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Full text of "Chicago: its history and its builders, a century of marvelous growth"

OF THE 
UNIVERSITY 
OF ILLINOIS 



97731 
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JIMS 



SOSl'EY 



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Chicago: Its History 
and Its Builders 

A CENTURY OF MARVELOUS GROWTH 




ILLUSTRATED 



VOLUME V 



1912 

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
CHICAGO 




SAMfEI, W. AT,LERTON 





Biographical 



SAMUEL WATERS ALLERTON. 

Eighty-three years of age, and Samuel Waters Allerton is still a vigorous, 
active man, although retired from the control of extensive business operations 
which formerly engaged his attention. In matters of public concern as well as 
in the conduct of private enterprises, he has played a leading role on the stage 
of action in Chicago and yet it is not to cities with their commercial, industrial 
and professional activities that he would direct the attention of young men start- 
ing in life, but to the farm "the almost certain source of revenue." George 
Washington declared agriculture is the most useful as well as the most honorable 
occupation of man, and in this occupation and its kindred interests stock rais- 
ing Mr. Allerton laid the basis of his success. His history through several gen- 
erations has been distinctly American in both direct and collateral lines. The 
progenitor of the family in this country was Isaac Allerton, who was born in Eng- 
land between the years 1583 and 1585, the exact date being unknown. He re- 
sided in London for some time prior to his removal to Holland in 1609 and came 
to the new world as one of the Mayflower passengers in 1620. It is generally 
admitted that he was the wealthiest of all of the Pilgrims and was one of the 
few among them to whom Bradford, and contemporaneous writers always gave 
the prefix "Mr.," which at that time was used as an index of superior family or 
respectability. He was also one of the three upon whom the privilege of citizen- 
ship was conferred by the city of Leyden, his associates in this honor being Wil- 
liam Bradford, afterward governor of the Plymouth colony, and Degory Priest, 
his brother-in-law. He was married in Leyden, September 4, 1611, to Mary 
Norris, of Newbury, England, and they had four children when they embarked 
on the Mayflower. His wife died February 25, 1621, and in 1626 he married Fear 
Brewster, daughter of Elder William Brewster. Her death occurred in 1634, 
while Isaac Allerton died in 1659. 

Samuel W. Allerton of the ninth generation of the family in America was 
born in Amenia, New York, May 26, 1828, a son of Samuel W. Allerton, whose 
birth occurred at Amenia, December 5, 1775. He was married March 26, 1808, 
to Hannah Hurd, who was born in South Dover, Dutchess county, New York, 
the eldest daughter of Ebenezer and Rebecca (Phillips) Hurd, the former an ex- 
tensive farmer and stockraiser of Amenia. Samuel W. Allerton, Sr., studied for 
the medical profession but abandoning his plan for the practice of medicine, 
learned the tailor's trade and became a merchant tailor, at the same time con- 
ducting a general store. In 1828 he joined with others in building and operating 
a woolen mill but the litigation of the sheriff in 1 833 caused the loss of nearly 

5 

213100 



6 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

all his fortune. In 1837 he removed westward to Iowa with the hope of retriev- 
ing his lost possessions but becoming ill, returned to the east. In 1848 he rented 
a farm in Yates county, New York, and six years later purchased land in Wayne 
county, upon which he spent hig remaining days. His religious faith was that 
of the Universalist church and he was one of the respected men of his community, 
although he did not seek to figure in public life. He lived to the venerable age 
of ninety-nine years and eight months. 

The youngest of the nine children in his father's family, Samuel W. Allerton 
of this review was but seven years of age when his father failed in business and 
was a lad of twelve when he began providing for his own support. He remained 
in Amenia until fourteen years of age and in 1842 went to Yates county with 
his parents, giving them the benefit of his services until they were able to buy 
the Wayne county farm. He then joined his brother Henry in renting a farm 
on which they made fifteen hundred dollars, which they gave in partial payment 
for the farm in Wayne county, assuming an indebtedness of three thousand dol- 
lars. In the cultivation of a rented farm Mr. Allerton saved thirty-two hun- 
dred dollars and then went to Newark, where he worked with his brothers on their 
farm and also traded in live stock to some extent. On his return from Albany, 
New York, where he had sold cattle, it was found that he and his brother were 
the possessors of three thousand dollars in cash and a farm clear of all indebted- 
ness. They divided their interests, Mr. Allerton taking the cash and starting out 
tor himself, bis brother advising him: "Make a name and character for your- 
self and you are sure to win." This advice he has ever followed and it has been 
the substance of his admonition to young men since that time. At the end of his 
first independent venture the sale of cattle in New York his sales amounted to 
seven hundred dollars. With characteristic energy and determination, however, 
he continued in business and later when he made a shipment of live stock to New 
York there was such a shortage of cattle on the market there that his sales netted 
him three thousand dollars. 

It was about that time that Mr. Allerton heard and heeded the call of th 
west and for a year thereafter engaged in raising and feeding cattle in Fulton 
county Illinois, but like hundreds of others, he was the victim of the financial 
panic which swept over the country at that time. This and ill health occasioned 
his return to the east and with his brother he engaged in merchandising for a 
short time in Newark, New York, but felt that the limits and possibilities in such 
an undertaking were too narrow. Disposing of his interest in the store and 
rowing five thousand dollars he returned to Fulton county, and in March, 1 
removed to Chicago, from which point he has since conducted his operations. At 
the same time he made further preparations for having a home in the city by his 
marriage at Peoria, to Miss Paduella M. Thompson, a daughter of Astor C. 
Thompson, of Fulton county. They became the parents of a daughter and son: 
Kate Bennett, who was born June 10, 1863, and on the 14th of October, 1 
became the wife of Dr. Francis Sidney Tapin. Following his death she marr.ed 
Hugo R Johnson. The son, Robert Henry, born March 20, 1873, is supervising 
extensive property interests. Following the death of his first wife Mr. Allerton 
wedded her sister, Agnes C. Thompson, on the 15th of March, 1882, and the.r 
home on Prairie avenue has ever been the center of a cultured society circle. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 7 

Mr. Allerton has always pinned his faith to farming and live-stock dealing 
as the surest source of success although he has operated extensively in other fields. 
He bought his first cattle shipment in the old Merrick yards on Cottage Grove 
avenue and as the city had no bank he had to depend upon express shipments of 
money from New York. It is well remembered by old time traders that in May, 
1860, upon sharp decline in prices he cornered the market by buying every hog in 
Chicago. He was at that time alone in the city and it was difficult for him to 
obtain money. Three telegrams, one from his own bank and two from New 
York, however, were regarded as sufficient security on the part of Aiken & Morgan, 
bankers, to secure him a loan at one per cent interest and the profits which accrued 
from that deal constituted the foundation of his fortune. Moreover, the experi- 
ence brought to him a recognition of the need and value of union stock yards and 
better banking facilities in Chicago and he set to work to accomplish both. In 
the '60s there were three stock yards in Chicago. In 1865 he joined with John 
B. Sherman in the agitation of a proposition to combine the interests and that 
their labors were resultant is indicated in the fact that the Union Stock Yards 
were organized in 1866. The wisdom of his judgment being attested in this en- 
terprise and success resulting therefrom, he also became interested in the stock 
yards at Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jersey City (New York yards), 
St. Joseph and Omaha. For many years he was president of the Allerton Pack- 
ing Company. His early experience with the banks led to his efforts for the es- 
tablishment of the first Chicago bank under the national banking law and he be- 
came one of the original directors of the First National Bank, in which he still 
holds large interests. There are two things which he says he never offers for 
sale stock in this bank and his Illinois farm lands. His experience bears out 
the statement of one who has long given close study to the economic conditions 
of the natural resources of the country and declares that "Illinois farm lands 
are the safest investment in all America." The holdings of Mr. Allerton com- 
prise eleven thousand acres in the Mississippi valley, including farm property 
in this state, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. He formerly owned nine 
thousand acres near Monticello, Illinois, known as "The Farms," which is one 
of the model live-stock farms of the world, now the property of his son. The 
home thereon is modeled after the typical residence of the English country gentle- 
man and although every acre is tilled to perfection, fine horses, cattle and hogs 
are the chief sources of revenue. Another Allerton property which is ever a source 
of delight to the owner is his summer home at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, standing 
in the center of two beautiful farms of eighty acres each. In California he main- 
tains his winter residence, an old Spanish mission building having been converted 
into a quaint yet elegant home. The business relations of Mr. Allerton in Chicago 
have been of vast benefit to the cHy. After watching the workings of the cable 
street car company in San Francisco in 1880 he used his influence as a stock- 
holder in the South Side Traction System, inducing Superintendent Holmes to 
investigate the cable with the result that it was adopted by the street railway 
companies of the city. He is still a director of the Chicago City Railway Com- 
pany. In addition to acting as a director of the First National Bank through all 
these years since its inception in 1863, he is a director in the First Trust & Sav- 
ings Bank, National Safe Deposit Company, the Weaver Coal & Coke Company 



8 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and the North Waukegan Harbor & Dock Company, and vice president of the 
Art Marble Company. He has at times made generous division of his wealth for 
the benefit of mankind, one of his chief benevolences being the establishment in 
conjunction with the late Henry E. Weaver of the St. Charles Home for Boys. 
He was at one time nominated by his friends for the mayoralty on the republican 
ticket but the entire ticket suffered defeat in that year. He is a strong protec- 
tionist and an advocate of all which advances the condition of American labor. He 
gave efficient aid to the World's Columbian Exposition as one of its directors, and 
has been a cooperant factor in much that has worked for the upbuilding and 
benefit of the city along yarious progressive lines. His name is on the member- 
ship rolls of the Calumet, Union League, Washington Park, Chicago Golf and 
Marquette Clubs, and he is, moreover, a member of the Illinois Society of the 
Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of Mayflower Descendants. He 
is of unemotional nature, yet of well balanced character who early learned to cor- 
rectly judge of life and its contacts, of his own capacities and powers and of those 
things which make up life's contacts and experiences. He has ever held to the 
principle which he has again and again enunciated in this fashion "no boy can suc- 
ceed unless he build up a character." He has never theorized much concerning 
life but has been a central actor on the stage. Never an extremist, he belongs to 
that class who maintain an even balance, never carried away by the chimerical 
illusions of the optimist nor moved from a stable center by the dark and depres- 
sing views of the pessimist. He recognizes the advancement of the world and the 
obligation of the individual to put forth intelligent effort if he would keep pace 
with universal progress. Among his strongly marked characteristics is a demo- 
cratic manner, a manner that always commands respect, preserves dignity and yet 
never forces onto one the knowledge of his success or prominence. Notwithstand- 
ing his prosperity he is a most approachable gentleman and nothing in his man- 
ner or speech would ever suggest his wealth. He is today the only Chicago busi- 
ness man' who was contemporaneous with the founders of Chicago's great industries, 
the Armours, Morris', Pullmans, Swifts, Palmers and Fields, with all of whom he 
had close personal acquaintance. No living citizen of Illinois today has done more 
toward the advancement of her agricultural, financial, industrial and general busi- 
ness interests than Samuel Waters Allerton. Inheriting a naturally robust con- 
stitution, observing the laws of nature throughout a most busy, active life, his 
reward, in addition to magnificent success, is a remarkable preservation of the 
physical man and mental faculties whose keenness is unimpaired. 



FRANK WALDO SMITH. 

There is perhaps no man in all Chicago who has done more to keep alive civic 
pride than Frank Waldo Smith, in business circles occupying the position of 
cashier of the Corn Exchange National Bank since 1885 and enjoying throughout 
all the intervening years the high regard of his colleagues. He is more widely 
known in the city at large because of the active part which he has taken in pre- 
serving records relative to Chicago's history and in disseminating among the younger 




PRANK W. SMITH 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 11 

generation a knowledge of past glories and events which have constituted the 
foundation upon which Chicago's present greatness and permanent prosperity rests. 
Although Mr. Smith has not yet passed the prime of life, he is one of Chi- 
cago's pioneers and his memory forms a connecting link between the primitive 
past and the progressive present. He was born in this city, May 19, 1849, only 
twelve years after its incorporation. In fact, it was at that time only a town 
a growing town to be sure upon a western prairie and had comparatively lit- 
tle commercial or industrial importance. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Waldo 
Wait Smith, who at the time of his birth resided at the northeast corner of 
Franklin and Madison streets. His mother in her maidenhood was Jane Elizabeth 
Fogg, a daughter of Ebenezer Fogg and was born at Cambridgeport, Massa- 
chusetts and came to Chicago in 1847. Mr. Waldo W. Smith came to Chicago from 
Pawlett, Vermont in 1836, settling here at the time when the city probably boasted 
of two brick buildings. The father's eldest brother, who had arrived in 1835, es- 
tablished the Union Ridge Hotel at the corner of Higgins street and Sixty-fourtli 
avenue, and in all the years which have since been added to the cycle of the cen- 
turies the members of this family have taken active and helpful part in the work 
of general progress and municipal improvement. 

In the acquirement of his education Frank Waldo Smith attended successively 
the Mosely school, in 1857, the Haven school in 1862, and the old Chicago high 
school, Monroe and Halsted streets in 1863. Four years later he entered the em- 
ploy of his father, who was a wholesale grocer at 43 South Water street as a 
partner of the firm of Smith Brothers, successors of Smith, Pollard & Company. 
In the great fire of October, 1871, their business was destroyed with a total loss, 
and Mr. Smith, therefore, turned his attention to other lines. Paralyzed for a 
brief moment by the awful calamity with which it had been visited, the city be- 
gan its rebuilding with renewed activity, accepting its losses as an impetus for in- 
creased development and progress. Mr. Smith, on the llth of April, 1872, se- 
cured a position as clearing house clerk in the employ of the Third National Bank, 
where he remained until the failure of that institution in 1875. For ten years 
thereafter he was chief clerk with the Merchants Loan & Trust Company and on 
October, 31, 1885, was elected to the position of cashier of the Corn Exchange 
National Bank, with which he has thus been connected to the present time, cov- 
ering a period of a quarter of a century. He is one of the oldest bank cashiers 
in years of continued service in Chicago and his long incumbency in the position 
stands in incontrovertible evidence of his ability and the high place which he 
occupies in the regard of his colleagues in banking circles. 

On the 9th of April, 1873, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Dora A. Hadden 
and unto them have been born three children: Fannie B., Osborn F. and Ethel 
H., who reside with their parents at No. 5539 Cornell avenue with the exception 
of Osborn F. Smith, who is now married and has established a home of his own. 
Mr. Smith is a prominent and popular member of the Press Club and for two 
years was its treasurer. Those who know him have been better for his friend- 
ship. Loyalty is one of his marked characteristics and it is manifest in all of his 
relations with his fellowmen. 

During the past ten years Mr. Smith has given much time to research concern- 
ing the early history of Chicago and has lectured to and entertained many audiences 



12 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

with his illustrated scenes and stories of the early days. His devotion to local 
interests has been like the loyalty of a dutiful son to a father. He stands today 
among the honored band of pioneer settlers, but, unlike many of them, he has not 
only been associated with the city during its formative period but has continued 
an active factor in its later day progress and improvement. While an honored 
representative of the past, he is doing for the present generation that which keeps 
fresh and causes to be cherished the memory of the old Chicago which was builded 
upon a strong and broad foundation of lofty purpose. No citizen possesses more 
valuable recorojs concerning the early days nor has a mind more greatly enriched 
by reminisciences of men and events of an earlier generation. His lectures have 
at times constituted the force that has called to life the memories of the earlier 
settlers, while the younger Chicago has listened speelbound to his stories of the 
early days. His efforts in this direction have been put forth all because of his 
devotion to the city which he loves so well, and both the older and younger genera- 
tion owe to him a debt of gratitude that can never be paid for what he has ac- 
complished in perpetuating not only for the present but for all future time the his- 
tory of the Queen city by the lake. 



ANDREW HULL PARKER. 

Dr. Andrew Hull Parker, of Chicago, designer, inventor, manufacturer and 
for many years past a leading specialist of the United States in the treatment of 
hernia, comes of one of the early Revolutionary families of New England and New 
York state. He was born at Springfield, Ohio, May 3, 1834, a son of Emory and 
Delopha (Bailey) Parker. The father was born in Graf ton county, New Hamp- 
shire, but the family subsequently located near Binghampton, New York, and lie 
removed to Ohio about 1830, taking up his residence at Springfield. He served 
most of his time in public office while in that city but in 1848 located on a farm 
near Geneseo, Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was twice 
married, his first wife dying in New York state. By that union there was one 
son, Albert B., who is now deceased. At Springfield Mr. Parker was married to 
Miss Delopha Bailey and to this union seven children were born, four boys and 
three girls, the subject of this review being the eldest. Those surviving are: 
David K., of Long Beach, California ; James Douglas, of Colby, Kansas ; and 
Orpheus B., of Oregon. 

Mr. Parker of this review received his preliminary education in the public 
schools and in an academy at Geneseo. He continued upon his father's farm until 
he was nineteen years of age and then, possessing the laudable desire to become 
independent, he secured employment in the grading of the Chicago, Rock Island 
& Pacific Railway. While at work he figured out the cost of grading and excavat- 
ing and attracted the attention of his employer who induced him to take a contract 
on his own account. He was thus engaged until fall and then entered school for 
the winter at Geneseo, working in a dry-goods store for his board. He again 
engaged in railroad contracting during the next summer and fall and spent the 
winter of 1851-55 teaching in a country school near Geneseo. In the spring of 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 13 

1855 he associated with Captain John Baxter, of Geneseo, in the dry-goods busi- 
ness, but one year later disposed of his interest to his partner and entered the 
academy at Geneseo. In the spring of 1857 he took another contract on the Rock 
Island Railway to grade nine miles of track beginning the work one station east 
of Washington, Iowa. The panic in the autumn of 1857, however, put a stop to 
the work and he went to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, where he taught school for three 
years. After the battle of Bull Run the rebel governor of the state took posses- 
sion of the school funds, thus temporarily closing most of the schools in the state. 
Mr. Parker was offered an appointment as quartermaster for a Union regiment, 
a part of which was being organized at Ste. Genevieve and he visited his old home 
in Illinois with the expectation of accepting this appointment. His wife and par- 
ents induced him to remain in private life and he took up his residence at Oquawka, 
Illinois, where he made a thorough study of trusses and appliances, beginning late 
in 1861 as a traveling specialist, selling trusses and appliances which were, manu- 
factured by eastern firms. In the fall of 1866, at the solicitation of Bartlett & 
Butman, of Boston, he established a house at No. 133 Clark street, Chicago, where 
business was carried on until after the fire, when he removed to 58 State street, 
remaining there for thirty years. Although the name of the firm was Bartlett, 
Butman & Parker, he was sole proprietor but conducted the business under that 
name until June, 1882, when he incorporated as the Common Sense Truss Com- 
pany. In the beginning he carried principally a line of trusses made by Bartlett 
& Butman, which he named the Common Sense Truss, taking out a trade-mark 
under that title. In 1882 he established a department for the manufacture of 
trusses with numerous improvements which he had invented from time to time, 
also manufacturing a large variety of other articles, principally of his own inven- 
tion. Probably the most noteworthy of these is the Parker Retentive Truss, rec- 
ognized the world over as the greatest invention in this line. 

In 1888 Dr. Parker was sued in the United States court by an eastern firm for 
alleged infringement of patent in the manufacture of elastic stockings. He excited 
much comment by acting as his own attorney and defeating some of the best legal 
talent of the country employed by his opponent. Since 1865 he has made a study 
of hernia and in 1883 was given a state certificate as a physician and has since 
made a specialty of the treatment of that disease. For over forty years he has 
been known as the leading expert in America in the treatment of rupture and has 
received the highest recognition as an authority in his specialty. In 1872, by an 
act of congress, the United States government through a medical board appointed 
for that purpose adopted Dr. Parker's truss as excelling all others in use and since 
that time has furnished these trusses free to its pensioners. His Common Sense 
Truss was awarded a medal and diploma at the International Exhibition at Phila- 
delphia, in 1876, and he received from the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 
1893, a medal of "Award for the great extent and variety of trusses and bandages, 
ingenuity of design and great adaptability," and a diploma of honorable mention 
"For his skill as a designer and inventor." In addition to his business as a manu- 
facturer he has invested successfully in real estate and lands and is the owner of 
a valuable ranch of over one thousand acres under irrigation, which is located four 
miles from Torrington, the county seat of Goshen county, Wyoming. 



14 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

On the 5th of May, 1858, Dr. Parker was married at Oquawka, Illinois, to 
Miss Mary Mickey, of that place, and six children have been born to this union, 
Emory H., Charles W., Maud D., Louis Frederick, Lily M. and Andrew H., Jr. 

Dr. Parker has taken the interest of a public-spirited citizen in politics and at 
various times has been prominent in securing the election of competent men to 
local and state officers. His office is at Nos. 300-306 Madison street, Chicago, and 
he resides at the Parker apartments, corner of Hinman avenue and Church street, 
Evanston. These apartments he erected in 1910 and they are pronounced the 
finest and most complete in the state outside of Chicago. He has made it a prin- 
ciple of his life to do to the very best of his ability whatever he undertakes, and it 
is to the observance of this principle that he largely owes his success. He has the 
satisfaction of looking back upon a long and useful career, in the course of which 
he has contributed his share toward the alleviation of the ills of humanity, and 
the respect in which he is held by his friends and by those who have benefited by 
his services is evidence that he has not lived in vain. By virtue of his ancestry 
he holds membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. 



HENRY DIBBLEE. 

Henry Dibblee to the time of his death was numbered among those resourceful 
men whose activity has, constituted the substantial and enduring qualities that 
have given Chicago her commercial greatness. He figured prominently in real- 
estate circles for many years as the senior partner of the firm of Dibblee & Man- 
ierre and also had voice in the management and control of important corporate 
interests of the city. Here he resided from 1872 until his demise on the 19th of 
December, 1907. He was born in New York city, August 20, 1840, a son of E. 
R. and Frances M. (Hayes) Dibblee. His father was recognized as one of the 
leading importers of dry goods in the metropolis until his later years, when he 
retired from business. 

Henry Dibblee was a pupil in private and boarding schools of the eastern 
metropolis until eighteen years of age, when he entered his father's establishment 
as a clerk and bent his energy toward the mastery of the various phases of the 
business until his knowledge, experience and ability had qualified him to take up 
the responsibilities of a partnership and he was admitted to the firm, so contin- 
uing until 1872. Thinking that the growing western city of Chicago offered still 
broader opportunities, Mr. Dibblee came to Illinois and in January, 1873, joined 
William R. and John S. Gould in the foundry and iron business, which was con- 
ducted under the firm style of Gould & Dibblee until 1 878. After the dissolution 
of the partnership Mr. Dibblee continued in the field as a dealer in ornamental 
iron work and afterward extended the scope of his trade by handling mantels and 
tiles, becoming an importer of man}' of the finest English encaustic tiles and also 
western agent for the leading American manufacturers. For eight years he con- 
ducted an extensive and growing business in those lines and then retired from 
the commercial field in 1886 to enter real-estate circles as a partner of George 
Manierre, operating under the firm style of Dibblee & Manierre up to the time 




1IKNIJY DIBBLEE 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 17 

of his demise. They soon became recognized as one of the leading real-estate 
firms in the city, negotiating many important transfers and managing deals which 
have left their impress upon the real-estate history of the city. Embracing favor- 
able opportunity for the extension of his interests in other lines, Mr. Dibblee became 
president of the Chicago Auditorium Association and an influential director of the 
Calumet and Chicago Canal & Dock Comapny. The leading business men of the 
city regarded his judgment as sound, his enterprise unfaltering and his business 
integrity unassailable. 

On the 26th of November, 1873, Mr. Dibblee was married to Miss Laura 
Field, a daughter of John Field, of Conway, Massachusetts, a sister of Marshall 
Field and a representative of a family whose ancestral connection with the old 
Bay state dates back to 1650. Mr. and Mrs. Dibblee became the parents of two 
daughters, Bertha and Frances F. The former is the wife of John O. King and 
the latter is the wife of A. A. Sprague, 2d. The children of this marriage are 
A. A. Sprague, 3d, and Laura Sprague. 

The death of Mr. Dibblee occurred December 19, 1907, and took from Chi- 
cago one of her prominent men and citizens. He attended the Episcopal church 
and gave his political support to the democracy. He held membership in the 
Saddle and Cycle and Mid-Day Clubs and was honored with the presidency of 
the latter. He greatly enjoyed social life and outdoor sports, anything in the 
line of athletics making strong appeal to him. He was also a lover of art, music 
and travel but more than all his interest centered in his home, where his friends 
found him a social, genial host whose cordiality was unfeigned, while his family 
knew him as a devoted, considerate and loving husband and father. It is these 
personal traits of character, even more than business success, that serve to keep 
alive the memory of a man among his fellowmen, and such were Mr. Dibblee's 
excellencies of character that many years will pass ere his memory will cease to 
be a cherished possession to those who knew him. ' 



GEORGE RANDOLPH DYER. 

If one could turn back the hour-glass until seventy-six years had been marked 
oil the calendar and could visit Chicago as it was more than three-quarters of a 
century ago, a little village would be found bordering the river near its mouth 
and within its boundaries there would be found few thoroughfares. However, the 
little town was peopled by an enterprising, progressive population men who had 
realized the opportunities of the west and had come hither to take part in the up- 
building of the wonderful inland empire which was springing up in the Missis- 
sippi valley. Among the number of Chicago's residents at that day was George 
Randolph Dyer, prominent as a citizen and as a man of business ability. In later 
years his efforts became a factor in the development of other sections of the state 
and in whatever community he lived, his service was of worth as a factor in pro- 
gress and improvement. He was born in Clarendon, Rutland county, Vermont, 
June 3, 1813. His ancestry can be traced back directly to Roger Williams, who 
was banished from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, and authentic history establishes 



18 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

the fact that a maternal ancestor was Mary Dyer, the Quaker, who was hanged on 
Boston Commons by order of the general court of Massachusetts at that period of 
unexplainable illusion which cost the lives of so many of the colony's worthy 
citizens. The Dyers came from England early in the seventeenth century, settling 
in Vermont, where some members of the family still reside. His father, Daniel Dyer, 
had a state reputation as a sheep raiser and substantial farmer, and was a soldier 
of the Revolutionary war. After the establishment of American independence he 
was commissioned major in the Massachusetts State Militia and his commission 
bearing the signature of Governor Hancock came into the possession . of his son 
George R. His mother was a Miss Susanah Olin, of the popular Vermont family 
of that name. A brother of George R. Dyer was the venerable and well known 
Dr. Charles V. Dyer, long a distinguished citizen of Chicago. 

Captain George R. Dyer acquired an academic education in the West Rutland 
Academy and at the age of twenty-one years started for the west, driving across 
the country alone from Clarendon, Vermont, to Chicago. He remained a resident 
of Chicago and of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, until 1841, and during that period aided 
in the organization of the territory of Wisconsin in 1838. He also assisted in mak- 
ing the survey of the Fox river with a view to using that stream as a feeder for the 
Illinois canal. In 1841 he removed to Will county where he engaged in farming 
and stock-raising, conducting a large and profitable business along that line. He 
was noted far and wide for his remarkable energy, which intelligently directed, 
brought him substantial success in life. In 1856 he was called to public office in his 
election to the position of sheriff of the county and after his term of office expired 
he returned to his farm where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil war in 
1861. When the first gun was fired, prompted by the same patriotic spirit which 
permeated his ancestors, he and his two sons joined the army for the union. The 
elder son was commissioned captain when but seventeen years of age and partici- 
pated in many a hotly contested battle. He died November 13, 1863, from disease 
contracted in a southern swamp. The history of the younger son is given below. A 
biography of Captain Dyer, written while he was still living, gave the following: 

"During the last thirty years Will county has known Captain Dyer as a citizen 
of note, not a little eccentric, witty, jolly as a companion and satirical in the reprov- 
ing of that which had not sense to recommend it. As a defender of the rights of 
man he has always been distinguished, and he considered it no disgrace to be called 
an abolitionist. He joined hands with them in bringing this country to be what it 
is today. In bold activity and uncompromising devotion Captain Dyer was the 
undisputed pioneer in Will county of that enthusiastic movement, as it was called 
by his friends, and fanatical movement, as it was called by his enemies, which ulti- 
mately struck the shackles from the American slaves. His home was one of the sta- 
tions on the line of the underground railway whereby many runaway slaves were 
ushered mysteriously into a locality and as mytseriously and quietly made their 
way out of it toward freedom in the north. He was a personal friend of Abraham 
Lincoln and Owen Lovejoy and it was to be expected that he would espouse the 
cause of the Union when war became the order of the day. He was serving as 
quartermaster at Pilot Knob while the battle raged there. On the 8th of January, 
18-11, he married Miss Elizabeth Howe Kimball, of Elgin, a lady of fine natural 
endowments and graceful manner, whose excellent sense, fine culture and domestic 




COL. GEORGE RANDOLPH DYER 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 19 

accomplishments eminently fitted her to become a helpmate for a young man of 
ambition and energy but without financial resources." 

Daniel Burns Dyer, the younger son of George Randolph Dyer, was educated 
in the public schools and the Illinois State Normal school. A contemporary biog- 
rapher has written of him as follows: 

"In 1862, leaving his father's farm on which he was reared, he joined his father 
and only brother, who were then in the Union army, and though but thirteen years 
of age at the time, he served until the close of the war in southeastern Missouri and 
Arkansas. He was captured during the war by General Sterling Price's army 
and held a prisoner for two weeks before making his escape. 

"Following the close of hostilities between the north and the south Colonel 
Dyer started for Kansas and the Indian territory, where he engaged in general 
merchandising, banking and trading with the Indians. He was also United States 
Indian agent in the southwest. In all of his business affairs he has displayed keen 
discernment, with a quick recognition of opportunity. He has always formed his 
plans readily, is determined in their execution and has ever recognized the fact, 
which too few people seem to understand, that when one avenue of effort seems closed 
there are others which are open and which may lead to the desired result. Mr. Dyer 
continued in the southwest until 1885, when he removed to Kansas City and here 
became a prominent factor in real-estate dealing. With remarkable prescience he 
recognized what the future had in store for this growing western city, made judi- 
cious investments in real estate and so handled his property interests in purchase 
and sale as to win a most gratifying financial return. For a considerable period he 
figured as one of the most prominent real-estate dealers of Kansas City. 

"While Colonel Dyer is well known because of his successful and extensive 
business operations, his efforts have been by no means confined to commercial and 
financial undertakings, for in many other lines he has labored wherein the public 
has been a direct beneficiary. For a period of fifteen years he was occupied in 
civilizing the Indians and teaching them self-support. He had charge of the fa- 
mous Lava Bed Modoc tribe, as well as eight other tribes at the same time, and later 
was given charge of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. When Oklahoma was opened 
Colonel Dyer was chosen the first mayor of Guthrie and took an active part in 
shaping the policy of the city during its formative period. During his connection 
with Indian affairs and with matters in Oklahoma, he had many most interesting 
and thrilling experiences. 

"In 1889 Colonel Dyer removed to Augusta, Georgia, and placed on foot a 
movement which has resulted in the transformation of that city's appearance. He 
there constructed the first trolley line in the south operated by water power and, 
extending his efforts into various fields of activity; in addition to being president of 
the Augusta Railway & Electric Company, he was president of the Georgia Rail- 
road Land & Colonization Company, the Dyer Investment Company, the Gas Light 
Company, of Augusta, and the Augusta Chronicle, the south's oldest newspaper, 
established in 1785. With superior business ability he possesses great public spirit 
and a love of the beautiful, and to these qualities of his nature Augusta is indebted 
for Lake View Park and Monte Sano Park. Colonel Dyer still maintains a winter 
home in the vicinity of Augusta, in which connection a local paper said: 'Chateau 
Le Vert, Colonel Dyer's private residence in Summerville, is one of the show 



20 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

places of the country. There he entertains with princely hospitality and with al- 
ways a hearty welcome to all his friends.' This home was formerly the residence 
of Madame Octavia Walton Le Vert, granddaughter of George Walton, the first 
governor of Georgia and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
Everything connected with this brilliant woman is carefully and highly prized by 
Colonel Dyer, who in her honor named his famous home Chateau Le Vert. This 
house of twenty-seven rooms is furnished entirely with antique furniture one of 
the best known collections in the United States. Interested also in military affairs, 
Colonel Dyer has for many years been an officer in the Georgia State Militia. 

"His membership relations also extend to the Society of Colonial Wars and 
Sons of the American Revolution, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal 
Legion, and anything which pertains to the welfare of the soldier or bears upon 
our military history is of interest to him. In fraternal lines he is connected with 
the Odd Fellows and with the Masons. He has attained the Knight Templar degree 
in the commandery and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. 

"At a recent date Colonel Dyer has returned to Kansas City, for which he has 
always had an especial fondness. In various ways he has manifested his interest 
in the city, one of the most tangible being his gift of fifteen thousand objects to 
the city for a museum. For more than thirty years he has been a collector of In- 
dian curios, which were exhibited and awarded medals and diplomas at the World's 
Columbian Exposition at Chicago and also at Atlanta and Augusta. This is by far 
the finest collection of Indian relics in the country and while it is almost impossible 
to place a money value on these, it is estimated that the collection is worth not less 
than two hundred thousand dollars. It also contains curios from Africa, the Phil- 
ippine Islands, Mexico and other countries. An article of rare value is an Indian gar- 
ment which is strung with fifteen hundred elk teeth, which are quoted on the 
market at from two to five dollars each. Since his return to Kansas City Colonel 
Dyer has here erected one of the most palatial residences of the entire Mississippi 
valley. Its woodwork and decorative features have come almost entirely from the 
Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, and the interior from the Victoria 
House, which was all made in England at the suggestion of Queen Victoria and 
made part of the building at Chicago by the royal commission for Great Britain, 
while other parts of his home came from the Alaska building, the Indian Territory 
building and the Louisiana State building of the St. Louis Exposition. It stands 
on a tract of forty acres of land on Independence Road, north of Beaumont station 
and occupies a sightly bluff commanding a view for many miles. The Corinthian 
columns, supporting the portico, which is two stories high, extend across the entire 
front and both sides of the building. The ground plan of the house measures one 
hundred and twelve by sixty-nine feet and it is three full stories in height. The 
woodwork in the first story is nearly all from the Victoria House. The feature 
of the music room is a handsomely carved organ case taken from the New York 
State building at the St. Louis fair. The modeled plaster ceiling in the parlor and 
hall are copied from ceilings in Plas Mawr at Conway, North Wales, built about 
1550 by the Wynns of Gwydir and known in England as Queen Elizabeth's Palace. 
The staircase from the Victoria House is of English walnut, the carving wrought 
by hand, and the ceiling, the stairway and main landing are copied from one still 
existing at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. In the living room is a fireplace taken 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 21 

from Victoria House and built of terra cotta. Above the fireplace is a deep frieze 
and upon it is carved in old English lettering the following inscription: 

'Babble not o'ermuch, my friend, 

If thou wouldst be called wyse. 
To speak or prate or use much talk 

Engenders many lyes.' 

"The house contains many beautiful works of art as displayed in its bric-a-brac, 
fancy chandeliers, heavy bronze lamps designed by Tiffany for the veranda, urns 
and statuary for the terraces and lawn. In any analyzation of the life of Colonel 
Dyer it would seem almost difficult to designate his predominant characteristic. 
When one sees him, considering a business proposition, he seems an alert man 
whose entire thought and purposes are concentrated upon business problems ; to 
converse with him, concerning the curios and the antique furniture that he has 
collected, one would imagine that his entire life had been devoted to that task; if 
one discuss with him the Indian question, it would seem that his time had been 
given exclusively to the study of this governmental problem; meeting him socially 
one finds him a most genial, hospitable host, whose one aim seems to be the com- 
fort of his guests. Summing up all these things, one comes to know Colonel Dyer 
as a most broad-minded man of wide interest, who is never too busy to be cordial 
nor never too cordial to be busy." 

When the Kansas City Museum was established Colonel Dyer made valuable 
contributions thereto of his famous collection accumulated during a residence of 
fifteen years with the Indians, and since then in all parts of the world, for in mak- 
ing his collection Mr. Dyer did not confine his researches to the limits of Indian 
reservations. Hence there are found in his collection many most curious objects 
of great interest from the isolated islands of the sea and from Mexico; South 
America; the wilds of Africa; from Alaska, China, Japan and Turkey. Colonel 
Dyer is now residing in Augusta, Georgia, but is well known in Chicago and in 
other parts of the country where his interests and labors have taken him and where 
at all times his personal worth and public spirit have made him a valued citizen. 



WILLIAM JOSEPH WATSON. 

William Joseph Watson, now living retired, was born in Philadelphia, March 
26, 1843, a son of James V. and Elizabeth M. Watson. He was graduated from 
the Central high school of his native city and, in 1863, went to Battle Creek, 
Michigan, where he remained in business for seven years. In 1870 he went to St. 
Louis, Missouri, as representative of the Middleton Car Spring Company, of 
Philadelphia, and on the 1st of May, 1873, arrived in Chicago as representative of 
the same company, with which he was promoted until he became president in 1890. 
He has organized several well known companies in the railway supply business, 
among the most prominent being the Buda Foundry & Manufacturing Company, 
established in 1884. He was also the promoter of the Hewitt Manufacturing Com- 



22 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

pany, which he organized in 1886, and the Fort Madison Iron Works Company, 
which he founded in 1887. He served as president of all, and at one time was 
vice president and a director of the Metropolitan National Bank. He was like- 
wise vice president of the Calumet & Chicago Canal Dock Company and of the 
Willard Sons & Bell Company, manufacturers of car axles. 

In 1865 Mr. Watson was united in marriage to Miss Amelia E. Gould, of New- 
ark, New Jersey, and they have a son, James V., born in November, 1866. The 
family reside at No. 2640 Prairie avenue. 



CALVIN S. SMITH. 

When a man possessed of good judgment, clear insight and unusual business 
acumen assumes duties for which he has natural ability he seldom fails to make 
a success of his undertaking. Thus it was with Calvin S. Smith, for many years 
general agent in Chicago for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Phila- 
delphia. Thrown upon his own resources at the early age of thirteen, his life 
record furnished a splendid exemplification of courage and self-confidence crowned 
with well earned success. 

A product of the Nutmeg state, which has contributed so many able insurance 
men, Calvin S. Smith was born December 21, 1851, at Thompsonville. He was 
n son of Martin M. and Anne (Stevens) Smith, the former of whom was born in 
Connecticut and the latter in Glasgow, Scotland. The father of Mrs. Smith, 
James Stevens, came to America in the latter part of the '80s with his family and 
established his home in Connecticut. He was a successful merchant, financier and 
wholesale coal dealer. Martin M. Smith, the father of our subject, was a skilled 
mechanic. He also possessed unusual inventive ability and was the inventor of 
the c-il spring now universally used in railroad coaches. He died in 1867, his 
wife passing away ten years later. Calvin Smith, the grandfather, came west early 
in the '40s. He traveled on the Erie canal, which was then the principal route 
across New York state, and drove an ox team from Detroit, locating in Armada, 
Michigan. He engaged in farming and died early in the '50s, on the farm upon 
which he- established his home. His faithful wife survived until 1872. The Smith 
family participated prominently in early wars of the country. David Smith was 
a valiant soldier at the time of the Revolution and Calvin Smith wore the uniform 
of the United States government in the war of 1812. The men of the family have 
been noted for their bravery in times of danger and their unswerving fidelity to 
any cause which they espoused. Martin M. Smith was one of the first men to en- 
list in the Union army at the time of the Civil war, serving in the Forty-seventh 
Massachusetts Volunteers. 

Until the age of eleven years Calvin S. Smith attended the public schools in 
Chicopee, Massachusetts, and about one year later entered the Wesleyan Academy 
at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, where he remained one term. Unfortunate circum- 
stances then threw him upon his own resources and made him the architect of his 
own fortune. After leaving school he started in as an errand boy and was thus 
engaged in a store in Chicopee for some time. Following this he obtained a posi- 







CALVIN S. SMITH 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 25 

tion in his uncle's store in Thompsonville, Connecticut, where at the end of one 
year, by industry and economy, he had accumulated sufficient money to pay his 
expenses for another term at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts. After 
completing his term he went to Hartford, Connecticut, where he obtained a posi- 
tion as clerk in a wholesale fruit house, where he was engaged two and one-half 
years. Leaving this position, he went west, locating in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
about 1869, and there took the position of clerk in the office of the United States 
Express Company. Later he ran as express messenger for about four years for 
this company between Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Cadillac, Michigan, and subse- 
quently, after a year spent in northern Michigan and Chicago, where he was en- 
gaged in the lumber business, he went into the men's furnishing business, which 
he carried on for four years. Satisfied that better returns could be secured by tak- 
ing on a larger subject, he entered the life insurance field in 1880, connecting him- 
self with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin. He made a success of the business from the beginning. He found the in- 
surance business a congenial occupation. His mind was unusually quick of appre- 
hension and he advanced rapidly, taking a foremost position as a producer of busi- 
ness. In 1883 he was made general agent for Chicago and Cook county of the 
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia, one of its most important 
general agencies. In this capacity he not only made a big success but employed 
methods that dignified the business and took rank among the ablest men in the 
country in his position and developed the business until the agency became one of 
the leading ones in the city. In 1902 he admitted C. J. McCary and M. E. Ran- 
dolph into the business, the firm becoming Smith, McCary & Company, in which 
Mr. Smith continued as the head during the remainder of his active life. 

Soon after taking up the insurance business in 1880 Mr. Smith established one 
of the pioneer real-estate businesses on the south side, founding the firm of L. 
M. Smith & Brother. At that time he carried on the business during his .spare 
hours and evenings. He soon found that he had assumed too much and that he 
had more work than he could attend to properly, so he turned the business over to 
his brother L. M. Smith, the present head of the firm. 

Politically Mr. Smith gave his support to the republican party and in religious 
belief he was reared as an anti-fiddler Scotch Presbyterian but after his marriage 
adhered to the Reformed Episcopal church. He was a prominent club man and 
his presence at club gatherings was always welcome as he possessed a sunny dis- 
position and the rare faculty of creating a feeling of geniality wherever he ap- 
peared. He was a valued member of the Union League, Washington Park and 
Midlothian Clubs, and held life memberships in the South Shore Country Club and 
the Chicago Athletic Association, also being connected with the Big Lake Shooting 
Club and the Pekin and Spring Lake Gun and Fishing Club. He took great de- 
light in outdoor sports and was a lover of golf and the automobile. 

Pleasing in manner, witty and universally esteemed, Mr. Smith drew friends 
through the force of an agreeable personality. He was a lover of his home but 
his business required contact with the world and few men were so active in affairs, 
traveled more extensively or could claim a larger circle of acquaintances in all parts 
of the United States. He personally met most of the prominent men of America 
and some of his warmest friends were men high in business, social and political 

Vol. V 2 



26 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

circles. He never yielded to excesses as his character was remarkably well bal- 
anced and the longer he was known the greater the confidence and respect in 
which he was held. 

Such is a brief outline of the life and work of one of the brightest and most 
popular insurance men Chicago has known. He was manly, honorable and upright 
and had the esteem and regard of all who knew him. His death, which occurred 
on the 26th of December, 1909, was deeply felt. He is survived by his widow, 
Mrs. Ida A. Smith, who previous to her marriage, on November 24, 1875, at 
Kalamazoo, Michigan, was Miss Ida A. Allen, a daughter of John Baker and 
Katherine (Murray) Allen. For a number of years her father was prominently 
identified with the woolen manufacturing business at Syracuse, New York, later 
taking up his residence at Kalamazoo. Mrs. Smith still resides in the home at 
3982 Lake avenue which her husband built and lived in for more than twenty 
years previous to his death. He was buried in Oakwoods cemetery, where his widow 
has erected a magnificent mausoleum. His memory is held in profoundest regard 
by those with whom he associated and his many generous and friendly acts like 
a beautiful benediction continue to wield their influence although he is no longer 
to be seen in the home circle or in the social gatherings of which he was the ac- 
knowledged leader. 



STEWART SPALDING. 

Preeminently a business man, Stewart Spalding has never sought to figure be- 
fore the public in any other light and, in fact, has always manifested a spirit of 
modesty in regard to his personality. He was born in Middlebury, Vermont, a 
son of Joel and Harriet C. (Allen) Spalding, and in early life removed to Water- 
town, New York, where he acquired his education and training in the public schools 
of that city, graduating from the Jefferson County (N. Y.) Institute. His school 
days over, he sought the opportunities of the west and his dynamic force and keen 
discernment have been vital forces in the management of important business inter- 
ests in Chicago. For twelve years he was secretary and treasurer of the Calumet 
& Chicago Canal & Dock Company, the company that founded the town of South 
Chicago and that made it possible for the Illinois Steel Works to build their im- 
mense plant at that place. 

Chicago owes it to Mr. Spalding for its only exposition building as it was his 
conception and his enterprise that gave the city the Coliseum building. As secre- 
tary and managing director of the Coliseum Company he has capably met the 
demands required, in the successful control of an enterprise of such magnitude. 
In the Coliseum have been held some of the world's greatest exhibitions. It has 
been the convention hall for some of the most prominent gatherings in the United 
States. To control the Coliseum's interests, to make its rentals a paying invest- 
ment is the duty which devolves upon Mr. Spalding, and his business associates 
speak of his labors in this connection in terms of praise and commendation. 

Mr. Spalding's wife was Carrie S. Chapin of Chicago; they reside at No. 1349 
North State street. Mr. Spalding is a republican in his political sentiments, but 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 27 

has never sought activity or prominence in political circles, preferring to concen- 
trate his energies upon the complex and important business problems which are 
continually arising for solution in connection with the management of the Coliseum. 
He is, however, interested in Chicago's upbuilding, and his opinions have on many 
occasions proved influencing factors in questions of vital municipal importance 
bearing upon the material upbuilding and the adornment and improvement of the 
city. 



WALKER O. LEWIS. 

Walker O. Lewis is occupying a position of responsibility as assistant treasure* 
of Sears, Roebuck & Company. Mr. Lewis was born in Petersburg, Illinois, June 
24, 1874. His paternal grandfather was the Rev. W. H. Lewis, for many years 
a well known minister of the Methodist church, connected always with the Mis- 
souri conference. He passed away in 1909, at the age of ninety-five years, being 
at that time the oldest minister in Missouri. His influence was a potent force in 
behalf of Christianity and his labors did much to spread the truth of the gospel 
in the state which he made his home. 

Charles T. Lewis, the father of our subject, was a native of Howard county, 
Missouri, born near Glasgow, and his early youth was spent at Independence, Mis- 
souri, a district which at that time was in a state of continuous unrest, for this was 
just before and during the early period of the Civil war, when desperate fighting 
was going on between the Kansas jayhawkers and the Missouri guerrillas. Inde- 
pendence was also the starting point for California mail and passengers carried 
overland in coach drawn by six Mexican mules with side driver. Life and property 
were rendered unsafe owing to the high feeling which prevailed, and because of 
this fact the grandfather of Walker O. Lewis removed with his family to Fayette, 
Missouri. It was not long after this that Charles T. Lewis enlisted for service 
in the Confederate army, serving for nearly three years with the troops under 
General Price. He was wounded at the battle of Pea Ridge, where the Confed- 
erates were defeated by Siegel's army, and after their defeat hurried away down 
the Arkansas river, proceeding by boat down the Mississippi to Memphis. Mr. 
Lewis was also wounded in the siege of Vicksburg, which lasted from April until 
July. Prior to that time he had been wounded three times in the battle of Corinth 
and was again wounded at Champion's Hill, just before entering upon the siege 
of Vicksburg. He participated in twenty hotly contested engagements and many 
skirmishes. Following the siege of Vicksburg he was taken up the Mississippi 
river to St. Louis, where he was placed in the home of a friend until he had suffi- 
ciently recovered to be transferred, under bond, to Petersburg, Illinois, where he 
now resides. He was united in marriage there to Miss Annie White, a daughter 
of Isaac White, a successful business man of Petersburg, and unto them were born 
three sons and five daughters, two of the sons, Walker O. Lewis and Ralston I. 
Lewis, D. D. S., being residents of Chicago. The third brother was killed by 
accident in Chicago. Two daughters of the family are married and a third is a 
successful teacher of music, while the two youngest daughters of the family became 
equally successful as public-school teachers. 



28 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

While spending his boyhood days in the home of his parents, Walker O. Lewis 
mastered the branches of learning which constituted the public-school curriculum 
in his native city, and later in Chicago had the benefit of a special course in high- 
school studies. After completing his earlier education, he took a position with 
Harms, Levering & Clary of Petersburg, Illinois, in September, 1889, which he 
retained until September, 1895, when, attracted by the broader business oppor- 
tunities of the city, he came to Chicago, and in order to better equip himself for 
a commercial career, spent six months as a student in the Bryant & Stratton Busi- 
ness College. On the 25th of February, 1896, he entered the employ of Sears, 
Roebuck & Company as office boy. He became deeply interested in the business, 
early manifested his willingness to work, gave indication that his industry was 
directed by good judgment, and thus he advanced steadily from one position to 
another until he was made assistant treasurer. His labors and ability have con- 
tributed to the splendid success of this house, the growth of which has been almost 
phenomenal, its trade interests covering the entire country. It is one of the largest 
mail order houses in the world and its success is due to the efforts of young busi- 
ness men like Mr. Lewis, who fear not that close application and unfaltering 
industry which are indispensable elements of success. 

On the 27th of April, 1900, Mr. Lewis was united in marriage to Miss Hattie 
Kaestner, daughter of Herman Kaestner, a pioneer tobacco merchant. Mr. Kaest- 
ner. lost his property and stock of tobacco in the great Chicago fire. He died in 
1895. Mrs. Kaestner, nee Gebhardt, came over from Germany in a sail boat in 
the '50s, and the time consumed in making the trip was seventy-seven days. The 
trip was accompanied by many perils. Mrs. Kaestner enjoys telling about their 
early experiences in Chicago, and especially relative to the growth thereof. Mrs. 
Kaestner spends most of her time with Mrs. Lewis in Oak Park and still enjoys 
good health. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have been born three sons: Harold Walker, 
Ralph Palmer and Paul Osborn. 

Mr. Lewis has also served as treasurer of the Seroco Mutual Benefit Associa- 
tion since its formation in 1902, an organization operated in the interests of the 
employes of Sears, Roebuck & Company. Mr. Lewis owns a home in Oak Park, 
is a member of the Cuyler Avenue Methodist Episcopal church of Oak Park, and 
is much interested in religious work. He holds a membership in the City Club, 
Young Men's Christian Association and Art Institute, and is a graduate of the 
Western College of Law. 



GEORGE B. CURRIER. 

George B. Currier, residing at No. 312 Kedzie street, Evanston, and well known 
as an extensive dealer in flour, feed and grain, was born in Newburyport, Massa- 
chusetts, November 18, 1856, his parents being George E. and Harriet (Bartlett) 
Currier, both of whom spent their entire lives in the old Bay state, where they 
now lie buried. His paternal grandfather was Joseph Currier and his maternal 
grandfather was Joseph Bartlett. George E. Currier was an old-time shipbuilder 
on the banks of the Merrimac river, which even back in Revolutionary times was 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS . 29 

noted as a ship-building place, the old Dreadnought having been built there. 
George E. Currier was one of the last of the old ship-builders of that place and 
was widely known as a reliable and capable business man. He was twice mar- 
ried, his first wife being Harriet Bartlett, by whom he had two children: George 
B. Currier, of this review; and Nellie, who was two years younger than her brother 
and is now deceased. For his second wife the father chose Sarah Simonds and 
unto them were born six children, three sons and three daughters, all yet living 
with the exception of two daughters. 

George B. Currier, whose name introduces this record, attended the public 
schools of his native town until he had mastered the work of successive grades and 
was graduated from the high school. He entered business in connection with the 
dry-goods trade at Georgetown, Massachusetts, in 1878 and there remained for 
five years. On the expiration of that period he removed to the middle west, set- 
tling first at Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the grain business 
from 1883 until 1895. In that year he removed to Paola, Kansas, where he also 
conducted a grain business for three or four years. Seeking, however, a broader 
field of labor, he came to Chicago in 1899 and here engaged in the flour and grain 
business in connection with Arthur G. Pearson at Evanston. The undertaking 
prospered and after three years he purchased his partner's interest, having been 
engaged in business alone since 1902. He now has an extensive trade in flour, 
feed and grain, being well known among the retailers of the north side as a man 
liberal in his dealings and at all times straightforward and honorable in his methods. 

In October, 1881, Mr. Currier was united in marriage to Miss Mary Agnes 
Pearson, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, her parents being Alonzo and Lydia 
Pearson. Our subject and his wife have two daughters, Nellie and Edith, both 
still at home. 

Politically Mr. Currier is a republican, well informed concerning the questions 
and issues of the day yet with no ambition for office. He was reared in the Con- 
gregational church and he is a Mason of high rank, belonging to all the different 
Masonic bodies. 



OTTO J. DEWITZ, M. D. 

Dr. Otto J. Dewitz, an alumnus of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
has since his graduation in 1904 been engaged in practice in Chicago. He was 
born in Peotone, Illinois, June 7, 1876. His father, Jacob Dewitz, was a native 
of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, devoted his life to wagon manufacturing and 
passed away on the 22d of March, 1904. His wife, who bore the maiden name of 
Mary Offner, was also born in Germany and died November 21, 1910. They were 
the parents of five children: Theodore H., who is a druggist of Chicago; Mary, 
of Cheyenne Wells, Colorado; August C., living in Salt Lake City; Otto J., of 
this review; and Louis C., who makes his home in this city. 

When six years of age Otto J. Dewitz became a pupil in the public schools of 
Peotone, wherein he continued his studies until shortly before the time of gradua- 
tion, when he left school to accept a position, working in a general store for two 



30 . CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

years. Within that period, however, he had determined to become a physician 
and so continued at work in order to earn the money to defray his expenses through 
college. At the close of his two years' experience as a clerk in a general store in 
his native town he removed to Chicago and for three years was employed as a 
salesman in Gus Naerup's grocery store. He afterward spent three years in his 
brother's drug store and also attended the Chicago College of Pharmacy, from 
which he was graduated in 1901. This gave him broad and beneficial knowledge 
of remedial agencies and in 1902 he entered the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, from which he was graduated in 1904, standing ninth in his class and receiv- 
ing honorable mention. Immediately afterward he opened an office at No. 4001 
Milwaukee avenue, where he has since been located. He does not specialize but 
continues in the general practice of medicine and surgery and has a splendidly 
equipped and appointed office, supplied with the latest improved instruments and 
help| in practice. He now has one of the latest X ray machines in his office and 
this has been of great help to him in his surgical work. He holds membership 
in the Chicago Medical Society and the American Medical Association and is con- 
tinually studying to promote his knowledge and skill. 

Dr. Dewitz holds membership with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern 
Woodmen of America and of the latter is medical examiner. He is also a member 
and medical examiner of several other societies. In politics he is a republican, 
voting for the men and measures of the party yet not seeking office. He has his 
residence and office at No. 4001 Milwaukee avenue and is a very busy man, con- 
stant demands being made upon him for his professional service. He has won a 
position that many an older practitioner might well envy and what he has already 
accomplished argues well for the future. 



RUDOLPH MATZ. 

Chicago has always been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and bar. 
The legal profession here represented has numbered among its members many 
men whose work has gained for them national prominence. Native intellectual 
force wisely directed in professional channels has brought Rudolph Matz to a dis- 
tinguished position, and as senior member of the firm of Matz, Fisher & Boyden 
he is accorded a very extensive clientage. His birth occurred in Chicago, December 
11, 1860, his parents being Otto H. and Mary Elizabeth (Lewis) Matz. Since 1854 
the father has been an architect of Chicago. He was born in Berlin, March 8, 1830, 
and in the '50s he was architect for the Illinois Central Railroad and the Chicago 
& Alton Railroad. He built the great Illinois Central depot that was destroyed in 
the Chicago fire of 1871. He became connected with the Union army as a civil 
engineer at the time of the war of the rebellion and held the rank of major at its 
close, serving in the meantime on the staffs of Generals Fremont, Hallock and Grant. 
He worked with General Wilson in the preparation of the plans for the capture of 
Vicksburg and rode into that city with General Grant. From 1869 until 1871 he 
acted as school architect of Chicago and in 1892, while serving as county architect, 




RUDOLPH MATZ 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 33 

he erected the present criminal court building. After the Chicago fire he received 
the first prize of five thousand dollars in competition with forty other architects for 
plans for the city hall and county building. 

His wife was born in Pulaski, New York, December 13, 1837, and on the 26th 
of October, 1857, gave her hand in marriage to Otto H. Matz. She came to Chicago 
in 1852 with her parents, Hiram and Mary Jane (Gillespie) Lewis. Her brother, 
Hiram LaMotte Lewis, was for many years a prominent lawyer in Chicago, was 
a partner of Thomas Hoyne, who was at one time mayor of Chicago, and later was a 
member of the firms of Miller, Van Arman & Lewis, and Miller, Frost & Lewis. 
Until the time of her death, November 13, 1911, Mrs. Matz was prominent in 
connection with philanthropic, charitable and educational work in this city. 
She was for many years president of the Mary Thompson Hospital for Women and 
Children and was one of the founders of the Fortnightly Club. She was also a 
prominent member of the Chicago Woman's Club and some years ago served as its 
president. For forty-four years the Otto H. Matz residence has been on Oak 
street near the Lake Shore drive. The home was burned in the Chicago fire but was 
replaced by a more modern residence shortly thereafter. 

There were three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Matz, two sons and a 
daughter. Hermann Lewis Matz, who was born on the 2d of February, 1859, was 
graduated from Williams College with the class of 1880 and is a member of the 
Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities. He is now serving as 'vice 
president of the S. S. Kimbell Brick Company of Chicago. Evelyn Matz, whose 
natal day was September 7, 1862, is a graduate of the University of Chicago, was 
at one time principal of the Dearborn Seminary and is now associate principal of the 
University School for Girls. 

Rudolph Matz was reared amid the refining influences of a cultured home. 
His early educational opportunities came to him through the Chicago public-school 
system, he attending successively the Sheldon, Ogden and Haven schools and the Cen- 
tral high school. His collegiate course was pursued in Williams College, which 
conferred upon him the Bachelor of Arts degree at his graduation in 1882. Drawn 
to the profession of the law, he pursued a course in the Northwestern University 
Law School and was graduated Bachelor of Law in 1886. Before entering that school 
he had spent two years, from 1882 until 1884, as a teacher in the Higher School 
for Boys, now the University School of Chicago, and he completed his law course 
with valedictorian honors. In the year 1885-6 he was a student hi the law office 
of Dexter, Herrick & Allen, and following his graduation from Northwestern 
University he spent a year (1886-7) in foreign travel, making a trip around the 
world. Following his return in the latter year he became assistant in the law office 
of Barnum, Rubens & Ames, and from 1888 until recently practiced in partnership 
with Walter L. Fisher. The firm was known as Matz & Fisher until 1897, when they 
were joined by William C. Boyden, now one of the overseers of Harvard University, 
and the present firm name of Matz, Fisher & Boyden was assumed. They were 
joined by Laird Bell in January, 1910, and by William Warren Case in October, 
1910. Mr. Fisher was obliged to leave the firm in March, 1911, owing to his ap- 
pointment by President Taft to the office of Secretary of the Interior, but the firm 



34 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

name remains unchanged. Because of being executor of the estate pf his father- 
in-law, Charles M. Henderson, Mr. Matz was also vice president and director of the 
wholesale boot and shoe house of C. M. Henderson & Company from 1896 until 
1902. He is also a director of the United Shoe Machinery Company. During the 
World's Columbian Exposition the firm of Matz & Fisher acted as attorneys for the 
ways and means committee. Their practice has long been of an important char- 
acter, connecting them with prominent litigated interests, the conduct of which has 
proven their ability to cope with intricate and involved problems of the law. Wide 
and varied experience has brought to Mr. Matz comprehensive familiarity with legal 
principle and precedent and has prevented any display of faulty judgment or wrong 
deduction. Aside from his work in connection with the legal profession he is known 
in business circles as a director of the Chicago Savings Bank & Trust Company 
and as a director of the Chicago Auditorium Association. 

On the 19th of November, 1890, in this city, Mr. Matz was married to Miss 
Florence Humphrey Henderson, a daughter of Charles M. and Emily (Hollings- 
worth) Henderson. Mrs. Matz was born in Chicago and is a member of the Fort- 
nightly Club and a director of the Illionis Training School for Nurses. She takes 
much interest in various phases of charitable work. Their children are: Ruth Hen- 
derson, born August 18, 1904; Charles Henderson, December 13, 1905; and Emily 
Florence, July SO, 1907. Mrs. Matz's father, Charles Mather Henderson, was a 
prominent citizen of Chicago from 1853 until his death in 1896. He was a direct 
descendant of Cotton Mather, and was born in New Hartford, Connecticut, in 1834. 
For many years he was president of C. M. Henderson & Company, one of the largest 
boot and shoe houses in the west. After the Chicago fire in 1871 he was active in 
assisting in the reorganization of the Chicago fire department. At one time he was 
president of the Young Men's Christian Association and for many 'years was super- 
intendent of the Railroad Chapel Sunday school. He became one of the founders 
of the Citizens Association, also of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, was a trustee 
of the Home for Incurables and of the Children's Aid Society, and a director of the 
Third National Bank and the National Bank of America. While he occupied a 
position of prominence in commercial and financial circles, he was equally widely 
known because of the specific aid which he gave to many good works done in the 
name of charity and religion. 

Mr. and Mrs. Matz formerly attended the Second Presbyterian church of Chicago, 
in which he served as a trustee from 1902 until 1904. Their home is now situated 
at Hubbard Wopds and he is a trustee of the W T innetka Congregational church. He 
is likewise a member of the excutive committee of the Western Society for the Sup- 
pression of Vice. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and that 
he is interested in matters of progressive citizenship and questions of vital interest 
to the city is indicated by the fact that he is serving as a trustee of the Civic Federa- 
tion of Chicago. He is also a director and president of the Legal Aid Society of 
Chicago and because of his professional connection is a member of the American 
Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. 
He also belongs to the Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, college fraternities, 
and is an alumnus visitor of Williams College. He holds membership with the 
University Club, the Chicago Literary Club, the' Chicago Law Club, the Skokie Coun- 
try Club, the City Club, all of Chicago, and the Alpha Delta Phi Club of New York 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 35 

city. His life has at all times been honorable and upright, characterized by un- 
faltering adherence to those principles which, aside from any business or social dis- 
tinction to which he has attained, win for the individual the unqualified respect and 
trust of his fellowmen. 



GUSTAF H. CARLSON. 

Gustaf H. Carlson is perhaps the most prominent surveyor in America of 
Swedish descent and such is his standing in his profession that he has been re- 
tained for expert work in many important connections, his word coming to be 
widely accepted as authority. He was born in Malmo, Sweden, April 16, 1848, 
and at the age of twelve years went to Germany, pursuing his education in the 
schools of Schleswig until graduated from the technical institute at Christianfeld. 
In 1869 he returned to Sweden and the following year sailed for America, making 
his way first to Kansas, where he remained until 1873. 

In that year he came to Chicago and his name has since been closely associated 
with the most important surveys made in this city and vicinity. From 1874 until 
1877 he was engaged as village engineer of Hyde Park, surveying the village and 
compiling an official atlas for said village. The thoroughness and exactness of his 
work in this connection brought him at once into such prominence that the fol- 
lowing year the democratic nomination was tendered him unsolicited. Later Mr. 
Carlson compiled atlases of the city of Chicago, the city of Lake View and the 
town of Lake. He had previously formed a partnership with Samuel S. Greely 
for the publication of these atlases under the firm name of Greely, Carlson & 
Company, which in 1887 was incorporated under the name of the Greely-Carlson 
Company. For ten years afterward Mr. Carlson continued as manager of the com- 
pany and all of the work including the planning of town sites, subdivisions and 
cemeteries, was thus under his personal supervision. These atlases are regarded 
as authority and are used by the various departments of the city government and 
in the offices of attorneys and real-estate firms. The towns of Hegewish, Pullman, 
Normal Park, Auburn Park, Chicago Heights and Edgewater are among those 
laid out by Mr. Carlson. He is frequently consulted as an eminent authority in 
cases of disputed boundaries in the city of Chicago and also in this state and in 
other states when a high degree of accuracy is required. 

In 1898 Mr. Carlson sold his interest in the Greely-Carlson Company and 
opened an independent office at what is now No. 25 North Dearborn street, where 
he is still located. Among other important surveys made for the city of Chicago 
Mr. Carlson undertook on the 10th of January, 1903, a survey from Madison street 
to Van Buren street for the depot grounds of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This 
survey was made with the ultimate purpose of widening the Chicago river, the 
survey being to determine the accuracy of previous surveys and the right to some 
of the property held by the Pennsylvania Railroad which contested the right of 
the city for endeavoring to encroach on what they termed was their rightful prop- 
erty. The sanitary board employed Mr. Matheson, who originally laid out the 
Illinois and Michigan canal and whose authority on such questions had previously 



36 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

never been questioned. Mr. Matheson's survey showed that the railroad com- 
pany's property encroached on the Chicago river and on the strength of this survey 
they brought a suit of ejectment against the railroad company. Mr. Carlson's 
expert testimony was called into the case of the people of the state of Illinois 
against the Illinois Steel Company in regard to the property occupied by the south 
works of the Illinois Steel Company along the shore of Lake Michigan at South 
Chicago, that in pursuance of such employment he made such survey and examined 
the records of the United States engineering department, showing the location of 
the lake shore in that vicinity from time to time, and that from such survey and 
examination of such records he found that land had been made along the shore 
line from Seventy-ninth street to Calumet river to the extent of one hundred and 
eighty-seven and a fraction acres. Furthermore as the result of his survey it was 
ascertained that other land, together with the extent of two hundred and thirty- 
four and thirty-five huiidredths acres was reclaimed by the Illinois Steel Company 
and that this was worth twenty-three thousand, four hundred and thirty-five dollars. 

On the 8th of November, 1878, Mr. Carlson was married to Miss Julie Vodoz, 
of Vevey, Switzerland, and unto them have been born a son and daughter, Gustaf 
and Julie Vodoz, named respectively for the father and mother. The son who is 
in business with his father is thoroughly proficient in that line and is now general 
office manager. 

In religious faith Mr. Carlson is a Christian Scientist and in politics is a demo- 
crat of the old school but is not so bound by party ties that he does not feel that he 
can vote independently. In fact he did cast a presidential ballot for Wiliam Mc- 
Kinley. He is an associate member of the Chicago Real Estate Board but is not 
prominent as a club man. He makes his home at Glen Ellyn and is interested in 
the progress and welfare of that attractive suburb. Thorough technical training 
qualified him for the work to which he has devoted his life and in which he has 
made continuous progress until he stands as one of the foremost surveyors of the 
countrv. 



ELIJAH BERNIS SHERMAN, LL. D. 

Honors multiplied unto Elijah Bernis Sherman as the years passed and his life 
became recognized as of large worth in the profession of the law, in citizenship and 
in the field of literature. He was an attorney of marked ability, a writer of grace 
and force, an orator whose eloquence never failed to move his hearers, and under- 
all circumstances he measured up to the high standards which make of the indi- 
vidual a serviceable factor in the world's work and progress and what else is 
there in life? Mr. Sherman was born in Fairfield, Vermont, June 18, 1832, and 
came of the same ancestry as General William Tecumseh Sherman and the Hon. 
John Sherman, the line being traced back to Samuel Sherman, who came from 
England in 1637 and settled in Connecticut. His grandfather was Ezra Sherman, 
who removed from Connecticut to Vermont about the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. His son, Elias Huntington Sherman, married a granddaughter of the 




E. B. SHEUMAX 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 39 

Rev. Peter Worden, a distinguished patriot and pioneer minister prominent in the 
early history of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. 

It has been said of Elijah B. Sherman that he inherited his full share of the 
energy, courage, self-reliance and ambition which characterized his ancestors. Un- 
til his majority he lived and toiled on a farm, acquired a common-school education, 
and at nineteen began teaching a district school. His boyhood comprehended the 
almost invariable conditions from which the energy of our large cities is each year 
recruited. He had ambition without apparent opportunity, a taste for literature 
without access to it, a predisposition to thoughtfulness without the ordinary scho- 
lastic channels in which to employ it. But what he then supposed were limitations 
upon his life were in reality the highest opportunities. With nature for a tutor 
and himself and his environment for studies he found a. school from which the 
city-bred boy is barred and whence issue the men who in city and country make 
events. 

Elijah B. Sherman was a pupil in the schools of Brandon and Manchester and 
in 1856 matriculated in Middlebury College, from which he was graduated with 
honors in 1860. He then took up the profession of teaching and resigned his posi- 
tion as principal of the Brandon Seminary in 1862 in order that he might aid the 
Union. After assisting in raising a company of the Ninth Vermont Infantry he 
enlisted as a private but on the organization of the regiment was elected second 
lieutenant. In September of that year the command was captured at Harper's 
Ferry but was paroled and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago, to await exchange. 
Three months having passed in enforced idleness, Lieutenant Sherman resigned 
in January, 1863, and entered the law department of the Chicago University, from 
which he was graduated the following year. Twenty years later he delivered the 
annual address before the associated alumni of his alma mater and, with the law 
for his theme, set forth a masterly presentation of the majesty and beneficence of 
the law, its supreme importance as a factor of civilization, and a severe arraign- 
ment of the defective administration of the criminal law by the tribunals of the 
country. The trustees of the college conferred upon him the honorary degree 
of LL. D., a distinction more highly prized because the college has conferred the 
degree upon few of its graduates who have attained eminence. From 1894 until 
his death Mr. Sherman was one of the trustees of the college and actively inter- 
ested in its administration. 

In the stirring times of the Civil war and the period which immediately pre- 
ceded it, it was impossible for any man who had the least spark of national pride 
and patriotism in him not to become actively interested in politics. Mr. Sherman 
was early recognized as a stanch advocate of the republican party, which was formed 
to prevent the further extension of slavery. He had been trained in a school of 
abolition thought, for his father's home was one of the stations on the famous 
underground railroad, whereby many a fugitive slave was assisted on his way to 
freedom in the north. Throughout his life Mr. Sherman remained a close and dis- 
criminating student of the vital questions of the day and following his election to 
the general assembly in 1876 became a recognized leader in that body, which num- 
bered among its members some of the most prominent men of Illinois. He was 
made chairman of the judiciary committee and was largely influential in securing 
the passage of the act establishing appellate courts. His personal and professional 



40 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

character also made him one of the most influential supporters of General Logan 
for reelection to the United States senate. Mr. Sherman's course received in- 
dorsement in reelection in 1878 and during his second term he was chairman of the 
committee on corporations and a member of the committee on militia. In 1877 an 
act had been passed organizing the Illinois National Guard, which in 1879 was 
amended, amplified and largely brought into its present shape. Governor Cullom 
recognized the important part Mr. Sherman had taken in this work and appointed 
him judge advocate of the first brigade with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which 
position he filled until 1884. He never held political office other than that of leg- 
islator, preferring at all times to concentrate his energies upon his professional 
interests. A contemporary writer has said of him in this connection: "Mr. Sher- 
man's duties as master in chancery of the United States circuit court commenced 
under appointment of Judges Harlan, Drummond and Blodgett in 1879. In that 
capacity his penetrating judgment and judicial acumen have had full and con- 
tinuous exercise and have established his high character as a chancery judge and 
won the general approval of attorneys and those who have brought matters before 
him for adjudication. In 1884, Mr. Sherman was appointed chief supervisor of 
elections for the northern district of Illinois and supervised the congressional elec- 
tions until the time of the repeal of the law for ten years later. At the November 
election of 1892 he appointed fourteen hundred supervisors who registered two 
hundred and sixty-seven thousand voters, made inquiry as to their right to vote, 
scrutinized the votes cast and made return to the chief supervisor as to the results. 
The delicate duties of this responsible position were performed so ably and fairly 
that he chief supervisor received unstinted commendation." 

Mr. Sherman's name should ever have an honored place on the roster of Illi- 
nois' distinguished attorneys from the fact that he was one of the founders of the 
Illinois State Bar Association in 1877 and rendered valuable service thereto as 
its president in 1882. The same year he became a member of the American Bar 
Association and was its vice president from Illinois in 1885 and 1899. For many 
years he was a member and officer of the American Institute of Civics, a society 
whose membership included citizens of high character and commanding influence 
from every state of the Union. He likewise belonged to the National Municipal 
League and was a close student of every subject that bore directly and indirectly 
upon the welfare of city, state and nation. His patriotic impulses and military serv- 
ice drew him to membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and the Illinois 
Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He was prominent in the Odd Fellows society, 
having been grand master of the Illinois grand lodge and grand representative to 
the sovereign grand lodge, while in Masonry he attained the Knight Templar de- 
gree of the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, belonging 
to Chicago Commandery and to Oriental Consistory. He was welcomed to the 
membership of the Philosophical Society, the Saracen, Alliance, Oakland Culture 
and Twentieth Century Clubs, wherein he found literary companionship and was 
also honored with office, serving as president of several of the organizations. He 
was fond of belles lettres and delighted in the exquisite charm of the masterpieces 
of literature. His excellent literary ability and taste are seen in many essays 
from his pen, which show a unique and vigorous style, enriched by a chastened 
fancy and glowing with gentle and genial humor. His interest in his native state 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 41 

and his pardonable pride in what his ancestors had wrought and in the noble herit- 
age which New England had bequeathed to her sons and daughters, led to his deep 
interest in the Illinois Association of the Sons of Vermont. He was its president 
and later when it was merged into the New England Society of Chicago, he served 
for two years as president of the latter. He paid glowing tribute to New England 
in his introductory address and on that occasion said: 

"Let others meet to chant the praises of science. We assemble in the name of 
a pure sentiment. The votaries of science may smile at our supposed weakness ; 
we, in turn, may deride their affected wisdom, remembering that science has given 
us none of the words that touch the heart and unseal the deep fountains of the 
soul friendship and patriotism, piety and worship, love, hope and immortality. 
The sweet solace of the matchless trinity mother, home and heaven is neither 
the blossoming of reason nor the product of scientific research, but the efflorescence 
of a divinely implanted sentiment. Science, indeed, is the primeval, barren rock; 
but sentiment disintegrates its flinty surface, converts it into fertile soil, gives the 
joyous sunshine and the falling rain, brings from afar the winged seed, and lo! 
the once sterile surface is clad with pleasing verdure, rich with ripening grain, 
fragrant with budding flowers, and vocal with the hum of living things." 

In kindly remembrance of his college life and affiliations and yielding to the 
unanimous wish of the annual conventions, he was elected honorary president of 
the national society of the Delta Upsilon fraternity for thirteen years. In 1894 
he delivered a scholarly address at the convention held in Chicago on "Scholarship 
and Heroism," a few sentences of which will illustrate this eloquent appeal to the 
young men who are to control the destinies of the morrow: 

"Scholarship holds in equilibrium the instrumentalities and agencies of civiliza- 
tion, even as gravitation reaches its invisible arm into infinite space and bears onward 
in their harmonious orbits uncounted worlds, while it cares tenderly for the tiniest 
grain of sand on the seashore and softly cradles in its bosom the fleeciest cloud 
which floats across the sky. From the serene heights where scholarship sways its 
benign scepter its message has come to you, at once an invitation and an impera- 
tive summons. You have been bidden to join the shining cohorts of the world's 
greatest benefactors. You have obeyed the divine mandate. You have taken upon 
yourself the tacit vows of heroic living. You are dedicated to the exalted service 
of scholarship; its sanctions demand your instant and implicit obedience. Con- 
secrated to this ennobling service, this priesthood of humanity, let not your foot- 
steps falter, nor your courage fail. Stand firm, remembering the words of the 
Master: 'No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the 
kingdom of God.' If heroic impulse comes to men in humble life, surely it can 
come no less to those whom culture and scholarship have broadened and enriched 
and ennobled. If opportunity for heroic endeavor comes to those whose lives run 
in narrow channels, much more does it come to those to whom the world is indebted 
for its advancement and improvement." 

While declaring that scholarship and heroism are allied powers of civilization 
and joined by divine edict, Mr. Sherman paid a beautiful tribute to the humble 
heroes and heroines who have lived and died in obscurity: "While I have thus em- 
phasized the heroism of true scholarship and cherishing as I do a feeling of pro- 
found reverence and admiration for the great heroes who through the ages have 



42 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

wrought grandly for humanity and achieved enduring renown, whose inspired utter- 
ances and shining deeds have been graven upon imperishable tablets and who have 
bequeathed to us and all coming generations the inestimable legacy of their illus- 
trious example, I must yet confess a doubt whether the most magnificent exemplars 
of heroism have not been found in the humbler walks of life, among those who 
in their simplicity of soul and modest grandeur of character never dreamed that in 
all the essentials of true manhood and womanhood they held high rank in heaven's 
untitled aristocracy. How many heroic souls, obscure and unknown, whose names 
have perished from remembrance, were wrought and fashioned in nature's divinest 
mold and have made their lives sublime by gracious deeds of beneficence and self- 
abnegation. As the most delicate and fragrant flowers are often found nestling 
modestly among the dead leaves or peeping timidly forth from some shady bower, 
so the most resplendent virtues blossom and diffuse their sweet aroma beside the 
lowliest and roughest paths trodden by bruised and bleeding feet. The rose may 
seem to add pride to peerless beauty; the lily to minimize its delicacy by a tacit 
demand for admiration ; but the shy arbutus yields its unrivaled fragrance only 
to the earnest wooer who seeks it with loving care in the hidden nook where it 
was planted by fairy hands and perfumed by the breath of dainty dryads. God 
has vouchsafed to the world no choicer blessing than the unconscious heroes and 
heroines who give to earth its greatest charm, and without whose presence heaven 
would suffer irreparable loss." 

Touching the home life of Mr. Sherman, those who knew the man and his high 
ideals can never doubt the pleasant relations which there existed. Naught else 
in life held the sacred place in his affections which did his home. He was married 
in 1866 to Miss Harriett G. Lovering, a daughter of S. M. Lovering, who at that 
time was a resident of Iowa Falls, Iowa, but was a native of Vermont. Mrs. 
Sherman has been spoken of as a woman of excellent judgment, self-poised and 
self-reliant, has read widely of the best literature and is held in high esteem by 
all who know her. She belongs to the Chicago Woman's Club, the Daughters of 
the American Revolution, the Colonial Daughters of Patriots and Founders and 
was one of the organizers of the patriotic society known as the Dames of the Loyal 
Legion, being now president of the national organization. Their only living son, 
Bernis Wilmarth Sherman, was graduated from Middlebury College of Vermont 
in 1890, from the Northwestern University College of Law in 1892 and is now 
assistant city attorney. He belongs to the Loyal Legion and the Chicago and Illi- 
nois State Bar Associations and, inspired by the noble example of his father, has 
achieved an excellent reputation as a lawyer, man and citizen. He married Eva 
Stanley Stearns, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and they have two children, Wilmarth 
A. and Frederick J. 

The death of Elijah B. Sherman occurred May 1, 1910. In his early residence 
in Chicago he had been a member of Dr. Evart's church and afterward attended the 
services of Professor Swing and upon the death of the latter had become a sup- 
porter of Dr. Gunsaulus' church. Seldom does a family receive as many resolu- 
tions on the death of any individual as came to Mrs. Sherman at the time of her 
husband's demise from the various societies and organizations with which he was 
connected, containing strong expressions of high regard and honor entertained for 
him. He had passed the seventy-seventh milestone on life's journey and his life, 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 43 

growiilg richer mentally and spiritually as the years passed on, had given out of 
its rich stores of wisdom and experience for the benefit of others. He was ready 
to meet every demand that came to him in the course of an active life fraught with 
large responsibilities. The splendid use he had made of his time, talents and oppor- 
tunities had equipped him for the important work which he was called upon to do 
and which gave decided impetus to the city's progress and improvement and up- 
held its legal, political and moral status. 



GEORGE PECK MERRICK. 

As man leaves the elemental and approaches a higher civilization, using in mul- 
tiple forms the varied natural resources of the country, and from the results achieved 
therein evolves still more intricate interests wherein the rights and privileges of 
an increasing number of individuals are involved, the complexities of the law have 
become greater and legal problems more difficult of solution. Gradually, therefore, 
law has resolved itself into departments and specialization in the field of practice 
is therefore the outcome. George Peck Merrick, choosing the profession of the 
law as a life work, has concentrated his efforts more and more largely upon corpo- 
ration law and is today recognized as the legal representative of many important 
interests of this character in Chicago. Moreover his entire life has been actuated 
by the spirit of undaunted enterprise which has ever dominated the middle west. 

A native son of Illinois, he was born October 4, 1862, of the marriage of Dr. 
George C. and Mary (Peck) Merrick. His more specifically literary education 
was acquired in the Northwestern University, from which he was graduated in 
1884. His early professional reading was done under the direction of Judge Hanecy 
and in May, 1886, he passed the required examination which admitted him to prac- 
tice in the Illinois courts. Early in his career he become identified with corpora- 
tion law, being made assistant attorney for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- 
road Company with headquarters in Chicago. He was thus identified with the 
railroad until 1889, when he became a partner of his former preceptor, Judge 
Hanecy. This relation was maintained until the election of Mr. Hanecy to the 
circuit bench in 1893, after which Mr. Merrick continued alone in practice until 
he became senior partner of the firm of Merrick, Evans & Whitney. 

While advancement at the bar is proverbially slow, Mr. Merrick early displayed 
the possession of those qualities whereby he has gradually won his way to a fore- 
most position in the field of corporation law. Many important cases have tested 
his metal and have found him qualified for the demands made upon him. He was 
one of the leading practitioners in the lake shore litigation, in which he secured 
the decision of the supreme court establishing the lake shore as a park. The field 
of his activity, however, is not confined to his work as an advocate and counselor, 
but reaches out into public affairs, particularly in connection with Evanston, where 
he maintains his home. He has served as alderman and as civil service commis- 
sioner there and in the discussion of questions of moment his opinions have been 
an influencing and beneficial factor. 



44 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

In 1885 Mr. Merrick was married to Miss Grace Thompson, of Galesburg, 
Illinois, and unto them have been born two sons and a daughter, Clinton, Grace 
W. and Thompson. The family are prominent in the social circles of Evanston 
and Mr. Merrick belongs to the Evanston, Glen View, Chicago and University 
Clubs, and to the Sigma Chi fraternity. He has been president of the Evanston 
board of education, is a trustee of the Northwestern University and has been hon- 
ored with the presidency of its alumni association. Interested in all manly outdoor 
sports and athletics, his training permits that well developed physical manhood 
which must constitute the basis of all strong intellectual effort. No matter how 
varied or extensive his interests, however, his attention is chiefly centered upon 
the law and his devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial. He has close fra- 
ternal and professional association with the members -of the city bar through his 
identification with the Chicago Law Club, the Chicago Law Institute and the Chi- 
cago Bar Association, and still wider interests as a member of the Illinois Bar 
Association and the American Bar Association. 



THEODORE F. RICE. 

Theodore F. Rice, who for over thirty-five years was connected with the paper 
manufacturing business in Chicago, was born in Corydon, Indiana, in May, 1844, 
his parents being John and Sophia (Hinsdale) Rice, who were also natives of 
Corydon. The father was a prominent merchant and miller of that place. 

Theodore F. Rice obtained his education in the schools of New Albany and 
Bloomington, Indiana, pursuing his studies until he reached the age of eighteen 
years, when he put aside his text-books. The seed of manhood which is in each 
boy sprung forth as a fully developed plant in many an individual when the tocsin 
of war sounded and the call was sent widely forth for all patriotic citizens to 
come to the aid of the Union. Mr. Rice was among the number who left the 
schoolroom to learn in the hard school of military experience the more difficult 
lessons of life. He joined the Union army as a member of the ordnance depart- 
ment and continued at the front until his aid was no longer needed. When the 
war was over he returned home and remained with his parents through the two 
succeeding years. 

In 1867 he arrived in Chicago and sought favorable opportunity for advance- 
ment along business lines. He did as best he could anything that came to hand, 
seized legitimate advantages as they arose and when the way was open never 
hesitated to take a forward step. His skill and power accordingly increased from 
day to day and his second position was in the employ of Bradner, Smith & Com- 
pany, paper manufacturers, with whom he always remained. There he proved 
his aptitude for business in the successful performance of the work assigned him 
and continuously won promotion and was vice president of that firm for many 
years. For over thirty-five years he was identified with the paper manufacturing 
business in connection with that house, with which during the greater part of the 
period he sustained partnership relations. That success came to him is indicated 
in the fact that he continued for so long a period in one line. He became one of 




THKODOKK F. KICK 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 47 

Chicago's well known, substantial and trustworthy business men and was held 
in highest esteem by all with whom he came in contact, whether in commercial 
or other relations of life. 

On the 19th of September, 1871, Theodore F. Rice was married to Miss Edith 
M. Price, a daughter of William and Anna (Hill) Price, who came from England 
to America and established their home near Mendon, Illinois, the father engaging 
in the real-estate business. To Mr. and Mrs. Rice were born six children: Wil- 
liam P., now a resident of Denver, Colorado; Edith G., at home; Robert H., of 
Chicago, who married Margaret Pollock, October 16, 1907; Henry H., of Mexico 
City; Theodore; and Gordon. Since 1893 the family residence, erected by Mr. 
Rice, has been at the northwest corner of Forty-sixth street and Woodlawn avenue. 

In his political views Theodore F. Rice was a republican from the time that 
age conferred upon him the right of franchise and always kept fully informed 
concerning the vital questions of the day, yet without desire for office. He recog- 
nized, however, the duties and obligations of citizenship and availed himself of 
the opportunities to aid in the development, growth and improvement of the city 
in which he so long made his home. That his life was actuated by high and hon- 
orable principles is indicated in the fact that for over thirty years' he served as 
elder in the Sixth Presbyterian church, his life at all times being in harmony with 
his professions. He was also a member of the Union League Club for many years. 
He held friendship inviolable and, as true worth could always win his regard, he 
had a very extensive circle of friends. He did not seek to figure prominently in 
public affairs, yet in his life were the elements of greatness because of the use 
he made of his talents and his opportunities, because his thoughts were not self- 
centered but were given to the mastery of life problems and the fulfillment of his 
duty as a man in his relations to his fellowmen and as a citizen in his relations 
to his city, state and country. 



JOHN L. NEWMAN, M. D. 

Dr. John L. Newman is one of the younger physicians of Chicago yet has al- 
ready gained success that many an older practitioner might well envy. He was 
born at Freehold, New Jersey, July 4, 1887, and is one of the four survivors of a 
family of seven children whose parents were Benjamin and Rose (Gerber) New- 
man. The father was born in Lapland, Russia, in 1861, and followed the profes- 
sion of teaching there. He is now a merchant of Chicago, owning and conducting 
a department store. His wife was born in Riga, Russia, in 1 860. Their living 
children are: Lena, now the wife of J. Herman, of Chicago; Sarah, who married 
J. Lamb, of this city; John L., of this review; and Leon, who is still a student. It 
was in the year 1896 that the parents came to this city, where Mr. Newman has 
since built up a large mercantile enterprise. 

Dr. Newman was but five years of age when he entered the public schools of 
Freehold, New Jersey, there pursuing his studies for two years. He also spent 
two years as a pupil at Long Branch, New Jersey, and two years in Philadelphia. 
He continued in the latter city after the removal of his parents to Chicago, attend- 



t 

48 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

ing Brown Academy for four years. In 1903 he arrived in Chicago and was a 
student of the Central Young Men's Christian Association Institute, studying chem- 
istry and other branches. In 1905 he entered the University of Illinois and was 
graduated in 1909, after which he accepted a position as interne in St. Mary's 
Hospital at Superior, Wisconsin, and became assistant to one of the surgeons there. 
A year later, however, he returned to this city and opened an office at No. 2400 
West Madison street in January, 1910, since which time he has remained in active 
practice here. 

On the 2d of July, 1911, Dr. Newman was married to Miss Emma Sleph, of 
this city, and they reside at No. 1315 South Central Park avenue. They have many 
friends in the social circles in which they move and Dr. Newman has won for him- 
self a creditable position in the field of labor which he has chosen as his life work. 
He belongs to the Chicago Medical Society and the American Medical Association, 
and their proceedings keep him familiar with the original and advanced work that 
is being done by the profession. 



JOHN EDWIN CHAPMAN. 

John Edwin Chapman was born at Warehouse Point, Connecticut, September 
1, 1835. His first American ancestor was Edward Chapman, who came from Eng- 
land to Windsor, Connecticut, about the year 1660 and lived in the part of Windsor 
called Simsbury. The line moves down through distinguished names and connec- 
tions to Ashbel Chapman, who married Lydia Lord, whose sixth child was John 
Buckley Chapman, born May 12, 1799, at Windsor Locks, Connecticut. He moved 
to Warehouse Point, where he first married Lydia Holkins. They had five chil- 
dren : Albert Buckley, Frederick Augustus, Lydia Louisa, John Edwin and Harvey 
Holkins. Thomas Holkins came from England to Boston and settled in Dorchester. 
Thence his descendants went to Rhode Island and Connecticut, and George Hol- 
kins settled in Preston, Connecticut, about 1698. 

John Buckley Chapman was a successful lumber merchant, a man of influence 
and of great strength and nobility of character. He was married three times, but 
the only children who lived were those of his first wife. John Edwin Chapman 
grew up in Warehouse Point, devotedly cared for by Lydia Aurelia Lord, his sec- 
ond stepmother, his own mother having died when he was about four years old. 
He was ready for college at fourteen, but as his father considered him too young 
to enter, he decided to let him come to Chicago for two years with a cousin, Samuel 
Chapman Griggs, and to occupy his time in the latter's book store and publishing 
house, which later became the firm of A. C. McClurg & Company. During this 
period his father died at sea, on his way to California to look after large lumber 
investments, so the college career had to be abandoned and the support of the 
stepmother and family and the keeping up of the family homestead in Connecticut 
fell on the young boy in the west. 

After recovering from a breakdown from overwork, at about twenty-five, he 
and his youngest brother, Harvey Chapman, opened a Chicago branch for Henry 
Chase & Company, of Boston, manufacturers of bags and bagging, in which busi- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 49 

ness he made a large fortune for those days. He lived at the old Clifton and Tre- 
mont Houses, with a group of men from all parts of the country, who were then 
laying the foundations of Chicago's great commercial position. Mr. Chapman was 
an ardent and influential member of the First Baptist church, of Chicago, and gave 
liberally to its work. He was a life member of the Baptist Theological Union, of 
Chicago, now a part of the Chicago University. 

In 1869 he married Mary Caroline Adams, a daughter of Hugh and Amanda 
(McCormick) Adams. Hugh Adams was a grain merchant in Chicago, a descend- 
ant of Robert Adams, who came from England about 1708 and settled in Campbell 
county, Virginia. The ancestors of the Adams family were of good English stock, 
and their descendants ranked among the first families of Virginia. Amanda Mc- 
Cormick Adams was the daughter of Robert McCormick, a prominent farmer and 
inventor, of Rockbridge county, Virginia. 

In 1871 the Chicago fire swept away home and fortune and though Mr. Chap- 
man's store was the first one rebuilt in the burned district and his business started 
again, the great nervous shock had shattered his heatlh, and in a few years he was 
obliged to give up business entirely and spend the rest of his life as an invalid. 

Throughout this life one can see courage, ability, dutifulness, good citizenship 
all high qualities ; but the part that shone and lives longest in the memories of 
all who knew him was the part when he was forced to lay down his tools and cease 
to work for his wife and children, knowing that he had but a little longer to live, 
and that the rest of his service must only be to stand and wait. His deeply relig- 
ious nature met this supreme trial, not only with strength enough to overcome it for 
himself, but also to spread into the lives of all around him his own cheerfulness 
and brightness of soul, so that his friends said of him, it was a benediction to 
have him enter the house. 

He died January 4, 1882, in New York city, leaving his wife and two children, 
Anna and John Adams Chapman. They are now married Anna to Morrill Dunn, 
formerly of Washington, and John to Eleanor Thompson Stickney, of Baltimore, 
and live in Chicago. 



HARRY E. MOCK, M. D. 

Dr. Harry E. Mock, member of the staff of Rush Medical College and busily 
engaged with hospital and private practice, specializing to a considerable extent 
in the field of surgery, in which he has developed more than ordinary skill and 
ability, was born in Muncie, Indiana, October 27, 1880. His father, John D. 
Mock, was also a native of Muncie, born February 28, 1856, and after a successful 
career as a manufacturer is now living retired there with his wife, Mrs. Minerva 
(Jackson) Mock, who is also a native of Muncie. In both the paternal and ma- 
ternal lines Dr. Mock is descended from an ancestry prominently connected with 
the military history of the country. His paternal great-great-grandfather was a 
soldier of the Revolution and was ordered shot for sleeping at his post but was 
pardoned by General Washington when the General learned that he was relieving 
a comrade as sentinel after several successive nights of similar duty on his own 



50 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

account. The Doctor's grandfather on his mother's side and four of the latter's 
brothers served in the Civil war. His great-grandfather, Henry Jackson, was a 
soldier of the war of 1812 and also of the Mexican war. Mr. and Mrs. John D. 
Mock are the parents of five sons and two daughters, of whom three are living, the 
eldest being J. Frank Mock, a salesman of Chicago. The youngest, Mildred M., 
is still at home with her parents in Muncie. 

Dr. Mock, who was the fifth in order of birth, was a pupil in the public schools 
of his native town until graduated from the high school at the age of eighteen years. 
He afterward spent two years in Franklin College at Franklin, Indiana, and in 
1902 entered the University of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1904 
with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He next entered Rush Medical College, 
which is affiliated with the University of Chicago, therein pursuing his studies from 
1902 until 1906, when his professional degree was conferred upon him. During 
his boyhood he decided to enter the medical profession and earned the money with 
which he paid his expenses during his college course. The same spirit of deter- 
mination and of indefatigable energy has characterized him throughout all his later 
years. After his graduation he had the benefit of three months' experience as 
interne in the Presbyterian Hospital under Dr. Nicholas Senn and three months in 
the Monroe Street Hospital under Dr. A. I. Bouffleur. He then went to Burke, 
South Dakota, where he practiced for six months, after which he returned to Chi- 
cago and for a year and a half was interne in the Cook County Hospital. 

Having had two years' experience as interne in the leading hospitals of the 
city and practicing for six months in South Dakota, Dr. Mock felt that he was 
ready for the general practice of medicine and surgery and accordingly opened an 
office in this city, where he has since built up a large practice. He is now serving 
on the staff of Rush Medical College, on the staff of the Monroe Street Hospital, 
is surgeon for Sears, Roebuck & Company, assistant attending surgeon for the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, surgeon for the Lincoln Motor 
Car Works and medical examiner for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of 
New York. All this indicates beyond a doubt the high position to which he has 
attained, the wise use he has made of his time and opportunities and the success 
which he is now enjoying and which has come to him as the merited reward of 
close application, comprehensive knowledge and conscientious performance of duty. 
In addition to his practice he has business interests, being president of the Irving- 
ton Development Company, owning five thousand acres of land in Alabama. 

Dr. Mock has been married twice. On the 15th of June, 1903, he wedded 
Miss Vetha, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Honecker, of Thorntown, Indiana. 
Mrs. Mock died at the birth of their little son, Raymond, April 13, 1904, and the 
child also passed away in infancy. On Christmas day of 1908, Dr. Mock was 
united in marriage to Miss Golda M. Taylor, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William 
B. Taylor. Her father is prominent in Chicago, being secretary and treasurer of 
the firm of Halsey Brothers, wholesale drug manufacturers of Chicago. Unto 
Dr. and Mrs. Mock have been born two sons: Harry Edgar, whose birth occurred 
September 26, 1909; and William Taylor, born January 14, 1912. 

Both the Doctor and his wife are prominent socially and both are interested 
in many movements which are significant features of the present age. Mrs. Mock 
belongs to the Anti-Cruelty Society and Dr. Mock holds membership in the Med- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 51 

ical Historical Society of Chicago, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and the 
Nu Sigma Nu, a medical fraternity, and the Alpha Omega Alpha, an honorary 
medical society. He is also a member of the City Club, the University Club, the 
Western Economic Society and in his professional relations is connected with the 
Chicago Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He votes with 
the republican party, which he has supported since age conferred upon him the 
right of franchise, and his religious belief is indicated in his membership in the 
Baptist church. For pastime he indulges in motoring, fishing and hunting as the 
demands of his profession give him opportunity. In his school days he was much 
interested in athletics. When a high school student he held the Indiana state rec- 
ord for the two hundred and twenty yard dash for three years and also tied for 
the state record for one hundred yards, ten seconds flat. In 1903 he was a member 
of the University of Chicago track team. He has always maintained an interest 
in athletics and manly out-of-door sports. He maintains a down town office at 
No. 122 South Michigan boulevard, a west side office at 1605 Van Buren street 
and he has his residence at No. 404 South Ashland Boulevard. 



SAMUEL GEHR. 

Samuel Gehr, prominent for many years in real-estate circles of Chicago, was 
born at Smithsburg, Washington county, Maryland, October 6, 1829, a son of Isaac 
and Mary (Funk) Gehr, of Smithsburg, where his father carried on merchandising. 
The family is descended from French Huguenot ancestry, two brothers having come 
to America about 1 763, and, securing land patents from the government, one located 
in Maryland and the other in Pennsylvania. 

Liberal educational advantages were afforded Samuel Gehr, who attended one 
of the excellent schools of his day that conducted by George Pearson. He after- 
ward entered Marshall College of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 
1851. He then determined upon the study of law and for two years pursued his 
reading in the office of the Hon. Judge Weisel, of Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1853 
he removed from his native county to Chicago and here continued his preparation 
for the bar until admitted to practice in the courts of the state. He did not follow 
the profession, however, but turned his attention to the real-estate business, becoming 
a clerk in the office of Rees. & Kerfoot, the firm being composed of James H. Rees 
and Samuel H. Kerfoot. 

In 1861 he withdrew from that connection to establish himself in business in 
partnership with the Hon. Luther Haven on Lake street, opposite the Tremont 
House, under the firm name of Luther Haven & Company. This association was 
continued until Mr. Haven was appointed by Abraham Lincoln collector of cus- 
toms for the port of Chicago, and Mr. Gehr then remained in business on his own 
account, winning substantial returns for his labor. His legal studies have been in- 
valuable to him in settling questions of title, proprietorship or conveyance. His 
early experience with Rees & Kerfoot gave him the requisite acquaintance with local 
business and values, while his judgment and integrity made casual customers steady 
clients. In 1863 he removed his office to 114 Dearborn street, where he remained 



52 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

for many years, and in that year he extended the scope of his business to not only 
include the purchase and sale of real estate but also the placing of loans for eastern 
capitalists. He continued uninterruptedly in the real-estate and loan business to the 
time of his death, which occurred June 8, 1886. 

On the 17th of June, 1857, Mr. Gehr was married to Miss Phoebe Bostock, a 
daughter of Edward and Jane (Yates) Bostock, of Nottingham, England, who came 
to America in 1832, settling in Marshall, Michigan. The father had followed mer- 
chandising in England, but lived retired in America. The family traces their an- 
cestry back to 1080 A. 13. Two representatives of the family were aids to General 
Washington in the Revolutionary war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Gehr were born seven 
children: Walter Lee, deceased; S. Whipple; Arthur Cleveland, of Washington, 
D. C.; Herbert Bostock, who is living in Seattle, Washington; Francis Lycett, a 
resident of Idaho ; Fannie, a musician of this city ; and Ralph Winter, deceased. 

Mr. Gehr voted with the democratic party, but never cared to mingle freely in 
political circles and take an active part in the work of any political organization. 
He was, however, very helpful as a factor in church work. He belonged to the 
Church of the Ascension, in which he served as warden for twenty-five years. He 
was also one of the first trustees of St. Luke's Hospital. Xo good work done in the 
name of charity or religion ever sought his aid in vain. He was very sociable in 
manner and was ever appreciative of the good in others, his life proving the force 
of the Emersonian philosophy, "the way to win a friend is to be one." 



JOHN SANBORN METCALF. 

John Sanborn Metcalf, president of the John S. Metcalf Company, engineers 
and builders of grain elevators, is one of the best known men in his line in Amer- 
ica. His identification with grain elevator construction extends over nearly forty 
years, during which time he has not only witnessed and kept pace with wonderful 
changes and improvements in such structures but has advanced from an obscure 
place to what can be said to be the foremost position in building operations of 
this kind. 

Mr. Metcalf was born March 7, 1847, in Sherbrook, in the province of Que- 
bec, Canada, and came from one of the old New England families dating back 
to 1637, in which year Michael Metcalf, the progenitor of the family in America, 
came from Norwich in Norfolk county, England, and settled at Uedham, Massa- 
chusetts. Samuel Metcalf, the great-grandfather of John S. Metcalf, served in 
the Revolutionary war, doing active duty at first as minuteman and later reenlist- 
ing at three subsequent dates for active participation in the struggle for independ- 
ence. On the maternal side John S. Metcalf comes from a fine old family. His 
great-grandfather was the Rev. Isaac Smith, a noted Congregational clergyman, 
who was pastor of the church at Gilmanton, New Hampshire, for many years. 

While a Canadian by birth John S. Metcalf had the environment and influences 
of a New England youth. His parents, Lucian and Hannah (Smith) Metcalf, 
lived in a section of the province of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence river, and 
immediately bordering on the state of New Hampshire. That locality had been 




JOHN 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 55 

settled up almost entirely by farmers from New England and so it, too, might 
be called the land of "steady habits." After attending the district schools of 
Cookshire, Quebec, Mr. Metcalf continued his course in the Cookshire Academy, 
which practically concluded his scholastic training. It was in 1870 that he came 
to the United States to remain and located in Indianapolis. His previous thor- 
ough training and experience in building lines had been greatly stimulated by a 
natural adaptation for mechanical work, so that he was quite competent to per- 
form the duties assigned him in the construction of elevator "A" in that city, and 
following its completion he was superintendent of the operation of the elevator 
until 1881. 

In the meantime Mr. Metcalf had given considerable attention to elevator con- 
struction and improvement and had come to be regarded as an authority thereof, 
so that in 1881 he became superintendent of construction for a prominent grain 
firm of Indianapolis and devoted the ensuing three years to the important and re- 
sponsible duties devolving upon him in that capacity. 

At the end of that period he became superintendent of operation for the Bur- 
lington & Mississippi elevator at Burlington, Iowa, where he continued until 
1887, when he located in Chicago and formed a partnership with T. K. Webster 
and James MacDonald in the building of grain elevators. In this department of 
building he has since labored and has gained distinctive prominence in his partic- 
ular field. From 1889 until 1901 he was interested in the Webster Manufacturing 
Company and served on its board of directors during the greater part of the time. 
As a member of the Metcalf, MacDonald Company he was engaged in building 
elevators from 1887 until 1894, and after the dissolution of the partnership the 
firm style became the John S. Metcalf Company with T. K. Webster as partner 
until 1901, when Mr. Metcalf purchased Mr. Webster's interest in the business 
and subsequently incorporated it under the present name of the John S. Metcalf 
Company. As the president and chief executive officer he directs its affairs con- 
tinuously, planning for the expansion of the business and basing its growth upon 
the efficient service rendered, ever regarding satisfied patrons as the best adver- 
tisement. His operations have been of a most extensive and important character 
and include structures for the leading corporations on the American continent. 
Among those built by his company are the Burlington elevator at St. Louis ; the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy elevator at East St. Louis ; the Missouri Pacific at 
Kansas City; the Southern Pacific at Galveston; the Grand Trunk at Portland, 
Maine, and Montreal; the Chesapeake & Ohio at Newport News, Virginia; the 
Manchester ship canal elevators at Manchester, England ; the Canadian Pacific 
elevators at Victoria Harbour, Ontario; and the shipping conveyer system for 
Harbour commissioners of Montreal. Many of those structures were gigantic af- 
fairs and represent millions of capital as well as the highest type of efficiency for 
the rapid handling and safe storage of grain. The international demand for the 
work of the John S. Metcalf Company led to the organization of the John S. Met- 
calf Company, Ltd., of Montreal, from which office the foreign business is super- 
vised. Mr. Metcalf has the general supervision of all the business and his familiarity 
with every detail enables him to direct affairs with judgment and intelligence. 
He has practically come up with the business so that there is scarcely a position 
in the whole system that he could not fill. No small amount of his success comes 



56 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

from "knowing how to do things/' His operations have taken him into all parts 
of the country and the importance of his work has placed him prominently in the 
front rank of engineers and grain elevator builders in America. He is a man of 
wonderful business activity, and although now past sixty has the vigor and vitality 
of one many years his junior. Inheriting a strong, robust constitution, living a life 
of regular habits, the strenuous character of his work has not told on him phys- 
ically. Although at times traveling over fifty thousand miles a year, and in that 
time spending one hundred nights on a sleeping car, his capacity for work seems 
to increase rather than diminish. His success is merited. His start in life was 
his good rearing and habits of industry that have been many times reflected in 
the prosperity that has come to him. A modest, approachable and genial gentle- 
man, there is nothing in his manner that would suggest to a new acquaintance his 
superior ability nor his success. 

Mr. Metcalf was married December 25, 1873, in Indianapolis, to Miss Alice 
S. Richey, a daughter of John and Charlotte (Millard) Richey and a native of 
Marseilles, Illinois. Their children are: Hugh Fred, who died in infancy; Ter- 
ressa Adelia, who is the wife of C. C. Bonar, of El Paso, Illinois, and has three 
children, Dorothy M., Janet M. and John Metcalf; Anne Maria, who is the wife 
of Rev. P. E. Thomas, a Congregational clergyman of Somerville, Massachusetts, 
and has two children, Frederick Metcalf and Gordon Metcalf; Bertha Alice, who 
became the wife of John F. Strickler and died in Evanston, Illinois, in Novem- 
ber, 1910; and Kate Lora, who completes the family. 

Mr. Metcalf is a republican in sympathy and usually supports the principles 
of the party, but is not bound by party ties, merely taking a business man's in- 
terest in politics and supporting the best men and issues. He is a member of the 
Union League Club, the Chicago Engineers Club, the Montreal Engineers Club, 
the Western Society of Engineers and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. 
In all matters of citizenship he takes a progressive stand. His membership rela- 
tions are mostly with societies that have for their object the promotion of en- 
gineering interests. Since deciding upon his life work he has bent every energy 
not only to the accomplishment of specific tasks but also to the attainment of 
higher efficiency by close study of the scientific problems and questions which un- 
derlie his work as well as the practical methods of construction. Readily utilizing 
each improvement that is introduced through modern invention, he has maintained 
a high standard of excellence in his work that has gained him the prominence and 
success which he now enjoys. The family reside at No. 1023 Maple avenue, Ev- 
anston, and are prominent in the social circles of that city. 



HARRIET C. B. ALEXANDER, M. D. 

Dr. Harriet C. B. Alexander is one of the most widely known and best authori- 
ties on mental diseases of women in the United States, her study and investigation 
along this line bringing to her such thorough understanding and ability as to cause 
her opinions largely to be accepted as authority. She was born in Waterford, Penn- 
sylvania, December 16, 1858, a daughter of John L. and Eleanor (Smallidge) Ber- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 57 

inger. Her father was born at St. Catherines, Ontario, January 13, 1837, and his 
life record covered the intervening years to November, 1905. Her mother was born 
near Water ford, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1838, and is now spending the evening of 
life in California, where the salubrity of the climate is more to her liking than the 
rigorous winter winds of Chicago and the east. Mr. Beringer was a soldier of the 
Civil war, but owing to an attack of typhoid fever and to serious wounds which he 
sustained, was prevented from continuing in the service until the close of hostilities. 
Among the maternal ancestors was Francis Mandeville, who served in the Revolu- 
tionary war as lieutenant, thus rendering Dr. Alexander eligible to membership 
with the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Dr. Alexander attended private and public schools until twelve years of age 
and then entered the Lapeer, Michigan, high school, where she pursued her studies 
until sixteen years of age, when she was graduated. The following year, 1876, she 
entered Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and was graduated therefrom in 
1880 with the B. A. degree. In the fall of that year she entered the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan, for it was her earnest desire to qualify for the 
practice of medicine, and following her graduation in 1883 she became assistant 
physician at the Foundlings Home of Detroit, there remaining in 1884. In 1885 she 
was assistant physician at Dunning, Illinois, and in 1889 became assistant super- 
intendent of Dunning, having entire professional charge of the women, numbering 
about seven hundred. Eager to advance still further in her profession, she went to 
Europe in 1895 and studied in the medical colleges of London, Paris and Vienna, 
pursuing post-graduate courses under some of the eminent physicians and surgeons 
of the old world. She then returned to Chicago and opened an office in Central 
Music Hall, where she remained until the building was razed. She then established 
an office in the Venetian building at No. 15 East Washington street, where she has 
since been located. 

On the 25th of February, 1884, Dr. Harriet C. Beringer became the wife of 
Horace C. Alexander, of Chicago, who is not only known as a civil engineer, but 
made a creditable name for himself during his service as superintendent of Lincoln 
Park under the administration of Governor Altgeld. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
have been born two children. The elder, Harriet Gay, born February 3, 1887, is 
the wife of John W. Claussen and they have a little daughter, Harriett Suzanne. 
Mrs. Claussen attended the public schools of Chicago and then went abroad to study 
for two years in Switzerland and Paris, after which she spent three years in Berlin 
as a pupil of Etelka Gerster. The son, who was born September 30, 1898, is now 
residing in France. 

As previously stated, Dr. Alexander has come to be recognized as an authority 
upon mental diseases and her advanced investigations have been given to the world 
in several published volumes, her works including Mental Phases of Tuberculosis, 
Insanity in Children, and others. She read a paper at Lisbon, Portugal, and also 
at Buda Pest, at the international congresses there held, the latter in 1909. She is 
now serving on the staff of the Mary Thompson Hospital, specializing in the treat- 
ment of nervous diseases, and is also on the staff of the State Training School for 
Girls at Geneva. She was a member of the Chicago Woman's Club from 1885 until 
1905, when the demands of her profession made it necessary for her to resign. In 
1894 she served as the second president of the Rogers Park Woman's Club, but also 



58 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

resigned from that organization, having no time for club work. Her reading has 
been very broad, bringing her into close touch not only with the active work of the 
profession, but with many of its kindred interests. She was a member of the social 
hygiene committee of the Chicago Woman's Club and also one of its lecturers, is a 
fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicine, a member of the Woman's Medical 
Club and of the Chicago Medical Society. 



WALTER W. ROSS. 

Walter W. Ross is engaged in the practice of law in both Chicago and New 
York, his ability winning for him that success which in the profession of the law 
comes only as the logical sequence of comprehensive understanding and correct 
application of legal principles. 

A son of Edward T. and Ellen (Wall) Ross, the birth of Walter W. Ross 
occurred in Pulaski, Illinois, March 29, 1866. His mother descended from the 
distinguished Adams family of New England. The father was born in Vermont 
and was engaged in business as a lumber dealer and manufacturer in Illinois. The 
mother was a daughter of Dr. George T. Wall, at one time a resident of Rhode 
Island. He married a member of the Adams family and in the '30s removed 
westward to follow his profession as a doctor in one of the more recently founded 
towns of the middle west. About 1840 he arrived in Chicago but was not pleased 
with the city and its prospects at that day, and accordingly sought a location else- 
where, taking up his abode in Perry county, Illinois, where he continued in prac- 
tice and made his home until 1892. He opened up one of the first coal mines ever 
operated in Illinois and in other ways was closely associated with the material 
progress and development of that part of the state. 

Walter W. Ross supplemented his early education by study in the Illinois 
College at Jacksonville and was graduated from the New Jersey University at 
Princeton in the class of 1888. He began his legal studies in Northwestern Uni- 
versity of Chicago, which he attended for a year, and afterward heard law in the 
Harvard Law School for a year. He had previously won the degrees of B. A. 
and M. A., and following his mastery of many of the principles of jurisprudence 
he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1890. The same year he began practice 
and for a time devoted his attention to general law work. In 1893, however, he 
was appointed assistant corporation counsel for Chicago and the following year 
he received the appointment of trial attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island & 
Pacific Railroad at this point. In 1899 he formed a partnership with his uncle, 
George W. Wall, a distinguished lawyer and jurist, who for more than twenty 
years sat upon the bench. In 1901 Mr. Ross was made general attorney for the 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad with headquarters in New York, but 
in 1905 again resumed the general practice of law, having offices in both Chicago 
and New York. He appeared in litigation before the United States commerce 
commission in 1907 and has been entrusted with the management and supervision 
of important financial and other interests, including the Yerkes estate. Capable 
of handling large affairs, important interests have been entrusted to his keeping 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 61 



and whether in the courts or in the relation of counselor he has given proof of his 
power in solving intricate legal problems or in devising a course of action that has 
its foundation in sound legal wisdom. 

In 1891 Mr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Jane Rose Ames, a daughter 
of Miner T. Ames, a well known coal mine operator. Four children were born 
to them, of whom three are living, Ames W., Willard and Robert, while the other 
son died at the age of four years. Mrs. Ross is a direct descendant of Colonel 
Knowlton, who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill and was killed in the 
battle of Harlem Heights. She is also directly descended from William Dawes, 
who shares with Paul Revere in the honor and fame of arousing the minute men 
of Massachusetts to prepare for the attack of the British in the opening battles 
of the Revolutionary war at Lexington and Concord. The family residence is in 
Evanston. The parents are members of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Ross 
belongs to a number of prominent social organizations, including the University 
Club of Chicago, the Princeton Club of New York and the Essex County Country 
Club of West Orange, New Jersey. Endowed by nature with strong mental 
powers, he has so used his time and talents in the acquirement of a liberal edu- 
cation and in the practice of law that he has won wide recognition as a leading 
attorney of Chicago. 



JAMES MESSER JENKS. 

James Messer Jenks, well known in the grain trade circles of Chicago, was born 
at Crown Point, New York, July 14, 1850. He is descended from Joseph Jenckes, 
a noted engineer of Wales who came to America at the request of the first governor 
of Massachusetts to build the first fire engine and apparatus for the city of Boston. 
Another member of the family was a distinguished inventor and was one of the 
first to make application to the United States patent office, having invented a scythe 
for cutting hay. In time the orthography of the name underwent a change to its 
present form. 

Benjamin L. Jenks, the father of James M. Jenks, was a native of New Hamp- 
shire and engaged in business in the east as a lumberman. Later he made his way to 
the center of the lumber interests of the middle west, removing to St. Clair, Michi- 
gan, in 1856. His death occurred at Fort Sanilac, Michigan, about 1868. He had 
married Amanda Messer, a native of New Hampshire, who was born on the old 
homestead at North Sutton, New Hampshire, granted to her father, James 
Messer, and his brothers by King George. Mrs. Jenks long survived her husband 
passing away about 1895. In a family of five children James M. Jenks was the 
eldest. Three of the number still survive. His brother, Professor Jeremiah W. 
Jenks, is a professor of political economy, a noted writer and government agent. 
The other brother, Martin L., is a grain merchant of Duluth, Minnesota. The de- 
ceased members of the family are: Robert H., who was a prominent lumberman of 
Cleveland, Ohio, and died February 26, 1911 ; and Hester P., who passed away in 
June, 1910. 



62 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The public schools of St. Clair, Michigan, provided James M. Jenks with his 
early educational privileges, for he was only six years of age at the time of the 
removal of the family to that city. He afterward continued his studies at Penna- 
cook Academy at Concord, New Hampshire, but on account of his father's death 
left school in 1868 and began providing for his own support, entering the employ 
of Woodson & Company, lumber dealers at Fort Crescent, Michigan. About three 
years later he went into business for himself, establishing the firm of J. Jenks & 
Company, general merchants and manufacturers at Sand Beach, now Harbor Beach, 
Michigan, where he continued for ten years. On the expiration of that period he 
turned his attention to the grain trade at Port Huron, Michigan, and has since con- 
tinued in that line, spending three years at Port Huron and three years in Minne- 
apolis before his arrival in Chicago in 1 89 K Here he organized the present firm 
operating under the name of the Nye & Jenks Grain Company and has since been 
continuously the head of the Chicago office. James Bradley, another member of 
the firm, has also been associated with the active management for many years. The 
business has been steadily growing from the outset and the company is now a 
prominent one in grain trade circles in Chicago. Mr. Jenks is a member of the 
Grain Exchange of this city and also of Minneapolis, Duluth and New York city. 

On the 20th of July, 1878, occurred the marriage of Mr. Jenks and Miss Nellie 
L. Neill at Port Austin, Michigan, her father being Captain Thomas Neill, of that 
place. They became parents of one daughter, Maxwell B., who is the wife of Cap- 
tain Isaac Newell, of the Twenty-second United States Infantry, now detailed as 
tactics officer at West Point. Mr. and Mrs. Jenks reside at No. 535 Deming place. 

He is independent in politics, voting as his judgment dictates rather than in 
accordance with the demands of party affiliation. He belongs to the Union League 
and to the Illinois Athletic Clubs and is well established in the city socially as well 
as in business circles. He was eighteen years of age when his father's death threw 
him upon his own resources, since which time his diligence and determination have 
carefully fostered progress, bringing him in time to a prominent and creditable 
position as a dealer in grain in what is today the world's most prominent grain 
center. 



HOMER E. TINSMAN. 

Homer E. Tinsman, a representative of the Chicago bar, was born in Romeo, 
Michigan, October 21, 1860, a son of William H. and Mary J. Tinsman. The 
father was born upon a farm near Romeo, August 21, 1837, representing one of 
the old families of that section of the country. He carried on general agricultural 
pursuits throughout his entire life and for a period also engaged in the conduct of 
a general mercantile store but retired from that field of business in 1892. Fifteen 
years passed and he then again entered upon active business life, in which he 
still continues, for indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature and he 
could not be content without some occupation. 

Homer E. Tinsman was a pupil in the public schools of Romeo, pursuing his 
course through consecutive grades until graduated from the high school in 1878. 




IIOMEH E. TIXSMAX 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 63 

He spent a year thereafter at home and then resumed his education, becoming a 
pupil in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1883 with 
the Bachelor of Arts degree. In August of that year he came to Chicago and 
entered the law office of Grant & Brady as a student and clerk, continuing in that 
connection for three years. Admitted to the bar, he practiced law alone for a year 
and in 1887 became a partner in the firm of Burke, Hollett & Tinsman, this asso- 
ciation being maintained until 1893, when Mr. Burke was elected judge of the 
circuit court. The two remaining partners continued in practice under the firm 
style of Hollett & Tinsman until 1898, when they were joined by Mr. Sauter, and 
under the style of Hollett, Tinsman & Sauter they continued in practice until 1905. 
At that time Mr. Tinsman became the senior partner in the firm of Tinsman, Rankin 
& Neltnor. He is an able lawyer, well versed in the principles of jurisprudence, 
and his energy prompts him to the careful preparation of every case, while his 
presentation of his cause is marked by logical reasoning and sound deduction. He 
filled the office of assistant county attorney from 1888 until 1890 but has not been 
a politician in the usually accepted sense of the term. In the spring of 1908, how- 
ever, he was elected alderman from the thirty-second ward but resigned on the 
1st of March, 1909. 

Mr. Tinsman was married in Chicago to Miss Christina P. Dale on the 24th of 
October, 1894. Aside from the enjoyment which his home offers him in his leisure 
hours he spends some time in golf, holding membership in the Beverly Golf Club, 
and he also takes pleasure in walking and driving. He is also an amateur photog- 
rapher and has done some creditable work with the kodak. His political allegiance 
is given to the republican party and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal 
church. He is well known in the membership of the Hamilton Club, is a member 
of the City Club of Chicago, and is identified with various fraternal organizations, 
holding membership in Englewood Lodge, No. 690, A. F. & A. M.; Englewood 
Chapter, No. 176, R. A. M.; Englewood Commandery, No. 59, K. T. ; Imperial 
Council, R. & S. M.; Oriental Consistory, S. P. R. S.; and Medinah Temple of the 
Mystic Shrine. He likewise holds membership with the Odd Fellows, the Royal 
League and the Modern Woodmen. He has a very wide acquaintance and his 
strongly marked and commendable characteristics have gained him wide popularity. 



JOY MORTON. 

Joy Morton, for over thirty years one of Chicago's busiest men of affairs, was 
born at Detroit, Michigan, September 27, 1855. He is a son of Hon. J. Sterling 
Morton, who was secretary of agriculture during President Cleveland's second ad- 
ministration and who had the distinction of being the originator of Arbor Day. 
His mother, Caroline (Joy) Morton, departed this life in 1881. The early repre- 
sentatives of the Morton family came to the United States in the year 1620 from 
England and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and were subsequently prominent 
in the early struggle for American independence. The maternal side (Thomas 
Joy) came also from England, settling in Boston in 1632. He was a contractor 
and built the first town house of Boston in 1650. 



64 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The family of Morton moved to Nebraska in 1854, where Joy Morton spent his 
youth on the frontier, together with his brothers, Paul and Mark, freighting and 
roughing it on the plains. It was at a little Episcopal boarding school called Talbot 
Hall, located near Nebraska City, that their primary education was attained. At 
the age of fifteen, Joy Morton entered the employ of the Merchants National Bank 
at Nebraska City, where he remained for six years, passing through the various 
grades to the position of teller and ultimately acquiring an interest in the institu- 
tion, of which he is still a director. 

His railroad experience was with the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad as 
a clerk in the treasurer's office at Omaha. After two years' service he was trans- 
ferred to Aurora, Illinois, as supply agent of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad, which position he retained but a short while, having determined to en- 
gage in the salt business in Chicago, as a member of the firm of E. I. Wheeler 
& Company. In 1885 control of the business was secured and together with 
Mark Morton, the style of the firm was changed to Joy Morton & Company, 
agents for The Michigan Salt Association and some years later also for the Retsof 
Salt Mining Company of New York. For over twenty-five years this business has 
progressed and today the Morton Salt Company is the largest salt merchant and 
manufacturing concern in the United States. 

Besides his salt interests Mr. Morton is actively and officially identified with 
many other important industrial, financial and commercial enterprises, in all of 
which he has been successful and a factor in their upbuilding. He is president 
and a director in The Great Western Cereal Company; president and a director in 
The Morton-Gregson Company (pork packers) ; director in The Western Cold 
Storage Company; director in the American Hominy Company; president and di- 
rector of The Hutchinson-Kansas Salt Company; director in The Equitable Life 
Assurance Society of New York ; director in the Chicago & Alton Railroad ; director 
in The Continental & Commercial National Bank (the largest in Chicago) ; presi- 
dent and director of the Standard Office Company ; owner of the Railway Exchange 
building; vice president and director of the Railway Exchange Bank. 

Mr. Morton is a member of the Chicago Historical Society, the Commercial, 
Chicago and Caxton Clubs of Chicago, and the Lawyers Club of New York city. 
He was married in 1880 to Miss Carrie Lake, a daughter of Hon. George Lake, 
of Omaha, chief justice of the supreme court of Nebraska, and to them two chil- 
dren have been born, Jean Morton in 1883 and Sterling Morton in 1885. The lat- 
ter is now connected with the Morton Salt Company and is secretary of the cor- 
poration. 



WILLIAM ARTHUR McGUIRE. 

Mining for the precious metals is an occupation that presents great inducements 
to men of practical knowledge and sound business judgment and in this class may 
be named William Arthur McGuire, who for six years past has made his head- 
quarters at Chicago. He is a native of New Brunswick, Canada, born August 10, 
1864, and is a son of Patrick and Barbara (Edgett) McGuire. The father was 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 65 

born in County Wexford, Ireland, and came to America in 1850. He was a 
farmer and for many years was actively engaged in that occupation in New 
Brunswick. His father was an architect in the old country. The mother of our 
subject was a native of Canada and was born of English parents. She was a 
daughter of Stephen Edgett, one of the leading citizens of New Brunswick and 
a member of a family that was long identified with public affairs. Patrick 
McGuire died in 1906 at the age of seventy-eight, and his wife was called away 
in 1904. 

Mr. McGuire of this review was second in order of birth in a family of six 
children. He possessed good advantages of education in the public schools of 
Canada and continued with his parents until twenty-one years of age. He then 
went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and was connected with the railway business until 
1895. In that year he became interested in mining in Arizona and subsequently 
organized the Arizona Alpha Mining Company, of which he is president. The 
properties of this company are located near Kingman, Arizona, and consist of sil- 
ver and lead deposits that yield a handsome revenue. Mr. McGuire maintains an 
office at No. 403 Commercial Bank building, Chicago, and spends a portion of each 
year in the city. He is connected with several mining enterprises in Montana, 
Idaho and Colorado, and as he is greatly interested in everything he undertakes 
and has used good judgment, he has met with a gratifying measure of success. 

On December 6, 1890, Mr. McGuire was married at Moncton, New Brunswick, 
to Miss Josephine Walsh, a daughter of M. W. Walsh, a leading lumber merchant 
of that place. By this union one son, Thomas, has been born. He is now eighteen 
years of age and is attending a college preparatory school at Ashville, North 
Carolina. 

Politically Mr. McGuire supports the principles and candidates of the demo- 
cratic party and socially he is identified with the Illinois Athletic and Glenview 
Clubs. Having had an experience of sixteen years in mining in various parts of 
the Rocky mountains, he is acquainted with the details pertaining to the location 
of ores and also mining and smelting, and has been successful in the development 
of properties upon a legitimate paying basis. He is an active and useful man and 
possesses genial social qualities which have won for him the friendship of all with 
whom he has come in contact. He and his family reside at Golf, Illinois, near the 
Glenview Club, where he recently erected an attractive country home. 



WILLIAM NATHAN EISENDRATH. 

A native of Chicago, William N. Eisendrath has spent almost his entire life 
in this city and for nearly forty years has been actively connected with its develop- 
ment. He was born December 5, 1853, a son of Nathan Eisendrath. The father 
was a native of Dorsten, Westphalia, Germany, and came to America about 1848, 
making his home for a time in Philadelphia. In 1851, believing that more favor- 
able conditions existed further west, he settled in Chicago and engaged in the soap 
and candle business for a number of years, later being identified with the real- 
estate and banking business. He died in 1903 at the age of four score. He married 



66 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Helena Fellheimer, a native of Augsburg, Bavaria, who survived him four years 
and passed away in 1907. In their family were nine children, four of whom are 
prominent citizens of Chicago: Benjamin W., who is engaged in the real-estate 
and loan business; William N., of this review; Joseph N., who is president of the 
Eisendrath Glove Company, the largest concern of its kind in the United States; 
and Dr. D. N. Eisendrath, who is a well known surgeon. 

William N. Eisendrath received his preliminary education in the public schools 
of this city. At the age of thirteen he was sent abroad and spent two years in the 
private schools of Brussels, Belgium. Upon returning he entered the preparatory 
school of Professor George Quackenbos, of Chicago, at which he was graduated in 
1870. Having decided to devote his attention to business rather than professional 
life he entered the employ of Stearns & Company, dealers in building material, 
and was connected with this company from 1873 to 1876. At the end of that time 
he entered the tanning and leather manufacturing business and established a house 
of which he was the head until 1899. He then associated with others in the organ- 
ization of the American Hide & Leather Company, with principal offices in New 
York city, and was elected first vice president of this company. He retired from 
active business in 1903 and in 1909 became president of the Monarch Leather 
Company, a position which he still holds. He is a large owner of Chicago real 
estate and in his various enterprises has shown an ability and discrimination through 
which he has gained a gratifying measure of financial prosperity. 

On the 21st of December, 1883, Mr. Eisendrath was married to Miss Rose 
Lowenstein, a daughter of Leopold Lowenstein, of this city, and of their children 
three are living, Edwin, Marion and William N., Jr. The family resides at No. 
3949 Ellis avenue. 

Politically Mr. Eisendrath is independent and socially he is identified with 
the Standard Club, the Illinois Athletic Association and the Ravisloe Country Club. 
He is of a generous and philanthropic nature and served for a number of years as 
vice president of the Michael Reese Hospital. He is also actively connected with 
the Associated Jewish Charities and is one of the valued members of the Chicago 
Sinai congregation. Having been governed through life by a spirit of progressive- 
ness, he has assisted materially in advancing the permanent interests of all with 
whom he has been identified in business. Alert, energetic and enterprising, he has 
attained more than an ordinary degree of success and is recognized as one of the 
reliable and substantial men whom to know is to respect and honor. 



FREDERICK MORGAN STEELE. 

The ancestry of the Steele family of which Frederick Morgan Steele is a rep- 
resentative can be traced back not only through various generations in this country 
to an early period in the colonization of the new world, but also to England. Two 
brothers, John and George Steele, arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1632, 
and as the years have run their course to the present time their descendants have 
taken active and prominent part in shaping the history of the various localities in 
which they have resided. Among the ancestors of Frederick M. Steele was Gov- 




FREDERICK M. STEELE 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 69 

ernor William Bradford who made the voyage on the Mayflower in 1620, Governor 
John Webster, Governor Peter Schuyler, of New York, Governor Rip Van Dam 
of New York, Captain Roger Clap, the historian of Massachusetts Bay colony, and 
from both progenitors of the Livingston family of New York. 

Fortunate is a man who has back of him an ancestry honorable and distin- 
guished, and happy is he if his lines of life have been cast in harmony therewith. 
In person, in talents and in character Frederick Morgan Steele is a worthy scion 
of his race. His father, John F. Steele, was a young hardware merchant in the 
city of Albany, New York, recognized not only as a man of great promise but of 
most attractive nature, and so deep was the regard he inspired that he was 
frequently called the "beloved John" by his numerous friends and associates. He 
died of pneumonia at the comparatively early age of thirty-three years. His 
wife, Mrs. Frances Mary (Steele) Steele, was a lady of marked literary talent 
and was among the first to use her powers in that direction for the advancement 
of women. In her early womanhood she had much to do with the establishment 
of circulating libraries. After her removal to Chicago she became a prominent 
member of the Chicago Woman's Club and as such was a leading spirit in the 
establishment of the Women's Protective Agency, being known as the "mother" 
of the organization. Throughout her entire life she was a frequent contributor 
to magazines and newspapers and her writings, widely read, were of marked in- 
fluence. She died on Easter morning, the 14th of April, 1895. 

Frederick Morgan Steele was born in Albany, New York, November 27, 1851, 
and acquired his education in the public schools of New England. He came to 
Chicago in 1879 when a young man of about twenty-seven years, and here became 
connected with railway manufacturing enterprises, establishing and promoting the 
Chicago Forge & Bolt Company and the American Bridge Works, two of the lead- 
ing corporations in their line in this city. Possessing an initiative spirit and the 
power of coordinating forces, he was active in the management of large industrial 
enterprises. At the present writing he is the president and treasurer of the 
Standard Forgings Company which succeeded the Cliicago Forge & Bolt Company 
and is one of the most extensive producers of car axles in the United States. At 
one time he was the president of three railroads which have since been merged 
into larger systems. He is now the vice president of the Salt Lake Southern 
Railway Company and vice president of the Highland Park State Bank. He has 
never hesitated to advance where favoring opportunity has led the way and in his 
business career progressiveness and conservatism are well balanced forces. 

Mr. Steele was married in Chicago on the 6th of November, 1883, to Miss Ella 
A. Pratt, a daughter of William H. H. and Roxanna (Roe) Pratt. She is de- 
scended from Governor Thomas Welles, one of the early colonial governors of Con- 
necticut. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Steele were born a son and daughter: Frederick 
P., who died in early childhood; and Elizabeth Livingston, who on the 18th of 
June, 1908, at Highland Park, Illinois, became the wife of George Washington 
Childs. 

Mr. Steele has always been deeply interested in historic and genealogical re- 
search. He is now serving as deputy governor general of the Society of the May- 
flower Descendants, was former governor of the Illinois organization, and was 
numbered among those who assisted in its formation and establishment. He is 

Vol. V 4 



70 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 



not unknown as a writer of merit and in 1909 published a little volume of his 
poems under the title of "After Hour Idyls," which in sentiment and literary con- 
struction will stand close criticism. His wife possesses notable artistic talent as 
manifest in ceramic work which appeared at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and 
the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. She has been for many years an 
officer in the Daughters of the American Revolution, occupying various positions 
from secretary to regent. She was president of the Atlan Club of Chicago and 
has been a prominent worker in the Gads Hill settlement on the North Shore. 
She is now president of the colony of New England Women of Illinois. In 1901 
Mr. and Mrs. Steele and their daughter sailed from America on a two years' world's 
tour for pleasure and education. Their keen delight in antiquities and in all that 
is rare and artistic, prompted them to secure a most attractive collection of old 
and interesting curios and art treasures on their trip. Mr. Steele, who for thirty- 
six years has been gathering historical data and autograph manuscripts, probably 
possesses one of the largest collections of this kind in the United States and has 
the largest collection of manuscript hymns in the world. He is himself a writer 
and has written the song of Illinois, which has already won wide approval and 
is given below. He travels to a considerable extent and much of the time spent on 
railway trains has been employed in his compositions. He is an active member 
of the Sons of the American Revolution, belongs to the Highland Park Club, of 
which he was formerly vice president, and to the Union League Club. His polit- 
ical allegiance is given to the republican party and he is an officer in the Pres- 
byterian denomination. While a man of marked commercial spirit, with ability 
to formulate and execute plans resulting in mammoth undertakings, his success 
has allowed him leisure to cultivate graces of character and the higher interests 
of life until companionship with Frederick Morgan Steele has come to mean ex- 
pansion and elevation. Both Mr. and Mrs. Steele are prominent and influential 
factors in the social circles of this city where intelligence is regarded as an essen- 
tial attribute to agreeableness. Travel, study and research have gained for them 
prominence in various fields of knowledge, while recognition of the responsibilities 
of wealth and a sincere interest in their fellowmen have prompted them to put 
forth effective effort for the amelioration of the hard conditions of life for the 
unfortunate. 

ILLINOIS! 

(Meaning: "We are men!") 
Air: "Baby Mine." 



O'er thy rivers, gently flowing, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Where thy stately corn is growing, 

Illinois, Illinois, 

Hark! that word to us, so dear, 
With its message bold and clear, 
'Tis the name we love to hear, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
'Tis the name we love to hear, 

Illinois ! 



See ! 'mid flow'rs in mighty measure, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Golden Rod, thy yellow treasure, 

Illinois, Illinois; 
'Tis the emblem of thy host 
Gathered here from ev'ry coast 
Stalwart hearts, thy pride and boast, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Stalwart hearts, thy pride and boast, 

Illinois ! 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 



71 



Pride of all thy sons and daughters, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
By thy peopled inland waters, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Fair Chicago, great and grand, 
Wealth and progress on each hand, 
Welcome gives to ev'ry land, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Welcome gives to ev'ry land, 

Illinois ! 



While thy Lincoln's fame is cherished, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Till thy Logan's name has perished, 

Illinois, Illinois, 

While thy Grant shall honored be 
Thro' our Nation grand and free, 
We shall love and honor thee, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
We shall love and honor thee, 

Illinois ! 



Thou hast heard thy Country calling, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Mid the din of War appalling, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Then thy courage and thy will 
Rose each heart to fire and thrill ! 
Brave and loyal thou art still 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Brave and loyal thou art still 

Illinois ! 



While thy glory we are singing, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Loyal homage to thee bringing, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Let us praise His holy Name 
Thro' Whose might all good we claim, 
Who has wrought thy wondrous fame, 

Illinois, Illinois, 
Who has wrought thy wondrous fame, 

Illinois ! 

Frederick M. Steele. 



J. FLETCHER SKINNER. 

J. Fletcher Skinner, general merchandise manager for Sears, Roebuck & Com- 
pany, was born in Madison, Wisconsin, December 6, 1869. His father, William 
Skinner, was a native of England, but was only six years of age when taken to 
Canada by his parents, who located near Toronto. About 1860 he removed to 
Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming and also conducted a hotel. About 1876 
he removed to Minnesota and continued in the same business, his death occurring 
at Redwood Falls, that state, about 1901, when he was sixty-three years of age. 
His wife bore the maiden name of Ellen Waldorn and was born near Toronto, 
Canada. They were married in that country and Mrs. Skinner is still living, now 
making her home in North Yakima, Washington. J. Fletcher Skinner is their only 
son, but there were two daughters in the family, namely : Emma, the wife of Victor 
M. Persons; and Flora, who gave her hand in marriage to -K. U. Lova. Both are 
residents of North Yakima, Washington. 

In the common and high schools of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, J. Fletcher 
Skinner continued his education until graduated with the class of 1884. He then 
entered the general store of F. W. Philbrick, with whom he continued until 189-i, 
when he came to Chicago. Here in 1895 he entered the employ of Sears-Roebuck 
in connection with the clothing department, his duties covering every branch of the 
work in that department. He had known Mr. Sears in his home town and there- 
fore had no difficulty in obtaining the position. He developed his department until 



72 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

it had reached such extensive proportions as to necessitate a division into four dis- 
tinctive departments, of all of which Mr. Skinner had charge until the early part of 
1907, when he was made general merchandise manager, having charge of the buy- 
ing and selling of all the merchandise of the entire business. In this connection is 
found the largest variety and quantity of stock in any one place in the United 
States. Since 1908 Mr. Skinner has been a director in the company and it is a 
recognized fact that his labors have been an important element in the develop- 
ment and growth of the business. 

While he is preeminently a successful merchant and manager, he has also ex- 
tended his efforts into other fields, being active in the work of the Young Men's 
Christian Association Training School. He is a member of the board of directors 
of the Chicago and Lake Geneva school and for some time has been identified with 
that movement. His club relations are of an important character, embracing mem- 
bership in the Union League, the Oak Park and City Clubs. In politics he is a 
republican where national issues are involved, but casts an independent local ballot. 
His religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the First Congregational 
church of Oak Park, in which he is active, his labors and support contributing in 
marked measure to its success. His recreation comes to him through tennis and 
golf and he is an enthusiastic advocate of the former. 

On the 26th of October, 1892, at Redwood Falls, Minnesota, Mr. Skinner was 
united in marriage to Miss Hettie Persons, a daughter of Mrs. Diana Persons of 
that city. They now have four children, as follows : Mary Crete and Blanche, who 
are eighteen and fifteen years of age respectively ; Helen, who is eleven years old ; 
and James Fletcher, Jr., two years of age. The family reside at No. 605 Linden 
avenue, Oak Park, in one of the attractive suburban homes of the city. Mr. Skin- 
ner has a most creditable record, as is manifest in his continuous advancement, his 
progress being built upon the sure and stable foundation of indefatigable industry, 
unfaltering resolution and unassailable integrity. He recognized the fact that real 
merit never fails to win recognition and he made his service of value to the house 
with which he has been connected throughout the entire period of his residence in 
Chicago. 



CLARENCE A. KNIGHT. 

Chicago is continually recruiting her business and professional ranks from 
the surrounding territory and thus infusing into established business conditions 
the vigor and vitality .which are drawn from the more free and untrammeled life 
of the country. One of America's eminent statesmen has said: "When in the 
battle of life the city boy crosses swords with the country lad the odds are against 
him. The early rising, the daily tasks, the economical habits of the country boy 
prepare him for the struggle that must precede ascendency." In Clarence A. 
Knight was found one whose native talents and powers constantly expanded, tak- 
ing him from humble surroundings to a field of broad opportunity, wherein he 
so capably directed his energies that the most intricate law problems became of 
comparatively easy solution to him and he ranked with the distinguished repre- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 73 

sentatives of corporation law in Chicago. No gift of rhetoric is needed to prove 
his position, for the consensus of public opinion placed him in the foremost rank 
of those who are caring for the legal phase of large corporate interests. Illinois 
numbered him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in McHenry 
county, October 28, 1853. After attending the common schools near his father's 
home he had the benefit of instruction in the Cook County Normal School and 
then, as do the majority of young men, he turned to the city, thinking to find in 
its quickened activities the opportunity which he sought for advancement. He 
made Chicago his home after April, 1872, and after two years' thorough prelim- 
inary reading in the law office of Spafford, McDaid & Wilson he was admitted 
to the bar in 1874, taking the required examination before the supreme court 
then in session at Ottawa. The succeeding year was spent as assistant with his 
former instructors, at the end of which time he joined Mr. McDaid in the forma- 
tion of a partnership under the name of McDaid & Knight, practicing in that 
connection until 1879, when under appointment of Julius S. Grinnel he became 
assistant city attorney. Five years later, when in 1884 Mr. Gray was elected 
state's attorney, Mayor Harrison appointed him city attorney to fill out an unex- 
pired term and again he was appointed assistant city attorney following the elec- 
tion of Hempstead Washburn as city attorney. His connection with his profession 
in its official phase continued when in 1887 he was named assistant corporation 
counsel by Mayor Roche, in which position he continued until the first of July, 
1889, when he resigned and formed a partnership with Paul Brown under the 
firm name of Knight & Brown, thus rounding out ten years of invaluable service 
with the municipal law department. The records are proof of the large amount 
of important business which he accomplished during that period. He was instru- 
mental in incorporating under the laws of the state a measure providing for the 
annexation of territory adjoining the city- a measure of vital importance to Chi- 
cago. An act looking to that end was declared unconstitutional by the supreme 
court, after which Mr. Knight was selected to prepare a new measure to cover the 
case and did so, securing its passage in the legislature in 1889. This resulted in 
the annexation of Hyde Park, Lake View, the town of Lake, Jefferson and por- 
tions of Cicero to Chicago, in June of that year. 

The marked ability which Mr. Knight displayed in his public professional 
service won to him the attention of leading corporations and caused the direction 
of his energies almost solely into the field of corporation law. In 1893 the Lake 
Street Elevated Railroad Company appointed him its general counsel and, in 1897, 
he was called to a similar position with the Union Elevated Railway Company, 
the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company and the surface electric lines con- 
necting with the North and West Chicago Street Railway. In this professional 
association Mr. Knight conducted litigation, establishing the right to build the 
loop elevated railroad on Lake and Van Buren streets and Wabash and Fifth 
avenues. In this connection it has been said: "He handled this matter with the 
decision, good judgment and professional force which have marked his career as 
a private practitioner, a representative of the city and an advocate of transporta- 
tion improvements." Mr. Knight was president of the Chicago & Oak Park Ele- 
vated Railroad and this office in connection with his legal identification with other 
lines mentioned, made him one of the strongest factors in Chicago in the manage- 



74 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

ment and development of the transportation systems of the municipality. In a 
partnership relation with the Hon. George W. Brown he organized the firm of 
Knight & Brown, which existed until the death of the junior partner, at which 
time Mr. Knight was joined by James J. Barbour and William G. Adams, under 
the firm name of Knight, Barbour & Adams. Throughout his life he remained a 
close student of his profession, especially of that branch of the law which bears 
upon corporations, and with a mind naturally analytical and inductive, he solved 
some of the most complex and intricate problems which have called forth the pow- 
ers of corporation lawyers in Chicago. 

Mr. Knight was married in 1877 to Miss Adele Brown, a daughter of Dr. H. 
T. Brown, of McHenry, Illinois, and their children are Bessie and James H. 
Knight. Long connected with the Masonic fraternity, Mr. Knight took the degrees 
of Chevalier Bayard Commandery, K. T., and he also belonged to the Loyal League, 
the Union Club and the South Shore Country Club. Outside the strict path of 
his profession he was a splendid figure on the stage of action. Because of the 
innate refinement of his nature he rejected everything opposed to good taste; be- 
cause of his loyal devotion to the public welfare he advocated in a quiet yet force- 
ful way all measures looking to the progress and betterment of the city. The 
death of Mr. Knight occurred in July, 1911, when he was yet in the prime of life, 
his activity and his interests having brought him to a prominent position in finan- 
cial and legal circles, where his work was a serviceable factor in the city's prog- 
ress. His loss was keenly and widely felt but by none, except in his own household, 
more than by the circle of friends that he had gathered about him by reason of 
his personal worth and the possession of attractive social qualities and all manly 
attributes. 



JOSEPH OLIVER MORRIS. 

Joseph Oliver Morris, attorney at law, was born in Chicago, August 3, 1863, 
a son of Edwin E. and Anna (Oliver) Morris, both of whom were of English birth 
and parentage although the Morris family originated in Wales. For several genera- 
tions, however, it had been represented in the south of England and Edwin E. 
Morris was born near Brighton, in Sussex county. His wife was a native of 
London and a daughter of William Oliver, of the firm of William Oliver & Sons, 
of London Wall, the home of Milton. The family for several generations had been 
the largest dealers in the world in mahogany and rosewood. Mrs. Morris also 
traced her ancestry back to Oliver Cromwell and to the Marchant family, who 
were royalists. In the year 1854 Edwin E. Morris first came to America and 
made his way direct to Chicago but in 1857 returned to his native land and was 
married. He then brought his bride to his newly established home in Chicago 
and prior to the Civil war was the owner of the Phoenix Coffee and Spice Mills, 
one of the first and largest enterprises of the kind in the city at that day. He was 
afterward a member of the firm of Morris, Cloves & Company, proprietors of a 
pioneer wholesale grocery house that furnished supplies to the government during 
the war. Following the cessation of hostilities Edwin E. Morris removed to Cin- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 77 

cinnati where he engaged in the exportation of packing house products. He 
was the originator of this industry in America, opening up trade relations with 
Europe. He retired from active business twenty-five years ago and now resides 
with his son, Joseph O. Morris, at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife passed 
away in 1 890. 

In the public schools of College Hill, Ohio, Joseph O. Morris acquired his 
early education and afterward pursued a preparatory course at Belmont College. 
On the removal of the family to Chicago he completed his education .in the Lake 
View high school, from which he was graduated in 1882. He afterward spent a 
year in travel and in 1883 entered upon the study of law in the office of Flower, 
Remy & Gregory, the predecessors of the present firm of Musgrave & Lee, with 
whom he spent four years. He also for a short time attended the Union College 
of Law, a department of the Northwestern University, where he qualified himself 
to pass the state examination that secured him admission to the bar in 1884. He 
engaged in practice as a member of the firm of Morris, Ganse & Craig until 1895, 
since which time he has practiced alone. Specializing largely in corporation law 
he has represented many of the important brokerage firms in the country, all 
members of the New York Stock Exchange, in litigation involving legal technical- 
ities peculiar to the brokerage business. He is considered an authority on that 
unique branch of the profession. In association with Mr. Ganse, Mr. Morris has 
also become largely interested in realty. In 1890 they purchased a tract of one 
thousand acres at South Waukegan and to control this incorporated under the 
name of the South Waukegan Land Company, their holdings being valued at one 
million dollars. They laid out and founded the town of South Waukegan and 
in 1894 changed its name to North Chicago. Mr. Morris guided this mammoth 
enterprise through the panic of 1893 and in 1895 disposed of the last of their 
holdings, realizing a handsome profit on the whole. In 1906 he purchased two 
large tracts of land at Hammond and guided this venture successfully through the 
financial difficulties of 1907. He now owns all of the stock of the company and 
the property at the present time consists of a tract of land one-half mile in 
length along the Calumet river, valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
Part of this has been platted and is now on the market. He has passed through 
two financial panics but has so carefully managed and guided his interests that 
he is still the owner of large real-estate holdings in Chicago and vicinity in addi- 
tion to California land properties. He is also an officer and director in various 
corporations which own and control important business undertakings and his sound 
judgment and keen discrimination also constitute valuable elements in the success- 
ful direction of business affairs. He has given his leisure time, aside from busi- 
ness, to church and Sunday school work and his labors in that direction have been 
equally effective and far-reaching. In former years he was very active in the 
Young Men's Christian Association, was one of the board of managers and a 
prime mover in the erection of the splendid association building on La Salle street 
in 1893. His church membership is in the First Presbyterian church of Evanston 
and for twenty years he has been teacher of the Bible class composed of high- 
school girls. 

On the 3d of May, 1892, in Cincinnati, Mr. Morris was married to Miss Edith 
Beatrice Green, a daughter of Joseph Green, of that city, and they have four chil- 



78 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

dren, Joseph G., Edith Marjorie, Melissa DeGalyer and Constance Olive,, aged 
respectively seventeen, fourteen, eleven and eight years. They have also lost two- 
children. For the past eleven years the family has resided at No. 1138 Sheridan 
road, Evanston, and are prominent socially in that section of the city. Mrs. 
Morris is very active in literary and other clubs of Evanston and Mr. Morris 
holds membership in the Hamilton and Automobile Clubs of Chicago, the Univer- 
sity Club of Evanston and the Skokie Country Club. In leisure hours he may 
be frequently seen on the links for golf with him is a pleasant source of recreation. 
If one were to attempt to characterize his life work in a single word it perhaps 
might be done in the term "progress," for from the outset of his career he has 
steadily advanced not only in business and professional circles, although he has 
won success in both, but also in those connections which arise from the duty of 
the individual toward the community. His life has reached out in a constantly 
broadening field of activity and usefulness and figures strongly as one of service- 
ableness in many directions. 



CHARLES ALBERT COMISKEY. 

Charles Albert Comiskey, sole owner of the White Sox Baseball Club as well 
as their home, Comiskey Park, Chicago, stands at the top among the financial kings 
of baseball and is one of the foremost and most successful men connected with the 
national pastime in its entire history. A native of Chicago, born August 15, 1859, 
son of John and Mary Ann (Kearns) Comiskey, he was reared in his native city, 
where he received his education, graduating from Ignatius College. His identi- 
fication with baseball as a player, and like all who attain prominence, began when 
but a youngster. He was a natural-born ball player. His first knowledge of the 
game was secured on the lots of Chicago while his professional identification began 
in 1876. In that year, and before he was seventeen years old, he played third 
base position for Milwaukee. The following year he played at Elgin, Illinois, as 
a pitcher, in which capacity he displayed great promise. From the latter club he 
went to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1878, and remained there during that season and those 
of 1879, 1880 and 1881. Young Comiskey's work with the Dubuque team brought 
him to the attention of the owners of the St. 'Louis Browns, then in the American 
Association. Joining this club in 1882 he became captain and played first base. 
In 1883 he became manager of the St. Louis Browns, a capacity in which he con- 
tinued to act until 1892. It was while a member of this club that he achieved his 
great reputation not only as a player but as a captain and manager. Under his 
direction the St. Louis Browns became one of the greatest teams in the history of 
the game. With them during this period originated many new styles of play, not 
a few of which yet remain distinct features of up-to-date inside baseball. It was 
Mr. Comiskey who originated and successfully demonstrated the advantage of deep 
first base play, depending on the pitcher to cover the base. With a personality 
and force of character that naturally made him a leader he combined a superior 
practical knowledge of the game, an equipment that no doubt had much to do with 
the success of the team he directed. While their head, the St. Louis Browns won 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 79 

the championship of the American Association in 1885, 1886, 1887 and the world's 
championship in 1885 and 1886. The four successive pennants won by this club 
in the American Association is a record in the major leagues that has never been 
equaled. In 1892 Mr. Comiskey became captain and manager of the Cincinnati 
National League team and remained there in a managerial capacity during 1892, 
1893 and 1894. In 1895 he became the owner of the St. Paul Club in the Western 
League, retaining that connection during 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899. As 
an owner at St. Paul Mr. Comiskey had been successful and at the organization of 
the American League in 1900 he became the owner of the Chicago franchise in 
that organization. 

Up to this time Chicago had never been a member of any major league but the 
National and while one of the best ball cities in the country, it seemed a foolhardy 
move to attempt to successfully operate a club in opposition to the old organiza- 
tion. Mr. Comiskey thought differently, an opinion, which, if wrong, meant his 
financial ruin. The American League was attempting to do what a number of 
times previously had proven a failure establish a second major organization. Its 
franchise did not carry the absolute protection given by the National League, with 
its wealth and prestige. Consequently an American League franchise at that time 
did not represent much, if any value, except to men like Charles A. Comiskey, who 
had implicit confidence in the success of the plan of the new organization. At that 
time a franchise was a long ways from a ball club meriting patronage and a home 
for its exhibitions, but Mr. Comiskey backed his judgment with every dollar at his 
command and subsequent results have shown the wisdom of his course. Grounds 
were secured at Thirty-ninth and Wentworth and his club became known as the 
White Sox. The great popularity of the team and its owner was in evidence from 
the first and a patronage surpassing the most sanguine expectations soon came to 
them. In 1910 Mr. Comiskey transferred his club to Comiskey Park, Thirty-fifth 
and Shields avenue, where he erected one of the finest baseball plants in the country 
at an outlay of probably more than the combined cost of all the American League 
plants at the inception of the organization. The White Sox were pennant-winners 
in 1900, 1906; world's championship winners in 1906; and winners of the city cham- 
pionship in 1911. Mr. Comiskey 's success is but that of a business man who 
studies closely the requirements of his patrons and never breaks faith with them. 
He has made baseball his business. When a player he took his vocation seriously 
and made it his business, not a pastime, tried to do his best and never forgot that 
he owed his employer his best efforts. No greater advocate of clean sport can be 
found in any walk of life. He has played the part of a clean, high-class sports- 
man, and has staunchly stood for the betterment of the game through the elimina- 
tion of pool selling, liquor and the bad element generally. When a few years ago 
a majority of the officials contended that it was impossible to make the game pay 
without these accessories, he stoutly maintained that the game would become greater 
and more successful financially without them. Results have proved the wisdom of 
his contention. When the ticket speculators tried to profit by the popularity of 
his team, he hired his own detectives and landed them in jail. In the management 
of his ball park and team he has always kept faith with his patrons and looked for 
his profits at the gate. Mr. Comiskey pays strict attention to business and is al- 
ways in touch with his team whether at home or on the road. He is popular with 



80 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

his men but any man playing for him would rather tackle a sawmill than be called 
into the office for a lecture by "the old Roman." He does not swear at nor upbraid 
offenders, but says things based on his perfect knowledge of the game and the 
men's weaknesses, that are more effective than any torrent of abuse could possibly 
be. He may be said to be an optimist, never yielding to discouragement and always 
confident of success. It has been said of him that he never went into a game he 
did not expect to win and he felt it in his heart as truly as his spoken word indi- 
cated. Take one illustration: In 1886 when the St. Louis Browns won the pen- 
nant in the American Association and Chicago had won the National League pennant, 
A. G. Spalding, who had the Chicago team in charge gave out, as the condition to 
meeting the Browns for the world's championship, a winner take-all clause. Mr. 
Comiskey replied "You're on," and if he could have thought of a shorter affirma- 
tive, he would have used it. The Chicago National Club at that time was a formid- 
able aggregation of ball players yet the club under Mr. Comiskey drew the big 
purse. 

The personal popularity of Mr. Comiskey is truly remarkable and has been 
no small factor in his success. A true friend, whose manifestation of sympathy is 
not confined to a mere protestation but invariably in a more helpful and substantial 
manner he never forgets a favor or declines an opportunity to return one. He is 
systematic and painstaking in whatever he undertakes and whatever he does, he 
does in the best possible manner. Mr. Comiskey has not lived solely to accumulate. 
He is able to consult his wishes and satisfy his desires for the luxuries and com- 
forts of life as well as to give liberally to charity and benevolent projects. He 
belongs to the South Shore, Chicago Yacht, Illinois Athletic and Chicago Automo- 
bile Clubs. 

Mr. Comiskey married Miss Nancy Kelly, of Dubuque, Iowa, and has one son, 
John L.. who is closely identified with the business interests of his father. 



MILO GIFFORD KELLOGG. 

As one follows down the line of the inventors whose labors have given Amer- 
ica preeminence in the field of commerce as the result of devices for saving time 
and labor, he reaches in the later period of invention the name of Milo Gifford 
Kellogg a name largely synonymous with the telephonic history of the country. 
He was of the ninth generation of Kelloggs born in the United States and was a 
son of James Gregg and Sarah Jane (Gifford) Kellogg. This branch of the Kel- 
logg family came from Great Leighs, England, and mention of them is found in 
the records of Farmington, Connecticut, as early as 1651. The Giffords came 
from Barnstable county, Massachusetts, and also date back to colonial days. 

Milo Gifford Kellogg, born in Rodman, New York, April 14, 18-19, attended 
the preparatory school at Fulton, and continued his studies in the Hungerford 
Collegiate Institute at Adams, New York. In 1870 he was graduated from the 
University of Rochester, New York, which institution conferred upon him the 
degrees of A. B. and A. M. He was an Alpha Delta Phi of Rochester, and was 




MILO G. KELLOGG 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 83 

one of three chosen by the society to inaugurate the fraternity chapter at Cornell 
University. 

Following his graduation Mr. Kellogg came to Chicago and entered into busi- 
ness with the firm of Gray & Barton, manufacturers of electrical apparatus, and 
saw the development of telephony and electrical illumination from their infancy. 
The Chicago Engineer in this connection once wrote: "Fancy this energetic trio 
of ambitious young men Gray and Barton and Kellogg all experimenting with 
electricity and making salable apparatus. Elisha Gray Enos M. Barton Milo 
Gifford Kellogg makers of telephone history!" The firm of Gray & Barton in 
1872 became the Western Electric Manufacturing Company and prospered for 
the ten following years, when, in 1882, the word manufacturing was dropped from 
the title. During all of these years and until 1885 Mr. Kellogg remained with 
the concern and from 1875 was superintendent of the manufacturing department 
of the Western Electric Company. 

In the following year Mr. Kellog became president of the Great Southern 
Telephone & Telegraph Company, so continuing until 1888. He was also one of 
the organizers and principal stockholders of the Central Union Telephone Com- 
pany of Chicago and was a director in that company from 1893 until 1898. In 
the meantime he traveled extensively, spending two years of the period in Europe. 
He studied the possibilities of telephone development, becoming identified with 
the operation of telephone plants and concentrating his energy on inventions. Dur- 
ing this period he became a fountain head of economical ideas, all pertaining to 
telephone work. He brought out numerous inventions and about one hundred and 
fifty of his patents formed part of the assets of the new company which he or- 
ganized in 1897. It was in that year that he organized the Kellogg Switchboard 
& Supply Company, of which he became president, a position he held at the time 
of his death. This company was the first to supply independent operating com- 
panies with multiple switchboards and was also the first to introduce the full-lamp- 
signal switchboard to independent operators. It was in 1897 that the Kellogg Com- 
pany built the first independent multiple switchboard for the Kinlock Company 
of St. Louis which was the first large city in the United States to successfully 
break away from the Bell monopoly. We quote again from the Engineer which 
said: "Milo Gifford Kellogg blazed the way for the independent telephone manu- 
facturer. It was through his personal efforts in 1892 that President Benjamin 
Harrison considered the claims of independent manufacturers with reference to 
the Berliner transmitter patents. The government's case to annul the validity of 
Berliner's claim was not successful, but it established the weaknesses which made 
the subsequent trials a success. The contribution of largeness to the cause of 
competitive telephony lies at the door of M. G. Kellogg, the man. The Kellogg 
manufacturing organization constitutes the best engineering and sales talent that 
is to be had. Little could have been added in men, plans or execution to secure 
greater success. Mr. Kellogg always addressed himself in earnest to the work 
before him. He surrounded himself with workers of like kind. The integrity 
and efficiency of the manufactured apparatus resulting from such organization has 
never been assailed." 

Mr. Kellogg devoted his time and energies to the advancement of telephone 
and electrical apparatus and during the last five years of his life maintained a 



84 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

separate organization for experimental work, largely concentrating his efforts and 
energies upon automatic telephone operating and manufacturing. 

On the llth of March, 1873, Mr. Kellogg was united in marriage to Mary 
Frances, a daughter of Calvin and Frances (Kimball) De Wolf, both of whom 
were early settlers of Chicago, her father arriving in 1837 and her mother in 
1840. They were married in this city by the Rev. Hooper Crews, one of the early 
pastors of the Clark street Methodist church, on the 9th of June, 1841. Extended 
mention of them is made on another page of this volume. To Mr. and Mrs. Kel- 
logg were born three children, Anna Pearl, Leroy De Wolf and James Gifford. 
Both sons are connected with the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company and 
the former was married in July, 1901, to Ellen Neel and they have three chil- 
dren, namely: Frances De Wolf, Venie Louise and Leroy Gifford. 

Milo G. Kellogg passed away September 26, 1909. His family and friends 
were all the society he cared for and to them he was most loyal and devoted. He 
attended the Kenwood Evangelical church and was always interested in its bene- 
volent work. He had a firm belief in republican principles, although he at times 
found occasion to vote independently of the party ticket. He was a liberal sup- 
porter of the Municipal Voters' League, a life member of the Chicago Athletic 
Association and also a member of the Union League and Kenwood Clubs. He re- 
mains in the memory of his friends enshrined in a halo of a gracious presence 1 
and kindly spirit, and to the world he will ever be known as one whose efforts 
were foremost in the development of telephony, not only through invention and 
manufacture but also in the establishment of an independent system that broke 
the power of a monopoly. 



JOHN R. CAVERLY. 

History does not consist of the deed* of men who have figured most prominently 
in past ages. In a city like Chicago it is in the making and in various depart- 
ments of activity are men who are active in shaping the policy and molding the 
destiny of the city. Among this number is John R. Caverly, who is now serving 
as judge of the municipal court, to which office he was elected in 1911. 

The world's metropolis claims him as her native son, his birth having occurred 
in London, England, on the 6th of December, 1861. His parents were James and 
Mary (Boulter) Caverly, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Eng- 
land. The father learned and followed the machinist's trade and about 1867 
sailed for the new world with his family, establishing his home in Chicago. His 
son John R. Caverly, then a lad of six years, pursued his education in the Annun- 
ciation parish school and in St. Patrick's Academy and his preparation for a pro- 
fessional career was made in the law department of the Lake Forest University, 
from which he was graduated with the LL. B. degree in 1897. 

He has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession and his 
progress has been substantial and gratifying. In April, 1897, he received appoint- 
ment to the position of assistant city attorney, which he filled for more than six 
years, or until the 1st of May, 1903. He then left the office to become police mag- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 85 

istrate at the Harrison street police court, which has always been considered the 
most trying and responsible position of the kind in Chicago. He presided over that 
court for nearly five years, executing its business with dispatch, his opinions ex- 
pressing absolute impartiality as well as comprehensive knowledge of the law. The 
excellent record which he had made as assistant city attorney, however, again 
suggested him for office and on the 1st of January, 1907, he was appointed city 
attorney and reappointed by Corporation Counsel Brundage. In that connection 
he made for himself a most creditable name, carefully safeguarding the interests 
of the city, his work being based upon a thorough and conscientious knowledge of 
the law and ability to accurately apply its principles. He is recognized as one of 
the ablest lawyers of the Chicago bar, having that mental grasp which enables him 
to discover the points in a case. A man of sound judgment, he manages his cases 
with masterly skill and tact, is a logical reasoner and has a ready command of 
English. 

On the 15th of September, 1898, Mr. Caverly was united in marriage to Miss 
Charlotte J. Cochran. His political allegiance has always been given to the democ- 
racy and his religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church. He belongs to 
the Knights of Columbus and the Royal Arcanum and also holds membership in 
the Illinois Athletic Club and the Iroquois Club. He is of a very social and genial 
nature and is ever heartily welcomed in the meetings of the organizations with 
which he is affiliated. The success of his life is due to no inherited fortune or to 
any happy succession of advantageous circumstances but to his own sturdy will, 
steady application, studious habits, tireless industry and sterling integrity. 



WILLIAM ATWATER WEED. 

( 

It was while the country was involved in the throes of the Civil war that Wil- 
liam Atwater Weed became a resident of Chicago and here he resided to the time 
of his death, in prominent and useful connection with business interests. He was 
born in New York city, on the 17th of May, 18-10, and his life record covered 
scarcely more than a half century, his death occurring March 24, 1892. His fa- 
ther was Dr. John W. Weed, a practicing physician of New York, and the mother, 
Margaret Mix, who belonged to a family of Holland origin. 

In the public schools of the eastern metropolis, William Atwater Weed pur- 
sued his education and entered business circles as an employe in the house of W. 
H. Schieffelin & Company. During the early part of the Civil war he responded 
to the call for troops, becoming a volunteer in the Thirteenth New York Regiment. 
He participated in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Gettysburg and afterward 
retired from the service, removing to Chicago late in the year 1863. From that 
time until his death he retained his residence in this city and was connected in 
various capacities with the wholesale drug houses that were predecessors of the 
business of the firm of Hurlbut & Edsall. He was a partner in the latter firm 
when the disastrous fire of 1871 swept away a very large amount of his fortune. 
He afterward organized the firm of W. A. Weed & Company, dealers in druggists 
sundries, and ten years prior to his death became actively connected as advertising 



86 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

manager with the medical publishing house of G. P. Engelhard & Company. Dur- 
ing the last few years of his life he was the well known manager of the advertis- 
ing department of the Chicago Graphic, published by the same concern. In that 
connection he contributed not only to the success of the paper but also won sub- 
stantial returns for himself and gained recognition as one of the representative 
men in that field of business. 

In Chicago, in 1869, Mr. Weed was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Morgan, 
a daughter of Thomas Morgan, who came with his family to America from Eng- 
land in 1844 and settled at Morgan Park, Illinois, which place was named in his 
honor. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Weed were born four sons and two daughters: Wil- 
liam F., who married Blanche Fowler and is a broker; Morgan, who is connected 
with the Swift Packing Company ; Charles F., who married Dorothy Walsh ; George 
L., who wedded Alice Thatcher and is engaged with his brother Charles in the 
insurance business ; Harriett M., the wife of Dr. P. C. Barnes, of St. Louis ; and 
Clara S., who died in 1902. Mr. Weed was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal 
church and also of the Masonic fraternity. The teachings of both organizations 
were exemplified in his life. Those who knew him found him a kind neighbor and 
a faithful friend ; the church counted him a loyal member ; and to his family he 
was all that could be implied in the term of husband and father. It was not his 
success but the qualities which he displayed in every relation of life that gave him 
firm hold upon the affectionate regard of those with whom he came in contact. 



SOLON C. BRONSON, D. D. 

Dr. Solon C. Bronson, professor of theology at Garrett Biblical Institute in 
Evanston, was born in West Union, Iowa, July 26, 1855. He represents an old 
family of Scotch and Irish lineage that was founded in Connecticut in colonial 
days. His father, Rev. Harvey S. Brunson, was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, 
May 10, 1814, and came to the middle west when twenty years of age, seeking to 
benefit his health by a change of climate. He tarried at different times and for 
different intervals in various states but about 1840 settled at Freeport, Illinois. 
His mother was widowed in early life and settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where 
she afterward passed away and was buried. Rev. H. S. Brunson was a pioneer 
minister of this state, of Iowa and of Wisconsin, devoting fourteen years to preach- 
ing the gospel. About 1842 he was for a short period pastor of the old Canal 
Street Methodist church of Chicago, which was afterward removed to another site 
and called the Centenary Methodist church.. After retiring from the pulpit he 
became a prominent factor in political circles and some time after the war was 
elected to the Iowa senate, wherein he represented his district for two terms. For 
a time he was identified with agricultural pursuits in that state and afterward 
became proprietor of a hotel in Fayette, Iowa. Through his well conducted busi- 
ness affairs he amassed a small fortune which he invested in railroads and thereby 
lost. For forty years he was a director of the Upper Iowa University at Fayette 
and at all times was interested in educational and moral progress. He was a warm 
personal friend of Senator Allison and was one of the first to propose his election 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 87 

to the United States senate. When about sixty-five years of age Mr. Brunson 
retired and spent the remainder of his life in Fayette. He was one of the best 
known and most beloved residents of that community and his friends were found 
throughout that state and in fact in every locality, where he had resided. He died 
in Fayette, December 8, 1905, at the venerable age of ninety-one years. In early 
manhood he had wedded Jane McCool, who was born and reared in Freeport, 
Illinois, and there resided until her marriage, after which she traveled with her 
husband. She died in Fayette, Iowa, in the latter part of November, 1904, at the 
age of eighty-six years. She came of Pennsylvania Dutch parentage and had the 
home instinct which is characteristic of that class. She was a direct descendant 
of Joannes Nevius, secretary of New Amsterdam, now New York, and of William 
Chamberlain and Christian Nevyus (such was the spelling at that time), both of 
whom were active in the Revolutionary war as commissioned officers. On the Bron- 
son family records appears the name of one who gained distinction Pinkney Bron- 
son, who was one of the most famous American orators about the middle of the 
nineteenth century. 

In the family of Harvey S. Brunson and his wife there were five children, of 
whom Dr. Bronson of this review is the fourth in order of birth, the others being: 
Mrs. Henry E. Hurd, of Fayette, Iowa; Mrs. Anna E. Ferguson, of Los Angeles, 
California; Mrs. Sylvanus B. Warner, of Grand Junction, Colorado; and Miss 
Minnie H. Bronson, of Washington, D. C., who was one of those in charge of the 
educational exposition at Paris and at Buffalo and was the head of that department 
at the Belgium exposition at The Hague. More recently she has been active in 
the anti-suffragette work of New York and is now on the Pacific coast on the same 
mission. 

Dr. Bronson pursued his early education in the public schools of Fayette, Iowa, 
and was graduated from the Upper Iowa University of that place in 1875. He 
then came to Evanston and entered the Garrett Biblical Institute, from which he 
was graduated in 1878. Having determined to devote his life to the ministry, he 
was ordained in Hopkinton, Iowa, in 1880, and for seventeen years was actively 
engaged in preaching the gospel in that state, being located at different times in 
Hopkinton, Waterloo, Toledo, Clinton and Burlington. In the spring of 1896 he 
was elected to the chair of practical theology in the Garrett Biblical Institute, 
where he has since remained, covering a period of fifteen years, his ability placing 
him prominent among the educators in this field in the country. The honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity has been conferred upon him by this school and also 
by Cornell College ofilowa, and from the Upper Iowa University at Fayette he 
received the Master of Arts degree. In that school he was doctor of theology for 
a time and some years later held a similar connection with the Cornell College. 

In 1879, in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Bronson was married to Miss Frances Avann, 
a daughter of William Avann, an Englishman. She was graduated from Boston 
University, in 1879. Dr. and Mrs. Bronson have become parents of four children: 
Mrs. Edna B. Campbell, a widow, who is now a high-school teacher in Seattle, 
Washington; Elizabeth, the wife of Eugene W. Brownell, assistant cashier in the 
National Bank of Commerce at Seattle, Washington; Earl A., who is married and 
resides in Evanston ; and Reid R., a freshman of the Northwestern University. 
Three of these children are Phi Beta Kappa members of Northwestern University. 



88 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Dr. Bronson is a republican with independent tendencies. He does not believe 
in the blind following of party leadership and is recognized as an active supporter 
of many of the wholesome, purifying reforms which have been growing up in the 
political life of city and country. He is a member of the University Club of Evan- 
ston, of the Upper Iowa University Club of Chicago and of the Methodist Social 
Union of Chicago. The universality of his friendships interprets for us his intel- 
lectual hospitality and the breadth of his sympathy, for nothing is foreign to him 
that concerns his fellows. 



JOHN WILLIAM ALLEN. 

.John William Allen has long been well known in business circles of Chicago as 
the head of the firm conducting business under the name of J. W. Allen & Company, 
at Nos. 110-118 North Peoria street, dealers in bakers' and confectioners' supplies. 
His birth occurred near Ann Arbor, Washtenaw county, Michigan, on the ith of 
September, 1848, his parents being Almond A. and Lucy (Powell) Allen, both of 
whom were born near Rochester, New York. They passed away in Michigan. Al- 
mond A. Allen participated in the Civil war. He was sent west to assist in quelling 
the Indian disturbances and lost his health, which never was entirely restored. 

John W. Allen began attending the country schools of Calhoun county, Michigan, 
when a little lad of seven years and for five years his big Newfoundland dog drew 
him to and from school on a sled, as he was a cripple and almost helpless for five 
years. When a youth of seventeen he began learning the milling business at Battle 
Creek and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and on attaining his majority came to Chicago, 
here securing a clerkship with the firm of Lyman & Silliman, tea and coffee merch- 
ants, in whose employ he remained for twelve years. On the expiration of that pe- 
riod he had accumulated sufficient capital to enable him to embark in business on his 
own account, but lost his earnings through the failure of the Fidelity Savings Bank. 
Later he was offered and accepted five hundred dollars for his bank book and again 
went to work to increase his financial resources. At the end of two years he began 
business at No. 80 Van Buren street, remaining at that location for eighteen years. 
He then removed to No. 208 Washington boulevard, where he occupied a five-story 
building for nine years. At the expiration of that period he built a modern rein- 
forced concrete and brick structure of four stories and basement at Nos. 110-118 
North Peoria street, where he is now conducting business. He is now at the head 
of an extensive and profitable corporation, dealing in bakers' and confectioners' sup- 
plies under the name of J. W. Allen & Company. Some idea of the growth of the 
concern may be gained from the fact that when he started out in business he did all 
of the work himself and at present requires the assistance of a large force of em- 
ployes. He is likewise the owner of the old Windiate farm in Calhoun county, Michi- 
gan. His life record is one which merits both admiration and emulation. Though 
in early life handicapped both physically and financially, he has worked his way 
steadily upward to a position of prominence and influence in the community. 

On the 30th of December, 1872, Mr. Allen was united in marriage to Miss 
Emma M. Windiate, a daughter of William and Almira (Mead) Windiate, of Cal- 




J. W. ALLEN 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 91 

houn count}', Michigan. Unto them was born one son, Harry W., who is now the 
secretary and treasurer of the firm of J. W. Allen & Company. Harry W. Allen is 
married and has a son, Frank W., who is now eleven years of age. 

In politics Mr. Allen is a republican, loyally supporting the men and measures 
of that party. He belongs to the Chicago Association of Commerce and the Illinois 
Manufacturers' Association, also the National Master Bakers' Association and is a 
worthy exemplar of the Masonic fraternity. Motoring and fishing afford him pleas- 
ure and recreation. His record is an illustration of the fact that opportunity is 
open to all. With a nature that could not be content with mediocrity, his laudable 
ambition has prompted him to put forth untiring and practical effort until he has 
long since left the ranks of the many and stands among the successful few. 



HENRY M. KINGMAN. 

In banking circles of Chicago the name of Henry M. Kingman is an honored 
one and his memory is cherished by all who knew him. His high principles in 
private and business life ever commanded the respect of his fellowmen and his 
ability was evidenced in the fact that he steadily advanced in the business world 
until he became second vice president of one of the world's strongest financial 
institutions the First National Bank of Chicago. His birth occurred November 
29, 1842, in Winchester, New Hampshire. When a lad of six years he accompan- 
ied his parents, Marshall and Abby (Fairbanks) Kingman, to Boston, Massachu- 
setts, where he resided for eight years, pursuing his education throughout that 
period in the schools of Watertown, one of the city's suburbs. The family then 
returned to his native city and he further pursued his education in the schools of 
Winchester until he entered Power's Institute at Bernardston, Massachusetts. He 
entered business circles in 1861 as an employe in the office of a lumber firm at 
Albany, New York, but in 1862, when twenty years of age, he sought the oppor- 
tunities of the rapidly developing middle west and left the Empire state for Du- 
buque, Iowa. From that time forward his business career was in close identification 
with banking and for a period he was identified with his cousins, R. E. and J. K. 
Graves, in the Dubuque branch of the State Bank of Iowa. He was also con- 
nected for a time with the First National Bank of that city and, in 1871, entered 
the Commercial National Bank of Dubuque as its cashier. For ten years his 
efforts were effectively given to the upbuilding of that institution but at length 
he sought the broader opportunities of Chicago and in 1881, having resigned his 
position in Dubuque, became assistant cashier of the Hide & Leather Bank of this 
city. In August, 1882, he entered the First National Bank as assistant cashier, 
displaying in that capacity marked ability, and labored indefatigably to promote 
the interests of the institution. The year 1891 brought him advancement to the 
position of second vice president and although he was already suffering from the 
illness which finally terminated his life, he remained for sixteen months in that 
position, receiving the salary of the office throughout the entire period. 

It was on the 28th of September, 1871, that Mr. Kingman was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Emerette Randall, a daughter of Job S. and Emerette (Foster) 



92 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Randall, residents of Dubuque, where her father was engaged in the lumber busi- 
ness. Mr. and Mrs. Kingman became the parents of three children, but the only 
one now living is Marie L., who makes her home with her mother. In August, 
1890, ill health forced Mr. Kingman to seek relief and he made his way to the 
sanitarium at Alma, Michigan, where he spent several months. His condition did 
not improve, however, during that period and he rejoined the members of his 
family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were visiting relatives. Soon af- 
ter he passed away, death coming to him on the 16th of December, 1891, when he 
was less than fifty years of age. His health had been sacrificed to unremitting 
toil. His close application and the earnest purpose which he displayed in his 
business had undermined his constitution and death resulted. His life had been 
one of much usefulness. During his residence in Chicago he held membership in 
St. Paul's Universalist church, at Thirtieth street and Prairie avenue, and was 
very active in church work, serving as superintendent of the Sunday school and 
as president of its Literary Society. He also conformed his life to the high stand- 
ards of Knight Templar Masonry and he likewise held membership with the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was always very fond of music and possessed 
considerable natural talent in that direction, singing in the church choir when a 
resident of Dubuque. His political support was given to the republican party and 
in duties of citizenship he was never amiss. His name was also on the member- 
ship rolls of several of the leading clubs of the city and in every relation of life 
he won numerous warm friends.. At all times and under every circumstance he 
showed himself worthy of trust and this combined with his unfaltering diligence 
and close application gained him substantial advancement in business circles. His 
entire life was proof of the fact that there is no discord, as many contend, between 
successful business methods and religious principles. 



MANDLEBERT WENDELL BAKER. 

Mandlebert Wendell Baker, president of the Baker Manufacturing Company, 
manufacturers of road grading machinery, was born in Knob Lick, Missouri, Sep- 
tember 6, 1875, a son of Andrew H. and Marietta (McGlasson) Baker. His grand- 
father, Moses Wendell Baker, was born in St. Francois county, Missouri, in 1809, 
and is said to have been the first white child born in that district. His parents had 
emigrated from Kentucky and his grandfather was originally from Germany. The 
second wife of Moses W. Baker bore the maiden name of Lydia Kinkead and was 
a daughter of Samuel Kinkead, a Scotchman, who also removed from Kentucky to 
Missouri. It was their son, Andrew H. Baker, who became the father of Mandle- 
bert W. Baker. The last named, after attending the common schools in various 
places, completed his education in the high school of Hutchinson, Kansas, and 
started in business life there as a bank clerk after putting aside his text-books in 
189(5. This gave him considerable experience and his growing efficiency led to 
his selection for the office of assistant cashier in the White City State Bank at White 
City, Kansas, in January, 1899. There his faithfulness won him promotion to the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 93 

position of cashier in that institution, which was later converted into a national 
bank. While thus engaged Mr. Baker became interested in manufacturing and on 
the 1st of January, 1908, resigned his position to remove to Chicago and extend 
his manufacturing interests. He is now president of the Baker Manufacturing 
Company, engaged extensively in the building of road grading machinery and tools, 
scrapers, contractors' equipment, street cleaning supplies, etc. He still remains 
financially interested, however, in the First National Bank of White City, Kansas, 
and is one of its directors. Under his careful guidance the business in Chicago has 
constantly grown and developed and has now reached extensive proportions. The 
business is well organized, the plant splendidly equipped and the output finds a 
readj' sale upon the market, for Mr. Baker seems to possess in large measure that 
quality which for want of a better term has been called commercial sense, includ- 
ing, as it does, excellent powers of organization, capable management and the ability 
to surround himself with an able corps of assistants. 

On the 2d of October, 1906, in White City, Kansas, Mr. Baker was married to 
Miss Margaret Miller, a daughter of Frank B. Miller and a native of Alexis, Illinois, 
born .July 24, 1880. She was graduated from Knox College at Galesburg with the 
class of 1898 and unto this marriage has been born a daughter, Lucy Wendell. 
The parents are members of the Christian church and Mr. Baker belongs to the 
Odd Fellows society, having held the office of noble grand in White City, Kansas. 
He also belongs to the Rotary Club of Chicago and the Association of Credit Men. 
His political views accord with the principles of the republican party but he takes 
no active part in politics beyond voting at the primaries. His influence, however, 
can always be counted upon as a tangible factor for reform, progress and improve- 
ment along various lines and his salient characteristics are those which everywhere 
command confidence and respect. 



ALVIN HOWARD CULVER. 

Alvin Howard Culver, an attorney of the Chicago bar, was born in this city, 
March 9, 1873, the son of Morton and Eugenia M. (Taylor) Culver. Among his 
ancestors were those who served in the Revolutionary war, his great-great-grand- 
father, John Breese, aiding the colonies in their struggle for independence. His 
grandson, John B. Culver, was a native of Ithaca, and took up the profession of 
surveying. He came to the middle west in 1834 and settled at Dutchman's Point in 
the town of Niles, Cook county, Illinois, where he resided until he removed to Chi- 
cago in 1849. He was the father of Morton Culver, who was born in Dutchman's 
Point and came to Chicago when but eight years of age and, wishing to secure an 
education, entered the Chicago high school, but on the call foi' troops by President 
Lincoln he joined the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Illinois Volunteers and at 
the close of the war entered the Northwestern University, working his way through 
college and completing the four years' course in three years. He then took up the 
profession of teaching, serving as principal of the Jones school. Afterward he en- 
tered the Union College of Law and on his admittance to the bar engaged in the 



94 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

practice of law in Chicago up to the time of his death. He also operated extensively 
in real estate for many years, laying out subdivisions in Glencoe, Evanston, Ravens- 
wood and other suburbs, and the creation and development of the town of Summer- 
dale are due to his efforts. He died February 27, 1900, at the age of fifty-eight 
years, and is survived by his widow, who is now living at Glencoe at the age of 
seventy years, the family home having been located there since 1873. Mrs. Culver 
is a daughter of John Taylor, of Broome county, New York, and her mother was a 
descendant of Israel Williams, of Revolutionary fame. To them were born eight 
children, all of whom are yet living: Harry N., an attorney of Chicago; Eugenia 
M., who is a practicing physician at Glencoe; Morton T., an attorney of Chicago; 
Alvin H., of this review; Delphia M., superintendent of the Juvenile school of Chi- 
cago; John R., a traveling salesman; Arthur E., who is with the Standard Oil 
Company in the Philippines; and Roger S., a salesman in Chicago. This family 
was well represented in the Spanish-American war, Harry N. having been an officer 
in the First Illinois Regiment, while Arthur E. was a private in that regiment and 
rose to the rank of captain in the Philippines. 

In the public school of Glfincoe Alvin H. Culver pursued his education, and at 
the age of thirteen years, entered the Northwestern Academy, while at the age of 
sixteen years he became a student of the Northwestern University. He was gradu- 
ated when twenty years of age, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893. 
Throughout his college days he was prominent in his class, and not only made a 
good record in scholarship but was also very active in athletics, serving as captain 
of the track team, and represented the school in intercollegiate track events. He 
also played on the football team and with the team of the Chicago Athletic Asso- 
ciation and he held the pole-vaulting record for six or seven years, and also made 
many records in track work. 

Mr. Culver's choice of profession fell upon the law and in 1893 he entered the 
law department of the Northwestern University, working his way through school 
by teaching at night in 1894-5. He was graduated with the Bachelor of Law degree 
in the latter year, and soon afterward entered the office of Joseph E. Paden and 
Judge Martin M. Gridley, well known Chicago attorneys, with whom he continued 
until 1900. In 1895 he coached the Northwestern University football team, which 
under his instructions produced the best record the team ever made. 

In 1900, when the firm with whom he began practice was dissolved, Mr. Culver 
became a member of the new firm of Gridley, Culver & King, which continued until 
December 1, 1910, when the senior partner, Mr. Martin M. Gridley, was elected 
a judge of the Superior Court. The two remaining partners continued in business 
together, and Jiave recently been joined by C. S. Andrews, under the firm name of 
Culver, Andrews & King. They engage in general practice and have been con- 
nected with considerable important litigation. 

Mr. Culver is recognized as a capable adviser and wise counselor and his analy- 
tical ability and sound reasoning enable him to correctly apply legal principles to 
the point in controversy. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Illi- 
nois State Bar Association and the Chicago Law Institute. 

On the 15th of August, 1907, Mr. Culver was married in Chicago to Miss Jean 
Gehan of this city, and they have two children, Alvin Sager, born June 11, 1908, and 
Jean, born August 11, 1911. Mr. Culver votes with the republican party, but is 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 95 

not an active worker in the ranks. He holds membership with the Hamilton and 
Skokie Country Clubs, with the Royal League and Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, and his membership relations indicate the nature of his recreation and the 
motives which govern his conduct. In the years of his work he has made continued 
progress in the law, gaining a clientele which in extent and importance is indica- 
tive of his high standing at the bar. He early displayed the elemental strength 
of his character in providing for his own education and from that time forward in 
all the relations of life he has commanded the confidence and good-will of those with 
whom he has been associated. 



CALVIN E. BROWN, M. D. 

We are apt to regard the successful merchant or manufacturer as the self-made 
man and yet how many instances there are of the professional man who makes his 
way through college and depends only upon his own resources for advancement. In 
the professions, too, more than in commercial or industrial life progress must be 
won through individual effort and capability and it has been in this way that Dr. 
Calvin E. Brown has won recognition as an able and successful medical practitioner. 
He was born May 11, 1879, at Stone Creek, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, his parents 
being John A. and Sarah (Haas) Brown, who were also natives of that state, the 
former born April 8, 1853, and the latter on the 2d of May, 1854. The father is now 
a dealer in monumental work and bronze in Pinckneyville, Illinois, where he and his 
wife have a pleasant home. They were the parents of two children, the younger 
being Carrie, now the wife of A. R. Dry, of Pinckneyville, who is state's attorney 
there, and they have two children. 

When a lad of six years Dr. Brown began attending the public schools of Stone 
Creek, there continuing until fourteen years of age, when the necessity of assisting 
in the cultivation of his father's farm caused him to discontinue his studies for two 
years. On the expiration of that period he went to New Philadelphia, Ohio, and 
was for two years a pupil in the normal school there. He then worked for two 
years in the file shops, in order to earn money to pay his expenses through medical 
college. Laudable ambition at all times prompted his earnest effort and he availed 
himself of every opportunity to promote his knowledge and add to his capital that 
he might gain therefrom the opportunity of continuing his education. In 1899 he 
went to Valparaiso, Indiana, and for three years thereafter was a student in the 
university there. He then spent three years in the medical department, after 
which he entered the Bennett Medical College, from which he was graduated in 
1906. He next entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he was 
graduated in 1907. Two years spent in the Garfield Park Hospital well qualified 
him for general practice, and he opened an office at the northeast corner of Lake 
street and Kedzie avenue, where he has since remained. He is a member of the 
Chicago Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society and the American Medi- 
cal Association, and through the meetings of these organizations keeps thoroughly 
informed concerning what is being done by the professoin, especially along the lines 



96 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

of original research and practice. He is still a member of the staff of the Garfield 
Park Hospital, and one of the instructors for the nurses. 

Dr. Brown is likewise medical examiner for the Knights of Pythias and is a 
member of that organization. In Masonry he has attained high rank, having taken 
the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and he is also a member of the Mystic 
Shrine. His political views accord with the principles of the republican partv and 
his religious opinions are in harmony with the Protestant faith. He enjoys out-of- 
door sports which give him rest and recreation and maintain the even balance to his 
arduous professional labors. His position is certainly an enviable one and he de- 
serves much credit for what he has accomplished. He earned every dollar to pay 
his expenses through college, receiving financial assistance from no one, and the 
same resolute spirit and determination are promoting his advancement in his prac- 
tice and winning him a liberal following. 



WALTER KENDALL LINCOLN. 

There are few members of the Illinois bar more conversant with the law bear- 
ing upon wills and trusts than is Walter Kendall Lincoln, and his efforts to secure 
legislation that shall be just and equitable in relation to the inheritance tax has been 
crowned with success, as a bill of his drafting has passed both houses of the general 
assembly and found its way to the statute books of the state. He has left and is 
leaving the impress of his individuality upon the legal history of Illinois. He was 
born in Ottawa, Illinois, October 11, 1876, and is descended from Samuel Lincoln, 
a resident of Yorkshire, Massachusetts, in early colonial days. His father, Benjamin 
Franklin Lincoln, a native of Pennsylvania, came .to Illinois in 1870, since which 
time he has been a resident of Ottawa. Preparing for the bar, he has a notable and 
commendable history as circuit court judge and an equally creditable record in the 
private practice of law, and'was formerly a partner of Attorney General W. H. Stead, 
the present attorney general of Illinois. Mr. Lincoln has been connected with many 
famous cases, including -the litigation over the strip of land, ninety feet wide by one 
hundred miles long, that borders the Chicago drainage canal between Chicago and 
La Salle. He was also counsel for the state against the Illinois Central Railroad 
Company in a suit to recover fifteen million dollars of taxes. His wife, who bore 
the maiden name of Nelle Brown and was a native of this state, died in 1885. 
Walter Kendall Lincoln was the oldest of their family of four children, of whom 
three survive. Maud A. Lincoln has been a pupil of Lecheteski, the master who de- 
veloped Paderewski, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler and others. She is now engaged 
by the Austrian government in the translation of scientific English and French 
works into German and resides at Vienna. Katharine, the younger daughter, is a 
student in the Washington (D. C.) Seminary. 

Entering the public schools at the usual age, Walter Kendall Lincoln continued 
his studies until he was graduated at the high school of Ottawa with the class of 
1 894. He then took up the study of law in the office of Lincoln & Stead of that city, 
and was there admitted to the bar in 1899. He began practice there and was as- 
sistant state's attorney for a year, but in 1900 he came to Chicago and entered the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 97 

office of the late Robert L. Tathum. with whom he was connected for a year. He 
afterward became attorney for the Cable Company, which position he held for two 
years, and then opened an office for the independent practice of his profession. He 
has since engaged in general practice and represents many eastern clients in wills 
and trust cases. In 1905 he was appointed special assistant attorney general to 
prosecute inheritance tax cases in Cook county, and so continued until January, 
1909, when he was appointed inheritance tax attorney by the attorney general and 
is still filling that position. In the same year he drafted the present inheritance tax 
law which is now in force in the state. He is also the author of the Automatic 
Payment Plan of Bank Balances, effected by the tax law and now adopted by all 
banks in the state. He is likewise the author of Lincoln on Inheritance Tax Law, 
of the present system of transferring securities, bonds and stocks, effected by the 
tax law ; and the present trial system of inheritance tax cases in Cook county, which 
has increased the amount of cases handled and tried from three hundred to six hun- 
dred per year. Since he became connected with the tax office the income of the state 
from this department has increased from one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
to one million two hundred thousand dollars per year. 

Mr. Lincoln represents the attorney general and state treasurer in Cook county 
in all matters pertaining to the inheritance tax laws. He has been identified with 
the settlement of a great many large estates during his service in this office, among 
which were those of Marshall Field, E. H. Harriman, Nelson Morris, Charles T. 
Yerkes, Michael Cudahy, Darius Ogden Mills, Otto Young and Albert Keep. Mr. 
Lincoln is a member of the Chicago and Illinois State Bar Associations, the Chicago 
Legal Club, and the Hamilton Club. 

In Chicago, in -July, 1909, Mr. Lincoln was married to Miss Ruby Dean, a 
daughter of Mrs. Loretta Dean, of Kenwood, Illinois, and they have a daughter, 
Jane Lincoln, born July 15, 1910. The family residence is at Kenwood and Mr. 
and Mrs. Lincoln are members of the Episcopal church there. He is a lover of out- 
door sports and obtains his recreation principally in fishing. His life work has con- 
stituted a valuable contribution to that service to which the commonwealth is 
greatly indebted to the legal profession. His efforts in connection with the in- 
heritance tax law and with various changes which have been brought about in busi- 
ness life through its adoption have been of material benefit to the general public. 
Moreover, he has gained a position of distinction and in accomplishing the tasks 
to which he has set himself, he has performed a work the extent of which can only 
be understood by those intimately associated with the profession of the law. 



CLYDE ALISON MANN. 

Clyde Alison Mann, president of the Auxiliary Press Service, was born in St. 
Charles, Illinois, in 1873, a son of Professor Charles E. and Sarah L. Mann, the 
former well known as an educator who has served as school superintendent in various 
places. His grandparents were pioneers of this state. Clyde A. Mann pursued 
his more advanced education in the Geneva (111.) high school and in the State Uni- 
versity, in the class of 189-1. His father was at that time engaged in manufacturing 



98 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and the son entered the father's office as bookkeeper, but the business failed during 
the financial panic of 1894 and Clyde A. Mann turned to newspaper work, having 
previously had a limited experience in that field in connection with the old Chicago 
Record. He was connected successively with the Record, the Daily News, the Sioux 
City (Iowa) Journal, of which he was city editor, and the Sioux City Tribune. In 
Sioux City he also engaged in the land business for a period, with success. Remov- 
ing to Chicago, he has in the establishment and conduct of his present business met 
a need created by the development and complexity of business interests, being now 
president of the Auxiliary Press Service, an agency for special news, with connec- 
tions in other cities. Mr. Mann has found time to cooperate in public movements, 
as he organized and was the secretary of the Postal Savings Bank League, which 
focused the public sentiment, favoring the postal banks, upon congress. He was 
credited with a part in saving fraternal insurance from disaster. He has served as 
counsel to various corporate interests in their relations to' the public. In politics 
he is a progressive. 

Mr. Mann was married at Webster Groves, Missouri, in 1898, to Miss Genevieve 
C. Orton, who died in 1901, leaving two daughters, Marquita and Alice. In 1904 
Mr. Mann was again married, his second union being with Marie Alice Orton. In 
business optimism and determination, with enterprise and straightforward dealing, 
command for him the respect of his contemporaries. 



HAROLD DYRENFORTH. 

Harold Dyrenforth, president and one of the principal stockholders in the Com- 
mercial Life Insurance Company, with offices in the First National Bank building, 
is a son of Julius and Caroline Dyrenforth, and was born in Waukegan, Illinois, 
July 12, 1865. His father, a representative of a fine old Prussian family, came to 
Chicago in 1847 and gave the first public concert ever held in this city. He was the 
organizer of an orchestra composed mainly of refugees of the German revolution of 
1848, and the concerts which were held by him were familiarly known as promenade 
concerts. He was also one of the charter members of the German Maennerchor, and 
did much to promote the musical taste and talent of the city. He was likewise one 
of the organizers of the Dyrenforth Business College, which was founded in 1857, 
and his labors were an effective force in the upbuilding of that institution. After an 
active and useful life he retired from business in 1879, enjoying well earned rest 
through the remainder of his days, his life record closing in 1890. His widow, Mrs. 
Caroline Dyrenforth, is still living at the venerable age of ninety years. She was 
connected with a notable family of musicians of England, her brother, George Thom- 
son, being a well known composer, many of his compositions surviving to the pres- 
ent day. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dyrenforth were members of large families and unto 
them were born eleven sons and one daughter, of whom Harold Dyrenforth is the 
youngest. This family includes several sons who have become very successful pa- 
tent lawyers, and it was the eldest son Robert G., who died in Washington, D. C., 
July 4, 1910, who made the discovery that rain could be forced from the clouds by 




HAROLD DYRENFORTH 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 101 

exploding shells in their midst. This brother was also commander in chief of the 
Union Veterans Union for four terms and is well known as a public benefactor. 

In the public schools of Chicago Harold Dyrenforth pursued his education. 
Practically his entire life has been spent in this city and his first business experience 
was obtained in connection with the wholesale jewelry trade. He embarked in that 
line on his own account in 1886 and continued therein until 1897, during which time 
he built up a business of considerable proportions. He withdrew from that field in 
1897 to become general agent of the New York Life Insurance Company, with which 
he remained until 1907, when he with others organized the Commercial Life Insur- 
ance Company, of which he is now the president and head.. He has ever been dis- 
tinguished for ability and thoroughness in his methods and a keen insight into busi- 
ness have led him to accomplish what a man of less sagacity would not have under- 
taken. In January, 1908, he was made vice president of the company and in August, 
1909, became president. He is today one of the well known insurance men of the 
country, having an intimate knowledge of the business in all its phases, and his care- 
fully formulated plans are resultant features of success. 

Mr. Dyrenforth was married on the 31st of December, 188i, to Miss Emily Wen- 
deroth, and unto them were born three children, a son and two daughters, but the son 
died of diphtheria in childhood and the two little girls lost their lives in the fatal 
Iroquois Theater disaster. Mrs. Dyrenforth is a daughter of Julius and Henrietta 
Wenderoth, of Cincinnati, and both she and her husband attend St. Lukes Episcopal 
church of Evanston, in which beautiful northside suburb they ccmke their home. Mr. 
Dyrenforth belongs to the Chicago Athletic Club. He is also a member of Evans 
Lodge, No. 524, A. F. & A. M. He served on the Evanston board of education from 
1901 until 1910 and is a stalwart and earnest champion of the cause of education. 
He is devoting every energy and ingenuity to bring the Commercial Life Insurance 
Company to an even higher standing than it has already attained in insurance circles, 
and it will be his life work to build up a company that will be a splendid representa- 
tive of the integrity and substantial character of one of Chicago's foremost business 
enterprises. 



FERNANDO JONES. 

The days of chivalry and knighthood in Europe cannot furnish more interest- 
ing or romantic tales than our own western history. Into the unexplored west went 
brave men who even disregarded the possibility of encounters with hostile savages 
in order that they might profit by the rich natural resources offered by the country 
and aid in founding the western empire. A life remote from the older civilization 
of the east often meant sacrifices and hardships and at all events meant deprivation 
of those things which in the older sections of the country were regarded as indis- 
pensable comforts. Chicago, the city marvelous, whose growth deserves to be men- 
tioned with the seven wonders of the world, was for seventy-five years the home of 
him whose name introduces this review. No name is spoken of with a feeling of 
greater veneration and respect than that of Fernando Jones. Were it not for the 
unmistakable proofs of history, the youth of the present generation could hardly 



102 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

believe it possible that a recent resident of Chicago had as his associates in trade 
relations here the Indians who occupied this section of the country, making Cook 
and surrounding counties their hunting-ground and place of habitation. Yet before 
the city was incorporated, when in fact it was little more than a collection .of vil- 
lages bordering the bank of the river near its outlet into the lake, Fernando Jones 
came here to reside and here he lived until his death in November, 1911, being at 
that time the oldest of all of Chicago's pioneers. A student of Chicago history 
cannot but be thrilled by his life record. He arrived here on the fifteenth anniver- 
sary of his birth, which occurred May 26. 1820, in Forestville, Chautauqua county, 
New York. 

His parents were William and Anna (Gregory) Jones. The father was for 
many years a prominent actor on the stage of pioneer development in Chicago. He 
was born in Massachusetts in 1789 and became a resident of Hanover, Chautauqua 
county, New York, at the age of nineteen years, there engaging in farming for five 
years and also participating in the local government. While there he married and 
in 1824 removed with his family to Buffalo, New York, where he established a 
grocery store. That his fellow townsmen there placed value upon his abilities is 
indicated in the fact that he was soon active in municipal politics, held a number 
of city offices and was finally appointed collector of the court. He was also deputy 
superintendent of harbor construction when the work was begun . there. It was 
while occupying that office that there came to his hands a map of the Great Lakes 
and his study of this awakened his interest in Chicago. He realized its advantag- 
eous geographical location at the foot of Lake Michigan, directly in the course of 
the great routes of overland travel toward the west. Noting the westward trend 
of emigration, he believed that the city was destined for greatness and in the sum- 
mer of 1831 he boarded a westward bound steamer, from which he landed at De- 
troit, proceeding by stage and wagon to Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo and thence by 
skiff and horseback, as occasion necessitated, to his destination, arriving on the 1st 
of August. There was little encouraging in the prospect but his prescience foresaw 
the possibilities for development and after spending the winter in Elkhart, Indiana, 
he returned in February, 1832, and purchased two lots on South Water and Lake 
streets between Clark and Dearborn. These were eighty by one hundred and fifty 
feet each and the purchase price was two hundred dollars. 

William Jones returned to Buffalo but in the spring of 1831 again came to 
Chicago, built a store, established a hardware business and from time to time in- 
vested in real estate. He was the first who came to this city for the primary pur- 
pose of purchasing property with a view to later selling at an advanced figure. 
Although he lost heavily in the financial panic of 1837, he soon was again in afflu- 
ent circumstances, the growth of the city augmenting the value of his real estate. 
He continued in the hardware business on South Water street as senior partner of 
the firm of Jones, King & Company for many years and he also laid out the William 
Jones addition to the city, whereon the home of Fernando Jones stood. He was 
also prominent in the public life and interests of Chicago in early days, serving for 
several years as one of the first justices of the peace and for one term as a member 
of the first board of school inspectors, established in 1840. He was a member of 
the city council from the third ward and president of the board of education from 
1840-3, 1845-8 and 1851-2. He was a leading member of the volunteer fire depart- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 103 

ment and only his fearless expression of his temperance principles kept him from 
the mayor's chair. His vote was cast with the democratic party. He stood always 
as an advocate of higher education and his labors were of far reaching benefit in 
that field. Moreover, he was instrumental as member of the school board in origin- 
ating the book fund for children of poor parents and was one of the founders of the 
old Chicago University, subscribing forty thousand dollars toward its establish- 
ment. In recognition of his generosity and practical assistance the trustees named 
the south wing of the university Jones Hall, and one of the early school buildings 
of the city, Jones school on Harrison street, was named in his honor. He served 
on the university board of trustees until his death and for many years was president 
of its executive committee. That in his character was the leaven of deep sympathy 
and charity is indicated in the fact that he aided in founding the Chicago Orphan 
Asylum and acted as president of its board of trustees for a number of years. He 
died January 18, 1865, leaving his impress for good upon the substantial develop- 
ment and public progress of Chicago. His wife passed away February 15. 1854. 

While pursuing his early education in Buffalo, Fernando Jones was a pupil of 
Millard Fillmore, afterward president of the United States, and in Fredonia Acad- 
emy he was a fellow student of Reuben E. Fenton, afterward governor of New 
York. While a student in Canandaigua he became a warm personal friend of 
Stephen A. Douglas, then studying law there a friendship that was terminated 
only in the death of "the little giant." His studies were not pursued continuously, 
however, for in the meantime he had accompanied his parents to Chicago and as- 
sisted his father in the conduct of the hardware store, from 1835 until 1837, when 
he returned to the east to complete his education. The Indians were frequent vis- 
itors in the embryo city and Fernando Jones soon picked up their language, learning 
to converse with both the Pottawottomies and Chippewas. Frequently his services 
as interpreter were sought and his knowledge of the Indian tongues later secured 
him a clerkship with the United States disbursing officer. He was but sixteen years 
of age when he was occupying clerkships in the United States land office and in 
the office of the Illinois and Michigan canal trustees. From his return to Chicago 
in 1839 until his retirement from business life he was associated with one phase 
or another of real-estate interests. He joined his father, who had already become 
a heavy investor in property, the son giving his attention largely to examining of 
titles and furnishing abstracts. Impaired health caused him to spend several years 
in the south and also three years in Jackson, Michigan, during which time he en- 
gaged in literary work, editing monthly publications devoted to temperance, educa- 
tion and agriculture. These were published by Wilbur F. Storey, afterward editor 
of the Chicago Times and a lifelong friend of Mr. Jones. 

Returning to Chicago, Mr. Jones remained but a short time and then went to 
Rock Island. Illinois, his attention being given to the management of the real-estate 
interests which he had there acquired until 1853. Again he became a factor in the 
business circles of Chicago, taking up the task of completing a set of abstract books 
founded on the system of tract indexes. In this he was associated with John D. 
Brown, who on withdrawing from the business was succeeded by Robert A. Smith 
and in 1862 Alfred H. Sellers, who had for some time occupied a clerkship in the 
business, was admitted to share in the profits. In 1864 he became a partner and 
the firm of Jones & Sellers operated until the great fire of 1871, when their set of 



104 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

records was one of the three plants relied upon by experts to maintain the titles 
to real estate in Chicago. Thus Mr. Jones became one of the originators of the 
real-estate abstract system, which has been generally adopted throughout this coun- 
try and introduced into many foreign countries. Following the fire the three abstract 
firms of Chase Brothers, Shortall & Hoard and Jones & Sellers consolidated, the 
business being continued under the style of Handy, Simmons & Company and after 
intermediate changes became a portion of the consolidated plant of the Chicago 
Title & Trust Company. Mr. Jones at that time retired from business and yet 
his counsel and opinions were frequently sought as that of one of the highest ex- 
perts on real-estate titles and values in the city. 

The attractive home life of Fernando Jones had its inception in his marriage, 
July 7, 1853, to Miss Jane Grahame, of Henry county, Illinois, who died in 1906. 
Their only daughter, Genevieve, became the wife of George R. Grant, a lawyer, 
and both are now deceased. Their son, Grahame a graduate of the Chicago Law 
School, is a successful practitioner at the Chicago bar. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were 
closely associated in many activities resulting beneficially to the city and to the 
individual as factors in the community life. Mrs. Jones believed firmly in higher 
and more liberal education for women and was prominently connected with the man- 
agement of the Chicago Medical College for Women, while with associates and the 
assistance of her husband and other public-spirited men she secured the adoption 
6f the policy that made the Chicago University a coeducational institution. After 
his retirement from business Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their children traveled largely 
abroad, the son and daughter being educated in Florence, Paris, Venice, Rome and 
Mentone, their combined residence in these different cities covering eight years. 
Their sojourn abroad brought to Mr. and Mrs. Jones that broad, liberal culture 
which is only gained from travel and they embraced their opportunity of securing 
for their own home many valuable pictures and art treasures, which still adorn the 
Jones home on Prairie avenue. 

A complete account of the life Work of Fernando Jones must touch upon his 
public activities, for from the beginning of his residence in Chicago, when as a 
boy he filled positions in the early public offices, he was closely associated with move- 
ments and projects which were directly beneficial to the city and especially pro- 
moted its intellectual and moral progress and its charitable work. Like his father, 
he represented the third ward in the city council when to fill such an office was an 
honor rather than a reflection upon political integrity. He acted as supervisor of 
the town of South Chicago during the period of the Civil war and was one of the 
founders of Camp Douglas. Later he became one of the founders of the old Chi- 
cago University, established on the site of the camp, and his influence and efforts were 
a potent factor in the erection of the Douglas monument. He was ever deeply 
interested in the work of the Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago Pioneer 
Society and was president of the latter. His name was enrolled among the hon- 
ored members of the Calumet and Press Clubs and from early manhood he was a 
generous supporter and a loyal member of the Methodist church. His beneficent 
spirit sought activity in the field of charity and he served as a trustee of the Chi- 
coga Orphan Asylum and of the State Asylum for the Insane at Jacksonville. At 
the time of his death Fernando Jones was n nonagenarian and stood in the front 
rank of the columns which have advanced the civilization of the west, leading the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 105 

way to the substantial development, progress and upbuilding of what is today the 
second American city. The story of his life and work will perhaps never be ade- 
quately told, yet no name stood more truly as a synonym of honor in the western 
metropolis than that of Fernando Jones. 



PETER A. NEWTON. 

Peter A. Newton became one of Chicago's pioneer residents and while he never 
sought to become prominently connected with public interests in this city he was 
known to a large circle of acquaintances as a reliable and enterprising business 
man, worthy of high regard which was everywhere tendered him. He was born in 
Templeton, Massachusetts, May 10, 1831, a son of George and Maria T. (Brig- 
ham) Newton. The former was a farmer by occupation and lived retired during 
the latter years of his life. He lived to the age of eighty-four years, his death 
occurring at the home of his son Peter in Chicago. 

In the public schools of Templeton and of Barry, Massachusetts, Peter A. New- 
ton pursued his education, spending several years of his youthful period in the 
latter place. He was reared to farm life, but thinking to find other pursuits more 
congenial and profitable he abandoned the plow and went to Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, becoming a clerk in the old American House which was noted in its day as> 
a temperance hotel. The 21st of February, 1856, witnessed his arrival in Chicago 
and his capital consisted of only a few hundred dollars, which he had saved from 
his earnings. However, he regarded the growing western city as an advantageous 
location and entered the employ of a Mr. Higgins, one of the pioneer milk men. 
About a year later he started in business on his own account but the first venture 
proved unfortunate from the fact that it was launched at that period when wild 
cat currency was in circulation and the irresponsibility of banks, any of which 
could issue bank notes, resulted in the widespread financial panic of 1857. Mr. 
Newton had placed all of his money in a bank which failed, so that he lost what he 
had previously saved. His remaining assets were his faith in Chicago as a business 
center and a cheerful disposition and optimistic nature. Accordingly he at once 
set to work to retrieve his lost possessions and was soon again engaged in business 
for himself on a small scale. It required some time, however, to establish a good 
trade. The fluctuation in money values still made business an uncertainty but Mr. 
Newton worked along conservative lines and in time had built up a big trade, con- 
tinuing in the milk business until his death. In 1873 he admitted his brother, Ed- 
ward F. Newton, to a partnership under the firm style of P. A. Newton & Brother, 
which name is still continued by Andrew Sell and Mr. Newton's son, Ralph H. 

In 1857 Mr. Newton was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte Castle, a native 
of Vermont, who died in 1868, leaving two children, a son and daughter: Leslie C., 
who married Miss Elizabeth Stafford and passed away in January, 1902, leaving 
two daughters, Grace J., who became Mrs. Dennis Nolan, and Ethel B., who mar- 
ried Stewart Garner; and Mrs. Agnes N. Vallins, of Rockland, Idaho, who has a 
son, Henry N. Vallins. Mr. Newton afterward married Jennette Castle, a sister of 
his first wife. The marriage was celebrated on October 27, 1870, and to them were 



106 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

born three children. Charlotte E. is the wife of Tim H. Ingwersen and they have 
six children: Henry Newton, born July 19, 1896; Jennette, born April 30, 1898; 
Phillip A., born November 16, 1899; Richard C., born August 10, 1902; Charlotte, 
born January 20, 1907; and Timothy B., born August 17, 1908. Peter A., a gradu- 
ate of Cornell University '94, is now assistant superintendent, of the Chicago Steel 
Works at South Chicago and married Miss Clara E. Calmer, of Joliet, Illinois. The 
third of the children is Ralph H. Mrs. Newton holds membership in the First 
Unitarian church, to which Mr. Newton also belonged. He was very fond of his 
home and considered no sacrifice on his part too great if it would promote the hap- 
piness and welfare of his family. He enjoyed travel and engaged in it to some 
extent but was never actively identified with lodges or clubs. He died November 
18, 1905, at the age of seventy- four years, after spending almost a half century 
in Chicago. He lived to see noticeable changes in this city, its rapid growth making 
it one of the wonders of the world. He was always much interested in its progress 
and upbuilding and as far as his time and opportunities permitted cooperated in 
movements for the general good. While he lived a quiet and unassuming life his 
sterling traits of character were recognized by all with whom he came in contact 
and he had many warm friends. 



DANIEL HUDSON BURNHAM. 

Daniel Hudson Burnham, who without invidious distinction may be termed Chi- 
cago's foremost architect, who was architect in chief and director of works of the 
World's Columbian Exposition and is at the head of the Chicago Plan, an organized 
movement for the adornment of the city, is a native of Henderson, Jefferson county, 
New York. His natal day was September 4, 1846. His parents, Edwin and Eliza- 
beth Burnham, were both natives of Vermont but were married in New York about 
1841. One of the great-grandfathers of Daniel H. Burnham served as an officer 
in the Revolutionary war and in the maternal line through various generations the 
family was represented by clergymen. His mother was a cousin of the late Mark 
Hopkins, of California. It was about the year 1855 that Edwin Burnham came with 
his family to Chicago, where he engaged in business as a wholesale merchant until 
his death in 1874. His general activity contributed much to the business development 
of the city and he was honored by the presidency of the old Merchants Exchange. 

In his boyhood days Daniel H. Burnham pursued his education in a private 
school conducted by Professor Snow on the present site of The Fair, at Adams and 
State streets, and later continued his studies in the old Jones school and the Chicago 
high school. He was likewise for two years under private instruction at Waltham, 
Massachusetts, and for one year was the sole pupil at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 
of Professor T. B. Hayward, previously at Harvard University. 

In the fall of 1867 Mr. Burnham returned to Chicago and spent a year and a 
half in the office of Loring & Jenney, architects. He was afterward engaged in 
mining for a year in Nevada and then again came to Chicago, spending a year and 
a half in the office of L. G. Laurean, an architect. Immediately after the disastrous 
fire of October, 1871, he entered the office of Messrs. Carter, Drake & Wight and 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 107 

while there formed the acquaintance of John W. Root, with whom he entered into 
partnership in the spring of 1873. The firm of Root & Burnham was maintained 
until the death of the former in January, 1891, and since that time the business 
has been conducted under the style of D. H. Burnham & Company, of which he is 
still the active head. Investigation into the history of building operations in the 
business center of Chicago at once establishes Mr. Burnham's position as a foremost 
architect of this city. He planned and constructed The Rookery, the Masonic 
Temple, the Railway Exchange, The Temple, the Illinois Trust Bank, the Great 
Northern Hotel, the First National Bank, the Continental & Commercial National 
Bank, Marshall Field's retail store, the Field Museum and many other buildings in 
Chicago and elsewhere, including the Mills building, of San Francisco; Elliott's 
Square, at Buffalo; Society for Savings and the First National Bank buildings of 
Cleveland ; the Third and Fourth National Banks, of Cincinnati ; the Land Title 
building, of Philadelphia; the new Wanamaker stores, of Philadelphia and New' 
York; the Flatiron or Fisher building, of New York; and the Union Station, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

In October, 1890, Mr. Burnham was appointed by the directory of the World's 
Columbian Exposition architect in chief. He made all of the drawings and contracts, 
supervised the artistic and working construction and also made the disbursements 
for the buildings, which surpassed anything heretofore attempted in the magnifi- 
cence of their designs and equipment. He had charge of and managed the exposi- 
tion from start to finish. In 1901 he was appointed chairman of the national com- 
mission for beautifying the city of Washington and also of a like commission at 
Cleveland, Ohio. He has made comprehensive plans for the future development 
of the cities of Manila, Bagnio, San Francisco and Chicago. In 1910 he was ap- 
pointed by President Taft chairman of the government commission of fine arts, 
created by congress on the 17th of May, of that year. Recently he has seen the 
first decisive and tangible step toward the execution of his Chicago Plan, which 
includes the extension of its park and boulevard system and the grouping of its 
buildings into a harmonious whole. He was a director of the Bankers National 
Bank until its consolidation with the Commercial National Bank, and is now a 
director of the Continental & Commercial National Bank and many other companies. 

On the 20th of January, 1876, Mr. Burnham was united in marriage to Miss 
Margaret S. Sherman, daughter of J. B. Sherman, one of the prominent pioneers 
of this city. They have five children: Ethel, now the wife of A. B. Wells, of 
Southbridge, Massachusetts; Margaret, the wife of George T. Kelly, a Chicago 
lawyer; John, president of the firm of John Burnham & Company, dealers in stocks 
and bonds in Chicago; Hubert, an architect associated with his father; and Daniel. 
Mr. Burnham has for many years been a resident of Evanston where he takes an 
active interest in local affairs. In recognition of his advancement in the science of 
his profession various degrees have been conferred upon him by the leading institu- 
tions of the country. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from 
Harvard and from Yale on the same day, in 1893; that of Doctor of Science from 
Northwestern University, in 1895; and that of Doctor of Laws from the University 
of Illinois, in 1905. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, of 
which he was president in 1894 and 1895 and is a member of the Chicago Union 
League, University, Chicago Literary, Cliff Dwellers, Caxton, Little Room, Glen 



108 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

View and Evanston Country Clubs; the Century and Lawyers Clubs, of New York; 
the Duquesne Club, of Pittsburg; the Pacific Union Club, of San Francisco; and 
others. In all of his life he has been actuated by high ideals whether in profes- 
sional lines or in social relations. He has ever recognized the duties and obliga- 
tions as well as the privileges of citizenship and has given much time and thought 
to public service in his efforts to benefit, beautify and adorn the city which through- 
out the greater part of his life has been his home. 



ROBERT J. BENNETT. 

Robert J. Bennett was born at Pulaski, Oswego county, New York, February 
'9, 1839. His father, Reuben J. Bennett, came of a Scotch-Irish family which set- 
tled in Connecticut between the years 1650 and 1660, as nearly as known. On his 
mother's side he was removed but three generations from Ireland. The mother, 
Alta (Haskins) Bennett, was a direct descendant and the sixth in line from Captain 
Miles Standish of Pilgrim fame. Vermont was her native state. These parents 
were intelligent, earnest anl honest people, of the middle ranks, ready to do their 
part in the world's work and content with what they earned of worldly goods and 
honors. Any one might well be proud of such ancestry. In the winter and spring 
of 1844 they came west the second time, having settled at Roscoe near Rockford, 
Illinois, in 1836. However, as no titles to land could then be obtained, the land 
being not yet in market, they returned east. In 1844 Reuben J. Bennett again 
journeyed westward, being accompanied by his wife, three sons and two daughters. 
For a short time they lived in the light keeper's house which stood on the site of the 
"Borge office" at the south end of Rush street bridge. Soon afterward the family 
removed to Lake county, obtaining two hundred and forty acres (mostly of the 
government) near Diamond Lake, where our subject grew in age and strength for 
sixteen years. These were years of hard work and constant industry. Schools were 
few, often held in a vacant chamber or granary before harvest time. Of such ad- 
vantages Robert J. Bennett availed himself to the utmost. At the age of eight he 
began to do n man's work, caring for a span of horses, harnessing them and plowing 
two acres or harrowing ten per day, besides milking cows, feeding pigs and calves. 
His father often made the declaration: "Robert is as good as a hired man." His 
school privileges were meager. At seventeen he began to teach country schools, fol- 
lowing that profession during the winter seasons and later in the summer also. He 
was thus identified with educational interests until twenty-four years of age, earning 
a good name among teachers of that period. His last school was at Wheeling, Cook 
county. 

On the 9th of April, 1862, Mr. Bennett married Electa M. Hoyt and a year 
later came to Chicago as bookkeeper and cashier for W. M. Hoyt, then a dealer in 
fruits and fancy groceries at 15 Dearborn street. Two years later, in February, 
1865, A. M. Fuller, a former pupil at Deerfield, joined Mr. Bennett in buying Mr. 
Hoyt's business, going into heavy groceries on a wholesale scale. They began the 
business with practically no capital but worked strenuously and untiringly and pros- 
pered in a moderate way. In the great fire on the 9th of October, 1871, they lost 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 111 

their entire stock of goods. Available country accounts were equal to about seventy 
per cent of their liabilities. Mr. Bennett asked for time, promising to pay in full 
some time. Creditors said the firm could not do it and voluntarily agreed to take 
fifty per cent on the same terms asked. By 1875 they had paid one hundred cents 
on each dollar and six per cent interest for all the time creditors waited beyond the 
time named at purchase. This gave them credit far beyond that warranted by their 
means and again proved 'the value of a good name. On the 1st of August, 1874, 
the firms of Bennett Fuller and W. M. Hoyt & Company united under the name 
of the latter and have occupied the building at the corner of Michigan avenue and 
River street to the present date. Mr. Bennett took the financial management of 
the business, others attending to buying and selling. Through all the years of war 
and inflation, of later contractions, of panics and fire, the company and its mem- 
bers have not failed to pay one hundred cents on the dollar. Surely the Lord has 
been good to them and prospered them. 

Two sons, Arthur G. and William Hoyt, and one daughter, now Mrs. Maude B. 
Vail, of Dixon, Illinois, came to Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. The parents have been 
active in the work of the Congregational church. Mr. Bennett has been a director 
in two banks and vice president in one. He is a trustee of Wheaton College and 
also one of the trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association, being interested 
in the promotion of the Wilson avenue branch. To the interests of the Illinois Chil- 
dren's Home and Aid Society and the Chicago City Missionary Society a helping 
hand has been extended. In person Mr. Bennett is five feet nine inches in height, 
weighing about one hundred and seventy pounds. He is a gentleman of light com- 
plexion and is now white haired. His habits are simple and regular and he is a 
plain liver. He does not know the taste of beer or any kind of liquor and has never 
used tobacco, also abstaining from tea and coffee. Through a simple life he has 
passed three score years and ten in good health and cheer, answering well the prayer 
of Hagar: "Give me neither poverty nor riches;" and illustrating this, if anything, 
that of an honest walk along the. middle lines of life one need not be ashamed. 



AMELIA L. WHIPPLE TAYLOR, M. D. 

Dr. Amelia L. Whipple Taylor, engaged in practice in Evanston, is a native of 
Pennsylvania, her birth having occurred in Bradford county, July 20, 1856. Her 
ancestry can be traced back to colonial days. Her great-grandfather, William 
Whipple, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the well 
known Bishop Whipple was a cousin of her grandfather, William Whipple, Jr. 
Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Myron T. Whipple. Her father was born April 
22, 1832, and died in April, 1874, at the comparatively early age of forty-two years, 
after devoting his life to the dry-goods business. The mother, who was a native of 
Pennsylvania, was born March 1, 1838, and is now living in Wilkes-Barre, that 
state. In the family were nine children, namely: Alvaretta M., the wife of George 
Thoma, a business man of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Dr. Amelia L. W. Taylor; 
Julia E., who is deceased; John V., a traveling salesman, making his headquarters 
in Chicago ; William M., who has also passed away ; Stella M., the deceased wife of 



112 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

A. W. Oliver, of Chicago; Dr. Myron T., of this city; Mettie J., who married James 
Byers, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and Charles E., a lumberman of Chicago. 

Dr. Taylor when a little maiden of six summers began attending the district 
schools near her father's home and continued her studies there until thirteen years 
of age, after which she spent three years as a pupil in Miss Brainard's private 
school. She then went to Clover, Virginia, where under private teachers she con- 
tinued her education for two years, and about that time she determined to become 
a physician. At the age of twenty-three she went to Philadelphia and was employed 
by Dr. William Goodell for three and a half years. In 1882 she went to Cincinnati 
and later entered the Woman's Medical College, from which she graduated. She 
began practice in that city and there she remained for two years. 

On the 19th of February, 1896, Dr. Amelia L. Whipple became the wife of 
William G. Taylor, of Chicago, who was a freight claim agent for the Monon Rail- 
road Company. He was born August 15, 1843, and died March 20, 1904, his re- 
mains being interred in Graceland cemetery, of Chicago. In the same year Dr. 
Taylor located in Evanston and became the founder and is now the proprietor of 
Dr. A. L. W. Taylor's Conservatory of Health, which is a well equipped sanitarium. 
Her only child, a daughter, Stella Consuelo, who was born November 17, 1897, has 
completed the grammar-school work in Evanston and after finishing her school 
course at H. H. C. Millers school became a student at Girton, Winnetka, taking the 
college preparatory course for Wellesley. Dr. Taylor has her office and residence 
at No. 901 Lake street, Evanston. Her sanitarium is splendidly equipped with 
everything necessary for medical and surgical work. It is liberally patronized 
and she also had a good outside practice, the recognition of her ability winning for 
her an enviable place as a representative of the medical profession in the beautiful 
suburb in which she makes her home. 



WILLIAM BRYCE MUNDIE. 

William Br-yce Mundie, of Scotch descent from the Clan Frazer, was born in 
Hamilton, Canada, September 30, 1863, a son of William and Margaret Finlayson 
(Bryce) Mundie, who were natives of Aberdeenshire and Lanarkshire, Scotland, 
respectively. They left the land of hills and heather in their childhood days to 
become residents of Canada. The paternal grandfather was an architect in Scot- 
land and William Mundie's father followed the same profession in Toronto, Can- 
ada, for a number of years. 

William Bryce Mundie completed his education in the Hamilton Collegiate In- 
stitute of Canada and studied for and has since followed the profession which 
claimed the time and attention of his father and grandfather. He was an architect's 
apprentice for four years in Hamilton and left there in April, 1884, to enter the 
office of W. L. B. Jenney in Chicago. Demonstrating his ability and proving his 
worth, he was admitted to membership in the firm of Jenney & Mundie in 1891, 
a relationship that was maintained until the death of Mr. Jenney in 1906, since 
which time the business has been conducted under the firm name of Jenney, Mundie 
& Jensen, with Mr. Mundie as senior partner. The firm ranks with the leading 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 113 

architects of the city and has laid the plans and superintended the construction of 
some of Chicago's finest buildings. The standing of Mr. Mundie in professional 
circles is indicated in the fact that on the 13th of December, 1898, he was appointed 
architect for the Chicago Board of Education, which position he continued to fill 
until the 1st of April, 1905, when he resigned. 

On the 2d of June, 1892, Mr. Mundie was united in marriage at Plainville, Ohio, 
to Miss Bessie Russell Jenney, a daughter of Ansel G. Jenney of Cincinnati. Her 
ancestors in both the paternal and maternal lines were members of the Plymouth 
colony and came over as passengers in the ships John and Little James. Mr. and 
Mrs. Mundie have become the parents of three daughters: Elizabeth J., Margaret 
B., and Jean F. 

In his political views Mr. Mundie is an earnest republican yet has never been 
an aspirant for office. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and his religious faith 
is indicated in his membership in St. Peter's Episcopal church. He belongs to the 
Union League Club, to St. Andrews Society, the Chicago Yacht Club and the Cliff 
Dwellers Club, and is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. 

With a nature that can never be content with mediocrity he has steadily pro- 
gressed in his chosen field until he occupies a position of prominence therein, while 
his strongly developed qualities of sociability and geniality have made him widely 
known and popular among those with whom he has been brought in contact during 
the period of his residence in Chicago. 



GEORGE W. SPOFFORD. 

The coat of arms which has been in possession of the Spofford family through 
generations bears this motto: "Rather deathe than false of Faythe." Representa- 
tives of the name through successive generations have remained loyal to the spirit 
of that motto but none more so than George W. Spofford, who brought into the 
practical affairs of the modern business world the same splendid sense of honor and 
loyalty. The Spofford family is of Saxon lineage and the name appears in the 
archives of England prior to the Norman invasion. In 1638 John Spofford sailed 
for America accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Scott. 
He settled in Georgetown, Massachusetts, and the family became well known in 
New England, where the name is perpetuated in Spofford's Gap, a pass in the 
White mountains, so called from the fact that it separated the farms of two brothers, 
Abijah and Eldad Spofford, the former the great-grandfather of our subject. His 
grandfather, Amos Spofford, was for seven years a defender of the American cause 
in the Revolutionary war and, participating in the battle of Yorktown, witnessed 
the surrender of Cornwallis, which was a virtual proclamation of the attainment 
of American liberty. His son, Ira Spofford, defended the interests of the country 
upon the field of battle in the war of 1812. He married Miriam Atwood, a native 
of Chester, Vermont, and they established their home at Peterboro, New Hampshire, 
where on the 9th of August, 1831, their son, George W. Spofford, was born. 

The early education of this son was largely acquired in the public schools of 
Boston and he entered upon a preparatory course for Harvard as a student in the 



114 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

famous Phillips Exeter Academy, where he completed the course. Later he took 
up the study of law under the direction of E. S. Cutler, then county solicitor in 
New England, and in his early '20s came to Chicago. For some years he was iden- 
tified with educational interests here. In 1856 he was appointed principal of the 
Foster school, the district then embracing all the territory between the river on 
the east and Western avenue on the west, Jackson street (now Jackson boulevard) 
and the north bank of the river. During the Civil war he was selected to carry 
the stand of colors sent from Chicago to the regiment, called the "Teachers' 
Regiment." He continued at the head of the school until the 1st of June, 1870, 
when the growth of the city compelled a subdivision of his district into several 
school districts. At that time he retired from educational work, for he believed that 
success for him lay in the field of real-estate operation. He had the prescience to 
discern what the future had in store for the city and, realizing that property values 
would rapidly increase, he began dealing in real estate, with offices in the Morrison 
Hotel and also in Englewood. From that time until his death he was one of the 
energetic and successful operators in real estate except at such times as his atten- 
tion was fully occupied by public service. The value of his opinions in business 
was demonstrated in the splendid financial results which he achieved. Four times 
was the building at the corner of Madison and -Clark streets, now known as the 
Morrison Hotel, built and rebuilt under the direction of Mr. Spofford and careful 
management of his property interests at all times brought him substantial success, 
although with many others he suffered heavy losses in the great fire of 1871. 

On the 24th of December, 1859, Mr. Spofford was united in marriage to Miss 
Hannah Morrison, a daughter of Orsemus Morrison, a Chicago pioneer and phil- 
anthropist, whose name is deeply engraved on the pages of the city's early history. 
To 'Mr. and Mrs. Spofford were born five children: Lucy, who died aged seven 
years; Jessie, who died when four months of age and was the elder of twins, the 
other dying in infancy; Percy Morrison, who died leaving a wife, who before her 
marriage was Miss Emily Dahmke, and they had two children, Jessie and Clarence 
El Roy ; and Florence Myrtle, who is well known and popular among the athletic 
women of the city. 

The death of Mr. Spofford occurred January 10, 1909, and took from Chicago 
one of her most valued and respected residents. He had been a warm personal 
friend of General Phil Sheridan and he ranked socially in Chicago with the most 
prominent of the city. He loved his friends and enjoyed travel but his deepest 
interest centered in his own household. However, he found time for such social 
enjoyments as broaden nature and awaken sympathy. He was prominent in Ma- 
sonry, holding membership in St. Bernard Commandery and in Medinah Temple of 
the Mystic Shrine. He was also a director in the Mencken Club and held member- 
ship in the Illinois and Ashland Clubs. His religious faith was evidenced in his 
membership in the Congregational church and his political belief was manifest in 
his unfaltering support of the republican party. On various occasions he was 
called to public office wherein the general welfare was conserved but no individual 
profit was secured. He served for two terms as county commissioner, being elected 
in 1877 and again in 1888, during which periods the office salary was but fifteen 
hundred dollars. During his first term the county courthouse was being erected. He 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 115 

was cliairman of the Dunning poorhouse and asylum committee and in fact of the 
whole system of outdoor relief service. He brought to his public duties the same 
spirit of judicious economy and enterprise which are manifest in the work of every 
successful business man. By his untiring efforts great reductions were made in the 
running expenses of the departments which came under his supervision, while at 
the same time the quality of food, clothing and medicine furnished to deserving 
objects of charity was improved greatly. At the request of Governor Fifer, Mr. 
Spofford attended the Farmers' Congress at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1891, and 
through his influence the votes of seven hundred delegates were cast in favor of 
Chicago as the place for the World's Columbian Exposition against seventeen for 
New York. This was the more notable achievement when it is remembered that at 
the time New York felt that it had a commercial hold on the south which would 
insure support of that city as a site for the fair. He also did good work in behalf 
of Chicago through Texas and Mississippi and his efforts in this direction were put 
forth without financial compensation. Business men found him prompt and reli- 
able, his friends found him faithful and true, his city found him loyal and patriotic, 
yet the best traits of his character were ever reserved for his own fireside. 



DANIEL C. NICHOLES. 

Daniel C. Nicholes was born March 17, 1817, in Caldwell, Warren county, 
New York, at the head of Lake George, and was a son of Daniel and Dianthe 
(Hawley) Nicholes. After completing his preliminary studies he fitted for college 
at Wyoming village, Wyoming county, New York, and afterward completed a full 
classical course at Union College, Schenectady, and graduated with honors from that 
institution. He studied law two years while in college, and continued the same one 
year after graduating, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1847 at Ithaca, 
New York. Immediately thereafter he established himself in business at that place, 
and there remained, meeting with good success, until July 3, 1848. 

Having determined to settle in the west he closed his affairs and removing to 
Chicago, formed a partnership with his brother, Ira J. Nicholes, which was con- 
tinued until 1854. During the succeeding two years he was associated in business 
with John T. Wentworth, who later became circuit judge on the bench in Wiscon- 
sin. From 1856 to 1861 he was connected with William McKinley, under the firm 
of Nicholes and McKinley, after which he was again associated with his brother 
under the style of D. C. and I. J. Nicholes. This firm existed until 1857, when 
Thomas Morrison was taken into the business. After the great fire of 1871 Mr. 
McKinley became again connected with the business and the name of the firm was 
changed to Nicholes, McKinley and Morrison, and so remained until 1875, when 
D. C. Nicholes withdrew and formed a partnership with his son, C. W. Nicholes. 
From 1857 to 1867 the attention of the firm was devoted entirely to law practice, 
but during the remainder of the time referred to, the business has pertained es- 
pecially to real-estate matters and to loans. This firm was financially successful 
and has been identified with the growth and prosperity of Chicago. D. C. and I. J. 
Nicholes founded the town of Englewood in 1852, and the prosperity, rapid growth 



116 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and development of that suburb is due largely to the liberality, enterprise and busi- 
ness sagacity of these gentlemen. 

Daniel C. Nicholes was married in October, 1849, to Miss Amanda Wheeler, and 
they were the parents of the following children: Bessie, who became the wife of 
Edmund Adcock, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; and Charles 
W.. who was junior member of the firm of D. C. and C. W. Nicholes. D. C. Nicholes 
died May 6, 1889. 

D. C. Nicholes was a man of profound learning, sound practical judgment and 
business sagacity, and well merits the reputation which, throughout his long, active 
and eventful life he has sustained for honorable, upright and conscientious fair 
dealing. He is one of Chicago's honorable and honored business men, well deserv- 
ing that esteem and respect universally accorded him. 



GEORGE C. AMERSON, M. D. 

Dr. George C. Amerson, educator and practitioner who has gained distinction 
in surgery, to which he now devotes his entire attention, was born in Chicago, No- 
vember 8, 1877. His father, William Amerson, was a native of England, his birth 
having occurred near London, on the 21st of September, 1841. He is now a retired 
business man living in Austin. In the public affairs of that suburb, before its 
annexation to the city, he took an active and prominent part, being for years a 
member of the school board and also serving as police magistrate. His wife, who 
bore the maiden name of Matilda Harriet Schaubel, was born in Pennsylvania in 
1847 and died in Austin, December 21, 1906. They were the parents of nine chil- 
dren, of whom John and Matilda are both deceased. The others are: William H., 
still a resident of Chicago; Edmund J., who is married and has one child; May Ida, 
the wife of Charles H. Zimmerman of Chicago and the mother of one child; Harvey 
S., who is living in Elk Rapids, Michigan, and has two children; Dr. George C. 
Amerson, of this review ; Delia G., who is the wife of Marvin V. Hinshaw, of Den- 
ver, Colorado, and has four children; and Lucy H., the wife of R. C. Jenkins, of 
Orleans, Indiana, and the mother of two children. 

When a lad of six years Dr. Amerson became a pupil in the public schools of 
Austin, wherein he continued his education until graduated there from the high school 
with the class of 1898. In preparation for a professional career he entered the 
Homeopathic College of Chicago and was graduated in 1902. His high standing 
Secured him the appointment of interne in the Cook County Hospital and his eight- 
een months' service there brought him broad, varied and practical experience. De- 
siring to attain an even higher degree of proficiency, he attended the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of the University of Illinois, at 
Chicago and was graduated therefrom in 1904. He then opened an office on West 
Madison street and continued in the general practice of medicine and surgery for 
three years but since 1907 has limited his practice to surgical work, for which he 
seems particularly fitted. His comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and the com- 
ponent parts of the human body and the onslaughts made upon it by disease, and 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 117 

his knowledge, combined with a steady hand and cool nerve, enables him to do the 
most delicate surgical work. He was appointed attending surgeon of the Cook 
County Hospital for a -period of six years, his term expiring in January, 1912. 
He is also attending surgeon at the Frances E. Willard Hospital. Dr. Amerson 
began teaching in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery in 1906 and is 
now professor of surgery in that institution. He has displayed a capability along 
educational lines equal to the skill which he manifests in the operating room and 
is rapidly forging his way to the front among the older and the more successful 
surgeons of the city. He was made assistant surgeon, with the rank of captain, 
of the Illinois National Guard and was assigned to the First Infantry. He belongs 
to the Chicago Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Tri State 
Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the National Association of 
Military Surgeons. On January 1, 1912, he was elected grand presiding senior of 
the Phi Chi medical fraternity, the largest medical fraternity in the world, of which 
he has been an active member for five years. 

On the 3d of October, 1906, Dr. Amerson was united in marriage to Miss Isabel 
L. Coyle, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Coyle, of Chicago, and unto them has 
been born a son, William Palmer, whose birth occurred October 6, 1907. Dr. Amer- 
son holds membership with Austin Lodge, No. 850, A. F. & A. M., with the Tribe 
of Ben Hur and is also a member of the Royal League. He is a republican in 
his political views and a Methodist in religious faith. He finds his recreation 
in fishing, hunting, baseball and traveling and through indulgence in those main- 
tains the even balance with strenuous professional duties that results in strong 
and well developed manhood and in increasing physical and mental vigor. He 
resides at No. 3434 Jackson boulevard and has his office at No. 3201 West Madi- 
son street, where a liberal and constantly increasing patronage is accorded him. 



MARK SUMMERS. 

Mark Summers, senior partner of the firm of Mark Summers & Company, public 
accountants and auditors, was born in Bement, Illinois, September 13, 1871. His 
father, Albert H. Summers, was a native of Vermilion, Ohio, and was descended 
from English ancestry, representatives of the name coming to America early in the 
seventeenth century. ' The great-grandfather removed from Connecticut to Ohio, 
casting in his lot with the pioneer residents of the latter state. It was there that 
Albert H. Summers was born and in the '60s he removed to Illinois, where he fol- 
lowed the profession of civil engineer. He died March 28, 1909, at the age of sixty- 
five years. His wife, who in her maidenhood was Mary Batcheller, is now a resi- 
dent of Chicago. She was descended on the paternal side from English ancestors 
who settled in Pennsylvania at an early day, and on the maternal side she comes 
of Holland ancestry. Mark Summers is the eldest of a family of three sons and 
one daughter, his brothers being Bruce and Guy, both of Chicago, the former a 
civil engineer and the latter an attorney. 

In the public schools of this city Mark Summers pursued his education. He 
spent four years as a newsboy, after which he engaged in office work of various 



118 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

kinds, his attention, however, being mostly given to bookkeeping. His ability in 
that line continually increased by reason of his broad experience and close appli- 
cation and in March, 1896, he established business on his own account, and in 1902 
organized the present firm of Mark Summers & Company, public accountants and 
auditors. The company has gained recognition as one of the most successful in the 
profession, their work comprising not only expert accounting but also the science 
of business doctoring. When a business is not yielding the percentage of profit it 
should, because of lack of organization or other reasons, Mr. Summers investi- 
gates conditions and diagnoses the case as a physician does that of his patient, 
after which he prescribes the necessary remedy and, if need be, takes personal 
charge of the reorganization of every department, making a thorough study of 
every detail and introducing new systems and methods, properly placing responsi- 
bilities and establishing harmony and cooperation among the employes. This task 
sometimes requires several months' labor and always demands keen insight, sound 
judgment, patience and diplomacy. He has at times reorganized the entire business 
system of an enterprise and even the policies of many of the largest concerns of 
this city. 

On Christmas day of 1893, Mr. Summers was united in marriage, in Chicago, 
to Miss Nora Early, a daughter of James Early, of this city, but formerly of 
Winterset, Iowa. With their two children, Martha and James, aged respectively 
sixteen and thirteen years, they occupy an attractive home at Hinsdale. Mr. Sum- 
mers gives unfaltering support to the men and measures of the republican party. 
He belongs to the Illinois Athletic Club, is a lover of outdoor s'ports, and each 
summer, from June until September, lives in a tent, thus coming close to nature's 
heart. He has a manner that inspires confidence; men believe that what he under- 
takes he will do; and moreover he possesses notable powers of organization, all of 
which constitute factors in the success which has come to him. 



DIXON C. WILLIAMS. 

Dixon C. Williams, vice president of the Chicago Building & Manufacturing Com- 
pany, was born May 3, 1859, at Yellville, Arkansas. His father, Dixon C. Williams, 
Sr., was a prominent lawyer of Arkansas, where his death occurred in 1860. His 
wife, who bore the maiden name of Mattie Dillon, after losing her first husband mar- 
ried John A. Lester, of Lebanon, Tennessee, and her death occurred in 1905. 

Dixon C. Williams was only a year old at the time of his father's demise. He 
acquired his education in private schools of Lebanon and in the university at that 
place, where he took up the study of law, but a short time prior to the date upon 
which he would have graduated he left college to accept a position as bookkeeper 
and teller in the bank of Lebanon. Subsequently he was promoted to the position 
of assistant cashier and continued with the bank for sixteen years. He was also edi- 
tor of the Lebanon Register for four years. His newspaper work and coming in 
contact with the public as molder of thought and opinion in this way awakened in 
him a desire to go upon the lecture platform and to that work he devoted his time 
and attention until his health failed in 1893. He was regarded as one of the most 




DIXON C. WILLIAMS 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 121 

entertaining, instructive and interesting lecturers of the country, but, owing to the 
failure of his health, he had to give up the profession and in 1 893 became vice presi- 
dent and manager of the Chicago Building & Manufacturing Company, also of the 
Lake Street Manufacturing Block, while at the present time he has extended his in- 
terests to various industrial lines and is now president of the Chicago Nipple Manu- 
facturing Company, the Lehigh Valley Structural Steel Company of Allentown, 
Pennsylvania. It is seldom that a man of literary tastes who delights in intellectual 
research and has proven himself a success upon the lecture platform has the qualities 
essential to successful management. Mr. Williams, however, is an exception to the 
rule and in the control of important industrial and manufacturing interests has given 
indication of superior executive ability, keen discrimination and unfaltering energy. 
In various other sections of the country aside from Chicago his business interests 
have constituted an element of progress, contributing largely to the material develop- 
ment and industrial and commercial activity of other cities. He was the builder of 
the street railway at Anderson, Indiana, obtaining the franchise at the time that na- 
tural gas was discovered there. At one time he was president of the Monroe Gas 
Company, of Monroe, Wisconsin, also of the Beaver Dam (Wis.) Gas Company and 
the Shawnee (Okla.) Gas Company. 

On the 19th of November, 1876, occurred the marriage of Dixon C. Williams 
and Miss Sallie McKnight, a daughter of Moses McKnight, a prominent lawyer of 
Lebanon, Tennessee. They have become parents of two children: J. Lester, who 
is married and has a son, J. Lester, Jr. ; and Mae Fair, the wife of Hugh M. Clop- 
ton. Both the son and daughter remain residents of Chicago. Mrs. Williams is a 
member of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Her ancestors took a prominent part 
in the Revolutionary war and the war with Mexico, while her father, Col. McKnight, 
commanded a regiment of the Confederate troops in the Civil war. Mr. Williams 
also is descended from Revolutionary stock, General John Seldon Roane, a great 
uncle, winning his title by service in the Mexican war and was afterward governor 
of Arkansas, and his mother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution. His membership relations are with the Southern Club, the Press Club and 
the Iroquois Club. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and his 
religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. For many years he has been elder, 
treasurer and chairman of the official board of the Church of Providence on the north 
side. His pastime is found in study and in public speaking and Mr. Williams is 
usually to be seen where the intelligent men of the city are gathered in the discus- 
sion of vital questions. His interests are extremely broad and his research work has 
carried him into realms where the scientist and the historian are found at their best. 



HENRY WHIPPLE. 



That the life of Henry Whipple was a serviceable one in the world is doubted 
by none who were acquainted with him and knew of his unfaltering devotion to 
the church and all its high principles or were acquainted with his activity in the 
real-estate field of business. Nothing could turn him from a course which he 
believed to be right and yet, while he held firmly to his own convictions, he was 



122 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

never intolerant of the opinions or uncharitable in his views of others. In fact 
his life reached out in sympathetic interest and helpfulness to all mankind. 

Ohio numbered Mr. Whipple as one of its native sons, his birth having oc- 
curred in Saybrook, Ashtabula county, September 15, 1825. His parents were 
Angel and Celinda (Wright) Whipple, the latter a daughter of General W right, 
who was for many years government land commissioner of the whole Western 
Reserve. The year 1839 witnessed the removal of the family to Winnebago county, 
Illinois, and the establishment of their home on a tract of wild prairie land near 
Roscoe, which was a tiny village of about half a dozen houses that had been founded 
the previous year. Angel W T hipple purchased and began the development of six 
hundred and forty acres of land, but in order that his children might have better 
educational advantages, he removed to Mount Morris, Illinois, in 1840, return- 
ing in 1842 to the farm, whereon he died in January, 1843. His son, J. W. Whip- 
pie, an elder brother of Henry Whipple, had gone to Texas as a home missionary 
and also to try the effect of a change of climate. A weak condition of the lungs 
and throat characterized the family, and such was the condition of J. W. Whipple's 
health that he expected soon to face death in the Lone Star state; on the con- 
trary, however, his health improved and therefore other members of the family 
removed to Texas, including Henry Whipple, who in December, 1847, rented a 
farm there. He was then a young man of twenty-two years. In the fall of 1848, 
however, he returned to Illinois to resume his studies in Mount Morris with the 
intention of preparing for the ministry. He completed his course in a year and in 
the fall of 1850 became a member of the Rock River conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, being ordained to the ministry. For many years thereafter 
he devoted his energies to this holy calling and his influence was of no restricted 
order, for he was never denied the full harvest nor the aftermath of his labors. 
In the fall of 1856 he was assigned to the Desplaines Street church in Chicago, 
of which he remained pastor for two years and for a similar period of the East 
Indiana Street church. He then accepted a call from a church at Galena, Illinois, 
but after two years there, again came to Chicago and devoted the five succeeding 
years to the City Mission. About the end of that time the old family trouble 
recurred, his throat failing him so that he was compelled to enter upon super- 
numerary relations. He hoped that rest would do away with the condition that 
prevented his active work in the ministry, but after some time, as there was no 
sign of improvement, he turned his attention to business interests in Chicago. He 
had previously purchased some unimproved property in the city and here began 
building and also doing commission work. Later he formed a partnership with 
William M. True and purchased a large tract of land on the north side, devoting 
his attention largely to the development of the business. The partnership was 
dissolved when in 1869 he purchased Mr. True's interest. In his undertakings 
he prospered until October, 1871, when the great fire brought to him heavy losses, 
not only in the destruction of his buildings but also of all of his books and papers. 
With resolute spirit, however, he resumed business and Whipple street of the city, 
which was probably named in his honor, still commemorates his enterprise. 

Mr. Whipple was twice married. In the year in which he entered the min- 
istry in the fall of 1850 was celebrated his marriage to Charlotte P. Grant 
and unto them was born a son, John A. J. Whipple, who until a few years ago 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 123 

was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, his last charge being Wauke- 
gan. At length throat trouble obliged him to retire and he has since engaged in 
the insurance business in Chicago. In 1 869 Henry Whipple removed with his fam- 
ily to Evanston, where his son was then attending college. Following the death of 
his first wife he was married on the 19th of October, 1869, to Miss Mattie E. 
Fisher, a daughter of Peter D. and Lavina (Klapp) Fisher, of Freeport, Illinois. 
Mrs. Whipple now resides at No. 1307 Chicago avenue, Evanston, and by her 
marriage became the mother of one child, Lillian Fisher, who is the wife of John 
Charles Williams, of Evanston, and has two daughters, Gladys Elmeda and Helen 
Lavina Williams, aged respectively thirteen and eleven years. 

During the period of the Civil war Mr. Whipple became an ardent advocate 
of the Union cause, writing and speaking in support of the national government. 
He was at that time pastor of the Indiana Street church and because so many of 
his near relatives were in the south, it was hinted that he would be indifferent 
and lukewarm, if not actively hostile, to the Union cause. But he astonished and 
electrified his audiences by the earnestness and eloquence with which he pleaded 
the cause of the Union and urged the liberation of the negro, for he regarded 
slavery as a disturbing element of the government. During the period of his resi- 
dence in Evanston he was an active member of the First Methodist Episcopal 
church and was also a most helpful factor in the upbuilding of the Wheeden church, 
in which he frequently filled the pulpit. For several years prior to his death he 
was an invalid from paralysis and passed away at his home February 4, 1906, the 
remains being taken to Freeport, Illinois, for interment. In the community where he 
lived his life was ever a factor for good. His business success was never at the 
expense of his honesty, for in his judgment the sacrifice of personal integrity was 
too high a price to pay for any sort of material gain. He loved his home and made 
every effort to maintain its unity and sweetness. Naturally there returned to him 
the unfaltering devotion of wife and children. No good work done in the name of 
charity or religion sought his aid in vain if his financial resources permitted his 
assistance. His whole career was an impetus for progress and uplift and, while 
he never courted popularity, the admiration and honor of his fellowmen were ever 
given him. 



WALTER CLYDE JONES. 

Walter Clyde Jones, whose work in the field of legal literature has made him 
widely known to the students of law, and who is now practicing successfully in 
Chicago and in New York, was born at Pilot Grove, Iowa, December 22, 1870, his 
parents being Jonathan and Sarah (Buffington) Jones. The father, a farmer by 
occupation and a native of Harrison county, Ohio, went with his .brothers to Iowa 
in 1833 and preempted a tract of land. He laid out the town of Pilot Grove on 
his farm. He was of Quaker stock, of Welsh origin, and his parents, who later came 
to Iowa, lie buried in the old Quaker cemetery at Salem. His wife was a native 
of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and of English lineage. Both the Jones and 
Buffington families came to America during the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 



124 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tury. The father died in 1883 at the age of sixty-eight years, but the mother still 
survives, spending a part of the time with her son, Walter C., and the remainder at 
her home in Keokuk, Iowa. In the family were six children of whom W. C. Jones 
was the fifth in order of birth. Four of the number are still living, the others be- 
ing: Dr. F. B. Jones, a physician of Goldfield, Colorado; Mrs. L. E. Goodell, of 
Wilbur, Nebraska; and Mrs. Jesse Moone, of Ashland, Nebraska. 

At the usual age Walter C. Jones began his education, which he pursued in the 
public grammar and high schools of Keokuk, Iowa, supplemented by an engineering 
course in the Iowa State College, where he won the degree of Mechanical Engineer 
in 1891. His preparation for the bar was made in the Chicago College of Law, of 
the Lake Forest University which conferred upon him his LL. B. degree in 1895. 
The same year he was admitted to practice before the Illinois bar and in following 
his profession has continued in general practice, although specializing to some extent 
in patent law. He was alone from 1 895 until 1 897, and then until 1 899 was a mem- 
ber of the firm of Luddington & Jones. In the latter year the firm became Jones .& 
Addington, which later was changed to Jones, Addington, Ames & Seibold by the 
admission of the third and fourth members. They practice in both Chicago and 
New York, the office being established in the latter city several years ago. In addi- 
tion Mr. Jones has some business interests of a commercial character, being one 
of the directors and the treasurer of the Benjamin Electrical Manufacturing Com- 
pany and the vice president and a director of the Stromberg Electric Company. 

His activities have extended to the political field and he has been the representa- 
tive of the fifth district (Hyde Park) in the Illinois senate. He has occupied this 
position since 1906 and during the sessions of 1909-11 was floor leader of the 
senate. He is the author of the direct primary law and led the fight for its enact- 
ment. He is also the author of the law limiting the labor of women to ten hours 
per day. He was likewise a leader in the movements for civil service reform and 
enactment of rules for reformed legislative procedure. He has at different times 
been chairman of the republican steering committee and is chairman of the execu- 
tive committee which has the appointment of all select, joint and conference com- 
mittees and is chairman of the rules committee. He is also largely regarded as 
authority upon various legal points and problems and in association with his law 
partner, K. H. Addington, became the author and editor of Jones & Addington's 
Annotated Statutes of Illinois, also of the Cyclopedia of Illinois Law and the Appel- 
late Court Reports of Illinois. He has been active in civic affairs and was a mem- 
ber of the Chicago Charter Convention which drafted the proposed charter for the 
city of Chicago in 1906-7. He was one of the organizers of the Legislative Voters 
League with which he was actively identified until elected to the senate. He belongs 
to the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, to the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers and is an ex-president of the Chicago Electric Association. His interests 
are diversified in their scope and it is well known that he is usually to be found 
where the intelligent men of the city are gathered. He finds social enjoyment in 
the Union League, the University, Hamilton, Quadrangle, Kenwood, Homewood, 
City and Press Clubs, all of Chicago; in the Cosmos Club, of Washington; and in 
the Lawyers Club, of New York; and at the same time is active and helpful in his 
cooperation of the movements instituted by the different organizations in support 
of measures and projects of public worth, value and merit. The lighter pleasures 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 125 

of his life, those which make exercise an even balance to strenuous mental effort, 
are horseback riding and golf. He is also a seasoned traveler and few points of 
interest in the United States and abroad are unknown to him. 

Mr. Jones was married, on the 3d of June, 1896, at Paulina, Iowa, to Miss 
Emma Boyd, a daughter of William O. Boyd of that place. They now have two 
sons, Walter Clyde and Clarence Boyd, aged respectively eight and three years, 
and a daughter, Helen Gwendolyn, five years of age. The family reside at 5541 
Woodlawn avenue. Professional interests take Mr. Jones often to New York, where 
he is perhaps as widely known in legal circles as he is in Chicago. 



C. H. JORDAN. 

C. H. Jordan, for many years one of the leading undertakers in Chicago, as well 
as one of the city's representative business men, was born in Piqua, Ohio, November 
28, 1826. His father, David J. Jordan, was one of the leading business men of 
that section of Ohio and a pioneer railroad builder. In the latter business he built 
considerable of the original Louisville & Nashville Railroad in Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. He was also extensively engaged in the pork-packing business when south- 
western Ohio was the center of that industry in the country. He also owned a 
large dry-goods business in Piqua, Ohio, where he lived until locating in Rock 
Island, Illinois, and subsequently in Kansas City, Missouri, where his death oc- 
curred in 1869. 

The business training of C. H. Jordan was received under the direction of his 
father, and his business experience followed the acquirement of a liberal education 
obtained in the public schools and college. Following the completion of an aca- 
demic course, he was matriculated in Woodward College of Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
there completed the regular course with the class of 1845. Immediately afterward 
he became connected with merchandising in his native city and still later entered 
the mercantile field of Cincinnati in connection with a wholesale house there. Sev- 
eral years thus passed and, in 1854, he came to Chicago as western agent for Crane, 
Breed & Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, manufacturers of metallic burial cases. 
Making this city his headquarters and carrying a large stock of goods in his store, 
he spent several years in travel, introducing his goods in the west. At the same 
time he also became established in the undertaking business at No. 134 Clark street, 
where he continued until the great fire of October, 1871, destroyed the establish- 
ment. He then removed to the west side, where he remained until the summer of 
1872, when he again located in the down-town district, opening an undertaking 
establishment in the old Exchange building, at No. 112 Clark street. He was after- 
ward located at No. 114 Monroe street, whence a further removal was made to 
14 and 16 Madison street (old numbers) where he continued in business until his 
death, August 13, 1897. The business which had for years been one of the leading 
ones in the city was continued by his two sons as a copartnership, until 1906 when 
it was incorporated as C. H. Jordan & Company, with Mr. Scott Jordan as presi- 
dent and treasurer, Mr. Cady M. Jordan as vice president and secretary and Mr. 
Wilmot Whitaker as assistant secretary. In August, 1908, it was moved to No. 



126 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

164 North Michigan avenue, which property had been purchased by the company 
in 1906. When Mr. Jordaii came to Chicago, in 1854, he was the fourth to embark 
in the undertaking business in this city, his predecessors being Wright & McClure 
on La Salle street, John Gavin on Market street and W. T. Woodson on Washington 
street. Long before his death he was the oldest undertaker in years of continuous 
connection with the business in Chicago. 

In 1856 Mr. Jordan married in Piqua, Ohio, Miss Mary Scott, a daughter of 
William and Jane (Marrow) Scott. William Scott was one of the leading bankers 
in that section of Ohio. For many years he was the head of the bank that became 
the Piqua National Bank, the first national bank in that city. He was the first 
president of the latter institution and continued to serve in that capacity until his 
death. Mr. and Mrs. Jordan became the parents of two sons: Scott, who married 
Clifford M. Hall, of Piqua, Ohio, and has one son, William Beaumont, while another 
son, Harold Scott, died at the age of seven, on December 14, 1896; and Cady M., 
who married Cassie Mae Deeves, of Chicago. The widow of C. H. Jordan survived 
until January 16, 1911. 

Mr. Jordan's desire for success lay in his wish to provide comfortably for his 
family. He counted no personal sacrifice or effort on his part too great if it would 
promote the welfare and happiness of his wife and children, and his greatest pleas- 
ure came to him in the companionship of the members of his own household. He 
was, however, a man of social disposition and was well known as a member of the 
Illinois Club. He belonged also to the Epiphany Episcopal church in which he was 
junior warden. His political views were in accord with the principles of the repub- 
lican party. His public-spirited citizenship prompted his ready and willing sup- 
port of various measures instituted for the general good and for the city's substan- 
tial development. He ever looked upon the bright side of life and by reason of 
his own sunshiny nature added much to the happiness of others, for his spirit was 
contagious and his enthusiasm affected all who came within the radius of his influ- 
ence. As he prospered in business he from time to time allowed himself the pleas- 
ures of travel and in this way added much to his knowledge of his country and its 
natural charms. He lived in Chicago through the period of its most marvelous 
development and had witnessed the growth which had converted the village into a 
city of large proportions. He lived to see its rebuilding in a manner that indicated 
that solidarity and worth were duly regarded. He saw the introduction of all the 
advantages known to the older east and at all times his sympathy and support were 
with the measures that in any way benefited the western metropolis. Thus his life 
became of useful service and Chicago has reason to honor him as one of her pioneer 
business men. 



SAMUEL GALE TAYLOR. 

Samuel Gale Taylor, whose demise occurred at Pass Christian, Mississippi, on 
the 26th of February, 1901, took up his abode in Chicago in 1854, and later be- 
came a prominent factor in industrial circles, founding the Chicago Chain Works 
in 1873 and serving as the head and owner of the concern throughout the re- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 127 

mainder of his life. He was born at Philipsburg, Canada, on the 8th of February, 
1829, his parents being James and Mary (Townsend) Taylor, the former a promi- 
nent citizen of his day. On the maternal side our subject was descended from an 
old and distinguished New England family, his grandfather, Mica Townsend, 
having been the first secretary of state of Vermont, a position which he creditably 
filled for eight years. Alex Taylor, the paternal grandfather, a native of Scotland, 
was an early colonial settler in what is now the state of New York. At the time 
of the outbreak of the Revolution he was identified with the party known as "V E 
Loyalists," who favored a united government, and therefore took up his abode in 
Philipsburg, Canada. Samuel Wells, the maternal great-grandfather of Samuel G. 
Taylor, was an early settler in Canada, receiving a grant of land from the king 
for remaining loyal to the crown. 

Samuel Gale Taylor was reared and educated in Philipsburg. In 1854 he 
crossed the border into the United States and located in Chicago, here at once 
securing employment as bookkeeper for Stiles Burton, an old and well known mer- 
chant of the western metropolis, who is now deceased, and of whom a sketch ap- 
pears on another page of this work. A short time afterward Mr. Taylor resigned 
his position and became a member of the firm of Corbett & Sackett, who were en- 
gaged in the steel and iron business. In 1859 the name was changed to Hale, Ayre 
& Company, and Mr. Taylor continued to be identified with the concern as a mem- 
ber of the firm for a period of twelve years, withdrawing previous to the Chicago 
fire and living for a few years retired. In 1873 he founded the Chicago Chain 
Works at Nos. 98 and 100 Indiana street, of which he remained the head and 
proprietor until the time of his demise. The period of his residence in Chicago 
compassed the period of the city's greatest industrial and commercial growth. 
A man of industry and thrift, of splendid business ability and unusual sagacity, 
Mr. Taylor founded and developed an enterprise that ranks among the important 
industrial concerns of this city. His son, Samuel Gale Taylor, Jr., is now at the 
head of the S. G. Taylor Chain Company, as the firm is known at present. 

On the llth of July, 1866, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Marian J. Winthrop, 
a daughter of Rev. Edward and Marian (Penney), Winthrop. She is a direct de- 
scendant of John Winthrop of colonial fame, who came to America from England 
in 1630, locating in Massachusetts and becoming the first colonial governor of the 
Massachusetts Bay colony. His son, John Winthrop, Jr., was the first governor of 
Connecticut. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Colonial Dames through the younger 
Winthrop, and also of the National Society of Founders and Patriots of America, 
and since 1883 she has been identified with the Chicago Woman's Club. Major 
Theodore Winthrop, who was an uncle of Mrs. Taylor, was the first officer to fall 
in battle during the Civil war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were born six children, 
only two of whom survive. Samuel Gale Taylor, Jr., as above stated, is now presi- 
dent of the S. G. Taylor Chain Company. He married Miss Anna J. Mead, a 
daughter of Edwin R. and Josephine (Sleight) Mead), of Chicago, and now has 
four children: E. Winthrop, Florence Josephine, Marian Winthrop and Samuel G. 
Taylor III. Francis Winthrop Taylor, the other surviving son of our subject, is a 
member of the firm of Aldis & Company, prominent real-estate dealers of Chicago. 
He was a member of the city council for four years and acted as chairman of the 
commission which tore down the old citv hall and erected the new structure. He was 



128 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

likewise chairman of the high-pressure water commission and milk commission and is 
now private secretary to Franklin MacVeagh, secretary of the treasury at Washington, 
13. C. Francis W. Taylor wedded Miss Winifred Barrett, a daughter of S. E. and 
Alice (Brush) Barrett, of Chicago. 

Mr. Taylor gave his political allegiance to the republican party, while his reli- 
gious faith was indicated by his membership in St. James Episcopal church. He 
was likewise identified with the Marquette club. A man of domestic tastes, he 
found his greatest enjoyment at his own fireside in the companionship of his wife 
and children. Kind, genial and hospitable, he won many friends and was held in 
high regard in both business and social circles. While his life was not filled with 
thrilling incidents, probably no history published in this volume can serve as a 
better illustration to young men of the power of close application, honesty and 
integrity in insuring success. 



ALVAN LESTER ROSE. 

Alvan Lester Rose at the age of ninety-three years still actively engaged in busi- 
ness, has made his home in Chicago for more than six decades, watching its develop- 
ment from a small and inconsequential town to the metropolis of the west and the 
second city of America. He was born August 24, 1818, in the town of Lisle, Broome 
county, New York. His ancestry is traced back to Holland, whence John Rose, his 
great-great-grandfather, came to the new world in 1650, settling at New Amsterdam, 
now New York. His grandfather, who also bore the name of John Rose, married 
Rachel Dutcher, a descendant of an old French family originally named De Duycher, 
who emigrated from France to Holland in 1600 and from there to New Amsterdam 
in 1626. On their coat of arms appears a crane standing on one leg holding in the 
upraised claw a pebble, symbolizing vigilance, the significance being that if he slept 
the pebble would fall and awaken him. 

Leonard Boardman Rose, the father, was born in the town of Wethersfield, Con- 
necticut, June 21, 1773. He served in the Indian war as aid to General Anthony 
Wayne from 1793 to 1796 and died March 7, 1857. On the 19th of June, 1797, he 
had married Lovicy Greene, who was born in Rhinebeck, New York, June 20, 1779, 
and died March 12, 1846. Their family numbered six sons and two daugh- 
ters, namely: Alonzo B., Edwin B., Benjamin F., Mills H., Eliza Ann, Leonard, 
Louisa M. and Alvan Lester. 

The family removed from Lisle, Broome county, New York, to Castile, Genesee 
county, now Wyoming county, New York, in 1820, at which time Alvan Lester Rose 
was but two years of age. Reared in the latter county, he supplemented his public- 
school course by the study of surveying, which he began to practice there in 1840. 
In 1845 he removed to Erie, Pennsylvania, and in 1849 came to Chicago, where he 
has since made his home. As he landed from the steamer he was astonished to see 
the wonderful activity along the docks ; steamers and sailing craft were unloading 
large quantities of miscellaneous freight; "prairie schooners" so named were 
busily engaged in taking it on board to carry it overland to near and distant points 
inland. This was before railroads entered the city. All freight from the east con- 




IN HIS NINETY-SECOND YEAR 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 131 

signed to the west and northwest reached Chicago by way of the lakes and a thriv- 
ing business trade center was being here developed. 

Soon after his arrival in Chicago Mr. Rose was employed as cashier and book- 
keeper in the office of H. Norton & Company, the leading forwarding and commis- 
sion house in the city. His duties during the season of navigation required his pres- 
ence in the office every day in the week, Sundays not excepted, and often times quite 
late at night. This so greatly impaired his health that at the close of a year he re- 
signed and soon afterward secured a position in the wholesale and retail dry-goods 
house of Francis Clark. Mr. Clark failed in 1854 and while Mr. Rose was engaged 
with the assignee in settling up the business he was called to the Chicago Bank of 
I. H. Burch & Company, Mr. Burch stating to him confidentially that he suspected 
some of his former employes had robbed the bank of considerable sums of its cash 
by collusion or otherwise, and that they had falsified the booka in order to cover up 
the deficit and for obvious reasons he desired that Mr. Rose should give the books 
and accounts of the bank a thorough examination. The latter's acceptance of the 
proposition closed the interview and the result of the investigation fully confirmed 
the suspicions of Mr. Burch. Mr. Rose was employed in the bank for five years and 
when it faild in 1860 he was retained by the assignee, Wirt Dexter, to assist him 
in settling the estate. He was afterward employed as cashier in the office of Emanuel 
Frankenthal, a wholesale tobacconist on South Water street, and remained with him 
until about the time he retired from active business in 1870, and for years afterward 
was associated with him in the management of his large estate. 

In Pontiac, Michigan, in May, 1853, Mr. Rose was married to Miss Julia A. 
Todd, a daughter of Joseph J. Todd and a native of Pontiac, born February 3, 1826. 
Mr. Rose cast his first presidential ballot in 1840, supporting William Henry Har- 
rison and since the organization of the republican party he has been one of its stal- 
wart advocates. He belongs to the Odd Fellows, having joined Presque Isle Lodge, 
No. 107, at Erie, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1845. He is also a charter member and 
past chief patriarch of Heneosis Adelphon Encampment, No. 42, of Erie, which was 
incorporated August 7, 1846. He is a charter member and a director of the Wau- 
saukee Hunting and Fishing Club of Athelstane, Wisconsin, and in religious views 
is a Universalist. 

Few residents of Chicago are more familiar with the history of this city than Mr. 
Rose. At the time of his arrival in 1849 the natural line of the site was only a few 
feet above that of the lake and the streets were unpaved, although Lake street was 
planked and planks had also been laid in Clark street from Lake south to Washing- 
ton street. The population at that time was twenty-three thousand and forty-seven. 
There was not sufficient drainage and in the winter of 1855-56 the city ordered a 
change of grade, raising the carriage ways on an average of eight feet. This placed 
the lower story of each building several feet below the level of the street and all 
buildings, wood, stone and brick, were raised to the level by means of screws placed 
under the foundation and the city ordered the dredging of the harbor, the clay thus 
obtained being used to fill the streets to the new grade. Mr. Rose saw the principal 
portion of Chicago destroyed by fire October 9 and 10, 1871, and has seen it rise 
phoenix-like from its ashes and has witnessed its phenomenal growth and increase 
in population from twenty-three thousand to more than two million in sixty- 



one years. 

Vol. V 7 



132 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Mr. Rose inherited a love for sports afield with rod and gun and during a period 
of forty years has spent his annual vacations in the wilds of northern Wisconsin and 
the upper peninsula of Michigan, camping out with Indians, for guides. He counts 
these as his most delightful pastimes and has ever been grateful that he was endowed 
with this love of nature, feeling that the happiness of his life has been greatly en- 
hanced by his enjoyment of fishing and the pleasure that he lias found in the woods. 



MARK SKINNER. 

Mark Skinner was not only a peer but a leader among the brilliant members of 
the Chicago bar of a half century ago, and when ill health forced him to sever 
active connection with the legal profession he still remained a prominent represen- 
tative of the business interests of the city. No man of his day was more deeply 
interested in the material, intellectual and moral progress of Chicago and in all of 
his labors, far reaching and effective as they were, he ever sought the benefit of 
others rather than the advancement of self. The splendid powers with which nature 
endowed him were used wisely and well and Chicago is yet profiting by his labors 
as the promoter of institutions which still remain valued factors in the municipal 
life. 

Judge Skinner was born in Manchester, Vermont, September 13, 1813, a son of 
Richard and Frances (Pierpont) Skinner, both of whom were representatives of 
early colonial families of New England. The mother traced her ancestry to John 
Pierpont, a descendant of Sir Hugh de Pierrepont, of Picardy, France. He sailed 
for the new world in 1640, settling near Boston. The name of Skinner figures 
prominently in connection with the history of the Green Mountain state. The 
father of Judge Skinner was a distinguished lawyer, who was born in Litchfield, 
Connecticut, in 1778, and in 1802 removed to Manchester, Vermont. His ability 
soon won him public recognition in election to office and in 1814 he became repre- 
sentative of his district in congress. In 1820 he became governor of the state for a 
four years' term, and prior to that time served as chief justice for five years. He 
died May 23, 1833. His wife, who was born in 1782, is said to have possessed 
many womanly virtues and a noble Christian character "and from her training and 
influence the son received many of those manly traits and qualities that character- 
ized his life, while to his father he was indebted for that legal acumen for which 
he was noted." 

In early youth Mark Skinner was a pupil in the schools of Bennington, Ver- 
mont, and later continued his education at Troy, New York. His preparatory train- 
ing was received in the Pittsfield Academy of Massachusetts and subsequently he 
entered the Middlebury College of Vermont, from which he was graduated in 1833. 
He early manifested a love of study and an aptitude in the mastery of those lines 
to which he turned his attention and it was natural that he should seek a profes- 
sional career when the time came for him to choose a life work. On the completion 
of his college course he entered upon the study of law with Judge Ezek Cowan, of 
Saratoga Springs, New York, as his preceptor and two years later entered the law 
office of Nicholas Hill, of Albany, who directed his studies until he became a stu- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 133 

dent in the New Haven Law School. A year was there passed, at the end of which 
time Mr. Hill made him tempting offers of partnership, but already Mr. Skinner's 
attention had been directed to the growing west and with remarkable prescience he 
foresaw something that the future had in store for Chicago. He, therefore, de- 
termined to make this city his home. 

It was in July, 1836, that Mark Skinner reached the future metropolis of the 
middle west. It was not until the following year that the city was incorporated, 
and at that time it contained only a few hundred inhabitants. With the work of 
shaping its destiny and molding its policy he was to become closely connected. He 
never sought public honors or recognition, but these came to him because of his 
ability and worth. He entered at once upon the practice of law and after a few- 
months formed a partnership with George Anson Oliver Beaumont. The firm was 
soon established with a large and growing practice. His colleagues and con- 
temporaries recognized in Mr. Skinner a man of scholarly attainments and of wide 
understanding of the law, as well as of high and honorable principles. His prac- 
tice constantly grew in volume and importance and until he severed his connection 
with the profession he was regarded as one of the ablest leaders of the Chicago bar. 
His fellow townsmen, appreciative of his worth, elected him to the office of city 
attorney in 1839. He filled the position for two years and for many years was 
master in chancery of Cook county. President Tyler appointed him to the position 
of United States district attorney, at which time the district embraced the entire 
state. Upon the election of James K. Polk as president, Mr. Skinner's reappoint- 
ment was opposed by Isaac N. Arnold, who also became a candidate for the office. 
The contest between the two applicants became so animated and protracted that 
finally a compromise was reached in the appointment of a third party. The strug- 
gle so impressed Mr. Skinner with the unworthiness of methods that must be em- 
ployed to obtain federal patronage that he resolved thereafter to entirely eschew 
federal office. He was, however, elected to the Illinois legislature in 1846 and 
throughout his course as a member of the general assembly stood as a man among 
men, holding loyally to a course which he believed to be of greatest benefit to the 
commonwealth. A contemporary biographer has said of his legislative service: 

"He was made chairman of the finance committee and he drew up and secured 
the passage of the bill refunding the state debt. The six different forms of state 
bonds were reduced into one convenient and manageable form, which most effect- 
ively cut off any possibilities of fraud in issuing new bonds. It was also during this 
session that the state convention was called which formed the second state constitu- 
tion and the memorable fight, based upon the phraseology of the old constitution, 
occurred, regarding the representation at the convention from the northern and 
southern districts. The championship of the northern side devolved upon Mr. Skin- 
ner, and his energy and good management carried the day. Mr. Skinner was also 
instrumental in causing the passage of a measure to recommence a partial payment 
of the interest on the state debt, a matter that had been for some years in default and 
which there was a disposition to repudiate." 

In 1851, by popular suffrage, Mr. Skinner was called to the bench of the Cook 
county court of common pleas, now the superior court. An immense amount of 
business was transacted in the court and the strenuous labor required, so told upon 
Judge Skinner's health that at the close of the term he was forced to decline a re- 



134 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

election and for the same reason was obliged to discontinue the active practice of 
law. However, he did not cease to be an active factor in the business life of the 
city, but became financial agent of certain eastern capitalists in investments in 
Chicago real estate. His knowledge of the law as applied to realty and his accu- 
rate business habits particularly qualified him for the successful conduct of busi- 
ness of this character and no one in Chicago perhaps so largely represented non- 
resident capitalists or handled larger amounts of the borrowed money so extensively 
used in the building up of the city. He was for many years a prominent representa- 
tive of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company and in a memorial pre- 
sented to the board of directors of the company on the occasion of Judge Skinner's 
death the president, Colonel Jacob L. Greene, took occasion to pay the following 
kindly tribute to the memory of his warm personal friend as well as business asso- 
ciate: 

"The directors of the company, having learned of the death of the Hon. Mark 
Skinner, who was for more than thirty years its financial correspondent and their 
own trusted confidential adviser at Chicago, entered upon their records this minute 
desiring thereby to recall and to mark their sense of the peculiar importance and 
value of his services to it in that relation, involving the investment of over twenty- 
seven million dollars, the acquisition by unavoidable foreclosure and the subsequent 
sale of large amounts of real estate, and the personal foresight and handling of 
those great interests during all the dangers and trying vicissitudes which fell upon 
the country at large and upon his own city in particular, during that most eventful 
period; the singular intelligence, foresight, sound judgment, delicacy, courage, 
fidelity and single-heartedness with which he treated every question, faced every 
emergency and discharged every duty; his untiring watchfulness of every interest 
involved; his equally wise and kindly zeal for the welfare of the company's debt- 
ors in time of financial distress; that unfailing courtesy which made long associa- 
tion with him a pleasure as well as high privilege; and their deep sense of loss and 
their sympathy with his bereaved family." 

Aside from professional and business interests already alluded to, Judge Skin- 
ner did much important service for the city in the building and extension of its 
railway connections. He was closely associated with the old Galena and with the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads, serving as a director of both companies. 
He was also a director of the Chicago Marine & Fire Insurance Company, the State 
Insurance Company and the Chicago Gas Light & Coke Company. 

Judge Skinner's home life was particularly attractive and largely partook of 
the nature of the ideal. He was married on the 21st of May, 1841, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Magill Williams and unto them were born six children, Richard, Elizabeth, 
Evelyn Pierrepont, Frances, Frederika and Susan. Of these Frances became the 
wife of Henry J. Willing and had two children, Evelyn Pierrepont and Mark 
Skinner Willing. The youngest daughter, Susan Pierrepont, married Ambrose 
Cramer and had two children, Elizabeth Skinner and Ambrose Coghill. The Skin- 
ner home was one of the noted north-side homes of culture and hospitality and was 
long a social center of the city. Judge Skinner was devoted to the welfare of his 
family and found his greatest delight in surrounding the members of his household 
with those things which add to comfort and insure highest enjoyment. One of his 
deepest sorrows came to him in the death of his only remaining son, who, responding 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 135 

to the country's call for troops at the outbreak of the Civil war, fell in the trenches 
before Petersburg., on the 22d of June, 1864. 

The service and influence of Judge Skinner in the profession of law, as financial 
agent and in social circles would alone entitle him to prominent mention among 
the leading business men of Chicago, but in other fields as well his influence reached 
out and his labors sought the welfare, progress and prosperity of the city. His 
life abounded in good works and his humanitarian spirit found expression in many 
practical movements for the benefit and assistance of his fellowmen. His name 
was inseparably interwoven with the history of the United States sanitary commis- 
sion, organized soon after the outbreak of the Civil war. He was active in its 
affairs and gave of his time, energy and money without reserve to further its inter- 
ests. He was made president of the organization and directed its work until a 
severe illness compelled him to resign in 1864. He was preeminently a man of 
affairs and one who wielded a wide influence. He never shirked a duty, relative to 
the city's progress and, in fact, was the leader in many movements whereby the 
welfare of Chicago was most greatly promoted. The cause of education found in 
him a stalwart champion and his effective labors in behalf of the public schools 
were recognized when a new public school, erected at the corner of Aberdeen street 
and Jackson boulevard, was called the Skinner school in his honor. He was instru- 
mental in organizing the Young Men's Association, the predecessor of the Chicago 
Library Association, the nucleus of whose library was furnished by Walter L. New- 
berry, April 24, 1841. Judge Skinner was one of the charter members of the 
County Hospital and one of the early presidents of the Chicago Home for the 
Friendless. He also became one of the incorporators of the Chicago Relief and Aid 
Society and was himself indefatigable in his labor in connection with that society 
following the great fire. His own home was destroyed in the fire together with the 
priceless treasures of art and literature which he had gathered there. As the hour 
brought its needs in the public life of the community he ever sought to meet them. 
He was one of the founders of the Chicago Reform School, became the first presi- 
dent of its board of directors and for many years continued in that position. He 
was a trustee of the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary and was one of 
the organizers of the Chicago Historical Society. His charitable and benevolent 
work had its root in his Christian faith, for throughout the greater part of his life 
he was closely identified with the Presbyterian denomination and for many years 
served as an elder in the Second Presbyterian church and later in the Fourth Pres- 
byterian church of Chicago. 

Xor were Judge Skinner's interests confined to the city in which he made his 
home and to the upbuilding of which his efforts so greatly contributed. He recog- 
nized the obligations as well as the privileges of citizenship and took a firm stand 
in support of or in opposition to every movement which he deemed beneficial or 
detrimental, as the case might be, to the welfare of the nation. In 1854 he became 
allied with the anti-Nebraska movement, which opposed Stephen A. Douglas, in 
the course which he took on that question. This led to the fusion of sentiments 
that; revolutionized the politics of this entire part of the state. The new party was 
composed of anti-slavery people, both democrats and whigs, and in four years it 
absorbed the whig and free-soil parties and fatally weakened the democratic party. 
His anti-slavery position led him to espouse the cause of the new republican party 



136 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and he remained a supporter thereof until his death. To honor him in recognition 
of his work in connection with the United States sanitary commission he was made 
the recipient of the button of the Loyal Legion. 

Throughout his life Judge Skinner maintained a deep attachment for the place of 
his nativity and each year returned to Manchester, Vermont, for recreation and 
rest. He became, moreover, one of the founders of the New England Society of 
Chicago. He passed away at Manchester, Vermont, and was buried from his old 
home in Vermont, September 16, 1887, and was laid to rest by the side of his par- 
ents, having himself selected the place of his burial. The Mark Skinner Library 
at Manchester, Vermont, is a monument to his memory, erected by his daughter 
Frances, who is now Mrs. Henry J. Willing. His memory is enshrined in the 
hearts of all who knew him. He had made his life count for the utmost. Not 
seeking honor but simply endeavoring to do his duty, honors were yet multiplied 
to him and prosperity followed his undertakings. To ably perform the task nearest 
at hand was ever his object. He never shut his eyes to any duty but faced every 
situation fairly and squarely and at all times manifested a sense of conscientious 
obligation in what he did. He found joy in serving his fellowmen and in contrib- 
uting toward the world's progress. He held to high ideals, toward which he pa- 
tiently strove, and he left to his fellowmen a life history which is an inspiration 
to all. 



WILLIAM KELLY SULLIVAN. 

William Kelly Sullivan, journalist and legislator, whose activities in connec- 
tion with events of public importance were of vital significance, was born in 
Waterford, Ireland, on the 10th of November, 1843, a son of James Lawson and 
Margaret (Bull) Sullivan. The first important step which usually engages the 
attention of a youth is the acquirement of an education, and like most lads of the 
neighborhood and period William Kelly Sullivan became a pupil in the national 
schools of Ireland. Later he attended the Waterford Model School and was 
graduated from the Marlborough Street Training School of Dublin. In the mean- 
time, however, he had engaged in teaching for two years in the Waterford Model 
School and following his course in the training school continued in the profession 
of teaching at Malin, in County Donegal, Ireland. Attractive and fascinating re- 
ports reached him concerning America and, feeling that here favoring opportuni- 
ties pointed the way to fortune, he resolved to seek a home in the United States, 
crossing the Atlantic in 1868. He remained on the eastern seacoast but for a brief 
period and, leaving New York, journeyed toward the interior of the country with 
Kane county, Illinois, as his destination. There he engaged in teaching school, as 
he did later in Kendall county, but in the interval he served for about six months 
in 1864 as a member of the One Hundred and Forty-first Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry. He was assigned to duty in Company I and continued with this command 
from the 2d of May, 1864, until the 10th of October following, when on the expiration 
of his term of enlistment he was honorably discharged. Later he accepted a school 
near Bristol, in Kendall county, but after a brief period made his way to the oil 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 137 

fields of West Virginia, where for a time he engaged in prospecting and also in 
operating a steam engine. He next went abroad, returning on a visit to his native 
land, but the period of his residence in America had convinced him that this land 
offered better facilities and advantages for the young man who has to make his 
own way in the world. Accordingly, he returned to New York and made his initial 
step in the journalistic field as a member of the reportorial staff of the Sun of that 
city. However, he returned to the middle west, locating in Chicago, where, after 
studying law, he was admitted to the bar. In the great Chicago fire of 1871 his 
law library was destroyed, and, foreseeing a temporary paralysis of all legal busi- 
ness in the stricken city, he returned to journalistic work, and became assistant 
editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1874 he changed his connection to the Chicago 
Evening Journal and, purchasing an interest in the paper, became one-third owner 
and also managing editor. His business ability in his particular field contributed 
much to the success of the Journal and his intelligent and comprehensive discus- 
sion of vital and significant problems of the day awakened deep and widespread 
interest. 

Not only in his journalistic capacity but also in other connections did Mr. Sul- 
livan take active part in shaping public life and thought. He was a recognized 
leader in the ranks of the republican party and as representative of the Chicago 
Tribune accompanied Carl Schurz in his political tour. He was also connected 
with the same paper when elected to the legislature as a member of the twenty- 
seventh general assembly, in which he served for two years, giving the most care- 
ful consideration to the questions which came up for settlement, his investigation 
resulting in strong championship or equally pronounced opposition as he believed 
the exigencies of the case demanded. Again he was called to public office through 
appointment of President Benjamin Harrison, who in 1891 named him as United 
States consul to the Bermudas. He was likewise always active in municipal affairs 
and from 1875 until 1878 was president of the Chicago board of education, during 
which period the public-school system felt the stimulus of his active and practical 
interest in the educational work of the city, in commemoration of which the W. K. 
Sullivan grade school was so named. He was also at one time president of the 
Chicago Press Club, to which he was elected in 1881, and in 1894 he was 
appointed receiver for the American Building & Loan Association, the largest 
concern of its kind ever in this country. 

On the 19th of May, 1874, in Evanston, Illinois, Mr. Sullivan was united in 
marriage to Miss Amelia Shackelford, a daughter of William Barlow Shackelford, 
originally of Culpeper, Virginia, and later of Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sullivan became parents of a daughter and son: Helen Amelia, who was married 
February 1, 1910, to Dr. James Gordon Gumming, medical director of the Pasteur 
Institute of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; and William Shaekelford, a 
resident engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana. The family circle 
was broken by death on the 17th of January, 1909, when the husband and father 
passed away in Chicago, his remains being laid to rest in Rosehill cemetery. He 
had been a devoted member of the Masonic fraternity, was popular in the member- 
ship of the Menoken Club and was a faithful communicant of the Episcopal church. 
While he never courted popularity, he regarded friendship as sacred, and his per- 
sonal traits of character won him the high esteem of many friends. The public work 



138 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

which he did was of an important character and his aid was never sought in vain 
for the betterment and improvement of the city. He made wise use of his talents 
and his opportunities and his thoughts were ever given to the mastery of great 
problems, to the fulfilment of his duty as a man in his relations to his fellowmen 
and as a citizen in his relations to his state and country. 



CHARLES CLARENCE POOLE. 

The Poole family is distinctively American in both lineal and collateral lines since 
John Poole came from England in 1632 and established his home at Reading, Mas- 
sachusetts. Among the distinguished ancestors, to whom the present generation point 
with pride, were the early colonial Governors Dudley and Bradstreet, who presided 
over the interests of Massachusetts ere the establishment of American independence. 
Another of the ancestors in the maternal line was Manasseh Cutler, who served as 
a chaplain in the colonial army during the Revolutionary war. He afterward be- 
came a member of the commission which obtained on behalf of the soldiers of that 
war the lands in Ohio on which was founded the town of Marietta, and was a lead- 
ing agent in the passage of the ordinance of 1787, into which he incorporated the 
anti-slavery provision. He afterward represented Massachusetts in congress and 
died in Hamilton, that state, in 1823, having left the impress of his individuality 
upon many events which constitute important chapters in the history of the state and 
nation. Charles H. Poole was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1825, and while re- 
ceiving his education at West Point, became a civil engineer and passed his entire 
life in the service of the United States government. His duties called him much of 
the time to Washington, D. C., where he passed away in the year 1880. His wife 
bore the maiden name of Mary A. Daniels and they were residents of Benicia, Cali- 
fornia, at the time of the birth of Charles Clarence Poole on the 27th of November, 
1856. 

The youthful days of C. C. Poole, however, were largely spent in the nation's 
capital, to which his father had been called in professional service. He, therefore, 
attended the public schools of that city and under private instruction completed a 
course in civil engineering, whereby he was qualified to take a position as civil en- 
gineer and topographical draftsman in connection with surveys under the war de- 
partment when but eighteen years of age. To that work he devoted his attention in 
1874 and 1875, and later was employed in the topographical division of the post 
office department. This line of work, however, he regarded merely as an initial step, 
having determined upon the practice of law as a life work. His preparation for the 
bar was made through private study and also as a student in the Columbian, now the 
George Washington, University. Even at that day he was greatly interested in sub- 
jects allied to patent law and his essay on trade-marks won him a prize at the time 
of his graduation in the class of 1882. The same year he was admitted to the bar 
and located for practice in Chicago, where he has since remained. No dreary novi- 
tiate awaited him and yet advancement at the bar is proverbially slow. However, 
he soon gave proof of his ability, and his constantly developing powers have long 
kept him in a positions of leadership among the patent lawyers of the country. Hav- 




('. CI.AUKXCK I'OOI.K 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 141 

ing a natural aptitude for mechanical subjects, he preferred to concentrate his en- 
ergies upon this department of the law, which all the time is growing more and more 
involved through the complexity of business interests, when a lack of knowledge or 
unscrupulous principles are continuously bringing about litigation in the courts con- 
cerning the .validity of patents, copyrights and trade-marks. The patent lawyer must 
possess not only a knowledge of the law as it appears from the statutes, but must 
also have practical understanding of mechanical engineering and of the many sub- 
jects which find classification along manufacturing and industrial lines, that he may 
intelligently present the matters in his charge to the patent office and the courts. 
Lacking in none of the requisites of the successful patent lawyer, Mr. Poole has made 
continuous progress in his especial field. In 1885 he became the senior partner of 
the firm of Poole & Brown and has since been continuously associated with Colonel 
Taylor E. Brown, of the Illinois National Guard, the firm being recognized as one 
of the strongest patent law firms in the United States. In 1891 Mr. Poole was ad- 
mitted to practice before the United States supreme court. He has been honored 
with the presidency of the Chicago Patent Law Association, which indicates clearly 
his standing among those who are his colleagues and associates in this field. 

Mr. Poole's club relations are with the Union League Club. He has been greatly 
interested in the Masonic order, and is a past commander of Evanston Commandery, 
Knights Templar and also a member of Medina Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. 
Poole has always been an enthusiast in field sports and he is an expert fisherman 
with rod and reel. 

Mr. Poole maintains his residence at Evanston, where the family is well known 
in the social circles of that attractive suburb. He was married in January in 1884 
to Miss Anne Poole, a" daughter of the late Dr. William F. Poole, at one time libra- 
rian of the Newberry Library and the author of Poole's Index to Periodical Liter- 
ature. Her mother bore the maiden name of Frances Gleason. Mrs. C. Clarence 
Poole is a native of Melrose, Massachusetts. The family numbers two sons and two 
daughters, Frances, Charles H., Clarence Frederick and Dorothy. A man of well 
balanced capacities and powers, capable of taking an impartial view of any question 
and of discriminating between the essential and the non-essential, his strongly marked 
characteristics have been the salient features in a commendable and notable success. 
Fortunate in possessing ability and character that inspired confidence in others, 
the simple weight of his character and ability has carriel him into important re- 
lations with large interests in his work in the United States patent office and the 
federal courts, where the involved questions of patent law are considered. 



GEORGE H. WEAVER, M. D. 

Dr. George H. Weaver is the only surviving son of William and Mary (Howitt) 
Weaver, whose family numbered seven children, Dr. Weaver and three sisters, 
however, being now the only survivors. The father was born in Sussex, England, 
and the mother in Dumfries, Scotland, and in early life they became residents of 
the United States, settling in Wisconsin in the early '40s. William Weaver was a 



142 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

prosperous farmer of Waukesha county and there both he and his wife passed 
away and were laid to rest. 

Dr. Weaver was born at Sussex, Wisconsin, attended the country schools of 
Sussex when a small boy and afterward pursued his education in the Carroll Acad- 
emy at Waukesha until he reached the age of fifteen years, when he went to 
Wooster, Ohio, spending two years in the university there. This constituted the 
foundation for his professional acquirements, his medical course being pursued 
in Rush Medical College of Chicago, where he was graduated at the end of three 
years with the class of 1889. He afterward spent eighteen months as interne in 
the Cook County Hospital. At the end of that time he entered upon the private 
practice of medicine in association with Dr. Charles Warrington Earle, of this city, 
and so continued until the death of Dr. Earle in 1893. He was continuously lo- 
cated on Washington boulevard from 1890 to 1911. He belongs to the Chicago 
Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Association 
of Physicians, and is attending physician in the department of contagious diseases 
of the Cook County Hospital. 

On the 12th of June, 1901, Dr. Weaver was married to Miss Carolyn Earle, a 
daughter of Dr. Charles Warrington Earle, of Chicago. Dr. and Mrs. Weaver re- 
side in Wilmette, Illinois. He is a member of the University Club, a democrat in 
his political views and an Episcopalian in his religious faith. 



DANIEL FOLGER BIGELOW. 

The Art Institute of Chicago stands as a monument to Daniel Folger Bigelow 
and some of his colleagues, for it is the direct outgrowth of the Academy of De- 
sign, which they founded. Moreover, he added fame to the name of the city be- 
cause of his splendid work as a landscape painter, his works ever appearing in the 
exhibitions of Chicago artists. He always utilized American scenes for his sub- 
jects and his appreciative handling of such indicated his delight in the beauty of 
his theme. He was born at Peru, New York, in 1823, and came of Quaker ances- 
try. The Bigelow family, however, had its origin in England, and the first record in 
America of the family concerns the marriage of John de Baguley, or Bigulah, to Mary 
Warren at Watertown, Massachusetts, October 30, 1642. Both the Bigelow and War- 
ren families figured prominently in the histiry of Massachusetts and the east. The 
father was Nathan Bigelow, of Peru, New York, and was a soldier of the war of 
1812, participating in the battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain. His mother, 
who bore the maiden name of Clarinda Folger, was a kinswoman of Abigail Fol- 
ger, the mother of Benjamin Franklin. In his boyhood days the son gave 
marked evidence of possessing those talents which were afterward to win him dis- 
tinction, and the father, realizing the skill of his boy, placed him under the in- 
struction of Ashel Powers, a cousin of Hiram Powers, the sculptor, to whose influ- 
ence, Mr. Bigelow always said, he owed whatever excellence he possessed in 
delicacy of coloring and treatment. While still a resident of the east he was as- 
sociated with the Hudson River School of Art, making him familiar with the work 
of Casselier, Gifford, Shattuck and the brothers Hart. The influence of that 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 143 

school clung to him in all his subsequent work. In 1858 he removed westward to 
Chicago, being then thirty-five years of age. At his death one of the city editors 
wrote: "He was one of the pioneers of art in the west. He came to Chicago when 
the dialect of art was almost an unknown tongue in this section of the country, 
save for the few who had learned to speak it on occasional voyages to Europe, 
when such a voyage was an event in the life of a man long to be treasured up and 
talked about. He was without question one of the most picturesque figures in the 
art world of this country, noted not only for his age but also for the long lasting 
vitality and freshness of mind and heart with which he was endowed. So far back 
do the earlier associations of Chicago's late veteran painter go that they may be 
said to have mingled with the twilight of the dawn of art in America." 

On arriving in Chicago Mr. Bigelow opened a studio in the Crosby Opera House 
on Washington street, between Dearborn and State streets, and entered actively 
into association with that historic group of painters of which G. P. A. Healy was 
the leader and of which J. H. Drury and Mrs. S. H. St. John were distinguished 
members. He was one of a small group of artists who, as early as 1867, in spite 
of the barrenness of the site had the hardihood to organize an academy of design, 
which in its development has become the splendid Art Institute of Grant Park 
and the inspiration of much of the art of the west. Mr. Bigelow lived to see the 
growth and success of the idea of which he was in part the originator and one of 
the warmest friends and protectors. He was ever honored by the institute and 
his pictures were always on exhibit there. He had ready patronage for his work, 
and in the beginning of his career gave some time to portrait work, producing 
creditable canvases, j^et it was in the field of landscape painting that he excelled, 
and many of the paintings which he produced in later years were the development 
of sketches made by him in the plastic period of his life spent amid the Adirondacks. 
He always held that American scenes could not be surpassed in any country of the 
world and, therefore, always advised young artists to concentrate their efforts upon 
American landscapes. In the intervals of his busy life he would occasionally take 
a commission for painting the home of some Chicago friend and at these times has 
reproduced on canvas the early New England homes of Judge Skinner, a pioneer 
Chicago jurist, Edward Teal, Edward Isham, the Keith brothers and a few others. 

On the 1st of November, 1865, Mr. Bigelow was married to Miss Charlotte M. 
Barnes, a daugher of Dr. Melvin Allen Barnes, of Grand Isle, Vermont, and Phebe 
E. Edgerton, of Plattsburg, New York. Dr. Barnes was a representative of the 
fifth generation of his family to engage in the practice of medicine. He was also 
a descendant of Colonel Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys in 
the Revolutionary war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow were born two sons and a 
daughter. The eldest, Folger Allen, born March 11, 1868. died September 16, 
1891, He had developed extraordinary and exceptional talent as an artist and 
had paintings on exhibit in various places, but his early death terminated a career 
which promised to win him international fame. The daughter, Florence Edgerton, 
is director of drawing in the Hyde Park high school and is active in art work in 
Chicago. The younger son, Louis Barnes Bigelow, is associated with the Morton 
Salt Company, of Chicago. 

Politically Mr. Bigelow was a republican but without aspiration for office. In 
early life he held membership in the Congregational church and afterward became 



144 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

a member of the Episcopal church. He was very sociable, enjoyed reading and 
was particularly fond of poetry. His death occurred on the 14th of July, 1910, on 
which occasion one of the local papers said: "Mr. Bigelow passed away as he was 
verging toward the end of the ninth decade of his life. His career covered almost 
all of the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth, and he could tell of his 
contact with painters who themselves were part of the aesthetic life of the eight- 
eenth century." He remained an artist to the last, and in a pleasant home, at No. 
5032 Prairie avenue, he could be found quietly at work with brush and pallet. The 
history of Chicago was a matter of interest to him and a charm of conversation 
enabled him to speak most entertainingly of the early days. 



THOMAS PIM GOODBODY. 

Thomas Pirn Goodbody was born in Dublin, Ireland, June 4, 1878, a son of 
Robert and Isadora (Pirn) Goodbody. The family were members of the Society 
of Friends and were the only representatives of that faith in Kings county, Ireland. 
They came originally from Yorkshire, England, the progenitor of the Irish branch 
of the family having been an officer in Cromwell's army. The father came to 
America in 1883 and settled at Haledon, New Jersey, where he died April 13, 
1911. He was a very prominent banker and broker, being head of the firm of 
Robert Goodbody & Company, of Wall street, where he operated for many years as 
one of the strong factors in that center of finance. He was the eldest son of 
Marcus Goodbody, who was the head of one of the most prominent families in 
Kings county, Ireland, and who was instrumental in the building of the first rail- 
road in Ireland, namely, that which runs from Kingston to Dublin, and which is 
now known as the Dublin-Wicklow & Wexford Railroad. Robert Goodbody was 
the eldest of nine brothers, all of whom were prominent in Irish affairs, 
and the second of whom, James Perry, is now chairman of the Great Southwestern 
Railway of Ireland. The family have for some generations been prominently 
identified with the tobacco trade and flour industry of the empire, the tobacco end 
being represented by the firm of T. P. & R. Goodbody, of Dublin and Tullamore. 
The family also controls all the flour mills in Limerick, which are, however, ope- 
rated under various names. The mother of Thomas P. Goodbody died at Fairy Hill, 
in County Dublin, in 1878. She was a niece of Lord Lister, who was the discoverer 
of the use of antiseptics in surgery. Thomas is the fourth of ten children, all of 
whom are living. His eldest brother, Marcus, is well known on the New York 
Stock Exchange, being the floor representative of Robert Goodbody & Company. 

In private schools of New York city, including the Dwight school, Thomas P. 
Goodbody pursued his early education and was graduated from Williams College, 
Massachusetts, with the degree of A. B. in 1899. He then studied public account- 
ing and was with Marwick, Mitchell & Company for three years. He afterward 
became vice president of the Fisheries Company of America, continuing in that 
connection in 1903 and 1901, after which he spent one year at Toledo, Ohio, in 
charge of the branch house of Robert Goodbody & Company, of New York. In 1905 
he again became associated with Marwick, Mitchell & Company, with whom he re- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 145 

mained until 1909, when he was chosen assistant cashier of the Hamilton National 
Bank. He continued in that connection until the bank was sold to the National City 
Bank in September, 1910. At that time he turned his attention to casualty in- 
surance business as a member of the firm of Burras & Goodbody and was made 
resident manager of the Pacific Coast Casualty Company. At the present time his 
chief activity is as resident director of Wyckoff Church & Partridge, Inc., of New 
York, manufacturers of automobile trucks and pleasure cars. He is likewise treas- 
urer and director of the Great Eastern Lumber Company, and is recognized as a 
forceful and resourceful business man, whose intense and well directed activity 
enables him to successfully control and manage important interests and so manage 
the different phases of his business that success crowns the whole. 

Mr. Goodbody was married November 9, 1904, at Toledo, Ohio, to Miss Luette 
Ruth Spitzer, a daughter of A. L. Spitzer, of that city, who is at the head of one of 
the oldest municipal bond houses west of New York. The family reside at No. 
1440 Dearborn avenue, and they have four children: Harold Pirn; Lyman Spitzer, 
Thomas Pirn and Garrett. Mr. Goodbody holds to the religious faith of his fore- 
fathers, .being a member of the Society of Friends. He is an independent gold 
democrat, but is not an active worker in party ranks. He enjoys all manly athletics 
and outdoor sports and is widely and favorably known in club circles as a member 
of the University and Forty Clubs, of Chicago ; the University Club, of New York ; 
and the Hermit Club, of Cleveland, Ohio. His various business connections and 
the importance of his work have brought him a wide acquaintance in financial 
circles throughout the country, gaining for him the admiration and respect of col- 
leagues and contemporaries. 



GEORGE J. BRINE. 

Each line of business has its leaders, men whose ability easily enables them to 
compass every feature of the business in which they engage and carry their under- 
takings forward to successful completion. George J. Brine was numbered among 
those who stood among the foremost representatives of commission lines in Chicago 
and, although an adopted son of America, no one was more loyal to the best interests, 
and the upbuilding of Chicago than he. 

A native of Newfoundland, he was born at St. John's, on the 9th of December, 
1839, his parents being John M. and Louisa (Winter) Brine. The family is of 
English lineage and representatives of the name became residents of Newfound- 
land about 1795 or 1796. Through several generations the family was there repre- 
sented and John M. Brine was an official of the Newfoundland Gas Company. The 
maternal grandfather of George J. Brine was chief of ordinance in the British army. 

In the public schools of his native city George J. Brine pursued his early edu- 
cation, and then went to sea, making one or two voyages as supercargo, while later 
he was connected with mercantile interests. At length, however, he determined to 
seek his fortune in the west, believing that better opportunities might be secured in 
this section of the country. He was not twenty years of age when, in October, 
1859. he came to Chicago and here entered the employ of his uncle, William Brine, 



146 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

one of the early members of the Board of Trade. Soon after his entry into this de- 
partment of commerce the young man was found to be very useful because of knowl- 
edge previously acquired and his adaptability to the requirements of his new posi- 
tion. Appreciative of his worth, his uncle admitted him to a partnership under the 
firm name of William Brine & Company, which relation existed until 1866. In the 
meantime Mr. Brine had promoted his knowledge by attending night school for 
several terms after coming to Chicago, and throughout his life he remained a keen 
and observant student not only of books but of the signs of the times. In 1863 
William Brine went to New York and there opened a branch house, leaving George 
J. Brine in charge of the main business of the firm in Chicago. Later this partner- 
ship was dissolved, George J. Brine entering the commission field independently and 
operating therein for three years. He afterward formed a partnership with John 
B. Lyon & Company, but this connection was dissolved in the fall of 1872. Mr. 
Brine was then alone in business until 1879, when he became an employe of Armour 
& Company, with whom he remained for five years. On the 1st of January, 1884, 
he formed a partnership with Charles D. Hamill under the firm name of Hamill & 
Brine, which occupied a deservedly prominent position on the Board of Trade and 
in commercial circles. Later, however, the firm of Hamill & Brine was dissolved 
and the latter became manager for the Crane Elevator Company, in New York, 
where he remained for two years, during which period he secured many large con- 
tracts in eastern territory. He was also secretary for the company for several 
years. Upon his return to Chicago he again became associated with Armour & Com- 
pany, attending to many business and legal affairs for that corporation. He was 
recognized as one of the most valuable men in the company and remained therewith 
until his death, which occurred January 4, 1906. 

Mr. Brine was twice married. In 1866 he wedded Ida R. Dewey, who died in 
1872, leaving a daughter, Ida Winter Brine, who is now the wife of John C. Scovel, 
a mechanical engineer, by whom she has one daughter, Margaret Brine Scovel. 
On the 17th of April, 1879, Mr. Brine was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. 
Payne, who died November 7, 1911. She was a daughter of William and Ann M. 
(Palmer) Payne, who came from Milwaukee to Chicago in 1856. Mr. Payne was a 
leading factor in the coal and wood trade in early life, conducting business just 
north of the Rush street bridge. He died in 1868 but the business was continued 
until 1871, when heavy losses were sustained on account of the fire. The firm was 
known as Woodruff & Payne in 1856 and employed vessels for transportation. 
Later the name was changed to Payne, Dyer & Payne. 

Mr. Brine was always an interested and helpful supporter of many projects 
for the public good and at the time of the Civil war his loyalty to his adopted 
country was shown in the fact that although he had not yet become a naturalized 
American citizen, he sent a substitute to the ranks, to whom he paid six hundred 
dollars. In his later years he figured prominently in connection with public af- 
fairs. He was president of the Chicago Harbor and River Improvement Associa- 
tion and was a member of the Chicago library board from 1885 until May, 1887, 
during which period he served as its president for nine months. He belonged to 
Oriental Lodge, No. 33, A. F. & A. M., and for a considerable period was con- 
nected with the church over which Rev. Arthur Swazey presided. Later he became 
a supporter of David Swing, then pastor of Central church. He was a home man 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 147 

and was fond of music and the opera. He possessed a keen wit and enjoyed social 
gatherings. He read broadly and delighted in all that is most artistic and elevat- 
ing in literature. He was a remarkably well informed man and his knowledge 
seemed all the greater from the fact that he was practically self-educated. Prog- 
ress seemed the keynote to his character whether in literary, commercial, political 
or municipal connections. He believed that it lay within the power of every human 
being to advance and in his own life he regarded the accomplishment of any task 
as a stimulus for renewed and further effort. 



AUGUSTUS FREDERICK NIGHTINGALE. 

Actuated by a practical idealism in all of his professional services, Dr. Augus- 
tus Frederick Nightingale stands today among the most prominent of those whose 
labors have been effective in promoting the interests and raising the standard of 
the public schools of Chicago and of Cook county. Nor are his labors bounded by 
this district, for the influence of his thought and efforts has gone out into those 
communities where earnest and intelligent men with a passion for the thorough 
and practical education of the young are continuously seeking out new methods 
and new ideas to advance the work of the public schools. Since 1874 he has con- 
centrated his efforts upon the work in Cook county and since 1902 has occupied 
the position of superintendent of the county schools. 

Born at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the llth of November, 1843, Dr. Night- 
ingale is a son of Thomas J. and Alice Nightingale, and a representative of one 
of the old New England families. In the acquirement of his education he attended 
successively the public schools of Quincy, the Newbury Academy of Vermont and 
the Wesleyan University of Connecticut, being graduated from the last named with 
valedictorian honors as a member of the class of 1866. His ripe scholarship of 
later years has received recognition in the honorary degrees of Master of Arts in 
1869, Doctor of Philosophy in 1891 and Doctor of Laws in 1901. 

Dr. Nightingale has devoted his entire life to educational work, his constantly 
increasing fame winning him national recognition. Following the completion of 
his college course he accepted the professorship of Latin and Greek in the Upper 
Iowa University, with which he was connected for two years. In 1868 he was 
called to the presidency of the Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois, 
where he continued until 1871. The following year was spent as professor of 
Latin and Greek in Simpson College at Indianapolis, Iowa and from 1872 until 
1874 he was superintendent of the public schools of Omaha, Nebraska, whence he 
came to Chicago and for sixteen years remained as principal of the Lake View 
high school. He was then elected assistant superintendent of the Chicago public 
schools and for nine years, from 1892 until 1901, was superintendent of the high 
schools of this city. In 1902 he was elected superintendent of the Cook county 
schools in which position reelection has continued him to the present time. More- 
over he has been a trustee of the University of Illinois since 1898 and was presi- 
dent of the board in 1902-1903. He was president of the Nebraska State Teachers 
Association in 1873 and of the Illinois State Teachers Association in 1877, while 



148 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

in 1888 he served as president of the secondary department of the National Edu- 
cational Association. He has long ranked with the conspicuous educators of the 
country by reason of his efforts in systematizing and coordinating the work of 
secondary schools. From 1895 until 1899 he was chairman of the committee of 
the National Educational Association on college entrance requirements, and in 
1898 was president of the North Central Association of colleges and secondary 
schools. He was the author of Requirements for Admission to American Colleges, 
and is even more widely known because of his work as editor of one hundred vol- 
umes published under the title of the Twentieth Century Text-Books. Governor 
Deneen appointed him a member of the educational commission to revise and per- 
fect the school laws of Illinois. The honors which have been conferred upon him 
in connection with the system of public education have been well merited and 
modestly worn. One of the leading Chicago papers said of him editorially in 
November, 1906: "Dr. Nightingale has made education and the organization and 
direction of educational activities his life work. He has been remarkably success- 
ful. In almost every field of the work from the primary to teaching the classics 
in a university, from grade teacher to superintendent of high schools, from in- 
structor in Greek and Latin to college president, he has left the mark of an earnest 
student and apt instructor, an intelligent organizer and a judicious director." 

On the 24th of August, 1866, Dr. Nightingale was united in marriage to Miss 
Fanny Orena, a daughter of Rev. C. H. Chase, of New Hampshire. Their family 
numbers one son and four daughters: Mrs. W. Ruffin Abbott, of Chicago; Harry 
Thomas Nightingale, a resident of Urbana, Illinois; Mrs. Harrison M. Angle, of 
Brooklyn, New York; Mrs. Vaughn Lee Alward; and Mrs. Winter D. Hess, of 
Evanston, Illinois. Welcomed into the social circles, where the most intelligent 
men of the city gather, Dr. Nightingale belongs to that class of men, whose deep 
consideration of vital public questions makes their opinions a potent force in shap- 
ing public thought and action. 



FRANCIS CORNWALL SHERMAN. 

The growth of Chicago has been one of the miracles of the age and yet it has 
been but the legitimate outcome of the labors, plans and purposes of its founders 
and later-day promoters. Among those who came west in pioneer times and cast in 
their lot with its early residents was Francis Cornwall Sherman, who lived here 
for three years before the city was incorporated, its population numbering only a 
few hundred inhabitants and they were located in homes that clustered around the 
mouth of the river, while business houses largely bordered the water front. A na- 
tive of Connecticut, Mr. Sherman was born in Newtown, on the 18th of September, 
1805. In early manhood he went to Buffalo, New York, where he was engaged for 
a short time in the manufacture of shell combs, but thinking to find a more advan- 
tageous field of business in the little town of Chicago, which had sprung up on the 
western shore of Lake Michigan, oc the site of old Fort Dearborn, he started for 
what was to become the metropolis of the west. He had journeyed with team and 
spring wagon to Buffalo and from there he shipped the wagon and team to Detroit, 




FRANCIS C. SHKKMAX 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 151 

from which point he rode across the state of Michigan on horseback with his oldest 
son, Francis T., reaching Chicago, April 7, 1834. His family left about the same 
'time by boat and the voyage by vessel required six long weeks, Mr. Sherman and 
son arriving at their destination several weeks before the boat put in sight, but at 
length lie met his wife and children, after anxiously waiting and watching on the 
shore of the lake for many days. Chicago of 1834 gave no promise of the Chicago 
of today. The most far-sighted could not have dreamed that the tiny village would 
be converted into the second city of the Union and one of the most populous of the 
world. There was a little cluster of buildings near the mouth of the river and this 
was still in a measure a trading post for the Indians. Soon after his arrival Mr. 
Sherman began the erection of a frame dwelling on Randolph, between La Salle and 
Wells streets. He was aided by a fellow workman in building this little structure, 
which was eighteen by thirty-four feet and twelve feet in height. It remained 
one of the early landmarks of the city until 1871, when it was destroyed by fire. 
The year following his arrival Mr. Sherman purchased a wagon and team of horses 
and conveyed passengers from Chicago to Joliet, Galena, Ottawa, Peoria and other 
places, for at that time there was no established stage line. It was also in 1835 
that Mr. Sherman began the manufacture of brick, finding a site for his plant on. 
the open prairie, at what is now Adams street near Market, his kilns being situated 
between Market street and the river, near the present abutments of the Madison 
street bridge. From the time of his arrival in Chicago Mr. Sherman manifested 
great faith in the city and its upbuilding and was one of the most progressive fac- 
tors in the early development of the young metropolis. In 1835-6 he -erected for 
himself the first four-story brick building of Chicago, its site being on Lake, near 
Clark street. He continued in business as a brickmaker and contractor for over 
fourteen years and during that period erected a large number of houses. Success 
attended him from the outset and his well earned profits in time brought to him a 
substantial competence, so that in 1850 he was able to retire from active business 
life, after which he devoted his attention to the management of his large interests. 
He had made judicious investments in property and the land which he purchased at 
a low figure soon after his arrival increased steadily in value with the growth of 
the city. In 1 836 he built a block of stores where the present Hotel Sherman stands. 
A little later the structure was somewhat remodeled and blossomed out as the City 
Hotel, the corner being used as a city hall, where the meetings of the common council 
were held, with Hon. Thomas Hoyne officiating as city clerk. About the year 1848 
additions were made and the hotel then became known as the Sherman House. In 
18(50 this structure was torn down and in the spring of 1861 the Sherman House, a 
six-story structure consumed in the great fire of 1871, was opened. This was re- 
built after the fire and was a seven-story structure, which stood until torn down 
to make room for the present Hotel Sherman, completed in 1910. 

But while Mr. Sherman retired from participation in industrial interests, his life 
was one of more than ordinary activity. His identification with public affairs was 
prompted by a patriotic citizenship that recognized the needs of the city and sought 
to meet them. He was the champion of many progressive measures of the early 
day and his fellow townsmen, appreciating his worth and service, at various times 
honored him with public office. He was chosen a member of the first board of trus 
tees of Chicago and served until the incorporation of the city in 1 837. He was 

Vol. V 8 



152 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

elected a member of the first board of aldermen under the city government and 
repeated elections continued him in that office for a long period, during which he 
exercised his official prerogatives in support of many movements and projects which 
had important bearing upon the welfare, upbuilding and municipal honor of Chi- 
cago. He became a member of the board of county commissioners and filled other 
county offices and likewise served on the board of appraisers of the canal lands. 
. He took an active part in preserving the courthouse square for public purposes. 
At that time he was a supervisor from one of the city wards and enjoyed the full 
confidence of the country members of the board. He was made president of the 
board at the time when the sale of the public square was ordered, the plan being to 
use the proceeds to build public offices on less expensive sites. Mr. Sherman's per- 
sonal influence probably defeated this scheme. His efforts induced the city to con- 
tribute largely to the erection of the courthouse building which stood until a few 
years ago and thus secured the square for all time for public purposes. Even higher 
official honors were accorded him. In 1841 he was elected mayor of Chicago on 
the democratic ticket, other city officials being Thomas Hoyne, clerk; N. H. Bolles, 
treasurer; and George Manierre, attorney. In 1843 he was elected to the state 
legislature and four years later was again chosen to represent his district in the 
general assembly. In 1847 he was chosen a member of the constitutional convention 
which framed the organic law of the state. He always gave stanch support to the 
democracy save at a single election, and in 1856 he was his party's candidate for 
the mayoralty but was defeated by Thomas Dyer. In 1862, however, he was again 
made a candidate and won the election over C. N. Holden. That he proved capable 
and faithful in office is indicated in the fact that in 1863 he was reelected for a 
two-years' term over T. B. Bryan after one of the fiercest local contests known in 
the history of the city. In 1862 he was a democratic candidate for congress and 
again in 1865 and 1867 was his party's nominee for mayor. His course in office 
always proved of signal service and benefit to the city. We had not reached that 
advanced stage of political activity when party rule is made a vehicle for the attain- 
ment of the spoils for the individual. Mr. Sherman held to high ideals in his official 
service and discharged his duties with the same fidelity and ability that characterized 
him in the conduct of his private business interests. 

Before coming to Chicago Mr. Sherman was married to Miss Electra Trow- 
bridge, of Danbury, Connecticut, a daughter of Reuben and Susan Trowbridge and 
a representative of a family that has figured prominently in the early history of 
New England. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Sherman were born six children: General 
Francis T. Sherman, Edwin, George, Charles and Elizabeth, all of whom are now 
deceased; and Mrs. Martha E. Sherman, the wife of William G. Sherman, of Barre, 
Vermont, who came to Chicago about 1848 and passed away in 1867. Mrs. Martha 
E. Sherman, who died January 28, 1911, had two children. The daughter, Ida E., 
is the wife of J. J. Charles, of Chicago, and has four children; Sherman, Francis, 
Martha and J. J. Charles, Jr. Edwin Sherman, the son, wedded Alida White, and 
they have one child, Robert Trowbridge Sherman. 

The death of Francis C. Sherman occurred November 7, 1870, and his wife, 
surviving him for nine years, passed away November 18, 1879. Mr. Sherman had 
been a resident of Chicago for more than thirty-six years, living here throughout 
the formative period of the city, to the development and growth of which he gave 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 153 

impetus by his public spirit and active cooperation. His labors were attended with 
substantial results and his name is inscribed high upon the roll of those who were 
early builders of the western metropolis. 

CHICAGO'S FIRST THANKSGIVING. 

The recurrence of Thanksgiving Day recalls to the mind of an "old settler" the 
first day set aside in Chicago for the formal giving of thanks. 

It was November 25, 1841, just forty years ago, when the. population was five 
thousand, seven hundred and fifty-two. Why the inhabitants of this city had not 
previously expressed their gratitude to God for blessings bestowed, the old settler 
was unable to tell; but he knew that in the fore part of November, 1841, some of 
the religious people circulated a petition. asking Mayor Sherman to set aside a day 
for thanksgiving. 

The document was submitted to the city council and November 22, on motion 
of Alderman Ira Miltamore, who represented the first ward, his honor was directed 
to grant the prayer. Accordingly, he issued the following proclamation (published 
in the American of November 23, 1841), which is chiefly interesting on account of 
the change that lapse of time has brought about with reference to the notice of 
observance : 

PROCLAMATION BY THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO. 

Whereas, in accordance with the petition of several good citizens, it hath been 
unanimously resolved, by the common council of the city of Chicago, that the mayor 
appoint Thursday, the 25th day of November inst., as a day of public thanksgiving 
and prayer. 

And whereas it has pleased Almighty God to crown the outgoing year with the 
abundance of His Providence, and to have continued to the people of our city, as 
well as of our state and nation, those dispensations of His Goodness, whereby the 
anticipations of seedtime and the golden promises of an unusually prosperous harvest 
have been realized and gathered in; and as the Pilgrim fathers, in the wilderness, 
set apart days of fasting and prayer, in honor of the Divine Goodness in supplying 
them with the means of subsistence, but more particularly for the freedom they 
enjoyed in the exercise of every social and religious privilege, so the hearts of their 
descendants must feel a deeper gratitude that the blessings secured by the toil of 
their ancestors have descended to them, and that every returning year brings with it 
additional assurances that the fabric, founded in their wisdom and example, is now 
adequate to perpetuate similar blessings to their children. 

Now, therefore, in view of our many blessings, and in pursuance of the resolu- 
tion aforesaid, I do hereby appoint and set apart Thursday, the 25th inst., as a day 
of public thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the city, this 23d day of November, Anno 
Domini, One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-one. 

FRANCIS C. SHERMAN, 

(Attest) Mayor. 

THOMAS HOYNE, Clerk. 

A TRADITION. 

There is a tradition that a Thanksgiving Day had been previously observed 
pretty generally throughout Illinois. During Governor Duncan's administration 
(18S4-38) a proclamation signed by him was circulated, calling upon the people to 



154 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

was attending read it from the pulpit. Nearly everybody kept the day, however, only 
a few being aware that the document was bogus. Peter Borin, who preached in a 
Methodist church, was the only minister in Chicago who did not fall into the trap 
which was set, according to the story, by "Long" John Wentworth. As stated, how- 
ever, November 25, 1841, was the first Thanksgiving Day generally observed in 
Chicago. Since that time the day has been regarded as a holiday by the ungodly 
and kept religiously by the Christians. 



ABRAM WINEGARDNER. HARRIS, Sc. D., LL. D. 

To say that Dr. Abram Winegardner Harris is president of the Northwestern 
University is at once to establish his position as one of the foremost American 
educators. Born in Philadelphia on the 7th of November, 1858, he is a son of 
James Russell and Susanna (Reed) Harris, whose family included James Russell 
Harris, Jr., Mrs. Walter P. McClure and Mrs. Henry A. Lewis, all of Philadel- 
phia. 

In his native city Dr. Harris, of this review, acquired his early education and 
prepared for college at the Friends Central School. In 1876 he entered Wesleyan 
University, Connecticut, from which he was graduated A. B. in 1880. Immedi- 
ately afterward he entered upon the profession of teaching, being employed as 
instructor of mathematics in Dickinson Seminary of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 
during the collegiate year of 1880-81. He was subsequently tutor in mathematics 
and registrar of Wesleyan University from 1881 until 1884, after which he went 
abroad, spending a year in study in the Universities of Munich and of Berlin 
and returning to the Wesleyan University as instructor in history for the period 
from 1885 until 1888. In the succeeding eighteen years he was associated with the 
organization or reorganization of three institutions. His administrative ability 
was called into play in this connection and he demonstrated to the satisfaction 
of his associates that he possessed marked executive ability. He helped to organ- 
ize the office of experiment stations of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture and served as assistant director of that office from 1888 until 1891 and as 
director from 1891 until 1893. In that connection he came into close touch with 
the work of the experiment stations in every state of the Union and his success in 
that great field of labor, which annually requires the investment of more than a 
million dollars, led in 1892 to his selection for the presidency of the Maine State 
College at Orono, which office he filled from 1893 until 1901. During the eight 
years that he remained at the head of that institution the college widened its 
scope and made substantial advance in the number of its students and of its fac- 
ulty and in its income as well; leading to the reorganization of the school in 1896 
under the name of the University of Maine. Thus Dr. Harris had successfully 
transplanted for the first time the western state university idea into the soil of 
conservative New England. After bringing this college to the highest rank among 
Maine's institutions of learning, he resigned the presidency in 1901 to become 
director of the Jacob Tome Institute at Port Deposit, Maryland. When he as- 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 155 






sumed charge its affairs were in confusion. The school had been furnished by 
its founder with an endowment and equipment of buildings unequalled in second- 
ary educational institutions, but the plans for their use were as yet undefined. 
The situation demanded no ordinary leadership. In the five years of his admin- 
istration Dr. Harris clearly defined the objects of the institution, coordinated its 
departments and directed the founder's gift into channels where it would be most 
useful. When he resigned in 1906 he left that school upon a firm foundation with 
the assurance of a bright future. 

On the 1st of February, 1906, Dr. Harris was elected president of North- 
western University by its board of trustees, and at the opening of the school year 
in the following September took charge. Since that 'time he has given his undi- 
vided attention to the upbuilding of this institution, which has always maintained a 
high standard but which has reached an even higher rank under the wise leader- 
ship and practical management of Dr. Harris. Possessed of wonderful energy 
and endowed with an unusual capacity for work, the scope and extent of what 
he has accomplished during the five years of his administration are difficult to 
estimate. During the past three years the enrollment has increased from four 
thousand to five thousand and gifts amounting to six hundred thousand dollars 
have been received ; a school of commerce has been organized with an enrollment 
of over five hundred and fifty pupils ; a college of engineering has been estab- 
lished which is a pioneer in requiring a five year course of study for graduation; 
the courses in history, English, French, physiology and chemistry have been revised ; 
a new building has been erected for a dispensary at the Medical School and at 
Evanston have been erected an engineering plant and a splendid gymnasium which 
is not surpassed anywhere in the country. A campus commission has been estab- 
lished to direct the development of the campus ; a distinct advance has been inau- 
gurated in athletics ; members of the faculty are receiving honors due to their high 
professional standing. In the year 1910 five hundred and eighty pupils were 
graduated. Probably the greatest work which Dr. Harris has done for the insti- 
tution is manifest in his inspiration of loyalty and interest among its alumni. He 
has combined and affiliated the interests of the graduates of its various schools 
and a university spirit of devotion to the alma mater has increased among alumni, 
professors and students. 

From time to time there has come to Dr. Harris substantial recognition of the 
work that he has done in the educational field. In 1883 he received the A. M. 
degree from his alma mater; in 1894 the Sc. D. from Bowdoin College; in 1900 
the LL. D. degree from the University of New Brunswick; and in 1901 the same 
degree from the University of Maine, while in 1904 his alma mater, Wesley an 
University, conferred upon him the LL. D. degree. He has prepared many scien- 
tific and administrative documents for the United States department of agriculture, 
has been a contributor to leading periodicals and has delivered occasional lectures 
before learned societies. He is now president of the Illinois Federation of Col- 
leges, president of the Illinois Council of the National Civic Federation, president 
of the Methodist Social Union of Chicago; founder and president of the Alpha 
Delta Tan, an honorary scholarship society for preparatory schools. He also 
founded the Phi Kappa Phi, an honorary scholarship society, at the University 
of Maine. 



156 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

While his labors in the field of education have been eminently successful, Dr. 
Harris has also been a cooperant factor in connection with public interests which 
have had far-reaching effect in connection with vital questions and problems of 
the day. He is now a member of the executive board of the vice commission of 
Chicago, of the board of managers of the Freedmen's Aid Society and is chairman 
of the executive board of the Religious Association. He is an honorary vice presi- 
dent of the Chicago Peace Society, a member of the executive committee of the 
Chicago North Shore Festival Association, member of the College Presidents Asso- 
ciation, the Rhodes scholarship committee of Illinois, and of various other impor- 
tant committees. He has been a member of the University Clubs in Chicago, 
Evanston, Washington, D. C., Baltimore and Boston, of the Union League Club, 
the Cliff Dwellers, and the City Club of Chicago. 

In 1888 Dr. Harris was married to Miss Clara Virginia Bainbridge, who died 
on the 3d of February, 1908, leaving a son, Abram W., Jr., now a student of 
Northwestern University. The family residence is at 1745 Chicago Avenue, Evan- 
ston. No movement of vital interest to the attractive city in which he resides 
fails to awaken his interest or receive his indorsement. He has for many years 
held prominent place among the laymen of the Methodist Episcopal church and 
twice has been a representative to the general conferences. For eleven years he 
has been a member of the board of education of the Methodist Episcopal church 
and for five years a member of the University Senate. He represented his church 
in the joint commission of 1906 which prepared a common service and common 
catechism for use in the Methodist Episcopal church and the Methodist Episcopal 
church, South. He is also identified with the Laymen's Missionary movement. 



FRANK HUGH MONTGOMERY, M. D. 

Dr. Frank Hugh Montgomery, who was "loved for his genial disposition and 
admired for his scientific attainments" and who was ever "thoughtful and tender 
and yet was quietly courageous," was for nearly twenty-five years a resident of 
Chicago and throughout that period came to be known as an eminent representative 
of the medical profession throughout the entire country. "He was born January 6, 
1862, at Fairhaven, near St. Cloud, Minnesota, a son of Albertus and Mary Louise 
Montgomery. After completing a course in the high school of St. Cloud he attended 
the University of Minnesota and then entered Rush Medical College, from which 
he was graduated with the class of 1888. He afterward took post-graduate work 
in the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, with further study and clinical re- 
search in the hospitals of London, Paris and Vienna. From the outset of his pro- 
fessional career, he made continuous advancement and at the time of his death was 
associate professor of dermatology in Rush Medical College and dermatologist to 
the Presbyterian, the St. Elizabeth, the St. Anthony de Padua and the Oak Park 
Hospitals. He was also an active member of the local, state and national medical 
societies and was regarded as one of the most prominent representatives of 
the country in the department of medicine in which he specialized. This naturally 
made him a most active and prominent member of the American Dermatological 




DR. FRANK H. MONTGOMERY 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 159 

Association, of which he was three times elected secretary and once as vice presi- 
dent, editing in the former position the transactions of the association for 1900 and 
1902. He was also honored with the presidency of the Chicago Dermatological 
Society and took a most helpful interest in all of its meetings from the date of its 
organization. Aside from the treatise on diseases of the skin which bears Dr. Mont- 
gomery's name and which has passed through several editions, he was known to 
the profession by his numerous scientific articles, each of which is characterized by 
scholarly thoroughness and by a wide knowledge of the literature of dermatology in 
all languages. Among his colleagues and his clientele Dr. Montgomery was rec- 
ognized as. an acute diagnostician, a skilful pathologist and practitioner and a physi- 
cian of singularly gracious personality. Besides his scientific affiliations Dr. Mont- 
gomery was a member of the University Club, the Chicago Literary Club, of which 
he was corresponding secretary during 1906-7, the Quadrangle Club and the Home- 
wood Country Club; also of the Psi Upsilon and the Nu Sigma Nu fraternities. 
Although born and reared a Congregationalist, he was a pewholder and regular 
attendant at St. Paul's Episcopal church, Kenwood. He took a keen interest in 
the work of the South Park Improvement Association and acted as chairman of 
streets and alleys committee during the years 1902-4." 

Dr. Montgomery was married January 11, 1897, to Miss Caroline L. William- 
son, daughter of Mrs. Irenus Kittredge Hamilton by a former marriage. To 
them were born three children namely: Hamilton, born May 21, 1898; Charlotte, 
born January 24, 1901 ; and Mary Louise, whose birth occurred September 2, 1903. 
It was on the 14th of July, 1908, that Dr. Montgomery passed away. Respecting 
the manner of his death, the name of Frank Hugh Montgomery will always be asso- 
ciated in the memory of dermatologists, with that of his heroic French colleague, 
Henri Feulard, who perished in an effort to save the life of his daughter, in the con- 
flagration at the Charity Bazaar of Paris in the year 1897, for he gave his own life in 
a futile attempt to save the life of a guest of the family who had joined him and his 
son in a sailing expedition. The son was saved because he obeyed his father's in- 
structions. Thus at the early age of forty-six years the life work of Dr. Montgomery 
was finished and yet is such a work ever finished? Does it not rather reach its 
fruition in the lives of those who came within the radius of his influence, and the 
radius in this instance was almost a worldwide one. He was known professionally 
beyond the seas and in his own country had come to be recognized as occupying a most 
eminent position in the profession. More than this the character of the man, unas- 
suming in manner yet ever holding to the highest ideals, had endeared him to all who 
knew him. 

Following the death of Dr. Montgomery the University of Chicago Magazine 
said: "In a time when specialization too often restricts the interests of scientific 
men, Dr. Montgomery was notable for the breadth and geniality of his sympathy 
with many sides of life. He was intensely fond of music, an enthusiastic mountain 
climber, an energetic promoter of civic good, a thoughtful student of educational 
questions. His loss is deeply felt among the colleagues who respected his ability, 
and yet more deeply by the friends who knew his daily life and character." 

On the occasion of the quarterly commencement of Rush Medical College in 
a memorial address Dr. James B. Herrick said: 



160 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

"But even sober words of truth concerning him may sound extravagant, except 
to those who knew him well. For there were grouped in him so many of the rarer 
good qualities that their mere enumeration seems almost like describing the traits 
of some ideal individual, and not those of a real man of the twentieth century. 
He was unassuming, kindly, sympathetic, patient, honorable, refined, courteous, 
pure minded, altogether lovable. He was by nature shy and retiring, even hesitat- 
ing, so that on first acquaintance one might think him lacking in self-confidence 
and in the forcefulness that make for initiative and accomplishment. To a certain 
extent this was true. He was not aggressive, not one of those leaders of men who 
consciously or by the sheer impetus given by an uncontrollable force within, push 
to the front, leaving others to lag behind, or even to be jostled to one side. But 
with all his quiet exterior there was a powerful internal latent energy. There 
were depths within him known only to his intimates, depths of feeling, of purpose, 
of high resolve, that led when occasion demanded, to virile action. The responsibil- 
ities thrown upon him in the department of the college in which he taught and for 
whose success he worked so loyally were cheerfully assumed and honorably, even 
gloriously, borne. That in their twenty years of close association and of mutual 
labor in professional, literary and college work his chief, whom he loved and re- 
spected so highly, grew to lean more and more heavily upon him, is eloquent testi- 
mony to his worth as a physician and teacher as well as a reliable, strong, resource- 
ful man. That his neighbors made him an officer of the Improvement Association 
is evidence not only of their faith in him as a citizen and neighbor but of their 
knowledge that he would devote time and energy to plan for and accomplish that 
which was the best in civic life. Though quiet and peace loving, he was capable 
of righteous indignation and he took no uncertain stand in opposing what he re- 
garded as wrong or injustice. So that in speaking of him as quiet, modest and 
unassuming it should not be understood as implying that he was lacking in force 
or in the power of accomplishment. He was not boisterous, but had a love of fun 
and a keen sense of humor. And then there was about him a lovable something, 
a simplicity and a sincerity, that made for him hosts of friends. Rarely will one 
find more spontaneous and hearty tributes to personal good qualities than have 
been uttered by those who knew him, even those who, as one expressed it, touched 
only the outer edges of his character. There was something of the knightly about 
him. He was a Sir Galahad, strong because of his purity of heart. We can almost 
imagine him as one of that fair order of the table round, that glorious company, 
the flower of men, that served as models for a mighty world. They laid their hands 
in those of their great king, Arthur, and swore: 

'To reverence the king, as if he were 
Their conscience, and their conscience as their king, 
To break the heathen, and uphold the Christ, 
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, 
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, 
To honor his own word as if his God's, 
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity.' 

"If his ability as a physician and teacher are passed over with but scant words 
it is not because they were of slight worth. Far from it. He was unusually skilled 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 161 

as a diagnostician and resourceful as a therapist. As a teacher and writer he was 
clear and forcible. He was well versed in the recent literature of dermatology 
and had been for many years actively associated with Dr. Hyde in keeping the 
successive editions of their text-book on Diseases of the Skin thoroughly up to 
date. No small part of the excellent work on blastomycosis much of it pioneer 
work that came from the private and public clinic of Drs. Hyde, Montgomery 
and Ormsby was inspired by, or actually done, by him. He was interested in 
matters pertaining to education and was always conscientiously endeavoring to 
improve in the methods of teaching in accordance with the latest principles of 
pedagogy. 

"Dr. Montgomery was a specialist; he felt the unavoidable medical limitations 
that go with specialization. He spoke more than once of the regret that he felt 
that he had not at the beginning of his career had more experience in general medi- 
cine and he felt that in perfecting himself as an expert in dermatology and closely 
allied branches he was inevitably depriving himself of the delight of breathing 
what seemed to him the freer air of the broader subjects of general medicine and 
general surgery, not realizing that the same inevitable process was going on in 
his colleagues about him, who were striving to perfect themselves as specialists in 
other lines and that they, too, felt that more and more knowledge of subjects out- 
side their chosen branches was a sealed book to them. His impartial criticism of 
self sometimes made him underestimate his own ability in medical matters outside 
his specialty, for, while a specialist, he was in no sense a narrow one. 

"But, as has been said, he had a broad and living sympathy with many sides 
of life that had to do with other than medical things. I may be pardoned, I trust, 
for bringing in a personal allusion. The last meeting with Dr. Montgomery that 
is impressed upon my mind is when, during the intermission in a Thomas concert 
last winter, he took a seat beside me and spoke with critical enthusiasm of the 
music just rendered and of the ability of the present conductor. These concerts 
were a thorough enjoyment to him and many times I have heard him speak with 
pleasurable anticipation of the expected treat of some particular favorite, a Bee- 
thoven or Tschaikowsky symphony, particularly the 'Pathetic.' This night he 
spoke, also, of his pleasure in his summer home across the lake, of 'how he had just 
purchased an adjoining bit of woodland, not so much to keep out possible unde- 
sirable neighbors as to keep inviolate the native woods he so loved. It was this 
love of the beautiful in music and other forms of art, his love of nature, that re- 
freshed him in mind and body after the weary monotony of the day's toil and that 
gave him a marked intellectual and moral uplift and that kept him from becoming 
narrowed. Too many of us slowly but surely drift away from intimate communion 
with pictures, music, good literature, the mountains and the sea. We acquire more 
book knowledge, more technical skill as practitioners perhaps, but we lack in broad- 
ness of view, catholicity of spirit, in polish and refinement; we become, in a word, 
narrowed. And I should dislike much to be obliged to defend the thesis that the 
physician who spends much time at his music, his literature, in the forest, or climb- 
ing the mountains, or who runs away often for a sniff of the salt air, is a worse doctor 
than he who constantly grinds at his professional work. Nay, he is other things 
being equal a better one. We may also well pattern after the example of our 
friend in his not shrinking his duty as a citizen, in his fighting for a clean city, 



162 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

clean physically and politically. All honor to the physician who is willing to sac- 
rifice time and energy, and to subject himself to possible abuse because he feels it 
his duty to accept the call to serve his neighbors, the city, state or nation. 

"This is not the place to speak of his home life; that is sacred. But I may 
quote the words of one who writes: 'So good a man, so wise and kind a husband 
and father, leaves more to the world than he takes away. Many times I have 
said, "What a perfect home and how blessed the children who begin life with love 
and tenderness so wisely shown." ' 

"When the lightning flash of some great sorrow illumines the obscurity of the 
life about us we see for one brief moment and with an almost supernatural keen- 
ness of vision things as they are: we look through form to reality. When the 
dreadful word of his tragic death came to me there arose before me not the image 
of the skilled practitioner, of the expert who deservedly stood so high in his chosen 
specialty, nor that of the respected teacher, but the image of Frank Montgomery, 
my classmate and my student friend, the pure-minded, trusty, honorable young 
man ; and then the image of Frank Montgomery grown to manhood, with the sweet 
gentleness and the noble traits that made him the respected, high-purposed gentle- 
man. After all, that which counts is character. In our inmost hearts we know it. 
In our lives we too often forget and strive for gain, for place, for the plaudits of 
the multitude. 

"We may all profit by considering the life of Dr. Montgomery. He has left 
no illustrious name perpetuating some great discovery in medicine; he was no 
genius of worldwide fame. But many a man of far greater fame than his has 
passed away without the hush of respectful silence, or the rising of the unbidden 
tear to friendly eyes such as followed when the news of Dr. Montgomery's death 
was spread abroad. The dreadful manner of his death death by drowning and 
the vain attempt to save the life of another seem to give an added pang to our 
sorrow. But as he taught us how to live he taught us how to die. For when the 
tragic hour had come, when the supreme test was upon him, there was no falter- 
ing, his spirit rose sublime to the occasion and he glorified himself by a hero's 
death. 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends.' 

' 'Tis a precious legacy to leave to wife, children and friends, that of a life 
that needs no apology and of a death that is its own glorification. Such a legacy 
he has left. And we of the faculty of Rush Medical College are thankful for the 
strength he added as a member of our body, but above all, for his ennobling ex- 
ample and for the sweet influence he shed about him as he moved quietly among 
us for these past twenty years." 

The following is a list of monograph and papers by Dr. Montgomery: 
1898 "Contribution to the So-called Premycosis Stage of Mycosis Fungoides." 

Drs. Hyde and Montgomery. 

1900 "Three Cases of Blastomycetic Infection of the Skin, One of Them Produc- 
ing a 'Tumor' of the Lower Lip." Drs. Montgomery and Ricketts. 
1901 "A Brief Report of Two Hitherto Unrecorded Cases of Cutaneous Blasto- 

mycosis." Dr. Montgomery. 
"Further Report on a Previously Recorded Case of Blastomycosis of the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 163 

Skin; Systemic Infection with Blastomycetes ; Death; Autopsy." Drs. 
Montgomery and Walker. 
1902 "A Case of Cutaneous Blastomycosis Followed by Laryngeal and Systemic 

Tuberculosis; Death; Autopsy." Dr. Montgomery. 
1903 "The Present Status of Phototherapy." Dr. Montgomery. 
1905 "A Case of Pityriasis Rubra of Hebra's Type." Drs. Montgomery and 

Bassoe. 

1906 "White Spot Disease (Morphoea Guttata) and Lichen Planus Sclerosus et 
Atrophicus. A Clinical and Histological Study of Three Cases, with a 
Review of the Literature."- Drs. Montgomery and Ormsby. 

"Systemic Blastomycosis; Its Etiological, Pathological, and Clinical Fea- 
tures, as established by a Careful Survey and Summary of Twenty-two 
Cases (Eight of Them Unpublished) ; the Relation of Blastomycosis and 
Coccidioloid Granuloma." Drs. Montgomery and Ormsby. Transactions 
of the 6th International Dermatological Congress, 1907. 

"Report of a Case of Systemic Blastomycosis, Including Autopsy and Suc- 
cessful Animal Inoculations." Dr. Montgomery. Reprinted from the 
Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, September, 1907. 

"Systemic Blastomycosis; Its Etiologic, Pathologic, and Clinical Features 
as Established by a Critical Survey and Summary of Twenty-two Cases, 
Seven Previously Unpublished ; The Relation of Blastomycosis to Coccidi- 
oidal Granuloma." Drs. Montgomery and Ormsby. Reprinted from the 
Archives of Internal Medicine, August, 1908. 

"Some Common Errors in the Treatment of Infantile Eczema."- Dr. Mont- 
gomery. Reprint from The Chicago Clinic, October, 1898. 

"A Contribution to the Subject of Radiotherapy and Phototherapy in Car- 
cinoma, Tuberculosis, and Other Diseases of the Skin." Drs. Hyde, 
Montgomery and Ormsby. Read at the 53d Annual Meeting of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association. 

"Cutaneous Blastomycosis ; A Summary of the Observations of James Nevins 
Hyde, A. M., M. D., and Frank Hugh Montgomery, M. D." Rush Med- 
ical College, Chicago. 

Dr. Montgomery was also joint author with Dr. Hyde of the following books: 

"Treatise on Diseases of the Skin." Drs. Hyde and Montgomery ; Lea Broth- 
ers & Company, Philadelphia and New York, 1904, and three former 
editions. 

"Treatise on Syphilis and the Venereal Diseases." Drs. Hyde and Mont- 
gomery; Lea Brothers & Company. 



ROWLAND LONGMIRE. 

In Chicago's early history the name of Rowland Longmire figured prominently, 
and even after the fire, in which he lost heavily, he continued an active factor in 
the trade circles of the city until about three years prior to his death, which oc- 
curred on the 1st of August, 1894. He was born in Whitehaven, England, Decem- 
ber 26, 1837, the son of an English gentleman and large landowner, who gave to 



164 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

the boy good educational opportunities. He came to America a few months before 
the bombardment of Fort Suniter and located in Charlestown, but with the initial 
move that brought on the Civil war he made his way northward to Pittsburg and 
afterward to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in business, establishing and con- 
ducting a ladies and children's outfitting store until the spring of 1870. At that 
date he came to Chicago and opened a similar establishment on the present site of 
Marshall Field's great dry-goods emporium. There Mr. Longmire engaged in the 
importation, manufacture and sale of all kinds of ladies' and children's apparel, 
receiving his patronage from Chicago's best citizens. He lost very heavily in the 
great fire of 1871 but resumed business on a smaller scale and continued in the 
trade until 1891, when ill health forced his retirement. He was known throughout 
business circles in Chicago as a reliable man who adhered closely to high standards 
and merited the prosperity which crowned his labors. 

On the 30th of December, 1867, in Covington, Kentucky, Mr. Longmire was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Craig, a daughter of Hiram and Hannah 
Craig of that city. Of their three children, Blanche died April 7, 1906. Lillian 
is now the wife of William Shide, of Warren, Arkansas. Stanley W., the only 
son, buyer for Sears, Roebuck & Company, married Bertha A. Purdy, a daughter 
of Warren Purdy, former president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- 
road, and they now have two daughters, Dorothy L. and Gertrude B. 

Mrs. Longmire is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church and has been ac- 
tively identified with its work during her entire residence in Hyde Park, covering 
the period from 1873 to the present time. She is devoted to the welfare of her 
family and has reared three children, who have been her chief pride and interest, 
giving them good educations. They reside at No. 5221 Jefferson avenue. Mr. 
Longmire was also a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church and held membership 
with the Masonic fraternity. He was quiet and retiring in manner but a cultured 
and refined gentleman whose innate worth gained for him the respect and high 
regard of all with whom he came in contact. His life showed the influences of his 
Christian faith in a consideration for others that made him extend a helping hand 
whenever possible and wherever aid was needed. 



HENRY JUSTIN DIMICK STARRING. 

When a life record is ended it is customary to ask: "What has the individual 
done for mankind?" In a review of the life of Henry Justin Dimick Starring 
the answer comes readily: he gave to the country its present well developed sys- 
tem of railway baggage transfer and more than that he gave of his own life in 
sympathy, in kindliness and in helpfulness to all his fellowmen and especially 
to those who worked under him, no matter in what lowly capacity, in connection 
with the baggage transfer of the country. Mr. Starring was born in Bennington. 
Vermont, December 14, 1834, a son of Joseph and Calista (Dimick) Starin. The 
Starin family is of Holland origin and the subject of this review is a representa- 
tive of the fifth generation in America, tracing his ancestry back to Nicholas 
Ster, the founder of the Starin and Starring family in America. He was born 




M. .1. I). STAUUI.\<; 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 167 

on the borders of the Zuyder Zee, in the province of Guelderland, Holland, in 
1663, and with his family, consisting of wife and six children, he sailed for New 
York on a Dutcli West Indian ship, landing at New Amsterdam in 1696. In 1705 
he removed to what is now known as the German Flats, New York. Shortly 
after his arrival in the Mohawk valley he changed his name to Stern and a few 
years later to Starin, or Starring. The last two names have been used inter- 
changeably by the family down to the present generation. His son, Philip Fred- 
erick Adam Starin, married Elizabeth Evertson and they became parents of John 
Starin, who married Jane Wemple. He was an Indian interpreter, serving through- 
out the Revolutionary war, and was a close confidential friend of George Wash- 
ington. Joseph Starin, son of John and Jane Starin, was born at Kinderhook 
Falls, New York, April 29, 1783, and began business life as a merchant at Fonda, 
New York. Later he removed to Johnstown, that state, and subsequently en- 
gaged in farming and merchandising at Bennington, Vermont, where he remained 
until his death on the 8th of June, 1843. He first married Maria Groat, of Neska- 
guna, Schenectady county, New York, and unto them were born two daughters, 
Jane and Maria Gertrude. In 1814 Joseph Starin married Calista Dimick, a 
daughter of Elisha Dimick of Bennington, and a sister of General Justin Dimick, 
U. S. A., who commanded Fortress Monroe during the Civil war. Mrs. Starin 
passed away in 1851, at the age of fifty-three years. By her marriage she had 
become the mother of three children : Elias Warren, who was a farmer and stock- 
man of Whitewater, Wisconsin, but is now deceased ; Evaline Elizabeth, the de- 
ceased wife of the Rev. Daniel Harrington, D. D. ; and Henry Justin Dimick. 

H. J. D. Starring, who was named after his uncle, General Justin Dimick, 
acquired his education in his native state and when in his teens was left an orphan. 
He then removed to Palmyra, New York, and made his home with his sister, whose 
husband, the Rev. Daniel Harrington, was a prominent Baptist clergyman and 
educator. When eighteen years of age he was attracted by the vast opportunities 
of the middle west and came to Chicago in the employ of Colonel Hammond of the 
Michigan Central Railroad. Soon afterward Colonel Hammond left that road to 
become associated with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and made Mr. Starring 
general baggage agent. The efforts, business ability and careful study of Mr. 
Starring led to the development of our present admirable American system of check- 
ing baggage and it was due solely to his ability in formulating and systematizing 
the work that it was brought to its present state of efficiency. He was general 
baggage agent for more lines and more miles of railway than any other man has 
ever been, and moreover was known for his good fellowship and kindness of heart 
wherever in the United States a railroad line was extended. The effect of these 
traits and his executive ability were such that in 1870 he had charge of the entire 
baggage service from the Atlantic to the Pacific along all the main trunk lines, 
including the Pennsylvania, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Union Pacific 
and the Central Pacific Railroads. He also became interested to a considerable 
extent in private enterprises and was president of the Hool Baggage Check Com- 
pany of New York. 

Mr. Starring was married in Delavan, Wisconsin, September 15, 1857, by the 
Rev. Dr. Daniel Harrington, to Alida Marguerite Tower, a daughter of J. Alex- 
ander Tower, of Albany, New York. She was born in Monmouth, New Jersey, 



168 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

September 1, 1835, and now resides at No. 25 East Division street, Chicago, with 
her only child, Mason B. Starring, who was formerly president of the North- 
western Elevated Railway and the Chicago & Oak Park Elevated Railway Com- 
panies. He is now at the head of the United Railways Investment Company, 
New York, said to be the most important position in the public utilities field in the 
United States. 

The death of Henry J. D. Starring occurred on May 12, 1884. He was a 
public-spirited citizen and active in all improvement movements. Moreover, he 
was prominently identified with charitable works of various kinds and especially 
active in efforts for the betterment of conditions of the men connected with the 
baggage service. He was regarded as their best friend in times of sickness and 
distress and not unfrequently would take one who was ill into his own home for 
care and treatment. In his many kindly acts he exemplified the beneficent spirit 
of the Masonic fraternity which is based upon a belief in the brotherhood of man. 
In that order he long held membership, becoming a Knight Templar Mason, and 
was treasurer of the Garden City lodge for many years. He certainly made a 
most creditable record in business circles and his work was one which closely touched 
the public convenience and comfort. With remarkable grasp of the situation he 
foresaw its possibilities and brought seemingly diverse elements into a harmonious 
working whole that gave to the country a system, the value of which is almost 
above estimation. While the entire public, therefore, has been an indirect benefi- 
ciary of his work there were countless numbers to whom he stood in the relation 
of friend and benefactor to whom he gave needed aid or assistance in a material 
way or in a word of encouragement and advice, his record in this connection bring- 
ing to mind the statement that "Not the good that comes to us, but the good that 
comes to the world through us is the measure of our success." 



GEORGE P. HOOVER. 

While the life of the successful business man has none of the spectacular 
phases of the political or military leader it is none the less vital or important in 
the community, and in fact constituted the stable element upon which the growth 
and prosperity of every community ultimately depends. Prominent among those 
who are controlling important financial interests in Chicago is George P. Hoover, 
the vice president of the Harris Trust & Savings Bank. 

He was born in Glenwood, Iowa, September 2, 1862, a son of Joseph and 
Sarah (Kuhn) Hoover, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, whence they 
removed to Iowa the year previous to the birth of their son George. Later they 
became residents of Galesburg, Illinois, and the father was for many years cashier 
of the First National Bank of that city, where he resided until his death, which 
occurred in 1905 when he was seventy- four years of age. His widow is still a 
resident of Galesburg. In the family were four children, the brother of our sub- 
ject being Dr. Edwin Hoover, a graduate of Rush Medical College, who died in 
1903. The two daughters of the family are unmarried and reside in Galesburg 
with their mother. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 169 

In the public schools of Galesburg George P. Hoover acquired his early educa- 
tion, which he supplemented by a course of study in Knox College of that city. 
When eighteen years of age he entered the First National Bank there and con- 
tinued as one of its employes until 1894, when he resigned his position as assistant 
cashier to accept a similar position with N. W. Harris & Company, bankers of 
Chicago. Promotion made him cashier in 1897, and in 1906 he became a member 
of the firm. The following year the Chicago business was incorporated under the 
name of the Harris Trust & Savings Bank, at which time Mr. Hoover became vice 
president, remaining still as the second executive officer. Thus step by step he 
has worked his way upward from a humble position in financial circles until he 
is now regarded as a forceful factor in connection with the moneyed interests of 
this city. The deposits of this institution, the banking department of which has 
been under his direct supervision for a number of years, have grown from less 
than one hundred thousand to approximately eighteen million dollars during this 
time. Mr. Hoover is also well known in financial circles elsewhere, being inter- 
ested in the firm of Harris, Forbes & Company, of New York, and N. W. Harris 
& Company, of Boston, which are affiliated institutions of the Harris Trust & 
Savings Bank of Chicago. He is likewise vice president of the Harris Safe De- 
posit Company of this city. He belongs to the American Bankers' Association 
and enjoys in large measure the confidence, trust and good- will of contemporaries 
and colleagues. 

On the 21st of October, 1886, in Galesburg, Illinois, Mr. Hoover was united 
in marriage to Miss Margaret Phillips, a daughter of William M. Phillips, of that 
city, and unto them have been born three children, Anna Ewing. Edwin Kuhn and 
Elizabeth Phillips, all at home. 

Mr. Hoover greatly enjoys a game of golf and also the social interests which 
are his through membership with the Union League and Mid-Day Clubs of 
Chicago, the University and Country Clubs of Evanston and the Exmoor Country 
Club of Highland Park. He likewise 'belongs to St. Luke's Episcopal church of 
Evanston and is serving on its finance committee. There have been no spectacular 
phases in his life record but only that persistent energy and ready adaptability 
which, coupled with unassailable business integrity, always spells success. 



GEORGE E. LONG. 

In the attractive suburban district of Rogers Park, George E. Long is widely 
known as the proprietor of a well equipped drug store. He was born in Pike 
county, Illinois, in 1871, and is a representative of one of the old families of this 
state, his paternal grandfather being William Long, who, removing from Tennes- 
see, settled in Pike county at an early day. His son, Samuel A. Long, was united 
in marriage to Sarah S. Scott, a daughter of William Scott, who came to Illinois 
from Ohio. Both the parents of our subject are still living. 

George E. Long spent his youthful days under the parental roof and had the 
advantage of good home training, so that he early formed habits which have made 
him a successful and reliable business man. He completed his literary education 



170 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

in the high school of Roodhouse, Greene county, Illinois, and then in preparation 
for a business career entered the School of Pharmacy of the Northwestern Uni- 
versity, which he attended in 1889 and 1890. He opened a drug store in Evan- 
ston in 1897, after several years' previous experience as a clerk, during which 
time he gained the practical knowledge of the business that well qualified him to 
carry on business on his own account. For three years he remained in Evanston 
and then on the 15th of December, 1900, opened his store in Rogers Park. Here 
he has remained for more than eleven years and now has a well equipped and well 
appointed store, carrying a large line of drugs and druggists' sundries, and his 
trade has reached gratifying proportions, bringing him a substantial annual income. 
Mr. Long exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures 
of the republican party, with which he has been connected since attaining his 
majority. He is well known in fraternal organizations, being a member of the 
Masonic lodge, the Knights of Pythias and the Royal Arcanum. He is also a 
member of the Birchwood Club and of the Christian church. He has gained many 
friends during his residence in the northern part of the city and his unfailing 
courtesy and genuine personal worth, as well as his business ability, have made 
him popular. 



REV. PHILO JUDSON. 

Rev. Philo Judson, one of the most conspicuous figures in the early history of 
Evanston and one of the men whose valuable services played an important part in 
the founding of the Northwestern Unuiversity, was born March 1, 1807, in Otsego, 
county, New York, a son of Abel and Aurelia (Birdsey) Judson. Rev. Judson was 
descended from an old New England family. His sister Mariah was the mother 
of Lyman J. Gage, one of Chicago's most eminent financiers. He enjoyed only the 
ordinary advantages of a common-school education and owed his prominence entirely 
to his own remarkable talents and ability. He devoted himself to business pursuits 
until about thirty years of age and in the meantime was married and settled in 
Albany. Later he removed to Cazenovia, Madison county, New York, where he 
professed religion, uniting with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Dr. Luke 
Hitchcock was then pastor. Abandoning his business interests, Rev. Judson forsook 
all and entered the holy ministry and in 1839 removed with his family to what was 
then the far west Dixon, Lee county, Illinois. Chicago at this time was but a 
village of about one thousand people and was far from being an inviting place to 
locate. Rev. Judson, settling at Dixon, which was the frontier of civilization, became 
a circuit preacher. His pastoral charge was a circuit of three hundred miles, which 
he traveled every two weeks, preaching two or three times each Sunday and often 
during the week. He was admitted into full connection in Rock Ridge conference in 
1842, serving in various localities. In 1847 he became pastor of Clark Street church 
in this city and was appointed presiding elder of Mount Morris district the following 
year. In 1852 he was appointed agent of the Northwestern University, which had 
then just been chartered and became so deeply interested in its upbuilding that he 
devoted much of his time to its interests, holding position as agent until 1859. In 




MHS. 1'IIILO JUDSOX 




REV. PHILO JUDSON 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 175 

this capacity it became his duty to lay out the grounds of this institution, to aid in 
platting the village and in establishing the first buildings, and his good judgment 
and executive ability have been demonstrated in all deeds by the severest test that 
could be applied to them that of time. During the last two or three years he acted 
as real-estate agent for the Northwestern University and at the time of his death 
was vice president of the board of trustees, of which body he had always been a 
member and he was also a member of the executive committee. 

Evanston, when Rev. Judson removed there in April, 1854, contained but two 
families, his being the third one. Much credit is due him for his energy and labors 
in helping to found and build the city of Evanston. During the war he was chap- 
lain of cavalry under General John A. Logan and after that struggle ended, he 
devoted his time to the welfare of the Northwestern University. He was a man 
of strong constitution and unusual strength. He retained his intellectual vigor to 
the last and was clear in his views and hopeful of his position with reference to 
the future, dying with the calm confidence of a Christian minister who had lived a 
good life which was without spot or blemish in the smallest particular. He was a 
man of great firmness of character and resoluteness of purpose. In the prosecution 
of his work he always had an end in view and labored constantly and fearlessly to 
attain what he believed right and best. His entire life was,, one. of activity and use- 
fulness and his loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him. His was a life that 
will forever be recorded in the early days of Chicago and Evanston history. He 
was one of the incorporators of Rose Hill cemetery, which was chartered February 
11, 1859. He had a keen regard for what he considered right and, no matter what 
the cost, would stand firmly in support of his honest convictions, letting nothing 
swerve him from the course or position which he had taken. He was the highest 
type of citizen, exerting a most wholesome influence in every movement looking 
toward the spiritual, moral and general welfare of the community. He died March 
23, 1876, and is buried in Rose Hill cemetery. 

At a meeting of the executive committee of the Northwestern University, held 
on the evening of March 23, 1876, for the purpose of taking action respecting the 
death of Rev. Philo Judson, vice president of the board of trustees, the following 
preamble and resolutions were adopted: 

WHEREAS: The hand of Divine Providence has removed from us, by death, 
our honored friend and associate, Rev. Philo Judson, vice president of the board 
of trustees of the Northwestern University and member of this executive committee, 
we do, with profound sadness and a sense of great loss, deem it appropriate hereby to 
record a recognition of the event and a tribute to the character and services of the 
departed; therefore 

RESOLVED: That as one of the founders and as the first (and for many years) 
business manager and financial agent, and later as trustee and executive officer, he 
has rendered long and efficient service to the university; that to his intellectual force, 
sagacity, wisdom, integrity, unselfishness and fidelity, the cause of higher Christian 
education is lastingly indebted. 

RESOLVED: That in life cherished and respected as a citizen of the community 
and as a minister and member of the Christian church, as an untiring and inflexible 
counselor and servant of the Northwestern University, as a man of rare intellectual 



176 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

endowments and as a true and genial friend, he departs from us to the rewards of 
the faithful, in the midst of general sorrow and wide sense of bereavement. 

RESOLVED: That to his widow and family, consoled as they must be by the 
remembrance of his example and virtues through a long and spotless life, we extend 
our sincere and sorrowing sympathy. 

Rev. Philo Judson was married in 1828, at Albany, New York, to Miss Eliza 
Huddleson, who was born on the 7th of November, 1811. She died December 23, 
1884, in Evanston, Illinois. Helen Mar, their eldest child, was born April 13, 
1829, in Albany, New York, and died at her home in Hollywood, California, on the 
8th of May, 1909. On the 20th of January, 1848, at Chicago, in the parsonage 
adjoining the Clark Street Methodist church, her father officiating, she married 
John Lourie Beveridge, who later served as governor of Illinois for four years. 
They had two children, namely: Alia May, who gave her hand in marriage to 
Samuel B. Raymond; and Philo Judson, of Hollywood, California. Mrs. Beveridge 
was a resident of Evanston for nearly forty years and was one of the founders of 
the social and religious life of that city, enthusiastic in every enterprise tending to 
build up a community of noble men and women. She was president of a commission 
of Illinois women organized to make an exhibition of woman's handicraft at the 
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. She was prominent in charitable 
and philanthropic movements and was the first president of the Industrial School 
for Dependent Girls. She was a lover of paintings, sculpture and architectural 
creations. She traveled extensively, traversing the continent fifteen times, crossing 
the Atlantic six times and sailing across the Pacific two times. She visited the 
galleries, cathedrals, palaces and castles of Europe and the temples and shrines of 
China and Japan. In 1895 her husband located in southern California, their home 
being at Hollywood, where they both died. 

Elizabeth J., the second child of Rev. Philo Judson and the last surviving mem- 
ber of her father's family, married Mark Kimball, a sketch of whom appears else- 
where in this work. Through her cooperation we are able to present the accom- 
panying excellent steel portraits of her parents, Rev. Philo Judson and wife. 

William Huddleson, the third child of Rev. Philo Judson, was born January 
9, 1832, and died November 21, 1909. On the 21st of October, 1859, he wedded 
Miss Emily M. Trotter, a native of New York city and a daughter of George and 
Jane (Purvis) Trotter, both of whom were born in Scotland and became early 
residents of Chicago. Mrs. William H. Judson is still living and makes her home 
in Evanston. Unto William H. and Emily M. Judson were born four children, 
the record of whom is as follows. Frank Purvis, whose birth occurred at Belvi- 
dere, Illinois, on the 18th of March, 1863, married Lillian Wolf, of Freeport, Illi- 
nois, and has two children, Frank Montieth and Marion Sankey. Harry Beveridge, 
who was born at Millburn, Illinois, on the 17th of September, 1865, is the mana- 
ger of the bond department of the Northern Trust Company at Chicago. He 
married Miss Alice M. Bryant, of Bristol, Wisconsin, and has two children, 
Bryant E. and Helen M. Helen, whose birth occurred at New Cambria, Mis- 
souri, on the 9th of October, 1867, married Miles S. Gilbert, an attorney of Cairo. 
Illinois. Mrs. Gilbert passed away at that place on the 14th of July, 1910, 
leaving three children: Judson, Helen and William B. George Philo, whose natal 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 177 

day was November 22, 1878, died in Evanston, Illinois, on the 14th of November, 
1905. 

Philo P., the fourth child of Rev. Philo Judson, married Miss Juliette Hill, 
by whom he had one son, Fred, who is now a resident of Springfield, Illinois. Ella 
C., the fifth child of Rev. Philo Judson, was born at Mount Morris, Illinois, on the 
6th of February, 1846, and was married on the 22d of April, 1869, at Evanston, Illi- 
nois, to Orlando H. Palmer, then of South Bend, Indiana. There Mr. and Mrs. 
Palmer resided until 1884, when they removed to Indianapolis, where Mrs. Palmer 
died on the 24th of February, 1 899. She was the mother of three children, namely : 
Henry, a newspaper man of Indianapolis; Eloise, and Verna. Alice, the sixth and 
youngest child of Rev. Philo Judson, died in Detroit, Michigan, in. February, 1910. 



THOMAS I. STAGEY. 

Thomas I. Stacey, one of the organizers of the Electric Appliance Company of 
Chicago and its secretary and treasurer since its inception in 1891, and also an 
official in its allied companies at different points in the United States, has by reason 
of individual effort and ability advanced steadily from a humble to a prominent 
position in the business world. He was born January 12, 1870, at Westbury-on- 
Tyne, near Bristol, England, and is a son of William and Christiana (Hancock) 
Stacey. Brought to the United States in his early youth, he pursued his education 
in the Evanston public schools until graduated from the high school with the class 
of 1886. 

After studying stenography he accepted a position with the Abbott Buggy Com- 
pany, with which he remained for one year. In 1888 he became stenographer for 
the Central Electric Company and a year later was promoted to the position of 
shipping clerk, in which capacity he continued for about three years, gaining dur- 
ing that period a comprehensive and practical working knowledge of that line of 
business. In 1891 he organized the Electric Appliance Company, of which he has 
since been secretary and treasurer. Gradually his interests have been extended 
in this line to various cities where he has become a factor in organizing several 
electric appliance companies. He is now secretary and treasurer of the Electric 
Appliance Company, of New Orleans ; vice president of the Electric Appliance 
Company of San Francisco; and also vice president of the Electric Appliance 
Company of Dallas, Texas, all of which have had their root in the success of the 
parent house at Chicago. The company controls the largest electrical supply job- 
bing house in the United States, doing an exclusive jobbing business. Mr. Stacey 
has also been more or less active in the affairs of the Chicago Credit Men's Associa- 
tion and the Chicago Association of Commerce and various electrical organizations 
and is much interested in any movement or measure for the benefit of trade and 
for the advancement of municipal progress through business channels. 

His efforts, however, are not confined exclusively to commercial interests for he 
takes active and helpful part in church, charitable and civic movements, giving aid 
and cooperation where the public welfare is involved or where the interests and 
uplift of the individual are matters of chief concern. He is now serving as vestry- 



178 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

man in St. Mark's church of Evanston, in which he has long held membership, 
and in the different lines of church work has proven very helpful, being now super- 
intendent of the Sunday school. For over fifteen years he was one of the directors 
of the Evanston Young Men's Christian Association. 

It was in St. Mark's church on the 5th of May, 1897, that Mr. Stacey was 
united in marriage to Miss Lily Mary Parker, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. H. 
Parker, of Evanston. Mrs. Stacey was educated in the Evanston schools, being 
graduated from the high school in 1888, and she is also a graduate of the Cumnock 
School of Oratory, a department of the Northwestern University. She is likewise 
a daughter of the American Revolution, a director of the Evanston Woman's Club 
and prominent in the work of St. Mark's church of Evanston. Unto Mr, and Mrs. 
Stacey have been born two children, Marion Parker and Elizabeth Hancock. Mr. 
and Mi's. Stacey move in a cultured circle where intelligence and true worth are 
accepted as the passports to good society, and their labors constitute effective and 
resultant forces in the work for individual and community progress and improvement. 



ROBERT M. EASTMAN. 

Robert M. Eastman, president of the W. F. Hall Printing Company and active 
in formulating the plans of a business which has enjoyed substantial growth, its 
plant being now located at Kingsbury and Superior streets, was born in Anoka, 
Minnesota, December 1, 1869. His father, Job Eastman, was a native of Maine 
and in 1849 made his way to the middle west, engaging in the lumber business 
first in Minneapolis and later in Anoka, his death occurring in the latter place in 
October, 1910, when he was eighty-four years of age. He wedded Kate M. Kim- 
ball, who was also a native of Maine, in which state their marriage was celebrated, 
and it was immediately afterward that they came to the west. Mrs. Eastman be- 
longed to one of the old families of Maine. Her father served as a soldier in the 
war of 1812 and afterward removed westward to Minnesota, where he engaged 
in the lumber business and also conducted a hotel. He was a direct descendant of 
one of the dukes of Scotland, while the ancestry in the paternal line is traced back 
to Roger Eastman, the Puritan forefather who came to New England in 1621. 

Robert M. Eastman was educated in the public and high schools of his native 
town and when a boy in Anoka he gained an insight into the printing business so 
that experience qualified him for that line of work when at the age of seventeen 
years he came to Chicago and secured employment as a compositor, in which capac- 
ity he served for several years. Gradually he acquainted himself with the different 
phases of the business and promoted his skill and efficiency so that after a few years 
he secured the position of foreman and superintendent with the National Journal- 
ist Printing Company. Eighteen years ago he became connected with the W. F. 
Hall Printing Company and upon the death of Mr. Hall in August, 1908, he joined 
with Edwin M. Colvin in purchasing the capital stock of the business. When Mr. 
Eastman first became associated with the house in 1893 it was a very small concern. 
Today theirs is one of the largest and best equipped plants in the United States. 
Following the purchase of the business by Messrs. Eastman and Colvin they erected 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 179 

a building at Kingsbury and Superior streets, which is now the finest and most 
complete building in Chicago devoted exclusively to the printing business, with a 
floor space of two hundred and fifty thousand square feet and a capacity of one 
hundred and twenty-five tons of printed matter per day. It is equipped with the 
latest improved presses and machinery of every description necessary for the con- 
duct of such a business, and this splendid plant is the visible evidence of the enter- 
prising and progressive spirit and business ability of Mr. Eastman and his partner. 

On the 24th of January, 1894, Mr. Eastman was united in marriage to Miss 
Carrie Evers, a daughter of William Evers, a well known commission merchant 
of this city, and to them have been born two children : William Evers, now sixteen 
years of age, who is a pupil in the high school; and Eunice, a little maiden of six 
summers. 

Mr. Eastman exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and meas- 
ures of the republican party and is actively interested in its growth and success, 
yet does not seek nor desire office. He is prominent in Masonry, having attained 
the Knights Templar degree of the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the 
Scottish Rite, and has also crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a member of the Chicago Athletic Club, the South 
Shore Country Club and City Club, and in the midst of a very busy life finds time 
for those social interests and recreations which constitute an even balance to busi- 
ness activity and preserve a well rounded development. 



ORRIN N. CARTER. 

Orrin N. Carter, formerly county judge of Cook county and now a supreme 
court justice of Illinois, has left and is leaving his impress upon the Illinois judi- 
ciary in a manner which reflects credit and honor on the legal profession. Unbiased 
by personal opinion in the discharge of his professional duties and standing ever 
as a stalwart conservator of right and justice, he has won the esteem and confi- 
dence of those who desire an upright administration of the law. 

He was born in Jefferson county, New York, January 22, 1854. His father, Ben- 
ajah Carter, who sailed on the Great Lakes, died when Orrin was less than two 
years of age. His mother, whose maiden name was Isabel Cole, afterward married 
James W. Francisco and in the fall of 1 864 the family moved westward, locating in 
Du Page county, Illinois. The future jurist had already begun his education in the 
district schools of the Empire state, further continuing his studies in his adopted state. 
As the financial resources of the family were not sufficient to provide him with the 
higher education which he desired, he worked his own way through Wheaton Col- 
lege at Wheaton, Illinois, and was graduated with the A.B. degree in 1877. He 
studied law in Chicago, with Judge M. F. Tuley and General I. N. Stiles as his 
preceptors. His first professional service was in the field of teaching and he also 
served as county superintendent of schools in Grundv county, Illinois, from 1880 
until 1882. He regarded this, however, only as the initial step to other profes- 
sional work and, resigning his position in the latter year, concentrated his energies 
upon the practice of law. 



180 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

While residing in Grundy county, Judge Carter was married in Morris, Illinois, 
on the 1st of August, 1881, to Miss Nettie J. Steven. They have two children, 
Allan J. and Ruth G. 

Having been admitted to the bar in 1880, Judge Carter practiced at Morris 
for about eight years, having as partners at different times A. L. Doud, who went 
west for his health and is a leading attorney of Denver; Judge R. M. Wing, a 
prominent lawyer in Chicago; and Judge S. C. Stough, who remained in Morris 
and is now circuit judge. While in Morris Judge Carter served as states attorney 
for Grundy county, from 1883 until 1888, conducting on behalf of the state some 
important criminal trials, notably the prosecution of Henry Schwartz and Newton 
Watt for the murder of Kellogg Nichols, an express messenger, while on duty in 
his car on the Rock Island Railroad. The case aroused much public interest at the 
time. Both men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the peni- 
tentiary. 

Judge Carter's active connection with the Chicago bar dated from 1888, the 
reputation which he had won in the interior of the state proving the foundation 
upon which he built his success in this city. His ability, too, was soon made mani- 
fest in his work in the courts here. From 1892 until 1894 he was engaged as gen- 
eral attorney for the sanitary district of Chicago. In the latter year he was elected 
county judge of Cook county, to which office he was twice reelected, the last time 
without opposition, serving over eleven years and resigning in 1906 to take the 
position he holds at present. As a supreme court justice he is now unconsciously 
writing for himself on public opinion the verdict of his long work as an able 
judge, of comprehensive understanding of the law, his clear analysis of every case 
enabling him to arrive at its salient points in connection with the principles of 
jurisprudence bearing thereon. 

Judge Carter resides with his family at Evanston. He is an active member of 
the Union League Club, the Congregational Club and the Hamilton Club, and takes 
a deep interest in the discussion of the political, social and municipal problems that 
are frequently a matter of earnest thought and able debate in these organizations. 



FRANK M. BURROUGHS. 

Frank M. Burroughs, who at the time of his death was general attorney for the 
Phoenix Insurance Company, with headquarters in Chicago, was born in Wayland, 
New York, June 14, 1851, his parents being Benjamin and Miranda (Rose) Bur- 
roughs. The father was a son of Benjamin Burroughs, a hotel proprietor, who a 
few years after his marriage removed to Port Huron, Michigan, and afterward to 
Chicago. Still later he went to St. Louis, where he remained until about 1870, when 
he located at Clinton, Illinois, there conducting the Magill House until his death in 
1890. He was of English and Irish descent. His wife, who was a daughter of 
Judge Rose of Castile, New York, died in 1887. They were the parents of an only 
son, Frank M., and four daughters, of whom three are living: Mrs. J. R. Summers, 
of Clinton, Illinois; Mrs. Henry Weaver, of Los Angeles, California; and Mrs. 
Frederick Servey, of New York city. 




F. M. BURROUGHS 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 183 

Owing to the ill health of his father in his later years, Frank M. Burroughs early 
contributed to the support of the family and continued to care for his sisters liberally 
until his death. When a small boy he came to the west with his parents and one sis- 
ter and his education was obtained in the public schools of St. Louis and of Clinton, 
Illinois, followed by a literary course at the University of Champaign, from which 
he was graduated with high honors. In 1880 he entered the law office of R. A. 
Lemon at Clinton, and two years afterward was admitted to practice, becoming a 
partner of Mr. Lemon with whom he remained for two years. In 1884 he was ap- 
pointed master in chancery and served for four years. During that period, in which 
he won recognition as one of the foremost attorneys of De Witt county, he was col- 
lector for the Phoenix Insurance Company, and his ability so favorably impressed 
the head officials that he was offered the important position of manager of the farm 
department and was transferred to Chicago, where he served as general attorney 
for that company until his death on the 9th of March, 1910. He was a large, 
strong man, but his constitution became undermined by excessive application to 
business and two years prior to his demise he suffered a stroke of paralysis. Appar- 
ently he recovered but thirteen months later had 'a second., stroke, caused by over- 
work during the San Francisco disaster and the scandal which arose involving the 
integrity of the president of the company. He then decided to give up work but 
did not, for he seemed to be regaining his youth and was enjoying better health 
than he had for years. The death of his only child, however, brought on a third 
stroke, terminating his life. In his law practice he was clean and conscientious, 
always refusing to defend guilt and abhorring anything in the way of corrupt 
practices. 

In politics Mr. Burrroughs was a stanch democrat, while his religious belief 
was that of the Episcopal church, and he was a regular attendant at St. Mark's. 
While he held membership with many clubs, he was not a club man in the sense of 
spending much time there, for he possessed domestic tastes and habits and preferred 
to devote his attention to his home. He was prominent in the Knights of Pythias 
society and held the highest offices in the state. He became a member of Plantage- 
net Lodge No. 25, K. P., at Clinton, Illinois, June 14, 1872, and in 1875 was chosen 
chancellor commander. A zealous worker in the order, he was instrumental in or- 
ganizing the Metzger division. He entered the grand lodge in 1877 and served as 
district deputv grand chancellor for three years. In 1880 he was elected grand in- 
ner guard and in 1884 was chosen grand chancellor and proved the most able and 
careful officer the order ever had in that position. He also served as supreme repre- 
sentative from 1894 until 1898. An article in the Pythian Record at the time of his 
death said in part: "No member of the order was more beloved or held in 
higher esteem than Frank M. Burroughs. He left a record for purity of life, hon- 
esty and integrity of purpose that is rarely equalled and which will always prove an 
inspiration to his fellow members. As showing the love and esteem in which he 
was held by members of the Pythian order, his brethren attended his funeral in 
such large numbers that the spacious home could not contain them." The funeral 
was conducted under the auspices of the order, Rev. William White Wilson of St. 
Mark's officiating, and the remains were taken to Clinton, Illinois, for interment. 
In 1910 a new Knights of Pythias lodge was formed in Chicago and was called 
Frank M. Burroughs Lodge No. 708, Mrs. Burroughs presenting to the organiza- 



184 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tion a large and fine oil painting of her husband. He was an eloquent speaker, ever 
ready, and his remarks were always appropriate and to the point. He was aiso a. 
good writer, both in prose and verse. 

On the 6th of December, 1900, at the Planters Hotel in St. Louis, Mr. Burroughs 
was united in marriage to Miss Daisy Higginson, a daughter of the Hon. T. S. Hig- 
ginson, a member of the English parliament, who died September 17, 1911. Mrs. 
Burroughs is a native of Canada and a niece of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of 
Boston. The only son of her marriage, Frank M. Jr., died in infancy, October 14, 
1909. 

Mr. Burroughs' home life was ideal, an unusual devotion existing between him- 
self and wife. He was always tender and affectionate and his every thought was 
one of solicitude for her comfort and happiness, and never was the memory of a 
loved one more sacredly cherished or his loss more inconsolably mourned. Mrs. 
Burroughs now resides at No. 3520 Grand boulevard in an attractive home secured 
to her through the care of her husband. 



JOHN LEE MAHIN. 

With developing conditions there have usually come to the front men who 
have been able to cope with such conditions and have shown themselves masters 
of the situation. With the growing complexity in trade circles, wherein the keen- 
est competition is rife, advertising has become recognized as an indispensable ele- 
ment, and in this connection there has developed the advertising agency, which 
has shaped and guided the work, making of it a systematic and well organized 
business. John Lee Mahin is one of the foremost factors in advertising circles not 
only in Chicago but in the country and the story of his achievement and of the 
development of his business cannot fail to prove of interest to the commercial world. 

A native of Muscatine, Iowa, he was born December 14, 1869, of the marriage 
of John and Anna (Lee) Mahin. The father was a native of Noblesville, Indiana, 
born December 8, 1833. Nine years later the family removed to Iowa and when 
thirteen years of age John Mahin, Sr., began learning the printing business in the 
office of the Muscatine Journal, making such progress that he became editor of the 
paper in his nineteenth year, in 1852, rounding up an editorial career of fifty 
years on the same paper in 1902. The journal while under his management was 
first a whig paper and was afterward republican in politics. It supported the 
anti-slavery cause and the Union during the Civil war as well as the reconstruction 
policy of the republican party after the close of hostilities. The paper was also 
an advocate of temperance and prohibition and because Mr. Mahin stanchly advo- 
cated the enforcement of the state laws against the saloons, his home was destroyed 
by dynamite and the lives of himself and family were greatly imperiled. However, 
he stood fearlessly in support of his honest convictions at all times and labored 
untiringly for justice, truth and progress. The Mahin family is of Scotch-Irish 
descent, their ancestry being traced back to a period antedating the Revolutionary 
war, when representatives of the name settled in Rhode Island. Subsequently a 
removal was made to North Carolina, thence to Kentucky and afterward to Ross 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 185 

count} 7 , Ohio, where the father of John Mahin was born. The mother of John 
Lee Mahin bore the maiden name of Anna Lee and was a daughter of John Bond 
Lee, a native of Harford county, Maryland. Members of the Lee family served in 
official capacities in both the Revolutionary war and the war of 1812. The grand- 
mother of Mr. Mahin in the maternal line belonged to the Branson family in Vir- 
ginia, all of whom were loyal members of the Society of Friends or Quakers and 
were distinguished for their earnest and effective efforts to abolish slavery. 

When he had mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools, 
being graduated from the Muscatine high school with the class of 1886, John Lee 
Mahin entered the Wayland Academy at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. With the com- 
pletion of his education he entered the newspaper field and in this connection re- 
ceived much of the training that proved of inestimable value in his later career 
in connection with the advertising business. A contemporary biographer has tersely 
and forcefully given an account of Mr. Mahin's business career as follows : 

"John Lee Mahin, president of the Mahin Advertising Company, of Chicago, 
is a combination of the strenuous and the thoughtful in his life and his work. He 
is one of the real thinkers in the advertising field and his method of analyzing a 
proposition and of working out a campaign by means of 'conferences' and 'data' 
was first smiled at and then adopted by others. Mr. Mahin was born in Musca- 
tine, Iowa, in 1869. His father owned the Muscatine Journal and Mr. Mahin, 
when he was old enough, became city editor and subsequently was manager. In 
1891 he moved to Chicago. At first he worked in the advertising department of 
the Chicago News, then was advertising manager of The Interior and, after much 
advertising experience, in 1898, he organized the Mahin Advertising Company. 
Because of his pioneer work in linking sales development with advertising, Mr. 
Mahin is known to practically every big sales manager in the country. In his 
endeavor to resolve advertising to something approaching basic principles he wrote 
the now famous 'Mahin's Ten Tests,' by which it is claimed the practical value of 
any piece of advertising copy may be determined before it is printed. His com- 
pany publishes the 'Mahin Mesenger,' a monthly magazine devoted to advertising 
ideas and problems ; also, annually it issues the Mahin Advertising Data Book, a 
remarkable array of facts and figures, issued in vest pocket edition also. Mr. 
Mahin does a great deal of public speaking. He delievered the course of lectures 
on advertising before the School of Commerce of Northwestern University, also 
at the Universities of Chicage, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Some of these 
lectures have appeared in book form. Mr. Mahin has been one of the leaders who 
have done so much to improve and dignify the advertising agency business, in all 
his work laying special stress on the fact that 'real service' covers all parts and 
phases of advertising instead of the mere buying of space." The Mahin Adver- 
tising Company maintains a conspicuous and most honorable position in the busi- 
ness circles of the city, with John Lee Mahin at its head. 

Mr. Mahin was married on the 29th of October, 1895, in the Sixth Presbyte- 
rian church of Chicago, to Miss Julia Graham Snitzler, a daughter of John Henry 
Snitzler, and they have become parents of three children, Margaret, Marian and' 
John Lee, Jr. 

Mr. Mahin votes with the republican party and regards it the duty as well as 
the privilege of a man to exercise his right of franchise. He was reared in the 



186 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Methodist church in Muscatine, Iowa, and now with his family attends the First 
Congregational church of Evanston. He holds membership relations with the 
Union League, the Chicago Athletic and the Mid-Day Clubs of Chicago; the Uni- 
versity and Country Clubs of Evanston; the Glen View Golf Club; and the Aldine 
Club of New York. 



JAMES CLAFFEY STRAIN. 

Certain qualities command respect, others admiration ; but it requires more 
than these to win love; and those who knew James C. Strain had for him the 
deeper affection that transcends regard. His salient characteristics of kindliness, 
forbearance, sympathy, geniality and cordiality drew people to him in ties that 
even the bonds of death have not severed, for his memory is cherished by all with 
whom he came in contact. He was a resident of Chicago from early manhood 
to the time of his death. His birth occurred in Dublin, Ireland, February 12, 1849, 
his parents being Robert and Helen (Claffey) Strain, who were also from Dublin, 
but came to America when their son James was but six months old, establishing 
their home in New York. In the eastern metropolis James C. Strain spent his 
early youth, pursuing his education in the public schools, but when fourteen years 
of age he left home, for in the meantime his mother had died and his father had 
remarried. What he felt was unjust treatment at the hands of his stepmother caused 
him to leave the parental roof, like hundreds of other boys, and place his depend- 
ence upon his own resources for a living. He first took up bookbinding, which was 
his father's trade, but after a period turned his attention to the hatter's trade, with 
which he became thoroughly familiar and upon that line of business he depended 
for some years for a livelihood and ultimately won substantial success in that field. 
When about seventeen years of age he left New York, going to the south, where he 
traveled quite extensively. He afterward returned to the metropolis, but in 1868 
came to Chicago. He was then en route for St. Louis and the west, but was so 
well pleased with the city by the lake and its prospects that he decided to remain 
and soon became an active factor in its business circles, establishing a hat manu- 
factory at the northeast corner of Randolph and State streets. The business was 
extended to include the wholesale trade and at one time he had between ten and 
fifteen hundred employes. One evening, when he was walking home from church 
with the lady whom he expected to make his wife, there came the alarm of fire. It 
was the beginning of the great conflagration which practically wiped out momen- 
tarily the business district of the city and many of its residences. The establish- 
ment of Mr. Strain was in the path of the flames and he lost everything which his 
enterprise and business ability had won for him in the previous years. The coura- 
geous spirit which was ever characteristic of him throughout life prompted him to 
resume business, although perforce it was on a much smaller scale than before. He 
resumed trade in a barn the only building which could be secured, there remain- 
ing until better quarters could be obtained. For two years he continued in the busi- 
ness with a partner, to whom he afterward sold out. 




JAMKS C. STItAI.N 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 189 

During much of the remainder of his life Mr. Strain devoted his attention to 
politics, and was one of the central figures on the democratic stage in Cook county. 
The first position which he held was in the city hall, where he was made head of 
the water bureau. He occupied that position until 1883, when he became committee 
clerk of the county board. He was afterward superintendent of second class mail 
matter in the postoffice, and during the greater part of the year 1890 served as 
count}' hospital warden. Men who are now successful physicians but at that time 
were serving as internes in the hospitals speak of him in terms of highest respect 
as one who carefully performed the duties of the position, and in his care and 
treatment of the patients gave expression to the broad humanitarianism which was 
ever a leading feature of his life. For eight years he was secretary of the demo- 
cratic central committee of Cook county. He likewise filled the office of deputy 
city clerk and was a charter member of the Cook County Democratic Club and its 
first secretary, occupying that position for nearly a decade. He practically con- 
trolled Cook county politics when he was secretary of the county central committee. 
During that period the democrats, who at times in the history of the city have been 
in power and again out of it, never lost an election. It was his pride that this was 
so, and it was due to his careful study and understanding of the situation, his 
executive ability and the large personal following which he could command because 
men believed in him and were willing- to follow his leadership. It has frequently 
been said by prominent Chicago residents that James C. Strain was never a poli- 
tician in the commonly accepted sense of the term, , His ideals of citizenship were 
high and the policy which he pursued would always bear the light of keen investi- 
gation and scrutiny. It was by strictly honorable methods that he promoted his 
party's success, and when he again temporarily accepted the office of secretary of 
the democratic county central committee he was instumental in promoting the elec- 
tion of Sheriff Barrett, the only man elected on the ticket. The last public office 
he held was that of summons clerk under Sheriff Barrett. At times he was a 
candidate for other offices but in years in which the republican party swept every- 
thing before it. It is indicative of the character of the man, however, that he 
never failed to win a majority in his own precinct and ward, though they are 
acknowledged republican strongholds, and in his immediate home neighborhood there 
was not a man democrat, republican or prohibitionist who did not vote for him. 
What higher testimony of the real worth of an individual could be given than this 
expression of the opinion entertained by those best competent to judge. He was 
largely a self-educated man, but he continually broadened his knowledge by read- 
ing and through the lessons learned from the experiences of life. He thus became 
well qualified for leadership, and his innate tact and somebody has defined tact as 
kindness intelligently directed fitted him to control and influence the movements 
of others. Not all days in his life were equally bright, for business and political 
losses were at times his, yet no word of complaint was ever heard and even when, 
in his last illness, pain became his lot, he never met friend, neighbor or member of 
his family without a smile. 

On the 3d of November, 1872, Mr. Strain was married to Miss Mary Teresa 
Kane, who was born in Troy, New York, in 1850. Her father, Michael Kane, was 
a native of Limerick, Tipperary county, Ireland, born in 1809, and in his early 
twenties he came to the United States. He was married in Troy to Miss Anna 



190 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Deavitt, of American birth. He engaged in the slaughtering business in Troy and 
won substantial success in his undertaking, so that after his removal to Chicago in 
the early '60s he was able to live retired, his death here occurring in 1886. He had 
lost his wife in Troy and three of their six children died in that city, Mrs. Strain 
and her two surviving brothers coming with their father to Chicago. Unto the 
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Strain were born three children: Charles Robert, who 
was born August 17, 1873, and died August 5, 1896; Helen Gertrude, who was 
born November 26, 1877, and was educated at St. Mary of the Woods near South 
Bend, Indiana; and James Claffey, who was born January 25, 1879, and died 
April 4, 1883. The death of Mrs. Mary Strain occurred February 1, 1889. She 
was a member' of the Catholic church and Mr. Strain, although reared in the Protes- 
tant faith, also joined that church. He was, however, a man of broad and liberal 
views and spirit to whom Christianity meant upright living rather than a close 
following of dogma or creed. On the 3d of December, 1891, he married again, his 
second union being with Emilie Hoganson, who was born in Bandholm, Lolland, 
Denmark, October 31, 1863, a daughter of Peter and Magdalene (Bartels) Hogan- 
son. Her father was born in Norway, and following his removal to Denmark was 
married to Magdalene Bartels, who was born in Sorup, Lolland, in 1825 and was 
eighteen years his junior. Unto Mr. Strain's second marriage were born two 
daughters: Frances Emilie, born November 11, 1898; and Virginia Alice, Septem- 
ber 18, 1902. The relation between Mr. Strain and his family was largely an ideal 
one. To his eldest daughter, following the death of his first wife, it was often said 
that he was both mother and father. His care for her was unremitting and pos- 
sessed the tenderness which one expects to find in a mother as well as the protecting 
devotion of a father. There were in his life innumerable little acts of kindness and 
of helpfulness, but of these he seldom spoke even to his family. They constituted 
the outpouring of a heart that reached out in sympathy to all mankind. One of 
the daily papers said of him at the time of his demise, May 5, 1907: "Ever of a 
kindly disposition, his character is best shown in the fact that when a candidate 
for public office he always discouraged criticism of his opponents. His motto in 
life at all times was that 'where he could not say a good word of his fellowman he 
would never say a bad one.' And naturally he leaves behind him an imprint of 
warm friendship, which was evidenced by his large funeral and the multiplicity of 
kind words of commendation so richly deserved by him." At a regular meeting of 
the democratic county central committee, held at the Sherman House on Tuesday 
evening, the following resolutions, presented by John McGillen, were unanimously 
adopted by a standing vote: 

Whereas, It has pleased the Divine Ruler of Men to call the spirit of James C. 
Strain to eternal rest, and 

Whereas, In the decease of James C. Strain Chicago loses an old and esteemed 
resident, an honorable, useful and high-minded gentleman in the true sense ; we of 
the democratic party and organization of Chicago and Illinois a lifelong associate 
whose sincerity and integrity never could be questioned, of vigor and energy, coupled 
with a gentle demeanor and a tolerant, courteous, winning disposition, all. of which 
combine to make his absence more keenly felt. The late James C. Strain was in 
his lifetime tried in many positions of responsibility and honor and never found 
wanting, always reflecting credit and dignity on the places he was called to fill. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 191 

For many years nearly a decade our departed friend was secretary of this Cook 
county central democratic committee, and magnificently he discharged the onerous 
duties of that trying position. James C. Strain was a man among men, a good 
citizen, a good Samaritan, loving God and his fellowman, a loving, devoted husband 
and father, a faithful public official, and always a sterling democrat of the old 
school ; therefore be it 

Resolved, We, the members of democratic county committee, sincerely mourn 
his loss ; we cherish his memory and tender our sincere sympathy to his bereaved 
family ; and further 

Resolved, That we attend the funeral services of our departed friend in a 
body, and that these preambles and resolutions be spread on the records of this com- 
mittee. 

Mr. Strain never became a wealthy man, although at one time he was at the head 
of a large business. It is doubtful if he would ever have cared for wealth for its own 
sake, but his love for his family prompted him to make liberal provision for them. 
Besides this, he continually gave where he saw that assistance was needed, and 
those who knew him felt that they could depend upon him not only for material 
needs but also for the sympathy, encouragement and kindliness for which so many 
of the world hunger. Wordsworth has written of "the little unremembered acts of 
kindness and of love." Such acts in the life of James C. Strain were probably not 
remembered by him, but they are remembered by those who were the recipients 
thereof, and the memory is -sacredly cherished. 



SYLVESTER DANA FOSS. 

A life actuated by high ideals and spent in close conformity therewith was 
brought to a close, when on the 16th of October, 1910, Sylvester Dana Foss was 
called to his final rest. His teachings and his example had ever been an inspiring 
force for good in the world and his humane sympathy and charity brought men 
to him in the ties of strong friendship. He was born in the little village of Camp- 
ton, New Hampshire, April 12, 1834, and ever had a strong love for his native 
state. His grandfather Ebenezer Foss was for more than six years a soldier of 
the Continental army in the Revolutionary war and his company formed one of 
the sides of the hollow square which was formed around Major Andre when he 
was shot. The parents of Sylvester Dana Foss were of the strong, firm, rugged 
type, but the home farm did not suffice to provide a comfortable living for the fam- 
ily and the son early started out to make his own living. Years afterward in writ- 
ing of his early childhood he said : "My parents were poor. We had a small 
farm. The best crop that we could raise was cobble stones. The old farm is 
deserted and largely grown up to a forest now. The winters were cold and long. 
Snow drifted deep in the roads. We had very few amusements, these including 
the Fourth of July celebrations, trainings and muster days." The school sessions 
were from eight to twelve weeks and the most important lessons learned by the 
children of that locality and period were the lessons of economy and frugality. 
In his vouth the boy wore clothes made of frocking cloth spun and woven by his 



192 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

mother. There was much work to be done upon the home farm and still more ardu- 
ous labor after he started to earn his living, and yet there were also periods of 
pleasure and enjoyment when corn huskings and apple bees were held and when 
he had opportunity he engaged in fishing and hunting. He greatly enjoyed those 
days of hunting among the beautiful hills of New Hampshire and this undoubtedly 
gave him strength and hardihood that enabled him to wander west in the early 
days and labor in the mining camps of Colorado. His wanderings took him over 
many sections of the country and after viewing the great western prairies and 
studying the mining camps of the Rockies, he finally selected Chicago as the most 
promising location, becoming a resident of this city in 1859. He was one of the 
founders of Leadville, Colorado, and became interested in mining, an interest which 
continued to the end of his life. He was led to select Chicago as a place of resi- 
dence because of the great fertile lands of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, 
realizing that thereon could be produced splendid harvests that would give ample 
opportunity for the conduct of grain trade. In connection with his older brother, 
Martin, he established the house of S. D. Foss & Company, grain merchants, which 
later became the firm of Foss, Strong & Company, for many years, and until its 
founder retired from business, known as one of the most successful firms connected 
with the Board of Trade. It is true that not all days were equally bright and at 
times he saw the gathering of storm clouds. However, firm determination and 
perseverance enabled him to overcome obstacles and difficulties and not only win 
success for himself but also contribute largely to Chicago's fame as the great grain 
market of the west. For some years Mr. Foss conducted a commission business on 
Water street and he became known in financial circles as one of the founders of 
the Merchants Loan & Trust Company. He also had interests in other business 
projects and his sound judgment directed his investments in a manner that brought 
substantial results. 

A few years after his arrival in Chicago Mr. Foss was joined by his father and 
mother who divided their time between his home and that of their other son, Mar- 
tin. The father passed away first and the mother then lived with Sylvester D. 
Foss until her demise at his home on Grand boulevard, when she was eighty-seven 
years of age. The brother died nearly thirty years before his death and an only 
sister had passed away in young womanhood while the family were still living in 
New Hampshire. He established a home of his own by his marriage, in 1863, to 
Miss Susan Morgan. She was born in Byron, this state, and in her girlhood days 
came with her parents to Chicago in 1855. She attended the Washington school 
on Indiana street and afterward graduated from the Brown school. She traveled 
on the old omnibus line which was established before a street railway was built 
in Chicago, and well remembers the old Bull's Head Tavern, which stood at the 
corner of what is now Ogden avenue and Madison streets. The family resided 
at the corner of Ashland avenue and Indiana street, which at that time was called 
Owen street. Mr. and Mrs. Foss became pioneer residents of Grand boulevard, 
settling near Thirty-eighth street in 1875. The parents of Mrs. Foss were Lan- 
sing and Harriet (McMurtrie) Morgan, natives of New York and pioneer residents 
of Elgin, Illinois. Her father was a lumber merchant and for many years con- 
ducted business in Chicago. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Foss were born five children: 
Willis J., who married Clara Peterson, of Hobart, Indiana; Chalmers D.; Alice 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 193 

E.; Bertha A v the wife of A. N. Merritt, secretary of the Merchants Exchange, 
of Chicago ; and Caroline, the wife of William A. Eaton, of the Eaton Chair Com- 
pany of this city. The grandchildren are, George Sylvester Thomas, Willis Mor- 
gan Foss and Clara Elizabeth Foss. 

Mr. Foss was a member of the Masonic fraternity, attaining the Knight Tem- 
plar degree. He was also interested in politics but never desired to hold office and 
only on one occasion acceded to the wish of his friends that he should do so, becom- 
ing alderman of the fourth ward. He lived a quiet, unassuming life and practi- 
cally withdrew from active business about twenty-five years prior to his death, 
thereafter giving his attention only to the management of his estate. He greatly 
enjoyed hunting and fishing, and spent much of his time in those sports. He was 
a student of life and in quiet contemplated the world, its work and humanity. 
From this he made many logical deductions and set down mostly for his own bene- 
fit various rules. Among those which he wrote and which he headed Rules for 
Doing a Successful Business, are found such as these: "Be sure that you know 
the kind of work to be done." ^'Hire the man that will do that work well." "Never 
hire a man to do your own financial figuring." "Keep your eyes and ears open 
and keep your own counsels." "Never think that you are the only producer you 
have the same rights as others and no more." "Push your business do not be 
pushed by it." "Be sure and keep the truth your employes will respect you 
then." "Deceive no one in what you have to sell it does not pay." These rules 
at all times formed the motive force in his life. He set down other rules which 
he also as carefully followed, the first being: "Repeat our Lord's prayer every 
day." Upon the same list were found: "Deal honestly with every one." "Be 
kind to the unfortunate." "A clear conscience will let you live and die happy." 
"Let the lamp of love burn bright in your heart so that you can see that the scale 
of justice is rightly balanced." Many of his observations of life were put down 
in verse. He planned to publish these merely for the benefit of his children and 
the little volume was also to contain his profound convictions of great truths, his 
wishes for his children, his appreciation of his wife and mother and of the train- 
ing he had received. Since his demise, which occurred in Chicago, October 16, 
1910, his wishes in regard to the little volume have been carried out as far as pos- 
sible. Perhaps the best estimate of his character to be found is that which was 
given by his pastor in the funeral services. On that occasion Dr. E. F. Williams 
said: "Truly can I say that Mr. Foss was a sincere Christian. He made no pre- 
tense to piety but his faith was strong and his life was pure and upright. Quiet 
and unobtrusive in his ways he was a man of very great business ability and at 
the same time, what few even of his intimate friends suspected, a poet of no mean 
gifts. He loved beauty in all its forms flowers, pictures, nature, music and poetry. 
In the enjoyment of these he passed many an hour. He was fond of children and 
they in their turn were fond of him. He loved his home. With his wife he had 
lived nearly half a century and as children gathered around him and grandchil- 
dren, his home became Nearer to him and in his failing health, though to the very 
last he kept his eye on his business, they filled his hours with delight and cheer. 
The friends of Mr. Foss were very numerous. He could not help making friends, 
for he was ever ready to help others and none knew him to be deceived by him. 
He was deeply interested in the welfare of the country. He kept in touch with 



194 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

all that is taking place in the world of politics and benevolence, and till the very 
last day of his life maintained his interest in them." None who knew Mr. Foss 
could not but recognize on his face the imprint of a kindly spirit within and of 
a life well spent. He endeavored always to make the best use of the talents with 
which nature had endowed him and to use his time wisely, and still at the same 
time recognized his obligations toward his fellowmen. His helpful spirit was the 
expression of a deep interest in humanity and the world was enriched by a life 
that stood for those interests and activities which are most worth while. 



MARSHALL AYRES, JR. 

Marshall Ayres, Jr., in the years of his early manhood a resident of Chicago, 
was a native of Griggsville, Illinois, and a son of Marshall and Hannah (Lombard) 
Ayres, who were natives of Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The family is of 
English origin and representatives of the name came to America in the Mayflower, 
settling in Massachusetts, where the family residence was maintained until Marshall 
Ayres, Sr., severed the ties that bound him to his ancestral home and came to the 
middle west in 1821. He was not only one of the pioneer residents of Griggsville, 
but also of central Illinois. 

His son and namesake, Marshall Ayres, Jr., spent his boyhood in his native town, 
where he acquired his early education, and then in his youthful days came to Chi- 
cago, where he entered the employ of a bank. Realizing the necessity and value of 
further education, he embraced his opportunities for continuing his studies, and 
about 1860 matriculated in Harvard University, from which he was graduated in 
1863 as one of the honor men of his class, to which belonged many who have since 
become distinguished in national and international affairs. 

When his college days were over Marshall Ayres went to New York and entered 
the oil business, becoming very prominent eventually in financial circles as a pro- 
moter and financier. He was a member of the firm of Lombard, Ayres & Company, 
the only one which stood but for many years against the Standard Oil Company, and 
finally consolidated with the Tidewater Oil Company, which is still operating as an 
independent concern. Having acquired a substantial fortune, Mr. Ayres retired 
about 1900 and died on the 15th of August, 1905. He was an enthusiastic lover of 
art and literature and displayed a most discriminating taste in making his valuable 
collection of art objects, rare books and jewelry. He held membership with the 
Union League of New York but was not a club man, possessing rather a domestic 
nature that found its expression in his love for and devotion to his family. In reli- 
gious work, too. he took a most helpful interest and was an active member of the 
Pilgrim Congregational church, to which he donated a chapel. He did much in an 
unostentatious way for charity, principally in the education of youths not only along 
literary lines but also in art study. He believed in thus giving to the young oppor- 
tunities to develop their native powers and talents, and thus help themselves, and his 
efforts in this direction were indeed of a most beneficial character. 

Marshall Ayres was married in Chicago to Miss Louise Sanderson, a daughter 
of Levi Sanderson, who was one of the founders of the city of Galesburg, Illinois, 




MARSHALL AYRES, JR. 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 197 

and of Knox College. Mrs. Ayres was born in Galesburg and passed away August 
2, 1886, leaving four daughters: Mary Louise, who is a member of the Episcopal 
sisterhood known as the Order of St. Mary; Winifred, the wife of Theodore S. 
Hope, of New York city; Marjorie, the wife of A. Starr Best, of Chicago; and 
Mildred, the wife of J. Albert Hawkins, of New York city. Having lost his first 
wife, Mr. Ayres married Frances N. Noble, of Provincetown, Cape Cod, who now 
resides in Newbury, New Hampshire. 

Mr. Ayres' position in regard to the oil business was characteristic of the inde- 
pendent spirit that prompted him at all times to follow a course which he believed 
to be right, unmindful of the criticism or the influence of others. He did much good 
in the world and never from the mere sense of duty but because of a deep and abid- 
ing interest in his fellowmen and in the uplift of -the race. 



HON. CARTER H. HARRISON. 

Among the residents of Chicago perhaps none have come as close to the hearts 
of the great body of Chicago's citizens as did Carter H. Harrison, Sr. Born in a 
log cabin, he became the friend and associate of the most eminent and distinguished 
people of this country and was entertained by many titled people abroad. He 
stood as the official representative of this city during the great Columbian Exposi- 
tion and received with equal tact, grace and honor the official representatives of 
foreign lands or the most humble of his fellow countrymen. There was in Carter 
H. Harrison a quality which for want of a better term has been called personal 
magnetism; he drew all men to him and a friendship once gained was never sur- 
rendered because they found in him those qualities which command enduring regard. 

Some branches of the family claim that Richard A. Harrison, Cromwell's lieu- 
tenant general, who led Charles I to the block, was one of his ancestors. Others 
claim that the family descended from the cavalier governor of the colony of Vir- 
ginia. At all events, the name figured prominently in the history of that colony 
and his great-grandfather, Carter Harrison, and his brother, Benjamin Harrison, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the father of President 
William Henry Harrison, were residents of that state. The Harrisons early inter- 
married with the Randolphs, Carters and Cabells, three prominent Virginia fam- 
ilies, thus bringing about the relationship with Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph 
and the Reeves family of Virginia and the Breckenridges of Kentucky. 

Robert Carter Harrison, the grandfather, removed to Kentucky in 1818. He 
was a graduate of William and Mary's College, as was his son, Carter H. Harrison, 
the father of him whose name introduces this review. Carter H. Harrison, Sr. 
received from his father a large tract of land thickly grown with cane, and in the 
one-room log house which he built thereon, his son and namesake was born. Eight 
months later the father died, leaving Carter H. Harrison the only child of his 
widowed mother, who was a daughter of Colonel William Russell of the United 
States army, a lady of character and education, whose devotion to her son was 
ever one of his most pleasant memories. She taught him reading, writing and 
geography and assisted him in his lessons after he became a pupil in the primitive 

Vol. V 10 



198 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

public schools of Kentucky. She often led him to his father's grave and impressed 
upon his mind the story of his father's unassailable integrity. When fifteen years 
of age he attended a school conducted by Dr. Lewis Marshall, brother of Chief 
Justice John Marshall, and two years later became a sophomore at Yale, where 
he was graduated in 1845 at the age of twenty. Following his return home he took 
up the study of law but, unwilling to leave his mother and go to the city to practice, 
he decided to devote his attention to the management of his paternal estate, six 
miles from Lexington. In April, 1851, his mother having married a clergyman who 
had been her friend and earliest adviser, he went abroad, thoroughly touring Eng- 
land and Scotland, where he was the guest of noblemen and freely mingled with 
the plebeians. He paid a long visit at the country seat of the Earl of Ducie, from 
whom he purchased blooded cattle for his Kentucky plantation, and during his 
travels in France and Germany he acquired a familiarity with the language of the 
people that was not only of great benefit to him in his European travels but after- 
ward in his political campaigns and official intercourse at home. He visited most 
of the European continent, also Egypt, and with Bayard Taylor visited Syria and 
Asia Minor. In Taylor's volume, Land of the Saracen, he speaks in his preface of 
"my traveling companion, Mr. Carter Henry Harrison, of Clifton, Kentucky." 

In 1853 Mr. Harrison became a student in the Transylvania University Law 
School at Lexington, Kentucky, and soon after his graduation in the spring of 
1855 was admitted to the bar. In April of that year he married Sophonisba Pres- 
ton, of Henderson, that state, and they became parents of ten children but six died 
in childhood. The others, Lina, the wife of Heaton Owsley, Carter H., now for 
the fifth time mayor of Chicago, William Preston and Sophie G., are all residents 
of this city. 

While making a bridal trip through the then "northwest" Mr. Harrison was 
so impressed with Chicago and its possibilities that he decided to make this city 
his home and twelve days after his arrival invested his available capital thirty 
thousand dollars received from the sale of his plantation in real estate and opened 
a real-estate as well as law office, continuing in the practice of his profession and 
in the sale of his lands until 1874, when he went abroad to join his wife and chil- 
dren, the former having gone to Europe upon the advice of her physician. He 
spent the spring and summer in traveling with them through Germany, Austria, 
the Tyrol and Switzerland and after comfortably installing his family in Germany, 
the older children at school, he returned home. In 1875 he again went to Europe 
and his travels with his family through northern Europe were terminated at Paris. 
His family then returned to Germany and he to America. While in congress in 
September, 1876, the news of his wife's death at Gera, Germany, reached him and 
subsequently her remains were brought back to Chicago for interment. 

An observing eye and retentive memory so enabled Mr. Harrison to store his 
memory while abroad that he could thereafter call upon it again and again for fact 
or incident and this knowledge served him in good stead when he entered upon his 
political career, which, however, did not begin until he was forty-five years of age. 
In Kentucky he had voted with the whigs, had advocated emancipation and in 1 860 
became a Douglas democrat, although an ardent Unionist through the war. The 
first office he ever held was that of county commissioner, to which he was elected 
on a mixed ticket called the "fireproof." His capable service and efforts in the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 199 

interests of the majority won wide commendation and led to his nomination for 
congress in 1872. Although defeated in that year by Hon. J. D. Ward, he in turn 
defeated him in 1874. He retired from the office of county commissioner in Decem- 
ber, 1874, and in the following March took his seat as a member of the forty- 
fourth congress. Those who knew him in his later public career can scarcely realize 
that during his practice as a lawyer he experienced great diffidence and embarrass- 
ment in attempting to speak in court and when county commissioner spoke only 
when the occasion seemed to demand. His first notable public address was at a 
Philadelphia banquet in the interest of the Centennial Exposition, and he left 
congress with the reputation of being its most humorous speaker because of his 
remarks concerning a pending motion to strike out of an appropriation bill an item 
for the Marine Band. His latent gifts of oratory were seemingly called forth at 
that time and he made many speeches thereafter, including one on the repeal of 
the resumption act and on the enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan canal into 
a ship canal. He was always an advocate of improved waterways and while in 
congress and afterward did effective work along that line. In March, 1880, he 
was chairman of the executive committee of the Ottawa canal convention and pre- 
pared an address to congress on the importance of canal improvement. He was 
likewise greatly interested in bettering the highways and was elected the perma- 
nent president of the State Road Association of Illinois, his labors being effective 
in securing legislation resulting in an appropriation for the improvement of the 
public roads. His second nomination for congress came to him ten days after he 
had sailed for Europe on account of the death of his wife. In 1878 he declined a 
renomination, expecting to return home to private life, but found on reaching Chi- 
cago that his name was being put forth by his friends in connection wtih the mayor- 
alty candidacy. He cared so little for it that he went to Kentucky to enjoy a short 
rest, but six days after his nomination on the 15th of March returned and on the 
1st of April was elected by a plurality of five thousand. Again he declined to 
become a candidate but was nominated by acclamation in 1881, receiving an in- 
creased majority of eight thousand. 

The following year Mr. Harrison again went to Europe and in London, in 
August, 1882, wedded Miss Marguerite E. Stearns, of Chicago, who at that time 
was traveling with her parents abroad. While in England he accepted the invita- 
tion of Parnell and other national members to visit Ireland, and in Dublin was 
tendered the hospitality of the city by Lord Mayor Dawson. At a banquet there 
held he made a speech in which he boldly criticised England's policy toward Ire- 
land, which awakened widespread attention throughout Europe and America, win- 
ning him the thanks of the nationalist members of parliament and the severe 
criticism of their opponents. His return to Chicago was made a matter of an 
ovation. The newspapers said that between fifty and one hundred thousand people 
gathered on the Lake Front park to welcome him September 19, 1882, and he was 
cheered by thousands all the way from Michigan boulevard to his home on Ashland 
avenue. In the spring of 1883 he was once more nominated by acclamation for the 
position of mayor and during his third term in the office was nominated by acclama- 
tion for governor. About the same time he was also prominently mentioned in 
connection with the nomination for vice president of the United States but declined 
to be a candidate. At the state election for governor in 1884 he was defeated, but 



200 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

his position in his home city was indicated when he was chosen mayor for the fourth 
time in 1885. At its close he emphatically stated that he would not again become 
a candidate but, in defiance of his expressed wish, the party nominated him by 
acclamation, whereupon occurred such a scene as is seldom witnessed. In response 
to the demands of the people he appeared upon the platform and received a tre- 
mendous greeting. When quiet was restored so that he could be heard, he said 
that he could accept only on condition that every man in the convention should 
raise his right hand as a pledge of loyal support. Instantly every hand was raised 
and the building trembled with applause. A few days later, however, he wrote to 
the committee, peremptorily declining, and reaffirming his purpose to retire to 
private life. Twelve days after he had left the office of mayor his wife passed 
away and the public offices were closed, flags placed at half-mast and the city and 
county officials attended the funeral in a body a mark of respect seldom, if ever, 
paid. 

In the summer of 1887, for needed rest, Mr. Harrison went abroad accompanied 
by his younger son, William Preston, and John W. Amberg, the son of a friend. 
He visited China, Japan, Siam, India, Ceylon, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Roumania, 
Hungary, Austria, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France and Eng- 
land, and an account of his travels was published in a series of fifty letters to a 
Chicago newspaper and afterward appeared in book form under the title "A Race 
with the Sun," receiving favorable comment from literary critics. A series of let- 
ters concerning his trip to the Yellowstone National Park, Puget Sound, Alaska 
and the Canadian Rockies, in the summer of 1890, were published in the Chicago 
Tribune and later in book form under the title "A Summer Outing." In 1889 he 
declined the tendered nomination for the mayoralty and in 1891 contested the 
nomination with DeWitt C. Cregier. His friends always asserted that he received 
a majority of the votes in the primary elections. He afterward decided to run 
independently and on that occasion, because of the division in the party, Hempstead 
Washburne, republican, was elected. In the spring of 1893 Mr. Harrison was 
once more his party's candidate and made a brilliant canvass which was a personal 
ovation from start to finish. All of the newspapers of the city except one were 
against him but the people were with him and he received a majority of twenty-one 
thousand. It was a critical hour in the history, of the city, for the mayor would be 
Chicago's official representative at the World's Fair, would receive commissioners 
and royal visitors from all nations, together with the officials of our own land. The 
public re'cognized that Mr. Harrison was preeminently fitted for the position. His 
linguistic powers, his broad knowledge of various lands and their peoples, his elo- 
quence and versatility, his courtliness combined with simplicity of manner, his 
boundless hospitality and his thorough familiarity with every detail of executive 
duty, were the qualities which made him above all others the one man for the office. 
He failed in not one single instance to live up to the expectations of his fellow 
townsmen and his last public address was made at Music Hall, at the World's 
Columbian Exposition, on what was known as All Cities' Day, October 28, 1893, 
when mayors from all over the country were the guests of Chicago. On that occa- 
sion he said; at the close of an address which held the close attention of every 
hearer: "This fair need not have a history to record it. Its beauty has gone forth 
among the people, the men, the women, aye, the child has looked upon it, and they 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 201 

have all been well repaid for this wonderful education. No royal king ordered it, 
but the American people, with the greatest of pluck, born under the freedom of 
those Stars and Stripes, made this thing possible possible to a free people. It is 
an educator of the world. The world will be wiser for it. No king can ever rule 
the American heart. America extends an invitation to the best of the world, and 
its Stars and Stripes will wave from now on to eternity. That is one of the lessons 
we have taught. But I must stop. If I go on another moment I will get on to 
some new idea. I thank you all for coming to us. I welcome you all here, in the 
name of Chicago. I welcome you to see this dying effort of Chicago Chicago that 
never could conceive what it wouldn't attempt and yet has found nothing it could 
not achieve. I thank you all." Late that afternoon he returned home to dine with 
his family and an hour later was shot down in his own residence by one Prender- 
gast, who had been admitted to the house on the plea that he desired to see the 
mayor on important business. Chicago was plunged into gloom and the plans that 
the Exposition should go out in a blaze of glory were abandoned. It seemed that 
all Chicago gathered to pay tribute to him at the funeral obsequies and during the 
day in which the body lay in state in the city hall. A contemporary biographer has 
written: "For twenty years, covering the period of his official life, Carter Harri- 
son was a unique character in Chicago. In many respects his life was picturesque. 
That he was honest none ever questioned. That he loved Chicago as his own being, 
none ever doubted. He was a man of strong personality, little understood abroad 
because grossly caricatured at home. He was thoroughly familiar with the details 
of even' department of the municipal government and the duties of every responsible 
head. He insisted upon honest administration. He possessed remarkable executive 
and administrative ability. He was always alert, guarding his official prerogatives 
and the public interests with sleepless vigilance. He sought to protect the treasury 
from useless appropriations. His habit of personal economy controlled his official 
recommendations. His character abounded in contradictions and paradoxes. A 
heavy taxpayer himself, he protected the interest of taxpayers. Moved with sym- 
pathy for the destitute, he favored increasing the public work to give them em- 
ployment. He governed without repression. He planned his campaign as a genius 
and led the assault as a hero. He never engaged in defensive warfare, however 
vigorously the enemy attacked. He was always aggressive and impetuous. He 
carried his measures by the force of his intellect and the fury of his manner, con- 
vincing or overawing the opposition. His purpose accomplished, he was gracious 
and conciliatory. He was a manly antagonist, a magnanimous victor. No man who 
contended with him ever doubted his courage or his resources after the battle was 
over. He had no conception of fear and no apprehension of danger. He encoun- 
tered the antagonism of newspapers and secured the support of their readers. He 
was a piquant, popular, versatile public speaker, adapting his oratory with equal 
facility to the educated and the ignorant, the refined and the rough. Naturally 
genial and courteous, he could, if the occasion demanded, assume a reserve, hauteur 
and frigidity of manner that chilled advances. He was a consummate actor, an 
earnest man. Thoroughly democratic in principle and mental characteristics, he 
was equally agreeable to the laborer and the millionaire. He knew no classes ; all 
occupied one plane. The masses regarded him with unbounded affection. He was 
wonderfully felicitous in adapting himself to his surroundings.- He was a man of 



202 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

superb presence and chivalrous bearing. His supremest devotion was to his home 
and his family. He had little use for the club. His nature united the courage of 
a lion with the gentleness of a child." 



IRENUS KITTREDGE HAMILTON. 

His clarity of vision, laudable ambition and strong purpose led Irenus Kit- 
tredge Hamilton from the more restricted fields of New England and the east 
to the Mississippi valley which, in the middle part of the nineteenth century, of- 
fered almost limitless opportunities for business advancement through the develop- 
ment of its natural resources. Coming to this section of the country, Mr. Hamilton 
made for himself a notable position in connection with the development of the 
lumber industry and for many years figured conspicuously as a representative of 
the lumber trade of Chicago. The sturdy and sterling traits of the Scottish and 
of the New England ancestry were salient features in the life of Mr. Hamilton, 
who came to be recognized as one of the foremost representatives of industrial 
and financial circles in Chicago. His birth occurred in Lyme, New Hampshire, 
December 1, 1830, and he came of Scotch-Irish lineage, although for some gen- 
erations the family has been represented in New England. His grandfather, Dr. 
Cyrus Hamilton, was a prominent medical practitioner of Lyme and the maternal 
grandfather, Jonathan Kittredge, followed the same profession in Canterbury, 
New Hampshire. Deacon Irenus Hamilton, the father, devoted much of his life 
to farming and also operated a saw and gristmill. He was prominent in the 
public life of New Hampshire, occupying various positions of honor and trust, 
including that of state senator. He occupied the old family homestead built by 
his father, which is still one of the most attractive residences of Lyme Plains. 
The ancestral home was the birthplace of our subject and of his brothers and 
sisters, Woodman C., Charles T., Alfred K. and Mary Esther, the latter becoming 
the wife of Dr. Henry M. Chase, of Lawrence, Massachusetts. 

Irenus K. Hamilton was reared amid the refining influences of a home of cul- 
ture and after he had attained his majority established a household of his own by 
his marriage, in October, 1853, to Miss Mary Louisa Waterbury, of Brooklyn, 
New York. They became the parents of two daughters, Amy, now the wife of 
R. J. O. Hunter, and Louise, now Mrs. William Waller, of whom the latter is a 
resident of Chicago and the former also resides in this city. There were also two 
sons in the family: Nathaniel W., who married Miss Harriet Chase, of Chicago, 
and is in business in Pasadena, California; and Irenus K., who is now in the 
manufacturing business at Hartford, Connecticut. The mother of these children 
passed away in 1886 and in 1889 Mr. Hamilton wedded her sister, Mrs. Charlotte 
L. Williamson, of Boston, Massachusetts, who by her former marriage had one 
daughter, Caroline L., now the widow of Dr. Frank Hugh Montgomery, mentioned 
elsewhere in this work. 

At the time of his marriage Mr. Hamilton was well qualified to take up the 
responsibilities of life because of his thorough home and school training. He had 




I. 1C. HAMILTON 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 205 

attended the public schools of Lyme and later St. Johnsbury Academy of Vermont, 
and had been trained at home to habits of industry, diligence and integrity. Like 
most of the boys of that day, he and his brothers were trained to work and to 
realize the value of persistent labor. When his academic course was completed 
he found employment in a general store at St. Johnsbury and carried to his new 
duties the habits of thoroughness which he had formed. His industry and capa- 
bility soon attracted the attention of Governor Fairbanks, -then at the head of the 
immense scale manufacturing plant of the E. & T. Fairbanks Company, and he 
offered to Mr. Hamilton the position of bookkeeper in their New York branch. 
At the end of a year and a half the manager of the New York house, Charles 
Fairbanks, was obliged to go to Europe on account of his health and Mr. Hamilton 
became his successor, filling the position to the entire satisfaction of those whom 
he represented for the next eighteen months, when Charles Fairbanks returned: 

It was during this period that Mr. Hamilton learned more thoroughly the ad- 
vantages of persistence, the study of minute details, of self-reliance and of hon- 
orable business methods, all of which were brought into constant requisition in 
his after business life. He received from the Fairbanks Company flattering offers 
to continue in their employ, but feeling that better opportunities might be found 
elsewhere, he joined the firm of A. Latham & Company, car locomotive and gen- 
eral machinery manufacturers, at White River Junction, Vermont. The financial 
depression of 1854 wrought such changes that the company went out of business. 
He was now free to carry out plans which he had been formulating for some time 
and in the summer of 1855 came to the middle west. He investigated various 
sections and then decided to join his brother, W. C. Hamilton, at Fond du Lac, 
Wisconsin. There they built a sawmill, entered lands from the government and 
carried on business in a profitable way for twelve years. In 1868, for the purpose 
of enlarging their interests, they sold out in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and in con- 
nection with A. C. Merryman erected a gang and circular mill at Marinette, Wis- 
consin. They acquired large tracts of pine land on the Menominee river and its 
branches and in 1893 incorporated the business under the name of the Hamilton 
& Merryman Company, with Irenus K. Hamilton as the president, W. C. Ham- 
ilton as vice president, and A. C. Merryman, secretary. In connection with the 
mill, in 1875 they opened a lumberyard at the corner of Loomis and Twenty- 
second streets, in Chicago, and purchased three vessels to convey the lumber from 
the mill to the yard, building up a business which resulted in the sale of thirty 
million feet of lumber annually. In the year when the Chicago branch of the 
business was established Mr. Hamilton removed his family to this city and here 
made his home until his death. The company of which he was president became 
the owners of valuable tracts of timber lands in Michigan, under which there were 
found to exist rich deposits of iron ore and other minerals. On one section at 
Iron Mountain, Michigan, is located the famous Hamilton Iron Mine, which has 
the deepest iron shaft in the country fourteen hundred feet. At that time, in 
addition to the interests mentioned, each member of the corporation was a large 
owner of the stock of the Marinette & Menominee Paper Company, of Marinette, 
Wisconsin, an immense establishment with a daily capacity of sixty tons of paper 
manufactured from wood pulp. Moreover, members of the firm became active fac- 
tors in the development of the lumber trade in the south, especially in the pine 



206 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

lands of Louisiana, and their operations in that section of the country contributed 
much to its development. 

Irenus K. Hamilton was a director of the American Exchange National Bank 
of Chicago and also of the First National Bank of Englewood, and was identified 
with several other interests of a semi-public character. For a long period he 
served as trustee of St. Luke's hospital, in which connection he rendered valuable 
service. No good work done in the name of charity or religion sought his coopera- 
tion in vain and he gave liberally in support of many benevolent projects and of 
various denmoinations in addition to his liberal gifts to the Protestant Episcopal 
church, in which he held membership. A friendly disposition and unfeigned cor- 
diality made him popular in social circles and yet he found his greatest enjoyment 
in his own home. In manner he was quiet and unassuming and never obtruded his 
views upon others, yet his opinions were well formed and were based upon broad' 
reading and wide experience. That he made splendid use of his time, talents and 
opportunities was indicated in the success which crowned his labors. His busi- 
ness interests were always of a constructive character, never sacrificing the welfare 
of others, and thus in industrial, commercial and financial circles his name was 
ever an honored one. His death occurred March, 1908, and interment took place 
at Graceland cemetery. 



ELISHA PAXTON WHITEHEAD. 

Chicago, whose growth has been one of the wonders of the world, owes its pre- 
eminence not alone to the men of light and learning of the early days but as well 
to the men of ability who are being continually attracted by the ever broadening 
opportunities of the city which has become one of the world's centers of commerce 
and finance. A representative of its later day development, Elisha Paxton White- 
head, capitalist and manufacturer, left the impress of his individuality upon its 
business development. The later years of his life were here passed and his success 
gave such proof of his business ability that his opinions were largely accepted as 
authority upon many important business problems. 

Mr. Whitehead was a western man and in his life exemplified the enterprising 
and progressive spirit that has ever dominated this section of the country. He 
was born in Madison, Indiana, July 29, 1846, a son of Jesse and Rebecca McClure 
(Hays) Whitehead. In the acquirement of his education he passed through con- 
secutive grades in the schools of his native city until graduated from the high 
school, after which he continued his studies in the Collegiate & Commercial Insti- 
tute of New Haven, Connecticut, and then entered the Philadelphia Polytechnic 
Institute, from which in due course of time he was graduated. Liberal education 
thus qualified him for the onerous duties of business life and from the time of his 
initial experience in business circles his course was marked by continuous and 
substantial progress. He was first employed as entry clerk in the house of Hale. 
Aver & Company, wholesale iron merchants of Chicago, and afterward secured a 
position in the office of W. B. Phillips & Company, insurance agents, who were 
succeeded by O. W. Barrett & Company. His experience in these different lines 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 207 

qualified him for the conduct of a business of his own when he entered into part- 
nership with N. S. Bouton in the manufacture of agricultural implements at Naper- 
ville, Illinois, under the firm name of Bouton, Whitehead & Company. From 
the beginning the enterprise prospered, the business steadily growing in volume 
and importance until it was very extensive. At a later date the plant was removed 
to Chicago under the name of the Naperville Agricultural Works. Extending his 
efforts into other fields, Mr. Whitehead became secretary of the Elgin National 
Watch Company. He also joined the Chicago Stock Exchange but in his later 
years resigned membership therein. 

On the 10th of December, 187-1, Mr. Whitehead was married, in Chicago, to 
Miss Grace Madeline Laflin, a daughter of George H. Laflin and granddaughter 
of Matthew Laflin, a pioneer of Chicago, both of whom are mentioned elsewhere in 
this volume. She is a direct descendant of Elder William Brewster, who came from 
England to America as one of the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620. Mr. and 
Mrs. Whitehead became the parents of five children: Mary Brewster, now the 
wife of Ralph W. Miller; Rebecca McClure, now Mrs. W. Rockwood Gibbs; Jesse; 
Grace Madeline, the wife of Lawrence D. Rockwell; and Virginia Laflin. 

In his political views Mr. Whitehead was throughout his life a supporter of 
republican principles. He belonged to the Chicago Athletic Club and was an in- 
terested and active member of the First Presbyterian church and a worker in the 
Railroad Mission Sunday School. The attainment of success was never in any 
way allowed to warp his kindly nature or ready sympathy. He strove for the 
attainment of high ideals in business and social circles and municipal affairs as 
well as in private life. His strong and salient characteristics were such as won for 
him unqualified confidence and favorable regard and throughout the period of his 
residence here he was numbered among the honored citizens of Chicago. 



HARRY FRANK HARVEY. 

Harry Frank Harvey, a wholesale liquor dealer of Chicago, was born in Co- 
manche, Iowa, August 10, 1859, a son of Squire T. and Laura A. (Sessions) Har- 
vey, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work. In the spring of 1862 the 
parents removed with their family to Chicago and the son pursued his education 
1n the public schools here and in a business college. At the age of nineteen he went 
to Denver, where he spent two years and on his return entered the employ of his 
father, acquainting himself with every phase of the trade, so that he was well fitted 
to assume leadership when in 1885 he became a partner. Upon the retirement 
of his father in 1888 he assumed full control of the business, which he has since 
continued, engaging in the wholesale trade and in the importation of wines and 
liquors. For many years past he has also been interested in mining in Colorado 
and his investments in that connection have brought him good returns. 

On the 26th of September, 1883, Mr. Harvey was married to Miss Hattie J. 
Richardson, of this city, who is a member of the Congregational church. The four 
children of this marriage are Ruby May, Laura Madge, Eugene J. and Addison J. 



208 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The second daughter is the wife of Joseph H. Grut, a banker of Salt Lake City, 
while the others are still at home. 

The family residence is at No. 1635 Bryan avenue and they also have a beau- 
tiful summer home, Oak Glen, which is located at White Lake, Michigan, where 
Mr. Harvey is largely interested in real estate. He has done much toward devel- 
oping a popular summer resort there, having laid out one of its finest subdivisions, 
known as Maple Beach. There he spends most of the time during the summer 
months and greatly enjoys the sport furnished by his motor boat and his yacht, 
being a member of the White Lake Yacht Club. In politics he is an independent 
democrat, for while he believes in the principles of the party, he does not consider 
himself bound by party ties. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, being 
a charter member of Park Lodge, No. 843, F. & A. M.; Park Chapter, No. 213, 
R. A. M.; the Knights of Pythias; and the Royal League. He is also a member 
of the Illinois Athletic Association but he cannot be called a club man, preferring 
to devote his time to his family and such friendship interests as center in his home. 



MATTHEW LAFLIN. 

History bears out the statement that the largest fortunes in America have 
been made by men who have sought the opportunities of a new locality, where 
one may take advantage of natural resources and the conditions that arise through 
the growth and progress of a section. The great majority of men, however, fear 
to leave the beaten path, to break the ties that bind them to a district and seek 
fortune in new fields. They lack the enterprising spirit that carries them be- 
yond the confines amid which they have labored, but of this class Matthew 
Laflin was never a representative. Where favoring opportunity led the way he 
was quick to follow and he saw and readily recognized advantages that others 
passed heedlessly by. To find scope for his energy and industry his dominant 
qualities he sought the west when Chicago was but a village and for a number 
of years he remained as the last link that bound Fort Dearborn to the metropolis 
of the present, that connected the history of pioneer days with the records of 
metropolitan greatness. When he passed away on the 21st of May, 1897, in the 
ninety-fourth year of his age, he had been a resident of Chicago for almost six 
decades. Fort Dearborn was his first place of residence in the embryo city, it 
affording better shelter for his family than any building which could be secured 
at that time. The history of Matthew Laflin and his business operations is to 
a large measure the history of Chicago's growth and progress, for few men 
have taken more active or effective part in instituting the business interests which 
have formed the basis of Chicago's commercial greatness. He established the 
first stock yards here, was one of the promoters of the water works, was an ex- 
tensive operator in real estate and conducted other business affairs of far-reaching 
importance. The 16th of December, 1803, witnessed the beginning of his life 
history, for on that day he was born at Southwick, Hampden county, Massa- 
chusetts. It is said that he came of a long-lived race and inherited "the sagacity 




MATTHEW LAFIJX 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 211 

and thrift of the Scotch, the quickness and energy of the Irish and the invincible 
endurance and perseverance of the English" and in the broad field of western 
enterprise these qualifications found full scope. The Laflin line was the source of 
the Scotch-Irish strain, the family being founded in America by the grandfather 
of Matthew Laflin, who came to this country from Ireland. His son Matthew 
Laflin was born and reared on this side of the Atlantic and wedded Lydia Ris- 
ing, of English lineage. 

Matthew Laflin was indebted to the district school system of his native place 
for the educational privileges he enjoyed, regularly attending school a portion of 
each year until he reached the age of sixteen, when he became a student in the 
academy at Holyoke, Massachusetts. His education completed, he became a 
clerk in the store of his elder brother, who was the senior member of the firm 
of Laflin & Loomis, at Lee, Massachusetts. He became familiar with the gun- 
powder business through his connection with the establishment of his father, who 
was engaged in the manufacture and sale of gunpowder, and on attaining his 
majority Matthew Laflin joined his elder brother, Roland Laflin, in a partner- 
ship for the sale of powder manufactured in his father's mills. He drove through 
the country in a wagon, from which he disposed of the product, and at the end of 
a year his profits were such as to enable him to become part owner in powder 
mills at Canton, Connecticut, in which his brother-in-law Norman Mills was 
interested. On the death of the latter Mr. Laflin purchased his brother-in-law's 
interest and become a partner of Isaac Mills. For seven years he was associated 
with that business, during which time he continued to drive through the country 
selling powder, for which he was often forced to receive farm products in ex- 
change. With a capital of ten thousand dollars he removed to Saugerties, New 
York, where he began the manufacture of axes, but this undertaking proved un- 
profitable and, forming a partnership with his elder brother, Luther Laflin, he 
opened a powder manufactory at Saugerites and in time the firm acquired possession 
of another powder mill in that locality. Their business grew rapidly, extending 
into both eastern and western territory. 

It was while thus engaged that Mr. Laflin's attention was attracted by the 
commencement of operations for the building of the Illinois and Michigan canal 
in 1837. Hoping to make sale of blasting powder to the builders of the canal, 
he paid his first visit to the west, making his way at once to Chicago. He quickly 
recognized the advantageous situation of the little city on the lake and in a 
measure foresaw its future. He, therefore, resolved to ally his interests with 
the growing western town and took up his permanent abode here, having charge 
of the western sales of the Saugerties Powder Works and of the agencies which 
were soon afterward established at St. Louis, Missouri, at Milwaukee and Janes- 
ville, Wisconsin, and at Springfield. At these points under the direction of Mr. 
Laflin the business grew rapidly and in 1840 Solomon A. Smith, afterward the 
president of the Merchants Savings, Loan & Trust Company, was admitted to a 
partnership under the style of Laflin & Smith, which was subsequently changed 
to Laflin, Smith & Boies. The business developed along substantial lines and Mr. 
Laflin continued his connection therewith until he sold out in order to devote his 
entire attention to his real-estate investments, which had not only grown in ex- 
tent but also had rapidly increased in value in the intervening years. 



212 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

As previously stated, Mr. Laflin arid his family at one time lived in Fort 
Dearborn. This was during the winter of 1838-39, at which period Chicago's 
boundaries were practically the river on the west, the lake on the east and Kinzie 
and Twelfth streets. A few warehouses, packing houses and foundries were 
built along the north shore of the main branch of the river, with a few frame 
dwellings beyond, but it was necessary to reach these by ferry. Many evidences 
are cited of Mr. Laflin's New England sagacity and business foresight, but nothing 
more clearly indicates his qualities in that direction than his real-estate invest- 
ments. As he traveled over the country, supervising his powder agencies, he 
noted the rapid growth and development of the territory tributary to Chicago 
and was impressed with the fact of the rapid development of farm lands which 
within a few years were brought to a state of fruition that made them much 
more valuable than farms developed for twice as long in the east. He knew that 
Chicago would become the market for all the outlying territory and he saw, too, 
that it would not be long before the great open prairies west of the river would be 
demanded for settlement by Chicago's population. He, therefore, placed his 
capital in investments in that region. His first purchase represented the invest- 
ment of nin? hundred dollars, saved from the failure of the Saugerties Axe Factory, 
in nine acres of land from the sale of which he finally realized four hundred 
thousand dollars. From 1849 he concentrated his energies entirely upon his real- 
estate operations and at one time owned one hundred and forty acres of land 
within the city limits and property which he bought originally for three hundred 
dollars became worth millions. He pinned his faith to Chicago's future, believing 
that he would live to see the wisdom of his judgment demonstrated by time. 
Many regarded him as most visionary and unstable in business affairs when, in 
1 849, he went far beyond the improved portion of the city and purchased about 
one hundred acres of land on the west side, extending eastward from Madison 
street and Ogden avenue. This he subdivided and at once began to improve, 
erecting upon the intersection of those streets a large three-story frame building, 
which he called the Bull's Head Hotel, planning to make it a resort for the stock- 
men who gathered in Chicago from time to time. He also built barns, sheds and 
cattle pens and thus established Chicago's first stock yards. In 1851 he also 
instituted the first omnibus line to carry his hotel patrons between the Bull's Head 
and the market, then located on State street. This old and well known hostelry, 
one of the landmarks of the city, was torn down in 1876, after having been used 
for many years as the Washingtonian Home for the cure of inebriates. On the same 
site, however, was erected a handsome brick block for the same purpose. His 
land was divided and sold as residence and business blocks and a further element 
in the improvement of the west division of the city was the building of the south- 
western plank road, better known in those days as the Blue Island road, extending 
diagonally from the city limits toward Blue Island. Upon this road a toll gate 
was placed and the collection of toll proved a profitable source of revenue to Mr. 
Laflin. Again his labors constituted a valuable element in the city's growth in 
his efforts to establish the first water works system of Chicago, when it became 
necessary to discontinue the use of wells up to that time owned by individuals and 
secure a city supply of lake water. A state charter was obtained by the company, 
which built a reservoir of pine logs and boards near the shore at the foot of 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 213 

Lake street, into which water was pumped from the lake and thence distributed 
through wooden pipes, the power used for pumping being supplied by a flouring 
mill. Mr. Laflin was one of the chief owners of the water works, which he operated 
for thirteen years, making improvements from time to time as the growth of the 
city demanded. 

Even beyond the limits of Chicago the enterprising spirit of Mr. Laflin was 
felt. When it seemed that the Elgin Watch Company must suffer failure because 
of lack of funds, he decided to accede to the request to finance the enterprise and 
become one of the chief stockholders in the concern, which through his aid was 
placed upon a substantial basis and is today one of the important enterprises of 
the character in the country. He was likewise very active in the development 
of Waukesha as the famous Wisconsin watering resort. He purchased a farm 
there in 1874, undertook to make extensive improvements thereon and built a 
large hotel the Fountain Spring House near the newly discovered spring which 
he named the Fountain Spring. From that time forth Waukesha was not only 
patronized by people in search of health through the medicinal properties of the 
water but also by those who sought diversion and rest at an attractive summer 
resort. When the new hotel was almost completely destroyed by fire, in 1879, 
Mr. Laflin at once rebuilt it on a scale of even greater magnificence and thus his 
labors extended out as a beneficent and upbuilding influence in the west as well as 
in Chicago. 

Long before his removal to this city Mr. Laflin was married, in Canton, New 
York, in 1827, to Henrietta Hinman, of Lee, Massachusetts, and they became the 
parents of two sons and a daughter: George H. and Georgina, twins; and 
Lycurgus. The daughter died in infancy and after the death of his first wife 
Mr. Laflin wedded Miss Catherine King, of Westfield, Massachusetts. They had 
several children but all died in youth. Mrs. Catherine Laflin passed away in 
1891 and the two sons of the first marriage are now deceased, although they were 
for many years prominent factors in the business life of Chicago. For years no 
man was better known in this city than Matthew Laflin and at all time he mani- 
fested a genuine interest in Chicago, her welfare and progress. During the dark 
days which followed the financial crash of 1857, when an ominous quiet seemed 
to hang over Chicago, he did much to sustain and awaken the faith of the people, 
who were dispairing of the public credit by purchasing state bonds at par. When 
the Civil war was in progress he was one of a company of citizens who compelled 
the Chicago Times to moderate its tone in discussing the war issues before General 
Burnside took military possession of the paper and office. His political allegiance 
was always given to the democracy, but he was a stanch champion of the Union 
cause. It is said that in appearance and in personal characteristics he presented 
a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. In the later years of his life one 
of his biographer's wrote: "Although now approaching the ninetieth anniversary 
of his birth, he is still remarkably a hale and stalwart man, enjoying the full 
possession of all his faculties, physical and mental. His eye has not grown dim 
with advancing years, nor are his natural forces perceptibly abated." Few men 
in the evening of life have kept in such close touch with the progress of events as 
did Matthew Laflin. He was ever an advocate of law and order and had no sym- 
pathy for the labor unions that in their strikes indulge in violence and the destruc- 



214 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tion of property", believing it to be the duty of the government to protect every 
citizen in his constitutional right, not only to life and to liberty but also to the 
pursuit of his lawful business freely and without molestation. In his last years 
he arranged to give to Chicago the Matthew Laflin Memorial, now called the 
Chicago Academy of Sciences, in Lincoln Park. At his death the Chicago Times 
said: "For fifty-eight years he has been a resident here. He came to Chicago 
when the town was hardly more than a buffalo wallow on the prairies. He lived 
to see it take a place among the great cities of the world by reason of the gen- 
erosity of nature and the courage and confidence of its citizens. He was the last 
of those industrious pioneers whose lives were linked with Fort Dearborn the 
last of that splendid race of strong men who had made their impress on the his- 
tory of Chicago." In editorial comment the Tribune wrote: "The story of Mr. 
Laflin's life is the story of New England thrift and business sagacity grafted on 
western energy, enterprise and adventure. It is true he did not have the humble 
origin, or experience the early privations of some men, who have achieved success, 
but on the other hand not one in a thousand who have enjoyed his modest ad- 
vantages have turned them to such excellent account. The wisdom, energy and 
success with which he pushed his way along are a study for American youths. 
Mr. Laflin was a typical Chicago man and, indeed, there is little doubt that he 
and a few other spirits like him were the real originators and fathers of Chicago's 
daring and enterprise." The name of Matthew Laflin is indeed closely interwoven 
with the history of this city and he has left the impress of his individuality for 
all time upon its records, having given impetus to many enterprises, measures and 
movements that have not yet reached their full fruition in the life of the city. 



CHARLES HALLETT THORNE. 

The characteristics which have made Charles Hallett Thome one of the promi- 
nent merchants of Chicago are clearly defined and their development have placed 
him in the position of leadership which he today occupies as treasurer of the firm 
of Montgomery Ward & Company. He was born in Chicago, December 3, 1868, 
a son of George R. and Ellen (Cobb) Thorne, of whom mention is made elsewhere 
in this volume. The public schools of his native city afforded him his early edu- 
cational privileges and later he attended the University of Michigan. Thus well 
equipped by liberal mental training for the duties of life, he entered upon his busi- 
ness career on the 2d of January, 1889, as stock clerk in the house of Montgomery 
Ward & Company and was advanced through various intermediate positions until 
made assistant treasurer in 1893. Later he was elected treasurer and one of the 
directors of the company. The unique position which the house of Montgomery 
Ward & Company occupies in relation to the trade interests of America is well 
known, and under the progressive policy of Charles H. Thorne and his associates 
rapid growth has been one of the features of the house, resulting from a spirit of 
enterprise that has wrought out along new lines, the ' initiative power being 
evidenced in an originality that has wrought for splendid success. Mr. Thorne 
is financially interested in other enterprises and is a director of the Continental & 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 215 

Commercial National Bank. He has also taken an active interest in civic affairs 
and cooperates in many movements for the direct benefit and upbuilding of the 
city. He is a member of the Commercial Club and one of the Chicago Plan com- 
mittee of that body. 

On the 30th of December, 1891, at Peoria, Illinois, Mr. Thome was married 
to Miss Belle Wilber, of that city, and they have three children, Hallett W., Eliza- 
beth W. and Leslie, aged respectively fifteen, thirteen and six years. The family 
residence is at Winnetka. Mr. Thorne is interested in golf as a means of recrea- 
tion and is a member of various leading clubs, including the Chicago Athletic and 
Chicago Yacht Clubs and all the principal north shore clubs the Midlothian, 
Skokie and Exmoor Country Clubs. He stands today as a splendid type of the 
business man who has made Chicago one of the chief world commercial centers, 
and yet his interest in business is not of that absorbing kind which precludes 
activity along those lines whiqh make for well rounded character and development. 



HERBERT FRANKLIN FISK. 

Herbert Franklin Fisk, for fifty-five years a factor in educational circles and 
professor of education in Northwestern University at Evanston since 1888, was 
born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, September 25, 1840, a son of the Rev. Franklin 
and Chloe Catherine (Stone) Fisk, both of whom were descended from Massa- 
chusetts ancestry, coming to this country from England about 1630. Nathan Fisk 
was born in England about 1615 and became a resident of Watertown, Massachu- 
setts, about 1641. He died in 1676. His third son Nathaniel Fisk, was born in 
1653 and died in 1735. His son Nathaniel (1678-1719) married Hannah Adams 
and they became the parents of Moses Fisk, who was born in 1713 and died in 
1773. His son, also Moses Fisk, was born in 1746 and died in 1810. He was a 
member of a military company called into service on the occasion of the battle of 
Bunker Hill. He also held various town offices and was a member of the legis- 
lature. His son, the third Moses Fisk, was born in 1776 and departed this life in 
1851. On the ancestral records also appear the names of Broad, Clark, Jennison, 
Cobb, Woodward, Lane, Allen, Everett, Edson, Reid, Partridge, all of Massa- 
chusetts birth and tracing their descent to settlers from England earlier than 1700. 

Herbert Franklin Fisk, having mastered the preliminary branches of learn- 
ing in the public schools was graduated from the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbra- 
ham, Massachusetts, with the class of 1856. He won his Bachelor of Arts degree 
on his graduation from Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut, in 1860, 
and in 1863 received from his alma mater the Master of Arts degree and in 1888 
that of Doctor of Divinity. In 1 899 he received from Allegheny College at Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania, and in 1904 from Northwestern University at Evanston the 
honorary degree of LL.D. From the time when he entered upon educational work 
as a teacher in the public schools in 1856 to the present he has made continuous 
progress in his profession until his name is widely known in educational circles 
throughout the country. During the year following his graduation he was teacher 
of Latin and Mathematics in the Delaware Literary Institute at Franklin, New 



216 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

York, and from 1861 until 1863 was principal of the Shelburne Academy at 
Shelburne, Vermont. He next was called to the chair of Latin and Greek in 
Cazenovia Seminary of New York, where he continued for four years until 1867, 
when he returned to Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, to become Latin and 
Greek teacher in that school. A year was there passed, at the end of which time 
he accepted the principalship of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New 
York, continuing at the head of that institution for five years. In 1873 he accepted 
the proffered position of principal of the Evanston Academy of the Northwestern 
University at Evanston, Illinois, and so continued until 1904, although in the 
meantime he had been called to the professorship of education in Northwestern 
University, in which connection he has continued since 1888. The importance of 
his teaching and the number of pupils who have come under his instruction have 
made him widely known throughout the country. 

In Portageville, New York, on the llth of July, 1866, Dr. Fisk was united in 
marriage to Miss Anna Green, a daughter of Alvah S. Green and a granddaughter 
of Arnold Green. Mrs. Fisk was graduated in 1855 from the Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary of Lima, New York, in a class of twenty young women. In 1905 the 
survivors of that class numbered fourteen and nine of the number returned to 
Lima to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their graduation, including Mrs. 
Fisk. In early womanhood she was engaged in teaching music in Delaware Liter- 
ary Institute from 1859 until 1861, and was preceptress of Albert College, Belle- 
ville, Ontario, in 1863 and 1864, and of Cazenovia Seminary, New York, from 
1864 until 1866. She was prominent in the cultured society circles of Evanston 
where her death occurred in December, 1908. 

Dr. and Mrs. Fisk became the parents of two daughters, Aurora Thompson, 
who married Charles Zueblin and resides in Winchester, Massachusetts, won the 
A. B. degree upon her graduation from Northwestern University with the class 
of 1890. Nelle Green Fisk, the younger daughter, who also won the A. B. degree 
at Northwestern University, from which institution she was graduated in 1906, 
now makes her home in Evanston. 

Dr. Fisk has always given his political allegiance to the republican party. He 
is a member of the University Club of Chicago and is much interested in the or- 
ganized movement for the benefit of the city along lines of constantly broadening 
influence and opportunity. Since 1878 he has been a member of the Rock River 
conference of the Methodist Episcopal church and his entire life has been devoted 
to service for his fellowmen. His own ideals have been high and his zeal has 
inspired others. 



GILBERT BEEBE MANLOVE. 

Gilbert Beebe Manlove, lawyer, scientist and inventor, was born in Fayette 
county. Indiana, December 7. 1850, son of Absalom and Mary F. (Rea) Manlove. 
The first of the family in America was Mark Manlove, a native of England, who 
came to America in 1665 with his wife and twelve children and settled in Maryland. 
The line of descent is traced through his son William; his son Mark, who married 




GILBKRT B. MANLOVK 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 219 

Margaret Hart (or Hunt) ; their son William, who married Elizabeth Brown; their 
son William, who married Hannah Robinson; their son George, who married Rachel 
Dunning; their son William, who married Prudence Cook and who was the grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Manlove received a country-school education and at nineteen years of age 
entered Butler University, Indianapolis, taking the law course. After practicing 
with his brother William Robert Manlove at Indianapolis for three years, in 1877 he 
formed a partnership with James Buchanan, a leader in the Greenback party and 
an inventor of the pneumatic stacks for threshing machines. In 1883 Mr. Manlove 
left the firm and removed to Final, Arizona, but four years later settled in Chicago, 
Illinois, where for eight years he was one of the city's most expert abstract examin- 
ers. During 1895-99 he gave up active business life and devoted himself to the clos- 
ing years of his sister's husband, Dr. Robert Laughlin Rea, who died in 1899. 

Mr. Manlove was of an inventive mind and being interested with his brother in 
the Manlove Gate Company, he purchased his interest and then made later improve- 
ments and inventions in the gate, which made it an instantaneous success, and it is 
known throughout the world as the New Manlove Automatic Gate. At the time of 
his death he had nearly completed an invention for an automatic switch for rail- 
roads, which as a labor-saving device was complete in detail. He was given to scien- 
tific researches and was considered an authority on ornithology, entomology and 
natural science. 

He possessed unbounded enthusiasm and as a boy tried to enlist as a drummer- 
boy in the Civil war, although in a district of the strongest sympathy for secession. 
Of a quiet, unostentatious nature, he was charitably inclined, and never so happy as 
when promoting the welfare of deserving young men or giving comfort to the aged 
and infirm. His ability to make friends who were legion numbered among others 
the personal friendships of James Whitcomb Riley, Walter Q. Gresham, Thomas A. 
Hendricks, Benjamin F. Harrison and Professor Harvey Wiley. He died Febru- 
ary 5, 1909, at the home of his sister, Mrs. Mellie Manlove Rea, in Chicago, Illinois. 



JAY J. READ. 

Jay J. Read, engaged in the real-estate business, was born May 81, 1855, in 
Erie county, Pennsylvania, a son of Lafayette R. and Sarah J. (Yost) Read. The 
father represented an old American family and was born in this country, while 
the mother was of Holland Dutch descent. During the infancy of their son Jay 
they removed westward to Michigan, settling in Cass county, where they resided for 
ten years. On the expiration of that period they became residents of Kane county, 
Illinois. 

Jay J. Read began his education in the schools of Cass county and continued 
his course in Kane county, completing the usual high-school branches. He after- 
ward entered the Michigan University at Ann Arbor and was graduated in 1878. 
In the same school he took up the study of law, completing a course in the Michi- 
gan College of Law in 1879. In that year he was admitted to the bar and, while 
he has never practiced, his knowledge of law has been of much value to him in the 

Vol. V 11 



220 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

conduct of the real-estate business, to which he has devoted his energies since be- 
coming a factor in the business circles of Chicago. That he has succeeded in this 
line is indicated by the fact that he has so long continued as a real-estate agent of 
the city. He has made it his purpose to largely acquaint himself with property 
values here and has secured a good clientage, while in the conduct of his business 
he has negotiated many important realty transfers. 

In 1881 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Read and Miss Mary E. Hiscock, 
of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and unto them has been born one son, Lyle D., who was 
born in February, 1884, and is now with the Illinois Steel Company. . 

Mr. Read is a charter member of Keat Chapter of the Phi Delta Phi and is a 
member of the Delta Tau Delta, a college fraternity. He also belongs to the 
Birchwood Club and is well known in fraternal circles, for in Masonary he has 
taken the Royal Arch degrees and has also become a Knight Templar of the 
commandery. He likewise belongs to the Royal Arcanum and was formerly a 
member of the Royal League. His political allegiance is given to the republican 
party and while he is conversant with the questions and issues of the day, he never 
seeks office, preferring to concentrate his time and energies upon business affairs, 
which have constantly grown in volume and importance, bringing him to a credit- 
able place in real-estate circles. 



GEORGE R. THORNE. 

George R. Thorne, one of the founders of the house of Montgomery Ward & 
Company and for many years its first vice president but now retired, was born in 
Vergennes, Vermont, September 29, 1837. He comes of English ancestry. The 
environment and experiences of farm life were his in boyhood, but when about 
twenty years of age he left the old homestead in New England and came to the 
middle west, settling at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was employed as a dry- 
goods clerk until the outbreak of the Civil war. His patriotic nature responded to 
the call for aid and he enlisted, serving as a lieutenant quartermaster in the Army 
of the Missouri, with headquarters at St. Louis throughout the period of hostilities. 
He then came to Chicago and engaged in the lumber business until 1872, when he 
sold out and joined A. Montgomery Ward in establishing the business of Mont- 
gomery Ward & Company. The new enterprise prospered from the beginning 
and was incorporated in 1889 with Mr. Ward as president and Mr. Thorne as 
vice president. The former still occupies the presidency and until the close of the 
year 1910 Mr. Thorne retained the position of vice president, although both had 
retired from active connection with the business about 1893. The establishment 
of this business in 1872 was an initial step in the development of mail order 
trade. The idea of securing patronage in the line of mail order business was 
thought to be an impractical one by the majority of the most progressive business 
men of the day. The enterprise was established on a small scale and for several 
years grew somewhat slowly, as the people were unfamiliar with this method of 
doing business, but the perseverance and progressive ideas of the proprietors 
finally won the victory and the house is today one of the largest mercantile con- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 221 

cerns of the world. The early success of this undertaking was due in a very 
large measure to the untiring industry and absolute sense of honor and honesty 
possessed by Mr. Thorne, coupled with his sound and methodical business habits. 
Throughout his active life he gave his undivided attention to the upbuilding of 
this business and at the time of his retirement the annual sales of the house had 
reached the vast sum of forty millions of dollars. Their trade had extended from 
coast to coast and a branch house had been established at Kansas City, Missouri, 
to look after the trade of the southwest. One by one, as they have grown up and 
completed their education, his sons have joined him and beginning in humble ca- 
pacities have worked upward, winning promotion through merit and thus receiving 
a thorough business training under the instruction of the father, whom as they 
have advanced step by step they have been enabled to relieve of the responsibilities 
of management, resulting ultimately in his absolute retirement. Under their guid- 
ance the business has continued to expand and during the past five years has 
enjoyed the most phenomenal growth in -its history. 

Mr. Thorne was married, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1863 to Miss Ellen Cobb, 
a daughter of Merritt D. Cobb, of that place, and unto them were born seven 
children: William C., vice president of Montgomery Ward & Company; Laura, 
the wife of Reuben H. Donnelley, of Chicago; Charles H., treasurer of Montgomery 
Ward & Company; George A., secretary of Montgomery Ward & Company; James 
W., publicity manager of the company; Robert J., manager of the Kansas City 
branch; and Mabel C., deceased. The family residence is in Kenwood. Since 
retiring Mr. Thorne has spent much of his time in travel, visiting nearly every 
point of interest on the globe. However, he has continued to reside in Chicago 
and when at home has devoted his energies principally to the interests of the 
Midlothian Country Club, in the organization of which he was the prime mover 
and of which he has been president from the beginning. His principal recreation 
has always been golf. In politics he has always been republican. He belongs to 
the Union League and Kenwood Clubs and to all the principal golf clubs of the 
city. He is a well preserved man, who, keeping in close touch with the times, has 
the interest and displays the activity of a man of much younger age. The fit 
utilization of the innate talents which were his, brought Mr. Thorne to a place in 
business circles where the commercial world watched with interest his every move, 
recognizing the fact that his methods were new, original and practical. Perhaps 
his success was due in large part to the fact that he anticipated the needs and 
demands of the coming hour and did not wait until circumstances forced him to 
meet such needs. Alert, he was ever ready to meet any exigency that arose and 
opportunity never found him unprepared. 



ARTHUR S. HUEY. 

The simple processes, not those that are intricate and involved, are the kind 
that win results. Analyzation brings to light the fact that the successful men are 
those, whose rules of business are simple and direct in plan even though there be 
a multiplicity of detail. Not by any esoteric methods but by the principles of trade 



222 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and commerce which every business man must employ if he win honorable success, 
has Arthur S. Huey come into close connection with the management and control 
of the interests of the engineering firm of H. M. Byllesby & Company, a corpora- 
tion engaging in the operation and management of public utilities in one hundred 
and sixty-four American municipalities. He seems to have special aptitude for 
coordinating and unifying forces and interests, and while his business is con- 
stantly broadening in its scope and purpose, it is all conducted in accordance with 
skilfully defined plans that give due recognition to the value of industry and energy 
intelligently directed. What he has accomplished represents the fit utilization of 
his innate powers and talents. 

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mr. Huey was born August 17, 1862, of 
the marriage of the late George E. and Caroline (Taylor) Huey. At the usual 
age he became a public-school student and when he put aside his text-books made 
his initial step in the business world. In 1885 he accepted a position as representa- 
tive of the Edison Company at Minneapolis, and six years later, following the 
consolidation of the United Edison Company and the Thompson-Houston Com- 
pany, he associated himself with the Northwestern General Electric Company of 
St. Paul, Minnesota. All through these years he closely studied the needs and 
demands of the public in relation to the development of electricity in all of its 
various phases and especially in connection with what has come to be commonly 
termed public utilities. In 1902 he was elected to the vice presidency of the en- 
gineering firm of H. M. Byllesby & Company, a corporation for the establishment 
and management of public utilities now operating in many sections of the country. 
Their interests are being constantly extended as favorable opportunity arises for 
the establishment of electric plants in different cities for furnishing light, motive 
and operating power. These interests have been organized as separate corpora- 
tions in many instances and Mr. Huey holds official connection with nearly all 
of these. He is now president of the Consumers Power Company of Minnesota; 
president of the El Reno Gas & Electric Company of El Reno, Oklahoma; 
president of the Fort Smith Light & Traction Company of Fort Smith, Arkansas; 
president of the Interstate Light & Power Company of Wisconsin; president of 
the Northwestern Corporation of Oregon; president of the Ottumwa Railway & 
Light Company of Ottumwa, Iowa ; vice president of H. M. Byllesby & Company 
of Chicago ; vice president of the Mobile Electric Company of Mobile, Alabama ; 
vice president of the Muskogee Gas & Electric Company of Muskogee, Oklahoma ; 
vice president of the Northern Idaho & Montana Power Company, and of the 
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company of Oklahoma City; and trustee of the North- 
western Corporation and of the Northern Electric Company. 

Mr. Huey holds to high ideals in business and his views found expression in 
his address before the National Electric Light Association of St. Louis on the 
25th of May, 1910, when he said: "No words are strong enough to denounce the 
central station management, which regards the community it serves as a mere 
field for exploitation as a mere machine for the coining of electric service into 
dollars. An attitude like this will wreck any organization. The commercial field 
of a public service company, represents an opportunity to market a product. The 
act of supplying the demand, enhances the entire value of the community. As 
the community becomes more attractive, it grows and develops, and as this change 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 223 

takes place,- the value of the market increases. In other words, the central station 
is a part of the economic scheme of the modern city. Logically, it should profit 
in proportion to the cooperative value it returns to the community." In this is 
found proof of the fact that he looks beyond the exigencies of the moment, to 
the possibilities and opportunities of the future. If more men would take this 
broad view, the public would have less cause to complain of the greed of corpora- 
tions, or the graft system that prevails to too great an extent among the corpora- 
tions, that now control those interests which have to do with public service. Mr. 
Huey has come to be a believer in the cooperative spirit, which makes the good of 
one the good of all, and is working persistently toward that end. 

In 1886 occurred the marriage of Arthur S. Huey and Miss Hattie King, and 
unto them have been born three children: Howard, born in 1887; Richard King, 
in 1893; and Ruth, in 1897. During the residence of ten years in Chicago Mr. 
Huey has become a popular and valued member of a number of its leading clubs 
and social organizations, including the Union League Club, the Chicago Press Club 
and the Mid-Day Club. He also belongs to the Lawyers and Railway Clubs of 
New York city. The extent and importance of his operations in business have 
brought him a wide acquaintance throughout the country, and those who meet 
him find him square and just, capable of taking an impartial thought of every 
situation in short, he is a dependable man under all circumstances. 



THOMAS H. KELLEY, M. D. 

Dr. Thomas H. Kelley, who in private and hospital practice has demonstrated 
his ability to cope with the intricate problems that continually confront {he phy- 
sician, was born in Waddington, New York, November 25, 1881. His father, 
Christopher H. Kelley, was also a native of Waddington, but of recent years has 
been a resident of Appleton, Wisconsin, where he is known as a prominent manu- 
facturer. His wife bore the maiden name of Anna Alexander, and by their mar- 
riage they became the parents of two children, the younger, Lilas. being now with 
her parents in Appleton. 

In the state of Wisconsin children are admitted to the public schools at a very 
early age, and Thomas H. Kelley began his education when a little lad of four 
summers. When seventeen years of age he was graduated from the Appleton 
high school. Three years before this he had determined to become a physician, 
and his mother also had often urged him to study for the profession. Therefore, 
soon after his graduation from high school he came to Chicago and at the age of 
eighteen years entered Rush Medical College, from which he was graduated with 
the class of 1903. For eighteen months he filled the position of interne in Belle- 
vue (New York) Hospital, and was afterward connected with the Jay Hood 
Wright Hospital at New York. He next spent three months in the Willard Parker 
Hospital for Contagious Diseases and in 1905 returned to Chicago, where he has 
since been engaged in general practice. 

On the 26th of September, 1907, Dr. Kelley was united in marriage to Miss 
Byrd Buchanan, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Buchanan, of Stevens 



224 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Point, Wisconsin. Mrs. Kelley received her education in the schools of that place 
and since her marriage has taken a deep interest in club and society work on the 
south side of Chicago, where their residence is maintained. She is now the secre- 
tary of the Rhodes Avenue Hospital Auxiliary. Dr. and Mrs. Kelley make their 
home at 7301 Monroe avenue and he has an office at 1001 East Seventy-fifth street 
and at 117 North Dearborn street. 

In addition to his private practice, Dr. Kelley has done much important hospital 
work. He is on the staff and is chief surgeon of the Rhodes Avenue Hospital, 
also of the Jefferson Park Hospital and the South Side Hospital, and is consulting 
surgeon of the Cook County Hospital. He is equally well known in educational cir- 
cles, being on the staff of the Burnett Medical College as professor of surgery and 
formerly was a member of the faculty of the Illinois Medical College. He is now med- 
ical examiner for the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Hibernians, the Woodmen of 
the World, the Independent Order of Foresters, the Maccabees of the World and the 
Modern Maccabees. His religious faith is that of the Catholic church, his political 
belief that of the democratic party. He enjoys all outdoor sports and turns to 
such for his rest and recreation. While a young man, he has made continuous 
progress in his profession, is conversant with the most modern methods of the 
profession and in his work has given general satisfaction through the conscientious 
and able manner in which he has performed his professional duties. 



CARL H. ANDERSEN, M. D. 

Among Chicago's professional men there is perhaps no one who deserves more 
credit for what he has accomplished and for the position to which he has attained 
than does Dr. Carl H. Andersen, who in his early life earned his living as a boot- 
black and newsboy, but there awakened in him the ambition to reach out along 
broadening lines of usefulness and each advanced step in his career has brought 
him a broader outlook and wider opportunities. He has at length reached an envi- 
able position as one of the able surgeons of Chicago, having a large practice that is 
indicative of the confidence reposed in him. 

He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 21, 1860. His father, Jens 
Andersen, was born at Ringsted, Denmark. December 6, 1831, and is a prominent 
banker there. His mother, Johanna (Sorensen) Andersen, was born February 22, 
1833, and is also yet living in Ringsted. They were the parents of five children, 
four daughters and a son, but all are now deceased with the exception of the subject 
of this review. 

When five years of age Dr. Andersen became identified with the public schools 
in his home city, thus continuing his education until ten years of age, when he be- 
came a pupil in the Soro Academy, near Copenhagen, his time being thus passed 
until fourteen years of age. He then ran away from home and came to the United 
States. For two years he remained in New York. He had no relatives or friends 
tc assist or advise him, and as necessity demanded his earning his own living, he 
became a bootblack and newsboy. One of the men who had watched him selling 
papers and shining shoes, noticing his diligence, his willingness and his reliability. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 227 

formed a liking for him and took him to his ranch in Wyoming, where he remained for 
three years. He went from there to Omaha, Nebraska, and secured a position in 
connection with a news stand. 

Dr. Andersen had made up his mind, even though but a boy, to become a physi- 
cian, and he bent every energy toward that end. He worked nights as well as days 
in order to earn the money necessary to carry him through college, and his unre- 
mitting industry and his careful expenditure at length brought him the funds neces- 
sary to meet his college expenses. In 1890, therefore, he entered the John Creigh- 
ton Medical College of Omaha, from which he was graduated in 189-1. Wishing 
to obtain a more thorough knowledge of medicine and surgery he went abroad and 
pursued post-graduate work at Kiel, Germany, and at Copenhagen, taking a two 
years' course. He thus came under the instruction of some of the eminent physicians 
and surgeons of the old world. Well equipped for his profession, he returned to 
Chicago and had the benefit of a year's broad and varied experience as interne in 
the Chicago Hospital, where he was assistant to Dr. Alexander Hugh Ferguson. 
During the Spanish-American war he served as a surgeon in Cuba, and after the 
war was stationed for a time at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He was next sent to 
the Philippines, where he remained for seventeen months, and upon his return to 
this country in 1901 he once more made his way to Chicago, where he has since 
been located. He has an extensive practice in surgery, accorded him in recognition 
of his wide knowledge and his able and conscientious performance of duty. He 
belongs to the Chicago Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society and the 
American Medical Association, is a member of the Mississippi Valley Medical Asso- 
ciation and is a fellow of the Visiting Surgeons' Society. He likewise belongs to the 
Physicians' Club, the Surgeons' Society, the Missouri Valley Association and the 
Pathological Society, and he has a chair in the Postgraduate Woman's Hospital. 
He keeps in touch with all of the most recent work of the profession and his sound 
judgment enables him to quickly discriminate between that which is of value and 
that which he regards as unessential in the practical work of the profession. 

On the 23d of March, 1899, Dr. Andersen was united in marriage to Miss Polly 
Sickles, a niece of General Sickles, of Civil war fame. Mrs. Andersen died June 
27, 1904. The Doctor resides at No. 8 Chalmers Place a'nd has his office in the 
Masonic Temple. He belongs to the Royal Arcanum, the University Club and the 
Illinois Athletic Association. He holds membership with the Lutheran church and 
when opportunity offers engages in travel for pastime and recreation. He has ever 
been greatly interested in experimental work, and keeps in touch with all that per- 
tains to the work of the profession in which he has made steady advancement. 



OTTO L. SCHMIDT, M. D. 

Otto L. Schmidt, a physician of prominent professional and business connec- 
tions, with offices in the Mailers building, has for a quarter of a century continued 
in the practice of medicine in this, his native city. His parents came to Chicago 
in 1857, and it was here that Dr. Schmidt was born in 1863. After graduating 
from the Haven school, and afterwards from the Central high school, at that 



228 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

time on West Monroe street, in its last graduating class in 1880, he determined 
upon the practice of medicine as his life work and entered as a student the Chicago 
Medical College, which eventually became the Medical Department of the North- 
western University. On graduation there followed an interneship of two years in 
the Cook County Infirmary and the Alexian Brothers Hospital of Chicago. There- 
after he qualified for further professional duties by post-graduate work at Wiirz- 
burg and Vienna. Save for the period spent abroad in advanced studies, he was 
continuously engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Chicago since 
1883, and is today recognized as among the prominent of the medical profession. 
He is now physician to the Alexian Brothers Hospital and consulting physician 
to the Michael Reese and German Hospitals. For many years he has been con- 
nected with the Chicago Polyclinic as professor of internal medicine. He is a 
member of the Chicago Medical Society, the Chicago Academy of Medicine, the 
American Medical Association, and the Chicago Society of Medical History. 
Dr. Schmidt is also active in many other social and charitable organizations. He 
is a trustee of the Chicago Historical Society, a trustee of the Illinois State His- 
torical Library, president of the German American Historical Society of Illinois 
and counselor of the Illinois Historical Society. 



THOMAS TAYLOR, JR. 

Thomas Taylor, Jr., master in chancery of the circuit court, was born near 
Birmingham, England, November 18, 1860, a son of Thomas and Jane (Holloway) 
Taylor. The public schools of New Jersey and of Illinois afforded him his early 
educational privileges, for he was only six years of age at the time he crossed 
the Atlantic with his father. Later he became a student in Knox College 
at Galesburg, Illinois, and, working his way through, was graduated with the 
class of 1881. With him in college were Robert Mather, Edgar A. Bancroft, 
S. S. McClure and Judge Pinckney. Mr. Taylor was active in college affairs and 
was elected to the presidency of the Gnothautii Literary Society. Determining 
upon the practice of law as his life work, he matriculated in Harvard Law School 
in 1882 and was graduated with honors in 1885, receiving at that time the LL. B. 
degree. Shortly afterward he was admitted to the bar of Suffolk county, Massa- 
chusetts, and for one year practiced in Boston in connection with the firm of Bur- 
dette & Gooch. In 1887 he came to Chicago and since that time has been actively 
engaged in the general practice of civil law, in which connection a large and dis- 
tinctively representative clientage has been accorded him. In 1892 he was ap- 
pointed master in chancery of the circuit court by Judge Thomas G. Windes, and 
served for eighteen years, or until 1910. He was appointed to the same office by 
Judge Henry A. Baldwin and his record in that position is one which has brought 
the highest commendation of the leading members of the Chicago bar. He is 
well known for his professional integrity and legal ability and is popular with both 
the bench and bar. In 1909 he was nominated for judge of the circuit court and 
in 1910 received the nomination for judge of the superior court on the republican 
ticket, having a very large vote at the primaries. He belongs to the Chicago, to 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 229 

the Illinois and the American Bar Associations and in 1906 he was appointed by 
Governor Deneen a delegate to the congress on uniform divorce law. 

Mr. Taylor resides in Hubbard Woods, Winnetka, where he has an attractive 
home. He was married in Chicago, January 29, 1890, to Miss Florence Clarkson, 
a daughter of John T. Clarkson, of Chicago, and unto them have been born three 
children, Thome Clarkson, Wilberforce and Florence. . Both Mr. and Mrs. Taylor 
have for many years taken especial interest in the work of the Illinois Humane 
Society and Mr. Taylor is serving on its executive committee and also as its at- 
torney. He was during the year 1911 the president of the Harvard Club of Chi- 
cago, is vice president- at the Onwentsia Club and for some years was one 
of the directors of the University Club. He is also an official of the Winnetka 
Club and a member of the Hamilton, Marquette, Law and City Clubs. A 
lover of literature, he possesses a good library and for some years has repre- 
sented the Selden Society of this city. An enthusiastic golfer, much of his outdoor 
recreation is taken in that form. The varied interests of his life are well balanced. 
There is nothing mediocre about him; he is forceful, alert, enterprising, a man of 
sound judgment and keen discrimination. He recognizes and meets the duties and 
obligations of life as well as its pleasures and pastimes and in the practice of 
law he has always adhered to a high standard of professional ethics and has long 
been regarded as an able minister of the temple of justice. 



CARTER HENRY HARRISON, JR. 

American annals do not furnish a parallel to the history of Carter H. Harri- 
son, Sr., and Jr., father and son, whose combined service as mayor of the city 
covers ten terms. Each after filling the position for four terms retired, as he be- 
lieved, permanently from the position of chief executive but was recalled to the 
office, and the son is now the incumbent in the high position in which popular 
franchise has placed him. 

He was born in Chicago, April 23, 1860, and attended school here until 1873, 
when he accompanied his mother abroad and continued his education in the gym- 
nasium at Altenburg, Germany. In 1876 he was a college student in New York 
and in 188] was graduated from St. Ignatius College of Chicago. He afterward 
entered Yale, his father's alma mater, and there completed a law course with the 
class of 1883. Following his return to Chicago he took up the real-estate business, 
in which he engaged for a number of years, proving his splendid business ability 
and executive force in his operations along that line. In 1891 he became his fa- 
ther's associate in the purchase and conduct of the Chicago Times, the son assuming 
editorial charge. In this, as in the real-estate business, he won success, his con- 
nection with the paper continuing from 1891 until 1891. The example of his 
ancestors and the family records include such names as Thomas Jefferson, Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison and the Breckenridges of Kentucky may have awakened in 
him his deep interest in politics. At all events, the same qualities which made his 
forebears distinguished political leaders have brought him to a prominence in 
municipal affairs not even second to that of his illustrious father. In April, 1897, 



230 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

he was chosen mayor of the city and was elected at each biennial election until he 
had served four terms. The popularity of the Harrison family has always been 
commented upon in press notices, but behind personal popularity there is a busi- 
ness ability and executive force and a power of statescraft that has made Carter 
H. Harrison the chief executive of his city for five terms. He retired from the 
office in 1905 and for six years had no official connection with Chicago politics, al- 
though at all times an influential factor in party councils. In 1911 it was said 
that there was perhaps but one man who could make democratic success an assured 
thing and that was Carter H. Harrison. Once more he accepted the nomination 
and against several candidates was elected for a four years' term. He has the 
confidence of the people at large. Political leaders and business men know him as 
a man who does not break faith, and from his many elections but one deduction can 
be gained that the city regards his administration of public affairs as beneficial 
to the majority. 

On the 14th of December, 1887, Mr. Harrison was married to Miss Edith 
Ogden, daughter of Robert N. Ogden, of New Orleans, Louisiana, and to them have 
been born two children a son, who is named for his father and grandfather, and 
a daughter, Edith. Mrs. Harrison is a lady of liberal culture, prominent in society 
circles, and possesses, moreover, considerable literary ability, as is manifest in 
some charming stories for children which have come from her pen. She is also 
active in charitable work. 

Mr. Harrison holds membership with the Sons of the Revolution, the Sons of the 
American Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the Cincinnati 
and the Society of the War of 1812. His Chicago club associations are with the 
University, Iroquois and the Chicago Yacht Clubs. He belongs also to the Swan 
Lake and Huron Mountain Hunting and Fishing Clubs, which indicate something 
of the nature of the recreation and pleasures in which he indulges when leisure 
permits. The promise of his young manhood has been verified as he has come to 
middle life. His powers and abilities have ripened and matured and his judgment 
shows the benefits gained from past experience. He is making steady and effect- 
ive effort to promote Chicago's welfare without any of the disturbing influences 
which result from revolutionary reforms and movements for which the majority 
are unfitted. 



P. L. UNDERWOOD. 

P. L. Underwood, one of the old-time provision men of Chicago and for many 
years prominently identified with the packing interests of the city, was a native 
of Harwich, Massachusetts, born May 2, 1836, his parents being Nathan and 
Rebecea (Bray) Underwood. The father came from an old Massachusetts family 
and inherited many of the sturdy traits of character to be found in those people. 
He was born July 18, 1794, and was the eldest son of the Rev. Nathan and 
Susannah (Lawrence) Underwood. The Rev. Underwood was born in Lexington, 
Massachusetts, August 3, 1753, and died in May, 1841. He married Susannah 
Lawrence, of Waltham, that state, and they reared a large family. The father 




I'. L. UNDERWOOD 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 233 

was a Revolutionary soldier who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill and 
was among the last to leave the contested field when the enemy took possession of 
the ground. He saw continuous service with the Continental troops and was with 
Washington at the famous crossing of the Delaware. He likewise participated 
in the battles of Trenton and Princeton and after long service was honorably dis- 
charged, receiving later a pension as one of the surviving soldiers of the War for 
Independence. He afterward continued his education and was graduated from 
Harvard College in 1788. He studied for the ministry and in 1792 was settled 
at Harwich, Massachusetts, as pastor of the Congregational church, becoming one 
of the well known clergymen in that section of Massachusetts. His son, Nathan 
Underwood, became one of the well known residents of Barnstable county, Massa- 
chusetts. He was a farmer by occupation yet for many years served as squire 
and exercised an excellent influence in the community. 

P. L. Underwood acquired his education at Harwich Academy in his native 
town, where his boyhood days were spent. When about sixteen years of age he 
went west, locating in Burlington, Iowa, where he entered the wholesale grocery 
and provision house of Thomas Hedge & Company, the senior partner being one 
of his relatives. This firm did an extensive business for that day, including the 
packing of provisions in the winter season. The fall of 1 855 found a large stock 
of provisions on hand and Mr. Underwood was sent to Chicago to dispose of the 
surplus, the firm of Hedge & Underwood handling the business in this city. While 
not yet twenty-one years of age, Mr. Underwood was able to understand and ap- 
preciate the great opportunity in business here and concluded to remain. The 
partnership with Mr. Hedge was dissolved and he became associated with 
Sawyer, Wallace & Company of New York, large commission dealers. Later the 
firm of Underwood, Wallace & Company was organized and still later that of 
Underwood & Company. The commission and packing firm of Underwood & 
Company continued for some years and then dissolved. Mr. Underwood later 
devoted his time and attention to the packing business, having previously purchased 
a plant on Halsted street, where he built up a business that he continued to de- 
velop under the style of Underwood & Company until the consolidation of this 
with the Omaha Packing Company. The business is still carried on under the 
name of the Omaha Packing Company and occupies a foremost position among 
the enterprises of similar character in the city. 

P. L. Underwood was one of the pioneer members of the Chicago Board of 
Trade, joining that organization when a membership sold for as low as five dollars. 
He was a type of the old-time business man who held to high ideals and mani- 
fested a most keen regard for an obligation. When he gave his word or made a 
promise it was as sacred to him as if he had given his bond. He was kind-hearted 
and genial, actuated by a spirit of religious belief but was never sanctimonious. 
His religion was simply a part of his everyday life and actuated him in his re- 
lations with his fellowmen. For a quarter of a century he was a trustee of Ply- 
mouth Congregational church. Firm in his convictions he held to what he con- 
sidered right and while he might yield to argument, he was never a weakling. 
While a successful business man, the accumulation of property or wealth was not 
his foremost object. He ranked among Chicago's representative citizens, gaining 
prominence in trade circles, yet at all times was mindful of the obligations which 



234 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

devolved upon him in his relation to his family, his fellowmen and his city. He 
retired from active business two years before his death. 

Mr. Underwood was first married March 16, 1857, to Miss Hannah M. Ryder, 
of Chatham, Massachusetts, and four daughters survive: Anna, who is now Mrs. 
James Viles, of Lake Forest, and has two children, Lawrence M. and Helen; 
Bertha, who is the wife of E. F. Robbins and resides in Pasadena, California; and 
Helen and Florence, both of Lake Forest, Illinois. On the 2d of November, 1876, 
P. L. Underwood wedded Mrs. Augusta E. Wallace, who was the widow of Wil- 
liam Wallace and bore the maiden name of Augusta Elvira Kimball. She was a 
sister of the late Edward A. Kimball and a daughter of Lovell and Elvira (St. 
John) Kimball. Mrs. Underwood, through her father, is a descendant of the 
Brewster and Bradford families so prominent in the early history of Massachu- 
setts, of whom more extended mention will be found in the biography of her 
brother, Edward A. Kimball, elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Underwood resides 
in Lake Forest. The death of Mr. Underwood occurred August 28, 1897, in the 
same house, where he was born on Cape Cod, and the burial was in Oakwoods 
cemetery. From 1 879 until the time of his death his Chicago residence was at 
No. 3022 Prairie avenue. The record which Mr. Underwood left is one that ex- 
cited for him admiration during his life and has caused his memory to be cherished 
since he passed away. Throughout his business career Mr. Underwood bore a 
reputation for unassailable integrity and straightforward dealing. He made it 
a point always to satisfy his clients, even though he had to sacrifice to greater or 
less extent the profits to which he was legitimately entitled. Honesty was ever 
his watchword and his record proves that success and straightforward dealing 
are not incompatible elements, as so many contend. The record which he leaves 
is indeed one of which the family may be proud, for his name stands in trade 
circles as a synonym for all that is best and most honorable. 



EMMA J. WARREN, M. D. 

Dr. Emma J. Warren, teacher, author, philanthropist and surgeon, is the best 
known lady physician in Chicago, where she has served the public through the 
medium of her chosen profession for more than twenty years, almost night and 
day. Her work has extended beyond the limits of Chicago and her reputation 
has spread through many states of this country. She is known as an expert in 
her business. 

Dr. Warren was born near Charlotte, Michigan, on the 24th of August, 1 863. 
She is the oldest daughter of Henry Richard and Mary (Baird) Warren. Her 
father, a direct descendant of General Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame, was 
an officer with Sherman in his march to the sea. Dr. Warren was born in a little 
log house about two miles out of the city of Charlotte, on the Lansing road. This 
was her home until she was five years of age, when her father built a handsome 
residence by the side of the log cabin, which Dr. Warren refused to abandon for 
the mansion. For several nights she wept with regret at the change of her place 
of abode and even yet she longs for a little cottage like the first one she remem- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 235 

bers so dearly. Dr. Warren's education was gained in the Charlotte public schools, 
which she attended until the year 1881, when she went to a neighboring state to 
attend high school. She graduated at the South Belvidere (111.) grammar school 
in the year 1882 and then entered the high school, where she took a three-year 
course and in 1885 graduated from the South Belvidere Union high school. Eu- 
gene Sullivan, the well and favorably known brother of Roger Sullivan, was a 
classmate. Dr. Warren took a course in pedagogy under Professor Elmer E. 
Brown, a professor at Berkeley College, who later became director of the United 
States bureau of education. She accepted a position as teacher in the graded 
schools of Waterman with Dr. Nathan Graves, now a well known Chicago physi- 
cian. She taught school for six years and was thoroughly in love with the work 
and regretted very much to leave it. But during the summer months she had stud- 
ied medicine in the office of Dr. Ephraim Smedley at Belvidere, and, liking the 
profession, was determined to become an M. D. In 1890 she entered the North- 
western University Women's Medical School, where she studied and served winters 
and summers until she graduated in the year 1893. She became assistant to Pro- 
fessor Brower in nervous and mental diseases. 

Dr. Warren held clinics at the Lincoln Free Dispensary and the Cook County 
Hospital, and Dunning Insane Asylum was frequently visited. She served with 
the internes at the Woman's and Children's Hospital and the Illinois Eye and Ear 
Infirmary and became chief of the maternity clinic at the Lincoln Free Dispensary. 
As adjunct professor of gynecology at the Illinois Medical College she lectured 
to large classes of young men and it is believed that this work helped her to obtain 
a first-class practice in medicine. She also lectured on the subject of hygiene at 
the Chicago Commons. Dr. Warren then took up philanthropic work and was a 
lecturer at the Chicago Commons. She taught a class of young ladies in nursing 
and likewise taught at several other places. 

She began the practice of medicine on La Salle avenue at the northwest corner 
of Oak street, diagonally opposite the Henrotin Memorial Hospital of the Chicago 
Polyclinic. Next year she opened a hospital of her own at the southeast corner 
of La Salle avenue and Division street, which she soon had filled with her surgical 
patients and moved to the northwest corner of LeMoyne and St. Louis avenues. 
Later she removed to her present location at Nos. 3726, 3728, 3730 and 3732 Ellis, 
avenue, which is near the lake shore, adjoining the greatest temperance locality 
in the world. 

Dr. Warren is limiting her practice to diseases of children and women. She 
has given the subject most careful consideration and has done considerable study- 
ing and work along this line and is kept very busy, commanding double the office 
fees charged by most men in the same branch of the profession. She has taken 
some time to write for journals and has written a work on diseases of women and 
children, another on child nursing, a work on temperance called "Patricus Haut- 
boy" and many monographs on medical subjects. Dr. Warren has devised many 
surgical instruments for the treatment of diseases of women but in her own prac- 
tice seldom uses an instrument. She is a mission worker and a promoter of the 
self-support movement among the poor of Chicago. She was an early advocate 
of the penny savings bank system, is an ever willing worker to secure employment 
for the unemployed and strives to establish the family on correct principles. She 



236 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

is an advocate of the fresh air movement to get poor people out among a strong, 
healthy class of people in the country at least once a year to give them a chance 
to regain health and strength and to learn what the world is doing outside of the 
city of Chicago and to add to their knowledge lessons how to live aright for health's 
sake. 

Dr. Warren is a medical examiner for the Daily News Fresh Air Fund chil- 
dren and for the Chicago bureau of charities. She is one of the directors of the 
Chicago United Charities. She was one of the first physicians for the Chicago 
public school vacation outings and personally conducted train loads of children 
to the woods on country trips, being appointed by the first principal, Fred Warren 
Smedley. She is well known for her charitable work along these lines, and space 
forbids printing her many labors in behalf of the poor of Chicago. She is nearer 
the hearts of the families who know her than can be described here. 

Dr. Warren is well known for her surgical work and instruments and surgical 
dressings supplied to the German-American Surgical Company of New York, hand- 
ling physicians' supplies, of which she is secretary and through which she has 
become known to physicians all over this country. She is a member of the Chicago 
Medical Society, the Illinois Medical Society, the American Medical Association, 
the Knights and Ladies of Honor, the Grand Army of the Republic (ladies' auxili- 
ary) and many other societies. Dr. Warren's office has been at No. 629 Wells 
street, at the northeast corner of Ontario street, for the past twenty years, where 
she is associated with Dr. N. J. Smedley. Their signs have been an old familiar 
landmark there for nearly a quarter of a century. The reader is respectfully re- 
ferred to Dr. Smedley's biographical sketch for further information, as it is really 
a continuation of the results of Dr. Warren's colabor. 



EDMUND ADCOCK. 



On the records which have to do with the patent law litigation of the country 
the name of Edmund Adcock figures prominently, for during an active career he 

. occupied a prominent position as a patent attorney. A keen intellect and laudable 
ambition were the salient features in his success but his professional activities con- 
stituted but one phase of a career that brought him honor and respect as well. 
The higher, nobler qualities of manhood were his in large measure together with a 

. scholarly taste and habits which made him the companion of the most learned and 
cultured. Mr. Adcock was born at Alexis, Warren county, Illinois, near Galesburg, 
March B, 1854, a son of Joseph W. and Mary (MacMurtry) Adcock, the latter a 
daughter of the Hon. William MacMurtry, who was lieutenant governor of Illinois 
in the '50s and afterward a colonel in the Union army during the Civil war. He 
was a pioneer resident of this state, coming to Illinois from the south, and served 
as an officer in the Black Hawk war in 1832. In the paternal line Edmund Adcock 
came of Virginia stock. His first American ancestor, a native of England, also 
bore the name of Edmund Adcock and came to the new world during the colonial 
period. This branch of the family was afterward established in Warren county, 
Illinois, in the '30s. Two of his great-grandfathers, Robert Christian and Joseph 




EDMUND ADCOCK 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 239 

Adcock, fought with the Virginia troops in the Revolution. He was also descended 
from the Houston and Champion families and also from the Christian family that 
came from the Isle of Man and also had estates in Cumberland, England. His 
father, Joseph W. Adcock, owned over one thousand acres of farm land as well as 
extensive timber tracts. 

Edmund Adcock supplemented his public-school education by a course in Abing- 
don (111.) College, from which he was graduated in June, 1871, with the B. S. 
degree, being at that time but seventeen years of age. On the 7th of June, 1877, 
he completed a course in the Union College of Law at Chicago and the LL. B. 
degree was conferred upon him. He was admitted to the bar soon after his gradu- 
ation. During the year following he was in the office of Albert H. Walker, of 
Chicago, and in 1878 entered the patent law firm of Munday, Evarts & Adcock, 
which continued until the day of his death or for a period of more than thirty 
years. During the latter part of that time a fourth member, Mr. Clarke, was 
connected with the firm. They did an extensive business as patent attorneys and 
for many years Mr. Adcock was general patent lawyer for the American Can 
Company. He was a friend of and took out patents for Octave Chanute and thus 
became interested in aviation and foretold the present success in that field. In his 
chosen department of the law he became eminent in the United States and was en- 
gaged in many of the most important patent suits litigated in our courts. Quite 
early in his practice as attorney for E. & O. W. Norton, he conducted the success- 
ful Pacific coast suits against the salmon canneries. Upon the consolidation of the 
different can concerns of the United States into the American Can Company he 
was chosen as its general patent counsel and so continued until his demise. As a 
lawyer he was keen of intellect, quick of understanding, far-sighted and possessed 
an inexhaustible fund of practical, common sense. He was indefatigable in his 
devotion to his clients' interests and always found in his clients a friend. 

As prosperity came to Mr. Adcock he invested largely in real estate. He was, 
however, a conservative investor and builder, and his keen sagacity and enterprise 
enabled him to speak clearly on the questions relative thereto. His success was 
evidence of his judgment and his real-estate operations and his practice gave him 
in time a substantial financial position. 

On the 6th of October, 1881, at Chicago, Mr. Adcock was united in marriage 
to Miss Bessie B. Nicholes, a daughter of Daniel Collins and Amanda (Wheeler) 
Nicholes, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Unto Mr. and Mrs. 
Adcock was born a daughter, Edith N. Adeock, now the wife of George I. Haight, 
who is engaged in the practice of law. The family circle was broken by the death 
of the husband and father, April 25, 1911. 

Mr. Adcock was a member of the Plymouth Congregational church, actively 
interested in the movements to promote its growth and extend its influence. He 
also belonged to the Union League, South Shore Country Club, the Homewood 
Country Club and the University Club of Evanston. In more strictly professional 
lines he was connected with the Patent Bar Association. He was also a life member 
of the Art Institute and belonged to the Aero Club of Chicago. In politics he was a 
democrat in his support of most of the principles of the party, yet never favored 
free silver and was not a close adherent to party lines at local elections. He was 
very public-spirited and always took a lively interest in the civic and political prob- 



240 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

lems of the day. He read broadly and in his busy life found time to pursue his 
literary interests beyond the limits of his professional field. From his uncle, Robert 
Adcock, who was an astronomer and mathematician, he inherited some valuable 
books concerning those sciences in which he was deeply interested and well in- 
formed. At college he distinguished himself as a mathematician. He possessed a 
keen and logical mind, was exceedingly accurate, had a whimsical humor, was al- 
ways cheerful, calm and self-controlled. His manner was gentle and he was kind- 
hearted and generous yet his charity was of a most quiet and unostentatious charac- 
ter. His tastes were quiet and domestic, his manner modest and sincere, his princi- 
ples democratic and in everything he was genuine. He greatly enjoyed golf yet his 
chief recreations were of a most scholarly nature. He was a masterly student of 
Greek and Latin and his greatest pleasure came to him in classical studies and in 
the reading of pure imaginative poetry. He was always rather retiring, yet those 
who came within the close circle of his acquaintance found him a most entertaining 
and congenial companion. He was a man of most unassailable integrity, always 
clinging to the old-time notions of honor. 



TURLINGTON WALKER HARVEY. 

Few men deserve a more extended notice than Turlington Walker Harvey, a 
distinguished business man of Chicago, because few, while attaining eminence in 
commercial life, have so vitally identified themselves with the city's welfare. 

Mr. Harvey was one of the pioneers in developing Chicago's great lumber in- 
terests and was widely known over the country for his enterprise in business meth- 
ods and his integrity in commercial relations. He entered from the government in 
the early '70s large tracts of pine timber lands in Michigan and Wisconsin, from 
which vast supplies of lumber were cut, at that time the building material in gen- 
eral use. His lumber camps, sawmills, logging railroad, lake freight sailing ves- 
sels and lumberyards employed thousands of men and at its height, his extensive 
lumber business was conceded to be the largest in the world. Heavy and exacting 
as were the demands of his affairs, his activities were not confined to his business 
alone, but much of his energy and his means were expended, directly in the inter- 
est of the community in which he lived. Perhaps no one in Chicago was person- 
ally known by more individuals of every class, his large heart and cheerful interest 
extending to all. 

Mr. Harvey was born in Siloam, Madison county, New York, March 10, 1835. 
His father Johnson Harvey, a man of rare sweetness and sentiment, was also a na- 
tive of New York state, one of a large family, living in that beautiful farming 
district. .Filled with patriotic enthusiasm and public spirit, Johnson Harvey's 
simple home was a hospitable center. Visiting clergymen and lecturers were his 
frequent guests and many eminent speakers were induced to address the little town, 
through his efforts. He was also an ardent partisan in the anti-slavery struggles 
and a stanch advocate of the cause of temperance. Gerrit Smith, the famous aboli- 
tionist and chief citizen in those parts, was his friend and the questions of the day 
were more absorbing to him than the acquisition of money. Thus, although young 




T. W. HARVRY 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 243 

Harvey grew up in a rural community, with meager educational advantages, he was 
early brought in contact with many of the leading men and issues of the time and 
his vigorous young mind inspired by noble altruistic conceptions. 

His mother, Paulina Walker, was reared among the Berkshire hills of Massa- 
chusetts, of Scotch ancestry; it was from her, that her son inherited the practical 
force and sagacity, which he developed in such rare degree. Power underlay her 
every characteristic, but so quietly controlled that the especial impression made 
upon those who met her, was 'the unusual serenity of her personality. She was a 
woman whose descendants, "Rise up and call her blessed." It was said of her at 
her' death at eighty- four, "She was as kindly as a sunbeam;" "Was sought for 
counsel, revered for her sterling character and loved for her exemplary example." 
Both parents were members of the Presbyterian church, conscientiously participat- 
ing in all the church activities, to the end of their long careers. Three of the chil- 
dren of this marriage attained maturity. Luzette, who became the wife of Mr. 
Abel P. Crapser of Sandwich, Illinois, after the Harveys removed to the west, in 
1865, and who was in every way, the worthy daughter of her parents; Turlington, 
the subject of this sketch; and Jonathan Barton Harvey, born in 1842. 

Barton was his mother's especial joy. In her heart, he was early set apart for 
the ministry, could the acquisition of a suitable education be met. His studious 
habits and gentle obedience to her every wish placed him in strong contrast to the 
strenuous brother, whose tremendous force, while her reliance for all kinds of help, 
often taxed her sense of responsibility in discipline to the utmost and brought her 
lively experiences. Then would this vehement youth flee to gentle Grandma 
Eunice, Mrs. Harvey's widowed mother, who lived with her, secure of safety and 
every extenuating plea from her for his boyish pranks. 

Although only seven years Barton's senior, from his birth Turlington consti- 
tuted himself champion and keeper of this quiet brother and shared his mother's 
great love for him. Much of the generous interest in the world's brotherhood in 
after life, was probably the result of this ardent protectorship. Barton at least 
was "Minister" to the older boy and in calling out his brother's splendid qualities 
his short life widened into large service. This sense of adoption of the young 
child did not always assert itself wisely. One of the home stories was how Tur- 
lington snatched the babe from the nurse's arms one day, just as the family were 
moving from one house to another and dashed into the parlor with it. The furni- 
ture had not been placed and a large mirror, a proud possession, was on the floor, 
awaiting hanging. Into this the two children landed. They were not hurt, but 
the mirror was completely destroyed, causing his mother many tears, as there was 
no money to spare, with which to buy another. 

One of the deep impressions of Turlington's childhood was his agony of anxi- 
ety, when called in the night, to go for the family doctor for little brother. Barton 
was as sturdily built as Turlington, but shorter and less active. In early child- 
hood he was subject to frequent and severe attacks of croup. The sound of that 
cough always sent terror to Turlington's heart and hastening the old doctor back 
to the house with him, Turlington would watch his face as he examined the child. 
When he saw the physician go to the open fire place, empty the ashes from his 
pipe, light it again and begin to smoke, the tension was off. He knew then that the 
doctor did not consider it the "Dangerous kind" and, without waiting longer, would 



Vol. V 12 



244 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

creep off noiselessly to bed. Twice Turlington rescued Barton from drowning. 
The orchard of the Harvey home bordered on the Erie canal. Turlington did not 
remember when he first learned to swim, but was master of all the boys' water 
"Stunts." Missing his brother one day as they were together in the orchard near 
the water, he looked up just in time to see the heavy little fellow disappear be- 
tween some floating logs in the canal. With frantic quickness he took in the situa- 
tion and knew that the force of the rolling logs would part them, if he could reach 
the spot in time. Springing upon the logs as the child's head appeared in the 
open space, he was able to grasp him. It was a thrilling experience. Triumphant 
he carried him home to his mother to be cared for, feeling that Barton's escape 
was providential. 

Puritan simplicity characterized the Harvey household and the sacredness of 
the sabbath day was conscientiously maintained. One late Sunday afternoon Tur- 
lington was missed and when sought was found playing on the town bridge with a 
group of boys. The clear, voice of his mother called "Turlington !" In confusion 
and excuse he hastened to explain, that one of his companions had told him, that 
Sunday ended at six o'clock. His mother looked him seriously in the face and 
said: "I'll teach you when Sunday ends." Respect for this day was trained into 
the very fiber of the lad's consciousness and became as firm a principle with him 
through life, as with his parents. 

With all Turlington's force, he disliked a fight. Always large for his age and 
powerfully built, his companions observed this reluctance to contend and at- 
tributed it to timidity. Cornering him one day on the bridge, they taunted him 
and dared him to combat. Realizing the situation and that they must be con- 
vinced, he turned upon them with such swift and severe attack, that the question 
was completely settled. No other challenge was ever received and good-fellowship 
remained undisturbed. Another boyhood incident, affecting his conduct in future 
life, was in connection with a game of cards. The question had never risen in the 
home, to be discussed. Turlington's social zest and activity made him "Hail fel- 
low" with the boys and he enjoyed all the village sports, for which he had time. 
One day he joined a group at cards, in the basement of a shop. In the midst of 
the game, a tap was heard at the window. It was Turlington's father, who beck- 
oned to him. Direction and discipline rarely came through his father. They were 
companions and working mates. He read reproach and grief in his father's face 
and disapproval from him was most keenly felt. It was not difficult for the older 
man to gain an assurance that he would avoid cards in the fututre and he kept 
his word. Even had Mr. Harvey's life not been so absorbingly occupied as to ad- 
mit of no temptation in this direction, the impression of prejudice against time, 
spent in this way clung to him, although recognizing in later life that under right 
conditions, cards had a proper use. 

From earliest years, Turlington had his part in the responsibility of the home. 
It seems almost incredible, but at the age of five years, previous to the move to 
Durhamville in 1840, Turlington drove the old white balky horse on family er- 
rands, at first with his mother beside him, with the constant admonition, "Now 
Turlington, mind your P's and Q's" as they made the turns about the hills, but 
soon after, alone. Somewhat later it was his duty to drive the cow to and from 
pasture. She had a trick of dodging and running back into the woods, just be- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 245 

fore reaching the barn, which meant a second journey after the evening meal. 
This was trying and his mother knew by his silence, when she had slipped away 
from him. A cheerful whistle heard far down the walk, always heralded success 
and came to be applied to whatever went well. Throughout her life, his mother 
was apt to say with pride, when hearing of what her son had done, "Turlington 
has brought the cow in." 

The widespread financial depression throughout the country at this time se- 
verely taxed the ingenuity of the people of meager means living in small towns. 
Money was so scarce that much of the trading was carried on by exchange of 
produce. Mr. Johnson Harvey, who, from farming in early life, had turned to 
carpentering and building, had occasion to be away from home months at a time, 
in order to obtain employment. The conduct of the family affairs devolved upon 
Mrs. Harvey and her older son. Many were the ways devised to increase their 
income. Mrs. Harvey was early skilled in domestic accomplishments especially 
in the provision and preparation of articles for the home table. Her standards 
have come down through children to grandchildren, inspiring them with the desire 
to make the home a place of wholesomeness and comfort. 'Upon young Harvey, 
in addition to the man's work about their place, devolved the selling of the home 
wares. He had a small push cart and found customers for the good things that 
were neatly and attractively offered. His mother's molasses candy and root beer 
had especial popularity. The apple orchard, too, was an important family re- 
source. Here Turlington reigned supreme and gave evidence of his future directive 
power, by his ability to marshal his companions to his assistance, in picking and 
gathering the apples, rewarding them in fruit. From the age of eleven to four- 
teen, he had to take a position in the grocery of Mr. Nelson Green during the 
summer vacations, rooming over the store, but in the winter, he attended the Dur- 
hamville public school. Much knowledge of human nature and many practical les- 
sons of value in life were acquired during these summers' experiences. 

The village grocery was also a source of supply for such liquors as were used. 
One elderly customer invariably stopped on his way to and from work for his 
"Bitters." One day, having purchased a small live pig, which he was carrying 
home in his arms, he stopped in as usual for his whiskey. Not being able to put 
the squirming pig down, he asked young Harvey to put the glass to his mouth. It 
was a trying task. The situation was ridiculous but not at all humorous to the 
lad. The pathetic tyranny the man was under, the condition of his throat and the 
horror of the entire spectacle, were indelibly stamped upon his mind. No temper- 
ance instruction could have been more effectual, and no vision of the consequences 
of indulgence have developed truer sympathy for the victims of this cruel habit. 

.In 1849 young Harvey began to learn the carpenter's trade in his father's 
shop, and for two years he worked with tools, shingled roofs and took part in all 
kinds of work with wood, but was given some time to acquire an education, which 
he made the most of. In 1851 he helped his father build his sash, door and blind 
factory and ran the machinery. This burned in 1852 and the family removed to 
the town of Oneida. Here they erected another sash, door and blind factory and 
the business started under the name of J. Harvey & Son. Although a partner in 
the business, young Harvey was permitted to attend the Oneida Academy, work- 
ing in the factory at such times as he could. He was exceedingly strong and a 



246 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

rapid workman, and he and his father enjoyed much lively emulation in their oc- 
cupation. Mr. Harvey, Sr., was very alert and had the keenest pleasure in fine 
work. He also took great pride in the condition of his tools and machinery. His 
son could have received no better training in these lines than was given him by 
his father. 

Oneida was one of the main stops on the railroad passing through the country 
from New York city westward. Observing the important-looking business men 
getting off and on the train at the station, a strong longing came to young Harvey 
to know the outside world. He was nineteen years of age and felt himself fully 
master of the opportunities in his father's factory. The western fever took pos- 
session of him and he talked with his father regarding his plan. It was a severe 
blow to Mr. Harvey, Sr., when he became convinced that Turlington was serious 
in his wish. He fully appreciated the growing strength and ability of his son 
and realized that the prosperity of the business depended upon him. Mr. Harvey, 
Sr., while he was skilful and industrious, never had the initiative to obtain and 
handle large business. With his kindly unselfishness however, he put no obstacle 
in the young man's way, assisted him to prepare for the journey, built him him- 
self, a hair covered trunk, provided all the little necessities and comforts he could, 
and cheerfully bade him "God speed." Fewer and fewer were the profits after the 
son's departure. In the course of time the establishment passed into other hands 
and before many years the son transported the entire family to a delightful home 
near Chicago, where never again they were to have an anxious thought as to money. 

The journey west was a long one and not equipped with comforts, as in these 
days of rapid and luxurious travel. The expense too was great and had been 
carefully calculated, and no more money taken than was thought necessary, by 
young Harvey in leaving his dear home to face the world. One calculation, how- 
ever, he had not made, and for which perhaps at that time he was unaware that 
he should provide, but which throughout his life he had to meet, and that was the 
imperative appeal, to his great heart, of distress. 

On the train, in seats near by, was a woman with a family of young children. 
These little people he had noticed and chatted with and assisted their mother in 
taking them off and on the cars when changes were made. The woman reached 
her destination towards dusk, the evening before young Harvey was due in Chi- 
cago. She was expecting to be met at the station, as she lived at a distance. On 
arriving, no one was there and she claimed to have no money. The situation 
seemed desperate, this helpless company, six miles from their home, and night 
coming on. With only a few dollars in his own pocket and little time to consider 
before the train pulled out, young Harvey hurried them into a vehicle, paid the 
clamoring hackman and leaped upon the steps of the cars. The next morning. 
May 10. 1854, upon arrival in the new city, an entire stranger, after paying for 
his breakfast, he possessed but one large copper penny. This was carefully kept 
and is considered a family heirloom. 

Without dismay, he enquired for the street upon which the lumber firms were 
located. Entering the first sash, door and blind factory he came to, he asked for 
employment. The proprietor enquired as to what he could do. With quiet con- 
fidence he replied, "Everything there is to do in the factory." His appearance 
probably confirmed his statement, as the man responded: "Well, you must be just 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 247 

the man I am looking for," his foreman having left the previous day. After some 
conversation he was engaged to take the vacant place and inside half an hour, was 
on his way for his baggage, with the address of a boarding house that had been 
recommended to him, where he immediately established himself and returned to 
Work. At noon he took his first meal in his new quarters, his position a sufficient 
guarantee of payment at the end of the week. It proved to be a very comfortable 
place, where he continued to take his meals for a long time. This seemingly pro- 
pitious beginning was not satisfactory very long. The machinery which was old 
and out of repair, could have been remedied, but a serious difficulty manifested it- 
self in the attitude of the foreign workmen under him. The race war was at its 
height in this part of the country, and the men resented direction from so young 
an American. Finding no cause for complaint and not daring to oppose him openly, 
all manner of means were resorted to in their determination to force him to leave. 
Belts were slipped from wheels, knives were inserted in a way to make them fly 
from their places, when the engine started up ; little clogs were ingeniously placed 
to cause breaks and each day something was disturbed, but accustomed to go over 
his machinery before beginning work and knowing the situation he was in, by great 
care young Harvey escaped these dangers and sought to placate the men by friend- 
liness. The organized antagonism was too widespread, however, for an individual 
to overcome, and after two weeks of anxious vigilance, the proprietor came to Mr. 
Harvey, saying he must leave, his danger was so great, that he dare not be respon- 
sible. This seemed like acknowledging defeat to Mr. Harvey and he urged to be 
allowed to remain and be given more time to overcome the opposition, but Mr. 
McFall, who knew conditions and seemed to thoroughly like Mr. Harvey, was im- 
movable in his decision, and regretfully they parted. There was no difficulty now 
in obtaining a position ; he had been observed and was immediately sought and in- 
stalled as foreman in the larger concern of Grey, Morrison & Company. Here 
all went well until through the death of Mr. Grey and the withdrawal of his 
capital the financial condition of the firm was weakened and later in the season 
the house became insolvent and closed. By this time Mr. Harvey had made many 
acquaintances in the trade and was much liked. Abbott & Kingman, the largest 
factory of sash, doors and blinds in the city, called him to the position of foreman 
in their establishment and he remained with them for five years. 

These were active, and developing years, into which crowded most varied ex- 
periences. The pressure of responsibility and occupation filled the days of his 
first summer in Chicago with absorbing interest, but the loneliness and homesick- 
ness of that summer, after working hours, was never forgotten. Without any so- 
cial acquaintance and disinclined to the chance companionship of his surroundings, 
evening after evening that hot season, after the plans were made for the following 
day, he sat alone upon the door steps of the factory, too tired and warm to read. 
His room was in the building and his only visitor the night watchman on his 
rounds. Occasionally he attended a political meeting, if Mr. John Wentworth was 
to speak, for whom he conceived an enthusiastic admiration or would wander into 
the Second Presbyterian church, but he did not feel himself a part of the city's 
life and longed for the home far away. His purpose to remain however, never 
wavered ; he would wait. Notwithstanding, the stress of the change wore upon him 
and that fall when cholera swept over the city, he was violently attacked by the 



248 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

disease and nearly lost his life. The epidemic was so virulent that the authorities 
were unable properly to care for the dead. During the first severity of his ill- 
ness, he could hear the wagons hurriedly carrying off the victims from the buildings 
backing upon the alley, in the rear of the factory. His isolation and the thought 
of a nameless grave haunted him, but this seeming calamity proved the "open 
door" to his career of usefulness in the city of his choice. A bustling kindly doctor 
came to him and soon after "An angel" in the person of Mrs. Abbott, the wife of 
the senior partner of his firm. No longer did he lack for comfort or friends. 
Mr. and Mrs. Abbott, who had no children, took him to their home as soon as he 
could be moved, became attached to him and kept him with them as a son, until 
his marriage. He occupied a seat in their pew in church and through them, made 
many of his dearest life friends. They were Methodists and devout people. Un- 
der their influence he became interested in some special revival services being held 
by that denomination and took his first individual stand, as a Christian, uniting 
with the Wabash Avenue Methodist church, located near Harrison street, with 
whose membership and activities he was associated during a great part of his 
life. Denominational lines were sharply drawn in those days and his parents 
with their Presbyterian affiliations found it difficult to rejoice in their son's an- 
nouncement with the warmth they felt his action should receive. However, this 
connection opened to his young manhood the most splendid opportunity for service, 
and it was in this church that he met Miss Maria Louisa Hardman of Louisville, 
Kentucky, while on a visit in Chicago, who later became his wife. 

During the time Mr. Harvey was with Abbott & Kingman, he had the best op- 
portunities to become acquainted with the needs of the rapidly developing western 
country, in his line of business and became personally known to the lumber trade. 
He fully appreciated these advantages. More and more responsibility in the 
manufacturing department, attached to his position, but the finances were managed 
by the heads of the firm. There was no visible indication of weakness in this 
direction, and when after the death of Mr. Abbott, the firm failed, it brought not 
only very keen surprise but great loss to Mr. Harvey. 

With the exception of the investment in two small lots far out on Indiana 
avenue, he had kept his earnings in the concern. Mr. Abbott was drowned, when 
the Lady Elgin went down with all on board, in a terrific storm on Lake Michigan 
near Chicago, in sight of the helpless onlookers upon the shore. This catastrophe de- 
prived him of his friend, his employment and his savings. He had married, con- 
sidering himself amply able to care for a wife, as well as to assist in the main- 
tenance of the parents' home, when again he had to face life without capital or 
employment, amid widespread business inactivity in the country. With his new hap- 
piness, however, and larger experience, he felt courage to brave every difficulty and he 
and his young wife resolutely accepted their trying situation and together met their 
limitations. Undaunted he sauntered forth to discover what could be done. Pass- 
ing the planing mill of Mr. Peter B. Lamb, 329 South Canal street, Mr. Harvey 
observed that the machinery was not running. Stepping inside, he saw Mr. 
Lamb sitting alone in the silent room, looking much dejected. Enquiring as to 
the cause of shutting down, Mr. Lamb replied, "No business." They chatted 
for a time. Mr. Lamb was well equipped, had no indebtedness, but also had 
no trade. Mr. Harvey persuaded Mr. Lamb that, although he had no money, 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDP;RS 249 

he could bring customers. Mr. Lamb knew his energy and popularity and 
agreed to take him as a partner and allow him to start right in. Before Mr. 
Harvey left the mill, a gentleman walked in, enquiring for a certain kind of 
cornice bracket. Mr. Harvey advanced toward him, took a letter from his pocket 
and sketched upon the back, the pattern of a bracket, such as he supposed the 
customer wished, asking if that would suit. The gentleman said it was exactly 
what he wanted and stated the number he required. Mr. Harvey gave him the 
price and said he would have them ready for him in the morning, and the gentle- 
man left. Turning quite sharply upon Mr. Harvey, Mr. Lamb said, "Why did you 
sell that man those brackets? We have no machinery to make anything of that 
kind." "No," Mr. Harvey replied, "but your neighbors upstairs have and I know 
how to get them." On the following day, the brackets were ready when called for 
and the man from whom they were obtained, paid in planed boards. The cash 
paid by the gentleman realized a profit of two dollars and a half. Not a large 
sum upon which to start business, but a beginning on the right side of the ledger. 

The firm of Lamb & Harvey was formed in 1859, and without discussion, the 
duties of each were understood. Mr. Lamb had charge of the machinery and Mr. 
Harvey conducted the business. They prospered most remarkably and, in 1861, 
it became necessary to have a larger establishment. Ground was purchased and 
a new mill built on the corner of Polk and Beach streets. 

Mr. Lamb did not share Mr. Harvey's religious convictions and was in the 
habit of repairing his machinery on Sunday. Mr. Harvey dropped in one Sunday 
after church service, found him busily occupied in overhauling the machines, and 
remonstrated. Mr. Lamb thought no planing mill business could be conducted 
otherwise and that it would be found impracticable. Mr. Harvey said it would 
benefit all concerned to have one day of rest in seven, and that he felt compelled 
to abide by this command. Throughout all the branches of his extensive business 
during his career, he never swerved from this position. 

The outbreak of the Civil war in 1861 brought constantly increasing trade to 
the firm. His responsibilities rapidly multiplied. The nation's earnest appeal for 
defense was seriously considered, but with wife and young children, the financial 
obligation he maintained for the parents home and the ever-growing claims of the 
large business he had developed, it was decided best that he remain at home and 
his brother Barton represent the family at the front. Barton therefore enlisted 
in the Seventh New York Cavalry, in the very beginning of the war and was in 
almost every battle of note during the conflict, until taken prisoner and sent to 
Andersonville in 1864. With the same sturdy build and vigor of inheritance as his 
brother, Barton lived through six months of the unspeakable hardships to which 
those prisoners were subjected. When General Sherman's raid through the south 
caused the Rebels to remove these living skeletons to Milan, Georgia, the strain 
of the expectant release overcame Barton and he died on the train five miles from 
the prison. Miss Clara Barton, known as the "Angel of the Battlefield," with the 
assistance of Mr. Dorrance Atwater, an employe of the prison, placed a headboard 
with his name at his grave and as soon as permitted, after peace was declared, 
his brother went south and brought Barton's remains, to the family ground in the 
cemetery in Sandwich, Illinois, where his parents were then located. 



250 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

In 1865, Mr. Lamb, who was advanced in years, felt that he had acquired a 
sufficient fortune, to retire and return to his early home, in the state of New York 
and he and his wife enjoy their declining years, amid the pleasant surroundings 
of their youth. Mr. Harvey consented and purchased Mr. Lamb's interest for one 
hundred thousand dollars, from that time carrying on the business alone. 

Strenuous years followed the close of the war. So exacting were Mr. Harvey's 
duties, that for a period of over seven years, he was not outside the then small 
area of the city's limits, but he could always find time to spare for religious and 
philanthropic work. He was superintendent of an afternoon Sunday mission 
school on the west side, having an attendance of over eight hundred children, be- 
sides conducting the morning Sunday school in the home church of which he was 
superintendent, for twenty-five years. He took a leading part in all the activities 
and responsibilities of his church and was president of its board of trustees also 
for a period of twenty-five years. Rising at day break, driving or ridng from 
mill to docks, from railroad offices to banks, from river cargoes to lumberyards, 
his days were a busy round, and he would reach home for the evening meal only to 
return to get possession of freighting cars and see them placed upon his tracks, 
ready for the next day's loading. The demand for cars was so great and it was so 
difficult to get them, that it was the man on the ground, at the time of switching 
in the freight yards at night, who succeeded in obtaining the number necessary 
for his shipments. 

In 1870, during this time of business pressure, a great sorrow came into the life 
of Mr. Harvey. Consequent upon the birth of their sixth son, he lost his beauti- 
ful and beloved wife and the babe soon followed the mother. This left him with 
four little boys, the first child, little Willie, having died at the age of fourteen 
months, with membranous croup. A faithful and competent German woman, who 
had lived with Mrs. Harvey for nine years, cared for the children, but the home 
spirit had fled. Few men are capable of such great and loyal devotion as Mr. 
Harvey possessed, and this grief, together with his excessive labors, told seriously 
upon his health. His friends feared for him a nervous breakdown, but he was a man 
of such sincere and vital faith, that he soon gathered himself, found recreation in 
his affection for his children and his horses, and renewed his interest in his busi- 
ness and public services. The volume of his business continued steadily to in- 
crease, until it reached a position second to none. The red shingle attached to 
the cars carrying his lumber and bearing his name was the most familiar sign along 
all railroad lines to the western frontier, the Superior region in the north, and far 
into the southwest, and eastern buyers learned the reliable quality of the lumber 
dressed by T. W. Harvey. 

The mill built in 1865 was burned previous to the great fire in 1871. In consider- 
ing rebuilding, the city had grown up so rapidly about this site, that Mr. Harvey 
found it expedient to move to the outskirts, and secured property at the corner of 
Twenty-second and Morgan streets, where, in 1 869, he erected a larger and more 
commodious establishment, the most thoroughly equipped in the citv. This planing 
mill was considered the first really fire-proof building constructed up to that time, 
its safety features being entirely contrived and worked out by Mr. Harvey. Brick 
and iron were the only materials used and through immense pipes bv suction all 
inflammable collections of sawdust and shavings, which had been such a constant 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 251 

menace, were carried off and utilized as fuel. This was a double economy, feed- 
ing the fires and saving the previous expense of carting off these accumulations. 
This mill had a capacity for planing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
thousand feet of lumber per day. For the year 1883 the extent of the business 
reached the enormous figure of one hundred and forty millions feet. Across the 
street were the receiving and distributing docks, occupying the entire frontage of 
Mason's slip and Troop's canal, with track facilities for loading one hundred cars 
of lumber daily. 

In 1871 ten dry-kilns were erected, the first steam dry-kilns ever constructed. 
These also were Mr. Harvey's own invention and enabled him to prepare dry lum- 
ber for the market in from three to five days' time, which previously had required 
several months. 

Mr. Harvey was most successful in the selection of men. Those at the head 
of all his departments began with him in youth, developing with the business, and 
continuing with him during the thirty-five years that he conducted his own busi- 
ness. Mr. Purmort, head of the office force, John Kallen, foreman of the mill and 
shipping, George Legg, engineer, Mike Hart, foreman of the lumberyards, Mike 
McCabe, foreman of the teamsters, and Frank Saunders, a sturdy woodsman, fore- 
man of the docks. Frank Saunders was a noted character along the river. He 
was so powerful and courageous that during labor struggles or strikes, he was 
as formidable as a body of infantry and his presence and control of the men under 
him made him almost a guarantee of security. 

Mr. Harvey had lumber mills at Muskegon, Michigan, and Marinette, Wiscon- 
sin, transporting the rough lumber by Lake Michigan, in his own boats to be piled 
in the Chicago yards and dressed at the planing mill. The conduct of such a 
business made the employment of every possible device for expediting work and 
economizing cost, necessary, and Mr. Harvey was known as a patron of every in- 
vention which led to these ends. Among the most far-reaching of these was the 
adoption of the narrow gauge, logging railroad for reaching distant tracts of tim- 
ber. This gave the same value to trees growing in the interior, as to those border- 
ing the streams, or within easy hauling distance by ox and horse teams, and 
opened up a vast region which had been comparatively of small worth. Mr. Har- 
vey inaugurated this innovation in the pineries in 1878, and it proved so entirely 
successful and resulted in such a saving of time and money, that railroad lumber- 
ing has largely superseded other methods and eliminated the fear of unfavorable 
winters for hauling. The first road of the kind was constructed by Mr. Harvey 
through Mr. William Gerrish, and extended in Michigan from Lake George to the 
Muskegon river. In 1883 Mr. Harvey organized the T. W. Harvey Lumber Com- 
pany, into which he put a capital of one million dollars and took in as partners, a 
number of his employes, and became its president. 

Mr. Harvey was also president and principal owner of the National Lumber 
Company, the White Pine Lumber Company and the Jones & Magee Lumber Com- 
pany, which companies operated some ninety lumberyards in Nebraska, Iowa and 
Kansas. Mr. Harvey was director in the Metropolitan National Bank and in the 
American Trust & Savings Bank. 

In the field of doing good to others Mr. Harvey's activity, after the great fire 
of 1871, is perhaps the most striking. He had been a director in the Chicago Re- 



252 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

lief and Aid Society since 1866, and in 1886 was its president, thirty-three years, 
during all of which time he took a leading part in raising funds for the society. 
During the year following the fire, he was a member of the executive committee. 
The title of this society indicates plainly enough the purpose of its organization, 
but it found a great field of operation during the time of and following the awful 
calamity, as the great fire fund of ten million dollars, was entrusted to this society 
for distribution. On October 13, Mayor R. B. Mason, by proclamation, transferred 
the relief work from the general relief committee to the Chicago Relief and Aid 
Society and on the same day, it took full charge of the work thus assigned. This 
society was thoroughly organized, every department was systematized and it had 
upon its executive committee, a gallant band of Chicago's noblest and strongest 
citizens, who during the long months succeeding the fire, lost sight of self in their 
endeavors to assuage the distress of the suffering. The wisdom and ability with 
which they managed and dispersed the inflowing tide of the world's generosity 
have left a record for devotion and integrity of which Chicago has reason to be 
proud. 

Standard Hall, on the corner of Thirteenth street and Michigan avenue, was 
selected for the general headquarters. Here these men met after the day's tremen- 
dous activities, night after night in executive session and wrestled with the emer- 
gencies and conditions consequent upon the city's overwhelming catastrophe. Most 
appropriately, Mr. Harvey was selected to serve on the shelter committee. He was 
not the chairman, but as Mr. T. H. Avery was incapacitated from taking an active 
part in the work, Mr. Harvey filled his position, and did it most admirably. As a 
proof of the close attention he gave to this work of relieving suffering, it can be 
stated that he was not at his own business office but one hour during the six months 
following the fire. The Chicago Relief and Aid Society was accustomed to make a 
report to the common council of its work each year, and this report was in- 
variably contained in a small pamphlet of some twenty-five pages. The report of 
the work of the society, however, during the year of the fire and the winter which 
came with extreme severity close upon its heels, took a large volume of nearly 
four hundred and fifty pages. A few extracts from the report show clearly the 
true condition of affairs. At one point it says: 

"The exigency was imperative. We were on the verge of the most inclement 
season of the year, and those familiar with the great severity of our winters, and 
our exposed situation between the open prairies on the one side and the lake on the 
other, can understand how the question of shelter pressed upon us. Some rude 
barracks were, at the outset, put up by the committee, which could only answer 
for immediate protection from the weather; but such structures, even if well built, 
were open to grave objections as the homes of forty or fifty thousand people in 
the winter. It was decided, therefore, to put in barracks the minimum number 
who could not be provided for otherwise, and to provide small but comfortable 
houses for the rest; much the larger portion had families and had owned or had 
leases of the lots where they had previously resided. Messrs. T. M. Avery and 
T. W. Harvey, members of the executive committee of this society, were at once 
put at the head of a shelter committee, and the result of their labors was even 
more successful and encouraging than the most sanguine had anticipated." 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 253 

Mr. Harvey was no sooner apprised of his appointment than he began making 
estimates. In the space of a few minutes while riding in a buggy from one point 
to another, he figured out a plan for two sizes of houses, a one-room and a two- 
room house, and had put down on paper the bill of material for the construction of 
each. The two-room house was to be 20x16, for families of more than three per- 
sons, and the other 12x16, for families of three only. The floor joists were 2x6, 
covered with a flooring of plain and matched boards ; the studding was of 2x4s, 
covered with inch boards and battened on the outside, or with planed and matched 
lumber; and the inside walls were lined with thick felt paper and each house had 
a double iron chimney, two four-paneled doors, three windows, and a partition to 
be put where the occupants pleased. To the house was added by the committee, 
a cooking stove and utensils, several chairs, a table, bedstead, bedding and suffi- 
cient crockery for the use of the family. The total cost of this house and furni- 
ture was one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Some idea of the work done by the 
shelter committee may be gained from the statement that in one month, from Oc- 
tober 18 to November 17, they erected five thousand two hundred and twenty-six 
houses, which number was increased later to over eight thousand. During such 
trying times as these the question of cost is likely to be forgotten, but Mr. Harvey 
knew that a great portion of the lumber used would have to be paid for, either out 
of the society funds or by the city at some future time, and he took a wise pre- 
caution. Millions of feet of lumber were destroyed by the fire, and still more by 
the forest fires in Michigan and Wisconsin that year, and he readily foresaw that 
such a wholesale loss would cause a rise in the price. He therefore at once began 
making contracts for all he could get at the ruling prices, about fourteen dollars per 
thousand feet. The wisdom of the step was recognized when it was found that the 
price had, by November 26, reached twenty dollars per thousand feet. The shelter 
committee used about thirty-five million feet in their work, and the saving made 
to the society by the forethought of Mr. Harvey amounted to over two hundred 
thousand dollars. 

The following incident will serve to illustrate the heroic service he performed, 
and also the wonderful energy and the humane character of the man. As a re- 
sult of a terrible snow storm that had prevailed for several days, soon after the 
fire, nearly all incoming coal trains were blockaded, and the people were suffering 
greatly for want of fuel and what did arrive was side-tracked and left on the 
outskirts of the city. It seemed impossible to hire teams and wagons to haul it. 
This was the situation one bitter cold Sunday morning, but Mr. Harvey proved him- 
self equal to the emergency, and undoubtedly saved hundreds of people from freez- 
ing to death during that terrible storm. Realizing the situation, his first work was 
the purchase of teams, wagons and harnesses, employment of teamsters and labor- 
ers ; and all that day he personally superintended the work. The snow was so 
deep that they were obliged to dig the cars out of the drifts that entirely enveloped 
them, while the snow on the streets, through which they had to haul the coal, was 
several feet in depth. Yet, when that Sunday night had come, seven hundred 
tons of coal had been delivered to suffering families, and Mr. Harvey knew that 
thousands were enjoying the warmth and comfort of their firesides. Such labor 
as this cannot be forgotten, and the name of T. W. Harvey will be a prominent 



254 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

one on every page which records the sufferings of Chicago's citizens in those days 
of dire distress, and the heroic efforts made to alleviate them. 

In 1873 Mr. Harvey married Miss Belle Sheridan Badger, who was born in 
Louisville, Kentucky, where the early years of her childhood were spent, previous 
to June, 1861, when her parents came to Chicago. Miss Badger's mother was a 
Charleston, South Carolina, lady. Her father was from Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, and had strong northern sympathies. At the beginning of the Civil war, 
Mr. Badger was a partner in the banking firm of A. D. Hunt & Company, in 
Louisville, and thought with many, that conditions indicated, that Kentucky would 
be the central battle ground of the national conflict. In consequence, with other 
Louisville residents he transferred his home to Chicago, with which city his bank- 
ing house had business relations and continued his banking interest there up to the 
time of and until shortly after the great Chicago fire. 

The first time Mr. Harvey met Miss Badger, a year previous to their marriage, 
he was so strongly attracted toward her that he immediately determined that if 
it was possible, he would make her his wife and with the ardent enthusiasm of his 
disposition he pursued his intention with persuasive gallantry. Time proved this 
intuitive impulse to have had its roots in strongly developed instinct and for 
nearly forty years Mr. and Mrs. Harvey enjoyed a companionship of rare con- 
geniality. Identified in tastes and purposes, their attachment continued to increase 
with the years and together they shared life's joys and sorrows and mutually car- 
ried the many and varied experiences of a long and eventful career. No second 
wife was ever more cordially welcomed, into an established home. 

Mr. Harvey's sense of loss, seemed to have intensified his capacity for domestic 
happiness and devotion. The little sons too, offered willing affection and had evi- 
dently craved the feminine presence in the home. The j'oungest little boy at the 
age of five years, said to the new mother one day in a burst of confidence, "Aren't 
you glad you married us?" with amused understanding, her response was in full 
accord, with the child's implicit acknowledgment. 

Seven children were born. Four daughters and three sons. The third little 
girl died through accident in infancy, the other ten children grew and filled the 
home with the stir of vigorous youth and merry activity. Shortly after the World's 
Fair held in Chicago, two of the little girls, one, twelve and the other, four, the 
youngest members of the family, were attacked with sudden illnesses and died 
within three months of each other. This was an experience of extreme household 
sorrow. Distinctly individual in type each seemed to illumine family ideals. No 
young children could ever have called out more intense love, and their removal to 
the life beyond did not lessen the vitality of their influence which continues to in- 
spire emulation. The eight remaining children attained maturity, married and had 
homes of their own. In the course of time few patriarchs of other days could 
number a larger company of healthy promising grand-children than Mr. Haivey. 

From the beginning of his citizenship in Chicago, Mr. Harvey was an aggres- 
sive spirit in religious work. Wherever he was known, he was esteemed for his 
manly Christian character. He was prominently connected with most of Chicago's 
charitable and public institutions and gave largely of his time and means. 

For many years he was active in the Chicago Bible Society and in 1885 was its 
president. His interest in the Young Men's Christian Association began about the 



CHICAGO: ITS HIS.TORY AND ITS BUILDERS 255 

year 1860 and continued with uninterrupted service, to the year 1898. During the 
struggling period of the early years of that organization in Chicago, he gave valu- 
able assistance in procuring funds for its maintenance. Mr. Harvey was a mem- 
ber of the international committee of the Young Men's Christian Association and 
was president of the Chicago association from 1871 to 1873, following the great 
fire and again from 1876 to 1879, following memorable revival services conducted 
by Messrs. Moody and Sankey in the tabernacle, on Monroe and Market streets, 
erected for the purpose. Mr. Moody and his companion had just returned from 
their extraordinarily beneficent labors in Great Britain and Chicago had anticipated 
and arranged for these meetings with elaborate care. 

Mr. Harvey was chairman of the executive committee, entrusted with the erec- 
tion and management of the building, the widely circulated announcements of the 
services and the handling of the immense crowds. The tabernacle was a temporary 
wooden structure built upon the foundations of the wholesale house of J. V. Far- 
well & Company. It had a seating capacity of eight thousand, with excellent heat- 
ing and ventilating arrangements and most extraordinary acoustic properties. The 
attendance was so large however, that notwithstanding the extent of accommodation, 
halls had to be engaged in the vicinity and persons appointed to conduct services 
in them, for those unable to get into the main building. 

For six weeks during that unusually severe winter of 187G with the thermometer 
continuously about the zero mark and the snow banked almost to the second stories 
of the houses, these meetings continued to draw vast audiences. Three services 
were held each day. One at ten in the morning, one in the afternoon at three 
and at half past seven in the evening. Many came from a great distance, and 
singing services had to be arranged for those arriving long previous to the ap- 
pointed hours. So exacting were Mr. Harvey's duties and so difficult was it to get 
to and from the building, that he and Mrs. Harvey usually remained through the 
day, taking their meals down town. Their services were enlisted for the after 
meetings and it was late in the night before they would reach their home. A 
wonderful religious awakening followed these meetings. Great numbers were 
added to the churches and interest in all lines of religious work was quickened. Be- 
fore Mr. Moody left the city, he most successfully started a subscription list, to 
clear the indebtedness of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association incurred 
in rebuilding after the fire, leaving this task to Mr. Harvey and Mr. Richard C. 
Morse, the international secretary to complete. This was done and a hundred and 
ten thousand dollars raised, freeing the institution and leaving funds for current 
expenses until it could become established upon a sound financial basis. Realizing 
that the work would now enlarge and be benefited by younger men assuming the 
conduct of the institution, Mr. Harvey was largely instrumental, in selecting and 
inducing Mr. Cyrus McCormick, Jr., and Mr. J. V. Farwell, Jr., sons of the asso- 
ciation's stanch friends and Mr. James L. Houghteling to undertake the manage- 
ment. The splendid results of the work carried forward by these gentlemen have 
developed the Chicago Association into one of the largest Young Men's Christian 
Association centers of the world and they have greatly widened its influence and 
field of usefulness. 

The friendship between Mr. Moody and Mr. Harvey dates from the early 
'60s. The remarkable work accomplished among southern prisoners at Camp 



256 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Douglas, among the city's poor and in the noon meetings of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, began to make the name of Dwight L. Moody famous. This friend- 
ship continued through life, resulting in Mr. Harvey's most intimate association with 
all Mr. Moody's Evangelistic work in Chicago. For years Mr. Harvey was con- 
nected with Mr. Moody's Bible school work, started for the purpose of training: 
helpers, skilled in the practical use of the scriptures, to meet the needs of his 
work in the enquiry room. Classes were conducted in the rear room of the Young 
Men's Christian Association building then located at No. 148 Madison street,. 
under the leadership of Miss Emma Dryer and others. Many lady students in 
these classes residing out of town, made it desirable to obtain a suitable home, in 
which they could live. Frequently persons having the best natural qualifications 
for such work, had not received the necessary educational foundation, for the most 
efficient service and in seeking to meet these conditions, as they presented them- 
selves, Mr. Moody developed the Chicago Evangelization Society. There are now 
two large and commodious buildings, one for men and one for women, situated on the 
North Side near Mr. Moody's church. These schools have become important insti- 
tutions, where practical training in all branches of city, home and foreign mission 
work may be received. The great Northfield schools in Massachusetts are also an 
out-growth of Mr. Moody's desire for trained Evangelistic workers and the North- 
field summer conventions, which have become world-wide in their influences originated 
in this connection. 

Mr. Harvey was vice president of the Chicago Evangelization Society and much 
devolved upon him during Mr. Moody's absence. He personally superintended the 
construction of the men's building and established and equipped its working de- 
partments. A pathetic situation arose, at the time of the dedication of this build- 
ing, characteristic of both Mr. Harvey's mother and himself. Mrs. Harvey, Sr., 
had been deeply interested in this bible school and had come to her son's home 
in Chicago several days in advance in order to be present at the dedication ser- 
vices. Finding herself indisposed, she did not remain, but returned to her home 
in Sandwich. A serious attack of bronchitis developed, which later proved fatal. 
The day before the dedication her physician regarded her condition as so grave 
that he telegraphed the family. Mr. Harvey and his wife immediately left for 
Sandwich. During the night the disease advanced and in the morning it was 
quite evident that she would not recover. The dear mother was entirely conscious, 
although having great difficulty to speak. Beckoning her son to her side, she asked, 
"Is not this the day of the dedication?" Upon being told that it was, she said, "I 
want you to go. Leave your wife with me, I want you at your post." Her re- 
quest was obeyed. She had slipped away before his return as he knew would be 
the case. Only one or two at the meeting heard of the tension he was under, on 
that occasion, but that it was her wish, sustained him. 

Mr. Harvey's religious work did not preclude his entering other fields of ac- 
tivity. His indefatigable energy had a scope that was very extraordinary. 

He was one of the original committee of nine, to whom the responsibility for 
arranging for The Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago was delegated, was 
a director upon the board throughout its course and at one time its president. This 
enterprise, for years housed in the great building situated on the lower lake front 
of Michigan avenue, was not only a source of enlargement to the city's commer- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 257 

cial interests, but under its auspices, many of Chicago's important institutions had 
their beginning, in the early establishment of which Mr. Harvey took an active 
part. 

He was one of the trustees and governing members of the Art Institute and 
had a fine appreciation of a good picture, was one of the guarantors and box holders 
of the Thomas Orchestral Association, regularly attending the concerts, enjoying 
Mr. Thomas' masterly interpretation of the great musicians and valuing his edu- 
cational work for Chicago. 

In the successful inauguration of the Fat Stock Shows, Mr. Harvey was chiefly 
instrumental. The famous animals bred upon his Nebraska stock farm being 
among the most prominent prize winners ever exhibited in Chicago. 

Mr. Harvey was a member of the Commercial Club, and occupied a seat at 
the first Round Table of the Chicago Club. As president of the Commercial 
Club in 1892, the year preceding the World's Columbian Exposition, Mr. Har- 
vey served upon the committee sent by that organization to Washington, D. C., 
to extend an invitation to the members of congress to attend a banquet to be 
given by the club, and view the work done at the fair grounds, that an appro- 
priation might be advanced by the government to carry forward the large plans 
undertaken. Over three hundred members of congress, senators and representa- 
tives accepted the invitation and came in a special train to Chicago. They were 
accompanied by the club members and officers of the World's Fair Commission to 
the grounds and shown the buildings and waterways of the White City. The vis- 
itors were surprised and delighted with what they saw and that evening so many 
of them made enthusiastic and eulogistic speeches that the banquet continued into 
the small hours of the night. On their return to Washington, they gave a prac- 
tical proof of their appreciation, by making a five million dollar loan to the direct- 
ors of the exposition, to complete the expenditures for construction and equipment. 

Mr. Harvey was for a long period a trustee of the Northwestern University at 
Evanston. He was among the early laborers for the introduction of the kinder- 
garten and manual training in the public schools and directly aided in procur- 
ing for Chicago the services of the pedagogical genius, Colonel Francis W. Parker, 
who after much valuable usefulness in the community, became the first head of the 
school of education established by Mrs. Emmons Elaine at the University of Chicago. 

The necessity for providing desirable surroundings for his large, growing family 
of young people, during their summer vacations, and the need of out-door exercise 
for himself, upon whom the heavy strain of his undertakings were beginning to tell, 
induced Mr. Harvey to purchase in 1882 a large tract of land in southeastern Ne- 
braska, for a farm home, during part of the year. He had become acquainted 
with the rolling fields of this region, as one of a group of gentlemen, having a 
hunting lodge in this vicinity, where they came for prairie chicken shooting, and 
Mr. Harvey had found this inland prairie climate very beneficial to his health. 
Also at this time he had joined another group of friends in the importation from 
Scotland of some Aberdeen Angus Cattle, and a home must be obtained for them. 
This breed of animals was comparatively little known in America, but had become 
prominent as prize winners in the Fat Stock Shows of Great Britain and it was 
thought that their introduction into this country would prove of benefit. Another 
important consideration in the selection of this Nebraska country seat was, that 



258 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

it enabled Mr. Harvey to spend his summers with his family, while supervising 
his western business. 

The fertility and beautiful lay of this land offered every advantage for a stock 
farm and with the love for agriculture and animals acquired early in life, Mr. 
Harvey, with his usual zest in whatever he undertook, gave great study to methods 
and had enthusiastic pleasure in achieving the success this stock farm attained. 
It was called "Turlington," after Mr. Harvey's first name, and became very fa- 
mous in stock circles. Mr. Harvey believed in sparing no pains to get the best stock 
and the best caretakers, but developed himself many of his own methods in rais- 
ing and feeding his animals, for which he seemed to have a genius. From the first, 
he was successful as an exhibitor, taking prizes in many classes at Fat Stock Shows 
in Chicago and throughout the west in 1883 and each year following, as long as he 
continued a breeder. At the Chicago Fat Stock Show of 1887 he carried off al- 
most all the prizes. In the class exhibiting for best herd, the excellence of the 
Shorthorn herd competing, caused the judges to waver. With the quickness and 
dash which were so characteristic, Mr. Harvey suggested to one of the judges to 
line them up in alternation, according to age. This brought into sharp relief the 
points in which he considered the Angus to excel. The judges were convinced and 
agreed and the blue ribbons were placed upon the "Doddies." Feeling ran high, 
both herds were so unusually fine, and this stroke caused the greatest excitement, 
but the fairness could not be questioned. The "Sensational Sandwich" as it was 
called, made a great stir in all the stock journals of the country, and did much 
towards making this breed well known. 

Black Prince of Turlington 2nd was adjudged Sweepstake Steer, all breeds 
competing, at this same show, and took four thousand five hundred dollars 'in pre- 
miums at Chicago and the Kansas City State Fair. This Aberdeen Angus steer was 
presented with the fifty dollar gold shield by the Breeder's Gazette, conditional 
upon its being "Passed on" to any animal exceeding the record of Black Prince. 
Up to the year 1912 it was still in possession of the family, never having been 
called for. The four best cattle that took the sweepstake prize at the World's 
Columbian Exposition in 1893 were raised by Mr. Harvey. They became known 
the world over. Professor Charles S. Plumb, author of "Little Sketches of Famous 
Beef Cattle," published in 1904, writes of this exhibit, "These marvels of the cat- 
tle breeder's art can neither be adequately described, nor satisfactorily delineated. 
The readiest of writers and the cleverest of artists may strive in vain to convey 
to the minds of those who have not seen these animals, any clear-cut conception 
of their character. They are as fine and neat as they are big; as wide as they are 
low, as thick at the ends as in their middles, as round and full and deep and smooth 
as Nature's laws allow in the cattle kind." This same author in his sketch of 
Black Knight, the extraordinary Polled Aberdeen Angus bull at the head of Mr. 
Harvey's herd at Turlington, and sire of the animals just described, adds, "in 
fact over three-fourths of the first prize winners at the Columbian Exposition were 
sired by Black Knight or his sons." In conclusion, Prof. Plumb says, "How shall 
we estimate his greatness? By the opinion of men, as influenced by the charac- 
ter of his descendants. These, in this day, it may be fairly said, designate Black 
Night as the greatest Angus bull America has ever produced." 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 259 

It was not celebrity in the show ring that actuated Mr. Harvey in importing 
and raising these splendid animals. No one had a keener enjoyment in whole- 
some competition, but it was his sincere desire to advance the cattle interests of 
the west that gave motive to his endeavors. In every way he sought to show the 
average farmer how with the same expenditure, by properly heading his herd, he 
could improve his common stock. What care and intelligence in feeding, especially 
with young animals, would accomplish. What it would mean to them to seek to 
inform themselves regarding the best management of their crops. The govern- 
ment was just awakening to its responsibility along these lines. No secretary of 
agriculture had as yet been appointed, and in only a few state colleges had these 
subjects been introduced. Mr. J. Stirling Morton, one of the early governors of 
Nebraska and later secretary of agriculture under President Cleveland, had done 
splendid work in the interest of treeing the west. He instituted Arbor Day, which 
has accomplished so much in reclaiming the prairies, but most of the farmers fol- 
lowed the traditions of their youth in stock-raising and farming, and were indifferent 
to or suspicious of innovations. Mr. Harvey's friendliness and helpfulness and 
success, before long, had their influence and he saw the widespread adoption of 
his methods, through the surrounding country. The Breeder's Gazette, the princi- 
pal agricultural publication, in one of its issues, said, "Many breeders ask, what 
are the methods employed at Turlington in feeding and breeding and what is the 
standard?" For answer they published an article written by Professor W. A. 
Henry of the agricultural experiment station, Madison, Wisconsin, on his return 
from this Nebraska farm. Professor Henry writes, "My delight can easily be 
imagined, when I received an invitation from Mr. Harvey late in September to 
visit Turlington, and see its cattle at home in the fields. I am tempted to enlarge 
upon the scene presented from the homestead elevation, of the great billowy hills 
stretching away to the horizon on every hand, covered with standing corn, brown, 
sere and ready for the huskers and to describe the farm of some two thousand 
acres, surrounded and divided by something like thirty miles of hedge fence and 
to write of the sheep, horses and a dozen matters of interest, but I will not lengthen 
this paper more than is absolutely necessary, and so confine myself to the main 
points of my visit." Then follows the information regarding the cattle. Professor 
Henry ends by saying, "The ability of this breed of cattle to improve our native 
stock to such a remarkable degree in the first and second cross, as was shown by 
these grades, is to my mind, of the highest significance and speaks volumes for the 
value of these cattle." 

Another of Mr. Harvey's enterprises was the founding of the prosperous manu- 
facturing temperance town of Harvey, situated -south of Pullman, about an hour's 
ride from Chicago. The site was favorable for railroad facilities, several lines 
intersecting upon the grounds and Mr. Harvey succeeded in influencing a number 
of large manufacturing industries to locate there and obtained for them from the 
railroads desirable accommodation. He was instrumental in establishing the bank, 
the first church, in which union services were held and in developing the town 
organization. Mr. Harvey spared no expense or care in setting out trees and 
shrubs and providing a wholesome and abundant water supply. He built the 
Harvey Steel Car Company Works, of which he was president and where were 
constructed in 1892 the first steel freight cars adopted by the railroads. 

Vol. V 18 



260 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

In its inception, no imposed prohibition restrictions were planned. A curious 
incident brought about the decision, that has secured Harvey against the invasion 
of the saloon. Before the ground plats were completed and in order for sale, a 
man stepped into the main office, stating that he wished to buy a lot in the new 
town. As no one could inform him regarding the price, Mr. Harvey was referred 
to and he sent for the man to be brought to his private office. As soon as he 
entered Mr. Harvey's quick intuition caused him to suspect the man's object. 
He questioned him as to the purpose for which he wanted the lot, receiving the 
answer, "To build a house." "What kind of a house?" was asked. "A house to 
live in," was the response. Without further inquiry, Mr. Harvey told him that 
plans were not fully in readiness and he would have to call later. Mr. Harvey 
felt convinced that this man was a saloon keeper and the vision of his beloved father 
and his life-long, earnest efforts in the cause of temperance, rose before him. He 
resolved, that never with his consent, should land that he controlled, be disposed 
of, for saloon purposes. This man was not well out of the building before Mr. 
Harvey was on his way, to seek legal assistance to this end. Deeds were arranged 
containing a clause, whereby property used at any time as a saloon should revert 
to the original owner. Thus Harvey became a temperance town and has so con- 
tinued. Another interesting incident in this connection, occurred years afterward, 
upon the occasion of a visit to the town, as Mr. Harvey was being driven about 
to see the improvements. His attention was called to a handsome stone building, 
which upon inquiry, he was informed was the jail. Upon being shown through the 
interior, Mr. Harvey remarked "That it was a fine building," and enquired how 
long it had been built, as it did not appear to have been occupied. His escort 
informed him, that it had been completed for three years, but that, as he had in- 
ferred, it was the case, it had never had an occupant. This was a very suggestive 
statement, the town having several thousand inhabitants. Harvey continues to 
increase and prosper. The trees have made fine growth and with its many beau- 
tiful homes and unusually excellent schools, it has become a very attractive town. 

Mr. Harvey's last service to Chicago, was the part he had, in the formation of 
the Civic Federation, now a national organization. At the close of the World's 
Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in the fall of 1893, many avenues of work ended 
and thousands of men, mostly young, were stranded in the, city. They were out 
of money and employment, unclean and desperate and were a menace to the com- 
munity. They crowded the floors of the city hall and police stations at night for 
shelter and roamed the streets during the day. Mr. Harvey's heart went out in 
pity and anxiety to these discouraged men and he felt, as did many others that 
the emergency called for prompt and earnest action. A citizens' mass meeting was 
held, in Central Music Hall, on Sunday evening, November 19, to consider the 
situation and discuss the formation of an organization for promoting moral and 
social reform, and cooperating with the many already existing organizations now 
laboring to that end. The meeting was largely attended and much interest was 
aroused. A committee of five was appointed, to undertake the establishment of 
such a civic federation, and Mr. Harvey was made chairman. This committee met 
in Mr. Harvey's office, November 28, the business transacted being the naming of 
a larger committee to effect a permanent organization and define its scope. Mr. 
Harvey drafted a letter which was sent to fifty citizens. That the plan struck a 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 261 

popular chord was evidenced, by the promptness with which the acceptances came 
in. Almost the entire number responded favorably. Several meetings were held 
at one of which, over one hundred representatives of the organized charities of 
the city were present. Mr. Harvey presented the situation and recommended im- 
mediate action along practical lines. The chair was instructed to appoint com- 
mittees and the organization of the Civic Federation was effected. Mr. Harvey 
declined the presidency on account of the claims of his personal business, and Mr. 
Lyman J. Gage, later secretary of the treasury of the United States, was induced 
to fill this position. Mr. Harvey, however, accepted the chairmanship of the Cen- 
tral Relief Committee which undertook to provide employment and care for the 
horde of men, practically tramps, which was the first practical work of the larger 
organization, which had for its scope the solution of social problems and civic bet- 
terment. This Central Relief Association immediately raised one hundred and 
thirty-five thousand dollars and put five thousand men to work cleaning streets, 
cooperating with the city officials. The men were paid ten cents per hour in labor 
tickets, which they could exchange for lodging, food and clothing, provided at very 
small cost by the association. Those that were sick received medical care and op- 
portunities were arranged for cleanliness. Abundant and wholesome food was 
served in soup kitchens, some of these utilizing the extensive outfits left from the 
world's fair. The beds were clean and good and so thoroughly were they appre- 
ciated by the men, that often before dark, all in many lodging houses would be 
filled. The result of this undertaking, put these men upon their feet and enabled 
them, before the next spring to obtain permanent employment or through the co- 
operation of the railroads with the committee, to go in a self-respecting condition 
to their homes in other states. Mr. Harvey frequently went in the early morning 
to the soup kitchens to see that the committees' insructions were being properly car- 
ried out, that the men were served their coffee hot and received what the agree- 
ment called for. He was a familiar figure and passing down the line, would often 
speak to the men in a cherry, friendly way, "Well boys, is it all right?" or have 
something amusing to say. It became quite usual for them to greet him with "The 
top o' the morning to you father." A touching evidence of their recognition of his 
interest occurred several years from this time, in the hills of West Virginia. Mr. 
and Mrs. Harvey were on their way to a small town in that state, somewhat off of 
the main road and were compelled to wait several hours at a way station to make 
the connection. They were sitting upon a bench outside the station, casually watch- 
ing a group of railroad hands at work upon a new bit of road some distance from 
them, when two flat cars approached with a large crew of men with tools upon 
them evidently intending to join the others. As they neared the station, hats were 
raised and a shout went up, "Why there's father." They were some of the men 
who had been cared for in Chicago and recognized Mr. Harvey. 

Many experiences came to Mr. Harvey in his declining years. Experiences 
that try men's souls and among them, acute physical suffering, but his valiant and 
loyal spirit met them with the same buoyancy that had always characterized him. 
Life lost no zest when he found himself incapacitated to participate in its activ- 
ities as had been his wont. His vigorous mind found as keen enjoyment in study- 
ing the questions of the day as it had found in working with them. He had more 
time for friends and for books and brought an enriched appreciation to the collec- 



262 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tions in the museums, art galleries and the many interests of development. A half 
finished manuscript was found in his traveling case after his death, which he was 
writing in answer to a friend's request for his opinion, upon a much discussed 
magazine article and several books arrived from England later, for which 
he had sent, to obtain the best and most advanced views upon the subject. The 
volume of his favorite poet, Burns, from which he would so often quote, was al- 
ways at hand and with the open mind of a child he kept pace with the advance- 
ment in religious understanding. The spring of his kindly humor, which end- 
lessly surprised and amused those about him creating such a lively and delight- 
ful atmosphere of pleasantness, was as fresh as in youth and his genial winsome- 
ness drew about him a circle of the choicest friends wherever he went. His per- 
sonality carried the stamp of achievement and he was noted by his distinguished 
appearance. Such a life, when it passes, makes the next world very real. Its 
vitality cannot die, or its usefulness be quenched. There can be no stronger argu- 
ment for the continuance and conservation of the soul's forces, than the splendid 
march of such a spirit to the verge of the unseen. If we must leave the deep 
mystery of apparent human failure to an all wise Creator to unfold, the entrance 
of such a soul into the eternal makes faith almost sight. 

With the simplicity and unconscious humility of real greatness Mr. Harvey has 
left a record of Christian American manhood gratefully written in many hearts. 



CHARLES FREDERICK GUNTHER. 

Only in name does Charles F. Gunther give indication of his German birth and 
parentage, for he is distinctively American in thought and interests. This does 
not mean that he does not feel a love for the land of his nativity and, indeed, he 
is recognized as a man of the widest catholicity of spirit, to whom all peoples are 
a subject of interest and all history a field for research. To characterize Mr. 
Gunther and his life work in a single sentence is impossible, for his interests are 
of a most broad and varied nature, and while he can give sage advice to the young 
man starting in business, for he carved out for himself the path to success, he can 
speak with equal authority concerning ancient civilization and modern scientific 
investigations. While he has traveled broadly, he has made Chicago his home 
since 1863, and it is in this city that his commercial activities have centered. The 
beautiful town of Wildberg, in the midst of the celebrated Black Forest district of 
Germany, was his birthplace, and the date March 6, 1837. He was, however, 
only six years of age when his parents came to the United States with their family, 
arriving at New York after a voyage of fifty-two days from the port of Havre. 
The family home was established in Lancaster county and later in Somerset county, 
Pennsylvania, and after pursuing his education in the public schools there, Charles 
F. Gunther began carrying government mail over a route of forty miles to Johns- 
town and return on horseback for the meager wage of twenty-five cents per day. 
Since the spring of 1850, however, he has been identified with the middle west, 
for in that year the family removed to Peru, Illinois, and he there had opportunity 
to continue his education as well as to advance in business training and competency. 




CHARLES F. GUNTHKIt 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 265 

In his youthful days he became a clerk in a drug store and to some extent read medi- 
cine. He was also at one time an employe in the postoffice at Peru and afterward 
became connected as the local correspondent with the famous Chicago bank of 
George Smith & Company. He seemed in this connection to have found a task suited 
to his abilities, for he worked his way steadily upward and after a few years was 
made cashier of the institution. However, he severed his connection with the 
bank to enter the service of Bohlen, Wilson & Company at Memphis, Tennessee. 
They were conducting the most extensive ice business in the south, obtaining their 
source of supply at Peru, Illinois. Residing below the Mason and Dixon line and 
being brought, by the impressment of his firm's resources and steamers, in the 
natural course of circumstances, to the cause of the Confederacy, he entered the 
Confederate navy service as a steward and purser, purchasing supplies and trans- 
porting troops along all the southern rivers tributary to the Mississippi. At length 
the Union troops obtained possession of Memphis and New Orleans and blockaded 
the steamer upon which Mr. Gunther was 'serving and that had escaped up the 
Arkansas river, and the steamers were burned by the Union troops. A year later 
he was captured in line of battle in a cavalry charge where the others were placed 
to arrest the advance of the Union troops, while he was made a prisoner of war. 
Soon afterward, however, he was released and returned to his old home in Peru. 
Later he accepted a position in a Peoria bank and his next change in business con- 
nection brought him to Chicago as the first traveling salesman out of this city into 
southern territory for the confectionary house of C. W. Sanford. He traveled 
over Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky and while thus em- 
ployed made his first trip to Europe. He afterward became an employe of Thomp- 
son, Johnson & Company, wholesale grocers of Chicago, and later became the 
Chicago representative of Greenfield, Young & Company, leading New York con- 
fectioners. In the fall of 1868 he opened a retail business on his own account on 
Clark street and thus established the first high-grade store of the kind in the city, 
and for many years thereafter his establishment set the standard for kindred under- 
takings. It was Mr. Gunther who first introduced the caramel, one of the most 
notable of the American confections. In the great conflagration of 1871 his store 
was destroyed, but with notable energy and determination he resumed the busi- 
ness and on State street built up an enterprise second to none in Chicago and with 
few parallels in the country. Until recently he has remained proprietor of this 
establishment, which has become a synonym to Chicago residents and visitors of 
all that is attractive and artistic in the way of equipment and of purity in the matter 
of the product. Not only have the confectionary and restaurant departments been 
kept up to the highest standard, but patrons of the store have had an object lesson in 
history, in the rare and almost priceless portraits and works of art which there 
adorn the walls. 

Originality has always characterized the business methods of Mr. Gunther, 
who in fact has manifested the spirit of the pioneer in formulating and executing 
original plans for the development of his commercial interests. Many of the sup- 
posed up-to-date ideas prevailing among Chicago retail merchants at the present 
time were introduced into the city by him and utilized by him many years ago. In 
fact he has set the standard which may have followed. He was the first merchant in 
Chicago to advertise in the local news space of the daily journals when all other 



266 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

matter of that character was found in the advertising columns. He realized how 
quickly and effectively such advertising would be brought to the attention of readers 
and thus he instituted a plan that has since been widely adopted. He was the first 
merchant in Chicago to introduce advertising novelties. More than thirty years ago 
the unique and novel, as well as artistic character of the Gunther advertisements was 
as distinctive as the superior quality of the product. Many of these novelties were 
brought from Europe by Mr. Gunther and while not originally manufactured for 
that purpose, he readily understood how this use could be made of them and, add- 
ing his name and business address, sent these out to make known to the city and 
the country at large the progressive methods of Chicago's foremost confectioner. 
In the management and direction of his business he was very systematic. No 
detail was regarded as too unimportant to claim his notice and, moreover, he knew 
the duties of almost every employe and knew when they were being properly dis- 
charged. A man of great energy and wonderful capacity for work, he not only 
founded and conducted the extensive manufacturing and mercantile interests with 
which his name was so long associated but even now, at the age of seventy-five 
years, when success is his, sufficient to enable him to put aside business cares, he 
gives his personal attention to the management of his extensive private interests 
and acts as president and active manager of the Gunther Confection and Chocolate 
Company, the business which he founded, and which is one of the best known con- 
cerns in its line in Chicago. 

Long recognized as the leader in his line and as a most successful merchant, 
it has followed as a logical sequence that Mr. Gunther has taken an active part in 
affairs of public moment, improvement and upbuilding of the city. A remarkable 
coincident in the life of Mr. Gunther and the history of the city of his successes 
is the fact that he was born the same year, month, week and within the same two 
days, in 1837, that Chicago was incorporated. One of the leaders of the Chicago 
democracy and with firm belief in the democratic principle of equal rights to all 
and special privileges to none, believing also in the tariff for revenue only, which 
has long been one of the strong planks in the democratic platform, he has neverthe- 
less eschewed public office, desiring no such recognition of his party fealty. How- 
ever, his fellow citizens have twice called him to the city council and in 1901 he 
was 'elected city treasurer, in which position his administration was characterized 
by the same business-like and energetic spirit that has gained him prominence and 
leadership in commercial circles. 

In 1869 Mr. Gunther was married to Miss Jennie Burnell, of Lima, Indiana, 
and unto them were born two sons, Burnell and Whitman, the latter of whom is 
now deceased. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gunther have long been identified with organ- 
izations for the promotion of Chicago's welfare, and he has ever wielded a wide 
influence for progress and improvement. It is true that his chief life work has been 
that of a remarkably successful manufacturer and merchant, but the range of his 
activities and the scope of his influence has reached far beyond that special field 
and he belongs to that public-spirited, useful and helpful type of men whose ambi- 
tions are centered and directed in those channels through which flows the greatest 
and most permanent good to the greatest number. 

Chicago owes to Mr. Gunther a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid 
for what he has done in bringing to the city and placing upon exhibition works of 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 267 

art, relics and historical treasures, which visibly teach the history and progress of 
world. Speaking German, French and Spanish as well as English, Mr. Gunther 
has been able to personally conduct his investigations in foreign fields. For many 
years he had above his store what was in many respects one of the finest museums 
of the country. His success has enabled him to indulge his love for historic re- 
search to the fullest extent and he has been most generous in allowing others to 
benefit by the collections that he has gathered, collections of manuscript, historic 
volumes and portraits as well as relics of all the American wars from colonial times 
down to the late Spanish-American war. His treasures comprise manuscripts of the 
most ancient writings of the world, from the stone rolls of the Assyrian and the 
Babylonian periods and the papyrus parchments of the Pharaohs, to the present 
time. He undoubtedly possesses the rarest collection of Bibles in America, includ- 
ing a copy of the New Testament printed in English (1528) ; all of the first Bibles 
printed in Europe and on the American continent, such as the Elliott Indian Bibles 
and the Martha Washington Bible and the first American Bible by Atkinson in 
1782. The famous Gunther manuscripts include a well authenticated and very 
rare autograph of Shakespeare, and a Moliere and original manuscripts of Goethe, 
Schiller, Tasso, Michael Angelo, Galileo, Raphael and many other famous charac- 
ters of Europe and America memorials direct from the hands of noted writers, 
poets, musicians, clergymen, politicians and monarchs. In his galleries are the 
original manuscripts of Star Spangled Banner; Home, Sweet Home; Old Lang 
Syne ; Old Grimes ; Lead Kindly Light ; and many others. Among the maps are 
the earliest ones relating to America from 1500 up, and the first edition of Martin 
Waldseemueller's Cosmography, 1507, which for the first time gives the name Amer- 
ica to the new world. Of the Gunther portraits perhaps the most famous is that 
of Columbus by Sir Antonio Moro, painted about 1552 from a miniature, then form- 
ing a part of the historic museum in the Prado Palace, in Madrid, Spain. Wash- 
ington Irving, who thoroughly searched the archives of Spain, pronounced this the 
best and truest portrait of Columbus extant. The collection also contains seven- 
teen original portraits of Washington, including the first ever made of him by the 
elder Peale, and the only portrait in existence of Washington's sister Betty and 
her husband, including the two lost portraits of George and Martha Washington 
by Saint Memen. The relics of George Washington cover his entire career, and 
the department of Americana includes also rare memorials of Abraham Lincoln 
and all other great historic characters. In addition to all this Mr. Gunther was 
instrumental in bringing to Chicago the priceless exhibit of Civil war relics. In 
the late '80s he was the prime factor in the movement to transport Libby prison 
from Richmond, Virginia, to this city, and within its historic walls installed the 
war museum, acting as president of the Museum Association during its existence 
and later becoming president of the company that erected upon the former museum 
site the now famous Coliseum. In 1912 Mr. Gunther erected the Gunther build- 
ing on the northwest corner of South Wabash avenue and Harmon court. 

Mr. Gunther is not only democratic in principle of the Jefferson and low tariff 
democracy but in spirit, is one of the most approachable and genial of men, and 
his unfeigned cordiality has gained for him a circle of friends almost coextensive 
with the circle of his acquaintances. He is a welcome member in various fraterni- 
ties, clubs and societies. He is a Knight Templar Mason, a Noble of the Mystic 



268 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Shrine of Medinah Temple and upon him has been conferred the thirty-third, the 
honorary degree, of the Scottish Rite. Much of the nature of his interests, activi- 
ties and associations is indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Union 
League, Jefferson, Caxton, Germanic, Cook County Democratic, Illinois Athletic 
and Iroquois Clubs and of the last named he has served as president. He also 
belongs to the Geographic Society, is a trustee of the Chicago Historic Society and 
the Chicago Academy of Sciences, is a governing member of the Chicago Art Insti- 
tute and belongs to the Alliance Fran9aise. He is self-educated yet one of the most 
widely informed men of Chicago. There is nothing in his manner that would indi- 
cate his consciousness of superiority because of his wide knowledge resulting from 
study and travel, and yet all who know him recognize the fact that association with 
him means expansion and elevation. Splendidly preserved physically, his mind is 
as alert and his judgment as keen as it was thirty years ago. He belongs to that 
class to whom advanced years does not mean a decrease in mental power. There 
are those who grow mentally and morally stronger as the years pass by, giving out 
of their rich stores of wisdom and experience for the benefit of others, and of these 
Charles F. Gunther is a splendid representative. 



ALVIN THOMAS WILLETT. 

Alvin Thomas Willett was born February 2, 1837, in Waldo, Maine, and his 
life record closed December 26, 1909. In the intervening period of seventy-two 
years he spent forty-four years in Chicago and was prominently known in the 
early days as one of the leading hotel men of the city and later in connection with 
a large teaming business which he built up. Success came to him along those lines 
and won him recognition as one of the representative business men of the city. 

Mr. Willett was a son of Albert L. and Agnes (Levenseller) Willett. The an- 
cestry of the family is traced back to Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New 
York. In a little cemetery of East Providence, Rhode Island, is found an old 
gray, lichen-covered stone which bears the inscription: "1674. Here lies ye body of 
ye Wor. Thomas Willett, who died August ye 4th in ye 64th year of his age anno." 
On the footstone appear the words: "Who was the first mayor of New York, and 
twice did sustain yt place." By his side were interred the remains of his wife. 
One of the current magazines said: "Willett was already a vigorous youth of nine- 
teen, when, in 1629, he was landed on the inhospitable New England shore as part 
of the miscellaneous cargo of Pilgrims and rare mahogany furniture, which the 
Speedwell bore from Leyden. He had been swept from the rest of his family on 
the Separatist tide, which was then at flood, and following the current, sought 
freedom to worship, first in hospitable Holland and then in the new world. At 
this point of his career, religious fervor was probably his most prominent char- 
acteristic. It was mingled, however, with common sense and self-reliance, qualities 
which made quick appeal to Governor Winthrop of Plymouth colony, who 
gave the young man his first work in America by appointing him agent at the 
colony's trading post in Maine. His important task there was to restore friendly 
relations with the Indians, which had been disturbed during the administration 




A. T. WILLETT 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 271 

of his predecessor. So skillfully did he manage this delicate mission that 
on the single achievement might rest the title he later gained of 'Peacemaker.' 
But more farreaching duties of similar nature fell to his lot in later life." On one 
occasion, according to the records left by Governor Winthrop, the Indians, running 
short of food, determined to murder the agent and seize the stores in the colony 
houses. One of their number was deputed to call on the agent and study methods 
of attack. After a brief absence he returned with the information that Willett 
had learned of their conspiracy by reading it in a book and was so frightfully 
angry that it was useless to go farther with the plot. The explanation of this 
remarkable report was that when the Indian entered his house Willett had been 
reading his Bible. Being better versed in the art of trading than of reading and 
looking upon Bible-study as serious business, his face was wrinkled with a frown 
and, as his task demanded his entire attention, the Indian caller missed the cus- 
tomary friendly greeting. Having served his apprenticeship in the Maine wilder- 
ness, Willett returned to Plymouth, where he engaged with equal success in sea 
trading. His ventures on the ocean were directed largely to dealing with the 
Dutch colony at N-ew Amsterdam, and the position he attained in the community 
of his adoption is indicated by his election to the captaincy of the Plymouth Mili- 
tary Company after the departure of Miles Standish. Boundary disputes between 
the Dutch and New Englanders arose frequently and when at length it was decided 
to settle such questions by arbitration, each party to name two commissioners, 
whose decision would be final, New Amsterdam manifested its esteem for Thomas 
Willett in choosing him one of the city's representatives and the quarrel was satis- 
factorily settled. In 1660 Thomas Willett obtained a grant of lands west of Ply- 
mouth, extending southward to Narragansett Bay, and later became owner of 
other property, including the promontory known as Boston Neck, near Narra- 
gansett Pier. He was one of the Atherton Company, which held from Connecticut 
a grant of the most southerly part of Rhode Island. When King Charles granted 
the colony of New Amsterdam to the Duke of York, the latter sent his representative, 
Nicolls, across the Atlantic to take pqssession of Manhattan, hitherto controlled 
by the Dutch. Learning of Thomas Willett's familiarity with life in that vicinity, 
he summoned the former merchant to accompany him, and at Mr. Willett's repre-' 
sentations that resistance was useless, New Amsterdam surrendered to Nicolls with- 
out a fight, and after the city's name had been changed to New York, Willett, in 
June, 1665. was appointed mayor with the approval of English and Dutch alike. 
After a year in that office he became a member of the board of five aldermen of the 
city and later served a second term in the office of mayor. He afterward again 
acted in his old role of peacemaker between the English and the Five Nations 
when the former went to take possession of Albany. He had gained considerable 
success and prominence when in 167S the Dutch recaptured Manhattan, at which 
time Thomas Willett decided to return to his farm on the shore of Narragansett 
Bay. There his last days were spent. His old homestead stood until a few years 
ago, when it was destroyed by fire. A relic of this man, once prominent in the life 
of New England and of New York, is found in a silver communion service which 
he gave to the Newman (R. I.) Congregational church, and in the town which he 
largely owned two and a half centuries ago a fine, broad highway is named in his 
honor. 



272 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

In 1636 Thomas Willett wedded Mary, daughter of John Brown, and their 
children were: Mary, born in 1637, who became the wife of Samuel Hooker; 
Martha, who was born in 1639 and gave her hand in marriage to John Saffin; John, 
whose natal year was 1641 ; Sarah, born in 1643, who wedded John Eliot; Rebecca, 
whose birth occurred in 1644; Thomas, born in 1646; Esther, born in 1647, who be- 
came the wife of Josiah Flynt; James, born in 1649, who wedded Elizabeth Hunt, 
of Rehoboth; Hezekiah, whose birth occurred in 1651; Hezekiah, the second of 
the name, who was born in 1653 and married Andia Brown, of Swansea; David, 
Andrew and Samuel, who were born in the years 1654, 1655 and 1658 respectively. 

Alvin T. Willett was a direct descendant of Thomas, the sixth child of the 
founder of the family in the United States. Albert L. Willett was born in Waldo, 
Maine, November 2, 1803, and died May 17, 1877. His first wife, Agnes Leven- 
seller, died December 25, 1846, and on the 21st of November, 1848, he married 
her sister Salome, who died August 12, 1874. Albert L. Willett was a prominent 
farmer and landowner of Waldoboro. His two wives were descendants of the old 
Kensel family from Holland. That family settled in Maine, and the first blockhouse 
ever built in the state was erected on the Kensel farm, which is still in possession 
of their descendants. 

A Mr. Kensel, a brother of Mrs. Peter Levenseller, the maternal grandmother 
of Mr. Willett, played a fife in a band at the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and this fife is now in the possession of one of his descendants. 

Alvin T. Willett was the sixth in order of birth in a family of fifteen children 
and pursued his education in his native town, dividing his time between his text- 
books and work upon his father's farm. He also assisted his uncle in the manage- 
ment of a hotel in Waldoboro and thus received his initial training in a work in 
which he afterward became widely known. When twenty years of age he took up 
the profession of school teaching, which he followed for two years. In 1860 he 
left home and went to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he engaged in the hotel 
business, remaining there until 1865, when he came to this city. Here Mr. Willett 
managed the old Transit Hotel at the Union Stock Yards, then owned by Baldwin 
& Tucker. After a few months, however, he resigned that position to become 
manager of the Richmond House, then owned by Richard Summers and located 
at the corner of South Water street and Michigan avenue. It was at that time 
the finest hotel in Chicago. While there Mr. Willett met and became the friend 
of Josh Billings, Artemus Ward, Donald Mitchell and many other notable men 
of the time. Owing to ill health he gave up hotel management after serving for 
three years and when he had spent a short time in recuperating he turned his at- 
tention to the teaming business, which proved profitable, owing to his capable 
control and unfaltering industry. In this he continued until his death, and his sons, 
Walter D. and Howard L., still carry on the business under the name of the A. T. 
Willett Company. 

On the 3d of February, 1868, Mr. Willett was married in Cleveland, Ohio, 
to Maria J. Davidson, a daughter of William and Mary (McMann) Davidson, the 
former born in Scotland and the latter in Nova Scotia. Her father was one of the 
early settlers of Cleveland, Ohio, and was the owner of the only fancy fruit farm 
of the state. The farm is now part of the city of Cleveland. The children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Willett are three in number. Ralph A., now department manager for 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 273 

the N. K. Fairbank Company, married Corinne Cummings, of Chicago, and they 
have one child, Norman C. Willett. Walter D., of the A. T. Willett Company, 
married Rose McClory, by whom he has two children, A. T. and Helen. Howard 
L., of the A. T. Willett Company, wedded Grace Williamson, by whom he has 
a son, Howard L., Jr. 

Alvin T. Willett was devoted to his home and was most loyal in his friend- 
ships. He gave his political support to the democratic party but always refused 
office, feeling that he could do his best service for his fellowmen in other ways. 
He was always considering others and was especially interested in the welfare of 
young men, many of whom he assisted on their way to fame and fortune. He loved 
music, enjoyed social gatherings and was of that nature which sheds around it so much 
of the sunshine of life. Wherever he went he won friends and his life was an effective 
force for good cheer and good fellowship in the world. 



ADAM JOHN WECKLER. 

Not by leaps and bounds but by the steady progression which is the legitimate 
result of close application and indefatigable industry, has Adam John Weckler 
reached his present enviable financial position a position which now enables 
him to live retired in the enjoyment of the success that came to him as an active 
representative of industrial interests here. He was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, 
April 2, 1842, a son of John and Barbara (Berg) Weckler. His parents were 
married in Chicago in 1841 and became permanent residents of Chicago in 1843, 
after a brief period spent in Michigan. It was thus that Adam John Weckler 
acquired his early education in the Kinzie school, while later he continued his 
studies in St. Joseph's Private School and in St. Mary's of the Lake College. 
Early in life, however, he became one of the wage earners in the great city, se- 
curing employment when a lad of thirteen in the retail grocery store of John L. 
Gray, at the corner of North Water and North Clark streets. He was afterward 
employed in the retail dry-goods store of Mills, Brown & Dillenbeck Brothers, at 
100 Lake street, and from 1857 until 1869 was in the employ of G. & C. W. Church, 
wholesale grocers. His first independent venture was made in October of the 
latter year when he established a wholesale and retail business in liquors and 
cigars. This was conducted with profit until the Chicago fire, of October 9, 1871, 
in which he lost very heavily. Not having sufficient capital to embark immediately 
again in business alone, he was employed by Lill's Chicago Brewery Company, 
of which he became the secretary, and such was the confidence and trust reposed 
in him by his employer, William Lill, that he was named as one of the executors of 
the estate, which he aided in settling up. In 1874 he became connected with the 
brick manufacturing business as a partner of the firm of Lill & Weckler and after 
the death of William Lill, in 1875, he was president and treasurer of the Weckler 
Brick Company. Further extending his efforts in that field, he became president 
and treasurer of the Weckler-Prussing Brick Company, so continuing until the 
plant was sold to the Illinois Brick Company. He is president and treasurer of the 
Weckler Boat Company, of Chicago, Illinois, which was organized upon the re- 



274 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tirement of his son, Adam F. Weckler, from the United States navy. As prosperity 
has rewarded his labors Mr. Weckler has invested largely in property until his 
real-estate holdings are now extensive. He was also a director of the Home In- 
surance Company. 

While his business interests have constantly grown in volume and importance, 
Mr. Weckler has found time and opportunity to aid in works of public moment. 
He was assessor and ex-officio member of the board of trustees of the town of Lake 
View from 1873 until 1880, having been first elected on what was called the 
"water ticket." During his first three terms in that office the Lake View water 
works were constructed and twelve miles of pipe laid in 1875. He has always 
given his political allegiance to the democratic party and keeps thoroughly informed 
on questions and issues of the day. At one time he was a member of the Chicago 
Light Guards and his religious faith is that of the Catholic church. 

Mr. Weckler was married in Chicago on the 26th of February, 1867, to Miss 
Catharine Diversy, and their children are: Mrs. Gertrude Prussing, who died 
leaving three children, Edna, Alice and Carl; and Adam F., his son, who completed 
a term of four years and two months in the United States navy, in June, 1904, and 
received an honorable discharge, after which he became interested in the Weckler 
Boat Company. The family residence is at No. 3446 Evanston avenue and the 
summer months are 'passed at Pistakee Bay, in McHenry county, Illinois. It is 
men like Mr. Weckler who are intelligent factors in the work that helps to develop 
the success in all big cities. He has qualities which differentiate the possessor 
from the common place and which have enabled him to pass many another who 
perhaps started out ahead of him on the pathway of life. 



MAJOR AUGUSTUS JACKMAN CHENEY. 

Wherever Major Augustus J. Cheney was known, deep sorrow was felt at his 
passing, his name was honored, and his memory is cherished. He was a man of 
generous purposes and kindly heart and the purpose of his life seemed to be, to 
make his every act tell for progress, for development and for righteousness. In 
educational circles he occupied a prominent position, and yet that was but one 
phase of a life that reached out along countless lines in benefit and helpfulness 
toward his fellowman. Mr. Cheney was born in Georgetown, Essex county, Massa- 
chusetts, March 1, 1887, and was a descendant of William Cheney, of Roxbury, 
Massachusetts, who came to America from England in 1-639, having been a promi- 
nent land owner in the latter country. The history of the Cheney family is insep- 
arably interwoven with the early annals of Massachusetts. The parents of Major 
Cheney were Moody and Sarah Susan (Burbank) Cheney, the latter a native of 
Byfield, Massachusetts, and a descendant of the famous Burbank family of that 
state. Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, Major Cheney sup- 
plemented his early educational advantages by study in Thetford Academy and was 
graduated from Dartmouth College with the class of 1857. Following the com- 
pletion of his college course, Major Cheney took up the profession of teaching in 
the Fifth Ward school at Racine. During the succeeding two years he was prin- 




A. .1. CHENEY 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 277 

cipal of the schools of Delavan and afterward was elected the first county superin- 
tendent of Walworth county. The educational system of the state, now one of 
the most efficient in all the United States, owes its advancement largely to his ef- 
forts. In the days when he was engaged in teaching the township school super- 
intendent system prevailed. The superintendent of schools was elected with the 
other town officers, and usually political lines were drawn. It not infrequently hap- 
pened that a man who could little more than write his name, whose spelling was a 
reminder of modern attempts at reform in spelling, and who knew little or nothing, 
frequently nothing, about mathematics, geography, reading, and grammar, was 
elevated to the important station of school superintendent, to pass upon the educa- 
tional standing and other qualifications of applicants in whose keeping were to 
be entrusted the educational instruction of the boys and girls of the township. The 
inefficiency of superintendents so often resulted in unqualified teachers as to attract 
the serious attention of educators who were fitted for their high calling. This 
worthy class of teachers united in agitating for a change. The first in his county 
to point out and ridicule the township system and explain the advantages of a 
county superintendent, chosen to the office because of his education, and other es- 
sential qualifications, was young Mr. Cheney. The campaign was prosecuted with 
great vigor. The legislature made the change fifty years ago. Much to his sur- 
prise, Mr. Cheney was among the first in his county to be brought forward as a 
candidate for county school superintendent. He was elected and filled the impor- 
tant station so well that his work is gratefully remembered by venerable men and 
women who as pupils in those days largely benefited from the change of systems. 
After filling the position for one term he was reelected without opposition, but he 
felt that higher duties were then demanding his attention and he raised a company 
of teachers and students for the Fortieth Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer In- 
fantry for the one hundred days' service and on the 26th of May, 1864, was com- 
missioned captain of Company F. His command was sent to the district of Mem- 
phis, Tennessee, and was engaged in guarding railroads and doing picket duty 
and also participated in several skirmishes. In what was known as Forest's raid, 
August 21, 1864, the Fortieth played a prominent and creditable part, Captain 
Cheney showing rare skill and courage in handling his company. With his regi- 
ment on the expiration of its term, on the 16th of September, he was mustered out, 
and returned to Wisconsin, but at President Lincoln's last call for troops in 1865, 
he was commissioned second lieutenant of Company K, Forty-ninth Wisconsin 
Infantry, commanded by Captain Bishop Samuel Fallows, of the Illinois Command- 
ery, and his commission bore date February 7. Captain Cheney was stationed in 
the early spring of 1865 in Rollo, Missouri, and had charge of the fort there. 
Nine days from date of his commission as second lieutenant he was raised to the 
rank of captain, with which he served until mustered out in November, 1865. He 
was appointed major of the regiment, but owing to the early muster-out of the 
command was never officially given that rank, though for more than forty years he 
was best known as Major Cheney, a title awarded him by the governor of Wiscon- 
sin. During the last six months of his service he was on provost duty in the city 
of St. Louis and was commandant of Gratior Street Military Prison and the Cha- 
teau Avenue Barracks. With his command he was mustered out at Camp Randall, 
at Madison, Wisconsin, November 8, 1865. 



278 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

With the close of the war Major Cheney resumed his work along educational 
lines, becoming principal of the schools at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, but after a year 
thus passed he entered the service of Ivison, Blakeman & Company, publishers of 
school books, becoming their agent for Wisconsin, Minnesota and the two Dakotas. 
He was with that company for twenty-seven years and after a year's rest, during 
the World's Fair at Chicago, became general western agent for the G. & C. Mer- 
riam Company, publishers of Webster's dictionaries, on the 1st of May, 1893. 
While he retired from the field as a teacher, in his connection with the book busi- 
ness he was closely associated with school work and manifested the deepest interest 
therein. It is said that no other educator ever had as great influence in Wisconsin 
as he and that his influence was scarcely less in Minnesota or Dakota, while in the 
National Educational Association he was a leader from the first. He was made 
one of its life members in 1884 by the state superintendent, presidents of the nor- 
mal schools and leading educators of the state of Wisconsin, which membership 
he prized most highly. He probably attended more sessions of the National Edu- 
cational Association and of the department of superintendence than any other 
man. He was frequently spoken of by his associates in that work as a "prince of 
good fellows." 

On the 4th of August, 1862, in Racine, Wisconsin, Major Cheney was married 
to Miss Sybil A. Sinclair, who was born in Moscow, Hillsdale county, Michigan, 
January 29, 1837, a daughter of Duncan and Lucretia (Ashley) Sinclair, who were 
natives of the state of New York. Major and Mrs. Cheney have no children of 
their own but adopted a son, Lafayette Moody Sinclair Cheney. Politically Major 
Cheney was a republican and while he never sought nor desired office was always 
loyal to his party and its principles which he believed most conducive to good gov- 
ernment. He was always well informed on the questions and issues of the day and 
able to support his position by intelligent argument. In Masonry he attained the 
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He attended the Oak Park Congrega- 
tional church and was a member of the Chicago Congregational Club. For many 
years he made his home in Oak Park, where he passed away February 27, 1907, 
when about seventy years of age. All through his residence there he took an active 
and helpful interest in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of that 
attractive suburb. He was a man of fine personal appearance, the embodiment of 
the highest type of honorable old age. At his death various resolutions of respect 
were passed as a tribute to his memory. One of these reads as follows: "The 
Chicago Congregational Club, assembled for the celebration of its twenty-fifth anni- 
versary, counts the vacant places of many former members of this body. Of those 
who have passed away within the last year, none will be more truly missed than 
Major A. J. Cheney. Major Cheney was first an educator, and both as a teacher 
and a man of influence in educational affairs, he exerted wide and wholesome power 
on behalf of the public schools. At the outbreak of the great war for freedom, he 
offered his life to his country, abandoning all other ambitions and throwing into its 
service all the ardor of a well trained mind and a strong nature of heroic mold. 
He was a valiant soldier on the battlefield, exposing himself to special peril for the 
flag he loved and leaving behind him a record of unfaltering devotion to his coun- 
try and its principles. He was a loyal citizen and a faithful friend, a man of 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 279 

generous purpose and kind heart. The members of his club cherish his memory 
and express to his family their sincere sympathy." 

Phil Sheridan Post, of which Major Cheney was a member, adopted the fol- 
lowing memorial: 

"Whereas, The trumpet of the Lord has again sounded in our midst and Com- 
rade Augustus J. Cheney has answered to the final roll call and now rests from care 
and labor, therefore be it 

"Resolved, by comrades of Phil Sheridan Post, No. 615, department of Illi- 
nois, Grand Army of the Republic, in regular meeting assembled this first day of 
March, 1907, that with deep sorrow we mourn the loss of our old comrade, who 
peacefully and without a struggle yielded up his life on Wednesday last in obedience 
to the summons of our Great Commander, that we commend his soul to the God 
who gave it, praying that His loving mercy may give happy shelter and merited 
reward. 

"Rugged of form, brusque of speech, yet courteous unto all, ever seeking to 
play well the part of a true and ideal citizen of the republic, jealous as a lover 
of the good name of the village, state and nation, a true and loyal lover of wife, 
family, home and country, a just and honorable man, a hearty whole-souled com- 
rade, such was Past Commander Augustus J. Cheney. He was heartily interested 
in and a loyal member of Phil Sheridan Post, and we shall miss his cheery manner, 
good judgment and ever willing aid in our councils." 

In its memorial the Wisconsin commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United 
States said: "Though a resident of another state the past thirty-five years, Major 
Cheney never lost his interest in the educational and other affairs of Wisconsin. 
He was one of the early members of the State Teachers' Association, has served 
as its president, and taken an active part in its building up, seldom, if ever, failing 
to attend its sessions. We need not hesitate to claim that but few men in Wiscon- 
sin have had a greater part in bettering the condition of the public schools. There 
is no risk run in saying that no other man had as many personal acquaintances in 
the state. His field as manager for school book publishers included this state, 
and he visited every city and village more or less frequently. It was for that rea- 
son that his membership was placed with Wisconsin Commandery of the Military 
Order of the Loyal Legion, in July, 1885. It was for that reason he became, a 
quarter of a century ago, a member of Wisconsin Consistory of Scottish Rite 
Masons. It was for that reason he attended nearly all of the political and other 
large conventions held in Wisconsin. Few, if any, members of this commandery 
have been more regular in their attendance upon its meetings than Companion 
Cheney. He loved Wisconsin; he loved Wisconsin institutions; he loved Wisconsin 
people, and in return he was loved and honored by the people of this state. He 
was a lovable man. He was so constituted that he could make friends on every hand, 
and seldom, if ever, an enemy. Though all his life an ardent republican, and an 
aggressive one, he seems to have missed all of those rough and rugged paths that 
most men of strong party bias encounter, and which result in bitter animosities. 
Men of his own and of the opposite party admired him so thoroughly as a large 
hearted man, a genuine friend, and a genial associate, that political differences 
never created other differences." 



280 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The Wisconsin State Journal wrote of him as follows: "Major Cheney made 
friends everywhere he went, and he held them, too. He was just as much at 
home and welcome in the private office of Dr. Harris as in the district school with 
the rural teacher. In fact, this remarkable acquaintanceship was due to his recog- 
nition of the younger element in the profession. Advancing years did not dim his 
vision of those who soon would be at the helm. He will be missed at state and 
national educational gatherings, where for more than fifty years he has been a 
familiar figure. His genial disposition, his big souled nature, his record as a teacher, 
a scholar, a soldier, a man are the elements of his character which will long 
live in the memories of those whose good fortune it was to know Major Augustus 
Jackman Cheney." 



JOHN F. EBERHART, A. M., LL. D. 

Recognizing the fact that education is the bulwark of the nation, the founda- 
tion of civilization, the stimulus of all business activity and the source of all es- 
thetic culture, and that good citizenship has its root not in any specific instruction 
but in the development of the powers of perception that enable one to recognize the 
needs and meet the conditions that exist, the history of John F. Eberhart cannot 
fail to prove of widespread interest, for few men in the middle west have equalled 
him in the extent and character of his service in the founding and promoting of 
the public school system of the state and initiating plans and projects for its de- 
velopment, expansion and effectiveness. He has come to an honored old age, hav- 
ing passed the eighty -third milestone on life's journey, and the precious prize of 
keen mentality is yet his and though, as Victor Hugo has expressed it, "the frost 
of winter is on his head, the flowers of spring are in his heart." He has never 
reached the habit of retrospection which is so often regarded as the accompaniment 
of advanced years, for although many events are strongly impressed upon the 
pages of memory, he is yet in close and active touch with the world's work and hope- 
ful for the interests of the future. 

The 21st of January, 1829, chronicled the birth of John F. Eberhart in Hickory 
township, Mercer county, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Abraham and Esther 
(Amend) Eberhart and a descendant of a very old European family. The genealog- 
ical records show that as early as 1266 an Eberhart officiated as Bishop of Con- 
stance. On the 13th of March, 1265, was born Duke Eberhart, "the Noble," who 
was a most daring and successful warrior of Wurttemberg. He was of the royal 
familj- and established the present kingdom of Wurttemberg with Stuttgart as its 
principal city. 

Following the thirty years' war in Germany, many representatives of the family 
came to America and their descendants are now found in various localities, but 
while several changes have occurred in the spelling of the name, there is a strong 
similarity in characteristics and in appearance among the different branches. A 
family noted for strong intellectuality and interested in intellectual pursuits, there 
are found many preachers and teachers among them as well as those who have been 
leaders in other walks of life. In 1727 Joseph Eberhart removed from Switzer- 




JOHN F. EBEKHAItT 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 283 

land to Pennsylvania, settling in Lower Milford township, Lehigh county, in 1742. 
Before his death, in 1760, he divided his one thousand acres of land between his 
six sons. He was active in organizing and sustaining the Great German Reform 
church and reached an advanced age. 

When a youth of eight years John F. Eberhart accompanied his parents on 
their removal to a farm at Big Bend, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and in the 
work of the school and of the farm his youthful days were spent. He entered into 
active connection with educational work when sixteen years of age, becoming a 
teacher of the school on the present site of Oil City, receiving eight dollars and 
fifty cents per month in compensation for his services and "boarding around among 
the pupils." He studied writing and drawing during the following summer, at- 
taining a high efficiency in these branches, whereby he was enabled to work his 
Way through college by giving instruction along these lines. Two terms of prepara- 
tory work at Cottage Hill Academy at Ellsworth, Ohio, qualified him for entrance 
in Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated July 
2, 1853. He provided for all the expenses incidental to his college course and yet 
won high rank for scholarship and as an athlete. It is on record that he was able 
to lift a brass cannon weighing nine hundred pounds in the Meadville arsenal. On 
the 1st of September of that year he became principal of the seminary at Berlin, 
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, where among the pupils was Rev. Dr. Hiram W. 
Thomas, the noted liberal divine, who for many years was pastor of the Peoples 
church of Chicago. 

Ill health compelled Dr. Eberhart to resign his position at Berlin and, hoping 
to be benefited by a removal westward, he arrived in Chicago, April 15, 1855, and 
after a short stay moved on to Dixon, where he engaged in hunting, fishing and other 
outdoor exercises. It was his custom thereafter to spend a portion of each year in 
outdoor life and this has constituted the foundation of his splendidly developed 
physical manhood the basis of intellectual effort that has made him one of the 
foremost and most honored residents of Chicago. At Dixon he became part owner 
and editor of the Dixon Transcript and later went upon the popular lecture plat- 
form, speaking in various institutions of learning on chemistry, natural philosophy, 
meteorology, astronomy and kindred topics. He next devoted a year to travel as the 
representative of various school-book publications and then began the publication 
and editing of the "Northwestern Home and School Journal" in Chicago. He was 
equally successful in the financial and literary departments of that paper and at 
the same time he conducted many successful teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa 
and Wisconsin. He held many of the first institutes in the northern and central 
counties of Illinois and assisted in establishing the graded school system in most 
of the larger cities of the state outside of Chicago. Thus he came into close con- 
tact with many distinguished educators of the west and the value of his work 
suggested him for active yet broader service of a similar character in Chicago and 
Cook county, as the city was forging to the front in population and buisness inter- 
ests. 

The name of Dr. Eberhart is inseparably associated with the development of 
the public-school system of Illinois. In 1855 he assisted in formulating a measure 
that passed the state legislature and the following year became substantially the 
present school law of Illinois. For sixteen years thereafter he attended every 



284 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

legislative session at his own expense, in order to further the necessary amend- 
ments and those required by the advancement of the times. He also attended the 
constitutional convention of 1870, where he championed the cause of public educa- 
tion. In 1859 he was elected school commissioner of Cook county at a time when 
there was here no well organized system of schools and for ten years he continued 
to act in that capacity, although the title of the office was soon after changed by 
his effort to that of superintendent of schools. After being elected superintendent 
of schools of Cook county, Mr. Eberhart was brought down to the practical work- 
ing of the school law in the rural districts of the state. The teachers of Cook 
county, outside of Chicago, then numbered more than two to one in the city and 
yet little attention was paid to the country schools. Realizing this fact, Dr. Eber- 
hart commenced a series of visits to the country schools and while he soon ex- 
pended the salary allowed him, he continued the work in which he was most deeply 
interested, recognizing its vital importance. His salarv of two dollars per day for 
one hundred days during the first year was increased to three dollars per day for 
two hundred days in the second year, and in addition one dollar for each certifi- 
cate issued and two percent commission on all school moneys paid out. 

When he became superintendent of schools he could not find qualified teachers 
for the salary that could be paid in the rural districts and he soon found, too, 
that examinations, however wise and exacting, did not qualify teachers. He also 
discovered that many generally well educated people were not qualified to instruct 
young children who were mostly to be found in the rural districts, while some of 
less extended knowledge would be more successful in teaching them. The law at 
that time gave only two grades of certificates and Mr. Eberhart busied himself in 
getting a change of the law, giving a permit of six months to teach. He offered the 
proposed change at Springfield but State Superintendent Bateman did not favor 
the third-grade certificate, as it was called. On Mr. Eberhart's presentation of 
the case and the conditions as he found them in the country, however, Dr. Bateman 
gave his consent to the passing of the law authorizing three grades of certificates. 
This was the only amendment to the school law which Mr. Eberhart at any time 
proposed that State Superintendent Bateman was not from the first in hearty sym- 
pathy with and in favor of the change. 

Dr. Eberhart also found that the township and district school officers were not 
all bookkeepers and it was difficult to understand their reports, so he advocated 
blank forms for statements by them to the superior officers, to be supplied by the 
state. This was heartily indorsed by Dr. Bateman and the plan carried through. 
Impressed with the fact that the larger boys and girls of the country should in 
some way have free access to a high school as well as city youths he prepared 
a form of law and presented the matter to Mr. Bateman, the law authorizing one or 
more districts in the township to build a high school for the free instruction of all 
qualified to enter if they were living in the high-school district. He also provided 
that two or more townships could unite in building a high school; and the first 
high school in the state under this law was organized in Cook county the Jeffer- 
son high school now in the city and called Carl Schurz high school. As a result 
of his investigations Mr. Eberhart learned that many of the children in the country, 
a large percentage of whom were foreigners, had no access to proper books for 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 285 

reading and study, and interested himself in having libraries placed in the schools 
for free use to all who lived in the district. 

The existing law of that day did not permit school houses to be used for anything 
except school purposes, and as a rule there was no other building in the district in 
which public meetings could be held. With Mr. Bateman's assistance the law was 
changed so that the directors could permit the school houses to be used for other 
useful gatherings. In Cook county Mr. Eberhart especially urged its use for 
spelling schools, singing schools and literary societies. He was also instrumental 
in securing an appropriation of fifty dollars for the first session of the Cook county 
teachers' institute held at Oak Park, then Harlem, April 11, 1860. The attendance 
of seventy-five teachers proved so encouraging that another institute was held in 
Englewood in the following fall, after which semi-annual sessions were regularly 
held. Also teachers' meetings were called inr different parts of the county and the 
board of supervisors in response to his request appointed a standing committee on 
education. Paul Cornell, of Hyde Park, was the first chairman. Dr. Eberhart 
afterward asked the county board for an appropriation of six hundred dollars for 
a three months' teachers' institute, which was referred to the committee on educa- 
tion. In the meantime a new board of supervisors was elected and E. J. Whitehead, 
who is still living and practicing law in this city, became the chairman of the com- 
mittee on education. He was warmly interested in its cause and accompanied Dr. 
Eberhart in some of his trips visiting the schools. After the matter had been care- 
fully considered and extensively discussed by the committee and members of the 
board of supervisors from different parts of the county, Mr. Whitehead reported 
in favor of an appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars per annum for two 
years for an experimental normal school. The report was adopted and the school 
opened at Blue Island in September, 1867, with twenty-eight pupils, and Professor 
D. S. Wentworth became the first principal. The arrangement for the rooms and 
conveniences of the school was undertaken by Dr. Eberhart. Two years later 
the normal was removed to Englewood and in September, 1870, the new normal 
school building was taken possession of. The original purpose of the school was 
to fit teachers for country schools, but the work was soon broadened in its scope 
and this result was largely achieved through the efforts of Dr. Eberhart who con- 
tinued as county superintendent of schools until December, 1869. His interest, how- 
ever, did not cease with the termination of his official connection and in 1878 he was 
chosen a member of the county board of education. As its chairman he set himself 
to the task of adding a kindergarten department to the Cook county normal school 
and this was accomplished and the first class was graduated in December, 1881. 
The free kindergarten established in connection with the common schools is also 
directly due to the efforts of Dr. Eberhart and the first free kindergarten in the 
state as a part of the free school system was opened at Chicago Lawn, when he 
was president of the school board at that place. 

Dr. Eberhart has been most generous in his contributions to school work not 
only in Cook county but elsewhere. He has given one hundred thousand dollars 
to Allegheny College, his alma mater, and has made a smaller gift to Wheaton Col- 
lege, presided over by Dr. Charles Blanchard, to whom Mr. Eberhart gave his 
first certificate to teach, and whose father, at one time president of Knox College, 
was one of Dr. Eberhart's foremost and ablest educational friends. He also issued 



286 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

a certificate to Bishop J. H. Vincent, of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Chi- 
cago, to Frances E. Willard, who called him her "literary godfather," and to the 
late Bishop Charles H. Fowler and many others who have since earned distinction 
in the world. 

The work which Dr. Eberhart has done and its far-reaching influences have 
found wide recognition. Professor W. L. Steele, president of the Illinois State 
Teachers' Association, in his annual address said: "Honorable John F. Eberhart 
did valiant service for the cause of education by carrying the gospel of the free 
school to those who had never heard of it, by warming into life and activity those 
grown lukewarm, by preaching the doctrine of union graded schools to the larger 
towns, where their educational energies were being dissipated by the independent 
system, by organizing county institutes and by his educational paper, The North- 
western Home and School Journal. A veritable missionary was he." Dr. Bate- 
man, state superintendent of public instruction, in his 1867 and 1868 report spoke 
in praise of Dr. Eberhart's work as a pioneer in the Cook county normal school 
movement and said: "In thus practically demonstrating the feasibility of this new 
and most successful mode of increasing the supply of superior teachers, Cook 
county has rendered the state a very eminent service." Other important work in 
the educational field, in which Dr. Eberhart was active was the organization of the 
Illinois State Teachers' Association, in 1855; the drafting of a state law, author- 
izing the establishing of county normal schools ; the organization of the state as- 
sociation of school superintendents, in 1860, of which he was the first president. 
He was also prominently identified with the American Institute of Instruction and 
the National Education Association. Of the last named he was formerly an active 
representative and in 1864 was made a life member. He is today the oldest life 
member of the association and as such was honored at the Cleveland meeting in 
June, 1908. 

Many positions, including the professorship and presidency of leading insti- 
tutions, have been tendered Dr. Eberhart from time to time. He was offered the 
presidency of the College at Naperville when it was first started at Plainfield in 
1855; and in early manhood he was called to St. Louis, to assist in the organization 
of its first high school and was proffered its principalship. In 1866 Senor Dar- 
mienta, generalissimo of the revolutionary armies of the Argentine Republic, visited 
the United States to study its government and its public-school system and meet- 
ing Dr. Eberhart at a convention of the National Education Association offered him 
the national superintendency of schools of the Argentine Republic. But his in- 
terest centered in Cook county and her schools, which have constituted the model 
for much public-school work done throughout the country, especially in the middle 
west. 

Dr. Eberhart was married on Christmas day, 1864, to Miss Matilda C. Miller, 
who in her infancy was brought from Toronto, Canada, to the United States by her 
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Miller. She was educated in the schools of Aurora 
and Chicago. There were six children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Eberhart: 
Maude, who died at the age of six years; John J.; Frank N.; Mary E., the wife of 
George Tobey; Grace, the wife of Clarence B. Herschberger ; and Winifred, who 
has passed away. The two sons are associated with their father in the real-estate 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 287 

business to which Dr. Eberhart turned his attention when he severed his active 
connection with public-school work. 

Soon after his arrival in Chicago he purchased property here and his judicious 
investment and the rise in Chicago realty have made him a wealthy man. He has 
owned nearly three thousand acres in the city and has been chief promoter of Nor- 
wood Park and Chicago Lawn, making his home in the latter suburb. The first 
real estate he ever owned was one and a quarter acres on Larrabee street just south 
of Fullerton avenue, which he purchased from P. F. W. Peck, father of Ferdinand 
Peck, for sixteen hundred dollars, making a cash payment of four hundred dollars 
with agreement to pay the rest in one, two and three years with six per cent interest. 
Before the second payment was due he sold this to the city for a site for the Lincoln 
school for nine thousand dollars which he had to take in city bonds and which he 
disposed of for about eight thousand dollars. This was his first operation in real 
estate and he is proud to know that the Lincoln school now honors this sacred spot. 
He was the owner of eighty acres which he sold to the Irving Park Company and 
on which the town of Irving Park is located. For this he paid seventy dollars per 
acre and within two years sold it for three hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. 
He afterward bought three hundred acres in what is now Washington Heights for 
seventy dollars per acre and soon disposed of an undivided half interest so that 
his half was entirely clear. This he subsequently sold for one hundred thousand 
dollars, yielding him that amount clear in the transaction. After the fire he pur- 
chased the ruins of old Trinity church, now the site of the Illinois Theater for 
fifty-two thousand dollars. He was at one time owner of forty acres now fronting 
on Humboldt Park and south of Division street, paying three thousand dollars in 
cash for it, and was largely instrumental in fixing the location of Humboldt Park, 
In the region west of Union Park, on Warren and Park avenues, Honore, Wood, 
Madison and Monroe streets, he owned about one hundred lots and thereon built 
a number of houses. He was the prime mover in establishing Norwood Park, recog- 
nizing the fact that there was the highest land on the Northwestern Railroad be- 
tween the Lake and the Mississippi river, and believing, therefore, that it would 
make a desirable place for a suburb. He obtained the refusal of about eight 
hundred acres and was associated in this undertaking with other prominent men, 
including T. H. Seymore, James E. Tyler, John H. Wrenn, George Fields, Leonard 
Hodges, Rev. Dr. W. W. Everett and others. They organized the corporation and 
established the town and after considerable difficulty were instrumental in securing 
commutation rates on the railroad, which also led to the extension of the same 
rates to Evanston and other outlying towns and districts on the North- 
western. As superintendent of schools he sold about one hundred acres on 
petition from the residents, as the law required, in the fractional town of Bloom, 
it being purchased as meadow land by farmers at the rate of from ten to fifteen 
dollars per acre. He also received petitions, as required by law, for the sale of 
section 16, township 38, range 13, which was school land and which would probably 
have sold for twenty to twenty-five dollars per acre had not Mr. Eberhart felt that 
this was throwing away land for mere nothing that would some day be very valuable ; 
and instead of complying with the petition, he sought the assistance of "Long" 
John Wentworth, who was a member of the constitutional convention of 1870. Dr. 
Eberhart also attended the convention and assisted in the matter of having the 



288 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

law changed, so that the land could be rented but could not be sold except under 
conditions which did not then exist. Thus was saved a property which is today 
very valuable and which will some day be worth millions and belong to the city, 
becoming a very large permanent factor in the support of city schools. If the story 
of Dr. Eberhart's real-estate operations could be given in detail it would indicate 
largely the growth and development of Chicago. Suffice it to say that his opera- 
tions were carried on carefully, wisely and honorably, bringing to him substantial 
success. 

Dr. Eberhart gave his early political support to the abolitionist party and as 
a natural sequence joined the ranks of the republican party. He has ever stood 
for integrity in politics as he has in private life. Although reared in the faith of 
the Methodist church he afterward became one of the founders and a leading 
member of the Peoples church, serving in his later years as president of its board 
of trustees. He was also an early member of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion and is in thorough sympathy with .all movements that uplift humanity and 
advance civilization. Continuing throughout his life a lover of outdoor sports, 
he became an expert with rod and gun, and was one of the founders, and during 
twenty years of its existence the president, of the Nippersink Club, which included 
in its membership some of the most eminent men of Chicago, such as Marshall 
Field, Reid and Murdoch, of Reid, Murdoch & Fisher, Eugene S. Pike, Colonel 
George Clark, S. M. Moore and others. 

Dr. Eberhart has found in his wife an able assistance in the charitable work 
which he has done, whereby the hard conditions of life for many unfortunate ones 
have been ameliorated. The honor and respect which are uniformly tendered him 
constitute a fitting crown to a life that has largely been given to the service of 
others. 



JAMES ANDREW PUGH. 

James Andrew Pugh, president of the Pugh Terminal Warehouse Company, 
was born in Columbus, Ohio, December 27, 1864. The family is of Welsh origin 
in both the paternal and maternal lines. David Pugh, the paternal grandfather, 
came from Wales to America. The father, John M. Pugh, was a native of Colum- 
bus, Ohio, and became a distinguished lawyer of that city, where for thirty-five 
vears he served as judge of the probate court. He died about six years ago at 
the advanced age of eighty-four years. He married Martha F. Cook, a daughter 
of David and Eliza Cook, of Columbus, who also came of Welsh ancestry. Mrs. 
Pugh died twenty-six years ago. 

James A. Pugh, the sixth in a family of seven children, pursued his education 
in the public schools of Columbus, and following his graduation from the high 
school, entered railway circles as clerk in a railroad office. He filled various po- 
sitions in that connection for nine years and then came to Chicago in 1889, here 
entering the local office of a foreign glass house. About ten years ago he secured 
the removal of all the displays of the furniture houses to Michigan avenue and built 
the furniture exhibition buildings at 1819, 1411 and 1414 Michigan avenue, which 




JAMES A. PUGH 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 291 

he still owns and conducts. About seven years ago he erected the Pugh terminal 
warehouse on East Illinois street, which is the largest in the world, being eighteen 
hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred and twenty feet wide and seven stories 
high. It is a fire-proof structure, in connection with which he is conducting a 
general merchandise storage and transfer business. About four years ago he 
established the lighterage business on the river, organizing the Chicago Lighter- 
age Company, of which he is now president and in which connection he is now 
operating three boats. From the foregoing will be seen that he is in control of 
mammoth enterprises, his ability placing him in a prominent position. He is 
capable of formulating and executing plans of magnitude and his labors have 
brought him a success which is most gratifying. 

Mr. Pugh was married in Cleveland, Ohio, November 17, 1887, to Miss Nellie 
Kirker, a daughter of John Kirker, of Albany, New York, and the}' reside at No. 
70 Goethe street. Mr. Pugh is very prominent and well known in fraternal and 
club circles. He is a member of the blue lodge of Masons, the chapter and the 
commandery, and also of Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise, 
connected with the Knights of Pythias. He belongs also to the Chamber of Com- 
merce, the Chicago Athletic Club, the Illinois Athletic Club, the South Shore Country 
Club, the Chicago Automobile Club and the Rotary Club. He is a director of the 
Chicago Kennel Club. He is commodore of the Pistakee Yacht Club at Pistakee 
Lake, and also a member of the Chicago Yacht Club. His principal recreation 
is yachting and he is the owner of Disturber II, the fastest thirty-two feet boat 
in the world. He was on the American team of 1911 at Huntington Bay, composed 
of Dixie IV, Disturber II and Vita, which defeated the British team, the Pioneer 
Maple Leaf. In yachting circles he is not only prominent but popular, his 
camaraderie winning him the friendship and good will of all. In business circles, 
too, his well managed affairs have brought him to a prominent position among 
the capitalists of the city. 



ROBERT H. HARVEY. 

Robert H. Harvey, president and treasurer of the firm of D. B. Fisk & Com- 
pany, was born December 12, 1868, in the family home at the corner of Harmon 
court and Michigan avenue, his parents being T. W. and Maria (Hardman) Har- 
vey. At the usual age he entered the Chicago public schools and afterward became 
a student at the Harvard School of Chicago, while his professional training was 
received in the Northwestern University Medical School, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1894. He practiced medicine for twelve years, attaining recognition as a 
specialist in the treatment of children's diseases. At one time he was treasurer 
of the Chicago Medical Society, was pathologist to St. Luke's Hospital and Mercy 
Hospital and was attending physician to The Chicago Orphan Asylum. He retired 
from the practice of medicine, however, in 1906, to become connected with the 
house of D. B. Fisk & Company as treasurer. His business ability proved equal 
to his professional skill and he has since given his attention to the active manage- 



292 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

ment of that concern, becoming president in 1907 and since occupying the dual 
position of president and treasurer. 

On the 5th of April, 1898, in Chicago, Dr. Harvey was married to Miss Bertha 
Fisk Botsford and unto them were born three children: Beatrice Botsford, Benuet 
Botsford and Roberta Fisk. The family residence is at No. 2100 Calumet avenue, 
Mr. Harvey having spent his entire life in the first ward. He still continues to 
hold membership in various medical societies, is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
belongs to the Sigma Chi, a college fraternity, and also has membership relations 
with the University, Glen View and South Shore Country Clubs. He and his wife 
are well known in the leading social circles of the city and in professional and 
business ranks he has proven his individual worth and his capacity for large and 
successful management. 



JOHN C. WILLIAMS. 

The position of attorney for the sanitary district of Chicago is one of great 
importance, as it involves the protection of the health of more than two millions of 
people and calls for practical knowledge of law and procedure of the courts acquired 
only by years of close application. This important qualification is possessed in 
ample measure by John C. Williams, who for more than four years past has most 
acceptably discharged the duties of the office above named. He was prepared for 
his responsibility by thirteen years of practice in Chicago and also as assistant at- 
torney for the sanitary board. He is of Welsh descent and was born on a farm 
near Lime Springs, Iowa, May 8, 1873, a son of Owen E. and Ann (Thomas) Wil- 
liams, both of whom were born in Wales, the father in 1832 and the mother in 1834. 
They emigrated to the United States about 1858 and first located in Racine county 
Wisconsin, where Mr. Williams engaged in farming. About 1870 he removed to 
Howard county, Iowa, where he died in 1901. The mother is still living and makes 
her home at Lime Springs. 

In the public schools of Iowa and South Dakota John C. Williams secured hi* 
preliminary education, graduating from the Aberdeen, South Dakota, high school 
in 1891. While pursuing his high-school course he taught two terms of country 
school, beginning as a teacher when he was only sixteen years of age. In 1892. 
having decided to devote his attention to law, he came to Chicago and secured a 
position in the law office of McMurvy & Job and subsequently matriculated in the 
Chicago College of Law, the law department of Lake Forest University, from which 
he was graduated in 1894, with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the 
Chicago bar in June of the same year and for four years was connected with the 
office of Dent & Whitman. In 1901 he began to practice alone and from 1904 to 
1905 was associated in practice with Emery S. Walker. He made a specialty of 
real-estate law and recovered judgment for the plaintiff in the case of Hinchliff vs. 
the Brick Manufacturers Association for fifteen thousand dollars for damages re- 
sulting from boycott. This was one of the first cases of the kind which was carried 
through to a conclusion and established the right to recall for illegal combinations 
to restrain competition. In March, 1906, Mr. Williams was appointed as assistant 




JOHN C. WILLIAMS 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 295 

attorney to the sanitary board and since June 10, 1907, has filled the position of 
attorney for the board. Under his administration the expenses of the legal depart- 
ment have been reduced practically one-half and the efficiency has been greatly im- 
proved. When he took charge many important cases had been pending in the courts 
for years but a large number of these suits have now been disposed of and those 
remaining on the trial calendars will be ready for trial when reached on the call. 
This speaks in no uncertain language as to the energy and ability with which the 
law department of the sanitary board is now conducted. 

On the 16th of January, 1896, Mr. Williams was married, at Evanston, to Miss 
Lillian L. Whipple, a daughter of Henry Whipple, a sketch of whom appears else- 
where in this work, and they are the parents of two children: Gladys, who was born 
August 12, 1898; and Helen, born March 17, 1900. Having from the beginning 
of his professional career devoted his attention faithfully and conscientiously to his 
work, he gained high standing at the bar and now ranks as one of the most com- 
petent attorneys of Chicago. Thoroughly conversant with the principles of law, 
honorable and high-minded in all the different phases of life, he is respected by all 
with whom he comes into contact and conducts the business that necessarily arises 
in his department in such a manner as to give entire satisfaction to the people of his 
adopted city. 



FREDERIC ADRIAN DELANO. 

Although born at Hong Kong, China, September 10, 1863, the ancestral records 
of Frederic A. Delano are connected with the early colonial history of America. 
His parents were Warren Delano and Catherine Robbins Lyman, both natives of 
Massachusetts. Warren Delano, a tea merchant, was engaged in China trade and 
spent over thirty years of his life in China. He was a member of the firm of Rus- 
sell & Company, having houses in all the principal cities of the empire. In 1867 
he retired from active business life and returning to America made his home at 
Newburgh, New York, on the Hudson, until his death, which occurred in 1899, at 
the age of ninety years. On the paternal side his ancestors were French Hugue- 
nots and English pilgrims, the latter settling near Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 
the early colonization of that section of the country. The American progenitor of 
the Delano family was Philippe de Lannoy, who came from Leyden, Holland, on 
the ship Fortune, in 1621 and settled at Plymouth. From him Frederic A. Delano 
is a direct descendant in the seventh generation, the line being through Jonathan 
(2), Thomas (3), Ephraim (4), Warren (5), Warren (6) and Frederic A. (7). 
Through intermarriage he is also connected with many of the oldest families of 
New England, among whom are those of Church, Warren, Allerton, Cushman, 
Hathaway and Swift. On the maternal side Mr. Delano comes of English and 
Scotch lineage, his ancestors in that line settling at Boston and Salem at various 
periods between 1630 and 1700. His mother, who was a native of Northampton, 
Massachusetts and a member of a well known family, was a representative of the 
seventh generation of descendants of Jonathan Lyman, who came to America dur- 
ing the first half of the seventeenth century, and was also connected with the old 



296 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Massachusetts families of Strong, Dwight, Hutchinson, Clark, Robbins and Mur- 
ray, including two of the early governors of that state. She died in 1897 at sev- 
enty-three years of age. Our subject was the tenth in a family of eleven children, 
of whom two sons and four daughters survive, all except Frederic A. residing in 
the east. 

Frederic A. Delano spent his boyhood days at Newburgh, New York, receiving 
his early education at Adams Academy, Quincy, Massachusetts. He graduated 
from Harvard College with degree of A. B. in 1885. Unlike many men of liberal 
college training, he did not regard his intellectual development as something op- 
posed to manual labor, but took up work of the latter character, imbued with strong 
purpose and laudable ambition, his thorough education enabling him to better direct 
his efforts. Soon after he had completed his University course he began his career 
in railroad work, and has devoted his entire life to that one field of endeavor. He 
first entered the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, 
August 1, 1885, with an engineering party in Colorado. Two months later he 
entered the shops of the same road at Aurora, Illinois, as a machinist's apprentice, 
and in April, 1887, was temporarily appointed acting engineer of tests at Aurora. 
He was next advanced to the position of assistant to the second vice president at 
Chicago, in April, 1889, then to superintendent of freight terminals at Chicago, 
in July, 1890, and to superintendent of motive power at Chicago, February 1, 1899. 
On July 1, 1901, Mr. Delano was made general manager of the Chicago Burlington 
& Quincy Railroad, which position he held until January 10, 1905, when he re- 
signed to engage in general consultation work. For a short time he was consulting 
engineer to the war department in relation to railroads in the Philippine Islands. 
May 1, 1905, Mr. Delano became identified with the Wabash system as president 
of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company and the Wabash-Pittsburg-Ter- 
minal Railway, and vice president of the Wabash Railroad Company. Six months 
later, on October 5, 1905, he became president of the latter. 

There is no position that demands such careful systematization, such accuracy, 
such harmonious working as railway management. Time and effort and purpose 
must coincide and with perfect adjustment must reach the results that are to be 
attained. Understanding every department of railway management and operation 
as the result of over a quarter of a century's experiences in its different depart- 
ments, Mr. Delano brings to the management of the Wabash railroad the keenest 
discrimination, the most practical efforts and the most progressive and far-sighted 
policy. He has also been the chairman of the board of directors of the Metropol- 
itan West Side Elevated Railroad Company, of Chicago, and is interested in various 
other enterprises. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Western Society of Engineers, 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Franklin Institute, the 
American Master Mechanics' Association, and the American Master Car Builders' 
Association. He served as president of the American Railway Association from 
1907 to 1909 and also of the Western Railway Club for one term. He has served 
as a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College, and as president of the 
board of directors of the Chicago Lying-in Hospital. 

Mr. Delano has taken a keen interest in civic affairs and has served as president 
of the Chicago Commercial Club. He is a member of the Chicago Plan Commis- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 297 

sion of the city, and has been prominently identified with the movement which it 
represents, since its conception in 1907. While in political circles his efforts have 
been along the line of influence rather than of direct activity, he has served his 
city as a member of the Harbor Commission of the city of Chicago, under appoint- 
ment of Mayor Busse, in January, 1908. 

Mr. Delano is a Unitarian in religious faith and vice president of the American 
Unitarian Association. He holds to liberal and charitable views while seeking to 
secure the adopton of standards that will work for higher manhood and better 
citizenship. He holds membership in the Chicago Club, the Union League, the 
University, the Chicago Literary, the Commercial, and other social clubs of Chi- 
cago, also of St. Louis and of Pittsburg. 

On November 22, 1888, Mr. Delano was married, in Chicago, to Miss Matilda 
Peasley, daughter of J. C. Peasley. Five children have been born to them, of 
whom three are living, Catherine, Louise and Laura. The family residence is at 
510 Wellington avenue. 



GEORGE WILLIAM DIXON. 

George William Dixon is secretary and treasurer of the Arthur Dixon Transfer 
Company but his activities reach far beyond the actual limits of business and have 
left their impress upon the political history of the state and the social life of Chi- 
cago, his native city. In the pursuit of his education he attended the public schools 
until graduated from the old West Division high school, after which he entered 
upon a classical course in the Northwestern University, there winning his Bachelor 
of Arts degree upon his graduation with the class of 1889. He afterward took 
up the study of law at Northwestern and was graduated in 1892 with the LL. B. 
degree. For five years thereafter he practiced his profession, his work being largely 
in the capacity of receiver for various corporations following the financial depres- 
sion of 1893. In that year, however, he abandoned the practice of law and became 
identified with the Arthur Dixon Transfer Company in the conduct of a business 
which was founded by his father and had grown to extensive proportions. It is 
today the foremost enterprise of the kind in the country and the executive ability 
and comprehensive legal knowledge of its present secretary and treasurer have 
contributed in no small measure to its success. Throughout his business career 
George W. Dixon has been actuated by a spirit of progress, recognizing at all times 
the possibilities before him and reaching out to utilize these to their fullest extent. 

While widely known in this connection, Mr. Dixon has perhaps an even broader 
acquaintance in the field of politics. From his youth he has been interested in the 
important problems that have been before the country for settlement and his study 
of the questions and issues of the day has led him to give earnest support to the 
republican party. He was chosen to represent his district in the state senate, cov- 
ering the term from 1902 until 1906, and as a member of the upper house did 
much active work in support of legislation which he deemed of value to the com- 
monwealth. He also served on the staff of Governor Richard Yates with the rank 
of colonel and later was chosen presidential elector from the first Illinois district, 



298 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

was made chairman of the electoral college of the state and gave his support to 
William H. Taft. At one time he did active work as a member of the committee 
on arrangements to prepare for the reception of the delegates to the republican 
national convention of 1908. This work was thoroughly and systematically accom- 
plished even to the smallest detail, and all the arrangements met with the hearty 
approval of those concerned. Mr. Dixon is identified with the Union League Club, 
Chicago Club, Chicago Athletic Association, University Club, City Club, Twentieth 
Century Club and the Hamilton Club. He has been a leading spirit in the political 
and reformatory work inaugurated by the organization last named, of which he 
is a life member and first vice president, as well as chairman of its political action 
committee. He has also been chairman of the entertainment committee and secre- 
tary of the club, and at the time of the peace jubilee held in honor of President 
McKinley, acted as secretary of the banquet. Mr. Dixon has been active and 
influential in all movements tending to civic reform and was a delegate to the Chi- 
cago charter convention of 1907. He retains an active membership in the Illinois 
State Bar Association and belongs to the Masonic order and Knights Templar. 

On March 2, 1903, Senator Dixon was united in marriage with Miss Marion 
E. Martin, and his residence is at No. 2706 Michigan boulevard. The two children 
born to this union are Marion Martin and George William Dixon, Jr. Mr. Dixon 
is a leading Methodist, having served as superintendent of the Sunday school of 
the First Methodist church for many years and president of the Chicago Methodist 
Social Union in 1901-02. His activities are thus varied and touch the general 
interests of society in all the phases which have to do with the questions of the 
present and are looking toward the attainment of conditions for the future. 



CAREY CULBERTSON, M. D. 

In taking up the profession of medicine Dr. Carey Culbertson has carried out 
a purpose to which he has adhered from childhood. In this he received the en- 
couragement of his father, Dr. Samuel D. Culbertson, a prominent physician, 
whose example has encouraged and stimulated the son, while individual labor 
has brought the subject of this review to a prominent place in professional ranks. 
He comes of a family of Scotch origin, although the branch to which he belongs 
was established in Ireland about 1650. The next generation came to the United 
States, settling in the Atlantic coast country about 1680. Dr. Samuel D. Culbert- 
son was born in Pennsylvania and in 1866 became a resident of Illinois, settling at 
Piper City, where he practiced his profession to the time of his death. He had 
just entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia when the Civil war 
was inaugurated and he put aside his text-books in order to enlist. He participated 
in a number of important engagements, including the battles of the Army of the 
Potomac, Chancellorsville and Antietam, and at the second named was wounded. 
Some of his ancestors had been soldiers in the Revolutionary war and also of 
the war of 1812. Dr. Samuel D. Culbertson was married in Illinois to Clara 
Kate Culver, who was born in Pennsylvania and is living at Piper City, Illinois. 
She had two brothers who were soldiers in the Civil war Joseph Z. Culver having 




DR. CAREY CULBKRTSOX 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 301 

been captain of infantry, while Dr. Ira Culver, who was a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, at Richmond, enlisted as a surgeon and was under the com- 
mand of General Lawton. Subsequently he was with General Custer in the west 
and afterward was stationed at Fort Worth, Texas. He is now practicing medicine 
in Texas. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Samuel D. Culbertson were born four children: 
John C., a banker at Piper City, Illinois; Dr. Carey Culbertson, of this review; 
Helen, a graduate of Monmouth College, of Monmouth, Illinois ; and Josephine, 
the wife of Dr. R. S. McCaughey, of Hoopeston, Illinois, by whom she has one son, 
Thomas. 

Dr. Carey Culbertson was born at Piper City, Illinois, October 5, 1871. and 
there pursued his education in the public schools until he reached the age of six- 
teen years, when he entered the Boys Academy at Rochester, New York, from which 
he was graduated in 1891. He then passed the state board examination to enter 
Cornell but changed his plans and came to Chicago, where he matriculated in the 
Northwestern University at Evanston, from which he was graduated in 1895 
with the Bachelor of Arts degree. However, he had entered the medical depart- 
ment in 1894 and there completed a four years' course by graduation in 1898, at 
which time the M. D. degree was conferred upon him. In his early youth he had 
decided to follow in his father's professional footsteps and never for a moment 
abandoned this resolution. Subsequent to his graduation he spent one year as in- 
terne in the Chicago Lying-in Hospital and then became a general practitioner of 
Piper City, Illinois, in connection with his father, there remaining until 1903, 
when he went abroad. After doing postgraduate work at Vienna he returned in 
1904 and opened an office in Chicago, where he has since been located. His pro- 
fessional labors have been attended with a substantial measure of success and he 
has gained more than local recognition through his writings for several medical 
journals. He is a member of the staff of the Presbyterian Hospital, also of the 
consulting staff of Cook County Hospital and of the Mary Thompson Hospital. 
He belongs to the American Academy of Medicine, the Chicago Pathological So- 
ciety, the Chicago Society of Medical History and the Mississippi Valley Medical 
Association. He also belongs to the Chicago Medical Society, the Illinois State 
Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and through the proceed- 
ings of those organizations keeps in touch with the advanced work and thought of 
the profession. 

Dr. Culbertson, on the 20th of June, 1900, was united in marriage to Miss 
Katherine Graham, a daughter of General and Mrs. Harvey Graham, of Mani- 
towoc. Wisconsin. Her father participated in the siege of Vicksburg during the 
Civil war, being at that time colonel of the Twenty-second Iowa Volunteer In- 
fantry, on which occpsion he was successful in capturing one of the rebel flags. 
He was also wounded in the battle of Wilson Creek on the same day on which 
General Lyon was killed. He died January 16, 1912, in Chicago, where it had 
been his custom to spend the winter season at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cul- 
bertson. He was a member of the Loyal Legion and was buried by that organiza- 
tion. Mrs. Culbertson was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and pursued her education 
in the schools of that place, in Manitowoc and in the Northwestern University at 
Evanston, being a graduate of the Cumnock School of Oratory. Following the 
completion of her course she taught in the Cumnock School of Oratory at Los An- 



302 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

geles, California, and later had a studio at Kansas City. In the Lawrence Uni- 
versity of Appleton, Wisconsin, she became a member of the faculty as professor 
of oratory. She is a prominent member of the West End Woman's Club and in 1912 
was chairman of its program committee. She is also a member of the board of the 
Presbyterian Hospital. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Culbertson have been born two chil- 
dren: John Carey, born October 24, 1901 ; and Virginia Graham, August 6, 1905. 

Dr. Culbertson is a member of the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States, 
holding the rank of first lieutenant. He belongs to the Army and Navy Club of 
Washington, D. C., the Illinois Club on Ashland boulevard, Chicago, and the Thera- 
peutic Club. The breadth and nature of his interests is further indicated by the fact 
that he holds membership in the Presbyterian church and is also a member of the 
Art Institute. A study of the political issues and questions has led to his support 
of the republican p&rty and his activities and his lines of thought are both broad, 
keeping him in touch with the world's progress and making his a well balanced 
nature. He enjoys a game of golf which affords him outdoor life and exercise 
and he is perhaps even more greatly interested in literature, his reading being 
comprehensive. 



WILLIAM B. OWEN. 

The life work of William B. Owen was a distinct contribution to progress along 
material lines. He was the manufacturer of the first pressed brick ever used in 
the city of Chicago and also placed upon the market the improved terra cotta brick 
now in use. His entire record was indeed worthy of commendation for the path 
of few men has been so beset with trials, difficulties and hardships such as fell 
to the lot of William B. Owen. He was born of humble parentage at Crown Point, 
New York, June 5, 1834, being the only child of Hiram and Betsy Owen who were 
also natives of the Empire state and represented old American families. At the 
death of his parents William B. Owen was left an orphan ere he had reached the 
age of nine years and was thrown upon his own resources without even a guardian 
to work out his future. He spent several years as a farm boy, working wherever 
he could secure employment, and the hardships which he endured through that 
period left an ineffaceable impress upon his mind. In a youth of less resolute spirit 
and high principles they would have developed bitterness and perhaps degrada- 
tion, but they seemed to call forth the best and strongest in Mr. Owen, who deter- 
mined that no difficulty or obstacle should bar his advance. Even when he was 
receiving only twenty-five dollars a year for his labor his rigid economy enabled 
him to save something each year from that sum. When he had attained his major- 
ity he withdrew from agricultural pursuits and accepted a position in a machine 
shop at Springfield, Massachusetts. He found the work there more to his taste 
and talent and soon became a skilled machinist. He had also learned the shoe- 
maker's trade which he followed in many of the larger cities of the country. Prior 
to the Civil war he also acted as a member of the police force of Baltimore, Mary- 
land, for a short time. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 303 

Mr. Owen's experiences were indeed of a wide and varied nature. In 1850 he 
went across the plains to California, driving a mule team, and while upon that 
trip was stricken with fever which almost terminated his life. A few years later 
he visited Pikes Peak in a further search for gold but soon returned to Chicago. 
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war he went to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 
the employ of the government and spent nearly three years in that place, doing 
repair work on engines and harness. He then came to Chicago and for several 
years was employed as expert engineer for a number of different firms. 

Mr. Owen was married in 1867 and for a year thereafter engaged in farming 
near Champaign, Illinois, but on the expiration of that period turned his attention 
to the manufacture of brick at Willow Springs, first as an employe, while later 
he engaged in business on his own account, establishing a brickyard about 1870. 
The new undertaking proved practicable and in that connection Mr. Owen manu- 
factured the first pressed brick ever used in this city. After a brief period spent 
at Willow Springs he removed to Porter, Indiana, and in 1872 opened what was 
known as the old Kellogg brickyard. He afterward became a partner in the firm 
of Moulding & Harland but later sold his interest and accepted the position of 
foreman. However he again entered the firm as successor to the senior partner. 
His residence at Porter extended over a period of thirteen years and in 1881 the 
firm of Harland & Owen purchased the brickyard of Waterbury & Mills, at Hobart. 
A little later Mr. Harland sold his interest in the business to George Hinchliff, of 
Chicago, who in 1889 purchased Mr. Owen's interest for fifteen thousand dollars. 
The following year Mr. Owen purchased the Hobart yard for twenty-five thousand 
dollars and was sole proprietor thereof until the time of his death. Soon after his 
removal to Hobart, in the spring of 1887, Mr. Gillman, the inventor of porous 
terra cotta, experimented at Mr. Owen's yards in the manufacture of that kind of 
material, but his efforts were not successful. Later, however, Mr. Owen succeeded 
in bringing about the successful manufacture of terra cotta and directed his entire 
energies along that line. In addition to the brick industry at Hobart he at times 
operated terra cotta yards at Denver, Colorado, and at Wickliffe, Ohio, to supply 
the trade of the far west and the east, but during his later years Mr. Owen con- 
ducted only the Hobart yard, his manufactured brick being shipped to nearly every 
large city in the United States. He perfected the terra cotta block as it is made 
today and as the years passed, won success. Honesty and integrity were his watch- 
words and progressiveness actuated him in all that he did. 

When the village of Hobart was incorporated as a town in December, 1888, 
Mr. Owen took a very active part in the proceedings, was chosen one of the three 
town trustees and when the board organized became its first president. He acted 
as a member of that body for eleven consecutive years or until May, 1899, and 
did much toward shaping the policy and molding the destiny of the town along 
the lines of political, material and moral advancement. During the period of 
his residence in Englewood he was for a number of years a member of the Baptist 
church, but after his removal to Hobart united with the Methodist Episcopal 
church at that place and was always one of its active workers. While he usually 
voted with the republican party in his later years he had keen sympathy with the 
principles of the prohibition party and accepted its nomination for local offices. 
He was made' a Mason at Chesterton, Indiana, on the 9th of February, 1878, be- 



304 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

coming a member of Calumet Lodge, No. 357. On the 22d of June, 1882, he 
joined Valparaiso Chapter, R. A. M., and on the 6th of October, of the same year, 
became a member of Valparaiso Commandery, K. T. 

Mr. Owen was twice married. On the 12th of December, 1867, he wedded 
Annie Pride, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and unto them were born a daughter 
and three sons: Jessie, now deceased; W. B., who is with the National Fireproof 
Company, is married and has three children, Jessie, W. B. and Ruth Josephine ; 
W. L., who is now a physician of South Bend, Indiana, and has two children, 
Douglas and David; and a boy, who died in childhood. The death of the mother 
occurred November 28, 1897, and for his second wife Mr. Owen chose Mrs. Jennie 
Marr, whom he wedded December 11, 1898. She was the widow of Dr. Delos Dan- 
forth Marr, a graduate of Rush Medical College and of the medical department of 
the State University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He was a prominent and well 
known physician of Chesterton, Indiana, where he died September 12, 1889. By 
her former marriage Mrs. Owen has a son, Dr. Glen DeMotte Marr, who is a grad- 
uate of the department of dentistry of the Northwestern University and follows his 
profession at Portland, Oregon. 

The death of W. B. Owen occurred January 19, 1900, and was a great shock to 
the community. He never complained of the hardships and trials which he met in 
early youth but was ever ready to extend a helping hand to any who were having a 
similar experience. It is said that no difference what misfortune overtook him, he 
would forge ahead with a clear conscience, being straightforward and strictly honest 
in all of his dealings. He was sympathetic and charitable to a marked degree, was a 
kind and loving husband and father, and a true and loyal citizen. In his passing 
the community lost a most public-spirited citizen who not infrequently sacrificed 
his own interests to promote the general welfare. He came through life without 
any of the marks and scars that so often leave their imprint upon the successful man. 
He remained kindly and forbearing in nature, honest and straightforward, holding 
to high ideals, and living a life of integrity and purpose of which none could ques- 
tion. 



ISHAM RANDOLPH. 

Isham Randolph, identified with some of the most important engineering projects 
of the country and ranking with those to whom the highest success has been accorded 
in this field, was born in Clarke county, Virginia. March 25, 1848, on a farm known 
as New Market. His parents were Dr. Robert C. and Lucy (Nelson) Randolph, 
people of broad intelligence and culture. The mother became his principal teacher 
and adviser, because all schools in that locality were closed, on account of the ex- 
igencies of the Civil war, the contest being waged in the vicinity of his home. His 
entire attendance at school covered only twenty-one months in private institutions, 
but the mother wisely directed his studies and thus laid the foundation upon which 
has been builded the superstructure of professional knowledge that lias made his 
opinions authority upon many matters of engineering. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 307 

Mr. Randolph started in business life in 1868 as an axeman on the Winchester & 
Strasburg Railroad, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. Later he was em- 
ployed as a rodman during the building of the road and in 1870 became a leveler on 
the surveys for the Washington & Ohio Railroad, extending from Round Hill, Lou- 
doun county, Virginia, to Winchester in the same state. In 1871 he became transit 
man on the survey for the extension of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Jugtown 
Mountain to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Each year saw him at a point in advance 
of that which he had reached the previous year, his constantly developing powers 
and ability, his keen perception and ready adaptation bringing him more and more 
into prominence as time passed on. In March, 1872, he reentered the service of the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company as transit man on the extension of its line to 
Chicago, and in that capacity he located the line from Syracuse, Indiana, to this 
city. Later as resident engineer he had charge of the construction of twenty-seven 
miles of the line and the roundhouse and shops at South Chicago. In 1876 he en- 
tered the service of the Scioto Valley road as assistant engineer and later became 
road master of that line. In 1880 he came to Chicago as chief engineer of the Chi- 
cago, Western Indiana & Belt Railway of Chicago, and in this connection had ex- 
tensive experience in the building of railroad terminals, freight houses, roundhouses 
and other equipment of the road. 

Since 1885 Mr. Randolph has maintained an office in Chicago for general en- 
gineering work and has been awarded contracts from all parts of the country. In 
1886 he represented the Illinois Central R'ailroad Company in locating and construct- 
ing the lines of the Chicago, Madison & Northern Railroad and the Freeport 
& Dodgeville Railroad in the capacity of chief engineer. In 1888 he resumed the 
general practice of engineering in Chicago, where his services were 'sought in con- 
nection with various projects requiring an expert. He was afterward made consult- 
ing engineer for the Union Stock Yards & Transit Company and for the Baltimore 
& Ohio Railroad Company. His increasing ability was continually receiving recogni- 
tion in a manner that was indicative of the progress that he was making in his chosen 
field. On the 7th of July, 1893, he was elected chief engineer of the sanitary dis- 
trict of Chicago, an engineering feat that attracted the widest attention of those who 
stand foremost in engineering circles in the country. The work not only included the 
execution of a plan for safeguarding the water supply of the city but also provided 
a ship canal. It is the largest artificial water way in the world up to this time and 
will so rank until the completion of the Panama canal. 

SANITARY DISTRICT OF CHICAGO. 

RESOLUTIONS IN HONOR OF ISHAM RANDOLPH. 

Almost from the inception of the great enterprise, the actual construction of the 
Sanitary and Ship Canal, has for upwards of fourteen years been under the guiding 
direction of one man, Isham Randolph, Chief Engineer. 

The ^reat and varied engineering problems which have arisen have been solved 
by him, and by him all the intricate technical engineering difficulties have been 
smoothed away. High sense of public duty has kept him steadfast to his task until 
the practical completion of the original undertaking at a cost of considerable pecun- 

Vol V 16 



308 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

iary sacrifice to himself. He has grown and broadened with its growth, into full 
recognition as one of the great engineers of the country, one whom both the state and 
nation have honored by high appointments. He was the first to realize and put into 
concrete form the idea of utilizing the power latent in the vast body of water turned 
from Lake Michigan down the Chicago, Desplaines and Illinois Rivers to the Mis- 
sissippi, to preserve the health of the great metropolis, an idea which will give the 
people of Chicago some financial as well as sanitary return from the investment of 
more than fifty million dollars for sanitation. Words can but feebly express the value 
of his services both to science and to humanity, but as a slight token of our esteem it 
is hereby resolved by the Board of Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, in 
regular meeting, this 24th day of July, 1907, that we here record our high apprecia- 
tion of the long and faithful services of Isham Randolph as chief engineer of The 
Sanitary District, of his preeminent abilities and of the fine qualities of mind and 
heart which have endeared him to all who have had the good fortune to come into 
close personal relations with him. We regret the loss of his services as chief en- 
gineer, and rejoice that as consulting engineer his skilled advice will still be avail- 
able for the completion of the great work with which he has been so long and so 
closely identified, and be it further resolved that a minute of these resolutions be en- 
tered in the proceedings of this Board and that a copy suitably engrossed be pre- 
pared and presented to Mr. Randolph. 

Robert R. McCormick, 

President. 
Chicago, July 24th, A. D. 1907. 

Attest: 

Isaac J. Bryan, 
Clerk. 

His name is known in connection with the Panama canal, for he was ap- 
pointed by President Roosevelt on the board of consulting engineers for the Panama 
canal and was one of the five members who prepared the minority report, which re- 
ceived the indorsement of the president and the secretary of war and after being ap- 
proved by the Panama commission was adopted by congress, so that the work on the 
canal is now being executed in accordance with its recommendations. On the 28th 
of December, 1908, President Roosevelt extended an invitation to six engineers, of 
whom Mr. Randolph was one, to accompany President-elect Taft to Panama on a 
tour of inspection and to report upon the condition of the work as to whether there 
was need of changing the plans. Mr. Randolph accepted the invitation, the board 
of engineers submitting their report February 16, 1909, and unanimously upholding 
the plans for the lock canal across the isthmus. 

Mr. Randolph was also chairman of the internal improvement commission of Il- 
linois, charged with the duty of planning the deep water way from Lockport to Utica, 
for which the state has voted an issue of twenty million dollars in bonds. Mr. Ran- 
dolph was appointed in the fall of 1910 as sole conferee by Governor Deneen of Illi- 
nois to confer with the board of engineers appointed by President Taft to consider the 
lakes-to-gulf deep waterway. He is a member of the Illinois state conservation com- 
mission, of the harbor commission of Chicago and is consulting engineer for import- 
ant engineering projects in Toronto, Canada, Buffalo, New York, Baltimore, Mary- 
land, and other places. In August, 1909, he was appointed by the city council of 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 309 

Milwaukee to design the lake and rail harbor for that city. His standing among the 
representatives of the profession is indicated by the fact that he was formerly elected 
to the presidency of the Western Society of Engineers and he also belongs to the 
American Society of Engineers. June 15, 1910, the degree of doctor of engineering 
was conferred upon him by the University of Illinois. 

On the 15th of June, 1882, Mr. Randolph was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
H. Taylor and to them have been born three sons: Robert Isham, born April 14, 
1883, who is a civil engineer, and is secretary of Internal Improvement commission 
of Illinois; Oscar de Wolf, born September 28, 1885; and Spottswood Wellford, born 
August 7, 1892, who is in college. The family residence has been maintained in Chi- 
cago throughout almost this entire period, although Mr. Randolph is called on pro- 
fessional service to all parts of the country. The steps in his orderly progression 
are easily discernible, and from a comparatively humble position he has worked his 
way steadily upward until he is today numbered among the foremost engineers of 
the country. Starting out in life without any vaulting ambition to accomplish some- 
thing especially great or famous, he has followed the lead of his opportunities, do- 
ing as best he could anything that came to hand and seizing legitimate advantages 
as they have arisen. He has never hesitated to take a forward step when the way 
was open. Fortunate in possessing ability and character that inspired confidence in 
others, the simple weight of his character and ability has carried him into important 
relations with large interests. 



WILLIAM AMES HEATH. 

Where ambition is satisfied and every ultimate aim accomplished, effort ceases 
and enterprise is swallowed up in supine inactivity. The possibilites of successful 
attainment, however, continually incite to the exercise of energy and perseverance 
and the individual, although starting out in life in a comparatively humble capacity, 
may eventually reach a position of power and influence in the business world. 
Among those who now figure prominently in Chicago's financial circles is William 
Ames Heath, who started upon his business career in 1883 as a messenger in the 
Champaign (Illinois) National Bank. He afterward served as vice president of 
the Hibernian Banking Association from 1904 until 1909 and today is president of 
the Live Stock Exchange National Bank, his classification being with those men who 
are shaping the financial history of Chicago and the middle west. A native of 
Sullivan county, Indiana, he was born June 29, 1862, of the marriage of the Rev. 
Nathaniel P. and Cynthia (Burnett) Heath. The father when a resident of Chi- 
cago organized the Wabash Avenue Methodist church and was its first pastor. He 
was recognized as one of the leading preachers of that denomination in Illinois 
throughout his lifetime. 

Passing through the consecutive grades in the public schools to his graduation 
from the high school, William Ames Heath afterward matriculated in the Uni- 
versity of Illinois and is now numbered among its alumni of 1883. The same year 
he crossed the threshold of the business world by becoming a messenger in the 
Champaign National Bank and it needs no particular powers of discernment to 



310 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

recognize the fact that his diligence, capability and fidelity were strongly mani- 
fested, else he would not have won continuous promotion through the nineteen years 
of his connection with that institution. Passing through the intermediate positions, 
he eventually reached that of cashier and the prominence he attained in banking 
circles led to his appointment to the position of state bank examiner for Illinois in 
1902. He filled the position until 1904, since which time he has figured actively 
in banking circles in Chicago as vice president of the Hibernian Banking Associa- 
tion. In January, 1910, he was called to the presidency of the Live Stock Exchange 
National Bank. 

Mr. Heath was also called upon to manage financial interests for the city of 
Champaign as its treasurer and also filled the position of school treasurer. He has 
likewise received other evidences of public confidence and trust when solicited to 
manage or control interests of general importance. He is well known as a stanch 
advocate of the republican party to which he has always given his support, feeling 
that its principles are best calculated to conserve good government. In 1901 he 
was made a member of the Illinois State Commission of the Pan-American Exposi- 
tion held in Buffalo a commission to which representative citizens were chosen 
that the interests of the state might be carefully guarded and promoted. 

On the 17th of June, 1890, Mr. Heath was married to Miss Clara Owens, who 
died December 10, 1904, leaving two sons and a daughter, Nathaniel P., William O. 
and Florence B. The family residence is at No. 4514 Greenwood avenue, Chicago. 
Mr. Heath holds membership in the Union League, University and Midlothian 
Country Clubs and is a Knight Templar Mason, connected with Champaign Com- 
mandery at- Champaign, Illinois. He is likewise a member of the Indiana Society 
of Chicago and enjoys meeting in these organizations the men of kindred interests 
and ideas among whom he often discusses the questions of significant and vital in- 
terest to city and country. 



GEORGE HINMAN LAFLIN. 

From a distinguished and honorable ancestry George Hinman Lailin was 
descended and his lines of life were cast in harmony therewith. He came to be 
recognized as one whose cooperation in public affairs contributed to the city's 
welfare and upbuilding. On the paternal side George H. Laflin was descended 
from a Protestant Irish ancestor and from a Protestant English mother. Matthew 
Laflin, the father, spent the period of his youth in western Massachusetts and after- 
ward engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder there. In the interest of his 
business he came to Chicago when work on the Illinois and Michigan canal brought 
about a large consumption of the explosives in which he dealt. He became allied 
by marriage with the Hinman family, one of the most prominent of Massachu- 
setts, and for many years following his arrival in Chicago, in 1837, remained a 
resident of this city, being at the time of his death one of the oldest in years and 
length of connection with Chicago. 

The parents were residents of Canton, Hartford county, Connecticut, when 
George Hinman Laflin was born, on the 19th of July, 1828. He was therefore 




GEORGE H. L.AFLIN 






CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 313 



nine years of age at the time of the removal to this city and for two or three years 
was a pupil in private schools here. He continued his education in an academy 
at Lee, Massachusetts, which he entered in 1840, and subsequently he was in- 
structed by the Rev. Alexander Hyde, proprietor of a preparatory school for boys. 
In 18-12 he left school in the east and by the circuitous route of the Erie canal 
and the great lakes returned to his home in Chicago, of necessity employing that 
method of travel, for the period antedated the building of the railroads through 
the middle west. He enjoyed the benefit of instruction in private schools in this 
city and, well equipped with an educational fundament to build on, started out 
in the business world, becoming an employe in the grocery store of Mr. Coffin, on 
Clark street. After nearly a year in that position he became a clerk in the general 
store of Wadsworth. Dyer & Chapin, with whom he continued until the spring of 
1847. 

At the age of nineteen years Mr. Laflin went to St. Louis and for two years 
was employed by the firm of Laflin & Smith, who had a depository and agency 
for the sale of powder in that city. Upon his return to Chicago he became sec- 
retary of the old Chicago Hydraulic Company, of which his father was a director 
and large owner. This company installed the first waterworks in the city and 
sold to the municipality when the present system of city waterworks was estab- 
lished, in 1853. In that year George H. Laflin entered into partnership with his 
brother Lycurgus under the firm name of G. H. & L. Laflin and opened the first 
house for the sale of fine paper in Chicago. Their place of business was on 
South Water street and later was removed to No. 40 State street, to a store that con- 
tinued in Mr. Laflin's possession throughout the remainder of his life. In 1865 
they consolidated their establishment with that of J. W. Butler under the firm 
name of Laflin, Butler & Company and so continued until their stock was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1870. Soon afterward the firm was dissolved, the Laflin brothers 
reorganizing under the name of G. H. & L. Laflin and so continuing in the sale 
of fine paper until the great conflagration of 1871 which swept out of existence 
all of that section of the city in which their business was located. The brothers 
did not reenter that field of trade but became assistants of their father, who was 
a large owner of real estate in the burned district and needed their assistance in 
rebuilding and in managing his property interests. G. H. Laflin continued an 
active factor in business circles in that connection although he did not again enter 
trade or commercial circles. He was everywhere regarded as a man of sound 
judgment and keen discrimination whose enterprise brought him to a prominent 
position in business circles and gained for him gratifying and substantial success. 
He became, however, largely interested in the Elgin Watch Company and was one 
of its directors, retaining his holdings in that corporation to the time of his demise. 

In September, 1851, occurred the marriage of George H. Laflin and Miss Mary 
M. Brewster, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They became the parents of five children, 
the surviving members being Arthur King, Louis Elsworth and Mrs. Elisha P. 
Whitehead, all yet residents of Chicago. To the daughter we are indebted for 
the material in this memorial to her honored father. In his political affiliations 
Mr. Laflin was a republican but sought the success of the party from principle 
and not from any wish for advancement. He belonged to the Calumet, Washing- 
ton Park and Athletic Clubs, and an attractive and agreeable manner made his 



314 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

circle of friends an extensive one. He gave his support to many worthy public 
projects and was largely instrumental in organizing and developing the great 
Chicago exposition of 1873 and in the following years. He acted as one of its 
board of directors and gave personal attention to gathering the exhibits and mak- 
ing the exposition the great success which it was for a long period. He was prac- 
tically a lifelong resident of Chicago and none was more esteemed and honored 
among acquaintances and friends than was he. The high purpose and ideals which 
he exemplified in his career merited the regard which was always extended him and 
his ability well fitted him for the position of leadership to which he attained. 



HON. JESSE HOLDOM. 

Hon. Jesse Holdom, formerly one of the justices of the appellate court of 
Illinois for the first district, and recognized as the peer of the ablest members who 
have sat upon the appellate bench, was born in London, England, August 23, 1851. 
His father, William Holdom, was born in that section of the city known as Spital- 
fields, in a parish which had been the ancestral home of the family for more than 
three centuries or since progenitors of the Holdom family fled as refugees to Eng- 
land to escape the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Judge Holdom arrived in the United States in 1868 when seventeen years of 
age, and in July of that year became a resident of Chicago. He had already re- 
ceived a good academic training and in this city entered upon the study of law. 
After two years he became a student in the law office and under the direction of 
Joshua C. Knickerbocker, with whom he remained until 1876, when he became 
chief clerk in the law office of Tenneys, Flower & Abercrombie, who were num- 
bered among Chicago's most prominent attorneys. He filled that position follow- 
ing his admission to the bar on the 13th of September, 1873, and after five years' 
practical training in the work of the courts and the preparation of cases he became 
associated in practice with the brother of Judge Knickerbocker under the firm style 
of Knickerbocker & Holdom. This partnership was continued until 1889. after 
which Judge Holdom was alone until elected to the superior bench of Cook county 
in 1898. He served thereon until his appointment by the supreme court of the 
state to the appellate court over which he presided for two and one-half years of 
a service of four and one-half years. A contemporary biographer has said: "At 
the bar and as a trial lawyer Judge Holdom was always courteous but forceful, 
logical, convincing and never a quibbler over nonessential points. He prepared his 
cases with patience, faithfulness and ability, and seldom was involved by his oppo- 
nents in a phase of the litigation which he had not carefully considered. As 
counselor he was astute and conservative. Perhaps his greatest reputation at the 
bar has been achieved in chancery and probate cases and in litigated questions 
involving contests of wills and titles to real estate." He was elected to the bench 
in November, 1898, when elected judge of the superior court and his record on 
the appellate court bench has been such as places him among the foremost repre- 
sentatives of the Illinois judiciary. His reported opinions are monuments to his 
profound legal learning and superior ability, more lasting than brass or marble 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 315 

and more honorable than battles fought and won. They show thorough mastery 
of the questions involved, a rare simplicity of style and an admirable terseness and 
clearness in the statement of principles upon which the opinions rest. He holds 
membership in the American, Illinois and Chicago Bar Associations, the Chicago 
Law Club and the Chicago Law Institute, and in 1901-2 was president of the Illi- 
nois State Bar Association. 

In 1877 Judge Holdom was married to Miss Edith I. Foster, who died in 1891, 
and in 1893 he wedded Mabel Brady. The family numbered two sons and two 
daughters: Jesse; Martha, the wife of Roy McMillan Wheeler; Edith I. and 
Courtland Holdom. Judge Holdom has held official connection with both Trinity 
and St. Paul Episcopal churches, being now senior warden of the latter. In pol- 
itics he is an unequivocal republican who never allows his views to obtrude in the 
performance of his professional duty nor in social connection. He is identified with 
a number of the leading clubs of the city and was honored with the presidency of 
the Hamilton Club in, 1897. In the Union League Club he served as a member of 
the committee on political action for the years 1898, 1899 and 1900, and in 1908 
was chosen vice president, in 1909 president and is now a life member. His asso- 
ciation with the Hamilton and Union League Clubs has constituted a strong influ- 
ential factor in the work which these organizations have accomplished along the 
lines of civic reform and progress. Judge Holdom likewise belongs to the Mid- 
Day Club, the Lotos Club, at New York city, to the Bibliophile Society of Boston 
and the Cnxton Club of Chicago. He is a life member of the Art Institute, and 
identified with the Field Columbian Museum and holds membership in the National 
Geographic Society and the American Forestry Association. Along the lines of 
modern investigation and thought his researches have been wide, giving him intelli- 
gent understanding of questions that are not largely understood by laymen. His 
extensive library of old and rare volumes as well as of works of modern writers 
indicates his deep interest in literary subjects. He is seldom if ever at a loss 
when called upon to give expression to his opinions upon any subject and his pres- 
ence is sought, where the most intelligent men of the city gather. 



BENNET B. BOTSFORD. 

Bennet B. Botsford, son of Jabez Kent and Minerva (Kimball) Botsford, was 
born in Chicago, August 3, 1840. He graduated at the Northwestern University 
of Evanston in June, 1861, and subsequently engaged in the hardware business 
with his father at No. 109 Lake street, the firm name being J. K. Botsford & Sons. 
After the fire of 1871 he became identified with the wholesale millinery firm of 
D. B. Fisk & Company and upon its incorporation became a managing director. 
He was always interested in athletics and was a life member of the Chicago Ath- 
letic Association. He was color sergeant of the United States Zouave Cadets, 
commanded by Colonel Ellsworth, and accompanied them in their famous tour 
of the eastern cities in 1860. 

On the 2d of September, 1869, Mr. Botsford married Miss Myra C. Fisk, 
daughter of the late D. B. Fisk. Two daughters were the result of this union: 



316 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Bertha Fisk Botsford, wife of Dr. Robert H. Harvey; and Marion Kent, who died 
in her fourth year. Mr. Botsford died of heart disease at his residence, No. 2100 
Calumet avenue, on the 28th of March, 1898. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. 
Bennet B. Botsford, who now resides at No. 2100 Calumet avenue, Chicago, where 
she and Dr. and Mrs. Robert H. Harvey make their home. 



ORRIN KENDALL. 

Orrin Kendall, one of the well known citizens and oldtime merchants of Chi- 
cago, was born October 19, 1810, in Norwich, Chenango county, New York, a son 
of Johnston Kendall and Celia Shaw and the second of a family of seven chil- 
dren, the others being: John, who died unmarried; Hiram, who for some years 
conducted an extensive cracker manufactory at St. Louis but afterward removed 
to Upper Alton, Illinois, where he lived retired from business and maintained a 
beautiful home, in which his death occurred; William, who resided in Alton and 
in Chicago ; Mrs. Hannah Orcutt, who lived and died in St. Louis ; Charles, who 
died unmarried; and Mrs. Mary Lahee, who at her death left a son, Eugene H. 
Lahee, for many years Mayor of Covina, California, and now a resident of Los 
Angeles. 

Orrin Kendall was but a child when his parents removed to Utica, New York, 
where he attended the public schools. Following this he entered the employ of 
Phillip Thurber, a cracker baker of that city, this constituting the initial effort of 
Mr. Kendall in a line of business in which he continued throughout his active life. 
While still a resident of Utica he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ann Moore, 
a native of Montreal, Canada, and a daughter of John Eckland and Letitia (Kane) 
Moore, both of whom were natives of England. Mr. Kendall resided in Utica for 
a few years after his marriage, his two older children being born there. 

It was in the early summer of 1836 that Mr. Kendall with his little family of 
wife and two sons started for the far west, as Illinois was then called. The city 
of Quincy was their destination. They traveled by canal and lake and thence by 
canal to the Ohio river, down which they sailed to Illinois Town, from which point 
they journeyed in the old time "prairie schooner" to their destination. Mr. Ken- 
dall became the pioneer cracker manufacturer in Quincy and for some years car- 
ried on business there. His product was shipped far and wide, reaching such dis- 
tant points as the West Indies. He met success in Quincy, but, believing that 
the rapidly growing city of Chicago offered a still better field for business, Mr. 
Kendall in 1854 removed to this city and established himself in the cracker bak- 
ing business, at the southwest corner of Washington and Dearborn streets, pur- 
chasing a lot and erecting thereon a brick building, which he continued to occupy 
as a place of business until his death. Mr. Kendall was a thoroughly practical 
man in the line in which he chose a life work. He understood every detail of the 
business and the superiority of his product soon caused his output to become one 
of the best known and most popular in the city. At one time J. M. Dake was in 
partnership with him but Mr. Kendall was the practical head of the business and 




ORRIN KENDALL 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 319 

so remained until his death, which occurred October 10, 1870, his remains being 
interred in Rosehill cemetery. 

Through his courteous manner and genial disposition Mr. Kendall won many 
friends and his extensive acquaintance included many of the foremost citizens of 
Chicago of that day. He held to high ideals and lived up to them. Of a deeply 
religious nature, he was ever mindful of obligations to his fellowmen and prac- 
ticed his religion seven days in the week. He was always active in church af- 
fairs and at one time had begun preparation for the ministry as a student under 
the Rev. Dr. Nelson, in Mission Institute No. 1, near Quincy, but was obliged to 
abandon his plan on account of throat trouble. He was an elder there and soon 
after his removal to Chicago became an elder in the First Presbyterian church 
and occupied that position for sixteen years. He was a most earnest Christian 
gentleman, whose sympathetic nature was easily aroused, while his kindness and 
generosity were quickly manifest, for all times he was ready to do for others in 
any way he could. Mr. Kendall was extremely fond of his home and family. 
He was a companion of his children and the congenial friend of young people. 
He always assisted in the entertainment of the friends of his children and had 
the happy faculty of making himself one of them, so that they were always at 
ease and never felt restraint in his presence. His home was a favorite gathering 
place for young and old and as a host his popularity was pronounced. He had 
a pleasant greeting for all and his extreme courtesy and politeness were the ex- 
pression of an unfeigned cordiality and generous, friendly nature. The atmos- 
phere was one of cheer when he was present and he seemed to impart readily to 
others the good humor which he felt himself. He was a lover of music and all 
highly refined amusements appealed to him. He was a man of fine personal ap- 
pearance, six feet tall, with blue eyes, a florid complexion and always appeared 
smoothly shaven. 

Few men of Mr. Kendall's day outside of public life could claim a wider ac- 
quaintance among the leading men of the city. He was at one time an old line 
whig but joined the forces of the new republican party when it was organized 
and, although not a politician in the usually accepted sense of the term, he 
manifested the interest of a loyal and public-spirited citizen in municipal affairs. 
When John Wentworth was mayor of Chicago, Mr. Kendall served as one of the 
board of aldermen. He was also well known on the Board of Trade and as a 
judge of flour was considered one of the most expert in the city, his opinions con- 
cerning that commodity being often sought. 

Mr. Kendall's residence during the early years following his arrival in Chi^ 
cago was at Thirteenth street and Michigan avenue and subsequently he resided 
on Monroe street, but during the latter years of his life the family home was 
on Wabash avenue, between Adams and Monroe streets. Unto him and his wife 
were born ten children: Edward K., who died in Port Chester, New York, Feb- 
ruary 26, 1909; James S., a resident of Los Angeles, California; Amelia S.. who 
is the widow of Anson H. Lawrence, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this 
volume; Cornelius, who died in Toledo, Ohio, August 15, 1909: Mary E., who is the 
widow of David P. Slocum, of Chicago, and has one son James Edward, of Chi- 
cago; Julia Ann and Juliette, twins, who died in infancy; Anna L., the widow of 
Harry L. Stouffer, of Chicago; Elizabeth, deceased: and Martha J., the wife of 



320 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Hugh M. Boice, of Chicago. The death of the mother occurred August 7, 1862, 
and Mr. Kendall survived until October 10, 1870, lacking but a few days of reach- 
ing the sixtieth anniversary of his birth. Thus passed away one who was not 
only instrumental in promoting the early business activity and commercial en- 
terprise of Chicago but who also contributed to the moral progress of the city 
and was as well one of the prominent representatives of its social life. No trans- 
cendent eulogy is pronounced upon him because he accomplished something notably 
great, but he lived so as to merit and command respect and honor and upon his 
tomb might well be written: "An honest man is the noblest work of God." 



BENJAMIN ALLEN. 

Benjamin Allen has been an important factor in the commercial activities of 
Chicago for forty-six years. He is to-day widely known as the head of the whole- 
sale jewelry house of Benjamin Allen & Company, one of the largest institutions 
of its kind in the country. His history as a prominent Chicago business man has, 
however, not been limited to the development of the business which bears his name. 
To a very marked degree he has been a conspicuous figure in the more general 
activities which have made possible the ultimate destiny of Chicago. As officer 
or stockholder, he is associated with many of the most important corporate interests 
of the city. These interests are in a lesser or greater degree, public-service insti- 
tutions. He has done much to place them upon that sound financial basis com- 
mensurate with the development of a city whose commercial history is without 
parallel. 

Benjamin Allen was born October 7, 1848, in Goderich, Canada. His parents 
were John and Mary (Braden) Allen. His education, though in no wise neglected, 
was limited to such knowledge as he was able to acquire from a well directed 
parental guidance and attendance at public schools until he reached the age of 
sixteen years. From this age dates his business career. Coincident with the clos- 
ing chapters of the tragedy of the Rebellion, came his seventeenth year. His self- 
reliance and determination took him "across the line," where a reunited people was 
working out the problems of peace. A mere boy, he came to Chicago endowed with 
little else save self-reliance, a wholesome Christian training, and a tenacious adapta- 
bility for work. His first position was as a clerk for the wholesale jewelry firm 
of Quimby & Company, one of the first wholesale jewelry houses in Chicago. In 
those days Chicago was by no means the important jewelry center it is to-day. To 
have spanned the intervening years and foreseen, with the dawn of the new cen- 
tury, the ultimate supremacy of Chicago as the nation's greatest jewelry dis- 
tributing point, would have been little short of idle dreaming, had it been indulged 
in by the Chicago wholesale jewelers of 1865. Still, with this seemingly possible 
romance of brick and mortar, this inspiring narrative of eternal vigilance for 
commercial opportunity, the history of Benjamin Allen is indissolvably linked. 
From 1865 to 1869 he worked for the firm of Quimby & Company. As in the 
career of all young men who must shift for themselves, there are periods when 
to be blind to one's opportunity is to stifle ambition or at least, curb progress, so 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 321 

this period came to Mr. Allen as a young man of twenty-one years. He was not 
blind to it. He knew its possibilities and understood its requirements. Strict 
application to his work and fidelity to his employers, coupled with the prudent 
economy of the rewards for his industry, placed him in the position, where, at the 
end of his clerkship, he was able to purchase an interest in the firm. He continued 
as a partner in the business until a year after the great fire, when he purchased 
the interests of his partner and became the sole owner of the firm. Thus began 
the present house of Benjamin Allen & Company. 

In those days the old Clifton House stood on the corner of Wabash avenue 
and Madison street. Here he made his home. The store was located at what was 
then known as, 109 Lake street. Both the store and the hotel were wiped out by 
the fire. Nothing need here be said of the destruction reaped by this great holo- 
caust nor of the courage, pluck, energy and abounding faith necessary to rebuild 
from its ashes the business of which he had but recently become the sole owner. 
Sufficient is to say that he possessed these qualifications to a marked degree. The 
present house of Benjamin Allen & Company, with its interests ramifying into 
every section of the country, stands as indisputable evidence of the wisdom of its 
founder. 

Permanent success, well deserved and honestly acquired, does not come in 
leaps and bounds. It did not to the early pioneers of Chicago, nor does it to-day 
to the present generation. To know something of the success of Benjamin Allen, 
therefore, is to understand something of the hardships woven into the history of 
his success. These negative instances are not a part of this short narrative. They 
are left to the imagination of the reader, who, if he is conversant with the history 
of successful men, can rely on fancy to picture doubt, uncertainty, temporary 
defeat, and the many other baneful obstacles which must be overcome before suc- 
cess is acquired. They will be found in the history of all successful men. 

At the age of sixty-three years Mr. Allen is to-day enjoying public confidence 
to an enviable degree. Though not giving his business the strict application of 
his time and energies which characterized his early business life, he nevertheless 
maintains a strict supervision over his diversified business affairs. His striking 
personality is indelibly stamped upon all the affairs of the firm which bears his name. 
To-day, after its success has long been certain and its permanency assured, the 
guiding spirit of the house of Benjamin Allen & Company, still remains that of 
its founder. Aside from this Mr. Allen is president and treasurer of the Silver- 
smiths Building Company ; a large stockholder in the Elgin National Watch Com- 
pany and director in the First National Bank and First Trust & Savings Bank, 
in addition to being secretary and treasurer of Spaulding & Company and an ex- 
tensive stockholder in the Commonwealth Edison Company. 

Mr. Allen was married at the age of twenty-three to Miss Mae West Lamos, 
a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Lamos of Bangor, Maine. There are two 
sons (twins) and one daughter. Benjamin C. Allen is associated with his father 
in the jewelry business. He married Miss Blanche Bunday. They are the par- 
ents of two daughters. Louis D. Allen is a resident of New York. Bessie, the 
only daughter, is the widow of the late Phelps B. Hoyt, son of William M. Hoyt, 
a pioneer merchant of Chicago. Unto this marriage two children were born. 



322 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The Allen home recently completed at Winnetka constitutes one of the most 
beautiful homes on the North shore. Situated on spacious ground, amid pictur- 
esque backgrounds, its gentility and refinement may well be taken as an index to 
the character of Mr. Allen and his wife, who presides over it. 

Mr. Allen is a member of the Masonic fraternity and enjoys prominence in 
social circles. He is a member of the Chicago Club, Union League Club, Calumet, 
Mid-Day and Onwentsia Clubs, and the Chicago Historical Society. Mrs. Allen 
is a member of the Women's Athletic Club. His political affiliations are with the 
republican party, and church connections with the Episcopal church. 

Mr. Allen has learned well the lesson of success. Though still a busy man, 
he enjoys a keen appreciation of the fact that, though the Goddess success, be an 
unrelenting task master while her conquest is in progress, she nevertheless holds 
out to him, who has acquired her, a consoling and justly acquired surcease of the 
turmoil of ceaseless activities. To-day he is enjoying the full fruition of an emi- 
nently successful career, as few successful men do. He is an ardent lover of 
nature, a profound student of wholesome literature and an enthusiastic as well as 
systematic traveler. These more lofty mental and physical recreations have added, 
a subtle charm to his personality and enriched his conversation with gentle senti- 
ments reminiscent of his travels and experiences. The keynote of his life to-day 
is happiness, peace and contentment. They stand out as the chief characteristics of 
a thoroughly rounded and well balanced career. In them Mr. Allen to-day lives 
and has his being. 



WILLIAM R. HIBBARD. 

William R. Hibbard, who for more than thirty years was connected with the 
wholesale house of Marshall Field & Company, holding the responsible position of 
department manager at the time of his death, was born in New York state, on 
October 10, 1853, and passed away February 11, 1910. He had been a resident of 
this city for four decades and soon after his arrival here had entered the employ of 
J. V. Farwell & Company in a very humble capacity. However, he had learned the 
lesson that industry and reliability are the factors that count for success and through 
the employment of those qualities he won advancement. He had been associated 
with this house for more than ten years, when he entered the employ of Marshall 
Field & Company, with whom he remained three times that period, and was one of 
the most faithful as well as one of the oldest men in the service of the latter com- 
pany, when he was called from this life. He regarded the interests of his employ- 
ers as his own and did everything possible to stimulate trade in his department. 

On the 25th of August, 187-1, Mr. Hibbard was united in marriage to Miss 
Sarah Brown, a daughter of George and Katherine (Nolan) Brown, a biographical 
record of whom will be found on another page of this work. Of their children the 
following are now living: Charles W., engaged in mercantile business in Chicago; 
William A., with the Bell Telephone Company: Lester G., with Marshall Field & 
Company; and Ethel Isabel, at home. 




W. R. HIBBARD 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 325 

Politically Mr. Hibbard was a stanch republican and in exercising his right 
of franchise expressed his views on many important questions of the day, for he 
believed that the public welfare would best be conserved through the national adop- 
tion of republican principles. He was a member of the Royal League, the National 
Union and the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Hibbard greatly enjoyed travel and, pos- 
sessing a discerning eye and retentive memory, gained much from his trips. He 
was also fond of outdoor sports and believed in preserving an even balance between 
the physical, mental and moral forces of nature. His mind was constantly stim- 
ulated by his reading, which covered a wide range and made him a well informed 
man, nor was he ever neglectful of his duties and obligations to his fellowmen. He 
was of a very charitable spirit though of retiring disposition and gave generously 
but unostentatiously of his means for the benefit of others. His life was well spent, 
every duty bravely met, every obligation well performed, and while he sought no 
public recognition of his worth, it was nevertheless acknowledged by those who met 
him through the associations of social or business life. Mr. Hibbard died in un- 
swerving faith to the Church of Rome, and the surviving wife and children are de- 
vout members of Corpus Christi Catholic church. 



MALCOLM FAULKNER EWEN. 

Malcolm Faulkner Ewen, vice president of the J. M. Ewen Company, en- 
gineers and builders, was born at Great Neck, Long Island, New York, December 
8, 1875, a son of Warren and Sarah (Faulkner) Ewen, both of whom were natives 
of New York and were of Scotch lineage. The father was a naval officer and en,- 
gineer who served with Farragut at Fort Sumter, in the battle of Mobile Bay 
and also on the Iroquois and the Illinois. Captured in war, he was incarcerated 
for a time in Libby prison. Following. the close of hostilities he was for many 
years chief engineer of railroad construction in Chili and Peru and executed the 
construction of many famous railroad and harbor works in those countries. He 
died in 1893 when sixty- four years of age, thus closing a life of great usefulness, 
in which superior ability had brought him prominence. His family numbered seven 
children, of whom four are yet living: John M., of the J. M. Ewen Company; 
Warren, who is living in the west ; Malcolm ; and Lillian, who resides with her 
mother in Evanston. 

Malcolm Faulkner Ewen pursued his education in the English High and Latin 
School of Boston and was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy as Bachelor of Science with the class of 1897. The following year he went 
to London, England, where he engaged in engineering work until 1902, when he 
came to Chicago, here following his profession until 1904. During the two suc- 
ceeding years he was superintendent for Holabird & Roche, architects of this city, 
and in 1906 he became associated with his brother as vice president of the John 
M. Ewen Company, engineers and builders, in which connection he still continues. 
One needs but to enter the down-town district of Chicago and see many of the lead- 
ing buildings to learn how important a place the firm occupies in engineering cir- 
cles. Some of the principal buildings on which they have been engaged are the 



326 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Mentor building, Rothschild's warehouse, the Liquid Carbonic Company's build- 
ings, the Lawson residence and stables, the Chicago Daily News building, Ply- 
mouth building, of Minneapolis; the Royal Alexandra Theater, of Toronto; Pres- 
byterian Hospital and Borland building, of Chicago ; and Scarritt building, of 
Kansas City, Missouri. They were also engineers of the city hall, the county 
building, the People's Gas Light & Coke Company's building, of Chicago, and the 
plant of the Dupont Powder Company at Georgetown, South Carolina. Thus their 
engineering interests have extended to various parts of the country and to foreign 
lands as well, for they now maintain an office in London, controlling their interests 
on that side of the Atlantic as well AS their offices in New York and Chicago. 

Mr. Ewen also has other business connections. While residing in London he 
became interested in the manufacture of alcohol from wood waste and did much 
experimental work along that line. In 1906 the Standard Alcohol Company was 
organized, of which he is one of the principal owners. Four years ago they erected 
a demonstrating plant in Chicago Heights, which was followed by the erection of a 
large alcohol plant for the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, and they 
are now building a large plant in Louisiana. These operations are based on the 
processes invented by Mr. Ewen together with George H. Tomlinson, of this city. 
Mr. Ewen has association in many leading clubs and organizations with those 
whose labors have been along similar lines, being now a member of the Western 
Society of Engineers and the Chemists Club of New York. In more strictly social 
lines he is connected with the Phi Beta Epsilon fraternity of Boston, the Univer- 
sity Club of Chicago, the University Club of Evanston, and the Evanston Country 
Club, being a director of the last named, and likewise belongs to the Glen View 
Golf Club and the City Club of Chicago. Golf and tennis constitute his chief source 
of recreation and he has attained no little skill on the links and with the racquet. 
On the 14th of January, 1904, Mr. Ewen was married to Camille, a daughter 
of Holland T. and Julia (Law) Coffee, of Memphis and Chicago. Mrs. Ewen 
comes from an illustrious southern family. Her father was a son of Washington 
Coffee, of Coffeeville, Mississippi, and was a nephew of General Coffee, one of 
General Jackson's aids in the war of 1812. He was a captain under General Lee 
in the Army of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Ewen have one son, Malcolm Faulkner, 
Jr., born July 22, 1907. They reside at 1430 Sheridan Road, Evanston. 

While liberal educational opportunities qualified Mr. Ewen for important work, 
that was but the first step in a progressive record which has brought him to a posi- 
tion among the foremost in his line in the country. Study, research, experimenta- 
tion, close application and unremitting diligence have constituted the basic elements 
of a success which would be a credit to a man of twice or thrice his years. 



JAMES M. G. CARTER, M. D. 

Dr. James M. G. Carter, of Chicago, medical director of the Commercial Life 
Insurance Company, was born in Johnson county, Illinois, April 15, 1843, his 
parents being William Barton and Mary Ann (Deans) Carter. The Carter family 
in the early generations was represented in Virginia and the Carolinas, while the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 327 

Deans family came from South Carolina in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
tury settling in southern Illinois in 1809. Most of the business representatives 
of 'these two families were farmers, although the father of Dr. Carter was < 
Methodist minister, who belonged to the southern Illinois conference. He died in 
1851, when his son James was eight years of age. The boy was reared upon the 
home farm and began work in tip fields when he could scarcely more than reach 
the rung of the plow. In the winter months he attended the country schools until 
fourteen years of age and later had the benefit of instruction in the Souther 
Illinois Academy at Salem, Illinois. 

In 1861, when eighteen years of age, Dr. Carter enlisted for service in the 
Civil war, joining Company K, Sixtieth Illinois Infantry, commanded by Colonel 
William B. Anderson. He served at times under the command of Generals Grant, 
Rosecrans and W. T. Sherman, being attached to the troops of the last named 
from Chattanooga to Atlanta and from Atlanta to the sea. From Savannah the 
army proceeded northward through South Carolina to Rockingham, North Caro- 
lina where Dr. Carter and some of his comrades were captured and taken to Libby 
prison. There he was paroled on Thursday before Richmond capitulated. 

When no longer able to continue in active military service Dr. Carter returned 
to his home in southern Illinois and resumed his studies in the line of general 
education, pursuing a course at the State Normal School at Normal, Illinois. At 
length, however, he determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work and 
in 1875 began preparation for the profession, being graduated from the Chicago 
Medical College, now the Northwestern University Medical School, with the class 
of 1880 He began practice in Grayville, Illinois, and in 1883 removed to Wau- 
kegan, where he was engaged in general practice until 1907. At that date he 
was elected medical director of the Commercial Life Insurance Company of 
cago, which position he has since filled with great satisfaction to the company, of 
which he is also a stockholder. In the meantime, prior to his removal to Wau- 
kegan, he was graduated from McKendree College with the M. A. degree, in 1881, 
and later, in 1887, won the Ph. D. degree from Lake Forest University. Aside 
from private practice he has done important work along educational lines. He was 
professor of pathology and preventive medicine in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Chicago, the medical department of the University of Illinois in 1895 
and was professor of clinical and preventive medicine from 1895 until 1899. Since 
the latter year he has been professor emeritus of clinical medicine. He is a fellow 
of the American Academy of Medicine, a member of the American Medical Ass. 
ation, a member of the Illinois Medical Society, of which he was president in 1898, 
a member of the Chicago Medical Society and is also well known in other member- 
ship relations, especially in connection with organization for scientific research. 
He is now a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, a 
member of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and the American Historical Association. He belongs to 
the University Club of Chicago and is prominent in Masonry, having attained the 
thirty-second degree. His contributions to medical literature are regarded as of 
marked value. He is the author of Outlines of Medical Botany of the United 
States, 1888; Catarrhal Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, 1895; Diseases of 
the Stomach, 1902; and also various monographs and papers. In 1891 he became 



328 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

one of the founders of the Lake County Hospital, now known as the Jane McAl- 
lister Hospital, and in 1884 was one of 'the organizers of the Lake County Medical 
Society. He was likewise United States pension examiner in Waukegan until his 
removal from that city. For a number of years he served as a member of the 
board of education and the board of health and was health commissioner of Wau- 
kegan at the time of his removal to Chicago. He maintains pleasant relations 
with his old army comrades through his membership in George H. Thomas Post, 
G. A. R., of Chicago, and until' a recent date was medical director of the depart- 
ment of Illinois. 

In 1873 Dr. Carter was married to Miss Anice R. Northup, of Fairfield, Ver- 
mont, and they had three children: Florence Emeline, the wife of E. G. Sherman, 
of Spokane, Washington ; Helen M., the wife of Thomas D. Sexton, of Chicago ; 
and William N., vice president and manager of the Chicago Contractors Supply 
Company of Joliet, Illinois. Mrs. Carter died in 1887 and Dr. Carter was married 
again in 1890, his second union being with Mrs. Emogene Partridge Earle, of Chi- 
cago. As educator, author, and practitioner and now as medical director of the 
Commercial Life Insurance Company, Dr. Carter has done important work 
of value to the profession as well as to the public and the skill and ability which he 
has manifested is broadly acknowledged by the medical fraternity as well as the 
general public. 



BENJAMIN E. BENSINGER. 

Benjamin E. Bensinger, president of The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, 
and the practical head of the most important manufacturing concern of its line in the 
world, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, January 4, 1868, a son of Moses 
and Eleanor (Brunswick) Bensinger. 

Benjamin E. Bensinger received only an ordinary grammar and high-school ed- 
ucation. At the age of seventeen years he became connected with The Brunswick- 
Balke-Collender Company the corporation having assumed its present .name dur- 
ing the preceding year starting at the bottom of the ladder as an office boy. After 
three years' connection with the company he became secretary of the Bensinger Self- 
Adding Cash Register Company, of which his father was the founder and president, 
and continued in that position until the concern went out of existence in 1890. He 
then resumed his connection with The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, of 
which he was elected first vice president in 1903. After the death of his father in 
the fall of 1904, he succeeded to the presidency, since which time, owing to his en- 
terprise and aggressiveness, the company has enjoyed greater growth and prosperity 
than ever before. This company is not only the largest manufacturer in the world 
of billiard and pocket tables, supplies and bowling alleys, but has large factories de- 
voted to the manufacture of bar fixtures, refrigerators and general cabinet work giv- 
ing employment to hundreds of skilled mechanics. These factories are located in 
Chicago, New York city, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Muske- 
gon, Michigan; Elkhart, Indiana; Toronto. Canada; and St. Dizier. France; and 
their products are distributed to all parts of the civilized world. 




B. K. BEN8INGEB 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 331 

On the 20th of January, 1896, Mr. Bensinger was married, at Chicago, to Miss 
Rose Frank, and they have two children: Robert Frank, now thirteen years of age 
and B. Edward, Jr., aged five years. The family occupies a beautiful residence at 
Glencoc. Politically Mr. Bensinger gives his support to the republican party and 
socially he is identified with the Hamilton, Chicago Automobile, Illinois Athletic, 
Standard, City and Lake Shore Country Clubs, being a member of the board of di- 
rectors of the latter organization. He is also a member of the Sinai Congregation 
and of the board of Associated Charities. He spends his vacations in foreign travel, 
making a trip to Europe each year, while his principal recreations at home are golf 
and horseback riding. He is a man of dignified and commanding appearance, who 
makes friends wherever he is known, and enjoys the entire confidence and respect 
of his associates and acquaintances. A descendant of sturdy ancestry, he has dis- 
played a capacity for large affairs, which reflects the highest credit upon his judg- 
ment and indicates that he is eminently worthy of the important position he now 
fills. 



JOHN HUME KEDZIE. 

Chicago's history may be divided into three epochs, the first embracing the 
period of early development when the settlers had to contend with the Indians 
for supremacy here and when they were also contending with the conditions of 
nature in the reclaiming of a wild and somewhat swampy district for the purposes 
of civilization; the second epoch embraced that period when it was definitely 
known that a city could be built here and that it would become the commercial 
center of the middle west. It was a period of rapid yet substantial growth wherein 
men of far-sighted judgment and honorable purpose laid the foundation for later 
greatness and prosperity. It ended when the great fire swept over the city and 
seemed to check with appalling force all progress. The third epoch deals with the 
upbuilding of the colossal city of the present. After the first shock of horror and 
consternation men rallied and latent powers and forces were called forth to cope 
with the condition. Growth and progress has since followed and Chicago stands 
today as the second American city and with but few European centers that surpass 
her in her commercial, industrial and financial interests. It was about the be- 
ginning of the second period that John Hume Kedzie became identified with the 
future western metropolis, although other cities of the Mississippi valley at that 
time were ahead of her in population and business interests. He became a factor 
in her improvement and growth and was particularly active in the development 
of suburban districts. 

The Kedzie family is of Scotch origin, the name having been variously spelled 
in early times, as Kadge, Cadge, Kadzie, Kaidzie, Kedzie, Kadzow, Cadzow and 
in various other ways, as is shown on a monument dating back three hundred years 
which still stands in the central part of the kirkyard of Carnwath, in Scotland. 
This burying place has been devoted to the family for centuries. There is also 
a town seven miles west of Carnwath called Kilcadzow, where many descendants 
of the family still live. 

Vol. V 16 



332 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Adam Kedzie, the grandfather of our subject, with his wife, Margaret Stewart, 
and their eight children, Betsey, George, Nancy, James, Janet, William, Isabel 
and Adam, emigrated from Hawick, Roxburgh, Scotland, in 1795, and settled in 
Delaware county, New York. From this family have sprung the Kedzies of Amer- 
ica. An interesting story is told of Mrs. Margaret (Stewart) Kedzie. After arriv- 
ing in Delaware county it was necessary for someone to go back to Catskill to look 
after their baggage. Mrs. Kedzie started at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and 
walked to Catskill, fifty miles distant, arriving there before breakfast the next 
morning. After transacting her business there was an opportunity presented for 
her to ride back the next day, which was Sunday. Rather than to break the Sabbath 
she remained over at Catskill, attended church and after providing herself with 
religious tracts to distribute on the road she started home on foot Monday morning. 
The maternal grandfather of our subject, Robert Hume, crossed the ocean with 
his family in the same vessel with the Kedzies. 

The Kedzie family, has ranked high in America, as is shown by a printed 
census of the family, which says: "No Kedzie is known to have been arrested as 
a violator of the cival law, to have been intemperate, or dependent on charity, or 
paid less than one hundred cents on the dollar, and none have reached the early 
years of adult life without having become a member of the church." 

Mr. Kedzie was born at Stamford, Connecticut, September 8, 1815, his parents 
being James and Margaret (Hume) Kedzie, who had nine children, those besides 
John Hume being Adam, Allison Hume, Margaret Stewart, Isabella Bunyan, 
Robert Hume, Elizabeth Bunyan, George Lawson and Jane Ann. The father's 
birth occurred at Nether Hall, in Roxburghshire, while the mother first opened her 
eyes to the light of day at East Gordon on the Tweed. While spending his early 
youth in the east John H. Kedzie attended Delaware Academy and later the Dela- 
ware Institute of New York. Subsequently he became a student in the Western 
Reserve College of Ohio and in 1837 matriculated in Oberlin College of Ohio, 
in which he completed the regular course with the class of 1841. He then turned 
his attention to the profession of teaching, which he followed successfully for 
several terms, but thinking to find more congenial and profitable employment in 
other lines he took up the study of law in New York city and was admitted to the 
bar in the spring of 1847. 

In July of the same year Mr. Kedzie came to Chicago, believing that the grow- 
ing western city would offer a better field for a young attorney than the older 
and more conservative cities of the east. He continued in practice for a few 
years, but, seeing excellent opportunities for successful activity in the real-estate 
field, he turned his attention to that business, in which he continued up to the time 
of his death, becoming one of the leading real-estate men of Chicago. His opera- 
tions were not confined to the city but also reached out to the suburban districts 
and in a large measure developed and improved some of the attractive suburbs 
of Chicago. He also dealt largely in property on the north and west sides, and 
Kedzie avenue on the west side was named in his honor. He saw the city laid 
waste in 1871, but also lived to see her rise Phoenix-like from her "ashes and be- 
come greater and grander than ever before. In 1 868 he removed to Evanston 
and was largely instrumental in laying out Kedzie's and Keeney's addition to that 
city, which formed the nucleus of South Evanston. Kedzie street in that suburb 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 333 

also perpetuated the name of one who was most helpfully interested in the work 
of upbuilding there. He also assisted in founding and developing Ravenswood and 
likewise took an active part in laying out the Lurton and Kedzie addition to 
Jacksonville, Illinois, which is one of the fine residence' portions of that city. 

Mr. Kedzie was married twice. In July, 1850, he wedded Mary Elizabeth 
Austin, of Greene county, New York, who died July 16, 1854. By her he had one 
child, Mary Elizabeth who died August 30, 1855. Three years later on June 17, 
I 857 _he was joined in wedlock to Mary Elizabeth Kent, of Chicago. They be- 
came the parents of five children: Kate Isabel, who married George Watson Smith 
and died in 18 83; Laura Louise and Julia Hume, who died in childhood; Margaret 
Frances; and John Hume, Jr. 

In Evanston Mr. Kedzie erected a beautiful residence, which was burned 
December 9, 1 873, and was replaced by one of the most elegant homes in Evanston. 
This was destroyed by fire in December, 1880, but a completely modern residence 
was later erected. He was always deeply interested in everything that pertained 
to the welfare and progress of the attractive town which grew up on the north 
shore. He was ever a champion of liberty, the opponent of oppression and an 
advocate of freedom. Naturally he became opposed to the system of slavery in 
the south, espousing the cause of the abolitionist party, and met with five or six 
others in the first meetings held to organize the republican party in Illinois. He 
remained one of its stanch advocates until his demise. From 1875 to 1877 he was 
a representative to the state legislature, but was never active as an office seeker, 
preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs and to do his 
public duty as a private citizen. He cooperated in many movements and measures 
for the general good and during his residence in Evanston was a member of the 
First Congregational church, of which he served as a trustee. At all times he was 
public-spirited and when convinced that a project could be made a factor for the 
public good he never hesitated to give it his support. In business he was recog- 
nized as a conservative investor, far-sighted and at all times thoroughly reliable. 
He died April 9, 1903, having traveled life's journey for nearly eighty-eight years. 
He had come to an honored old age, possessing a splendid competence as the re- 
sult of his business ability and enjoying at the same time the good-will and trust 
of his fellowmen because of the integrity and worth of his entire life. 



SQUIRE THOMAS HARVEY. 

Squire Thomas Harvey, who was born July 15, 1833, at Randolph, Cattaraugus 
county, New York, died in Chicago, April 25, 1902. He was a son of John Har- 
vey, also a native of the Empire state, who married a Miss Powell who was from 
the western part of New York. 

Squire T. Harvey spent the period of his minority in the east and in 1855 
came to the middle west with his father-in-law, Harry Sessions, settling first at 
Comanche, Iowa, where they engaged in the hotel business until the spring of 
1860, when the memorable tornado of that year wrecked their hotel. Mr. Harvey 
then removed to Fulton, Illinois, where he engaged in the liquor business. In 1862 



334 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

he came to Chicago and established a wholesale liquor business as a member of th< 
firm of Bird, Harvey & Company at 30 South Water street. This was the be- 
ginning of the house which later was conducted under the name of Squire T 
Harvey & Company and in 1884 was changed to Squire T. Harvey & Son 
It has now had a continuous existence of more than a half century and froa 
the outset success attended the enterprise, bringing to Mr. Harvey substan- 
tial success that enabled him in 1888 to retire from -the active management oi 
the business. A year before his death he transferred the business to his sons 
Harry F. and Earl T. Harvey, but the latter died May 28, 1911. He, however 
was never active in the business, Harry F. Harvey having become his father's 
successor in the conduct of the interests of the firm. Squire Harvey was alst 
actively connected with mining in both Idaho and Utah and lived for two years ir 
Salt Lake City. There in the '90s he was also heavily interested in real estate 
making large investments in property. He possessed the requisite qualities foi 
success sound judgment, unfaltering enterprise and keen discrimination. At th< 
same time he possessed the conservative qualities that never allowed of unwar 
ranted risk and therefore failure never followed an investment. 

In Comanche, Iowa, in the fall of 1858, Mr. Harvey was united in marriagi 
to Miss Laura Amanda Sessions, a daughter of Harry Sessions of that place anc 
a native of New England. She died in October, 1900, at the age of sixty-threi 
years. The two children of the family were Harry F. and Earl T. The latter 
who is now deceased, married Bertha Samson, of Marion, Iowa, and left a widov 
and three children, Edniond, Earl S. and Catharine. The mother was a member o 
the First Congregational church. 

Mr. Harvey was very prominent in Masonry, having attained the thirty- 
second degree of the Scottish Rite. He was a life member of Hesperia Lodge, No 
411, F. & A. M.; also held membership in Washington Chapter, No. 43, R. A. M. 
Oriental Consistory, S. P. R. S., all of Chicago; and El Kalah Temple of thi 
Mystic Shrine at Salt Lake City, Utah. His political support was given to th< 
democratic party but he was not an active worker in its ranks, preferring to con 
centrate his energies upon business activities, which in the course of years brough 
him substantial success and made him one of the prominent representatives o: 
trade interests in this city. 



ALLAN P. MILLAR. 

Allan P. Millar, who for more than a third of a century was a resident of Chi 
cago. is rememberel by those who knew him as a gentleman of the old school, hon 
orable, truthful, upright, of kind and social disposition, manifesting at all times ai 
unwavering loyalty to his friends. He was born November 8, 1824, in Corfu, Gen 
essee county, New York, and his life record covered the intervening years to tin 
6th of May, 1901, when he passed away in Las Vegas, New Mexico, while on a pleas 
ure trip in the west. He was a son of Joseph Millar, and a. descendant of an olc 
Scotch family, the ancestral line of which extends back to the days of Robert Bruce 
and probably much further, for at that period families seldom changed their plac< 




A. P. MILLAR 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 337 

of residence. His ancestors were of the middle class and in easy circumstances. His 
great-grandfather, Thomas Millar, resided in a little village called Churnside, com- 
monly pronounced Shurshet, situated near the market town of Dowce in the Low- 
lands of Scotland. He was a hedger by trade and was a master workman for cul- 
tivating and repairing fine fences, but his dislike of kingly authority and the dicta- 
tion of priestly craft, together with an enterprising spirit, determined him to em- 
igrate to the new world. Accordingly on the 20th of April, 1775, he and his family 
of four sons and a daughter took passage at Glasgow on the Tilly, commanded by 
Captain Richey, bound for New York. Jennett Willson, the only daughter of Wil- 
liam Willson, a millwright of Dowce, was also entrusted to his care, her father ex- 
pecting to come to America shortly afterward. But the Revolutionary war cut off 
all intercourse with the mother country and he had passed away ere its close. The 
Tilly, fifty-two days after weighing anchor at Glasgow, reached New York harbor 
and Thomas Millar, after living for a few days in the lower part of the city, removed 
to the highlands of New York where the family remained until fall. They then 
went to Cambridge, Washington county, New York, where two of his sons, Thomas 
and Alexander Millar, entered the Continental service under Captain Sizer, the latter 
dying in camp at Ticonderoga. The brother, Thomas Millar, participated in the 
entire campaign of 1777 and then returned home. Early in the winter of 1778 he 
married Jennett Willson, previously mentioned. During that year Mrs. Thomas 
Millar, Sr., the wife of the American progenitor of the family, died, and later her 
husband passed away as the result of an injury from a falling tree. 

Thomas and Jennett (Willson) Millar, the grandparents of Allan P. Millar, 
removed to Bennington, Vermont. While on the way a party of British overtook and 
plundered them of their entire stock of worldly goods, leaving them only a few hun- 
dred dollars in continental money, fifty dollars of which would not buy them a din- 
ner, so that they had to commence life practically empty-handed in their new home. 
They were honest, industrious people, who always enjoyed the respect of their 
neighbors and friends. 

Joseph Millar, the father of Allan P. Millar, was a tanner by trade and followed 
that pursuit for some time in Bennington, Vermont, after which he removed to the 
state of New York. For some time the family lived at Corfu, in Genesee county, 
and there Allan P. Millar acquired his education in the district schools. He was 
twenty years of age when he went to Oregon with the surveyor general's party, 
making the trip by way of Panama. He remained upon the Pacific coast for a 
few years and then returned to Buffalo by way of the same route. He then learned 
the tanner's trade with the firm of A. Roimsey & Company and subsequently entered 
the hide and wool business on his own account, gaining broad and comprehensive 
experience along that line while still a resident of the east. 

The year 1867 witnessed Mr. Millar's arrival in Chicago. The city was just 
entering upon the period of rapid growth and development that followed the Civil 
war and preceded the great fire of 1871. Here he engaged in the hide and brok- 
erage business before the present well known packers had become connected with 
the business. Later the firm was known as Millar & Welsh and a subsequent change 
in the partnership led to the adoption of the name of Millar, Mosely & Company. 
Sometime afterward this connection was discontinued and Mr. Millar carried on 
the business alone for a time. In 1900 he entered into partnership with A. L. Web- 



338 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

ster, with whom he continued until his death, which occurred at Las Vegas, New 
Mexico, when he was making a pleasure trip through the west. He died on the 
6th of May, 1904, when in the eightieth year of his age. His former partner, Mr. 
Webster, still continues in the business under the name of A. L. Webster & Com- 
pany. The enterprise was established upon a safe basis and from the beginning a 
straightforward and honorable policy was followed, so that the house has ever en- 
joyed an unassailable reputation. 

Mr. Millar was married in 1864 to Miss Emily Arnold, a daughter of Andrew 
and Ann (Henderson) Arnold, of Conesus, New York. Mrs. Millar has long been 
an active member of St. James Episcopal church, where for nearly a quarter of a 
century, she has been choir-mother. 

In his political views Mr. Millar was ever an earnest republican, keeping well 
informed on the questions and issues of the day, yet never seeking nor desiring pub- 
lic office. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity, his membership being in Ancient 
Landmark Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Buffalo. In Chicago he became a member of 
the Marquette and Union Clubs and was also allied with the Board of Trade. Those 
he won as friends always found him loyal and considerate and wherever known he 
was regarded as a truthful, reliable and upright man whose life was a correct in- 
terpretation of the word "gentleman." His business affairs and his personal worth 
brought him a wide acquaintance in Chicago and in his death the city lost one whose 
interests closely associated him with her upbuilding and development as well as social 
progress. 



GEORGE E. HUCH. 

George E. Huch, president of the Huch Leather Company, owners of an ex- 
tensive tannery bringing them into close connection with the leather trade of the 
middle west, has always been engaged in this line of business and has made for 
himself a creditable position as a successful and reliable business man. He was 
born December 3, 1864, in Northeim, Germany, a son of Louis and Louise (Poll- 
man) Huch, both of whom were natives of Hanover, Germany, the former born 
in 1831 and the latter in 1841. It was in the year 1883 that Louis Huch came to 
Chicago and later founded the business which is now conducted under the name 
of the Huch Leather Company. Throughout his entire life he was connected with 
tanning interests and his long experience and capability constituted the salient 
factors in his prosperity. He remained in active connection with the business in 
Chicago until his death in 1909. He had long survived his wife, who passed away 
in 1891. In their family were the following children. Mary became the wife of 
Charles Danert, a resident of Germany, and they have three children. Dora is 
the wife of E. Reinert, of Chicago, and they have four children. George E. is the 
third of the family. Charles E., who is secretary and treasurer of the Huch 
Leather Company, is married and has two children. Lizzie is the wife of Herman 
Wehringer, of Chicago. Johanna is the wife of Julius Busick, also of this city. 
Emma and Minnie are both deceased, and one other died when quite young. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 339 

At the age of six years George E. Huch began attending the public schools of 
his native town, therein pursuing his studies until he reached the age of fourteen. 
At that time he started out in the business world as an apprentice, spending three 
years in learning the tanner's trade under the direction of his father. He after- 
ward worked for a year at the trade in Germany and then crossed the Atlantic 
when a young man of about nineteen, spending a year as a tanner in Canada. In 
] 884 he arrived in Chicago, where for two years he was employed by Hermann 
Loescher. He then joined his father in establishing a tannery under the firm 
style of Huch & Son and when the father died in 1909, George E. Huch succeeded 
to the presidency of the company, of which his brother, Charles E., is the secretary 
and treasurer. The business has assumed extensive proportions and they now have 
ninety employes and tan about six hundred hides per day. The methods employed 
are of the most modern character, calculated to preserve the leather, and because 
of the quality of their output they have no difficulty in finding a ready sale. 

On the 18th of May, 1895, Mr. Huch was united in marriage to Miss Josephine 
Felz, a daughter of Nicholas Felz, a wagon manufacturer of Chicago. They are the 
parents of two children, Florence and Louis, aged respectively fifteen and twelve 
years. The family reside at No. 2535 North Sawyer avenue and they are members 
of the Lutheran church. 

In his political views Mr. Huch is a republican and fraternally is connected 
with the Masons. He also belongs to the Sennefelder Singing Society and the 
Turner Singing Society and is popular in these organizations. He has a very ex- 
tensive acquaintance among the German-American residents of the city and his 
record is one which confers credit and honor upon both the land of his birth and 
the land of his adoption. 



ALVIN CARR McCORD. 

Several corporate interests of Chicago feel the stimulus of the cooperation of 
Alvin Carr McCord, perhaps best known as the president of McCord & Company 
and of the McCord Manufacturing Company. He figures prominently in indus- 
trial circles and seeks his success in lines, where long experience has given him 
ability and thorough understanding. He was born November 24, 1867, in Paris, 
Edgar county, Illinois, and profited by the system of public instruction there 
offered until thirteen years of age, after which he continued his studies in the 
Chicago schools subsequent to his parents' removal to this city. Later the family 
was established in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and he entered the public schools 
there, remaining until his fifteenth year. His more specifically classical course 
was pursued in Princeton University, from which he was graduated with the class 
of 1889, and through the succeeding year he was a student in the law school of 
the University of Minnesota. 

After leaving the Minnesota University Mr. McCord occupied the position of 
special agent of recorded indebtedness with the United States census bureau, but 
from clerical work turned his attention to industrial lines, having become interested 
in certain mechanical devices for railway equipment, becoming connected with 



340 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

a company that was formed in Chicago to exploit them. He removed to the city 
and became a factor in the Drexel Railway. Supply Company, while later he was 
active in organizing the firm of McCord & Company for the purpise of handling 
another device of value in railway circles. The new company, of which he be- 
came and is still president, is extensively engaged in handling railway supplies. 
His official connection with this concern, however, has not compassed his com- 
mercial activities, for in other business associations he has contributed to the in- 
dustrial enterprise of Chicago as well as to individual success. In 1900 he was 
elected to the vice presidency of the Illinois Car & Equipment Company, manufac- 
turers of freight equipment, with several large car building plants in this country, 
but controlled almost entirely by English capital. In 1902 Mr. McCord, in com- 
pany with his brother, Mr. D. W. McCord, organized the Western Steel Car & 
Foundry Company, forming an alliance with the Pressed Steel Car Company, of 
Pittsburg, in the operation of large car building plants at various points in the 
country. A. C. McCord was chosen as chief executive officer of this company, re- 
tiring from the presidency of the company in 1907. Since his withdrawal from the 
Western Steel Car & Foundry Company Mr. McCord has divided his time between 
European travel and the direction of the various enterprises in which he is inter- 
ested, which include, beside the older corporation, McCord & Company, two other 
concerns, the McCord Manufacturing Company of Detroit and the Vacuum In- 
sulating Company. He is now and has been since the inception of these com- 
panies their executive head. 

Mr. McCord finds rest and recreation in motoring and golf. His club affilia- 
tions include the Chicago, Union League, University, Saddle and Cycle Clubs of 
this city, and the Princeton Club of New York. Among the country clubs he is 
a member of the Onwentsia and the Skokie Country and South Shore Country. 
An attractive home life had its inception in his marriage, on the 26th of December, 
1896, to Miss Emily Davis Rowe, of Evanston, a daughter of C. H. Rowe, and they 
now have one child, Marjorie, nine years of age. Through the years of his residence 
here Mr. McCord has stood as a splendid example of public-spirited citizenship, 
for while he has not sought to figure prominently before the public in any official 
connection, his influence has ever been on the side of progress, and his industrial 
enterprises have been of a character that have contributed to general prosperity 
as well as to individual success. His recognition of that which is of worth and 
value in his special field has been one of the strongest elements in his buisness 
record, combined with an understanding of the fact that the present and not the 
future holds the opportunity. 



BENJAMIN HENRY BREAKSTONE, B. S., M. D. 

Dr. Benjamin Henry Breakstone, recognition of whose ability has come in an 
extensive private and hospital practice, and who as author and educator also 
ranks with the eminent men of the profession, was born in Suwolk, Poland, Russia, 
March 27, 1877, and during his early childhood was brought to America by his 
parents, Judah Reuben and Esther (Semiatisky) Breakstone. At the usual age 




DR. BENJAMIN H. BREAKSTONE 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 343 

he was sent to the public schools, continuing his course in Grammar School Xo. 2 
of New York city until 1889. A removal of the family to Scranton, Pennsylvania, 
led to his completing his high-school course in that city. He was graduated in 
1893 and, having determined upon making the practice of medicine his life work, 
he at once entered upon active preparation for the profession and was graduated 
from the Illinois College of Psychology and Suggestive Therapeutics in August, 
1897. 

In April of the following year he passed the required examination before the 
Illinois state board of health and in 1899 was graduated from the Rush Medical 
College with the M. D. degree, while in 1902 Carnegie University conferred upon 
him the 13. S. degree. He put his surgical knowledge to a practical test by active 
experience in Cook County Hospital from 1897 until 1899, and was assistant in 
the gynecological clinic of the Central Free Dispensary of Chicago at the same 
time. In 1899 he became assistant attending neurologist in the Central Free 
Dispensary for a year, after which he was surgeon there for one year and house 
physician in 1901-02. In 1899-1900 he was adjunct professor of chemistry in 
Jenner Medical College; became physician to (and honorary member of) the 
Friends of the Poor in 1898, and has since so served; has been physician to Mutual 
Friends, Second Regiment Illinois Volunteers, since 1898; attending surgeon, 
1899-1901, surgeon-in-chief since 1901 for the Red Shield Sanitarium; surgeon- 
in-chief of the department of skin, venereal and genito-urinary diseases at Maimo- 
nides Polyclinic Hospital; adjunct professor of diseases of women at the Illinois 
Medical College in 1900-2; attending dermatologist and genito-urinary surgeon of 
Illinois Medical College Dispensary, 1899-1901; attending gynecologist, 1904, 
and since 1901 associate attending surgeon at the United Hebrew Charities Dis- 
pensary; professor of genito-urinary surgery and venereal diseases at Jenner Med- 
ical College, since 1903; attending surgeon at Olivet Mission Dispensary since 
1903; surgeon to Cook County Hospital, 1904. 

Dr. Breakstone is now head of the department of genito-urinary diseases and 
professor of clinical surgery in the Bennett Medical College, which is the medical 
department of the Loyola University. He is also consulting surgeon to the Mary 
Thompson Hospital for Women and Children, and attending surgeon to the Jef- 
ferson Park Hospital. He is widely known because of his contributions to medical 
literature and as the author of Ambulatory Radical Painless Surgery, a volume 
that has attracted wide attention and has received the indorsement of the eminent 
members of the profession throughout the country. Dr. Breakstone was the or- 
ganizer of the Maimonides Kosher Hospital which is now being built. Few phy- 
sicians of the city have done equal work in hospital practice and his broad ex- 
perience and comprehensive study have enabled him to speak with authority upon 
many subjects of vital interest to the profession. He is a member of the Chicago 
Medical Association; has been vice president of the West Chicago Medical So- 
ciety since 1902; he is now alternate counselor to the Chicago Medical Society; 
was formerly president and treasurer of the West Side Physicians Club; and is 
an honorary alumnus of the Illinois Medical College. He is also a member of and 
examiner for the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias; and Independent 
Western Star Order. He holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and in several clubs including the Eldorado and Self Educational. At 



344 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

one time .he was a member of the board of directors of the Chicago Hebrew In- 
stitute. 

In April, 1905, Dr. Breakstone married Miss Rose Friedmail and has a son, 
Judah Reuben, and a daughter, Blanche Dorothy. 

He is a republican in national politics but an independent voter, where local 
affairs are concerned. Wisely and conscientiously using the talents with which 
nature has endowed him and improving every opportunity, he has come to stand 
with' the eminent physicians and surgeons of Chicago. 



HARRY CARL DU FINE. 

Harry Carl DuFine, ladies tailor, his establishment being in the Mentor build- 
ing at the corner of Monroe and State streets, has built up an excellent reputation 
in this line, which has secured him a liberal patronage. He was born at Cherbourg, 
France, December 22, 1876. His father, Carl DuFine, continued in the same line 
of business from the age of thirty-three years until his death in 1909, when he 
had reached the age of eighty-eight. During the Crimean war he removed to the 
southern part of Russia but later returned to France. Ten years later he again 
went to Russia, settling in Odessa, where his remaining days were passed. He 
was a member of an old aristocratic and wealthy family and was the only one who 
ever engaged in trade. He possessed, however, a wayward and adventurous spirit 
in his youth and wished to make his own way in the world. Therefore he severed 
his family connections in order to carry out his own wishes and indulge in travel 
and in business activity. He did not achieve success, and cut off from any family 
patrimony, he died poor. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rebecca Zollin, 
was also of a noble family but married against their wishes. She died in 1907 
and is survived by four of a family of twelve children, of whom H. C. DuFine is 
the second in order of birth. His brother Abe is now associated with him in busi- 
ness. 

Harry C. DuFine was largely deprived of educational advantages in his youth 
but since attaining the age of sixteen years, realizing the value of intellectual 
training, he has devoted his leisure hours largely to reading and study. He is 
today a well informed man and is in possession of an extensive and well selected 
library. At the age of nine years he began working at the tailoring trade with 
his father and at the age of sixteen was commanding an extraordinary salary for 
one of his years, having attained a reputation as an artist in his line. At the age 
of seventeen he engaged in business for himself at Cherbourg, France, where he 
continued until 1897, when, to avoid compulsory military service, he went to Ber- 
lin, where he conducted a tailoring establishment for two and a half years. His 
business grew rapidly there, necessitating the employment of thirty people. Hav- 
ing acquired a considerable sum of money and desiring to see the United States, 
he emigrated in 1902, settling in New York, where he worked at his trade for a 
year and four months. On the expiration of that period he went to Sioux Falls, 
South Dakota, where he engaged in business for a year. He returned to New 
York for a vacation and afterward conducted business in San Francisco, until a 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 345 

fire destroyed his stock and establishment and left him practically without any- 
thing. He next removed to Los Angeles, California, where he continued for eight- 
een months. On 'the expiration of that period he came to Chicago and soon afterward 
embarked in business here. Although he started out practically empty-handed, 
he has built up a trade of extensive proportions, his receipts for the first year being 
eighteen thousand dollars, which was only about one-third of what he now receives. 
He has one of the leading ladies tailoring establishments in the city, doing excel- 
lent work and receiving his patronage from many of the prominent residents of 
Chicago. For a long period his days were devoted to work and his evenings to 
study and in this way he acquired not only a fluent command of the English lan- 
guage, but also a wide knowledge of the manners and customs of the people and 
the business methods of the country within the brief space of nine years, following 
his arrival in New York. 

In Berlin, Germany, in 1899, Mr. DuFine was united in marriage to Miss 
Martha Sobel, and unto them were born two sons, Mitchell and Carl, aged re- 
spectively eleven and nine years. On the 26th of November, 1908, Mr. DuFine 
was again married, his second union being with Sophia Metz, a daughter of Boris 
Metz, of this city. They, too, have two sons, Irving, two years of age, and Earle, 
in his first year. The family reside at No. 1355 North Hoyne avenue, where Mr. 
DuFine owns an attractive home. He belongs to the Chicago Association of Com- 
merce, to the Chicago Rotary Club and is a Mason. In trade circles he is prom- 
inent and widely known, being the vice president of the National Ladies Tailors 
of America, and treasurer of the Chicago Women's Tailors Association. He de- 
serves much credit for what he has accomplished, as he is self-educated as well as 
a self-made man. Sound judgment has directed his efforts, laudable ambition has 
prompted his activity and progress has characterized his entire career, winning him 
not only a prominent place in business circles but also developing his latent intel- 
lectual powers until he is today occupying a leading position in social as well as 
business circles. 



ROBERT PATTERSON LAMONT. 

Robert Patterson Lamont is a prominent and leading representative of indus- 
trial interests in Chicago as the president of the American Steel Foundries. His 
birth occurred in Detroit. Michigan, on the 1st of December, 1867, his parents 
being Robert and Isabella Lamont. After completing his preliminary education 
he entered the University of Michigan, which institution conferred upon him the 
degrees of Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineer in 1891. During the following 
year he served as an engineer at the World's Columbian Exposition and from 1892 
until 1897 was identified with the contracting firm of Shailer & Schinglau as secre- 
tary and engineer. In 1 897 he became first vice president and director of the 
Simplex Railway Appliance Company, remaining in those important capacities 
until 1905, when he became connected with the American Steel Foundries as first 
vice president, thus serving from 190;! until 1912. In the present year he assumed 



346 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

the duties of president of the American Steel Foundries and is now ably managing 
and directing the affairs of that extensive corporation. 

On the 24th of October, 1894, in Chicago, Mr. Lamont was united in marriage 
to Miss Helen Gertrude Trotter, by whom he has three children: Robert P.. Jr., 
Dorothy and Gertrude. He is a valued member of the Union League, University, 
Mid-Day, Exmoor Country, Glen View and Chicago Golf Clubs. His office is in 
the Commercial National Bank building and his residence at No. 1722 Judson 
avenue, Evanston, Illinois. 



JOHN LINCOLN BOLEN. 

John Lincoln Bolen, engaged in the practice of law in Chicago since his ad- 
mission to the bar in 1894, was born in Knox county, Tennessee, September 1, 1863, 
a son of Pleasant and Nancy (Trent) Bolen. The father was a native of Tennessee 
and in 1865 removed to Indiana where he engaged in farming until about eight 
years ago. He then retired and took up his residence in Los Angeles, California, 
where he is now living at the age of seventy-nine while his wife has attained th? 
age of seventy-seven years. She, too, was a native of Tennessee and a sister of the 
Hon. S. D. Trent, one of the prominent factors in the public life of that state. For 
thirty years he served on the bench and has long been eminent in political circles 
as a member of the state senate. 

The removal of the family from Tennessee to Irvington, Indiana, enabled John 
Lincoln Bolen to pursue his education in the public schools of the latter place until 
his graduation from the high school with the class of 1883. The following year 
was spent as a student in a business college at Oberlin, Ohio, and in the fall of 
1884 he went to Salina, Kansas, where he was engaged in the abstract business until 
1887. In that year he became a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, where he was 
engaged in the abstract business until 1890, and then came to Chicago where he 
continued in the same line until 1899. During the last nine and a half years of that 
period he was with the Security Title & Trust Company, predecessor of the pres- 
ent Chicago Title & Trust Company. In the meantime he took up the study of law, 
attended evening sessions of the Chicago College of Law for three years and was 
graduated in 1894. He afterward pursued a post-graduate course in the same in- 
stitution, receiving his LL. B. degree in 1895. Following his resignation of his 
position with the Security Title & Trust Company in 1899 he entered at once upon 
general practice but has specialized to a greater or less degree in real-estate law and 
has become very proficient in that particular branch of .the profession, his wide 
study enabling him to speak with authority upon all which pertains to real-estate 
law. He is now a member of the Chicago Law Institute and also of the Illinois 
State Bar Association. 

While he regards his profession as the chief interest in his business career Mr. 
Bolen has extended his efforts to other fields and since the 1st of April, 1902, has 
been treasurer, director and one of the principal stockholders of the Northwestern 
Mortgage & Trust Company and is also a director of the Howard Copper and the 
Hamilton Mercantile Agency. He is interested to a considerable extent in Chicago 




JOHN L. ROLEN 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 349 

and suburban realty and also in colonization projects in Michigan and Florida. He 
seems to recognize with readiness the possibilities of any business situation of that 
character and his practical insight and intelligently directed efforts are productive 
of substantial results. 

On the 3d of April, 1908, Mr. Bolen was married in Wheaton, Illinois, to Mrs. 
Albertie E. Braund, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Lampman, of Smithville, 
Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Bolen have a pleasant home in Berwyn and hold member- 
ship there in the Methodist church. Mr. Bolen gives his political allegiance to the 
republican party and has several fraternal and social connections, being a member 
of the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, the Royal Arcanum and the Berwyn Club. 
Laudable ambition has at all times stimulated his efforts, leading him beyond the 
less pretentious business connections to rank with those whose ability has gained for 
them prominent place in professional circles and in the management of important 
business projects. 



JAMES J. BARBOUR. 

James J. Barbour who occupies a foremost position at the Chicago bar, was 
born in Hartford, Connecticut, December 28, 1869, and comes from not only one of 
the oldest families in New England, but one that has been prominently identified 
with the history of Connecticut from its first settlement. Thomas Barbour, the 
American progenitor of this family, was a member of the Saltonstal party that 
settled at Windsor, that state, in 1635. Judge Heman H. Barbour, the grandfather, 
was one of the well known men of his time in Connecticut. Joseph L. Barbour, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, an uncle, is one of the most prominent members of the 
legal profession in New England. The parents of James J. Barbour were Rev. 
H. H. and Frances E. (Luther) Barbour, and the preference of the son for a pro- 
fessional career was something of a family trait. In pursuance of his father's 
pastoral duties the family removed to Newark, New Jersey, where, until 1886, James 
J. received his education through the public and high schools. The combination of 
practical with literary and oratorical talents inclined him, at quite an early age, 
to the province of the law as the field of his life work. His educational training 
for the practice of his profession was received at the Chicago College of Law in 
1889-92. 

Upon his admission to the bar in 1891 at the age of twenty-one years and prior 
to the completion of his full collegiate course, Mr. Barbour had become attorney 
for the Commercial National Bank of Chicago and continued as such until the 
death of its president, Henry F. Eames, in 1897. In 1894 he formed a partner- 
ship with Joseph A. Sleeper, which was dissolved upon the retirement of the latter 
from practice. Mr. Barbour's talents and success as a trial lawyer were recognized 
by his republican associates when, in 1904, he was appointed assistant state's at- 
torney by Charles S. Deneen, and later under the administration of John J. Healy, 
became first assistant. 

Within the past few years Mr. Barbour has been the attorney of a number of 
the most noted cases which have engaged the attention of the public. He prosecuted 



350 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Inga Hanson, who was convicted of perjury in her suit for damages against the 
City Railway Company. He was also in charge of the proceedings against George 
S. McReynolds for fraudulent transfer and sale of grain covered by warehouse 
receipts held by Chicago banks to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars, 
and of the suit against William Eugene Brown, the Chicago lawyer, convicted of 
subornation of perjury and disbarred from practice, for fraudulently obtaining three 
thousand dollars from the American Trust & Savings Bank. The prosecution 
of William J. Davis for manslaughter, in connection with the Iroquois theater 
fire, the suit being finally tried at Danville, Illinois, and resulting in the discharge 
of the defendant by the court on technical grounds, was in the hands of Mr. Bar- 
bour. In the summer of 1906 he assisted Judge Harry Olson in the prosecution 
of Paul O. Stensland and others, for embezzlements from the Milwaukee Avenue 
State Bank. Mr. Barbour, while an assistant, prosecuted fully fifty murder cases 
and, among them, that of Lucy Hagenow, who received a sentence of twenty years, 
is regarded as of peculiar importance and the establishing of a precedent, in that 
the proving, in that trial, of at least seven deaths by criminal operations at the 
hands of this woman, was held by the Supreme Court to have been proper as 
bearing on the question of intent. In the case of People versus Superior Court he 
removed the Lipsey habeas corpus case to the Supreme Court by certiorari, and 
there obtained a ruling that nisi prius courts were without jurisdiction to review 
final judgment in criminal cases by writs of habeas corpus. On November 18, 
1908, Mr. Barbour caused the arrest, indictment, trial and sentence of Peter Van 
Vlissingen, who it was proven had forged real-estate mortgages to the extent of a 
million dollars, the entire proceedings occupying but three hours. On December 
1, 1908, Mr. Barbour resumed private practice, becoming a member of the firm 
of Knight, Barbour & Adams, and at once became the counsel of Mrs. Charles 
T. Yerkes in court proceedings in Chicago and New York, wherein he was suc- 
cessful in establishing his client's claim to a million dollars of property claimed by 
the executors of her husband's will. Mr. Barbour is also of counsel in suits insti- 
tuted in Mrs. Yerkes' behalf in seeking to enforce liability against the Chicago Rail- 
ways Company upon five million dollars of bonds of the Consolidated Traction 
Company, owned by the late Charles T. Yerkes. In June 1911, Mr. Barbour 
suffered the loss, by death, of his partners, Clarence A. Knight and William G. 
Adams, and is now practicing alone. 

On September 1, 1891, Mr. Barbour was united in marriage to Miss Lillian 
Clayton, their children being Justin F., Heman H. and Elizabeth. 



ALFRED J. CROSS. 

Alfred J. Cross, one of the well known of the younger men connected with the 
lumber trade in Chicago and the head of the C. L. Cross Lumber Company, was born 
in Riverside, Illinois, December 24, 1882, being the only son of Clarence L. and 
Grace (Sherman) Cross. A sketch of the father will be found elsewhere in this 
work. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 351 

Alfred J. Cross was educated at Armour Academy and Armour Institute of 
Technology. He was for a number of years associated with his father in the lumber 
trade, and on the death of the latter, December 31, 1911, assumed the management 
of the business and organized the C. L. Cross Lumber Company in 1912. 

On the llth of December, 1906, Mr. Cross married Miss Gertrude Conpropst, of 
Riverside, and they have two children: Thomas Clarence, born January 3, 1908; 
and Virginia, born January 16, 1912. The family residence is in Riverside, Illi- 
nois. Mr. Cross is a member of the Lumbermen's Association of Chicago, the Lum- 
bermen's Club of that city and the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos. 



JOSEPH EDWARD OTIS. 

During the era of Chicago's pioneer development the Otis family was here 
established and its members have since been conspicuous in connection with the 
promotion and development of the city's best interests. The record of Joseph 
Edward Otis has at all times been in harmony with the personal integrity and 
lofty business principles of his ancestors, who were not only prominent in the 
early upbuilding of Chicago but in its later rebuilding following the great con- 
flagration of 1871. Into the field of banking he has directed his activities and the 
Western Trust & Savings Bank stood largely as a monument to his ability and his 
devotion to high ideals in financial circles. In 1903 he became its president and 
remained its head until December 23, 1911, when it was consolidated with the Cen- 
tral Trust Company of Illinois, of which he became first vice president. His 
interests have permanently centered in the city of his nativity, for it was here that 
Mr. Otis was born on the 5th of March, 1867, his parents being Joseph Edward 
and Marie (Taylor) Otis. After acquiring his .preliminary education in the Har- 
vard school he went east to enter the Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts, 
and later continued his studies in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. 

His education completed as far as the technical training of the schools is con- 
cerned, Mr. Otis entered business life in 1889 and a year later started upon an in- 
dependent venture, establishing a real-estate and renting agency as a partner of 
the firm of Joseph R. Putnam & Company. Upon the failure of his father's health 
in 1892 the son took charge of his affairs and while thus engaged joined Charles 
H. Wilcox and Frederick S. Wheeler in organizing the Western Tin Plate Com- 
pany. Watchful of opportunities pointing to success, Mr. Otis in 1897 believed 
that he might enter a broader and more profitable field by turning his attention 
to the stock brokerage business, and in partnership with Charles H. Wilcox and 
H. W. Buckingham tormed the firm of Otis, \Vilcox & Company. The connection 
was thus maintained for three years, when, in 1900, Walter H. Wilson bought out 
the interest controlled by Mr. Wilcox and the firm name was changed to Otis, 
Wilson & Company, at which time the character of the business was also changed 
from stock brokerage to private banking. Ralph C. Otis, a brother of Joseph 
E. Otis, also joined the firm as a partner and on the 1st of July, 1903, the 
company consolidated their interests with those of the W T estern State Bank, under 
the title of Western Trust & Savings Bank, of which Mr. Otis remained presi- 



352 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

dent until December 23, 1911. He has been a motive force in making this 
one of the strongest banking institutions of the western metropolis. The safe, 
conservative policy instituted has always been maintained and yet the bank is 
lacking none of that progressiveness which has resulted in the modern financial 
system that largely constitutes the basis of all business activity and growth. 
Looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future, 
Mr. Otis has further extended his efforts and in 1902, with the assistance of his 
brother Ralph C. Otis, organized the Chicago Savings Bank and was formerly 
vice president of that institution. 

Mr. Otis was married in Chicago, October 3, 1891, to Miss Emily Porter Web- 
ster, and their children are Joseph Edward, George Webster, Stuart Huntington, 
Raymond and Emily Huntington. Mr. Otis votes with the republican party and 
holds membership in the Episcopal church, while in social lines his membership is 
with the Chicago, Calumet, Commercial and University Clubs. While he stands as 
a representative of one of the old and prominent families of the city, it is his per- 
sonal characteristics and worth that have gained him the position which he now oc- 
cupies. His ability and steadfast adherence to strict business principles have 
placed him in the front rank of Chicago's bankers, and close investigation brings to 
light not a single esoteric phase in his career. 



PHILIP F. W. PECK. 

While the name of Chicago stands to the world as a synonym for great industrial 
and commercial activity a dynamic force in the world of business there were 
among its founders and builders men whose activities not only reached out along 
business lines, but also sought the moral progress of the community and en- 
deavored to establish principles of civic virtue, that should long count as influences 
in the city's development. In this connection Philip F. W. Peck occupies a fore- 
most position as one of the real pioneers of Chicago. He came to prominence in 
commercial lines, but was none the less widely known and honored, because of what 
he accomplished for the city's improvement in those lines, which work for a higher 
and a broader civilization. His family is one of the very few that have had con- 
tinuous identification with the growth and development of Chicago for over eighty 
years. A native of Rhode Island, Mr. Peck was born in the city of Providence in 
1809 and was a representative of the seventh generation of an old New England 
family that had taken a prominent part in the colonial history of Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island. The American progenitor of this branch of the Peck family was 
Joseph Peck, a native of Suffolk county, England, who came to America with his 
family on the ship Diligent in 1638, and settled at Hinghain, Massachusetts. The 
line of descent from Joseph Peck to Philip F. W. Peck is through the former's son 
Nicholas, who resided in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, whose son Jonathan settled in 
Rhode Island between Warren and Bristol. The son of the latter, Deacon Thomas, 
lived in Swansea, Massachusetts, and his son, Jonathan II, was a resident of Reho- 
both, Massachusetts, whose son Philip, born October 3, 1771, in Rehoboth, married 
Abagail Chace. They were the parents of Philip F. W. Peck. 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 355 

The educational and industrial training of Mr. Peck had been of that practical 
kind, which the men who became pioneers in building up western trade and com- 
merce had generally received. He had grown to manhood with correct habits, a 
capacity for close application to business and a comprehensive knowledge of the 
principles which govern the building up of centers of commercial activity. He was 
ambitious, enterprising and self-reliant, and as his subsequent career demonstrated, 
had a genius for finance and was possessed of unusual business foresight. He 
learned to regard life as something of wider scope than that of mere money-making 
and came to the west not only with the desire to attain success, but also with the 
well defined recognition of his duty and obligations to his fellowmen. Leaving New 
England with the hope of securing better opportunities on the western frontier, 
which district then included Illinois, he arrived at last at Fort Dearborn, after hav- 
ing made a trip around the lakes on a sailing vessel from Buffalo, bringing with him 
a stock of general merchandise. This was in 1830. It was his intention to pro- 
ceed toward the south with the idea of probably going to New Orleans. He real- 
ized the natural advantages of the geographic location of Fort Dearborn but was 
somewhat doubtful as to the expediency of throwing himself into the development of 
a new settlement. However, the cordiality and confidence which the settlers at 
this point extended influenced him to remain. On the journey westward he had been a 
fellow passenger with Captain Joseph Naper, who also brought a stock of goods with 
him and proceeded further into the interior of the state, founding the town of Nap- 
erville. With notable prescience Mr. Peck realized that the larger town would con- 
centrate at the foot of the lake and the mouth of the river, at a natural port for 
lake traffic and central point of overland travel. He entered actively into the bus- 
iness life of the community in 1831 when he built a small log building near Fort 
Dearborn and therein placed his stock of goods on sale. Soon, however, he began 
the erection of what was the first frame building in Chicago. It was a two-story 
structure at the southeast corner of South Water and La Salle streets and it had been 
sufficiently completed to permit of its occupancy in the fall of 1831. This building 
was erected on the first piece of Chicago real estate that Mr. Peck bought. It has 
ever since remained in the possession of his family, is now owned by his son Clar- 
ence T. and has recently been leased for three hundred and twenty-five thousand 
dollars, while the original- cost was less than twenty-five dollars. Not only did it 
shelter one of the pioneer mercantile enterprises of the embryo city but also be- 
came the home of the first Sunday school ever organized in Chicago, the unfinished 
second story being used for that purpose, while Chicago's first minister, the Rev. 
Jeremiah Porter, also used the same room as a study and lodging place. It was 
in this, for that time superior structure, too, that Mr. Peck laid the foundation of a 
fortune which developed into a rich estate. Here he carried on the business of 
merchandising until such time as it became necessary for him to give his whole at- 
tention to his reality interests and the care of his growing fortune. 

The year 1832 chronicled the Indian uprising followed by a military expedition 
that brought the red men into subjection. In this movement the Black Hawk war 
Mr. Peck participated and became a member of the first military company or- 
ganized in this city. A resident of Chicago when its population was less than one 
hundred, and two years before it had a recognized corporate or municipal existence, 
Mr. Peck was a pioneer of the pioneers. His name, moreover, is associated with 

Vol. V IT 



356 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

many of the "first founders." He helped to organize the settlement into a town in 
1833; he had the first postofBce box assigned on the establishment of the first post- 
olfice of Chicago. 

When the boxes were alloted there was a demand for the smaller numbers, and 
in fact some contention over the assignment of them, but Mr. Peck in order to 
facilitate the allotment agreed to take box number forty-eight, which was the high- 
est number. 

This box was retained for several years after the carrier system had been in- 
troduced. 

Mr. Peck was a member of the first fire company organized in the city; was 
a voter at the first city election; he built in 1836 the first brick dwelling in the 
city, at the corner of Washington and La Salle streets, the site being still owned 
by the family. He was in at the birth of the town, witnessed the transition from 
town to village, from village to city, and from a provincial city to the western 
metropolis, and two weeks before his death, on the 23d of October, 1871, which oc- 
curred as the result of an accident, he saw the city which had sprung up under 
his observation, practically swept out of existence by the great fire of that year. 
Such are not the experiences of an ordinary lifetime. In the accumulation of a large 
fortune Mr. Peck demonstrated that adherence to approved and conservative bus- 
iness methods builds up more substantial estates than those resulting from specula- 
tive enterprises. A sagacious and farseeing man, who had always great confidence 
in the continued growth and prosperity of Chicago, he was never carried away by 
speculative excitements which swept over the city from time to time, to be followed by 
corresponding periods of business depression and financial distress. His own affairs 
were kept so well in hand that he passed safely through the serious financial troubles 
of 1837 and 1857, when many of his contemporaries met with reverses from which 
they never recovered. In the year 1837 every payment on canal trustees' sales for 
the previous year was in default except Philip F. W. Peck's. These periods of gen- 
eral business depression did not weaken, even temporarily, his faith in the ultimate 
growth and prosperity of Chicago, but rather stimulated him to make investments 
at the more advantageous terms offered under such circumstances. His conserva- 
tism 'was such that he met with no reverses of consequence during his business career 
and his fortune grew steadily from the date of his coming to Chicago to that of 
his death. 

In 1835 Mr. Peck was married to Miss Mary K. Wythe, a Philadelphia lady of 
English parentage and a niece of the celebrated Baptist divine, Dr. Stoughton of 
that city. To Mr. and Mrs. Peck were born eight children, four of whom died in 
infancy. Those that lived to adult age are as follows: Walter L. Peck married 
Miss Mary A. Talcott, a daughter of E. B. Talcott, and passed away in 1908. 
Clarence Ives married Miss Mary B. Field, a daughter of Spafford C. 
and Martha A. (Cooper) Field, by whom he has three children: Philip F. W., a 
graduate of Yale with the class of 1907, who is now secretary of the Knickerbocker 
Ice Company of Chicago; Winfield, a student at Armour Institute of Technology, 
in the class of 1911 ; and Martha F. Harold S. Peck died in 1884. Ferdinand W. 
married Miss Tilla C. Spalding, a daughter of Captain William A. Spalding, and 
has the following children: Ferdinand W., Jr.; Clarence Kent; Walter V.; Spalding; 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 357 

Buda, the wife of Charles H. Simms, of Dayton, Ohio; and Arline, who married 
Robert Bien, of California. An extended mention of Ferdinand W. Peck is given 
elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Philip F. W. Peck, the wife of our subject, was 
called to her final rest in 1899. 



HENRY EVERETT GREENEBAUM. 

The banking house of Greenebaum Sons owes its success and well established 
position in large measure to the efforts of Henry Everett Greenebaum, the senior 
partner. Broad and practical business experience well qualify him for the success- 
ful conduct of the business with which he was the founder in 1877. He was at 
that time a young man of about twenty-three years. His birth occurred in Chi- 
cago, on the 1st of September, 1854, at the family home, then at Fifth avenue and 
Van Buren street. His parents were Elias and Rosina Greenebaum, the former 
identified with banking interests in Chicago from 1848. Jacob Greenebaum, Sr., 
the grandfather, was one of the early residents of this city and here passed away 
in 1870. 

Henry E. Greenebaum pursued his education in Chicago and graduated from 
the Jones school in 1867, from the Chicago high school with the class of 1871, the 
Chicago Business College in 1872 and then studied further under private tutors. 
After his business course was- completed he became a clerk in the bank of Greene- 
baum & Foreman, of which his father was senior partner. His taste and inclina- 
tion seemed in that direction and that his choice of a business career was well 
made, is indicated in the excellent success that has attended his efforts. After a 
short time he accepted a position with the First National Bank of Chicago but in 
1873 had an opportunity to secure a position in a New York bank and removed 
to that city, where he had four years' experience in the bond and foreign depart- 
ments. On the 7th of May, 1877, he returned to Chicago and soon thereafter 
founded the banking house of Greenebaum Sons, his partners being his brothers, 
Moses E. and James E. Greenebaum. Mr. Greenebaum is at present vice presi- 
dent of Greenebaum Sons Bank & Trust Company. Their location is at the corner 
of Clark and Randolph streets and they represent a large clientele, having won 
for themselves a prominent position in the financial circles of the city. 

On the 15th of April, 1879, Mr. Greenebaum was united in marriage to Miss 
Helen F. Leopold, a daughter of the late Samuel F. Leopold, of the firm 'of Leopold 
& Austrian, and for many years president of the Lake Superior & Lake Michigan 
Transportation Company. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Greenebaum have been born three 
children: Carrie G., the wife of Samuel Nast; Walter J., who has charge of the 
bond department of the firm of Greenebaum Sons ; and John, who is in charge of 
the mortgage and investment department of this firm. 

Mr. Greenebaum gives his political allegiance to the republican party and 
holds membership in Sinai Temple, over which Dr. Emil G. Hirsch presides. He is 
a member of the Lake Shore Country Club, Standard Club, the Press Club and the 
Alliance Francaise. He has made many trips abroad, traveling extensively both 
in Europe and America. He represented Chicago interests at the Paris Exposition 
in 1900 and has a large acquaintance in foreign countries. He is a man of the 



358 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

world in that his interests cover a wide range and in his familiarity with important 
points abroad. He has visited the principal places of historic and modern interest, 
gaining that knowledge of ancient, medieval and modern history that can never be 
fully obtained through the mere perusal of books. 



GENERAL CHARLES WILSON DREW. 

The life associations of General Charles Wilson Drew were those which con- 
nected him with men of distinction, of learning, of progress and honor. He was 
recognized as their friend and peer. He made for himself a creditable position in 
business circles and came to be most highly respected because of the fidelity which 
he displayed to every obligation which he assumed or cause which he espoused. He 
had almost reached the age of sixty-eight years when death claimed him, and he 
passed away at Chicago on the 9th of April, 1903. He was born at Cato, Cayuga 
county, New York, April 19, 1835, his parents being Jacob Kittridge and Catherine 
(Sherman) Drew. His early education was acquired in the country schools near 
Meridian, New York, and his early experiences were those of the farm, for he 
was reared amid rural surroundings. What has been termed the "glittering oppor- 
tunities of the city" drew him, but he found them substantial and in their improve- 
ment made steady progress. His initial experience along commercial lines was in 
the book store of John Ivison, at Auburn, New York, where he remained until 1854, 
when he made the long and wearisome journey across the continent to' the Pacific 
coast. After a sojourn of four years in the far west he returned by way of the 
isthmus route in 1859. While in California he was with the Wells Fargo Express 
Company. He was planning to return to that state when the Civil war was inau- 
gurated and with patriotic ardor he offered his services to the country in defense of 
the Union, joining the army in August, 1861. He was appointed first lieutenant 
of the Seventy-fifth New York Infantry and began field service at Fort Pickens, 
Florida. After the capture of New Orleans his regiment occupied Pensacola and 
from that point was ordered to the Crescent city and for a time was attached to 
Weitzel's brigade. Being transferred to Donaldsonville, Louisiana, he was given 
jurisdiction over the district of La Fourche parish and while thus serving on de- 
tail he was authorized and instructed to enlist and organize the Seventy-sixth United 
States Colored Infantry of which he was commissioned colonel on the 25th of March, 
1863. In May of the same year he succeeded Major General C. C. Augur as com- 
mandant at Baton Rouge, retaining this important consignment until the fall of 
Port Hudson when he was placed in command of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip, be- 
low New Orleans. Later he was ordered to Port Hudson and when General Canby 
was preparing his movement against Mobile Colonel Drew was given command of 
the Third Brigade of the First Division of United States Cavalry Troops and dur- 
ing the campaign led his brigade in the assault on the defenses of Mobile, resulting 
in gaining possession of the controlling point, for which gallant achievement he was 
brevetted brigadier general of volunteers on the 26th of March, 1865. His campaign 
included an advance to Montgomery, Alabama, from which city he returned to Mobile 
and later to New Orleans, where in August of the same year the Confederacy having 




GEN. CHARLES W. DREW 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 361 

collapsed, his resignation was tendered and accepted and he was honorably dis- 
charged, thus terminating a military career that justly entitles him to a patriot's 
honors. 

War brought to many soldiers not only a training in arms but also wider ex- 
perience and knowledge. Contact with men and officers from all parts of the coun- 
try diffused a general knowledge of the country and its conditions that years of study 
would hardly have brought. General Drew's attention was directed to Chicago and 
with notable prescience he recognized its commercial future. Thereafter he deter- 
mined to make the city his home and turned his attention to fire insurance in which 
he at once took high rank, remaining in active connection therewith until his life's 
labors were ended. The Loyal Legion in its "In Memoriam" said: "General Drew 
regarded his chosen profession as second to none and, true to this conviction, he 
did not hesitate at any personal sacrifice to maintain the highest standard of effi- 
ciency and integrity in the various underwriters' associations with which he was 
connected and was largely instrumental in creating. The vast insuring community 
in which he lived and worked can never know what benefits have come to it through 
his influence and tireless energy, which secured better building laws and better fire 
protection. In the performance of a duty no obstacle was insurmountable; his 
honesty and sincerity were unassailable; his loyalty to his friends and professional 
co-workers commanded the admiration of all. He discharged to the best of his 
ability every trust confided to his care. His life may be briefly epitomized with 
these words: "He was faithful." In the conduct of the fire insurance business Mr. 
Drew became a member of the firm of Miller & Drew and the business following 
the death of the senior partner was conducted under the firm name of Charles W. 
Drew & Company, the junior partner being his wife's brother, Stanly Fleetwood. 
Along legitimate and progressive lines the business was developed and the firm 
came to be recognized as one of the strongest in the field of fire insurance in Chicago. 
Mr. Drew was also one of the founders of the fire insurance patrol. 

In Chicago, on the 31st of October, 1867, Mr. Drew was united in marriage to 
Miss Anna Stanly Fleetwood, the daughter of Stanly Hall and Mary Jane (Finlay) 
Fleetwood, both of whom were natives of Baltimore, where they were reared and 
married, and of whom additional facts follow. 

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Drew was born a daughter, Ida Fleetwood Drew, who was 
married September 14, 1901, to Bertrand Walker, a member of the law firm of 
Glennon, Gary, Walker & Howe. 

General Drew was a republican in state and national issues, and while not a 
politician or office seeker, he took a keen interest in the success of his party and 
the selection of competent, honest officials. He served in the Chicago common coun- 
cil from 1885 to 1887, but refused the nomination for mayor. He was ever most 
devoted to the city's welfare, however, and his cooperation could be counted as a 
tangible asset in support of measures and movements that gave substantially to 
the city's upbuilding. He was prominent in several of the leading clubs, including 
the Union League, Calumet, Washington Park and Glenview Golf Clubs, and was 
also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Loyal Legion 
of the United States. Grace Episcopal' church numbered him among its valued rep- 
resentatives and his cooperation could always be counted upon to further its in- 
terests. He belonged to the Art Institute and was a charter member of the Calu- 



362 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

met Club. His nature was extremely social and he held friendship inviolable. He 
possesed a fondness for the study of the sciences and his reading along many lines 
gave him a mental grasp and a breadth of knowledge that classed him with the 
strong intellects of the city. He grasped opportunity when it was presented, either 
for his own benefit or the benefit of others, and no one questioned his allegiance or 
loyalty to the city. In all municipal affairs he displayed the same fidelity which 
characterized his service on southern battlefields in the Civil war. The Chicago 
Underwriters Association, of which he was the president from 1885 to 1886, at their 
special meeting to take action on the death of General Charles W. Drew, prepared 
a memoir, which in part is as follows : "His record among us has been that ot a 
man of fine mental endowment and of positive opinions, which were alwa3's on 
the side of truth and righteousness. He has been active in every effort tending to 
the building up and the strengthening of fire underwriting interests, took prominent 
part in organizing and establishing our patrol, did large service in the organization 
of the Chicago Fire Underwriters Association in 1885 and in more ways than we can 
mention since that time has been a tower of strength to our profession, and one to 
whom we have looked in time of stress for counsel and guidance. For these things 
we are grateful and his memory is dear to us." 



JULIUS ROSENWALD. 

Julius Rosen wald is the president of the largest and most widely known mail 
order house in the world that of Sears, Roebuck & Company, and yet business activ- 
ity represents but one phase of his career. He is equally well known by reason of his 
extensive charities, for his pleasure in his success has come to him through the op- 
portunity that it has afforded him to aid his fellowmen. A philanthropic spirit has 
prompted him to reach out helpfully to many organized movements for uplifting 
humanity in a material, intellectual and moral way, yet to see Mr. Rosenwald in 
his business office one would think that his every thought was concentrated upon 
the great problems of commerce and finance. It is this power of concentrating 
upon the task or interests in hand that has been one of the elements in his progress 
along both business and philanthropic lines. He was born in Springfield, Illinois, 
August 12, 1862, a son of Samuel and Augusta (Hammerslough) Rosenwald. The 
father was born in Westphalen, Germany, in 1820, and served in the German army 
ere his emigration to the United States in 1854. He was for a period a resident of 
Baltimore, Maryland, where in 1857 he married Augusta Hammerslough, who was 
born near Bremen, Germany, in 1833, and is now living in Chicago. Samuel Rosen- 
wald was for many years a leading merchant of Springfield, Illinois, being well 
known in commercial circles in that city for twenty-five consecutive years, from 
1861 until 1886. In the latter year he became identified with a wholesale clothing 
business in Chicago and as a member of the firm of Rosenwald & Weil, so continued 
until 1899. 

The success of the father stimulated in the son a desire to reach a point of 
prominence in commercial circles. His early education was acquired in the public 
schools of his native city and his knowledge has been augmented through private 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 363 

reading, study and broad travel. Moreover he has learned many valuable lessons in 
the school of experience, particularly those which have brought him recognition 
of the difficulties and obstacles that many men encounter and which have prompted 
him therefore to put forth a helping hand. He started his business career in New 
York city when a youth of sixteen years, accepting a position with his uncles, Ham- 
merslough Brothers, wholesale clothiers. For six years he remained in the eastern 
metropolis, making continuous advancement, and thus became better qualified for 
the larger responsibilities which have devolved upon him during the period of his 
connection with commercial interests in Chicago. A resolute purpose has enabled 
him to carry forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken and he 
has never brooked obstacles that could be overcome by persistent energy and ef- 
fort. 

During the latter part of 1885 Mr. Rosenwald came to Chicago and, entering 
business circles, was first the senior partner in the wholesale clothing firm of Rosen- 
wald & Weil, which he organized. To the management of this business he devoted 
himself with great success until 1895, when he severed his active connection with 
that house to become a member of the firm of Sears, Roebuck & Company, of which 
he was vice president from 1900 until 1908. He was also treasurer until 1909, 
when he was elected to the presidency of that and affiliated companies and has since 
been at the head of this mammoth establishment. The house is today known 
throughout the length and breadth of the land, its ramifying trade interests reach- 
ing into every section of the country. Mr. Rosenwald has surrounded himself with 
an able corps of assistants, the different departments being in charge of exception- 
ally competent men. Moreover, in his commercial career he has always recognized 
the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement. The plant has been re- 
moved from one place to another to secure more commodious quarters and within 
the past few years has been established on the west side, where a mammoth build- 
ing was erected and where about ten thousand employes are found daily at work. 
The growth of the business necessitates a night shift in some departments, and 
something of the immense volume of trade is indicated by the immense procession 
of mail wagons that are sent each morning and evening to the postoffice loaded to 
their capacity with mail bearing directly upon the trade. Fifty thousand to sev- 
enty-five thousand letters are received daily for months at a time. 

Mr. Rosenwald resides with his family at No. 4901 Ellis avenue. He was 
married in Chicago, April 8. 1890, to Miss Augusta Nusbaum, of Chicago, and 
unto them have been born five children: Lessing, Adele, Edith, Marion and William. 

Mr. Rosenwald is very prominent socially and is a valued member of the Stand- 
ard Club, the Ravisloe, Idlcwild, Lake Shore Country, Press, the Chicago Automo- 
bile and the Union League Clubs. He is of the Jewish faith and is president of 
the Associated Jewish Charities, and yet his humanity is too broad to be limited by 
any race or nationality and his aid is extended in many directions, where good work 
is being done in the name of charity or religion. He is also the vice president of the 
Nationel Conference of Jewish Charities and has been actively interested in an ef- 
fort to federate the Jewish charitable organizations of various cities along the line 
of the Associated Jewish Charities of Chicago. He is likewise the vice president 
and a member of the executive committee of the United Charities of Chicago and 
this is one of the evidences of a broadmindedness which commands for him the 



364 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

respect, admiration and honor of all people and of all creeds. Of the Sinai con- 
gregation he is vice president and is a director of the Chicago Hebrew Institute, 
which has also honored him with its presidency. He is a director of the Religious 
Education Association and of the Jewish Home Finding Society. His official con- 
nections extend to Rush Medical College, Tuskeegee Institute, the Glenwood School 
for Boys, the Immigrants Protective League and the Chicago Grand Opera Com- 
pany, of all of which he is a trustee. He has been a liberal contributor to the 
Young Men's Christian Association work and is especially interested in the estab- 
lishment of branches of that organization among colored men. He has often made 
mention of his recognition of the fact that the association throws around a boy at 
a critical age those influences which reclaim him for an upright, honorable manhood 
and citizenship. He is chairman of the Bureau of Public Efficiency and is active 
in local reform movements along political lines, taking a keen interest in all that 
affects the progress and welfare of the city. He is one of the directors of the 
Peace Society and a member of the executive committee of the National Citizens 
League, an organization for the promotion of a sound banking system, and of the 
executive committee of the Chicago Plan Commission and the Civic Federation. He 
enjoys golf and tennis as a source of recreation and when the demands of his busi- 
ness and public activities permit him leisure he indulges his love of travel. His life 
has constantly reached out in constantly broadening lines of activity and usefulness 
and has become an appreciative force in the world for good. There is nothing 
narrow nor contracted in his life, his thought or his purpose. The doctrine of the 
brotherhood of the race is to him a matter of reality and every strong belief of his 
life has found its expression in his conduct. 



ANDREWS ALLEN. 

Andrews Allen, president of the Allen & Garcia Company, in Chicago, with of- 
fices in the McCormick building, was born in Madison, Wisconsin, January 11, 1870. 
The ancestry of the family in the paternal line is traced back to 1640 when repre- 
sentatives of the name came from England and settled in Massachusetts. From that 
time until 1 865 the ancestral home was maintained in New England but in the latter 
year, following the Civil war, William F. Allen, the father of Andrews Allen, re- 
moved westward to Wisconsin and as professor of Latin and history was connected 
with the University of Wisconsin until his death. Mr. Allen in conjunction with his 
brother, Professor Joseph Henry Allen and Professor J. B. Greenough of Harvard 
were the authors of the Allen and Greenough Latin series, and he was recognized 
as one of the foremost educators of the middle west. He was born in Northboro. 
Massachusetts, and passed away on the 9th of December, 1889. His wife bore 
the maiden name of Margaret Andrews and is now living in Madison, Wisconsin. 
She, too, is of English lineage, descended from the pilgrims who came to the new 
world as Mayflower passengers. 

Andrews Allen pursued his education in a private school in Newburyport, Mass- 
achusetts, and the high schools of his native city; and in the University of Wisconsin. 
he completed the engineering course by graduation with the class of 1891. During 




ANDREWS ALLEN 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 367 

his college days he became a member of the Beta Theta Pi. Following his gradua- 
tion he was for one month connected with the United States Geological service in 
northern Michigan, after which he spent eight years with the Edgemoor Bridge 
Works at Wilmington, Delaware, in the capacity of draftsman and assistant en- 
gineer. Returning to the middle west in January, 1899, he became contracting en- 
gineer for the Wisconsin Bridge & Iron Company in Chicago. His ability placed 
him in a prominent position in his chosen field of labor and broadening experience 
and extended research are continually augmenting his skill. He has been accorded 
some of the most important contracts in connection with bridge construction in the 
middle west. Extending his efforts into other industrial fields he is now the vice 
president and secretary of the Allith-Prouty Company, manufacturers of hardware 
specialties in Chicago. Through wide experience Mr. Allen has gained an enviable 
reputation as an authority in his line and he is at present special lecturer on engin- 
eering contracts in the Northwestern University College of Engineering. 

Mr. Allen was married in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Miss Margaret Isabelle 
Thomas, a daughter of John J. and Isabelle (Dobson) Thomas, who were natives 
of England. They reside at No. 1215 East Fifty-sixth street. Mr. Allen finds 
recreation and interest in golf, tennis, baseball and fishing, in fact in all manly out- 
door sports and athletics. He belongs to the Union League, the Quadrangle, the 
Illinois Athletic and the Calumet Country Clubs. He also is associated with the 
University of Wisconsin Club of Chicago and the Wisconsin University Club of 
Madison. Of the latter he has been president and has also been president of the 
Beta Theta Pi Chapter House Company of Madison. He is a member of the Theo- 
sophical Society and in more strictly professional and scientific lines is connected 
with the Western Society of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
and is a charter member of the Engineers Club of Chicago, holding every executive 
office in the first named and acting as president in the year 1909. His geniality has 
made him popular in the organizations of a purely social character and his ability 
has gained him recognition in the more strictly professional societies. 



ARTHUR DIXON. 

Endowed by nature with keen intellect, developing in his youth a laudable am- 
bition, Arthur Dixon has throughout his entire life made wise use of time, talents 
and opportunities, nor have his efforts been confined alone to lines resulting in 
individual benefit. Into those fields where general interests and the public wel- 
fare are involved he has extended his efforts, becoming a recognized political 
leader of republican faith and one of the most efficient and active workers in the 
Methodist denomination of Chicago. His residence in this city covers more than a 
half century. 

He was a young man of twenty-four years at the time of his arrival, his birth 
having occurred in County Fermanagh, Ireland, March 27, 1837. His parents were 
Arthur and Jane (Allen) Dixon. His father was a man of noticeable flexibility 
and force of character, who successfully cultivated the fields, acted as instructor 
in the schoolroom and was engaged in the practice of law. Many of his sterling 



368 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

traits of character seem to have been inherited by his son, who in his youth dis- 
played remarkable alertness and vigor, both mental and physical. In his school 
days he was particularly fond of mathematics, logic, history and ethics. The discip- 
line of his youthful years was moral as well as mental and from early boyhood 
he was a constant attendant at the Episcopal and Methodist Sunday schools. His 
literary training was received in the district and national schools and at the age 
of eighteen years he left home to enjoy the broader opportunities which he felt 
were offered in America. Arriving in Philadelphia in 1855, he there resided until 
1858, having been influenced in his choice of a destination by the fact that some 
of his old-time friends were living in that city. He afterward spent three years 
in the nursery business in Pittsburg and following his arrival in Chicago, in 1861, 
entered business circles as a grocery clerk in the employ of G. C. Cook. Soon after, 
however, he opened a grocery store on his own account, conducting it with fair 
success from 1861 until 1863. It was seemingly an accident that led him into the 
field of business in which he has so long remained, in which his fortune has been 
gained and in which he has attained enviable reputation because of capable manage- 
ment, executive force and able direction of his interests. In payment for a debt 
contracted in his grocery store he accepted a team of horses and wagon and this 
led him into the teaming business, which he found so remunerative that in 1862 he 
disposed of his grocery store and opened an office at No. 299 Fifth avenue. In the 
half century which has since elapsed the name of Arthur Dixon has become a 
synonym in Chicago for the transfer business, for efficient service and for honor- 
able dealing. A general transfer, storage and forwarding business is conducted, 
it having been incorporated in 1888 under the name of the Arthur Dixon Transfer 
Company, of which the founder is still the president. It has developed into the 
largest enterprise of its kind in the city but the business resources of Mr. Dixon 
have not been taxed to their fullest extent in its conduct and management, for 
other interests have also felt the stimulus of his energy and initiative. He is now 
a director of the F. Parmelee Company, the Central Trust Company, the West 
Pullman Land Association, the Dixon Land Association, the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad Company, the Grand Trunk Railroad Company and was for many years 
a director of the Metropolitan National Bank. His opinion upon important busi- 
ness propositions has often been sought and his counsel has been freely given. 

Pleasantly situated in his home life, Mr. Dixon is at the head of a family that 
is very prominent socially. In January, 1862, he married Miss Annie Carson, of 
Allegheny, and of their fourteen children six sons and six daughters are yet living. 
George W. Dixon, the second son, is secretary and treasurer of the Arthur Dixon 
Transfer Company, while the third, Thomas J. Dixon, is general manager. It has 
been said that his home at No. 3131 Michigan boulevard represents an ideal Ameri- 
can household. His children are in sympathy with him in all that he has done 
and have been particularly helpful in his work in behalf of the church. He was 
reared in the Episcopal faith but for many years has been a leading member of the 
First Methodist church, serving as trustee and Sunday school teacher for almost 
a half century and also as president of its board. He is likewise one of the trus- 
tees of the Wesleyan Hospital. He belongs to the Methodist Social Union and to 
various organizations which promote the ethical and educational interests of the 
city. He has a membership in the Art Institute, the Historical Society, the Chicago 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 369 

Real Estate Board, the Bankers' Club, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Union 
League and the Hamilton, Calumet and Illinois Athletic Clubs. He has served as 
president of the Irish Literary Society and is interested in all that stimulates 
higher thought, his own wide reading and investigation being indicated in his 
choice library of religious, scientific, poetical and philosophical works. He is one 
of the old-time representatives of Masonry in Chicago, having become identified 
with the craft in 1865. He is now a life member of the chapter and commandery 
and lias attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite. He has been a 
close student of the great questions involved in citizenship and is splendidly quali- 
fied for political leadership, yet on the whole has preferred that his public services 
should be done as a private citizen. However, his capabilities have been called 
forth in leadership in the republican party, of which he became a most earnest 
supporter during the period of the Civil war. His sympathies were with the 
Federal government and his work in enlisting and equipping men for the Union 
ranks called forth general praise. A contemporary biographer, in this connection, 
has said: "Toward the end of the war he became especially prominent in local 
politics and obtained firm standing with his fellow citizens by his active partici- 
pation in the establishment of the fire limits. In the spring of 1867 he was 
elected by the republicans as alderman from the second ward and for twenty- four 
years served continuously as a member of the city council, holding the record both 
for faithfulness and length of aldermanic service. Although he was returned to 
his seat year after year with increased majorities and sometimes without opposition, 
the contest in the common council over his elevation to the presidency of that body 
was bitter. He was chosen, however, and continued in office from 1874 to 1880, in- 
clusive. At various times he served as chairman of all the important committees 
and, whether as a working member, a debater or 'watchdog of the city treasury,' 
made his mark. Among other important measures he advocated municipal owner- 
ship of the gas plant, high water pressure, building of sewers by special assess- 
ment, creation of a public library, annexation of the suburbs, building of viaducts 
over railway crossings, the drainage law and the extension of the fire limits. At 
Mr. Dixon's resignation in April, 1891, the city council, as a body, expressed its un- 
qualified regret at his action and placed on record its conviction of 'his great public 
worth, his zeal for honest and economical government, his sincere interest in the 
cause of the taxpayers and his undoubted and unquestioned ability in every posi- 
tion assigned to him.' Mr. Dixon was one of the foremost in laying a wise and 
substantial foundation for the World's Columbian Exposition and in April, 1892, 
was elected one of its directors, his services and counsel being invaluable. Mr. 
Dixon represented the first senatorial district of Illinois in the twenty-seventh 
general assembly, and among the bills introduced and passed by him at that ses- 
sion were those providing for the location of the Chicago public library and the 
extension of sewerage and water by special tax levy and sundry other bills. For 
a quarter of a century he has been a member of the city and county republican 
central committees and has served many times as chairman of both of these bodies. 
In 1 872 he was a leading candidate for congress, failing of the nomination by only 
a few votes, and in 1880 served as a delegate to the national republican convention 
which named James A. Garfield for the presidency. Justly proud of his nation- 
ality, Mr. Dixon has also been highly honored by the Irish republicans of the city 



370 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

and nation. In 1868 he was elected president of the Irish Republican Club of 
Chicago and in the following year to the head of the national organization." Mr. 
Dixon is a splendid representative of a race that is represented by illustrious men 
throughout the civilized world. To the ready adaptability and versatility of the 
Irish people he added American enterprise and resolution. Throughout all his 
course he has never faltered in the accomplishment of what he has undertaken in 
either individual or community affairs and his history proves that success is am- 
bition's answer. 



A. MILLER BELFIELD. 

Success in the practice of patent law presupposes not only a comprehensive 
knowledge of the principles in this department of law but also an understanding 
of mechanics and engineering so that the practitioner may himself pass upon the 
value of the patent over which litigation is waged and recognize the points of dis- 
similarity to anything of the kind previously put upon the market. Well known 
as a patent attorney, A. Miller Belfield has made continuous progress in this field 
in which he has elected to specialize. He is one of Chicago's native sons, his birth 
having occurred September 6, 1873. His parents were Henry Holmes and Anna 
(Miller) Belfield, natives of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, re- 
spectively. About 1867 they became residents of Chicago and the father was at 
one time principal of the Jones school and afterward of the North Division high 
school. He was also the first and only director of the Chicago Manual Training 
School, located at Twelfth street and Michigan avenue, later absorbed by the Uni- 
versity of Chicago as part of its University School of Education. He was not only 
a distinguished educator of this city but was also widely known throughout the 
entire educational world as an early exponent of manual training, as opposed to the 
old classics. At present he is retired and is traveling abroad. At the time of the 
Civil war his patriotic nature prompted response to the country's call for troops 
and he enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, serving with the rank of adjutant. He 
was captured and for sixty days was incarcerated in Charleston Prison, after which 
he was exchanged. His wife was a daughter of Andrew Miller, an early settler of 
Chicago and one of the pioneer shipbuilders and owner of several dry docks. Mrs. 
Belfield was one of the high school girls that took part in the Lincoln funeral march 
when the body of the martyred president was brought to Chicago and here lay in 
state before the funeral procession to Springfield was resumed, the interment being 
made in the capital city. 

A. Miller Belfield acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of 
Chicago, later attended the Chicago Manual Training School of this city and sub- 
sequently became a student in Purdue University at La Fayette, Indiana, from 
which he was graduated with the class of 1892. While at Purdue he became a mem- 
ber of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Determining upon the practice of law as a life 
work, he made preparation for the profession as a student in and was graduated 
from the law department of Northwestern University in 1894. The same year he 
was admitted to practice. He had pursued a course in electrical engineering, which 




A. MILLER RELFTELP 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 373 

constituted an excellent foundation for success in patent law. To this branch of the 
profession he immediately turned his attention and therein met with notable suc- 
cess. He was at one time a member of the firm of Page & Belfield, but the senior 
partner is now deceased. Later he became associated with the firm of Brown, Cragg 
& Belfield but for some years has been alone in practice. His clientage is drawn 
from among the large corporations and is quite extensive and he has been the victor 
in a number of prominent patent law suits, which demonstrates his superior ability 
in this particular field of practice. 

Mr. Belfield is a member of the Union League, the Homewood Country and the 
Chicago Law Clubs. His membership with the Loyal Legion is due to his father's 
connection with the Union army. He is also a member of the Chicago Association 
of Commerce and interested in its projects for the development of the material in- 
terests of the city. His religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the Hyde 
Park Presbyterian church, in which he is serving as deacon and in the work of 
which he takes an active and helpful interest. He likewise belongs to the Young 
Men's Christian Association and the Hyde Park Men's Club. His interest centers 
in those movements and measures which tend to uplift humanity, to promote the 
upbuilding of the city or to bring relief where aid is needed- by the individual. 
Sterling manhood places him with Chicago's representative citizens. 



DAVID BRAINERD FISK. 

What the name of Marshall Field is to the dry-goods trade the name of D. B. 
Fisk is to the millinery trade, and while twenty-one years have come and gone 
since he passed away, there remains as a monument to his activity and enterprise 
the large wholesale establishment which he founded and conducted. He was born 
at Upton, Massachusetts, January 23, 1817, his parents being Daniel and Ruth 
(Chapin) Fisk. His education was afforded by the common schools and at sixteen 
years of age he entered his father's general store in Upton, there receiving his 
business training. He was thus identified with commercial interests at that place 
for a considerable period and while there residing he was married to Lydia Chapin 
Wood on the 12th of June, 1838. They became parents of two sons and a daughter: 
D. Milton, Henry E. and Mrs. Bennet B. Botsford. 

Mr. Fisk left New England to become a resident of Chicago in 1853, in which 
year he founded the millinery house of D. B. Fisk & Company a name synony- 
mous with the commercial history of the city. The store at that time was located 
on Wells street, between Lake and South Water streets, and later was removed to 
Nos. 53-55 Lake street, where the business was continued until the building was 
destroyed during the great Chicago fire. Immediately afterward D. B. Fisk & Com- 
pany resumed business at Washington and Clinton streets, where they remained un- 
til the completion of their new building at the southwest corner of Washington and 
Wabash avenue, where the firm has been located for over forty years, a record in 
the downtown district of forty-one years in one and the same location and building. 
The firm is at present erecting a thirteen-story building at 225 North Wabash 
avenue, which they will occupy January 1, 1913. Mr. Fisk was, throughout the 



374 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

period to the time of his death, the motive spirit in the development and upbuilding 
of this business, making his establishment adequate to the demands of the whole- 
sale trade in the growing western city. Its goods were sent out to all parts of the 
middle west and even to more remote districts and the sales of the house reached 
a large annual figure. At the present time their goods are sold from coast to coast 
and beside the Chicago establishment, salesrooms are maintained at New York city 
and St. Louis. 

The death of Mr. Fisk occurred July 29, 1891, when he had been a resident of 
Chicago for thirty-eight years. His name was ever a prominent one in commercial 
circles and his establishment set the standard which others followed. He came to 
be widely known in social connections and was a member of the Chicago, Calumet 
and Washington Park Clubs. 



THOMAS EDMOND WELLS. 

Prominent among those men who did much to place Chicago in its foremost 
position among the leading cities of the world in certain lines of industry and 
commerce was the gentleman whose name heads this review. Born January 28, 
1855, he was a native of Birmingham, England, where his boyhood days were 
spent. His opportunities for education did not extend beyond the first fifteen years 
of his life or beyond his native country, for at that age he came with his parents 
to America and in Chicago entered upon his business career, first as an employe 
of Lunt, Preston & Keene, bankers. He was but a boy of fifteen, yet he displayed 
an aptitude that characterized him as a lad who would win victories in life's battles. 
He remained with this firm until after the great Chicago fire and was an employe 
of the bank at the time of the conflagration, being at length forced to flee from 
his post owing to the encroachment of the flames shortly before the building col- 
lapsed. In 1873 he entered the employ of William Kirkwood and by close ap- 
plication and fidelity won advancement until in 1876 he was admitted to partner- 
ship, the firm later becoming Geddes, Kirkwood & Company. Mr. Wells retained 
his membership and active connection with this firm until about 1896, when he 
withdrew to become president of the Continental Packing Company, continuing 
at the head of the latter concern until about 1902, when he resigned the presi- 
dency and disposed of his interest therein. Soon afterward he founded the present 
commission house of T. E. Wells & Company, remaining its president until his 
death. During the latter years of his life he lived practically retired and spent a 
great deal of his time with his wife and younger members of the family at "Top 
Farm," Broadway, Worcestershire, England, where he owned a country estate. 

The life history of Mr. Wells was that of a self-made man in the fullest mean- 
ing of the term a man whose start in life was his ambition and energy, one who 
could detect opportunities and was not afraid to back his judgment with the finan- 
cial strength he possessed. His interests were large and varied. He had grown 
up in the business that brought him his greatest success. In the early days he 
had spent some time in ranching enterprises in Kansas an experience that no 
doubt furnished information of value in his subsequent successful career. Varied 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 375 

as were his interests, there were none with which he was not thoroughly familiar 
and, therefore, capable of their successful direction. He always had great faith 
in Chicago and its future and many years ago began to invest in city realty. In 
1855 he purchased real estate at what is now 4733 Vincennes avenue, where he 
erected the home that was always afterward his Chicago residence and where his 
widow still resides while in the city. At the time of its purchase there were but 
few homes or business houses in that locality. 

Mr. Wells was married October 17, 1874, to Miss Mary Nash, of Worcester- 
shire, England, who with three sons and three daughters survive, the children be- 
ing: Mary, the wife of W. H. Noyes, of Chicago; John Edward; Annie, now Mrs. 
A. H. Noyes; Thomas Edmond; Preston Albert; and Eleanor May. All are resi- 
dents of Chicago, one son, Richard A., having previously passed away. 

Mr. Wells was a member of the Forty-first Street Presbyterian church, of which 
he served as a trustee, and he took deep interest in church and religious affairs. 
He was for many years a member of the Chicago Club and was a man of many 
friends and one of the well known citizens of Chicago in business and financial 
circles. When business hours were over, however, his greatest pleasure was in his 
home and his deepest interest was for the comfort and welfare of his family. 

Mr. Wells' death occurred on the 4th of August, 1910, at Evesham, Worcester- 
shire, England, while abroad with his wife and family, his demise following an 
operation for appendicitis. His remains were brought to Chicago and rest in Oak- 
woods cemetery. 



JOSEPH PEACOCK. 

Joseph Peacock, who was one of the oldest living settlers of Chicago at the 
time of his death, was born in Cambridgeshire, England, on August 21, 1813, and 
died May 13, 1886. He was the son of William and Susannah (Caldecott) Pea- 
cock. For several years during his early childhood he lived with his parents at 
his native town, and then went to Huntingdon, the birth-place of Oliver Cromwell, 
to live with his grandfather Caldecott, a jeweler. A clock of this grandfather's 
manufacture, which is over one hundred years old, Mr. Peacock had in his posses- 
sion. After residing for some years in Huntingdon and obtaining his education at 
the common schools, he learned the trade of gunsmith at his native village, work- 
ing at it in different places in England until 1834, when he came to America. He 
at first located in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked seven months for a gunsmith 
named E. P. Andrews. He then started a small gunsmith shop of his own, which' 
he ran about a year, when he sold it and removed to Albion, New York, where he 
worked one winter, and, in the spring of 1 836, came to Chicago. In the. succeeding 
fall, he opened a gunsmith shop at the northwest corner of Clark and Lake streets, 
which he ran about three years, and continued in this business, in various locations 
on Lake street, until 1850, when he retired from it. In 1842 or 1843, he erected a 
two-story brick building at No. 224 Lake street, one of the first erected on that 
street, and occupied it with his shop for some years. After selling his gunsmith 
business in 1850, he was unoccupied for some years, and then, in 1853, purchased 



376 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

the pine timber lands and sawmill owned by Silas Billings, near the mouth of 
Ford River, in Delta county, Michigan. After selling lumber by the cargo for 
about a year, he opened a yard near the east end of Twelfth street bridge, for 
storing the lumber for which a ready market was not found. He continued to 
manufacture lumber on Ford River, and manage this Chicago yard and deal gen- 
erally in lumber, until 1864, when he sold both lands and mill to John S. McDonald, 
John Lynch and a Mr. Simple. After making this sale, he continued his lumber 
business in Chicago, having an office at various places until 1882, when he, for the 
most part, went out of business. 

Mr. Peacock was married in 1842 to Miss Margaret Sobraro. They had nine 
children. Those living are as follows : Maggie, who married S. Q. Perry, formerly 
president of the Perry-Pearson Company; Russel D., who died October 22, 1911; 
Alice M., who married D. C. Alton; and Florence, wife of Albert P. Green, of whom 
a sketch appears elsewhere in this work. The grandchildren are as follows: Joseph 
Peacock Green, Margaret Green, Russel Philip Green and Albert Pennington 
Green, II. Mr. Peacock was highly respected for his sterling honesty and strength 
of character. 



JOHN J. HANLON. 

It is not strange that the biographer should hestitate when he attempts to pen 
the lines which shall pay fitting tribute to such a good man and true as was John J. 
Hanlon, whose life was expressive of all that is meant by nobility and sterling worth. 
There entered into his career the distinctive and unmistakable elements of greatness, 
if greatness has its root in honorable ancestry and is fostered in the development 
of high character and successful accomplishment. A native of Dublin, Ireland, John 
J. Hanlon was born January 14, 1835, and his life record covered the intervening 
period to the 22d of March, 1905, when he passed away at his home on West Mon- 
roe street, in Chicago, at the age of seventy years. He was the son of James Han- 
lon, a wealthy architect, and was descended from a very ancient and honorable 
Irish family that had well served their country. The name figures prominently 
upon various pages of Ireland history, for the O'Hanlons were distinguished as 
soldiers, as scholars and in the priesthood. The roster of O'Neil's army in 1590 
and the army of James the Second, one hundred years later, shows that many of 
the name were valiant soldiers in defense of their country's interests. At Limer- 
ick they distinguished themselves with Sarsfield and officers of that name went with 
the brigade into France. Redmond O'Hanlon is spoken of as the most fearless man 
of his time and made life miserable for the English garrison wherever his influence 
reached. The name figures prominently in connection with ecclesiastical history for 
many of the family have made valuable contributions to the records of the church. 
Father O'Hanlon, present parish priest of Donebrook, Dublin, has recently com- 
pleted one of the richest contributions to hagiology in his "Lives of the Saints," 
and his magnificent work of twelve folio volumes is copiously anastated and richly 
illustrated. 




JOHN J. IIAXLON 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 379 

John J. Hanlon inherited many of the salient characteristics and noble traits 
of his ancestry, together with a deep love of his native country and the same keen 
interest in education that characterized his race. In his early youth he came to 
the new world. He was a bright, studious, well educated boy, and the habits of 
his youth found their fruition in the intelligence, force and worth of the man. He 
arrived in Chicago in the '50s, here completing his education, after which he turned 
his attention to the printing business. He learned the trade and followed it as em- 
ploye until the age of thirty, when he established himself in business, in the year 
of 1865, continuing in that field of activity with excellent success for forty years. 
The business which he founded was, in December, 1906, incorporated as the John 
J. Hanlon Company and is yet owned and controlled by the members of the family. 
Under his guidance it had grown to extensive proportions and had not only long 
proved a profitable investment but became one of the foremost in its line in the 
west. Its product in the way of blank books, loose leaves, railroad and commercial 
printing has been for years considered a standard and no concern in Chicago has 
enjoyed a higher reputation for commercial integrity. Of an inventive turn of mind, 
all during his business career he sought to improve the efficiency and capacity of 
machinery used in his business. He invented a number of labor-saving apparatus 
for use in his line of industry. One device in particular, a tariff book file, is almost 
universally used and conceded to be the most practical appliance of its kind known. 
He suffered heavy losses at the time of the great Chicago fire in 1871 which de- 
stroyed his business and his home, but with unconquerable spirit he set to work to 
retrieve and was soon again upon the highway to success, developing a business 
which grew in extent and importance until it became one of the chief industries 
of this character in Chicago. 

On the 2d of November, 1858, Mr. Hanlon was married to Miss Anna T. Scho- 
field, a daughter of John and Margaret Schofield. Seven children were born to 
them: Mary T., who is now president of the J. J. Hanlon Company; John W., de- 
ceased; Leo Joseph, who is engaged in business as a blank-book binder; James W., 
with the J. J. Hanlon Company; Anna, the wife of William Darley; Francis; and 
Loretto B. 

In his political views Mr. Hanlon was ever a democrat, loyal to the principles 
in which he believed. His religious faith was that of the Roman Catholic church 
and to it he was a most generous contributor. He held membership with the Typo- 
thetae and also with the Amateur Photographers' Club. He was likewise a patron 
of the Art Institute and these connections indicate much of the nature of his inter- 
ests. He possessed an artistic taste and had keen appreciation for works of art. 
He was extremely well read and possessed a very retentive memory. During the 
latter years of his life he retired from the active management of his business and 
devoted himself to the different forms of recreation that appealed to him. When 
past sixty-five years he took up amateur photography with an enthusiasm becoming 
of one naturally artistic and the excellency of his work was attested by the highest 
honors when shown in competition. Whatever he did was always done in the best 
manner possible. His judgment was exceptionally good and his advice was often 
sought on different matters. Extremely conscientious, on such occasions his opinion 
would be given with the same sincerity as if his own interests were involved. He 
was particularly fond of music and greatly enjoyed attending the grand opera. In 

Vol. Y 18 



380 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

fact his interests in life were those which uplift and elevate mankind and take one 
beyond the humdrum existence of business into those fields which call out the noblest 
and best in nature. He possessed a particularly fine mind and the intrinsic worth 
of character that gained him the honor and respect of all who knew him. Of him 
it has been written: "He was one of the finest characters that one ever met. He 
was humble, patient, gentle, kind, charitable, considerate, clever and wise ; generous 
to a fault; always trying to be obliging to everyone. He bore the trials of life like 
a martyr or a saint in most true Christian spirit. His earthly solicitude was not 
for himself but his wife and children and a few devoted friends. He held the love 
and esteem of all who knew him." 



ELIAS GREENEBAUM. 

Elias Greenebaum is numbered among those whose long connection with the 
business interests of Chicago entitles them to prominent mention in its history. 
In fact he has been one of the makers of its history and his name is written large 
upon its annals in characters which command respect and honor. As a banker 
and dealer in loans based on Chicago real estate his work has contributed much 
to general progress and improvement. He was born in Eppelsheim, Grossherzog- 
thum Hessen, Germany, June 24, 1822, his parents being Jacob and Sarah Greene- 
baum. The father was the only son of Elias Greenebaum, had lived at Reipolz- 
kirchen, in the Palatinate, and was a public functionary and honored citizen. Jacob 
Greenebaum was a merchant of Eppelsheim, who came to Chicago in 1852, remain- 
ing a resident of this city for almost twenty years, his death occurring in May, 
1871, when he was seventy-three years of age. 

His son, Elias Greenebaum, received liberal educational training in the schools 
near his father's home and also attended agricultural, commercial and trade schools 
in Kaiserlautern, thus acquiring a training that enabled him to move with equal 
ease of manner in the cultured circles or among the practical people of the world. 
His all-around training qualified him for almost any work that he might take up. 
In September, 1847, he emigrated to America and after a residence of six months 
in Uniontown, Ohio, came to Chicago, establishing his home in this city, April 14, 
1848. His early connection with the business interests here was that of a general 
merchant, but he turned from commercial to financial pursuits and in January, 
1855, associated with his brothers, Henry and David S. and established the bank- 
ing house of Greenebaum Brothers. He early became impressed with the stability 
of the city's growth and therefore of the value of its real-estate as financial security. 
His investments were always judiciously placed and his success came as the legiti- 
mate outcome thereof. 

On the 3d of March, 1852, Mr. Greenebaum was united in marriage to Miss 
Rosina Straus, and unto them were born four children, Henry Everett, Moses Er- 
nest, Mrs. Emma E. Gutman and James E. The sons received their business train- 
ing from their father and ultimately became members of the banking house of 
Greenebaum Sons, which they founded a third of a century ago and which is num- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 381 

bered among the substantial financial institutions of this city. In 1911, the bank 
was incorporated as Greenebaum Sons Bank & Trust Company. 

For a number of years Mr. Greenebaum has lived retired in the enjoyment of 
rest that is well earned and of success that has been honorably achieved. He early 
became an active participant in the charitable movements inaugurated by the Jew- 
ish people of the city and became one of the founders of the Sinai congregation. 
He is a warm personal friend and great admirer of Dr. Emil G. Hirsch and has 
cooperated with him in many carefully organized movements for the material as- 
sistance and moral uplift of the people. He is a splendidly preserved man, both 
physically and mentally, and the ninety years of his life constitute a period of 
great and useful activity. The respect and veneration which should ever be ac- 
corded people of advanced years are his for his record is written in terms of honor 
and his course has at all times been worthy of the respect and confidence of the 
multitude. 



JAMES HERBERT WILKERSON. 

James Herbert Wilkerson, whose name was associated with the prosecution 
of some of the most important trust cases that have claimed not only the attention 
of the bar but also of the general public throughout the entire country, was born 
in Savannah, Missouri, December 11, 1869, his parents being John W. and Lydia 
(Austin) Wilkerson. He was graduated B. A. from De Pauw University, at Green- 
castle, Indiana, in 1889, and successfully represented the state in the interstate 
oratorical contest of that year. His entire attention has been given to the learned 
professions and after successful experience as a teacher he took up the study of 
law, having in the meantime been principal of the high school at Hastings, Ne- 
braska, in 1890-1, and instructor in the De Pauw University from 1891 until 1893. 
He was married at South Bend, Indiana, August 21, 1891 to Miss Mary E. Roth. 
Mr. Wilkerson's residence is at No. 6448 Minerva avenue, while his office is at 826 
Federal building. 

Meanwhile his thorough course of law reading prepared him for the bar, to 
which he was admitted in Chicago in 1893, when he began practice with Myron H. 
Beach. The following year he became connected with the law firm of Tenney, 
McConnell & Coffeen, while in 1900 he was made a partner in the firm, which was 
later changed to Tenney, Coffeen, Harding & Wilkerson. At the present writing 
he is a member of the law firm of Brundage, Wilkerson & Cassells. In addition 
to important interests of a large private practice which have come under his direc- 
tion, lie has done equally important work in the prosecution of various cases. 

Mr. Wilkerson is prominent in republican circles, serving in 1902 as a mem- 
ber of the Illinois legislature from the thirteenth district, during which period he 
conducted the fight for a state civil service law and introduced and secured the 
passage of the constitutional amendment for a new charter for Chicago. In 1903 
he was appointed county attorney for Cook county and conducted important liti- 
gation involving questions of taxation and particularly prosecutions against the 
Standard Oil Company. In 1906 he was appointed special assistant United States 



382 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

attorney in the government prosecution of the Standard Oil Company, and in 
1910 he was appointed special assistant to the attorney general in prosecutions 
against Swift & Company, Armour & Company, Morris & Company and the Na- 
tional Packing Company and their officers, for violation of the anti-trust act. He 
was appointed United States attorney at Chicago, August 1, 1911. The work of 
the Chicago office is very voluminous and yet Mr. Wilkerson's friends and pro- 
fessional associates feel that he is fully adequate for the position. His name came 
to be widely known in connection with the grand jury investigation of the beef 
trust. The first investigation resulted in an indictment against the corporations 
only, but Mr. Wilkerson has since brought in two sets of indictments against the 
individual packers that have to a great extent accomplished their purpose. 

Mr. Wilkerson is widely known in the Union League, University Law, Ham- 
ilton and Woodlawn Park Clubs, his social qualities rendering him a favorite with 
the general public. He holds to high ideals in his profession, especially believ- 
ing that the counsel, who practice, are to aid the court in the administration of 
justice. He has ever been most careful to conform his practice to a high standard 
of professional ethics and gives to his clients the service of talent, of unwearied in- 
dustry, of careful preparation and rare learning. 



WILLIAM SCHULZE. 

William Schulze, vice president and treasurer of the Schulze Baking Company, 
is one of the well known men in his line of business, as well as an excellent example 
of the modern and aggressive type of a business man. Mr. Schulze was born De- 
cember 17, 1866, in Osterode, at the foot of the Hartz mountains, in the province 
of Hanover, Germany, a son of Gustav and Henrietta (Roeper) Schulze. After 
completing his education in the high school of his native town, William Schulze 
began learning the dry-goods business at Muehlhausen and followed it for three 
years, during which time, however, his attention was directed to America as a place 
where favoring opportunity points the way to success and, accordingly, he deter- 
mined to benefit by the advantages here offered, and sailed for the new world, land- 
ing at Baltimore, Maryland. He at once made his way westward to Big Stone City, 
South Dakota, where his brother Paul had located two years before. He remained 
in that town working in a general mercantile store for three years and then went 
to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he continued in the dry-goods business for five years. 

Mr. Schulze located in Chicago in February, 1893, becoming associated in the 
baking business with his brother Paul, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. 
While a new line of business to Mr. Schulze, he applied himself closely to its de- 
tails, which application, with his natural energy and business ability, soon fitted 
him for executive capacity. On the organization of the company eighteen years ago 
he was elected treasurer, and in 1900 was chosen both vice president and treasurer, 
which dual position he has since filled. They have extensive plants thoroughly 
equipped with the latest improved machinery, while the most modern processes are 
followed in the production of a high grade output. The business has become the 
foremost concern of this character in Chicago, and is regarded as a valuable asset 




WILLIAM SCHULZE 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 385 

in the industrial circles of the city. Its growth and development have been steady 
and substantial, reflecting great credit upon the management. 

Soon after establishing his business Mr. Schulze made arrangements for a home 
of his own in his marriage on the 6th of April, 1893, to Miss Linnie List, of Ely- 
sian, Minnesota, and they now have two sons and three daughters, Gertrude, Theo- 
dore, Edgar, Mildred and Winfred. The family residence is at No. 11254 Prospect 
avenue in Morgan Park, and the parents are members of the German Lutheran 
church. Mr. Schulze also holds membership in the Beverly Country Club and in 
the Art Institute, all of which associations indicate something of the nature of his 
interest and activities outside of business circles. The secret of his advancement 
is not a difficult one to determine. There are no esoteric phases in his career, but 
a resolute spirit and commendable ambition which have prompted indefatigable 
effort that, intelligently directed, has brought him to a prominent place in the trade 
circles of his adopted city. 



FREDERIC SINCLAIR JAMES. 

Frederic Sinclair James,, widely known in insurance and financial circles as 
the head of the firm of Fred. S. James & Company, was born in Cook county, Illi- 
nois, February 20, 1849, his parents being William and Catherine (Cowan) James. 
At the usual age he entered the public schools, in which he continued his education 
until he entered business life in connection with the insurance firm of Alfred James 
& Company, with offices at Clark and South Water streets. There he bent his en- 
ergies to mastering the business, acquiring a comprehensive knowledge and efficiency 
in that field that led to his admission to a partnership when he had attained his 
majority. He was associated with that company until after the great fire in 1871, 
when he opened a local agency which has since developed as the result of his in- 
itiative spirit and carefully formulated plans. He stands today as one of the 
foremost factors in the field of fire insurance, the business being incorporated 
under the style of Fred S. James & Company, in which connection he represents 
the National Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut; the National 
British & Mercantile Insurance Company, of London, England ; the Mechanics & 
Traders Insurance Company, of New Orleans ; the German Alliance Insurance 
Company, of New York; the British American Insurance Company, of Toronto, 
Canada; the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut; and 
the Phoenix Insurance Company, of Brooklyn, New York. He was also for a time 
department manager of the Fire Insurance Association, of London, and later of the 
Washington Fire & Marine Insurance Company, of Boston, which reinsured in the 
National of Hartford in 1888. Of the latter he became general agent in charge of 
the western department. His extended connections indicate his position as one of 
the leading insurance men of Chicago and the volume of his business is the meas- 
ure of his ability, his genius and enterprise resulting in the upbuilding of one of 
the largest insurance company agencies in this city. 

On the 6th of October, 1868, Mr. James was married to Loretta B. Whitney, 
and unto them have been born five children: Flora B., Bertha W., Whitney P., 



386 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Louis H. and Robert .E. The family reside at No. 239 Greenwood boulevard, in 
Evanston, and are well known socially in that attractive suburb. Upon Mr. James 
has been conferred many honors at the hands of his fellow citizens, although 
he has never sought prominence in the political field. He served, however, as 
chairman of the insurance auxiliary committee of the World's Columbian Exposi- 
tion in 1892-93, and his word has come to be regarded as authority upon questions 
of insurance. He has never allowed anything to deflect him from his purpose in the 
conduct of his business affairs, concentrating his energies untiringly upon the 
execution of carefully devised plans until the substantial rewards of earnest, in- 
defatigable and intelligently directed effort are his. 



WILLIAM STANLEY NORTH. 

Among the men who by their energy and talent made Chicago a leading manu- 
facturing center of American was William Stanley North, president of the Union 
Special Machine Company of Chicago, for twenty-eight years. ,. 

His death on December 26, 1908, marked the departure of one of the capable 
and highly respected citizens of Chicago, who had demonstrated that a great busi- 
ness can be developed along lines of sincerity and truthfulness. 

Born at Cleveland, Ohio, April 12, 1846, he was the eldest son of Augustus Wil- 
liam North and Martha Stanley North of New Britain, Connecticut. His family 
traces its origin to England, whence his ancestor John North, with two brothers, 
came to Boston, Massachusetts, on the ship "Susan and Ellen" in 1635. They 
were among the eighty-four original landowners who founded Farmington, Con- 
necticut, one of the descendants becoming mayor of that place. In New Britain, 
Connecticut, a member of the family established a blacksmithing business which 
was the beginning of the great hardware factories that have made that city famous. 
Another member of the family ran the first steam engine that was operated in 
that state. 

Mr. North, at the age of eighteen, completed his school education at the Brook- 
lyn Polytechnic Institute, and soon after he began his business life as an order clerk 
in the New York House of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, of 
which his father was manager. Here he remained for about six years. 

In 1872 he married Miss Elizabeth Holmes of Brooklyn, New York and in 
the following year, 1873, came to Chicago where in 1881, he organized the Union 
Bag Machine Company, of which he was one of the original stockholders and first 
president, a position which he held during the remainder of his life. Under his 
management the business grew from a modest beginning to a concern which sends 
its machines to all the important manufacturing cities of the world. 

At once logical and intuitive in his perceptions, Mr. North was distinguished 
by breadth of judgment and by eminent ability. By the range of his foresight he 
anticipated situations and prepared his plans accordingly, so that when the crisis 
came, it found him ready. Nothing characterized him more than his scrupulous con- 
science, not only in regard to his personal affairs, but also to the acts of his em- 
ployes. Under no consideration would he permit any one connected with his busi- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 387 

ness to take advantage of the ignorance of others, and he abhorred cant and hypoc- 
risy. He pinned his faith to the idea that a fair price can always be obtained for 
an honestly made, useful article. He believed in equal terms for all and was very 
conservative in extending credits ; exercising the greatest care in selecting those who 
were to be entrusted with important duties. He found that good mechanics did 
not always make good salesmen; and that good salesmen did not often make good 
mechanics, so he kept the producing and distributing ends of the business distinct. 

Like all men who try to accomplish worthy objects, he had his share of disap- 
pointment, but however bitter he may have felt at the time, he invariably came 
through the ordeal with new confidence and fresh enthusiasm. He scrupulously cul- 
tivated the habit of self-control, but when occasion required, he expressed his 
exasperation in plain terms. Even those who came under his censure admired his 
absolute firmness and many whom he had need to correct afterward gratefully 
acknowledged that his discipline increased their respect, not only for him but for 
themselves. 

William S. North is remembered not only for his ability as a business manager, 
but as a patriotic citizen. His earnest sympathy went out to the weak and un- 
fortunate and he gave close attention to his civic duties. In 1889 Chicago was 
startled by the murder of one of its well known physicians, Dr. Cronin, growing 
out of charges of misappropriation of funds of an Irish Secret Society. Several 
persons were arrested and charged with the crime and their trial was one of the 
longest of the kind Chicago has ever known, extending over a period of about 
three months. Mr. North was selected as one of the jurymen and such was his 
sense of responsibility as a citizen that he obeyed the call at personal sacrifice and 
to the great disadvantage of a large business. When inexorable fate cast the 
pall of death across his life's path on December 26, 1908, there were the widow 
and four children to mourn him and cherish his memory. One of the noblest and 
kindliest of men, he made many friends and his friendships were a large part of 
his life. Socially he was identified with the Union League and City Clubs of 
Chicago and the Onwentsia Club, of Lake Forest, Illinois. Although he is no 
longer to be seen in the home circle or in his accustomed place of business, the 
memory and inspiration of his kindly and loving acts survive, and the institution 
of which he was the leading spirit is an enduring monument to his genius. 



CHARLES HULL EWING. 

Charles Hull Ewing, a well known resident of Lake Forest, who for the past 
sixteen years has been identified with the real-estate interests of Chicago, was 
born at Randolph, Cattaraugus county, New York, on the llth of July, 1868. 
He is a son of Robert Finley and Aurelia (Culver) Ewing, also natives of the 
state of New York, the father having been born on the 14th of October, 1823. 
and the mother on the 9th of March, 1828. Robert Finley Ewing passed away 
on the 28th of July, 1897. but his wife still survives and is now a resident of 
Lake Forest. 



388 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

The elementary education of Charles Hull Ewing was acquired in the public 
to Cleveland and Oberlin, Ohio, for further study, after which he entered Yale 
schools of Randolph, Buffalo and South Dayton, New York. Later he was sent 
University, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts with the class of 1893. Shortly afterward he came to Chicago to take 
charge of the Yale exhibit at the World's Fair held here in 1893. He then studied 
law for one year in the Northwestern University but did not complete the course 
as he accepted a position as manager of the Moorhead Stave Company, of Moor- 
head, Mississippi. He remained in Mississippi two years, returning to Chicago 
on the 1st of May, 1896, to assume charge of the Helen Culver Fund of the 
University of Chicago which he managed till July 1, 1908. Since the 1st of 
May, 1903, in addition to this trust he has been transacting a general real-estate 
and investment business, in which he is meeting excellent success, his offices being 
located at No. 1642 West Lake street. 

On the 8th of October, 1906, Mr. Ewing was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
S. Everts of Minneapolis, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Everts, the 
father a physician and at one time a state senator of Minnesota. Of the union 
of Mr. and Mrs. Ewing there have been born two children: Katherine Everts, 
who was born November 8, 1908; and Helen Culver, who was born December 
5, 1909. Mr. Ewing has one sister, Emily, the wife of Professor John F. Peck, 
of Oberlin, Ohio. 

Mr. Ewing is a member of the University, Press, City and Onwentsia Clubs, 
while Mrs. Ewing belongs to the Coterie of Lake Forest. He is very fond of 
all athletic and outdoor sports, particularly riding, tennis and golf. Politically 
he is a republican. In 1905 Mr. Ewing was elected president of the Lake Street 
Business Men's Association. He is now secretary and treasurer of The Southern 
Gypsum Company, in addition to which he is director of several other enterprises 
in which he is interested. 



FRANK F. NORTON. 

Frank F. Norton is conducting a successful catering business, his enterprise and 
close application winning for him substantial success in his chosen field of labor. 

He pursued his education in the Jones school at the corner of Harrison and Ply- 
mouth court, and at an early age secured a position in a box factory with which he was 
connected for several years. His ambition, however, was to become a merchant and 
later he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, eventually becoming connected 
with the catering business. He opened his first establishment at No. 142 South 
Halsted street, where he remained for about five years. He then retired from that 
field but some time afterward again took up the same line of business, which he 
has followed at various locations, his place of business being at No. 271 Wabash 
avenue, for the past eleven years. Here he has established a large and lucrative 
business, receiving an extensive patronage which makes his enterprise a profitable 




FRANK F. NORTON 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 891 

one. He also owns a summer resort at Matteson, Illinois, which is largely patronized 
by pleasure seekers from Chicago, going there for a day's outing. 

His fraternal relations are with Progress Lodge, No. 306, K. P. Starting out in 
life for himself empty-handed, at a very early age, whatever success he has achieved 
is attributable entirely to his own labors and indicates his business ability and en- 
terprise. His chief diversion is fishing, in which he indulges when the demands of 
business allow him leisure. 



NATHAN SMITH DAVIS, M. D., LL. D. 

One of the men of marked intellectual activity who attained a venerable old 
age, was Dr. Nathan Smith Davis. The life labors of few men have given such 
impetus to the work of the medical profession. His contribution to the world's 
work was indeed valuable and far-reaching in its effects and its influences. Much 
of his life was passed in Chicago, although his birth place was a log cabin in the 
forests of Chenango county, New York, his natal day being January 9, 1817. His 
parents, Dow and Eleanor (Smith) Davis, had become pioneers of that vicinity 
and there the mother died in 1824 but the father reached the very remarkable 
old age of ninety years. 

Nathan S. Davis was only seven years of age when deprived of a mother's 
care and love. From early life the necessities of the case demanded that he aid 
in farm work during the summer months, while his winter seasons were devoted 
to acquiring an education in the public schools until he reached the age of sixteen 
years. He manifested such a love of learning and such aptitude in his studies 
that his father resolved the boy should have better educational advantages and he 
was, in his sixteenth year, sent to Cazenovia Seminary, New York, then a school 
of considerable importance. His time there was devoted to the study of chem- 
istry, natural philosophy and the classics. The avidity with which he took up 
any new branch of learning indicated his intellectual hunger and throughout his 
life his appetite for books was never satiated. In April, 1834, he became a med- 
ical student in the office of Dr. Daniel Clark, of Smithville Flats, Chenango county, 
New York, and in the following October entered the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of the Western District of New York, then located at Fairfield, Herkimer 
county. He afterward resumed his reading in the office of Dr. Thomas Jackson, 
at Binghamton, New York, and spent four months of each year in medical college. 
He was graduated with honors from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at 
Fairfield, January 31, 1837, and from that day until his death, Dr. Davis devoted 
his energies to his professional duties and to the work of raising the standard of 
medical practice and education. Shortly before the close of his third college year 
the faculty recommended him for the position of assistant to Dr. Chatfield, of 
Vienna, Oneida county, New York, and he began practice there in February, 1837. 
In July of the same year, however, he removed to Binghamton, where he opened 
an office and practiced successfully for several years. On the 5th of March, 1838, 
he married Miss Anna Maria Parker in Vienna. She was the daughter of 
Hon. John Parker, of that place. 



392 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Although the practice of Dr. Davis made heavy demands upon his time and 
energies he also found opportunity to pursue his scientific researches and investi- 
gation. He eagerly took up the study of medical chemistry, medical botany, 
geology and political economy and in studying the last named embraced the most 
liberal views of free trade. He sought to perfect himself in surgical anatomy 
and at the same time instructed the resident medical students by dissecting one 
or two subjects each winter. He also began his work as an educator in lecturing 
before the Binghamton Academy and in some of the larger school districts on the 
different phases of chemistry, botany and physiology. In his early manhood it 
was with difficulty that he addressed an audience but the part which he took in 
the Lyceum Debating Society, of Binghamton, overcame his natural timidity and 
in later years he was recognized as a most ready, forcible and eloquent speaker. 
He became a member of the Broome County Medical Society, of which he was 
secretary for several years. His efforts constituted an effective force in promoting 
the work of that society. He was also a member of its board of censors for 
several years. In 1843, he was sent as a delegate to the New York State Medical 
Society and repeatedly thereafter. He formed in it many friendships among 
prominent members of the profession to whom he was already known by his con- 
tributions to medical literature. In 1840, three years after his graduation, he 
was awarded the prize offered by the state society for the best essay on "The dis- 
eases of the spinal column, their causes, diagnosis, history and mode of treatment," 
and the following year obtained a prize for the best essay on "Analysis of dis- 
coveries concerning the physiology of the nervous system from the publications 
of Sir Charles Bell to the present time." In 1842 he wrote a brief review of Dr. 
Marshall Hall's views on the excito-motor system of nerves, and received the 
thanks of the society for this valuable contribution to medical literature. At its 
annual meeting in February, 1844, he presented a series of resolutions proposing 
a higher standard of medical education by lengthening the annual course of in- 
struction in medical colleges, grading the branches of study, transferring the power 
of licensing practitioners from the colleges to an independent board of examiners 
and requiring a fair standard of general education in students before entering 
upon the study of medicine. The interesting discussion which arose at that time 
was resumed at the next annual meeting in 1845, at which time the resolution 
was adopted by the society, recommending that a national convention represent- 
ing all the medical societies and colleges in the country be held in New York in 
May, 1846, for the purpose of adopting a concerted plan of action for the eleva- 
tion of the standard of medical education in the United States. The convention 
met in New York and constituted the nucleus of the present American Medical 
Association. Dr. Davis served as a delegate to the New York State Medical 
Society until 1846 and became one of its most prominent members. In 1866 he 
was elected an honorary member. For years he never missed an annual meeting 
of the -American Medical Association, of which he was known as the father, in- 
asmuch as he issued the call for the first meeting of that body, and lead the dis- 
cussions in the New York State Medical Society already referred to. 

In 1847 Dr. Davis became a resident of New York city and entered upon gen- 
eral practice. The following autumn at the request of the demonstrator of anat- 
omy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons there, he took charge of the 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 393 

dissecting rooms and gave the instruction in practical anatomy, and during the 
spring months lectured on medical jurisprudence. He became widely known to 
the profession at large by his frequent contributions to the leading medical jour- 
nals and in 1848 assumed editorial charge of the Annalist, a semr-monthly medical 
journal, then beginning its third volume. He resigned only when he removed 
from the city in August, 1849, to come to Chicago and accept the chair of physi- 
ology and general pathology in Rush Medical College. In the latter part of Sep- 
tember he arrived in this city and on the opening of the college in the first week 
of October, delivered his introductory lecture. From that time almost until his 
death he was closely associated with medical teaching here and also with the lead- 
ing educational, scientific and sanitary interests of the city. P'or two years the 
city had suffered from cholera epidemics which he recognized was due to the 
unsanitary conditions which prevailed. To arouse public sentiment in favor of 
better sanitation, he delivered a course of six public lectures in the old State 
Street market in 1850, pointing out the necessity of a more abundant supply of 
purer water from Lake Michigan and a general system of sewerage. The lectures 
were well attended and the sum that accrued from the small admission fee charged 
was expended for twelve beds which constituted the nucleus of what is now known 
as Mercy Hospital. For more than forty years Dr. Davis continued one of the 
attending physicians of that institution. After a year's connection with Rush 
Medical College, he was transferred to the chair of principles and practices of 
medicine and of clinical medicine, positions which he held until 1859. One of 
the strong purposes of his life was ever to advance the standard of medical prac- 
tice and education and because Rush Medical College required only two annual 
courses of four months each for graduation, he cast in his lot with the newly 
organized Chicago Medical College, now the medical department of Northwestern 
University, which was established on the plan of three annual courses of six months 
each with a moderate standard of preliminary education and attendance on regular 
hospital clinical instruction. He also resolutely set himself to the task of pro- 
moting professional interests by the organization of a medical society. He found 
no such body in Chicago at the time of his arrival but before the close of 1850 
assisted in organizing the Chicago Medical Society and the Illinois State Medical 
Society, of which he remained a member until his death. He was chosen to the 
presidency of the latter in 1855 and for twelve consecutive years was its secre- 
tary. He read numerous papers before each organization and in 1855 he became 
the editor of the Chicago Medical Journal, to which he had previously frequently 
contributed. In 1860 he began the publication of a new magazine called the 
Chicago Medical Examiner and then merged it in 1873 with the Chicago Medical 
Journal under the name of the Chicago Medical Journal & Examiner. He was 
twice chosen to the presidency of the American Medical Association and when 
at its annual meeting in 1883 it was decided to publish its transactions in a 
weekly journal instead of an annual volume, he was chosen editor of the new 
publication known as the Journal of the American Medical Association. He re- 
mained in editorial control until January 1, 1889, and laid the foundation for its 
success. 

In 1884, the Eighth International Medical Congress in session at Copenhagen 
agreed to hold its ninth meeting in Washington, in 1887, and the. following year 



394 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

Dr. Davis was made secretary of the executive committee, organized to take charge 
of the arrangements of the meeting. Subsequently he was made president of the 
congress. He presided over its deliberations in 1887 in a manner that reflected 
credit and honor upon the medical profession in America. Although engaged in 
extensive literary and educational work, Dr. Davis continued to practice his pro- 
fession. He was active in many outside interests of importance. He was one 
of the founders of the Northwestern University, the Academy of Science, the 
Chicago Historical Society, the Illinois State Microscopical Society, The Union 
College of Law in which he .became professor of medical jurisprudence, and the 
Washingtonian Home for Inebriates. He was also among the first to organize 
systematic relief for the poor. He was ever a stalwart advocate of temperance 
and was a life long member of the Methodist church. In charity he gave freely 
and generously and he never refused to attend the poor professionally. He lost 
heavily during the great Chicago fire in 1871 but courage and determination en- 
abled him to regain his lost possessions. His medical writings, even though the}' 
came from the press a half century ago, are still regarded as valuable. He was 
the publisher of an extensive work on Principles and Practice of Medicine and 
a long list of other writings, the worth of which was widely recognized by the 
profession. The death of Dr. Davis occurred, June 16, 1904, when he had reached 
the venerable age of eighty-seven years, and the work which he laid down is 
carried on> by his son who bears his name. 



LEWIS M. SMITH. 

No history relating to the development of Chicago would be complete without 
adequate mention of Lewis M. Smith, who has been actively connected for many 
years with the promotion of the real-estate interests of the city. It may be said of 
him that perhaps he has accomplished more for the growth of the south side than 
any other man living, and today the firm of which he is the senior member is one 
of the best known in Chicago. Starting alone on a scale so modest that his bus- 
iness the first year averaged only twenty-six dollars and fifty cents a month, he has 
seen it grow until it surpasses even his brightest dreams of earlier years, and the 
name of L. M. Smith & Bro. stands near the top of the list in amount of real-estate 
business handled^ in one of the greatest cities of the world. Mr. Smith is a native 
of Adrian, Michigan, born August 26, 1855, a son of Martin M. and Anne (Stevens) 
Smith. The father was born in Connecticut and the mother in Glasgow, Scotland. 
Her father, James Stevens, came to America in the latter part of the '80s and took 
up his residence in Connecticut. He was a merchant and financier and also a 
wholesale coal dealer. In the early part of the '40s his grandfather, Calvin Smith, 
started west from Connecticut, traveling across New York state via the Erie canal 
and driving an ox team from Detroit to a farm which he purchased near Mount 
Clemens, Michigan. The country was sparsely settled, but he perceived its pos- 
sibilities and applied himself assiduously to agriculture and stock-raising. He died 
early in the '50s, his wife being called away on the old homestead in 1872. The 
farm of one hundred and forty-five acres is now owned by Mr. Smith of this review. 




LEWIS M. SMITH 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 397 

The Smith family of Connecticut were prominent in the early wars of the country. 
Calvin Smith was a soldier in the war of 1812 and his father, David Smith, par- 
ticipated in the Revolutionary war. The grandmother's father and brothers, who 
were natives of Connecticut, also assisted in freeing the colonies from Great Britain. 
The men on both sides of the house possessed unusual mechanical ability. Martin 
M. Smith, the father of our subject, invented the coil spring and made and installed 
the first springs that were used on railroads and street cars. This spring is placed 
in the truck above the journal to relieve the jar of the coach or car and is now in 
general use all over the world. Mr. Smith was a skilled mechanic and was well 
known in his day. He enlisted in the Civil war but was shortly afterward dis- 
charged on account of illness. He died in 1867 and his wife passed away while 
living in Chicago ten years later. They were the parents of four sons: Calvin S., 
for many years manager of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company at Chicago, 
who died December 26, 1909; Lewis M., of this review; Frank M., who is associated 
with his brother in business ; and Fred G., who is president of the Royal Enameling 
& Stamping Works of Des Plaines. 

Lewis M. Smith received his early education in the public schools and prepared 
for the University of Michigan, but on account of ill health in the family did not 
enter college. He went to Minnesota and engaged in teaching school during the 
winter of 1880-81. The call of the city, however, proved too strong to be resisted 
and he came to Chicago and engaged in the real-estate business at Oakland square 
and Thirty-ninth street, where he has since continued. He has occupied his pres- 
ent office for twenty-two years and is now at the head of one of ^he most flourishing 
real-estate concerns in the city. He has persevered through many obstacles and his 
clientage has grown steadily until now he enjoys the fruits of his well directed ap- 
plication. In the spring of 1886 his brother Frank M. became associated with him 
and the firm has since been known as L. M. Smith & Bro. They devote their at- 
tention almost exclusively to residence property but have done some building. Mr. 
Smith takes great interest in everything pertaining to the promotion of the bus- 
iness, to which he has given the best energies of his life. He is the author of the 
reform in leasing to tenants any month of the year or for any period of time, the 
old method being based upon May 1st as the beginning and ending of the rental 
year. He was the first south side man to open a local renting agency, prospective 
tenants having previously been obliged at great inconvenience, to go to down town 
offices for information. The firm of L. M. Smith & Bro. holds membership in the 
Chicago Real Estate Board and is always prominent in movements seeking to pro- 
mote the interests of property owners. 

On the 4th of January, 1888, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Pettibone, whose family were early settlers of Michigan. One son, Lewis Petti- 
bore, came to bless this union. He is now a student of the elementary department 
of the University of Chicago. 

Mr. Smith gives his allegiance to the republican party. He was secretary of 
the old Oakland Republican Club during Elaine's campaign in 1884, the largest or- 
ganization of the kind in the state, being associated with such men as General Tor- 
ranee, L. H. Bisbv, Hon. R. W. Dunham, John R. Bensley, James R. Mann. E. W. 
Hale, William H. Rand and other old Hyde Park citizens. He is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, being connected with the blue lodge, chapter, commandery and 



398 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

shrine. He also holds membership in the Chicago Athletic Club, the Bankers Club 
and the Midlothian Country Club. Energetic and clear-sighted in business, he has 
never faltered in allegiance to Chicago as one of the safest cities for real-estate in- 
vestments in America and time has fully vindicated his judgment. He is a man of 
pleasing address, straightforward, sincere, frank and outspoken. He has never 
sought to promote his own welfare to the injury of others. He is a giver to worthy 
objects, a true friend in times of emergency or need and a public-spirited and pat- 
riotic citizen whose greatest delight it is to assist in enhancing the beauty and pros- 
perity of his adopted city, thus promoting the happiness of his fellowmen. 



NATHAN SMITH DAVIS, JR., M. D. 

Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, Jr., today occupies a conspicuous and honorable 
position as a representative of the medical fraternity of Chicago. He was born 
September 5, 1858, in the city which is still his place of residence, his parents 
being Dr. Nathan and Anna Maria (Parker) Davis. His father, of whom ex- 
tended mention is made elsewhere in this work, became one of the most promi- 
nent representatives of the profession in America. The son's love of learning 
was fostered in the parental home and liberal opportunities in that direction were 
accorded him, leading to his graduation from Northwestern University witli the 
class of 1880. Three years later his alma mater 'conferred upon him the Master 
of Arts degree and in the same year he won his professional degree upon his 
graduation from Chicago Medical College. He at once entered upon practice in 
his native city but afterward went abroad for post-graduate study, pursuing a 
course in Heidelberg, Germany, and also in Vienna, Austria, in 1885. His work 
as a practitioner and educator has drawn to him the attention and favorable com- 
ment of the profession at large. He was associate professor of pathology in 
Northwestern University Medical School from 1884 until 1886, and since then has 
been professor of the principles and practice of medicine and of clinical medicine 
and dean of the medical faculty. The latter position he resigned in 1907. He 
has also done important hospital work and since 1884 has been physician to Mercy 
Hospital, since 1899 to Wesley Hospital and more recently to St. Luke's Hospital. 
His active connection with some of the most prominent medical and scientific 
societies of the country indicates his standing in his profession. He was formerly 
secretary of the section on practice of the American Medical Association and was 
a member of the Ninth International Medical Congress and the Pan-American 
Medical Congress. He belongs to the Chicago Medical Society and the Illinois 
State Medical Society, and to the American Climatological Society, the American 
Therapeutic Association, the Amercan Congress of Physicians and Surgeons, the 
American Academy of Medicine and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. He has written largely for publication, being a frequent and 
valued contributor to the leading medical journals of the country and also the 
author of several volumes including Consumption: How to Prevent It and How 
to Live with It; Diseases of the Lungs, Heart and Kidneys; and Dietetics or 
Alimento-Therapy. All these indicate most comprehensive research and invest!- 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 399 

gation and have added to the professional reputation given his family by his dis- 
tinguished father and by his brother. 

He is a trustee of Northwestern University, of Wesley Hospital and of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago as well as active in the councils 
of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 

In 1884 Dr. Davis was married to Miss Jessie B. Hopkins, of Madison, Wis- 
consin. They have two sons and a daughter, Nathan Smith, III, Ruth and Wil- 
liam Deering. The family residence is on Huron street and Dr. Davis main- 
tains a down-town office. His social nature finds expression in his membership 
in the University and Onwentsia Clubs. His broad, general learning makes him 
an interesting and entertaining companion and all who know him are glad to 
be included within the circle of his friendship. 



GEORGE MCCLELLAND REYNOLDS. 

George McClelland Reynolds, president of the Continental & Commercial Na- 
tional Bank, belongs to that class of men who have been attracted to Chicago 
by its pulsing industrial activities and almost limitless business opportunities. He 
has proved himself a dynamic force in promoting conditions which are continually 
augmenting the city's growth and influence as a commercial center, yet the ex- 
tent and importance of his interests are not even confined to the metropolis of 
the west, but reach out to every part of the country where financial activities play 
a part. There are no spectacular chapters in his business history but a steady 
progression that indicates a mastery of self and an understanding of the con- 
ditions which go to make up life's contacts and experiences. He was born in 
Panora, Iowa, January 15, 1863, and while spending his youthful days in the 
home of his parents, E. J. and Eliza (Anderson) Reynolds, pursued his education 
through consecutive grades of the public schools until he was graduated from the 
Guthrie county high school with the class of 1879. He made his initial step in 
business life in a clerical position in the Guthrie County National Bank, with 
which he was connected from 1879 until 1886. His close application brought him 
comprehensive knowledge of the banking business as his ability won him pro- 
motion from time to time. In the latter year he went to Hastings, Nebraska, where 
he remained until 1888. Returning in that year to Panora he reentered the 
Guthrie County National Bank as cashier and manager, and so directed its in- 
terests until 1893. He then sought the broader opportunities offered in a larger 
city, becoming cashier of the Des Moines (Iowa) National Bank, in which ca- 
pacity he served until 1895, when he was chosen to the presidency, remaining as 
the chief executive head of the institution for two years. He is still one of the 
directors of that bank but in December, 1897, came to Chicago as cashier of the 
Continental National Bank, of which he was elected vice president in May, 1902. 
Subsequently he was elected to the presidency and continued as chief executive 
following the merger of that bank with the Commercial National, under the name 
of the Continental & Commercial National Bank, which is today the second largest 
in the United States, only exceeded by the City National of New York. The 



400 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

steps in his orderly progression are easily discernible and have been the logical 
sequence pf his ready mastery of every duty devolving upon him in prior relations. 
He is still a director of the Guthrie Count}' National Bank, of Panora, in which 
his preliminary training was received, and he is also treasurer and secretary of 
the Northwestern Savings & Trust Company. He has kept in touch with the 
continuous advancement manifest in banking circles whereby the banks of the 
country have no longer remained merely a depositary for funds and a medium 
of financial exchange, but have become practically silent partners in the conduct 
of important industrial and commercial enterprises of the country. 

.Mr. Reynolds was married in his native town on the 15th of October, 1884, 
to Miss Elizabeth Hay, and they have one son, Earle Hay. The family residence 
is at No. 3961 Drexel boulevard, and there Mr. Reynolds' interests center, club 
life and political activity having little attraction for him. He has, however, been 
honored with the presidency of the American Banker's Association, to which he 
was elected at the annual meeting in Denver on the 1st of October, 1908. Start- 
ing out in the business world in a humble clerical capacity in a little country 
bank, he advanced gradually and found, as all men do, that the higher the point 
of attainments ascended, competition proportionally diminished and scope of. ex- 
pansion widened. He prospered from year to year and conducted all business 
matters carefully and profitably, and displayed in all his acts an aptitude for 
successful management. When we regard the fact that Mr. Reynolds has not 
yet reached the fiftieth milestone on life's journey, it seems that in his business 
career he must have proceeded by leaps and bounds and yet it was characteristic 
of him that he mastered every routine of duty, but he brought to each task an 
intelligent appreciation of its requirements and its possibilities. That he is to- 
day one of the twelve foremost men of financial interests in the United States, 
men who are writing the financial history of the country, is due to a recognition 
and. utilization of opportunities. He stood as it were at the outset ol his' career 
at the point of an angle whose constantly diverging sides have now included within 
their scope the whole financial world as represented on the North American con- 
tinent. 

The rise of no other man in financial circles in the United States has been 
as rapid as that of George McClelland Reynolds. His ready mastery of every 
problem, his initiative spirit, his grasp of details his separation of the essential 
from the non-essential, his combination of salient forces, have given him leader- 
ship even among the men who are foremost representatives of the American finan- 
cial world. 



EDWARD L. RICHTER. 

Among the young attorneys of Chicago it would be difficult to name one who has 
gained greater prominence during recent years than Edward L. Richter, whose 
offices are at 1402 Hartford building. Although admitted to the bar only four 
years ago and at the present time only twenty-seven years of age, he has won rec- 
ognition as a safe counselor, a brilliant advocate before court or jury and also as 




EDWARD L. RICHTKR 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 403 

a constitutional lawyer, whose opinion on intricate and difficult points of law gains 
respectful hearing. His advance to positions of responsibility in connection with 
various organizations has been almost phenomenal, yet it is acknowledged by his 
brethren at the bar that he stands upon a safe and secure foundation, as is indicated 
by his remarkable success in a large and growing practice. 

A native of Odessa, Russia, Mr. Richter was born April 8, 1884, a son of Louis 
and Dora Richter. The father emigrated to America with his family in 1890 and 
is a resident of this city, being salesman in the employ of A. P. Callahan & Com- 
pany, manufacturers of compressed yeast. Two children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Richter: Edward L., of this review; and Rosalie, who is the wife of Dr. Leon 
Feingold, of Chicago. 

Edward L. Richter arrived in America at the age of six years and in the public 
schools of Chicago received his preliminary education, being a student at the Burr 
grammar school and the old Medill high school. Having decided to devote his life 
to the practice of law, he entered the law department of the Northwestern Univer- 
sity and after pursuing the regular course was admitted to the bar Oct. 1, 1907. He 
immediately began practice in this city attracting attention from the start as a young 
man of unusual energy and ability. He has devoted his time especially to corporation 
and constitutional law and was attorney for the Master Bakers' Association until 
1911, when he resigned to become general counsel for the Master Bakers' Assurance 
Company, of which he was one of the organizers. He is general counsel for the 
Chicago Ice Cream Manufacturers Association, the Master Barbers' Association of 
Chicago and the Chicago Bread Manufacturers Association, the Hotel & Restaurant 
Association of Chicago, and general counsel of the Amalgamated Business Associa- 
tions. He is also attorney for the Thompson-Reid Ice Cream Company and the 
Collins Brothers Ice Cream Company, being in charge of litigation now in the courts 
in which those companies are interested, viz : to test the constitutionality of the Fed- 
eral Food Act. Mr. Richter, in addition to the duties involved by his connections 
heretofore stated, is general counsel for the Chicago & British Columbia Mining 
Company, Ltd., and vice president of Newburger & Company, Inc. He is virtually 
the author of the present bake shop law which is in force in Chicago, having prev- 
iously successfully attacked the constitutionality of a bakery ordinance which was 
passed by the city council in 1907. The decision in this case attracted general at- 
tention and was rendered in October, 1909, by Judge Thomas G. Windes of the 
Circuit Court of Cook county. The court after reviewing the arguments of counsel 
decided that the ordinance deprived the defendants of liberty and property without 
due process of law; gave to the commissioner of health of Chicago both legislative 
and judicial powers; and also was unreasonable in many respects and vague, un- 
certain and indefinite in its premise. Mr. Richter is also greatly interested in the 
case now pending as co the constitutionality of the barbers' law, known as the 
Fahey law, requiring all barbers in Illinois to register with an examining board. 

On the 20th of April, 1909, Mr. Richter was married in this city to Miss Char- 
lotte B. Roeschlein. Politically he is identified with the republican party and takes 
an active interest in its success, being a member of the Twenty-fifth Ward Repub- 
lican Club. He has won his way practically unaided to the enviable position he 
now occupies at the bar of Cook county. When he began practice he borrowed one 
hundred and fifty dollars to purchase furniture for his office, but was soon able to 



Vol. V 19 



404 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

liquidate the obligation and is now rapidly approaching a condition of financial 
independence. While in grammar school he was given music lessons by his par- 
ents both upon the violin and piano and showed an ability that indicated unusual 
capacity along musical lines. He taught music for some time but since entering upon 
his profession has had little time to devote to the art except as recreation. He re- 
sides at No. 843 Montrose boulevard, in a six apartment building, which he owns. 
He also is the owner of valuable property on the south side. Endowed with grit, 
perseverance and indomitable determination, he belongs to that class of men who 
know not the meaning of defeat but by tact and genius turn apparent disaster into 
victory. Judging by what he has accomplished during the brief period that has 
elapsed sinse he left the law school, his friends are confident that he may look 
forward to a future bright with promise and, although many difficulties may lie in 
the way, there is little doubt that most of them will be overcome, for the determined 
mind, properly equipped and backed by a sublime faith, is the greatest power in 
the universe. 



LEMUEL COVELL PAINE FREER. 

In the year before Chicago was incorporated there came to the embryo little 
city a young man of twenty-two years. His only assets were certain experiences 
that had come to him as a country school teacher and as clerk in a small store. 
Furthermore, he had recently married, so that it was incumbent upon him to pre- 
pare a home for his bride. From that date until his death, save for a few brief 
periods, Lemuel C. P. Freer was continuously a resident of Chicago and lived to 
witness the greater part of the city's growth. He benefited by his investments in 
real estate, which brought him substantial and handsome returns and he also gained 
distinction as a lawyer, particularly by his work in the chancery courts. How- 
ever, the early days of his residence here constituted a period in which hardships 
and difficulties fell to his lot. 

Mr. Freer was a native of North East, Dutchess county, New York, born Sep- 
tember 18, 1813, his parents being Elias and Mary (Paine) Freer. His father 
was a tanner and farmer and in 1836 removed to the west, becoming a resident of 
Will county, Illinois. It is said of him that he was "honored and respected for 
his intelligence, upright dealings and philanthropic deeds," and the moral worth 
of the family was recognized wherever the name of Freer was known. 

In his youthful days L. C. P. Freer learned the tanner's trade through the 
assistance which he rendered his father and his education was acquired in the 
common schools and through subsequent reading. He pursued a careful, sys- 
tematic course of reading that made him in time a well informed man, and during 
the period of his residence in New York he engaged for a time in teaching in the 
country schools. He also occupied a position as clerk in a small country store 
but the opportunities of the middle west attracted him and he resolved to seek 
his fortune in Illinois, whither he journeyel with his young wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Esther Wickes Marble and whom he had wedded the previous 
year. His initial business experience here in trade proved unprofitable and he 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 405 

then removed to a farm near Bourbonnais Grove, where the labor of his own 
hands resulted in the building of a little house. Hardships and privations con- 
fronted him during his early experience in the west and he felt that it would be 
an arduous task to win a competence in agricultural life. Therefore he returned 
to Chicago and took up the study of law in the office of Henry Brown. From 
the beginning his professional career was attended with a satisfactory measure 
of success. He at first took justice cases, collections, etc. and soon had all the 
business to which he could attend. In time he came to be recognized as one of 
the strong and able lawyers of the Chicago bar, practicing in partnership with 
Calvin De Wolf, later with the Hon. John M. Wilson and subsequently with George 
A. Ingalls. It was on the 9th of July, 1840, that he was admitted to the bar 
and soon afterward from Judge George Mannierre of . the circuit court he re- 
ceived appointment to the position of master in chancery, which office he filled 
for a number of years. In that connection he transacted a vast amount of busi- 
ness. Extensive land litigation came before him and the great length of time 
in which he was retained in office and the universal satisfaction given by him in 
the discharge of his duties indicated how ably he performed the requirements of 
the position. He continued in the practice of law until 1880, when he retired 
and two years later went abroad for extensive travel in Europe. . 

Mr. Freer's activities in the field of business won him success. He made ju- 
dicious investments in property and in all things maintained an unassailable char- 
acter for probity and honorable dealing as well as for sound judgment and keen 
business discrimination. 

Mr. Freer was also keenly interested in questions of public moment and was 
associated with the leaders in the anti-slavery movement, including such men as 
Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Parker Pillsbury, Solo- 
mon P. Chase, Frederick Douglas, Henry Bibb and others who became stalwart 
advocates of the anti-slavery cause. A price was placed upon his head by one 
of the southern states but fate decreed that he should not give his life in this way. 
He aided many a runaway negro on his way to freedom in the north, and his words 
and work constituted a forceful element in spreading the anti-slavery doctrine. 
Moreover, his name is signed to a document calling for a public meeting to con- 
sider the war situation, held January 5, 1861. This was one of the largest public 
gatherings that ever assembled in Chicago and Mr. Freer was among the first to 
place his name on the muster roll of the famous regiment of Chicago Home Guards, 

For more than forty years Mr. Freer traveled life's journey with his first 
wife. They were then separated in death and later, on the llth of March, 1878,. 
Mr. Freer married Miss Antoinette Whitlock, who is still a resident of this city. 
Throughout his life Mr. Freer was actuated by a high sense of personal honor 
that was manifest in all of his relations. Moreover, he was generous and charitable 
and gave freely where aid was needed. He frequently assisted young men in 
starting out in life and also aided those who were struggling to retain their prop- 
erty when an opposite course would have been more to .his personal advantage. 
He was a lover of books and his well stored and well trained mind made him 
a most entertaining companion. For many years he was president of the board 
of trustees of Rush Medical College, the board holding its annual meetings in his 
office. During the later years of his life he lived retired and passed away Au- 



406 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

gust 14, 1892, at his home on Michigan avenue. Throughout the entire period of 
his residence in Chicago, covering much more than a half century, he had en- 
joyed the confidence, good-will and respect of those with whom he had come in 
contact and his ability and his labor gave to him a place of leadership among 
the eminent men who did much to mold the history of the country in ante-bellum 
days and who have thus left their footprints upon the sands of time. 



CLINTON SWALLOW WOOLFOLK. 

Clinton Swallow Woolfolk, an attorney at law, whose activities have reached 
beyond the practice of his profession to the organization and conduct of corporate 
interests, is the son of Alexander M. and Anna Cleveland (Swallow) Woolfolk and 
was born in Columbia, Missouri, May 16, 1874. He attended the Northwestern 
University at Evanston, Illinois, studied law in the Chicago College of Law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1 896. He became a member of the firm of Woolfolk & Brown- 
ing, and afterward a member of the law firm of Walrath & Woolfolk, which firm 
continued until 1908. While engaged in the practice of law he lectured on "Com- 
mercial Law" in the Armour Institute of Technology, and with Mr. Walrath con- 
ducted the Chicago Business Law School, and organized the Northern Liquidation 
Company, the Colonial Land Company and other companies engaged in real-estate 
and development enterprises. 

Mr. Woolfolk was married in Chicago on December 26, 1899, to Miss Mary 
Murison Curtis and has two children, Kathryn and Curtis Blair. He resides in 
Evanston. He is a member of the University Club of Chicago, Chicago Bar Asso- 
ciation, Glenview Golf Club, Evanston Golf Club, and is a life member and vice- 
president of the Evanston Country Club. 



EDMUND ANDREWS, A. M., M. D., LL. D. 

Dr. Edmund Andrews, a disinguished surgeon and scientist, whose life work 
is still bearing fruition in organizations which he founded and in his contributions 
to science, the result of his inventive genius and his original research, all of which 
made him known throughout the length and breadth of the land, was born in 
Putney, Vermont, April 22, 1824. The family of which he was a representative 
was established in America during colonial days and his grandfather, Benjamin 
Andrews, served as a minuteman during the Revolutionary war. He was the 
father of the Rev. Elisha D. Andrews, a Congregational minister of Putney, Ver- 
mont, who was born in Southington, Connecticut, and after arriving at years of 
maturity wedded Betsy Lathrop, a native of West Springfield, Massachusetts, and 
a granddaughter of the Rev. Joseph D. Lathrop, D. D., who for sixty-two years 
was pastor of the Congregational church at West Springfield. To Dr. Elisha D. 
and Betsy Andrews were born six children, Seth, Ann, Joseph, Charles, Edmund 
and George. 




CLINTON S. WOOLFOLK 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 409 

The family removed from Putney, Vermont, to West Bloomfield, New York, 
when Dr. Andrews was but five years of age and later resided successively at Men- 
don and at Pittsford, New York, living on a farm at the latter place. He attended 
the district and select schools of these towns and made good use of his opportunities 
for acquiring an education, thus laying the foundation , for the success which 
he achieved in scientific fields at a later date. He was seventeen years of age 
when the family removed to Armada, Michigan, where his term was divided be- 
tween farm work and study. His preparatory course was pursued in Romeo 
Academy, near Armada, and thus he was qualified to enter the University of 
Michigan at Ann Arbor as a freshman. He was graduated from the literary 
department, where he completed a course with the class of 1852. From his alma 
mater he successively received the degrees of A. B., A. M., M. D., and LL. D. 
While in the university, was begun and cemented his friendship with the late Dr. 
Hosmer A. Johnson, one of the most distinguished of his colleagues in the medical 
profession of Chicago. Before entering the university he had to some extent read 
medicine under the direction of Dr. Zina Pitcher, of Detroit, who had been a 
surgeon in the American army during the war of 1812 and was an ex-president 
of the American Medical Association. At the end of his first year in the medical 
department he was made- demonstrator of anatomy. After his graduation he 
continued to occupy that position and also gave lectures on comparative anatomy. 
In 1853 he took an active part in the organization of the Michigan State Medical 
Society and also became editor of the Peninsular Journal of Medicine and Col- 
lateral Sciences, sustaining both with ability arid success. 

In 1855 Dr. Andrews accepted the proffered position of demonstrator of anat- 
omy in Rush Medical College and accordingly became a resident of Chicago. After 
a year, however, he withdrew from that connection to devote his entire time and 
attention to private practice. He had a strong predilection for surgery, for which 
his mechanical genius and scientific attainments eminently qualified him. About 
this time Dr. Andrews joined with Robert Kennicutt, H. A. Johnson, N. S. Davis 
and several others in founding the Chicago Academy of Sciences and through all 
of its vicissitudes of adversity and prosperity he gave it most valuable and efficient 
support. In 1859 he became associated with Drs. H. A, Johnson, R. N. Isham, 
N. S. Davis and W. H. Byford in organizing the medical department of Lind 
(now Northwestern) University and was given the chair of principles and prac- 
tice of surgery and clinical surgery in the new college. He remained through- 
out the residue of his days a strong supporter and champion of that institution. 
He was one of the founders of Mercy Hospital and a member of its surgical staff. 
His surgical practice rapidly increased and following the death of Dr. Daniel 
Brainard in 1866 he became the leading operating surgeon of the middle west. 

In the meantime Dr. Andrews offered his services to the government in defense 
of the Union cause in the Civil war. He served during the winter of 1861-2 
through appointment of Governor Yates as post surgeon at Camp Douglas and 
later he accepted a commission signed April 3, 1862, as major and surgeon of 
the First Illinois Light Artillery, being mustered into the United States service 
two days later. He joined his regiment at Pitts burg Landing only a day or two 
after the close of the fierce and desperate battle of Shiloh, where he labored 
assiduously in the care of the wounded. Under General Sherman he did con- 



410 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

tinuous duty in several fights and skirmishes as far south as Corinth, Memphi 
and Chickasaw Bayou and took part in the battle of Vicksburg, often rendering 
valuable service as an operating surgeon under the enemy's fire. Later he wai 
sent north in charge of a boatload of wounded soldiers and because of severe ill 
ness was obliged to resign from the service January 18, 1863. 

Upon recovering his health Dr. Andrews entered at once upon an active careei 
as professor of surgery in the Medical College and as hospital surgeon in the medi 
cal department of the Northwestern University. He was one of the founders o: 
the Chicago Medical College and was its first professor of surgery. From an un 
usual faculty for inventing means for the accomplishment of given ends he earl} 
acquired preeminence in the treatment of spinal and other deformities. He wa 
an inventor of acknowledged genius, inventing many noteworthy appliances for us< 
in orthopedic surgery. He was an energetic and instructive lecturer both in th< 
classroom and in the clinical wards of the Mercy Hospital, always holding the clos< 
attention of his classes and ever punctual to his engagements. In fact, he was eve 
a diligent toiler in the profession, winning eminence and a well deserved nationa 
reputation. In addition to serving as surgeon-in-chief in Mercy Hospital he wa; 
consulting surgeon for the Illinois Hospital for Women and Children and for thi 
Michael Reese Hospital. He took an active and helpful- part in promoting the worl 
of the different medical societies, realizing their value as factors in the dissemina 
tion of knowledge and in the promotion of efficiency among the representatives o 
the profession. He belonged to the Chicago Medical Society, the Illinois Stati 
Medical Society, in which he was honored with the presidency, and the Americai 
Medical Association. He was also consulting and attending surgeon to several o 
the hospitals of Chicago and he made valuable contributions to medical literature 
especially as the author of several volumes on special surgical subjects. He als< 
wrote largely for medical journals and his writings ever awakened deep interes 
and thoughtful consideration. He continued active as clinical instructor to thi 
college classes in the Mercy Hospital until 1899, when, at the age of seventy-fivi 
years, he resigned and was made emeritus professor of the principles and practici 
of surgery and clinical surgery. He did much original work in the field of surgery 
and was the first to show by statistical evidence that ether anesthesia is much safei 
than chloroform anesthesia. Early in his professional career he went to Londor 
and studied with Lister, becoming the first representative of the profession in Chi 
cago to employ antiseptics in surgery. Aside from the strict path of his professior 
he did much valuable work that contributed to the sum total of progress and ad 
vancement. His scientific contributions, especially in the departments of geolog} 
and botany, have been numerous and valuable. His well deserved and honorable 
reputation extended not only to all parts of this country but to all parts of the civil- 
ized world, establishing him as an authority upon geological subjects. There has 
probably lived no man who has known more about the geology of the great lakes 
than Dr. Andrews and his contributions to the literature concerning the geology oi 
the shores of the great lakes and the conformation of the terraces that make these 
shores have received world-wide recognition. His activity along that line was 
prompted purely by a love of scientific investigation and became to him a pastime. 

On the 13th of April, 1852, Dr. Andrews was united in marriage to Miss Eliza 
Taylor, of Detroit, Michigan, a daughter of Nathaniel T. and Laura (Winchell) 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 411 

Taylor, of New England. His wife passed away June 6, 1875, survived by three 
sons who are still living. These are: Dr. E. Wyllys Andrews and Dr. Frank Tay- 
lor Andrews, both practicing in Chicago; and Edmund Lathrop Andrews, who is 
an electrical engineer. On the 25th of April, 1877, Dr. Andrews was again mar- 
ried, his second union being with Mrs. Frances (Taylor) Barrett, a sister of his 
first wife. Her first husband was a rising young physician of Waterloo, Iowa, and 
by that marriage she had two children : Laura Taylor, the wife of Victor Windett, 
a civil and mechanical engineer residing with Mrs. Andrews ; and Miriam, now 
deceased. 

Dr. Andrews possessed a valuable collection of interesting relics and heirlooms, 
including a musket ball which was fired into his grandfather's horse in one of the 
battles of the Revolutionary war; a silver spoon made from the buttons of his grand- 
father's uniform as a Continental soldier in the war of independence; his father's 
old Jewish Bible and Jewish dictionary; a rebel saber captured in Virginia; and a 
home-made rebel sword captured at Corinth, Mississippi. 

While Dr. Andrews' chief interest was his profession, in which connection he 
embraced every opportunity for aiding his fellowmen and promoting the scientific 
knowledge which has meant so much to the profession, he was also interested in 
other projects for progress along still other lines. He belonged to the Chicago Lit- 
erary Club, before which he frequently read interesting papers, and he never failed 
to labor for the advancement of the best social and intellectual as well as the scien- 
tific interests of the city in which his life had been passed. He held membership 
in the Illinois Commandery of the Loyal Legion, having been elected a first-class, 
original member, November 10, 1887. He was warmly attached to the order and 
took deep interest in its meetings and proceedings. War songs appealed especially 
to his warm and sympathetic nature. For fifty years he was an active supporter of 
the Second Presbyterian church and was spoken of "as a Christian and a gentleman 
modest in his speech, cordial in his manner, stainless in his life." It is said that 
there never was a man more generous or helpful to younger professional brethren 
struggling along the path where he had won success and honor. He passed away 
in Chicago on the 22d of January, 1904, when in his eightieth year. The local medi- 
cal societies, medical schools and several other organizations held memorial services, 
on which occasions addresses were given by Professor Vaughan, dean of the Michi- 
gan L'niversity medical department, Dr. Gunsaulus, of Chicago, Dr. Davis, Presi- 
dent James of Northwestern University and others. In its memorial the Loyal 
Legion said : 

"Dr. Andrews was a representative of the best type of practitioners trained for 
service in the west at a time when the pioneer and the explorer had but for a decade 
scarcely vanished from the 'scene of their labors. He made himself familiar by 
travel and actual observation with the geological formation of the group of states 
which encircled his home ; he enlarged his experience in foreign travel ; his love for 
the natural sciences never abated ; he was a skilled mathematician ; and a scholarly 
and always interesting writer. In the variety of the themes touched in his lifetime 
by his versatile pen he has scarcely an equal among either his contemporaries or 
those who survive him. His mind was essentially original in its reach and attain- 
ments. When others wrote or spoke he was ever intent on the outlying themes sug- 
gested by them to his versatile and incessant mental activity. While his colleagues 



412 CHICAGO: I.TS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

worked with the tools they had borrowed from their fathers in surgery, he invented 
his own. One of the really fine qualities of the man was his keen discernments of 
the best gifts in others. He sought with the avidity of a prospector for the one 
little fact that he wanted and while he lived, his chosen companions were always 
those who could give him the one fact that he had not mastered. As a consequence, 
his best friends were those by whom the man himself would be willing to be judged. 
They were the most honored, the most worthy, the most learned of his medical 
brethren." 



JAMES AUDUBON BURHANS. 

The legal and financial concerns, the educational, political, charitable and re- 
ligious interests which constitute the chief features in the life of every city, have 
all prospered by the support and cooperation of James Audubon Burhans. While 
he has won distinction in the law and has made valuable contribution to law liter- 
ature, his life has never been self-centered but has reached out to the broader in- 
terests which affect men in sociological and economic relations and at all times has 
cast the weight of his influence and aid on the side of progress in those connections. 
He has been particularly well known through his efforts in support of Sunday school 
work and of the many organized charities which take cognizance of the needs 
of the individual and the community. His youthful days were spent upon a 
farm in Lake county, Indiana, although his birth occurred in LaPorte county of that 
state, on the 28th of October, 1852. His father, Peter Burhans, a farmer by oc- 
cupation, was a son of William and Jane (De Pew) Burhans, formerly of Ulster 
county, New York. A very complete and extensive genealogy of the family was 
published about 1880, tracing the descent of nearly all of the name in this country 
from Jacob Burhans, who. came from Holland in 1660. Peter Burhans was united 
in marriage to Martha Hunt Andrews, a daughter of James H. and Sarah (White- 
head) Andrews, of English ancestry. 

James A. Burhans supplemented his early public school education by a course 
in the business college at Valparaiso, Indiana, and by four years' study in De Pauw 
University in Greencastle, Indiana, from which he was graduated in 1875, with 
the degree of A. B. He at once entered upon careful preparation for the practice 
of law as a student in the Northwestern University Law School of Chicago, which 
in 1877 conferred upon him the LL. B. degree. Subsequently he received from De 
Pauw University the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Long prior to the com- 
pletion of his college course he had entered upon the profession of teaching, ob- 
taining his first school when eighteen years of age. In following that profession 
he largely secured the funds necessary for the acquirement of his own education, 
yet other labors during his college days and the summer vacations also supplied the 
exchequer. While pursuing his law course he worked and slept in a Chicago law 
office. The elemental strength of his character was thus shown in his determination 
to secure advancement and the means employed thereto. 

Immediately following his graduation Mr. Burhans opened a law office in Chi- 
cago, where he has since been engaged in practice. He has made substantial prog- 




JAMES A. BURHANS 



CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 415 

ress as a member of the bar, specializing in the department of law relating to real 
estate and municipal bonds. In his field of practice he has largely been regarded 
as an authority and has secured an extensive clientage. His contributions to legal 
literature include The Law of Municipal Bonds and A Digest of the Statutory Laws 
Governing the Investment of Corporate and Trust Funds, published in 1899. 
This work was accepted and used as an authoritative hand book by many state de- 
partments, especially in the eastern and New England states in their examinations 
in passing on the investments of savings banks, trust companies, insurance com- 
panies, etc. He has for many years been one of the recognized authorities on mu- 
nicipal bond laws, his practice in that line and examinations as attorney for lead- 
ing bond brokers and bankers in Chicago and other cities covering municipal bond 
issues from almost every state in the Union, including many large issues extending 
into the millions. In addition to his activity in connection with the profession Mr. 
Burhans is also interested in the real-estate and mortgage loan business, originally 
as a member of the firm of Andrews & Burhans, later Andrews, Burhans & Cooper 
and afterward Cooper &. Burhans. 

On the 7th of October, 1 879, at Valparaiso, Indiana> Mr. Burhans was united 
in marriage to Miss Jessie Pierpont Smith, of this city. They have no children of 
their own but a son of a deceased brother was adopted and educated by them Dr. 
Percy A. Burhans, now a practicing dentist at Tulsa, Oklahoma, who in 1905 riiar- 
ried Miss Daisy McDonald, of Chicago. They also provided a home for and as- 
sisted in the support and education of a number of other orphan relatives. Through- 
out their entire lives they have been guided by a spirit of helpfulness that has found 
tangible expression in many good deeds. 

Like all men to whom life means more than the attainment of material wealth, 
Mr. Burhans has kept informed on the political questions relating to the welfare 
and progress of his country and in national politics is a republican, while at local 
elections, where no issue is involved, he casts an independent vote. While in col- 
lege he- became a member of the Beta Theta Pi, and while attending law school was 
elected to the membership of the Phi Delta Phi. His membership relations also 
extend to the Union League Club of Chicago, the Chicago Bar Association and to 
the Methodist church, and in religious and charitable work and enterprises he has 
always taken an active part. For nine years Mr. Burhans was superintendent 
of one of the largest Sunday schools of Chicago, that of the Oakland Methodist 
church, and no religious activity has been dearer to his heart than the Sunday school 
work. For five years he was associate superintendent of the Chicago Waifs Mission, 
then meeting in the Armory on the lake front, and later was associate superintendent 
of the Evanston First and Epworth Methodist Sunday schools. For twenty years 
he served on the executive committee of the Cook county Sunday school associa- 
tion and at different times was its treasurer and president. In 1889 he was one of 
the American secretaries of the first world's Sunday school convention in London, 
and he and Mrs. Burhans were members of the fourth world's Sunday school con- 
vention held in Jerusalem in 1904. Mrs. Burhans at the time of her marriage was 
a primary teacher in the public schools and has always been prominent and suc- 
cessful as a primary Sunday school teacher and worker. She acted as superintend- 
ent of the primary department in the Oakland Methodist church of Chicago for 
twelve years, from 1885 until 1897, and for a number of years thereafter occupied 



416 CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 

the same position in connection with the Evanston First Methodist church. She 
was county primary Sunday school, secretary for Cook count}' for several years and 
state primary secretary of Illinois for two years. In 1901 she was appointed as 
the special representative of the Illinois state Sunday school primary departmenl 
to the world Sunday school convention at Jerusalem, but unfortunately on this trip 
to the Orient she sustained an injury in a Palestine steamer landing which resulted 
later in making her an in