Album of Genealogy

There are several versions of Index of Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois available online for free viewing: 1897, 1899, and 1900. The books include numerous portraits. Extractions follow.

Chief of Police of Evanston, was born at Madison, Lake County, Ohio, April 14, 1843. The history of Redding, Connecticut, from which we draw liberally, states that David Bartram, who was of Scotch ancestry, removed from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Redding as early as 1733, in which year he appears as Surveyor of Highways. He was a farmer and settled in Lonetown. He had five sons and three daughters. Daniel, the fourth child, was born October 23,1745. He also settled in Redding, was a tanner and currier by trade, and built the first tannery in the town. October10, 1768, he married Ann Merchant, of Redding. They were the parents of thirteen children. Daniel Bartram joined the militia and marched to the defense of Danbury, and during his absence his wife, finding it impossible to hire a man to do the work, took the tanning business into her own hands and performed the labor necessary to prevent the hides spoiling in the vats. May 3, 1810, Daniel Bartram left Redding, accompanied by his wife, four children and several neighbors, for what was then the wilderness of Ohio, making his way by wagon and on horseback. They arrived, June 10, at Madison, Lake County, Ohio, where they settled and where many of their descendants now reside. Daniel Bartram died in Madison, May 17, 1817.His widow died August 3, 1835. Uriah, the second son of Daniel, was born January 9, 1782, and settled in Madison, Ohio, where he died quite suddenly of heart disease, June28, 1830, leaving a wife and six children. Of these, Harmon, born at Redding in 1808, was the second. Harmon Bartram married Abigail Wood, of Fairfield, Connecticut. They were the parents of six children, of whom Wheeler is the fifth. Harmon Bartram was a man of ability and exerted a strong influence over his associates. Although a farmer, and living on the farm his father had cleared, his qualifications caused him to be appointed Colonel, and afterward Brigadier-General, of militia. Colonel Bartram, as he was usually called, died when Wheeler was less than three years old, and left his wife with six children and a mortgaged farm to care for. Under these circumstances it became necessary later to separate the family, and Wheeler, when ten years of age, went to live with his maternal uncle, Moses Wood, in Chautauqua County, New York, where he remained three years. He returned to his mother’s home at the end of that time, and soon after she removed with her family to La Porte County, Indiana. Wheeler Bartram’s forefathers for generations had been brave men, and manfully responded to the calls for defense in the wars that had threatened the colonies, and later the young Republic. It was but natural that he should have imbibed the spirit of the men of his lineage. When the first call for three-years men in the War of the Rebellion was made, he responded, and August 5, 1861, enrolled himself as volunteer. On the 27th of the same month he was mustered into service at Camp Jackson, La Porte County, as a member of Company G, Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and in less than sixty days found himself with his regiment at Camp Nevin, fifty miles south of Louisville, Kentucky, assisting General Rousseau against the advance of General Buckner, who threatened Louisville. Shortly afterward he suffered an attack of measles, that left him in a condition entirely unfit for military service, which necessitated, besides hard marching, the carrying of sixty pounds of baggage and accoutrements, and he was employed in the less arduous, but hardly less dangerous, duty of assisting in the construction of telegraph lines from Nashville to Savanna. On May 1, 1862, while employed in the construction of telegraph line from Columbia, Tennessee, to Decatur, Alabama, he was taken prisoner by the famous guerrilla, Morgan, and removed to the town of Pulaski, near by. There he was paroled, and in July following went to Camp Chase, Ohio. January 9, 1863, he was exchanged, and finally reached his regiment in March following, at Murphysboro, Tennessee. There he remained until June, when he accompanied the command on its march toward Chattanooga, taking part in the fighting incident to the advance, the battle of Liberty Gap, and in the capture of Tullahoma. This campaign, over two ranges of mountains and through the intervening valleys, was rendered exceedingly fatiguing by the rain, which fell on twenty consecutive days, rendering the roads almost impassable. The command continued its advance until September 19, 1863, when the battle of Chickamauga, the turning point of the war, began. The Twenty-ninth Indiana was placed on General Thomas’ extreme left, and went into battle with two hundred and ninety-five men, and on the night of the same day came out of the carnage with six men, one of whom was Wheeler Bartram. On the following day he was among those stationed at the apex of the angle formed by the repulse of the two wings of the army, where, during the afternoon, the enemy charged and were repulsed seven times, but finally succeeded by fierce fighting in forcing back the Union troops toward Chattanooga. There a semi-siege was sustained for sometime, provisions being so scarce that the Union soldiers sometimes went unfed for forty-eight hours. In December, 1863, the Twenty-ninth Indiana re-enlisted, and its members went north on furlough. This regiment was complimented by General Thomas for its gallant action in the battle of Chickamauga, and for the further fact that it was the first Indiana regiment in the Army of the Cumberland tore-enlist and reorganize under the Veteran Act. At the expiration of his furlough, Mr. Bartram rejoined his regiment and did garrison duty till the end of the war, being mustered out of service at Marietta, Georgia, in December, 1865. He was then First Sergeant, and had been in absolute command of his company for nearly a year, the higher officers being absent on detached duty. From the return of peace until 1868, Mr. Bartram was engaged in different enterprises at Elgin, Illinois, and Muskegon, Michigan, coming to Chicago in the latter year. On the 11thof January, 1869, he married Miss Janet N. Lawson, a native of Cumberland County, England, a descendant of Scots who fought at Culloden and Bannockburn. On coming to Chicago Mr. Bartram had an opportunity to follow the line of business for which inherited qualities had best fitted him, and he became a member of the police force of this city. He was first detailed to the Huron Street Station, and soon after the opening of the Webster Avenue Station he was made Desk Sergeant there. November 1,1878, he was made a Patrol Sergeant at Larabee Street Station. He was transferred to the central detail in June,1882, and five years later made a Detective under Captain Henshaw. January 1, 1888, he was promoted to Lieutenant and acting Captain, being assigned to duty in the First District, and immediately afterward he was advanced to a full Captaincy at the Harrison Street Station. In 1889, when D. C. Cregier became Mayor, an element that dictated changes in the police department caused Captain Bartram to be reduced to the rank of Lieutenant and assigned to the Halsted Street Station, where he remained but two weeks and resigned from the force. Later he became Desk Sergeant at Stanton Avenue, and at the Central Station, serving till January 10, 1894, when he retired a second time, under pension of a Captain. During the year following he spent some time in Colorado, where he had mining interests. Captain Bartram was appointed Chief of Police of Evanston June 25, 1895, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. The comments of almost the entire press of Chicago were eulogistic of Captain Bartram at the time of his reduction. The Tribune said: “Captain Bartram has been on the police force for twenty years. * * * His unobtrusiveness, quiet and splendid work, had been appreciated by Mayor Roche, and he was made a Lieutenant for one day that he might be commissioned a Captain and sent to the Armory. Here he made a record that speaks for itself. The lawless element feared him and obeyed his every command. All this he did in a quiet manner and without seeking to cover himself in glory.” The Mail said: “Captain Bartram is an American, an officer who has made the brightest of records for himself by his fearless and powerful administration of the law in one of the toughest districts in the city.” The following is from the Inter Ocean: “His modesty, courteousness and affability, his gentleness and worth in other ways, are all too well known to need iteration here. He was a favorite.” Captain Bartram was not only a terror to evil-doers and parties guilty of violent crimes, but he was attentive also to those things which affect the morals of the community, and more than one offender has reason to remember the fearless and unflinching fidelity with which he enforced the law relative to the suppression of obscene literature. He is a member of many fraternal and secret organizations, to wit: the Odd Fellows and Knights of Honor, in each of which he has filled all the chairs of the subordinate lodge, and is a member of the Grand Lodge of the latter order. He is a Mason; member of Lyon Post Number 9, Grand Army of the Republic; of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association, of which latter he has been President. He is also a member of the Republican Marching Club of Chicago, where his height (over six feet)and fine face and figure make him conspicuous. Captain Bartram has, by reading, made himself a well-informed man, in spite of the little education he received in his youth. His affable and polite manners, his fidelity to duty, his long service as an officer, have made him respected wherever he is known, and created a large and constantly increasing circle of friends.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 71-73

Alvin Jay Blakey was born February 28, 1855, in Racine County, near Union Grove, Wisconsin, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Stott) Blakey, who came from Rochdale, England, and are now deceased. Thomas Blakey was the son of William Blakey, who was associated in business with John Bright, the noted English statesman. In 1840 Thomas Blakey left England, in company with a cousin, and they landed in Boston after a long and perilous voyage, having two English shillings as their combined capital on arrival. They immediately found employment in the woolen-mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, where Mr. Blakey continued five years. He then went to Wisconsin and bought land, on which he settled and continued to reside until his death, which occurred April 17, 1886. His wife died December 28, 1878. They had nine children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eighth. Besides farming, Mr. Blakey took up the work of Christian ministry after going to Wisconsin, preaching without compensation for over thirty years and ceasing the work only when death closed his labors. He affiliated with the Bible Christian Church. He said he had plenty of this world's goods, and was willing to work for Christ on account of his love for Him. A. J. Blakey has been independent since he was sixteen years of age, and has attained a considerable measure of success in life. He attended the common school at Yorkville, Racine County, Wisconsin, meantime assisting in the farm work during the intervals of school. He began teaching school at the age of nineteen, and in 1872 entered the State Normal School at Whitewater, Wisconsin, from which he was graduated in 1877. He continued to teach in the schools of his native state for four years, being employed most of the time in the city of Milwaukee. For ten years he was a commercial traveler, carrying a line of jewelry, watches and diamonds from Chicago, Illinois. His long continuation in this employment indicates his success, which can only be acquired in that occupation by the employment of energy and brains. Since 1889, Mr. Blakey has been an investor and real-estate dealer in Chicago, and now occupies offices in the Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the firm of Bobb & Blakey, general brokers and real-estate dealers. This firm handles large and valuable pieces of city and country property, their operations extending over many states. On the 4th of March, 1885, Mr. Blakey espoused Miss Carrie A. Turner, a native of New York City. Mrs. Blakey's parents were Herbert and Kate Turner, who came from Berlin, Germany, and were children of worthy German ancestry. One son was given to Mr. and Mrs. Blakey, named Harold A., who died April 21, 1894, at the age of fourteen months. Mr. Blakey is a strict believer in the teachings of the Bible, and entertains charity for the frailties of human nature. Politically he is and always has been a Republican, having cast his first vote for Rutherford B. Hayes, and his last for George B. Swift. He is a thorough bi-medalist, and sincerely believes in the ultimate success of the policy of American protection. His genial nature and affable manners secure and retain the friendship of all with whom he is brought in relation, either socially or in business. Mr. Blakey is an extemporaneous speaker, and is capable of making a speech on any subject with which he is acquainted at all at a moment's notice.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 143-146

Capt. William Newell Brainerd was a well known resident of Evanston, prominent in public affairs in Chicago, and numbered among the leading men of that enterprising city. He was born in De Ruyter, Madison County, New York, January 7, 1823, and came of an old New England family. His grandfather, Nathan Brainerd, was a native of Connecticut, and operated a stone-quarry near Hartford. He reared a large family, and lived to an advanced age. His son, Jonathan Brainerd, the father of our subject, was also a native of the Nutmeg State, and in early life became a hat manufacturer. He married Sallie Gage, who was born in Dutchess County, New York, and was a daughter of Justus Gage, also a native of the same county. By occupation Mr. Gage was a farmer. His wife was a maiden of twelve summers when, in1777, she witnessed the Wyoming Massacre. She had two brothers killed in that massacre, and one brother, who also aided the Colonies in their struggle for independence, reached the advanced age of one hundred years. In 1831 Jonathan Brainerd removed with his family to Painesville, Ohio, where he engaged in the manufacture of hats for one year. He then returned to De Ruyter, New York, where he carried on sheep-raising until 1849. His death occurred in the Empire State in 1856, at the age of sixty-one years. His wife survived him some years, and passed away in Chicago, at the age of sixty-eight years. They were members of the Universalist Church. Their family numbered seven children, two sons and five daughters, of whom two are yet living: Lydia J., now the wife of L. W. Walker, of Petaluma, California; and Harry G., of Englewood. The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days with his parents, upon the old home farm of his grandfather Gage. His education was acquired in the common schools and in the De Ruyter Institute of New York, and at the age of eighteen years he began teaching school, which profession he followed for several years. When his time was not occupied with his school duties, he studied law, and afterward engaged to some extent in legal practice, but, on account of throat difficulty, he was forced to abandon that work. He then went to Rome, New York, where he was engaged in a forwarding and shipping house for five seasons. When the Mexican War broke out, he tried to enlist, but the ranks were overcrowded, and his services were not accepted. In October, 1850, he left Rome, New York, for California, and sailed from New York on the Pacific mail steamship “Georgia” to Chagres, at the mouth of the Chagres River, on the Isthmus of Panama. There were some four hundred passengers on board. On landing at Chagres, ten of the number, including Mr. Brainerd, hired a canoe with five men to take them and their baggage to Gorgona. The canoe, drawing eighteen inches of water, was hollowed out of a solid mahogany tree, and carried ten men and two thousand pounds of baggage, besides the five natives. Before starting on the trip, the latter removed their clothing, and, dressed only in nature’s garb and a Panama hat, proceeded on their way. They rowed eighteen miles to Gatun, where they camped for the night, and then with poles propelled the boat to its destination. The weather proved most delightful. There was gorgeous tropical scenery on every hand; monkeys scampered among the trees; and that trip up the river was remembered by Mr. Brainerd as one of the most pleasant incidents of his California journey. When they reached the place of landing, the baggage was packed on mules, and the passengers walked twenty-five miles to Panama, but this arduous task made some of them ill, Mr. Brainerd among the number. They waited ten days in Panama for a steamer which came around Cape Horn, and by boats they were taken to the vessel, which anchored about a mile from shore. They carried the United States mail, and landed at San Blas, Acapulco and Mazatlan, Mexico; and at San Diego, California, reaching San Francisco in December, 1850. On arriving, Mr. Brainerd and three companions obtained some mining and cooking utensils, a tent, etc., and then went to Sacramento on the old steamboat “Senator.” There they hired a two-horse team and wagon to take them to the mines. They went to Condemned Bar, on the North Fork of the American River, thirty-five miles from Sacramento. They paid their teamster five cents per pound for hauling their baggage and supplies, while they walked. The weather during the winter of 1850 was dry and delightful for winter mining, there being no rain for four months. They made from $10 to $15 per day, washing the surface dirt from the banks of the river, where it was deposited among the rocks. Mr. Brainerd ’s Panama fever compelled him to leave the diggings, and he went to Sacramento about March 1, 1851. After recovering from his illness, he bought a mule and express wagon and went into the produce business, furnishing hotels, steamboats and boarding-houses with vegetables, which were a very great luxury at that time. The wholesale price ranged form ten to twelve cents per pound, except for onions, which brought about $1 per pound. The first onion Mr. Brainerd ever bought weighed a half-pound, and he paid seventy-five cents for it. He ate it sliced in vinegar, when recovering from the Panama fever, and said it was the finest relish that he had ever had. He continued in the produce business until May, 1857. In April, 1856, he was elected Treasurer of Sacramento and served one year. During the winter of 1853 Mr. Brainerd returned to the States, and, with some others, went to Peoria, Illinois, where they purchased a drove of cattle, and fitted out a train to cross the plains to California. They started the last of April, 1853, and crossed the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa. Mr. Brainerd there left the party and returned to Syracuse, New York, where he married Melinda B. Coley, May 4, 1853. With his bride, he went by steamer from New York to California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and resided in Sacramento until May, 1857. While in the West, Mr. Brainerd belonged to a military company, and did some fighting in California. He was made Captain of a company of the Committee of Vigilance, composed of seven thousand prominent citizens, mostly from San Francisco. Mrs. Brainerd is a daughter of Col. George and Hulda (Norton) Coley, of Chenango County, New York. Her grandfather served as Quartermaster under General Washington in the Revolution. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Brainerd: Hattie Belle, who died in infancy, in Sacramento; William Vallejo, who died in 1887; and Frances Marion, wife of Edwin C. Belknap, a hardware merchant of Chicago. Mrs. Belknap has a daughter, Charlotte. Mrs. Brainerd is a member of the Methodist Church. The Captain was an Odd Fellow, and a member of the Western Association of California Pioneers. He also belonged to the Union Veteran League. In May, 1857, Mr. Brainerd went to Syracuse, New York, and in June, 1858, removed to Chicago. He joined the Board of Trade, and engaged in the grain and produce business. In the summer of 1860 he went to the gold mines of Colorado, but the trip proved an unprofitable one. On his return he again joined the Board of Trade. He filled many of its subordinate offices, was Vice-President for three years, and during the greater part of 1872 acted as President, when the building was being rebuilt after the great Chicago Fire. In 1866 he removed to Evanston, but continued business in the city. In May, 1873, he was appointed Illinois Canal Commissioner by Gov. John L. Beveridge, and served two terms, or until the spring of 1877. The Copperas Creek Lock and Dam were built during that time. In March, 1883, he was appointed Railroad and Warehouse Commissioner by Gov. John M. Hamilton, and served until March, 1885. For eight years he was on the Committee of Appeals for the inspection of grain, which position he held until August, 1893. In politics he was a Republican, and was Trustee of the Village Board of Evanston for three terms, and for three years was Town Collector. The life of Captain Brainerd was a busy and useful, and also an eventful one. He personally knew many of the pioneers of California, among whom were many noted characters, including Gen. W. T. Sherman, H. W. Hallock, John C. Fremont, John A. Sutter, Col. John D. Stevenson and Lieutenant Derby. The path-finders and guides of the plains were Kit Carson, Bob Carson, James P. Beckworth, “Peg-leg” Smith, James Bridger, and James W. Marshall, who discovered gold in California. Mr. Brainerd also knew men who became prominent in affairs later on, including Gov. John Bigler, Edward Gilbert, Gen. John D. Lippincott, Gov. J. Neeley, Johnson, Leland Stanford, Calhoun Benham, William Penn Johnson, Judge David S. Terry and David C. Broderick. He also knew many of the prominent Mormons. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the Mormon prophets, each bought a hat of his father, in 1831, at his store in Painesville, Ohio. Many interesting incidents made up the life of Captain Brainerd, and it is unfortunate that he never completed his reminiscences, which were begun at the request of a Sacramento literary society. He died at his home in Evanston, May 19, 1894.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 65-67

Lemuel Brown, an early settler of Cook County, who had formerly been a pioneer in Michigan, was born September 15, 1815, at Berkshire, Tioga County, New York, and died at his home in Lemont, Illinois, August 15, 1894. His father, Daniel Brown, was a canal contractor and farmer, and gave his son better educational opportunities than fall to the lot of the average framer’s son. In 1826 the family moved from Chestnut Ridge, near Niagara Falls, New York, to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here he attended the famous university of that state four years, and started out at the age of seventeen well equipped for the battle of life. He spent a year in selling goods for his brother, N. J. Brown, in Ionia County, Michigan, and then opened a trading establishment of his own in Clinton County, Michigan, the first store kept by a white man in that county. Most of his customers were Indians, and he did a thriving business in exchanging blankets, tobacco and other commodities for furs, skins and game. At this time speculation in western lands was very active, and Mr. Brown entered into several land deals which yielded him a handsome profit. After remaining in Clinton County a year, he went to Shiawassee County, in the same state, where he continued to deal in lands. He became the first Recorder of that county, as well as the first Postmaster within its borders. The first court for Shiawassee County was held in the ballroom of the tavern of which he was proprietor. In a corner of this building he maintained a bank and kept his Recorder’s office. He engaged in farming here, and was a friend and assistant of the young man who afterward became Governor Parsons, of Michigan. Mr. Brown came to Cook County in 1838, remaining in Chicago two years and settling at Lemont in 1840. For twelve consecutive years he held the offices of Postmaster and Justice of the Peace of Lemont, being the second Postmaster at that place. He was appointed, in 1846, one of the commissioners to secure the organization of every township in Cook County, but declined to serve. He was, however, Chairman of the meeting in his home town, and suggested the name which was adopted–La Mont, since corrupted to Lemont. The name of Athens, first adopted by this place, was abandoned because another town in the state had prior claim to that name. In 1853 Mr. Brown moved to Clinton County, Iowa, where he served as Justice of the Peace three years and Sheriff two years. For fifteen years preceding the year 1873 he was engaged in farming in that county, and removed thence to Kansas, where he was engaged in farming and stock-raising for ten years. In this he was very successful, and produced in a single year eighteen hundred bushels of wheat and fifteen hundred bushels each of corn and oats. In one year he produced four thousand bushels of corn. In 1883 he returned to Lemont to pass the balance of his years in quiet retirement, and enjoyed for eleven years the fruits of a long life of honest toil, approaching close to the age of seventy-nine years. He was married in Shiawassee County, Michigan, February 11, 1838, to Miss Catharine Lyman, a native of North Branford, Massachusetts, who still survives. Six of their eight children grew to maturity and are now living, filling places of usefulness. Belle, the eldest, is the wife of Volney Chapman. Daniel L., who married Alvesta Scott, is the author of Scott Brown’s system of shorthand writing, and is well known as a publisher in New York. Ida is the wife of William Lambertson. Katharine A. married David S. Geer, an attorney of Chicago. Lemuel L. married Ida E. Derby, and is a business man in Chicago. Frank Lyman Brown married Harriet Readshaw, and resides in New York City. Mr. Brown adhered to the Democratic party from his youth until the administration of President Buchanan. He was a supporter of Abraham Lincoln, and continued from 1860 until his death to affiliate with the Republicans. He sympathized with the abolition movement, and was an advocate of temperance, never using liquor except when prescribed by a physician. Throughout his life he was active in the labors of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and wherever he lived was regarded as one of the most useful members of that body.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 81-82

LEMUEL LE CLAIRE BROWN, an active business man of Chicago, residing at Morgan Park, is a son of Lemuel Brown, of whom extended mention will be found on another page of this volume. He was born at Le Claire, Scott County, Iowa, October 17, 1854. Much of his early life was spent on stock farms at DeWitt, Iowa, and in Waubansee County, Kansas, at which points his father was an extensive farmer and stock-raiser. The son was employed a great deal in herding cattle and caring for sheep, so that his educational opportunities were limited. Beside the little time he attended the common schools, he spent two terms at the DeWitt High School. However, nature endowed him with an observing mind, and reading, observation, and an active business career have provided him with an abundant stock of general information, without which no man is properly equipped for the battle of life. In the summer preceding his majority, young Brown, with his father’s consent and blessing, set out to make his way in the world, his capital at that time consisting of fifty cents in money, supplemented by a stout heart and abundant energy. He soon made his way to Iowa, where his first permanent employment was on the Missouri Valley & Sioux City Railroad, the first month being spent in work as a section hand. He was soon transferred to a surveying party, which laid out the approaches to the bridge across the Missouri River at Blair, Nebraska. One of his duties through the summer was the carriage of the mail across the river to Blair from Missouri Valley each morning, which was accomplished by means of a skiff. In the fall he went to Lemont, in this county, and was employed by his uncle, N. J. Brown (see biography elsewhere), as timekeeper in his immense quarries at that point. When the quarries closed down for the winter, he went to Lansing, Michigan, and pursued a course of commercial studies in the business college there. April 1, 1876, he returned to Lemont and was bookkeeper and shipping clerk for his uncle until the fall of 1877. The following winter was spent in New York City, and in the spring he returned to Lemont. February 26, 1879, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Ida E. Derby, daughter of S. L. Derby, a prominent business man of Lemont, extended mention of whom is made in this work. Six of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown survive, namely: William L., born at Topeka, Kansas; Nathaniel J., Ida Belle, Sylvester L., Charlotte Augusta and Martha Emogene. Mr. Brown took up his residence at Morgan Park in the spring of 1895, to give his children the benefit of the exceptional educational opportunities of that suburb. Soon after his marriage he went to Waubansee County, Kansas, and engaged in cattle-raising. The second winter after he went there was exceptionally severe, and he lost a large share of his herd, upon which he became discouraged and returned to Lemont, where he became general business manager for his uncle, continuing until the latter leased his quarries to the Western Stone Company. For a short time he took charge of the quarries of the Marblehead Lime Company at Eden, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, and has since been a dealer in sand, gravel and building material in Chicago, residing until recently, at Lemont. Like his father, Mr. Brown adheres to the Methodist faith, and has been a straightforward Republican ever since becoming a voter. He is in no sense a seeker of political favors, but believes it the duty of every American citizen to interest himself in politics, and bear his part in securing honest and efficient government. Being socially inclined, he has become identified with numerous social and benevolent orders, among which may be named Lincoln Council, National Union, and Landmark Lodge Number 380, Knights of Pythias, of Chicago, being a charter member of the latter organization. He was also among the initial members of the Illinois Mutual Aid and of the Royal Arcanum, though not now identified with those orders.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 143-146

In the entire history of the world it has been vouchsafed to but few men to witness the growth of a municipality from a few dozen in population to a million and a quarter souls. No story of Chicago's development can be written without cognizance of Silas B. Cobb as one of its initial forces. It was such sturdy, self-reliant and hopeful young men as he that began the development of her greatness, and carried forward her growth in middle and later life. Ever since the little band of Pilgrims established a home on the rocky and frost-locked shores of Massachusetts, New England has been peopled by a race of enterprising and adventurous men, whose habits of industry and high moral character have shaped the destinies of the Nation. It is not strange, then, that the hamlet planted by their descendants on the swampy shore of Lake Michigan in the 30s' should become the commercial, industrial and philanthropical metropolis of America. Silas W. Cobb, father of the subject of this sketch, gained a livelihood by various occupations, being in turn a farmer, a tanner and a tavern-keeper, and the son was early engaged in giving such assistance to his father as he was able. When other boys were applying themselves to their books, he was obliged to employ his strength in support of the family. His mother, whose maiden name was Hawkes, died when he was an infant, and he knew little of maternal love or care, growing up in the habit of self-reliance which carried him through many difficult enterprises and made him a successful man. He was born in Montpelier, Vermont, January 23, 1812, and is now entering upon the eighty-fourth year of his age. He is keenly active in mind and sound in body, taking a participating interest in all the affairs of life. At the age of seventeen, young Cobb was regularly "bound out," according to the custom of those days, for a term of years, as apprentice to a harness-maker, having previously made a beginning as a shoemaker, which did not suit his taste. Within a twelvemonth after he was "articled" to the harness-maker, his employer sold out, and the new proprietor endeavored to keep the lad as an appurtenance to his purchase. Against this the manly independence of the youth rebelled, and the new proprietor was obliged to give him more advantageous terms than he had before enjoyed. Having become a journeyman, he found employment in his native State, but he was not satisfied with the conditions surrounding him. After nine months of continuous toil and frugal living, he was enabled to save only $60, and he resolved to try his fortune in the new country to the then far West. Joining a company then being formed at Montpelier to take up land previously located by Oliver Goss, the young man - having but just attained his majority - in spite of his father's remonstrance, set out. From Albany, the trip to Buffalo was made by canal packet, and in the journey from home to this point all his little savings, except $7, were exhausted. The schooner "Atlanta" was about to leave Buffalo for Chicago, and Mr. Cobb at once explained to the captain his predicament. The fare to Chicago was just $7, but this did not include board, and Mr. Cobb was delighted, as well as surprised, when the captain told him to secure provisions for the journey and he would carry him to Chicago for the balance. After a boisterous voyage of five weeks, anchor was dropped opposite the little settlement called Chicago. Its hundred white and half-breed inhabitants were sheltered by log huts, while the seventy soldiers forming the garrison occupied Fort Dearborn. And now a new hardship assailed the young pioneer. Disregarding the bargain made in Buffalo, the tricky commander of the schooner refused to let him leave its deck until his passage money had been paid in full. For three days he was detained in sight of the promised land, until he was delivered by a generous stranger, who came on board to secure passage to Buffalo. His first earnings onshore were applied by Mr. Cobb in repaying the sum advanced by his kind deliverer. Before the boat sailed he found employment on a building which James Kinzie was erecting for a hotel. He knew nothing of the builder's trade, but had pluck and shrewdness, and took hold with such will that he was placed in charge of the work, at a salary of $2.75 per day - a very liberal remuneration in his estimation. The building was constructed of logs and unplaned boards, and did not require a very high order of architectural skill, but within a few days a man, seeking the position, called attention to the lack of experience on the part of the youthful superintendent, and clinched the matter by offering to do the work for fifty cents less per day. Mr. Cobb now invested his earnings in a stock of trinkets and began to trade with the Indians, by which he secured a little capital, and resolved to erect a building of his own and go into business. The nearest sawmill was at Plainfield, forty miles southwest of Chicago, across unbroken prairies. Getting his directions from an Indian, Mr. Cobb set out on foot to purchase the lumber for his building. There being no trail, he was guided solely by the groves which grew at long intervals, and found only one human habitation on the way. From one of the settlers at Plainfield he secured the use of three yoke of oxen and a wagon, with which to bring home his purchase of lumber. He was but fairly started when a three-days rain set in, and the surface of the prairies became so soft that the wagon sank deep in the mud, making progress almost impossible and compelling an occasional lightening of the load by throwing off a part. After sleeping three nights on the wagon with such shelter as could be made with boards from the load, with the rain beating down pitilessly and the wolves' howling the only accompaniment, he arrived at the Des Plaines River, still twelve miles from his destination. The stream was so swollen by the rains that it was impossible to cross with the wagon, and the balance of the load was thrown off and the oxen turned loose to find their way back to their owner, which they did without accident. After the rains were over and the ground became settled, the trip was repeated, the lumber recovered and brought safely to Chicago. these are some of the experiences of the pioneer, and can never be forgotten by those who pass through them. When Mr. Cobb had completed his building, which was two stories in height, he rented the upper story, and began business on the ground floor. The capital consisted of $30, furnished by Mr. Goss, who was a partner in the venture, and was invested in stock for a harness shop. The industry and business ability of the working partner caused the enterprise to prosper and grow, and at the end of a year he withdrew and set up business on his individual account in larger quarters. His business continued to grow, and in 1848 he sold out at a good advance. He then engaged in the general boot and shoe, hide and leather trade, in partnership with William Osborne, and found success beyond his fondest anticipations, and in 1852 he retired from mercantile operations. About the same time, he was appointed executor of the estate of Joel Matteson and guardian of the latter's five children. When this trust closed in 1866, the estate was found to have been vastly benefited by his shrewd management of the trust. With characteristic foresight, Mr. Cobb early began to invest in Chicago realty, and the wisdom of his calculations has been abundantly demonstrated. He has also been identified with semi-public enterprises, or those which largely concerned and benefited the city, while yielding a return to the investors. In 1855 he was elected a director of the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company, and subsequently one of the Board of Managers. This position he held until he sold his interest and retired from the company in 1887. It was his executive ability which was largely responsible for the establishment of cable roads in the city, those on State Street and Wabash Avenue being constructed under his advice and direction, while President of the Chicago City Railway. He is still active in the councils of that company, as well as of the West Division horse railway. For many years he was among the controlling members of the Chicago & Galena Union and Beloit & Madison Railroads, now a part of the Northwestern System (see biography of John B. Turner). Mr. Cobb is a Director of the National Bank of Illinois, and several blocks of fine buildings in the business district contribute to his income, as the result of his faith in the city and sagacity in selection. While being prospered, he has not forgotten to add to his own felicity by contributing to the happiness of others. He has been one of the kindest husbands and fathers, and not only his family but the city of his home have often shared in his benefactions. When the effort to raise $1,000,000 for the buildings of the new University of Chicago was straining every resource of the Trustees, Mr. Cobb came forward unsolicited and donated $150,000, assuring the success of the movement. The "History of Chicago, " by John Moses, says: "It is believed that up to the time when this subscription was made, few, if any, greater ones had ever been made to education by a Chicago citizen at one time. A noble building, the Cobb Lecture Hall, now stands on the University campus, a monument of the builder's liberality and public spirit. As long as the great university endures, this memorial of Silas B. Cobb's life will stand, the corporation having pledged to rebuild the hall if it should be destroyed." The Presbyterian Hospital and Humane Society of Chicago are also among the beneficiaries of his generosity, and Mr. Cobb will be remembered as one of the city's largest benefactors, as well as a successful business man. In 1840 Mr. Cobb married Miss Maria, daughter of Daniel Warren, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. He thus describes his first meeting with his future bride: "I arrived in Chicago in the spring of 1833. In October of the same year I was occupying my new shop opposite the Kinzie Hotel - in the building of which my first dollar was earned in Chicago. Standing at my shop one afternoon, talking with a neighbor, my attention was attracted by the arrival at the hotel of a settler's wagon from the East. With my apron on and sleeves rolled up, I went with my neighbor to greet the weary travelers and to welcome them to the hospitalities of Fort Dearborn, in accordance with the free and easy customs of 'high society' in those days. * * * * There were several young women in the party, two of them twin sisters, whom I thought particularly attractive, so much so that I remarked to my friend, after they had departed, that when I was prosperous enough so that my pantaloons and brogans could be made to meet, I was going to look up those twin sisters and marry one of them or die in trying." The same pertinacity and acumen which characterized his every undertaking carried him through seven years of toil and privation until he had won the prize, which indeed she proved to be. Their wedding took place on the 27th of October. Her twin sister married Jerome Beecher (for sketch of whom see another page). Mrs. Cobb passed away on the 10th of May, 1888. Of her six children, only two survive. Two daughters died in infancy, and Walter, the first-born and only son, and Lenore, wife of Joseph G. Coleman, are also deceased. The others are: Maria Louisa, wife of William B. Walker, and Bertha, widow of the late William Armour. Being a man of firm principle, Mr. Cobb has always adhered to a few simple rules of conduct, in the adoption of which any youth may hope to win moderate success, at least. He early discovered the disadvantage of being in debt, and made it a rule as soon as he got out to stay out. The other words forming his motto are: Industry, economy, temperate habits and unswerving integrity. A few more words from the pen of Mr. Cobb will fittingly close this brief article. On the guests' register in the Vermont State Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, appeared this entry over his signature: "A native of Vermont, I left Montpelier in April, 1833, and arrived at Fort Dearborn, now the city of Chicago, May 29th of the same year. I have lived in Chicago from that time to the present day. Every building in Chicago has been erected during my residence here."

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 143-146

the spirit of heroism sometimes slumbers within the breasts of people who would be least suspected of possessing it. Few persons can realize, when acquiring an accomplishment, in what way it may become useful to themselves or others, and no one can foresee at what moment the Almighty may require the exercise of the gifts which He has bestowed upon them. Some sudden catastrophe or unusual circumstance is often necessary to arouse the latent powers of individuals, which might otherwise never have been called into action. The opportunity does not often find an individual ready to grasp it, however, and all due honor and reverence should be meted out to him who proves himself equal to the great emergency which is unexpectedly thrust upon him. Jacob Conrad was born in Schwarzenbach, province of Oldenburg, Germany, April 22, 1838, and died in Winnetka, April 15, 1894. His parents, Matthias and Elizabeth (Zar) Conrad, were natives of the same place as himself. In 1851 they left the Fatherland and came to the United States. They first settled in Chicago, but finally located upon a farm at Niles Center, Cook County. Here the father died at the age of eighty-one years, the mother having previously passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Rose, in Chicago. After her death Mr. Conrad was married a second time, this union being with Mrs. Hammer, who yet survives. She is the mother of Mrs. Frances Conrad, wife of M. C. Conrad. Matthias Conrad was the father of two sons and three daughters, as follows: Jacob, the subject proper of this notice; Mrs. Katie Schmidt, Mrs. Mary Rose, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson and Matt C. Conrad. Jacob Conrad was about thirteen years old when the family came to America. While a young man he was engaged in lumbering, and during his dangerous logging and rafting operations he became an expert swimmer, and this accomplishment was destined to be of incalculable benefit to himself and his fellow-beings. His first independent business venture was that of a merchant, and he became the first dealer in meats at Winnetka. His last occupation was that of a dealer in hay. In all his business affairs he aimed to do exact justice to all, and he became widely known through his veracity and unswerving integrity. He was a devout member of the Catholic Church, and politically was an independent Democrat. He filled many local offices, including that of Township Supervisor, and enjoyed the highest respect of his fellow-citizens. His habits were plain and his dress simple, and few would recognize a hero in so plain a garb. However, all that constitutes valor and heroism was locked in his faithful heart, and he was destined to save the lives of many people. His name ought to go down to posterity, and the memory of his daring deeds be an everlasting, precious heirloom to his descendants. The name of the “Lady Elgin” brings many sad recollections to thousands of people along Lake Michigan, and her collision with another vessel and immediate wrecking is fresh in the minds of the citizens of Winnetka. the collision took place Friday, September 7, 1860, and the steamer, which was bound on an excursion from Milwaukee to Chicago, went to pieces in a heavy sea. On that memorable morning Mr. Conrad had come from his father’s home at Niles Center to attend communion and mass at the Gross Point Catholic Church. As he had fasted from the night before, he was hardly in a physical condition to perform the work which Providence had mapped out for him. While still at church, word was received at that place that a boat had gone down and many people were battling with the waves. Mr. Conrad jumped into a wagon and rapidly rode towards the shore near the scene of the disaster, where considerable wreckage had already drifted upon the beach. He saw at a glance that unless help was extended to those in the water they would never reach shore, as the waves, which were running very high, would throw them back again into the sea. He procured a long rope, said to have been a new clothesline, and fastening the same under his arms, he swam into the water, and grasping those who were still alive, was drawn to shore by willing hands and immediately taken good care of. As soon as he was able, he would return to the water and rescue another victim, and these excursions were continued until late in the afternoon, though he received no nourishment during all this time. He rescued twenty-eight people in all, the first being a colored man, who thanked him profusely for his delivery. Many stirring incidents and heart-rending scenes occurred that day. One in particular made a lasting impression on the mind of Mr. Conrad. A woman wearing hoopskirts came near him, and he grasped the skirts and had almost succeeded in bringing her to the beach, when an immense wave wrenched the woman away, leaving only a part of the broken skirt in his hands. She arose to the surface with another wave, but out of his reach, and, throwing up her hands, she exclaimed, “O Lord, do take me!” and when next seen she was dead. That cry went through the hero’s heart like a knife, but it nerved him to continue his daring deeds till no more people could be seen afloat on the waves. Mr. Conrad was married, in Cook County, to Mary Stuben, a native of Germany. She survives him and has been the mother of five children, of whom the following reached maturity: Peter, Jacob (deceased), Louis C., Minnie and Mary. Of these, Louis C. was born November 27, 1873, in Winnetka. He was married, at Gross Point, to Miss Anna M. Brandl. They have one son, Joseph J. Conrad.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 88-89

C HARLES CRAIN was one of the worthy pioneers of Evanston, and is entitled to honorable mention in this record. He was born in Stockton, New York, July 16, 1822, and died at Evanston, June 2, 1891. He was a son of Charles Crain, of whom further mention will be found in the biography of Osro Crain, upon another page of this volume. Charles was a small boy when the family removed to Indiana, where he remained until he reached the age of eighteen years. He first visited Chicago in 1840, making the journey on foot in company with his brothers. He soon after returned to Indiana, but the following year he again came to Cook County, and learned the cooper’s trade in John Foster’s shop in Niles Township. He worked at this trade until the spring of 1850, when he started overland for California, accompanied by his brother and several others from Cook County. He remained in the land of gold but a few months, returning by way of the Nicaragua route, he and his party being the first to make use of that since-popular thoroughfare across the Isthmus. They were fourteen days in crossing Central America on horseback, under the leadership of a native guide. He reached home a little less than a year from the time of starting. In 1846 he had purchased a small farm lying on both sides of the present Ridge Avenue, south of Greenleaf Street, and he now engaged in market-gardening upon this tract. The rapid growth of Chicago and Evanston afforded a ready market for his products, and he continued this vocation until 1875, at which date he sold most of his land, and all has since become a part of the city of Evanston. In 1846 he was married to Sarah Burroughs, daughter of David W. and Judith W. Burroughs, who became residents of Evanston in 1844. Mrs. Burroughs’ maiden name was Stevens. She was a native of New Hampshire and her husband of Vermont. The Burroughs family, which is remotely of English descent, was one of the first to locate in Massachusetts, where one of its members was burned for witchcraft, while the crusade against that imaginary evil was at its height. Mrs. Crain, who still survives, was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, and came to Cook County in 1842. There were but four frame houses within the present limits of Evanston when she located there. She became the mother of ten children, of whom the following is the record: Malvina C. is the wife of O. D. Angle, of Evanston. Melissa S. died at the age of sixteen years. Alice E. is now Mrs. J. C. McDougall, of Evanston, where Osro A. died March 13, 1886, at the age of twenty-nine years. Lucy J. and William E. still reside at the old homestead, and Charles E. also makes his home in Evanston. Frances M. is the wife of William H. Blake, of South Evanston, where George H. also resides; and Harvey E., the youngest, is living at Arlington Heights. Mr. Crain was an early member of the Masonic order, and previous to his demise was voted an honorary life-membership by Evans Lodge. An adherent of Republican principles, he was never a seeker of political patronage. During his later years he was severely afflicted with rheumatism, but bore his trials with patience and resignation. He was a man of quiet, domestic tastes, who sought little notoriety, but enjoyed the esteem and friendship of the community in which most of his life was spent.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 79-80

OSRO AMANDOR CRAIN, a resident of Cook County for fifty-five years, was born at Stockton, Chautauqua County, New York, September 17, 1819. He is one of a family of nine children born to Charles Crain and Fidelia (Case) Crain, both of whom were born near Middlebury, Vermont. The Crain family is of Welsh extraction. Owing to religious persecution, seven brothers of that name came to America in a sailing-vessel during the Colonial period. They settled in Vermont, and their posterity is now numerous in many states of the Union. James Crain, the grandfather of Osro, was a Revolutionary soldier and a prominent farmer of Middlebury. His eldest son, Ezra, became a resident of Illinois, settling at Bloomington, where he died a few years since. At the age of nineteen years Charles Crain married and moved to New York. Thence he went to Geauga County, Ohio, and later to De-Kalb County, Indiana, where he died in the seventy-third year of his age. Mrs. Fidelia Crain was a daughter of Timothy Case, a native of Vermont, who entered the Continental army at the age of sixteen years and served four years in the struggle for American independence. He was an early settler of Cook County, Illinois, his death occurring at Niles, commonly known as “Dutchman’s Point.” Following is the record of Charles Crain’s children: Irving, who was fatally gored by a bull at Hamilton, Indiana; Leander, a retired farmer near Durand, Wisconsin; Osro A.; Anna, Mrs. L. Burroughs, of Evanston; Charles and Fidelia, who died while residing at Evanston, the latter being the wife of Daniel Kelly; Jackson, residing at Farm Hill, Wisconsin; and Martha, Mrs. Little, who died at Hamilton, Indiana. Osro A. Crain was about sixteen years old when the family removed to Indiana. On attaining his majority he left home and, with his brothers, Charles and Leander, came on foot to Chicago, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, bringing all his earthly possessions in a pack on his back. His first employment was at chopping wood, for which he received $10 a month and his board. He subsequently learned the cooper’s trade at Gross Point, and, being naturally ingenious and handy with tools, he was able to make a perfect barrel in one week from the time he began, a feat which naturally astonished his employer and fellow-workmen. At the end of three weeks he had thoroughly mastered the trade, and was made foreman of the shop. In 1844 he purchased twenty acres of land in the present city of Evanston, including the site of his present residence on Ridge Avenue. This land, which cost him $5 per acre, was covered with heavy timber. He built a six-room frame house, at an expense of $300, which surpassed in size and pretension any other residence on the Ridge Road north of Chicago. Mr. Crain subsequently purchased other tracts of land in this locality, owning at one time over three hundred acres, and has always been a dealer in real estate to a greater or less extent. In 1849 he became imbued with the California fever, and started overland for the new El Dorado with a team of oxen, making the trip from the Missouri River in seventy days. The damaged provisions, which were the only food obtainable in the mines, were ruinous to health, causing the death of thousands of men; and by the advice of his physician he started for home in the following November. He sailed on the steamer “Panama,” on her first trip from San Francisco to the Isthmus, whence he went by way of New Orleans to St. Louis, arriving in the latter city on New Year’s Day, 1850. From that point the journey was continued by stage and team to Shabbona Grove, Illinois, where his wife was staying at the residence of her father. Having recuperated his health, on the 10th of April, 1850, Mr. Crain again turned his face toward the West, and with three companions and a number of horses and mules, re-embarked upon the long journey across the plains. This time they consumed but sixty days in covering the ground beyond the Missouri River, making a brief call at Salt Lake City, where some of their jaded animals were traded for ponies, with which to complete the trip. He engaged in mining at a place still known as Crain’s Gulch in Georgetown, near Coloma, and later at the Arbuckle Diggings, in the Trinity Mountains, where he was foreman of a mining company. He refrained from drinking or gambling, and thereby avoided many of the difficulties in which miners are apt to become entangled. As leader of the Vigilance Committee, he was influential in driving out the gamblers and other vicious characters who visited the camp, and on one occasion saved the life of a comrade who was threatened by one of the banished class. Having accumulated about $6,000, in 1856 he returned home, by way of Panama, and has since been a permanent resident of Evanston, where a street was named in his honor. In 1860 he made another trip to the West, spending a few months in Colorado. In 1843, Mr. Crain was married to Olivia A. Hill, daughter of Aruna Hill, an early settler at Gross Point, in whose cooper-shop he had been employed. Mrs. Crain died on the 13th of May, 1873, at the age of fifty-two years, leaving one son, William Edgar Crain, who resides in Colorado. In 1874 Mr. Crain was married to Mrs. Diadama Siter, daughter of Robert A. Morse, an early pioneer of Chicago. Mrs. Crain was born at Ithaca, New York, and by her first marriage has one daughter, Clara S., wife of Arthur Rose, of Omaha. Mr. Crain is an honorary member of the Masonic order, with which he has been connected for thirty years. He cast his first Presidential vote for William H. Harrison, and has been a steadfast adherent of the Republican party since the birth of that organization. His career has been one of integrity and consistency, and he commands the respect and esteem of an extensive circle of acquaintances.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 41-43

Capt. William Henry Dobson, one of the most popular and worthy of the old-time lake captains, died at his home in Chicago on the 24th of May, 1894, and his remains were deposited in Rose Hill Cemetery. But little is known of his parentage or early life, although it is certain his ancestors were English. He was born in Bangor, Maine, July 11, 1819. This was but a short time after the arrival of his parents from England, and no relative save his two daughters is known to exist in this country. At twelve years of age, against the wish of his parents, and, in fact, without their knowledge, he left home to go to sea, sailing as a cabin-boy. He continued for some years upon the ocean, and came West about 1840, making his home at Chicago, and sailing for many years upon the Great Lakes. He acted as mate on several vessels, and served in that capacity with Capt. Samuel Langley, of St. Joseph, Michigan, on the brigantine “Frances Mills.” He was subsequently the commander of one of the finest vessels on the Lakes at that time. This was owned by ex-Mayor Thomas Dyer, of Chicago, was built about 1851, at Michigan City, Indiana, and called the “C. P. Williams.” On his retirement from the Lakes, Captain Dobson engaged in business as a ship-chandler on South Water Street in Chicago for many years. He was a partner at one time with Capt. Nelson Napier, under the title of Napier & Dobson. Subsequently the house was known as Bruce & Dobson. Later he was employed by Harding & Hall, to whom the business had been sold, and retired from business about 1863. Subsequently he built houses, which yielded him a comfortable income. He was hampered by no extravagant habits and was a successful business man, becoming possessed of considerable valuable real estate in Chicago. Captain Dobson was of a peculiarly reticent disposition, but had a very even temper and was never known to show anger or other violent emotion. He always exercised a marvelous self-control, and throughout his long career, and even while upon the water, he was never known to speak above an ordinary tone of voice. Although his early education was extremely limited, he was a keen observer of men and things; he was an extensive reader, and became a very well-informed man. He was especially fond of the study of history, and was an interesting conversationalist when he could be drawn out, surprising his listeners by the beauties of his mind and character. In religious faith Captain Dobson adhered to the church of his fathers, the Protestant Episcopal, and he was an enthusiastic and unswerving adherent and advocate of the political principles of the Republican party. He was much interested in the work of the Masonic fraternity, in which he attained the thirty-second degree, and was active in organizing lodges in Chicago. He was affiliated with Cleveland Lodge, Washington Chapter, Oriental Consistory and the Chicago Commandery of that order. He was a generous contributor to charitable objects, although little of this was known previous to the examination of his papers by his executors. Captain Dobson’s contemporaries, among whom may be mentioned Capt. John Prindiville (whose biography appears in this work), speak of him only in the warmest terms of friendship and commendation. On the 18th of January, 1854, Captain Dobson was married, at Chicago, to Miss Jane Backus, a native of Harbor Creek, Erie County, Pennsylvania, whom he met while she was on a visit to friends in this city. She died only six years after their marriage, at the age of thirty years, leaving two daughters, Emma J. and Mary A. The former is the wife of James I. Cusack, and the latter is Mrs. G. F. Tieman, all residing in Chicago.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 84-85

Edwin Drury, an honored veteran of the great Civil War, residing at Wilmette, is an offspring of some of the oldest and most patriotic families in America. His parents were George Albert Drury and Mary Elizabeth Heald. On his father's side his lineage is traced through eight generations of American yeomanry, and he represents the ninth generation of his mother's family in America. The name Drury is derived from a town so called in Normandy, from which the founder of the family in England came with William the Conqueror, and was one of his aides at the battle of Hastings, in the year 1066. He settled at Thurston, in the county of Suffolk, and from him have sprung nearly all the people of that name in England and America. The name–taken from the Sanskrit “dhru,” to be steadfast; the root of the Anglo-Saxon “treow,” true; the Latin “dru,” loyal; “druerie,” feudal truth–signifies sobriety, modesty, and, in the Saxon language, a pearl. The first representative of the family in this country was Hugh Drury, who is supposed to have sailed form England in the “Abigail,” at nineteen years of age, under the name of George Drewrie, in company with the colony of Governor John Winthrop, junior, which settled at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1635. Hugh Drury had a grant of land in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1640-41, and removed to Boston, where he died in 1689. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston in 1659, and afterward its Lieutenant. His son John served as a Lieutenant of Massachusetts troops in King Philip’s Indian War. Thomas, the son of John Drury, became a prominent farmer of Framingham, Massachusetts, and was a captain of militia. He also took an active interest in civil and religious affairs, and was a schoolmaster and conveyancer. His son Caleb lived and died in Framingham, where he reared a large family of children. Caleb Drury’s son Zedekiah was a blacksmith at Bedford, Massachusetts, and afterward moved to Dunstable, in the same state. Upon the alteration of the boundary line between the two colonies, his home became a part of Hollis, New Hampshire. He subsequently moved to Temple, New Hampshire, and was captain of a company of minute-men. He was among the party which marched “part of ye way” from Temple to Cambridge, on the alarm of April 19, 1775, being then fifty-nine years of age. He and all his family were ardent supporters of the patriot cause. His son, Ebenezer Drury, served three years as a private soldier in the Third New Hampshire Line of Continental troops, and also marched with the company from Temple, on the alarm of the 19th of April, 1775. About 1790 Ebenezer Drury moved to Litchfield, Herkimer County, New York, where he was a leading man of affairs. Jonathan Drury, son of the last-mentioned, was a manufacturer of old-fashioned wooden clocks, some of which are still keeping time at Litchfield. He enlisted in the War of 1812 as a teamster, and went to Sacket’s Harbor. In 1816 he moved to Genesee County, New York, and fifteen years later to Lorain County, Ohio. In 1850 he came to Lake County, Illinois, where he and his wife, Sophia (Cole) Drury, spent the remainder of their lives with their son, George Albert Drury. Said George Albert Drury, father of the subject of this notice, was born at Litchfield, Herkimer County, New York, May 22, 1813, and died at Avon Center, Lake County, Illinois, July 12, 1871. He came to Lake County in 1836, before the days of railroads, making the journey on foot from Lorain County, Ohio. He lived for some years in a log cabin on section 30, in the town of Warren, with his cousins, Leonard and George Gage. He pre-empted the southwest quarter of said section 30 from the Government, built a log house, and married, settling on that place, where he lived until 1865. He then went to Rochester, Minnesota, for a short time with an invalid daughter, to try the effect of the climate on her health. His daughter dying there, he went to Ironton, Ohio, and engaged in the jewelry business with a brother. At the end of two years he sold out the jewelry business, and went to McHenry, Illinois, and embarked in the furniture business. His wife died at McHenry, February 1, 1871. From that time his own health, never very good at the best, began to fail him. He went to his brother Benjamin’s at Avon Center, Lake County, Illinois, for rest and recuperation, was taken worse, and died there, as already stated. George Albert Drury was an influential, public-spirited citizen, and was at different times elected to the office of Supervisor and other offices of trust in the town of Warren. An incident may here be given to illustrate those early days in Illinois. The country was overrun with wolves. They became so bold at night as to lap swill from pails standing outside the doorway. One evening, as all were seated in their log cabin, they heard a lapping of swill on the outside, and, supposing it to be occasioned by a wolf, George Gage said to the father of the subject of this sketch: “George, just open the door a little way, and I will shoot it with my rifle.” The door was opened and the animal shot. Taking their lantern for inspection, they found that an Indian dog had been killed instead of a wolf. Fresh snow had fallen on the ground, and the camp of the Pottawattamies was less than two miles distant. Knowing that the Indians fairly worshiped their dogs and would be apt to make serious trouble if it was found that one had been killed on their premises, prompt action was taken to remove all vestige of the tragedy. The cabin stood on the edge of the timber, about twenty rods from a small lake, on the banks of which a stable for their horses had been built. The snow, the chips and everything showing traces of the bloody deed were carefully gathered together and buried under the horses in this stable. The next morning the three men took their axes and went into the woods to work. Leonard Gage was married. His wife, with their little son about one year old, was to be left at home all alone. Thinking that the Indian whose dog had been shot would be certain to track him, instructions were given to Mrs. Gage to be sure and insist that the animal in dispute was a wolf instead of a dog. True enough, along about ten o’clock in the forenoon, the old Indian opened the door without rapping, as is their custom, and walked into the cabin. Proceeding at once to the subject, he said: “De hound, de hound, bow, bow, wow?” Bravely controlling her fear, Mrs. Gage replied: “No, the wolf, the wolf.” Repeating his question a number of times without satisfactory results, the old Indian finally went out doors and commenced circling round the cabin, increasing the size of the circle until he had gone around three or four times, when he finally went off shaking his head; it was beyond his comprehension. Mary Elizabeth Heald, the mother of Edwin Drury, was born in Furnace Hollow, near Litchfield, Herkimer County, New York, September 8, 1815. She was a daughter of Daniel Heald, who operated an iron foundry at that place. He was born in Acton, Massachusetts, and was a mason by trade. In 1838 he came West and settled on the southwesterly side of Gage’s Lake, Lake County, Illinois, where his wife died. He then located at Waukegan, Illinois, where he erected many of the first brick buildings. His death occurred in Chicago, November 16, 1846, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife, Persis (Howard) Heald, was a daughter of Jeremiah Howard and Zilpha (Lombard) Howard, of Western (now Warren), Worcester County, Massachusetts. Mrs. Persis (Howard) Heald died in Lake County, Illinois, September 26, 1842, aged fifty-nine years. John Heald, the first American ancestor of that family, settled at Concord, Massachusetts, where he was made a Freeman in 1641. In the line of descent traced to Daniel Heald, the first five generations in America bore the Christian name of John. The last of these, Lieut. John Heald, took part in the Concord bridge fight, April 19, 1775. His son Ebenezer, the father of Daniel Heald, was also in the Continental army. Edwin Drury was born in the town of Warren, Lake County, Illinois, November 12, 1842. His boyhood was passed upon the homestead farm, and his education was confined to that of the ordinary district school. On the 9th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Ninety-sixth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving until the 10th of June, 1865, when he was honorably discharged at Camp Harker, near Nashville, Tennessee, because of the close of the war. His regiment was first attached to the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Army of Kentucky, afterwards called the Reserve Corps, under Gen. Gordon Granger. After the battle of Chickamauga there was a re-organization of the army in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and until the close of the war his regiment was attached to the Second Brigade of the First Division of the Fourth Army Corps, under Gen. Gordon Granger, successively relieved by Gens. O. O. Howard, D. S. Stanley and T. J. Wood. Whilst with his regiment, Edwin Drury was a participator in the following events and engagements, namely: Defense of Cincinnati, Ohio; Second Fort Donelson; Spring Hill; Triune; Liberty Gap and Shelbyville, Tennessee; Buzzard’s Roost; Rocky-face Ridge; Dalton; Resaca; Kingston; Pumpkin Vine Creek; New Hope Church; and in front of Dallas, Georgia. In June, 1864, he became unfitted for active duty in the field, and while absent from his regiment was acting Hospital Steward at Dalton, Georgia, for some months, rejoining his regiment at Huntsville, Alabama, in February, 1865. He received no serious wounds, though often exposed to the rain of shot and shell. While he was in charge of the hospital at Dalton, it was captured by Wheeler’s rebel cavalry, and he, together with others who were able, went to the rudely constructed fort there for protection. At a later date, the night of October 13, 1864, when a portion of the rebel general Hood’s forces were in possession of Dalton, he was virtually a prisoner of war. All who were able expected to be sent to rebel prisons. The rebels did not disturb them, however, probably owing to the fact that their wounded, who had fallen into Union hands at the time of Wheeler’s attack, and who were interspersed with the Union inmates in the two hospitals made it necessary to take care of them all, had testified to the uniform kindness and care with which they had been treated. Mr. Drury was a member of the Historical Society of his regiment, and helped to compile a history of the same, which was published in 1887. After the war he located in Chicago, Illinois, and was appointed a deputy in the office of his uncle, Alexander Hamilton Heald, who had been elected city Collector. He continued as a deputy under William J. Onahan, who succeeded Mr. Heald, and was afterward employed in the South Chicago Town Collector’s office, under Henry Spear. He subsequently spent a year or two in the County Treasurer’s office, under Heber S. Rexford and Julian S. Rumsey. Just before the great fire he was appointed Deputy County Clerk of Cook County, Illinois, by John G. Gindele, and continued his connection with that office during the incumbency of George W. Wheeler, Joseph Pollak and Gen. Hermann Lieb, being Chief Deputy for the two last named. In June, 1875, during General Lieb’s term, Mr. Drury resigned his position and entered into a partnership with John Carne, junior, to conduct a tax-abstract and general real-estate business. In November, 1886, said partnership was dissolved and the present firm of Drury Brothers formed, his brother, Horace Greeley Drury, becoming the junior member. They give most of their attention to Wilmette property, maintaining offices both in that village and Chicago. A large portion of the development of the former place is due to their instrumentality. On the 19th of April, 1871, Mr. Drury was married to Hannah Augusta Howard, born December 25, 1849, daughter of William Curtis Howard and Hannah (Roberts, formerly spelled Roburds) Howard, of the town of Grant, Lake County, Illinois. Their only surviving child is a daughter, named Gertrude, who was born March 20, 1875. Mr. Drury is a member of George H. Thomas Post No. 5, Department of Illinois, Grand Army of the Republic, and also of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was the first Regent of Ouilmette Council Number 1107, of the Royal Arcanum. He has resided at Wilmette since 1874, and has served several times as Trustee of said village, and is the present Secretary of its Board of Education, and is also its present Village Collector. Following the example of his father, he has been a life-long Republican, and is a gentleman of pleasing address and marked literary tastes. He has spent considerable time in historical research, and has succeeded in rescuing from oblivion a very complete genealogy of the Drurys of England and America, and the Healds of America.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 143-146

Alexander Cameron Duncan, who is living a retired life in Wilmette, was born at Dundee, Scotland, January 11, 1848. As his name indicates, his lineage may be traced through countless generations of the most renowned Highland clans. He is a son of Alexander Duncan and Eliza Cameron. The former was for thirty years a leading physician and surgeon at Dundee, where his death occurred in 1879, at the age of sixty-five years. James Duncan, father of Alexander Duncan, was for many years a Captain in the British army, and after his retirement from that service became extensively engaged in stock-raising at Cargill, in Perthshire, where he was the owner of large estates. He bred some of the finest horses and cattle in the kingdom, and a large silver cup which he received as a prize for superior stock is still preserved by the subject of this notice. Mrs. Eliza Duncan died in 1893, at the age of sixty-seven years. She was a daughter of Alexander Cameron, a remote descendant of the Cameron of Lochiel Castle, who long flourished as the head of his clan in feudal times. Dr. Alexander Duncan had three sons: James, Alexander C. and David J. R. The first-mentioned, who is now deceased, was engaged in banking at Liverpool, and the youngest is a prominent civil-engineer of London, England, who, among other enterprises, was connected with the construction of the famous Tay Bridge, in Scotland. The subject of this biography received a liberal education at Taunton College, Somersetshire, England, where he made a special study of civil-engineering, and graduated at the age of eighteen years. In 1872 he came to America, and for the next five years was engaged in the survey of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, between Winnipeg and British Columbia. In 1878 he returned to Scotland, but two years later came to the United States and located in Chicago. For the next ten years he occupied a position as bookkeeper in the great dry-goods house of Mandel Brothers. At the expiration of that period, having inherited considerable property, he retired from active business. Since 1885 he has resided at Wilmette, where, in the summer of 1895, he met with a serious accident. He fell from one of the upper windows of his residence, receiving injuries which disabled him for some time and came near causing his death. Mr. Duncan was married, in 1884, to Miss Jessie Gairns, of Chicago. They are the parents of two bright children, named, respectively, Cameron and Norman. Mrs. Duncan is a member of the Congregational Church of Wilmette. The home of the family is one of the most pleasant, both externally and internally, in that attractive rural village. Though he has formed no connection with organized social fraternities, Mr. Duncan has attracted many friends, who reciprocate his enjoyment in the dispensation of a hearty and refined hospitality.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 87-88

The Dupee family has lived in Boston since early in the seventeenth century. They were Huguenots, and the original name, Dupuis, was changed by legislation to Dupee. The original Dupuis was named John, and his son, Charles, was the great-grandfather of Horace M. Dupee. John Dupee came to Boston soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was an Elder in the old Huguenot Church which once stood in School Street, Boston. The children of the second and third generations made their home in Walpole and Wrentham, Massachusetts. Charles, son of John Dupee, was born in Boston in 1734, and died at Wrentham, August 12, 1802. His wife, Hannah Smith, was born July 16, 1737, in Walpole, and died in April, 1813. James Dupee, their son, born in Walpole in 1756, died August 13, 1819. He married Esther Hawes, who was born in Wrentham, and died in Walpole October 28, 1851, at the venerable age of ninety-six years. James Dupee was a man of unusual intelligence, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. Cyrus, son of James Dupee, learned the mercantile business in Boston, and was engaged in the wholesale provision trade in Brighton, a suburb of Boston. He died there in 1841, leaving eight children. Three of his sons, Charles B., Cyrus and Horace M. Dupee, have become prominent business men of Chicago. He was a man of sterling character, devoted to his family, and diligent in business. The family has for many generations been noted in mercantile circles, and has always maintained a high reputation for integrity. Horace M. Dupee was born December 13, 1831, at Brighton, Massachusetts. He was educated in the Boston Grammar Schools. When he was ten years old his father died, which compelled him to leave school at an early age. Upon the older children now devolved the support of the family. In 1848, at the age of seventeen years, the subject of this sketch entered the employ of Carter & Treadwell, wholesale clothing dealers in Boston, and remained with them nearly five years. He also worked a short time for Edward A. Locke & Company. In 1854 he came to Chicago, to which place his brother, Charles B. Dupee, had preceded him some six months previously. Here he became associated with his brother in the provision trade, and their business relations continued nearly seven years. After that he formed a co-partnership with Asa Worcester, under the firm name of H. M. Dupee & Company, which lasted until the great fire of 1871. They had been carrying on an extensive wholesale provision business, which was continued by Mr. Dupee alone. The old store was located on South Water Street, but after the fire he built a shanty on the east side of Michigan Avenue, where the Lake Front Park is now located. The city gave the merchants of Chicago permission to erect temporary stores on this ground, for which privilege each paid a rental of about $100 per year. He had been a heavy loser in the fire, but with characteristic Yankee zeal and indomitable courage and perseverance, he rebuilt on the North Side of Kinzie Street, and continued there until 1880. Then he bought a half-block on the corner of twenty-fifth and La Salle Streets, where he built his warehouses, and where he cured hams and bacon by the "Dupee" process. The Dupee brand had become so popular throughout the western countries and the Pacific Coast, especially with the people of California, that the product of this house, as well as that made by Charles B. Dupee, was in later years shipped to that territory almost exclusively, and it was impossible to fully supply the demand, although a large addition to his facilities was made by H. M. Dupee in 1890. The whole buildings now cover a space of 300x120 feet. Since 1892 he has practically retired from active business, as much of his time is absorbed in caring for his numerous investments, consisting principally of real estate. In connection with his business, Mr. Dupee has been a member of the Board of Trade for twenty-five years, and has left a clean record in all his transactions with that body, as nothing of a speculative character ever entered into his operations. In 1868 his success in business enabled him to make preparations for the completion of a permanent home, and he bought land on Woodlawn Avenue, 200x300 feet, at $30 a foot, which he has lived to see increase in value to $300 a foot. In 1875 he came to live in Kenwood, where he built a handsome residence in 1886. The house is remarkable in many ways, its situation being not the least. It was designed by Andrews & Jaques, pupils of Richardson, the celebrated Boston architect. The hardwood finish and carvings are among the finest that art can devise or money can procure-the "egg and dart" being everywhere present. This style of ornamentation has been used with the best effects for centuries in Europe. The spacious mantels show especially beautiful designs in wood carving. By the suggestions of Mr. and Mrs. Dupee, the house was planned especially for home comfort, and presents many peculiar aspects, inasmuch as no parlor exists in it, while the expansive bed chambers and wardrobes suggest comfort, rather than useless luxury or vain show. Antique furniture abounds, and adds not a little to the appearance of solidity and durability. The British and American architectural journals have embodied a description of the house in their pages, and it has often been visited by artists and been copied and photographed by architects. It stands as a monument to th4e good sense and advanced ideas of its owner. Mr. Dupee was married, October 1, 1874, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Robinson Buchanan, a daughter of John S. and Mabel Ann (Robinson) Buchanan. The latter was the daughter of Dr. Robinson, of Dublin, Ireland. She died in 1890, aged seventy-five years. John S. Buchanan died in 1875, at the age of sixty years. He formerly resided in Strathroy, near London, Canada, and came to Chicago in 1853. Mrs. Dupee was educated in Chicago, where she has a host of friends. She loves the quiet of her home life, where she dispenses hospitality with rare grace and courtesy. Mr. Dupee is the father of five children: Leroy Church Dupee, Cherrie Mabel, William Harold, Margaret Buchanan and Horace Fawcett. The eldest, Leroy C., is the fruit of a former marriage of Mr. Dupee to Cornelia Church, who died in 1872. She was a native of Hudson, New York, and a daughter of Leroy Church, formerly editor of the Christian Times, of Chicago. Mr. Dupee comes from a long-lived race, noted for its sanguine temperament and sunny nature, both of which he has inherited. He has been a member of the Chicago Club for ten years, has been for many years a member of the Washington Park Club, and is now identified with the Kenwood, Hyde Park and Review Clubs. He has, by diligence and integrity, acquired a comfortable competence, and enjoys life by participating in rational and social pleasures, and may now look back upon a useful and well-spent life and a successful business career.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 15-16

Joel Ellis, for nearly fifty years an active citizen and useful business man of Chicago, was descended from the old Puritan stock which has done so much in developing the mental, moral and material interests of the United States. The energy, fortitude and stern moral character which characterized the founders of the New England colonies is still observed in many of their descendants, and these attributes were possessed by Joel Ellis in a marked degree. His first ancestor of whom any record is now to be found was Barzillai Ellis, born June 9, 1747, presumably in Massachusetts, and of English blood. March 6, 1773, he married Sarah Tobey, who was born June 5, 1755, no doubt in the same state and of similar ancestry. They resided in Conway, Franklin County, Massachusetts, whence they moved, about the close of the last century, to Chautauqua County, New York. Here Barzillai Ellis died in 1827. His youngest son, Samuel Ellis, died in Chicago in 1856. The other children were Barzillai, Asa, Freeman, Benjamin, Joel and Elnathan. The children of Benjamin Ellis were Parmelia, Eleanor, Jane, Stephen, Mason, Datus, Joel (the subject of this sketch) and Ensign. His wife was Sophia Birch, a native of Connecticut. Benjamin Ellis died in Fredonia, New York, in 1855. He was a farmer, and cleared up land in the primeval forest, which consumed the best years of his life and required the assistance of his children, who had little opportunity to attend school. Joel Ellis was born in Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York, May 25, 1818. As above indicated, his early years were devoted to the toil which usually befell farmers’ sons in those days, and he attended school but very little. Schools were far apart and held sessions of only three months per year, in winter, when attendance on the part of many children was almost impossible. However, Joel Ellis was blessed by nature with a sound mind and body, and his clear judgment and active industry made him a successful business man and good citizen. When, in 1838, he set out for the West, whither an uncle (Samuel Ellis, before mentioned) had preceded him, he was an energetic and self-reliant young man of twenty years, full of courage and hopefulness and the ardor and ambition of a strong nature. Arriving in the autumn, he found the young city of Chicago suffering from the commercial and industrial stagnation which followed the financial panic of 1837, and his search for employment was a vain one. The only offer which he received was from his uncle, who was engaged in farming some miles from the then city, but on ground now built up with thousands of the finest homes in Chicago, along Ellis, Greenwood and other avenues of the South Side. He continued in farm labor with his uncle for two years, much of which time was occupied in chopping wood from the timber which then covered this region, and which must be cleared away to make room for a tillable farm. From 1840 to 1858 he was associated with Archibald Clybourn, an active business man of Chicago (see biography elsewhere in this work), and became thoroughly conversant with the meat business, which was one of Mr. Clybourn’s chief enterprises. It was at the house of Mr. Clybourn that he met the lady who became his wife in 1844. This was Miss Susan Galloway, a sister of Mrs. Clybourn and daughter of James and Sally (McClenthan) Galloway, of Pennsylvania birth and Scotch ancestry. Her grandfather, Samuel Galloway, was a native of Scotland, whose wife was of Pennsylvania-German descent. They were among the earliest settlers on the Susquehanna River, and Samuel Galloway was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army. Mrs. Ellis was taken by her parents, when a small child, to Sandusky, Ohio, and thence the family came to Chicago, arriving on the 9th of November, 1826. They left Sandusky on the 1st of October, in a sailing-vessel, and were wrecked south of Mackinaw, but were rescued by another vessel, which brought them to Chicago. James Galloway had visited Illinois in the fall of 1824, and was very much charmed with the country about the Grand Rapids of the Illinois River (now known as Marseilles), where he bought a claim. He spent the winter of 1826-27 in Chicago with his family, and settled on this claim in the following spring, and continued to reside there the balance of his life. His wife died in 1830, and he subsequently married Matilda Stipes, of Virginia. In character Mr. Galloway was a fit representative of his sturdy Scotch ancestry, and was well fitted for pioneering in those early days, when means of travel and communication were difficult, and the dwellers in the wilderness were compelled to forego many comforts and social advantages, besides braving the enmity of their savage neighbors. Of the five children of James and Sally Galloway, Mrs. Clybourn is the eldest. The second, Jane, wife of Washington Holloway, died in 1894. John died in Missouri. Susan is Mrs. Ellis. George, born April 12, 1828, at Marseilles, is now deceased. Of the second marriage, Archibald and Marshall are the only surviving offspring. The former now shares a part of the original farm at Marseilles with George ’s widow. The latter resides in Chicago. On leaving the employ of Mr. Clybourn, Mr. Ellis engaged in the retail meat business on his own account, and furnished supplies to many of the leading hotels and to vessels entering Chicago Harbor. In 1865 he formed a partnership with Thomas Armour and began an extensive whole-sale business in meats and provisions, which grew beyond his fondest dreams of success. In fifteen years he amassed a comfortable fortune, which was largely invested in improved real estate in the city. As the care of his property absorbed much of his time, he decided to retire from active business, and, in the spring of 1871, he purchased twenty acres in the town of Jefferson (now a part of the city of Chicago), on which he built a handsome suburban home, in which he hoped to pass the balance of his days in well-earned rest from the arduous labors which had occupied his earlier years. Scarcely was he settled in his new home when the great fire of October, 1871, robbed him of all his buildings save the home at Jefferson, just completed. Without any repining, he set to work at once to repair his losses. It was his custom to rise at two o’clock in the morning and drive into the city to begin business. There were no rapid-transit systems then to move suburban residents quickly from and to their homes, and he took means which would appall any but such stout natures as his to rebuild his fortunes. In this he was moderately successful, and when a cancer caused his death at his home in Jefferson, October 29, 1886, he left his family comfortably provided for. A quiet, unassuming man, he gave little attention to public affairs, though he took the interest in local and national progress which every true American must feel, and discharged his duty as it appeared to him by supporting the republican party after it came into existence, having formerly affiliated with the Whigs. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was an active supporter of the Universalist Church, being among the organizers of St. Paul’s congregation, whose pastor, Rev. W. E. Manly, performed the ceremony which made him the head of a family. Besides his widow, he left three children, namely: Lucretia, now the widow of George W. Pinney, residing in Chicago; Winfield, of Highland Park, Illinois; and Mary Josephine, Mrs. Algernon S. Osgood, of Chicago.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 31-32

Edward Frederick Ernst, who resides at Wilmette, is one of the characteristic German-American citizens who form an important factor in promoting the commercial interests of Chicago. He was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, October 2, 1848. His parents, Julius Ernst and Sophia Hartman, lived and died in that city. Julius Ernst succeeded his father as a wholesale importer of sugar and coffee, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits throughout his life. John Hartman, the father of Mrs. Sophia Ernst, was a prominent attorney, and for many years served as Secretary of the city of Frankfort. Besides Edward F., Mr. and Mrs. Ernst had one child, a daughter named Helena, who is now the wife of Hon. Edgar Stanton, of Chicago. Edward F. Ernst spent his early years in attendance at the public schools of his native city, and afterwards took a four-years course of study in a gymnasium at Oberstein, graduating at the age of fifteen years. He began his business career in his father’s establishment, but was afterward employed by an uncle, who carried on an extensive shipping business at Rouen, France. Still later he was connected with a mercantile establishment at Antwerp. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, he volunteered in support of the German Emperor, and served throughout the conflict, participating in many of the bloodiest engagements, including Weisenburg, Sedan, and the siege of Paris. He escaped with no serious injury, and upon the close of hostilities was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He retained this position for only about four weeks, during which time he was stationed in the fortress of Maintz. He then resigned and went to Bristol, England, where his brother-in-law, Mr. Stanton, then held the position of United States Consul, and from there came to the United States, in the fall of 1871. After spending six months at Cincinnati, he went to New York City and obtained employment with a large dry-goods importing house, where he remained six years. At the end of that period he came to Chicago, and has since been connected with the immense wholesale house of Marshall Field & Company, holding a responsible position in the notion department. He is energetic and progressive, and gives almost his entire time and attention to his business affairs, holding himself aloof from social and political allurements which might be likely to interfere therewith.

Mr. Ernst was married, in 1885, to Miss Bertha Cranch, daughter of Edward P. and Bertha (Wood) Cranch, of Cincinnati, Ohio., Mrs. Ernst is descended from some of the most conspicuous families of Massachusetts. Her great-grandfather, Richard Cranch, came from England at the age of nineteen years and settled in Massachusetts in 1747. He married Mary Smith, a granddaughter of Col. John Quincy. Mrs. Cranch’s sister was the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States, who, with Josiah Quincy, Noah Webster and Samuel Adams, were contemporary with Richard Cranch at the Massachusetts Bar or in public life. Mr. Cranch was a man of remarkable energy and perseverance, winning his way from poverty and obscurity to the position of Senator, and he also served as Postmaster at Braintree for several years. His son, Judge William Cranch, the father of Edward P. Cranch, became one of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court, and was the author of “Cranch’s Digest,” a standard authority among attorneys. Edward P. Cranch was born at Alexandria, then in the District of Columbia, and became one of the pioneer settlers of Cincinnati, where he was a prominent attorney for fifty years. He died there in December, 1892, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife was a native of Philadelphia, of English parentage.

Mr. and Mrs. Ernst are the parents of two children, named, respectively, Edward Gerald and Constance Emma. Mrs. Ernst, who is a lady of noteworthy culture and refinement, is a member of the Chicago and Wilmette Woman’s Clubs. The family is held in high regard in the social circles of Wilmette, where it has been established since 1889, and their pleasant home on Linden Avenue is one of the most attractive and hospitable which adorn the streets of that delightful suburb.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 44-45

Dr. Moses Evans, an honored veteran among the defenders of the nation, as well as in the ranks of his chosen profession, came to Illinois more than half a century since, and has been an interested participant in many of the stirring scenes which make up the history of this commonwealth. He was born at Fryeburg, Oxford County, Maine, January 1, 1819, and is the only surviving son of Capt. William and Anna (Webster) Evans.

Capt. William Evans was a Revolutionary soldier. He was the first white male born at Seven Lots Settlement, now known as Fryeburg. He married first Sarah Osgood, who was the mother of three children. His second wife, Anna Webster, had eleven children, of whom Moses is the youngest. Captain Evans was a participant in the terrible winter at Valley Forge, and was later a Captain of Maine militia. He was a grandson of David Evans, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who was doubtless a native of Wales.

David, son of the last-named and father of Capt. William Evans, is often mentioned, together with his brother, Sergeant John Evans, in the history of Concord, Massachusetts. They were members of "Rogers' Rangers,'' and took part in General Amherst's disastrous expedition against the St. Francis Indians. They were among the seven original settlers of Fryeburg in 1762-63, then known as the Seven Lots Settlement. David Evans' wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Col. Jeremiah Stickney, of Penacook, Maine. Moses Evans took the preparatory course at Fryeburg Academy, and at the age of eighteen years began the study of medicine under Dr. Ruel Barrows, of Fryeburg. He graduated from Dartmouth College at the age of twenty, and began practice at Waterford, Oxford County, Maine. In 1844 he came West and located at Waukegan, Illinois, arriving there on the 1st of June. He made the journey by way of Boston, Albany and Buffalo, taking a steamer from the latter point to Waukegan, where he continued in practice over forty years.

In the spring of 1862 Dr. Evans was sent by the authorities of Lake County to Pea Ridge, Arkansas, to care for the sick and wounded troops of the Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry, who went out from Lake County. A few months later he returned and helped to recruit the Ninety-sixth Illinois Regiment, many of whose members were boys at whose birth he attended. He was mustered in as Surgeon of this regiment, but shortly after he resigned his position. He continued with the regiment, however, as First Assistant Surgeon in order to look after the health of the boys, in whom he took a fatherly interest throughout their service. His duties were arduous and he was kept in constant activity because of the disasters attending the battles of Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Atlanta and others. After the battle of Chickamauga, while in charge of an ambulance train on the way to Stevenson, Alabama, he was wounded in the calf of the leg by a stray shot. He was with Sherman's army throughout the campaign from Nashville to Atlanta, and won the confidence of officers and men in an unusual degree.

After the war he had a very extensive surgical practice in Lake County. He served many years as County Physician, and was Health Officer of the city of Waukegan from its incorporation until the close of his residence there. He served as Coroner of Lake County, was Postmaster at Waukegan for three years, and was United States Examining Surgeon for Pensions for a considerable period. He became a great sufferer from asthma on account of his exposure during the war, and in 1877 he went to California, to escape the rigors of the lake-shore climate. He now spends his winters in California, and resides during the balance of his time with his daughter, Mrs. Brown, of Evanston. Upon his removal from Waukegan he was tendered a banquet by friends and comrades as a testimonial of their esteem.

On the first day of the year 1848, Dr. Evans was married to Miss Anna Sanford, daughter of William Sanford, a lumberman of Brighton, Canada, at which place she was born. She died in San Francisco, California, January 9, 1885 in the fifty-eighth year of her age. She was a Christian lady, of most patient, cheerful and lovable character. Three children were left to mourn her loss. Arthur Herbert, the eldest, is a prominent business man of San Francisco, California. Calista Jean died at Kinsley, Kansas, December 18, 1890, aged forty years. Anna Cora is the wife of Robert K. Brown, a Chicago business man, residing in Evanston. Frederick Graham, the youngest of the family, died July 7, 1857, at the age of one year.

Dr. Evans' first vote was cast in 1840, when he supported the famous "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too'' ticket. He has acted with the Republican party since its organization. He has been a member of the Congregational Church from youth, and joined the first Grand Army post organized at Waukegan. He has since been connected with Gen. George H. Thomas Post at San Francisco, and U. S. Grant Post at Omaha.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 21-22

James Hallett, nearly all of whose life was passed in Illinois, was among those hardy and industrious pioneers whose efforts and sacrifices made possible the enjoyment of the present advantages of our people, many of whom can have but little realizing sense of the cost of the same. His veins held the blood of pioneers in the truest sense of the term, for his ancestors were among those faithful spirits who crossed the wide Atlantic, never to see again the scenes and friends of their childhood, to found a nation on the Western Continent. They located on Cape Cod, where Moses Hallett and Eunace Crowell, the parents of James Hallett, were born. Both the Hallett and Crowell families were among the first settlers of Cape Cod. The first of the former was Andrew Hallett, who came from England soon after the landing of the Pilgrims. Moses, grandfather of James Hallett, was a ship-builder at Barnstable, where Moses Hallett was born. The great-grandfather of the last-named also bore the name of Moses. Like all Cape Cod men, the navigation of the sea was their calling down to the generation of which we write. In 1816 Moses Hallett and John Bancroft went from Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Howard County, Missouri, the journey occupying seventy-six days. After a short time Mr. Hallett returned to Massachusetts to claim his bride, who was a native of Hyannis. To quote a recent writer: “The trials and hardships, suffering and self-denial of the old frontiersmen has passed into history. * * * But the women of that early day were the ones who exercised the greater courage and fortitude. And great, indeed, must have been the love and adoration of those women for their husbands when they voluntarily severed all ties and associations of childhood and home, and, amid tears and lamentations, went forth into the great unknown country. Such a woman was Eunace Crowell, and when she became the wife of Moses Hallett and started with her husband for his new home, she knew she had said good-bye forever to her birthplace, to home, kindred and friends.” In 1826 they removed to Shullsburg, Wisconsin, to join the miners who were clustering in that locality. Five years later they settled in Jo Davies County, Illinois, which then extended from the river to Dixon. Mr. Hallett became the first High Sheriff of that county, and was also the first to engage in farming within its present borders. He was active in the suppression of the Indian insurrection under Blackhawk. He engaged in trade, and traveled much upon the Mississippi River, and was one of the first to get out and ship walnut timber to Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The logs were shipped by the river to New Orleans, and thence by ocean vessel to Philadelphia. It was while on one of these trips that he was seized with cholera, in 1847, and died, being buried at Bennett’s Landing, Illinois, a few miles below St. Louis, Missouri. His widow continued to reside at “Glen Farm,” near Galena, and passed away at her son’s home in Galena in the ‘60s. The subject of this biography was the eldest of their children; Timothy, the second, is a prominent citizen of Galena; Bartlett died several years since at Mount Carroll; Lucy is the wife of Samuel Snyder, of Lena, Illinois; and Moses is Judge of the United States District Court of Colorado, at Denver.

James Hallett was born in Howard County, Missouri, March 25, 1822, and was therefore but nine years old when he became a resident of Illinois. He grew up at Glen Farm, whence his parents were obliged to flee to the fort at Apple River in 1832, to be safe from the depredations of the Indians during the Blackhawk War. Those days in that region did not afford many educational advantages, save such as the hard school of experience gave; but young Hallett was possessed of a sound mind, and, with the counsels and example of good New England parents, developed a firm and true character.

In 1847 he settled at Mount Carroll, Illinois, and continued to reside there until death called him away. In addition to farming, he carried on quite extensively the manufacture of brick, and furnished the material for many of the substantial buildings of northwestern Illinois. In company with a Mr. Sweet, of Chicago, he constructed a section of the first telegraph line in this state, between Dubuque and Dixon. This was known as “O’Reilly’s Atlantic Lake & Mississippi Telegraph, Illinois and Mississippi Line.” His industry and integrity earned and kept for him the confidence of the public, and he was able to extend his business, until it included brickyards at Hanover, Lanark and Oregon, in addition to that at Mount Carroll. He furnished the material and built most of the public buildings of Carroll County. He died of heart diseased on the morning of March 17, 1889, at his home in Mount Carroll. Mr. Hallett was married at Dubuque, Iowa, September 19, 1848, to Miss Amanda M. F. Lindsay, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, who was born April 5, 1822. Her father, Morris Lindsay, was a member of an old Virginia family. Her mother, Drusilla Ballard, was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, belonging to one of the old families there. Mrs. Hallett’s childhood was passed near Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia. After the death of Mr. Lindsay, Mrs. Lindsay became the wife of John Pierce, a native of Dublin, Ireland, and member of a fine Protestant family from the North of Ireland. Mrs. Hallett’s father and step-father were typical Southern men, both being large planters and slave-holders. In 1845 the growing sons got the western fever, and the parents, unwilling to separate the children, sold out all their interests and removed overland to Illinois, settling in the northern part of Carroll County.

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, and all of them figured in the stirring scenes of early western life. John and William Pierce went out with one of the earliest California expeditions. Larkin died of cholera at St. Joseph, Missouri, while fitting out a similar expedition; and John was drowned in the north fork of the Platte River, while making a crossing with the before-mentioned party. Mrs. Hallett’s mother and foster-father died at their home in Cherry Grove, Carroll County, Illinois, and both are buried there, near where they settled. Mrs. Hallett was an expert horse-woman, and in her childhood days spent half her time in the saddle. She only gave up the saddle when compelled by advancing years to do so. She still resides at Mount Carroll with her adopted daughter, Effie Lydia, as a companion. Four sons were given to her, and she may well feel satisfied with their records, as conferring credit upon their antecedents. Russell B., the eldest, is a resident of Los Angeles, California. William P. is a business man of Sterling, Illinois. James Walter died at Aberdeen, South Dakota, while Judge of a local court, in 1886. A sketch of Reuben will be found on another page of this volume. The Mount Carroll Herald thus describes the character of Mr. Hallett: “With all public movements he has been associated. County and personal trusts have been reposed in him, and in all educational interests he was at the front. He has given employment to more men than any other business man in the county, and many a man now living can testify to his kindly heart and consideration. James Hallett was one of the best types of American manhood. His long and busy career, so suddenly ended, is proof that he was happy in work. He toiled with his men early and late, and asked no man to do what he was not willing to do himself. All of his business transactions partook of the strictest adherence to truth and justice. His mind was vigorous and comprehensive, and he directed and managed many business speculations at the same time. If he mistook impulses for convictions, he was the first to admit the error. On all questions requiring a firm and decided expression of opinion, no man can accuse James Hallett of hesitating or faltering. He never sacrificed his dignity to an overweening deference to anything or anybody. He was loyal and courageous, stern and inflexible of purpose, simple in manner and habits of life. He despised vulgar display, and abominated vanity. He was not without his faults, but never can the old saying be used with truer or firmer emphasis, ‘they were of the head and not the heart.’ In politics he was an old-line Whig, but upon the birth of the Republican party, he supported all its candidates until 1886, when he openly and loyally endorsed the Prohibition movement, having been a rigid temperance man all his life. In this, as in all other convictions, he was fearless and cared naught for the criticism of others. With him temperance and prohibition were questions of right and duty, to be held above all else.

“The religious life of James Hallett is known by all who ever came in contact with him or entered his home. He united with the Presbyterian Church at Galena in 1840, and changed his connection to the Presbyterian Church of Mount Carroll in 1847. His devotion to his society, his earnest and tireless work in its interest, are known and remembered by all. He remained loyal to the Presbyterian Church, and in 1871, when it was no longer able to maintain itself financially, he chose to worship with the Lutheran denomination at Mount Carroll. In the Sunday-school he was a familiar figure, and was fourteen years at the head of the Lutheran school. But it was in the home, in the society of his wife and children and friends, that the true beauty and worth of his character became apparent. Ever kind and considerate, he loved his home, and no guest ever left his house without carrying away some appreciation of the influence of Christian teaching.

“He has not lived in vain. Though some griefs of his life were bitter, and would try the courage of the bravest of men, he bore his crushing sorrows with patience and humility.”

The Old Settlers’ Association, of which Mr. Hallett was a member, acted as the escort at his funeral, when fifty of its members accompanied his body from the residence to the cemetery, which overlooks his old home in Mount Carroll.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 39-41

Charles Henrotin, one of the ablest financiers of the pre-eminent, commercial city of Chicago, that municipality the undertakings and successful achievements of whose citizens astound the conservatives of the East and the Old World, is a worthy son of a noble father. He is the eldest of the surviving children of Dr. Joseph F. Henrotin (see biography in this volume), and was born in Brussels, Belgium, April 15, 1843. He was in his sixth year when the family arrived in Chicago, and his first attempt at learning was made in the public schools of the city. He subsequently attended other schools and the University of Notre Dame, Chicago. He went abroad with his parents in 1856, and entered the Athenæum of Tournai, Belgium, from which he was graduated in 1860.

In the spring of 1861 he became a permanent resident of Chicago, and shortly after took employment as clerk in the Merchants’ Loan and Trust Company Bank. It was his intention to enter the Union army as soon as he was of age, but after the death of his elder brother he was persuaded by his parents to remain at home. He applied himself to business with such diligence and ability that he was elected Cashier of the bank in 1867, to succeed Lyman J. Gage, who then went to the First National. Mr. Henrotin continued to fill this position to the satisfaction of his employers and the public, enjoying the confidence and friendship of all with whom he had business or social relations, until he decided to engage in business on his own account, in 1877.

He then opened a private bank, dealing extensively in stocks and bonds. Many enterprises of very large local importance owe much of their success to his judicious management and assistance. He has ever shown himself a public-spirited and generous citizen, and has borne an active part in many undertakings of great moment. He was one of the workers, and gave financial assistance, in locating the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and served as a Director of the corporation which carried through that hitherto unprecedented enterprise. Many large syndicate operations of recent years have been negotiated by Mr. Henrotin, among which may be mentioned the purchase of the Union Stock Yards and several Chicago breweries by English capital.

The action of Mr. Henrotin in the financial crisis of the city in 1877-78 entitles him to the grateful remembrance of all good citizens. When a large amount of city scrip had been declared illegal, and the credit of the municipality was in grave danger, he wrote a letter to Comptroller Farwell, offering to take all the scrip, regardless of kind or amount, at 92, upon which its market value immediately jumped from 85 to 93. Mr. Henrotin made good his offer, and carried also the defaulted coupons of the city bonds for a year, until arrangements could be made to redeem them. In 1876 he was appointed Belgian Consul, to succeed his father, who had held that position nineteen years, and is still fulfilling the duties of that office. During the same year he was appointed Turkish Consul, to succeed William E. Doggett. In 1888 he was knighted by the Belgian King for valuable services rendered his Government, and served as Honorary Commissioner, representing that Government at the World’s Fair. In 1892 he was promoted by Turkey to be Consul-General to the Northwest, and received the decoration of Commander for services rendered to that country and its citizens.

Mr. Henrotin is a member of the Chicago and New York Stock Exchanges and of the Chicago Board of Trade. He also holds membership in social, literary and other clubs, among the most prominent of which are the Union, Bankers’, Germania and Contributors’. He enjoys the companionship and co-operation of a noble and intelligent wife, who holds prominent positions in many social and woman’s clubs. She was Vice-President and Acting President of the World’s Congress Auxiliaries, of which C. C. Bonney was President. She received many compliments of high order for her services in that connection, being especially mentioned and decorated by the Turkish Government, and received an autograph portrait, engraved for the occasion, from the Queen of Belgium. She is now President of the Federated Women’s Clubs of the United States, having a membership numbering sixty-five thousand. The wedding of this couple occurred September 2, 1869, the bride being Miss Helen M. Martin, a native of Portland, Maine, daughter of Edward Byam and Sarah E. (Norris) Martin, of Portland, of English descent. They are related to Sir Edward Byam, of England, and to the Choate and Norris families, noted in two hemispheres for intelligence and refinement. Three sons complete the family of Mr. Henrotin, namely: Edward Clement, Charles Martin and Norris Bates.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 33-34

Fernand Henrotin, M. D., one of the most eminent physicians of Chicago, and one who in the line of his profession may be said to have achieved a national reputation, was born in Brussels, the gay little capital of Belgium, a city which in its arts, its sciences, its civic pride and social life has been likened to Paris on a small scale. His parents were Joseph F. and Adele (Kinsoen) Henrotin, both of whom were also natives of Belgium. The father (for sketch of whom see other pages in this volume) achieved distinction in his native land and in Chicago in the same profession in which his son, the subject of this sketch, is bearing such honorable renown. Not content with the limited possibilities of the Old Country, he emigrated to the United States, the year of his son Fernand’s birth (1848) witnessing the arrival of himself and family in this country.

Fernand Henrotin, who is to all intents and purposes a native Chicagoan, was reared in this city, receiving his earlier education in its public and high schools. Having a decided taste for the study of medicine, inherited probably, as his paternal grandfather had also been a physician, on the completion of his high-school course he entered Rush Medical College, then as now one of the foremost institutions of its kind in the Northwest. Here he pursued a thorough course of study, and in February, 1869, being then only twenty-one years of age, was duly graduated. At once after leaving college he established himself in practice, and entered upon a career which has brought him both fame and fortune. With the prestige of his father’s honorable name, combined with his own skill, energy and conscientiousness, it was not long before he came into prominence, and in 1872-73 he held the responsible office of County Physician, the first of a series of public and professional positions he has held and filled with most eminent success.

In no other profession or business does the individuality of a man appear to play so important a part as in the medical profession. Endowed with a natural liking for the work he has chosen; of a singularly brilliant and receptive mind; gifted with the faculty of being able to reject the false and accept the true; conservative enough to cling to the proven beneficial; and progressive enough to stand alone, if need be, as the champion of any reform, it is not strange that in a city like Chicago, with its keen appreciation of men of genius, Dr. Henrotin has found his level and stands pre-eminent in his profession.

While never relinquishing his large private practice, he has yet found time to fill many outside positions of trust and responsibility, and was for some twelve years on the staff of attending physicians at the Cook County Hospital, for eight years was surgeon of the Alexian Brothers’ Hospital, was surgeon of the Chicago Police Department for twelve years, and for the past seventeen years has been surgeon of the Chicago Fire Department. He is now Professor of Diseases of Women in the Chicago Polyclinic, is a member of the Chicago Medical Society, President of the Chicago Gynecological Society, Vice-President of the American Gynecological Society, Consulting Gynecologist to St. Joseph ’s Hospital, Corresponding Member of the Philadelphia and Belgian Gynecological Societies, and Secretary-General for America of the International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has also written a number of monographs on intestinal and uterine surgery, which have been widely read and are considered a boon by the members of the profession. In his social life Dr. Henrotin is considered an all-round “good fellow,” and could he spare time from his many and arduous duties would be in constant social demand. Added to an unusually fine physique are many engaging qualities of head and heart. Exceedingly well-read, with an extended knowledge of all subjects of practical interest, not alone as regards his profession, but in the wider range of arts and sciences and in social and political economy; conscientious, warm-hearted, generous, a consistent believer in the Divine injunction to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, he is a man whose friendship is considered an honor by those who are fortunate enough to possess it. For some years he has been a member of the Union Club, though in his busy life he finds little time to spare for its pleasures and recreations. In politics he is a Democrat, but is not bound by hard-and-fast party lines, voting for men whom he thinks are conscientious enough to support correct principles.

In the spring of 1873 the Doctor married Miss Emily Prussing, a daughter of Charles G. Prussing, a well-known pioneer of Chicago. Mrs. Henrotin is a woman of many accomplishments and graces of character, and has been a help and inspiration to her husband in a thousand and one ways. Of an artistic temperament, she has distinguished herself especially as an amateur painter, and her home is famous for its beautiful surroundings, as well as for the genial hospitality which abounds within its walls.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 45-46

Dr. Joseph Fortunat Henrotin was among the early physicians of Chicago, and endeared himself to a large number of citizens, especially on the North Side, by his brave and unselfish labors during the cholera epidemic of 1849 to 1855. At that time there was a large German settlement between State Street and the lake shore, north of Chicago Avenue, known as New Buffalo, the gratitude of whose denizens toward the “good French Doctor,” as they called him, was unbounded. Without stopping to inquire about the certainty of his fees, when many others had left the city in alarm, Dr. Henrotin went among the poor and rich alike, carrying good cheer and healing balm to the stricken ones. His success in exterminating the scourge gave him at once a very large practice, and he acquired what is a large fortune to be gained in medical practice in a few years. It was only his lack of a thorough knowledge of our language that prevented his taking the prominence in the professional and literary world that he deserved. He was a ripe scholar, and his diction in French was considered an ornament to the language. His reports to his native Government while serving as Consul are still preserved as models of elegance, clearness and practical value..

Joseph Fortunat Henrotin was born in Tellin, Belgium, March 17, 1811. His grandfather was a farmer at that place. His father, Dr. Clement Henrotin, was a graduate of the Medical University of Paris, France, to which place he walked in youth, because of the limited means of transportation in that day and region, to gain an education in medicine..

While there he befriended and encouraged young Dubois (who afterward became the French Court Physician) to take up the study of the healing art. Dr. Clement Henrotin practiced medicine sixty-five years at Tellin, where he died, full of honors, at the age of ninety-six years. His wife was Miss Rossion..

Joseph F. Henrotin pursued his elementary studies in his native town, and entered the University of Liege, Belgium, from which he graduated at the age of twenty-two. He then spent three years in further study in the Belgian hospitals, being a pupil and friend of Dr. Seutin, the inventor of the starch bandage, who secured his appointment, at the age of twenty-five, as surgeon in the national army, with the privilege of further pursuing his investigations and studies in the hospitals. He continued to hold this position for nearly twelve years, at the end of which time he resolved to come to America..

He arrived in Chicago in the autumn of 1848, and, as above related, soon acquired a large and remunerative practice. This was general throughout the city, but most of his work was done on the North and Northwest Sides. Having placed himself in independent circumstances by eight years of arduous and incessant labor, he returned to his native land, in 1856. A year later he was appointed by the Belgian Government to be Consul to the Northwestern States of this country, and returned to Chicago, leaving several of his children abroad to be educated. In 1858 he was commissioned by Belgium to make a special inspection of the states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota and report on their adaptability as homes for Belgian emigrants. In the fulfillment of this charge he traveled throughout the states named, rendering a prompt and exhaustive report to his Government. For this service he received the thanks of the Belgian Parliament, on account of its practical value and literary merit, and copies of the report were widely distributed over Germany and other neighboring countries, as well as throughout Belgium. He continued to serve as Consul until his death, which occurred March 17, 1876, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of his birth. He was succeeded in office by his eldest living son, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. Dr. Henrotin was a heavy sufferer by the great fire of 1871, but partially recovered from his loss before his death.

In the fall of 1840, Dr. Henrotin married Adele Kinsoen, a native of Tournai, Flanders, born in 1821, and daughter of Henri Kinsoen, who had a contract to furnish the Dutch army with supplies. A brother of Henri Kinsoen was a noted portrait painter, who numbered the members of the French Court among his patrons. Both were natives of Bruges, Belgium, as was Mrs. Henrotin’s mother, Josephine Brice. Besides his widow, Dr. Henrotin left eight children. The eldest son, Henry, was killed at the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Civil War, while serving in Taylor’s Battery. All the living, save the sixth, who is engaged in business in Havre, France, are residents of Chicago. Following are their names: Charles; Margaret, Mrs. James H. B. Daly; Dr. Fernand; Adolph; Mary; Victor; Fortuni, wife of George Le Jeune; and Louise, now Mrs. Maurice Pincoffs. Mrs. Henrotin survived her husband many years, dying, widely mourned, November 29, 1893. She was an able helpmate to her husband, whom she nobly aided in his labors among the cholera sufferers, and was held in high regard by all who enjoyed her acquaintance.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 581-582

Adam Hoth, who is living in practical retirement at Wilmette, is one of the thrifty German-Americans who constitute a considerable part of the population of Cook County, and have added materially to its prosperity. He was born on the banks of the beautiful river Rhine, in the town of Mainz, in Hesse-Darmstadt, January 1, 1832. He is the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Mueller) Hoth, the former a blacksmith by trade. Samuel Hoth came to America in 1870, and he died in Niles Township, Cook County, Illinois, in 1889, at the age of eighty-six years. His wife died in Germany, in 1866. Her father, John Mueller, who was a miller by occupation as well as by name, lived to the age of one hundred and two years.

Adam Hoth was educated in the public schools of his native land. At the age of thirteen he began to assist his father, and learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he followed until 1882. He came to America in 1854, and spent one year at his trade in Stephentown, near Lebanon Springs, New York. He became a resident of Cook County in the fall of 1856, and after spending the winter in Chicago, settled in Niles Township, opening a shop, in which he labored until 1866. At that date he removed to Niles Center, where he again operated a shop. This he sold out in 1877, and went to Gross Point, where he worked until 1882, when he retired from active labor.

For the last thirty years he has dealt more or less in real estate. He first purchased nine acres at Niles Center, which he disposed of to good advantage after two years’ possession. He subsequently bought thirty-five acres in the same locality, which yielded him a good profit, as soon as the value of such holdings began to be realized by his neighbors. Foreseeing in a measure the ultimate demand for property near the lake shore, he next purchased forty-eight acres in New Trier Township, near Wilmette Village, which sold in 1890 for $20,000. He now owns seven acres in the village of Wilmette, where the demand for, and value of, real estate is constantly increasing. In 1892 he built a fine home at the corner of Lake Avenue and Twelfth Street in Wilmette, where he now resides.

Mr. Hoth was married, in 1859, to Elizabeth Bismann, of Niles Center. She was born in Saxony, and came to America at the age of eight years. They have nine children living, namely: Henry, a blacksmith at Gross Point; John, a mason, who lives at Wilmette; William, a blacksmith at Gross Point; Jacob A., a carpenter; Samuel; Elizabeth; Mary; Tillie and Emma, the two last-named being twins. All are living at Wilmette except William and Henry. Mr. and Mrs. Hoth are also blessed with eight grandchildren.

They are members of the Lutheran Church at Evanston, toward the building of whose church edifice they contributed. He is a life-long Republican, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860. While living at Niles Center he served as a County Constable for eight years. In 1892 he visited the Old Country, an excursion which resulted in shattering many of his idols, and reconciled him to living in America. In the contemplation of his business career, the reader will find an illustration of what may be accomplished by a humble investment, directed by good judgment, and accompanied by honest industry and prudence.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 58-59

Henry William Bettely Hoyt was a native of Henry, Illinois, born on the 25th of June, 1841, unto William H. and Mary (Betteley) Hoyt, his father coming of good old New England families, while his mother, also of excellent antecedents, was directly from Old England. His paternal grandfather, Ephraim Hoyt, was a son of Matthew Hoyt, whose wife was a Lockwood, both of Connecticut birth, as were also Ephraim Hoyt and his wife, Anna Langford. Mary (Betteley) Hoyt was a daughter of William and Mary Betteley, of Newcastle, England. The last-named was a daughter of William and Mary Robinson. Another daughter of this couple, Mrs. William Gates, was the maternal grandmother of Sir Robert Peel. The subject of this sketch came in childhood to Chicago along with his parents, where his education, which was finished in the high school, was obtained. His first business venture was with his father in the lumber trade. He had been for some years a member of Ellsworth's Zouaves, so that it quite naturally followed, upon the call for troops to put down openly expressed rebellion, that he, although still in his teens, enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirteenth Illinois Infantry, that being the Third Board of Trade Regiment, and indeed the last to be raised under the auspices of that body. He was mustered in October 1, 1862, as First Lieutenant of Company A, it being a distinctively Chicago company, his regiment joining the Second Brigade (Division) of Sherman's (the Fifteenth) Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, which co-operated with General Grant at Vicksburg.

For personal bravery he was breveted Captain, January 22, 1863. Successful thereafter in running the Vicksburg blockade, he was taken a prisoner soon after at a minor battle at a river landing in Tennessee, and for several months thereafter was imprisoned in a stockade at Cahaba, Alabama. Many of his comrades starved, but good humor gained him exceptional treatment, and in about eight months, after a limited diet, which was confined to daily rations of a pint of corn-meal per soldier, he had the excellent good fortune to be exchanged.

Subsequently he was commissioned Major, and served on General Grant's staff during the later Mississippi campaign. His services included action at the battles of Pine Bluff, Corinth, Vicksburg, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Milliken's Bend, Jackson, Eastport and Fort Pillow, a part of the interim acting as signal officer, at the instance of General Sherman, who entertained for him the highest regard. Moreover, he could point back to a certain period of six months during which he was Acting Commander of the Union Prison at Memphis, Tennessee. While there he treated his prisoners with so much humanity as to meet with formal and reciprocal acknowledgment of the same long after. The first word during his own period of confinement that he was able to get to his Northern friends was through the grateful courtesy of a Confederate officer, whom he had kindly treated at Memphis Prison. General Forest, the rebel commander, had also heard of him, and when he was marched in threw him a new blanket, in special token of appreciation of his soldierly qualities. From his protracted term of service he was mustered out June 20, 1865.

About the year 1866 he formed a new partnership with his father, to engage in the real estate business, which, after a successful career, was dissolved in January, 1882, that the son might form another relation as partner in the firm of Bogue & Hoyt, which, in the same field, continued in very remunerative activity up to the time of Mr. Hoyt's death, which came suddenly tragic, from a fit of congestion of the brain, February 12, 1891, at his residence No. 1931 Calumet Avenue, interment taking place in the family lot at Graceland.

He was an honored member of the Loyal Legion of the United States, which body, in its "resolutions" upon the occasion of Mr. Hoyt's death, expressed its loss in part by the following touchingly exceptional language: "Once again on the march through life, are we halted to close the ranks of this Commandery, from which has fallen a loved and faithful companion, who has answered to final roll-call.

"Another of the many heroes who in the hour of its greatest peril so nobly responded to the Nation's call for help, and with all the zeal and earnestness of his nature did the best he could to protect it from impending danger, has folded his cloak about him and lain down to that sleep from which there is no waking."

From the Real Estate Board resolutions upon the same solemn theme, we extract verbatim the following eulogy: "We have lost a friend. Henry W. Hoyt was the friend of all who knew him. In business, as well as social life, he commanded respect, he won affection. He loved kindness, for his was a kindly nature. He loved honor, for he was one of nature's noblemen. Just was he, yet generous; faithful to trusts committed, energetic in accomplishment--a man with whom performance outran the word. His work with us is finished; gone is the genial presence; vanquished the pleasant smile; stilled the kindly voice."

Mr. Hoyt was a member of the Calumet, Union League and Washington Park Clubs. A stanch Republican, but in no whit a politician. An attendant upon Bishop Cheney's Reformed Episcopal Church. He married, August 7, 1871, Miss Delia Woodruff, of Chicago, who survives him. Two children sprang from their devoted union: Leta Keith Hoyt, who died in early life, and Edith May Hoyt, who, still in her teens, attends the Holman-Dickerman private school in this city. Mrs. Hoyt's father was Ralph Woodruff, who came from a recognized old Syracruse (N. Y.) family, he having removed in early days to Chicago. Her mother was Delia Gurley, a daughter of Jason and Susan (Bryant) Gurley, the latter a relative of the poet, William Cullen Bryant. From this line sprang John Addison Gurley, of Cincinnati, Ohio, a distinguished United States Representative of repeated service, and the first Governor of Arizona.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 17-18

Homer Conkey Hunt, a well-known citizen of Evanston, was born at Martinsburgh, New York, January 27, 1829. He is a son of Levi and Roxanna (Smith) Hunt. His grandfather, Willard Hunt, was a member of the Massachusetts militia, and bore a part in the Revolutionary War. He was a prominent and influential citizen, and invested largely in Vermont land.

Levi Hunt, son of the last-mentioned, was born near Boston, where his ancestors settled about 1635. Several members of the Hunt family came from Bristol, England, at that time, and their posterity now number many people in the vicinity of Boston. Levi Hunt moved to Vermont in 1801, and later to Lewis County, New York, where he became an extensive farmer. He was a man of unusual discernment and refinement, who practiced the strictest integrity in financial dealings, and led an exemplary life in all respects. He died there in 1856, at the age of seventy-seven years. Mrs. Roxanna (Smith) Hunt was born at or near Keene, New Hampshire, and went with her parents to Washington County, New York. Her mother, whose maiden name was Jones, was of Welsh birth. Mr. and Mrs. Levi Hunt had six daughters and three sons, of whom but two are now living. One of these is Mrs. Lee, of Lewis County, New York.

Homer C. Hunt spent his boyhood in his native county, and completed his education at an academy in Lowville. At one time he contemplated studying law, but abandoned that purpose to try his fortunes in the new West. In 1854, he located in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the mercantile business. He had frequent occasion to visit Chicago on business, and, becoming convinced of the superior advantages of that place, removed thither in 1858. He accepted a position with a firm dealing in railroad supplies, and has been connected with that line of business most of the time since.

Since 1853 he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church. Upon locating in Evanston, in 1873, he at once united with the First Presbyterian Church of that city, with which he has ever since been identified, and in which he has been an Elder since 1876. He is well known as an earnest and enthusiastic worker in the cause of Christianity.

He has ever been a firm advocate of popular education, and was one of the first men in Evanston who endeavored to arouse public sentiment regarding the need of appropriate accommodations for that purpose. In 1877 he was elected a member of the Evanston Board of Education, and served nine years consecutively in that capacity, during which time the official records of the district were first regularly preserved, and its financial affairs placed on a systematic footing. The founding of a high school there is due to his efforts as much as to those of any individual. During Mr. Hunt’s administration three ample school buildings were erected and the district became the owner of school property. When he took hold of the work it owned no unencumbered real estate, and the present prosperous condition of the public schools is attributable largely to his energetic and systematic efforts. He has been identified with the Republican party since its organization, and takes a decided stand in matters of national policy, though never putting himself forward as a candidate for public patronage.

In 1854 Mr. Hunt was married to Miss Ann M. Gleed, daughter of Rev. John and Elizabeth Gleed, of Waterville, Vermont. Mr. Gleed was a dissenting clergyman of Dorsetshire, England (where Mrs. Hunt was born), and came to America in 1832, preaching first in Canada, and afterward in Vermont the balance of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt are the parents of four children, as follows: John Levi, a graduate of the Northwestern University Law School; Elizabeth, a graduate of the Northwestern University, with the degrees of B. L. and M. L., now a teacher in the School of Oratory; and Jessie and Caroline. The latter is also a graduate of the Northwestern University, with the degree of B. A., and is connected with Hull House, Chicago.

Mr. Hunt is a quiet, unobtrusive citizen, earnest and practical in all his undertakings. His influence is always exerted in the cause of human progress, and his motives are unquestioned by those to whom he is best known.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 80-81

Dr. John Gracen Keenon, one of the most loyal Kentuckians, who was for many years a resident of Chicago, was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1827, and died while in the service of his country at Memphis, Tennessee, on the 12th of August, 1864. He was at that time Medical Director of the Sixteenth United States Army Corps, and Post Surgeon in charge of hospitals at Memphis.

The Keenon family was early planted in Virginia. His father, Adam C. Keenon, was born at Paris, Kentucky, and his mother, Elizabeth Clark, was a native of Frankfort, in the same state. The latter was a relative of Governor Clark, of Kentucky, of a very old and prominent family in that state. Adam C. Keenon was a very pure-minded and upright gentleman, who never drank liquor or handled cards, something exceptional in his day and locality. He was a large planter and slave-holder, and was for many years State Binder of the state. He was thoroughly loyal, though nearly all his friends espoused the cause of the southern confederacy in the Civil War. He said he would rather lose all his slaves than be disloyal to his whole country.

John G. Keenon was educated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, attended medical lectures at Louisville, and was graduated from the celebrated Meigs Medical College of Philadelphia. At the age of twenty-two he began practice at St. Joseph, Missouri, in partnership with his cousin, Dr. Joseph Fox, who was afterward prominent in the service of the Confederate army. After a year and a-half he was called to Frankfort, Kentucky, by the illness of his mother, and remained there, giving some time to practice. In 1852 he visited Chicago for the first time and made investments in real estate on Lake Street. He kept an office at the corner of Lake and La Salle Streets, then in the heart of the business district, and gave some of his time to the treatment of patients, though he was largely occupied with the investment of his means and the care of his property. When it became apparent that civil war was on, with all the horrors of such a struggle, he went to Washington and tendered his services to the Government. Through the influence of Hon. Frank Blair, he received the appointment of Brigade-Surgeon, and was attached to the Army of the Tennessee, under his old friend, Gen. Thomas Crittenden, afterward Governor of Kentucky. He was in active service at the capture of Fort Donelson and the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg, as well as others of that campaign. Before its close he was promoted to the position of Medical Director and was with Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, between whom and himself existed the warmest friendship. Mrs. Hurlbut is also remembered with the most kindly sentiments by Mrs. Keenon, who often visited her husband in the field. A handsome gold watch, which was presented to Dr. Keenon by General Hurlbut, is still preserved by the Doctor’s descendants. Dr. Keenon adhered to the traditions of his fathers in his support of the Democratic party, but included among his most intimate and true friends many leaders of the Republican party. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church from the age of seventeen years. He also attained a high degree in Free Masonry.

On the death of Dr. Keenon his remains were treated with the highest military and Masonic honors, being temporarily deposited in a vault at Winchester Cemetery at Memphis, with an escort of the Eighth Iowa Infantry, and the pall-bearers including, besides Generals Crittenden and Hurlbut, the principal medical officers of the post. The body was finally deposited near Kentucky’s monument to her celebrated sons, at Frankfort, near the remains of Henry Clay and other distinguished civilians and soldiers of that state. November 1, 1854, Dr. Keenon married, in Chicago, Miss Eleanor Hamilton, daughter of Col. Richard J. Hamilton, another distinguished Kentuckian, of whom extended mention is made on other pages of this volume. At the same time and place, another daughter of Colonel Hamilton, Miss Diana, was married to Breckenridge Blackburn, a member of the celebrated Kentucky family of that name, and brother of the subsequent Gov. Luke Blackburn and United States Senator Joseph C. S. Blackburn, all of whom were among the most active and loyal supporters of the Southern Confederacy. Three children given to Dr. and Mrs. Keenon now occupy prominent business or social positions. Adam Hamilton, the eldest, and John Harold are residents of Chicago, the latter being connected with the city postoffice. The daughter, Florence Buckner, is the wife of Dr. Cyrus William Knight, a leading physician of New Orleans, Louisiana. The elder son is a practicing attorney, and was three years Special Assessment Attorney under Mayor Harrison’s second and third terms. He is an active member of the Masonic order. Mrs. Keenon enjoys the distinction of being the oldest person of pure white blood born in Chicago. Her birth occurred while Colonel Hamilton was living with his family within Fort Dearborn, on St. Valentine’s Day of the year 1832. She is a well-preserved lady, whose bright eye glistens while relating her many interesting reminiscences of early Chicago. She attended the first school in Chicago, which was temporarily located in Colonel Hamilton’s barn, with boxes for seats and desks, and later in the basement of St. James’ Episcopal Church. The first Methodist religious service was held in Colonel Hamilton’s parlor, and Mrs. Hamilton made the pulpit cloth for the first Methodist Church in the city. The Old Settlers’ Society of Chicago presented Mrs. Keenon, on a recent anniversary, with a beautiful gold medal, on which is engraved a picture of Fort Dearborn, in honor of her being the oldest woman living who was born in Chicago. The German Old Settlers’ Society also presented her with a handsome medal, appropriately engraved. She is an honored member of the Sons of Chicago, an association devoted to the preservation of early memories.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 29-30

Elbridge Gerry Keith is not only conspicuous as a financier, but he has come to be one of the best known among Chicago's many prominent reformers and philanthropists. While displaying the sagacity and tenacity of purpose so essential to a successful business career, he has simultaneously been identified with so many movements of a public nature, that the modern history of Chicago would be but incompletely told without some allusion to his character and deeds. Though he has exerted no small influence in shaping measures of public policy, and in placing capable and trustworthy men in positions of profit and honor, he has scrupulously avoided any personal connection with places of political preferment, and has given no one an opportunity to traduce his motives or question the sincerity of his purposes.

Mr. Keith is the youngest son of Martin Keith and Betsey French, extended mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. He was born at Barre, Washington County, Vermont, July 16, 1840, and enjoyed excellent educational advantages. After a course at Newbury Seminary he attended Barre Academy, which was then under the charge of Dr. J. S. Spaulding, one of the leading educators of his day. At an early age he began to display a marked tendency for literary and political pursuits, but these proclivities were somewhat obscured by the commercial surroundings in which he was placed. Upon leaving school, at the age of sixteen years, he began his business career in the capacity of clerk in a country store, and later, in 1857, he came to Chicago, whither his brothers, Edson and O. R. Keith, had preceded him. He at once became connected with the house of Keith Brothers & Faxon, and upon the retirement of Mr. Faxon in 1865, he became a partner in the firm of Keith Brothers, wholesale dealers and jobbers in hats, caps, furs and millinery. This firm is still known as one of the foremost in its line.

In 1884 Mr. Keith helped to organize the Metropolitan National Bank, and was immediately elected its President, a position which he has continuously filled to the present time. Under his thorough and capable management this corporation has come to be recognized as one of the most substantial banking institutions in the West. It now occupies the magnificent banking floor of the Temple, at La Salle and Monroe Streets, and employs about fifty people in the regular transaction of its immense business. Mr. Keith has ever been an earnest advocate of the cause of education, and served seven years as a member of the Board of Education of Chicago. The Keith School, at the corner of Thirty-fourth and Dearborn Streets, was so named in recognition of his able and disinterested services in behalf of the youth of the city. He is also a Trustee of Beloit College, one of the foremost institutions of higher education in the West.

At an early date Mr. Keith began to ally himself with social, benevolent, literary and commercial organizations, for the number and character of which Chicago is famous. Among those in whose work he has been most conspicuous may be mentioned the Union League, Commercial and Bankers' Clubs, each of which has honored him with the position of President. He is also identified with the Chicago, Literary and Twentieth Century Clubs. He has served as presiding officer of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Chicago Orphan Asylum.

When the Civic Federation was formed for the purpose of introducing much-needed reforms into the social and municipal conduct of the city, he became one of its most earnest and influential members, and as one of its Directors is doing much to forward the good work inaugurated by this beneficent organization. As a Director of the World's Columbian Exposition, he was active and potent in securing its location in Chicago and its unprecedented success. In December, 1860, Mr. Keith was married to Miss Harriet S. Hall, of Dayton, La Salle County, Illinois, and a daughter of Joseph Hall, one of the pioneers of this state. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Keith comprised four sons and two daughters until the twenty-eighth day of November, 1891, when they were called upon to mourn the death of the first-born daughter, Susie, an accomplished young woman. The names of the others are: Elbridge B., Carl, Stanley, Harold H. and Bessie.

For over twenty years Mr. Keith has been identified with Christ Reformed Episcopal Church, of which Bishop Cheney is pastor. At the age of fourteen years he walked twelve miles in order to attend the first Republican State Convention in Vermont, and has ever since been an interested participant in the councils of that party. He has seen and been a factor in its accomplishment of the emancipation of the slave, the establishment of a sound financial system, and the promotion and development of the arts of peace. He has frequently served as a delegate in state conventions, and was a member of the National Convention which nominated James A. Garfield for the presidency. Throughout all these years, however, he has consistently refused to allow the use of his name as a candidate for any political office. By this steadfast course, he is pointing out to his fellow-citizens the way to true civil-service reform, which can never be fully accomplished without the active participation in political affairs of those who are not themselves office-seekers.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 53-55

Rufus Lord Kirk, a well-known citizen of Wilmette, was born at Youngstown, Ohio, December 15, 1850. He is a son of John and Susan (Bingham) Kirk. The father, who was prominent in business in Chicago for a number of years, was a son of Andrew Kirkpatrick, the name having been curtailed in later years to Kirk.

Andrew Kirkpatrick was born in New Jersey. His father was a native of Scotland, and his mother of Ireland. They came to America in early life, and settled first in New Jersey, removing later to Washington County, Pennsylvania. Three sons were born to them, namely: John, Thomas and Andrew. The last-named was a blacksmith by trade, and followed that vocation for many years at Coitsville, near Youngstown, Ohio. His mechanical skill caused him to be drafted into the United States army during the War of 1812, and he spent considerable time in that service, during which his family suffered many privations in their frontier home at Coitsville. His wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Caleb Baldwin, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and a pioneer of Youngstown. Mr. Baldwin’s wife, whose maiden name was Pitney, was born in Morris County, New Jersey. This state was also the birthplace of Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick, who was married at the age of thirteen years, and became the mother of thirteen children, ten of whom reached maturity. John Kirk was a native of Youngstown, Ohio. He was a precocious youth, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen years. At seventeen he embarked in a mercantile business at Youngstown, Ohio. After continuing this enterprise for some years, he became connected with the firm of Jones & Laughlin, well-known iron founders of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He traveled extensively through the West, in the interest of this concern, covering most of the territory east of the Mississippi River, which was then the western boundary of civilization. In 1857 he came to Chicago and established a warehouse for the firm in this city. This he conducted five years, laying the foundation for the extensive trade which the establishment has ever since retained.

At the end of that period he severed his connection with that corporation, and removed to Mercer County, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in agriculture. In 1864 he again became a resident of Chicago, and resumed business as a commercial traveler in the interest of eastern iron manufacturers. Having accumulated a competence, in 1874 he retired from business, spending the balance of his days at Jacksonville, Illinois, where his death occurred January 27, 1891, at the age of nearly eighty-six years. He was at that time a member of the Christian Church at Jacksonville, and while living in Chicago had been a communicant of the Episcopal Church. While still a young man, he established a school for the instruction of poor children at Youngstown, and throughout his life was a contributor to charitable and philanthropic works. He was a man of able judgment, and held decided views on questions of public import. He was the first man in Youngstown to wear a long beard, and the narrow and radical views retained by the people of that day were shown by the fact that for this offense he was churched by his brethren. At an early date he became interested in the Abolition movement, and his house at Youngstown was an important station of the “underground railroad.” He sometimes gave shelter to as many as twenty or thirty negroes in his cellar at one time. The conspicuous part which he took in this work gave him a rather unsavory reputation in the South, and made it necessary for him to conceal his identity when traveling in that section. He was an ardent supporter of the Republican party from the beginning of its existence, and gave the Government his hearty support during the great Rebellion. When the Emancipation Proclamation was first proposed, he predicted that its promulgation would be the turning-point of the war, a fact which is everywhere recognized at the present day, although its outcome was involved in considerable doubt at the time. Mrs. Susan Kirk was born on a farm in Connecticut. She was a daughter of Asa Bingham, and removed with her parents during her childhood to Ellsworth, Ohio. She died in Chicago in 1872, at the age of sixty-four years. Rufus L. Kirk was the youngest of thirteen children born to his parents. He was seven years old when the family removed to Chicago, where he was educated in the public schools. At the age of twenty years he graduated from the Chicago High School, and soon afterward became a bookkeeper for the firm of Kirk, Coleman & Company, dealers in iron and heavy hardware, his brother, Thomas J. Kirk, being the senior partner of the firm. The style of this firm became successively Thomas J. Kirk & Company, Kirk & Barker, The Kirk Iron and Hardware Company, and The Wick & Bonnell Company. He continued his connection with the business during these several changes, acquiring a reputation as an able accountant, which caused his services to be frequently sought by other firms. In 1882, when this corporation ceased to exist, he became a bookkeeper for the well-known house of S. D. Kimbark, in whose employ he has regularly continued since. In the spring of 1877 he took up his residence at Wilmette, where he has recently erected a beautiful home on Forest Avenue.

In 1874 Mr. Kirk was married to Miss Julia H. Egan, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Egan, of Chicago. Mrs. Kirk was born at Auburn, New York, and has become the mother of seven children, two of whom, Robert Roy and Edwin, departed this life in early childhood. The names of the survivors are, Eugene E., Hattie J., Myron F., Rufus L. and Jessie M. The family is connected with the First Congregational Church of Wilmette. In national affairs Mr. Kirk supports the candidates of the Republican party. He is now serving as a member of the Village Board, the members of which are chosen without regard to political affiliations. His well-known business ability and his general probity of character cause him to be an acknowledged acquisition to the population of that thriving suburb.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 85-86

Julian Albert Le Brun, one of the faithful and capable public officials of Cook County, was born at Columbus, Ohio, November 8, 1838. He is the only son of Prof. Thomas F. Le Brun and Rebecca Duncan. Thomas F. Le Brun was born in York, Engand [sic]. He received a musical education, and while still a young man came to America. He first located at Buffalo, New York, where he played the violin for a time in the orchestra of the Eagle Street Theater. He subsequently removed to Columbus, Ohio, and visited various other cities, performing in numerous orchestras. In 1850 he became a resident of Chicago, and organized the first theatrical orchestra in the city. His first engagement was with John B. Rice, and he afterward played at McVicker’s and other leading playhouses, becoming one of the best-known violin performers in the West. He died in Chicago, on the 8th of October, 1884, at the age of seventy-nine years. Mrs. Rebecca Le Brun died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about 1855, at the age of forty years. She was born in Yorkshire, England, and came to America with her father, Robert Duncan. The latter became interested in shipping on the Erie and Illinois Canals, and later on the Great Lakes, where he owned several vessels. He first made his home in Buffalo, but soon removed to Chicago, where his death occurred in 1863. Besides Julian A., Mr. and Mrs. Le Brun were the parents of a daughter, Frances, now the wife of Thomas Powell, of Chicago.

The subject of this sketch was a small boy when the family located in Chicago, where he was educated at the public schools. At the age of sixteen years he secured employment in a billiard-room, and a few years later went to Milwaukee and opened a billiard-room in Young’s Block, at the corner of Main and Wisconsin Streets. He was thus employed when the War of the Rebellion broke out, and soon after the beginning of hostilities he enlisted as a member of the Third Wisconsin Battery of Artillery. He served nearly two years in the Army of the Ohio. In common with many of his comrades, he was afflicted with chronic diarrhœa, which kept him in a hospital a considerable portion of the time.

After his discharge from the service he returned to Chicago, and in 1865 was appointed to a position in the County Recorder’s office. His duty was that of folio writer, but after a few years he was promoted to the position of index clerk, which he filled regularly and satisfactorily until 1892, when a change in the administration of the county affairs caused him to vacate the office. About 1870 he introduced the publication of a daily report of real-estate transfers through the newspapers, and prepared this report regularly during his connection with the Recorder’s office. His experience of nearly thirty years in the compilation of county records made him thoroughly familiar with the details of the work, and his duties were always promptly and accurately performed. Soon after severing his connection with the Recorder’s office he was appointed vault clerk in the office of the County Clerk, a position of considerable responsibility, which he has ever since filled.

Mr. Le Brun was married, in Milwaukee, in 1861, to Miss Emma Comstock, daughter of Charles Comstock, of Portage City, Wisconsin. Mrs. Le Brun was born in Wisconsin, and is the mother of a daughter, Hattie, now Mrs. H. S. De Sollar, of Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Le Brun is a member of Post Number 28, Grand Army of the Republic. He joined the Masonic order early in life, and served as a member of Milwaukee Lodge Number 3. He has been a stanch Republican from youth, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860. He is held in the highest regard by his business contemporaries and social acquaintances, a sentiment which he merits in the highest degree.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 91-92

George Goater Ligare, an old-time merchant and voyageur, was born August 1, 1821, near Winchester, England. All his ancestors, so far as known, were of English birth. His grandfather lived in Derbyshire, where his father, Isaac Ligare, was born. The latter served as an officer in the Third Ceylon Regiment in the British army, and was for many years in the East Indies. He was a brave and efficient officer, and died in the prime of life, about the time the subject of this sketch was born. George G. Ligare received his primary education in England, attending Blake's Academy, in Winchester. He was also a pupil of the Rev. Edward McCaul, a noted divine of the English Church. Mr. Ligare was expected by his friends to enter the ministry, but at the age of fifteen years he took up the study of law with George Twynans, an old and well-known lawyer of ability at Winchester. The law had few attractions for him. He had resolved to enter upon a mercantile career. His mother died when he was about sixteen years of age, and shortly after he set out for Georgetown, Demerara, South America, where he had a relative already established in the mercantile business.

He made the journey in the little brig "Reliance," of about three hundred tons, commanded by Captain Beynon. The voyage consumed thirty-five days, and during a storm of three days in the Bay of Biscay, neither sun, moon nor stars were visible. The yellow fever was raging on the coast of South America at this time (1838), and Mr. Ligare relates, as an example of its severity, that out of a regiment of one thousand British soldiers landed there, only two hundred survived, and most of the vessels lay at anchor with- out sailors, on account of the ravages of the plague. The reader can easily conceive that in that wild region it was not easy to secure medical attendance or good nursing. Mr. Ligare fell ill of the prevailing epidemic immediately upon landing, but in spite of privations and hardships, his good, youthful English blood brought him through to recovery. The large amount of calomel administered to him caused all the hair to come out of his head, and his limbs to swell, and for many months after his recovery his limbs caused him much pain and inconvenience.

For six months he was employed by a merchant named Anderson, after which he entered into a contract for three years with the mercantile house of Henry Bruce & Company. He still has the original written contract, under date of March 18, 1839, endorsed with his release, dated January 30, 1841. The stipulated remuneration of Mr. Ligare under this contract was fourteen hundred guilders for the first year, eighteen hundred for the second year, and twenty-one hundred for the third year. February 1, 1841, he formed a partnership with a relative by marriage, named Robert McMurray. Under the firm name of George G. Ligare & Company, they engaged in a general mercantile trade, and soon became well known, and through McMurray's connection in Great Britain, their credit was widely extended. Mr. Ligare's reminiscences of his apprenticeship and subsequent business career during the days of slavery in Demerara are intensely interesting. He was successful in business, but the emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies caused a great depression in trade and values, and he was glad to sell out his interest to his partner for a mere song, and get of that country. About this time, he had a second attack of yellow fever, which hastened his determination to remove. When he went to Demerara, slavery was in existence to its full extent, and the arrival of cargoes of slaves was of frequent occurrence, and later prize cargoes of slaves were landed there by foreign men-of-war. Soon all the slaves in the British West Indies were emancipated by the British Government by Compensation Emancipation. They had to serve three years' apprenticeship before they were entirely free. Mr. Ligare saw all the workings of this, but it proved the ruin of the planters, and when he left plantations could be purchased for less than the cost of machinery, because they could not be run profitably with free negro labor. Then coolies were imported and tried, but the climate killed most of them soon after their arrival at Georgetown.

It was his intention to visit his brother, Charles W. Ligare, then serving as the First Surveyor-General of New Zealand, but he could find no vessel on the Western Atlantic Coast that would take him in that direction. He embarked at Georgetown on the small brig "Dromo," Captain Pickering, for Old Salem, Massachusetts, where he hoped to find a whaler bound for the South Seas. He three times narrowly escaped being shipwrecked. Not finding a whaler at Salem, he successively visited in this quest Boston, New London, New Bedford and New York. In the latter city he fell in with Eliazer Williams, the pretended Dauphin of France. In company with Williams, he traveled West to visit the Indians. They went by canal to Oneida, New York, where they visited the remnants of tribes on the Reservation. Proceeding onward, they took a steamer at Buffalo, by which they reached Mackinaw. Here they chartered a small sail-boat, and after narrowly escaping shipwreck at Ashwishwa and at North Manistique, they reached Green Bay, Wisconsin. Here they endeavored to impart the Gospel to the Indians, and here Williams remained, it being his home. Mr. Ligare spent the summer of 1844 in this vicinity, visiting all the people on the Fox and Wolf Rivers, mingling freely with the Indians. He spent considerable time during the summer on the Wolf River, in company with John Williams, son of the Dauphin. While among the Indians on the Fox and Wolf Rivers, he became intimately acquainted with the famous Indian chief, Oshkosh, who practically adopted him, giving him the Indian name, "Autauwacomac" (lizard fish). This name arose from the fact that he preserved a fish in whiskey. During this year, he made his home part of the time with Dr. Darling, of Fond du Lac. At Fox Lake (now Waushara), Wisconsin, he met Hamilton Stevens, a land speculator and capitalist from Old Mexico, and a friend of Almonte. From him Mr. Ligare secured a sub-contract to carry the mail from Fond du Lac to Portage, which he carried out during the succeeding sum- mer, making the trips on the back of a pony. This pony he rode into Chicago in the autumn of 1845, his possessions also including at that time $16 in cash. He put up at the old Sherman House, and by the time his resources were exhausted, he secured employment, through the influence of Augustus Garrett, then Mayor of Chicago, with Sylvester Lynd, a dealer in lumber on Market Street. Shortly after, he went with George Armour to Ottawa, Illinois, where Mr. Armour had a contract on the canal. He employed Mr. Ligare as a clerk in his store at that point, but after several months the latter returned to the service of Mr. Lynd, in Chicago, by whom he was employed as before.

At length Mr. Ligare embarked in business, opening a lumber-yard at the corner of North Water Street and Dearborn Avenue for Timothy Wright. This he conducted successfully, and afterward opened another yard, on the present site of the Chicago & Northwestern Passenger Station, for the same party. Subsequently he went into partnership with Darius Clark, a lumber manufacturer, conducting a lumber-yard on the southwest corner of Market and Madison Streets. Mr. Clark shortly afterward sold his mills to Milne & Ferguson, and Mr. Ligare became the sole owner of the lumber-yard, which he conducted for some years. At the solicitation of W. T. Richmond, Mr. Ligare entered into a partnership, under the firm name of Richmond & Ligare, which continued the business on the same site, ultimately selling out to Robert Meadowcroft. Mr. Ligare then became associated with Thomas Richmond, the father of his former partner, and they established a lumber-yard at the corner of Washington and West Water Streets, under the title of George G. Ligare & Company. In this, as in all other undertakings, Mr. Ligare was successful, but the partnership was ultimately dissolved through the failure of Mr. Richmond's lumber supply. Mr. Ligare then leased his yard and fixtures to F. B. Gardner, and remained a short time as agent for the latter in conducting the business.

Having purchased the Ford River Mills, in Michigan, Mr. Ligare admitted Joseph Peacock into partnership, and in the fall of 1851 they began operations in the woods. The next year they opened a yard in Chicago, on the river near Twelfth Street, which they continued to operate until the dissolution of the firm, in the fall of 1866, at which time the mill was sold. Out of this partnership arrangement grew a law-suit, which continued in the courts for twenty-five years. At the end of a bitter contest, the case was ultimately decided in favor of Mr. Ligare, who received a judgment to the amount of nearly $20,000. A condemnation suit, involving from $100,000 to $200,000, with the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis, the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe and the Illinois Central Railroads, is now pending before the Supreme Court of Illinois for the second time. Upon its first hearing, the Court's decision was favorable to Mr. Ligare, one point of which was that the city of Chicago cannot give a public street to a railroad company or a corporation, thus securing private citizens some rights over corporations. This decision is being quoted by the legal profession throughout the United States.

During the last twenty-eight years, Mr. Ligare has been practically retired from active business. In 1876 he purchased property in Glencoe, where he has completed a handsome residence, which was first built by Waiter S. Gurney, laid out with beautiful grounds, containing many imported trees, among them being specimens of Scotch fir and elm, English linden, maple and many varieties of pine, which have no equal in the state. The home is called "Maple Lodge," and impresses every beholder with its beauty and elegance.

Mr. Ligare was married, at what is now River Forest, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Gray Steele, daughter of Ashbel and Harriet (Dawley) Steele, the former a native of Connecticut, and the latter an Englishwoman. Mrs. Ligare received her first schooling from Miss Eliza Chappell, who was the first public-school teacher in Chicago, and afterward became the wife of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, the first Protestant clergyman in Chicago. Mrs. Ligare was born in 1829, in Rochester, New York, and came to Chicago in 1833. Four of her children grew to maturity, namely: Ashbel George, Charles Albert, Edward Francis and Lizzie Louise. The latter is now the wife of Lewis B. Mayo. Mrs. Ligare was reared an Episcopalian, and was a devoted mother and well esteemed for her many noble qualities. She died in 1886, aged fifty-seven years.

Upon the death of Mrs. Ligare, the Glencoe Woman's Library Club issued the following: "As a friend and neighbor, as a member of our village church, of the Ladies' Prayer-meeting and Woman's Library Club, we have known and loved Mrs. Ligare. We count hers a full life, which has despised selfish ease, a life whose powers have been largely used in the quiet of the home, beside the cradle and sick-bed, in loving ministrations. On her tongue was the law of kindness; her friendliness and her Christian hospitality em- braced all. Her life has enriched ours. Her death brings heaven nearer.''

Mr. Ligare's present wife, Lily Ruth, is the seventh daughter of Conrad and Louise (Slifer) Collipp, of Silver Lake, Portage, Columbia County, Wisconsin. She is a musician and also an artist of ability. Her musical talent is inherited from her father, who was a native of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, and a man of very refined tastes and rare intellectual attainments. Two children have blessed the second marriage of Mr. Ligare, named, respectively, George Collipp and Ruth.

While a resident of Michigan, Mr. Ligare was appointed Postmaster at Ford River, Michigan, in 1855, and held that position until 1867, proving a most efficient officer, as is testified by his long incumbency in that capacity. During those years he was the intimate friend of honorable Peter White, a banker and capitalist of Marquette, Michigan, through whose influence he was made Postmaster, and was also authorized by statute to organize Delta County, Michigan, which he did in 1859. He was instrumental in locating the county seat at Sand Point (now Escanaba), and exerted great influence in the management of public affairs.

It was not until about the time of the Civil War, that Mr. Ligare became a full citizen of the United States. He had, however, taken an intelligent interest in the course of events and the conduct of public affairs, preserving an independent position in all partisan quarrels. He was ready to fulfill all obligations, and stood the draft three times in one year. When his name was found among the drafted, at the third drawing, he procured a substitute, which was not required of him. The large number of families dependent upon his business made it imperative that he remain at home and aid in furnishing men for the field. Being Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, it devolved upon him to make out the list of those subject to draft in the county. As numerous citizens had fled to the lumber region to avoid the draft at other points, his impartiality led many to look with desperate disfavor upon him, and the lawless element only lacked a courageous leader to put him out of the way. But he did his duty fearlessly, which he has always done in every position held by him.

Mr. Ligare is a man of independent thought and action, and while he does not bind himself to religious or political organizations, he is ever ready to further anything calculated to contribute to general welfare. He has always taken a keen interest in the Masonic order and its work. He joined La Fayette Lodge, the first organization of the order in Chicago, soon after becoming a resident of the city. He is at present affiliated with Garden City Lodge, and with his lodge occupied a position of honor at the dedication of the Masonic Temple of Chicago. He is now a member of the Masonic Veterans' Association of Illinois, and occupies an influential position in the fraternity, and also of another early institution known as the Mechanics' Institute. The following extract indicates the esteem in which Mr. Ligare is held by his associates, he having been President of the Village Council of Glencoe for five years: "Be it remembered, that at a regular meeting of the Council of the village of Glencoe, held April 1, 1894, the following was by unanimous vote adopted: "Resolved, That a vote of thanks be, and that the same is, hereby extended to George G. Ligare, retiring President of the village of Glencoe, for his uniform kindness and impartial ruling as such President for and during the year now closing, and that the Clerk deliver a copy of this resolution to George G. Ligare. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the corporate seal of the village of Glencoe, this second day of April, A. D. 1884. (Signed) "JOHN DAY, ''Village Clerk.''

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 23-26

Michael Lochner, a pioneer and prominent farmer of Niles Township, was born in Roeddingen, Bavaria, Germany, September 5, 1836. His grandfather kept a hotel, and also dealt in lumber, at that place, and his parents, Michael and Susannah (Berchman) Lochner, were both born there. The father, Michael Lochner, Sr., was the youngest of a family composed of two sons and seven daughters, and was a farmer. In the year 1844, he left his native land to make a home in the New World, and arrived in Cook County, Illinois, settling in Niles Township in July of that year. He bought one hundred acres of land on sections 18 and 19, and continued to reside there until his death, which occurred August 7, 1848, at the age of forty-eight years. His widow survived until 1863, reaching the age of fifty-eight. Five of their seven children grew to maturity. John, the eldest of these, was shot at the battle of Chattanooga, during the Civil War, while serving as a member of the Thirteenth Illinois Infantry. Michael, the subject of this biography, is the second. Magdalena married John Brosel, now a resident of Niles Township, and died in Chicago. Killian is a farmer of Pilot Township, Kankakee County, this State; and Michael Medad is engaged in the same occupation in Niles.

As shown above, the subject of this sketch was near the completion of his eighth year when the family arrived in Niles, and here all his life has been spent since that time. On the 22d of July, 1894, was celebrated at his residence, by friends and relatives, the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival here. He had but little opportunity for English studies, attending the primitive public schools of this region two or three months in the winter for a few terms, and during the same time he attended the parochial schools of the vicinity about one year. When he was but twelve years old his father died, and the care of the farm devolved upon him. From that time he took the lead in the labors of the farm and did a man’s work. His mother continued to reside on the homestead until her death, after which he purchased the interest of the other heirs and became its sole owner. He has disposed of a portion of this farm, retaining but eight acres of the original farm, to which he has added twenty-eight acres, and he is also the possessor of one hundred acres in Wheeling Township. He has always made farming his business, and has achieved success. He is a Trustee of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church of Niles Center, and is active in the erection of the fine new church edifice now being constructed by that society. He has served two terms as School Trustee, and has often refused township offices, being averse to engage in the strife for preferment. In matters on National policy, he has always upheld the Democratic party, but takes little part in political action. As a farmer and citizen, he enjoys the respect and confidence of his fellows, and enjoys the blessings of life in a rational and quiet way.

In 1865, Mr. Lochner was married to Terese Baumann, a native of Chicago and daughter of Franz Baumann, formerly of Baden, Germany. Thirteen children have been given to Mr. and Mrs. Lochner, of whom eleven are still living, namely: Susan Bridget, wife of Martin Knidl, of Wheeling, Cook County, Illinois; Agatha, Mrs. William Hoffman, of Morton Grove; Michael, Jr., at home; Mary, wife of Henry Heinz, residing in Niles Center; Peter and Frederick, employed as grocery clerks in Chicago; Teresa, Annie, Katharine, John and Albert, with their parents. Magdalena, the seventh, and Caroline, the eighth, died at the ages of five years and four months, respectively.

Mr. Lochner has served in all the hardships and severe labors common to pioneers of this locality. In the early days, all produce was hauled to Chicago with oxen, and gave very small returns for the labor necessary to its production and marketing. He remembers getting stuck with a wagon in the mud of Randolph Street, between Franklin and Fifth Avenue. Hickory wood sold for a few shillings per cord, and hay was almost a drug in the market. He persevered, and by the work of his own hands won a home and comfort for his declining years.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 401-402

Orsemus Morrison, one of the esteemed pioneers of Chicago, was born at Cambridge, New York, and died in Chicago, January 4, 1864, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was a son of Ephraim Morrison and Sally Adams, who became residents of Chicago a few years subsequent to the arrival of their son. Ephraim Morrison spent the balance of his life in this city, and among the investments which he made here was the purchase of the lot at the northeast corner of Clark and Madison Streets, where he built a residence. A portion of this lot was afterward condemned by the city for the purpose of widening Madison Street, which had been originally laid out only forty feet in width. The silver with which he paid for this lot was brought from New York in an old-fashioned kettle, such as was usually hung on a crane over a fire-place. It was the proceeds of the sale of his farm at Cambridge. The six sons of Ephraim Morrison, named, respectively, Orsemus, James M., Ezekiel, Ephraim, Charles and Dan, became residents of Chicago, but all are now deceased.

Orsemus Morrison became a mechanic and builder, and was employed for a time as foreman in the construction of the Government Breakwater at Buffalo, New York. Thence he came in 1833 to Chicago, for the purpose of attending the first sale of school lands. Among the purchases which he made at that sale was a lot at the southeast corner of Clark and Madison Streets, with a two-hundred-foot front on the former. The price paid for this property was $62 in silver. It is still held by his heirs, by virtue of the original United States patent, being one of the few parcels of real estate in this city which has never changed hands since becoming private property. Another purchase which he made at the same sale was Block 7 of the School Section Addition, fronting four hundred feet on Halsted Street and four hundred and sixteen feet on Harrison Street, the price of this block being $61. Though many of his friends scoffed at his lack of judgment in buying land so far out of town, he was sagacious enough to foresee its ultimate value. Mr. Morrison built a frame residence at the corner of Clark and Madison Streets, and afterward further improved his lot by the erection of a row of tenement houses, cutting timber for the frames of these building on the North Branch of the Chicago River. From time to time Mr. Morrison made other investments in Chicago realty.

At the first election held in the village of Chicago, Mr. Morrison was elected to the office of Constable. To the ordinary duties of this office were added those of Collector and Coroner. One of the first inquests which he held in the latter capacity was on the body of a stranger who came to Chicago and started out from the hotel for an evening walk, got lost in the woods and was frozen to death. His corpse was found next day at the corner of La Salle and Washington Streets. Mr. Morrison continued to hold the office of Constable for several years. He was a physical giant, weighing nearly three hundred pounds, and, though very peaceably inclined, he was perfectly fearless, and was ever a terror to evil-doers, whether acting in his official capacity or as a private citizen. On more than one occasion (notably on the evening of the election of John Wentworth as Mayor) he quelled a crowd of noisy and belligerent men unaided, by force of his strength and courage. Upon the organization of the city, he was elected Alderman from the Second Ward, and also served as Street Commissioner for some years.

Of his children, but two survive: Hannah M., wife of G. W. Spofford; and Lucy M., Mrs. D. W. Mills, both residents of Chicago.

Mr. Morrison was very generous, and always befriended the poor and sick. No case of suffering ever reached his knowledge without being promptly relieved. His charities were always bestowed without ostentation, and frequently without the knowledge of the members of his own family. His memory will long be cherished among the early residents of Chicago, to whom his virtues and noble characteristics were best known.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 51-52

John O'Leary was for more than half a century one of the most popular and progressive citizens of South Evanston. He was born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, in 1803. His father, Capt. John O’Leary, commanded a vessel engaged in the East India trade, and died at sea, of a fever contracted in the tropics. This occurred during the early childhood of the son, who soon after had the misfortune to lose his mother, and at the age of ten years became the protege of an uncle named Breen, in London. There he grew up, and at the age of twenty came to New York City, where he became a paving contractor. In 1836 he became a resident of Chicago, and was engaged in paving that city for two years. In 1838 he went to Ravenswood, then called Belle Plain, and bought forty acres in the subdivision since known as Sunnyside, which he sold two years later.

In 1840 he bought half a section of land in South Evanston and settled there, engaging in farming. When the town began to grow he subdivided and sold much of his farm. He also did an extensive real-estate business, dealing in lake-shore property at Wilmette and other points. Many people were distrustful of the lake shore, fearing that much of the land would be washed away, but he foresaw that it would eventually be the most desirable and valuable property contiguous to the city, and invested largely therein. Of his original farm he sold eighty acres for Calvary Cemetery. In 1851 he went overland to California, where he remained two years, being more successful than the average miner, and clearing over $3,000. News was not in those days as readily communicated as now, and he returned home on account of a report which reached him that his wife was dead. His joy can easily be imagined on finding the rumor a false one on his return.

Mr. O’Leary was one of the original stockholders of the Chicago, Evanston & Green Bay Road Company, which maintained a paved roadway from 1860 to 1884 as a toll-road. He was a member of the Roman Catholic Church from boyhood, and a life-long Democrat in political sentiment. He took a keen interest in public affairs, serving, though unwillingly, as Highway Commissioner and County Supervisor.

While a resident of New York City, Mr. O’Leary married Miss Margaret Matteson, who was born in Ireland and reared in England, and still survives, at the age of eighty-eight years. Of their ten children, one died in childhood. John, the second, enlisted in 1861 in Company C, Twenty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and died while in the service, in August, 1864. Daniel, the third, is now a resident of Oklahoma. The others are residents of Evanston, and are named as follows: Mary (Mrs. Gerherd Brienen); Ellen, widow of Michael Lynch; William, Margaret, David P. and Arthur, the sons being engaged in business at Evanston.

After a long and useful career Mr. O’Leary passed away at his home in South Evanston, March 23, 1892. He was a man of remarkable loquacity, good humor and kindness of heart, who could not fail to become popular with every one whom he met.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 109-110

David Johnson Powers, among the foremost and most active pioneers of the Northwest, was born at Westminister, Vermont, June 3, 1814. His lineage is traced from a Norman named Poore, who came into England with William the Conqueror. Through gradual changes and modifications the name has assumed its present form, in which it came to America very early in the history of the Colonies. His grandfather, Josiah Powers, as well as the father of his mother (Esther Johnson), bore a part in the struggle for American independence.

Nathaniel Powers, father of David, was a farmer in Westminister nearly all his life. Both he and his good wife joined their son at Palmyra, Wisconsin, in 1846, and died there at the ages of seventy-three and seventy-two years, respectively, the wife surviving her husband about one year. All of their twelve children grew to maturity. The ninth of these, and the subject of this biography, is the only one now living.

He grew up in his native town, supplementing the training of the district school by one term at an academy in Chester, Vermont. In his seventeenth year he left home, going on foot to Woodstock, Vermont, where he apprenticed himself to a machinist, under a contract for five years. The stipulated remuneration was very small, but at the end of a year he had become so proficient and useful to his employer, that the time was reduced to four years at double the original salary, board being furnished. When he completed his apprenticeship, at the age of twenty, he had been for some time in charge of its machine-shop, and his pay, including extras, had amounted to $460. He accepted in part payment a note for $375, which was ultimately paid. Being ambitious for a larger field, he went to West Poultney, Vermont, where he was made foreman of the machine department of a large stove foundry. Late in 1836 he went to New York city, where he spent the winter in a vain search for employment. He improved the time, however, in study and sight-seeing, and in the spring of 1837 he went to Nashua, New Hampshire. The financial panic of that period was probably the most crushing in the history of the United States. President Jackson had upset the United States Bank, and scattered its deposits of United states funds, and thus created a great panic and wild speculation, bringing almost to a standstill all active business. Arriving at Nashua, however, he began work in a machine-shop without compensation, as the only alternative except remaining idle. At the end of two weeks he had demonstrated such skill and energy, that he was gladly engaged at a liberal salary, to count from the start. After remaining there a few months he was placed in charge of the machinery of a large muslin-delaine factory at Hookset, New Hampshire. In the fall of 1838 he was seized with the Western fever, and, much against the wishes of his employers, set out on an exploring tour, arriving at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 5 of that year. Thence he set out on foot through the country, and soon found a location which pleased him, at what is now the thrifty little city of Whitewater, Wisconsin. Here he bought a claim, and engaged in farming for about a year and a-half. He built the first hotel at that place, which he conducted and afterwards sold. He was appointed Postmaster by President Van Buren, and held the office through the four years of his residence there, through the administration of W. H. Harrison and a part of that of John Tyler.

In 1842 he became the founder of the present village of Palmyra, thirty-seven miles west of Milwaukee, where he built mills and work-shops, and remained eight years. During this time he became a director of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company, and secured the location of its line through Palmyra. He became for the time being the first Master Mechanic of this road, and sold out his interests at Palmyra and moved to Waukesha, where he lived two years. During this time he visited the East and secured bridge and car builders, and a permanent corps of practical railroad operators. The firm of Bean, Clinton & Powers, of which he was a member, furnished at onetime one hundred and forty thousand cross ties for this railroad, and also contracted and executed the excavations for several miles of the line through the bluffs east of Palmyra, considered quite a heavy job at that time.

In 1852 Mr. Powers returned to Palmyra, and was elected to the Lower House of the Legislature the same year, by a very large majority, taking his seat in January, 1853. He was also a member of the special session which tried the impeachment case of Judge Hubbell. During his term he removed to Madison, where he continued to reside fifteen years. He occupied the first half of this period in the improvement and cultivation of a section of prairie land, then and still known as “Seventy-six Farm.” He became the editor and proprietor of the Wisconsin Farmer, which had been established two or three years before in a small way. He also served as Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, and by correspondence succeeded in inducing Abraham Lincoln to address the society and people of the state at the State Fair in Milwaukee in the fall of 1859. He still treasures among his most valued possessions the autograph letters of Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Powers became a resident of Chicago in 1868. By unfortunate business vicissitudes he had become involved in debt to the extent of about twenty thousand dollars, and was urged by his attorney to go through bankruptcy, which he was assured could be completed for $250. This he refused to do, as most of his creditors were justly entitled to the sums due them, and set out at the age of fifty-four years to retrieve his fortune. He invented and set up a loom for weaving wire mattresses. Having demonstrated the practical ability of his idea, he was enabled to organize a company with a small capital, whose first year’s business resulted in a profit of seventeen thousand dollars. This concern was known as the Union Wire Mattress Company, of which Mr. Powers was, and still is, President. It is among the most successful manufacturing establishments of Chicago, and is capable of turning out one thousand mattresses, and many other kinds of goods, per day. Within a short time after the establishment of this business, the last obligation of Mr. Powers was discharged to the mutual satisfaction of himself and his creditors.

Mr. Powers was and is a natural-born machinist and inventor, and has always been making inventions in mechanical devices and machines. He says he seldom sees a machine that cannot be improved in some respect. He has applied for some fifty patents for his own inventions, numbers of which have proved quite valuable, and gone into permanent use. He has also been a prominent mechanical and scientific expert in patent litigation, having testified in that capacity in from one to two hundred litigated suits in the federal courts. He has made a snug fortune in his later life out of his ingenuity and industry, instead of speculation in real estate or betting on the markets.

He is now, in the opening of his eighty-second year, a man of vigorous mental and physical powers, and relates many interesting reminiscences of pioneer days in the West. For over twenty years he attended the services under the ministry of the late David Swing, which indicates the liberality of his religious principles. His creed may be condensed in seven expressive words, “Behave well, and you will fare well.” He was among the Whigs in his early manhood, and joined the Republican party at its inception. His first observation of administrative affairs was in connection with the inauguration of John Quincy Adams as President, in 1825.

In the fall of 1837 Mr. Powers was married to Miss Eliza A. Harris, daughter of Capt. J. A. and Lucy (May) Harris, of Canaan, New Hampshire. Mrs. Powers was the companion and helpmate of her husband until July 30, 1888, when she passed away, at the age of seventy years. Two of their three children were born at Whitewater, Wisconsin, and the third at Palmyra. Loraine Eliza, the eldest, is the wife of John H. Griffith, residing at Cleveland, Ohio. William P. and Frank A. are residents of Chicago, the latter being active business manager of the Union Wire Mattress Company, and the former another successful inventor.

Mr. Powers is a most genial and affable gentleman of the old school, and his open-hearted, humanity-loving character is the only obstacle that has stood between him and great wealth. Having learned many lessons by experience, he is now enjoying the fruits of his later years of activity in quiet contentment, and the story of his life is worthy the perusal of every ambitious youth of to-day, and its lessons of courage and industrious energy should be heeded by all who are desirous of success in life, and are willing to work and wait for it. Time, patience and industry will almost always win a fair, if not a high, degree of success.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 63-65

Paul Pratt is the oldest resident of Evanston, and one of the earliest surviving pioneers of Cook County. Fifty years ago and more he was one of the most familiar characters in the northern part of the county, he and his ox-team being well known to every family along the north shore. He was born in Weston, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, September 11, 1807, and is a son of Paul and Lydia (Gates) Pratt, both of whom lived and died in Weston. His father was one of the sturdy Massachusetts “minute-men” who rushed from “every Middlesex village and farm” when Paul Revere made his famous ride, and did valiant service in defense of his country at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. He was a farmer, following the occupation which had been pursued in the same locality by many successive generations of his ancestors. The subject of this notice grew to manhood in his native place, and with the exception of two years spent in the state of New York, continued to reside there until 1839. At that date, having married, he determined to seek his fortune in the West, and started for Chicago. He traveled by stage as far as Albany, thence by way of the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to this port. He located on the same ground where he now resides in Evanston, and engaged in farming and gardening; he also cut considerable timber, which he rafted at the lake shore and floated to Chicago. A large share of the timber which entered into the construction of the first Government pier was furnished by him. His brother, George, was drowned while assisting in this work.

When he first arrived in Chicago the only means of crossing the river was by a ferry-boat, by which a single team was transported at each trip. In the spring of the year the country roads were often so miry that it was impossible to drive a team into town, and he was often obliged to leave the oxen at the present location of Lincoln Park and carry his flour and other provisions to that point. Even in the present precincts of Evanston the roads were sometimes impassable, but he improved them to some extent by cutting brush and placing it across the way, thereby forming a rude corduroy. Some of this material is still found by workmen making excavations for street improvements. Mr. Pratt made a squatter’s claim to a large tract of land, including the site of the North-western University, and when this land was surveyed and offered for sale he purchased it from the United States Government, paying $1.25 per acre. There were but two houses within the present limits of the city of Evanston when he located there. These were occupied by the Colvin and Hathaway families, both of whom long since removed from that locality. With those exceptions, his only neighbors were Indians and French traders. He built a log house at the present intersection of Ridge Avenue and Leon Street. Ten years later this was replaced by a small frame dwelling, which still stands there. Another source of income to Mr. Pratt was charcoal, of which he burned a considerable quantity and sold it in the Chicago market. He continued his occupation as a gardener till the rapid march of immigration made it necessary to subdivide his farm and dispose of it for building lots. In 1859 he went to Pike’s Peak, spending eight weeks in crossing the plains from Kansas City with ox-teams. There was not a house on the site of the present city of Denver at that time. Not finding the prospects for miners encouraging, he returned to Evanston after a few weeks.

In 1838 Mr. Pratt was married to Miss Caroline Adams, whose birthplace was Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Rev. Ephraim Adams, a Presiding Elder of the Methodist Church, who was stationed for some years at Truro, on Cape Cod. He sprang from the same family which included two Presidents of the United States and a number of other prominent statesmen among its members. Mrs. Pratt was born March 10, 1816, and died August 23, 1895. She was quite active until a short time before her death. She was the mother of four children, of whom the following is the record: Adaline, Mrs. H. E. Peck, resides at Ottumwa, Iowa. Susan, wife of Louis Leonhardt, of Evanston, is the first white person born in that place, the date of that event being September 18, 1840. Charles E., who served three years in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, is now a resident of Bushnell, Missouri. The youngest, Willard Irvin, served two years in Company C, Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry. After taking part in many hard-fought battles, he was captured at Dallas, Georgia, and incarcerated in Andersonville Prison, where he languished for seven months. When finally exchanged, he was so reduced by starvation that he was unable to walk to the boat which was to convey him to the North. The watch which he carried from home and secreted beneath his blouse while in captivity he gave to one of his comrades who assisted him to reach the vessel. He was sent to the hospital at Indianapolis, and the family, who had given him up for dead, caused him to be brought home, where he survived but five weeks.

Mr. Pratt has seventeen living grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. He has been a life-long supporter of the Democratic party, though never an aspirant for public office. Though advancing years have unfitted him for further usefulness, he still retains an active mind, and his memory concerning many of the occurrences of pioneer days is as clear as if they had transpired but yesterday.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 61-62

Eben Fitch Runyan, one of the most industrious and successful lawyers in Chicago, has been for over forty years actively engaged in practice in this city. He has also been identified with its business interests and has borne his full share in building up the material, intellectual and moral interests of the city. His father, Archibald Runyan, was a farmer in New York State, where he died December 4, 1838, and young Eben was early thrown upon his own resources. His mother, Eva Viele, was a native of New York, born in Old Saratoga, in Saratoga County.

The subject of this biography was born December 3, 1831, in the town of Butler, Wayne County, New York. In the spring of 1838, at the age of seven and one-half years, he began supporting himself by working upon a farm, and continued that occupation until sixteen years of age. In the mean time he was permitted to attend the district school in winter, and laid the foundation which enabled him to secure a practical education in the hard school of experience. He attended a school at Saratoga Springs, New York, for six months, and then became a clerk in the store of Capt. T. F. Comstock, at Wilton, Saratoga County, New York, where he continued one year.

In the spring of 1850 he came to Illinois and settled in Hebron, McHenry County. He worked upon a farm in summer and taught school during the winter, continuing for three years. In the spring of 1853 he entered Waukegan Academy, where he continued two terms, under the tutorship of Hon. Francis E. Clarke, still a prominent citizen of Waukegan. He commenced the study of law with W. S. Searls, and at the end of two years was admitted to the Bar. June 11, 1855, he located in Chicago and began practice, and has prosecuted a successful general law business ever since.

He early began to invest his savings in real estate, and has erected numerous buildings in the city, all of a good class. He has also been interested in farming, and was for several years engaged in the grain business. He built two elevators in Chicago, and several small ones along the line of the Chicago & Danville Railroad.

Mr. Runyan was a member of the West Park Board from its first organization, and continued in that capacity until 1876, when business reverses caused him to resign in order to give closer attention to his private affairs. He takes a keen interest in the needs and development of the public-school system, and was for nine years a member of the Chicago Board of Education, serving one term as its Vice-President and was twice President of the Board. He has always been a patriotic citizen of the city, and has given aid and encouragement to the extent of his ability to every movement tending toward its proper development. In religious matters he adheres to the Baptist Church, and has always been a consistent and straightforward Democrat in politics. During the Civil War he was one of the Committee of Five in the then Sixth Ward of Chicago to assist the families of soldiers at the front, and otherwise look after the prosecution of the struggle to preserve the Union. Among other duties, they furnished substitutes for several drafted men. That committee consisted of John A. Tyrrell, George Sherwood, U. R. Hawley, James B. Bradwell and E. F. Runyan.

January 2, 1860, at Waukegan, Mr. Runyan was married to Miss Flora, daughter of E. W. and T. T. Avery, of Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois. Mrs. Runyan was born at Brandon, Vermont, and moved from there with her parents to Lake County, Illinois, in 1843. Mr. Runyan’s family includes six children. Emma F., the eldest, is now the wife of G. E. M. Pratt. Eben F. Runyan, junior, and Edward D. Runyan are associated with their father in practice. Grace F. is the wife of S. S. Parks. Julia M. is Mrs. Harrie E. Gordon; and Estelle M. still resides with her parents.

The career of Mr. Runyan is commended to the poor youth of the land as an example worthy of emulation and as affording encouragement in the struggle for advancement.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 47-48

John Ryan, Assistant General Yard Master of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, with headquarters at Blue Island, has long been connected with that corporation, and is one of its most trusted and faithful employes [sic]. A native of the Emerald Isle, he was born in Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, on the 1st of November, 1843, and is a son of Michael and Mary (Ryan) Ryan. He attended school part of the time until eleven years of age, when, his parents having died, he and his twin brother Michael crossed the broad Atlantic to America. The voyage was made in a sailing-vessel, and was a long and tempestuous one of thirteen weeks, during which their supply of water and provisions was nearly exhausted and they were threatened with starvation. On the 1st of April, 1854, the brothers reached Kalamazoo, Mich., where Michael is still living. The subject of this biography there secured work as a brick-mason, being thus employed [sic] until 1859, which year witnessed his arrival in Chicago.

On his removal to the city, Mr. Ryan was employed [sic] by a physician, with whom he came from Kalamazoo to Chicago. He was afterward employed [sic] by James M. Walker, an attorney at law, and in 1862 he entered the employe [sic] of the Illinois Central Railroad, working in the Chicago freight house. Three years later he went to St. Louis, where he worked for the Northern Missouri, now the Wabash Railroad. In 1872 he returned to Chicago and secured a position with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, with which he has been employed [sic] for twelve hours per day regularly since, except for a few weeks when sickness detained him at home. During the past three years he has been Assistant General Yard Master, and since January, 1893, he has resided in Blue Island.

Mr. Ryan was married in 1860 to Miss Johanna Cumming, of Chicago, a native of Neneh, County Tipperary, Ireland. Their union has been blessed with four children: John P. and James M., who are now employes [sic] of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and Mary and Ellen, who are still at home. The parents and children are all members of the Catholic Church, and Mr. Ryan belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Yard Masters' Association, which includes all yard masters of the United States and Canada. In his political views, he is a Democrat, having supported that party since casting his first Presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas. He has, however, never sought political preferment, giving his entire time and attention to his business interests.

Soon after his removal to Chicago, Mr. Ryan made plans to sail for Milwaukee on the ill-fated excursion steamer, "Lady Elgin," but fortunately was detained and failed to embark. That was the "Lady Elgin's" last voyage, for during the trip the vessel went down with several hundred passengers on board. Mr. Ryan twice witnessed the breaking down of the Rush Street bridge. During his early residence in Chicago, Fr. Dearborn and the Marine Hospital were still familiar landmarks in that neighborhood, and the principal hotel and business houses were all located on Lake Street. He has witnessed the greater part of the growth and development of the city, being familiar with its history from early times. Mr. Ryan is an affable, genial gentleman. In business he is distinguished for punctuality, regularity, and his just treatment of those under him. His long service and experience have made him practically indispensable to the corporation with which he is connected, and he is equally popular with employes [sic].

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 439-440

The world has produced many able scholars, eloquent speakers and capable business men, but it is very rarely that nature simultaneously endows a single individual with those compound qualities of mind and heart which by proper cultivation and development enable him to become at once a ripe scholar, an eminent instructor, a profound theologian, a popular pastor and a successful financier. The man who succeeds in fitting himself for satisfactory work in any one of these capacities is entitled to considerable credit, but the time and patient application which are exhausted in so doing usually preclude the attainment of other noteworthy accomplishments. Therefore, he who has mastered not only one, but all, of the professions enumerated above, and that during an existence of less than half a century, must be termed a phenomenal character, and a brief outline of his comprehensive life work can not fail to interest the public with which he has been almost constantly brought in contact. Robert Dickinson Sheppard was born in Chicago, July 23, 1846. His father, Robert Sheppard, was a native of Dundee, Scotland, and came to America in 1830. He first located in Buffalo, but five years later became a resident of Chicago, where the balance of his life was spent. He was one of the first building contractors of the city, and later became prominently identified with its lumber interests. He was an early member of the Clark Street Methodist Church, and erected the first brick building occupied by that society, at the southeast corner of Clark and Washington Streets. This edifice was built exclusively for purposes of worship, but was afterward replaced by a commercial block, the building which occupied that site at the time of the great fire. He was one of those Christian gentlemen of the Caledonian race who are numbered among the pioneers of Chicago, and whose influence is still apparent in the business and social life of the city. His wife, Mrs. Samantha Sheppard, who was one of the earliest teachers of Cook County, still survives, at the venerable age of eighty-three years. She is the daughter of Zenas Dickinson, a native of Granby, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, who came to Illinois with his family in 1835. The Dickinson family is of English lineage, and many generations of that name have resided in the Connecticut Valley. Many of the most influential men and women of that region have borne that cognomen.

The marked characteristics of both parents seem to have been impressed upon the son, who enjoyed the best educational advantages to be had in Chicago. After completing the course at the Chicago High School, he became a student at the Northwestern University, and still later at the Chicago University, from which he graduated in 1869. He had resolved in youth to devote his life to the interests of the church, and his vacations had been mostly spent in the study of theology, so that a single year at Garrett Biblical Institute was sufficient to complete his preparation for the ministry.

Immediately after his ordination in 1870, he joined the Rock River Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was successively assigned to the pastorates of the Michigan Avenue Church, Chicago; the Third Street Church of Rockford, Illinois; and the Western Avenue Church, Chicago. In the fall of 1877 he went abroad, and spent the following year in study and travel through Europe and the East, thereby broadening his field of knowledge and preparing himself for further and greater usefulness. Upon his return he was assigned to Grace Church, Chicago, where he remained for three years. After an equal period spent as pastor of the First Church of Aurora, Illinois, he was recalled to Grace Church, the last pulpit which he filled as a regular charge. The thorough and efficient manner in which he applied himself to his ecclesiastical duties, and the appreciation of the same manifested by his parishioners, can be judged by the fact that he was retained in nearly every charge to which he was assigned for the full period of time allowed by the regulations of the Methodist discipline. On the 13th of June, 1872, Mr. Sheppard was married to Miss Virginia Loring, daughter of Nahum Loring, another Cook County pioneer, who engaged in mercantile business at Naperville in the days when that town rivalled [sic] Chicago in commercial importance. Four interesting offspring, named, respectively, Robert Loring, Marguerita, Virginia and Dorothea, complete the family of Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard. In 1872 the Chicago University conferred the degree of Master of Arts upon Mr. Sheppard, an honor which was duplicated three years later by the Northwestern University. In 1878 he was appointed a Trustee of the latter institution, and he has filled the same position for Garrett Biblical Institute since 1884. Since that date he has held the chair of history and political economy in the Northwestern University, though the first year was spent in foreign travel and study, under a leave of absence generously granted him by the Directors. In 1892 the Board displayed its confidence in his ability and integrity by appointing him Treasurer and Financial Agent of the university. In the management of its business affairs he has shown a degree of judgment and discernment seldom met with in men not fitted for such responsibilities by long years of careful discipline, and the remarkable progress of the institution is largely due to his energetic and farseeing business policy.

The intellectual resources displayed by Mr. Sheppard could only be developed in a person of extraordinary physical vigor and endurance, and it is almost needless to state that he is the picture of health and strength. Naturally of pleasing address and engaging manner, he has not neglected to cultivate his social instincts, and is never too much absorbed in business or professional cares to give just consideration and attention to every caller. While distinguished for his own originality, he is always on the alert for the reception of advanced ideas and improved methods, his ample experience and ready discrimination enabling him to grasp and accept, or reject, a proposition almost instantly. A conviction once formed by him is not easily shaken, and he is zealous and eloquent in its enunciation. His residence, now nearing completion, is one of the most attractive objects bordering the famous Sheridan Road, and his home constitutes one of the chief social centers of the university and of the city of Evanston.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 35-37

Jesse Spalding is a descendant of one of the oldest American families. The environment of the New England fathers was calculated to bring out and develop all that was sturdy and vigorous in both mind and body, and their descendants continue to manifest the traits of character which enable them to survive the hardships which they were compelled to endure, and which rendered prosperity possible in the face of the most forbidding conditions.

The town and family of Spalding are known to have existed in Lincolnshire, England, in the twelfth century. Between 1630 and 1633, Edward Spalding left that town and settled in Braintree, in the then infant colony of Massachusetts. From him the line of descent is traced through Joseph, Nathaniel, Joseph, Joseph and John to Jesse.

The Spalding family first settled in southern Connecticut, early in the seventeenth century. Its members shared in the work of subduing the wilderness, as well as defending their homes from the aboriginal savages. Some of them achieved distinction in the heroic defense of Fort Groton, Connecticut. Many served in "King Philip’s War," and fifty-two were active in the Revolution, of whom nine participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, where one fell from his dying horse.

Joseph Spalding, grandfather of Jesse, was born in Plainfield, Connecticut. He was an officer of the Revolutionary army, and removed to Pennsylvania in 1780, settling on land near Athens, Bradford County, on the upper waters of the Susquehanna River. This land was claimed by both Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and Mr. Spalding was obliged to pay tribute to both commonwealths before he could secure a clear title. This was a great hardship, but he went to work with characteristic energy, and shortly thereafter, despite all discouragements, became a prosperous farmer and leading citizen of the community.

John, father of Jesse Spalding, was active and influential in Bradford County affairs, and at one time occupied the office of Sheriff, winning universal approbation by the intrepid and vigorous manner in which he discharged his official (and often perilous) duties in a new and somewhat lawless community. His wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Dr. Amos Prentiss, a distinguished physician of Groton, Connecticut, and a representative of a prominent Colonial family.

Jesse Spalding was born at Athens, Pennsylvania, April 15, 1833. While assisting his father in farm work, he found time to acquire such education as the common schools and the academy of his native town afforded. On attaining his majority he engaged in lumbering on the north branch of the Susquehanna, and became a woodsman and raftsman. At the age of twenty-three he began to deal in lumber on his own account, and was successful. His product was rafted to Middletown, Columbia and Port Deposit, and marketed in Washington, Alexandria, Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia, and other points.

Foreseeing the rapid growth of the young city of Chicago, he removed hither in 1857, and soon after bought a sawmill at Menekaunee, at the mouth of the Menominee River, in Wisconsin, where he commenced the manufacture of lumber. This mill was burned in 1870, rebuilt and burned in 1871, rebuilt in 1872, and is now finely equipped with gang, band and circular saws and modern machinery, being thoroughly complete in all its appointments. For a time business was conducted by the firm of Wells & Spalding, the firm name later becoming Spalding & Porter, and subsequently Spalding, Houghteling & Johnson. In 1871, the concern was incorporated as the Menominee River Lumber Company, and in 1892 Mr. Spalding purchased the interest of his partners, and has since been the sole owner. Shortly after he bought out the New York Lumber Company at Menekaunee, he secured a milling property at the mouth of Cedar River, about thirty miles above the city of Menominee, and in 1882 he organized the Spalding Lumber Company, of which he became President, being at the same time its active manager. His purchases of timber-lands in Wisconsin and Michigan to supply the mills of these companies with logs have aggregated two hundred and sixty-five thousand acres. Besides its value for timber, this land has proven rich in iron ore, and three mines are now successfully operated on the property. The output of the mills at Cedar River is shipped in boats owned by the Spalding Lumber Company direct to Chicago, whence it is distributed from the Chicago yards to the western and southwestern markets in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Lumber has also been shipped recently, in large quantities, direct from the mills at Menekaunee to Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and Boston. The companies of which Mr. Spalding is the head are among the largest of their kind, and annually produce from sixty to seventy-five millions of feet of lumber.

Although he cannot be said to have been a pioneer in the lumber business of Chicago, few men have been more closely identified with its growth than Mr. Spalding. In fact, his name is indissolubly linked with the political, social and business interests of the city and the Northwest. Mr. Spalding is amply fitted by nature and training for the manipulation of large interests, and his success is in no small degree due to the fact that he does not despise small things. All the minutiæ of his extensive interests are familiar to him, and his practical experience enables him to give attention to the smallest details. His investments in banking and other financial concerns are made with the same judicious care, and are equally successful with his other undertakings. He is a director in many large corporations of the city, and his advice is frequently sought in the conduct of many important enterprises. It is not strange that his fellow-citizen should discover in him a capable man of affairs; and when the city was destroyed by fire in 1871, he was sought out as one who would be useful in adjusting public business to existing conditions, and in raising Chicago from its ashes and reviving business activity. He was three years in the City Council, and while Chairman of the Finance Committee, he, by judicious management, aided in the restoration of the city’s financial credit, materially furthering the establishment of good municipal government. In 1861, when the Nation was threatened with destruction, Mr. Spalding was among its most active defenders. He was requested by the Adjutant-General of the State of Illinois to build and equip barracks for the Government soldiers (afterward known as "Camp Douglas"), besides which he built barracks the following year on the North Side for returning soldiers. He furnished all the material for these structures, receiving in payment the State Auditor’s warrants, there being no funds in the Treasury to be applied to this purpose.

Mr. Spalding has been an active worker in the interests of the Republican party from its inception, because he believed the weal of the Nation depended upon the success of the principles maintained by that party. He was a personal friend of Grant, Arthur and Conkling, as well as other now prominent National leaders, and gave counsel in many grave exigencies. He presided at the unveiling of the Grant monument in Lincoln Park. In 1881 he was appointed by President Arthur Collector of the Port of Chicago, and filled that office in a manner most acceptable to the Government and the people of the city. With him a public office is a trust, to be executed with the same faithful care which one bestows on his own private affairs; and when he was appointed Director of the Union Pacific Railroad on behalf of the Government by President Harrison, he made a personal investigation of the property in his own painstaking way, submitting the report to the Secretary of the Interior. This report, which gave a careful review of the resources of the country traversed by the line, and its future prospects, was ordered printed by Congress, and commanded careful attention from financiers and those concerned in the relations of the Pacific roads to the Government. It was also embraced in the annual report of the Board of Directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company. Mr. Spalding was associated with William B. Ogden and others in the project for cutting a canal from Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay, by which the danger of navigating "Death’s Door" (as the entrance to Green Bay is known) could be avoided, as well as saving a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles on each round trip between Chicago and Green Bay ports. This was completed in 1882 by the Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michigan Ship Canal and Harbor Company, of which Mr. Ogden was the first President, succeeded on his death by Mr. Spalding. During the first year of its operations, 745,128 tons of freight passed through the canal, and in 1892 the business amounted to 875,533 tons. In 1891 4,500 vessels (trips) passed through, and the next year the number was 5,312. Congress having passed an act to purchase the canal and make it free to all navigators, it was turned over to the United States Government in 1893.

John Fletcher Stewart is the oldest resident of North Evanston, and has been prominently identified with its growth and development for nearly a quarter of a century. He was born in Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin, March 19, 1849, and is a son of John W. Stewart, a prominent pioneer and one of the earliest Knights Templar of the West. John F. Stewart was educated in the public schools of Monroe, completing the course at the age of eighteen years, having taught several terms of school in the mean time. Soon after graduating, he entered the First National Bank of Brodhead, Wisconsin, of which his father was one of the Directors. He continued there in the capacity of Teller about three years. In 1871 he came to Chicago, and made his home at North Evanston, which then contained but a few houses. In partnership with his father, he bought forty acres of land, which they subdivided. They were among the property-owners who built the railroad station at that point. Mr. Stewart has given most of his time and attention to real estate operations, though he was in the mercantile business at North Evanston twelve years. For five years he filled a position in the County Treasurer’s office, and has recently served three years as a member of the Village Council of Evanston.

He has taken special pains in promoting the cause of public education, and served as Chairman of the Building Committee which had charge of the construction of the North Evanston public school, an edifice of which all the citizens are proud. He has been a member of the Board of Education almost constantly since locating in Evanston, and a part of the time officiated as President of that body.

In 1871 Mr. Stewart was married to Miss May M. Allen, daughter of Thomas J. Allen, of Brecksville, Ohio, a direct descendant of General Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame, and a native of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of five children. The eldest, Charles Allen, is a student of the Northwestern University at Evanston. Eva M. is a student in the Evanston High School. The others are John F., junior, Walter M. and Marion.

A life-long Republican, Mr. Stewart concerns himself little with the distribution of offices. The family is affiliated with the North Evanston Methodist Church, for which he has helped to build two houses of worship. He is active in the promotion and councils of the Masonic order, being a member of Evans Lodge and Evanston Chapter, and he is also identified with the Royal Arcanum. He is a member of the Evanston Business Men’s Club, President of the Sixth Ward Republican Club, a member of the Commercial Travelers’ Republican Club, and of the North End Improvement Society, a social and charitable organization of North Evanston families, of which latter organization he is President. Mr. Stewart has labored persistently to make this rural suburb what it is to-day, an aggregation of beautiful and cultured homes, and no worthy public movement has been allowed to languish for want of his hearty support and encouragement.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 60-61

Andrew T. Still, M. D., founder of the American School of Osteopathy, was born on the 6th of August, 1828, in Lee County, Virginia. He is the third son of Dr. Abraham Still, of whom extended mention occurs elsewhere in this volume. He accompanied his parents in their removal to Tennessee and Missouri, and his experiences and opportunities for education were similar to those of boys of that period in those regions.

He took up the study of medicine with his father, and became his partner in practice in 1852, in Douglas County, Kansas. Subsequently he became an independent practitioner. Being much with the Shawnee Indians in those early days, he acquired a knowledge of their language, which he still speaks readily. He shared his father’s dislike of slavery, which he stoutly opposed, and was an active member of the Free-Soil party of Kansas. He was associated with John Brown and Col. Jim Lane in their free-state operations, and after the outbreak of the Civil War was Surgeon of the Ninth Kansas Volunteers. He was also with General Fremont’s command in its operations in Missouri. His efforts were not entirely confined to the practice of medicine while a resident of Kansas, but, being a forcible speaker and advocate of anti-slavery doctrines, he was elected in 1857 a Member of the Legislature of the territory, and his voice and action were largely instrumental in securing to its people the free and beneficent system of government which now obtains in its confines. While in Kansas Dr. Still was located at Baldwin City and Lawrence.

In 1874 he removed to Kirksville, Missouri, and retired from the active practice of medicine for a period of ten years. He spent this time in the study of anatomy and in the development of the new theory of medicine which he originated, and which has received the name of osteopathy, having for its object the keeping and maintenance of a complete circuit of the forces of the motor, sensory and sympathetic nerves; or, as it is more fully stated, the object of osteopathy is the freedom of flow of all electric or other fluids or substances pertaining to life. Perfect circulation is perfect health. Little by little his studies developed this great science, which has attracted the attention of many of the leaders in medical experimentation and thought. Like every discovery, it has encountered much and bitter opposition, but its cures of cases given up as hopeless by other schools have demonstrated its soundness and right to a position among modern schools of medicine. In October, 1892, Dr. Still organized a medical school at Kirksville, Missouri, under charter from the state, requiring two years of study to complete the course taught. Seventeen students were graduated in 1894, and in the following year fifteen other persons received the degree of O. P. from this institution. In connection with the college a hospital is maintained, in which 1,500 patients have been treated during the present year. In 1895 a branch institute was established at Evanston, Illinois, in charge of Dr. James M. Still, whose biography appears in this work. He is assisted by Dr. Harry M. Still, the first graduate in osteopathy, and Dr. Nettie M. Bolles, the latter of Olathe, Kansas, a graduate of the 1894 class of the Kirksville School of Osteopathy, in which she taught anatomy. The erection of a large building at Evanston for sanitarium is in contemplation to accommodate the numerous patients, numbers of whom are now from the best families of Evanston. Dr. Still married Miss Margaret Vaughn, of Macon County, Missouri, in 1848. Five children were born of this marriage, of whom only one, Marusha, now the wife of John Cowgill, of Ottawa, Kansas, survives. Mrs Still died in 1860. By a second marriage Dr. Still was united with Mary E. Turner, a native of Ithaca, New York. Of this union six children were born, and four of them are now living, namely: Charles E., a physician, now in charge of an institute of osteopathy in Minneapolis; Herman T. and Harry M., twin brothers, the former with his father in Kirksville, and the latter associated with his uncle in the sanitarium at Evanston, and for years the associate of his father in the early years of the history of osteopathy; Blanche, the youngest, residing with her parents. Fred, a young man of unusually bright mind, died in 1894, at the age of twenty-one, when about entering upon what promised to be a very successful career as a physician.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 59-60

The remotest ancestor of the subject of this sketch of whom we have any account was Boaz Still, who was born in England about 1730, and was one of six brothers who migrated to America and settled in the Southern States. Boaz Still was a farmer by occupation, and located in Buncombe County, North Carolina. He married Mary Lyda, who was of German descent. They were the parents of seventeen children, five of whom became medical practitioners.

Abraham Still, one of the sons, was born in 1795, in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and began the practice of medicine in Lee County, Virginia, about 1826, after having finished a course of reading in the office of Dr. Quinn, of that county. He was also a Methodist preacher, and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal, or Northern, Church when the division on the question of slavery occurred. He continued to practice medicine until 1868, and attended a patient only a week before his death. In 1834 he moved with his family to Houston County, Tennessee, remaining there four years, and then passing to Macon County, Missouri. In 1852 he went to Kansas as a missionary, having charge of the Shawnee Mission, on the Wakarusa River, near Blue Mound, where he ministered to the temporal and spiritual comfort of the Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo Indians. He remained there six years, and spent the balance of his life in that section, dying in 1868, at the age of seventy-three years, having practiced medicine for over forty years. His wife was Martha P. Moore, born in Tazewell County, Virginia, in 1800, and dying in 1889. They were the parents of nine children, namely: Edward C.; James M.; Andrew T.; Barbara Jane, who married Fred P. Vaughn; Thomas C.; John; Mary, wife of Thomas Adams; Marova M., wife of Richard Clark; and Cassandra, who became the wife of a Mr. McCullom and settled in California.

James M. Still, the subject of this article, and the second son of Dr. Abraham Still, was born in Lee County, Virginia, February 5, 1826, and was a member of his father's family until the latter moved to Missouri, and in his office he prepared for the practice of medicine. In 1856 he opened an office in Douglas County, Kansas, where he had settled two years previously. In those days of turmoil and bloodshed, he saw much of the making of Kansas, which emerged from the free-soil struggle to assume its place among the sisterhood of states in 1860. Living only a few miles from Lawrence, Dr. Still witnessed the raids upon that town and the massacre of many of its settlers by guerrillas, which horrified the Nation. He was Surgeon of the Twenty-first Kansas Volunteers during the War of the Rebellion, and was present at the battle of the Big Blue. Following that time he was connected with the forces organized for local defense. In 1864 he took a course of lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and from that institution received the degree of M. D. In 1881, after nearly thirty years' residence in Kansas, he moved to Nodaway County, Missouri, where he remained until his settlement in Evanston, in 1895. He became a partner with his brother, Dr. A. T. Still, in the practice of Osteopathy in 1893, and is now at the head of the medical institute lately established at this place. In 1850 Dr. Still married Miss Rahab M. Saunders, a native of New Kent County, Virginia, daughter of James Saunders, who represented his county six years in the Legislature of that state. The maiden name of Mrs. Still's mother was Elizabeth Carr. Dr. and Mrs. Still were the parents of five children, of whom three are now living, namely: Summerfield S., a student of medicine; Mary F., wife of Anderson Craig; and James Abraham, a minister of the Methodist Church in Missouri.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 34-35

Sargeant Talbot, who is a self-made man in the strictest sense of the word, was born Jan 11, 1819, in the parish of Lorsen, Suffolk, England. His parents were Thomas and Hannah (Gritts) Talbot. His grandfather, Sargeant Talbot, was an English overseer. The maternal grandfather was also English, and came from London.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Talbot and their 7 children emigrated from their native land in 1833, and located in Herkimer County, near Utica, NY. He later purchased a farm in Oneida County. He remained on a farm until his death, which occurred about the year 1876. He was born in Sussex, England, near the place where Sargeant, his son and the subject of this article, was also born. Mrs. Thomas Talbot died about 1875. Her children were: Eliza, Sargeant, William, Thomas, Marie, Sophia, Annie and Edward.

Sargeant Talbot received but scant education and remained on his father's farm until he was 20 yrs of age. He came to Chicago in the fall of 1842, and went into the employ of John Gage as teamster for a flour mill, which was located on Van Buren Street, where the bridge now is. The mill burned in 1856. He remained thus employed until 1853, and then removed to California. After 3 months he returned and purchased a farm on the Des Plaines River, on mile south of East Wheeling. He owned 200 acres and remained on this farm until 1873, when he sold and removed to Englewood. He has since that time been engaged in teaming, owning as many as 13 teams of horses.

Being very successful, he was enabled in 1892, to build a 3 story brick residence building at No. 6658 State Street. Mr. Talbot has resided in the old house on this site since 1882. (Transcriber note: The inconsistency in this paragraph is not a transcription error, but is as it appears in the book.)

Mr. Talbot was married April 9, 1842, to Miss Marie Copsey, daughter of John and Mary (Talbot) Copsey. Mrs. Talbot was born in Suffolk, near Cambridge, England, Nov 3 1824. She died Jul 19, 1898, mourned by many friends and relatives. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot became the parents of 7 children. Andrew Jackson, the eldest, was born Jan 11, 1844, and died Apr 9, 1846. Andrew Jackson, named for the US president of that name, was born Jul 22, 1846, and resides at Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois. Mary Adelaide was born Mar 26, 1848, married Charles C. Webster, a builder by occupation; they reside at No. 6448 Morgan Street, Chicago. Frances Adelaide, born Feb 3, 1853, died on the 18th of October, 1853. Walter George, the next in order of birth of the children of Sargeant Talbot, was born Nov 3, 1854, and married Kate E. Smith, daughter of William Henry and Margaret Ann (Quackenbush) Smith, May 3, 1887. The children of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Talbot are: Clarence Arthur, born May 1, 1888; Robert Edwin, Jun 17, 1893; Norman Webster, March 26, 1895, and Alice Adelaide, Oct 31, 1897. William, the sixth child of S. Talbot, died at the age of 2 years, while Clarence died when 17 yrs old, in October 1881.

Mr. Talbot is a man of very mild manner, an agreeable gentleman to converse with, and a man of much force of character. He is not demonstrative, but is governed by a quiet, but firm and persistent nature. Though never blessed with educational advantages of the best, he is, however, accomplished more than many men who have had the best opportunities. His fine property at No. 6658 State Street, is but one tangible proof of this fact. His son, Walter Talbot, resides with him at this number. All that could be bestowed by a loving son on a parent is showered on his father by Walter G. Talbot. This happy home suffered a terrible affliction when death separated the loving mother from those of this earth, in Jul, 1898. She was highly respected by all who knew her and reverenced beyond limit by her children. She has passed threescore and ten years at the time of her death.

Contributed May 2001 by Bobbie, pp. 45-46

Henry Tapper was born April 15, 1851, in Port Natal, Cape Colony, Africa. He is a son of John Tapper, who was born in Devonshire, England, his ancestors being of an ancient and honorable family of that country. His grandfather, Henry Tapper, was a farmer, and lived to the age of seventy-eight years. His brother, Samuel, was a carpenter and builder. Henry Tapper was the father of five children, John, Richard, Mary, Joseph and Henry, as the result of his first marriage. The eldest son, John Tapper, served a seven-years apprenticeship at the carpenter’s trade, and followed that occupation all his life. He was an extensive traveler before his marriage, and roved somewhat after that event, as his eldest son was born at Port Natal, Cape Colony, in Africa, as stated above. In the course of his wanderings he visited North America, and worked for a time in Newfoundland, but drifted back to Europe, which he traversed very thoroughly.

In his native land he married Mary, daughter of John Soper, of Devonshire, England. They concluded to settle in America, and set out in the summer of 1855, coming direct to Chicago, where they settled. After one year’s residence there, they removed to Glencoe, in New Trier Township, Cook County, and the family has been there established ever since. Mr. Tapper continued to follow his trade until he met his death in Chicago, in October, 1862. He was a true Englishman, and possessed many sterling traits of character. He retained his connection with the church of England, and politically allied himself with the Republican party on becoming a citizen of the United States. His family included three sons and two daughters, namely: John, Henry, George, Sarah (Mrs. Alfred J. Sherman), and Mary, wife of William Pawlett, of Milwaukee. His widow still survives, residing in Hainesville, Illinois. Of these children, Henry Tapper was educated in the schools of Chicago, in which city he learned the trade of brick-mason with the firm of Mortimer & Tapper. He began this business at the early age of seventeen years, within a year became a journeyman, and has continued the business to the present day. He takes little part in the conduct of public concerns, but usually gives his vote to the Republican party. He has become an expert in his business, and has by his thrift and economy laid the foundation for a competency to enjoy in his old age.

He was married in Chicago, June 20, 1876, to Miss Sarah Landsdowne, a native of Somersetshire, England, and they have two sons, Henry Melville and Harvey H. Mrs. Tapper’s grandfather, Thomas Landsdowne, lived to the age of ninety-six years, passing away in England. The family is one of the oldest in English history. Thomas Landsdowne, above named, was a cousin of the Marquis of Landsdowne, and second-cousin of the recent Governor-General of Canada.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 92-93

Col. Parmenas Taylor Turnley, one of the most faithful and energetic military servants of the United States, was born September 6, 1821, in the little village of Dandridge, the seat of Jefferson County, Tennessee. His ancestors were numbered among the men of note in England, and their coat-of-arms is recorded prior to 1550, in the time of Queen Bess. Francis Turnley, an ensign in the cavalry under Cromwell, participated in the memorable battle of Drogheda, Ireland. After his discharge from military service he married a Welsh maiden, and settled in her native land. In later life he went to Monmouth, England, where he died in 1690, leaving a large family of sons and daughters.

John and Francis, sons of Francis Turnley, born in Monmouth, in 1660 and 1662, respectively, lived at Bristol, England, whence they set sail in 1692 for Jamestown, or, later, Norfolk, Virginia. John settled in Bedford County, where he died at a ripe old age. His eldest son, John, born in Monmouth, England, in 1690, succeeded him, “with a limited education and less patrimony.” His eldest son, born in 1737, was named John, and was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His father died when he was but nine years old, and he was apprenticed to a brickmaker and mason. In that day the unfortunate apprentice boy was little better than a bond slave. At the age of nineteen years he ran away from his taskmaster, but continued to work at his well-learned trade. At the age of twenty-four he married Mary Handy, and their only son, George, was born in 1762.

George Turnley was a well-grown lad of fourteen when the War of the Revolution began. He joined the Continental troops, and was employed in conducting trains of pack-horses, conveying supplies through the wild regions where wheeled vehicles could not pass. He continued as a private through the whole war, and returned to his father’s home in Botetourt County, Virginia, penniless and ragged. The father was a poor man, and the son soon set out for the new country to the west, on the upper tributaries of the Tennessee River. He spent some time among the Indians, and was so pleased with the country, then a part of the territory of North Carolina, that he returned to Virginia, and induced his father to accompany him, and they settled, in 1785, on the French Broad River, thirty miles east of the present city of Knoxville. George Turnley cut logs, and erected a cabin, fifteen by twenty feet, in the edge of the cane-brake, hewed out puncheons for the floors, and rived out boards for roof and doors. In March, 1791, he married Lottie Cunningham, of Shenandoah County, Virginia, who, with her mother and brother, had removed to that country.

February 27, 1792, was born in that little cabin a son, who was named John C. The latter grew up on the farm until the age of seventeen, when he spent three years with his uncle, George Graham, learning cabinet-making. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 he, with a half-dozen others, walked one hundred and twenty miles to Nashville, and volunteered in Captain Kenady’s company, which was afterward the First Regiment Tennessee Infantry. The company descended the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers in a flatboat, and down the Mississippi to Walnut Hills (now Vicksburg), Mississippi, whence they moved on foot under General Jackson, with whom they participated in the battle of New Orleans. After his discharge Mr. Turnley had a long tramp on foot, through forest and swamp, back to Tennessee. He finally reached Knoxville, where he engaged at cabinet and carpenter work. In 1818 he married Miss Mahala Taylor, and began housekeeping in Dandridge, Tennessee. Mrs. Turnley was a daughter of Col. Parmenas Taylor, after whom the subject of this biography is named. Colonel Taylor was born in April, 1753, near the line between Virginia and North Carolina, perhaps in Virginia. He served throughout the Revolutionary War, and was a Captain in Colonel White’s North Carolina Regiment. He was taken prisoner, and held for nearly a year, during which time he was employed in repairing guns in the British arsenal. He was six feet, six inches tall, and weighed 210 pounds. Soon after leaving the army he married Betty, the daughter of his commander, and settled on the north side of the French Broad River, opposite George Turnley. He was a member of the convention which framed the first State Constitution of Tennessee, was a fine land-surveyor, and much respected Justice of the Peace. His elder brother was the father of Zachary Taylor, elected President of the United States in 1848.

John C. Turnley was a man of affairs. He acted as District Attorney for his own and adjoining counties, engaged quite extensively in sawing lumber, and in shipping farm products down the rivers to market. In his old age, during our Civil War, he was driven by the guerrilla warfare, carried on in the semi-neutral territory where he resided, to leave his home and go to Madison, Indiana, where he lived with his daughters until the war closed, when he returned to his home on the French Broad River, and there lived until June, 1875, when an accident rendered the amputation of his leg necessary, which resulted in his death.

The subject of this sketch is the third child and son of John C. Turnley. He grew up at Oak Grove, the locality of his father’s plantation and sawmills, where the latter served as Postmaster, seven miles east of Dandridge. John C. Turnley held the office of Postmaster there for thirty-seven years. Soon after entering his seventh year, Parmenas Turnley entered the little school of John Farrell, in a log schoolhouse a mile and a-half from his home, reached only by a footpath through the dense forest. He was provided with a Webster’s Spelling-book, and continued in the school until the Christmas holidays, when the pedagogue declared that he could never learn anything, and that it was useless to send him to school. The fond mother, however, did not give him up, and she set aside an hour in each forenoon and afternoon, which she took from her multifarious household duties and devoted to teaching her son. Under her kind tutelage he made good progress, and the next year entered a new school near his home. For three months in the year he continued to attend school until 1831, in the mean time receiving much assistance from his mother at home. Having reached the age of ten years, his services were required about the farm and mills of his father, and the latter now began to teach him arithmetic, in order that he might be able to measure lumber, grain and other commodities. By the time he was twelve years old he was fairly proficient, and was often in charge of his father’s business during the latter’s absence. He thus continued working on the farm in summer and in the saw and gristmills in winter, bearing his share in all the work. None of the Turnleys would ever own slaves, and all the labor employed was white. Mrs. Turnley inherited two house-servants from her mother’s estate, and these continued with the family in most faithful attendance until it was broken up.

In the autumn of 1840 young Turnley became deeply interested in the Presidential contest, in which he took part as a stump speaker against Harrison. In the following spring he received the unexpected notice of his appointment as a cadet to West Point Military Academy. This had been secured through the influence of Mr. William B. Carter, Member of Congress, who had taken an interest in the boy while on a visit to his father’s house two years previously. At this time the father was absent with a flotilla of boats, and the boy and his mother were in some doubt as to the desirability of accepting the appointment. His father returned in a short time, and, rather against the mother’s wish, it was decided that the youth should accept the appointment and proceed to West Point. A great obstacle arose at once; the distance was many hundred miles, traversed chiefly by stage-coach, and actual cash was hard to obtain, because the paper “shin-plaster” substitute for money was the only article in circulation. After much effort a trifle over thirty-six dollars was gathered up, and in the mean time his mother had placed what clothing she deemed necessary in a pillow-case, to be taken along on the journey. But as the limited cash capital would not permit riding, the youth set out on foot, leaving most of his baggage behind. On reaching Salem, Virginia, where he stayed over-night, he was induced by his host to remain a few days to saw up some lumber which he had contracted to deliver. He took a contract at two dollars per 1,000 feet, with the stipulation that he must have sufficient help night or day. In forty-eight hours’ continuous labor he turned out 6,500 feet of lumber from the old-style water sawmill, and on receiving his pay set out again on foot, making only fifteen miles the first day. After twelve days of travel, in which he averaged a trifle over thirty miles a day, he arrived at Winchester, Virginia, whence he took cars to Baltimore. There he went on board a freight steamer, which carried him to New York, at an expense for passage and meals of four dollars and fifty cents. From New York he took a steamer to West Point, at which place he arrived on the 21st of June. Here he very shortly discovered that his limited education would not enable him to pass the necessary examination for admission to the Military Academy. Appealing to the Chaplain of this institution, he secured through that individual postponement of his appointment by the War Department for one year. Proceeding to the school of Mr. Z. J. D. Kinsley, near West Point, he applied himself so vigorously and diligently to his studies, that he was prepared to enter the academy in June, 1842. By January of that year he had become so proficient that his tutor gave him his board and tuition and ten dollars per month for teaching a class in mathematics. Among his pupils were two grandsons of President Harrison.

On the 30th of June, 1846, he was duly graduated in the class of fifty-eight members, including George B. MaClellan, and several others who became distinguished in the War of 1861–65. The class was entitled to a furlough of two months on graduation, and young Turnley now returned to his home near Dandridge, after an absence of five years. He had employed previous vacations in drills and application to his studies. He found many changes at home, among the saddest being the absence of his mother, who died August 10, 1844. He had not been at home two weeks before he received orders to proceed to New Orleans and join his regiment, the Second Infantry, on the way to Mexico. After four days of staging across mountains and rivers, he arrived at Nashville, where he took steamer for New Orleans. Armed with a commission as Second-Lieutenant of Company D, Second United States Infantry, he joined that regiment on its arrival from Sacket ’s Harbor, New York, and with it sailed on the steamer “Massachusetts” to Brazos Island. From Camargo, an old Mexican town on the south bank of the little San Juan River, to Monterey, Company D and two others escorted a large supply train. On this trip of 130 miles Lieutenant Turnley’ s knowledge of carpentering proved of great value to the train. One of the wagons, loaded with seventy-five boxes of silver specie, which was in front, broke down, and the train was delayed until Lieutenant Turnley volunteered to make a new axle. Neither saw nor auger was to be found in the train, but with the help of a Georgia volunteer, who was a rough carpenter, and a hatchet and axe, an axle was put in which carried the wagon through to Monterey. In November the same party returned to Camargo, escorting another large train; thence Company D proceeded to Monte Marelos, on the direct road from Monterey to Tampico. In a few days the army was moved back to Monterey to resist a reported contemplated attack by Santa Anna. This report proving false, the army faced about, and resumed its march of 375 miles to Tampico, Mexico, where it arrived January 23, 1847. From Tampico the army moved on transports to Vera Cruz. During the siege of that place Lieutenant Turnley served on the picket-guard line of investment for twenty days and nights without relief. During this time a severe “norther” prevailed, and on account of his exposure he became seriously ill. To aid his recovery, he was detailed to proceed to Cincinnati to bring back a body of recruits. Toward the end of September, 1847, he left that city with 800 new men. Late in October he arrived in Vera Cruz, where the yellow fever had raged all summer, with dreadful mortality among the American troops. After going into camp Lieutenant Turnley suffered an attack of the dread scourge, his being the only case in the entire body of 800 men. Early in January, 1848, he started out in command of a portion of the recruits, as escort to a supply train of 500 wagons and a number of pack-mules, to the Mexican capital, with orders to distribute the recruits to their several regiments along the way. After ten days of rest at the city of Mexico, he proceeded to a point ninety miles south to protect the owners of plantations who were threatened with an uprising of their peons.

Returning to the United States at the close of the Mexican War, Lieutenant Turnley was in command of his company at a camp on Lake Pontchartrain, where he was employed in discharging soldiers who had enlisted for the period of the Mexican War, and in assigning new recruits to the regular regiments. Company D and one other was ordered to proceed to Austin, Texas. In March they were ordered back to San Antonio. Thence Company D proceeded to the old Mexican town of Presidio, on the Rio Grande, to establish a post. Not finding this a suitable point, they advised General Worth, who authorized them to proceed further up the river, and they established a post at Eagle Pass, now called Fort Duncan. At this time Lieutenant Turnley was acting as Quartermaster, Commissary and Adjutant, besides commanding the company in the absence of the Captain. He built a stone warehouse and hospital, and was frequently detailed to escort wagon-trains, and open roads over that section of the country. In June, 1852, he was promoted to be First Lieutenant and made Regimental Quartermaster. This occurred while he was building Fort Territt, on the Llano River. After his promotion he was detailed for two years of recruiting service, after almost five years of life in tents. Being given his choice of two stations, he decided to locate at Chicago, and on the 1st of September, 1852, took up quarters at the Tremont Hotel in that city. While there he completed a design for a portable cottage, for use of the army on the timberless frontiers. This was adopted by the Government, and he was sent to Cincinnati to build a number and ship them to the frontier posts. The next few years he was employed on the Northwestern frontier, under General Harney, in subduing unfriendly Indian tribes on the border. Meantime he had been promoted to the General Staff as Assistant Quartermaster, and assigned to duty at Forts Pierre and Randall.

In January, 1857, he received his first leave of absence, in order to transact private business in Tennessee. His next post of duty was at Fort Brown, Texas, where he was engaged in over-hauling and disposing of old stores, and receiving and forwarding supplies to other posts. In October he was joined by his family, but was hardly settled before he received orders in March, 1858, to go to Leavenworth, Kansas, to take charge of supplies destined for Utah. With the troops he moved to Fort Bridger, where he arrived in September, 1858, thence over to the Valley of Utah. He remained in Utah until October, 1860, selling out, in the mean time, per order of the War Department, the most of the teams and other paraphernalia of the post at Camp Floyd, which he had built during his two years in Utah, south of Salt Lake City. After resting a few days with his family in Chicago, he set out for his old home in Tennessee, going by way of Springfield, where he called upon President-Elect Lincoln, to whom he imparted some valuable information about army and military matters. His analysis of the character of Mr. Lincoln and other noted men is very interesting, but cannot be repeated in the space available for this article. At the urgent request of his old neighbors and friends, he delivered addresses upon the political situation at Dandridge and Greenville, Tennessee, and, after visiting Washington City on official business, returned to his family in Chicago.

While en route to Washington, in April, 1861, to hasten the settlement of his public accounts, he received word at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that his leave of absence must terminate at once, and that he was required to report to Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, to whom he was of great service in caring for recruits. Thence he was sent to Annapolis to prepare the naval school for an army depot. He was next ordered to report to Gen. John C. Fremont at New York City, and proceeded thence, by that officer’s order, to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was Chief-Quartermaster until February, 1862. From there he went to Cairo, Illinois, where he was engaged in further arduous duties in providing supplies for Grant in his Kentucky campaign, and Pope below Cairo, on the Mississippi, and for the subsistence and transportation of prisoners taken in those victorious expeditions.

Through long years of exposure on Mexican fields and western plains Captain Turnley’s health had become very much impaired, and he now found it imperative that he take some rest. In April, 1863, he applied for leave of absence, which was granted, and he set out with his wife for a tour of Europe. This relaxation he had well earned by long years of the most toilsome and faithful service for his country, but he did not receive much benefit, though somewhat improved. On his return, by order from the War Department, he reported to General McDowell, retiring officer, at Wilmington, Delaware, and was retired from active service, “for long and faithful services, and disease contracted in the line of duty.”

Early in 1865 Captain Turnley went to Washington to close up his twenty years of accounts with the Government, and was at once besought by Assist.-Quartermaster Gen. Charles Thomas to take special service at Denver, Colorado, where the accounts for supplies were in a hopeless tangle. After some consideration he consented, believing that the duties were not severe and would soon be dispatched. Proceeding by steamer from St. Louis to Leavenworth, he traveled thence, accompanied by his family, to Denver. At Lexington, Missouri, he learned with deep sorrow of the assassination of President Lincoln. Finding his health, which had somewhat recovered, impaired by the high altitude of Denver, he forwarded his resignation, but was not relieved until December, 1865, after which he traveled across the plains, in the dead of winter and in deep snow, to Atchison, whence he took cars to Chicago, and at last secured relief from a life of almost constant military service. In the following spring he took up his residence at St. Louis, where he remained with his family nearly two years. He then again returned to Chicago, where, in August, 1870, he finally secured a settlement of his public accounts, with a return of $1,575 which he had been obliged to pay out of his own funds on account of an error of his clerk in Utah. The error had remained a mystery until the office of the Auditor-General overhauled the accounts of ten years, and discovered an error in carrying forward footings. Before closing Captain Turnley’s army record, it is proper to relate that his recommendation from St. Louis secured the appointment of Phil Sheridan, who had been Turnley’s sub-assistant at St. Louis, to the colonelcy of a Michigan cavalry regiment, thus starting “Little Phil” on his famous military career. Many other prominent officers of the Civil War were deeply indebted to him for favors at various times. Some of these escaped dismissal from West Point through Cadet Turnley’s kindness in concealing flagrant breaches of discipline while cadets.

On the 21st of September, 1853, at Chicago, Lieutenant Turnley was married to Miss Mary Ryerson Rutter, daughter of Dr. David Rutter, a native of Pennsylvania, who settled in Chicago in 1848. At the time of her marriage Miss Rutter was not quite eighteen years of age. She became the mother of three daughters and two sons. One of the sons died at four years of age, and the other, a most promising youth, named Ernest Seymour, died in August, 1891, in his seventeenth year, being at the time a student at home on vacation from college. Of his three daughters, the eldest and the youngest, both single, are now living. The third daughter (and third child) married Mr. Milton C. Lightner, and died in November, 1880, leaving an infant son, who has ever been a jewel in Captain Turnley’s household, and at this writing is a fine specimen of a fifteen-year-old boy, giving promise of a large man.

In 1881 Captain Turnley took up his residence at Highland Park, Illinois, where he is enjoying the rest and peace which he so dearly earned, at the sacrifice of much health, on the sandy plains of Mexico, Texas and the West, and in the malarial military depots of St. Louis and Cairo. In spite of hardships endured and mental strain for many years, he is still hale and keen of intellect, as is evidenced by his memoirs, which are full of sage philosophy, as well as the most interesting narrative. These are embodied in a volume of 450 pages, published for private distribution in 1893. It ought to have general circulation, for it gives a knowledge of men and motives seldom found in any publication. In fact, nothing heretofore issued is so fearless of public idolatry in portraying the weaknesses of great men. He has been successively Alderman, and for two terms Mayor, of Highland Park.

True to the traditions of his fathers, Captain Turnley has always adhered to the Democratic party in National political matters, and he was sometimes the subject of much unjust suspicion during the Civil War, because of his southern birth and political preferences. However, he always bore himself with such faithful loyalty to his Government as to speedily disarm all suspicion, and shed only honor on his long and faithful military career.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 73-78

Robert Alexander Waller is one of the men whose enterprise, intelligence and foresight have combined to place Chicago among the foremost cities of the world. Not only has he encouraged and sustained the intellectual and moral culture of its citizens, but he has been identified with some of the most magnificent public enterprises known to modern times. For more than a half-century the physical, commercial and mental powers of this great city have been constantly re-inforced by the accession of progressive and energetic men from every part of the civilized world. Among this cosmopolitan people are many prominent representatives of the Blue Grass State, a region which has long been famous for the activity, refinement and intelligence of its citizens.

The subject of this notice combines the zeal and valor of the typical Kentuckian with the confidence, discernment and patriotism which characterize the true Chicagoan. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, June 2, 1850, and a few years later, with the other members of the family, became a resident of Chicago. Extended notice of his parents, James and Lucy Waller, will be found elsewhere in this volume. After a primary course in Chicago, Robert A. Waller entered Washington and Lee University, and completed his course in that institution at the age of twenty-two. He returned to Chicago, and in the spring of the following year entered the insurance office of D. L. Bowmar as office boy. Two years later he became a partner of his former employer, and when Mr. Bowmar retired from business, owing to ill-health, in 1879, Mr. Waller became the sole proprietor. Since that date the enterprise has been conducted under the name of R. A. Waller & Company, which is one of the best-known firms in that line of business in the city.

In 1892 he organized the Ashland Block Association, of which he has ever since been President. The structure erected by that association in the same year is one of the finest and most conspicuous office buildings in the city. When it was first proposed to hold the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he became one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the movement. He was elected one of the Board of Directors, and afterward became the Second Vice-President of the Exposition, which honorable position he continues to hold. He helped to organize the Sheridan Drive Association, which has been active in securing the establishment of a pleasant road along the lake shore north of the city, and leading to Milwaukee, as a continuation of the famous Lake Shore Drive of the city.

He is the founder of Buena Park, one of the finest residence suburbs on the north shore, which is now within the city limits, and resides there with his family. In February, 1893, Governor Altgeld appointed Mr. Waller one of the Lincoln Park Commissioners, and he soon afterward became the President of that body, succeeding Mr. W. C. Goudy, at the death of the latter. Many valuable plans of improvement were executed under his administration. Because of his refusal to introduce politics into the management of the park, he incurred the displeasure of the Governor, who asked his resignation. With true and manly independence, he refused to resign, thus compelling Governor Altgeld to show his hand as a small politician by his removal. Though a life-long Democrat, Mr. Waller preferred removal to meddling in petty politics. He has always stood above mere partisanship, and has used his utmost influence to have the affairs of every department of the city administered for the general welfare of its people. By refusing to prostitute his official position to political uses, to the detriment of the public service, he earned the respect and warm regard of large numbers in all political parties. In July, 1895, he was appointed by Mayor Swift one of the Civil Service Commissioners provided for in the laws of March 20, 1895, to secure classification and promotion for merit alone in the departments of the City Government.

In June, 1876, Mr. Waller married Miss Lina Swigert Watson, of Frankfort, Kentucky, daughter of Dr. Edward Watson, of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Waller have one son, Robert Alexander Waller, junior. No family in Chicago stands higher socially than that of Mr. Waller. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is identified with many of the most prominent clubs and associations. His breadth of character and restless activity make him a useful and popular member of each of these organizations.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 43-44

Daniel Warren, one of the pioneers of Illinois, deserves more than passing notice in this record. He was the representative of one of the oldest American families, which will always live in history because of the brave general who lost his life at the battle of Bunker Hill. Daniel Warren was a successful business man, who came West to embrace the opportunity to secure a large landed estate at small original outlay. He was a native of Massachusetts, born about 1780, near Concord, the scene of the first conflict of arms in behalf of colonial independence and American liberty.

In early life, Mr. Warren went to western New York, and opened the first store in Fredonia, Chautauqua County, that State. He afterward lived about fourteen years in Westfield, same county. While a resident of New York, he became acquainted with the Naper brothers, who settled the present prosperous town of Naperville, in Du Page County, Illinois. Naturally, when he decided to locate in the West, he called upon them, at their Illinois home, and at once found a satisfactory location about halfway between Naperville and the present town of Warrenville. This was in the spring of 1833, while Chicago was scarcely thought of as a city, and certainly, its present marvelous development undreamed-of by the wildest speculator on human destiny. In a few years, Mr. Warren sold out his claim and moved to the present site of Warrenville, where he built a sawmill and laid out a town. He also secured nearly a section of land, and made farming his principal industry until advancing years caused his retirement from active life. In all his undertakings, he was assisted by his only son, Col. J. M. Warren, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume. The father passed away at his home in Warrenville in 1866, aged eighty-six years.

Nancy Morton, who became the wife of Daniel Warren, and the mother of a son and seven daughters, was born in Orange, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on the ninth day of February, 1785. When nine years old, she went with her parents to Madison County, New York, and was the favorite companion of her brother, Rev. Salmon Morton, a well-known pioneer clergyman of western New York. That she was a woman of refinement and graces of mind is shown by the character of her daughters, several of whom became ornaments of Chicago society. The pioneers were largely dependent upon their own resources for amusement and culture, and the youth of the time were fortunate whose parents brought educated and refining influences with them. Mrs. Warren took a keen delight in the lives of her offspring, and lived to a great age, retaining her faculties to the end, which came February 4, 1873, and she was buried on the eighty-eighth anniversary of her birth.

Following are the names of the children of Daniel and Nancy (Morton) Warren: Philinda, widow of P. H. Fowler, now in her ninety-first year, residing at Warrenville; Louisa, married Frederick Bird, and died at Rockton, Illinois; Julius Morton (see biography elsewhere in this volume); Sarah, wife of Abel Carpenter, died in Chicago; she was one of the first teachers in this city, in a select school; Harriet, Mrs. C. B. Dodson, lived at Geneva, Illinois, where she died; Mary and Maria were twins, the former now residing in Chicago, being the widow of Jerome Beecher, and the latter died in the same city, while wife of Silas B. Cobb; Jane married N. B. Curtiss, a prominent business man of Peoria.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 418

Julius M. Warren, only son of Daniel Warren, a pioneer settler of Du Page County (see biography elsewhere in this volume), was born in Fredonia, New York, June 13, 1811, being the first white child born in Chautauqua County. He became a member of the New York militia, in which he attained the rank of colonel. With the family, he came to Du Page County in the autumn of 1833, and spent the balance of his life there. He was a very genial and happy-dispositioned gentleman, and early became a favorite in society. A recent writer in the Chicago Herald speaks thus of the society of that day: "The society of all this region, including town and country, forty-five years ago, had its attractive seat and held its principal revelries in the valley of Fox river. 'The best people' that came out from the eastern states to settle in this region did not stop in Chicago, but made for the magnificent farming lands in this vicinity. Some came from central and western New York, where they had seen families of the aristocracy plant themselves and flourish on the fat lands of the Mohawk and Genesee valleys. To clear off timber and reduce those great farms to productivity, had taken half a century of time and had exhausted the lives of three generations. This was known to the new emigrants, and as they heard of or saw these Illinois lands, bare of obstinate trees, but clothed with succulent grasses, of nature's sowing; in a climate that possessed no torridity, nor yet any destructive rigors; all this being known before-hand, many refined and cultivated families came out with all their effects, and bought or entered land and proceeded to make themselves homes, which, they had no doubt, would be homes to them for their natural lives."

Mr. Warren had a keen sense of humor and was always amiable and cheerful, which made him a favorite in all circles. Instead of disapproving the amusements of the young people, he always had a strong sympathy and interest in their pleasures. He was the constant attendant of his sisters, and often laughingly mentioned them as seven reasons why he should not marry. He was also devotedly attached to his mother who was justly proud of her only son. Together they kept house until her death, when he induced his nephew to bring his family to live on the old homestead at Warrenville, where he continued to reside. He passed away on the first of May, 1893, his last words being, "Take me home to my mother."

In speaking of Colonel Warren and the village of Warrenville, we again quote from the Herald: "He called in a storekeeper, a blacksmith, a cooper and a carpenter, and a tavernkeeper came in good time. Naperville was a smaller village, having but two log houses. Aurora scarcely had a being, and St. Charles was not. But all along the banks of the Fox river were settlers of a high class, who had knowledge of and correspondence with the eastern portions of the United States. Foremost among these was Judge Whipple, who, acting with the Warrens, father and son, organized and gave direction to local affairs. They were without postal facilities of any kind, and every family had to send a member into Chicago for letters and papers. A letter from Buffalo to any place on the Fox river was from four to six weeks in coming, and to Chicago cost fifty cents postage. Colonel Warren making use of eastern friends, got a postoffice (the first in the valley) established at Warrenville in 1833, and himself appointed postmaster. He was his own mail-carrier, making weekly trips, on foot some times, to Chicago and out again, with letters and papers for distribution through his office to people in all that section. Colonel Warren held this office for fifty years, and only lost it when President Cleveland came in the first time."

Although chiefly self-educated, Colonel Warren was a thoroughly well-read man, and was admirably fitted for a leader in politics, as well as in society. He represented his district for three successive terms in the State Legislature, from 1840 to 1843, but refused to longer remain in public life, preferring the quiet joys of his home and neighborhood to anything the capital or metropolis might offer. He continued to manage the large homestead farm until his death. He was a loyal adherent of the Republican party, having espoused its leading principles before its organization. The following incident will indicate the kindly nature of Colonel Warren and his noble mother, as well: A young lawyer of Chicago, now known throughout Illinois as the venerable ex-Chief Justice of the State, John Dean Caton, fell sick of fever while staying at the log tavern in Naperville, one of the two buildings of that village. Hearing of the case, Colonel Warren went at once to see what he could do to render the sufferer comfortable, and soon decided to remove him to his own home, where he could receive better nursing than at the little frontier tavern. This probably saved the life of the patient, who attributes his recovery to the careful nursing of Mrs. Warren and her daughters, with such aid as Colonel Warren could apply. The last-named saw the completion of his eighty-second year, full of humor and harmless badinage to the last, and died as the result of an attack of pneumonia, after an illness of only two days, leaving as an inspiration to those who come after the record of a well-spent life.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 418

Thomas Wright was born at Branston, Leicestershire, England, May 2, 1820. He is a son of John and Elizabeth (Grudgins) Wright. The father succeeded his rather as gardener at Branston Hall, but after reaching middle age resigned that position and was placed in charge of a section of highway lying between Leicester and Hinckley. He continued in that occupation until old age unfitted him for further labor, and died at Branston at the age of ninety-three years. Mrs. Elizabeth Wright died at the age of eighty-nine years. She was born at Ratby, Leicestershire.

Of the ten children born to this worthy couple, Thomas is the only one who came to America. From the age of seven years he was accustomed to assist in earning his livelihood by tending cows upon the highway. Though he never received more than six months' schooling, he was a bright and ambitious lad and acquired studious habits. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a tailor at Marborough, serving at that trade until he reached his majority. While employed in this manner, working sixteen hours per day at some seasons of the year, he divided the balance of the time between study, sleep and extra work, by the latter means earning pocket money. He had a commendable desire to better his condition and to become better informed. Of the first six shillings which he earned after completing his apprenticeship, five were spent for a copy of Walker’s Dictionary, and he managed to become the possessor of other books from time to time, gaining a stock of information upon matters of public interest. The next twelve years after becoming a journeyman were spent at his trade in Leicester and Ratby, most of this time carrying on a shop of his own and gaining a flattering patronage. During this time he took considerable interest in the labor question, and made several futile attempts to improve the condition of his fellow-workmen. In 1855, through the advice and assistance of a friend who had preceded him to Chicago, he came to this city, ten weeks being consumed in the journey by sea and land. He arrived here with a sick wife and three small children, having fifteen cents in his pocket and being indebted to his friend to the amount of $150. For a few days after his arrival he was detained from labor by illness, after which he began work for the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company, and has been regularly employed by that corporation to the present time, a period of forty years.

He began as a lighter of street lamps, but after a short time won the confidence of his employers to such an extent that he was appointed a Collector, and continued to work in that capacity, in connection with office work, for the next thirty years. He now holds the position of Recording Clerk in the office of the company, having made his services almost indispensable to the business by his habits of industry, integrity and punctuality. His first residence in Chicago was near the corner of Washington and Jefferson Streets, but he soon afterward removed to the corner of Monroe and Aberdeen Streets, which was then on the extreme outskirts of the city. As there was abundant pasturage upon the surrounding prairies, he kept several cows after moving to this location, finding a ready market among his neighbors for the milk they produced, and thereby adding materially to his income. At that time the only sidewalk on Madison Street, which was then, as now, the principal West Side thoroughfare, consisted of two planks laid parallel. On July 3, 1843, at Friar Lane Church, Leicester, occurred the marriage of Thomas Wright and Sarah Hemingway. The latter, who was born June 14, 1814, at Brumsgrove, Worcestershire, was a daughter of Joseph Hemingway, who was for many years a sailor in the British navy, and in later life a wool-comber by occupation. Mrs. Wright died in Chicago March 13, 1881. She was a devout member of the Western Avenue Baptist Church, and for nearly forty years had fulfilled in a most exemplary manner the duties of wife and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were the parents of three children, named in order: Emma Keturah Hemingway, now the wife of Charles Carhart; Ernest J. H., who is Secretary of the Suburban Gas Company of Chicago; and Margaret Ellen Hemingway. Both the daughters reside in Wilmette. Since 1881 Mr. Wright has dwelt in Wilmette. While a young man he joined the Baptist Church, but has never been connected with any religious organization in this country. He was also connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in England. He is a close student of public questions, and is independent in his opinions and actions. Since coming to this country he has incurred no political obligations, and is governed solely by his own judgment and conscience in the support of candidates for public suffrage.

Contributed May 2001 by Sherri Hessick Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits, 3rd ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 26-27