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UNIVERSITY oflUJNOIS
THE UNITED STATES
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
PORTRAIT GALLERY
EMINENT AND SELF-MADE MEN.
ILLINOIS VOLUME.
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK:
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
H. C. COOPER, JR., & Co., PROPRIETORS.
1883.
...'
STATES RfOGK.irillCM. DICTIONARY. 8 I
west, and many a man on his way east or west stopped over a few hours in Moline to learn some-
thing of the condition of Mr. Swan. His life was full of incidents of great actions, in which he
was the principal. The soldier boys who fell wounded on the field after the battle of Stone River
will never forget his kindness to them. He was sent from Moline by the people to look after the
dead and wounded who had gone from our midst to fight the battles of freedom. He arrived at
the enemy's lines, and was told that he could go no farther, and probably there were few men in
the country who would have attempted to disobey, but Mr. Swan went through the lines and
cared for the wounded Moline boys who were lying on the battle.-field waiting for death at the
hands of a brutal rebel soldiery. He provided for their wants, and saw that they had as good
treatment as could be obtained, and when he returned to Moline he brought home with him the
body of Lieutenant Wellington Wood, one of Moline's favorite sons, who fell at Stone River.
There was nothing too hard for Mr. Swan to undertake, or too difficult for him to execute. He
was one of those men who knew no such word as fail, and all his deeds were characterized by
Christian virtue. He was for many years, and at the time of his death, a member of the Congre-
gational church, and gave liberally of his means to the Lord's cause. In politics he was a repub-
lican, of the staunchest kind, whose faith and allegiance never wavered. In Mr. Swan's death,
Moline has been deprived of one of its best, most useful and public spirited citizens, and the
Northwest has lost one of the most energetic business men it ever knew. The rich and poor alike
will mourn his loss, for he was beloved by men of every walk in life."
Mr. Swan left a wife, whose maiden name was Mercy Parsons, and whom he married at Wood-
stock, Illinois, December 17, 1856, and four children, whose names are Lillie E., Robert E., Clara
B., and Edith L. In addition to a competency, he left his family the legacy of a good name i
which is better than silver and gold.
s
SAMUEL P. CRAWFORD. ,
ROCKFORD.
AMUEL PRESTON CRAWFORD, mayor of the city of Rockford, and one of its enterpris-
ing manufacturers, was born in Union, Tolland county, Connecticut, May 16, 1820, his parents
being Charles and Polly (Preston) Crawford, both of New England stock. The Crawfords are an
old Connecticut family, and the grandfather of our subject, Samuel Crawford, was one of
those brave sons of liberty who took up arms against the mother country, and aided in gaining
the independence of the colonies.
Mr. Crawford received an academic education principally at Dudley, Massachusetts, and for a
few years was engaged in farming with his father, and lumbering in his native state, marrying
Miss Philena Leonard Chamberlain, of Woodstock, Connecticut, in 1845. In 1848 he went to
Springfield, Massachusetts, and was a merchant there for two years; returned to his native state
in 1850, and was engaged in merchandising until May, 1852, when he came to Illinois and selected
Rockford as his future home. The writer of this sketch first saw this city, then a village, in the
summer of that year, and was smitten with its natural beauties, and conscious of its bright future,
because of its superior water power. The whole Rock River, then but slightly utilized, was at the
command of capital and industry, and thirty years ago it required but little of the gift of the seer,
to see a city gradually arising where Rockford, the loveliest, if not the liveliest Illinois city of the
younger class,-now stands.
When Mr. Crawford settled here, he engaged in the grain and general produce business, rail-
road communication being opened with Chicago in that year, and that line of traffic he followed
for several years, afterward engaging extensively in farming operations. But manufacturing has
become the leading industry of the place, and a few years ago he made a change, and is now run-
ning a planing mill, and manufacturing sash, door, blinds, etc., on an extensive scale, he being
the senior member of the firm of Crawford and Upton. He is a stockholder in the Winnebago
National Bank. From the time that Mr. Crawford settled in Rockford, he has identified the city's
82 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
interests with his own, and showed in more ways than one, his public spirit and his desire to aid
in advancing its prosperity. He was for ten consecutive years alderman of the 7th ward, and so
faithfully did he serve his constituents, and so zealously worked for the welfare of the city, that
at the end of that period (1881) the citizens placed him at the head of its municipality. He makes
a good executive, being a practical, as well as an efficient business man, and as he has energetic-
backers and co-workers in the council, the people have the satisfaction of knowing that the city is
under a progressive as well as safe administration.
Rockford is a very strong republican city, and has not for many years had a mayor of any
other school of politics. Mayor Crawford is a deacon of the First Baptist Church, and a man of
solid character and good impulses. In him the poor find a true friend.
HON. ISAAC RICE, M.D.
MOUNT MORRIS.
ONE of the most thoroughly self-made citizens of Ogle county, is the subject of this sketch
who came here in early youth, and was soon thrown upon his own resources. It was before
the advent of school houses in the farming districts in this part of the county, and for a few years
he had to pick up knowledge at a great disadvantage, as cattle sometimes browse upon trees
when they can do no better.
Isaac Rice is a son of Jacob and Mary (Rowland) Rice, both natives of the state of Maryland,
and was born in Washington county, that state, October 28, .1826. He seems to have had no
ambition to trace the family tree to its original trunk, and knows very little of his ancestors,
except that on the paternal side they were probably German. If that is the case the name may
have been spelt Reis a hundred years ago. But Isaac was satisfied to follow his. honest father in
his orthography, and whatever history he has made is under the plain English name of Rice. In
July, 1837, in his eleventh year he came with the family, consisting of the parents and twelve
children, (Isaac being the eleventh) to Ogle county, and they settled on land three miles north of
Mount Morris. Here he was reared, and early inured to hard farm work. That was long before
anybody in these parts had to look out for the engine while the bell rung, and Chicago, a hun-
dred miles away, was the market town. Isaac has still a distinct recollection of the length of the
road leading to that town. (>n one occasion he drove a four ox team with a covered wagon to
Chicago, carrying fifty bushels of wheat, for which he received thirty cents a bushel, the entire
load bringing the round sum of fifteen dollars. He carried his own provisions with him, and
slept in his wagon, in order to lessen traveling expenses. The oxen fed on the wayside grass.
Such experiences as this were common forty and fifty years ago with younger, and older per-
sons, living fifty and a hundred miles from Chicago.
Jacob Rice was a pioneer settler in this part of Ogle county, preceding the church as well as
the school house. But he was a thoughtful man, and soon built a house in which young ideas
could be taught to shoot on week days, and ministers could talk on Sundays. In that humble
log structure Isaac had a little mental drill when there was no work for him to do on the farm.
A little later, having a strong thirst for knowledge, he alternated between teaching school and
attending the Rock River Seminary in the village of Mount Morris, with a little episode now and
then in the harvest field. He was endowed by nature with a strong constitution, which he con-
tinued to improve from year to year and which he still enjoys, having never done anything to
injure it. After securing a fair English education, Mr. Rice concluded to study medicine. He
read with Doctor Francis A. McNill, of Mount Morris, attended two courses of lectures at Rush
Medical College, Chicago, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine in February 1855. He
did a little prescribing, but soon abandoned drugs and resumed agricultural pursuits. He has
two good farms near Mount Morris, and very likely may have other lands of which we have no
knowledge. Since 1878 he has been in the banking business, and is of the firm of Newcomer and
Rice, Mount Morris, and is president of the First National Bank of Oregon.
UNITED STATES BIOC,KA /'///( 'A I. DICTIONARY. 8^
Doctor Rice was a member of the lower house of the state legislature in 1873 and 1876, and is
now in the upper house, and chairman of the committee on banks and banking. He introduced
into the senate what is known as the Hind's bill, which gave women a voice in saying who
should and who should not be licensed to sell intoxicating drinks. He also introduced the first
resolution for the submission to the people of the question in regard to the manufacture of dis-
tilled spirits in the state. Both measures failed, but Doctor Rice is a hopeful man, and never aban-
dons a good cause. He is an indomitable worker for temperance, and for every reform designed
to benefit the people. No truer heart than his beats in Mount Morris. He is a member of the
Methodist church, has held the post of superintendent of the Sunday school and is president of
the county Sunday-school convention. He has also held various civil offices of a local character,
such as road master, school director, school trustee, etc., making himself useful in many ways to
the community.
Doctor Rice was married, January n, 1857, to Miss Sarah Hiestand', a native of Washington
county, Maryland, and they have buried two children, Rowland and Anna, and have one son,
Joseph T., living. Jacob Rice died at Mount Morris in April, 1870, in his eighty-sixth year, and
his wife in December 1840. They were members of the so-called River Brethren, a branch of
the Baptist family, much like the Dunkards.
HON. GEORGE RYON, M.D.
AM BO y.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch is a son of James and
Sarah (Place) Ryon, and was born at Elkland, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, June 5, 1827.
His father was born in Luzerne county, same state. His paternal grandfather, John Ryon, enlisted
as a private in the revolutionary war, and served for seven years, coming out as orderly sergeant
of his company. His great-grandfather was from Ireland. James Ryon came to Illinois with
his family in 1838, and halted in Long Grove, Kendall county, where George finished his literary
education at the academy, working more or less on his father's farm until seventeen years old.
He lost his mother in Kendall county in 1851, and his father at Streator, Illinois, in 1872. Our
subject taught school one winter before studying medicine; read at first with Doctor Isaac Ives, of
Pavilion, Kendall county; finished with Doctors Wheeler and Holden, of the same county;
attended lectures two terms at Rush Medical College, when his funds gave out, and to replenish
them he taught school another winter term, and commenced the practice of his profession at Paw
Paw Grove, Lee county, in 1850. Subsequently he attended lectures at Rush, and received his
medical degree. After practicing for six or seven years, and building up an extensive business,
he was seized with a violent passion for the law, and turned to Coke and Blackstone. He was
admitted to the bar at Dixon in 1858, and while engaged in legal practice in Lee county he was
drawn into politics, and in 1860 was elected to the legislature, representing Lee and Whiteside
counties.
In August, 1862, he raised a company of volunteers for the 75th Illinois infantry, and at its
organization was elected colonel. After serving a short time his health failed, and he resigned,
and resumed the practice of medicine at Paw Paw. In 1866 he was again elected to the legisla-
ture, this time to represent Lee county alone. He also served for several years as a member of
the board of supervisors. In 1869 Colonel Ryon removed from Paw Paw to Amboy, started a
private bank, and continued it until the spring of 1873, when he went to Streator, and with two
brothers, Hiram N. and Francis M. Ryon, sunk a shaft, and organized the Streator Coal Com-
pany, which is still doing well.
In 1876 Doctor Ryon moved to Chicago, and practiced medicine in that city in company with
Doctor Franklin B. Ives until the autumn of 1879, when he settled in Amboy, and has since built
up a prosperous business. Notwithstanding the episodes in his life, diverting his attention for
84 UNITED STATES FtlOGRAPHICAI. DICTIONARY.
the time being from the medical profession, he has kept well read up, and is very skillful in the
healing. His mind is active, quick and grasping, and he packs away knowledge with great speed.
He has written occasionally for medical periodicals, reporting such cases as came under his notice,
and were deemed of importance enough to interest the fraternity.
The doctor is a thoroughgoing republican, and at times is quite active in the interests of the
party, being a man of more than ordinary influence and magnetic power. Doctor Ryon was mar-
ried in November, 1851, to Miss Ruth A. Ives, daughter of Doctor Isaac Ives, of Pavilion, Illinois,
and they have one daughter, Carrie S., a graduate of the University of Chicago, class of 1880.
Mrs. Ryon is a member of the Baptist church.
LEWIS STEWARD.
PL A NO.
IF any person in the state of Illinois is deserving of the title of a self-made man, that person
was the granger-democratic candidate for governor in 1876. He was carved out of solid
material, and some of the roughness still remains, but the material is sound, and it is seldom that
more true manhood is found in an equal number of pounds avoirdupois weight. Lewis Steward
made his appearance in this world in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, about November 20, 1824,
his parents being Marcus and Ursula (Hollister) Steward. His father was born in New London,
Connecticut, and belonged to a family of educators and agriculturists, the father, grandfather
and great-grandfather of Marcus being school teachers. The Hoilisters were among the first
families who settled in Connecticut. The maternal grandmother of Lewis was a Rogers, a
descendant of Rev. John Rogers, the martyr, and she had his copy of the Bible.
Marcus Steward was a farmer, and belonged to that class of men who regard it as a sin to rear
a family in idleness, and if Lewis was afflicted with laziness it was early worked out of him. His
father emigrated from Pennsylvania to this state in the spring of 1834, when our subject was thir-
teen years old, and settled in land now partly covered by the site of the village of Piano, and here
the son aided in breaking land and opening the farm, with scanty opportunities in youth for self-
improvement. Tradition affirms that Lewis picked up his letters, one by one, at a very early age,
his mother assisting him, being much encouraged by his precocity. Whether she saw smart-
ness enough in him to lead her to predict his early death, we know not. What we do know is,
that he is still alive, and able to do a man's work. Furthermore, the fruits of his industry are
seen, in part, in his accumulation of real estate, he having nearly five thousand acres of land, all
of the best quality, all under excellent cultivation, and three-fifths of it within two miles of Piano.
At an early day, long prior to going into farming so extensively, Mr. Steward had a leaning
toward the legal profession. His early friend, Judge Helm, put this notion in his head, lent him
books, and Lewis read law while farming and running a saw mill. Some years afterward he was
admitted to the bar, but for some reason had but little to do with the briefs. He seems to have
learned just enough of the law to know how to keep out of it, having never had a suit.
Mr. Steward early saw the importance of a railroad in developing the country and furnishing
the means of conveying produce to the market, and it was largely through his influence that the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad came to Piano. Surveys for that road had been first
made both north and south of that village. Nor was he slow in discovering that if Piano ever
reached a point much beyond a "four corners," she must have manufactories, and here, in 1860,
he began to assist in the manufacture of the then unknown but now famous Marsh harvester,
turning out twenty-five of these machines the first year, and also the second, he being at first of
the firm of Marsh Brothers and Steward. In five years four hundred and fifty of these machines
were turned out annually; in ten, three thousand, and three or four years later, no less than five
thousand, giving employment to four hundred workmen, the firm name meanwhile b.eingchangec}
several times.
UNITED STATES ftfOGK.tr/flCA/. DICTIONARY. 85
The shops were also enlarged from year to year, until they are seven hundred and sixty feet
long, five hundred and forty feet being two stories high and the rest one story. The buildings
are now owned by the Piano Steam Power Company, which was organized in 1881, and of which
Mr. Steward is president. Soon afterward the Piano Manufacturing Company was organized,
with a capital of $100,000, with W. H. Jones president, our subject having an interest in both of
the organizations, the one company furnishing steam for the other. In June, 1882, the capital
stock of the steam power company was doubled, bringing it up to $200,000.
The machines now manufactured by the company are the Piano harvester and binder and
mowers, in all about five thousand a year. And here it may not be out of place to state that no
longer ago than 1875, Mr. Steward started with Mr. Gordon, in Texas, the first automatic binder
that ever went through a harvest with a farmer alone, that farmer managing the machine himself
and cutting two hundred and fifty acres. That was only eight years ago, and now most farmers
are using the automatic binder.
Mr. Steward is interested in nearly every branch of husbandry, and has at times paid a good
deal of attention to blooded stock. Some of the best horses the writer has ever seen in northern
Illinois were owned by him.
He took much interest in the granger movement of 1873-6, and when the delegates of that
party met at Decatur, in February, 1876, to nominate a candidate for governor, to his great sur-
prise, he was the choice of the convention. A few months later the democrats held their state
convention at Springfield, indorsed his nomination, and he came so near succeeding that a change
of one-half of one per cent of the votes would have elected him. He survived the shock, and is
to-day one of the livest men in the state.
Mr. Steward was first married in 1848 to Miss Cornelia Gale, who died in 1854, leaving one
son, who has since died, in Vienna, Europe; and the second time in 1866 to Miss Mary Hunt, by
whom he has had eight children, six of them, all sons, yet living.
T
GEORGE STEPHENS.
MOLINE.
HE subject of this sketch, a pioneer settler in Moline, and one of its prominent manufactur-
ers, was born in Fairfield, Ligonier township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, February
22, 1819. His father, Randall Stephens, a soldier in the war of 1812-4, was born in the -same
state. An older brother of his father was captured by the Indians, and never heard of afterward.
Randall Stephens married Martha Boggs, a native of Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, and they
had ten children, of whom George was the ninth child. His school privileges were quite limited,
but he succeeded, by private study, in securing a fair business education. He learned his father's
trade, that of millwright, and worked at it in Pennsylvania until 1843, when he came to Moline,
there being only three houses there then, and to-day there are more than a thousand private resi-
dences. Mr. Stephens built the first saw mill ever put up in Davenport, Iowa. The winter of
l8 43~4 he spent at the East; in the following spring returned to Moline, and made a permanent
settlement here, and for several years gave his time to b'uilding mills in Illinois and Iowa.
Subsequently he was engaged in the manufacture of lumber and furniture on the island of
Rock Island, in company with Jonathan Herntoon, until the United States government took pos-
session of the property. In the summer of 1861 Mr. Stephens went to the Rocky Mountains and
built a quartz mill for a St. Louis man, at Lincoln Gulch, Colorado.
In 1866 the Moline Plow Company was formed, and Mr. Stephens linked his interests with
Candel, Swan and Friberg in the manufacture of steel plows, commencing by turning out
above one thousand a year. The premises and force were enlarged from time to time; the busi-
ness grew rapidly, and in 1882 the Moline Plow Company turned out no less than sixty thousand
plows. Mr. Swan, of the original firm, died in 1878, and in 1881 other changes were made, the
86 UNITED STATES flfOGRA Pff/CA f DICTIONARY.
proprietors now being George Stephens, Andrew Friherg and S. W. Wheelock. Mr. Wheelock
is president and Mr. Stephens vice-president, a position which he has held from the start. The
company employs about three hundred workmen, and turns out a steel plow second in quality to
nothing of the kind made in the West. Mr. Stephens is a skillful mechanic, and has always given
his entire time to supervising certain departments of the work. He has lived a very industrious
life, and in a pecuniary sense has been generously rewarded for the time and strength expended.
The wife of Mr. Stephens was Miss Mary Ann Gardner, of Rock Island county, married in
1846. They have buried two children, and have six living: George A. and Charles Randall are
at Carmi, White county, they being mill owners; Mary L. is married to George Herntoon, of
Moline; Minnie Florence, to Frank Allen, of Aurora, Illinois, and Ada A. and Nellie May are at
home.
HON. IRA. V. RANDALL.
DE KALB.
IRA VAIL RANDALL, the oldest lawyer in practice at De Kalb, and one of the leading citi-
zens of that city, was born in Mount Holly, Rutland county, Vermont, March 2, 1820, his
father, Isaac Randall, being a native of the same county. The grandfather of Ira was Snow
Randall, who came from England after the colonies had gained their independence. Isaac Ran-
dall married Gallana Chandler, whose grandfather was a millionaire, and settled in Chester, Rut-
land county, Vermont, and is reported to have owned, at an early day, that entire town. He kept
for years a public house, or more properly, a house for the public, in which his hospitalities were
dispensed with an entirely gratuitous, as well as liberal, hand. He married a sea captain's daugh-
ter, and tradition states that at the wedding he (the landlord) measured out half a bushel of gold
coin, uncounted, as a present to his wife. He was a leading politician in his day, and held vari-
ous official positions.
Our subject prepared for college at West Poultney, in his native state, and was intending to
take a full college course, but the state of his health deterred him from matriculating. He
taught school for thirteen winters, commencing in his seventeenth year, studying law at the same
period. He commenced reading with Hon. Sewell Fullam, State's Attorney Ludlow, and finished
with Hon. Solomon Foot, of Rutland, where he was admitted to the bar in 1847.
In April of the year before he had married Miss Susan L. Earle, of Mount Holly, daughter of
Lawson Earle, an extensive farmer and dairyman. Mr. Randall practiced his profession for three
years at Barnard, Windsor county, and during that period he visited the West, and spent three
months in Illinois, lecturing in advocacy of the Maine law, an episode in his life on which no
doubt he still looks back with pleasure.
December 27, 1856, he landed in the embryotic village of De Kalb, with his family, con-
sisting of his wife and one daughter, Emma A., now the wife of Lawrence Hulser, of De Kalb.
Here, for more than a quarter of a century, Mr. Randall has been practicing law, doing business
in all the state and federal courts, and making a success in his profession. He has the reputation
of being a well read lawyer, faithful to his client, clinging to that client's interests with bull-dog
tenacity, and being on the whole quite successful in his profession, the state of his health being
his only drawback.
Mr. Randall was postmaster at Mount Holly, and held the same office at an early day in De
Kalb. He was a member of the Illinois state legislature in 1865-6, and has held one or two
municipal offices in this city, serving at one period as a member of the school board. He has
always taken a lively interest in the cause of education, and not unlikely still regrets that poor
health prevented him from going through college.
He was originally a whig, an unterrified Vermont whig, and left that state two years after
that party had begun to moulder in the ground with the remains of John Brown. Since 1855
he has been an enthusiastic republican, and up to a recent date was an active, earnest worker in
UNITED STATES filOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 7
its interests, attending judicial, congressional and state conventions as a delegate from his county,
and doing at times manly work on the stump. He is still a zealous advocate of temperance, in behalf
of which cause he has pleaded in half a dozen states besides Illinois, including Vermont, Massachu-
setts, New York, Michigan, New Hampshire. Mr. Randall also lectures on various other sub-
jects, such as the enfranchisement of women, pre-Adamite man, etc. He is well posted on the
various questions agitating the public mind to-day, and is a fascinating talker, a keen logician,
and a splendid debater.
His first wife died in 1861, and in 1868 he married Mrs. Mardula D. (Bent) Boeyton, by whom
he has no issue. Mr. Randall has a compact build, is five feet ten inches tall, and weighs one
hundred and eighty-five pounds. His eyes are blue, but his disposition is not. He is rather
jovial, laughs easily and heartily, and is a good factor of a social circle.
HENRY REED, M.D.
ROCHELLE.
HENRY REED, for thirty years a medical practitioner in the State of Illinois, and one of the
best known men in Ogle county, is a native of Oneida county, New York, dating his birth
January 10, 1817. His father, Henry Reed Sr., in early life a mechanic, and in later years a far-
mer, was born in Connecticut. This branch of the Reed family was from Massachusetts. The
wife of Henry Reed, Sr., was Sarah Moore, a native of Connecticut. Our subject was reared in
Crawford county, Pennsylvania, attending school in the winter term, and farming the rest of
the year, until eighteen or twenty years of age; studied medicine at Meadville, Pennsylvania,
with Doctors Woodruff and Bemus; attended lectures at Cincinnati; practiced in Pennsylvania
four or five years; came to Illinois in 1852, and practiced five years at Shabbona Grove, and
in April, 1855, settled in Rochelle, then called Lane. Twenty-five and thirty years ago this part
of the state was somewhat thinly settled, and the doctor had very extensive rides, extending into
Lee as well as De Kalb and Ogle counties, and in various parts of these several counties his face
was as familiar as that of almost any man of any profession in this section of Illinois. He has
been successful in a pecuniary as well as a professional sense, and could have retired years ago
with a competency, but is too much wedded to his calling, and has too many friends pleading" for
his professional aid, to lay aside the gallipots.
Doctor Reed once held the office of coroner, but has never sought official positions of any kind
Originally a whig, he became a republican on the demise of the former party, and is very firm in
his political tenets. In religious belief he is an Adventist, and as far as we can ascertain he has
lived an unblemished life.
Doctor Reed married August 6, 1839, Miss Diantha C. Bly, of Crawford county, Pennsylvania,
and they have seven children, all settled in life but the youngest.
LUCIAN L. LEEDS, M.D,
LINCOLN.
UCIAN LAVASSA LEEDS, a son of Peter T. Leeds, M.D., and Jane (Harden) Leeds, was
born in Clermont, Ohio, April 23, 1831. Both parents were natives of New Jersey. His
paternal great-grandfather was from Leeds, England, and his grandfather was a soldier in the
American revolution. Lucian received an academic education in Batavia, Ohio, including the
classics; studied medicine with his father, commenced practice at Mechanicsburgh, Sangamon
county, Illinois, in 1852; located in Lincoln in 1854; attended lectures at Rush Medical College,
Chicago, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine from that institution in 1856, and has been
in practice at Lincoln for twenty-eight years, ignoring all side issues, including politics. Doc-
88 UNITED STA TES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR V.
tor Leeds has attended exclusively and very closely to his business, and made it a marked success.
His practice has been general, and he has had a liberal share of surgery, obstetrics, etc. His
skill in every branch of the medical profession is undoubted, and his reputation wide-spread.
The doctor is a member of the Brainard District Medical Society, and of the State Medical
Society, and is well known among the medical fraternity. He is also well known among the
Freemasons and Odd-Fellows, being high up in both orders; in the York rite up to the Comman-
dery; in the Scottish rite up to the Consistory, and a member of the subordinate lodge and
encampment in Odd-Fellowship. In both orders he has held the highest offices in all but the
Consistory. In his religious views he is quite liberal, with a leaning toward Swedenborgianism.
Doctor Leeds served four years on the local board of education, two of them as chairman of
the board, and did some good work in that noble cause, in which he takes a great deal of interest.
Although very busy usually in a professional line, he finds time occasionally to use the pen, and
employs it in reporting cases and preparing essays for medical periodicals.
Doctor Leeds has been twice married, first in 1852 to Miss Susan Shoup of Logan county, Illi-
nois, she dving in 1853, leaving one daughter, now married to Edward Spillman, Lincoln; and the
second time in 1856 to Miss Hannah Wilson, of Lincoln, having by her three daughters, all at
home.
WESTEL W. SEDGWICK.
SANDWICH.
THE subject of this sketch was born of a highly respectable family, June 7, 1827, at West-
moreland, Oneida county, New York. His father, Samuel Sedgwick, was a physician. His
mother was Ruhamah P. Knights. When he was ten years old his parents removed to Hartford,
Ohio, where he attended the common school until he had reached the age of fourteen. He then
spent a year as clerk in a store at East Union. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the sad-
dler's trade, and worked at it two years, when, with his parents, he removed to Little Rock,
Kendall county, Illinois. Here he took a clerkship in a store for a time, but in 1845 went to
Bloomingdale, Du Page county, and began the study of medicine. Not having sufficient means
to pay his expenses, he divided his time between study and farm work for two years, except dur-
ing the winters, when he taught, receiving twelve dollars per month. In 1847^6 entered his
father's office, at Little Rock, as assistant, and after his father's death, which occurred in March
of that year, he continued his practice.
In the autumn of 1847 he entered Rush Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated in 1848.
He followed his profession for six years at Little Rock, when his health began to fail from over-
work, and he was obliged to relinquish his practice. In 1854 he opened a store of general mer-
chandise at Little Rock, and continued the business till 1857, in which year he removed to
Sandwich, his present home. He at once purchased a large tract of land, and laid out what is
known as Sedgwick's addition to Sandwich.
In 1858 in partnership with Mr. Hendee, he opened a drug store, which he conducted till 1860,
when he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1862, at Ottawa, Illinois, and at
once began practicing at Sand'wich. In 1862 he was elected to the legislature of Illinois from
the fifty-first district. He was president of the board of trustees of Sandwich in 1865, and the
two following years. For nine years he was a member of the board of supervisors, during six
of which he was chairman.
In 1869 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and was appointed by Governor
Beveridge a trustee of the Insane Asylum at Jacksonville. He was also a director and vice-
president of the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, and three years president and several years
director of the Sandwich Enterprise Company, and of the Sandwich Cheese Company. He has
held the office of justice of the peace since 1860, and was elected mayor of Sandwich two terms,
in 1873 and 1874, and is the city attorney of Sandwich at the present time. In all these positions
::.-
CXITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. gi
his course has been upright and honorable, and no better evidence of his skill and good manage-
ment can be given than is shown by the success that has attended him. He is an elder of the
Presbyterian church, and superintendent of the Sunday school and an active Christian worker.
He has been republican in his political opinions since the organization of that party.
Mr. Sedgwick married, June 7. 1848, Miss Sarah A. Toombs. of Little Rock, and she has had
ten children, losing five of them. In the summer of 1881 he started for the old world, and
visited Ireland, Scotland. England, France. Italy, Greece. Turkev, Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt,
the Valley of the Nile as far up as ancient Memphis, through the Suez Canal to Port Said, etc.
He was absent six months, and during that time wrote more than thirty letters, which were pub-
lished in the Sandwich " Free Press," and very eagerly read by its patrons.
J
JOAMS O. HARRIS. M.D.
OTTAWA.
OANIS ORLANDO HARRIS, son of Orris and Luanda K. (Calley) Harris, was born in Liv-
erpool, Onondaga county. New York. September 13. 1828. His father, a native of Long Island,
was captain of the first packet that ever ran on the Syracuse and Oswego canal, and was a soldier
in the second war with England. Both grandfathers, Harris and Calley, were in the first war
with the mother countrv.
Our subject received his literary and medical education at Baldwinsville, and Geneva, New
York. He read medicine with Doctor J. E. Todd. Baldwinsville; attended lectures at Genera,
where he received the degree of doctor of medicine in 1851, and the next year he settled in
Ottawa, his present home where he was in steady and extensive practice about twenty years, when.
finding that the night work of the profession did not agree with his health, he nearly withdrew
from the practice. He made an excellent record as medical practitioner, and not unlikely worked
too hard in his early years in the profession. Latterly he has done little more than make out a
prescription occasionally for some intimate friend, or for some old family whose only physician
he was perhaps for a score of years.
Doctor Harris went into the army in 1862, as assistant surgeon of the 5jd Illinois infantry, and
held that position a little more than one year, resigning because of seriously impaired health; was
surgeon in charge of a hundred-day regiment, while it was in camp at Ottawa: was post surgeon
at La Grange, and at Bolivar. Tennessee, and also belonged to the Illinois corps of volunteer sur-
geons, after leaving the service. He was recommended by General Grant for brevet surgeon, with
rank of major. Since retiring from the practice of medicine and surgery, the doctor has been
engaged in real estate, being the leading man in that business in La Salle county. He deals not
only in local property, city and county, but is land agent for railroad
Nebraska, Missouri and Texas. We have known Doctor Harris for more than a quarter of a <
tnry, and take pleasuie in bearing testimony to his integrity and high sense of honor in all
ness transactions. To real estate he has added fire and fife insurance, in which he is also doing
a good business.
The doctor is public-spirited, and identifies himself with every local enterprise falr^fannri to
benefit the public. He was secretary of the La Salle County Agricultural Society for fire or six
years, and has held the ~imi nfc i for some rears, of the Ottawa Mnanf laiia^ Company, and
the Ottawa BuihKng A^soriajiq^the fast in Illinois, and organised soletr through Ins egbrts. He
was one of the organizers of the Ottawa Business Men's Association, of which be was secretary
for several years, doing a great deal of hard work to build k up. No other man here has done so
much in that line.
He is a Master Mason, and was Grand Patriarch of the Grand Fnrimpmrnt of moig Odd-
Fellows in 1868. and a member of the Grand Lodge of the United Slates in 1869 and 1*70. the
last being a very high post of honor. In politics he is a democrat, and in i
g2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
lian, and was for years clerk of the vestry, and warden of Christ Church. The purity of his life
is unquestioned.
The doctor has been married since November i, 1855, the maiden name of his wife being
Mary Alice Merwin, daughter of Sheldon and Emily H. Merwin, of Ontario county, New York.
They have five children, Alice Gertrude, Vernon Clarence. Washington Irving, Leon Louis and
Marion Maud.
Doctor Harris is an inventor, having procured no less than four patents, including one of the
first two-horse corn plows ever patented. He is also a fluent writer, and has contributed to various
newspapers and magazines, and has published an invaluable work for the use of insurance agents,
and several books for the use of Odd-Fellows, all of which are in extensive use, and very much
prized. The doctor is a very industrious man, making himself useful in many ways, and as a
neighbor and fellow-citizen is held, together with his wife, in very high esteem. The two eldest
sons are with him in his business office, and are steady and efficient young men.
HON. ELIJAH W. BLAISDELL.
ROCKFORD.
THE Blaisdells, from whom Elijah Whittier Blaisdell, the subject of this sketch, is descended,
went from Denmark to North Wales after the Danes had been subdued by Alfred the
Great and his successors, and, descendants of those daring seafarers, came thence to this country.
In Wales many of them were forgemen and iron workers. Sir Ralph Blaisdell was a noble
knight, and several of the name were members of the British parliament. On the coat of arms,
which is in the possession of our subject, and which is as old as the crusades, the name was spelt
Blasdell, and was so spelt in this country until 1808, when, on the certificate of Hon. Daniel
Blaisdell, representative to congress from New Hampshire, it was spelt as we have just written it,
and has been so written from that date.
Enoch, Abner and Elijah Blaisdell, brothers and sons of Enoch Blaisdell. came from the north-
eastern part of Wales, and landed in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Enoch settled in Maine, Abner
in western New York, and Elijah in Amesbury, Massachusetts. From these three brothers a very
large number of the Blaisdells, now found in all the northern and western states, are descended.
A Sergeant Blaisdell, who came over in the Mayflower, is thought to have been one of the same
family.
The subject of this sketch is a descendant of Elijah Blaisdell, the youngest of the three
brothers, being from him the sixth generation. The grandfather of our subject was Parrit Blais-
dell, son of Elijah, born in Amesbury. He lived in different towns in New Hampshire; moved
to Montpelier, Vermont, and finally died at Fort Covington, New York, in 1836. He was a brave
and resolute patriot, taking part in both wars with the mother country, and in the latter war on
one occasion took four men prisoners alone, and marched them into camp. He had two sons and
seven daughters, the sons being Parrit Blaisdell and Elijah Whittier Blaisdell, Senior. The latter,
father of our subject, was born in Montpelier, Vermont, in 1800; married Ann Maria Deacon, and
was a printer and newspaper publisher for many years, dying at Rockford in 1876.
E. W. Blaisdell, Junior, was born in Montpelier, July 18, 1826; was partially educated in a
classical school at Vergennes, Vermont, but still more in his father's printing office, and at seven-
teen years of age was installed as editor of the Vergennes " Vermonter," which was established
by the late Rufus Wilmot Griswold. The "Vermonter" was a whig paper, and when "Old
Zack" became President of the United States Mr. Blaisdell was appointed postmaster at Ver-
gennes, and held that office for the term of four years.
In the autumn of 1853 he came to Rockford, purchased the " Republican," and conducted it
for nine years. Meantime, he was elected to the legislature, and served one term, 1860-1, declin-
ing to be renominated. While devoting himself to journalism Mr. Blaisdell gave more or less
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 93
time to the reading of law, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar. Since that date he has been in
practice in Rockford. Mr. Blaisdell has also attained to some celebrity as an author, both in
prose and poetry, his last production, published by the Petersons, of Philadelphia, being a
popular novel, entitled "The Hidden Record." He is extensively known in the Northwest as an
able and eloquent speaker. He received a nomination for Congress from the "fourth district of
Illinois in 1880, and has been prominently connected with most of the leading enterprises of
Rockford for many years.
Mr. Blaisdell has been twice married, first, in 1849, to Miss Frances A. Robinson, of Barre,
Vermont, she dying in 1855, leaving one child, Byron, now in his father's office, and the second
time, in 1856, to Miss Elizabeth J. Lawrence, daughter of Judge Ville Lawrence, of Vergennes,
Vermont, and sister of Hon. Charles B. Lawrence, late chief-justice of Illinois, having by her
four children living: Henry, George, Shelley and Elijah.
JOHN N. BRUEN.
MONMOUTH.
JOHN NICOL BRUEN, one of the most successful farmers in this part of Illinois, is a native
of Essex county, New Jersey, his birth being dated October 25, 1825. Both of his parents,
William and Jane (Williamson) Bruen, were also born in that state. The Bruens are of Scotch
descent. William Bruen was a boot and shoe manufacturer and merchant, and when our subject
had received an academic education at Bloomfield, in his native state, he learned the shoemaker's
trade, doing also some farm work now and then, till eighteen years of age. He had an uncle,
Thomas Gould, who owned one hundred and sixty acres of land in Henderson county, this state,
and promised to give John eighty of it if he would go to Illinois and occupy it for five years.
The conditions were accepted, and in 1844 Mr. Bruen went to Henderson county, his land being
ten miles from Oquawka. In order to make a start, he must have some money, and he hired out
to a farmer for $7 per month. He did so well that at the end of the first month his wages were
raised to $8. He broke five acres of his land the first year. He had brought with him from the
East a silver watch and a rifle. He traded the watch for days' work in assisting to split rails, and
in exchange for his rifle had ten acres more of his land broken. The next year he had fifteen
acres of wheat, which he cradled with his own hands, hauled to Burlington, Iowa, and sold the
grain (450 bushels) for thirty cents a bushel. He broke more land from year to year; received
his deed at the end of five years; added to his little farm from time to time; bought wild land in
other states, and continued to live in Henderson county, and to earn his bread with liberal mois-
ure on his own brow, until 1875, when he moved to Monmouth, and is now living very much at
his ease.
The original eighty-acre lot, whose sod he began to turn in 1844, has had six hundred acres
added to it, including his uncle's other eighty. He has also two hundred and fifty-five acres
more in that vicinity, and five thousand acres in Mills, Montgomery and Pottawatomie counties,
Iowa. All that Iowa land is under first-class improvement, and he raised on it in 1882 between
two thousand and three thousand acres of corn, three hundred acres of wheat, two hundred of
oats, and one thousand of tame grass, having about one thousand head of cattle grazing on it;
also twelve hu-ndred hogs. All this and a good deal more has grown out of the original eighty,
the silver watch, the rifle, two toil-hardened hands, a knack at saving, and a fair modicum of will
power. Years ago he paid his uncle double price for that other eighty, thus rewarding him hand-
somely for his kindness.
Mr. Bruen is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Monmouth. While a
resident of Henderson county he was a school director for a long period, being willing to bear
some part of that class of burdens, and to help on the cause of education; but he has never been
an office seeker.
g4 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Bruen was first married in 1848, to Miss Jane Sharpless, of Henderson county, and she
died in 1863, leaving three children: William Sumner, who has a family and is a farmer in Hen-
derson county; Charles Edward, who has charge of a twenty-five hundred acre farm in Mills
county, Iowa, and Ida, the wife of Alexander Graham, merchant, Monmouth. The present wife
of our subject is* Mary A., daughter of Preston Martin, of Biggsville, Henderson county, their
marriage taking place October 10, 1865. Mrs. Bruen and Mrs. Graham are members of the
Presbyterian church, to which Mr. Bruen is a generous contributor.
LESTER M. BURROUGHS, M.D.
BA TA VIA.
EISTER MORGAN BURROUGHS, one of the physicians the longest in practice in Kane
county, is a native of Ohio, being born at Shalersville, Portage county, near the birth-place
of President Garfield, September 25, 1820, His father, Daniel Burroughs, Jr., a soldier in the
second war with England, and captured with General Hull's army, was born at Alstead, New
Hampshire, but reared in Orange county, Vermont. Daniel Burroughs, Sr., was born in Tolland,
Connecticut, in 1755; was at Lexington a day or two after the battle, while the dead still lay on
the ground, and was also at the battle of Saratoga, and the capture of General Burgoyne and his
army. The Burroughses were among the early settlers in New England.
Daniel Burroughs, Jr., was a brick-mason, and worked at that trade in early life, and later was
a farmer. He married Abigail Hine, a native of Milford, Connecticut, by whom he had twelve
children, nine of them living to manhood and womanhood, and eight are yet alive. Lester was
the fifth child. When he was sixteen years of age (1836) the family moved into this state, and
settled in what is now Kendall, then part of Kane, county, and Lester had no schooling after that
age. The residue of his knowledge he picked up as best he could, and as almost any young man,
determined to know something, will do. His business was farming until past his majority, and
he early acquired the art of turning the prairie sod, planting corn, and killing weeds. He also
learned to kill wolves, and when about twenty was captain of a wolf hunt, the highest in the mili-
tary line that he ever rose.
Our subject evidently had an early desire to study medicine, as he began to peer into medical
works as soon as he could find any, and luckily a doctor's library was not a great way off. He
acquired knowledge rapidly, and was .literally forced into the practice long before he felt himself
competent; but the sick were all around him, and he had to help them, beginning in 1846, his
first patients being on the present site of Batavia, though he was then residing in the town of
Blackberry. Subsequently he studied at the medical infirmary at Southport, near Kenosha, Wis-
consin, and afterward took a course of medical lectures at Cleveland, Ohio.
At an early day the practice of Doctor Burroughs extended over a wide range of country,
including two or three towns on the Fox River, Lodi, now Maple Park, De Kalb, Sycamore and
Ohio Grove, and at some seasons of the year he and his horse used to experiment in trying to
find the bottom of some of the deeper sloughs. His reminiscences of such experience are decid-
edly entertaining.
November 24, 1849, tne doctor took to himself a helpmeet in the person of Miss Elmira J.
Wheeler, daughter of David Wheeler,* of Blackberry, and they have two daughters, Mary Gove,
* David Wheeler was born in New Salem, New Hampshire, in 1785; in 1792 went with the family to Fairlee, Ver-
mont; was in the war with England, taken prisoner in 1812, and carried to Barbadoes, one of the Caribbean islands,
and exchanged at the end of nine months. He married Miss Judith Pearson in 1815, and they moved to West Troy,
New York (then Gibbonsville), in 1824, and he was postmaster there during the eight years of President Jackson's
administration. He came to Blackberry, Illinois, in 1838, and here lived a noble Christian life. The Christian church
at Blackberry is a monument of his generosity, he being very liberal, as well as active in the cause of his master. No
more hospitable man ever lived in Blackberry. He had the respect of everybody who knew him, and his death, in
April, 1869, was a loss felt by the whole community.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 95
married to William K. Coffin, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Nellie May, who is at home. Since
1861 the doctor has resided at Batavia.
He has held a few civil offices, and but a very few, his time, his studies and his energies having
been devoted to his profession, in which he has been quite successful. He is well known in this
part of the Fox River Valley, and very generally esteemed for his assiduity in taking care of the
sick, and his sympathetic and kindly nature. His labors have been very severe, and are begin-
ning to tell upon his constitution, yet he is still very active, and endeavors to respond to every
professional call. He belongs to the Calumet Club, but rarely has an opportunity to meet the
old settlers.
Doctor Burroughs is a Master Mason, and many years ago was also an active Odd-Fellow, having
filled all the chairs in the latter order. Of late years he has paid very little attention to such
gatherings, being a home body, and finding the greatest comfort in his own little family circle.
HON. ALBERT G. BURR.
CARROLLTON.
A LBERT GEORGE BURR, late judge of the circuit court, and an eminent jurist, was born
t\. in western New York, November 8, 1829. He was brought to Illinois by his widowed
mother when only a year old, and she settled near Springfield. He almost entirely educated him-
self, and fitted himself for a teacher, his first school being at Vandalia. In 1850 he moved to
Winchester, Scott county, and for a while was engaged in mercantile pursuits. Subsequently, at
the suggestion of a friend, who discovered his fitness to shine at the bar, he turned his attention
to the study of law. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar, and soon made his way to the front.
A few years later he was elected to the state legislature, and there served his constituents so ably
and satisfactorily that they returned him, and not long afterward elect'ed him to the constitutional
convention.
In 1868 Mr. Burr settled in Carrollton, where he continued to distinguish himself among the
legal fraternity. He was a member of the fortieth and forty-first congress; in 1877 was elected
circuit judge, and that high position he held at the time of his death, June 10, 1882.
The "Gazette" of Carrollton, of June 17, 1882, thus spoke of him:
" As a jurist Judge Burr has few equals. His analyses of intricate questions were clear and
explicit, and his decisions were satisfactory. As an orator, who can describe him ? We will not
attempt it, but will leave it for those who can portray perfection. In his domestic relations he
was great as elsewhere, and happy as he was great. His first wife, Miss Alicia A. Anderson, he
married in Vandalia, and by her reared two children, Louis L., of Chicago, and Mrs. Lucy B.
McMillen, of Mount Sterling, Illinois, both of whom were present in his last hours. His second
wife was Miss Mary Harlan, of Winchester, who, with four children, survives him. He had an
only sister, Mrs. Lucy S. Garland, who lives in Springfield."
The same paper thus speaks of the funeral of Judge Burr:
" At an early hour carriages from the country, from villages and towns, came in great numbers,
bringing sorrowing friends. Each incoming train was filled with friends from a distance, and
with members of the fraternities to which the deceased belonged. A special from Jacksonville
brought the Jacksonville bar, and others from remote parts of the district. At one o'clock P.M.,
the business houses all closed, the city seemed alive with people, and yet all was silent. Colonel
Nulton, the marshal, then formed a procession of Masons and Odd-Fellows, and the long line of
three hundred in regalia slowly moved to the house of the dead, and thence to the Christian
Church near by, of which Mr. Burr was an active member. Here the pall-bearers placed the cas-
ket amid an embankment of beautiful flowers, tributes of love. Elder Berry gave an eloquent and
impressive address, during which he read two poems, found in an old album of the deceased, and.
written by him thirty years ago,"
96 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
As indicated above, Judge Burr was a poet, as well as jurist and statesman, as the following,
one of those poems read by the officiating clergyman will show:
LIFE'S VOYAGE.
Though waves may swell and billows rise,
And threatning clouds hang o'er the skies-
O'er me and mine
Though driven on where breakers roar,
And ragged rocks surround the shore,
I'll not repine.
Though riding on the maddened wave
To time and circumstance a slave
I'll bear my lot.
I'll raise aloft religion's sail,
And strive to ride throughout the gale,
And falter not.
Though friends upon the sea of life,
Are from my bosom torn in strife,
And by the swell
Of ocean wave, borne from my side,
I'll bid them with a stoic's pride,
A long farewell.
Though all desert me in the gloom
And leave me o'er life's sea to roam,
Without one friend
Still I will always onward keep,
Triumphant o'er the raging deep,
'Till life shall end.
MOSES M. ROYER, M.D.
STERLING.
MOSES MILLER ROYER, who belongs to the older class of physicians in Whiteside
county, is a son of George and Elizabeth (Miller) Royer, his birth being dated August i,
1828, in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. His father was born in the same county, and was the
third or fourth generation from the progenitor of the family, who was from Germany. The Mil-
lers are also an old family in the Keystone State. The father of Elizabeth Miller was Nicholas
Miller, and her mother was Elizabeth Troutman. She had a brother who was a noted banker in
Philadelphia.
Moses had a common school education ; was with his parents on the farm until seventeen
years old ; commenced at that age to teach school, and taught for seven consecutive winters,
studying medicine the rest of the time during the last three years ; attended lectures at the Penn-
sylvania Medical College, Philadelphia ; was graduated in 1855 ; practiced between one and two
years at Lebanon, in his native county, and in August, 1856, came to Whiteside county, this
state, and settled in Sterling. With one exception, he is the oldest medical practitioner in this
city, and is well known in this county, and the western part of Lee county, into which his rides
often extend. At an early day, they extended into Carroll and Ogle counties. He spent most of
the winter of 1868-69 in the colleges and hospitals of Philadelphia, brushing up his knowledge of
the profession, giving particular attention to midwifery, and diseases of women and children.
He has had remarkable success in obstetrics ; has had over three thousand cases of his own, and
never lost one.
The doctor pays very little attention to politics, simply voting the republican ticket ; accepts
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. gj
no civil office, and gives his leisure time almost exclusively to the study of medical periodicals,
aiid the standard professional works in his library. He seems ambitious to retain his good
standing in the medical fraternity, and is not likely to lower the mark. He is a member of the
Union Medical Society, which consists of Whiteside county, Illinois, and Clinton county, Iowa.
He was for a short time assistant surgeon of the 33d Illinois infantry.
Doctor Royer is a Sir Knight in the Masonic order, and has passed all the chairs in Odd-
Fellowship. His wife was Elizabeth Hoover, daughter of Samuel Hoover, of Sterling, their
marriage occurring in October, 1861. They have two daughters: Emma, who has just finished a
thorough education at Mount Vernon, Iowa, and Libbie, who is attending the Sterling graded
schools.
JOHN R. BULLOCK, M.D.
WAUKEGAN.
JOHN ROW BULLOCK, one of the oldest physicians and a leading surgeon in Waukegan, is of
English extraction, his ancestors in this country coming over about the time of the American
revolution, and settling in Albany county, New York, where our subject was born, October 28,
1826. His parents are John M. and Margaret (Row) Bullock, both being still alive. John Bullock
was a farmer until about 1839, when he moved into Albany, where he still resides. His wife was
born in Columbia county, New York. The grandfather of our subject, Matthew Bullock, was the
first person to introduce Cotswold sheep into this country, and he and another man imported the
first Durham bull.
Doctor Bullock received an academic education at Albany, where he read medicine with Doc-
tor David Martin, after which he attended two courses of lectures in Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia, where he received the degree of M.D. in 1850. After practicing three years in
Albany, he concluded that the West presented a more promising field for a young man just setting
out in his profession, and in June, 1853, he came to Waukegan, and has been in successful prac-
tice here for nearly thirty years. His business has been general, embracing all the branches of
the healing art, yet in surgery he has had an unusual share, and excellent success. In all the
departments of his profession he has always stood well, and his rides have been and still are
extensive.
Doctor Bullock was reared in the Episcopal church, which he usually attends, and he bears
an irreproachable character. He is a 32d degree Freemason. His wife was Sarah H. Garwood,
of Waukegan, and they have three children.
Doctor Bullock has given very little attention to politics, except to keep well read up on the
news of the day; has never sought official promotion in any organization, but has devoted his
time and his studies assiduously to his profession, satisfied, evidently, with rendering faithful
service to patients, and having a highly creditable standing as a physician and surgeon.
CHARLES C. BLISH.
KEWANEE.
CHARLES CHENEY BLISH, farmer and banker, is a son of Sylvester and Rhoda (Cheney)
Blish, his birth being dated at Glastonbury, Hartford county, Connecticut, May 26, 1820.
His grandfather, Thomas Blish, was a teamster in the revolutionary army, going in at eighteen
years of age, his father and grandfather are buried in the old graveyard at Marlborough, Con-
necticut. The Cheneys are also an old family in that state, the great-grandfather and grand-
father of Rhoda Cheney being interred in the old Manchester cemetery, Hartford county, where
she was born. She was a cousin of Cheney brothers, the well known silk manufacturers of Man-
chester. Thomas Blish was buried in Eastbury cemetery, Hartford county.
98 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Charles received a very ordinary education, and at seventeen years of age (1837) came with the
family to Henry county, this state, and settled on land in Weatherfield, adjoining the present
village of Kewanee, where his parents died. Their remains lie in the Kewanee cemetery.
Our subject has always been a farmer, and he is a practical and successful one, never afraid of
work, and never failing to make his labor count in the increase of his exchequer. He added to
the original farm from time to time, and it now has 430 acres. He has also detached lands, which,
with the homestead, make about 800 acres, well improved and uneclipsed for excellence in Henry
county. He has one of the best herds of short-horn cattle in this part of the state.
Many years ago Mr. Blish was county surveyor, still farming, however, as usual. In 1871
the First National Bank of Kewanee was organized; Mr. Blish became its president in 1874, still
holding that office. Mr. Blish is a Master Mason.
He was married in December, 1840, to Miss Elizabeth P. Bonar, of Knox county, Illinois, and
they have buried four children, and have two living. James K. is a lawyer in Kewanee, a stock-
holder in the bank, and in the Haxtun Steam Heater Company, and Matthew B. is a farmer, hav-
ing charge of the homestead, and being a thorough-going business man. The wife of our subject
is a member of the Congregational Church, Kewanee, of which Mr. Blish is a liberal supporter.
CHARLES P. SWIGERT.
SPRINGFIELD.
HARLES PHILIP SWIGERT, auditor of the state, and son of Philip and Caroline
Swigert, was born in the state of Baden, Germany, November 27, 1843, and came to the
United States when a child. The family tarried for two years in Chicago, where Charles
attended the Scammon School, on the West Side; and in 1854 the family settled on a farm in
Kankakee county, where there was no school for two years. Between the ages of twelve and
eighteen our subject aided his father and others in breaking between 400 and 500 acres of prairie
in that county, attending school during the winter term only, as soon as there was one.
In July, 1861, a few months before he was eighteen, Mr. Swigert enlisted as a private in com-
pany H, 42d Illinois infantry, which was connected with the Army 'of the Cumberland. In
April, 1862, he was one of the twenty brave and heroic men who ran the blockade on the gunboat
Carondelet, landing at New Madrid. They afterward 'spiked seven guns between that place and
Tiptonville, and participated in the capture of 7,000 men at Island No. 10. At the battle of
Farmington, Mississippi, during the siege of Corinth, May 9, 1862, Mr. Swigert lost his right arm,
having it torn from the socket by a six-pound solid shot This ended his military career.
Returning to Kankakee county, he entered a public school, and in 1863 commenced a course
of study in Bryant and Stratton's Business College, Chicago, whence he was graduated in May,
1864. During the summer of that year he canvassed for Smucker's " History of the War," and
the following winter taught a district school in Kankakee county. From April, 1865, to October,
1866, Mr. Swigert was a letter carrier in Chicago, and resigned that position to enter the county
clerk's office at Kankakee, serving as deputy one year. In September, 1867, he entered the Sol-
diers' College, at Fulton, Whiteside county; studied there till June, 1869, in November of which
year he was elected treasurer of Kankakee county, and by repeated reelections he retained that
office until November 24, 1880, when he resigned it to assume the duties of his present office. He
was a member of the city council of Kankakee from 1876 to 1878, first as chairman of the com-
mittee on bills and accounts, and then as chairman of the finance committee.
Mr. Swigert has pushed on, literally single-handed, now earning a little money, and then
investing in knowledge, filling one office, and then fitting himself for another, until, rising step
by step, we find him the auditor of the state, an office which he is thoroughly competent to fill,
and the honors of which are only a just reward for his services to his adopted country, and a
handsome acknowledgment of his peculiar fitness for the position. Before going into the army
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UfflTF.n STATES FtlOGRA T II ICA I HICTIONARY. I O I
he was intending to study medicine, but the loss of his arm necessarily led him to abandon such
a plan.
In politics Mr. Swigert has never been anything but a republican; is an Odd-Fellow, and a past
grand of Howard Lodge, No. 218, Kankakee, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
December 25, 1869, he married Miss Lavinia L. Bigelow, a native of Vermont, and they have four
children, all sons. A neighbor of Mr. Swigert at Kankakee thus writes to the editor of this work:
"Mr. Swigert 's long residence at Kankakee, and twelve years' administration of the office of
county treasurer, with marked ability and efficiency, made him known not only socially and
politically in the immediate vicinity of his residence, but his prominence at home gave him more
than a local reputation, and brought him into association with public officers and public men
in the state. He impressed all with whom he came in contact with the absolute integrity of his
character, his capacity and fidelity in the discharge of a public trust, and the quiet firmness which
characterized every act in public or private life. No man commanded more fully the confidence
of personal friends or political opponents, or secured to a higher degree the respect of all who
knew him. The satisfaction with which his friends regarded his transfer to his present position
was accompanied with a sincere regret at the loss sustained by themselves and by the people
whom he had so long and so faithfully served."
ROBERT V. SUTHERLAND.
PER U.
ROBERT V. SUTHERLAND, banker, dates his birth in Portage county, O^iio, August 27,
1834, his parents being Thomas C. and Sarah (McMillan) Sutherland. His father and
grandfather were born in Pennsylvania, where the family settled in the last century. The Mc-
Millans were from the county of Antrim, Ireland, and were Scotch-Irish. The maternal great-
grandfather of Robert was a revolutionary pensioner. In the early part of the summer of 1847
our subject left home on a youthful trip of observations. He came as far west as Illinois, reaching
Peru June 20. Here he spent a year with a second cousin, a general merchant; then went to Chi-
cago, Racine and Milwaukee, and sailing round the lakes through Mackinac, went home, and
finished his studies at the Middebury, Summit county, high school. He then started as axeman,
with a corps of civil engineers on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad, and was engaged in rail-
roading between seven and eight years, with headquarters at Steubenville, working his way up,
step by step, to the post of division engineer on that road.
In 1857, when the crisis in money matters came on, and railroad building stopped, Mr. Suth-
erland became teller and bookkeeper of the Ravenna branch of the state bank of Ohio, and not
long afterward was appointed teller of the state bank of Cleveland. In 1859 Mr. Sutherland went
to Lake Superior to make surveys for an iron mining company, and then returned to Cleveland.
About that period a number of Oberlin persons were arrested and put in the Cleveland jail,
charged with obstructing the fugitive slave law. A mob gathered round the jail, threatening
violence, and the Cleveland Grays and the Perry Guards were called out to protect the prisoners.
Mr. Sutherland belonged to one of these companies, and helped to guard the underground rail-
road conductors. And his heart was no doubt in the service as well as his rifle, for he was always
anti-slavery in sentiment, and regarded the fugitive slave act as simply infamous. His political
views he inherited from his father, who was an associate and co-laborer with Ben. Wade, Joshua
R. Giddings, and that type of free-soilers. Our subject, by the way, was born and reared near
James A. Garfield, and they were personal and political confreres up to the day that the latter
was assassinated. At Steubenville Mr. Sutherland made the acquaintance of Edwin M. Stanton,
years before the great war secretary became known outside his county.
In the autumn of 1862 our subject left Cleveland, came to Peru once more, and November 18,
became cashier of the bank of Peru, and when, in May, 1864, the First National Bank of Peru was
ii
IO2 UNITED STATES BfOGKAPHlCAl. DICTIONARY.
organized, he accepted the same position in that institution. At the time of writing he is just
rounding up his first score of years in the same official bank position. He is one of the best
financiers in the county of La Salle, and has an extensive circle of acquaintances and friends.
Mr. Sutherland is a stockholder and director, as well as cashier of the bank, and is also treas-
urer and a stockholder of the Peru City Plow Company, which has a capital of $120,000, and is
quite flourishing. He was married in 1868 to Miss Mary Maze, daughter of Samuel N. Maze, cap-
italist, of Peru, and they have one daughter and one son.
WILLIAM H. COLE, M.D.
KE WANEE.
WILLIAM HENRY COLE, at one period a leading educator in Tioga county, New York,
and now a physician and surgeon in Henry county, this state, is a son of Cornelius
Debois Hasbrouk Cole, M.D., and Sylvia (Walker) Cole, his birth being dated at Owego,
Tioga county, October 19, 1836. His father is of Holland descent, and was named for a promi-
nent member of the Knickerbocker family, Doctor Debois Hasbrouk. The father of Cornelius
was John Cole, a soldier in the continental army, and whose venerable gun, carried in those days,
is still in the Cole family. Sylvia (Walker) Cole is a native of New Hampshire, and is of Scotch-
English lineage. Both parents of William are still living, their residence being Bradford county,
Pennsylvania. Cornelius Cole was a teacher, like his son, before he studied medicine. He
received his medical degree at Geneva, New York, and was in the practice of his profession most
of the time in Bradford county, for more than thirty years. During the civil war he was surgeon
of the I72d Pennsylvania infantry, and at the close of the service the regiment presented him with
an elegant watch and chain.
Our subject obtained most of his literary education at the Owego Academy, and the Ovid
Collegiate Institute, his course of studies including the higher mathematics and physical sciences.
He commenced teaching a country school at seventeen years of age; at about twenty-four became
principal of the Owego public schools, and held that position for nine consecutive years, being
one of the most successful teachers in Tioga county. Before his nine years were up he was
elected county school commissioner, and held that office three years. So well pleased were the
teachers of the county with him that at the end of the three years, they presented him with a full
set of silver.
Our subject was reared among gallipots, and as early as fourteen years of age made up his
mind that he should one day be a physician. During all the years that he was attending school
and teaching, he was dipping occasionally into medical books, and while serving as commissioner
he gave all the time at his command to the same class of studies. He read more or less with his
father, and also with Doctor Ezekiel Daniels, twenty years ago an eminent physician in Owego;
attended his first course of lectures in the Buffalo Medical College, and his second at the Long
Island College, Brooklyn, and there received the degree of doctor of medicine, in June 1873.
About that time he also took a special course in surgery, under Professor William Warren Green,
of Portland, Maine.
Doctor Cole settled in Kewanee in September of that year, and for nearly ten years has given
his time very faithfully to the practice of his profession. Since boyhood he has been, so to speak,
a medical student, and it is safe to say that he was never more studious than at the present time.
He enjoys his profession, and practices it con amore. He has an inquiring mind, and knows how
to feed it judiciously. His course as a physician is upward. He is one of the most scientific men
in Kewanee, and an instructive talker. The doctor takes some interest in politics, and was at one
time chairman of the republican township committee of Kewanee. He has also held some offices
in the Congregational Church, of which he is a member, and up to a very recent date was a con-
stant worker in the Sunday-school cause.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 103
Doctor Cole was married in Newark Valley, in November, 1860, to Miss Bessie Rounseyille
Watson, a native of Richford, Tioga county, New York. They have a son and daughter living,
and had one son, Herman, killed by accident when thirteen months old. Haydn S. is a cadet at
West Point, and Mary E. is attending the local schools.
Doctor Cole has one sister, Caroline E., the wife of Dennis Porter, of Rockford, Michigan.
When he was a teacher he was accustomed to address county and state teachers' associations, and
most of his productions of that class were published in the educational periodicals of the state of
New York, and had a wide circulation among the educators of the land.
BENJAMIN N. SMITH.
WOODSTOCK.
BENJAMIN N. SMITH, judge of McHenry county, is a grandson of Lieutenant William
Smith, an officer in the revolutionary army, who came from Ireland with his father about
1746, settling in Connecticut; and a son of Captain Nathaniel Smith, who had command of a
company of soldiers, and who aided in raising the siege of Boston in the second war with Eng-
land,, and who settled in Chemung, McHenry county, Illinois, in 1838. There, August 13, of that
year, our subject was born, his mother being Mary Bentley, a native of Rensselaer county, New
York. Her father was Colonel Caleb Bentley, a prominent officer in the Continental army, and
stood by the side of General Washington through all those trying times. A brother of Mrs.
Smith, Judge Darius Bentley, died in Chemung county, New York, in November, 1881, aged
ninety-four years. Mrs. Smith is still living, being in her eighty-seventh year, and draws a pen-
sion on account of her husband's services already mentioned. She has her second sight ; reads
fine type with the utmost ease, without glasses, and her mind and memory are seemingly as clear
as when she was in middle life. She lost her husband in November 1864.
Mr. Smith received an academic education, including the classics and higher mathematics, at
Bigfoot, McHenry county, and in the spring of 1860 went to California, and was absent from the
state between two and three years. Returning in the winter of 1862-63, ne enlisted as a private
in company E, 95th Illinois infantry, purposing to go into the field, but was detailed at Spring-
field to the headquarters state rendezvous Illinois volunteers, which was short of clerical help
just then, and he was there retained until the war closed, having charge, most of the time, of a
room containing ten or fifteen clerks.
Mr. Smith is a graduate of the law department of Michigan University, receiving the degree
of bachelor of laws in 1866. While at Ann Arbor, he was at one period president of the Jeffer-
sonian Society, which was connected with the literary department of the University, and his
standing while in that institution was in all respects highly creditable. He has been in the
steady practice of his profession at Woodstock since leaving the University, and has made it a
success.
As a lawyer he is clear-headed and well posted, and before a jury talks directly to the point,
and has great weight. His candor, logical acumen and persuasive eloquence are powerful helps
to him in his profession. Being fairly installed in law practice, in October, 1866, Mr. Smith mar-
ried Miss Abbie B. Dake, of Woodstock, and they have four children. He filled the offices of
mayor of Woodstock, and member of the school board one term each ; in 1869 was elected
judge of the county of McHenry, and having served three full terms of four years each, he is at
the time of the writing of this sketch serving his thirteenth year by virtue of a change in the con-
stitution of the state. He is an impartial judge, and quite popular in the county. While digni-
fied without being especially grave in his official capacity, in the social circle he is decidedly
humorous, genial and entertaining.
Judge Smith is a firm republican, and sometimes takes the stump near the close of air exciting
and important campaign. He is not only well read in law and politics, but in the rules of elocu-
IO4 UNrrr.n STATES RiocKArrncAi.
tion ; is familiar with the masters of eloquence, Grecian and Roman, as well as British and
American, and whether at the bar or on the platform, he has but few peers outside of Chicago in
this part of the state. Those who have known him longest, state that from boyhood, public-
speaking has been almost a passion with him, and his progress in that art has surprised his most
intimate and hopeful friends. There is no other Fourth of July orator in these parts, for whose
service there is such a demand, or who can eclipse him on such an occasion. Judge Smith is a
Royal Arch Mason, and a member of Calvary Commandery. He is also a member and officer of
the Methodist church, and an eminentlv useful citizen of McHenry countv.
HON. JOHN C. SHERWIN.
AURORA.
JOHN CROCKER SHERWIN, lawyer and late member of congress from the fourth district,
is a son of James Sherwiri, farmer, and Lydia M. (Crocker) Sherwin, both natives of the state
of New York. His great-grandfather, Parker, shouldered his musket at the opening of the revo-
lutionary war, and was at Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, etc., and his maternal grandfather,
John Crocker, was in the second war with England. Our subject was born at Gouverneur, New
York, February 8, 1838, and was educated at the Wesleyan Seminary in his native town, and
Lombard University, Galesburgh, Illinois, graduating from the latter institution in 1862. He
taught a country school six consecutive winters prior to receiving the degree of bachelor of arts.
On taking his degree he went immediately into the service, enlisting as a private in company H,
8gth Illinois infantry, and was mustered out as a non-commissioned officer, after serving' a few
weeks less than three years. About a year before the war closed he was offered a commission,
but for some reason refused to accept it.
On returning from the war Mr. Sherwin read law at Aurora with Messrs. Wagner and Can-
field ; was admitted to practice in 1867, and was for some time in company with one of his pre-
ceptors, Hon. Eugene Canfield. Mr. Sherwin was city attorney ; served one term as county
clerk, and in 1878 was reelected to the latter office, but resigned to represent his district in the
forty-sixth congress. He was reelected to the forty-seventh, and served through that term, which
expired in 1882. He was the author of the apportionment bill under the tenth assessment,
having charge of it in the house. At the request of the committee on education, he introduced
the bill on national or common school education, which has been reported upon favorably by the
committee.
The congressional record of Mr. Sherwin is highly creditable to himself, and was eminently
satisfactory to the body of his republican constituents. Mr. Sherwin married, in 1865, Miss Edith
V. Whitehead, of Peru, this state, and they have buried two children, and have three living. The
family attend the Universalist Church, of which Mr. Sherwin is a liberal supporter.
o
NELSON LAN DON.
WAUK&GAif,
NE of the noteworthy landmarks of Lake county is Nelson Landon who settled here about
forty-seven years ago, and was one of the county commissioners, with Leonard (rage and
Thomas A. Payne, to locate the county seat at Waukegan. His father, Rufus Landon, of Ger-
man birth, was in the first and second wars with England, going into the former at sixteen years
of age; settled in Salisbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, where he served as selectman, and
was one of the leading farmers in that town. There Nelson first saw the light, January 26, 1807,
his mother being Sarah (Hunt) Landon, who was of English pedigree. Both parents are sleep-
ing in the old burying ground at Salisbury.
VNITF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 105
Nelson Landon received a very limited English education in a district school, which he
attended during the winter term only, after he was old enough to do farm work. He remained
at home till twenty-one years old, when he went to New Haven, Vermont, and spent two years in
a country store. In 1832 he started westward, halted a short time at Niles, Michigan, then, con-
tinuing his westward course into Indiana, put up a store on the prairie near where La Porte,
Indiana, now stands, and soon afterward built the first store on the present site of that city, and
opened the first stock of goods ever offered for sale there. Eighteen months later, in the autumn
of 1835, Mr. Landon made another westward hegira, this time sweeping round Lake Michigan
into Lake, then Cook county, Illinois, which has since been his home. In the spring of 1836 he
squatted on a large tract of unsurveyed land, in the town of Benton, and there eventually opened
a first-class farm of 1400 acres, eight miles from Waukegan, bearing another name, which then
had a dim prospect of becoming the county seat. While a resident of Benton, Mr. Landon held
the office of justice of the peace for several years, but he never had to injure his health in attend-
ing to an excess of duties in that line.
May 28, 1867, Mr. Landon lost his first wife, Phebe (Phelps) Landon, whom he had married
September 16, 1833, and who had cheerfully shared with- him the trials and privations of frontier
life. Two years afterward, in September, 1869, he married Louisa M. Ryder, of Waukegan, in
the same year settling in this city. Here he is living entirely at his ease, and in very comfortable
circumstances. The office of county supervisor for a short time, is, we believe, the only public
post which .he has held since leaving the farm. He is a liberal supporter of the Presbyterian
Church of Waukegan, and has an open hand for the needy, being a man of kindly impulses, and
much respected.
Mr. Landon had five children by his first wife, four of whom were living at the time of her
demise. One of them has since joined her in the other world. The three still surviving are all
daughters, and very pleasantly situated. When Mr. Landon left Benton he gave the farm to his
children, and Phebe Jannette, the oldest daughter, is married to George P. Kellogg, and lives on
the old homestead; Emily J. is married to William M. Hoyt, of Chicago, and Helen Josephine is
living with her sister in that city.
HON. MILES S. HENRY.
STERLING.
MILES SMITH HENRY, for many years one of the leading citizens of Sterling, and mayor
of the city at the time of his death, November 26, 1878, was born in Geneva, Ontario
county, New York, March i, 1815. His father was Charles William Henry, a graduate of Prince-
ton College, New Jersey, and in his day a prominent merchant. His mother, before her mar-
riage, was Penelope Potter, granddaughter of Judge Potter, of New Jersey, who gave an exten-
sive tract of land to the Ouakers, and who was a firm friend of Jemimah Wilkinson, one of the
nursing mothers of (Quakerism in this country.
Mr. Henry .was a schoolmate and roommate of Stephen A. Douglas for three years at the Can-
andaigua Academy; finished his education at Hobart College, Geneva; studied law with Hon.
John C. Spencer, Canandaigua; came to the West in 1834, stopping a short time in Chicago, then
a small, unpromising village; went to La Porte, Indiana, and purchased an interest in the then
developing village of Michigan City: finished his law studies at La Porte with Hon. Gustavus A.
Everts, who was afterward circuit judge in northern Indiana, and there our subject commenced
practice.
In 1843 he married Miss Philena N. Mann, a niece and adopted daughter of Judge Everts, and
in that year formed a partnership with the judge, and they emigrated to Platte county, Missouri.
But Mr. Henry was not pleased with the country, and in the spring of 1844, at the suggestion of
his old friend, Judge Douglas, he came to Illinois, and halted at Macomb, McDonough county,
win-re he commenced practice in company with Hon. Jesse B. Thomas, circuit judge. We learn
IO6 UNITED STATF.S RIOCKA PHTCAI. DICTIONARY.
from the Sterling "Gazette " that at the close of the August term of the court that year, Mr. Henry
came to the Rock River country on an exploring tour; attended the session of the court held at
Lyndon, Whiteside county, and was so pleased with the Rock River Valley that he settled at
Sterling, the new county seat. In October of that year he brought his family here, living one
year in the upper town, then known -as Harrisburgh, the next year building him a stone house on
Third street, near Cedar, where he died, the material for the house being hewn out with his own
hands. In 1852 he opened a bank, and in 1854 formed a partnership with Lorenzo Hapgood, and
the firm of M. S. Henry and Company continued in the banking business until 1861, our subject
keeping his law office open all these years.
In 1854 he was elected to the legislature on what was known as the people's ticket, and which
the next year was merged into the republican ticket. In the legislature Mr. Henry favored the
election of Abraham Lincoln for United States senator, and voted for him until a compromise can-
didate was taken up, when he cast his vote for Lyman Trumbull, who was successful. Mr. Henry
was an intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln, and regretted to the end of his days the failure to send
that great statesman to the senate. In the state legislature our subject was one of the champions
of the first free school law of Illinois.
He was a delegate in 1856 to the national convention which nominated Fremont and Dayton,
though his first choice was McLean and Lincoln. The next year Governor Bissell appointed him
bank commissioner, a post which he held until the breaking out of the civil war. In the same
year, 1857, he was elected president of the Sterling and Rock Island Railroad Company, holding
that office till 1861, when, for various reasons, the enterprise was abandoned.
He tendered a regiment of cavalry to his country's service in 1861, but the cavalry wing, in
General McClellan's view, was sufficiently full, and in 1862 Mr. Henry was appointed paymaster
in the army, which position he held, with the rank of major, until the rebellion collapsed.
He now engaged in the oil business in West Virginia and in the manufacture of salt at Bay
City, Michigan, being for three years president and general manager of the salt company in that
place, exhibiting meanwhile business capacities of a very high order.
His wife died in 1870, and in October, 1871, he married Mrs. Emily J. C. Bushnell, widow of
Major Douglas R. Bushnell, a civil engineer who aided in surveying several railroads in west-
ern Illinois. Major Bushnell went into the service in 1861 as captain of company B, i3th Illinois
infantry, and was promoted to the rank of major. He was at the siege of Vicksburg, in the bat-
tle of Lookout Mountain, etc., and was killed at Ringgold, Georgia, while leading on his brave
men to victory, November 27, 1863. He was one of the true heroes of the state. The maiden
name of Mrs. Henry was Edson, her native place being Randolph, Vermont. Her father, Captain
John Edson, was an officer in the war of 1812-4. The Edsons are a noted military family. One
of them was Captain Alvin Edson, of the marine, an intimate friend of General Scott. He was
a graduate of West Point, as was also his son, Major J. H. Edson, who belonged to the regular
army and served during the late War. Mrs. Henry, then the widow Bushnell, was appointed post-
mistress of Sterling, February 6, 1865, and was holding that office at the time of her second
marriage, she being the first woman that ever held that office under presidential appointment.
She possesses nicely framed the autograph letter of President Lincoln appointing her to that
office. It was obtained by her friend, Hon. E. B. Washburne.
Prior to the death of his wife, in 1869, Major Henry had resumed the practice of his profes-
sion in company with Caleb C. Johnson, they being in partnership till his death. He was mayor
of the city at that time, and also a director of the second ward school. He made a very efficient
municipal executive, and was foremost in every project tending to advance the pecuniary, educa-
tional and moral interests of the city. He was a member of Grace Episcopal Church.
As a lawyer he was very sympathetic, and an indefatigable worker for the interests of his
client. In any cause, legal or other, which he espoused, and which he believed to be right, his
energy and persistency were simply astonishing. He was attorney for the Chicago and North-
Western Railroad Company. At the time of the death of Major Henry the bar association of
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Whiteside county passed a series of resolutions paying proper tribute to his legal talents, etc., and
Mr. McCartney, one of the oldest members, made a very feeling speech, and was followed by
Judge Eustace. The city council also passed a series of resolutions, among which was the
following:
Resolved, That the deceased has left us the memory of his royal friendship; that we shall esteem it one of the
privileges of life that we intimately knew him, and our present sadness is mitigated by the thought that he is happy in
Those everlasting gardens
Where angels walk and seraphs are the wardens;
Where every flower, brought safe thro' death's dark portal,
Becomes immortal!
Major Henry, when mayor, in September, 1878, called a meeting of the citizens of Sterling to
aid the sufferers at the South, caused by the prevalence of the yellow fever, and was the leader in
raising funds at that time. The last public speech that he ever made was at the time when the
free iron bridge between Sterling and Rock Falls was opened, another enterprise in which he was
among the foremost men. He was president of the Sterling Burial Case Company.
Mrs. Henry has had a beautiful Italian marble monument erected to the memory of her lamented
husband, and a year after his death the following poem from her pen appeared in the Chicago
"Tribune ":
IN MEMORIAM.
Oh, pale white flowers, one year ago to-day
Upon a coffined form in fragrant bloom ye lay.
I cannot bear the faint perfume ye shed,
Since soft it floated o'er my precious dead.
Oh, manly form that bore an angel's grace,
And crowned its glory with an angel's face,
1 see thee lying there with bated breath,
Thy grand life yielded to the conqueror death!
I call aloud to thee in wild despair;
I plead with God in agony of prayer;
I hold thee close, my heart and lips to thine,
But still I catch no word, or look, or sign.
Oh, rare, pale lips that mine so oft have pressed;
Oh, tender hands in mine so oft caressed;
Oh, loving eyes o'er which the white lids close,
And God has set the seal of death's repose!
No more shall loving hand, or lip, or eye,
Meet mine in tender glance or sweet reply;
No more that form or face shall greet my view
And thrill my soul with rapture ever new.
How can I call thee dead, my own, my own ?
Though the dear lips are mute, the spirit flown,
Although I see upon thy forehead fair
That God's own hand has placed death's signet there.
Peace, murmuring heart, thy Father knoweth best!
His hand alone can lead to perfect rest.
Beyond the valley, dark and shadow deep,
He giveth my beloved peaceful sleep.
STK.KUXC, ILLINOIS, November 27, 1879. EMILY J. C. HENRY.
It may not be improper to here add that Mrs. Henry has a good deal of skill in versifying, and
that she wrote a clever decoration hymn to the tune "America," which was sung on decoration
IO8 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
day, May 30, 1871. Other metrical pieces from her pen show no ordinary degree of merit. She
has also a beautiful crayon portrait of her husband, executed by herself from a small photograph,
and which is an admirable piece of artistic work. Her parlors are decorated with water and oil col-
ors and crayon specimens of her skill in that line of art. It is fortunate that she can find, in such
tasty and refining study, a way of, passing portions of her lonely hours and partially soothing her
sorrows.
NAHUM E. BALLOU, M.D.
SANDWICH.
NAHUM ENON BALLOU, physician and surgeon and scientist, is a son of Nahum and
Anna (Phelps) Ballou, and was born at Plymouth, Chenango county, New York, September
16, 1822. His father was born in the same town, and was a tanner and currier and shoe manu-
facturer. His grandfather was Daniel Ballou, who belonged to the New Hampshire branch of
the Ballou family. His mother was a native of Homer, Cortland county, New York, and a daugh-
ter of Enon Phelps, who was at the massacre of Wyoming. She was a sister of William W.
Phelps, who was a strong anti-Mason, and published at Canandaigua the " Ontario Phoenix," an
anti-Masonic paper. Reading a copy of Joseph Smith's bible, he became a Mormon, and followed
that new sect in its peregrinations from Kirtland, Ohio, to Far- West, Missouri, Nauvoo, Illinois )
and Salt Lake, Utah Territory, he being the only member of the family who adopted that peculiar
belief. He had no inconsiderable lyrical talent, and composed the first collection of hymns used
by the Mormons. On the opening of the University of Deseret, at Salt Lake City, he was
appointed to the chair of Latin and Greek, and distinguished himself as an able writer, as well as
brilliant linguist. He was a priest after the order of Melchizedek, speaker of the legislative
assembly of Utah, and materially gave character to, and shaped the church polity of the Latter
Day Saints, and died several years ago at the age of seventy-four years.
In 1830 Nahum Ballou moved with his family from Chenango to Orleans county, same state,
and settled at Carlton, where our subject spent his youth, finishing his literary education at
Gaines and Yates Academies, in the last named county. He had meanwhile picked up the shoe-
maker's trade at home, and for some time alternated between pounding the lapstone and bran-
dishing the pedagogue's ferule, whichever for the time being paid the best. He read medicine
at Albion with Drs. Nichoson, Paine and Huff; attended his first course of lectures at Geneva,
New York, and finished at Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Doctor H. H.
Childs, president, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine in 1846.
Doctor Ballou practiced ten years at Carlton; while there attended a course of lectures at the
Buffalo Medical College; settled in Sandwich in 1856, and has here been a successful physician
and surgeon for twenty-six years. He has always had a large business, and long ago attained a
high standing in the profession and as a scientist. He is a good classical scholar, having for
years been taking private lessons in the Latin and Greek languages. He has also considerable
skill in metrical composition, his elegies in particular being tender and wholesome in tone, and
almost faultless in measure.
The doctor is a member of the Ottawa, Illinois, and the Cleveland, Ohio, Academies of Science,
and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; is a practical meteorologist,
having already published thirty years' observations, using all needful physical instruments; is
associate editor of the meteorological department of " Our Home and Science Gossip," published
at Rockford, this state, and is president of the Naturalist Association of Sandwich. Ichthyology
and the arachnida are his specialties in natural history, he having devoted a great deal of time to
the study of fishes and the spider.
The doctor is in correspondence with several eminent scientists in Europe, as well as in this
country, and is well known among scholars in natural history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
He has written many essays on medical science and other subjects, which have been published in
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of '< '.!.;;
I'XITED. STATES BIOGKA ritlCAI. DICTIO\'AKY. Ill
different periodicals, and which have received a wide circulation and high commendation. Some
of them have brought him valuable prizes, notably those on agricultural and horticultural sub-
jects. Perhaps the most useful of these prize essays was on " Dairy Husbandry," which was
published in the proceedings of the Illinois State Agricultural Society. He is statistical corre-
spondent of the United States Department of Agriculture; has managed a meteorological station
at Sandwich for more than a quarter of a century, and for eighteen years reported to the Smith-
sonian Institution, and for five years to the United States Signal Service.
During all the thirty-six years that the subject of this sketch has been in the practice of his
profession, it seems almost unnecessary to state that he has led a very busy life. While in west-
ern New York, during the administration of President Fillmore, in addition to his professional
rides, he held the post of custom house officer of the Niagara district, and since 1863 he has been
United States pension surgeon, a position in which his great skill in that line has shown to good
advantage. He is also health officer of the city, and chairman of the board of health, positions
which he is admirably adapted to fill. He was one of the originators of the Sandwich Fair, and
its secretary for fourteen years.
Doctor Ballou has probably the largest medical and miscellaneous library in De Kalb county,
it being especially full and rich in medical science, surgery, natural history and belles lettres. He
is a member of the Presbyterian church, and stands high socially and morally, as well as profes-
sionally. He was first married in 1850, to Miss Catherine Maria Fuller, of Carlton, an acquain-
tance of his early youth, and she died in April, 1877. His second marriage is dated November
10, 1879. his present wife being Mrs. Calista (Clark) Byington, also of Carlton, another lady embraced
in the circle "of his youthful acquaintances. Her mother was the first white child born in Ridge-
way, Orleans county. His deceased wife was an active member of the Presbyterian church, as is
also his present wife. The doctor has a beautiful southern home at Lawtey, on the Gulf and
Transit railroad, in central Florida, with a large orange grove and other attractions, and he and
his wife have already spent one or two winters there.
Doctor Ballou is remotely related to that eminent divine, the late Rev. Hosea Ballou, with
whom the Garfields are also connected by marriage, the martyred president's mother being a
Ballou. The doctor's oldest brother, Hosea M. Ballou, of Carlton, New York, is custom house
officer of the Rochester district, and his youngest brother, Daniel R. Ballou, a wealthy farmer
near Sandwich, and a captain in the civil war, is president of the board of trustees of the Jackson-
ville Asylum for the Insane. The whole family are republicans, and sprung from the best whig
stock in the Empire State.
PETER VAN SCHAACK.
GHICAGO.
THE senior member of the firm of Van Schaack, Stevenson and Company, the leading drug
house of the Northwest, is a descendant of one of the oldest Knickerbocker families of New
York. He is the son of Hon. Henry Cruger Van Schaack, the author of several revolutionary
memoirs, a prominent contributor to the leading historical magazines of the country, who has
been for more than sixty years an eminent member of the New York bar, and who has frequently
lectured before the historical societies, both of New York and Chicago. The grandfather of
Peter Van Schaack, after whom he was named, and from whom he inherits his indomitable pluck,
was the famous blind lawyer of New York. He was a remarkable man, a profound lawyer, an
accomplished scholar, and one of the worthies of New York legal history. While temporarily
residing in London, he was designated by the attendants at his lodgings as "the gentleman with
a hard name."
He was born in March 1747. At the age of fifteen years he entered the freshman class of
King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York. It was thc-re he formed an interesting
112 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and valuable acquaintance with John Jay, afterward the first chief-justice of the United States.
As an illustration of Mr. Van Schaack's friendship with Governor Jay, no better, evidence can be
given than Jay's own letter, penned at Paris in 1782. It was while the latter was engaged on his
mission as one of the five commissioners to negotiate peace with Great Britain, and while the
former was, with heroic fortitude, suffering from the fear of total blindness that constantly stared
him in the face, that Jay wrote his old college chum, "While I have a loaf, you and your children
may freely partake of it. Don't let this idea hurt you. If your circumstances are easy, I rejoice ;
if not, let me take off their rougher edges." Mr. Van Schaack's circumstances were easy, but Mr.
Jay had good reason to think otherwise, and it is certainly a rare instance of elevated and disin-
terested friendship.
Mr. Van Schaack survived his old friend three years, and Mr. Jay's epitaph fell from the blind
man's lips. While at college he received several premiums for scholarship, and ranked first in
his class, and sixty years after his graduation the following toast was drunk at the anniversary
meeting of the alumni of his alma mater, and which deserves to be mentioned for its appropriate-
ness and classic beauty: "Peter Van Schaack, admired for his knowledge of the law, and for his
classical attainments, and beloved for the virtues which adorn our nature. QMS jure peritior, i/iiis
virtitte prcestantior ? ' '
He formed an early matrimonial alliance with the ancient and distinguished Cruger family of
New York city. His brother-in-law, Henry Cruger, the colleague of Edmund Burke, in the Brit-
ish Parliament, was the first American member of that most august assembly, having been elected
with Burke in 1774, to represent the city of Bristol in the English House of Commons, while
sojourning in England.
At the January term, 1769, of the New York supreme court, he was licensed to practice as an
attorney. Shortly after his admission to the bar, unlike most young attorneys, he found a rap-
idly increasing business intrusted to his charge. Respected for his talents, and with an ambitious
nature and a reputation unsullied, bringing to the profession habits of industry, and a disciplined
mind, and having also an extensive and influential family connection, the world looked bright
upon the dawn of his professional career, and little he thought of the gloomy night of darkness
in store for him. It is rare that a young attorney has entered upon his professional career under
such flattering circumstances, but rarer still that human nature has met life's vicissitudes with
such heroic fortitude.
In 1773 Peter Van Schaack was appointed to the important and responsible office of collect-
ing and revising the statute laws of the colony of New York. The execution of the work was
intrusted to him solely, and it was performed in a manner highly creditable to his judgment and
industry. At this time he was only twenty-six years old. His revision embraced the legislation
of the colony from the year 1691 to 1773, inclusive, being a period of upwards of eighty years.
The assiduity with which he applied himself to this work had an unfavorable effect upon his
vision, and he was always of the opinion that it was" a leading cause of his subsequent blindness,
and with which he was threatened soon after the completion of this work, and the dread of which
was ever before him. At an early day his vision had become so much impaired as to render nec-
essary the employment of an amanuensis. He continued, however, in the active practice of his
chosen profession for twenty years afterward, by which time the dreaded storm had overtaken
him. But he still clung to the life boat, and lived up to his chosen family motto.
During a good portion of his life he was totally blind, and occupied himself with training
others for the profession which he had practiced for more than forty years. Nearly a hundred
young gentlemen were educated at the feet of this learned lawyer, many of whom became emi-
nent members of the bar. One of his pupils was Judge William Kent, the only son of the chan-
cellor. Another was Frederic de Peyster, late president of the New York Historical Society, and
to whom he wrote in his eighty-third year: "You see that like an old coachman, who loves the
smack of his whip, I still have some professional regards ; indeed, I have some professional occu-
pations, as I have two students on whom I bestow much of my time and attention, of which I
trust they will enjoy the fruits."
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. \\\
He continued to give counsel in his profession, and occasionally gave a written opinion in
critical cases, until he had reached four score. He might be seen in his study with his law stu-
dents around him imparting instruction nearly up to the time of his death. His blindness did
not shorten his days, for he lived until September 27, 1832, dying at his native Kinderhook in the
eighty-sixth year of his age.
Mr. Van Schaack was extensively familiar with English literature, and was probably the finest
Latin scholar in the state of New York, and was extremely partial to the writers of the Augustan
age; of these Virgil was his favorite. He could repeat many of the Eclogues and a great portion
of the yEneid, and he had the minutest part of the story at his tongue's end. So, also, he could
recite large portions of the odes and epistles of Horace, and of the orations of Cicero in the origi-
nal. His opinions and other papers on legal subjects were always drawn up with logical preci-
sion, and in a style of peculiar purity and elegance. These accomplishments, so rare in the legal
profession, and so ornamental when possessed, in connection with his profound knowledge of the
law, procured for him from Columbia College the honorary degree of doctor of laws.
Such was the vigor of the ancient tree, from^vhich has sprung the branch whose remarkable
career we now sketch. It is a matter worthy of note that the mother of Peter Van Schaack, the
younger, was as remarkable as a woman as his father and grandfather were among men. She
was the mother of fourteen children, and was made always happy in the singular reverence and
.affection of them all. She was a woman of refinement and culture, and possessed the rare accom-
plishment of elegant conversational powers, combined with great energy of character. To her do-
mestic virtues, a household well ordered by her care, a numerous family trained by the strenuous
authority of love to lives of honor and usefulness, bear the best witness. Added to her domestic
virtues she was distinguished for a notable kindliness of temper, gentle courtesy, great benevo-
lence and deep piety. She was married at the age of seventeen, and was called to rest from her
labors August 31, 1876, after being blessed in a most happy married life of nearly fifty years. She
was a native of Southwick, Hampden county, Massachusetts, and a daughter of Chauncey Ives, an
officer in the war of 1812, and a gentleman of great refinement, energy and decision of character.
Her grandfather Pelton was a soldier in the revolutionary war.
Peter Van Schaack, whose career we now record, was born at Manlius, New York, April 7,
1832. He attended the academy at that place till about fourteen years old, when, stimulated by
a worthy ambition, he boldly set out upon the business of his life. From a very early age he had
developed a great preference for the drug business, and as soon as he could get permission he
entered a drug store in Albany, New York, as a clerk. Here he made very rapid progress, and in
the year 1849 went to New York city, and engaged in business there, but the climate not agreeing
with his health, in 1856 he went to Charleston, South Carolina, and established a wholesale and
retail drug house. He soon had a very large and lucrative business, commanded the confidence
of the trade, had unlimited credit in New York, and most brilliant prospects for the future,
when the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter sounded the death knell of all his busi-
ness hopes. He had the wisdom to foresee the trouble in store for all northern men within the
rebel lines, and without delay sent his wife and two little children north. He remained till mid-
summer, when he was compelled to abandon all his possessions, and went to Europe. On his
return he visited General Gilmore, and was present at the bombardment of Charleston by the
gunboats under his command. He had the satisfaction to see his store with what remained of
its contents unconfiscated, consumed by the fire of the Union shells.
It may be well to mention here that of all his possessions in Charleston he brought away
scarcely anything, but after the close of the war he recovered the life-size image of a negro, which
stood as a sign in front of his store, holding the brazen mortar and pestle. That oaken corpse of
defunct hopes still stands in the yard in the rear of his residence in Chicago, minus head and
arms, knocked off by one of Gilmore's shells, thrown over three miles, from the Swamp Angel, in
1864. It is a melancholy memento of what Judge Tourgee calls " A Fool's Errand," but invaluable
to him and his family as a proof of the indomitable energy and skill of the head of the house who
so rapidly and surely snatched victory from defeat, and replaced a lost fortune by a greater one.
114 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
While being entertained by General Gilmore at his headquarters, on Morris Island, Charleston
Harbor, he shared in the common anticipation of an easy victory and the speedy termination of
the rebellion, but after a fruitless waiting of some months he gave up the hope and returned to
New York. Here he remained in business about a year, but in the spring of 1864 came to Chi-
cago, and established "The Old Salamander Drug House," an establishment whose name and solid
reputation has penetrated to every drug store of the Northwest. As an unmistakable indication
of the strength of his character and of its solid foundation in the principles of honesty and
uprightness, it may be mentioned that Mr. Van Schaack steadily refused to leave his old home in
Charleston until all his business indebtedness at the North, as well as at the South had been paid
in full. As an illustration of this it may be stated that the gold that went to pay his last northern
account had to be bought at a premium of eighty-six per cent.
But adverse fortune seemed bent on his overthrow; and after he became fully established in
Chicago, but before he had recovered his losses consequent upon the rebellion, the terrible Lake
street fire, in the winter of 1868, came and swept all away for the second time. Everything but
honor, reputation and energy went down in thefury of the flames. But "The Old Salamander
Drug House " justifies its reputation, and the next day, phcenix-like, it had arisen from the
ashes and stuck out a new shingle.
Mr. Van Schaack, who is, by the way, a great wag, informed the trade, on a large sign board
placed in front of the ruins of his old store, that, "on account of the intense heat," they had
removed to new quarters, and could hereafter be found at the corner of Randolph street and
Michigan avenue. The drug house of Van Schaack, Stevenson and Company, although having
sustained heavy losses in the great Chicago fire of 1871 by the total destruction of their store and
warehouse, paid one hundred cents on the dollar, and immediately resumed business upon as
sound a basis as before. After the fire, when mercantile houses were at a great extremity to
secure temporary facilities for carrying on their business, Mr. Van Schaack found a large and
commodious church, which had recently been vacated, and thinking that a building once ded-
icated to religious uses would be still further consecrated by the pure incense of genuine drugs
and patent medicines, the firm made that their resting place until their new store, on the old site,
at the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, was completed.
For a period now of nearly twelve years fortune has continued to smile on them, and the
house has reached the pinnacle of prosperity, and may be said to be second to none in their line
in the Northwest. His energy and executive ability are remarkable. To witness the celerity
and vim with which he dispatches business makes an easy-going man feel like stepping off the
track to let the train go by. Few men have either the energy or the will-power to battle as he
has done with the outrages of an adverse fortune, and conquer them all while still a young man.
He has been the living embodiment of persistent energy and indomitable pluck, and has
triumphed over obstacles and disasters which would have crushed ordinary men.
His whole life has been a grand illustration of the motto of his family, " Snperanda fortiina
ferendo." This has been the philosophy of his life, as it was that of his grandfather, Peter Van
Schaack, and interpreted by his own language and the events through which he has passed, means
that " fortune is to be overcome by enduring it with patience and fortitude."
In the fall of 1857 Mr. Van Schaack contracted a happy matrimonial alliance with Miss Louise
Smith, the only child of J. Calvin Smith, a wholesale merchant of New York city, and a gentle-
man of great education and fine social position. Her grandfather was the well-known Isaac T.
Storm, the founder of the firm of Storm, Smith and Company, one of the oldest mercantile
houses in America. Four sons and one daughter, the latter recently happily married, are the fruit
of this union. Mr. Van Schaack gives employment to three sons in his immense establishment.
His second son, Henry Cruger Van Schaack, is one of the rising young attorneys of Chicago, and
bids more than promise to keep up the legal reputation of the family. He has a fine legal mind,
is a great student and a fluent orator, and will make his mark as 'a court advocate. He is one of
the trustees of his ahna mater, the Chicago University, and is associated with his uncle, Corne-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 115
Hits Van Schaack, a well known and successful attorney of this city, and an officer under General
Sheridan in the late war. In 1880 Mr. Van Schaack took his entire family with him to Europe
for an extended trip. The eldest son, however, continued his travels into Egypt, and furnished
the "Times" and European journals with a series of very brilliant letters from the ancient land
of the Pyramids. He is a gentleman of fine mind and extensive information, and his letters were
widely read and greatly admired. Politically Mr. Van Schaack is a democrat, but not an office-
seeker, nor a slave to party. With his natural, sturdy independence he follows his own inclina-
tions, and votes for the best man, regardless of party. He is by nature, however, an inveterate
'foe to oppression and without reverence for ancient abuses, however strongly intrenched in cus-
tum. This makes him a reformer, and hence, while a member of Christ Episcopal Church, he
took sides heartily in the reformed movement headed by Bishop Cheney, and, as a member of
the vestry, stood by him in the subsequent successful struggle with Bishop Whitehouse over the
possession of the church property belonging to the congregation.
NATHAN E. LYMAN.
ROCK FORD.
NATHAN ELIJAH LYMAN, president of the People's Bank of Rockford, was born in Rush-
ford, Allegany county, New York, November 17, 1834, being a son of Reuben L. Lyman,
a farmer, of New York birth, and Mary C. (Kimball) Lyman, a native of Vermont. His grand-
father, Elijah Lyman, was a soldier in the second war with England, and his great-grandfather,
Gideon Lyman, in the first. The Lyman family came from Highongar, England, near the close
of the seventeenth century, and our subject is descended from John Lyman, which branch settled
at Northampton, Massachusetts, spreading thence into New York and the western states.
Nathan was educated at the Rushford Academy, having among his schoolmates Hon. Henry
M. Teller, United States senator for Colorado, and Hon. Thaddeus C. Pound, member of congress
from Wisconsin.
Mr. Lyman taught school three years in his native state, and in 1855 came to Illinois, locating
at Erie, Whiteside county, and there engaging in mercantile pursuits. In 1861 he removed to
Livingston county, and aided in founding the old Fairbury Bank, which afterward became the
First National Bank of Fairbury.
In 1873, at thirty-eight years of age, Mr. Lyman was elected president of the People's Bank
of Rockford, and immediately removed to this city. He has proved an able manager of this insti-
tution, and is making it a grand success, it being one of the most substantial banks in Winnebago
county.
Mr. Lyman is treasurer and one of the directors of the Rockford Boot and Shoe Manufactur-
ing Company, of which he was one of the founders; is one of the proprietors of the Rockford
Cutlery Company, and a member of the firm of Lockwood and Lyman, who are manufacturing
screen doors, green wire cloth, brass and iron wire cloth, door springs, etc., these all being pros-
perous enterprises. Mr. Lyman is also treasurer of the Home Building and Loan Association,
another thrifty institution. He has likewise the same office in the Merchants and Manufacturers'
Mutual Insurance Company. The burdens of office seem to be heaped upon him, but he has
spirit sufficient for them all.
Sunday is a busy day with him, as well as the six week days, for he is superintendent of the
Court street Methodist Sunday school, of which church he is a member and very liberal supporter,
and we doubt if any labor is performed by him with more cheerfulness and zest than that of the
day of rest. "Mr. Lyman is known," writes a friend, "as an earnest Christian worker, ready for
every good word and work. Sincerely devoted to the interests of the city, the church and his
home, there is not to be found a busier man in Rockford. His advice is sought in matters of
business, and the various official relations he sustains to the church attest to the high esteem in
Il6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
which he is held. His genial nature wins him many warm friends. Mr. Lyman is greatly inter-
ested in the local schools, and was at one period president of the city board of education. He
has held the office of city treasurer for two or three terms.
Mr. Lyman married, March 30, 1857, Rachel A., daughter of Joseph Weaver, one of the leading
citizens of Erie, Illinois, and they have three children.
JOHN H. BEAUMONT, M.D.
FREE FOR T.
JOHN HENRY BEAUMONT, homoeopathic physician and surgeon, one of the oldest medical
J practitioners in Stephenson county, was a native of Washington county, New York, being born
at Sandy Hill, February 12, 1818. His father was William Beaumont, a millwright; his grand-
father was Daniel Beaumont, a revolutionary patriot and soldier of French pedigree, and his
mother was Deborah Harris, a native of New York state. When John was five years the family
moved to Champlain, Clinton county, where the son was educated in the common school, doing
also some work on a farm which his father owned. At an early age he began to take much inter-
est in surgery, which he studied in private, much to the detriment and even destruction of certain
live animals in and about the pig-sty. In his studies in this branch of the healing art, he received
some encouraging words from his cousin, Doctor William Beaumont, that eminent surgeon of the
United States army, who gave the first insight into the theory of digestion, and is the highest
authority on that subject in this country.
The family of William Beaumont fell into the westward current when their son John was
twenty-two years of age, and the father, mother, and ten children found a new home in Elkhart,
Indiana, in 1840. Of this large family of children but one survives the doctor, James Beau-
mont, of Kidder, Missouri, who was present at his brother's funeral.
It was about four years later when the subject of this sketch accepted employment with his
uncle, Deacon Josiah Beaumont, of Joliet, in this state. In 1863 he settled in Freeport, where he
died February 24, 1883.
He was a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, and in 1870 was president of the
Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Association, being well known in this state, and having many
prominent medical friends in other states. The doctor wrote occasionally for medical peri-
odicals, mainly reports of cases in connection with his practice. He was a member of the Presby-
terian Church, and a man of excellent standing.
He married in 1844, Miss Alcista Melissa Bebee, a native of Starksborough, Vermont, and they
had three children, all settled in life: Emma, married to George W. Clark, merchant, Freeport;
Rose Ann, married to Doctor L. M. Currier, of Sycamore, Illinois, and John Flanders Beaumont,
M.D., a graduate of the Homoeopathic College, Philadelphia, and of the Ophthalmic Hospital, New
York, who is practicing at Minneapolis, Minnesota, making a specialty of the eye and ear, and
being a young man of much promise.
ALEXANDER BRUCE.
MARSEILLES.
ALEXANDER BRUCE, banker and railroad contractor, is a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
I\. a son of George and Ann (Brown) Bruce, and was born July 30, 1827. His mother was a
native of Banff, Scotland. His father and grandfather were millers and mill-wrights, and when
he had finished his education (common English) he learned the same trade. In 1844 he left the
old country, came directly to Lockport, this state, and there worked at his trade until 1852, when
he moved to La Salle, and took charge of the construction of bridges on the Illinois Central rail-
road, which was then building. The first train to enter La Salle went in from Chicago on the
Rock Island road, March 6, 1853.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 117
In 1855 Mr. Bruce moved to Marseilles, continuing the same business, in which he has been
engaged most of the time for more than a quarter of a century. He has had contracts on more
than a do/en of roads, principally the masonry of bridges, and is one of the most energetic and
competent business men in this part of the state. In 1864 he commenced buying and shipping
grain, operating at different points, principally at Seneca, La Salle county, and Henry, Marshall
county, building up in a short time a very extensive business, and becoming the leading grain
shipper in this section.
In 1873 Mr. Bruce became a stockholder in the First National Bank of Marseilles, and has
been its president ever since. It is a well managed institution, solid and popular, and doing a
good business. Mr. Bruce has held a few municipal offices, giving a reasonable portion of his
time to the discharge of such duties, but has never been a seeker after honors in that direction.
He seems to have aimed to become a successful business man, and has succeeded admirably. In
politics he early became a republican, voting for General John C. Fremont in 1856, and for
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and 1864. He married Mary Smith, a native of Scotland, in 1854, and
they have six children.
Mr. Bruce came to the United States with very little means, save a desire to find something to
do, and a good constitution to back up that desire when work was found. His accumulations
are the result of wise plannings and business-pushing propensities.
HENRY L. BENNETT.
GENEVA.
HENRY LEROY BENNETT, a prominent flour manufacturer and enterprising man, and a
son of Stephen Bennett, miller, was born at Lisle, Broome county, New York, June 6, 1828.
His mother was Robey Green, whose father was an officer in the revolutionary war, and whose
mother was the wife of three revolutionary officers, and aided in preparing many a meal for General
Washington. She drew a pension till her death, which occurred at ninety-eight years of age.
Henry was educated in a district school, having very limited opportunities, and acquiring a '
business education by his own exertions as the exigencies arose. He left home at seventeen
years of age, learned the milling business at Oswego, New York, and was engaged for several
years in starting mills at various places in that state. Mr. Bennett came to the West in 1855, and
made, at Piano, Illinois, the first flour ever manufactured for Lewis Stewart ; also the first flour
made at Sandwich. He started the mill for Detcher and Wyman, of Amboy, the latter member
of the firm being General Wyman, who was killed at Vicksburg.
In 1859 Mr. Bennett commenced for himself at Avon, Fulton county, where he did a success-
ful business for eight years, removing thence to Geneva in 1866. Here he bought, in company
with his brother, of C. B. Dodson, the City Mills, now known as the Bennett Mills, then having
three run of stone, and since greatly enlarged. The mills now have eight run of stone, and
rollers equivalent to three run, and are running night and day, usually the year round, turning
out one hundred and sixty barrels every twenty-four hours.
Among the most popular brands made in these mills are the Geneva Belle patent, and the
Oracle, straight vhite winter, which, with other cheaper brands of his, are well known all over
this part of the country. So excellent is the quality of his flour, and so great is the demand for
it, that he is sometimes behind in his orders, which is slightly annoying to a prompt business
man like Mr. Bennett. He is one of the best practical millers in the state, having given thirty-
five years to the closest study of the business, and acquired a complete mastery of the art. He
takes pride in his trade, gives his time assiduously to it, and hence the difficulty of eclipsing him
in the manufacture of choice brands of flour.
Mr. Bennett has, at sundry times, done some valuable work in the town council of Geneva,
and is a first-class business man, but he evidently does not covet office. He is a straight republi-
can in politics; a Unitarian in religion and an upright, substantial citizen.
Il8 r.YI TKD STATKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
He first married in 1848, Miss Isabel Marsh, of Constantia, Oswego county, New York, and she
died in 1851, leaving one son, Adelbert Bennett, now living in Constantia; and the second time in
1853, Miss Helen E. Bliss, also of Constantia, having by her four children:- Alice, the wife of C.
W. Gates, of Geneva, and Isabel J., George H., and Fred Elmer, who are all at home.
JACOB HAISH.
DE KALB.
AMONG the self-instructed, self-made and eminently successful citizens of De Kalb county,
Illinois, may be safely ranked the gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of
this sketch. He is a native of Bonddish, Germany, dating his birth March 9, 1827, and is a son of
Christian and Christena (Laman) Haish, members of the farming community. The family came
to this country when Jacob was nine years old, and settled in Crawford county, Ohio, where he
received a limited English education, and had a generous experience in swinging an ax, his father
opening a farm in the woods. He aided in clearing land and tilling the soil until nineteen or
twenty years of age, when he pushed westward into Illinois, and made a halt at Naperville, Du
Page county, where he worked a few seasons at first as a farm hand, While there, in 1848, he
married Miss Sophie Brown, of that county, and a year later came into this county, locating on a
farm in Pierce township. A few years afterward he moved into the village, now city, of De Kalb,
and after working awhile as a house carpenter, a trade which he had picked up, he went into
the lumber trade, at the same time taking contracts as a builder, and doing a thrifty business.
In 1873 he made his first attempt to attach a barb to wire, in December of which year he filed
his first patent, which was issued January 20, 1874. Improvements were made from year to year,
and half a dozen patents in all of his have been issued, fairly entitling him to rank among the
prominent inventors of the present decade. Taking a choice of the lot of his inventions, he has
since been manufacturing steel, barb fencing on the best principle and devices, the same being
the famous S patent, and is meeting with almost marvelous success.
Mr. Haish built his first barb wire factory in 1874, a humble, unpretending structure, which
he enlarged from year to year, and in 1881 he put up a building one hundred by three hundred
feet in length, and two stories highland now gives employment to a hundred workmen, and is
turning out from twenty-five to thirty tons of steel barb wire daily. This is the state of things
in May, 1882, and very likely before this work gets into the hands of its patrons, the capacity of
his shops may be doubled.
When Mr. Haish 's new factory was first completed, the editor of a local paper thus spoke of it:
"The new factory just completed, wherein is manufactured the world renowned Pioneer S
Barb Steel Fence Wire rivals any establishment of the kind in the West as the most perfect in all
its appointments, and the most casual observer will be startled at the effort displayed to intro-
duce all the modern improvements of the age. It is no extravagance of language to say that a
finer equipped factory is not in existence. It has an obelisk one hundred and twenty-five feet in
height, from the summit of which you may look down the inside of a less pretentious structure
twenty miles distant. This obelisk is both ornamental and useful, serving as an advertisement and
guide to the wanderer, and as a smoke stack to the factory. The building covers forty thousand
square feet of floor space ; is two stories in height, with a frontage on Sixth street of one hundred
and twelve feet, and three hundred feet on Main street. The structure is built of pressed brick of
the French Renaissance order of architecture.
To see what science has accomplished, let us walk through the building. You are led natur-
ally to where the gem of an engine is running, so perfect in its movements that no sound indi-
cates that it makes a speed of .one hundred and ten revolutions a minute. It is of the Buckeye
pattern, of the latest approved design, one hundred and fifty horse power, capable of running one
hundred barb fence machines with the needed complement of lathes, drills, spoolers, planers, saw-
LIBfHRY
of IH
UNIVERSITY ofi!.Li,;C!S
STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 121
ing and boring machines, and one sixteen Brush electric light machine. Just beside the engine
are two immense tubular boilers, adorned with a net work of valves and pipes, intricate enough
to the ordinary observer, but all serving their place. One set leads to the large water tanks,
another to supply steam for heating the building, another for an outlet to the chimes or whistles,
whose musical power will awaken the dead memories of the old croakers to the fact that De Kalb
stands out preeminent as a town of push and energy, and the near future will reveal that improve-
ments have only commenced. Just in range with the above comes the dynamo, which generates
the electricity to feed the thirty carbons for lighting the factory, the opera house and principal
streets of the city.
This plant, including engine, boilers, steam pipes, radiators and coils for heating the entire
building, reaches the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. Starting at one end of the building
you may look down the distance and see fifty barb fence machines in active operation. On the
floor above fifty more machines will be placed in motion, as Mr. Haish finds already that his
calculations for space were too small, and he will need to add largely to his works ; hence in the
not distant future the old hay press lots will have to pay tribute to the growing demands of wire
and other articles of merchandise it is intended to manufacture.
Mr. Haish was the first person to introduce barb wire into the country, and to enamel and
coat it, and in his line of manufacture, is one of the foremost men of the world. Steel wire fenc-
ing has become extremely popular, especially in the land of prairies, and Mr. Haish is using the
best wire that can be produced, and is putting a superior article in the market, hence his success
is simply astonishing. He had a tremendous struggle in introducing it, manfully stood the brunt
of the battle for years, and is now reaping the rich reward of his indomitable energy and perse-
verance.
HON. JOHN CLARK.
SOMONA UK.
JOHN CLARK, banker and farmer, and late member of the legislature, dates his birth at Had-
dam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, February 8, 1821. His father, George Clark, a farmer,
was born in the same town, and this branch of the Clark family was among the first settlers on
the Connecticut River. Joseph Clark, the grandfather of John, participated in the struggle for
independence. George Clark married Emily Smith, and they had a family of ten children, of
whom John was the third child. He finished his education in the local academy; came to Illinois
in 1842; taught school five winter terms and one summer term in De Kalb and La Salle counties,
entering land meantime and improving it when not teaching.
At the end of five years Mr. Clark returned to Haddam, and remained there eight years,
teaching one winter, and marrying Miss Amelia B. Shailer, daughter of John Shailer, February
29, 1847. His principal business during the period spent at the East was farming. In the spring
of 1856 he returned to De Kalb county, and settled on one of his farms, two miles from Somo-
nauk. For a few years he gave his time and devoted his energies almost exclusively to agricul-
tural pursuits, and he now has four farms, all within five or six miles of Somonauk, all under good
improvement and all rented to prudent parties. During the last seven or eight years much atten-
tion has been gi>-en to the dairy business, there being from fifty to sixty cows on these farms.
Since i87o-Mr. Clark has resided in the village of Somonauk. While living on the farm he
was for some time assistant school director, and also supervisor of the town of Somonauk for a
long time. A few years ago, in company with other parties, he organized the Somonauk Wind-
mill Company, the firm name being Clark and Company, a prosperous institution-.
In February, 1880, he engaged in the banking business with others under the firm name of
Clark, Wright and Stevens, an institution which has been prosperous from the start. Mr. Clark
is president of the bank.
In the autumn of 1880 he was elected a member of the legislature from the late thirteenth dis-
13
122 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
trict, which was composed of De Kalb, Kendall and Grundy counties. These are all republican
counties and he is a democrat, and he owed his election to the minority representation, his party
wisely concentrating their votes mainly on him. He has usually been quite active in politics,
rarely failing to attend a county convention, and often being a delegate to congressional and state
conventions. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and was for years secretary of the Somonauk Lodge,
No. 646.
As already intimated, Mr. Clark got possession of a little land here at an early day, and but a
little at first, his means being quite limited; but he was reared in habits of industry; was early
inured to solid farm work; had instilled into his mind the lessons of prudence and economy, so
commonly taught by New England parents, and he has been successful because he early began to
save his earnings, and has been a shrewd, yet conscientious and straightforward manager.
HENRY B. PLANT.
LA SALLE.
HENRY BENJAMIN PLANT, son of Benjamin and Sarah (Mason) Plant, was born in Utica,
Oneida county, New York, January n, 1831. His father was born in Utica, and his grand-
father, Benjamin Plant, Sr., in Connecticut. The family were early settlers in Oneida county.
Two great-grandfathers, Mason and Potter, were in the revolutionary war, commencing at Bunker
Hill, and his maternal grandfather was in the second war with the mother country. His grand-
sire, Arnold Mason, was an early canal and railroad contractor, and was engaged in the
construction of many public works in the East. Sarah (Mason) Plant was a sister of ex-Mayor
R. B. Mason, of Chicago.
Henry received an academic education in his native city; was on his father's farm till seven-
teen years old, when he engaged in civil engineering, commencing in Connecticut on the
Naugatuck railroad, and was subsequently on the New York and New Haven, the Vermont
Valley and on preliminary surveys in Pennsylvania. In 1851 Mr. Plant came to Illinois, and was
chief engineer of one of the divisions of the Illinois Central road, with headquarters at Blooming-
ton and Decatur, being thus engaged until the completion of that road.
In 1854 he went to Hastings, Minnesota, and engaged in banking and real estate. While he was
in that state the land grant railroads were building, and Mr. Plant was appointed by Governor
Sibley as engineer to inspect and report upon several roads, he being thus employed until 1858,
when he returned to Illinois, and for about a year was engaged in contracting on the Illinois
Central road. After that he was appointed engineer on the Chicago and Alton road, assisting
his uncle, R. B. Mason.
A year later, 1860, Mr. Plant became assistant superintendent of the Logansport, Peoria and
Burlington road ; was soon afterward appointed general superintendent of the same road, and
holding that position when Sumter fell. In 1861 he went into the service of his country, as
second lieutenant, battery I, 2d artillery, and was in for three years, when ill health compelled
him to resign, he being completely broken down. Before leaving the field he was promoted to
the rank of first lieutenant. He served under Generals Buell, Rosencranz, and Sherman, and was
in Sheridan's division a considerable period of time.
Soon after he had recovered his health, Mr. Plant spent some time at Cairo, in this state, and
was in the employ of Halliday Brothers, and from this firm he went to St. Johns, Perry county,
Illinois, as superintendent of the coal mines, and while there he was married in April, 1871, to
Miss Carrie Neely. of Du Quoin, and they have two children.
In the spring of 1872 Mr. Plant removed to Joliet and engaged in the lumber and planing mill
business. In August, 1876, he was appointed receiver in a case in the United States court the
case of the Northern Illinois Coal and Iron Company, he expecting to return to Joliet within a
year. He still has charge of the property, which is part of the estate of Henry L. Young, late
f.Vf't'KD STATES 11IOC.KA TIllCA I. DICTIONARY. 123
of New York city, deceased. In addition to managing that property, he is also manager of a
corporation which was formed to work the mines, likewise still continuing his interests at Joliet.
Mr. Plant is a republican, but no place hunter, and has managed, thus far, to keep out of all
civil and political offices. He has been engaged in a variety of industrial pursuits ; has held, as
it is here seen, responsible posts in different branches of business, and he has always shown him-
self faithful and trustworthy as well as efficient in the discharge of his duties. His energy of
character and executive ability are well matched by his integrity and high sense of right and
justice. Truer men than he arc scarce in La Salle.
WILLIAM H. THATCHER.
MQRRISON.
\ T /ILLIAM HENRY THATCHER, treasurer of Whiteside county, dates his birth at Ithaca,
VV New York, January 13, 1829, his parents being William and Anna (Peckens) Thatcher.
His father was from Sussex, England, and his mother from Connecticut. Her father, Isaac Peck-
ens, was in the war of independence. When William was two years old the family moved to
Owego, New York, where he received an academic education. William Thatcher was a mason
and builder, and also owned a farm, on which the son worked more or less until of age, teaching
school four terms.
In 1851 he went to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was bookkeeper, etc., for a large mining
firm for three years. In the spring of 1855 he came to Dixon, Illinois, and was a clerk for Var-
ney and Oilman, general merchants, until the autumn of that year, when he went into partnership
with them, and had charge of a branch store at Sterling, where he remained for fourteen years.
While in business there he held, for several years each, the offices of city treasurer and clerk of
the city council. '
In the autumn of 1869 Mr. Thatcher was elected county treasurer, and has held that office for
thirteen consecutive years, He is a straightforward, trustworthy man, and the voters of White-
side county have unlimited confidence in his integrity as well as capacity. His politics are inde-
pendent republican.
Mr. Thatcher attends the Universalist church, and is a man in all respects of irreproachable
character and of generous and warm impulses. His social qualities are excellent; his manners
are cordial and agreeable, and his popularity in the county is no surprise to any one who knows
him.
He married, in January, 1866, Miss Louisa Lukens, daughter of William E. Lukens, of Rock
Falls, Illinois, and they have one daughter, Gertrude, who is attending to her literary and musical
education.
H
HORACE S. LELAND.
SPRINGFIELD.
GRACE SAMUEL LELAND, proprietor of the Leland House, and one of the best known
hotel keepers in Illinois, dates his birth in Landgrove, Vermont, July 26, 1836, his parents
being Aaron P.- and Submit (Arnold) Leland. His father was an extensive stage proprietor and
mail contractor forty and fifty years ago, and was well known in the New England States and
New York as an energetic and thoroughgoing business man. Both parents of Horace were
natives of New England. His great-grandfather was John Leland, a noted Baptist minister and
author, of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, a man of large brain, great sagacity and strong will
power, and a sort of oracle among the common people of western Massachusetts in the early days
of the republic. He once (1801) sent Thomas Jefferson a cheese, out of pure regard for the
author of the declaration of independence, then just seated in the presidential chair. The Leland
124 UNITED STATKS RiOCK.I I'lflCA I. DICTIO.VAKY.
family were originally from England, two brothers coming over soon after the settlement of Ply-
mouth and Boston. The maternal grandfather of James was Judge Samuel Arnold, of London-
derry, Vermont, an eminent jurist in his day.
When our subject was quite young the family moved to Ohio, and afterward went to New
York. He finished his education in Cleveland, and when only twelve years old we find him in
the Clinton Hotel in New York city. In 1854, when the Metropolitan Hotel was opened, he
became its cashier, and for eighteen years was connected with that public house, thirty years
ago a far up town and huge institution.
In 1867 Mr. Leland came to Springfield and opened the Leland House, then just completed
by a stock company, and leased it for ten years, under the firm name of H. S. Leland and Com-
pany. In 1876 he and his brother-in-law, N. B. Wiggins, purchased the property, and are sole
proprietors. The Leland has about two hundred rooms, spacious, airy and inviting, the house
being elegantly furnished throughout. It is the rendevous of the political magnates of the state,
a favorite with travelers generally, and is second in quality to no hotel in Illinois, outside of
Chicago.
Mr. Leland grew up in a public house; has lived in one constantly for nearly forty years, and
would be at home nowhere else. He has perfected himself in this art, for it is an art to keep
a model hotel, and he has made many friends in many states outside of Illinois. He keeps out
of politics, craves no office, attends to his own business, and yet has a deep interest in the com-
munity in which he lives. He is generous toward local churches and benevolent institutions, the
poor and the unfortunate, and is, in short, a neighborly man among a neighborly public.
HON. HENRY S. HUDSON.
YORK VILLE.
HENRY SUMNER HUDSON, judge of the county court of Kendall county, is a son of
Joseph and Rachel (Eddy) Hudson, and dates his birth at Oxford, Worcester county, Mas-
sachusetts, May 13, 1827. Both of his parents are still living, his father being in his eighty-
seventh, and his mother in her eighty-sixth year. Himself, his father and his grandfather, John
Hudson, were born in the same house, the Oxford homestead having been in the hands of the
Hudson family for about six generations. The progenitor of the family came over from England
with a small colony which had a grant of land, and settled in Worcester county in the early part
of the seventeenth century. The Eddys were also a Massachusetts family.
Henry Sumner was reared on his father's farm ; prepared for college at the Leicester Acad-
emy, and is a graduate of Amherst College, class 1849. He taught school both before going to
college and during vacations ; commenced studying law at Worcester with Judges Barton and
Bacon, immediately after receiving his college diploma ; a few months later went to Newton,
New Jersey, and there taught an Academy for eighteen months, pursuing his legal studies at the
same time; returned to Worcester, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1851, and there
practiced until 1856, being of the firm of Matthews and Hudson. In that year he came to Chi-
cago, and was in practice there for six years,, part of the time in company with Andrew Garrison.
In 1862 Mr. Hudson settled in Kendall county, locating at first in Oswego, where he remained
until the autumn of 1865, when he was elected judge of the county court, and removed to York-
ville, the county seat. He has held the office of judge for seventeen consecutive years ; has just
entered upon his fifth term, and is giving eminent satisfaction to the people, being one of the
most popular men in the county. He has also had at the same time more or less practice in the
circuit and supreme courts, and has shown himself to be a sound as well as well read lawyer, and
true to his clients. He is scholarly, yet modest and unassuming, perfectly upright and straight-
forward in all his transactions, and has won his way to the confidence of everybody who knows
him.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 125
Judge Hudson is a republican of whig antecedents, and has been quite prominent in Kendall
county politics, having often been a delegate to district and state conventions. He is a man of a
good deal of influence in social as well as political circles ; has always borne a high character for
purity of life, and is much esteemed by his many friends throughout the county and wherever
known. Judge Hudson was married in Chicago, in 1858, to Miss Hannah E. Dayhoff, a native
of Ohio, and they have two children, Lizzie H. and Joseph E., both at home.
CANTLEY W. STEWART, M.D.
KIRK WOOD.
/^ANTLEY WALLACE STEWART, an experienced physician and surgeon, and a man of
V_x marked skill in his profession, is a Kentuckian by birth, first seeing the light in Madison
county March 2, 1823. His father was James Stewart, a farmer, born in Charles county, Mary-
land, and his mother was Helen Nichols, whose father shared in the perils and hardships of the
first war with the mother country. When Cantley was six years old (1829) the family moved to
Callaway county, Missouri, where he was reared on a farm, receiving a common English educa-
tion, and teaching school two or three winters. When he had reached his majority he com-
menced studying in Saint Louis county for his profession. He attended lectures at McDowell's
College, Sai.nt Louis ; practiced at Lancaster, Schuyler county, Missouri ; attended another
course of lectures at Saint Louis ; received his medical degree (1857), and was still in practice at
Lancaster when the civil war began. In February, 1862, he went into the service as surgeon of
the second Illinois cavalry, and served about eighteen months.
In 1863 Doctor Stewart came into this state, practiced six years at Olena, Henderson county,
and in 1869 settled in Kirkwood, then Young America. His business here is good, as it was in
Olena and in Missouri. He holds no civil or political offices, and lets nothing interfere with his
professional duties ; is a Freemason, but has attended no meetings of a lodge since coming to
this state. Years ago he wrote a few articles for medical periodicals.
The doctor has always been very assiduous in attending to professional calls, and has not
been off duty more than four months in thirty years, and then he was out of health. The doc-
tor's professional labors have at times been very trying to his constitution, and his life has been
one of self-sacrifice, he wearing himself out to strengthen the constitution and lengthen the days
of others. In 1844 Doctor Stewart was joined in wedlock with Miss Lucy A. Davis, of Missouri,
and she died August 2, 1877. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and an
active Christian up to the time of her departure for her heavenly home. She was the mother of
eight children, six of whom survive her. They are all married but Bitula, who is keeping house
for her father. The doctor has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for forty years,
but has rarely been able to devote that amount of time to church work that his heart would
prompt him to give.
HON. JONATHAN H. BAKER.
MA COMB.
JONATHAN HASKELL BAKER, judge of the McDonough county court, dates his birth at
J Walpole, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, May 8, 1817, his parents being Edward and Anna
(Haskell) Baker, both natives of Massachusetts. To the ordinary drill of a district school Jona-
than added a single term in a select school at Alstead, in his native county. When quite young
he lost his father, and took care of himself after he was nine years old, being bound out to a
farmer, with whom he lived until seventeen. From that age until twenty-one he was a clerk in a
store at Alstead. In the spring of 1838 he left New England, and settled in Macomb, then little
more than a four corners.
126 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Baker did not come west to suck his thumbs, but was ready for any respectable service
that turned up. The first month here he worked in a brick yard; was then a clerk in a store one
year, after which he became deputy clerk for James M. Campbell, who was holding different
county and other offices.
From 1842 to 1855 Mr. Baker was engaged in mercantile pursuits, holding also the office of
postmaster during the administration of President Polk, 1845-9. From 1858 to 1861 he was clerk
of the county court, during the same time doing more or less in the real estate business in part-
nership with others. After the war he engaged once more in merchandising.
Mr. Baker had a taste for legal studies, to which he gave considerable attention, although he
was never admitted to the bar. Yet he was in the law practice from 1868 to 1877 with Hon. Wm.
H. Neece, now a member of congress from the eleventh Illinois district. In the last named year
he was elected county judge, and was reelected in 1882. The duties of that office he is discharg-
ing with promptness and fidelity, and to the general satisfaction of the public. The same is true
in regard to every office which he has ever held. He was the first notary public in McDonough
county, being appointed about 1850, and also at an early period held the office of public adminis-
trator for several years.
Judge Baker has always acted with the democratic party, and voted for Stephen A. Douglas
in 1838, the first time he was a candidate for congress, being beaten by Hon. John T. Stewart.
He is a member and trustee of the Universalist Church, a man of solid character, and held in
great esteem by his large circle of acquaintances.
Judge Baker was married in 1843 to Miss Isabella Hempstead, of Macomb, and they have four
children: Clarissa A., the oldest daughter, is the wife of Charles V. Chandler, banker, Macomb;
Mary C. is the wife of E. L. Wells, hardware merchant, Macomb, and Isabella and Joseph Has-
kell are attending school.
HON. DENNIS CLARK.
ABINGDON.
ONE of the early settlers in Knox county, Illinois, and a prominent official of the county, is
Hon. Dennis Clark, county jndge for the last seventeen years. He is a native of Davis
county, Indiana, a son of Walter and Mary (Young) Clark, and was born August 14, 1817. His
father was born near Harper's Ferry, his mother in New Jersey. His grandfather came from Ire-
land, with two brothers, before the outbreak of the colonies against the mother country, and he
and one of the brothers took up arms against King George. Dennis lost his mother when he was
not more than five years old, and a year or two afterward his father moved to Wabash, Illinois,
where he was a trader for two years. The family then removed to Vermillion county, Indiana,
near Eugene, where the father was engaged in farming, and running a brick yard.
About 1828, when Dennis was eleven years old, his father took the family to the mining region
of Wisconsin, where he was poisoned and laid up on account of drinking mineral water, and our
subject, being the oldest living child, had to take charge of the family, making trips of fifty miles
with an ox-team, to provide food. The next season, 1829, they left Wisconsin, moved to Saint Louis,
Missouri, and thence to Sangamon county, this state, and in the same year our subject was bound
out to a farmer, where he became dissatisfied, and in 1833 he tied up his worldly goods in a small
bundle, and without observing many of the courtesies of polite society, left, hauling up in Knox
county, near Abingdon. That was nearly fifty years ago, and Dennis was only sixteen years old.
A good deal of life was still before him, and although he had done some literary browsing as he
wandered from place to place, he was not in the least degree puffed up with the amount of
knowledge which he had accumulated. After he had earned a little money by working for a
farmer for $5 a month, he went to school in Warren county, after which he taught one winter
term, it being the first school ever taught in Indian Point township, and subsequently attended
the Cherry Grove Seminary, near Abingdon, since moved to Lincoln, Logan county, and grown
to a college.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
127
For some years he now alternated between farming in the summer, and teaching in the winter,
being part of this time captain of a militia company. In 1845 he married Miss Martha Meadows,
of Warren county, and taught several winter terms after taking that important step. Farming now
became his chief occupation for some years, varied only by episodical recreations in a justice's
court; for during this period he did considerable fumbling of law books. Finally in 1866
he came out a full-fledged attorney-at-law, prepared for flights into any of the courts of the state.
During the civil war he was enrolling officer, and labored faithfully to make comfortable the
families of absent soldiers. In the autumn of 1865 he was elected judge of the county of Knox,
and he has behaved himself so well that his constituents still insist on his holding that office, his
home being all the time at Abingdon, ten miles south of Galesburgh. He is a faithful official and
has the fullest confidence and high esteem of the citizens of the county.
Judge Clark is a republican of whig antecedents, casting his first presidential vote for Henry
Clay in 1844, and his last for General Garfield in 1880.
As the result of the marriage consummated in 1845, Judge and Mrs. Clark have five sons living
and five children buried; they have two adopted daughters living. Walter H. and William B. are
married, the former being one of the editors and proprietors of the "Abingdon Argus," and the
latter a farmer in Shawnee county, Kansas. Buford, Horace, Loren and the orphan girls are on the
home farm.
JAMES L. CAMPBELL.
CHICAGO.
JAMES LAFAYETTE CAMPBELL, real-estate dealer, and father of the house of correction
bill in the Illinois legislature, is a native of the Empire State, being born in the town of Cale-
donia, Livingston county, May 19, 1831. His father, William Campbell, was a Vermonter by
birth, and remotely of Scotch extraction. His mother, whose maiden name was Hannah Ladd,
was a native of New Hampshire. She is still living. Her husband died December 15, 1880, aged
eighty-four years.
Mr. Campbell came to Illinois in 1850, and subsequently removed to Iowa, finishing his edu-
cation in the academic department of the upper Iowa University, at Fayette, in that state, and
teaching school for nine or ten terms in Fayette and Delaware counties. He read law with Hon.
Milo McGathery, of West Union, Fayette county; was admitted to the bar at that county seat
in June, 1862; settled in Chicago in the autumn of that year, and was graduated from the law
department of the University of Chicago in 1866. After practicing his profession for two years
he engaged in the real-estate business, which he has since followed very closely, and with a fair
measure of success, though having, like others in the same line, his ups and downs. Campbell
avenue and Campbell park, on the west side, were named for him.
Mr. Campbell represented the twelfth ward in the city council from December, 1869, to Decem-
ber, 1871, and while in that body was impressed with the necessity of reform in the management
of the bridewell, which was being run at an expense to the city of $50,000 to $100,000 a year. He
made frequent attempts to have the matter investigated, but was defeated through the influence
of the ring. Finally, on his motion, a committee of the common council was chosen, of which
he was made chairman, and authorized to visit different reformatory institutions, and to make a
report. This they did.
In order to effect this reform, Mr. Campbell became a candidate in 1870 for the legislature,
whither he was sent, and where he introduced and secured the passage of the house of correction
bill, doing away with the bridewell system, and introducing the present self-supporting system of
management, and thus saving to the city annually more than $50,000, as shown by the reports of
the superintendent for the last seven or eight years.
Although the writer has known Mr. Campbell for nearly a quarter of a century, he can recall
no act of his life for which he is entitled to more credit than for his persistent efforts in securing
the extinction of the bridewell system, so tempting to public plunders. In 1873 Mr. Campbell
128 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
was again elected alderman of the twelfth ward, and served two and a half years, being, as usual,
faithful and efficient in his duties to the public. He is a republican in politics, and a Master
Mason, being a member of Blair Lodge.
He was married July 19, 1859, to Miss Sophronia R. Crosby, daughter of Rev. J. W. Crosby,
of Iowa, and they have one son, who has just finished his literary education, and is studying for
an artist.
WILLIAM S. CHERRY.
STREA TOR.
WILLIAM SLOAN CHERRY, general superintendent of the coal mines at Braidwood and
Streator, is a son of William Cherry, a native of Ireland, and a music teacher, and Mary
(Sloan) Cherry, who was of Irish parentage. He was born July 9, 1837; was educated in the
graded and high schools of that city, and after serving an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade,
took a course of studies in the Polytechnic Institute, Philadelphia, paying particular attention to
mining and mechanical engineering. While working at his trade as a machinist, he went into
the coal regions of Pennsylvania, and was engaged there in mining, and alternated between work-
ing at his trade in Philadelphia, and in the coal regions, until the war broke out.
In 1861 he enlisted in the engineer corps of the United States navy, and was in the service, in
all, a period of seven years, being the last two years in the South Atlantic squadron, off the coast
of South America. On leaving the navy Mr. Cherry turned his attention to the manufacture of
white lead, at Wilmington, Delaware, carrying on that business between two and three years.
In the autumn of 1871 Mr Cherry came to Illinois, and with the exception of one year since,
spent in the general office of the Chicago, Wilmington and Vermilion Coal Company, has resided
in Streator, his position here being that of general superintendent of the mines. Both by educa-
tion and experience he has especial fitness for this office, and is managing it to the entire satis-
faction of the parties concerned. He is a man of great business tact and ability.
When he was called to Chicago he was holding the office of town school trustee, being presi-
dent of the board. That post he had to resign on account of leaving, and we cannot learn that
he has accepted any other civil office. He is a director of the Streator National Bank, a Royal
Arch Mason, a member of the Presbyterian church, a man of solid parts, and a highly esteemed
citizen.
In 1872 he was married to Miss Mary D. Godfrey, of Philadelphia, and they buried two chil-
dren in infancy, and have three living.
REV. HIRAM WASHINGTON THOMAS, D.L).
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch is'the son of Joseph and Margaret (McDonald) Thomas, who were
well-to-do farmers in. Hampshire county, West Virginia. On his father's side he is of Ger-
man and Welsh, and on his mother's Scotch and English extraction. Hiram is the fourth in a
family of six children, having three brothers older and two sisters younger than himself, and was
born among the mountains of West Virginia, April 29, 1832.
When but a year old the family removed to Preston county, near the Maryland line, where he
grew to manhood. He was naturally of a slender constitution, with a massive brain overtopping
his body, and it was fortunate that his childhood and early manhood was spent on a farm among
the rugged mountains. The out-door active life of a farmer toned up his physical to a reasona-
ble equality with his mental constitution, so that he has been able to bear an amount of intellec-
tual work, surpassed by few, and at the age of fifty years his vigor is unimpaired and his personal
appearance still youthful. The educational facilities of his native place were, fortunately perhaps
for him, meager and primitive, and he was left to the very necessary work of preparing a consti-
f
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 131
tution for future use. The thirst for knowledge was, however, so great in him, that at the age
of sixteen he went one hundred miles on foot to Hardy county, Virginia, and worked nights and
mornings for a winter's schooling at a little village academy. Two years after one Doctor Mc-
Kesson, of his neighborhood, took him under his private tutelage for two years, after which he
attended the Cooperstown, Pennsylvania, academy, and subsequently the Berlin Seminary, in the
same state, then under the direction of J. F. Eberhart, now a member of the People's Church,
Chicago, and a fast friend of the doctor's.
On removing to Iowa he continued his studies privately under Doctor Charles Elliott, formerly
president of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and Professor W. J. Spaulding, at present the presi-
dent of that institution. His studies have, however, never been discontinued. Like all men of
mark, he has never graduated, but expects to remain a student to the end of life. The greater
part of his knowledge of books he has acquired since he began to preach, and has facilitated his
work greatly, and fastened his acquirements in his memory by making immediate use of them as
fast as acquired, a most admirable method.
His mother was a devout Methodist, and his father a Quaker. The moral tone of the family
was exceptionally high, and its religion both practical and intensely devotional. At the age of
of eighteen Hiram became converted, and began soon after to preach. Like many other great
preachers he had the conviction from childhood that he must one day preach, and, although he
fought against it long and energetically, yet when the time came he succumbed and entered into
the work.
He at first joined the Pittsburgh conference of the Evangelical association, or German Meth-
odists, with whom he remained till in 1856 he joined the Iowa conference of the Methodist
Episcopal church.
March 19, 1855, he married Miss Emmeline C. Merrick, an accomplished young lady of Demp-
seytown, Pennsylvania. Her people were Presbyterians, and Methodist preachers, though pop-
ular with the same class who used to hear Christ " gladly," were, nevertheless, at that period
considered rather among the proletariat. The union was, however, a happy one, and through all
the extraordinary trials of the life of an itinerant Methodist preacher on the frontier, they have
found in each other an unfailing source of strength and consolation.
In the autumn of 1854 his parents sold out their Virginia home, removed to Washington
county, Iowa, and bought a tract of land. Thither Hiram followed them the following spring
with his young wife and the rest of the family. The summer was spent opening a new
farm, house building, etc., the young preacher working faithfully seven days to the week, six on
the farm, and one in the pulpit. In the fall, that scourge of a new country, congestive chills and
fever, brought him and his faithful wife to the verge of death, but as he firmly believes, his life
was spared in answer to prayer; whether his faithful spouse was included in the petition, or is
indebted to the efficacy of a stronger vital organization for her escape, is not recorded, but it is
certain that she too was spared to remark that there was little left of Thomas but a handful of
bones and a tuft of red hair.
But he was not ordained to bury himself or his talents in Iowa soil, and speedily relinquished
the farm entirely for the pulpit, and entered fully upon the arduous life of a Methodist itinerant.
For several successive years he managed to eke out a subsistence for himself and family on $300
a year. The leading charges of Marshall, Fort Madison, Washington, Mount Pleasant and Burling-
ton enjoyed the benefit of his labors, besides two years spent as chaplain of the state penitentiary.
In 1869 he was transferred to the Rock River conference, and stationed at Park avenue, Chicago
After three years he was appointed to the First Church (Methodist Church Block) of the same
city, where, likewise, he remained three years. He was then sent to the First Church of Aurora,
for two years, and next to Centenary Church, Chicago, where his term expired in October 1880.
His early preaching gave promise of all his later fame. He always drew large congregations, and
the churches flourished under his care. It was predicted many years ago by astute friends that
he only had to be transferred to a large city to acquire a national reputation. He has captured
14
I -12 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
\J
every place in which he has preached, and his success in Chicago is only a repetition of his career
on a smaller scale in the villages and towns of his earlier ministry. There have usually been
many demands for him, and a spirited rivalry between the leading churches of his conference, as
there is now between cities and denominations.
Doctor Thomas has been a man of sorrows as well as of privations and arduous labors. Of
seven children born to his home but one survives, now a young man of promise, attending Rush
Medical College in Chicago. His large personal experience in the school of grief has opened a
door for him into the hearts of the afflicted and desolate, few not tempered in the same school can
enjoy. He was born and reared in humble life; he drew his first breath among the freedom-
inspiring mountains; he had his long struggle with poverty, and is familiar with its trials and
temptations; he has mingled with the lowly, and become familiar with their wants and woes, and
no fame, honor, or pelf of his later years can lift him above the common people in his sympathies
or his labors. He began his life with them, he has spent it for them, he will close it among them.
This is the secret of his heresy, it is the secret of his power. And had not Methodism " progressed "
out of its primitive simplicity and liberality it would not have scandalized and wronged itself by
expelling him from among them. However, it gave him a broader field and probably increased
his usefulness by breaking down for him the wall of partition which the church unconsciously
erected between her ministers and the people, and casting him with her ban upon him into the
bosom of the people whom he loved. At the funeral of John W. Coon, the famous billiardist,
long before the infamous heresy trial took place, he expressed himself in the following manner,
which, in view of the succeeding events, seems almost prophetic. At least it shows the drift of
his sympathies, and proves him to be too great in mind and heart to be hedged about by the nar-
row confines of any church or formulated creed: " Nothing pains me more," he said, "or gives me
more anxious thought than that the world's great need, and religion's great gift, man's want and
God's fullness, cannot be brought together. It rests upon me with such a weight that I have
sometimes almost felt that God calls me to a ministry at large outside of the church that I might
get near to the hearts and homes of the people."
The expression of such sentiments could not but make him very popular among those who most
need human sympathy and ministerial counsel and assistance, and naturally the narrow bigots of
his own class would look with increasing disfavor upon him. He would be "regarded by the
Scribes and Pharisees with jealousy, anger and suspicion, in proportion as it became manifest
that "the common people heard him gladly." It hence became early manifest that a separation
must sooner or later come the drift of events could not be checked. With the deepening of
his sympathies for humanity came the inevitable broadening of his religious, or rather theologi-
cal, views of truth and his understanding of the Scriptures. He who is a lover of mankind, and
is in sympathy with the gentle inspiration of the works of nature, must get a continually expand-
ing view of nature's God, and must interpret his Bible in harmony therewith. Hence, Doctor
Thomas found his view of the doctrines of inspiration, atonement and future punishment under-
going a change, and before he was himself fully aware of it his heart and brain had revolted
against the absurdities of plenary inspiration, substitutionary atonement and eternal torment.
With him. to study, to learn and to preach were necessary steps in a process continually going on.
He never waits to inquire how truth will be received, what will be its effects upon himself. He
only asks if it be truth; his duty to proclaim it he never questions.
His opposers did not stop to inquire if his views were truth, nor yet whether they were con-
trary to the essentials of Methodism, but placed the issues of their cause against him upon the
standards of the church, and themselves determined the standards. There could be but one issue
to such a trial. The trial itself is the most unimportant portion of the history we write, yet
faithfulness to the record demands a place in their pages. It is difficult to ascertain the date of
the earliest expression of heresy by the doctor, and it is of little moment. It is probable that
his early popularity arose from his human and rational view of God, the Bible and its teachings,
which came to him unconsciously, and was expressed as unconsciously and as naturally as he
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
133
breathed. However, rumors of his unsoundness were heard as far back as 1865, while yet in Bur-
lington, Iowa, and on that account an effort was made to prevent his transfer to Chicago.
It was not, however, until he became the pastor of the First Church that his liberal views
attracted general notice. His nearness to the people and ( his popularity among publicans
and sinners, who flocked to hear him, and many of whem he reformed, gave offense. Besides
this he did a good deal of undenominational work. He originated the Philosophical Soci-
ety of Chicago, and was its second president. This society was organized soon after the
great fire, and held its meetings for a time in the Methodist Church Block. It was composed of
such men as Judge Booth, Professor Rodney Welch, Doctor Samuel Willard. General Buford,
Doctor Edmund Andrews, Rev. Joseph Haven, E. F. Abbott, J. W. Ela, Professor Austin Beir-
blower, and two hundred or three hundred more orthodox, liberal, skeptics, spiritualists, athe-
ists, catholics and all the shades between these. Its discussions were not always orthodox, as
might be expected, and Doctor Thomas was held responsible for every variation therefrom.
He affiliated with liberal-minded people outside of his own church; preached a rousing ser-
mon in defense of Professor Swing, followed it with one on Hell, something after the example of
Henry Ward Beecher; sometimes preached for the Universalists and Unitarians; organized an
undenominational preachers' meeting called the Round Table, and in general conducted himself
in a way which indicated that he could no longer, "after the straighter sect of our religion, live a
Pharisee."
When, therefore, in the fall of 1875, his term at the First Church in Chicago expired, the com-
plaints had grown so loud in certain quarters that he was sent out of the city to Aurora. There
was a great storm of indignation raised about this. His own church, the newspapers and the
general public believed it was designed to injure and ultimately to ruin him. Several large and
wealthy churches of other denominations offered him places. Charges in other conferences
sought his services, but he went quietly to his new appointment, and soon built up a large con-
gregation in Aurora. Persistent efforts were, however, made to get him back to Chicago, and
with final success, for he was appointed to Centenary Church in 1877. Immediately this society
became one of the largest in the Northwest, and other clergymen claimed that their congrega-
tions were rushing off to Centenary Church and getting Thomasized. During all this time he
was lecturing throughout the Northwest, giving during the lecture season one or two lectures a
week in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and occasionally other states. This spread both his
fame and his opinions, and multiplied both his friends and his enemies. But the crisis of his
religious affairs was approaching.
When the next conference met at Mount Carroll, in October, 1878, the subject of Doctor Thomas'
recent utterances was privately discussed, and a plan carefully matured in secret to bring the
matter to a head. With characteristic boldness, and rejoicing in his own freedom, Doctor Thomas
preached before the conference a sermon, in which he took occasion to give free expression to his
peculiar views and criticise the narrowness of some of his brethren.
A committee on conference relations was appointed, something unusual in Methodism, with
special reference to this case. This was a sort of star chamber before which complaints might
be secretly brought against any minister, and some one, unknown to anybody except the commit-
tee, made charges against Doctor Thomas, and an adverse case was worked up. The committee
reported the case to the conference, and there was much discussion of the matter, but finally the
presiding bishop, Doctor Foster, cut the matter short by asking all those to rise to their feet who
felt that no loyal Methodist could preach such a sermon, an unwarrantable proceeding, asking, as
it did. judgment before trial. A large majority nevertheless of the conference stood up, and set
themselves right on the question of heresy before the world. A resolution offered by W. H. Strout
and A. Gurnay was then adopted, asking Doctor Thomas either to abandon his objectionable
teaching or withdraw from the church; in other words, to become a hypocrite and stay in, or
remain an honest man and go out. He very properly refused to do either, thinking probably
that the church was in need of honest men.
134 r. \rn-.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
A committee was then appointed to consult with the doctor, and made a minority and a
majority report. Rev. S. A. W. Jewett thereupon offered a series of resolutions as a substitute
for both, which was adopted by a vote of eighty-five to nineteen, and which disposed of the case
for that year. It is too long to insert here, but sums up the matter by regretting that the doctor
won't do as they wish, and hoping that he won't preach any more heresy, and declaring that they
will let the matter rest for the present. Doctor Thomas was returned to Centenary Church,
preached in about the same vein as before, but when conference met in October, 1879, in Chicago,
there was no disposition to reopen the case, and he was returned to Centenary Church for the
third year. The fires of opposition, however, continued to burn, and there was a growing deter-
mination to get rid of him, but an increasing uncertainty how to do it. They were anxious to
avoid a heresy trial, and there was some talk of sending him to some obscure charge in the
country, where he would have no alternative beyond accepting obscurity or withdrawing from the
church. The popular outcry raised against this proposal, however, rendered it impossible to exe-
cute it, and there was nothing to do but either to restore him to full confidence or to try him for
heresy. This was the situation when the conference met in October. 1880, at Rockford, Illinois.
At almost the very opening of the conference this case was taken up and his'character passed.
It was hoped that this action would end the matter, but it was equally unsatisfactory to his ene-
mies and to his friends. His friends determined he should be relieved entirely from censure, and
his enemies determined he should be expelled. R. D. Sheperd offered a resolution nullifying the
action of censure by the conference of 1878. This was laid on the table and followed by a series of
resolutions offered by W. H. Tibbals, requesting him to immediately withdraw from the church.
They were promptly passed by a vote of 96 to 45, seventy-five members being absent or refusing to
vote. The next day Doctor Thomas read his reply in which he recited his faith and manner of
life, and refused to withdraw.
A committee was appointed to consider his reply. This they did, and recommended that the
whole case be turned over to the presiding elder of Doctor Thomas' charge, Elder W. C. Willing,
of the Chicago district. This recommendation was adopted, and Doctor Willing proceeded after
the adjournment of the conference to make up his committee. Meanwhile Doctor Thomas asked
and received a supernumerary relation pending the action of the committee. At Doctor Thomas'
request Doctors Jewett and Hatfield were appointed his prosecutors. The court met in Septem-
ber, 1881, in the Methodist Church Block, and proceeded to give him a preliminary trial. Rev.
Doctors Miller and Bennett, of Iowa, and Axtell and Sheperd, of Rock River conference, were
his defenders, but the case went against him, after an examination of several days, and he was
suspended from the ministry. At this preliminary examination there were three charges of.
heresy: the atonement, inspiration and future punishment, and the doctor was found guilty upon
all three counts. According to Methodist usage, the decision of this lower court was sent up to
the conference which met in October, 1881, at Sycamore, Illinois, for final adjudication.
On assembling, Doctor Willing announced the decision of the lower court, and moved a com-
mittee of fifteen to try the case. The bishop appointed the following gentlemen as that commit-
tee: Doctor Fowler, chairman; T. P. Marsh, M. H. Plum, Louis Curts, Henry S. Martin, John
Roods, M. McStokes, F. F. Farmiloe, George W. Winslow, C. W. Croll, Robert Beatty, Isaac
Lineberger, Rufus Congdon, J. M. Clendenring, F. A. Harding and E. M. Boring. Doctors Park-
hurst and Hatfield were the prosecuting counsel, and Miller and Bennett, of Iowa, and Axtell and
Sheperd, of the Rock River conference, were on the defense.
The trial began at the opening session, October 5, and continued at intervals till October 10,
when, as was anticipated, he was again found guilty and expelled both from the ministry and the
church. The committee, however, did not sustain the charge upon the question of the verbal
inspiration of the Bible, but acquitted him on that count. Upon the atonement the vote stood 9
to 6, and on future punishment n to 4.
Shortly before the meeting of the conference at Rockford, in 1880, the following Chicago gen-
tlemen met and pledged themselves to be responsible for the expenses of a service in the central
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 135
part of the city; Judge Samuel Boyles, John R. Floyd, S. F. Requa, A. V. Hartwell, Ira Brown,
Gerard Bassett, L. H. Turner, J. A. King, A. A. Waterman, B. G. Gill, F. Q. Ball, H. C. King, E.
A. Blodgett, Edgar L. Swain, D. H. Daniels, E. B. Holmes, James Grassie. Accordingly Hooley's
Theater was engaged, and to it Doctor Thomas went after the action of that conference. A large
congregation greeted him at once, and he has continued to hold services there with great success
till the present time.
Upon this expulsion by the conference at Sycamore, although it endangered his right of appeal
to the judicial conference, yet he felt it his duty to continue his work, and did so. As he feared,
so it turned out, the judicial conference which met at Terre Haute, Indiana, December 6, 1881,
refused to entertain his appeal on precisely this ground, and hence the decision of the conference
at Sycamore stands final.
To his new relation the doctor and the public have both become accustomed and are well sat-
isfied. He still instructs large audiences every Sunday, at Hooley's Theater, and multitudes all
over the country read the printed reports of his utterances in the Monday papers, with profit. His
influence and popularity are unabated, and his enemies look on and wonder how long it will last.
FRANCIS H. BLACKMAN, M.D.
GENEVA.
FRANCIS H. BLACKMAN, physician and surgeon, is a son of Francis Wilson Blackman, a
farmer, now living in Jackson, Crawford county, Iowa, and Clarissa (Warne) Blackman, a
native of New Jersey, and he was born at Naperville, Du Page county, Illinois, August 28, 1846.
His grandfather, John Blackman, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and his grandmother in
Vermont. His ancestor on the mother's side, Sir Henry Warne, for^some reason came to this
country, and settled in New Jersey, and his descendants are now scattered over the western as
well as eastern states. John Warne, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one
of the earliest settlers in Naperville.
Our subject was educated at Clark Seminary, Aurora, Warren's Institute, Warrensville, and
Lawrenceville University, Appleton, Wisconsin, which latter institution he left in the freshman
year, on account of ill health. His attendance at Clark Seminary was both before and after
going to the university. While pursuing his studies, he worked on his father's farm during vaca-
tions, and taught one winter term at Winfield, in his native county.
Doctor Blackman began his medical studies with Doctor O. D. Howell, of Aurora; at the end
of two years went to Chicago, and worked two months in the chemical laboratory of Professor C.
Gilbert Wheeler; entered the Chicago Medical College in the spring of 1868, and was graduated
in March, 1870, as first prize essayist, he having the best inaugural thesis. During the last half
of his last year in the medical college, Doctor Blackman was resident physician of the Mercy
Hospital, which is connected with that institution.
On receiving his degree of doctor of medicine, he located at Geneva, April, 1870, where he soon
built up a remunerative business. His practice is general, yet he has a large share of the surgical
cases in the vicinity, and enjoys an excellent reputation for skill in that and every other branch of
the healing art. He is examining surgeon for pensions in Kane county; a member and at one time
was president of the Fox River Medical Society, and is also a member of the Illinois State Med-
ical Society, and the American Medical Association. One of his most important operations
reported was thafof tracheotomy, which he performed twice in 1877, and the first, we believe, of
the kind performed in the Fox River Valley.
Doctor Blackman has been a school director since the spring of 1881, the only office, we
believe, that he has held in Geneva, he attending very closely to professional studies and practice.
He is a stanch republican, and sometimes, during an exciting political canvass, is quite active.
Doctor Blackman married, June i, 1871, Miss Julia A. Cole, daughter of Samuel R. Cole, then
136 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
of Riverside, Cook county, Illinois, now of Longmont, Colorado. She was a member of the first
class which was graduated at the Women's Medical Hospital, Chicago, February, 1871, and prior
to graduating spent three years with Doctor Mary H. Thompson, physician-in-chief to that hos-
pital. They have one child, a daughter, Julia Mary, nine years old. Doctor Blackmail has, we
believe, reported a few cases for the Chicago " Medical Journal," but only such as were deemed
of decided interest and importance.
HON. JAMES M. CAMPBELL.
MA COMB.
JAMES MORRISON CAMPBELL, the oldest settler in Macomb still living here, is a native of
Frankfort, Kentucky, his birth being dated August 22, 1803. His parents were John R. and
Margaret F. (Self) Campbell. His grandfather, Robert Campbell, came to this country with his
wife, Nancy Campbell, from Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1773, and when, two years later, war with
England commenced, he took up arms against the mother country. Robert Campbell settled in
Virginia, where both parents of James were born. They moved to Kentucky about the begin-
ning of this century, and when the son was about four years old the family moved from Frank-
fort to Mechlenburgh county, where they remained about two years.
In 1809 John R. Campbell, who was a blacksmith by trade, came into this state and settled at
Shawneetown, and while there, in 1812-4, ne was a lieutenant of rangers, fighting against the
Indians, whom the British had instigated to raise the war whoop. When peace was declared
Lieutenant Campbell did not return immediately, and his wife, supposing him to be dead,
returned with her little family of thre^children to her old home in Frankfort. To her great joy
her husband soon joined her. The Frankfort Seminary was then a popular institution, and in it
James was kept for four years, under a first-class disciplinarian, Professor Keene O'Hara. In
1822, when only nineteen years old, Mr. Campbell was appointed deputy postmaster at Frankfort,
holding that post between five and six years under James W. Hawkins, one of nature's noblemen.
Resigning his position in the postoffice, our subject went to Lexington, and not long afterward
received a mail bag with a suit of clothes in it from his friend, the postmaster.
Not being successful in finding a situation in Lexington, Mr. Campbell returned to Frankfort,
and in the spring of the next year (1828) went to Shelby county, Kentucky. The next winter he
started for Galena, Jo Daviess county, this state, but spent that winter at Nashville, Tennessee,
reaching the lead mines in August, 1829. His uncle, William Campbell, was then the general
agent of the government as receiver of the rents of the mines at Galena, and the nephew was
with him a few months, and then went into the office of the circuit and county clerk, remaining
in that situation until the spring of 1831. On the first day of April of that year he reached
Macomb, which then had a population of four persons Rev. John Baker, a Baptist minister,
wife and two little daughters Mr. Campbell swelling the population to five. Where the public
square now stands the last year's grass was six feet tall, and besides the cabin of Mr. Baker there
was no building of any kind within nearly a mile of where Macomb now stands. In 1831 there
were not more than fifty voters in the county.
Mr. Campbell came here with commissions in his pocket from Judge Richard M. Young, for
clerk of the circuit court, and was appointed by Governor John Reynolds to the offices of judge of
probate, county recorder, and notary public, and was appointed clerk of the county criminal court
by the county commissioners in 1831, but there was not much county business just then
to be done, and he built a log house on what is now Jefferson street, and opened the first store in
McDonough county, He was also appointed the first postmaster in Macomb. He was also
appointed the first notary public and the first judge of probate, but these two offices he refused to
accept. The offices of circuit and county clerk, recorder and postmaster "he held for eighteen
years, except an interim of three months in the postoffice. Not long afterward he become clerk
of the county commissioners' court, and held that office fifteen years.
UNITED STATES FSIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 137
During the Black Hawk war (1832) Mr. Campbell was in Major Bogart's battalion, and served
to the end, the pay being eighty-six cents a day for himself and horse for eighty-six days. In
1846 he was appointed assistant commissary, and assigned to the 3d regiment Illinois infantry, but
he did only three months' service in the Mexican war. He was a member of the constitutional
convention in 1847; was elected to the state senate in 1852, and was a member of the finance com-
mittee during the four years that he served in that body.
Mr. Campbell was originally a whig, but took exceptions to Mr. Clay's speech (1832) against
the preemption of lands to actual settlers, and has since acted with the democratic party, serving
many years on the county and state central committees. He was a delegate to the national con-
vention in 1856 when Mr. Buchanan was nominated, and again in 1860 when Mr. Douglas was
nominated, was a member of the national democratic convention in Charleston, South Carolina,
and at Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Campbell has done a good deal of valuable work in the city
council and in the board of supervisors, and in many ways, as is here seen, he has served his con-
stituents, always with faithfulness and marked ability.
A few months after coming to Macomb, in August, 1831, Mr. Campbell was married at Saint
Charles, Missouri, to Miss Clarissa Hempstead, who died in 1842, leaving one son and four daugh-
ters, three (the son and two daughters) of them still living. In 1843 he was married to Mrs.
Louisa F. Berry, a daughter of John Farwell and a sister of L. G. Farwell, of Macomb, he having
by her three sons and one daughter, all yet living. His first, Mary Eliza, was the first female
child born in Macomb. These facts and many others we gather from Clarke's History of
McDonough County.
It was Mr. Campbell's pen which drew the original plat of the town, which was, adopted by
the commissioners, and he named every street in the city. He is thoroughly identified with the
history of this city and county. He built the first store, the first frame house, the first three
school houses and the first public hall in Macomb; was the first postmaster in the county, the first
county clerk, recorder, etc., and has been the first and foremost man in many important enter-
prises. He owns several buildings in the city, and their rent affords him ample support in his
old age. Although in his eightieth year, his mind is clear, his memory good, his health fair, and
he seems to have no compunction in living beyond the prescribed age of man, as laid down in
the Scriptures. i
The county history gives him credit for being a kind and affectionate husband and father, a
public-spirited citizen, liberal to the poor, and one of the most generous-hearted men who ever
lived in Macomb. It is safe to say that no man in McDonough county is better known or more
generally and more highly respected.
HON. WILLIAM H. NEECE.
MACOMB.
WILLIAM HENRY NEECE, member of congress from the eleventh district, and a promi-
nent lawyer in McDonough county, is a son of Jesse and Mary D. (Maupin) Neece, and
was born in Sangamon county, this state, February 26, 1831. Two months later the family moved
into this county. His father was a native of Kentucky; his mother of Virginia. They were
worthy members of the agricultural class; reared their children in habits of industry, their farm
being two miles south of Colchester and nine miles from Macomb, the county seat. Jesse Neece
died in 1869; his wife in 1837.
Our subject was engaged in agricultural pursuits most of the time, until nearly of age, receiv-
ing meanwhile an ordinary English education, such as a country school could furnish. From
1850 to 1852 he had some experience in chopping in the valley of the Illinois; in pork packing at
Frederic, and in breaking prairie on the Tennessee prairie, in this county. In the spring of 1852
Mr. Neece commenced teaching, and wound up his professional career in this line in the spring
of 1853, never, we believe, counting himself a brilliant success as a pedagogue.
138 L'XITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
At the date just mentioned he started for the Pacific coast with his older brother, George W.
Neece and family, crossing the plains by ox team, and reaching Portland, Oregon, early in the
autumn of that year. The next month Williamjwent to California, and failing as a miner, became
a cook in a restaurant at Sacramento. In the spring of 1854 he engaged in mining with his
brother, near Grass Valley, moving thence to Nevada county, and there remaining until the
spring of 1855, when he returned to McDonough county. In the autumn of the next year he
became purchasing agent for the firm of J. H. Baker and Company, real estate dealers in Macomb,
and was thus employed for one year.
On May 3, 1857, he was married to Miss Jeannette Ingles, of McDonough county, and the same
year he commenced the study of law with Hon. John Simpson Bailey, since judge of the circuit
court, and in 1858 was admitted to the bar. He still applied himself very closely to his legal
studies, and in a few years began to rise in his profession. Says a writer in Clarke's History of
McDonough County: "In criminal practice Mr. Neece has secured an enviable reputation, and
there has not probably been an important trial for murder in this county for a number of years
in which he was not engaged." This writer then proceeds to cite the trial of the Bonds, of
Thomas Johnson and of Tuttle, criminal causes familiar to the citizens of this part of the state,
and in which Mr. Neece won much applause for the ability which he displayed, he being in all
cases retained for the defense. In civil practice Mr. Neece has also been very successful. He is
a rising man in law as well as politics.
In 1864 and again in 1870 Mr. Neece was elected to the state legislature, serving one term each
time. He was also a member of the last constitutional convention, being elected in 1868; was
the democratic nominee for congress in the old tenth district; was elected to the state senate in
1878, serving four years, and in the autumn of 1882 was elected to congress in a strong republican
district. We believe Mr. Neece has never been a candidate for any office when he did not run
ahead of his ticket. He made a valuable member of both branches of the legislature, serving
four years in each house, and his legal acumen, plain common sense and great industry gave him
an honorable position in the constitutional convention. His experience in these bodies will be of
service to him in his new sphere of legislative work in the national house of representatives, and
his friends are sanguine that he will make not only an honorable but brilliant record in that hon-
orable body. His character in every respect stands well.
M
HON. MARK BANGS.
CHICAGO.
ARK BANGS was born in Hawley, Franklin county, Massachusetts, January 9, 1822, his
father being Zenas Bangs. 'The latter originated on Cape Cod ; settled early in western
Massachusetts on a rough, barren mountain farm, where he raised a large family, of which Mark
was the youngest child. By farming in summer, and making shoes in winter, the father, with the
aid of his older boys, managed to maintain his large family in reasonable comfort and respecta-
bility. His wife died in the fall of 1827, and he himself in the spring of 1828, leaving our subject
at once without parents and patrimony. Zenas Bangs was an orthodox Congregationalist, and
his taking his son into church upon one arm, and a big Bible under the other, as we have heard
the son say, is among his earliest recollections. He was a public-spirited man, taking an active
part in the affairs of his town and county, and for several years was the chosen representative of
his town in the general court at Boston. In the autumn of 1828 Mark emigrated with an older
brother to western New York, and at the age of seven was put out to live with a farmer of Mon-
roe county, near Rochester.
Here he soon learned to milk the cows and saw the wood, and became a general factotum about
the premises, going to school several months in each year until he was ten, at which time he
became a regular farm hand, working early and late, except about four months in the winter,
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 141
which were spent in the district school. From the age of fourteen to that of eighteen he worked
upon a farm for an older brother, summer and winter, about three years of which were occupied
in clearing up and opening a farm in the wilds of Michigan. At eighteen he returned to the
state of New York, worked one summer by the month at farming ; taught school in the winter ;
spent a year at school in Rochester, and thus continued, being prepared to enter college in the
autumn of 1844. But instead of doing so he took a boyish freak, and embarked for Illinois,
thinking to make his fortune. He reached Chicago in October, 1844, remained there two or
three months ; became disgusted with its location and general appearance, and left for the more
central portions of the state, where he spent the time for two years or more in running a thresh-
ing machine, farming and teaching a singing school and district school. In the spring of 1847
he went back to Massachusetts ; taught a few classes in the English and classical school of his
brother in Springfield, while he read law in the office of Judge Henry Morris. In the autumn of
1849 he returned to Illinois, settled at Lacon, Marshall county, and spent one year as clerk and
bookkeeper in a dry goods store, meantime pursuing his legal studies. At the end of that year
he entered the law office of Ira I. Fenn, of Lacon ; was soon admitted to practice, and became a
partner of Mr. Fenn, under the firm name of Fenn and Bangs. This was about 1851. January
i, 1852, Mr. Bangs was married to Miss Harriet Cornelia Pomeroy, second daughter of Deacon
Samuel Pomeroy, who was a brother of Rev. Augustus Pomeroy, the founder of the First Presby-
terian Church of Lacon, and was himself a member, and for several years an elder, in that
church ; afterward became a deacon of the First Congregational Church.
Mr. Bangs was from the first an anti-slavery whig. From the time he was admitted to the
bar he took a more or less active part in local and state politics, and was one of the very first to
move in the organization of the republican party, being a delegate to a state convention held in
Springfield, Illinois, for the purpose of considering measures for the organization, from both of
the old parties, of a new national party, that should unite and embody the entire anti-slavery ele-
ment of the country. Owen Lovejoy was a member of that convention. Many persons of dis-
tinction in the state, who have since 'done active and honorable service as republicans, stood aloof
from that convention, fearing its strong and prominent views on the slavery question. From
that time Mr. Bangs became an active, radical republican, engaging earnestly in every political
campaign, either local or general from 1855 until 1875.
In March, 1859, he was elected judge of the twenty-third judicial circuit of Illinois. In
August, 1862, he presided at the republican convention, held in Galesburgh, at which Hon. Owen
Lovejoy received his last nomination for congress, and that fall made with him the campaign,
the severity of which doubtless cost Mr. Lovejey his life. In the fall of 1862 Mr. Bangs formed a
partnership with Thomas M. Shaw, now state senator from that district, which continued for fif-
teen years, during which time the firm of Bangs and Shaw, and later Bangs, Shaw and Edwards,
held a leading position at the bar and in the legal business of Central Illinois.
In June, 1862, Mr. Bangs, with four other citizens of the state, originated and set in operation
the celebrated Union League of America, of which he was chosen president, and he spent much
of the year following, in organizing branches and granting charters, among which was a charter
for the organization of the National League at Washington, District of Columbia. In the autumn
of 1869 he was elected to the state senate, which had its share of the work of adopting our state
legislation to the new constitution. In February, 1873, he was appointed by Governor Beveridge,
judge of the circuit court of Putnam, Marshall, Woodford and Tazewell counties, to fill a vacancy
occasioned by the death of Judge Richmond.
In December, 1875, he was called without previous knowledge or solicitation on his part by a
unanimous request of the republican delegation in congress, to the position of United States
attorney for the northern district of Illinois, which position he held until September i, 1879, at
which time he resigned. Most of the following year he spent looking after some small mining
interest, and in search of health among the mountains of Colorado. October 20, 1880, Judge
142 UNITED STATES flfOGRAPfflCAf. DICTIONARY.
Hangs entered upon a law practice in Chicago with Major Joseph Kirkland, a well known citizen
of Chicago, under the form of Bangs and Kirkland, which still continues.
During the two short periods that Judge Bangs presided on the bench as circuit judge he was
happy in having won the confidence and respect of both the members of the legal profession
and litigants in his circuit, not only by his urbanity, but by the knowledge of the law which he
evinced, and the correctness and'impartiality in his rulings and decisions in all cases brought
before him as judge. The subject of our sketch brought these same too rare qualities with him
to the performance of his professional duties as attorney, on his retirement from the bench, and
consequently his professional services were sought in almost every contested case in his county
by one or the other of the litigating parties. As judge or attorney Mr. Bangs was industrious
and untiring in his researches and efforts to find the law and the facts of cases, in his determina-
tion to know the very right of the matters in litigation, and by such means he was rarely unsuc-
cessful in cases where he was employed as attorney or counsel.
MAJOR FREDERICK A. BRAGG.
CHICAGO.
AUGUSTUS BRAGG, one of the prominent dealers in real estate in Chicago,
A is a son of Joel and Margaretta (Kohl) Bragg, and dates his birth at Unadilla, Otsego county,
New York, July 16, 1829. His grandfather was in the first war with the mother country, his
father in the second, and himself and his elder brother, General Edward S. Bragg, member of con-
gress from Wisconsin, were in the late civil war, the whole family being of the best patriotic stock.
Joel Bragg was a farmer, and the son gave his youthful energies to the cultivation of the soil,
until seventeen years old, except when at school. He received an academic education at Franklin
and Gilbertsville in his native state, and then went into the navy as purser's steward on the United
States sloop of war, Saint Louis, holding that position for tw6 years. At the end of that time his
father was dangerously ill, and consequently Frederick resigned and returned to New York.
In 1851 Mr. Bragg came to Chicago, and became deputy city clerk, under his brother-in-law,
Henry W. Zimmerman, retaining that situation until 1853, when the office of superintendent of
assessments was created, and he was elected to fill it. He held it for nine years. Just before the
civil war broke out, and while still holding the other post, he was elected first assistant engineer
of the fire department of Chicago, which he resigned to go into the service.
In May, 1861, with the rank of 2nd lieutenant, he raised a company of infantry at Chicago,
and the Illinois quota being full he went into the 6th Missouri, and on being mustered in was
promoted to ist lieutenant, company I. A few months later he was promoted to the captaincy of
company A. About three years later he was again promoted, this time to the rank of major. He)
had command of the regiment at Chickasaw Bayou, and was wounded in the face by the acci-
dental bursting of a shell on the Union side.
Major Bragg had command of a brigade a portion of the time in Sherman's march to the sea;
was in the service four years and six months, and was mustered out at Little Rock, Arkansas, in
October, 1865. He never missed a battle or a march of his regiment, and never had a day's sick-
ness while in the service. His regiment was attached to the first brigade, second division of the
1 5th army corps of the army of the Tennessee, during the entire war, and he was with Sherman
from the battle of Shiloh until the close of the unpleasantness. He was offered further promo-
tion several times during his term of service, but declined it.
On leaving the army Major Bragg returned to Chicago, and has since been engaged in the
real estate business, dealing mainly in city property, and making a successful and highly credita-
ble record. His sales in a single year (1881) amounted to more than $4,500,000. He has the
unlimited confidence of parties with whom he has business transactions, and is a fair and strictly
honorable dealer,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 143
Major Bragg is a democrat, and years ago was quite active in the party, holding the office
of city collector before the war. Latterly business has had the precedence over everything else,
and that is one reason why he has made it so brilliant a success. He is a Master Mason.
Major Bragg married in 1867 Miss Catherine E. Gallagher, of Ohio, and they have had three
children, losing two of them.
F
FRANCIS W. HANCE, M.D.
FREKPORT.
RANCIS WATERMAN HANCE, one of the older class of medical men in Stephenson
county, Illinois, first saw the light in Belmont county, Ohio, July 23, 1825. His father, John
Hance, a farmer, was born in Maryland, and participated in the second war with England, from
which country the family immigrated to the American colonies. The mother of Francis was
Mary Ann Mackall, who was of Scotch extraction. He was educated at Franklin College, Athens,
Ohio, taking a full course, yet substituting extra mathematical studies for the Greek language;
read medicine with Doctor W. J. Bates, of Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia); attended lec-
tures at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and there received the degree of doctor of
medicine in 1849. ^ n J u ly f tnat year he married, in Ohio, Mary B. Chamberlain, who was from
Elmira, New York. She died in 1873. Doctor Hance practiced medicine for three years at
Bridgeport, in his native county, and in the spring of 1853 settled in Freeport, where he did a
large general business, including a liberal share of surgery, until 1875, when his health failed and
he went to California, spending nearly two years in that delightful climate.
The doctor returned to Freeport on the last day of 1876, with his health nearly reestablished,
and he is still in the practice of medicine and surgery, having, we believe, about as much business
as he could desire. During most of his life his professional duties have been exacting, and he
has had little time to attend to other matters. He held the office of mayor in 1861, the only civil
position that we can hear of his having accepted since he became a resident of this city. He has
held most of the offices in the Stephenson County Medical Society, and stands well among the
medical fraternity.
While the civil war was in progress, after the battles immediately preceding the siege of Vicks-
burg, the doctor received a telegram from the adjutant-general of the state asking for his ser-
vices at the South. He obeyed the summons on a two hours' notice, and spent six or seven weeks
at the hospitals in the vicinity of Vicksburg. With the exception of this short absence from
home, and the period spent in California, the doctor has usually been found at his post in Free-
port, ready to attend to the calls of suffering humanity. His long residence here, and his skill
in his profession, have secured for him a wide circle of friends.
V
EMERY S. WALKER.
CHICAGO.
ERY few lawyers as young as Emery Staniels Walker, whose name heads this sketch, will be
mentioned in this volume; nor does he go in so much as a representative of the legal pro-
fession as a sample of a self-reliant, self-educated, studious young man, ambitious to develop
whatever is worth developing in the inner man. He has an inquiring mind of the philosophic cast;
is fond of scientific as well as legal studies, and is a perfect miser of time, making good use of all
his waking hours, and hence is steadily growing in knowledge and in intellectual strength.
Mr. Walker is a native of Whitefield, Coos county, New Hampshire, and was born September
29, 1856, his parents being Franklin P. and Betsey (Wales) Walker. His paternal great-grand-
mother was Hannah Dustin, whose remarkable exploit with the Indians is familiar to the Ameri-
can reader. Franklin Pierce Walker, who was named for the only President of the United States
that New Hampshire has ever had, was a hotel keeper in different towns in the northern part of
i44
UNITED STATES RIOGRA TlflCAI. DICTIONAkV.
that state; and up to thirteen years of age Emery picked up what knowledge he could in district
schools; then went to Boston, where he had an opportunity of slightly replenishing his intellec-
tual stores in a private school; but he is largely self-taught, and still allows himself no vacation
in his studies.
In 1876 Mr. Walker came to the West, and read law awhile, with himself for preceptor, while
engaged in other pursuits, in order to earn an honest livelihood, and he was finally graduated at
the law department of the University of Chicago in June, 1881. Since that date he has been in
practice by himself in this city, doing a moderate and increasing business. He is thoroughly
trustworthy, parties having transactions with him giving him credit for the strictest integrity and
punctilious regard to every promise and engagement. He belongs to that class of men none
too common in the world who are equally attentive to debtors and creditors, and are prompt to
cancel an obligation, even to a borrowed postage stamp. If honesty is personified in any member
of the legal fraternity in Chicago, it is in Mr. Walker.
He is a member of the Philosophical Society of Chicago, and takes much interest in its pro-
ceedings, as might be inferred from what we have already written; but with his legal studies and
business nothing is allowed to interfere, and he is rising in his profession.
Mr. Walker is deeply interested in the cause of temperance, often lecturing in public on that
subject. He has been president of a temperance organization and is a member of one or more
secret orders devoted to that noble cause.
BENJAMIN F. CRUMMER, M.D.
WARREN.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CRUMMER, the leading physician and surgeon at Warren, Jo
Daviess county, is a native of this county, being born at Elizabeth, September 18, 1848. His
father is James Crummer, a farmer, born in Wilmington, Delaware, and son of Thomas Crum-
mer, who was from the North of Ireland; settled at first in the state of Delaware, and came to Jo
Daviess county about 1830. His remains lie in the old burying ground at Elixabeth.
The mother of our subject was Araminta D. Tart, a native of Tennessee. Her father, Ben-
jamin Tart, came to the Galena lead mines as early as 1828; was in the Black Hawk war in
north-western Illinois (1832), and a member of the enterprising firm which started the first lead
smelting works at Elizabeth.
Young Crummer supplemented a common-school education with one year's attendance at the
Mount Carroll Seminary and two or three terms at a commercial college in Dubuque, Iowa. He
studied medicine with Doctor Caldwell.at Elizabeth; attended lectures in the medical department of
the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor; there received the degree of doctor of medicine in April,
1869, and practiced his profession in his native town for six or seven years. During that period,
he spent the winter of 1874-5 in attending lectures in the medical department of the University
of New York, from which institution also he received a diploma. He also took private lessons in
surgery of Frank Hastings Hamilton, M.D., then professor of surgery in Bellevue Hospital Medi-
cal College.
In the spring of 1876 Doctor Crummer moved to Warren, in the same county, where, as at
Elizabeth, he has an extensive ride, but over a less hilly and a more comfortable section of coun-
try. Warren is only half a mile from the line of Wisconsin, and his rides extend several miles
into that state. His business, good almost from the start, is increasing from year to year, and the
people have great confidence in his skill. He is a growing man.
The doctor has the best medical library in Jo Daviess county, and as he is a man of studious
habits, it is almost superfluous to say that he makes good use of his books during the brief inter-
vals of leisure at his command. He contributes occasionally to medical journals, and to the work
of the Illinois State Medical Society, of which he is a member. He holds at the present time the
office of secretary of the Jo Daviess County Medical Society.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 145
Doctor Crummer has a high appreciation of the value of education, and takes much interest
in the cause, being at this time a member of the Warren school board. He is a thirty-second
degree Mason and an Odd-Fellow, having passed all the chairs in the latter order.
The wife of Doctor Crummer is Mary L., daughter of Rev. Richard Donkersley, a native of Eng-
land, and formerly of the Providence (Rhode Island) Conference. They were married in Febru-
ary, 1871, and have one son, Henry Le Roy, aged eleven years.
MORTIMER D. HATHAWAY.
ROCIIELLE.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch is attorney for the
Chicago and Iowa Railroad Company, and one of the leading lawyers in Ogle county. He
hails from Yates county, New York, being born in the town of Harrington, April 28, 1832. His
father, Gilbert Hathaway, Jr., a farmer, was born in the same county, and his grandfather, Gil-
bert Hathaway, Sr., was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in which state the family originally
settled. The mother of Mortimer was Delia Boardman, a native of Seneca county, New York.
The subject of this sketch was educated at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, New York,
and by a private tutor in the classics at Penn Yan, his course of studies being nearly equal to
that of a college curriculum. He taught school three winter terms ; commenced reading law at
Penn Yan with Abram V. Harpending; came to Rockford, Illinois, in 1854, where he was engaged
awhile in mercantile pursuits ; finished his legal studies with Orrin Miller, of Rockford, where
he was admitted to the bar in December 1857. He practiced four years in that city, and in 1861
settled in Rochelle. Here he has been eminentlv successful, and has made an honorable record
in his profession. He is both a good office and court lawyer, being a wise counselor, and a man
of much influence with an intelligent jury. He has had a varied experience in business matters,
and has always shown himself, not only capable, but perfectly reliable and trustworthy. Mr.
Hathaway has been attorney for the Chicago and Iowa Railroad Company for ten or twelve
years. He is thoroughly imbued with public spirit and enterprise, and organized, January i,
1872, the Rochelle National Bank, of which he has been the president since the end of the first
year. It is a solid, well managed institution, and a credit to the county, owing its good reputa-
tion in no inconsiderable degree to the oversight of our subject.
Mr. Hathaway is of the democratic school of politics, and in 1878 was the nominee of his
party for congress, running in a district of which every county was strongly republican. He was
run simply to keep up the party organization, and drew the full democratic vote. He has done
some good work as a member of the local school board, and takes a deep interest in educational
and all other public matters calculated to promote the welfare of the community. He joined the
Free Masons many years ago, and took the degrees, including the Scottish Rite, while a resident
of Penn Yan, New York. Mr. Hathaway married, in 1862, Miss Martha Platt, of Franklin county,
Massachusetts, and they have four children.
T. N. HASSELQUIST, D.D.
ROCK ISLAND.
THE president of Augustana College and theological seminary, Rock Island, is a man of solid
scientific and theological attainments, and is doing a good work in educating young men,
largely Swedes, for the gospel ministry, and other positions of usefulness in this country. He
was born in southern Sweden, March 2, 1816, being the son of Nels and Cecelia (Swanson) Has-
selquist. His parents belonged to the agricultural class. He was educated in the University of
Lund, southern Sweden, spending three years in preparatory study in Christianstad, four in the
college, and two in the theological department, graduating from the last named school in
146
! T Nrrr.f) STATJ-.S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1839, and was ordained the same year. After having charge of a Lutheran congregation in his
native land for thirteen years, in September, 1852, Mr. Hasselquist came to this country, and for
thirty years has been laboring here zealously for the advancement of the church and of higher
education. For nearly eleven years he was pastor of a Swedish Lutheran congregation at Gales-
burgh, this state. From 1863 to 1875 he was at the head of a Lutheran college and seminary at
Paxton, Ford county, a Norwegian as well as Swedish institution. In 1870 the Norwegian pastors
withdrew from the Augustana synod, and the Norwegian pupils from the school.
The expectation that a large Swedish population would settle in and near Ford county, was
not realized; the tide tended toward Rock Island county, and in March, 1873, it having been
determined to remove the school, about nineteen acres of picturesque bluff land in eastern Rock
Island, one mile from Moline, was purchased; and in the autumn of 1875 the school was removed
from Paxton and opened at Rock Island, our subject remaining its president. He teaches theol-
ogy, New Testament exegesis, homiletics, etc., and the institution is thriving under his .adminis-
tration. He has twelve assistants in the several departments; teaching is done in the English as
well as the Swedish language, and there is a fair representation of American pupils, whose
parents speak in strong terms of praise of the school.
The buildings are pleasantly situated on the side of the bluff, with a pleasant campus on the
north. The library is quite large, the apparatus sufficient for general purposes, and the college
and seminary seem to have a hopeful future.
Seueral years ago Muhlenburg College, Pennsylvania, conferred upon president Hasselquist,
the degree of doctor of divinity, an honor well merited and accepted in meekness.
In 1852 Dr. Hasselquist was married to Miss Eva Helena Cervine, a native of Sweden, and she
died in April, 1881, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter, one daughter having pre-
viously left for her heavenly home.
LUKE E. HEMENWAY.
MOLINE.
T UKE EDGAR HEMENWAY, postmaster at Moline, is a son of Francis S. and Clara (Tur-
1 j rill) Hemenway, and was born in Shoreham, Addison county, Vermont, August 7, 1816.
His father and his grandfather, Samuel Hemenway, were house carpenters in early life, and after-
ward farmers. His mother was a native of Shoreham. The progenitor of the Hemenway family
in this country, was Ralph Hemenway, who came to this country in 1634, and settled in Roxbury,
now a part of Boston, Massachusetts. He was a prominent man, and held different town offices.
The head of this immediate branch of the family was Daniel Hemenway, of Shrewsbury, Massa-
chusetts. Samuel Hemenway, the grandfather of Luke, moved to Shoreham near the close of the
last century, and his remains lie in the old burying ground in that town.
The school days of our subject ended in his fifteenth year, and the rest of his education he
picked up afterward. He was a clerk in a store for his uncle, Sidney S. Hemenway, at Rochester
and Barnard, both in Windsor county, Vermont, until 1838, when he came to Illinois, and was in
mercantile business at Grand Detour, Ogle county, until 1843, when his health failed, and he was
obliged to leave the store, and seek out-door employment. Prior to that time he was fora few
months a partner of John Deere, in the manufacture of steel plows. He farmed for himself
between three and four years, and then was engaged in selling agricultural implements.
In August, 1855, Mr. Hemenway settled in Moline, and for four years had the management of
John Deere's office. In 1859 he commenced the manufacture of chairs, then of grain-cleaning
machines, and out of that small beginning has since grown up the large establishment of Barnard
and Leas Manufacturing Company.
In June, 1864, Mr. Hemenway went into the army with the one hundred days men, having
command of company II, i32d Illinois infantry, which was engaged in doing guard duty at
Paducah and Smithland, Kentucky. He was in business for the Moline Plow Company from
1870 to 1875, when his health again failed, and he was out of business for a year or two.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
April i, 1877, he took charge of the Moline postoffice, and is managing it with great satisfac-
tion to the public. Years ago he was a township trustee, and later an alderman, school director,
etc. His interests have always been strongly identified with Moline, and he is one of its most
respected citizens. He has always been a republican, and is a Blue Lodge Mason.
Mr. Hemenway was married June 23, 1842, to Miss Jane E. Marsh, of Bethel, Windsor county,
Vermont, and they have four children, three sons and one daughter. Fred C., the eldest son, is
superintendent of Christy's cracker factory, Rock Island; Charles F. is cashier of the Moline
National Bank; George H. is a house carpenter, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Ellen M., the second
child, is the wife of Joseph M. Christy, cracker manufacturer, Rock Island.
ANDREW J. O'CONOR.
LA SALLE.
A NDREW J. O'CONOR, lawyer, is a son of Andrew and Bridget (Doyle) O'Conor, and was
/X born in La Salle, July 17, 1852. Both parents were from Ireland, and his father, who
was a school teacher, died in the year in which the son was born. The mother is still living.
Andrew received a collegiate education at the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, a Catholic insti-
tution near Suspension Bridge, New York ; read law in La Salle with his present partner, James
W. Duncan,, and was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1876. The firm of Duncan and
O'Conor does business in all the state and federal courts, and that business is second in extent,
probably, to that of no legal firm in La Salle county. In 1882 they opened an office in Ottawa,
the county seat, where Mr. Duncan now resides. Their business at both places is highly pros-
perous. Although still quite young in his profession, as well as in years, Mr. O'Conor has few
peers as an advocate, in his native county. He is a rising man.
While Mr. O'Conor was studying his profession, he was elected clerk of the city court, and
resigned that office at the end of a year and a half to accept his present office of city attorney.
The duties of this office he is discharging with marked ability, and to the general satisfaction of
the public. He is also school treasurer of Peru and La Salle, which are in one congressional
district. Mr. O'Conor is an active and influential politician of the democratic school, and is a
member of both the county and state central committees of his party.
Our subject is a stockholder in the Union Coal Company, and in the City National Bank, and
one-third owner of the gas works both at La Salle and Peru. He was married, October 22. 1876,
to Miss Mary I. L. Duncan, sister of his law partner, and they have four children, two sons and
two daughters.
MAJOR WILLIAM G. BOND.
MONMOUTH.
WILLIAM GRIMSLEY BOND, sheriff of Warren county, dates his birth April 2. 1823, in
Jackson county, Alabama, his parents being John and Mary (Grimsley) Bond. His father
was a farmer, born in Tennessee; his grandfather, Jesse Walton Bond, was also a farmer. When
William was very young the family came into Morgan county, this state, where he lost his mother.
He recollects seeing her only as she lay dead. His father was in the Black Hawk war, 1832, and
about the close of that year the family moved to Warren county, and settled on a farm in what is
now Greenbush township, where both father and grandfather died. William was very small when
the family came into this county, but he assisted in opening a farm, getting very little schooling,
most of it in the summer time before he was large enough to be of much service as a farm hand.
He never went to school where the house had a floor, consequently it could not be made comfort-
able in the winter time. His education has since been obtained as business required him to master
certain branches. He is a well informed man,
148 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In the spring of 1845 Mr. Bond married Miss Elizabeth Henry, and was still engaged in farm-
ing when the war broke out. He went into the army in AugusX, 1862, as captain, company H, 83d
Illinois infantry; was promoted to the rank of major in the spring of the next year, and for two
years had command of the regiment, the colonel and lieutenant-colonel being on detached duty.
His military record is second to that of no man who went into the army from Warren county.
Major Bond received two slight wounds in the second engagement at Fort Donelson, in February,
1863, and was severely wounded in the left thigh by a minie ball, at the battle of Pulaski, in
October, 1864, in a fight with General Forrest. He was mustered out with his regiment at
Nashville, July, 1865, and for three years was in the quartermaster's department, engaged most
of the time in taking up the federal dead and moving them to national cemeteries. Subsequently
he was in the revenue department in Tennessee, having much of the time charge of distilleries as
government store keeper.
Returning to Illinois he became deputy sheriff of Warren county at the close of 1874, and held
that position two years. He was elected sheriff in the autumn of 1876; has since been twice
reSlected, and at the time this sketch is written he is just closing up his sixth year in that office.
He is regarded as the most vigilant and efficient sheriff that the county has ever had, and is well
known in other states, as well as in Illinois. When he once gets on the track of a culprit, there
is no peace, and not much sleep until that culprit is caught. Before the war Major Bond was a
Douglas democrat; he has since been a republican. He was a member of the county board of
supervisors for some years, and resigned when he went into the army.
His first wife died in 1863, while he was in the tented field, leaving four children, and he soon
afterward sold his farm. January i, 1868, he was married to Mrs. Mary E. (Taylor) Moore, widow
of Lieutenant Isaac V. D. Moore, of the 7th Illinois cavalry, who was killed near New Madrid, Mis-
sissippi, April. 1862, while bravely fighting for his country.
EDWIN EVANS, M.D.
STKEA TOR.
EDWIN EVANS, one of the leading citizens of Streator, dates his birth at New Durham,
Greene county, New^ York, October 6, 1821, being a son .of Rev. William Evans, a Presby-
terian minister, born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1790, and Harriet (Linsley) Evans, a native of
Durham, New York. The father of Rev. William Evans moved from Brattleboro, Vermont, to
Sidney, Delaware county, New York, and died there in 1841. The son preached many years, and
when too infirm to occupy the pulpit, in 1848 came to Illinois with a son, and died at Pontiac in
1867. His widow died in Streator in 1882. Edwin received an academic education, and pursued
his studies two years in the college course; then read medicine at Owasco, Cayuga county;
attended lectures at Geneva, and the medical department of the University of New York, and
received the degree of doctor of medicine from the latter institution in 1846.
Doctor Evans commenced practice at Walden, Orange county, where he married, in 1849,
Jessie S. Capron, daughter of Seth M. Capron, a prominent woolen manufacturer, and in 1851
left his native state, came to Livingston county, this state, and for four years was engaged in
farming. Returning to his practice in Livingston county, he continued it for eight years, doing
at one period all the surgery done in that county; then dropped medicine once more, and was
engaged if speculation and general business.
In 1868 Doctor Evans settled in Streator; practiced medicine four years; turned his attention
to the real estate business, and has made it a marked success, dealing exclusively in local
property. He was early appointed one of the town trustees, and was for some time president of
to superintend the building of that elegant and substantial structure, the gift of Colonel Ralph
the board. He is also president of the high school board of trustees, being appointed expressly
Plumb, and costing about $3o,opp. The doctor has put up a score of buildings in this place.
K.C. Cooper Ji. & CD
Of lt
UNIVERSITY ot ILL
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. IJl
more than a dozen of them large stores, and he was just the man to supervise the erection of such
a public edifice.
He has devoted much time to developing local interests; is president of the Streator Glass
Works, built for the manufacture of window glass; is also a stock-holder in the Streator National
Bank; is a thorough-going business man, full of public spirit, and has done and is doing a liberal
share in building up this city. He has given a great deal of time to railroad matters, going from
town to town, and laying the matter before the people. Fifteen years ago not a railroad visited
Streator; now no less than five companies run trains into this city, to carry away its coal, bring
in merchandise, etc. The doctor did good service in aiding Colonel Plumb to get the first roads
here. He is a member of the State Natural History Society, and of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and occasionally reads papers before these societies. He has
given much attention to geology, particularly the subterranean water system; has collected a
list of all the deep wells in the state, and can tell from what formations water will flow, and
determined where artesian wells are practicable. A correspondent of the Vineland, New Jersey,
" Independent," Professor J. W. Pike, thus speaks of the subject:
" I visited Streator, and discoursed to two good houses, one evening on Mazon Creek and
another on California Gold. To Doctor E. Evans the citizens of Streator are indebted for the
four courses of lectures I have given there. He is a man of remarkable business energy and
executive ability, and when he espoused the cause of the lectures, fourteen years ago, their success
was assured. Now geology is taught in the city schools. * * * Doctor Evans is an able geolo-
gist, and has made artesian wells his special study. No other man has massed and arranged the
facts bearing on subterranean water circulation of the geological basin west and south of Chicago
at all to compare with his work."
Doctor Evans is not only thoroughly posted on this subject, but is a well informed man gen-
erally, and an interesting converser. A stranger visiting Streator, and wishing to post himself
on geology and other scientific topics, will do well to spend an hour or two with Doctor Evans.
He has a large collection of fossils and minerals, and a well selected and choice library, especially
rich in scientific works. The doctor is very cordial and communicative; a gentleman, in short,
of the old school, and of the best type.
JAMES H. WALLACE, M.D.
MONMOUTH.
JAMES HARVEY WALLACE, physician, son of Robert Wallace and Eleanor Stewart (Shaffer)
Wallace, was born in the township of Lack, Juniata county, Pennsylvania, November 16, 1834.
Robert Wallace was born in Ireland, and came to this country when about three years old. His
grandfather was a Scotchman, who emigrated to Ireland at the time of the persecution. The
great-grandfather of Eleanor S. Shaffer was from Germany. The father of our subject was a
farmer, but the son did not manifest any partiality for agricultural pursuits. As far as we can
ascertain, he was of a studious turn of mind, and early inclined to the medical profession. He
received a good academic education at the Vermilion Institute, Hayesville, Ohio, at the same
period teaching school during the winter term, in all seven winters.
He read medicine at Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, with Doctor T. H. Baker; attended one
course of lectures at the medical department, University of Buffalo, and one course in the Ohio
Medical College, Cincinnati, where he received the degree of doctor of medicine, July 2, 1862. In
October of that year he was married to Miss Sarah Jane Troutman, of Wooster, having just
commenced the practice of his profession at Lakeville, Holmes county, where he remained be-
tween one and two years, and then settled in Canaan, Wayne county.
In 1873 Doctor Wallace took a post-graduate course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia, devoting special attention to gynecology, or diseases of women, a branch of med-
ical science in which he has attained marked proficiency and skill. He then (1873) located at
r6
t c 2 UNITED STATES DtocRAPHiCAL DICTIONARY.
Smithville, Wayne county, where he remained three years, and then left Ohio, settling in Mon-
mouth in April, 1876. Here he has been in general practice, but devotes a good deal of attention
to gynecology, in which branch he has a fair amount of business.
The doctor gives no time to secret societies; seldom fails to vote the republican ticket; never
accepts a civil or political office, and gives his time to his medical books and fresh periodicals
when not making his professional visits. He is a progressive man, thoroughly wedded to his
profession, and constantly growing in reputation. He is a member of the Ohio State Medical
Society, of the American Medical Association, and of the Military Tract Medical Society, Illinois,
and Monmouth Medical Club.
The doctor and Mrs. Wallace have five children living, and have buried two, Charles Robert,
the second child, and Clarence Leroy, the youngest. The names of the living are George Elvin,
Franklin Emmett, Carrie Luella, Anna May and Lewis Eugene. The doctor and his wife are
members of the Presbyterian church, and the latter devotes a portion of her leisure time to Chris-
tian labor in connection with home and foreign missions and different benevolent societies.
NATHANIEL HALDERMAN.
MOUNT CARROLL.
THE subject of this sketch, the first mayor of Mount Carroll, and for nearly forty years a
prominent citizen of the county, was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, May i,
1811, his father being Henry and his mother Tamer (Johnson) Halderman. His grandfather
came from Germany. Nathaniel Halderman had limited school privileges in his youth, but was
self-disciplined, and gave himself a fine business education, taking care of himself after he was
sixteen years old. He learned the milling business in his native state, where he lived until 1841,
in the spring of which year he settled in Carroll county, this state. The present site of Mount
Carroll was then a woods, but there was water power here on Carroll Creek, and here he pitched
his tent for life, and made a splendid record as a business man.
In April, 1842, was laid the foundation of the flouring mill, which was running in the Novem-
ber following, and with the exception of six months he had an interest in that mill from the time
it was started until his death, June 27, 1880.
We learn from the Carroll county "Herald" of July 2, 1880, that Mr. Halderman was one of
the company that started the first store in Mount Carroll. " He was a member of the firm of Win.
Patterson and Company, lumber merchants in this place, from 1865 to January, 1880; also one of
the firm of M. E. Harnish and Company, lumber and coal dealers at Lanark, Illinois, from 1868
till 1878; of the firm of N. H. Halderman and Company, 1872 to 1873, and a partner in Graham,
Halderman and Company, commission merchants at Milwaukee, from 1873 to 1878. Besides
these the deceased was for a number of years engaged in the work of distilling, and also con-
ducted the grain and stock business in his own name at the elevator, near the depot, in Mount
Carroll. This last business was purchased from B. P. Shirk in 1865, and Mr. Halderman con-
tinued it until July, 1879. From that period up to the hour of his death he was a member of
the firm of J. M. Shirk and Company, millers. He held the office of county treasurer for a
period of twelve years, and was the first mayor of Mount Carroll."
The milling company built the first courthouse and presented it to the county, the county seat
being at first at Savanna. The original town was plotted and laid out by Mr. Halderman, three
additions being made afterward by him and his partner, John Rinewalt. He was one of the most
enterprising men that ever lived in Mount Carroll, and took great pride in pushing forward manu-
facturing and other business interests calculated to build up the town. Although fifty years old
when the civil war broke out, he kept a soldier in the army during the four years, thus showing
his patriotism.
A few years after coming to Mount Carroll he joined the Presbyterian Church, and some years
UNITED ST.-iTKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. \ 53
afterward transferred his connection to the Baptist Church, of which he was a member at the
time of his death. He was a liberal supporter of the Gospel, and a man of generous impulses.
He gave a thousand dollars at one time to the University of Chicago, and also contributed funds
to the observatory of that Baptist institution, and to other literary and benevolent institutions.
Mr. Halderman was. twice married, first, in October, 1845, to Miss Elizabeth McCoy, who died
in November, 1873, and the second time, in August, 1875, to Miss Mary T. McCoy, a sister of his
first wife. He had five children by the first wife, losing two of them. Nathaniel Herbert,
the eldest son living, is on the old homestead in Mount Carroll, and engaged in the grain and
stock and milling business; Rebecca T. is the wife of Captain J. M. Adair, of Springfield, Illi-
nois, and Hattie is with Mrs. Halderman. He left two children by the second wife: Edwin M.
and Mary Dell.
E. FLETCHER INGALS, A.M., M.D.
CHICAGO.
ONE of the eminently successful medical men of the younger class in this city is Ephraim
Fletcher Ingals, a native of Lee county, this state. He is a son of Charles Francis and Sarah
(Hawkins) Ingals, and was born September 29, 1848. His father, who is a farmer, was born in Con-
necticut. His mother is a granddaughter of Captain Hawkins, of the revolutionary army, who
served not only through the war, but was in the service in all for ten years. Our subject received
a first-class academic education at Amboy, the Normal University, and Rock River Seminary, at
Mount Morris; studied medicine in Chicago with his uncle, Doctor Ephraim Ingals; attended lec-
tures at Rush Medical College, and was graduated in February 1871.
For eighteen months Doctor Ingals acted as interne physician to the Cook county hospital)
since which time, until three years ago, he was in general practice. He now devotes his attention-
almost exclusively to diseases of the throat and chest. He had previously made these branches
of the healing art an especial study, and he is having noteworthy success in their treatment. In
future he will devote his time wholly to the specialties mentioned, in the treatment of which he
has already distinguished himself.
Doctor Ingals is the author of a work entitled, " Lectures on Diagnosis and Treatment of the
Diseases of the Throat and Chest and Nasal Cavities," published in New York in 1881, and con-
taining four hundred and thirty pages. The press generally commend the work in strong terms.
We make a few extracts:
"The author has performed his task with more than ordinary success. Unquestionably his
work will meet the needs of large numbers of medical men and medical students. We trust it
may stimulate all to a more correct appreciation of the value of this kind of study. The author's
arrangement of facts is excellent. Clearness and conciseness add not a little to the attractiveness
of every page." Detroit Lancet.
"Professor Ingals, in the preparation of this work, has availed himself of every source of
information at his command, and has overlooked nothing which would be of value to the student
or practitioner. It will be found a complete treatise on the subject of which it treats." Cincin-
nati Medical News.
"The text comprises all that is necessary to be acquired by the student, and will be of use to
the physician in practice for ready reference." Ohio Medical Journal.
Doctor Ingalls is a member of the local medical societies, the American Medical Association,
and the American Laryngological Association, and is vice-president of the last named national
society. He holds the position of professor of laryngology in Rush Medical College, and that of
professor of diseases of the throat and chest in the Woman's Medical College. Very few young
men of his age in this city have an equally high standing with our subject in the medical profes-
sion.
A writer in one of our Chicago weeklies thus speaks of Doctor Ingals:
154
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
"One of the distinguished specialists among the medical fraternity of Chicago is Doctor
E. F. Ingals. There is perhaps no other class of diseases which has been such a scourge to the
human race af those which attack the throat, lungs and organs of the chest, and it is only of late
years that the science of medicine has been able to do more than mitigate them; to eradicate
especially diseases of the throat and lungs has been considered beyond human skill. Until 1857
it had been found impracticable to directly examine the larynx, and up to this period compara-
tively little was known to medical sciences of diseases of this most delicate and important organ
and their proper treatment. For example, up to the period mentioned only seventy cases of tumors-
of the larynx had been reported. Since then, under recent discoveries and advancement in the
knowledge of this heretofore almost unknown region of the human system, thousands of cases of
tumors of the larynx have been successfully treated and cured by means of direct practical sur-
gery. Consumption, that 'great scourge of the human race,' has carried far more victims to the
grave than all the epidemics that have visited and devastated the world. It is not many years
since consumption was a disease found in every community and regarded everywhere as hope-
lessly fatal. One has but to notice the immense fortunes made by inventors of patent medicines
for the cure of diseases of the throat and lungs to understand how widespread and universal is the
disease that seeks alleviation and cure from the use of such nostrums. It is therefore a hopeful
omen of coming relief to suffering humanity when such men as Doctor Ingals make a life-work
of .the study of the causes and cure of this widespread and fatal class of diseases. Doctor Ingals
is an authority all over the country on this subject, and his book on ' Diseases of the Chest, Throat
and Nasal Cavities" is pronounced by competent critics a most valuable addition to medical,
science. Its clearness and conciseness make it interesting even to the non-professional reader.
Doctor Ingals spent the summer of 1873 in Europe, where he went for the benefit of both mind
and body. The degree of master of arts was conferred on him by the Chicago University in 1878.
For two years he held the position of managing editor of the Chicago 'Medical Journal and
Examiner,' having been appointed to that position by the Chicago Medical Press Association
in 1877."
Doctor Ingals was married in 1876 to Miss Lucy Ingals, of Chicago, and they have one son.
HON. ANDREW HINDS.
LENA.
A NDREW HINDS, lawyer, and an old resident of Stephenson county, dates his birth at Eden,
/~\ Lamoille county, Vermont, July 25, 1822, his parents being Eli and Sarah (Willey) Hinds,
both natives of the Green Mountain State. His father was a soldier in the second war with Eng-
land, and fought at Lundy's Lane, Ontario, under General Scott. The Hindses are an old Massa-
chusetts family, and Andrew's grandfather, Eli Hinds, Sr. ;< was one of the early settlers in Ver-
mont. Our subject finished his education at the Johnson Academy, in his native county, where
he attended several terms, taking up the higher mathematics, Latin, and some of the physical
sciences. He began teaching school at eighteen years of age, and continued to teach for eight
consecutive winters.
He read law at Johnson with J. J. Beardsley; was admitted to the bar in Lamoille county in
1847, and after practicing with Mr. Beardsley for a few months, his health failed, and he left
Vermont for the West, halting a short time near Mineral Point, Wisconsin. In January, 1848, he
settled in the town of Oneco, twelve miles northeast of Lena, where he bought land and began
to turn the sod, hoping by that means to get his physical strength restored. In this endeavor he
succeeded.
While a resident of Oneco, Mr. Hinds served his constituents in a great variety of offices, town
and county. He was supervisor of the town for a score of years; a school director, justice of the
peace, and notary public; county treasurer in 1856-57; county judge from 1869 to 1873, and a
member of the legislature in 1879-80,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 155
In April, 1880, Mr. Hinds left his farms, consisting in all of between five and six hundred
acres, in the hands of sons and sons-in-law, and moved into the village of Lena, purposing, we
ht-licve, to take the world easy. This he is now trying to do, and is succeeding in a measure.
But he has in this part of Stephenson county many friends, who have a great deal of confidence
in his judgment as a lawyer, and his wisdom as an adviser, and the result is that he has all the
legal business that he requires for his health.
Mr. Hinds is a member of the Christian church, and a man not only versed in the law, but in
the gospel. He is a very earnest temperance man, and the author of what is known as the
"Hinds Bill." April 8, 1849, he was joined in marriage, in Stephenson county, with Miss Sarah
Gibler, from Ohio, and they have eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, all living in
Stephenson county. The four daughters and four of the sons are married, the four sons being on
farms.
Mr. Hinds came into this county. thirty-four years ago, with less than $50, and not a very
robust constitution. But he has been a wise investor and a prudent manager; has reared a fam-
ily of eleven children in habits of industry, and has placed himself in comfortable circumstances
years ago. He has made a success of farming; has been repeatedly honored by his fellow-citizens
with offices of trust and responsibility, and as he has lived an upright as well as industrious life,
the autumn of his days is gliding away with a liberal tinge of mellow sunshine.
JOHN D. CAMPBELL.
POLO.
JOHN DANIEL CAMPBELL, lawyer, is a native of Old Paltz, Ulster county, New York, and
was born July 21, 1830. His father, Henry Campbell, a farmer, was also born in that state,
and died in Middletown, Delaware county, New York, in 1840, and his mother, whose maiden
name was Rachel Martin, survived her husband more than thirty years, dying in Buffalo Township,
Ogle county, Illinois, in 1872. The family moved to Middletown the year after John's birth, and,
losing his father nine years afterward, our subject was thrown entirely upon his own resources for
his support.
Leaving home, he worked at farming in the summer and attended school during the winter
terms until seventeen years old, when he taught the public school at Margarettville, Delaware
county, during the winter term (1847-8). The next spring he became a student at Hanford's
Seminary, in the same county, remaining there one year. He then became principal of the Hobart
public school, and was teaching there when he was appointed to represent the county of Dela-
ware in the state normal school, Albany, from which institution he was graduated in the spring
of 1850.
We learn from the history of Ogle county (Chicago, 1878) that on leaving the normal school
Mr. Campbell became principal of the public school at Verplanck, Westchester county, New York,
and two years later superintendent of the West Farms Union School, in the same county, which
latter position he also held two years. During this period he gave the leisure time at his com-
mand to Blackstone, and he now entered the law office of Hon. Edward Wells, of Peekskill,
where- he remained until the summer of 1855, when he was examined before the supreme court
(J u 'y 3)) an d was admitted to practice in all the courts of New York.
Believing that the West presented a promising field for a young attorney and counselor-at-law,
in the autumn of 1855 Mr. Campbell came to the young railroad village of Polo, where he has
been in steady practice for twenty-seven years, and has made a highly creditable record in the
legal profession. His standing at the bar and in the community is high, and he has often been
called upon to hold offices of trust and honor, such as mayor of the city and city attorney, not
to mention posts held by him in the town before Polo was incorporated in 1869.
From 1861 to 1865, a period covering the civil war, he was the editor and proprietor of the
156 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Polo "Press," and made it a fearless exponent of the patriotic sentiment of Ogle county. His
scholarly attainments were shown to good advantage in journalism. For nine years he was a
member of the board of education, a position for which he has peculiar fitness, being an old
teacher, and in which he made himself especially useful.
In 1862 Governor Yates appointed him enrolling commissioner. In 1872 he was elected
state's attorney of Ogle county; was reflected in 1876, both times without a dissenting vote.
For eight years he was elected by the board of supervisors as attorney for the county, when he
declined to serve any longer. The people of Polo are strong prohibitionists. Mr. Campbell has
always been a teetotaler, and hence the desire of his neighbors to keep him in the office of state's
attorney.
Mr. Campbell has passed all the chairs in the subordinate lodges of Odd-Fellowship, and also
through the encampment. The wife of Mr. Campbell was Miss Mary Elizabeth Cults, daughter
of Captain Hiram Cults, late of Ogle county, and they have two daughters, Juniata and Mignon-
elle, both receiving an excellenl educallon. The elder is a sludenl al Ihe Induslrial Universily,
Champaign.
CAPTAIN D. L. HARRIS.
GALENA.
THE oldesl setller in Galena, Illinois, slill living here, is Daniel Smith Harris, a nalive of
Delaware counly, New York. His birlh is daled al Courtright, July 24, 1808. His falher
was James Harris, who was born in Connecticul in 1777, and died in Galena in 1829, and his
molher was Abigail Bathrick, who was born in Delaware county, New York, in 1782, and died at
Galena in 1844. The paternal grandfather of our subjecl lived lo be ninety-eight years old, and
the maternal lo one hundred and four. James Harris moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1816. We
learn from the " History of Jo Daviess County" thai James Harris and his son, Daniel Smith,
left Cincinnati, April 20, 1823, on a keel-boat, the Colonel Bumford, and came to Galena, with
provisions and mining outfils, having on board from seventy-five to eighty tons, and thai they
reached Ihis place June 20, being jusl two months in making the trip, now a twenty-five or thirty
hours' ride by rail.
Captain Harris, by which lille he is known all over Ihe country, had done, in Ohio, a little
browsing on the lower branches of the Iree of knowledge, and after he reached here, then in his
sixleenlh year, he became almosl immediately interesled in mining; yel he managed, a lillle
laler, lo do some studying, and acquired a fair knowledge of the common English branches. In
August, 1823, a short Iwo monlhs afler reaching Galena, aided by an Indian of Ihe Sac and Fox
Iribe, he dug his first hole for lead, and was successful in his search. Two years later, in June
1825, he and his younger brother, Robert Scribe, slruck a very rich lead, wilh 33,000 pounds in
one piece. Since Ihen, on ten acres of land around that spot, aboul 14,000,000 pounds have been
laken oul, he and his brolher owning al leasl 6,000,000 pounds of il.
Captain Harris made his first money in mining, and thai way gol a good start in life, conlin-
uing in the mining business until the present time. He is best known, however, all over the
Mississippi valley, as a steamboat owner and captain, he following lhal line of business, in Ihe
season of navigalion, belween thirty and forty years. The first boat which he commanded was
the Jo Daviess, which he built, and which was brought oul in 1833, being owned by him and his
brolher, already menlioned. He has been inleresled in nearly a hundred steamboats, small and
large, the brothers building many of Ihem al Cincinnali, a few al Wheeling, Virginia, and buying
olhers. He was a very popular sleamboal caplain, and Ihousands of people are yel living who
made Irips with him on the War Eagle, Nos. i and 2, the Gray Eagle and other boats, twenty
and forty years ago. He once ran Ihe Gray Eagle from Dubuque lo Sainl Paul in Iwenty-lwo
hours and fifly-five minules, laking with him Queen Victoria's dispatch to the president, the first
regular dispatch sent across the Atlanlic Ocean.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
157
Captain Harris had a little experience with "villainous saltpeter" in 1832, when he held the
rank of lieutenant in the United States army in the Black Hawk war, and commanded a company
at Wisconsin Heights. In politics Captain Harris was originally a Jackson democrat; was sub-
sequently a whig, and on the demise of that party, drifted into the great party of freedom, with
which he still navigates. Captain Harris first married, May 22, 1833, at Galena, Miss Sarah Maria
Langworthy, daughter of Doctor Stephen Langworthy, of Dubuque, Iowa, she dying in the island
of Cuba in January, 1850, leaving five children, all yet surviving; and the second time, August 25,
1851, Miss Sarah Coates, a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Samuel
and Margaret (Cherington) Coates, by whom he has had seven children, only five of them now
living, the other two dying in infancy. The children by the first are: Lorinda Maria, widow of
Jonathan Dodge, of Galena; Amelia, wife of Francis O'Ferrall, of Chatfield, Minnesota; Mary
Ann, wife of Thomas J. Maupine, of Eureka, Nevada; Medora, wife of Charles T. Trego, of Chi-
cago, and Daniel Smith, Jr., who is married to Kittie Ott, and living in Eureka, Nevada. By his
present wife the children yet living are: Wenona, wife of John V. Hellman, Galena; Ernestine,
wife of C. F. Taylor, Warren, Illinois; Irene, wife of John A. Gillett, Buncombe, Wisconsin, and
Anna and Paul Cherington, who are at school.
WEBSTER W. WYNN, M.D.
DIXON.
WEBSTER W. WYNN, one of the older class of physicians and surgeons in Lee county,
hails from Monroe county, New.York, his birth being dated at Chili, August 22, 1829. His
father, John Wynn, was from Pennsylvania, and his mother, whose maiden name was Amanda
Gruendike, was from Holland. The Wynns were from Wales, and came to this country some
time betore the American revolution, the grandfather of our subject, Webster Wynn, serving four
years in the continental army.
Doctor Wynn spent his early years on his father's farm, commencing to teach a district school
at sixteen years of age. John Wynn, a soldier in the second war with England, was one of the
founders of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, Livingston county, and when Genesee
College was organized in connection with the seminary Webster entered the first class, but
remained only through the sophomore year. During the last year he taught the public school at
Lima, and continued to teach two years there after leaving college. At the same time he also
took up the study of medicine, with Doctor George H. Bennett as preceptor. He attended three
courses of lectures at the Buffalo Medical College; was there graduated in February, 1856; spent a
year or two with his preceptor at Lima, and in December, 1858, came to Illinois, and settled in
Dixon. Here he has attended very diligently to his profession, and has made a highly creditable rec-
ord. While his practice is general, he treats lung diseases as a specialty, and with eminent success.
His skill in that branch of the healing art is widely known, and has greatly extended his profes-
sional reputation. He was post surgeon at Dixon a short time during the civil war. He owes his
excellent standing in the profession to his love of it, and his consequent studiousness. Such men
grow in their calling. He is a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and was appointed
a delegate to the American Medical Association, held in California a few years ago, but did not
attend.
The doctor has reported for medical periodicals a few especially interesting cases coming under
his observation in his large practice, but we believe he does not think that his skill lies in the use
of the pen so much as in the lancet, and he rarely takes up the former. He is a democrat in
politics, a Blue Lodge Mason, and an attendant usually, if we mistake not, at the Presbyterian
Church, but he is quite liberal in his religious views.
July 21, 1859, the doctor was married at Dixon to Miss Frances E. Latham, daughter of George
and Hannah E. Latham, formerly of Chenango county, New York, and she had two sons: George
UNITED STATES RIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Wesley and Frank, both of whom died in October, 1862, and were followed by their mother two
months later. The doctor was once more lef.t solitary and alone. Four years afterward, Septem-
ber 25, 1866, he married Miss Georgiana McKenney, of Dixon, by whom he has had three chil-
dren: Hobart W. (deceased), Mary Frances, and Harriet.
Doctor Wynn is a little above the average height, yet well proportioned, with dignified deport-
ment, and an easy and pleasant-address, and going into a company of strangers would be marked
immediately as a professional man and a thoroughbred gentleman.
PRESIDENT JOHN T. LONG, LL.D.
QUINCY.
JOHN THOMPSON LONG, president of Chaddock College, Quincy, is a native of the state
of Maryland, a son of David and Sarah {Wachtel) Long, and was born in Hagerstown, Octo-
ber 28, 1842. He comes of good patriotic blood, his grandfather, Otho Wachtel, being among the
Maryland troops who fought against the mother country in 1812-14, an d his great-grandfather,
David Long, a native of Holland, fought against George III in 1775-82.
When the subject of this sketch was a year old, the family came into this state^and settled
near Mount Morris, Ogle county, David Long being a farmer. John was engaged in farming
during the seeding, haying and harvest seasons until sixteen years old, working out two or three
summers, receiving at first four dollars per month. He was educated at the Rock River Semi-
nary, Mount Morris, a very flourishing Methodist institution twenty and thirty years ago, he
teaching school meanwhile during the winters in Ogle and Stephenson counties. From 1861 to
1864 Mr. Long was principal of graded schools, first at Mount Carroll and then at Rochelle, and
in the latter year he enlisted as a private in company D, 65th Illinois infantry, consolidated ; was
elected second lieutenant of the company, but was never mustered in, he being put on detached
service in depot ordnance department assigned to 23d army corps. He was mustered out with his
company in August, 1865. Not long afterward he was appointed professor of Latin and Greek
in the Western Union Military College, at Fulton, Whiteside county, this state, occupying that
chair for two years. During that period he prepared for publication his popular "Analytical and
Practical Arithmetic," together. with other text books on mathematics. He is the author of the
"Long's Graded School Curriculum," published by George Sherwood and Company, Chicago,
which work is largely used in the schools of the country. The plates of all his works were
destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871.
From his youth Professor Long has had a taste for legal studies, and had read more or less,
with a view of becoming a lawyer, when, in 1869, he went to Salem, Marion county, and read with
B. B. Smith, and was admitted to the bar in February 1871. He practiced at Salem two years
with his preceptor, and then, almost against his will, was persuaded to accept the superintendency
of the Warsaw public schools, which post he held for four years, 1872-6.
On the completion of the new and fine school house at Pittsfield, Pike county, in the Centen-
nial year, he was urged to go there and grade and organize the school, which he did, remaining
one year and refusing to teach any longer, his preference being for the legal profession. He
entered upon its practice at that place, intending to follow it the rest of his life.
A year afterward, the Chaddock College at Ouincy being run down very low, in order to
resuscitate and save it, the trustees wrote to Professor Long, making him a very liberal offer.
He accepted it, reopened the school in September, 1878, with seven scholars, and it now numbers
more than four hundred and fifty in attendance each year. Its growth and prosperity are simply
astonishing, and largely owing to President Long. Meantime a debt of $4,500 has been paid, an
$18,000 brick building, 48 by 112 feet and four stories high, has been erected and paid for, and a
farm of too acies near the city, and valued at $10,000, has been given to the college. The new
building is used mainly for dormitory purposes, for which it is admirably arranged. The wonder
^^ \
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. l6l
is that a building so large and so well constructed could be put up at such moderate figures.
The main college edifice cost over two hundred thousand dollars. It was built by ex.-Gov. John
Wood.
There are over forty professors and instructors in the various departments of the college.
The Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston is the theological department, having become a part
of Chaddock College during the past summer.
President Long has no less than twelve associate teachers in the preparatory, commercial, scien-
tific and classical departments, and as a rule they feel the inspiration of their leader, and are
doing a grand work. The school has also law and medical departments, both in successful oper-
ation. In 1873 President Long was taken by surprise by receiving from the Canton University,
Missouri, a Disciple or Christian institution, the honorary degree of doctor of laws.
He married, March 5, 1872, Miss Mary E. Rudd, a daughter of James M. Rudd, of Salem, Illi-
nois, and they have one son, Homer Rudd, aged ten years. Mrs. Long is a woman of fine culture,
and has been a teacher most of the time since she was seventeen years old. In Chaddock College
she occupies the chair of belles lettres and history.
President Long has dark hazel eyes, dark auburn hair and a full, open face ; is of symmet-
rical proportions, being six feet tall and weighing two hundred pounds, and has withal a some-
what commanding appearance. He has a cheerful, cordial and friendly disposition ; knows how
to sympathize with and encourage the young in their struggles for knowledge, and with his own
fine attainments, is well adapted to be at the head of a school like that of Chaddock College.
HON. HALSTEAD S. TOWNSEND.
WARREN.
HALSTEAD SAMUEL TQJVNSEND, son of Samuel Townsend and Sarah (Longwell)
Townsend, was born near Bath, Steuben county, New York, April n, 1814. His father
was born in Dutchess county, New York, and his grandfather, Eber Townsend, was a revolution-
ary soldier, and wounded by the British at the capture of New York city, and kept awhile as a
prisoner. The Townsends were from England, and the Longwells were Scotch-Irish, from the
north of Ireland.
Halstead received a good business- education, largely by private study, and in 1830 came to
Illinois, sojourning a few months at Springfield. The next year he went to Mineral Point, Wis-
consin. While Mr. Townsend was in the mining regions of Wisconsin, or what is now Wisconsin, in
1832, the Black Hawk war broke out, and he enlisted in a cavalry squadron under Colonel (after-
ward General) Henry Dodge, and had a little taste of backwoods military life, coming out of the
war with his scalp on.
In 1833 he went to the lead mines in and near Galena, where lie devoted his time to mining
until 1837, when he settled on land in the town of Rush, a few miles southwest of where Warren
now stands. There he was engaged in farming on a somewhat liberal scale until 1869, when he
moved into the village of Warren, and he has since given some attention to money loaning, while
supervising his farms and looking after his other interests. He is a director of the Hanover
Manufacturing Company, which is engaged in the manufacture of woolen cloth and flour, a well
managed and prosperous institution. In the factory 1600 yards of cloth are run off daily.
While a resident of Rush he held various local offices, such as supervisor for twelve or thir-
teen years, school trustee a longer period, and school director at sundry times. He was chosen a
member of the legislature in 1858, and again in 1870, each time serving a single term. He was
the father of the bill to increase the jurisdiction of justices of the peace from $100 to $200, a bill
which was savagely assailed by the lawyers, but which became a law, and is still in force.
Mr. Townsend is a republican, of whig antecedents, a disciple, forty years ago, of Henry Clay
and Daniel Webster. He attended the first republican state convention, held at Bloomington, in
1 62 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1855, and had previously attended a district convention of the same kind at Rockford, one of the
earliest ever held after the demise of the whig party. He is a Blue Lodge Mason.
In 1836 Mr. Townsend was joined in wedlock with Miss Hannah Carver, of Fayette county,
Indiana, and they have had a family of ten children, all yet living but one son, and all but one
married and settled in life.
Mr. Townsend is a man of success; success in mining, success in farming, success in rearing a
respectable family of children, and success in obtaining the confidence of his neighbors and con-
stituents, and in faithfully discharging the duties of every official trust confided to him.
CHESTER K. WILLIAMS.
POLO.
/CHESTER KEYES WILLIAMS, an early settler and successful farmer in Buffalo Grove
V < township, Ogle county, and latterly a prominent citizen of Polo, was born in Brimfield,
Hampden county, Massachusetts, January 13, 1818. He is a descendant of Robert Williams, who
came from England in 1638 and settled at Roxbury, now a part of Boston. That was only eight
years after Boston was settled, and eighteen after the Plymouth colony made a landing on these
shores. Robert Williams had two wives, and died at Roxbury in 1693. He had four sons by the
first wife, three of whom grew up and had families, and from these sons, Samuel, Isaac and Ste-
phen Williams, have sprung a large number of persons of that name. The descendants of these
sons married into the Hopkins, the Edwards, the Emersons, and other prominent families of New
England, and some of the best blood of Puritan stock flows in the veins of our subject. Many of
this branch of the Williams family have been brilliant scholars, and prominent clergymen or
civilians. One signed the Declaration of Independence, and at least thirty have been in congress.
Rev. Ebenezer Williams, son of Samuel Williams, Jr., of the th^rd generation from Robert, born
at Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1690, was a graduate of Cambridge College, now Harvard University,
in 1709, and a distinguished divine, and nephew of Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, who was
carried into captivity by the Indians. He died, much lamented, in 1753. He was the great-
grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His son, Rev. Chester Williams, also a graduate of
Harvard, was settled at Hadley, and died when only thirty-six years old. Nehemiah Williams,
son of Chester, and grandfather of our Chester, was a graduate of Harvard, 1769, ordained at
Brimfield, 1775, and died in 1800. The "American Quarterly Register" states that he was one
of the first members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A posthumous volume of
his sermons was published.
The father of our subject was Ebenezer Williams, born at Brimfield in 1777, and was a farmer
until middle life, when Jie became a merchant. He married Eliza Whitwell, of Brimfield, and
they had eight children, of whom Chester is the fifth child. Ebenezer Williams died at Elgin,
Illinois, in 1856, and his wife in 1826. She was a sister of Samuel Whitwell, of Boston, of the
old firm of Whitwell, Bond and Company. Chester supplemented a district school education
with two terms at the Munson Academy, and was purposing to continue his studies still further,
but owing to circumstances, he was obliged to leave school and become a clerk in his father's
store.
In 1837, when in his twentieth year, he came to Buffalo Grove, and has been a resident of Ogle
county since that date. He bought a claim of 320 acres in 1838, he and his brother-in-law, Hora-
tio Wales, meanwhile working rented land, and in 1839 he commenced opening his own farm.
He continued to improve it until 1851, when he rented it, and was a clerk in a store at Buffalo
Grove for four years. In 1855 he opened a drug store with Doctors W. W. Burns and J. H.
More, but the firm of Williams, Burns and More continued only a few months, Mr. Williams
selling out his interest to Burns and Warren, and in the spring of 1857 he returned to his farm.
He continued to improve it for several years, and then sold out (1866) and moved into Polo. He
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 163
gave $500 for the original claim, and $400 to enter it, and sold the farm, well fenced, with new
house, large barn, etc., for $20,000. He has stock in different banks, and other property, and is
living in ease and independence. He came to Illinois a poor young man, with his infirm father
and four sisters to look after, and had for years a very hard struggle. In his case industry, econ
omy and perseverance have finally been well rewarded, he having accumulated considerable
property.
Mr. Williams was postmaster three years at Buffalo Grove, one mile from Polo, and supervisor
of the township about the same space of time, and since becoming a resident of the city of Polo,
he has been alderman and mayor. He is public spirited and enterprising, and interests himself
in all movements likely to result in the welfare of the people. The cause of education lies near
his heart, and he has served three years on the school board. He also takes and has always taken
deep interest in politics, being originally a whig, and working zealously for that party until it
became extinct, or merged in the republican party. He was a leader in the great contest for
Hon. E. B. Washburne in 1859, and stood by him through thick and thin during all the years
that he was in congress. Mr. Williams has often been a delegate to republican county and con-
gressional conventions, and has cheerfully given his time and influence to further the interests of
that party.
Mr. Williams is a third degree Mason, and a T trustee of the Presbyterian Church; a man of
excellent habits, positive views and good impulses, and never abandons a cause or a party which
he believes to be. right. He married, January 12, 1865, Miss Maria P. Anthony, of Avoca, New
York, and they have had four children, all daughters, only two of them, Lucy and Anna, twins,
now living. The oldest, Maria Louise, died at the age of four years, and Kate Anthony at
thirteen.
EDWIN C. HEWETT, LL.D.
NORMAL.
EDWIN CRAWFORD HEWETT, president of the Normal University, and a teacher in that
institution for a quarter of a century, is a native of Worcester county, Massachusetts, having
been born in Sutton, November i, 1828. His father, Timothy Hewett, a farmer most of his life,
was born in the same place, and his mother, whose maiden name was Levina Leonard, also
belonged to a Massachusetts family. Edwin received his education at country common and high
schools, the Worcester Academy and the State Normal School at Bridgewater, teaching a district
school two terms in his native town before going to Bridgewater. He had also learned the shoe-
maker's trade in his youth, and worked at it during vacations, being entirely dependent upon
his own hands and head for support since the time that he entered upon his teens.
In the spring of 1852, on leaving the Normal School at Bridgewater, one of the oldest in the
country, Professor Hewett taught a little less than a year at Pittsfield, as assistant in the high
school, then returned to Bridgewater to accept a similar position in the normal school, where he
taught from January, 1853, to November, 1856. He then took charge of the Thomas Grammar
School at Worcester, where he remained until the autumn of 1858, when he came to Bloomington
to accept a chair in the Normal University. Here his specialty for years was history and geog-
raphy, though he was called upon to fill up gaps which occurred from time to time, and taught
almost every' branch mentioned in the curriculum of such a school.
When President Edwards resigned in January, 1876, Professor Hewett was appointed presi-
dent pro tern, for six months, at the end of which period he was appointed president. His special
work is pedagogics and mental philosophy. His most striking characteristics as a teacher are
his clearness and thoroughness. The institution over which he presides has gained a reputation
for careful and accurate work, and no other man has contributed so much to that reputation
as he. His work bristles with points. Fogginess and inaccuracy find no toleration in his class-
room. In addition to these qualities he possesses tireless industry and patient persistence. No
,64 UNITED STATKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
details are ever slighted. "Anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing well " is an expres-
sion that often falls from his lips. With an abhorrence of shams that no words can express, and
an enthusiasm for genuineness that the years do not lessen, he is giving an impulse to accurate
scholarship that cannot be measured.
President Hewett has been appointed a member of the state board of examiners two or three
times, and served one term in the office of president of the State Teacher's Association. Some
years ago he prepared a Key to Guyot's Wall Maps, and has done some other literary work,
largely revisionary and the writing of pamphlets. A few years ago he had editorial charge in
part of "The Schoolmaster," a worthy magazine.
About twenty years ago President Hewett received the honorary title of master of arts from
the University of Chicago, and in 1877 the honorary title of doctor of laws from Shurtleff College,
Upper Alton, Illinois. He is a licensed Baptist preacher, and a fine type of the quiet, unassum-
ing, pure-minded Christian gentleman. Doctor Hewett was married in August, 1857, to Miss
Angeline N. Benton, daughter of Horace Benton, of Sublette, Lee county, Illinois, and they have
had two children, burying one of them. May is a graduate of the Normal University, and taught
at Oak Park, near Chicago, in 1881-2. She was married to Rudolph R. Ruder, June 20, 1882.
Mr. Ruder is a graduate of the Normal' University, and has just been appointed assistant training
teacher in the institution.
CALVIN DE WOLF.
CHICAGO.
AMONG the early settlers of Chicago, who have persevered in the face of stern adversity and
won for themselves a name long to be remembered, none deserve more honorable mention
than he whose name heads this article. Calvin De Wolf, one of thirteen children, was born Feb-
ruary 18, 1815, at Braintrim, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and is the oldest son now living.
His father, Giles M. De Wolf, was born at Pomfret, New London county, Connecticut, November
7, 1782, and his mother, Anna Spaulding, of Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, was born April
22, 1786. The former lived to the age of eighty-three, and the latter to eighty-seven years, and
their remains rest at Elkhorn Grove, Carroll county, Illinois.
Soon after his birth his parents moved to Cavendish, Vermont, his mother's native town, where
he received his first schooling and religious instructions. In 1820, when he was five years old, his
parents returned to Braintrim, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and in 1824 his father purchased a
farm at Pike, in the beech forests of Bradford county, Pennsylvania. Here young De Wolf
assisted in clearing and cultivating his father's farm, attending the district school during the win-
ters, until he reached his twenty-first birthday.
Being of an ambitious and aspiring disposition the advantages offered by a district school did
not satisfy him, and there being in the neighborhood a gentleman of liberal education, young De
Wolf procured a Latin grammar and dictionary and a copy of Virgil, and so economized his time
that, with the help of his instructor, Mr. Woodruff, he gained a fair knowledge of the Latin lan-
guage and read six books of the ./Eneid. He also studied arithmetic, algebra and surveying
under his father, who was a fine mathematician. When nineteen years of age he taught school
in his own town, at a salary of ten dollars per month, and when he was twenty he took a school
in the adjoining town of Orwell at twenty-five dollars per month. He left home in 1836, and
entered the Grand River Institute, a manual labor school, of Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he
remained till the fall of 1837, when he left for Chicago, then containing about four thousand
inhabitants, arriving on October 31 with but a few dollars in his pocket and poorly clad. Here
he applied fora situation in the public schools as a teacher, passed the requisite examination, but
being unsuccessful, he started on foot across the prairies to Saint Charles, to Elgin, and the dif-
ferent settlements along Fox River, and finally obtained a situation as teacher at Hadley, Will
county, Illinois.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. ^5
In the spring of 1838 he returned to Chicago, and engaged in teaching till the autumn of that
year, receiving as pay only certificates, when he was forced to seek other employment, and secured
a situation as collector in the meat market of Funk and Doyle, which he held until the summer
of 1839. He then began the study of law with Spring and Goodrich. He again engaged in
teaching in 1841, and continued for two years, till May, 1843, when he was examined by Hon.
Richard M. Young, judge of the supreme court, assisted by J. Y. Scammon and Buckner S. Mor-
ris, and being found qualified was duly licensed to practice law in all the courts of Illinois.
Mr. De Wolf followed the practice of his profession till 1854, when he was elected justice of
the peace, an office which he has held six successive terms, four by popular election and two by
appointment, in all over twenty-five years. During that time he heard and disposed of over
90,000 cases, a greater number probably than any other judicial officer in Illinois.
He held the office of alderman four years, from 1856 to 1858 and from 1866 to 1868. During
the first period the ordinances of the city were revised, and Mr. De Wolf was chairman of the
committee of revision and publication. Many of the most useful provisions of the present ordi-
nances were originally framed by him or under his direction.
From his boyhood he has possessed positive qualities and strong convictions. In the earlv
days of the anti-slavery crusade, when all political parties denounced the abolitionists, when most
of the churches, though opposed to slavery in the abstract, were opposed to disturbing the peace
and harmony of our southern brethren, Mr. De Wolf was one of the most active and persistent
advocates of the anti-slavery cause. He was secretary of the first abolition society, formed in
Chicago in 1839, of which Rev. Flavel Bascom was president and George Manierre was treasurer.
In 1842, at a meeting of the Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society, an organization was effected to
raise funds for the establishing of an anti-slavery newspaper in Chicago. Mr. De Wolf was
elected treasurer, and the "Western Citizen" was established, with Z. Eastman as editor and
publisher.
Mr. De Wolf was prosecuted. The following is a copy of one count in the indictment:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS, ss.:
OCTOBER TF.RM, A.D. 1860.
The grand jurors of the United States of America, chosen, selected and sworn, and charged to inquire of crimes
and offenses within and for the northern district of Illinois, upon their oaths present:
That heretofore, to wit, on the first day of December, A.D. 1858, a certain negro female slave called Eliza, a person
lawfully held to service or labor in the territory of Nebraska, being the property of one Stephen F. Nuckolls, of the
territory of Nebraska, the person to whom such service or labor was then due; and that the said negro slave called
Eliza, to wit, on the day and year aforesaid, did escape to the state of Illinois from the said territory of Nebraska, and
afterwards, to wit, on the I2th day of November, A.D. 1860, the said Stephen F. Nuckolls, being the owner of said
slave, did pursue and reclaim the said negro slave into the said state of Illinois by seizing and arresting her as a fugi-
tive person from service or labor from said territory of Nebraska, and said slave was lawfully under the control of said
Stephen F. Nuckolls at the district aforesaid and within the jurisdiction of this court, pursuant to the statute in such
case made and provided, and that one Calvin De Wolf, late of said district, together with divers, to wit, one hundred
other persons, to the jurors aforesaid as yet unknown, heretofore, to wit, on .the I2th day of November, 1860, at the dis-
trict aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of this court, with force and arms, unlawfully, knowingly and willingly, did
rescue the said negro slave Eliza from the said custody and control of the said Stephen F. Nuckolls, he the said Calvin
De Wolf, then and there well knowing that the said negro slave called Eliza was then and there a fugitive person held
to service or labor as aforesaid, and pursued and reclaimed, seized and arrested and held in custody as aforesaid, to the
great damage of the said Stephen F. Nuckolls, contrary to the form of the act of congress in such case made and pro:
vided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America and of the people thereof.
H. S. FITCH, District Attorney.
Endorsed a true bill: W. L. NEWBERRY, Foreman.
Filed November 19, 1860. W. H. BRADLEY, Clerk.
Mr. De Wolf, together with George Anderson, A. D. Hay ward and C. L. Jenks, who were
indicted at the same time, was arrested, and gave bail in $2,500 to answer.
Under advice of counsel a motion was made to quash the indictments, because slavery did not
exist by law in Nebraska; consequently a slave could neither bejieldin nor escape from that territory.
I 66 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Judge Drummond never decided the point, and under the advice of Hon. E. C. Larned, United
States district attorney, dismissed the causes December 3, 1861.
In June, 1841, Mr. De Wolf was married to Miss Frances Kimball, who is still (1883) living.
They have had five children: Ellen L., now wife of Robert B. Bell, of Normalville, Cook county,
Illinois; Anna Spaulding, who went to New Orleans in 1877 as a teacher of the children of the
freedmen, and died in September, 1878; Mary Frances, wife of Milo G. Kellogg, of Chicago; Wal-
lace L., attorney-at-law, Chicago, and Alice, wife of L. D. Kneeland, who died at Kokomo, Colo-
rado, March, 1882.
Since the expiration of his term of office as justice of the peace Mr. De Wolf has devoted his
attention mainly to the practice of his profession.
E
HON. LORENZO D. WHITING.
TISKILWA.
ORENZO DOW WHITING, farmer and member of the state senate, is a native of Wayne
county, New York, his birth being dated at Arcadia, November 17, 1819. His father,
Samuel Whiting, was a farmer and contractor on the Erie canal, and did at one time a
lumber business on the Genesee River, was born in Connecticut, and his mother, whose maiden
name was Zilpha Mather, was a lineal descendant of Cotton Mather, and a native of Connecticut.
Samuel Whiting, senior, the grandfather of Lorenzo, was a New Englander, and a young soldier
in the continental army. The Whitings are of English descent.
Our subject received an academic education, and was a merchant's clerk at Olcott, Niagara
county, until eighteen years of age. He came to the West in 1838, and was engaged in the patent
right business in Illinois four years, and then returned to New York state. For the next seven
years he was engaged in teaching and acting as town superintendent of schools in Newfane,
Niagara county, filling also the office of justice of the peace most of the time.
In 1849 Mr Whiting returned to Illinois, made a purchase of a quarter section of land near
Tiskilwa, and for the first three seasons was engaged in farming and teaching. Since he ceased
teaching "the young ideas how to shoot," he has given his whole time to agricultural pursuits,
adding to his land from time to time, until he now has nearly 600 acres, largely under excellent
improvement.
Mr. Whiting served as supervisor of Indiantown for five or six years, and may have held other
local offices which we do not recall. He was elected to the Illinois house of representatives in
1868, to the constitutional convention in 1869, to the state senate in 1870, and still holds the latter
office, having been a member of the upper house for twelve consecutive years, and of the legisla-
ture fourteen consecutive years.
In the constitutional convention Mr. Whiting was first to propose to insert a provision in the
constitution requiring the general assembly to pass laws regulating railroad charges, and as sen-
ator was active in carrying through the bill which embodied a law against unjust discrimination
and extortionate charges, known as the granger laws.
He was the projector of the Hennepin canal scheme, and the originator of other bills, looking
to the internal improvement of the state. He was the author of several important laws relating
to agriculture, roads and drainage, and of the bill which passed, and became a law, ceding the
Illinois and Michigan canal to the United States on certain conditions.
For the last four or five years he has labored in the senate very earnestly to secure a more
equal and just revenue law, whereby all property shall be taxed once, and no property doubly
taxed. Cheap transportation and equal taxation are leading objects with him. No man in the
senate has a clearer head than Mr. Whiting, or labors more zealously to secure equal rights and
exact justice to all classes of his constituents, and of the citizens of Illinois. In 1869 he was
among the most active in opposing the lake front scheme, whereby three railroad corporations
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
I6 7
sought to possess themselves of 'the shore line of the outer and future harbor of Chicago. In
1878 he led the opposition in the defeat of senate bill 114, which was to effect the release of
a combination of railroads from a large amount of taxes adjudged by the courts to be due
to the public. His championship of measures relating to the producers, and his watchfulness
of the public interest when assailed by special interests and corporate greed, have made him
known as the "farmer statesman." These powerful interests which he has so often foiled,
generally stir up a lively opposition to his repeated reelections, but the people whom he has
so faithfully served have so far successfully rallied to his support, having elected him six times
in succession, to serve at the state capital, and again placed him in nomination. The oppo-
sition is now seemingly more determined than ever to secure his defeat, but it is thought will
be overcome as before.
Senator Whiting is a republican of democratic antecedents, a man of firm principles, fixed as
the stars, perfectly upright, and nothing but a prairie cyclone could upset him.
Senator Whiting was first married in 1846, to Miss Lucretia C. Clement, of Oneida county,
New York, she dying in 1872, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter, and the second
time in 1874 to Miss Eriphyle Robinson, of Brooklyn, New York, whose penmanship and drawings
are models of beauty. She is the daughter of the late Doctor Daniel Robinson, of New York, a
thorough scholar, with great taste for mathematics, horticulture, and mechanics, and was a member
of the New York historical society. Eriphyle's mother's name was Caroline M. Cropsy, an accom-
plished lady of French descent, and her mother's name was Helen Ackerman, who was connected
with some of the most noted early Dutch settlers on the Hudson.
Clement A., the elder son, is married, and he and Herbert are tilling their father's lands, and
Lilian, the daughter, is connected with the editorial staff of the "Boston Traveller," a corre-
spondent of the Chicago Daily " Inter Ocean," the "Cincinnati Commercial," and the "Globe-
Democrat," St. Louis, and an occasional contributor to the monthly magazines. She is a natural
journalist, with almost unbounded enthusiasm for her chosen labor. If life and health are
spared her, success will probably crown her active labors.
MALACHI CHURCH.
WOODSTOCK.
THE sheriff of McHenry county, whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch, is
descended from an old Vermont family, his grandfather, Malachi Church, for whom he was
named, moving from Brattleboro, in that state, to Cortland county, New York, by ox team in
1805. That part of the Empire State seventy-five years ago was almost an unbroken wilderness.
There the family. cleared the land and opened a farm. James B. Church, the father of Malachi,
born in Brattleboro in 1797, was reared on that farm, and helped to make it. He was a prominent
man in Cortland county forty and fifty years ago, and is still living, being in his eighty-fifth year,
He holds the commission of major and colonel of New York artillery, appointed while De Witt
Clinton was governor, his name being attached to both commissions. He also holds the same
governor's letter accepting, in a complimentary tone, the resignation of Colonel Church. Three
brothers of the colonel held also the same military rank.
Malachi Church was born at Marathon, Cortland county, August 4, 1828, his rribther being
Sarah Matthews, a native of Granville, New York. He received a common-school education, all
his father could afford to give him; farmed in his native town until 1851, when the whole family
came to the West and settled on a farm three miles west of Woodstock.
Our subject continued to cultivate the soil until 1856, when he sold his property and moved
into town, and for nine years was engaged in the livery business. Subsequently he was agent for
the Merchants' Express Company until the route was divided, and Woodstock fell into the hands
of the American Express Company. About that time he served one or two terms in the board of
aldermen.
1 68 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
When, in June, 1869, Austin Badger, sheriff of the county, was disabled, Mr. Church, then act-
ing as city marshal, was appointed his deputy, and attended to the business, and at the end of
that term Mr. Church was elected to the office, and served two terms. In 1876 Daniel A. Sted-
man was elected sheriff, and served his four years, Mr. Church acting as his deputy half the time,
and being elected to take his place in the autumn of 1880. Mr. Church is very assiduous in
attending to the duties of his office, and is a popular county official among all parties, always poll-
ing a very heavy vote. His politics are republican.
Mr. Church is high up in Masonry, being a Knight Templar. He has held various offices in
the order, such as warden of the Blue Lodge, high priest in the Chapter, etc. He married first in
1854, at Auburn, New York, Celinda Wheaton, she dying in August, 1862, and the second time in
1865 to Lorain E. Harper, of Woodstock. He had one son (Henry) by the first wife, and buried
him in 1871, at fifteen years of age. He was a youth of great promise. At fourteen years of age
he was a clerk in the county treasurer's office, and showed remarkable precocity of intellect.
His death was a heavy blow to his father.
COLONEL RALPH PLUMB.
STREA TOR.
RALPH PLUMB, banker and mayor of Streator, and founder of the town, is a native of
Chautauqua county, New York, and was born in the town of Busti, March 29, 1816. His
father, Theron Plumb, a mechanic, was a native of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and his
grandfather, Ebenezer Plumb, was born in the same county, the family being early settlers in
Stockbridge, the home of Jonathan Edwards, the Sedgwicks, the Fields, and other prominent
families. The mother of our subject, before her marriage, was Harriet Merry, a native of Herki-
mer county, New York, her father being Judge Samuel Merry, in his day a prominent man in that
county. The family moved to Trumbull count)', Ohio, when Ralph was four years old. He
attended school until fourteen years old, receiving as good an education as could be had at that
age in a rural town, then went into a store in Hartford, Trumbull county, where he held the post
of clerk till he reached his majority, when he became a partner of his employer, Seth Hayes. Mr.
Plumb was engaged in general merchandise until 1855, when he was elected to the legislature
and served in that body for two sessions, being engaged also, during that period in the study of
law. He was admitted to the bar at Columbus, in 1857, opened an office in Oberlin, and was
there engaged in the practice of his profession until the civil war broke out. During that period,
two years before the war, a little episode occurred in the life of Mr. Plumb, of which we presume
he is not ashamed to have mention made in a work like this. In 1859 he, with other Oberlin men,
was arrested, charged with resisting the fugitive slave law. He was not guilty of the particular
act for which he was arrested, but he had previously acted as an "underground railroad conduc-
tor," and had aided scores of fugitives in escaping from bondage. He was never tried, but, with
thirty-six others, lay for eighty-four days in the Cleveland jail. The trial has not come off yet.
In 1861 Mr. Plumb went into the service, under appointment of President Lincoln, as quarter-
master, and assigned to duty on General Garfield's staff, filling that position until the general
was made chief of the staff of General Rosecranz. After the battle of Stone River, January i,
1863, our subject was obliged to leave the field on account of ill health, and was placed in charge
of Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, where he remained until after the rebellion had collapsed, he
having meantime been brevetted colonel.
At the opening of the year 1866, Colonel Plumb left Ohio, and came to this state, reaching
Streator January 24, the site of this city then being a thicket. Acting as secretary, treasurer and
resident manager of a company, most of whose members lived at the East, he here purchased
4000 acres of land for these capitalists, and engaged first in developing the coal fields by sinking
shafts, etc., and then in developing the town, which was named Streator for Doctor Worthy S.
LIBRARY
OF me
UNIVERSITY of ILLINCiS
UNITED STATES BrOGKArillCAL DICTIONARY. \*j\
Strcator, of Cleveland, Ohio. The first plat of ground was recorded February 22, 1868, when
there were a few hundred people here, mostly miners, and fourteen years later the population was
between 9,000 and 10,000.
In order to develop the coal market and encourage the growth of the town, Colonel Plumb
engaged in the building of railroads, and in a few years the place was connected with the outside
world by the Fox River Valley, the Chicago, Pekin and South Western, the Chicago and Padu-
cah, and the Chicago division of the Wabash and Saint Louis railroads, an aggregate of over four
hundred miles of road built by him.
Since closing his connection with railroads, Colonel Plumb has given his attention largely to
manufacturing and banking, he being interested in the works for the manufacture of window
glass, and president of the Streator National Bank, an institution started in May, 1882, with a
capital of $80,000. He has also stock in other local manufactories, and is still largely interested
in coal mining, being one of the most public-spirited and enterprising men in La Salle county.
One of the noblest deeds he has done in Streator is the putting up a $30,000 house for a high
school, and making a present of it to the municipality. He has a large heart, and his gifts are
many and usually munificent.
Streator was organized into a city by an election held June, 1882, and our subject was elected
mayor without a dissenting vote, a well merited compliment to the originator and "nursing
father" of this town.
The Colonel married at Hartford, Ohio, in 1838, Miss Marilla E. Borden, and they have had
three children, losing all of them.
WILLIAM McKINDLEY.
CHICAGO.
A1ONG the members of the legal profession of Chicago, none, perhaps, deserves a more honor-
able mention than the subject of this biography. A native of West Charleston, Saratoga
county, New York, he was born in 1821, the son of John McKindley, whose father was a native
Scotchman, and Sarah (Mairs) McKindley, of Argyle, Washington county, New York.
William was a strong and robust youth, and until his eighteenth year worked on his father's
farm, receiving such education as the district school afforded. Desiring, however, to fit himself
for a more active life, he left the farm about the year 1840, and during the next four years applied
himself closely to study, at Galway Academy, near his home. While here he developed great pro-
ficiency in mathematics and other scientific subjects, and also displayed marked talent as a deba-
ter and public speaker. He loved debate, and in his earnestness appealed to the judgments of
men rather than to their feelings and passions. At the close of his academical course he entered
Union College, at Schenectady, New York, then under the charge of the celebrated Doctor Nott.
In college, he ranked among the first in his class, and graduated from the regular classical course
of study with the most exalted honors.
Among his classmates was the renowned Bishop Littlejohn, of New York city. The following
incident fairly illustrates his popularity and standing among his fellow students: It being the
custom to choose a marshal for commencement day,- McKindley was chosen the candidate of the
anti-secret society element, while Littlejohn was put forward by the society men. As is always
the case at such elections, partisan spirit ran high, and the contest was a most strong and earnest
one. The society men, however, carried the day, and Littlejohn was elected, receiving, however,
a majority of only one vote.
After completing his college course, in 1848, he began the study of law in the office of Judge
Belding at Amsterdam, New York, and so applied himself that at the end of two years he was
admitted to practice by the supreme court of his state. Removing now to Saratoga Springs, he
formed a partnership with Avery and Hoag, two eminent lawyers of that place, and under the
firm name of Avery, Hoag and McKindley, built up during the next few years an extensive and
18
172 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
lucrative business. During this time he became widely known for his genial, social and compan-
ionable qualities, and numbered among his warmest friends the noted Chancellor Walworth, then
in his palmiest days.
In 1856 Mr. McKindley settled in Chicago, and established himself in a general law and real
estate business, in partnership with his former classmates, D. J. and D. C. Nicholes and John T.
Wentworth, also a graduate of Union College, and who was afterward judge of the circuit court,
at Racine, Wisconsin. The business of this firm was eminently successful, and continued until
the opening of the war of the rebellion in 1861.
By reason of impaired health, Mr. McKindley found a change of business necessary, and asso-
ciating himself with his brother, James McKindley, in the wholesale grocery trade, continued it
with marked success for three years. At the expiration of that time, withdrawing from his mer-
cantile pursuits, he again associated himself with his former partners, Messrs. Nicholes, and con-
tinued in business with them until 1871. During this year, by the admission into the business of
Mr. James Morrison, the name of the firm was changed to Nicholes, McKindley and Morrison,
and so continued until 1878, when Messrs. Nicholes retired from the firm. From that time until
Mr. McKindley's death, he and Mr. Morrison continued in business together.
As a business man Mr. McKindley was known for his sterling integrity and his firm fidelity to
upright principle and manly dealing. He was an able advocate, and as a lawyer honored his pro-
fession. He made his way in the face of many obstacles, and by his untiring energy and indomi-
table will, rose from comparative obscurity to an honorable position in his profession. He
possessed a versatility of talents, and aside from his law and real estate business was engaged in
other enterprises. With other prominent business men of Chicago he organized the Merchants'
Fire Insurance Company, of Chicago, which gave every promise of becoming one of the strongest
assurance associations of the Northwest, but with all local fire companies, was ruined by the great
fire of October 9, 1871,
Mr. McKindley's death, which occurred March 29, 1880, was an unexpected blow to his many
friends and acquaintances, he having been suddenly stricken with apoplexy in the court room
during a session of the appellate court, at Chicago.
At a meeting of the Chicago bar, held May 17, 1880, the following resolution, passed at a
meeting of Mr. McKindley's professional associates, was, upon the motion of R. W. Smith, spread
upon the records of the appellate court:
Resolved, That in the death of our late brother William McKindley, the Chicago bar and legal profession have lost a
gentleman and scholar, a good lawyer, and a thoroughly honest and conscientious man.
Resolved, That we tender to the bereaved widow and family of our deceased brother our sympathy and condolence
HON. FRANCIS E. CLARKE.
WA UKEGAN.
FRANCIS ERASMUS CLARKE, judge of Lake county, and one of the leading lawyers in
that county is a son of Elam and Cynthia (Lewis) Clarke, both descendants of Massachu-
setts families, and was born at Williamstown, Orange county, Vermont, March 4, 1828. His
father was a farmer and mechanic, and took a part in the second war with England, being at the
battle of Plattsburgh. Francis fitted for college at academies in Ludlow and Townsend, Vermont,
and was graduated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1851, teaching school
now and then a term, both before and after entering that institution. On leaving college he
came to the West, and for three years was principal of the Waukegan Academy. He read law
with Ferry and Clarke, the latter being his elder brother, Isaac L. Clarke ; was admitted to the
bar in 1855, and has been in general practice at Waukegan since 1856. He is a sound and
reliable lawyer, whose opinion is much sought after, and he stands at the front of the Wauke-
gan bar.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 173
In 1852 Mr. Clarke was elected county superintendent of schools, and that office he held till
1860. He has also been city superintendent of schools, supervisor, etc. For most of the time
during the last fourteen or fifteen years, he has held the post of master in chancery for the circuit
court of Lake county, and he makes an able chancery lawyer, steadily growing in popularity.
Our subject was elected county judge in the spring of 1879, and that office he is filling with
decided credit to himself as well as satisfaction to the people.
Judge Clarke has been a republican since the organization of that party, and is very decided
and pronounced in his political tenets, and capable of giving on the platform, a plain and cogent
reason for his affiliation with the members of that party. He married, at North Hadley, Massa-
chusetts, January 13, 1858, Miss Hannah C. Scott, and they have three children. The family
attend the Presbyterian church, of which Mrs. Clarke is a member.
w
WARREN D. WHAPLES.
NEPONSET.
ARREN DAY WHAPLES, merchant and banker, is a native of Connecticut, a son of
Elisha and Amanda A. (Hart) Whaples, and was born in Newington, July 3, 1832. Both
parents were also born in that state. Warren received an academic education at Newington and
Berlin; farmed in his younger years with his father, who was also a carpenter and joiner; taught
school two winters, and in the spring of 1856 came to the West. He went as far as Illinois,
and in June of that year settled in Neponset, his present home, buying a fourth interest in the
town. Here Mr. Whaples was a clerk one season; then formed a partnership with Joseph Lyford,
with whom he was in mercantile trade for two years, when his brother, Shubad H. Whaples,
became his partner, and they were together until the close of the civil war, in 1865. Since that
date our subject has been alone in trade. He keeps a general and large assortment of goods,
and has always maintained a sound .financial standing, as well as a high character for honesty
and fair dealing. In 1874 he started the Exchange Bank, a private institution, doing a general
and successful banking business.
Mr. Whaples has held different local offices, such as school trustee, a member and president of
the town board of trustees, etc. He is a republican in politics, but not an active partisan. His
Christian connection is with the Congregational church, of which he is a deacon. No man who
knows him doubts the sincerity of his faith or the purity of his life.
November 29, 1859, Mr. Whaples was married to Miss Mary E: Lawrence, of East Canaan,
Connecticut, and they have two sons: William Elisha, cashier in his father's store and bank, and
Walter Lawrence, a student in Knox College.
HON. CHARLES E. FULLER.
BEL VIDERE.
/~*HARLES EUGENE FULLER, lawyer and member of the state senate, is a native of Boone
V_^ county, Illinois, being born in the town of Flora, March 31, 1849. His father, Seymour
Fuller, a farmer, was from Shaftsbury, Vermont, and his grandfather, Solomon Fuller, was a rev-
olutionary soldier, and a relative of the Fuller who was with General Francis Marion, the Swamp
Fox of South Carolina. This branch of the Fuller family first settled in New England. The
mother of Charles was Eliza A. (Mordoff) Fuller, a native of New York.
He received most of his education in the Belvidere High School, supplementing his attend-
ance there with one year's drill in Wheaton College ; spent some time in his youth in a general
store at Belvidere ; was subsequently, 1866-7, > n a book store at Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa ;
returned to Belvidere and read law with Hon. Jesse S. Hildrup, late United States marshal for
UNITED STATJSS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the northern district of Illinois; was admitted to the bar in August, 1870, and has since been in
steady and successful practice at Belvidere, doing a good business in all the courts in his, the
twelfth circuit, and in the United States courts in Chicago. Intimate acquaintances of Mr. Fuller,
and competent judges, give him credit for being remarkably well read in his profession for a man
of his age, very clear, logical and persuasive in a plea before a jury, and eminently successful.
He has had several important criminal cases, in which class he shines, perhaps, to the best advan-
tage. He is one of the rising and highly promising young laAvyers of the state.
Mr. Fuller was city attorney in 1875-6, and state's attorney from December, 1876, until elected
to the state senate in November, 1878, when he resigned. In the session of the legislature held
in 1881, he was chairman of the railroad committee, and was on the committees on judiciary,
judicial department, revenue, county and township organizations and municipalities. In 1882 he
was elected to the lower house, and is chairman of the insurance committee. In politics Mr.
Fuller has always affiliated with the republicans, and has been chairman of their county central
committee. He is past grand in Odd-Fellowship, and a member of the Encampment, and also
of the Legion of Honor. The wife of Senator Fuller was Sarah A. Mackey, daughter of Hugh
Mackey, of Cherry Valley, Winhebago county, Illinois, their marriage taking place in April, 1873.
We believe they have no children.
ALMON W. BULKLEY.
CHICAGO.
A^MON WHEELER BULKLEY, the youngest lawyer, probably, whose name appears in
this work, and a fine example of what pluck and perseverance can do for a young man of
laudable purposes, early thrown upon his own resources, was born in Groton, Tompkins county,
New York, April 13, 1852. His parents, Lorenzo and Juliette A. (Coonley) Bulkley, were also
natives of that state, his father of Cayuga, and his mother of Greene county. His grandfather,
Hill Bulkley, who was a participant in the second war with England, was born in Fairfield, Fair-
field county, Connecticut.
Lorenzo Bulkley was a farmer, and the son had a good opportunity to acquire a knowledge
of that honorable calling, but his heart was not in it. He left home at fifteen years of age, and
continued to cultivate the soil four years longer, the last year taking a farm and tilling it on
shares. From early youth Mr. Bulkley had a strong desire for knowledge, and kept constantly
in mind the purpose to secure a liberal education ; and while engaged in farming he carefully
husbanded his income, scanty enough at best, devoted every hour of leisure to studies prepara-
tory for college, and at nineteen years of age went straight from a farm to attend to his matricu-
lation at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he took an architectural course, and whence
he was graduated in June, 1875. While in college he taught the high school one term at Boyls-
ton, Massachusetts, and likewise taught two years after his graduation, first in a public school at
Yonkers, New York, and then in the Morris (Illinois) Classical Institute, now the Normal Scien-
tific School. He had a hard struggle to secure his education, but we cannot learn that he has
ever assigned himself any task, however difficult, without fully and faithfully accomplishing it.
He studied law with Jordon and Stough, of Morris, and while so doing, in order to keep square
with the world, he filled, for a short time, the office of deputy circuit clerk of Grundy county.
Mr. Bulkley was admitted to the bar in June, 1879, and for a short time was in practice at
Ottawa, acting at the same time as deputy clerk of the appellate court of the second district. In
the autumn of 1880 he removed to Chicago, where he is building up a good business. A gentle-
man who has known Mr. Bulkley from his youth, thus speaks of him as a scholar and a lawyer:
"Throughout his entire course at -Cornell, he occupied an enviable position in his class. His
moral character is irreproachable, and as a friend he has many commendable traits. He is a
lawyer of excellent judgment, and fully trustworthy in all the relations of life ; is a successful
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 175
practitioner, and as a counselor far more reliable than many who have a national reputation.
His judgment upon questions of law is testified to by several important decisions recently pro-
duced in the supreme court of Illinois.
Mr. Bulkley is a member of Garden City Lodge, No. 141, A. F. and A. M., and of the order of
the Red Cross, Lincoln Commandery, No. 8, Chicago, and in politics a republican. He,
however, lets no secret or political society interfere with his legal studies and practice, and it is
safe to say that he will be a life student of his profession, nor cease to be a growing man while
his health continues unimpaired.
HON. JOHN J. GLENN.
MONMOUTH.
JOHN J. GLENN, judge of the tenth judicial circuit, is a native of Ashland county, Ohio, a son
of John and Anna (Johnson) Glenn, and dates his birth March 2, 1831. His father, who was
born near Baltimore, Maryland, was a farmer, and a soldier in the second war with England.
His great-grandfather came to this country from the North of Ireland, being of Scotch-Irish
lineage. Our subject was educated at Miami University, Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, being
graduated in June, 1856, Whitelaw Reid being in the same class; read law at Logansport, Indi-
ana, with Hon. D. D. Pratt, teaching an academy at the same time, and was admitted to the bar
at Fort Wayne in 1858. In 1860 he came to this state, practiced one year at Aledo, Mercer
county, and then settled in Monmouth. Here he opened a law office, and was in steady and suc-
cessful practice for sixteen years, making an honorable record at the bar of- Warren county, and
showing that he had qualifications admirably fitting him for the bench.
In 1877 our subject was elected to the bench, and was reflected in 1879 for a term of six years.
Although young in the office of judge, his decisions have been marked by sound judgment, and
have usually been sustained by the higher courts. As a lawyer he is thoroughly read, and while
at the bar distinguished himself as an advocate, having great influence with a jury.
The judge is a republican in politics, and was somewhat active until he went on the bench.
He was for sixteen years a member and secretary of the board of trustees of Monmouth College,
resigning in 1880; is an elder of the Presbyterian church, and is a consistent Christian, as well as
upright judge.
Two months after receiving his degree of -bachelor of arts, he was married, August, 1856, to
Miss Mary Jane McGaw, daughter of William McGaw, of Preble county, Ohio, and they have
five children, three daughters and two sons. Anna R. and McGaw are graduates of Monmouth
College; William M. is a medical student; Minnie is in college, and Addie M. in a ward school.
Judge and Mrs. Glenn are warm friends of education, and take good care that their own
children have a fair share of it. They are also important factors in the refined circles of Mon-
mouth society. \
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WILLIAM H. HULL.
OTTAWA.
ILLIAM HUNTINGTON HULL, one of the leading merchants in Ottawa, is a native of
Oneida county, New York, having been born in the town of Sauquoit, near Utica, October
ri, 1832. His father, Horace Hull, a drummer at Sackett's Harbor in the war of 1812-14, an< 3 a
farmer, was born in the same place, and his grandfather, John Hull, a soldier in the preceding
war with England, was born in Durham, Connecticut, in which part of New England the family
settled some time before the revolution. Horace Hull married Sabrina Lamphear. He died in
Oswego county, New York, in 1867, and his widow still draws his pension. Her age is eighty-
five years.
William finished his studies at the Falley Seminary, a Methodist institution at Fulton, New
I 76 UNITED STA 7'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR Y.
York, remaining on the farm till twenty-one years old, and teaching school the last three winters.
In 1853 he started for the West; went to Appleton, Wisconsin, ready for any kind of respectable
work that turned up, commencing as a teamster, having served an apprenticeship at that business
on his father's farm. Soon afterward he changed to a clerkship, which he held about two years,
and then returned to Fulton. There he kept books for a mercantile house; married Miss Char-
lotte M. Kendall, of Volney, Oswego county, late in September, 1856, and the next week started
for Ottawa, his present home. Here he commenced business by keeping books for J. G. Nattin-
ger, one of the oldest merchants in Ottawa, and. in 1859 went into business for himself as a gen-
eral merchant, starting off on a moderate scale, and expanding his stock as his means increased.
He attended faithfully to his business, having an oversight of everything from the start, and
prosperity rewarded his industry. He continued to keep a general stock of merchandise about
ten years, and then changed to dry goods exclusively; usually carries from $25,000 to $35,000, and
does from $75,000 to $100,000 per annum. He has a double store forty by eighty feet, and an
adjoining building twenty by forty feet; keeps well stocked the year round, and nine or ten sales-
men, saleswomen, bookkeepers, etc. He manages his business with unrelaxing care and vigilance,
and on the strictest, most upright business principles, and no dealer in Ottawa has a fairer record.
At the time this sketch is written Mr. Hull is serving his- second term and third year as alder-
man of the fifth ward, all the municipal office he has ever accepted. He has done and is doing a
great deal to build up manufacturing and other interests, and is president of the Ottawa Bottle
and Flint Glass Company, secretary and treasurer of the Ottawa Fire Clay and Brick Company,
and treasurer of the gas company and of the business men's association. He may also have stock
in other local institutions which we do not call to mind.. His public spirit and enterprise are
worthy of strong commendation.
Mr. and Mrs. Hull have two children, a daughter and a son: Fannie Kendall, married to
Charles A. Caton, nephew of Judge Caton, Ottawa, and Horace, a graduate of the law depart-
ment of the University of Chicago, and in practice with Judge Eldridge, of Ottawa. The parents
attend the Congregational Church.
DAVID HAWES.
ROCK ISLAND.
ONE of the very few citizens of Rock Island who were living here in 1837 is the gentleman
whose name heads this sketch, a native of Belchertown, Hampshire county, Massachusetts,
born October 19, 1809. His father, Harvey Hawes, a farmer, was born in Wrentham, same state.
His grandfather, John Hawes, fought for independence, and carried in the calf of one of his legs
a ball which he received at Ticonderoga. This branch of the Hawes family is of English pedi-
gree. Harvey Hawes married Ruth Pesoe, who was of French descent, and by whom he had five
children, David being the first-born.
Mr. Hawes finished his school training by six months' attendance at the seminary in his native
town, where he was engaged in farming until twenty years of age. Subsequently he farmed one
year at Ware, Massachusetts, where he also kept a hotel. He also farmed one year at Enfield, in
the same state. In 1832 he married Miss Julia M. Babcock, of Ware.
Hearing a great deal about the West, and thinking that perhaps here was a better opening for
a young man, in 1835 Mr. Hawes started on a tour of observation, coming by the lakes to Chi-
cago, and thence into Tazewell county, where he spent six months. Returning east the next
spring for his family, he took them to St. Louis, where he obtained a clerkship in a store. In the
spring of 1837 he went to Naples, Illinois; kept a hotel for six months, when the sickness of his
family and the general unhealthiness of the country caused him to leave. He brought his family
to Rock Island in September, 1837. For sixteen or seventeen years after settling here he was in
the lime and stone business; was sheriff of the county in 1861-2; a grocery merchant for six or
eight years, and since 1877 has been a justice of the peace, being very attentive to his business.
UNITED STATES fiWGKAP/ffCAL DICTIONARY.
177
Mr. Hawes was originally a whig, a disciple of Henry Clay, and in his younger years quite
active in politics. On the demise of his old party he joined the republican, with which he
heartily affiliates. He is an Odd-Fellow, and has been a representative to the Grand Lodge of
the state.
For more than thirty years he has been a member of the Baptist Church, of which he is also
deacon. After living with his wife nearly forty years, she died in 1871, going like a shock of corn
fully ripe and ready for the harvest.
Mr. Hawes has two sons: Charles. W., deputy postmaster, Rock Island, and Frank B., keeper
of a summer hotel at Delavan Lake, Wisconsin, a popular watering place.
Although past the allotted age of man, Mr. Hawes is clear-headed, active, and efficient in his
business, all of which is owing to his good habits, and the excellent care which he has taken of
himself. He is well known to the people of Rock Island, and is warmly esteemed by the inhab-
itants generally, excepting evil-doers, to whom he is a terror.
THOMAS S. HUNTLEY.
HUNTLEY.
'"pIIOMAS STILLWELL HUNTLEY, for whom the village of Huntley, McHenry county,
J_ Illinois, was named, was born in Cortland county, New York, March 27, 1807. His father,
Daniel Huntley, in his day a farmer and inn-keeper, was among the early settlers in that part of
the Empire State, and his grandfather, Williams Huntley, was a teamster in the war for independ-
ence; and afterward, being able to take care of himself, he refused the proffered pension.
The mother of Thomas was Catherine Stillwell, also a native of New York. Her uncle, Sam-
uel Stillwell, was a prominent man in the city of New York, being a capitalist, and holding at one
period high municipal positions. When our subject was ten years old, the family moved into
Cattaraugus county, and settled near Ellicottsville, the county seat, three miles from a school
house. Thomas was agile in those days, and thought little of a six miles' walk daily, and, being
rather fond of his books, and making good use of his time, he secured a fair English education,
which he has since found of great service to him.
Mr. Huntley gave his strength to tilling the soil until about twenty years of age, when becom-
ing lame from a fever sore, he entered a store at Ellicottsville, and was engaged as a salesman
for a few years. Having acquired a knowledge of mercantile pursuits, he opened a store for him-
self in the same place, and after trading for a few years, removed to Chautauqua county, on a farm
of his own near Fredonia, having also at the same time a farm near Ellicottsville.
In 1846, having disposed of his property in western New York, Mr. Huntley immigrated to Illi-
nois, and settled in the township of Grafton, which now includes the village of Huntley. Here
he purchased a section of land of excellent quality, and commenced breaking and improving it.
Subsequently he also bought land in Michigan.
In 1851, when the Chicago and North-Western railroad reached his place, and Huntley station
was established, he opened a small store, and was engaged in trading for six or seven years, never,
however, relinquishing agricultural pursuits. Farming has been his favorite and chief business,
since early manhood, and he has been quite liberal in the number of acres of prairie and other sod
which he has turned with his own hand or by proxy.
Mr. Huntley held both township and county offices before leaving New York state, and was
the first supervisor of Grafton, about the only civil office which he has held in McHenry county.
Although quite active and public spirited, he has left the offices for persons more ambitious in
that direction.
Mr. Huntley has been quite a traveler, though always in his own country, has been from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean with his own team, and has made extensive tours by rail in all direc-
tions. He has always taken a deep interest in politics, he being originally a whig, with anti-
I 78 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
slavery proclivities, and a great admirer as well as follower of Hon. William H. Seward. Mr.
Huritley has been a republican since there was such a party, and was a delegate to the convention
which first nominated Hon. E. B. Washburne for congress, being one of the leading men in secur-
ing that nomination. He has never, we believe, regretted the exertions which he made in bring-
ing out the watch-dog of the United States Treasury.
Mr. Huntley is a member of the Congregational Church, and has lived a consistent Christian
life, testing, hundreds of times, the truth of the Scriptural adage that " it is more blessed to give
than to receive." His parents were models in hospitality and generosity, and the moral lessons
which he learned from them, who were worthy members of the Baptist Church, he has never for-
gotten or failed to carry out in life. The needy have always found a true friend in him.
Mr. Huntley was married the first time in 1830, to Miss Eliza Fox, sister of Hon. Chauncey J.
Fox, formerly state senator from Cattaraugus county, New York, and she died in 1873, leaving a
daughter and son, the former having since died. The son, Charles C. Huntley, was pursuing a
college course of studies in the University of Chicago when the civil war broke out, and promptly
closed his books, went into the army as lieutenant, and had command of a company most of the
time that he was in the service. He was a prisoner for eleven months in Libbey Prison, Danville,
Macon, Savannah, etc. On being mustered out he found that his mind was too unsettled to renew
his studies, so he went west of the Missouri, and in a few years became one of the leading stage
proprietors in the country. He ran the first line of coaches from Fort Benton to Helena, Mon-
tana Territorv, and extended his lines into Idaho, Utah, California, Washington Territory, etc.
For years he was a man of wonderful energy and push, but, overdoing himself, broke down with
paralysis, and is now living a quiet life at Washington, District of Columbia.
In 1878 Mr. Huntley married Emma E. Brimkerhoff, by whom he has one son, Thomas Still-
well. Our subject has lived a very temperate life, eschewing liquors of all kinds, and of late years
even tobacco, and at seventy-five years of age is free from aches and pains, and the chills too
common in the winter of life. The young will do well to ponder the lessons of this sketch.
w
WILLIAM HANNA.
MONMOUTH.
ILLIAM HANNA, manufacturer, banker and railroad builder, and one of the most ener-
getic, public-spirited citizens of Warren county, is a native of Fayette county, Indiana,
and was born June 19, 1827. His father, John Hanna, was born in North Carolina; his mother,
Sarah Crawford, in Virginia. His paternal grandfather was from Ireland, and was of Scotch-
Irish blood. In 1835, when William was eight years old, the family came into Warren county,
and settled on a farm twelve miles northwest of Monmouth, our subject receiving such an educa-
tion as a country school could furnish during the winters. In 1849 he drove an ox-team to
California, collected a few thousand dollars in gold, and returned in 1851 by water. In 1851,
Mr. Hanna went on a farm of his own, just over the line of Warren in Henderson county, and
was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1867, when he became a member of the Wier Plow
Company, of which he holds the office of cashier. A brief history of this company, with the
amount of material it uses and of work it turns out annually, may be found in a sketch of William
S. Wier, the president of this company, on other pages of this work. The company employs
nearly 600 workmen, and is one of the important agencies in building up the city of Monmouth.
Mr. Hanna is president of the Monmouth Mining and Manufacturing Company, which makes
sewer pipe, drain tile, fire brick, etc., and employs about sixty men. He was one of the origina-
tors of the Monmouth National Bank, established in 1871, and is its president. He is also presi-
dent of the Peoria and Farmington railroad, which is partially built, and will be finished from
Peoria, through Monmouth, to Keithsburgh, on the Mississippi River, before this volume is in the
hands of the binder.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. igl
Mr. Hanna puts his hand to no plow, including the "VVier," and "looks back;" he starts no
enterprise which does not go through, and has. probably done as much to push forward the inter-
ests of Monmouth and of Warren county, as any one of its citizens. He has been mayor of the
city two terms, and that is all the civil office of any importance, we believe, that he has held.
His politics are democratic. He is a trustee of the Warren county library, and also of Lombard
University, at Galesburgh, 111., and is deeply interested in any public enterprise calculated to
benefit the people.
The wife of Mr. Hanna was Miss Sarah Finnley, of Warren county, their marriage occurring
in 1851. They buried one daughter in youth, and have a son and daughter living: James Ross,
secretary of the Wier Plow Company, and Mary J. E., who is at home.
ROBERT E. JENKINS.
CHICAGO.
ROBERT EDWIN JENKINS, one of the leading bankruptcy lawyers of Chicago, is a direct
descendant of the original ancestor of the family in this country, David Jenkins, who left
Wales about 1700, and settled near Great Valley Church, Pennsylvania. The family soon became
identified with Pennsylvania's great industry. John, the son of David Jenkins, purchased in 1773
from the heirs of William Penn a tract of land near Churchtown, upon which the Winsor Iron
Works were erected, a great enterprise in those days. These works afterward passed into the
sole ownership of his descendants. Robert Jenkins, the father of Robert E., was born in Lancas-
ter county, Pennsylvania, and his mother, Elizabeth (Rambo) Jenkins, was also a native of that
state. In 1837 his parents went to Clark county, Missouri, where our subject was born, February
6, 1846. Clark county is the northeastern county of the state, bordering on the Mississippi River
and what is now the state of Iowa, Keokuk, thirty miles -away, being the nearest market town
forty years ago. Mrs. Jenkins was the mother of five children, of whom Robert E. was the
youngest, his mother dying when he was only eight or nine months old. That misfortune over-
taking him, he was placed in the care of an aunt, Mrs. Margaret Hendricks, residing at Fair-
field, Iowa, and whose love and care he fondly remembers. Here he remained for ten years. He
then returned to Clark county, and to the Jenkins homestead.
In those days there were no school houses in that vicinity. Mr. Jenkins keenly appreciated
the importance of education, and spared no effort to give his children school advantages. He
was accustomed, as also were the family after his decease, to hire a teacher for the winter season,
and give him a room for a school in the family home. The neighbors round about were allowed
the privilege of sending their children to the teacher. The result was that the rudiments of
knowledge were mastered by Robert early in his teens. His early advantages were not confined
to text books. He was so fortunate as to have access to a select library of history, biography
and the standard English poets. He improved the opportunities thus given him to hold converse
with the best minds, and in thought took part in the great events of the past.
Robert Jenkins died in January, 1858, when the children, left parentless, took the entire charge
of outdoor and indoor matters of the farm, which they managed successfully. There our subject
remained until nineteen years of age, but while having great love for the quiet independence of
farm life, yet he felt a stronger desire for a wider and more active field of usefulness. In 1865
we find him at the Illinois College, Jacksonville, for entering which institution he had prepared
himself by great mental industry and the most vigilant use of time. Not waiting to take a
full course, he came to Chicago, commenced the study of law, and was graduated from the Uni-
versity of Chicago, law department, in the class of 1867. While pursuing his legal studies, he
was in the office of Haines and Story, in which he remained awhile after being admitted to the
bar. He then became connected with the office of Hon. Lincoln Clark, then register in bank-
]g 2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
ruptcy, and from the start had almost entire charge of the business of the office. Mr. Jenkins
soon made the acquaintance of the people doing business with Mr. Clark, and familiarized him-
self with the routine of bankruptcy matters, a circumstance which was of great benefit to him
when he began practice for himself in the spring of 1869.
"It was the intention of Mr. Jenkins," says the writer already quoted, "to give all .branches of
the law an equal share of his attention. But the friends made while in the office of Judge Clark,
having recognized his experience and familiarity with bankruptcy matters, this branch of practice
was opened to him to such an extent that he resolved to make it a specialty. Creditors recog-
nized his ability to manage the details and disentangle the complications attending the affairs of
his clients, and he was repeatedly called to act as assignee of estates in bankruptcy. In this
capacity he has had, and still has, the management of large and important interests, and has
become well known to our citizens and to eastern merchants. His rule has been to help the hon-
est debtor to regain his business and his credit, and many who have been overtaken by financial
disaster have been assisted by him to make settlements satisfactory to their creditors, and have
thus been saved from ruin."
In the course of his business millions of dollars have passed through his hands. It has all
been honestly accounted for, and no one has ever questioned his integrity. Mr. Jenkins is a firm
believer in the Christian religion. He is a deacon of the Union Park Congregational Church,
superintendent of the Sunday school, and an active Christian worker. He married, in Chicago,
September 2, 1869, Marcia, daughter of Edward Raymond, formerly of Cambridge City, Indiana.
Five children. have been born to them, three of whom, George Raymond, Helen Mary, and Edith
Daisy are now living,
HENRY S. COMSTOCK
COLONA.
HENRY SMITH COMSTOCK, a prominent educator in Henry county, and a member of
the State Board of Education, is a son of John Beardsley and Evaline (Smith) Comstock,
and was born at New Haven, Oswego county, New York, December 29, 1831. Both parents were
also natives of that state. His grandfather, Saragah Comstock, fought for the independence of
the American colonies. John B. Comstock was a wool carder and cloth dresser, and in 1837 he
moved with his family to Franklin, Oakland county, Michigan, where he resumed his business,
and where he died in 1852. His widow survived him for ten or eleven years.
Our subject was educated in the public schools of Michigan, and in an academy at Birming-
ham, that state, and has been a teacher for twenty-seven years, nearly all the time in Henry
county, being one of the most popular and successful educators in this part of Illinois. He was
county superintendent of schools from 1869 to 1873, and made an efficient officer in that capacity.
In June, 1862, he enlisted in the service of his country, and was mustered in the following Sep-
tember as second lieutenant, company I, ii2th regiment, Illinois infantry: Colonel T. J. Hender
son, now member of congress, commander. The regiment went into Camp Ella Bishop, Covington,
Kentucky; was subsequently engaged in skirmishing with General Morgan and other guerillas,
and then joined General Burnside's division. In July, 1863, our subject lost a daughter, and on
that account resigned, and returned to Henry county.
Mr. Comstock has been a school trustee of the township of Munson for six years, and town
clerk five years. In December, 1881, he was appointed by Governor Cullom a member of the
State Board of Education, and that position he still holds. His great experience as a teacher, and
the careful study which he has given to the subject, makes him a valuable member of that board.
Mr. Comstock is a member and trustee of the Methodist Church at Colona, and at times has
been very active in Sunday-school work. He is a Master Mason.
The wife of Mr. Comstock was Miss Emma G. Terpening, daughter of J. R. Terpening, of
Geneseo, Illinois; their marriage being dated July 29, 1859. They have buried two children and
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 183
have three living. John Josiah, their eldest child and only son, is a graduate of the University of
Michigan, classical department, and Minnie Fried and Mary Elizabeth are pursuing their studies
at home. Mrs. Comstock is also a successful teacher, and is assisting her husband at Colona,
where he has been principal of the school for the last ten years. Mr. Comstock is a very indus-
trious man, and during his vacations busied himself in selling western lands, .for which he has
the agency.
ARBA BROOKINS.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this notice is a native of Erie county, Pennsylvania, his birth being dated
December 29, 1837, at Northeast, where his father was engaged for years in the manufacture
of paper. The Brookins family were originally from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The
mother of Arba was Catharine Van Wormer, a native of the Keystone State. Both parents died
at Northeast.
Our subject prepared for college at Vernon, Oneida county, New York, under Professor S. S.
Norton, and is a graduate of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, class of 1860, which included
George M. Weaver, now the law partner of George Seymour, Milton H. Northrup, now editor of
the Syracuse " Courier," Samuel D. Westfall, of Galena, Illinois, and others now prominent in
some profession or calling in life.
Mr. Brookins pursued his legal studies in the law department of Columbia College, New York
city, finishing in the spring of 1862; went immediately in the war, enlisting in the 24th New York
cavalry, in which regiment he held a lieutenant's commission; was in the war until its close, in
1865, and although in no less than thirty-six engagements, including such severe ones as Chan-
cellorsville, Petersburgh and the Wilderness, he came out unscathed. We once heard an officer,
under whom Mr. Brookins served, declare that he, Mr. Brookins, was one of the best fighting
men he ever saw.
Mr. Brookins commenced the practice of his profession at Coldwater, Michigan, remaining
there until June, 1870, when he settled in Chicago, where he is attending very closely to his busi-
ness, and doing a good deal of faithful work. As a lawyer he is studious, well posted, painstak-
ing and true to his client, and makes an excellent counselor.
Mr. Brookins is a democrat, and since entering upon legal practice has lived in republican
states and municipalities, and that may possibly be the reason why he has held no civil offices.
We cannot learn, however, that he has ever been afflicted with the mania for office holding. He
has evidently aspired to be a first-class lawyer, and if that is the case, he may well be satisfied
with his present status. The wife of Mr. Brookins was Fannie Patterson, a native of Manchester,
Oneida county, New York. They were married at Coldwater, Michigan, in November, 1868, and
have one son, Samuel Patterson, who is pursuing his studies at Coldwater.
JOHN S. CUMMINGS.
IIUNTLEY.
JOHN SHERMAN CUMMINGS, merchant, and one of the earliest and leading citizens of
J Huntley, is a native of Cortland county, New York, being born in the town of Truxton, Janu-
ary 22, 1830. His father, Guy C. Cummings, a soldier in the war of 1812-4, was born in the same
county, and his mother, whose maiden name was Eleanor Wheeler, was also a native of New York
state, her family being from Connecticut. The Cummings are an old New York family, the pro-
genitor in this country being from Scotland. Both grandparents of our subject were in the con-
tinental army, and the maternal grandsire was an intimate friend of General Washington.
In 1838, when John was eight years old, the family came to this state, and settled on a farm
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
in Grafton, McHenry county, near where the village of Huntley now stands. Here the son was
reared, and developed his muscles by cultivating the soil, and here he mastered the elementary
branches of knowledge, subsequently attending an academy at Elgin for several terms. He was
farming here when the civil war commenced, and enlisted (1861) in the yth Illinois regimental
band, serving until such bands were ordered to be disbanded. Since leaving the army Mr. Cum-
mings has been engaged in merchandising, adding insurance a few years ago, and now making a
specialty of furniture and agricultural implements. He is a stirring, enterprising man, and makes
a success of almost everything to which he puts his hands. He has two farms, one near Hunt-
ley, of which he has the oversight, and one in Sac county, Iowa, which he cultivates by proxy.
Mr. Cummings was appointed constable just before reaching his majority, and after serving
in that post one year resigned (1852) to go to California, where he spent five years in mining and
teaming, doing well and returning in 1857.
He served as supervisor of the town of Grafton before going into the war, and has held the
same office at sundry times since, the last time in 1880. He has also been county coroner and
town commissioner, and is not only a competent but efficient and perfectly reliable business man,
serving in every office assigned him with the utmost faithfulness, and under the guidance of a
sound judgment.
Mr. Cummings is a republican in politics, and quite active when important elections are pend-
ing and great issues are at stake. He is past master in the Masonic order. July 4, 1859, he mar-
ried Mary Elizabeth Baldwin, of Huntley, formerly of Clinton' county, New York, and they have
one son, Fred. S., who is with his father in the furniture business.
JOHN LAWRENCE HAMILTON.
WA TSEKA.
subject of this sketch, a native of Newry, in the North of Ireland, was born November 9,
1829, the son of Thomas L. Hamilton and Mary Ann (McCamley) Hamilton. His father, who
was born in Scotland about 1790, during his early life followed the sea, and after successive pro-
motions became captain of a merchantman. After his marriage in 1826, he opened an extensive
farm in the North of Ireland, and there reared a family of seven children. In 1855, during the
excitement consequent upon the discovery of gold in Australia, he sold his farm, and with his
wife and those of his children who were living at home, went thither, and there died in 1877. The
mother of our subject, a native of Liverpool, England, was a daughter of James and Ann Mary
McCamley, the latter of whom died in 1876, at the advanced age of one hundred and seven years.
John received a fair English education in the high school of his native town, prior to his
fifteenth year, and during the following five years was employed on his father's farm. In 1850,
he set out in life for himself, and joining the tide of emigration, sailed for the United States,
bearing with him little means, other than a brave heart, willing hands, and a determined purpose
to make his way in the world. Arriving at New Orleans during the cholera epidemic of 1850, he
took passage up the Mississippi to Saint Louis, and there finding that his little supply of money
was nearly exhausted, engaged to work on a farm in Jersey county, Illinois, for two years, at one
hundred dollars per year. In 1851 he obtained a government patent for one hundred and sixty
acres of land in Mason county, Illinois, and at the end of his two years' service had sufficient
means to purchase a team, and, leasing land, he began farming on his own account. From this
modest beginning Mr. Hamilton has worked his way to a position of honor and affluence.
Possessed of clear foresight, and good executive ability, he turned his opportunities to the best
account, and in a few years found himself independent of circumstances. In 1864 he settled in
Iroquois county, on a farm of two hundred and sixty acres, and made a permanent home. To
this he has added from year to year, as necessity has demanded and to-day (1883) is counted
among the most influential farmers and stock raisers of southern Illinois, possessing in all about
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 185
two thousand acres of land. Mr. Hamilton's attention, however, has not been wholly devoted to
his own personal affairs, but his fellow citizens, in recognition of his fitness and abilities, have
honored him with many positions and offices of trust. Since taking out his naturalization papers
in 1856, when he cast his first ballot for John C. Fremont, for president, he has been an active
and enthusiastic worker in the republican party. In 1871 he was elected supervisor of the town
of Lovejoy, and held that office until 1875, when he was elected county treasurer of Iroquois
county; and as showing his popularity and the high esteem in which-he is universally held, it may
be stated that his county is overwhelmingly democratic and greenback, and that he was
the only prominent republican candidate elected, his majority being over three hundred. At each
succeeding election this majority has been increased, some towns making his election unanimous,
and such has been the universal satisfaction with which he has discharged his duties, that it is
safe to predict that as long as he will consent to hold the office, no one can oppose him with suc-
cess. Like his private, his official character is above reproach. He is a man firm in his convic-
tions, determined in his pursuance of the right, a true friend and a genial companion. Having
traveled extensively throughout the United States, and being a careful observer of men and
events, he has gathered an abundant fund of varied information, and with his ready wit and fine
descriptive powers, is a most pleasing and interesting conversationalist.
In religious matters, Mr. Hamilton was reared an Episcopalian; but there being near him no
church of that denomination, he attends the services of the Presbyterian or Methodist Church
being especially active in Sunday-school work.
He was married February 24, 1857, to Miss Ann Eliza Leemon, who was born in County
Armagh, North of Ireland, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Leemon, of Scotch descent.
Of nine children that have been born to them seven are now living.
RUBEN C. EDGERTON, M.D.
ALTON A.
RUBEN CURTIS EDGERTON, one of the older class of medical practitioners in Knox
county, is the fifth and youngest child, all sons, of Jacob and. Mary (Stoddard) Edgerton,
and dates his birth in Essex county, New York, September 10, 1822. His father, who was a
mechanic, was born in Paulet, Rutland county, Vermont, son of Jedediah Edgerton, a revolution-
ary pensioner, and grandson of Captain Edgerton, an emigrant from England. Jonathan Stod-
dard, the father of Mary, was also a revolutionary pensioner. Both families were originally from
Connecticut, the Edgertons being early settlers at Norwich. Jacob Edgerton came as far west as
Ohio in 1836, and located near Unionville, and while there Curtis attended the Western Reserve
Institute at Kirtland, the school being in what was once a Mormon temple, and commenced
teaching when sixteen years old. Three years afterward, 1839, the family came into this state,
and settled at Galesburgh, and our subject completed an academic education in that city, continu-
ing to teach part of each year, in all for ten years. His father died at Galesburgh in 1842, and his
mother in 1856. He studied medicine with Doctor Hanaford of Trivoli, Peoria county, and Doc-
tor Bunce, of Galesburgh ; attended lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, studying at the
same time with Doctor Brainard, president of that institution, until March, 1848. The next
August he was married to Miss Annette Hamlin, who was from Maine, and a relative of Hon.
Hannibal Hamlin.
Doctor Edgerton practiced one year in Peoria county with his preceptor, one year at North
Henderson, on the line of Knox and Warren counties, two years at Lancaster, Peoria county, and
in the autumn of 1852 came into Knox county, and practiced at Victoria until the civil war began.
In August, 1861, he went into the army as assistant surgeon of the 26th Illinois infantry, and
remained about a year, when sickness compelled him to resign. He came to Altona, where his
family had been living during his absence, but for ten years he was unable to do much profes-
1 86 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
sional work, and he is still suffering from disease contracted in the army. He draws a pension.
The doctor's practice is almost entirely confined to the office and village, he going into the
country in extreme cases only, and when friends come for him with their own carriage. He is a
skillful physician and surgeon. The people have great confidence in him, and with good health
he would have a large practice.
Before going into. the service he used to write more or less for medical periodicals, but for a
score of years has done nothing in that line. He is a member of the Military Tract Medical
Society, and years ago was a member of the American Medical Association. He is a good deal
interested in the cause of education, and has done good service as a member of the local school
board. He is a republican, and a man of very decided views on political questions ; is also a
Master Mason.
The first wife of Doctor Edgerton died in February, 1858, leaving three children, one son and
two daughters. Charles is a cattle dealer in Waco, Texas. Ellen A. is the wife of Joseph Gra-
ham of Quincy, this state, and Mary Winona is a teacher, making her home with her father.
Doctor Edgerton was married the second time in October, 1860, to Miss Lydia Tiffany, from
Otsego county, New York, and they have one son, Hubert Curtis Edgerton, aged eleven years.
The doctor is a man of good social qualities, of a kindly disposition, and a good neighbor, and
is much respected by his circle of acquaintances.
REV. RICHARD K. TODD, A.M.
WOODSTOCK.
AT Woodstock, in this state, is an institution of learning which, under different names, yet
under the same management, has been in existence for thirty years, and all this time quietly,
like leaven, doing its blessed work among the young. During these thirty years, it is no exag-
geration to say that thousands of young men and young women have been, a longer or shorter
period, under the instruction, moral as well as mental, of the founder of this school, who is
still its principal. We refer to what is now known as Todd Seminary for Boys, which latterly
among its pupils has included several who are sons of his pupils twenty-five and thirty years ago.
Richard Kimball Todd, the originator of this institution, was born at Rowley, Essex county,
Massachusetts, October 14, 1816, his father, Wallingford Todd, a seafaring man for twenty-one
years, being 'born in the same place. The latter was a soldier in the second war with England,
and his father in the first. The mother of Richard, before her marriage, was Hannah Todd, very
remotely, if at all, related to her husband.
Our subject received his preparatory education at Burr Seminary, Manchester, Rutland county,
Vermont, but before entering college taught three years in Perth, Amboy, New Jersey, the latter
part of that period, occupying the Latin chair in Woodbridge Seminary. He entered the sopho-
more class of Princeton College in 1839; was graduated in 1842 ; took his theological course in
the same institution, after teaching in private two or three years ; was licensed to preach at
Princeton in February, 1847, and ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of
Woodstock in the spring of 1848. He held the pastorate steadily for eighteen years, when his
throat beginning to trouble him it was deemed advisable that he should discontinue public
speaking, and he resigned his charge. During five years of his pastorate Mr. Todd filled the
office of county superintendent of schools, and as early as 1851 he established the Parsonage
Institute, in which he taught the classics, and by the aid of other teachers, fitted young men for
college. The Institute continued to grow, and about eighteen or twenty years ago was incorpor-
ated by act of the legislature, taking the name of the Woodstock University, and having, for
some years, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred scholars, male and female, our subject
soon giving to the school his whole time and energies. Pupils came in from the neighboring
state of Wisconsin, and from Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and other states, and it was an era of great
prosperity.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. jg;
Five or six years ago Mr. Todd concluded to change the character of the school, to admit
boys only, to have a limited number, never more than twenty at a time, all between the ages of
eight and fifteen years, and .all boarding in the principal's family. This plan is strictly adhered
to, and the full number is usually kept up. The principal has never been outside his gate to
obtain a pupil. He concentrates his entire efforts on a few boys, who, in addition to the best of
mental drill, enjoy all the favorable influences of the home circle. They are constantly under the
control and watch-care of the principal and his assistants, all teachers and scholars eating at the
same table. It seems a pity that only twenty boys can, at any one time, be under such helpful
influence, and such admirable mental discipline. The principal has the happy faculty of winning
the affections of his pupils, and rendering himself an object of grateful and endeared remem-
brances.
Mr. Todd married, in June, 1847, Miss Martha J. Clover, of New York city, a sister of Judge
H. A. Clover, LL.D., of St. Louis, and of Rev. L. P. Clover, D.D., an Episcopal clergyman, now
living near New York city, and they have had three children, only one of them, Henry Alfred
Todd, now living. He is a graduate of Princeton College, in which he became professor of
modern languages at twenty-two years of age, and where he has taught three or four years. He
is the author of a French work used at Princeton, and has recently made his fourth trip to
Europe. No more promising young man was ever born in Woodstock.
WILLIAM S. WIER.
MONMOUTH.
WILLIAM S. WIER, president of the Wier Plow Company, Monmouth, and an inventor as
well as manufacturer, is a son of William S. and Frances (Brown) Wier, and was born near
Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, July 2, 1835. His father, a woolen cloth manufacturer, was a
native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; his mother of Kentucky. Some of his great uncles or
other relatives took a part in the successful struggle of the colonies to free themselves from the
British yoke. The education -of young Wier was obtained in Illinois, the family coming to
Warren county in 1839, when William was four years old. His school training was limited to
the rudimentary branches, but he has since been a close student, a deep thinker, and on all impor-
tant subjects is a thoroughly informed man.
Our subject was engaged in farming until he was twenty-seven years old, when he abandoned
that calling and made preparations for the manufacturing of a cultivator, known as the Wier cul-
tivator. Such he had invented two or three years before. He commenced operations on a mod-
erate scale in 1863, and expanded his premises as the demand for his excellent cultivator
increased, adding also in a short time the manufacture of plows of every variety.
In 1867 the Wier Plow Company was formed, with Mr. Wier as president, a position which he
still holds. The other members were William Hanna, Doctor W. B. Boyd and Joseph Stevenson.
There have since been some changes, the present members being W. S. Wier, W. Hanna, his son,
J. R. Hanna, and Delos P. Phelps. Some idea of the magnitude of these plow works may be
inferred from the fact that they require annually about four thousand tons of iron and steel, three
hundred of grindstones, two hundred and seventy-five of coke, and three hundred car loads of
coal. The whole number of cars of material and fuel shipped per year exceeds one thousand.
The amount of lumber consumed is about 1,500,000 feet. The company pays for freight to rail-
road companies about $560,000 annually. The number of plows turned out yearly is in round
numbers upwards of 70,000.
This great institution gives employment to from five hundred and fifty to six hundred work-
men. The works are large, well ventilated and systematically lighted. The aggregate floor area
is about four and a half acres. The growth of the trade is constant and rapid, necessitating the
additions of buildings and machinery each year. It is enterprises like this that are building up
flourishing towns all over the upper Mississippi Valley.
1 88 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Wier has done a great deal of solid work, as well as careful study, in inventing and improv-
ing his implements, and his industry and inventive talent are well rewarded. He still has the
oversight of his shops, and is on duty early and late. He is a trustee of Monmouth College, an elder
of the First United Presbyterian Church, and a man the solidity of whose Christian character is
unquestioned.
Mr. Wier married in 1859 Miss Fidelia Boyd, of Monmouth, and they have four children liv-
ing and have buried five. The names of the surviving are Ella, Jessie O., William B. and Amy J.
H
HON. HENRY WALLER.
CHICAGO.
ENRY WALLER, the eldest son of William S. Waller, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky,
November 9, 1810. Great pains was taken with his early education, no expense being
spared to make it thorough. In his youth he was a pupil of Doctor Louis Marshall, one of the
most distinguished educators of his day, a brother of Chief-Justice John Marshall, and father of
Kentucky's distinguished scholar and orator, Hon. Thomas F. Marshall. In 1829 he received an
appointment as cadet at West Point Military Academy, that celebrated alma mater of great men,
from which, after taking the regular course of four years, he graduated in 1833. Among his
classmates at West Point, who have since become distinguished, were Major-General J. G. Bar-
nard, chief of engineers during the war; Major-General E. Schriver, late inspector general of the
United States army; Major-General George W. Cullum, chief of staff of General Halleck during
the war; Colonel W. W. S. Bliss, chief of staff of General Taylor during the Mexican war; Gen-
eral B. Alvord, late paymaster general, and General A. E. Shiras, late commissary general of the
United States army; General Francis H. Smith, superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute,
and General A. C. Myers, quartermaster general of the Confedwate army. Of this class Colonel
Thayer said that, during the thirty years he was superintendent of West Point Academy, it was
the ablest of all the classes.
Having little fancy for the profession of arms in time of peace, Mr. Waller, after being
appointed brevet second lieutenant of artillery, there being no prospect of hostilities occurring,
resigned his commission to embrace his chosen profession, the law. To the study of this labo-
rious, life-work he immediately and assiduously applied himself, commencing his studies in Frank-
fort, in the office of Hon. Charles S. Morehead, who afterward became governor of the state and
United States senator, and completing them in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
In 1835 he was admitted to the bar, and entered at once upon his professional career as a
practitioner in Maysville, Kentucky, where he rapidly rose to a leading position. He formed a
partnership with Hon. Thomas Y. Payne, one one of the brightest members of a bar widely noted
for ability. The firm stood very high, and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. In his profes-
sion, few men have a superior order of capacity to Henry Waller. He has an eminently analyti-
cal and logical mind, and the rapidity and comprehensiveness with which he grasps a case at
law, however complicated, the clearness with which he presents the true issues involved, and
from them demonstrates, with a logic compact and well-nigh irresistible, what truth and justice
demand, is indeed remarkable. He is a fluent, easy and rapid speaker, earnest, eloquent and
effective, and never, even while dealing with refined technicalities or abstruse questions of law,
tedious or monotonous. He studied his cases thoroughly, and before appearing in court was
fully conversant with all the questions of law involved. Few lawyers were more successful before
judge or jury. Some of the cases in which he has been engaged have involved questions of gen-
eral public interest, among which may be mentioned the Methodist church controversy in Ken-
tucky, resulting from the action of the general conference of 1844, and the consequent withdrawal
of the Southern church from the jurisdiction of the old Methodist Episcopal church of the United
States. It involved a large amount of church property in the state, and after passing through
1, C CWilli.m, S Br,H.f.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the lower courts, was taken to the court of appeals, the tribunal of last resort. From Mr. Waller's
elaborate argument in that case, against the claim of the church south, a few brief extracts are
taken. In opening his argument he said:
"In 1796 the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States
framed and established a 'deed of settlement,' to be used throughout the states as the form of
conveyance by which the ' preaching houses and premises ' were to be ' secured firmly and per-
manently to the Methodist Episcopal church.' In the language of Bishops Coke and Asbury, in
their authoritative commentaries upon the discipline, ' the union of the Methodist society, through
the states, required one general deed, for the settlement of our preaching houses and the premises
belonging thereto.' (' History of Discipline,' pages 234-238.) The premises were either pur-
chased by the local societies or granted to them, and the ' preaching houses ' erected by the vol-
untary contributions of the members, all upon the faith and under the conditions of this model
deed. And by its terms and under its sanctions is the property in contest in this case held.
The language of this deed is plain, precise and comprehensive; its purposes most explicitly
stated. The conveyance is made to trustees 'for the use of the members of the Methodist Epis-
copal church in the United States of America, according to the rules and discipline which from
time to time may be agreed upon and adopted by the ministers and preachers of the said church
at their general conferences in the United States of America; and in further trust and confidence
that they shall at all times, forever hereafter, permit such ministers and preachers belonging to
the said church, as shall from time to time be duly authorized by the general conferences of the
ministers and preachers of the said Methodist Episcopal church, or by the yearly conferences
authorized by the said general conference, to preach and expound God's holy word therein.'
************
The words used in the deed, 'for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal church
in the United States of America ' and the 'ministers and preachers belonging to said church,'
would seem to settle directly what were its purposes and who its beneficiaries. Every member and
minister of that church within the limits ef the United States beyond question must have a beneficial interest
in the property conveyed by the deed.
************
This view, drawn from the instrument itself, is strengthened by the declaration of the disci-
pline, already quoted, that the deed of settlement was so framed as to secure the 'preaching
houses and premises firmly and permanently to the Methodist Episcopal church.' Had each local
society been permitted to acquire property in its own name, for its special use, and in terms dic-
tated by itself, there would have been no security that the property thus held would remain per-
manently as the property of the Methodist Episcopal church, for each local society might, under
such a title, have held its place of worship whether it remained in the church or seceded from it.
Thus the strong bond created by the deed of settlement, and based upon the common property
of the church, and which for so long a time has contributed to hold together the great fabric of
American Methodism, would never have existed. The fathers of the church knew well the power
of property in binding permanently together large bodies of men, whether associated for social,
civil or religious purposes; and hence the venerable pioneers, Coke and Asbury, in expounding
the nature and purposes of the deed of settlement, declared that ' the union of the Methodist
society through the states required one general deed.'
************
The trustees, the members and the ministers, are all subject to the two controlling conditions of
the deed: they must belong to the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States of America,
and they must use the property under the rules and discipline, as from time to time agreed upon
and adopted, and the authority, as from time to time exerted, of the general conference of the
same church. The membership and the jurisdiction must be that of the Methodist Episcopal
church. These are the solemn, irrevocable conditions of the trust. These are the ramparts which
I 92 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the caution and the wisdom of the patriarchs of the church reared around the heritage of their
beloved Zion, to protect it from dissension within and invasion from without. Whether they are
impregnable, the result of this controversy will decide.
These conditions, it will be perceived, relate not simply to faith and doctrine, but to organiza-
tion, to connection, to jurisdiction. An isolated individual may have in his heart the hope, the
faith, and the peculiar doctrines of the Methodist church; but he can have no interest in the deed
unless he be actually a member. A society of Christians may hold to the same faith and forms
as the Methodist church, and indeed may assume the same name; yet unless that society is con-
nected with and under the jurisdiction of the general conference, no right can accrue to it by vir-
tue of the Methodist deed of settlement."
He then refers to a case decided by the court of appeals of Kentucky, settling the principles
he is contending for, and after quoting continues:
"Thus has the court, with all the weight of its authority, sanctioned the view I now take, and
placed the right to a beneficial interest in the property held, as in this deed of trust, upon the fact
of a subsisting connection by membership with the old church, as organized at the date of the
conveyance."
After analyzing the deed, and showing its conformity to the constitution of the church, he
continues-
"From this analysis of the deed, I am authorized to conclude that its great object was to
secure the integrity and union of the church through the strong bond of common property, and
to assure to its individual members and ministers throughout the republic the exclusive use of
that property for all time to come, under the constant and constitutional control of its great legis-
lative and judicial head, the general conference of the United States. The property itself was
vested in trustees; its uses in the members and ministers; while the mode and administration of
those uses, by force of the constitution itself and under restrictions, resided permanently in the
conference. To guard against the secession of local congregations, neither the terms nor spirit
of the deed recognized any peculiar local society as the special usufructuary of the property, but
they equally embraced all the members and ministers of the whole church in one common trust.
To specify more distinctly, and to anticipate and prevent difficulty and doubt, it requires and repeats
that the trustees, the beneficiaries and the supervisor of the trust, must all belong to the Metho-
dist Episcopal church; so that membership in that church, and subjection to the jurisdiction of its
constitutional head, are the unerring and unfailing evidences of a legal interest in the deed."
After an exhaustive examination of the action of the general conference and of its powers, he
says: "It was made the great supervising council of the church to watch over, protect and extend
its interests and its influence throughout all the wide territories of the republic. It was the
grand central luminary, radiating its beams into the farthest and darkest recesses, cheering and
strengthening with its light and warmth every conference and station, society and heart, within
the wide circle of American Methodism, attracting and holding all the vast interests and depen-
dencies of the church revolving around it in one entire and harmonious system of order, frater-
nity and union. That was its great and peculiar province, to preserve the Union of the church."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
After showing that the church south was a new church, he says: "A party belonging to a new
church, although organized as the old one was at the date of the conveyance, can have no right
to the property. And the reason is most obvious. A church as the owner of property is, in the
eye of the law, and in fact, individual ; a thing artificial, specific, and capable of being identified
from all the other churches of the earth. If it were not so, there could be no validity or force in
conveyances to churches > for there would be no assurance, in the beautiful language of Chief
Justice Marshall, 'that the chanty would flow forever in the channel which the givers had marked
out for it,' and they would no longer be made, because, as he remarks, 'one great inducement to
these gifts is the conviction felt by the giver, that the disposition he makes of them is immuta-
ble.' They cannot be immutable, unless the objects of them are capable of being defined and
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 193
identified throughout all time. No substitution will answer; it must he 'the old church as
organized at the date of the conveyance, and still subsisting.' It is with churches as it is with
men. He to whom property is conveyed is the sole owner, and no similarity or correspondence
of lineage, mind, form or feature, in the person of another, can affect his title. The conveyance
assures it to the one identified individual. So with the church."
Again, "Thus the church, its government and its jurisdiction, are coexistent, coequal and
identical. Without the jurisdiction, there is no government ; without the government, there is
no Methodist Episcopal church. The terms are dependent and reciprocal ; the one implies the
other. Anything, therefore, without the jurisdiction, does not belong to the government, and is
not within the church. So it is in our civil government. Congress is the legislative head of the
federal government ; Kentucky is a part of the Union, and therefore within the jurisdiction of
congress. Then the Union, the government represented by congress, and its jurisdiction, are
coexistent. But can Kentucky withdraw herself from that jurisdiction, and continue to be a part
of that Union? The act of withdrawal would be secession, and secession is disunion. Kentucky
would thereby erect herself into an independent state, and would cease forever to be within that
glorious circle of freedom. So it is with- the annual conferences of the slaveholding states ; they
seceded, and by the resolutions of the Louisville convention declared their independence, dis-
solved entirely their connection with the Methodist Episcopal church, erected themselves into a
distinct organization and styled the new creation the Methodist Episcopal Church South. What
was this but a new church?"
************
" Yet the old church, the church of Coke and of Asbury, the Missionary church, in all the
purity and strength of its original integrity, with all its sweet and glorious memories clustering
close and thick around it, still survived. Who is there so bold as to say, that the old church, des-
ignated in the deed, does not exist? How has it been destroyed? Did the secession of the Primi-
tive, the Protestant, the African, or the Scottite, or the Southern Methodists destroy it? As well
might you say that the excision of a single branch destroys the tree. So long as the root and
the trunk remain, and the circulating juices flow in their original organization, so long as the tree
is identical and lives, you may cut off any of its branches, however sound, you may plant and
grow those branches into trees; yet the parent tree retains its life and its individuality.
A moral earthquake, it is said, has sundered the southern conferences from the Methodist
Episcopal church. Suppose a natural earthquake had engulfed the whole territory and popula-
tion of the southern states; will it be seriously contended that the Methodist Episcopal church
would thereby have been destroyed ? Suppose a malignant pestilence had swept from the earth
every member of the southern conferences, would the church have perished ? Would it have lost
a single element of its life or identity? The proposition is preposterous, and yet no stretch of
ingenuity can discriminate in principle, between the actual effects produced by the natural and
the moral calamity upon the existence of the church.
************
How shall I speak of the last refuge of the defense, the plea of necessity? I cannot argue it
as a legal proposition, for it is the doctrine of revolution and violence. Necessity it is said, knows
no law; for when the strong hand prevails, the barriers of the law are broken and fall before it; and
deeds and constitutions are but idle words. But I will nevertheless look into the fact, and ask
what was the necessity ?
A church, planted in the wilderness, twined itself as a vine around the sturdy trunk of repub-
lican institutions. The same heaven that smiled upon the vigorous development of the one, shed
the refreshing dews of its grace upon the other. And the storm which burst in portentous power,
and well nigh bowed to the earth the young tree of liberty, spent its rude breath upon the vine,
but served only to invigorate them both; and the tendrils were twined still more firmly around
the trunk. And when the storm had passed by, the tree and vine grew in the genial light of a-
glorious liberty, and spreading out their generous branches together, mingled their foliage and
194 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
their shadows over a virgin land. Blessed emblem of affinity, brotherhood and peace ! That
church, in its infancy so beautifully adapted to our political state, so free and unencumbered by
any law of establishment, yielding only to the impulses and the law of love, expanded with the
expanding territories of the republic. Held together by a great federative head, its grand system
of ministerial and missionary circulation carried its faith and the simple forms of its worship into
every hamlet upon the plain, into every hovel upon the mountains. Allied by no law, yet assim-
ilating in form to the civil government, it became a grand confederacy; and like the republic in
which it so flourished, the source of its power, its glory and its strength, was its union. Our polit-
ical union, thank heaven, still endures; and our republic, though threatened by many dangers,
still lives. Admidst all the selfish strife of politicians, and the jar of conflicting interests, personal,
political, social and sectional; amidst all the violence of partisan warfare, and the bitterness of
political rivalry; no necessity has yet demanded its dissolution. It has covered our country with
benefits and blessings, and every patriot heart prays for its perpetuity. The peculiar institution
of the South, although guarded by the guarantees of the federal constitution, has yet been the
subject of free discussion, throughout the states, in assemblages of the people, and in the congress
of the United States. It still agitates the nation, and has arranged our politicians into sectional
lines; and yet there is no necessity for a _dissolution of the union. Not so it seems, however,
with the church. Southern members and ministers have become upon this subject so sensitive, so
excited and so hostile, that although brothers in the bonds of an immortal love, and pledged in
the tenderest and closest covenants of fellowship, they can no longer meet around the same altar,
and worship within the same walls the God of peace. And now, the most startling augury of the
times is the fearful fact that the church of God, whose sign and system was union, is suddenly
severed into fragments by a 'moral convulsion.' And when the inquiry is made as to the cause of
such a calamity, we are pointed to a social and political institution which was a subject of dis-
cussion in the first conference ever convened in the United States, and which has assumed no new
form, but which is the same in its influences, and in its relations to the church and the state.
From this, it is said, springs the uncontrollable necessity. Now, can this thing be ? Was there in
reality the necessity pretended ? If there is no necessity in the state, arising from the institution
of slavery, how could there be in the church ? If no such necessity in other Christian churches,
why in the Methodist church? That church had discountenanced slavery in former years more
than any other church, and its action in 1844 was far more moderate and conciliatory than it had
been in times past. Where then was the necessity? If citizens of the republic, who are not mem-
bers of the church, but some some of whom are abolitionists and some slave-holders, the repre-
sentatives of extreme opinions, can yet dwell together in harmony as a united people; how comes
it that professing Christians, men of charity, peace and love, men whose church has always in the
very language of its discipline, taught and enjoined them to discountenance slavery in every
legitimate manner, can become so heated and hostile, as to demand a dissolution of their once
happy, peaceful and glorious church ? Be assured this spirit came not from heaven; it was born
of earth, and reeks with the carnal appetites and passions of men. Ambition reared her Gorgon
head in the church, and turned the hearts of its ministers to stone. Aspiring preachers of the
South could not hold slaves and become bishops; they stumbled over that stumbling stone; and
to achieve the object of their aspirations, they rent the church, in the language of their eloquent
leader, ' by the throes of an earthquake.'
My client, and the humble members whose rights he asserts, have been drawn into this con-
troversy most unwillingly. They have prosecuted it with no unbecoming spirit of litigation.
Standing upon the line of strife traced in the resolutions of the general conference, they felt their
position to be perilous; they knew their responsibilities to be heavy. They would have been
recreant to every conviction of duty had they faltered before the storm of denunciation, or fled
before the terrors of persecution. They loved the old Methodist church, the church of their early
adoption, and clung to it, as the true church, with steadfast and enduring devotion. To with-
draw from its guardianship, and desert its fellowship, was repulsive to every sentiment of their
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
195
hearts. The traveler, who has traversed the oceans and wandered over the far regions of the
earth, when he wearies of his wanderings, turns a wistful eye to the land of his birth; and when
gray hairs come upon him, and the tide of life begins to ebb, longs to revisit the sweet home of
his youth, and to breathe out his last sigh upon the very spot where the first breath of his infancy
was drawn. The members of the old church are moved by the same touching sentiment of rev-
erence and love. Within that church their spiritual lives may be said to have commenced. They
have journeyed on through life, and in the midst of its conflicts and its calamities have drawn
from the bosom of that church the consolations of an immortal hope. In their age, as time
presses his heavy hand upon them, they cling more closely around it, and feel more powerfully
the last strong instinct of the heart, to seek its last repose within the home of its spiritual nativ-
ity. To part with it now in life is impossible. To adhere to it, in the midst of danger, and dis-
cord, and disaster, was an irresistible impulse; to defend it and its rights, a sacred duty."
In 1845-6-7 Mr. Waller was a member of the Kentucky legislature, having been elected by
the old whig party, and was a personal friend of Henry Clay and John J. Crittenden. His ability
and eloquence as a speaker, as well as his high character as a man, gave him an enviable position
in his party, and a bright political future seemed to await him. But this brief service in the
legislature gave him a great distaste for politics. His religious training and extreme conscien-
tiousness unsuited him for partisan strife and political intrigue. He, therefore, when his second
term of office expired, refused a reelection, and would never afterward allow his name to be used
in connection with any political office. He was active and prominent in various public enter-
prises, and from 1851 to 1854 he was president of the Maysville and Lexington railroad, now
connected with the Kentucky Central railroad, which is an important branch of the New Orleans,
Texas and Pacific railroad.
In 1853, being attracted by the rapid development of the Northwest, and the prospect of its
commercial metropolis becoming a great city, he visited Chicago and made some investments in
real estate. His title to one piece he had purchased becoming involved in litigation through the
loss of a deed, and the forgery of another, and being thereby compelled to spend much of his
time here, he entered in 1855 upon the practice of his profession in this city, and established the
firm of Waller, Caulfield and Bradley. By the retirement of Mr. Bradley, it became Waller and
Caulfield, which continued until 1863.
In October, 1860, Mr. Waller, still retaining property in Kentucky, and not yet having moved
his family to Chicago, foresaw the approaching strife between the North and South, and being
unwilling to own property on both sides of the Ohio river, sold his Kentucky property, and
located permanently in Chicago with his family.
In 1864 the firm of Waller, Stearns and Copeland was formed, Mr. Copeland shortly retired,
and Waller and Stearns remained together until 1867, when the tragic death of Mr. Stearns left
Mr. Waller to continue the practice alone.
In 1869, being in delicate health, and believing he had accumulated an ample support, he
retired from the practice of his profession to recover his health, and to spend, as he hoped, his
remaining years in the enjoyment of a well earned repose. The great financial crisis of 1873,
however, brought to him severe losses, which necessitated the resumption of labor. Not wishing,
at his advanced age, to undertake again to build up a practice, he accepted, in July, 1876, an
appointment as master in chancery of the circuit court of Cook county, an office which he con-
tinues to hold. His reports as master in chancery have been marked by great ability, and show
him to be possessed of a judicial mind of unusually high order. His reports in such cases as
Ligare vs. Peacock, Jenkins rs. Greenebaum ct a/., and Mills, for the Town of Lake, vs. Condit,
being rarely equaled in the records of courts. Among the few men who, having passed the age
of three score years and ten, continue to perform daily an undiminished amount of severe intel-
lectual labor, he stands conspicuous.
In person, Mr. Waller is under medium size, erect in figure, wiry and active. His step, at his
advanced age, is rapid and elastic. He has a kindly expression, a mild blue eye, a warm, cordial
196 'UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
greeting. He is a cultivated gentleman of the old school, courteous, modest, unpretentious and
unassuming. He has a deeply religious nature, inherited from both his parents, a number of his
paternal and maternal relatives having been ministers of the gospel. His mother, whose maiden
name was Breckenridge, was a cousin of Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, D.D., Rev. John Breck-
enridge, D.D., and Rev. William L. Breckenridge, D.D., distinguished Presbyterian divines.
She was a thoroughly devout and' conscientious woman, and was conspicuous for her firm will,
tender affection, and steadfast devotion to what she believed to be right. Mr. Waller has for
forty-eight years been a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, holding his membership
now in the third church of this city. He has been an extensive reader, and largely upon religious
subjects. The researches of the scientist, and the reasoning of the rationalist, have been unavail-
ing to shake his deep-rooted faith in the inspiration of the divine word.
May 3, 1837, Mr. Waller married Miss Sarah B. Langhorne, of Maysville, Kentucky, a de-
scendant of the old Virginia family of that name. Ten children, six sons and four daughters,
were the fruit of that union. The oldest, William S. Waller, died at the Grand Pacific Hotel,
September i, 1874, at the age of thirty-six years; the second, Rev. Maurice Waller, is a Presbyte-
rian minister, in charge of a church at Manchester, Ohio; Henry Waller, Jr., and Edward C.
Waller, are prominent real estate men in this city; Doctor John D. Waller, the fifth son, is a phy-
sician, assistant surgeon of the Central Hospital for the Insane, Jacksonville, Illinois. The young-
est son, James B. Waller, is connected with a manufacturing establishment in Chicago.
THOMAS WILLITS, M.D.
NE W BOSTON.
ONE of the venerable landmarks of Mercer county is the gentleman whose name we have
placed at the head of this sketch, and who has been a resident of western Illinois since
1837. He was born near Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio, December 6, 1805, being a son of
James and Amy (Allison) Willits, members of the farming community. Both parents were natives
of Pennsylvania. His father was in the second war with the mother country.
Thomas had such mental training in youth as the common schools of the day could furnish;
studied medicine at Cincinnati, and at twenty years of age commenced practice at Montezuma,
Park county, Indiana, where he remained three or four years. He was afterward in partnership
with Doctor Pennington, at Milton, Wayne county, same state, where he resided until 1837, when
he came into western Illinois, and located at first in that part of Warren county which is now
Henderson county its extreme northern border. In 1840 he settled permanently at New Bos-
ton. During the first ten years of Doctor Willits' residence in this part of the county he had
many very hard rides, often extending thirty and sometimes forty miles from home. Many a time
it took him two days to visit a single patient. There are still a few old families, whose physician
he has been for forty years or more, who will call no other doctor, but he rarely goes far from
home, except in cases of consultation.
The doctor is well preserved, clear-headed, and very active for a man who is so near his four-
score years. He is very cordial in his disposition, communicative, and an interesting talker, abound -
ing in reminiscences of the olden times. He has taken considerable interest in the cause of edu-
cation, and was for many years a school director. He was chosen a member of the legislature in
1850, and voted for the chartering of the Illinois Central railroad. During the term which he
served he attended a regular and an extra session. He has always voted the democratic ticket.
The historians of Mercer county state that he voted for John Quincy Adams when that statesman
was elected, but that was in 1824, when our subject was only nineteen years old.
While in practice at Montezuma, about 1828, Doctor Willits was married to Mrs. Catherine
Dieby, a native of Circleville, Ohio, and she died in November, 1879. She was the mother of five
children, one of them dying in infancy, and another (Viola) dying soon after she had married
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
R. S. Scudder. Leroy, the only son, is a farmer near New Boston; Celeste is the wife of William
Anderson, of Chicago, and Kate is the widow of the late Thomas McCurdy, her home also being
in Chicago.
A resident of New Boston for nearly forty-three years, Doctor Willits is known all over Mer-
cer county and a considerable part of Henderson, and is very much respected, not only for his
age and medical skill, but for the upright tenor of his life and his good neighborly qualities.
WILLIAM LONGHURST.
CHICAGO.
WILLIAM LONGHURST, architect, was born at Warehorne, county of Kent, England,
January 26, 1822, his father being William Longhurst, Sr., a gardener, and brother of John
Longhurst, who, fifty years ago, was a'prominent organist in London. The mother of our subject
was Susanna (Copins) Longhurst. The family emigrated to this country in 1828, halting at first
at Lyons, New York, and two or three years later settling in Geneva, where William was edu-
cated in the public schools. Afterward he spent five years at Tonawanda, New York, in the
employ of -Stephen White, president of the East Boston Timber Company, at the end of which
'period he went to Wisconsin, made a purchase of land, and then returned to Geneva, and learned
the trade of carpenter and studied architecture with C. N. Otis, who, later in life, became a prom-
inent architect in Buffalo, New York. To that city Mr. Longhurst repaired when he had learned
his trade, and there lived nine years, going into business for himself, putting up numerous fine
residences, two bank buildings, etc.
In 1856 Mr. Longhurst removed to Dubuque, Iowa, where he was architect and builder, put-
ting up two public school-houses, a large hotel, and several blocks of mercantile houses. He
settled in Chicago in 1865, and since thai; date has devoted himself exclusively to architecture,
and has done a good business, erecting a large number of costly dwelling houses, stately brick
and marble blocks, etc. Mr. Longhurst has made his profession his exclusive and careful study,
and his standing in it has long been highly creditable. The writer of this sketch has known him
for more than a quarter of a century, and can vouch for his reliability, his faithfulness, and his
skill in everything he undertakes to do.
Mr. Longhurst married, in 1845, Miss Marcia Cleveland, who died in 1871, leaving three chil-
dren: Frederick E., the eldest, agent for the Pacific Railroad Express and Black Hills Stage
Company, at Cheyenne; Jennie C., married to Charles Lines, Chicago; and Stella, who is with
her father. The oldest child of all, Willie, a bright youth, was drowned in the Mississippi river,
while bathing, in 1860. His loss was a sad blow to his parents.
WILLIAM GAYLE.
KEITHSBURGH.
THE subject of this biographical notice has been a resident of Keithsburgh since 1845, and is
one of its foremost business men. He dates his birth at Frankfort, Kentucky, August 19,
1819, his parents being George and Sophronia (Bohannon) Gayle, both natives of Virginia. Sev-
eral members of the Gayle family were in the bloody struggle for independence. George Gayle
was an educator, and had the mental disciplining of his son until the latter was sixteen years old,
the list of text books including the Latin and French languages. At the age just mentioned,
William went into a store at Louisville, Kentucky, and since that period he has found that life is
real, real as it regards an opportunity to work.
In 1845 he came to Keithshurgh, formed a partnership with James A. Noble, and for five
years the firm of Noble and Gayle was engaged in merchandising, pork packing, shipping, etc.
rxiTKD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
From 1850 to 1857 Mr. Gayle was alone in business, and did well till the early autumn of the lat-
ter year, when the great financial water-spout struck him, and with ten thousand other merchants,
he went under. Subsequently he held clerkships in Saint Louis and Keithsburgh, and in 1871
resumed business in the latter place, where fortune once more smiled upon him. He is furnishing
coal to steamboats, and dealing in grain, flour, lime, hair and cement, and is doing a business of
$150,000 to $200,000 a year.
Mr. Gayle is a hard-working, energetic man, and is being handsomely rewarded for the phys-
ical strength and time he is devoting to his calling. He is a man of thorough uprightness of
character, of true business principles, a member of the Methodist church since 1871, and president
of its board of trustees. He is a democrat in politics, a Knight Templar in the Masonic order,
an Odd-Fellow, and has held a few offices in the subordinate lodge and chapter in Masonry, but
none in politics.
Mr. Gayle was married at Keithsburgh, in 1851, to Miss Margaret A. Ungles, a native of
Indianapolis, Indiana, and they have had ten children, burying six of them, three sons and three
daughters. The surviving are Jane, widow of George K. Beard ; Mary, wife of Boyd Epperly,
dentist, Keithsburgh, and Katie U. and Susie M., who are at home, pursuing their studies.
PROFESSOR ALLEN A. GRIFFITH, A.M.
CHICAGO.
A^LEN AYRAULT GRIFFITH, one of the most eminent elocutionists in the United States,
is a son of Luther Newcomb Griffith, and Emily (Ayrault) Griffith, and commenced making
faces in broad daylight, June 13, 1831, at Pike, Wyoming county, New York. In his infancy the
family immigrated as far west as Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, where he lived until sixteen years
of age, finishing his school education at Mill's Academy in that town. In his youth he gave no
promise of long life, being quite weak and sickly until he had reached the middle of his teens.
His lungs were supposed to be affected, and his speedy death was predicted. Yet, strange to say,
for the last quarter of a century or more, he has built up his reputation largely in lung power, his
vocal organs being, so to speak, the capital with which he has made his success in life.
The pivotal point in his career was reached in 1847, when Professor Kennedy, a brilliant Irish
elocutionist, visited Elyria and gave the students in Mill's lessons in breathing and utterance of
the vowels, with inflections and circumflex, and readings. Our subject now found that he had
more and sounder lungs than his friends had credited him with. In addition to class exercises
in elocution, he took private lessons of Professor Kennedy, and the inspiring words which that
eminent elocutionist gave him, as it regarded the improvement of his health, the compass of his
voice, etc., greatly encouraged him. Not long afterward he visited James E. Murdoch, and
received from him valuable suggestions in reference to a course of study and practice, which Mr.
Griffith carried out with the utmost care and faithfulness.
At twenty years of age he found that he must rely upon himself for a fortune, if he ever pos-
sessed one, and he pushed on farther westward, believing that in this direction were the broadest
and most promising openings. He went to Wisconsin, and was the principal of union schools at
Milwaukee and Waukesha for a period of six years, studying law at the same time, ^ind being
admitted to the bar at Milwaukee in 1855. During this period Mr. Griffith had kept up his elo-
cutionary readings and studies, for which he had a passion, and occasionally appearing in public.
His performances attracted a good deal of attention.
In 1857, by invitation of teachers' associations in Wisconsin and Iowa, he visited institutes in
these states, and presented his methods of teaching elocution. It was on one of these occasions
that the writer of this sketch first met Professor Griffith, and became charmed with his well
trained voice, and splendid oratorical powers. His public recitations were everywhere received
with hearty appreciation and warm applause. In 1858, by invitation, he joined the distinguished
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES ntOGKATIl ICAI. DICTIONARY. 2O 1
teacher of elocution, C. P. Bronson, in a series of entertainments, and our subject was now fairly
before the public as a reader, and took his position in the front rank as an elocutionist and
lecturer.
In 1869, at the suggestion of Principal Mayhew, of the Michigan State Normal School, at
Ypsilanti, our subject was appointed to the chair of English literature and elocution in that insti-
tution, and held that position for three years. When principal, Mayhew resigned to become the
chemist of the silver smelting works at Wyandott, Michigan. Professor Griffith accepted a con-
fidential clerkship under the late E. B. Ward, of Detroit, and in that situation made a great
amount of money for his employer and himself, developing rare executive abilities, as well as the
power to combine men in large union operations.
For three years he was president of the Northern Illinois College, at Fulton City, and brought
that school up to a highly respectable grade among the literary institutions of the state.
At its commencement in 1866 the University of Chicago conferred upon Professor Griffith the
honorary degree of master of arts, for his services to the cause of learning, and in 1880 he again
became a member of its faculty, and is filling the chair of elocution and oratory with distin-
guished ability. He is a very devoted student in his line of studies. The great benefit which he
himself has received from the practice of elocution makes him enthusiastic as a teacher, and he
has the happy gift of infusing his own spirit into that of his pupils, hence their progress under
his training is truly remarkable. Scores of testimonials like the following could be furnished,
touching his success as a teacher, but these may suffice:
GEORGETOWN COLLEGE, D. C., May 9, 1867.
ALLEN A. GRIFFITH, A.M., Professor of Elocution:
DEAR SIR, The admirable manner in which you have explained your principles and practice of elocution merits our
congratulations. All agree that your lessons were a decided success. Having been present myself at all the lectures
before the students, and also participated in the special practice before the fathers and scholastics, I most heartily con-
cur in all their commendations. I must add, too, that the proficiency of the students has exceeded my expectations.
I hope that your success will be as great elsewhere as it has been here. It is a pleasure, as I deem it a duty, to recom-
mend you warmly to all who wish to obtain the elegant and necessary, but too often neglected, accomplishment.
Trusting that we shall meet again, I remain, very respectfully yours, JAMES A. WARD,
Prefect of Schools and Professor of Rhetoric.
" Professor Griffith is engaged in giving drill exercises to about two hundred of the college and
preparatory students. As an instructor, he obeys the divine injunction, to do with all his might
whatever his hands find to do, and he is producing a revolution in the opinion among educated
men in this country in regard to .this object. Professor Griffith assumes that all may improve in
manner of delivery of speech, by practice, as they may improve in rhetoric, mathematics and lan-
guages, and no student ought to be satisfied with present attainment in elocution and oratory
any more than they are contented with their present knowledge in any other department of edu-
cation. All the students taking lessons of him are encouraged, and we say, unhesitatingly, that
so far as our experience extends, the professor is at the head of his profession. The universal
opinion of college men who know, him has accorded him the place as an instructor and lecturer
upon elocution and oratory which Guyot and Agassiz occupy in geography and history and the
natural sciences." Oberlin News, August, i86j.
One of the great gifts of Professor Griffith is the number of facial expressions which he is
capable of giving, at least eighteen or twenty in all, which are very striking. He can look like
the judge, the lover, the meddler, the tippler, the scientist, the drunkard, the booby, etc.; like the
German, the Frenchman, the Irishman, and other nationalities, and in short can make up a face
strikingly resembling almost every conceivable character. His remarkable mobility of features
enables him to display a gallery of portraits truly marvelous, showing what cultivation of expres-
sion can do to the human face divine.
Some journalists have given it as their opinion that in facial expressions Professor Griffith
outdoes the comic actor Garrick. Certainly he is a skillful artist in that line. Faces are a good
subject for study, for they are neither more nor less than the title page of the thoughts within. Pro-
2O2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
fessor Griffith has a dignified and commanding appearance; is perfectly self-possessed, and easy
and graceful in his manners, and these qualities, coupled with a full, round voice of wonderful
flexibility, entitle him to the appellation of the model elocutionist.
Some of the best readers and lecturers in the country owe their success in no stinted measure
to the training of our subject, notably Professor Burbank, Hon. George R. Wendling and Miss
Frances A. Willard. The oratorical exercises at the anniversaries of the University of Chicago
show what thorough drill can do for a graduating class.
Professor Griffith is the author or compiler of several works, which have had a cordial wel-
come at the hands of the press and the public. One of his latest is entitled, " Class Book of
Oratory and Elocution," which is divided into three parts, drill exercises, selections and an appen-
dix, and is an admirable work of the kind. "Lessons in Elocution," an earlier work of his, was
highly commended by the teachers in normal schools, colleges, etc., and had, as it deserved to
have, a large sale.
Professor Griffith is a man of positive views on almost every subject. In politics he is an out
and out republican, and took the stump for Lincoln, Grant, Hayes and Garfield. He was an
intimate friend of General Garfield, and years ago attended teachers' institutes with him in
northern Ohio. In political campaigns they sometimes met and spoke from the same rostrum.
Professor Griffith was married at Milwaukee in 1854 to Miss Jane Amelia Stoddard, and they
have three children, Allen A., Jr., Jennie Estella and Arthur Colburn, all students in the uni-
versity, and making rapid progress in their studies.
Their father takes a deep interest in the college and in his associates in the faculty, as well as
in the mental discipline of his own children, and he has recently made a large amount of money
by organizing electric light companies.
ADAMS A. GOODRICH.
JERSEYVILLE.
A JAMS AUGUSTUS GOODRICH, lawyer and state's attorney for the county ot Jersey, is a
son of Henry O. and Jane A. (Knapp) Goodrich, and belongs to an old professional family
which settled originally in Connecticut, and of which S. G. Goodrich, better known as Peter Par-
ley, is a member. It has long been -a prominent family in New England, and in some of the
middle states. Clark H. Goodrich, the grandfather of Adams, was an attorney-at-law in New
York; came to this state in 1839, and settled in Jersey county, dying at Jerseyville in 1868. Henry
O. Goodrich was in the milling business in Jersey county for many years, and is still living. We
learn from the atlas of Jersey county, published in 1872, that he was sutler of the 6ist regiment of
Illinois infantry in 1862 and 1865; that he was twice elected mayor of Jerseyville, and was one of
its first trustees when the city was incorporated; that he was one of the foremost men in organ-
izing the Jersey county Agricultural Society, and was its president in 1871 and 1872; and that by
his liberality and integrity in his dealings he won the approbation of his fellow citizens of the
county.
His wife is a sister of the late Hon. A. L. Knapp, of Springfield, and Hon. Robert M. Knapp,
of Jerseyville, both in their day members of congress, and prominent lawyers. The Knapps were
early settlers in Connecticut.
Our subject was born in Jerseyville, January 8, 1849; was educated in the graded schools of
his native place, and at the military academy at West Point, which he was obliged to leave in the
fourth year on account of impaired health. He spent nearly two years in Colorado and Califor-
nia, and returned with his health completely restored; read law at Jerseyville and Springfield with
his maternal uncles already mentioned; was admitted to the bar, January, 1873, and has practiced
in Jerseyville since that date. He has a good reputation as a lawyer, and manages his case with
a great deal of care and with decided ability. This is true of criminal as well as civil causes. He
is studious as well as painstaking, and is a young man of much promise.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
203
Mr. Goodrich held the office of city attorney three terms, and was elected state's attorney in
1878, an office which he still holds, and the duties of which he is discharging with great satisfac-
tion to the public. Mr. Goodrich is a democrat in politics, a Blue Lodge Mason, an Odd-Fellow,
and a Knight of Pythias, and has been through the last two orders, holding all the offices in the
local lodges.
When Mr. Goodrich left West Point, in 1867, he was a weak, consumptive-looking young man,
with a poor prospect seemingly of ever being a member of the bar of Jersey county. He is now
a fine sample of robustness; and although only five feet and seven inches tall, is compactly built,
and weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He bids fair to live many years, and to rise to
distinction in his profession. He has the best of Puritan blood in his veins, on both sides, but it
is safe to say that he depends upon no family tree for his own elevation. He will rise, if at all,
through his own inherent energies and fine talents and attainments.
E
EDWARD G. MINER.
WINCHESTER.
DWARD GRIFFITH MINER, banker, and an early settler in Winchester, is a son of
William and Prudence (Potter) Miner, and was born in Bridport, Vermont, January 21,
1809. His grandfather, Clement Miner, was commissioned a second lieutenant in the continental
army July 3, 1776, the day before independence was declared by the colonies. Our subject has
the original commission issued to Clement Miner, and signed by Governor Trumbull. Prudence
Potter was a native of Connecticut.
The father of Edward was a sailor in his younger years, sailing to the West Indies, and after-
ward became a farmer, and died at Bridport when our subject was about four years old. Edward
was the youngest of six children, and was early thrown upon his own resources for support. When
only thirteen years of age he went to Middlebury, in his native state, and worked a few months
at the blacksmith trade, John Deere, now of Moline, working at the same time in another black-
smith shop in the same place. Young Miner was not large enough and strong enough to be of
much service at a trade requiring a good development of muscle, and he left Middlebury. At
sixteen years of age he went into a woolen factory at Milton, Vermont, and learned the trade of
wool carding and cloth dressing, following it for four years.
Up to this time he had had only a little schooling, and feeling his deficiency in education, and
having a little money, he attended an academy at Jericho, and subsequently taught school two
winters, and acted as salesman in a dry goods store in the summer. In the autumn of 1832, Mr.
Miner had the offer of a free conveyance to Illinois, if he would drive one of the two teams which
the man wished to bring with him. He accepted the offer, and they were a little over six weeks
in reaching Greene county, which now joins Scott county on the south. At Winchester he had
the offer of a clerkship in a store, which he accepted, and which lasted only one year. In 1834
Mr. Miner commenced mercantile business for himself, and in the same year was married to Miss
Sophronia Alden, of Ashfield, Massachusetts. She is a daughter of the late Rev. John Alden, a
Baptist minister, and is a lineal descendant of John Alden, of the Mayflower.
About 1847 Mr. Miner bought a farm adjoining the corporation of Winchester, and farmed
until 1857, when he started a small bank. Banking is still his business, he being of the firm
of Miner, Frost and Hubbard, the only bankers in Winchester, which is the shire town of Scott
county.
Mr. Miner seems to have aimed to live a very quiet, unobtrusive life, and never but once was
persuaded to accept a civil or political office. Not long before the demise of the whig party, he
accepted a nomination for the legislature, by that party, and was elected. A single term of pub-
lic life satisfied his ambition in that direction. In 1857 he was appointed by Governor Bissell
trustee of the Illinois Insane Asylum, at Jacksonville, an office which he held for a period of
2Q4 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
twelve years, through the administrations of Governors Bissell, Yates and Oglesby. During the
last four years he was president of the board of trustees, and in that capacity rendered to the
state, without compensation, other than traveling expenses, most important and valuable service.
It was in Winchester, by the way, that Abraham Lincoln made his first out-and-out free-soil
speech, announcing doctrines which were woven into the first platform of the republican party.
It was also in Winchester that Stephen A. Douglas taught his first school in this state, a tuition
school, which Mr. Miner aided him in getting up. They did not agree in politics, but they were
Vermonters, and sufficiently warm personal friends to sleep together during the winter that
Douglas taught. Mr. Miner is a member of the Baptist Church, and served for years as one of its
deacons. It is safe to say that no man in Winchester pays more liberally, or more cheerfully,
toward the support of the gospel.
HENRY CRADLE, M.D.
CHICAGO.
HENRY Gradle, professor of physiology in the Chicago Medical College, is a native of Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, and was born August 17, 1855. His parents are Bernhard Gradle and
Rosa (Schottenfels) Gradle, who left the old country in 1864, and came to Chicago, where Henry
received a good English and classical education in a private school. Here he also studied medi-
, cine, for which he early had a fondness, and was graduated at the Chicago Medical College in
1874. Intending to take the eye and ear for his specialty in medical and surgical science, he went
to Europe and spent three years in study at Vienna, Heidelberg, Leipsic, and Paris, returning to
Chicago in 1877. He met with good success in his profession, and has occupied the chair of
physiology, already mentioned, since 1879.
Doctor J. S Jewell: " As a scholar Doctor Gradle stands well, especially in medicine, as well
as the collateral sciences. He is especially learned in biology. His information is extensive and
accurate. In disposition he is cautious and critical, and possesses the scientific spirit above the
average of scientific men. He has especial taste and aptitude in the department of experimental
physiology. As a lecturer he is clear, consecutive and interesting, and bids fair to arrive at a
comparatively early period in life at unusual eminence in his profession.
Doctor Gradle has written a few articles for the "American Journal of Medical Science," and
still more for the "American Journal of Nervous Diseases," and has contributed a few articles to
other periodicals.
Doctor Gradle married August, 1881, Miss Fanny Searls, of Waukegan, Illinois.
AUGUSTUS REISE.
ATLANTA.
AJGUSTUS REISE, one of the thrifty farmers of Logan county, was born in Saxe- Weimar,
Germany, November 25, 1821, being a son of Augustus Reise, Sr., who in the old country
was a farmer and grain dealer. Augustus attended school from six to fourteen years of age, then
learned the brewing business, but never followed it. In 1844 the family came to the United
States, and went to Saint Louis, Missouri. Our subject was the oldest child, and the family have
been unfortunate, each member having to look out for himself. Augustus went into the country
eight miles from Saint Louis, and chopped wood at fifty cents a cord. Soon afterward he went
to Belleville, Illinois, and worked in a distillery, commencing at $12 per month, and soon having
his wages nearly doubled. Being desirous of acquiring a good knowledge of the English lan-
guage; and having no such an opportunity at Belleville, at the end of two years Mr. Reise went
to Peoria, where he worked in a distillery for five years, commencing on a salary of $37 a month,
and ending with $100.
UNITED STATES BIOGRA r II 1C A I. DICTIONARY.
2O5
At the end of that period he came to Logan county, and bought a small distillery; accumu-
lated a little money, purchased a farm in 1853, began to stodc it, and in 1857 went into farming
himself east of Atlanta, and was quite successful. In 1867 Mr Reise sold his farm of 200 acres
east of Atlanta for $14,000, and purchased one of 300 acres, adjoining Atlanta on the west, for
$15,000. He has since put at least $10,000 on it in improvements, having five or six miles of tile;
a live fence on the outside of it. a good orchard, and everything around his premises in the finest
order. He raises and feeds from sixty to 100 head of cattle annually, and about the same number
of swine, and is known far and wide as an enterprising farmer.
Mr. Reise was in the village council in 1859, a school director for some years, and a member of
the Twenty-seventh General Assembly one term, being elected in 1870. He is a democrat, and
had a majority of more than two hundred votes in a strong republican county. He has declined
various offices which have been offered him. The family are Lutherans, but there is no church of
that name at Atlanta.
In 1847 Mr. Reise and Miss Elizabeth German, a native of Germany, were joined in wedlock,
and she died August 29, 1881, leaving four children, three daughters and one son; one child had
previously died. Two of the children are married. The son, Augustus J. Reise, is a prosperous
farmer in Spink county, Dakota Territory.
BENJAMIN R. BURROUGHS.
ED WARDSVILLE.
BENJAMIN RUDOLPH BURROUGHS, a prominent member of the Madison county bar,
was born in Charles county, Maryland, May 20, 1849. Both parents, John A. Burroughs,
and Eliza T. (Dent) Burroughs, were descended from two old Maryland families. The paternal and
maternal grandfathers of Benjamin messed together in the revolutionary war. A British officer
undertook at one time to bribe Captain Dent, but made a failure. The captain lived to be ninety-
eight years old, and grandfather Burroughs to be ninety-two years. The father of Benjamin died
in 1872, his mother in 1881.
Our subject received a classical education at Charlotte Hall, Saint Mary's county, Maryland, a
state institution, which bestowed upon him the degrees of bachelor of arts, and master of arts.
He came to Edwardsville, Illinois, in August, 1867, having an uncle and older brother living
near that place; and he taught a country school two winters in Madison county, Illinois. At that
period of his life Mr. Burroughs had the legal profession in view, but deemed it best to make some
money before he commenced his studies, so he dealt in hardware and agricultural implements, a
few years, making a splendid success in that line of business, and accumulating a handsome
property.
He read law with Irwin and Krome, of Edwardsville; finished his studies at the Union
College of Law, Chicago, being graduated in June, 1876, and immediately opened an office at Ed-
wardsville. He has many friends in the-county, and stepped at once into a good practice. It is
doubtful if there is a lawyer in Madison county who has not been in law practice more than six or
seven years, whose business is superior to that of Mr. Burroughs. He handles many important
cases, and has j mind sufficiently capacious to manage with ability and adroitness any case which
he touches. -He is a forcible and persuasive speaker, and makes an excellent jury lawyer. His
preparations are always well made, and he never subjects himself to the mortification of a blunder.
He is a man of unblemished character, living strictly up to the standard of professional ethics,
and his future seems to be full of promise. If he lives, his friends will be disappointed if he does
not distinguish himself among the legal fraternity.
Mr. Burroughs held the office of city attorney in 1877 and 1879, and is now a member of the
local school board, the only offices, we believe, that he has held. He seems to care very little
about honors in that direction. Evidently his ambition is to excel in his profession, and if he has
his health he will not be likely to make a failure.
2O6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
His politics are democratic, and he was, not long ago, chairman of the executive committee of
the county; yet he is by no means a bitter partisan, and in local matters will not support any
candidate who has not a good record. He is a Freemason, and has been master of the local
lodge. He was reared in the Episcopal church.
January 26, 1873, Mr. Burroughs was united in marriage with Miss Mary Judy, daughter of
Thomas Judy, of Edwardsville, and they have buried two sons, and have three daughters living.
HON. GEORGE W. PLEASANTS.
ROCK ISLAND.
WASHINGTON PLEASANTS, judge of the tenth judicial district, is a son of
Benjamin F. and Isabella (Adair) Pleasants, and was born in Harrodsburgh, Kentucky,
November 24, 1823. The Pleasants family were from early settlers at Goochland near Richmond,
Virginia. The maternal grandfather of our subject was General Adair, a native of North Caro-
lina. He was in both wars with England ; a general in command under General Jackson at New
Orleans ; a governor of Kentucky and represented that state in both houses of congress.
Mr. Pleasants received a classical education at Williams College, Massachusetts, graduating in
the class of 1842. He studied law with Horace Holden, of New York city ; was admitted to the
bar at Rochester, New York, October 31, 1845, and practiced at Williamstown, Massachusetts,
until 1849. He was there married, January 29, 1850, to Sarah T., daughter of Solomon Buckley.
In 1851 he removed to Washington, District of Columbia, where he remained till the spring of
1853, when he settled in Rock Island.
In November, 1861, Mr. Pleasants was elected for the district composed of Rock Island, Henry
and Mercer counties, a member of the convention to revise and amend the constitution of the
state. When practicing at the bar he had very few peers in this part of the state. He was mas-
ter in chancery for several terms. In June, 1867, the subject of this sketch was elected judge of
the sixth judicial district for the full term of six years, and by repeated reflections, still wears
the ermine, his now being the tenth district. He is also one of the judges of the appellate court
for the second district. He is a profound lawyer, and his decisions are very seldom reversed by a
higher court. He is very courteous and pleasant with the legal brotherhood, and between him
and the bar there is difficulty in getting up any friction. Judge Pleasants is a born gentleman.
Judge Pleasants is a member of the Presbyterian church, and a man of sound moral as well
as judicial character. The church cannot have too many of this class of lawyers. In the family
are four children, two sons and two daughters. Adair, the eldest son, is an attorney-at-law, of
the firm of Parks and Pleasants, Rock Island ; Nannie, the elder daughter, is the wife of Samuel
A. Lynde, Chicago, and Isabella Adair and George are at home.
HON. JAMES M. RIGGS.
WINCHESTER.
JAMES MILTON RIGGS, lawyer, and member of congress from the twelfth district, is a
native of the county (Scott) in which he lives, and was born five miles north of Winchester,
the county seat, April 17, 1839, only a few days after the county was organized. His father was
John Adams Riggs, who died when James was six years old, and his mother was Orpha (Camp-
bell) Riggs, a native of Tennessee. The grandfather of James was Scott Riggs, a native of
Stokes county, North Carolina, and a descendant of Edward Riggs, who settled in Roxbury, now
Boston Highlands, Massachusetts, in 1633, when Boston itself was a small village, only three
years old.
Our subject was reared under the fostering care of a kind mother, and in his younger years
UNITED STA TES HIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONAR Y. 2O y
was engaged in farming. In 1862 he went to Eureka College, Woodford county, purposing to
take a full classical course, but civil war was raging at the South, whither some of his relatives
had gone to aid in putting down the rebellion, and at the end of a year he was obliged to leave
school, and resumed farming. He taught a district school three winters. In the autumn of 1864
he was elected sheriff of the county, and while filling that office he also studied law, and January
i, 1868, was admitted to the bar. He evidently loves the profession of law, and is a studious,
growing man. He has a large and choice library, of which he makes the best nse, annotating
many of the volumes, and he has the reputation of being one of the best read lawyers in central
Illinois. His great strength consists in knowing what the law is, and in laying it before the
court in a clear manner, great deference being paid to his opinions on such questions. Morally,
as well as legally, his character stands high.
Mr. Riggs was elected to the legislature in 1870, and served one term, representing Scott
county. He was state's attorney from 1872 to 1876, and was elected to congress in November,
1882. The office of state's attorney he filled with decided ability, and with thorough acceptance
to his constituents, and his friends predict for him an honorable record in the national halls of
legislation.
Mr. Riggs was married December 31, 1868, to Lillie, daughter of Doctor Lucian Berry, then
of Winchester, now of Nevada, Missouri. They have two daughters and five sons living, and one
daughter deceased. He is a man of most excellent habits, and a much respected and valuable
citizen. Since 1868 he has been a member of the local board of education, and has been very
active in his efforts to raise the standard of education in Winchester. Such a class of men can-
not be too numerous in any community.
G
GEORGE W. MARTIN.
WINCHESTER.
EORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN, sheriff of the county of Scott, is a native of West
_J Virginia, and was born in Ohio county, now Marshall, July 22, 1827. His father, Samuel
Martin, was born in Wheeling, same state, and was a son of Alexander Martin, who was from
Ireland. Samuel Martin married Susan Sisson, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and they had
nine children, of whom George was the eldest son. In March, 1834, the family came into this
state and settled on Sweet's Prairie, six miles southeast of Winchester, which was then in Morgan
county. The father died in 1845, and our subject had charge of the farm, having received mean-
while only a limited district school training, in all not to exceed one full year. He is a self-
educated, and a well informed man.
In 1847 Mr. Martin married Miss Angeline Conway, of Greene county, and the next year went
to Dallas county, Texas, near Lancaster, and spent ten years in farming in that state. While
there he buried (1855) his first wife, who was the mother of four children, only two of them, both
daughters, now living. Eliza J. is the wife of Doctor Mark W. Wilcox, of Harvard, Nebraska,
and Mary E. is a school teacher in Clay county, same state. Before leaving Texas Mr. Martin
married Miss Rachel M. Harris, who lived only about ten months. In 1858 he thought he saw
civil war approaching, and having buried two wives and one child in the Lone Star State, he
deemed it best to bring the remainder of his family back to the North. He returned to the old
homestead, then in the hands of a brother-in-law, whom he aided in cultivating it until the war
broke out, having, meantime, in April, 1860, married Miss Cornelia M. Richmond, who was from
Madison county, New York, and by whom he has had nine children, only five of them, four
daughters and one son, now living.
In August, 1862, Mr. Martin enlisted as a private in company H, izgth Illinois infantry.
On its organization he was elected first lieutenant, and was mustered in as captain of the com-
pany. He was in what is known in history as the Atlanta campaign. In December, 1863, he had
2O8 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the typhoid fever, and in the following February came home. He returned to the South in
March ; was with his company until the taking of Atlanta in September, 1864, when he took cold,
became thoroughly broken down in health and resigned.
In 1865 Captain Martin was elected clerk of the county court, and by reelections filled that
office for twelve consecutive years. For four and a half years, immediately thereafter, he held
the post of deputy clerk, and in -November, 1882, was elected sheriff, the duties of which office he
is now performing. Sheriff Martin is a republican, living in a strong democratic county, and
owes his success at the polls to his popularity, and his special fitness for official positions. He is
faithful as well as prompt and efficient, and gives good satisfaction to all parties. The voters of
Scott county usually have the good sense to drop partisan bias, when selecting county officers,
and go for the most capable and reliable men.
Sheriff Martin is a Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Mason, an Odd-Fellow, an elder in the Christian
Church, superintendent of the Sunday school the last seventeen years, and a man whose integrity
and purity of life are unquestioned.
HENRY SHIMER, A.M., M.D.
MOUNT CARROLL.
ONE of the best examples of a self-educated man in western Illinois, is the gentleman whose
name we have placed at the head of this sketch. He was reared, as we once heard him
remark, "on a twenty-five acre farm, one half hills and stones, and the other half swamp, and by
parents who could scarcely read or write." He was sent to school from three to four months in
the year, in a little, poorly ventilated country school house in the hill country of Pennsylvania,
where about sixty pupils were crowded together under the very ordinary teachers of those days,
from whom he could learn nothing beyond his attainments at fourteen years of age. After that
period he was never sent to school a single day. But there was no halt, no let-up, in his studies,
no long winter nights spent in idleness; no moments of precious time squandered in youthful
frivolities. In humble circumstances, without money or friends to push him forward, he knew
no such word as fail; he never despaired or faltered, but pressed right onward toward the mark
of high scholarship. The whole secret of his eminent success lies in the right beginnings of his
youth, in the use he made of his spare hours, his determination to know something, and his pluck
and perseverance since shown.
Henry Shimer, physician and scientist, is a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, his birth
being dated at West Vincent, September i, 1828. His father was William Shinier, a farmer and
native of the same county, and his mother, before her marriage, was Catharine Still. She is yet
living, being in her seventy-eighth year. His father died in 1867. Henry lived on the farm in
boyhood; was his own teacher after he was fourteen years old, and at eighteen commenced teach-
ing a winter school, working at the trade of mason the rest of the year. During this period he
devoted his leisure hours to study.
In the latter part of March, 1854, Mr. Shimer started for the West; reached Mount Carroll in
the following month, and after taking a wide circuit through the Mississippi Valley, lasting for
three or four years, he concluded that this should be his home. Like Bayard Taylor, in making
his first tour to Europe, and Henry D. Thoreau in making his excursions in this country and Can-
ada, Mr. Shimer had many of his views a-foot, when he went off from the railroad and steamboat
lines of travel, going as far to the northwest as Minnesota, and as far south as Texas, traveling on
two occasions more than 1000 miles each trip on foot, and several shorter journeys of a few hun-
dred miles each, never less, and traveled by rail, by water and on foot more than 10,000 miles in all,
before his feet finally rested, contented and satisfied, on the uplands of Mount Carroll, which he
justly regarded as the gem of town sites. During these travels his trowel and his note-book were
his companions, and he settled down here with his muscles strengthened, and his mind well stored
and greatly expanded.
il Years Oil
if Years Did.
Old.
OF THE ,,,,
UNIVERSITY ofU-L
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 21 I
In December, 1857, he married Miss Frances Anna Wood, one of the founders of the Mount
Carroll Seminary four years before, and still its principal; and he engaged in teaching in that
institution, now grown to mammoth proportions. Here he diligently pursued the study of the
mathematics, the physical sciences, and natural history, which have always been favorite branches
with him; he also continued his medical studies, which he had begun years before, and was finally
graduated at the Chicago Medical College in March, 1866, he being prize essayist on a thesis
entitled ''The Diseases of Insect Life." He afterward spent two winters in the medical colleges
and hospitals of New York city, where he enjoyed superior advantages in different departments
of his chosen profession. In a very few years he built-up a liberal practice, and has attained to
eminence in his profession. For awhile after commencing practice, he continued to teach a short
time each day in the seminary, but his professional labors at length became so onerous, that of late
years he has -done little more than lecture, now and then, on some branch of natural history.
As a writer in the " History of Carroll County ' has well remarked, "the doctor is an enthusi-
ast in all that he undertakes, and a close student, devoting the time which most men, less ardent,
would require for rest, to the interests of a large and growing practice, and to his favorite
branches of science, as his ample specimens in mineralogy, ornithology, entomology and botany
attest. He is a skillful taxidermist, and years ago prepared three thousand specimens of birds of
the different varieties found in this vicinky, with some rare ones from foreign places. A few
'hours spent in examining the doctor's cabinet of specimens will amply repay the lover of science."
In July, 1866, the University of Chicago conferred upon Doctor Shimer the honorary title of
master of arts, an honor well merited, and all the more noteworthy since the recipient had been
his own tutor since he was fourteen years old.
We believe the doctor has always regarded himself as lucky in having his steps in early life
directed toward the setting sun, where he caught the progressive spirit and stimulating impulse
of the Great West. Here he had much to encourage him to continue as he had commenced, and
to push forward in his studies, application to which is his life work. He was nevermore studious
than now, and this habit has been to him his exceeding great. reward. It has placed him among
the eminent physicians of the state, and in the front rank among mathematicians and naturalists.
Doctor Shimer is six feet in height, and weighs two hundred and ten pounds, and is a fine
sample of robust manhood. Although his early travels and later business associations often
brought him into the company of drinking and smoking men, and he has probably been invited a
thousand times to take a social glass, he has always had the courage to say no. He uses neither
distilled nor fermented liquors, nor tobacco in any form; has drunk neither tea nor coffee since
eighteen years of age, and for the last fifteen years has eaten only two meals a day. The doctor's
habits are his best physician.
Frances Anna Wood Shimer, the wife of Doctor Shimer, was born in the town of Milton, Sar-
atoga county, New York, August 21, 1826, her parents being Jesse and Rebecca (Bryant) Wood.
She lost her mother in 1836, and four years later, when only fourteen years old, she began teach-
ing. She finished her education at the State Normal School, Albany, and left her native state for
Illinois in the spring of 1853. The year before a bill to incorporate the Mount Carroll Seminary
had passed the legislature and become a law; stock to the amount of about $4,000 had been sub-
scribed, but less than $>i,ooo of it was ever realized in cash, and Misses Frances A. Wood and
Cinderella M. Gregory were appointed teachers. They opened the school in May, 1853, with
eleven pupils, and before the end of the term the number went up to forty. Their school was in
the second story of the only brick business building in town; later they moved up town into a
new brick building, erected for seminary purposes, and which was forty-two by forty-six feet, and
two stories high. It was dedicated October 24, 1854. The five acres of ground on which the
building stood were subsequently increased to about twenty-five; the original campus was im-
proved until it became an Eden of beauty, and the building which these teachers had purchased
received two additions while they were laboring in concert.
Up to 1864 the seminary had been open to both sexes; since that date it has been used for
22
212 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,
females exclusively. A second charter was obtained in 1867, naming Mrs. Shimer and Miss Greg-
ory as sole corporators.
When Miss Gregory came to Mount Carroll she had $80 to put into the institution; in 1870
she retired with $10,000, and not long afterward became the wife of Rev. L. L. Lansing, now pas-
tor of the Baptist Church at Beloit, Wisconsin. Miss Ada C. Joy took Miss Gregory's place, as
associate principal, a happy selection.
When, in 1867 the second addition to the seminary was completed, forty by one hundred feet,
and four stories high, it was thought by many that the last brick had been laid, but in 1876 Mrs.
Shimer added the main building, and nearly doubled the capacity of the seminary. When these
several additions were made, Mrs. Shimer was her own architect, and drew her own plans.
The sanitary arrangements here are perfect, the whole surroundings are charming, the corps
of teachers is large, they are experienced educators, and the institution offers facilities for
instruction equal to any seminary of the kind in this part of the country. Determined to keep
pace with the progress of the age, in January, 1878, Mrs. Shimer introduced a department of tel-
egraphy, for the benefit of young women who wish to prepare themselves for something that may
enable them to be self-sustaining. One of the beautiful features of this school is its manual labor
department for the benefit of poor girls, which averages about thirty pupils. Some of the best
scholars and most brilliant women here educated were in that department.
A writer in a Chicago newspaper thus speaks of this school:
"The Seminary, now in its thirtieth year, is gathering power as it ripens in years. It was
never so strong in its influence as at the present time. Every year not only adds to its alumni,
but to its popularity. Its graduates go abroad to praise it, and by their deportment and scholar-
ship, to honor it. The more young ladies that can come under the influence and receive the mental
discipline of the Mount Carroll Seminary, the better."
The Mount Carroll Seminary owes its splendid success and its high standing to the very able
manner in which it has been managed. Mrs. Shimer has no beggars for it, has never asked a
cent of anybody, has never solicited patronage of any one, nor employed an agent to canvass for
pupils. The school stands on its own merits. The writer of this sketch has watched its growth
for the last twenty years; has marked its wide-spread influence and usefulness with much grati-
fication, and is glad to know that there is at least one queenly financier in the state of Illinois.
ANDREW J. McGLUMPHY, D.D.
LINCOLN.
THE president of Lincoln University, whose name heads this sketch, is a native of Washing-
ton county, Pennsylvania, dating his birth June 2, 1831. His father, Samuel McGlum-
phy, a farmer, was born in the same county, in 1799. His grandfather, John McGlumphy, was a
soldier in the American revolutionary army. The family was from the North of Ireland. The
mother of our subject, Nancy (Allen) McGlumphy, was from the same country (the county of
Monahan), and her ancestors held property entailed upon them by William, Prince of Orange.
Mr. McGlumphy was educated at Waynesburgh College, Greene county, Pennsylvania, being
graduated in 1858,33 valedictorian of his class. He was immediately elected professor of ancient
languages in the same institution, and occupied that chair one year, when he accepted the princi-
palship of Mount Zion Seminary, Macon county, Illinois, and held that position for seven years.
He was ordained in 1859, and was a short time pastor of a church at Prosperity. In 1866 he resigned
the principalship to accept the chair of mathematics in the Lincoln University, then just starting,
and which he aided in organizing, and of which he was vice-president. At the end of seven years,
on the death of President J. C. Bowden, D.D., Professor McGlumphy succeeded him (1873), and
is filling the chair of mental and moral philosophy.
President McGlumphy, it is here seen, has been a member of the faculty from the start, and
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 13
he has seen the institution expand into truly manly proportions. During the first year the num-
ber of students hardly reached one hundred, now it is fully two hundred and fifty, and the univer-
sity is growing in popularity and usefulness every year.
President McGlumphy is a man of fine scholarship and industrious habits. His tastes are
purely intellectual. He possesses fine self-control, and governs with ease and dignity. He is sel-
dom austere, and never implacable. He is modest and simple in his style. As a teacher he has
but few equals. His methods are mostly original. He always masters the subject to be taught,
and never appears before a class without special preparation. He has followed teaching since his
boyhood, and may be called a master of the art. Few men develop a greater interest among their
pupils than he. As a public speaker he is far above ordinary. He prepares all his public dis-
courses with great labor, and delivers them with fine effect.
In August, 1873, two months after his elevation to the presidency of Lincoln University, our
subject received from his alma mater the honorary degree of doctor of divinity, which title is all
the more complimentary, inasmuch as he never attended a theological seminary. He has taught
the classics, the physical sciences, the mathematics, mental and moral philosophy, and seems to
be a general student, master of almost every branch of learning usually taught in colleges.
As far as we can ascertain, Mr. McGlumphy has always been a hard worker. When a student
in Pennsylvania he was elected county superintendent of schools, and held that office for three
years, giving his time also on Saturdays to the examination of teachers. Since coming to this
state he was at one period a member of the state board of examiners.
He is, and has long been a frequent contributor to the press of his denomination, the Cumber-
land Presbyterian, and his writings thus published are quite voluminous. It is understood, we
believe, that he has more or less material partially arranged, which may some day be put in book
form. The whole appearance of the man is that of one whose life has been given to books and to
deep thinking. He has lectured before teacher's institutes in Pennsylvania and Illinois, and on
literary subjects in various parts of the country, and his productions of this class all bear the
impress of a thoroughly disciplined and well stored mind.
President McGlumphy was married in 1860 to Emeline, daughter of Aaron Heaton, of Seneca,
Ohio, and they have seven children living and have buried one daughter.
E
EDWARD Y. GRIGGS.
OTTAWA.
DWARD YOUNG GRIGGS, one of the older class of merchants in La Salle county, and a
noteworthy representative of that class, was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, Octo-
ber 24, 1820, his parents being Ebenezer and Hepzebeth (Bartholomew) Griggs. Both were of
pure New England stock, and of English lineage.
The father of Edward was a foundryman and an ingenious machinist, the inventor of the gov-
ernor to a steam engine, and died at Cincinnati in 1823, leaving three children, all quite young,
Edward being only three years old. Two or three days after the death of Ebenezer Griggs, Rev.
William Gray, hearing of the children's loss, and not wishing to have them separated, adopted
the whole of thtm, and reared them in a most exemplary manner, giving Edward, however, only
a moderate education, although enough, with the additions which he afterward made, for business
purposes.
Rev. William Gray married a sister of General Mitchell, the astronomer, Cincinnati, where she
died many years ago. Mr. Gray died in Ottawa, and both are buried at Springfield, Ohio.
From Cincinnati the children were taken to Lebanon, and subsequently to Springfield, Ohio,
where Edward became a clerk in a dry-goods store. There he remained until 1849, when he came
to Ottawa, holding here also for a year and a half a clerkship in the dry-goods store of J. Y. Nat-
tinger. In September, 1851, Mr. Griggs opened a drug store, putting up the sign of E. Y. Griggs,
214 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and his is the only sign that was here thirty-two years ago that has not been changed. Such is
the mutation of things in this fluctuating, changing young West. Commercial tornadoes have
swept over prairie land, and tens of thousands of mercantile traders have gone down before the
blasts, but Mr. Griggs has always maintained his perpendicularity, and been able to keep square
with the world. This is owing to the fact, no doubt, that he has never ventured into deep water,
and has managed his business with prudence and careful foresight, and with a reasonable degree
of economy. He has held, we believe, no civil office, but is an Odd-Fellow and past grand repre-
sentative of the grand lodge of the state.
Mr. Griggs married in 1847 Miss Mary Barnett, of Charleston, Indiana, and they have had
four children, all still living: Lavinia, the oldest child, is with her parents; Allen G. is a manu-
facturer of patent medicines, Ottawa; Oakley has a drug and book store at Streator, La Salle
county, and Clarence is a lawyer at Ottawa. The wife and daughter of Mr. Griggs are members
of the Congregational Church, of which he is a liberal supporter.
T
LEWIS P. LOTT.
MORRIS.
HE subject of this sketch is the son of Zephaniah Lott and Permilla (Phelps) Lott, and was
born in Covert, Seneca county, New York, August 5, 1813. His mother was English descent,
and his father Holland, or Pennsylvania Dutch. He moved from Pennsylvania into New York,
and married. True to the instincts of his phlegmatic ancestors, he lived on one farm sixty years,
and died at the age of seventy-five, his wife following him at eighty. The Lotts are a long-lived
race, his paternal grandsire dying at the age of one hundred and four, and his grandmother at
one hundred and six.
At the age of thirteen Lewis went into the office of an anti-masonic paper, at Canandaigua, On-
tario county, New York, called the "Ontario Phoenix." This was in the spring of 1826, at the
time of the great anti-masonic excitement, occasioned by the the abduction of Morgan. He
remained in Canandaigua for a period of six years, following his occupation very successfully in
various newspaper offices of the place, but after mastering his trade he went to Cleveland, Ohio,
in 1832, and worked two years as journeyman printer there. He then, in company with General
A. S. Sanford, bought out the printing office, and for eight years did a thriving business. The
style of the firm was Sanford and Lott, and besides doing a general job printing business, book
and newspaper work, they dealt largely in books, stationery, printing material, paper, etc., and
for several years their business was very successful.
In 1842, however, he sold out to his partner, and removed. to near Kirtland, Ohio, where he
engaged in manufacturing pumps, pails, tubs, household furniture, etc. The change, however,
was not a profitable one, as he sunk about all the capital he had before he sold out. He had not,
however, seriously impaired his fortune by the venture, and removing to Warren, Trumbull county,
he engaged in general merchandising. For two years he kept a large store of a general assortment
of goods, and made money, but at the end of that time, in 1846, he was burned out. He was,
however, fully insured, and beyond the delay and interruption of business, sustained no special loss.
In the summer of that year he moved to Racine, Wisconsin, and for two years more followed
the same business. In the spring of 1848, however, he moved once more and for the last time,
bringing his goods to Morris, and opening up a general assortment here. That fall and the fol-
lowing summer he erected a plain, substantial residence, in which he has resided with his family
up to the present time.
In 1860 Mr. Lott sold out his goods to his partner, Horace Hurlburd, and retired from the busi-
ness with a competence. His life, however, could not be spent in idleness. He was but forty-seven
years old, and full of energy and activity, and he accepted the position of deputy clerk of the cir-
cuit court of Grundy county, and for eight years managed the affairs of that office with rare skill
and success.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 215
Mr. Lott possesses unusual business tact and ability, and every business he touches rapidly
assumes an orderly, systematic and prosperous condition under his hands. Hence, although busy
with his own affairs, he was forced from time to time to serve his fellow citizens iii various posi-
tions of trust. In 1856 he was elected chairman of the board of supervisors, and served three
years. For fourteen or fifteen years he was a member of the board of aldermen, and in 1870 was
elected justice of the peace, and has held the office ever since.
As treasurer of the school board he administered its finances successfully for several years. As
a Mason Mr. Lott has also been forced to act in almost every official position in the three
degrees of Master Mason, Royal Arch and Knight Templar. He served as worshipful master
of Cedar Lodge, No. 124, of A.F.A.M.; was high priest of Royal Arch Chapter, and held every
office in Blaney Commandery, No. 5, K.T. He was also for some years a prominent Odd-Fellow,
but withdrew several years ago.
In politics Mr. Lott is a republican, dyed in the wool, having passed through the various pre-
paratory stages of the abolition, whig and free-soil parties, but while active in political matters,
and of pronounced opinions upon every question, cannot be called a politician. He has never
sought office, and has served only when it was thrust upon him.
In 1844 Mr. Lott married Miss Delia Lloyd Clark, in Cleveland, Ohio. The ceremony was
performed on Washington's birth-day, February 22, by Rev. W. Walden, Baptist minister. Four
sons were the fruit of that union, three of whom he has had the grief to lay away in death, but
his eldest, Edward L. Lott, now a man thirty-six years of age, is engaged in business at Grand
Tower, Illinois.
In 1874 Mr. Lott took a trip to the western coast, and spent a few months visiting the places
of interest in that fascinating region. With this exception the last few years of his life have been
spent in the quiet enjoyment of his home in Morris, in the company of his wife, a lady still in the
possession of good health. He has long since laid by an ample competence for his declining
years; has a portion of it invested in two fine farms south of the river, and amuses himself by an
occasional visit to them. Although, sixty-nine years old Mr. Lott is straight as an arrow, in full
health and vigor, and bids fair to survive many years.
CHARLES SPEARS AND SON.
MORRISON.
THE oldest mercantile house in Morrison is that of Charles Spears and Son, which was
founded in 1857 by William and Charles Spears, with the firm name of Spears and Brother,
who kept a stock of general merchandise, and who had previously been in trade together in Pitts-
burgh, Carroll county, Indiana. In 1867 John Snyder was taken into the firm, and its name
changed to Spears and Company. In 1870 Mr. Snyder sold out his interest to W. W. Wilcox, who
retired in 1873. William Spears had died the year previous, and when Mr. Wilcox went out, the
firm took its present name, and changed its line of business to dry goods and notions exclusively.
The father of William and Charles Spears was William Spears, Sr., a farmer, born in York
county, Pennsylvania. William Spears, Jr., was born in Monroe county, New York, in 1812,
and Charles in r8i6. Two years later the family moved to Huron county, Ohio, where the sons
received a very ordinary English education, being subsequently their own instructors. Charles
Spears in his youth was engaged in farming; in 1838 went to Indiana, took a contract, and built
several miles of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and in 1845 ne ar >d his older brother commenced
the general mercantile trade in Carroll county, Indiana, the firm name being Spears and Brother.
They remained in business there until 1857, when they removed to Morrison.
William Spears, Jr., the senior member of the original firm, was a prudent business man,
a deacon of the Presbyterian church, and a citizen who was very much respected. He died, as
already intimated, in 1872, leaving a widow but no children. Charles Spears, the senior member
2l6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
of the present firm, and the ranking merchant of Morrison, has been engaged in mercantile pur-
suits for forty-five years ; has passed through several commercial cyclones, which have swept
over and devastated the country, and he has never bent an iota. Figuratively speaking he has
always stood perfectly erect, and enjoys to-day a thoroughly healthv spine. He is among the
truly successful business men of Morrison ; is fair and honorable in all his dealings with his
fellow men, and has the unlimited confidence of the community in his integrity as well as finan-
cial solidity. He was mayor of the city of Morrison for two years, and may have held other local
offices of which we are not cognizant. He is much esteemed as a public spirited citizen. He
married, in 1847, Miss Rebecca Benham, of Pittsburgh, Indiana, and they have had seven chil-
dren, only three of them, all sons, now living. They have had a good business training, and are
industrious and capable young men. Charles W., the eldest son, is married, and of the firm of
Charles Spear and Son, and Peter and William are bankers at Burr Oak, Jewell county, Kansas.
CHARLES A. GRISWOLD, A.M., M.D.
FULTON CITY.
/CHARLES AUGUSTUS GRISWOLD, the oldest medical practitioner in Fulton City, was
V ' born in Saybrook, now Essex, Connecticut, November 24, 1830. His father, Selah Griswold,
was born in the same town, and his mother, Rosanna (Bull) Griswold, was also a native of Con-
necticut. Selah Griswold, senior, the grandfather of our subject, was a descendant of the
Griswold family so conspicuous in Connecticut, a hundred and a hundred and fifty years ago,
and for whom Fort Griswold was named, and which family includes at least one governor of that
state. The grandfather of Charles was a pensioner of the revolutionary war, and his father, of
the war of 1812-14.
The subject of this sketch prepared for college at Cheshire, Connecticut, and is a graduate of
Yale College, class of 1852 ; studied medicine for three years in connection with the State Lunatic
Asylum at Utica ; attended two courses of lectures in the medical department of his alma mater,
and one course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, from which latter
institution he received the degree of doctor of medicine, in March 1856.
Doctor Griswold came to Fulton City, where he has been in the successful practice of his pro-
fession for twenty-seven years, with the exception of three spent in the service of his country.
He went into the army as assistant surgeon of the 93d Illinois infantry in October, 1862, and
was mustered out with his regiment in July, 1865, being promoted to surgeon in 1864. The gal-
lant 93d was at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, and accompanied Sherman in his march to
the sea, and through the Carolinas to Richmond. Doctor Griswold had his full share of hard-
ships, but never received a wound, or even a scratch, and was not off duty a single day. His
experience in the war was of great service to him as a surgeon, and enhanced his reputation for
skill in that branch of the healing art. He is a member of the Whiteside County Medical Soci-
ety, of the Union Medical Society, which embraces Clinton county, Iowa, and Whiteside county.
Illinois, lying on opposite sides of the Mississippi River, and at the time of writing (spring of
1882), he is a delegate under appointment to the American Medical Association to be held at
Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June 1882. He has always had a highly creditable standing among
the medical fraternity.
The doctor has a leaning toward literary work, and frequently writes for the local papers. At
one period he was associate editor of the Fulton City " Advertiser," a republican weekly, which
was changed to the "Journal." He was also connected at one time with the, Northern Illinois
College, Fulton, and lectured on physiology, anatomy and hygiene for two or three years, sub-
jects to which he has given a good deal of hard study. Doctor Griswold has been examiner for
pensions ever since his return from the army; was a school director for two or three terms;
mayor of the city in 1868, and is now serving his second year as a member of the county board
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 l"J
of supervisors. The doctor is a member of Fulton City Lodge, No. 189, of Freemasons, and was
master of the lodge for four years.
December 29, 1876, on his return from Connecticut, where he had been on the sad mission to
attend the funeral of his father, who died in his ninety-seventh year, he was on the train at
Ashtabula, which went down through the bridge, and in which fearful disaster about half of his
fellow travelers lost their lives. He himself was badly injured.
Doctor Griswold married at Cleveland, Ohio, July 5, 1866, Miss Alice E. Smith, who died
December 10, 1874, leaving three children, one daughter, Joe Adelaide, having previously died,
and Charles Richard having died in infancy. The survivors are Marietta Alice and Henrietta
Beaumont, two promising children, who are with their relatives in Cleveland, and pursuing their
studies. Doctor Griswold is still actively engaged in the practice of his profession, and, ranking
other medical men in the place, and having a fine reputation for skill, he does a good deal in the
line of consultation.
HON. JAMES C. ROBINSON.
SPRINGFIELD.
ONE of the prominent and well known lawyers and democratic politicians of Illinois is James
C. Robinson, of the firm of Palmer, Robinson and Shutt. His father, Richard Robinson,
a native of North Carolina, moved to Clark county, this state, in 1820, and shortly afterward
removed to Edgar county, where James was born in 1824. A little later the family returned to
Clark county, where the son was reared and educated.
We learn from the history of Sangamon county that Mr. Robinson read law in Clark county;
was admitted to the bar in 1850, and there practiced until 1869, when he settled in Springfield.
The firm with which he is connected consists of Hon. John M. Palmer, formerly governor of the
state, J. Mayo Palmer, his elder son, late member of the lower house of the state legislature, and
Hon. William E. Shutt, who represents Sangamon county in the state senate. It is one of the
leading law firms in the state, its business extending into all the courts of the state and the
supreme court of the United States, and is especially large in the higher courts. As an advocate
Mr. Robinson stands in the front rank.
For a score of years he has been quite prominent among the democratic magnates of the
state. He was a member of congress from 1859 to 1865; was an. unsuccessful candidate for gov-
ernor in 1864, and again served in congress (this time from the Springfield district) from 1871
to 1875.
Mr. Robinson has a wife and six children, two sons and four daughters, both of the former
being lawyers.
JOHN A. SHEPHARD.
JERSEYVILLE.
TOHN ADAM SHEPHARD, treasurer of the county of Jersey, is a son of William and Ann
J Maria (Gross) Shephard. and was born in Jerseyville March 21, 1847. His father was a native
of England, born in 1816; was educated in that country, and in 1832 came to this country with
his father, William Shephard, Sr. William Shephard, Jr., aided in constructing the Raritan
canal, in the vicinity of which he lived about three years, removing thence to Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1838 he came west; halted a few months in Saint Louis, and in
October of that year went to Coles county, this state, where he had a contract on the Central
Branch railroad, now a part of the Indianapolis and Saint Louis road. In 1839 he settled in Jersey-
ville, and took a contract to dig down the Grafton bluff. Subsequently he carried on the shoe-
making business, at which he had worked a short time in Trenton, New Jersey, on coming to this
country. His wife was a daughter of Adam Gross, of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and they
were married in 1840.
2l8 I'NITED STATES BfOGRAPIIICAT. r>ICTIONARY.
In 1847, as we learn from the "Atlas of Jersey County," Mr. Shephard became a merchant at
Grafton, where he remained in business four or five years, and then, for a shorter period, gave his
attention to railroad building in Illinois. Subsequently he was president of the Jacksonville,
Alton and Saint Louis road, resigning that post late in the year 1860. From 1862 to 1869 he was a
merchant at Jerseyville, being meanwhile elected to the state senate in 1866, and reelected in 1870.
He resigned the next year, having previously engaged in railroad building in Texas. From 1872
to 1875 he was in the banking business in Jerseyville, and closed out just before his death, August
12 of the latter year.
Says a writer who knew Mr. Shephard well: "When he landed on American soil he was poor
and friendless, but the affable and courteous manners for which he was noted soon enabled him
to win true and honorable friends, and being endowed with great energy and perseverance and
indomitable industry, he gradually acquired considerable wealth. Few men in Jersey county
have been better fitted for a prominent and active business life than Mr. Shephard, he being among
that class of self-made men whose integrity and honesty are never doubted." The widow of Mr.
Shephard is still living, her home being in Jerseyville.
John Adam Shephard was educated in a Catholic school in Saint Louis, including the classics,
and in his younger years was in a store in Jerseyville. From 1860 to 1867 he was a bookkeeper for
his father. From 1872 to 1875 he was in the banking business with his father; was in the law
and real estate business with A. A. Goodrich for three or four years, and in the autumn of 1879
he was elected county treasurer to fill the unexpired term of Thomas O'Donnell. Mr. Shep-
hard was reelected in 1882, and is making a very acceptable and popular county official. He is a
democrat in politics, as was his father before him, and it is but justice to say that all parties in
Jersey county have unbounded confidence in his integrity. The funds of the county could not be
in safer hands.
Mr. Shephard is quite public-spirited, and is treasurer of the Jersey County Fair, a truly pros-
perous organization. He is alderman of the fourth ward, and has -held that office a number of
years. January 16, 1878, he married Miss Hattie Ely, daughter of George I. Ely, of Jerseyville,
and they have one child, a daughter.
WILLIAM E. IVES.
AMBOY.
WILLIAM ELLERY IVES, one of the oldest lawyers in practice in Lee county, is a son of
Almon and Nancy (Tomlin) Ives, and was born in the town of Ellery, Chautauqua county,
New York, May 24, 1821. An account of the family may be found in a sketch of his brother,
Doctor F. B. Ives, on other pages of this volume. In April, 1834, the family came to Illinois, and
William finished his education at the Granville Academy, Putnam county. He read law at
Oswego, Kendall county, with an older brother, Almon B. Ives, and was graduated at the National
Law School, Balston Spa, New York, in 1852. He practiced two years at Oswego, this state, and
in 1854 settled in Amboy, where he has been steadily engaged in the practice of his profession for
nearly thirty years. He does business in all the state and federal courts, and has always had a
remunerative practice. He received a thorough legal education before opening an office; has
since been quite studious, and is no doubt one of the best read lawyers in Lee county. He is a
man of probity and of sound judgment, and has the unlimited confidence of his clients and the
community, never encouraging a man to go to law unless it is evident that he has a clear case.
Mr. Ives was mayor of the city four consecutive terms, and state's attorney, first by appoint-
ment, and afterward four years by election, making an honorable record in that position, as in
every other which he has ever held.
He is a republican of whig antecedents, firm in his principles, and free to express them in
private or on the stump; is a man also of no inconsiderable sagacity; has a good deal of political
influence, and is quite active in an exciting canvass. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been
junior warden of Illinois Central Lodge, No. 178.
t'BrviRY'
i;, the democratic senatorial convention for the fourteenth district, against
his protest, nominated Judge Cody for state senator, an honor which he peremptorily declined.
Soon after this, in the same year, he was unexpectedly and unanimously nominated a candidate
for congress by the democrats of the first congressional district. His professional engagements
compelled him to decline this nomination also, and devote himself to the large and continually
increasing business interests confided to his care. For the same reason, when the congressional
districts had been changed, and in 1882, he was unanimously nominated for the same position in
the eighth district, he again declined, though he believed at the time, and his friends insist they
now know, that his election was certain. Though he is still called a democrat, he is thoroughly
and absolutely independent in his views, taking little or no part in party politics.
As a judge he was peculiarly free from prejudices, and his thorough investigation of the law,
his clear perception, and his careful, deliberate and correct opinions have made for him a most
enviable reputation. During his whole term as county judge, no appeal was taken from his decis-
ions. When he began his labors as circuit judge, by reason of the illness of his predecessor,
there was an immense accumulation of unfinished business. He quietly but persistently dis-
charged his responsible duties, and at the end of his term left all the dockets in his circuit in far
better condition than they had been for many years. Of the cases appealed during his term
more than eighty per cent were affirmed by the supreme court.
As a lawyer he has ever been noted for his care and skill, and faithfulness to his clients. Pos-
sessing fine abilities as a public speaker, his clear voice, distinct articulation, well chosen lan-
guage and earnest sincerity, rendered him a popular and successful advocate. As a citizen, he is
loyal and true, and has been .especially faithful to the interests of the community in which he
lived. As a man, Judge Cody possesses most admirable qualities. Warm and sympathetic in his
friendships, courteous, affable, social and genial, he possesses that plain style, and matter-of-fact
directness of purpose, and that modest and unobtrusive manner, to be expected in one who, like
him, has an utter contempt for all shams and mere pretense. His aim in life has been to unfold
his nobler manhood, and to make the highest use of his powers for the benefit of his fellow-men,
and this with an unselfishness that his friends are inclined to consider an injustice to himself.
He was married, December 31, 1846, to Miss Philomela E. Sedgwick, daughter of Parker
Sedgwick, M.D., formerly of Lowell, Oneida county, New York, but since 1843 a resident of Du
Page county, Illinois, where he is widely known as an eminent and successful physician. Of his
eight sons one is a minister, three are lawyers, and four are physicians. Mrs. Cody is a lady of
intelligence and refinement, esteemed for her earnest piety, and her true womanly qualities, a
devoted wife and fond mother.
They have from early life been members of the Congregational Church at Naperville, in which
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 289
for a quarter of a century, the judge has been superintendent of the Sabbath school. Their
eldest son, Hiram S., was admitted to practice law in September, 1877, and died in March, 1879,
at the age of twenty-four years. During his brief practice at the bar, he gave unmistakable
promise of brilliant success as a lawyer, while in every other respect his future was equally prom-
ising.
There are remaining three sons and five daughters, constituting a family circle of culture,
refinement and intelligence, and making a home in which the judge may well be said to be a
contented and happy man.
Such is a simple outline of his life history, to which little need be added. The character of
the positions which he has held is a faithful test of his ability. This, and the substantially unan-
imous indorsement of an intelligent people, with whom he has lived for over thirty years, speak
of his genuine merit and worth, in language that cannot be misunderstood. In representing the
interests of others he has been singularly fortunate and happy, and as a reward of his rare hon-
esty of purpose, his undoubted fairness to opponents, he is the favorite of a whole people. If we
search for the secret of his success, we shall find it, not alone in his native abilities, but also in
his sterling integrity, his loyalty to principle, and his firm determination to be absolutely honor-
able and manly in all his endeavors.
WILLIAM F. BAYNE, M.D.
MA COMB.
WILLIAM FIELDING BAYNE, a medical practitioner in McDonough county for nearly
thirty years, was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, January 2, 1827. His father, William
Bayne, was a native of Virginia, of Scotch descent, and married Barbara Blankenbaker, who was
of Holland descent, and whose father spent four years in the continental army, fighting for inde-
pendence. In 1831 William Bayne moved from Kentucky to Adams county, this state, and was
engaged in cultivating the soil until his death, which occurred in Hancock county, in 1854. The
widow died in 1869.
The subject of this biographical notice farmed till he had reached his majority, then worked
a while at the carpenter's trade, studying medicine at the same period, giving his entire time dur-
ing the winters to that branch of science. He then read one full year with Doctor George H.
Young, of Columbus, Adams county ; attended lectures in the Eclectical Medical Institute, Cin-
cinnati ; commenced practice at Barry, Pike county, and the next year (1854) settled in Macomb.
Here he was in active and successful practice when civil war burst upon the land. August 2,
1861, he enlisted in company B, loth Missouri infantry: was commissioned captain, and had
command of the company for two years, when his health broke completely down, and he resigned.
To improve his health the doctor now took a trip to the Rocky Mountains, and in the autumn of
1864 resumed practice at Macomb. In October, 1869, he went to Philadelphia, and took a course
of lectures in the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of doctor of
medicine in February 1870.
Latterly Doctor Bayne has made a special study of chronic diseases, and diseases of women,
and he has a large office and city practice, seldom going into the country. He is a studious man
in medical science, and has an excellent reputation for skill and success. He has reported a few
important cases for medical journals, but never writes merely for the sake of appearing in print.
He has been a member of the National Eclectic Medical Association since 1870, and often attends
its annual meetings. He is known outside the state of Illinois.
The doctor served at one period as a member of the local school board, and was its president
one year; was alderman some years ago ; mayor in 1878-9, and is again (1882) serving as alder-
man. He takes considerable interest in municipal matters, and is willing to devote some time in
trying to advance them.
290 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In early life Doctor Bayne was a whig, and is now a republican, taking a good deal of interest
in the welfare of his party. In religion he is a Methodist, and has been either a trustee or stew-
ard nearly all the time since a resident of Macomb. He is also an Odd-Fellow ; has passed the
several chairs in the subordinate lodge, and the encampment, and has occasionally represented
the local lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State.
Doctor Bayne was first married, in 1851, to Miss Martha A. Herndon, of Columbus, Adams
county, she dying of child-birth a short year afterward, the child also dying three or four months
later. In 1854 he married Lydia Jane Fream, of Schuyler county, Illinois, and she is the mother
of seven children, only three of them now living. One of the deceased, William A. Bayne, a
married man and worthy citizen, was killed by accident on the railroad in September 1881. The
living are Charles Ellsworth, George Grant and Nellie May.
CHAUNCEY B. DEAN.
BEL VIDE RE.
BAINBRIDGE DEAN is a son of Bainbridge N. and Lydia (Smith) Dean, and
was born in De Kalb county, Illinois, January 23, 1848. His father was from the state of
Maine, where the family early settled, the progenitor being from England. The great-grand-
father of Chauncey served through all the long war for independence, and came out without
receiving even a scratch.
Our subject received only a common school education; studied law in the University of Mich-
igan, reading also with Hon. Jesse S. Hildrup, of Belvidere, during vacations, and is a graduate
of the law department of the university mentioned, class of '73. Mr. Dean practiced his profession
one year in Denver, Colorado; then returned to Belvidere, and is doing business in the courts of
his circuit and in the supreme court of the United States at Chicago. He is a sound lawyer, a
studious and growing man in his profession, and as county judge he is prompt in business, and
popular among the people.
Mr. Dean was elected county judge in November, 1877, and in accordance with the revised
constitution, his term did not expire until the close of 1882; in the fall of 1882 he was reelected
without opposition for a term of four years. When the city charter of Belvidere went into opera-
tion, in the spring of 1881, Judge Dean was elected city attorney, and still holds that office. He
fills official posts with decided credit to himself and to the general satisfaction of the people.
He is of the republican school of politics, and a third degree Mason.
In June, 1873, immediately after his graduation at Ann Arbor, Michigan, Judge Dean was
married to Frances K., daughter of Henry W. Kellogg, of that city, and they have one son and
one daughter.
T
ROBERT LINDBLOM.
CHIC A GO.
HE subject of this sketch was born in Sweden, November 17, 1844. His father, Nils Lind-
blom, was a merchant in the interior at Loviseberg, named after his wife, C. Lovisa (Tolf)
Lindblom, who died in 1853, and was followed a year later by her husband, leaving a family of
five boys, of whom Robert was the third. He, with his two older brothers, was sent to a private
tutor, and after four and a half years' constant study, without one single holiday, entered the
commercial and agricultural college of Labbetorp, from which he graduated in 1860, and moved
to Orebro, where he entered upon the profession of civil engineer, but after two years' service in
the office of C. F. Froman, he concluded to abandon the profession, and engage in commercial
pursuits. After several minor engagements, he finally accepted a position in the office of Eric
Soderlindh, the wealthiest and most extensive grain merchant in Orebro, where he remained
En 6 by E C, Williams & Brn.N.Y"
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITl-:n STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
293
until early in 1864, and left to accept a position in Orebro Enskilda Bank, vacated by his friend,
Fnrsslund, who had tendered his services to Denmark in its struggle with Prussia. The war soon
ended, and his friend returned. The position in the bank was one of the most coveted in the
province, and while Lindblom wanted it, he also knew that his friend would like it back, but was
too delicate to ask it, so Lindblom concluded all at once to hand in his resignation in favor of his
friend, and announced his intention to go to America, which he speedily did, and landed in New
York, November 17, 1864, on his twentieth birthday. After a year's hard struggle in the metrop-
olis, he left for the West, with but three dollars in his pocket, and no ticket.
It is characteristic of his subsequent thrift that when he arrived in Milwaukee, his capital had
increased to ten dollars. He did not remain in Milwaukee, but went at once to the little town of
Otsego, in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he obtained employment in a country store.
Straws show which way the wind blows, and trifles mark the character of men. Mr. Lindblom
could not stoop to comply with the requirements of that business, and was discharged for being
more truthful than discreet. He returned to Milwaukee, and in January, 1866, commenced to
work for L. J. Higby and Sons, in one of their many warehouses, at a dollar and a half a day.
His employers were not long in discovering the value of their man, and advanced him step by
step, through all the departments of the elevator and freight business, until he was made cashier
in their general office. This position Mr. Lindblom retained until his employers moved to New
Orleans. After occupying the same position for a time, under the Saint Paul Railroad Company,
he accepted a position as head man in the commission house of VanKirk and McGeoch, in 1868,
and remained until 1873, when his employers disposed of their grain business, and Mr. Lindblom
formed the commission house of Shroeder and Lindblom. The new firm had small means, but a
large amount of push and ability, and even the first year took rank as one of the leading houses
in Milwaukee, making $80,000 in commission. Prosperity continued until, by accident, and with-
out any intention to speculate, Shroeder and Lindblom became jointly interested with VanKirk
and McGeoch in a large wheat transaction, in 1875, which resulted in the famous November cor-
ner, and subsequent collapse of both firms in 1876. Not long after the firm dissolved, and Homer
Germain went in with Mr. Lindblom, the new firm name being Germain and Lindblom. Shortly
afterward, Mr. Shroeder left Milwaukee, and Mr. Lindblom alone had to shoulder their joint
papers. In 1878 Mr. Lindblom came to Chicago, and opened a house, under the firm name of
Lindblom and Germain, retaining also the Milwaukee house In this new and large field, Mr.
Lindblom at once became a prominent actor, but the constant drain upon his earnings, caused by
payments of the old firm's papers, made his capital insufficient for his growing business, and he
concluded to make connections, whereby he could give his trade the benefit of larger capital.
Lindblom and Germain dissolved, and soon after Mr. Lindblom formed connection with Mr.
Nichols and Company, where he had ample scope for his energy. His success since then has been
phenomenal.
In the spring of 1881 he revisited his old home in Sweden, and with his wife, made the tour
of the continent. His old employer, Mr. Soderlindh, still occupied the old villa, just outside of
Orebro, where he had spent his summers for thirty years. The old gentleman, in his eighty-
second year, and his estimable wife, were here surrounded by their nine children, just as Mr
Lindblom left them seventeen years ago, and into this family were now admitted Mr. Lindblom's
American wife, and the French wife of the oldest son, neither of whom could speak, but soon
learned, the Swedish language.
On his return to Chicago, in the fall of 1881, Mr. Lindblom formed a partnership with his old
partner, Mr. Nelson VanKirk, under the firm name of Robert Lindblom and Company. The
career of this house has been something remarkable. Their customers are among the wealthiest
men, east and west. Their views are sought for, and published, as authorities. They have been
connected with several large transactions, every one of which has been successful, and they will
not be connected, in any respect, with any deal not based on real merit. Mr. Lindblom attributes
30
2g4 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
his success to two causes. First, he has never betrayed a confidence, or a client, and, second, he
always tells the truth, and by so doing, mystifies the traders on the board.
Politically, he is a liberal republican, but not a partisan. He has held several positions of
honor in the party, among them that of secretary of the central republican club, of Milwaukee,
but has never sought, or accepted, office. He has, however, taken the stump on several occasions,
and is regarded as an earnest and logical speaker. In 1872 he started, and edited, a daily news-
paper, in Milwaukee, in company with A. A. Singer. It was called the "Daily Guide," and was
originally intended as a campaign paper, to forward the election of Harrison Ludington, as
mayor. It became the official organ of the city, in recognition of its services in electing the first
republican mayor of Milwaukee, subsequently passed into other hands, and was finally absorbed
by the "Daily News." In religion, Mr. Lindblom is a liberal in its true and religious sense. He
was reared a Lutheran, but has grown beyond the narrow confines of sectarian creeds, yet toler-
ating all.
In 1874 Mr. Lindblom was married to Miss Hattie L. Lewis, the daughter of the late James
Lewis, and Mary D. (Campbell) Lewis, his wife, who were among the oldest settlers of Milwau-
kee. The ceremony took place at the residence of the bride, in the very house where she was
born. His brother, Oscar Lindblom, was also united in marriage to Miss Mary L. Lewis, a sister
of Hattie, at the same time and place.
Mr. Lindblom is six feet tall, of fair complexion and nervous temperament. He decides
promptly, and acts without hesitation. This dash makes him at times appear reckless, and yet
there are few men on the Board of Trade as conservative as he is. He simply does promptly
what he knows he wants to do, and if he has any choice at all he would rather be in the minority
than the majority. He has unbounded confidence in himself, and possesses the magnetism to
inspire this confidence in others. One of his competitors remarked that "Bob Lindblom makes
me think I am right, when I know I am wrong." He is still a very young man, with all the pos-
sibilities of education, experience, capital and a good name before him. His constitution is not
robust, but by a regular, happy, domestic life, he husbands his strength, and may becom'e as old
as he is prominent.
WILLIAM PRENTISS.
MA COMB.
THE state's attorney for McDonough county, with whose name we head this sketch, was born
in Davenport, Iowa, September 19, 1848, his parents being William Prentiss, senior, and
Elizabeth (Gapen) Prentiss. His father was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1815 ; was a
graduate of the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, and died at Vermont, Fulton county, this
state, in January, 1854. The mother of our subject was born in Green county, Pennsylvania;
married James Manley, after her first husband's death, and is living in Macomb. Mr. Manley
was a member of the legislature in 1871-2-, and is one of the early settlers in this county. Mr.
Prentiss attended common schools during the winter season until fifteen years of age, farming
the rest of the year in Fulton and McDonough counties. He attended the seminary at Cherry
Grove, near Abingdon. a term or two ; went to the normal school, near Bloomington, intending
to take a full course in the model department, but broke down in health in two months, and was
obliged to leave. Not long afterward he entered Knox College, Galesburgh, taking Latin, and
following the scientific curriculum, proposing to go through college, but his health gave way in
two years, and in the spring of 1 869 he went to Mankato, Blue Earth county, Minnesota, with dubi-
ous prospects of ever regaining his health. He bought wild land in Cottonwood county, and
opened a farm, teaching school during the winters. While in Minnesota he was superintendent
of schools in Cottonwood county for three years. He also commenced the study of law, being
his own preceptor.
Mr. Prentiss continued to farm until late in the autumn of 1875 ; taught school the following
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
295
winter, and the next spring, his health being restored, he returned to McDonough county. He
read law with Hon. J. S. Bailey, of Macomb, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1878. He is of
the firm of Prentiss and Baily, his partner being Jacob L. Baily. They do business in the several
courts of the state; have a remunerative practice, and stand as well as any firm in the county.
Mr. Prentiss is studious and ambitious, and that class of men are sure to grow, unless health fails.
He has made a promising start in professional life, and his friends predict for him an honorable
future.
In November, 1878, Mr. Prentiss was elected state's attorney to fill an unexpired term, and
was reflected in 1880. His present term will expire with December, 1884. He was mayor of
the city from May, 1881, to June, 1882. In every official position which he has held, he has shown
marked promptness and faithfulness, and good executive talents.
In politics his affiliations are with the democratic party, though we believe he is not regarded
as very radical. While in Minnesota, and a farmer, he joined the grangers, and was master of a
lodge of that order. He is a Freemason.
December 24, 1872, Mr. Prentiss was married to Miss Elizabeth Helen McCaughey, of Fulton
county, this state, and they have three children, all sons, James Manley, Jackson McCaughey and
William. Mr. Prentiss is a stockholder in the Macomb Callendar Clock Company, and does all
he can to encourage local industries calculated to build up the city.
ROBERT E. LOGAN.
MORRISON.
ROBERT EMMET LOGAN, a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser in Whiteside county, is
a son of Robert and Polly (Rowe) Logan, and was born in Bath, Steuben county, New York,
February 13, 1828. Both parents were also natives of that state, and his father, a farmer, was
in the second war with England. The son was educated at the Bath Academy, and the Elmira
high school; learned the cabinet-maker's trade, and worked at it in New York until 1855, when he
went to Davenport, Iowa, where he was the foreman of a furniture factory.
Two or three years afterwod Mr. Logan moved into this state; taught school between one and
two years at Portland, Whiteside county, and then opened a cabinet shop in the same place. In
1860 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Whiteside county, under Robert G. Clendenin, and in
1862 was elected sheriff, which office he held two years. When Hon. Richard J. Oglesby was in
the gubernatorial chair, Mr. Logan was appointed (1865) penitentiary commissioner; was reap-
pointed at the end of two years, and was then (1858) elected to the same position by the people,
the office having become elective.
In 1864 Mr. Logan bought a farm of 240 acres, at Union Grove, three and a half miles west of
Morrison; and he is now engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, being quite an enter-
prising stock feeder, and doing a thrifty business. He was vice-president of the Whiteside County
Central Agricultural Society from 1875 to 1877, and has been its president during the last five
years. He is a man of unusual executive ability, and makes an excellent presiding officer. Mr.
Logan is a republican of the most pronounced kind, and is a man of much influence in the party.
For a score of years he has attended all the county, district and state conventions, and is often
chairman of the county, and sometimes of the district conventions. He was a delegate to the
national convention held in Chicago in 1880, and by instructions of his district, voted steady for
Hon. E. B. Washburne for the presidential nominee. He was also a presidential elector that year
on the Garfield and Arthur ticket.
He gave the ox, the fattest one in his whole large herd, that was roasted at the barbecue, held
at Morrison that year, ex-Governor Oglesby being the orator on that occasion. Samuel Johnson
or some other Englishman argues that he who drives fat oxen should himself be fat, and if Mr.
Logan is not fat, he has a portly build, and noble bearing, and walks like one of the kings of the
soil.
396 VNITF.n STATES RIOGRArillCAI. DICTIONARY.
He is popular among his townsmen and in the county, and has been supervisor of his town
for seven consecutive years, and chairman of the board at least two or three years. He is a
Royal Arch Mason. For years, when residing in Morrison, he was quite active in temperance,
and prominent in the Order of Good Templars, being grand worthy commander three years, and
grand worthy marshal two years.
He married February 23, 1864, Malvina, daughter of Hon. James McCoy, of Fulton City,
Whiteside county, and they have four children, three sons and one daughter, most of them
attending school.
HON. AUGUSTUS G. HAMMOND.
W YOMING.
A UGUSTUS GIDEON HAMMOND, son of Gideon and Nancy (Chandler) Hammond, and
L~\. one of the leading merchants in Wyoming, is a native of Essex county, New York, dating
his birth at Westport, January 27, 1834. The progenitor of the Hammond family in this country
was from Wales, and settled in Connecticut, his descendants scattering over most of the northern
states. Gideon Hammond was a farmer and lumber dealer, a volunteer at the battle of Platts-
burgh, and a member of the New York legislature from fifteen to twenty years.
Augustus received an academic education at Westport, New York, Waukesha, Wisconsin, and
Farmington, Illinois, coming west in 1848, and settling in Wyoming in 1850. After finishing
his education, he taught school five or six winters, and farmed the rest of the year. Subsequently
he devoted himself exclusively to agricultural pursuits until 1865, when he opened a store in
Wyoming, and has since confined himself to merchandising. For a while he traded alone; was
then in company with C. S. Payne, and later with Sylvester F. Otman. Since 1878 he has been
of the firm of Hammond and Walters, his partner being John W. Walters. They are doing prob-
ably the heaviest business of any merchants in town, and no mercantile house in the, county has
a more honorable standing.
Mr. Hammond was elected justice of the peace, and treasurer of the school board in 1862, and
still holds the latter office. In the autumn of 1874 he was elected to the lower house of the gen-
eral assembly, and served one term, being on the committees on education, insurance and drain-
age. His politics are republican, and he is an earnest worker in the interests of the party. In
the Masonic order he has taken the third degree.
The wife of Mr. Hammond was Cecelia B. Wynkoop, from Chemung county, New York, they
being married in October, 1853. They have three children: Harry A., cashier of Scott and Wrig-
ley's Bank, Wyoming ; Will W., a lawyer, in partnership with Judge Henry B. Hopkins, of Peoria,
and Mary Louisa, who is at home.
The subject of this sketch is one of the older class of merchants in Wyoming, and has always
borne a high character for honesty and fair dealing. His record is without a blemish.
HON. GEORGE KIRK.
WAUKEGAN.
ONE of the most public spirited and thoroughgoing business men of the city of Waukegan is
George Kirk, who represents the counties of Lake and McHenry in the state senate. He is
a son of the late Samuel Kirk, a woolen manufacturer, and was born in Cairo, Greene county, New
York, February 9, 1824. His grandfather came from England, and both father and grandfather died
in the Empire State. The mother of George, before her marriage, was Elizabeth Crabtree. The
family moved from Greene to Dutchess county when our subject was quite young, and he was edu-
cated in a common school near where Vassar College now stands; worked with his father during
part of his teens; learned the trade of a machinist in Poughkeepsie; came to the West as far as
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
297
Chicago in 1843, and helped to build the machinery which dredged out Chicago harbor. For
four months during his first summer in Chicago he was the only machinist at work in that city,
the few other shops of the kind being closed for repairs or for some other reason, the times being
extremely dull.
Mr. Kirk continued to work at his trade in Chicago till the summer of 1847, when he settled
in Waukegan, started a foundry and machine shop, and for several years was engaged in making
reapers, mowers and threshing machines, the pioneer manufacturer of agricultural machines in
the place. Since 1855 he has been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, laths and shingles,
being at first alone, then of the firm of Kirk and Adams, and now of the firm of George K.
Adams and Company. They are doing a thrifty business.
For twenty-two years, while furnishing lumber supplies, Mr. Kirk was also in the pork packing
business, and at the same time doing a great deal of building, he having put up some of the best
stores and other buildings in the city of Waukegan. He is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
enterprise, and never seems to be happier than when most busy in aiding to build up and beautify
the pleasant city in which he lives.
Mr. Kirk is very highly esteemed as a citizen, and has had various offices thrust upon him, such
as alderman, supervisor, etc., in which he has rendered services much more valuable to the public
than remunerative to himself, but he seems to be willing to bear his share of such burdens. In
1880 he was elected to the state senate to represent the counties already mentioned, and he carries
his practical and most excellent business habits into legislative as well as his own private business.
He is chairman of the committees on state buildings and grounds and visiting state charities.
He represents a strong republican district, and the party has no occasion to be disappointed in
its selection.
He is a Blue Lodge Mason, member of Waukegan Lodge, No. 76. He married in 1849 Jane
Adams, daughter of Daniel Adams, of Waukegan. and sister of George K. Adams, and they
have lost one son and have four children living.
GRANT GOODRICH.
CHICAGO,
FOR forty-seven years the name of Grant Goodrich has been a familiar and prominent one in
the city of Chicago. He came May 14, 1834, when the city could boast of but seven frame
dwelling houses and a population of about two hundred and fifty souls, exclusive of its garrison.
As a business man, a lawyer, a judge of the superior court, as a broad-minded philanthropist and
reformer, as an earnest Christian gentleman, as an energetic, thoroughgoing enterprising western
man and representative Chicagoan, he has been well known and highly esteemed throughout the
West for nearly half a century; and now at the age of nearly his allotted threescore years and
ten, but with eye still bright, form straight as an arrow, mind active and clear as in the best years
of his manhood, he is living in the quiet enjoyment of a well deserved and honorably earned
competence, and looks upon the village of his boyhood, now grown great and. famous, with a sort
of fatherly interest and affection pleasant to behold. He is still as jealous of her honor, as
anxious for her welfare, as interested in her progress, as when he was an active participant in her
affairs, and will doubtless be engaged in planning some scheme for the moral or material advance-
ment of her citizens till the latest hour of his life. He may be justly regarded as not only one
of the oldest, but one of the most prominent and useful of her citizens, and of the record of his
useful and well spent life neither his children nor his fellow-citizens will ever be ashamed.
Grant Goodrich was born in Milton, Saratoga county, New York, August 7, 1811. Under
the administration of Madison, a hasty and ill-advised declaration of war against England had
been promulgated June 18 preceding. The country was in a ferment of hasty preparation, which
the sober judgment of history now decides was as ill-advised and unnecessary as it was precipi-
2Q8 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
tate. The country was new and the people poor, schools were scarce, and parents were unable to
give their children more than the common rudiments of an education, so that 'Gideon Goodrich
was unable to give his family of eight sons and one daughter the advantages his youngest son,
and the only remaining representative of his father's family now living, has conferred upon his
own children. But Mr. Goodrich comes of old and energetic New England stock, who for cen-
turies have been accustomed to self-reliance, whose sons have carved out their own fortunes in
new fields, and have learned how to compel circumstances to bend to their will and yield the best
results possible.
William Goodrich, the earliest representative of the family in America, emigrated from Eng-
land to this country in 1630, only ten years after the Mayflower landed the pilgrim fathers on
Plymouth Rock. With his brother Thomas he settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1636.
From thence they removed to Rocky Hill, Connecticut, where some members of the family have
continued to reside till the present day. Gideon Goodrich was married to Eunice Warner, of
Wethersfield, New York, and soon afterward removed to Milton, same state, where their chil-
dren were all born. Having purchased large tracts of land in Ripley, Chautauqua county, New
York, the family moved there in 1817, when Grant was but six years old. Being a man of great
energy and spirit, and specially active in promoting education, Mr. Goodrich hired a private
tutor, and for two years his own and his neighbors' children received instruction under his own
roof. When ten years old Grant went to live with his sister, at Westfield, where he studied the
higher English branches and the classics under the tuition of J. C. Center, a lawyer of that place.
Having already lost three brothers with consumption, and symptoms of the dread disease
showing themselves in him, it was thought best for him to suspend study and enter upon a more
active out-door life; so, after two years spent in Westfield, he took a few trips on one of the ves-
sels of an older brother, who had established himself at Portland Harbor, Lake Erie, as a ship
owner in the lake trade. His father had in the meantime also removed with his family to Port-
land Harbor. The pure air of the lake and manual exercise greatly improved his health, so that
he remained on the lakes for two years, thus effectually removing all predisposition to consump-
tion, and, as the event proved, laying the foundation fora green old age. The practical knowledge
thus gained of the business has since been of good service to him in the practice of law. At the
expiration of his nautical career he returned to Westfield, where he completed his education in
the academy. Upon leaving this institution, at the age of eighteen he entered the law office of
Dixon and Smith, where he remained till 1834, when he removed to Chicago. He did not at first
establish himself in business here, but spent considerable time in traveling through the state.
Being thoroughly posted in the location and value of farm lands in northern Illinois, he returned
to Chicago and opened a law office, in connection with which he engaged extensively in real
estate operations.
Until 1837 the emigration to this part of the state was very rapid. In 1836 alone public lands
to the value of $5,000,000 were entered in Illinois. Speculation was rife, and real estate in Chi-
cago reached prices it never permanently commanded for thirty years thereafter. Governor
Ford, in his history, makes the humorous statement that the staple article of Illinois export was
at that time town plats. Town lots in Chicago and hundreds of other cities in Illinois, most of
which existed only on paper, were purchased at the East unsight and unseen by speculators, just
as mining property is now purchased in Colorado or Wyoming.
But the crash came in 1837, and Mr. Goodrich went under with pretty nearly the entire popu-
lation of the state. He had put his name to accommodation paper for his friends during the sun-
shine, and the storm engulfed him to the amount of $60,000. Many took advantage of the bank-
rupt law, but Mr. Goodrich manfully shouldered the burden which took eighteen of the best years
of his life to discharge.
In 1842 Illinois was in the dust. Her treasury was empty; her credit destroyed. Her name
was a world-wide reproach. She was bankrupt hopelessly. She knew not what to do. She
was overwhelmed in debt and had no property. Her people were in debt far beyond their moans
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2QQ
of payment. Her statesmen were weak and cowardly. They had involved the state in all her
trouble, and had not the courage to take the consequences nor the wisdom to extricate her. It
only needed a demagogue bold enough to avow the purpose, and the dishonor and shame of open
repudiation would have completed the dire misfortune. But the hand of Providence seemed
especially to have raised up a man whose wisdom, firmness and integrity was equal to the occa-
sion, and Governor Thomas Ford gathered to his support the bravest and truest men of the state,
who, resolutely turning their backs upon the evil suggestion of repudiation, soon devised the
means to extricate themselves and the state from the bottomless pit of bankruptcy and despair
into which the reckless spirit of speculation had plunged them. During all these evil and dis-
heartening days there was no more active supporter of public honesty than Grant Goodrich. He
encouraged by his own private example the policy he eloquently advocated in public affairs
the payment of every dollar of the public debt, both principal and interest. It is a matter of con-
gratulation that he has lived to see the year 1883 and the state of Illinois free from debt, with an
untarnished reputation and a full treasury.
In the fall of 1835 Mr. Goodrich became associated in the law business with the late Judge
Giles Spring, and this partnership continued until Mr. Spring was elected judge of the county
court of Cook county in 1851. In 1854 he formed a partnership with W. W. Farwell, afterward
circuit judge of Cook county, and in 1856 Sidney Smith, who has also since been elected judge of
the superior court, entered the firm, which was thereafter known as Goodrich, Farwell and Smith.
It formed a very strong team, and soon acquired an extensive practice throughout this and the
adjoining states; but in 1857 Mr. Goodrich's health tailed from overwork of a naturally slender
constitution, and upon the advice of his physician he went to Europe, and remained until the
spring of 1859. Upon his return he was elected one of the judges of the superior court, and held
the position for over four years, when he again resumed his old place in the firm of Goodrich,
Farwell and Smith. In 1874 he finally retired from general practice, confining his attention only
to the most important cases.
In educational and religious affairs Mr. Goodrich has been for many years an earnest and
effective worker. In connection with Doctor J. Evans, Orrington Lunt, J. K. Bottsford, William
Wheeler and Philo Judson, he is the founder and patron of the Northwestern University, at
Evanston, which, since its foundation in 1853, has been in a most flourishing condition, and
hardly excelled by any educational institution in the West.
He has, since 1832, been a most zealous Methodist, and to his wisdom, more than any other's,
is the First Methodist Episcopal Church of this city indebted for its possession of the valuable
and productive property at the corner of Clark and Washington streets, known as the Methodist
church block. In an early day this church owned a lot one hundred and thirty-three feet on
Clark and eighty on Washington, upon which they erected a suitable house of worship, and
when, in 1858, the inevitable question of removal further up town came before the congregation,
he opposed it with great energy and success, and advocated the erection of a business block upon
the site of the church, using two of the upper stories for religious worship. His plan finally pre-
vailed, and was carried out, and although the original structure was destroyed by the great fire of
1871, it was rebuilt at a cost of $125,000, and still remains the only house of worship in the heart
of the city. For many years the income from rentals in the block was $32,000 per year, all of
which, by the terms of the original charter, has been devoted to the aid of weak sister churches
and the purchase of lots and erection of churches in Chicago, with the exception of the small sum
of $2,000 annually, which was set apart for the support of its own ministry.
In politics Mr. Goodrich was originally a whig, but became one of the earliest champions of
the free-soil party, and with it was afterward absorbed into the great anti-slavery republican
party. He was a member of the union defense committee during the war, and an earnest advo-
cate of the war measures of the administration of Mr. Lincoln. As an evidence of his genuine
anti-slavery sentiments, it may be mentioned that he was one of the directors of the Freedman's Aid
Society. He has always been an earnest temperance man, but never an advocate of prohibition,
3OO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL. DICTIONARY.
believing it practically impossible to accomplish and impolitic to attempt. And when, in 1854,
the legislature passed a prohibitory law, and submitted it to the people for ratification, although
it was voted down by the state at large, yet so effective had the temperance work been in Chicago
that, to the astonishment of the people generally, the city gave it a good, rousing majority.
Mr. Goodrich was married in 1836 to Juliet Atwater, of Westfield, New York, by whom he
has had five children, four sons and one daughter. His children are all living with the exception
of one very promising young man, Charles H. Goodrich, who, after completing his education at
Stuttgart, Germany, studied law in the office of his father, entered into partnership with his
brother, Walter G. Goodrich, and after a short practice of only six months was taken down with
typhoid fever, and to the overwhelming grief of his parents, relatives and friends, died 'at the age
of twenty-six. His daughter, May Florence Maguire, after being happily married and settled in
Saint Louis, has returned a widow to the paternal mansion. Of his remaining sons one is a
manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts; one engaged in the practice of law in this city, and one
in the real estate business.
The great fire devoured $60,000 of Mr. Goodrich's fortune at an age when men generally look
for repose from their labors. With remarkable energy he, however, began at once to repair its
damages, and succeeded in doing so beyond his most sanguine hopes, but only at the expense of
his health, for in 1876 it once more gave way under the unusual strain, and for several years his
only effort to do business has been as an amusement, or rather as a necessary relief to his still
active mind.
DANIEL K1MBALL PEARSONS.
CHICAGO.
A FEW years ago the financial condition of Chicago was deplorable. Extravagance had so
outrun income that an indebtedness largely in excess of the constitutional limit had been
incurred. To meet the deficiency thus created, the city had issued certificates of indebtedness,
the legality of which was disputed in the courts. Meanwhile, large numbers of these certificates
had been taken by eastern bankers and others, and the holders had become alarmed at the situa-
tion. Hard times were stalking gloomily through the land, and capital was averse to almost
every new proffer of investment, and solicitous for its securities everywhere. Chicago was
soon to need more money, and had particular necessity for the maintenance of its good financial
name.
At this juncture there appeared among the bankers of New York an earnest, straightforward
sort of man, just in from the West. He was known, personally or by reputation, to some of them,
and was not long in making himself understood by the others. He had come, officially, as a
member of his city's common council, and privately, as a capitalist and man of honor like them-
selves, to assure them that Chicago was going to pay its debts. He pledged his individual word,
and that of his city, that no matter who might be in power, no matter how courts might decide,
no matter how long financial depression might brood over the nation, Chicago was sure to meet
its certificates of indebtedness, principal and interest, promptly on time, dollar for dollar. The
eastern financiers believed the man, and believed in the city he represented. Their fears were
allayed, and he returned home. His word to them was so well kept, and his predictions so well '
verified, that some time later, when Chicago needed a little ready money, the same man moved
around among local capitalists, and easily raised half a million dollars. This he did, despite the
fact that the courts, in the interim, had decided the much discussed certificates to be practically
waste paper illegal promises to pay, which the city might repudiate if it pleased, but which the
city never did.
The man who made these two memorable journeys was Daniel Kimball Pearsons, and so pro-
nounced was their effect upon the financial standing of Chicago, that when Mr. Pearsons retired
from the council, two years later, a committee of citizens waited upon him, and in a series of
Cnj brE EWllh.m, SBrNT
,,-.. 0? f
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
303
handsomely engrossed resolutions testified their appreciation and that of the city for his effective
work in this and other important public matters. As the resolutions said, Mr. Pearsons held his
office " with the approval and plaudits of his entire constituents, regardless of party affiliation."
The subject of this sketch was born in Bradford, Vermont, April 14, 1820, of sterling old Green
Mountain stock. His maternal descent is of the Israel Putnam family, his mother's maiden name
being Hannah Putnam, daughter of John Putnam. The latter was a revolutionary soldier, the
entire Putnam family seeming to have participated in that war. Mr. Pearsons' father, John
Pearsons, was a farmer, who moved to Vermont nearly a hundred years ago. Mr. Pearsons'
mother, at the present writing, is still living, in full mental vigor and fair health, an energetic
New England lady, eighty-six years old. She has been the mother of nine children, five of whom
are now alive. It is remembered, with satisfaction to herself and pride to her descendants, that
she once spun and wove the clothing for her entire family, and could teach the ever healthful
need of work by practical example.
At the age of sixteen, Mr. Pearsons began keeping school. It is a curious fact that almost
everybody of after note who has lived in New England has, at some time in early life, been a
school teacher. Examine the record of any prominent man from down east, and you are sure to
find that he was once a village pedagogue. After five winters as monarch of the ferule and spell-
ing book, Mr. Pearsons entered Dartmouth College. He remained in this college two years,
pursuing a course of medical study afterward at Woodstock. After graduating, and living for a
time in his native state, he removed to Chicopee, Massachusetts, a thriving manufacturing town
near Springfield. Here he soon made for himself a fairlv large and successful practice, which he
relinquished in the year 1857, with genuine sorrow alike to his friends and himself. But, though
destiny was marking out a new and vastly broader field of action for him, he was now indelibly
fixed in the minds and upon the tongues of his acquaintances as " Doctor," and by that term is
familiarly known to-day to his family, as well as to his old-time friends, among whom the writer
of this sketch is glad to be classed.
In 1857 the grandly growing West had so attracted Mr. Pearsons' attention that he disposed
of his practice in Chicopee, and went to farming in Ogle county, Illinois. A farm life always
had its charms for him, and has continued to fascinate him more or less to this day. To own
half a dozen or more well stocked, thrifty farms, has been a staple recreation with him much of the
time for years, and even in this present year of grace his address is as likely to be "at the farm,"
near Elgin, as at the hotel in Chicago. But the original Ogle county country life was rather too
contracted for Mr. Pearsons, and he soon settled in this city, going into the real estate business.
First taking the agency for a large amount of farm property, he afterward assumed charge of the
Sturgis and other outside estates. It was not long before he had sold out these lands, with satis-
faction and profit both to himself and his principals, and was handling larger tracts for even more
prominent parties. He sold land for the Illinois Central railroad, Michael Sullivan, the farmer
king, and others, his sales in Illinois alone amounting to over one million acres. These large
sales gave him a wide acquaintance with the West and its farmers, and in 1860 he began loaning
money, chiefly as agent, upon farm lands. This soon grew into a very extensive business, and
for twelve years he loaned an average of more than $1,000,000 annually. This large sum, divided
among hundreds of western farmers, was of undoubted, if not incalculable, benefit in the improve-
ment of the great country tributary to Chicago. The loans were placed so as to benefit alike the
borrower and the lender, and while Mr. Pearsons is to-day admired and respected by those to
whom the money was lent, he is no less secure in the esteem of the lenders, whose interests he at
all times watched and conserved. Indeed, his care and judgment in the matter of securities was
something remarkable. The writer chances to know of an illustration in point. Among the
parties for whom Mr. Pearsons acted was a large eastern insurance company. When the panic
of 1873, and the weary years succeeding it, came, the legislature of the state in which this com-
pany was organized was compelled to make a strict examination into the condition of all the
state's insurance securities. Of course, in the terrible grinding down of values which had
304 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
occurred, much depreciation of security had taken place, and in most instances something to
criticise was discovered. But with the loans made by Mr. Pearsons all was found secure, and of
ample value to insure the payment of the indebtedness, and of the immense quantity of securities
examined, those placed by him were specially praised as being desirable and satisfactory.
In 1877 Mr. Pearsons retired from the loaning business, so far as acting for other capitalists
was concerned, his own affairs having assumed such extensive proportions as to require his whole
attention. He was now the possessor of very large and valuable timber tracts in Michigan, the
owner of several .farms in Illinois and elsewhere, a director of the Chicago Chamber of Com-
merce, Chicago City Railway Company and other leading institutions, and of course a prominent
stockholder in them all. He had twice been elected alderman from the first ward, by far the
most important political district of the city. His election had both times been compassed by
a union of the best elements of all parties, and was wholly nonpartisan. His services in the
council as chairman of the finance committee have already been referred to, and were of a charac-
ter and value not easily overestimated. About the time of his voluntary retirement from local
political life, Mr. Pearsons also began to withdraw from active participation in the more arduous
of his business enterprises, relinquishing several of his corporation directorships, although retain-
ing and even increasing his monetary interest in them. But he was desirous of gradually work-
ing his affairs into such a condition that he might henceforth have the easy comfort of a life not
too severely hampered by business. To this end he began investing in choice Chicago residence
property, chiefly in the northern division of the city. Where this newly purchased property was
not already improved, he immediately erected fine residences, and in a short time was the owner
of some fifty elegant houses and flats, which he still retains.
Having thus seen his western possessions grow from the solitary farm in Ogle county until
they now amount to a certainly very agreeable aggregate sum, so well invested that the returns
constitute one of the most comfortable incomes in Chicago, Mr. Pearsons is devoting the larger
share of his time to travel and recreation, interspersed with quiet but systematic acts of benevo-
lence. He is already considerable of a traveler, having visited Europe twice, Cuba, and all of
the American states except California; and is likely to hereafter see something more of other
lands. His charity is of the unostentatious order, but if his right hand does not always know
what the left is doing, it is not because the latter is idle. Most of the charitable institutions of
the city count him among their steady contributors, while the founding of libraries in country
towns, the assisting of worthy young men and women to obtain educations, and the dispensing
of large sums in private acts of benevolence, are good deeds, known perhaps to more of his friends
than he is aware of.
Mr. Pearsons was married many years ago, to Miss Marietta Chapin, of the western Massa-
chusetts Chapin family, a family, perhaps the most extensive and distinguished of any in that
part of the state, and one, indeed, that is known and respected in most of the leading business
and social circles throughout all New England.
In concluding this brief epitome of a characteristic American business man's characteristic
life, it may not be amiss to say that, although not a regular communicant of any church, he has
always been a great believer in the worth of religious influences, and a stanch supporter of church
societies. The First Presbyterian of this city has for many years past found him among its
attendants, while other churches are not unfamiliar with his presence and contributions.
Mr. Pearsons is unconventional in manner, his life-long personal independence manifesting
itself in an absence of all affectation. He calls things always by their right names, and to him a
spade is never anything else but a spade. Thoroughly domestic in his tastes, the society of wife
and a few of the friends whom he really likes suits him better than more diversified and mixed
social enjoyments. He has never been a club or secret society man
Though a firm believer in the illimitable future of Chicago and the West, and a permanent
citizen here for the remainder of his days, Mr. Pearsons still remembers with love and admiration
his native New England state. He was among the founders of the Vermont Society in Illinois,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 305
and one of its first presidents. Perhaps his methods and record are as typical of Chicago suc-
cess as could well be indicated. Men of sturdy New England antecedents and breeding, trans-
planted to the West, have probably done more than any other one class of people to advance in
its marvelous progress this part of the world. The eagerness to do real hard work; the integrity
to know and fearlessly pursue the right; the judgment to foresee the magnificent possibilities of
the country, and take advantage of them in advance; the prudence to economize and earn wealth
before spending it; these are the qualities exhibited in the western race for success by men like
Mr. Pearsons, and are the qualities that have helped make the growth of Chicago and its con-
tiguous country the marvel of modern civilization.
WILLIAM S. PEARCE.
WA UKEGAN
WILLIAM SAMUEL PEARCE, the oldest apothecary in Waukegan, if not the oldest in
Lake county, and a verv substantial citizen, is a native of Essex, England, his birth bear-
ing the date of January 26, 1824. His parents were Rev. James B. Pearce, a most worthy man,
dying when William was fourteen years old, and Mary (Westrup) Pearce, who died in 1848.
Our subject received his education under his father, who for many years was the principal of a
classical school at Maidenhead, Berks: learned the apothecary's business in the old country, and
before leaving the old world, traveled through every county of England, principally on foot, and
also through France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, mostly in the same primitive
style of transportation. Like Bayard Taylor, when a young man Mr. Pearce wanted to see some-
thing of Europe and its people, and thought, we presume, he could do it to the best advantage
afoot. His travels in all were about four thousand miles.
In 1847 Mr. Pearce came to this country, and after traveling and prospecting for six months,
located on a farm three miles from Warrenville, Du Page county, Illinois, where he remained
about two years, and then, in the spring of 1849, returned to England, reaching there just after
his mother's death, and having the sad comfort of visiting her newly made grave. Both parents
sleep in the cemetery at Maidenhead.
In the autumn of 1849 Mr. Pearce returned to this country, and for a short year was in the
drug business in Chicago, in company with Doctor Hagemann, at the end of which time he went
to the farm in Du Page county. About twelve months later he concluded to abandon farming,
and attend to business with which he was more familiar, and which was more congenial to his
tastes; so he returned once more to Chicago, and resumed the trade of a druggist, adding that of
medical practice, he having become quite well read in the profession.
In the spring of 1855, Mr. Pearce settled in Waukegan, and he has been an apothecary here
since that date, being one of the best known merchants of his class in this part of Illinois. He
has held very few, if any, civil offices, and has lived a quiet, yet very industrious life. Minding
his own business, and putting mind into his business, he has made it a success. In doing so, no
merchant in the place has made a cleaner record, he always having a scrupulous regard to fair
dealing in all his transactions. Gains ill gotten would afford men like Mr. Pearce no comfort
or satisfaction. He has never aimed to do an extensive business, and his accumulations are not
equal to those of some of his neighboring tradesmen, but they are all the result of strictly honor-
able traffic through a long series of years.
Twice since coming to this city, Mr. Pearce has visited the old country, and the graves of his
parents, whose virtues he sacredly cherishes. He has relatives still living in Middlesex and
Berkshire.
Mr. Pearce is a Knight Templar, and has held various offices in the Masonic order. He mar-
ried in Kane county, Illinois, in 1853, Miss Mary Grace Copp, a native of Bristol, England, and
of twelve children, the result of this union, nine are yet living, the others dying in infancy. The
306 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
eldest son, William W., is a druggist with his father, and most of the others are securing their
education.
Mr. Pearce first saw Waukegan (then Little Fort) from the deck of a steamer, which halted here
long enough for him to climb the high bank. He was impressed with the beauty and healthful-
ness of the site, and since settling here has not been disappointed in regard to his first impression,
having never been confined to his bed a single day in Waukegan. With the exception of one day
in Chicago, when he had a touch of the cholera (1854), he has not been laid up for forty years.
His habits are, and always have been excellent.
JULIUS M. HUMMEL.
SANDWICH.
JULIUS MONTGOMERY HUMMEL, one of the most thoroughly self-reliant and successful
business men in De Kalb county, is a son of Peter F. and Bathsheba A. (Eastabrooks) Hum-
mel, and was born in the township of Somonauk, five miles from the city of Sandwich, January
u, 1841. Both parents were born in the eastern states, the Hummels being of German pedi-
gree. Forty years ago this part of Illinois was sparsely settled; school-houses were "like angels'
visits, few and far between," there being no house of the kind within three miles of the farm on
which Julius first heard the bob-o-links sing, and the result was that he never went to school three
months in his life. He early succeeded, however, in conquering the rudimentary branches, and if
he ever had that disease so chronic among boys, not to mention grown up people, called laziness,
he soon conquered that too.
His father, a mechanic in early life, came to this state with moderate means, settled on a claim,
and, having a large family of children, had a hard struggle to give them a comfortable support.
He went to California in 1849, and died in the city of Mexico while on his way home in 1851.
Julius, one of the younger children, and one of the four out of ten who lived to grow up, was
sent from home before his father's death, when in fact not more than eight years old, and for
three years he worked hard, simply for his bread and butter. He did farm work, and as soon as he
received wages sent his earnings to his mother, with whom lived a younger brother and a sister.
His first wages were fifty cents a day, he working side by side with full-grown men and doing as
good a day's work as ihe best of them. When fourteen and fifteen years old, at the proper
season, he used to cut hay on his mother's land and haul it to town, selling it for three dollars
per ton. His wagon would hold only half a ton, and the poor old horse, already spoken for by
the crows, could haul only that amount. It took him two days to cut, cure and market the half
ton, but the $1.50 made him happy, for it looked as large as $150 now. When sixteen years of
age Julius coaxed his uncle, James L. Eastabrooks, to purchase him a fiddle, vulgarly called violin,
and then he was happy as a king, for he saw in the near future another source of income. At
seventeen he commenced playing in public gratuitously, and at eighteen, after working all day,
walked five miles, his brother, James L. Hummel, accompanying him, fiddled all night, received
seventy-five cents, and returned in ample season for another day's work, losing no time, and netting
six York shillings, taking scrip for his pay, and glad to get that. Subsequently he found his own
conveyance, .rode fifteen miles, bore his own expenses, and received $2.50 for his night's work. A
little later (1860) he received $5 a night. About" the time that civil war broke out he formed what
was known as Hummel's band, which organization continued up to the centennial year.
In 1862 James L. Hummel went into the army, leaving Julius to play alone, and he now
charged $10 a night, and not long afterward $15, greenbacks being plenty and cheap. After the
war closed he received as high as $50 a night, and his nocturnal labors, since he was seventeen
years old, yielded him more than $7,000. And the best of all is that he never spent a dime of
that money for liquor or tobacco. In a single week in 1867 he made $75 in the nights, and did
not lose an hour's work during the daytime.
LiORARY
W THE
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
309
At twenty-one years of age our subject took his departure from single life, choosing Miss
Martha J. Coleman, commencing this alliance by borrowing money in order to make a start, work-
ing a farm on shares. In 1867 he bought a farm of 100 acres five miles from Sandwich, paying
$300 down, and running in debt for the balance. He improved it two years, and then sold it at
a large advance. Prior to this time, in 1866, he hired out to Baker and Dennis, of Somonauk,
who were engaged in selling agricultural implements, working for them until he had disposed of
the farm, which he improved mainly by proxy. In 1869 he started in business for himself alone,
keeping at first agricultural implements mainly, but adding to the variety and extent for his stock
from year to year, and showing a wonderful growth. He did about $8,000 a year at the start,
and is now doing more than $80,000, all built up in the last fifteen years. He carries a $10,000
stock of carriages alone; sells three hundred sewing machines a year; has a handsome sale of
pianos, organs and other musical instruments.
In 1881 he put up a three-story brick building 30X112 feet, used for offices, salesrooms, stor-
age, etc., with all modern improvements, including elevator and every possible convenience. His
carriage repository is equal to anything of the kind in Chicago. His old warehouse, which is
30x80 feet and two stories high, is packed with farm tools, implements and machinery, and still
he is cramped for room.
This rapid growth of business and splendid success of Mr. Hummel are the results of a plucky
spirit, an indomitable will, and prudent and shrewd management, coupled with a good constitu-
tion and a willingness to work. He is one of the best specimens of a business man in this sec-
tion of the country. He gives employment to fourteen or fifteen men as salesmen, canvassers,
etc., and no man takes more pleasure in handsomely compensating for labor faithfully per-
formed than Mr. Hummel. He is a square dealer with everybody, and is well calculated to
make and retain friends and customers.
His great business capacities and fine executive abilities were discovered years ago by his fel-
low-citizens, and he was elected mayor of Sandwich, and served four consecutive years (1877-
1881), when he declined another reelection. He takes especial pride in aiding to advance local
interests of every kind. He was for some years secretary of the Sandwich fair, and a powerful
factor in building it up to its present prosperous condition, it being at first a losing institution,
and now paying a thousand dollars a year. He is also president of the Oak Ridge Cemetery, and
has shown his public spirit by causing a chapel to be erected and a house to be built for the
superintendent, who gives his whole time to improving the grounds and keeping everything in
trim. He has been treasurer of the De Kalb county agricultural board for some years.
Mr. Hummel is a Knight Templar, an Odd-Fellow and a member of the Knights of Labor,
but accepts no office in any of these orders. The wife whom he chose in 1862 died in 1878, two
children having previously died, and three are still living. January i, 1880, he married Miss
Lillian F. Gregory, of Michigan, and they have two children.
HON. SYLVESTER F. OTMAN.
WYOMING.
THE subject of this biographical notice is of German descent on both sides of the family.
His paternal great-grandfather, who spelt his name Ottmann, came to this country some
time prior to the American revolution, and settled on the Hudson River. His son Nicholas,
grandfather of Sylvester, joined the continental armv when sixteen years old, and was taken cap-
tive by General Brant on the Wyoming expedition, and held a prisoner in Canada until near the
close of the war.
Sylvester Francis Otman was born in Madison county, New York, November 5, 1828. To the
ordinary driil of a district school he added six months' attendance at the Sanquoit Academy, and
taught school two winters in his native state. In 1849 he came to Peoria, and there also taught
two terms.
31O UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1850 he settled in Wyoming, and for three seasons worked at the carpenter's trade, which
he had learned before coming to the West. From 1853 to 1861, a period of eight years, he was
surveyor of the county of Stark. In August, 1862, he went into the army as captain of company
E, 1 1 2th Illinois infantry, and served three years, being in all the engagements of the regiment
without receiving a wound. During the last six months he was on General Henderson's staff.
On leaving the army Captain Otman went on his farm near Wyoming, and cultivated it till
1869, when he went into mercantile business with Albert King. Five years later he formed a
partnership in the same trade with Hon. A. G. Hammond, and continued with him in the mer-
cantile business until June, 1878. In 1881 he went into the lumber trade, and has since been one
of the leading traffickers in that line in the place. Mr. Otman is a fair-dealing business man, and
success has attended his several ventures.
He has held various local offices, such as member of the town board, justice of the peace and
supervisor, and has served six years as a member of the legislature, being first elected in 1866,
and again in 1878, and reflected in 1880. He attended three regular and three extra sessions, and
carried his good business habits and plain common sense into legislative as well as private business.
During the last term he was chairman of the committee on commerce, and did some hard and
very important work. He was the author of several bills, mostly of a local character.
Captain Otman was originally a democrat, with free-soil proclivities, and left that party on
the formation of the republican. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has held various offices in this
order.
He was first married in 1855 to Miss Emma Denchfield, of Wyoming, she dying in 1864, and
the second time in 1867 to Mrs. Sarah (Smith) Denchfield, having had by the latter two children,
only one of them now living Arthur Melvin, aged fifteen years.
ASHER BLOUNT.
MA COMB.
SHER BLOUNT, lumber dealer, mayor of the city of Macomb, and one of the leading busi-
ness men of the place, is a native of Jefferson county, New York, a son of Ambrose and
Betsy (Wood) Blount, and was born in the township of Ellisburgh, May 27, 1819. His grand-
father, Asher Blount, aided by his musket in gaining the independence of the colonies. Ambrose
Blount was a minute man in 1812-14, but never called into the service. He was a native of Con-
necticut, a farmer, a magistrate for several years, and held other offices, dying at Pamelia, Jeffer-
son county in 1863. His wife had died nearly thirty years earlier (1834). They were members of
the Baptist Church, and he was at one period a deacon of the same. Betsy Wood was a native
of Middletown, Rutland county, Vermont, and a sister of Hon. Reuben Wood, many years ago
governor of Ohio.
The educational advantages of our subject were limited until he had reached his majority,
when he attended a select school, and taught from three to six months in a year for eight or ten
seasons. He was engaged in farming, blacksmithing and carriage-making in Jefferson county
until 1866, holding meanwhile in succession the offices of township inspector of schools, township
superintendent of the same, and township clerk. Early in the spring of the year just mentioned
Mr. Blount came to this state and settled at Macomb, whither his younger brother, Joseph W.,
had preceded him, coming to Quincy in 1844 and to Macomb a few years afterward. The busi-
ness of both is lumber, and, with the exception of the period from 1875 to 1882, they have been
together and are doing well. There are no traders of any kind in Macomb who are more prompt,
straightforward and reliable.
Asher Blount held the office of town supervisor one term, and was mayor in 1877 and again in
1882, holding that position at the time this sketch is written. He is president of the Macomb
Building and Loan Association, and a man of a good deal of public spirit and enterprise.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 31 I
Mayor Blount has affiliated with the republican party since it was formed. He is a strong but
not a bitter partisan, strong because he believes in the general policy of his party. In religious
belief he is a Universalist, and a man the purity of whose life no one questions who knows him.
Mayor Blount was first married in April, 1848, to Miss Roxana Miles, of Jefferson county. She
died in June, 1860, leaving three children: Mary E., wife of J. W. Hosman, of Roodhouse, Greene
county; Frank J., general business man, Macomb, and Fred P., who is with Blount Brothers. In
1868 our subject was married to Miss Cynthia S. Barnery, who was also of Jefferson county, New
York, and by her he has two children: Harry and Myra, aged respectively twelve and ten years.
Mayor Blount has a choice family library, which he is enlarging from year to year, taking
good care that no member of the household shall suffer for the want of healthy mental pabulum.
ELBRIDGE G. AVER.
HARVARD.
T7 LBRIDGE GERRY AVER, the founder of the village of Harvard, or Harvard Junction, and
J_!> one of the best known men in McHenry county, is a native of Haverhill, Essex county,
Massachusetts, and a direct descendant of John Ayer, who settled in that town, among its pio-
neers, in 1646. For two centuries the Ayers have been among the prominent families in that and
other counties of the old Bay State, and descendants of John Ayer are now found in nearly half
the states of the Union, several of them being in Chicago. The father of Elbridge was Samuel
Ayer, in his day a flannel manufacturer in Andover, near Haverhill, and one of the first men in
this country to make that line of goods, and his grandfather was Daniel Ayer, whose father and
one of his (Daniel's) brothers took part in gaining the independence of the colonies. The mother
of our subject was Polly Chase, a descendant of Aquilla Chase, who was also an early settler in
New England. She was the mother of eight children, four sons and four daughters, Elbridge
being the sixth child and youngest son, and born in Haverhill June 25, 1813. Now and then he
goes back to the old homestead, eats pears from the trees which were planted when he was in his
short clothes, and short perhaps even of them, and lives over again the happy days of his
childhood.
He finished his education at the famous old Bradford Academy, when at its head stood Pro-
fessor Greenleaf, the mathematician, and author of a few text books quite popular forty and fifty
years ago; learned the wool stapling business at Dedham, Massachusetts, and at twenty years of
age went to Albany, whither his father had preceded him, and became associated with him in the
grocery and provision business.
About that period (1834) Mr. Ayer married Mary D. Titcomb, a native of Salem, New Hamp-
shire, and two years afterward then emigrated to the West, to commence fortune seeking, at first
in what is now the Badger State. They landed at Pike River, afterward called Southport, and
now known as the city of Kenosha, Mr. Ayer taking a quantity of merchandise with him, and
where he was in trade nearly eleven years. There his oldest child, the wife of Gilbert R. Smith,
of Harvard, was born, the first white child born in that place.
In 1847 Mr. Ayer removed to Walworth, Wisconsin, where he continued the mercantile period
of his life for ten years, serving also most of the time as postmaster. In the latter part of that
period the Wisconsin division of the North-Western railway was projected, and he tried to get the
road through his place, but failing, he came to what is now Harvard. In January, 1856, he pur-
chased four hundred acres of land, and in the spring following laid out the town. Here he has
resided from that date, being at first engaged in the mercantile trade and in taking care of his
real estate and encouraging settlements in the place. In 1858 he took charge of the eating house
and hotel, purchased it at the end of one year, enlarged it at that time and subsequently, and had
charge of it in all for eighteen years, keeping one of the best hotels and eating houses in this part
of the state.
312 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1876 Mr. Ayer rented these premises to Marcus M. Town, the husband of his fourth daugh-
ter, Harriet L. He has three other daughters living in town: Ann, the second, married to A. J.
Burbank, who is in the railway office; Julia A., married to H. B. Minier, and the one already men-
tioned. He has five daughters, the other being Eva F., the youngest, and wife of Arthur E. Law,
of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has also two sons, Edward E., who is dealing in ties, telegraph
poles and posts in Chicago, and Henry C., who is in his brother's employ. Edward was in Cali-
fornia when the civil war was in progress, and was the first man who enlisted in that state, and
the youngest man in the regiment the ist California cavalry. He went in as a private and
came out lieutenant.
Mr. Ayer was originally a whig, and since the demise of that party has acted heartily with
the republicans. As a hotel keeper during the civil war he had many opportunities to show his
patriotism and generosity and the goodness of his heart.
He was the first Freemason made at Kenosha, Wisconsin, Lodge No. 7; is a Royal Arch Mason,
and has held several offices in the order. He has also held a few civil offices in Harvard, but has
never been a seeker after such honors, contenting himself with simply bearing his share of public
duties as a citizen.
The founder of the town, he has always been held in very high esteem for his public spirit,
his genial disposition and his neighborly "kindness. An old neighbor thus writes to us in regard
to him:
"Having known him intimately for thirty years, I think he is best known for his benevolence
and love of justice and right. During the war he was a most ardent supporter of the government
in all its measures. Frequently, in those troublesome times, he would furnish victuals for a whole
company of soldiers passing through Harvard and Cairo. He then ran the eating house at Har-
vard, insomuch that his name and fame were household words with all western soldiers at the
front and at home. He preeminently fills the ideal of Scripture where it says, 'I was hungry
and ye gave me meat,' etc."
HON. THOMAS HOYNE, LL.D.
CHICAGO.
THOMAS HOYNE, one of the foremost lawyers in Chicago, is a son of Patrick and Elleanor
M. Hoyne, who were obliged to leave Ireland about the year 1815, on account of troubles
in which the father became involved with the British government. They sought an asylum in the
city of New York, where our subject was born about February n, 1817. He was the eldest of
seven children, and at a suitable age was sent to Saint Peter's Catholic school in that city, where
he remained until the death of his parents, that of his father occurring in 1829, and that of his
mother in 1830. He was left poor as well as an orphan and unfriended. In the year 1829 he
became an apprentice to a manufacturer of fancy goods, traveling cases and pocket-books, work-
ing in that capacity for four or five years in the city of New York.
Mr. Hoyne seems to have early had a strong desire for knowledge, and at that period, while
still a mere youth working under indentures, he joined what was known as the Literary Associa-
tion, the membership of which included several persons who afterward distinguished themselves
in the literary or political world, notably Hon. Horace Greeley and his associate in the publishing
business, Mr. McElrath, Judges Manierre and Daly, Hon. William B. Maclay and the Maclay
family and others. W. K. Maclay was member of congress for several years, arid his father
founded the Baptist Church on Mulberry street as early as 1800. It was with men of this class
that he came in contact, and early began to feel the brightening influence of their keen intellects.
In that society Mr. Hoyne made his dttbut as a debater, and acquired the happy art of speaking in
public. It was no doubt the turning point in life, the first stepping-stone to the stage on which
he has acted a brilliant as well as conspicuous part.
While an apprentice young Hoyne also attended two night schools, in one of which he made
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 315
a specialty of English grammar and elocution, in the other, of the classics, acquiring a fair knowl-
edge of Greek as well as Latin. For such economy of time and such industry he has since reaped
a rich reward.
At the end of his apprenticeship, in 1835, Mr. Hoyne accepted a clerkship in a large jobbing
house for the salary it would afford him to liquidate and pay off the expense of the schools he
was attending. In 1836 he commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. John Brinkerhoff,
and late in the summer of 1837 came to Chicago to join his old and esteemed friend, Judge Man-
ierre, who had preceded him hither two years before, and was serving the public in the office of
clerk of the circuit court. His old associate in the New York literary club was not slow in mak-
ing a place for Mr. Hoyne, whose compensation for clerical services' was ten dollars a week. Mr.
Hoyne now found time to devote to study. He took up Latin again; commenced the study of
the French language, and for two years attended the meetings of a literary society, in the exer-
cises of which he was an active participant. InHhe latter part of 1838 he taught a public school,
one of the first organized in Chicago, four months. Soon afterward he resumed his legal studies
in the office of Hon. J. Y. Scammon, who became his friend and patron, and was admitted to prac-
tice late in the autumn of 1839. Since that date, with the exception of a little more than two
years spent in Galena, Illinois (autumn of 1842 to December, 1844), Mr. Hoyne has resided in
Chicago, and has practiced his profession, making a brilliant record at the Cook county bar, as
well as appearing in many cases in the supreme court of Illinois, and the United States supreme
court at Washington. He has great power before a jury.
In 1840 Mr. Hoyne was elected city clerk on the democratic ticket, and during most of the
time for the last forty years he has taken a deep interest in political matters, sometimes aiding to
shape the policy of his party, or furnishing material for congressional consideration. It was Mr.
Hoyne who, in 1841, wrote the memorial which was presented to congress, asking for increased
appropriations for the improvement of the Chicago harbor. In 1870 he was nominated by accla-
mation for congress in the Chicago district, but declined to run, when Hon. John Wentworth was
nominated in his place and beaten by Hon. C. B. Farwell.
Mr. Hoyne held the office of probate justice of the peace in 1847, 1848 and 1849, under the
old constitution, the office which, under the new constitution which went into effect in the autumn
of 1848, took the name of county judge, at which time his court was suspended.
Mr. Hoyne was an earnest advocate of the Mexican war (1846-47), but on the passage of the
Wilmot proviso, prohibiting the extension of slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, at
the close of the war, he became what was then known as a free-soiler, and supported Van Buren
and Adams on the Buffalo platform, in the presidential campaign of 1848, and being a presiden-
tial elector that year, stumped the northern half of Illinois. He had previously, at a great mass-
meeting held in Chicago, as chairman of the committee chosen for the purpose, written an able
address to the people on the great issues of the day, and that address had a very wide circulation.
" It was,"* says one writer, "a bold, manly and vigorous protest against the further encroach-
ments of slavery, and was designed to affect the opinion of the democratic masses of the state."
Mr. Hoyne continued his opposition to the extension of slavery, yet did not break entirely away
from the democratic party, and in 1853 received from President Pierce the appointment of United
States district attorney for Illinois, which appointment greatly increased his business. He sided
with Judge Douglas on the Kansas and Nebraska bills, and the bill to repeal the Missouri com-
promise (1854), and took an active part in the field of debate on the democratic side in the presi-
dential campaign of 1856. Two years later he advocated the admission of Kansas under the Le-
compton constitution, in this step taking sides with the administration and against Judge Douglas.
In 1859 Mr. Hoyne, without his knowledge or consent, was appointed United States marshal for
the northern district of Illinois, taking the place of a defaulter (Charles A. Pine), which office Mr.
Hoyne would have declined at once, had not Judge Drummond, for the purpose of restoring order
*See " The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Illinois:" Philadelphia, 1875. We are indebted to the same source for other
data in this sketch.
32
316 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and discipline in that office, made a special request upon him to accept the place for the short
period of the unexpired term of his predecessor. In 1860 he superintended the census for the
northern district, and was very highly complimented by the superintendent of the census bureau
for his faithful services.
In literary as well as political matters Mr. Hoyne has acted a conspicuous and eminently
praiseworthy part. In 1850 he was elected president of the "Chicago Young Men's Association,"
and subsequently had the rare honor of being reelected. When the University of Chicago was
founded in 1857, Mr. Hoyne took a deep interest in the enterprise; was elected a member of its
board of trustees, and continues to act in that capacity; was a leader and quite active in found-
ing the law department of the university, paying $5,000 into the fund for that purpose, and in
September, 1859, in recognition of his valuable services and generosity in this matter, the trustees
established a chair in the faculty known as The Hoyne Professorship of International and Con-
stitutional Law. To Mr. Hoyne also belongs the credit of securing the great Lalande prize tele-
scope for the university, and he was elected the first secretary of the Chicago Astronomical Soci-
ety, which position, we believe, he still holds. He is a life member of the Mechanics' Institute,
the Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Historical Society, and has always taken a great inter-
est in building up such institutions. His greatest work in this connection has been in aiding to
found, and in fostering the Chicago Free Public Library, of which he wrote a long and valuable
historical sketch in 1877, and which was published in a pamphlet of nearly a hundred pages.
That pamphlet lies before us, and contains a detailed account of the appeal of Thomas Hughes
and his associates in England, made immediately after the great fire of October 9, 1871, to found
a new library in Chicago; the public spirit which that appeal stirred up in the hearts of the en-
terprising men of this city; the frequent public meetings held here in the interest of that cause;
the public address of Mr. Hoyne, Mayor Medill and others; the correspondence which Mr. Hoyne
carried on with the promoters of this enterprise in the old world, etc. Mr. Hoyne's connection
with that grand work of founding a free public library in Chicago reflects the very highest credit
upon his energy, enterprise and truly philanthropic spirit. He was not only one of the origina-
tors of this eminently useful institution, and presided over the first meeting called to organize
it, but was chosen president of its first board of directors, and resigned in 1876. He was
also one of the originators of the Chicago Bar Association, and was its vice-president in 1874,
and one of the committee on legal education in 1875. He has recently delivered an address
before the association entitled The Lawyer as a Pioneer, in which he gives sketches of the early
Illinois and Chicago bar (1837-1840). It is to be published in book form by Fergus and Company.
Mr. Hoyne is a man of a good deal of literary taste as well as legal ability, and his intellectual
efforts outside the bar and the political arena have attracted a great deal of attention. An address
which he delivered before the graduating law class- of the University of Chicago in 1869 was
pitched on a high key of eloquence and & truly lofty moral tone, and its stirring appeal to the
young men before him, to uphold the honor and dignity of their profession, could not fail of hav-
ing a salutary influence on all who heard him. His Fourth of July oration, delivered two years
later at La Salle, Illinois, on the New Departure, was pronounced a masterly effort, and its publi-
cation and wide circulation raised Mr. Hoyne in the estimation of many as an orator. As a for-
ensic speaker he certainly has but few peers at the bar of Cook county, which has from ten to
twelve hundred members.
As already intimated, our subject took an early and deep interest in politics, and the welfare
of the country, and that interest seems not to have abated. During the civil war his patriotism
rose to white heat, and no man in Chicago was more earnest in trying to save the Union. He
was a very active member of the Union Defense Committee, and wrote the well known appeal to
the people of this state. He was on the committee that visited Lincoln to urge a campaign down
the Mississippi River in 1862. During that long and trying period of civil strife every emanation
from his pen or tongue had the unmistakable and thrilling ring of a true and devoted lover of his
country.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
317
. After the war Mr. Hoyne sided with President Johnson against congress, and was a delegate
to the conservative convention held at Philadelphia in August, 1866. He also supported Horace
Greeley for the presidency in 1872, and was an elector that year in the first district. Two years
later he acted with the opposition, so called, and aided in drawing up the call of the democratic
state committee, issued in this city, under the eye of Mr. Hoyne, and embodying a specie plank,
free commerce, civil rights, and other live issues, and which was received with great frlat by the
leading journals of his party.
July 9, 1875, he delivered an address before the Jeffersonian Club of Chicago, of which he was
then president, and on that occasion took the ground that there is sufficient vital moral force and
patriotism in the people to save their free institutions. In that address which he had evidently
prepared with great care, he denounced in the strongest terms the tendency to corruption among
the politicians of the day, and clearly announced his own political tenets, as embodied in the
club in whose interests he was speaking.
Mr. Hoyne has always been regarded as one of the bitterest enemies of corruptionists, and has
been a leader in trying to rout them. For this purpose he was brought out as a candidate for
mayor in the spring of 1876, and was triumphantly elected. An account of this election was pub-
lished in " The Alliance," of this city, in April, 1881, in a sketch of Mr. Hoyne, under the heading,
"The Men Who Have Built Chicago," and we reproduce it in a condensed form:
"There was a time when this great city, with all its unexampled growth and prosperity, was
in danger of financial ruin and moral bankruptcy. In 1876 Chicago was awakened to the fact
that she had long been ruled by an unscrupulous ring of thieving politicians, which received its
support from a class of the community not unlike that which kept Tweed in power in New York
city for so long a time, and saddled that city with a financial burden, and gave its government a
notoriety that has passed into a proverb. We say that Chicago was awakened to her danger,
awakened only just in time to avert ruin, awakened mainly by the efforts of the man whose name
stands at the head of this sketch.
H. D. Colvin was mayor of the city at the time. He had inherited from preceding adminis-
trations a bequest of debt and bad management, and was hedged about by precedents which he
had not the wisdom or energy to set aside, precedents involving large running expenses, extrava-
gant appropriations, and a reckless financial policy. His administration began the system of
meeting the illegal debt of the city by an equally illegal issue of scrip, but was unequal to the
broad statesmanship of immediate retrenchment of municipal expenses and refunding the debt so
that it might comfortably be carried. Extravagance and incompetence and rascality threatened
the city. Taxation had become too heavy to be borne. The name of Chicago, prosperous and
lusty as the city was, was fast becoming a- by-word for misrule. It was a crisis in her history.
Had the reigning state of affairs continued there is no manner of doubt but that some other city
would have become the metropolis of the West. Capital and enterprise do not gravitate to any
city overburdened with taxation, cursed by misrule and threatened with financial troubles. There
is always a man for every emergency, and in Chicago's hour of need Thomas Hoyne came to the
front. Through his efforts the Municipal Reform Club was organized, and in a very short time
it succeeded in arousing the people to a sense of the dangers which threatened them. An Ameri-
can community, and especially a Chicago community, engrossed with their private business
affairs, are slowly aroused to a sense of public danger, but when they are aroused no people in the
world act so quickly or so effectively. The Reform Club called a mass meeting of the citizens in
the Exposition building. Nearly 40,000 men, of every political faith, gathered at that meeting,
which resolved to take energetic means to abate the growing evil of municipal misrule. Mr.
Hoyne was, at the meeting, nominated for mayor on a reform platform, and in the election that
followed, was nearly unanimously elected to the^office, he receiving a majority of over 33,000, the
largest ever given a municipal" chief magistrate in Chicago. There were but eight hundred votes
cast against him. Mayor Colvin contested the legality of the election and appealed to the courts.
The circuit court, which really had no jurisdiction in the case, decided by a vote of three to two
318 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
that the election was illegal. Mr. Hoyne could, with every prospect of success, have appealed to
the supreme court, but as his object was to cleanse the city of corruption, and not to secure honor
or place for himself, and as the Colvin administration agreed to resign if another election were
permitted without appeal, Mr. Hoyne, for the sake of the public good, assented, and, refusing to
allow the use of his name, Monroe Heath was elected mayor, and Mr. Hoyne retired to private
life, after having been de facto mayor for six weeks. But the line of policy marked out by his
inaugural address has been followed not only by his successor, but by the doughty Harrison, and
Chicago's prosperity and place in the nation is doubtless due to the unselfish and wise action of
Mr. Hoyne."
The wife of Mr. Hoyne was Leonora M. Temple, daughter of the late John T. Temple, M.D.,
one of the pioneers in settling Chicago, their marriage being dated September 17, 1840, and she
being the mother of seven children. The eldest son, Temple S., occupies a chair in Hahnemann
Medical College, Chicago; the second son, Thomas M., is the junior member of the firm of Hoyne,
Horton and Hoyne, and a lawyer of much promise; the third son, James, is cashier of the Ger-
mania Savings Bank, and the fourth son is employed with the firm of Culver, Page and Hoyne,
of Chicago. Mrs. Hoyne is also the granddaughter of the late Doctor Staughton, the most emi-
nent Baptist divine of this century. He founded Columbia College, at Washington, District of
Columbia, and in 1822 delivered the address at Castle Garden, New York, upon the first visit of
Lafayette to America, after he had aided Washington in accomplishing the success of the revolu-
tion.
FRANCIS H. KALES.
CHICAGO.
FRANCIS H. KALES was born in Broome county. New York, March 23, 1833. His grand-
father came from the North of Ireland about the year 1809, when his father was tfiree years
of age. The family soon after settled in Chenango county, New York, near the place of his birth.
The father of Mr. Kales was a member of the New York legislature, and held several offices of
trust in Chenango county. Francis was fitted for college at Oxford Academy, in the state of
New York, and in 1851 entered the sophomore class of 1854 at Yale. Ill health obliged him to
give up his college course, and in 1852 he entered the law office of Daniel S. Dickinson, renowned
as a lawyer and orator. He completed his law studies with Mr. Dickinson at Binghamton, and
was admitted to the New York bar in May, 1855. In the following June he came to Chicago and
entered the office of Higgins, Beckwith and Strother. He very quickly secured a general prac-
tice in the different branches of the law. He was associated for a time with Norman Williams,
and in 1866 became a member of the firm of Beckwith, Ayer and Kales. In 1873 Judge Beckwith
retired from the firm to accept the position of general solicitor of the Chicago and Alton Rail-
road Company, and Mr. Kales continued the partnership with Mr. Ayer until that gentleman
withdrew to become solicitor of the Illinois Central Railway Company. Mr. Kales then con-
tinued his practice alone until 1879, when he formed a business connection with Perry H. Smith, Jr.
In 1863 he married the daughter of Doctor N. S. Davis, the head of the Chicago Medical College,
and since 1865 has resided on the North Side. Mr. Kales' practice has been very general in its
scope, embracing cases involving property, banking and corporation affairs. He has a thorough
knowledge of the law, and has been successfully identified with many of the largest property liti-
gations in Chicago during the last twenty years. He is distinguished for his ability to analyze
a case, for untiring devotion to his client's cause and for a quickness of perception that is unusual.
He has preeminently a judicial mind. As a speaker he is convincing, ready and not easily sur-
prised, and is noted for clearness of statement and facility of logical and concise expression. He
has a high sense of professional honor, and never knowingly misstates a fact or proposition of law,
and. as a consequence, courts place great reliance upon his arguments.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of 1LUNOI8
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
321
Mr. Kales is recognixed as one of the ablest lawyers at the Chicago bar, ranking high by rea-
son of his brilliant legal talents and his unswerving integrity. As a man he has the unbounded
respect of the community, and his social qualities are highly appreciated.
Mr. Kales is a member of the State and Chicago Bar Associations. He was appointed Lin-
coln Park commissioner by the governor, but has never sought or held a political office.
THOMAS S. CHARD.
CHICAGO.
THOMAS SEPTIMUS CHARD is the youngest and seventh son of William and Mary Chard.
His parents came to America from England in 1832, making their home first in Cleveland,
and then in Buffalo, New York, where their seventh son was born, August 15, 1844. William
Chard is still remembered as an open-hearted, hospitable gentleman, a lover of jests and children,
active in all civic and religious duties. He died in the year 1854, shortly after his election, by a
large majority, to the office of city comptroller. Mary Chard, once Mary Goodman, was a lady
of unusual attainments. She had been carefully educated, and her journal, wherein she sketched
her impressions of continental Europe, while, as a young lady, accompanying her brother-in-law
and her sister, Sir James and Lady Williams, still shows the accurate and intelligent observation
which distinguished her through life. She was especially marked by a fervid piety, and a gentle
dignity of character, which won the respect of all who knew her. Her family was of Puritan
origin. One of her ancestors distinguished himself in Cromwell's wars. Another lay in prison
for preaching the gospel, at the same time, and near the same place, with John Bunyan. The
eloquent and learned Doctor Staughton, once chaplain of congress, came also of this family.
Mrs. Chard died in 1854, illustrating in her death, as well as her life, the religion she professed.
Thomas, the youngest of the family, thus bereft of his parents at the early age of ten, developed
a taste literary and poetic, strong enough to lead him from the usual out-door life of a boy to the
companionship of books, and for the next five years he was a constant and studious reader.
The year 1855 he spent in Canton, Ohio, where he attended the high school ; then two years in
Buffalo at school ; then nearly two years in Clarence, New York, where he attended the classical
academy.
Failing health forbade a collegiate course, and returning to Buffalo he found employment
in the banking and transportation business until the spring of 1864, when, on invitation of
F. A. Howe, junior, he came to Chicago to enter the office of that gentleman. Then followed
miscellaneous employments until 1867, when he entered the service of the Lumberman's Insur-
ance Company, of which his uncle, Thomas Goodman, was president. This was the beginning
of his career as a fire underwriter. In 1870 Mr. Chard accepted the appointment of special agent
for the western states of the Fireman's Fund and Union Insurance Companies, two strong Cali-
fornia corporations, and at once began the work of planting agencies for them throughout this
field.
Mr. Chard was in Louisville the Saturday night before the great fire in Chicago, and learning
of the first fire, which preceded the memorable one, hastened to the city only to learn that it was
already half destroyed. A hasty calculation showed him that his companies must have lost some-
thing more than a million dollars, but, knowing his companies, he had no hesitation in assuring
the people that every dollar would be paid. Subsequent events justified this confident state-
ment.
In 1872 the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company established an independent western depart-
ment in Chicago, and placed Mr. Chard in charge as manager.~_ The business was rapidly and
successfully developed by the young manager, then only in his twenty-seventh year, and in 1875
he was invited to San Francisco, where he was received with great hospitality. He returned to
Chicago, after visiting the Yosemite and other natural wonders of the state. In 1876 Mr. Chard's
322 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
first wife died. She was a daughter of Cromwell Chase, of Galena, Illinois. That year the Fire-
man's Fund Insurance Company closed its eastern department, and consolidated all of its eastern
interests in the hands of Mr. Chard at Chicago. October 4, 1877, Mr. Chard married Adeline
Peabody Whitney, at Waltham, Massachusetts, daughter of an old and respected New England
family.
In 1880 he again visited California, and in September of that year, became manager for the
Union Insurance Company of San Francisco, of their interests east of the Rocky Mountains. In
1882, accompanied by Mrs. Chard, he visited his English relatives, and made the tour of Ger-
many, Switzerland and France.
Mr. Chard is of a fine, nervous sanguine temperament, with a studious, analytic and poetic
tendency of mind. In 1869 he presented his friends with a small volume of his poems, and in
1874 duplicated it by another, entitled, "Across the Sea," both of which met with a very flatter-
ing reception at the hands of the public. Absorbing business cares have since then prevented
further ventures. In religious matters Mr. Chard is a Presbyterian, though indifferent to the nice
distinctions of creeds. He is a warm personal friend of Professor Swing, and joined him in the
organization of the Independent Church at McVicker's Theater, taking the office of deacon.
Since the removal to Central Music Hall, however, he has returned to the Fourth Presbyterian
Church, and resumed his standing there. In politics he is a republican.
There is no more popular or successful underwriter in the West than Thomas S. Chard. He
is through and through an insurance man, and finds both his interest and pleasure in his busi-
ness. He has occupied important positions in the national councils of underwriters, and takes a
deep interest in whatever tends to elevate and dignify his chosen profession.
JOHN B. CUMMINGS.
BUSH NELL.
JOHN BOWMAN CUMMINGS, the pioneer banker in Bushnell, is a son of James Cummings,
a merchant, farmer, etc., and Rachel (Hall) Cummings, and was born in Cecil county, Mary-
land, January 17, 1824. Both parents were also natives of that state. John Cummings, the
grandfather of our subject, was from Scotland. The grandson received a good English education
in Maryland and Ohio, moving to the latter state in 1837, soon after losing his father, and remain-
ing there three years. While there he was initiated into the art of selling goods.
In 1840 he went to Centerville, Butler county, Pennsylvania, where he held the situation of
clerk in a store until 1851, when he came to Macomb, in this (McDonough) county. The next
year he moved to Hancock county, and was there and at Pontoosuc engaged in mercantile pur-
suits until 1854, when he returned to Macomb, and continued the same business. In 1861 Mr.
Cummings was elected clerk of the circuit court, and held that office four years, faithfully dis-
charging its duties.
In the spring of 1865, Mr. Cummings settled in Bushnell, twelve miles northeast of Macomb,
in the same county, and started a private bank, in company with Charles Chandler, who remained
at Macomb. Mr. Cummings had its entire management, and was the first banker in this place.
He made a success of the enterprise. In 1871 the bank was changed to the Farmers' National
Bank of Bushnell, and Mr. Cummings was elected its cashier, a position which he still holds. He
is one of the best financiers in this part of the state, and a discreet and prudent manager.
Mr. Cummings is a stockholder in the Bushnell Fire-clay Tile and Brick Company, and takes
a good deal of interest in building up local enterprises. When, in 1868, Bushnell received a city
charter, Mr. Cummings was elected the first mayor, and he has since held that office two or three
terms, making an excellent executive officer. He has also been an alderman three or four terms,
and has served more or less on the board of education.
Mr. Cummings is a republican, and in 1878 was a candidate for nomination for state treasurer,
UN 1 TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
323
an office for which he has peculiar fitness, but he was unsuccessful. Years ago he was quite active
in politics, and is well known among the party leaders in Illinois. He is a Royal Arch Mason;
has passed all the chairs in the subordinate lodge and encampments of Odd-Fellowship, and
represented the encampment in the Grand Lodge of the state.
Mr. Cummings was first married in 1848, to Miss Evaline W. Pearson, of Centerville, Pennsyl-
vania. She died in 1862, leaving six children, five of them yet living: Clarence P., a stock raiser
in Colorado; Leonidas B., a tile manufacturer in Bushnell; James E., one of the publishers of
the "Gleaner," Bushnell; Charles C., a stockholder and secretary of the Bushnell Fire-clay Tile
and Brick Company, and Eva, wife of C. W. Dickerson, of Chicago. The second and third sons,
mentioned above, are also married. Mr. Cummings was married the second time in 1864, to Mrs.
Mary E. (Parkinson) Chambers, a native of Kentucky, and has by her one son, Willie C., who
is attending school.
Mr. Cummings is an elder in the Reformed Church, and a man of unquestioned purity of life.
No city can have too large a per cent of this class of citizens. The youngest brother of our sub-
ject, Jesse Henry Cummings, .is cashier of the First National Bank of Macomb. He was born in
the same town with John B.; had a good business education; came to this county about 1856;
has been a member of the city council of Macomb; is a first-class accountant, and has been con-
nected with the banking business since 1861. He has a wife and three children.
o
TIMOTHY ROGERS.
QUINCY.
NE of the best known men in Adams county, is Timothy Rogers, many years a prominent
wagon and plow manufacturer in Quincy, and latterly a farmer and hotel keeper. He was
born in Tolland county, Connecticut, November 15, 1809, being a son of Lee Lay Rogers, and
Rhoda (Dinrock) Rogers. His grandfather, Nathaniel Rogers, was a member of the continental
army, and a descendant of James Rogers, a relative of John Rogers, of martyr fame, and a pio-
neer at New London. James Rogers was a Baptist minister, and shared in the persecutions of
that day. Rhoda (Dinrock) Rogers was a native of South Coventry, Connecticut.
Timothy received his mental drill in the free schools of his native state, learned the wagon-
maker's trade at Manchester, Connecticut; married Miss Dorothy Billings, of Tolland county,
September 6, 1832; soon afterward went into business for himself, and in 1838 came to Quincy,
and commenced the manufacture of wagons, buggies and plows, being very successful in his busi-
ness, turning it over to two of his sons several years ago. In 1860 Mr. Rogers commenced keep-
ing a hotel, the Hess House, which property had fallen into his hands. Afterward it took the
name of Adams House, which was rented for seven years. When he took it into his own hands
again he called it the Occidental House, which is a popular farmer's hotel.
In 1876 Mr. Rogers built his family tomb, an elegant marble structure, eclipsing everything
of the kind in Woodland Cemetery. It was brought from Burlington, Vermont, in a completed
state, and it took thirteen cars to bring it to this city. The pieces which form the front of the sep-
ulcher are from five to six feet in thickness. Nearly all of them on the front elevation are hand-
somely carved, bearing emblems, devices, etc., with the name T. Rogers cut in relief over the
entrance, chiseled and bronzed in gold. The lot on which this vault stands is forty by sixty feet,
and the vault itself is forty feet wide and forty feet high, being one of the finest structures of the
kind in the state. In it are one hundred and twelve thousand arched brick. It has places for one
hundred and twelve caskets, and among the remains deposited there are those of his mother, a
sister, an infant child, his son, William T. who died in 1880, and one or two grandchildren.
A few years ago Mr. Rogers had a large quantity of land fall into his hands by loaning
money, and about the close of the centennial year he commenced improving part of it himself,
selling the rest. He has a farm of about eleven hundred acres, fourteen miles from Quincy,
324 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
which he keeps well fenced, well stocked, and under good improvement, spending a portion of
his time there, and evidently enjoying himself very much. Since 1865, when two of his sons, Will-
iam T. and Edward A. took charge of the manufactory, he has taken the world very comforta-
bly, having just care and exercise enough to keep him in good health and prime spirits. The
son's death in 1880 was a sad event to the old gentleman, for William T. Rogers was a dutiful
son, a prominent citizen of Quincy, and mayor in 1878. His associate in business, Edward A.
Rogers, now carrying on the manufactory alone, is a first-class business man, and a member, with
his wife, of the Baptist church. Thaddeus Rogers, the other son, and only other child living, is
a bookseller and stationer, proprietor of the "Daily News," and one of the aldermen of the city.
Our subject once held the same office; and twice was nominated by his friends for mayor, but he
would not leave a cent at a saloon to help his cause, nor take any mean step to gain votes, and,
being a republican in a strongly democratic city, he was defeated both times. Mr. Rogers is not
a man to cater to the brutal instincts of a fellow man for the sake of popularity.
JOHN VAN ARMAN.
CHICAGO.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch enjoys a deservedly
high reputation as a criminal lawyer, yet probably nine-tenths of his legal business is in the
civil courts. He has, however, in the last thirty years been engaged in a large number of impor-
tant criminal cases, which have attracted much attention, and in which he gained great distinc-
tion as an advocate. Mr. Van Arman was born at Plattsburgh, Clinton county, New York, March
3, 1820, his parents being John and Tamar (Dewey) Van Arman. He is of Holland descent on
his father's side, and French on his mother's. His paternal grandfather, John Van Arman, came
from the old country before the American revolution; settled in the Mohawk Valley, and lived to
be a hundred years old. The father of our subject was for nearly fifty years a lumberman on
Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence and Sorel rivers, and died from the effects of an accident
at ninety-seven years of age. He was at the battle of Bennington, being in his sixteenth year.
The maternal grandfather of our subject was a soldier in France and the West Indies, and a son
of his fought under General Scott at Lundy's Lane.
John Van Arman was the youngest child in a family of fourteen children, and losing his
mother when five years old, the family became scattered, and John went to live with a farmer,
named Luther Stearns. The two did not get along very amicably together, and before John had
reached his twelfth year, without the consent of anybody but himself, he suddenly dissolved the
partnership. He continued to work by the month or day at anything which turned up, until fif-
teen years of age, when, by dint of self-instruction, he had prepared himself to teach a district
school. The vocation of a teacher he followed during the winter season, until eighteen years of
age. Meantime, by the aid of a classical teacher, he acquired at Plattsburgh acid Chazy Village a
good knowledge of the Latin and some knowledge of the Greek languages. Mr. Van Arman com-
menced the study of law at Plattsburgh, under William Swetland, and finished at Troy, under
George Gould, afterward judge of the court of appeals. He went to New York city, was
admitted to the bar, and immediately came westward, as far as Michigan, and settled in Mar-
shall. There he practiced until 1858, when he removed to Chicago.
Mr. Van Arman was first brought info public notice as a lawyer in 1851, when he was
employed by the Michigan Central Railroad Company in the great railroad conspiracy case, as it
was called, when forty men were tried for repeatedly throwing the cars off the track, burning
depots, etc. James A. Van Dyke and Mr. Van Arman had control of the case for the prosecu-
tion, with several other lawyers as assistants, and Hon. William H. Seward, and perhaps a dozen
others for defendants. The trial lasted four months; twelve persons were convicted and sent to
the penitentiary, and three others, under trial, died before it ended. It was a severe test of physi-
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
.V7'. / /'A'.V RfOGK.ir/f/C,IL tt/CTfO.\'.IKY.
t-al endurance, and Mr. Van Dyke (lied only a short time afterward, and it was believed by some
of his associates in the trial, that his death was caused by over exertion on. that memorable occa-
sion. Mr. Van Arman stood up heroically through it all, and his two days' speech made on that
occasion, may be found in the history of that trial, which made a volume of seven hundred or
eight hundred pages.
In 1858 Mr. Van Arman settled in Chicago, and Was of the firm of Walker, Van Arman and
Dexter, until 1862, when he raised a regiment of infantry, the 127111 Illinois, went into the field
and remained about a year, when, his health having failed, he resigned. He traveled a while for
his benefit, and in the course of a year and a half or two years, he resumed his practice in this
city. He is of the firm of Van Arman and Gordon, his partner being A. H. Gordon.
Since becoming a resident of Chicago, Mr. Van Arman has been engaged in several noted
criminal trials, but we shall mention only three or four. One of them was that of Jamperts.
accused of murdering his mistress, and known as the barrel case, because the remains of the
woman were packed in a barrel. Mr. Van Arman was counsel for the defense and cleared Jam-
perts on the second trial. Another was the Burch divorce case, in which our subject was attor-
ney for the plaintiff, and which case he ultimately won. Still another was the case of Vanderpool,
tried for the murder of Field. Mr. Vanderpool had been tried and convicted in Michigan, and
sentenced to imprisonment for life, but on a second trial the jury could not agree, and on a third
"he was acquitted. At the close of the second trial, it was so plain to Mr. Van Arman what the
result would be that he took no part in it.
Our subject has been employed in many other criminal trials, in which he has acquitted him-
self with great honor, and which have extended his reputation as an attorney and advocate.
Many of the speeches made by Mr. Van Arman before a jury have been published, and most of
them are marked by great strength of logic.
Mr. Van Arman was attorney for four years for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Company, but has never, we believe, held a political office of any kind. In the days when Michi-
gan was a democratic state, he was repeatedly urged to accept a nomination for congress, but he
steadfastly refused to comply with the wishes of his then political confreres. He left the demo-
cratic party on the breaking out of the civil war.
Mr. Van Arman was joined in wedlock in March, 1841, with Miss Amanda Convis, daughter of
General Ezra Convis, speaker of the Michigan house of representatives at the time of his death
in 1837, and they have had three children, only one of them, Helen Z., the wife of James Bradish
of Colorado, now living. Mrs. Van Arman has a good deal of artistic taste, and amuses herself
more or less in landscape and other painting. Her works show decided talent in that direction.
WILLIAM OGLE.
TOULON.
THE gentleman whose name heads this sketch, is one of the very oldest settlers in what is
now known as Stark county, and which Was formerly a part of Putnam county. He came
here in the spring of 1836, when there were but few families in the county, and when there were
a thousand deer, wolves and wild turkeys to one man. Wild land was so abundant and cheap
that it seemed like wasteful extravagance for any man to gormandize more than a few hundred
acres, as the taxes might some day become heavy. Mr. Ogle commenced with a quarter section,
three miles south of where Toulon now stands, to which land he added from time to time, as his
courage and coffers increased, until, eventually, he had from eight hundred to one thousand
acres. He farmed until the autumn of 1856, when he moved into town, and has since made his
home at the county seat. Meantime he seems to be disposed to let the world do its own fretting,
getting no aid or encouragement from him.
William Ogle, born in Butler county, Ohio, November 17, 1810, is a son of William Ogle, Sr.,
33
328 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and Mary (Erwin) Ogle, and grandson of Thomas Ogle, a revolutionary patriot, who died
in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, a little before the close of the last century. Soon after his
death his son William emigrated from Pennsylvania to Butler county, Ohio, where he reared
a family of eleven children, our subject being the fourth child and third son. Mary Erwin was
born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Both parents died in Butler county.
The subject of this sketch was reared on his father's farm, receiving a fair English education
in the district schools of his native county. Before leaving Ohio, in August, 1835, he was married
to Miss Lucretia H. Butler, a native of Rutland county, Vermont, and the next October he
brought his young bride to Pekin, this state, reaching Stark county, April 17, 1836. They have
three children, Emily B., formerly the wife of Doctor Culbertson, of Toulon ; John H., a farmer,
adjoining the homestead on which he was born, and Laura, the wife of Doctor Bacmeister, of
Toulon.
Mr. Ogle was the first probate justice of Stark county, and when Toulon was laid out he was
one of the county commissioners. He held that office when the first court house was built, but
has never been an office seeker. He is a Master Mason, but of late years has not met with any
lodge. He is a well informed man, free and pleasant in conversation, and quite entertaining in
his reminiscences of early days in Illinois.
SAMUEL H. PETEFISH.
VIRGINIA.
SAMUEL HENRY PETEFIS.H, a leading banker in Cass county, and one of the early settlers
in this part of the state, is a native of Rockingham county, Virginia, and was born April 30,
1824. His grandfather was Christian Petefish, a Hessian soldier, who came to this country to
serve for King George, but deserted the English army, fought for the independence of the colo-
nies, and remained in this country, settling in Virginia. He raised a family of five children, four
of them sons. Jacob, the fourth child and youngest son, was the father of our subject. He mar-
ried Elizabeth Price, and they had a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters, our sub-
ject being the third son. Jacob Petefish emigrated from Virginia to Cass, then a part of Morgau
county, in 1835, and settled on the three-mile strip, six miles from the village of Virginia, where
he died in 1849. The widow died in 1854.
Samuel was eleven years old when he came into this state, and he here finished his education
in a country school, such as this part of the state afforded forty-five and fifty years ago. His
knowledge beyond the rudimentary branches was very limited, but with some ambition, and him-
self for tutor, in the end he acquired a fair knowledge of the mathematics and some inkling of
English grammar. He has been a farmer all his life, and became a stock dealer for his father
before he had passed out of his teens. In early life he was diligent at the plow, and has in fact
been diligent at every kind of business in which he has engaged. Great success has attended
his industry. He has a farm of 560 acres south of town; another adjoining that one of 160 acres;
other lands in Cass county, timbered land in Morgan county, and partially improved lands in
Iowa and Kansas.
In 1867 Mr. Petefish moved into the village of Virginia, and August i, 1870, commenced bank-
ing, he being of the firm of Petefish, Skiles and Company. He is also interested in two other
banking houses, those of Petefish, Skiles and Mertz, Chandlersville, and Skiles, Rearick and
Company, Ashland, both in Cass county. These are all good, sound institutions, and doing well.
The first named bank has had several changes since the original firm was organized, including
the death of Ignatius Skiles in 1873, and the substitution of Oswell Skiles in his place in 1875.
The firm is now composed of the following gentlemen: S. H. Petefish, O. Skiles, Edward T. Oli-
ver, William Campbell and George Conover, all men of good, stiff financial backbone. As a
banker Mr. Petefish is well and favorably known all over this part of the country.
UNITED STATES BIOGRA THICA I. DICTIONARY.
329
Mr. Petefish was a school director part of the time while on the farm, and has served a short
time in the town board of trustees since moving into Virginia, but he has never had any leanings
toward official honors.
The wife of Mr. Petefish was Nancy M. Hudson, daughter of Peter and Melinda (Hoffman)
Hudson, their marriage being dated March 18, 1848. They have had eight .children, only two of
them now living: Mary E., who is the wife of E. D. C. Woodward, of Virginia, and Louis, who
is at home. One son, Henry T., was lost at twelve years of age by the burning of the steamer
Ocean Spray, near Saint Louis, in 1858.
It will be seen by this brief sketch that Mr. Petefish is a marked success as a business man.
From a stock dealer in youth to a banker in later life, to whatever plow he has put his hands, he
seems to have made it a rule to look straight forward and push on. And for his perseverance he
has had liberal compensation in the accumulation of this world's goods.
COLONEL CHARLES CHANDLER.
MA COMB.
CHANDLER, lately deceased, and one of the most enterprising and successful
business men that has ever lived in Macomb, was a son of James and Abigail (Vilas) Chand-
ler, and was born in Alstead, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, August 28, 1809. His father was
also a native of New Hampshire, his mother of Massachusetts. Both lived to a good old age, the
mother dying in 1854, aged seventy-nine years, the father in 1857, aged eighty-six years. James
Chandler was a farmer, and reared his son to habits of industry, giving him an opportunity to
develop his muscle in tilling the hard soil of New England, and his mind to some extent in a dis-
trict school during the winter season. At nineteen, by consent of his parents, he went to Boston,
and spent two years in learning to sell merchandise; then returned home, and at the end of
another year started for the West, halting two years in Cincinnati. In the spring of 1834 he made
his appearance, in Macomb, the future field of his enterprise. His older brother, Thompson
Chandler, reached here a few months earlier, and is still living in Macomb, where he has made a
highly honorable record as a business man, countv judge, member of the supervisors' court, etc.
Our subject began business here as a clerk in a store of which his brother was part owner, and
in two years began to sell goods for himself. At the end of three years, seeing, as he rightly
thought, a good opportunity to speculate in land, he changed his business to real estate, in which
he was very successful. He bought land at very low figures; it rose gradually, sometimes rapidly,
on his hands, and in a few years he was the owner of extensive tracts, which the advent of rail-
roads and other causes made very valuable. In making his purchases of real estate he showed
great foresight and judgment, and hence his grand success.
In 1858 Mr. Chandler became a banker, and continued that business until his death, which
occurred December 26, 1878. He was a private banker until 1865, when the First National Bank
of Macomb was organized, and he became its president. He managed it with great care and
ability, placing it on a solid basis, second to that of no other institution of the kind in this part
of the state.
Mr. Chandler aided also in 1865 in establishing a private bank at Bushnell, which was changed
to the Farmers' National Bank, and he continued one of its largest stockholders and directors
until his death.
Mr. Chandler was a republican of whig antecedents, and always took great interest in politics,
although he did not seek office for himself. He was, however, coroner for two years, a county
school commissioiler four years, a justice of the peace for a long time, alderman two or three
years, and mayor one term. He was a true lover of his country, and during the civil war gave
both time and money to help on the cause of the Union. Too old to go into the service himself,
he did much to encourage others to enlist, and was so active and efficient that Governor Yates
;^ o UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
o o
commissioned him colonel of the state militia, authorizing him to raise a regiment for home
service.
For some years before his demise Colonel Chandler was accustomed to spend his winters in a
warmer climate Florida and other gulf states, Central America, Mexico, South .America, etc.
He was a man of varied and extensive knowledge, and an interesting converser.
He was married December 15, 1836, to Miss Sarah K. Cheatham, of Macomb, and she died in
1855, leaving three children, four having preceded her to the spirit world. She was an excellent
wife and mother and an active Christian till her death. The three living children are Martha
Abigail, married to Henry C. Twyman, merchant, Macomb; Charles Vilasco, president of the
First National Bank, Macomb, and James Edgar, vice-president of the Farmers' National Bank
of Bushnell.
Charles V. Chandler is regarded as the best business man of his age in Macomb. He was born
January 25, 1843; received an academic education; was adjutant of the 78th Illinois infantry;
held the office of city treasurer for fourteen years; has held other city offices; was assistant cashier
of the First National before his father's death; is now its president, and is managing its business
with marked ability. He married Miss Clara A. Baker, daughter of Judge J. H. Baker, August
28, 1866, and they have five children.
A writer in the "History of McDonough County" thus speaks of Colonel Charles Chandler:
" In personal appearance he was a model of neatness, with a face smoothly shaven, and wear-
ing apparel always in good taste. In the family circle he was always kind and indulgent to his
children and grandchildren, treating them with the tenderness that begot love in their hearts.
In public he pursued the same course, treating all with kind consideration."
The older residents of this city, with whom the writer of this sketch has conversed, speak of
our subject with the tenderness of a brother, they regarding him as a model business man and an
unusually kind neighbor.
W
HON. WILLIAM W. WRIGHT.
TO ULON.
7ILLIAM WILBERFORCE WRIGHT, son of William Wilberforce Wright, Sr., and
Anne Matilda (Creighton) Wright, was born in Canton, Fulton county, Illinois, Septem-
ber 10, 1842. His father was a native of Hanover, New Hampshire, and belonged to a family
which settled in New England in 1665, and some of whose members participated in the struggle
for independence. His grandfather, Boyd Wright, was an old abolitionist, as was also his mater-
nal grandfather, John Creighton. The mother of our subject was Scotch-Irish, coming to this
country from the county of Cavan, Ireland. William finished his education at the Galva high
school, farmed with his father near Toulon, till of age; commenced the study of law at Toulon
with Hon. Miles A. Fuller in 1862; went into the army in the summer of 1864 in the I3pth Illinois
infantry, a hundred days regiment, and served nearly- six months. His father and his brother
Curtis enlisted in 1862, and the former was wounded at the battle of Resaca, Georgia, May,
1864, and died of his wounds the next month at Nashville, Tennessee.
On his return to Illinois, Mr. Wright finished his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar at
a term of the supreme court, held at Mount Vernon, November, 1866, and since that date he has
been in practice at Toulon. An intimate acquaintance of his states that he is a well read lawyer
and studious in his profession, without show, but solid and reliable. He is faithful to his clients,
and true to any good cause which he espouses, whether in his profession or outside of it.
Mr. Wright was elected judge of the county of Stark in 1873, and by repeated reelections has
held that office for ten consecutive years. The present term, for which he was elected in Novem-
ber, 1882, will expire in 1886. He is punctual in attending to probate and other business, and
irreproachable in his judicial character. No county official has a purer record.
Judge Wright was master in chancery for Stark county from 1868 to 1873. His politics are
republican, and he has a good deal of influence in the county.
r \ITKD STATES ftfOGKA PIIICAL DICTIONARY.
331
The judge is a member of the Congregational Church, and has held different offices in that
body. For some years he was superintendent of the Sunday-school. In his legal profession, and
in all the relations of life, he has shown himself to be a man of the strictest integrity, and of the
noblest instincts.
Judge Wright was married May 19, 1875, to Mary H., daughter of Hon. Joel W. Hopkins, of
Granville, Putnam count}', Illinois, and they have had three children, burying one of them in
infancy. The living are Eleanor Matilda, and William Wilberforce.
BENJAMIN TURNER.
TOULON.
AMONG the early men to pitch their tent for life in Stark county, this state, is Benjamin Turn-
er, a thrifty farmer, still in prime health for a man who has passed his seventy-fifth year. He
hails from Kent county, Delaware, and was born in Milford, December n, 1807, the son of Reuben
and Sarah (Hayes) Turner, both also natives of that state. Benjamin had a fair business educa-
tion, and in 1834 emigrated from Delaware to Richland county (now Ashland), Ohio, settling in
the town of Vermilion, which a.t the suggestion of our subject, made at a public meeting, was
changed to Savannah, there being another Vermilion in the state. Reuben Turner was a hotel
keeper in Ohio, and our subject was postmaster of Savannah.
September, 1839, he was married to Miss Elizabeth McWilliams, and April, 1840, they came
into this county, and halted at LaFayette. In October, 1841, our subject settled in Toulon, Mr.
John Milier having preceded him, and was then living in a log house. Mr. Turner built the first
frame house here, and has been an industrious farmer for forty-two years, success attending his
labors. He has four farms, all within two miles of Toulon, and aggregating 600 acres, largely
under fine improvement. Mr. Turner has been postmaster of Toulon at three different periods, hi
all sixteen years, and was county treasurer from 1849 to 1853. He has always proved a faithful
official, competent and reliable. He has never voted any but the democratic ticket, and rarely
fails to get to the polls. Mr. Turner is the oldest Freemason in Toulon, but has never gone
above the third degree. Many years ago he was also an Odd-Fellow.
His first wife died in 1856, and the next year he married Miss Ruth A. Myers, a native of Lu-
zerne county. Pennsylvania, and a niece of the late Rev. George Peck, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. He has one daughter living by his first wife, Sarah H., who is at home, and one son by
his present wife, Chester M., a junior in Knox College, Galesburgh.
Mr. Turner obtained a competency years ago, but he still has an oversight of his farms, taking
upon him just enough care and exercise to keep healthy. We cannot learn that he was ever
afraid of work, and if indolence was in the Turner family, he does not seem to have inherited any
of it.
T
CHARLES DUNHAM.
GENESEO.
HE subject of this sketch is descended from the sturdy and patriotic military stock of New
England, his grandfather, Job Dunham, and two or three brothers of Job, using their flint-
locks on various battlefields of the revolution. The Dunhams are an old Massachusetts family,
members of it being still prominent there as well as in other states. Jarvis N. Dunham, a leading
insurance man and banker at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Henry Dunham, an attorney and politician
in Stockbridge, same state, and R. W. Dunham, president of the Board of Trade, Chicago, are cous-
ins of our subject, who was born at Savoy, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 24, 1840. His
father, for whom he was named, and who was a farmer, stock dealer, and member of the Massa-
chusetts legislature, was born in Taunton, that state. His mother, whose maiden name was
332 UNITED STATES fifOCKA Pff/CA L DICTIONARY.
Ardelia Jenks, was a native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, her family being prominent manufact-
urers in that state. In his fourteenth year Charles came to Illinois with the family, and has been
a resident of Henry county since that age. He finished his education in Lombard University,
Galesburgh, where he spent four years, but did not follow out fully the college curriculum, leav-
ing on account of ill health. While there he taught school during the winter for four terms, sup-
porting himself during the whole period that he was pursuing his studies.
He read law in Geneseo ; was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1862, and since that date
has been in practice at Geneseo, the leading town in Henry county. A gentleman who has often
heard Mr. Dunham plead, says that he makes careful preparation ; that he has a clear, clean cut
intellect ; is a logical and earnest speaker, and has great influence with a jury. He has the lar-
gest number of cases of any man in the county, and has also a large practice in other counties,
and in the federal as well as state courts. He has won his way to the front of the bar of Henry
county by thorough discipline and development of good natural talents, and by hard study.
Mr. Dunham represented Henry county in the twenty-eighth general assembly, and was a
member of the committee for the revision of the statutes in 1874, the other members being Clark
W. Upton, John W. Rountree, Milton Hay, Charles B. Steele and H. B. Hurd.
Mr. Dunham has never voted any other than the demo.cratic ticket, and is very firm in his
views, as well as prominent in the party. He is usually a delegate to the state conventions held
from time to time ; was a delegate to the last two national democratic conventions, held in 1876
and 1880, and within a few years has twice been the candidate of his party for congress in the
old sixth district, which is very strongly republican.
He has great power on the platform, as well as before a jury of his peers, and is one of the
ablest political speakers in his congressional district. He is a Master Mason, but is not, we
believe, very active in the lodge. He is a director of the Farmer's National Bank of Geneseo.
Our subject was married in March, 1862, to Miss Caroline O. Laring, daughter of John H. Laring,
a'nd they have one child, a daughter.
WILLIAM H. FRASER, M.D.
LA SALLE.
WILLIAM HALLIDAY FRASER, physician and surgeon, descendant of an old Invernes-
shire family, Scotland, was born in Perth, Ontario, March 26. 1839, his parents being
Archibald and Mary (Halliday) Fraser. His grandfather, James Fraser, came over from Scotland,
with a colony, in 1815, and settled near Perth, where he opened a farm, and there died. The
maternal grandfather of our subject was John Halliday, who was sent from Dumfriesshire, Scot-
land, to Upper Canada, in the same year, as a teacher for the same .colony, being under govern-
ment pay, and was engaged in that honorable calling near Perth for nearly forty years, being one
of a few teachers in the province under the pay of the imperial government." At the end of his
teaching he retired on half pa"y, the only teacher, we believe, thus honored. He died at the age
of ninety-two years, leaving twelve children and one hundred grandchildren. He and his family
were Covenanters, a liberty-loving people, and the mother of our subject, who is still living,
warmly cherishes the faith of her ancestors.
Doctor Fraser was educated in the arts at the normal school, Toronto. He taught three years
at Burwick, Ontario ; took a full medical course of four years at McGill College, Montreal, and
there received his degree in the spring of 1867. He then, went to Edinburgh, Scotland, and was
graduated at the Royal College of Surgeons, being the first surgeon from the Dominion of
Canada who attained that distinction. Thus thoroughly equipped for medical and surgical prac-
tice, Doctor Fraser returned home, and located at first at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, where he was
in practice for about two years. While there he married Miss Lydia M. Waterman, niece of
Hon. Freeman Tupper, of Milton, in his day a prominent politician in Queens county, and mem-
ber of the Dominion senate.
t'.Y /'/'/:/) STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1870 Doctor Fraser came to Illinois, and practiced in Chicago between two and three years,
being there at the time of the great fire in October 1871. He did a good business for a new-
comer. He was elected surgeon of the Chicago Caledonian Club, holding that post when he left
that city.
In the summer of 1873 Doctor Fraser settled in La Salle. Whether his reputation as a physi-
cian and surgeon had preceded him, we cannot say, but his thorough medical training in Canada
and the old country may have been known here ; one thing is certain, confidence in his skill was
quickly inspired among the people of La Salle and vicinity, and he soon had a fair practice.
That practice has continued to increase from year to year, and he has become one of the leading
medical men in this part of the county. In surgery, which he has made a special study, he has
no peer in the city of La Salle, and he is now reaping the benefits of the great pains which he
took to fit himself for his profession.
Doctor Fraser and his wife are members of the Congregational Church, of La Salle, and
esteemed members of the social circles of the city. They have seven children.
DANIEL E. FOOTE, M.D.
BEL VIDERE.
THE progenitor of that branch of the Foote family in this country from which the subject of
this sketch descended, was Nathaniel, Foote who married in England, about the year 1615,
Elizabeth Deming, came to this country about 1633, first settling at Watertown, near Boston,
and was one of the early settlers in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he died in 1644, aged fifty-
one years. He left two sons, Nathaniel and Robert, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Mary,
Frances, Sarah and Rebecca; and from those two sons many people bearing the name of Foote
have descended, and are scattered all over the country. A work called " The Foote Family; or,
the Descendants of Nathaniel Foote," published at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1849, shows that
representatives of the family have filled every branch of honest industry, every learned profes-
sion, and many honorable stations in life.
Hon. Isaac Foote, great-grandfather of our subject, and sixth generation from Nathaniel
Foote, Jr., was the son of Daniel Foote of Colchester, Connecticut, and at one period resided in
Stafford, same state, and repeatedly represented that town in the general assembly. He was also
a justice of the peace, a high office in those days, and a revolutionary soldier. In 1794 he
removed to Sherburne, now Smyrna, Chenango county, New York, and while there was a mem-
ber of the house and also of the senate of that state, dying in Smyrna in 1842.
Isaac Foote, Jr., son of Hon. Isaac Foote, and grandfather of Doctor Foote of Belvidere,
was also a prominent man in Smyrna, holding, at different times, the offices of constable, collec-
tor, deputy sheriff, high sheriff, etc. He was also deacon of the Congregational Church, and a
man of great probity and purity of character, dying at Smyrna in 1861.
Justin Foote, the eldest son of Isaac Foote, Jr., and father of our subject, was born at Smyrna
in 1803 ; married Irene Warner, daughter of Deacon Samuel Warner of Sherburne, New York,
and they had five children, three sons and two daughters. He was instantly killed at the raising
of a saw-mill in June, 1834, part of the frame falling on him.
Daniel Elisha Foote was born in Otselic, Chenango county, New York, April 7, 1828, and when
he was quite young the family moved to Smyrna. After the death of his father he remained with
his mother one year, and then went to live with his grandfather, remaining with him until he
commenced the study of medicine, receiving meanwhile an academic education at Smyrna and
Cortlandville. He studied medicine with Doctor Hyde of Cortlandville, now professor of surgery
in the Medical College at Syracuse, attended his first course of lectures at Geneva, and is a gradu-
ate of the Buffalo Medical College, class of '51, the diplomas being presented to the class by Mil-
lard Fillmore, then president of the United States, and chancellor of the University.
334 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPff/CAL DICTIONARY.
Doctor Foote practiced one year with his preceptor at Cortlandvillc, two years at Newark Val-
ley, Tioga county, and in May, 1854, settled in Belvidere, which has been his home since that date.
While practicing in his native state, he was appointed surgeon of the 52d regiment of New York
state militia, his commission having the signature of Governor Washington Hunt.
On opening an office in Belvidere, Doctor Foote gradually built up a remunerative practice, and
has always stood well in the professioji. Although making no branch of it a specialty, he has
had a liberal share of surgery, in which he is excelled by no man in Boone county. He has been
a member of the State Medical Society since 1856, and is a member of the American Medical
Association, and in 1876 was a delegate from Illinois to the International Medical Congress,
which met at Philadelphia.
The doctor has held various local offices, such as school director for a number of years,
president of the board of trustees before Belvidere had a city charter, and ex-officio supervisor
of the town, coroner for Boone county for several successive terms, etc. His politics are
republican. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for more than a quarter of a
century, and was at one period superintendent of the Sunday school for ten consecutive years.
He seems to have inherited, in no inconsiderable measure, the character of his Puritan an-
cestors, who were an eminently religious class of people. The doctor lost, in 1846, a sister,
Harriet Elizabeth Foote, whose short life was a beautiful example of meekness and pious
resignation. She died in the .bloom of womanhood, aged twenty years, sweetly falling asleep
"like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
His other sister, Frances Irene, also a devoted Christian, died a few years afterward. His brother
next younger than himself, Justin Hiel, died in Belvidere in 1856, and the other brother, Samuel
Isaac, is in a mercantile house in Norwich, Chenango county, New York.
Doctor Foote married at Newark Valley, New York, July 19, 1853, Miss Martha Elizabeth Upde-
graff, and they have three daughters. The oldest, Stella Elizabeth, is a graduate of the Rockford
Seminary; Harriet L., of the Belvidere high school, and Mary I. is pursuing her studies in the
local grammar school. The doctor is a warm friend of education, and takes good care that no
member of his own family suffers from a lack of it.
Doctor Foote has in his possession the coat of arms of the Foote family, presented to James
Foote by one of the English kings "for his loyalty and truth in risking his own life to save
the king's."
WILLIAM LAW, JR.
CHICAGO.
MR. Law is a well known member of the Chicago bar. He is a native of Hancock county,
Illinois, where he was born January 31, 1841. He is the son of Doctor William Law,
who is an eminent physician practicing in southern Wisconsin. His parents were North of Ire-
land people. His family, early in his life, moved from Hancock to Jo Daviess county, afterward
to La Fayette county, Wisconsin.
His legal studies began in 1859 at Shullsbury, La Fayette county, Wisconsin, in the office of
Higbee and Law, the latter member of the firm being an elder brother. After pursuing his
studies there, and also for a short time at Freeport, he removed to Chicago, and entered the
office of the late Hon. James H. Knowlton, a former noted lawyer of Wisconsin, and having
passed the prescribed ordeal of examination of the supreme court of Illinois, was, in 1862, ad-
mitted by that tribunal to practice. With a touch of the emigrating fever which seized many
other young men and turned their aspirations in the direction of the new territories, he, in 1864,
directed his steps to Boise City, the capital of Idaho Territory, and had the fortune to command
there a good business and a prominent standing at the bar, taking part in many of the leading
and important litigations of the Idaho courts. He, for a time, acted as United States attor-
ney, and was also for a time clerk of the United States district court. Spite of the promise and
Ce
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
337
prospects which Ihe territorial legal field afforded, the attractiveness and fitness of Chicago as an
avenue for the exercise of professional ambition and success led him to retrace his steps, and in
1866 he returned to Chicago, where he has since actively and ably practiced in all courts, and is
now established as one of the leading and notable lawyers of its multitudinous bar. His prac-
tice has been varied and in the several branches of the law.
In person Mr. Law is rather stout and short, of much robustness and vigor of physique. He
is, and his appearance is, that of a gentleman. His address is prepossessing. His manners are
easy, familiar and most agreeable. He is popular with his brethren. He is honorable and honest
in his practice, and has the respect of the court and the confidence and esteem of his fellows.
His arguments to the court are dignified, sound and logical, while his oratory to the jury,
touched with the fervor of his race, is usually strong and telling, and often eloquent.
ISAAC THOMAS.
WYOMING.
ISAAC THOMAS, a resident of Stark county since 1844, is a native of the Green Mountain
State, a son of David and Hannah (Dwyer) Thomas, and dates his birth in Berkshire, Frank-
lin county, January 22, 1809. His father was of Welsh and his mother of Scotch-Irish descent.
David Thomas was a blacksmith by trade, born in East Haddam, Connecticut. He served in the
second war with England, and took his family to Kingston, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, when
Isaac was about thirteen years old, the latter finishing his education at the Kingston Academy.
At seventeen years of age our subject went to work for his uncle, General Samuel Thomas,* who
was a contractor, and with whom he remained two years. He was subsequently a merchant for
fifteen years at Mehoopany, then Luzerne, now Wyoming county, dealing also in lumber at the
same period. While there he held the office of postmaster under President Van Buren.
In 1844 Mr. Thomas came to Wyoming, bought a small farm, and for a few years was engaged
in cultivating it. He was also postmaster during the administrations of Polk, Taylor and Fill-
more. At one period he was employed in raising, and subsequently in collecting, subscriptions
for the American Central railroad, which road proved a failure, and the bed of which was sold to
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Company. About that time he left his farm, built the home
in which he now lives, and moved into town. Here he gave his attention to the duties of justice
of the peace, an office to which he had been elected only a year or two after reaching Wyoming,
and which he held about thirty years. During that period he married something like fifty couples,
among the brides being a mother and her daughter. For the last eight years he has been police
magistrate, doing also considerable collecting for parties at the East as well as at the West, and
to which business he has paid more or less attention for many years.
Mr. Thomas is a man of the strictest integrity, and attends punctually and faithfully to any
duties or trust confided to him. He has been a member of the Methodist church since a young
man, and a class leader and steward for a long period. No man who knows him doubts the sin-
cerity of his profession or the purity of his life.
Mr. Thomas acted with the democratic party until the fall of Sumter, in the spring of 1861,
since which time he has been a firm republican. He has been a Freemason for a long time, but
has taken only three degrees.
Mr. Thomas was married December 19, 1833, to Miss Lydia A. Beers, of Mehoopany, and they
* General Samuel Thomas was a native of Connecticut, and a prominent contractor on canals, etc., in Pennsyl-
vania, where he held the rank of general of the state militia. He was a captain in the second war with the mother
country, and was at the battle of Fort Erie, near Buffalo. He came from the Wyoming Valley to Spoon River in
1834, laid out the village, and changed the name to Wyoming. He was a prominent citizen of Stark county, a mem-
ber of the legislature, and quite enterprising. He died in July, 1879, aged ninety-three years. He was greatly
respected in life and sincerely and deeply mourned in death.
34
338 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
lost one daughter, in early infancy, and have nine children living: Jerome B. was a surgeon
in the 54th Illinois infantry, and is treasurer of the Soldiers' Home, Dayton, Ohio; Charles C.,
also a Union soldier, is at Carbondale, Illinois; Mary W. is the wife of Doctor Pierce, of Wyo-
ming; Lewis W., a soldier for three years in the civil war, is also in Wyoming; Emma O. is book-
keeper for Appleton and Company, Chicago; William D. is in Missouri; Fannie W. is the wife of
Rev. William Woolley, of Lewiston, Illinois; Allen E. is in Dayton, Ohio, and Kate A. is a school
and music teacher at home.
Mr. Thomas was very active during the civil war in raising sanitary stores and sending them
to the hospitals at the South, and in many ways showed that he was an ardent patriot.
JETHRO MAST IN, M.D.
SHANNON.
JETHRO MASTIN, one of the early settlers in the village of Shannon, and a prominent citizen
of the place, is a native of Harrison county, Ohio, dating his birth May 20, 1825. His father,
James Mastin, a farmer, was born in the state of Delaware, and his mother, whose maiden name
was Anna Dewalt, was born in Pennsylvania. He was educated in the public schools of his
native state, and at the West Bedford Academy, Ohio, where he spent one term. He taught
school off and on, for ten years, doing also some farm work at that period. He studied medicine
with Doctor E. N. Knight, of Chili, Ohio; came to Stephenson county, Illinois, in 1857, and was
in practice three miles from where the village of Shannon now stands, until 1862, when he settled
in Shannon, then in its infancy, and continued the practice of his profession for several years.
During the last nine or ten years he has been engaged in the lumber and coal trade, and is a suc-
cessful business man. Doctor Mastin was the first collector of the township, holding that office
five years; was the first justice of the peace in Shannon, and is still acting; is also one of the
supervisors of the county, and has been for the last ten or eleven years, being also chairman of
that board half of the time. He held also, years ago, the office of village clerk, village trustee,
school trustee, etc. He has, from the start, thoroughly identified himself with every interest of the
place, and done his share in building it up. No man in Shannon has more fully the confidence
and esteem of the citizens, or has served them more faithfully in every office of trust which he
has held.
Doctor Mastin married in 1853, Miss Catherine Daugherty, a native of Belmont county, Ohio,
and they have three children: George C., a school teacher and superintendent of schools for Car-
roll county; James W., a railroad conductor, and Maggie, who is finishing her education.
JAMES E. CHANDLER.
BUSHNELL.
TAMES EDGAR CHANDLER, banker, and one of the leading business men in Bushnell, Mc-
J Donough county, was born in Macomb, the capital town of this county, March 20, 1850. His
parentage and ancestry may be found in a sketch of his father, Colonel Charles Chandler, on
other pages of this work. His younger years were given to intellectual pursuits. He prepared
for college at Lake Forest, near Chicago; entered Yale in 1868, and left in the sophomore year, on
account of ill health. In the autumn of 1869 he became a clerk in the private banking house of
Chandler and Cummings, at Bushnell, which institution was reorganized, in 1871, into the Farm-
ers' National Bank of the same place. In this bank Mr. Chandler was first teller, then assistant
cashier, and since the close of 1878 has held the position of vice-president, taking the place of his
father on the latter's death. It is a well managed and safe institution, and has the fullest confi-
dence of the public.
r XI TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
339
Mr. Chandler has been city treasurer of Bushnell for six or seven years, and was a member of
the city council four years. He is sole proprietor of the Bushnell Fair Grounds, and president of
the Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Bushnell, one of the most prosperous organiza-
tions of the kind in this part of the state. He is also trustee of the Western Normal College,
an institution recently started at Bushnell, with promise of a bright future. Mr. Chandler is full
of energy and public spirit, ready to lend a helping hand in any enterprise likely to build up the
town. He is an unswerving republican, and an indefatigable worker in the interests of his party,
being usually a delegate to district and state conventions. During the last four or five years he
has been the member for McDonough county of the congressional committee of his, now the
eleventh, district. He has been through Odd-Fellowship to the highest posts, and also to the top
of the local order of the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Chandler was married November 7, 1872, to Miss Ella C. Knowland, of Bushnell, and
they have one son, Charles, seven years old. The family usually attend the Presbyterian Church.
JAMES W. DUNCAN.
OTTA WA.
JAMES WALTER DUNCAN, son of Nicholas Duncan, was born in La Salle, January 18, 1849.
His father was in early life a builder and contractor, and later a justice of the peace, and the
holder of other offices at the time of his death, he being a prominent citizen of this city. Both
parents are dead. James received a good English education; read law at La Salle with E. F.
Bull; was admitted to the bar in April, 1871, and practiced at La Salle until 1882, when he
removed to Ottawa. He is of the firm of Duncan and O'Connor, his partner being a resident of
La Salle, and they having an office in both cities. Their business is very large and growing.
Mr. Duncan is one of the best trial lawyers in La Salle county, which is the second county in
population in the state, and its bar includes a good deal of legal talent.
While a resident of La Salle, Mr. Duncan held various offices, such as school treasurer of Peru
and La Salle (which are in one congressional district), city clerk, city attorney, and mayor for
three terms. In politics Mr. Duncan is a democrat, and has been heretofore somewhat active in
his party; more so than he is at present. He is very attentive to the duties of his profession, in
which he is making a brilliant record. He was married, according to the " Past and Present of
La Salle County," November 25, 1872, to Miss Bridget Cody, and they have two children.
D
DAVID F. DEADERICH.
QUINCY.
AVID FRANKLIN DEADERICH, commission merchant and grain dealer, and mayor of
the city of Quincy, was born in Jefferson county, Tennessee, June 16, 1840, his parents being
Hon. James W. Deaderich, judge of the supreme court and chief chancellor of Tennessee, and
Adeline McDowell. His father was born in Tennessee, and his mother in Kentucky. She is a
daughter of the late Doctor McDowell, of Lexington, Kentucky, an eminent physician, to whose
memory a monument was erected three or four years ago by the medical fraternity of the state.
Judge Deaderich and wife celebrated their golden wedding in November, 1882, when seven chil-
dren and a large number of connections were present, seven of them being over eighty years of
age. The Deaderich family are of German extraction, the name being originally written Died-
rich. The subject of this sketch has seven brothers, the oldest of whom was a graduate of West
Point, and the other six are graduates of colleges in Tennessee and Kentucky. David early had
a taste for agricultural pursuits, to which he turned his attention at sixteen years of age, after
having received a fair business education. He was thus engaged in east Tennessee until 1862,
340
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
when he went into the confederate army as first lieutenant of company F, 34th Virginia cavalry,
and commanded the company after a short time, the captain having lost his voice. He. was
wounded at Limestone Gap, Tennessee, and was twice taken prisoner, being released once in
exchange and once on parole, serving until the confederate army surrendered.
June 16, 1865, the day he was twenty-five years old, he left east Tennessee for Illinois, settling
in Ouincy. He farmed one year five miles from the city, then went into the milling business
here, and was thus engaged until 1877, when he commenced the commission and grain business.
He was alderman of the third ward in 1876-7, and is now, December, 1882, serving his first year
as chief magistrate of the city. He is a thorough-going business man, and makes an excellent
mayor. His politics are democratic.
Mayor Deaderich is a member and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, a liberal sup-
porter of the gospel, and a man of unblemished character. August 2, 1860, he was married to
Miss Nannie Haynes, of Washington county, east Tennessee. They have buried one son, and
have seven children living. Anna M., the oldest daughter, is a graduate of Franklin School,
Quincy, and most of the others are attending the same school.
w
WILLIAM A. PATTERSON.
CARTHAGE.
ILLIAM ALEXANDER PATTERSON, merchant, hotel-keeper and farmer, and one of
the old settlers in Hancock county, is a grandson of Matthew Patterson, a British officer.
He came to America while connected with the engineer corps, during the French and Indian war;
retired on half pay, and settled in Putnam county, New York, where he was still living when the
colonies struck for independence. His son, Alexander K. Patterson, father of William, a farmer
in early life, and later a cattle drover in northern New York, Canada and Ohio, married Elizabeth
Palmer, whose fatherwas a minute man in the war of 1775-82, his home being in East Brantford,
Connecticut. William A. was the second child in a family of three children. He was born in
Putnam county, New York, January 24, 1811; received an education limited to the rudimentary
branches, and has taken care of himself since he was twelve years old. At that age he became
a clerk in a retail store in New York city, and two years later became connected with a menag-
erie, the proprietors of which all lived in Putnam county, and he traveled for four years. He
then went to Baltimore, Maryland, and filled a clerkship in a stage office for several years, spend-
ing meantime the summer of 1832 in Cincinnati.
Mr. Patterson at length caught the western fever, and March 2, 1836, left Somerstown, New
York, on horseback, and in that way traveled all the way to the Mississippi River. Crossing over
to Fort Madison, Lee county, Iowa, he remained there a very short time, and then recrossed the
river into Illinois. That was when Iowa was a part of Michigan Territory, two years before it
became Iowa Territory, and ten before it became a state.
Mr. Patterson bought a quarter section of land in Prairie township in April of that year, and
immediately commenced improving it. In 1839 he built a log house sixteen feet square, and set
up housekeeping alone in a somewhat primitive and rustic style. After awhile he had a family
with him. In 1842 he did a wiser thing marrying Mrs. Georgiana (Bolts) Allen, and found hap-
piness in cabin life until 1847. His health failing, in that year Mr. Patterson moved into Car-
thage, and gradually regained his health.
We learn from the "History of Hancock County" that he was the democratic candidate for
sheriff in 1848, and was defeated by less than one hundred votes. Two years afterward he was a
successful candidate for the same office, and held it two years. He then bought, enlarged and
named the Patterson House, and in the autumn of 1853 was elected county treasurer, holding that
office six years.
He continued in the hotel until 1857, when he sold out, and was a merchant until 1872. He
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
341
then became proprietor of the Patterson House once more; managed it till 1879, when he again left
it, having two years before opened a store 40X70 feet, and which is well stocked with groceries
and queensware, and in which line of business, as in others, he is making a success. He again
took the hotel in November, 1882, and is carefully managing both branches of business. The
Patterson House is well known, well kept, and doing well.
Mr. Patterson made several purchases of land at different periods in this county, and has
always been engaged directly or by proxy in cultivating the soil. He has a farm of 270 acres near
town, and other tracts of land in this vicinity, in all probably between 350 and 400 acres. He has
always been an active man, willing to earn his own living by a generous amount of perspiration,
and taking pleasure in seeing others do the same.
Besides the county offices already named and held by our subject at an early day, he has also
held several town offices, such as constable, school director and town trustee. He was also at
one period captain of a militia company, and was called out once or twice during the Mormon
troubles, but was not, we believe, in any engagement. Since the civil war commenced (in 1861)
he has voted the republican ticket.
The fruits of the marriage which we have mentioned were four children, two of whom died
quite young, and George, a promising youth, in his eleventh year. Helen M., the only child liv-
ing, is the widow of Henry W. Draper, late a lawyer in Carthage. She has three children.
Mr. Patterson is one of the venerable landmarks of Hancock county, having been a resident
here for forty-seven years. He is well posted in the history of the county, well informed on some
other subjects, and quite agreeable in conversation. He is a friend to the young, a well-wisher to
everybody, a man of good principles, and highly respected by all the lovers of sobriety and good
order. '_
WILLIAM T. BEADLES, M.D.
BUSH NELL.
WILLIAM THOMAS BEADLES, a prominent army surgeon, and one of the leading physi-
cians and surgeons in Bushnell since the winding up of the rebellion, is a native of this
state, and a son of Joel and Thely (McGee) Beadles. His father was reared in Danville, Ken-
tucky, and his mother was born in Mercer county, that state. They were industrious members of
the agricultural class. The father died in Fulton county in 1843, and the widowed mother in
1852. William first saw the light near Lewiston, Fulton county, January 23, 1836, and when about
twelve years of age began to learn the tinsmith trade, at which he worked more or less for five or
six years, attending school during the winters.
Our subject spent two years at the University of Michigan, part of the time in the literary
department and part in the laboratory and medical department; attended lectures at the Missouri
Medical College, Saint Louis, and there received the degree of doctor of medicine in February,
1860. He practiced two years at Lewiston, and early in the spring of 1862 went into the army as
assistant surgeon of the 4th regiment Illinois cavalry. That part of it with which he was con-
nected was General Grant's escort until he went east. At that time the major of the regiment,
E. D. Osband, organized the 3d regiment United States colored cavalry, and Doctor Beadles
was appointed surgeon. Part of the time, during the year 1865, he was surgeon-in-chief of
cavalry division district west Tennessee, and subsequently surgeon-in-chief of the district of
west Tennessee, and was not mustered out until the spring of 1866, being just four years in the
service. He saw some decidedly rough times, but we venture to say he that does not regret any
efforts put forth or any hardships endured in trying to mitigate the sufferings of the sick and
wounded soldiers, who were aiding to save the Union.
On leaving the army Doctor Beadles settled in Bushnell, where he soon built up a liberal prac-
tice, the four years' schooling at the South having been of great help to him. Although in gen-
eral practice he aims to make a partial specialty of surgery, in which he has had much experience,
342 rxiTi-.n STATES BIOGKATJIICAI. DICTIONARY.
and which he has latterly made a special study. He is surgeon for this section of the Wabash
railroad, and for fifteen or sixteen years has been United States surgeon for pensions. His
standing in the profession is first-class.
Doctor Beadles was mayor of the city of Bushnell one year and ex-officio president of the
board of education, all the civil office, we believe, that he has accepted. He is a republican of the
stiffest class; believes that the perpetuation in power of that party is for the best interests of the
nation, and he does not hesitate to lend a helping hand during an important canvass.
He is a Master Mason, and years ago was accustomed to attend some of the meetings of the
lodge. He rfbw prefers to be at home, entertaining his family and studying fresh medical works.
He keeps well posted.
The doctor was married August 26, 1865, to Miss Telitha Leeper, of Kentucky, and they have
two children, Charles Henry and Luanna, who are attending school. Doctor Beadles usually
attends the Baptist Church, where all the family attend, his wife being a member.
GEORGE W. SCOTT.
WYOMING.
EORGE W. SCOTT is a son of Ephraim Scott, Jr., and Lydia (Sherman) Scott, and a
V_T grandson of Captain Ephraim Scott, who commanded a company in the war of 1812-14,
at Buffalo, New York, when that village was burned. He was born at Fredonia, Chautauqua
county, New York, July 21, 1832. He is of Scotch descent on his father's side, and of English on
his mother's. Both parents were born at Ware, Hampshire county, Massachusetts. His mother
was a daughter of Reuben Sherman, a revolutionary soldier, and a cousin of Roger Sherman, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The subject of this sketch has in his posses-
sion two commissions, signed by "Caleb Strong, Esq.," governor of Massachusetts, appointing
Ephraim Scott ensign of a company of militia in 1802, and captain in 1806. George's father died
when the son was six years old.
In his early teens he went to Massachusetts; finished his education at Millbury Academy ;
learned the trade of a machinist, and worked at it several years. In 1853 he came to this state,
reaching Peoria, March 18, and having a few hundred dollars, the fruits of his own industry, he
invested it in land in Peoria county, and for seven or eight years was engaged in farming.
In Januarv, 1863, having sold his farm in Peoria county, Mr. Scott came to Wyoming, and for
seven years was engaged in mercantile pursuits, in which he was very successful. At the end of
that period, on account of ill health, he retired, temporarily, from active business. Having
regained his health, in January, 1870, he opened, at Wyoming, the banking house of Scott and
Wrigley, which had a good business from the start, and the growth of which is simply wonderful.
The bank has always been carefully managed ; is solid and popular, and has become one of the
leading financial institutions of the Northwest.
Mr. Scott is regarded by parties who know him most intimately, as one of the most energetic,
stirring business men in Stark county. He has always shown great liberality in all enterprises
calculated to build up the place ; is an efficient member of the Central Agricultural Society,
whose beautiful grounds are at Wyoming ; is a thoroughly tried and true man, and by his strict
integrity, and good business tact and talents, has accumulated quite a fortune.
Mr. Scott is a steadfast and ardent republican ; a Knight Templar, and has taken the thirty-
second degree in the Scottish Rite. He is also an Odd-Fellow.
Our subject was married in Stark county, December 23, 1858, to Miss Mary C. Cox, a native
of Ohio, and they have lost one son and one daughter, and have three daughters living. Mr.
Scott shows his thoughtfulness and liberality in educating his children. Jennie L., his oldest
living child, is a graduate at Princeton, and the Boston School of Oratory; Caddie M. is now in
Boston, pursuing her studies in music, and the youngest daughter, Hattie G., is a student in the
home schools.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
343
Nor is Mr. Scott's interest in education confined to his own family. For the last nine or ten
years, he has been an active member of the board of education, and he has devoted no inconsid-
erable amount of time in aiding to elevate the standard of the Wyoming public sch'ools. His
public spirit crops out in many directions, and in many ways he has shown himself to be a thor-
ough-going, generous-hearted man, one of that class who are a blessing to any place.
WILSON FLEMING, M.D.
PORT BYRON.
WILSON FLEMING, for more than a quarter of a century a physician and surgeon in Rock
Island county, was born in Bakerstown, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1828.
His father, George Fleming, a carriage-maker in early life, and afterward a farmer, was born in
Ireland in 1800, and on his way to this country with his family, in the early part of the second
war with England (1812), they were chased by a British cruiser. The mother of Wilson was Mary
McFarland, who was of Scotch-Irish parentage, and born in Pennsylvania.
Doctor Fleming finished his education at Washington College, Pennsylvania; studied medi-
cine at Freeport, in that state, with Doctor David Alter; attended lectures at Ann Arbor, Michi-
gan, and Cleveland, Ohio; received his medical degree at the latter place in February, 1854, and
practiced at Bakerstown until April 1856, when he went to Le Claire, Iowa, opposite Port Byron.-
In September of the next year he settled at his present home. Here he soon built up a good
business, and for more than twenty years he has had a highly creditable standing among the
medical fraternity of Rock Island county. The writer of this sketch has known Doctor Flem-
ing since 1863, and has no hesitation in saying that he is a skillful physician and surgeon, and
has made a success in his profession. Since 1864 he has had a drugstore also, the largest in town.
The doctor has held one or two local offices, and did some valuable work years ago as a school
director, but he has been too busy in his profession to think of doing much work in" the village
corporation.
He is a republican of whig antecedents; is greatly interested in the success of his party, and
rarely fails to discharge his duty at the polls. He was master of Philo Lodge, No. 436, of Free-
masons, at Port Byron, for a dozen years almost in succession; is a member of Barrett Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons, and a Knight Templar in Everts Commandery, Rock Island.
Doctor Fleming was first married January 31, 1861, to Miss Myra Gordon, of Erie. Whiteside
county, Illinois, and she died May i, 1863, leaving one son, Wilson Gordon, now a clerk at Port
Byron; and the second time February 28, 1865, to Miss Eliza J. Simpson, daughter of Thomas
Simpson, an early settler near Port Byron, and by her he has also a son, Charles Sheridan, who is
securing his education.
JOSEPH V. HARRIS, M.D.
CANTON.
JOSEPH VINTON HARRIS, one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Fulton county, is
J a son of Colbert and Catharine Elizabeth (Crupper) Harris, and was born in Beallsville, Ohio,
October 22, 1839. His father, who was a physician and farmer, was a native of Frederick, Mary-
land, born in 1798, and his mother was of Rectortown, Virginia, born in 1808. Both parents died
in Ohio, the father in 1853, the mother in 1869.
Joseph received an academic education at Fairview, Ohio; began his medical studies at the
same place, with Doctor J. T. McPherson, with whom he remained three years, attending lec-
tures at the Ohio Medical College, being engaged in his medical studies when the civil war
began. November 7, 1861, he enlisted in the 651)1 Ohio infantry ; was appointed hospital stew-
ard, and attached to the medical staff, and performed the duties of assistant surgeon. He
344 UNITED STATES KIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
remained in active field service with his regiment in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama
and Mississippi, until April, 1864, when he was assigned to duty as assistant surgeon in general
hospital at Gallipolis, Ohio, remaining there until September, when he was assigned to duty in
the Granger general hospital in Huntsville, district of north Alabama. There he remained
until the close of the war, being mustered out in May, 1865. In the following winter he opened
an office at Canton, and began to practice medicine. He was connected with P. W. Plattenburg
in the drug trade from 1867 to 1870, from which time he has devoted himself closely to his pro-
fession.
In 1870 Doctor Harris went to Chicago, attended a course of lectures at Rush Medical Col-
lege, and received the degree of doctor of medicine in February, 1871. From 1870 to 1875 he
held the post of United States examining surgeon for pensions, under appointment of President
Gra'nt.
Doctor Harris is a close student ; keeps well read up in his profession, and has a first-class
reputation, both for skill and success. He has reported a few cases of general interest to the fra-
ternity in the medical periodicals of the day; has a membership in the Illinois State Medical
Society, and is a growing man in his profession.
The doctor is a republican in politics, a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason of
the Scottish Rite in the Masonic order, and master of Morning Star Lodge, No. 734, also
an Odd-Fellow. October 19, 1865, he was married to Miss Ellen S. Plattenburg, of Canton, and
they have two children, Ellen E. and Joseph P. Doctor Harris is thoroughly devoted to his
profession ; makes liberal use of a well selected library, and is constantly growing in the con-
fidence of the people.
N
IRA BROWN.
CHICAGO:
O one at all familiar with real estate operations in this city, especially during the last eigh-
teen years, can hear the name of Ira Brown without having the subject of city and suburban
property, more particularly the latter, brought conspicuously to mind. The business of "The
Biographical Dictionary" is to record the progress of successful men, and Ira Brown comes under
that head.
Success in life always receives a merited homage. The general from his victories ; the states-
man wearing the laurels of triumphant diplomacy ; the orator, whose burning words have
charmed, and whose logic has convinced ; the artist, whose brush has touched the canvas with
life and beauty ; the merchant, who has risen to princely affluence ; whoever, indeed, has stepped
above the level, is sure of the world's regard, and to a degree that it becomes scarcely distin-
guishable from worship. Nor is such feeling prompted by the brilliancy of the achievement.
Men do not worship the results of life ; it is the life itself that becomes the idol. It is not the
granite shaft on Bunker Hill that awes us with reverence, but it is the shadow of the intellect and
patriotism, which made that monument possible, that prompts us to tread lightly and to speak
softly at its base. Whenever mighty results are apparent, mighty intellect is discernible in the
background, and it is upon it that the eye centers. Success is methodical. There is no such
thing as chance victories in life, and, knowing this, however prone the mind may be to indulge in
fancies to the contrary, it desires to know something of the man who has baffled the difficulties
which surround almost every one, caring little for the achievements themselves. The obelisk is
beautiful, but who built it? soliloquized the beholder. The statue is life-like and eloquent, but
whose hand held the chisel, and whose mind directed its movements? The city or village may
be a Rome in architectural splendor, and a bower in natural beauty, but the mind turns from the
magnificence to learn something of the founder and designer.
Ira Brown must be placed in the list of Chicago's most successful men, and in view of that
fact, the usual interest attaches to his life that there does to the lives of others, who have been
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 147
successful, and for the reasons already stated. When we consider that Mr. Brown successfully
rode out the financial storm of 1873, and although suffering severe losses in the shrinkage of real
estate values, yet saved a handsome fortune therefrom, and that, too, when others similarly situ-
ated were utterly unable to extricate themselves, and were compelled to seek refuge in the bank-
ruptcy courts, his preeminent abilities as a business man stand out in the business community in
bold relief, his entire life, since his arrival in Chicago, has pointed in this direction. His enter-
prise has been restless, and really brilliant. His judgment has been unerring, and his foresight
has been distinguished for capability of penetrating the future with remarkable certainty.
In 1853, when a boy of only nineteen years of age, he came to Chicago and began life for him-
self, becoming first a clerk in one of the hotels, and then proprietor of the house. Disposing of
this business, he entered upon a mercantile life, which some years later he abandoned for the
purpose of giving his entire attention to his large real estate interests, of which he had gradually
become possessed.
His belief in the ultimate greatness of the city induced him, while engaged in the mercantile
business, to invest his spare capital in suburban property, and subsequent history has proven the
wisdom of such a course. Nothing, indeed, could more clearly show the characteristic ability,
and keen perception of the man, than this deliberate escape from land speculation in the city, to
the quiet and beautiful suburbs ; and it is through the determined will and untiring brain of Ira
Brown that twelve or fifteen of our best and most thriving suburbs are inhabited by thousands of
Chicago business men, who sit under their own vine and fig tree, and around their firesides, out
of the noise and bustle of the city, in homes purchased of Ira Brown, many of them on the
monthly installment plan, a system first introduced by him. At this writing the value of all this
property is easily discernible by even the most inexperienced, and it is not difficult to estimate its
constant and rapid increase of value, while Chicago remains the great and growing metropolis it
now is. But years ago, when much of it was first purchased by Mr. Brown, its value was almost
nothing, as compared to its present worth, and only two classes of men would have purchased it
at the price paid per acre, the extremely reckless, or the extraordinarily sagacious. Mr. Brown
was of the latter. Reasoning that there would yet be a demand for suburban homes by two
classes of people, the rich, who would retreat before the growth and inconveniences of a commer-
cial city, and those whose means would not permit them to secure homes upon the high-priced
lands of a metropolis, he fearlessly invested his money, and having sown the seed, sat down to
patiently wait for the harvest. Under the most ordinary circumstances the harvest would have
been by this time a bountiful one, and a monument to the sagacity of the mind that conceived it
possible. But fortunately for Mr. Brown, the great fire of 1871 was an extraordinary circum-
stance, which, together with the fire ordinance which resulted, advanced the value of -his acre
property about one thousand per cent. Had he been other than a fair and honorable man, dis-
daining to take an unjust advantage of his fellow citizens' adversity, he might have asked, and
received, a much greater advance. But at that time, and since, while enjoying a legitimate profit
upon his investment, towns and individuals have been universally benefited through his well
established rule of business to "live and let live."
Mr. Brown has no family but his wife, and generally for rest and restoration spends three or
four months out of each year in traveling. Selecting the winter season, while real estate is far
under the snow in this northern clime, he is to be found- under the palm trees of Cuba, or tented
somewhere on the flowery banks of the Saint John's River, in Florida, or on the Pacific coast in
California, and from these lands of perpetual summer Mr. Brown returns in the springtime with
renewed health and vigor, to receive the hearty congratulations of his hosts of friends.
Mr. Brown's purchases have been very judicious, and he now owns perhaps more real estate in
suburban land than any other dealer in Chicago. He handles nothing but his own property, and his
extensive business monopolizes his whole time. Unlike the majority of men, however, with such
large personal enterprises in progress, he never neglects to attend to duties of a public nature, where
their discharge clearly devolves upon him. His willingness in this direction was illustrated by
35
248 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
his devotion to the erection of the Ada Street Methodist Church, Chicago. As president of the
board of trustees, and chairman of the building committee, his labors in behalf of the church
were indefatigable, nor did they cease until the site of the church was located, and he had fur-
nished the means for the erection of the present edifice. This church is very largely indebted to
Mr. Brown for its present prosperity. Indeed, the Methodist denomination in this section owes
very much to his public spirit and practical Christianity, for he was a prime mover in locating
the grounds and inaugurating the celebrated camp meetings at Desplaines. But when some of
the Methodists of Chicago, headed by Hatfield, Gurney and Parkhurst got jealous of their supe-
rior in the ministry, Rev. H. W. Thomas, D.D., and offered their services as attorneys and witnesses,
being ready to do anything that would put him out of the church, then Ira Brown was one of the
first to spring to the rescue of the great preacher, and to be one of twenty to hire Hooley's thea-
ter, and pay the salary of this great and good man, and to form the People's Church, which is to-
day the largest congregation in Chicago, many hundred going away every Sunday unable to get
even standing room.
Although thus prominently identified with the development of Chicago, and ranked among
the most substantial citizens, Mr. Brown is yet a young man. He was born at Perrysburgh, Ohio,
January 25, 1835, and was educated at Defiance in that state, near which place his father, who
also bears the same name, now resides, being the owner of a fine stock farm. The mother of our
subject was Harriet Loughborough. who was born and married in Rochester, New York, and
comes from a family which is well and favorably known in that state. William S. Loughborough,
a brother, is a prominent lawyer in Rochester, and Barton Loughborough, another brother, has
occupied the responsible position of warden of the state prison at Auburn, for many years.
Both branches of the family are distinguished for longevity. The paternal grandmother of
our subject lived to the age of one hundred and ten years, and his maternal grandmother died
when ninety-three years old. His father has already reached the ripe age of eighty years. Mr.
Brown was married January 12, 1862, at Chicago, to Delphia K. Brown, who was a Louisianian,
and the daughter of a prominent secessionist. Miss Brown's family was temporarily stopping
here at that time, and the union which was thus effected between the North and the South has
never been a cause of regret to the contracting parties or their friends. Mrs. Brown is an accom-
plished and typical southern lady, who has always been a sympathetic wife of a busy'and success-
ful husband, whose enterprise has made his name as familiar in Chicago as household words.
WILLIAM P. PRESSLY.
MONMOUTH.
WILLIAM PATTERSON PRESSLY, one of that class of men who live for others as well
as for self, was born in the Abbeyville district, South Carolina, March 17, 1811. His par-
ents, David and Jane (Patterson) Pressly, were born in Ireland, and came to this country in youth,
in the same vessel. William lost his father when the son was not more than four or five years old,
he being the youngest child in a family of seven children. The widow kept house only a few
years, and William, who had some property left him, became a wanderer, but not a tramp nor a
spendthrift. In his teens he found his way to Oxford, Ohio, and spent some time in the college,
though he did not take a full classical course. The writer of this sketch has before him an album,
or more properly called a Vade Mecum, with the name of William P. Pressly on the first page, and
the date, Room 7, Franklin Hall, 1830. It has about two hundred and sixty pages, and is literally
filled with choice scraps of poetry and prose, culled from standard writers of many ages, with here
and there a sentence without any author's name or quotation marks, and evidently Mr. Pressly's
own sentiment. Here are two of his mottoes :
"Live so as to be missed. Live by God's grace assisting, so that the world will have been
made better, and not the worse, by your having had a being in it."
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 349
This latter has evidently been the motto of Mr. Pressly through life, as will be seen before we
finish this sketch. When about twenty or twenty-one, he purchased land in Preble county, Ohio,
and was a successful farmer about twenty years, when his health failed, and he changed to mer-
chandising, being successful in both callings, He was from the start industrious and economi-
cal, taking care of the little things, saving without being miserly, and wasting nothing.
In 1859 Mr. Pressly came to Monmouth, and farmed one year, as there seemed to be nothing
else for him to do, and idleness is not in his constitution. The next year he resumed mercantile
life, and is still a trader, thrifty as ever, because as industrious and prudent as ever.
Something like twenty years ago he became very much interested in the success of Monmouth
College, and turned over to that institution a tract of land of more than 700 acres, located in Iowa.
In 1870 he put up a brick library block, and presented it to the county of Warren. Part of
the money made here had come from the patronage of farmers and other citizens of the county,
hence he wished to have the inhabitants of the county share in the benefits derived from a public
library.
During the last ten or twelve years, he has given $20,000 to the Egyptian mission of the
United Presbyterian church, to aid in the education of the young converts to Christianity in that
country. One of Mr. Pressly's mottoes in the little manuscript volume to which we have referred
is " Live for others," and certainly his example tallies with his precept.
Our subject was reared in the United Presbyterian church, and was a member of it for a long
time. Some years ago he transferred his connection to the Presbyterian church, of which he is
an elder. He is also a trustee of Monmouth College.
Mr. Pressly was first married in 1833 to Miss Mary Gilmore, of Preble county, Ohio, and she
died childless in 1836. Two years later (1838) he was married to Miss Martha Miller, a Virginian,
by whom he has had four children, none of them now living. One, Virginia, died in infancy;
another, Sarah, when nearly a woman grown; Henry K., a soldier, was killed at Vicksburg in
1-863, an d Mary Jane, a graduate of Monmouth College, and a teacher there, an accomplished
scholar, died at the age of twenty-two.
Mr. Pressly, while living, is grandly " proving by the ends of being to have been," and it will
be a long time before the world will be likely to have a surplus of his class of people.
HIRAM D. FLOWER, M.D.
FULTON CITY.
HIRAM DON FLOWER, physician and surgeon, son of Zephon Flower, in his day a phy-
sician and druggist, and Margaret (Glazier) Flower, was born in Warsaw, Wyoming (then
Genesee) county, New York, February 28, 1827. He is of English descent on his father's side,
and Scotch on his mother's.
Hiram worked on a farm, and attended public schools during the winter terms, until seven-
teen years of age, and finished his. literary education at the Westfield Academy, Chautauqua
county, New York, where he spent four years at his books. He studied medicine with his father,
and Doctors Garlick and Ackley, Cleveland, Ohio, and finished his medical education at Wil-
loughby College, which institution was afterward moved to Columbus, Ohio, he receiving the
degree of doctor of medicine in 1849.
Doctor Flower commenced practice at Sandusky City, remaining there two years, then
removed to Chicago, and was there till March, 1855. Since that date he has been in practice at
Geneva and Fulton, Illinois, in the latter place for the last sixteen years. He was in regular
practice until he left Chicago, since which time he has given his whole attention to surgery, and
to old diseases, such as club-foot, crooked eyes, cataract, malignant tumors, etc.
The writer of this sketch has known Doctor Flower for many years, and is conversant with
his eminent success in different parts of Illinois, Iowa and other states, his field of surgical oper-
350 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
ations extending over a wide area of country. The cures which he has effected are not only
remarkable, but absolutely astonishing, if not astounding. Having made the class of diseases
just mentioned his exclusive study for more than a quarter of a century, he would, naturally,
become an expert in them, but some of his cures indicate a remarkable degree of proficiency in
the healing art.
Doctor Flower married, April 3, 1850, Miss Mary R. Perry, daughter of Amos Perry, M.D., of
Cleveland, Ohio, and they have lost two daughters, and have two sons and one daughter living.
Frances M., the eldest daughter, was the wife of Augustus Phelps, of Fulton City, and died in
child-bed ; Harriet E. was the wife of William Wicks, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and died from the
same cause ; Don Rhodolpho, the older son, is a physician at Galesburgh, Illinois ; Mary H. is
married to Monroe Smith, stenographer in a book store, Chicago, and Ward Z. is a farmer at
Fulton City.
THORNTON H. FLEMING, M.D.
CANTON.
THORNTON HENRY FLEMING, one of the oldest medical practitioners in Canton, Ful-
ton county, is a son of Rev. Thornton Fleming, a Methodist minister, and Sarah Cohagan,
both natives of Virginia, his birth taking place at Richmond, Virginia, September 9, 1811. He
was educated at Madison College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, being graduated in 1831 ; studied
medicine with Doctor John B. Phythian, of that place, and Doctor Thomas H. Fowler, of Belle-
ville, Pennsylvania ; practiced five years in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, then attended lectures
at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, and finished in 1839.
Doctor Fleming came to this county in 1852, and after practicing seven years in Liverpool,
settled in Canton (1859). He is now in his twenty-fourth year, and has made a good record for
skill and success. He has held only one or two offices of any kind, and attended very closely to
his business. His rides are still extensive. He is of the firm of Fleming and Sutton.
Doctor Fleming was an anti-slavery whig, and since 1855 has voted the republican ticket.
Politics, however, never interfered with his professional duties, to which he has devoted his life.
Doctor Fleming was joined in marriage in June, 1846, with Miss Mary Ann Nutt, of Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, and she died, February 12, 1882, leaving one son, Leroy M., a farmer in
Canton township.
i
PERRY H. SMITH.
CHICAGO.
PERRY H. SMITH, one of the most notable members of the legal fraternity in the city of
Chicago, was born at Augusta, Oneida county, New York, March 18, 1828, his father being
Timothy Smith, many years a prominent business man at Watertown, Jefferson county. At thir-
teen years of age Perry was prepared to enter college, did, in fact, matriculate, but owing to
his age had to wait another year, and at eighteen was graduated, his standing being second in
his class. He entered forthwith the law office of N. S. Benton, of Little Falls, New York, and
was admitted to practice March 18, 1849, it being his birthday and the date of his majority.
In the autumn of the same year Mr. Smith started for the West,- it being regarded by him as
the most inviting field in which to find an opening for a young man of his profession, Appleton,
Wisconsin, being the point of destination. Wisconsin, as a state, was one year old, and without
railroads, and. indeed, in the northern part without many roads of any kind. In reaching Apple-
ton Mr. Smith had a walk of nearly a hundred miles, much of the way through an almost
unbroken forest, that part having recently been opened to settlement by a treaty with the Indians.
Appleton had been laid out on one of the rapids of Fox River, and was just getting a start.
Hon. Amos Lawrence had just endowed the university which took his name, and which has since
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 351
grown into a first-class institution of learning, and the fact that such a school had been founded
may have been one of the inducements which led Mr. Smith, who is a man of decided culture, to
locate there. Thirty-two years ago Lawrence University was one of the most northern lights of
the country, but the crowding, ubiquitous Yankee and the robust Scandinavian have made open-
ings in the forests and planted towns hundreds of miles nearer the Arctic seas, and Appleton has
become a city of 7,000 inhabitants.
Soon after Mr. Smith settled in the Badger State, Appleton became the seat of justice of a new
county, and he was appointed the first judge, being only twenty-three years of age, and pre-
sided with marked ability over a court, not only of probate jurisdiction, but likewise of general
and common law. Very soon after reaching that post of honor we find him in the lower house
of the state legislature, and a year or two later in the upper house, representing his constituency
in the latter body for a period of five years, and becoming a prominent member on the demo-
cratic side.
Mr. Smith was chairman (1855) of the legislative committee which investigated the charges
of fraud and corruption made against the governor of the state, and wrote the able report of the
committee, which, it is said, "was absolutely decisive of the points at issue, and sealed the politi-
cal fate of the persons chiefly implicated."
Says a writer in the "Alliance" of November 28, 1881:
"The legislature was convened in special session in 1856 to pass finally on the land grants made
to the state by the national government to aid in the construction of railroads, and Mr. Smith
was placed on the special committee to which the subject was submitted. The grant was given
to a new company organized by the legislature, with authority to build a railroad from Fond du
Lac to _the state line. The company was soon after consolidated with the Chicago, Saint Paul
and Fond du Lac Company, then struggling to build a road from Chicago to Fond du Lac, and
in the following year, 1857, when but twenty-nine years of age, Mr. Smith was chosen vice-presi-
dent of the company, and when it was reorganized with the Chicago and North-Western railroad
was chosen to the same office in that great road, and made acting president until he left the road
in 1869."
At the time of Mr. Smith's first election as managing director of the Chicago and North-West-,
ern Railway Company, he had perfected his plans for his election to the United States senate by
the Wisconsin legislature, and only upon most urgent and potent arguments from Hon. W. B.
Ogden, Samuel J. Tilden and others was he induced to relinquish his political ambition for the
better furthering of the great railway interests then committed to his charge.
Great success attended Mr. Smith in his various enterprises in Wisconsin, and having accumu-
lated a fortune he removed to Chicago in 1856, and has since been a resident of this city, devot-
ing his time to his own private business, which has assumed vast proportions. His ventures in
railroad, mining and other interests in the Great West have been very fortunate, and Midas-like
everything he touches seems to turn to gold. Luckily, he is liberal in his disposition, as well as
refined in his tastes, and no pent-up Utica' or Chicago limits his generosity. Years ago he gave
a large sum with which to build a hall for the library of his alma mater. His immense picture
galleries and private library, second to nothing of the kind, we believe, in Chicago, are greatly
admired by all visitors. The destitute and needy have a warm place in his heart, and his kindly,
neighborly feelings are among the many good features of his character.
After the great fire his first business venture was the building of the North Shore railroad of
Canada, from Quebec to Montreal, which he managed with such signal ability and success in the
face of most gigantic obstacles that Sir Hugh Allen was attracted to the enterprise, and paid Mi.
Smith a million dollars for the privilege of carrying the work to final completion. In later years
the Chicago division of the Wabash Railway Company and the Wabash grain elevator of Chi-
cago, with a capacity of 1,650,000 bushels of grain storage, attest in a measure the mental activ-
ity and business success of the subject of our sketch.
Mr. Smith has been a life-long democrat, and is a great admirer of Samuel J. Tilden, whom
352 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
he helped to bring out for presidential candidate in 1876, and who was his first choice in 1880,
but failed of the nomination, much to the regret of our subject, whose wisdom and foresight are
seen in his politics as well as in his business ventures.
Mr. Smith married in 1851 Miss Emma A. Smith, daughter of Rev. Reeder Smith, of Apple-
ton, Wisconsin, and they have four children, three sons and one daughter. A sketch of Perry H.
Smith, Jr., a young man of much promise, may be found in another part of this volume.
THOMAS P. PIERCE.
KEWANEE.
THE parentage, birth-place, etc., of Thomas Powell Pierce, may be found in a sketch of his
brother, John H. Pierce, immediately following this. He dates his birth October 3, 1838.
He received his mental drill in a district school near the city of Aurora, and in his early years was
engaged in farming in Kane county. He learned the trade of a tinsmith in Aurora, worked at it in
that city till 1859, when he came to Kewanee, and worked here awhile as a journeyman, and in
1863 started a tin-shop of his own. Not long afterward he added hardware. He was alone for
two seasons, and for one short year was of the firm of Tracy and Pierce. In 1867 he took
into partnership his younger brother, John H. Pierce, and the firm of Pierce and Brother
continued for fourteen or fifteen years. He is now of the firm of Pierce and Brown, his
partner being O. J. Brown. Their store is twenty-four by one hundred feet, and they occupy two
stories, usually carrying from $20,000 to $25,000 worth of stock, and doing about $40,000 a year.
Mr. Pierce is the oldest hardware merchant in Kewanee, and in stability of character ng deal-
er in merchandize in the village stands higher. He has made a success in his business, and done
it by honest dealing, prudent management and careful oversight. In 1880 he .helped organize
the Union National Bank of Kewanee, a well managed institution, and was chosen its president,
a post which he still holds. He is also a stockholder in the Haxtun Steam Heater Company,
and is quite public spirited.
Mr. Pierce has served sundry times as a trustee of the village, in all six or seven years, and
was supervisor of the township of Kewanee two years. His political affiliations are with the
republican party, for the welfare of which he sometimes labors with zeal, he being a man of con-
siderable influence. He is a Knight Templar among the Freemasons.
The wife of Mr. Pierce was Charlotte M. Talcott, daughter of J. A. Talcott, an early settler in
Henry county. They were married in 1864, and have lost one child, and have one son, William,
living. He is being educated in the local schools.
JOHN H. PIERCE.
KE W 'A NEE.
JOHN HENRY PIERCE, secretary of the Haxtun Steam Heater Company, Kewanee, is a
native of this state, being born at Aurora, Kane county, January n, 1843. His father, Thomas
Pierce, a farmer, was from Denby, Wales, and his mother, whose^naiden name was Ruth Powell,
was a native of Utica, New York. Our subject received an ordinary English education, and
from eighteen to twenty-five years of age was in California, engaged in freighting, mining, etc.,
meeting with good success, and returning in 1867. He settled in Kewanee, and engaged in the
hardware business, in company with his older brother, Thomas P. Pierce, under the firm name of
Pierce and Brother.
He retained his interest in the store until two or three years ago. Meantime, in 1872, he
became a member of the Anderson, now Haxtun, Steam Heater Company, of which he is secre-
tary, and to the building up of which he is now devoting his time and his energies, as well as
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. -, r ,
most of his capital. It was started on a very moderate scale, and has been enlarged from year to
year until its buildings, mostly solid brick, cover two acres of ground. The company gives
employment to two hundred skilled workmen, and is doing about $400,000 per annum.
The Haxtun steam heater is no doubt one of the best articles of the kind manufactured
in this country. Steam is no doubt the most safe, healthy and economical method of heating
buildings, and we have before us hundreds of testimonials of parties who place the Haxtun heater
second to no other in the market. It has become so popular that it is almost impossible for the
Kewanee company to fill its orders with the promptness desired.*
Mr. Pierce is one of the most stirring and thorough going business men in Kewanee, and is
president of the board of village trustees. He is also a director of the First National Bank, of
Kewanee.
Mr. Pierce is an unswerving republican, and at times is very active in promoting the interests
of the party, attending county and state conventions, etc. He was married September 6, 1869, to
Miss Sarah D. Ingals, of Sublette, Lee county, and they have three children: Charles I., Frank E.,
and Lilly R.
AUGUSTUS ADAMS,
SAND WICH.
AMONG the successful inventors and manufacturers of Illinois must be classed the subject of
r\. this notice, Augustus Adams, who was born in Genoa, New York, May 10, 1806. His father
was Samuel Adams, a merchant, and his mother Eleanor Heth. During his boyhood he attended
the common school, but after his father's death, which occurred when he was eleven years old, he
was thrown almost wholly upon his own resources. He spent his summers on a farm, devoting
his spare time to study, and afterward spent four winters in teaching.
Having accumulated a small capital, he started a foundry and machine shop, in 1829, at Pine
Valley, Chemung county, New York. Here he continued the business till the autumn of 1837.
In 1838 he came west, and spent the next winter at Elgin, returning to New York state in the
spring of 1839. In 1840 he removed with his family to Elgin, and in the spring of 1841, with
James T. Gifford as partner, he established the first foundry and machine shop west of Chicago,
and continued in the business there till 1857. He manufactured, in 1850, the first harvester on
which the grain was bound and carried together. He now closed his business at Elgin, and
established himself at Sandwich in the manufacture of what is known as Adams' Corn Sheller.
In addition to his regular work he has occupied many prominent positions of public trust. In
1847 he was one of the delegates to the constitutional convention; served as a member of the
state legislature in 1850, and in 1854 was elected to the senate. He was appointed by Governor
Palmer as one of the commissioners to locate the Northern State Insane Asylum. At present
(1882) he is president of the Marseilles Manufacturing Company, and was also the first president
of the Sandwich Manufacturing Company.
His political opinions are republican. He is a worthy member and trustee of the Congrega-
tional Church, and by his upright life exemplifies the virtues of the Christian character.
Mr. Adams was married October 21, 1833, to Miss Lydia A. Phelps. She died December 14,
1867. He was again married January 13, 1869, to Mrs. Lucina M. (Powell) Mosher. Mr. Adams
had nine children by his first wife, eight sons and one daughter, losing the eldest son, Darius,
* Mr. William E. Haxtun, the inventor of the steam heater which takes his name, is a native of Dutchess county,
New York, born January 20, 1832. His father, Elnathan Haxtun, was a farmer, and to that occupation the son was
reared, he receiving an academic education at Amenia Seminary, Dutchess county, and at New Haven, Connecticut.
He was a farmer in his native county until 1870, when he came to Kewanee. Giving considerable study to the subject
of steam heaters, after some experimenting he invented one which has become very popular in a short time. In 1874
he became president of the Haxtun Steam Heater Company, and his inventive talent and industry are being well
rewarded. He has a wife and five children.
354 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
several years ago, and the daughter, Amy, in infancy. Joseph P., Henry A. and Walter G. Adams
are manufacturing the Adams and French harvester at Sandwich, and John Q., Harvey R., Oliver
R. and Charles H. Adams are manufacturing agricultural implements at Marseilles, Illinois. They
are a family of sons of whom any parent may well be proud. Augustus Adams retired from
active business, or nearly so, a few years ago, and is living a quiet life, holding at the same time
an honorable social position.
JAMES E. McPHERRAN.
STERLING.
JAMES EMMETT McPHERRAN, lawyer, son of John and Elizabeth (Stewart) McPherran, was
born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1834. His father, who was a farmer
and contractor, was born in Pennsylvania and was a son of Andrew McPherran who served seven
years in the Continental army, and most of the time under Colonel Morgan in the rifle corps.
This old patriot married Martha Adams of York county, Pennsylvania, a woman of Scottish
descent. The McPherran family came over from the Highlands of Scotland about 1745. It is
proper to observe in this connection, as illustrative of the indifference in which men of that day
held the orthography of names, that the brothers of Andrew McPherran spelt their name
McFerran.
The mother of James was a Pennsylvanian; her father, Robert Stewart, and her mother, Eliza-
beth Emmett, both of Antrim, Ireland, the former a Scotch colonist, the latter a Celt "to the
manor born," emigrated to this country shortly after the peace of 1782 and settled in Cumber-
land county, Pennsylvania.
Our subject was fitted for admission to Harvard College, but the religious bearings of that
famous institution were such as to excite parental solicitude, and accordingly he was matricu-
lated at Jefferson College, Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1857. After
graduation he taught in Mississippi, and also in Illinois, and in the fall of 1861 was graduated
from the Law Department of Chicago University. He began the practice of law in Sterling,
Whiteside county, Illinois, in 1863, where he still remains, doing business in all the courts, state
and federal. He represented the eleventh district of the state of Illinois in the legislature of
i873-74i and contributed largely toward settling our present railway legislation. He has held
various municipal offices in the city of Sterling, and has long been intimately identified with
the educational interests of the city. He has for years been president of the Sterling Public
Library, an institution which, though in its infancy, already contains over 5,000 volumes of well
selected books.
The legal profession consider Mr. McPherran a good lawyer. The public regard him as
a man of superior educational attainments. He is Presbyterian by descent and education,
although not a member of the church. The wife of Mr. McPherran is Sarah A. Withrow, daugh-
ter of Wm. E. Withrow of Macomb, Illinois. They were joined in marriage April 20, 1865, and
have four children, one daughter and three sons, all attending school.
HON. J. RUSSELL JONES.
CHICAGO.
JOSEPH RUSSELL JONES, formerly minister to Brussels, was born at Conneaut, Ashtabula
county, Ohio, February 17, 1823, his parents being Joel and Maria (Dart) Jones. His father
was born at Hebron, Connecticut, May 14, 1792, married Miss Dart in 1815, and our subject was
the youngest of four children. He is the grandson of Captain Samuel Jones, an officer in the
French and Indian war, and the war of independence, and who held two commissions under
George II. The family possesses a letter written by Captain Jones at Fort Edward, and dated
August 18, 1758. His ancestor, Colonel John Jones, sat at Westminster, as one of the judges of
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
357
Charles I, in 1648. That ancestor married a sister of Oliver Cromwell, and was put to death
October 17, 1660, on the restoration, Charles II being on the throne. His son, Hon. William
Jones, the progenitor of the family in this country, came to America with his father-in-law, Hon.
Theophilus Eaton, the first governor of the New Haven colony.
The mother of our subject was a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Hurd) Dart, who had a family
of fourteen children, their home being at Middle Haddam, Connecticut, where the entire family,
with one exception, met in 1854, to celebrate the sixty-second anniversary of the venerable
couple's marriage.
Joel Jones died when Joseph R. was a little more than a year old, leaving the widow with a
young family, in very moderate circumstances. At thirteen years of age he was placed in a store
at Conneaut, and his mother moved to Rockton, Winnebago county, Illinois. Two years later the
son pushed westward, taking passage on the schooner J. G. King, and landing in Chicago, August
19, 1838. Impatient to reach Winnebago county, and arriving too late at the port for the weekly
stage, he was invited by Colonel Broadhead and Judge Fleming to accompany them to Rock-
ford, which was twelve miles from Rockton. Remaining with the family two years, and assisting
all he could, in 1840 he went to Galena, with a cash capital of one solitary dollar. Mr. Jones sup-
ported himself for a few months by acting as clerk in a small store; then entered into the employ
of Benjamin H. Campbell, a prominent merchant in that lively town, receiving at first a salary of
$300 a year. His activity and aptness to learn the business, soon secured for Mr. Jones an advance
of salary, and a little later a partnership with Mr. Campbell. Those were prosperous times in
Galena, then the great business center west of Chicago, and these parties remained together until
1856, when the firm was dissolved.
Ten years prior to this date (1846) Mr. Jones was appointed secretary and treasurer of the
Galena and Minnesota Packet Company, and he held that important post for a period of fifteen
years, discharging its duties with great promptness and efficiency. For a term or two, during
that period, prior to the dissolution of the whig party, he held the office of alderman, and aided in
the prosecution of various important improvements in the city.
In 1860 our subject was elected to the twenty-second general assembly to represent the coun-
ties of Jo Daviess and Carroll, and in that legislative body he showed himself to be a thorough
worker and an influential business man. That was his first step in public life, and brought him
into prominence in the republican party. In March of the next year he was, by President Lincoln,
appointed United States marshal for the northern district of Illinois, and in [the autumn follow-
ing moved to Chicago. So faithfully did Mr. Jones serve in that office that he was reappointed
by President Lincoln in 1865, only a few weeks before the assassination. From a sketch of Mr.
Jones in a work entitled the "Leading Men of Chicago," we learn that he was one of the trusted
friends of Presi'dent Lincoln, who reposed in him the fullest confidence, and summoned him to
Washington for consultation on matters of great public importance during the war.
In 1863 Mr. Jones and a few other enterprising men purchased from the Chicago City Rail-
way Company the city railway lines in the west division, and he was selected for president of the
new company, and held that position until appointed by President Grant in 1869 as minister to
Belgium. From a work published in New York in 1876, entitled "Our Representatives Abroad,"
we take the following:
"Mr. Jones, upon his appointment as minister to Belgium, in 1869, proceeded quietly to his
post, accompanied by his family, took possession of the legation July 21, and assumed at once, unos-
tentatiously but industriously, the mastery of the situation. One of his first duties was to make
an elaborate report upon the cereal productions of Belgium, by direction of the state department,
and the manner in which he did this left nothing to be required. Shortly afterward he was called
upon to interpose his good offices in behalf of an American citizen who had been condemned to
imprisonment. He did so quietly, and without display, and succeeded speedily in effecting his
countryman's release. When the difficulty arose with Great Britain in reference to the construc-
tion of the treaty of Washington, no minister was more active than he in disseminating correct
36
358 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
information, and in giving public opinion a turn favorable to our interests. On the final extin-
guishment of the Scheldt dues he served the government with marked capability and intelligence.
He has also materially assisted in bringing about an understanding between Belgium and the
United States, which will enable them to agree upon the terms of an extradition treaty, and has
more recently furnished for the use of the senate committee on transportation an admirable
report upon Belgian railways and canals. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Jones and his
family have won the respect and 'affection of everybody who has felt the influence of their home
at Brussels, or come within the reach of their kindly offices."
On his return from Belgium in 1875, he was appointed collector of the port of Chicago, by
General Grant, and took his old position at the head of the railway company, and the success of
this company is no doubt due in a large measure to his excellent management and fine executive
talents. Mr. Jones was also one of the originators of the Northwestern Horse Nail Company of
Chicago, and, up to the time he went abroad in 1869, was its president.
' He married in 1848 Elizabeth Ann Scott, daughter of Judge Andrew Scott, of Arkansas, and
he is the father of six children, three sons and three daughters.
In business life, says the writer from whom we have already quoted, " Mr. Jones has ever been
distinguished for liberality and strict integrity, and socially, for the largest hospitality, and devo-
tion to the interests of his friends, by whom he is esteemed and valued with a warmth which
falls to the lot of very few."
JAMES H. ETHERIDGE, M.D.
CHICAGO.
JAMES HENRY ETHERIDGE, a prominent physician of Chicago, and a member of the
faculty of Rush Medical College, is a native of the Empire State, being born at Saint Johns-
ville, Montgomery county, March 20, 1844. His father, Doctor Francis Etheridge, was born in
the town of Herkimer, same state, and was a son of a revolutionary soldier, and a descendant, in
the fourth generation, from English parents. The mother of our subject was Fanny Easton, a
native of Connecticut, and the sixth generation from England.
Doctor Francis B. Etheridge was a practicing physician and surgeon forty-seven years. He
moved to Hastings, Minnesota, in 1860, and was a surgeon of a Minnesota regiment during the
civil war, dying at Hastings in 1871.
Our subject received most of his education in his native state, and had some experience in
teaching a winter school. He was prepared in mathematics and Latin to enter the junior year in
Harvard College,- but the breaking out of the war, and the absence of his father in his country's
service, disarranged the son's plans, and he concluded to go no farther in his classical studies, but
turn his attention to medicine. He read four years with his father, attended three full winter
courses at Rush Medical College, this city, and was graduated in March, 1869. In preparing for
practice he had taken a careful and exhaustive course, and on receiving his medical degree stepped
.almost immediately into a fair business in the thriving village of Evanston, near Chicago, where
he remained between one and two years. At the end of that period he made the tour of Europe,
walking the hospitals of some of the largest cities, spending several months in London alone.
On returning Doctor Etheridge settled in Chicago, July 31, 1871, and was this day elected to
the chair of therapeutics, materia medica and medical jurisprudence in Rush Medical College.
That chair he still fills.
Doctor Etheridge has met with unusual success as a practitioner. His urbanity of manner,
pleasant readiness of speech and remarkable self-control could not fail to bring about such a
result. In the branches he enjoys he is a close, methodical and appreciative student; hence
masters them and works out most satisfactory results. He is eminently a statistician, and confi-
dent of his means by which the end is reached.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
359
As a lecturer he is earnest and self-reliant, possesses confidence in his points, is positive in
assertions, has a good delivery, is of good presence, and is liked. He has patience to explain
and reiterate, and mainly tries to present the salient points of the subjects lectured upon.
A gentleman well acquainted with Doctor Etheridge thus writes in regard to him:
"Doctor Etheridge is a physician of the highest professional standing. In keen perception,
in rapidity and accuracy of diagnosis, and in extensive knowledge of the power and application
of drugs, he has few equals, and certainly no superiors in the city. His agreeable manners and
ready wit, added to fine professional attainments, make him one of the most popular of our phy-
sicians. As a lecturer he combines a fine flow of choice language, with emphatic, forcible teach-
ing, so that the student is equally interested by the force and instructed by the substance of the
lectures. He is universally esteemed by the classes, and the high value they place on his lectures
is shown by the fact that, although his hour is the first in the morning, vacant seats are rarely to
be found."
Professor Etheridge is one of the gynecologists to the Central Free Dispensary; is one of the
staff of the Woman's Hospital of the State of Illinois, and was formerly on 'the staff of Saint
Joseph's Hospital. He contributes more or less to the medical journals of the day, and is a mem-
ber of the city, state and national medical societies.
Our subject was married June 22, 1870, to Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of Heman G. Powers,
of Evanston, and they have two children, both daughters.
JACOB S. McFERREN.
HOOPESTON.
r I ""HE subject of this biography is a native of Level, Warren county, Ohio, and was born
_i October i, 1845; the son of William and Eliza McFerren, the former of whom was a native
of South Carolina, and the latter of Ohio. Prior to his fourteenth year Jacob attended the com-
mon school, and received a fair education, and afterward was employed in his father's store,
where he received a most excellent business training, having the entire charge of the store, his
father being largely interested in other matters. For the purpose, however, of better qualifying
himself for business life, he, in 1862, pursued a course of study at Bartlett's Commercial College,
at Cincinnati, Ohio.
Returning to his father's business, after closing his studies, he was soon afterward thrown out
of employment by his father's failure, and in 1865 removed to Paxton, Illinois. Here he accepted
a clerkship with J. W. Scott, and at the expiration of one year, in partnership with A. L. Clark,
bought out his employer, and began business on his own account. Under the careful manage-
ment of the firm, the business proved eminently successful, and was continued about seven years.
In 1872 Mr. McFerren sold his interest in the business, and casting about for a place in which to
locate and make for himself a permanent home, hit upon Hoopeston, as destined to become a
place of note. Removing thither, he, in August, 1872, associated himself with T. W. Chamberlin,
and began a banking business, and also commenced dealing in real estate. In 1874, his partner's
health failing, Mr. McFerren purchased his interest in the business, and until the fall of 1882 con-
ducted the bank in his own name, carrying it safely through the financial disasters which, during
those years, swept over the country. In September, 1882, he organized, under the banking act,
the First National Bank of Hoopeston, he himself being president and business manager of the
same. Aside from his banking business, Mr. McFerren has been largely engaged in real estate
operations, investing his surplus capital in farm lands. He also owns saw-mills in both Sullivan
and Dubois counties, Indiana, where he carries on large lumber manufacturing interests. As a
business man, he enjoys the fullest confidence of his fellow-citizens, having by his promptness
and uprightness in all business relations, his enterprise and public spiritedness, shown himself
worthy of their highest esteem.
360 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
With firm faith in the future of his adopted city, he has steadily worked for its welfare, con-
tributing freely to the establishment of manufactories, and investing in public and private build-
ings, demanded by the growing needs of business, among which may be mentioned the substan-
tial brick bank building which he erected in 1876, and the brick opera house which he built in
1882, both of which are ornaments to the city. By reason of his large land interests, he is the
leading spirit in the Agricultural Society of Hoopeston, the success of which is mainly due to his
enterprise and financial aid.
A man of intelligence and fine executive ability, Mr. McFerren is well calculated to be a
leader, and as showing the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens, it need only be
said that in 1877 they elected him mayor of the city, and again in 1881 honored him with a re-
election to the same office. As mayor of Hoopeston, his administration has been marked with
signal success, he having driven from the city the liquor traffic, with many of its accompanying
evils. Always a stanch republican, he has taken a decided stand in favor of honest government.
While in the local affairs of his town and county he has always taken an active interest, he has
uniformly declined political preferment, having neither time nor inclination to enter the political
field.
Mr. McFerren, during all his life, has been a close observer of men and events, and from his
extensive travels, both throughout the United States and in Europe, has gained a ready fund of
valuable and practical information and general knowledge, such as few men at his age' possess.
Though comparatively a young man, his business career has been eminently prosperous and suc-
cessful; and now, in the full vigor and strength of his manhood, turning from his clear record,
and strong in his adherence to upright, manly principle, he may look forward to still greater
achievements and successes. In his religious views he is generous, independent and liberal, hold-
ing to the opinions of no church or sect. At the same time, he believes in religion as a moral
force, and is a liberal supporter of church organizations in his city.
Mr. McFerren was married April 4, 1871, to Miss Susie P. Clark, who died July 28 following.
She was a daughter of R. Clark, of Paxton, Illinois, and a lady of rare attainments and most
estimable qualities.
HON. BENJAMIN C. TALLIAFERRO.
ALEDO.
BENJAMIN COLEMAN TALLIAFERRO, attorney-at-law, and late state senator, hails from
King William county, Virginia, where he was born October 9, 1821. He is of Italian stock,
his great-great-grandfather settling in Virginia some time during the first quarter of the eigh-
teenth century. Charles Talliaferro, grandfather of Benjamin, was an express bearer for General
Washington, and carried the news of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown (1782) to the capi-
tal of the country. The bearer of that important dispatch, then a young man, subsequently mar-
ried a sister of Governor Brooks. The parents of Benjamin were Robert Talliaferro, a farmer,
also born in King William county, and Cecelia A. (Ellett) Talliaferro, a native of Goochland
county, Virginia. In 1836 Robert Talliaferro moved with his family into this state, and settled
in that part of Warren county which is now in Henderson.
Our subject finished his education with one year's attendance at an academy; was reared on a
farm till he had reached his majority; then read law with Hon. C. M. Harris, of Oquawka, and
was licensed to practice in October, 1847, at which time he settled in Keithsburgh, Mercer county.
There he did a good business in the~state and federal courts, and remained for nearly a quarter
of a century. While there he was master in chancery for the circuit court for nine years, and
held also various municipal offices. He never encourages a person to go to law who has not evi-
dently a clear case, and is very faithful and persevering when he once takes up a case.
Our subject was elected to the state senate in 1876, and for four years ably represented Knox
and Mercer counties in that body. He was chairman of the committee on agriculture and drain-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 361
age, and was on half a dozen other committees, the judiciary and township organizations being
among them. He is the author of the farm drainage bill, and engineered it through the senate
He brought in the bill for the establishment of the Illinois Western Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, which failed to pass for want of time. He also favorably reported the bill to prohibit the
giving of passes by railroad companies. It was Mr. Talliaferro who introduced the great home
protection temperance petition, with 175,000 names signed to it, and made the introductory speech
in the senate. He was the author of several other bills, some of which are now the laws of the
state. He was a very industrious man in the committee room.
Mr. Talliaferro is a stanch republican, and a man of great influence in the party. He is a
Royal Arch Mason, and has held most of the prominent offices in the order. Mr. Talliaferro mar-
ried, in 1852, Miss Mary A. Pepper, from Utica, New York, and they have four children, three
sons and one daughter. Mrs. Talliaferro and the daughter, Cora B., are members of the Baptist
church. Francis E., the eldest son, is secretary of the state board of health, Springfield; Ralph
E. is a clerk at Monmouth, and Robert B. is with his father in the land abstract business.
Our subject has owned a farm for more than thirty years; has made some branches of agri-
culture a study, and has done all he could to encourage this great and primal branch of industry.
ROSWELL PARK, A.M., M.D.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this biographical sketch, who occupies a chair in Rush Medical College, is one
of the most promising young surgeons in Chicago, and has risen very rapfdly since he com-
menced practice. He is a son of Rev. Roswell Park, D.D., and Mary B. (Baldwin) Park, and
was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, May 4, 1852. His father was born in New York, and his
mother in Massachusetts. The family on both sides are a race of engineers, and have been prom-
inently engaged in various public works at the East. The father of our subject, a grandson of a rev-
olutionary patriot, was a graduate of West Point, standing at the head of his class, and going into
the engineer corps. He was prominently connected with several of the government works in our
eastern harbors, notably the Delaware breakwater, one of the great breakwaters of the world.
Subsequently he went into the ministry, and was the founder and first president of Racine Col-
lege, Wisconsin. Descending from such a line, our subject inherited their scientific tastes, and as
a boy was more proficient in his scientific studies than many college graduates. By the death of
his father in 1869 he lost his best instructor in these branches. He immediately went to Racine
College, and was graduated in letters in 1872, at the age of twenty, going over the whole four
years of college course, in less than three years, so thorough had been his previous training, and
taking his master's degree three years later.
Taking up his medical studies he was graduated with honors at the Chicago Medical College
in 1876. He then devoted two and a half years to hospital work, acting as resident physician in
the two largest hospitals in the West, positions gained by competitive examination with numer-
ous competitors. Shortly after resigning from the county hospital, and taking up private prac-
tice he was made demonstrator of anatomy in the Woman's Medical College. Holding this posi-
tion for a year, he then accepted a similar one at his alma mater, the Chicago Medical College,
in 1879. This position he filled until the spring of 1882, lecturing much of the time in the
winter and spring courses on descriptive anatomy. Resigning from this position as taking too
much of his time, he was offered the position of lecturer on surgery in Rush Medical College,
which position he has since filled.
He has been for five years assistant surgeon to the State Eye and Ear Infirmary ; is now sur-
geon to the new Michael Reese Hospital of Chicago, and holds various other positions in public
and private institutions, besides acting as surgeon to one or two railroads and other corporations.
He devotes himself to general and special surgery, and is said to have had the largest clinical
362 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
experience of any man of his age in the state. During 1882 he spent several months abroad study-
ing foreign surgery, under most exceptional advantages. He has devoted considerable attention
to electricity, and has recently been president of the Chicago Electrical Society, the most success-
ful and largest society of its kind in the United States.
He has been a constant contributor to medical literature, many of the articles being purely
original; has made numerous contributions of value to practical anatomy, and published some of
his work, and is the western associate editor of the "Annals of Anatomy and Surgery," published
in Brooklyn, New York, the only journal of its kind in English, and to which he frequently
contributes. He has one of the best collections of instruments and one of the best surgical libra-
ries in the West. He is a member of several medical and scientific societies, among them the
American Medical Association.
Doctor Park married in 1880, Martha P., daughter of Julius R. Durkee, of Brooklyn, New York.
As a writer Doctor Park is clear, concise, and sometimes ornate, and as a speaker he is perfectly
self-possessed, graceful and fluent, and being a man of ripe scholarship and fine presence, he
never fails to interest, not to say captivate, his class or his audience of any kind. A medical gen-
tleman connected with one of the Chicago hospitals thus writes in regard to our subject :
I have had repeated occasion to appreciate his skill and ability both as a surgeon and opera-
tor since he has been appointed as consulting surgeon to the Michael Reese Hospital. As such he
has very frequently given us his valuable advice in severe cases, and has performed a good number
of important operations in such an admirable manner and with such excellent results, that I regard
him as one of the most promising men in American surgery.
HON. JAMES HOLGATE.
WYOMING.
ONE of the very earliest settlers in what is now Stark county, Illinois, is James Holgate, who
came here in 1833 when there were not more than two families where the village of Wyo-
ming now stands. The place was then called Spoon River, and received its present name from
General Samuel Thomas, who came here the next year.
James Holgate first saw the light at the foot of Chestnut Hill (now in Philadelphia) July
26, 1804, he being the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Sheets) Holgate. His grandfather, William
Holgate, was from England, and was the proprietor of a fulling mill which his son Jacob con-
verted into a paper mill, and finally into a cotton factory. Elizabeth Sheets belonged to a Penn-
sylvania German family. Both parties died in Philadelphia.
Mr. Holgate received an ordinary business education in Philadelphia ; at sixteen years of age
went to Kingston, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and after partially learning the miller's trade,
turned his attention to the manufacture of woolen cloth at Kingston, adding merchandise in 1829.
While thus engaged, in April, 1827, he was married to Miss Sylvina Trucks, of Troy village, Kings-
ton township. Mr. Holgate continued to run the woolen factory and to sell goods until 1833,
when he disposed of his interests in Pennsylvania, came to this state and bought a claim of eighty
acres in Penn township, three miles north of Wyoming. Subsequently he added three other
eighties, and remained on the farm until 1875, when he moved into the village.
While engaged in farming Mr. Holgate held the office of county judge for eight years, and
was assessor of Penn township both before going on the bench and during part of that period,
in all, sixteen years. He was also justice of the peace for several, and quite active, years ago, in
county agricultural matters. He was a member of the legislature one term during the civil war,
being sent there by his democratic constituents. He voted for General Jackson for president in
.1828, and has always adhered to the democracy.
Judge Holgate is the father of twelve children, ten of whom are still living. Jacob, the eldest
son, and Erastus, the second son and fourth child, are in Oregon ; Maria is the wife of John
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 363
Snare of Penn township; Elizabeth is the wife of William P. Buswell, of Neponset, Illinois ;
Charles is in Washington Territory; Mary Ann is the wife of Calvin Hart, of Nebraska; Harriet
is the wife of E. Gharrett, of Montana Territory; James is a physician at Castleton, Illinois;
William is president of the First National Bank, Wyoming, and Reuben is at Osceola, Illinois.
James and William were in the civil war, and the latter was taken prisoner, and after being
released was wounded. Mrs. Holgate died in November, 1872.
Since settling in the village of Wyoming our subject has lived a very independent life, having
acquired a competency years ago. He is a stockholder and director of the bank of which his son
William is president. Very few people are now living in Stark county who were here when he
entered it; and seemingly he bids fair to outlive them all. He has never been sick a day since
his infancy, and although pressing closely on fourscore years, he is in fair health and is usually as
cheery and chatty as bob-o-link on a summer morning.
NORMAN L. FREEMAN.
SPRINGFIELD.
NORMAN LESLIE FREEMAN, reporter of the supreme court of Illinois, was born in Cale-
donia, Livingston county, New York, May 9, 1823, his parents being Truman and Hannah
(Dow) Freeman, both natives of New Hampshire. Before they left New England, they resided
for several years at Concord, the capital of that state. Mrs. Freeman was remotely related to
Lorenzo Dow, an eccentric Methodist preacher, well known in New England fifty years ago.
Truman Freeman died in 1824, and after that sad calamity the widow, with her young children,
moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she resided a long time, dying near Ypsilanti in 1872.
When quite young our subject spent three years in the store of David Cooper, at Detroit,
Michigan, going thence to Cleveland, Ohio, where he served a few months as clerk, and then be-
came connected with an academy near that city. He finished his studies at the Ohio University,
Athens, where among his schoolmates were Hon. Samuel S. Cox, now a congressman from New
York city; Hon. Milton Latham, ex-governor of California, and Senator Waite of Chicago. At
the head of that school at that time was William H. McGuffey, LL.D., author of a series of text
books for schools, and a man of great attainments and worth.
On completing his studies at Athens Mr. Freeman went to Kentucky, where in Fayette and
Woodford counties he was engaged in teaching, having among his pupils Frederic H. Winston
of Chicago, and Hon. J. C. S. Blackburn, now a member of congress from Kentucky. While
engaged in teaching our subject also studied law; and in order to complete his legal education,
went to Waterford, New York, in December, 1845, entered the office of Kirtland and Seymour,
and in the spring of 1846 returned to Kentucky, was admitted to the bar at Lexington, where he
had commenced as a teacher, and began practice at Morganfield, Union county, that state.
In 1851 Mr. Freeman removed to Shawneetown, this state, where, with the exception of a
short time in Missouri, he remained until 1864, when he settled in Springfield, he having been
appointed to his present post of reporter for the supreme court the year before. In 1855 he pub-
lished, in two volumes, "A Digest of the Illinois Reports," first fifteen volumes, and is now on the
one hundred and sixth volume,* seventy-one of them having been issued by himself. If any other
American law reporter has published a greater number we do not know his name. Mr. Freeman's
" Digest" was prepared with a great deal of care, and is very valuable. It did much to establish
his reputation both as a lawyer and author.
*On the completion of the one hundredth volume (April 18, 1882) the Bar of Sangamon county gave Mr. Freeman
a dinner as a testimonial of their appreciation of his work, and it was a very enjoyable occasion. Governor Cullom
presided and made the opening speech, to which Mr. Freeman responded in a very neat and modest manner. Then
followed speeches by ex-Governor Palmer, Hon. J. Young Scammon, Hon. James H. Matheny, Hon. James C. Conk-
ling, and others, all bearing testimony to the high merits of Mr. Freeman's literary labors.
364 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In politics Mr. Freeman was originally a whig, and on the disbanding of that party, joined
the democratic, with which he still votes. He is a very quiet man, but does his own thinking,
and, we surmise, a good deal of it. He is cultivated in manners, as well as in mind, and is an
instructive and very genial converser. His air and address indicate the scholar, the "book-
worm." His library, though not large, is choice in selection, and some of its volumes are quite
rare. More than once the writer of this sketch has stolen in among his books to admire some of
the more antique tomes, and the elegant jackets of the more modern volumes. One of the most
venerable works which Mr. Freeman owns is called "Greek Antiquities," published at Oxford, Eng-
land, in 1597. He has also a quarto edition of the works of Horace Walpole, London, 1798; two
histories of Virginia published in 1722 and 1804, both rarely seen now-a-days; a history of France
in four volumes by M. Bousset, Edinburgh, 1762; "Jefferson's Notes," Philadelphia, 1801; a Lon-
don edition of " Knickerbocker's History of New York," 1821; "Travels of Sir Henry Holland,
very rare; a splendid edition of the " Memoirs of the Duke of Sully," in four volumes; Miss Fer-
rier's novels in three volumes, seldom found in this country, and a fine edition of " Boswell's Life
of Johnson " in ten volumes. He has in rich binding, the Waverley Novels, Dickens, Prescott,
Motley and scores of other recent authors, American and European, and a man of any literary
taste can find abundance of both nectar and ambrosia in Mr. Freeman's library.
While at Morganfield, Union county, in 1849, Mr. Freeman married Tranquilla, daughter of
Alfred and Elizabeth Dabney (Williamson) Richeson. They lost one daughter in infancy and
have three daughters and one son living. Mrs. F. is a native of Lynchburgh, Virginia, and a
woman of more than ordinary natural abilities, and of marked intelligence, keeping well posted
ou current events.
LUPPE LUPPEN.
PEKIN.
TUPPE LUPPEN, machinist, inventor and manufacturer, is a son of Peter Otten Luppen,
\. j and Justina (Lutjens) Luppen, and was born in Hanover, Germany, August 20, 1823. He
received a common education in his youth, and spent some time in Holland, perfecting himself in
his trade, that of blacksmith and machinist, learning to work in wood and iron of almost every
description, including the manufacture of pistols, etc. In 1849 Mr. Luppen was married to Miss
Katharine Conrad (Smith) Luppen, widow of an older brother, and oldest sister of Hon. Dietrich
C. Smith, late member of congress from the I3th Illinois district; and in 1850 came to Pekin.
Three brothers-in-law had preceded him and they started in the business of wagon and buggy
making on a very humble scale. The trade grew as the country filled up, and the excellent
character of their wares became known; the capacity of the shops was enlarged from time
to time; and now the firm of T. and H. Smith and Company, composed of Frederick Smith,
Luppe Luppen, Habbe Velde and Dietrich C. Smith, is giving employment to 150 work-
men in the manufacture of wagons and carriages, which are of thorough make, and find a
ready market in the great valley of the Mississippi. The same parties early commenced the
manufacture of plows, and in September, 1879, organized the Pekin Plow Company, which is
composed of the same enterprising men. This company also employs about 150 hands, and
is manufacturing plows and cultivators of various styles, improved by Mr. Luppen, including
the Luppen combined riding and walking cultivator, the Pekin celestial tongueless cultivator, the
new wood-beam plow, the new steel-beam plow, the new adjustable lever-lifting spring cultivator,
the new four hundred pound sulky plow, with or without patent foot lift, the Pekin oscillating
harrow, etc. Mr. Luppen has more than a dozen patents on different implements; nearly every-
thing made in either of those great factories is of an improved style from his skillful hand. He
is a born mechanic and inventor. The articles turned out here, it is safe to say, are second to
nothing of their kind in the market, and they find a ready sale.
Mr. Luppen has nothing to do with the sale of the wares made in these shops; his whole time
O' r fHF
w 'yo?siry of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 367
and his whole thought are given to methods of improvement. When he makes a plow or a cul-
tivator, for instance, of a new style, he goes into the field and tries it, and keeps trying until he is
satisfied ht has made an improvement. His life is given to study and to experiments, for a truly
noble purpose, and he is faithfully serving his generation, receiving, meantime, a fair compensa-
tion for the fruits of his inventive talents. His skill in this respect developed itself at a very
early age. While other boys were at play he was making articles with the rudest materials.
He is a member of the grain firm of Smith, Hippin and Company, and of the banking house
Teis Smith and Company. The senior member of the latter firm, Teis Smith, died in 1870.
Mr. Luppen is a member of the German Methodist church, a generous supporter of the Gospel,
and an active and constant participant in Sunday-school and other Christian work. The young
bride whom he brought to this country in 1850, and with whom he lived in happiness for thirty-
three years, died in December, 1882, leaving two children. She was a consistent Christian, an affec-
tionate wife and mother, and her loss was felt in a large circle of the community.
o
EDGAR L. PHILLIPS, M.D.
GALESBURGH.
NE of the oldest and most prominent physicians and surgeons in the city of Galesburgh is
the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who was born in Orange county, New
York, April 5, 1827. His father was William Phillips, who was a farmer and manufacturer and a
soldier in the war of 1812-14, and colonel of a regiment of the state militia, and his mother was
Sarah Evertson, a native of Dutchess county, New York. Edgar prepared for college at Lee,
Massachusetts, and South Middletown, New York; entered Williams College, Massachusetts, in
1844, and on account of his father's death left at the end of the second term, senior year.
In 1848 our subject came to Illinois; read medicine at Fairview, Fulton county; attended lec-
tures at Cleveland, Ohio, studying at the same time in the office of Professor Delamater; in 1852
went to California with his older brother, N. E. Phillips, and was in practice there about two
years, returning in 1855.
He now attended lectures in the Saint Louis Medical College; received the degree of doctor
of medicine in the spring of 1856, and opened an office at Knoxville, five miles from Galesburgh.
In 1860, his health being poor, he went to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, where he owned land, and
spent two seasons in cultivating the soil, and received considerable benefit.
In 1862 Doctor Phillips went into the army as first assistant surgeon of the gist Illinois
infantry, which was sent to Kentucky, and was captured by General Morgan in December, 1862,
and after being paroled was sent to Benton Barracks, Saint Louis. The regiment was exchanged
the next summer, and was at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Carrollton, Louisiana, etc. Before the
close of 1863 the health of our subject failed, and he resigned and returned to Knox county. He
was on a farm between Knoxville and Galesburgh for one season, and in 1865 settled in the latter
place, and resumed practice. The experience which he had in the army as a surgeon was a good
school to him, and has no doubt added to his popularity, he having an excellent standing in the
community, both as a physician and surgeon. He is a member of the board of examiners for
pensions.
Doctor Phillips belongs to the Military Tract Medical Society, and to the American Medical
Association, and has all the transactions of the latter society for the last ten years. He keeps
well posted in medical science.
The doctor has taken the council degrees in Freemasonry, and at the time this sketch is written
is high priest of Galesburgh Chapter. His politics are republican. In May, 1857, he was mar-
ried to Miss Mary L. Sanburn, of Knoxville, and they have two sons and two daughters: John
S. is a graduate of Knox College, Galesburgh, and one of the editors of the "Wheelman," a
37
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
bicycle paper, Boston, Massachusetts; Edgar E. is a printer, Galesburgh, and the two daughters,
Elizabeth and Julia, are at home.
While in Williams College Doctor Phillips was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society, and,
from a volume containing brief sketches of the members of that society, we have gathered por-
tions of the data for this notice of the doctor.
ROBERT M. MAcARTHUR, M.D.
OTTAWA.
THE subject of this sketch is a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, a son of Alexander and Jane
(Cook) MacArthur, and was born March 4, 1825. Robert received part of his education in
Scotland; came to this country in 1842; finished his literary studies in Aurora, Illinois, and Oberlin,
Ohio, and his medical at Rush Medical College, Chicago, receiving his diploma in February, 1854.
He married that year at Aurora, Illinois, Miss Martha Hard, and settled at Ottawa, in La Salle
county, where he has been in active practice for nearly thirty years. For nearly three years of
that time (1862-65) he was surgeon of the board of enrollment of his congressional district, hold-
ing that post, and discharging its duties with ability and eminent satisfaction, until the close of
the civil war. He is secrelary of the United States examining board of surgeons for pensions,
and the regular appointed surgeon of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad for Ottawa
and adjoining towns.
Doctor MacArthur was county coroner for ten years, a member of the board of education
three terms, and is now serving as the health officer of the city. His practice is large, and he
is one of the busiest men in Ottawa. The people have great confidence in his skill, as well as
great respect for him as a citizen. He writes occasionally an article for some medical periodical.
He was president of the alumni association of Rush Medical College for the years 1879-80,
and in retiring from the position, which he filled with ability, delivered the annual address, which
was rich in original matter, and gave evidence that he was abreast of the times in the progress of
scientific thought. Upon the hypothesis of evolution, while discussing some phases of the prob-
lem of life in its relations to the practice of medicine, he struck the key-note of pathological sci-
ence in attributing the origin and propagation of disease to a combination of molecular matter
by certain correlation of forces.
The doctor has a good deal of literary taste and cultivation, and has evidently studied the art
of putting things, his style being vigorous and forcible, and marked with the finest graces of
rhetoric. It is a pity he could not find time to write more on miscellaneous subjects.
He is a republican, and in his younger years was active in the party interests; never, how-
ever, so much as to interfere with his professional duties. He is a Knight Templar, and past
commander of Ottawa Commandery, No. 10. The issue of the doctor's marriage, already men-
tioned, is one son, Wallace, who died in his fourth year, and two daughters, Jessie Wallace and
Alice Ella.
WILLIAM H. H. ADAMS, D.D.
BLOOMING TON.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON ADAMS, president of the Illinois Wesleyan University,
is a native of Effingham county, this state, and was born March 30, 1840. His father,
Christopher B. Adams, was born in Xenia, Ohio, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah
E. Gannaway, was a native of Kentucky, her family moving to that state from Virginia. "Par-
son " Brownlow was the son of a sister of our subject's maternal grandfather. This branch of
the Adams family came from England to this country during the revolutionary war, and" the
grandfather of Christopher B. Adams shouldered his musket in the cause of independence, and
was wounded in one of the battles of that war.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 369
When our subject was five years old the family moved to Coles county, and settled on a farm
five miles south of Mattoon, where William had an opportunity to develop his muscle quite as
much as his mind, being early accustomed to all kinds of farm work. In the summer of 1862 he
raised a company for the mth Illinois infantry; went in as a private in company A, to which he
had promised all the offices; at the end of six months was put in charge of the contrabands;
commenced drilling them immediately, before any orders had been issued for arming that class
of men, and he equipped the first company of colored troops who went into the service, he taking
command of them. They were in the 4th United States artillery, doing mainly garrison duty on
the Ohio and Mobile railroad, and serving until the close of the war.
Captain Adams finished his education at the Northwestern University, at Evanston, near Chi-
cago, receiving the degrees of bachelor of arts and bachelor of divinity from that institution in
1870, master of arts in 1873, and doctor of divinity in 1876. He was pastor of the Methodist
Episcopal Church at Monticello, Illinois, two years, of the Clinton church three years, and was
appointed president of the Illinois Wesleyan University in August, 1875. His chair is that of
moral philosophy and metaphysics.
When our subject became president the University was heavily in debt, which he reduced
$50,000 in five or six years, leaving less than $9,000, which will no doubt be canceled before this
work is out of press. In grateful acknowledgment of his services in this direction, the trustees of
the University sent President Adams to the old world in 1880, he visiting the larger portion of
the countries of Europe, and returning greatly refreshed and invigorated in body and mind.
President Adams was first married in 1861, to Miss Sarah E. Campbell, daughter of Silas
Campbell, of Coles county, she dying in January, 1866; and the second time in August, 1867, to
Miss Hannah C. Conkling, daughter of J. W. Conkling, of Plymouth, Ohio. He had two children
by the first wife, both dying in infancy, and has four by the second.
EDMUND B. HANNA.
CHICAGO.
THIS gentleman is of Scotch descent. His grandfather, Andrew Hanna, came from Scotland
in an early day, and settled in New York. His mother's father was General Miles, of revo-
lutionary fame. His parents were Samuel C., and Susan R. (Miles) Hanna. He was an exten-
sive farmer in Spring Mills, Center county, Pennsylvania, and an active temperance reformer
even at that early day. Strong drink never passed his lips. Edmund was born in Spring Mills,
February 19, 1828, and graduated from the Bellfonte Academy, carrying off the highest prize for
mathematics. He soon after found employment as clerk in a dry goods store in Center county,
owned by Irvin and Thomas, the late Judge S. B. Thomas, of Morris, Illinois. He subsequently
kept books for General James Irvin, of Milesburgh, Pennsylvania, and after a few years entered
into the iron and mercantile business himself, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. From there he
moved to Petersburgh, Ohio, and thence to Morris, Illinois, in June, 1853, with a stock of goods,
following trade in both places. He continued in trade in Morris for a number of years; was
appointed postmaster by Abraham Lincoln, April 22, 1861, during his first term, and when the
district was represented by Lovejoy in congress; he held the office till June 30, 1871, a period of
over ten years, the longest term of any incumbent since the establishment of the office. He was
for several years mayor of Morris, and the last republican mayor holding office in that town.
During the war he was a very active man, promoting the interests of the government at home,
and caring for the necessities of the boys in the army.
June 4, 1855, he was married to Miss Irrilla B. Hicks, the youngest daughter of Joseph Hicks,
of Belmont county, Ohio, by whom he has had two children, a daughter, now happily married,
and a son sixteen years old, in school at Lake Forest, Illinois.
In 1871 he came to Chicago, one day after the great fire, and is now engaged in the manufac-
370 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
ture of mineral paint in Chicago, and also in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The style of the firm is
Matteson Brothers and Company, North Branch and Bliss streets, Chicago, and they turn out two
or three thousand tons of paint yearly.
Mr. Hanna is still a republican, but no longer an active man in politics. He is a Master
Mason and an Odd Fellow by turns and a good fellow all the time. In personal appearance he is
tall and commanding, six feet in Ris stockings, and weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds
avoirdupois. He is a blonde, with the kindest clear blue eyes; he is affable and very agreeable,
and makes one immediately at home. He is frank and gentle spoken, and shows a native kind-
ness of heart in every motion. He is a good business man and stands high in Chicago.
GENERAL FREDERICK W. PARTRIDGE.
SYCAMORE.
T7REDERICK WILLIAM PARTRIDGE, formerly consul at Bangkok, Siam, is a son of Cyrus
r and Mary (Loveland) Partridge, and was born at Norwich, Vermont, August 19, 1824. His
father, who was born in the same town, was a captain under General Scott at the battle of
Lundy's Lane, and died at Norwich. Frederick was educated at the military school in his native
town and at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, leaving the latter institution at the
close of the freshman year on account of the death of his father. In 1845 he went to Pennsyl-
vania to take charge of the Harrisburgh Military Academy, in which he was eminently successful
as an educator, and where he remained until the Mexican war broke out. He raised a company
at Harrisburgh, and in January, 1847, entered the L'nited States army, being sent by the war office
as a secret agent to Mexico. Having performed that delicate mission, he left the military service
in the summer of 1847, and settled in Kendall county, Illinois, where he was engaged in farming
for seven or eight years.
Before leaving New England our subject commenced the stud)' of law at Concord, New Hamp-
shire, in the office of ex-President Pierce, and he finished with Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, of Chicago,
and in 1857 we find him at the new town of Sandwich, De Kalb county, busily engaged in the
practice of his profession. Meanwhile he was very much interested in politics. Originally he
was a democrat of strong free-soil proclivities, and naturally broke away from that party when it
sold out to the slave power. He joined the great part}- of freedom, and in 1860 worked zealously
for the election of Mr. Lincoln.
From a sketch of Mr. Partridge in "Our Representatives Abroad," published in 1874, it is
stated that he probably raised the first volunteer three years' company in the United States
company E of the I3th Illinois infantry which company he commanded for a long time under
the commission of a senior captain, and which regiment was the first raised for three years' ser-
vice during the war. Major Partridge was wounded at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi; Chatta-
nooga, Tennessee, and Ringgold Gap, Georgia, having, previous to the last two battles, been pro-
moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel; and for extraordinary good conduct he was breveted
colonel at Missionary Ridge, and brigadier-general at Ringgold Gap. In the official report of
these two battles honorable mention is made of him and his regiment.
In July, 1864, he was mustered out with the gallant and sadly decimated i3th, and he resumed
the practice of his profession at Sandwich, where he still held the office of postmaster. He was
soon afterward elected clerk of the circuit court and ex-officio recorder, and moved to Sycamore,
the county seat. At the end of four years, when his term expired (in April, 1868), he was
appointed by President Grant consul at Bangkok, where he remained for nearly eight years, mak-
ing a praiseworthv record in this official capacity.
He was there in the autumn of 1869 when two native converts to the Christian religion
were killed by the King of Cheangmai, a tributary of Siam, who ordered the missionaries to
leave the country, at the same time proceeding to decapitate all native converts to Christianity
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 371
whom he could find. As soon as he heard of these butcheries and orders, General Partridge
addressed a note to the regent of Siam, and demanded that these Americans, who had been
invited to Cheangmai by its king, and who were pursuing their high calling under the treaty,
should be protected, both in their person and property. Subsequently the king visited the court
of Bangkok, and our alert and efficient consul, seeing his opportunity, placed the option before
the Siamese government of granting protection to the Americans at Cheangmai or admitting
that that country was independent of Siam, thereby allowing him to treat with the savage king
of Cheangmai. This step immediately wrenched from the Siamese government a treaty giving
protection to the missionaries and all other Americans residing at Cheangmai. So successful was
General Partridge in this matter that the secretary of state at Washington, Hon. Hamilton Fish,
sent him an autograph letter, not only of approval, but of congratulation.
Prior to our subject's appointment to Siam our country had been represented by acting con-
suls, that is, missionaries from the United States, who made the interests of our country second-
ary to those of missions. The result was that the United States consulate had not much prestige,
the English influence dominating everything foreign in Siam. But General Partridge soon caused
our consulate to be not only respected, but feared in that country.
While at Bangkok General Partridge made the Siamese government promptly conform to all
the stipulations of treaties with other powers. When the Siamese seized an American schooner
for an alleged infraction of the Siamese revenue laws, he promptly laid the affair before our gov-
ernment, and finding that the Siamese were averse to making apologies or paying damages, he
caused an American war vessel to appear off their coast, and that brought them to terms.
While consul to Siam our subject took the opportunity to see something of Asia, traveling
mainly on elephants, being nearly a month at a time on the back of one of these animals. He
visited those most extraordinary ruins of Nakon-Wat, at Siam-Rap, in Cambodia, and the great
city of Ongchor, together with many other points of interest in that quarter of the earth.
When he finally left Bangkok, July 4, 1876, he crossed British India, came through the Isthmus
of Suez, saw a great deal of Europe, reached this country in October, visited the centennial expo-
sition, and arrived at his home in Sycamore just in time to vote for Hayes and Wheeler. He was
a thoroughly traveled and thoroughly fatigued man. He has seen a great deal of this round
globe, and we doubt if he desires to ever go wholly over the ground again. The general is a
well informed man, and is unusually interesting in conversation.
General Partridge married Miss Mary Uitchner Combs Paullin, of East Aurora, Erie county,
New York, in 1852. This lady died, universally lamented, September 20, 1882. They have had
six children. Only two are now living.
HON. JOHN PORTER.
MONMOUTH.
THE subject of this sketch is an attorney-at-law, and was for many years judge of Warren
county. He is a self-educated man, and whatever success he has had in life he owes to the
achievements of his own hands and intellectual attainments. He is a native of Huntingdon
county, Pennsylvania, and was born in the township of Henderson, April 27, 1824. His father
was James Porter, of Scotch-Irish parentage, born in Ireland, coming to this country in early
childhood, .and being reared in- the Juniata Valley, Pennsylvania. He married Sarah Wray, a
native of Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, Joseph Douglas, of the Douglas family of Scotland,
was in the French and Indian war, and was wounded at Kittanning.
Our subject was reared on his father's farm until eighteen years of age, attending a country
school meantime during the winter term. At the age just mentioned he commenced learning the
bricklayer's trade, at which he worked for five seasons, teaching school during the winters, and
while thus engaged making greater progress, as we once heard him say, than when a student.
372 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In January, 1847, he married Miss Mary E. Robb, of Huntingdon county, and was engaged in
farming at the East until 1850, when he came to Ogle county, Illinois. There he worked a few
months at his trade, taught school the following winter in that county, and in the spring of 1851
bought a farm in Sumner township, Warren county. He improved it until the spring of 1858,
when he moved into the city of Monmouth, the county seat, he having been elected county
judge the year before to fill a vacancy. In the autumn of 1857 he was reflected for four years,
and also in the autumn of 1861, he holding that office for nine consecutive years.
During that period he also studied law, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1863. On
leaving the bench he devoted himself entirely to the practice of the legal profession, at which he
has made a success. He is a well read lawyer, a man of sterling integrity, a wise and prudent
counselor, and excels in chancery business.
In 1868 Judge Porter was elected to the legislature, and served through the twenty-sixth gen-
eral assembly. He introduced the bill, which became a law, making drunkenness ground for
appointing a guardian. He was originally a democrat, following the lead of Judge Douglas. He
joined the republican party on the breaking out of civil war; has been active in local politics, and
has attended a number of state conventions, being, in fact, quite a prominent and influential man
in his party. His religious connection is with the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an elder.
He is a Royal Arch Mason and an Odd-Fellow.
Mr. and Mrs. Porter have buried one son, and have seven children living, three sons and four
daughters: Silas is a lawyer, in partnership with his father; Sarah P. is the wife of Thomas Dono-
hue, banker of Belle Plain, Kansas; Nannie is the wife of G. F. Butler, druggist, same place;
James R. and Charles are in Colorado; Mary L. is the wife of J. W. Brook, a farmer and stock
raiser of Henderson countv, Illinois, and Ella is with her parents.
JOHN F. POWELL.
WA UKEGAN.
T OHN FROST POWELL, manufacturer, and, at the time of writing, mayor of the city of Wau-
J kegan, was born in Chicago, August 29, 1837, when that city, was half the size of the one over
whose municipal interests he now presides. His father was George N. Powell, a native of New
York state, a hotel-keeper and farmer, dying in Chicago of the cholera more than thirty years ago.
Mrs. Powell is still living, her home being in Chicago. John F. is the oldest child in a family of
five children, only two of them besides himself now living. He received a little mental drill in the
public schools of Chicago, but is largely self-educated; farmed to some extent prior to 1858, when
he commenced the manufacture of pumps on Milwaukee avenue, near the city limits.
In October, 1869, he moved to Waukegan, continuing the manufacture of wood pumps the
"Star" and adding the "Champion" windmill, " Shatswell " patent door and window screens,
the "Boss" sickle grinder, etc.
In 1877 Robert J. Douglas, son of Robert Douglas, the nurseryman, became a partner of our
subject, and the firm of Powell and Douglas employs from sixty to seventy men the year round,
and are turning out a very popular class of pumps, windmills, screens, and foundry and hardware
specialties generally. There is a good demand for everything they make, and they are running
the largest manufactory of any kind in Waukegan, being public-spirited as well as enterprising
citizens.
For some time they were greatly cramped for want of room, but in 1880 they had their new
shops completed, and moved into them, and now have conveniences for working a hundred men.
An artesian well supplies the works, and water is conveyed to every part of the buildings, with
the best of conveniences for extinguishing fires. Side tracks connect the works with the North-
Western railroad, and the facilities for shipping are the very best. The firm must be doing very
near, perhaps fully, $200,000 per year.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
373
Mr. Douglas is also a member of the firm of Robert Douglas and Son, who are proprietors of
the largest evergreen and forest tree nurseries in this country, and he is a public-spirited man.
Mr. Powell held the office of school director two or three terms while a resident of Chicago,
and since settling in Waukegan there has been quite as much demand for his services in the
municipality, we doubt not, as he cares about rendering. After representing the fourth ward for
six years as alderman he was elected, in March, 1881, to the office of mayor, and makes a popular
official in that position, his business capacities being first-class.
Mayor Powell is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity, but holds, we believe, no office
in the order. His wife was Marceleen Arno, a native of the province of Quebec, married in 1859.
They have nine children, five sons and four daughters.
EZRA MAY.
BELVWERE.
progenitor of the May family in this country, of which the subject of this sketch is a
J, descendant, was John May, who was born in England in 1590, and who commanded the
James, a vessel which sailed between London and New England. He settled at Jamaica Plain,
near Boston, in 1635, only five years after the settlement of that city, and only fifteen after the
landing of the Plymouth colony. The grandfather of our subject was Colonel Ezra May, who
came through what is known as the Woodstock (Connecticut) branch of the family, where Nehe-
miah May settled about 1730. Colonel May moved to Goshen, Massachusetts, cleared the May
farm there, and was a leading man of the place as long as he lived. He was one of the founders
of the church at Chesterfield, adjoining Goshen, and was prominent in ecclesiastical as well as muni-
cipal matters. He was a member of the provincial congress; had command of the ad Hampshire
regiment in the war for independence; was at White Plains, Stillwater and Saratoga; had at one
time charge of the sick in an army hospital, and finally died, from shear exhaustion, in the ser-
vice of the colonies, before the war closed. He was the only attendant in the hospital who did
not have the smallpox, and his cares, responsibilities and anxieties were too much for him. He
died at Goshen in January, 1778, in the forty-seventh year of his age, and is there interred in the
old burying-ground. His memory is sacredly cherished by his descendants, who are justly proud
of his patriotic history and self-sacrificing life. Colonel Nehemiah May, an uncle of our subject,
was also a revolutionary officer.
The father of our subject was Calvin May, who was born at Goshen in 1765; was educated at
Yale College, being graduated in the first class; became a leading physician and surgeon in that
part of the country, being widely known and warmly esteemed, holding the office of justice of the
peace, under appointment of the government, through all his later vears and until his death,
which occurred January 23, 1842. Calvin May married Mary Hyatt, a native of Charlestown,
Massachusetts, and she died in Belvidere in 1856.
Ezra May, the seventh child of Calvin and Mary May, was born at Phillipsburgh, Lower Can-
ada, November 6, 1813. He received a common English education, and farmed at the East until
1836, when he came as far west as Michigan City, Indiana, where he was engaged in hotel keep-
ing for a few years, removing thence to Cherry Valley, Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1839.
There he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits for seven or eight years; then moved into
Boone county (1847), opening a general store at Belvidere, and keeping it for five or six years,
when he changed to dry goods, and added a distillery. Subsequently he was in the milling busi-
ness, and through all these years was farming more or less, mainly by proxy. He has a dozen
farms or more, which, with one exception, are carried on by tenants, all these farms within five
miles of the city of Belvidere, and aggregating 2,400 acres. It is noteworthy that in all his enter-
prises and various branches of industry, Mr. May has never had a serious set-back: has always
been a careful and shrewd manager, attending strictly to his business.
374 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
He has held different local offices, such as school director, trustee of the town, etc., and has
always taken a deep interest in any movement tending to benefit the place or the people, and is
looked upon as one of the old land-marks of Belvidere. Mr. May has always been interested in
political affairs; was originally a whig, and since the dissolution of that party has usually voted
the democratic ticket. In religious belief he is an Episcopalian, and his moral character is unim-
peachable and elevated.
He married, in February, 1841, Miss Louisa Newton May, a daughter of his cousin, Deacon
Ezra May, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in Belvidere, and of eight children,
the fruits of this union, six are still living. The oldest, Ella A., is married to Arthur R. Olney,
wholesale druggist, Clinton, Iowa; Florence, to Brayton W. Smith, of Jacksonville, Illinois; Ezra
is at Los Angeles, California; Clara H. is keeping house for her father, and Calvin Dexter and
Stephen Arnold Douglas are students in the University of Michigan.
Mrs. May died September 19, 1862, a very serious loss alike to the husband, the family, and
the community. She was an active member of the Presbyterian Church till her last sickness, and
was deeply lamented by her co-workers in Christian and benevolent circles, and by the poor, to
whom she was always a warm friend.
Mr. May is a cousin of General Nathaniel Lyon, who fell bravely fighting for his country at
Wilson's Creek, Missouri, in the summer of 1861, and whose family in England has been promi-
nent for two or three centuries, the present Earl of Strathorne being one of its members.
T
HON. MATTHEW HENRY PETERS.
WATSEKA.
HE subject of this sketch is preeminently a self-made man, whose life history illustrates in a
marked degree what may be accomplished by native force of character. Beginning his life
in the humblest obscurity, left an orphan at a tender age, pinched by poverty, and compelled to
buffet with the most humiliating adversity, he has, by the power of his own manliness, risen
proudly above every obstacle, and now, in the prime of his manhood, stands a fair type of Amer-
ican energy and enterprise. His life is marked by proud success, the result of his own effort. A
native of Rhenish Bavaria, he was born June 6, 1843, and while a babe was brought to America
by his parents, who settled^ at New Orleans. There his mother soon afterward died, and her
death being almost immediately followed by the death of his two sisters, his father, with two
small boys, was left a stranger in a strange land, very poor, and unable to speak the language of
the people. Yet greater misfortunes awaited them. The father died of yellow fever, and our
subject and his younger brother, Samuel, were left homeless and friendless. Samuel was placed
in an orphan asylum, and Matthew was taken in charge by an acquaintance, who, under the pre-
text of providing the boy a home, subjected him to the most inhuman treatment and to a life of
abject servitude. In the shop of his cruel master the boy was forced to work from early morn
till ten and eleven o'clock at night, Sundays not excepted, and was allowed as his food a slice of
bread three times a day. Not content with this, the inhuman wretch would even force the boy
to steal, and if unsuccessful in his thieving, he was unmercifully beaten for his failure.
In 1855, when about twelve years old, although nearly dead from starvation and cruel treat-
ment, the manhood of the boy asserted itself, and he resolved to endure such a life no longer.
Rising early one morning, he betook himself to another part of the city, sleeping at night wher-
ever he could find a shelter to crawl into, and during the day picking up whatever he could sell
to the junk dealers, and subsisting on food gathered from the refuse of the hotels or picked up
from the gutters. But brighter days were at hand. In March, 1855, he secured employment with
the cook on board a Mississippi boat, an event which proved the turning point in his life. Here
he met Henry S. Roberts, a gentleman who was traveling, and who, attracted by his bright look,
learned with interest his history, and took him with him to his own home in the state of Ohio.
HC Duo par Jri Co
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LIBRARY
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
377
Upon the death of his benefactor, which occurred soon afterward, Matthew was left in care of
Mr. Roberts' widowed mother, whose motherly kindness toward the boy in after years found a
full recompense, he having provided her a home in her old age where she has every comfort, and
is loved and treated with true filial devotion.
During the next five years young Peters was employed in farm work, improving all his spare
time in study, often poring over his books until late at night, and in 1860 had made such progress
and was so well informed that he began teaching, meeting with good success.
At the opening of the war of the rebellion, at the first call for volunteers he responded, and
April 23, 1861, enlisted as a private in company E, i6th regiment Ohio infantry. After the expi-
ration of his term of enlistment, he, in December, 1861, reenlisted in the 74th Ohio regiment,
under Granville Moody, known as the fighting parson. Here he was made sergeant, and soon
after was chosen lieutenant of his company, and commissioned January 7, 1862. December 31
following, Lieutenant Peters was so severely wounded at the battle of Stone River, Tennessee,
that he was deserted on the field by his comrades as past help. He, however, recovered, and
passed through the war, enduring its hardships and sharing in its triumphs. When General
Sherman started on his march to Atlanta, it began with a skirmish at Tunnel Hill, and was a
continual battle for one hundred days before Atlanta fell. Early in the campaign, Peters, who
had been made adjutant of the regiment, was struck by a shot while charging a rebel battery on
Buzzard Roost Mountain. This was May 9, 1864. July 13 following, he was promoted to the
rank of captain, for gallant and meritorious services. When sufficiently recovered from his
wounds to walk by the aid of a cane, he rejoined his regiment at Savannah, Georgia, and until
the close of the war was'constantly in the field. Not to recount the numerous battles in which
he participated, with his many almost miraculous escapes, the proudest day of his military career
was at the grand review of the armies at Washington, May 24 and 25, 1865, when he was detailed
by General George P. Buell, commander of the brigade, on his staff as assistant inspector general.
Captain Peters served in this capacity until notified that his regiment was to be mustered out,
when he asked to be relieved, that he might join his comrades on their homeward march. __ He
was mustered out of the service July 12, 1865, but not until he had been commissioned major of
his regiment.
In 1866 Major Peters settled at Watseka, Illinois, and engaged in the hardware trade, but
finding it unsuited to his tastes, he soon sold it, and in 1867 opened the first book and stationery
store in Watseka. This business he conducted with marked success until November, 1879, when
he turned it over to his faithful clerk, who had been with him over ten years. Within this period,
(in December, 1872), he took charge of the Iroquois " Times," and managed it for eighteen months,
during which time it became a widely circulated and influential paper. This he sold out in 1874,
but bought it again four years later, and is now (1882) its editor and proprietor.
In 1875 Major Peters was elected mayor of Watseka, and in 1877 was reflected to the same
office to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Franklin Blades, who had resigned to accept the judge-
ship. In politics he was, prior to 1872, a republican, following the teachings of Horace Greeley,
whom he had been taught from his first arrival in the North to honor and respect.
In 1878 he was elected to the state legislature on the national ticket, and from the active and
prominent part which he took in the thirty-first general assembly, gained the high esteem of his
fellow members and the fullest confidence and respect of his constituents.
Since becoming a resident of Watseka he has been particularly active in military affairs, and
in 1874 was mainly instrumental in organizing the first military company of Iroquois county, and
elected captain of the same; and when the military code of Illinois became a law, and the various
companies of the state were organized into regiments and battalions, the Watseka Rifles were
designated company A, gth battalion Illinois National Guards, and Captain Peters was elected to
command the battalion, with the title and rank of colonel.
Colonel Peters has taken a high stand in the Odd-Fellows' order, often representing his lodge
and encampment in the grand lodge; he is also a prominent member of the Knights of Honor,
38
278 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
having represented the Grand Lodge of Illinois in the Supreme Lodge of the United States thre<
years. The secret of his success is to be found in his untiring industry, energy and enterprise
As a citizen he is public-spirited; as a business man prompt and upright; while in his private lifi
and character he is open-hearted, generous, and true to every noble impulse.
June 19, 1867, he was married to Miss Clara M. Lyon, at Sycamore, Illinois, a lady of rar<
accomplishments and culture, kind, active and energetic, a fit companion for our worthy subject
Such is a brief outline of the life of one whose career has been rife with thrilling incidents
and who, now in the prime of his manhood, enjoys the well earned fruits of his successes, and whc
with his clear record of the past, may confidently and hopefully look to the future.
JAMES MONTGOMERY, M.D.
MARSEILLES.
'"T'HE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch is the oldest medica
_L practitioner at Marseilles, and has a highly creditable standing in his profession. His birtl
is dated in Jefferson county, Ohio, July 28, 1836, he being a son of Hugh and Matilda (Shane
Montgomery. His grandfather, John Montgomery, was from the North of Ireland, and settled ii
Jefferson county near the close of the last century. His mother was of German lineage. Jame
received an academic education in his native county; was reared on his father's farm until pas
twenty years of age; read medicine at Knoxville, Ohio, with Doctor George D. Hamilton; at
tended lectures at the College of Medicine and Surgery, Cincinnati; received the degree of docto
of medicine in 1862; practiced two years in Jefferson county, near where he was born; came t
Illinois in 1864, and practiced in Peoria county until the autumn of 1867, and then settled in hi
present home.
Doctor Montgomery attends very closely to his professional duties, which are usually quit
exacting on his time and energies, and has long had a first-class general practice. He is ver
prompt to obey calls, careful in making his prescriptions, and equally careful to keep himsel
well posted in medical science. He seems to fully realize that this is a progressive age, and tha
if he would keep abreast of it he must give his leisure hours to hard study.
The doctor is interested in the cause of education, and since settling in Marseilles has heli
the office of school director a few terms, the only civil or municipal office, we believe, which h
deeemed it best to accept. He is a republican and a Master Mason; a man of fine social quali
ties and gentlemanly bearing, and is well qualified to multiply friends.
He married, in 1857, Miss Rebecca Swickard, a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, and they los
one son in infancy, and have five children living. The family attend the Universalist church.
HON. ROBERT H. McCLELLAN.
GALENA.
ROBERT H. McCLELLAN, president of the National Bank of Galena, and for many year
one of the leading citizens of this city, was born in Hebron, Washington county, New Yorl
January 3, 1823. His father, Colonel William McClellan, was born in the same county, and hi
grandfather, Robert McClellan, was from Kirkudbright, Scotland, coming to this country in 177;
the year that the colonies took up arms against the mother country. He was too young to tak
part in that war. The mother of our subject was Margaret Randies, who was also a native o
Washington county. Both parents died, one in 1872, the other in 1880.
Mr. McClelian prepared for college at Argyle and Cambridge, in his native county; enterei
Union College, Schenectady, in 1846, and graduated in the class of '47; taught in the academ;
one year at Argyle; read law with Hon. Martin I. Townsend, of Troy, New York; was admittec
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, 379
to the bar at Albany in 1850; came to Galena that year; edited the Galena "Gazette" for some
six months, during the absence of the editor, the late H. H. Haughton; opened a law office, and
has been in the practice of his profession here for more than thirty years, making a success almost
from the start.
Mr. McClellan has been attorney for the Illinois Central Railway Company at this end of the
road ever since it was surveyed, in 1852, and has been president of the National Bank of Galena
since it was 'organized, in 1865. Under his supervision it has been managed with great prudence,
and is one of the most solid institutions of the kind in northwestern Illinois. Mr. McClellan is a
director of the Hanover Manufacturing Company, which is engaged in manufacturing cloth and
flour, and also of the Hanover Pulp Company, two flourishing enterprises in the southwestern
part of Jo Daviess county.
He was a member of the state legislature in 1861, attending what is known as the war session.
He was elected to the upper house of the legislature in 1876, and in that body was chairman of
the revenue committee, and did a large part of the work of that committee. He was also chair-
man of the joint committee of the two houses on the same subject. He was one of the working
members of the senate in the two sessions which he attended, and made an honorable record. In
politics Mr. McClellan was originally a whig, and has been an unwavering republican since that
party was organized. He is a member and one of the most liberal supporters of the South Pres-
byterian church.
Mr. McClellan first married in Boston, in 1858, Miss Caroline L. Sanford, a native of Albany,
New York, she dying in Galena in February, 1876, leaving five children; and the second time, in
1879, Mrs. C. D. (Denison) Garfield, daughter of Doctor Denison, of Royalton, Vermont.
HON. JOSEPH H. MAYBORNE.
GENEVA.
JOSEPH HAYWARD MAYBORNE, one of the oldest lawyers in Kane county, and lately
state senator from the fourteenth district, is a native of the county of Kent, England, dating
his birth at Dover, March 31, 1822. His father, William Mayborne, was chief gamekeeper for
Lord Liverpool, having the oversight of a large number of men who were thus employed by his
lordship. The Maybornes were of Huguenot descent, and fled from France about the time of
the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. William Mayborne married Elizabeth Parsons, whose father
was a captain, engaged in the East India trade; and in 1825 the family came to New York city,
and after spending two or three years there and in Rochester, settled in the town of Sherman,
Chautauqua county, where Joseph was educated. He commenced reading law with Judge James
Mullet, of Fredonia; finished with Richard P. Marvin, of Jamestown, and was admitted to the
bar at Mayville in 1844.
After practicing a few months in Chautauqua county, in the spring of 1846 Mr. Mayborne
came as far west as Chicago, then a very uninviting field for settlement. He remained there
until the autumn of 1848, when he moved to Geneva, where he has been in the constant practice
of his profession, with the exception of three years spent in the service of his country. In Janu-
ary, 1863, Mr. Mayborne went into the army as paymaster, with the rank of major; was breveted
lieutenant-colonel October 16, 1865, and was mustered out of the service at his own request, Jan-
uary 2, l866.
On leaving the army, Colonel Mayborne (usually called Major among his neighbors) resumed
the law practice, and is doing business in all the courts in this section. An old acquaintance of
Mr. Mayborne thus speaks of him as a lawyer and citizen:
"I have been acquainted with Hon. Joseph H. Mayborne for thirty years and upward, during
a large portion of which period he has been a practicing attorney in the courts over which I have
presided. As a lawyer he stands in the front rank; as a citizen he has the universal respect and
confidence of his neighbors and friends."
380 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In politics he was originally a whig, and a great admirer of Henry Clay, and he attended the
first meeting in Kane county for the organization of the republican party, held at Aurora in Sep-
tember, 1854. From that day he has been an unwavering and active member of that party, being
most of the time, from 1855 to 1862, chairman of the central county committee, and in 1872 a del-
egate to the national convention which met in Philadelphia, and renominated President Grant.
For many years he has been a very influential member of his party, and in 1876 was elected to
the state senate, in which body he served his constituents and the commonwealth in a highly
creditable manner for the term of four years. During the second session, when the republicans
had control of the senate, he was chairman of the committee on charitable institutions. He also
served on the committees on the judiciary, railroad, education, library, appropriations, and the
miscellaneous committee.
Our subject married, December 24, 1846, Miss Theresa Johnson, of Blackberry, Kane county,
and they have four children, all daughters, and all at home.
HENRY A. MIX, M.D.
OREGON.
HENRY AUGUSTUS MIX, physician and surgeon, and a native of Oregon, dates his birth
July 12, 1838. He belongs to a prominent family, among the pioneer settlers in Oregon,
and is a son of William J. Mix, Sr., M.D., and Eliza Goodwin (Wood) Mix. William J. Mix, Sr.,
was born in Grand Isle, Vermont, in 1795, he being the eldest of eleven children; was in the lum-
ber and fishing trade on the Saint Lawrence River in early life; studied medicine with Doctor
Wood, of Campbell's Landing, Canada; attended lectures in Montreal, where he received the
degree of doctor of medicine in 1824; practiced at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, Tecumseh,
Michigan, and Ottawa, Illinois, before coming to Oregon, where he settled in 1835. Here he
lived, actively engaged in the practice of his profession, until his death in 1850. He was at the
battle of Plattsburgh, New York, which occurred in September, 1814, his father commanding a
company in that engagement. While a resident of Pennsylvania he served as surgeon of the
io7th regiment of militia from 1829 to 1835. He was the first probate justice of Ogle county.
Doctor Mix had two wives, and three children by the first (whose maiden name was Annie Drury),
only one of them, a son, William J. Mix, Jr., now living. He came to Oregon in 1836, and is a
capitalist.
By his second wife the doctor had four daughters, three of them yet living and all married,
and one son, the subject of this sketch, who was as much a born anatomist as Keats was a born
poet or Blaise Pascal a born mathematician. We learn from the " History of Ogle County " (Chi-
cago, 1878) that, "at an early age, he developed a natural taste for anatomy, having, when only
ten years old, put together the entire parts of a skeleton, and at the age of fourteen he dissected
a human body and exposed every muscle."
It would be cruel to keep a lad with such a taste and of such talents in the direction here indi-
cated out of the medical profession, and when young Mix had spent a few terms at the Rock
River Seminary, he commenced the study of medicine with Doctor Elias S. Potter, whose sketch
appears on other pages of this work, and after reading studiously for three years, attended Rush
Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated in February, 1864. Civil war was then progressing,
and Doctor Mix immediately entered the service as second assistant surgeon of the 64th Illinois
infantry. The following September he was made first assistant, and during the advance on
Atlanta and the campaign to the sea was one of the operating staff of the first division of the
i6th army corps, being appointed over many older surgeons on account of his superior skill. In
May, 1865, he was made surgeon of the 64th, and the next month was selected as one of the three
surgeons in the Army of the Tennessee to constitute a board of medical examiners.
On leaving the army, in July, 1865, Doctor Mix went to Chicago and took a course of lectures
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 381
in Rush on diseases of women and children, and he then entered into partnership with his pre-
ceptor, Doctor Potter, continuing it until 1874, since which date Doctor Mix has been alone in
practice. His thorough drill, in the first place, with his preceptor and in Chicago; his invaluable
experience in the army, and his additional studies at Rush in specialties, all tended to give the
people confidence in his skill, and the result is that his practice has been large and lucrative,
and he is no doubt one of the most successful medical men of any age in Ogle county. He is a
member of the county medical society, a republican in politics, and a Royal Arch Mason.
The wife of Doctor Mix was Adeline A. Perry, married in Lynnville, this county, July n, 1868,
and they have one son, Morton P. In 1874 the Doctor built a fine brick residence on Third street,
which, as the local historian says, is really "an ornament to his native town."
There was once another Henry A. Mix living in Oregon, the youngest brother of William J.
Mix, Sr., and hence an uncle to our subject. He came to Oregon in December, 1841; was
admitted to the bar in the same month, having been graduated at Cambridge (Massachusetts)
Law School; was a leading attorney in this county for years, and was killed by accident, falling
off a bridge in 1867. His legal career was an honor to the profession.
T
ARCHIBALD MEANS.
PERU
I HE subject of this sketch is secretary and manager of the Illinois Zinc Company, which has
about four hundred workmen on its pay roll, and is doing not far from $600,000 a year.
Mr. Means is a native of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and was born March 31, 1833. His
father was William Means, a foundryman in early and middle life, who in 1851 retired to a farm
at Jefferson county, Ohio. The grandfather of Archibald was from the North of Ireland, and
came over and settled in Allegheny county after the American revolution. The mother of our
subject was Nancy Swearengen, whose mother was a Blackmore, a member of a family to which
was granted, long prior to the revolution, a tract of land where the city of Washington now
stands. A resident of Peru, who knew the Means family in Ohio forty years ago, speaks of them
as leading men in various branches of industry and some of the professions.
When Archibald was about three years old the family moved to Steubenville, Ohio, where he
received an academic education and learned the printer's trade. Subsequently he spent three
seasons as a steamboat clerk on the Ohio Rive.r, a position not at all congenial to his taste. We
next find him in Lawrence county, southern Ohio, acting as clerk in an iron furnace. A year
later he went to Greenup, now Boyd county, Kentucky, and was there employed in a similar
manufactory, being at Ashland when the civil war began. He recruited a company in that town
for the 1 4th Kentucky infantry; went into the service as captain of company E, and served about
sixteen months, when his health broke completely down.
Captain Means was with General Garfield at Middle Creek, on the Big Sandy; went the next
spring (1862) to the Cumberland, where the forces were stationed a while to furnish a rendezvous
for Tennessee refugees. He was at the capture of Cumberland Gap, June 18, 1862, and in
November resigned and returned to Ohio.
In was two or three years before Captain Means fully regained his health. In 1866 he went
to Adams county, southern Ohio, and was there engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1871, when
he came to Peru to superintend the Illinois Zinc Works, then not in the most flourishing condition,
and running on a small scale. His fine executive capacities and managing abilities soon put the
institution squarely on its feet, and during the last decade it has done a highly prosperous business.
Captain Means is the only resident stockholder. He has the entire management of the con-
cern, and everything is progressing in excellent order. A ready market is found for all the wares
turned out in this mammoth manufactory, the largest of any kind in Peru, and the second of its
class in the United States.
382 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In politics our subject has always been a republican, pronounced and outspoken, and is one of
that class of men who can give a reason for the political faith that is in them. In 1860, while in
Kentucky, he was one of five men in the precinct, and of eleven in the county, who voted for
Abraham Lincoln. The author of " Lacon " says that the man of principle is the principal man,
and there is no difficulty in knowing where to place the subject of this notice.
In religious preferences Captain . Means is a Presbyterian, but there being no church of that
denomination at Peru, he belongs to the Congregational, in which he is an office bearer. He
has a third wife. The first was a daughter of Thomas W. Means, of Hanging Rock, Ohio; the
second, of William Ellison, of Manchester, Ohio, and his present wife is a daughter of General
Newton Schleich, of Lancaster, Ohio. He has four children living, all by the second wife.
SAMUEL C. PLUMMER, M.D.
ROCK ISLAND.
SAMUEL CRAIG PLUMMER, one of the oldest physicians in Rock Island, and a prominent
man in his profession, dates his birth at New Salem, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania,
April 10, -1-821. His father, John Boyd Plummer, a merchant most of his life, was born in Alle-
gheny county, that state. His mother was Elizabeth (Craig) Plummer, whose father was in the
war of 1812-14, and whose grandfather was in the French and Indian war. Jonathan Plummer,
the paternal grandfather of Samuel, was also in the last-named war. There is good fighting blood
on both sides of the family. The progenitor of this branch of the Plummer family in this country,
Francis Plummer, came over from England in 1635, only five years after Boston was settled, and
took up his abode at Newbury, Massachusetts. He brought with him his wife and two sons,
Joseph and Samuel Plummer. We learn from "Coffin's History of Newbury," that in Septem-
ber of that year, 1635, Francis Plummer was licensed to keep an ordinary, that is a tavern. In
April, 1638, Francis Plummer and five others were fined two shillings and sixpence apiece for
being absent from the town meeting, having been lawfully warned, etc.
The name of Francis Plummer often appears on the early records of Newbury, as a select-
man, etc., and he was quite prominent among the pioneers. From him and his sons have sprung
a great many persons of that name, scattered all over the country, many of them having held
highly honorable positions.
From the work already quoted we learn that "the descendants of Francis Plummer still own
(1845) the land which was once his, near the river Parker. * * * Five of Francis Plummer's
descendants, and bearing his name, have been members of congress. One of them, George, son
of Jonathan, was the first white child born in Pennsylvania, west of the Allegheny Mountains."
The Jonathan Plummer here mentioned was the great-grandfather of our subject, and a sol-
dier under General Braddock and Colonel Washington at the time of Braddock's defeat. The
early generations of the Plummers seem to have been remarkable for their longevity. We read
that the average age of twelve children of Samuel and Hannah Plummer, born between 1719 and
1740 was seventy-three years.
Doctor Plummer was educated in the preparatory department of the Western Reserve College,
Hudson, Ohio, and at Greenville, Pennsylvania, to which latter place the family moved when our
subject was about eleven years old. He studied medicine at Greenville, with Doctor De La Cas-
sitt ; attended lectures at Cleveland, being a member of the first class in that medical institution
(1843-44) ; practiced a short time at Greenville, and in 1848 settled in Rock Island. Four years
afterward Doctor Plummer returned to Cleveland, attended another course of lectures, and there
received the degree of doctcw of medicine in March, 1854.
April 16, 1861, he enlisted, and, May 24, was mustered into the service as surgeon of the i3th
Illinois infantry, and remained three and a half years, six months over the time for which he had
enlisted. He was never sick or off duty a day. For a long time he was medical director of the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
I5th army corps, army of the Tennessee, being ranking surgeon in that army, and on the com-
manding general's staff.
His experience in the army was of great benefit to Doctor Plummer, and on returning to Rock
Island in December, 1864, he stepped at once into a good general practice. He has a high repu-
tation, both as physician and surgeon, and a large practice in the leading families in Rock Island
and vicinity. Two or three times he has spent a winter at some medical college, and keeps thor-
oughly brushed up in his profession. He is a Royal Arch Mason, but holds no office, we believe,
of any kind.
He has a second wife. The first was Miss Julia Hayes, of Burg Hill, Trumbull county, Ohio,
married October 17, 1844, and dying October 6, 1872, leaving five children, three daughters and
two sons, two having previously died. Emma M., the oldest daughter, is the wife of George W.
Dawson, of Orion, Henry county, Illinois ; Elizabeth is the wife of George M. Looseley, of Rock
Island ; Clara S. is at home ; Frederick Hayes is in Hiawatha, Brown county, Kansas ; and Sam-
uel Craig, Jr., is attending Augustana College, Rock Island. Doctor Plnmmer was married the
second time June 9, 1874, to Mrs. Sallie M. (Dawson) Moore, of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
The family attend the Broadway Presbyterian Church, of which the doctor and wife are members.
ISAAC MARLETT.
A URORA.
ONE of the pioneer settlers in what is now the city of Aurora, is Isaac Marlett, who is one of
the oldest men living in Kane county, and will soon be in his ninetieth year. He was born
in Charlestown, Montgomery county. New York, December 31, 1793, being only six vears younger
than the constitution of the United States. He is a son of Gideon Marlett, whose father was from
France, and Mary (Quackenbosh) Marlett, who was of Dutch parentage. When he was in his
fifth year the family moved to Milford, Otsego county, he being the youngest child in a family of
eleven children. He and the next older brother used to go two miles to school through a woods,
their path being marked by blazed trees. Isaac's education was restricted to the rudimentary
branches, and only partial in them. He was reared to hard work, which was never a misfortune
to any able-bodied youth.
At eighteen years of age Isaac went to Upper Canada, now Ontario, and lumbered for eight
winters in the pineries on the Bay of Ouinte, working at the joiner trade in that province the rest
of the season. Every spring, while the ice was still in the bay, in making up rafts, he used to
stand eight hours a day in the water, up to his waist, his noon lunch being brought to him by
boat, and he eating standing in the water. Very few constitutions could endure that strain with-
out materially shortening life.
Returning to his native state, Mr. Marlett worked at the carpenter and joiner's trade at Milford
for several years, and married Mary Ann Allen, of that town when he was nearly forty years old.
He continued to work at Milford, in company with a brother-in-law, William Lander, who was
an expert mechanic, until 1843, when he came to Illinois, and settled in Aurora, then a village of
five or six families. Samuel McCarty is the only man now living here who was here then. Mr.
Marlett worked at his trade here, off and on, for thirty years or more, being employed at one period
in making' carriages ; was a general merchant at another, and for two or three years kept the
Empire House, the oldest hotel in this place.
For the last ten or twelve years Mr. Marlett has done only work enough to keep him in good
health. He is as sprightly, however, as men ordinarily are at sixty or sixty-five, and no stranger
would be likely to guess that he had seen even seventy winters, yet at the time this sketch is pre-
pared, he is in his eighty-ninth year.
He was constable of Aurora four years, and deputy sheriff of Kane county twelve years, all the
offices, we believe, that he would ever accept. He was a democrat until the formation of the
384 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
republican party, with which he still votes. He is a Master Mason, an Odd-Fellow, a member of
the Universalist church, and a man of unblemished character.
The wife of Mr. Marlett died several years ago, and he is still feeling and lamenting his great
loss. They had four daughters and two sons, losing one of each. Mary Ann, the oldest daughter,
is the wife of John Allen, Aurora j Maria, of Samuel Crance, Aurora; Eliza, of O. F. Barber,
Rockford, Illinois, and Frank, the only son living, a soldier in the civil war, is a railroad conduc-
tor. He has a family. Several years ago Mr. Marlett divided his property among his children,
and is now living with his son, being in very comfortable circumstances.
SETH F. HANCHETT.
CHICAGO.
THE present incumbent of the important office of sheriff of Cook county, Illinois, has been
in public life since 1867, and has proved one of the most efficient and popular officers in
each of the various positions he has held ever entrusted with public affairs. His early life was an
arduous one, and well calculated to develop his manly self-dependence while still young. It is a
fact worthy of record that the majority of the successful men of Chicago, and perhaps of the West
as well, were thrown upon their own resources at a very tender age.
Mr. Hanchett was born near Mayville, Chautauqua county, New York, April 30, 1842. His
parents were Joseph C., and Sabrina (Howard) Hanchett. The Hanchetts are an English family,
and trace their origin in this country to an English officer of the revolution, who received the
grant of a large tract of land in the valley of the Mohawk, from King George. After locating his
land he returned to England, married, returned to this country and settled on his estate. He
was subsequently, killed by the Indians.
When nine years old the mother of Seth died, and he fell to the care of an uncle for whom he
worked on the farm during the summer for six years, and attended school winters. In this way
he clothed himself and acquired the rudiments of an education. At the end of that period he
was seized with the western fever, and with the savings of his five years' labor in his pocket,
amounting to $50, he started for the eldorado of the West. He was then fifteen years of age,
and of a rugged constitution, full of energy and hope, and well prepared to engage in the ever
increasing struggle for existence in the Great West. He came alone, and landed in Chicago the
latter part of August, 1856. He had a relation living nearMarengo, Illinois, with whom he spent
one year, attending school there to good advantage, one winter.
After a few months spent in exploring the country to the west and north, he returned and
fixed himself permanently in Chicago. He at first found employment in the service of the North
Chicago City Railway Company, where he remained until the breaking out of the war in 1861.
He was but little past nineteen, and considered himself politically a Douglas democrat, but
his ambition and patriotism were both aroused, and he set about raising a company for Bell's cav-
alry, then quartered at Camp Douglas. With the assistance of Captain Annis Hathaway, they
soon had their quota full, but the regiment being cut down to two battalions, they were not ac-
cepted, and Hanchett enlisted as a private in the 9th Illinois cavalry, and with his command went
to the front.
He remained with his regiment over a year, or until November, 1862, during which he saw ar-
duous service in the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. He was then prostrated with
the southern fever, contracted while on duty in the marshes, and was sent to Saint Louis hospital.
Here he hovered for many weeks between life and death, determined to live, yet abandoned to
die. No furloughs were at that time granted, and the sick must summon strength to live, or
courage bravely to die, without a loving hand to smooth the pillow. But at length his case was
given up as hopeless, and he received his discharge, and was permitted to be sent home to die
among his friends. This he wisely refused to do, but it took him ten months to recover even in
the invigorating atmosphere of Chicago.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
387
In the latter part of 1863, however, he felt himself strong enough to again take up arms. He
was by this time a black republican to the backbone, and longed again to engage in the fray.
Hearing that a cavalry regiment was being formed at his old home in New York, he hastened
thither, and reenlisted in the I5th New York cavalry. In this regiment he served under General
Franz Sigel, in the campaign in West Virginia, and was with General Hunter in the battle of
Lynchburgh. When Sheridan came into the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 his regiment was assigned
to Custer's division, and saw any amount of hard fighting. In February, 1865, Sheridan left Win-
chester with his command, and joined the army of the Potomac, under Grant, before Petersburgh.
They reached Petersburgh, March 25, and were in all the cavalry engagements of that closing
campaign of the war, ending with the terrible battle of Five Forks, April i. In this last desperate
cavalry engagement of the war, while charging the rebel lines, he was struck by a flying fragment
of shell, and maimed for life.
He was at the time in command of the left of the skirmish line, and after two charges, in
which they alternately drove the enemy, and were driven by them, they received orders from
General Sheridan that the rebel line must be carried at all hazards, as the Union arms were suc-
cessful all along the line, and the left flank must not permit the enemies' right to hold the whole
army in check, or flank them. With this inspiration a third desperate charge was made, and the
battle was won.
Mr. Hanchett, however, left his left arm on the field, and rode off with an empty sleeve, an
unmistakable proof of his courage and devotion to his country. It was four hours before he could
get the services of a surgeon, and then the torn and bleeding fragment was amputated at the
shoulder. From the battle-field he went by rail to City Point, thence by boat on the third to
Washington, where he arrived on the fourth, and went into hospital, where he remained till the
latter part of June following, when he received his discharge and immediately returned to
Chicago.
Here he found employment in the commission house of Hanchett, Angle and Cook, for about
one year, when he received the appointment of superintendent of the soldier's home. This posi-
tion he resigned July i, 1867, and accepted a position in the sheriff's office, under General John L.
Beverage. He was first assigned to duty as bailiff in the county court, under Judges Bradwell
and Wallace, and served successively under sheriffs Beverage, Fischer, Cleaves, Bradley and Agnew,
and until the election of Kern to the sheriff's office. This was a sweeping change of administration,
and he went out with the rest. He then in company with W. H. Gleason, his present chief clerk,
started a collecting agency, and successfully carried it on till 1877, when he was elected to the
important office of clerk of the probate court, by a majority of 10,000 votes, which office he held
till his present election to the office of sheriff. In the fall of 1880 he was a candidate for the
nomination for sheriff, as against General Mann and Canute R. Mattison, the late coroner. He
was defeated, however, in convention, by General Mann, who was elected. The same three gen-
tlemen were also candidates before the convention in the last election, but Mr. Hanchett secured
the nomination by methods so fair that his opponents were his warmest friends, and he secured
election over McGarigle, his democratic competitor, by the largest majority on the ticket. In the
fight he had the fire and police departments, indeed the whole organized city government opposed
to him, besides all the saloon-keepers and the disreputable classes generally, yet his majority was
about 4,500, while the balance of the successful ones went into office by majorities ranging from
300 to 2,900, Mr. Seipp, the democratic county treasurer reaching the last-named figure.
Socially, Mr. Hanchett is a very agreeable man. He is fond of good company, and entertains
his friends royally. He is gifted with a good degree of personal magnetism, and both makes
friends readily, and keeps them eternally.
He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Veteran Club, now number-
ing about 1200 members, and has been treasurer of the Veteran Union League since its organiza-
tion, about two years since. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen,
which is a most worthy benevolent organization, composed principally of working men, now
39
388 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
numbering in Chicago alone over 5,000 members. Among other substantial benefits offered to
its members is life insurance at net cost. In all those orders Mr. Hanchett ranks high, and is as
deservedly popular as in society outside.
In his home and family relations Mr. Hanchett is fortunate and happy. June 27, 1867, he
was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie L. Atkins, the daughter of Robert Atkins, an old settler of
Chicago, by whom he has had three children, Frank S. Hanchett, aged over fourteen years, a
most promising young man, now attending school at Morgan Park Military Academy; Seth R.
Hanchett, nine years old, attending the Lake View school, and one daughter, Bessie L., now two
years old, the pride and pet of the household.
Mr. Hanchett's career has not been of a character to enable him to amass a fortune, but in all
the elements which go to make up a successful and happy life he has thus far triumphed.
WESLEY H. MANIER.
CARTHAGE.
\ T ^ESLEY HOWELL MANIER, a practicing lawyer at Carthage for more than thirty years,
V V is a son of John and Ann G. (Williams) Manier, and was born in Montgomery county,
Kentucky, October 2, 1829. His father was born in Fleming county, same state, in 1804, and was
the son of John Manier, Sr., who was born in Virginia in 1779, and the grandson of Jonathan
Manier, who was born in the same state in 1759. The last named was killed by the Indians in
I 7^3- John Manier, or Minneer, father of Jonathan, was born in Germany, and settled in the Old
Dominion long before the revolution.
This branch of the Williams family is of Welsh descent, and came to Virginia long before the
revolt of the colonies. Roger Williams, the progenitor, who settled in Brunswick county, Vir-
ginia, had seven wives, and children by most of them. Hakey Williams, one of his sons, mar-
ried Sarah Jones, a relative of Paul Jones, of naval renown. He was murdered by ruffians and
robbed just before the birth of his son John, who was the maternal grandfather of our subject.
The latter married Amelia Gill, of Greenville county, North Carolina, and settled in Lincoln
county, Kentucky.
John Manier, the father of Wesley, was a carpenter and millwright, also a miller, farmer, etc.,
and an enterprising man, and reared his children in habits of industry, dying at Mount Sterling,
Kentucky, about 1868. His wife had died two years earlier.
The subject of this sketch in his youth worked with his father on the farm and in saw and
grist mills; received a classical education by the aid of a private preceptor and in a select school;
taught one term; came to Quincy, in this state, in May, 1851; read law with Williams and Law-
rence; was licensed to practice in 1852, and in June of that year settled in Carthage, where he has
made the legal profession almost his exclusive business. At an early day he was in different law
firms, in company with John M. Ferris, Hon. B. F. Scofield and Bryant F. Peterson, and is now of
the firm of Manier and Miller, his partner being John D. Miller, formerly a student in his office.
For the last seven or eight years Mr. Manier has assisted Hon. N. L. Freeman on the reports of
the supreme court of the state, and is an adept at the business of preparing the head notes of
adjudicated cases, etc.
The politics of Mr. Manier are democratic, with greenback leanings, but he is not a violent
partisan, and has warm friends in all parties. He is courteous in manners and cordial in disposi-
tion, and calculated to make steadfast friends. He has held a few local offices, such as assessor,
supervisor, school director, member and president of the town board, etc. He is a Knight Temp-
lar in the Masonic order, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a man of high moral
as well as legal character.
Mr. Manier was married in Carthage, October 25, 1854, to Miss Sarah A. Allen, a native of
Kentucky, and a daughter of John Allen, who settled in Hancock county when the daughter was
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 389
one year old. They have buried three children and have three living: Laura A., Flora H. and
Sallie. Laura is a graduate of the Jacksonville Conservatory of Music and of Carthage College;
has taught music at Hedding College, Abingdon, and is now a student of the New England Con-
servatory of Music, Boston. Flora is also a graduate of Carthage College, and Sallie is a student
in that excellent institution. Mr. and Mrs. Manier take good care that their children shall be
well educated.
MILES WHITE.
LENA.
*HE subject of this biographical notice is a native of Jefferson county, New York, being born
at Lyme, February 17, 1841. His father, William White, a farmer, was a native of the same
state. His grandfather aided with his rifle in gaining the independence of the colonies. The
mother of Miles, before her marriage, was Alvira Freeman, a native of the state of New York.
When he was ten years old the family came into this state, and settled at Ward's Grove, Jo
Daviess county, where the son was reared on a farm. He received a district school education,
supplemented with one term at the Mount Carroll Seminary; remained on his father's farm until
of age; carried on farming for himself for three years, and in March, 1865, enlisted in the yth
Illinois cavalry, and served until the following November.
Returning to Illinois, Mr. White settled in Lena, and in May, 1866, engaged in the grocery
business, remaining in that branch of the mercantile trade until 1873, when he changed to a gen-
eral stock of merchandise, and greatly expanded his business. In 1880 he built the White House
block, the finest improvement ever made in the village, a brick structure fifty by eighty-five feet,
and three stories high, with a bank and two stores on the lower floor, and the hotel on the other
two flats. The building is well constructed, and thoroughly finished from cellar to attic, and cost
$18,000. The hotel is tastily furnished throughout, and well supplied with sample rooms and
every convenience for the traveling public, and is rented by an experienced hotel-keeper. In his
store Mr. White carries the largest stock of merchandise of any merchant in town, and is a
straightforward, thoroughgoing, successful business man.
Mr. White has served as school trustee and town trustee two or three terms each, and may
have held other local offices. No man in Lena takes more pride in seeing improvements going
on, and in encouraging generally the interests of the place.
He is a republican, and a very active and earnest worker for the interests of his party, serving
his second term, at this time (1882), as chairman of the republican central committee of Stephen-
son county. Anv cause which he believes to be right he espouses with his whole heart, and labors
for its success with untiring zeal.
Mr. White married, July 4, 1862, Miss J. Ellen Fleming, daughter of Thomas Fleming, of Lena,
and she died February 9, 1882, leaving four children, two having preceded her to the spirit world.
STEPHEN D. POLLOCK, M.D.
GALE SBURGH.
STEPHEN DYSERT POLLOCK, physician and surgeon, is a son of John D. and Rachel G.
(Dysert) Pollock, and was born in Union county, Ohio, December 22, 1838. His father was
a native of Delaware, of Scotch lineage; his mother of Welsh. When Stephen was ten years
old the family moved into this state, and settled at Paris, Edgar county, where the son received
an academic education, working meanwhile part of the time until he was eighteen years old on
his father's farm. He studied medicine at Abingdon, Knox county, with Doctor W. W. Porter;
attended lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, and there received the degree
of doctor of medicine in 1871. While there he also took a private course of instruction in
390 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
surgery with Doctor Frank Hastings Hamilton, and in diseases of the heart and lungs with
Professor Austin Flint, Sr., both men of eminence in their profession, and leading authors.
He returned to Abingdon, where he had commenced practice while a student, and was
in successful business there in all for nearly twenty years. While a resident of that place he
served at different periods as school director, treasurer of the school board, school trustee, and
lecturer in the Abingdon College, his chair being that of anatomy, physiology and hygiene.
In 1879 Doctor Pollock went to New York city, and spent some time attending the operations
in the Woman's Hospital, and by invitation assisting Dr. J. Marion Sims in private operations in
the city, and afterward took a post-graduate course in diseases- of women in the University of
Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1880, and of
Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, 1881. At no period of his life has he been more studious
than at the present time. He is a growing man.
In May, 1882, the doctor changed his residence from Abingdon to Galesburgh, in the same
county. The two cities are only ten miles apart, are connected by rail, and he retains his chair
in the college, and the better portion of his old practice. In January, 1882, he was appointed
medical director of the Covenant Mutual Benefit Association of Illinois.
He is a Knight Templar, and has been district deputy grand master of masons, and is serv-
ing, and has before served, on important committees in the Grand Lodge. He was married in
1862 to Miss Jennie Ver Treese, of Knox county; they have three sons and one daughter living,
and one son dead.
Doctor Pollock has a florid complexion, blue eyes and a sanguine temperament; is five feet
and eleven and a half inches tall, and weighs two hundred pounds. His build is symmetrical.
He is easy and courteous in his manner and cheerful in his disposition, and these qualifications,
added to his skill, admirably fit him to visit a sick room.
M
GENERAL M. R. M. WALLACE.
CHICAGO.
ARTIN REUBEN MERRITT WALLACE was born September 29, 1829, at Urbana, Cham-
paign county, Ohio. His father, John Wallace, was a native of Delaware, where he was
born in 1786, and passed the years of his youth and early manhood in the state of Virginia,
removing with the great westward tide to Ohio in 1825, where he married, for his second wife,
Miss Sarah Hitt, of Kentucky.
In 1834 the family, consisting of ten children, moved to the great prairie state of Illinois,
where they settled on a farm in La Salle county, near what is now the flourishing town of Ottawa.
Here the subject of this sketch received the rudimentary education, attainable in those days, of
rude log school houses, and schoolmasters who would to-day be laughed at as clowns. The col-
lege in which young Wallace first fretted over his reading, writing and arithmetic consisted of a
few winter months of such schooling each year, and in the warm season, the spring, summer and
fall, by working on his father's farm.
In 1839 his father removed to Ogle county, and again settled on a farm near the present town
of Mount Morris, the site of the Rock River Seminary, of which institution he was for many
years, and at the time of his decease in 1850, president of the board of trustees. It was under
his father's personal supervision in this seminary that young Wallace pursued his studies and
obtained his education. His parents were both consistent and earnest members of the Methodist
church. They lie buried in the cemetery at Mount Morris, having lived to a good old age.
In 1852 young Wallace went to the city of Ottawa, in La Salle county, to study law in the
office of Dickey and Wallace, the firm consisting of Hon. T. Lyle Dickey (present chief justice of
the supreme court of Illinois) and his brother, W. H. L. Wallace (afterward major-general, who
fell at the battle of Shiloh, on the Tennessee River, April 6, 1862, a most lamented sacrifice
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
39'
on the altar of his country). Under the care and tutelage of such sterling lawyers and upright
citizens, it may be assumed that young Wallace obtained that important desideratum in the
career of a professional man a right start. He made rapid progress in his studies, and was in
due time admitted to the bar, and began the active practice of law. In the spring of 1856 he
removed to a wider field of activity, the then booming city of Chicago.
In Chicago he formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas Dent, of the now well known firm of
Dent and Black. For five years thereafter he pursued a fairly lucrative practice. Just after get-
ting on the road to reasonable fame and fortune, like so many choice spirits who were stirred to
patriotic ardor as with an inspiration that seemed like the voice of God, he joined the swiftly mov-
ing caravan of patriots to crush the armed hosts of treason and rebellion. No time for thought of
self when the fate of this great nation hung trembling in the balance. Old and young, rich and
poor, patriotic and designing, brave and craven, all went forth and kept step to the "wild, grand
music of the Union."
Immediately after the outbreak of the rebellion of 1861 he unhesitatingly abandoned his pro-
fession and threw his whole energies into the work of giants the organization and equipment
of the army of citizen soldiers who were destined to save this fair fabric of free government from
disintegration and destruction. He took an important part in recruiting and equipping the 4th
Illinois cavalry, and received a commission as major of the regiment, commanding the second
battalion on its march and transportation from Camp Hunter, at Ottawa, Illinois, to Cairo, the
border of the scene of active hostilities.
Almost immediately after getting into the enemy's country, and just before starting on the
famous expedition to Forts Henry and Donelson, a most distressing misfortune befell Major
Wallace. While loading his battalion on the transport, his younger brother, Sergeant Matthew
Wallace, was thrown from the guards of the boat into the river, and being drawn under the wheel
of the boat was drowned. This terrible affliction was hard to bear, but by a bitter repetition it
was made doubly sad by a still greater affliction a few months later in the death of his distin-
guished brother, Brevet-Major-General W. H. L. Wallace. In the awful tumult of that Sun-
day's battle at Shiloh he was mortally wounded. His death was the theme of all the official
reports, from the commanding general to brigade commanders. His was a costly sacrifice; not
less because of his superb private worth as a citizen and a lawyer of great ability and promise
than for the zeal, energy and splendid qualities he displayed as a soldier. Major Wallace took an
active and gallant part in all the operations before, during and after the storming and capture of
Fort Donelson, which important event took place February 16 and 17, 1862.
He was in the battle of Shiloh (April 6 and 7, 1862) throughout the two terrible days of car-
nage, by common consent the bloodiest and most desperate battle of the war. He survived the
ordeal as by a miracle, for he was in the thickest of the fight, in the most hazardous arm of the
service, the cavalry. With the warm life blood of his heroic brother yet warm on his hands he
bounded into the saddle to face again and again the murderous fire of the enemy. In all the
daring and difficult operations of the army, in the siege of Corinth, continuing from the time of
the battle of Shiloh till the fall and evacuation of that great rebel stronghold, May 30, 1862,
Major Wallace bore himself with zeal, discretion and undaunted courage. In the gloom of an
indescribably dreary wilderness, alternating from an oozy swamp to the red-brick color of a bar-
ren soil, by day and by night, in storm and in sunshine, in the awful silence just preceding an
attack, amid the sharp rattle and roar of a battle, which was the hourly diversion of the com-
batants, the dashing cavalrymen were ever the first to develop and draw the fire of the enemy in
ambuscade, a service which asks the courage of lions.
In this hazardous work Major Wallace ever received the commendation of his superior officers.
In the subsequent varied movements of our army, either in pursuit of a supposed retreating
enemy or to repel a sudden attack on flank or rear, the force in which Major Wallace's command
was took an active and distinguished part. In an engagement, December 5, 1862, at Coffee-
ville, in central Mississippi, Colonel McCullough, of the 4th Illinois cavalry, was killed, after
which event the command of the regiment was conferred upon Major Wallace.
392 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Major Wallace, in his official report of the battle, thus eloquently refers to his late superior
officer:
"Colonel McCullough had few equals as an officer. Brave to a fault, his gallantry and kindly
qualities of heart won him the love and esteem of all, both officers and men. His comrades
in arms say of him that he never experienced the sensation of fear. He led his regiment in the
bold and daring pursuit of the enemy at Fort Henry, thus early in the war placing himself upon
the roll of brave and dashing cavalry officers. The colonel was always ready for duty, always
with his command, and best satisfied with the post of danger and active duty. Colonel McCul-
lough passed with his regiment through the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, the
siege of Corinth, falling at the head of his command, pierced by three bullets, each inflicting a
mortal wound, December 5, A.D. 1862, at the battle of Coffeeville, Mississippi. This battle
was continued until dusk, and the rebels succeeded in getting on the flanks of the federal forces,
coming upon Colonel McCullough, with their bayonets at his breast, and demanding his surrender.
Knowing that to do so would sacrifice his command,. with certain death staring him in the face,
the colonel, with his eagle eye looking into the muzzles of the rebel muskets, heroically replied,
'Never! ' and instantly fell from his horse a lifeless corpse. That was a rich sacrifice, sanctified
by acceptance upon the altar of patriotism, when Colonel McCullough yielded up his life for his
country,"
The following month after Colonel McCullough's death, January, 1863, Major Wallace was
commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and in March of the same year was promoted to the colonelcy
of the regiment.
In the fall of 1864, by reason of the expiration of the full three years' term, he was mustered
out of the service, whereupon he took up his abode in Natchez, Mississippi, resuming the practice
of the law, which he continued there until the spring of 1866, at which time he returned to Chi-
cago. In the summer of that year he was appointed by President Andrew Johnson United States
assessor of internal revenue for the first district of Illinois, which position he held until the spring
of 1869. Shortly after quitting the government service as assessor, October, 1869, he was nomi-
nated by acclamation and elected on the people's ticket for the position of county judge (which
court at that time had probate jurisdiction), which onerous and responsible position he held until
1877, being reflected the second term without opposition. Resigning his position as county
judge on account of impaired health, he was, without a dissenting vote, made county attorney by
the board of county commissioners, which position he filled with signal ability and credit for one
year (1878), after which time he resumed the practice of law in Chicago. He is a member of
Saint Paul's Universalist Church, in Chicago. He cast his first ballot for Stephen A. Douglas
for president, and has adhered to the democratic party ever since. In September, 1863, while
home on a short leave of absence from the army, he was married to Miss Emma R. Gilson, eldest
daughter of Hon. George W. Gilson, who came to Illinois in 1837. Mrs. Wallace, on her mother's
side, was a cousin of the brave and brilliant young hero, General T. E. G. Ransom, who came
west while quite young.
In personal appearance Judge Wallace is distinguished, being six feet three inches in height,
with a dignified bearing. Superficially, one might judge him austere in manner, but there is no
trace of arrogance. It is the rare dignity which habits of strong and deep thinking write upon
the face allied to the most unrelenting contempt for chicanery or petty artifice. If in no other
way an estimate might be arrived at which would universally be approved and declared just, it
would be to award him the highest possible place in the public esteem for integrity and consci-
entious fidelity to his clients and his friends. He combines, in an admirable manner, the rare
combination expressed by the truism, " Laughter and reverence are sworn brothers," for no man
has a more reverent nature, coupled with one which is full of the rare and valuable element we
call humor.
On the bench he was an ideal judge patient, painstaking. With admirable sense he saw
through, and quietly, without any parade or pedantry, swept aside the cobwebs of sophistry or
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
393
the rubbish of mere palaver, which is a too common indulgence by the legal profession. There
was no nonsense allowed in his court. Nor was any decision ever questioned upon its equitable
aspects. He never made the rendering of a decision the occasion of delivering an argument.
As a lawyer, Judge Wallace inspires instant respect and confidence by his manner and
thoughtful habit. Apparently slow, he goes to the very root of a case, and loses no vital point by
undue haste or show of precocity. A client never will argue the point with him, for he gives no
one the opportunity to presume upon him in that way; yet never suggests the slightest dogma-
tism. As a forensic pleader, Judge Wallace is, if possible, still more admirable. There he car-
ries judge and jury with him by a straightforward adherence to law and the practice as estab-
lished, never resorting to the cheap and shallow tricks indulged in by many lawyers, who know
better, but cannot overcome their vanity for display. As an orator he is earnest and impressive,
speaking right on without any theatrical clap-trap or needless rhetoric in a voice at once powerful
and natural. Perhaps in no way is the character of Judge Wallace as lovable as in his devotion
to and affection for his family. Blessed with a wife who is as a sunbeam through all the vicissi-
tudes of life, with five bright and growing children, there in the home is where he is the idol,
counselor and friend. Not rich in this world's goods, he is rich in " honor, love, obedience,
troops of friends," having proved faithful to the many public and private trusts committed to
him. The words of the gentle, high-schooled Brutus may well be applied to Judge Wallace:
"His life is gentle, and
The elements so mix in him,
That nature might stand up
And say to all the world,
This is a man ! ' "
w
HON. WILLIAM C. SNYDER.
FUL TON.
ILLIAM COWPERTHWAIT SNYDER, senator for Lee and Whiteside counties, is a son
of James and Sabilla (Cowperthwait) Snyder, and was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey,
July 29, 1821. His father, a miller, was born in Burlington county, same state, and was a son of
Christopher Snyder, of Bergen county, New Jersey, and of Dutch descent. Sabilla Cowper-
thwait was a native of Burlington county, New Jersey, and a relative of the well known Philadel-
phia publishers of that name.
In his youth the subject of this sketch had restricted advantages for education, leaving school
at thirteen years of age, serving a long apprenticeship at the mercantile business and remaining
in his native state until twenty-four years of age. Before leaving there he commenced the study
of medicine, toward which profession his taste seemed to incline.
In 1845 Mr. Snyder came to the West, spending two years at Lyons, Iowa, and in 1847
recrossed the Mississippi into Whiteside county, this state, locating at first at Union Grove, where
he opened a drug store in company with his preceptor, Doctor Bassett. In the winter of 1847-48
he attended a course of lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and was in practice at Union
Grove, twelve miles east of Fulton, until 1854, when he moved into the latter place, and engaged
in mercantile pursuits. For the last sixteen or eighteen years he has been engaged in the ware-
house business.
Doctor Snyder has long been a very active and prominent citizen of Whiteside county. He
was postmaster from 1861 to 1882; was drainage commissioner for about a dozen years, super-
visor for two or three terms, and may have held other local offices which we do not recall.
In the autumn of 1882 he was elected to the senate from the nineteenth district, and is chair-
man of the committee on state library and geology and science. Senator Snyder is a stirring
man, whether attending to his own private business or to that of the state, and having good sound
sense makes a valuable member of the upper house.
394 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
His politics are republican, unwavering and intense, and it is safe to say that no man in his
county has worked harder to advance the interests of the party. He was chairman of the White-
side county republican central committee for ten or twelve years, and at one period was editor
and proprietor of the Fulton "Journal."
Senator Snyder has taken the chapter and council degrees in Masonry, and has given no incon-
siderable attention to work in that order. For more than forty years he has been a zealous advo-
cate of the cause of temperance, and has been the state presiding officer of the Sons of Temper-
ance. No more earnest friend of humanity can be found in Whiteside county than the senator.
He was married at Lyons, Iowa, in 1849, to Miss Isyphene C. Pearce, a native of Rhode Island.
They buried their first-born child, Sabilla, when she was just entering upon her teens, and have
seven children living: Kate C. is the wife of Thomas J. Pickett, postmaster and newspaper pub-
lisher at Ashland, Nebraska; Martha C. is the wife of J. C. Neff, station agent at Rochelle, Illi-
nois; Joseph C. is a partner of his father in the warehouse business and postmaster; Anna C. has
charge of the musical department of Northern Illinois College, Fulton, and J. Justin, C. Henry
and Lena V. are at home.
GURDON P. RANDALL.
CHICAGO.
GURDON PAINE RANDALL, one of the oldest and best architects in Chicago, is a native
' of Orange county, Vermont, his birth being dated at Braintree, February 18, 1821. His
father was a contractor, builder and millwright, born in Connecticut, and his grandfather was
Greennfield Randall, whose family left Connecticut for Vermont. The mother of Gurdon, whose
maiden name was Laura Scott Warner, was a native of the Green Mountain State, and born in
Williamstown, Orange county.
Born of good New England stock,- and reared to habits of industry, our subject, after attend-
ing a district school until sixteen years old, commenced work with his father, building mills, pri-
vate houses, churches, etc, working at his trade of millwright and builder until twenty-five years
of age. He was then for a period of five years, engaged in the construction of railway bridges,
depots, etc., in his native state, his work being mainly on what is now known as the Central Ver-
mont railroad.
About 1851 Mr. Randall went to Syracuse, New York, where he was engaged in the study and
practice of architecture, until 1856, when he settled in Chicago. He now belongs to the older
class of men of that profession, and is noted all over the country for the neatness of his designs,
his integrity under all circumstances, and the thoroughness of his work. With him public build
ings seem to be a specialty, and the reader can form some idea of the extent of the field over
which he operates by seeing a list of some of the prominent college, academic and normal and
high-school buildings which he has designed. Here is a partial record of them :
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Evanston College for Ladies; Ladies College, of
Madison University, Wisconsin ; Mercer University, Macon, Georgia ; Academy of the Sacred
Heart, Saint Louis, Missouri ; Saint Mary's Academy, Leavenworth, Kansas ; Jefferson Institute,
Jefferson, Wisconsin; State Normal Schools, at Normal, Illinois; Winona, Minnesota; Whitewater,
Wisconsin, and Plattville, Wisconsin ; and high schools in Clinton, Kankakee, Litchfield, OIney,
Galesburgh, and Aurora, Illinois; Marshall and Menominee, Michigan; Madison, Berlin, Marinette
and Dodgeville, Wisconsin ; Winona, Red Wing and Saint Paul, Minnesota ; Elkhart, La Porte,
and Plymouth, Indiana; Atchison, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska, Denver, Colorado, etc.
To this list might be added several hundred ward school-houses, scattered far and wide over
the country, including New England, the middle and gulf states, as well as the western, ex-
tending to the Rocky Mountains. We are thus particular in regard to his work pertaining to
educational buildings, because Mr. Randall has made them a study, and in 1882 published a pam-
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
397
phlet of his own, entitled '' How to Build School-houses; with Systems of Heating, Lighting and
Ventilation." It is well illustrated, and full of instructive matter, which is of great value to par-
ties having such structures under contemplation. Several years ago he published a much larger
pamphlet on the same subject. We believe it is Mr. Randall's purpose, at no distant day, to issue a
similar pamphlet on church designing and another on jail construction, and court houses, of which,
by the way, he has designed some of the best in the country. He is high authority on any of these
subjects. Some people are born poets, and Mr. Randall is a born mechanic. His skill in architec-
ture came to him by intuition, and he has made it his chief study, as well as livelihood, for more
than forty years, he meantime interspersing scientific studies as his prime and almost sole recre-
ation. He is thoroughly wedded to his profession, and employs the best draftsmen to be found
in the country.
Mr. Randall has kept entirely out of politics and of civil offices, and is a very quiet and studious
man. He takes a good deal of interest in Masonry, and many years ago organized Union Park
Lodge, of which he was master for six years. At one period he was Grand Lecturer for the Order
in this state. He has taken the thirty-second degree.
Mr. Randall was first married in 1842 to Miss Louisa C.' Drew, of Stratford, Orange county,
Vermont, she dying childless in 1871; and the second time in 1874,10 Mrs. Martha Caroline
(Anderson) Holt, a native of New York, having by her one child, a daughter, Cora, aged nine
years.
E
E. BREESE GLASS.
ED WARDSVILLE.
LLIOTT BREESE GLASS, attorney-at-law, and master in chancery of Madison county, Illi-
nois, is a native of Saint Clair county, in this state, and dates his birth April 16, 1845. His
father, Cornelius Glass, was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, and was a son of James Glass,
who immigrated to this state in 1817, and who had been in the second war with England.
The father of James Glass and great-grandfather of our subject was from the North of Ireland.
Cornelius Glass married Elizabeth Jane Pulse, a native of the Old Dominion, and Breese was the
eldest son in a family of four children. He was educated at Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illi-
nois. He read law principally with Hon. Levi Davis, of Alton, and was admitted to the bar at
the June term of the supreme court, 1870. Mr. Glass practiced a few years in Upper Alton, and
in the autumn of 1875 located in Edwardsville, his present home, where he has been engaged in
the practice of his profession ever since. In July, 1872, he was appointed county attorney for
Madison county, by the county court of said county, and at the presidential election in 1872 he
was elected state's attorney on the democratic ticket, and served four years, making a good record.
He was appointed to the office of master in chancery in the autumn of 1879, and reappointed in
1881, which position he still holds. He is very careful in taking testimony, and in making sales,
and in adjusting matters after the sales are made, and attends to all chancery business in a most
satisfactory manner.
As a lawyer, Mr. Glass is well read, studious and growing. He prepares his cases with a great
deal of pains, but encourages no one to go to law who has not a clear cause of action. Once
enlisted, he clings to his client with a great deal of tenacity, and thus far he has been quite suc-
cessful. He is good, both as an office and jury lawyer, and has ambition and ability enough to
make it likely that he will continue to rise.
Mr. Glass has always voted the democratic ticket, and during a political campaign never fails
to do valiant service for his party on the stump, he being a ready, fluent and entertaining speaker.
He attends county, district and state conventions, and is now chairman of the executive com-
mittee of his congressional (Bill Morrison's) district. He is an untiring worker in the inter-
ests of his party, and on the assembling of the legislature this year, he received the caucus
nomination of his party, tor the position of clerk of the state senate.
4"
398 I'NITF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Since the summer of 1882 he has been the political editor of the " Edwardsville Intelligencer,"
the oldest democratic paper in his county, and is doing good work for his party. He seems to
like journalism, and evidently has an aptitude for the profession. Some of his editorials are
decidedly spicy.
He belongs to the order of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Glass is very fond of field sports, with
the dog and gun, and also of trap shooting, and is one of the best wing shots in southern Illinois.
May 18, 1874, Mr. Glass was married to Miss Eudora Stocker, a daughter of George R. Stocker,
of Upper Alton, and they now have two children, a son and a daughter.
PERRY H. SMITH.JR.
CHICAGO.
PERRY HIRAM SMITH, JR., one of the rising young lawyers of Chicago, is a son of Perry
H. Smith, Sr., whose sketch precedes this, and was born at Appleton, Wisconsin, May 10,
1854. His mother was Emma A. Smith, daughter of Rev. Reeder Smith, who was from New
England, and was the founder of Lawrence University, at Appleton. When our subject was five
years of age the family moved from Wisconsin to Chicago, where they have since resided, moving
among the highest, most polished circles. Perry commenced his school life in this city, spending
a year or more in the Ogden School on the north side, and at eight years of age was sent to
the grammar school of Racine College, Wisconsin, where he studied three years. In 1867, in
company with his parents, he made the tour of Europe. It was the year of the Paris Exposition,
which he had the opportunity of visiting and studying; it was, no doubt, the best mental task
which could have been assigned him at that particular period.
Returning home in 1867, Perry, still a mere lad, just entered on his teens, entered the
Charlier French Institute, New York city, where he remained for two years, under the tuition of
Professor Elie Charlier, the French orator at the Yorktown celebration, in October, 1881. Again
(1869) he visited the old world, connected himself with the Institute of Luxembourg, Brussels,
where he nqt only fitted himself to enter the sophomore class of Hamilton College, at Clinton,
New York, but acquired a very thorough knowledge of the French language. While there, Mr.
Smith witnessed some of the battles between the French and Germans, the Franco-Prussian war
being in progress, and he had the opportunity of entering Paris at a very critical period, when
that city was in the hands of the commune. The fruits of his observation gathered during that
exciting period in European history, cannot be lost to an inquiring mind like Mr. Smith's. On
his return, he entered Hamilton College, and was graduated in 1874 as class orator, and with
other honorable distinctions.
Soon after receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, Mr. Smith made a third visit to Europe ;
returned at the end of a year; entered the law department of Columbia College, New York, at
the head of which is Judge Theodore Dwight, of the court of appeals, and was graduated with
honors from that institution also. Probably no lawyer in Chicago had a more thorough literary
and legal outfit than Mr. Smith, and with high promise of success he was admitted to practice in
the supreme court of New York. Returning to Chicago, after remaining a short time in the office
of John N. Jewett, he formed a partnership with Henry Crawford', who for many years has been so
prominently connected wih the heaviest railroad litigation of this country. Two years later
(1878) with Francis H. Kales, of the late firm of Beck with, Ayer and Kales, and the firm of Kales
and Smith has built up a highly remunerative practice. A writer for a local periodical thus speaks
of Mr. Smith as a lawyer:
"In the practice of his profession he is very zealous, as, indeed he is in everything which he
undertakes. He is reliable and honorable in all places and under all circumstances; is loyal
to truth and right, justly valuing his own self-respect and the deserved esteem of his fellow men,
as infinitely better than wealth, fame or position."
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Smith is an earnest adherent of the democratic party, and unusually influential and pop-
ular for a man of his age. In 1881 he was put forward by his party as a candidate for congress,
in the 3d district; and made a gallant canvass, carrying the city portion of his district by a thou-
sand majority, but the district is very largely republican, and he failed of an election. Some one
has attributed his defeat to the atrocious crime of being a young man. If that was the cause he
may remember the career of the younger Pitt, and press on. As adjuncts to his splendid literary
and legal attainments and native talents of a high order, he has social qualities of the most ac-
complished class, and all the elements of true manhood.
We conclude this sketch with an extract from a pen photograph of our subject, written not
long ago by a gentleman who has long been acquainted with him :
" Belonging to the most vexatious of professions, he has risen to an enviable position in its
ranks, such as to cause wonder and surprise when one reflects upon the discipline through which
he must have reached it. It is the best possible evidence, that without the need and spur of
necessary effort to obtain that which is the anxious concern of the majority of work-day toilers,
independence so far as mere support and material comfort goes, this young gentleman has proved
absolutely ' proof and bulwark 'gainst sense.' Though of a family renowned for wealth and social
supremacy not alone in this city and section, but all over the land, he is yet in the best and truest
sense, a representative of the people. He is a gentleman with all which that term implies. Not
alone in mere refinement and polish of outward manners, and the easy assumption of cordial feel-
ings toward all, but considerate, thoughtful and kindly at heart toward the meanest creature.
There is as much difference between true dignity and arrogance as between the ring of genuine
and spurious coin. He that would genuflect with studied grace in the presence of ladies in a
drawing-room, may be an arrogant boor in the presence of his washerwoman or carriage-driver.
And, in this very matter of personal intercourse with all classes and conditions of people has Mr.
Smith best shown the true instincts of the real gentleman. Frank, easy, with a peculiar, quiet
candor, which is winsome to the fullest degree, generous and considerate, the meanest beggar
that timidly murmurs his stereotyped appeal will receive at his hands as gentle and considerate
treatment as the curled darlings of our best society. Above the very appearance of anything like
trickery or double dealing, he is yet discreet and reserved in expressing his judgment. Well and
thoroughly educated in the best schools, he is yet perfectly simple in his methods of expression,
and, what is most admirable, always and under every form of temptation to imitate, unaffected in
manner and speech."
STILLMAN W. WHEELOCK.
MOLINE.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch, is mayor of the city of
Moline. and one of its most prominent citizens. He has resided here for more than thirty
years, and has been one of the foremost men in originating enterprises which, in that period of
time, have built up Moline from a village of perhaps 800 inhabitants, to a city of 9,000. Mr.
Wheelock is a son of Chapin and Lucy Wheelock, and was born in the town of Holland, Erie
county, New York, June 17, 1817. He was reared on his father's farm, and finished his education
by one year's attendance at the Aurora Academy, Erie county.
In the spring of 1839 Mr. Wheelock started for the West, reaching Chicago by steamboat May
10. It was then an unprepossessing-looking place, with mud enough to supply a small state, and
Mr. Wheelock did not take to it. The historian of Rock Island county states that he packed his
entire assets in a bandanna, which he slung on a cane, and then took a bee line for the Fox River ;
but tradition has it that he was the proprietor of a small hair trunk, which had once been new,
and which he left in Chicago awaiting further orders. At Saint Charles, Kane county, he found
employment in a saw mill, at one dollar a day, and he remained there and in that vicinity a dozen
years or more, owning and cultivating, part of the time, a farm in Du Page county. He was also
4OO UNITED STATES BIOGKAl'lllCAL DICTIONARY.
a lumber manufacturer, in company with S. B. Flint. In 1841 he married, at Saint Charles, Miss
Lydia Flint, a sister of his partner, and a native of Alstead, New Hampshire, descending from an
old Concord, Massachusetts, family.
Mr. Wheelock came to Moline in 1851 ; bought the site of the Moline Paper Mill ; put up the
building, and made the first sheet of paper in August of the next year. That mill has since been
enlarged, and is now turning out four or five tons of news, print, and wrapping paper per day.
Mr. Wheelock has been a stockholder in the Moline Water Power Company since its organixa-
tion ; put $75,000 in the Moline Plow Company in 1870, and is its president. It gives employ-
ment to 400 workmen, and is turning out 60,000 first-class steel plows annually.
He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Moline, and has been its president
since it went into operation.
During the civil war he was chairman of the. board of supervisors, and had charge of the fund
received for the relief of soldiers' families, being himself a very liberal contributor to that fund.
In 1872 Mr. Wheelock built the post-office block at a cost of $20,000, and soon afterward
donated it to the Moline public library, which now contains about 6,000 volumes, and is a stand-
ing memorial of his generosity.
In April, 1877, he was elected mayor of the city without opposition, and by repeated reelec-
tions still holds that office. He takes the same interest in municipal matters as in his own private
concerns; and in this position his public spirit and executive abilities are seen to the best advan-
tage.
JOHN G. FRANKE. M.D.
NEWTON.
WHILE the life history of him whose name heads this sketch has many things in common
with that of most self-made men, it yet abounds in incidents and interesting experiences,
and has an independence and spirit of self reliance peculiarly its own, and furnishes an example
of perseverance, untiring energy and crowning success well worthy of emulation and imitation.
He was born in the city of Munster, Prussia, February 17, 1817, of German parentage. His father
was a physician. Both his parents died while he was young, and he went to live with an uncle,
but soon afterward bade farewell to friends and home and native land, and started for the United
States. This was in 1837. His uncle furnished him money sufficient to pay for his passage, but
when he reached his new home he was without money, friends or influence, but had a fixed pur-
pose and a determination to succeed. The voyage was one of thrilling incidents. Soon after
they were at sea the vessel sprung a leak, and they were thirteen weeks in crossing the ocean,
and at times were in a most perilous position. The young doctor took his stand among the
deck hands, and went into active service, and was constantly expecting the moment to come when
they would have to quit the vessel and take to the smaller boats, but they finally landed in New
Orleans in safety.
The doctor then began the practice of his profession, to which he was fully adapted, having
been brought up in it from early youth, and met with great success from the beginning. He
continued his practice in New Orleans for five years, making considerable money, which he sub-
sequently used in traveling throughout the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, and
finally stopped for a short time in Iowa and Missouri, eventually settling, about 1848, at Newton,
Illinois, which continued to be his home until his death.
He followed his profession continuously for twenty-seven years, and came to rank among the
leading physicians of central Illinois. By close confinement to the duties of his extensive prac-
tice, his health became greatly impaired; so much so that he feared he would be compelled to
abandon his practice; but after an extended trip through California and other western states,
where he spent about a year, he returned with renewed strength, and entered vigorously again
into his practice. He was not only eminent as a practitioner, but also made his profession a
L'fflTI-.n STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 401
financial success, accumulating considerable wealth, which he used very freely and judiciously.
He was always public spirited and generous, and did much good throughout the county, and
contributed not a little to the prosperity and well-being of the little city of Newton, in which he
resided about thirty-five years.
Doctor Franke continued in active practice until 1880, when he had an attack of cardiac drop-
sy, which was the disease which proved fatal to his father, after which time, until his death, he
was an invalid, and a patient sufferer. He died March 15, 1883. In political sentiment Doctor
Franke was always a democrat, and was formerly a very active worker in the democratic party.
Two years after he settled in Newton he was married to Miss Gertrude Fisher, who is a native of
Prussia, but at that time was living in Newton, having left her home and native land when fifteen
years of age, coming to America with her aunt. They had nine children, six of whom are living.
The eldest two, Adam A. and John J., are practicing physicians, both practicing in Newton.
Another brother, Peter, has taken one course of lectures, and is now running the largest drug
store in Newton, which was formerly owned by his father.
Doctor A. A. Franke is a young man of ability and promise in his profession. He was born
at Newton in September, 1852; pursued his professional studies at the Kentucky School of Medi-
cine, graduating therefrom in the spring of 1877, and July 4 following returned to his home and
established himself in his profession. He has been very successful, and has made for himself a
fair reputation, which is constantly growing. He was married September 14, 1880, to Miss Lizzie
Nigh, a daughter of Mr. Fuller Nigh, an old settler of Newton.
Although Doctor John G. Franke has gone from the scene of his labors, his work lives after
him, and his name will long be cherished in the memories of all who knew him as that of an
upright citizen and a just and honorable man.
ELIJAH L. MARSHALL, M.D.
KEITHSBURG.
ELIJAH LARISON MARSHALL, the oldest physician in practice at Keithsburg, and one
of the leading men of his profession in Mercer county, is a native of New Jersey, and was
born near Trenton, September 24, 1823. His father was William Marshall, in his early and mid-
dle life a merchant and stock dealer; also a prominent politician, and for several years a member
of the New Jersey legislature. His mother, before her marriage, was Catharine Larison. Both
parents were born in New Jersey, and died at Cordova, Rock Island county, Illinois, where the
family settled about 1837.
Our subject received his literary and medical education at the University of the City of New
York; settled at Keithsburg in August, 1850, and has been in general and successful practice
here for nearly thirty-tViree years. In 1862, while the civil war was in progress, Doctor Marshall
became connected with the 84th regiment Illinois infantry as a medical officer, and was in the
service one year. His regiment was in the Army of the Cumberland, and in General Crittenden's
corps and Palmer's brigade.
Doctor Marshall has held a few civil offices, such as town trustee and school director, but has
kept out of all political offices, and given his time to his professional duties. He votes the demo-
cratic ticket, but is not a strong partisan.
He married, July i, 1852. Miss Sarah Elizabeth McBride, of Mercer township, near Keiths-
burgh, and of three children, the fruit of this union, only one son, Tom A., is living. He is a
druggist at Keithsburg. The other two children died young. The doctor's wife is a daughter
of the late James McBride, one of the oldest settlers in this county, and one of the most enter-
prising men of that class the pioneers in this part of the state.
A writer in the "History of Mercer County" thus speaks of our subject:
"As a practitioner of medicine and surgery Doctor Marshall stands deservedly high in the
4-O2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
estimation of all, and not the least so in the estimation of his professional brethren. But it is in
the department of surgery perhaps that the doctor has done his best work and earned his highest
triumphs. Few practitioners outside the large cities have performed a greater number of intricate
and capital operations or met with a more uniform success in operative surgical procedures than
has the subject of this sketch. His close observation of pathological conditions, his success in
weighing the relations of cause and effect, and his almost intuitive judgment and decision at
the bedside, have secured for him a reputation as consulting physician and surgeon second to
none in this county. Generous and hospitable in his home circle, courteous and affable in every-
day life, strong and enduring in his personal friendships, thorough in his professional attainments,
earnest in his warfare against disease, with an almost chivalric fidelity to the sick and afflicted
consigned to his care, Doctor Marshall has stamped the impress of his marked individuality upon
the history and daily life of the large community in which he has lived and labored for nearly
the third of a century.
HON. EDWIN H. JOHNSTON.
POKT BYRON.
EDWIN HORACE JOHNSTON, attorney-at-law, and formerly a member of the general
assembly of Illinois, dates his birth at Barnet, Caledonia county, Vermont, September 18,
1823. His father, Alexander Johnston, was born in the same state, and his grandfather, Alexan-
der Johnston, Sr., was from Scotland. The mother of Edwin was Almira (Pratt) Johnston, a
native of Peacham, Vermont. He learned the carpenter's trade of his father, whom he aided
more or less at that business; received part of his education at the Peacham Academy, and at
sixteen years of age commenced teaching, having that winter the largest school and the highest
wages of any teacher in the town. He taught three consecutive winters in Vermont, attending
the academy the rest of his time, and paying his own way.
In the spring of 1844 he went to New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where
he attended an academy, and taught a public school and music now and then, for three more
years, having, all those academic days, the legal profession in his eye. He studied law at Hamil-
ton, Ohio, with Hon. William Bebb, who was chosen governor at that time, still supporting him-
self by teaching, remaining in his office for three years. At the end of that time Mr. Johnston
was admitted to the bar at Hamilton (1847), and practiced there until June, 1856, when he settled
in Port Byron.
While at Hamilton he married, in 1848, Miss Ellen Morris, who died in 1854, leaving a son
and daughter, the daughter only now living. Mr. Johnston has always been in general practice,
and has had fair success in his business. He is a man of unbending integrity and high-minded
purposes, and his neighbors have great confidence in him as a legal adviser.
In August, 1862, Mr. Johnston went into the army, as captain of company G, i26th Illinois
infantry, and served nearly two years, when his health failed, and he was obliged to resign. He
was at the siege of Vicksburg, and afterward his regiment was in General Steele's department,
and at the taking of Little Rock. The left lung of Captain Johnston has been hepatixed for
eighteen years, and during that period he has had no use of it. A chronic diarrhoea, contracted
in the army, still clings to him, and he has not been a sound and thoroughly healthy man since
1864. He draws a pension.
Our subject was a member of the county board of supervisors for a long time, and chairman
of that board for five or six terms. He was a member of the legislature from 1871 to 1875; was
on the judiciary committee during all that period; was chairman of the committees on inland
commerce and navigation, and railroads and warehouses, and a member of the committee which
framed and reported the railroad and warehouse laws now in force in this state, and of the com-
mittee for the revision of the statutes. His record as a legislator is truly honorable.
Captain Johnston was a whig in his younger years, and on the demise of that party affiliated
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
403
with the republican, and may be called one of the constituent members of the latter party. He
was a member of the state convention which met at Decatur, and which by vote recommended
Abraham Lincoln as a suitable candidate for president of the United States; on which occasion
Mr. Lincoln was brought into the hall on the shoulders of some of the delegates, and made one
of his characteristic speeches. In those days our subject was one of the wheel-horses of his party
in Rock Island county, being quite prominent in county, district and state conventions. He has
not the vital power that he had before the war, but according as his strength is, he is still willing
to work for the continuance in power of the great party of freedom; at least while it is true toils
principles and the best interests of the country.
Captain Johnston is a stockholder, director and secretary of the Port Byron Lumber Com-
pany, and a public-spirited citizen. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member and trustee of the
Congregational Church, and a man whose moral and religious character is unquestioned. His
present wife was Miss Jane Saville, of Erie, Whiteside county, Illinois. They were married in
December, 1858, and have had three children, losing one of them. Saville is a graduate of the
University of Iowa, and a law student with his father; and Edwin J. is studying for the medi-
cal profession; Mattie, the third child and only daughter, died at the age of seven years, while
her parents were attending the Centennial at Philadelphia, in August, 1876. She was taken sud-
denly ill, and they hurried home to find her a corpse. She was a bright scholar, standing at the
head of her class, and a pet playmate among the children of Port Byron.
WILLIAM ALLEN JORDAN.
MOKRIS.
'"T^HE subject of this sketch is the son of Allen Jordan and Catharine (Dayton) Jordan, and
A was born at Hudson, Columbia county, New York, July 17, 1829. His father was a prac-
ticing lawyer of Hudson, and in 1839 the mayor of the city. Ambrose L. Jordan, who succeeded
John Van Buren as attorney-general of New York in 1850, defeating him in a well-fought canvass,
and who became famous in the defense of Big Thunder, the chief of the Anti-Renters, and his
principal followers, was the paternal uncle of Mr. Jordan. Coming of a family of successful law-
yers, it was natural that his own early aspirations should be in the same direction, and it is more
than probable that they would have been realized had not a dreadful calamity overtaken his
father when he was about eleven years old. At the age of forty-two his father was stricken with
paralysis, which deprived him of speech, when in the full tide of prosperity, and full of vigor,
ambition and hope. William was the elder of two children by a first wife, and Mr. Jordan had a
family of seven by his second wife, when overtaken by this calamity. For seven years the family
struggled against fate, but the father had finally to abandon his profession, and in 1847 came
West, where on a piece of land his boys could more effectually aid him in making a living. They
reached Plainfield, Will county, in May, and for the first year rented a piece of land. The year
following Mr. Jordan settled his family on a piece of government land, in the town of Seward, in
Kendall county, which was named at his suggestion after William H. Seward, with whom he was
familiar, and between whom and himself a warm friendship existed.
William was at the academy in Hudson at the time of his father's misfortune, and continued
his studies three years longer, or until fourteen years of age, but had then to give up his studies
and go energetically to work to help support the family. When eighteen years old he came west
with them, and was, until he married, of great assistance to the family. These were years of
arduous toil and great privation and self-denial. While he felt that he was capable of filling a
higher sphere in life, he abandoned at the call of duty all his hopes and aspirations, and be-
came a farmer. His summers for several years were spent on the farm, and his winters in
teaching school.
November i, 1853, when past twenty-four years of age w he married Miss Anna E. Wing, the
404 UNTTi-.n sr.\ri-:s nroGRAPincAi. DICTIONARY.
daughter of Captain Clifton Wing, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, and removed to a piece of land
of his own. He had previously bought too acres of prairie land, to which he very soon added
TIO acres more, and began his married life under most favorable auspices. For about twelve years
he stuck to his farm. About 1865 he began to realize the immense demand for agricultural im-
plements which a dense farming population on the rich virgin soil of the prairies of Illinois
was soon to make, and saw in it an opportunity for wealth, beyond what he could hope to
attain in farming. He at once sold his farm at a fine figure, and invested his capital in the
business at Minooka, Grundy county. He began to do a very prosperous business, made
money rapidly, and continually enlarged his operations until he had no less than seventeen sub-
agencies, and did a much larger business than any other dealer in that part of the state. But
the grange movement came and demoralized prices and business generally, until in his efforts to
keep up till the craze passed away he lost heavily. For several years he lost money as fast as he
had previously made it. The usual unreliability of agents also had a part in his misfortunes, and
his resources were seriously crippled. In 1870 he sold out entirely at Minooka, and moved to
Morris, where he has continued to prosecute his business with much less spread than formerly,
but with more safety and satisfaction, and with equal success. He now does the largest business
in his line in the county.
Mr. Jordan has never been an office seeker, but in January, 1882, he received the appointment
of postmaster at Morris, which he has administered to the entire satisfaction of his neighbors. He
is a republican in politics, a staunch temperance man, and fully alive to the issues of the hour. It
need not be said that Mr. Jordan is a very popular man, and widely known. He is one of the pio-
neers of northern Illinois, and as such, plain, simple, hospitable and generous to a fault. He is
public-spirited and active in every public enterprise, open, frank, genial and enthusiastic in his
friendships. He sometimes regrets the necessity which checked his early ambitions, but finds in
the consciousness of having done his duty a full reward.
He is the father of seven children, of whom four survive, and his home is a very happy and
prosperous one.
CHARLES H. RICHINGS, M.D.
ROCKFOKD.
CHARLES HENRY RICHINGS, one of the oldest physicians and surgeons in VVinnebago
county, Illinois, is a native of Warwickshire, England, his birth being dated February 26,
1815. His "father was Rev. Benjamin Richings, A.M., an Episcopal minister, and for fifty-six
years rector of one parish. He and his predecessor were rectors of the one parish for more than
a century. Benjamin Richings married Harriet Goodacre, and both died in the old country at
eighty-four years of age. Mrs. Richings was a relative of Wilberforce, the great philanthropist,
and an uncle of hers, Captain Lewis, fought under Wellington in Spain, and his monument in
Westminster Abbey was erected by the soldiers of his regiment. Her family lost all their prop-
erty fighting for Charles I. Our subject was educa-ted in Belgium, where he had an uncle, who
was in the battle of Waterloo when the nephew was four months old, and who was detailed, and
remained in that country until his death. It is worthy of note that with this family originated a
famous breed of hunting horses of a bright chestnut color, and celebrated for their great en-
durance and noble bearing the sire and dam of which were hidden in a bunch of fagots, and
so kept secreted from Cromwell's army, and remained in the family ever since.
After finishing his medical education, Doctor Richings spent some time in hospitals at Brus-
sels, Paris, London, etc., and in 1836 came to the United States, settling at first in Lysander, ten
miles west of Rockford, and a few years later moved into this city. He attended a course of
lectures in Rush Medical College, and received the degree of doctor of medicine from that insti-
tution.
Doctor Richings has been in general practice in Rockford between thirty and forty years, and
H C Coensr J, i. Cu
LiCRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES lifOC K. //'///( '.-//. DICTIONARY.
407
has long stood in the front rank in his profession in Winnebago county, and indeed in this section
of the state. Though making a specialty of no branch of the healing art, he has long been
accounted very skillful in surgery, and has a large share of the business in that line. The doctor
is thoroughly wedded to his profession, and has made it his life study, refusing all civil and polit-
ical offices, and everything likely to distract his mind and attention from his legitimate calling.
In the early part of the civil war, directly after the battles of Donelson and Shiloh, he was
telegraphed to by Adjutant-General Fuller, and, obeying the summons, spent a few weeks each
time in the hospitals. On the trip from Pittsburgh Landing to Saint Louis he had medical
charge of the government boat and surgeons on board.
Doctor Richings reached, many years ago, the scarlet degree in Odd-Fellowship, and is a
Knight Templar in the Masonic onder, but we doubt if he often sees the inside of a lodge of either
kind. His numerous professional calls take the precedence of everything else. He is a member
of the Episcopal church, and a man of sterling character.
He married, in 1838, Miss Mary Stevenson, of Ullesthorpe, Leicestershire, England, and they
have one son, Henry Richings, M.D., a graduate of the Medical University of New York, and
one of the most promising physicians of the younger class in Rockford.
JACKSON B. McMICHAEL, D.D.
MONMOUTH.
JACKSON BURGESS McMICHAEL, president of Monmouth College, was born in Trumbull,
J now Mahoning, county, Ohio, July 22, 1833. His parents. John and Margaret (Burgess) Mc-
Michael, were Scotch-Irish, and came from Ireland to this country when they were young, the
father at fifteen years of age, the mother in her infancy. At the time of our subject's birth they
were living on a farm near the village of Poland.
Jackson was reared to farm work until seventeen years of age, and then learned the trade of
a carriage-maker, serving an apprenticeship of two years. When learning that trade he began to
cultivate a taste for reading, and found especial pleasure in study. He abandoned his trade, and
for two or three years was engaged in studying and teaching. He finally entered Westminster
College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1859. During one year while in
college he taught the classes in mathematics, at the same time keeping up all his own studies.
On leaving college, Mr. McMichael taught the academy at Greenville, Pennsylvania, for three
months, and then concluded to take a theological course, and enter the ministry of the United
Presbyterian church. Accordingly, he entered the seminary at Xenia, and took the full three
years' course, finishing his studies in March, 1862. He was ordamed by the Xenia presbytery,
October 9 of that year, and was settled over the church at Sugar Creek, Greene county, Ohio,
holding that pastorate for sixteen years. As a sermonizer he is strong rather than polished,
rhetoric giving place to logic; is lucid in his style, methodical in his plan, and aims to enlighten
the conscience, as well as to convince the judgment. He has a keen sense of the ridiculous, and
can be witty, but rarely indulges in anything like humor in the pulpit.
During m,.ch of the time that he was preaching at Sugar Creek he was a member of the board
of trustees of the Theological Seminary, and president of that board; and from 1873 to 1878 he
performed the double duties of pastor of the church and teacher in the seminary, Sugar Creek
and Xenia being ten miles apart His chair was that of ecclesiastical history and government.
In 1878 a vacancy occurred in the presidency of Monmouth College, and our subject was chosen
to fill it. Here he has the chair of moral science, teaching, however, a variety of studies, such as
evidences of Christianity, natural theology, etc.
"As a scholar," writes an intimate friend of President McMichael, " he is no skimmer orsmat-
terer. What he knows he knows, and what he does not know he does not pretend to know. In
college his specialty was the mathematics. As regards languages he is partial to his mother
41
408 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
tongue. As an educator he has always been a success, whether it was a country school, tutor in
college, professor in a theological seminary, or president of a college. He has great strength as
a disciplinarian."
He received the degree of doctor of divinity from Hanover College, Indiana, and his alma
mater, both in the same year, 1877. '
Doctor McMichael was married October 16, 1862, to Mary Narcissa, daughter of Rev. Thomas
Hanna, D.D., of Washington, Pennsylvania, and they have buried one son, and have four sons
and one daughter living. The two elder sons, Thomas Hanna and John Charles, are members of
the sophomore class, Monmouth College, and the others, who are old enough, are pursuing their
studies.
The institution over which the subject of this sketch presides was opened September 3, 1856;
was incorporated February 17, 1857, and for twenty-five years has been training youth for spheres
of usefulness in the world. In addition to classical and scientific courses, it has musical and art
departments; a corps of about fifteen teachers in all; a library of two or three thousand volumes;
an extensive philosophical and chemical apparatus; a cabinet, containing a large assortment of
geological specimens, coins and other articles of interest to, the student, and in short has every
facility for prosecuting studies to the best advantage. Under the administration of President
McMichael, the high standing of the institution is well maintained, and its influence broadening.
AUGUSTUS VAN BUREN.
CHICAGO.
AUGUSTUS VAN BUREN, son of Evart Van Buren, whose sketch follows this, was born in
Penn Yan, New York, March 20, 1832, and received his literary education at Kinderhook,
the birth-place of his father, and the home, in his lifetime, of Martin Van Buren, president of the
United States in 1837-1841. At sixteen years of age Augustus entered his father's office, and
commenced the study of law, and he was admitted to the bar before he had reached his majority.
In 1852 he caught the gold fever, went to California, and dug mineral, sold goods, and practiced
law. A writer in the "Alliance," of Chicago, states that the first law case of our subject was the
defense of an Indian tried for murder, before the mayor of Stockton. Mr. Van Buren won the
case, as no one appeared for the prosecution. The Indian- was to pay him a fee of $800, which
he had safely deposited in the red man's bank the earth; but the Indian was killed before the
money was dug up, and our subject is still short of that fee.
After remaining a long year in the Eldorado of the Pacific, Mr. Van Buren returned to his
home in the Empire State, and soon afterward settled in Saint Clair, Michigan. While there he
was nominated for district attorney of the county by the democrats, but the district was republi-
can, and he was defeated.
In 1865 our subject came to Chicago, a much larger field than the Michigan town, and much
more favorable for the display of his legal talents, especially as a criminal lawyer. Time has
shown that, for his own pecuniary advantage, and reputation, he made a wise choice in this last
remove. We have seen it stated in some paper or periodical that he has been engaged in more
than seventy capital cases, and that, with few exceptions, he has been on the winning side. His
success as a criminal lawyer is, no doubt, second to that of no attorney in this city. Says the
"Alliance" writer:
" It might almost be said of him, as the pirate said of Rufus Choate, that he felt that the great
advocate would clear him if he were found with the victim's money in his. boots. But the pirate
did not recognize the fact that Mr. Choate, in order to win a cause, had to believe in his client's
innocence, and the same is true of Mr. Van Buren. That he has saved some criminals from the
scaffold who ought to have felt the halter draw is undoubtedly true, but in a great majority of
the cases, over one hundred in number, in which the public has had an interest, which he has
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
409
tried, and not one of which he has finally lost, it is fair to assume that the victims of circumstan-
tial evidence have been saved from undeserved death by the shrewdness and eloquence of this
advocate."
Among the capital cases in which he has been engaged, and in which he, being attorney for
the defense, gained the suit, we will mention only four or five: Edward Powers, indicted for
murder, for killing a man with a. stone or slug at the rolling-mills. Gregory Peri, who, on the
day of the great fire, killed two men in the employ of Michael Keeley; tried on one indictment,
convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Not satisfied with this, the prosecution tried
him on the other indictment, and he was sentenced to be hung. Mr. Van Buren took the case to
the supreme court, and it affirmed the judgment. Peri's counsel went to the governor, and he
suspended the sentence. Peri was pardoned three years ago, and is now out West. Joseph Craw-
ford tried for the murder of William Shanley. Mr. Van Buren, with great industry and perse-
verance, saved his neck. Joseph St. Peter and Mrs. Clarke, tried for the murder of Alviro Clarke,
the husband of Mrs. Annie Clarke. The trial, it will be recollected, lasted three weeks, and the
whole nation, so to speak, became interested in it. The accused parties were acquitted, and Mr.
Van Buren, as leading counsel for the defense, added to his laurels on that occasion.
Mr. Van Buren understands fully the intricacies of the law; is sharp to discover and quick to
take advantage of any defect in it that would favor his client, and stands by that client with a
persistency which is simply tireless and astonishing.
Mr. Van Buren is a law partner of his father, and the firm has an extensive practice in the
civil as well as criminal courts.
Augustus Van Buren married Miss Harriette W. Groesbeck, at Chicago, in 1866, and we
believe they have no children.
ELIAS S. POTTER, M.D.
OREGON.
ELIAS SMITH POTTER, deceased, was a native of Port Hope, Ontario, dating his birth
September 15, 1820. His .father, Elias Potter, a farmer, was from New York; his grand-
father, Philip Potter, was from Germany, and his mother, Elizabeth (Bedford) Potter, was born
in Canada, her parents being from New York, and of English descent. Doctor Potter received
a partial academic and theological education at Amherst, Ontario; came to Killbuck, Ogle
county, in 1838, and took up large tracts of land. The next year he went to Peru, La Salle county,
and was in a drug store there five years, studying medicine at the same time, at first with his
uncle, Doctor William Smith, and finishing with Doctor J. H. Elmer, of the same place; attended
lectures at Rolph's College, Toronto, and returning to Illinois obtained a license of the state
board of examiners.
In 1844 Doctor Potter settled in Oregon, and was in practice there for thirty-nine years. He
spent much time attending lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and kept well brushed up
in the different branches of his profession. The doctor was largely a self-educated man, and per-
haps never studied with more avidity than during the last few years of his life. His practice
extended into Lee and Winnebago, as well as over much of Ogle county. He was examining
surgeon for the third congressional district for 1862 to 1864. He was well known, and greatly
esteemed in Ogle and adjoining counties.
Young men in Ogle county having the medical profession in view, regarded it as a great favor
to study with our subject, and he had about a dozen students who have graduated at different
medical colleges, and are now prominent in the fraternity. They loved him like a father.
He was a member of the legislature in 1851 and 1852, his politics being republican.
Doctor Potter married in Oregon, July 4, 1845, Alice Ross Conroy, a native of Vermont, and
they had six children, only four of them now living: Ella Blanche, wife of Alonzo L. Ettinger, of
4IO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Iowa Falls, Iowa; Charles Freemont, druggist, Oregon; Frank Choate, in business with his brother-
in-law, at Iowa Falls, and Elizabeth Eloise, who is at home.
Doctor Potter died March 2, 1883, and the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, and
the members of the Ogle County Medical Society, took suitable action on his demise. We append
the doings of the medical society at its meeting held March 7, 1883.
WHEREAS, The Ogle County Medical Society is again called upon to register the loss of one of its oldest and most
honored members, by the death of Doctor Elias S. Potter ; the physicians of Ogle county lose a worthy colleague, who
has labored and dwelt among us for more than forty years. He made his home in the city of Oregon in 1844, and
acquired a very large practice, enjoying the love and confidence of his patients and friends as a most estimable man.
In the midst of his professional duties, and in the very act of visiting the sick, he was called suddenly away. The Ogle
County Medical Society give voice to the unanimous sentiment of the profession in the expression of their sorrow at
the sudden demise of Doctor Potter, and their deep sympathy with the bereaved family ; therefore,
Resolved, That in the death of Doctor Potter the medical profession of Ogle county has lost one of its most honor-
able, upright and most respected brothers, whose judgment, kindness and genuine congeniality we have always
esteemed and admired.
Resolved, That we sincerely mourn and deplore the loss of bur brother, whose gentlemanly conduct, generosity of
heart and professional ability were the characteristics of his life.
Resolved, That in the labor and character of our brother, we have an example of industry, manliness and useful-
ness, in a high degree commendable and worthy of imitation.
Resolved, That we tender the bereaved family of the deceased our heart-felt sympathy and condolence in this, their
sad bereavement and affliction.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions of respect and condolence be sent to the family, also to the Ogle county
papers for publication, and to the Chicago " Medical Journal and Examiner."
L E
HON. LEANDER L. GREEN.
ODELL.
EANDER LIVINGSTON GREEN, a successful farmer, and late member of the Illinois leg-
islature, is a son of Caleb and Mary (Oakes) Green, and was born in the town of Sweden,
Monroe county, New York, January 24, 1826. His father was born in Rhode Island, and was a
grandson of a brother of Nathaniel Greene, of revolutionary fame. The father of Mary Oakes was
a minister of the gospel. She was born in Oneida county, New York. Caleb Green was the first
member of the family to spell his name without the final "e." In 1830 he brought his family as far
west as Ashtabula county, Ohio, and settled in the town of Cherry Valley, on 740 acres of forest
land, which Leander aided in clearing after he was old enough, being early and thoroughly inured
to hard work. He finished his education at Kindsman Academy, where he attended one year.
In 1855 he came to Illinois, and settled on a farm of 170 acres on Buck Creek, La Salle county,
seven miles from Ottawa ; and while there held nearly every township office from clerk up to
supervisor, filling the latter post for several years. During the civil war he was an agent for fill-
ing the county's quota of soldiers, being an active and thorough-going war democrat.
While the civil war was in progress, Mr. Green purchased fortv-one acres of excellent land,
near the village of Odell, and in 1870 moved to this place and settled on it. He has also between
1300 and 1400 acres of land in Nebraska ; owns a block at Walnut, Pottawatamie county, Iowa,
also a store in the same place, and has other property. His accumulations are mostly the fruit of
his industry and wise calculations.
Mr. Green is agent for a large tract of improved land, near Odell, owned by eastern parties.
He is in very comfortable circumstances, and has the good sense to let others do the fretting.
Mr. Green has held the office of supervisor in Odell, and in 1880 was elected to the 32d general
assembly, being the democratic minority candidate, and receiving the largest vote, we understand,
ever cast in Livingston county for any one candidate.
Our subject was married April 16, 1847, to Miss Marilla Randolph, of Cherry Valley, Ohio,
and they have three sons and one daughter. Gurley J. is a hardware merchant at Stromsburgh
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 41 I
Nebraska ; Franklin H. is a hardware merchant, grain dealer and real-estate agent at Walnut,
Iowa ; Oakley E. is a real-estate agent and banker at Genoa, Nebraska ; and Maud I., who is
twenty years younger than her youngest brother, is attending school in Odell.
Mr. Green is very fond of hunting, and usually spends part of the autumn each year at the
West, going as far as Wyoming territory, and the eastern part of Colorado. His specialties in the
game line are deer, elk and antelope, and he is a first-class shot. His game costs him about a dol-
lar a pound, but he hugely enjoys the sport of getting it, and always returns to Illinois in good
order.
CHARLES SCOTT, M.D.
BELVIDERE.
ONE of the leading physicians and surgeons in Boone county is the gentleman whose name
we have placed at the head of this sketch, and who, though in practice but a few years, has
a very extensive business. He is the son of a physician, Doctor Amos Scott, and both were born
in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, the son, May 26, 1850. His mother's name was Harriet
McCarty, who was also a native of Pennsylvania.
In 1865 the family came to this state, and settled at Pecatonica, Winnebago county, where the
father had a farm, as well as practiced his profession. Charles received a public and high-school
education, farming during the summer season until of age, teaching school two winters. He
studied medicine with his father; attended lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, receiv-
ing his diploma in February, 1875, and after remaining at Saint Luke's Hospital one year,
settled in Belvidere. He stepped very soon into a good practice, which has been growing from
year to year, until he has as much to do as any one man, having any regard for his own health,
could desire. The extent of his rides may be inferred from the fact that he keeps six horses,
none of which are suffering from want of exercise. He is United States pension surgeon for
Boone county, and enjoys a fine reputation as a surgeon.
Doctor Scott loves his profession; is a diligent student; keeps himself well supplied with med-
ical literature, and hence is a growing man. He is a member of the Illinois State Medical
Society, and has a highly respectable standing in the fraternity. He has reported a few interest-
ing cases for medical periodicals.
The wife of Doctor Scott was Miss Clara E. Tousley, sister of Reuben J. Tousley, proprietor
of the Julien House, Belvidere, their marriage being dated May 20, 1877. They have one son,
Charles, aged five years.
URBAN D. MEACHAM.
FREEPORT.
URBAN DUNCAN MEACHAM, lawyer, and one of the early mayors of Freeport, was born
at Sheldon, Genesee (now Wyoming) county, New York, March 12, 1816. His father, James
Meacham, also a lawyer, was born in Otsego county, same state. The grandfather of Urban,
Jeremiah Meacham, was one of those stanch patriots who thought more of freedom than of the
mother country, and who promptly rebelled against her oppressions, enlisting in the Connecticut
troops. He was in the army when the traitor Arnold undertook to betray it into the hands of
the British general, and with Washington at Valley Forge, going, in fact, through the war to its
glorious end. He then moved into Otsego county, and spent his last days in a free country,
dying in the town of Burlington, that county.
The mother of Urban was Patience Wallace, who was of Scotch descent, and related to the
Duncans, who were of the same nationality. She became a widow in 1826, and in 1836 took her
children, three sons, to Walworth county, Wisconsin, then in the territory of Michigan, and set-
tled on a farm in the town of Troy. Urban, the second son, remained with his mother, aiding to
412 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
cultivate the land, until past his majority, studying law meanwhile, during his spare hours, at
Elkhorn. There he was admitted to the bar in 1846, and there practiced for six years. While a
resident of Elkhorn he held several town offices, was postmaster from 1845 to 1849 (the Polk
administration), and served as state's attorney for four years.
In 1852 Mr. Meacham settled in Freeport, where he has practiced his profession a little more
than thirty years, still, however, retaining the homestead farm in Wisconsin. His practice em-
braces all branches, and extends into all the courts, and he has had a good run of business, his
profession affording him a competency. Being an old resident of this county, and very well
known, he has a large circle of warm friends.
Since coming to Freeport, Mr. Meacham held, several years ago, the office of state's attorney
for the period of four years, his being the old fourteenth district, which consisted of Winnebago,
Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties. He was also mayor of the city of Freeport one term, being
elected in 1862 as a war democrat. He voted for Mr. Lincoln in 1864, because he did not think
it wise to change the administration during the civil war, and latterly he has acted with the
greenback party.
Mr. Meacham was first married in 1836, to Miss Prudence Geddes, of Ann Arbor, Michigan,
she dying in 1860, leaving two children, only one of them, William P., now living, he being on
the farm in Wisconsin; and the second time in 1864, to Mrs. Eliza A. (Coon) Thompson, having
by her three children, only two of them, a daughter and son, Jessie and James, now living.
T
HON. THOMAS G. BLACK, M.D.
CLA YTON.
HOMAS GILLESPIE BLACK, a member of the state legislature from Adams county, was
born in Murray county, Tennessee, June i, 1825. For his parentage and the pedigree of the
family the reader is referred to the sketch of his father, found on other pages of this work. When
Thomas was about nine years old (1834) the family came into this state, and settled in that part
of Morgan county which was cut off and became Scott county. The subject of these notes was
engaged in farming and attending school during the winter season until about eighteen, teaching
also about four or five months. He studied medicine with Doctor William H. Wilson, of Win-
chester; attended lectures in the medical department of the University of Kentucky, at Louisville,
from which he received the degree of doctor of medicine, and in June, 1849, settled in Clayton,
Adams county, where he has had a successful practice for more than a score of years.
Doctor Black went into the army in August, 1861, as captain of company C, 3d Missouri cav-
alry, and some time afterward was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and subsequently to colonel,
of the same regiment. Its field of operations was the states of Missouri and Arkansas, and Colo-
onel Black served for three years. At Hartsville, Missouri, in a single engagement, no less than
thirteen bullets went through his clothes and hat or grazed his saddle.
Colonel Black has held a few local offices, such as school director, supervisor, etc., and was a
member of the thirtieth general assembly, and is now a member of the thirty-third. In the former
body he was chairman of the committee on corporations; in the latter body he is chairman of the
committee on labor and manufactures, and is also on the committees on appropriations, peniten-
tiary, contingent expenses, elections, and insurance.
In early life the colonel was a whig, and on the demise of that party transferred his allegiance
to the republican party. He has been a delegate to several state conventions, and in 1880 was
sent to the national convention which nominated General Garfield. In Adams county and in the
legislature he is a man of a good deal of influence. He is surgeon of the zd brigade national
guards.
Colonel Black is high up in masonry, being past commander of the commandery; and he has
taken all the degrees in the encampment of Odd-Fellowship. He is an elder in the Disciple
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
413
Church, and an active man in Sunday-schools, temperance, and every good cause. April 15, 1849,
he vyas married to Miss Martha F. Nance, who was from Giles county, Tennessee, and they have
buried two children and have four living: Mary Ellen is the wife of Doctor Robert Briggs, of
Clayton; Martha F. is the wife of Lee Wells, of Creston, Iowa; Edwin T. is a graduate of Rush
Medical College, and practicing at Clayton; and Joseph N. is a graduate of Rush, class of '83.
GENERAL ISAAC H. ELLIOTT.
SPRINGFIELD.
ISAAC HUGHES ELLIOTT, adjutant-general of the state, is a native of Illinois, his birth
being dated near Princeton, Bureau county, January 25, 1837. His father, John Elliott, was
born in Clermont county, Ohio, and his grandfather, John Elliott, Sr., was from Ireland, immi-
grating to this country in the latter part of the last century, and settling near Cincinnati, where
he died. The mother of Isaac was Mary Hughes, a native of Ohio. She had six children, of
whom he was the eldest child. He was reared on his father's farm, prepared for college, and
entered the University of Michigan, being graduated in the class of '6r. The country was in the
full blaze of civil war; his patriotic fires had been kindling since the fall of Sumter, and on
receiving the degree of bachelor of arts he enlisted in the 33d Illinois infantry as captain of com-
pany E, his regiment being at first in Missouri, under General Curtiss. Captain Elliott was
captured October 15, 1861, at Big River Bridge, in that state, and paroled. He was with his
regiment all through the war at the battles of Champion Hill and Black River, the siege and
capture of Vicksburg; was in the department of the gulf, going into Texas, and, returning, was
at the siege of Mobile, etc. He was promoted regularly, clear through from captain to brigadier-
general.
General Elliott was mustered out late in the autumn of 1865, and returned to Bureau county
to take the office of county treasurer, to which he had just been elected, serving one term. He
has a farm near Princeton, which he was cultivating when, in August, 1881, he was appointed to
his present state office, to which he is now giving his careful attention. He is well fitted for the
post, and richly merits the honor conferred upon him.
General Elliott is a Blue-Lodge Mason, holding his connection with the Princeton Lodge. He
married in 1867 Miss Elizabeth H. Denham, step-daughter of Hon. Owen Lovejoy, and they have
four children.
HON. HENRY RAAB.
SPRINGFIELD.
THE state superintendent of public instruction, whose name is at the head of this sketch, is a
native of Wetzlar, Rhenish Prussia, a son of Philip Louis and Justina (Kayser) Raab, and
was born June 20, 1837. His father was a tanner and currier by trade, an industrious, well-to-do
man, and gave his children a good education. Henry was educated in the kindergarten, the com-
mon schools, and the Royal Gymnasium, taking the scientific course, which included also Latin,
French and. English.
In 1853 Mr. Raab came to this country, worked awhile at the trade of currier, in Cincinnati,
subsequently had the supervision of an uncle's farm near Saint Louis, and in 1857 became an
assistant teacher in the public schools at Belleville, Saint Clair county, this state, being associated
at one period with Hon. J. P. Slade, late state superintendent of schools. In early school work
our subject had the assistance and counsel of that eminent educator, George Bunsen, who was a
pupil of Pestalozzi.
Becoming many years ago quite familiar with the standard works on education, Mr. Raab has
been greatly benefited by the study which he devoted to them. He was connected with the pub-
41 4 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
lie schools of Belleville for fifteen years, and was superintendent of the city schools for ten years,
making a praiseworthy record in his profession. He has attended many county teachers' insti-
tutes, and some state conventions of scientists, and his lectures and discussions before such bodies
were so able, and attracted so much attention that in 1882 the democratic party nominated him
for the state office, to which he was elected, and the duties of which he is now performing with
his accustomed zeal. He is an enthusiastic worker in the cause of education, and will, no doubt,
honor the post which he fills.
The kindergarten which he founded at Belleville in 1874, has had a highly creditable history,
and is quite flourishing. He was librarian of the Saengerbund library at his home in Saint Clair
county, for more than twenty years, and is full of public spirit and enterprise in all such matters.
Mr. Raab was married at Belleville, in 1859, to Miss Mathilde Von Lengerken, who was from
Ankum, Hanover, and they have three children living: Ernest P., a graduate of the medical
department of the University of Pennsylvania, and in practice at Highland, Madison county, this
state; Line A., a clerk in her father's office, and Mathilde, who is at school.
EXCELSIOR IRON WORKS.
CHICAGO.
THE business represented under the above name was organized by Carlile Mason, a brief out-
line of whose biography is here recorded. He is a native Scotchman, and was born in the
town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, in the month of May, 1817. His father, George Mason, was
descended from a French officer, who was outlawed by the English government while fighting
for Prince Charles in Scotland. He was a man of local prominence, and a leader in all the
reforms of his day, and for many years a member of the town council, and was also chaplain of
the poor-house and insane asylum. He died in 1848.
Carlile was sent to a private school until twelve years of age, at which time he entered his
father's factory for dressing cloth by a new process, discovered by his brother, and which it was
desired to keep from the public. During this time he improved his spare hours by study of the
common English branches, under a private teacher, and also acquired a limited knowledge of
chemistry.
Having decided to become a mechanic, he turned his attention in that direction, at the age of
sixteen, and served for seven years, working his way up through all the various positions from a
blacksmith, until he became an accomplished machinist. He now established himself in business
on his own account, and was meeting with fair success, when occurred the financial failures of
1842. In these failures he lost all his capital, and resolved to immigrate to the United States,
and start anew. Accordingly, July 20 of that year, he sailed from Liverpool to New York,
whence he went directly to Chicago, where he readily secured work at $20 per month. In the
spring of 1843 he engaged as engineer for Frink and Walker, on the steamer Frontier, which
plied between Peoria and Peru, on the Illinois River, carrying the mail to connect with the stages.
Continuing in that position during the summer, he, in the fall of that year, went to Sterling, Illi-
nois, and opened a blacksmith shop. In this, however, he was not as successful as he had hoped
to be, owing to the newness of the country, and in 1845 returned to Chicago, and accepted the
position of foreman for Gates and Scoville, who had contracted to supply all the iron work for
the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Here he had an opportunity to develop and extend his mechan-
ical knowledge, of which he eagerly availed himself, and he also formed the acquaintance of
many of the engineers of the canal, whom he found true and lasting friends. At the close of his
engagement here, he was employed with J. W. Cobb in the manufacture of steam engines and
boilers, and having been sent to Lake Winnebago to put an engine into a small steamer, he there
engaged as engineer for the company, to run the steamer during the season of 1849.
In the winter of 1849-50, having returned to Chicago, he was induced to forego a return to
H C Ciiper ,Ir i Co
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
417
Scotland, for which he had made every preparation, and opening a small shop, made a contract
with the gas company to lay the pipes across the Chicago River, an undertaking which he accom-
plished with remarkable success; so much so that he was afterward employed in a similar opera-
tion by the gas company at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His success in these undertakings made for
him a fine reputation, and gave him a new start in his business, and from that time until the
financial depression of 1857 he continued to prosper in his operations and extend his works.
A change, however, was awaiting him. The commercial and industrial depression resulting
from the monetary crash so affected his business that he was compelled to succumb. His entire
capital was swept away, and with nothing left but his fair name, energy, enterprise and an indom-
itable will, he worked for six years liquidating the debts in which he had become involved.
During the period in which the country was engaged in civil war the business flourished, and
until 1873 each year marked a decided advance in the progress of its operations. It was during
this time, in 1860, that he established the present Excelsior Iron works. In these works were
afterward associated with him his two sons. The business was begun on a small scale, having
but $500 capital, and at the beginning employed but six hands; but such was the progress of its
operations that increased facilities were soon required, and at the end of two years about sixty
hands were required in the different departments. The small shops occupied at the start have
.given place to an establishment of immense proportions, being 150 x 150 feet, and located on the
corner of Clinton and Carroll streets; 220 hands are now employed, a capital of $125,000 is en-
gaged, and the annual products amount to $400,000.
The products of these works are extensively known, and comprise, besides a general line of
machinery, steam engines, boilers, and other goods in that line. Their engines and boilers are
noted for their many excellences, and are now numbered by thousands, and it is a notable fact
that out of this large number there has never yet occurred an explosion.
The company during the past year have constructed and sent out from their works five hori-
zontal engines, sixteen-inch bore, twenty-four-inch stroke; four portable hoisting engines, eight-
inch bore; two twelve-inch vertical engines; thirteen fence barbing machines; two sets of wind-
ing engines, i;Jo horse power each, besides a large amount of other work. In their boiler depart-
ment they have contracted to build and erect 164 boilers, fifteen hot-blast stoves, five blast
furnaces, together with all the necessary connecting pipes, smoke stacks, etc. Of these boilers,
seventy-two were cylinder boilers, forty-eight inches diameter, thirty-six feet long; eight cylinder
boilers, forty-two inches diameter, thirty feet long; thirteen two-flue boilers, forty-two inches
diameter, twenty-four feet long; thirty-seven tubular boilers, sixty inches diameter, sixteen feet
long; twelve tubular boilers, seventy-two inches diameter, eighteen feet long; two tubular boil-
ers, seventy-two inches diameter, sixteen feet long; six tubular boilers, sixty-six inches diameter,
sixteen feet long; two tubular boilers, sixty inches diameter, fifteen feet long; two tubular boil-
ers, fifty-four inches diameter, sixteen feet long; one marine boiler, eight feet in diameter, nine-
teen feet long; and the remaining nine were forty-eight inches diameter, twelve and fourteen feet
long. The hot-blast stoves were twenty feet, one inch diameter, sixty feet high to spring of dome,
and the furnaces were twenty-nine feet diameter and sixty-five feet high. For this work there
has been delivered at their works between January i, 1880, and January i, 1881, 2,983,000 pounds
of plate iron one-quarter inch thick, and upwards of 316,293 pounds of steel boiler plate; 93,222
pounds of sheet iron, 130,000 pounds of rivets, 237,464 pounds of bar iron, 23,424 pounds of ham-
mered shafting, 69,414 pounds of channel and I beams, and 62,857 pounds of angle iron, a pro-
portionate amount of castings, boiler tubes, steel, brass, etc., have passed through their hands.
The officers of this company are Carlile Mason, president; George Mason, vice-president; Will-
iam L. Crawford, secretary, and J. A. Mason, superintendent of the works.
Such, in brief, is the history of a business which has grown from a very humble beginning to
a position which reflects the highest credit upon its managers. Mr. Mason's many sturdy quali-
ties have gained for him a wide reputation as a practical and thorough business man, and aside
from his private interests, he has been made the recipient of many public trusts.
42
41 8 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In political sentiment he was formerly an ardent abolitionist, and since the organization of
the republican party has been an earnest supporter of that body. During the war he was inspector
of steamboats at Chicago.
In 1870 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, and filled the office for
two years. He was afterward president of the board of police and of the fire department of Chi-
cago, and in 1876 was appointed by the governor of Illinois as a member of the state centennial
committee.
In religion he is of liberal Presbyterian views, and has been an influential member of the First
Congregational Church of Chicago since its organization, in 1847.
Mr. Mason was married in his native town, June 6, 1839, to Miss Jean McArthur, and of the
five children that have been born to them, two sons and one daughter are now living. The for-
mer are associated with their father in business, and the daughter is the wife of a prominent
dental surgeon of Chicago.
Mr. Mason is the youngest of a family of eight sons and three daughters, of whom only one
died in infancy. Of these, seven immigrated to the United States, and all except our subject
settled in Vermont, where lived an aunt, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Caledonia county,
in that state, and whose descendants stlli live on the old farm near Ryegate. that was cleared in
the eighteenth century.
Mr. Mason has in his possession a letter written him by his father in 1844, four years prior to
his death, in which he gave this advice: " Remember that your employer's interests are your inter-
ests; and if you expect to do well, be honest to your employer, yourself, and your God." To the
following of this he attributes much of his success.
REV. FRANCIS A. READ.
POLO.
REV. FRANCIS ASBURY READ, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Polo, Ogle
county, is a son of Lewis and Roxy (Richardson) Read, and was born at Deerfield, Oneida
county, New York, February 26, 1822. His father, a mechanic, and a soldier in the war of 1812-
14, was born in eastern New York, and his mother in western New York. Francis received only
a public-school education, being largely self-educated in the sciences, as well as wholly in theolo-
gy. In his youth his health, part of the time, was poor, but he did some collecting for his father,
and was a clerk awhile in a drug store. He had a taste for books, and sick or well, rarely wasted
any time.
He was converted in his native town when in his fourteenth year; moved with the family to
Joliet, Illinois, in 1836; became a local preacher at Joliet in 1840, and in 1844 went on the Wau-
ponset circuit. He then preached one year each at South Ottawa and Washington, Tazewell
county, when his health failed and he was out of the conference one year. Being readmitted, he
was stationed one year at the Blue Island mission, Wheeling circuit (Cook county), two years each
at Libertyville (Lake county), Rockford, State street (now Wabash avenue), Chicago, Galena,
Batavia, Rockford again, and Belvidere. The term of pastorate admissible was now changed
from two to three years, and he served the latter period as pastor at Batavia and Freeport; was
then presiding elder four years, with residence at Freeport, when, returning to station work, he
was sent a third time to Rockford (Winnebago Street Church). He went thence to Mendota;
three years later to Lyndon, Whiteside county, and two years afterward came to Polo, where he
is serving his second year.
The preaching of our subject has usually been attended with marked success, and it is safe to
say that in the aggregate, nearly two thousand persons have been added to the several churches
while he has been their pastor. Few ministers of any denomination in this part of the state have
more warm personal friends than Mr. Read, and many have been the tokens of their regard for
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
419
him. The preachers of Freeport district presented him a silver dinner and tea set at the con-
ference when his term of presiding elder closed. At Mendota he received a gold-headed cane,
and when he left Rockford, where he has preached in all seven years, the citizens of the place,
outside his church, presented him with a horse, each gift being presented with earnest expres-
sions of friendly feeling and fellowship with him in his untiring efforts to do good.
While holding pastorates at Galena and Freeport, he built fine churches, and commenced the
Court Street Church at Rockford, having it well under way when he left. His active work in
three places has amounted to nineteen years, something which very few circuit preachers can say.
He was treasurer of the conference missionary society for fourteen consecutive years, thousands
of dollars passing through his hands annually. He was appointed chaplain of the 95th Illinois
infantry in 1862, and joined his regiment, but owing to poor health, did not go into the field.
Mr. Read was first married January i, 1849, to Miss Narcissa L. Nasen, daughter of Rev. John
Nasen, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, of Elk Grove, Cook county, and she died August 18,
1860, leaving one son, Francis Adelbert, now a merchant at Freeport, and four other children had
preceded her to the spirit land. He was married the second time August 20, 1861, to Miss Jose-
phine B. Jordan, daughter of Numa S. Jordan, lawyer, of Fulton county, Illinois, she being a
graduate of the Rockford Female Seminary. They have had four children, all daughters, losing
the oldest, Helen, at the age of ten years. The others are Allie May, Frances J. and Esther Lizzie.
EBEN R. STONER, M.D.
GRIGGSVILLE.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch is the oldest physician
now in active practice at Griggsville, and has been in this (Pike) county, engaged in the
medical profession, since 1852. He is a native of Clermont county, Ohio, a son of Joseph and
Margaret (Fred) Stoner, and was born January n, 1827. His father was a native of Pennsyl-
vania, and his mother of Virginia. His grandfather, Philip Stoner, was from Germany. When
our subject was nine years old the family came to Brown county, this state, then a part of Schuy-
ler county, where he and his father engaged in farming until he was eighteen years old. His
father died in 1852 and his mother in 1857.
Doctor Stoner received only the ordinary drill of a common school, and is largely self-edu-
cated. He fitted himself for a teacher, and was engaged in that calling four winters, commencing
the study of his profession with Doctor H. L. Sulphin, of Perry, while thus employed. He attended
two courses of lectures at McDowell's College, Saint Louis, and received the degree of doctor of
medicine in 1854. Before taking the last course of lectures Doctor Stoner had practiced two
years at Chambersburgh, Pike county. On receiving his diploma he moved to Perry, same
county. In October of that year he married Ann Eliza Whitaker, daughter of Benjamin D.
Whitaker, of this county.
Doctor Stoner remained at Perry for seven years, and in 1861 settled in Griggsville, where, as
at previous places, he has had a good run of professional business; and he will have no other,
having never accepted an office of any kind nor handled anything but medicine and surgical
instruments. Evidently his ambition has been and still is to be known as an attentive, careful
and successful physician and surgeon. He has had thirty-one years' experience in his profession;
has kept well read up in medical science, and has a good reputation for both skill and success.
The doctor has paid some attention to the study of geology and archaeology, and he has a fine
collection, particularly in the latter branch of science. He is naturally of a scientific turn of
mind, and, Pike county abounding in mounds and other remains of the prehistoric period, he has
made it a part of his mental recreation to gather relics.
Doctor Stoner has reported a very few cases to medical journals, such as he deemed of benefit
to the medical fraternity, but never takes up his pen unless he has something of real importance
to note.
420 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
He takes some interest in politics, but rarely does little more than cast his ballot, except dur-
ing a very exciting canvass. His affiliations have always been with the democratic party.
The family of Doctor Stoner consists of three children, one son and two daughters. One
daughter died in infancy. Stanley, the second child living, is a student at Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, and Emma W. and Alice Mabel are at home. The children are all being well
educated.
JOHN P. BARRETT.
CHICAGO.
JOHN P. BARRETT, electrician for the city of Chicago, was born in the city of Auburn, New
York, in 1837. He came to Chicago with his parents in 1845; attended the public schools
until his fourteenth year, and on account of the death of his father was compelled to leave school
and assist in the support of his brother and three sisters. His inclinations led him to follow a
seafaring life, and his first occupation was deck sweep on the steamer Pacific, then running, in
connection with the Michigan Central railroad, between New Buffalo, Chicago and Milwaukee.
He followed the lakes in various capacities of seaman and mate of several vessels until 1857,
when he went to New York and shipped for California, where he made several voyages around the
Horn, but in 1858 he met with an accident off the coast of Chili. The vessel he was in was dis-
masted, and he was injured so that he was compelled to adopt some other mode of life, and after
being an inmate of the Mariners' Hospital of San Francisco for eighteen months, he returned to
Chicago, and was appointed (August i, 1862) by U. P. Harris, the then fire marshal of Chicago,
to the position of watchman of engine companv No. 8; afterward transferred to engine company
No. n, and from there to the cupola on the courthouse as bell-ringer, and there, for nearly two
years, he tolled the hours and watched for fires. In May, 1865, the fire-alarm telegraph was adopted
by the city, and he was appointed an assistant in the service in that department. He gradually
arose from the lowest to his present position, the head of the largest municipal telegraph in the
world.
Many improvements have been made in the system by Mr. Barrett. Among his inventions
are the Barrett automatic joker, now in general use in all the principal fire departments of the
country. His last invention was the police patrol telegraph, now so widely known throughout
the land.
SAMUEL HOLDERMAN.
MORRIS.
^HIS gentleman is a son of Abram Holderman, and a younger brother of the subject of the
A preceding sketch. He has been known for many years as the largest cattle dealer in north-
ern Illinois, and bears the suggestive title "cattle king." He was three years old to a day when
the family reached Holderman's Grove, and had the pleasure of riding in hot haste to Ottawa in
his night-gown when they fled from Black Hawk's dusky warriors. In later years old Shawbenee,
whose humanity saved their lives, only had to make his appearance at Samuel Holderman's to
carry off all his ponies could haul of potatoes, corn, pork and other supplies from his farm.
When nineteen years old Samuel finally left school, with a plain common-school education, and in
1848, when twenty years old, began life for himself. The father loaned him and an older brother
$1,000 with which to buy young cattle. They gave a joint note therefor, and, having signed it, were
puzzled by being asked by their father whether they ever meant to pay it. "Of course," said
Samuel, "after we sell the cattle." "Very well, my sons," said the wise father, "you will be often
asked to put your names to paper that you do not intend nor expect to pay. Remember, never
to sign your names to paper that you are not willing to pay." This excellent advice stood them
in good stead for many years, and it was only by neglecting it that the only misfortune of his
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
423
life came upon Samuel Holderman. This first business transaction of Mr. Holderman was a
great success, and laid the foundation of his fortune. He took this money, to which he added a
little store of his own and his brother's, amounting to less than $100, and went on horseback to
Knox county, Illinois. He then purchased 114 head of young steers at a cost of about nine dol-
lars each; wintered them on corn, for which he paid six cents per bushel in the field and gathered
it himself; paid his own board and that of his horse by permitting a neighbor's drove of hogs to
follow his stock and gather up the offal from his feeding; drove them home, herded them through
the summer, and sold them for $17.50 per head. This paid their note and left them nearly $1,000
profit on the transaction.
He next hired $1,400 of his father; went to Henderson county; bought 200 head; drove them
home; bought out his brother's interest, and wintered them on hay and grain his brother had
prepared. His father owned a farm of 240 acres in the town of Felix, four miles from Morris, on
Mazon Creek. Here his cattle were wintered, and here he soon afterward formed a partner-
ship with his cousin, John Holderman, and together they bought the farm. This partnership
prospered exceedingly, and when it was dissolved, seven years later, Samuel took 800 acres of
land at $20 per acre as his share of the real estate, and John took 640 acres at $15 per acre.
In July, 1852, he married Miss Martha H. Coke, by whom he had six children, five of whom
are now living. She died in 1867. In February, 1874, he married his deceased wife's sister, then
a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth King, with whom he has lived happily ever since.
Up to the year 1874 Mr. Holderman prospered in everything he undertook. He owned 5,364
acres of land, all lying contiguous in the town of Felix. He had erected a dwelling thereon
costing $15,000, and surrounded himself with every comfort wealth could command. He formed
a temporary copartnership with a lumber and grain dealer in Morris, and at the end of the year
the firm were $20,000 ahead. After settling up he proposed a dissolution, as his own business
required all his time and attention, and the purpose of the partnership was accomplished.
Mutual friends remonstrated, and he finally yielded, but went about his own affairs and left the
joint business of the firm to his partner. He, good easy man, trusting and venturesome, became the
victim of a ring made up on the board of trade, and Holderman had the bills to pay. He had put
his name to paper he never expected to pay, but he did pay, all the same, to the tune of $185,000.
It is doubtful if the transactions in which his fortune was lost were genuine, but a nice sense of
honor seemed to decide the balance, and he settled. He sold out his magnificent domain to Jere-
miah Collins for $220,000 cash, and in March, 1882, moved into Morris.
The great stock-raising territories of the West had for some time attracted the attention of
Mr. Holderman, and when the crash came he made at once a move in that direction. His first
venture was in July, 1881, when he bought 563 young cattle in Utah territory, fed and finally sold
them at a profit of five dollars a head. The purchase of fat cattle of stock men and shipping
them to the Chicago market also employed a part of his capital and time. His time and that of his
sons is now fully employed in the business in Wyoming. His home is still in Morris, but he is
rapidly repairing his fortunes, and becoming as noted in his specialty in the Far West as he has
been in Illinois. The business is one of little risk and of great and certain profits, and great
wealth is only a question of time with any one engaged in it. To illustrate the difference in the
business in Illinois and Wyoming, Mr. Holderman furnishes the following figures: A calf will cost in
Illinois $i per month to raise till three years old, and it will cost $1.25 to get it to market from Morris.
The total cost for three years is then $37.25. A calf in Wyoming only costs $i per year to raise till
three years old, but costs $10 per head to ship to Chicago, a total of $13 per head, as against
$37.25 from Illinois. Besides, Wyoming grass-fed steers bring $: per hundred more in Chicago
market than Illinois grass-fed beef. It need not be said that instances are numerous of rapid
accumulation of wealth among the cattle kings of the Far West. He mentions a case of two
brothers who nine years ago were penniless and worked for stock-men at $30 per month, but are
now worth at least $300,000 each.
Mr. Holderman is a man who will succeed anywhere. He is a solid-built, muscular man, in
424 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
magnificent health and strength. He is active and despises ease and pleasure, hopeful, never
cast down nor discouraged, and of indomitable will, energy and perseverance, and of inexhausti-
ble patience. He is a man without evil associations or bad habits. In spite of reverses he is a
careful, shrewd and cautious man, and a man of good judgment, but with a heart as big as an
ox. If this is not a weakness it is at least his vulnerable point; but it is doubtful if even the
claims of friendship will be able again to catch him napping. Of course he is a republican in
politics of the old school, for he is a broad-gauge man everywhere, and perhaps, for that reason,
despises the crooked ways of politicians, and prefers to be a king among his herds than a leader
in politics.
It is impossible to get such a man down or keep him under. He is of a make-up to snatch
victory from defeat, and triumph everywhere. His hosts of friends everywhere rejoice in his
prosperity, and have unbounded confidence that "Sam is always sure to win."
CAPTAIN PATRICK McGRATH.
CHICAGO.
/~*APTAIN P. McGRATH is of Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in the County Doun, Ire-
* ' land, in 1833. When he was five years of age his family immigrated to this country, and first
settled in Albany, New York, where they resided for four years, when they moved to Johnstown,
Fulton county, New York, and remained five years, when they moved to Wisconsin, and took up
a farm in Dodge county, where he worked clearing up the land, and assisted in making a home-
stead, which is in the possession of one of the family to this day. He was ambitious to become
something more or different than a farmer, and employed the time between seasons of labor on
the farm in attending school and reading and studying by himself during all his leisure hours.
In 1859-60 he attended the Larego College, a commercial institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
paying his tuition from the proceeds of his farm labor. He was studious and industrious, and
hence has acquired a self-education superior to that of the majority who have had all the advan-
tages of schools. He has learned from the great book of nature, and to a good purpose.
At the outbreak of the late rebellion he enlisted in the i7th (Irish) Wisconsin infantry as a
private, and was commissioned by the then Governor Harvey as second lieutenant, and served
faithfully for three years and six months. He was promoted to first lieutenant at Lake Provi-
dence, Louisiana, and was engaged in the siege of Vicksburg, commanding the special detail of
sharp-shooters of General Ransom's brigade through the entire siege, and in all the charges
against the city and its fortifications, and was specially complimented by General Ransom for
gallantry and bravery as a soldier and officer during that memorable siege. He was among the
first to put foot in the captured intrenchments, and was selected to take charge of a portion of
the arms and equipments of the conquered rebel soldiers. After the capitulation, General Ran-
som surrounded and took the city of Natchez, in which Captain McGrath also bore a conspicuous
part.
After this event he was granted a thirty days' furlough, with many others, to recuperate
exhausted strength and energies. At the expiration of this time he promptly reported to his regi-
ment, and was appointed by general order to reenlist the regiment as veterans, and succeeded
in getting all but about thirty to do so, which General McPherson said " was a larger proportion
than was reenlisted in any other regiment in the western army, and to Captain McGrath must be
accredited most of the credit. He labored earnestly and industriously to accomplish the result."
Earnestness, persistency and industry are characteristics of his nature, as shown in whatever he
undertakes.
In the fall of 1864 he was promoted to the captaincy of his company (company A, ijth Wis-
consin) at Acworth, Georgia, and was always on the skirmish line, and always at the front and
on duty in the most dangerous positions. He was with that regiment subsequently in all the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 425
battles in which it was engaged, including Sherman's march to the sea. At the close of the war he
was mustered out, leaving behind a record which stamped him a brave, courageous and honora-
ble soldier and officer.
In 1865 he went to Chicago, and was employed by the board of public works as superintend-
ent of one of the departments; thence to the postoffice, where he was engaged for two years, when
he was appointed by the board of county commissioners, in 1878, as county agent, which impor-
tant and responsible position involves the caring for the poor and needy in various ways. He
has been reelected each succeeding year, and holds the position now. In this capacity, as in all
others in which he has been called to act, he has proven to be a competent, conscientious and
efficient officer, not only in the discharge of his formal duties, but in the introduction of several
important reforms in the management of the complicated affairs of that office; reforms tending
to greater economy and efficiency in administration, guarding against fraud and the perpetration
of deception, and the compilation of such statistics, records and history as will clearly show the
workings of this means of dispensing outdoor charities, which will be of permanent interest, and
a guide to his successors in continuing the good work in which he has been so preeminently suc-
cessful. He is a gentleman universally respected by all who know him; a stalwart republican; a
man of good instincts, and possessing the elements of true manhood; a good citizen.
COL. DANIEL D. T. HICKS,
PITTSFIELD.
DANIEL p. TOMPKINS HICKS, banker, and an early settler in Pike county, is a native of
Bennington county, Vermont, his birth being dated August 12, 1812. He is a grandson of
Simeon Hicks, who shouldered his musket at the breaking out of the revolutionary war, and
bravely assisted in gaining the independence of the colonies. The parents of Daniel were Tru-
man B. and Barbara (Hayes) Hicks, the latter being a native of Rutland county, Vermont. His
father was an assistant surgeon, and afterward adjutant in the war of 1812-14. When Daniel was
an infant the family moved to Saratoga county, New York. His mother died soon afterward, and
he removed to Warren county, and lived there until seventeen years of age. He received a very
ordinary English education, taught school one term at Luzerne, Warren county, New York; was
colonel of the i66th regiment, New York militia ; came to Pike county in 1838, and here taught
school two years, most of which time he boarded with an aged couple, in a little log-house four
miles south of Pittsfield, and paid his board by doing chores at night and in the morning, and
hauling and chopping wood on Saturday forenoons. His wages were $2 per quarter for each
scholar.
Colonel Hicks served as deputy-sheriff for four years ; was then elected sheriff, arid served the
same period. On leaving the shrievalty, he was engaged for a few years in merchandising, and
during that time he was elected county treasurer two terms, which office made him ex-officio col-
lector of taxes for the county, for four successive years, and then he continued mercarftile business
until about 1863. In 1865 he entered the First National Bank of Pittsfield, as clerk. Two years
later he became cashier, and that position he still holds. The bank is one of the soundest and
best managed institutions of the kind in southwestern Illinois.
Since becoming a banker Colonel Hicks held the office of school director for some years, and
since then has been treasurer of the school district. He is an eminently trustworthy man, and
takes his share of responsibilities in the management of the public schools and other local matters.
Colonel Hicks has always affiliated with the democratic party, and in 1860, when his favorite
statesman, Judge Douglas, was a candidate for president, he took the stump for the " little giant."
Mr. Hicks has lost none of his interest in politics, but leaves to younger members of the party the
more active work. Years ago he was a regular attendant on the meetings of the Odd-Fellows
local lodge, and represented it two or three times in the Grand Lodge of the state, but of late
426 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
years he has attended no meetings. Colonel Hicks is a member and elder of the Christian Church,
a man of firm religious convictions, and exemplary in his manner of living.
He was first married in 1842,10 Miss Mary Jane Burbridge, of Pike county, she dying in 1844,
leaving one daughter, who died at eighteen years of age ; and the second time in 1845, to Miss
Julia Ann Burbridge, a cousin of his first wife. By her he has had seven children, all yet living but
one daughter, Emma, who died after she had married Harry Higbee. The six living children all
reside in Pittsfield. Robert T. is assistant cashier under his father ; Fanny is the wife of George
Barber; Barbara E., of Henry R. Mills; Florine, of E. P. Dow, and Laura and James W. are
unmarried.
Mr. Hicks's recollections of early days in Pike county are very vivid. He is very communi-
cative and genial, and hence is quite interesting in conversation.
JAMES Y. CAMPBELL, M.D.
PAX TON.
WHILE the lives of self-made men seldom abound in incidents of a substantial character,
there is yet an energy, a perseverance and an underflow of character that lends to them a
charm, an attractiveness and worth that merit admiration and careful thought. James Y. Camp-
bell began in life a poor boy, and by his own efforts has risen to an honorable position, both in his
profession and in his social life. He was born in Huntington, Pennsylvania, July 30, 1831, and is
the son of Mark and Matilda (Goshorn) Campbell, the former being of Scotch descent, while the
latter was of German and English. They led an agricultural life in the East until 1837, when
they emigrated west, settling at Frankfort, Indiana.
James' early life was that of a farmer's boy, and he was early taught those habits of economy
and industry which have marked his subsequent life. His early education was gained at the com-
mon schools, while working on his father's farm, until about the age of seventeen; then he attended
high school for eighteen months, then went to Cincinnati, where he engaged as clerk in a store,
taking a course in a commercial college at the same time. This he continued for about a year.
He there developed a great fondness for study, at first giving the law his attention, but finally
determined to prepare himself for the medical profession, in which he has since been a hard and
close student. Being dependent upon himself, he went through the course of training so com-
mon to young doctors, teaching school, clerking in store, to pay the expense of his medical
schooling. Of such material are our sturdy American reformers made. After three years of
study with Doctor R. Q. Wilson, of Rossville, Indiana, as preceptor, he went to the Rush Medical
College, Chicago, where he attended one course of lectures (session of 1856-57), after which he
settled in Durand, Illinois, to the practice of his profession, at the same time continuing his
studies and attending medical lectures at Chicago Medical College in the years 1864-65, grad-
uating thoroughly qualified in all branches of his profession.
In the fall of 1866 Doctor Campbell removed to Paxton, where he practiced until 1869, when
he moved south, settling in Mississippi. Here, in connection with his professional duties, he gave
some attention to journalism, editing with marked success for three years "The Star of Enter-
prise," at that time a well known journal. At the expiration of that time he went to Meridian,
Mississippi, where he established the Meridian "Star," in connection with his practice, and at the
same time conducted the "Star Printing House." Doctor Campbell displayed great tact and
natural ability as a journalist, and had he continued in that line he would have ranked as high
among our prominent journalists as he is among those in the medical profession.
In August, 1873, Doctor Campbell returned to Paxton, where he has given his exclusive time
to his practice and scientific study, and it is said by those who are deemed proper judges that the
doctor's selection of books, which constitute his library, and his numerous valuable instruments,
which have both been his pride, are second to none in the state, outside of the larger cities. His
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 429
career has been remarkably successful, and he is classed among the leading physicians of the
state. He has not only been successful in his profession, but has likewise managed his financial
business with the same dexterity; is a large property owner, owning, in addition to other property,
two large residences in Paxton, besides considerable farming land.
In his religious views he is liberal, and holds the golden rule as the rule of action. He is a
republican in politics, and has been honored with several offices. Soon after coming to the town
he was elected alderman, and was again elected to the same office in 1878. In 1868 he was
elected mayor, which office he again filled in 1879, and during that same year was elected super-
visor, which position he again filled in 1880. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and a
Knight Templar, and has alwavs taken an active part in the temperance movement.
He has been twice married, first to Mary J. Slipher, of Rossville, Indiana, who only lived six
months after her marriage. He was again married in 1856 to Miss Hattie C. Potts, of Lafayette
Indiana. From this brief sketch it may be seen that Doctor Campbell possesses rare talent and
ability and a vast amount of enterprise, on which may be based his success in life. He is pos-
sessed of refined tastes and feelings, of sterling integrity and fine social qualities, and is highly
esteemed, both as a man and physician, by all who know him.
T
WILLIAM C. SEIPP.
CHICAGO.
HIS gentleman is the son of the famous brewer, Conrad Seipp, and his wife, Marie (Teutsch)
Seipp. He is a native of the Garden City, and all there is of him has been developed here.
His father is a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, whence he emigrated to Chicago in 1849. Two years
later, January 4, 1851, William was born. Three years afterward his father began the business of
brewing, from which the immense establishment has arisen now known as the Conrad Seipp
Brewing Company.
Mr. Seipp received his preliminary schooling in the public schools of Chicago. After spending
some time at Douglas University he entered Mount Pleasant Military Academy in 1867. In 1869
he graduated, and at once entered the law office of Rosenthal and Pence, where he remained till
the great fire in 1871.
Upon the change of the business into a stock company Mr. Seipp became its first secretary
and treasurer, which position he held until July, 1878, when he was elected vice president, and
remains such at the present time. Although deeply immersed in the management of an extensive
business requiring his entire time, and not a politician in any sense, yet in 1879 he consented to
allow his name to be used on the democratic ticket for the office of city treasurer, and was elected
by the large majority of over six thousand (6,000). This was at the time of Mayor Harrison's
first election, and in a city usually regarded as republican was looked upon as a fine compliment
to his sterling qualities as a business man and an excellent indorsement of his character as a man
and a citizen. It is needless to say that his financial administration was wholly satisfactory to his
constituents. Contrary to his wishes, and much against his will, he received the democratic
nomination in 1882 for the office of county treasurer, and after a very exciting and severely
fought contest was elected over his competitor by about 3,000 majority. Mr. Louis Hutt, his
republican antagonist, was a very popular man, and the election of Mr. Seipp may be regarded
as a second indorsement by his fellow-citizens more flattering than the first.
October 28, 1874, Mr. Seipp was united in marriage to Miss Emma A. Huck, the daughter of
the late John A. Huck, one of the early settlers of Chicago. The union was a very happy one,
and has been fruitful in two children. The summer of 1881 he spent about five months with his
family in Europe, visiting the principal places of interest, returning home in the month of October.
In personal appearance Mr. Seipp is the embodiment of a solid business man rather under
the medium height, but heavy set and well formed, with a pleasant countenance and a frank and
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430 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
friendly eye. He makes friends readily, and is very warm and lasting in his attachments. He is
a prominent member of numerous German and American societies, whose purposes are mainly
social, musical and benevolent. He also is a member of the Masonic fraternity; belongs to Home
Lodge, No. 508, Chicago Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and is also a Knight Templar, Apollo Com-
mandery, No. i, Illinois.
DORRIS NEWELL, M.D.
PEC A TONICA.
FEW men in any community are deserving of more respect than the self-sacrificing country
doctor, who, regardless of the weather or the distance of the ride, rises at any hour in the
night, and hastens away to minister to the comforts of the sick, or set, perhaps, a broken limb.
The hardships of this class of professional men are very great, and they are fortunate if their own
constitution is not broken down, and they are laid aside from work before they have numbered
their three-score years. The subject of this sketch has just rounded up his fifty years, being born
in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, October 28, 1832; and although he has been in active prac-
tice since 1856, or a little more than a quarter of a century, he has taken the best of care of him-
self, arid notwithstanding he has endured great hardships, and been subject to severe exposure,
he is in prime health, and for aught we know, is good for another twenty-five years' practice.
His father, Alexander Newell, was a farmer, who gave Dorris an opportunity in early youth to
develop and strengthen his muscle by tilling the soil in his native country. His mother, Marga-
ret Dorris, was a cousin of Hon. John Scott, the Pennsylvania senator, and an aunt of W. P.
Dorris, a lawyer and prominent coal dealer at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
When about fourteen our subject left the farm and a country school, and finished his educa-
tion at the Shade Gap Academy. He studied his profession at Armagh, Huntingdon county, with
Doctors Stewart and Barr; attended lectures at Jefferson College, Philadelphia: received the
degree of doctor of medicine in 1856; came to Stephenson county, in this state; settled at Ridott,
and practiced there until 1861, when he went to Dixon, Lee county, and for two or three years
was assistant surgeon in the marshal's office.
In 1865 Doctor Newell left Dixon for Pecatonica, Winnebago county, near the eastern line of
Stephenson, where he was well known. Here he stepped into a good business almost immediately,
his reputation for skill in this vicinity having already been well established. He still has frequent
occasions to test his physical endurance, by long rides, extending ten or fifteen miles from home,
and in cases of consultation he is often called still farther. He is one of the best known men of
any class in western Winnebago and eastern Stephenson, and is highly respected, because, in
addition to proficiency in medical science, under a plain exterior, he wears a kindly and obliging
heart.
The doctor has a second wife. His first was Marinda Hawkins, of Ridott, married in 1859,
and dying in 1867, leaving one son; and his present wife was Jennie Thompson, of Pecatonica,
married in 1869. By her he has no issue.
REV. WILLIAM D. CLARK.
CARROLLTON.
WILLIAM DANIELS CLARK, pastor of the Carrollton Baptist Church, and a successful
minister for more than thirty years, dates his birth at Scipio, Cayuga county, New York,
March 30, 1826. His parents were Ichabod Clark, D.D., and Esther (Daniels) Clark. His father
was a self-educated Baptist minister, a fine classical scholar, and a preacher of great power, com-
mencing his pastoral work at nineteen years of age, and continuing to preach for forty-eight years.
His pastorates were in western New York (where the writer of this sketch first made his acquain-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
43'
tance) and in Illinois. His pulpit efforts and pastoral work were attended with wonderful success,
and it is believed by people best acquainted with him that he was the means of the conversion of
three thousand souls.
His wife was a daughter of William Daniels, who was deacon of the Baptist Church of Scipio
simultaneously with his own brother, John, for more than fifty years. She died at Rockford, Illi-
nois, in 1854, and her husband at Lockport, Illinois, while acting as pastor of the Baptist Church
of that place, in 1869.
The subject of this sketch was educated mainly at the Nunda Literary Institute, where he
prepared to enter the third year in college. He now commenced business pursuits, but after a
short time, feeling that he was called to the work of the ministry, entered upon a preparation -for
that work, studying theology with his father.
He was ordained at Lamoille, Illinois, in June, 1850, and there held his first pastorate of
between three and four years. At first the church was small and weak, not numbering more than
sixty members, and worshiping in a school house; but at the close of his pastorate it had a good
brick church and about two hundred members, about one hundred and fifty of whom he had bap-
tized. It was for many years the largest and strongest church in the Ottawa Association. He
next went to Ottawa, and afterward to Morris, county seat of Grundy county. In both places
powerful revivals attended his labors, and the churches were greatly strengthened.
In 1859 his health and that of his family being greatly impaired, he found a pleasant home
and enjoyed a successful pastorate with the church in Waukesha, Winconsin. Here old and seri-
ous difficulties were healed, and during the nearly four years that he labored among them about
one hundred were converted and baptized into the fellowship of the church. He went thence to
the Sycamore Street (now Grand Avenue) Church of Milwaukee. There also his labors were
blessed to the conversion of a goodly number of souls, who were added to the church. From
Wisconsin Mr. Clark returned to this state, accepting a call to the Baptist Church in Galesburgh,
which he found distracted by internal dissensions, but in less than a year the difficulties had dis-
appeared, about one hundred had been baptized, their house of worship had become too strait
for their congregations, and they hired a hall, with a seating capacity of twelve hundred, where
they held their services for one year while they built their present elegant house of worship at a
cost of $35,000.
From Galesburgh Mr. L lark came to Carrollton, where he spent two of the most prosperous
and successful years of his life. On one Sabbath he welcomed to the fellowship of the church
over seventy new members, and baptized in all nearly one hundred. He then went to Aurora,
and two years later to Quincy. At the latter place he was pastor of the First Baptist Church,
which he found heavily in debt and greatly discouraged. The church was not financially strong,
and yet a debt of $12,000 must be raised in a few months or their house of worship sacrificed.
During the first six months $10,000 was raised, and $2,000 borrowed on extended time at a low
rate of interest. This was soon followed by a powerful revival, which added not only to the
numbers and spiritual power of the church, but to its pecuniary strength.
In May, 1873, our subject accepted the pastorate of the Columbia Square Church of San Fran-
cisco, California, and at the same time the editorial chair of "The Evangel," the organ of the
Baptist denomination on the Pacific coast. After a residence of a little less than two years cir-
cumstances growing out of the financial condition of the country necessitated his return to the
East. His church offered to continue him as their pastor and give him a vacation of six months,
but he felt that it was best to return permanently. Among other expressions of esteem the fol-
lowing resolutions passed by the church will go far to show his standing in California:
Resolved, That while he edited and controlled " The Evangel " it was a faithful exponent of Gospel truth, a pro-
moter of peace and harmony in our churches, and a credit to our denomination on the Pacific coast.
Resolved, That in severing the relation of pastor we desire to expfess our high appreciation of Brother Clark as a
man of rare pulpit talent, an earnest, faithful ambassador of Christ, a kind and genial Christian gentleman whom all
can love and respect, and as such we commend him to any and all with whom his lot may be cast.
432 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Since returning to Illinois Mr. Clark has held pastorates in Macomb and a second pastorate in
Ouincy, in both of which places his labors were blessed to the ingathering of a goodly number
of souls, and he is now for a second time pastor in Carrollton, where, as in every place in which
he has ever been pastor, he is held in warm esteem by citizens in general, as well as by his own con-
gregation. He is a discreet and judicious pastor, as well as a pointed and pungent preacher, and
has received in the aggregate more than one thousand persons into the churches with which he
has labored. Indeed he has never been pastor of but one church where his labors have not been
crowned with numerous conversions, while most of the churches have received large accessions,
as the above sketch shows.
'Mr. Clark was married May n, 1848, to Miss Mary S. Wright, who had a few months pre-
viously removed from Geneseo, New York, with her parents, Doctor Ebenezer Wright and wife,
.to Schoolcraft, Michigan. To this most estimable woman, attractive in person, cultured in mind
and manners, Mr. Clark is largely indebted for any usefulness with which his labors have been
attended. She is possessed of the rare faculty of commanding the respect and securing the
warmest affections of all with whom she becomes familiar. The duties and criticisms of a min-
ister's wife are often very painful, but she has known little of these. Universally beloved and
conscientiously devoted to her work, she has scarcely had an enemy. "She looketh well to the
ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her
blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." They have five children: Harriet Esther, wife
of J. F. Fisdale, of Milwaukee; Delia M., wife of Frank N. Gay, of Galesburgh, and Lillie
Estelle, William E. and George W., who reside in Quincy.
c
HON. CALVIN H. FREW.
PAXTON.
ALVIN H. FREW is the son of Robert and Anna S. Frew, and a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
His life has been characterized by simplicity, sincerity, earnestness and integrity, and fairly
illustrates what may be attained by patiently and persistently pursuing a determined and manly
purpose. As a boy, he was fond of study and reading. He was raised on a farm, where he
developed an independent, self-reliant and sturdy character, devoting to his books his time not
employed in farm or other work. When seventeen years old he began teaching, giving his earn-
ings to his father, and also in this way accumulated money to defray his expenses at the high
school, and at Beaver Academy, in Pennsylvania, and later, at the Vermilion Institute, in Ohio.
He was a diligent student, and from over-exertion in this direction, somewhat impaired his
health.
In 1862 he became principal of the high school at Kalida, Ohio, and in 1863 and 1864 occupied
a similar position in the high school of Young America, Illinois. In this way he paid the indebt-
edness incurred in getting his education, and was also able to gratify a desire to study law, which
he continued in connection with his teaching. In the spring of 1865 he settled in Paxton, his
present home, and there pursued his legal studies until December following, when he was, by the
supreme court of Illinois, admitted to the bar. The payment of his license fee left him penniless,
but he yet possessed a determined purpose, and by earnest application to his profession, soon
built up a paying practice.
His legal attainments and forensic powers gained for him a more than local reputation, and
naturally suggested him as a fit person to represent his district in the state legislature. He was
elected to the general assembly in 1868 from Ford and Iroquois counties, and as a member of
that body distinguished himself by effective work in introducing and securing the passage of
many important measures, and won high encomiums from the press throughout the state. As a
man is judged by his acts, some of Mr. Frew's important ones will be referred to. The following
resolution, introduced by him January 19, 1869, expresses his views respecting an important ques-
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITV of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
435
tion touching the right of the state to regulate railroad companies in their charges. The prevail-
ing opinion was, that any limitation of the powers conferred by a company's charter to fix its
rates would conflict with the provision in the constitution of the United States prohibiting a state
legislature from passing any act impairing the obligations of contracts. One of the resolutions
reads:
Resolved, That all privileges, powers or prerogatives acquired by railroad companies of the state government are
subordinate to the general welfare of the people or community where constructed, and that the right of the state to
exercise a reasonable control over such companies is one of which no power can divest the people.
The same doctrine was several years later supported by the supreme court of Illinois, and in
the year 1883 was confirmed by the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Frew also intro-
duced and secured the passage of the measure prohibiting a husband from collecting or control-
ing the earnings of his wife; an act changing and greatly simplifying the practice relating to
ejectment; the section of the act regulating exemptions, which provides that "no personal prop-
erty shall be exempt from levy of attachment or execution when the debt or judgment is for the
wages of any laborer or servant, etc."
Prior to i869^the state had been overrun with what were termed wild-cat insurance companies,
for the most part irresponsible organizations, that had come to be a crying evil. Toward this
Mr. Frew turned his attention, and introduced a bill providing that all insurance companies
should be placed on a firm and sure foundation. The bill met with the most furious opposition
on the part of lobbyists in behalf of the bogus companies, but despite everything they could do,
the measure triumphed and became a law. Within one year the horde of wild-cat insurance com-
panies throughout the state closed their business, and their place was supplied by responsible
companies. To Mr. Frew was largely due the success of the bill, and by the New York papers he
was given the sole credit of .the victory.
In 1870 he was reflected by a very large majority from the counties of Ford and Kankakee.
He was active in securing the passage of the county court act; also that providing for a short
form of deed and mortgage, and that pertaining to eminent domain, and also secured an amend-
ment to the practice act, whereby, when mistakes occurred in the names of defendants to actions,
the same could be amended, and the names of other defendants added, and judgment rendered
against such as might be liable, without suffering a non-suit. He also procured amendments to
the act relating to attachments, and was the author of an important change in the chancery prac-
tice act, providing that where any defendant is a non-resident, the circuit clerk shall send a copy
of the notice of the proceedings to the defendant's address, unless it is shown by affidavit that
such address, after diligent inquiry, cannot be ascertained, the object of which was to prevent
parties from obtaining decrees and judgments against defendants without their knowledge.
In 1878 Mr. Frew was elected to the legislature for the third time, from the counties of Ford
and Livingston, by the largest majority of any member. A very important measure, the passage
of which he secured during this session, was that requiring all trust-deeds to be foreclosed in the
courts instead of by advertisement. As a legislator, his only aim was to serve the state, and in
all his active career in that capacity he was never known to advocate any measure actuated by
mere personal motives or the desire to promote the interests of a friend. As a speaker he pos-
sessed rare qualities; was clear, concise, forcible and effective, and in addressing the assembly
never failed to .gain an interested and respectful audience. Many complimentary notices of his
course appeared in the press, of which we select a few:
August 6, 1869, the Chicago "Tribune" said: -'Frew is urged by his friends to become a can-
didate for the constitutional convention. * * * During the long and trying session of last winter
he discharged the duties of his position with marked fidelity and intelligence." The Oilman
"Star" said: "We often regret having opposed Mr. Frew, because after he got to Springfield he
was determined that his constituents should know what was going on." The Saint Louis "Globe-
Democrat," April 23, 1879, said: "The able and comprehensive speech of Mr. Frew in support of
his (life insurance) bill was the feature of the session, * * * and rising to a grand flight of elo-
436 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
quence, he pleaded that his bill might pass." Also the " Republican Register," Galesburgh, about
the same date, said: "He (Frew) has presented two bills during the present session possessing
great merit." "His life-insurance bill should be on our statute-book." "His cockle-bur bill is
worthy the attention of our law-makers." "Pass them into laws." The Peoria "Democrat,"
speaking of the cockle-bur bill, said: " It would be a blessing to farmers if some stringent law
was passed in regard to this weed." . While the Chicago "Times" thus indorsed it: " Frew's bill
to destroy cockle-burs and velvet-weeds was also lost. This was undoubtedly one of the best
measures of its kind, and was greatly desired by the farming community throughout the state.
* * * Another reason for killing the bill was, Frew had refused to trade his vote in favor of the
Joliet appropriation steal."
As a lawyer, Mr. Frew is an ornament to his profession, bringing to it a mind cultured by
long experience, and stored with a varied fund of literary and legal lore. He is a counselor whose
opinions are based upon authorities, and whose counsels are reliable and safe; while as an advo-
cate before court or jury, he presents his arguments with gracefulness and ease, and at the same
time with a clear and earnest force that is at once entertaining and convincing.
A self-made man, he has attracted to himself many true friends, who esteem him for his manly
virtues and genuine worth.
He is a republican, of broad and liberal views, though in 1878 he was elected as a reformer;
but not because he did not indorse the only true republican principles. He always claimed he
was a true republican, and now holds there is no longer any necessity for republicans being
divided.
JAMES R. DOOL1TTLE, JR.
CHICAGO.
TAMES REUBEN DOOLITTLE, JR., son of Hon. James R Doolittle, United States senator
J from Wisconsin, from 1857 to 1869 ; was born at Warsaw, Wyoming county, New York, April
2, 1845. His grandfather was Reuben Doolittle, who, with his brother Ormus, was a merchant for
many years, at Wethersfield Springs, New York. The Doolittle family in this country settled
originally in Connecticut, and its representatives are now found in many states of the Union.
The mother of our subject, before her marriage, was Mary L. Cutting, whose ancestors were also
early settlers in Connecticut.
Mr. Doolittle received his early education at Racine College, Wisconsin, to which city the
family had moved when he was six years of age, and in 1863 he entered the junior class of the
University of Rochester, and was graduated at twenty years of age (1865) as senior prize essayist.
He commenced reading law in the city of Washington ; continued his legal studies at the Har-
vard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1866, in
the city of New York, where he practiced his profession for four years. In 1870, when his father
had left the senate, returned to Wisconsin, and opened a law office in Chicago, his son joined him
in the business, and they are still in partnership. Their practice is almost entirely civil, and quite
extensive.
A gentleman who .knows the Doolittles intimately, and has practiced at the bar with both of
them, thus writes to the editor of this work in regard to the son :
" Although comparatively a young man, I regard J. R. Doolittle, Jr. as a lawyer of extensive
learning in his profession, and remarkable ability. With a mind richly adorned by nature, he is,
at the same time, a man of good culture and great self-command. He brings to the examination
of legal questions, a cool, patient, and nice practical discrimination, of the utmost value, in with-
holding his ultimate conclusion until his case or problem has been studied in all its different
bearings, and he comes to action. His style of address and argument is most convincing before
a court, or jury, it being close, logical and free from rant, yet warm in feeling, because his empha-
sis proceeds from a conviction that the argument he uses is of unanswerable weight. His bear-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
437
ing is candid, and his integrity beyond reproach. The best evidence of his ability in a law argu-
ment with the court was lately furnished in this city by one of the ablest judges of the United
States court, who had but little intimacy with Mr. Doolittle's practice, and no knowledge person-
ally of his reputation, except as a politician, and who said : 'Young Doolittle surprised me. He
has just made an argument before me which would do credit to any lawyer I have ever heard.'
Mr. Doolittle is about thirty-seven years of age, and has left politics to take care of law, for which
the judge referred to thinks him most eminently fitted."
Mr. Doolittle, like his father, is a strong politician, of the democratic school, and in 1878 was
the candidate of his party for congress, in the first Illinois district, and ran several hundred ahead
of his ticket, but was beaten by Hon. William Aldrich, the present incumbent of that office.
Mr. Doolittle married in November, 1869, Clara S., the third daughter of J. A. Matteson, of
Springfield, Illinois, and they have three children, one son and two daughters.
E. H. THURSTON, M.D.
CHICAGO.
T7BENEZER H. THURSTON, a man of self-culture and high attainments, was born in Wol-
JL/ verhampton, England, December 22, 1838, and was the seventh of a family of twelve
children. His parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Thurston, with their families, immigrated to America
about the year 1845, and settled at Hubbardsville, Madison county, New York. It was in the
district school of this small hamlet that Ebenezer received the rudiments of his education. He
subsequently attended the Hubbardsville Academy, under the tuition of Professor James Bush,
remaining here until his parents removed to Utica, New York, where he continued his studies at
the Utica Acade .s- /-. -///; \ Kroc.KAPHiCAi. DICTIONARY.
465
all. In this original home, sanctified by religion, guarded by integrity, and supported by indus-
try, such peace, happiness and contentment reigned as rarely falls to the lot of man. For several
years the family carried on the business of farming and stock-raising, and grew rich, yet no mem-
ber of the prosperous and happy community being hardly able at any time to say "this is mine,
and that is thine." But a young man by the name of John H. Manny had in process of time
invented a reaper, and used up all his funds and those of his father and friends, and mortgaged
all their lands to bring it out and place it properly before the public. To Duncan Mackay this
young man appealed for aid in his extremity, and enlisted him in its favor. Mackay loaned him
money, bought his machines for cash, and being a good workman himself, went with the machines
to the fields and instructed the farmers how to use them, overcame, by his skill, any imperfections
in their construction, quieted the apprehensions of the buyers, and overcame their objections. He
took upon himself for a time the management of their sale, employed many salesmen in the North-
west, and kept no less than thirteen adjusters to follow the reapers into the hands and to the
fields of the buyers, until the invention had overcome all difficulties, and fought its way into de-
served popularity.
This was the first effort Mr. Mackay had made to turn his hand to any other field of enterprise
since coming west, and this was prompted originally rather by his natural willingness to help a
worthy enterprise in need than ah expectation of realizing a fortune by it. However, he was not
the loser in the end. In 1843 a couple of Germans had built a flouring mill at Mount Carroll.
Their names were Halderman and Rhinwalt, and Mackay a couple of years later entered into co-
partnership with them, and organized the Hydraulic Company. The design was to utilize the
water power of Plum River in the establishment of a grand series of factories of all sorts. The
company was established, a charter obtained, and business began. However, the venture was an
unfortunate one from the start. The, original projectors were in the majority, and carried every-
thing according to their own will. Mr. Mackay did not approve of their plans or methods of busi-
ness, but could only enter his protest from time to time, and place it upon record. As he foresaw,
the enterprise failed, an assignment was made, their affairs got into the courts, and after several
years of costly litigation, in which the most talented lawyers in the West were engaged, the whole
business was wound up at a loss to all concerned.
Mr. Mackay had been from youth an anti-slavery man, and took a keen interest in the growing
contest between the two gigantic forces of freedom and slavery. He was opposed to the doctrine
of squatter sovereignty advocated by Douglas, while a great admirer of the abilities of that great
man. When the war cloud burst upon the country he was an enthusiastic and very efficient sup-
porter of the government. He was at all times ready with his counsel and his cash to aid the
good cause, and when the National Bank act was passed, was among the first to aid the govern-
ment by applying for a charter. Uniting with Mr. Mills, Mr. Mark, Mr. Green, his brother-in-law,
and others, the First National Bank of Mount Carroll was established, with a capital of $50,000.
Confederate bonds and currency at that time were bearing a higher price than those of the gov-
ernment, and the outlook for the National cause was very grave, yet from purely patriotic motives
these gentlemen came to the assistance of the government in her darkest hour, as fortunately did
thousands of others, and with a rescued nation they have their reward. James Mark was the first
president of this bank. He was succeeded the year following by Mr. Mackay, who has remained
the chief officer till the present time. It has since doubled its capital, and continues one of the
soundest and most successful banks in that part of the state.
Doctor Leander Smith, of Morrison, Illinois, solicited Mr. Mackay to join him in a private
bank, at the latter place. He consented to do so, and the bank was formed, with a cash capital
of 860,000. June 26, 1882, he joined Henry Ashway. George Hay, his brother John Mackay.
and others in the bank, established at Savannah. He has thus a large interest in three banks, in
I he establishment of every one of which higher motives than usually prevail in such matters
wort- the ruling element. But with all his banking business on his hands, he has never relin-
quished his interests In farming. He at one time owned twelve farms, all of which he either
466 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
worked or rented, but for various reasons has sold off six of them, and will still further reduce
their number to relieve himself of the burden of their care.
Without solicitation on his part he received from Governor Beveridge appointment as
one of the United States commissioners to the Vienna Exposition. Without any expense to the
government he attended to his duties there, and afterward made the tour of Europe. Subse-
quently, he made two successive trips to Colorado for his health, which with his excessive labors
and advancing years is at times somewhat precarious. Mr. Mackay, as might be supposed, is a
stanch temperance man. The death of one of his workmen while in Maine, from exposure while
under the influence of liquor, opened his eyes while yet a young man, to the awful character of
the liquor traffic, and he solemnly took a pledge, and put it into writing, thereafter neither to use
it himself nor furnish it to his men. To that pledge he has sacredly adhered through a long life,
and to it ascribes much of his prosperity. The danger of freely signing his name to other men's
paper early caused him to make it a rule never to do so except in cases of necessity or charity,
and although ready at all times with a helping hand for the needy or deserving, he has found
other means to aid them without violating a very wise and useful pledge.
In religion, Mr. Mackay is a Presbyterian, in politics a republican, and everywhere a gentle-
man. He has never sought office, but always discouraged any effort to force it upon him, yet
when elected has faithfully discharged its duties.
March 23, 1882, he had the misfortune to lose by fire his elegant stone mansion with the greater
part of its contents at Oakville, where he has resided since first coming to Illinois. Some of his
many warm friends at once furnished an elegant residence at Morrison, and presented it to him
with the request that he should at once occupy it. Yielding to their earnest solicitations he has
for the time, at least, abandoned the project of rebuilding on his farm at Oakville, and, June 27,
moved into the new residence at Morrison.
JOHN H. HARRIS.
MENDOTA.
JOHN HAMILTON HARRIS, one of the early settlers in the vicinity of Mendota, and long
one of the leading men in this city, is a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, a son of
Stephen and Sybil (Clark) Harris, and was born August 19, 1807. His grandfather, John Harris,
was one of the minute men of the revolution, and a participant in the battle of Monmouth. His
paternal grandmother, Mary Hamilton, was of Scotch descent, and a blood relation of Gavin
Hamilton, a friend and patron of Robert Burns. The family moved to Stark county, Ohio, in 1809.
In his early youth our subject acquired some knowledge of the rudimentary branches, includ-
ing the "New England Primer" and the "Shorter Catechism;" later attended an academy at
Canton, Ohio, and spent one year in the military academy at West Point. In his boyhood he
did some work on his father's farm, but did not then take to agricultural pursuits. He read law
with John Harris, his uncle, at Canton; was admitted to the bar at Millersburgh, Holmes county,
in 1828; practiced there for two years, and from 1830 to 1854 was in practice at Wooster, Wayne
county. While a resident of that city he was auditor of the county one term, and a member of
the state senate the same period, being in those days an earnest worker in the ranks of the
democracy.
Mr. Harris made a success in the legal profession in Ohio, and having accumulated a fair
property, he came to Illinois in 1854, and settled on a farm near Mendota, on which he lived until
1862, when he moved into the city, retaining his farm until 1882.
Mr. Harris is in very comfortable circumstances, and latterly has done little more than take care
of his garden. He has been a justice of the peace most of the time since coming into the state,
having an office in town while on the farm, and resigning a few years ago. He also served for
years on the county board of supervisors, and has always been a man of much public spirit, will-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
467
ing to help forward any cause likely to benefit the community. When the democratic party allied
itself with the slave power, Mr. Harris joined the great republican phalanx, in which he has
trained since its formation.
He was formerly an active Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and an Odd-Fellow, but is
not now an affiliated member of either order. His religious connection is with the Methodist
Episcopal church, of which he was long an official member. He took the Washingtonian pledge
fifty years ago, and has lived a life of strict temperance, not even using tobacco in any manner.
The young will do well to mark his course and follow it. No man in the city of Mendota is more
cordially esteemed than he is.
The wife of Mr. Harris was Harriet Fogle, daughter of William Fogle, M.D., of Canton
where they were married January 15, 1833. They have had five children, only one of them, Mary
Hamilton, wife of Collins A. Harbaugh, merchant, Mendota, now living. The oldest daughter
married Rev. H. Sturgeon, a Presbyterian minister, and she died while he was at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, in 1864, acting as provost marshal. Adeline died at Mendota after she had grown to
womanhood, and the other two when quite young.
HON. THOMAS CLOONAN.
CHICAGO.
THOMAS CLOONAN, of the eleventh senatorial district, was born in Rockland county, New
York, August i, 1851, his parents being Edward and Bridget (Morris) Cloonan. They were
from Galway, Ireland. In 1855 the family went to Chicago, where Thomas was educated and
learned the bricklayer's trade, at which he worked for several years. Subsequently he kept a
butcher's shop on the West Side. For the last three years Mr. Cloonan has been connected with
the office of the water-works.
In 1880 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature from the old third senatorial dis-
trict, and in 1882 he was elected senator from the new eleventh district. He is now serving in the
upper house, being on the democratic side, and on the committees on municipalities, railroads,
corporations, mines and mining, agriculture and drainage, miscellany, printing, etc.
Mr. Cloonan has always voted the democratic ticket. In religion he is a Catholic, and is a
member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He is a single man, and he and his parents are
living together in Chicago. Mr. Cloonan is an active and efficient business man.
HON. SAMUEL M. MOORE, LL.D.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch, Hon. Samuel McClelland Moore, LL.D., was born August 23,
1821, in Bourbon county, in the state of Kentucky. He was the youngest child of James
and Peggy (McClure) Moore. He had five brothers and one sister, all of whom are dead except
one brother and the sister. His father died when he, Samuel, was but little over one year old ;
his mother died in May, 1861. Judge Moore is of Irish descent. In politics of democratic pro-
clivities. In religion, a Presbyterian of the strictest sect, adopting the confession of faith as the
essence of God's word, yet tolerant toward all sects and creeds not tainted with immorality. His
early education was obtained in the common schools of his native county. When preparing for
college he was under the tuition of Hon. T. Lyle Dickey, now one of the judges of the supreme
court of Illinois, and Ebenezer Marston, a graduate of Union College, at Schenectady, New York,
two splendid educators. He entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in
1841, with Doctor George L. Andrew, of La Porte, Indiana, Rev. John M. Bishop, D.D., of Cov-
468 UNITED STATES RIOGRAPHICA I. DICTIONARY.
ington, Indiana, Hon. Charles H. Hardin, late governor of Missouri, Hon. Samuel Shellabarger,
of Springfield, Ohio, and others, who have not only occupied high positions, hut were qualified
to occupy such positions.
In the autumn of 1841 he entered the law office of Judge James R. Curry, at Cynthiana, Har-
rison county, Kentucky, and was admitted and licensed to practice law in the year 1842, and com-
menced the practice at Cynthiana.
In April, 1842, he married Martha Wilson, a most estimable lady, the daughter of Rev. Robert
and Elizabeth (Harris) Wilson. Rev. Robert Wilson was one of the earliest Presbyterian minis-
ters in northeastern Kentucky. Judge Moore has had nine children: Margaret Elizabeth, wife of
Rev. and Professor Robert A. Condit; Robert Wilson, a very promising young lawyer, died De-
cember 25, 1872; Samuella; James Curry, who died September 13, 1863; Mary Hall, who died
when five years of age; Herman Groesbeck, who died when seven months old; French, who is
now city physician of the city of Chicago; Rosina Bennoist, and Nona.
In 1844 he removed to Covington, Kentucky, where he continued the practice of his profes-
sion (the law) until 1856, when he was elected circuit judge, with the exception of a short time
when he was publisher and editor of a democratic newspaper. There probably never was a more
popular judge on the bench in Kentucky than Judge Moore during the six years of his judgeship
there. His term expired in 1862, during the war of the rebellion. There were then in Kentucky
several parties, one calling itself Unconditional Union, another, which desired and believed that
the preservation of the Union might be secured without war or bloodshed. To the latter party
Judge Moore belonged.
Judge Moore's reelection was considered absolutely certain, with scarcely a show of oppo-
sition. At that time, 1862, General Jerry Boyle was in command of the department of Kentucky,
and issued an order that none but the nominees of the Unconditional Union party should be can-
didates for office, and that votes should be counted for none others. General Boyle years after-
ward told Judge Moore that there was no act of his life that he regretted as much as he did that
order. Upon the issuance of General Boyle's aforesaid order, Judge Moore declined to be a can-
didate for reelection, and commenced disposing of his property in Kentucky preparatory to
removing to Chicago with his family.
His services as a member of the legislature of Kentucky were alike laborious and honorable.
He served the people of Kentucky with zeal and fidelity. Early in 1865 he with his family came
to Chicago, where he has since resided. Soon after his arrival here he became a partner of Hon.
Bernard G. Caulfield, in the practice of the law, which partnership continued until November,
1873, when Judge Moore was elected judge of the superior court of Cook county. During the six
years in which he served as judge of the superior court he had charge of the chancery branch of
the court. When he took charge of the chancery department of the court the docket was fear-
fully in arrears, but when his term closed every case ready for trial was disposed of. During the
last three years of his term any case could have been tried within thirty or sixty days after the
issues were completed. In 1879,3! the expiration of his term as judge of the superior court, he
resumed the practice of his profession, and is now actively engaged in such practice. In 1878
Wooster University conferred upon him the well merited honorary degree of doctor of laws.
In Kentucky and in Chicago his friends have persistently urged him to enter the political
arena, but he has as persistently declined. His ancestors, for so long a time that the memory of
man runneth not to the contrary, have been Presbyterians, with scarcely an exception. He is a
Presbyterian by prescription and election. He has been the continual recipient of distinguished
honors conferred upon him by his church, and has served the church in nearly every capacity,
except that of an ordained minister.
A purer judge never sat upon the bench, and the writer of this sketch is of the opinion that if
he should be sued by the name and style of " Old Honesty," it could be proved that he was known
as well by that name as by the name of Samuel M. Moore.
A kinder hearted man never lived. He has always been too anxious to-serve his friends, so
r\lTl:D STATES B/OiiK. //'///( 'A /. D/CT/ONAK Y. 460
much so that his own interests have materially suffered thereby. As a lawyer he has always stood
in the front rank of his profession, which is an honor achieved by but few.
As a citizen he is always on the moral side of every question. In summing up the charaqter
and reputation of Judge Moore, it is eminently proper to pronounce him a gentleman, a Chris-
tian and a scholar.
WILLIAMSON DURLEY.
HENNEPIN.
AdONG the older class of settlers in Putnam county, and its best representative of business
interests, is Williamson Durley. a native of Caldwell county, Kentucky. He was born Janu-
ary 7, 1810, his parents being Jehu Durley, a native of North Carolina, of English lineage, and
Jane (Rankin) Durley, whose father was from Scotland. In 1819 the family, came to this state,
and settled in Sangamon county, near Springfield, where our subject was educated in a log school
house, with split logs for seats, hewed puncheons and other furniture to match. In that primitive
college he laid the foundation of his knowledge, on which he afterward built by the economical
use of spare hours in private study.
In August, 1831, Mr. Durley came to Putnam county, taking part that season in the first year
of the Black Hawk war. He and his uncle, James Durley, opened a small stock of goods in Hen-
nepin, and under the firm name of J. and \V. Durley, continued to trade together about four
years. In 1837 the subject of this sketch went on his farm, two miles from town, and in 1841 into
the mercantile trade with Andrew Wardlaw, under the firm name of Durley and Wardlaw. Mr.
Durley remained on the farm until the autumn of 1880, when he left it in charge of his third son,
Lyle H. Durley, and moved into town. The farm consists of a little over four hundred acres, and
is under excellent improvement, Mr. Durley being of that class of men who believe that anything
worth doing at all is worth) doing well. There is nothing slip-shod about his farm or himself.
Although two miles away, and seventy-three years of age, in the busy season and in good weather
Mr. Durley visits the old homestead daily, and has a mind to work, although he has not the
activity of middle life. The farm is well stocked with cattle, horses and hogs, well fenced, with
good barns and other buildings, and every indication of thriftiness.
Mr. Durley held at an early day the office of county commissioner for a period of eleven con-
secutive years, being elected on the liberty ticket. He has also been township treasurer, township
trustee, school director, etc., willing at all times to serve in any position where he could be useful. He
was one of the foremost men in organizing the so-called Buel Institute, in Putnam county, the first
agricultural society, we understand, in Illinois, and he was its president two or three years. He
was also active in getting up the Farmers' Club of Putnam county, of which he has also been presi-
dent, and the interests of which he has labored hard to promote. His study thus far in life seems
to have been to aim at self-improvement, and to encourage all enterprises calculated to benefit
others.
The wife of Mr. Durley, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Winters, of Miami county, Ohio,
and whom he married December 2, 1834, is still living. She is the mother of nine children, one
of whom died at four years of age. The other eight are well settled and are doing finely. Mr.
and Mrs. Durlty also raised an adopted daughter. We are inclined to believe that the parents
are proud of their children. If they are not, they have reason to be. Their eldest son, Preston
B., was formerly a merchant and postmaster at Hennepin, and is one of the proprietors of Faulk-
ton, Dakota, and postmaster of the place. The second son, Albert W., is a lawyer at Le Mars,
Iowa. The fourth, Edwin M., is a large and prosperous farmer in Butler county, Kansas, and the
fifth, Chester M., is a merchant at Princeton. Illinois.
Mr. Durley is a true patriot. Too old to shoulder his musket when the South undertook to
destroy the Union, he spent time and money in helping forward the good cause; served as internal
revenue assessor from 1862 to 1865; assisted in filling out the township quota, and was active in
47O UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
organizing the Union League. Long prior to the rebellion he was in full sympathy with the lib-
erty party; acted with the free-soil party in 1848-52, and has trained in the republican ranks
since that great party sprang into existence.
Mr. Durley has been, since its organization, reporter for the agricultural bureau at Washing-
ton, and we understand that his opinions on agricultural matters have much weight at head-
quarters. He also reports for the State Agricultural Society.
He and his wife are members of the Congregationalist Church, and liberal supporters of the
same, Mr. Durley having often been an office-bearer. He is a consistent advocate of temperance,
and in many respects an example for young men to imitate.
1
ROBERT M. EDDY.
CHIC A GO.
*HE subject of this sketch is descended from one of the oldest New England families, and
can trace his ancestry back through eight generations, to an Episcopal clergyman who
officiated in Saint Dunstan's chapel, Cranbrook, Kent county, England, about the year 1550. He
himself is a native of Picton, Province of Ontario, Canada, and was born August 16, 1822. His
parents, Alfred P. Eddy, and Charlotte (Day) Eddy, were both natives of Rhode Island, and were
people of sterling virtues, to whose teachings and example our subject is indebted for many les-
sons of sturdy integrity and persevering industry, whose influence on his early life left an impress
that has signally marked his later business career.
Robert enjoyed the advantages of a good common-school education, and in 1840, being then
eighteen years of age, went to Buffalo and apprenticed himself to George Jones, an iron
founder, with whom he served for three years. After learning his trade, he was employed by the
same party for four years as & jour workman, and in 1847, with a capital of about $600, began
business at Buffalo on his own account, as an iron-fence manufacturer, and continued the same
until 1852, personally supervising his works, and employing one or two hands to assist him in
his operations. His business was necessarily limited, but he conducted it on a safe basis, and
during the time of its continuance managed to accumulate a small capital.
Upon the decease of L. H. Larkin, an iron founder, which occurred about this time, Mr.
Eddy, associating with himself Robert Bingham, who furnished $500, purchased the estab-
lishment, paying for the same $3,000, $500 cash down, and the balance on time, payable in install-
ments. This business was conducted under the firm name of Eddy and Bingham, until 1865, a
period of about twelve years, during which time it attained to a very high standing among man-
ufacturing industries, and yielded large profits.
During the year 1865. Mr. Eddy retired from the firm, selling his interest in the business to his
partner for $16,000, and invested in seven canal boats which were running on the Erie canal.
The investment proved very unfortunate, it being a line of business in which Mr. Eddy was
wholly inexperienced, and before he closed his relations with the enterprise he had lost by the
operation some $5,000. After looking about, and finding in that city no chance for making good
his losses, he determined to take the capital which he had left, about $11,000, and go west. Ac-
cordingly, in 1865, he settled in Chicago, and after casting about with a view to making the most
satisfactory investment, he established the foundry business, which has since that time engaged
his constant attention, locating his works on the corner of Franklin and Illinois streets. Upon
establishing this enterprise Mr. Eddy associated with himself as partners A. F. Buschick, G. E.
Buschick, and James Gardner, under the firm name of James Gardner and Company.
The business represented a capital of $6,800, of which Mr. Eddy furnished $3,000, $3,200 was
supplied by the Messrs. Buschick, and the balance by Mr. Gardner, who failed to fulfill his part
of the agreement in reference to furnishing a proportionate amount of the capital.
During the next three years the business was continued uninterruptedly, meeting with good
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
473
success, but in 1868 a change in the management occurred, Mr. Eddy purchasing the interests of
the Messrs. Buschick. Two years later, in 1870, he bought out Mr. Gardner, and assumed the
sole management of the business, and has continued to control its affairs until the present time
(1881). The operations of the concern were, at that time, in a most thriving condition, and yield-
ing products ranging in value from $40,000 to $50,000 per annum. It was in the midst of this
prosperity that occurred the great fire' of October 9, 1871, and in that general conflagration which
left a prosperous city but a mass of smoldering ruins, Mr. Eddy was compelled to see the accu-
mulation of years of careful toil, swept away in an hour.
The foundry was a total loss, and of the $4,200 insurance which he held, he realized but $170,
the greater part of the insurance companies being ruined by their heavy losses. It was at this
crisis that Mr. Eddy's true spirit asserted itself. Though his loss was heavy and the misfortune
was a severe blow to him, he faced it with undaunted courage, and before the smoke had fairly
cleared away from the ruins, he commenced to rebuild his foundry, and in eight weeks after the
fire, had his establishment completed, and in full operation. Since that time the business has
been greatly extended, improved appliances have been supplied, as necessity has required, so that
the foundry is now, in every respect, a model establishment. Mr. Eddy now (1883) employs a
working capital of $40,000, and with a force of thirty hands produces goods amounting in the
gross to $60,000 per annum.
The special feature of this business is the manufacture of castings for machinery, and iron
buildings, products which have become widely known for their universal excellence.
Mr. Eddy's policy has always been to put upon the market only a first-class quality of goods,
and to spare neither money nor pains in meeting the wants of his patrons. He is a man of very
decided character, and engages with his whole soul in whatever he attempts, and has made a suc-
cess of his life by perseveringly following a well defined purpose.
Aside from his superior business qualifications, he possesses fine social attainments, and by his
many excellent personal qualities has attracted to himself a very large circle of warm personal
friends.
In political sentiments he is a stanch republican, but has never taken any active part in politi-
cal affairs, having found in his legitimate business ample scope for the gratification of his high-
est ambition.
He was formerly a Baptist in his religious views, but has come to entertain very liberal views
on that subject. Mr. Eddy was married in 1845, at Buffalo, New York, to Miss Sarah M.
Quackenbush, by whom he has had seven children, of whom two sons and two daughters are now
living.
MAJOR-GENERAL SMITH D. ATKINS.
FREEPORT.
SMITH DYKINS ATKINS is a son of Adna Stanley and Sarah Dykins Atkins, and was born
near Elmira, Chemung county, New York, June 9, 1835. His father was a tailor by trade,
born near New Haven, Connnecticut. He immigrated to Orange county, New York, and after-
ward to Chemung county, where he engaged in conducting the tailoring business until 1848,
when the family came to Illinois, and settled on a farm in Loran township, Stephenson county,
where Smith D. Atkins remained until 1850, when he became an apprentice at the printing busi-
ness in the office of the "Prairie Democrat," the pioneer journal at Freeport. Subsequently he
went to Mount Morris, Ogle county, became a student in the Rock River Seminary, and at the
same time paid his way by working in a printing office. In 1852 he had assigned to him the fore-
manship of the Mount Morris " Gazette," he being still a student, and in June of the next year
he became a partner of C. C. Allen, in the publication of that paper, which he soon afterward
purchased. In 1854 he established the "Register," at Savannah, Carroll county, and in the
autumn of that year commenced the study of law with Hiram Bright, of Freeport. He was
17
474 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
admitted to the bar in July, 1855. Wishing to prosecute his legal studies a little farther before
opening an office of his own, Mr. Atkins went to Chicago, and spent a year in the office of Good-
rich and Scoville, commencing practice at Freeport, September i, 1856.
Like many young lawyers, he early became imbued with politics, being a decided republican,
and we first hear of him on the stump as a canvasser in the great campaign of 1860, when Abraham
Lincoln was elected President. We learn from the " History of Stephenson County " that an
address of his delivered in that campaign, and which contained a trenchant review of the Dred
Scott decision, in which Chief Justice Taney stultified himself, was published, and passed through
several editions.
In November, 1860, Mr. Atkins was elected state's attorney for the fourteenth judicial circuit,
which embraced three counties, and we learn from the source already mentioned that, "on the
iyth of April, 1861, while trying a criminal case in the Stephenson county court, a telegram was
received stating that President Lincoln had issued a call for troops to suppress the rebellion.
Mr. Atkins immediately drafted in the court-room an enlistment roll, which he headed with his
own name, being the first man to enlist as a private soldier in the county. He then announced
to the court and jury his decision to prepare without delay for service in the Union army. Leav-
ing the half finished case in the hands of a brother attorney, he hastened out of the court-room,
with his enlistment roll, and went into the streets of Freeport to find men to join. Before dark
one hundred had signed the roll, and in the evening a company was formed, with him in the posi-
tion of captain. That body of brave young men hastened to Springfield, and was soon mustered
in as company A, nth regiment Illinois infantry, their enlistment being for ninety days. At the
end of that period Captain Atkins reenlisted for three years as a private, and at Bird's Point,
Missouri, was again mustered in as captain of the same company in the gallant nth. At Fort
Donelson he was in the thickest of the fight, leading in sixty-eight men and coming out with
twenty-three, and for gallant service on that occasion he was promoted to the rank of major of
his regiment, and was placed by General Grant on the staff of General Hurlburt, as acting assist-
ant adjutant-general. In that position he was with General Hurlburt at Pittsburgh Landing,
where he showed so much coolness and courage that especial mention was made of him in the
general's report.
On account of ill-health Major Atkins was now obliged to seek a respite from duty, and spent
two months on the sea coast. When the call was made in 1862 for six hundred thousand men,
he was again ready for the field, first taking the stump to aid in rousing the patriotism of his
countryman. He enlisted in the Q2d Illinois, which was mustered in September 4, 1862, with him
as its colonel. He commanded it till January 17, 1863, when we find him at the head of a brigade.
Not long afterward, while the p2d was at Mount Sterling, Kentucky, negroes began to flock into
the camp of the Yankee regiment and asked for protection, and when the owners appeared and
demanded their surrender, and when a Kentucky colonel, who had at that time command of the
brigade, ordered Colonel Atkins to return the slaves, he would not do it, declaring, at the same
time, that his men "had not enlisted to act in the capacity of bloodhounds, to hunt them down
and drive them back." .
June 17, 1863, Colonel Atkins was placed in command of the 2d brigade, third division, Army
of Kentucky, which he commanded while in the department of the Ohio, and when his regiment
was ordered to the department of the Cumberland he was placed in command of the ist brigade,
first division of the reserve corps. A little later, when the Q2d was mounted, and transferred to
Wilder's brigade of mounted infantry, he commanded it until transferred to General Kilpatrick's
cavalry division. When this heroic cavalry officer reformed his division, preparatory to the cele-
brated march with General Sherman to the sea, he placed Colonel Atkins in command of the 2d
brigade. It will be recollected by the reader familiar with the history of that great march that,
when General Sherman advanced southward, he aimed to throw his army between the rebel
forces and Savannah, and the task of deceiving the rebels, and holding them while this move-
ment was being effected, was assigned by General Kilpatrick to Colonel Atkins' brigade, and he
UNITED STATES BIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
475
accomplished it with great adroitness and skill. He also made a brave charge on the enemy at
Clinton; drove them to Macon, a distance of fourteen miles; forced them into their works at that
city, and held them until General Sherman swept to the eastward, leaving him with the enemy in
his rear, and nothing before him to impede his rapid progress. Colonel Atkins greatly distin-
guished himself at Waynesboro, where Wheeler, with his army, met with a sad defeat. While
charging with his troops against the rebel columns, Colonel Atkins had his color-bearer shot down
by his side, and at that moment his brigade flag caught the eye of the enemy, who poured in a
terrific flood of fire, but the brave colonel halted not for a moment, but coolly kept at the front,
and soon heard the deafening cheers of his victorious troops.
On reaching Savannah the colonel was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry, and was
assigned to duty under his brevet rank by special order of President Lincoln, and at the close of
the war, when mustered out, he was brevetted major-general, these honors being conferred by
order of President Lincoln.
"In all stations as a commanding officer," writes the historian of Stephenson county, "he was
popular with both the rank and file. He was a perfect disciplinarian, and was kind and consid-
erate to the men under him. His courage and his judgment as a strategist won their confidence,
and they readily and heartily supported him wherever he led them." ,
At the close of the war General Atkins returned to Freeport, and was editor and proprietor of
the Freeport "Journal" from 1867 to 1874. He was appointed postmaster at Freeport upon the
recommendation of Hon. E. B. Washburne, the congressman at the commencement of President
Johnson's term of office, and was successively reappointed, twice by President Grant, once by
President Hayes, and again by President Arthur, and still holds that position. He is one of the
proprietors and editors of the Freeport " Republican." In August, 1865, he was married to
Eleanor Hope Swain, daughter of Hon. David L. Swain, ex-governor of North Carolina, and
president of the university at Chapel Hill, that state. Mrs. Atkins departed this life at Raleigh,
North Carolina, June 12, 1881, leaving three children : Eleanor Hope, Smith Dykins, Jr., and
Susan Annie.
WASHINGTON E. COOK.
LA CON.
WASHINGTON EBENEZER COOK was a son of Ebenezer and Leonora (Combs) Cook,
and was born in the town of Augusta, Oneida county, New York, December 29, 1808. His
grandfathers on both sides were early settlers in Augusta, that part of the town being called
Cook's Corners. When Washington was eleven years old his father died, and the son went to
Clinton, having no schooling after that age. He became an apprentice at the hatter's trade, but left
it just before his time had expired, on account of poor health. He held clerkships in stores and
hotels in New York city till of age; then went to Honesdale, in his native state; became a mer-
chant's clerk, and May 16, 1832, was married to Miss Eunice A. Kellogg, daughter of Eliphalet
Kellogg, of Bethany, a prominent citizen, and for several years a county officer. Mr. Cook kept
a large hotel in Bethany for four years, and then moved to Dunkirk, in the western part of the
state, where he assisted in the preliminary surveys of a railroad between Buffalo, New York, and
Erie, Pennsylvania.
In 1837 our subject came as far west as Birmingham, Ohio, where he was a merchanut until
the spring of 1846, at which time he came to Marshall county, and settled on land three miles
west of Henry. He sold out, and, May i, '849, moved into that village. In the following
autumn he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and in the following spring settled in Lacon, the
county seat, holding that office for three terms, or twelve years. On retiring from that post of
official duty, he devoted his time to the supervision of his own affairs, having accumulated a
handsome property.
Mr, Cook was a supervisor for ten years, and held various other local offices, being for years
476 UNITED STATES B10GRA r/I ICAI. DICTIONARY.
one of the foremost men of the place. He was a candidate for the legislature while in Ohio, and
for the lower house and the senate of this state, and was the leader of the democratic party in
Marshall county for a long time. He died at the Matteson House, Chicago, January 7, 1879, and
was buried according to the rites of the Masonic order, he being at the time of his death the last
charter member of the Peoria Commandery. His funeral was very largely attended by the fra-
ternity of that order, and by the citizens generally of the city of Lacon and vicinity, the circuit
court adjourning for that purpose. He was a man greatly esteemed by everybody who knew
him; was a member of the Congregational church, a warm friend of the poor, and in all respects
a true and valuable citizen. Self-taught and self-disciplined, he was well trained and well
informed, and emphatically a manly man.
Mr. Cook left a widow and three children to mourn his loss, one son, Martin K., having died
at twenty-six years of age. That son was a captain in the late civil war; was at first on the staff of
General Hurlburt, and then of General Canby, and married a Miss Buchanan, of Memphis, Ten-
nessee. George W. E., the eldest child, is on the homestead with his mother, faithfully attending
to the large property left by his father. Helen J. is the wife of D. W. Warner, of Radersburgh,
Montana Territory, and Belle V. is the wife of S. M. Garrett, lawyer, at Lacpn.
ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER.
DECA TUR.
OF the many able men who have graced the legal profession with eminent learning and judi-
cial ability no one surpasses the late Arthur J. Gallagher. He is a native of Tyrone county,
North of Ireland, and was born at Strabane, May 2, 1828, the youngest of eight children, seven
sons and one daughter. His father immigrated to America when Arthur was about a year old,
and settled in the city of Philadelphia, where he resided, enjoying excellent school advantages
until twelve years of age. His mother having died seven years previously, he came west with an
elder brother, who established himself in the dry goods business at Saint Louis, Missouri.
Arthur soon afterward lived a short time on a farm in Illinois, below Saint Louis, and for a brief
.period was employed in a store in that vicinity. Not fancying the life of a farmer, he returned to
Saint Louis, and for several years was a student in Saint Joseph's College, studying the classic
languages and becoming well acquainted with French and German. Here he acquired a good
education. His mind was strong, comprehensive and active, and he acquired much useful knowl-
edge by the reading of books in his youth, which his strong and retentive memory enabled him
to retain for future uses.
The Mexican war broke out in 1846, when he was but eighteen years of age. He enlisted in
the 2d regiment of Illinois infantry, commanded by Colonel Bissell, afterward governor of the
state. He enlisted for one year; was in the memorable battle of Buena Vista, and was honorably
discharged after serving fourteen months. He then entered the office of Judge Underwood, at
Belleville, where he assiduously pursued the study of the law, making rapid progress. He studied
nineteen hours per day, and as a natural consequence with one of so keen perceptions and clear
mind he was soon prepared, and was admitted to the bar at Belleville. He removed to Vandalia
in 1848, where he made good progress in his profession, and had the good fortune to secure sev-
eral valuable friends, who adhered to him through life. He was appointed register of the land
office at Vandalia by President Pierce, and in 1852 was elected to the legislature from Fayette
county. In 1854 he removed to Chicago; acted as attorney for the Illinois Central railroad, and
began the practice of the law, remaining there about six months, when he accepted an offer of
partnership with Hon. Richard J. Oglesby and Sheridan Wait, under the firm name of Oglesby,
Wait and Gallagher.
He was but twenty-seven years of age at this time, with brilliant talents, vigorous and studious.
He prepared his cases with great care, and investigated every subject of litigation with great
patience, and he soon attained a high position at the Macon county bar.
H. L Cop par Jr. i C =
LIBRARY
SiTy of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1862 he raised a company of cavalry, and was attached to the 7th Illinois infantry, com-
manded by Colonel William Pitt Kellogg, afterward governor of Louisiana. He remained in the
army about a year. The bar unanimously urged him to become a candidate for judge of the old
sixteenth circuit, to which office he was elected without opposition in 1867. He held that office
until 1873, presiding with a clearness, candor and ability that won for him many high encomiums
by all having business in his courts. He then resumed the practice of his profession, which he
followed up to the time of his demise, practicing exclusively in the higher courts, always uphold-
ing the highest standard of professional ethics. He was an effective speaker, logical and pro-
found, lucid and luminous, true to himself, his clients, the courts and his brethren at the bar, who
hold him in affectionate remembrance. His kindness to younger members of the bar is often
remarked by the recipients of favors from his generous hand. He never spoke unkindly of a
brother lawyer, and always treated his opponents .with the utmost fairness.
He was married June 27, 1865, to Miss Rachel Smith, a lady of culture and refinement and
excellent attainments, the daughter of Hon. E. O. Smith, one of the early settlers of Macon county.
They had one son, Arthur, born in November, 1870.
Previous to the war Judge Gallagher was a democrat, but subsequently became an earnest
republican. He died of heart disease suddenly in his office on the afternoon of June 23, 1879.
His death spread a universal gloom over the whole community. All realized that his family,
friends and community had met with an irreparable loss, and the bar its brightest intellect.
At a bar meeting held after his demise high tribute to his memory and resolutions of condol-
ence to his bereaved friends were passed.
An estimate of his character as a lawyer may be drawn from the remarks of his successor
on the bench of the sixteenth circuit, made when the resolutions of the Macon county bar were
placed upon the records of the court:
"As a lawyer, it is not hazarding too much to say that hfe was the peer of any lawyer in the
state. With a marvelously clear and comprehensive mind, habits of industry, a large and varied
practice, involving great interests, he rose rapidly to a just and honorable distinction in his profes-
sion, until at last he stood among the foremost of its known and recognized masters. The law to
him was a goddess, at whose shrine he constantly worshiped with the most unrelenting devotion.
He drank deeply and freely from the fountains of learning and wisdom of the ages, until his
mind became a store-house filled with the ripest knowledge of his profession, from which he
might always draw without stint and to the advantage of those he sought to instruct. He was
never boisterous or rude to his antagonist or the court. Conscious of his strength and power, he
was dignified and courteous in his intercourse with all men. Brave and determined in all things
as Jove, he was yet modest and gentle as a woman. In nothing did his high character as a lawyer
appear more clearly than in his sincere and honest purpose to be a faithful and correct adviser of
the court."
After receiving the rewards, distinctions and honors of his profession as a lawyer, he
was called to the bench by the almost unanimous voice of his district to discharge the more
arduous and responsible duties of a judge. Here it was that he justified the partiality and dis-
cernment of his friends. Every trait of his character and education were but so many arguments
in favor of his fitness for the bench. He brought to the discharge of the duties of his office the
learning and experience which a large and varied practice gave him. He loved justice and right,
and hated all wrong, fraud and injustice with a perfect mind. He carried to the bench that same
gentle and patient quality of heart and mind which had distinguished him at the bar above his
brethren. His face was as immovable on the bench as the sphinx. No lawyer could ever tell
from any manifestations of his while hearing an argument what the judgment would be. He
had that rare quality of listening patiently and quietly to what was said, and determining at once
between possible error and naked truth. No man ever sat upon the bench who was more justly
beloved by the bar and the people than Judge Gallagher, nor more deeply mourned by those who
knew him best.
480 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
As a citizen he had no superior. He believed in the supremacy of the law and its strict
enforcement to maintain good order in society. A brave soldier, he fought in the first instance
in defense of his country's honor, and secondly to preserve inviolate the greatest and noblest
republic on earth.
His reliance upon the Supreme Being he retained from his youth up, as may be seen from an
incident which occurred: When a boy in Saint Louis, through an act of courtesy to older people,
he was prevented from taking a ferryboat from the shore. He saw the boat blown to fragments
in mid-stream. And once in Mexico a slight circumstance prevented the assassination of himself
and a comrade. These circumstances made lasting impressions upon his mind.
He had great self-control, and never allowed the contests in the court-room to provoke his
anger or draw from him an unkind remark, and in no place was the warmth of his heart more
noticeable or more highly appreciated than in his home, where his loss is most keenly felt.
His is the true fame ; not lying in broad rumor nor in the glittering foil set off to the
world, but that fame based upon good works, upon duty done, and a life beyond reproach, which
grows and blossoms in immortal soil.
JOSEPH GIBSON ENGLISH.
DANVILLE.
THE subject of this biography is a native of Ohio county, Indiana, and was born December
20, 1820, the son of Charles English and Ann (Wright) English. His father was a carpen-
ter and blacksmith by trade. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, whence he went with his
parents to Nova Scotia ; later he settled in Pennsylvania, where he was married. The mother of
our subject was a native of England.' In 1829, his parents having settled near Perryville, Indiana,
Joseph began attending-school, at the old log school-house at that place. When fourteen years of
age, with the meager education which could be afforded by the schools of that day, in a newly
settled country, he was thrown upon his own resources, and going to La Fayette, Indiana, he en-
gaged to work in the store of Mr. John Taylor, receiving for his services, his board and clothes,
until he should attain his majority, after which he was to receive a salary. After five years of
faithful service, Joseph being then about nineteen years old, his employer failed in business, and
he was again thrown upon the world, with no means other than his own native ability, the knowl-
edge which he had gained, and a determined purpose to succeed. His first move was to return
to Perryville, where he was employed as clerk for different parties for some six years, during
which time, in 1843, he was married to Miss'Mary Hicks, a daughter of George Hicks. In 1844,
in partnership with his father-in-law, he opened a store of general merchandise, and built up an
extensive trade, which he conducted with eminent success, until 1852, when he sold his interest
and removed to his present home in Danville, Illinois. In the following year he associated him-
self with J. L. Tincher, and opened a dry goods store, which they conducted with marked
success for three years. In 1856, the Stock Security Bank having become insolvent, Mr. English
was appointed one of the assignees; and while engaged in closing up its affairs, seeing a demand
for more banking facilities, he again associated himself with Mr. Tincher, and together they
opened the Danville bank, and conducted a private banking business for about seven years. In
1863 he organized the First National Bank of Danville, and from that time until the present,
1882, has been president and general business manager of the same, and it is but just to say that
to his executive and financial ability, and thorough integrity, must be attributed the success of
the institution, and the unbounded confidence in which it is held by the community. Aside from
his banking enterprise Mr. English, in 1866, organized and put into successful operation the Dan-
ville Gas Light and Coal Company, and during the same year organized the Spring Hill Ceme-
tery Company, of both of which he has since continued to act as president.
Public-spirited and generous, he has liberally contributed of his means, and unsparingly
UNITED STATES RfOGRAPIffCAL DICTIONARY. 48 I
devoted his time to all enterprises of a public nature. Upon the building of the Indinapolis, Bur-
lington and Western, and the Cincinnati, Evansville and Indiana railroads, he was most active in
securing their location most favorable to his city, and of the latter he has been a director since
1876.
Although often solicited, Mr. English has uniformly declined political preferment, finding in
his legitimate business more congenial employment and ample scope for the exercise of his abili-
ties. He was formerly a democrat in political sentiment, but in 1862, when that party adopted
the peace platform, and declared the war a failure, he withdrew from it, and has since been iden-
tified with the republican party. In his religious views he is a Methodist, having united with that
church in 1856, and gives his most earnest support to every movement tending to the religious or
educational welfare of the community in which he resides.
Mr. English has been twice married; by his first wife, who died November 17, 1864, there
were born to him four sons and two daughters. In 1865 he was married to Maria L. Partlow, of
Joliet, Illinois, by whom he has had two sons.
Such in brief, is an outline of the life of one, who by his own energy, enterprise and unaided
effort has risen to a position of honor, and made for himself a name worthy to be classed among
the self-made men of Illinois, and in its perusal there is found an example most worthy of emula-
tion.
RICHARD JAMES HANNA.
KANKAKEE.
THE subject of this sketch was born on the old John Jay farm, Staten Island, New York, Octo-
ber 24, 1835, of a hrdy race of sons of Neptune, on the maternal side. His mother was
Elizabeth (Bird) Hanna, of the well known Bird family of Carlisle, Cumberland, England. His
father, Thomas Hanna, was of Scotch origin, and a descendant of the well known active partici-
pators, on the English side, during the Irish rebellion. With a limited education, but with a
brave heart, young Hanna started on the sea of life, entering upon an apprenticeship to a house
carpenter, a capacity in which, even at this early age, he exhibited an aptitude and assiduity
which has followed him through all his subsequent career, in all that he has undertaken, and
which might well be emulated by others.
At the expiration of his apprenticeship, he removed to the West, and settled at Kankakee,
Illinois, having previously (August 7, 1854) married Miss Ann Freth, daughter of James Freth, of
New York, a gentleman of English descent. During 1855 and 1856 he was engaged in building
and contracting, after which, until 1862, he devoted himself to mercantile pursuits, in both of
which enterprises he worked with a will and energy, and attained a degree of success that im-
pressed all who knew him. His zeal and integrity were manifest in all his transactions, and with
such attributes, Richard James Hanna may be, and is, numbered among the few who have attained
their popularity and position by their own endeavors, combined with the strictest honesty. He
is conceded to be one of the most successful merchants in the city of Kankakee, hence it is not
surprising that he has been called to represent that city in its council. He is a member of the
board of education; a member of the board of supervisors, and a leading member of the Metho-
dist Church. As a Master Mason, he is esteemed by his brother Masons. He was a delegate .to
the Chicago republican national convention in 1880, and was one of the 306 to whom was given
the medal.
In August, 1862, he enlisted in the ii3th regiment Illinois infantry, and was advanced to the
rank of captain of the sist United States colored infantry, July 16, 1863, and promoted to major,
May 5, 1865, which position he retained until the regiment was mustered out, in June, 1865, at
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the whole time he served with the army, although he was
slightly wounded on two occasions, he never absented himself a day from duty, or was placed on
tin- sick list. He served with his regiment at the battles of Walnut Hills, Vicksburg, December,
482 UNITED STATKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1862; Arkansas Post in January, 1863; and took part in the hard fighting of June 19 and 22, and
in the forty days' siege of Vicksburg, which followed. In July, 1863, he was transferred to the
colored service, which was utilized for garrison duty, and the keeping open of the Mississippi,
which was successfully accomplished, until January, 1865. At that time he was ordered to New
Orleans, and thence to Brancas, Florida, to take part in the Mobile campaign, under General E.
R. S. Canby, who was more recently murdered by the Modoc Indians, while attending a peace
conference. At length, however, he arrived with the troops in front of the Old Spanish Fort
works, opposite Mobile, April i, 1865. There they had some nine days' hard fighting, and even-
tually captured the forts by storming, April 9. Finally, he was moved with the troops to the Red
River country, Alexandria, for the purpose of keeping quiet the turbulent elements of the com-
munity a very necessary measure, considering the tumult which was rife at that time.
Mr. Hanna is a man of robust physique, and commanding stature, with a line of feature which
would indicate a determined will, which no difficulties could daunt, and that nothing could deter
him when having undertaken and determined to carry out a purpose. He is a gentleman of the
highest integrity, and both in business relations, and official position as postmaster of Kankakee
(a position he was appointed to in March. 1882), he is held in the highest estimation for his civil
and affable manner; and within his social circle he is esteemed for his affectionate, beneficent and
pious characteristics, as well as for his ever-ready and willing hand to help the poor, the sick and
needy. In a word, he is a thorough representative of the American gentleman.
GEORGE WILLARD.
CHICAGO.
GEORGE WILLARD, lawyer, of the firm of Willard and Driggs, came of very early New
England stock. The progenitor of the family in this country, Major Simon Willard, was born
at Horsmonden, Kent county, England, in 1605, and came to Boston in 1634. He was early called
into public service, and during a period of forty years held important public trusts, such as legis-
lator, judge and military commander, until his death in 1676. His second son, Samuel, graduated
from Harvard College in 1659, and was installed as pastor of the old South Church, in Boston,
in 1678, and continued until his death in 1707. He was also president of Harvard College from 1701
until his death, but with title of vice president, because of his residence in Boston instead of Cam-
bridge. Major Simon Willard's nine sons, and five of his eight daughters, were married, lived
to mature age, and left numerous descendants, of whom we may mention Rev. Josiah Willard,
a tutor in Harvard College in 1698, and afterward secretary of the province of Massachusetts
Bay, judge of probate and one of the executive council of Suffolk ; Rev. Joseph Willard, a
graduate of Yale College in 1714, and master of arts in Harvard College in 1723; Rev. Joseph
Willard, graduate of Harvard College in 1765, and for many years after president of that insti-
tution; Colonel Josiah Willard, commander of Fort Dummer in 1750; Daniel Willard. a mer-
chant in Boston, and son-in-law of Rev. Cotton Mather; Colonel Samuel Willard, of Lancaster,
who was in command of a regiment at the reduction of Louisburgh in 1745; Doctor Nahum
Willard, of Worcester, Massachusetts, with whom President John Adams resided when a student
at.law with Mr. Putnam in 1756; Colonel Abijah Willard, commander of a regiment under Lord
Amherst in 1759, and a brother-in-law of Colonel William Prescott, of Bunker Hill fame; Solo-
mon Willard, architect of Bunker Hill Monument; Major Willard Moore, who was fatally wounded
at the battle of Bunker Hill while commanding a new regiment raised in Cambridge; Robert
Treat Paine, one of the signers of the declaration of independence; Doctor John Willard, of Ver-
mont, member of the constitutional convention of 1793, a member of the council of censors in
1799, and United States marshal from 1801 to 1810, and Judge John Willard, of Saratoga, New
York.
Benjamin, the eighth son of Major Simon Willard, was a prominent citizen of Worcester
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
485
county, Massachusetts. He died in 1732. Joseph Willard, a son of Benjamin, held the rank of
major in the military service of Massachusetts colony. He died at Grafton in 1774, where he had
lived more than fifty years. His son, Lieutenant Isaac Willard, died at Worcester in 1806, leaving a
son, Johnson, who was born in 1786, and who became one of the pioneers of northern New York,
settling in Jefferson county in 1815, where, in 1833, he married Margaret Becker, a native of
Johnstown, New York, and the mother of our subject. She died in 1849.
George Willard, who was the youngest son and next to the youngest child in a family of sev-
enteen children, was born at Natural Bridge, New York, April 15, 1839. His father was a farmer
and lumber dealer, well advanced in years when George became old enough to assist, and the
principal care of the farm and mill devolved upon him. He had long desired the advantages
which a liberal education would bring to him in after life, but all his brothers having gone
west, he yielded to his sense of duty to remain at home and add to the comfort of his aged
sire. George was ten years old when his mother died, and upon his father's death, in June,
1858, an older son, who had returned from the West, was induced to remain and manage the
estate until the youngest daughter should arrive at legal age, when the property might be
distributed. George soon entered Gouverneur College, in Saint Lawrence county, but at the
expiration of the fall term, 1858, went to Saint Charles, Illinois, where several of his sisters
resided, and there continued his studies until the March following, when he procured an outfit
and joined a company gotten up by ex-Sheriff B. C. Yates, of Kane county, Illinois, who pro-
posed to go to Pike's Peak by water route from Chicago in a steamboat built for that purpose,
the engine and boiler of which were to be used in running a quartz mill to be set up in the new
Eldorado. Accordingly, March 30, 1859, Captain Yates' improvised steamboat, with the full com-
pany on board, started from the dock below Lake street bridge, and amid the cheers of a large
crowd steamed up the south branch of the Chicago River. After reaching the Missouri River
the progress of the boat was slow beyond expectation, and long before reaching Leavenworth the
boat's machinery was nearly worn out, and would soon be incapable of propelling the boat fur-
ther up the rapid current of that stream. The captain concluded, therefore, to sell his boat,
settle with the members of his company, and return to Chicago, which he did. The subject
of our sketch continued the journey as far as Leavenworth, where he met the returning tide of
gold seekers, and after a few months' stay in Kansas returned to Illinois. The expenses of this
venture largely exceeded the amount received on leaving home. To pay the excess, and acquire
a sufficient surplus to continue his studies, he labored until the autumn of 1861 in the summers
on his brother's farm, near Janesville, Wisconsin, and in the winters in the pine woods of that
state. George had early conceived a desire to become a lawyer, but it was not until the fall of
1859 that he fully determined to do so. His purpose then became fixed, and he took a few well
chosen volumes with him to the lumber camp that winter. In the autumn of 1861 he entered
upon a course of studies at Bryant and Stratton's college in Chicago, and completed the same
in 1862. The next year he commenced keeping the accounts of a mercantile firm, and by arrange-
ment was allowed to spend a portion of the time reading law, which he did, first in the office
of S. B. Perry and afterward, in January, 1864, in the office of Hon. H. W. Blodgett, in whom he
found a most valuable friend.
In June, 1864, our subject responded to the call of the government for volunteers for ninety
days' service, enlisting as a private in company B, i32d Illinois regiment, and was afterward elected
first sergeant of the company. Returning in October he resumed his studies in the office of Judge
Blodgett, and having attended a sufficient course of lectures before the law school of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, was graduated from that department of the institution in June, 1865, and was
immediately admitted to practice. In 1870 he was appointed local attorney for the Chicago and
North-Western Railway Company in Chicago, and in 1873, assistant solicitor of the Pennsylvania
Company, holding both offices until 1874, and the last-named office, with but slight intermission,
until February, 1881, when a copartnership was formed with Mr. Driggs, of Pittsburgh, and the
48
486 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
firm were appointed solicitors for the Pennsylvania Company and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati
and Saint Louis Railway Company.
Mr. Willard was secretary and treasurer of the Western Railroad Association for five years,
and master in chancery of the circuit court at Chicago for six years.
He joined a Congregational church at Allen's Grove, Wisconsin, in 1860, and is now a member
of the First Presbyterian Church of Hyde Park, where he has resided/.since 1868, and for which
municipality he was treasurer in 1879 and 1882.
He married, November 6, 1865, Miss Fannie J. Rodden, of Burlington, Vermont. They have
four children, named, respectively, George Rodden, William Blodgett, Bessie and Grace.
HON. WILLIAM E. MASON.
CHICAGO.
WILLIAM ERNEST MASON, attorney-at-law, and state senator, is a son of Lewis J. and
Nancy (Winslow) Mason, and was born at Franklinville, Cattaraugus county, New York,
July 7, 1850. Both parents were also born in that state. Nancy Winslow was a lineal descendant
of Edward Winslow, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, and was governor of the Plymouth
colony in 1633, 1634 and 1646. He was the man who offered himself as a hostage to the Indian
chief, Massasoit. In 1857, when our subject was seven years old, the family immigrated to Iowa,
and settled at Bentonsport, Van Buren county, nine miles from the Missouri line, where Lewis
Mason worked part of the time at his trade, that of a wagon-maker, and part of the time at hotel-
keeping. He was a prominent man in Van Buren county, at one period president of the board of
supervisors, and always an active politician of the abolition school. Naturally warm hearted, and
of a kindly and humane disposition, he hated oppression with a perfect hatred, and -never hesi-
tated to aid the slave in trying to obtain his freedom. Living in southeastern Iowa, only nine
miles from the boundary line of slavery, he kept, from 1857 to 1863, the first station in a free state
on the underground railroad, and helped many a poor fugitive on his way to Canada, sometimes
whole squads of them at a time.
He was a speaker of great power, and sometimes held public meetings in school houses and
other places, when he would portray the cruelties of slavery in a very vivid manner, and with all
the sarcasm of the keenest invective. Sometimes he was threatened to be turned out by the pro-
slavery democrats in his audience, but that only emboldened him, and raised the pitch of his elo-
quence. He lived to see all the slaves free, and died at the close of the slaveholders' rebellion,
when William was about fifteen years old. The widow died a few years later.
Mr. Mason was educated in the common schools of Bentonsport; taught school from sixteen
to twenty years of age in Van Buren county and at Des Moines; read law with Hon. Thomas F.
Withrow, then of Des Moines, and now general solicitor for the Chicago and Rock Island rail-
road, with residence in Chicago, and he was admitted to the bar of Des Moines in 1870, before
he had reached his majority. Mr. Mason practiced in Des Moines until the spring of 1872, being
in the office with Mr. Withrow, and then settled in Chicago, where he soon built up a large prac-
tice. A gentleman who has often met Mr. Mason in court thus speaks of him:
"As a lawyer Mr. Mason is successful beyond the average practitioner, by reason of a combi-
nation of qualities and qualifications, which would, in any business or profession, insure success,
namely: a certain aggressive force, coupled with a keen but never playful humor; an incisive
manner of cross-examination, aided by a marvelous memory, which, in the case of a contuma-
cious or smart witness, is especially effective; a clear, ringing voice, under perfect control, and, on
occasion, a peculiar, pathetic quality, which blends admirably with the earnest and almost aggres-
sive manner referred to. In short, there is in his manner or matter no nonsense or filigree work
whatever. He never resorts to any pedantic tricks or highflown periods in argument before court
or jury. Though naturally gifted with sentiment of the emotional quality, he yet never descends
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 487
to the usual methods of working up a jury. His style, if any he has, is distinguished for almost
a blunt directness of utterance. Though never commonplace in his language, the suspicion of
preparedness or previous elaboration would not occur. The temptation, so commonly yielded to
by lawyers, old and young, of startling emphasis or mountebankish attitudes in speaking for
effect, he never yields to. He never indulges in elaborate arguments before either court or jury;
nor obtrudes many authorities, but speaks right on, and to the point, and to the merits. And
last, but not least, and therein he holds his greatest popularity, he makes his client's cause his own,
and because of these qualifications a combination of heart, brains and conscience he has
never lost a jury case in the course of ten years' practice."
He is the Chicago attorney for the Illinois Central railroad. Mr. Mason was a member of the
thirty-first general assembly from the old ninth district, and in November, 1882, was elected to
the state senate from the new fifth district, which embraces the northwestern part of the city of
Chicago. He is chairman of the committee on warehouses, and on the committees on judiciary,
judicial department, corporations, insurance, military affairs and miscellany.
Senator Mason became thoroughly imbued with his father's political sentiments when quite
young, and was a free-soiler and a republican long before he had a vote. He could not be any-
thing else without doing violence to the manliest instincts of his nature. Senator Mason intro-
duced the bill in the thirty-first general assembly for the establishment of the industrial school
for girls, and is now a director of that school. He is a Knight Templar in Freemasonry, an Odd-
Fellow, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
The wife of Senator Mason was Edith White, daughter of George White, now living in Des
Moines. They were married June n, 1873, and have four children: Lewis Francis, Ethel Wins-
low. Ruth White and Winifred Sprague.
REV. ROBERT D. MILLER.
PE TERSE URGH.
ROBERT D. MILLER, superintendent of schools in Menard county, was born near Sedalia,
Pettis county, Missouri, .February 3, 1838. His father, William A. Miller, was born in
Kentucky in 1804; immigrated to Missouri in 1820; was a member of the Missouri constitu-
tional convention at twenty-two years of age, a farmer, politician, and legislator, and died in 1847.
He married Agnes C. Mitchell, who was born in 1805 in Tennessee, and is now living with a
son in Oregon, being in her seventy-ninth year. She is a woman of strong mind and tenacious
memory, and still writes long letters devoid of interlineations or misspelt words. They are
models in penmanship and composition. Her father, Captain Thomas Mitchell, moved to Mis-
souri in 1814, and there died.
Our subject attended a district school until fifteen years old, and finished his education at
Chapel Hill College, Missouri, leaving in the early part of the senior year. He taught school nine
years in Missouri and five in Illinois. While teaching he studied medicine for eighteen months
and then abandoned it. He also read law in 1858-60, and was admitted to the bar in September,
1860.
Mr. Miller joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church in September, 1861; was ordained at
Easton, Missouri, in 1864, and held pastorates in that state at Platt City and Barry, and in Menard
county, this state, at Greenview and Petersburgh. Since January, 1882, he has been filling the
pulpit the second time at Greenview, his residence remaining at Petersburgh. His first pastorate
at Greenview was in the early period of his ministry.
Mr. Miller was appointed county superintendent of schools in January, 1877; elected to the
same office in the autumn of the same year; was again appointed for another year, and reflected
in 1882. He is one of the most popular men in that office that the county has ever had, and is
admirably adapted to perform its duties, being an experienced teacher and a studious and pro-
gressive man.
488 UNITED STATES RIOGRAPHICAI. DICTIONARY.
Mr. Miller is not only a good general scholar, but has paid considerable attention to the sci-
ence of geology, and has made a specialty of the study of archaeology and zoology. There are
very few, if any, men of better culture in Menard county than the subject of this sketch. With-
out any tinge of pedantry, he is very interesting in conversation, and is a modest listener when
others are talking.
While a resident of Missouri, December 24, 1856, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Charlotte A.
Riche, of Buchanan county, and they have six children living, all at home, and had one son,
George Mitchell, killed by the cars in March, 1879, aged ten years. The living are Sarah M.,
Mollie A., Emma E., Leyria A., Rosa P. and Robert D. F.
LEROY B. FIRMAN.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch is widely known throughout the country, particularly in, the West,
first in connection with the Gamewell fire-alarm telegraph system, which he introduced into
all the principal cities west of New York, and afterward as the originator of the American Dis-
trict Telegraph of Chicago, and latterly as the efficient manager of the Chicago Telephone Com-
pany, a consolidation of the Bell and Edison Telephone Companies of Chicago. These various
systems of inter-communication are largely indebted to his ingenuity and persistent energy for
the marvelous efficiency which have rendered them well-nigh indispensable in our modern life.
From the time when he learned telegraphy, in 1858, at odd intervals while buying grain for a
flouring mill at Bloom ington, to the present time, his life has been devoted to the study and
development of the telegraph and telephone, and their adaptation to the needs of municipal life.
Remove from private residences alone in the city of Chicago the comfort, convenience and secu-
rity which the telegraph and telephone service has brought by his hand, and it would be like
returning to the days of the stage-coach and weekly mail.
His life has thus far been a quiet and uneventful one, but an exceedingly busy and useful one.
He has never interested himself in politics, but is nevertheless a pronounced republican in senti-
ment. Leaving others to the doubtful honors or profits of political life, he has devoted himself
assiduously to his business, which has secured to him the most enviable honor of a public bene-
factor, and very satisfactory profits as well.
Mr. Firman is a native of Otsego county, New York, and of American parentage. His father's
name is Horace Firman, a farmer, and his mother, Laura B. (Brown) Firman. He was born Decem-
ber 4, 1836, and spent his early life on the farm. He received what education he could get at the
district school of his native place till fifteen years of age, when he determined to begin life for
himself.
In 1851 he was seized with the western fever, which shortly carried him off, and he landed in
Beloit, Wisconsin. Here he soon found work suited to his years, and not only supported himself,
but laid up money, and in 1854 invested it in a small grocery' store at the little village of Elroy,
in Stephenson county, Illinois. Here he remained for about two years, when he sold out and
started overland for California. He was not destined, however, to reach the Golden State, but
was prostrated by sickness on reaching Christian county, Illinois, which effectually checked the
western fever by one of a more serious nature. Partially recovering therefrom, he decided to visit
his father's home once more, and among the scenes of his early boyhood regain the health and
and strength he had lost. Here he spent a few happy months, and in 1858 returned west fully
recovered. This time he brought up in Bloomington, and at once found employment buying
wheat for a flouring mill.
While in this business he was frequently in the telegraph office, and speedily mastered the
wondeiful art of talking by lightning. With unusual industry his spare moments were devoted
to acquiring skill in manipulating the wires, and as soon as he was capable of discharging its
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 489
duties he received an office at Gilman. Soon after entering upon his work he added the agency
of the American express. With economy in his expenditures he continued to lay up money, and
invested it in the lands of the Illinois Central railroad at $10 per acre. As fast as he was able
he put it under cultivation, and after keeping it four years sold it at $40 per acre. In 1862 he was
transferred to Tolono, on the same road; was given charge of both the telegraph and the ticket
offices, and his salary doubled. Here he remained until the close of the war, when he came to
Chicago and entered into the service of the city. He was at once appointed chief operator in the
fire-alarm telegraph office, where he remained but a few months when the board of fire commis-
sioners gave him leave of absence, under full pay for a year unless sooner recalled, for the pur-
pose of visiting the chief cities of the country and inspecting their various systems of fire-alarm
telegraphy for the benefit of the city of Chicago.
He completed his work in six months and was recalled: On his return he was offered a salary
of $3,000 a year and traveling expenses as general western agent of the Gamewell Fire-Alarm
Telegraph Company. He promptly accepted, and was so successful that in about eight months
he was given control of their system in all territory west of the state of New York, and an equal
share with four others in the net profits of the business in lieu of a salary.
He was a great gainer by the change, and the business greatly increasing on his hands, he took
E. B. Chandler into partnership, with headquarters at Chicago. The style of the firm was
Firman and Chandler, and investing their surplus in Chicago real estate, they were soon com-
pelled to add the purchase and sale of real estate to their business.
In 1872 Mr. Firman organized the American District Telegraph Company, and put it into suc-
cessful operation. The business of this corporation was to put up private wires running to a
central office, with a set of signals, by which private citizens could, from their residences, call for
any service they stood in need of, from shoveling the snow from the sidewalk to the attendance
of a physician, the capture of a burglar or the extinguishment of an incipient fire. Burglar
alarms were attached to doors and windows, and thieves have often been captured through sig-
nals they themselves sent to police headquarters, without even disturbing the family slumbers.
'In this way vacant houses are cared for during the absence of the family; thieves, fires, burglars
or meddlesome servants detected, and all without the trouble and expense of watchmen. This
most admirable service extended so rapidly in the city that Mr. Firman was very soon obliged to
turn his entire attention to its management, and December i, 1878, dissolved partnership with
Mr. Chandler, and turned the old business over to him.
When Mr. Bell sent the first telephones to Chicago for exhibition Mr. Firman with others exam-
ined them with that care and interest which a new invention in one's own calling always develops.
The opinions of the electricians who examined them were, with two or three exceptions, so at
variance with the results which have since developed that it sounds strangely now to repeat the
remarks made on that occasion.
The almost universal opinion was adverse to the applicability of the instrument for general
purposes, while all confessed it a marvel and a very clever laboratory instrument. But Mr. Fir-
man saw and applied all his energies to make others see its utility as a means of communication
between parties at a distance. Only a cast-iron will could have carried the point as he did against
what people believed their better judgment; but he won at last, and less than a dozen accepted
contracts for an aggregation of wires, which was the nucleus of the present exchange, with its
three thousand subscribers and a dozen sub-offices. The subscriber of to-day knows nothing of
the disheartening rebuffs he received, the continuous objections he met, and the difficulties he
overcame in his efforts to teach the people, and put upon a stable foundation this now popular
exchange. But he was the man for the work. In his peculiar quiet and winning way, using now
this argument, now that, adapting himself to his listener, earnest and persistent, but gentlemanly
and dignified, he succeeded, and in a very short time the eleven original subscribers found them-
selves notified daily, and often hourly, of accessions to their number.
Then came Edison's carbon transmitter, and communications improved. Every subscriber
490 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
brought another, and the work went on more bravely and rapidly. The opposition the Bell
interest, seeing the success of Mr. Firman's exchange, commissioned and equipped an army of
invasion, and a second exchange was brought into the field. The advent of the new company
stirred up a brisk competition, and canvassers were put into the field by both parties. In a short
time Chicago had outstripped every other city in the Union in the number of subscribers to its
exchange system, in addition to which large numbers of private lines were built and equipped by
the Edison Company under Mr. Firman. The Chicago success stirred up the whole West, and
even New York and all the principal eastern cities sent representatives again and again to witness
Chicago's latest triumph, who, coming armed with unbelief, returned clothed with conviction.
But now the rivalry between the two companies assumed another phase, and appeals to the courts
lent additional interest and added bitterness to the exciting contest. At last, however, the grand
fight at headquarters in the East was brought to a close, and the rivalry ended by the consolida-
tion of the opposing interests, and the door was opened for a mutual settlement in the West.
This took place in the early part of 1881 by the formation of an entirely new company, who pur-
chased the vested rights of both. Thus the Bell Telephone Company and the American District
Telegraph Company both disappeared in the newer and stronger corporation of the Chicago
Telephone Company. With this new company Mr. Firman is still identified, and it is needless to
add brings his long experience and unrivaled ability to the management of its rapidly-increasing
interests. There seems to be practically no limit to the usefulness or extension of this invention.
Improvements are constantly going on, and it now seems probable that all the large cities of
the country will soon be as effectually connected by telephone as they are now by telegraph
service. A short time ago it was considered impossible to communicate by telephone outside of
the city, but within the past few months all the cities within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles
have regular communication with Chicago by telephone. Mr. Firman is an enthusiast in his
business, and with his inventive and practical mind and undiminished energy and ardor much
may be hoped for in the improvement and extension of this means of communication.
In society Mr. Firman is an extremely sociable and friendly man. He is a Master Mason and
a member of Hesperia Lodge, No. 411, and a Knight Templar of the Red Cross of Constantine.-
None make friends more readily or retain them more firmly. He is not a schemer, but makes
friendships unconsciously on the principle that "he who would have friends must show himself
friendly."
PHILO CASTLE.
MEN DOT A.
A MONO the Green Mountain boys who settled in La Salle county thirty years ago, and have been
/X successful in turning pennies and the soil, is Philo Castle, who was born in Wilmington, Wind-
ham county, September 25, 1818. His father, Philo Castle, Sr., was a native of Windham county,
Connecticut, and a son of Timothy Castle. The mother of Philo was Jerusha Dix, who was born
in Windham county, Vermont. The son finished his education at the Shelburne Falls Academy,
Massachusetts, where he attended for five or six terms. He taught school one winter at Jackson-
ville, town of Whitingham, Vermont, and another in Heath, Massachusetts, and has always been
engaged in farming.
In the autumn of 1853 Mr. Castle came to Mendota, and settled on a farm of one hundred and
sixty acres, on the line of the corporation on the east side, and there he has lived for thirty
years, improving his land and setting a good example of industry. Thirty-four acres of his farm
he rents for the Mendota Union Fair grounds. He takes great interest in agricultural matters,
and is a thoroughgoing business man. He owns several buildings in the city of Mendota, and is
of the firm of Kellenberger and Company, dealers in agricultural implements, etc. He is secre-
tary of the Farmers' Insurance Company and an alderman, and has been a justice of the peace
for the last twenty years or more. He has also served at different times as a member of the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
49 I
school board, and has held nearly every office in the township, bearing his full share of such bur-
dens, and discharging the duties of every position with promptness and fidelity. At one period
he was a director of the First National Bank of Mendota. Mr. Castle represented for several
years half a dozen of the best fire-insurance companies in the United States, and was eminently
successful in that business, as in every other to which he has devoted his attention.
In politics Mr. Castle was originally a whig, with anti-slavery leaning; voted the republican
ticket in 1856 and 1860, and has since been quite independent, acting part of the time with the
democratic party and latterly with the greenbackers or nationals, voting for General Weaver for
president in 1.880. Mr. Castle does his own thinking on all subjects, and consults his own judg-
ment in exercising the elective franchise.
Mr. Castle was first married, in 1844, to Miss Emily Myers, of Reedsboro, Vermont, she dying
in 1856. leaving no issue. She was a daughter of Rev. Silas Myers, of Reedsboro, Bennington
county, a well educated woman, a teacher in early life, and an exemplary member of the Metho-
dist church. Mr. Castle was married the second time, in 1858, to Miss Frances P. Dix, of Niag-
ara county, New York, having by her three children: Alexander P., Ida J. and Henry D. Mrs.
Castle is a graduate of the Albany Normal University, and was a teacher for several years. She
is a member of the Baptist Church, and a faithful worker in the temperance cause. Her father,
Daniel Dix, is now living in Iowa, being in his eighty-seventh year. The mother of Mr. Castle
lived to be ninety-two years old, and belonged to a family of great longevity.
HON. WILLIAM H. HARPER.
CHICAGO.
WILLIAM HENRY HARPER, manager of the Chicago and Pacific elevator, and a member
of the thirty-third general assembly, is a native of Tippecanoe county, Indiana, his birth
being dated May 4, 1845. His parents, William and Eliza Jane (Ramsey) Harper, were natives
of the Old Dominion. The grandfather of William Harper took up arms against George III in
1777-83. When three years old the subject of this sketch came into this state with his family,
which settled on a farm in Woodford county, and, as is the custom with most farmers' sons, he
attended a district school in the winters and aided in cultivating the land the rest of the year. In
that manner he developed and hardened his muscles, and fitted himself for the stern duties of life,
In 1864, when nineteen years of age, Mr. Harper enlisted as a private in company B, I45th
Illinois infantry, a three months' regiment, and served until mustered out. Not long after the
rebellion had collapsed Mr. Harper came to Chicago, and took a full course of studies at East-
man's Commercial College, from which he was graduated. Returning to Woodford county, he
engaged in the stock, grain and shipping business, remaining there until 1868, when he came
back to Chicago, and since that date has here found ample scope for his vigorous mind and
body and his splendid business capacities.
Mr. Harper was engaged in looking after his business affairs. in the commission line until 1872,
the year after the great Chicago fire, when he was appointed chief grain inspector, a position for
which he was admirably qualified, and the duties of which he discharged to the unqualified satis-
faction of the board of trade and all parties concerned. His term of service expired in 1875, at
which time Mr. Harper entered into a contract with the Chicago and Pacific (now the Chicago,
Milwaukee and Saint Paul) Railroad Company, and built the elevator known by the name of the
first line. Of that large establishment he has the management, in which he is very efficient, and
shows himself to be a first-class business man.
In the summer of 1882 the republicans of the second senatorial district, composed of the fourth
ward of Chicago and Hyde Park and Lake townships, in looking around for suitable candidates
for representatives, selected Mr. Harper as one of the number, and elected him. It is one of the
most wealthy and influential constituencies in Cook county, and the choice has proved a happy
492 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
one, for Mr. Harper is energetic and public-spirited, and looks carefully after the interests of tfie
state at large as well as the city of Chicago, being a man of broad views. He is the author of
the so-called Harper bill, and is a strong advocate of high license, which he believes to be for the
best interests of the people.
He has taken the fourteenth degree in Masonry, and is a member of the Union League Club
and other social and commercial organizations. July 16, 1868, Mr. Harper was married to Miss
Mollie J. Perry, of Metamora, Woodford county, and they have two daughters and one son, their
names being Fannie Angle, Roy Beveridge and Hazel Glen. The family attend the Fifth Pres-
byterian Church.
HON. MILO ERWIN.
MARION.
THE subject of this biographical sketch is a prominent lawyer of the Williamson county bar,
and a member of the general assembly. He is a native of the county in which he lives,
and was born October 24, 1847, while his father, Robert P. Erwin, was fighting the Mexicans.
The mother of Milo was Elizabeth Furlong, a native of Tennessee. Her husband was born in
Illinois. He was a merchant and mill-owner. Our subject finished his literary education in the
Model department of the Normal University, at Normal, and his legal at the University of Mich-
igan, Ann Arbor, where he was graduated in 1872. Since that time he has been in practice at
Marion, and he has a good run of business in the several courts of the state. Mr. Erwin is well
read in his profession, prompt and expeditious in attending to business, upright and honorable in
all his dealings, and stands remarkably high with his people.
He was city attorney from 1873 to 1877 ; was the republican candidate for the state senate from
the old 47th district, in 1874, and again in 1878, and at the latter election reduced the usual dem-
ocratic majority of 1500 to a little over 200. He was nominated for the lower house in 1880, for
the same district, and was elected. He gave so good satisfaction to his constituents that he was
renominated, and returned to the House from the new 5ist district. He is so great a favorite
with his party that his nomination has been by acclamation every time. He is known in his part
of the state as the "sun-burnt orator," he being quite effective on the stump.
In the thirty-third general assembly he was chairman of the education committee, and was
on a half-a-dozen other committees, and attended faithfully to the business of the house.
Mr. Erwin is the author of the " History of Williamson County," including the bloody vendetta
and the Secession movements. He is a seventh degree Freemason, and has been high priest of
the Marion Chapter, No. 100. He is also an Odd-Fellow.
Mr. Erwin has traveled over the western provinces of the Dominion of Canada, partly for rec-
reation, and partly to enlarge his stores of knowledge. He has an inquiring mind, and luckily is
never satisfied with present attainments, either in law or in any other branch of knowledge.
ALEXANDER McCOY.
CHICAGO.
OF the distinguished members of the Chicago bar, we are pleased to record the name of Alex-
ander McCoy. Well read in all the intricacies of his profession, thoroughly conversant
with the rules of practice in all of the courts, both state and federal, possessing a comprehensive
mind, being a logical reasoner with keen perceptions, he readily grasps his subject, and possessing
the power of analysis to an eminent degree, his judgment is almost unerring; a valuable coun-
selor, and pursuing strict integrity, sincerity and true fidelity, he has won the confidence and
esteem of the courts before whom he has practiced. By honorable dealing he has retained the
confidence of his brethren at the bar as well as the community at large. For uprightness, straight-
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forward conduct and true manhood, Alexander McCoy has no superior; so sincere and truthful
in his manner of presenting his cases to the jury does he manifest himself, that his words have
great weight, and his efforts are almost universally crowned with success. He is not a flashy
speaker, but his illustrations are apt; he speaks to the point, and keeps close to his subject; being
clear in his own mind, he never confuses his hearers by introducing matter foreign to his subject.
He is a gentleman of fine presence, being about six feet tall, well proportioned, and dignified
in his demeanor, courteous and kind in his intercourse with mankind, he is highly prized by his
large circle of friends for his moral worth and intellectual endowments.
Alexander McCoy is of Scotch descent, and was born in West Findley township, Washington
county, Pennsylvania. His father, John McCoy, was of pure Scotch parentage, and son of Daniel
McCoy, a captain in the revolutionary war. His mother, Jane (Brice) McCoy, was a daughter of
Rev. John Brice, who organized, and was the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Three Ridges, now West Alexandria, Pennsylvania.
At the classical school at West Alexandria, under the instruction of Rev. Doctor McClusky,
and others, he was prepared to enter the junior class half advanced, at Washington College, Penn-
sylvania, in the fall of 1842. Having spent some time after graduation in teaching at home, and
subsequently as teacher of languages in Vermillion Institute, at Haysville, Ohio, he entered the
law office of Given and Barcroft as a student, at Millersburgh, Ohio, where he made rapid pro-
gress in the rudiments of his profession, and after a thorough preparation he was admitted to the
bar by the supreme court of Ohio, in the winter of 1850. He then removed to Peoria, Illinois,
where he located to practice his profession.
A great contest was then carried on in the courts in Peoria and adjoining counties, between
parties holding lands under tax titles accruing under the state authorities, and parties claiming
the same under patent given to soldiers for said lands by the general government.
To prepare himself for this litigation he spent nearly a year in the county clerk's office of
Peoria county, where the tax titles originated.
February i, 1851, he formed a partnership with Henry Grove, under the partnership name of
Grove and McCoy, at Peoria, and they at once entered upon the successful practice of the law,
doing a very extensive business, with a still increasing practice. In the fall of 1856 he was elected
state's attorney for the then i6th judicial district, for a term of four years. The duties of his
office, together with the increased labor of his partnership, proved to be too severe for his health,
and hemorrhage from the lungs compelled a dissolution of his partnership in 1858. His health
gradually improving, he continued to discharge the duties of prosecutor in his district with such
ability and fidelity that at the expiration of this term, he was in 1860 reflected for another term
of four years.
Still continuing to improve in health, in 1861 he formed a partnership with Hon. N.
H. Purple, ex-judge of the supreme court of the state, whose term of office had expired, under the
firm name of Purple and McCoy. This partnership continued until dissolved by the death of
Judge Purple, in August, 1863.
In the fall of 1864, at the urgent solicitation of the people, he became a candidate to the leg-
islature. During the session of 1865 he was awarded the chairmanship of the committee on judi-
ciary, thus giving him the first place upon the floor of the house, as a legislator. Mr. McCoy was
soon an acknowledged leader, his counsel was always sought when important matters were up for
consideration; he devoted his time and attention strictly to the interest of his constituents. He
was of great value to the state, and particularly to that section represented by him.
In the spring of 1867 he formed a partnership with Judge M. Williamson and John S. Stevens,
under the firm name of Williamson, McCoy and Stevens. This partnership was dissolved by the
death of Judge Williamson in 1868, after which the business was carried on under the firm name
of McCoy and Stevens. Their business was large and lucrative, embracing not only the practice
in the surrounding counties but in the supreme court of the state, and the circuit and district
44
496 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
courts of the United States at Chicago. The domestic life of Mr. McCoy has been one of vary-
ing light and shade.
He was married October 7, 1857, to Miss Sarah J. Mathews, of Lee, New Hampshire, an esti-
mable lady, of fine accomplishments, and a graduate of the female seminary of Mount Holyoke.
Massachusetts. In 1863 she was suddenly taken from him, leaving an infant daughter in his care.
He was married a second time June 23, 1869, to Miss Lucinda E. Button, of Chicago, a very
worthy lady, possessed of high intellectual and social qualities, and surrounded by many friends.
With his wife and daughter he immediately went abroad, visiting England, and making the usual
tour of the continent. In 1870 he returned to Peoria, and resumed the practice of his profession,
in company with J. S. Stevens, his former partner.
In May, 1871, at the urgent solicitations of many friends in Chicago, he removed to that city,
and entered into partnership with George F. Harding, and with him actively engaged in the
practice of his profession. In the great conflagration of October 9, 1871, he lost his extensive and
valuable library. In the year 1872, Lorin G. Pratt, a lawyer of great experience, force, and
remarkable quickness of perception, became associated with him and Mr. Harding, under the firm
name of Harding, McCoy and Pratt. Mr. Harding retired from the firm in 1875. The business
was then carried on in the name of McCoy and Pratt. From this time on their business continued
to increase rapidly. All branches of litigation were committed to their charge. Important suits
involving the most intricate questions of commercial law, such as arise in great cities, were daily
intrusted to their care, and for the last five years they were largely employed in railroad litigation.
September 23, 1881, Mr. Pratt died suddenly of heart disease, and the firm was broken up, but the
business of the firm has been continued up to the present time by Mr. McCoy, who works assidu-
ously early and late, in attending to the wants of his numerous clients, who confide in him, and
rely upon his able counsel, and have learned by experience to respect him for his eminent ability
in every branch of the profession which he honors by his high-minded, honorable dealing with
all with whom he meets.
J. B. M< KIN LEY.
CHAMPAIGN.
AMONG the self-made men of Champaign none deserve more honorable mention than the
t\. subject of this sketch. He was born in Ross county, Ohio, February, 1821. His parents,
Thomas and Alice (Barclay) McKinley, were of Irish descent, and were among the early pioneer
settlers of Ohio, settling there in 1815, five miles from Chillicothe, which was then capital of the
state. Mr. McKinley spent his early life on the farm, attending the common schools, and subse-
quently attended the Salem Academy about four years, where he completed his school education.
In 1847 he started for the West, and landed in Hennepin, Putnam county, Illinois. Here he
taught school for about two years, and at the same time commenced the study of law. In the
spring of 1849 he removed to Petersburgh, and completed his studies with the late William
Macon, and in 1850 was admitted to the bar. He began the practice of his profession at Peters-
burgh, but, after three years, removed to Clinton, De Witt county, in 1853. Here he practiced
with success until 1857, when, seeing there were better advantages in Champaign, he removed
thither, where he has since made his home, and become one of the most active members of the
bar. In 1863 he formed a partnership with A. C. Burnham, a former student under him, under
the firm name of McKinley and Burnham. Three years later Mr. Burnham withdrew from the
firm, and the business was continued by Mr. McKinley, who devoted himself largely to chancery
and real-estate matters, and investing money to some extent for friends in the way of farm loans,
mortgages and different investments. This branch of the business gradually increased to such an
extent that, in 1871, he gave up the law, giving his entire attention to the mortgage and brokerage
business, in which he has been verv successful.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
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He continued alone until March, 1871, when he formed a partnership with his former partner
and Mr. Tulleys, under the firm name of Burnham, McKinley and Tulleys. The firm represented
considerable capital, and managed an eminently successful business, and although the whole
county shortly afterward was stricken with a financial crisis, by skillful management they carried
on a very successful business, to the gratification and delight of the different members of the
firm, which continued some five years. Mr. McKinley, however, continued in the same business,
shortly afterward taking into partnership with himself Edward Heliker. Their business increased
very rapidly, and in order to find suitable investments for their large capital they found it neces-
sary to establish branch offices, the first of which they started at Jefferson, Iowa, which Mr. Heli-
ker took charge of, when W. B. McKinley, a nephew, was taken into the firm, who is still in con-
nection with the home office, and in 1879 William H. Lanning was taken into the firm, and now
has charge of their office at Hastings, -Nebraska. ' In July, 1881. William Stull was also taken into
the firm, and given charge of the office at Lincoln, Nebraska. By the careful management of Mr.
McKinley, who is the leading man in the business, they are now in a very prosperous condition,
and have the promise of a bright future.
In politics he is a. republican, but has never taken an active part. In religion he has been a
worthy and prominent member of the Presbyterian church, with which he connected himself in
early youth.
He was married in 1860 at Racine, Wisconsin, to Miss Jennie Sanford, a lady of high literary
attainments. Mr. McKinley has always manifested great public spirit, and contributed materially
to many public enterprises. He has, since early childhood, led a very industrious and busy life,
and the high position he has reached has been due alone to his determined will and perseverance,
and fair and upright dealing. He has not only been financially prospered, but has won to him-
self a large number of true friends.
FREDERICK COLE, M.I).
EL. f A SO.
ONE of the best-educated physicians and surgeons in Woodford county is he whose name
stands at the head of this sketch, and who is United States examining surgeon for pensions,
and surgeon for two railroads. He is a native of York county, Maine, being born in the town of
Cornish, March 30, 1829. His father, Richard Cole, a miller, justice of the peace, etc., and his
grandfather, Asahel Cole, were also natives of Maine. His mother, whose maiden name was
Hannah Barker, was born in Cornish, and belonged to a wealthy pioneer family in that town.
Frederick Cole received an academic education, and taught school in his native state until
1852, when he came" west, and after spending a short half year in Madison, Wisconsin, he came
into this state, and taught school in Kendall and Winnebago counties, finishing at Rockford,
teaching in all, at the East and West, about twelve years.
He read medicine with Doctor James McArthur, of Rockford; attended lectures at Rush
Medical College, Chicago; received his diploma in February, 1865, and went immediately into
the army as assistant surgeon of the 1518! Illinois infantry, which was stationed in Georgia, and
which was mustered out in January, 1866. On leaving the service, Doctor Cole located at Anna-
wan, Henry county, this state, and in December, 1867, settled in El Paso. In 1870 he took the
ad eundem degree at Bellevue Hospital College, New York city.
Few physicians in this section have taken as much pains as Doctor Cole in preparing for
practice, or have succeeded as well in the profession. He does all the surgery in and near El
Paso, performing many difficult operations, and having the fullest confidence of the community
in his skill. He is surgeon for the Wabash, Saint Louis and Pacific and the Illinois Central
roads, which are bisected at El Paso.
Doctor Cole has been secretary of the Woodford County Medical Association since its organ-
49 *J
In 1835 Mr. Danforth came to Washington, his present home, the town then having little more
than a local population, with few people to do the inhabiting. Needing hydraulic power, and
there being none in the place, he utilized two large dogs, of which he was the proprietor. Con-
structing a large cylindrical wheel, he put one dog at a time in it, and thus turned his lathe and
made a success in manufacturing furniture for his neighbors. He continued the cabinet-making
business for a number of years, and was subsequently engaged in several branches of industry
merchandising, building, operating in land, banking, etc. For some years he was connected with
his brother, George W. Danforth, of Iroquois county, and in that county and Tazewell, as stated
in a Tazewell county atlas, they built "twelve stores, three warehouses, over thirty village and
farm houses, four flouring, planing and saw-mills, and planted twenty-five orchards and two
nurseries."
It is doubtful if any man in Tazewell county has contributed more largely to its development
than Mr. Danforth. He has been a man of wonderful enterprise and industry, and his accumu-
lations are the fruit of hard work, tact and wise foresight. He has one of the finest residences
in this vicinity, planned by himself, and a model of convenience. He built it when all his chil-
dren were at home, and since most of them are married and away he no doubt finds it decidedly
roomy.
Mr. Danforth was married February 25, 1839, to Miss Catharine A. Rupert, of -Pekin, this
county, and they have lost one child and have two sons and three daughters living: Almond G.,
the eldest son, is of the firm of A. G. Danforth and Company, bankers, his father having a large
interest in the institution; Henry R. is in the real estate and farming business in Danforth, Iro-
quois county (town named for his uncle); Caroline is the wife of Herman W. Snow, of Sheldon,
Iroquois county; Harriet is the wife of Doctor Patrick, same place, and Catharine H. is the wife
of L. S. Rupert, of Bloomington, Illinois.
Mr. Danforth has voted the democratic ticket from Martin Van Buren to General Hancock,
but he has steadfastly refused all political offices. Many years ago he was a director of the east-
ern extension of what was known as the Peoria and Oquawka railroad, and has been identified
with other public enterprises, being a public-spirited, benevolent man, taking pleasure in aid-
ing to develop the interests of the community, material, educational, social and moral.
JOHN DARST.
EUREKA.
THE gentleman with whose name this sketch is headed was born in Greene county, Ohio,
November 6, 1816. His father, Jacob Darst, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, and his
mother, whose maiden name was Mary Coy, was a native of Green county, Ohio. The grandfathers
on both sides were from Germany. Mr. Darst received an ordinary district-school education;
worked on his father's farm till of age; married, November 22, 1838, Ruhamah Moler, daughter
of John Moler, who was a native of Virginia, and died at ninety-two years of age; then farmed
for himself in Ohio until 1851, when he brought his family to this state and settled at Eureka, on
the farm where he now lives, the place being called Walnut Grove. The first few weeks of their
married life in Ohio, about the year 1838, they occupied an abandoned log cabin, with puncheon
floor, .and only one room; then adding another room, and thus living for some years.
Mr. Darst was engaged in farming for more than thirty years, renting the homestead farm to
his youngest son, Jacob A. Darst, in the spring of 1882. He had at one time about 1,600 acres,
disposing of it by piecemeal, as one by one his children became of age, nine sons and one daugh-
ter reaching their majority. One son, John W., died at eighteen years of age. The home farm,
on which Mr. Darst settled in 1851, has about 250 acres, and like all the lands which he has ever
owned in this state, is under excellent improvement. He has always kept his farms well stocked
with cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, and has fed most of his grain, not wishing to see any of it
514 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
used for manufacturing dfstilled spirits. His father, at an early day, was a distiller, as well as
farmer and blacksmith, but saw the evils of such manufacture, and abandoned it. The son, too,
was early impressed with the bad results of liquor drinking, and has been a teetotaler for more
than fifty years.
In politics Mr. Darst is a prohibitionist, out and out, and until slavery was done away with,
he was an abolitionist. His life seems to have been a constant warfare with oppression and evil
in every form. Mr. Darst joined the Baptist church when a young man, and afterward changed
to the Christian church, which he has served in different official positions, being a deacon for a
long time, and an elder for the last fifteen or sixteen years.
When he came to what is now Eureka there was an academy started by the Christian denom-
ination in which school he became deeply interested. In 1855 a college charter was obtained, and
a college building was erected a year or two later. In 1864 a second building was put up, he
being associated in both cases with others in superintending the work. He has been a trustee of
this excellent institution from the first, and has been its most liberal donor, having contributed
in all about $16,000. He is a large-hearted, generous man, and an invaluable citizen of Eureka.
Since the autumn of 1882 Mr. Darst has had an interest in the Farmers' Bank of Eureka, which
is managed by his son, George E. Darst, and E. O. Lyman, it being a thriving young institution.-
Mr. Darst's family are all married but the two youngest sons, and all have made a profession of
religion. Three are deacons of Christian churches, and all bear a good character. Five of the
sons, Oliver P., Harrison H., Leo C., James P. and Henry R., were in the late civil war, the last
enlisting in his seventeenth year.
Mr. Darst has held various local offices, such as member of the town board of trustees, super-
visor, etc., and has always stood ready to bear his share of much gratuitous work. He laid out
the town of Eureka, in January, 1856, a postoffice having been established here three or four years
before, and given that name. His name will go down in local history as a successful farmer, a
warm friend of education, and a zealous worker in the cause of humanity and religion.
T
THOMAS COLLINS WHITESIDE.
CHICAGO.
HE subject of this biography is a native of Marion, Grant county, Indiana, and was born
February 28, 1837. His paternal ancestry, of Scotch-Irish origin, at an early day settled in
Rockbridge county, Virginia. His father was a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, and was a man of
remarkable enterprise and force of character, and commanding influence in his community.
Beginning life as a blacksmith, he rose steadily by his own hard work, and later was engaged in
mercantile pursuits, and finally turned his attention to the manufacture of woolen goods, and
amassed a handsome fortune.
The mother of our subject, Matilda (Collins) Whiteside, was of English ancestry, and at the
time of her marriage resided at Indianapolis, Indiana. During his boyhood, Thomas received
fair educational advantages, and preparatory to entering college, pursued a course of study at
Farmers College, in College Hill, Ohio. Completing his course there, he, in the fall of 1855,
entered Union College, at Schenectady, New York, of which the renowned Doctor Nott was at
that time president. In college he was a thorough, earnest and close student, and graduated
with high honors in the class of 1858. While still a youth, he had decided to enter the legal pro-
fession, and immediately upon completing his college course, he began the study of law, at
Logansport, Indiana, in the office of Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, afterward United States senator, and
still later, appointed by President Grant commissioner of internal revenue.
After being admitted to the bar in 1860, Mr. Whiteside settled at Peoria, Illinois, and began
the practice of his profession, in partnership with Leslie Robinson. During this same year he
returned to Logansport, and married Miss Lavina Walker, daughter of Hon. George B. Walker,
C Cm pe- Jr S DC
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of that place, and a few months later settled at Wabash, where his father then resided. In the
autumn of the following year, 1861, he was appointed by Governor Oliver P. Morton state's attor-
ney in the eleventh judicial district of Indiana, a position to which, at the expiration of his term, he
was elected on the republican ticket, holding the same with marked ability until the fall of 1864.
During the winter of 1864-5 ne represented the counties of Kosciusko and Wabash in the
state legislature on the republican ticket, and during his term of service had the honor of intro-
ducing before the legislature the joint resolution ratifying the amendment to the federal consti-
tution abolishing slavery in the United States. He championed this measure with distinguished
ability, closing the debate with a speech of great eloquence and power, and it was adopted in the face
of a strong opposition, by a large majority. He here became known as a wise lawmaker, an eloquent
and logical speaker, a ready debater, and a man of scholarly attainments. In June, 1865, he was
appointed by Governor Morton judge of the twenty-first judicial district of Indiana, comprising
five counties, being at that time but about twenty-eight years of age. In the fall of this same
year Judge Whiteside was elected to the same office to which he had formerly been appointed, and
although his term of office was expected to continue but four years, through some legislative
defect he continued in office until 1871, when he resigned on account of ill-health. Prior to this,
in 1868, he was a candidate for congress before the republican congressional convention of his
district, in opposition to Hon. John U. Pettit, and others, and received a complimentary vote of
the convention. At his own request, his name was withdrawn as a candidate, and Hon. Daniel
D. Pratt was elected to represent the district. Again in 1872, he was nominated for congress by
the liberal republican party, for the eleventh congressional district of Indiana, being opposed by
Hon. James N. Tyner, postmaster-general under President Grant, and subsequently assistant
postmaster-general by appointment of President Hayes.
In 1873 Judge Whiteside removed to Chicago, having regained his health, and resumed the
practice of law. As a lawyer he ranks among the leading members of the Chicago bar, and by
close application and earnest effort, has built up an extensive practice in both the state and fed-
eral courts. His personal and social qualities are of a high order; genial and generous in his
manners and intercourse with others, he never fails to make friends. He is, in stature, above the
medium, and has a dignified and manly bearing. Though but in the prime of life, he has
achieved what many strive a lifetime in gaining, and has before him a future bright with hopes
and promise.
JOSEPH C. KALB, M.D.
HEffK Y.
JOSEPH CLABAUGH KALB, a prominent physician and surgeon at Henry, Marshall county,
J is a native of Franklin county, Ohio, a son of George Washington Kalb, a farmer, and Mar-
garet (Clabaugh) Kalb, and was born June 30, 1831. The family was originally from Germany;
going thence to France, where it became De Kalb, the great-grandfather of our subject being a
brother of Baron De Kalb, who figured so conspicuously in the American revolution, and for
whom De Kalb county, this state, was named. The Clabaughs are of Scotch lineage.
Doctor Kalb received an English and Latin education at Columbus, Ohio; attended lectures
at Starling College, in the same city; received the degree of doctor of medicine in March, 1857,
and practiced at London, twenty miles west of Columbus, till the rebellion broke out In June,
1861, he went into the army as surgeon of the 42d Ohio infantry, Colonel J. A. Garfield com-
mander, and was mustered out in November, 1864. During the last year and a half the doctor
was division surgeon on the staff of General Albert L. Lee, who is well known as the Kansas
"Jay Hawker," a young man of lion-like bravery. During the early part of the war Doctor Kalb
formed a very intimate acquaintance with his colonel, who afterward became major-general and
president, and he has letters from the martyred chief written only a few months before he was
shot. President Garfield seems never to have forgotten a friend, whether an associate in camp-
Si
518 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
life, or in the halls of learning, or on the play grounds of childhood, and of all the friendships
that Doctor Kalb ever formed we doubt if there is one more tender than that with the great
statesman, orator and chief magistrate of the nation, who died in September, 1881.
On leaving the army Doctor Kalb practiced his profession in Columbus until the autumn of
1869, when he came to this state and settled in Henry, where he has since done a general and suc-
cessful professional business. His experience in the army was a fine school to him, especially in
surgery, most of which he does in and around his present home, his rides often extending twenty
to forty miles away. His reputation in all branches of the healing art is excellent, and he has the
fullest confidence of the community in his skill. For six or seven years he was also in the drug-
business, selling out in the autumn of 1882.
Doctor Kalb is a member of the National Eclectic Medical Association and of the District
Progressive Association, often reading papers before the latter body, its meetings being held quar-
terly. He also writes occasionally for the medical journals of his school, reporting many truly
interesting cases, and sometimes preparing essays on medical science and collateral subjects.
In politics the subject of this notice is a republican to the back bone, but we cannot learn that
he has any political aspirations. He is thoroughly wedded to his profession. He was married in
October, 1852, to Miss Serena S. Brown, of his native county, and they have two children: Clin-
ton M. and Edna E., both of whom are at home.
WILLIAM HARVEY WELLS.
CHIC A GO.
WILLIAM HARVEY WELLS was born in Tolland, Connecticut, February 12, i8 I2 . His
father was a farmer, in moderate circumstances, and the son received no educational
advantages beyond a few weeks each year at a district school, till he was seventeen'years of age.
After spending one winter at an academy at Vernon, Connecticut, and one at an academy in his
native town, he taught a district school, and boarded around. He was afterward associated with
Theodore L. Wright, as an assistant teacher in East Hartford, where he commenced preparing
for college. Most of his time during the day was spent in teaching, and his studies were gen-
erally continued late into the night. His labors were greater than his strength, and his eyes
became so much weakened that he was compelled to abandon his cherished plan for entering
college just as his preparatory course was completed.
He had already given marked evidence of ability to teach, and his ambition now turned in
that direction. In 1834 he entered the Teachers' Seminary, at Andover, Massachusetts, which
was in charge of Rev. S. R. Hall, and remained there eight months. He then returned to East
Hartford, and engaged in teaching and study, but was recalled to Andover by Mr. Hall in 1836,
and employed as an assistant in the Teachers' Seminary. He remained in this institution till it
was merged in Phillips Academy, and then took charge of the English department of the acad-
emy, where he continued his instructions to successive classes of teachers. During these years
he planned and executed an extensive course of study and reading in English literature, and here
he prepared his "School Grammar," which was published in 1846. The success of this work is
shown by the fact that over half a million copies of it have been sold.
In 1845 the trustees of Dartmouth College conferred on Mr. Wells the honorary degree of
master of arts.
In 1847 he was elected principal of the Putnam Free School, Newburyport, Massachusetts, an
institution founded by the munificence of Oliver Putnam, a native of Newburyport. This school
was not to be opened till 1848, but Mr. Wells immediately resigned his position in Andover, for
the purpose of securing a little needed relaxation. A large portion of this interval was spent in
work at teachers' institutes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His labors
in Newburyport were commenced in April,. 1848, and he remained in charge of the Putnam Free
School six years.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 519
He was an active member of the Essex County Teachers' Association, one of the oldest county
associations in the country, and was president of the association two years. He was one of the
originators of the Massachusetts State Teachers' Association, and was twice elected president of
that association. He was also one of the projectors and one of the first editors of the Massachu-
setts " Teacher."
In 1854 he was elected principal of the Westfield State Normal School, by the Massachusetts
board of education. Under his direction, trie school rapidly increased in numbers, and in less
than two years it became necessary for the state to enlarge the building provided for its accom-
modation.
In 1856 Mr. Wells was appointed superintendent of schools in Chicago, and his life at once
became closely identified with the history of education in Illinois. In whatever position he acted,
whether in connection with the schools of his own city, as a member of the state board of educa-
tion, as a member of the State Teachers' Association, as a lecturer at teachers' institutes, or as a
contributor to educational literature, he showed indomitable energy, and a mastery of the theory
and practice of education, which gave him a recognized position among the leading educators of
the country.
One of the most important special results of Mr. Wells' labors in the Chicago schools was the
development of his graded course, by which the classification of pupils, and their steps and pro-
gress, were reduced to a carefully graded system, from their first entrance into the school-room
to the completion of their course. This system attracted much attention outside of Chicago, and
its leading features were soon adopted in most of the large cities and towns in all parts of the
country. This course of study, with extracts from several of the author's educational lectures
and reports, was afterward published in a volume entitled "The Graded School," which became
a standard work for teachers' libraries.
Mr. Wells held the office of president of the Illinois State Teachers' Association, and in 1863
he was elected president of the National Teachers' Association. In his inaugural address before
this association, at Ogdensburgh, New York, in 1864, he dwelt particularly upon the importance
of cultivating the art of conversation as a regular branch of school instruction, in connection with
lessons in language.
In 1864 Mr. Wells resigned the office of superintendent of schools, to engage in business, but
his educational labors did not cease with the severance of this connection. He has been a mem-
ber of the Chicago board of education much of the time since that date, and has also held the
office of president of the board. He has recently returned to his labors as an author, and issued
the " Shorter Course in English Grammar and Composition," which has received the indorsement
of prominent educators in all parts of the country, and has already been widely adopted in
schools. Of Mr. Wells' labors in Andover, S. H. Taylor, principal of Phillips Academy, speaks
as follows:
"He was thoroughly earnest; he was alive to his work, and was impelled by a strong inward
impulse to do whatever would secure success in it. The clear ring of his voice as he propounded,
in quick succession, questions to his class, was sufficient to indicate to those who might not see
the glow upon his countenance, how strong a sympathy he .had with his work. Indeed, he might
be said to be enthusiastic in whatever he taught, and his pupils at once imbibed his spirit. He
resolutely and persistently held the pupil responsible to do for himself all he supposed to be in
his power. Many a teacher has the same theory, but I have never known it so severely reduced
to practice as in Mr. Wells' system of teaching."
Of his labors as superintendent of schools in Chicago, Mr. Luther Haven, president of the
board of education, bears the following testimony:
" Mr. Wells brought to the service of the board of education and to the interests of the schools
all those admirable traits of character which had tended so greatly to enhance his success and
usefulness in every position he had previously occupied, and these traits he has devoted with
untiring industry and perseverance, with all the powers of his well-trained mind, to the building
1520 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAKV.
up of our public schools, and placing them in such a condition as to command the confidence and
support of our whole community. His labors have been eminently successful. For the high
position now held by our schools in the estimation of our whole community, for the harmony
and good feeling now existing among all parties in relation to them, we are indebted, in no small
degree, to the prudence, care, kindness and firmness of Mr. Wells."
The following extract from a lecture on Self-Reliance, delivered by Mr. Wells before the Amer-
ican Institute of Instruction, embodies one of the principles by which his own life was governed,
and which he never failed to inculcate in the minds of his pupils:
" The highest and most important object of intellectual education is mental discipline, or the
power of using the mind to the best advantage. The price of this discipline is effort. However
much we may regret that we do not live a century later, because we cannot have the benefit of
the educational improvements that are to be made during the next hundred years, of one thing
we may rest assured, that intellectual eminence will be attained during the twentieth century just
as it is in the nineteenth by the labor of the brain. We are not to look for any new discovery
or invention that will supersede the necessity of mental toil; we are not to desire it. If we had
but to supplicate some kind genius, and he would at once endow us with all the knowledge in the
universe, the gift would prove a burden to us, and not a blessing. We must have the discipline
of acquiring knowledge in the manner established by the Author of our being, and without this
discipline our intellectual stores would be worse than useless."
A
HON. NATHANIEL MOORE.
WE NONA.
MONO the enterprising and successful farmers in the eastern part of Marshall county is
Nathaniel Moore, a native of Warren county, Ohio. He was born in Waynesville, August
17, 1819, and was the youngest son in a family of five children, three sons and two daughters, all
of whom lived to grow to manhood and womanhood. The three sons are still living. The
parents of these children are David and Mary (Brown) Moore. The latter was born in Burling-
ton county, New Jersey, and died in 1845; the former was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in Janu-
ary, 1788, and is still living, about as old as the Constitution of the United States. He is with
his son in Wenona, and but for his blindness, which came upon him seven or eight years ago,
he would be quite active, his mental faculties being sound and clear. He has a sister in Ohio
who is in her ninety-eighth year, being two years older than he is.
In the infancy of our subject, the family moved to Preble county, Ohio, where the father was
engaged in farming. In his younger years he had been a tailor, but lost his health, and changed
his calling. Nathaniel was raised on a farm, receiving a district-school education. In 1852 he
moved to Kokomo, Indiana; after being a merchant there for two short years, returned to Ohio,
and in 1855 came to Wenona, and opened a small dry-goods store, the first in the place. He also
dealt in grain. Two years afterward he sold out his mercantile stock, and went on his farm,
adjoining the town, continuing to handle grain two or three years longer. The home farm has
200 acres, under the best of improvement, with a large and commodious dwelling-house and sev-
eral barns and other buildings on it, with every indication of the generous fruits of industry
wisely devoted. Mr. Moore has other lands in the vicinity of Wenona, in all, perhaps, 375 acres.
He has stock of all kinds, but latterly has paid especial attention to the breeding of Poland-China
hogs. At one time he was in the real-estate business, in company with others, and is still buying
and selling occasionally, and has made a fine success in this line, as in other branches of business.
He has held the offices of supervisor and school director several terms; was sheriff of the
county one term during the civil war, and was a member of the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth
general assemblies, his seat being on the republican side. Since leaving the legislature he has
sedulously declined all official positions. Mr. Moore was originally a whig, of free-soil leanings
STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 52!
and on the demise of this party, naturally affiliated with the great party of freedom, whose first
triumph placed Abraham Lincoln in the presidential chair.
Mr. Moore was married in the autumn of 1843, to Miss Julia Banta, of Preble, Ohio, and they
have had nine children, burying three of them, all sons: George N. is a graduate of Knox Col-
lege, Galesburgh, an attorney-at-law, lately of Chicago, now mining in Arizona for his health;
Job M. W., likewise a graduate of Knox, is also mining in that territory; Edward E. is in the
medical department of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Mary E., the only daugh-
ter, and Frank A. B. are at the Northwestern University, Evanston, and Willis is just finishing
his studies in the Wenona schools, preparatory to entering a higher institution. Mr. Moore
has taken and is taking great pains to educate his children, counting learning at a high value,
particularly in a country like this, where the stability of its institutions depends largely upon the
knowledge of the people. When in the legislature he introduced a bill favoring compulsory
education, being an early mover in that matter in this state. He is a man who does a good deal
of sensible thinking.
HON. THOMAS J. HENDERSON.
PRINCETON.
THOMAS JEFFERSON HENDERSON, lawyer and member of congress from the seventh
congressional district of Illinois, is a son of William H. Henderson, and Sarah M. (Howard)
Henderson, and was born in Brownsville, Haywood county, Tennessee, November 29, 1824. His
father was born in Garrard County, Kentucky, 1793, and emigrated early to the State of Tennes-
see. He was the first register of deeds in Haywood county, Tennessee, and was also at one period
a member of the state senate of that state. His wife was a native of Sampson county, North
Carolina, born in 1804.
In 1836 the famjly moved to Stark, then a part of Putnam county, this state, and while a resi-
dent of that county William H. Henderson served two terms in the house of representatives.
In 1842 he was the whig candidate for lieutenant-governor. In 1845 he moved to the state of
Iowa, and died at Marshalltown, January, 1864, his widow in 1879, at the same place.
The subject of this sketch had acquired some knowledge of the rudimentary branches before
leaving Tennessee, and had made some progress in Latin, attended school in a log house near
where Toulon now stands, two or three winter terms, and in his twenty-first year entered the Uni-
versity of Iowa, then in its infancy, and not very flourishing, and after studying there about six
months returned to Illinois. From the age when he came into this state, up to the time just
mentioned, Mr. Henderson devoted his energies to farm work, with the exception of one year,
which he gave to teaching " young ideas how to shoot." From early youth he had great fondness
for books and newspapers, and while the busiest in cultivating the soil, kept well posted on cur-
rent events, doing also more or less solid historical and general reading, using the few books his
father possessed.
On returning from Iowa, in 1846, Mr. Henderson was clerk in a dry-goods store at Toulon
about a year; taught school in the same town three months, and August, 1847, was elected clerk
of the county commissioner's court of Stark county. This post he held till 1849, when the office
was changed by the amended constitution, and he was elected clerk of the county court. He held
that position until 1853, studying law, meantime, and previously, and being admitted to the bar in
1852. For thirty years, except when in the public service, Mr. Henderson has devoted himself to
the practice of his profession, and long ago held a fair position among the legal fraternity in this
part of the state. He was appointed master in chancery by the Stark county circuit court in
1851, and held that office several years. In 1854 he was elected to the lower house of the state
legislature, and in 1856 to the state senate, serving one term in each branch.
In 1862 he enlisted as a soldier at Toulon, where he then resided, and commenced raising a
company, of which he expected to have, perhaps, the command; but he was elected colonel of the
CJ22 VNITF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,
1 1 2th Illinois infantry, and thus served until the close of the war, having, meanwhile, much of the
time the command of a brigade, and sometimes of a division.
May 14, 1864, at the battle of Resaca, Georgia, he was severely wounded by a shot with a rifle
through his right thigh. On his return to his regiment in July following, he was complimented
by the commanding officers of his corps and division, Generals Schofield and Cox, by the organ-
ization for him of the 3rd brigade of the 3rd division of the 2ist army corps, which brigade he
afterward commanded, until he was mustered out of the service, June, 1865.*
In February, 1865, the above named generals recommended Colonel Henderson for promotion
to the rank of brigadier-general, urging such promotion in person, but there being no vacancy
just then, the secretary of war, Mr. Stanton, said he would nominate the colonel for a brevet ap-
pointment as brigadier-general. He was accordingly nominated and confirmed brigadier-general,
by brevet, for gallant services in the Georgia and Tennessee campaigns of 1864, and especially at
the battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
At the close of the war General Henderson resumed the practice of law at Toulon, and in
1867 settled in Princeton. In 1868 he was one of the presidential electors-at-large on the repub-
lican ticket; and in 1871, without solicitation on his part, he was appointed collector of internal
revenue for the 5th collection district, holding that post for two years. In 1874 General Hender-
son was elected to congress for the 6th district, and was renominated without opposition, and
reelected three times, serving in the 44th, 45th, 46th and 47th congresses, from the sixth district,
and is now a member from the seventh district of the 48th congress, being chairman, the last term,
of the committee on military affairs. He was in 1882 nominated without opposition, and elected a
representative to the 48th congress from the seventh district, under the new apportionment. His
record in the lower house of congress has been highly honorable, and led his friends to think of
him as a suitable man for the upper house. In January, 1883, his political confreres brought him
forward, and he was one of the four leading candidates on the republican side of the legislature,
for the office of United States senator, and received the vote of the members in his congressional
district. The general has the ability and moral stamina to fill with credit any office in which his
constituents or the people of Illinois might see fit to place him.
General Henderson was married to Miss Henrietta Butler, of Wyoming, Illinois, May, 1849,
and they have four children.
D
DAVID M. VOSBURGH, M.D.
EARLVfLLM:.
AVID MARTIN VOSBURGH, one of the oldest physicians and surgeons in La Salle
county, is the son of a physician, David J. Vosburgh, and Mary E. (Richards) Vosburgh, and
was born in Evansburgh, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1826. His father was a native
of Washington county, New York, and his mother of Connecticut. His grandfather, David Mar-
tin Vosburgh, for whom he was named, was at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and lost
two brothers in that battle. The family is of Holland descent. When our subject was four years
old the family moved to Penn Line, Pennsylvania, where Doctor David J. Vosburgh was a promi-
nent physician and politician for years, being at one time the democratic nominee for congress,
but would not consent to run. He was at the battle of Plattsburgh, as assistant surgeon, was with
Colonel (afterward General) Zachary Taylor, at Fort Dearborn (Chicago), and was in the Black
Hawk war, 1832. He practiced his profession at Evansburgh and Penn Line from thirty-five to
forty years, and died at Iconium, Iowa, in his eighty-fourth year, being as highly respected as
he was full of years. He lost his wife, the mother of David Martin, when the latter was two years
old.
The subject of this sketch finished his education at the Kingsville (Ohio) Academy; commenced
teaching a district school at seventeen years of age, and finished his labors in that line, at an
*" Public Men of To-Day," by C. P. Headlev.
UNITED STATES HIOGRAPIIICAL DICTIONARY.
523
academy at Jefferson, Ashtabula county, a few miles from Kingsville. He read medicine with
Doctor C. E. Cleveland, of Kingsville, who had been a student of his father ; attended one course
of lectures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and another at the University of Pennsyl-
vania, Philadelphia, and there received the degree of doctor of medicine in March, 1851. He
spent two years in a hospital in that city before his graduation; practiced two years at Custard -
ville, Pennsylvania, and February, 1853, settled in Earlville, La Salle county, where he has been
in steady and successful practice for thirty years. When he first came into this state men of his
profession were very much scarcer than they are now, and his rides were often long and tedious,
extending, in most directions, from ten to twenty miles. The doctor's practice has always been
general and good, and he has a fine reputation, alike as a physician and surgeon. He is a mem-
ber of both the state and national medical societies, and is quite well known among the older
members of the fraternity, particularly in Illinois. He has reported interesting cases for medical
journals, and has read no less than three essays on diphtheria, before medical organizations, one
of them at a meeting of the state society.
Doctor Vosburgh was chairman of the village board of trustees years ago, was supervisor two
or three terms, and has been mayor one term. He takes deep interest in the cause of education, and
was the leader in introducing the graded system of instruction. As a citizen he is stirring and
public-spirited, being one of the foremost men in the cause of reform. He has been very active
in the temperance movement, as a Good Templar and Son of Temperance, etc., for thirty or forty
years. He is a liberal supporter of the Presbyterian church, and a man of generous impulses.
He was originally a Douglas democrat, and still affiliates with the party once led by that great
statesman. The doctor is a Royal Arch Mason, and has held the several offices in the subordi-
nate lodge and encampment of Odd-Fellows.
He was first married June 21, 1853,10 Miss Mary M. Hubbell, of Paw Paw, this state, she
dying November 2, 1854, and the second time October 14, 1855, to Miss Phebe B. Breese, also of
Paw Paw, he having by her three children, two daughters and one son. Mary E. is the wife of
George H. Haight, lawyer, of Ottawa; Clara A. is the wife of Garnett A. Cope, a partner of Doc-
tor Vosburgh, in the drug business, Earlville, and Charles Breese, who is engaged in farming,
near Earlville.
Doctor Vosburgh is a member of the Crawford County (Pennsylvania) Association, which meets
every year, September 10, at Sandwich, De Kalb county, and of which he is and has long been the
president.
HON. FRANCIS M. GREATHOUSE.
HARDIN.
T^RANCIS MARION GREATHOUSE, the leading lawyer in Calhoun county, and a member
i of the thirty-third general assembly, is a native of this state, and was born in Pike county,
March 26, 1837. His parents, Bonaparte and Nancy (Williams) Greathouse, were natives of Ken-
tucky. They were members of the farming community. The father died in 1850, the mother in
1872, both in Pike county. Francis studied law with Hon. William R. Archer, of Pittsfield, and
Major Knapp, of Winchester, and was admitted to the bar in 1857, before he was of age. He
practiced at Pittsfield until 1870, and then moved to Hardin, the seat of justice of Calhoun county.
A gentleman who knows him well, being a resident of the same senatorial district, states that Mr.
Greathouse is at the head of the bar in his county, being an excellent counselor and a first-class
court and jury lawyer. His practice is large and remunerative, and largely criminal. He is retained
on the defense in nearly all the criminal cases in the southern part of his senatorial district.
Mr. Greathouse has been almost constantly in office since settling in Hardin. He was master
in chancery for Calhoun county two years, state's attorney four years, and county judge four
years, offices which he filled with great satisfaction to the public. In 1882 he was elected to the
legislature from the 36th senatorial district, which is composed of Pike, Brown and Calhoun
- 2- | UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
counties. He is on the committee on militia, fees and salaries, and public charters. His seat is
on the democratic side of the house. He was a republican until 1866, changing during the admin-
istration of President Johnson.
Mr. Greathouse is a Master Mason, past grand in the subordinate lodge of Odd-Fellowship, a
member of the Disciple or Christian church, and a man of high standing, morally as well as legally.
He was married March n, 1858,10 Miss Isabel Morris, of Pike county, and they have buried
two children and have four living.
The subject of this sketch has a dark complexion and black eyes, and is very compactly built,
being five feet and eleven inches tall, and weighing two hundred and fifty-five pounds. He has a
pleasant address, and a cheerful disposition, and his fine presence would be likely to arrest the
attention of a stranger, whether seen alone or in a crowd. He has considerable magnetism, and
on the stump always draws a crowd. With nothing about him of the " lean Cassius," he is as jovial
in speech as he is solid in flesh, and invariably keeps his audience in the best of humors.
THE HOGE EAMILY.
MORRIS.
THE Hoge family in this country are a numerous, wealthy and respectable people. A genea-
logical tree of the family, prepared by Miss Lucina Hoge, a member of it in Ohio, represent-
ing nine generations, contains 3013 names. The family name is variously spelled Hog, Hogg,
Hoag, Hoge, and Hogue. Its first representative in this country was William Hog, who came
from Scotland during the sixteenth century, and settled in Pennsylvania. He married Barbara
Hume, a relative of the historian Hume. His son, William, was the first Quaker in the family,
and removed from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1754. He had a family of seven children: Solo-
mon, James, William, Joseph, George, Zebulon and Nancy. The descendants of Nancy alone
now number over one thousand persons. Solomon, with whom the genealogical tree referred to
begins, was born May 2, 1729, at High Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and died March 7, 1811, in
London county, Virginia. He was married twice, and was the father of eighteen children. Ann
Rollins, his first wife, bore him eleven, and his second wife, Mary Nichols, seven. The children
of the first wife were Sarah, Joseph, David (died in infancy), Solomon, David (the second), Ann,
Isaac, Mary, Hannah, Jane and Rebecca. The children of the second wife were Lydia, William,
Joshua, George, Margery, Jesse and Amy. Joshua, his third child, was born in London county,
Virginia, February 8, 1779, and died April 25, 1854. He was a farmer, and the owner of a large
property, about fifty miles from Washington. His wife was Mary Poole, by whom he had ten
children: William, Rebecca, Samuel, Amy, Solomon, Mary, Isaac Stanley Singleton, Lucinda,
Ann and Amanda.
The Hoges, from the time of ^William the Second, were all wealthy Quakers, and as such took
no active part in the revolutionary war, or the war of 1812. In the latter war, however, a tax of
$80 was levied on the head of every Quaker family whenever a call for troops was made, which
stood as an equivalent for service in the army. Although he lived and died in the Quaker faith,
Joshua married "out of meeting," and was expelled in consequence. This incident, followed by
the perusal of the works of Thomas Paine, resulted in his whole family becoming deists.
After his family grew up and left home, Joshua purchased some slaves to carry on his large
estate of 400 acres, to the great horror of his Quaker relatives and friends. After his death in
1854, they fell to the heirs, who still remained in Virginia, who permitted them, to do as they
pleased, and practically gave them their freedom, but they were not legally emancipated until
the proclamation of President Lincoln. His widow survived him till September 4, 1871. Although
never active in politics, owing, somewhat, doubtless, to their early training, yet the Hoges are all
republican in principle, and during the war of the rebellion were stanch Union men.
The family of Joshua, with whom we have particularly to do, came "ito Illinois at an early day,
OF
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and have all become very wealthy land owners and stock raisers. Their families, old and young,
now number 134 persons. They own a total of 24,000 acres of the choicest land in the state, and
raise annually vast herds of cattle, horses, sheep and swine. This family and the Holdermans
intermarried, and together have owned a not inconsiderable share of Grundy county, besides
large tracts in the adjoining counties.
In person the Hoges are large and powerful men, both intellectually and physically. Their
educational advantages were extremely limited in youth, and their acquirements at school gener-
ally ended with a slight acquaintance with reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. Neverthe-
less, they have become men of broad, general and varied intellectual acquirements. As practical
farmers and business men they have few superiors, and have achieved a reputation for probity
and square dealing. In manners, they are true types of the genial, hospitable, kindly Virginia
gentleman of the old school, and manage to make their visitors extremely comfortable.
\ T 7ILLIAM HOGE, the eldest son of Joshua, was born in Loudon county, Virginia, July 5 ;
V V 1801. His youth was spent on his father's farm, and his school days in a little log school
house where the three R's covered the curriculum, viz., "reading, riling and rithmetic."
In November, 1826, when twenty-six years old, he married Rachel Bowles, and in 1829 came
west in company with his father, into Illinois, on a prospecting tour. He came on horseback via
Indianapolis and Covington, Indiana, to the country where now stands Joliet.
He brought with him aboul $2,000, belonging to his father, to invest in canal lands, which
were then surveyed and in market. After making a general survey of the country, he decided to
locate on the great thoroughfare between Chicago and Saint Louis, and selected a section and a
half of choice level land lying along Nettle Creek, which, rising a few miles to the northeast of
Ottawa, empties into the Illinois River at Morris. His location gave him timber, water and
prairie, and cheap transportation by way of the canal and river to Chicago and Saint Louis. His
commission on this purchase for his father was his choice of a quarter section of the land he
bought. This he selected and returned to Virginia. Two years later he was prepared to move
his family, and in the latter part of October, 1831, reached his new home. A great Pennsylvania
wagon, drawn by four horses, carried his household stuff, while his wife and three children, accom-
panied by a young woman, his wife's cousin, rode in a two-horse covered buggy. His brother,
Solomon, came with him to help him get settled, and together they made the long, tedious jour-
ney. Through Ohio they got along very well, but when they struck the state of Indiana the bot-
tom seemed to have fallen out, and they were lefl lo flounder in bottomless quagmires the whole
breadth of the state. Gurdon S. Hubbard had given him the landmarks on the route from Cov-
ington when he came out in 1829, and following the Indian trail and Hubbard's directions he
came through at last without serious mishap. The journey consumed seven weeks, and the
weather began to be cold before they could put up a shelter. A huge log, fronting the south and
east, against which they leaned a row of short poles, and covered them with bark and thatched
with hay, served as kitchen and dining-room till a cabin could be erected. The big wagon,
divided into two compartments, did excellent service as sleeping quarters. The cabin, built
hastily out on the prairie, was more exposed, and proved at first not half as comfortable as the
camp in the woods, and the women and children thought seriously of retreating to their sunny
shelter behind the huge log, bul a lillle mud soon stopped the cracks and shut out the wind, and
they passed a comfortable winter.
The following spring they put another half story on the cabin, hewed the logs inside and out,
fixed it up and improved it in various ways, and lived in it happily for many years. This cabin,
the second one built in Grundy county, still stands a silent witness to their early labors, their joys
and sorrows, their disasters and successes. In May, 1832, the Sac war occurred, and Mr. Hoge,
with the rest of the while settlers, fled to Ottawa. He started before day for Ottawa, twenty
miles away, to get a plowshare sharpened, but, learning of Ihe outbreak before he reached the
place, he returned in hot hasle lo save his family.
52
528 UNITED STATES 1UOGRAPIIICAI. DICTIONARY.
Solomon had gone to Holderman's Grove to help them plant corn, and had there received
warning with the rest, through Peppers, the young Pottawattamie Indian, and reached home
before William. Rachel and the young woman were singing gaily, happy as larks, when Solomon
suddenly burst among them with the command to bundle up the children without delay and start
for Ottawa. After a few words of hurried explanation they all sprang on the horses, and carrying
the children before and behind, lost no time in getting out of danger. Subsequent events, how-
ever, proved that the family were really in no danger. They and all they possessed were singled
out to be spared from the general massacre ordered by Black Hawk. The reason of this discrim-
ination affords a fine illustration of the Indian character. Some time previously a company of
five Pottawattamies came to Hoge's cabin, and by signs and urgent manifestations of distress
informed them that a companion was in trouble about five miles away in the woods, and besought
the white men to aid him. With some trepidation, for they were as yet ignorant of the Indian
character, they followed them down Nettle Creek to the neighborhood where Morris now stands,
and found an Indian writhing upon the ground in great pain. He had fallen from a tree while
coon hunting, and had broken his arm above the elbow and dislocated his shoulder. The Indians
had splinted up the fracture nicely, but could not set the joint, a most difficult thing to do at
any time. When in Virginia, William at one time had occasion to assist in such an operation, and
the surgeon had taken pains to instruct him how it was to be done. A large ball of yarn or other
hard substance was to be pressed with much strength into the arm-pit while the arm was lifted
away from the body. The arm brought back again as a lever over the fulcrum of the ball, the
joint would slip into its place with a snap.
William had no ball, but putting his arms around the Indian from behind he put his left fist
into the pit of the arm, and clasping it with his other hand, he furnished the proper fulcrum,
while Solomon, using the broken arm for a lever, pried it with much skill and care into its place.
When the crack came and the job was done the overjoyed red men raised a shout, and executed
a bear dance around the whites, hugging them and shaking hands in turn, and when the whites
left them to return, the Indians insisted on loading them with such presents as they had at hand.
The influence of this skillful act of kindness saved their lives, as the Indians had been camped
several days in the timber on Nettle Creek, only about two and a half miles from Hoge's place,
and had them completely in their power, but, as a Pottawattamie informed him afterward, they
had received orders from Wauponsa to spare them on that account. The Quaker family had
moreover, true to their principles, observed the strictest regard for honesty and fair dealing in all
their intercourse with the Indians, and were much esteemed by them on that account. And we
desire to place it upon record, though it has often been stated to the contrary, what all the old
settlers of this region concur in testifying, that the Pottawattamies and not the Sacs were guilty
of the massacres which took place in this part of the country. The young braves of Wauponsa's
band had been frequently made drunk by the white man's fire water, and then plundered, cheated
and kicked out by them, and they could not be restrained from seizing the opportunity for ven-
geance. It is stated that not a house was burned by the Indians where some of them had not
been thus maltreated.
The Hoges did not, however, know of their security, but fled to Ottawa with the rest, and
assisted in building the rude log fort for protection. They afterward also went to Pekin, and
remained late in August before venturing to return.
When the storm was over, however, they were left to develop their farms in peace. Mr. Hoge
began in a small way to raise cattle, buying cows and raising the increase, and was soon able to
purchase more land. This he did as fast as his means allowed, mostly government lands at $1.25
per acre, and canal lands at from $7 to $12. Corn was his principal crop, and beef cattle his
principal stock, and between them both he grew rich.
Nine children, four girls and five boys, grew up around him, and soon became a great help.
As the country settled up they married and settled around him, until all have left the homestead
but one, Albert E. Hoge, who, at the age of forty, is still unmarried, and takes charge of the large
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
estate and its interests. In 1843 Mr. Hoge buried his wife, and during the rebellion lost one son,
Hindley, who was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. His estate now covers thirty-two
hundred acres of land. It is mostly in one body around the old homestead, and is composed of
tracts of fine timber, prairie, pasture and meadow, and is watered by several artesian wells and
Nettle Creek. His house and farm buildings stand in a fine grove near the original spot on which
his cabin was erected. Very near the center of the estate is as lovely a sylvan paradise as Grundy
county can boast. About two hundred and fifty head of neat cattle, with horses, sheep and hogs,
constitute the supply of stock always on hand.
The early disadvantages under which Mr. Hoge labored in matters of school education did
not prevent him from becoming a fast friend of schools, and he erected at his own expense, in
1835, the first school house in Grundy county. It is a log cabin 12 x 14 feet, with clapboard roof,
and still stands where it was'first put, only a few rods from his house, just in the edge of the tim-
ber. Large trees two feet in diameter at the butt have grown up around it, where only a hazel
brush thicket grew when it was built. Marie Southworth, now an old lady, and a widow, Mrs.
Marie Whitney, were its first school ma'ams.
As before stated, Mr. Hoge is a stanch republican in politics, but takes no active part. He
has held nearly all the usual town offices, but has always had an ambition for the quiet and peace
of his family and home, and prefers to leave to others the turmoil and thankless labor of political
life. In religious sentiment he has become a deist, and believes that he can serve God no better
than to serve his fellow-man. Many efforts have been made to convert him, but all have so far
failed. At the age of eighty-one he is in the full enjoyment of all his faculties; is in sound health,
and though a little stiff from rheumatism is remarkably active. Unlike many old persons he has
not become soured and misanthropic, but is genial, pleasant, mild-mannered, hospitable, warm-
hearted and companionable. His house, once so full of young company, is not so merry now,
but his latch string always hangs out, and a visitor or stranger is warmly welcomed. There are
times, however, when his eight living children, thirty-six grandchildren and three great-grand-
children fill every nook and cranny of the old homestead with laughter, and all is merry as
of yore.
SAMUEL HOGE, the second son of Joshua Hoge, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia,
October 28, 1805. His early youth was spent in his native place, where he worked on his
father's farm till he attained his majority. When twenty-one, his father gave him $1,000 in cash,
and in company with Handley Grigg, his sister Amy's husband, he went to Belmont county,
Ohio, and started a store. After five years spent in trade, he sold out to his brother-in-law, and
came west into Grundy county, Illinois, where his brother, William, had already become estab-
lished. This was in the fall of 1834. He brought with him about $2,000 in money, and at once
invested it in government land. His first purchase was of a quarter-section in the Illinois River
valley, about three miles west of Morris, where he erected a log cabin, and soon after entered a
full section at the head of the timber on Nettle Creek, west of his brother William. For five
years he made his home in William's family, but, May 23, 1839, married Matilda, the daughter
of Abram Holderman, Sr., and set up housekeeping in his log cabin, near Morris. There he
remained a year, during which he put up another house on Nettle Creek, to which he removed
the following April, 1840. Both houses are still standing. The last-named was built principally
of oak, and sided with black walnut siding, which, although moss-grown, is as sound as the day
it was put on. The location was a good one, in the timber near its western boundary, on a rise
of ground not far from the banks of the creek, and a splendid spring of living water near by.
The farming land stretched away to the west and south, inviting the hand of its owner to gather
the boundless wealth which lay locked in its fertile bosom. Cattle and corn were then, and still
remain, the staple products, but moderate droves of horses, sheep and swine received some atten-
tion.
Mr. Hoge was of robust health, strong and rugged; a man of good judgment, perseverance
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and tact; unexceptionable in his habits, and in his life pure. In his wife he had, in every respect,
a worthy companion. On the one side Scotch and English, on the other German and Irish, blood
were mingled in their partnership of marriage, and prosperity flowed in upon them as the natu-
ral reward of the industry and virtue which was the daily habit of their lives. Fifteen children
came to them as the fruit of their union, nine of whom are still living, and six married and set-
tled, mostly on farms in the vicinity.
Mr. Hoge never sold a foot of land, but continued to add to his estate from time to time, till,
at his death, he owned nearly 6,000 acres. His wife brought to him. at the death of her father,
560 acres, and by inheritance from her brother, Dyson, 275 more. In addition to this, she has
bought a fractional section of land in Champaign county, of 508 acres, making a total of 1,343
acres owned by Mrs. Hoge.
While he lived, Mr. Hoge never deeded any land to his children, but as they married or became
of age, he gave them the use of all they could care for. At his death, however, each became the
owner of a section, and all have put up fine residences and farm buildings. In 1841 Mr. Hoge
began to set out fruit-trees, and continued to do so from time to time, till he Had one of the
largest and most fruitful orchards in the county. In 1860 he erected a large and fine new resi-
dence near the old, and finished it throughout, in keeping with his wealth. For about three years
before his death he had been in failing health, which gradually declined without any apparent
cause, till March 13, 1881, when he died. His physicians thought a tumor or cancer of the stom-
ach caused his death, but nothing is certainly known. He was buried on his own land in a
private cemetery, where also nearly all of the deceased relatives On both sides, who have died in
Illinois, lie interred. His wife, now sixty-two years of age, is almost as active as in the very
height of her labors, and the strength of her youth. She attends to her business matters, looks
after her stock, keeps track of her hired men and tenants, with the judgment and skill of a man of
business.
Her youngest daughter, Lina M., is a talented and well educated young woman, of twenty-
four. She is now completing a very thorough musical education, at Leavenworth, Kansas. Her
youngest son, Landy, nearly nineteen, is also attending school at the same place. Charles, the
only other remaining member of the family unmarried, is not yet twenty-one, and lives with his
mother on the old homestead. The larger part of his inheritance fell to him at Holderman's
Grove, which he rents; but himself farms 80 acres belonging to him, in the neighborhood of the
old home. Hendley, the eldest son, is now forty-two years old. He married Miss Virginia Silcott,
and has two children. Charlotte married William Reardan, and is the mother of four children.
Jane is the wife of John Cunnea, of the firm of Janus Cunnea and Sons, bankers, in Morris, and
has three children. Joshua is thirty-two. He married Laura Ouigley, and has one child. Isaac
is a twin brother of Joshua. He married Mary Peacock, and they have four children. George is
twenty-eight years old. He married Ella Quigtey, the sister of Laura, his brother's wife, and has
two children. One son, Abraham, died at Holly Springs, Mississippi, during the second year of
the war of the rebellion. He never married.
It is unnecessary to add, that without exception, these families are among the wealthiest and
most respectable in Grundy county. They are all stanch republicans and public-spirited men,
but are in no sense politicians. They can generally be depended upon to vote right, but are too
busy to bother with office.
OLOMON HOGE is the third son and fifth child of Joshua Hoge. He was born in Fauquier
county, Virginia, September 18, 1809. When his brother William moved west, in 1831, he came
vith him, and remained till the following spring till after the Blackhawk war, when he returned
i Virginia. After his brothers had all married and established themselves in homes of their
tn, he remained to care for his aged parents, and two maiden sisters. After the death of his
father, in 1854, the entire management and control of his father's estate devolved upon him. His
one of the ablest members of
the family.
Richmond Vaughn, born October 27, 1831, served three years in the ii4th Illinois infantry,
coming out as captain, and for the last twenty years or more has been a farmer near Nebraska
City.
r. \rrp.D STATKS niocRArirrcAL DICTIONARY
55'
John Jefferson, -born October 24, 1833, died August, 1839.
Green Vardiman, born August 3, 1836, served a short time in the civil war, is a dentist in Jack-
sonville, this state, has a family, and a high standing in his profession. He is president of the
state board of dental examiners.
James Berry, the seventh son, was born October 9, 1839, in Scott county; finished his educa-
tion in the Cumberland Presbyterian Academy, Virginia, and Normal University, Bloomington;
commenced teaching school at nineteen years of age; in the autumn of 1861, enlisted as a private
in company C, 3d Illinois cavalry; served nearly two years, being in trie battle of Pea Ridge,
Missouri, and with Sherman immediately preceding the siege of Vicksburg; was promoted to first
lieutenant, and resigned his commission in the spring of 1863 on account of ill health. Return-
ing to Virginia, Lieutenant Black resumed teaching; was an instructor at Jacksonville, in the state
institution for the blind, in 1864-66, and afterward principal of the public schools of that city. In
1869 he went on his father's farm, and was engaged in tilling the soil when, in 1873, he was elected
on the republican ticket to the office of clerk of Cass county. He was reflected in 1877, and
served, in all, nine consecutive years, giving great satisfaction to the public. Since July, 1878, he
has been cashier of the Centennial National Bank of Virginia, and shows himself to be a first-
class financier. He married, July i, 1867, Miss Eliza J. Edwing, daughter of the late William
Edwing, of Jacksonville, and they have one daughter, May, aged eight years.
Mary J., the youngest daughter of William Black, was born December 13, 1840. She married
George A. Beard, a prominent farmer in Cass county, in 1857, and died in 1874.
John, the youngest of the ten children, was born December 21, 1844; is a graduate of Pitts-
burgh Commercial College; married Maggie Blair, March 15, 1866, and has been in the mercantile
business in Virginia since 1876. He commenced business by opening a farm in Nebraska, which
he still owns, but his health failed and he had to change his business.
The Black family, as is here seen, is not only of good patriotic stock, as we stated at the start,
but there seems to be no diminution, no thinning of the blood in the family. No less than four
grandsons of William Black, Sr., in one family, volunteered to aid in saving the Union, and all
showed that the true elements of manhood are in their natures. William Black, Jr., in his extreme
old age, can look back with pride on the family which he has reared. There is no better class of
people in Cass county.
CHARLES H. WIDMAYER.
JACKSONVILLE.
CHARLES HENRY WIDMAYER, mayor of the city of Jacksonville, and a leading butcher
and packer in the place, is a native of the kingdom of Wittenburg, Germany, and was born
in Markgreinngen, March 4, 1841. His father was Jacob Widmayer, a blacksmith by trade, who
brought his family to this country in 1854, when Charles was thirteen years of age. He settled at
Niagara Falls, where he died of the cholera in less than two months after he reached that place.
His widow is still living, her home being in Hampshire, Kane county, this state.
Charles finished his education in the old country ; learned the butcher's trade; came to Illinois
in 1857 ; worked at his trade in Chicago until the spring of 1862, and then went to Oregon via
the overland route, in the government employ. He spent three years in butchering in eastern
Oregon and the Territory of Idaho, being one of the first settlers at Pioneer City, Idaho. He
went thence into Montana Territory ; spent four months in Nevada City, and returned to the East
via Panama at the close of the civil war. Mr. Widmayer had a variety of experiences in frontier
life, and, like Mark Twain, knows what roughing it means. His account of some of his adven-
tures is quite amusing.
In the spring of 1865 our subject opened a meat market at Jacksonville, and has been doing a
successful business here since that date. For years he was of the firm of Wiegand and Widmayer,
but since the death of his partner in July, 1882, the firm name has been Widmayer and Wiegand,
552 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the estate of his late partner being represented in the firm, which is doing more or less packing
the year round, and one or two years did a large business in that branch. No butcher and meat
dealer in Jacksonville is more popular than the subject of this notice, or has made a greater suc-
cess in his business. He is a hard worker and an honest dealer, and makes many friends. In all
his transactions his word is as good as his bond.
He was alderman of the first ward, four years, and served the city so well in that capacity,
that in 1882 he was elected mayor, overcoming a republican majority of three hundred votes, and
at the time this sketch is written, he is faithfully performing the duties of that office. He is public-
spirited, and works hard in the general interests of the city. His affiliations have always been
with the democratic party. During the civil war he was a warm supporter of the national govern-
ment, so much so that in the mountains he was called an abolitionist by the southern sympathizers.
Mr. Widmayer is a true lover of his adopted country ; he is a deacon of the Lutheran Church in
Jacksonville, and does all he can to support such institutions, being a truly valuable citizen.
He was married, August 13, 1865, at Hampshire, Kane county, to Miss Louisa Ream, and they
have lost one daughter, and have four daughters and three sons living.
GEORGE LITTLE.
RUSHVILLE.
EORGE LITTLE is the oldest merchant in Schuyler county, and is connected with one of
the oldest mercantile houses in the state. The firm of Little and Ray was formed in 1844,
and is still doing business here, having stood up manfully through all the financial cyclones
which have swept over the country during the last forty years.
Mr. Little was born in Columbia. Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, February 9, 1808, being a
son of James and Rebecca (Greer) Little. His father was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland,
in 1786, and came to this country in 1805. George was the fourth child in a family of six children,
four yet living. He was educated in the common schools of Columbia, and quite early in life
took charge of a shoe manufactory for his father, learning the trade, that he might have a clearer
insight into the business. In 1837 James Little came to this state and settled in Rushville, where
he died in 1851, and his widow in 1864. George had preceded his parents, coming the year
before, and engaging in mercantile business in 1836. The firm of Little and Ray, formed May i,
1844, has not up to this date (January, 1883) been dissolved, though Mr. Ray died in January,
1 88 1.* His son, George C. Ray, is in the firm, which has the name of Little, Ray and Company.
They keep a general store, and are doing an immense business. Theirs is not only the oldest,
but stanchest house in town, and its record is a synonym for integrity, as well as firmness.
Mr. Little was married, September, 1840, to Mary J. Lloyd, daughter of Thomas Lloyd of Co-
lumbia, and she died in 1848, leaving three children, only one of them now living, Mary R., the
wife of William H. Scripps, of Rushville. In 1852 Mr. Little was married to Miss Lydia E.
Scripps, daughter of the late George H. Scripps. She is the mother of five children, only three of
them now living. William died in 1860, George died in Colorado in 1880, John S. is a clerk in
the First National Bank of Rushville, of which his father is president, and Grace and Virginia
Ella are students in the well known schools at Evanston, near Chicago.
Mr. Little has lived a very busy yet somewhat quiet life, having held only one or two public
' Hon. William H. Ray was a native of Dutchess county, New York, born in 1812. He received in youth a Urn-
education, to which he added in middle and later life; came to Rushville in 1834, and was a merchant here till his
leath, January 25, 1881. For years he was a leading man in Schuyler county. He was a personal friend and politi-
.1 assoc.ate of Abraham Lincoln, and represented his district in congress in 1872-73. At the organization of the First
Bank of Rushville in May, 1865, he was chosen president, and held that office till his death. He was a true
an, and showed a sound judgment and the strictest integrity in all his transactions. His family and the citizens gen-
erally of the county, have reason to be proud of his record.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 553
posts, in the municipality of the town. He was formerly a whig, and latterly has been a republi-
can, but has left the offices for persons who like honors of that kind. He is very much of a home
body, and prefers domestic repose to public turmoil. He and his family attend the Methodist
Church, of which he is a liberal supporter. He is generous-hearted, and is not apt to forget the
poor or unfortunate.
E
EDWIN T. DISOSWAY.
IIENR Y.
DVVIN THEODORE DISOSWAY, insurance agent, city collector of Henry, Marshall county,
is of Huguenot descent, and was born in the city of New York, January 13, 1820. His father,
Israel Disosway, born on Staten Island, was a graduate of Columbia College, and a merchant,
dying in Iroquois county, Illinois, only a few years ago, at the age of eighty-four years, and his
mother was Letitia Budd McCullough, a native of Warren county, New Jersey, and a daughter of
Colonel McCullough, a prominent man in that county. She died at about eighty years of age.
One of the daughters of Israel Disosway is married to Rev. Doctor Deems, of New York city.
Edwin was educated in the public schools of New York city; was in his father's store awhile
in that city, their residence being part of the time in New Jersey, and for ten years he was in
trade for himself at Stony Creek, Dinwiddie county, Virginia, he being also postmaster at the
same time, under presidents Taylor and Fillmore.
In the spring of 1859 Mr. Disosway came to Henry, Marshall county, and was a clerk first in
a store, and then in a bank, a short time in each position; was subsequently a banker, in company
with J. N. Purple, and a little later cashier for John G. Ferguson, of El Paso, his family remain-
ing in Henry.
He married Miss Rebecca Davis, ef Washington, Warren county, New Jersey, in 1848, and
while he was at El Paso, October, 1866, she died, and he returned to Henry. Soon afterward he
was elected justice of the peace, and that office he still holds. For some years he has also been
engaged in fire insurance. He has held various local offices, such as town clerk, city clerk, city
treasurer, and is now city collector, also notary public.
Mr. Disosway was in early and middle life a whig; has been a republican since there was such
a party, and is a Blue Lodge Mason, serving for ten or twelve years as secretary of Henry Lodge,
No. 119. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since early manhood, and
has held all the offices which a layman can hold in that organization. He is leader of the choir,
an earnest Sunday-school worker, zealous in the temperance cause, and president of the Red
Ribbon Club. He is a small man, physically, but large-hearted, and his instincts are all in the
right direction. His children living are: Sarah Virginia, Israel Theodore, Lena, Robert, Emmet,
Linda May, and Charles N., the eldest son and youngest daughter being married.
B
BARTON BISHOPP.
SHELDON.
ARTON BISHOPP was born in England, November 28, 1838. He is the son of Edward B.
and- Matilda Elizabeth (David) Bishopp. At the time of his birth his parents pursued an
agricultural life in England, but emigrated to the United States in 1853, settling in Sheldon
township, where they engaged in farming and stock-raising. The subject of this sketch had only
the usual educational advantages afforded by the common schools of England. His tastes being
of a mechanical turn, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the carpenter's trade, which he fol-
lowed very successfully for about ten years, engaging very extensively in contracting and build-
ing, making considerable money.
About the year 1867 Mr. Bishopp gave up the carpenter and contracting business, and bought
554
UNITED STATES RIOGRAPIUCAI. DfCTIO.V. I A' )'.
a' farm near Sheldon. Here he engaged very extensively in farming and cattle raising, and a
greater portion of his time was devoted extensively to dealing and operating in live stock, prin-
cipally in buying and fatting cattle for market. In 1871 he embarked in the lumber, grain and
coal business at Sheldon, where he has facilities for doing a large and profitable business, which
he continued with a marked success until 1882, when, in addition to his already well established
business, he bought the only extensive hardware enterprise in Sheldon, and in fact in Iroquois
county. He has in his business about $40,000 capital, employing in the busy time as high as
fifteen hands, and, in addition to his mercantile pursuits, he has one of the finest farms in the
county, of 350 acres, which is also run under his management. In connection with his farm he is
running a large hay press in Sheldon.
In politics Mr. Bishopp is a republican, but has never been an office seeker or taken any promi-
nent part, but has always been a public benefactor, to whom the town of Sheldon is largely
indebted for her growth and prosperity. He was elected supervisor in 1877, and since that time
has been reelected, and holds that office at .the present time. He is a member of the school
board, in which he is deeply interested and an energetic worker.
In religion he is liberal, but is a good, conscientious, honorable man, and a generous supporter
of all good causes, and it may be said that he is never called upon for any public or religious
cause but that he responds liberally.
He was married in the fall of 1867 to Miss Martha A. Moore, of Watseka. Mr. Bishopp is
emphatically a self-made man, commencing life in straitened circumstances. By his own energy
and perseverance he has made for himself an honorable name, and gained the confidence and
esteem of his fellow citizens.
ALFRED SAMPLE.
PAXTON.
ALFRED SAMPLE was born in Butler county, Ohio, November 27, 1846. His parents were
James Sample, a native of Kentucky, and Jane (Beard) Sample, who was a native of Vir-
ginia. His father was a farmer and stock-dealer, and engaged in railroad business, and was a
man of good reputation, well known in the western country. Our subject received his early
training on the farm and at the village school, which he attended until about eleven years of age,
when he gave to agricultural pursuits his entire attention. In the year 1857 he removed with
his parents to Livingston county, Illinois. In the second year of the civil war, although but six-
teen years old, he, in November, 1863, enlisted in company G, I29th regiment Illinois infantry,
and immediately went into active service. He was in General Sherman's campaign and march
to Atlanta. In the battle of Resaca he was severely wounded in the breast, and had one arm
broken, on account of which, being unfitted for duty, he was honorably discharged December 6,
1864.
After leaving the army he entered Eureka College, where he remained three years, going
thence to Monmouth, where he completed his education, having taken a special course in both
colleges, and given special attention to the classics and to mathematics. While at college he
taught school at different intervals during vacations and for one year after leaving college. He
then began the study of law under the instruction of Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, whose history is
found elsewhere in this work, which he continued until 1871, when he was admitted to the bar.
During the same year he came to Paxton, where he has since practiced with success.
Mr. Sample is a republican in political sentiment, but has not allowed political matters to inter-
fere with his profession, and yet, although he has never sought political preferment, he was
chosen a presidential elector in the Garfield campaign, and has been state's attorney for eight
years and city attorney for four years, facts which show the appreciation the citizens of Ford
county have for the man, who is among the most active and enterprising citizens of Paxton.
UNITED STATES ftrOCKA PHICA /. DlC'I'tQNAK Y. 555
Mr. Sample was married in September, 1875, to Miss Florence A. Cook, daughter of Colonel
Cook, who is well known in state history, and who was brought prominently before the public in
our late war.
Mr. Sample has accumulated a handsome property, and besides his home in Paxton possesses
other lands in his county, and is looked up to as an enterprising, upright and valuable citizen.
HON. WILLIAM P. GALLON.
JA CKSONVILLE.
W'lLLIAM PIERCE GALLON, lawyer, and late member of the state senate, hails from
Franklin county, Indiana, being born at Laurel, March 28, 1836. His father, Dennis C.
Gallon, a merchant, was born in Mason county, Kentucky, and married Caroline Lamb, a native
of the same county. The great-grandfather of our subject was from Ireland, and settled in Ken-
tucky, where William Gallon, the father of Dennis C., was born. In 1843, when William was seven
years old, the family came to Morgan county, where the father died in 1879. The widow is still
living.
The subject of this sketch was educated at Illinois College, taking the full scientific course;
read law with Hon. Cyrus Epler, now judge of the seventh judicial circuit of this state; was
admitted to practice in 1860; opened an office in Logan county, and was there when the civil war
commenced. He went into the army in August, 1861, as second lieutenant of cavalry, 4th Illinois
regiment, and served nearly three years, coming out as first lieutenant. He was in the battles of
Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and in, numerous skirmishes, and in December, 1862,
received a wound while in northern Mississippi, laying him up for several weeks.
On leaving the army Mr. Gallon spent two years at Natchez, Mississippi; was then (1867)
appointed United States agent for the Omaha Indians, spending two years at the agency in north-
ern Nebraska. He returned to Natchez in 1869, and remained there until 1872, when he settled
in Jacksonville.
In 1876 Mr. Gallon was elected to the lower house of the legislature; served one term, and in
1878 was elected to the senate, in which body he also served one term, representing Morgan and
Greene counties. He was one of the ablest men in the senate.
Mr. Gallon voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and has since acted with the democratic party.
During an important canvass he usually takes the field, and when he does he makes a valiant fight
for his party's ticket.
He was married, March 24, 1868, to Miss Nannie W. Thornhill, of Natchez, and they have
buried one son and have five children living.
The legal business of our subject extends into all the courts in which the lawyers of Jackson-
ville have any practice, and he is making a noteworthy success in his profession. He is a man
of fine talents, a strong and clear reasoner, a forcible and eloquent speaker, and has great influ-
ence with a jury.
JOSEPH B. TITUS.
SULLIVAN
AMONG the leading members of the bar in Moultrie county is Joseph B. Titus, who was born
in Franklin county, Indiana, January 24, 1838. His parents were George W. and Elizabeth
(Bennett) Titus, the mother's ancestry dating back to the revolutionary period of our country,
where the family name is indelibly stamped in history. In 1858 they moved to Moultrie county,
settling near the present site of Sullivan, and engaged in farming.
The subject of our sketch received his first educational training at the public school while
working on his father's farm, and at the age of fourteen attended the Brookville high school for
556 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
two years, when he entered Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, which was then one of the most
leading institutions in the West. Here he graduated with the class of 1858. He then immedi-
ately began the study of law with J. G. Douglas, of Cincinnati, and after graduating from the
law college, was admitted to the bar in 1860. Mr. Titus, after being admitted to the bar, came to
Sullivan to begin the practice of his profession, engaging in a general practice and meeting with
good success.
In 1865 he was elected by the democratic party county clerk of Moultrie county, and gave
entire satisfaction to his fellow citizens. At the end of his term of office, in 1869, Mr. Titus
went into the banking and loan business, but the financial crisis which occurred soon after-
ward, proving disastrous to many through the land, did not pass him without leaving the
effect of a most severe shock, and in 1873 he closed up his business, and had left but a small por-
tion of his fortune and a few buildings and some unimproved property, which, owing to the
increase of real estate, subsequently became of value.
Being overworked during this financial depression, Mr. Titus suffered from a broken-down
constitution, and spent the next few years in travel and recruiting his health. After leaving Sul-
livan he spent some time in California. He then crossed the Pacific, and after spending some
time in China and Japan and different points of interest along the Asiatic shores, he went to Aus-
tralia, and thence to Valparaiso and numerous places along the Pacific coast, subsequently return-
ing again to California. He visited all the principal points of interest, and afterward spent one
year in Arizona, returning to Sullivan in 1878.
Immediately after his return Mr. Titus resumed the practice of law, at the same time giving
some attention to farming. The property which he had saved had increased in value. In his
business he has been very successful, building up a very lucrative practice and acquiring a
good reputation as a lawyer, while his farming enterprises have likewise been financially suc-
cessful. He has, since his return, taken an active part in the public interests of the county. The
opera house, which he built previous to his embarrassment, and which is still owned by the family,
is one of the finest in central Illinois, outside of the large cities. Mr. Titus is emphatically a self-
made man, and has been very successful, and, notwithstanding his misfortunes, the same spirit
and energy which enabled him to gain his first success has enabled him to retrieve his losses,
which must be said to his credit, and in which his friends feel a just satisfaction.
FREDERICK SMITH.
PEKIN.
THE subject of this sketch is at the head of the great manufactories of Pekin, and is also iden-
tified largely with mercantile, banking and other important interests of the city, and he has
done much to build it up. He is a native of Hanover, Germany, a son of Conrad Smith and Mar-
garet (Van de Velde) Smith; and dates his birth June 20, 1829. He had a common-school drill;
served five years as an apprentice to the blacksmith's trade in Germany; came to Pekin in 1849,
and here worked at his trade for nine years, being, of the firm of T. and H. Smith and Company.
The firm was composed at first of Teis Smith, Henry Smith, Frederick Smith and Luppe Luppen.
Henry Smith died in 1859, and Teis Smith* in 1870. Dietrich C. Smith and Habbe Velde have,
since its formation, been taken into the firm, whose name has never been changed.
The original parties were industrious mechanics, with very little capital in the aggregate, and
they commenced in a small shop and with common farm wagons, with now and then a buggy.
Their work being first-class, and giving good satisfaction, their business soon began to increase,
and their shops to multiply and expand. In a few years their operations became so large that
*Teis Smith, the senior member of the firm of T. and H. Smith and Company, was, in his day, the leader in all
enterprises undertaken by that noted firm, and was prominent in railroad projects, politics ^nd local movements of
rvrrv kind calculated to benefit the community.
by E fVWillia ms & Bra NY
of I.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 559
they were obliged to divide, and build a separate factory for the manufacture of plows, cultiva-
tors, etc., the manufacture of which they commenced more than a score of years ago. In 1879 the
Pekin Plow Company was organized by the old firm, and it gives employment to about 150
workmen, a like force being in the wagon and carriage shops. The several buildings are substan-
tial brick structures, all of them either two or three stories high, and, with the yards, cover between
two and three acres of ground. An intimation of the kind of implements, etc., made by the Plow
company may be found in a sketch of Luppe Luppen, whose portrait follows Mr. Smith's.
The subject of this sketch is the general superintendent of the manufactory, and has the plac-
ing of the goods in the market, that being latterly his main work. He is managing his part with
great success, being both a thorough-going and very competent business man. The growth of
the enterprise with which he is connected would be a wonder anywhere outside the West.
Simultaneously with the growth of the manufactories of these parties, sprang up other enter-
prises of their own. A handsome store, a lumber yard, a grain office, and a bank, were all called
for in time, and forthcoming, our subject having an interest in all of them. The handsome store
is in the name of Smith, Velde and Company; the lumber office, Smith, Feltman and Company;
the grain department, Smith, Hippen and Company, and the bank, Teis Smith and Company,
all prosperous branches of business, and managed on strict and honorable business principles.
While absorbed in worldly matters, Mr. Smith does uot neglect other duties; he is an active
Christian, an office bearer in the German Methodist church, and a man of most excellent charac-
ter. The wife of our subject was Miss Louisa Grondenberg, of Pekin, their union taking place
May 6, 1855. They have nine children, seven sons and two daughters.
o
HON. GEORGE W. STIFF.
PRINCETON.
NE of the most eminent men on the circuit bench in Illinois is George Washington Stipp,
who is self-educated and self-made in the true sense of the terms. He began and ended
his school drill in a log school-house, in Champaign county, Ohio, where he was born March 2,
1818. His father was Peter Stipp, a farmer in early life, later a school teacher and preacher, he
belonging to the so-called New Light denomination. He was born in Virginia, and was a soldier
in the second war with England. He married Elizabeth Harrison, a native of Kentucky.
Mr. Stipp commenced reading law at Bellefontaine, Ohio, with William Lawrence; came to
Canton, in this state, in 1845, before finishing his legal studies; went into the Mexican war in
1846, as first lieutenant, company K, 4th Illinois infantry, Colonel E. D. Baker, commander;
returning to Bellefontaine the next year, resumed his studies; finished them at the Cincinnati law
school; returned to Canton, March, 1848, and was admitted to the bar in Mason county, this
state, in May of that year, Hon. Richard Yates being one of his examiners.
Mr. Stipp practiced a few years at Lewiston, Fulton county, being at one period a partner of
Hon. Lewis J. Ross, since a member of congress. In the autumn of 1853, Mr. Stipp settled in
Princeton, and soon took a high position at the Bureau county bar..
He was elected prosecuting attorney of the county in 1857, and held the office between one
and two years. September, 1861, he went into the army as captain, company B, Yates sharp-
shooters, afterward 64th Illinois infantry, and served until December, 1862, when he resigned on
account of ill health. He came out as major of the regiment.
Mr. Stipp has a judicial turn of mind, and it became evident some years ago that he had, in a
marked degree, the qualities which fitted him fora jurist, and in June, 1879, he was elected judge
of the gth judicial circuit, an office which he still fills with much credit to the bench, and to the
great satisfaction of the public. He has profound legal attainments, seems to be equally well
versed in civil and criminal law, has no disposition to reward friends or punish enemies, if he has
any, and hence is unbiased by prejudice, impartitil, cool, self-poised and emphatically a just judge.
55
560 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In politics he was originally a whig, voted for Stephen A. Douglas for president in 1860, and
has since affiliated with the democratic party.
Judge Stipp was married May 29, 1849, to Miss Louisa C. Wolf, of West Liberty, Ohio, and
they have ten children, four of whom, two sons and two daughters, are married. Most of the
others are pursuing their studies.
WINFIELD S. EVERHART.
TOLEDO.
ONE of the most prominent attorneys of Cumberland county is W. S. Everhart, successor to
the late law firm of Decius and Everhart. The senior member of the firm was the late Judge
Decius, whose reputation and ability as an attorney was known throughout the state of Illinois.
The subject of this sketch was born at Leasburgh, Ohio, November 18, 1850.- His parents, Captain
Philip and Susan (Staley) Everhart, settled in Ohio at an early date, and his father took an active
part in the late civil war. He entered as private in company C, 5ist Ohio infantry, and was
gradually promoted to the rank of captain. They moved to Illinois soon after the close of the
war, settling in Cumberland county in 1866.
Winfield spent his early days as most farmer boys do, working on the farm summers and
attending the district school during the winter months. He afterward went to school for a time
at Neoga, and still later attended the University of Illinois for four years. In September, 1875,
he began the study of law with the late Judge Decius, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in
1878, and became associated with his preceptor, under the firm name of Decius and Everhart.
Their business was very large and lucrative, and so continued until the death of Judge Decius,
which occurred in the fall of 1882. The business is now continued by Mr. Everhart, who is a
thorough lawyer, being a careful and safe counsellor and an advocate of more than ordinary
ability. He is devoted to his profession, and his energy never lags while working for the inter-
ests of his clients. He has a large and convenient office, and a well selected library of nearly
one thousand volumes.
In January, 1883, Mr. Everhart formed a partnership with W. L. Bruster, and they are con-
ducting a mortgage, brokerage and loan business, which promises to be a great success.
In politics Mr. Everhart is a republican, and a very active worker in the party, entering vigor-
ously into the work at each campaign, but has never sought political preferment, choosing to
devote himself entirely to his profession, in which he finds ample scope for the gratification of his
highest ambition.
o
SAMUEL BURGE.
TOULON.
NE of the best representatives of the business interests of Toulon is Samuel Burge, banker,
of the firm of Burge and Dewey. His record will show what a young man of industrious,
economical and good business habits can do for himself with no legacy but the example of pious
parents, and no capital but a good constitution, and the art of turning an honest penny to the
best advantage.
Samuel Burge was born in Enfield, New Hampshire, October 21, 1844, the son of Rev. Benja-
min Burge, a Congregational minister, whose last charge was at Enfield, and who died in 1848.
The mother of Samuel was Lucretia Dewey, a native of Hanover, New Hampshire. Her mother
was a Pinneo, who was of Huguenot descent, and whose mother died when about one hundred
years old. Mrs. Burge is still living, being with her son in Toulon.
Our subject left New Hampshire with his mother and an only sister in 1853; resided three
years in Lewiston, Fulton county, Illinois, and then came to Toulon, where he finished his educa-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 561
tion in the public schools. He commenced his business career as a clerk in the store of his mater-
nal uncle, Samuel M. Dewey, by whom he was employed until the close of 1865, excepting six
months in 1864, when he was in the service, in company H, I44th Illinois infantry. January i,
1866, Mr. Burge became a member of the firm of Dewey, Lowman and Company, Mr. Dewey
having previously (1865) formed a partnership with William Lowman, and they had started an
exchange bank, in connection with their general store. In the autumn of 1866 Mr. Dewey died,
and January i, following, the firm was dissolved, Mr. Burge continuing the mercantile and bank-
ing business, in connection with the estate, under the firm name of Dewey and Burge.
In 1869 our subject sold out his interest in the store; in 1870, bought out the interest of the
estate, and the firm of Samuel Burge and Company, bankers, continued until January i, 1879, when
Charles P. Dewey, a cousin of Mr. Burge, joined him, forming the firm of Burge and Dewey. They
are doing a thrifty business, and have a first-class standing among the bankers in this part of the
state. They pay the largest internal revenue tax outside of Peoria, in the 5th collection district.
Mr. Burge has kept almost entirely out of politics, and with the exception of school treasurer,
and member of the village board of trustees, has held, we believe, no civil office. He was for some
years a trustee of the Congregational Church, with which he is connected, and has done more or
less work in the Sunday-school. He gives the gospel a generous support, and is not unmindful
of the poor. No village or city can have too many citizens of this class.
Mr. Burge was married, September i, 1870, to Miss Alice Lowman, daughter of William Low-
man, already mentioned, and they have three children living, and buried one daughter in infancy.
Mr. Burge has considerable property in the village of Toulon; owns two or three farms in this
county, and has other farms and lands in company with his partner, in all something like 1000
acres. His entire accumulations are the fruits of untiring industry, prudent foresight and honest
dealing, and his history, brief as it is, has a lesson in it for younger men.
L E
HON. LEWIS W. ROSS.
LE WISTON.
EWIS WINANS ROSS, lawyer, and formerly a member of congress, is a son of Ossian M.
and Mary (Winans) Ross, and was born in Seneca Falls, New York, December 8, 1812. His
father and grandfather, Joseph Ross, were also natives of that state, and belonged to an old and
numerous New York family, whose members are now scattered probably over half the states in
the Union.
In 1881 our subject paid a visit to the old homestead and burial place of his ancestors, where
he had not been for more than sixty years.; and it was with some difficulty that he found any one
familiar with the scene of his childhood three-score years ago. Apple trees were pointed out to
him which were planted by his maternal grandfather ninety years ago. He was also shown the
cellar of the house in which he was born.
In 1821 Ossian Ross moved to Madison county, Illinois, and the next year he brought his
family to Fulton county. He laid out the town of Lewiston, and was postmaster here, and also
sheriff of Fulton county. Subsequently he laid out Havana, the shire town of Mason county, and
was postmaster of Havana, where he died in 1836.
Lewis finished his literary education at Jacksonville College, in which he spent three years.
Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D., being president. He read law at Jacksonville with Josiah Lamborn;
was admitted to the bar in 1837, and for more than thirty years was a prominent member of the
Fulton county bar. Indeed, as an advocate, he had but few peers in central Illinois. His influ-
ence with a jury and his success were wonderful. As a stump speaker, he also excelled, being an
adroit and powerful debater and a fine rhetorician. People would go a long distance to hear him.
Mr. Ross was a member of the state legislature from 1840 to 1844, serving in that body with
Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Thomas Drummond, Governor Bissell, and other men
562 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
since quite distinguished in the annals of the state and nation. He was also a member of the
last two constitutional conventions, and his fine legal mind was of great se'rvice in such bodies.
Mr. Ross served one year in the Mexican war, being captain of company K, 4th Illinois regiment
Colonel E. D. Baker, commander.
He was elected to Congress in 1862, and served three terms. He has always affiliated with
the democratic party, and has repeatedly represented it in state and national conventions. He
was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore conventions which met in 1860, and he aided in
nominating Judge Douglas at the latter place; and was a delegate in 1876 to the convention
which met at St. Louis and nominated Samuel J. Tilden, and to the Cincinnati convention which
nominated General Hancock, in 1880. In politics, in law and in other respects, Mr. Ross has long
been one of the foremost citizens of Fulton county.
On leaving congress, he was for a while engaged in mercantile pursuits, but retired from busi-
ness some years ago, devoting most of his time latterly to taking care of his property. He has
about twenty-five hundred acres of excellent farm land in this county, three hundred acres of it
near Lewiston, and has considerable property in town. He has made a fine record both as a
lawyer and a financier.
June 13, 1839, Mr. Ross was joined in marriage with Miss Frances M. Simms, a native of Vir-
ginia, and they have had twelve children, only six of them now living ; John W., a lawyer, is in
Washington, District of Columbia ; Lewis C., Frank R., Pike C., and Jennie, are in Lewiston ;
and Fanny W. is the wife of H. J. Latshaw, of Kansas City, Missouri.
COLONEL THOMAS HAMER.
.
VERMONT.
ONE of the older class of settlers and prominent men of Fulton county is Thomas Hamer, a
resident of Vermont since 1846. He was born in Union county, Pennsylvania, June i, 1818,
being a son of James and Elizabeth (Seibert) Hamer. His father was born in the same state, and
was a son of Thomas Hamer, who came from Scotland to Pennsylvania before the revolution,
settled in Northumberland county, and was the first sheriff of that county. This progenitor of
the family in this country married Elizabeth Lyon, and they had eight children, the seventh child
being James, who settled in Vermont in 1846, and was here engaged in farming until his death in
1871. The mother of our subject died in 1877.
Thomas was reared on a farm ; had a thorough academic education in his native state, and taught
a school at Table Grove during the first winter that he spent in this state. He had been a clerk
in a store before leaving the East, and on finishing his school here, took a similar situation with
Joab Mershon, holding it for two years. He then formed a partnership with James A. Russell
and Richard Johnson in the dry-goods trade, and the firm did a thrifty business until the spring
of 1851, when the store was plundered and burnt, entailing a heavy loss heavy for country mer-
chants.
Mr. Hamer was in partnership with E. and P. Hamer, cousins, from 1856 to 1861, when the war
broke out ; and when the 3d Illinois cavalry was mustered in, he was appointed first major. He
resigned in a short year, and aided in raising the 84th Illinois infantry, of which he was commis-
sioned lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Hamer was slightly wounded at the battle of Stone River,
but refused to absent himself from the field the next day, and behaved himself so gallantly that
his men gave him a gold watch as a testimonial of their admiration of his bravery. His wound
finally compelled him to resign.
In 1864, Colonel Hamer resumed the mercantile business, which he carried on until 1876, when
he sold out. He is a justice of the peace and a notary public, and the former office largely occu-
pies his time. He does a general collecting business, and deals also in real estate. He is a strictly
honest man, and prompt as well as reliable. He has been a member of the town council, county
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 563
supervisor, etc., and has always shown a good deal of public spirit and enterprise. He drew up
the original bill for the charter of the Peoria and Hannibal railroad, now part of the Buda and
Rushville branch of the Chicago. Burlington and Quincy railroad, and was one of the directors,
and later the vice president of that road.
He has been quite prominent in politics, and at three autumn elections was a republican can-
didate for the legislature in a strong democratic county, drawing more than the full party vote,
and running a long way ahead of his ticket. He has been a delegate to every county convention
of his party since he came into the state, and is often a delegate to state conventions. He was
made president of the annual army reunion held at Springfield in 1880. The Colonel holds a
membership in The Joe Hooker Post (Canton), of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is presi-
dent of the Fulton County Soldiers' Reunion. In Freemasonry he belongs to the chapter and
council ; is well known among the brotherhood of the state, and is also high up in Odd-Fellow-
ship, having taken all the degrees pertaining to the order.
Colonel Hamer has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for many years ; has
held different offices in that body ; is superintendent of the Sunday school, and is known among
the Christian workers in the southern part of the county, as earnest and indefatigable in his efforts
to do good.
In 1850 he was married to Miss Harriet E. Johnson, daughter of Franklin Johnson, a native of
New York state, and they had seven children, only two of them now living ; Wylie, wife of Ansel
Amrine, produce dealer, Vermont, and Le Ray, late a student at Hedding College, Abingdon,
and now a cadet at West Point. Mrs. Hamer died April 13, 1871, and the Colonel was married
to Miss Mary M. Johnson, sister of his first wife, August 10, 1876.
M
MERTON DUNLAP.
PAX TON.
ERTON DUNLAP is a native of the town of Leyden, Cook county, Illinois, and was born
October 18, 1845, the son of th^ late Hon. M. L. and Emiline (Pierce) Dunlap, both of
whom were natives of New York state. His father was a farmer by occupation and a man of
decided character and widely felt influence. He was, until his death, a prominent writer for hor-
ticultural and agricultural journals, and was the agricultural correspondent of the Chicago "Tri-
bune " for twenty-five years. While farming in Champaign county, where he moved in 1857, he
engaged extensively in the nursery business, and was one of the most successful in that line in Illi-
nois, and although he has passed away, the fruits of his labors are found on many farms in the
Northwest, and his old homestead, which is still the home of his widow, has on it one of the finest
orchards of the state, containing ninety acres of well selected fruit trees.
Merton received his early education in the public schools, subsequently attending the Illinois
College, at Jacksonville, for two sessions, and obtained a good practical English education. He
has a practical knowledge of the German language, having spoken it from boyhood, and has since
been a close student of science, and has never ceased to avail himself of any opportunity for
improvement. He was brought up in the occupation of his father, and for a time followed the
same business, being one of the nursery firm of M. L. Dunlap and Sons, Champaign county,
where he continued until 1872, when he moved to Patton township, Ford county, and there
engaged in the same pursuits, and met with good success, building up a very flourishing business.
In 1873 Mr. Dunlap was, to his great surprise, and without any solicitation on his part, nomi-
nated for county clerk. There were several candidates before the convention, and no one having
a majority, Mr. Dunlap, who was secretary of the convention, was taken up and nominated
almost unanimously. At his second and third nominations he had no opposition in his own
party, and at his last election his popularity was shown to such an extent that his political oppo-
nents made no nomination against him, and placed his name on their tickets.
564 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARV.
Since he began his official career Mr. Dunlap has given up his agricultural pursuits, devoting
all his spare time to the study of law, and in 1880 was admitted by the supreme court as a mem-
ber of the Illinois bar. He has also given some attention to journalism, and is a frequent and
highly appreciated contributor of the press.
In religion Mr. Dunlap is a Methodist, and a prominent worker in the Paxton Methodist Epis-
copal Church and an earnest worker iit the Sabbath school, of which he is superintendent, which
position he has held for the past eleven years. In discharging his religious duties he displays
the same earnestness as in business affairs, and does valuable service in his religious work.
He married, September 26, 1867, Miss Mattie L. Beecher, a lady descended from good old Con-
necticut stock and Puritan ancestry, and a distant relative of the well known Beecher family,
posssesing high attainments and distinguished for her marked womanly and Christian virtues.
They have had three children, Harry, Edith and Cora, two of whom, Harry and Cora, are living.
The oldest daughter, Edith, died in 1881.
Mr. Dunlap is a republican in politics, and always participates in a political canvass. He is a
member of the Paxton school board, has fine literary tastes, and has collected a very large and
carefully selected library.
He is a member of the Masonic order, and an officer in Mount Olivet Commandery. His good
conversational powers, his kindly and humane disposition, and other fine social traits, greatly
endear him to his neighbors and his large circle of acquaintances.
RICHARD K. RICHARDSON.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch, an eminently self-made man, was born of Danish parentage, off
the coast of Denmark, on one of the islands in the North Sea, and under the dominion
of the Danish king. His father was engaged in pastoral pursuits, and until thirteen years of
age Richard was employed herding sheep and cattle upon the farm which his father owned, and
also attended the public schools, the system of instruction being similar to that prevailing in the
United States.
When a boy he was possessed of a roving disposition, and having heard the stories of the wild
adventures upon the sea, resolved that he himself would test them. Accordingly, when but thir-
teen years of age, he embarked on board a whaler bound for Santa Cruz. Before they had been
many days at sea the vessel was cast away, and our subject, with others of the ship's crew,
attempted to make the shore in a boat. In this, however, they were unsuccessful, for the boat was
capsized, and the boy was saved from his peril only by the timely help of a colored native, who
came to his rescue, and taking him upon his back swam with him to the shore. Upon inquiry
the rescued sailors found themselves upon one of the Cape Verde Islands, where they remained
among the natives some three weeks, living upon roasted corn and goats' milk and sleeping in a
stable upon a bed of straw, and sheltered from the sea breeze by their tarpaulins. When picked
up they were taken to Rio Janeiro, the trip lasting about two months. Here young Richardson
left his companions, who applied to the Danish consul for assistance and passports to Danish
ports, and with that enterprise and independence which has characterized his subsequent life,
shipped upon the Brannen, in command of Captain Wenke, in whom he found a true friend, and
with whom he sailed some three years.
After leaving the employ of Captain Wenke he took passage on an American ship to New
York, whence he shipped on board the Shakespeare for Portugal. On this latter voyage he was
wrecked at sea, but being rescued applied to the American consul for help, and through his
assistance secured a situation on board a Spanish vessel. He was next engaged in the cattle trade
between Rio Janeiro and Monteviedo, but the business being unsuited to his tastes he soon
abandoned it and returned to New York. Here he took a situation on a European packet ship,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 565
which plied between Bremen and New York, under Captain Blancke, and continued thus employed
for about three years. It was on his last trip to New York that he formed the acquaintance of
Miss Elizabeth Roese, to whom he was married by Rev. James Hartman immediately upon
arriving at that port. Two days later he started for the West, and settled at Chicago, where he
at once began working in the lumber business on the docks. Soon afterward he secured a situation
with the North-Western Railway Company, and by carefully husbanding his resources he was
ablet to invest in real estate, and in a few years found himself possessed of a handsome competency.
Still retaining his old love for the sailor's life, he passed the summer of 1852 sailing upon the
lakes. In the fall of the same year he became superintendent, having charge of about two hun-
dred hands, in a sail-making establishment, but was compelled to give up the position on account
of failing health. His next business association was with a mercantile house, where he showed
such adaptability and efficiency that he was soon promoted to the position of salesman, with a
salary of $3,500.
With this he was gradually adding to his little fortune, which was constantly increasing under
his careful management, when occurred the great fire of October 9, 1871, involving him in the
loss of some ten thousand dollars. But with that spirit of determination which characterized so
many of Chicago's business men during the trials of that dire disaster, he again went to work,
continuing in the employ of the same mercantile house until 1873. At that time there being some-
indications of growing activity in real estate, Mr. Richardson invested a large amount of money
in the suburb of Jefferson. The investment, however, was an unfortunate one, and he soon dis-
posed of his interest to the,gentleman with whom he had engaged in the enterprise.
Such is the brief outline of our subject's life-history. Through all his busy and varied career
he has been known as a self-reliant, enterprising, honest man, and still, with the strength and
vigor of a sturdy manhood, devotes his attention to his business with unabated energy. As seen
from the simple story of his life, he began with nothing save his own native talents, and by
persistent effort and determination never to give up, has risen from obscurity to a position of
influence.
JAMES W. ENGLISH.'
CARROLLTON.
JAMES WARTH ENGLISH, one of the leading members of the Greene county bar, is a son of
Doctor Nathaniel English, and Hannah (Warth) English, and was born in Mason county,
West Virginia, March n, 1829. His father was a prominent physician, and died at Jacksonville,
in 1881. His maternal grandfather, John Warth, was a scout in the second contest with England.
In the spring of 1836 Doctor English went to Saint Louis, Missouri, and in December of that year
came into this state, settling at Jacksonville, where our subject finished his education in Illinois
College, being graduated in 1848.
He read law at first with Hon. Richard Yates, afterward governor of the state, and William
Brown, and subsequently with David A. Smith. He was admitted to practice in the courts of Illi-
nois in 1850, in the federal courts in 1860, and in the supreme court of the United States in 1873.
Like many other young lawyers, Mr. English had a hard struggle during the first four or five
years of his professional life, but he was studious and painstaking, and gradually worked his way
upward.'and for years has stood in the front rank among the attorneys in this part of the state.
In 1856, as we learn from the " History of Greene County," Mr. English came to Carrollton,
where' his ability was soon recognized, and the following year he was elected to fill the responsi-
ble position of state's attorney. He served in that capacity in an able manner until 1860.
In 1869 Mr. English was elected to the constitutional convention, and proved an industrious
worker and valuable member of that body, serving on such important committees as those of
revision.and adjustment, finance, state institutions and public buildings, etc.
In 1871 Mr. English moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, and returned to Carrollton in August,
566 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1877. Here he has done his best work at the bar ; here his talents are best appreciated, and here
he has achieved his best success. He is noted for his generous fund of intelligence, his shrewd-
ness, his faithfulness to his client, his deference to the court and his honesty in the profession,
and in all the relations in life.
Mr. English is a Knight Templar, has been master of the local lodge, and high priest of the
chapter, and he has passed through all the degrees in Odd Fellowship. His political affiliations
have always been with the democratic party.
Two years after being admitted to practice at Jacksonville, Mr. English married (October 6,
1852) Eliza, daughter of Henry Stryker, formerly a merchant, Jacksonville, and sister of Henry
Stryker, Jr., an attorney-at-law, in that city. The fruit of this union is six children, all yet living
but Maria. The names of the others are Julia, Clara L., Charlotte, Nathaniel and Henry.
I
HON. JOHN D. CATON, LL.D.
CHICAGO.
OHN DEAN CATON was born in Monroe, Orange county, New York, March 19, 1812. His
J grandfather, once connected with the British army, settled on the Potomac in Virginia, where
he resided at the time of the revolution. Two of his sons joined the patriots, one of whom, Rob-
ert, was only fourteen years of age. Having served through the war, Robert settled down as a
farmer near the Hudson. He laid down his arms as a soldier, but became at the same time a
preacher among the Friends, of which society he was a zealous member. John was the fifteenth
child and twelfth son of this venerable patriarch, who died when he was three years old. Soon
afterward his family removed to Paris, Oneida county. Here, at the age of five, the boy com-
menced attending the common school. At the age of nine he began to work industriously on the
farm during the spring and summer, and during the winter months he pursued with avidity his
studies in the district school. At sixteen, he entered the academy at Utica, where he remained
one year, and at seventeen commenced teaching. He entered the Grosvenor high school at Rome,
in 1841, and pursued his studies with zeal and ardor, applying himself specially to surveying.
Upon leaving the academy, he commenced the study of the law with Beardsley and Matterson at
Utica. In 1833 he started for Michigan, where he learned of a hitherto unknown place, called
Chicago, to which he directed his footsteps, and found it chiefly a collection of rude huts, in a
low, swampy place, containing about two hundred persons. His office was at first peripatetic,
and for his consultations he occupied the most convenient box or barrel. He was the first attor-
ney who instituted a suit in a court of record of Cook county. On a brig, Queen Charlotte, being
the same brig that was taken from the British by Commodore Perry, he tried the first jury cases
ever tried in Cook, Will and Kane counties.
To gain admittance to the bar, he was compelled to journey to Greenville, Bond county, a dis-
tance of three hundred miles, on horseback, the journey being through the silent forests and
almost untrodden prairies, stretching from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. A severe and pro-
tracted illness resulted from this journey, on recovering from which Mr. Caton applied himself
with assiduity to his profession. In 1835 he returned to New Hartford, New York, where he was
married to Laura Adelaide Sherrill, and the wedding trip was made by way of the lakes to Chi-
cago. In 1836 he formed a partnership with N. B. Judd, a former schoolmate and friend.
In 1839 Mr. Caton, owing to failing health, removed to Plainfield, Illinois, where he purchased
a farm of fifteen hundred acres, and for several years was at once farmer and lawyer. With
returning vigor he bestowed more time upon his practice, and in 1842 Governor Carlin appointed
him as judge of the supreme court of the state for the winter. There were then nine judges, each
presiding over a circuit in the summer, and together holding the appellate court in the winter.
Being at this time but thirty years of age, he failed of an election to the supreme bench; but
Governor Ford soon appointed him to fill another vacancy. He was elected by the legislature on
EX-CHIEF- JUSTICE OF UilNTJIS.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERGITV of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES RIOGKA Til 1CA I DICTIONARY. 569
the expiration of his second appointment, and served until, in 1849, the supreme court was reor-
ganized under the new constitution. He was then chosen as one of the three judges of that court,
Judges Trumbull and Treat being his associates. From that time he continued upon the supreme
bench until 1864, when he resigned, having served in the temple of justice for about twenty-two
years, during more than six years of which he presided as chief-justice.
Having studied telegraphy, and becoming greatly interested in the art, he constructed the Illi-
nois and Mississippi lines, which in 1867 were leased to the Western Union Telegraph Company.
Of his many public addresses, perhaps the most remarkable are those made upon his resigna-
tion from the supreme bench, and upon his presentation, on behalf of the western alumni, of the
Perry H. Smith Library Hall, to the trustees of Hamilton College. As a literary man Judge
Caton's style is simple, lucid, perspicuous and elegant. He is never sensational, never florid 01
even highly ornate. He seeks to express his thoughts in the clearest manner, and in the most
concise form consistent with an easy and graceful style. Some of his productions are really clas-
sical in style and diction.
Judge Caton's fame, however, must rest chiefly upon his judicial decisions, promulgated from
the supreme bench, and which are contained in thirty volumes of the Illinois Reports. These
opinions are models of style and monuments of research.
ALFRED CASTLE, M.D.
WYOMING.
ALFRED CASTLE, one of the older class of physicians and surgeons in central Illinois, is a
son of Samuel and Phebe (Parmlee) Castle, and was born in Sullivan, Madison county, New
York, September 22, 1806. His fattier was born in Richmond, Berkshire county, Massachusetts,
and was a music composer, a music teacher, and a cousin of General Ethan Allen. He belonged
to an old Connecticut family, of Irish lineage. The Parmlees were of Belgian extraction.
Our subject received an academic education, including Latin, studying part of the time with
that eminent linguist, Doctor Silsbee, of Cazenovia, New York. He read medicine at Brockport
and Pittsford, Monroe county, New York ; attended lectures at the Berkshire Medical College,
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and the Vermont Medical
College, Woodstock. He was also at one period a resident graduate at Harvard College, and
likewise at the Massachusetts Hospital, Boston. Probably no medical man now living in Illinois
has taken more pains to fit himself for his profession than Doctor Castle, or has ever had more fully
the respect of the people in the bounds of his rides. He practiced two years at Brockport before
taking his degree of doctor of medicine, which he chose to receive at the Berkshire school, and
which was conferred in 1834. He was immediately invited to become a partner of Doctor Gideon
Tabor, an eminent physician of Clarkson, Monroe county, with whom he practiced about two
years. While thus engaged, May 19, 1835, Doctor Castle was married to Maria P. Dana, a
daughter of Colonel Daniel Dana, who had command of the Vermont troops in 1812-14, and who
held a commission under President Madison in the regular army. Her great-grandfather was
General Israel Putnam ; and here we may add that Colonel Warner, who led the Vermont forces
at the battle of Bennington, was a cousin of Ebenezer Castle, the grandfather of our subject.
In June, 1836, Doctor Castle started for Peoria, leaving his young wife, like John Gilpin's, to
follow after, but not immediately. The doctor came all the way to that city in a one-horse buggy.
The Illinois Valley was a sickly country forty and fifty years ago, and doctors had their hands full
of business. As a literary writer (Schoolcraft) once remarked, a summer in the Illinois Valley, in
these days, was equal in danger to a pitched battle. Doctor Castle lived through four or five
years, but was then so reduced in health that he returned to the East, and spent between one and
two years in Woodstock, Vermont, where he came in contact and competition with several emi-
nent members of the fraternity the faculty of a medical college. But he held his own, and. his
56
57O UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
health being restored, he returned to Peoria in 1842. During the period that he was in practice
there, he was benighted twenty nights, not daring to get off his horse for fear of rattlesnakes and
wolves. He was known at Peoria as the people's friend, being most emphatically a self-sacrificing
philanthropist.
In 1836 there was only one house, six miles west of Peoria, between that city and Wyoming,
Stark county, where he settled in 1843. ' For forty years this place has been regarded as his home,
though at two different periods, perhaps ten years in all, he was at Waukesha, Wisconsin, sojourn-
ing there merely because of the excellent educational advantages of the college there located.
He has had five children, burying two of them in infancy.
Doctor Castle was a leader in projecting and building the road of which his elder son is presi-
dent. He spent much time and some money in putting this important enterprise through, and
but for his untiring zeal and energies, it is doubtful if the road would have been built.
Doctor Castle was in extensive practice until a few years ago, doing business in Chicago as
well as here, particularly among railroad officials, and the employes of such roads. He has had
as high as three telegrams in a single day, summoning him in as many directions. It is safe to
say that no physician ever practiced in Stark county, who had greater popularity than Doctor
Castle, or more fully the confidence of the people. In his house are many testimonials of the
esteem in which he is held by parties who have had occasion to test his skill and success in their
families, among the testimonials being a large crayon portrait of himself, an elegant chair, and
a gold-headed cane, all presented to him, and other presents sent to his daughter and grand-
children.
Lately Doctor Castle has done little more than office and consultation practice. Considering
the amount of work he has done, laboring most of the time for seven days in a week, it is simply
a wonder that he is alive to-day. His constitution is considerably impaired, but his mind is clear,
his memory strong, and he is quite entertaining in the social circle. He is a republican of whig
antecedents, a member of the Episcopal church, and a man of unblemished and highly praise-
worthy record.
J
HON. JACOB W. REARICK.
BEARDSTOWN.
ACOB WILLIAM REARICK, late judge of Cass county, is a son of Jacob and Anna Maria
(Frieze) Rearick, and was born in Berleburg, Prussia, March 17, 1833. He was the fifth child
in a family of seven children. When he was four years old (1837) the family came to this country,
and settled in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where Jacob received the ordinary mental training
furnished by a common school. There, also, he learned the tinner's trade of his father. In 1854
the subject of this sketch came to Beardstown, and two years afterward his father followed him.
and died in 1868. His widow died in 1875.
On settling in Beardstown our subject worked as a journeyman tinner with his older brother,
Francis H. Rearick. Not long afterward they formed a partnership, and the firm of Rearick
Brothers lasted for seventeen years. The brother is now at Galesburgh. Since 1874 the firm has
been Rearick and Beatty, the partner being John J. Beatty, who is also an early settler and a
prominent citizen of Beardstown. They deal in hollow ware, hardware and agricultural inple-
ments, as well as in tin ware, and are doing a thrifty business.
Mr. Rearick was at one time a bank director; has held the offices of alderman, school director,
etc., and was for five years judge of Cass county, his term ending in December, 1882. He is
faithful and efficient in every trust confided to him, and is a popular man in the county. His
affiliations are with the democracy.
Judge Rearick is a member of the Knights of Honor, and of the Methodist Episcopal church,
a man of consistent profession and great sincerity of purpose. He belongs to a highly valuable
class of citizens.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 57]
He has a second wife; the first was Elizabeth Kuhl, daughter of George Kuhl, of Beardstown,
married April 29, 1862, she dying April 17, 1863, leaving one son, George Francis, now a student
at the Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and the present wife was Amanda Sargent, daughter
of W. L. Sargent, of Morgan county, married April 3, 1866. He has by her seven children; Elsie
Ann, Lydia, John Herman, Susan Alice, Frederick, Elizabeth, and Jennie.
The present wife of Mr. Rearick is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was also
the first wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Rearick are giving their children a good moral as well as mental
training. The heads of this family are aiding by their Christian example to give tone to society
in Beardstown.
OLIVER WHITAKER.
TOULON.
A4ONG the older class of settlers in what is now Stark county, Illinois, is Oliver Whitaker,
who settled here in 1837, and was the first county clerk. He has made an honorable record,
and is one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of the county. He was born in
Tioga county, near Owego, New York, April 12, 1807, being the son of Gideon and Jane (Strope)
Whitaker. His father was a New Englander; his mother of German parentage.
Oliver attended school two winters in the village of Owego, and the rest of his education he
obtained with himself for teacher. When he was only fourteen years old he lost his father, and
the son took care of himself at that age. He learned the blacksmith's trade, but left it when
twenty; went to Mansfield, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and there spent ten years as clerk and
superintendent of a large lumbering establishment. While there, in 1831, he was married to Miss
Olivia Wood, who died in child-bed two years afterward. In September, 1835, he was married to
Miss Catherine B. Brodhead, a native of Tioga county, New York, born near his own birthplace,
and in 1837 he brought his second wife to Illinois, and settled on land ten miles northeast of Tou-
lon, and continued to cultivate it until 1843, when he moved to the county seat, his present home.
Four years before that date (1839), on the organization of the county, he had been elected its
clerk, but there was no court house completed and ready for use till four years later.
Mr. Whitaker held the office of county clerk from 1839 to 1847; tnat f circuit clerk from 1843
to 1852, and that of recorder and circuit clerk from 1848 to 1852. In the last-named year he
formed a partnership with General Thomas J. Henderson in the law and real-estate business, the
general attending to the law department and our subject to real estate. That relationship con*
tinued for ten years, being dissolved in 1862, though they still hold some property, etc., in common.
Part of the time, since a resident of Toulon, Mr. Whitaker has cultivated as high as two hundred
acres of land, and he still cultivates about sixty, all of which adjoins the village. He has always
been a busy man, and even now has no ambition to rust out.
In 1869, just thirty years after he was elected the first clerk of the county, he was again placed
in that office by his partial constituents, and he served them with his usual promptness and faith-
fulness. He has also held several offices in the village corporation, and has been notary public
for more than forty years. He is true to every trust, and has the unlimited confidence of the
people who know him.
Mr. Whitaker is an Odd-Fellow, and past grand representative of the order. In politics he
was a democrat until 1854, when the pro-slavery leanings of the party led him to abandon it, and
since then he has acted heartily with the great party of freedom. He was very active during the
civil war in encouraging enlistments and looking after the interests of the soldiers, three of his
own sons being among the number.
Mr. Whitaker has had nine children by his second wife, who is still living, and is a sprightly
and cheery old lady. Two of the children are dead, Charles H., who died in infancy, and Del-
phine, who married William W. Henry, and died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1875. Hannah J., the
oldest child living, is the wife of Doctor S. S. Kaysbier, of Seneca, Kansas; Isaac is the keeper of
UNITED STA'f'KS firOGRAPITICAT. DTCTTONARY.
a large restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri; Andrew J. is in the comptroller's office, Washington,
D. C.; Frederick H. is in the New Orleans custom house; Mary W. is the wife of Elijah H.
Phelps, real-estate dealer, Kansas City; Kate is the wife of Henry Blood, farmer, of Valley, Stark
county, and Stella is the wife of Frank Matthews, principal of the high school, Pekin, Illinois.
Although past seventy-five years of age, Mr. Whitaker stands perfectly erect, and is quite
elastic. He has been a total abstainer from intoxicants for nearly forty years; and after using
tobacco for thirty years or more, abandoned that filthy and injurious habit. He is a gentleman of
the old school, urbane in manners, cordial in disposition and has a pleasant salutation for every-
body. May he live to round up his five-score years.
ALEXANDER HULL, M.D.
l.F.WISTON.
ALEXANDER HULL, the leading physician and surgeon in Lewiston, and a prominent busi-
t\. ness man in Fulton county, is a son of Philip and Sarah (McCracken) Hull, and was born
in Licking county, Ohio, November 18, 1823. His grandfather, John Hull, was a revolutionary
soldier. His father is a native of Harrison county, Virginia. His mother, who is a daughter of
Alexander McCracken, a noted pioneer Methodist minister of Ohio, of Scotch extraction, but a
native of the North of Ireland, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. His parents moved
to Licking county, Ohio, before they were married, their union taking place in 1820. There they
remained until the autumn of 1838, when they brought their family, two sons and two daughters,
to this county. Strange to say, both parents are still living, the father being in his eighty-eighth
year and the mother in her eighty-second, and both in the enjoyment of good health and mental
vigor. From the spring of 1839 to 1865 they were on a farm four miles north of Bernadotte, and
since the latter date have been on a farm one mile northwest of Lewiston, their youngest daugh-
ter, Eliza, residing with them.
The other daughter, Sarah A., is the wife of James H. Randall, money loaner, Lewiston.
William Wesley Hull, the only brother of our subject, is a farmer and stock raiser in Lewiston.
He was captain of a company in the i7th Illinois infantry in the late civil war; is a prominent
republican, like his father, and twice has been the standard bearer of his party for sheriff in a
democratic county, coming the last time within two votes of an election, his competitor being
David J. Waggoner, then one of the most popular men for that position in the democratic ranks
in the county.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Ohio and of Fulton county;
continued to work on his father's farm until 1844, when he commenced teaching school, following
that profession for three years. From boyhood up, he had a taste for reading, and by improving
his spare hours while on the farm and while teaching, he acquired a good education. In 1847 he
turned his attention to the study of medicine in the office of his cousin, Doctor Abram Hull, of
Fulton county. He attended a course of lectures at Saint Louis, another at Rush Medical Col-
lege, Chicago, and received his diploma at the latter institution in February, 1850.
Doctor Hull commenced practice at Cuba, in this county, in the spring of 1850, and remained
there for ten years, his rides being extensive and his success quite encouraging. Several difficult
surgical operations which he performed greatly increased his reputation for skill. It was there
that he learned that " nothing succeeds like success."
In the exciting and memorable political campaign of 1860 the democrats placed him on their
ticket for clerk of the circuit court and recorder of Fulton county. He was elected, moved to
Lewiston, was reelected in 1864, and held the office for eight consecutive years. His official labors
were performed largely by deputies, yet he never lost sight of the various details of the office,
and saw that everything was done in the best possible manner, he meanwhile keeping up his medi-
cal and surgical practice, which he continues with his usual vigor. Perhaps no man outside of
r \ITI-.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
573
the large cities has performed more important surgical operations than he. His many years
of successful practice of his profession in this county gives him now the advantage of an extended
and large consultation practice. This, in addtion to the other matters in which he is inter-
ested, makes him a truly busy man.
The doctor has written some for medical periodicals, and also for political and other news-
papers, he wielding a ready and pointed pen. It is by such literary work that he has helped on
some important local enterprises. He is ambitious, energetic and public-spirited, and in the
spring of 1870, in connection with other prominent citizens of Fulton county, the Fulton Coal
Company was organized, with Doctor Hull for president. That office he still holds, and to his judi-
cious management and unflagging energies is due no doubt, in a large measure, the wonderful suc-
cess of this enterprise. He has also taken a great interest in educational matters, and especially
in his own town. He is president of the Lewiston school board, and has been for the last eight
or ten years.
Doctor Hull was married in November, 1851, to Miss Nancy Permelia Heckard, of this county,
and they have one daughter, Carrie, who is a student at Saint Mary's School, Knoxville.
Doctor Hull is not only public-spirited and energetic, but social and cordial in disposition,
with the manners of a gentleman. He is also a man of good morals and of strictly temperance
habits, and he is well calculated to make and retain friends. He is one of the best-known citi-
zens of Fulton county, and belongs to a class who have done much to develop its material
interests.
In the case of Doctor Hull the fact is demonstrated that a boy may commence poor, and by
dint of industry and honesty by middle life may acquire a competency, and while he does not call
himself wealthy, he owns, in addition to other property, some two thousand acres of land, a good
deal of which is under cultivation.
HON. A. Y. TROGDON.
PARIS.
AY. TROGDON was born in Edgar county, Illinois, July 8, 1833. His parents, Samuel and
. Eleanor (Swafford) Trogdon, both natives of North Carolina, settled in Illinois about 1827,
where his father followed the occupations of blacksmith and tanner. Judge Trogdon is truly the
architect of his own fortune. When but ten years of age he was thrown upon his own resources,
and going to the state of Iowa, was there engaged for a number of years in driving oxen and other
manual labor. His educational advantages were meager, and his early education was secured
wholly by his own indefatigable efforts after his day's work was done. With a native fondness
for study, he made the most of his opportunities, and, by treasuring up his hard-earned savings
was enabled to attend Asbury University. After completing his studies he settled in Minnesota,
and opened up a farm, but not being satisfied with that country he left it and settled in Terre
Haute, Indiana, and began the study of law under the instruction of Usher and Patterson. By
close application and diligent study he fitted himself for examination, and in 1857 was admitted
to the bar.
He immediately began the practice of his profession at that place, but the following year
removed to Paris, Illinois, where he has since resided and won an enviable reputation in his prac-
tice, in which he has been actively engaged for a number of years. He has taken an active part
in politics, being an earnest republican, and in 1860 was elected town clerk. In the following
year (1865) he was overwhelmingly elected judge on the republican ticket, although his county is
largely democratic. In 1869 he was elected mayor of Paris.
Upon retiring from his juclgeship, Judge Trogdon devoted himself exclusively to his profes-
sion, and built up a large and desirable clientage, becoming known as an able counsellor and con-
vincing advocate. In 1877 he was again elected judge, and in like manner again honored in 1882,
the constitutional convention extending his term for one year.
574
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1859 Judge Trogdon married Miss Mary C. Clapp, a native of North Carolina. Four
daughters and two sons have been born to them. The eldest, Alice, is a successful teacher. The
second, Jessie, is a notary public, and has been actively engaged in her father's law office.
As a lawyer, Judge Trogdon is an ornament to his profession; as a judge, he is known for his
uprightness, fairness and profound knowledge of the law; while as a man and citizen he is
respected and esteemed for his public-spiritedness and true manly character.
ROBERT BLACKSTOCK.
PAXTON.
A1ONG the pioneers of Ford county is Robert Blackstock. He was born in western Canada,
Ontario, August 3, 1827. His parents were Rev. Moses Blackstock, a Methodist clergyman,
of marked Christian piety, and Jane (Morrow) Blackstock, a lady of true womanly and Christian
virtues. Both of them were of Scotch descent; his paternal grandfather, a Presbyterian clergy-
man, was a chaplain for a Scottish colony under Lord Farnharh, and located in County Caven,
Ireland, near Dublin. The father of our subject united with the Methodist church in the city ol
Dublin, under the preaching of Gideon Ousley, a Methodist missionary from England. After his
conversion he came to Canada as a Methodist missionary, bringing with him his wife, to whom he
had been married about two years. Remaining there until 1858, he then left Canada and moved
to La Fayette, Indiana, and united with the Northwestern Indiana Conference, where he was in
active service until the time of his death, which occurred in September, 1876.
Mr. Blackstock received his early education in Canada, and was brought up under strict relig-
ious influence, and received a thorough general knowledge, and Christian discipline. When
nineteen years of age he went to learn the trade of a harness maker, which he followed very
successfully for eight years, when he removed to Shawnee Mound, Indiana. Here he remained
for two years; engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1858 he moved to Ford county, three
miles west of the present site of Paxton, and there engaged in farming and stock-raising for
twelve years, and accumulated considerable property. In 1870 he moved to the city of Paxton,
and engaged to some extent in the banking business, and in 1873 became cashier of the Ford
county bank, of which he was a heavy stock-holder, which position he still fills very satisfacto-
rily. In politics he is a republican, but has never taken any active part in political matters.
He is an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was
reared, and he is an active Sunday-school worker, and was one of the organizers of the First
Church of Paxton.
Mr. Blackstock was married in February, 1856, to Miss Emily Meharry, daughter of Hugh
Meharry, of Shawnee Mound, Indiana.
H
HENRY T. FOSTER.
BEARDSTOWN.
ENRY TRUE FOSTER, one of the oldest business men of Beardstown still living here,
and always one of its most enterprising citizens, is a native of Union, Lincoln county,
Maine. He was born February 3, 1815. He is a great-grandson of Edward Foster, who came
from England to Massachusetts about the middle of the eighteenth century. Edward Foster, the
grandfather of our subject, was born in 1752. Robert Foster, the father, was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, November 4, 1773. He married Maria Emerson, of Hampstead, New Hampshire,
her native state, October 24, 1799. Robert Foster was a large shipper and ship owner, but during
the war of 1812-14 his property was mostly destroyed or taken by the enemy, and he moved to
Maine with his wife and six children. The oldest son, Robert Nesbit Fester, was born Christmas
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
575
eve, 1800. He finally moved to New York city, where he was for many years an importing mer-
chant of Gold street. He died at his home at Bloomfield, New Jersey, in 1847. He left three
sons, one of whom, Edward E. Foster, is a resident of Beardstown a commercial traveler. Rob-
ert Foster and wife had, in Maine, five children, making eleven, of whom Henry T. was the ninth
child. The family moved to Thomaston, in Lincoln county, in 1826, where the mother died, July
i, 1831.
The subject of this sketch finished his education at Warren and Newcastle Academies, at sev-
enteen years of age, and soon after left his home, went to Bangor, and there spent three years
in the clothing store of Thomas Furber, the first store of the kind in that city. Mr. Foster's
father having lands in Illinois, the family concluded to go to the Great West. The father, two
sons and two daughters left Thomaston early in September, 1835. Stopping two weeks in New
York, where were two sons, Robert N. and Benjamin Emerson, they pursued their journey, by
way of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, arriving at Jacksonville,
October 24, 1835. The family, excepting the subject of our sketch, soon moved to Rushville,
Illinois, he finding employment in the store of Horn, Babb and Spence, at Beardstown. The
father and daughters concluded to return to the East, leaving Rushville in the spring of 1836.
They settled in Westchester, Pennsylvania, where Robert Foster died, July 30, 1847. The brother,
Abner Foster, * soon after came to this county, and the two have been more or less associated in
business.
Our subject has been a farmer, a manufacturer of flour, a merchant, and pork buyer and
packer, as well as a large dealer in grain, and altogether, for more than forty years, was one of
the leading men of the place, interesting himself, meanwhile, in every enterprise calculated to
build up the town or to benefit the community. In 1868 he was placed at the head of the muni-
cipality of Beardstown, and thereby new life was infused into an old and important enterprise.
We learn from the " Cass County Atlas," and from other reliable sources of information, that the
management of the Saint Louis, Alton and Rock Island Railroad Company, having expended
the money and energies of the people along the line, suffered the road to lie dormant for ten
years, the work done going to waste, and no outlet by rail for the produce of the country, though
merchants, farmers and others had paid heavily in expectation of such accommodation. Mr.
Foster determined to resuscitate this enterprise. By correspondence with Judge George Greene,
of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and H. H. Boody, of New York, assurance of aid was obtained. The
attention of other public-spirited men of Beardstown and along the proposed line was thus turned
to the work, and a spirit of enterprise infused into the people, that led to results. They made
arrangements with Judge Greene to come over the route, and examine the line and the work.
Judge Greene was subsequently made president of the company, and work commenced. A depot
and offices were built at Beardstown, the grading of the road was pushed, and rails soon began
to be laid from that city southward, and before the expiration of 1869 the road was completed,
and cars were running nearly to Whitehall, and continued to Saint Louis during 1870, thus giv-
ing Beardstown an outlet, in addition to that by the Illinois River, and marking an important
epoch in the business history of this city.
To the energetic spirit of Mr. Foster and E. B v Leonard was due the extension to Beardstown
of the Northwestern, Springfield and Southeastern (now a branch of the Ohio and Mississippi)
road. This road is valuable and important, giving a direct eastern and southeastern outlet to all
Atlantic coast cities.
It is doubtful if there is another resident of the city who has devoted so much time and
energy, or more means, to the fostering of the material and general interests of the place and
*Abner Foster, above mentioned, was born in Union, Lincoln county, Maine, in 1817; came to Schuyler county,
this state, in 1835; settled in Beardstown in 1838, and was successively a merchant, miller and lumber dealer; also a
farmer for many years. He was president of the Cass County Bank for some years, resigning in 1878. Like his
brother, he has been a thoroughgoing business man, and enjoys the high esteem of the people. He has a wife living,
but his children are all dead.
576 UNITED STATES IUOGRA 1'IIICA I. DICTIONARY.
county as Mr. Foster. He is, and has long been, a trustee, and is now a deacon, of the Congre-
gational Church, and a man of libeaal Christian character, much esteemed by all. In politics he
was formerly a whig, of the Henry Clay school, and in 1856 one of the few advocates in this sec-
tion of free soil. He was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln; an admirer of the man, and an
enthusiast for his election to the presidency.
Mr. Lincoln appointed Mr. Foster postmaster at Beardstown in 1861, which office he held for
more than six years, then yielding up the office for non-support of Andrew Johnson. He made
an efficient and popular postmaster. For some years he was a member of the republican state
central committee, and an active and efficient worker for the interests of the party, in which work
he always had the aid of his sons in active campaign.
Mr. Foster was married at Beardstown, January i, 1839, to Miss Mary De Haven, of Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania. They have two sons, Edwin C. Foster, at Beardstown, a general business
man, and Robert H. Foster, a merchant, at Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Foster is of good New
England stock; brought with him to the West the best elements of that stock, honesty and integ-
rity, and his influence in this city has always been salutary and elevating.
LORIN GRANT PRATT.
CHICAGO.
A? an example of self-reliant, independent and successful manhood, no one deserves more
honorable mention among the self-made men of Illinois than the subject of this biography.
He was a native of Chenango county, New York, and was born near Binghamton, December 5.
1828, and was the son of John and Clarisa Pratt. As a boy he possessed undaunted courage,
self-reliance and untiring energy, and with a native instinct for study, early developed a love for
literary pursuits. He attended the public schools of his native place, and although deprived of
the opportunity of pursuing a course of classical study in college, by a faithful employment of his
time he gained a practical knowledge of men and books, which was, perhaps, of more real value
to him in his active life. When fifteen years of age, he was thrown upon his own resources, and
during the ensuing five years turned his hand to various kinds of employment, devoting all his
spare hours to reading and study. His mind was early turned toward the legal profession, by
being brought into contact with such men as David S. Dickinson, and other eminent lawyers of
his native state, and he determined to fit himself for its duties. With this purpose in view he, in
1848, removed to the West, and settled at Peoria, Illinois, and there, in the office of J. K. Cooper,
began studying for the profession, in which he afterward won most satisfactory success. Three
years afterward, in 1851, he was admitted to the bar, and forming a partnership with William F.
Bryant, immediately began the practice of his profession. This partnership continued about one
year, and during that time Mr. Pratt made the acquaintance of Judge Norman H. Purple, an able
lawyer and jurist of Peoria, who was associated in business with a Mr. Sanger. Judge Purple,
being attracted by the ability and lawyer-like qualities of the young attorney, proposed that he
become one of the firm, an offer which was accepted, and our subject became the junior member
of the firm of Purple, Sanger and Pratt. This relation continued until 1857, and during that
time the business of the firm was more extensive than that of any law firm outside of Chicago
doing business in the state. Mr. Pratt was not possessed of a robust constitution, and close appli-
cation to study and work had so impaired his health that -he was forced to abandon his profes-
sion for a time, and devote himself to other employment. An opportunity soon opened. Pur-
chasing an interest in the Peoria Plow Works, he gave his attention to the business of the concern,
with Tobey and Anderson, until the opening of the rebellion in 1861, when he bought out his
partners, and became sole proprietor of the business, and continued it until he had amassed a
fortune of some $200,000. It had been well if he had stopped there; but his ambition and enter-
prise prompted him to extend his business to other cities, which necessitated the association of
E-. h-C ;; WiMum- iBr-NY
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
579
other partners, the result of which was the loss of a large part of his accumulations. This
occurred in 1871. It was at such a crisis that his true character asserted itself. Although the
management of his extensive enterprise had fallen upon him, he had kept himself posted in
matters pertaining to the law, carefully watching the decisions of the supreme court, and being
almost daily in the office of Alexander McCoy, drawing bills in chancery and attending to mat-
ters pending in court, so that he was thoroughly qualified to resume the practice of the profes-
sion, to which he was devoted. Accordingly, in 1872, he removed to Chicago, and became one of
the well known firm of Harding, McCoy and Pratt. Three years later, George F. Harding with-
drew from the business, which had become very extensive, and the name of the firm changed to
McCoy and Pratt, and so continued until Mr. Pratt's death, which occurred at Chicago, Septem-
ber 23, 1881.
At the time of his death Mr. Pratt had attained an enviable reputation as a corporation law-
yer. He had for some years been the general solicitor of the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern
Railroad Company, and was frequently retained as counsel in the most important railroad litiga-
tion by other railroads.
As a lawyer, Mr. Pratt was careful and conscientious, and honored his profession. Far-sighted
and shrewd in the management of business matters, he possessed a high degree of honor, and in
all his dealing was a man of uncompromising integrity. He was a man of fixed principles and
decided purpose, and as a speaker possessed the happy faculty of saying the right thing at the
right time, and that, too, in a manner to carry conviction to those whom he addressed.
Though strong in his likes and dislikes, and quick to resent a wrong, he was a genial and social
companion, and a true friend.
Mr. Pratt was married July 9, 1851, to Mary E. Ireson, daughter of E. A. Ireson, a Methodist
clergyman of Boston, Massachusetts, and Mary (Goodwin) Ireson. In his home life and domestic
relations Mr. Praft was kind, gentle and true, and here were displayed many noble qualities of
the man which were best known by his nearest friends. Though never possessed of a strong and
robust constitution, he was a great worker, and by persistent effort, in the face of many discour-
agements, pushed his way upward to an honorable position in his profession, making for himself
a name that cannot but be respected by all who knew him.
A'
ABEL C. THOMPSON.
I'AX TON.
BEL CARPENTER THOMPSON was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1818. His
parents, John and Mary (Gardner) Thompson, were among the early settlers of Pennsyl-
vania. After pursuing his studies in the public schools of Wyoming Valley he went to Har-
ford Academy, at Harford, Pennsylvania. Leaving school before completing his education, he
went to Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in mercantile business for a number of
years, which was finally developed into the lumber and coal business, in which he was remarkably
successful. At the same time he dealt largely in real estate.
While in Pittston, Mr. Thompson gave considerable attention to journalism, and for three
years edited the Pittston "Gazette," a republican journal of considerable note. By reason of
overwork his health became greatly impaired, and in 1868, for the benefit of his health, he removed
to the West, and settled at Paxton, his present home, and immediately went into the banking busi-
ness with S. J. Toy. For three and a half years they conducted a private bank, which, at the end
of that time, in 1871, became the First National Bank of Paxton, with Mr. Thompson as presi-
dent and S. J. Toy, cashier. The business of the bank was continued until 1876, when they went
into voluntary liquidation, closed up the National, and formed the Ford County Bank, of Thomp-
son, Blackstock and Company, as successors to the First National Bank, with Mr. Thompson as
president; Robert Blackstock, cashier, and William M. Blackstock, assistant cashier. Mr. Thomp-
57
580 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
son, by his careful and skillful management, has been very successful in all his undertakings as a
banker, and is greatly esteemed by the business community for his integrity and thoroughness.
In the various transactions of business in which he has been engaged during the past quarter
of a century, he has acquired such a reputation for financial ability and thorough acquaintance
with monetary affairs that, when the panic of 1873 occurred, he carried all the public interests
intrusted to him successfully and triumphantly through that financial crisis, and was compelled
to take a large amount of property on indebtedness, which, however, in later years turned out to
be very profitable, owing to the rise of property in the West.
In politics he is an active republican. In religion he is a worthy and prominent member of
the Methodist Episcopal church, where he has long been an earnest worker in the church and
Sunday school. He was one of the founders of the First Methodist Church of Paxton. He is a
great public benefactor, and has assisted in building all the various^ churches of Paxton. He is
liberal in his views, and is a supporter of all good causes.
Mr. Thompson was married, October 30, 1844, to Miss Catharine S. Brown, of Exeter, Penn-
sylvania. They have one daughter, who is the wife of Israel J. Sutton, a dealer in real estate and
fine stock, of Paxton. They all live together in their luxurious home, which is considered the
finest property, not only in Paxton, but in Ford county. The house is a fine, substantially built
structure, surrounded by twenty-six acres of ground, well laid out in fruit trees and shrubbery,
which is the pride of the city.
HON. DIETRICH C. SMITH.
PEKIN.
DIETRICH CONRAD SMITH, banker and manufacturer, and late member of congress from
the thirteenth district, is a native of Hanover, Germany; a son of Conrad and Margaret
(Van de Velde) Smith, and was born April 4, 1840. Religious persecution was prevalent in Ger-
many thirty and forty years ago, and on that account the family came to this country, in 1849,
and settled in Pekin.
Dietrich was pursuing his classical studies in Quincy College when the civil war burst upon the
land, and he was one of the first to enlist in defense of his adopted country, first for three months.
He went into company F, 8th Illinois infantry, Colonel Oglesby, commander; reenlisted for three
years as second lieutenant of company I, same regiment, and was in the battles of Fort Henry,
Fort Donelson, and Shiloh, and was severely wounded in the last battle. He returned to the
field in the summer of 1862, and resigned in the autumn of that year, being entirely unfit for
military duty.
He became a member of the hardware firm of Smith, Velde and Company, and in September,
1863, was married, at Beardstown, Cass county, to Miss Carrie Pieper, who is of German extrac-
tion. Soon afterward, his health having greatly improved, he raised a company for the 1391!!
Illinois infantry; went to the front as captain of company C, remaining until the collapse of the
rebellion.
In 1866 Captain Smith engaged in private banking, in the firm of Teis, Smith and Company,
an institution of good standing, and doing a large business. He is also a member of the Pekin
Plow Company; of Smith, Hippen and Company, grain merchants, and of T. and H. Smith and
Company, wagon and carriage makers, of. which last firm he is the financier. Prior to the panic
of 1873, Mr. Smith was connected with several railroads centering in Pekin, holding different
offices in these corporations. He is a man of much public enterprise, and is thoroughly imbued
with the pushing disposition of the age. He has held such local offices as alderman, school
inspector, supervisor, etc., and was a member of the thirtieth general assembly, taking great
interest in river and canal improvements, and whatever would benefit the state. Step by step, he
rose from an alderman to a legislator, preparatory to a higher step. Captain Smith was a mem-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 581
her of the forty-seventh congress, and though a new man in the house, he was placed second on
the committee on banking and currency, which committee had in charge the rechartering of the
national banks of the United States.
He is a Master Mason; has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since he was
sixteen years old; is an earnest Sunday-school worker; president of the board of trustees of the
German Methodist College, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and was a delegate to the general confer-
ence which met at Brooklyn, New York, in 1872, and to the ecumenical conference which met in
London, England, in 1881. He is known far and wide as a man of solid Christian character,
enlisted for life in the warfare against evil. Captain and Mrs. Smith have six children, five sons
and one daughter, all of them, who are old enough, being engaged in study.
T
DANIEL ABBOTT.
CANTON.
1HE gentleman with whose name we head this sketch is a native of Fulton county, this state,
and was born at Farmington, May 21, 1838, his parents being John Wesley Abbott, a farmer,
and a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Christina (Babbett) Abbott. Her father was also
a Pennsylvanian. Daniel finished his literary studies at Lombard University, Galesburgh; taught
a public school two terms; commenced his legal studies at Galesburgh in 1859; pursued them two
and a half years, and was admitted to the bar at Springfield in January, 1866. His practice
extends in the several state and federal courts, and he has made a success in his profession. He
prepares his cases with a good deal of care, and his points are well taken; is clear and logical as a
talker, but not fluent, but his candor and sincerity favorably impress a jury, His judgment as a
counselor is excellent, and he is not likely to encourage litigation where it can be avoided.
Mr. Abbott is in partnership with Clifton N. Henkle, in the insurance, collecting and real-
estate business, in which branch he is also doing well. He is straightforward, prompt and relia-
ble, and has the fullest confidence of the community.
He has been city attorney, alderman, mayor two terms, and was state's attorney from 1872 to
1880, filling that office, as he has filled every other, with marked ability.
His politics are democratic, and he cast his first vote for president in 1860 for that brilliant
statesman, Hon. Stephen Arnold Douglas. Mr. Abbott is a Royal Arch Mason and an Odd-Fellow.
He was joined in marriage, November 12, 1863, to Miss Amelia W. Weller, daughter of Daniel
Weller, of Ogle county, this state, and they have had six children, only four of them, two sons
and two daughters, now living. The sons, Charles D. and John C., are attending the normal
school at Dixon, and the daughters, Mary F. and Grace M., are attending the Peoria Academy.
Mrs. Abbott died May 19, 1881.
DAVID E. EDRINGTON.
CRESTON.
DAVID ELSTON EDRINGTON, one of the pioneer settlers in Ogle county, is a son of John
and Eda (Elston) Edrington, and was born in Gallatin county, Kentucky, December 27,
1819. Both parents were born in that county. His grandfather, John Edrington, Sr., was a
native of the Old Dominion. David received an English education, restricted to the rudimentary
branches, and farmed with his father in Kentucky until 1837, when he came into this state, and
settled twelve miles northwest of where Creston now stands. There he made a claim, entered
160 acres, and began to improve it. This part of the state at that time was very sparsely settled,
there being only two families within six or seven miles of him. Deer were abundant; prairie
wolves furnished the nocturnal music, and the name of prairie chickens and other wild fowl was
legion.
582 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Edrington purchased farms from time to time, and by industry, was greatly prospered.
In 1865 he moved into Creston; opened a grocery and general store (all but dry goods), and the
next year added hardware, clothing, boots and shoes, etc. He has always been an upright,
straightforward dealer, and hence has secured the best class of customers and done a thrifty
business. He is prudent and economical, as well as honest, and is in very comfortable circum-
stances.
Since settling in Creston, Mr. Edrington has been a member of the corporation board at sun-
dry times, but has held few offices, being very much disposed to live not only a quiet, but
retired life. In politics he was originally an abolitionist, and has voted the republican ticket
since 1856. Many years ago he joined the Wesleyan Methodist church, but now holds connection
with no church, though he is living an exemplary Christian life, greatly respected by his neigh-
bors for the kindly and humane qualities of his heart. He has long been a total abstainer from
all intoxicating beverages, and in his habits generally sets a good example to the young.
Mr. Edrington was first married in May, 1843, to Miss Philena Potter, of Ogle county, she
dying in 1868, leaving one son, Albert, who was killed by the cars a few months afterward; and
the second time, December i, 1869, to Mrs. Achsah (Andrus) Woodard, of De Kalb county, hav-
ing by her one child, Sophronia Achsah, aged twelve years.
EDWIN B. HARPHAM, M.D.
HA VAN A.
EDWIN BATES HARPHAM, one of the oldest medical men of Mason county, dates his birth
in the city of Philadelphia, April 14, 1814, he being a son of Jonathan and Mary (Bates)
Harpham. His father, a son of Samuel Harpham, was born in Lincolnshire, England, and
belonged to a family of seventeen children, fourteen of whom grew to womanhood or manhood.
Edwin is the eldest child in a family of seven children, all yet living but one daughter. In 1819
the family left Philadelphia, and settled on a farm at Hartford, near Aurora, Dearborn county,
Indiana, where our subject attended the common schools of the day, and by dint of diligence
picked up some knowledge of mathematics and Latin, he being unsatisfied with his literary
attainments.
He read medicine with Doctor Crookshanks, of Hartford; attended lectures at the Ohio Medi-
cal College, Cincinnati, and received the degree of doctor of medicine in 1843, having previously
practiced to a limited extent.
In April, 1844, Doctor Harpham was married to Miss Laura Holliday, of Aurora, Indiana, and
the next November brought his young bride to Havana, where they have lived for nearly forty
years. There was no surplus of physicians in those early days, and very few of them within
twenty-five miles of Havana. The result was that his rides were often very long, and usually
very laborious. Rain or shine, good roads or bad, day or night, near or far, a physician must
obey the demands of frail humanity, and, in a new country, be in his saddle and off promptly.
No other class of professional men are half so much exposed, and have such wear and tear of the
constitution.
Nearly twenty years ago Doctor Harpham bought a drug store, and soon began to slightly
shorten his rides. He has now cut off entirely his country practice, and seeks none anywhere. A
few families, whose physician he has been from the start, are reluctant to call any other. These
he visits, his presence merely having a soothing, if not a healing power. He does some consulta-
tion practice, and the people have great confidence in his wisdom, as well as skill.
Many years ago Doctor Harpham was school superintendent one or two terms, and he has
done some work as a school director, but has never sought office. He is a Blue Lodge Mason.
His wife is a member of the Methodist Church, where he attends.
Doctor and Mrs. Harpham have had three children, losing one of them, Corinne, when five
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 583
years old. Oscar Holliday, the son, is a hardware merchant, Havana, and Lucy E. is the wife of
Doctor Joseph B. Browning, a graduate of Harvard College and Rush Medical College, and
practicing at Havana.
In the summer of 1882 Doctor Harpham went to the old country for the first time, and visited
Lincolnshire, but found scarcely a person of his name. The family had followed his father to
this country, and are scattered all the way from Illinois to the Pacific slope. The Harphams
originated in Yorkshire, where a few of the name are still living. Considering his hardships at
an early day, the Doctor is a. well preserved man, his constitution being sound and his mind per-
fectly clear. He is held in great esteem by all his acquaintances.
THOMAS COOPER.
PEKIN.
ONE of the best known men in Tazewell county, is Thomas Cooper, mayor of the city of
Pekin, arid treasurer of the county. He is a man of the strictest rectitude, of good social
qualities, and a favorite of the democratic party, to which he has always belonged. He is a Cin-
cinnatian by birth, and was ushered into the world February 2, 1830, his parents being William
and Mary (Beal) Cooper. His grandfather, Joseph Cooper, was a soldier under General Wayne,
and with him in several engagements. The family moved from Virginia to Ohio, where William
Cooper, who was a contractor, was born. The Beals were a Pennsylvania family.
Thomas Cooper learned the potter's trade, in Ohio; at seventeen years of age (1847) went
into the Mexican war, enlisting at New Orleans in a Palmetto regiment, and serving one year;
came to Tazewell county, in 1848, and settled on a farm in Morton township, where he lived for
twenty-five years. He still owns the farm, which consists of three hundred and twenty acres
of well improved land. While engaged directly in agricultural pursuits, Mr. Cooper was kept
constantly in one or more offices, such as commissioner of highways, school director, etc.
In 1873 he moved into Pekin to take charge of the county treasurer's office. He is now serv-
ing on his fifth term, being elected the last time for the term of four years. His constituents
have unbounded confidence in his honesty, and in his hands the funds of the county are in safe
keeping. Mr. Cooper is also serving his second term as mayor, and, being quite public-spirited,
he seems to be the proper man to be at the head of the city government. He is a Master Mason.
Mayor Cooper was united in wedlock with Miss Margaret A. Strickland, a native of Kentucky,
in 1849, and the fruits of this union are seven children, five of whom are yet living.
JOHN H. VOLK.
CHICAGO.
WHEN the attainments in art or the achievements of genius can be brought into requisition
to beautify the useful, to adorn the habitations of mankind, the structures devoted to
business, refinement and education, or the temples of worship, to elevate civilization, and raise
the standard and tastes of mankind to the appreciation of the aesthetic in every department in
life, it. betokens advancement in the right direction. This is forcibly illustrated in the calling
and career of the subject of this sketch.
John H. Volk was born May 8, 1840, at Avon Springs, New York. His father, John Volk, was
a designer of monuments, and possessed a cultivated taste in sculpture, which perhaps laid the
foundation for the early bent of the mind of our subject in that direction. The parents of young
Volk removed from New York to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in his childhood, where he spent his
early life, having the ordinary advantages for education afforded New England boys of that
period, and always standing first in his class in the studies then taught. At the age of ten years,
584 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
in performing a reckless feat of swimming across the Housatonic River, one cold April day, amid
the floating ice, Master Volk came near paying his last tribute to all earthly scenes. Though
successful in the act, the penalty was an eight years' sickness, and a consequent interruption of
studies so well begun.
Notwithstanding he was now compelled to look upon his companions during their sports of
agility and strength (among whom he had been a leader) without being able to participate, he
kept up a course of living and treatment to restore the sound body, his studies, also, not being
neglected. This, with a determined will and an iron constitution, have brought him up to the
average health of mankind, and perhaps the exercise of this will power to live and to be, devel-
oped the force, courage and self-reliant nature that he has always shown in the trials and adver-
sities of life.
Meanwhile, his parents had removed to the shores of the Deerfield River, near the town of
Charlemont, where his beloved mother, Paulina Volk, whose maiden name was Race, a most
intelligent and worthy lady, died; and, as is too often the case when the mother is called away
by death, the family was broken up, the sisters (four in number) and one brother being cared for
by the. eldest members of the family. The same courageous, self-reliant spirit pervading each,
they were enabled to secure excellent educations, and are esteemed for their intelligence and
uprightness, and as worthy representatives of the best of New England's sons and daughters.
To better enable him to render assistance to the sisters and brother he loved, young Volk came
west, landing in Cleveland, Ohio, without a dollar; thence, obtaining assistance a part of the
way, and the remainder, some twenty miles, walking, to Warren, Ohio, where he had learned a
marble carver was wanted, in which art, at that early age, he was considered very skilled, and
accounted one of the best generally informed in the trade, succeeding in getting employment for
a few months. He afterward turned his attention to teaching penmanship, visiting the lower
part of the state of Indiana, and Kentucky, where he remained about a year. Then returning
home, on a visit to his sisters for a short period, he again came west, remaining about two years
in Kalamazoo, Eaton Rapids and Wayne, in the state of Michigan. Mr. Volk's early instruction
in architectural, mechanical and art drawing, and his study of perspective, together with model-
ing and reproduction in plaster, have been of great service to him in directing workmen, and in
selecting those best fitted for especial branches of monumental art.
He was early instructed in sculpture by his father, who was also the instructor of his own younger
brothers, but because of its 'meager compensation in this country, he wisely abandoned the pur-
suit as a specialty, using his knowledge thereof only in connection with cemetery memorials,
which often call for the highest perfection in the ideal, as well as in the less artistic busts. Mr.
Volk next came to Chicago, soon starting out as a traveling agent for the Chicago Marble and
Granite Manufacturing Company, which company, through his skill and efforts, were largely
indebted to him for their monumental patronage. The fire of 1871 dissolving the company, Mr.
Volk then commenced business for himself in Chicago, and has. unaided, built up the leading
monumental business of the Northwest.
His inheritance of artistic taste has been well cultivated and applied, which, together with his
fine business qualifications, entitles him to the confidence reposed in him by Chicago's leading
citizens, many of whom are of the same self-make, having cultivation and tastes leading them to
the beautiful in art, and to seek an appropriateness in monumental memorials for their loved
ones.
Having secured this prestige among monumental artists, he will most assuredly retain it, and
continue to elevate the character and tone of his calling, and to beautify the cemeteries in the
land with many more of his original and appropriate designs, now to be found in nearly all the
prominent cemeteries of the country. As an inventor, Mr. Volk has produced some creditable
work, and is now engaged on other devices involving very intricate machinery.
Nine years ago, Mr. Volk married Miss Hattie E., the accomplished daughter of M. C. Town,
of Elgin, Illinois, a prominent banker of the state, their union being blest by three children, the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 585
first-born, a daughter, living not quite three years. Mr. Volk is now in the prime of manhood.
He is a gentleman of integrity, is a good citizen, and has many excellent qualities as a man.
Thougli to strangers he may seem reserved, upon acquaintance he is of a genial nature, and his
friendships, formed with discrimination, are enduring. Being now young, he may hopefully look
to the future for greater attainments and success.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL BIVENS.
HA VANA.
THE treasurer of the county of Mason, whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch
is a Buckeye by birth, a native of Pike county, born August 21, 1838. His parents, William
and Belalah (Burton) Bivens, were born in Salem county, New Jersey, and died in Ohio. Samuel
was educated in the public schools of his native state, and was engaged in farming with his father
until the civil war broke out. In August, 1862, he went into the service as second lieutenant,
company C, nyth Ohio infantry, and at the end of one year he was ordered by Governor Todd to
enlist a battery, of which he was made captain, and which was assigned to the 23d army corps.
He was' in all the engagements from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and at the siege of Nashville, under
General Thomas. He was mustered out at Camp Dominion, Ohio, August i, 1865, after being in
the service four years. The military record of Captain Bivens is that of a brave young patriot,
who seemed to have no disposition to sheathe his sword until the last armed enemy of the Union
had laid down his arms.
In October, 1865, he came into this state, and after remaining one year at Lincoln, Logan
county, where he was a stock shipper, he settled in Mason City, Mason county. There he engaged
in the sale of hardware and agricultural implements, continuing that business with great success
until the autumn of 1873, when he was elected treasurer of the county. He was reelected four
times, and has held the office ten years in succession, managing the finances of the county in a
most satisfactory manner.
He is a republican, living in a strong democratic county, and for some years was the only
republican candidate for a county office who won in the race. He has all the elements of popu-
larity cordiality, courtesy and integrity; is a safe man with whom to intrust public funds, and
will be likely to retain his present office as long as he desires it. During the ten years that he has
resided in Havana he has made many friends, and has been quite useful in encouraging enter-
prises. He was at one time president of the Illinois River Bridge Company; is a very active,
enterprising man, and people in the county who have known him the longest and most intimately
are his warmest friends.
Captain Bivens is a Knight Templar in Free Masonry, and has held various offices in the
order. He was married January 25, 1883, to Miss Eva Covington, of Havana.
JAMES C. WILLCOXEN.
LE IVISTON.
JAMES CALVIN WILLCOXEN, farmer and stock raiser, banker, manufacturer, etc., is a son
of Elijah Willcoxen, a native of North Carolina, and Charlotte (Galloway) Willcoxen, of the
same state, and was born in Estell county, July 23, 1829. The next year the family came into this
county, and settled on a farm in Liverpool township, six miles northeast of Lewiston, where
Elijah Willcoxen died in 1860, and his widow in 1876.
The subject of this sketch had very ordinary school privileges, and was engaged in farming
and stock raising almost exclusively until 1848, when he added other pursuits. In 1869 he moved
into Lewiston, and became a partner in the banking house of King, Turner and Company, which
586 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
institution was converted into the First National Bank in 1871. Mr. Willcoxen is one of its
heaviest stockholders and a director. For several years he had an interest in two or three mer-
cantile houses in this town, withdrawing from the last one only two or three years ago.
For a long time he has been engaged in lumbering, having an interest in several saw-mills,
giving his attention latterly to the supplying of railroads with ties, cord wood, etc., in which
branch he is doing an immense business, furnishing supplies for at least five or six companies.
Mr. Willcoxen is, we believe, much the largest land owner in Fulton county, he having, in all,
at least 7,000 acres. Nearly all of it is in this county, 4,000 of it being in Waterford township,
five miles southeast of Lewiston. Not less than 2,000 acres of his lands are under cultivation.
One of his best farms, having 1,000 acres, is in Waterford township. For many years Mr. Will-
coxen has devoted considerable attention to stock raising fine grades of cattle, horses, hogs, etc.
No man in Fulton county is doing more to develop its agricultural and other interests than
the subject of this sketch. He is a man of great force of character, of almost herculean ener-
gies, ah iron constitution, and his motive power is sensibly felt in nearly every enterprise which
has any likelihood of succeeding. It is this class of men who are the town builders of the West.
Mr. Willcoxen was first married in Putnam township, this county, September 18, 1851, to Miss
Carissa Putnam, daughter of Harrison Putnam, of Ohio, and she died July 8, 1877, leaving six
children: Alice A. is the wife of Jacob Gray veal, of Liverpool township; Lewis K. is a farmer
and prominent stock raiser in Lewiston township; Emma C. is the wife of Joseph Downin, of
Nebraska, and Laura N., Mary C. and Oliver L. are pursuing their studies, Mary in Wisconsin
and the other two at home. Mr. Willcoxen was married the second time in September, 1879, to
Miss Alice Hair, of Lewiston, and they have one son, James C., Jr.
JUDGE VAN H. HIGGINS.
CHICAGO.
VAN HOLLIS HIGGINS, one of the oldest and best-known lawyers of the Chicago bar, was
born in Genesee county, New York, February 20, 1821. He came to Chicago in 1837, and
during the winter of 1843 he was admitted to the bar of Illinois, and commenced the practice of
his profession in Iroquois county, where he remained two years, after which he removed to
Galena, and there formed a partnership with Judge Pratt, which continued until about 1849.
During his residence in Galena he served two years as city attorney, but, desiring a larger field of
usefulness, he returned to Chicago in the autumn of 1852, and the next year formed a partner-
ship with Hon. Corydon Beckwith and B. F. Strother, under the firm name of Higgins, Beckwith
and Strother, and enjoyed a very extensive and successful practice until the fall of 1858, when he
was elected to the legislature, and the following year he was elected judge of the superior court
of Chicago, in which capacity he served until the autumn of 1865, when he resigned and resumed
the practice of the law, forming a partnership with Hon. Leonard Swett, which law firm con-
tinued until the fall of 1872, when, having been elected to the presidency of the Babcock Manu-
facturing Company, his connection with the law firm was dissolved.
January i, 1876, he retired from active participation in the affairs of the company, having
accepted the financial agency of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, for all of the western
states.
In personal appearance Judge Higgins has a fine natural judicial presence. He is tall, well
formed, and of a commanding figure, while his face shows refinement and culture, as well as
firmness and decision of character. Judge Higgins combines many qualities rarely found in
combination. It would not be claimed for him that he is a man of genius, but for such a com-
munity as he has lived in and still lives, he possesses a talent more serviceable to himself and the
community in which he lives than genius itself. He is, first of all, as a citizen, a man of great
public spirit, and is in feeling and character a typical western man. From the beginning Judge
H.CC,,p,r Jr S C,
USRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 589
Higgins has seen, with a vision clearer than most men, not only the probabilities but the possi-
bilities of this Great West, and what a quarter of a ce'ntury and more ago he so clearly saw, and
what he so confidently prophesied, he has diligently worked to realize.
Politically, Judge Higgins has been, ever since the organization of the republican party, a
republican. A stanch friend of Mr. Lincoln before his nomination, after his election he stood by
him, exhibiting in his support the same patient common sense and ability to adapt means to ends
which characterized our great president. The Union cause found no more practical supporter
during the war, and particularly its early periods, than Judge Higgins. He was, if not the origi-
nator, at least one of the earliest of our citizens to discover the necessity for organized action
among the friends of the Union, and did as much as, and perhaps more than, any other man to
perfect the organization of that body, the character and work of which ought always to live in
our history, the Union Defense Committee of the City of Chicago. In season and out of season,
the judge was tireless in the maturing and formulating of schemes for recruiting our armies, and
his practical suggestions as to the selection of methods were generally adopted, and in a great
part through the exertions and influence of the Union Defense Committee, Chicago, and indeed
the state, was enabled to fill its quota substantially without a draft.
The part which the judge took in politics at that time was beyond the effort of the mere
partisan, and at no time has he been mixed up or identified with merely partisan contests or
squabbles.
As a business man, Judge Higgins is perhaps the ablest who has ever occupied in this city a
judicial position. His knowledge of business men and business methods makes him exceedingly
useful as a judge, for his legal knowledge (and it is very great) in his hands was made applicable
to business matters and the affairs of every-day life. As a judge he did not deal with the law
merely in the abstract. He not only knew a great deal about law, but he knew a great deal of
law. He not only knew, for example, the law of commercial paper, but when the maker, the
payee and the guarantor of a promissory note were in court before him, he could apply those
principles to those parties. His business and methodical habits enabled him to dispatch judicial
business with remarkable rapidity and accuracy. The court room in which Judge Higgins pre-
sided was a place for the administration of justice according to the forms and principles of law,
and justice was there administered intelligently, courteously and speedily. A painstaking stu-
dent, we have perhaps never had at our bar, nor upon the bench, a man more completely abreast
of current statutory enactments and legal adjudications than Judge Higgins. His memory of
adjudged cases was something marvelous, and his knowledge of those cases was so methodized
and arranged in his own mind, that he was never confused by their number, and his keen, thor-
oughly critical and analytical mind enabled him with great accuracy to discriminate cases, and to
detect false analogies, a capacity absolutely essential to the proper administration of justice, and
which distinguishes the mere case-hunter and recollecter from the great lawyer.
In its general make-up, so distinctively is Judge Higgins' mind a legal one that no length of
time devoted to other pursuits than that of the law would ever leave him anything less than a
fine lawyer. He reasons upon legal propositions naturally and in a legal way. As has been said,
his habits of thought and mind are methodical, well arranged, and the mere machinery of his court
was in such beautiful working order that it was a pleasure to any lawyer who had prepared his
case, and understood it, to appear before Judge Higgins with it. To young men, ambitious of
genuine distinction at the bar, and exhibiting that ambition by a thorough preparation of their
cases at all points, Judge Higgins was always most courteous and attentive. Nothing seemed to
gratify him more than honest preparation by the lawyers who appeared before him, and no lawyer
practicing in his court could fail to observe that however new the point which he presented, or
however much opposed it seemed to be to the general current of authority, it would receive from
Judge Higgins the most careful and patient attention, and he had the personal and intellectual
courage and ability to sustain such points whenever sound reason seemed to justify it.
Upon the bench Judge Higgins had no pets or favorites. No complaints were made of
58
5 go UNITED STATES KIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
uncourteous treatment. In judicial manner he was a model. His courtesy never descended to
undue familiarity. He held the bar in respect, and they respected him, and the lawyer appear-
ing before Judge Higgins felt that he was called upon to do his best. Devoted for the last few
years to extended business pursuits, having charge of great financial interests, the judicial career
of Judge Higgins, and indeed his professional career, are practically unknown to the younger
members of the bar practicing in this city. But to those still living, whose pleasure it was to
appear before him when he was upon the bench, his wide learning, his genial manners, his uni-
form courtesy, his promptness and his splendid methods, will always be held in honor and grate-
ful remembrance.
In many respects Judge Higgins may be considered as one of the principal, and one of the
most honored, architects of this great city. Its broad, far-reaching business enterprise, its saga-
city, its dignified and spotless jurisprudence, its professional learning and culture, its personal
probity, and the general correctness of its private life, all find a most worthy exemplar in the life
and career of Van H. Higgins.
MICHAEL DELANY.
OLNE Y.
HARDSHIPS and struggles in early life often prove blessings in disguise, and it is not infre-
quently that they develop in those called to endure them that independence and self-reliance,
which enable them in after years to triumph over obstacles which otherwise would prove to them
insurmountable. The subject of this sketch is of this class, being emphatically a self-made man.
Michael Delany was born in Broome county, New York, November 3. 1854. His father was Patrick
Delany, a tanner by trade. The maiden name of his mother, who is still living, was Ann Dwyer.
They were both natives of Ireland. They emigrated from New York state to the West in 1860,
settling in Richland county, Illinois. The father was a section boss on the Ohio and Mississippi
railroad until 1867, when he died, leaving a widow with eight small children, of whom Michael
was next to the eldest. Prior to this he (Patrick) had purchased a farm, contracting a debt of
$1,000, which with other smaller debts, added to the burden of the family. Michael was then
thirteen years of age. His education had been sadly neglected, owing to circumstances beyond
his control, and he was dependent almost wholly upon his own exertions for knowledge, for which
he had a native longing, which he, in a measure, gratified by improving in study his leisure
hours after his day's work was done, and other spare moments. After his father's death he began
to support the family. He first obtained work on the railroad, filling various positions for three
years, after which he went to Kentucky and hired out as mash hand, in the distillery of Colonel
Berry, at $25 a month and board. At the end of three months the colonel gave him a position in
his office at $40 per month. This position he held for three years, and from his earnings paid the
entire debt, besides helping the family at the same time. Owing to his over-exertion and privation
in order to save money, his health became impaired, and he was compelled to return home,
where he was stricken down with typhoid fever, which disabled him for several months.
In the summer of 1874 he went to Cincinnati, and enlisted in the United States army, whence
he was sent to Saint Louis, and there was detailed in the general recruiting service. He was first
sent to Baltimore, but finally transferred back to Saint Louis, where he remained until 1875, going
with recruits to different parts of the army. He then made application to join General Custer in
his expedition against the Sioux, and arrived at Fort Lincoln May 4, 1876. One week later they
started on their way through Dakota to Montana. While on the field he was promoted to the
rank of sergeant, and the company soon participated in the famous Custer massacre, which occur-
red June 25-27, 1876. Mr. Delany was severely wounded in this battle, and, July 9, was sent to
Fort Lincoln for treatment, where he remained until the following year, when he again accom-
panied his regiment against the hostile Indians in Montana, and participated in the battle of
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
59'
Bear Paw Mountains, with the Nex Perce Indians, under Chief Joseph, September i, 1877. In this
engagement he received his almost fatal wound. He was shot first in the hip, while charging
with his company; next his horse was shot from under him, and he was then shot in the breast,
where the bullet still remains. He was then taken prisoner, but his friends stole his almost life-
less body from the Indians, twelve hours later, and for several months thereafter he remained
speechless the greater part of the time, and until June, 1878, remained in the hospital.
After his recovery he returned to his home in Illinois, remaining there under treatment, and
recruiting until 1881. In the mean time, in 1880, he began the study of law, while at home, and in
1881 came to Olney, where he continued his studies, and in 1882 was admitted to the Illinois bar,
and immediately began the practice of his profession at Olney, taking at once a front rank among
the younger attorneys, and is now one of the most prominent young men in Richland county.
In politics Mr. Delany is a democrat; his religious views are Catholic. He is a man of indom-
itable will, energetic, persevering and honorable, and with wide experience and knowledge of
men. His talent and fitness for his professional work, and his loyalty to manly principle, must
attain to that success which cannot but follow persistent and honest effort.
T
THOMAS B. BOYD.
CHICAGO.
HOMAS BOTTERNLY BOYD, a successful real-estate dealer, dates his birth at Hopkins-
ville, Christian county, Kentucky, April 6, 1844, being a son of David and Mary Elizabeth
(Ogg) Boyd. His father and paternal grandfather were born in Virginia, and his mother was
from Tennessee. He received only an ordinary English education; worked on his father's farm
until thirteen years old, when he became an apprentice to the cabinet-maker's trade at Hopkins-
ville, at which business he was working when the civil war broke out. He espoused the Union
side, and at sixteen years of age, two or three months before President Lincoln took his seat, was
corporal of a home-guard regiment. When the 25th Kentucky infantry was raised he enlisted,
and was mustered in as second lieutenant of company A, and served until after the battle of
Shiloh (spring of 1862), when he resigned. Returning to his native state, in May of that year, he
raised a company for the 8th Kentucky cavalry, a twelve months' regiment, and was second lieu-
tenant of company B. When the time of service of that regiment had expired, he recruited com-
pany A of the ist Kentucky veteran troops, and commanded that company until the close of 'the
war, coming out of nearly four years' service before he was twenty-one years of age.
An incident connected with Mr. Boyd's early camp life is well worth recording, as it is a good
illustration of his character. On one occasion he and his comrades in arms heard that the rebel
General Buckner was on his way to capture them, having an army of 7,000 men. They instantly
dispersed, and each man fled for his life. Mr. Boyd borrowed a neighbor's swift horse, and made
his escape to Evansville, Indiana, selling the horse for $85. A year later, feeling a little conscience
smitten, he returned to the place where he had disposed of the animal, which, in the interim, had
changed hands once or twice, found it in the hands of a farmer, and in prime condition, bought
it for $125, and took it back to the pastuje whence he had taken it. Instances of this kind must
be very rare; indeed, we have never heard of one to match it. The deed was characteristic of
the man.
Not long after the rebellion had closed, Mr. Boyd went to Saint Louis, where he was engaged
in the clothing business until 1868, when he closed out, and the next year settled in Chicago.
Here he has been engaged in real estate, doing largely a city business, but now and then dispos-
ing of a farm. He came here in moderate circumstances, but has attended very closely to his
business, has dealt fairly and honorably with all parties, and, winning the confidence of the com-
munity, has been eminently successful, placing himself in very comfortable circumstances.
Another anecdote, having reference to his early life, his business transactions and his ideas of
UNITED STATES HrOGRArillCAr. DfCTfONAKY.
integrity, is worth putting on record. Not long before civil war burst upon the nation, and while
still a poor apprentice boy, Mr. Boyd bought $60 worth of clothing, and gave his note for the
same. War broke out before the note was due; the whole country was in commotion; business
matters were forgotten, and his transaction with the clothier passed out of his mind. At the end
of twenty years, and when it was outlawed, the note made its appearance one morning in the
hands of an old smiling friend. Mr. Boyd looked at it, recognized the poorly written signature,
the best, however, that he could do in boyhood, and canceled the note, with solid satisfaction and
absolute delight. " Honesty is the best policy," and our subject has verified the truthfulness of
the adage in all his business transactions.
REV. ICHABOD CLARK, U.D.
ROCKFORD. .
~*HE writer of this sketch first met Rev. Ichabod Clark at Nunda, New York, in 1845. The
preacher was then in his prime, and was regarded as one of the strong men in the Baptist
denomination in western New York. He had great power in the pulpit for more than forty years,
becoming a pastor at nineteen, and continuing to hold pastorates nearly all the time until the
close of his life, sweeping revivals often attending his pulpit fulminations.
Ichabod Clark was born in Franklin county, Massachusetts, October 30, 1802, removing thence
with the family to Truxton, New York, in 1818. He had made a profession of religion two years
before, and was licensed to preach when only eighteen years of age. At nineteen he became pas-
tor of the Baptist Church at Scipio, where he was ordained in September, 1824, and in the same
year he married Miss Esther Daniels. After a pastorate of seven years at Scipio, Mr. Clark
removed to Lockport, and continued to preach in western New York, in succession, at La Grange,
Batavia, Le Roy, Brockport and Nunda, until 1848. In all those places his labors were greatly
blessed, and strong churches were made stronger, or feeble ones built up.
In 1848, Mr. Clark came to Illinois*, under a commission of the New York Baptist State Con-
vention, and located at first at Galena, settling the next year in Rockford, where he remained for
eleven years. During that period more than seven hundred members were added to the First
Baptist Church, and more than half of them, it is believed, were led by his preaching to Christ
and baptized by him. While in Rockford, he spent a year as superintendent of the missions of
the state.
His first wife died in September, 1854, and in November, 1855, he was married to Mrs. Mary C.
(Elliott) Hunter, a native of the state of New York. In 1860 Mr. Clark became pastor of the
North Baptist Church, Springfield, this state, and two years later returned to his old field of
*The following poem was written by a gifted young lady of Wheatland, New York, on the departure of Mr. Clark
for the West:
THE WELCOME AND FAREWELL.
INSCRIHEl) TO REV. MR. CLARK.
Our Father's hand that guides us o'er Yet, sadness clouds our welcome song,
Life's ever-surging main, For, like a mournful knell
Hath brought the cherished friend of yore Borne by the passing breeze along,
To our embrace again; Steals in the low farewell;
How sweet to welcome one whose care, The ties that bind us heart to heart,
Whose faithful love 'twas ours to share. Are slowly breaking as we part.
What changes since we gathered last Yet go thou chosen one of God,
Within these holy walls! Still kneel at duty's shrine;
What voices from the hallowed past We feel the stroke, yet kiss the rod,
His presence here recalls! Since nobler work is thine;
What earnest prayer and fervent zeal Join to thy mission faith and love
What toils and tears for Zion's weal! Farewell! farewell r we meet above.
WHKATI.AND, April, 1848. E. M. A.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 593
labor, at Le Roy, New York, where he remained for five years. While he was preaching at
Springfield, in 1862, the University of Chicago conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor
of divinity. Again, October, 1867, the General Association of Illinois called him to its broad and
taxing field of labors, to which he addressed himself with his accustomed zeal, and astonishing
energies, but his health soon began to fail, and at the close of the year (October, 1868) he
resigned. Reluctant to leave the pulpit, without respite from labor, he took charge of the church
at Lockport, Will county, but before he had fairly entered upon pastoral work, in November his
strength gave way, and a few months afterward, April 14, 1869, the exhausted reaper laid down
his sickle and went to his rest. The following note from Rev. Solomon" Knapp, of Lockport, Illi-
nois, referring to the last days of Doctor Clark, will be read with interest:
" Doctor Clark preached five sermons after his settlement with us, on consecutive Sabbaths,
the last of which those of us privileged to be there will never forget. For holy and heavenly fer-
vor, for pathos and power, I have rarely heard it equaled. It was indeed a fit closing up of a
long, earnest, successful, and, I may add, brilliant ministry. It was my privilege to see our dear
brother nearly every day during a great part of his sickness and suffering, for he was a great suf-
ferer. His nervous system seemed entirely prostrated, and his once strong constitution entirely
broken up. He endured his sufferings with great patience and trust, 'as seeing him who is
invisible.' Sometimes under extreme nervous irritation, his mind would pass under a cloud, and
then again he was hopeful and trustful, and could say, ' I know in whom I have believed.'
He was mostly unconscious for a number of days before his decease, though he recognized his
friends till almost the last. He was a man of strong domestic feelings, and most singularly
attached to his family. His wife he could scarcely consent to have absent from his bedside, and
she with all but superhuman strength, and a degree of devotion that knew no limits, ministered
to him day and night. Previous to the removal of the remains to Rockford, a service was held at
the house, conducted by the writer, assisted by nearly all the clergy of the place."
A writer who knew Doctor Clark intimately, states that " few men have performed the amount
of labor that he accomplished in his eventful life. * * * He preached thousands of sermons
in protracted meetings, in which he labored extensively for more than twenty-five years, and con-
siderably during his whole ministry. Thousands gathered under those labors into the fold of
Christ. Even during the last year of his active life, he aided several pastors most acceptably and
successfully in this way, besides all the other duties of his office. His energy, exhibited in self-
education and his life work, were so indomitable as to be sublime. His native preaching power
is scarcely equaled in one among a thousand. His power to bring all varied acquirements into
the pulpit, was. rare, and his all-controlling, all pervading piety, carried his brethren captive in
the strongest bond of brotherly love, as well as gave him untold power over the hearts and con-
sciences of the impenitent."
LEVI W. McMAHAN.
GRIGGSVILLE.
EIVI WHITE McMAHAN, miller and grain dealer, and at time of writing mayor of the city
of Griggsville, had his birth in Marion county, Indiana, March 31, 1841, being a son of
William McMahan, a native of Ohio, and Maria (Thomas) McMahan, of the same state. His
grandfather, George McMahan, was born in North Carolina. Levi had his mental drill in com-
mon schools, mainly of his native state; came to Griggsville in 1856 with his parents, and when
eighteen years old went into the confectionery business for himself. Subsequently he farmed a
few years, and in 1866 engaged in general merchandise.
In 1877 Mr. McMahan built a flouring mill, with five run of stone, and the firm of McMahan
and Company is manufacturing from 35,000 to 40,000 barrels of flour per annum. He has a five-
sixths interest in the mills. The Pike Mills are the only merchant mills in the place, and are
manufacturing a superior brand of flour.
594 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. McMahan is also engaged in buying and shipping grain, at which he is doing a heavy
business. In energy and enterprise he has no superior in the place. He is quite public-spirited,
and has to bear'a liberal share of the burdens of local offices. He was a trustee of the town
before its incorporation as a city, three or four terms; has been president of the school board the
last five years; was town supervisor in 1881; an alderman one term; and is serving his second
term as the head of the municipality of the city. No man takes more interest in the progress and
welfare of the place than Mr. McMahan, or has given more time to the furtherance of these aims
and ends. Such citizens are a blessing to any community. He has never lost his interest in
agriculture, and is the owner of two farms near the city, aggregating three hundred and sixty
acres, all under good improvement.
Mr. McMahan is a republican in politics, a third-degree Mason, a Knight of Honor in Odd-
Fellowship, and a member of the Baptist church. The sincerity of his profession no one doubts
who knows him. He was first married in 1861, to Miss Harriet Simmons, of Griggsville, she
dying in May, 1876, leaving three children; and the second time in March, 1880, to Mrs. Jennie
(Clough) Petrie, her father's family being from New England.
HON. THOMAS BREWER.
TOLEDO.
IT may be truly said of the United States, that no country in the world is productive of so large
a number of great men whose native ability and unaided efforts have achieved for them posi-
tions of the highest distinction. With such, ranks the subject of this sketch. Thomas Brewer
was born in Wayne county, Indiana, November 15, 1819. His father was William Brewer, who
was of English ancestry. The maiden name of his mother was Jane McKnight, who was of
Scotch origin; they were natives of Tennessee, and among the early pioneer settlers of Wayne
county, Indiana, coming there when it was almost all a wilderness, and the Indians and wolves
still frequented the county. Mr. Brewer had few educational advantages in his early days. A
log school house was all the country afforded, and his father was in limited circumstances, and he
was compelled to spend nearly all his time on the farm. But, while thus engaged, he had a natural
desire and thirst for knowledge, and spent all his spare hours in learning by teaching himself
as best he could. When he had reached his nineteenth year he started out for himself, coming
to what is now Cumberland county, working on different farms, accumulating a little money, and
at the same time continuing his studies, to which he added the study of law, borrowing a few
books, over which he pored by the aid of a tallow candle after his day's work was done. This
determined perseverance has marked his whole life, making it a grand success. His first accumu-
lation of money he used in aiding his parents, who were still poor, and by his assistance they
were enabled to obtain a comfortable home.
In 1847 he was elected justice of the peace, which enabled him to continue his studies to a
better advantage ; and in 1848 he was elected one of the associate judges of the county. In 1852
he was a candidate for sheriff, and elected by the democratic party, and at the expiration of his
term of office, E. H. Starkwater. a prominent lawyer of the state, seeing his natural talent, offered
him a full partnership if he would come with him, which he accepted. Abandoning farming and
moving to Greenup, which was then the county seat of Cumberland county, Mr. Brewer was very
shortly afterward admitted to the bar. They continued to practice at Greenup with great success,
making money as well as building up a very large reputation ; and in 1857, when the county seat
was moved from Greenup to Majority Point, now Toledo, they moved thither, and continued their
business, the partnership continuing for about eight years, until the death of Mr. Starkwater,
after which Mr. Brewer continued alone.
In the fall of 1858 he was elected on the democratic ticket to the state legislature, after which
he returned to his practice, but was soon again elected to the state senate for four years.
UNITE!) STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 595
In 1868, when the democracy again rallied its forces to oppose the election of General
Grant, Mr. Brewer was selected in the state convention as one of the delegates to the democratic
national convention, held in New York city, and which resulted in the nomination of Seymour
and Blair. After returning from the political field he settled down to his profession, continuing
as he had previously done, with marked success, carrying on farming at the same time. His prac-
tice was general in its character, and comprised several noted criminal cases. He is a good advo-
cate before a jury, and one who possesses a natural talent for his profession.
Mr. Brewer has been married three times ; his first wife, whom he married in 1844, was Miss
Mary Hutton,of Cumberland county; they had nine children; she died in 1864. He was married
again in 1867 to Mrs Sarah E. Kirkling, a widowed sister of his first wife, and she died May 4
1872. He married again, in 1873, Mrs. Mary Smith, formerly Mary Bloxen ; they have had four
children.
Mr. Brewer has now retired from active business, his oldest son, L. N. Brewer, a young attor-
ney of considerable promise, having succeeded to his practice.
Mr. Brewer has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1847, in which he has
been an active worker, and during recent years, has been preaching in the country and doing
much good. He has always been a man of public spirit, doing much for the general welfare of
his country. In politics he is an active democrat, and always a stanch supporter of the principles
of his party.
BENJAMIN S. PRETTYMAN.
PEKIN.
BENJAMIN STOCKLEY PRETTYMAN, lawyer, is one of the early settlers and prominent
citizens of Tazewell county; he came hither from the state of Delaware in 1831, then a lad
of a dozen summers. He has resided near or in Pekin, the shire town, for more than fifty years ;
has seen the country changed from wild prairie and wild bottom wood lands, partly inhabited by
wild beasts and wild Indians, into well improved farms, usually from one hundred and sixty to
three hundred and twenty acres, and Pekin from a rude landing place for steamboats in the
Illinois River, to a well built and thriving city of nearly ten thousand inhabitants.
Mr. Prettyman -came from English and revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Benjamin
Prettyman, being at one period with Commodore Decatur on the " Fair America," and was captured
and kept a while on a British prison ship. The family came from the old country at an early
day, and settled in Delaware, to which state the Prettymans generally scattered over the country
trace their ancestors. Our subject was born in Kent county, that state, November 21, 1819,
being a son of Lewis Prettyman, a native of Sussex county, same state, and Harriet (Mason)
Prettyman, who was born in Kent county. She belonged to a Quaker family. The older genera-
tions of the Prettymans were Presbyterians, with more or less Scotch blood in them.
Before leaving his native state, the subject of this sketch had obtained a fair knowledge of the
elementary branches of knowledge for a boy not yet entered upon his teens. The family landed
at Pekin, April 16, 1831, and the son never had a quarter's schooling, all told, after that date. He
did, however, a good deal of self improvement, and eventuallv acquired a good business educa-
tion.
His-father settled on land seven miles from Pekin, opened a farm, and there the son remained
until twenty-five years of age. His father was county surveyor, appointed by the governor, and
in 1840 elected by the people, his son serving as deputy.
Mr. Prettyman read law at Springfield with Robbins and Smeed ; was admitted to the bar in
March, 1845, and in April of that year was married to Miss Sarah Ann Haines, who was from Ohio.
For nearly forty years Mr. Prettyman has been in practice at Pekin, and is the oldest attorney
in the county. He is a thorough student, painstaking in all his legal work, investigating a ques-
tion very carefully, and being very tenacious of his opinions when once formed. He does nothing
596 / VlTl-.n STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
hastily; is regarded as a good judge of law; has the shrewdness 'not uncommon to men of his
profession ; often shows great adroitness in managing a case ; and before a jury aims at candoi
in his statements and clearness in his logic. His character is above reproach. He has an unusu-
ally large law library, of which he and two of his sons make liberal and judicious use.
Mr. Prettyman was city attorney some years ago, and has been mayor two or three terms ; his
politics have always been democratic, and for thirty or forty years he has been one of the leaders
of his party in the county. He usually attends county, district, and state conventions ; was a
delegate to the national convention which met at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860, and with
not more than two exceptions, has been a delegate to every national convention since that time.
He is a Royal Arch Mason ; has been master of the Blue Lodge several times, and held different
offices in the chapter. He is also a scarlet member in Odd-Fellowship.
As the result of the marriage already mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Prettyman have had fourteen
children, burying seven of them when quite young, and one since. Esther Virginia married A.
J. Ware, and died a few years ago. Mr. Ware is a lawyer and miner, living in Colorado. Two of
the sons, William L. and Benjamin S., are lawyers in practice with their father; Emily is the wife
of Doctor William E. Schenck, of Pekin ; Hattie is the widow of James Murray, and living with
her father; Elizabeth is the wife of George Rider, lawyer and master in chancery, of Pekin; and
Nellie is the wife of Frederick Smith, manufacturer of agricultural implements, of Pekin.
Mr. Prettyman is a gentleman bordering on the old school ; is full of reminiscences of the
olden times, cordial and communicative, well informed, and quite interesting in conversation. He
is much respected by all classes of people, and especially esteemed by the older residents of the
county.
D. HARRY HAMMER.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this biography is a native of Springfield, Illinois, and was born December 23,
1840; the son of John Hammer and Eliza (Witmer) Hammer. His parents settled at Spring-
field in 1837, the father having forfnerly been a merchant and manufacturer at Hagerstown, Mary-
land. The mother was a native of Maryland, and a daughter of John Witmer, a soldier of the
war of 1812. In 1842, when Harry was about two years old, his family removed to Ogle county,
and there he passed his boyhood and youth in attending the district schools, and in the ordinary
routine of a farmer boy's life, and also during this period of his life learned the harness and sad-
dlery trade, and during several winters employed his time in teaching. Possessed of a native
taste for study and literary culture, he made the best use of his time, and at the age of seventeen
began a course of study in the Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois. After graduat-
ing from that institution, having determined to devote himself to the legal profession, he pursued
a course of study in the law department of Michigan University, graduating in the class of 1865.
He afterward spent some time, traveling through the several western and northern states, and
finally established himself for the practice of his profession at Saint Louis, Missouri. Owing, how-
ever, to the unsettled state of affairs after the close of the war, he met with little success, and
consequently abandoned the law and began work at his trade. He continued thus employed
until the following year, when he was compelled to leave Saint Louis by reason of the cholera
epidemic.
About this time Mr. Hammer formed the acquaintance of Benjamin F. Taylor, of the Chicago
"Evening Journal," who was lecturing through the West, and following his advice, removed to
Chicago and resumed his profession. The move was a most happy one, and marked the turning
point in his life. Entering with all the vigor of his young manhood into the work of his profes-
sion, with a determined purpose to succeed, he soon made for himself a name at the Chicago bar,
and built up an extensive and lucrative practice.
In 1879 Mr. Hammer was appointed, by Governor Shelby M. Cullom, one of the justices of the
Fn.l liy TC WilhjmjlBro NY
UNITED STATES RIQGRAPHICAr. DICTIONARY. 599
peace for the city of Chicago, for a term of four years, and in 1883 he was reappointed by Gover-
nor John M. Hamilton for another term. The office is one to which he is well adapted, both by
his judicial mind and his practical knowledge of the law, and to these, together with his great
popularity, may be attributed his almost unparalleled success, he having, since his appointment,
disposed of about four thousand cases each year. Aside from his professional duties, Mr. Ham-
mer has always kept himself well posted on matters of public interest, and besides being an able
and successful lawyer, has always been known as an enterprising and public-spirited man.
He is a gentleman of cultivated tastes and fine literary attainments, and takes an active part
in all movements tending to advance the interests of art and literary culture in the community
where he resides. His private library, comprising some five thousand volumes, is one of the finest
and most select collections of books in the city of Chicago.
In political sentiment, Mr. Hammer is and always has been a republican. He is married to
Emma L. Carpenter, of Athens, Ohio, and has two daughters, Maude, aged sixteen years, and
Hazel Harry, born July 4, 1881. Although he has scarcely reached the meridian of life, Mr.
Hammer has accumulated an ample fortune, and lives in the enjoyment of all the comforts of a
happy and cheerful home. Domestic in his habits, and social in his tastes, he is a most genial
companion, and- in nothing takes more delight than in dispensing to his many friends a generous
hospitality.
Mr. Hammer is an active member of Chevalier Bayard Commandery of Knights Templar, and
other societies. He is also a member of the Calumet and Union League Clubs, of Chicago.
WILLIAM WILLETT.
V
KEITHSBURG.
AMONG the early settlers in Mercer county, and one of the first to manufacture lumber here, is
William Willett, who has resided here since 1838. He was born in that part of Brecken-
ridge county now called Meade county, Kentucky, November 3, 1814, his father being Richard
Willett, a farmer, born in Prince George county, Maryland, and his mother, Sarah (Esary) Wil-
lett, a native of Berks county, Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather was a lame man, hence
could not do military duty during the times which tried men's souls, but he kept a hotel, and his
house was a place of refuge for parties pursued by tories and Indians. The mother of Sarah
Esary was a Clark, a sister of General Clark, who was sent from Virginia westward to take charge
of the forces in Kentucky, and had his headquarters at the point where Louisville now stands,
and where the white people often sought shelter in the stockade. The school drill of our subject
was quite limited, ending at fifteen years of age, but he did some hard studying out of school,
having at one time as an assistant a nephew of Daniel Boone, and he secured in the end a fair
English education.
William farmed until twenty-one years old ; then (1835) started a wood yard on the Ohio
River, seventy miles below Louisville, and was engaged in flat-boating for three years. In the
summer of 1838 he came into Mercer county, reaching New Boston, July 20; took up a claim of
160 acres in the central part of the county; made a small farm of part of it, and from the autumn
of 1839 to 1842 he ran a saw mill on Pope Creek for Isaiah Brown. In company with Mr. Brown
and Nicholas Edwards he built (1842) a saw mill at the mouth of Edward's River, in New Boston
township, and soon afterward sold out his interests to Mr. Brown, taking his mill on Pope Creek
as part pay.
Mr. Willett married, July 20, 1843, Miss Nancy J. Denison, of New Boston, and they com-
menced housekeeping in a humble style on Pope Creek, remaining there until August of the
next year. At that date our subject exchanged his mill property for a farm, between that point
and Keithsburg. That farm he improved for two seasons; then leased it (1846), and removed to
Keithsburg, and engaged in buying and shipping grain and keeping a commission house. In
59
6OO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1850 he leased his buildings for one year to Levi Willetts, and worked for Mr. Willetts. At the
end of that time, he took a third interest in the old business, in company with J'. W. Doughty and
Abram B. Sheriff, and they were together three years, when Messrs. Willett and Sheriff bought
out Mr. Doughtv's interest, and continued in partnership until 1864, dealing in dry goods, gro-
ceries and grain. The health of Mr. Willett not being very good, he sold out to Mr. Sheriff, and
for three or four years speculated in promissory notes and other property.
In 1868 Mr. Willett commenced the manufacture of cultivators, but the business did not prove
profitable, and he sold out the next year. Some time before this period he had swapped his old
farm for a large one a farm of two hundred and thirty acres five miles from town, which he
has rented to tenants. Latterly he has devoted his time to looking after his interests in this and
other property.
Mr. Willett was originally an emancipation whig, and since 1855 has been a republican. He
is also a Freemason, and was master of the local lodge during most of the period of the civil war.
Mr. and Mrs. Willett buried four children in infancy, and have six living: James W. is mar-
ried, and is an attorney-at-law in Tama City, Iowa; Emma O. is the wife of J. C. Zumwalt, of the
Willows, Sacramento Valley, California; Richard and Henry are on the Mississippi River, and
Mag J. and Julia are at home.
ANSELL A. TERRELL.
STERLING.
ANSELL ALPHONSO TERRELL, secretary and manager of the Novelty Manufacturing
t\. Company, Sterling, and one of the most public-spirited men of the /city, was born in the
town of Exeter, Otsego county, New York, October 19, 1831. His father, Lyman Terrell, a
farmer, was a native of Connecticut, where the family settled several generations ago, and his
mother was Sarepta (Cone) Terrell, who was born in the state of New York. Ansell was the eld-
est child in a family of seven children. He finished his education at the New Berlin Academy,
New York; farmed more or less each year until fifteen, when he went into a cotton mill at Mil-
ford, in his native county, and, commencing as spinner, worked his way upward through the mil)
until he became its superintendent.
In 1853 Mr. Terrell went to Northampton, Massachusetts, and had charge of the polishing
department of the Bay State Hoe and Edge Tool Works until 1856, when he came to this state,
and had a position in the large store of Cumins and House, at Grand Detour, Ogle county. In
1859 he settled in Sterling, and for ten years was in the mercantile trade, in company with Henry
G. Harper, the firm name being Terrell and Harper. During part of that period, and later, from
1863 to 1871, Mr. Terrell was collector of internal revenue for Whiteside county, and also had
charge of the distillery of John S. Miller and Company, as government store-keeper.
The Novelty Manufacturing Company was established in March, 1869. Two years afterward
Mr. Terrell became its secretary, and in 1873 its secretary and general manager, posts which he
still holds, and which he is filling with great efficiency. It is a stock company, with a capital and
surplus of $115,000, and is manufacturing a great variety of articles, including school and church
furniture, hall, recitation, teachers' and office desks, erasers and apparatus, opera seats, corn
shellers, harrows, churns, barrel carts, stove-pipe registers, "Novelty" barb wire, etc. They have
branch houses in different parts of the country, including San Francisco, California, and ship to
every point of the compass. The company has built up its business and its reputation wholly on
the merits of its articles, for which it finds a ready sale. Its marked success is owing, no doubt,
in a great measure, to the prudent management of our subject, who has a careful oversight of
every department.
Besides attending to his own business, Mr. Terrell has done a good deal of hard work in con-
nection with the municipality of the city, having served in the council for three or four terms,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 60 1
and was for years a member of the school board. It was while holding the latter office that the
elegant brick school house in the second ward was erected, he being chairman of the building
committee, and carefully superintending the job. Probably no man in the city takes a deeper
interest in educational matters than Mr. Terrell. He is a trustee of the Baptist Church, a Royal
Arch Mason, and a member of the encampment in Odd-Fellowship.
He married, in July, 1853, Miss Desdemona Grover, of Milford, New York, and they have
buried one daughter and have four children living.
DANIEL WANN.
GALENA.
THE gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch has been a resident of
Galena for fifty-three years, and surveyor of cust.oms since 1853, when Franklin Pierce was
President- of the United States. He was born at Bel Air, Harford county, Maryland, April 3,
1797, his parents being John and Susan (Reinhart) Wann, both of German pedigree.
Daniel Wann received a plain English education in his native state ; was engaged in mercan-
tile pursuits in his native town until he came to Galena in 1829, bringing with him a stock of
general merchandise. Galena was then the great rallying point for miners and speculators west
of Chicago, having more white people than that now great city of five hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants.
Mr. Wann continued in trade here until 1851, when he spent two years in settling up his affairs,
and then took the office already mentioned, the duties of which he has discharged with great
fidelity. Although a Jackson democrat, casting his first vote for "Old Hickory" in 1828, he has
retained his office through every administration. Of late years he has been quite mild and con-
siderate in his political views, voting for the best men, irrespective of their party affiliation. His
religious connection is with the First Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Wann was alderman of Galena two or three terms, and mayor of the city in 1844. Long
prior to this, he was president of the government board of commissions which laid out the city of
Galena, and adjusted the titles to all the lots. In 1837, when the State Bank of Illinois opened a
branch at Galena, Mr. Wann was made its president, and he held that position until 1842, when
the business of the bank in this city was closed. He is one of the best-posted men in the history
of this city now living here. He is the oldest Mason probably in northwestern Illinois, being in-
ducted with the order in 1820; is a Knight Templar, and belongs to the chapter; and is the
father of Odd-Fellowship in Galena, establishing the first lodge here, and holding the office of
noble grand.
Mr. Wann is full of reminiscences of the olden time, and strangers in Galena wishing to get
posted on the early history of this city, will do well to seek the society of Mr. Wann, who is easy
of access and very cordial.
JOHN E. JOHNSTON.
WARSA W.
JOHN EDWARD JOHNSTON, one of the early settlers and merchants in Warsaw, and now
postmaster of the city, is of Scotch-Irish parentage, and was born in the County of Fermanagh,
Ireland, July 12, 1812. His parents were Robert and Elizabeth Johnston. They brought their
family to America in 1818, settled at Elkton, Maryland, where our subject received an ordinary
English education. When sixteen or seventeen years old, he removed to Baltimore, where he was
employed as a clerk for a few months, and then went into trade for himself, remaining in that
city five or six years. He came west in 1835; spent one year in Herculaneum, Missouri; two years
in Saint Louis, and at the close of 1838 settled in Warsaw, which has been his home since that
date.
6O2 UNITED STATES H IOCKAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
During the first three years that Mr. Johnston was in this place, he was a merchant ; was then
engaged in land speculations, and subsequently in railroading for two or three years. Afterward
we find him selling goods once more, and he followed that bratjch of industry until February,
1876, when he was appointed postmaster by President Grant. He makes a first-class official, being
prompt in all his duties, and attentive and accommodating. During the Mormon war, 1844 and
1845, he served as quartermaster; has held various local offices, such as school director, school
treasurer, town trustee, etc., and never undertakes to shirk duties of that class.
Mr. Johnston was originally an old-line whig, and on the demise of that party joined the re-
publican, in which he has been a very active worker since its origin. He usually attends the
county, district and state conventions, and is indefatigable in his efforts to strengthen and give
success to the party. Postmaster Johnston is a member and trustee of the Presbyterian Church,
and is living a consistent life.
In 1840 he was joined in marriage with Miss Catharine L. Baldwin, then of Carthage, and a
native of New York, and they have had nine children, burying four of them. Annie E., the oldest
child living, is the wife of General Oliver Edwards, of Warsaw, commander of the 3?th Massa-
chusetts infantry in the early part of the civil war, and promoted to brigadier-general and major-
general ; Emily J., wife of Horace A. Scott, merchant, Osceola, Nebraska; James Edward, chief
clerk in the custom house at Kansas City, Missouri ; Francis L.,- wife of A. H. McGregor, chief
train dispatcher of the Wabash, Saint Louis and Pacific railroad, at Stanberry, Missouri, and
John Charles, clerk in the Warsaw postoffice.
THOMAS WINSTON, M.D.
FOKRESTON.
" I "HE subject of this biographical sketch, the leading physician at Forreston, is a native of
1 Breeonshire, Wales, and was born October 17, 1829. His parents, Edward and Sarah
(Evans) Winston, came to this country in 1832, Thomas being in his third year. They landed at
the city of Quebec just as the Asiatic cholera first reached the western continent, and our sub-
ject lost an older brother by that fell disease. Edward Winston was a blacksmith by trade, and
took his family to Albany, New York, where they remained till 1839, in which year the mpther
died. They then pushed westward as far as Newark, Ohio, where Thomas learned the tailor's
trade.
In 1849, being in his twentieth year, he came to Mount Morris, Ogle county; attended the
Rock River Seminary two years ; read medicine with Doctor McNeill, of that place ; attended
lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which institution he was graduated in Febru-
ary, 1858, and he practiced his profession at Mount Morris until the civil war began. In August,
1862, he went into the service as assistant surgeon of the Q2d Illinois infantry, and held that posi-
tion two years, his regiment being most of the time in Wilder's brigade, Army of the Cumberland,
and the doctor's labors were at times quite severe. At the end of two years he was made surgeon
of the i49th regiment, Illinois infantry, which was in Tennessee and Georgia. The regiment
was mustered out at Dalton, Georgia, in February, 1866, the doctor having been in the service
three years and a half.
On leaving the army he returned to Mount Morris, practiced there two more years, and then
(February, 1868), settled in Forreston, in the same county. His experience in the army was an
excellent school for him, and added to his reputation in the profession. His standing and busi-
ness are good. He is a member of the county and state medical societies.
His professional labors are somewhat exacting, and he does not get much time to attend to poli-
tics, but he is a republican out-and-out, and rarely fails to discharge his duties as a citizen at the
polls. He is a third degree Mason.
In December, 1861, the doctor was joined in marriage with Miss Carrie E. Mumford, daughter
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 603
of Thomas L. Mumford, of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and they have buried one son, and have
seven children living. Mrs. Winston was preceptress of the Rock River Seminary at the time of
her marriage, and is a lady of fine culture, and excellent qualities of both mind and heart. She
has had the entire mental training of her children in their earlier years, and the oldest son has
already spent three years in college, and the second son one year.
WILLIAM F. L. HAULEY.
ED WARDSVILLE.
WILLIAM FLAVIUS LEICESTER HADL.EY, lawyer, is a native of Madison county, in
which he still lives, and was born in Collinsville, June 15, 1847. His lather, William Had-
ley, a local Methodist preacher, and a farmer and horiculturist, was born in Kentucky, in 1806,
and his mother, whose maiden name was Didaima McKinney, was born in Madison county, near
Edwardsville, in 1809. She died in 1863, and her husband is still living, his residence being Car-
bondale, Jackson county. John Hadley, the grandfather of our subject, volunteered as a soldier,
near the close of the second war with the mother country, but did not reach the army until the
last battle had been fought.
Our subject was educated at McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, taking the full scientific
course, including Latin. His father had two fruit farms in the southern part of the state, and a
farm in Madison county; and William usually gave his summers to work among the fruit. His
legal education was obtained at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he was graduated
in March, 1871. In the autumn of that year Mr. Hadley opened an office at Edwardsville, and
practiced alone until 1874, when he formed a partnership with Hon. William H. Krome. The firm
of Krome and Hadley has a large practice, and is one of the most respectable law firms at the
county seat.
Mr. Hadley is thoroughly educated in his profession, and is a diligent and close reader. He
keeps himself well informed on literary and scientific, as well as legal subjects; has clear-cut ideas
on any question which he undertakes to discuss, and is a logical and forcible speaker. His friends
who know him best believe he is likely to rise to eminence in his profession, his character as well
as attainments and talents being solid.
In 1872 Mr. Hadley was a candidate for county attorney, and was beaten by four votes. He
is a strong republican, and an earnest worker during a political campaign, being a candid and
effective stumper. Mr. Hadley is an Odd-Fellow, and has passed all the chairs in the subordinate
lodge. He is also a Knight of Pythias.
The wife of Mr. Hadley was Mary J. West, daughter of Hon. E. M. West, a member of the con-
stitutional convention in 1848, and senior member of the firm of West and Prickett, bankers,
Edwardsville. They were married June 15, 1875, and have buried one daughter, and have two
daughters and one son living.
HON. JOHN G. HENDERSON.
WINCHESTER.
JOHN GREEN HENDERSON, lawyer and scientist, and late judge of Scott county, is a
J native of Greene county, this state, and dates his birth September 22, 1837. His father, John
P. Henderson, was born in Kentucky; his mother, Susannah Winter (Green) Henderson, in Ohio.
Our subject received most of his education at Jacksonville, Morgan county, where he attended
the high school and Berean College. He taught school more or less while a student in these
schools, and while studying his profession and subsequently, in all during a period of ten or
twelve years. He read law with John L. McConnell, of Jacksonville; was licensed to practice in
August, 1858, and immediately opened an office in Jacksonville, where he remained between two
and three years.
604 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
In 1862 he moved to Naples, in Scott county. Early in the autumn of 1866, our subject
settled in his present home, the seat of justice of Scott county, where he has made a highly cred-
itable record as an attorney-at-law. He does very little office business; makes criminal law a
specialty, and being well read, a fluent talker, and an earnest, logical and persuasive speaker,
he has great success before a jury.
In the autumn of 1877, Mr. Henderson "Was elected judge of the county court, and served in
that honorable position for five years, retiring near the close of 1882. Judge Henderson has
always affiliated with the democratic party, and has been an earnest worker in its interests, acting
on the county central committee, part of the time as chairman, attending caucuses and conven-
tions, and stumping Scott and the adjoining counties for the candidates of his party. He has
given no inconsiderable attention to the study f politics, as well as of law, and never allows
himself to speak on any subject which he has not thoroughly investigated.
But the judge is best known to the scientific world as a student in anthropology and orni-
thology. He has every important work' to be had on these branches'of science, and has probably
the finest library on anthropology, in particular, west of the Alleghany Mountains. He has single
volumes which cost $200 or $300, and his whole collection of scientific works must be valued at
$8,000 or $9,000.
He has a large and choice collection in archaeology, some of' the specimens .so rare and fine
that they have been loaned to the Smithsonian Institution to be copied. Some years ago he
made a careful and thorough exploration of the mounds in this section of the state, being em-
ployed by the Institution just mentioned; and he wrote a lengthy memoir on this subject, which
is in the hands of the Institution for publication.
The judge is a member of the Illinois Natural History Society; an honorary member of the
Saint Louis Historical Society, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. He was secretary for two years of the anthropological sub-section, and has contributed
many papers to the society on the subject of archaeology, among which may be mentioned the
following:
Saint Louis meeting, August, 1878: "Ancient Mounds in the Vicinity of Naples, Illinois."
"Ancient Names, Geographical, Tribal and Personal, in the Mississippi Valley."
Saratoga meeting, August, 1879: "Superstitions of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi
Valley relative to the Rabbit." " Superstitions of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi
Valley relative to the Owl." " Superstitions of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley
relative to Thunder." " Superstitions of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley relative
to the Serpent." " Lake Erie and the Eries."
Boston meeting, August, 1880: "Ancient Mounds in the Vicinity of Naples, Illinois. No. 2."
"Sign Language and Pantomimic Dances among the North American Indians." "Textile Fabrics
of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley."
Cincinnati meeting, August, 1881: "Ilex Cassine, the Black Drink of the Southern Indians."
"Was the Antelope Hunted on the Prairies of Illinois?" "Agriculture and Agricultural Imple-
ments of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley." " Houses of the Ancient Inhabitants
of the Mississippi Valley."
Besides the above, he has contributed various articles to the scientific magazines, among which
may be mentioned the following: "The Former Range of the Buffalo," published in the "Ameri-
can Naturalist," vol. vi, pp. 79-98. " Notes on Aboriginal Relics, Known as Plumets," published
in same volume, pp. 644-650; also, "Use of the Rattles of the Rattlesnake," published in same,
pp. 260-263. The first of the above articles was an exhaustive examination of the subject, and
required a vast amount of historical research. The last article was favorably noticed by the
great naturalist, Charles Darwin, in his work on the "Expression of Emotions in Man and
Animals."
He has been engaged for twenty years on a work to be entitled " Ancient Names, Geographi-
cal, Tribal and Personal, in the Mississippi Valley," giving synonyms, etymology and orthography
of aboriginal names of mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 605
In order to prosecute his studies successfully, Judge Henderson found it necessary to study
many books printed in the French language; so he took it up without a teacher, mastered it, and
is now enabled to read it with almost the rapidity that he reads the English language. Our sub-
ject is worthy of great commendation for the .proficiency he has made in studies outside the legal
profession, and for the large amount of literary work which he has done. He is yet in the prime
of life; has sense enough to study and regard the laws of health, and the friends of science can
but hope that he may have length of days, and be able to complete the other noble tasks which
he has assigned himself.
HON. JOSEPH W. HARRIS.
TISKILWA.
JOSEPH WILKINSON HARRIS, one of the older class of citizens of Tiskilwa, and a mem-
ber of the legislature when the civil war broke out, was born in Valley Falls, Rhode Island,
January 16, 1819. His father was William Harris, who commenced the manufacture of cotton
goods in that state in 1811, and at the time of his death was the oldest cotton manufacturer in
Rhode Island, dying in his eightieth year. The Harris family settled in Rhode Island with
Roger Williams. The mother of Joseph was Sarah Greene, a relative of General Greene, of rev-
olutionary fame. The parents of our subject were Quakers, and he was sent to a Quaker school
until he was thirteen years old, when his school days came to an end.
In 1836 Mr. Harris came as far west as Michigan, and engaged in farming, teaching school
one winter at Galesburgh, having largely educated himself. Since eighteen years of age he has
been engaged in agricultural pursuits constantly. In May, 1840, he left Michigan and settled in
Tiskilwa, his present home. He has a first-class farm in the town of Milo, and is one of the
thrifty men of his class, his industry having been well rewarded. Mr. Harris has a half interest
in a livery stable, which he is running in connection with his other business.
He was chosen a member of the legislature in 1860, and attended the regular and extra ses-
sions of that body the following year, heartily voting for all war measures. In the autumn of that
year he went into the army as first lieutenant of company F, 57th Illinois infantry ; was wounded
at Shiloh, and taken prisoner on the road from Pulaski, Tennessee, to Athens, Georgia, but held
only a few hours. He was in the service four years, and a considerable part of that time was
superintendent of freedmen, and was one of the most successful men in the army detached for
that service, having at one time three camps, averaging a thousand freedmen in each camp, and
all self-sustaining.
Mr. Harris was formerly a republican, and is now a greenbacker. He is a man of no incon-
siderable influence in any cause which he espouses ; is an extensive reader, and well posted on
many subjects. He has been supervisor of Milo for six or seven years.
The wife of Mr. Harris was Fanny Hall, of Bureau county, their marriage taking place in
1845. They have lost two children, and have one son living, William Harris, a miner in Col-
orado.
LEONARD L. LAKE, M.D.
BEL VIDERE.
C^ONARD LITTLEFIELD LAKE, one of the oldest medical practitioners in Boone county,
and a man of sterling professional and general character, was born in the town of Hamburg,
Erie county, New York, September 26, 1821, his parents being Daniel and Polly (Brown) Lake,
both natives of the Empire State. His paternal grandfather participated in the struggle for
independence.
Leonard received a partial academic education at Salex, Chautauqua county; taught a district
school in his sixteenth year; read medicine with Doctor Lewis N. Wood, of Walworth county,
606 UNITED STATES HIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Wisconsin; attended lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and is a graduate of that insti-
tution, class of '48.
Doctor Lake settled in Belvidere, and was in practice here when the civil war began, and in
1862 he went into the service as assistant surgeon, being quite active until after the siege of Vicks-
burg, in which he was disabled. Resigning by surgeon's certificate in the latter part of July,
1863, the doctor returned to Belvidere,, and soon afterward resumed general practice, in which he
is still engaged, and in which he has a good run of business. His standing in the profession has
always been creditable, and he has a large circle of patrons and warm friends, who have great
confidence in his skill. He is a member of the Boone County Medical Society.
Doctor Lake held the office of county coroner for eight years; was sheriff of the county one
term, and has held other civil offices, such as school director, town trustee, etc., faithfully dis-
charging the duties of every position assigned him. He is now president of the city board of
health.
In politics, he is a republican, and aided locally in organizing that party, always giving it earn-
est support.
Religiously, he is a Baptist, a member of the First Church, Belvidere, and a hearty contributor
toward its support, and the cause of religion generally.
Doctor Lake married, in 1843, Miss Asenah Marvin, of Belvidere, and they have buried three
children, and have two living: Hattie M., wife of Charles A. Church, editor and proprietor of the
Belvidere "Recorder," and Lewis N. W., a music teacher.
Doctor Lake is an amateur grape cultivator, and has at least forty varieties, all hybrids, a
cross between the domestic and foreign grape, devoting an acre or more of land to their cultiva-
tion. They are superior in quality to anything of the kind raised east of California, and com-
mand a price double that of the ordinary domestic grape.
T
ORR F. WOODRUFF.
MORRISON.
HE subject of this biographical sketch is mayor of the city of Morrison, Whiteside county,
and one of the leading lawyers in the western part of the state. He is a New Yorker by
birth, and first saw the light of this world in Orleans county, June 30, 1840. His father, Winfield
W. Woodruff, a farmer, is a native of the same state, and is descended from old Connecticut stock.
The mother of Orr, whose maiden name was Solemma F. Terry, was also born in New York.
Both parents are still living. In 1852 the family immigrated to Illinois, and settled on a farm at
Lyndon, eight miles south of Morrison, where our subject received a high-school education, and
where he had considerable experience in tilling land, before he was nineteen years old. But he
was not smitten with farm work. Law books were more attractive than agricultural implements,
and it early became evident that he was predestined to be a lawyer. At the age above mentioned
he entered the office of Hon. Henry M. Teller, late United States senator from Colorado, and now
secretary of the interior, and two years afterward went before the examining committee of the
supreme court in Chicago, and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa in May, 1861. From that date
he has been a resident of Morrison, and in steady practice in the several courts of the state, and
of the United States, and stands second to no lawyer in Whiteside county. The elder Disraeli
says that " enthusiasm is the nurse of genius." Mr. Woodruff entered upon the practice of his
profession from a love of it, and with a zeal and zest partaking very much of the nature of enthu-
siasm, and if he had no genius to nurse, he had something equally as serviceable, equally as prac-
tical, namely: first-class talents and a plucky spirit of perseverance. He has made golden use of
his time, and to his studious habits and his plodding disposition he owes, in a large measure, his
high standing at the bar.
Mr. Woodruff has a large and well selected library, of which he makes diligent use, and in
B.C. cooper Jr & Co .
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UN IT ED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 6oo
addition to his studious habits and his untiring energy and perseverance, he has great persistency
under difficulties, much skill in arranging the details of a trial, a nice discrimination as to the
applicability of authorities, peculiar fitness to examine witnesses, and noteworthy, and often truly
remarkable tact with juries. His practice in criminal courts is quite large, and it has been
attended with great success.
At the time this sketch is prepared (summer of 1882), Mr. Woodruff is serving his second
term and fourth year as mayor of the city, the first municipal office, we believe, that he has ever
held. He is public-spirited and progressive, and takes pride in pushing forward any enterprise
tending to benefit the city. He has large mining interests in Colorado, and is president of the
Idalia Silver Mining Company, and also of the Minnie Lee Company. He is a Royal Arch Mason,
and was for several years senior deacon of Dunlap Lodge, No. 321, Morrison.
Mr. Woodruff was first married in November, 1862, to Miss Victoria O'Hara, of Morrison, and
she and two children, his whole family, died within twenty days, in the autumn of 1867. His
present wife was Mary Lathrop, also of Morrison, married February 22, 1869. They have no
children.
PHILIP L. DIEFFENBACHER, M.D.
HA VANA.
"PHILIP LONG DIEFFENBACHER, the leading surgeon in Mason county, is descended
J_ from an old Pennsylvania German family, his great-grandfather, Conrad Dieffenbacher,
marrying in the old country and coming directly to the Keystone State, some time before the
revolt of the colonies. He and his son, Jacob Dieffenbacher, grandfather of Philip, were farmers,
as were most of the early members of the family in this country. Philip is the eldest son of
Daniel and Catherine (Long) Dieffenbacher, and was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania,
February 6, 1830. When he was about three years of age the family moved to Northumberland
county, where some biographers have by mistake located his birthplace.
In 1837 the family came to Illinois and settled on wild land five miles east of Havana, where
our subject assisted in improving a farm, receiving, meanwhile, such mental drill as the country
schools of Illinois could furnish forty years ago. In 1849 Mr. Dieffenbacher returned to Pennsyl-
vania, finished his literary education at the Newville Academy ; studied medicine at Mechanics-
burgh, Pennsylvania, with his paternal uncle, Philip H. Long ; attended lectures at Jefferson
Medical College, Philadelphia, one of the oldest institutions of the kind in the country, and was
graduated in the spring of 1855. He attended clinical lectures and practice at Blockly Hospital,
West Philadelphia, during one winter.
Doctor Dieffenbacher opened an office at Mount Joy, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, but his
parents were in this state. His heart was here, and in 1856 we find him in Havana, with his sign
out, and he in full practice, among his early associates and abiding friends. His reputation for
skill, particularly in surgery, in which he excels, gradually extended over the county, and into
adjoining counties, and his practice in that branch of the healing art, as well as in medicine, has
for years been quite extensive. In 1860, the year before the war broke out, he performed success-
fully a resection of the shoulder joint, from a gun-shot wound, then an unusual operation.
In the summer of 1862 the doctor was appointed assistant post surgeon at Peoria, under Doc-
tor Andrews, while the regiments were being mustered in, and when the 851)1 infantry was ready
to march, he accompanied it as first assistant surgeon. In June, 1863, he was promoted to sur-
geon, with the rank of major, serving in that capacity till the war ended. He was with General
Sherman on his march to the sea, and through the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington. Since
his return from the army he has done all the difficult surgery in this part of the state. He is also
United States examining surgeon for pensions in Mason county, and surgeon for the Wabash,
Saint Louis and Pacific railroad.
He is a member of the Mason County Medical Society, the Brainard District Medical Society,
60
6lO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
of which he was president in 1880-1, and also belongs to the American Medical Association,
whose meetings he attends occasionally.
Doctor Dieffenbacher trains in the ranks of the republican party, but the temptations of no
office drew him from his practice. He has a large and valuable medical library, which he
replenishes from year to year, and to the study of which he gives the leisure time at his com-
mand. His wife was Martha M. Mitchell, of Bath, Mason county, married May 17, 1874. They
have three children: Mattie M., Edith L. and Philip D.
WILLIAM E. SCHENCK, M.D.
PEKIN.
WILLIAM ERNEST SCHENCK, one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Tazewell
county, is a descendant of one of those Holland families which settled in New York at an
early day, and which are most felicitiously described by Diedrich Knickerbocker in his history of
that state. He is a son of Ernest and Anna B. (Skillman) Schenck, and was born at Millstone,
Somerset county, New Jersey, May 20, 1840. Both parents were also natives of that county.
William was educated at the Lawrenceville Classical School, and prepared himself to enter college,
but went no farther with his literary studies. He read medicine with Doctor P. D. McKissack, of
Millstone; attended three courses of lectures at Bellevue Hospital College, New York city, and
received the degree of doctor of medicine in March, 1864, he being a member of the first class
that was graduated at that excellent institution.
Doctor Schenck came immediately to Pekin, and has known no other field of practice. He found
a wide opening, for it extended into the country in some directions from twelve to fifteen miles.
He took great pains in preparing himself for his profession, and has since been well rewarded in
a pecuniary sense, as well as in the satisfaction one feels in knowing that his skill is appreciated.
Doctor Schenck has been United States examining surgeon for pensions for fifteen years, and
served for three years as a school inspector ; but the pressing duties of his profession forbid that
he should accept of many civil offices. His ambition seems to rest in his legitimate calling in
his desire to attend promptly to the wants of suffering humanity, and succeed as a physician.
This he has already done. He is a member of the Tazewell County Medical Society, recently
organized, and is exerting himself, with others, to build it up. The doctor is a member of the
American (formerly Dutch) Reformed Church, and a deacon of the same.
He was married in October, 1867, to Emily, daughter of Benjamin Prettyman, whose sketch
appears on other pages of this work, and they have three children, all attending the local schools.
JOHN W. COOK.
NORMAL.
JOHN WILLISTON COOK, who occupies the chair of mathematics in the Normal University,
J was born near the village of Oneida, New York, April 20, 1844. He is a son of Harry De Witt
Cook and Joannah (Hall) Cook, both natives of the Empire State. The great-grandfather of our sub-
ject fought for five years in the successful struggle for independence, being at Valley Forge, and
having his full share of suffering in that long war; and his grandfather, John Cook, for whom he
was named, died in Wisconsin at the great age of ninety-five years. Harry De Witt Cook was a
mechanic in early life ; came to Illinois in 1851 ; was a station agent and a grain dealer at Kappa
at one period ; an officer in the volunteer force for three years ; a member of the legislature in
1861, and again in 1864, and chairman of the warehouse commission at the time of his death, in
1873-
Professor Cook finished his education at the Normal University in 1865 ; taught one year at
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 6ll
Brimfield, Illinois ; in the autumn of 1866 became a teacher in the model school, at Normal, and
two years later was appointed to a position in the Normal department. In addition to the mathe-
matics, he also has the classes in natural philosophy and astronomy. A gentleman intimately
acquainted with Professor Cook, thus writes in regard to him as a teacher and lecturer :
Professor Cook has been a teacher in the Normal School tor fourteen years; before beginning his work here, he
had some experience in teaching public graded schools. His work in the class room is noted for clearness, accuracy
and persistency. With classes in physical science, he is not only a successful performer of experiments, using simple
apparatus, but he has the ability to cause his pupils both to understand clearly the value of the experiment, and to per-
form it for themselves. Few teachers exert a stronger personal influence over their pupils. As a lecturer and instruc-
tor of teachers' institutes, Professor Cook has had marked success; he has written considerably for teachers' periodicals,
and has published a small book on methods of teaching arithmetic, which has been well received. In December, 1879,
he was chosen president of the Illinois Teachers' Association, and discharged the duties of the office with great accept-
ance. Not many teachers in the state are known more generally or favorably than Professor Cook.
Professor Cook is president of the board of trustees of Normal School district ; has a watch-
ful eye on the educational interests of the village, and is a thorough-going, practical business man,
with quite as much mathematics as poetry in his composition. For two years he was associated
with President Hewitt in editing "The Schoolmaster," a monthly periodical published at Normal.
He is the author of "Methods in Arithmetic," published in 1881, and used by teachers; is a man
of no inconsiderable originality of thought, and his experience in teaching for seventeen years
has not been for naught outside the recitation room. Inside, he is a thorough master of this art,
and very popular with the students.
In August, 1867, Professor Cook was married to Lydia F. Spofford, daughter of Farnham
Spofford, of North Andover, Massachusetts, and they have two children.
COLONEL JOHN WARNER.
PEORIA.
JOHN WARNER, late mayor of the city of Peoria, and one of its leading business men, is a
son of John B. and Hester (Gordon) Warner, and was born in Perry county, Ohio, October u,
1828. His father was a son of Henry Warner, who belonged to an old Maryland family. John
B. Warner was a soldier in the war of 1812-14. The father of Hester Gordon was also in the
same war. The subject of this sketch was educated in the district schools of Ohio; farmed with
his father until 1846, when the family came to Peoria, and the father kept the Clinton House and
the son became a clerk in a store. In 1852 he went into business for himself, opening a clothing
and general furnishing house, which he was managing when the civil war began. At times he
has been in the ice business, shipping large quantities to Saint Louis and New Orleans on his
own steamers.
In August, 1862, he raised a regiment, and took the field as colonel of the io8th Illinois
infantry. His regiment was with General A. J. Smith's division in its operations through Ken-
tucky; was with General Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, etc., and was at the
siege of Vicksburg, and the battles preceding that eventful and successful campaign.
Not being in prime health, in the autumn of 1864 Colonel Warner resigned and came home.
Subsequently he was engaged in the wholesale liquor trade for five or six years. In 1873 he was
elected mayor; was reelected in 1875 and 1877, and served six consecutive years, making a wide-
awake and efficient head of the municipality. Mr. Warner is public-spirited, and likes to encour-
age any enterprise designed to build up the city.
He was ex-officio a member of the school board, and backed up any movements calculated to
further the interests of education. Several fine school houses were built during his administra-
tion; also a great deal of paving was done. When in office he devotes his time faithfully to the
service of the city.
6l2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Colonel Warner was one of the constituent members of the Peoria board of trade, in which
body he was usually quite active. Since leaving the mayoralty he has given considerable time to
trading on that board. His politics are of the democratic school, and he has usually been active
in their dissemination. He is a thorough worker in any cause which he espouses, and is a man of
much influence.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and years ago was an Odd-Fellow, and at one time district deputy
grand representative of the Grand Encampment of Peoria.
Colonel Warner was married in Peoria, in 1851, to Miss Elizabeth Simms, a native of Vir-
ginia, and they have eight children.
HON. JAMES G. WRIGHT.
NAPER VILLE.
MR. WRIGHT was born in Liverpool, England, June 6, 1823. He is the fifth of a family of
six children, and the only surviving member of the family. His parents were Joseph and
Sarah (Parkinson) Wright, who lived and died in England.
Until sixteen years of age Mr. Wright did little else than attend school, first in England and
afterward in New York, where he completed his academical studies while living with an elder
brother, who had preceded him to the new world, and engaged in business there. After spending
two years in America, he returned to Liverpool in 1839, and found employment in a general for-
eign brokerage office, where he remained till 1840. He then accepted ;. position in the New York
branch of a London house, who were wholesale dealers in lace goods.
A year and a half later he left New York, and landed in Naperville in September, 1842. He
was at that time a little past nineteen years old, and having saved some money, invested it in farm
lands about one mile from the village. In 1845 he had his farm well improved, and married Miss
Almira Van Osdel, sister of the Chicago architect of that name. Four daughters and three sons,
all living, and all but the youngest settled in life, were the fruit of that union.
Mr. Wright has always been an active man. He is a true type of the Anglo-Saxon race, and
could never be anything else but foremost in every enterprise. In politics he was a whig, and cast
his first vote for Henry Clay, and was one of the very first to assist in the formation of the republi-
can party, to whose fortunes he has steadfastly adhered to the present ti.me.
His townsmen early recognized his fitness for official position, and made him town supervisor
three times. He was appointed postmaster of Naperville by President Lincoln, with whom he
was personally acquainted, and filled the office for eight years.
In 1876 he represented the fourteenth senatorial district at Springfield, and was reelected
twice by his constituents, thus representing one of the best districts of the state for three suc-
cessive terms. His senatorial record is full of good work for his district and state at large, and
proves him to be an earnest and active man in every station in life. At his first session, the
thirtieth, Mr. Wright served on several important committees, and was chairman of a special com-
mittee to report on the necessity of increased prison accommodation. His report advising the
extension at Joliet, whereby the prisoners could be classified and graded, if adopted, would have
saved $1,000,000 to the state over the annual cost of running two separate institutions; and but
for the large amount already invested in the southern penitentiary, at Chester, it would undoubt-
edly have resulted in the abandonment of that scheme. The report, though not adopted at the
time, as indicated above, has received the indorsement of subsequent legislatures.
In the thirty-first general assembly, Mr. Wright was chairman of committee on state institu-
tions. For the effective work done on that committee he has received the acknowledgments and
thanks of the public charities not only of his own district, but all over the state. In the last, the
thirty-second session, Mr. Wright was chairman of the most important committee of the house,
that on appropriations. He was also a member of the committee on rules, always composed of ac-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 613
knowledged legislators, and the committee on penal and reformatory institutions, which was a just
acknowledgment of his efficient services in behalf of the state's institutions. The changes recom-
mended by his report of this committee were nearly all adopted, as were also the sanitary changes
recommended in the reform school, and important radical changes at Joliet. In 1880 he received
the appointment of supervisor of the tenth census for the first district of Illinois. This was com-
posed of the first, second and third congressional districts of Illinois, and embraced the city of
Chicago in its limits. The rapidity and accuracy of the work done were exceedingly creditable,
and received the deserved commendation of General Walker, superintendent of the census. They
were the second returns completed, and were published by the department in census bulletin No. 2.
June 27, 1882, his name was sent to the senate by President Arthur for Indian commissioner for
the Rosebud Indian Agency, in Dakota He was confirmed July 6, and commissioned on the nth )
so that, at the expiration of his present term in the state legislature, the fourteenth district loses
a very popular and efficient officer, but the Indian department gains one greatly needed.
In social and religious life, Mr. Wright is as popular and active as in politics. He is a Royal
Arch Mason, but of late years somewhat indifferent to its affairs. He is senior warden of Saint
John's Episcopal Church of Naperville, a life-long temperance man, and as anti-tobacco as he is
anti-rum. It seems to be a part of his nature to do thoroughly whatever he undertakes.
In 1857 Mr. Wright visited England with his wife and son, where two of his daughters have
since married and settled in life, and afterward made the tour of the continent. In 1881 he again
crossed the Atlantic, to visit his children and accompany his wife home.
In person, Mr. Wright is a pronounced blonde. He is large, well built and of a frank, open
countenance, exceedingly pleasing in expression. He has a hearty, blunt, frank manner, which
at once convinces you of his sincerity, and a good deal of the natural magnetism in him that
attracts men to him, makes them fast friends and keeps them such. It is said that he is person-
ally intimate with Senator Logan.
PUNY B. SMITH.
CHICAGO.
PLINY BENT SMITH, lawyer, is a descendant of Rev. Henry Smith, who, after preaching in
the old country, emigrated from -England to New England in 1630, the year that Boston
was settled, making his own home near that city, This branch of the Smith family was repre-
sented in the colony which settled in and near Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636, and our subject is
a lineal descendant of Rev. Mr. Smith, just mentioned, who was the first pastor of the church at
Wethersfield, in that state. Rev. Henry Smith had a son Samuel, who was the father of Rev.
Gotten Mather Smith, Ebenezer Smith, and several other sons. Our subject traces his lineage
back to Ebenezer Smith, who was the father of Nathaniel Smith, grandfather of Nathaniel Smith
second, and the great-grandfather of Jehial, who was the great-grandfather of Pliny, making
Pliny B. the ninth generation from the progenitor of the family at Weathersfield.
The father of Pliny, Truman W. Smith, and grandfather, Elijah Smith, came from Genesee
county, New York, and settled three miles from Batavia, Kane county, Illinois, that town being
named for the shire town of the county whence they had come. Elijah Smith was born in 1783,
and was one of the pioneers in settling on what is known in western New York as the Holland
Purchase, which included Genesee county and several other counties in that part of the state.
Our subject was born in Du Page county, Illinois, February 18, 1850, his mother belonging to
the Durkee family, from New York state. He supplemented a. common-school education with
some careful study of certain branches, and, beginning at sixteen years of age, taught school four
winters, working on a farm in the summer season; commenced reading law with Thomas C.
Moore, of Batavia, Illinois, subsequently spent one term in the law department of the University
of Michigan; finished his legal studies in Chicago, with Durham and Bonfield, and Joseph F.
614 I'XITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Bonfield alone, and was admitted to the bar in 1872, and has since been in general practice in
this city. A gentleman who has known Mr. Smith intimately since he commenced the study of
law, thus speaks of him :
" He was a faithful student, and not only read law, but learned its principles, and the reason
ing upon which they were based. He passed a splendid examination upon his admission to the
bar. As a lawyer he is careful, studious, and fully understands the facts of his cases, and the law
applicable. His ability and integrity as a lawyer are unquestioned. His talents and industry
will place him in the front rank."
Mr. Smith affiliates in politics with the republicans, and usually takes a deep interest and an
active part in local elections, but is more likely to work for others than to ask anything for him-
self. The time which he devotes to politics and to political science, is not allowed to interfere
with his professional studies and practice, to which he is thoroughly wedded.
HON. IRA O. WILKINSON.
ROCK ISLAND.
JUDGE WILKINSON was born in Virginia in 1822, and when he was thirteen years of age
moved to Jacksonville, in this state. There he was educated, and served as deputy county
clerk. He read law with Judge William Thomas; was admitted to the bar in 1843, and not long
afterward became a partner of Hon. Richard Yates. In 1845 this connection was dissolved, and
Mr. Wilkinson removed to Rock Island, where he had a large practice. In 1852, he was elected
judge of the sixth judicial district. At the expiration of this term he resumed his legal practice,
but at the next judicial election he was again called to the bench. While a member of the judi-
ciary, he gave unqualified satisfaction to the bar and the general community. His decisions were
usually received with the respect due to the ability they displayed, and the judicial impartiality
which characterized them.
In 1867, Judge Wilkinson removed to Chicago, and organized the law firm of Wilkinson,
Sackett and Bean, and he there practiced extensively in all the courts. This partnership was
continued up to January, 1875. He is complete master of the principles of law, and is regarded
as a very safe adviser. Although nominally a republican, he follows the bidding of no party,
and is in no sense of the word a politician. He now resides in Rock Island.
WILBUR F. CRUMMER.
GALENA.
WILBUR FISK CRUMMER, clerk of the county court and county clerk for Jo Daviess county,
first saw the light at Sycamore, De Kalb county, Illinois, July 23, 1843. His father was
Rev. John Crummer, a Methodist preacher for more than forty years; engaged in itinerant work
in this part of the country when his circuit had a radius of twenty or thirty miles. He married
Mary S. Kellogg, a native of Connecticut, her grandfather being a revolutionary soldier. The
Crummers were from Ireland, and settled originally in the state of Delaware, spreading thence
into the western states.
Wilbur farmed at Mount Pleasant, Jo Daviess county, and attended a country school in the
winter season, until eighteen years old; then (August, 1861) enlisted in company A, 45th Illinois
infantry, as a private, and after the battle of Shiloh was promoted to orderly sergeant. He was
badly wounded at the siege of Vicksburg, being shot through the right lung, and was laid up for
two years, but was not mustered out of the service until the war was closed. He took part in
eight or nine of the hardest-fought battles: Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, siege of Vicksburg,
etc. In the summer of 1865, Mr. Crummer became a clerk in a county office at Galena, and
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 615
retained that post until elected to his present office, in 1869. He has been reflected twice, and at
the time of writing is finishing his third term, making, in all, a period of thirteen years. There
is no more faithful official in Jo Daviess county, or one more deserving of the good will of his
constituents. This county is strongly republican, and usually fills its offices with men of that
school of politics, Mr. Crummer being no exception to the rule. He is a Knight Templar among
the brethren of the mystic tie.'
The Crummers generally, in this part of the country, are Methodists, and usually quite active
in religious work; and here, again, there is no deviation from the rule, our subject having been
superintendent of the Bench Street Methodist Sunday school for seven or eight years. The peo-
ple who know him have great confidence in his Christian integrity.
July, 1868, he was joined in marriage with Miss Mattie M. Olney, daughter of James Olney, of
Mount Carroll, Illinois, and they have one daughter, Mabel W., aged eleven years. The residence
of Mr. Crummer is known as Maple Grove Place, it being situated on the turnpike, one and a
half miles north of the city of Galena. He has a little over twenty acres of land, all of it under
excellent improvement, and twelve to fifteen acres devoted to small fruits, raspberries, straw-
berries, blackberries, etc., for which he finds a ready market in Jo Daviess county. Mr. Crummer
has quite a taste for horticulture, and some of his happiest hours, we run no risk in saying, are
spent in his berry patches.
DAVID CARR ALDRICH.
CHICAGO.
OF the legal fraternity of Chicago no member is more deserving of mention than he whose
name heads this sketch; being known not only as an able lawyer, but also as a man of
scholarly attainments and uncommon literary ability. He is a native of Orleans county, New York,
and was born August 16, 1820, the sixth son of Adolphus Gustavus and Jane (Croney) Aldrich,
the latter of whom was a daughter of an Irish patriot and literary gentleman, who emigrated
from Belfast, Ireland, during the oppression of the British crown in 1765. Both his parents were
natives of Worcester county, Massachusetts. The genealogy of the family is traceable back
through many generations, the American branch being directly descended from Sir William
Aldrich, Province of Normandy. From him the lineage is traced back for centuries to ancestors
who were natives of Switzerland, the stock springing originally from that brave and warlike race,
the ancient Spartans of Greece. David's father was a government contractor, and largely employed
in constructing government and state works. Both his parents were strict Friends in their
religious belief and practice, and the boy received his first impressions of life and its duties under
the careful discipline and teachings of that sect. He is a birth-right member, and still retains its
belief.
In 1825 David's father settled in Brunswick, in Medina county, Ohio, where he resided until
his death, which occurred in 1840, the mother surviving the father about two years and dying at
the same place.
During his boyhood he received a common-school education, always displaying a taste for
study and literary pursuits. In 1837 he joined the staff of General Steadman, surveyor-general
and civil engineer of Ohio, and while thus employed became an expert with the chain and com-
pass. . Compelled to abandon surveying by reason of an attack of rheumatism, he, in 1840,
turned his attention to mercantile pursuits at Cleveland, Ohio, and continued thus employed until
1844, during which year he was admitted to the bar at Fort Wayne, Indiana, having, during his
residence at Cleveland, employed much of his time in the study of law. He was afterward asso-
ciated in business with a number of eminent lawyers, among them Colonel Bryant, dean of the
law school at Greencastle, Indiana, well known in Illinois for his participation in the Black Hawk
war. Prior to settling in Chicago, in 1877, Mr. Aldrich was engaged in the practice of his pro-
fession in the state of Iowa. In Chicago he has given his attention to chancery and criminal
6l6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
practice, with marked success and honor to the profession. Aside from his professional duties
Mr. Aldrich has devoted much time to literary work of the greatest antiquity, and in this field
made for himself a worthy name. He is now about to issue a work entitled " Rapid Transit
Thoughts of the Gambling Nation of Mother Earth." He is by nature a poet, and numbers
among his poetical productions one especially worthy of mention which he dedicated to the Sir
Knight Templars, and in which he portrays with fine poetic taste a constellation comprising four
of the most brilliant stars of history,~viz., Saint John, Washington, Lincoln and Sir Knight James
A. Garfield. Mr. Aldrich was married at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1844, to Miss Edna Aldena, eldest
daughter of Captain Gilbert Clapp. Of the five children that have been born to them, the two
oldest are dead; Edward C. and Will are farming in Jasper county. Nebraska, and Frank A. T. is
engaged in mining in Montana.
JOHN I. BENNETT.
CHIC A GO.
THE subject of this biography, a native of Otsego county, New York, was born November 27,
1831, the son of Joseph and Lydia (Birdsall) Bennett, both of- whom were of Quaker parent-
age. John passed much of his early life with his grandparents, at Quaker Hill, a settlement com-
posed almost entirely of Quakers, in Delaware county, New York, and it was from these people
that he received his early training and teaching, the influence of which has marked his whole life
and character.
When he was twelve years of age his parents removed to Knox county, Illinois, but after three
years returned to New York state, settling at Davenport, in Delaware county. During these years
he passed through the common experiences of ordinary farm life, and was also for a time
employed in a saw-mill, situated on his father's farm, and which his father owned. It was while
thus employed that an incident which formed the turning point of his life occured.-
Rev. Sanford I. Ferguson, now a Methodist clergyman in New York city, was about to become
principal of Charlotte Academy, which was then building, and the lumber for which young Ben-
nett was engaged in sawing. On one of his trips to the saw-mill on business, Doctor Ferguson
formed the boy's acquaintance, and being attracted to him, secured the father's promise that,
when the academy was finished and school opened, John should become one of his pupils. This
was in 1849. Prior to this time his educational advantages had been very meager; but with his
native thirst for knowledge, now that a way was opened to him, he so applied himself to his
studies that, at the expiration of a little more than a year, he began teaching in the academy.
Thereafter he continued his studies in connection with his teaching, until September, 1851, when
he entered the sophomore class of Union College, from which he graduated in the class of 1854.
The institution was at that time under the presidency of Doctor Nott, and besides this celebrated
educator, our subject had for his instructors such men as Doctors Lewis, Hickok, Jackson, Foster,
Gillespie and Peissner, then in the full vigor and strength of their eminent lives. His graduation
occurred during the semi-centennial year of Doctor Nott's presidency, and thousands of the
alumni were present at the commencement exercises. During the three years while in college, as
shown by the college records, with the exception of in one study, he uniformly maintained the
maximum standard of scholarship, one hundred per cent, a remarkable fact when it is considered
that most of the time he pursued five, and at no time less than three studies. He received the
honor of an election to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and at the commencement was awarded
the Latin salutatory by the faculty.
After his graduation, young Bennett became principal of Liberty Academy, at Springfield,
Tennessee, where he remained until 1857, and during these three years he had under his charge
young men from nearly all the southern states, many of whom have risen to prominent positions.
In the summer of 1855 he was married to a companiop of his early youth, Miss Maria E. Rey-
nolds, then residing at Henderson, Kentucky, but who was a native of Delaware county, New
HCC. per Jr S C.
LIBRARV
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DfCTIONARY. 619
York, the daughter of Hosea and Elizabeth Reynolds. Their family consists of a daughter, Mrs.
M. C. Nelson, and six promising sons: Frank I., Fred F., Allen L., George R., John I., Jr., and
William L. Also during his residence in Tennessee he turned his attention to the study of law,
in connection with his other duties, purchasing his own books; and closing his school in June,
1857, he was, during the same month, admitted to the Tennessee bar. Being now thoroughly
prepared to take up the work of the profession which he had long desired to enter, he removed
to Illinois, settling at Galva, in Henry county, and soon established himself in a paying practice,
which he continued with marked success until the spring of 1872, when he took up his residence
in Chicago.
At the opening of the rebellion Mr. Bennett was appointed, with the rank of colonel, on Gov-
ernor Richard Yates' staff, and devoted much of his time during the early part of the war to
recruiting men. For these services he asked and received no compensation. He had a strong
desire to enter actively into the service, but impaired health, resulting from a protracted attack of
typhoid fever, prevented him. While living at Galva he became widely known as a public-spirited
man, and was honored with many public trusts. In the campaign of 1864 he was chosen as elector
for the fifth congressional district on the republican ticket, and was elected, receiving the highest
number of votes of any republican elector. He was afterward candidate for circuit judge of
Henry and Rock Island counties, and although he carried his own county by a majority of one
thousand votes, he was defeated by a small majority in Rock Island county, his opponent, Hon.
George W. Pleasants, receiving the election. He always took an active interest in educational
matters, and for many years was a member of the board of education. He also edited the Galva
"Union," a newspaper of his town, and purchased and developed the coal mines at that place.
Since settling in Chicago he has built up a wide and remunerative practice, and ranks among
the most influential members of the Chicago bar, having associated with him his son, Frank I.
Bennett, a promising young attorney. In 1879 he was appointed one of the masters in chancery
in the United States courts for the northern district of Illinois, and still holds that office.
Mr. Bennett resides in the village of Hyde Park, where he is known and respected for his
enterprise and public-spiritedness. In 1878 he was elected a member, and chosen president, of
the board of trustees of the village, and in the following year elected to the same office, and again
chosen president. During these two years the debt of the village was reduced $250,000.
HON. FAWCETT PLUMB.
STREATOR.
THE subject of this biographical sketch, lately a state senator from La Salle county, and one
of the prominent business men of Streator, is a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio, and was
born in the town of Andover, December 10, 1834, his parents being Francis M. and Laura M.
(Hyde) Plumb. Fawcett was reared on a farm, and thoroughly acquainted himself with all
kinds of farm work. About 1853 he became a clerk in a dry-goods store at Burgh Hill, Trumbull
county, remaining there four years, and was in Oberlin College when the civil war burst upon
the land, in 1861. In that year he became a quartermaster's clerk, and filled that position four
years.
On leaving the service, Mr. Plumb went to the Albany Law School, from which he was grad-
uated in 1866. He then came to Illinois; was here admitted to practice, and was the junior
member of the firm of Fleming, Pillsbury and Plumb, of Pontiac. In 1866 he married Miss
Geraldine Plumb, daughter of Colonel Ralph Plumb, the founder of Streator, and two years
afterward removed to this place, where his wife died in 1875. Here he engaged in the law busi-
ness by himself, but not long afterward became interested in railroad matters, and aided his
father-in-law in this branch of enterprise. To railroading, Mr. Plumb added the real-estate and
coal business, in which he is making a success.
6t
62O UNITED STATES RIOCRA PIIICAI. DICTIONARY.
He has stock in the Streator Glass Works, the Tile Manufacturing Company, the Streator
Novelty Works, etc., and is doing all he can to develop local manufactories and other important
industries. He is a good sample of an energetic, thoroughgoing business man, and is by no
means deficient in inventive talent. One of his recent successful undertakings is the invention of
the first steam tile ditching machine ever made. A few of these machines have been put in
operation, and are working admirably. . They cut a ditch ten inches wide, and at any depth up
to forty-eight inches, making a complete ditch at the rate of four or five feet per minute. The
cutting wheel is raised or lowered with the greatest facility, and secures a uniform grade to the
bottom of the ditch. The work is all done by once passing over the ground, and the machine
never fails to cut a perfect ditch.
Mr. Plumb represented La Salle county in the state senate from 1875 to 1879, being nominated
as an independent, and defeating the regular republican nominee. Politically, he is still an inde-
pendent, or, perhaps, more properly speaking, a greenbacker, and morally, he is a prohibitionist.
His social instincts are all in the right direction, and he labors for what he regards as for the
best interests of society.
OTTO PELTZER.
CHICA GO
THE subject of this sketch is a native of Germany, born November 29, 1836, in the city of
Stollberg, near Aix-la-Chapelle, in the Rhine province of the kingdom of Prussia. His
forefathers being descendants of the Huguenots, were among those who left France after the
wars under the Prince de Conde and Henry of Navarre against Louis XIV, about 1685. His
father's name was Charles'Eugene Peltzer, and his mother's maiden name was Maria Agnes Hey-
nen, an estimable lady, who died November 30, 1844, at the family country seat, called Kempen,
situated near the Eifel Mountains. His grandfather, on the paternal side, was interested in
copper mines, and was proprietor of one of the largest copper mills, of which there were several
near Stollberg. His grandfather, of the maternal line, was an extensive contractor for furnishing
material and building the viaducts and tunnels for the government railroads in that part of Ger-
many, and an extensive manufacturer of brick and owner of large limestone quarries. The father
of our subject was educated for mercantile pursuits, but being fond of rural life, left the business
of his father, which he represented at Verviers, in Belgium, shortly after his marriage, purchas-
ing a large country seat, to the management of which he devoted himself. He departed for
America, with his second wife and five children (four sons and one daughter), in 1849, settling on
a farm near Burlington, Racine county, Wisconsin.
Young Peltzer, scarcely fourteen years of age, left the farm in the spring of 1850, coming to
Chicago in April of that year, and entered a book bindery as an apprentice. With this estab-
lishment, located at the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, was connected a small circulating
library and German book store, situated on Wells street, near Washington, the latter of which
Peltzer attended in the evening as clerk. Here he took every opportunity of reading and study-
ing the English language, with which, up to that time, he was unfamiliar.
In 1852 he left this business, entering the real estate office of Horatio O. Stone as a clerk.
Showing some ability as a draughtsman of maps, in this connection, it opened the way for him
into the recorder's office of Chicago, in 1853, as recording draughtsman, under the regime of
Louis D. Hoard, then clerk of the circuit court and ex-officio recorder. Here Mr. Peltzer remained
until the spring of 1857, when he left for Saint Paul, Minnesota, taking a similar position in the
recorder's office in that city. To avoid the rigor of the northern winter, he left that place in the
fall of the same year, returning upon the Mississippi River, by the way of Dubuque, Rock Island,
Saint Louis and New Orleans, and back again, by way of Cairo, to Chicago.
Here, after serving a few months in the custom house, under Bolton F. Strother, then collector
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 621
of customs of this port, he entered the law office of Monroe and Spencer, the former still being a
practitioner at the Chicago bar, where he remained some eighteen months in the study of the
law. Finding this avenue to greatness and success dry and dusty, he abandoned Blackstone,
Greenleaf, Monroe and Spencer, taking another trip to New Orleans, remaining there during the
winter of 1 860-61. The war of the rebellion breaking out, he was driven from Louisiana on
account of his strong anti-slavery sentiments, coming up the river on the last steamer that was
permitted to pass Fort Pillow. His father died shortly after his return to Chicago.
In the position of chief draughtsman in charge of the map department of the board of public
works, which he then held, among other important duties, he was here (where he continued to
remain until 1876) intrusted with the examination and approval or rejection of all new subdi-
visions, and the laying out of new streets within the city for the purpose of providing a more
uniform system of streets, so far as this was possible at this late date. Here he also continued
the compilation of the city atlases and the supervision of the river and dock surveys.
In the year 1869, Mr. Peltzer was elected collector of taxes of North Chicago, taking an active
part in the people's movement, which made that year so eventful in the political history of Chi-
cago. Then came the great calamity of the fire of 1871, with its destruction of all the records of
the city and county. Having subsequently restored, for the use of the city public works depart-
ment, the maps and records in the form of atlases, he published, in 1872, in printed form, from
copies of his own, his now well known "Atlas of Chicago." The importance, immensity and
usefulness of this work may be judged from the fact that he sold 100 copies, at $400 each. It is a
well known work to the city and county offices, and to all real estate agencies of this city, Chicago
being the only city that can boast of such a work in printed form. In the publication of this
important work he was much hampered by certain parties, impelled by selfish motives, appealing
to the courts to prevent its issue. Although litigation, dragging its length through the various
courts for over seven years, devoured the legitimate profits which would otherwise have been the
just reward for its lasting benefits to the community, this work alone is an enduring monument
to a man's usefulness and energy.
Mr. Peltzer also took an active part, as a republican, in the Greeley movement. He was the
only republican that was elected from the Chicago districts to the twenty-eighth general assem-
bly of 1872-3-4 of the state on the Greeley ticket. Here he first introduced a bill for compulsory
education, another for a state board of health, and bills for the general licensing of physicians
and druggists, as well as surveyors. He also introduced many reforms in the laws for the record-
ing in the county records of the routes and locations of new roads, streets and railroads, most of
which were adopted.
In 1875, Mr. Peltzer sold to the county of Cook a set of abstract books, in which he had
obtained a controlling interest, for the sum of $45,000, and this against the most labored opposi-
tion of the entire Chicago press. The acquisition, according to the provisions of the statutes, of
these valuable books by the county, was intended as a partial relief from the monopoly of a few
private firms, theretofore engaged in the abstract business. These books are now in use in the
abstract department of the recorder's office, to the entire satisfaction of even the most bitter
opponents of their original acquisition by the county.
In December, 1876, he left the board of public works, and was appointed deputy recorder of
the county, a position which he held until April, 1878, when he resigned, and opened his present
abstracts of title office, which is second to none in business prosperity. In this he has certainly
shown himself an exception to the general rule of men once in public office, although himself
peculiarly fitted by character and experience for official life. Most of these, from governors
down, so far as local experience goes, having once tasted the sweets of public places, cling to
them with the most desperate tenacity, even on a downward grade.
Mr. Peltzer's father being a descendant of the French Huguenots, he was of course a Protes-
tant, if anything, while his mother was a Catholic; he himself, until he left Germany, being a
follower of the latter faith. But to-day, though tolerant toward others in every way, he is a
622 UNITED STATES HIOCKA 1'IIICAL DICTIONARY.
believer in liberty of thought, and holds to the dictates of reason in his beliefs. He was married
in 1861, at New Orleans, to Miss Annie Langdon, of Carrollton, near that city, who is still living.
Mr. Peltzer has by this union four children living, three daughters and one son, the girls being
respectively eighteen, fourteen and twelve years of age, and the son, at the present writing, six-
teen.
Mr. Peltzer is a gentleman of many fine social qualities, with a fondness for literary work in
his leisure moments, as is evidenced by several dramatic productions. One of these, "Uriel
Acosta," a tragedy in five acts, was played at Crosby's Opera House, in 1868, for several weeks,
and afterward in other cities. A second, a local burlesque, was brought out about the same time
at Aiken's Dearborn Street Tneater. A third, a dramatic ballad from the Swedish, was produced
under the direction of Professor Ziegfeld, at Farwell Hall, just previous to the great fire, and a
fourth, a drama of domestic life, being brought out at McVicker's Theater a few years since. Mr.
Peltzer is a man of integrity and decision of character. He is of robust form, of medium height,
of dark complexion, of a warm, sanguine temperament, a true friend; and while he will resent an
injury, he is charitable and forgiving; is a good citizen, and a safe and correct business man.
DE STEIGER GLASS COMPANY.
LA SALLE.
THE De Steiger Brothers came to La Salle in the autumn of 1878, and in company with
Adolph C. Schultz and William F. Modes, erected a bottle factory, and subsequently pur-
chased the old Phoenix glass works, giving them the name of the De Steiger Glass Company.
Since coming here they have exhibited a great deal of enterprise, enlarging their premises and
adding to their working force from year to year. They now give employment to two hundred
and sixty men and boys, and run out from $450,000 to $500,000 worth of merchandise per year,
being the only manufacturers of export turned-mold beer bottles on this continent. They also
make wine, brandy, schnapp and soda bottles, together with flasks, flint jars, packers, etc., and
make a specialty of private mold orders. They likewise manufacture window glass in large
quantities, second to nothing of the kind made in this country.
They are full of energy and pluck, and in order not to be beaten by any glass company in the
world, in 1881 they imported an entirely new set of skilled workmen, and were thus enabled to
compete with the best workmanship brought into the market from any foreign country. At the
same time they introduced and erected a Siemens' continuous gas furnace, the second and largest
ever built in the United States, and now the only one operated in this country. This furnace
differs widely in construction and mode of operation from the old-style furnace now generally in
use in our country, and in regard to magnitude and capacity, presents an astonishing spectacle
compared with the ordinary styles of furnaces. Unlike the latter.'the fuel is first converted into
gas in generators erected in a special building, whence it is conducted into the main furnace by
means of pipes and natural draft mingling with heated air during its course, and resulting in an
almost perfect combustion while entering the main furnace or tank. This tank is probably the
largest in the world, containing when full a surface of glass eighteen by forty feet, and three and
a half feet deep, aggregating about two hundred and fifty tons of molten glass, whereas the
glass in the ordinary style furnaces is melted in fire-clay crucibles, called pots, which are charged
with the mixture or batch, and melted during the night and worked out during the day. The
tank furnace is operated without pots, charged from one end and worked at the opposite side
continuously, thus dispensing with the expensive and often risky system of pots, and rendering a
metal that far excels that melted in pots in regard to uniformity and purity, in the meantime
avoiding all loss of time incurred by the ordinary system on account of frequent pot breaking.
The De Steiger Glass Company introduced this style of furnace regardless of cost and the numer-
ous incidents that they were likely to experience from this comparatively new enterprise for the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 623
purpose of being able to compete with the foreign markets, furnishing articles in their line second
to none made anywhere in the world. Having thus persevered in their gigantic undertaking, they
are now on a fair road to reap the benefits of their mammoth enterprise.
They are now (summer of 1882) the only parties in the United States making beer bottles after
the German manner, being the first to introduce them into this country. Their great enterprise,
and their astonishing propensity to push business, are receiving ample reward, for they find a
ready market for all their wares, none but the very best class being turned out. Of this flourish-
ing industry, Philip R. De Steiger is president, and Augustus F. De Steiger, secretary-treasurer.
They are thoroughly devoted to their great enterprise, and are making it a grand success. No
city is likely to have a surplus of this class of public-spirited men.
H. S. HINMAN, M.D.
NEWTON.
AvlONG the younger physicians who appear in our volume of eminent and self-made men, we
place with assurance Doctor H. Simpson Hinman. He was born in Bartholomew county,
Indiana, April 10, 1847. His father was Hon. T. M. Hinman, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and the maiden name of his mother was Emily Jeter. She was a native of South Carolina. His
father was a man of considerable note, and after accumulating quite a fortune, moved to Illinois,
in 1852, settling eight miles north of Olney, where he began speculating in land, in which he was
unfortunate, and soon became financially embarrassed, losing all the wealth he had accumulated.
He died in the fall of 1865, leaving no property. Mrs. Hinman died two years prior to that time,
leaving a family of eight children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the youngest. In the
early settling of this part of the state there were no good schools, and our subject's early educa-
tion was very sadly neglected.
In the spring of 1864 he enlisted in the one hundred days' service, and served until about the
middle of November of the same year. Having determined to receive an education, he, after leav-
ing the army, began a systematic course of studies, and so rapidly improved that he astonished all
who knew him, part of the time confining himself to study ten hours a day, without the assistance
of a teacher. So great was his determination to be a scholar, that he mastered several branches of
higher mathematics, all the natural sciences, and as a grammarian soon rose to distinction among
the teachers and professional men throughout the county. From early youth he has had a natu-
ral taste for music, and has improved his talent in that direction, studying at various times under
Professors Garison, Root, Pratt, and other eminent teachers and composers.
In the fall and winter of 1865 and 1866 he began organizing music classes in various cities and
towns throughout southern Illinois. He proved himself an excellent teacher, and soon gained
quite a reputation in that direction.
November 12, 1867, he was married to Miss Rose A. McWilliams, the daughter of a wealthy
farmer of Richland county, Illinois, he being twenty years of age, and his wife seventeen. Mrs.
Hinman, a young woman of refinement, was also a devoted Christian, having united with the
Methodist Episcopal church at the early age of twelve years. Mr. Hinman continued teaching
music until November, 1868, when he began teaching school at West Liberty, Illinois, and showed
himself- complete master of the situation. He was a constant student and a young man of so
much energy that he rose very rapidly as a teacher. May, 1869, he began reading medicine under
Doctor S. R. Youngman, of West Liberty. He was employed to teach the school for three con-
secutive years, 1868-70, and during that time vigorously pushed the study of medicine.
May, 1871, he removed to Olney, Illinois, and began reading medicine under the direction of
Doctor Eli Bowyer, one of the most noted physicians of the state. While living in Olney he
taught two terms at Oak Ridge, Illinois, and two at what is known as Leaf District, Richland
county, Illinois, and during the five years he lived in Olney, was employed to teach in the normal
624 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHIC. //. DICTIONARY.
institute, which is conducted annually during the months of July and August in that city. He
took his first course of medical lectures at the college of physicians and surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa,
in the spring of 1874, after which he again engaged in teaching.
In the spring of 1875 he removed to Claremont, Illinois, and took charge of the graded school,
at the same time forming a partnership with Doctor O. A. Battson. This continued until the fall
of 1877, when he began his second course of lectures, graduating from the College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, February 14, 1878. He remained a partner of Doctor Battson until
May i, 1879, when he removed to Rose Hill, Illinois, and practiced for about one year, coming to
Newton in May, 1880. He has since that time worked up a practice equal to any physician in the
county, which may be attributed to his untiring interest in his patients, energy and perseverance,
combined with his manly dealing and professional skill.
Doctor Hinman is examining physician and surgeon of numerous insurance companies,
namely, Home Life Insurance Company, New York; Covenant Mutual Benefit Association of Illi-
nois; Royal Temple of Temperance, Buffalo, New York; Hartford Life Annuity Insurance Com-
pany, Hartford, Connecticut, and others. He is also president of the Jasper County Medical
Protection Society, and secretary of the Jasper County Medical Association. The doctor takes
an active part in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Newton; he is leader of the choir, and super-
intendent of the Sunday-school.
They have seven children, four boys and three girls. Their eldest, a son of promise, is a bright
lad of fourteen years, now in the high school, from which he will soon graduate. During the
past few years the doctor has given considerable careful study to gynecology, and the diseases of
children. In gynecology he has had several very difficult cases, in which he was eminently suc-
cessful. He is now giving that branch' considerable attention, together with his general practice,
which is constantly growing.
As a literary man, Doctor Hinman is without a peer in the community in which he lives. He
is president of the school board, and always conducts the final examinations of candidates for
graduation in the high school. He is a man of excellent address, a good orator, and is often
chosen to deliver orations on public occasions.
JOHN J. TAYLOR, M.D.
STREA TOR.
JOHN JOSEPH TAYLOR, physician and surgeon, is a son of George and Elizabeth (Philpot)
J Taylor, and was born in Risber, Kent, England, March 24, 1841. His paternal grandfather
was a British officer; and one or two members of this branch of the Philpot family were burnt at
the stake as martyrs. In the autumn of 1852 George Taylor emigrated to this country, halting
four years in Birmingham, Connecticut, and in 1857 settled on a farm in Grand Rapids township,
La Salle county, this state, where he and his wife and part of the family are still living. John
J., who came to the same county one jtear earlier, was the third child in a family of fifteen chil-
dren, twelve of whom still survive. The sons are all farmers, except our subject and one younger
brother, Charles R. H. Taylor, who is a dentist, practicing in Streator. The first year our subject
was in Illinois he worked on the farm of John Powe, for $75; and he farmed and attended school
during the winters until the civil war began. As a farm hand he became very expert, excelling
as a binder of grain and a husker of corn.
In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in company K, 2oth Illinois infantry, and was in the
battles of Fredericktown, Missouri, October 21, 1861; Fort Donelson, in February, 1862, and Pitts-
burgh Landing in the following April. He had now become so debilitated by chronic diarrhoea
that he was discharged. On returning to La Salle county, he organized a company of militia
for home defense, there being immediate cause for such a step.
In 1862, Mr. Taylor attended the Normal University, at Normal, one term, intending at the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 625
time to take a three years' course, and to make teaching his life work. At the end of the term,
he taught a school three months, and not liking the profession, abandoned it, and commenced
the study of medicine with Doctor J. O. Harris, of Ottawa. He attended one course of medical
lectures at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and another at Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he was
graduated, February 25, 1867. While in Chicago, he studied under Doctor Orrin Smith, ex-pro-
fessor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, in the University of Vermont, at Mont-
pelier.
Doctor Taylor commenced practice at Ottawa, continuing it a little more than a year, when
he was afflicted with hemorrhage of the lungs so badly that he was obliged to retire from practice
for a while. He went into the country a little north of Marseilles, where his health soon began to
improve, though the hemorrhage continued, off and on, for six years. In 1871 he went to the
town of Wythe, Hancock county, where he rapidly built up a very large practice, having as much
business as one man could possibly do.
In May, 1876, he left that field on account of the heaviness of the work, returning to La Salle
county, and settling in Streator. Here he has sedulously refused country practice, except in
cases of consultation. His business is all he could ask for, he giving to it all the strength he has
to expend. There are several older physicians in the city than Doctor Taylor, men who are a
credit to the profession, but none of them have a better professional record, or a higher reputa-
tion for skill and success.
The doctor has one of the best medical libraries in the county, and makes the very best use of
it, being diligent in his studies, as well as in his practice, and keeping well read up. He is a
member of the Woodford County Medical Association, and a member and trustee of the Congre-
gational Church. He is a man of the very best impulses, and active in every good cause. He
was married, February 21, 1867, to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Stanley, of New Britain, Connecticut.
They lost their first-born child, a son, and have two sons and one daughter living.
HON. SETH F. CREWS.
MOUNT VERNON. .
SETH FLOYD CREWS, the leading lawyer at the Jefferson county bar, and a minority rep-
resentative in the general assembly from the forty-third district, is a native of this state, and
was born in Wayne county, on a farm, March 29, 1847. His father, Andrew Crews, was a native
of Kentucky; his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Jane Vandeveer, was born in Indiana.
The families on both sides were industrious, well-to-do farmers.
When three and a half years of age, our subject lost the use of his right limb, by disease, and
at thirteen he had it amputated near the thigh joint. He received the ordinary mental drill of a
country school, but is largely self-taught, and if anybody can be self-made, he belongs to that
class. From seventeen to twenty-two years of age, Mr. Crews was engaged in teaching, studying
law at the same time, and showing a wonderful degree of mental application. He was admitted
to the bar in the spring of 1870, at Fairfield, in his native county, and was in practice there until
June, 1873, when he moved to his present home, the shire town of Jefferson county. That county
has the reputation of having the ablest bar in southern Illinois, and perhaps it is enough to say
of Mr. Crews that his practice is larger by far than that of any other man in that county. Mr.
Crews is very popular in his county, not only as a lawyer, but as a citizen. His politics are
republican, and in 1876 he was elected state's attorney for Jefferson county, overcoming a demo-
cratic majority of 600 votes. He is a man of a good deal of personal magnetism, and of great
power on the stump.
In November, 1882, he was sent by his republican constituents to represent, in part, the forty-
third district in the thirty-third general assembly, and the duties of that post he is performing at
the time this sketch is written, and he is doing it in an eminently praiseworthy manner. Although
626 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
a new and untried member, he was selected by his republican confreres to nominate the speaker,
which he did in so terse and eloquent a manner as to call forth very high encomiums of the Illi-
nois press, as well as of his associates on the floor of the house. Mr. Crews is chairman of the
finance committee, one of the most important committees in a legislative body, and is also chairman
of a sub-committee of the finance committee to examine the Illinois Central Railroad Company's
account with the state; also railroad committee, revenue, judicial department, and federal rela-
tions. No new member of the house Has a higher standing than Mr. Crews. He is a member of
the Knights of Honor, and served one year as grand dictator of the grand lodge of the state. He
belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church.
November 27, 1870, he was married to Helena Slocumb, daughter of the late Judge Rigdon
B. Slocumb, of Fairfield, and they have buried one daughter, and have a daughter and two sons
living.
GEORGE A. MEECH.
CHICAGO.
GEORGE APPLETON MEECH, son of Appleton and Sybil (Brewster) Meech, was born in
r Norwich, Connecticut, January 19, 1824. His father was captain of a war vessel, a priva-
teer, during the war of 1812-14, ar >d afterward had command of a vessel engaged in the East
India trade. His grandfather was Jacob Meech, a captain of the revolutionary war, a prisoner at
one period, and afterward wounded in the battle of White Plains. His mother was a descendant
of Rev. William Brewster, of the Mayflower.
Our subject is a graduate of Yale College, class '43; he taught one year at Norwich, Con-
necticut, after receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, reading law at the same time with Hon.
Lafayette S. Foster, who was afterward president of the United States senate. He went to the
South, and taught two or three years, where he also read law with Mr. Manning, of Demopolis,
Marengo county, Alabama, and then returned to New England. He finished his legal studies
with Hubbard and Watts, and Hon. Robert Rantoul, of Boston, and was admitted to practice in
his native state in 1848. The next year he was appointed justice of the peace, and in 1853 was
elected judge of the probate court in the Norwich district, Connecticut, and in the autumn of the
same year resigned that office, and removed to the West, hoping thereby to improve his wife's
health. He settled in Chicago, and soon had a good practice, finding here a wide field for the
exercise of his legal talents, and the exhibition of his excellent drill received at the East. In
1862 he was elected city attorney, the duties of which office he discharged with ability and to the
satisfaction of the public. The next two years he served as city assessor of the South Side, doing
his work with the utmost faithfulness. From 1864 to 1875 he gave his whole time to his profes-
sion, and had a very lucrative practice. For a long time he managed the celebrated Commodore
Bigelow estate, a very important trust, in which he displayed great ability and the highest degree
of integrity.
In the spring of 1875, Mr. Meech was selected by the judges as one of the justices of the South
Side, and at the nomination of justices in the spring of 1879, he presented a monster petition for
the consideration of the appointing powers. It was signed by all the bankers and business
men, and embodied the signatures of every bank president in Chicago. The petition of the
bankers was as follows:
"The undersigned bankers of this city respectfully request of your honorable body the nomi-
nation of George A. Meech for reappointment to the office of justice of the peace of Cook county,
for the public known reasons, that he has for four years filled that office with intelligence, and
the dignity becoming a court of justice."
Similar petitions were presented by the underwriters and other business men.
Mr. Meech received the unanimous vote of the judges. His office is located at 151 South
Clark street, and is a model one in every respect. It is free from that class of vagrants who are
LIBPARY
OF (HE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITRD ST.'ITKf! BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 629
usually found around a justice office, and in every respect presents a quiet and dignified appear-
ance, being as orderly as the highest courts of the city. Mr. Meech is too neat in his tastes, too
refined in his manners, too polished in mind to run a slip-shod police court. As a lawyer, he is
well read and clear-headed, and is a judge thorough in his investigations of the law, careful and
deliberate in his opinions, and honest in his decisions. He was reappointed to the same office in
1879, and again in 1883, and is now serving his third term.
Says a Chicago journalist; " As a citizen, he is loyal and true, and has been especially faithful
to the community in which he lives. As a man, he possesses most admirable qualities, warm and
sympathetic in his friendships, courteous, affable, social' and genial, he possesses that plain style
and matter-of-fact directness of purpose, and that modest and unobtrusive manner to be expected
in one who, like himself, has an utter contempt for all shams and mere pretense."
Mr. Meech is classed among the democrats, and during the civil war was pronounced as a war
democrat; is a Royal Arch Mason and Knight Templar, a member of Apollo Commandery, No.
r, and in religious belief is an Episcopalian.
He is a polished and high-toned gentleman. Mr. Meech has a third wife; he first married in
1850 a daughter of Rev. Daniel Dorchester, of Norwich, Connecticut, who died in 1859. In 1861
he married a daughter of Hon. Milo Hunt, of Chenango county, New York, she dying in 1878,
and in 1880 he married a daughter of Captain William Story, of Norwich, Connecticut, by whom
he has his only living child, a son.
The highest compliment that can be paid to Mr. Meech is the hearty indorsement which he
has received at the hands of the bench, and by our better class of citizens generally. He has
won and retains the esteem and confidence of the community by his rectitude of purpose, and
the faithfulness and honesty with which he has performed his duties as a public functionary.
WILLIAM H. NANCE, M.D.
VERMONT.
WILLIAM HARRISON NANCE, one of the oldest physicians and surgeons in Fulton
county, is a grandson of Rev. Clement Nance, in his latter days a New Light preacher,
being a member of an old Virginia family. William was born in Floyd county, Indiana, Decem-
ber 24, 1814, being a son of William Nance, a native of the Old Dominion, born in 1784, and
Nancy (Smith) Nance, a native of Rockingham county, North Carolina, born in 1785. In 1802
the family moved into Kentucky, and thence a few years later into Indiana, being among the pio-
neers in that state. William Nance was in the battle of Tippecanoe, under General Harrison.
The place where he settled in Indiana is now known as New Albany. He was a farmer, and
died at Columbus, Adams county, this state, where he and his wife are buried.
Our subject had an ordinary English education, studied medicine at New Albany with Doctor
David G. Stewart, and commenced practice at Vermont, his present home, in 1841. In 1848 he
attended lectures at the medical department of the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, and
received his diploma in 1849. He continued in practice at Vermont until 1862, when, for various
causes, he retired, having been eminently successful, and having made an excellent record as a
physician and surgeon. Years ago he placed himself in very comfortable circumstances, and is
living quite at his ease. Doctor Nance has shown himself willing to bear a part of the burdens
of public offices, doing his best work, probably, as a supervisor, in which board he was very use-
ful and popular. He is a first-class financier. In politics he was originally a whig, with anti-
slavery leanings, and became a republican on the formation of that party. For a year or more
he was the editor of the "Fultonian," a paper published in Vermont about 1856-58. He is a man
who has always done his own thinking, and his actions have shown him to be a considerate and
kind neighbor.
The wife of Doctor Nance was Susan Lane, a daughter of Joab and Hannah Lane, formerly of
62
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Monroe county, Indiana. They were married April 14, 1836. They have buried one daughter, the
wife of Gilmore C. Maxwell, and have four children living: Arethusa Lane, the oldest child, is the
wife of Andrew W. Lewis, a farmer in McDonough county; Henry H. is a farmer near Bushnell,
same county; Albert is a lumber dealer at Stromsburgh, Nebraska, and Mary E., the youngest
child, is the wife of Andrew V. Carlson, of the same place.
Doctor and Mrs. Nance are still journeying on hand in hand, toward the goal of life, enjoying
the esteem of a large circle of friends and neighbors, and a good measure of the smiles of Prov-
idence.
GEORGE VAN VALKENBURG.
HUNTLE Y.
EORGE VAN VALKENBURG is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Page) Van Valkenburg,
and was born in Saint George, Upper Canada, now Ontario, October 10, 1834. His father
was a native of Steuben county, New York, and his mother, of New Jersey. In 1846 the family
moved to Demark, Lee county, Iowa. Joseph Van Valkenburg was a blacksmith by trade, and had
also a farm, on which our subject was reared to habits of industry, attending school during the
winter season, until twenty years of age, obtaining a fair business education. He was engaged in
speculations in western Iowa until 1858, when he went to Chicago, and read law with Cornell,
Waite and Jameson, and Goudy and Waite. He received his certificate, but his health failing, he
never commenced practice.
In 1864 Mr. Van Valkenburg went to Montana, Idaho, California, and Oregon as general agent
for the Gold and Silver Mining Company, of New York city. Returning to Illinois the next
year, he went into the lumber and grain trade, in Palatine, Cook county, and in 1868 he moved
to Huntley, McHenry county, resuming the same business. The last few years Mr. Van Valken-
burg has devoted to the care of his property, having been successful in life in most of his ven-
tures. He has owned between five hundred and six hundred acres in the vicinity of Huntley, cut
up into farms, one or two of which he has recently sold. He has also property in Michigan and
Iowa, his industry and foresight having been liberally rewarded.
Mr. Van Valkenburg was a justice of the peace while a resident of Palatine; held the same
office in Huntley for a period of eight years; was supervisor of the town three years, and is now an
efficient member of the village school board. He has a liberal share of public spirit, is full of
enterprise, and is a valuable citizen.
The politics of Mr. Van Valkenburg are democratic, and he is an active and influential mem-
ber of his party, often attending county, district and state conventions. He is a Master Mason.
The wife of Mr. Van Valkenburg was Miss Mary Reiff, a native of Philadelphia, th'eir mar-
riage occurring in 1866. They have two children, Margaret and Charles, who are attending school.
R
ROBERT D. BRADLEY, M.D.
PEKIN.
OBERT D. BRADLEY, the leading operative surgeon in Tazewell county, is a native of
this state, being born in Green county, January 9, 1845. He is the seventh son of Robert
and Laurana (Osborn) Bradley, who had a family of thirteen children, eight sons and five daugh-
ters, all of them living to manhood and womanhood. Robert Bradley was born in Richmond
county, Virginia, and belonged to an old family in that state. His wife was born near Nashville,
Tennessee.
Robert D. was in Illinois College, Jacksonville, when the civil war began, and his patriotism
being stronger, for the time being, than his love for study, in August, 1861, he went into the army
as clerk of company C, 6th Illinois cavalry, and served for fifty-three months. He was soon pro-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
6 3 i
moted to the rank of sergeant-major of the regiment, and in 1864 to the rank of captain of the
company mentioned. Colonel Grierson was commander of the regiment until he was promoted,
and was noted for his dash and bravery. The subject of this sketch was in between one and two
hundred skirmishes and battles, and received only one slight wound, it being at the battle of
Nashville, in December, 1864.
In the summer of 1866 Captain Bradley commenced the study of medicine at Bloomington,
with Doctor Noble; the next autumn went to Philadelphia, and attended lectures at Jefferson-
Medical College, and there received the degree of doctor of medicine, in March, 1869. Doctor
Bradley commenced practice at Bloomington, and while there, in October, 1870, he was married
to Miss Elizabeth Karr, whose family was from New Jersey. They have one son, Robert C., aged
ten years.
In the autumn of 1872 Doctor Bradley settled in Pekin, the seat of justice of Tazewell county,
and soon built up a highly remunerative practice. It is general, and yet he makes a specialty of
operative surgery, in which he has a fine reputation. He is a surgeon for the several railroads
centering in Pekin, and was county physician for a number of years. We cannot learn that he
holds any civil or political office. He votes the republican ticket, and does little more than vote,
his professional duties having the precedence over everything else. He is a member of the Grand
Army of the Republic, and surgeon for the Pekin post.
Doctor Bradley is a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and secretary of the Taze-
well County Medical Society; occasionally reads essays before the latter body; contributes to the
medical periodicals of the day; is ambitious for self-improvement, desirous, evidently, of honor-
ing his profession, and is a growing man.
HON. THEODORE D. MURPHY.
WOODSTOCK.
THEODORE D. MURPHY, the leading attorney in McHenry county, and at one period
judge of the thirteenth judicial circuit court, and judge and chief-justice of the appellate
court, is a native of Braxton county, Virginia, now West Virginia, and his birth is dated June 12,
1829. His father, James G. Murphy, was born in the same state, the family being originally from
Ireland ; and his mother, Nancy N. (Given) Murphy, traced her ancestry back to England. The
father of Theodore was a slave-holder, and a conscientious Christian man ; and in the spring of
1845, having previously come to the conclusion that slavery was a sin against God, he set all his
negroes free, left the South a comparatively poor man, came to McHenry county, Illinois, and
settled on land, one and a half miles from the spot where the city of Woodstock now stands.
There he lived and toiled until 1867, when his declining years and impaired constitution rendered
it necessary for him to sell his farm, which he did, and removed to Abingdon, Knox county, this
state, where he had a son, and where he died in April, 1880, just as he was rounding up his four
score years, he being born in 1800. His wife, born two years earlier, died in November, 1877,
being in her eightieth year. For the last forty years or more, before their decease, this venerable
couple were consistant members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They were distinguished
for their great industry and energy, and an unbounded affection for each other and their family.
Our -subject was educated in the district school at Woodstock, and the Rock River Seminary,
at Mount Morris, Ogle county, farming more or less while securing his education, and until he
commenced reading law in the office of Hon. Lawrence S. Church, of Woodstock, in 1847. At the
end of one year he changed to the law office of Platt and Platt, and two years later, June 12, 1850,
the day he reached his majority, he was examined before the supreme court at Ottawa, and
licensed to practice in all the courts of the state. He immediately went to Oregon, Ogle county,
where he proposed to settle, and where he hung out his shingle, but before he had done any legal
business, he received a very cordial letter from one of his preceptors, Phineas W. Platt, inviting
632 UNITED STATES JUOGRAPIIICAL DICTIONARY.
him to return to Woodstock and become his partner in the law business, which generous offer Mr.
Murphy gladly and promptly accepted. The firm of Platt and Murphy continued for one year,
when Mr. Platt removed to Texas.
In 1857 the people of McHenry county elected our subject to the office of county judge, which
office he filled for one term, four years, and then declined a renomination. In 1862 he was elected
judge of the thirteenth judicial circuit, to which position he was twice reelected, holding that
office in all a little more than seventeen years, it expiring in June, 1879. Meantime, in 1877, the
appellate court of Ilinois was created by act of the legislature, and provided that the judges of
that court should be selected from the circuit judges of the state by the supreme court Our sub-
ject was selected for the first district, which embraces Cook county, and was ordered to the city
of Chicago. The office of judge of the appellate court he held between two and three years, or
until the expiration of that term in June, 1879, nearly all that period acting as chief-justice of
that court.
Judge Murphy was appointed by Governor Bissell, in 1858, to go to Washington, and represent
the state of Illinois so far as the county of McHenry was interested in certain land grants there-
tofore made by congress to the state, and he was eminently successful in his mission.
Judge Murphy was originally a democrat, with free-soil proclivities, and left that party when
the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed congress, and became a law, and has since been a republican.
In 1872 he was a candidate for nomination for congress and was opposed in the convention by
General Farnsworth; after vain attempts, and it was found that neither could be nominated,
General Hurlbut was brought forward, nominated and elected.
Judge Murphy married November 13, 1851, Miss Mary Prouty, of Middlebury, Vermont, and
they have a son and daughter: Edwin D., his father's law partner, and Alice Mary, a graduate of
Grant Seminary, Chicago, class '81.
HON. CHARLES H. TRYON.
RICHMOND.
HARLES HOPKINS TRYON, farmer and member of the legislature from the eighth dis-
trict, is a son of Bela H. and Harriet (Billings) Tryon, both natives of Franklin county,
Massachusetts. He was born in South Deerfield, that county, June 2, 1826. His grandfather,
William Tryon, was in the revolutionary war, and both the Tryon and Billings families were in
western Massachusetts during the Indian wars and massacres.
Charles received a district-school education in McHenry county, this state, the family settling
on land there in 1837. The township was called Hebron, and was so named by Mrs. Tryon.
A few neighbors were gathered at her house on one occasion, and while they were singing some
of the old tunes, popular forty and fifty years ago, the question of naming the town came up, and
at that moment the eyes of Mrs. Tryon lighted on the tune of "Hebron." She suggested that
name, and it was adopted. She lived to a good old age, dying in 1876. Her husband died in
1X48. In 1837 the nearest postoffice to Hebron was at Milwaukee, and the nearest blacksmith
shop was at Elgin. When a postoffice was established, it was kept at the house of Bela H.
Tryon, and the mail was carried on horseback, on the first trip, in the carrier's pocket.
Charles had an only brother, George, who died some years ago at the old McHenry county
homestead. The sole surviving member of the family, our subject has always been on the farm,
where the family settled forty-six years ago. Before it was divided among the heirs, it consisted
of more than a thousand acres?
Mr. Tryon has held a few local offices, such as justice of the peace (in which office he took his
father's place at twenty-one years of age), school director, supervisor, etc., and in the autumn of
1882, he was elected to the lower house of the general assembly. He was assigned to the com-
mittees on agriculture, horticulture and dairying, drainage and state institutions. He is a man
of good judgment and industrious habits, and a faithful worker in the interests of the state,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 633
Mr. Tryon was formerly a whig, and has acted with the republican party since it was organ-
ixed. He is a thorough-going man in politics, as in everything else. He is a Master Mason.
Mr. Tryon was first married in 1848, to Miss Laura Hodge, of McHenry county. She died in
1876, leaving two children, one of whom, Bela H., died in 1877. The other child, Jessie M., is the
wife of George Trow, of Hebron. Mr. Tryon was married the second time, July 4, 1877, to Mrs.
Elizabeth M. (Downs) Sherman. She is a native of Wisconsin, a well educated lady, in her
younger years a teacher, and, like her husband, occasionally writes for the McHenry county
papers.
Mr. and Mrs. Tryon have one of the finest farm residences in the county, and their buildings,
generally, are of the very best quality.
PERRY AMOS CLAYFOOL.
MORRIS.
T)ERRY AMOS CLAYPOOL was born in Perry township, Brown county, Ohio, June 5, 1815,
1. and was therefore four years the senior of his brother, Lawrence W., whose sketch can be
found in this volume. At the age of twenty he was married to Miss Mary Halstead, in their
native place in Ohio, and brought his young wife with him to the new home on the ever-advanc-
ing frontier, in 1834, settling in Wauponsee with the rest of the family.
Like his father and brother, and his ancestors before him, he was a man of great energy, and
foremost everywhere among his fellows. Although young, his fellow-citizens conferred upon him
the responsible office of assessor and treasurer of Grundy county, which position he filled at the
time of his death. He was killed instantly by the kick of a horse, at the age of thirty-two, leav-
ing a wife and four children, all of whom still survive.
HON. ARCHELAUS N. YANCEY.
BUPfKER HILL.
A RCHELAUS NEWTON YANCEY, one of the representatives from Macoupin county, and
r\. a prominent lawyer in that county, is a son of James E. and Mary E. (Waller) Yancey, and
dates his birth in Montpelier, Orange county, Virginia, March 24, 1844. His grandfather, Charles
Yancey, was a somewhat prominent citizen of the Old Dominion, being at one period grand mas-
ter of the Freemasons of that state. The father of Charles Yancey was a captain in the army
during the struggle for independence. The Yanceys and Wallers are old Virginia families.
When Archelaus was thirteen years old the family moved to Oldham county, Kentucky. He
received an academic education at Hilton, Virginia ; spent two years in Dartmouth College,
Hanover, New Hampshire ; read law in Louisville, Kentucky ; was graduated at the law depart-
ment of Michigan University, Ann Arbor, in 1867, and has been practicing at Bunker Hill since
that date, making a splendid record in all the courts in which he has had cases. Mr. Yancey is a
fine advocate, being a clear, candid and forcible reasoner, and having great influence with a jury.
A gentleman who has often met him in the appellate court states that he had a number of cases
there, that he presents them with a great deal of force, and is regarded by that court as a strong
man. Mr. Yancey is a strictly honest and honorable man, very tenacious of his clients' interest,
and his practice is increasing, and he is growing in popularity in Macoupin county.
He was at one period city attorney of Bunker Hill ; has been attorney for some years of the
Indianapolis and Saint Louis railroad, and in 1880 was elected to the lower house of the general
assembly. He served his constituents so faithfully and well that they sent him back in 1882, and
he is now serving the second term in that body, being on the committees on judiciary, railroad,
public charities and fees and salaries.
634 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Yancey has always affiliated with the democratic party, and never fails to take a leading
part in a political canvass, being a powerful stumper. In 1882 he was the unanimous choice
of the Macoupin county delegation for congressional nominee. He is a Master Mason, and a
vestryman of the Episcopal Church.
November i, 1867, Mr. Yancey was joined in marriage with Miss Belle Bryan, of Oldham
county, Kentucky, and they have three children living and have buried three.
JOHN L. HAMILTON, M.D.
PEORIA.
JOHN L. HAMILTON is one of the oldest physicians in Peoria, still in active practice, he
having been here since 1850. He is president of the City Board of Health, and occupies a
high standing in the community both as a physician and citizen. He is a native of Venango
county, Pennsylvania, born February 12, 1826, a son of Richard Hamilton, a native of Pennsyl-
vania, and Ann (Reynolds) Hamilton, a native of Birmingham, England, whose mother was
Welsh. James Hamilton, the grandfather of John L., was born in the County of Antrim, Ireland,
and was of Scotch-Irish descent, making the blood of several nationalities running through the
veins of our subject. Richard Hamilton was a farmer, but the son did not incline to that voca-
tion. He received the mental drill of a common school in his native state; came as far west as
Ohio in 1845 ; finished his literary studies at the Springfield Academy; studied medicine with his
older brother, Doctor James W. Hamilton, at East Liberty, Logan county; attended lectures at
Starling Medical College, Columbus; there received the degree of doctor of medicine, in March,
1850, and immediately settled in Peoria.
Doctor Hamilton early worked his way into a good practice, and has steadily maintained it,
his standing being in the front rank of the Peoria fraternity. He has held the office of president
of the Peoria City Medical Society, and is a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and of
the American Medical Association. He has been in the habit of writing occasionally for medical
periodicals, and, we believe, still furnishes a contribution, now and then, for the " Peoria Medical
Monthly," which is edited by his son-in-law, Doctor T. M. Mcllvaine.
Doctor Hamilton has a second wife ; his first was Miss Anna H. Kirk, of Kentucky, to whom
he was married in 1854. She died in 1857, leaving one child, Emma, the wife of Doctor Mcllvaine.
His present wife was Miss Fanny S. Denison, of Woodstock, Vermont, married in 1861, she having
had five children, three of them still living: Robert W., Charles E., and Fanny.
HON. LORIN C. COLLINS, JR.
CHICAGO.
L)RIN CONE COLLINS, JR., speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, is a son of
Lorin C. Collins and Mary (Bemis) Collins, and was born in Windsor, Connecticut. August
i, 1848. His father and mother were born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. His great-grandfather
was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and the flint-lock musket which he carried is still in the
family. The Collinses came from Enfield, England, and were among the founders of the town of
Enfield, Connecticut. In 1852, when the subject of this sketch was four years old, the family
moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where Lorin C. Collins, Sr., engaged in farming.
In his youth Lorin spent two years in the preparatory department of the Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity, at Delaware. He entered the freshman class of the Northwestern University, at Evanston,
in 1868, and was graduated in course, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts in 1872, and master
of arts in 1874.
Mr. Collins read law in Chicago with Clarkson and Van Schaack; was admitted to the bar in
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September, 1874, and since that date he has been practicing in Chicago. He is of the firm of
Collins and Adair, his partner being John D. Adair.
Mr. Collins entered public life in 187.8, when he was elected to the lower house of the general
assembly, as one of the representatives from Cook county, his residence being at Norwood Park,
a suburb of Chicago on the Wisconsin division of the North-Western railroad. In that, the thirty-
first general assembly, he was placed on the committees on revenue, judicial department, corpora-
tions, and public buildings and grounds. Mr. Collins was reelected in 1880, and was chairman of
the committee on corporations, and served on the committees on revenue, canals and rivers, and
senatorial appointment. In this assembly he was regarded as the parliamentary leader of the
republican side.
Mr. Collins was again reelected in 1882, and was the sole nominee of the republican party,
with which he has always affiliated, for the office of speaker, and was elected without a dissenting
voice or movement on the part of any member of his party. He is a man of culture and courtesy,
self-possessed, prompt to act, and a good expediter of business.
Speaker Collins is a member of the Presbyterian Church at Norwood Park, and bears an irre-
proachable character. His broad and generous sympathy is seen in his remark that of all the
duties he has had to perform as speaker, the turning away of a large number of poor little boys
who wished appointments as pages, was the only one that would deter him from again assuming
the responsibilities of the office.
He was married, September 17, 1873, to Miss Nellie Robb, who was born in Chicago, being a
daughter of George A. Robb, the first ship chandler in business in Chicago, for many years of the
firm of Hubbard and Robb. They have two children, a sweet little girl of eight years and a
bright boy of six, who carries the paternal name, Lorin Cone Collins, to its third consecutive
generation.
ROBERT HERVEY.
CHICAGO.
ROBERT HERVEY, lawyer, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, August 10, 1820, his father,
Alexander, being a West India merchant, and like the long-lost brother in the novels of the
time, owning a plantation in Trinidad. In his youth Robert attended the preparatory grammar
schools, and entering Glasgow University, was graduated in 1837. Shortly after this event he
turned his face to the new world, and settling in Canada, began the study of the law with Henry
Sherwood, attorney general of the province. He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and com-
menced practice in Bytown, now Ottawa, the capital of the dominion. His ability and solid legal
acquirements soon won him a very extensive and paying practice in Bytown, but the city was
small and, after all. provincial, and desiring a wider field he readily yielded to the solicitations of
an uncle, long a resident of Illinois, to settle in Chicago. Removing thither in 1852, he became
a member of the firm of Morris, Hervey and Clarkson, a firm existing until the elevation of the
senior partner, Buckner S. Morris, to the bench. Mr. Hervey continued with Mr. Clarkson until
1857, when he formed with Elliott Anthony the firm of Hervey and Anthony. In 1860 Mr. Gait
was admitted to the firm, and the copartnership continued to 1877, and was then the oldest legal
firm in the city.
He has always enjoyed an extensive and profitable practice in all the courts, state and
national, civil and criminal. Mr. Hervey, indeed, has been retained in most of the cases of pub-
lic importance, civil and criminal alike, which have come before our courts in his time. He
assisted in the defense of the nineteen aldermen indicted for briberv, only one of whom was con-
victed. He also defended Arthur Devine for the murder of Francis McVey, one of his employes,
and secured Devine's acquittal, and of all the capital cases in which he has been retained, not one
of his clients has suffered the extreme penalty of the law. He was retained by the state in the
celebrated Hoops murder case, and again in the defense of the county commissioners, not one of
whom was found guilty.
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The list of his important civil cases would be too large for publication here. His firm were
the attorneys of the complaining stockholders of the Galena Railway Company, and succeeded
in preventing its consolidation with the North-Western until their clients were paid the full value
of their shares, and in almost innumerable cases of similar importance he has been counsel on
the one side or the other. It may be said that he lives in the court, his special forte being trial of
cases before a jury. He has fine literary attainments, and is an accomplished linguist. His
integrity as a lawyer and a man is unquestioned. No corporation ever purchased his conscience,
no client ever retained it. He is a prominent member, and one of the originators of the Chicago
Bar Association, and has been frequently president of the St. Andrew's Society and chief of the
Caledonian Club.
He has been twice married: in 1843 to Maria Jones, daughter of Dunham Jones, collector ol
Port Maitland, and in 1861 to Frances W. Smith.
In personal appearance Mr. Hervey is rather distingue. His form is of medium height, very erect
and well proportioned. His complexion is fresh, his whiskers are gray and worn in the English
fashion, his hair is silvery, his head well shaped, his eyes gray and keen, and the tout ensemble that
of a very pronounced Scotchman. In his demeanor he is very affable and courteous, and before
a jury, and in the examination of a witness, as well as in his treatment of opposing counsel, is
always gentlemanly and considerate.
HON. HARVEY B. HURD.
CJIICA GO.
WHEN we trace the history of our leading men, and search for the secret of their success, we
find, as a rule, that they are men who were early thrown upon their own resources, and
whose first experiences were in the face of adversity and opposition. Such was the case with
Harvey B. Hurd, an outline of whose life may be found in what follows.
He is a native of Huntington, Fairfield county, Connecticut, and was born February 14, 1828.
His father, Alanson Hurd, was of English descent. His mother's name was Elizabeth Lowe, of
Dutch and Irish descent. Until his fifteenth year young Hurd worked on his father's farm during
the summer, and attended the district school during winters. The narrow routine of such a
life, however, ha'd no attractions for him, and he determined to seek a wider sphere of action.
Accordingly, having with considerable difficulty obtained his father's consent to leave home,
May i, 1842, with his clothes tied in a cotton handkerchief, he walked to Bridgeport and entered
the office of the Bridgeport " Standard," a whig paper, as youngest apprentice, printer's devil.
In the spring of 1844 he went to New York city, where he remained until the fall, when he
returned to Bridgeport, and, in company with ten other young men, went to Peoria county,
Illinois, and entered Jubilee College. He remained here one year, when a misunderstanding
with the president of the college, Rev. Samuel Chase, resulted in his leaving. He went
immediately to Peoria, but not finding employment there, took passage in a baggage stage
for Chicago, where he arrived January 7, 1846, with fifty cents in his pocket and thinly clad.
He stopped at the Illinois Exchange, kept by a Mr. Lee, for whose generous treatment Mr. Hurd
in after years, when the circumstances of the two men had been changed, expressed his gratitude
in a substantial way. He at once obtained work in the office of the Chicago " Evening Journal,"
then published by Wilson and Geer, and afterward was engaged in the office of the " Prairie
Farmer." In the fall of 1847 he began the study of law in the office of Calvin De Wolf, and was
admitted to the bar in 1848. He began the practice of law with the late Carlos Haven, who was
afterward state's attorney. He afterward formed a partnership with Hon. Henry Snapp, late
member of congress, now practicing law in Joliet, Illinois. In 1850 he formed a partnership with
A. J. Brown, which continued till 1854. The firm dealt largely in real estate, and were proprietors
of 248 acres of land, which they laid out as a part of Evanston, in which town Mr. Hurd was one
.,,'-
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of the first to build, having commenced the house in which he now resides in the summer of 1854,
and moved into it in September, 1855. His residence occupies a block of ground, and is one of
the most beautiful and home-like in that beautiful suburb.
Mr. Hurd was married May 18, 1853, to Miss Cornelia A. Milliard, daughter of the late Captain
James Hilliard, of Middletown, Connecticut. From this marriage he has three daughters: Eda I.,
the wife of George S. Lord, and Hettie B. and Nellie. He was married to his present wife, Sarah
G., November i, 1860. She was the widow of the late George Collins, of Chicago.
He was an abolitionist, and took an active part in the stirring events that occurred in Chicago
before and following the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line. He was a member of the con-
vention held at Buffalo, New York, which formed the national Kansas committee, and became
secretary of its executive committee which had its headquarters at Chicago. The other members
of this executive committee were General J. D. Webster and the late George W. Dole; the
former acting as its president and the latter as treasurer. Mr. Hurd gave his entire time to the
duties of the committee for a year without compensation, taking the principal direction of its
affairs. His position may be said to have been that of secretary of the Kansas war. Horace
White, who was at one time an editor of the Chicago "Tribune," was assistant secretary, and Mr.
Hurd speaks in praise of his services in that capacity. No higher commendation can be given
to this committee than to say its labors were crowned with entire success in making Kansas a
free state.
To give a full account of Mr. Hurd's connection with the Kansas struggle would be to write
the history of the struggle itself. There is one instance, however, deserving especial mention.
The strife in the territory and on the western border of Missouri was so devastating that no crops
of any considerable amount were raised in 1856; as a consequence, there was not a sufficient
quantity of grain and other products to supply the demand for seed for the next spring's planting.
A large increase in the population was expected through the improved means of travel which were
secured by the committee. To hold this population in the territory it was necessary they should
be enabled to raise a crop, and for this purpose seeds must be furnished. At a meeting of the
committee in New York city, in February, 1857, a resolution was adopted instructing the execu-
tive committee at Chicago to purchase and forward the necessary seed. At the same time an
appropriation of $5,000 was made to John Brown, to be used by him in raising and equipping in
Kansas a company of armed men for the ostensible purpose of defending the free-state settlers,
but which it was feared by some might be used by Brown in making incursions into Missouri or
some other slave state.
Mr. Hurd, ascertaining on his return to Chicago that the funds in the hands of the treasurer
were barely sufficient to answer one of these requirements, selected that which he thought
most important, and the one which he believed would be the most efficient in the settlement
of the contest as it affected Kansas, viz., the purchase of the seed, which he immediately
set about doing, and when Mr. Brown a short time afterward applied for his appropriation he
found the committee's treasury empty. At first Gerritt Smith and other friends of Brown were
inclined to find fault with Mr. Hurd's course. They contended that he should at least have
divided with Mr. Brown, and for a time there was fear that dissatisfaction would be stirred up;
but Mr. Hurd soon found himself vindicated by the events which followed in due time. As had
been expected, the restoration of the travel, from the tedious overland route through Iowa and
Nebraska, to the Missouri River, by way of Saint Louis, Jefferson City and Kansas City, and the
sale of through tickets from all important points in the North, resulted in a large immigration;
claims were taken up and preparations made for permanent abode; but the seeds had been for-
warded by a small steamboat which was to ascend the Kansas River to Lawrence. In conse-
quence of low water its arrival was delayed about two weeks. The people therefore gathered at
Lawrence from all parts of the territory, awaiting the arrival of the seeds. At one time it was
feared that their expectations would not be realized, and their return to the states was contem-
plated as the only alternative. When at last the boat arrived, and the agent of the committee
63
640 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
announced that he was ready to make free distribution of seeds to all free-state settlers who
desired them for the purpose of planting, such a shout of rejoicing was sent up that the action of
Mr. Hurd received the universal commendation of the people of the North, and no further ques-
tion was made by Mr. Brown or his friends as to the wisdom or propriety of his course. The
free-state settlers were thus enabled to satisfy their enemies that they had come to stay; they
were too many for the Missourians, as the proslavery party was called, and the latter gave up the
strife.
In 1862 he formed a partnership for the practice of law with Henry Booth, late one of the
judges of the Cook county circuit court, and at the same time accepted a position as lecturer in
the law department of the University of Chicago. This partnership continued, with several
changes by the admission of junior partners, till 1868, when he withdrew from the firm with the
intention of retiring from the practice of his profession.
In April, 1869, Mr. Hurd, on the nomination of Governor Palmer, and confirmation of the
senate of the twenty-sixth general assembly of Illinois, was appointed one of three commissioners
to revise and rewrite the general statutes of the state. One of the commissioners, Mr. Nelson,
having been elected to the house of representatives, the work of the revision fell upon Mr. Hurd
and the other commissioner, Mr. Schaeffer, who acted together till the twenty-seventh general
assembly adjourned, when the latter also withdrew, leaving the whole work in the hands of Mr.
Hurd, who completed the same with the adjournment of the twenty-eighth general assembly in
April, 1874, when the last of the chapters of the revised statutes of 1874 was adopted, and Mr.
Hurd appointed by that body to compile, edit and supervise the publication of the same, which
he accomplished to the entire satisfaction of the people of the state. Few people appreciate
for how many reforms in the law they are indebted to Mr. Hurd, or how great a work it was to
revise and rewrite the whole body of the laws of the great state of Illinois, and adapt them to the
new condition of things resulting from the adoption of the new constitution of 1870. Ordinarily
a revision means the rearrangement and adjusting of existing laws, but the revision of the laws
of Illinois under the circumstances meant radical changes in many of them; the rejection of old
provisions and the construction of new ones; and in many cases the construction of entire new
chapters, construing for the first time the provisions of the new constitution. Mr. Hurd's work
as reviser has proved a success. The state edition of 1874 of fifteen thousand volumes was soon
exhausted, and he has been called upon to edit three editions since, all of which have received the
unqualified commendation of the bar and public. In the summer of 1875 Mr. Hurd was again
elected to a chair in the law school, which had then become the Union College of Law of the
University of Chicago, and the Northwestern University, and now fills the position of professor
of pleadings, practice and statutory law in that flourishing institution.
He was nominated by the republican party as its candidate for the office of judge of the
supreme court of Illinois, at the special election held December 21, 1875, but was defeated by
his democratic rival, T. L. Dickey, who ran as an independent candidate, and not only received
the support of his party but of the city government of Chicago, whose counsel he then was, and
the powerful railroad influence, the railroad companies attributing to Mr. Hurd a large share in
the enactment of the stringent railroad laws contained in his revision. A highly defamatory
pamphlet was published against Mr. Hurd a few days before the election too late to be success-
fully met, and no doubt it had some influence in effecting his defeat. The falsity of this publica-
tion was afterward fully established in the trial of its author for slander and unchristian conduct
before the church of which both he and Mr. Hurd were members, and in which the author of the
libel was found guilty and censured by the court that tried him. In this trial Mr. Hurd gained
many friends for his fairness and Christian bearing, as also for his magnanimity toward the one
who had thus wronged him.
As a lawyer Mr. Hurd has long maintained a high position at the bar, his forte being in the
argument of legal questions to the court, rather than as an advocate before a jury, though he is
by no means unsuccessful in the latter character. His style in speaking is deliberate argumenta-
UNITED STATES RtOGRAPHICAI. DICTIONARY. 64 1
tive, rather than impassioned and declamatory. In the preparation of his cases he is careful and
exhaustive, and is eminently a safe adviser. As a teacher in the law school he is accurate,
methodical and thorough.
One of the cases in which Mr. Hurd was early engaged, and which attracted a great deal of
attention in Cook county, was that of Farrell vs. Cadwell (1861), a case of malpractice on a ser-
vant girl's eye, Mr. Hurd being counsel for the plaintiff, and obtained a verdict of $10,000
Another case was that of Hartranft vs. Yundt, tried in Kane county in 1865, a crim. con. case,
in which Mr. Hurd was counsel for the plaintiff, gaining the suit with no less than seven or eight
lawyers for the defense, including one of the ablest criminal lawyers in the Northwest.
Mr. Hurd is an indefatigable worker. No one has more implicit faith than he in the ancient
maxim, "Labor vincit omnia." He possesses great tenacity of purpose, endurance and force of will.
He is self-reliant, persistent in whatever he attempts and not easily diverted from the pursuit of
his object. Being still in the prime of life, with the laudable ambition as well as the ability to
still further distinguish himself, he may well be regarded as one of the rising men of the state.
HON. JAMES W. LANGLEY.
CHAMPAIGN.
JAMES W. LANGLEY was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1837. He is the
son of James and Jane (Weston) Langley, who were pious and industrious people, and early
pioneers of western Pennsylvania, where they pursued an agricultural life and raised a family of
twelve children.
Judge Langley is eminently a self-made man, and one for whom the country has great esteem.
His early life was that of a farmer boy, during which time he, by industry, obtained a fair edu-
cation from the common schools. When about fifteen years of age he went to an academy at
Waterford, Pennsylvania, where he remained for nearly two years.
In the fall of 1854 he removed to the West, his first occupation being that of a pedagogue,
and settled near Girard, Macoupin county, Illinois. Here he taught school for three years, at the
same time continuing his studies, and in August, 1857, he began reading law under the instruc-
tion of Hon. John M. Palmer, ex-governor T>f Illinois, and January 8, 1859, was admitted to the
bar by the supreme court. In the spring of the same year he located in Champaign, and at once
commenced the practice of his profession.
His practice was constantly on the increase, being that of general law, and he was engaged in
many important cases of various kinds, and was in a very prosperous condition when, in August,
1862, feeling his services were needed in the defense of his country, he enlisted in the Union army
for three years. He entered as captain of a company, and at the organization of the regiment
was elected lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served for three years, being twice breveted,
once as colonel United States volunteers and as brigadier-general. He took an active part in
many important battles, among which were Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard
Roost, Resaca, Rome, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesborough, Savannah, Averys-
burgh and Burtonville. He was in the campaign of Atlanta and around the city, Sherman's
march to the sea, and was present at the surrender of Johnson's army to General Sherman, and
marched his brigade to Washington and participated in the grand review of all the armies, and
was mustered out June 9 at Washington, receiving his final discharge in Chicago July i, 1865,
having never been voluntarily absent from his command a day during his term of service, although
being under almost constant fire and at the head of many severe struggles, one horse being shot
from under him. Four slight wounds only attest the many perils of his long and arduous ser-
vice. One very severe conflict in which he suffered severe loss was the battle of Kenesaw Moun-
tain. Here his forces suffered great loss, one company going into the battle with some sixty men
and coming out with but fifteen, Immediately after the war he resumed his former practice
642 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
increasing his clientage and doing a very fine business, in which he continued to prosper until
1870, when he was elected on the republican ticket to the state senate. Here he was brought
prominently before the citizens of the state, after which he again returned to his practice, and
became widely known throughout eastern Illinois, and in 1877 was nominated by the republican
party and overwhelmingly elected judge of Champaign county, an office in which he gave such
universal satisfaction that he was reelected in 1882.
In politics the judge is a stanch republican, and has at times taken quite an active part in
political affairs, but has never aspired to high office. In local elections he is independent in his
views. He was a delegate to the national convention, held in Chicago in 1868, which first nomi-
nated General Grant for the presidency.
June 4, 1861, he was married to Miss J. J. Young, of Champaign, a lady of fine accomplish-
ments and most excellent family. His religious connection is with the Methodist church, in which
he is a consistent and active member. Personally, Judge Langley has rare qualities, and by his
upright course of life, his manly deportment and independence of character, has made for him-
self an honorable reputation. Few men have more devoted friends than he; none excel him in
unselfish devotion and unswerving fidelity to the worthy recipients of his confidence and friendship.
W
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS VOLK.
NEW YORK.
HEN Leonard W. Volk first went to Italy, in the autumn of 1855, he confided his wife,
Emily C. (Barlow) Volk, and only child, Arthur Douglas, who died soon after, to friends
at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where the subject of this sketch was born February 23, 1856. About
a year and a half later he was brought by his parents to Chicago, where he spent his boyhood.
When his father returned to Rome the third time,, in the winter of 1870, he accompanied the
family thither. The beautiful creations of art with which he found himself surrounded in Rome
soon developed in him the latent thirst for its glories, and after about six months' enjoyment
of the splendors of Italy he began in earnest the work of his life. When his father returned
again to his native land he, by his own choice, remained to prosecute his studies. This he did
with success. To Paris the young artist subsequently bent his steps, where he at once entered
the government school of the beaux arts, and for two years enjoyed the instructions of the
celebrated Professor Jerome. At the end of this period he was eighteen years old, and executed
a small landscape called " In Brittany." This was one of about nine hundred works that was
thought worthy to be hung in the salon at the exhibition out of about six thousand offered. It
was his first piece offered to the public, and excited commendation. In 1875 he was permitted
by his father to return home on a visit in Chicago, where he painted two pictures for the centen-
nial, which received much favorable comment.
Returning to Paris in 1876, he spent two years more under Professor Jerome. A small portrait
painted about that time and placed in the salon for exhibition attracted such general notice as to
place his name, already favorably known, prominently before the artistic world. In the latter
part of 1878 he returned once more to his native land, and while on a visit at Quincy, Illinois, he
received a call from the management of Cooper Institute, New York, to the professorship of
figure drawing.
He accepted the position at once.which he has filled with ability to the present time.
Among the excellent works he has executed is the "Puritan Girl," purchased by T. B. Clark
for his private collection, and which had the honor to represent his very fine collection in the
"Art Treasures of America," published by Barry and Company, of Philadelphia. The nature
of this tribute to his genius can best be appreciated by artists and those familiar with art, but the
general reader can understand something of the matter when informed that the expense of pre-
paring each picture for that collection is $500.
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Another very fine picture lately executed by him is called the ''Puritan Captives." It repre-
sents a sturdy Puritan and his wife in the foreground bound by hostile Indians and awaiting
sentence. Their watchful foe stands guard near by, leaning against a tree, while the camp of
hostiles is seen in the distance. This is a work of remarkable merit, and brought the author
$1,000 the day it was finished and hung on exhibition in the Society of American Artists.
Mr. Volk is a gentleman of undoubted genius, and has already achieved a national reputation.
Astute friends predict a brilliant future, and it must be allowed that their anticipations seem to
be justified by the result of his labors in the past.
In 1881 Mr. Volk was happily united in marriage to Miss Marion Larrabee, daughter of the
late William M. Larrabee, treasurer of the Alton railway, in this city.
Although Mr. Volk is at present a resident of New York city, yet he is to all intents and
purposes a Chicago man, and such will ever remain.
JULIUS S. GRINNELL.
CHICAGO.
r I ^HE designs and purposes of the boy are the beginning; the results and difficulties met with
-L in the execution of these purposes are the middle; the resolution and unraveling of them,
the end of a man's career. What a man accomplishes, and what he develops into, are the out-
come of his inherent nature, modified by the direction given by himself, and not the result of
chance. In this mention of Julius S. Grinnell, it is correct to say that he has so controlled and
directed his own course that he has attained to a creditable success; first, because he had the neces-
sary native elements in him, and second, because he has made good use of his capabilities and
opportunities, as the details will evidence.
He was born in Massena, Saint Lawrence county, New York, in the year 1842, and is of French-
Welsh extraction, as to remote ancestry, but thoroughly New England as to immediate ancestry.
His father was Doctor J. H. Grinnell, of New Haven, Vermont, his mother, formerly Alvira Will-
iamson, also a native of Vermont. The Grinnell family is among the oldest and best families in
the East. It may be traced back to its ancestral town of Grinnelle, now a considerable manufac-
turing town, just within the new fortifications eastward from Paris, France; the town being named
after the family. The monumental fountain there is also named from them. They emigrated to
Wales, thence to this country, one branch settling in New York, where the name is a distinguished
one, Moses Grinnell and others being descendants; another branch in Connecticut; a third in
Vermont, and from this latter the subject of this sketch is descended, all families of note. His
early education was obtained in the common schools in his native town. He fitted for college in
Potsdam Academy, Saint Lawrence county, New York, and entered Middlebury (Vermont) Col-
lege in 1862, and graduated in the fall of 1866, ranking high in his classes, and during his young-
manhood foreshadowed future success in whatever profession he might engage, and his career up
to the present time has been a fulfillment of this early promise. He chose the profession of law,
and to that end engaged in studying (after he graduated) in the office of Hon. William C. Brown,
in Ogdensburgh, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of New York in 1868, and
commenced practice in that city, which he continued two years; taught the Ogdensburgh Academy
one year, giving excellent satisfaction in that capacity. In December, 1870, he came to Chicago,
and engaged in the practice of his profession, depending upon his own energy and abilities to
obtain success. He was an almost entire stranger here, there being but two persons, so far as he
knew, with whom he had had any previous acquaintance. He had faith in himself, and in the
future of Chicago, and trusted to his own efforts to attain success at this bar, contending with
able and older practitioners. One of the decided characteristics of his nature is self reliance,
backed by decision of character, and the public accord him the credit of possessing integrity and
sincerity. He has won a success few men of his age win,
646 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
When the great fire came, and swept the main business portion of Chicago out of existence,
he had scarcely gained a foothold in his practice, but in the reorganization and reestablishment
of business, he was one of the number who had the force, courage and confidence in the rebuild-
ing of the city, to assert himself and resume practice with renewed energy. He has come to the
front, and must be accorded a position at the bar among the foremost of young Chicago attorneys.
In the municipal election of 1879 he was nominated by the democratic rjarty for the important
office of city attorney, over competitors older in years and time of residence in the city, which
facts indicate his popularity with the people. At this time the democratic party was not in power,
and the city largely republican, but he was elected by a handsome majority, and served with such
universal acceptance that he was renominated in 1881, and reflected by a still larger majority,
indeed, led the ticket in point of number of votes, with the single exception of Mayor Harrison,
and but a few votes short of his total. In this capacity he is acknowledged by all to be an effi-
cient and vigilant law officer of this great city, with its multiplicity of interests, which the city
attorney is expected to protect. He has discharged his duties well. He succeeds some of the
oldest and ablest members of the Chicago bar, and has maintained the dignity and prestige of
the office, and proven the equal of any of his predecessors, which is a deserved compliment, and
carries with it its own significance.
He married Miss Augusta Hitchcock, daughter of Doctor William Hitchcock, of Shoreham,
Addison county, Vermont, October 5, 1869. They have two "children, a boy and a girl, and a
pleasant home. Mr. Grinnell is a gentleman of unexceptionable habits. In those walks of life
in which intelligence, honor and manliness are regarded for what they are worth, he has, by the
practice of these virtues, achieved an honorable and influential position in the community, and is
respected by all who know him, either personally or by repute. He is in the prime of life, and
has a future full of promise before him.
GEORGE SAWIN.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this biography is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and was born April 14,
1834. He is the fourth son of John and Charlotte (Lash) Sawin, the former of whom was
of Scotch and the latter of Welsh ancestry. During his boyhood George attended school at
Chelsea, Massachusetts, where his parents resided for many years, but subsequently graduated
from an institution of learning on Mayhew street in the city of Boston, under the instruction of
William D. Swan. He was fond of study and reading, and early decided to enter the legal pro-
fession. Accordingly, after closing his studies in school, being then about eighteen years of age,
he entered the law office of Samuel E. Guild and Hon. George S. Hilliard, both prominent at the
Boston bar. He remained there for about two years, at the expiration of which time, and before
being admitted to the bar, he was compelled, by reason of failing health, to abandon his studies
for a time. He thereupon made an extensive trip through the southern and western states, and
finally, in 1854, settled in Chicago, where he has since made his home.
In 1855 Mr. Sawin accepted a position in the mercantile house of W. W. and L. H. Mills, as
credit man for the states of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. In 1856 he associated himself with
Adam Carlyle in a real-estate enterprise, and laid out the town of De Soto on the Mississippi
River, in Bad-axe county, Wisconsin, where he invested all his possessions in a saw-mill, warehouse,
ice house and other buildings and improvements. The prospect seemed most favorable at the
opening, but the financial panic that swept over the country in 1857 proved disastrous to the en-
terprise, and involved Mr. Sawin in the loss of all that he possessed. Returning to Chicago, he
took a position in the dry-goods house of Stacy and Thomas, which he held until 1859, when the
firm went into liquidation, and he took a position in the postoffice at Chicago, under Hon. Isaac
Cook, postmaster. Being on the night service, he had some time during each day for study.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 647
This he carefully employed in the law office of Hon. James P. Root, and by hard work completed
his course of study, fitted himself for examination, and was admitted to practice in both the state
and federal courts. The opening of the war of the rebellion, however, deterred him from at once
engaging in his profession.
He enlisted in the 58th regiment Illinois infantry, November i, 1861, and in the following
February left Chicago for Fort Henry as quartermaster of that regiment, and with the exception
of a short time spent in Springfield, upon the reorganization of his regiment after being liberated
from Libby prison, he was constantly in the field. He participated in many of the most important
and bloody battles of the war, of which may be mentioned Shiloh, Corinth, Pleasant Hill and
Nashville, serving a greater portion of the tftne on the staffs of Generals Smith, Morrow, Dodge
and Sweeny.
After the close of the war Mr. Sawin returned to Chicago and established himself in the prac-
tice of his profession, and has since continued it uninterruptedly, and achieved most satisfactory
success. As a lawyer he is enterprising, able and upright, a careful and conscientious counselor
and adviser, a good advocate and an honor to the profession. As a business man, he enjoys the
confidence of all with whom he has to deal, and for upright, manly dealing bears a character
above reproach.. He possesses a vigorous and robust body, and with his fine mental attainments
and unspotted record may confidently and hopefully look forward to future achievements.
Mr. Sawin was married in 1855 to a most estimable lady, Miss Carrie L. Rust, daughter of
Elijah C. Rust, of Jamesville, Onondaga county, New York.
SAMUEL MARK WYLIE, M.D.
PAXTON.
T)ROBABLY no young man in the central part of this state is more thoroughly wedded to his
A profession than Doctor Samuel M. Wylie, who has an inborn love for the profession, and has
given to it his earnest attention and study from early youth, notwithstanding the discouragement
he had by the influence and persuasion of his parents, who thought him not strong enough to
endure the many hardships which are well known to a western physician. He is a native of Illi-
nois, and was born at Oakland, Coles county^uly 15, 1855. His parents were the late Doctor D.
Wylie, of Paxton, and Agnes (Crawford) Wylie. His father was an old practitioner of Illinois, of
wide reputation, whose labors were appreciated by all who knew him. He was surgeon in the
late war, and one of the most generous and kind-hearted physicians whose biography we have
recorded, attending the poor with as much attention as the rich. He labored in his profession
for more than twenty years, the last ten being in Paxton, where he built up a large and desir-
able practice, and where he died in 1875.
The subject of our sketch attended the public school of his native place until he was about
thirteen years of age. He then entered the high school of Indianapolis, where he remained for
two years, after which he studied two years at Monmouth College, Warren county, being com-
pelled to abandon his studies for a time, on account of ill health. In 1875 he became stronger,
and being determined in his purpose, went to Chicago, and entered the Chicago Medical College,
where he studied during three regular terms under Doctor N. S. Davis, as' preceptor. He was
graduated with honor in 1878, and chosen by his class to make the valedictory address. The doc-
tor has given special attention to the study of surgery, for which he has a natural talent and
desire. When at college, a marked characteristic was to be present, and assist when possible, in all
surgical operations. After obtaining his diploma, he came to Paxton, taking the place of his
father, whose practice had been given up some two years, his death occurring during our subject's
first year at college. Here the young doctor has met with wonderful success, not only retrieving
the practice which his father had dropped, but adding to it the patronage of many wealthy citi-
zens of Paxton and the surrounding country. He has a large and well selected library, and a
648 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
good assortment of valuable instruments. Doctor Wylie has taken a prominent position in the
medical societies throughout the state, and was appointed to make an address on nervous dis-
eases before the state medical society in 1882. He is physician for the Lake Erie and Western
road from La Fayette to Bloomington.
Immediately after leaving college he organized a tri-county medical association, including
Ford, Iroquois and Vermillion counties, and here he is widely known, and has a large consulting
practice.
Doctor Wylie married Miss Emily Bushnell, of Paxton, in 1878. His political sentiments are
republican. He is liberal in his religious views, and is a supporter of all good causes, and stands
high in the community as a useful and respected citizen, and fully merits the confidence and
respect of his fellow citizens.
HON. MICHAEL A. SULLIVAN.
EAST SAINT LOUIS.
MICHAEL ANGELO SULLIVAN, member of the state legislature from the forty-seventh
district, is a son of Florance and Catherine (De Lecy) Sullivan, and was born in Saint
Louis, Missouri, October 19, 1858. He finished his education at the East Saint Louis high school;
began to teach at seventeen years of age, and that was his occupation until elected to the legisla-
ture, in November, 1882, six years of his teaching being in Saint Clair county. His district is
composed of Saint Clair county. He was nominated by the democrats, indorsed by the working
men's party, and ran far ahead of his ticket, he being quite popular where best known.
In the thirty-third general assembly Mr. Sullivan served on the committees on education, labor
and manufactures, and fish and game. Legislative business was a new school to him, and he ap-
plied himself with diligence to his duties.
Mr. Sullivan is studying law at East Saint Louis, and will soon be admitted to the bar, where
he will be likely to stand high as an orator, one of the special branches which he teaches being
elocution, to which he has given a great deal of attention. He is an occasional correspondent of
the Saint Louis daily papers. Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Ancient Order of United Work-
men, and of one or two other secret societies.
He was married May 5, 1881, to Miss Sadie J. Trotier, daughter of Emanuel and Sarah Penn
Trotier, formerly of Kaskaskia, and one of the oldest families in the state.
HON. LEWIS H. BISBEE.
CHICAGO.
EWIS H. BISBEE was born in the town of Derby, Orleans county, Vermont, March 28, 1839.
His father, David Bisbee, was a farmer. His education was acquired in the public schools
of his native town, up to the time his ambition for a higher education led him to seek the means
to obtain it. He worked on a farm summers, attending school winters, until about sixteen years
of age, when he fell back upon his own resources to make a further advance in the direction of
accomplishing the designs he had formed for his future. He had the courage, the ambition, the
energy and the tenacity of purpose to overcome material obstacles. Prepared for college in the
academies at Glover, Derby and Morrisville, in northern Vermont, and entered Saint Hyacinth
College, near Montreal, Canada, when but nineteen years of age, graduating when twenty-one.
The course there being conducted in the French language, he mastered it, and is now a proficient
French scholar. He subsequently read law with J. L. Edwards, a prominent practitioner at
Derby, paying his way mainly by teaching French, and was admitted to practice June, 1862.
This course and outcome is a forcible illustration of the power and conquering force of mind and
well directed will-power in overcoming obstacles which appear to those of less vigorous intellect
and decided purpose insurmountable.
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UffTTED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 65!
The same month he was admitted to the bar, he enlisted as a private in company E, 9th Ver-
mont infantry, and was afterward promoted to the captaincy of company H, of the same regiment,
and served with decided credit through all the hardships and severe service which that excellent
regiment passed, and was always found at the front, in the thickest of whatever battle or service
it was 1 engaged in, which were many, and often severe. He was captured at Harper's Ferry,
released on parole, and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago, where he remained until exchanged,
when he rejoined his regiment, and remained with it until 1864, when he resigned on account of
sickness, and returned to Newport, Vermont, and engaged in the practice of law, soon building
up an extensive and lucrative business.
About this time he married Miss Jane E. Hinman. the accomplished daughter of Aaron Hin-
man. of Derby, one of the first families in Vermont, and of that good old New England stock,
the virtues and morals of which have spread through the West, permeating and elevating the
tone and character of the people wherever they find lodgment. Mrs. Bisbee is an estimable,
amiable and interesting woman, who presides with dignity over a home of attractive and pleas-
ant surroundings. The elegant and costly residence which Mr. Bisbee has recently built in the
beautiful suburban town of Hyde Park would grace and ornament the choicest residence streets
of Chicago, or any other city. The hospitality and good cheer met with there are in keeping
with the elegant home, whose hosts are esteemed by their friends and in social circles. They
have an interesting and pleasant family, which makes the otherwise attractive home the more
attractive.
In 1865, Mr. Bisbee was elected state's attorney of Orleans county, where he lived, and was
reflected in 1867, but soon resigned to accept the position of deputy collector of customs, which
office he filled until 1869, when he was elected to the legislature. He was reelected in 1870. He
was an active and prominent member of that body, being a member of the most important com-
mittees, and was the leader of his party in debates, contested legislation, and was acknowledged
to be the best, most vigorous and effective speaker on the floor in extempore debate. He made
his mark there, and also his impress upon the acts of that body of men. From 1865 to 1870 he
was United States commissioner from Newport, under the extradition treaty.
In May, 1871, he moved to Chicago, and had hardly become rooted in business when occurred
the great fire. In the reorganization, rebuilding and reestablishing of order out of the confusion
and chaotic condition in which the fire left everything, he came to the front by virtue of his supe-
rior intelligence, tact, energy and judgment. Old established lines of prejudices and ruts of
business were partially obliterated by the fire, and Lewis H. Bisbee saw his opportunity to enter
an open field for a free and equal contest for a high position, in which the bravest and best were
sure to win. He had unwavering faith in the future of Chicago, seized the opportunity, and has
won.
He has been associated with different persons in his practice, but much of the time alone. He
has been and is one of the most successful jury and chancery lawyers in the Northwest. He
enjoys a large and lucrative practice of the higher order. His conduct of the case known as the
B. F. Allen blanket-mortgage case, for Hoyt Sherman, especially, was conducted with great abil-
ity and tact, and he was highly complimented by courts and bar; also, the noted Sturges case
and many others could be enumerated, for the management of which he has won signal credit.
Few attorneys have attained to such high position at the bar in so short a time.
In 1878 he was elected to the legislature of Illinois, receiving nearly the unanimous vote of
his district, one of the most populous and wealthy in this state. In this body, which counts
among its members some of the ablest men in the state, he at once took a leading position as a
ready and able debater, and an influential and judicious legislator, originating and championing
some of the most important measures. He nominated John A. Logan for United States senator,
in a speech the eloquence and force of which did much to secure his election, which followed.
He is a natural orator, a clean-cut, incisive and logical thinker and reasoner, a man of fine figure
and physique and of commanding presence, which, with his attractive delivery, makes him an
64
652 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
effective and interesting, a graceful and forcible speaker before a jury or a promiscuous audience
He is an ardent republican, and his voice and eloquence are heard in the important campaigns when
the principles of the party are at stake. He is an affable, genial and generously endowed gentle-
man under all circumstances. Clothed with becoming dignity, he is still without vanity; cour-
teous and obliging, but permitting no undue familiarity; painstaking and earnest in the interests
of his clients, with fidelity to integrity and honor; gifted by nature with the sturdy qualities of
mind, heart and body so characteristic of the best New England stock, he has developed and
improved them. He is a successful man as a lawyer, and a good citizen, a man of exemplary
habits. He is a self-made man in the fullest sense, and being in the prime of life, there is a future
of promise before him. He has already illustrated the annals of this state at the bar, in the legis-
lature, and in shaping public opinion and sentiment. A man of force and character, he is liable
to make a still further impress on the history of his time.
HON. ROBERT P. HANNA.
FAIRFIELD.
OF the different professions, none afford greater opportunity for the development of native
ability than the law, for here one is led into investigation of subjects, more vital to the in-
terests of one's fellows, and may, if he will, become versed in the grandest questions of his country
and state. The subject of this sketch has taken advantage of these various facilities and oppor-
tunities of development, and risen to the foremost rank of the attorneys of Southern Illinois.
Robert P. Hanna was born in Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio, December 10, 1834. His father
was John Hanna, a native of Ireland, and the maiden name of his mother was Sarah Conn, who
was born in Philadelphia, and her parents were of the old Quaker stock, dating back to the Revo-
lutionary period.
The father of our subject descended from an old and well known Presbyterian family, and
some of his ancestors were prominently connected with the Presbyterian church ; he, however,
was a Catholic. He emigrated to America, settling in Ohio about the year 1818. Here he carried
on a merchandise business, and was engaged in general trading.
The early education of Mr. Hanna was obtained in the common schools. When about thir-
teen years of age he entered a printing office, and there displayed considerable ability, and soon
won a reputation as being the best workman in the office. He remained in this business until
about sixteen years of age, when he went to Athens University, and there completed his education.
In 1855, Mr. Hanna came to Fairfield, and, entering the office of Judge E. Beecher, began
the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He immediately began the practice of law
in Fairfield, which has since been his home. Mr. Hanna has been an eminently active and ener-
getic man, and taken a great interest in the development and improvement of the state and local
affairs.
In 1862 he was elected as a member of the state constitutional convention, where he took an
active part, notwithstanding he was the youngest member of that body. He then returned to his
practice, and soon acquired considerable reputation in his profession as an orator and advocate.
In 1866 he was elected by the democratic party to the legislature, where he also acquired con-
siderable fame, and while there he was the means of procuring the charter for the branch of the
Ohio and Mississippi railroad, known then as the Springfield, Illinois and Southeastern railroad,
which became embarrassed in the crisis of 1871, and is now under the control of the Ohio and
Mississippi railroad ; he was director and attorney for the road until that time, and is now the
local attorney for the Ohio and Mississippi railroad.
In 1869 Mr. Hanna formed a partnership with Robert D. Adams, a promising young attor-
ney, who has since then taken full charge of the office and abstract business, as in connection
with their law business they are doing a large abstract and chancery business.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 653
In 1870 Mr. Hanna was again elected a member of the Illinois state constitutional conven-
tion, which formed the constitution of Illinois, and introduced the measure providing for the
minority representation, which was afterward modified.
In 1876 Mr. Hanna was elected to the state senate on the democratic ticket from a republican
district, and there took a very active and prominent part, and was on almost all the important com-
mittees. He has always been a democrat, and very enthusiastic in all the different campaigns,
making many public speeches in his different canvasses, and being a strong supporter of the
principles of the party. He has been a delegate, and attended every democratic state conven-
tion since his minority, besides various other presidential conventions. His first important canvass
of the state was in 1858, when the democrats indorsed Stephen A. Douglas for the United States
senate as against Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Hanna is the oldest active practitioner in Wayne county, his practice extending over the
greater portion of southern Illinois, andomprising all branches of the law.
Mr. Hanna has one of the finest law offices in Illinois, outside of the large cities, and a very
large and well selected library. He has also taken an interest in the promotion and improvement
of Fairfield, and has been a liberal supporter of all public enterprise.
In February,- 1859, Mr. Hanna married Miss Clara Smith, of Albion, Illinois, the daughter of a
well known merchant and trader, Moses Smith, who emigrated from England, and settled at
Albion among the very early pioneer settlers. They have had four children, two girls and two
boys. His eldest son, Francis B., is a member of the bar, practicing in Fairfield.
HON. JOHN P. CARUTHERS.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch is preeminently a self-made man ; a native of Lincoln county.
Tennessee ; he was born July 9, 1818, the son of James Caruthers and Tyru (Finley) Caru-
thers, both of whom were natives of Tennessee. The father was, by occupation, a planter, and
also owned a half interest in a country store, situated near his plantation.
John passed his boyhood at his father's home, receiving such education as could be afforded by
the district and private schools at that time, until he^vas fifteen years old, when he was sent to an
academy at Fayetteville. He afterward spent about one year at the Nashville University, and
during these years developed a fondness for study and literary pursuits that has marked all of his
subsequent life, having early turned his mind toward that profession in which he has achieved a
most enviable success. In 1836, being then eighteen years of age, he enlisted as a volunteer in
the Florida war, and served six months under General Armstrong, and after the close of his ser-
vice returned to his father's home, and devoted his time to study and useful reading. Three years
later, in 1839, he began the study of law with his uncle, Robert L. Caruthers, then an eminent
lawyer of Lebanon, Tennessee, and afterward one of the judges of the supreme court of that
state. After completing his course of study, and receiving from the supreme court his license to
practice, he established himself for a short time at Fayetteville, but in 1840 removed to Memphis.
Here his success was most marked ; having been a thorough and conscientious student, not only
of books, but also of men and their doings, and possessing that tact so essential to the successful
practice of his profession, together with personal and social qualities of the highest order, he soon
won his way in the face of poverty and the many obstacles that beset the young lawyer. In 1841,
one year after establishing himself at Memphis, he was a candidate before the legislature of his
state for the office of attorney general of his district, comprising the counties of Shelby, Fayette,
Henderson, Tipton, and McNarry, a position which he honored for a period of six years. At the
close of his term of office, he was associated in business with General Cole and Judge W. F.
Brown, both distinguished members of the Tennessee bar, under the firm name of Cole, Brown
and Caruthers. In 1854 he was elected judge of the common law and chancery court for a period
654 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
of six years, but resigned the office a short time before the expiration of his term in 1860. Owing
to the unsettled and confused state of affairs in the South, growing out of the rebellion, he was
for the next few years practically out of business, but at the close of the war formed a law part-
nership with Edwin Jerges, a prominent lawyer, who died at Memphis in 1869. During the next
eight years Judge Caruthers followed the active practice of his profession at Memphis ; but at the
expiration of that time, in 1877, removed. to his present home in Chicago, where he has become
widely known as a lawyer and jurist of eminent ability, and a man of strictest integrity.
As bearing upon Judge Caruthers' character, the following letter addressed to the author of
this sketch by Hon. John L. T. Snead, one of the judges of the supreme court of Tennessee, will
be of interest to the many friends of our subject :
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, March 21, 1882.
DEAR SIR: Your note of the I7th inst. is at hand. I have known Judge Caruthers for many years, and it gives
me pleasure to say, that as a lawyer, for most of his early life in this city and circuit, he enjoyed a variable and lucra-
tive practice. He was made attorney general of the circuit in 1854, and discharged the duties of the office with dis-
tinguished ability for six years. He was afterward elected judge of the common law and chancery court of Memphis
and Shelby counties, and acquitted himself with satisfaction to the bar and the public. He was eminently a painstaking,
safe and incorruptible judge. ****** Very respectfully yours,
JOHN L. T. SNEAD.
Judge Caruthers' personal qualities are of a very high order. He is a man of fine bearing, and
possessing eminently refined and social tastes, wherever he may be, attracts to himself warm and
life-long friendships.
He was married at Memphis, July 21, 1861, to a most estimable lady, Miss Flora McNeil,
daughter of Hon. Thomas McNeil, and granddaughter and heir of the late Malcomb McNeil,
of Kentucky, possessor, in his lifetime, of the valuable McNeil estate, comprising many costly
blocks and buildings, and much valuable real estate in the city of Chicago.
GEO. H. KETTELLE.
CHICAGO.
GEORGE H. KETTELLE, lawyer, is of French descent on the paternal side, his great-grand-
father coming from Alsace, now a part of the German empire, and settling in Massachu-
setts before the outbreak of the colonies. The grandfather of George was born in Charleston,
in that state, and his father, Charles Kettelle, in Boston. The latter married Lucinda Dickinson,
a native of Hadley, Massachusetts, and a member of a very old family in that commonwealth.
Her mother belonged to the Stockbridges of Massachusetts, and our subject strikingly resembles
that family.
A little less than fifty years ago Charles Kettelle emigrated to the West and settled in Peoria,
Illinois, where George was born December 18, 1838. His father was county clerk and recorder of
Peoria county, Illinois, for thirty years, and lived on a farm in Woodford county until his death,
March 14, 1882; his mother is still alive. Mr. Kettelle was educated at the Hopkins Academy,
Hadley, Massachusetts, where he fitted for college, designing to enter Amherst, but his plans were
frustrated, and he spent several years in his father's (county) office. At the same time he read law
with Judge M. Williamson for preceptor, and was admitted to the bar in 1864, but he did not open
an office until 1868, being induced to temporarily engage in mercantile pursuits.
Mr. Kettelle commenced the practice of the legal profession at Metamora, the county seat of
Woodford county, and six years afterward, in 1874, removed to Peoria, where he remained two
years, holding the office of city attorney one term. In 1876 he settled in Chicago, where with his
fine legal attainments he finds ample opportunity to display his talents. His practice is both civil
and criminal, the latter largely predominating. Since practicing at the Chicago bar, Mr. Kettelle
has been connected with many prominent criminal cases, including some forty in number for
murder, and in this branch of his practice especially, has met with marked success. An eminent
jurist of Chicago thus writes in regard to him:
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 655
" He is, in my opinion, a lawyer well grounded in the fundamental principles of law, ready
and accurate in their application, and always frank and honest in his presentation of law questions
to the court. He tries his case well, is courteous and gentlemanly in his manners to his op-
ponent, and clear and pointed in his argument to the jury."
Mr. Kettelle is a democrat of the independent stamp, and a Blue Lodge, Chapter and Com-
mandery Mason. He married in February, 1858, Miss Malina A. Keach, of Peoria, Illinois.
ISAAC L. FIREBAUGH, M.D.
ROBINSON.
AMONG the younger class of physicians whose records appear in this volume, and who has
1\. arisen to a position of prominence and honor, one may justly place the name of Isaac L.
Firebaugh. He was born July 14, 1847, in Crawford county, Ohio. His father, a farmer by occu-
pation, was David Firebaugh, a native of Ohio. His mother's name was Mary Ludwig; she was
a native of Pennsylvania. His parents moved west when he was eight years of age, settling in
Crawford county, Illinois, where they resided until 1882, when they removed to Robinson, the
county seat. Our subject received his early education in the public school, and at an early age
entered the State University of Indiana, where he remained a number of years.
After closing his studies in school, he engaged in teaching, two years, running a saw-mill dur-
ing the summer season at the same time. In 1872 he began the study of medicine, under the
instruction of Doctor L. D. Misserne, of Robinson, subsequently attending the Miami Medical
College at Cincinnati for two sessions, 1872-3, and 1873-4, under the instruction of Professor J.
C. McKlnzie, who was then professor of physiology. After completing his course, he passed the
required examinations and was appointed resident physician in the Cincinnati hospital, which
afforded him a most excellent opportunity to complete his education, by giving him a practical
experience in both surgery and the practice of medicine. In the spring of 1875 he obtained his
diploma, and returning immediately to Robinson, has since been practicing with most excel-
lent success, and, although a young man, ranks second to none in his county, both in professional
ability and the extent of his practice.
In 1881 Doctor Firebaugh was married to Miss May Sims, a native of Robinson, and the
daughter of the late Thomas J. Sims, a very well known and respected citizen of that place. They
have one child, William C., born September 15, 1882.
In politics he is a republican, but does not take any active part in political affairs, his time
being fully occupied in his profession, to which he is thoroughly wedded, and in which he is a
constant and conscientious student, which with his adaptability is the surest guarantee of success.
W. L. BRUSTER.
TOLEDO.
THE subject of this sketch, a native of Illinois, was born in Coles county, December 10, 1849.
His father is David Bruster, a native of Kentucky. The maiden name of his mother was
Elizabeth Glenn ; she was a native of the same state. They were among the early settlers of
Illinois, coming here when the deer were still to be found, and the barking of the wolf was not
unknown. They carried on farming for a number of years, but in 1858 settled in Cumberland
county and engaged in the grocery business, which they still continue.
His father in 1861 entered the Union army in company I, 5th regiment Illinois cavalry, but
was honorably discharged in 1862, when he returned to his business.
In 1856, when our subject was seven years old, his mother died, and he went to live with his
uncle, where he worked on a farm and obtained an ordinary country-school education, studying
656 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
during his leisure hours. He continued this course until 1865, when he came to Toledo and en-
tered his father's store as clerk, attending the public school of Toledo during the winter season,
and after his school days were ended he clerked in the store. In 1868 he married Miss Sarah E.
Brewer, daughter of Hon. Thomas Brewer, of Toledo, whose sketch is found elsewhere in this
work.
In 1876 Mr. Bruster was elected circuit clerk of Cumberland county, on the democratic
ticket, and reelected in 1880, and fills the position with entire satisfaction to the public.
In 1882 Mr. Bruster formed a partnership with W. C. Everhart, and in connection with
his office, he is carrying on a mortgage, banking and loan business, in which they have already
had considerable success, having invested a large amount of money.
In politics, Mr. Bruster is a democrat, and has always been an active worker in the party,
the principles of which he indorses with his whole heart. Mr. Bruster has a fine home, which
is beautified by a Christian wife and children, in whom he feels a just and pardonable pride.
ABRAM WILLIAMS.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch is among the very oldest and most successful underwriters of the
West. He has had a large and varied experience in the business, running from a local
agent in Dubuque in 1864, to the successful manager of the Continental for twelve states in 1883.
He comes of Welsh parentage, and was born in Utica, New York, March 30, 1830. His paternal
grandfather was a Baptist clergyman, who came over from Wales and took charge of a church in
Utica, in an early day. His maternal grandsire was also a noted preacher of the Sandenianians,
of Danbury, Connecticut. His name was Ezra Barnum, and when Danbury was taken and burned
by the British during the revolution, he was taken captive with all his congregation. He escaped,
however, soon afterward, and found his way back to the American lines, and served his country
faithfully during the remainder of the war.
Mr. Williams' own father did not inherit the preaching tendencies of his ancestry, but went
into trade and was a merchant in the earlier years of his life, but subsequently became con-
nected with the Erie canal, and when he died was an officer in its management. He died when
Abram was but thirteen years old, leaving his widow little more than a large family of children
to care for. At the age of fourteen Abram went to New York, and found employment in a whole-
sale haberdasher's establishment, as clerk, where he remained five or six years. He had in that
time so far mastered the business that William H. Carey and Company gave him position as one
of the buyers in their large establishment. After about one year spent in their employ he formed
one of a new firm in the same line of goods. It was known as Sheldon, Harris and Williams, and
became a very popular house in their line. For many years it did the leading business of that
kind in New York, and was compelled to make its own importation contracts, which led to send-
ing Mr. Williams to Europe to establish branch houses there. In 1855, when about twenty-five
years old, with health somewhat impaired, but with some money, he left New York, and located
in Dubuque, Iowa. Two years later he found himself greatly crippled by the financial convulsion
that swept over the country, and in 1859 gave up his business and entered the clerk's office of the
district court for the county of Dubuque, as chief deputy. Upon the breaking put of the war in
1862, he entered into the service of the government as quartermaster of the 6th Iowa cavalry.
After serving in that capacity one year he took a position on General Sully's staff, where he
remained till his discharge, in the spring of 1865, being at the time chief of cavalry, with the rank
of major. On retiring from the service he engaged in the insurance business in Dubuque. He
was the first general agent appointed by the Hartford Live Stock Insurance Company, and the
first general agent of the Yonkers and New York Fire Insurance Company, having charge of all
territory west of the Mississippi River,
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 657
In 1869 he removed to Chicago to take charge of an enlarged field for the company, with head-
quarters here. He had the management of the western department, and under his administration
it soon grew into a large business, and his company took position among the leading insurance
companies of the land.
In 1870 he pointed out to the New York office the danger and probable loss of business arising
from a continuance of business in Chicago, but his warnings were disregarded, and in spite of his
protestations the business was continued under direction from the home office until the fire of 187 1
swept both the company and its business out of existence. In 1874 he was tendered the manage-
ment of the western department of the Continental Fire Insurance Company of New York. He
accepted the position, and has held it until the present time. The department embraces no less
than twelve states, and has more than doubled its business since he became its head. It has more
than kept pace with the general progress of the country in the time mentioned, and is still doing
an increasing business. Mr. Williams has achieved a most enviable reputation as a careful and
successful underwriter, and as an organizer and disciplinarian he has no superior in the business.
In politics he is a conservative democrat, and a member of the Iroquois Club, yet so little do
such political distinctions count among really patriotic and good men that it may be mentioned
that he is also a member of the Union League Club, which is counted the most powerful republican
political club in the West. He also belongs to the Calumet Club, a first-class social organization,
and is a Mason and a Knight Templar. In religion he is an Episcopalian, a member and the treas-
urer of Grace Episcopal Church, Chicago.
Mr. Williams was married December 21, 1852, to Miss Frances S. Raynolds, and is the father
of four children, of whom but one son and one daughter survive. His son, Nelson B. Williams, is
settled in business in Chicago, and his daughter, a young lady of fifteen, is attending school.
Although an exceedingly social and popular man in the circle in which he moves, Mr. Williams
is very domestic in his tastes and habits of life, and rarely spends an evening away from his own
family circle.
JAMES L. CREWS.
WHEELEE.
THE subject of this sketch is preeminently a self-made man, who by his own determination
and force of character has risen from a position of comparative obscurity to a position of
prominence among the wealthy and influential men of Jasper county. He was born November
14, 1825, near Terre Haute, Indiana, the son of John Crews, a native of Tennessee, and a farmer by
occupation, and Elizabeth (McCoun) Crews, a native of Kentucky. His parents were among the
early settlers of Indiana, where they settled on a farm, which still remains in the family, as early
as 1821. James L. received his early education with that difficulty known only by those who,
having had a thirst for knowledge, have been deprived of educational advantages, by which they
could be aided in developing their natural talents for learning. He occasionally attended a school
supported by subscription, but obtained the greater part of his learning by the light of a tallow
candle, after his hard day's work was done.
. He remained on the home farm until the age of twenty-four, when he bought a portion of his
present farm, and started for himself. By industry and perseverance he has gradually increased
his property to about fifteen hundred acres, and is considered one of the wealthiest citizens of
Jasper county. In addition to his extensive dealing in stock, raising large numbers of horned
cattle, he conducts a large loan business, and deals in bonds, mortgages, etc., a branch in which
he has been very successful.
In 1850 he married a Miss Green, of Cumberland county. Mrs. Crews died in February, 1883,
leaving a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living at home.
Mr. Crews, although not a member of any church, is a good, moral man, believes in a Supreme
Being, and does his duty to the best of his ability. He has taught his family to have proper
658 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
respect for the Sabbath, and religious institutions, and has given them the advantages of a good
education. As a man he is kind-hearted, liberal and generous, and as a citizen, enterprising and
public-spirited.
He has never taken any active part in political affairs, preferring to devote himself to his own
business and those matters pertaining to the comforts of his own home.
ALONZO V. RICHARDS.
FREEPOR T.
A.ONZO VAN NESS RICHARDS, a prominent journalist in northwestern Illinois, is a son
of Truman P. and Eleanor (Swinnerton) Richards, and was born near Jacksonville, Morgan
county, this state, May i, 1841. His mother was born in the same county in 1818, and hence is of
the same age as the state. His father was born in Broome county, New York, two years earlier.
When Alonzo was six years old (1847) the family moved to Hazel Green, Grant county, Wiscon-
sin, and he finished his education at the collegiate institute, now normal school, at Platteville, in
that county, paying his way while securing his education, as many resolute and plucky youths
have done, by taking care of the school building, ringing the school bell, and working at farming
during harvest time and vacations. He also taught school several terms.
In May, 1861, Mr. Richards went from Platteville to Boscobel, a distance of forty miles, on
foot, making it in one day, in order to enlist with the three months' men, but did not succeed.
He was sworn into the United States service on the loth of the following September, in company
H, 7th Wisconsin infantry, one of the regiments which eventually composed the famous "Iron
Brigade" of the army of the Potomac. We learn from the " History of Stephenson County," that
in the latter part of December, 1861, while his regiment was in camp at Arlington Heights, Mr.
Richards was detailed, by order of the war department, to report to Colonel A. J. Meyer, at Sig-
nal Camp of Instruction, Georgetown, District of Columbia, Colonel Meyer being the inventor
of the signal code, then a new thing in the army. This corps rapidly grew into popularity
with the army commanders, and was extended not only to every department of the army, but
to the gunboats. The signal men were required to be on duty day and night, always in small
detachments, and usually in exposed positions, not unfrequently beyond the picket line, affording
with their attractive flags, targets for rebel sharp-shooters and batteries. Yet there was attached
to their duties a great deal of interest, as well as danger, for their duties involved a knowledge
of the operations of both armies, superior to that of any other branch of the service. Until March,
1863, these signal men had no extra compensation for their hazardous duties. At that date con-
gress placed the signal service on the same footing as that of the regular army, and thenceforward
the men in that service and the non-commissioned officers ranked as engineers, and the officers as
members of the general staff, all being mounted. Shortly after this law went into effect, Mr.
Richards was promoted to quartermaster-sergeant, serving in that capacity until March, 1864,
when he was ordered before a board of regular army officers to be examined for a commission. A
large number were examined, and Mr. Richards was one of three successful enlisted men who
passed the examination, and the next day he was relieved from duty as quartermaster-sergeant,
and assigned to duty as an acting officer. He thus served for more than a year, not receiving
his tardy commission with rank of second lieutenant till April, 1865. Subsequently, however,
congress passed a special bill, awarding him the pay of an officer, which he had so well earned,
during this interval.
From the work already mentioned, we learn that Lieutenant Richards was with General
McClellan at Fortress Monroe, accompanied him up the Peninsula in 1862, sharing in all the
hardships of that memorable campaign, from the evacuation of Yorktown to the final evacua-
tion of the Peninsula, taking part in the battles of Williamsburgh, the seven days' fight before
Richmond, at Mechanicsville, Games' Mill, Bottoms Bridge, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp,
H (I Cooper Jr. C a
LIBRARY
OF THE
I'K'YEr.SiTY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 66 1
Malvern Hill, Harrison's Landing, and later at South Mountain and Antietam, and the cavalry
skirmishes and forays in the Boonesboro Valley, and did valuable service during the siege of
Washington, by Breckenridge, in 1864, being in charge of the signal station at Fort Sumner,
Maryland, on the Potomac.
June, 1865, the war being closed, Lieutenant Richards was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kan-
sas, and thence to Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, as signal officer on the staff of General P.
E. Connor, whom he accompanied on his Powder River expedition against the Sioux, Cheyennes,
and Arrapahoes. In one of the many battles with the Indians, that of Tongue River, in August,
1865, our subject was struck on the jugular vein by a spent ball, but not seriously wounded.
He was mustered out of the service at Fort Leavenworth, November 25, 1865, and was after-
ward offered a brevet commission, but declined. He settled in Galena, whither his parents had
removed during the rebellion, and, February 27, 1867, he was married to Miss Flora L. Miner,
daughter of Simeon K. Miner, of that city. The)', have four children: Edgar Miner, Flora Maude,
Lucy Eloise, and Bessie Mildred.
With the exception of one year spent in Warren (parts of 1871 and 1872) the subject of this
sketch resided in Galena from 1866 to 1873, being engaged in the insurance and real-estate business.
In 1873 and 1874 he was employed by the department of the interior, to survey, and establish the
southern and western boundaries of Wyoming Territory, a work of no meager proportions, and
calling for a liberal outlay of energy and courage, as the lines ran through the roughest moun-
tains and across trackless deserts, inhabited only by wild animals and wilder Indians. The com-
missioner of the general land office at Washington, district of Columbia, speaking of this matter
in his annual report, stated that the work was executed by astronomer Richards in the months of
June, July, August and September, 1874, under his contract bearing date of May 29, 1873, involv-
ing great labor, through a country devoid of settlements, and presenting formidable topographi-
cal features. The following letter explains itself:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 2, 1875.
A. V. RICHARDS, Galena, 111.:
Sir, I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2yth ult., requesting to be furnished with a testimonial as to
the character of the work which you returned to this office under your appointment, by the Hon. Secretary of the Inte-
rior, as U. S. Astronomer and Surveyor of the southern and western boundaries of Wyoming Territory, and in pursu-
ance of your contracts with this office. In accordance with your desire, I have caused an examination to be instituted
into the records of this office, and, finding that your observations for the determination of the astronomical boundaries
have been correctly made, and boundary monuments planted in conformity with the deduced results of said observa-
tions, and your instructions from my predecessor in office, who fully affirmed your work, I cheerfully bear witness to
the excellence of the character and quality of the returns, consisting of field notes, astronomical data, and series of
plats, illustrating the topography along the southern and western boundaries of the Territory of Wyoming, involving
646 lineal miles of survey. Considering the distance of the lines determined, marked and sketched through a trackless
country, and the many obstacles impeding the progress in your work, as evidenced by the field notes of your survey, I
cannot withhold the expression of my opinion as to your said work and have to say that it is not surpassed by any
survey of the kind on file in this office, and that it reflects creditably upon this office and yourself.
I am, very respectfully, etc., S. S. BURDETT, Commissioner.
September, 1875, our subject purchased a controlling interest in the Freeport ''Journal," and
settled in that city. In 1882 the Journal Printing Company was incorporated, with A. V. Rich-
ards for secretary, editor and manager, and to the duties of these several posts he devoted all his
energies and talents, and met with the same excellent success which had characterized his efforts
in the army, and as a surveyor and astronomer. In March, 1882, he established and started a
daily edition of his "Journal," which proved a paying institution from the first day, and was
generally patronized by the public, the purity and high moral tone of the paper making it a wel-
come visitor in the homes of the best families of all classes. April, 1883, Mr. Richards sold his
stock in the Journal Printing Company, and retired from the editorial field, at least for the time
being, with the esteem and respect of all parties with whom he came in contact, even though they
did not always agree with him politically.
65
662 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Richards, as an editor, has left the impress of his mind and character upon the commu
nity in which he has lived and labored; being of irreproachable character, and always espousing
that side of every question which he believed to be right and just, without fear or favor, he
wielded a large influence. Upon his retirement from the editorial management of the "Jour-
nal," the press of the district made extended eulogistic notices of his services, from which we
select the following:
Mount Carroll " Herald ": "Captain Richards has had control of the 'Journal' since 1875,
and has seen some "pretty close sailing during his connection with the paper. A sharp criticiser,
a man who scorned littleness and duplicity, and who was not afraid to show his -contempt for
small actions; a man who, when he believed he was right, hesitated not to declare his opinions,
strike whom it might; who fought with fierce hand the scheming machinations of politicians and
hunters after place; who, against overwhelming odds, the faithlessness of alleged friends, from
whom he deserved better treatment, persisted jn his course, and finally brought his paper to be
one of the best, most reliable and readable in this part of the state."
Savanna "Times" : "Captain A. V. Richards, who for the past seven years has been the fear-
less and outspoken editor of the Freeport 'Journal,' has severed his connection with that paper.
Mr. Richards is a gentleman of ability, a writer of much force when occasion calls, and has the
power to punish his adversaries most severely, which he has not hesitated to do many times dur-
ing his connection with that paper. The 'Journal' has been the leading republican paper in
Freeport, if not in this congressional district, and Mr. Richards' able pen will be missed by us all
in future campaigns."
Lena "Star" : "In the retirement of Captain A. V. Richards from the editorial management
of the Freeport 'Journal,' we lose one of the ablest, most outspoken and fearless writers that has
ever figured in the journalistic history of the county."
Ogle county "Reporter": "Captain A. V. Richards recently retired from the editorial man-
agement of the Freeport 'Journal.' He is an able, outspoken writer, an energetic teaser in a
political fight. Captain Richards is bound to succeed in any sphere."
Rockford "Journal " : "A. V. Richards, the retiring manager of the Freeport 'Journal,' was a
fearless writer, and has proven himself on more than one occasion. He has been the recipient of
many curses, but never lacked for an argument to substantiate his position. A clear-headed,
logical writer, he will be greatly missed by the press throughout the district."
E
ELIAS PATRICK.
MARENGO.
LIAS PATRICK, whose parentage and pedigree are mentioned in the sketch of his brother,
Richard M. Patrick, on other pages of this work, was born in Cortland county, New York,
August 19, 1813. He was reared on a farm; finished his education in the Truxton High School;
commenced teaching district schools in the winter, at seventeen years of age, receiving the first
term ten dollars a month, and board, and continuing to teach until twenty-two years of age. He
then, without any experience, went into the mercantile business at Nineveh, Broome county, New
York, in company with a maternal uncle, Hiel Edgerton, and a few years later removed to Harpers-
ville, in the same county, and was in trade there alone. Subsequently he changed to farming,
and, working too hard, his health failed at the end of four years, and he abandoned agricultural
pursuits. He sought and soon obtained a position in the New York custom house, making his
home in Brooklyn. He remained in that position for seven years, and had for one of his associ-
ates Mr. James, late postmaster-general of the United States.
In 1868 Mr. Patrick came to Marengo, and for a short time found employment in the bank and
store of his brother Richard. Two or three years later he became a member of the mercantile
firm of R. M. and F. W. Patrick, two of his sons being also in the firm. They carry the largest
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 66^1
.vy. / '//:.<; RIOGKATIUCAI. IIICIIONAKY.
Doctor Davis' experiences have been varied, and he is eminently a self-made man, having suf-
fered the privations incident to poverty and pioneer life, and having laboriously earned his
education. From a child the dream of his ambition was to become a physician. His pockets
were stuffed with bottles when in the pride of his first trowsers, and his youthful experiments in
surgery and the healing art were practiced on frogs and itinerant cats. In his youthful days he
has camped with savages in Michigan, in the Indian Territory and in Texas; has become familiar
witli the Spaniards in Mexico, and has studied the character of the Chinaman in California. He
has crossed the plains four times, twice on horseback and twice on the cars ; has traveled through
all the South except Florida, and has a desire to see the whole world. He is industrious from
principle, believing it far better to labor with no remuneration than to be idle. In his practice
he has always been ready to attend the meritorious poor, with no hope of reward save in the final
plaudit, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me."
DANIEL L. SHOREY.
CHICAGO.
THE bar of Chicago contains in its list a number of prominent men who hail from the Pine
Tree State, and one of the foremost among them is Daniel Lewis Shorey, who was born at
Jonesborough, Washington county, January 31, 1824. He comes of the very, best revolutionary
stock, his grandfather, John Shorey. enlisting as a private at the age of nineteen, taking part in
the battle of Bunker Hill and serving until the close of the war, being part of the time a member
of General Washington's body guard. The father of our subject, Joseph Shorey, a native of
Wolfborough, New Hampshire, went to Maine while it was a part of Massachusetts, and was there
engaged in agricultural pursuits. He served for many years as a justice of the peace, being one
of the first appointed for the state of Maine, and was a man of more than ordinary intelligence
and influence, being well read in English literature and the politics of the day. He married
Sylvia Hall, a native of Washington county, Maine, and a descendant, on her mother's side, of
the Mortons of Massachusetts.
Mr. Shorey prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and was gradu-
ated with honors at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, class of '51. He commenced
reading law in Washington, District of Columbia, where he also taught the classics for two years
in the Rittenhouse Academy, finishing his legal studies at the Dane Law School, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and being admitted to the bar in 1854 in Boston. 'There he practiced one year,
and then removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he was in extensive practice for ten years. While
there, he was a partner for some years of General J. B. Leake, now United States district attorney,
Chicago. He was city attorney of Davenport from 1862 to 1865, and president, about the same
time, of the city school board. He had greatly endeared himself to the friends of education
while a resident of that progressive hawkeye city, and when he left it was a loss seriously felt,
especially by the better class of people.
Mr. Shorey removed from Iowa to Chicago in the summer of 1865, and entered at once upon
the practice of law. He had at one period James S. Norton for a partner; at another, Benjamin
M. Shaffner, and latterly he has been alone. He practices in the civil courts exclusively, with a
strong leaning to chancery practice.
One of the weekly religious papers of Chicago thus spoke not long ago of our subject as a
lawyer:
Mr. Shorey 's training at that best school, the bar, has been unusually broad, and no lawyer in the city to-day has
a better or more genial knowledge of every branch of practice, or is better equipped and able to handle successfully
any case that may come into his hands, than he. His fine natural abilities have been rounded out by his thorough
education and wide practice, and the law of natural selection has operated to give him one of the most lucrative and
satisfactory legal businesses in the city.
One of the best features in the character of Mr. Shorey is his great activity in certain kinds of
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 697
public work, particularly in library matters. He drafted the first public-library law ever presented
to the legislature of Illinois, and the impress of his mind is upon the law of that kind now in
force in that state. He was a leader in organizing the public library in Chicago, and a director
of the board for eight years, and president for four years, resigning when he became a member of
the city council in 1880. It has been well said of him by a writer in Washington, District of Co-
lumbia: "No citizen of the Northwest has been a more constant and intelligent friend to library
interests than he."
In politics Mr. Shorey was originally a whig, and on the demise of that party joined the re-
publican party, in whose ranks he has since trained. The seat of alderman of the third ward,
which he has held the last year, is all the office he would accept, though his name has been men-
tioned more than once in connection with a judicial position, for which he evidently has eminent
fitness.
Mr. Shorey is a member of the First Unitarian Church, Chicago, and a very prominent lay-
man in that denomination, having been for eight years president of the Western Unitarian Con-
ference.
He is a blue lodge Mason and high up in Odd-Fellowship. In 1870 he was appointed grand
representative of the Grand Lodge of Illinois to the Grand Lodge of the United States, and per-
formed his duties in that connection with distinguished ability.
The wife of Mr. Shorey was Maria Antoinette Merriam, of Bedford, Massachusetts, married in
1856. They have two children, Paul, a graduate of Harvard University at the head of the class
of '78, and with the highest honors in history, the classics and philosophy, now a lawyer traveling
in Europe, and Mattie Hall, who is pursuing her studies in Europe.
THADDEUS O. BANNISTER, M.D.
ODELL.
THADDEUS OAKS BANNISTER, physician and surgeon, is a native of Wayne county,
New York, and was born in the town of Galen, June 13, 1833. His father, Augustus C.
Bannister, a farmer, was born at Phelps, in the adjoining county of Ontario. His gcandfather,
Theodore Bannister, was a colonel in the second war with England. The Bannister family was
from Massachusetts. The mother of our subject was Mary Vandemark, whose father was from
the state of Delaware, and of Holland descent. Thaddeus received a district-school education,
and farmed with his father until he turned his attention to his profession. He studied at
Marengo, near Galen, with Doctor George W. Stocking ; attended one course of medical lectures
at Albany, and finished his studies at the University of New York, receiving his diploma in
March, 1856. He practiced with Doctor Landon Wells at Waterloo until the autumn of the next
year, and then went to Phelps to take the place of his uncle, Doctor Caleb Bannister, who had
been in practice there for about fifty years.
The subject of this sketch was at Phelps until 1862, when he went into the service as acting
assistant surgeon in the department of Washington. He was at first in the Fairfax General Hos-
pital, Virginia, then with Doctor D. W. Bliss, and finally in the Campbell Hospital, same city,
where he was on duty when the war closed.
In the autumn of 1865 Doctor Bannister came to this state, and settled at Odell, where he has
an excellent practice, and has built up a fine reputation for skill. He is thoroughly devoted to
his profession, in which he keeps well read up, adding fresh works to his library from time to
time. He is one of the best surgeons in the county.
The doctor is quite public-spirited, taking a good degree of interest in local matters. When
the village of Odell was incorporated, he was one of the first trustees, and for the last nine years
he has been a member of the village school board. He devotes a reasonable amount of time in
assisting to elevate and improve the grade of the public schools.
698 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Doctor Bannister belongs to the democratic school of politics, but does not let such matters
interfere with his professional duties. He joined the Episcopal Church in Phelps, New York, but
there being no church of the kind in Odell, he. attends the Congregational Church.
The doctor was married, in 1857, to Miss Hannah Elizabeth Pound, of Wayne county, and
they have two sons ; George S. is a student in the Industrial University, Champaign, and Henry
J. is at home.
JOSHUA AND JEREMIAH COLLINS.
SARATOGA.
THESE men, who were widely known as among the most extensive farmers and stock- raisers
and dealers in Illinois, were twin brothers, the sons of Joshua and Margaret Collins, and
were born September 19, 1820, on the Hudson River, about twelve miles south of Albany, the
capital of New York. The family are of Irish descent, two sisters and one brother immigrating
to this country in an early day, and settling in Rhode Island. The mother's maiden name was
Rowe, and her ancestors were among the early Dutch settlers in New York. The father was born
in Rhode Island, but when a young man made his way into Dutchess county, New York, where he
married. He learned the trade of a miller, and finding it a hard struggle to support his large
family of nine children (seven sons and two daughters) the family decided to try their fortunes
in the Far West. Philip, the second son, then a young man, was sent out first to select a location,
and the family followed.
They came, in company with several other families, via the Erie canal and the lakes, and
landed in Chicago September 19, 1834. A location had been fixed on the Aux Sable bottom, in
what was then La Salle county, near its junction with the Illinois River, and a log house erected,
to which the family at once came on their arrival. Chicago had then about two hundred and
fifty inhabitants, and Mr. Collins was offered and urged to buy lots on Randolph street for $15
to $30, but declined to bury his money in a mud hole without the least probability of ever finding
it again. He had but little money in fact, and preferred to invest it in a farm for his boys, and
by the time a quarter section had been entered, and a few necessaries for the family comfort had
been purchased, his little store was exhausted. But the family were rich in health and strength,
were numerous and full of hope, and strong hands and willing hearts were better than a large
patrimony without them.
The story is an old one, oft-repeated in this country, but ever fresh and interesting, of the
early struggles of the brave pioneers. No roads or bridges, no schools or churches, but plenty of
Indians, ague and hard work. In August, 1841, the father finished his labors and was laid to rest.
The sons had been trained to habits of industry from childhood, and as fast as they were able to
earn money, had added their mites to the family store, and helped to bear its expenses. In this
school of poverty they had learned the value of money, and how both to earn and to spend it.
The family were affectionate and even clannish, and worked together for many years. The
twins were fourteen years old when they came west, and till the death of the father, about the
time they came of age, worked and lived at home. They had, however, saved a little money by
outside work, and always invested it in calves and young cattle, so that, when they began life for
themselves, they had quite a little herd. At first three brothers joined forces and worked together.
These were Philip and the twins, and they all kept bachelor's hall together, but this arrangement
was soon interfered with by the marriage first of Jeremiah and afterward Joshua, and the partner-
ship was dissolved.
When, however, both the brothers had got settled in their new relationship, they resumed
partnership in all their business transactions. They bought stock extensively, fatted it for market
and sold again. They jointly purchased large tracts of land till, at the time of their settlement,
the company land amounted to no less than 2,800 acres. Their annual transactions in fat cattle
amounted to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. They usually sent their cattle either to
Chicago or to Albany, New York, and for many years were among the heaviest dealers in the West.
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UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 701
In the winter of 1871-72 Joshua had a very severe illness, which occasioned a dissolution of
the partnership the following spring. In the settlement which followed Joshua purchased his
brother's interest in the company lands entire, who even then remained the sole owner of 3,000
acres, while he became by the purchase one of the most extensive land owners in northern Illi-
nois. The partnership began in 1858 and ended in 1872, and maybe pronounced one of the most
satisfactory and successful cooperative ventures ever carried out.
Throughout its entire course brotherly affection and mutual confidence .marked tljeir inter-
course with each other, and prosperity attended them in an unbroken train. It is a matter of
profound regret that a proper regard for truth will not permit the biographer to say that this
brotherly affection and harmony, so beautiful to contemplate, ari"d to which both owed so much
of their joint prosperity, should not have sustained them in the final settlement of their affairs.
It, however, came finally to a satisfactory end, and we are thereafter called upon to follow the
history of each separately.
Joshua Collins was married August 28, 1845, to Harriet Crider, the daughter of Henry and
Mary Ann (Hess) Crider, who came west with their family in October, 1833, preceding the Col-
linses by one year. The young people had been companions from childhood, and their union was
a very happy one. ' They remained under the household roof till the following March, when they
moved into a new log house built for them during the winter on their own land. Here they lived
for about nine years; here four of their five children were born, and here, Mrs. Collins declares,
their happiest days were spent. In 1854, however, the old log house gave place to a comfortable
mansion, near the same spot. Mr. Collins was then the owner of 480 acres of land in his own
right, to which he added from time to time, until at the time of his death he owned a very large
amount of farming lands, exclusive of a full section of 640 acres in the richest part of the state of
Missouri.
After the dissolution of the partnership with his brother Jeremiah, he continued the business
of raising and dealing in cattle with the same energy as before, prospering in everything he
undertook until the day of his death. June 14, 1879, he was killed by lightning while hitching
his horses in his stable during a thunder storm. His sudden death was a great shock to the com-
munity, and the funeral procession was over two miles long. His 'large estate was divided
equally among his five children without recourse to law, everything being satisfactorily arranged
with the counsel and assistance of Judge Hopkins, of Morris. It is pleasing to relate that the
warm affection between the members of the family of Joshua was more firmly cemented by the
sudden death of the father instead of being ruptured, as is too often the case by the division of an
estate. That affection remains undisturbed till the present time, and all the sons and daughters are
settled in life, happy and prosperous.
Cryder Collins, the eldest of the family, is the owner of 970 acres of land, which fell to his
share from his father's estate. He has turned his attention largely to breeding horses, and has
imported from Europe and the Canadas some of the finest animals brought into this country.
He imported a very fine Cleveland bay stallion from England at a cost of $2,500. Two Normans
from France cost him $1,500 each, and thirteen Clydesdale mares from Canada, the present season
(1882), $200 each. He has now twenty-five breeding mares and some most promising colts. He
is also paying attention to cattle raising, and keeps a flock of Leicestershire sheep, which he also
imported.
Joshua, the youngest of the family, has the homestead. He is not yet married, but is a very
prosperous and successful farmer and stockman.
The eldest daughter, Jenny, married Storey Mattison. She brought to her husband many acres
of the original estate. Like all the family he is devoted to stock and grain raising, and is in
every respect a first-class gentleman and a successful man of business.
Anna married a cousin of Storey, A. J. Mattison, and Hattie, Joseph Wilson, both of whom
are rich farmers and upright men, highly esteemed in the community where they reside. The
family own among them a total of 7,000 acres of land.
7O2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
The widow Collins resides on the homestead with Joshua, where a free table and a hearty wel-
come awaits all comers, as it did during the life of her husband. She is a woman of remarkable
energy and strength of character, purity of life and gentleness of heart; was idolized by her hus-
band, is worshiped by her children, and loved by all who know her.
Jeremiah Collins was married to Hannah Mary Cryder, November 16, 1844. She was a niece
of his brother's wife, and lived only about eighteen months after her marriage. She had one
child, a boy, who very soon followed her to the grave, leaving a sorrowing father wifeless and
childless. Ten years later, in 1854, Mr. Collins married Margaret W. Widney, by whom he has
had three children, Joshua, the eldest, now about twenty-eight years old, Oscar now twenty-two,
and Mary, who was the idol of her father, and died at the age of twenty-three. It was perhaps
the greatest affliction of his life, and he has never fully recovered from the blow.
At the time of the dissolution of the partnership with his brother Joshua, he was the owner of
3, coo acres of land, r,ooo of which lay in one body, on which he built a fine mansion in 1880. In 1881
he purchased the farm of Samuel Holderman, consisting of 5,364 acres, with the finest farm resi-
dence and outbuildings in the county. This gives him an estate of nearly 9,000 acres, and places
him at the head of the great landed proprietors in this part of the state. On the Holderman farm
his eldest son, Joshua, has taken up his residence, and looks after its great interests. He has on
that farm over 500 head of fatting cattle, 150 head of sheep, and fourteen horses. He is a prudent
and skillful farmer, and will probably, in a few years, equal any stock man or dealer in the state.
His second son, Oscar, is still attending school.
Mr. Collins is a republican in politics, but not a politician; he is a man of business, and cares
little for political affairs outside of his own county. In personal appearance and general disposi-
tion the brothers greatly resemble each other. They were men of warm hearts and generous
impulses, and like their nation could love or hate with equal intensity. Mr. Collins is a man of
strong will, and generally succeeds in bending everything to it. What he undertakes he will per-
form, and from youth up has been remarkable for a sacred and steadfast adherence to his word.
Men will take his promise as readily as his note, and no man ever knew him to dishonor either.
HON. ANDREW J. BELL.
PEORIA.
ANDREW JACKSON BELL, lawyer, and state senator from the twenty-sixth district, is a
f\ son of William and Mary (Wright) Bell, and was born in Madison county, Ohio, May 25,
1839. His mother was born in Ohio. The Bells settled in Virginia in the first half of the eigh-
teenth century, the progenitor of the family in-this country being Andrew Bell, the great-great-
grandfather of our subject. William Bell, Sr., the son of James Bell, and grandfather of Andrew,
was in the second war with England.
Senator Bell finished his education at Lombard University, Galesburgh, where he took a
partial course. He taught school a few winter terms. In August, 1862, Mr. Bell enlisted as a
private in company I, nth Illinois infantry, and served three years, coming out a non-commis-
sioned officer. He went in with a company of 298 men, and was mustered out with about forty.
He never received a wound. He was in the last charge at Mobile, Alabama. He read law at
Lacon, Marshall county, with Richmond and Burns; was admitted to practice in 1866, and the
next year opened an office at Lacon, where he remained about six years. Part of the time while
at Lacon he held the office of city attorney. In 1867 he started the Illinois " Statesman," and
conducted it about two years.
In 1873, Mr. Bell moved to Peoria, and during the first twenty months was the political editor
of the "National Democrat." As a lawyer he is a very earnest student, and is a growing man.
He favorably impresses the court, and makes a good plea before a jury. He does a large busi-
ness in the United States district court, as well as in the several state courts.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 703
In 1880, the subject of this sketch was elected to the state senate, and at the time of writing,
he is serving his second session in that body, his assignment being to the committees on judicial
department, state charitable institutions, appropriations, warehouses, roads, highways and bridges,
canals and rivers, visiting committee to penal and reformatory institutions, and miscellaneous
subjects.
His affiliations have always been with the democratic party, and he takes a good deal of inter-
est in building it up. Religiously, he is an adherent of the Universalist church. He is an Odd-
Fellow, and has passed the several chairs in the encampment. Senator Bell was married, March
12, 1866, to Miss Amanda J. Davis, of Marshall county, and they have lost their only child.
HENRY C. CASE.
GALESBURGH.
HENRY CLAY CASE, a model hotel keeper, is a son of a civil engineer, William Case, and
Cynthia (Tobour) Case, the former being born in Connecticut; the latter, in Rhode Island.
Henry himself, according to the Bible record, first saw the light April 15, 1825, in the town of Ellis-
burgh, Jefferson county, New York. He received a district-school education, and grew to man-
hood as an apprentice at hotel keeping at Sackett's Harbor, Watertown, and other places in the
Empire State, being graduated in 1850.
To form an episode in his life, Mr. Case spent four years (1850-1854) in hardware and clothing
stores in Watertown; then went to Utica, same state, and was a boot and shoe merchant for nearly
a score of years. While there he was a member of the city council for several years. In 1874 he
lost his health, retired from mercantile life, and kept the Vandyne House at Henderson Bay, near
Sackett's Harbor, one season, and was then burnt out. He now took the Cooper House at Adams,
New York; conducted it for three years, and in 1880 came to Galesburgh, and became proprietor
of Brown's Hotel, which had had for years the reputation of being one of the best hotels in the
state outside of Chicago and Springfield. It is enough to say that under Mr. Case's management,
the character of the hotel has been elevated. Understanding his business thoroughly, he attends
to it in all its details, and every commercial traveler whose field is the state of Illinois, knows Mr.
Case and the menu of his table. Many of them will go sixty or seventy miles out of their way to
"make" his house on Saturday night, knowing they will be well taken care of.
The landlady of Brown's Hotel was Miss Sarah A. Phillips of Watertown, New York, married
in October, 1853, and they have two sons. Frank H. is traveling for the boot and shoe house
which succeeded his father in Utica, New York, and W. P. is chief clerk of Brown's Hotel.
JAMES M. FLOWER.
CHICAGO.
JAMES MONROE FLOWER, lawyer, hails from the Empire State, dating his birth at Han-
nibal, Oswego county, March 10, 1835. Both parents, Calvin and Hannah (Phillips) Flower,
were natives of Ashfield, Massachusetts, and descendants of early settlers in that state. In 1844,
when James was only nine years old, the family came west, settling on a farm at Sun Prairie,
Wisconsin, where the father still lives, losing his wife in the summer of 1881. Our subject was
educated at the University of Wisconsin, teaching two winters while in college, and graduating
in the class of 1856. He read law at Madison, Wisconsin, filling, meanwhile, from the autumn of
1856 to the autumn of 1857, the office of deputy clerk of the supreme court. The next year he
was clerk of the commissioners appointed to revise the statutes of the state, and went to Hart-
ford, Connecticut, to assist in their publication, going thence to the Albany Law School, gradu-
ating in May, 1859.
704 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Flower returned to Wisconsin, opened an office at Madison in the spring of 1860, and
there practiced until the close of 1872. While in that city he held the office of police justice two
years during the civil war, and after its close was deputy collector of internal revenue.
January i, 1873, Mr, Flower opened an office in Chicago, and soon built up a good practice in
the several courts, making a specialty of commercial law. He is receiver for the German National
Bank of Chicago. As a lawyer he is well educated, able, accurate and painstaking, and faithful
in the cause of his clients. His standing at the bar is excellent.
Mr. Flower is a decided republican in politics, yet we cannot learn that he devotes much time
to such matters except to vote, his professional studies and practice taking the precedence over
everything else. Evidently his ambition is to excel in his chosen field of intellectual labor, and
he is taking the right course.
His wife was Lucy L. Cones of Washington, District of Columbia, they being married in Sep-
tember, 1862, and having three children.
PETER McGEOCH.
CHICAGO AND MILWAUKEE:
THE career of him whose name heads this sketch well illustrates what one may accomplish
by the exercise of native talent in the pursuit of a persistent purpose. Beginning life in
comparative obscurity, and without capital other than his own native energy and ability, he has
gradually risen to a position of commanding influence, having been the central figure and moving
force in some of the heaviest grain transactions ever known in the West; and while his deals have
not been uniformly successful, he has met reverses, which have resulted from combinations of
circumstances entirely beyond his control, with a cool, deliberate and manly courage that has
challenged the admiration of even those who have suffered through his misfortunes. He is a
man of physical as well as mental and moral force. Five feet eleven inches in height, he weighs
two hundred and ten pounds; is easy and deliberate in his movements, and impresses one with
the fact that he posseses an immense reserved power.
His perceptive faculties are largely developed, rather than the reflective, and show him to be
a man of action rather than a philosopher. His vitality is immense, and gives his native talent
for push a tremendous backing. He has a dark, but very kindly and often humorous eye; is
large-hearted, benevolent and generous, a very warm and faithful friend. He began his career in
America at the bottom, and is justly proud of his success, as it is the reward of honest and faith-
ful work. "No man," the writer heard him remark one day, "is dishonored by honest toil, but I
think no man honorable who does not toil." A circumstance connected with his life in Milwaukee,
and which resulted in his being called the "Milwaukee milk man," well illustrates one of his lead-
ing characteristics, and for that reason is here related. While living in Milwaukee, in 1867, he lost
a babe, as he believed, through the use of the swill milk common at that time in the large cities.
He was greatly touched by his loss and indignant at the cause, and said to his wife: "If I am
ever able, I will furnish Milwaukee with pure milk." Not many years after, he owned a farm in
the vicinity of that city, and beginning with twenty cows, soon increased the number to seventy-
five, and then to one hundred, and soon controlled the milk trade of the city, and for a number
of years supplied Milwaukee with pure milk.
Mr. McGeoch would at once be recognized as of Scotch parentage. He comes of a long and
famous line of ancestors on both sides. His maternal great-grandsire was the noted Duncan
McDougal. His father, William McGeoch, was a native of Wigtown, in the south of Scotland,
where he was both a farmer and trader, or merchant. He met the mother of Peter, then Miss
Matilda C. Watson, in London, England, where they were married, and where Peter was born,
February 16, 1833. His parents remained in London for six months after his birth, and then
returned to Wigtown, where Peter was reared and educated till the age of sixteen, when he went
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UNITED .V '/'-/ /'/;. V BlOCKAPIllCAl. DICl'IOXARY. -JQ-J
to London and entered the dry-goods house of an uncle. He there developed executive ability of
such a high order that he became manager of the concern within a year, and retained control till he
was nineteen, when he immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York in November, 1852.
He at once found profitable employment, but a year later removed to the West, and joined his
father, who had lost his property in Scotland, and, with Peter's assistance, had settled on a farm
near Lake Mills, Jefferson county, Wisconsin.
At the age of twenty-two he married Miss Catharine Ellen Harvey, of Lake Mills, but a native
of Vermont, and moved into Madison, Wisconsin. The team and wagon with which he made the
trip, together with his household goods, constituted all his earthly possessions, and he still owed
$77 on them. His first business was to make his team pay for themselves, which he did, teaming
by the job. He followed this for about six months, when he was unexpectedly introduced to the
wheat business in Madison in a rather peculiar manner.
He had taken a load of wheat to market for his father, and found some difficulty in getting
his price on account of a ring which had been formed among the buyers. Knowing the fact, he
proposed to store it till they came to his terms. This was resisted in a provoking manner by
some of the ring, when the sturdy Scotch boy pulled his coat off and proposed to break that corner
on wheat in a most emphatic and satisfactory manner. His display of muscle and pluck ended
the controversy, and he ultimately sold his load to Nelson Van Kirk, now of the firm of Robert
Lindblom and Company, commission men of Chicago. Mr. Van Kirk was not in the ring, and
was so well pleased with the Scotchman that he at once took him into his employ. After work-
ing for him about three months for $40 per month, and six months more in the employ of a man
by the name of Taylor, he entered into a partnership with Mr. Van Kirk, which lasted without
interruption for a period of twenty years. In the course of their business the firm made succes-
sive removals to Fox Lake, then to Cambria, and finally into Milwaukee.
To the produce and commission business the firm, "in the year 18 , added the packing busi-
ness, which continued till 1880. From 1857 till 1875 theirs was one of the principal wheat-buy-
ing houses in Milwaukee. In November, 1875, the firm found themselves on the wrong side of
the wheat deal, and in attempting to assist other parties lost their money, a misfortune which
resulted in the dissolution of the long-standing partnership of Van Kirk and McGeoch. It was
supposed to be a dead failure, but Mr, McGeoch took the assets, assumed all liabilities, continued
the business in his own name, and paid eventually one hundred cents on the dollar.
In July, 1878, he repaid the boys in kind, and got all his money back and more with it. This
fight, in which McGeoch ultimately won, was the beginning of a long career of contests of like
character, in which he acquired a remarkable reputation and amassed a fortune. He is by nature
a bull on the board of trade, and there is no man who is watched so closely or feared so judi-
ciously by the bears as Peter McGeoch.
In August, 1880, he formed a copartnership with Sumner Everingham and Frank Crittenden,
in the produce and commission business, under the firm name of McGeoch, Everingham and
Company, all speculative operations in grain being on his personal account. These, during the
last few years, have been enormous, aggregating hundreds of millions of dollars. The largest
transaction with which he has been connected, and that which has brought his name most promi-
nently before the public, was the famous lard deal of 1883, which involved him in a total indebt-
edness of $6.000,000. Of this amount there was due the banks $4,050,000, for which they held
collateral to the extent of $3,900,000, leaving a net deficit due the banks of $150,000. Of $1,950,-
ooo due to customers and the trade there had been deposited as margins and security about
$700,000, leaving a net deficit of $1,400,000 unsecured and due to creditors. Toward the payment
of this amount Mr. McGeoch raised $700,000, and effected a settlement with his creditors, who
numbered about two hundred, for fifty cents on the dollar. The transaction throughout was
unprecedented in commercial affairs, and the honorable and manly mien with which Mr. McGeoch
met his misfortune, and the satisfactory settlement which he effected with his creditors, were both
characteristic and commendable.
69
708 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,
As before stated, he is a man of wonderful vitality, and can perform an amount of work that
would kill ordinary men. He is the principal owner of the stock of the Milwaukee City railway,
and president of the same, and manages its concerns entirely himself. He at one time conducted
his farm, his milk business, his produce and commission business, and his packing business, both
in Milwaukee and Chicago, all under his own personal supervision. His milk business was estab-
lished in 1867, and continued about twelve years, or till 1879.
In politics Mr. McGeoch is a republican, but is too busy a man to be a politician, in the tech-
nical sense. His time and business interests are about evenly divided between Milwaukee and
Chicago, but his home is in the former city. The Chicago boys on the board of trade are, how-
ever, too familiar with his winning ways to admit that he is a Milwaukee man.
MARION R. DAVIDSON.
MONTICELLO.
ONE of the most promising young men at the Piatt county bar, is Marion R. Davidson. He
is well read in his profession, is a diligent student, and possesses a comprehensive and prac-
tical mind. He is a gentleman of strict and unbiased integrity,' and of unexceptionable habits.
He is a native of Illinois, was born near Mount Zion, in Macon county, April 4, 1847, an d is the
son of B. W., and Elizabeth (Harbaugh) Davidson. Marion was educated in the common schools,
and at Mount Zion Academy, pursuing a thorough scientific and classical course. He commenced
the study of the law with Hon. William E. Nelson, of Decatur, where he applied himself to
the study of the rudiments of his profession with great assiduity for two years. He passed a
creditable examination before the supreme court and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1876.
He then commenced the practice of the law in Moulton county, Illinois, with great success,
afterward removing to Monticello, where he has pursued the practice of his profession ever since.
He was associated in partnership with S. R. Reed, in October, 1882. This firm is doing a flour-
ishing business.
Mr. Davidson was married March 5, 1874, to Miss Emma M. Reeme, of Decatur, Illinois, an
estimable lady. They have three children, Myrtle F., Mabel R., and Oscar C.
HON. JOHN BURNS.
LA CON.
MARSHALL county seems to be richly favored with material suitable for jurists, and in this
respect has been truly honored. We see it stated that Lacon, the county seat, has fur-
nished the judges for this judicial circuit since Marshall county was organized in 1839. First
came Judge Ford, then Mark Bangs, then Samuel L. Richmond, and more recently, Judges Burns
and Laws, none of them second-class men. Judge Burns, of whom we propose to speak at this
time more particularly, is a son of John and Rebecca (Welsh) Burns, and was born in Brook
county, Virginia, March 19, 1819. His father was Scotch-Irish, born in the north of Ireland, an
educator of some note, and a stanch Presbyterian, like a majority of the Christian people from
that part of the Emerald Isle.
The subject of this sketch left his native state in 1834; came to Morgan county, Illinois, with
his older brother, Andrew Burns, and in 1835 settled in Marshall county, finishing his education
at an academy in Putnam county, and was a successful school teacher. He entered the law office
of Ramsey and Shannon at Lacon, in 1844, and that same year was elected recorder of deeds for
Marshall county. While still a student, in 1846, he was appointed, by Judge Caton, clerk of the
circuit court, to which office he was elected two years later, and he held it till 1852. The year
prior to this late date he was admitted to the bar at Ottawa.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
709
From 1851 to 1873 our subject was in the practice of his profession, with Lacon for his home and
radiating point, his business extending over a wide circuit, and into the federal as well as state
courts. Years ago it was made apparent to the bar of the twelfth judicial circuit that Mr. Burns
was not only an able lawyer, but an excellent judge of law, and a man of a judicial mind, and in
1873 he was elected judge of the circuit just mentioned. By reelection he is serving his tenth
year on the bench, and time has shown the wisdom of the selection. One of the leading daily
papers of Chicago says of Judge Burns: "He administers law according to testimony, and his
rulings are very seldom reversed by the supreme court." Regarding his general character, a
Peoria paper speaks as follows: "In the walks of private life no man stands higher than Judge
Burns. He is esteemed and respected by all, and is regarded as a gentleman of unswerving
integrity. His great ability, and his long practice in his circuit and before the supreme court,
eminently qualify him for his present position."
In 1861 Judge Burns was a member of the constitutional convention, representing Putnam,
Marshall and Woodford counties, and some years ago he was a candidate on the democratic ticket
for state senator. He was mayor of the city three times, and has held other local offices.
The judge was first married in 1850, to Miss Priscilla Connon, of Lacon, she dying in 1866,
and the second time in 1868, to Mrs. Catherine (Stedham) Swinheart, she being a resident of Lacon.
He has three daughters and one son by his first wife, and Mrs. Burns has a daughter by a former
husband.
Judge Burns is emphatically a self-built man. He laid his own foundation, and without the
prestige of wealthy and influential friends, by his own great industry, native ability, studiousness
and perseverance, he has reared a superstructure which any ambitious young man might be
proud to copy.
WILLIAM FULLER.
CLINTON.
THE subject of this sketch is a lawyer of excellent natural ability, who by industry and per-
severance has attained a high rank at the bar in the section of the state where he resides.
William Fuller is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Green county, February 19, 1823, and
is the son of Daniel and Nancy Fuller. The father of Mr. Fuller followed the occupation of
farmer and blacksmith, and excelled in the latter, especially in fine work. William was the old-
est of a family of eight boys, of whom all but one are now living. He commenced his education
in the common schools, and made the very best use of the advantages afforded him, and added
materially to the knowledge gained therein after leaving school, by study of text books and gen-
eral reading. He was a very apt scholar, which fact secured him a position as teacher in his
native county, when quite young. He taught the first free school ever taught in his own district.
In November, 1848, he came to De Witt county, and engaged in farming and taught school four
winters. He purchased law books, and during his spare moments devoted himself to the study
of the elementary principles of the law. Long before he was admitted to the bar, and while he
was teaching, he was often called into cases in the lower courts, and gained quite a wide reputa-
tion as an advocate in this class of cases in which at one time his business exceeded that of any
lawyer in the county. In 1854 he was elected sheriff of De Witt county, the duties of which office
he performed with entire satisfaction to all. After passing a very satisfactory examination he
was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1867, and has been in active practice ever since that time, and
has been very successful in his cases in court, and has established the reputation of being an
excellent counselor, well versed in all the subtleties of the law, and possessing integrity, upright-
ness and a sense of honor surpassed by no man. He reasons from cause to effect, and often
introduces similes and anecdotes to illustrate and illumine his subject.
He is an excellent manager in a lawsuit, is reticent and has a rare faculty of eliciting the hand
of his opponent without showing his own.
UNITED STA TES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR Y.
He is well known as a democratic campaign speaker of great force and fluency, and has a
happy style of address, a life-long democrat, a Mason, and an excellent citizen. He is a courte-
ous gentleman, with social faculties of a high order. Few men are more highly prized.
He was married to Miss Rebecca Parker, an estimable lady of Madison county, Ohio, Febru-
ary 22, 1847. They have six children living, four boys and two girls.
ROMAINE J. CURTISS, M.D.
JO LIE T.
A MONO the medical practitioners of Will county, Illinois, is Romaine J. Curtiss, of Joliet,
t\. where he has resided for ten years, steadily attending to his professional duties, and where
he has established a professional reputation. He was born in Plymouth, Richland county,
Ohio, October i, 1840. He received a good common-school education, and at the age of sixteen
entered Hillsdale College, Michigan, and after leaving there, attended a series of lectures at the
Buffalo Medical College. He remained there until 1862, when he entered the United States ser-
vice as hospital steward for the i23d regiment Ohio infantry, and in April, 1863, was appointed
medical cadet in the regular army, and did much hard work for the country, serving in the hos-
pital boat, which, during the siege of Vicksburg, conveyed the wounded soldiers up the Mississippi
River to Memphis and Saint Louis. He was afterward transferred to the general hospital, at
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he completed his studies, and in 1864 graduated, receiving his degree of
doctor of medicine, being fully equipped with unexceptionable experience as a physician and
surgeon. In the same year he was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States navy, where
he served until the close of the war, after which he settled down in Erie county, New York, where_
he practiced medicine for seven years, and during this time he also pursued a special course of
medical lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, including private instruction by
specialists.
In 1873, Doctor Curtiss settled in Joliet, Illinois, where he has been since, faithfully engaged
in the active duties of his profession, and where he has won the highest respect of the commu-
nity. He is also honored with a professorship in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of
Chicago, where he has a great field of labor, in which his knowledge and experience are put to
valuable use by his fellow practitioners. Doctor Curtiss married Miss Sarah A. Beal, of Erie
county, New York, November 29, 1870.
L E
HON. LEONARD SWETT.
CHICAGO.
EONARD SWETT was born near the village of Turner, Oxford county, Maine, on what was,
and is now, known as the " Albine Richer" farm. His mother, about eighty-seven years of
age, is still living on the homestead. At the age of twelve years, having previously been in the
schools of his neighborhood, he began the study of Latin and Greek with Rev. Thomas R. Curtis,
his parents and the wise ones of the neighborhood having, as they supposed elected him for the
ministry. When fifteen years of age he went to North Yarmouth Academy, where he remained
two years, and then entered Waterville College (now known as Colby University), where he
remained three years, and left on account of some misunderstanding with the faculty, involving,
however, nothing dishonorable on his part. He then read law with Howard and Shepley, of
Portland, two years, when he left to take his chances in the battle of life, and seek his fortune.
He has fought the battle successfully, and has gained a fortune. He intended to settle in the
South, but after traveling through the southern states for a time, he came west in 1847. At that
time the war with Mexico was raging, and he enlisted as a private in the 5th Indiana infantry,
LIBRARY
ILLINOIS
i: XI TED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
713
commanded by General James H. Lane, afterward United States senator from Kansas. Although
not commissioned as an officer, he had practical command as captain of the company, of which
he was orderly sergeant. Having entered the city of Mexico after its capture, the company was
detailed to guard trains from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, Pueblo and Cordova and return. In May,
1848, he was taken sick at Vera Cruz, and lay in a hospital one month, when peace was made and
he returned to the North with shattered health, which was not soon restored. Upon regaining
his health he, in 1849, was admitted to the bar at Bloomington, Illinois, and there began the
practice of law. He rode the circuit with Abraham Lincoln, Stephen T. Logan, John T. Stuart,
U. F. Linder, Edward D. Baker, Edward Hannagan, and other prominent lawyers of that day,
and while being trained in that school was recognized as one of the leaders and among the ablest.
He spent six months of the year in courts with Lincoln from that time on until the latter was
elected president, and always found in him a warm friend, a safe counselor and a congenial com-
panion. This intimacy continued up to the time of Mr. Lincoln's death.
When he started out to practice law there were two men who took him by the hand and
helped him along, with that affection and kindness which marks a father's conduct toward a son.
These two men were Abraham Lincoln and David Davis, who remained true and confidential
friends to the last. Next to Judge Davis Mr. Swett was most influential in securing the nomina-
tion of Lincoln for the presidency, and was the prime mover and controlling influence in planning
and executing that remarkable campaign, which resulted in the election of that great man.
Suffice it to say that both came to Chicago to secure this result, and Judge Davis being Swett's
senior by twelve years, he was very naturally the nominal leader. The nomination was secured,
under their management, through a combination of the Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania dele-
gations, and in this the hand of Leonard Swett was powerful and controlling.
But it is as a lawyer that he is best known. During the war he was in the employ of the
Quicksilver Mining Company, a corporation owning the great Almaden quicksilver mine in Cali-
fornia, which was involved in litigation for twelve years, the last four of which Mr. Swett had the
full control, which kept him in Washington the greater part of the time. As he did not want any
office because of better employment, it left him untrammeled, and insured the full confidence of
President Lincoln, and hence he was a power behind the throne to an extent of which few have
any knowledge. In 1865 he came to Chicago permanently. He has held but one office, that of
state senator one term, and has declined all tenders of office made to him. He has devoted him-
self assiduously to the practice of his profession, to which he has been passionately devoted _the
past twenty-five years, attaining to an eminence which ranks him among the first at the bar, espe-
cially as a criminal lawyer. Of the nineteen murder cases which he has defended, he has lost but
one, and these cases are among the most celebrated in the annals of our courts. He is a born ora-
tor; has a fine physique and commanding presence; an attractive delivery; is an entertaining
speaker, an affable and genial gentleman, and is esteemed and honored as a citizen and a man.
In politics he is a republican, and his voice is heard in defense of that party in all important cam-
paigns and from the lecture platform. He took an active part in the effort made to secure the
nomination of General Grant to the presidency in the Chicago convention.
He is still in the prime of life, and is a noble example of what may be accomplished by earnest,
conscientious and faithful work in the direction of one's native inclination and abilities. He is
one of the conspicuous citizens of Illinois, and is thoroughly identified with the history of the
state; has been a part of it, and one of its most notable and important factors; at the bar he has
ably illustrated its annals. His pleadings before the highest courts, his brilliant efforts from the
platform as lecturer and orator, evidence his profound knowledge of law, the accuracy of his judg-
ment, the extent of his scholarship and reading, the force of his logic and the grace of his diction.
He has varied and comprehensive legal learning and general accomplishments which have won
for him the highest respect of the bar, as well as the esteem and confidence of the general public;
a man of spotless integrity, which all attempts to assail have been fruitless. He is not a man of
circumstances; he has made and controlled them.
714 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
When he settled in Chicago, in 1865, he formed with Van H. Higgins and Colonel David
Quigg a partnership which continued for several years. His previous reputation and well known
ability brought him at once into prominence, and insured him a lucrative practice which he has
to this day. The present firm is Swett and Haskell. He is retained in the most important cases
which have come before the higher courts; he devotes himself almost exclusively to his profes-
sion; and while his comprehensive and well trained mind and large experience and knowledge
of men fit him for doing any work ably, it is as an advocate that he is most conspicuous. He is
a clear reasoner, and applies to every subject he considers strong logical power, his appeals to
jury or court often being masterpieces of oratory.
CLIFTON H. MOORE.
CLINTON.
ONE of the most polished, scholarly gentlemen who grace the legal profession in central
Illinois is Clifton H. Moore. He is a native of Ohio, and that section of the state where
literature and scholarship are largely patronized. He is a son of Isaac Moore, a native of the
Empire State, a man of great natural ability, who in a great measure overcame the inconvenience
occasioned by the defective educational facilities afforded in the days of his youth, by general
reading. At the age of eighteen years, he removed from Saratoga county, New York, to the
Western Reserve, Ohio, accompanied by an unmarried and two married sisters and their hus-
bands, and his mother, and settled in Kirtland, Lake county, Ohio, where he resided until 1880,
when he came to Illinois to live with his children. He died in the fall of '1882, at his son, Milan
Moore's. The maiden name of his wife was Philena Blish. She died May 14, 1832. The grand-
father of our subject served during the entire period of the revolution as a soldier. He was of
English ancestry, and possessed wonderful physical powers and activity, which he "retained to a
considerable extent up to the advanced age of ninety-three years.
Clifton H. Moore commenced his education in the common schools, and afterward completed
a thorough classical and scientific course under the instruction of a Presbyterian clergyman, at
Bedford, Ohio, and at Paynesville Academy, and Western Reserve Teachers' Seminary, taught
in the old Mormon Temple at Kirtland. While he was obtaining his education he taught school,
and gained a high reputation as an educator. After arriving at his majority, he came to Illinois,
and located at Pekin, entering the law office of Bagley and Wilmot. He assiduously applied
himself to the study of the law until he had mastered its elementary principles; passed a satis-
factory examination, and was admitted to the Illinois bar at Springfield in July, 1841; and in
August of that year he located in Clinton, De Witt county, being the pioneer attorney in that
county. His means consisted of a mind well informed in all matters pertaining to his profession,
and possessing the courage and untiring energy that has characterized him through life, he at
once entered upon a successful career as a lawyer, where he has remained ever since in the practice
of the law, and has amassed a large fortune.
Mr. Moore is a careful, painstaking lawyer. His examination of a subject is very thorough
and exhaustive, tracing principles to their source, and examining conflicting decisions with keen
analysis. His foresight is remarkable. He seldom fails in a case to which he has given his
mature deliberation. He is excellent counsel, and can express his ideas in cogent, logical lan-
guage. He is a shrewd manager in a lawsuit, but he always conducts all of his cases according
to the highest standard of professional ethics. He is true to himself, the courts, and his clients,
having great influence with the courts before whom he practices; for when he makes a statement
in regard to any fact in a case, or refers to a decision, he never attempts to mislead the court.
He has a fine law library, and in his luxurious home, which he well knows how to enjoy, he has
fitted a room, extending from the first floor to the roof, and ornamented it with numerous oil
paintings, engravings, and works of art, in which he has placed his magnificent library, selected
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 715
with great care and refined taste; the largest library in the state, excepting one or two. Except-
ing one only, it contains all of the principal encyclopaedias, historical and biographical works in
great numbers, and extensive classical translations in English; works of nearly all of the ancient
ad modern poets; scientific works, works of fiction, and many rare curiosities in literature,
including many ancient books that are not easily found elsewhere.
The dwelling house of Mr. Moore is a very handsome building, and is surrounded by ever-
greens and other ornamental trees. In the winter of 1883, these beautiful trees were heavily
loaded with sleet, frozen to their trunks and branches, and while this magnificent sight was in its
glory, sparkling like diamonds in the sun, Mr. Moore had photographs taken and enlarged of his
home and its surroundings, which he has preserved and added to his collections of pictures and
other beautiful things.
Personally, Mr. Moore is a gentleman who is celebrated for his liberality, and is considered a
public-spirited citizen, of broad views. He has a large circle of admiring friends, who prize him
for the true manhood that is in him, and his intellectual attainments. He is courteous and oblig-
ing, and in personal appearance is attractive, being of medium height, well proportioned, and
stoutly built, with a high, broad forehead, and dark eyes.
In 1852, in company with Hon. David Davis, he purchased large tracts of land, and they are
still the owners of many highly cultivated farms. Their interests in land are very extensive, and
Mr. Moore attends faithfully and with great ability to all of the details of this branch of business.
Mr. Moore, in political sentiments, is a republican, and was formerly a whig; but his extensive
professional and private business has so thoroughly occupied his time that he has refused to allow
his name to be used in connection with public office. However, he consented to become a member
of the constitutional convention in 1870, and made valuable contributions to its deliberations.
He was married, August 14, 1845, to Miss Elizabeth Richmond, of Tremont, Tazewell county,
Illinois, a lady of superior excellence, the daughter of Aronet Richmond, of Rhode Island. She
died May 30, 1871. He had by her five children, two of whom are now (1883) living, being Arthur
Moore and Mrs. Winifred Warner. In July, 1873, he was married to Miss Rose Onstine, an amia-
ble lady, highly accomplished and refined.
SAMUEL R. REED.
MONTICELLO.
THE subject of this sketch is a prominent lawyer, who has attained a high position by strict
attention to business and fidelity to his clients' interests. He is a well read lawyer, and is
equally efficient in all branches of the profession. He prepares his cases thoroughly, and as a
trial lawyer has few equals. His examination of a subject is very thorough; he sees the points in
a case clearly, and he can explain their details in a lucid, luminous manner. He is a logician of
the highest order, and he enlivens his discourses with apt illustrations and comparisons. He is
an eloquent advocate, and especially convincing on account of the sincerity and honesty of pur-
pose manifested by him, and which coincide with his character as manifested in his daily life.
For uprightness of character and unfeigned honesty, no lawyer at the bar surpasses him. In all
of his professional practice, he adheres to a high standard of professional ethics, and in all of his
business relations, never fails to do justice to all with whom he comes in contact.
Samuel R. Reed was born in Monroe county, Ohio, June 16, 1842, and is the son of Rev. Sam-
uel Reed, a Presbyterian clergyman, who was born at Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, and educated
at Cannonsburgh, and was graduated from the theological seminary at Allegheny City. His
mother was, before marriage, Miss Margarett Thompson. Samuel R. resided in Ohio until he was
eighteen years of age. He received a scientific and classical education in the high school, and
removed to Piatt county, Illinois, in 1860. He taught school and followed agricultural pursuits
after he came to Illinois. He studied law with Judge Smith, of Champaign, Illinois, about two
716 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,
years, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He commenced the practice of his profession at
Monticello in April, 1867, where he has been in the practice of the law ever since, doing an exten-
sive general practice. Of late he has been engaged in most of the important cases tried in
Piatt county. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1872, which office he held, giving the
utmost satisfaction, until 1875; but the duties of that office interfering materially with his prac-
tice, he resigned. In February, 1875, he was appointed master in chancery, which office he held
until 1879, declining a reappointment.
Mr. Reed was married, in 1863, to Miss Jennie Clouser. They have five children: George M.,
Erasmus E., Maggie L., Carl S. and Agnes D.
Mr. Reed is a quiet gentleman, yet of a social turn, courteous and obliging, and modestly
wears the laurels he has won.
H
HON. HENRY W. BLODGETT.
CHIC A GO.
ENRY WILLIAM BLODGETT stands prominent among the few men whose personal
and public history is inseparably connected with the jurisprudence of Illinois. His sound
and clear judgment, his achievements, his upright character, his unremitting labors in ascertain-
ing the right, and administering exact justice, have contributed largely to the high reputation
which attaches to the bench of the United States courts in the Northwest. He commenced prac-
tice during the formative period of the substantial jurisprudence of the West, and has been one
of its most important factors from that time until the present. Throughout the period, while the
great outlines of this jurisprudence were being established, and its foundations being laid upon
an enduring basis, one may trace the impress of his mind upon every important advance step.
Being so important a factor in formulating, and now in administering, he deserves the gratitude
of the public since the jurisprudence is an indispensable element to the growth, prosperity and
permanence of the commonwealth, conserving and harmonizing all other forces of civilization.
Without an impartial administration of law and justice, no form of popular government can long
survive. Judge Blodgett may be said to act with these considerations in view. In the investiga-
tion of the many important cases which come before him, he is guided solely by facts in evidence,
and the law applicable to them. His decisions are impartial, simple in style, lucid and forcible,
never sensational, florid or highly ornate ; he expresses his thoughts and opinions in a clear and
concise manner, not to be misunderstood, and with a pleasing diction. His fame rests mainly
upon his scholarly attainments, and his profound knowledge of common and statute law ; his
more important decisions are monuments of learning and research, and have won for him the
profound respect of the bench and bar. He is an indefatigable worker and constant student, and
has great power of concentration, a remarkable memory and a clear and accurate judgment.
Judge Blodgett was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1821. His parents removed to Illi-
nois when he was about ten years of age. His father was a blacksmith, his mother a woman of
superior education and refinement. Both were sincere and earnest, and devoted themselves to
the correct development and training of their children. When seventeen years of age Henry
went to the Amherst Academy one year, whence he returned to Illinois, and engaged in teaching
school, and subsequently, in land surveying until twenty-one years of age. In 1842 he com-
menced the study of law in the office of J. Y. Scammon and Norman B. Judd, in Chicago, and
three years later, in 1845, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Waukegan, Illi-
nois, where he still resides. In 1844 he voted the anti-slavery ticket, and has since been an
adherent of the anti-slavery and republican parties, remaining true to the principles and the cause
he then espoused. In 1852 he was elected to the general assembly of Illinois, being the first
avowed anti-slavery member who ever occupied a seat in that body, and in the following year
was elected to the state senate.
As a legislator he was one of the ablest and most useful, and was largely instrumental in
ppf
4 C C - , r a r .> & Co
LIB3A1Y
or THE
UNIVERSITY uf ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 719
shaping the legislation of the commonwealth, and in promoting the development of the immense
resources of Illinois, by internal improvements and otherwise. In 1855, and for a number of
years subsequently, he was associated with the legal department of the Chicago and North-West-
ern railway, of which he was one of the projectors. He was the pioneer in the building of the
then Chicago and Milwaukee railroad, on the lake shore from Chicago to Milwaukee, and was
identified with it in the several capacities of attorney, director and president. He procured the
charter for the road, and to his influence and personal efforts was mainly due the securing of the
money necessary to its construction. Later he was solicitor of the Michigan Southern, Fort
Wayne, Rock Island and North-Western roads, and retired when the business reached such pro-
portions that it was impossible for one man to attend to it. As a solicitor he was regarded as
the peer, indeed the superior of anyone in the Northwest. During all these years he had been
industrious and studious, and formed habits which have characterized his subsequent notable
career.
In 1870 he was appointed, by President Grant, judge of the United States district court for
the northern district of Illinois, and holds that position now (1883), discharging the duties of his
important trust with signal ability and fidelity. He brought to the bench varied legal learning,
a self-gained scholarship (for he is essentially a self-made man), wide experience and an emi-
nently judicial mind. His rulings and decisions will live as long as the jurisprudence of the
United States courts exists, and his history and name will outlive him. He is a model of benev-
olence and generosity in all the relations of life, and his deportment is characterized by courtesy
and unswerving impartiality. Magnanimous and pure in private and official life, he is a worthy
citizen, an upright judge and a true man. His deeds are indelibly written in the history of his
time so plainly that all may read. He has turned his abilities to good account in bettering
others, and developing in himself a noble manhood. Such is an outline of the life and career of
one who mapped out his own course, guided by the teachings and admonition of a noble mother
at the beginning, and inspired and impelled by a noble ambition to make the most of his powers.
How near he has "hewn to the line," let his life work tell, for in this one may find the true
measure of his success.
HENRY DECKER.
CHICAGO.
HENRY DECKER was born in Livonia, Livingston county, New York, December 4, 1832.
His ancestors on the father's side were among the earliest settlers on the Livingston
Manor, on the Hudson River. Henry Decker (the father) settled in Livingston county in 1795,
and was a farmer of means and influence. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. His mother's
(Martha Mather) ancestors were among the first settlers of Connecticut, and her father was a
pioneer in Ontario county, New York. The subject' of this sketch received his early education at
the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, in Lima, New York. Afterward he went to Genesee College,
now known as the Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, where he spent three years. After-
ward he entered Williams College, where he graduated in 1854. Immediately thereafter he
entered the law school of the Albany University, at Albany, New York. He was admitted to the
bar in 1850. The same year, in company with his brother-in-law and partner, Colonel George B.
Goodwin, now a distinguished lawyer in Milwaukee, he removed to Menasha, Wisconsin, and
entered upon the practice in that village. Here he was quite successful, but failing health caused
him, in 1859, to return to his old home in New York.
Having finally recovered his health, Mr. Decker began again the practice in his native county.
Here he was immediately successful, and became widely known as one of the best lawyers in that
section. He was engaged in most of the large cases in that locality, notably the Genesee College
case, in which it was sought to remove that college. He was retained by the citizens of Lima
and vicinity to prevent the removal, in which he was triumphant. He also became widely known
7
720 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
as a criminal lawyer, in which capacity he was called to Towanda, Pennsylvania, to prosecute
Henry Ward for the murder of Wesley E. Shader, the murderer being a man of large means, and
his victim of high social and business standing. This case is one of the causes ce'ttbres in the crim-
inal annals of Pennsylvania. In 1873 Mr. Decker removed to Chicago. Here again he became
almost immediately successful, but in a year or two his health again failed, and for two years he
was almost entirely unfitted for work in his profession. Regaining health, he again started out
to build up a practice in that stirring city, in which he was practically a stranger. In 1880, he
formed a partnership, under the name of Decker and Douglas, with Stephen A. Douglas, Jr., the
youngest son of the great Illinois senator, who had then just moved to Chicago from North Car-
olina. He is now of the firm of Bisbee, Ahrens and Decker.
In politics, Mr. Decker is a republican. In his religious faith, he is a Presbyterian, in which
church he is a communicant, and in whose Sunday schools he teaches a Bible class. He is a stu-
dent and a worker, a man of brains and character, who is most highly estimated by those who
know him best.
EMILIUS CLARK DUDLEY, M.D.
CHICAGO.
^T^HE subject of this sketch is a physician of much promise, having gained considerable dis-
i. tinction as an able practitioner and skillful surgeon at an early age. He was born May 29,
1850, at Westfield, Massachusetts, and is the son of John Harmon Dudley and Marana P. (Mason)
Dudley. His progenitor in the paternal line landed in Boston in 1638, and proceeded to Guil-
ford, Connecticut, and was one of the founders of that town. He belongs to the family of Dud-
leys connected with the colonial history of Massachusetts. Two of his father's family were
provincial governors of that state. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Dudley, and his brother,
Harmon, were in the revolutionary war; were large New England farmers, and were typical men of
their class. His father succeeded to the farm, but, having no taste for agriculture, became a school
teacher, and afterward engaged in mechanical pursuits, as a carpenter, contractor and builder.
His paternal grandmother was a sister of the late General Amos P. Granger, member of congress
from Syracuse, New York; a niece of the old postmaster general, Gideon Granger, and a daugh-
ter of Doctor William Granger, who practiced in Suffield, Connecticut, in the last century, and
was a physician of note.
His maternal grandfather was the village blacksmith in Belchertown, Massachusetts, a man of
originality, and good natural ability. He came to Bureau county, Illinois, in the prime of his
life, where he died, leaving his widow in Belchertown, Massachusetts, with a family of four sons
and three daughters, whom she reared respectably, by her own exertions, and also amassed a
small fortune. There is a legend that his mother's maternal great-grandfather, Hyde, was brought
to America in his infancy, by individuals interested in his inheritance. His mother's maternal
grandfather served as a sergeant in the revolutionary war.
Doctor Dudley attended the public schools in Westfield until the age of thirteen, when
at the death of his mother he became an under clerk in the wholesale drug house of J. W.
Colton, in Westfield, where he remained three years. He then attended the winter session of
four months at the village academy, and then was employed as chief clerk in Henry Holland's
drug store, where he remained nearly two years. He then went to Willeston Seminary, East
Hampton, where his father had been educated thirty years before, and made arrangements to
study the natural sciences for one year, but before fairly entering upon his studies at the institution
he was induced by an old friend, H. H. Scott, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, to devote
the year to studies preparatory for college. Accordingly, at the age of eighteen, in September,
1868, he went to Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, and commenced the studies of Latin,
Greek and geometry, and to these branches and such others as were requisite in his preparation
for college, gave his entire energy, with such assistance as Mr. Scott could give him, for a period
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 721
of ten months, at the end of which time he was admitted, at the regular June examination, to the
freshman class.
Returning to Westfield for the summer vacation, he found his father strenuously opposed
to his pursuing the course upon which he had entered, and for the following reasons: He
was unable to maintain his son through the college course ; he was disappointed that five
years' experience in the drug businessw as thus to be set aside; but perceiving that his objections
were to be disregarded, he generously offered to contribute from his own scanty means toward
the college expenses. For the following four years young Dudley could not have been idle,
because during all this time he not only maintained his standing in college, but also earned by
his own exertions sufficient money to pay more than two-thirds of all college expenses. The
remainder was contributed by his father, and to his credit be it said, at great personal sacrifice,
for his own means were then limited. It is said by one of his class that Doctor Dudley, during
his college course, besides keeping up with his class, found opportunities of earning a larger
amount of money than any other member of his class, and it may be said in this connection that
the students of Dartmouth are to a greater extent dependent for their education upon their own
exertions than are those of any other one of the more prominent eastern colleges. During these
four years he taught in Blandford, Southwick and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. During
his vacations he was engaged in various occupations, such as assisting the village physician, trav-
eling as a commercial salesman, etc. He spent one or two summer vacations on Georges Banks
as a fisherman before the mast.
He was graduated from the academical department of Dartmouth in June, 1873, having in the
senior year devoted a considerable amount of time outside of the regular course to the study of
anatomy. After graduation, he continued the study of medicine. His preceptors were Doctor
James Holland and E. C. Clark, of Westfield, and Doctor Robert Hubbard, of Bridgeport, Con-
necticut, but the greater part of his under-graduate studies were at New Haven, Connecticut,
where he attended his first course of lectures at the medical department of Yale College, and at
L'ong Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, where he attended his second course, and
graduated in June. 1875, as valedictorian of his class. During his professional career we again
find him self-supporting, by teaching private pupils Greek, Latin and mathematics.
After graduation in medicine the career of Doctor Dudley includes a number of changes in
location and seeming changes of plan, at least he would seem to have possessed a temperament
more than usually restless and impatient. He first proceeded to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where
for a few weeks he filled the position of resident physician at the West Pennsylvania Hospital.
About the middle of July, 1875, he came to Chicago, where he engaged in the practice of medi-
cine until the following June, but feeling himself unprepared for the more responsible work of
his profession, he returned to New York, and at once entered upon the duties of resident phy-
sician at Charity Hospital, Blackwell's Island. Here he remained only three months. October
i, 1876, he was appointed, by competitive examination, to a position on the house staff of the
Woman's Hospital, in the state of New York, the first hospital of the kind ever founded. This
hospital owes its fame to its founders, Doctor J. Marion Sims and Doctor Thomas Addis Emmet.
The latter brilliant surgeon, and others, such as Doctor Edmund R. Peaslee, Doctor Fordyce Bar-
ker and Doctor T. Gaillard Thomas, were then at its head. It was under the patronage of these
gentlemen that Doctor Dudley commenced the study of his specialty. He remained in this insti-
tution during the full term of service, eighteen months, serving successively as junior and senior
assistant, and as house surgeon. At the expiration of this term in April, 1878, he returned to
Chicago to engage in the general practice of his profession. But his practice early taking the
direction of the diseases of women, he soon gave his attention more especially to that depart-
ment.
In January, 1880, he founded the "Chicago Medical Review," a semi-monthly magazine,
devoted to medicine, surgery and the allied sciences, designed to circulate among physicians.
He continued to edit this periodical three years, and then relinquished his editorial connection
722 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
for the purpose of concentrating his energy in other professional work. Besides the editorial
writing during the first three years of the "Chicago Medical Review," he is the author of a
number of monographs on subjects pertaining to uterine surgery, published from time to time
since 1878.
In April, 1882, he was elected to the chair of the medical and surgical diseases of women in
Chicago Medical College, which is the medical department of Northwestern University. This
chair had for over twenty years been filled by his distinguished predecessor, Professor William
H. Byford, of Chicago. This professorship involves the giving of two lectures a week before the
senior class in the college, and a surgical clinic once a week in Mercy Hospital.
Doctor Dudley has gained his reputation more particularly with the profession than with the
public, and is more especially known in the surgical branch of his specialty.
June 29, 1882, he was married to Miss Anna M. Titcomb, of Winnetka, Illinois, a niece of the
late John L. King, the founder of the city library of Springfield, Massachusetts, of whose family
she was a member during the early years of her life. Their family consists of themselves and one
daughter, Katharine, born May n, 1883. The history of Doctor Dudley requires no comment;
the facts will speak for themselves.
HON. FRANCIS E. BRYANT.
BEMENT.
THE subject of this sketch is a native of New Hampshire, and is descended from the best of
New England stock. He was born in Nelson, February 3, 1818. His parents removed from
Massachusetts to New Hampshire in 1815. His grandfather Bryant was a member of the patriot
army, and served seven years, and was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and received a pension for his
services during the remainder of his life. Francis E. has a pocketbook which his grandfather
carried at the battle of Bunker Hill. The parents of Francis E. removed to Ohio in 1833, where
they followed the occupation of farming. His mother was, before marriage, Miss Betsy E.
Sprague, and taught school in her younger days. Francis E. was thoroughly educated and. pre-
pared to enter an eastern college, but he afterward changed his purposes, studied surveying, and
June 15, 1837, he removed to Schuyler county, Illinois, where he followed the occupation of sur-
veyor six years. He resided in Schuyler county nineteen years, and was married there July 4,
1840, to Miss Sarah E. Brisco, a daughter of Colonel George H. Brisco, a soldier of the war of
1812, and formerly a resident of Mercer county, Kentucky. He removed to Bement'july 26, 1856,
and engaged in the grain, salt and lumber trade, opening the first merchandise stiore of the place
May 18, 1857. From that time until the present he has been the leading business man of that
place, and has been instrumental in building up that town and developing its resources more than
any other individual. He is a man of untiring energy, with excellent business talent. His judg-
ment is unerring, and he is one of the cool, clear-headed business men to whom the Great North-
west owes its marvelous development, and unparalleled prosperity. He has amassed a handsome
fortune, is largely interested in real estate in Bement, owning six stores, the bank building, and a
large amount of other property, both personal and real.
The community in which Mr. Bryant has resided has not been slow to recognize his merits.
In 1852 he was elected from Schuyler county to the eighteenth general assembly, where he served
with distinction, at once advancing to a leadership, and was honored by being placed on several
of the most important committees. He was also elected to represent the counties of Piatt and
Champaign, in the twenty-eighth general assembly, where he devoted his time and attention
strictly to the interests of his constituency. His associates confided in his judgment, and his clear,
well trained mind was found as valuable in shaping the legislation of the state as it had been in
his ever-successful business career.
He took an active part in the organization of the Masonic lodge of Bement, and was appointed
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
723
by the grand lodge its first master, in which capacity he served three years. Mr. Bryant has trav-
eled considerably in this country, and spent the summer of 1878 in traveling over Europe. In
1882 Mr. Bryant erected an elegant residence which for beauty of design and artistic finish has
no equal in that part of the state. It is one of the pleasantest and most luxurious homes in
the West. He has been in the banking business for the last twelve years. He is the father of
six children, only one of whom, Mrs. Bruer Sprague, is living. Their two grandchildren, Edwin
and Frank Sprague, cheer the declining years of Mr. and Mrs. Bryant.
Mr. Bryant is a courteous, affable gentleman, in whose integrity and uprightness all confide,
who are favored with his acquaintance.
W. E. LODGE.
MONTICELLO.
OF the reliable and highly respected attorneys of central Illinois we are pleased to record the
name of W. E. Lodge. He is well read in all the branches of his profession, is accurate in
the details of office business, and is a good trial lawyer. He examines a subject very exhaustively,
tracing principles to their source, and can enforce his ideas'by cogent, logical reasoning. W. E.
Lodge is a native of Ohio, and was born at Mount Hope, Hamilton county, December 8,' 1834.
He removed with his parents to Edgar county, Illinois, in 1837. He is self-educated, and has
added rich stores of information every year of his life, by general reading.
He studied law in the office of Green and Eads, of Paris, Illinois, two years. He removed to
Piatt county, Illinois, February 4, 1859, and was admitted to the bar the following March, and
has been in the successful practice of the law ever since.
Mr. Lodge is an honorable, upright gentleman, and a citizen who stands high, and is respected
by all for his true manhood and intellectual attainments. He has the confidence of the courts
before whom he practices, the good will of his professional brethren, and the admiration of his
many clients.
He was married January 30, 1868, to Miss Frances Piatt, an estimable lady, daughter of Will-
iam H. Piatt, and granddaughter of James A. Piatt, one of the pioneers of Piatt county, and for
whom it was named. They have four children, William F., James P. and Charles V. (twins), and
Paul E.
o
OWEN P. MILES.
MOUNT CARROLL.
WEN PHILIPS MILES, cashier of the First National Bank, Mount Carroll, dates his birth.
June 3, 1832, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where his father, Nathaniel Miles, Jr., and his
grandfather, Nathaniel Miles, Sr., were also born. The former was a mechanic and farmer at the
East; moved to Mount Carroll in 1854, and here died in 1867. He was a deacon of the Mount
Carroll Baptist Church, and a man highly esteemed by the community. He married Sarah
Philips, of Pennsylvania, and she died in 1854. She was a granddaughter of Joseph Philips,
who was born in Wales in 1716; came to this country in 1755, and settled at first near West
Chester, Pennsylvania. From his sons have sprung a large family of Philipses, now scattered
over most of the eastern and western states, representing the various industries and profes-
sions. A very pleasant reunion of the family was held at the Vincent Baptist Church, in Chester
county, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1877, when hundreds of the descendants of Joseph Philips were
present. They are largely a Baptist people, with a liberal representation of ministers and deacons
among them. The family is also noted for its longevity, showing that there is a vast deal of life
in the Welsh blood.
Owen was educated in the common schools of Chester county; farmed till nearly of age; was
724 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
then a clerk in a country store for two or three years, and came to Carroll county with the family
in 1854. He commenced business here in January, 1855, as bookkeeper in the flouring mill, in
which he purchased an interest about 1860, and which he retained till two or three years ago. In
1877 he became cashier of the First National Bank of Mount Carroll, one of the best managed
and most substantial institutions of the kind in Carroll county, and that position he still holds,
the president being Duncan Mackay.
Mr. Miles has held various town offices, and in 1859 was elected county treasurer, and by re-
peated reelections held that office until the close of 1873, a period of fourteen years. He is one
of those safe and reliable men on whom the citizens of the county like to bestow offices of trust.
He is a member of the Baptist Church, and of its board of trustees. He is also an Odd-Fellow,
and has passed the several chairs in that order.
The wife of Mr. Miles was Miss Hannah Shirk, who was from Franklin count}', Pennsylvania,
and to whom he was joined in marriage October 15, 1857. They have buried two children and
have seven living, their names, as recorded in "The History of Carroll County," being Joseph,
Charles K., Jacob H., Adoniram Judson, Jessie F., Susan R., and Mary D.
PROF. WALTER C. LYMAN.
CHICAGO.
WALTER C. LYMAN was born February 6, 1838, in La Porte county, state of Indiana. In
the same year his father and family removed to Geneva, in the state of New York, where
our subject passed his boyhood, and received his early education. In 1852 he, with the family,
returned to his native state, and settled at Edinburgh, and soon after commenced a course of
studies at Franklin College, in the state of Indiana, from which school he graduated _with distin-
guished honors in his class, in the year 1857.
He soon after removed to the city of Keokuk, Iowa, and opened a literary and news depot and
book store, and to add to his income in this, his first business enterprise, he made a contract for
carrying the "Daily Gate City," a periodical of Keokuk. In the meantime, our subject was pre-
paring himself for the stage, having a strong inclination and determination to make that his call-
ing, but through the influence of his parents and friends, he abandoned his purpose, and prepared
himself for the profession to which he has devoted his life with such unparalleled success.
In 1861 he was appointed professor of elocution in Asbury University, of Indiana, but upon
the opening of the civil war, he, April 19, 1861, enlisted in the i4th regiment, Indiana infantry,
and was chosen first lieutenant. After serving two years with his regiment, and sharing the for-
tunes of " stern-visaged war," he resigned on account of ill health. In 1863, recovering his health,
he returned to the army, in connection with the 3oth Iowa regiment, and was employed as drill
master in military tactics and manual of arms.
He at one time acted as aid-de-camp on the staff of General Wyman, in the White River expe-
dition. After the close of the war, he again resumed his calling of teaching elocution, opening a
school for instruction in the science or art of voice training, and public speaking, at Saint Louis,
Missouri, where he remained some three years. In 1868 he removed to the city of New York, and
there followed his profession until 1875, when he came to Chicago, where he has since been
engaged in his profession, with unrivaled success.
Mr. Lyman was educated a Presbyterian, and brought up under strict discipline, but is liberal
in his religious sentiments and belief. In politics he is now, and always has been, a consistent
republican. Mr. Lyman has been married twice. He first married Miss E. B. (Seleck) Swan, a
teacher of anatomy and physiology, a highly educated lady. His second marriage occurred
December u, 1879, he being united in wedlock to Miss Marie E. Boyce, of Geneva, New York, a
most estimable lady.
Prof. Lyman is about medium height, of fine personal bearing ; has a pleasing address and
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 725
manners. He stands in the first rank of his profession, and has traveled throughout the Union,
lecturing and teaching elocution. Socially, Mr. Lyman is welcomed in the best society, and is
fully appreciated by the literati of Chicago, as wherever his ability and fame is known in his pro-
fession.
He is often invited to give recitations by the literary religious societies, for the purpose of
raising funds for benevolent purposes.
Professor Lyman is eminently social, and being a natural born actor, it is an entertainment
to spend an evening or a lesson hour at his rooms, where friends are at suitable times made wel-
come. He is still young in years, and in his profession, and may still hope to achieve greater
honors and still brighter laurels in the future of his life.
GEORGE HERBERT.
CHICAGO.
GEORGE HERBERT was born at Ellsworth, in the state of Maine, September 7, 1815. Mr.
Herbert was . a descendant from legal stock, his father, George Herbert, who was a
native of Deerfield, old Hampshire county, Massachusetts, was bred to the profession of the law;
he was a student of Dartmouth College, having graduated from that institution in 1800. He read
law with Judge Theodore Sedgwick, a great lawyer, and one of the judges of the old supreme
court.
Mr. Herbert, the elder, was inspired by the magnetic influence. This great man, the ancestor
of three generations of distinguished lawyers, as a soldier, politician, statesman, philanthropist
and judge, filled so many positions of honor and .responsibility in the state and nation. With his
earnestness and zeal, he entered on his profession at Ellsworth, Maine, in 1803, and closed his
short and busy life in 1820, when the subject of this sketch, his eldest living son, was but four
years of age. Hon. William Willis, in his " Law and Lawyers of Maine," has devoted more than
twenty pages of his book, one of the most interesting, and to a lawyer most fascinating, books of
its kind, to a notice of the elder Mr. Herbert. An interesting fact is that Judge Sedgwick was
the author of the ordinance of 1787, under which the northwestern territory, including all north-
west of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi Rivers, was ceded by Virginia to the United States,
justly considered as the Magna Charta of five of our most magnificent states.
The maiden name of our subject's mother was Charlotte Tuttle; she was a native of Middle-
sex county, Massachusetts.
Young Herbert obtained such education as the schools of his native town afforded. He early
had opportunities to receive an academic course by attending a select school under the tutelage
of the Rev. Peter Nausse, a truly great educator at Ellsworth, a man that comprehended the
philosophy of the sciences he taught, and a man of genius in his day, a half a century at least
ahead of his compeers. In 1831, Mr. Herbert commenced a classical course at Amherst College,
where he continued until 1834, when, being threatened .with pulmonary consumption, he was
forced to abandon his studies; but he rose above the impending disease, which has always pursued
him. In 1834 he commenced reading law at Ellsworth, with Hon. J. W. Hathaway (subsequently
a judge of the supreme court of the state), and afterward continued the study of his profession
with the firm of McGaw, Allen and Poor, at Bangor. In February, 1837, he was admitted to the
bar, and immediately took the office and business of Judge Hathaway, at Ellsworth, he having
arranged to remove to Bangor and practice his profession in that city.
Mr. Herbert continued in business at the place of his nativity until 1854, when he removed to
Chicago. For the first three years of his residence in the city he engaged in mercantile pursuits,
after which, in 1857, he again resumed the practice of the law. He followed his profession alone
until 1871, when he formed a copartnership with John H. S. Quick, constituting the firm of Her-
bert and Quick, practicing in all the courts, state and national, at Chicago, and surrounding cir-
726 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
cuits. In 1876, John S. Miller was associated with them as a partner. This firm, under the
name and style of Herbert, Quick and Miller, are still practicing, and their names are associated
with, and they are connected with, some of the most important suits claiming the attention of the
courts of Chicago.
Mr. Herbert has had a large chancery practice, and is thoroughly familiar with the principles
and practice of courts of equity, and is very thorough in his investigation of cases, and careful in
making up his opinion in cases intrusted to his management. He is firm and tenacious in his
views and position when once formed; he is a safe counselor, and a reliable representative of his
clients' rights; a man of integrity, and stands in his profession without reproach.
Mr. Herbert was married at Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1840, to Miss Theresa T. Ames,
daughter of Pliny Ames, a lawyer of Franklin county, Massachusetts.
GEORGE D. HAWORTH.
DECA TUR.
OF the enterprising and successful men of Illinois, we are pleased to record the name of
George D. Haworth. He was born in Clinton county, Ohio, November 29, 1833, and is the
son of Mahlon Haworth, who was born in Ohio. His grandfather was also named Mahlon
Haworth. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were natives of Virginia. His remote
progenitors on the maternal line were English Quakers, and his grandfather on his father's side
was also r a Quaker. His mother before marriage was Miss Sarah J. Woolman, a relative of John
Woolman, the early Quaker preacher and opponent of slavery. She was a native of Clark county,
Ohio. Her grandmother was a Newton, a daughter of Samuel Newton, a cousin of Sir Isaac
Newton.
George D. spent his boyhood on a farm near Port William, in Clinton county, and he enjoyed
and well improved the privileges afforded by the excellent school system in that part of Ohio,
which was well settled at that time. But by close observation, and much general reading, he has
abundantly added rich stores of knowledge, and perfected his education in later years.
The discovery of gold in California had drawn great numbers of enterprising men to the
Pacific slope, and in the spring of 1852 he made the most important venture in life on his own
account. In company with his next older brother, Uriah E., he set out to try his fortune in the
gold regions of the new Eldorado. Their route was by boat from Cincinnati to Saint Joseph,
Missouri ; thence they started with a wagon train across the plains. Their journey was prosper-
ous and pleasant until they had traveled westward several hundred miles, when his brother was
taken sick, and he was obliged to return with him to Saint Joseph, where he died. This unfortu-
nate incident ended his trip to California, and, in company with his father, he commenced his
journey homeward through Illinois, and the favorable impressions gained by them as they passed
through this state induced his father to remove with his family to Illinois the following autumn
(1853), settling on a farm near Mechanicsburgh, \n Sangamon county.
Mr. Cyrus Correll and Doctor A. J. Randall, citizens of Mechanicsburgh, had been experi-
menting for a considerable length of time, with the purpose of constructing a corn-planting
machine, the need of which was greatly felt by farmers. Although Mr. Haworth had never regu-
larly learned a trade, he was a good workman at the lighter kinds of blacksmithing. From his
earliest boyhood he had manifested a taste for mechanical pursuits, and had become familiar
with the working of various kinds of machinery. These gentlemen, accordingly, called upon
him. He was then nearly twenty years old. The experiments were carried on during the winter
f l8 53~4> and by the following spring two hundred corn planters were ready for sale, some of
the main features of which were Mr. Haworth's invention. These were the first corn planters
ever placed on the market. Though crude and imperfect in comparison with those now made,
they worked successfully. The corn was dropped by means of a trigger, and the machine was
drawn by one horse. They were largely sold, but were finally superseded by the two-horse planters.
H.C.C.o f ,r Jr 4 !
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 729
His attention having been attracted to the manufacture of labor-saving agricultural imple-
ments, he began to consider the feasibility of constructing corn harvesters and reaping machines^
In 1857 he went to Ohio, on account of the greater facilities for the manufacture of new machin-
ery then existing in that state, and began work at Xenia. He invented a corn harvester, which
was patented, July 21, 1857, to be used for shocking corn, a machine having many excellent
points, but its great expense prevented it from going into general use. He removed from Xenia
to Dayton. In 1858 he invented a combined reaper and corn harvester, a number of which were
manufactured and sold. These machines worked well, but their construction on a successful
scale requiring a large amount of capital, they were never made extensively.
Returning to Illinois in 1859, he invented a two-horse corn planter, and began their manufact-
ure in 1860 at Mechanicsburgh. In 1861 he manufactured these machines at Decatur, to which
place his father had removed in 1857, and then went to Springfield, where he was engaged in their
manufacture, in company with John C. Lamb, until 1870. Other makers of corn planters still
use some of the essential principles patented by him. While manufacturing the corn planters, he
had seen the necessity for some invention to regulate by machinery the dropping of the corn from
the planter and in 1866 began experimenting, with a view to meeting this difficulty, which experi-
ments resulted in the Haworth Check Rower, "completed in 1869, being the first check rower ever
invented, giving at once great satisfaction. In the fall of 1869, he was associated as a partner
with his father, Mahlon Haworth, and his brothers, L. L. and James W. Haworth, and began the
manufacture of check rowers. During the season of 1870, three hundred were sold. The next year
the sales increased to two thousand, and in each succeeding year the demand has been increased.
The Haworth manufacturing establishment is one of the features of Decatur, and has contrib-
uted extensively to its reputation as a manufacturing center. Both wire and rope check rowers
are manufactured. Various improvements have been made since their first invention, and great
care is taken in their construction, in which only simple principles are involved. The great sav-
ing of time, labor and expense to the farmer, has made their use very popular, and durjng the
last few seasons, the number sold has been limited only by the capacity to manufacture them.
He was married at Springfield in June, 1863, to Miss Kizzie McCandlers, daughter of Robert
McCandlers. She was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and died in 1870. His present wife,
to whom he was married, December 27, 1876, was Miss Mary E. Grunendike, a native of Monroe
county, New York. She was born near the city of Rochester, and is the daughter of Captain
Reuben A. Grunendike, a native of the same county, who removed, in 1861, to Illinois. Mrs.
Haworth gained a high reputation as a teacher, an occupation she followed previous to her mar-
riage in the schools of Decatur, where she was very successful.
Mr. Haworth has led the quiet life of a private citizen, and has never taken an active part in
public affairs. He is known, however, as a man of the highest personal character, and as a lib-
eral public-spirited man.
He went to California in 1881 and traveled over the state quite extensively, visiting interesting
points. He has recently invented a corn planter, a very fine and useful invention, more perfectly
adapted to the check rower than those in present use.
His genius for invention has brought him wealth, which he has bestowed with a liberal hand.
He has contributed largely toward giving Decatur a reputation as a city of fine residences. In
addition to other fine residences built by him heretofore, in 1882 he built a magnificent residence,
in which he now lives, on the corner of Jackson and El Dorado streets. For elegance in design,
and fine finish, it has few equals.
On religious subjects his views are liberal and progressive, and differ somewhat from the
doctrines maintained by orthodox denominations. From his father, who was an early anti-
slavery man, and was called an abolitionist, in the days when the term was a synonym with
unpopularity, he inherited views in opposition to slavery, which attached him to the republican
party from its first foundation.
Amid the cares of busy life, he has found time to indulge his natural tastes for fine literature.
71
73
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
While he has never sought distinction, nor cared to come into public prominence, his name
deserves mention as one of that class who have been of the greatest benefit to the West, in revo-
lutionizing agriculture, and placing in the hands of the tiller of the soil, in place of the slow and
laborious implements of fifty years ago, machinery that enables one man to do the work of ten.
HUGH CUNNING.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this biography, a son of Patrick Cunning and Elizabeth (Nowry) Cunning,
was born March 22, 1824, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a native of Coldrain,
on the river Ban, North of Ireland, whence he emigrated to America in 1822, settling first at Bal-
timore, Maryland, but shortly afterward removing to Pittsburgh. The mother of our subject was
of Scotch descent.
The boy first began attending school when he was five years old, in his native city; but two
years later, his father, being unsuccessful in business in the city, leased a farm, and removed his
family thither. The soil was poor, and it was only by dint of hard work that he could gain a
livelihood, and give his boy the education which he desired. At that day the log school house,
with it huge fire place, was to be seen in every district, and people were strangers to all those
improved methods of instruction and educa'tional appliances which characterize the public schools
of to-day. Yet the society was good, and the farmers in their primitive and simple homes were
happy and contented.
Our subject early developed a fondness for study and self culture, and so applied himself to
his studies, together with general and useful reading, that when sixteen years of age he was well
fitted for teaching. After teaching two terms, he took a trip through the states of Illinois, Wis-
consin and Iowa, and was so much pleased with the country and the enterprise which he every-
where saw exhibited, that he resolved to induce his father to remove to the West. In this, how-
ever, he was unsuccessful, since the old gentleman was firm in his determination not to "go out
among the Indians." Nevertheless, he did induce his father to leave the place in which he was
then living, and purchase a large farm near Beaver, twenty-eight miles from Pittsburgh. Here
he employed his time managing the farm during summers, and through the winter months pur-
sued his studies, often poring over his books until the hour of midnight. Thus he continued to
work and study until 1850, when, all incumbrances being removed from the homestead, and feel-
ing that he could be spared by his father, he began studying for the profession which he had long
desired to enter, and which he has since honored.
Entering the office of Hon. S. B. Wilson, an eminent lawyer of Beaver, he applied himself
assiduously for two years, at the end of which time he passed an examination before the author-
ized examining committee, and received his license admitting him to practice. Immediately there-
after, he removed to Port Washington, Wisconsin, and opening an office, began the work of
building up a business, and making for himself a name. He remained at Port Washington until
1869, and became widely known throughout the state of Wisconsin, being associated in many
cases with Hon. Matt H. Carpenter, and Hon. Edward G. Ryan, late chief-justice of the supreme
court of that state. Mr. Cunning was attorney in many important cases, one especially deserving
of mention being reported in the sixteenth volume, " Wisconsin Reports." It was a case growing
out of a resistance to the draft during the war, the Germans who were drafted charging fraud
upon the officials. Being infuriated at what they regarded unfair treatment, it became necessary
to call in the aid of the United States troops, and one hundred and thirty of them were placed
under arrest. Assisted by E. G. Ryan, Mr. Cunning applied for writs of habeas corpus, which
were granted by the supreme court of the state, and when the matter was presented before that
tribunal, the parties were released. From the exciting causes leading to the trouble, and the
large number of persons interested in the issue, the case probably created more attention than
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 73!
any other case that ever came before the courts of that state, and out of it grew a number of very
important cases, in which Mr. Cunning was employed as attorney. During his residence at Port
Washington, he became known not only as an able lawyer and advocate, but also as an enterpris-
ing and public-spirited citizen. In 1859 he was honored with the appointment of collector of
customs, but declined the office. In the following year, 1860, he was elected to the state senate,
and during the term of his office, two years, represented his district with distinguished ability.
Among his services may be mentioned the securing of a grant of land for a colony in San Salva-
dor, Central America, with free transportation by the government of San Salvador. The favorite
scheme was, however, rendered impracticable, by reason of the opening of the war of the rebel-
lion, and abandoned.
After leaving Wisconsin, in 1869, Mr. Cunning settled in Chicago and resumed the practice of
his profession, and until his health became impaired, in 1879, was constantly and actively em-
ployed. As a lawyer, he is careful and conscientious, thoroughly investigating the law of his
cases, while as an advocate, though singularly unostentatious, his arguments are strong and
effective.
His religious training was under Roman Catholic influences. In political sentiment he is a
democrat, but since settling in Chicago he has given little attention to politics more than to per-
form his duties as a citizen.
Mr. Cunning was married, in 1857, to Catharine Kenna, a niece of N. Kenna, a merchant of
Fort Washington, Wisconsin.
Mr. Cunning's disease, epilepsy, being pronounced incurable by his physicians, the pathology
of that ailment remaining unknown to the profession, he went to work with a will to study the dis-
ease, in which, after several years, he has been entirely successful, and is now preparing a work
on the pathological anatomy of the complaint, which he hopes will not only render the prevention
and cure of this and kindred maladies possible, but sure and simple. After the completion of this
work, he will again resume the practice of his profession.
MAJOR VESPASIAN WARNER.
CLINTON.
VESPASIAN WARNER, a rising lawyer of rare natural abilities and fine attainments, is a
native of Illinois, and was born April 23, 1842, in De Witt county. He is the son of Doctor
John Warner, of Clinton, a native of Virginia, a prominent banker and business man, accom-
plished and highly respected for his intelligence and purity of character. He has a brilliant
record as lieutenant-colonel of the 4151 Illinois infantry. The mother of Vespasian, before mar-
riage, was Miss Cynthia A. Gardiner.
Vespasian commenced his education in the public schools, and completed it in Lombard Uni-
versity, Galesburgh, Illinois. In the winter of 1860 he entered the law office of Moore and
Greene, of Clinton, where he pursued the study of the law with great diligence until the spring
of 1861, when the war of the rebellion broke out, and he entered the army, and after a service of
five years, was brevetted major.
He afterward pursued a course of study in the law department of Harvard University, at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from that institution. He was admitted to the bar in
1867, and in 1868 formed a partnership with C. H. Moore, and has continued in that connection
in the practice of the law ever since that time, doing a very extensive business. Major Warner
is well read in all the different branches of his profession, and has a retentive memory. His mind
is well stored with useful information, from which he draws at will. He has a copious flow of
language, and some of his forensic efforts have been pronounced very eloquent. He is a ready
speaker, and is considered the ablest advocate in the part of the" state where he resides. He pre-
pares his cases for trial with great diligence, and always goes into court with a thorough knowl-
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edge of his case, and can readily produce the authorities that sustain his propositions. He sees
his subject clearly, and is enabled to express his conclusions with great force and clearness. He
is a logician of high order, and often enlivens his discourses with illustrations and comparisons.
He has attained a very high rank at the bar, and seems destined to rise still higher, and ulti-
mately reach the highest anticipations of his many admiring friends. He is a man of unspotted
integrity, and has the universal confidence and respect of the community in which he moves.
Personally, he is very attractive. He is tall and slender, with a graceful figure; has a well shaped
head, keen black eyes, dark hair, and classic features, and is polished and refined and urbane in
his manners.
He was married to Miss Winifred Moore, March 26, 1868, an estimable, accomplished, and
highly educated lady, the daughter of C. H. Moore, of Clinton.
MARVIN A. LAWRENCE.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch was born June 12, 1820, on the Susquehanna River, in Otsego
township, Otsego county, New York. His parents, Charles and Hannah Lawrence, came
from Hartford. Connecticut, and lived for thirty-three years on the farm where he was born. His
ancestors were of Scotch origin, and immigrated to this country at an early day, settling in the
New England states. Marvin received his early education at home institutions, much of it being
acquired by the light of a tallow candle. He left a clerkship in a store at Norwich, New York, in
the fall of 1837, being determined to strike out for himself, and immigrated to Girard, Erie county,
Pennsylvania, which was then considered in the Far West. There he engaged in the manufacture
of carriages, sleighs, etc.
February 3, 1843,. he married Miss C. M. Hall, daughter of John Hall, one of the oldest set-
tlers of that section. In 1845 ne removed to Newark, Ohio, where he followed merchandising.
Three years later he moved to Evansville, Indiana, then a city of 12,000 inhabitants, where pros-
perity attended him in various kinds of business. During the first twelve years he carried on
extensive marble works. At the beginning of the war he was interested in a boot and shoe and
hat and cap house, also crockery and glassware, and had a large country store at Princeton,
Indiana, twenty-five miles distant. The last three establishments he bought of rebel sympathiz-
ers, who wanted to leave Evansville and enlist in the southern cause.
In 1850 he became a stockholder in the Canal Bank, just organizing, and was a director of the
same until 1866. With an authorized capital of $500,000 and a large surplus, it was the first bank
in Evansville to change to a national bank. He afterward helped to organize the Merchants'
National Bank in that city. For a number of years he had charge of the southern end of the
Wabash and Erie canal, from Terre Haute to Evansville, a distance of one hundred and ten miles,
the whole line extending from Toledo to Evansville. In 1863 he was a large contributor to and
spent much time in superintending the building and completing of the Walnut Street Presby-
terian Church, of which he was a trustee and afterward a member. His numerous busi ness interests
prevented him from going into active service during the civil war, but he was instrumental in the
enlistment of two others, for whose families he helped to provide during the term of their service.
In the spring of 1866 he removed with his family, consisting of two sons and one daughter, to
Chicago, where he invested in real estate, and entered into commission business, controlling one
of the leading houses of the city. The first three years, his business was largely remunerative,
but afterward severe losses were sustained through the fraud and deception of others. He then
began the buying and selling of real estate, but the great fire of 1871 and panic of 1873 caused
further losses, and finally, struggling against fate, he decided to leave his family in Chicago and
pull out for Leadville, Colorado, which was then becoming the great mining center of the state
of Colorado.
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He arrived at Leadville May 25, 1879, loaded with dust accumulated during a ride of thirteen
hours in the stage. He there secured the services of a miner, whose experience of eighteen years
in the mountains enabled him to read formations as one would a book. They loaded a little
burro or Jack with a miner's outfit, and started for the mountain ranges and gulches on a pros-
pecting tour. Exposure to winds, snow storms and rain had no terror for them. They would
sometimes find in the morning an additional blanket of snow, but as they were after the almighty
dollar, failure was not thought of. This and other trips of like nature resulted in the securing of
some valuable prospects in fissure veins, many of them located in the now famous Mosquito
Gulches, about ten'miles east of Leadville, in Park county, Colorado. Among the number is the
Bonanza King, from which valuable ore was taken last fall and winter, creating a great sensation
in the camp. The same season he commenced running a tunnel in the Cornucopia mine, located
in South Mosquito Gulch. .Storms and hard rock caused the failure of four different contracts,
but by indomitable will and remaining with the miners, eating and sleeping with them in an old
log cabin, with dirt floor, often covered with snow in the morning, with work progressing at the
rate of three to four inches per day in the tunnel, he finally broke through the solid granite walls,
at a distance of forty-six and a half feet from the mouth of the tunnel, on to a fissure vein, that
proved to be over ten feet wide, composed of decomposed quartz. Being thus fully rewarded for
his energy and persevei*ance, he filled a sack with seventy pounds of the ore, and walked on snow
shoes, the snow being from three to six feet in depth, with the ore on his back, a distance of three
quarters of a mile, where he obtained a horse that carried him to Alma. There the ore was
tested, and found to contain from one to three and a half ounces of gold to the ton, besides some
silver. He sent the following dispatch to his family at Chicago: "Found fissure vein in Cornu-
copia better than expected; home soon." It was good news for them, for during three years he
had been deprived of the society of his family, and home comforts about three-fourths of the
time. He now has eight lodes, consisting of large fissure veins in Mosquito Gulches, besides
seven in other places. He ran fourteen tunnels last summer, and will return in the spring of 1883
to continue the work begun!
DENIS J. SWENIE.
CHICAGO.
DENIS J. SWENIE has been connected with the fire department of this city for over a third
of a century. He was chiefly instrumental in introducing steam instead of hand engines,
and he organized the department in its present paid form, displacing thereby the old volunteer
system. He has been a fireman from his boyhood, and has not only thoroughly mastered the
practical work of his profession, but has entered into the difficult scientific problems always pre-
sented in a conflagration. He is possessed of a strong analytical mind, and readily seizes upon
any new fact, labels it, and arranges it in his collection for future use. He is also practical to an
unusual degree, and progressive as well, and is quick to discern the best method of meeting an
emergency, and as ready to adopt an improvement suggested by another as one invented by him-
self. His mind is always on the alert for better methods and new appliances to meet the enemy,
and hence the Chicago Fire Department has become noted the world over, not only for its mar-
velous efficiency, but for being always fully abreast of the times. In order to be fully posted in
everything pertaining to his department, Mr. Swenie has, at different times, made the tour of all
the principal cities of America, and is always on hand at conventions and tournaments. Every
year something is added to the appliances under his control, and the efficiency of the department
visibly increased. In the management of the force nothing is left to chance; every company,
every engine, and every man is at all times as much under the direction and control of the chief
as the organs of the body are under the direction of the head. Through the wonderful fire-
alarm telegraph system, which went into operation in 1865, the exact location and condition of
736 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
every portion of the force horses, engines and men is always known to the chief, and their
duties in any extraordinary emergency directed by him. A clear and comprehensive system of
laws regulates the force under all ordinary conditions, so that the whole department is a vast and
complicated machine, yet working for the purposes designed with wonderful regularity and effi-
ciency.
Among the excellent improvements which have been introduced by Mr. Swenie, may be men-
tioned a very important invention by a member of the department Mr. John Ashworth. It is
called the portable stand pipe and water tower, and consists of a series of pipes telescoping into
each other, and running up at will from thirty to sixty-five feet, and which may be inclined at any
angle or turned in any direction by machinery at the base. Four engines can be worked on this
one pipe, and a two-inch stream thrown from the top and forced the extraordinary distance of
two hundred feet horizontally if necessary. By this means the firemen can largely avoid the
dangerous and slow methods of ladder duty, and yet have the whole burning front of a building
under control, and when necessary, send a powerful stream through its entire length. Mr. Swenie
himself first suggested the idea, and the ingenious mind of Mr. Ashworth went to work at once
to solve the problem. Fortunately enough funds had been saved from the annual appropriations
for repairs to carry on the experiments and to complete a perfect machine, so that the department
had not to wait the slow and tedious action of the city fathers, but werft energetically to work,
and in November, 1882, after several most satisfactory trials, it was adopted and put at once into
the service. The patentees are Mr. Ashworth, the foreman, and C. S. Petrie, the superintendent
of the repair shop, and the city gets the right to make and use an indefinite number for all time
to come, for the time spent by its employes and the money used to bring it to perfection. We
mention this incident to show how ready Mr. Swenie is to keep fully abreast of the times, and
support or adopt any improvement in the working of his department.
Mr. Swenie is of Irish parentage, and first saw the light of day in the city of Glasgow, July
20, 1834. He is, therefore, not yet fifty years old, and is as robust, vigorous and active as most
men who are many years his junior. He remained in "Bonnie Scotia" till fifteen years old, and
received such schooling as the public schools of Glasgow could furnish. In 1848 he came directly
to Chicago, and served an apprenticeship with C. E. Peck, at that time chief of the Chicago fire
department, at harness making; leather hose, fire hats, and other fireman's supplies were also
manufactured in the shop. That very year he joined hose company number 3, connected with
engine company number 3, as hose boy, and which was subsequently changed to Niagara engine
company number 3. His enthusiasm and efficiency increasing with his experience, he was elected
assistant foreman of Red Jacket engine company number 4, in 1852. This was for a time the
"crack" company of the city, and among its most efficient members enrolled the names of the
five Quirk brothers, who were afterward members of Colonel Mulligan's 23d Illinois infantry.
This company disbanded in 1854, reorganized in 1855 as the "Humane," was changed to its origi-
nal name, and finally disbanded in 1858, after the organization of the paid department.
In 1856 Mr. Swenie was elected first assistant engineer of the department, and in 1858 suc-
ceeded Silas McBride as chief. October 17, 1857, occurred the great fire on Water and Lake
streets, when twenty-three lives were lost, seven being firemen. Mr. Swenie had charge of the
diggers, and recovered eighteen of the twenty-three bodies supposed to be lost. This fire awoke
the authorities to a consciousness of the inferiority of hand to steam fire engines, and the import-
ance of greater efficiency in their fire department to meet the growing needs of the Garden City.
The press began the agitation, and in the following November the council ordered a new steam
engine capable of throwing four streams one hundred and fifty feet. This was delivered in the
next February, and named " Long John," after his Honor, John Wentworth, then mayor. It was
put into service about May i, 1858, and located at the old armory building, corner of Adams and
Franklin streets. The first fire it worked at was at the corner of Wells and Van Buren streets,
where nine persons perished in the flames.
In March of that year, Mr. Swenie began the work of reorganizing the fire department, sub-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 737
stituting the volunteer with the paid system. He met with very bitter opposition at the
start. Firemen who had been accustomed to pursue the dangerous but exciting occupation as a
pastime for the glory there was in it, felt indignant not only that steam should hereafter super-
sede the display of muscle, but that any American citizen should be so disgraced as to be
offered pay for the performance of so necessary a duty devolving upon the whole community
as fighting the common enemy, fire. At first the only paid men were the engineer, Joel A. Prescott,
and his assistant, William Homer; the remainder of the company were volunteers. The first
company commissioned under full pay was the Atlantic engine company number 3, organized
October 23, 1858.
The bitterness and feuds engendered by the attempt to substitute one system for the other,
would have discouraged most men, but Mr. Swenie manifested an admirable steadiness of purpose
and a wise and judicious spirit that finally mastered all difficulties, and placed the volunteer sys-
tem on a gradual decline, and it disappeared as fast as the city fathers could be induced to pur-
chase the steam engines to take their place. From the close of 1857 to the opening of 1860, four
new engines were purchased and as many companies organized upon the new system, while
several volunteer companies gave up the struggle and disbanded. The volunteers were, however,
yet in the majority, and at the election in March, 1859, revenged themselves on the man who had
doomed them to extinction, by electing U. P. Harris chief, and sending Mr. Swenie back to his
company.
April 27, 1861, Liberty engine company number 7, was put into commission, and Mr. Swenie
elected foreman. In 1867 he took command of the Fred Gund company number 14, organized
April 7. He was captain of this company at the time of the great fire in October, 1871, and with
his men was forced to abandon their engine at the corner of Canal and Van Buren streets, and
flee for their lives. This was one of three engines destroyed in the great conflagration. Not-
withstanding the loss of their engine, and the dreadful perils through which they had passed,
Mr. Swenie took charge with his company of affairs on the North Side, and was instrumental in
saving five entire blocks near Kinzie street bridge. No company did more heroic service or
showed greater intrepidity and devotion than the Fred Gund company number 14.
On the retirement of Mr. Harris as chief engineer of the department in 1868, R. A. Williams
was appointed by the fire commissioners to fill the vacancy, and upon assuming the duties of
chief, he tendered Mr. Swenie the position of first assistant. This he declined for good reasons,
preferring to retain his old position as foreman instead. This he did until October i, 1873, when
he accepted the position of first assistant fire marshal under Chief Benner. In August, 1875, the
city adopted an ordinance abolishing the board of police and fire commissioners, and establishing
the present management of the department under a fire marshal, who should be also styled
"Chief of Brigade." This change has proved a most important one for the efficiency of the de-
partment, as it consolidates the whole force into one individuality, and gives it but one directing
head. Mr. Swenie continued to perform the duties of first assistant marshal until July 3, 1879,
when he was appointed acting chief by Mayor Harrison, and upon the retirement of Mr. Benner,
on the tenth of the following November, he was appointed by the mayor, and confirmed by the
council, fire marshal and chief of brigade. Thus, after twenty years of faithful labor in perhaps
the most important branch of the city service, Mr. Swenie finds himself once more at the head of
the department he was most instrumental in organizing. His present position is a fine testimonial
to his efficiency as an officer and his worth as a man, anc] in him and his experience and proved
ability the department and the general public repose the utmost confidence. As an illustration
of the esteem in which he is held, it may be mentioned that on the tenth anniversary of his first
appointment as foreman, his many friends in the department gave a grand banquet in honor of
the occasion, at number 14 engine house, which was a most enjoyable affair. At the conclusion
of the banquet, C. N. Holden, in a neat speech, presented Mr. Swenie with a gold watch and
chain, with fire hat and trumpet as charms, costing $450.
Mr. Swenie was married October 16, 1853, at the age of nineteen, to Miss Martha Toner, by
738 - UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
whom he has had seven children, six still living. Two daughters are married and settled in life.
His eldest son, Frank, is fire-alarm telegraph operator in the central office.
Although a democrat 'in sympathy, Mr. Swenie has the good sense to perceive that the fire de-
partment, of all others, should be free from political influences, and has done all he could to keep
it so. Its discipline has therefore never been impaired by political issues or controversies, and it
is justly the pride and boast of the city.
JUDGE WILLIAM E. NELSON.
DECA TUR.
HON. WILLIAM E. NELSON is a highly respected member of the bar in central Illinois;
a thorough lawyer, of sound judgment, and efficient in the trial of causes. He is lucid and
logical, and has a refinement in his methods of thought that gives him rank with other able men
in the profession. He possesses the power of analysis and condensation to an eminent degree.
Mr. Nelson is a native of Tennessee, and was born' at Sparta, White county, June 4, 1824, and is
the eldest son of Richard Nelson, a prominent Tennessee lawyer, who was a member of the con-
stitutional convention that formed the constitution of that state, in 1834, and grandson of John
Nelson, a soldier in the war of the revolution. His mother, before marriage, was Miss Eliza
McCampbell, daughter of Andrew McCampbell, who was also a revolutionary soldier. The sub-
ject of this sketch was admitted to the bar in 1844, and immediately entered upon a successful
career as a lawyer in his native town, gaining a reputation as a trial lawyer at an early age.
In February, 1857, he settled at Decatur, Illinois, where he has pursued his profession ever
since, doing a general law business, being equally successful in both criminal and civil cases. In
1870 he was appointed, by Governor Palmer, on a commission to revise the statutes of Illinois,
and operated with the commission until his duties commenced in the twenty-seventh general
assembly, which met in January, 1871. As a legislator he was efficient, and at once took a prom-
inent position. No important legislation was enacted without his cooperation. He paid strict
attention to the interests of his constituents and the state. He served on important committees,
including, among others, the judiciary committee, and committee on education, and was appointed
on a special committee to investigate the condition of the penitentiary at Joliet. In August, 1877,
he was elected one of the judges of the fourth judicial circuit, and filled that term with ability.
He then returned to the practice of his profession in Decatur, where he has remained ever since.
In addition to Judge Nelson's abilities as a lawyer, no man stands higher as a citizen. He is
an affable gentleman, of easy and graceful deportment, warm in his friendships, and faithful in
his social relations.
He was married in Sparta, Tennessee, to Mary, the eldest daughter of Colonel James Snod-
grass, of that place. They have had five children, only one of whom has attained to the age of
majority. Theodore Nelson is an active business man of Decatur. The other children died in
infancy.
GEORGE D. THOMAS.
THOMASVII.LE, M. T.
/^ EORGE DEMENT THOMAS was born on a farm in Saint Clair county, Illinois, July 26 ,1834.
VJT He is the third son and sixth child of John and Isbellin Thomas, whose family consisted of
ten children, five boys and five girls. His father, Colonel John Thomas, of Belleville, Illinois, is
at this writing (1882) a state senator, and in his eighty-third year; his biography and portrait are
on page 724 of first edition of "Eminent and Self-made Men of Illinois." His mother was born
in Illinois, and was a daughter of William and Mary Kinney, who emigrated from Kentucky and
settled in Illinois while it was a territory, four miles east of Belleville, the present county seat of
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Saint Clair. His grandfather Kinney lived on and cultivated a large farm for many years ; was
an influential man in southern Illinois at an early day, and was once lieutenant-governor of the
state. His politics were democratic.
George D. remained on the farm till the age of twenty-one ; after twelve years of age he took
an active part in the farm work, and performed his share of the labor cheerfully. He plowed
and assisted in planting the crops, which in those days were principally corn. As a corn dropper
he was skillful and an expert, the main corn dropper on his father's large farm, where there was
planted from 100 to 300 acres of corn in a season. In 1848 he and a hired man of his father's
cultivated a crop of corn of nearly ninety acres, plowing it three times, and laying it by in
August, with little or no assistance after planting.
His father was a large land owner, and each year the acreage rapidly increased, till in 1850 the
crop reached 320 acres ; 1852 this acreage was all in wheat, making over 300 acres, largest wheat
crop cultivated there at that time. The harvest lasted four weeks. George was one among the
best binders of the sixteen men employed to take care of this crop. He had assisted to fence
and break about 1500 acres of his father's land up to 1852.
Having labored constantly on the farm, his mind had been much neglected up to this time,
and, feeling the need of a better education, he entered Shurtleff College, at Upper Alton, at the
autumn term of 1852, and entered upon a regular classical course. Most of the time while at
college he kept at the head of his class; mathematics, grammar, Latin and Greek were his favorite
studies. When he entered college his intention was to take a full classical course and study a
profession, but being strongly attached to the agricultural pursuits, he changed his mind and left
college in 1855, in his sophomore year. Soon afterward, November 29, 1855, he was married to
Miss Lucy Alice Alexander ; she was educated at Monticello Seminary, near Alton, and left school
before completing her course. They had attended district school together at Shiloh in their
younger days. She was a daughter of William and Sarah Alexander, who resided near Shiloh in
Saint Clair county. Her father emigrated from Pennsylvania to Illinois with his father's family at
an early day, and settled near Shiloh, in what was known as the Alexander settlement. He was a
prominent and prosperous farmer in his day, and died in 1847. Her mother, Sarah Scott, was a
daughter of James and Sarah Scott, who settled in Saint Clair county, near Shiloh, with their
numerous relatives, who emigrated from Virginia. They were all land holders and good thrifty
citizens. Her mother was a cousin of Judge J. M. Scott, of Bloomington.
In 1856 Mr. Thomas settled upon a farm near Shiloh. At the breaking out of the rebellion he
organized the first home guard company of Shiloh, of which he was captain. He afterward
entered service in company A, as a private in the Fremont body guard, with which he served in
the Fremont campaign in Missouri until the removal of General Fremont in November, 1861. In
1862 he received an appointment with rank of lieutenant, in a branch of the United States ser-
vice, organized for the protection of the overland emigrants from Omaha to Walla Walla, Wash-
ington Territory. Captain Madorem Crawford, of Oregon, had command of this expedition, to
whom he reported in May at Omaha for duty. There he remained in charge till the necessary
supplies and equipments were put in readiness for the expedition. During the time he organized
a company of about sixty men, whom he drilled as far as practicable in the cavalry tactics, so as
to be serviceable on the road in case of Indian attacks. He had charge of this company of
mounted men on the entire route, and rendered efficient services to the command and expedition
till it reached its destination, making about fifteen hundred miles. The expedition was successful
in making the trip without the loss of a man, or the transaction of any incident which is not
common to an expedition crossing the plains.
Lieutenant Thomas received a discharge from this service from his captain, which highly and
strongly commended his services and deportment upon the expedition. He had occasion soon
after to show his discharge to General Ringgold, who was then United States quarter-master at
San Francisco, California, who remarked that it was a valuable paper, and advised him to take
good care of it. He took advantage of this opportunity to visit Oregon and California, with a
72
742 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
view of future settlement. About December i, 1862, he started home by the way of Panama.
In the early part of January, 1863, he reached his home in Illinois, having traveled over ten thou-
sand miles in less than a year, and brought home with him six hundred dollars of his earnings
over the expenses of the journey.
In 1863, he remained on the farm and cultivated a crop ; at the same time he was making pre-
parations to go west with his family at that time intended removing to California; but the
mines being discovered at Virginia, Idaho, at that time, and greenbacks being at heavy discount
in California, he concluded to go to the former place and invest his surplus money in groceries,
which he could sell for gold dust, and if dissatisfied with the country, could go to California with
gold instead of greenbacks.
In the spring of 1864 he outfitted six ox teams, of four yoke to each wagon, and loaded them
principally with groceries and provisions; with this outfit he left Omaha about the first of June,
with his family, consisting then of wife and two small boys. More than fifteen hundred miles
had been traversed, five hundred of which were through a hostile Indian country, and more
than five months of travel had been consumed on the road, when he reached his destination
without serious accident to himself or family all in good health and spirits.
October 10, 1864, he settled on a farm near the present site of Hamilton, on the west side of
the West Gallatin River, in Gallatin county, Montana. Here a- house was soon built of cotton-
wood logs, eighteen by twenty feet, with puncheons for floor. Here he resided and farmed until
1871; during the time the old house had given way to one of much better structure. Here he
used the first gang plow ever introduced into Montana (1866).
He removed to Gallatin City, in Gallatin county, to take charge of the Madison flouring mill,
of which he had now become the sole owner. Here he had a wide field for his progressive spirit,
studying the art of milling, and planning improvemetUs which he deemed necessary to establish
a successful business in his trade. In 1872 he made changes and improvements in the mill, and
started his " Extra,'' a fancy grade of flour, which he put in the markets with such uniform quality
and excellence as soon gave it the lead at one dollar per hundred pounds more than any other flour
manufactured in Montana. This grade stood at the head of flour markets in Montana till 1879
although several millers had made an attempt for three years to compete with it, but failed ; he
became his own competitor, and placed "Thomas's White Rose" into the markets, which has
taken the lead. In 1874 he introduced the first middling purifier ever brought to Montana ; and
in 1875 introduced the only emery wheel burr dresser ever used in Montana.
Early in the spring of 1877, he secured one of the finest water powers in the county, and
equally as fine a location, and in July of this year, visited Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was
famous for the great improvements that her progressive mill men had made in the new process
system of milling. He also visited Milwaukee, and went all through three of her largest and
most complete mills.
Having fully decided to build with the latest new process machinery, and the modern style of
arrangement, he contracted with Edward P. Allis and Company for a complete three-run mill,
with latest improved machinery. This mill he completed in December, 1878, and called it Empire
Mill; it has the largest capacity of any flouring mill in the territory; is located on Ross Creek,
eleven miles north of Bozeman, Montana. The grades of flour manufactured at the Empire Mills
have taken high rank in the leading markets of the territory. . ^
He is active and thorough in business, carrying on a large flour trade, personally superintends
his mill, keeps the books, and attends to his large business correspondence; is liberal in his dealing,
and generous to the needy, asking few favors, but granting man}-. His integrity in business
matters has been of great advantage to him, and that coupled with a thorough knowledge of his
trade, is the secret of his success in the manufacture of flour. In business transactions his word
is his bond, and is so regarded by those with whom he deals. He has been a leading and promi-
nent citizen of Gallatin county since 1865, and was the first assessor of the county ; was clerk of
the first grand jury impaneled, and has taken an active part in all public enterprises in the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. '" 743
county. He is a member of the Masonic order ; has twice been master of Washington Lodge,
Montana Territory. He belongs to the Millers' National Association. In 1865, when Gallatin
county was organized, he was the first assessor .of the county, by appointment of Governor Edger-
ton. Since that time he has been a leading and prominent citizen of the county, and favorably
known throughout the territory in business circles. Though not connected with any church, he
believes in the Christian religion, and contributes liberally to its support. He has been a repub-
lican since the organization of the party,. and is one of the leaders in the republican party of his
count}'. In the autumn of 1882, he was elected councilman to the territorial legislature, a great
triumph, for Gallatin has long been a strong democratic county.
He resides at Empire Mills, where he owns several hundred acres of fine land, and with its
improvements makes it one of the most desirable country places in the county. He also owns
other real estate, 160 acres near Hamilton, where the survey line of the Northern Pacific Railroad
runs.
His family consists of a wife and six children; they had seven, but Annie Julia died in 1863.
Samuel Homer and George Edgar were born in Illinois ; Lillian Eugenia, James Finley, Rosa
Alberta, and Sarah Isabella were born in Montana. Homer is now doing for himself, and owns
160 acres of land, and is farming with a fair prospect for a young man. George is also doing for
himself ; he has a small band of horses, and is making some money. The other four are at home.
Mr. Thomas attributes his success to early habits of industry, and a taste or ambition to do
everything better than anyone else.
CHARLES C. BONNEY.
CHICAGO.
/'~ A HARLES CARROLL BONNEY has been prominently before the public in various honor-
able positions for many years. He is a native of Hamilton, New York, which is widely
known as the seat of Madison University, and as the most beautiful village in the Chenango
Valley. His father, Jethro May Bonney, was a farmer. The farm was on Bonney Hill, in the
vicinity, and embraced a charming variety of woodland, field and meadow. Here the son was
born, September 4, 1831. His mother was Jane C. Lawton, daughter of George Lawton, whose
"old mansion among the poplars," on another hill to the eastward, was long one of the stateliest
landmarks of pioneer life in that part of central New York. The subject of this sketch had two
brothers and one sister. The most eminent scholars, divines and politicians of the locality, .were
visitors at his father's house, and the conversations* he heard there powerfully stimulated his
efforts and ambition. The father afterward removed to Hamilton village. .
During his boyhood and youth the son worked upon the farm, and attended the district school,
Hamilton Academy, and lectures at Madison University; but, though offered the full university
course, and enjoying friendly relations with many of the faculty and students, he declined it,
feeling that he could not afford the time required for the classical course, and that teaching and
private study must suffice. He then taught common and academic schools in New York and
Illinois until he was twenty-one. He also began the study of law while teaching, and was ready
for admission to the bar before attaining his majority.
Though :\ non-graduate, he freely acknowledges that he is under very great obligations to the
university,.and regards its influence and associations as potent in determining his course in life.
He came to Illinois, September 28, 1850 ; located at Peoria, October 15, of that year; was ad-
mitted to the bar of Illinois, September 23, 1852, and to that of the United States suprenre court,
January 5, 1866. September 12, 1860, he removed to Chicago, where he has ever since resided.
From 1850 to 1854 he took an active part in establishing the present educational system of
Illinois, delivering a large number of addresses, and participating in the proceedings of more
than twenty educational conventions and societies. During a part of this time he was employed
by the authorities of Peoria county as public lecturer on education, and in this connection advo-
744 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
cated free schools, school district libraries, teachers' institutes, normal schools, state and county
superintendents, and an enlarged course of study for the common schools. The first state educa-
tional convention was called through his instrumentality. He was also one of the officers of a
State Teacher's Institute, and for some years a frequent writer on educational topics. But a con-
stantly increasing love of the legal profession drew him irresistibly to its service, and determined
his future career.
Already known throughout the state, from educational correspondence and addresses, he en-
tered on his admission to the bar into a successful and lucrative practice, which has continued
and extended to the present time. His reputation and practice are not confined to his own state,
but extend to other parts of the Union. His practice has embraced an active and varied experi-
ence in almost every department of law, and includes many cases of great importance, particu-
larly in equity and in the law of corporations, patents, wills, commercial transactions and the
administration of estates.
Among the more interesting cases in which he has been engaged may be mentioned : The
People vs. Fash, habeas corpus, involving the liberty of the press; Johnson vs. Stark county,
municipal subscription to build railroad; the Sherman House cases, negotiable instruments and a
wide range of technical defenses; Miller vs. Wells, inter-state laws of administration; The People
vs. Church, right of the general government to tax process of state courts; Gage et al. vs. Derby,
the law of government contracts and the doctrine of seals; the Huston Administrations, liens on
estates of deceased persons; the Schenck Sewing Machine cases, infringement and trial by jury;
the Bishop Hill Colony case, corporations and trusts; the Fuller and Barnum Tuck-creaser Patent
cases; the Yerby's Subdivision Land cases; the Allaire Will case; the West Chicago Park case,
executive power; the case of the State Savings Institution, equity administration of corporate
assets; Ely vi. Douglas county, state power relating to equitable remedies in the national courts;
Ligare vs. Semple, securities conditioned on removing objections to title; Fuller vs. Hunt, custom
and usage in commercial transactions; and the Auditor vs. Chicago Life Insurance Company
state supervision and control of corporations.
This brief list includes cases in the courts of Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, and
New Jersey, and in the supreme court of the United States.
Mr. Bonney was elected president of the Illinois State Bar Association, in January, 1882. This
high honor was conferred while he was absent from the association and engaged in the trial of an
important cause.
In the August following, Mr. Bonney was elected vice-president of the American Bar Associa-
tion for Illinois, succeeding David Davis j,n that honorable position. A few days later he pre-
sented to the American Bankers' Association, in session at Saratoga, a proposal for an act of
congress to secure uniformity of commercial paper throughout the United States. This proposal
was received with decided favor, and means were taken to favor its adoption.
Mr. Bonney's character and reputation as a lawyer may be gathered from comments made
during his professional career by the public press on numerous occasions. The newspapers of his
own, and of other states speak of him as having "acquired a brilliant reputation as a lawyer"; as
"one who could take any given subject and present all salient points in a condensed, methodical
and lucid manner"; as "well and favorably known throughout the entire Northwest as a lawyer of
large experience, systematic, thorough and reliable "; as "one who holds an enviable position among
the leading lawyers of the West, a gentleman of high culture, polished manners, and deeply de-
voted to the duties of his profession"; as "favorably known, and highly esteemed for promptitude,
dispatch and integrity in attention to legal business, winning confidence and patronage by his
talents, assiduity and uprightness"; as "one of our most eminent lawyers"; as "one of the most
distinguished members of the Chicago bar, and a writer on political and legal subjects of wide rep-
utation"; as "a profound and accomplished lawyer, and one of the most eloquent and effective
speakers in the state"; and "as a lawyer who stands at the head of his honorable calling, not
only as respects all professional attainments, but as a citizen, a scholar and a gentleman, whose
UNITED STATF.S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
745
influential voice and pen are devoted to every good word and work in his city." Another elabo-
rate notice says:
"It was he who first raised and argued the constitutionality of the excise tax on judicial pro-
cess and other state proceedings. He was also the first who stated the powers of the courts under
the suspension of the habeas corpus, and which was reproduced two years later by Mr. Binney,
the eminent Philadelphia lawyer; and he anticipated by more than a year Mr. David Dudley
Field's exposition of the modern humbug of emotional insanity."
The foregoing expressions of public esteem are selected from a large number of similar
notices, in the leading newspapers of the western states.
From his early years Mr. Bonney has found in authorship a charm which has made it the un-
failing recreation of a severe professional life. Besides a great number of other contributions of
a legal, political, financial or literary nature, he is also the author of a treatise on "The Law of
Railway Carriers," and of another on "The Law of Insurance;" also of essays on "The Powers
of Non-resident Guardians and Executors," " The Rights of Married Women to Hold Personal
Property." " The Doctrine of Insanity in the Criminal Law," " The Powers of Courts and Legis-
latures over the Railway Question," "The Administration of Justice," "The Characteristics of a
Great Lawyer," "Government Reform," "Judicial Proceedings without Personal Service," "The
True Province of the Government," " National Regulation of Inter-state Commerce," "An Equity
Bankruptcy Law," "Practical Law Reform," and of discourses on "The Future of the Legal
Profession," "The True Doctrine of the Tariff," "Judicial Supremacy," and other subjects of
public interest. He also edited, in a very finished and scholarly manner, the poetical works of
the late Judge Arrington. His books on railway and insurance law, though small and unpreten-
tious, and designed for business men rather than the legal profession, were highly commended
by eminent authorities as also of great value to the bench and the bar. Those books are now out
of print, the plates having been destroyed in the Chicago fire. His eldest son, Charles L. Bonney,
has supplied the place of the treatise on railway carriers by an admirable summary of the law
relating to the subject, entitled "Railway Law for Railway Men." Mr. Bonney's efforts in the
field of authorship, says one reviewer, have been received by the public with decided approba-
tion, as the product of an able and scholarly writer, whose material is full of sound sense and
practical value, and arranged in a manner intelligible, accurate and comprehensive.
Though Mr. Bonney has never held or been a candidate for any political office, he has taken an
active part in public affairs from 1852 to the present time; was a party democrat until 1860, a war
democrat during the rebellion, and has been independent in politics since that time. He was
a leader of the movement that defeated the effort of a private corporation to obtain control
of the Illinois River; was a special commissioner from Peoria to Saint Louis in that connection,
and as such delivered an elaborate argument to the city government of the latter, which was
highly commended. He was one of the original advocates of the constitutional prohibition of
special legislation; also of a national currency under a national law, with a prohibition of state
issues; also of national regulation of interstate commerce and corporations; also of largely ex-
tending the jurisdiction and practice in equity; also of state commissioners to represent the people
in -their relations with railway and other corporations; and of more careful and thorough legisla-
tion, suggesting that the houses of representatives be popular bodies to express the public will,
and the senates legislating jurists to frame and perfect the laws, holding terms of office somewhat
similar to those of the judges. He has also publicly advocated many other reforms in the vari-
ous departments of government in a series of papers under the title of "Government Reform."
As early as 1858 Mr. Bonney procured the adoption, by a congressional district convention, of
resolutions favoring a national currency, and a suppression of state bank bills. The prohibition
of special legislation, advocated by him, was established in the Illinois constitution of 1870; and
in other respects Mr. Bonney's efforts as a reformer have met with success. He has given much
attention to the executive and judicial powers of the government, and believes that they should
have a larger development and application.
746 UNITED STATES BIOGKAPJflCAL DICTIONARY.
That Mr. Bonney is a political orator of no mean rank is abundantly demonstrated in the
newspaper notices of the day, which characterize him as a profound and accomplished speaker,
combining sound argumentative powers and a quiet earnestness of manner with a precision of
rhetoric and an oratorical ability rarely exceeded by any public speaker. One such notice says:
" His style of address is peculiar, and highly gentlemanly in tone. We have heard the best
speakers of the old world and the new, but this is the first instance wherein we have observed the
entire triumph of a speaker securing the close attention of his audience in a subdued tone of
voice " Another, that " His speech in reply to Senator Trumbull [at Peoria in 1858], as a whole
and in all its parts, compares favorably with anything we have heretofore heard as a calm, con-
servative and eloquent argument. In addition to this he demonstrated himself to be the almoner
of an imperial oratory, which held the large audience in attendance for nearly four hours, willing
and eager listeners." Another, that " It may be said of Mr. Bonney that, although he is far from
being devoid of humor, he depends more for effect upon other than the feelings. His discourses
are of a kind rarely attained that read as well months after as they sounded at the time of
their delivery. They are in no sense ephemeral in their character, and although they may be
given before the limited audience of a country town they are as carefully prepared, are as full of
information and instruction, and as deserving of preservation, as if they were state papers to be
read by both hemispheres. .His effort at Waukegan [in 1880] might have been without any dis-
credit delivered before the British parliament, or any other body of statesmen and politicians in
the world." And another, that "In style Mr. Bonney is precise, incisive and clear, and withal a
ready if not a redundant speaker, writer and conversationalist His political speeches demon-
strated the possession of an impassioned oratory, based upon a clear and comprehensive knowl-
edge of the issues involved and their germane facts. In the character of a politician no speaker
with whom he came in contact was more popular or more influential, and had he devoted himself
to this department of effort he might have attained almost anything within the gift of the
pex>ple."
Though never entering the lecture field except at occasional intervals between professional
engagements, his list of lectures embraces many subjects of general importance, such as "Why
Ninety-seven Merchants in a Hundred Fail," "Government Reform," "The Government of Cities,"
and "The Relation of Religion to the Government."
Mr. Bonney was at one time president of the Chicago Library Association, and was the author
of the agitation that finally resulted in the Chicago Free Public Library. He was for several
years one of the managers of the Chicago Athenaeum, and was one of the founders of the Chicago
Literary Club. He has also delivered courses of lectures on medical jurisprudence to medical
college students.
Mr. Bonney has also been for some years an active member and officer of the Citizens' League
to enforce the laws forbidding the sale of liquor to minors, and has also taken an active part in
other departments of temperance work, though not a member of any prohibitory or total absti-
nence association. He was president of the first national convention of Law and Order Leagues,
held in Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts, February 22, 1883, and reviewed the rise and
progress of the law and order movement in an elaborate address, that has been widely circulated
and commended.
In religious faith Mr. Bonney is a New Churchman, or Swedenborgian, in which church he
has been active as a Bible-class teacher and as president of the State Sunday School Association.
His ancestors on the father's side were Baptists, and upon the mother's side they were Friends.
In his youth he read extensively upon the various systems of religion, and although a firm ad-
herent of his own church has always cultivated the most friendly relations with all other religious
denominations, being a vigorous opponent of sectarianism and bigotry.
He was married August 16, 1855, at Troy, New York, to Miss Lydia Pratt, by whom he has
had two sons and three daughters, all of whom, except the youngest daughter, who died in in-
fancy, still survive. The family home is a handsome residence on Fulton street, near Union Park,
and is a well known social and literary center.
UNITED STATKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 747
Mr. Bonney is domestic in his habits, and likes to gather about his fireside a congenial com-
pany for the elaboration of literary ideas and the more graceful of the social qualities. Enjoying
an enviable position as lawyer and author and litterateur, he has before him a future which prom-
ises still more flattering and enviable results.
The facts of the foregoing sketch have been gathered from the books mentioned and an
inspection of more than twenty volumes of law cases, pamphlets, magazines and newspaper pub-
lications, and in part from biographical notices in " Wilkie's Chicago Bar," " The Biographical
Encyclopaedia of Illinois," and "The Bench and Bar of Chicago."
T
WILLIAM S. FORREST.
CHICA GO.
HE subject of this biography is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and was born July 9, 1852.
As a boy he was energetic and industrious, fond of study, and among his companions a
leader in their boyish sports. His native tastes inclined him toward the legal profession, and
early in life he determined to prepare himself for its duties. After a careful and thorough prep-
aration, William entered the freshman class of Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, where he
pursued, the regular classical course of study, and graduated with the class of 1875. I n college
he was popular among his fellow students, ranked high as a scholar and was honored with an
election to the Psi Upsilon Fraternity.
Soon after leaving college he began reading law in the office of Gaston, Field and Jewell, of
Boston, Massachusetts, whence, in 1878, he removed to Chicago, where, in October of the same
year, he was admitted to the bar of Illinois. Although his professional career may be said to
have only begun, Mr. Forrest has already attained a wide and worthy reputation at the Chicago
bar. He has a clear, logical and judicial mind, and is a forcible and eloquent speaker. Although
well versed in the various branches of American jurisprudence, and thoroughly qualified and
eminently successful in the general practice of his profession, he has devoted his special attention
to the study and practice of criminal law, and achieved, as the result of his efforts, a most satis-
factory success.
In this practice he has been called to defend men charged with almost every crime known to
the law, and has carried to the supreme court of the state many cases that have been remanded
for a new trial. Among the more important cases with which he has been identified as attorney,
may be mentioned that of The People vs. Charles Schank. This man was indicted for the killing
of Fredrick Kandzia. The defense, which was interposed, and upon which the defendant was
fully acquitted, was that the deceased came to his death not by the dagger of Schank, but by the
malpractice of the surgeon after the stabbing. Another case exciting public attention was that
of The People vs. Wing Lee, a Chinaman. Upon the trial of this case a plea of self defense was
interposed, and the jury, standing eight for acquittal and four for conviction, were discharged in
the absence of the defendant, Wing Lee being at the time of their discharge a prisoner in the
custody of the sheriff. When the case was again called for trial, a plea of former jeopardy was
interposed and sustained by the court, on the ground that the jury was illegally discharged, and
the trial unlawfully ended. Wing Lee was discharged.
Mr. Forrest was also one of the attorneys for Mrs. Ada Roberts, on her application for dis-
charge, under a writ of habeas (orpus, from the insane asylum, where she had been confined two
years, having been adjudged insane and sent thither by the jury upon her trial for the killing of
Theodore Webber. But a case which attracted perhaps as much public attention as any on the
criminal calendar of Illinois was that of The People vs. John Lamb, who was indicted for burg-
lary and for the murder of Albert Race, a member of the Chicago police force. Mr. Forrest was
Lamb's attorney from the time of his arrest until his final acquittal, a period of three years.
Lamb was first tried for murder, and convicted and sentenced to be hanged, but upon appeal to
748 UNITED 'STATES BIOGK. /////< ,//, DICTIO.VAKY.
the supreme court the case was remanded for a new trial. Lamb was subsequently tried for
burglary and acquitted. He was then tried a second time for murder, and acquitted. The pros-
ecution in these cases was most vigorous and relentless. Public opinion was wrought up, a gen-
eral belief prevailing that Lamb was the real murderer. A cloud of witnesses appeared for the
state, two testifying that Lamb was the man who actually fired the fatal shot, one of them being
an accomplice. Lamb himself had been known to the detectives of the Northwest as a notorious
character for twenty years.
The case has a special interest to lawyers, from the fact that in their decision the supreme
court passed fully and fairly on the extent of the liability of a conspirator for the acts of a
co-conspirator.
Mr. Forrest is now in the full vigor and strength of manhood, and, with his present achieve-
ments, may hopefully look to the future. Untiring in his efforts, and zealous in all his under-
takings, he cannot but attain a first rank in his chosen profession. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, and in politics adheres to the principles of the democratic party. He was
married at Chicago, April 17, 1879, to Miss Elizabeth Whitney, of Boston, Massachusetts, and
daughter of the late Melvin Whitney, for many years a prominent merchant in New York city.
Mr. Forrest is a man of fine social and personal qualities, -and is known among his friends as
a genial companion. He is domestic in his tastes, and with his native fondness for study and
literary culture, finds in his own home the most pleasant and agreeable respite from his profes-
sional cares.
HON. LESTER L. BOND.
CHIC A GO.
OF the many able lawyers in the Northwest who make a specialty of patent law and patent
causes, Hon. Lester L. Bond has no superior. Endowed by nature with a comprehensive
mind and great mechanical ingenuity, he has attained great proficiency in the arts and sciences
especially applicable to that branch of his profession to which he has given particular attention.
He is learned not only in mechanics, but also in chemistry and natural philosophy; he has, also,
a thorough knowledge of law and the general practice, being a good special pleader, conversant
with all of the rules of practice in both the state and United States courts. He is thoroughly
posted in all of the decisions of the courts in Europe and America bearing upon patent litigation.
He is a very able trial lawyer, a logical reasoner, and an excellent advocate.
The practice of his firm extends from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco, California. Mr.
Bond is often called into the courts in the eastern cities, where he has measured lances with many
of the ablest lawyers in America, and on such occasions has received high encomiums from both
bench and bar for his skill, profound knowledge of the law and depth of reason in his arguments.
In the United States supreme court at Washington, where he tries a large number of cases
every year, he stands very high, having, in addition to great legal lore and ability in his profes-
sion, a keen sense of justice, the principles of which. he is ever ready to uphold with a zeal that
reflects credit upon himself, and sustains the dignity and honor of his profession. Mr. Bond is a
gentleman Of fine presence, weighing over two hundred pounds; is over six feet high and is easy
and graceful in his movements. He is affable in his manner, and secures the friendship of all who
are favored with his acquaintance.
Lester Legrand Bond is a native of Ohio, and a son of Jonas Bond, of Ravenna, where our
subject was born, October 27, 1829. His father removed from Connecticut, and settled in Ohio
in 1824. His mother, before marriage, was Miss Elizabeth Story, a relative of the celebrated
jurist and legal author, the late Judge Story, of the United States supreme court.
Lester L. attended select school in his native town four years, and afterward entered Ellsworth
Academy. Leaving there at the age of eighteen, he assisted his father in farming and manufac-
turing in the summer, ami attended school during the winter months. During this period he
HC Connor Jr& i
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OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
f'.V/77:/J STATl-.S BIOGRAPHICAL 1>1< TION/\KY.
75'
acquired a taste for mechanics, which in later years ass<-rt<--.,
was considered one of the ablest criminal lawyers in northeastern Ohio. After completing his
studies^ he was admitted to the bar at Akron, in October, 1853. In October, 1854, he settled in
Chicago, and commenced the practice of the law. His means were limited, and he had but two
acquaintances in the city. His business, therefore, was for some time necessarily small, and in
the hope of bettering his circumstances he joined his name with that of a young man in the
commission business. His partner absconded, leaving him to settle the debts of the firm. This
occurrence was very embarrassing, but he struggled through it, and discharged all of his
obligations.
About the year 1859 some parties, knowing the natural taste of Mr. Bond for mechanical
studies, employed him to take charge of their patent interests, as well as to procure other patents
for their inventions. This soon led to considerable business, which continued to increase until
1869, when he concluded to withdraw from the general practice of the profession, and devote
himself exclusively to patent business, since which time the marvelous growth of manufactures,
and the steadily increasing reputation of Mr. Bond as a patent lawyer, had a tendency to fill his
office with business, and in 1864 he became associated with the law firm of West, Bond and Hris-
coll, he himself taking charge of the business pertaining to patents. The following year Mr.
Driscoll was elected city attorney, which made it necessary for him to withdraw from the firm,
and the business was continued under the name of West and Bond.
On account of the large experience acquired by Mr. Bond in patent cases, and also his
familiarity with mechanics, he has been intrusted with very important cases, and at an early period
in his practice was frequently called upon as an expert in important trials, in matters relating to
patents. Among the cases in which he has been engaged as counselor may be mentioned those
of the Babcock Fire Extinguisher, the Evarts Shingle Mill, the Tubular Lantern, the Marsh Har-
vester, the Keystone Corn Planter, the Kenyon Cultivator, and numerous other cultivator cases.
He defended the Moline Plow Company in its numerous contested cases, also the Furst and Brad-
ley Manufacturing Company, was connected with the Barb Wire Fence cases, and was on one
side or the other, usually on the defense, in nearly all of the agricultural implement cases that
have been tried in the seventh United States circuit.
His skill, which was so evidently manifested in these and other cases, has placed him at the
head of his profession in this department.
In politics he has been a republican since he has had a vote, his father having joined the free-
soil party in 1844. His first experience of political position was in 1852, when he was sent as a
town delegate to the Pittsburgh convention, which nominated John P. Hale for president.
In 1863 he was elected alderman from the eleventh ward of the city of Chicago, and was in
1864 reflected for two years, and at the expiration of his term was again tendered the office from
both parties, but on account of the pressure of the business was compelled to decline.
In 1867 he was elected to the state legislature, and reflected in 1869. During this session he
was chairman of the judiciary committee, the most important in the house. In his first term he
was a member of the committee on internal improvements, and aided largely in procuring the
passage of the act for the improvement of the Illinois River.
Contrary to his wishes, in 1871, just after the great fire, he was placed on the ticket for alder-
man of the tenth ward, and was elected.
In 1873 Hon. Joseph Medill obtained leave of absence for the remainder of his term as mayor,
on account of ill health, and Mr. Bond was elected by the council to fill the place for the remainder
of the term. The following November he was nominated for mayor (or two years, and although
he received the large number of eighteen thousand five hundred votes, was defeated by Mr. Col-
vin. During Mr. Bond's short term of the office of mayor the panic occurred, and he, with
others, taking a decided stand against the issue of scrip, the credit of the city was maintained.
73
752 UNITKD STA'/'KS IUOGKA 1'IIICA L DICTIONARY.
He also reorganized the fire department so satisfactorily that the organization was not afterward
disturbed, and settled the long-standing claims of the gas companies on a basis that has since
been followed.
Mr. Bond was for four years a member of the board of education, and in 1872 was presidential
elector for the second congressional district of Illinois. In all these various positions he has dis-
tinguished himself for his energy, prudence and faithfulness.
He was married, October 12, 1856, to Miss Amie Scott Aspinwall, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel
W. Aspinwall, of Peacham, Vermont, a lady of excellent womanly qualities, and an affectionate
wife. They have one daughter. They are both members of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal
Church of Chicago.
GEORGE DRIGGS.
CHICAGO.
EORGE DRIGGS, a member of the legal fraternity of Chicago, is a native of Livingston
county, New York, and was born at Mount Morris, May 18, 1846. His parents were Elias
Beach Driggs, a native of Connecticut, and Sarah (Rowell) Driggs, a native of Vermont. After
the death of his parents, when only a lad, Mr. Driggs went to live with relatives at Fairlee, Ver-
mont, near the New Hampshire line. In early years he attended the academy at Orford, New
Hampshire, afterward continuing his studies under private instruction up to the time of his ap-
, pointment to a position in the United States treasury department under Secretary McCullough.
While in Washington he found opportunity to continue his law studies already begun, and was
graduated from the Columbia Law School, in the class of 1868, immediately entering upon the
practice of law in Washington, where he remained for about two years, when he went to New
York city. In 1871 Mr. Driggs accepted a position in the office of Hon. J. R. Swan, at Columbus,
Ohio, at that time general solicitor of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Saint Louis Railway Company.
He continued as the assistant of Judge Swan, and of his successor, Hugh J. Jewett, until the
latter assumed the presidency of the Erie Railway Company early in 1875, when Mr. Driggs was
appointed assistant counsel of the Pennsylvania company, and Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Saint
Louis Railway Company, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, in which position he remained until
he came to Chicago, February i, 1881, and formed a partnership with George Willard, of whom
a sketch is given on another page. Willard and Driggs, in addition to a general legal business,
are the solicitors for several railway and other corporations.
Mr. Driggs is a firm republican in politics, entertains liberal religious views, and is a Knight
Templar in the masonic order.
In 1872 he married Miss Helen Griffing, a native of Ohio; they have two children, a son and
a daughter.
JAMES ENNIS.
CHICAGO.
JAMES ENNIS was born at Enniscorthy, County of Wexford, Ireland, March 27, 1837. His
father, Lawrence Ennis, died on his son's fifteenth birthday, and James, together with his
mother and five sisters, immigrated to America. His father had been what is known as a gentle-
man farmer, and James had received a good education in the ordinary branches. On reaching
America his mother purchased a farm in Lake county, Illinois, but James, with his delicate health,
was not born to be a farmer. With little difficulty he secured the position of teacher in a neigh-
boring school, and taught for some time, when he fell sick with a dangerous fever, and his life
was for weeks despaired of. In 1854, on a bitter cold day in winter, accompanying a neighbor
farmer, who with an ox team was hauling a load of produce to Chicago, James walked to the city,
which destiny chose for the place in which he was to achieve success, and pass the remainder of
UNITED .STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 753
his days. With a five-dollar bill in his pocket, and great expectations, he reached the city of his
hopes, without a single acquaintance in the great metropolis. He soon secured a situation in a
clothing store, but as the proprietor did not see fit to pay him as agreed upon, he left the store
one day and went out on the street without any definite purpose, when a sign "justice court,"
attracted his attention. As he was seeking justice he entered the office, and met Calvin DeWolf,
a citizen well known to the people of Chicago, and who has been a justice of the peace for many
years. After a long conversation with Mr. DeWolf, the result was that James was hired by him
as clerk, and commenced the study of law, and also the study of German, as he foresaw that
the knowledge of that language would be of great aid to him in Chicago, with its large German
population. January n, 1856, although not yet of age, he was admitted to practice law, and
November 3, 1858, he married Mary A. Sexton, a native of Chicago, and a daughter of one of the
original Chicago settlers, Stephen Sexton.
In 1861, the civil war breaking out, Mr. Ennis, who was a stanch Douglas democrat, was
eager to enlist, but on account of the delicate state of his health his friends, after a hard struggle,
kept him at home, as his physician said that the exposure incidental to the campaign would kill
him, as he was then suffering from lung troubles. He had built his home on North La Salle street,
north of Division street, where most of his children were born, and had his office for several years
at 109 Madison street. In May, 1871, however, he furnished two elegant offices at the new Open
Board Building, 145 Madison street, in a most complete and magnificent manner, and they were
said to be by the bar, and commented upon by the press as, two of the finest law offices in Chicago.
His law library alone was valued at seven thousand dollars. A few months later, in October of
the same year, the ever-memorable fire swept away his offices, his home, and his houses on the
North Side, and he lost in twenty-four hours twenty-five thousand dollars of property which he
had worked for long and industriously. His real estate, his wife and seven children, together
with a house on West Randolph street, remained. All his personal property, save an album of
family pictures and a horse and buggy, had been swept away. His property had been insured in
a home company, which paid but three mills on the dollar, but with his characteristic energy he
furnished his West Side house, opened his law office in the parlor, and proceeded after only a
week's delay with his law business.
In 1872 he moved his office to room 22, Metropolitan Block, where it remained up to the time
of his death, aifc is now occupied by his son and successor in business, Lawrence M. Ennis. The
panic which swept the country in 1873 cost him forty thousand dollars. He had purchased a
large tract of Chicago real estate, and owing to the depression in business, was unable to meet
his payments, and lost the whole tract. August n, 1876, his loving wife died, leaving nine chil-
dren, the eldest of which was sixteen years of age, and the youngest a mere babe. This was the
heaviest loss of all, and he never seemed to recover from it. A couple of years later he married
again, and had one child by his second wife. November 9, 1880, after a two days' illness, he died
of heart disease at his residence, aged forty-two years, seven months and twelve days, and two
days later, in the presence of sorrowing friends, relatives, clients and neighbors, he was buried in
Calvary Cemetery, and his short but busy life was over. A few days after, a large meeting of
the Chicago bar was held, attended by the judges and lawyers, and long resolutions were drawn
up and adopted to his memory.
Mr. Ennis was tall, slim in figure, with a strikingly intellectual countenance, with coal black
hair and eyes; his face, saving a black mustache, was kept clean-shaven, and he looked to be no
more than thirty-three or thirty-four years of age. Owing to the fact that he neglected to have
his photograph taken since his early youth, we are unable to preserve an engraving of him in this
work. His eldest son was often taken for his brother by those who did not know that he was
brotherless. He was a deep student. Science, histflry and the study of German and Latin were
his recreations. He was a hospitable host, but despised parties and society generally. He was a
man of firm convictions, and with sufficient energy to carry his projects into effect. In religion
he was a Roman Catholic, and his wife and children are of the same faith. In politics he was a
754 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
life-long, active democrat. Although often tendered nomination for different offices by his party,
he always answered, "Wait till Lawrence (his eldest son) is old enough to take care of my prac-
tice, but not now." His son, Lawrence, inherited his father's politics, and was of age November
2, 1881, the day of the presidential election. Father and son cast the same ticket for Winfield
Scott Hancock, and one week later the father died, leaving Lawrence just old enough to carry on
his business. He spoke German so fluently that his nationality was often discussed and doubted,
and there is many a good old German in Chicago to-day, who, if you tell him that James Ennis
was not a German, will shake his head dubiously, but, if you dare go further and say that Ennis
was an Irishman, you will receive a very emphatic denial to your statement.
As an advocate Mr. Ennis was at his best. He was a clear, logical, convincing speaker, and
with his ready Irish wit, remarkable memory, teeming with droll and witty stories, was a success
before a jury. The history of the Chicago bar can never be completely written without a page
devoted to him. He was honest, able, capable and the soul of honor, and in his twenty-four
years' practice never forgot his duties as a gentleman and a lawyer. He was very successful
before the supreme court of the state, as the reports will show. He was remarkable for his clear
perception of principles of law pertaining to any litigation with which he was connected. He
appreciated by intuition the character and motives of litigants, jurors and witnesses; was persua-
sive and convincing in argument, and achieved success, not only by his eloquence, but by clear and
terse presentation of truths as applied to the common interests of society.
His practice was large and lucrative, and at his death he left about twenty-five thousand dol-
lars' worth of real estate to his children. His love of Latin can be seen in some of their names,
which are as follows: Lawrence M., James I., Callistus S., Lullus J., Susie M., Felicia A., Stephen
F., Agnes M., Laura G. and Juventius T. James I. Ennis has an important position in the Mer-
chants' Loan and Trust Bank. Callistus is with J. V. Farwell and Company. Lullus is with a
prominent board of trade firm, the four eldest being graduates of the Chicago high school. The
remainder of the children are attending school. They all bear many of their father's characteris-
tics, and possess a marked family individuality, and although their father was the last of his name,
it will undoubtedly be some years before the family name dies out in Chicago.
HON. LYMAN LACEY.
HA VAN A.
CMAN LACEY, for years a prominent lawyer in Mason county, and now judge of the circuit
and appellate courts, dates his birth May 9, 1832, at Dryden Four Corners, Tompkins
county, New York, at the celebrated mineral springs, then owned by his father, John Lacey, who
was a native of New Jersey. His mother, Chloe (Hurd) Lacey, was a native of the Empire State.
In 1836 the family came as far west as Macomb county, Michigan, near Rochester, and the next
year settled in Fulton county, this state, where John Lacey engaged in farming, and where he is
still living. His wife died in 1879.
The son had a fine opportunity to develop his muscle and harden his constitution by hard
work on the farm, till twenty years of age, and he no doubt owes his excellent health to his early
physical training. He is/a graduate of Illinois College, class of '55; studied law with Hon. Lewis
W. Ross, of Lewiston, since a member of congress, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. In the
autumn of that year he settled in Havana, and was in practice here until he went on the bench.
In 1862 he was elected by his democratic constituents a member of the lower house of the legisla-
ture, and served one term. In June, 1873 he was elected judge of the seventeenth district, comprising
the counties of Mason, Menard, Logan and Be Witt. Four years afterward the seventeenth and
eighteenth districts were consolidated, and designated the seventh judicial circuit, and Judge
Lacey was appointed by the supreme court one of the three appellate judges of the third or
Springfield district. He was reflected one of the circuit judges in June, 1879, of the seventh
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 757
judicial circuit, comprising the ten counties of Mason, Logan, De Witt, Menard, Cass, Morgan,
Scott, Calhoun, Greene and Jersey, and he was appointed one of the appellate judges by the
supreme court for the second district, held at Ottawa. Judge Lacey is a clear-headed man, with
a fine judicial mind, and stands high among the jurists of the state.
Judge Lacey was first married May 9, 1860, to Miss Caroline A. Potter, of Beardstown, Cass
county, she dying September 12, 1863; and the second time May 19, 1865, to Mattie A. Warner, of
Havana. He has one child living by the first wife, Lyman Lacey, Jr., and five by his present
wife: Charles, Frank, Mattie, Edward and Alice G. One child by the first wife and two by the
second have died.
HON. CONSIDER H. WILLETT.
CHICAGO.
/CONSIDER HEATH WILLETT was born in the town of Onondaga, near Syracuse, New
V_x York, December 12, 1840. His education was obtained in a select school near his home, and
in Onondaga and Cortlandville academies. He took a course of private instruction in higher
mathematics under Professor H. N. Robinson, at Elbridge, New York, and was graduated at the
New York State Normal School at Albany, in the spring of 1862. He then volunteered as a pri-
vate soldier at thirteen dollars a month and rations, and was afterward promoted to a captaincy,
and served in the army of the rebellion till the close of the war. After his army life he attended
a short course of medical lectures at Bellevue Medical Hospital College, in New York city.
In the army our soldier, after studying every work on military tactics, and on international
and military law, read Kent and Blackstone under the instructions of another captain, who had
practiced law in Boston for many years. He attended the war class of the Albany Law School,
it being the first lectures after the war, and most of its members being veterans. The lecturers
were Professor Amos Dean, Senator Ira Harris and Judge Amasa J. Parker. May 10, 1866, he
was admitted to the bar upon an examination in open court, in the supreme court at Albany, New
York. He studied law in Syracuse, in the office of the well known firms of Sedgwick, Andrews
and Kennedy, and Ruger and Jenney, Charles H. Andrews being the late chief-justice of the
court of appeals of New York, and Henry C. Ruger occupying that position at present.
He then entered the law department of Michigan University, and was graduated in 1867, the
professors being Judges J. V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley and C. I. Walker and Ashley Pond.
After spending a few weeks in Syracuse, New York, in closing up a law and pension claim busi-
ness established there, he located in Chicago, and became a member of the Illinois bar, July 29,
1867. He was married at Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 5, 1867, to Miss L. Addie Wilder, who
is an educated and accomplished lady. They have a pleasant home, and a flock of little ones.
He has been conscientious and fearless in the discharge of public duties, giving satisfaction to
those who sought the public good, and being feared and traduced by those who only sought
their own good at the expense of the public. The parents of the subject of this sketch were pio-
neer farmers in the most fertile and beautiful parts of the Empire State. When a lad, he was
taught all sorts of work which constitute farming, besides obtaining a practical knowledge of
many kinds of manual labor. He was a clerk in a store, and deputy postmaster, and for two
winters taught school. In the army he spent his time first with the Army of the Potomac, and
then in Florida, in the department of the Gulf.
His life in Chicago has been that of a laborious lawyer. He has never been a candidate for a
popular office, though he has been an active, influential and earnest politician ; b'ut has been
appointed village attorney of the village of Hyde Park three times, and county attorney of Cook
county four times, the duties of such appointments being strictly within the line of his law busi-
ness. His legal attainments, and attention to business early made his success assured. He has
had his share of the varied law business which centers at Chicago. His employment has been
sought in the most intricate and difficult cases, which are finally to be determined by the courts
758 UNITKn STATES BIOUKAP111CAI. jnCTIONARY.
of last resort. The legal accuracy and attention to close questions by Mr. Willett is well illus-
trated by the case of Fisher vs. Deering, 60 111., 114. To win his case he had to overrule Chap-
man vs. McGrew, 20 111., 101, and Dixon vs. Buell, 21 111., 203, which held that leases were not
assignable because not embraced in the statutes concerning negotiable instruments. Mr. Willett
demonstrated that leases were assignable at the common law by virtue of the 32, Hen. VIII,
Chap. 34, Sec. i, which had been adopted by our statutes concerning the common law. The
principles of the ancient common law are living forces to-day in the titles and complications of
real estate.
He has an industry in the preparation of cases which will not permit any details to escape
their place of usefulness, and understanding the principle which should govern the case, all
things else are subordinated to the main design, and help to bring success. In the discharge of
his duty to his clients, are found integrity and industry, honesty and zeal, and none ever feel that
aught has been left undone that could contribute aid to the case. He has the ability, and takes
rank among those who excel in whatever work is undertaken, and these are some of the many
qualifications which indicate the sort of character he has built.
Mr. Willett is not a man to waste time and force in keeping up mere appearances. He is in*
no sense a conventional man, and is too thoroughly in earnest to ever be contented with the
petty aim of mere success. He has to the thoughtful observer always an earnestness akin to
tragedy, yet his manner is undemonstrative, and his speech reserved. His earnestness shows an
utter indifference to the trivialities, and in being absorbed in the principal things which are
essential to accomplish results. Opportunity, which comes to most men veiled, so that they do
not recognize her until she has passed, is to this man an open secret, consequently he pushes by,
and wins the race, while other men wonder at his audacity and success.
A 1
AREA N. WATERMAN.
CHICAGO.
RBA NELSON WATERMAN is a native of Orleans county, Vermont, and was born at
Greensboro, February 5, 1836. His father, Loring F. Waterman, a merchant, was born at
Johnson, Vermont, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Stevens, was born in Greens-
boro, her father being a mill owner and prominent^ business man in that town. The paternal
great-grandfather of Arba was a captain in the revolutionary army, and had a number of sons
who were substantial men, and among the leading citizens of Lamoille county, Vermont. One
of them, Arunah Waterman, grandfather of our subject, was a woolen manufacturer at Mont-
pelier, and served in the state senate for several years. Mr. Waterman received a first class aca-
demic education at Johnson, Montpelier, Georgia, and Norwich military schools, all in his native
state; taught one year in the Georgia Academy; studied law at Montpelier and the Albany (New
York) Law School: was admitted to practice in 1861; opened a law office in Joliet, Illinois, and in
1862 enlisted as a private in the tooth regiment Illinois infantry, made up in Will county, and
connected with the department of the Cumberland; was in numerous engagements, including
Chicamaugua, Resaca, Dalton, and Altoona Mountains, etc. At the first-named battle he had his
horse killed under him, and was afterward shot through the right arm and in the right side, but
did not leave the service until August, 1864, being mustered out as a lieutenant-colonel of the
regiment. On leaving the army Colonel Waterman opened a law office in Chicago, with residence
at Waukegan, until 1868, when he removed to this city. He is doing a general civil business, and
has a good class of clients, who impose in him the most implicit confidence. He is a thorough
lawyer, and maintains the esteem and respect of both bench and bar.
Mr. Waterman represented the eleventh ward in the city council for two years, 1*73-1874, that
being the only civil office that he has ever held. He is a decided and somewhat active republi-
can and a Master Mason.
UNITED STATS lUOCKArillCAI. DICTIONARY
He married in December, 1862, Ella Louisa, daughter of Samuel Hall, formerly a merchant in
Brooklyn, New York.
Mr. Waterman has been a student all his life, and has a keen relish for scientific studies. He
was one of the founders of the Chicago Philosophical Society, before which he has lectured on
one or more occasions. He is president of the Irving Literary Society, which is composed of pro-
fessional men and others residing in the west division of Chicago.
HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL.
CHICAGO.
NATURE is sometimes generous, but never prodigal of her resources. Notwithstanding its
general intelligence, its intense mental activities, its scientific, artistic and literary develop-
ment, our country has produced few men worthy to be called statesmen, and still fewer profound
constitutional lawyers. Of these, however, Illinois is conceded to have given the nation one, Hon.
Lyman Trumbull.
He was born in Colchester, Connecticut, October 12, 1813, and received his early education at
Bacon Academy, in his native town. At the age of sixteen years he commenced teaching school,
and at twenty assumed charge of an academy at Greenville, Georgia. In addition to the onerous
duties of teacher, Mr. Trumbull now devoted his leisure hours to the study of law, and in 1837
was admitted to the bar of Georgia. Sagaciously perceiving the Mississippi Valley was destined
to become the seat of mighty states, he immediately removed to Illinois, and settled at Belleville,
in Saint Clair county, and commenced the practice of law. This, however, was soon interrupted,
for in 1840 he was a representative to the legislature of Illinois, and before the expiration of his
term was appointed secretary of state, which position he filled for two years. Returning to the
practice of his profession, he devoted himself so zealously and assiduously thereto that in a few
years he became the peer of the most eminent and experienced lawyers in the state. In recogni-
tion of his peculiar fitness for the position, he was, in 1848, elected one of the justices of the
supreme court of Illinois, and in 1852 was reelected for nine years. In 1853 he resigned from the
supreme bench, and in the following year was chosen to represent his district in congress. Before
he had taken his seat, the legislature elected him senator for six years, from March, 1855. In
1861 he was reelected senator, and again in 1867. After eighteen consecutive years' servicfe as
senator from Illinois, he returned to the state he had served so long and faithfully, and resumed
the practice in Chicago, where he still resides.
His ability and eminence as a statesman and constitutional lawyer have received fitting and
graceful recognition from McKendree and Yale Colleges, both of which have conferred upon him
the honorary degree of doctor of laws. Unlike too many of our public men, Judge TrumbuH's
private life has been pure, unsullied and upright, as his public career has been brilliant, honorable
and successful.
JOHN OLNEY.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this biography was born January 10, 1822, at Shawneetown, Illinois, where
his family had settled, having come thither from the East. John passed his boyhood and
youth in his native place, receiving a good common-school education. He was studious and
industrious in his habits, and early in life evinced a strong liking for the legal profession, and a
determination to prepare himself for its duties. With this purpose in view, he entered an office
at his nativejjlace, and in 1844, after a thorough and careful course of study, passed an examina-
tion, and received his license to practice. He at once entered upon the duties of his profession
in his native town, and gradually rose to an honorable position at the bar, being known as an
able advocate and a safe and conscientious adviser.
760 UNrri'.n sr.-irxs /.vo(;A',//v//r..//. D
At the opening of the war of the rebellion, in 1861, Mr. Olney enlisted in the service, and
being chosen lieutenant-colonel of the 6tli regiment Illinois cavalry, at once proceeded to Padu-
cah, Kentucky, at which post he was placed in command. Colonel Olney was actively engaged
in the service until 1863, when he was honorably discharged, having been wounded and disabled,
and returned to his home, and resumed the practice of his profession. Two years later, in 1865,
he removed to Cairo, Illinois, where, in 1867, he was elected judge of the circuit court of Alexan-
der, Pulaski, Massac and Pope countTes. Although elected for a term of six years, he resigned
his office in 1869, and accepting the office of supervisor of internal revenue, to which he was
appointed by President Grant, removed to Chicago, where he still resides. Judge Olney satisfac-
torily performed the duties of his appointment until 1871, when, being removed from office, he
again resumed his profession, giving his attention especially to matters growing out of the law
respecting internal revenue, a line of work to which he was peculiarly adapted, and in which he
secured an extensive practice. Like many others, Judge Olney suffered the loss of his valuable
law library and many valuable papers in the great fire of October 9, 1871, but with unabated
vigor, and courage undaunted, he immediately opened another office and began to repair his
losses.
In 1876 Judge Olney was the recipient of a very high compliment, being appointed revenue
agent at Chicago, the duties of which office were very like those which devolved upon him as
supervisor of internal revenue, that office having been abolished. To form any just estimate of
the responsibilities of this office during the time of Judge Olney's appointment, and to appreciate
the position in which he was placed, one needs to review the history of that period, the high-
handed and open defiance of the law, the bargain and sale among politicians, the offers of bribery,
to which so many fell willing victims, the criminal prosecutions, in which were involved so many
high in office and in public esteem, and the final disgrace that came to those who had participated
in the revenue frauds. Through this trying time Judge Olney passed, faithful to his trust, show-
ing at the close of his official career a clean record, and a character above the slightest reproach.
Judge Olney is now engaged in the general practice of his profession, and wherever known is
recognized as an able lawyer and upright man.
HON. ELIJAH B. SHERMAN.
CHIC A GO.
OF Mr. Sherman it may be truthfully said that he belongs to that class of self-made men to
whom Chicago owes so much of its prosperity. He is of Anglo-Welsh ancestry, his father
being Elias H. Sherman, and his mother Clarissa (Wilmarth) Sherman, who were residents of
Fairfield, Vermont, where he was born June 13, 1832. He remained upon the ancestral farm en-
gaged in farm avocations during the summer months, and in attending school and teaching
during the winter- until about twenty-two years of age. In 1854 he removed to Brandon, Ver-
mont, where he was for a time employed as a clerk in a drug store. During the following year
he entered the academy at Manchester, where he began a course of study preparatory to entering
college. Upon leaving the academy he entered Middlebury College at Middlebury, Vermont,
where he completed the full college course, graduating in 1860. From the first he took high rank
in college, and was selected as poet for the junior exhibition as well as for the graduating exer-
cises of his class. Since graduation he has been twice invited to address the associated alumni
of his college.
After graduation Mr. Sherman spent a year in teaching at South Woodstock, Vermont, at the
expiration of which time he took charge of the Brandon Seminary, where he continued until May,
1862. He then enlisted as a private in the gth Vermont infantry, and was soon after elected lieu-
tenant of company C. He served with his regiment until January, 1863, when he resigned, his
regiment then being on duty at Camp Douglas, Chicago. He immediately entered upon the
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 763
study of law, and attended the full course of lectures at the law department of the University of
Chicago, graduating in 1864. He was admitted to the bar upon graduation, and at once engaged
in the practice of his profession in Chicago, and has been in continuous and successful practice
from that time. He has for several years been the solicitor for the state auditor, and in that
capacity has had charge of many important litigations. As such solicitor he instituted the pro-
ceedings for closing the affairs of the Republic Life Insurance Company, the Chicago Life Insur-
ance Company, and the Protection Life Insurance Company, in all of which cases constitutional
questions of the first importance were involved. Mr. Sherman's interpretation of the general
insurance laws under which these companies are being wound up have been sustained by the
highest courts, and have thus become precedents for guidance in future cases. One of these cases
is now pending in the supreme court of the United States, involving the entire question of legis-
lative control over corporations, and the extent to which such control may be exercised without
impairing the obligation of the charter contract. The decision of this question will make this
litigation the most important as regards the law of corporations since the historic Dartmouth
College case. He has also prosecuted other important cases involving kindred questions, among
the more notable of which is the case of Eames vs. The State Savings Institution, in which the
largest savings bank in the West was taken from a voluntary assignee and placed under the man-
agement of a receiver, upon a bill filed by Mr. Sherman, assisted by other eminent lawyers, in
behalf of all the depositors and creditors of the bank.
In 1876 he accepted the republican nomination for the Illinois house of representatives for the
then fourth senatorial district. He was elected by a flattering majority, and was reelected in
1878. His thorough training and ripe scholarship, coupled with his experience at the bar and his
profound knowledge of the law, at once gave him high rank as a legislator, and his name is iden-
tified with all the more important legislation of those years. He served as chairman of the com-
mittee on judicial department, and was chiefly instrumental in formulating the law establishing
the system of appellate courts which are now a part of the judicial system of Illinois. He was
also chairman of the committee on corporations and a member of the judiciary committee, as
well as of the military committee which prepared the military code now in force. As a legislator
he was uniformly arrayed against all jobbing schemes, and proved himself an earnest and elo-
quent champion of the rights of the people. His long experience in the trial of- causes at the
bar gave him a quickness and readiness in debate which placed him in the front rank as a de-
bater, and his services as a legislator constitute one of the most satisfactory features of his suc-
cessful career.
In 1879 Mr. Sherman was appointed one of the masters in chancery of the United States cir-
cuit court for the northern district of Illinois by Judges Harlan, Drummond and Blodgett. The
appointment was made at the request of the leading members of the bar of the city and state,
and, as the result has shown, was in every respect a most fitting one. His long and successful
practice in chancery causes, his thorough familiarity both with the principles and procedure of
courts of chancery, coupled with unusual habits of industry, application and accuracy, have ena-
bled him to discharge the duties of this important office to the complete satisfaction of the bench
and bar, while he has at the same time continued in the successful practice of his profession.
His name has frequently been mentioned for higher office upon the bench and elsewhere, for
which h's experience and abilities have well qualified him, but he has thus far preferred to retain
the very satisfactory position which he now occupies in his profession.
Mr. Sherman has served as grand master of the grand lodge of the order of Odd-Fellows,
and was its representative for two years to the sovereign grand lodge. He is an active member
of the Chicago Philosophical Society, of the Chicago Bar Association, and of the Chicago Law
Institute. He is a member of the State Bar Association, of which he has been president, and he
delivered the annual address before that body at its association in January, 1882. This address
was published by the association and was largely circulated, attracting much attention, not only
for its merit as a brilliant literary production, but because of its keen, incisive and well aimed
74
764 UNITED STATES RIOGKArillCAl. DICTIONARY.
blows at the existing faults in our jurisprudence, coupled with some admirable suggestions for
their reform. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, and a member of the
General Council, and has been prominently identified with various other societies and organiza-
tions of a public and philanthropic character.
In private and in social life he is one of the most agreeable of gentlemen. Well read in the
literature of the times, a close and accurate thinker, a brilliant conversationalist, courteous, chari-
table and considerate to all, he combines" in an eminent degree the qualities essential to a culti-
vated gentleman, in the best sense of that much abused term.
In 1866 he was married to Hattie G. Lovering, daughter of S. M. Levering, of Iowa Falls,
Iowa, a lady of most estimable character, and possessing in a marked degree the solid accom-
plishments and womanly devotion which render home and home life restful and happy.
LUTHER M. SHREVE.
CHICAGO.
T OTHER MARTIN SHREVE was born September n, 1819, near Nicholasville, in the county
1 j of Jessamine, state of Kentucky, and was the youngest child of William and Ann Shreve,
each of whom had families of sons and daughters at the time of their marriage by former mar-
riage. William Shreve, for many years judge of the county court of Jessamine, was. born in Mary-
land, and while but a boy at a country school in his native state, joined a passing company of
volunteer infantry, and served the full term for which he enlisted in the revolutionary war, and was
awarded a pension in after life. He emigrated to Kentucky in early manhood, where he acquired
an ample fortune, and lived and died respected and beloved by all who knew him. A lofty shaft
of Italian marble reared over his remains can be seen by every passenger upon the Kentucky Cen-
tral, and though the beautiful farm has passed into other hands, the family burying ground with its
broad approach is preserved in perpetuity, where repose his widow and many of the family. His
eldest sons, L. L. Shreve and I. T. Shreve, of Louisville, engaged in the iron manufacture, and
through his direction and financial indorsement in every crisis which attended the business, and
closed every manufactory which could not withstand the fluctuations that changes in the tariff
system produced, they were enabled to amass large fortunes, and L. L. Shreve is remembered by
the people of Louisville to-day, as one of the largest-minded, public-spirited men of that city.
But three of the sons and daughters of William Shreve survive: Ann, the widow of L. Y. Martin,
and mother of a numerous family of enterprising men and several married daughters; John M.
Shreve, a resident of Louisville, and known as a man of large intelligence and great purity of life,
and Luther M., the subject of this memoir, and the only member of the numerous family who em-
barked in the profession of the law.
Having graduated in the Saint Mary's Collegiate Institute of Kentucky, the youngest gradu-
ate of the school, at seventeen years of age, he entered Cambridge, and was received by the pres-
ident of the institute, Hon. Josiah Quincy, as a university student, being considered then too
young to enter the law department. After remaining one year in this department, during which
time he had the benefit of the lectures of all the distinguished men who were then connected with
that institution, under the direction of Hon. Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf, he here pursued
the study of the law, and in two years after received his diploma from that law school. The
death of his father during this period left him, on his return to Kentucky, without the guidance
and protection enjoyed by the older members of the family, but with ample means to commence
the struggle of life.
The successful effort of the denizens of that portion of Mexico now known as the state of
Texas, to form an independent government, was now in progress, and fired with the movement,
after a few days passed with his aged mother, he determined to join the army of Texans, and
hastened to the scene, but being delayed by want of conveyance for several weeks, reached the
UNITED STATES ftlOCK. / />///('.//. DICTIONARY. 765
shores of the " lone star " too late to be a participant in that revolution in which his brother John
was engaged from its commencement to its memorable close at San Jacinto.
He sojourned about two years in Texas, during which time sickness induced his return to
Kentucky, where he soon afterward met the daughter of King Strong, of New York, who was vis-
iting his brother, Doctor Henry L. Strong, and married her, and immediately settled in Saint
Louis, and commenced the practice of his profession. He was soon after elected city attorney,
and after serving a second term formed a law partnership with Hon. Uriel Wright, perhaps the most
accomplished lawyer and eloquent advocate at the bar. This partnership continued until the war
of the rebellion, when Mr. Wright joined the army of the South, and urged Mr. Shreve to go with
him, but he refused. And though in full sympathy with the South and the justice of the cause,
he declined to participate in the rebellion, and in a speech made from the court-house steps to an
immense audience proclaimed the position he occupied in that eventful hour. On this occasion
he declared his conviction that his people had just cause for complaint, just even to resistance,
but whatever the grievance, it should be righted in the Union, and that he would never join any
military organization that did not wave the national emblem, the stars and stripes; that the
rebellion must be fought in the Union, not out of it; that secession was death to the cause for
which they contended, and firm in these convictions he took no active part in that unfortunate
struggle. As a result of the war, prescriptive laws were passed in Missouri, and among these the
notorious iron-clad oath which debarred every lawyer from practice who did not take and sub-
scribe to it. This Mr. Shreve refused to take, and for some years was denied the privilege of pur-
suing his profession.
The death of his wife during the last year of the rebellion was a terrible blow, and for several
years he devoted more attention to an unsuccessful culture of cotton, than to the practice of the
law, and in 1867 made a trip to Europe, where he renewed acquaintaince with, and married his
present wife, Julia P. Aldershaw, the accomplished daughter of Hon. Aldershaw, master in chan-
cery, of London, by whom he has two children living: Luther and Violet.
While Mr. Shreve positively refused to enlist beneath the folds of the bonnie blue flag, he with
equal firmness declined to join the army of the Union, impressed with the conviction that he could
not conscientiously take up arms against those among whom he was born and reared, nor fight
their battles under a foreign flag, floating upon the iconoclastic principles of secession. Despite
this resolution firmly adhered to through the rebellion, he was court-martialed, tried and convicted
for treason, the specific charges being outspoken expression, and aiding the enemy in the pur-
chase of quinine, sent to the South for the benefit of southern soldiers shaking with the ague.
The only proof submitted before the august drumhead, composed of the son of General Curtis as
judge advocate, and two soldiers of German origin, one of them known to him as the carriage
driver of Hon. Luther M. Kennett, mayor of the city of Saint Louis, and the other convicted of
having robbed a stranger in his saloon, was that a small amount of money had been sent to Mr.
Shreve to pay an order for some quinine, made upon the druggist who furnished it unknown to
him. The conviction was promptly set aside by General Rosecrans as soon as the facts were
made known to him. Confiscation of private property was the order of the day, and even the fur-
niture in the dwellings of those who refused to participate in the war, or became obnoxious to
the ruling provost, was dragged from their houses and sold. Such an order was resisted by him.
and when late in the evening attempted to be enforced by an orderly and a few subalterns, he
stood upon the threshold of his own house armed for the occasion, and defied them with sugges-
tive expression if they attempted to enter the house, which was at once reported to headquarters.
The order was suspended until next day and never carried out; being afterward placed under
bonds of $40,000, and enjoined not to leave the state, which he had no purpose of doing.
Amusing incidents sometimes occurred showing the fury of the times. On one occasion, hav-
ing been paroled from imprisonment in the military prison upon honor to his own house, where
his wife was lying on the lied of sickness and death, a lady friend visited Mrs. Shreve, and at nine
o'clock was compelled to return home. As it was raining, Mr. Shreve, with an umbrella, escorted
766 UN/77- D STATl-.S IHO(,KA PIIICAL DICTIONARY.
her to the cars two squares distant. During the walk he was observed by one of the spies offici-
ating, the fact made known to the provost, and it was thirty days before he saw his wife again.
Soon after the battle of Pea Ridge, knowing the commotion it would create in Saint Louis, Mr.
Shreve suggested to some friends that it would be a good time to go fishing. John J. Anderson,
a well known banker of the city, and John Y. Page, a brother lawyer, neither of whom had taken
any part in the drama enacting, and Hon. Asa Jones, then United States district attorney for that
district, a noble son of Vermont, and as -ardent a lover of the Union as any one, were his com-
panions. Having procured two buggies, they proceeded to Mud River, intending to remain all
night at the house at which they stopped on the bank of the river, and socially enjoying the even-
ing retired to bed, but before twelve o'clock were aroused by the clatter of horses' feet and sol-
diers' gear, followed by the bursting of the door of the large room, and made prisoners by sixty
stalwarts in the uniform of the United States. The captain was much inclined to release Mr.
Shreve, as he had done him some service on an occasion in the criminal court, but Jones they
knew to be an arrant rebel, his lofty mien and jet-black full beard and piercing black eyes fully
establishing his rebel proclivities. As a consequence, they were all marched across the hills of
the Merrimac, fourteen miles distant, to the fortress in the darkness of night, riding double upon
the bare-back buggy horses. The incident was subject of amusement to the newspapers, but
never much enjoyed by the district attorney.
Soon after his return from Europe Mr. Shreve removed to Chicago, where he is now engaged
in the practice of his profession. Since his residence here he has taken no part in politics. He
is a democrat in feeling, believing the principles of the democratic party insure the largest liberty
to the citizen, and are the surest safeguard to the perpetuity of the republican institutions.
Although not a professor of religion, he declares that advancing years but more firmly con-
vince him of the great moral truths of the Bible, perhaps better illustrated in the teachings of
the Christian denomination than any other, but dependent -upon no profession to determine the
hereafter.
HON. EVERT VAN BUREN.
CHICAGO.
ONE of the oldest men still practicing at the bar of Cook county, and one who has made a
brilliant record as a lawyer, both in New York and this state, is he whose name we place at
the head of this sketch, and who was born at Kinderhook, Columbia county, New York, Novem-
ber 3, 1803.
Evert received an academic education ; read law with J. and A. Vanderpoel, at Kinderhook ;
was admitted to the bar in 1827, and settled at first in Penn Yan, Yates county, New York. The
bar of that county at that time was represented by such distinguished members as John C.
Spencer, Mark H. Sibley and Dudley Marvin, who were located at Canandaigua, Ontario county.
His practice increased rapidly, and soon extended into the neighboring counties, and he showed
himself the peer of the best of the legal fraternity in that part of the state.
In 1836, Mr. Van Buren went to Buffalo, New York, it being "flush times," when everybody
was rich or becoming so rapidly. He had or made influential friends there, and soon had a
highly remunerative practice. He distinguished himself in the famous trial of Benjamin Rath-
bun, for forgery, being one of the lawyers employed on the defense.
At the earnest solicitation of his Yates county friends, Mr. Van Buren returned to Penn Yan
in 1840, resuming his practice, and having many important criminal trials, in connection with
which he greatly increased his reputation as a criminal lawyer. His triumphs were many and
brilliant. But his practice was by no means confined to criminal business. His civil practice,
both in the courts of law and chancery, extended over the adjoining counties, and first suggested
to him the idea of removing to a larger field, which he did by coming to Chicago.
Mr. Van Buren, then a very young man, represented his congressional district in the national
UNITED STATES RIOGRA />///( \ll. DICTIONARY. 767
anti-masonic convention which nominated William Wirt for president in 1833. He was the
youngest man in the convention, and was a member of the committee on resolutions. He sup-
ported Martin Van Buren for president in 1836 and 1840, and has usually voted the democratic
ticket.
In 1856 he moved to Chicago, where he immediately built up a large and lucrative practice,
and in 1862 was elected judge of the recorder's court, faithfully and honorably discharging the
duties of that office, and at the end of the term he returned to the practice of his profession, in
which he is still engaged. He stands in the front rank of his profession, having few superiors in
the state.
HON. JOHN SCHOLFIELD.
MARSHALL.
JOHN SCHOLFIELD was born in Clark county, Illinois, August i, 1834. His father was
Thomas Scholfield, and the maiden name of his mother was Ruth Beauchamp. He received
a common-school education, and in 1853 began reading law, subsequently attending the law de-
partment of the Louisville University, where he graduated in 1856. He then commenced to
practice his profession at Marshall, the county seat of his native county, where he still resides.
During his first year at the bar he was elected state's attorney for the fourth judicial circuit, an
office which he filled' very satisfactorily for four years, gaining considerable reputation as an
attorney. In 1860 he was elected as a Douglas democrat to represent Clark county in the lower
house of the legislature, where he served one term. In 1869 he was chosen as delegate from
Clark and Cumberland counties to the constitutional convention; and in June, 1873, was elected
for the unexpired term of six years, of Judge Thornton, of the second judicial district, who
had resigned. This district comprises the counties of Clark, Crawford, Lawrence, Richland,
Clay, Jasper, Cumberland, Effingham, Marion, Shelby, Christian, Fayette, Bond, Madison, Jersey,
Calhoun, Greene, Montgomery and Macoupin. He served this term with the greatest satisfaction,
and was reflected in 1879.
Judge Scholfield is the youngest man on the supreme bench, and is considered by all who
know him to be a very able and well read member of the profession.
HIRAM NANCE, M.D.
KEWANEE.
WE place at the head of this sketch the name of one of the oldest and most successful medical
practitioners in Henry county, a native of Floyd county, Indiana, born September 23,
1822. His parents were William and Nancy (Smith) Nance. He was partly educated in an
academy at New Albany; left Indiana in 1836, and came with his family to Adams county, this
state, settling at Columbus, where he finished his education, and was for some time in a drug
store and clerk in the postoffice. At eighteen years of age he commenced the study of medicine
with Doctor J. W. Hollowbush, remaining with him for three years. He attended lectures at the
University of Missouri, Saint Louis; practiced one year at Lafayette, Mount Stark county, this
state; returned to the university, took another course of lectures, and graduated in 1847. Re-
turning to Lafayette, he remained there a few years longer, and then settled (1860) in Kewanee.
He has made a splendid record, both as a physician and surgeon; is a member of the American
Medical Association and the State Medical Society, and was one of the originators of the Military
Tract Medical Society, and its second president. He has engaged extenstvely in real estate and
financial operations, in which enterprises he has met with great success.
He was married, April 20, 1847, to Sarah R. Smith, of Knox county. The issue has been
twelve children, viz., Albinus, governor of Nebraska; Adella, a graduate of Normal University,
768 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
married to C. A. Shilton, merchant, Kewanee; La Clede, died in 1858; Hiram Irving, educated at
Knox College, Galesburgh, and Rush Medical College, Chicago, practicing at Creston, Iowa;
Sarah Belle, educated at Normal University, married to George Castle, state senator and merchant
at Blue Springs, Nebraska; Roswell S., engaged in farming and stock raising on an 800 acre farm
in Jefferson count)', Nebraska; Claud B., died in 1867; Roy, studied at Knox College, at present
studying dentistry; Frederick B., farming in Knox county, near Galva; Grace Lillian, died in
1867; Charles H. and Willis Orville, students in high school, Kewanee.
Doctor Nance has a brother, Doctor William H. Nance, a prominent physician, retired, and
living at Vermont, this state; another brother, John S. Nance, a pioneer gold seeker in California,
going out by ox and mule team in 1849, now living at Salina City, in that state. Another brother,
Clement Nance, many years a merchant, died at Quincy, Illinois, in 1879. The grandfather of
these brothers was a minister of the gospel, a noted mathematician, and a writer of sacred poems.
HON. T. LYLE DICKEY.
CHICAGO.
TLYLE DICKEY is a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and was born October 2, 1811.
. He entered the Ohio University in the fall of 1826, and continued there four years, and
then entered the senior class of Miami University, and was graduated from that institution in
1831. December 6, of that year, he was married to Miss Juliet Evans. He taught school in Ohio
and Kentucky with marked success. He removed to McDonough county, Illinois, in the winter
of 1834, when he met Hon. Cyrus H. Walker, who persuaded him to study law. He commenced
the practice of the law at Macomb, before he was admitted to the bar, with good success, and was
admitted to the Illinois bar in 1835, at the age of twenty-three years. He removed to Rushville,
Illinois, in 1836, and while practicing law, edited a whig paper at that place. He engaged in
real-estate speculations, and the crash of 1837 rendered it impossible for him to meet his obliga-
tions for a period of twenty-one years, the most of his notes bearing interest at twelve per cent.
In 1839 he removed to Ottawa, and continued his practice. In 1846 the Mexican war broke out,
and he raised a fine company of men, of which he was appointed captain, and joined the ist reg-
iment of Illinois infantry. After considerable service, he resigned on account of ill health, and
returned home and resumed his practice.
In 1848 he was elected judge of the circuit, comprising twelve counties, which position he
filled four years, and then resigned and resumed practice. In 1854 he opened an office in Chi-
cago, still residing in Ottawa. His wife died December 31, 1855. He practiced law four years,
and was then enabled to pay all his indebtedness, principal and interest, and in 1858 returned to
Ottawa, prepared to live easier. In that year, though a whig so long as that party lasted, Judge
Dickey espoused the cause of Douglas, in his famous contest with Lincoln, and gave him effective
support in public addresses in many parts of the state.
He formed a partnership with W. H. L. Wallace and his son, Cyrus E. Dickey, and practiced
law until the war broke out, in 1861, when he raised a regiment (the 4th Illinois cavalry), and was
appointed its colonel. He was with General Grant at the capture of Fort Henry; led the advance
at Fort Donelson; participated in the battle of Shiloh, with both his sons and his son-in-law.
General Wallace, who was killed. In the year 1862 he was appointed chief of cavalry on General
Grant's staff, and sent to Memphis in command of that post. He was in the battle of luka. He
was placed in command of all of the cavalry in General Grant's army, comprising four brigades.
He fought General Pemberton far in advance of his supports, four days, on his retreat from Tal-
lahassee. He took 600 selected men, and made the first extensive raid into the enemy's country
through a region filled with rebels, and returned without the loss of any men. It was he who
suggested and organized the celebrated raid of Grierson, destroying the railroads about Jackson.
Mississippi, in 1863.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 769
He resigned in 1863, returned home, and formed a partnership with John B. Rice. In 1866 he
was democratic candidate for congress for the state at large. In 1868 lie was appointed assistant
attorney general of the United States, and had charge of all government suits in the court of
claims, and in that branch of litigation in the United States supreme court, which duties he per-
formed with fidelity and great ability. He received high encomiums from the judges of that
high court for the prompt and thorough manner in which he performed his duties. One of the
most important cases ever tried in that court was that of the Floyd acceptance case, where Judge
Dickey contended successfully against Judges Curtis and Jeremiah Black, the opposing counsel,
and was sustained by the court. This position he held about two years, and then resigned and
spent the winter in Florida.
In the summer of 1870, he married Mrs. Hirst, of Prince Ann, Maryland. He then returned
to Ottawa, and practiced law. He removed to Chicago in December, 1873. He was elected
judge of the supreme court in December, 1875, to fill a vacancy, and was reelected in 1879 as an
independent candidate, over Thomas Dent, a very worthy gentleman, the regular nominee, but
Judge Dickey's personal popularity secured his election, although Mr. Dent's party was in the
ascendancy. He has since remained upon the bench of the supreme court of Illinois, which posi-
tion he fills to the utmost satisfaction of all.
JOHN S. THOMPSON.
CHICAGO.
JOHN S. THOMPSON was born July 31, 1824, at Wilmington, Ohio. He was the son of Abel
VV. Thompson and Elizabeth (Scarff ) Thompson. John was indeed a self-educated and origi-
nal character, securing his educational training at a private school at Xenia in Ohio, but being of
an inquiring mind and of studious habits, he early cultivated literary tastes, and had an especial
zest for historical research. At seventeen years of age, in 1841, he emigrated from Ohio to Illi-
nois, and commenced the preparation for his life calling, the profession of the law. He entered
the law office of his brother, an eminent and thoroughly read lawyer of Mercer county, Illinois,
James S. Thompson, at Millersburgh, then the county seat of Mercer county. In 1843, a ' nineteen
years of age, he was admitted by license of the supreme court of Illinois to assume the responsi-
bilities of a member of the bar of Illinois, to practice in all courts of record of the state. He
immediately commenced practice, and followed the routine of an extensive practice from 1843 to
1845 in Mercer county and the surrounding counties and circuits.
In the year of 1855, he was chosen judge of the tenth judicial circuit of the state of Illinois,
which judicial district was composed of Mercer, Henderson, Warren and Knox. The district
formerly included Fulton county, but by an act of the legislature of the state, passed through
the advocacy of our subject, Fulton county was dropped from the tenth circuit.
Elected for a constitutional term of six years, he held the responsible position for about five
years and two months, resigning his position and laying aside the ermine. In 1861 he again
resumed practice in Mercer county, and followed the routine of legal business until 1864, when
Judge Charles B. Lawrence was elected supreme judge of the state of Illinois, leaving the judge-
ship of the tenth circuit vacant, when Judge Thompson was reelected circuit judge to fill the
vacancy in the same circuit where he had presided with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction
and approval of the bar in his district. In 1868 the heavy duties of the office proving too labori-
ous for his health, he again resigned. In the year 1866 Judge Thompson enlisted in the enter-
prise of building a railroad from Galva, in Henry county, to the Mississippi River, the terminus
being at New Boston. He raised a subscription among the agriculturists and capitalists of Mercer
county, of about $175,000, and succeeded in building the road.
In 1866, against his protest, he was nomimited as a candidate for congress, and ran against
General Abner C. Harding, one of the most popular men of his district, upon an independent
ticket, but by ousting some counties of the fourth congressional district, he was defeated.
770 UNITED STATES ftlOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
In the year 1870 our subject removed to California, remaining at Oakland about two years,
during which time he was engaged in traveling up and down the coast of southern California to
Oregon. In 1872 he took up his abode at Los Angeles, there resuming the practice of his pro-
fession, and at the same time engaging in politics. Against his protest he was made a candidate
of the independent party of the state, there being three tickets in the field, the democratic, re-
publican and the independents, the latter being opposed to railroad monopoly. He was a candi-
date for congress at the same time John Bidwell, one of the best and most deservedly popular
men of California, was a candidate for governor, but the railroad interest and money effected his
defeat, though while canvassing the state, in concert with Governor Bidwell, they had a perfect
ovation, and their meetings were large and enthusiastic. After the campaign closed he went to
Los Angeles and resumed practice. Judge Thompson is at present engaged in railroading at
Chicago.
He is phenomenally unostentatious, but of a clear mind and quick comprehension, an able
advocate, a safe counselor, conscientious in his opinions, cautious and shrewd as a manager in
any enterprise he enters into.
Judge Thompson is social and companionable to all whom he meets in his business concerns.
He is a republican in his political views and adherence, independent in his views, but not obtru-
sive in his sentiments, having a large charity for all sects and conditions, a true friend, and
sincere and self-reliant in his intercourse and business and social relations with all.
D
DAVID BRAINERD LYMAN.
CHICAGO.
AVID B. LYMAN was born March 27, 1840, in Hilo, in the Island of Hawaii, Sandwich
Islands. He is a son of Rev. David B. Lyman, who was formerly of New Hartford, Con-
necticut, and who, having graduated at Williams College, studied theology at the Andover Theo-
logical Seminary. After completing his theological studies, Mr. Lyman, Sr., married, and sailed,
in November, 1831, for the Sandwich Islands, as a missionary of the American Board of Commis-
sioners for Foreign Missions, where he and his wife still reside, laboring for the cause of
Christianity and civilization. The subject of this sketch acquired his education by his own
efforts, having maintained himself since early boyhood, and applied his leisure hours to study. At
a very early age he held several important positions under the government of the Sandwich
Islands, thereby obtaining means to prepare himself for, and go through with, a university edu-
cation.
In 1859 he left Honolulu, sailed around Cape Horn, and arrived in New Bedford, Con-
necticut, in May, 1860. He entered Yale College in September of that year, and graduated in
arts in 1864. After leaving Yale, Mr. Lyman went to Harvard Law School, and entered upon
the study of law, and graduated in 1866. After leaving Yale, and during the time that he was
enrolled as a student at Harvard Law School, in the years 1864 and 1865, he was connected with
the sanitary commission as hospital visitor. He was then in charge of the 5th corps hospital, of
the Army of the Potomac, and also the Point of Rocks hospital, in Virginia, and for the last few
weeks of his service was in charge of the sanitary commission of the forces concentrated around
Washington.
In 1866, after finishing his course at the law school, Mr. Lyman having been admitted to the
bar in Boston, removed to Chicago, and entered the office of Waite and Clark as a clerk, and
remained in that capacity two years. July i, 1869, he formed a partnership with Huntington W.
Jackson, under the firm name and style of Lyman and Jackson, which is to-day one of the oldest
partnerships in Chicago.
Mr. Lyman has fine literary attainments, and is a good classical scholar. He has been highly
successful in the practice of his chosen profession. While he has, perhaps, devoted more time to
/:"
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UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. -j-j-^
real estate and commercial law than to any other branch, so general has been his reading, and
such has been his industry, that he is a general practitioner, being at home everywhere, and
always ready for attack or defense. The subject of this sketch has much natural ability, yet by
the thoroughness with which he prepares his cases, he illustrates the truth of the well known
maxim, "there is no excellence without labor."
While Mr. Lyman has probably a higher reputation as an able and learned counselor than as
an advocate before a court or jury, yet such is his standing, and so thoroughly does he investigate
and prepare his cases, that his arguments usually carry more weight than those of other members
of the bar who may possess more of the gift of eloquence.
He has the confidence of his clients, because they know he will not advise them to commence
a suit unless their course is right, and then only when there is no remedy for them save in litiga-
tion. Mr. Lyman is noted for his indefatigable industry, for his painstaking preparation and
management of his cases, for his unvarying courtesy toward everyone with whom he comes in
contact, and for his most thorough and conscientious discharge of his duty to his clients. These
qualities, added to his well known ability and learning, have given him a high standing with his
brethren of the bar, as well as with the courts.
Mr. Lyman takes no active part in politics, but is a stanch republican. He was married, Octo-
ber 5, 1870, to Miss Mary E. Cossitt, daughter of F. D. Cossitt, of Chicago, and has three children
living. He resides in- La Grange, one of the suburbs of Chicago.
HON. DAVID HARRISON PATTON.
PAXTON.
A^IONG the early pioneer settlers of Illinois is enrolled the name of David H. Patton, who
was born near Lexington, Clark county, Kentucky, November 15, 1806. His parents were
Matthew and Rebecca (May) Patton, his father being a native of England, while his mother was
from Ireland. The early education of our subject was such as the log school houses of a sparsely
settled and imperfectly organized new country afforded. When about seventeen years of age, by
great industry, he had gathered sufficient knowledge to teach school, and leaving home he
obtained a school in Preble county, Ohio, where he taught for five years, at the same time improv-
ing his opportunities by hard study. When he was twenty-one years of age he had accumulated
a small amount of money, and made his first purchase of real estate, buying eighty acres of land
for $100, which he held for about one year and sold it for $500. He began the study of law under
the instruction of the late Hon. Oliver H. Smith of Congressville, Indiana. He was admitted to
the bar in 1830 and began the practice of his profession at Lafayette, Indiana, and practiced with
great success for ten years, accumulating considerable wealth. He then engaged in farming for
a few years, dealing in stock very extensively, buying hogs, cattle and horses, and at the same
time carrying on a dry-goods business, where he made considerable money. He only continued
the dry-goods business for two years, when he closed out the store and gave his full attention
again to farming, which he carried on in Indiana very successfully and extensively until 1853,
when he came to what is now Paxton, but what was then nothing but a wild waste of prairie
land. He settled on a farm of over 900 acres, about two miles from the town, where he carried on
a very large business, farming, stock raising and speculating, and in 1865, being worn out by active
life, he rented the farm and moved to Paxton, which was then a small town. Here he speculated
and made a great deal of money, which he used liberally in all the public interests. Many pros-
perous men owe their success to his kindness. He has been elected Judge of Ford county for four
successive terms of four years, making him in all sixteen years on the bench, where he was highly
respected. He is a man of great purity of character, is well read in law, has good judgment,
dignity, decision of character, and other qualities which made him an excellent and truly a great
and impartial judge. While Judge Patton prospered .in all his undertakings from his first
75
774 UNITF.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
land purchase at $100 to his later speculations involving thousands, his free good will and kind-
ness toward others proved disastrous to him in the panic of 1873.
In religion the judge is an Episcopalian, but is liberal in his views and is a worshiper of God
and not denomination, and has been a very liberal supporter of all denominations. In politics
he is republican, but has never taken any special or active part, except in the town elections.
Mr. Patton married July 14, 1829, Miss Synthe Bush, of Lafayette, and they had four children,
three daughters and one son. His wife who was an estimable lady of fine native endowments, a
great help to him during his dark hours of late years, a devoted wife, and fond mother, died
January 5, 1878. He afterward married Mrs. Elizabeth Plummer, of Paxton, and they are now
living a quiet life, the judge being perfectly contented with his lot and enjoying life as much as
he did in his prosperity. His character for integrity and uprightness is unimpeachable, and he
occupies in the community in which he lives a position that commands the respect, confidence
and love of all his fellow citizens.
E
HON. EDWARD R. ALLEN.
AURORA.
DWARD RICHARDS ALLEN, for more than forty years a resident of Aurora, Kane
county, is a son of Edward and Anna (Richards) Allen, and was born in Cortland, Cortland
county, New York, November 7, 1819. When fifteen years old he went to Lockport, New York,
and was indentured to George W. Merchant, a druggist, with whom he remained four years.
In 1839 he came to Chicago, where he was in the drug business for two years, and then (1841)
settled in Aurora. Here, at first, for a period of ten or twelve years, Mr. Allen was engaged in
general merchandise, and in 1853, in company with L. D. Brady, built a warehouse, and has since
been in the grain and produce business, and real estate, at times also adding manufactures, run-
ning a sash, door and blind factory, which he now rents. He is a stockholder of the Silver Plate
Company, and a director of the First National Bank, of Aurora.
Mr. Allen was postmaster of Aurora during the democratic administrations of Polk and Pierce;
became a republican when his old party threw itself into the arms of the slave power, and was
sent to the lower house of the Illinois legislature in 1858, and to the upper house in 1860,
serving six consecutive years in the legislature. He was one of the commissioners who located
the asylum for the feeble-minded.
H
HON. HORACE S. CLARK.
MA TTOON.
GRACE S. CLARK first saw light, August 12, 1840, in Geauga county, Ohio. His father
was Captain J. M. P. Clark, a native of New England, and the maiden name of his mother
was Charlotte Brainard, a native of Ohio. Mr. Clark received such education as was obtainable
from the ordinary country school, until the age of fourteen, when he started for the West. He
had sufficient means to enable him to reach Chicago, where he arrived without money, friends or
influence.
Mr. Clark started as a common laborer in Chicago, and afterward worked on a farm during
the busy season, attending school during the winter, and in this way gained considerable knowl-
edge and saved some money. He then entered the Iowa State University, and worked his way
through that institution by teaching school, and studying law during his vacations, and subse-
quently taught school while studying law under Hon. W. E. Miller, and was thus engaged at the
breaking out of the rebellion, when he raised and organized a company, but afterward became
dissatisfied with the conduct of the administration and disbanded his troops, resolving to take no
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 775
part in the war. But. owing to subsequent change of affairs, and his patriotism still existing, he
enlisted as private in company E, 73d regiment Ohio infantry. He was soon promoted to
orderly sergeant, and afterward he was commissioned first lieutenant, and in this capacity he
served in the battle of Gettysburg!!, where he was severely wounded, which disabled him for the
service, and he was honorably discharged. He was afterward offered the position of lieutenant-
colonel of a new regiment, by Governor Todd, but was forced to decline, not being able to serve.
Immediately after the war he settled in Mattoon, and continued his study of the law, and in
1868 was admitted to the bar. Previous to his admission, he was elected police magistrate of
Mattoon, and afterward judge of the court of common pleas of Mattoon, and has since his admis-
sion practiced law with great success. He has won an enviable reputation in central Illinois as
a criminal lawyer, and is a strong advocate before a jury, possessing powerful elocutionary pow-
ers, and never tiring in the interest of his client.
In 1880 he was elected state senator by the republican party. In politics he is a republican,
and has always been an active worker and is a leading man in the party in Coles county, and is
considered one of the best orators of central Illinois.
HON. SAMUEL H. TREAT.
SPRINGFIELD.
JUDGE TREAT, who has spent nearly half of his life on the bench, is a son of Samuel and
Elsie (Tracy) Treat, and was born in Otsego county, New York, June 21, 1812. He received
an academic and legal education in his native state ; came to the West and settled in Springfield
in 1834, and five years afterward (1839) was appointed circuit judge, successor to Hon. Stephen
T. Logan, filling that office until 1841. He then became a judge of the supreme court of Illi-
nois, being assigned to circuit duties, and holding that position until 1855, when he was appointed
by President Pierce to the bench of the United States district court. That office he has held for
twenty-seven years, and has made for himself a highly creditable record as a jurist. He has been
on the bench so long, and is so far advanced in age, that many of his friends think he is a little
slow in his court business, and it is not unlikely that by the time this work is out of the press, he
may be on the retired list.
The judge is a man of great purity of character, and his opinions are regarded as fine speci-
mens of judicial writing, being clear, direct and .terse. He has a wife, but no children.
HON. JAMES C. ALLEN.
OI.NE Y.
JAMES C. ALLEN was born January 22, 1822, in Shelby county, Kentucky. His father was
Benjamin Allen, of Irish ancestry, and a native of Virginia. The maiden name of his mother
was Margaret Youel, who was of Scotch ancestry, her people settling in Virginia as early as 1800.
His parents, soon after his birth, removed to Indiana, settling on a farm in Park county, where
James remained until 1830. His time was spent as that of most farmer boys. He had a poor
chance of obtaining an education, but obtained what he could by his own exertions after his day's
work, taking the advantage of an occasional few months' schooling, and finishing his education at
Rockville high school, supporting himself while there, paying his own tuition. He then studied
law with Fillman A. Howard, and subsequently with Hon. Jas. A. Wright, and was admitted to the
Indiana bar in 1843, and in the fall of the same year settled in Sullivan, where he began his practice
and continued in a very successful clientage for four years, in the meantime being elected prose-
cuting attorney in that circuit. In 1847 he removed to Palestine, Crawford county, where he con-
tinued his practice, and in 1850 was sent to the legislature, where he took an active part. The
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principal question arising in that session was between the liberal policy and the state policy.
The latter gained the point, and railroad charters were then granted for any corporations who
could bond them.
In 1852 he was elected to congress, where he also took an active part. The principal feature
of that session was passing the Kansas and Nebraska bill. He was reflected in 1854, and during
that session there were many important questions discussed. In 1858 Mr. Allen was elected as
representative from this district to United States congress, and was clerk of the house; and dur-
ing this.time there was a severe struggle which resulted in Pennington being elected as clerk of
the house, which position Mr. Allen had Occupied about nine weeks.
In 1860 he was nominated for governor, but was defeated, and the next fall he was elected
judge of this circuit, which position he resigned to be a candidate for congress, and was elected
to that office from the state at large in 1862. In 1870 he was elected to the constitutional conven-
tion which revised the constitution of the state, and in 1873 was again elected circuit judge of
this circuit, and while in that position removed to Olney, and at the expiration of the term of
office withdrew from public life and began to practice law and soon enjoyed a good clientage.
He has always been a stanch member of the democratic party, and a hard worker. There are
few who have held more positions of honor than Judge Allen, while in the political field, and who
have been more worthy of honors.
HON. CHARLES B. LAWRENCE.
CHICAGO.
HARLES B. LAWRENCE was born, December 17, 1820, at Vergennes, Vermont. He was
a true type of the New England gentleman, and in his blameless life furnished a worthy
example of what may be accomplished by a lifetime of honest, conscientious and faithful work.
His rise to eminence as a lawyer and jurist was a gradual growth, the result of honest work and
true merit, and few have attained such honors with as few blemishes. As to his public career,
every successive step was wisely and happily taken, and as a whole was no less honorable to the
individual than useful to those who came in contact with him. Throughout his life, his talents,
his patriotism, his learning as a lawyer, and his clearness as a judge, shone, not dazzlingly, but
with a steady and tranquil ray, that survives the flash of cotemporary lights that blazed for a
time to be quickly extinguished.
He was educated in Vermont ; attended Middlebury College there, and subsequently gradu-
ated at Union College in eastern New York, in 1841. His father was a merchant, a member of
the Vermont state senate, held other important positions, and was much in public life. After
Charles B. graduated, he engaged in teaching in Alabama for two years ; thence to Saint Louis
and read law in the office of Senator Geyer, one of the ablest members of the bar of that city, and
was soon after admitted to the bar. From there he moved to Quincy, Illinois, and commenced
practice in the spring of 1845, soon attaining to a high position at the bar as an attorney, and
gaining the esteem of the profession and the public.
In 1856, on account of impaired health, he gave up practice and went to Europe, remaining
two years, and returned much improved in health ; bought and settled on a farm in Warren
county, Illinois, and actively engaged in farming. Three years later the circuit judgeship of that
district became vacant, and he was solicited to accept the nomination, which he did, and was
elected to the place without opposition, which was a decisive expression of the confidence and
regard of his neighbors, and their appreciation of his qualifications and fitness for the place. He
remained on that bench until 1864, when he was elected to the bench of the supreme court of
Illinois, and subsequently elected chief-justice of that court. On the bench his capacity was as
conspicuous as his industry was untiring. The majesty of the civil law had in him a courageous
defender, and an able and clear exponent. As a judge he was the peer of any of the same grade
in the Northwest. He had natural judicial ability, great legal learning, purity of purpose and
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strict integrity, and maintained the purity of his ermine. His term expired in 1873, when he
removed to Chicago and engaged in practice, being the senior member of the able and widely
known firm, Lawrence, Campbell and Lawrence, principally engaged in important railroad and
corporation cases. He was regarded as one of the ablest counsels and advocates in this connec-
tion in the Northwest.
Judge Lawrence was closely identified with, and ably illustrated the annals of the legal juris-
prudence of this state at the bar and on the bench. His decisions and opinions will live as long
as the jurisprudence of Illinois lives. He was clear and accurate in his investigations of import-
ant and intricate cases, and forcible in presenting them. He possessed a comprehensive knowl-
edge of law, a logical ability and great industry, and signalized himself by many notable successes
in complicated and important litigation.
As a rule, in his social relations, he was rather reticent, never curt, and had that surest mark
of one who is at once well bred and kindly, his manners were the same to everyone ; a model of
benevolence, generosity and magnanimity, a worthy citizen, respected and honored by all ; dig-
nified but genial and agreeable, a gentleman of the older type. His life work is written plainly
in the chronicles of his time.
HON. CHARLES B. FARWELL.
CHICAGO.
CHARLES B. FARWELL was born at Painted Post, New York, July i, 1823, the son of
Henry and Nancy Farwell. He studied at Elmira Academy, and after leaving school spent
six years in farming, and in surveying public lands. He settled in Chicago in 1844, being then
twenty-one years of age, and for a number of years was engaged in real estate and banking
business. He served two terms as county clerk of Cook county, being first elected in 1853, and
afterward became associated with the noted wholesale house of J. V. Farwell and Company, of
Chicago. He served on the state board of equalization in 1867, and the following year was chair-
man of the board of supervisors of Cook county. He was elected on the republican ticket to the
forty-second congress, reelected to the forty-third, and again elected to the forty-seventh. Dur-
ing his terms of office, he served on important committees, and rendered valuable service. Mr.
Farwell has been successful in whatever he has attempted, and is recognized as one of Chicago's
stanch citizens and thorough business men.
HON. ROBERT T. LINCOLN.
CHICAGO.
OBERT TODD LINCOLN, the only surviving son of the patriot, statesman and martyred
A v president, Abraham Lincoln, shares the affections of the people of this country to a greater
extent than any other citizen of this republic. The tragic death of the father at the close of the
rebellion, made a deep impression on the sensitive hearts of the American people, the memory of
which, together with the history of the eventful, honorable and useful life of the father, intensifies
their interest in the son. The mother of Robert before marriage was Miss Fanny Todd, a native
of Kentucky, of a family that numbers among its different branches numerous eminent men, as
jurists, lawyers and patrons of literature, poetry and art. Fanny Todd, in her youth, was highly
accomplished, refined and intelligent, and possessed rare personal beauty, and while Robert
resembles her personally, he has inherited also the sagacity, cool, deliberate judgment and wis-
dom of his father, while he has but one of his features. He has the same sincere, mild expression
of the eyes that all who knew his father will recall.
He was born at Springfield, Illinois, August i, 1843. When but seven years of age he was
sent to the academy of Mr. Estabrook, and remained there three years, and then entered the Illi-
780 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
nois State University at Springfield. In 1860 he entered Phillips Academy, at Exeter, New
Hampshire. After passing a creditable examination he entered Harvard University, and gradu-
ated therefrom in 1864. He entered Harvard Law School, but left in 1865 to accept a commis-
sion in the United States army as captain, and assistant adjutant-general on General Grant's
staff. He shortly afterward resigned his commission, and commenced the study of the law in
Chicago, where he was admitted to the bar in 1867.
He commenced practice as a member of the firm of Scammon and Lincoln, but dissolving this
partnership he visited Europe in 1872, and on his return, after a six months' trip, formed a part-
nership with Edward S. Isham, under the name of Isham and Lincoln, to which firm he still
belongs. In 1876 he was elected supervisor of the town of South Chicago, and in 1880 repre-
sented Cook county in the Illinois state convention at Springfield, which nominated delegates to
the national convention held at Chicago in 1880. He was one of the electors on the republican
ticket for the state of Illinois, and early in 1880 was appointed by the governor one of the trustees
of the Illinois Central railroad. He was appointed secretary of war under President Garfield,
and has performed the duties of that office to the entire satisfaction of the whole country.
COLONEL JOHN DEMENT.
DIXON.
JOHN DEMENT, the son of David and Dorcas (Willis) Dement, was born April 26, 1804, at
Gallatin, the county seat of Surhner county, Tennessee. In 1817 his family removed to Illinois,
he being at that time a lad of thirteen, and during the succeeding years, until he attained his
majority, he was employed upon his father's farm. At the age of twenty-two, such was the confi-
dence and esteem in which he was held, that he was elected to the office of sheriff, an office to
which were added the duties of county collector and treasurer. In 1828 he was elected to repre-
sent Franklin county in the Illinois legislature, and at the expiration of his term was reelected to
the same office. By three successive elections by the general assembly he was chosen state treas-
urer, and for six years most acceptably performed the duties of that office, and while holding that
position closed up the affairs of the old state bank. Having made Vandalia, then the state capi-
tal, his home, he was chosen to represent that county in the legislature during the term of 1836-37,
and resigned the state treasurership for this purpose, turning over his books and accounts to the
finance committee of the general assembly, who audited them and found them correct. In 1837
he was appointed by President Jackson receiver of the .land office, which was then located at
Galena, but which was, in 1840, removed to Dixon, Illinois. This position he held through Jack-
son's and Van Buren's administrations. Being removed by President Harrison, he was reinstated
by President Polk, but again removed by President Taylor, and again reinstated by President
Pierce; holding the position until, on account of the decline in business, the records were removed
to Springfield during Buchanan's term of office. During this term of public service, Mr. Dement
became known as an able financier and an incorruptible man. In 1844 he was elected presiden-
tial elector for James K. Polk, against the late Hon. Martin Sweet for Henry Clay. While acting
as state treasurer he made three campaigns in the Black Hawk war, once as captain of a com-
pany, once as major, and again as special aid to Governor Reynolds, with the rank of colonel.
He was a member of three state constitutional conventions, first in 1847-48, again in 1862, and
lastly in that of 1868, being thus singularly honored with a voice in all the conventions called for
the purpose of revising the state constitution since the organization of the state government in
1818. In the convention of 1847-48 he was chairman of the committee on legislation, a position
which he again held in the convention of 1862; while in the last convention he was chairman of
the committee on the right of suffrage. He pioneered that piece of statesmanship which provided
that if the "fifteenth amendment" to the federal constitution should be ratified and adopted in
accordance with the prescriptive rule of that constitution, the new constitution of Illinois should
UNITED STATES KIOGRAPH1CAL DICTIONARY. 781
be made to conform with it, by striking out the descriptive and inviduous word "white," as the
legal prefix to the phrase "male citizens." This was the new departure advocated by him as one
of the leading democrats in the Illinois constitutional convention of 1868. He was four times
elected mayor of Dixon, his nomination and election occurring twice when he was absent from
home. During his life he filled many positions of public confidence within the gift of the people
of the state, and the administration of the state and federal governments, and built up a reputa-
tion for unimpeachable integrity and rare intelligence and ability which very few men can flatter
themselves in possessing.
Colonel Dement was married in 1835 to Maria Louisa Dodge, daughter of Governor Dodge,
of Wisconsin.
Colonel Dement died January 17, 1883, at Dixon, Illinois, and thereupon the following resolu-
tions were introduced and passed in the state legislature:
Resolutions of respect and sympathy introduced by Hon. James Herringlon, in the house of representatives of the
thirty-third general assembly of the state of Illinois, and adopted by the house January, 1883:
WHEREAS, This house has heard, with feelings of deep regret, of the death of Colonel John Dement, of Dixon,
Illinois, on the lyth instant, after a long and useful life, who was one of the early pioneers of this state, a member of
the house of representatives of this state, of the sixth, seventh and tenth general assemblies, state treasurer from 1831
to 1836, and a member of the constitutional conventions of 1847, 1862 and 1870, besides holding other positions of
trust and honor; therefore,
Resolved, That we here"by testify our esteem and regard for the personal character of the deceased, and a high
appreciation of his faithful public services on behalf of the state.
Resolved, That we tender our sincere sympathy to his son, the secretary of state, and to the other members of the
family, in the loss they have sustained.
Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions be spread at large upon the journals of this house, and a copy thereof
forwarded to the family of the deceased.
THOMAS BATES.
CHICAGO.
AMONG the younger class of lawyers in Chicago of the best standing, is the gentleman whose
name heads this sketch, and who received the latter part of his legal training in this city,
under Hon. Leonard Swett, one of the most eminent members of the profession in Chicago. Mr.
Bates has been in practice but a few years, but he laid a good foundation at the start, and is build-
ing steadily, and as he loves his profession, and is studious and ambitious, a brilliant future seems
to lie before him.
Thomas Bates is a native of Illinois, his birth being dated at Griggsville, Pike county, March
4, 1845. His parents, Thomas Bates and Elvira (Cleveland) Bates, were born in Rutland, Vermont,
This branch of the Bates family we are unable to trace back farther than to our subject's great-
grandfather, Elias Bates, who was a resident of the Province of Massachusetts, at the time when
the revolution broke out, and who participated in the struggle for independence, holding the
rank of lieutenant.
Mr. Bates was educated in the common schools of Illinois, supplementing his mental training
there with some outside private study; was in the government service as a wagon master, under
General Sully, in his expedition against the Indians in 1865-6; aided his father more or less in his
lumber office at Lincoln; was principal of the Gilman public school four years, reading law dur-
ing the last two of them; in April, 1876, came to Chicago, and finished his legal studies in the
office of Mr. Swett, and was admitted to practice in September following.
For a little more than two years Mr. Bates was of the firm of Swett and Bates; then, for one
year, of Higgins, Swett and Bates, and is now practicing alone, and doing a large business in the
several courts of the commonwealth.
Mr. Bates confines himself to civil law exclusively; has wonderful success in securing busi-
ness and the confidence of people; is quite successful before a jury; and is eminently trustworthy
in all the relations of life.
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Mr. Bates votes the democratic ticket, but goes no farther in politics, being evidently ambi-
tious to excel in his profession, or to at least make a notable success of it, and knowing that in
order to do so his whole time must be given to legal studies and practice.
Mr. Bates married, December 24, 1870, Sarah H. Ricker, daughter of Albion Ricker, of Tur-
ner, Maine, and they have two children.
WILLIAM P. BLACK.
CHICAGO.
WILLIAM P. BLACK was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, November n, 1842. The
family dates back in this country to ante-revolutionary times, when the Scotch ancestry
found homes in the colonies, first in South Carolina, and afterward in Westmoreland county,
Pennsylvania. In the revolutionary struggle they were on the patriot side, contributing their
share alike of blood and their scant treasure to the cause of liberty.
From childhood William was a close student, his zeal having to be held in check on account
of delicate health and a frail body. He entered Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in the
fall of 1860. He at once took a leading place in his class as a diligent and conscientious student,
and in the societies as a clear, powerful and brilliant speaker, and was affectionately esteemed by
all. At this time, having joined the Presbyterian church at fifteen years of age, he was studying
with reference to entering the ministry.
But the outbreak of the war interrupted the collegiate course, never to be resumed. April 15,
1861, Mr. Black enlisted, with about forty other students of the college, including his only
brother, as a private soldier in company I, nth Indiana zouaves, commanded by Colonel (after-
ward Major-General) Lew. Wallace. Sharing with this regiment in its three months' campaign,
chiefly in western Virginia, he was mustered out as corporal, and at once engaged in assisting in
the work of recruiting a company in Vermillion county, Illinois, for the three years' service, of
which company he was elected captain, and which was mustered into the service as company K,
37th Illinois infantry, at Chicago, September 18, 1861, the regiment then being known as Fre-
mont Rifles, and his commission as captain, dated September i, 1861, being received by him
before he had reached his nineteenth birthday. This position he filled faithfully for over three
years, sharing with his regiment in its marches, skirmishes and battles, chief among which may
be mentioned Pea Ridge, Arkansas, Prairie Grove, Arkansas (where one-third of the federal
forces were killed and wounded), the siege of Vicksburg, in the latter part of which Captain
Black held the responsible and most dangerous position of brigade picket officer, having charge
of the rifle pits of his brigade ; the occupation of Texas, and the observation of the empire of
Maximilian. Of his military career it is enough to say that, undertaken not from choice, but
under an exalted sense of the duty he owed an imperiled and loved country, every service
required was performed quietly, unostentatiously and thoroughly. He could always be depended
upon implicitly, possessing that quality of courage which is the result of entire devotion to duty,
even at the cost of complete self sacrifice.
Commencing the study of law in October, 1865, in the office of Arrington and Dent, Chicago,
he was in about sixteen months admitted to practice, and returned to Danville to enter upon his
professional career. There he remained only a year, however, returning to Chicago in March,
1868, to form the association with Mr. Thomas Dent, which has since continued, Mr. Dent's for-
mer partner, Judge Alfred W. Arrington, having died, December 31, 1867. Mr. Black's career as
a lawyer has been unusually successful.
Mr. Black is in no sense a politician, though taking a keen interest in the affairs of the
country, to whose service in the tented field he gave three and a half years of his life. In his
views he is thoroughly independent, casting his vote and his influence always with what he
believes the better side of every cause. In the summer of 1872 he devoted a little time to the
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advocacy of the Greeley movement, as opposed to the increasing corruption in public affair's.
His speeches in this campaign elicited much praise, and added to his already high reputation as
an earnest, logical and eloquent speaker, fearless in exposing and rebuking wrong. Prior to 1872
he had been a stanch republican, but since that time has not been actively identified with either
of the great parties, though usually working with the democratic. He took no part in politics,
however, after the campaign of 1872, until in 1880, when he made one speech near the close of
the canvass, in advocacy of the election of General Hancock, which was published in full in the
Chicago " Times," and which was very highly esteemed on account of its thoughtfulness and
force.
In the fall of 1882 Mr. Black became a candidate for congress upon the unsolicited nomina-
tions, first of the anti-monopolists in their convention, then of the democracy, and afterward of
the independent republicans. The campaign was short and vigorous, and although Mr. Black
was defeated, yet it was only by treachery in the democratic camp, and then by a majority of less
than 2,400, in a district that, two years before, had given his successful opponent a majority of
over 6,000.
In 1874 Wabash College conferred on Mr. Black the degree of master of arts, a graceful rec-
ognition of his professional success, and his services as a man of letters.
Mr. Black was married, May 28, 1869, to Miss Hortensia M. MacGreal, of Galveston, Texas, a
Christian lady of clear- and strong intellect, ripe culture and deep enthusiasm of religious experi-
ence. She is the eldest daughter of the late Peter MacGreal, who was one of the leading lawyers
of the Empire State of the Southwest.
Mr. Black is over six feet in height and has dark hair, now freely intersprinkled with gray ; of
spare but graceful figure, and a face strong and expressive ; and a dark, bright eye, that kindles
under emotion or excitement, but is always kindly. His voice is clear and strong, and these,
added to an unusual flow of language, make him a speaker of great power and magnetism.
REV. JOHN CLARKE.
RUSHVILLE.
JOHN CLARKE was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1806. His parents, John
and Eleanor (Greer) Clarke, were natives of Tyrone, Ireland, and espoused the cause of the
great reformation under John Wesley, with many other godly families in that county and some
of the adjoining counties in the North of Ireland, these families being mostly of Scotch-Irish lin-
eage.
John Clarke, Sr., came to this country in 1802, and in 1814 moved to the vicinity of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, where our subject was educated, mainly by his father, who was a teacher for some
years, and later a farmer.
In his youth Mr. Clarke was engaged in farming, and learning the hatter's trade ; married
Ann Ohern, of Pittsburgh, November 16, 1826, and the next year he became a traveling preacher
of the Protestant Methodist church. From the "Schuyler County Atlas" we learn that he filled
some important stations, being president of the conference several years.
Mr. Clarke came to Illinois in May, 1843, and while preaching at Rushville in that year, he
united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and was on the circuit a little less than twenty years
longer, being stationed at Warsaw, Pulaski circuit, Virginia station and Rushville circuit, etc.
In 1862 the war drew some of his sons into the army, and he thought it best to settle and take
care of his family, though he continued to preach, and to do a great deal of Christian labor gratu-
itously until quite recently.
Mr. Clarke was anti-slavery from his early manhood, and aided J. G. Birney, Doctor Bailey, of
the "National Era," and others, in forming the Indiana State Anti-Slavery Society, and he was
for some time its corresponding secretary. He was one of the eleven original free-soil voters
76
-,% i'Ntri-:n ST.-I //: s niocK.iriiic.n. nn"no\. iv) .
in Scluiyler county; was a presidential elector, in 1X48, on the Van Huren and Adams ticket, and
was a delegate to and vice president of the convention which met at Bloomington, and organixed
the great party of freedom, which placed Abraham Lincoln in the presidential chair, March 4,
1861; and when the emancipation proclamation of that great and noble man struck the fetters
from every slave in the land, it is safe to say that no man in Illinois rejoiced more heartily than
Mr. Clarke.
Mr. and Mrs. Clarke raised nine sons and two daughters, and have outlived six of them. John
S. was killed by a falling tree in 1853 ; Thomas was brought home dead from the army in 1864 ;
Francis W. died in 1871, and Charles Avery and George G. in 1876, and Mrs. Mary L. Young in
1848. James F. is in Portland, Ohio ; Henry A. is a farmer three miles from Rushville ; Albert
is at Kearney City, Nebraska ; Nicholas S. is at Lawrence, Kansas ; Sarah E. is the wife of G. W.
Scripps, of Detroit, Michigan.
At the time of writing (January, 1883), Mr. Clarke is quite feeble, and seemsto be patiently
waiting for "the rest that remaineth for the people of God." He and his wife have lived together
for fifty-seven years, and are having a very quiet evening of life.
HON. BENJAMIN S. EDWARDS.
SPRINGFIELD.
THE subject of this sketch is the youngest son of Hon. Ninian Edwards, the first territorial
governor of Illinois, subsequently a United States senator and governor of this state, and
was born at Edwardsville, Madison county, June 3, 1818. He is a graduate of Yale College, class
of '38; studied law in the law department of the same college, and with the late Hon. Stephen T.
Logan, of Springfield, and commenced practice in 1840. In 1843 Mr. Edwards formed a partner-
ship with Hon. John T. Stuart, and that partnership has continued nearly forty years. In 1860
Christopher C. Brown joined these parties, and the firm of Stuart, Edwards and Brown repre-
sents a great deal of legal talent, and is well known in this state, and not unknown in other states.
Mr. Edwards represented Sangamon county in the constitutional convention in 1862, and was
defeated for congress on the democratic ticket in 1868, being nominated without his consent.
The next year he was elected judge of the circuit court, and served faithfully until the circuit was
enlarged in 1870, and then retired from the bench. He was never an office seeker, and seems to
content himself with a first-rate standing at the Sangamon county bar, of which he has been a
member for forty- three years.
HON. AARON SHAW.
OLNKY.
AARON SHAW was born in Orange county, New York, in 1811, and there spent his early life
t\ until about twenty years of age. In the meanwhile he studied law with Hon. Charles Mo-
nell, and obtained a good classic education. In 1831 he emigrated to the West, settling in Vin-
ce'nnes, Indiana, and continued his studies in the office of Judge John Law, and in 1833 was
admitted to the bar. During the same year he removed to Lawrenceville, Illinois, carried on his
profession, and was afterward elected by the legislature state's attorney for the southern district,
and rode the circuit, which then embraced fourteen counties, Hon. William Wilson being chief
justice of the supreme court.
In 1848 he was elected to the legislature, serving' in the session of 1849-50, and while there
worked hard to break up the state-policy party, which opposed the chartering of any railroad
which did not terminate in this state. Judge Shaw was one of the incorporators of the Ohio and
Mississippi railroad, which was then chartered. He paid his own expenses during his work with
the company, and remained with them, serving five years, when he resigned.
ONITl-.J) STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 787
Judge Shaw was elected to the thirty-fifth United States congress, where he served, taking
quite an active part, and was subsequently elected circuit judge of the fourth judicial circuit of
Illinois. Judge Shaw removed to Olney in 1869. He named the county seat of Richland county
Olney, in honor of Nathan Olney, a personal friend, who had recently died in Lawrenceville.
The judge has been practicing law with very great success, having a reputation second to none
in southern Illinois, and he is one of the most powerful advocates of the southern district. In the
fall of 1882 he was elected to the forty-eighth congress from the southern district.
In 1840 Judge Shaw married Miss Mary J. Gray, whose parents are natives of Ireland, she
being born in Elizabethtown, Virginia. They have three children now living: Rachel, wife of
Joseph Lyman, of Olney; Mary, wife of John Corrie, a farmer, and Ellie, wife of Robert Byers,
cashier of the First National Bank.
Judge Shaw has led an eminently busy life, and filled several of the most important positions
which have given him favor throughout the county, and he has likewise been successful in his
financial enterprises, being one of the largest land owners in Richland county.
HON. JOHN V. EUSTACE.
DIXON.
THE judge of the circuit court of the thirteenth judicial district is a son of Thomas and
Fanny (Olmstead) Eustace, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 9,
1821, and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, being graduated in 1839, in which year
he moved to Saint Louis, and read law in that city, and was admitted to practice before he had
reached his majority. In 1843 he settled in Dixon, which has been his home for nearly forty
years, and where he has made a highly honorable record, both as a lawyer and jurist.
In 1857 he was elected judge of the circuit court, but resigned before his term was out. Dur-
ing the civil war, 1861-1865, he was provost marshal of the district, at the end of which period he
became a member of the firm of Eustace, Barge and Dixon.
In 1877 he was again elected judge of the circuit court, to fill a vacancy, and two years later
was reelected for the full term of six years. He is a democrat, residing in a republican district,
and it is his eminent fitness for the position that keeps him on the bench. The judge has served
as a presidential elector, as democratic candidate for state's attorney, and one or two terms in the
state legislature. He was married in Saint Louis, in 1843, to Miss Anna M. Smith, and they have
four children.
HON. ORLANDO B. TICKLAND.
CHARLESTON.
ORLANDO B. TICKLAND was born in Kentucky, December 16, 1808. His father's name
was William Tickland, and the maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Kenner Williams.
The early life of our subject was spent at various institutions of learning in Kentucky and Mis-
souri, until the age of twenty, when he began the study of law with Henry Shorlds, of Potosi,
Missouri. Tn March, 1830, he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Mount Carmel,
Wabash county, Illinois, where he continued in active practice for seven years. During this time,
in 1834, he was elected to the lower house of 'the state legislature, which at that time embraced
among its prominent members Abraham Lincoln, J. T. Stuart, Jesse R. Dubois, and others, who
have since been conspicuous in the political affairs of the state and nation. In the winter of 1834-
35 he was chosen by the legislature state's attorney for the Wabash district.
In 1837 he removed to Charleston, Coles county, where he has since resided, and where he has
a reputation and clientage extending throughout central Illinois. In 1838 he was again elected
to the lower house of the legislature, and in 1842 was reelected. In 1843 he was elected to United
788 U KITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
States congress, for what was then the Wabash district, and among his colleagues in that body
were Stephen A. Douglas, General John A. McClerland and John Wentworth. In 1844 he was re-
elected as congressional representative, and again in 1846, after which he returned to his profes-
sional duties, which he continued uninterruptedly until 1850, when he was again elected to
congress. This term expired in March, 1853, and since then his attention has been devoted almost
exclusively to his practice.
He was a member of the democratic convention which nominated Buchanan for the presi-
dency at Cincinnati, in 1856, and was also a member of the. democratic convention, held in
Charlestown, in 1860, being present at the time of the secession of southern members. In each
of these bodies he represented Illinois on the committee of resolutions.
In politics, he belongs to the old-school democrats, where he has always been an active worker.
In 1861 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention.
Mr. Tickland was married in 1846 to Miss Elizabeth H Colquitt, the daughter of Hon. Walter
T. Colquitt, United States senator of Georgia.
HON. THOMAS S. CASEY.
MOUNT VERNON.
'"T^HOMAS S. CASEY was born in Jefferson county, Illinois, April 6, 1832. His father was
_L Governor Z. Casey, for ten years a member of congress. His mother was a native of Ken-
tucky. Judge Casey was educated at the McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, and subsequently
studied law under the instruction of Hugh B. Montgomery, and after three years' study, in 1854,
was admitted to the bar. In 1860 he was elected state's attorney for the twelfth judicial district,
having up to this time been engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1864 he was reflected
to the same position.
In 1862 Judge Casey entered the United States army, as colonel of the noth regiment, Illinois
infantry. He participated in the battle of Stone River, and took part also in many other minor
engagements. On his return from the field, he resumed his professional labors, and until 1868
filled the position of state's attorney. In 1870 he was elected to the lower house of the legisla-
ture, and while a member of that body delivered a powerful free-trade speech, which is notable
as having been the first speech of the kind ever delivered in Illinois. In 1872 he was elected to
the state senate, and in 1876 was elected judge of the supreme court, which position he now fills.
In politics he has always been a democrat. He was married in October, 1861, to Matilda S.
Moran, of Springfield, Illinois.
GENERAL WILLIAM R. ROWLEY.
GALENA.
WILLIAM REUBEN ROWLEY, judge of Jo Daviess county, was born at Gouverneur,
Saint Lawrence county, New York, February 8, 1824, his parents being Aaron and Martha
(Campbell) Rowley.
At the age of seventeen years, Mr. Rowley came as far west as Brown county, Ohio, where he
taught school for three years, and then pushed westward into Jo Daviess county, Illinois, resum-
ing teaching at Scoles Mound, and pursuing that calling for several years. In 1849 he was ap-
pointed assessor and collector of his district, faithfully discharging the duties of that office for
four years, when he became deputy circuit clerk. He was admitted to the bar in 1857. In
November, 1854, he was elected sheriff ; served one term in that office; was then elected circuit
clerk, and held that office from 1856 to 1876. During three years of that time the duties of his
office were performed by his deputy, he being absent in the service of his country.
We learn from "The History of Jo Daviess County," published in Chicago in 1878, that in No-
STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, 789
vember, 1861, our subject enlisted as first lieutenant company D, 45th Illinois infantry; tha"t after the
battle of Fort Donelson he was commissioned as captain and aide-de-camp on the staff of General
Grant; that after the battle of Shiloh he was commissioned major and aide-de-camp on the same
staff ; that after the capture of Vicksburg he was detailed as provost-marshal-general of the
department of Tennessee and Cumberland, holding that position until the promotion of General
Grant to the exalted position of lieutenant-general of the army; that Major Rowley was then
promoted to lieutenant-colonel and military secretary to General Grant, and that he held that
office until his health failed, and he resigned in October, 1864. He was brevetted successively to
the ranks of colonel and brigadier-general.
General Rowley was chosen county judge in November, 1877, and the duties of that office he is
performing in connection with his practice of the legal profession.
HON. JOHN H. BRYANT.
PRINCETON.
JOHN HOWARD BRYANT, son of Doctor Peter Bryant, and brother of the late William
Cullen Bryant, first saw the light among the hills of western Massachusetts, at Cummington,
July 22, 1807. He finished his education at the Rcnsselaer School, Troy, New York; taught com-
mon schools two winters, and in 1831 came to Jacksonville, this state. In September of the next
year he settled near Princeton, made a claim, and when the land came into the market in July,
1835, he entered his, and has occupied it ever since. At an early day he assisted in starting a
newspaper in Princeton, and edited it two years gratuitously. He also started the first brick yard
in the place, and has always been active in pushing forward all local enterprises of the highest
consideration, such as public schools, the high school of Princeton, etc.
In June, 1833, Mr. Bryant was married to Miss Harriet E. Wiswall, of Jacksonville, a native of
Massachusetts; in 1842 was a member of the legislature; was the free-soil candidate for congress
in his district in 1852; was again chosen to the legislature in 1856, and in 1862 was appointed
collector of internal revenue, holding that office four years.
Mr. Bryant managed his farm until his only son, and only child living, Elijah W. Bryant, was
old enough to take charge of it. At the time of writing, April, 1883, he is making preparations
to observe his golden wedding.
Mr. Bryant has poetic gifts only a little inferior to those of his older brother, as is shown by
the specimens of his poetry found in Griswold's "Poets of America," and other compilations.
JOHN V. HARWELL.
CHICA'GO.
JOHN V. FARWELL is the son of Henry and Nancy Farwell, and was born July 29, 1825, in
J Steuben county, New York. He worked with his father, who was a farmer in moderate cir-
cumstances, and attended the district school during his boyhood, and in 1838 removed with his
father's family to Ogle county, Illinois. At the age of sixteen he entered the Mount Morris Semi-
nary, boarding himself, and there mastered those studies best calculated to fit him for business.
He settled in Chicago in the spring of 1845, having as his moneyed capital $3.25, and obtained a
position in the city clerk's office at a salary of $12 per month, and also reported the proceedings
of the city council, receiving $2 per report. He was next employed in the dry-goods house of
Hamilton and White at $8 per month for one year, after which he was employed by Hamilton
and Day at a salary of $250 per annum. He showed an aptness for business, and next secured a
situation at $600 per annum with Wadsworth and Phelps, and eventually became a partner in the
business; this was in 1851. The house then did a business of $100,000 per annum, and in 1868 it
had increased to $10,000,000 per annum.
790 uNi'i'/'.n .vy.4 //;. v KIOGKM'IIICM. DICTIONARY.
During* the civil war his zeal and patriotism were shown in numerous schemes of practical
benevolence. He was one of the foremost in raising the Board of Trade regiment and the $40,000
with which it was equipped, and gave liberally to the sanitary and Christian commissions.
When fourteen years old he became a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church,
and has always been noted for his earnestness and generosity in Christian enterprises. One-half
of his first year's salary, small as it was, was given to the church of which he was a member. He
was an active co-worker with Mr. D. L. Moody in the organization of the Illinois Street Mission
in 1856, which has grown into a church of several hundred members, and a Sunday school of
nearly one thousand. He has been an enthusiastic temperance worker, and to his influence and
zealous, effective work is largely due the prosperous condition of the Young Men's Christian
Association of Chicago.
No man in Chicago is more universally esteemed, and to none is she more largely -indebted
for her commercial and business prosperity.
HON. WILLIAM M. SPRINGER.
SPRINGFIELD.
WILLIAM M. SPRINGER was born in New Lebanon, Sullivan county, Indiana, May 30,
1836, and immigrated with his parents to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1848. He was the
eighth son in succession of his father's family.
Prior to leaving Indiana he worked upon a farm, and attended school in the winter time from
the age of eight years until the removal of the family to Jacksonville. Here he continued a simi-
lar mode of life until 1854 ; in the meantime teaching school and preparing for a collegiate
course. He entered the district school under Professor Bateman in 1851, and continued with
him until May, 1854. In the September following he entered the Illinois College at Jacksonville,
pursuing the classical course. In the latter part of the junior year, March, 1857, he had a contro-
versy with the faculty, which resulted in his dismissal from the institution. The difficulty origi-
nated from his political views, which were of a very positive democratic cast. The address which
he had prepared for the junior exhibition gave an indication of his political views. The faculty
differing from him, and, perhaps, for other reasons, deemed it inadvisable for the address to be
delivered, and an issue between the faculty and himself was imminent. He was prohibited from
delivering it, unless he would submit to the modifications proposed by the faculty. He did not
speak, but published an expose of the whole matter, for which he was dismissed. He completed
his course of study at the Indiana State University, where he graduated in June, 1858.
After his graduation, in 1858, he settled in Lincoln, Illinois, where he assumed the editorial
charge of the "Logan County Democrat." The exciting senatorial contest between the late
Abraham Lincoln and Judge Douglas was then in progress. Mr. Springer characteristically
espoused the cause of Judge Douglas through the columns of his paper and in public addresses.
In 1860 he was nominated by his party from the district composed of the counties of Logan
and Mason for the legislature, but was defeated by his competitor, Colonel Robert B. Latham.
In 1862 he was elected secretary of the convention called to form a new constitution for the state
of Illinois, having very powerful competitors for the caucus nomination.
Prior to this, in 1859, he had been admitted to the bar, and after the adjournment of the con-
vention, in 1862, he took up his permanent residence in Springfield, Illinois, and opened a law
office, where he has since continued.
In 1866 he was again nominated by the democratic party of Sangamon and Logan counties
for the legislature, his opponent being James C. Conkling, and the campaign, occurring immedi-
ately after the close of the war, was one of unusual excitement. Mr. Springer carried his own
county (Sangamon) by a majority exceeding his colleagues on the same ticket ; but the county of
Logan giving a large republican majority, Mr. Springer was again defeated.
r \ITED .v y. //'/: s /,'/(><;/,'./////( //. DICTIONAKY.
In the summer of 1X70 he was nominated to represent Sangamon county in the lower branch
of the Illinois general assembly, and was elected with his two other colleagues, Charles H. Rice
and Ninian R. Taylor, by a majority exceeding one thousand. This legislature was one of the
most important ones that had occurred for many years, among other duties devolving upon it
being the codification of the statutes so as to conform to the requirements of the new organic-
law. Both branches of the legislature were largely republican, and the intellect of the republican
and democratic parties were both fairly represented.
In all the deliberations and contests occurring in the body of which Mr. Springer was a mem-
ber, he took a conspicuous part, and was recognized as among the leading members of the house.
Though in the minority, and this being his first legislative experience, he was thoroughly
instructed in the fundamental principles of parliamentary law, which knowledge enabled him to
worry and vex the majority, and arrest their attempts to invade the rights of the minority. The
tariff question being under discussion during this session, and a resolution on the subject pend-
ing, Mr. Springer embodied his views in the form of an amendment to the resolution in the fol-
lowing words: "And that all systems ofetaxation for protection, and all class legislation and
monopolies are wrong in principle, and contrary to the spirit of our free institutions." His
amendment was voted down, but he has ever adhered to the principles embodied therein.
In August, 1874, the democracy of the twelfth district of Illinois, composed of the counties
of Cass, Christian, Menard, Morgan, Sangamon and Scott, nominated him as their candidate for
congress. The campaign was a spirited one, his opponents being Andrew Simpson (republican),
of Christian county, and Professor J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Morgan county. The result was,
Mr. Springer carried every county in the district, except Christian (which gave Mr. Simpson a
majority of one hundred and eighty-two), beating his competitors fifteen hundred and ninety-six
votes in the district. He has been reelected at each succeeding congressional election, and has
come to be regarded as one of the leading and influential members of the national assembly.
HON. G. L. FORT.
LA CON.
GREENBERRY LAFAYETTE FORT, deceased, late member of congress, was born in
r Scioto county, Ohio, October n, 1825, his parents being Benjamin and Margaret Fort. In
May, 1834, the family came to this state, and settled at Round Prairie, then in Putnam, now in
Marshall county, when the son, then in his tenth year, had solid experience in opening a farm,
driving a breaking team of seven yoke of oxen for his father. He was a faithful worker, and for
amusement occasionally hunted deer and other wild game, finishing his education meantime at
the Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris, Ogle county. His father died in. 1854 and his mother
in 1855.
Mr. Fort studied law at Lacon, and when he commenced practice his first opponent, in a cause
(tried in Woodford county) was Abraham Lincoln, the trial being before Judge David Davis.
Mr. Fort was elected sheriff in 1850, county clerk in 1852, and county judge in 1857.
On the first call for troops, April 17, 1861, Mr. Fort enlisted as a private in company B, ntR
Illinois infmtry, and was first lieutenant. At the end of the three months for which period the
regiment was called out, he recruited company I for three years' service. He paid $1,200 out of
his own pocket for transporting the men to the field, and that money was never refunded. He
served in the field on staff duty through all the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, and was
quartermaster of the fifteenth army corps during its march from Atlanta to the sea, thence
through the Carolinas until the final surrender of Johnston's army. After participating in the
grand review at Washington, he was ordered to Texas with General Sheridan's command, and
was finally mustered out at Galveston, that state.
The subject of this sketch resumed the practice of his profession at Lacon; was elected to the
792 UNITED ST.ITKS BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
state senate in 1866, to the forty-third congress in 1872, and by repeated reflections was kept in
congress through the forty-fourth, forty-fifth and forty-sixth congresses, his place being on the
republican side of the house. He made a highly commendable record while in that national
body. He died in the spring of 1883. As a lawyer he was thoroughly read, was an excellent
counselor and an able advocate, was candid and conscientious, and had the fullest confidence of
the people in his sincerity and integrity^ as well as ability.
The widow and one son, Robert E., aged sixteen years, survive him. A daughter, Nina, aged
two years, died in 1863, while her father was in the army a grief to him till the day of his
death. He left a large property, and the widow and son in independent circumstances.
HON. EDWARD RUTZ.
SPRINGFIELD.
EDWARD RUTZ, a prominent republican, politician and treasurer of the state, is of German
birth, first seeing the light at Heidelberg, in 1829. When eighteen years old, he left the
fatherland, and, coming to the United States, settled in Saint Clair county, this state. In 1858
he went to California, where he remained until the South took up arms against the Union, which
foul act awoke his patriotic ardor, and he immediately entered the army, before crossing the
mountains, joining battery C, of the United States artillery, which was connected most of the
time with the army of the Potomac. He was in more than twenty battles, including those of
Yorktown, South Mountain, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburgh and Antietam. He served three
years, and was discharged in October, 1864, having never been absent from duty a single day on
account of sickness or disability from any cause. After leaving the army he spent a few months
in the quartermaster's department, with General Myers, and in the autumn of 1865 returned to
Saint Clair county, and was elected county surveyor. At the end of his term he was elected
county treasurer, and served three terms. In 1873 he was elected to the state senate, and was
twice reelected, the last time from Cook county, which had become his home. The office of state
treasurer he assumed in January, 1881, and is a safe custodian of the public funds, being strictly
honest as well as capable. Mr. Rutz has a wife and four children.
H
EMERY A.- STORRS.
CHICAGO.
OW difficult is it," writes President Brown, in his preface to the life of Rufus Choate, "to
portray the peculiarities of his character its lights and shades so delicate, various and
evanescent. I cannot but feel how inadequate is any delineation to present a complete picture of
that subtle, versatile and exuberant mind with psychological exactness." Similar considerations
embarrass the writer as he approaches the subject of this sketch. As difficult is it to " paint the
bow upon the bended heavens;" to perpetuate the variegated flashes of the aurora, or by the
magic of art to reclaim the momentary sparkle of a gem, as with words to delineate an adequate
picture of Emery A. Storrs, the advocate, the orator, the scholar, the litterateur. The mere fact
that Mr. Storrs' fame as an orator is not only national but international, is indicative, in and of
itself, of the difficulties inherent in the very matter in discussion. Oratory, as to form, is protean,
while as to color it is variable as the chameleon and brilliant as the prism. Like the glories of
dawn or the hues of sunset, oratory is but for the hour. Like the electric point, its light is intense
yet self-consuming. The very term implies the relation of speaker and hearer, the charmer and
the charmed, the one who enchants and those enchanted. Separate these factors and the spell is
broken. Can the untutored mind see aught in a page ol Mozart or Beethoven but an array of
meaningless hieroglyphics? Can the untuned harp reveal its marvelous possibilities to the inex-
HCCoap.r Jr i. C,
EP. lvEGW>lli.
LIBRARY
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
795
perienced ? So is it with the orator when away from the spirit of the occasion, the inspiration of
the hour. All this is particularly true of American oratory, as contradistinguished from that of
every other age and country, and its each and every feature is forcibly exemplified in the genius
of Emery A. .Storrs. For a genius Emery A. Storrs most assuredly is, if by that word is "implied
high and peculiar gifts of nature," impelling the mind to creative imagery of the highest type,
"and reaching its ends by a kind of intuitive power." Rufus Choate has his only living antitype
in Emery A. Storrs. For it is with Storrs as it was with Choate, his style is a combination of
all that was best in the rival schools of Atticism and Asianism. It possesses at once the compact-
ness, the perspicuity and grace of the first, with the gorgeous coloring and vivid phrase of the
latter. In outline it is as harmonious as the Greek statue, while its hues remind us of an oriental
garden. Although in his style Mr. Storrs thus displays the merits of these schools, he at the same
time avoids their defects. In their endeavor to subordinate form to thought, the Attic orators
were ofttimes cold and rigid in phrase. On the other hand, the Asiatics manifested a tendency
to superabundant ornament and inordinate fancy. Not so with Mr. Storrs, who, in his avoidance
of extremes and delicate adjustment of substance to mould, reveals a literary art akin to that of
Heinrich Heine. As a lawyer, Mr. Storrs is scarcely less distinguished than as an orator. He
comes of a family of lawyers, and is .the son of an eminent member of that profession, his father
being Hon. Alexander Storrs, now a resident of Cattaraugus county, New York. Emery A.
Storrs was born in the same county, August 12, 1835. He studied law first with his father and
Hon. M. B. Champlain, at Cuba, Allegany county, New York. M. B. Champlain was twice
attorney general of that state. Young Storrs then went to Buffalo, where, after diligently pursu-
ing his legal studies in the office of Austin and Scroggs, he was admitted to practice in 1855. In
1857 he went to New York city, remaining there but two years. He came thence to Chicago in
1859. Devoted to his profession, he has never been an officeseeker or officeholder. And yet, as a
conspicuous citizen of the republic, he has ever taken a profound, intelligent and efficient interest
in political affairs. Never has he been reluctant to sacrifice either personal ease or professional
profit in behalf of the public welfare. Politically a decided republican, to that party he has con-
stantly dedicated his great talent. In 1868, 1872 and 1880 he was delegate-at-large from Illinois
to the nationaj republican convention, being on each occasion one of the foremost in shaping the
policy, characterizing the resolutions and formulating the platforms of the party. With a
trenchant pen and a clarion voice has he battled for the right as he understood it. Accomplished
in literature, learned in jurisprudence, proficient in political philosophy, familiar with economic
science, acute and alert of mind, and a master of brilliant and lucid expression, Emery A. Storrs,
whether as lawyer or politician, advocate or orator, has been useful to his country and an orna-
ment to his state.
In conclusion, it may be said that, considered as a lawyer merely, Mr. Storrs has few, if any,
equals in the West. Although versatile and facile, as we have seen, he is not superficial. Exact-
ness and thoroughness characterize all his attainments, whether literary or professional. With a
multiplicity of learning, he is equally proficient in every part. His intellectual possessions are at
once unified and assimilated. They are his own a part of the warp and woof of his mind.
Everything is brought to bear upon his life work as a lawyer. No erudition is too precious, no
truth too great, no beauty too choice, for his employment as an advocate. Vigilant, zealous, in-
dustrious, could he be otherwise than successful ? A perfect command of the English language
as an art, combined with the histrionic faculty and mimetic artifice, has placed Emery A. Storrs
by the side of Erskine and Wedderburn. He is at his best only in great trials or on great occa-
sions, which bring out the resources of his mind when his efforts are often those of a high order
of genius. Then, with equal facility and force, he employs every instrument known to the "art
of discourse." He is clear, eneigetic and figurative. In representative imagery he is peculiarly
happy, and vision, personification, hyperbole, simile, contrast, allusion and antithesis succeed each
other in rich and varied profusion. Wit and humor scintillate continually over and through a
substantial background of searching analysis and comprehensive synthesis. Whether in persua-
77
-g6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
sion, dissuasion or excitation, Mr. Storrs is equally at home. The grace and propriety of his de-
livery are equal to the copiousness and felicity of his diction. He is always self-possessed and
prepared for any emergency. His manner and action are energetic, without verging on that ex-
travagance which is unpleasant. He is a sort of beacon light in the midst of that prosaic misti-
ness which too often hovers around our courts, unrelieved by style and unadorned by wit,
eloquence and humor. In a word, Mr. Storrs must have lived in the light of those well known
words of Schiller: "I hope ultimately to advance so far that art shall become a second nature,
as polished manners are to well bred men, then imagination shall regain her former freedom and
submit to none but voluntary limitation."
In personal appearance Mr. Storrs is below the medium height, slender, with light hair, eyes
and complexion, quick and nervous in movement, of courteous and gentlemanly bearing and
address.
BENJAMIN R. UPHAM.
JACKSONVILLE.
BENJAMIN RUSH UPHAM, clerk of Morgan county since December, 1877, is a son of
Alvah W. Upham and Mary (Rush) Upham, and dates his birth at Youngstown, Ohio, Feb-
ruary 27, 1830. His father was a native of New York; his mother of Ohio. The family came to
Morgan countv in 1840, and settled at Arcadia, eight miles north of Jacksonville, where Benjamin
finished his education in a log school house. In 1856 he opened a grocery store, continuing to
trade for three years. He was then a clerk until 1873, when he was elected city clerk, and was
reflected three times, acting also at the same time as an insurance agent.
In the autumn of 1877 Mr. Upham was elected county clerk, and by a change in the constitu-
tion, held that office five years, when (autumn of 1882) he was reelected, and is now serving his
second term.
A republican of whig antecedents, he is a man of a good deal of influence among his political
confreres. For nearly four years, during the civil war, he was sutler of the ii4th Illinois in-
fantry. %
Mr. Upham is a member of the Congregational Church, and has been treasurer of the society
for the last ten years.
M
MILTON A. HALSTED, M.D.
JACKSONVILLE.
ILTON ARNOLD HALSTED, physician and surgeon, son of David and Mary (Mechem)
Halsted, dates his birth at Battle Creek, Michigan, September 17, 1838. His father was
born in Westchester county, New York, and his mother in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Jona-
than Halsted, was a Westchester county Quaker, and hence took no part in either war with the
mother country. In the infancy of Milton, the family returned to the East, and settled on a farm
south of Auburn, New York, where our subject aided his father in cultivating the soil, until
seventeen or eighteen years old, receiving meantime an academic education. Returning to Bat-
tle Creek, he studied medicine with Doctor S. B. Thayer, attended two courses of lectures at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, one course in the Homreopathic College, Cleveland, Ohio,
and there received his medical degree February 28, 1861.
Doctor Halsted opened an office at Geneseo, the seat of justice of Livingston county, New
York, where he practiced two years, and then, 1863, went into the army as first assistant surgeon
of the isth New York cavalry, serving till the war closed, having charge of the regiment most of
the time. In 1866 Doctor Halsted settled at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remained between
ten and eleven years, and where he had a very good practice both in medicine and surgery. In
the spring of 1877 he came to the beautiful city of Jacksonville, the home of his wife, whom he had
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 797
married in May, 1870, and who was Elizabeth Hockenhull, daughter of Robert Hockenhull, one of
the leading bankers of this city. They have two children, Matilda, aged ten years, and Robert,
aged four. The family attend the Presbyterian Church, of which Mrs. Halsted is a member.
Doctor Halsted has as much professional business as any one man, however ambitious, could
reasonably desire. He has no time to devote to politics, except to vote, his choice being the
republican ticket; is connected with no secret society, and gives all the time he can spare from
his ride, to the study of his profession, he having a well selected library, and a choice variety of
medical periodicals. It is doubtful if there is a business man in his profession in Jacksonville, or
one who is rising more rapidly. He received a very thorough drill in medical science before com-
mencing practice, and is now reaping his reward for the pains he took at the start, and for his
studiousness since opening an office.
HON. JOHN A. LOQAN.
CHICAGO.
JOHN A. LOGAN was born in Jackson county, Illinois, February 9, 1826. His father, Doctor
J John Logan, was a native of Ireland, whence he removed to Illinois in 1823. At this time
southern Illinois was very sparsely settled, and the lad had few opportunities for attending school.
But the paucity of schools was amply atoned for by the instruction received from his father, a
man of education and intelligence. After a preparatory course he entered Louisville University,
and was regularly graduated therefrom.
The Mexican war roused the martial spirit of the young man, and he enlisted as a pri-
vate in the ist regiment Illinois infantry, and was chosen a lieutenant of one of its com-
panies. His energy and bravery attracted the attention of the officer in command, and he was
placed on the regimental staff, and filled at different times the positions of quartermaster and of
adjutant. On the return of peace, in 1848, he entered the office of his uncle, Governor Alexander
M. Jenkins, and commenced the study of the law. The next year he was elected county clerk of
Jackson county, and devoted himself to its duties, and continued at the same time his legal
studies.
In 1852 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the third judicial district, a position which he
held for five years.
He was also elected as a member of the legislature in 1852, and was three times reelected. In
1856 he was chosen as one of the presidential electors. In 1857 Mr. Logan formed a partnership
with his uncle, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession. In 1858, however, he was
elected to congress on the democratic ticket, and in 1860 was reelected to the same position. At
this time Mr. Logan was an ardent friend of Stephen A. Douglas, and in full accord with the
liberal democracy of which Mr. Douglas was the champion. Many of Mr. Logan's friends were
in full sympathy with the seceding states, and very many of his political friends either openly or
secretly favored the rebellion; but as soon as it became clearly evident that the leaders of the
southern democracy had systematically planned the disruption of the government, that the cabi-
net of the president had been filled by graceless thieves who had plundered the national treasury
and robbed the nation's armories of the munitions of war, and that the election of Abraham Lin-
coln was to be used as a plausible pretext for the consummation of treasonable schemes shrewdly
conceived and carefully planned, Mr. Logan broke asunder party ties, boldly denounced the trea-
sonable conspirators, and threw himself, heart and soul, into the Union ranks. His voice rang
out in clarion tones, thrilling with joy all loyal hearts, but stirring bitter hate in those around
whom secession's sorceries had cast their fatal spell. He openly declared that if forcible resist-
ance were made to the inauguration of President Lincoln he would shoulder his musket and aid
in the consummation of the people's will. Being at this time by far the most popular man in
southern Illinois, to him is fairly due the credit of creating and fostering the loyal spirit which
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
kept in subjection the sympathizers with an unholy crusade against a free government. During
the summer of 1861, while in congress, Mr. Logan joined the army and fought sturdily in the
ranks in the memorable and disastrous battle of Bull Run, and was one of the last of those who
reluctantly retreated from the field of battle. He returned to his place in congress, and sought
to discharge the important duties of his office; but the grim music of shot and shell and the clash
of arms had stirred too deeply the soldier's heart, perhaps aroused a lofty ambition, and within a
month after Bull Run, Colonel Logan was in command of the 3ist regiment Illinois infantry.
At Belmont he fought bravely, his horse being shot under him. He won laurels at Fort Henry,
and at Fort Donelson was severely wounded while gallantly leading in the assault. Impatient
at inactivity, long before he had recovered from his wounds he reported to General Grant for
duty. In March, 1862, he was made a brigadier-general, in recognition of his soldierly qualities
and conspicuous bravery. A bare statement of the simple facts of General Logan's military
career would fill a volume. It would comprise almost a complete history of the western cam-
paigns. In the Mississippi campaign General Logan commanded the third division of the seven-
teenth army corps, then under the command of the gallant McPherson. In this position his mili-
tary prowess and ability were so conspicuous that he was, in November, 1862, promoted to the
rank of major-general of volunteers. At Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson and Champion Hill,
his courage, valor and skill greatly increased his renown. His column was the first to enter
Vicksburg, of which he was made military governor. In November, 1863, he succeeded General
Sherman in the command of the fifteenth army corps. He led the advance of the army of the
Tennessee at Resaca, repulsed Hardee at Dallas, and dislodged the enemy from his fortifica-
tions at Kenesaw Mountain. When the lamented McPherson fell on the bloody field at Atlanta,
General Logan took command of the army of the Tennessee. He shared in the brilliant march
to the sea, which has covered the name of General Sherman with unfading luster. In 1866 he
was elected to Congress, as representative of the state at large, on the republican ticket, by an
overwhelming majority, and was reflected in 1868 and 1870. Before he had taken his seat in the
forty-second congress the legislature of Illinois elected him to the senate of the United States for
six years. He served as chairman of the committee on military affairs in the forty-first congress,
and discharged the duties of that responsible position with eminent ability. He was reelected to
the United States senate in 1881, and now holds that important position.
Senator Logan would have achieved distinction in any sphere of life. He possesses great ver-
satility, indomitable energy, indefatigable industry, and uncommon sagacity and intellectual vigor.
Impetuous and enthusiastic, he is always self-contained and self-poised. Enthusiasm properly
directed and controlled by sound judgment is one of the highest forms of mental power. It cap-
tivates men and bears them along with the resistless energy of a mighty torrent. As a successful
military leader, General Logan stands peerless in the glorious galaxy of heroes whom the war of
the rebellion found private citizens, unfamiliar with the profession of arms, and returned to a
grateful and admiring country, saved by their valor and devotion, thoroughly skilled in the art of
war, and crowned with the well earned laurels of victory. To the soldiers under his command
he was an inspiration a prophecy of success. They believed him invincible, and not without
reason, since his brilliant career was untarnished by defeat. As a member of congress and a
senator he has discharged the duties of his position without ostentation but with conspicuous
ability. His unswerving fidelity to the integrity of the Union, and to the interests of its brave
defenders, has endeared him to those who saved the government and protected its flag from
insult.
Senator Logan is affable but dignified in his bearing. There is no truer or more steadfast
friend, and he never forgets a real kindness. But when roused to indignation by wrong or injus-
tice, his anger is majestic, and few care to brave his displeasure a second time. He is an eloquent
orator logical and terse when it is befitting the occasion, always earnest and vigorous, and
sometimes ornate. The whole magazine of wit, satire and invective is always at his command:
and lie wields with equal skill the polished rapier of sarcasm, the keen blade of ridicule, or the
STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
799
thunderbolt of fierce invective. When aroused by some grand emergency he carries his audience
captive by hearty enthusiasm and powerful personal magnetism. His farewell address to the
army of the Tennessee, in 1865, was one of his most brilliant oratorical efforts. The occasion
was one peculiarly touching; the orator, the occasion and the theme were brought together
Characterized by lofty eloquence and moving pathos, it melted into tears the bronzed and scarred
veterans of a hundred battle fields. Brave men who had faced death a thousand times without a
quiver of a muscle, bowed their heads to hide the tears they could not repress.
JOHN C. PEPPER.
ALEDO.
JOHN CHARLES PEPPER was born in Cambridgeshire, England, September 21, 1829.
When the son was five or six years old the family immigrated to this country and settled in
Amboy, Oswego county, New York. Young Pepper was educated at the Vernon Academy and
the Wayne County Institute, teaching school in the winters. In 1848 he came into the state of
Illinois; taught school and read law one year at Peoria; did the same the next year at Keiths-
burgh, and in the latter place continued to read law until admitted to the bar January, 1851.
About that time he married Miss Mary A. Martin, of Mercer county.
Mr. Pepper was in practice at Keithsburgh for nearly twenty years, and had a remunerative
business. In August, 1862, he went into the army as captain of company H, 84th Illinois infan-
try; was slightly wounded at Stone River, and served about one year. In the autumn of 1869
Mr. Pepper removed to Aledo, continuing the practice of his profession and always maintaining
an honorable position at the Mercer county bar. In 1879 he was the democratic candidate for
circuit judge, but failed of an election, the district being republican.
For many years Mr. Pepper has been an energetic worker in the cause of prohibition, and has
lectured on this subject in eight or ten states, including Kansas and Iowa just before they voted
on the question of prohibition. He was for two years president of the Illinois Temperance Alli-
ance, and at the union of that body and the Illinois Temperance Union, in January, 1882, he was
elected president, which honorable post he holds at the time this sketch is written. The great
temperance movement has no more untiring and courageous worker in Illinois than Mr. Pep-
per. He has held conventions and spoken in more than eighty of the counties in the state. He
was a delegate to the National Temperance Convention which met at Saratoga, 1881, and has
spoken several times in the state of New York.
HON. JAMES SHAW.
MOUNT CARROLL.
JAMES SHAW, lawyer and late speaker of the Illinois house of representatives, was born in
North Ireland, May 3, 1832. Both parents, Samuel and Mary (Campbell) Shaw, were also
born in that country, his mother being Scotch-Irish like the major part of the people in that sec-
tion of Ireland. The family immigrated to this country in the infancy of James, and settled in
Cass coupty, Illinois.
Our subject began the study of law before finishing his classical studies; graduated at Illinois
College, Jacksonville, in 1857; finished reading law with Frederick Sackett of Sterling, White-
side count) 7 ; was admitted to the bar in 1859 and settled in Mount Carroll in 1860. He has been
in the practice of his profession here for twenty-two years, and long ago took a front rank at the
bar of Carroll county. He has a legal mind and a studious disposition, and hence is a rising man
in his profession. As an advocate he is candid, logical, clear and forcible, favorably impressing
both court and jury. Mr. Shaw held the office of assistant state geologist for three years. He
8(DO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
entered public life in 1871 as a representative to the state legislature from Carroll county, after-
ward eleventh district, that being the twenty-seventh assembly. He served also in the twenty-
eighth, thirtieth and thirty-first assemblies, and took a high position among the law makers of the
state. In the twenty-eighth assembly he was chairman of the judicial department, the most
important and powerful committee in that session, it having the division of the state into con-
gressional, judicial and senatorial districts, and being composed of about seventeen members,
among them the picked men of the house.
On the reappearance of Mr. Shaw in the thirtieth assembly, his republican associates in the
house selected him for the nomination of speaker, to which office he was elected, and in which
he acquitted himself in a highly creditable manner. In the thirty-first assembly he was
appointed chairman of the judiciary committee, a position equally as honorable as that of
speaker, and much more laborious. Mr. Shaw was a presidential elector on the republican ticket
in 1872, and in 1877-78 was a member of the state central committee.
He married, June, 1859, Miss Jennie Harvey, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and they have three
children.
HON. GEORGE E. ADAMS.
CHICAGO.
GEORGE EVERETT ADAMS, member of congress from the fourth district, is a native of
the Granite State, being born in Keene, Cheshire county, June 18, 1840. His father, Ben-
jamin F. Adams, a. farmer, and later in life a manufacturer, was born in New Ipswich, same state,
and married Louisa R. Redington. Mr. Adams was educated at Exeter Academy, Harvard Uni-
versity and the Dane Law School, Cambridge, and commenced practice in Chicago in 1867. His
thorough legal attainments, fine talents and close attention to business, soon brought him a
remunerative practice, and gave him a highly creditable standing at the Chicago bar.
Mr. Adams was elected to the state senate, in 1880, from the eighth district, and served until
March, 1883, when he resigned on account of having been elected by the republicans of the fourth
district to represent that constituency in the forty-eighth congress. Mr. Adams was married, in
1871, to Miss Adele Foster, daughter of John H. Foster, of Chicago, and they have three children.
T
HON. CYRUS EPLER.
JACKSONVILLE.
HE judge of the seventh judicial circuit is a native of Indiana, a son of John and Sarah
(Biggs) Epler, and was born in Charleston, Clark county, May 12, 1823. His father was
born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and his mother in Charleston, Indiana. The Eplers are of Ger-
man descent. The father of Sarah Biggs was a captain of Light Horse at the battle of Tippe-
canoe. Early in the autumn of 1831, John Epler brought his family to Morgan county, this
state, and the son was reared on a farm, attending school meanwhile in a log school house
until nineteen years old. He is a graduate of Illinois College, Jacksonville, receiving the degree
of bachelor of arts in 1847 and master of arts in 1850, and teaching four-quarters of the time dur-
ing the four years he was in college.
Mr. Epler read law with Hon. Richard Yates and Hon. William Brown; was admitted to the
bar in 1853, and was in practice at Jacksonville until he went on the bench in 1873. He was
reflected in 1879. While practicing his profession he heW the office of state's attorney four years
and was a member of the legislature from 1856 to 1860, being a member of the judiciary commit-
tee all that period. He is a democrat in politics and a third-degree Mason. While at the bar
Judge Epler paid very close attention to his business; prepared his cases with great care; was true
to his client, and was quite successful. As a judge he is cautious, cool and discriminating. He
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 8OI
carefully weighs the facts in a case, and ascertains the principles governing it, and usually comes
to a wise decision. His standing among the jurists of the state is highly creditable.
The wife of Mr. Epler was Miss Cornelia A. Nettleton, daughter of Doctor Clark Nettleton, of
Racine, Wisconsin, their marriage being dated August 3, 1852. They have seven children. Carl
E. is city attorney of Quincy, Illinois, and most of the others are securing their education.
HON. JOSEPH H. JONES.
HENR V.
T OSEPH HENDERSON JONES, a leading merchant and first-class business man, is a son of
J Cannah and Phebe (Durnal) Jones, and was born in Washington county, Indiana, in 1832.
When he was two years old the family came into this state, settling in Canton, Fulton county.
A few years later, his father becoming sheriff, the family removed to Lewiston, the county seat.
In 1851 Joseph came to Henry, and after holding a clerkship two years in a store, went into busi-
ness for himself. He has been a merchant there for thirty years, straightforward and successful.
From 1861 to 1865 he was also engaged in banking. Mr. Jones has held various offices, such as
supervisor, school director, alderman, etc., and in 1871-72 was a member of the general assembly,
being sent there by his republican constituents. He is an elder of the Presbyterian Church, and
solid in character as well as in purse.
THE PARLIN AND ORENDORFF COMPANY.
CANTON.
IN 1840 William Parlin, a blacksmith from Massachusetts, came to Fulton county, and in 1847
started a plow shop in Canton, without machinery of any kind. In 1852 he was joined by his
brother-in-law, William J. Orendorff, and steam power was introduced, the firm being William
Parlin and Company. The name of the firm has been changed two or three times. In 1880 the
company was incorporated, and is known as the Parlin and Orendorff Company, a son of Mr.
Parlin and a son of Mr. Orendorff being at the same time taken into the company. Its shops
have been extended from time to time, until they cover nearly a square, and have a capacity for
300 men. The works consume annually 2,000 tens of iron and steel, and about 1,500,000 feet of
lumber. The chief articles manufactured are steel plows and cultivators, harrows, shovels, road
scrapers, stalk cutters, etc.
WILLIAM OSMAN.
OTTAWA.
THE oldest journalist in Illinois, still in active service in that profession, is the gentleman
whose name heads % this sketch and who has spent most of his time in a printing office since
he was thirteen years of age. He is a son of Robert and Catherine (Schreiber) Osman, and was
born in Lykens Valley, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, June 18, 1820. His grandfather, Thomas
Osman, was from England and settled first in New Jersey. His mother, as the name would indi-
cate, was of German descent.
William finished his education with one year's attendance in the preparatory department of
the college at Gettysburgh; entered a German printing office at Harrisburgh in his fourteenth
year, and there remained until 1840, when he came to Ottawa and worked two years in the "Free
Trader " office for Weaver and Hise. He then became a partner of Mr. Hise, and that partner-
ship continued about five years. In 1848 Mr. Osman married Mary Hise. a sister of his partner,
and that partnership has continued to " this present." The year before this event, Moses Osman,
8O2 UNITED STATES H10GKA PHICA I. DICTIONARY.
a brother of William, bought out Mr. Hise, and the two brothers published the " Free Trader "
in company until 1852, when Moses bought the office and our subject went to Chicago and edited
" The Democrat " for eight or nine months for Hon. John Wentworth, immediately after which per-
iod he spent almost the same length of time in the interior department, Washington. In 1854 Mr.
Osman returned to Ottawa, bought out the " Free Trader," and was its sole proprietor until 1866,
when Colonel Douglas Hapeman bought a half interest in the paper and job office, and that part-
nership still continues.
Mr. Osman was appointed postmaster of Ottawa in 1854, and held that office through Pierce's
administration and the early part of Buchanan's, being finally turned out because he would not
turn against Judge Douglas. He has always been an out-and-out democrat of the Douglas school
and an out-and-out free trader, on which subject he has written and published enough matter to
make several volumes.
HON. JAMES D. WEBBER.
MINONK.
JAMES DWIGHT WEBBER, formerly a merchant in Minonk, and a member of the Illinois
legislature, hails from Greene county, New York, being born April 19, 1826. His parents,
Henry and Louisa (Pitts) Webber were also born in that county. He learned the wagon and car-
riage maker's trade, and carried on that business at Gayhead until 1865, marrying meanwhile, in
1856, Miss Jemima Tryon, of Catskill, Greene county. In 1865 Mr. Webber came to this state,
halting one year at Rutland, La Salle county, and then settling in Minonk. Here he was engaged
in hotel keeping the first four years, and then went into the mercantile business.
He was a member of the twenty-eighth general assembly, his place being on the democratic
side of the house. He is a Sir Knight, and belongs to the Cceur de Leon Commandery, El Paso.
Mr. Webber retired from business in 1882. He has a farm near town, cultivated by proxy,
and he is in very comfortable circumstances. He has been an alderman of the city, and is now
holding some municipal office.
GEORGE W. KRETZINGER.
. 'CHICAGO.
EORGE WASHINGTON KRETZINGER is a native of Scioto county, Ohio, and was born
August n, 1844, the son of Rev. Isaac Kretzinger, a clergyman of the United Brethren
denomination. His paternal grandfather emigrated from Germany, and settled in the state of
Virginia. George W. received a collegiate education, and during the years that he was pursuing
his studies, by working on a farm and in other avocations, earned the means for defraying the
expenses of his education, as well as of his personal maintenance. After his graduation he went
to Iowa, when he became a teacher in the Keokuk classical school, and also began the study of
law, under the preceptorship of Hon. George W. McCrary, an ex-member of President Hayes'
cabinet, and now (1883) judge of the United States circuit court for the district of Iowa. Mr.
Kretzinger finished his legal studies with Henry Strong, now of Chicago, then of Keokuk, and at
that time a leading railway attorney in Iowa, and was admitted to the bar of Iowa in March,
1867. Soon after his admission to practice, he removed from Keokuk, and in the September fol-
lowing, formed a partnership with Judge R. L. Hannaman, at Knoxville, Illinois, which continued
until 1873, when Mr. Kretzinger removed to Chicago, where he formed a partnership with John I.
Bennett, now master in chancery, of the United States circuit court. This partnership was dis-
solved by mutual consent, and Mr. Kretzinger has now associated with him his younger brother,
under the name and style of G. W. and J. T. Kretzinger.
The subject of this sketch has made a special study of corporation law, and his business,
which is very extensive, is largely confined to that branch of practice. Since 1877 he has been
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OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 805
general solicitor for the Chicago and Iowa Railway Company, and has represented various other
railway companies in some of the most important legal controversies which have arisen since 1873.
Mr. Kretzinger has a keen and logical mind, a tenacious memory and mental operations of
remarkable quickness and accuracy. He is full of resource, and fertile in invention, and possesses
a tireless energy, which renders him almost invincible, when once fairly aroused and thoroughly
interested. As a lawyer he possesses a powerful reason, comprehends the scope of a complicated
case with great clearness, and analyzes the legal propositions involved, with accuracy. As a
speaker, he is vigorous, logical and terse, and does not strive so much for ornate diction, or well
rounded periods, as to set forth succinctly, forcibly and clearly, the legal propositions upon which
he relies, and to arrange and present facts to which the legal principles involved are applied. Mr.
Kretzinger was married August 20, 1878, to Miss Clara J. Wilson, of Rock Island, and has one son.
HON. JOHN T. STUART.
SPRINGFIELD.
JOHN T. STUART, senior member of the law firm of Stuart, Edwards and Brown, hails
from Kentucky, being born in Fayette county, near Lexington, November 10, 1807. He is of
sturdy Scotch-Irish descent, and a son of Rev. Robert Stuart, who went from Virginia to Lexing-
ton, Kentucky, where he taught the languages in Transylvania University, and where he married
a daughter of General Levi Todd. John was educated at Danville College, Kentucky, being a
graduate of the class of 1826, and studied law for two years under that eminent lawyer and jurist,
Judge Breck. In 1828 he came to Springfield, in those days a ten days' trip on horseback; and
here, as we learn from the '' History of Sangamon County," he found five lawyers, James Adams,
Thomas N. Neale, James Strode, Thomas Moffett and Jonathan H. Pugh, all since left for " that
undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns."
Subsequently such legal lights appeared here as Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Ste-
phen T. Logan, John M. Palmer, and in the court room Mr. Stuart was regarded as the peer of
any of them. He was born two years before Mr. Lincoln, and had the training of that great
statesman for the'bar, a noble work of which he may well be proud.
Our subject entered public life quite early, and has filled different positions, always with much
credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his political confreres. He was elected to the legislature
in 1832, and reelected in 1834, being in these days a whig, and an earnest advocate of internal im-
provements, then just looming up as an important question.
Mr. Stuart was defeated for congress by William L. May, in 1836, beat Stephen A. Douglas
for the same office in 1838, and was reelected in 1841, that great whig triumphal year, when Tip-
pecanoe songs had about as much influence as logic. In congress, during the session of 1841-42,
he secured an appropriation for the harbor at Chicago, an act for which he is still kindly remem-
bered by the people, particularly in northern Illinois. Mr. Stuart now withdrew awhile from
public life, but in 1849 we find him in the state senate, where he represented the counties of San-
gamon, Mason and Menard for four years.
The whig party was broken up in 1854, and Mr. Stuart supported Millard Fillmore on the
American ticket in 1856, and John Bell on the conservative ticket in 1860, but otherwise kept out
of politics till 1862, when he was elected to congress by the democrats and a few republicans, he
being opposed to what he considered the radical measures of the administration. He was an out
and out Union man, and favored the vigorous prosecution of the war, but thought the emancipa-
tion proclamation was unnecessary, and that the objects for which it was issued could be attained
in some other manner. That was Mr. Stuart's opinion then, but we believe that he has since
come to the conclusion that his old pupil and life-long personal friend, Mr. Lincoln, acted wisely
and for the best interests of the country.
Mr. Sluart was defeated for congress in 1864, and since that time has lived a very quiet life,
78
806 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAKV.
attending to his law practice with great diligence. Says a writer who has known Mr. Stuart for
thirty or forty years: " His leading traits are sterling integrity, great forecast and strong will.
In the management of professional business he seeks first to understand his own side of the case,
and next to penetrate the designs of his adversary, in which he never fails. He keeps his own
batteries effectually masked, while those of the opposite side are closely scrutinized. He knows
their caliber and position completely. -It was this quality which made him so eminently success-
ful as a politician. Such were his adroitness and sagacity, that his adversaries could never com-
prehend how he could obtain a knowledge of their plans. Therefore they dubbed him 'Jerry
Sly.' "
Mr. Stuart has been prominently identified with the railroad interest of Sangamon county from
their start, and has held various offices in connection with them, and has also served as president
of the Springfield City Railway Company, the Springfield Watch Company, and the Bettie Stuart
Board of Trustees. He was likewise one of the commissioners for building the new state house,
and chairman of .the executive committee of the Lincoln Monument Association, giving a great
deal of time to these latter enterprises, and also to local educational institutions. His whole heart
is in any cause which will to any extent benefit the community. In short, he has all the attributes
of a public-spirited, kind-hearted neighbor.
OWEN LOVEJOY.
PRINCETON.
OWEN LOVEJOY was of New England stock, the son of a Congregational minister, Rev.
Daniel Lovejoy, and was born in Albion, Maine, January 7, 1811. He was a brother of
Elijah Lovejoy, who was killed at Alton, this state, in 1837, because he was the publisher of an
anti-slavery newspaper. He entered upon his theological studies at Alton, Illinois, with his
brother, in 1836; three years afterward, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at
Princeton, and held that charge nearly seventeen years. In 1854 he first entered upon public life
as a member of the lower house of the general assembly. Two years afterward he was elected to
congress, and by repeated reflections held a seat in that body until his demise in the city of
Brooklyn, New York, March 25, 1864, a little more than a year after Mr. Lincoln's proclamation
of emancipation had declared the slaves of the land free. Almost the first knowledge we have of
Mr. Lovejoy in this state, was as a bold and fearless denouncer of slavery, and he never ceased his
warfare against that infamous system until his strength and breath both gave way. His widow
is still living. His son, Owen Glendower, is a rising lawyer in Princeton. .
HON. BENJAMIN R. SHELDON.
ROCKFORD.
BENJAMIN ROBBINS SHELDON, son of Benjamin and Sarah (Robbins) Sheldon, was
born in New Marlborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1812. Both parents were
also natives of that state. His father was a lawyer and at one period a member of the legislature
and of the governor's council. Benjamin prepared for college at Stockbridge.and Lenox Acade-
mies, and was graduated at Williams College in 1830, being only eighteen years of age. He
read law in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with'Hubbard and Rockwell, and was admitted to practice
1835, in which year, we believe, he came to Illinois. He practiced at Hennepin and subsequently
at Galena, until 1848, when he was elected to the old fourth circuit, and has been on the bench
from that date. The date of his election to the supreme bench was in 1870. Both as a lawyer
and a judge he is a man of fine discriminating powers; and his sense of fairness and right
between man and man is keen and truly exalted, as is acknowledged by all with whom he comes
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 807
in contact. His analytical powers are remarkably clear, and he is entirely dispassionate and
courageous, and follows his convictions instead of prejudice. No more honorable and strictly
honest man than Judge Sheldon wears the ermine in Illinois.
HON. SIMON P. SHOPE.
LEWISTON.
SIMON P. SHOPE is the judge of the judicial circuit which includes Fulton county. He is a
Buckeye by birth, and the light of this world first dawned upon him December 3, 1835, his
parents being Simon P. and Lucinda Shope. They were natives of Pennsylvania, and came to
this state in the youth of our subject, who was educated in the schools of Woodford county. He
taught school three winters, commencing at fifteen years of age, each term being six months in
length. In 1855 he commenced the study of law with Judge Powell, of Peoria, and was admitted
to the bar in 1856, settling in Lewiston in the same year. He made a brilliant record as an
attorney-at-law, and was sent to the legislature by his democratic constituents in 1862, serving
two -consecutive terms. He was elected judge in 1877; was reelected in 1879, and is still serving
on his second term. His ability as a jurist is unquestioned.
HON. GRANVILLE BARRERE.
CANTON.
- RANVILLE BARRERE is a son of John M. and Margaret (Morrow) Barrere, and was born
at Hillsboro, Highland county, Ohio, July n, 1831. His father was a native of Kentucky,
a merchant at Hillsboro, and died there in 1880. Granville was educated at Augusta College,
Kentucky, and Marietta College, Ohio; read law at Hillsboro with his uncle, Nelson Barrere;
was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe, Ohio, in the autumn of 1854; settled in Canton, in 1856,
and has been in practice here since that date. He is the leading lawyer practicing at the Fulton
county bar. He has great power in elucidating the strong points of a case and presenting them
in a clear light and forcible manner to the court and jury. He is a keen logician, cool and self-
possessed, and seldom disconcerted by the sudden presentation of unlooked-for authority. Mr.
Barrere was elected to the forty-third congress from the old ninth district in 1872, and served one
term, his politics being republican. Mr. Barrere has made a success financially as well as in other
respects in his profession. He identifies himself thoroughly with the interests of his adopted
home, working very hard in its behalf, and making a truly valuable citizen.
DANIEL J. AVERY.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch comes from New England parentage, and is a direct descendant
of John Alden and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, whose memory has been immortalized in the
" Courtshi-p of Miles Standish." His parental ancestors were among the very earliest settlers of
Norwich, Connecticut. His father was Ebenezer W. Avery, and his mother Tryphenia T. (Davis)
Avery. The Averys were, during the revolutionary struggle, stanch rebels, and rendered their
country valuable service on many a well fought field. It is said that thirteen bearing the family
name, all brothers and cousins, fell in one battle, and were buried in one grave. His eldest
brother is Doctor Samuel J. Avery, of Chicago, and his youngest brother, born at Avon, Lake
county, Illinois, in 1849, is John A. Avery, now editor of the Lake county " Republican."
Daniel was born in Brandon, Vermont, December i, 1836. His father was an earnest friend
808 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
of education, and would gather his own and his neighbors' children at his own home, and during
the evenings give them their early instructions. The celebrated Stephen A. Douglas was in those
days one of his pupils, and received his earliest instruction and the necessary flagellation at his
hands, in Brandon, Vermont.
In 1843, Ebenezer W. Avery, with his wife and family of seven children, of whom Daniel was
next the youngest, came west, by way of the Erie canal and the lakes. They landed in Racine,
Wisconsin, in October, and at once preempted a quarter section of land in which is now Avon, in
Lake county. Their nearest neighbor was three miles distant, and no schools in the town. Dan-
iel was present when the first school house was erected in his district. It was a log house, and
the neighbors each furnished his quota of logs to erect it. Daniel attended school until about
eighteen years old, working with his father on the farm summers, and going to school winters.
He studied the higher branches at home evenings, under paternal instruction, and furnished him-
self with books by selling quails, at twenty-five cents per dozen, which he caught during the
winter. At the age of eighteen he attended the village academy of Waukegan, then under the
management of Francis E. Clark, the present county judge of Lake county. There he remained
for six terms, preparing for college, but abandoned his purpose of pursuing a collegiate course,
and decided instead to fit himself for the legal profession. At the age of twenty he entered the
office of Hon. J. B. Bradwell, of Chicago, and became a member of Mr. Bradwell's family, and
worked for his board and washing. At the end of one year, however, he went to the law office of
Brown and Runyan, where he pursued his leeal studies until June 30, 1859, when he was admitted
to the bar. His examiners were Judges Beckwith, Judd and Peck. After his admission to the
bar, he practiced his profession until Jujy i, 1862, when he enlisted as a private, in the ii3th reg-
iment Illinois infantry, and October i, following, was promoted to second sergeant. He was in
the reserve corps at the battle of Chickasaw Bluff, December 29, 1862; fought in the battle of
Arkansas Post, January n, 1863. About January 22, he moved with Sherman's army down to
Young's Point, opposite Vicksburg, and awaited the cutting of a channel across that point by
command of General Grant. In December, 1862, he was accidently poisoned while temporarily
in the regiment's hospital, at Memphis, Tennessee, and in March, 1863, was sent to Lawson, gen-
eral at Saint Louis, and was honorably discharged from the service October 12, 1863. He imme-
diately returned to Chicago, and resumed the practice of law. In 1864 the firm of Runyan and
Avery was formed, which continued until 1867, when Mr. Comstock was admitted to it, and in
r869 Judge Loomis, who remained till 1873, when he retired and was followed by Mr. Runyan
soon afterward. The firm was then known as Avery and Comstock, which was dissolved in 1877.
Mr. Avery conducted the extensive chancery business during the whole history of the firm,
and acquired an enviable reputation in that line of business, and in December, 1880, was appointed
master in chancery of the superior court of Cook county, which office he now holds.
He has always been an active republican in politics, and served his party as chairman of the
Cook county republican central committee, and other useful positions, but has never aspired to
office, and never been a candidate before the people.
In 1866 he was made Master Mason, and for three years was master of Hesperia Lodge, No
411, and for the past eight years has filled the office of district deputy grand master for the sec-
ond district of Illinois. He was one of the thirteen members who constituted the masonic board
of relief organized after the great fire, and did his fellow citizens efficient service in that capacity.
In July, 1874, he assisted in the organization of the Northwestern Masonic Aid Association, and
was elected president, and has been successively elected to that position every year since. This
is one of the most successful cooperative benefit associations in the country. Its membership has
now reached more than 15,000, and it has disbursed in the eight years of its existence over $800,-
ooo to beneficiaries.
In 1867 Mr. Avery married Miss Mary Comstock, of Wilton, Saratoga county, New York, who
died January n, 1873, leaving two children. May 29, 1874, he married his present wife, who was
Miss Kate Ellis, of New York city.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 809
Like many others, Mr. Avery allowed his better judgment to be controlled by his feelings, and
became surety for a friend. The venture failed, and in 1867 he lost everything except the confi-
dence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
In person Mr. Avery is substantially built, tall, well proportioned, and of commanding pres-
ence. In complexion he is a blonde, with a pleasing expression, very approachable, and a genial
companion. He is very proficient in his profession, and is regarded as a fluent speaker, and a
close, logical reasoner.
M
MYRON A. DECKER.
CHICAGO.
YRON A. DECKER was born February 21, 1837, in Livingston county, New York. His
ancestors on the paternal side belonged to an ancient and eminent family in Holland, a
branch of which, about the middle of the seventeenth century, emigrated from Amsterdam and
settled in New York, on the Hudson River, from which branch his father, Henry Decker, descend-
ed. In 1816 his father married, and settled in the Genesee Valley, in western New York, and was
largely engaged in agriculture, and ranked among the ablest and most highly respected citizens
in Livingston county. His mother, Martha (Mather) Decker, traced her descent through the
Connecticut branch of the Mather family to the Massachusetts branch, and to Increase and Cotton
Mather, whose history is a part of the early annals of New England.
His mother died when Myron was fourteen years of age, and his father removed to Lima,
where were located the Genesee College and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, in order that his fam-
ily, of whom Myron was the youngest, might receive a liberal education at these popular institu-
tions. Here Myron pursued his studies till he was nineteen years of age, when he resolved, owing
to some financial embarrassments into which his father had fallen, to rely wholly upon himself,
and from that time till the completion of his literary and legal studies, he had to encounter and
overcome difficulties which invariably prove the best school for training a youth to habits of
sturdy self reliance and confidence so essential to success in after life.
In the spring of 1860, at the age of twenty-three, he was admitted to the practice of law by
the supreme court of New York, at the city of Auburn. He at once entered upon the practice of
law at Lima, and met with flattering success for nearly two years, when the war of the rebellion
began, and as legal business was generally suspended, he accepted a position which was tendered
him in the United States treasury at Washington, District of Columbia, where he remained till
the war closed. When he left the department he held the highest grade, and had charge of a
division. During this period he pursued, with untiring assiduity, further legal studies, and in
February, 1865, was, upon motion of Senator Howe, now postmaster general, admitted to practice
in the supreme court of the United States at Washington, District. of Columbia.
At the close of the war, and the general resumption of business, he resigned his position in
the treasury, inspired by a laudable ambition to establish himself in the profession of his choice,
and soon thereafter accepted a retainer to procure the setting aside of fraudulent titles procured
from the United States to some large and valuable tracts of pine land in northern Wisconsin, and
his success was such that he received numerous other retainers in the same line of business, which
kept him in constant service for more than three years in Wisconsin and Washington. District of
Columbia, and his success for his clients proved a financial success for himself.
Mr. Decker was married April 29, 1869, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Miss Kittie L. Knox,
daughter of Hon. Thomas M. Knox, deceased, formerly judge in the city of Watertown, Wiscon-
sin. Early in 1870 Mr. Decker removed to Chicago, and entered upon the practice of his profes-
sion, and soon, by his energy and ability, acquired a lucrative practice. In the great fire of 1871
his office and his library, with many valuable papers, were consumed. In 1873 Mr. Decker was
prostrated by the extreme heat while in Baltimore, and shortly after, in New York city, met with
an accident which caused internal injury. From these causes his nervous system, already severely
8lO UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
strained by the cares and anxieties of his large practice, was for the time completely prostrated,
and he was compelled to take a partner to meet the urgent demands of his increasing business.
He therefore associated with himself, in Chicago, Henry Decker, then of Lima, New York, and
the firm, under the name of Decker and Decker, continued for about two years, when Myron
found that it was absolutely imperative that he should have complete relaxation from all business
cares, and devote himself to the restoration of his health. He therefore surrendered his entire
business to Henry Decker, and passed three years in travel and recreation. In 1879 his health
was sufficiently restored to warrant his resuming the practice of his profession, and he again
opened his office in Chicago, where his ability and integrity being fully recognized, he at once
attracted to himself a large and lucrative practice, which he now enjoys.
Mr. Decker is an attorney of rare tact and sound judgment, fertile in resources and untiring
in energy. These qualities, united with marked financial ability, and an unusual skill in delicate
negotiations, cause his services to be in much request by corporations and large companies, to
which class of practice his time is mainly devoted. He is the owner of considerable improved
city property, and with the requisite attention given to its management, and to the interests of
some eastern capitalists, the care of whose investments is intrusted to him, Mr. Decker finds little
time for recreation.
In politics he is a stanch republican, but has ever confined himself strictly to his profession,
and whenever his name has been mentioned for any office or political preferment, has invariably
declined. Throughout all his business and professional engagements, involving frequently sums
of great magnitude, he has ever sustained the highest character for integrity, veracity and un-
blemished honor.
o
COLONEL NATHAN M. KNAPP.
WINCHESTER.
NE.of the most prominent men in Scott county for many years, was Nathan Morse Knapp,
who was born in Royalton, Vermont, March 4, 1815, and died at Winchester, October 4,
1879. He received an academic education, taught school for his support at the same period, and
in 1837 came to Naples, in this state. Here he resumed the occupation of teacher, and also
edited a newspaper. In the autumn of 1838 he moved to Jacksonville, Morgan county, and when
that county was divided, early in 1839, and the new county of Scott was formed, he settled in
Winchester, the shire town, and became county clerk. Meantime, he read law, and when the time
of service in that office had expired, he gave his whole attention to the legal profession, having
such associates at the bar as McConnell, Douglas and Lincoln. In 1847 he was elected a member
of the constitutional convention, and in 1850 to the legislature. He was a very active politician
in the Anti-Nebraska controversy, aided in forming the republican party, and was a delegate to
the Chicago convention, which nominated his life-long friend, Abraham Lincoln, for president.
Says the Winchester " Independent:" " When the rebellion broke out, his voice and pen were
conspicuously employed in sustaining the old flag which he loved. Early in 1863 Mr. Lincoln
appointed him a paymaster in the army, with the rank of major, which position he held till the
close of the war. He was in 1865 appointed by President Johnson collector of internal revenue
for this district, and continued in this office until its consolidation with that of United States
assessor. Millions of money passed through his hands, involving many long-standing accounts
and intricate calculations, without the loss of one cent.
Colonel Knapp was a man of superior mind; as a lawyer he was sagacious, discriminating,
and possessed, to an eminent degree, that faculty called common sense. He knew the law intui-
tively, and was governed more by general principles than a knowledge of precedents.
As a politician, he was among the first to aid in establishing the republican party, working
with Lincoln, Yates, Browning, and all the old leaders when the party first came into power. He
was not a mere follower of others, but originated his own line of argument in the great cam-
paigns, which was frequently adopted by his compeers.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 8ll
His religious convictions were strong, and a prominent feature in his character. On every
question that arose in the community he was always found on the side of truth and justice. In
this direction benevolence was a predominating trait. Although having a membership in a par-
ticular denomination, the Christian, there is perhaps not a church in town which has not fre-
quently received the benefit of his contributions and assistance."
Colonel Knapp married Miss Isabel Pond, and she and two children survive him. The mother
of Mrs. Knapp is also living, and is with her daughter at Winchester.
CHARLES WHITNEY.
WA UKEGAN.
THE subject of this sketch is a native of this county, and was born at Warren, October 6, 1849.
His father is Havelia Whitney, a farmer, who came to Lake county, from Ohio, and was for
a period of fourteen years county surveyor. He married Miss Harriet McNitt, who was from
New York. Charles received an academic education in this county, read law with Blodgett,
Upton and Williams, Waukegan, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1871. He was in
the abstract office, Chicago, most of the time from that date until February, 1876, when he
opened a law office in Waukegan. In the autumn of the same year he was elected state's attor-
ney for Lake county, and still holds that office, being reflected in 1880. He has a clear and
sound mind, is an industrious, energetic and growing man, ambitious to excel in his profession,
and belongs to that class of young men who very rarely fail of success.
T
HON. ISAAC L. MORRISON.
JACKSONVILLE.
HE subject of these brief notes is a prominent lawyer at the Morgan county bar, and was
leader on the republican side in the thirty-third general assembly. He was born in Barnes
county, Kentucky, January 20, 1826. He finished his education at a seminary at La Grange, Ken-
tucky ; read law with A. M. Gayley ; was admitted to the bar in 1849, and practiced in his native
state until 1851, when he settled in Jacksonville, which has since been his home. He is one of
the leading lawyers in central Illinois.
Mr. Morrison was originally an emancipationist ; linked his fortunes with the republican party
at its organization, and has been a zealous worker in its interest. For the last four years he has
been a member of the lower house of the legislature, and in its last session (1883) was the repub-
lican leader. He is a profound lawyer and a powerful debater. He has a wife and two children.
REV. ALMER HARPER.
PORT BYRON.
THE subject of this sketch has been pastor of the Congregational Church at Port Byron for
twenty-one years, and has become seemingly a clerical fixture in Rock Island county. He
has, by divine help, built up a church, from forty to one hundred and forty members, and the
attachment between pastor and people has become very strong.
Aimer Harper was born in Rush county, Indiana, May 20, 1826, his father being Edward Har-
per, a farmer from South Carolina, and his mother, Charity (Reed) Harper, of Yorktown, Vir-
ginia. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, class of 1850, and of its Theological Seminary, class of
1853. His first pastorate was in the State Street Congregational Church, Rochester, New York,
where he spent between one and two years, and in 1855 went to Tabula, Iowa. He removed to
Si 2 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
La Claire, same state, opposite Port Byron, in 1860, and after preaching there one year, changed
his residence to this place, still supplying the Le Claire pulpit half a day each Sunday, two or
three years longer. He has been and still is a very active Christian worker, being assiduous in
pastoral labors, as well as earnest and strong in his pulpit efforts. The steady growth of his
church has no doubt been a source of great comfort as well as encouragement to him. Through
his influence an academy was started at Port Byron, in 1881.
Mr. Harper was married, August 31, 1853, to Miss Eunice Thomson, and they have buried two
children and have three, all sons, living. Edward T., a graduate with honors, of Oberlin, is prin-
cipal of the Port Byron Academy ; Robert is a student at Oberlin, and Eugene Howard is a stu-
dent under his eldest brother.
HON, GEORGE HUNT.
PARIS.
EORGE HUNT is a son of Richard and Nancy (Colopy) Hunt, and was born in Knox
V_T county, Ohio, May i, 1841. He received an academic education in Edgar county, this state,
and was on a farm when the civil war began. In July, 1861, he enlisted as a private in company
E, 1 2th Illinois infantry, and served four years, being mustered out with the rank of captain.
On leaving the service, Mr. Hunt read law at Paris, and was admitted to the bar in 1868, since
which date he has been in practice at Paris. Senator Hunt's strong points as a lawyer consist
in the most careful and thorough preparation for his case before going to trial, and besides know-
ing the law, he has a clear and concise way of stating it. He makes his client's case his own, and
while he enjoys fun as much as any man, he does not indulge in it at the risk of endangering the
interest of his client. In jury cases he is strong for the reason that he always convinces the jury
at once of his own confidence in his case, and in addressing a jury he uses simple and practical
words, and at times, when the circumstances demand, rises to the point of most graceful and
effective eloquence.
Mr. Hunt was county superintendent of schools from 1865 to 1869, and in 1874 he was elected
to the state senate ; was reflected in 1878 and 1882, and is now serving his third term. He now
represents the thirty-first district. During the last three sessions he has been chairman of the
judiciary committee, the most important committee in that body. He is on the republican side
of the senate.
LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS.
CHICAGO.
THE doctrine once generally obtained, that if a man did not realize a character, in any pro-
fession, soon after his first appearance, he hardly ever would attain one. And James Otis
gave it as his opinion that it was of vast importance that a young man, entering the legal profes-
sion, should be able to make some eclat at his opening. Whether these opinions be correct, we
shall not stop to consider here, but certain it is, that Luther Laflin Mills early in his career dis-
sipated whatever of doubt might then have clouded the hopes and ambitions of those interested
in his welfare. At the very threshold of his professional experience, the subject of this sketch
manifested a knowledge of legal theory, an energy, depth and acuteness of intellect, and a ripeness
of judgment rarely developed by the majority of men, under forty.
Mr. Mills was born in North Adams, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, September 3, 1848.
When but two years of age, his father migrated to Illinois. Locating in Chicago, the elder Mills
engaged in mercantile pursuits, and it was in the schools of that city that the promising son
received his early training. "The boy is father of the man," and the precocious Luther soon
resolved upon the benefits of a liberal education. Having mastered the curriculum fixed by the
HC.Conp.r Jr S. Co
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNfVERSITV of ILLINOIS
/
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 815
educational system of his adopted home, he became a matriculate of Michigan University. Re-
turning to Chicago, in due course of time, he entered as a law student the office of Hon. H. N.
Hibbard. Admitted to the bar immediately upon the conclusion of the time prescribed for pro-
fessional study, Mr. Mills was soon distinguished as an advocate of natural power, strengthened
by judicious culture. It has been said that forensic eloquence demands for its success a union of
the rarest faculties, " the most varied and dissimilar gifts." The orator, like the poet, is born and
not made, and his power is the product of both intellectual and physical force. Of the truth of
this, Mr. Mills is an exemplification. Endowed by nature with a clear perception, force of will,
a tenacious memory and lively imagination, he lost no opportunity for the cultivation of these
faculties to the utmost. Combining with these gifts of mind, an erect and supple form, a dark
and lustrous eye, graceful action, a goodly range of facial expression, and a voice at once melo-
dious and flexible; is it surprising that Luther Laflin Mills should have been called, at twentv-
eight years of age, to the responsible position of state's attorney for one of the most populous and
wealthy counties west of the Alleghany Mountains ? Nominated as a candidate for that position,
by the Cook county republican convention, of the state of Illinois, in the autumn of 1876, he was
duly elected. His peculiar gifts were used with effect, and he became a terror to evil doers.
They found in him not merely the fluent declaimer, but the inexorable nemesis of the law. It
has been said that the metaphor is the orator's figure, and the simile that of the poet. In the
annals of oratory, this was demonstrated by Burke, Curran and Sheridan. Whether Mr. Mills
has made these great models a study is not known. But if not, he has intuitively assumed a
rhetorical form best adapted to the orator's art, and herein lies the secret of his influence with the
popular mind. He flashes, as it were, into the mind of a juror, a vivid succession of imagery.
To few men is it given to deal successfully with the mind of their fellows, to at once quicken
the understanding and arouse the emotions. Mr. Mills is one of the few. As an advocate he
penetrates clearly that vestibule of the human reason, consciousness. This organic faculty has
been beautifully described as a chamber of aerial transparency, without roof, without walls, with-
out bounds, and yet somehow inclosed within us and belonging to us. It is into this wondrous
chamber that Mr. Mills has so frequently entered as a master of the occult precinct. In logic he
is an adept, but it is not the formal and repulsive logic of the schools. This is not suited to the
fervid movement of his mind, neither would it be to the office he has filled with such phenom-
enal ability. The syllogism, in its cold rigidity, is repulsive to the average mind, unaccustomed as
it is to the aridness of abstraction. Knowing this, Mr. Mills presents his propositions in a series
of impassioned and articulate exclamations; in each of which are fused into striking unity, major
premise, minor premise, and conclusion. Illustrative is his method, of what was once said by
Zeno: " Philosophic argument is like the human hand closed, the oratorical like the same hand
unfolded." As it were, he enters within the chamber of the mind, through the door of thought,
and then, with the pencil of imagination, places there a beautiful array of representative forms,
brilliant of color, and instinct with life. Verily is it true that " oratory, like painting, is only a
language; it is painting and sculpture made vocal and visible." Not that we would be understood
to imply that Mr. Mills' talent is confined to the artful use of oratorical apostrophes; not that we
would infer his sole pursuit is that of culling garlands of the richest hues and sweetest fragrance,
wherewith to tickle the fancy and bewitch the judgment. With him ornament is subordinate to
substance. He employs the flowers of rhetoric, but to relieve the sterility of facts, and soften the
ruggedness of their outline. From exordium to peroration, his argument clearly indicates the
points in controversy. The objective point of the argument is kept clearly in mind from first to
last; and rarely, if ever, does he violate what is so essential to fullness of impression and clear-
ness of view, that is, unity of purpose, continuity of related parts, and harmony of delineation.
In the heat of discussion, his effort is a symmetrical confluence of mind, emotion and physique.
With him, neither the precision of logic, nor the rose-hues of fancy are used, but to "speak the
language of soberness and truth."
So much for the man as an advocate, and it is in this relation lie first invites attention. Mr.
79
8l6 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mills was first elected to his present position in 1876. running four thousand ahead of his ticket.
He was renominated in 1880, without opposition, and reglected by an increased majority. Ten-
dered the nomination for congress by an admiring constituency, he declined in order to com-
plete the unexpired official term to which he had just received an emphatic call. It is to be hoped
that the republican party of Cook county will ultimately elevate this able, eloquent and honora-
ble member to a position in the national congress.
Located in the western metropolis of the United States; surrounded by some of the most ver-
satile, brilliant, learned and astute lawyers of the Great West; called to one of the most impor-
tant and responsible offices in the gift of his fellow citizens; at thirty-four vears of age Luther
Laflin Mills has accomplished the work of a lifetime. Respected as a citizen, trusted and efficient
as a public servant, eminent as a lawyer, conspicuous as an orator, may our genial and noble
friend garner the success he so well deserves.
In the autumn of 1876 Mr. Mills was married to the cultivated and amiable Miss Ella M.
Boies, of Saugerties, New York, by whom he has had four children.
HON. CHANCEY L. HIGBEE.
PITTSFIELD.
LAWSON HIGBEE, judge of the circuit court, and a member of the appellate
V ' court, is a son of Elias and Sarah (Ward) Higbee, and was born in Clermont county, Ohio,
September 7, 1821. He received an academic education, came to Illinois at an early day, read law
with Judge Sylvester Emmens, late of Beardstown, was admitted to practice in 1843, and the next
year settled in Pike county, which has been his home for nearly forty years.
Like most young lawyers, Judge Higbee early became interested in politics, and in 1854 he
was sent to the legislature. Four years afterward he was elected to the state senate, and while
serving in that body, was (1861) elected circuit judge, and by successive reflections has been kept
in that honorable position for more than twenty years. When the appellate court was formed he
was appointed a member of it, and is serving at Springfield. Members of the bar who have long
known Judge Higbee, look upon him as a fatherly friend and guide. They have the utmost con-
fidence in him, and regard his decisions usually as a finality. As a judge of law he has but few
peers in the state. He has great executive ability, dispatches business with promptness, and his
urbanity on the bench wins for him the high respect of all who practice before him, or have any
business relations with him.
HON. JAMES M. ALLEN.
GENESEO.
JAMES M. ALLEN is a son of John and Nancy (Hodge) Allen, and was born in Sumner county,
Tennessee, November 23, 1814. James finished his education at Danville College, Kentucky
came to Carrollton, Greene county, Illinois, in 1835, and the next spring settled in Henry county
his present home. He was elected the first clerk of the county and circuit courts, when Rich-
mond was the county seat, at which place he held the office of postmaster. Mr. Allen settled in
Geneseo in 1839, and was postmaster here for a few years. At an early day after coming to
Henry county, he commenced farming, and has increased his business in this line from time to
time until he owns half a dozen farms, all in Henry county.
In 1851 and 1852 Mr. Allen was a member of the state legislature, sent there to aid in getting
a charter for what was then called the Chicago and Rock Island railroad; his efforts being
crowned with success, and in 1854 the road was completed, and Geneseo was connected by rail
with Chicago. He was one of the early directors of that road. During the civil war he acted as
provost marshal of this congressional district, and held at one time the office of county judge.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 8l/
For a score of years he has been interested in the Hennepin canal, spending a good deal of time
at Springfield, in getting the enterprise under way, and the plans matured for its completion.
Most of the winter of 1881-82 he spent in the city of Washington, working day and night to fur-
ther this great internal improvement.
JOHN H. POTTS.
JACKSONVILLE.
JOHN HALL POTTS, one of the leading short-horn cattle breeders in the state, is a native of
Illinois, being born in Greene county, December 7, 1823, his parents being William and Mar-
garet (Parker) Potts. John was educated in the district schools, and has been a farmer all his
life, and a cattle dealer for a score of years or more. Since 1869 he has given a good deal of
attention to the breeding of short-horn cattle, and has, at the present time, about sixty head of
thoroughbreds. He has also between forty and fifty Southdown sheep and a few Berkshire swine
of the best breed. Commencing with the autumn of 1876, Mr. Potts has been showing at the
state fairs of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas, and has taken nearly
$30,000 in premiums. His farm consists of 220 acres, all in grass. His son, William T. Potts,
his only child living, is in partnership with his father. The latter is living with his second wife,
who was Mrs. Louisa M. (Green) Ransdell. Mr. Potts is a stockholder of the Jacksonville
National Bank, and a man in very comfortable circumstances.
HON. NATHANIEL J. PILLSBURY.
PONT/ AC.
"VTATHANIEL J. PILLSBURY, judge of the circuit and the appellate courts, is a native of
J. i York county, Maine, a son of Stephen M. and Susan (Averill) Pillsbury, and dates his birth
October 21, 1834. His great-grandfather participated in the war for independence. Nathaniel
received an academic education ; was with a manufacturing company at Saco from 1850 to 1855,
at which latter date his health broke down, and he came to Bureau county, this state. In 1858
he settled on a farm in Livingston county, there remaining until 1863, when he commenced the
study of law with Samuel L. Fleming, of Pontiac. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1864, and
soon established a fine reputation as a lawyer, rising, in a few years, to the head of the bar in
Livingston county. He was a member of the constitutional convention in 1867. and 1870.
In 1873 the subject of these notes was elected judge of the thirteenth judicial circuit; was
reelected in 1879, and when the appellate court was organized, he was appointed one of the judges
for the second district. Judge Pillsbury is thoroughly conversant with the law ; has an excellent
judicial mind, and wears the ermine with credit alike to himself and the commonwealth. His
politics are republican. He was married to Eliza J. Cole, of Maine, in 1855, and they have two
sons and two daughters.
HON. WASHINGTON BUSHNELL.
OTTAWA,
WASHINGTON BUSHNELL, lawyer, and formerly attorney general of the state, had a
common-school education, read law at home, attended two courses at the State and Na-
tional Law School, at Ballston Spa, New York, received his diploma at Albany in the early part
of 1853; settled in Ottawa in the autumn of the same year, and has been in the practice of his
profession here since that time. Mr. Bushnell was city attorney four years, state's attorney the
same period, state senator eight years, 1861-1869, and attorney general of the state during the
first four years of President Grant's administration, 1869-1873. He attended nearly every state
8l8 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
convention for twenty years; was a delegate to the national conventions in 1860, 1864, and 1868,
and aided in securing the nominations of the men of his choice, Abraham Lincoln and U. S.
Grant, both Illinois men. Mr. Bushnell was an intimate acquaintance and confidential friend of
the great statesman, and the military chieftain, and gave their administrations his most hearty
and enthusiastic support. He was one of the first delegates-at-large that ever attended a general
meeting of the Union League, he being sent on such a mission to the city of Washington in 1861.
Mr. Bushnell has always strongly Identified himself with local interests, and as a citizen has
made himself very useful. He was president of the Ottawa, Oswego and Fox River railroad from
its incipiency until it was completed and passed into other hands, and for three years was president
of the Business Men's Association of Ottawa, an efficient organization, still doing a good work.
He was a banker for more than twenty years.
M
HON. MILTON M. FORD.
GALVA.
ILTON MORRIS FORD, a leading merchant at Galva, is a son of Dyer and Lovica (Mor-
ris) Ford, and was born in the town of Milo, Yates county, New York, January 23, 1823.
Milton received an ordinary English education ; at sixteen years of age, went to Penn Yan, Yates
county, and was a clerk for six years for Charles C. Sheppard. They then formed a partnership,
and the firm of Sheppard and Ford continued until 1860, when our subject came to this state and
settled at Galva. Here he has been,a dry-goods merchant for twenty-two years. He has also
been engaged in loaning money for eastern parties.
Mr. Ford was elected to the lower house of the Illinois legislature in the autumn of 1864, and
served in the session of the following winter. He was elected to the senate in 1878, and served
the term of four years, being chairman of the finance committee both sessions. In -early life Mr.
Ford was strongly anti-slavery, and voted for James G. Birney for president in 1844. He has
acted with the republican party since it was formed.
He married, in January, 1846, at Penn Yan, Miss Laura Spencer, a relative of Hon. Joshua C.
Spencer, thirty years ago a prominent politician in New York, and they have buried four chil-
dren in infancy and childhood, and have three living.
WILLIAM NOECKER, M.D.
MONTICEI.LO.
ONE of the ablest physicians in central Illinois is Doctor William Noecker. He was born in
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1825. His father was a native of the same county,
in which he resided until his death. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was of German
descent. The subject of this sketch went to Ohio in 1840, and afterward studied medicine at Cir-
cleville, in that state, with Doctor Hull. He then entered Starling Medical College, at Columbus,
Ohio, and graduated from that institution in 1853. He then removed to Illinois, and settled in
Monticello, where he still resides. Numerous persons had before that time emigrated from
Pickaway county, Ohio, to Piatt county, and the doctor found himself at once among his friends.
Soon after his arrival in Monticello, he formed a partnership with Doctor Ward, who was the
only physician in that place, which partnership continued one year; their practice extending
throughout Piatt county and into portions of Champaign, Douglas and Macon counties. After
the dissolution of this partnership, Doctor Noecker continued the practice of medicine alone, and
was soon favored with a very extensive and lucrative business, from which he has amassed a
handsome fortune. In 1865 he went into the drug business, which, in connection with his prac-
tice as a physician, he has carried on up to the present time. In 1868 he built the corner brick
building, a portion of which he now occupies.
HCCnopsr Jr i La.
LiBSARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITV of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 82!
In December, 1861, Doctor Noecker was married to Miss Ella Britton. They had one child,
Willie, who died when but four years old. In 1875, Doctor Noecker built one of the finest brick
residences in Monticello, which he has fitted up for the enjoyment of himself and wife, both in the
prime of life. He has been a Mason many years, holding the office of high priest of Markwell
Chapter, and is recognized as past high priest of that chapter. He is also a charter member of
the Urbana commandery of Knights Templar, and attended the Knights Templar encampment at
New Orleans in 1874, and again at Cleveland, in 1877. Doctor Noecker is recognized by the
members of his profession as eminently well posted in every thing connected with the practice of
medicine and surgery. He is seldom deceived in the diagnosis of a disease, and he has been first
and foremost to examine all of the new discoveries in medical science, and pass them under the
lens of his unerring judgment. He was never known to experiment upon his patients, always
using remedies known to be useful, after due investigation and trial of their merits. In addition
to his eminent skill as a physician and surgeon, Doctor Noecker is a remarkably efficient business
man. He not only knows how to make money, but he is expert in placing it where it will
increase. He is a citizen who has the highest respect of all who are favored with his acquain-
tance; is social, affable and congenial in his intercourse with mankind, and has a large circle of
friends who admire him for his true manhood and his moral and intellectual worth.
HON. BENJAMIN F. BERRIAN.
QUINCY.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BERRIAN, judge of the county of Adams, is a native of New York
city, a son of George W. and Hannah (Brower) Berrian; and dates his birth October 2, 1830.
Both parents were also born in that city. His father was a land agent. Benjamin came to
Adams county in 1844; was a farmer here for about fifteen years, then went back to New York,
and became a druggist ; returned to Adams county ; read law at Quincy ; was admitted to the
bar in 1873, and engaged in probate business mainly. In 1877 he was elected to the office of
county judge by his democratic constituents, and after serving five years, was reelected, in Novem-
ber, 1882, making a very faithful officer. He is a Knight Templar, and is the father of three
children.
HON. JOHN H. WILLIAMS.
QUINCY.
JOHN HAMILTON WILLIAMS, judge of the sixth judicial circuit, is a son of Archibald and
Nancy (Kemp) Williams, and was born in Quincy, April 12, 1833. His great-grandfather,
Hukey Williams, was a soldier in the revolutionary army. Archibald Williams came to Illinois
in 1829 from Kentucky, where he was born in 1801. He settled in Quincy. He was an eminent
lawyer, and associate at the bar with President Lincoln, Judge Douglas, and that class of legal
lights in central and western Illinois thirty and forty years ago; was a member of the constitu-
tional convention in 1847; a member of the legislature two or three terms; United States district
attorney under Presidents Taylor and Fillmore; was appointed United States district judge for
Kansas, March 14, 1861, by President Lincoln, and died September 21, 1863.
The subject of this sketch was educated at the Missouri State University, at Columbia, Boone
county, leaving at the 'close of his junior year; read law at Quincy with his father and Hon.
Charles B. Lawrence; was admitted to the bar in February, 1855, and practiced his profession at
Quincy until he went on the bench, to which he was elected in the autumn of 1879. At the bar
Judge Williams was known as a sound lawyer and a wise counselor, rather than as a fluent and
brilliant advocate. He has a good judicial mind; as a jurist is conscientious, clear-headed and
deliberate; is very kind, particularly to the younger members of the bar, and is constantly gain-
ing in popularity.
822 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Judge Williams reached his majority in 1854, simultaneously with the demise of the whig
party, in which school of politics he had been reared by his father, who was a prominent member
of it for a score of years or more. His proclivities, like those of his father, were of a free-soil
tendency, and he promptly linked his fortune with the new-born party of freedom, which came
into power March 4, 1861, under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln.
HON. SAMUEL S. GILBERT.
CARLINVILLE.
QAMUEL SAYWARD GILBERT is a son of Jonathan and Mary Sayward Gilbert, and was
w_J born at Gloucester, Massachusetts, January 27, 1827. He was educated in part in the free
schools of that state; came to Illinois in 1835; finished his education at Shurtleff College, Upper
Alton, teaching school meantime in Scott county and at Upper Alton. He came to Carlinville in
1848; here studied law, and was called to the bar in 1850. He was elected county judge in 1852,
to fill a vacancy; was refilected in 1853, and had the office in all five years. He has held at differ-
ent times the office of master of chancery, and was a member of the legislature one term, being
elected in 1875, and serving as chairman of the committge on insurance. He was a democrat
until the civil war began, and returned to that party in 1872. He married, in 1851, Frances Mc-
Clure, a native of Kentucky, and has three sons living.
THOMAS J. RUSSELL.
VERSAILLES.
JEFFERSON RUSSELL, judge of Brown county, is a son of James and Sarah
J. (Lincoln) Russell, and was born in Hamilton county, near Cincinnati, Ohio, June 3, 1827.
His father was a miller, and a native of Vermont. Thomas had only a very ordinary education ;
came to Fulton county, this state, in 1843 ; farmed until eighteen years of age, and then worked in
a grist mill ; came to Brown county in 1845, and was here engaged in grist mills and saw mills,
near Versailles, until about 1861. He then built with others, and ran for several years, a mill of
his own.
At twenty-eight years of age he was elected justice of the peace for Elkhorn township, the
duties of which office absorbed a portion of his time for many years. In 1870 he was elected
police magistrate for the corporation of Versailles, and that office he still holds. He is also an
undertaker and farmer, in company with his brother, William N. Russell. In 1877 Mr. Russell
was elected county judge, and after serving five years he was reglected in November, 1882. He
is a republican, living in a strong democratic county.
HON. AUGUST W. BERGGREN.
GALESBVRGH.
AJGUST WERNER BERGGREN, merchant and state senator, is a native of Sweden, a son
of John and Catherine (Larson) Berggren, and was born August 17, 1842. He received an
ordinary business education in the old country; partially learned the tailor's trade there; came
to this country in 1856, worked a year at tailoring in Victoria, Knox county, and then settled in
Galesburgh, the seat of justice of that county. Here he worked a few years at his trade of mer-
chant tailoring; was then elected justice of the peace; served in that capacity till 1872, when he
was elected sheriff of the county. He was reflected in 1874, 1876 and 1878, serving eight con-
secutive years, and making a very commendable record in the shrievalty. In 1880 he was nomi-
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 823
nated by his republican friends in Knox and Mercer counties, for the office of state senator for
the term of four years, and was elected. He is chairman of the committee on fees and salaries,
and a member of five or six other committees, being a good practical and industrious worker in
that body. Mr. Berggren is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order and past grand master of
the Odd-Fellows of the state. He is also a member of the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church.
HON. EDWARD L. CRONKRITE.
FREEPOR T.
EDWARD LAFONTAINE CRONKRITE, a prominent merchant and an experienced legis-
lator, is a native of Rensselaer county, New York, a son of Joseph G. and Phebe (Caldwell)
Cronkrite, and dates his birth June 27, 1832. His father was also born in that state, and his
mother was a native of Connecticut. He received an academic education at West Poultney, Ver-
mont; taught school awhile in New York state; went to California in 1855; returned eastward in
1859; settled in Freeport, his present home, and after holding a clerkship between two and three
years, engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Cronkrite has been an alderman and mayor of the
city for four years. He was a member of the legislature from 1873 to 1879; was the democratic
candidate for state treasurer, 1878; was again elected to the legislature in 1880, and reflected
in 1882, and is serving his tenth year in a legislative body, his district being the twelfth. He is
regarded by all parties as a wise law maker. He has always affiliated with the democratic party,
and is often seen at district and state conventions.
EDWARD P. BARTON.
FREEPOR T.
1 ^DWARD PECK BARTON, one of the leading lawyers in Stephenson county, is a son of
lj David L. and Almira (Peck) Barton, and was born at Marshall, Oneida county, New York,
June 5, 1829. His grandfather, David Barton, was from Massachusetts, where his great-grand-
father enlisted in the army and fought for independence.
David L. Barton was a farmer and reared his children in habits of industry. Edward aided
in tilling the land, attending a district school in the winter term until sixteen years old, when he
commenced preparing for college. He entered Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1847;
was graduated in 1851; read law in the same place with Professor Theodore Dwight, LL.D., now
at the head of the law department of Columbia College, New York, and was licensed to practice
in Oswego in 1852. Mr. Barton practiced for three years in New York city and Brooklyn, and in
the spring of 1856 settled in Freeport. His legal acquirements are above the average, and he is
an honest and thoroughly trustworthy man, and is regarded as one of the best judges of law in
Stephenson county.
JUDGE JOSEPH SIBLEY.
QUINCY.
JOSEPH SIBLEY was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, in the year 1818, and is the youngest
J son of Aaron and Tryphena Sibley. His father was a farmer of limited means. The life of
a farmer was unsuited to the tastes of Joseph, and it was arranged that he should learn the whip-
making trade. He worked at it for several years with success, and then engaged in merchandis-
ing till 1842, when he lost by fire all that he had accumulated. He was now appointed deputy
sheriff of Hampden county, and after serving in this office one year, removed to Schenectady,
New York, and began the study of law in the office of Page and Patten. In 1846 he was
824 UNITED STATES RIOCRA l> II ICAL DICTIONARY.
admitted to the bar, and removed to the West. Having no definite location in view, after visiting
several places he finally settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1850 he was elected to the general assem-
bly, and reelected in 1852. At the opening of his second term he was candidate for the speaker-
ship of the house, but was defeated by Ex-Governor John Reynolds. During this term, as chairman
of the committee on banks and corporations, he rendered valuable service.
In the spring of 1853 he removed to Warsaw, and formed a partnership with J. M. True, and
continued with him till June, 1855, when he was elected judge of the circuit court. During a
term of six years he served with such entire satisfaction to the bar and people that he was
reelected in 1861, without opposition.
He removed to Quincy in June, 1865, and has since made it his home. 1867 he was elected
for another term of six years. Also in 1873, judges' salaries were increased, several candidates
were brought into the field, and the democratic party thought it advisable to call a convention to
decide upon the claims of the several aspirants. Judge Sibley was chosen the candidate by a
decided .majority, and after a warm contest was elected over a strong opposition.
On returning from the bench he resumed the practice of the law, and stands at the head of
the Adams county bar.
HON. JOHN M. PEARSON
GODFRE Y.
THIS gentleman is a member of the legislature from Madison county, and quite active and
efficient. He was born about the time the Asiatic cholera came to this country (1832), and
is the son of a ship carpenter, whose home was at Newburyport, Massachusetts, fifty and sixty
years ago. Mr. Pearson came to Alton in 1849, and now resides in Godfrey, same county. He
was engaged for years in the manufacture of agricultural implements, and is now farming.
Mr. Pearson was a member of the warehouse commission from 1873 to 1877; was elected to
the lower house of the legislature in 1878, and has been twice reelected. He is one of the most
painstaking and diligent members of the house on the republican side; is a Knight Templar in
Freemasonry, and a member of the Congregational church. He has a wife and three children.
PENNOYER L. SHERMAN.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch is a native of Pompey (now La Fayette), Onondaga county, New
York, and is a lineal descendant of Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, one of the signers of
the declaration of independence. After finishing his primary education, he prepared for college
at the academies of Homer and Pompey Hill, in his native county, the last named being, in those
days, a famous school, and one in which many men, who in later years became distinguished,
received their early training. He entered the freshman class of Hamilton College in 1847, being
then sixteen years of age, and graduated in 1851.
As a boy, he was fond of reading, and in college was known as a thorough student and good
scholar, and possessing clear perceptive faculties, good reasoning powers, and an ability to express
himself in clear and forcible language, he was naturally attracted to the legal profession. Hon.
Daniel Gott, a celebrated lawyer, had his office at Pompey, and under his careful tuition and
training, many of the most distinguished lawyers of central New York received their legal edu-
cation. In fact, it came to be regarded in those days that a course of instruction under his able
tuition was equivalent to a graduation from the best law school in the country. Here young
Sherman pursued a thorough course of legal study, bringing to his work a mind well stored with
useful knowledge, and carefully disciplined by his earlier education, and so capable of utilizing
his superior advantages.
H C Zacatr J, I C.-.
En. by t C.Williimi J Bt.NY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOC.RA PIl ICA I. DICTIONAKY. g 2 7
In 1853 he decided to make his home in the West, and removing to Chicago, entered the law
office of Collins and Williams, and continued his legal studies, and in 1855 was admitted to the
bar of Illinois, at once entering into the active practice of his profession, which has since engaged
his undivided attention. As a lawyer he is, in the truest sense, an ornament to his profession,
and as a civil practitioner has few superiors. Careful and thorough in the preparation of his
cases and briefs, and clear and forcible in their presentation, he seldom fails to impress court or
jury with the earnestness of his convictions, or the justness of his cause. He is a man of modest
mien, quiet and unostentatious, and succeeds in his profession through earnest, constant, and
well directed effort. As a man, he is known and esteemed for his upright and manly dealing,
and enjoys the fullest confidence of all with whom he has to do, either professionally, socially, or
as a business man.
HON. HENRY B. HOPKINS.
PEORIA-
HENRY BRIDGEMAN HOPKINS, son of John Turner Hopkins, and Matilda (Hall) Hop-
kins, was born in Peacham, Caledonia county, Vermont, October 4, 1826. He received a
common-school and academic education ; taught school during several winters ; learned his
father's trade, that of a harness maker; read law at Chester, Windsor county ; was admitted to
the bar in that county in 1853 ; practiced at Chester- until the spring of 1854, and in May of that
year settled in Peoria, where he soon worked his way into a fair practice. He was master in
chancery from 1856 to 1862.
As a pleader he is clear in analysis and statement, happy in arrangement, and exhaustive ;
and he is successful before a jury, rather because of the lucidness and force of his arguments
than the persuasiveness of his oratory. In argument before the court he is hardly surpassed for
exhaustive examination, and concise, and logical preservation of the law. His success maybe
fairly attributed to his carefulness, thoroughness, fidelity and untiring industry.
In March, 1873, Mr. Hopkins was appointed judge of the sixteenth judicial circuit, to fill a
vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge T. B. Puterbaugh, and held that office till July of the
same year. He was the republican candidate for reelection, but it was the year of the granger
cyclone, and he, with many other worthy men of his party, was defeated.
The judge is a member of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and a man of sterling moral char-
acter. He was married in October, 1857, to Miss Emily A. Hough, of Lebanon, New Hampshire,
and they have seven children.
w
HON. WILLIAM THOMAS.
JACKSONVILLE.
ILLIAM THOMAS, the oldest lawyer in the state of Illinois, was born in Warren, now
Allen county, Kentucky, November 22, 1802. His parents were Walter Thomas and Nancy
(Pulliam) Thomas, both natives of Virginia. Walter Thomas was sheriff of Warren county, and
when Allen county was set off he became sheriff of the latter county. His father, William
Thomas, for whom our subject was named, was wounded in the battle of King's Mountain, Octo-
ber, 1780, and carried his wound until his death. Nancy Pulliam was a daughter of Captain
Benjamin Pulliam, who served through the whole successful contest of the colonies to free them-
selves from the British yoke. He raised a family of sixteen children, all living to manhood and
womanhood.
The subject of this sketch picked up what little education he had in youth by attending winter
schools up to his fifteenth year. His teachers were not very learned, all of them being innocent
of any knowledge of English grammar. Mr. Thomas educated himself after he was old enough
to appreciate the value of mental discipline.
80
828 UNITED STATES IUOGKA 1'lfICA I. DICTIONARY.
When about eighteen years of age, Mr. Thomas became deputy sheriff of Allen county, under
his father, filling that post two years; subsequently, was deputy clerk in two different offices, a
short time in each; was a student at law at the same time at Bowling Green, in the office of Hon.
James T. Morehead, afterward governor of Kentucky; was licensed to practice July 5, 1823, lack-
ing a few months of being of age, and for one year he attended to the business of Mr. Morehead
at Russellville, Kentucky. He then ^#ent into practice with Judge Joseph R. Underwood, of
Bowling Green, until the autumn of' 1826, when he came to Jacksonville, reaching this place
October 12. The first three months that he spent here he was the village schoolmaster.
Mr. Thomas was in active practice here for fifty-five years, and still has an office, though he
does no new business. He is the oldest lawyer now in practice in the state, Hon. John T.
Stuart, of Springfield, being probably the next oldest. For thirty or forty years Mr. Thomas
stood in the front rank among the lawyers of central Illinois, being a contemporary of Abra-
ham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John J. Hardin, Stephen G. Logan, Cyrus Walker, O. H.
Browning, Archibald Williams, General E. D. Baker, etc.
Mr. Thomas was in the Winnebago war of 1827, serving as quartermaster's sergeant under
Colonel Neal, having heavy labors and small pay.
In 1828 a circuit-court district was established north of the Illinois River, called the fifth circuit,
and our subject was appointed by Governor Edwards state's -attorney of the same, which he
resigned in the fall of 1829. He was one of three commissioners appointed by the United States
to fix the location of the public buildings at Quincy.
Early in the year 1831 he was appointed a commissioner, with Hon. John T. Stuart, to visit
Rock Island and other places, on personal testimony to prove to the satisfaction of President
Jackson that the facts required war with Black Hawk. Their testimony was satisfactory to the
government.
In 1831 he was quartermaster of the army under General Duncan, who drove the Sacs and
Foxes across the Mississippi River, beloVl Rock Island; and on Black Hawk's return to Illinois the
next spring, our subject served in the same capacity under General Whiteside.
In 1834 Mr. Thomas was elected a member of the state senate; was reflected in 1838, and
after serving for six years in that body, was elected judge of the first judicial circuit. In the first
session that he was in the legislature, he introduced the bill known as the seven years' limitation
case (1835) with reference to land, which bill passed and became the first law of the kind in the
state. Until the meeting of the legislature in December, 1834, no incorporated literary institu-
tion existed in the state. In that session separate bills had been prepared for incorporating the
colleges at Jacksonville, Upper Alton, and Lebanon. In order to unite the friends of these insti-
tutions and secure joint efforts and support, Judge Thomas proposed to the friends to unite them
all in one bill, which being agreed to, he prepared .the bill, which was passed, and opposition to
such act ceased from that time. He also introduced a bill which passed, authorizing religious
societies to hold property for purposes of education and divine worship, nothing of the kind
being on the statutes before.
Judge Thomas was the author of the first bill, which became a law about 1837, authorizing
the organization of free schools in this state, and he received many high compliments and warm
congratulations for his work and success in that direction. It was through his influence that part
of the surplus revenue of the United States belonging to Illinois was set aside for the use of the
public schools. The amount thus set aside, as appears by the auditor's report, was $335,592.50.
During the last four years that he was in the senate (1836-1840), he was chairman of the com-
mittee on canals and canal lands, and was the author of all the bills passed during that period on
that subject. While in the senate, he made a report on canals, recommending the deep cut, and
his report was adopted and carried out. Judge Thomas sat on the bench for two years, and then
returned to the practice of his profession.
In 1846 Judge Thomas was again elected to the general assembly, and introduced a bill for
the establishment of a hospital for the insane, in which movement he was encouraged by Miss D.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 829
L. Dix, the noted philanthropist of Boston, Massachusetts, who had visited him and others at
Jacksonville in the spring of 1846. During the next winter he introduced her to the members of
the legislature, and a bill was finally drawn up, passed, and become a law in February, 1847, the
result being the hospital now and for thirty-five years in successful operation at Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville "Weekly Journal," April 27, 1881, in a historical sketch of the asylums or hospi-
tals at Jacksonville, speaking of this matter, and giving a list of the members of the legislature
who voted for the bill for a hospital for the insane, states that Judge Thomas "was very instru-
mental in securing the passage of the bill."
He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1847, and was one of the most indefati-
gable workers in that body, as he had been in every session of the legislature while he was a
member. He went to Vandalia, and later to Springfield, to work for the interest of the state ;
and the stamp of his .strong and molding mind is in many of the laws of the commonwealth.
He was known in those days as the "dray horse" of the whig party. His last act as a member
of the house of representatives was to prepare and introduce a bill providing for condemning
land for railroad and other road purposes, which bill passed, June 22, 1852.
About the time of the commencement of the civil war, our subject and Mr. Woodworth, of
Chicago, and Mr. Lanphier, of Springfield, were appointed an army auditing committee, to audit
accounts against the state for supplies for the use of the army. The judge acted upon accounts
for more than two millions. During the time of his service, he was appointed agent for the state
with authority to secure from the United States money to be used by the state authorities in the
service of the country. He went to Washington and procured $450,000, which he safely delivered
to the state treasurer. Subsequently he was of great service to the state and the country in a
similar line of duty. No truer patriot or more honest man had the handling of funds in this
state during the rebellion.
When more money was required to meet the pressing demands and necessities, Governor
Yates, with Judge Kellogg, went to Washington to secure this demand. They obtained, as the
governor understood it, one million of treasury notes, to be used by him in paying war expenses.
He returned to Illinois by Philadelphia and New York, and upon reaching home found a quarter-
master of the United States army with orders to receive and disburse this money. The governor
refused to surrender it, insisting that it was paid to him for disbursement. The question was
here presented as to how this money must be disposed of, and was referred back .to the quarter-
master-genegal from whose department it- was obtained, and who insisted that his last order
should be obeyed. Judge Thomas, seeing this conflict, proposed to the governor to settle the
matter, if authorized to do so. The governor gave him the requisite order, and in a week he ob-
tained the money by selecting of the claims on file for quartermaster's stores, the million dollars,
and passing to the quartermaster receipts for the same. Thus the question was settled, with many
thanks to the judge for his timely interference.
In 1869 Governor Palmer appointed Judge Thomas to the office of commissioner of the State
Board of Public Charities, and not long afterward, the judge sent the governor the following
letter, which explainsiitself :
JACKSONVILLE, October 2, 1869.
To HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN M. PALMER:
Dear Sir, I accepted the office of commissioner of the State Board of Public Charities, with considerable hesita-
tion, yet with the bona fide intention of executing the duties to the best of my ability, and have indulged the hope,
until recently, that I should be able to carry out that intention, yet the continued bad health of my wife, added to my
own continued affliction of rheumatism, renders it impossible for me to do so; I therefore resign the office, that some
one may be appointed, so situated as to be able to perform the duties.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. THOMAS.
Judge Thomas was originally a whig, and still cherishes the principles of that great party
while acting with the republicans.
He was first married in 1830 to Miss Catherine Scott, of Jersey Prairie, Morgan county, this
830 UNITI-.n STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
state. She died in July, 1875, leaving no issue, an only child having died in infancy. His present
wife was Mrs. Leanah M. (Eads) Orear, widow of Hon William Orear, of Jacksonville. They
were married in May, 1878. Mrs. Thomas is a cousin of J. B. Eads, the architect and builder of
the Saint Louis bridge.
Judge Thomas is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church; has held different offices in
that Christian body, and has always maintained a high character for integrity and loftiness of
aims in life. He was a delegate to the first general conference after laymen were admitted.
Judge Thomas has been a liberal contributor toward the building up and sustaining of the
religious, educational and benevolent institutions of Jacksonville. To the original buildings, and
to the rebuilding of the female college after it was burnt, his contributions have amounted to
over twenty-five thousand dollars.
HON. WILLIAM M. SMITH.
LEXINGTON.
WILLIAM MICHAEL SMITH, a leading merchant and business man at Lexington, was
born near Frankfort, Kentucky, May 23, 1823. His father, John W. Smith, moved with
his family to Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1840, and in 1846 to Illinois, settling near Lexington.
William picked up his education, as best he could, in common schools; in 1849 entered a piece of
congress land of forty acres, three miles from Lexington, broke it, and improved it with his own
hands until 1857. Mr. Smith added to this land from time to time, and the homestead now con-
sists of half a section.
Many years ago Mr. Smith served as a coroner of McLean county; was a member of the legis-
lature from 1867 to 1873, and speaker of the house in 1871 and 1872, the first speaker, as already
stated, after the adoption of the new constitution (1871).
Since Governor Cullom came into the office (1877), Mr. Smith has been chairman of the rail-
road and warehouse commission, and makes an efficient man for that post. He is a strong re
publican, and believes that the best interests of the country depend on the continuance in power
of that party. He is also a blue-lodge Mason.
HON. GEORGE E.- WARREN.
JERSEYVILLE.
GEORGE E. WARREN, a lawyer and politician of some local note, was born at Worthington,
Franklin county, Ohio, August 16, 1817. His father, Thomas Warren, by profession a phy-
sician, a native of New Hampshire, removed to Bristol, Rhode Island, about 1810, and there
married Martha, daughter of Charles DeWolf ; she died in 1829. In 1835, the family, then con-
sisting of a daughter and two sons, of whom Judge Warren is the only survivor, moved west,
and settled at Alton, Illinois. George received a good education partly, collegiate having
entered Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island, at fourteen years of age, and remaining
till the middle of his senior year. He commenced reading law in the office of Woodson and
Hodges, of Carrollton, Illinois, and also assisted M. O. Bledsoe, clerk of both the circuit and
county commissioner's courts. His health having become seriously impaired by close application,
in the spring of 1837 he made a visit to his former home and friends in Rhode Island for the pur-
pose of recuperating; and there, the following August, he was married to Miss Hannah S.,
daughter of S. S. Allen, collector for the port of Bristol. He soon thereafter returned to the
West, and in the spring of 1838 settled in Alton, where he completed his law studies, and was
admitted to practice in the Illinois courts in 1839. His father having purchased for him a large
farm near Jerseyville, with money bequeathed by his grandfather, Charles DeWolf, he removed
thither in the spring of 1840 and engaged in farming. If he did not acquire wealth at his new
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY* 83!
pursuit, he gained a vigorous constitution and a practical knowledge of hard work. In 1841 he
was elected justice of the peace, and he continued in that capacity till 1849, when he was elected
the first judge of Jersey county, under the state constitution of 1848. He performed the duties
of that office to the satisfaction of the people for eight years. In January, 1862, he renewed the
practice of law, in connection with his son-in-law, William H. Pogue, in Jerseyville. In March,
1875, he was elected mayor of the city of Jerseyville, on the anti-license ticket. In 1878 he was
elected to the general assembly to represent Macoupin and Jersey counties.
In politics he was a whig till the expiration of that party, after which he joined his fortunes
with the republicans, and is still ardently attached to their principles.
HON. JOHN A. ARENZ.
BEARDSTOWN.
THIS gentleman was born in Cologne, a province of the Rhine, October 28, 1811, and before
coming to this country was engaged in a government engineer corps, in mapping out Prus-
sia. In 1835 he came to the United States, and settled in Cass, then a part of Morgan county.
He was elected justice of the peace in 1843 ; edited a whig campaign paper, in 1844, at Spring-
field ; returned to Beardstown in 1846, and in the course of twenty-five years held the offices of
town trustee, town treasurer, school director, mayor (the first in Beardstown), and judge of the
county court, which last office he held for eight years. Latterly Judge Arenz has had a private
office adjoining his house, and is attending mainly to his own matters. Few men living at
Beardstown are more highly esteemed than Judge Arenz.
HON. NATHANIEL W. BRANSON.
PETERSBURG!!.
XJATHANIEL WILLIAM BRANSON, lawyer, is a son of William and Jane (Cooledge)
1 > Branson, and was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, May 29, 1837. He is a graduate of Illinois
College, class of 1857; read law at Jacksonville; was called to the bar in January, 1860, and opened
an office in Petersburgh. He rose steadily, and has held for fifteen years a highly creditable posi-
tion at the county bar. He was appointed register in bankruptcy in 1867, and made Springfield
his home for three or four years.
Mr. Branson was elected to the legislature in 1872, and reelected in 1874. In 1876 he was a
delegate to the republican national convention, which met at Cincinnati, and nominated Hayes
and Wheeler.
Mr. Branson was married, in 1861, to Miss Fannie D. Regnier, daughter of Doctor Francis
Regnier, of Petersburgh, and they have two children.
HON. PINKNEY H. WALKER.
RUSHVILLE.
T UDGE WALKER has been on the bench for thirty ye.ars, and a judge of the supreme court
J for twenty-five years. He is one of those eminent jurists of whom Illinois may well be proud.
He is a native of Adair county, Kentucky, his birth being dated June 18, 1815 a day memorable
in the annals of Europe for the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. His parents were Joseph G.
Walker and Martha (Scott) Walker, his father being a lawyer of considerable note. Until seven-
teen years of age he spent his summers on his father's farm, and his winters at school. From the
spring of 1832 to the spring of 1834, he was in a store, leaving Kentucky in April of the latter
832 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY..
year, and settling at Rushville, Schuyler county, his present home. His first four years in this
state, he was a merchant's clerk ; in March, 1838, went to Macomb; gave a few months to study
there in an academy, and in the autumn of that year commenced the study of law with his uncle,
Cyrus "Walker. This gentleman was an able lawyer, and an excellent tutor; Pinkney made rapid
progress under him, and late in the year 1839, was admitted to the bar.
Our subject practiced at Macomb until i,S4,S. when he returned to Rushville, where he practiced
until 1853, when he was elected judge of the fifth, afterward eleventh judicial circuit, to fill a
vacancy. In 1855 he was elected without opposition, and continued on the bench of the circuit
court until April, 1858, when Governor Bissell appointed him to the supreme bench, also to fill a
vacancy. In June, 1858, he was elected for the regular term of nine years; was reelected in 1867
and 1876, and April 19, 1883, had been on the supreme bench for twenty-five years. He is a
democrat, and his party- is in the minority in his district, but the people, recognizing his eminent
fitness, have had the good sense to keep him in the high position for which he is so admirably
qualified.
Judge Walker served as chief-justice from January, 1864, to June 1867; again from June, 1874,
to June, 1875, and again from June, 1879, to June i, 1880, making three terms. Few men in the
state have, in this respect, been so much honored.
The judge has long been a diligent student, and has a mind stored with legal lore as well as
general knowledge; he has a tenacious memory, quick to furnish rich and abundant material at
the opportune moment, and a natural love for literary and scientific studies, which make him an in-
teresting converser on a great variety of subjects. He is not only a profound lawyer and an emi-
nent jurist, but he has a well trained judgment, an investigative disposition, led on by a strong
desire to go to the bottom of a subject, whether pertaining to jurisprudence or any other branch
of knowledge. His published opinions, now covering a period of twenty-five years, indicate a
constant, not to say remarkable, growth of intelfect. At the same time he is modest, unassum-
ing, sympathetic, kindly, and possessed of the simplicity almost of a child.
For the period during which Judge Walker has adorned the supreme bench, the most import-
ant questions in the history of the state have, many of them for the first time, come up for judi-
cial determination. Notable among the cases of this character are those asserting the power of
the state over railway and other corporations and individuals, to restrict them to reasonable rates
and charges in their dealings with the public. Of this class is the case of Munn vs. People, 69
Illinois, decided in 1873, and afterward, on appeal, affirmed by the supreme court of the United
States, followed by Ruggles vs. People, known as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad
passenger case, where Judge Walker delivered the opinion of the court in favor of the power of
the state to regulate rates of toll, which was lately on appeal, affirmed by the supreme court of
the United States. These and other cases already decided by our supreme court will hereafter be
referred to as among the very first to place a limitation on the broad rule of corporate omnipo-
tence, supposed by many to have been established by the famous Dartmouth College case.
While the courts of other states may have held to some extent, the doctrine of state control
over corporations, still, the power to do so had, in such states, been preserved to them, either by
a reservation in the charters granted, or by general laws, or by constitutional restrictions, which,
excepting in special cases, did not exist in Illinois as to charters granted prior to 1870. In dealing
with questions of a public character, when properly arising, Judge Walker has displayed the
qualities not only of a jurist, but also of a statesman.
To the judges of the supreme court of this state, and to none more than Judge Walker, be-
longs the distinguished honor of preserving, in their purity, the best and most useful elements of
the common law, as established and illuminated by its great jurists and commentators, with
whose works the judge has a wide acquaintance, and from which he has acquired a profound
knowledge of the science of the law in all its departments. His course upon the bench has been
characterized by a desire to administer, in a wise and liberal spirit, the rules and principles of the
common law, ever seeking a remedy for wrong, and never turning a suiter away, unless obliged.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 833
by the strict rules of law, to do so. To this spirit can justly be ascribed the stability which our
laws for the protection of person and property have attained, and the absence from our statute
book of very many of those pernicious, careless or unskillful changes which, but too often, afford
opportunity for the triumph of injustice over right and equity.
Judge Walker has a wife and several children, the former being Susan (McCrosky) Walker, a
native of Adair county, Kentucky. They were married at Rushville, June 2, 1840. His wife is
in full sympathy with him in all his arpirations, and in his generous and benevolent traits of
character. ,
HON. THOMAS M SHAW.
LA CON.
THOMAS MANKINS SHAW, one of the prominent members of the state senate, was born
in that part of Putnam county now included in Marshall county, this state, August 20, 1836.
His parents were George H. Shaw and Penelope (Edwards) Shaw, both natives of Kentucky.
Thomas finished his education in the Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, and farmed more
or less with his father until he went into the law office of William D. Edwards, of Lacon, his
present home. He was admitted to the bar in 1857; practiced four years at Hennepin, and then
returned to Lacon.
A gentleman who knows Mr. Shaw intimately, and has often heard him plead, states that he
has an excellent understanding as a lawyer; is a wise counselor; a candid and clear reasoner,
and is eminently successful in his profession. He is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in his
judicial circuit.
Mr. Shaw has been mayor of Lacon two terms; was the democratic nominee for congress in
his district in 1878, and in 1880 was elected to the state senate. He was assigned to the judiciary
committee, and the~committees on corporations, banks and banking, canals and rivers, agriculture
and drainage, etc.
In 1863 Mr. Shaw was married to Miss Nellie F. Hirsch, of Woodford county, and they have
one adopted child.
HON. JOHN W. MOORE.
MOUND STATION.
JOHN WILLIAM MOORE, shipper, breeder of short-horn cat.tlc, fanner and legislator, hails
from the state of Indiana, he being born near Bloomington, Monroe county, August 15, 1847.
1 lis parents are Samuel A. Moore, farmer, of Irish lineage, born in Iredell county, North Carolina,
and Sarah M. (Goodnight) Moore, who is of German descent. The family came to Illinois in
1849, settled in Adams county, and our subject finished his education at Abingdon College, Knox
county, Illinois, being graduated at the head of his class in the scientific department, receiving
the degree of bachelor of science in 1873. He taught school before going to college; taught in
the college nearly a year, and in other places after receiving his diploma. He was a teacher and
commercial traveler until 1876, when he settled at Mound Station, Brown county, where he has
since been engaged as a general shipper, a breeder of short horns and a farmer. He has 240
acres of .excellent land, largely devoted to grazing purposes, and is a prosperous business man.
Mr. Moore is considerably interested in the cause of education, and has done some good work as
a member of the local school board. In 1882 he was elected to represent in part the thirty-sixth
district in the thirty-third general assembly, the district being composed Brown, Pike and Cal-
houn counties. He was placed on the commitree on labor and manufactures, science and
geology, education and retrenchment. He is a new member and on the minority (democratic)
side, but keen-sighted and independent, going for high licenses and thus taking issue with the
majority of his party in the legislature. He is a member of the Christian or Disciple church, an
834 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
advocate of the cause of temperance, on the platform as well as in private conventions, and a
conscientious man who would vote right though the heavens on his party should fall. In the
church Mr. Moore holds the offices of clerk and treasurer, and he is a man in whom not only his
Christian associates, but the people generally of his county have great confidence. His moral
and social instincts are all in the right direction. Mr. Moore is the director of the Brown County
Agricultural Society and the reporter for Brown county to the State Board of Agriculture.
He also writes for the county newspapers, and is one of those thoroughly live and sensible men
who can. have three or four irons in the fire simultaneously without jeopardizing the temper of
any of them.
The wife of Mr. Moore was Miss Margaret Ada Byram of Abingdon, their union taking place
January n, 1879. They have three children, named Carrie Elva, Samuel Edward and Mary.
DUNCAN MACKAY.
MORRISON.
DUNCAN MACKAY is of Highland Scotch parentage, and was born in Sutherlandshire,
Scotland, in 1812. His parents were James Mackay and Anna (McDonald) Mackay, and
were both descended from families famous in the annals of Scotland. His father was, however,
a man of peace, and famous only for his fine cattle, horses and sheep, of which he was a very suc-
cessful breeder. Duncan was reared to the same gentle occupation, and assisted his parents on
the Highland farm until he was fifteen years of age. His education was only such as boys in his
station usually got in Scotland at that time, except a term or two at high school. In 1833, when
twenty-one years of age, he came to Nova Scotia, with an elder brother and a sister, but not
meeting with the proper encouragement in that country, in 1835 they moved just across the line,
and established themselves in Milton, Maine, in the business of fine carriage making, a business
they had successfully followed for some years in Scotland. Here they met with better success,
until the panic of 1837. This was the first financial revulsion of which they had ever heard, and
it was a surprise indeed; the greater part of their goods had been sold on credit, and it was a
new experience when their debtors refused to pay or return the goods. The crisis prostrated
their business and they were compelled to close it up.
His brother William came west at once, while Duncan remained to settle up the affairs of the
firm, and collect what he could. It took over two years to do this, but he had the satisfaction in
1840 of bringing with him west the greater part of the amount due them, aggregating about $4,-
ooo. The elder brother had originally started for the Pacific coast, intending to embark on busi-
ness once more, at Vancouver's Island, or somewhere in the vicinity of Puget Sound, but passing
over the matchless prairies of the West, he received a new revelation, and could get no further
than Carroll county, Illinois. Thither Duncan followed, and they invested every dollar they
could raise in the fine prairie soil of what is now Salem township, and stock of various kinds to
grow upon it. The visions of possible wealth to be realized in stock raising upon Illinois prairies
where the soil was inexhaustible, and hay and pasturage free, must have been dazzling in the
extreme, to the young Scotch herdsmen; yet as the events proved, fully capable of realization.
The land had not yet been surveyed or come into market, and the brothers bought out the claims
of seven squatters, amounting to about 1,120 acres. Of this amount Mr. Mackay still owns about
600 acres in a body.
Duncan had married Jessie Mackay, his cousin, while still in Nova Scotia. His parents and
the rest of his father's family had come over, and to the new home in the Far West they all came.
A small three-story log-house at first gave shelter for a time to the entire company, numbering
twenty-four grown persons, besides children, until houses could be built, and homes provided for
all. In this original home, sanctified by religion, guarded by integrity, and supported by indus-
try, such peace, happiness and contentment reigned, as rarely falls to the lot of man. For several
H,C Cnnpar Jr & CD.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 837
years the family carried on the business of farming and stock raising, and grew rich, yet no mem-
ber of the prosperous and happy community being able at any time to say " this is mine, and
that is thine."
Mr. Mackay's first attempt at turning his hand to any other field of enterprise since coming
west, was in connection with John H. Manny, the inventor of the Manny reaper, and this was
prompted originally rather by his natural willingness to help a worthy enterprise in need, than
an expectation of realizing a fortune by it. However, he was not the loser in the end. In 1843
a couple of Germans had built a flouring mill at Mount Carroll. Their names were Halderman
and Rhinwalt, and Mackay, a couple of years later, entered into copartnership with them, and
organized the Hydraulic Company. The design was to utilize the water power of Plum River in
the establishment of a grand series of factories of all sorts. The company was established, a
charter obtained, and business began. However, the venture was an unfortunate one from the
start. The original projectors were in the majority, and carried everything according to their
own will. Mr. Mackay did not approve of their plans or methods of business, but could only
enter his protest from time to time, and place it upon record. As he foresaw, the enterprise
failed, an assignment was made, their affairs got into the courts, and after several years of costly
litigation, in which the most talented lawyers in the West were engaged, the whole business was
wound up at a loss to all concerned.
Mr. Mackay had been from youth an anti-slavery man, and took a keen interest in the growing
contest between the two gigantic forces of freedom and slavery.' He was opposed to the doctrine
of squatter sovereignty advocated by Douglas, while a great admirer of the abilities of that great
man. When the war cloud burst upon the country he was an enthusiastic and very efficient sup-
porter of the government. He was fit all times ready with his counsel and his cash to aid the
good cause, and when the National Bank act was passed, was among the first to aid the govern-
ment by applying fora charter. Uniting with Mr. Mills, Mr. Mark, Mr. Green, his brother-in-law,
and others, the First National Bank of Mount Carroll was established, with a capital of $50,000.
Confederate bonds and currency at that time were bearing a higher price than those of the gov-
ernment, and the outlook for the National cause was very grave, yet from purely patriotic motives
these gentlemen came to the assistance of the government in her darkest hour, as fortunately did
thousands of others, and with a rescued nation they have their reward. James Mark was the first
president of this bank. He was succeeded the year following by Mr. Mackay, who has remained
the chief officer till the present time. It has since doubled its capital, and continues one of the
soundest and most successful banks in that part of the state.
Doctor Leander Smith, of Morrison, Illinois, solicited Mr. Mackay to join him in a private
bank, at the latter place. He consented to do so, and the bank was formed, with a cash capital
of $60,000. June 26, 1882, he joined Henry Ashway, George Hay, his brother John Mackay, and
others, in the bank establishe'd at Savannah. He has thus an interest in three banks, in the
establishment of every one of which, higher motives than usually prevail in such matters were the
ruling element. But with all his banking business on his hands, he has never relinquished his
interests in farming. He at one time owned twelve farms, all of which he either worked or rented,
but for various reasons has sold off six of them, and will still further reduce their number to
relieve himself of the burden of their care.
Without solicitation on his part he received from Governor Beveridge appointment as one of
the United States commissioners to the Vienna Exposition. Without any expense to the govern-
ment he attended to his duties there, and afterward made the tour of Europe. Subsequently, he
made two successive trips to Colorado for his health, which with his excessive labors and advanc-
ing years, is at times somewhat precarious. Mr. Mackay, as might be supposed, is a stanch
temperance man. The death of one of his workmen while in Maine, from exposure while under
the influence of liquor, opened his eyes while yet a young man, to the awful character of the
liquor traffic, and he solemnly took a pledge, and put it into writing, thereafter neither to use it
himself nor furnish it to his men, To that pledge he has sacredly adhered through a long life,
81
S;S UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and to it ascribes much of his prosperity. The danger of freely signing his name to other men's
paper, early caused him to make it a rule never to do so except in cases of necessity or charity,
and although ready at all times with a helping hand for the needy or deserving, he has found
other means to aid them without violating a very wise and useful pledge.
In religion, Mr. Mackay is a Presbyterian, in politics a republican, and everywhere a gentle-
man. He has never sought office, but always discouraged any effort to force it upon him, yet
when elected has faithfully discharged its duties.
March 23, 1882, he had the misfortune to lose by fire his elegant stone mansion, with the
greater part of its contents, at Oakville, where he had resided since first coming to Illinois. He
has since rebuilt of the same material, but is now making his home at Morrison, whither he re-
moved when his house was destroyed.
HON. JOSEPH GILLESPIE.
ED WARDSVILLE.
JOSEPH GILLESPIE, one of the legal and judicial landmarks of southwestern Illinois, is a
son of David and Sarah Gillespie, and was born in the city of New York, August 22, 1809.
His parents were born and married in Ireland, and came to the United States in 1807. In 1819
the family came to Madison county, when Illinois was little more than a wilderness, and here
Joseph grew to manhood, and has spent more than three-score years of his life. He went to
school in all, perhaps one year, farmed in his youth; read law with Cyrus Edwards in Madison
county; practiced law awhile, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He was soon afterward
elected judge of probate, and held the office four years. In 1840 he was elected to the legislature
on the whig ticket, serving one term, and was subsequently (1847) sent to the state senate,
serving two terms. In 1845 he was married at Greenville, Illinois, to Miss Mary E. Smith, who
has had eight children, only five of them now living. Long prior to this period, in 1832, he was
in the Black Hawk war, where he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, whose political
track our subject followed. He early imbibed anti-slavery views and did all he could to prevent
Illinois from becoming a slave state. Mr. Gillespie was elected circuit judge in 1861, and held
that office for twelve consecutive years. On leaving the bench in 1873, Judge Gillespie resumed
the practice of law to a limited extent, doing a little business for his old clients. He is clear-
headed and active for a man seventy-four years old. He was born six months after Abraham
Lincoln, and they were life-long personal as well as political friends. Some years ago the judge
wrote an interesting sketch of Mr. Lincoln, which was printed in a pamphlet with an address
written by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold of Chicago.
HON. JOHN H. ADDAMS.
CEDARVILLE.
JOHN HUY ADDAMS, president of the Second National Bank of Freeport, for many years
prior to his death, August 17, 1881, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1822.
He received an academic education at Trappe, Pennsylvania, and was then apprenticed to the
milling business at Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania. In 1844 he came to this state, settled where
Cedarville now stands; there built a flouring mill and was engaged in manufacturing flour and
dealing in grain until his death, he being one of the leading business men in Stephenson county.
He also purchased a farm at an early day, and eventually became a large owner of land, now-
divided into four farms. He early saw the need of a railroad to connect this part of the state with
Chicago, thus furnishing an outlet for the produce of northwestern Illinois, and was one of the
foremost men in initiating steps for completing what was at first known as the Galena and Chi-
cago Union railroad.
I'XITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 839
In 1854 Mr. Addams was elected to the state senate, and held that seat for sixteen consecutive
years, his politics being republican. He was a political leader of great force of character, and of
more influence than any other man in the county. He was often urged to become a candidate
for congress, but steadfastly declined to let his name go before a convention. Mr. Addams was
a true patriot and an enthusiastic worker for the Union during the four years of the civil war,
cheerfully giving time, energies and money to help on that cause. He was a man of good social
qualities, and enjoyed in all respects the highest confidence and the warm esteem of his neigh-
bors and of the people generally. His death was a sad loss to the county, and is still felt.
HON. EDWIN S. LELAND.
OTTAWA.
EDWIN SHERMAN LELAND was born in Dennysville, Maine, August 28, 1812. His
father, Sherman Leland, was a prominent lawyer, and at one time president of the senate of
Massachusetts. For the last twenty-three years of his life he was probate judge of Norfolk county,
that state. When Edwin was two years of age the family removed to Roxbury, where he enjoyed
what advantages the common schools afforded, and when twenty years of age, began reading law
in his father's office. He made rapid progress, and, September 15, 1834, was admitted to the bar
at Dedham, Massachusetts. In 1835 he came to Ottawa, where he engaged in the practice of his
profession, being admitted to the bar of Illinois January 16, 1836. In 1839 he went to Oregon,
Ogle county, where he practiced for four years with marked success. He was married April 20.
1840, to Margaret B. Miles, of Boston. He returned to Ottawa in 1843, and entered into profes-
sional duties, winning a high reputation as an advocate, and being prominent in the trial of all
the more important cases which claimed the attention of the bench until 1852, when he was
chosen judge of the ninth judicial circuit of Illinois, comprising six counties, to fill the unexpired
term of Judge Dickey, resigned. He filled this station until the expiration of the term, and then
resumed his practice.
In 1866 he was appointed by the governor to fill the unexpired term of Judge Hollister, as
judge of the ninth judicial circuit, and when the period for which he was appointed expired he
was, in June, 1867, elected by the people to the same bench for the full term of six years. He
was chosen by popular vote in 1873 as judge of the sixth judicial circuit, which position he held
till he was transferred to the appellate court, in which he held a seat for three years. In 1856 he
was elected mayor of Ottawa, being the first republican in that position, and was treasurer, for
one term, of Ogle county. He has been president of the board of education of Ottawa, and has
been very prominently identified with the development of educational interests in that city for
years. He was chosen president of the judicial convention held in Chicago when Judge Charles
B. Lawrence received his nomination.
Judge Leland's name is very closely linked with the origin and formation of the republican
party, if indeed he was not the actual projector of that organization. In June, 1854, he drafted a
call for a mass meeting to be held in Ottawa August i, following. At this assemblage he pre-
sided, and a platform of principles which had been drawn up by him was adopted. A new party
was organized, taking its name, republican, from one of the resolutions adopted at this meeting.
He has graced the bench for many years, and his decisions, which cover the entire range of the
law, are models of both logic and rhetoric. He is a profoundly read jurist, and is ready and
accurate, when estimated from a purely legal standpoint, in all his rulings. His record is one of
ceaseless civil and professional activity, and his name is held in the greatest respect for his con-
scientious and able exercise of his judicial functions, and for his public spirit and usefulness as a
citi/en.
Mr. Leland has been instructed from early youth in the Unitarian faith, and still adheres to that
belief. He has been favored with three children: two sons and one daughter. The elder son,
840 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
George Miles, is engaged in the practice of law in Ottawa. The second son, Sherman, is also
located in Ottawa, engaged in real-estate and loan brokerage. Their daughter, Georgianna Julia,
is the wife of Hiram T. Gilbert, who is practicing law in company with his father-in-law.
Judge Leland's family have contributed their share of patriotism during the late war, his two
sons havii.g been actively engaged during the entire struggle George in the cavalry and Sher-
man in infantry accompanying General Sherman in his march to the sea.
HON. ARTHUR A. SMITH.
GALESBURGH.
ARTHUR ARNOLD SMITH, one of the judges of the tenth judicial district, is a son of
lr\. Erasmus and Martha (Herlick) Smith, and was born in Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio,
May 9, 1829. In the autumn of 1840 he came into Knox county, this state, with his parents, and
at the proper age entered Knox College, Galesburgh, from which institution he was graduated in
1853. He finished his legal studies with Hon. Julius Manning, of Peoria; commenced the prac-
tice of his profession in Galesburgh in 1855, and in a very few years became distinguished as a
lawyer.
In 1860 he was elected to the legislature, and attended two sessions in the following year. In
August, 1862, he entered the service as lieutenant-colonel of the 83d Illinois infantry, and was
subsequently commissioned colonel and brevet-brigadier-general. His regiment served most of
the time in the Army of the Cumberland. It was in the battle of Fort Donelson, and did a good
deal of post duty in Tennessee, our subject acting a short time as military governor.
General Smith was mustered out at Chicago in 1865: returned to Galesburgh and resumed the
practice of the law, soon building up a large business.
In 1866 Governor Oglesby appointed him to fill a vacancy in the eighth judicial circuit, com-
posed of Knox, Warren, Mercer and Henderson counties; the next year he was the republican
nominee for the same office, and was elected, and was reelected in 1873 and 1879. He is now in
the tenth circuit, which is composed of Knox, Rock Island, Warren, Mercer, Henderson and
Henry counties. He is a clear-headed, sound lawyer, and a cool, dispassionate and impartial
judge, doing honor to the ermine.
H
JUDGE HENRY S. BAKER.
ALTON.
ENRY SOUTHARD BAKER, a native of the old French village of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was
born November 10, 1824, and is the oldest son of the late Hon. David Baker and Sarah T.
(Fairchild) Baker. His father, a graduate of Hamilton College, was an accomplished scholar and
profound lawyer. Henry received his preparatory education at Shurtleff College, and in 1843
entered Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island. After his graduation in 1847 he began
the study of law in his father's office at Alton, whither his family had removed in 1844. He was
admitted to the bar in 1849, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1854 he
was elected as an anti-Nebraska democrat, from Madison county, to the legislature, and was one
of five members whose influence in that body defeated for the office of United States senator both
Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the opposition, and Joel A. Matteson, the democratic candi-
date, and elected to that position the Hon. Lyman Trumbull. In 1856 he was secretary of the
celebrated "Bloomington convention," over which General Palmer presided; the first state repub-
lican convention ever held in Illinois, and which resulted in the nomination of the late Colonel
William H. Bissell for governor, and the defeat of the democratic party in the state. In 1864 he
was the republican presidential elector for his congressional district. From this time he in a
measure withdrew from all political organizations, and devoted himself to his profession and his
family.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 84!
He was elected judge of the city court of Alton in 1865, and held that office till 1881. He was
president of the republican state convention in 1876, and delegate that year to the national conven-
tion which nominated Mr. Hayes. He was also candidate that year for congress.
Judge Baker is a man of more than ordinary talents. As a judge he has an accurate mind,
and readily grasps the point of the case argued before him, and his decisions, based upon a sound
interpretation of law and equity, are generally accepted as final.
GEORGE A. FOLLANSBEE.
CHICAGO.
EORGE A. FOLLANSBEE, of the firm of Schuyler and Follansbee, was born in Cook
county, Illinois, near Chicago, February 26, 1843. His father, Horatio N. Follansbee, a
farmer, was a native of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and came to Cook county in 1835. His mother
was Emeline Sherman, who came from Whitesboro, Oneida county. New York, to Cook county,
this state, in 1833, the year after the Black Hawk war, and when Chicago had less than one
thousand inhabitants.
Mr. Follansbee finished his literary education at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin,
being of the class of 1865; took his course of legal studies at Harvard Law School, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, whence he was graduated in February, 1867, and commenced the practice of law in
Chicago on the seventeenth day of the following month. He became a member of the firm of
Schuyler and Follansbee on the withdrawal of Hon. George Gardner from the firm of Gardner and
Schuyler, Mr. Gardner having been elected judge of the superior court of Cook county. The
firm of Schuyler and Follansbee practices law in all its branches, and probably there is no firm
of two members in Chicago doing a larger business than it.
The residence of Mr. Follansbee is on Indiana avenue, just beyond the city limits, in the town-
ship of Hyde Park, and he has held several important offices in that village. He is also at pres-
ent a trustee of the Illinois Industrial University, at Champaign. In politics he is a republican;
in religious belief a Unitarian, and attends the Church of the Messiah.
April 14, 1869, Mr. Follansbee married Susie D., daughter of Doctor M. M. Davis, of Baraboo,
Wisconsin, and they have six children.
GENERAL ALLEN C. FULLER.
REL VIDERE.
AMONG the most distinguished men who have ever lived in Boone county, Illinois, is he whose
t\. name heads this sketch. He is a son of Lucius Fuller, and was born in Farmington. Hart-
ford county, Connecticut, September 24, 1822. He received an academic education; studied law
at Warsaw, New York, with Hon. James R. Doolittle, since United States senator from Wiscon-
sin, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court of New York, in 1845. Says a writer in
the " Boone County Directory " (part of the history of the county), speaking of Mr. Fuller: " He
came to Belvidere in 1846, a young lawyer, with nothing but industry, integrity and capacity to
recommend him to the people, how well these qualities have served him, his present enviable rep-
utation shows. He has been elected judge of the circuit court, and discharged the duties of that
high office with marked ability. On the breaking out of the rebellion he was still on the bench.
He was tendered the position of adjutant-general, but the members of the bar opposed his resig-
nation, and urged him to accept the appointment temporarily. He entered upon its duties No-
vember n, 1861, and in July following, resigned his seat on the bench."
General Fuller served until near the end of the war, how efficiently and with what satisfaction
to the legislature and to Governor Yates. the records will show. The legislative committee
842 IWn'RD STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
appointed to inspect the adjutant-general's office, declared, in their report, that in their judgment
" the thanks of every patriotic citizen of the state are due to General Fuller for the able and
efficient manner in which he has discharged the "duties of the office, and for his indefatigable
efforts in collecting and preserving the glorious record of a glorious state." The testimony of
Governor Yates to his invaluable services was no less strong.
In 1864 General Fuller was elected to represent Boone county in the general assembly, and in
January following resigned the office of adjutant-general, and was chosen speaker of the house.
He has since (1876 and 1880) filled the office of state senator with credit to his constituency and
with honor to himself.
HON. THOMAS F. TIPTON.
BLOOMINGTON.
THOMAS FOSTER TIPTON. lawyer and late judge of the circuit court for the eighth cir-
cuit, was born near the town of Harrisburgh, Franklin county, Ohio, August 29, 1833. His
parents were Hiram and Deborah (Ogden) Tipton. His grandfather, Sylvester Tipton, was a
native of Maryland, and settled in Ohio about the time the state was admitted into the Union.
In 1844 Hiram Tipton came with his family to McLean county, Illinois, and settled on a farm in
Money Creek township, where Towanda now stands, and died in 1845, leaving three children.
His widow died in March, 1875.
Our subject was the youngest of the three children. He received most of his literary educa-
tion at Lexington, in this county, under that excellent scholar and worthy man, Colonel William
N. Coler, and after the first year, while thus pursuing his studies, devoted his mornings and even-
ings to the reading of law, in which he took great delight. Subsequently he studied in the office
of H. N. Keightly, of Knoxville, was admitted to the bar at Bloomington, in 1854, commenced
practice at Lexington, and while a resident of that place married, in 1856, Mary J., daughter of
Nicholas and Esther Strayer, of Bloomington, and they have five children.
In 1862 our subject settled in Bloomington, and had an extensive and lucrative practice. In
1870 Mr. Tipton was elected judge of the circuit court, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation
of Judge Scott, who was elected to the supreme bench. Judge Tipton was reelected in June,
1873, and served until March, 1877, when he resigned to take a seat in congress, in which he
served one term.
Judge Tipton has fine qualities for a jurist, coolness, impartiality, and self possession, broad
legal attainments, an analytical mind, and clear judgment, and these qualities were shown to the
best advantage during the nine years that he was on the bench. The judge is now quietly prac-
ticing his profession in company with Norman H. Ryan, and their business extends into all the
state and United States courts.
o
HON. NEWTON BATEMAN, LL.D.
GALESBURGH.
NE of the best educators in the state of Illinois is Newton Bateman, president of Knox Col-
lege. His birth is dated July 27, 1822, in Cumberland county, New Jersey, but he became a
resident of this state in 1833. His early opportunities for disciplining his mind were very much
limited, but at thirteen years of age he resolved that he would deliver an oration some day in a
graduating college class, which he did at twenty-one years of age (June, 1843). He had a hard
struggle, in a pecuniary sense, to fit himself for matriculation and still harder to get through col-
lege, succeeding by the strictest economy, and being willing to do anything to which he could
put his hands. His board during the years he was in college did not average fifty cents a week.
What he lived on tradition states not.
Mr. Bateman studied a short time in Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati; then traveled
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 843
awhile and sold a historical chart, and in 1845 commenced teaching a private school in Saint
Louis, Missouri. Two years later he was appointed to the chair of mathematics in Saint Charles
College, that state, holding that post until 1851, when he returned to Illinois and became princi-
pal of the public schools of Jacksonville. Soon afterward he held the office of county superin-
tendent of schools for two terms. He assisted in organizing the State Teachers' Association
(1854) and in establishing the " Illinois Teacher." Of that paper he became editor-in-chief in
1858, and at the same time principal of the Jacksonville Female Academy.
Five times after 1858 Mr. Bateman was elected state superintendent of schools by the repub-
lican party, and his biennial reports while in that office showed him to be the right man for
that important place. During that period he gave some time to the preparation of different
works on education and cognate subjects, and a little later he gave almost his entire time to
authorship. The number of volumes with his imprint as author presses hard on a score, and
they show the master workman in his peculiar vein. In 1874 he was elected president of Knox
College, where his solid attainments and his splendid talents as a disciplinarian shine to the best
advantage.
HON. ALFRED M. CRAIG.
GALESBURGH.
THIS gentleman is one of the judges of the supreme court of Illinois, and quite eminent in
his profession. He was born in Edgar county, this state, January 15, 1831, being the son
of David and Minta (Ramey) Craig. He is a graduate of Knox College, Galesburgh; read law
with Weed and Goudy, Chicago; was admitted to the bar in February, 1854, and practiced his
profession at Knoxville, Knox county, until 1873, achieving a high reputation for his thorough
knowledge of the law, and his great ability as an advocate. He was retained in a great many
cases of much importance, and was highly successful. While in practice at the bar he held the
offices of state's attorney, county judge and member of the constitutional convention (1869-70).
In June, 1873, he was elected to the supreme bench of the state, and that exalted position he still
holds, doing decided honor to the ermine.
The residence of Judge Craig is at Galesburgh. Of late years he has given considerable
attention to agriculture, and for some time resided on his farm.
His wife was Elizabeth P. Harvey, of Knox county, they being married in 1857.
E
EDMUND BURKE.
CHICAGO.
DMUND BURKE, lawyer, is a grandson of James Burke, a wealthy manufacturer in the
North of Ireland, who came to this country in the early part of this century, and son of Pat-
rick Burke, a farmer, who at the time of Edmund's birth, September 22, 1847, lived. at Byron, Ogle
county, Illinois. Patrick Burke was married June 25, 1846, to Nancy Whitney, of Wilkesbarre,
Wyoming county, Pennsylvania. She was the mother of four children, of whom Edmund is the
eldest child. His parents are still living. Edmund prepared for college at Rock River Seminary,
Mount Morris, Illinois, and was graduated at the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois,
class of 1868, and in the law department of the University of Michigan, class of 1869.
He taught two years in the institution at Mount Morris, being principal the latter year, and in
1871, immediately after the great fire, settled in Chicago. For three or four years he held a situ-
ation in the postoffice, performing its duties at night, and practicing his profession during the
day. Since 1874 he has given his time exclusively to the law, and is doing a general and large
business, criminal as well as civil.
For the first four or five years Thomas B. Brown, now justice of the peace, was his partner.
844 UNITED STATES R/OGK.l rf/fC.t !. DICTIONARY.
Since that time he lias practiced alone. He has a remarkably clear mind, an excellent judgment
and fine logical faculties, and discusses a question very candidly, without prejudice or bias. He
is an indefatigable worker, and thoroughly honest, and no lawyer, young or old, in the city of
Chicago is more trustworthy.
Mr. Burke is also a good classical scholar, keeps well read up in the sciences, and is an elegant
writer on literary and philosophical subjects. In short, has a well fed and growing mind, and is a
rising man. Mr. Burke affiliates with the republican party, and takes some interest in local poli-
tics, not enough, however, to lead him to neglect his professional pursuits.
Mr. Burke was married December 5, 1878, to Miss Myra Webster, daughter of William V. Web-
ster, of Rockford, Illinois, and they have one child.
WILLARD SCOTT.
NAPER VILLE.
AJGUST 26, 1826, the schooner Sheldon, Captain Sherwood, was riding at anchor upon the
quiet, waters of Lake Michigan, ten miles north of Chicago, off Gross' Point, as the place
was then called, and with the small boat called a yawl the family of Stephen J. Scott were then
and there landed. The crew of the vessel went ashore and assisted in the erection of a rude
habitation with posts, poles and blankets, after which they sailed away, leaving the Scotts resi-
dents of the state of Illinois, and occupying the first house built at what is now Evanston.
This incident is mentioned thus prominently that the future historian, in his search for facts
and dates, may pause as he turns these leaves, and exclaim, " Here we have a pioneer indeed! "
The father, mother, two sons (of whom the subject of this sketch was the eldest) and four daugh-
ters constituted the family. The father, Stephen J. Scott, was in early life a seafaring man, having
been the owner and master of a schooner bearing his own name, engaged in the coast trade along
the eastern shore of our country. The mother, whose maiden name was Hadassah Trask, was a
relative of General Israel Putnam, of revolutionary fame. They were married in Connecticut,
and moved from Hartford, in that state, to Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, where Willard
was born, April 20, 1808; and when he was eight years old the family removed to Maryland, where
they remained ten years, during which time he attended school. His opportunities for education
were limited, being confined to the district school, except for a short time when under private
tuition in mathematics, by the liberality of Alanson Webb, a wealthy Baltimore merchant, who
was attracted toward the promising youth, and solicited the privilege of adopting and educating
him for any business he might desire to follow.
Willard was anxious to become a sailor, and command a vessel, as his father had done before
him, and his studies under the private tutor were in this direction; but to his credit it may be
stated that the entreaties of his mother, to whom a sailor's life seemed full of peril, induced him
to abandon this idea. In the year 1825 his father determined to seek a new home in the West,
and in pursuance of this determination he left Maryland with his family, stopping awhile in New
York, and then starting for Saint Joseph, Michigan.
Arriving at Buffalo, the father shipped the household goods, going with them by sail vessel to
Detroit, while the family, under charge of Willard, started overland through Canada for the same
place. The old gentleman, arriving before the family, sent his goods forward by a schooner, and
awaited the arrival of his wife and children, who joined him there in a few days. Boats not
being numerous, or reliable as to time, it was necessary that some one should cross the country
to meet the goods at Saint Joseph.
This perilous journey was undertaken by Willard, then eighteen years of age, in company with
a man from Ohio. There was not an inhabited house upon the route, they had no guide, and
with the exception of blazed trees and Indian trails leading in various directions, they had no
pathway through the dense Michigan forests. With a horse upon which to pack their camp
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERS1TV of ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 847
equipage, they made the march (foraging largely on mother Nature), in two weeks, arriving ten
days ahead of the boat, during which time they lived entirely on corn and potatoes obtained
from a Frenchman upon an island in the river.
About ten days after Willard left Detroit, the remainder of the family made the trip around
the lake in the Sheldon, going first to Chicago and then crossing to Saint Joseph. While passing
Gross" Point, before reaching Chicago, old Mr. Scott was much attracted by the beauty of the
place, and was quite enthusiastic in his praise; and afterward being less pleased with the east
side, the captain of the vessel offered to, and did, recross the lake and land the family as stated
at the commencement of this sketch.
At that time the inhabitants were principally Indians. There was an Indian agent, Doctor Alex-
ander Walcott, at Chicago. John Kenzie, agent of the American Fur Company, David McKee, a
government blacksmith, and a few others, mostly French or half breeds in the employ of the
American Fur Company, were also there. The prevailing languages were French and Indian,
and with these Willard became very familiar under a tutelage that might well be denominated a
free school in the largest sense. His life for the next ten or twelve years was made up of those
incidents which pertain to the freedom, fun and frolic, as well as the perils and privations, of the
wildest kind of frontier life.
He was a renowned hunter, being counted the second-best shot in all the Pottawattomie tribe
of Indians, by whom he was greatly respected. Indeed, he had a way of compelling their respect
by the utter fearlessness which he manifested in his intercourse with them, eluding their wily
tricks, beating them at their own games, and proving himself more than a match for them in all
the cunning of their peculiar life. They gave him the appellation of Kish-Wash, by which name
he became well known throughout the entire region. The title signifies a species of eagle, and
was, by those conferring it, considered a highly honorable one.
During the hunting excursions of these days (and here is an unwritten volume of romantic
frontier life) he made the acquaintance of Caroline Hawley, at Holderman's Grove, to whom he
was married July 21, 1829, at her father's house. Her father, Pierce Hawley, moved from Ver-
mont, in 1818, to Vincennes, Indiana, when she was six or seven years of age, and when she was
ten years old he removed to Illinois, where he lived at various places, settling at Holderman's
Grove in 1825, where Willard was married.
In the fall of 1830, Willard, with his father, father-in-law and their families, settled at the
junction of the two branches of the Du Page River, three miles south of Naperville, where they
remained, engaged in agriculture, eight years or thereabouts. These families are entitled to the
distinction of being the pioneers of the settlement which soon extended several miles along the
river into what has since become Will and Du Page counties. At that time Cook county included
the present counties of Lake, McHenry, Du Page and Will, and Chicago was the voting place for
the whole county. At the election of 1830 there were thirty-two votes polled in the county, and
old Mr. Scott's name heads the poll list of that year.
In 1832 the Black Hawk war broke out, and the whole settlement was compelled to remove to
Fort Dearborn, Chicago, for safety, where they remained until after July, when General Scott
moved on to Dixon, putting the government troops between the settlers and their foes. Wil-
lard's knowledge of the habits and wiles of the Indians, and frontier craft generally, made him
an exceedingly useful man to the settlers during those perilous months, full of incidents of thrill-
ing interest, which cannot well be given here.
In the spring of 1838 Willard removed to the village of Naperville, where his father had pre-
ceded him the previous year. He built the Naperville Hotel, keeping the same eight years, in those
days when to keep a hotel was to have a constituency covering more territory than several congres-
sional districts do now. He then commenced merchandising, and for nearly twenty years, most
of the time with his eldest son, Thaddeus (since deceased, leaving one son, Willie H.), continued
the business by which the firm name of Willard Scott and Company has been made historical.
Immediately after the close of the late war he retired from active business life as a merchant,
82
S|S UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
in which, however, he has been succeeded by his son, Willard Scott, Jr., who continues the busi-
ness under the same firm name, to this day.
During the time of his residence in Naperville he has been president, first of the Du Page
County Bank, and afterward of the Bank of Naperville; and since he retired from mercantile life
has been doing business as a private banker; and the banking house of Willard Scott and Com-
pany is considered one of the absolutely safe institutions of its class in northern Illinois.
Mr. Scott is a regular attendant upon, though not a member of the Congregationalist Church
at Naperville, which is the oldest church organization in the region, dating back to 1833. In his
religious views he may be classed as orthodox, except for a strong leaning toward the belief in
the final future salvation of all men through the infinite atonement of the Saviour of mankind.
In politics he is a democrat. He voted for General Jackson, and would like to continue to do
so as long as he lives, and all the more because he believes that the remains of the old hero could
hardly refrain from exclaiming, " By the Eternal! " when the rebel soldiery was tramping over
his tomb. Stephen A. Douglas was his model politician, and with him he believes in " obeying
the laws and supporting the constitution."
He had the heart of a loving father, as well as of an American patriot, in the late war of the
rebellion, for his son who bears his name marched with Sherman to the sea, and through
Georgia, most of the time in command of the company of the 105 th Illinois regiment, of which
he was lieutenant; and his comrades all say he was bravery exemplified, and as nobly good and
truly kind as he was brave.
Mr. and Mrs. Scott have both been residents of Illinois for half a century, and all that time
have lived near Chicago. They have seen and helped to produce the remarkable progress of this
section, that challenges parallel in all history; and now at his fine residence in Naperville, built
upon the very spot where his father lived fifty years ago, Mr. Scott, with his whitened locks,
passes his declining years, and moves around amid his children, grandchildren and neighbors,
enjoying the confidence, esteem and respect of everybody.
Mr. Scott's life has been a continuous exhibition of sterling integrity and manliness. He has
acquired a fortune. He has been in the best sense successful. He has helped to build up his
town. He has made his mark upon the region in which he has lived, given to those who may
succeed him an example of good habits and stern, manly honesty, and with the calm dignity and
restful confidence of the evening of such a life he awaits the message, "Come up higher."
DANIEL J. SCHUYLER.
-CHICAGO.
DANIEL J. SCHUYLER was born in the town of Florida, Montgomery county, New York,
February 16, 1839. His father, Jacob D. Schuyler, was a farmer, and was a descendant of
one of the oldest and best-known Knickerbocker families, so prominent in the history of the state
of New York. General Philip Schuyler, of revolutionary fame, was of the same family. The
subject of this mention was educated in the schools of the section where he was born, and finally
in Union College. Soon after leaving college, and in 1861, he entered the law office of Hon
Francis Kernan, Utica, New York, the late United States senator from that state. After com-
pleting his course of study, he was admitted to the bar in January, 1864, and came to Chicago
the same month, and has been engaged in practice here since. He was alone in practice until
January, 1873, when he formed a partnership with Hon. George Gardner, which continued until
the latter was elected to the bench of the superior court in 1880, when he formed a partnership
with George A. Follansbee, which firm, Schuyler and Follansbee, is now doing a successful law
business, and is one of the most reliable in this city. As a lawyer he is thorough and painstak-
ing. He is especially accurate in the preparation of his case, and never goes into court without
knowing all about it, and makes so clear a presentation that judge and jury understand it as well
UNITED STA TES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONAR Y. 849
as himself. His success in his practice is the result of fine mental endowments, literary acquire-
ments, industry, application and the most scrupulous honor and integrity. He has niceness of
perception, breadth of comprehension ; is energetic, persevering, practical, and has none of the
meteoric in his composition ; he is progressive, but conservative and well balanced.
As an advocate before a jury he is one of the most effective speakers at this bar. In manner
lie is pleasing, in matter logical and convincing. He is candid, sincere and fair, and his integrity
and honor being known, he carries conviction to the minds of an honest jury. He is quiet, dig-
nified, decided, and has great firmness of character. He has the mien, bearing and make-up of
the educated and well bred gentleman that he is. He is in the front rank in the profession, and
has the respect and esteem of his brother lawyers. Mr. Schuyler was united in marriage, in Sep-
tember, 1865, with Mary, daughter of William H. Byford, a well known physician of this city.
They have had four children, two of whom survive.
WILLIAM HEATH BYFORD, M.D.
CHICAGO.
WILLIAM HEATH BYFORD was born March 20, 1817, in the village of Eaton, Ohio, and
is the son of Henry T. and Hannah Byford. During his infancy his parents removed
to the falls of the Ohio River, now New Albany, whence in 1821 the family changed its place of
residence to Hindostan, Martin county, Indiana. Here, while William was in his ninth year, his
father died, and, through stress of circumstances, he was compelled to abandon the course of ele-
mentary studies which he had been pursuing in the neighboring country school. Five years
later he was apprenticed to a tailor in Palestine, Illinois, with whom he remained two years, and
then entered the employ of another tailor at Vincennes, Indiana, where, during the ensuing four
years, he not only worked diligently at his trade, but, with the aid of books, bought and bor-
rowed, mastered the structure of his native tongue, acquired a knowledge of the Latin, Greek
and French languages, and studied with especial care physiology, chemistry and natural history.
About eighteen months prior to the expiration of his term of apprenticeship, he decided to devote
his life and energies to the study of medicine, and subsequently placed himself under the profes-
sional guidance and guardianship of Doctor Joseph Maddox, of Vincennes, Indiana. After a suf-
ficent length of time consumed in arduous and incessant study, he passed the required examina-
tion, and began the practice of his profession in Owensville, Gibson county, Indiana, August 8,
1838. In 1840 he removed to Mount Vernon, Indiana, and in 1845, after having attended lectures,
applied for and received a regular graduation and accredited diploma from the Ohio Medical
College. In 1847, after resuming his practice, which had been temporarily interrupted by his
studies, he performed and published an account of that surgical operation denominated the
" Csesarean section." This was followed by contributions to medical journals which attracted the
attention of the medical community, and gave their author a respectable reputation for literary
acquirements, intellectual penetration and scientific knowledge. In October, 1850, he was elected
to the chair of Anatomy in the Evansville, Indiana, Medical College, which he filled with ability
for two years, when he was transferred to the chair of Theory and Practice in the same institu-
tion, in which responsible capacity he acted until the extinction of the institution in 1854. Dur-
ing his professorship at Evansville he was one of the editors of a medical journal of acknowledged
merit, and, until its publication was discontinued, contributed valuable articles to its columns.
In May, 1857, he was elected vice-president of the American Medical Asssociation, then assem-
bled at Nashville, Tennessee, and in the following autumn was called to the chair of Obstetrics
and Diseases of Worrien and Children, in the Rush Medical College at Chicago, vacated by Doc-
tor John Evans, the talented physician, who has since been United States senator from Colorado.
This position he occupied for two years, when, in conjunction with several medical associates, he
assisted in establishing and organizing the Chicago Medical College, in which he occupied the
850 UNITED STATES PIOGRAPIIICAL DICTIONARY.
same position which he had previously held in the Rush Medical College chair of Obstetrics
and Diseases of Women and Children. During a term of years he was associated with Professor
N. S. Davis in the editorial management of the "Chicago Medical Journal." In 1864 he published
the first medical work attributable to a Chicago author; its title is "Chronic Inflammation and
Displacements of the Unimpregnated Uterus." In 1866 appeared his " Practice of Medicine and
Surgery, Applied to the Diseases and Accidents Incident to Women," which is extensively used as
a text-book and frequently quoted as a valuable authority. In 1866 was published the second
edition of his " Practice," and in 1871 the second edition, also, of his work on the "Unimpregnated
Uterus." In 1872 his "Obstetrics" was issued, and in the following year a second edition of the
same volume appeared. He has twice performed the "Csesarean section," and as a lecturer on
medical and scientific subjects, and a writer on kindred topics, has secured a widely extended and
honorable reputation throughout the Northwest and elsewhere.
HON. HUGH PARISH BEACH.
PIPER CITY.
JUDGE BEACH traces his paternal ancestry back to Hon. Daniel D. Thompkins, one of
the early governors of New York state, and subsequently vice president of the United States
for two terms consecutively, under James Monroe as president, and on his mother's side to high
official position, in Connecticut.
The eyes of our subject first opened to the light of this world about forty years ago, in a
humble log cabin in the then pioneer wilderness of Northern Ohio, near what is now the beautiful
city of Cleveland. He received such education as the scant facilities of that early day offered to
farmer boys, until about the age of fourteen, when, upon the death of his mother, he started out
to breast the fortunes of life and carve out a career for himself, unaided and alone. His first
venture was in a printing office, and his first promotion to that position which bears the euphoni-
ous title of "printer's devil," and in that capacity, and from that position, through all the inter-
mediate grades up to the writer of locals for a country journal, he served for several succeeding
years, during which period he received his first substantial scholarship in the history of the
political affairs of his country and the world. Time and an increase of knowledge awakened
.within him a desire to enter the legal profession, and a favorable opportunity presenting itself, he
changed his occupation, and spent the next succeeding years in the offices of two prominent law-
yers, successively, during which time he laid the foundation of his legal education. Here he was
found at the breaking out of the late rebellion. At the firing on Fort Sumter he at once volun-
teered as a private for three years, or during the war. The first company he joined (such was the
patriotic rush to the defense of the country) failed to be accepted by the official authorities. He
did not have to wait long, however, for Father Abraham's call for three hundred thousand more
gave him opportunity for entering the service, which he did as a private, and remained for over
four years and a half, in constant service, and though but comparatively a boy, he served through
all the various grades up to the command of a company, and in both infantry and artillery, and
holding commissions about half the entire term of service. This took him through campaigns
and engagements from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico, the Red River expedition, and the
movement against Mobile and the attendant conflicts which resulted in its capture; in which lat-
ter operations in the field he was in command of his own company. He also afterward rendered
service in the gulf coast defenses, at the mouth of the Mississippi. During his term of service
he was from time to time under the command of Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Banks,
Canby, Smith, and other distinguished commanders. Fortunately two slight wounds only attest
the many perils of this long and arduous service. After the assassination of President Lincoln
he raised a contribution in his company of over $700 for the national Lincoln monument at
Springfield, and received an autograph letter of thanks from Governor Oglesby, president of the
monument association.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 85!
Near the close of his term of service he married the daughter of the late Captain Henry Lyon
Smith, of the engineer corps of the old regular arm}', who was a graduate of West Point, and
subsequently a professor at that post. Captain Smith was of New England birth, and after he
graduated at West Point he was sent by the United States government to Louisiana, where he
married the sister of a classmate, and thus became connected with one of the first families of
Louisiana, among whom were a governor of the state and several generals, and distinguished
political leaders. One member (aunt to the wife of our subject) has, since the close of the war,
filled the position of librarian, first at the patent-office, and next at the agricultural department at
Washington.
On returning from the army Judge Beach brought his young wife with him, and moved
directly to Ford county, Illinois, where he has since resided. Here he at once resumed the study
of law, in connection with other branches of professional business, and was admitted to the bar
about 1870, and during the three succeeding years he was engaged in private practice.
In the spring of 1873 his fellow townsmen elected him to the county board of supervisors,
where, by his vigilance and advocacy of economy, retrenchment, and reform in the management
of the affairs of the county, he immediately attracted general attention, and very unexpectedly
to himself was taken up by the people and overwhelmingly elected the same fall to the office of
county judge of Ford county, to which position he has been reflected for three successive terms,
and which he now fills. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of Saint Paul's Com-
mandery No. 34, of Knights Templar, Fairbury, Illinois. He is also a member of the Odd-Fel-
lows, both subordinate and encampment, and has been representative to the grand lodge of the
state. He has also been president of the board of trustees in the village where he resides, and
has held numerous other subordinate offices.
In politics he is a republican, but is not hide-bound. In religion, he believes God reigns
supreme.
Judge Beach is counted one of the best orators of eastern Illinois, and is pronounced by those
who know him most intimately, to be a faithful, upright and just judge.
HON. ISAAC G. WILSON.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch, the present presiding justice of the appellate court, was born in
the town of Middlebury, New York, April 26, 1817. At the age of twelve he was sent to
the Academy at Wyoming, and remained in school and as a clerk in a store until 1834, when he
entered Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island. Upon graduating, in 1838, Mr. Wilson
came to Illinois, where his father's family had preceded him, three years before, and became a stu-
dent in the office of Butterfield and Collins, then the leading law firm of Chicago. In the spring
of 1840 he again went east, and entered the Cambridge Law School, and graduated the follow-
ing year with the degree of bachelor of laws. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar at Con-
cord, July, 1841.
On returning the following month to Chicago, where he had intended to locate, he found that
instead of there being room for more lawyers, many of those already there were leaving for other
places, in consequence of the extreme depression in business, which followed the financial crisis
of 1837 and 1838. He thereupon determined to go into the country, and in August, 1841, opened
a law office in Elgin. There he continued in the practice, doing a good business, riding the cir-
cuit with his books in his saddle bags, as was then the custom, for ten years, when, in 1851, he
was elected circuit judge.
Upon leaving the bench in 1867, Judge Wilson opened an office in Chicago with Colonel H. F.
Vallette and General Benjamin J. Sweet, of Camp Douglas fame, and upon the dissolution of
hat firm, he formed a partnership with Hon. Emery A. Storrs, and subsequently with Sanford
852 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL D/CT/O.V.4RY.
B. Perry, with whom he continued, his practice being confined mostly to the federal courts, until
1879, when he was again elected circuit judge, and immediately thereafter was designated as a
member of the appellate court at Chicago, of which two years later he was made chief-justice.
Judge Wilson has grown rapidly in the estimation of the. bar since his elevation to the appel-
late bench. His education is varied, broad and liberal, and his published opinions are models of
judicial writings, being logical, clear and polished. His associates on the appellate bench are
Hon. W. K. McAllister and Hon. Joseph N. Bailey.
REUBEN LUDLAM, M.D.
CHICAGO.
THE subject of this sketch was born in Camden, New Jersey, October 7, 1831. He was the
eldest son of the late Doctor Jacob W. Ludlam, who for more than thirty years was a most
worthy and useful member of the medical profession. Doctor Ludlam received by far the best
part of his early education at home. His school duties, however, were not neglected. After
taking the honors of the old academy at Bridgeport, New Jersey, he began the study of medicine,
with his father for preceptor, at the early age of sixteen.
Possessing naturally a vigorous constitution, he laid the foundation for his future good health,
by active exercise and work in the open air, while pursuing his studies; for his father owned a
beautiful farm, of which the son took a nominal charge, and upon which he did considerable
manual labor. The consequence was a well-balanced development of body and ,mind. In due
time his father's maxim "if you wish your boy to be a man, treat him like a man was applied
to the experiences of the sick room. He left the farm for the bedside. The latter years of his
pupilage were characterized by an almost perpetual conference between the old and the young
doctor as to the nature, tendency and treatment of cases which were under their united observa-
tion and care. This early drill and discipline gave a practical bias to Dr. Ludlam's professional
mind, and not only explains his well-known aversion to theoretical and trivial questions in medi-
cine, but also affords the key to his remarkable success as a clinical teacher and practitioner.
After hearing three full courses of lectures of six months each in the University of Pennsylvania,
and of clinics in the Pennsylvania Hospital, Doctor Ludlam graduated with honor in the former
institution, in April, 1852. In October of the same year he came to Illinois, and, after spending
some months in visiting and prospecting, finally settled in Chicago, where he still resides.
When he came to Chicago, Doctor Ludlam was what is called an old school physician; but
careful study and bedside observation convinced him of the superior efficacy of the homoeopathic
system of treatment, when it is aided by good judgment and liberality. He has since become a
leading and influential member of the new school of medical practice. For six years he was an
associate editor of the " North American Journal of Homreopathy," a quarterly, published in
New York; and for nine years obstetrical editor of the "United States Medical and Surgical
Journal," another quarterly, published in Chicago.
He was the author of the first strictly medical work ever issued in the Northwest. It was en-
titled "A Course of Clinical Lectures on Diphtheria," and bore the imprint of C. S. Halsey>
Chicago, March, 1863.
In 1862 he presented the profession with a large octavo volume of six hundred and twelve
pages, entitled " Clinical and Didactic Lectures on the Diseases of Women." This work embodies
the labor and experience of many years, and is very popular with the profession, both at home
and abroad. It is the recognized text book in all the homoeopathic medical colleges, and is con-
spicuous among works of its kind for the clearness of its diction, the faithfulness of its descrip-
tions of disease, and for the almost unlimited fund of resource which it places at the command
of those who consult it. It is the intention to extend this work to several volumes.
In 1868 he was tendered a position in the Home Infirmary for the Diseases of Women, in the
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 853
city of New York; and in 1870 was unanimously elected professor of obstetrics and the diseases of
women and children in the Homoeopathic Medical College of the same city. Both these honors
were, however, most respectfully declined.
In 1869 he was chosen president of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, and presided
over its deliberations in Boston, on which occasion he delivered the annual oration entitled "The
Relations of Woman to Homoeopathy."
Beside these positions of trust, he has also been tiie president of the Chicago Academy of
Medicine, of the Western Institute of Homoeopathy, and of the Illinois Homoeopathic Medical
Society, and is an honorary member of several learned societies, both home and foreign.
After the great fire in Chicago, in October, 1871, he served with fidelity as a member of the
medical board of the Relief and Aid Society, which was in charge of the health of fifteen thousand
families, or about sixty thousand persons, who were roofless and wretched in consequence of that
terrible calamity. In this capacity, being the only physician of his school on the board, he did
very much to create a proper state of feeling among the doctors themselves.
For many years Doctor Ludlam's attention has been especially and almost exclusively devoted
' to the study of the diseases of women, in which department of practice his experience has been
very large. In rare and difficult cases he is consulted by physicians all over the Northwest. In
performing the very delicate operations pertaining to this branch, his skill and success are remark-
able.
He has frequently operated for the removal of ovarian tumors, and credits the flattering re-
sults obtained, largely to the proper use of homoeopathic remedies, both before and after the
operation. His contributions to medical literature, which are frequent and acceptable, are always
written upon his favorite theme. After having lectured for twelve years on obstetrics and the
diseases of women and children, in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, the title of his
chair was so changed in 1874 as to allow him to teach his branch in a more practical way.
Doctor Ludlam has been twice married; first to Miss Anna M. Porter, of Greenwich, New
Jersey a lovely Christian woman, who died of consumption three years after; and secondly to
his present wife, Miss Harriet G. Parvin, of New York City. By the latter he has one child a
promising boy, who bears his father's name.
HON. JOSEPH M. BAILEY.
FREE PORT.
JOSEPH MEAD BAILEY was born in the town of Middlebury, Wyoming county, New York,
June 22, 1833. Judge Bailey spent his boyhood on his father's farm, at the place of his birth,
and attended the district school near his father's residence until he was about thirteen or fourteen
years old. He then entered Middlebury Academy, in the village of Wyoming, Wyoming county,
New York, and there fitted for college. He stood well in his studies, doing his work, as has been
his practice ever since, faithfully, conscientiously and accurately. During his preparation for
college he was out of school for one year by reason of severe sickness, but in September, 1851, at
the age of eighteen years, he entered the sophomore class of the University of Rochester. For
the means of pursuing his studies he was obliged to rely entirely upon his own exertions, with
the exception of a small sum of money borrowed from a friend, which was repaid after gradua-
tion. In 1854 he graduated, among the highest in his class, and entered the law office of Ethan
A. Hopkins, of Rochester, New York, a preceptor of whom he often speaks in the highest terms.
He was admitted to the bar in November, 1855, and remained in Rochester until the following
August, when he came to Freeport, Stephenson county, Illinois, where he has since resided. He
took a prominent position among the lawyers who constituted the early bar of Stephenson county,
and established a profitable practice.
In 1866 Judge Bailey was elected a member of the house of representatives of the general
854 UNITED STATES BIOGK. 1 rillC. 1 1. DICTION AR\.
assembly of the state of Illinois. He was chairman of the joint select committee which investi-
gated the affairs of the penitentiary, after it was thrown by the lessees upon the hands of the
state, and drew the bill which afterward became a law, and which is substantially the one upon
which the institution has run ever since. During this term he also took a prominent part in ad-
vocating restrictive legislation upon railroads. He was reelected in 1868, continued his war upon
railroad abuses, and was made chairman of the committee on railroads. In 1876 he was one of
the presidential electors for the state of Illinois. In 1877 he was elected one of the judges of the
thirteenth judicial circuit of the state of Illinois, which circuit included the county of Stephenson.
In January following, upon the death of Judge Heaton, he was assigned by the supreme court to
duty as a member of the appellate court of the first district, sitting in Chicago. In 1879 he was
reelected circuit judge, without opposition, and in that year, and again in 1881, was reassigned to
duty upon the appellate court, in Chicago. He was presiding justice of that court for the year
beginning June i, 1879, and again for the year beginning June i, 1882. In the summer of 1879
he received the degree of doctor of laws from the universities of both Rochester and Chicago.
A s
WILLIAM WATKINS.
JOLIET.
S a prominent, influential and thorough-going business man, the subject of this sketch is
worthy of honorable mention. He is a native of Montgomery county, Ohio, and was born
October 16, 1826. His father died when William was scarcely able to remember. He was a
farmer, energetic, enterprising, and of good repute. The maiden name of his mother was Mary
Elizabeth Kelsey. William attended school at the place of his birth in Montgomery county, and
subsequently at Crawfordsville, Indiana, until about nineteen years of age. In 1847 he enlisted
in the Mexican war, where he continued until its close, 1848, fighting hard and doing good service
for. the country.
On returning from the war Mr Watkins did what all wise men should do at an early age,
and married Miss Elizabeth Van Scoyoc, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, and immediately afterward
removed to Momence, Will county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming and stock raising
until October 3, 1861, when he entered the civil war, serving in the 8th United States cavalry,
and stood the storm of many hard battles. September 10, 1862, he was honorably discharged for
disability, resulting from exposure and a severe cold which he contracted. He again returned to
his agricultural pursuits, which he continued to follow more or less until the spring of 1870,
when he engaged in the barbed-wire enterprise. His efforts at first were ridiculed on all sides,
both by farmers and other practical-minded men. He first began working on the patent of a Mr.
Rose, of De Kalb county, a rude construction consisting of a wooden rod, rectangular, with iron
points driven through it.
Mr. Watkins commenced to manufacture in 1874, under Mr. Rose's license, in which he put
all his time, energy and money, which he judiciously used, traveling throughout Illinois, Indiana,
.and Iowa, pushing his work under much opposition, at the same time contriving for the improve-
ment of the principle which was as yet in its infancy of development, and in December, of the
same year, he invented and procured a patent for a barbed iron strip, which he commenced to
manufacture in Joliet, in March, 1875, taking into partnership with him, H. B. Scott. They
entered enthusiastically into the business, exerting themselves to their utmost, as to means and
ability, which excited many others, and gave rise to many new patents, which have since been
brought prominently before the public.
The partnership business was carried on very successfully in Joliet, for two years, after which
Mr. Watkins continued alone, making great improvements in the barbed wire, and applied for a
patent, which was granted in November, 1876. He has continued to manufacture until June i,
1882, and others are still manufacturing the wire successfully under his license, and we may here
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 855
say this is the only patent we are able to find in the state, under which barbed wire is now being
manufactured without paying the Washburn license.
Mr. Watkins has also invented and improved and patented a complete set of machinery for
manufacturing barbed wire, which others are also using under his license.
HON. OWEN T. REEVES, LL.D.
BLOOMINGTON.
OWEN THORNTON REEVES, judge of the circuit court, hails from Ross county, Ohio,
where he was born December 18, 1829. He is a graduate of the class of 1850, Wesleyan Uni-
versity, Delaware, Ohio, and on receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, was appointed a tutor in
the same institution. A little later he was principal of the Chillicothe high school, filling that
position for four years. During that period, as we learn from a Bloomington newspaper, "he en-
grafted upon the schools of that city many important changes in study and system, which remain
to this day."
Mr. Reeves read law in Chillicothe, while engaged in teaching; was admitted to the bar in
1854, and, leaving Ohio, came directly to Bloomington, and soon rose to an honorable position at
the McLean county bar. His fame as an educator had preceded him to this state, and he was
soon called upon to serve as a member of the Bloomington board of education, filling that post
for five consecutive years. It was he who in 1857 drew up the charter of the union school sys-
tem, of Bloomington, and he has never ceased to take a deep interest in the cause of education
in this city.
From the Bloomington "Leader," from which we have already quoted, we learn that in 1861
Mr. Reeves was elected a member of the board of supervisors for Bloomington township, and in
1862 was appointed city attorney. In 1862, when the country was struggling in the throes of
civil war, Mr. Reeves responded to the call for troops, and organized the yoth Illinois infantry,
a three months' regiment, which he commanded, serving six months, the regiment being detailed
for guard duty.
In 1867 he procured the charter for the Lafayette, Bloomington and Mississippi railroad, and
took a prominent part in the organization of the company, and the construction of the road.
This varied and important business occupied all his time. When the road was leased to the
Wabash, Mr. Reeves became general solicitor of the leased line, and continued such so long as
the road remained in the hands of the Wabash.
In 1874, Colonel Reeves joined Judge Benjamin in the organization of the Bloomington 'Law
School, and he occupies the chair of contracts. During all this time he has enjoyed a large and
important law practice. In the month of March, 1877, he was elected to the bench, as already
mentioned, and there he finds, in the estimation of the people, a most fitting place. They like the
systematic and rapid manner in which he discharges his duties.
HON. JOHN G. ROGERS.
CHICAGO.
ArtONG our Chicago men who have achieved eminence solely by excellence of character, with-
out any of the modern appliances by which unworthy persons seek an undeserved and
transient popularity, the subject of this sketch occupies a conspicuous place. Modest and unas-
suming in disposition, courteous and suave in manners, self-poised and dignified in demeanor,
thoughtful of the feelings and respectful toward the opinions of others, honorable in the highest
and best sense, possessing those delicate instincts which characterize the true gentleman, he
affords a fine example of a successful career, as deserved as it is conspicuous.
83
856 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Judge Rogers was born at Glasgow. Kentucky. December 28, 1818. He is descended from an
old Virginia family, whose ancestry left England about two hundred years ago. His father, Doc-
tor George Rogers, was a physician of eminence, and was widely and very favorably known.
Judge Rogers acquired his education in the schools of his native country, and graduated as
bachelor of laws from Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 1841. Commencing immediately
his professional career in his native town, he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice, and
won an honorable place in his profession.
Desiring a wider field of influence, he removed, in 1857, to Chicago, where he continued the
practice of law, and was at once accorded a prominent position among the ablest lawyers of this
city. In July, 1870, he was elected judge of the circuit court of Cook county, and in the general
election of 1873 was reelected for six years, and in 1879 was again reelected.
While not a violent partisan, Mr. Rogers has decided political views. In early life he affiliated
with the whigs of the old time, but since 1860 he has identified himself with the democratic party.
Nature designed him for a judge. His mind is of the judicial order, and he would in any
place have been certain to have been sought out and placed upon the bench. The high esteem
which he unquestionably possesses as a jurist among the entire profession is the result of a rare
combination of fine legal ability and culture and incorruptible integrity, with that dignified pres-
ence and graceful urbanity which characterizes all his official acts.
Like the poet, the judge is born, not made. To wear the ermine worthily, it is not enough
that one possesses legal acumen, is learned in the principles of jurisprudence, familiar with prece-
dents and thoroughly honest. Most men are unable wholly to divest themselves of prejudice,
even when acting uprightly, and are unconsciously warped in their judgments by their own
mental characteristics or the peculiarities of their education. This unconscious influence is a dis-
turbing force, a variable factor, which more or less enters into the final judgments of all men. In
the ideal jurist this factor becoming so small as not to be discriminable in the result, the disturb-
ing force practically ceases. There has never been on the bench in Chicago a man better adapted
in this respect to adorn and dignify this high and responsible place than Judge John G. Rogers.
INDEX.
Abbott, Daniel Canton 581
Adair, Capt. J. M Springfield 246
"Adams, Augustus Sandwich 353
Adams, Hon. G. E Chicago 800
Adams, W. H. H., D.D Bloomington 368
Addams, Hon. J. H Cedarville 838
Aldrich, D. C Chicago 615
Aldrich, Hon. Wm Chicago 58
Allen, E. C Ottawa 48
Allen, Hon. E. R Aurora 774
Allen, Hon. J. C Olney 775
Allen, Hon. J. M Geneseo 816
Anderson, Hon. W. B Mount Vernon . . . 539
Anthony, J. P., M.D Sterling 62
Antle, F. P. , M.D Petersburgh 443
Arenz, Hon. J. A Beardstown 831
Armstrong, A. W., M.D Kirkwood 265
Armstrong, Hon. G. W Seneca 57
Arnold, Hon. I. N Chicago 221
Asay, E. G Chicago 3
Atkins, Major-Gen. S. D Freeport 473
A very , D. J Chicago 807
Ayer, E. G Harvard 311
Bailey, Hon. J. M ...."'' Freeport 853
Bailey, Hon. J. S Macomb 235
Baker, Hon. J. H Macomb 125
Baker, Hon. H. S Alton 840
Ballou, N. E., M.D Sandwich 108
Bangs, Hon. Mark Chicago 138
Bannister, T. O., M.D Odell 697
Barrere, Hon. Granville Canton 807
Barrett, J. P Chicago 420
Barrett, O. W Chicago 228
Barton, E. P ... ... Freeport 823
Bateman, Hon. Newton Galesburgh 842
Bates, Thomas Chicago 781
Bayne, W. F., M.D Macomb 289
Beach, Hon. H. P Piper City 850
Beadles, W. T., M.D Bushnell. .? 341
Beaumont, J. H., M.D Freeport 116
Bell, Hon. A. J Peoria 702
Benjamin, Hon. R. M Bloomington 66
Bennett, H. L Geneva-rT 117
Bennett, J. I Chicago 616
Berggren, Hon. A. W Galesburgh 822
Berrian, Hon. B. F Quincy 821
Berry, O. F Carthage 256
Bisbee, Hon. L. H Chicago 648
Bishopp, Barton Sheldon 553
Bivens, Capt. Samuel Havana 585
Black Family Virginia 550
Black, Ho". T. G., M.D Clayton 412
Black, W. V Chicago 782
Blackman, F. H., M.D Geneva 135
Blackstock, Robert Paxton 574
Blaisdell, Hon. E. W Rockford 92
Blane, S. H Petersburgh 512
Blish, C. C Kewanee 97
Blodgett, Hon. H. W Chicago 716
Blount, Asher Macomb 310
Bond, Hon. L. L Chicago 748
Bond, Maj. W. G Monmouth 147
Bonney, C. C Chicago 743
Boyd, T. B Chicago 591
Bradley, R. D., M.D . Pekin 630
Bradshaw, C. G Bloomington 77
Bragg, Maj. F. A Chicago 142
Branson, Hon. N. W Petersburgh 831
Brewer, Hon. Thomas . . .Toledo 594
Brookins, Arba Chicago 183
Brown, Ira Chicago 344
Brown , J . B Galena 63
Brown, Hon. Wm Rockford 75
Browne, E. S Mendota 445
Bruce, Alexander Marseilles 116
Bruen, J. N Monmouth 93
Bruster, W. L Toledo 655
Bryant, Hon. F. E Bement 722
Bryant, Hon. J. H Princeton 789
Bulkley, A. W Chicago 174
Bull, E. F Ottawa 234
Bullock, J. R., M.D Waukegan . 97
Burge, Samuel Toulon . . 560
Burke, Edmund .... Chicago 843
Burns, Hon. John Lacon 708
Burr, Hon. A. G Carrollton 95
Burroughs, B. R Edwardsville 205
Burroughs, L. M . , M.D Batavia 94
Bushnell, Hon. Washington Ottawa..... 817
Byford, W. H., M.D Chicago ..' 849
Cabeen, Hon. T. B . .Keithsburg 45
Caldwell, W. S., M.D Freeport 233
Gallon, Hon. W. P Jacksonville 555
Campbell, J. D . . . Polo 155
Campbell, J. L Chicago 127
Campbell, Hon. J. M Macomb 136
Campbell, J. Y., M.D Paxton 426
Carlin, Hon. W. E Jerseyville 685
Caruthers, Hon. J. P Chicago 653
Casal, F. M., M.D Pittsfield 445
Case, Gen. Henry Winchester 457
Case, H . C Galesburgh ...... 703
Casey, Hon. T. S Mount Vernon ... 788
Castle, Alfred, M.D Wyoming 569
Castle, Philo Mendota 490
Caton, Hon. J. D Chicago 566
Chadsey, Benjamin Rushville 545
Chandler, Col. Chas Macomb 329
Chandler, J. E Bushnell 338
Chappell, W. H., M.D Oregon 690
Chard, T. S Chicago 321
Chase, M. J., M.D .Galesburgh 46
Cherry, W. S Streator 128
Chicago Steel Works Chicago 238
Childs, A. B Keithsburg 64
Church, Malachi Woodstock 167
Clark, Hon. Dennis Abingdon 126
Clark, Hon. H . S Mattoon 774
Clark, Rev. Ichabod Rockford 592
Clark, Hon. John Somonauk 121
Clark, Rev. W. D '. .Carrollton 430
Clarke, Hon. F. E Waukegan 172
Clarke, Rev. John Rushville 785
Claypool, L. W Morris 72
Claypool, P. A Morris 633
Clement, Jesse Chicago 681
Cloonan, Hon. Thomas Chicago 467
Cody, Hon. H. H Naperville 284
8 5 8
INDEX.
Cole, A. H Mount Carroll ... 68
Cole, Frederick, M.D El Paso 497
Cole, W. H., M.D Kewanee 102
Collins, Joshua and Jeremiah . . . .Saratoga 698
Collins, Hon. L. C. Jr Chicago 634
Comstock. H. S Colona 182
Condee, Hon. L. D Chicago 674
Connolly, Hon. J. A Springfield 65
Cook, J. W Normal ". 610
Cook, W. E Lacon 475
Cooper, Thomas Pekin 583
Covell, Rev. Chester Buda 56
Craig, Hon. A. M~. Galesburgh 843
Craig, J. W Mattoon 503
Crawford, S. P. . . ; Rockford 81
Crews, J. L Wheeler 657
Crews, Hon. S. F Mount Vernon . . . 625
Cronkrite, Hon. E. L Freeport 823
Crummer, B. F., M.D Warren 144
Crummer, W. F Galena 614
Cullom, Hon. S. M Springfield 25
Culver, W. I Chicago 2
Cummings, J. B Bushnell 322
Cummings, J. S Huntley . 183
Cummings, L. F Chicago 664
Cunning, Hugh Chicago 730
Curtiss, R. J., M.D Joliet 710
Danforth, A. H Washington 512
Dafst, John Eureka 513
Davidson, M. R Monticello 708
Davis, Hon. David Bloomington .... 16
Davis, L. H., M.D Woodstock 282
Davis, O. L Danville 255
Davter-W. H., M.D Springfield 692
Davison, J. B., M.D Moline 264
Deaderich, D. F Quincy 339
Dean, C. B Belvidere 290
Decker, Henry Chicago 719
Decker, M. A Chicago 809
Deere, John Moline 268
Delany, Michael Olney 590
Dement, Hon. H. D Springfield 21
Dement, Col. John Dixon 780
Deriam, D. D Quincy 281
DeSteiger Glass Co La Salle 622
DeWolf , Calvin Chicago 164
Dickey, Hon. T. L Chicago 768
Dieffenbacher, P. L., M.D Havana 609
Disosway, E. T Henry 1553
Dodge, Hon. W. B Waukegan 273
Donaldson, H. C., M.D Morrison 261
Doolittle. J. R., Jr Chicago 436
Douglas, Hon. S. A Chicago 4
Douglas, S. A Chicago 669
Driggs, George Chicago 752
Drummond, Hon. Thomas Chicago 22
Drury, William New Boston 454
Dudley, E. C., M.D Chicago. ... 720
Duncan, J. W Ottawa 339
Dunham, Charles Geneseo 331
Dunlap, Irwin Jacksonville .... 544
Dunlap, Merton Paxton 563
Dupee, C. A Chicago 679
Durley, Williamson Hennepin 469
Dustin, Gen. Daniel .... .Sycamore 272
Dutcher, E. F Oregon 236
Earle, L. C Chicago 266
Eddy, R. M Chicago 470
Edgarton, R. E., M.D Altona 185
Edrington, D. E Creston 581
Edwards, Hon. B. S Springfield 786
Elliott, Gen. I. H Springfield 41-5
Ellwood, I. L De Kalb 39
Ellwood, Hon. Reuben Sycamore 48
Emerson, Hon. Jesse Buda 692
English, J. G Danville 480
English, J. W Carrollton 565
Ennis, James Chicago 752
Epler, Hon. Cyrus Jacksonville 800
Erwin, Hon. L. D Rushville 541
Erwin, Hon. Milo Marion 492
Etheridge, J. H., M.D Chicago 358
Eustace, Hon. J. V Dixon 787
Evans, Edwin, M.D Streator 148
Everhart, W. S Toledo 560
Farwell, Hon. C. B Chicago 779
Farwell, J. V Chicago ; . 789
Firebaugh, I. L., M.D Robinson 655-
Firman, L. B Chicago 488
Fleming, T. H., M.D Canton 350
Fleming, Wilson, M.D Port Byron 343
Flower, H. D., M.D Fulton City 349
Flower, J. M Chicago 703
Follansbee, G. A Chicago 841
Foote, D. E., M.D Belvidere 333
Foote, Hon. J. J Belvidere 675
Ford, Hon. M. M Galva 818
Forrest, W. S Chicago 747
Fort, Hon. G. L Lacon 791
Foster, H. T . . . . Beardstown 574
Franke, J. G., M.D Newton 400
Fraser, W. H., M.D La Salle 332
Freeman, N. S Springfield 363
Frew, Hon. C. H Paxton 432
Fulkerson, Col. H. W Jerseyville 267
Fuller, Hon. C. E Belvidere 173
Fuller, William Clinton .... 709
Fuller, Gen. A. C Belvidere 841
Gallagher, A. J . . Decatur 476
Gardner, B. F., M.D .Atlanta 227
Garland, J. M Springfield 257
Garvin, I. W., M.D Sycamore 254
Gayle, Wm Keithsburg 197
Gilbert, Hon. S. S Carlinville 822
Gill, S. L Peoria 508
Gillespie, Hon . Joseph Edwardsville 838
Glass, E. B Edwardsville 397
Glenn, Hon. J. J Monmouth 175
Glidden, J. E De Kalb 438
Glover, J. O Chicago 670
Goodrich, A. A Jerseyville 202
Goodrich, Grant .Chicago 297
' Goodrich, H. C Chicago 448
Gould, N. B Cambridge 253
Cradle, Hetiry, M.D Chicago 204
Grant, Gen. U. S Galena 10
Greathouse, Hon. F. M Hardin 523
Green, Hon. L. L Odell 410
Greene, H. S Springfield 271
Griffith, A. A., A.M Chicago 198
Griffith, O. K..M.D .Huntley 235
Griggs, C. W Chicago 265
Griggs, E. Y Ottawa 213
Grinnell, J. S Chicago 645
Griswold, C. A., M.D Fulton City 216
Hadley, W. F. L Edwardsville 603
Haish, Jacob De Kalb 118
Halderman, Nathaniel Mount Carroll .... 152
Halsted, M. A., M.D Jacksonville^ 796
Hamer, Col. Thomas ... Vermont 562
Hamilton, J. L., M.D Peoria 634
Hamilton, J. L Watseka -.184
Hamilton, Hon. J. M Bloomington -415
Hammer, D. H Chicago 596
Hammond, Hon. A. G Wyoming 296
Hance, F. W. , M.D Freeport 143
Hanchett, S. F Chicago 384
Hanna, E. B Chicago 369
\ Hanna, R. J Kankakee 481
AHanna, Hon. R. P Fairfield 652
INDEX.
859
Hanna, VVm Monmouth 178
Hansen, Doctor F. E Winchester 237
Hardy, I. E., M.D Alton 232
Harper, Rev. Aimer Port Byron Sn
Harper, Hon. W. H Chicago 491
Harpham, E. B. , M.D Havana 582
Harris, D. L Mendota . 501
Harris, Capt. D. L Galena 156
Harris, J. H Mendota 466
Harris, J. O., M.D Ottawa 91
Harris, J. V., M.D Canton ... 343
Harris, Hon. J. W Tiskilwa 605
Hasselquist, T. N., D.D Rock Island 145
Hathaway, M. D Rochelle 145
Hawes, David Rock Island 176
Hawk, Hon. R. M. A Mount Carroll 504
Havvorth, G. D Decatur 726
Hay, Charles, M.D. Warsaw 263
Helm, Clinton, M.D Rockford 237
Hemenvvay, L. E Moline 146
Henderson, Hon. J. G Winchester 603
Henderson, Hon. T. J Princeton 521
Henry, Hon. M. S Sterling . i o j
Herbert, George Chicago 725
Hervey, Robert Chicago 635
Hewett, E. C., LL.D Normal ^
Hicks, Col. D. D. T Pittsfield 425
Higbee, Hon. C. L Pittsfield 816
Higgins, Hon. V. H Chicago. 586
Hinds, Hon. Andrew Lena 154
Hinman, H. S., M.D ...Newton 623
Hobbs, F. M Yorkville 231
Hoge Family Morris 524
Holbrook, E. S Chicago 686
Holderman, Abram Seneca 275
Holderman, Samuel Morris 420
Holgate, Hon. James Wyoming 362
Hopkins, Hon. H. B Peoria 827
Hoyne, Hon. Thomas Chicago 312
Hudson, Hon. H. S Yorkville 124
Hull, Alexander, M.D Lewiston 572
Hull, W. H Ottawa 175
Hummel, J. M Sandwich 306
Hunt, Hon. George Paris 812
Hunter, Hon. J. M Mount Carroll. . . . 233
Huntley, T. S Huntley 177
Hurd, Hon. H. B Chicago 636
Ingals, E. F., A.M., M.D Chicago 153
Ives, F. B. , M.D Chicago 247
Ives, W. E Amboy 218
Jenkins, R. E Chicago 181
Johnston, Hon. E. H Port Byron 402
Johnston, J. E Warsaw 601
Jones, Hon. A. M Warren . . 283
Jones, H. K. and C. G., M.D Jacksonville 676
Jones, J. A Springfield 274
Jones, Hon. J. H Henry 801
Jones, Hon. J. R Chicago 354
Jordan, W. A Morris 403
Kalb, J. C., M.D Henry 517
Kales, F. H Chicago 318
Karr, A. G Bloomington 254
Kellum, Hon. Charles Sycamore 668
Kendig, J. A. J Chicago 243
Kerns, Wm ... Moline 245
Kettelle, G. H Chicago 654
King, J. L Chicago 688
Kinnear, J. R Paxton 534
Kirk, Hon. George Waukegan 296
Kirkland, Joseph Chicago .... 256
Knapp, Col. N. M Winchester 810
Knickerbocker, Hon. J. C Chicago 278
Kretzinger, G. W Chicago 802
Lacey, Hon. Lyman Havana 754
Lake, L. L., M.D Belvidere 605
Landon , Nelson Waukegan 104
Langley, Hon. J. W Champaign 641
Launtz, Hon. W. P East St. Louis 226
Law Jr. , Wm Chicago 334
Lawrence, Hon. C. B Chicago 776
Lawrence, M. A Chicago 732
Lee, F. W., M.D Tiskilwa 242
Leeds, L. L., M.D . . Lincoln 87
Leland, Hon. E. S Ottawa 839
Leland, H. S Springfield 123
Lewis, Aaron., M.D Waukegan 76
Lincoln, Hon. Abraham i
Lincoln, Hon. R. T Chicago 779
Lindblom, Robert Chicago 290
Little, George Rushville 552
Locey, Hon. G. H La Salle 44
Lodge, W. E Monticello 723
Logan, John, M.D Carlinville 460
Logan, Hon. J. A Chicago 797
Logan, R. E Morrison 295
Long, J. T., LL.D Quincy 158
Longhurst, Wm Chicago 197
Lott, L. P Morris 214
Lovejoy , Owen Princeton 806
Ludlam, Reuben, M.D .Chicago 852
Luppen, Luppe Pekin 364
Lyman, D. B Chicago 770
Lyman, N. E Rockford 115
Lyman, Prof. W. C Chicago 724
M'acArthur, R. M., M.D Ottawa 368
MacKay, Duncan Morrison 834
McAllister Hon. W. K Waukegan 20
McCartney, James Springfield 14
McCartney, Hon. R. W Metropolis 663
McClaughry, R. W Joliet 459
McClellan, Hon. R. H Galena 378
McCoy, Alexander Chicago 492
McCoy, Hon. James Fulton City 258
McCulloch, Hon. David Peoria 442
McFadden, Col. R. H Mattoon 507
McFerren, J. S Hoopeston 359
McGeoch, Peter Chicago 704
McGlumphy, A. J., D.D Lincoln; 212
McGrath, Capt. Patrick Chicago 424
McKindley, William Chicago 171
McKinley, J. B Champaign 496
McMahan, L. W Griggsville 593
McMichael, J. B., D.D Monmouth 407
MoNeely, Hon. T. W Petersburgh 44
McPherran, J. E Sterling 354
Manier, W. H Carthage 388
Marlett, Isaac Aurora 383
Marshall, E. L., M.D Keithsburgh 401
Martin, G. W Winchester 207
Mason, Carlile Chicago 414
Mason, R. B Chicago 248
Mason, Hon. W. E Chicago 486
Mastin, Jethro, M.D Shannon 338
Maxwell, J. H,, M.D. . Newton .. 543
May, Ezra. Belvidere 3/3
Mayborne, Hon. J. H Geneva 379
Meacham, U. D Freeport 411
Means, Archibald Peru 381
Meech, G. A Chicago 626
Meriam, D. D Quincy 281
Mershon, Joab Vermont 544
Miles, O. P Mt. Carroll .-7-723
Miller, Rev. R.D Petersburgh 487
Mills, Col. C. F Springfield 446
Mills, L. L Chicago 812
Miner, E. G Winchester 203
Mix, H. A., M.D Oregon 38
Monroe, H. S Chicago 8
Montgomery, James, M.D Marseilles 378
Moore, C. H Clinton 714
86o
INDEX.
Moore, Hon. J. W Mound Station . . . 833 ^
Moore, Hon. Nathaniel Wenona 520
Moore, Hon. S. M Chicago 467
Morrison, Hon. I. S Jacksonville 811
Munroe, Thomas, M.D Rushville 542
Murphy, Hon. T. D Woodstock 631
Nance, Hiram, M.D Kewanee 767
Nance, W. H., M.D Vermonl 629
Neece, Hon. W. H Macomb 137
Nelson, Hon. W. E Decalur 738
Nesbill, G. W., M.D Sycamore 546
Newberry, Gen. W. C Chicago 447
Newell, Dorris, M.D Pecalonica 430
Nish, Capl. James Gary Station 444
Noble, Rev. J. H Lincoln 458
Noecker, William, M.D Monticello 818
North, Hon. Levi Kewanee 42
O'Conor, A. J La Salle 147
Ogle, Wm Toulon 327
Olney, John Chicago 759
Osman, William Ottawa 801
Otman, Hon. S. F Wyoming 309
Palmer, J. M Springfield 8
Palmer, Gen. J. M Springfield 7
Park, Roswell, M.D Chicago 361
Parlin and Orendoff Canton 801
Partridge, Gen. F. W Sycamore 370
Patterson, W. A Carthage 340
Patton, Hon. D. H Paxton 773
Palrick, Elias Marengo 662
Pearce, W. S Waukegan 305
Pearson, Hon. J. M Godfrey 824
Pearsons, D. K Chicago 300
Peltzer, Olio Chicago 620
Pepper, J. C Aledo 799
Petefish, S. H Virginia 328
Peters, Hon. M. H Walseka 374
Phillips, E. L., M.D Galesburgh 367
Pierce, J. H Kewanee 352
Pierce, T. P Kewanee 352
Pillsbury, Hon. N. J Pontiac 817
Planl, H. B La Salle 122
Pleasants, Hon. G. W Rock Island 206
Plumb, Hon. Fawcett Slreator 619
Plumb, Col. Ralph Streator 168
Plummer, S. C., M.D Rock Island 382
Pollock, S. D., M.D Galesburgh 389
Porter, Hon. John Monmouth 371
Poiier, E. S., M.D Oregon 409
Polls, J. H Jacksonville 817
Powell, John F Waukegan 372
Frail, L. G Chicago 576
Prentiss, Wm Macomb 294
Pressly, W. P Monmouth 348
Prellyman, B. S Pekin 595
Raab, Hon. Henry Springfield 413
Randall, G. P Chicago 394
Randall, Hon. I. V De Kalb 86
Raymond, S. W Ottawa 46
Read, Rev. F. A , Polo 418
Rearick, Hon. J. W Beardstown 570
Real, J. L., M.D Tuscola 535
Reed, Henry, M.D Rochelle 87
Reed, Rev. N. A Sandwich 41
Reed, S. R Monticello 715
Reeves, Hon. O. T Bloominglon 855
Reise, Augustus Allanla 204
Rice, Hon. Isaac, M.D Mount Morris .... 82
Richards, A. V Freeport 658
Richardson, R. K Chicago 564
Richings, C. H., M.D Rockford 404
Riggs, Hon. J. M Winchesler 206
Robinson, Hon. G. S Sycamore 63
Robinson, Hon. J. C Springfield 217
Rogers, Hon. J. G Chicago 855
Rogers, Timothy Quincy 323
Ross, Hon. L. W Lewiston 561
Rowley, Gen. W. R Galena 788
Royer, M. M., M.D Sterling 96
Russell, T. J Versailles 822
Rutz, Hon. Edward Springfield 792
Ryon, Hon. George, M.D Amboy . . 83
Sage, Rev. N. S ... Aurora 71
Sample, Alfred Paxton 554
Sawin, George Chicago 646
Scales, Hon. W. B Chicago 690
Schenck, W. E., M.D Pekin 610
Scholfield, Hon. John Marshall 767'
Schuyler, D. J Chicago 848
Scott, Charles, M.D Belvidere 411
Scott, G. W Wyoming 342
Scott, Hon. J. M Bloomington 40
Scott, Willard Naperville 844
Scranton, N. L Toledo 688
Sedgwick, W. W Sandwich 88
Seipp, W. C Chicago 429
Sharp, Hon. T. C Carthage 262
Shaw, Hon. Aaron Olney 786
Shaw, Hon. James Mount Carroll 799
Shaw, Hon. T. M Lacon 833
Sheets, Col. B. F Oregon 54
Sheldon, Hon. B. R Rockford 806
Sheldon, D. H Chicago 51
Shephard, J. A Jerseyville 217
Sherman, Hon. E. B Chicago 760
Sherman, P. L Chicago 824
Sherwin, Hon. J. C Aurora 104
Shimer, Henry, M.D Mount Carroll 208
Shope, Hon. L. P Lewiston 807
Shorey , D. L Chicago 696
Shreve, L. M Chicago 764
Shutt, Hon. W. E Springfield 74
Sibley, Hon. Joseph Quincy 823
Smith, Hon. A. A Galesburgh 840
Smith, B. N Woodstock 103
Smith, Hon. D. C Pekin 580
Smith, Frederick Pekin 556
Smith, J. I., M.D Shannon 47
Smith, P. B Chicago 613
Smith, P. H Chicago 350
Smith, P. H., Jr Chicago 398
Smith, U. P Chicago 441
Smith, Hon. W. H Chicago 67
Smith, Hon. W. M. . . . Lexington 830
Snyder, Hon. W. C Fulton 393
Spears, Charles and Son ......... Morrison 215
Springer, Hon. W. M Springfield 790
Stephens, Geo Moline 85
Stevens, Edmund, D.D.S Bloomington 74
Stevens, Justus Princeton 536
Stevens, Doctor W. A Chicago 540
Steward, Lewis Piano 84
Stewart, C. W., M.D Kirkwood 125
Stewart, Hon. J. M Monmouth 55
Slimming, Hon. Theodore Chicago 508
Stipp, Hon. G. W Princelon 559
Sloner, E. R., M.D Griggsville 419
Slorrs, E. A Chicago 792
Sloul, Joseph, M.D Oltawa 53
Stuart, Hon. J. T Springfield 805
Sullivan, Hon. M. A East Saint Louis. . 648
Sutherland, R. V Peru 101
Swan, R. K Moline 78
Swanbrough, J. W Waukegan 56
Swenie, D. J Chicago 735
Swell, Hon. Leonard Chicago 710
Swigert, C. P Springfield 98
Talliaferro, Hon. B. C Aledo 360
Taylor, Hon. J. A ' Chicago 503
Taylor, J. J., M.D ..'. Slrealor 624
INDEX.
86l
Terrell, A. A Sterling
Thatcher, W. H Morrison . . .
Thomas, G. D Thomasville.
Thomas, Rev. H. W Chicago
Thomas, Isaac Wyoming .
. 600
. 123
738
. 128
337
Thomas, Hon. J. W. E Chicago 673
Thomas, Hon. William Jacksonville 827
Thompson, A. C Paxton 579.
Thompson, J. S Chicago .... ._ t _^