with command of self and one
possessing the traits of character that make men loved.
while living, and when gone, remembered with tender re-
gret. Certainly his friends were warm ones, though I fancy
the number admitted to the very hearth-stone of his heart
was not large. But those who enjoyed the privilege re-
mained firm to the last—till, in 1849, the blight and mil-
dew and doom of cholera fell upon the the City and swept
him away.

He was a man of strong feelings, and remembered injus-
tice very keenly. His early life had been passed amid the
scenes that most truly “tried men’s souls,” for the business.
battle of those years was not what it is now—the means of
transportation but as a pony express to the countless rail-
way cars—or, as the speed of a tortoise to that of a grey-
hound. Money was scarce and hard to command; credit
sat weeping amid the ruined altars of speculation, and
when ‘the crash of 1837 came, Mr. Clarke did not escape
being crippled. This, and subsequent struggles, I think,
must have somewhat distilled the gall of bitterness into his.
cup of life, and ever after shadowed it. But he was the
possessor of a brave heart and high moral courage. The
latter was shown upon his death-bed. He calmly faced.
the inevitable, gave minute directions about his temporal
affairs, and designated the spot of his burial—that he
should be placed beneath a spreading tree upon his own
ground, and not consigned to the cheerless graveyard where.
the drifting sand hid all trace one day, and the next per-
mitted the wind to blow upon the unearthed coffin!

I know not if tree or grave remains now, so completely
has the city swallowed up the surroundings—so much has
HENRY B. CLARKE. 39 ,

the vandal hand of “improvement” obliterated old and
cherished land-marks. But I do know that in former days
the grave of Henry B. Clarke was held in reverence by
old settlers and huntsmen, and each in passing laid (at least
mentally) a flower upon the grassy mound.

No man in whom the love of dogs and horses is as
strongly developed, as was the case in Mr. Clarke, can ever
be otherwise than warm-hearted and full of tenderness;
but if, at times, bitterness fell from his lips, it was but the
natural out-cropping of the trials through which he had
passed. But it was a growth of tares that could never up-
root the wheat—of weeds that were held in check by blos-
soms of humanity. Had he been thrown upon the extreme
frontier he would have been foremost in the ranks of pio-
neers; had he been with Boone and Simon Kenton they
would have had a brother who would have won an equal
name, and never shirked trial or flinched danger. If more
lapped in City life he would have sighed for gun and for
freedom, and the leaves of the ledger would be irksome,
no matter what the profits. As it was, his later life was a
happy medium between the two extremes. He lived upon
neutral ground between civilization and wilderness—could
turn in a moment from one to the other, and when not
actually engaged in agriculture his face was more often seen
at the Calumet and the O’Plain ‘than in Lake Street, and
his gun more often heard on prairie and river than his voice
upon the public square. For all his ambition in house-
building he loved nature, primeval, better than right-angled
* streets and piles of brick and mortar and believing, to the
full, in the creed that “God made the country and man
made the town,” he gladly turned his back upon

“‘ The cold, heartless city, with its forms
And dull routine; its artificial manners,
And arbitrary rules; its cheerless pleasures,
And mirthless masqueing.”

‘
40 HENRY B. CLARKE.

Mr. Clarke belonged to the “old stock” that are rapidly
fading away from the sight of men—but not to be forgotten.
That can never be. Their names are written as with pen-
cils of steel upon tablets of marble—written upon all of
Chicago as indelibly as those of the Indians are upon head-
land, river, prairie, and waterfall. Every thought of the
past brings them back—repeoples the earth again with the
forms long since laid down to their silent rest. A few—a
very few remain, with the furrows plowed by years upon
their faces, and “the snow that falls but never melts”
lodged in their scant hair; and it is a duty, as it should be
a pleasure, not only for their children and children’s ‘chil-
dren, but of all in Chicago to gather and garner all possi-
ble reminiscences against the time when their history will
be more valuable than letters of gold.

There was a manliness about these old Argonauts—a
self-dependence, an iron nerve, and unbending front of
which we see but little now. Perhaps it is not called out.
They were men to be relied on in every emergency, and
among them Henry B. Clarke stood high-placed, and, as far
as I ever knew, with unsullied character. He never (to the

                                                 

‘striking commentary upon some that might be named, and
on that very account left a purer record. He never could
have been a sycophant for place or power—a Janus for
loaves and fishes; and while he might, by so doing, have
* left more property, what he did was unmortgaged to politi-
cal corruption and broken promises. yom his life and
those who stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the ranks,

the “rings” of to-day may learn a lesson it would be for.

their benefit to ponder and remember, if they aim for a
higher and nobler manhood. Aye, it would be well for the
younger business men of Chicago to go to such graves as
that of Henry B. Clarke and learn wisdom from their dust
and ashes.

ee
41

SAMUEL J. LOWE.

In the first Directory of Chicago (Robert Fergus, Compiler
and Publisher, A.D. 1839), can be found the name of Sam-
uel J. Lowe, “High Constable and Deputy-Sheriff,” show-
ing that he was a resident at an early day, but J have no
means of deciding the exact time. He was twice elected
Sheriff (1842 and 1844), and subsequently Justice of the
Peace, an office, I think, he held at the time of his decease.
He was twice married, and a number of his children still
survive.

Mr. Lowe was of English parentage—and he was born, if
recollection serves me rightly, in the mother country; and,
though thoroughly Americanized in feelings, retained some
of the traits that mark the subjects of Queen Victoria to
the end. This, however, was only in manner, accent, and
idiom. There was nothing of worship for the crown re-
maining. And—if indeed he had ever been much tinct-
ured in that direction, which is exceedingly doubtful in my
mind—all of early prejudice, and love, and reverence for
royalty had been obliterated. He was a democrat at heart
as well as in name—a strong partisan; and the “divine
right,” according to his belief, was vested in the people
and not in kings—the vox populi paramount to the single
will of man or woman. In fact he had little patience with
any who boasted the superiority of England in any respect,
and could scarcely tolerate them at his own is although
one of the most hospitable of men.

One instance of this came under my own immediate
observation.
42 SAMUEL J. LOWE.

He, like all Englishmen (and are not “Yankees” the
same if blessed with the slightest epicurean taste?) wes
fond of roast beef, and he was a good judge of the article
in its primitive state, and knew when it was properly
cooked. At dinner one day, at his house, were some gen-
uine specimens of the newly arrived John Bull—sex, mascu-
line; species, cockney—who, ignoring the etiquette and po-
liteness of the occasion, indulged in egotistical bombast as
to their native country, and were loud in condemnation of
everything this side of the water. Mr. Lowe heard them
in silence, though rising color told how unpalatable was
the theme to him. Under other circumstances he might
not have borne so patiently. In the role of host he was
fettered, and endeavored again and again to turn the tide
of conversation, but without success. And everything
came in for censure, from the President and Cabinet down
even to food, and the wholesale declaration was made (and
that in the face of as prime a piece of beef as Straun ever
fed and “Bill Gallagher” ever butchered, and which it
would have been very difficult to duplicate in any market
in the world) “that there was nothing fit to heat in this ’ere
blarsted, country,” or words to that effect.

Quick almost as a lightning flash the hot blood surged to
the very temples of Mr. Lowe. Not only his adopted
country, but himself and his table, had been insulted, and
by those partaking of his kindly proffered hospitality; and
before second-thought came to his rescue he answered and
asked: ‘Why, then, in the name of heaven, didn’t you stay
in England?”

That he regretted it afterward I know, although the re-
proof was richly merited, and he felt he had lowered himself
to their level. However it mattered little. They were too
thick-skinned to feel his virtuous indignation, and if the
shaft was felt at all, consoled themselves with a double
allowance of the beef that “was not fit to eat,” and which
was such a toothsome morsel as they had, probably, never
feasted unon before in their lives.

 
SAMUEL J. LOWE. 43

And here (though out of place) I cannot refrain from in-

'' troducing an anecdote of Henry G. Hubbard, as it bears

directly upon the subject—he sharing with Mr. Lowe his
disgust of such ill-breeding and ignorant assumption, and
especially as ig was first told me by the latter.

Mr. H. G. Hubbard was dining at the City Hotel (trans-
formed from stores by the Hon. Francis C. Sherman “be-
cause they were built too far from trade!” and subsequently
rebuilded and rebaptised as the “Sherman House”) with
some of his friends, when a party of English (not English
gentlemen and ladies—very far from it) who were seated
opposite indulged in-loud-mouthed vituperation of all things
American. Mr. Hubbard listened quietly for a time and
then with straight face, but eyes twinkling with mischief,
began to describe to one of his friends (but intended
for other ears) the severe trials of the early settlers of Chi-
cago—how they had to go out upon the prairie, and dig
under the snow for old buffalo bones, left by the Indians
the previous summer, to make soup to sustain their hives,
and much more to the same effect.

‘“’Orrible! ‘orrible!” was the comment of the foreigners.

Mr. Hubbard seeing that the bait had been swallowed,
enlarged his stories, and as the vulgarity of ‘‘Western peo-.
ple” had been harped upon, wound up by calling aloud to-
the waiter who was serving pudding:

“Here, bring me about a quart of that poultice and put
on plenty of the ointment!”

That was enough for John Bull. They left in a hurry,.
and Chicago, as reported by them, must have had a hard.
name. But could they have heard the explosions of laugh-
ter that followed, and have known Henry G. Hubbard as.
did the others at the table, they might have been a trifle:
sceptical as to the information they had put down as “per-
fectly reliable!”

That Mr. Lowe possessed more than usual qualifications
for Sheriff will not be questioned by any one familiar with.
44 SAMUEL J. LOWE.

his character. He had firmness, coolness under the mHOSE
trying circumstances, a quick, working, and decisive mind;
was fertile in expedients and endowed with honesty that
nothing could shake.

If specific proof of the latter were needed it could be
found in his being among the first, if not the very first,
selected to guard the specie while in ¢ransitu from the
Government Land Office at Chicago to St. Louis. Of the
danger, as well as the responsibility of the undertaking, at
such an early day, when the means of conveyance was
simply stage coaches, often floundering through muddy
prairie and “stuck” in muddy sloughs, those living in
Illinois at the time will need no testimony. Organized
bands of counterfeiters, horse thieves, and desperate men,
versed in crime of every character, abounded. The “Reg-
ulators” had at best been only “scotched,” not killed. For
every head of the serpent crushed another was reared.
The “Davenport murderers” were in their glory — the
“ Driscolls” flourishing and ‘banded for evil with their
brothers in infamy throughout the wide west. Every grove
from Inlet and Paw Paw to the Wabash might have been
said to contain caches of stolen goods and horses, the
cellar of many a tavern, the bones of murdered men, and
the “Hubbard Trail” was not unmarked by blood. In
every respect it needed men of inflexible nerve and the
most sterling honesty, for such an undertaking as the trans-
portation of such a tempting lure, and to be among the
number chosen was “proof as strong as holy writ” that the
man was looked upon by his fellows as the right one in the
right place.

And so it was with Samuel J. Lowe in all his business
transactions, whether public or private. If as Justice of the
Peace he ever erred in giving judgment, the fault arose not
from a want of determination to do right at what ever cost
—no matter who was to be mulcted, but from a, failure to
comprehend the intricate manipulation of keen-witted law-
SAMUEL J. LOWE. 45

yers, the wilful perversion of evidence, the almost impossi-
bility to draw the line of demarkation’ between truth and
falsehood. But he never was blinded by gold. Had he
been, he would have died a richer man—have left per-
chance a more towering marble aBeNe his grave, but a less.
shining record upon it.

At the time he was Sheriff the office was the reverse of a
bed of roses. It was not a very lucrative one—the jail was.
an old log building—eternal vigilance was truly the price
of the safety of the prisoners—the city had police that were
little better than a farce—was a chosen refuge for scamps.
—rail-roads were in their infancy—the State Prison was at
Alton, and sentenced men had to be taken thither by
stage, with daring confederates watchful and ever ready to
aid them to escape, even at the cost of bloodshed; the
journey was long—the roads (spring and fall) muddy, run-
ning through a sparcely settled country, and the price for
their transportation did not admit a plethora of guards.
But the record of Samuel J. Lowe challenges the assertion
that he did not ever-faithfully keep watch and ward—that
he failed to safely deliver, within the grim walls of Alton,
every one entrusted to his care.

The starting of a lot of prisoners for State’s Prison, as
then manipulated, would be a curiosity in the Garden City
now. Nearly opposite the jail (on Randolph Street, be-
tween Clark and LaSalle) stood the old, smoke and dirt
begrimmed shop of “Jake Lower, Blacksmith.” (I give
the name from memory and spell it phonetically, and may
be wrong in both, though I think not.) When the time
came for departure, the stages of Frink and Walker were
drawn up before the apology for a prison, the doomed men
brought out handcuffed and with heavy sackles upon their
ancles. Then “Jake” appeared upon the scene and rivetted
a bar of iron from one of the double fastenings to the
other, and the men were bundled into the stage and whirled
away to punishment under the care of keepers, the crack-
46 SAMUEL J. LOWE.

ing of the driver’s whip and the shouts and cheers of the
gamins. .

In this connection, I might add that his official duty
forced him to be present at and take part in the execution
of John Stone for the murder of Mrs. Thompson (July to,
1840), and, that, though the circumstances were particu-
larly atrocious—the doom a just one—the culprit hardened
and ribald—yet the inner heart of Mr. Lowe would gladly
have turned him aside from seeing the death agony, even
while his high sense of duty led to unflinchingly stand upon
the scaffold.

The love of his adopted country was very strong in Mr.
Lowe. It was shadowed forth during the Mexican war,
and had he lived at the time of the “late unpleasantness”
he would have thrown all his influence into the scale for
the Union, and given liberally of his means. At one time
(in the City of New York) I believe he was a member of a
military organization, and his tastes ran strongly in that
direction.

Circumstances that could not be avoided, duties and
family cares that must ever be paramount in the heart of
any true man, kept him from following the bent of his
inclination, and going to the Mexican war. But he could
‘compensate for his absence by giving of his children, and
there was no mawkish sensibility about his so doing. Two
at least of them burned to ‘‘revel in the halls of the Mont-
ezumas,” and he bade them ge dnd furnished the means for
horses and all “the pomp and glory of war.”

“But,” said one, “in case our army should be beaten,
driven back, and we forced to retreat, what then?”

“Then,” was the reply, and, though jokingly uttered,
intended in all its soundness, “then, if you come to Chi-
cago, ride through it as fast as you can run your horse, and
‘don’t ever stop where I will see you again!”

And such words were not idle from his lips. With Jack-
son, I take it, he would have indeed stood as a “stone.
SAMUEL J. LOWE. 47

wall”—with his countrymen at Waterloo, he would have
been among the last Wellington would ever have been
called to blush for.

I have spoken of his being a man of nerve, firmness, and
coolness, and am confident he would have walked to the
scaffold rather thap given up a principle. Though far from
being an athlete—not being above the medium size, and
ungifted with any remarkable physical power, yet he never
shrank from an encounter, if necessary, and in more than
one instance, to my knowledge, arrested breakers of the law
who had “whipped out” and defied others. This his own
selfcommand and the rare faculty of controlling and intim-
idating others enabled him to do, and looking back through

the data of memory, I fail to find a single instance where
he resorted to weapons, though the necessities of his situa-
tion sometimes made it obligatory upon him to carry them.
Indeed, I remember to have frequently heard him speak
scornfully of others who did so and made a boast of it,
and no more humane man in the treatment of prisoners
could have been found, eveh while exercising all of firmness
and permitting nothing “but what the law allowed and the
court adjudged.”

Of these things peculiar family associations, and the
entrée of his house at all times and at all hours gave me a
better opportunity than another to judge, for Mr. Lowe was
a modest, reticent man, quiet in his speech and manner,
and I never heard .anything boastful fall from his lips. To
know him, one must have been with him—to have read his
character aright, have watched the details of his~actions,
and sought the mainspring of his motives—have looked at
that which was hidden rather than at that which was re-
vealed. Perhaps—and there are many who so judge of
men—his penmanship was a true index to his character.
It was rather stiff than graceful—precise to Quakerism—
neat to a fault and legible as the cleanest cut type—was, as
might be said, without a blot—was in perfect keeping with

*
48 SAMUEL J. LOWE.

the man. To compare it with the fashionable handwriting
of the present would be to compare the beautiful Roman
simplicity of these pages with the fanciful fonts that are
elaborated almost to unintelligibility—and, if anything Mr.
Lowe detested, it was “flourish.”

In the circle of his associates Mr. Lowe was noted for
his hospitality. A courteous and genial welcome met all
who visited him, and though naturally somewhat retiring,
yet when business cares were thrown aside there were few
more companionable men to be found. He was a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity, and was always a welcome
guest at the St. George and Yorkshire dinners. He was a.
regular attendant, if not a member, of the Episcopal
Church. ‘

Death came in the midst of his usefulness, and while he
was still a young man—came at a time when he could but
illy be spared by his family—came in a terribly painful
manner. He bore all patiently and bravely, and left
behind a name that will be remembered and honored.

Save his own immediate family no one saw his eyes
close, save Darius Knights and myself. It was a trying,
terribly painful scene. His disease was said to have been
the same as that of Napoleon, and the “Hero of St. Helena”
could not have more bravely faced the Destroyer, and, as
far as mortal eyes could judge, with a more trustful heart
and firm belief that for his soul the golden gates were al-
ready ajar.

May we sleep as well when for us the summons comes.
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF SOME OF THE

BPaAKLY OF TLE RS

OF THE

CLTY OF CHICAGO,

WILLIAM H. BROWN.
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.
J. YOUNG SCAMMON.
CHARLES WALKER.
THOMAS CHURCH.

 

 

Bushnell, Whi s me js

CHTLCAGO
FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY,
244-8 ILLINOIS STREET.

1876.

ur
548
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a7

7sg794
2o
HON. WILLIAM H. BROWN.

{ From the Chicago Magazine, March, 1857.]

To write a sketch of some living men which would be truth-
ful and at the same time readable, which shall present their
virtues in due relation to their faults, and as relieved by them,
without injustice to the feelings of the parties concerned, is not
an easy matter.

Some men are, like the head of a certain statesman, of which
the phrenologist could make nothing, because he could find no
“bump” about it—it was symmetrically smooth in every part—
while others exhibit such decided traits of character, that in-
equalities are a matter of necessity. Their virtues and their
failings alike exhibit themselves decidedly, and in natural cor-
respondence with each other.

Mr. Brown, the subject of this sketch, is a man of marked and
decided traits. What he knows, he knows; what he says, he
means; and whatever subject comes before him elicits, without
delay, a plump and square opinion. Such men must of neces-
sity cross somebody’s track, in the course of their lives, and will
come to be somewhat differently regarded by different classes of

eople.
While, therefore, this sketch will endeavor to set forth Mr.
Brown as he is, as far as it goes, it cannot of course enter upon
* such a discussion as would be called for were he not yet moving
among us.

Mr. Brown is a native of the State of Connecticut, and was
born about the beginning of the nineteenth century. His father
was a native of Rhode Island; his profession was that of the
law, which he practiced for some twenty-five years, at Auburn,
N.Y., with decided talent and success, and then removed to the
City of New York, where, a few years since, he died.

The son William, gained his education, as many young men
of his time were accustomed to do, while the country was not
as well supplied with schools of a high grade as at present,
partly in the office of his father, and at various schools; but not
extending it in youth, far beyond what are considered good
business acquirements. He studied law with his father, and
then engaged in its practice with him.

In December, 1818, about the time of his majority, as we infer,
he came to seck his fortune in the farther or extreme West, as it
4 WILLIAM H. BROWN.

then was; and opened a law office in the old French town of
Kaskaskia, in this State. His inducement to select Illinois as
the State of his residence, he declared to be, that it had, in the
summer of that year, adopted a,f7ee Constitution; without which
he would by no means have taken a residence in it. In the
spring of 1819, he was appointed a Clerk of the United States
Court, which office he held for the period of sixteen years.
The seat of government heing removed to Vandalia, and the
law requiring the Clerk of the Court to keep his office at the
Capitol of the State, Mr. Brown followed it thither in Decem-
ber, 1820. He immediately purchased one-half the proprietary
interest in a newspaper then published, and called “ The Lddinois
Intelligencer.” This paper dated back to 1815, and was the first
newspaper ever established in the Territory. Mr. Brown entered
upon its editorial duties, and continued in that connection until
February, 1823. His partner in the paper was Mr. Wm. Berry,
who was a member of the legislature of 1823; which legislature
passed a resolution for a couvention to alter the Constitution of
the State, with a view to the introduction of slavery. The
means, by which this resolution went through the legislature,
were of a very high-handed character, which the reader will
find somewhat illustrated on pages 52-3 of Ford’s History of
Illinois; and in a lecture delivered before the Historical Society
of Chicago, by Mr. Brown.

Mr. Berry voted for this resolution, while Mr. Brown the edi-
tor was against it, and denounced it in such terms as he thought
applicable to the case. Having prepared an article for the next
paper, which exposed the scandalous measures by which the
resolution had been carried through the House of Representa-
tives, and having taken proofs of it, preparatory to its insertion,
these proofs were surreptitiously taken from the office; and
being read by the parties implicated, a storm was at once raised,
such as is not uncommon, even in our day, when this same ques-
tion of slavery is at stake. The usual remedy for such imperti-
nent boldness was at once proposed, vzz.: a mob, which should
‘demolish the office, and send Mr. Brown about other business.
Luckily, Mr. Brown had friends, and his friends had pluck; and
their rally saved the office. The paper containing the awful
exposition appeared; and was deemed such'an indignity to the
august body whose doings had been censured, that a resolution
was adopted citing the author to their bar. To this citation
Mr. Brown declined to answer; giving as his reason, that the
Constitution secured the liberty of the Press: and so the resolu-
tion went over as unfinished business, and the wounded honor
of the House was committed to the tender mercies of the time
for its healing.

The partnership in the Illinois Intelligencer came to an end,
by the sale of Mr. Brown’s interest; and the paper advocated
the couvention—or in other words, the introduction of slavery
WILLIAM H. BROWN. 5

—for the next year. By some reasons, nevertheless, not made
public, the paper was given into other editorial hands, some
eight months before the vote was taken, and, during that time,
did good service in the canvass for freedom.

As Mr. Brown had embarked in the cause of freédom in the
State, and had determined to leave it, should the folly of re-
introducing slavery prevail, he now gave most of his time to
writing and working against that policy; and did much toward
securing the verdict rendered in the 2000 majority which forbid
its establishment; for which we who now dweil here, and our
posterity, will owe him a debt of gratitude and honor.

In December, 1822, the subject of this sketch was married to
Miss Harriet C. Seward, daughter of Col. John Seward, deceased,
then of Montgomery Co., Ill. Mrs. Brown is the mother of four
living sons and one daughter; of whom three are now in active
business, and two in the course of their education.

Mr. Brown removed with his family to Chicago, in October,
1835, having been appointed cashier of a branch of the State
Bank of Illinois, which had been created here in the winter of
1834. This position he had accepted with some reluctance,
under the impression that his previous pursuits had not been of
a kind to give him that knowledge of financial matters required
in the charge of such an institution. In urging upon him the
appointment, one of the principal stockholders remarked, that
he possessed one qualification very necessary: in that he could
say No, as easily as most men could say yes. As soon as the
proper arrangements could be completed, the bank commenced
operations, and continued as the only institution of the kind till
the year 1843.

The Bank prospered well under Mr. Brown’s management,
and might, perhaps, have been prospering yet, had the state of
the country been anywise settled and healthy. But the serious
derangements commencing in 1836, or rather back of that
period, in the financial affairs of the nation, carried away bank,,
and business, Hast and West; and the Hlinois State Bank did
not escape. It suffered great losses, and these, with adverse
legislation, induced the stockholders to wind it up. The Chi-
cago branch suffered with the rest; for real estate was forced
upon it in place of money. Yet, in the aggregate, it was so
managed that the profit and loss would have shown a balance
on the right side.

At the time of Mr. Brown’s arrival in the State, its population
‘was not over 40,000; and none, or next to none, of them lived
north of the present limits of Bond County. When he came to
Chicago, it was a village of about two vears’ growth, and con-
tained abolt 2000 people. All Northern Illinois was a wilder-
ness; and, two years later, the whole north half of the State was
included in one congressional district; and sent Hon. John T.
Stuart, of Springfield, to Congress; electing him over his com-
6 WILLIAM H. BROWN.

petitor, Stephen A. Douglas, who, on that occasion, made his
first appearance on the stage in pursuit of political honors. The
writer of this sketch cast his first vote in Illinois against Mr.
Douglas, at that time, and made one of the five majority which
defeated him. ' 4

In the conduct of such an institution, through times such.as
these, there were two things which it were impossible to secure
together. One was the safety of ,the institution, and the other,
the good-will of all the community. Everybody was in a con-
dition of suffering, and wanted money, with an intensity that
could take no denial; and the very urgency of the want, point-
ed, in no inconsiderable number of cases, to the very reason
which made it unsafe to accommodate them. The Cashier of
a bank must of necessity look to the safety of his trust. If he
is faithful to that, no matter whether no is an easy word to
him or not; he is forced to make the two letters which com-
pose it, current in his institution. Vo, is not a popular word,
with men who wish to borrow money, especially if they wish
to borrow it very much; as those then did, who wanted to
borrow it at all. Mz. Brown’s peculiar qualification already
mentioned perhaps conduced more to the safety of his trust,
than to his popularity for the time being. But integrity and
decision vindicate themselves sooner or later, and he has lost
little in the long run. Indeed the men who supposed them-
selves to suffer from lack of a decision in their favor, would
now often choose him as the very man to take charge of a trust
of their own, had they one, requiring sagacity and decision
united with integrity in its management.

The building, in which the bank was kept, stood at the S.-W.
cor. of LaSalle and South Water Sts.; and is well remembered
by all the oldest residents of the city. It has only disappeared
within the last four or five years.

While the bank was in operation, Chicago was confined prin-
cipally to the vicinity of the river. The dwellings even, did.
not stretch far away from the centre. In the spring of 1835,
a three story brick building, probably 117 Lake street, was
erected, and fiaished in the fall, and theu filled with goods
by Breese and Shepherd. It was the general impression that
the stand was too far from the centre of business, and would
prove a bad speculation.

Mr. Brown has been a professor of religion in connection
with the Presbyterian Church for many years. He sustained
the office of ruling elder in that connection in Vandalia, and
has held the office from 1835, or nearly the entire period of
his residence in this city; and is as well acquainted with eccle-
siastical, as with legal business. He has constantly been a
stanch supporter of his own branch of the church’; and a reli-
able helper in any thing properly claiming his aid in any other
connection.
WILLIAM H. BROWN. 7

The first church edifice of the Presbyterian connection was
erected upon the alley on Clark Street; between Lake and
Randolph, on the West side of the street, (54 Clark street,)
where the firm of 8. H. Kerfoot & Co. are now situated. The
building fronted towards Lake St.; and a large slough run
diagonally through the lot in front of the Church, which, on
rainy Sabbaths, and in wet times, was bridged by benches
from the Church. The writer of this, has a distinct recollection
of thus reaching the interior of this place of worship. This
church, was at the time, the only one erected by any denomina-
tion; though the Baptists, Methodists, and Episcopalians, all
had a church organization; and the Catholics had a small
Chapel near the corner of Washington Street and Michigan
Avenue. A few families lived on the north side of the river,
and a few stores of goods had been opened there. The town
had no sidewalks; and mud of no very certain depth, was
plenty, and easily reached. Nothing like a harbor ‘existed;
and vessels were accustomed to lie outside, and unload by
lighters.

In 1840, Mr. Brown was appointed School Agent; an office
which involved the care of the funds for School purposes in
this city. His election was almost accidental; being by a
majority of one only of the Whig party, with which he always
acted. His acceptance was on the condition, that his services
should be gratuitous; and this very likely contributed to keep
him in the office, at a time when party greed watched for every
post of profit, however small, very much as hungry dogs watched ,
for bones, without regard to their size, or the sort of animals
to which they belong. Perhaps the city never made a more
fortunate hit, either by blunder or design; for the state of our
Schools hitherto had been most deplorable. The School Fund
was all unproductive; having been let, for the most part, to
parties who had failed to pay, either principal or interests.
There were no school-houses fit for use, and the whole matter
of Schools was in a decidedly helter-skelter condition. The
real era of a change dates with the election of Mr. Brown to
this office of School Agent. Confidence began at once to re-
vive; for all parties, even the hungry ones, felt that the fund
was now safe.

It was no small labor to collect the scattered fragments of
the fund, and put them in shape to be productive; but it was
accomplished: and though Mr. B. devoted twelve or thirteen
years to this business, in connection with his other affairs;
loaning it out as it was collected, he never made an uncollect-
able debt. The Schools gradually assumed tone and character ;
suitable houses were built, and the system, as it now is, gained
shape and. consistency. ‘ ,

At the time of his resignation of the office of School Agent,
8 WILLIAM H. BROWN.

in view of his gratuitous services, the Common Council of the
city passed the following resolutions:

“Whereas, In the resignation of Wm. H. Brown, late School
Agent, the community have lost the services of a faithful, dili-
gent, and meritorious officer; one who for the long period of
thirteen years has bestowed a paternal care—to the fostering
and judicious management of that sacred trust—the School
Fund; and : :

Whereas, Although the unsolicited expression of public ap-
probation may not add one iota to the already established
character of the individual, who is the object of it; yet we
believe that a testimonial, of this nature, may afford to any
honorable mind a feeling of pleasure and gratification on retir-
ing from office, with the unbiased verdict of well done thou
good and faithful servant.

Thereupon be it resolved by the Mayor and Aldermen of the
City of Chicago in Common Council assembled.

That we tender to Wm. H. Brown, late School Agent, our
fullest expression of respect and approbation, for the correct
and judicious manner in which, for such a long period of
years, he has fulfilled the duties appertainting to his late
position.

Resolved, That in the economical execution and careful at-
tention, with which the late agent has performed his official
requirements, we have presented, for the future guidance of
his successor, an example well worthy of imitation; and in
which we discern the very unusual occurrence of a public
office being held by one individual for so long a period, more
for the promotion of a laudable and praisworthy object, than
for the emoluments attached to it.

feesolved, That for the more fully carrying out the intention
of this Preamble and Resolutions, they be entered on record,
and a copy presented to the subject of them.”

Mr. B. was one of the first Inspectors of Common Schools,
elected under the city charter; and was in that Board for
twelve or thirteen consecutive years. This Board of inspectors
has been the instrument and agency, and in' good degree the
cause of ow present School System. He was a constant and
punctual attendant at its sittings, and a leading and influential
member of it; and is entitled to his share of the credit of what
it has done.

In the winter of 1846, in connection with a few others, Mr.
Brown purchased the original charter of the Galena and Chi-
cago Union Rail Road, from the Estate of E. K. Hubbard, Esq.,
then lately deceased. Measures were immediately taken to put
on foot a working Railroad in the Northwest. A little piece
of road had been built before Mr. Hubbard’s death, but it was
never worked, and went to decay. To start this Galena Road
WILLIAM H. BROWN. 9:

was an undeitaking of no small labor. The country was poor:
there were no Rail Roads anywhere in the West; and nobody
had much faith in them, nor in fact in anything else. So com-
pletely had all confidence been wrecked, in the great revulsions
of 1836, and onward, that nobody was willing to embark in any
new scheme, either with effort or capital. The extent to which
this was then true, cannot be conceived of now, by those who
have no experience in that chapter of our history. This Galena
Road was therefore looked upon as a very doubtful affair; and
any amount of writing and cyphering, conventioning and speech-
making, was necessary to get it started. The farmers in the
country, who had felt in all their bones, as well as pockeis,
the need of some means of getting to market with their crops,
were much more alive to it than our city property holders;.
who had saved what little they had out of the fire, so to speak;
and who did not like to risk it again beyond their fingers’ ends.
But the farmers were poor and able to take but little stock ;
and as the citizens would vot risk much, the road was begun
on a rather small scale. Mr. B. became one of the largest sub-
scribers to the stock, and is yet one of the most extensive of
its stockholders. He has always been a Director of the Road,
and is now its Vice-President. He has therefore had ample
opportunity to aid in giving shape to the policy under which
that Road has been managed.

Mr. Brown was the very man to have a hand in that under-
taking. Cautious to a degree verging on excess: knowing the
full value of every dollar that passes through his hands: and
constitutionally determined that every dime shall do its own
duty, he was the very man to aid in the beginning of a road,
without adequate means and without confidence, and carry it
forward, step by step, to successs. The first twelve miles of
the road only cost about $6000 per mile; but the first twelve
miles told the story, for they showed that the road could be
built, and would pay. This road has been the goose that has
laid our golden eggs. It is the mother of all the rest in our
Northwest.

Mr. B. isa man of capital. He had acquired a competency
before his removal to this city, and since that time, with the
exception of the perilous years succeeding 1836, has been con-
stantly adding to the amount. He early became possessed of
considerable tracts of real estate, which has of late, very rapidly
enhanced in value. He has entered into no rash speculations,
nor made any desperate pushes for fortune. He takes care of
what he has; and adds to it when he can do so with safety.
He has never, entered so largely upon building as have some
others, but has expended considerable sums in that way at one
time and another. His late residence, at the N -W. cor. of Pine
and Illinois Streets, North Side, he erected at a cost of ten
thousand dollars, in 1836; and it was, at that time, considered
Io WILLIAM H. BROWN.

the best house in the city. He is now building a residence, ,
with front of Athens marble, on Michigan Avenue, to cost about
thirty thousand dollars. As to his present posscssions, he is
not a man who makes apy exhibition of his property. His
answer to a question regarding it, was, that the inquirer would
have “to guess as to the amount.” Our guess therefore is, that
it will not fall below $500,000, and may go to twice that sum,
or even above that. :

Mr. Brown is personally a tall, well-formed man, with a
slight stoop of the shoulders; witha keen dark eye, and hair
once black as the raven, but now inclining to iron-gray. When
young, he is said to have been a very fine-looking man, and we
can well believe it, for he holds his honors very well as yet.

Mr. Brown is a giving man; being applied to, perhaps, in
aid of more charities than any one man in the city; and perhaps
he answers to as many, or more, than any man. But he is not
naturally « giver, for his motto is, to keep what he has: and
his native answer to all applications, when that answer does
not flow through the channel of his christian principles, would
very likely be his easy Vo/ His manner is often brusque, but
his heart is kindly; and though he who comes to him for an
object not wholly explained, may be chilled by the perpendicu-
larities of a nervous impatience, which explodes suddenly: he
has only to wait for the flow of kindness and good sense, which
is sure to come, to be reassured.

Mr. Brown has the talent of good common sense; one most
certainly of which the world has need, as fully as of any other;
this, with his inflexible integrity, gives him a position in regard
to trusts, both public and private, held by few men in our
city. He is now in the midst of well ripened middle life, and
yet in active duty—a large part of it connected with these
trusts, of various kinds, put into his hands. We say of him,
as Horace said of Augustus—we forget the Latin of it—but
the meaning of it is, “ Late may he go hence.”

Mr. Brown died in Amsterdam, Holland, June 17, 1867, aged
72 years.
HON. WILLIAM H. BROWN.

By R. W. PATTERSON, D.D.

THE present writer has been requested to add to the fore-
going sketch of Mr. Brown’s life such facts as may be within
his knowledge. Being obliged to depend solely on his own
memory, he cannot hope to give such interesting particulars as
may probably be known to other parties.

During the financial troubles of 1857-1860, Mr. Brown care-
fully managed his affairs, and escaped serious embarrassment,
having, as usual, kept out of debt, and taken good care of his
property. In the year 1860, he was elected a member of the
House of Representatives in the State Legislature. In this po-
sition he acquitted himself honorably and usefully, being
among the most industrious, judicious, and influential members
of the body.

In the great struggle for the preservation of our government,
which may be said to have commenced in a decided form in
1856, and which culminated in the memorable rebellion in
1861, Mr. Brown, as might have been expected, was deeply en-
listed for the cause of liberty and the Union. During the
Presidential canvass of 1860, he took an active part in support
of Mr. Lincoln, and was as much elated, perhaps, as any man by
the success of the Republicans. When, however, the rebellion
of the Southern States became a certain fact, and internal war
was inevitable, he was very much depressed, feeling, as he often
said to the writer, that no one could predict the end. But he
had faith in God, and had no doubt that it was the duty of
every good citizen to stand for the defence of the right and the
support of good government at whatever sacrifice. He cheer-

1a
XII WILLIAM H. BROWN.

fully paid his taxes to the Government, incurred by the war, and
gave up his sons to the service of his country without a
murmur.

After the war, as age was advancing upon him, Mr. Brown
retired, in part, from business; devoting himself, chiefly, to the
management of his own property. But he never lost his inter-
est in the public welfare, and never gave up his positions in the
several Boards of trust with which he was connected, such as
those of the Chicago Orphan Asylum, and the Insane Asylum
at Jacksonville. He continued to be active and faithful as a
member and an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church until
his departure for Europe, shortly before his death. He several
times represented the Presbytery of Chicago in the General As-
sembly as a Ruling Elder, and was widely known in the deno-
mination as among the most reliable friends of its enterprises.
For many years, he was a corporate member of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to whose funds
he was a large contributor during his life, and by a handsome
provision in his will. And the cause of Home Missions had
few, if any, more generous helpers. He was deeply interested,
also, during all his later years, in the Mission Sunday School
work, and in the Bethel cause, while in his own particular
church he was always among the foremost givers, and the most
devoted and steadfast supporters, being uniformly in his place
on the Sabbath and in the weekly prayer meeting, as well as on
special occasions.

In the summer of the year 1866, Mr. and Mrs. Brown left
Chicago on a tour to Europe, partly for pleasure and partly on
account of his failing health. During this trip, his keen relish
for new scenes, and his habit of activity, led him to exert him-
self beyond his strength. After traveling through Great Bri-
tain and extensively through the countries of Europe, he occa-
sionally exhibited signs of exhaustion, and in Amsterdam,
Holland, he was taken with the small-pox. When he seemed
almost recovered from this distressing disease, and was prepar-
ing to resume his travels, he was suddenly seized with paralysis,
and shortly sank under it, dying peacefully on the 17th of
June, 1867, at the age of 72 years. In the early part of August,
following, the writer visited the old Bible House and the room
WILLIAM H. BROWN. XIII

in which Mr. Brown’s spirit took its flight, went to his grave,
and saw the coffin that contained all of him that was mortal.

In the autumn of that year, his remains were transferred to
their final resting-place in Graceland Cemetery.

His widow, Mrs. Harriet C. Brown; his four sons, 8. Lock-
wood, Charles B., Theodore F., and Frederick, and his daugh-
ter, Mrs. Mary Tyler, survive him, and are still residents of
Chicago.

I trust I shall be pardoned if I now add some of my own
personal recollections and impressions of Mr. Brown, as I knew
him in his public and private relations,

It was my privilege to become acquainted with Mr. Brown
in the year 1833, when I was a student in Illinois College,
although I had known him, by reputation, for a considerable
time before. For he was a prominent citizen of this State
almost from its admission into the Union, having become a
citizen in the Territory while he was yet a very young man, and
having risen to a position of distinction and public usefulness
before he had reached the age of twenty-five years. Being,
when I first saw him, among the more noted friends of church
music in the State, he was invited to attend a musical conven-
tion at Jacksonville, which was held immediately after the an-
nual commencement in the College. In this way I was first
drawn to him as being interested in a subject that always en-
grossed a share of my own thought and attention. After that
occasion, I kept up a knowledge of his movements until the.
year 1840, when I met him again in Chicago, where he had al-
ready resided for some years, and was an officer in the First
Presbyterian Church. During the summer of that year, I
learned more of his personal traits and peculiarities than I had
known before, and was more than ever attracted tohim. From
that time onward until his death, I knew him intimately asa
friend and as an Elder in the church of which I was Pastor
from its organization in 1842, till the year 1873, six years after
his decease in Europe. It will thus be seen that I had an op-
portunity of special acquaintance with Mr. Brown, such as few
others enjoyed. And still cherishing his memory with the
warmest regard, I take pleasure in adding this small contribu-
tion to the memorial of him, which it is the desire of his
XIV WILLIAM H. BROWN.

family and friends to put on permanent record in this volume.

I have known well and long many of Mr. Brown’s attached
friends, among whom were Joseph Eccles, Esq., of Hillsbor-
ough, Hon. Samuel D. Lockwood, formerly of Jacksonville, and
who died two years ago at Batavia; Hon. Thos. Mather, Hon.
Johnz T. Stuart, John Todd, M.D., and Rev. John G. Bergen, D.
D., of Springfield; President Abraham Lincoln; Rev. William
K. Stewart, of Vandalia; and Rev. Thuron Baldwin, D.D., late
of New Jersey. A man who commanded the confidence of such
gentlemen must have possessed excellences of no ordinary
class. Especially deserving of mention was the life-long inti-
macy between him and Judge Lockwood, one of the purest and
noblest men Illinois ever numbered among her jurists and citi-
zens. Only a year before Judge Lockwood’s death, in conver-
sation with the writer, he referred in the most affectionate
terms to his lamented friend, Mr. Brown, whom he was accus-
tomed to visit every month during all the later years of his
life. I well remember the estimation in which Mr. Brown was
held by the older citizens of the State—lawyers, physicians,
clergymen, and others, such as Judge Pope, Benj. Mills, Esq.,
Dr. Newhall, Hon. David A. Smith, and Rev. John M. Peck,
D.D.

Among the notable traits of Mr. Brown’s character were the
following:

1. He was fair and conscientious in his political commitments
and action. He was decided in his convictions, first as a Whig
and then as a Republican, but never did I know or hear of his
espousing the cause of a notoriously bad man of his own party.
He may on some occasions have quietly voted for one man of
questionable character, but of good principles, in preference to
anothcr worse man whose principles he deemed erroneous and
mischievous. But he never warmly supported a corrupt man
of any party. And he always urged the nomination of good
men. He was not a political partisan, but a true, generous
patriot.

2. Mr. Brown was a sincere philanthropist. He abhorred
those levelling ideas of equality that would destroy all the
rights of property, and break up family and social ties as es-
tablished at present in civilized communities. But he earnestly
WILLIAM H. BROWN. XV

contended for individual and political liberty, and while he
never favored what seemed to him impracticable schemes for
the emancipation of the enslaved, he firmly resisted the efforts
that were made for the introduction of slavery into this State,
and did more, perhaps, than any other man to avert that great
curge from Illinois, when parties were nearly equally balanced;
thus saving the State for the cause of freedom—an event, that,
in its consequences, probably turned the scale in favor of our
national government in the recent bloody strife between the
North and the South. Mr. Brown was not a sentimental phil-.
anthropist; he carefully inquired how he could do the most for
humanity at large, instead of yielding to every momentary im-
pulse on the presentation of distress. Thus he co-operated
with every well-devised endeavor to provide for the needy and
the suffering, while he sometimes turned away the improvident
beggar. He was a foremost friend of orphan asylums, hospitals,
and other kindred institutions established by the State or by
private beneficence, doing always his full share to help them.
He was philanthropic on principle, and not from mere impulse.

3. He was, in general, a liberal and useful member of society.
He gave generously to every cause that commended itself to his
judgment, while at times he firmly rejected applications that
seemed to him unworthy of patronage. It would be difficult to
name a good enterprise begun in Chicago, during his residence
in the city, for which he did not contribute. And he was an
active helper in a great number of patriotic endeavors. I used
to think there was scarcely another man in Chicago whose name’
was found high up on more subscription papers, or who was a
member of more committees and boards organized for benefi-
cent purposes.

4. Mr. Brown was scrupulously honest and trustful in every
relation of life. Inever knew him to be accused of unfairness
or deception in any business transaction. I never heard a sus-
picion breathed against his integrity. I never met with a per-
son who ventured to charge him with untruthfulness or prevari-
cation. He always seemed to me unusually fair and candid in
his statements of facts. I am sure I express the judgment of
all those who knew him best when I say that he was extraordi-
narily exact in his adherence to the requirements of truth and
XVI WILLIAM H. BROWN.

justice, both in speech and conduct. This would hardly have
been denied by his bitterest enemy.

5. He was naturally conservative, but never seemed to re-
gard public opinion, when his duty required him to assume
unpopular ground. He never betrayed any cause to which he
had pledged his support, however misrepresented and misun-
derstood it may have become. And yet he was open to convic-
tion in regard to the wisdom of any measure that he might
haye formerly sustained or refused to further by his money or
personal influence. He was not vacillating in his judgments,
for he usually considered every subject carefully before: he
formed his opinions respecting it. But I always expected to
obtain a fair hearing when I undertook to present reasons for
any view of a subject which I knew he did not favor; and in
several instances he changed his grounds sooner than I had
hoped for. In business matters, he was, perhaps, too conserva-
tive for such a city as Chicago; but, on the whole, his slowness
to fall in with the prevailing estimates of property was, it may
be, a good safeguard to his financial interests, and it tended to
moderate the enthusiasm of the speculative spirit in times of
dangerous inflation. Had he lived, he would, no doubt, have
passed through this present trying crisis without disaster to his
private fortunes.

6. Though not a man of brilliant mental powers, Mr. Brown
was possessed of. excellent practical judgment. He was not
liberally educated, but he was not ignorant of books, and knew
much more of the world than most men of more varied learn-
ing. His opinion in regard to matters of Church, State, or busi-
ness, was always worthy of consideration. In fact, he seldom
made a great mistake. I relied on his practical judgment, es-
pecially in trying situations, as on that of few other men; for
he was scarcely ever carried away by temporary excitement, and
he never lost sight of the main interests involved in any ques-
tion, personal or public. Hence his counsel was often sought
in relation to practical difficulties, both in church and in pri-
vate affairs.

7. He was a most agreeable gentleman in social intercourse,
and was warmly regarded as a personal friend. Those who
knew him only slightly had but little idea of his power of
WILLIAM H. BROWN. .- XVII

imparting interest to a social circle. His conversation was al-
ways entertaining, and hence his presence was sought and
valued in general society. His house was the favorite resort of
many gentlemen and families, who were attracted by his gen-
erous hospitality and the cordiality of his excellent lady.

As a friend, Mr. Brown could be safely trusted in all emer-
gencies. He never flattered, and at times seemed cold and un-
sympathetic; but in the season of need he was uniformly a
ready helper, and he could be relied on to speak kindly of you
behind your back, if he professed friendship to your face. He
could disagree with you without any breach of friendship.
For he knew how to distinguish between great and little
things. I sometimes thought it my duty to dissent from his
opinion and to contend with him in regard to points of differ-
ence. But I could never see that it made any change in his
subsequent deportment towards me. As a friend he was not
demonstrative, but he was eminently true.

8. Mr. Brown was a man of positive opinions in regard to the
character of others, but his judgments were, on the whole,
charitable. He sometimes spoke severely of others, but not
without apparent reason. He was, for the most part, careful in
his utterances respecting his neighbors, and if he said anything
unfavorable, it was usually qualified by some kinder expression.
He was, by no means, guilty of double-dealing in his inter-
course with men. If he was not always exactly tender of the
Teputation of others, he was usually reserved in the expression
of adverse judgments, and almost uniformly he spoke kindly
and commendingly of his neighbors and fellow-citizens. He
was not a mischief-maker, and frequently merited the name of a
peace-maker.

9. From intimate knowledge of Mr. Brown’s principles, con-
victions, feelings, and conduct in a great variety of relations, I

-can truly say that I believe him to have been a sincerely and
thoroughly Christian man. His religion was not impulsive,
and he made no loud professions of zcal and spirituality. But
I was always impressed with his evident depth of conviction in
regard to the truth and claims of the Gospel, the purity of his
Christian aims, the honesty and simplicity of his devotions, and
his unfeigned and practical consecration to the service of the
XVII - WILLIAM H. BROWN.

Church and of his Lord. Few men have led more consistent
Christian lives. His dying breath was one of prayer, and un-
doubtedly “he entered heaven with prayer.”

In all that has been said, it has not been designed to assert or
imply that Mr. Brown was, in the ordinary sense, a popular
man. He had a certain severity of manner, in his intercourse
with strangers, and sometimes with friends, that caused him to
be misunderstood and misjudged. He did not sufficiently
study the amenities of life, and he paid the temporal penalty
of this neglect. Contrary to the common rule, he was most es-
teemed and loved by those who best knew his inner life. It
was necessary to get through the outer shell to the real man to
appreciate the nobleness of his character. Those persons who
did this, will fully justify all that I have said of him.

Mr. Brown’s memory will be blessed, not only by his own
family, but by many friends, who felt, when he died, thata
good and really great man had fallen, and who will keep his
virtues embalmed in their hearts, when the blander traits of
many more pliant men who were more widely applauded in life
will be forgotten.
 

tng

Wy BBB Sine62 Fam:

FGIGA Pogarveeoto
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND, ESQ.

[ From the Chicago Magazine, April, 1857.]

Late in the seventeenth century, a few Huguenots, driven
from France by persecution to England, settled afterwards in
New England. The subject of this sketeh is a descendant
from these, on lis father’s side. He was born in Rome, Oneida
county, New York, in 1801; and was the son of Benjamin Ray-
mond, who, as early as 1796, left his birth-place, Richmond,
Berkshire county, Mass. His mother was a daughter of Thomas
Wright, one of the brothers of that name who, emigrating from
Weathersfield, Conn., were among the first settlers of Rome,
which was long known as Wright’s Settlement, in the wilder-
ness of the then West. His father was engaged for some years
in connection with the late Judge Wright, (afterwards chief
engineer of the Erie canal,) in surveying into townships the
northern counties of New York: and which were then.all a
wilderness, from the Mohawk River northward to the St. Law-
rence. He selected the site of the town of Potsdam. in St.
Lawrence county, where he lived for several years, and where
he held the office of Judge for the county. He died in' 1824, in
the state of Delaware; being then engaged as engineer upon
the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. :

The early years of Benjamin W. were spent with an aunt in
Whitestown, New York, having lost his mother at the age of
five years. When he had reached the age of ten, he was taken
home to pursue his education in an academy which his father
“had established; having erected, at his own expense, a building
to be used for the purpose of a high school and of public wor-
ship. Here he spent four years, dividing his time between
school and the duties of a clerk in a village store. He also
spent a good part of a year at school in Montreal, boarding
with a French family where no English was spoken.—After-
wards he resumed his clerkship at his father’s store, in Norfolk,
St. Lawrence Co., and wound up his school attendance in the
study of practical mathematics, particularly surveying, which.
he afterwards practiced to some extent.

His introduction to the more responsible cares of business
took place at the age of nineteen, when he was sent down the
Ratchett River, into the St. Lawrence, to Montreal, with a large
quantity of lumber, which he was to sell and account for, and
12 BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.

in which he acquitted himself to the full satisfaction of his
employer. About two years after this, he purchased a small
stock of goods, and commenced business on his own account:
but his father dying soon after, he was left, at the age of 22, the
eldest of nine orphan children, without other means of support
than his small stock of goods, purchased on credit, and sold, of
necessity, under all the disadvantages of a new country without
currency, or other means of purchase; and dependant on a bar-
ter of crude commodities for whatever trade was done. As his
eldest brother was but thirteen years of age, le soon saw the
impossibility of sustaining the family at Norfolk, and so closed
his business at that place, in debt to his largest creditor to the
amount of $600, (which was paid in instalments some years
afterwards), and started for Oneida county, once more to try a
new tack for his life voyage. Here, a clerkship introduced him
toa partnership in business with Mr. Wm. Wright, one of the
oldest merchants at Rome, which was continued for three years.
A feeling of responsibility on account of his orphan brothers
and sisters induced habits of the strictest industry and econ-
omy, and led him to adopt those principles of temperance to
which he has ever since adhered. The circle of young ‘men
into which he had been, thrown in St. Lawrence county were
dissipated, and their gayety was not without a cbarm for young
Raymond. But when returning to Oneida county he firmly
resolved to leave all such associates behind, and to seek for the
future only the society of the strictly virtuous. Temperance
societies were not yet invented; but Mr. Raymond made a
pledge for himself’, and has kept it to this day.

It was here, during the great revival of religion, in which
Rev. C. G. Finney figured as the chief preacher, that Mr. Ray-
mond made a profession of religion, early in the year 1826.

One of the first Young Mens’ Temperance Societies in the
State was formed at Rome, and Mr. Raymond at once relin-
quished the sale of liquors, though it was a very important
ae of profit to the merchant at that time. That was in

In 1831, Mr. Raymond formed his first acquaintance with his
future friend and partner, Hon. 8. N. Dexter; and very soon
after turned his steps westward, determined to seek his fortune -
in what was then the far west; with a promise from Mr. Dexter
that if he should find a good place near the western lakes for
settlement and trade, he would supply him the capital neces-
sary for a commencement of business. In this journey he
pushed westward through northern Ohio and Michigan, as far
as White Pigeon; the Jast twenty-five miles of which was
reached on the back of an Indian pony, guided partly by lead
of an Indian trail, and partly by the course of the sun. He
found plenty of persons who, like himself, were in search of
places for the sale of goods, but very few who promised to be
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND. 13

purchasers, and so turned backward as far as the town of East
Bloomfield, in Western New York, where he once more com-
menced business. Here he spent four years in a successful
trade, connected with the purchase of wool. Here, also, one of
the most important steps of his life was taken, in his entrance
into the matrimonial relation with Miss Amelia Porter, of East
Bloomfield, his present wife; a step which has probably had as
much to do with his success in life, and the position he now
occupies, as any other. Mrs. Raymond was the mother of two
sons, one only living, and now a professor in Williams College.

Finding that his business did not allow of much expansion
at East Bloomfield, he began, in 1835, to look once more west-
ward, and Chicago being then somewhat talked about, he at
once fixed his attention upon this place, being confirmed in the
idea, from its natural position upon the map, that it would at
some time be a place of importance; and also from a remark he
once heard from Hon. De Witt Clinton; whose sagacity in
regard to such matters was seldom at fault.

In January, 1836, he therefore set out by stage for Chicago,
being provided with authority to draw upon his friend Dexter
to the amount of $10,000, if he chose to do so, for purposes of
joint investment in real estate. After some looking at Mil-
waukee and elsewhere, and investing his $10,000, he returned,
closed up his business in N. Y., and set his stake in Chicago
about the Ist of June, 1886; having been preceded by a large
stock of goods; which, however, having to go by sail vessels
around the Lakes, did not arrive until July. The city was at
that time running over with merchandise, wanting nothing but
purchasers. Such a class of merchants, too, as were a portion of
them, never seen elsewhere: being mere adventurers, who had.
by hook or by crook, and commonly by both, got possession of
their stocks; their next aim was to get rid of them at whatever
price could be had.

This disheartening and ruinous condition of things, left but a
poor chance for him who thought only of a legitimate trade,
which should turn his stock into cash_—Mr. R. was therefore
obliged to look about him for other avenues to help off his
goods. He established a branch at Milwaukee, one at Geneva,
in Kane Co., and another at DesPlaines, on the Canal.

The disasters of that period, commencing in August, 1836,
were under full headway for about three years, and came especi-
ally upon such as had made purchases of real estate, with notes
to mature from time to time. The fall of 1837 found the firm
of B. W. Raymond & Co. minus the ability to meet their en-
gagements by about $15,000, in addition to their loss of capital,
amounting to as many more. This was a state of things with a
bad look to it, and was fully made known to his partner; but
Mr. Dexter was a man with a back bone in him, and nobly sus-
tained the house with $20,000, as it was called for, during the
14 BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.

years 1837-8-9; so that, by attention to meeting and securing
liabilities as they accrued, the credit of the house was unshaken
and their business uninterrupted during the whole period of
that terrible depression. From the year 1838 to 1848, business
was good, and the tirm had so far retrieved its condition that
Mr. Raymond determined to make an effort to put himself
square with the world again. ae

For this purpose he sold out his stock of goods, receiving
one-half in cash and in paper running six months, and the
balance in real estate. This latter consisted of sixty feet on
Clark street, including the old Post Office on the alley of the
Sherman House Block, which was valued at $5000. By this
sale, and by collecting dues, and by turning over all his interest
in the real estate owned by the firm, to his partner, who was
the largest creditor—Post Office property and all, at its esti-
mated value, the whole precisely paid the liabilities of B. W.
Raymond & Co., with 7 per cent. interest, together with all the
private debts of Mr. Raymond; and left him with about $2000
fora fresh start. Mr. Dexter rather objected to receiving all
the real estate in their hands, as it had begun again to advance,
and he was anxious that Mr. Raymond should share in the pro-
fit, as well as to have borne the labor. But Mr. R. preferred
to have his affairs in a shape to leave his family: with some
resources in case of his death; and, besides, he wished to have
one more clear start in the world. Mr. Dexter would, however,
only receive the property on condition that Mr. Raymond
should manage it as he had done, and gave liim full power of
attorney to that effect. After all transfers were made, Mr. D.
so arranged matters as that an exact account should be kept of
all real estate to him, with 7 per cent. added each year, and.
then that all profits over the cost and interest should be equally
divided between Mr. R. and himself; as his intention, he de-
clared to be, that Mr. R. should not spend seven of the best
years of his life exclusively for his benefit; but that if anything
was to be made from real estate, he should share it.

Previous to the year 1848, Mr. R. purchased, on account of
Mr. D. and himself, of the late Jas. T. Gifford, one-half of his
interest in the village of Elgin, and in that year commenced
the erection of a woolen factory for Mr. Dexter, which was com-
pleted in 1844, He was also concerned in a store at that place
till 1851, and owned considerable real estate in the town.

In the year 1839, he purchased the lot No. 122, on Lake
street, Chicago, and in connection with Messrs. Strachan &
Scott, erected, not the first brick, but the first fire-proof stores
in the town. In about three weeks after their completion, the
great fire of that year swept the whole block on Lake street,
from their stores to Dearborn street, including the original .
Tremont House, standing diagonally across the street from its
present position—and northward to the alley.
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND. 15

¢

In March, 1839, My. Raymond was put in nomination for
Mayor of the city, without any expectation on his part of an
election, since party lines were then drawn in regard to city
officers, as well as those in the state or nation; and Mr. R. acted
with the whigs, while their opponents were largely in the
ascendant. He was, however, elected, together with half the
Council on the same side, which put upon him the duty of
giving a casting vote, whenever the question of office, or ap-
pointment, or of party advantage should divide that body. Mr.
Raymond acknowledges that for once he was swayed by his
friends, who insisted that he ought to use his power for the
party to which he belonged: but that on the next day he
formed the resolution to which he has since adhered, of never
voting for a man whom he deemed unfit, because he was of a.
particular party. From that time he has been opposed to bring-
ing party politics into the arena of our municipal elections.

During this year the well-known counterfeiting of the Canal
checks of $100 occurred. Mr. Raymond gave such attention to
the case that three fellows engaged in the business were put
into the clutches of justice; of whom two went to Alton, and
the other,* by changing venue, got off on straw bail, and was.
seen no more in these parts. He brought up in Sing Sing,
however, and may be doing service to the state of New York
till this day, for aught known of him. :

The Mayor, at this time, was paid a nominal salary of $1000,
which, by depreciation of city orders, in which it was paid,
reduced it to about $750. Mr. R. made no money from his
office, however; for that year being one of great suffering on
the line of the canal, the occupants of the shanties naturally
poured into the city for relief; and the salary, drawing after
it more of the same sort, went to the aid of the Emeralders, as.
much more has gone since; not only from the plethoric pockets
of Mayors, but from all other pockets reachable, by lugubrious
jeremiads of want.

There came on, also, during the year, a great bridge contest.
That over the river at Dearborn street being swept away, a
strong party arose opposing the erection of another, thinking,
either that those who wanted to get from that side of the
stream to this, might crawl under; or, that people who would
leave the “sunny south” side and banish themselves to those
hyperborean regions lying to the northward of the current of
mud, ought to stay there, and no more trouble those of so much
better taste, and of better fortunes. So strong was this utter-
ance of the vox populé that the matter was decided in that com-

* ‘The genuine scrip was printed in the Chicago American office, and was an ex-
ceedingly poor job, Only a poor printer could have executed the counterfeit; the
type, vignette—a ship—and the paper could be'found in any country printing-office.
The counterfeiter tried here was the notorious Otis Allen, of Buffalo, N.Y.

/
16 BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.:

mon council by the casting vote of the ‘Mayor, and a bridge
ubtained on Clark street, on condition that the north-siders
should subscribe $3000 of city bonds to put it over. And so
the benighted hyperboreans were admitted once more to sun-
light and the society of “the people.”

The sale of Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago took place
during that year. Mr. R. had the first intimation of it while
in New York, in April; and as he knew from the history of
like cases, that the people of Chicago expected the lands to be
given to the city, as had been customary, he exerted himself
for a postponement of the sale, till the matter could be brought
before Congress—the sale being advertised by Mr. Van Buren,
the President, to take place in June. For this purpose he
visited Washington, and saw the President, who put him off
with the soft ambiguities which he knew so well how to use; ~
and as soon as he was gone, hurried on the sale, under the aver-
ment that the government was “in pressing need of funds.”
As the next best thing, Mr. R., with a committee of the council,
put in for a public square, consisting of a block, to be reserved
from sale.

Their success was better than nothing, inasmuch as they got
half what they asked for; and Dearborn Park testifies to-day
the result. He also persuaded the Agent of the Government to
add 60 feet to the width of State Street, for a market. ;

As a sample of celerity of travel in those days, Mr. R. started,
in the month of March, 1839, for New York. He left on Tues-
day morning, by stage; that is, in a lumber wagon with trunks
for seats, and after riding day and night, with one night’s ex-
ception, brought up at Tecumseh, forty miles from Detroit, at
three o’clock on the next Sunday morning, the last seven miles
being on foot, as the four horses were sufficiently loaded by the
aforesaid trunks and wagon. During one week more of travel,
beginning on the following Monday, Buffalo was gained; and
one week further still brought them to New York. making
three weeks in the transit. Eight years after this voyage of
three weeks, Mr. Raymond was laughed at for saying, that in
ten years more, he expected to make the same journey in three
days. Perhaps the laughers are cachinnating yet.

In 1842, Mr. Raymond was once more elected Mayor of Chi-
cago. This was about the time of the expiration of the long
depression which commenced in 1887. City orders were still
hawking about at 70 to 75 cents on the dollar, for goods or
truck of some sort; andthe people were as poor as the city.
Real estate had but little value, and everybody would have
been rid of it but that nobody else would take it; and so being
obliged to keep what they had, an abundance of people were
made rich in time in spite of themselves.

The city government entered upon a rigid course of economy ;
their whole expenditures for the year municipal, 1842, -were
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND. 17

about $9800, and the receipts $13,800, about $4000 more than
the expenditures, and before the end of the year, city orders
loomed up to par.

During the year, the late cemetery grounds were selected;
the old burying grounds being among the sand hills near Lill’s
brewery. Some forty acres of those grounds were bought, sur-
veyed, and a public sale had. To get means of paying for the
forty acres, some $1200 of city script was pledged in a loan of
$600 for sixty days! The sale furnished the means to redeem
the script. This will, perhaps, seem small business at this day,
but a great many large things begin small. :

During the next year, 1848, Mr. R. endeavored to induce
some of his creditors to take the lot on Clark street, north of
the Sherman House, and including the old Post office, at $5-
000 in discharge of liabilities. This idea was scouted, and the
property was passed over to his partner as already stated. He
kept it till it brought him $19,500, and it could not be had
to-day, probably, for less than $60,000.

When the Galena Railroad was started, Mr. R. was fully
ready to enter into it, with all the means and influence he could
command. As one of its first Board of Directors he pledged
almost his entire capital, in connection with other Directors,
for the purchase of the first iron to build its track, and in con-
nection with John B. Turner, Esq., then acting Director, after-
wards President, negotiated the sale of the first issue of bonds
of the Road in eastern cities, which, at that day (1848), was
not an easy matter, while Wall street was well supplied with
Illinois State Bonds, interest unpaid. The first sales were only
made to confidential friends, who relied upon their representa-
tions, aS capitalists generally had no confidence in any western
enterprise.

In consequence of the success of that enterprise, and its bene-
ficial effects upon the country and city, he entered upon active
efforts to build the road known as the Fox River Valley Rail-
road, now called Elgin and State Line Branch of the North-
Western. The construction of this road was somewhat delayed,
‘owing to the great number of such enterprises on foot at once,
and the failure of some of the more unimportant ones, but it is
now finished, and in operation from Elgin to Geneva Lake.

Mr. Raymond, though in comfortable circumstances, is not
one of the wealthy men of the city; for he has never worship-
ped the “Golden Calf.” His aim has never been to make the
most money. Hence, he has commonly sold out any consider-
able tracts of real estate in his hands, and used the money to
advance objects of public use and benefit. He also gives largely
and freely. Perhaps no man in our midst more fully realizes
the pleasure of a deed of benevolence which costs something,
than he. No man of his long residence and various experi-
ences with all sorts of'men in public and private life, has fewer

2
18 BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.

enemies, or more fully commands the public confidence. The
trust in his entire integrity of character is full and universal.
He has only to believe a thing right to be induced to act ac-
cordingly, without question or delay. He is a man of about
five feet ten inches in height, with light hair and a blonde com-
plesion. His words are few, in low tones, and his demeanor
quiet; the aspect is that of amiability and harmony of character.

He was a Director of the old Hydraulic company, (which first
supplied water to the city,) from its beginning to its close; is
now a Director in the Gas & Coke Co., and was for many years
a Director of the pioneer railroad of the west, the Galena & Chi-
cago Union Rail Road.

He, as President, obtained the Charter for the Old Ladies’
Home, of Chicago, and has been connected. with the Board of
Trustees, as President or Treasurer, since its organization; and
Treasurer of the Old People’s Home.

He was one of the originators of the City of Lake Forest;
obtained the Charter for the Lake Forest University, and was
President of the Board of Trustees, for the first twelve years;
and still 2 member of the Board of Trustees; also, a member of
the Board of Trustees of Beloit College; and Rockford Female
Seminary. In 1864, he, as President, with the aid of a few
friends, organized and obtained the Charter for the Elgin Na-
tional Watch Company, and procured subscriptions to the Stock ;
he is still connected with the Company as a Director: having
resgned the Presidency in favor of a younger and more active
man—T. M. Avery, Esq.

Elgin is inost indebted to Mr. Raymond for its early and later
prominence. He made large investments there; and furnished
the material for many of the most important enterprises. His
contributions for the establishment of their Academy were libe-
ral; he was one of the first, and for many years, their leading
merchant, having placed there, in 1888, the largest stock of
goods west of Chicago. He was a partner in the foundry of
Adams & Co., the first manufacturers of corn-shellers in the
West; he was chiefly instrumental in the establishment of the
woolen factory built by 8. N. Dexter, Esq., in 1842—the first
woolen factory in the State of Illinois; he assisted in the erec-
tion of a large tannery; and, lastly, and of greater importance
than all the rest, as President of the National Watch Company.

Mr. R.’s political views are Republican; but he regards strict
eel character, integrity, and capability above party consider-
ation.

Mr. R. is a consistent member of the second Presbyterian
Church, and has held the office of Ruling Elder in it since its
organization in 1842.

His health is pretty uniformly good, and the hope of his
friends is to see him useful a long while yet.
HON. J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

[From the Chicago Magazine, March, 1857.]

The subject of this sketch was born in Whitfield, Lincoln
Co., Maine, in the year 1812. His father was the Hon. Eliakim
Scammon, of East Pittston, Kennebec Co., Maine,a man widely
known and universally esteemed, and who, for many successive
years, represented his town and county in both branches of the
Legislature of that State. ae

Mr. Scammon’s mother was the daughter of David Young,
one of the first settlers, and most wealthy men in East Pittston.
Mr. Young was a prominent man in the community in which he
lived. As a Jeffersonian Republican, he often represented his
town in the General Court of Massachussetts, Maine having
formed a part of Massachussetts until the year 1820, when it was
admitted into the Union as a separate State.

Mr. Scammon, from childhood, has had a fondness for agri-
cultural and horticultural pursuits. He would: have been a
farmer, were it not that an accident deprived him, at the age of
10 years, of the full use of his left hand. Though this probably
’ changed his occupation in life, it did not diminish his natural
love for the cultivation of the soil, or destroy his taste for the
beautiful and perfect, in all that relates to this truly noble
occupation. When he resided at the corner of Michigan Ave.
and Randolph Street, he had the finest garden to be seen in the
city, at that time; and he now preserves his beautiful garden.

Mr. Scammon received his literary education at the Maine
Wesleyan Seminary, Lincoln Academy, and Waterville College.
He read law in Hallowell, in his native State; he was admitted
to the bar in Kennebec Co., and immediately after started upon
a tour of the States. He arrived at Chicago, in September, 1835,
upon a cold and stormy day. He made the then somewhat
more than unpleasant and hazardous passage of the lakes, in the
old steamboat, Pennsylvania, which at that early period made a
trip from Buffalo, by the way of Green Bay, to Chicago. On the
passage of the steamboat from Green Bay to this city, a furious
storm arose, compelling her to put into Washington Harbor,
near Death’s Donr, at the north end of Lake Michigan. Here
she lay until the storm abated; provisions running out, and the
passengers being put on a short allowance, in the meantime.
Taking a fresh start from Washington Harbor, the storm again
20 J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

raged fearfully, and there was great apprehension of shipwreck
among the passengers and crew.

Arrived at Chicago, the steamer was compelled to anchor out-
side the bar, there being no entrance to the harbor, except for
vessels of a very small size. The passengers were landed ina
boat, and made their way from the beach up to the old Sauga-
nash Hotel, in a driving rain, through the tall prairie grass and
deep mud. They found the hotel crowded, and a very large
number of the inmates sick with the bilious fever. In fact, al-
together, a more dismal and dreary aspect the town could not
have presented. Coming from the beautiful hills of New Eng-
land, and their bracing and healthy air, the town appeared to
the new comer to be almost 4 dismal swamp; and his first im-
pression was anything but favorable to a location in it.

Mr. Scammon had letters to Mr. Henry Moore, who was then
an attorney in the town, and deputy of Col. Richard J. Hamil-
ton, Clerk of the Courts of the County of Cook. In a few days,
the weather cleared off, and almost as soon the mud disappeared
and there succeeded one of those beautiful Indian summers with
which the West is so highly favored. - Just as Mr. 8. was about
to leave town, to continue his journey southward, Mr. Moore
called upon him, and stated that the Circuit Court had just
commenced its session; that his own business prevented his
giving further assistance to Col. Hamilton, and that the gentle-
man that Col. Hamilton had employed in his place had been
attacked with fever. He asked Mr. 8. if he would not assist
Col. H. during the term of Court. This was regarded by Mr. 8.
as a fine opportunity to become acquainted with the mode of
practice and the forms of legal proceedings in Illinois, and was
at once accepted. He accordingly assisted Col. H. through
the term; who finding that he was ready and at home in the
performance of the duties of Clerk, proposed to make him his
deptty, and, at the same time, allow him to “hang out his
shine” in the Clerk’s office.

In those days, rooms for offices were not plenty in Chicago,
and the lawyers, being mostly bachelors, lodged in their offices.
Mr. 8. had endeavored in vain to find an eligible office, so he
accepted Col. H.’s proposal, and established his office in the
“North-east. Corner” of the Clerk’s office, from which it was
separated, not as often in early times in the West, were the
places of the Bar, the Court, and Jury, by chalk or coal lines,
but by an imaginary one: :

Col. H. then held about every office in Cook County which
he could legally hold. He was Judge of Probate, Clerk of the
Circuit Court, Clerk of the County Commissioners’ Court, School
Commissioner, Recorder of Deeds, Notary Public, and Bank
Commissioner. All these were held in a small Grecian build-
ing, erected on the north-east corner of the Court House Square,
J. YOUNG SCAMMON. 21

which was subsequently lengthened, and transformed into a
Court House.

Mr. §.’s days were spent in this room, in the study of his pro-
fession and attending to the duties of clerk for Col. H. At
night, he lodged like other young men, in the same office. As
he made acquaintances his business increased, and in 1836, he
entered into a copartnership with Buckner 8. Morris. They
continued together for eighteen months, and did a large and
successful business. They then dissolved, and Mr. Scammon
practiced alone for a year or more, when he formed a connection
with Norman B. Judd, the partnership lasting until 1847, when
Mr. Scammon becoming greatly interested in the building of
the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, and wishing to give
much of his time to railroad matters, he and Mr. Judd dissolved
ees connection, though they continued to occupy the same
office.

When Mr. Scammon came to Chicago, it was a time of almost

universal speculation. Nearly every one was rich; at least in
prospect. He was solicited to speculate, but declined, on the
ground that he liked his profession, and should be happier in
practicing it than in attempting to make a fortune by speculat-
ing. He thus was enabled to devote his time faithfully and
unremittingly to the practice of his profession. His industry
and promptness in paying over to his clients all monies collected
—somewhat of a virtue in the early days of Western life—won
him the favor of the community, both at home and abroad, and
his practice soon became large and commanding. This favor,
obtained by faithfulness and probity in the discharge of his
business transactions, in the outset of his professional career,
has been of great benefit to him in after life, and, no doubt, to
it, to a very great extent, he owes the credit which he now en-
joys in Chicago, as well as the Eastern cities.
_ Indeed, Mr. Scammon has made it a leading principle, in all
his business transactions, to promise nothing that he could not
perform, and to work with the greatest possible zeal and ardor
to secure the completion of that which he promised. His credit
as a banker he regards as above every other consideration, both
of profit and present standing; and he would sacrifice all he
possesses to preserve that untarnished. The business public are
aware of this, and hence put great confidence in any monied in-
stitution with which he is connected.

Mr. Scammon has made great efforts to obtain a safe and relia-
ble banking law in this State, which would be the means of
preventing a recourse to the system of what is called “ Wild
Cat Banking,” by which a number of irresponsible institutions
are got up in neighboring States and Territories, for the purpose
of circulating their irresponsible and irredeemable paper here.
The law, as it heretofore stood, restrained and restricted the
home banker, while it gave free license to the foreign institu-
22 J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

tions, which are responsible to no one, and which, at best, de-
pend wholly upon the ability, or rather inclination, of the
owners to redeem their promises. Mr. S. has endeavored to
make our banking system of that character which would invite
the capital of the best business men of this and other States for
investment, at the same time that it would possess such guards
and restrictions as would secure the public iv the most perfect
manner. Mr. §. has worked long and faithfully to this end, and
hopes finally to be able to accomplish an object which has been
one of the leading purposes of his life. The feeling against
banking of all kinds which exists in some portions of the State,
and which has been taken advantage of by the advocates of irre-
sponsible banking in the northern part, has hitherto been the
great obstacle with which Mr. 8. has had to contend; but he
hopes, in time, and by the aid of the growing intelligence and
good sense of the people, to succeed in perfecting such a system
of banking as will be a credit to the State, and of the utmost
advantage to its inhabitants.

In 1837, without solicitation on ‘his part, Mr. Scammon was
selected as the Attorney of the State Bank of Illinois; and in
1839, he was appointed Reporter of the Supreme Court of the
State, which office he continued to hold till 1845, when he
resigned, on account of the press of his business at home. He
was the first Reporter in this State that ever published a vol-
ume, and his books introduced an entirely new era in Western
Reports. They were brought out in a style inferior to none,
and superior to most of the reports in the Eastern States.

The writer might here probably state, that Mr. Scammon
has ever taken a lively interest in public affairs. While being
indefatigably occupied with the management of his private
business, he has not allowed himself to be wholly engrossed
in the labors necessarily incident to men of large and accumu-
lative means, but has been, in one way or apvother, connected
with most of the great leading undertakings associated with
the progress of our state and city. He has, in fact, been among
the foremost in contributing to the development of the re-
sources of Illinois, and the advancement of the interests of
Chicago and the surrounding country. A New Churchman or
Swedenborgian in religion, which includes all great measures
of useful and beneficient progress he is himself progressive in
sentiment, and conservative in practice. His motto is, and
always has been, at least as long as the writer of this has
known him, “Conservative Progress.” Still into whatever un-
dertaking he enters, he throws himself with his whole soul,
and with all his might; and whenever he undertakes a project,
he is indefatigable and preserving, until it is accomplished.

To the Hon. William B. Ogden and Mr. Scammon are the
public specially indebted for tlhe commencement of the Galena
& Chicago Railroad.” After the railroad enterprises which had
J. YOUNG SCAMMON. 23

their inception in 1837, had failed, and were abandoned, and
all confidence in Illinois was lost by capitalists, when hope
was nearly dead in the minds of our people; Messrs. Ogden
and Scammon counselled together upon the subject of railroads,
and the Galena Railroad in particular. To induce the Michigan
Central Railroad, which then hardly reached New Buffalo, to
come to Chicago, and thus aid in extending railroad lines
farther West, Messrs. O. and 8. went to Indiana, and spent
much time in getting hold of and reviving the charter of
the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad, which possessed the sole
power of building a road from Michigan City to Illinois State
Line, in the direction of Chicago. They had previously, on
the opening of books for the road, traveled over the entire
distance between Chicago and Galena, holding meetings, mak-
ing speeches, and procuring subscriptions to the stock of the
Galena Road. They were themselves among the largest stock-
holders in the Company, and by their exertions and personal
pledges of fidelity to the interests of the stockholders, they
obtained stock enough to commence operations in the road;
and it is not claiming too much to say, that but for them this
great pioneer road in the West would not have been commenced
- till many years later.

In the commencement of the building of this road, Mr. Scam-
mon devoted a large portion of his time, gratuitously, to the
project. He familiarized himself with the details of the trans-
actions of the Company, and kept a strict watch upon its opera-
tions. Besides, to sustain the credit of the Company, he bor-
rowed money more than once upon his individual name, and
Joaned it to the Treasurer, when the road had not sufficient
credit to obtain an additional accommodation from its banker;
nor even the confidence of a majority of its Directors, in their
ability to go on with their enterprise. But. the faith of the
subject of our sketch was full and unwavering. Indeed, so
great were the difficulties, and so numerous the disappointments
in the outset of the operations of this Company, to which Chi-
cago is indebted for so much of its material prosperity, that
at one time, during the absence of Mr. Ogden, all the Directors,
with the exception of Mr. Scammon, the late James H. Collins,
Esq., and Charles Walker, Esq., appeared discouraged at the
prospect of affairs.

The labors and difficulties attending the early days of the
history of this enterprise can hardly be realized at the present
time. The country was poor; there was no surplus money in
it; subscriptions to the stock of the Company could only be
obtained in very small quantities; of eighteen hundred share-
holders, the larger number held single, or not more than two or
three shares each; while all the shares which were taken were
subscribed for, not with a view to profit on the stock, but solely
to aid in the enterprise. Mr. 8. was one of the largest stock-
24 J, YOUNG SCAMMON.

holders from the commencement of the undertaking, and whem
great efforts were requisite to keep up the credit of the Com-
pany, and to prevent its stock from greatly depreciating, he pur-
chased freely of it, and was, by this means, at one time its largest.
stockholder. With a view, also, of procuring Eastern aid, he
proceeded in company with Mr. Ogden, to Boston, and had an
interview with Eastern capitalists. There was at that period
so little confidence in the West or Western enterprises, that
they were very cooly told by one of the largest railroad _pro-
prietors in New England, that “Statistics amount to very little
in influencing us. You must go home, raise what money you
can, and when you can get no farther, come to us, and give us.
what you have done, and we will take hold of your road and
complete it. You can afford to do this, the road will be of such
immense advantage to your country.” Mr. S. determined, upon.
the instant, that these prophetic wishes should not be fulfilled.
He returned home, and by his exertions and caution contribued
not a little to that careful management of the road, which ulti-
mated in the success of the enterprise, and in establishing, in
the minds of capitalist everywhere, the ability of Illinois men.
to build and manage railroads.

The success of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad is
the parent of all subsequent railroad movements in ‘this State.
Had that enterprise failed, Chicago would not now count half
its present population.

In the very momentous matter, to the present and succeeding-
generations, of establishing the free school system of Illinois,
Mr. Scammon bore a very prominent and important part. There
was no provision for absolutely free schools in Illinois when
Mr. Scammon removed to the State, and for years thereafter.
It required a great struggle to get through the Legislature a
,special law for Chicago, authorizing: the establishment of
schools by the Town; aud the law was only passed on con-
dition that it would be submitted to a vote of the people, be-
fore it became operative. When the vote was taken in 1836,
the law was voted down. Its defeat at that time was probably
caused by the large number of unmarried men, the greater part
of whom were speculators in real estate, who were unwilling
to have their property taxed for, as they alleged, the benefit
of other people’s children.

Mr. Scammon took an active part in getting up the first char-
ter of the City of Chicago. It was partly through his efforts.
that provision for our present free school system was made in
it. The schools first established under it were not, however,
sustained by public opinion. There were few children in the
town, most of its population being young people, and little
interest was felt in the subject. The schools had thus but a.
sickly existence, and were of very little value.

Mr. Scammon was appointed one of the Board of Schoob
J. YOUNG SCAMMON. 25

Inspectors in 1839. The free schools were then so nearly ex-
tinct, that it was determined to suspend them, until they could
be re-commenced under more favorable auspices, and upon a
more stable foundation. Mr. 8. took hold of the subject in
earnest. He drafted new Ordinances and Laws for the regula-
tion and government of the school system, which were passed ;
and through him and his co-laborers in the Board of School
Inspectors, the system of Common Schools, which has been so
successful, and of such incalculable benefit to our City, was
established on a broad and permanent basis. He remained in
the Board of: School Inspectors till 1845, when he was elected
an Alderman for the First Ward. His election to this office
was opposed by some citizens, who feared he was in favor of
too extensive a system in public schools. The first school-house
~—the brick edifice Nos. 81—7 Madison street, east of Dearborn
street— had been built under the direction of the Board of
School Inspectors, in 1844. Much complaint had been made
by residents of the North and West Divisions of the City, at
the large expenditure; very many persons residing in the South
Division, also denounced the cost of the construction of such a
building as extravagant. Mr. 8. determined to secure as large
a vote as possible, in order to satisfy the public that “big
school-houses” were not unpopular. The consequence was, he
received more votes, and was elected by a larger majority, than
any Alderman, up to that time, had ever received in the City. '

When the new Council was inaugurated, the Mayor recom-
mended that the “big school-house” should be sold, or con-
verted into an “Insane Asylum,” and one more suitable to the
size and wants of the City be built. It was supposed by the
Mayor, that so large a school-house would not be required by
the City for a dozen years. Mr. 8. was appointed Chairman of
the Committee on Schools, in the new Council, and immedi-
ately brought forward an ordinance for building a large brick
school-house on the North side of the river, stating, at the same
time, that it was the policy of the Board of School Inspectors
to build ancther, on the West Side, the next year, and to build
a new school-house at least every year. The order was adopted
by the Council, and the school-house was built. The construc-
tion of this house was followed by that of the fine school build-
ing on Madison strect, on the West Side. Thus a policy was
adopted, which has since been continued and improved upon
by the successive Boards of School Inspectors, until our Com-
mon Schools have reached their present proud position and
high state of usefulness.

In any mention of the Common Schools, however, the name
of William Jones, Esq., should not be omitted. For years, in
their days of trial, he was one of their most devoted and effi-
cient friends. He seconded Mr. Scammon’s efforts and labors.

with great energy and zeal.
26 J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

Mr. Scammon has always taken a warm and decided interest
in politics. He was a Whig during the existence of that party,
and for many years chairman of its Congressional, County, and
City Committees; and though often solicited, and more than
once nominated for office, he was never a candidate before the
people, except on two occasions—once when elected Alderman,
and in 1848, when he was the Whig candidate for Congress in
this District, which at that time was composed of seventeen
counties, and overwhelmingly Democratic. Mr. 8. received a
very flattering vote, carrying the City of Chicago by a consider-
able majority, although his party in the city must ‘have been in
a minority of more than a thousand votes.

In politics Mr. Scammon also exhibited his progressive pro-
clivities, having been always on the side of freedom and pro-
gress in his party. At the same time he was conservative in
his action, preferring present good, when he could obtain it, to
sacrificing everything to the abstract principles of right. For
this reason, though his freesoil sentiments dated back before
the great contest between Clay and Polk in 1844, he preferred
voting for Mr. Clay, to throwing away his vote. In 1848, also,
he advocated the election of General Taylor, knowing there was
no probability of the election of a freesoil candidate, and doubt-
ing the sincerity cf purpose of Mr. Van Buren, who was sup-
ported by that party. In 1892, he voted for General Scott, al-
though he preferred Judge McLean, who was his choice for
President. In the late contest, he supported Colonel Fremont
with all the ardor he was capable of, sparing neither his time’
nor money in the canvass. Mr. 8. has always been inflexibly
opposed to the extention of slavery into the territories, and he
endeavored, in every way in his power, to divorce the Whig
Party of this State from the Pro-Slavery measures with which
a large number of its friends seemed willing to suffer it to be
embarrassed. He contended that his policy in this respect was
both just and expedient; and it is due to him to say, that if his
advice had been carried out, the Whig Party in the Northern
portion of the State, at least, and especially in this city, would
not have remained so long in the hopeless minority in which he
found it when he came to reside here. Mary who afterwards
claimed to be Seward, or freesoil Whigs, had previously to
their sudden conversion—subsequently to the election of Gen.
‘Taylor—opposed, with all their strength, the positions which
Mr. S: took, and which had they been accepted and carried out
by the leaders of the party generally, would have placed the
Whig Party ina far better position before the people than it
had ever attained. J

Mr. Scammon was also among the first to perceive the tend-
ency to the breaking up of old party lines in the country gener-
ally, and particularly in this City and State, preparatory to the
present fusion of all persons and parties opposed to the spread
J. YOUNG SCAMMON. 27

of slavery. He suggested and procured the writer, many years
ago, to furnish a series of articles on the subject, to a neutral
paper then published in this city. These articles, and also
other measures taken by him, had no small influence in break-
ing up party lines in the Chicago City Elections, and in the
Northern counties of the State. Although a strict party man
himself, as long as he could see any great good which the old
Whig Party was capable of performing; still he believed in
voting for the best men, and in many instances refused to vote
for unworthy or incapable nominees of his own party. It may
be proper to state in this connection, that Mr. S$. from first to
last, has always opposed Native Americanism or Know Noth-
ingism, in all its forms and principles. The writer well remem-
bers the indignation of Mr. S. at an article which appeared in a
paper in 1844, of which he was one of the editors. He had a
portion of the edition of the paper which contained it sup-
pressed immediately; the article gave great offense, however,
as it appeared jin part of the edition, and was made a great
handle of by the Democrats at that time to the injury of the
Whigs. Mr.&.’s principles of civil and religious polity are of
too broad and comprehensive a character to accept for a moment
the narrow and bigoted platform of that party, which of late
has had, for a short time, such a prominent position in our Na-
tional and State politics.

Mr. Scammon, in 1849, re-organized the Chicago Marine and
Fire Insurance Company, an institution which had been char-
tered in 1836, as a monied corporation, but which had sus-
pended business, although it never had suspended payment.
He was one of the chief stockholders under the new organiza-
tion, and the President of the Company. It commenced with a
nominal capital of about $35,000, and an actual cash capital of
not exceeding $25,000. Under his auspices, as President, the
institution has gradually increased its capital, and extended its
business, until it has now an actual cash capital of half a mil-
lion of dollars, and is the largest monied institution in the
State.

Mr. Scammon likes to be a pioneer, judging from his past
life. He was the first Swedenborgian in Northera Illinois; the
first homeeopath; and was among the first and most efficient
organizers and supporters of the Galena and Chicago Union
Railroad. He also established the first bank under the General
‘Banking Law of this State—the Marine Bank of Chicago. He
organized the Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem, when it
had only three members, one other beside himself and wife.
He also organized, in connection with three other gentlemen,
the Illinois Association of the same Church, when there were
probably not over a dozen Swedenborgians in the whole State.

Mr. Scammon possesses excellent business tact and manage-
ment, which is evinced not only in his own prosperity, in the
28 J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

accumulation and investment of a large private fortune, but in
the success of the many enterprises in which he was one of the
pioneers. He was one of the original stockholders of the Ga-
lena; Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, and several other rail-
roads. Though never a speculator, Mr. §. has become wealthy
by judicious and prudent business habits. He is at the present
time owner of large and productive real estate in the very cen-
tre of the business part of our city. His policy has been not to
speculate, by running in debt, but to invest ,his surplus earn-
ings, and thus reap the advantage of the steady rise of property
by the growth of the city. To this policy, together with his
industry and economy, he owes his present prosperous position,
financially speaking. Mr. 8. isa great advocate for the single-
ness of employments, nevertheless, his practice does not con-
form to his theory in this respect, as he is banker, lawyer, real
estate owner, and has a large interest in railroads himself. It
has been asserted by some—perhaps those too envious of an-
other’s prosperity—that aceommodations from the old Illinois
State Bank contributed to Mr. 8.’s wealth. This is a mistake;
he never borrowed a dollar from the bank, or had any accommo-
dations from it, or purchased a foot of land, or other property
belonging to it, except at public sale, in competition with
others. The only favor the bank ever did him was to select
him as its attorney. He had no other connection with it.

In his profession Mr. Scammon has stood deservedly high,

and at one time had the most lucrative practice of any lawyer in
the city. In fact, he has generally had more business than he
could attend to, and of late years, his banking and other mat-
ters have demanded so much of his attention, that he has for
the last two or three years given little time to his profession.
In 1849, he took Mr. Ezra B. McCagg, who had been his confi-
dential law clerk, for two years previously, into partnership,
and they have since practiced together. He has always been a
friend to young men, and has had a very large number of stu-
dents in his office. These it has ever been his habit to accus-
tom to the details of practice, thus grounding them well in the
most important particulars in the professson. Thus he has been
successful, in almost every instance, in making good, practical
lawyers of his students. The advantages of the thorough train-
ing received by students in the office of Mr. §., is fully indi-
cated by the fact, that of all the young men who have been
under his supervision, not more than two isave failed to turn
out well.
_ Mr. Scammon, like all men of positive principles, is decided
in his opinions, still he is liberal and kind to those who disa-
gree with him. Indeed, a majority of the young men in his
office, who have received his assistance, countenance, and sup-
port, have been, in political opinions, opposite to himself.

Though Mr. 8. has devoted himself for many years so ardu-
J. YOUNG, SCAMMON. 29

ously to the law, and also been deeply immersed in business, he
has not forgotten his early love for literature and fine arts. He
continues still to cultivate it. He writes on political and relig-
ious subjects, gives public lectures, etc. In conversation he is
entertaining, his information being general and varied, and his
desire to impart it, a natural attribute of the man. He reads
and speaks several modern languages with fluency, and contin-
ues his early study of the classics, to which he has always been
drawa by his taste for ancient literature.

Mr. 8. is blessed with the companionship of a congenial part-
ner, a lady every way qualified to contribute to his happiness,
and an interesting family of children, the oldest grown to a fine-
looking young man, who is receiving the benefit of as good an
education as his father’s means and position can afford.

Mr. §. still continues to work as heretofore, though less in
his profession. To the question “ Why do you not give up busi-
ness?” he replied, “I have no right to do so. Use is the cen-
tral principle of Heaven, and no one can be happy, except in
the degree in which he is occupied in some useful employ-
ment.

The foregoing sketch of Mr. Scammon’s life was printed in
1857, in which year he went to Europe with his family, where
his wife died, and her remains were interred at Soden, in Nas-
sau, about ten miles from Frankfort on the Main.

When he returned in 1860, the first intelligence that reached
him after his arrival at his home, was that the entire capital of
the Chicago Marine and Fire Insurance Company had been
squandered by its responsible officers, during his absence.

He at once resumed its management, and endeavored to ar-
rest still further disasters; but just then the Rebellion broke
out, and the Southern Stocks, upon which the circulation of the
Illinois banks was based, becoming nearly worthless, the whole
banking system of the State went down. Mr. Scammon worked
away resolutely, dealing equally and fairly by all his customers,
and in a short time had paid off the indebtedness of the institu-
tion, which had been thus robbed and ruined. He restored
capital and credit to the company, and under his management
his institution continued to enjoy the public confidence, and to
transact a large business, until the losses of the great fire and
the panic of 1873 rendered it expedient to wind them up. He
was always opposed to illegal and depreciated currency of the
“wild-cat” order. The acts of the Legislature, which drove
illegal currency from the State were written by him, and passed
30 J. YOUNG SCAMMON.

through his exertions, As a member of the Legislature of 1861,
he obtained further stringent legislation on the subject of bank-
ing. At the time of the great fire he occupied an enviable posi-
tion. He had won celebrity as a lawyer, and unlimited credit in
business as a banker, and had become possessed of a vast fortune.
But the terrible fire swept away his banks, warehouses, stores,
and residence; fully half a million dollar’s worth of property.
In less than a week he had improvised a building on the site
of his late residence and resumed his banking business. He
was confident the city would be rebuilt, and the old landmarks
restored. In fifteen months from the time of the fire, he had
expended over a million dollars in rebuilding stores, ware-
houses, etc. He not only shouldered this enormous work, but
he also assisted others to a large extent in their efforts to re-
build. Just in the midst of these gigantic undertakings oc-
curred the defection of the Chicago Tribune from the cause of
the Republican party, leaving that party without a representa-
tive morning paper in the city. Through all his eventful pro-
fessional and business career he had never failed to take a deep
and active interest in national politics, and had aided materi-
ally in establishing both of the Republican newspapers in Chi-
cago. In view of this defection, and the approaching Presi-
dential campaign, he decided to found a first-class metropolitan
newspaper, that should be a powerful representative and advo-
cate of the privciples of the Republican party. He accordingly
constructed a building in the rear of his residence, put in the
necessary fixtures, engaged his editorial corps, and on March
25th, 1872, issued the first number of the Jnter Ocean. This
paper proved a success, and now has a larger weekly circulation
than any other political paper west of the Alleghanies. The
paper, outgrowing its limited accommodations, was removed to
its present commodious quarters, 117 Lake St. But this enter-
‘prise brought upon him the most malignant and slanderous
attacks from a rival press, which were followed up with such
persistence and ferocity, as to injure both his individual credit,
and that of the moneyed institutions with which he was con-
nected. It remains to be said that, after the splendid success
of a lifetime, Mr. Scammon has become seriously involved, in
consequence of his great losses by fires, his immense expendi-
J. YOUNG SCAMMON, 31

ture in rebuilding, and the loans and assistance he rendered
others who were rebuilding. He has suffered from four con-
siderable conflagrations within the last four years; and, what is
remarkable, his fine residence and surrounding buildings have
been twice swept away; first in the great fire of 1871, and again
in the great fire of July, 1874, and in both instances his premises
were the last ones burned, while adjoining buildings, that were
not so well protected, escaped unharmed.

He is now quietly engaged in the settlement of his affairs,
and in the practice of his profession asa lawyer in Chicago.
Many of the public institutions of the city owe their origin to
him. He was one of the founders of the Chicago Academy of
Sciences, and of the Chicago Astronomical Society. He was the
first of the Swedenborgian or New Churchman in Chicago, and
one of the original founders of the Illinois Association of that
Church. He organized the Church of the New Jerusalem in
Chicago. He was the first layman of prominence to favor the
practice of homeopathy in Chicago, and built and conveyed
free to the Hahnemann Homeopathic Society a commodious
hospital. The Dearborn Tower of the edifice of the Chicago
University, in which is placed one of the largest refracting
telescopes in the world, was built at his expense, and the salary
of its director paid by him till the great fire of 1871. On his
return from Europe in 1860, he was elected one of the trustees
of the University, and has been for many years Vice-President
of its Board of Trustees, and the acting President of the same.

Asa lawyer, banker, and editor, he has achieved distinguished
success, and is a man of large literary and general culture. His
private character bas been one of moral and religious worth.
Mr. Scammon is an industrious, energetic man, of robust consti-
tution, and vigorously employing the powers which have in
times past reaped wealth for him; and there is still prospect

‘ before him of years of honor, usefulness, and fortune. He bears
on his shield the words Conjide in Domino.
CHARLES WALKER, ESQ.

(From the Chicago Magazine, March, 1857.]

The subject of this sketch is a descendent of an old and
wealthy English. family of some note, who, in Cromwell’s time,
were portioned upon the Tweeds and called by the significant
name of Borderers; members of which were among the earliest
adventurers to this country, for we find mention made of his
more immediate ancestors, as settlers in the Eastern part of New
England, as early as 1640.

Col. William W. Walker, the father of Charles, was a native
of Massachusetts. His father, who was a noted cattle dealer,
at an early day moved his family to Ringe, New Hampshire,
from which place Col. Walker emigrated at the age of 21, hav~
ing little or no capital, save his trusty axe and that hardy edu-
cation, which ever characterized the early sons of New England.
Admiring the country of Central New York, he located in
Plainfield, Otsego County, then but a wilderness. Here he
became acquainted with a Miss Lucretia Ferrell, also a native of
Massachusetts, whom he subsequently married, and with whom
he lived upwards of fifty-five years. Though an Octogenarian,
Col. Walker is still in the full enjoyment of all his faculties,
having in his life-time filled many important political stations,
been prominent and active in the church, ready to lend a help-
hand to all worthy benevolent objects, and at the same time
secured to himself a competence and the universal respect and
esteem of his fellow-citizens.

Charles is the oldest son of William W. and Lucretia Walker,
and was born February 2, 1802. The country being new, as we
have before stated, his educational advantages were necessarily
very limited. To a new log school-house, which a few enter-
prising farmers had built, the young lad was sent, at the early.
age of six years, to gain those elementary lessons, which have
been turned to such practical account through a long life of
usefulness. Inheriting a vigorous constitution, and withal an
active and inquiring mind, together with uncommon diligence,
he not only performed an unusual amount of manual labor upon
his father’s farm, but made most rapid progress in his studies.
Improving his advantages to the utmost during three months in
the year, he studied with his teacher during the day, and with
his parents during the long winter evenings. Though as a boy
CHARLES WALKER. 33

among boys in these juvenile days, his vigor of mind and deci-
sion of purpose was such, that notwithstanding his limited ad-
vantages, we find he was qualified for, and entered upon, the
duties of teacher at the early age of 15; and from that time for-
ward continued in the same vocation during the winter months
until he attained his majority, with uncommon success. He
may well, we think, look back upou that era of his life, with
peculiar pride and pleasure, as he now recognizes the names of
many of his old pupils among the distinguished men, of the
East and West. While thus engaged, then 18 years of age, he
commenced the study of law, but soon found the sedentary
habits of that profession not suited to his temperament, with
the advice of his physicians he relinquished that idea and
turned his attention to more active pursuits; we next hear of
him riding through the country, during the summer months,
making purchases of sheep and cattle for his father.

At twenty-one, his health being then much impaired, he re-
solved to enter the mercantile business, and to that end hired
himself out to a friend as clerk for a short time, at the very
moderate salary of eight dollars per month. It did not, how-
ever, require a long clerkship for him to become a complete
master of that merchant’s method of doing business, and in two
months he had fully determined to start in business for himself
the following spring.

In the spring of 1824, with $1850 aggregate capital, compiled
of $350 of his own private funds, $500 given him by his father,
being in fact his cwn earnings, and $500 loaned of a neighbér-
ing farmer, he started for the city of New York, with no letters
of credit, reference, or recommendation; and the following
May, opened his store upon the economical plan of doing his
own work, and soon after made his first purchase of grain. The
next spring, when he went East to make his purchases, he made
his first appearance at the Bull’s Head Cattle Yard, New York,
where the Bowery Theatre now stands, with a fine drove of fat
cattle. By close and judicious management business prospered
till 1828, But shipping in the fall of that year a large amount
of cheese, butter, and pork, to a southern market, the cheese
became damaged at sea. and through the mismanagement of
agents, and the misapplication of funds, nearly all the accumu-
lated fruits of tour years laborious toil were swept away.

But by attending personally to the sales in New York, and
the purchases at home, business flourished till ’382, when a sud-
den decline in the price of provisions occasioned another heavy
loss. But from 1833 to ’34, large operations in all the leading
products, attended by a steady and gradual rise, brought to a
successful termination all his business operations. In the spring
of ’83, being in New York, he accidently became a purchaser
from a cargo of raw hides from Buenos Ayres, which he was
enabled to obtain upon favorable terms; but upon getting them

2
34 CHARLES WALKER.

home, and finding they were somewhat injured and could not
be turned into the New York market without serious loss, he
hit upon the expedient of manufacturing them into boots and
shoes, and disposing of them at the fall Indian payments at
Chicago; in the furtherance of which plan, his brother, Mr-
Almond Walker, was in due time sent on, who opened his as-
sorted stock of guns, boots, shoes, and leather, at Fort Dearborn,
in the autumn of 1834.

By this adventure his attention was turned toward the West,
where he soon saw and appreciated her undeveloped resources ;.
and early the ensuing spring—not twenty-one years ago—he
was on his way to this city, with ready means, enlarged and
liberal views, an extensive business experience and acquaint-
ance, in the vigor of manhood, with a widespread and favor-
able reputation at the East, to unite his fortunes with the desti-
nies, and contribute his energies to the development of the
unknown resources of this then lake shore village. Among his
first operations here was the buying of several lots of real es-
tate, among which was the purchase of John 8. Wright, Esq.,.
the corner of Clark and South Water Strects, in connection with
Capt. Bigelow, of Boston, and Jones, King & Co., of Chicago,
for the sum of $15,000, cash, which was considered by many
at that time, a most visionary speculation. Some days subse-
quent to making this purchase, after reconnoitering in the coun-
try, he publicly avowed the then bold opinion that Chicago was
destined to be the great city of the inland seas, and in test of
his faith in this prediction, immediately set about making this
city the principal point for his future operations. In May, ’35,
while on his way to Chicago, being detained at St. Josephs,
there being no regular means of conveyance across the lake at
that time, he made several purchases of hides from the flat
boats and butchers’ stalls ‘for the Eastern market, to which were
subsequently added purchases made in and about Chicago; this
shipment, it is believed, is the first ever made from the State of
Illinois to any point as far east as Utica or Albany.

The next year he established business in Chicago with the
late E. B. Hurlburt, Esq., under the firm of “Walker & Co.,”
upon South Water street, for importing implements of hus-
bandry and household utensils from the East, together with a
store of general merchandise, taking in exchange the various.
products of the West. During this period he was much of the
time riding through the country, on horseback, as far north as
Green Bay, locating government lands at the Four Lakes (now
os Beloit, and other points on the Rock and Milwaukee

ivers.

The next year came the terrible financial revulsions of 37,
when ruin and desolation swept the whole country, those who
sat in the high places of wealth and affluence were drawn irre-
sistably into the maelstrom of utter insolvency. Banks, like
=

CHARLES WALKER. 35

business men, came down with a crash, and the depreciation of
currency produced ruinous confusion in the mediums of ex-
change. But Mr. Walker was one of the very few men, exten-
sively engaged in business, who stood up against the storm;
thougi he had to bring to bear his best energies and most ex-
pert financial skill, for maturing liabilities pressed hard upon
him, and his name was largely endorsed upon the paper of
other men; had not his reputation in Eastern commercial circles
been of the best character, he would certainly have been
swamped with thousands of others. But he found, in this
emergency, that the relation he thus held as an important com-
mercial medium between the merchant and artisan of the East,
and the pioneer husbandman of the West, of immeasurable ad-
vantage. The extensive and favorable business reputation he
enjoyed among the leading men and Banks of the East, as well
as the confidence of the dealers of the West, enabled him to
greatly enlarge his operations. To prevent the necessity of
purchasing Eastern drafts at ruinous rates, he adopted the plan
of purchasing the products of the country with the depreciated
currency of the West, and made his extensive shipments of pro-
ducts the medium of exchange through which to meet his East-
ern liabilities. Thus he was enabled to prevent the entire stag-
nation of business at home, preserve his reputation abroad, and
in a few years of almost unprecedented vigilance and activity, to
entirely overcome all his embarrassments.

The next year his firm purchased a few bags of grain of the
surrounding farmers, which were sent to his mills in Otsego
County, New York; this shipment of wheat, we believe, was
the first ever made from Chicago to so Eastern a market.

During this period, though making Chicago the principal
theatre of his labors, he was yet a resident of the State of New
York, dividing his time nearly equally between this city, his
home in Otsego County; New York City, and traveling on
business. In ’39, the famous struggle between the old Safety
Fund, and the so-called Red Dog, or free banking system, was
at its height. As a Representative from his native county he
was sent to the Legislature. Carrying with him the same com-
prehensive and far-seeing views as a legislator, that ever char-
acterized him as a business man, he was intrumental, in no small
degree, in carrying through, though opposed by the great pre-
ponderance of the money power of the State, that deservedly
popular system of redemption and exchange, which has since
that time been in effect. :

Each succeeding year his business in Chicago continued to
increase, so that in 1840, his shipments had so much enlarged,
that in the purchase of hides and skins alone, he not only ex-
hausted his supply of merchandise, but was obliged to bring
money from the East. In 1842, he established a partnership
with Cyrus Clark, Esq., of Utica, under the firm of Walker &
@
36 CHARLES WALKER.

Clark, for receiving Western produce; to bring himself nearer
the chief point of business, he resolved to close out his affars in
Otsego County, and in May, 1845, he removed his family to our
city.
in 1847, came the great crisis in the grain trade which car-
ried down the oldest and best houses in the Union. Though
not escaping without some most terrible losses that would have
intimidated ordinary men; with a courage undaunted by re-
verses—with a nerve and will, eqnal to the emergency, his craft
was guided to a safe anchorage from the fearful breakers that
engulped his less fortunate competitors; and his firm continued
to hold its position as the leading grain and produce house in
the West. :

In 1851, it was found that C. Walker & Son of Chicago,
Walker & Kellog of Peoria, and Walker & Clark of Buffalo,
were the largest purchasers of grain from the farmers, in the
United States. So that the few bags of grain, which in 1839
were sent on their eastern journey and the few bushels of 1840,
had, in 1851, grown to 1,500,000 bushels.

At this period a severe attack of that malignant disease, the
cholera, destroyed his health and compelled him to leave the
financial management of the business to his oldest son, who con-
tinued the same under the firm of C. Walker & Son and C. Wal-
ker & Sons, till 1855, when he retired from the business alto-
gether, leaving it to his two sons and others, who continue the
same under the firm of Walker, Bronson & Co., prosecuting the
business with all the vigor of its founder, this firm have during
the past year, handled over jive and a quarter millions of
bushels of grain, an amount, we think, which will bear compar-
ison with that of any other establishment in our own country or
in Europe. Mr. Walker retires, we understand, the oldest grain
merchant in the Union, having steadily remained in one of the
most hazardons speculations in the world over thirty-one years.
Acting upon the principle that he who can so.cheapen and
make efficient the avenues of trade, as to bring the productions
of the country so much nearer a market, that the farmer can
receive but one penny more the bushel for his grain, brings mil-
lions to his country, he feels amply repaid for the great risks
he has run; and whatever benefit may have accrued to himself,
that a. has rendered an ample equivalent to those whom he has
served.

While thus engaged as a pioneer in his own peculiar business
he has been none the less efficient in promoting works of public
utility. Prominent in all those great schemes which do so much
towards developing the resources of the country, he has ever
been one of the foremost in opening up and turning to account
those great thoroughfares which vein our broad prairies, and
wind their deep channels through our hills and valleys, and
which, with every throb of animated industry, quicken into life
CHARLES WALKER. ae

new avenues of trade, turning their accumulated wealth to swell
the commercial tide that has so strongly set to the heart of our
western metropolis. :

When the Galena Rail Road was recuscitated, in 1847, Mr.
Walker was chosen one of its Directors. He entered into the
project. with all his heart. In its gloomiest days, his faith never
faltered ; his confidence in the ability of the country to build
the road never failed. When it was found that more subscrip-
tions were necessary, he, as one of a Committee for soliciting
additional subscriptions, traversed the country westward, and
as far north as Beloit. His courage never wavered. When, in
its darkest days, at a meeting of the Board, all confidence seemed
to have departed from a majority of the Directors, he, with two
or three others, remained firm in his confidence that the work
would go through without failure. “A Committee of the Be-
lieving” was appointed to take measures to prevent immediate
disaster, composed of himself, J. Young Scammon, Esq., and one
other. Their measures were successful; and when, on the return
of its President, Mr. Ogden, from New York, it became neces-
sary that the Directors should become individually liable for a
large sum of money, to secure the iron to lay the first divison of
the Road; Mr. Walker did not hesitate to be among the first to
do so; and to the credit of the Board be it said, that all the
Chicago Directors, but one, pledged their individual liability
for the progress of the work. Mr. Walker remained in the Di-
rectory from the first, and took an active part in the construction
and management of the Road.

In Feb., 1856, the enterprise of pushing forward, across Iuwa,
the counterpart of the Galena Railroad, was projected; and the
Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad was organized, having its
eastern termination at the young and growing town of Clinton,
on the western bank of the Mississippi. Of this Company Mr.
Walker was one of the main directors and its president.

During the summer of 1856, he, in connection with others,
erected and put in operation, at Beloit, Wis., an excellent paper
mill, and a large reaper manufactory; and from a very superior
quality of clay, upon his farm in Morris, Ill., commenced the
manufacture of ‘Green Mountain Ware,” expecting, in time, to
supply Chicago and the Northwest with a quality of stoneware
equal to any in the United States. He also was largely engaged
in farming in the interior.

The conviction, that he who does the most towards opening
up the great channels of trade, so that the poor man’s labor
will gain a level with the rich man’s capital, is a practical
philanthrophist, he was in theory and practice a thorough utili-
tarian. In private life, a plain man and thoroughly democratic;
he recited the incidents of his boyhood and early struggles with’
a degree of well-earned satisfaction, and none more ready, in
every consistant way, with kind words or material countenance
38 CHARLES WALKER.

and aid, to cheer onward honest and persevering industry. From
the first, a faithful and influential member of the church, and a
most exemplary man, we think we do no injustice to any other
citizen to say, that while we are frank to concede there are
others who have added to themselves greater wealth, to none 18
Chicago more indebted for her unexampled prosperity than to
the late Charles Walker.

In closing this brief notice of one so highly esteemed. we may
fitly add the words of another: “In the internal improvements,
which have done so much to develop the exhaustless resources
of the State. in Railroad enterprises, which have poured a flood-
tide of wealth and business into our commercial metropolis of
the Northwest, in every public work, whose intention and effect
was to build up and promote the healthful growth of the City,
he has ever been in the foremost rank of public-spirited men.
In short, taking into consideration the varied incidents of his
active life, his indomitable perseverance and industry, and the
financial ability he has exhibited, Mr. Charles Walker has had
few equals and no superiors, as a skilful business man and a
good citizen.”
THOMAS CHURCH, ESQ.

By JAMES TAYLOR, Pu. D.

Author of ‘Moral and Social Manners,” etc.

INTRODUCTION.

There is a laudable craving in the human heart, to know the
history of those who have become distinguished, whether such
‘distinction is the result of personal merit, or of the peculiar cir-
‘cumstances by which they are surrounded. It has been said,
that “some sre born great, some have greatness thrust upon
them ;” but certain it is that, however favorable circumstances
may be, it requires an inherent power to seize, at the right mo-
ment, the advantages which time and circumstances may offer
the enterprising and watchful. The life of Thomas Church fur-
nishes interesting material, in connection with the early settle-
ment of Chicago, and is a very prominent example of what may
‘be accomplished by a steady perseverance in an honorable course
-of industry, integrity, and self-reliance.

The name of Thomas Church will ever be remembered with
respect and affection by those who knew him best, and were
able to appreciate the many estimable qualities which so well
fitted him to take an active part in the early settlement of Chi-
cago, with the interests of which he was identified from the year
1834, to the time of his death, on the 25th day of June, 1871.

The honorable and exemplary life of Thomas Church well
‘deserves a record, which will hand his name to posterity, and
‘keep green the memory of his many virtues, his goodness of
heart, and noble aspirations.

On the front page of the “Family Bible,” as is customary in
rural homes, the record of the Church family was kept, from
which it appears, that Thomas Church was born, in the Town
and County of Onondago, in the ‘State of New York, on the
‘8th day of December, A. D. 1800. His father died while Thomas
was in his infancy. His mother’s maiden name was Olive Raw-
son, who had been bereft of her husband, and afterwards, by a
‘gecond marriage, became the wife of Thomas Yates, a man of
moderate means, but industrious, enterpiising, and honorable.
In the household of his step-father, young Church was brought
ap. Mr. Yates was the owner of a distillery, and the boy, Thomas,
«was employed in such matters as his strength would permit him
40 THOMAS CHURCH.

to perform. It was his business to carry, on horseback, the meal
from the mill, and to assist in clearing a small farm, where they
raised wheat for the family consumption. They had three cows,
and a span of horses, with which, when the roads were passable,
Mr. Yates used to do teaming, from Albany, for the neighboring
merchants. The family were in good circumstances, compared
with their neighbors. They were very temperate, for Thomas.
never new but of one pint of rum being sent for, and that was
on account of sickness, except, on another occasion, when two
quarts of whisky were purchased, when they had a ‘logging bee.”

When Thomas was twelve years old, the father removed to the
town of Benton, Ontario County. From this time he used to
assist his mother, and, at times, went to school. He occasion-
ally did little chores for the neighbors, for pay, and one day
eared six and a-half cents, for gathering stones from a hay
meadow. Small as were these earnings, he had a purse of his
own, and was anxious to increase his store. When he was four-
teen years of age, his parents removed to Bennington, Genesee-
Couuty, on the border of civilization, and there he practiced a.
pioneer life, helping to clear, with his two younger brothers and
his father, as much land as they were able. Here were spent:
five years, their home a log house, roofed with split-staves and
bark, split and hewed logs for the floor, and stakes set in auger-
holes, with a board on them for seats; a broad chimney, funnel-
shaped, big end down, plastered within with clay and straw..
The mauufacture of maple sugar formed a part of their employ-
ment, and very much interrupted the attendance at school.

And now occurred one of those events which illustrate on:
what trifles our destinies depend.” A disagreement between.
Thomas and his step-father took place, as to whether he should
have the large or the small knife to cut basket wood. His.
father told him, that “unless you have everything your own
way, you will not do anything.” This charge was denied, and:
he was then told: “If he did not like to remain at home, he
could leave.” The young’man replied: “If I thought you were:
in earnest, I would jump the bars as quick as you like.” And
upon this he let fall the axe, “jumped the bars,” and left his.
home. That jump—from home into the world—was ever re-
membered as a mighty event.

And now, launcned upon the world without knowing where
to go—without money—without friends—with only the clothes
he had on—no friends to aid or advise! His thoughts turned to.
those who were better off, who had the advantages of education,
wealth, parents, kind friends that would help them. He envied
those who had learned a profession or trade. He stood alone—-
without help—almost without hope! But he had health and
youth, and as the first. sadness wore away, hope revived, he felt
stronger, and resolved tat, with an honest purpose, and with
the help of God, he would on himself rely; that he would take:
THOMAS CHURCH. 4!

no step backward, and he hurried on to seek employment.
About three miles from his home, he engaged to tend a mason
for two weeks, for which he was to receive twelve bushels of
wheat and six York shillings in money. The man he had
worked for was a miller. There came to the mill a brother of
young Church, with a grist. Thomas told him that he had
twelve bushels of wheat, for which he could get only thirty-
seven and a-half cents a bushel, but he wanted to help pay the
clearing, and if his father would send his bags, he could have
the wheat.

The boy soon came back with the bags and got the wheat;
but young Church was afraid his father might relent; but he
did not. The wheat was gone, and he now had a capital of six
York shillings. However, he agrced to work for the same man,
Mr. Owen Cotton, for one year, at ten dollars a month, the pay-
ment to be made as follows: fifteen dollars in cash, fifteen dol-
lars in orders on a dry-goods store; half the balance in horn
cattle, and the other half in grain, at barter price, vdz., fifty
cents a bushel, the market price being thirty-seven and a-half
cents. In this situation he learned to run a linseed oil mill, a
grist mill, and a saw mill; and, as Mr. Cotton was often from
home, young Church acted as clerk, sold lumber, grain, and oil,
and often went with produce fo the neighboring towns and
exchanged it for raw material. Thus he gained some knowledge
of trade, improved his education, and saw a little of the world.
He had now made the acquaintance of Miss Rachel Warriner,
and this inspired his ambition. Times improved, money became
more plenty, and he exchanged his cattle and grain with Mr.
Cotton for a little farm. He worked another year, during which
time he sold the farm for cash, and, at the end of his term, he
again agreed to work for six months for the sum of sixty
dollars.

At the expiration of the two and a-half years, he had $227.00
in cash, and a new suit of clothes. Rachel waited, and, in 1823,
they were married.

With new responsibilities, new plans were laid, and often
thrown aside; but, ultimately, it was concluded to buy a small
farm, and establish a home. With this view, Mr. Church went
to Chatauqne county, selected and bought a small piece of land,
built a cabin on it, and then returned home on foot, by the way
of Buffalo. There he was overtaken by a snow-storm, and de-
tained one whole day. This delay was the cause of a radical
change in all his pians. :

Buffalo was then a village of 2500 inhabitants, and Mr.
Church did not know any one. He had heard, however,
of an acquaintance of his cousin, and this man he sought
out. He found him keeping a little store, and as busy as a
beaver, notwithstanding the bad weather. While sitting in the
store, the idea occurred to him, Why cannot I do something of
42 THOMAS CHURCH.

this kind? And this thought occupied him during the remain-
ing walk home of thirty miles. Of course, his wife was con-
sulted. Her advice was—Go to Buffalo—if your heart is set
upon this enterprise, it will be successful.” To Buffalo accord-
ingly they went, in February, 1824, leased a spot of ground,
and erected on it a small store and dwelling. When a stock
of goods had been jaid in, their money was exhausted, and
customers were anxiously looked for. ‘The first sale amounted
to three cents. A one dollar bill was presented, and taken,
and ninety-seven cents in silver given in exchange. Woful to
relate—the bill proved to be on a broken bank! This mishap
was a source of much self-reproach, that he should have taken a
young wife to a strange place, locked up all his means in a
dusiness he knew nothing about; and here was a pretty begin-
ning.—He did not tell his wife for some time. A bank note
detector was now purchased, and soon matters began to mend.
The venture proved successful. Trade increased; and the first
year Mr. Church cleared $200, This was probably one of the
pleasantest years of his life. It was his first venture in business,
and the first year of his married life. All things prospered
with him; and he had good reason to look forward to a success-
ful business career, and a happy domestic life.

They remained ten years, during that time the lot he had
occupied had grown in value, from $150 to $4000. In fact,
Buffalo had become a city, competition came in, and it was this
suggested a removal further west. ;

In the spring of 1834, Mr. Church embarked with his effects
‘on board of a small schooner, bound for Chicago. Ever since
1832, when Gen. Scott’s army had returned from the Black
Hawk war, reports had been circulating of the great fertility
of the soil of Illinois, and of the advantages which Chicago
would offer to the adventurous settler. Congress, too, had
made an appropriation of land to the State for the purpose of
constructing a canal from Chicago to the Illinois river.

Far-seeing men discerned in this great enterprise an un-
broken chain of water communication between the Mississippi
and the great lakes, a sure prognostic of the future develop-
ment of Illinois, aud a bright harbinger of the brilliant destiny
in store for her. Mr. Church himself was not insensible to
these great, advantages, although he, in common with the early
settlers of Chicago, had no idea of the rapidity of the future
growth of the city. It was supposed, too, that Congress would
soon make an appropriation for the improvement of the harbor
at the mouth of the Chicago river.

The schooner on which Mr. Church had embarked, arrived
at Chicago on the second day of June, 1834, and anchored
about three-quarters of a mile outside of the mouth of the river.
No vessel had as yet passed over the bar into the river. The
passengers came ashore in boats, and landed their goods in the
THOMAS CHURCH. 43

same way. We may mention here, that the first vessel that
entered the Chicago river was the schooner Illinois, Capt. Pick-
ering. This adventurous officer succeeded in passing the bar
in safety in the fall of 1834. It was considered, as indeed
it was, quite a feat, and an epoch in the history of the State.
That night a jubilee was held in the cabin of the schooner, at
which plenty of champagne was drunk, toasts given, and
speeches made. ~

There were about four hundred people in Chicago on Mr.
Church’s arrival, besides the garrison at Fort Dearborn, which
embraced 200 U.S. troops. The business of the place was all
‘done on Water street. Mr. Church endeavored to buy a lot
there, but was unsuccessful. The land called canal lands was
principally owned by the State. Individuals who owned lots
would not sell them. Individuals claiming the canal lands by
possession, designated their: claim by having a stick of timber
or an old stove on it, and: asked $500 or $600 for their right
of possession. But speculation in lands was not what Mr.
Church came to Chicago for. He desired to get into business,
and wished at least to own the property on which he lived.
He succeeded, finally, in purchasing two lots, Nos. 111 and
113 Lake street, for $250 each, and immediately erected a
store and dwelling house on the property, 20 by 40 feet, and
two stories high. There were few or no regularly traveled
streets in Chicago at that time. The travel from the Fort to
the branching of the river was along the river bank and on
some ridges that crossed ravines leading to the stream. Mr.
Church’s store was the first one built in Chicago fronting on
Lake street. Mr. J. K. Botsford had built a store on Dearborn
street a little while before, the end of which reached to Lake
street :—but at that time there were not enough houses built
to give direction to Lake street. In building his house, Mr.
C.’s greatest difficulty was to get assistance enough. After buy-
ing a raft of timber in the river, he had to get it sawed by hand
into joists and rafters, in the same manner that ship-timber
is sawed. The frame being prepared, a derrick was rigged,
and the frame raised to its place by a pair of oxen. His weather
boards were brought from the Wabash country, by what were
called “ prairie schooners ;” wagons drawn by five or six yoke of
oxen. This land voyage occupied several days, the crew taking
their provisions with them, and camping out at night. After
selling out their cargo and part of their oxen at Chicago, they
would take on board a return load of salt, groceries, or dry
goods, and ‘set sail’ for home again. A grcat deal of Mr. Church’s
early trading was done with the captains of these prairie schoon-
ers. They continued their trips till the march of civilization
rendered them no longer necessary.

In the spring of 1885, Mr. Church went to Buffalo for a stock
of goods. It took five days to get to Detroit by stage. Send-
44. THOMAS CHURCH.

ing his goods by lake, he returned by way of Detroit and Mich-
igan City. There was no regular wagon road, and all vehicles
ran along on the beach of the lake. It took two days to come
from Michigan City to Chicago. There were fourteen passen-
gers on this trip. A lady and two gentlemen rode on the top
of a wagon loaded with baggage. The other eleven passengers
walked on before. The lady was Mrs. Jonn S. C. Hocan, wife
of the then postmaster at Chicago. Her husband, and Mr. Joun
L. Witson, afterwards Sheriff of Cook county. were also in the
arty.
e On arriving home, Mr. Church found that his goods had_got
there before him. During his absence, James Whitlock, Esq.,
Register, and Col. E. D. Taylor. Receiver of the General Land
Office, had been negotiating with his wife for the preparation
of a building for the use of the office, and she had agreed with
them that, on his return, Mr. Church would fit up and furnish
two rooms, in the uppe: story .of his store, for their purpose.
He immediately hired the necessary assistance, and set about the
fulfilment of the contract. The rooms were finisbed by the
first day of June, 1835, and the land sales of that year immedi-
ately commenced. The attendance of buyers was very large
and the bidding quite spirited. The purchasers stood out on
Lake street in front of the land-office, and the constant tramp-
ing of such a crowd made the place very muddy. To obviate
this, and to give the public a dry place to stand, Mr. Church
caused a large quantity of gravel to be brought from the lake
shore, and spread daily over the street. The receipts from the
sales of land in two weeks were over half a million of dollars.
Mr. Church’s profits on the goods sold at the same time and
for three weeks thereafter, five weeks in all, was $800. The
next spring, Mr. Church built an addition to his store, making
it one hundred and eighty by twenty feet, and replenished it
with a fresh stock of goods. In the year 1838, his retail sales
for cash amounted to over $41,000. That year, and the preced-
ing, was a hard year with merchants generally. The great com-
mercial smash up of 1837 had shaken the country to its remot-
est extremities, and even Chicago felt its disastrous effects.
There are some very interesting incidents connected with Mr.
Churct’s early experience of merchandising in Chicago. In
1837, he purchased at one time seventy-five tons of goods, the
freight on which, from New York to Buffalo alone, was $1100.
Late in the, fall of 1837, sugar was very scarce here, and Mr.
Church went to St. Louis, bought a large quantity, and had it
re packed in barrels. This was necessary, as it had to be trans-
ported in wagons from Ottawa here, and the roads being none
of the best, there was some danger that the teamsters might
get stuck in the sloughs. In case this accident should happen,
they could roll the barrels to terra firma. This lot of sugar cost
eight and three-fourth cents per pound in St. Louis, and it sold
THOMAS CHURCH. 45

here at the rate of six pounds fora dollar. It was customary to
buy everything by the dollar’s worth. The smallest change in
money was a half dime. Sixteen of these, or eight dimes,
passed for a dollar.

It was about this time that a change took place in the business
of Chicago. Instead of importing all articles of necessity, Chi-
cago now began to export provisions. Chicago merchants, too,
now began to give credit to dealers in the country, to buy their
produce, to borrow money on warehouse receipts, and to appoint
foreign agents to do their business for them. Mr. Church,
however, did not engage in this branch of traffic, but added to
his other importations, paints, glass, oils, iron, and domestic dry
goods. In 1840, he moved his old store, and built a forty feet
front, fire-proof brick building on Lake street, Nos. 111 and
118, and moved hie goods into it, taking into partnership his
best clerk, Mr. M. L. Satterlee, late of the firm of Satterlee,
Cook & Co.

After a successful business of three years, Mr. Church bought
‘out Mr. Satterlee, and this partnership was dissolved in 1848,
when Mr. Church disposed of his interest in the store, and in-
vested his means, which were now considerable, in the purchase
of real estate. In his transactions in real estate, he was as for-
tunate as in his mercantile career. One of the predominant
traits in his character, though not the ruling one, was caution.
He was never disposed to embark in hazardous undertakings ;
but he has uniformly succeeded in whatever he has undertaken.

An estimate of Mr. Church's property, on retiring from mer-
chandising, showed a clear value of $37,000, and this was the
result of twenty years’ prudent enterprise, during which time
he never was embarrassed to meet his eugagement, and has
always paid one hundred cents on the dollar, and never had a
law suit which reyuired the argument of an attorney.

Mr. Church now invested his means in real estate, having
gained, by experience, a knowledge of the rapid rise in value;
and so successful were his investments that, in the year 1856,
his interest and rents amounted to $10,000; and, in 1857, to
double that amount. The property was estimated, January,
1857, at $300,000, and his income $22,554.50 per annum. The
havoc of panics has rendered these estimates subject to great
vicissitudes; but, like the receding wave of the flood-tide, the
rise of the reflux exceeds the depression, and an advance is
maintained. ¢

The rise in the value of land in Chicago, commenced at an
early day. In 1830 or 1831, twenty feet of ground on Lake st.,
west of, and adjoining No. 113, sold for $7. In 1834, the same
ground was sold for $250. In 1836, it was sold for $8000, it
having then a building on it not worth over $2000. It is now
worth or $1500 per foot, the snug little sum of $80,000.

In June, 1836, the great Canal sale commenced, and a large

.
40 THOMAS CHURCH.

amount of canal lands were sold. The terms were, @ quarter
down, and the balance in one, two, and three years, with interest
on the deferred payments at six per cent. in advance. That
was all, however, that was ever paid, as a few years afterwards
the State compromised with the purchasers, giving them one-
half of the whole quantity of the land for the one-quarter of
the price which they had paid. In 1888, the State offered their
lands on twenty years time, ten per cent. of the purchase money
down, and six per cent. interest for the balance. They took in
payment, too, State Stock, which was then, depreciated to such
an extent that thirty dollars of it could be bought for ten dol-
lars. Such an opportunity to invest money profitably in lands
has never occurred since; but at that time nobody wanted to
buy, for there was very little money in circulation. In 1839, at
the Fort Dearborn sales, lots on Michigan avenue were pur-
chased at a little over $1 per front foot, lots of 48 feet front
selling at $51. The same lots are now worth forty thousand
dollars. Since that date, land has been steadily increasing in

value.

In the summer of 1884, the first Tremont House was built on
the north-west corner of Lake and Dearborn streets. It was
burned down in 1839, that being the first large fire that had
ever happened in Chicago. Mr. Ira Couch immediately built
the second Tremont House on the site of the present edifice,
and kept it till it too, was burned down in 1849. In the fall
of 1849, Mr. Couch erected another noble structure. It was
called by the croakers at first “Couch’s folly ” in derision, some
persons thinking it much too large for a place like Chicago.
But immense as it is, it has been thronged with guests, and its
popularity is increasing every year. In 1871, the Tremont
House was again ravaged by the flames, and is again rebuilt in
a style still more magnificent.

Mr. Church, notwithstanding his close attention to business,
his active mind and benevolent disposition has always led
him to the discharge of his duty as a citizen; active in the pro-
motion of whatever would benefit the interests of Chicago, he
felt a pride in its rapid progress. For eight or nine years, Mr.
Church was city assessor of the south division, and also Com-
missioner for the opening of streets and alleys, for the partition
of real estate, and in awarding widow’s dower; for the planking
and paving of streets, and for appraising the damages and bene-
fits arising: from the establishment of lines of wharfage and
‘dockage on the river. In the entire course of his official con-
duct, requiring the making of maps of subdivisions of the city,
and placing the abstract titles on record, we have not heard
of a single mistake, or a single complaint of unfairness or
partiality.

In 1849, Mr. Church was nominated for mayor of the City of.
Chicago, by the Whig party, but was defeated.
THOMAS CHURCH. 47

On the organization of the Fireman’s Insurance Company, Mr.
Church was elected president, and filled the office with great
crecit, commanding the respect and esteem of his brother di-
rectors. As a token of their respect, in 1863, they presented
Mr. Church with a handsome gold watch; value, $250. The
character of Mr. Church is too well known to require eulogy, but
the object of a biographical sketch is to hand down to posterity
the record he has made with his cotempories.

In 1854, when the cholera raged in our midst with such
alarming fatality—when the angel of death held high revel
in our streets—when strong men and little children alike
were stricken down on every side—when medical skill and
the tenderest care were unavailing to stay the progress of
the plague or to snatch its victims from its deadly grasp—when
all business was paralyzed and when hundreds were fleecing
from the pestilence, Mr. Church remained af home, discharged
his usual duties, and ministered to the wants of the sick around
him. He was not alone in this. Many others of our citizens,
like him, devoted themselves to the noble work of alleviating
the sufferings they could not prevent.

Successful in his ‘pecuniary circumstances, Mr. Church was
not less prosperous in his domestic relations. He was happy
in his first marriage, in the possession of the choice of his heart’s
first affections; in whom he found a congenial help in his early
struggles, and a companion in his early successes. To her was
born five children, two of whom survive and are married to very
estimable gentlemen now living in Chicago. In April, 1839,
Mrs. Church died, which was the cause of great affliction to her
husband and family. His two children were deprived of a
mother’s fostering care, and his happy home had become deso-
late. Hired help can not supply the place of parental affection,
and, for a time, there was sorrow in that dwelling.

In the fall of the same yeur, at the sick-bed of a neighbor,
Mr. Church accidentally met Mrs. Rebecca Pruyne; knowing
that she had no other interest than a neighborly sympathy, he
thought it a manifestation of a kind heart, and became favorably
impressed. She was a lady of comely appearance, respectably
connected, was the widow of the late Peter Pruyne. Mr. Pruyne
was senator of this State, and Rebecca was daughter of 8. W.
Sherman, of this city. She had one child. Mr. Church had
two children; it was a legal proportion, she was entitled to aer
thirds. This casual meeting ripened into an acquaintance, and,
ultimately, into a mutual sympathy and attachment, and, in
November, 1839, they were married. The alliance proved
mutually satisfactory, and, as their pecuniary circumstances were
ample for their moderate habits, they had only to seek happi-
ness in the rational enjoyments suited to their tastes. Their
quiet of home life, they diversified by travel; they visited the
homes of their early youth, and gratitied themselves in again
48 THOMAS CHURCH.

viewing the scenes with which their affections and memories
were entwined. These travels were extended to many places
of interest. Mr. Church was, in the meantime, carrying on his
enterprises in real estate, building largely, and watching with
great interest the progress of the city, until June, 1871, when,
after a short illness, he died, regretted by a large circle of
friends. Obituary notices were published in the daily press,
and the directors of the Firemen’s Insurance Company passed
the following resolutions: :

Resolved—That the news of the death, on Sunday evening,
of our first and only president, Thomas Church, fills our hearts
with sorrow, and is an event greatly to be deplored.

Resolved—That his death is not only a loss to this company,
but to the community in which he has so long honorably and
exemplarily lived.

Resolved—That we will, in a body, attend his funeral, and
that we extend to his family our sympathies, and that these
resolutions be spread upon the records ot the company, of which
he has so long been an honored and useful president.

Mr. Church was a large and fine looking man, of plain and un-
affected manners, and modest and retiring in his deportment.
We are not informed whether or not he was connected with any
religious society, but from our personal knowledge of his char-
acter, we should pronounce him to be Christian at heart and in
practice, whether he was so in name or not. He was one of our
wealthiest citizens, but he was esteemed and respected far more
for his estimable qualities, for his sound good sense, for his
active usefulness, and for his quiet and unostentatious benevo-
lence, than for the adventitious glare of mere wealth.

Although part of the present sketch was in type before it was
submitted to the present editor, he has been permitted a sight
of an autobiography of the late Thomas Church, It is replete
with very interesting matter bearing upon the history of Chi-
cago during nearly forty years of close observation. These
observations will form invaluable material in preparing a his-
tory of Chicago, but are too lengthy to be even glanced at in
this sketch we extract the following: “I feel very grateful and
thank a divine Providence for the good and kind husbands that
our daughters have. They are thrifty, industrious, and good
providers for their families. The eldest, Geo. A. Ingalls, is a
lawyer; the second, Ephram Ingals, is a doctor; the youngest,
8. D. Kimbark, is an iron merchant. Neither of them use pro-
fane language, or tobacco, and are quite temperate. They all
came home last Thanksgiviug-day, each brought their eldest,
child, and I believe the arrangement is, that on next Thanks-
giving-day, our extension-table is to be spread so as to admit
three more little ones. I feel proud of our boys, and have reason
to hope that they will continue in well-doing; remain good
men, good husbands, and good fathers!” = °
 

 

 

 

 

 

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