REV. WILLIAM H. HUNTER.
Inseparably associated with that noble and unselfish band of pioneer workers known as the Thundering Legion or Saddle-Bag Ministers, and also with the broader teachings of the Methodist Episcopal Church as applied to the exigencies of latter day thought, is the name of Rev. William Hunter, whose humanitarian ministrations terminated with his demise, November 5, 1901. For, of all the occupations to which the undulating prairies of Illinois called men in the wake of the departing Indian, none were invested with greater hardship, loneliness, and even peril, and, compared with the life of this last of the patriarchs, the plodding pioneer farmer, with his face towards the future, but with his neighbors remote and with meager facilities for developing his land, was a singularly fortunate individual.
In the estimation of those who knew him best, a life of ease or even plenty never for a moment entered into the calculations of Rev. Hunter, nor did his youthful aspirations point to other than the perpetual service of mankind. His boyhood days were spent in Mercer, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, where he was born October 9, 1818, being one of a family of five sons and three daughters. The father, a millwright by occupation, experienced great difficulty in providing for those dependent upon him, and the boys were thus obliged to lend the aid of their strong energies to assist him in his work. It is, therefore, not strange that. in their general bringing up, education played but an inconsequent part, not only because of the necessity for toil, but because of the limited facilities of the time. Nevertheless, William availed himself of such slight chances as came his way, and in the humble environment of labor learned much that the schools cannot give. As he toiled to advance the family fortunes, gleams of light illu- ined his ambitions, and brought into bold relief the narrow confines of his parental surroundings. The ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church offered the larger possibilities of well-doing craved by his intense nature, and the setting thereof was the boundless prairies of the West, with their pelting rains, and impassable roads, the blistering heat of summer, and the oft times wretched resting places. Undaunted by the prospects, he entered the Erie Conference when twenty-three years of age, in 1836, and, for nineteen years, lived mostly in the saddle, as did his companions upon the circuit. For eight out of the nineteen years he was a Presiding Elder, and, during the whole of the time, his route covered one thousand miles every twelve weeks, including preaching at two stations every Sunday, besides holding a "love-feast" and quarterly conference. For this hard and relentless and under- mining work he received the paltry renumeration of from three hundred to three hundred and seventy-five dollars, a sum pitiably small had one not the satisfying approval of conscience. And yet, he unceasingly visited the sick, performed marriage services, baptized children and buried the dead, in addition to expounding the gospel of kindliness and good-will to many thousands.
In 1855 Mr. Hunter became identified with the church in Illinois, and, as a member of the Rock River Conference -- then the most flourishing in the State—accomplished an amount of good equaled only by Cartwright and Gar- rick. At the first session that he attended in the new itinerancy, held at Rock Island, he was appointed in charge of the First Church in Peoria, then located at the corner of Madison Avenue and Fulton Street. In direct contrast with his former charges, this church was in a prosperous condition, the members having just completed a new place of worship, and. though not large, the congregation which greeted the pastor made up in earnestness and appreciation what it lacked in numbers. During 1858 Dr. Hunter was located at Moline, for the next two years was stationed at Rock Island, and for the two years following at Galesburg. He was then appointed Presiding Elder of the Macomb district, then preached for two years at Monmouth, after which he became Presiding Elder of the Rock Island district—a position maintained for fourteen years. In all he was Presiding Elder in Central Illinois for seventeen years, and, during that time, covered all of .the districts between the Illinois and Mississippi River's. He was eight times elected a member of the General Conference; was chairman of the committee having charge of the Methodist Book Publishing concern, and, in 1884, was appointed for two years agent of the Conference Claim Society of his district. During the sixty-five year's of his ministry Dr. Hunter never failed to answer the roll-call at an Annual Conference. and he was everywhere in the State regarded as one of the most fervent and stanch supporters of the church in whose service he spent his life.
Until within a few years ago Dr. Hunter occupied a prominent place in all church affairs, and since having no special charge with which to unite his energies, has been especially devoted to the work of the Conference. It would be impossible to estimate the amount of good accomplished by this large-hearted, earnest, and eloquent man, who so well understood the need of a guiding influence in the days when men were animated by the sole desire to make a livelihood out of the untried fertility of the plains. Under the charm of his eloquence thousands were brought into the church, and valuable lands were added to the property owned by the denomination. Unlike many of the saddle-bag fraternity, his original beliefs expanded with the growth of a larger civilization: and, as the farmers gained abundance from their harvests, and the towns supported constantly growing industries, he was still the welcome friend and adviser, the versatile sharer of their joys and sorrows. A singular sense of loss and deso- lation accompanied his departure from the paths that had known him so long; for his wife had died four years before him, and he left no children to mourn his going away. Yet the countless friends whom he bound to him in passing by, and the thousands who listened to his counsel in the early days of struggle and uncertainty, will always treasure the memory of his genial and optimistic personality, and be guided by the strength based on wisdom and humanity.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
NORMAN HYDE.Norman Hyde, the first Judge of the Probate Court and first Clerk of County Commissioners' Court of Peoria County, was born in Brown County, New York, on February 9, 1796, and was only twenty-nine years of age when he entered upon the duties of those important positions. His father's name was Calvin, who at the time of his son Norman's death still resided at the old home, but afterwards came to Peoria County.
About the year 1819 or 1820, Norman, in company with his brother Elijah, who was by four years his senior, set out from New York and went to Ohio, where they both taught school for one winter, and in 1821 drifted west-ward to Kaskaskia and Edwardsville, Illinois, and from there to Fort Clark, where they arrived a year later. Here they became associated in business for a short time, but Elijah becoming infatuated with the lead-mine fever then raging—but Norman not coinciding—they separated and Elijah went to Galena, where he lost all he had and returned to Peoria about 1834 or 1835, to occupy a farm which had been left to him by his brother Norman.
Upon the organization of Peoria County Norman Hyde was commissioned Judge of the Probate Court, but did not assume the duties of that office until the month of June following, there being no business to transact. He taught school at Peoria for two or three quarters in the winter and spring of 1824-5, but of his school little is known. Upon the organization of the County Commissioners' Court he was chosen and qualified as Clerk of that body, and continued to discharge the duties of the office until he qualified as Probate Judge, June 4, 1825. He was also a surveyor, and was chosen County Surveyor, but the date of his appointment to that office has not been ascertained. In that capacity he went far and wide to survey lands, being often called upon to survey claims to lead mines in the Fever River country about Galena, for which services he was often paid in mining claims, or an interest therein, which often proved worthless.
On February 23, 1826, he was appointed second Postmaster at Peoria, which office he acceptably filled until he was succeeded by H. B. Stillman, who does not appear to have held the office for any length of time, for Norman Hyde was again appointed on the 12th day of July, 1830. and was holding the office at the time of his death. On one occasion, while holding the office of Probate Judge, he made the journey to Rock River to marry a couple, carrying the license with him.
It does not appear that Norman Hyde enlisted in the regular service during the Black Hawk War, but he never- theless performed no less arduous service as an independent ranger, and lost his life in the service of his fellow-citizens. These independent rangers—or scouts, as we would call them—performed a service in keeping a look-out for, and giving warning of, the approach of marauding bands of Indians, of no less value than were those of the regularly enlisted soldiers. It was while engaged in this service, and while on his return from the Rock River country Norman Hyde encountered a band of hostile Indians, and was obliged to hide in the tall grass and willows for a whole night and part of a day, getting wet and cold, in consequence of which a high fever set in and he re- turned to Peoria to die at the house of his friend, Henry B. Stillman, on July 9, 1832. He was a Mason and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery on Perry and Jackson Streets. He was never married. His father and mother both survived him, as did also his brothers, Elijah and Edward C., and his sisters, Harriet, Emeline, Clarissa and Betsy Hyde, Samantha Pratt and Mary Ann Beckwith. In the year 1837 Elijah went back to New York and brought to Illinois his father, mother and three unmarried sisters. One of the daughters married John Ferguson, another Marshall B. Silliman, father of E. C. Silliman. once County Treasurer. Elijah Hyde continued to live in Peoria County until the year 1857, when he died, leaving his two unmarried sisters, Harriet and Betsy, surviving. The history of other members of the family has not been traced.
That Norman Hyde was a man of character and of more than average attainments is attested by the numerous positions of public trust he filled during the few years of his residence in Peoria. It is true that the duties of no one of them were very onerous, but to each and all of them he gave his best efforts. That his duties as Probate Judge did not occupy all his time is attested by the very small number of days he was required to be in court, and by the further fact that the records of his court for the first ten years of its existence are contained in a book of 250 pages, which was little more than half filled when he died. He therefore had plenty of time to act as County Surveyor and Postmaster, as well as Judge, all during the same period of time.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.In the department of the law and oratory few men connected with Illinois history have achieved so wide a distinction as he whose name serves as the title of this article. Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and soldier, was born at Dresden, Oneida County, New York, August 11, 1833. He was the son of a Congregational clergyman of pronounced liberal tendencies, who removed to the West in 1843, and brought up his family in Wisconsin and Illinois. In the later '50s Robert was living at Shawneetown, Illinois, where he and his older brother. Ebon C., were admitted to the bar and almost immediately began to take an interest in politics, and in 1856 Ebon C. was elected to the Legislature from the Fourth District. The following year the brothers removed to Peoria, where they soon took a prominent position both at the bar and in politics. In 1858 Ebon C. was a candidate for the Legis- lature from the Forty-first District, but was unsuccessful. In 1860 Robert was the Democratic candidate for Congress from the Peoria District in opposition to Hon. William Kellogg. by whom he was defeated. In the fall of 1861 he assisted in organizing the Eleventh Regiment Illinois Cavalry, which was mustered in at Peoria in December of that year, and he was commissioned its Colonel, serving until June 30, 1863. when he resigned. In 1864 he was found in full accord with the principles of the Republican party. On February 28, 1867, he was appointed by Governor Oglesby. Attorney-General of the State of Illinois, being the first incumbent of the office under act of the Legislature passed at the session of that year. In 1868 he was prominently mentioned for the Republican nomi- nation for Governor, but was defeated by Gen. John M. Palmer in the State Convention held that year in Peoria.
In subsequent years Colonel Ingersoll became a power upon the political rostrum and his services as a campaign orator were in almost universal demand throughout the country. Gifted with a remarkable fluency of speech and a highly poetic imagination, he gave utterance in his time to some of the most brilliant flights of oratory that have distinguished the American platform since the Civil War period. One of his most masterly efforts was in the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati, when he presented the name of James G. Blaine as a candidate for the nomination for the Presidency. Other oratorical efforts which brought him deserved distinction were "The Dream of the Union Soldier," delivered at a Soldiers' Reunion at Indianapolis; a eulogy at his brother Ebon's grave; and his memorial address in honor of Roscoe Conkling after the death of that distinguished orator and statesman. In 1877 he declined the appointment of Minister to Germany tendered to him by President Hayes.
Upon leaving Peoria, Colonel Ingersoll first went to Washington City, where he engaged in the practice of the law with his brother, and remained there until after the latter's death. He then went to New York. City, where he gained as prominent a position at the bar as he had acquired on the political rostrum, being employed on many important law-suits in different parts of the country. One of the important cases with which he was connected was the trial of the so-called "Star Route Conspirators," which ended in their acquittal in 1883. In his later years he acquired wide notoriety by his written and spoken criticisms of revealed religion. Among his best known publications, comprised in twelve volumes, may be enumerated: "The Gods" (Washington, 1878); "Ghosts" (1879); "Mistakes of Moses'' (1879); "Brain and the Bible" (Edgar C. Beall, Cincinnati, 1882) ; "Prose, Poems and Selections" (1894), besides a number of minor publications. lectures, etc.
After leaving the army Colonel Ingersoll married Miss Eva Parker, a woman of striking personal appearance and of high character. She was a woman of strong personality, and was the constant companion and adviser of her husband during the remainder of his life. Two children were born to them,—Maud, who is still single, and Eva, named for her mother, and who intermarried with Mr. Walston H. Brown, a broker of New York City.
Colonel Ingersoll's domestic life was unusually happy and placid. The early affection existing between himself and his wife continued unabated to the end. He was idolized by his family, and no wife ever had a more affectionate husband, and no daughters a more kindly, tender and considerate father.
Colonel Ingersoll was the soul of generosity. He made money freely, and he spent it as freely for the comfort and pleasure of his family, and in various personal charities. He was absolutely free from any spirit of greed. He loved to make money for the sake of spending it for the happiness of himself, his .family and friends. He was warmly attached to his friends, and paid but little attention to his enemies. He was at times, owing to his peculiar views on religious theories, subject to severe and unmerited criticism, and often times to slander and abuse. Of all this he never seemed to take any notice, believing that the best way to refute slanders was to leave them unanswered except by the life and conduct of the individual. He realized the fact that slanderers and calumniators do them- selves more harm than the object of their attack. Col. Ingersoll lived to realize the truth of this assertion.
Colonel Ingersoll died suddenly of heart disease at his summer home at Dobb's Ferry, Long Island, July 21, 1899.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
EDWARD HAMPTON JACK.The men who have left their impress most indelibly stamped upon the business history of Peoria have been, with few exceptions, those who were dependent on their own personal and unaided efforts and resources for the final success which they have achieved as business men. This was especially true at the earlier period in the city's his- tory, when success was largely, if not wholly, due to individual effort, physical energy, trained industry and per- sonal integrity, intelligence and attention to business details. No more conspicuous illustration can be given of this fact than the life of Capt. Edward Hampton Jack, who has been identified with Peoria business history for a period of nearly a half century. Born on a farm in Switzerland County. Indiana, April 29, 1823, the first ten years of his life were spent in that country, when his widowed mother removed to Gallatin County, Kentucky—his father having died about the same time. Both parents were natives of Gallatin County, his father, Samuel Jack, being the son of John and Mary Jack. and the second of a family of ten children—five sons and five daughters. The grandfather. John Jack, was born in 1766 and died in Kentucky in 1822 at the age of fifty-six years; while his wife, Mary Jack, having been born in 1769, lived to the age of eighty-four years, dying in Indiana in 1853. Samuel Jack (the father of Edward H. Jack) was born, as already stated, in Gallatin County, Kentucky, June 30, 1792, and on June 15, 1815, was married to Rosanna C. Hampton, also a native of the same county, born October 15. 1796. They reared a family of nine children (five sons and four daughters) of whom Edward H. Jack was the fourth—Samuel Jack (the father) died March 30, 1834, at forty-two years of age, and his wife, Rosanna (Hampton) Jack. on February 2, 1867, having attained the age of seventy-one years.
Mr. Jack's family having removed to Gallatin County, Kentucky, in his boyhood after the death of his father, he grew up there, obtaining a primary education chiefly in the common schools of Boone County, not far from Burlington, the county-seat. Here (in Gallatin and Boone Counties) he grew to manhood, remaining until about twenty-five years of age; in the meantime engaged in the dry-goods and grocery trade in a country store, also dealt in produce, especially leaf and manufactured tobacco. His location at this time was at the mouth of Sugar Creek, a few miles from Warsaw, a town on the Ohio River laid out by Henry Yates (the father of Illinois' War Governor, Richard Yates), with whom he renewed his acquaintance after coming to Illinois. After receiving a brief training in the dry-goods and grocery business, Mr. Jack engaged in the river trade, gathering up supplies of produce along the Ohio and its tributaries, and shipping them by flat-boat to points along the Mississippi. He early established a depot at Memphis, which he maintained for two or three years, after which he extended his trade to New Orleans, bartering his produce at the river towns and plantations enroute. In this way he disposed of large cargoes of hay, pork, potatoes and other kinds of produce, usually closing out the remnant of his stock at wholesale on his arrival at New Orleans. His boats were usually bought each year at Cincinnati and sold out at New Orleans after his cargo had been disposed of. The reminiscences of his experiences while following in the track of Abraham Lincoln's flat-boat trips to New Orleans at an earlier day. have furnished Mr. Jack much material for the entertainment of his friends in later years. An incident of his life during his flatboating career illustrates the sturdy quality of Captain Jack's habits of thrift and industry, which lie at the foundation of the ample fortune which he afterwards acquired. It was during a vacation in his flat-boat voyages that he was induced to loan the sum of $500, which he had previously saved and was holding for future use, to a gentleman in Indiana who was building a home near the Ohio River, with the promise that the sum should be returned with interest at ten per cent. when wanted—the prevailing rate of interest for short time accommodation, being twenty-five per cent. Then, in order to keep himself employed and pay expenses while waiting the opening of the next year's river trade, he hired himself to his debtor at fifty cents a day to carry the hod for the masons at work on the house being erected with his money. It is not to be wondered at that a young man with such an eve to business economy, should have become a leading capitalist of Peoria.
Leaving New Orleans in 1855, Captain Jack made the trip from Cairo by the newly opened Illinois Central Railroad, finally reaching Chillicothe in the northeastern corner of Peoria County, where he engaged in the grain-trade, also opened the first lumber-yard there and erected a grain-warehouse or elevator. He also built a canal boat at Peoria for the purpose of conveying his produce to market, and for some time carried on a large river trade on the Illinois. In February, 1856, he was married to Anna W. Moss, daughter of Capt. William S. Moss, a prominent business man of Peoria. Mrs. Jack was a niece of Mrs. Lydia Bradley, the founder of the "Bradley Polytechnic Institute," and a distant relative of the Choate family of Massachusetts. After his marriage, Captain Jack settled on a large farm near Peoria, where he remained until 1863, when he removed to Peoria, where he had already purchased the interest of his father-in-law in the distillery of Moss, Bradley & Co., which, three years later took the name of Bradley, Jack & Co. After the enactment of the National Banking Law he assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of Peoria; was also a stock-holder in the Bridge and Gas Companies, and a Director in each, but, about 1881, having sold out his interest in the distilling business, he removed to California, where he has spent much of his time during the last twenty years. Having dissolved his connection with financial and manufacturing enterprises about Peoria, Captain Jack has devoted his time in later years chiefly to looking after his real estate interests, which are extensive in this city and county and elsewhere.
Seven children were born to Captain and Mrs. Jack, namely: Minnie H. (married to Jerome Young of San Francisco); Edward M. (graduated in law and practiced for a time in Peoria, but died in California some fifteen years ago); William S., a resident of California; Annie E. (now Mrs. L. F. Bowyer of Chicago); Lile A. (wife of W. A. Howe, son of Vice-President Howe of the Grand Trunk Railroad) also of Chicago; Noel Hampton (a ranchman near Stockton, California), and Miss Rose Choate Jack, at present a student of music and a vocalist in Paris. Mrs. Jack died in California, January 8, 1888. In 1893 Mr. Jack married, as his second wife, Mrs. Annie Bell Bush (nee Brush) a cousin of his first wife, their mothers being sisters. The latter union continued seven years, the second Mrs. Jack dying in September, 1900. Captain Jack was an earnest Democrat and an
intimate personal friend of Senator Douglas during the days of that statesman's active public career. His business life has been characterized by marked activity and enterprise and a success corresponding in degree with both.from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
WILLIAM JACK.No class of citizens have borne a more conspicuous or influential part in giving to Peoria the prominence which it has enjoyed among the cities of the State, than its lawyers. These have embraced men who have not only won reputations in the practice of their profession at the bar, but who have achieved distinction upon the bench, in the forum and in the councils of the State and the Nation. Of those belonging to a later period, no name stands more prominent at the present time for actual service at the bar, than that of William Jack, of the firm of Jack & Tiche- nor. Mr. Jack is a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, born January 10, 1844—his parents, Joseph and H. J. (Herron) Jack, both being natives of that State. After a course in the Sewickley Academy in his native State, at the age of sixteen (1860) he came to Peoria, where he attended the High School, graduating therefrom in 1862. He then engaged in the study of law, at first with the late Judge Marion Willlamson, and later in the office of Judge Hezekiah M. Wead, upon his admission to the bar becoming a partner of the latter. In 1873 he was appointed Master in Chancery for the Peoria County Circuit Court, serving for several terms. The firm of Wead & Jack having been dissolved, in January, 1874, Mr. Jack formed a partnership with Judge Lawrence W. James, which was continued until about 1882, when Mr. James having been elected County Judge of Peoria County. Nathan G. Moore, now of the firm of Wilson, Moore & McIlvaine, Chicago, was admitted to the firm. Mr. Moore retired about 1885, when Mr. Jack entered into partnership with Mr. F. H. Tichenor, which has continued up to the present time. Their business of late years has been largely in connection with incorporation cases. For more than fifteen years Mr. Jack has been one of the attorneys for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and has also been identified in a similar capacity with several of the banks and other corporations of the city of Peoria. In politics he is an Independent (or Gold) Democrat, but does not aspire to be an active politician, preferring to devote his attention to the practice of his profession.
Mr. Jack was united in marriage on August 5, 1860, to Miss Annie Grier, daughter of John C. Grier, a prominent grain and commission merchant of Peoria, and has four children—two sons and two daughters. The older son, Robert P., is now a practicing attorney of Peoria. The other children are Sarah G., William J. and Elizabeth. Mrs. Jack is a sister of the late Gen. David P. Grier, who won a high reputation as a soldier and an officer during the Civil War. Mr. Jack is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church and, in the language of the "Bench and Bar of Illinois," "a valued citizen of the community who gives his support to all beneficial measures, and lends the influ- ence of his opposition to all movements detrimental to the public good."
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ELBRIDGE GERRY JOHNSON.Elbridge Gerry Johnson, in his time one of Peoria's most notable lawyers, was born at Bath, New Hampshire, December 14, 1814, the youngest but one of a family of twelve children, all of whom but his youngest brother died before him. His father was a stalwart New England farmer, who owned a square mile of the rugged, stony soil of that locality, and expected his sons to cultivate it. At an early age the youthful Elbridge developed a strong taste for literary pursuits, in which he found encouragement and some aid from a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman of the neighborhood. Finding little sympathy at home in the desire to fit himself for a professional life, when about fourteen years of age, he placed himself under the tuition of Rev. Thomas Goodwillie, a Scotch Presbyterian (or Covenanter), of Caledonia County, Vermont, who had a farm upon which a number of students labored two days in each week in return for board and lodging and instruction, in preparing themselves for college. At sixteen he began teaching a winter school, but returned to work on the farm during the vacations of the Newberry Seminary, where he had entered upon a course of academic study. Later he located at Derby Line on the Canadian border, where he read law with Judge Redfield, and, at twenty years of age, was admitted to the bar. Notwithstanding his youth, his future was regarded as one of great brilliancy and promise.
A close friend and fellow-student of Mr. Johnson was Luke K. Poland, who afterward became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, United States Senator and later in life a Representative in Congress. Other friends of his who became eminent were Senator Samuel Phelps, Judge Redfield, Chief Justice Royce and Porteus Baxter.
Mr. Johnson practiced law at Derby Line until 1850, when he came to Peoria, arriving here on July 1. In the early part of his residence here he held the office of State's Attorney for one term. In 1860 he was elected on the Republican ticket a member of the House of Representatives, and took an active part in the proceedings of the Legislature during the stirring times just preceding the outbreak of the Civil War and at the special session immed- iately succeeding that event. During the first session he was in close touch with Mr. Lincoln, then President-elect, with Governor Yates and with the leading Republicans of the State and nation, many of whom visited Mr. Lincoln during his occupancy of the Governor's rooms in the State Capitol, when the Legislature was in session. While Mr. Johnson did not push himself forward into prominence, his counsel was highly appreciated by the leading men of the times. After the enactment by Congress of the General Bankruptcy Law of 1867, he was appointed Register in Bankruptcy for the Peoria District, serving until the repeal of the law in 1878. During his residence in Peoria of nearly thirty-five years, he was associated at different times, as partner, with Judge E. N. Powell, H. O. Merriman, George S. Blakely, for thirteen years with Judge H. B. Hopkins, then with A. C. Hewitt, and, near the close of his life, with George B. Foster. He was married twice before coming to Peoria, first at the age of twenty- one years, his wife dying suddenly eighteen months later; his second wife, who accompanied him to Peoria with their three children, died after living with him only five years. His death occurred almost without warning on the evening of January 26, 1885.
Mr. Johnson is described by his contemporaries as "a man of dignified and imposing personal appearance," strong, both physically and mentally, "with Nature's emphatic stamp of superiority." Of an unselfish and unam- bitious nature, he lived a quiet and unobtrusive life, while giving evidence, under special circumstances, of a great reserve of mental and moral power. Possessing an imaginative temperament, his flights of fancy most frequently took the form of sarcasm, in Hudibrastic verse, or witty, sharp repartee, but occasionally gave evidence of a deeper feeling due to sad experience and a spirit of serious meditation. Of a type of mind called "skeptical," yet one who knew him best has said of him: "In a way of his own, or at least by means addressed to his own compre- hension, he reached such a state of certainty that he should enter upon life after death, as to doubt it no more than he doubted, when the evening faded with the setting sun, that the morning would 'brighten with its rising."
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
LUCIEN H. KERR.One of Peoria's most promising young men was a son of Samuel N. Kerr, a prominent lawyer of Ohio, who, upon retiring from the active duties of his profession, had located on a farm near Elmwood in Peoria County.
Lucien H. Kerr was born in the town of London, Madison County, Ohio, on May 4, 1831, and died in his forty-third year. He remained at home with his parents studying and working occasionally, until he was eighteen years old, when he came to Illinois. For several years he engaged in the business of buying and shipping live stock at Elmwood. Leaving that pursuit, he came to Peoria, read law and was admitted to the bar about the year 1861, but almost immediately thereafter enlisted in the Eleventh Regiment of Illinois Cavalry commanded by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, and was Adjutant of that regiment when it was mustered in. He earned the successive ranks of Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, and, when Colonel Ingersoll resigned, he took command of the regiment. He served, through the war with distinction, and, although he had acted with the Douglas wing of the Democratic party up to the time of his enlistment, his ideas soon underwent a change, and, during the campaign of 1862, when at home on furlough, he made a strong speech at Elmwood severing his connection with the Democratic party. Thereafter he acted with the Republican party, and, upon receiving his discharge, returned to this city and resumed the duties of his profession, at once becoming an acknowledged power in the Republican ranks.
In 1870, he was elected a member of the State Senate from this district, which he ably represented for two years. In the campaign of 1872 he was a candidate for re-election but was unsuccessful. He was then appointed City Attorney for the City of Peoria, which position he held at the time of his death. This was occasioned by a gun-shot wound which he accidentally received while out gunning on the river, the fatal effects of which did not at first seem apparent. When informed of the fatal character of his wound he bore the announcement with heroic courage. He died at the house of Mayor Brotherson, from whose family he had received tokens of the warmest appreciation and friendship. A meeting of the City Council was called by the Mayor and a series of resolutions was adopted by that body testifying to his manly and outspoken life of truth and independence; to his culture as a well-read and accurate lawyer; to the faithfulness with which he had discharged all his duties as a soldier and a citizen; to his fidelity as a friend: to his genial and social qualities; to his every-day conduct as a courteous and high-toned gentleman—that, as a State Senator from this district, his general acquaintance with the current events of the day, with the history and legislation of the country, and with the circumstances and wants of his constituents, united with a conscientious faithfulness in the discharge of his duties, had given him a standing and influence with his fellows- members not often acquired by legislators of greater age and experience.
He was a man of rare talent, and had not neglected the cultivation of the gifts that nature had bestowed upon him. Although his occupation, for some years, was among a class of men not always the most refined in manners, but generally open-hearted, frank, generous, honorable and honest, he never forsook the use of the means adapted to the highest culture of his intellect. He was well read, not only in the current literature of the day, but in the best of English classics. Gifted with a rich melodious voice and excellent memory, he was fond of committing and audibly reciting passages from the leading poets, selecting always such as touched nearest the sympathetic chords of nature. He was a natural orator and accustomed to embellish his speeches with Quotations from the leading statesmen. Possessed of a pleasing address and courteous manner, he drew friends around him wherever he went. His popularity was bounded only by his acquaintance, and his society was sought after and appreciated by the most cultivated of the community. He made no public profession of religion, but his reverence for all that was pure and good, high and holy, made him a lover of the sublime in poetry and prose, a man whose natural instincts were reverential. He was a devoted and consistent member of the Masonic Order, under whose rites his body was laid in the tomb, regretted by the whole community.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ALVAN KIDDER.Among the pioneer citizens and business men of Peoria, the name of Alvan Kidder is entitled to special distinction. Mr. Kidder was born at Braintree, Vermont, February 12, 1801, and his father having died when he was quite young, he removed with his mother to Alexander, Genesee County. New York, where he grew to manhood. When he had reached the age of about eighteen years, he went to Randolph, Massachusetts, and soon after became connected with a shoe factory as partner of Seth Mann, whose daughter he afterwards married. While a resident of Massachusetts, he served as Clerk of the town of Randolph, and was also a member of the Massachusetts General Assembly at each session for a period of four years.
In 1835 Mr. Kidder came to Peoria and at once engaged in the general mercantile business, his store being loca- ted at what is now No. 119 Main Street. At the age of fifty years, however, he retired from mercantile pursuits, and thereafter gave his attention solely to the real-estate business, in which he had previously been engaged to some extent, and in which he was remarkably successful. During his business life he came into possession of a great many notes and mortgages, and, in contrast with the methods in vogue among money-loaners generally, and to his infinite credit, it can truthfully be said that he never pressed or distressed a single debtor or foreclosed a mortgage—a record which won for him the thanks and unbounded respect of many whom he aided in the course of his business career.
In political belief and association Mr. Kidder was an earnest and uncompromising Democrat, and discharged his duty as a citizen with scrupulous fidelity, even in the latter years of his life insisting upon being escorted to the polls in order that he might give his support to the principles in which he conscientiously believed.
Mr. Kidder was married in 1824, to Miss Betsy Mann, daughter of Seth and Betsy Mann, of Randolph, Massa- chusetts. Four children were born of this union, of whom one died in infancy. The others were Alvan, Jr., George and Annie. Alvan resided in Farmington, Fulton County, was married to Lucy Ewalt, and died November 17, 1899, leaving three children. George, the second son, died September 18, 1880. The daughter Annie, the sole survivor of the family, was married April 8, 1885, to Frank M. Reinhart, of Peoria, and at present resides in the old homestead on Sixth Avenue, which has been in possession of the family for fifty-four years.
Mr. Kidder died in Peoria, November 19, 1871.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
MARTIN KINGMAN.At every stage of his well-directed career, Martin Kingman has profited by .the rugged substantiality of his character, by a versatility which has utilized many avenues of activity, and by an unassailable integrity and general worthy in keeping with his standing as a representative Illinoisan and promoter of the all-around well being of Peoria. A native of the State where he is best known as a banker, as a manufacturer of agricultural implements and as the largest agricultural implement distributing jobber in this line in the United States, he was born at Deer Creek, Tazewell County, Illinois, April I, 1844.
The Kingman family has long been identified with the large opportunities of America, the emigrating ancestor having been Henry Kingman, who, with his wife, Joanna, sailed away from the ancestral home in England and arrived at Weymouth, Massachusetts, in May, 1622. As a means of livelihood amid the unfamiliar conditions of his adopted country, he operated a ferry across Weymouth Bay, a short distance from Boston. This fact has been perpetuated in the family coat of arms, which was adopted at a family reunion in August, 1890, when there were present over six hundred of the family kindred.
His children continued to live in Massachusetts, and settled in North Bridgewater, a short distance from Wey- mouth, and here the paternal grandfather of Martin was born although in later life he removed to Pelham, of the same State. The deeds and enterprise of this ferryman ancestor and his helpmate has never been allowed to slumber in the remembrance of his latter-day descendants, and, lest their history should be shrouded in oblivion, a reunion of the 600 or more relatives was held August 8, 1890, and a monument erected to the founders of the family in America.
The first of the Kingmans to come to Illinois was Abel, the father of Martin, who left Pelham, Mass., where he was born and reared on what is known as Pelham Hills, just east of Amherst. On coming to Illinois, he settled in Tazewell County in 1834. The following year he married Mary Ann Bingham, whom he met in Illinois, and who was of French-English extraction, and a native of Norfolk, Va. Of this union there were four sons, of whom Martin is the youngest. Charles, the oldest, died in California in 1894; Cyrus is living at Delavan, Illinois, and Henry is a leading cattle and stock-raiser and farmer at Delavan, Kansas.
When Martin was four years of age, his father was drowned while crossing the Mackinaw River. His mother was, therefore, left with the four boys and the farm, where he received his early training. The family resources not per- mitting all the advantages desired by the children of the Kingman household, Martin, after finishing his studies at the district school at twelve years of age, left home, and for two years attended a school in the old Tazewell County Court House at Tremont, then occupied as an academy. Following this, he attended the Washington Academy, at Washington, Tazewell County, for two years, teaching in the winter and going to school in the summer.
During his attendance at the Washington Academy he became a cadet in the Washington Zouaves, and first learned what it was to be a soldier. This company was commanded by the late Colonel Dan Miles, who commanded the Forty-seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteers in the late Rebellion.
The culmination of the strife between the North and the South in the Civil War found Mr. Kingman engaged in educational work, teaching school in his home district in Deer Creek, Tazewell County. His interest in the war was so great that he would often, after dismissing the school at four P. M., ride some ten miles to Washington to get the news as to how the war was progressing. His brother Cyrus having enlisted at an early period in 1861, he thus felt doubly interested, and kept in close touch with every progress of the war; and when the Presidential call for three hundred thousand troops came in 1862, his patriotism could not be restrained, and at the first opportunity, at a meeting held in the home church, was the first one at that meeting to volunteer his services, and thirty-eight of the home boys joined and united in the organization of Company G, Eighty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Although but eighteen years of age at the time, he was elected Second Lieutenant of the company, and was the youngest officer in the Second Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, in which he served. He saw much of the terrible and heart-rending side of warfare, and his regiment participated in all the important battles from Perryville to the capture of Atlanta, and from Atlanta to the Sea, and from Savannah through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia to Washington. With the other foot-sore and battle-weary veterans who had staked to a winning cause, at the close of the war he marched up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington with the same enthusiasm with which he had followed the fortunes of Sherman in his famous "March to the Sea."
For so young an officer, he was singularly honored with responsibility, and seems to have won, to an unusual degree, the confidence and friendship of those with whom he was associated. During the first year and a half he remained with his company, which he commanded very often for weeks at a time. He was detailed as commander of Company K during the absence of its officers, and remained with it as its commander for some time. He was also detailed, and commanded a company, in the Eighty-fourth Illinois, which had been captured and had no officers.
For the last year and a half of his service he was on the staff of Colonel Dan McCook, youngest of the famous fighters of the McCook family, and, at the death of Colonel McCook, was on the staff of Colonel Langley, who commanded the brigade, and in that capacity had charge of the Ambulance Corps and medical stores of the Third Brigade, Second Division. Fourteenth Army Corps. In this position Mr. Kingman became acquainted with nearly all the general officers belonging to the Fourteenth Army Corps, as well as those of the Armies of the Cumber- land, Tennessee and Ohio. the Army of the Cumberland being commanded by General George H. Thomas. This acquaintance is one of the pleasantest things of the war. as he has been continually, since the close of the war, meeting these men at various parts of the country. He was promoted to the First Lieutenancy on the death of the Captain, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. Mr. Kingman is very proud of his army record, having entered the army when only a few months over eighteen years of age, served continuously for almost three years, never being absent from his command, either from sickness or on furlough; and also of the fact, that he never received a bounty or any other gift from the Government, State or county, and has never applied for a pension.
On reaching Atlanta, he made application for a furlough, having been absent from home then almost two years. The application was returned with the endorsement of General Jefferson C. Davis, then commanding the Four- teenth Army Corns, with the following words: "All good soldiers are wanted at this time. Respectfully declined." Had this application been granted Mr. Kingman would not have participated in the campaign of .the "March to 'the Sea," now so famous, and which he is justly entitled to be proud of.Before the disbandment of the armies of Sherman and Grant, and while the regiment was lying at Washington, a regimental reunion was held, in which Mr. Kingman was appointed, with other comrades in arms, to have charge of the Eighty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry Reunion, the same to be held at Peoria, Illinois, August 27, 1865, this being the third anniversary of the day in which they were mustered into the United States service. This reunion took place, and was one of the happy events for those who were fortunate enough to have spent three years in the great Civil War.
It was while thus fulfilling an appointed task that Mr. Kingman became interested in the city of Peoria and decided to make it his home. During the fall and winter of 1865, he found employment as a salesman in a flour-mill in Peoria, and the following spring, having saved a little money from his army pay, formed a grocery partnership with Henry Clauson, and for three months conducted the business under the firm name of Clauson & Kingman, at the head of Bridge Street, in what was then known as Oak Hall. This business having been disposed of at a hand- some profit, he then engaged as a traveling salesman for a Peoria wholesale boot and shoe house. This position was relinquished on January 1, 1867, at which time was established the agricultural implement business which has since acquired an almost national reputation. For the first three years the firm was Kingman & Dunham, but owing to ill health, Mr. Dunham was obliged to dispose of his interest to Walter B. Hotchkiss and Charles T. Hurd, and for the following three years the firm name was Kingman, Hotchkiss & Company. In 1873 the firm was changed to Kingman & Company, and was incorporated in 1882. the capital stock being $600,000. Though not a manu- facturing concern, Kingman & Company have became known as large distributors of agricultural implements, hav- ing branch houses in St. Louis, Missouri, Dallas, Texas : Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa, with numerous transfer houses. In the office and traveling departments, employment is given to about 250 people, fifty traveling men being employed throughout the year, the additional work during the summer necessitating some twenty-five extra men. While the Mississippi Valley constitutes a large part of the territory covered by the men, some twenty States and several Territories may be counted on for enormous patronage every year.
In addition to a general stock, Kingman & Company sell largely the product manufactured by the Peoria Cordage Company and the Kingman Plow Company, of which enterprises Mr. Kingman is President and a large stock- holder, each concern having a capital stock of $400,000, and employing, in the aggregate, about 600 people. About twenty lines, from leading manufacturers, are also carried in the various jobbing houses, having exclusive agencies and selling the goods as the representatives of the manufacturers. The annual sales of these various branch houses run up into very large figures.
Owing to his leading position in the manufacturing and distributing of agricultural implements, Mr. Kingman was elected at the National Convention at Kansas City, in October, 1901, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Agricultural Implement and Vehicle Manufacturers, the Association comprising some 300 members, and representing a capital of over three hundred millions of dollars —a position of very great im- portance and responsibility.
As a banker Mr. Kingman enjoys an enviable reputation in Illinois, and the institutions which have profited by his financial genius and admirable management stand high among the commercial bulwarks of the State. At the present time he is identified. as President, with the Illinois National Bank, one of the leading banks of Peoria, with a capital of $150,000, besides having been formerly President and one of the chief organizers of the Central National Bank. He is also a Director of the Fort Dearborn National Bank, Chicago, and is a holder of stock in a number of other banks.
He was one of the original organizers and stockholders of the Peoria General Electric Company, and only recently sold his holdings, which were among the largest of that company. He was one of the original stockholders and members of the National Hotel Company, of which he is President and the largest stockholder.
On the declaration of war against Spain, in 1898, Mr. Kingman. being much interested, asked permission from Governor Tanner to .raise a regiment of infantry, which was granted, and, in connection with Colonel Isaac Taylor, he assisted in organizing a regiment which mustered 1075 men, and was known as the Peoria Provisional Regiment. He was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment and took an active part in the enrolling, mustering and drilling of the same for some three months, besides bearing a large share of the expense attendant upon the preparation of the regiment for service in the field. Owing to the early close of the war the regiment was not called into actual service; but the knowledge of the existence of such organizations in this and other States, exerted a strong influence in sustaining the hands of the Government, and in convincing other nations of the determination, on the part of the American people, to bring the struggle to an early and successful conclusion. The Legislature of the State passed, unanimously, a resolution commissioning the officers, and Mr. Kingman points with pride to his commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the Peoria Provisional Regiment of the Spanish-American War.
Mr. Kingman is a member of Bryner Post, No. 67, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Loyal Legion of America. He is also a member of of the Chicago Bankers' Club and of the Union League Club of Chicago.
Mr. Kingman has not been a politician, but has taken an active interest in matters pertaining to the County and State. He served as a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners for six years having been appointed by Governor Shelby M. Cullom. He was a member of the County Board of Supervisors during the erection of the present Court House, and was a member of the building committee.
Mr. Kingman was married to Emeline T. Shelly on May 21, 1867. Of this union there have been five children, three of whom are living: Louis Shelly Kingman, Vice-President of Kingman Plow Company; Walter Bingham Kingman, Vice-President of Kingman & Company; and Mabel Dunham Kingman, all of whom are living with their parents in their home on Perry Avenue.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
JOHN E. KIRK.John E. Kirk was born, March 4, 1850, in Richmond, Ray County, Missouri. His father was James F. Kirk, a native of Tennessee, the Kirk family in the antebellum days being among the distinguished and prosperous planters of the South. Mr. Kirk's mother was Nancy Catherine Couch, a native of Kentucky. James F. Kirk located permanently, soon after the birth of John E., at North Salem, Sullivan County, Missouri, and engaged in agriculture. From one corner of the home place he donated land for a Baptist hurch, and, in the churchyard connected therewith, both he and his wife now lie buried.
The only educational advantages John E. Kirk enjoyed in his youth were such as were afforded by the common schools, supplemented by an attendance, for one or two winters, at the Kirksville Normal School, at Kirksville, Missouri. He grew up on the farm, a sturdy lad with a goodly share of health and unbounded energy, the latter quality, particularly, standing him in good stead in the battle of life which he was destined to fight in later years. On February 13, 1870, he married Laura J. Sevier, who was descended from the noted Sevier family of Tennessee, and also from the Richardson family of Baltimore, Maryland. They established their first home near Baxter Springs, in Cherokee County, Kansas, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising. In the autumn, of 1872 he returned to Missouri and soon after went to California, where he resided for a time at San Jose, and also at Colusa. He was not entirely satisfied with his opportunities and environments on the Pacific slope, so after a time he returned to Missouri, and, at Salisbury, Chariton County, he formed the acquaintance of an old inventor named John R. Hill and from him purchased the rights and letters-patent of a device for stacking hay. This was a simple and extremely crude affair, but it proved to be the basis and foundation from which Mr. Kirk's success in life was subsequently developed. He began the manufacture and sale of these hay-stackers, and being a man of great in- genuity and inventive genius, from time to time made improvements and changes in the structure of this device, until it lost all semblance to that which he had originally purchased, and became, as it remains today, the standard machine for its purpose. As his business grew he began casting about for a better location, and being attracted to Peoria on account of the superior transportation facilities that city afforded, he moved to that place and permanently located in 1881. He soon succeeded in establishing a paying and rapidly growing business and, in 1885, organized a stock company called the Acme Hay Harvester Company (now the Acme Harvester Company), and became its President and General Manager, and so remained until 1800, when, owing to over-application to business, his health failed and he was reluctantly compelled to sever his connection with the business which he had founded and carried forward to such flattering success. Disposing of his entire interest in the plant, he thereafter devoted his attention to the care of his estate and investments. During the years of his prosperity in the manufacturing business, he had invested largely in Kansas wheat land and California fruit land. as well as in city property in Peoria and in Buffalo, New York. The last years of his life were snent mainly in California, where he devoted himself principally to growing hemp fibre. He purchased about 400 acres of rich sandy loam in Butte County, some sixty miles north of Sacramento, built thereon a comfortable dwelling, and engaged in hemp- growing on a large scale. At the time he began this experiment, no machine for preparing: the fibre for market was known, other than the primitive handbreak, and Mr. Kirk at once set to work on the problem of devising a machine for that purpose. He succeeded so well that the machine built by him, and operated by steam power, not only crushed the wooden stalk and separated it from the hemp fibre, but wound the latter straight and untangled on an immense spool or bobbin, thus leaving it in the most desirable shape for future handling; and, it may be remarked in passing, that this machine is today the only device for the purpose in use in this country.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kirk were born three children: Walter H., born December 5, 1870, near Baxter Springs, Missouri, now a prosperous atattorney in Peoria; Norman T., born July 28, 1873, near Browning, Linn County, Missouri, and now conducting the ranch in California; and Bertha Mabel, now Mrs. F. H. Averv, born January to, 1876, near North Salem, Sullivan County, Missouri.
In politics Mr. Kirk was a Republican. He was an attendant upon the services of the Universalist Church, and was highly advanced in the order of Free and Accepted Masonry, being a member of the Blue Lodge Chapter, Com mandery and Mystic Shrine. He was a most earnest advocate of the noble principles proclaimed and inculcated by this most ancient and honorable order. He was a polished, courteous and courtly gentleman, a steadfast friend and the personification and embodiment of aggressive energy. It was, indeed, to the latter quality that his early decease is mainly attributed; excessive application to business, bringing about nervous exhaustion and a depletion of the vital forces, from which he found it impossible to recover. He died on his ranch in California, March 15, 1898.
To such men as John E. Kirk is due the credit for the wonderful advancement industrial America has made in the latter half of the century just closed.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ERHARD KRAMM.Erhard Kramm was born in Woerrstadt, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, May 4, 1837. His parents were Andrew Kramm, born at Alzey, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in 1801, and died in 1885, and Susan (Lutz) Kramm, born at Bechtolsheim, Germany, in 1805, and died in 1849. Andrew Kramm served his term of five years in the German Army, and then became overseer of construction of public buildings for the Government, retaining that posi- tion for over fifty years, when he retired upon a pension, which he drew until his death.
Erhard Kramm came to America in 1852. He spent one year in Cleveland, Ohio, upon a farm, and, during that time, attended night school, where he acquired a knowledge of the English language. In the fall of 1853 he removed to Peoria, engaging in various employments until the latter part of 1864, when he went into the coal- mining business at Edwards Station, which he carried on for himself and others with marked success and reasonable profit for a number of years. He afterwards sold his interest in the mines at Edwards Station and opened coal mines on the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, at Kramm's Station. There he conducted business until 1895, when he sold out and has not been engaged in any active mercantile or commercial business since. He is the owner of two large farms in Peoria County, which have interested him and taken con- siderable of his time.
Mr. Kramm, several years ago, evidenced his faith in Peoria and her future in purchasing real estate in different parts of the city. He invested his income in developing the property, having erected twenty-five or more houses, which he still owns and rents. Mi. Kramm was one of the organizers (1859) and Secretary of the "New Peoria Fire Company" No. 4. He was one of the stockholders and organizers of the German Banking Company, also one of the organizers and a stockholder in the German Fire Insurance Company.
In 1875 Mr. Kramm visited his old home in Germany. He is still engaged in the active management and control of his property, and is the owner of a pleasant home on North Madison Avenue, where he resides with his family. For several years he has taken life somewhat easily, and fortunately has so invested the earnings of his working years as to give him an abundant competence for ease, leisure and comfort in his advancing years. He is still an active force in the business enterprises of Peoria. His success was due to his willingness to labor at anything not dishonorable or degrading, his energy, his fidelity to his employer, and every trust reposed in him, and his strict integrity in all his business dealings. He is another marked illustration of the truth that honesty and integrity in the long run are the best guarantees of real success.
Mr. Kramm was married to Emily Coquelin, August 6, 1863. Seven children have been born to them: Ida Josephine, born May 31, 1864, died February 17, 1865; Charles Ballance, born November 29, 1865; Edward, born February 12, 1868, died February 24, 1868; Leslie, born May 3, 1869; Harold Dennis, born May 22, 1871; Erhard, born December 21, 1874; and William, born December 26, 1876. Charles B. married Velma
Morgan; Leslie, Ada Morrison; Harold D., Ada Shewmaker; Erhard, Henrietta Louise Piergue, and William, Ludell Fisher.Mrs. and Mrs. Kramm are members of the Lutheran Church.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
SEBASTIAN KRAUS.That rugged substantiality and honesty of purpose which is, above all else, the particular heritage of the Teuton, is admirably expressed in the career of Sebastian Kraus, who, at different periods of his well conditioned life, has been equally successful as a blacksmith, farmer, builder, merchant and Justice of the Peace. A native of Ratheim, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, he was born January 20, 1820, the son of Jacob and Katharine (Dries) Kraus, who were farmers during their years of activity.
In his native land Sebastian Kraus was educated in the public schools, and. following a long established prece- dent, was apprenticed when fourteen years of age and, after due diligence, became an expert blacksmith. His youthful energy and buoyant spirits rebelled somewhat at the limitations by which he was surrounded, and he therefore bade adieu to the land of his forefathers, April 18, 1841, after a tempestuous voyage arriving in New York about the middle of July. His trade stood him in good stead and proved no respecter of persons; for, almost immediately, he secured employment on the construction of the Croton Aqueduct. At the end of a month he journeyed west to Missouri, where, at Boonville, lived a brother who had preceded him to America, on the way thither visiting Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Saint Louis, and thus gaining a fair idea of western life and enterprise.
In Boonville he worked for about two years, but in the autumn of 1843 went to New Orleans, where he worked at his trade until the beginning of the following May. Desirous of again seeing his friends in the Fatherland, he then embarked in a sailing vessel and, after a voyage of forty-eight days, arrived at Havre, whence he proceeded to Germany. A two-years' stay amid old-time conditions convinced him that America offered the greater promise of reward to industry and ability, and he therefore returned to Boonville, where, during his previous stay, he had pur- chased forty acres of land. This land became a field of effort for about a year, and, in connection with its improve- ment, he also worked at his trade. Having disposed of his Boonville interests, he returned to New Orleans, where he remained until July of 1848, after which he located in Peoria and, for a time, industriously plied his trade. He then turned his attention to building and contracting, also conducted a grocery and general store, and, in course of a comparatively short time, erected several dwelling-houses for renting purposes. In 1864 he gave up his mer- cantile and building business, and has since devoted himself to his duties as a Notary Public and the management of his property, in which he has been successfully engaged for many years.
As the result of his first marriage on August 16, 1846, with Margaret Shuelein, a native of Bavaria, there were two children: Charles F., who is now living in the State of Washington, and Mena, who is now Mrs. Davis, of Peoria. Mrs. Kraus died, October 23, 1863, and on November 9, 1864, Mr. Kraus married Eva Marie Hickman, who died February 15, 1896. Mr. Kraus is a Democrat in political affiliation, and has served his city in various capacities. Between 1863 and 1865 he was Town Supervisor, and in 1865 was elected Justice of the Peace, serving for three succeeding terms of four years each. Since then he has held the position of Notary Public. Mr. Kraus is a stock-holder in the German Fire Insurance Company, and, at various stages of his career, has been actively interested in promoting some of the most ambitious enterprises in the city. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and is one of the fine, sterling and substantial characters of the city.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ALEXANDER McCOY. Alexander McCoy was born October 26, 1818, in West Finley Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. His father, John McCoy, was of pure Scotch parentage, and son of Daniel McCoy, a Captain in the Revolutionary War. His mother, Jane (Brice) McCoy, was a daughter of Rev. John Brice, who organized, and was the first pastor of, the First Presbyterian Church of Three Ridges, now West Alexandria, Pennsylvania.
At the classical school at West Alexandria,under the instruction of Rev. Doctor McClusky and others, he was prepared to enter the junior class half-advanced, at Washington College, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1842, where he graduated in the class of 1844. Having spent some time after graduation in teaching at home, and subsequently as teacher of languages in Vermillion Institute, at Hayesville, Ohio, he entered the law office of Given & Barcroft, as a student, at Millersburg. Ohio, where he made rapid progress in the rudiments of his profession, and, after a thorough preparation, was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, in the winter of 1850. He then removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he located to practice his profession.
A great contest was then in progress in the courts in Peoria and adjoining counties, between parties holding lands under tax-titles accruing under the State authorities, and parties claiming the same under patents given to soldiers for said lands by the General Government. To prepare himself for this litigation he spent nearly a year in the County Clerk's office of Peoria County, where the tax-titles originated.
February 1, 1851, he formed a partnership with Henry Grove, at Peoria, and they at once entered upon the successful practice of the law, doing a very extensive business, with a still increasing practice. In the fall of 1856 he was elected State's Attorney for the then Sixteenth Judicial District, for a term of four years. The duties of his office, together with the increased labor of his partnership, proved to be too severe for his health, and a dissolution of the partnership took place in 1858. His health gradually improving, he continued to discharge the duties of prosecutor in his district with such ability and fidelity that, at the expiration of his term, in 1860, he was re-elected for another term of four years.
In 1861 he formed a partnership with Hon. Norman H. Purple, ex-Juidge of the Supreme Court of the State, under the firm name of Purple & McCoy. This partnership continued until dissolved by the death of Judge Purple, in August, 1863.
In the fall of 1864, at the urgent solicitation of the people, he became the Republican candidate for the Legislature, and was elected. During the session of 1865 he was awarded the chairmanship of the Committee on Judiciary, an honor rarely conferred upon a new member, thus giving him the first place upon the floor of the House as a legislator. Mr. McCoy was soon an acknowledged leader; his counsel was always sought when important matters were up for consideration; and he devoted his time and attention strictly to the interest of his constituents. He was of great value to the State, and particularly to that section represented by him. It was upon his motion that the emancipation amendment to the Constitution of the United States was adopted.
In the spring of 1867 he formed a partnership with Judge Marion Williamson, Lorin G. Pratt and John S. Stevens. This partnership was dissolved by the death of Judge Williamson in 1868, soon after which Mr. Pratt retired and the business was carried on under the firm name of McCoy & Stevens. Their business was large and lucrative, embracing not only practice in the surrounding counties, but in the Supreme Court of the State, and the Circuit and District Courts of the United States at Chicago.
The domestic life of Mr. McCoy was one of varying light and shade. He was married, October 7, 1857, to Miss Sarah J. Mathews, of Lee, New Hampshire, an estimable lady, of fine accomplishments, a graduate of the female seminary of Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, and who, for a time, had been Principal of the Female Academy of Peoria. She was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, a lady of varied accomplishments, a true Christian and beloved by all who knew her. It was the greatest affliction of his life when, in 1863, she was suddenly called away.
He was married a second time, June 23, 1869, to Miss Lucinda E. Dutton, of Chicago, a very worthy lady, possessed of high intellectual and social qualities, and surrounded by many friends. With his wife and daughter he immediately went abroad, visiting England and making the usual tour of the continent. In 1870 he returned to Peoria, and resumed the practice of his profession, in company with John S. Stevens, his former partner.
In May, 1871, at the urgent solicitations of his many friends in Chicago, he removed to that city, and entered into partnership with George F. Harding, and with him actively engaged in the practice of his profession. In the great conflagration of October 9, 1871, he lost his extensive and valuable library. In the year 1872 Mr. Pratt, his former partner, who, in the meantime, had been engaged in other pursuits, became associated with him and Mr. Harding, under the firm name of Harding, McCoy & Pratt. Mr. Harding retired from the firm in 1875. The business was then carried on in the name of McCoy & Pratt. From this time on their business continued to increase rapidly. All branches of litigation were committed to their charge. Important suits
involving the most intricate questions of commercial law, such as arise in great cities, were daily intrusted to their care, and, for some years, they were largely employed in railroad litigation. September 23, 1881, Mr. Pratt died suddenly of heart disease, and the firm was broken up, but the business of the firm was continued by Mr. McCoy, who had as his subsequent partners a relative named C. B. McCoy, and Mr. Charles E. Pope. Mr. McCoy retired from business about the year 1887, and, in January, 1889, removed to California, where he died, February 10, 1893, at his home in Pasadena. As a lawyer of integrity, as a patriotic citizen, and as a man of noble character, Peoria has had few that were his equals, and none his superiors.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
DAVID McCULLOCH.David McCulloch was born near Big Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1832, the son of Thomas and Isabella (Blean) McCulloch. On the paternal side the family ancestry is traced to John McCulloch, who was born in Ireland, though of Scotch parentage, and coming to Pennsylvania settled on a farm in what is now Cumberland County, not far from Harrisburg. He married Elizabeth Houston, who was the same stock as President Sam Houston, famous in Texas history. James, one of their eight children, married Mary Henderson, who belonged to a family which emigrated to Kentucky at an early day, and her stalwart character is indicated by the fact of her once making a journey on horseback across the mountains to Kentucky to visit her mother. James McCulloch was a well-to-do farmer who settled at Big Spring and became the owner of about 600 acres of land in that vicinity. He had four sons, of whom one was Thomas, the father of Judge David McCulloch.
The maternal branch of the family was descended from David Blean (pronounced Blaine) who came from Ireland about the middle of the eighteenth century, and whose only son, Robert Blean, the grandfather of Judge McCulloch, married Mary Craig, daughter of John Craig, a minister of the Associate Reformed (now United Presby- terian) Church. They had four sons and five daughters, one of the latter being Isabella, Judge McCulloch's mother. Of Judge McCulloch's four brothers—he being the youngest of five sons—James, the eldest, spent his life on the home farm in Pennsylvania, dying a few months since, aged seventy-eight; Robert Blean and Thomas Henderson became manufacturers of woolen goods and, coming to Peoria in 1851, established here the first woolen factory, which, proving unprofitable, was abandoned. John Craig, the fourth son, died at the age of twenty-one. Robert B., already mentioned, became a contractor and builder and died several years ago in Peoria, where his family still reside. Thomas H. removed to Monmouth, Illinois, and afterwards to Omaha, where he died a few years since. Of the sisters, Mary Ellen became the wife of William S. Morrow, and resides at Westfield, New Jersey, while the youngest died in infancy.
Thomas McCulloch's family was brought up on the home farm which he had inherited from his father, and here Judge David McCulloch received his early education in one of the primitive log school houses of that period. One of the pleasant reminiscences of his early life is the personnel of the pupils of this school, among whom were three by the name of Sharpe, coming from three different families, one of whom, Alexander, became a physician, moved to St. Louis, married a sister of Mrs. General Grant and spent the remainder of his life as a surgeon in the army; another, A. Brady, became a prominent lawyer of Carlisle and served gallantly on the staff of Major General Ord during the Civil War, and the third, J. McDowell, became a prominent lawyer and leading Demo- cratic politician of Eastern Pennsylvania. There were also two cousins of his own, John S. and Joseph M.
McCulloch, the former of whom became a minister, was pastor of one of the Peoria churches, became Chaplain in the Seventy-seventh Regiment of Illinois Volunteers and later President of a Freedman's College at Knoxville. Tennessee; the latter was a captain in the same regiment, and afterwards County Treasurer and County Judge of Woodford County.In his eleventh year David McCulloch came under the instruction of a teacher from New England, named Roswell D. French, a brother of Augustus C. French, afterwards Governor of Illinois, who proved to be a man of superior education and, by the introduction of new methods in teaching, infused new life into the educational system of that region. Three years later he established a classical school (or academy) at Newville, which the youthful McCulloch attended, walking a distance of four miles and return daily. One of his classmates in this school was Joseph Hunter Herron, a brother of Mrs. James S. Eckles, of Princeton, Illinois, one of whose sons is James Herron Eckles, formerly Comptroller of the Currency. French's school was remarkably successful, but his health having failed, he in less than a year returned to his home in New England and soon after died. After some unavoidable interruptions, having completed his preparation for college at Newville Academy under Prof. John Kilbourne, in September, 1848, Mr. McCulloch entered Marshall College at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania—an institution conducted under the auspices of the German Reformed Church, and closely related to the German Reformed Theological Seminary, both being housed under the same roof. One of the professors of the latter was the late Dr. Philip Schaff, who had been a pupil of Neander in Germany, and was afterwards distinguished as an ecclesiastical historian and theologian in connection with the Union Theological Seminary of New York. Here the young student was brought in contact with new elements and new lines of thought, including among his fellow-students not only many Germans of American birth, but many students of theology who had come for purposes of study direct from Germany. Connected with the institution, whose names were distinguished for ripe scholarship, were Dr. John W. Nevin, its President and Professor of Mental and Moral Science, as well as head of the Theological Seminary, and Prof. Thomas C. Porter, of the chair of Natural Science, who afterwards attained to a national reputation as Professor of Botany in La Fayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania. Mr. McCulloch graduated with first honors in the class of 1852, which was the last sent out by Marshall College, as, at the close of the same term, it was removed to Lancaster and united with Franklin College under the name of Franklin and Marshall College, under which it still exists. A matter of interest in connection with the history of Marshall College, is the fact that James Buchanan was President of its Board of Trustees, and accustomed to attend the annual commencements—his birth-place being about three miles northwest of the village at the foot of a mountain, the summit of which commanded a view of the Cumberland valley from the Susquehanna to the Potomac.
After spending his first winter after graduation in teaching in the same school house in vhich Mr. French had taught ten years before, on April 19, 1853, Mr. McCulloch left his eastern home to join his brothers, Robert B. and Thomas H., who has preceded him, arriving at Peoria at midnight of April 22. He immediately began looking up scholars for a classical school, which was established soon after in the basement of the First Methodist Church, but two years later he discontinued teaching and began the study of law with Julius Manning and Amos L. Merriman, two of the most prominent members of the Peoria bar of that period. Mr. Manning, besides occupying a prominent position in the ranks of the Democratic party, was regarded as one of the most brilliant orators in the State.
In, the fall of 1855 Mr. McCulloch was elected School Commissioner for Peoria County on the Democratic ticket—a position which he filled by two successive re-elections, for six years. In the meantime, having completed his law studies, he was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1857. On September 2, 1858, he was married near Shippensburg, in his native county, to Mary Fulton Hemphill. In 1860, having determined to retire from the office of School Commissioner and open an office of his own, accompanied by his wife he made a visit to his old home in Pennsylvania, extending his trip to Philadelphia, for the purpose of purchasing a law library. Incidents connect- ed with this trip were the hearing of a Republican speech by the late Senator John Sherman at Philadelphia, witnessing the arrival of the Prince of Wales (now Edward VII. of England) at Harrisburg, and listening to speeches by Senator Douglas at Harrisburg and Chicago. During this visit Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch were called upon to endure the most grievous affliction of their lives in the death of their oldest child, a daughter of fourteen months.
Reared amid Democratic surroundings, and educated in an institution with which James Buchanan was identified as President of its Board of Trustees, Judge McCulloch naturally imbibed the principles of the Democratic party. On the division of that party in 1860, growing out of the differences between Douglas and Buchanan over the settlement of the issues in Kansas, he espoused the cause of Douglas, and continued to occupy this position until 1862. In the campaign of that year he supported the candidacy of Gen. Thomas J. Henderson, now of Princeton, for Congress, as against that of Owen Lovejoy, who was elected. While making speeches in this campaign he had the opportunity, on more than one occasion, of meeting Lovejoy personally and hearing him disavow the extreme view of the Abolitionists of the school of William Lloyd Garrison, thereby obtaining a more accurate conception of the anti-slavery principles of Lincoln, Seward, Love joy and their political allies, and, in the cam- paign of 1864, he was found in full co-operation with them. With a strong tendency toward political independence, Judge McCulloch, as a rule, has been in sympathy with the policy and principles of the Republican party. In 1870, and again in 1886, he dissented from the policy of some of the leaders of the party—in the former year supporting the Independent candidate for Congress who was elected, and, in the latter, throwing his influence on the side of the Prohibitionists and supporting their candidates for President at the two ensuing elections. When the Spanish-American war broke out, believing in the wisdom and patriotism of the policy of President McKinley, he gave his support to the administration and has continued to do so ever since.
Judge McCulloch's professional life began in 1860, when he opened a law office in Peoria, but during the follow- ing year he accepted an invitation to become a partner of his preceptor, Hon. Julius Manning—Mr. Manning's partner, Judge Merriman, having been promoted to a seat on the circuit bench. The partnership with Mr. Manning lasted only a few months as, after serving as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1862, he died on July 4th of that year. The next business connection was with Charles P. Taggart—this lasting until 1866, when Mr. Taggart, who was then State's Attorney for Peoria and Stark Counties, went to California for the benefit of his health—Mr. McCulloch being selected by the Judges to perform the duties of the office during his unexpired term. Other business partnerships include one with Col. James M. Rice for one year, and next with Hon. John S. Stevens, the latter beginning in 1870 and lasting until the appointment of Mr. Stevens as Postmaster in 1876. About this time the overloaded condition of the Supreme Court docket began to be felt as a serious evil, and, as a means of relief, Judge McCulloch suggested a reduction of the circuits outside of Cook County to one-half the existing number, by the consolidation of two circuits into one and the election of an additional Judge for each newly organized circuit, thereby increasing the working force of each circuit to three—one of whom could be assigned to Appellate Court duty. The result was the enactment, at the next session of the Legislature, of laws providing for the consolidation of the circuits with an increase of Judges as suggested, and the creation of an Appellate Court, Honorables Anthony Thornton, Sabm D. Puterbaugh and David McCulloch constituting the committee appointed by the State Bar Association for the preparation of the bills for the accomplishment of this purpose. At the ensuing election Mr. McCulloch was elected one of the additional Circuit Judges, was re-elected in 1879, and, immediately thereafter, assigned to duty on the Appelate Bench serving in this capacity for the six years of his second term. In 1880 he was elected President of the State Bar Association to succeed Judge Anthony Thornton and served for one year. In. 1883 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court in opposition to Justice A. M. Craig, and, on the expiration of his term as Circuit Judge in 1885, resumed practice, taking into partnership with him his son, Edward D. McCulloch. In December, 1898, Judge McCulloch was appointed by Judge Grosscup of the United States District Court, Referee in Bankruptcy for Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Marshall, Stark and Putnam Counties, and was reappointed in December, 1900, by Judge Kohlsaat, which position he still occupies.
In his church relations Judge McCulloch was originally a member of the Associate Reformed (now United Presbyterian) Church, with which he united during his college course, and continued in communion after his removal to Peoria. In 1866 he became a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Peoria, of which he has been a Ruling Elder for over thirty years. For eight years last past he has been one of the Directors of McCormick Theological Seminary. His three surviving children are Edward Dickinson, who is the partner of his father, William Herron, who still resides at the paternal home, and Mary Hemphill, the wife of Edward D. McDougal, a resident of Riverside, near Chicago.
Judge McCulloch has been identified with the business interests of the City of Peoria for more than forty years, and has taken a prominent part in whatever tended to the development of the city. He has always been on the side of good government, and advocated the selection of men for all public positions, on account of their qualifications and general fitness, rather than as a reward for any supposed political services. He is possessed of extensive legal learning acquired by long years of industrious application in his chosen profession. He was a successful practi- tioner, and regarded as one of the best Judges upon the bench in Illinois. During his term upon the Appellate Bench he was associated with Judge Oliver L. Davis, of Danville, and Chauncey L. Higbee, of Pittsfield. That court was generally regarded by the lawyers of the State as one of the ablest, most fearless and independent of any bench in the State for years. It believed in the established principles of law, and adhered to general principles of jurisprudence lying at the foundation of the proper administration of justice.
There was never any truckling or time serving, or any attempt to adjust decisions in accordance with public passion or prejudice. Its decisions were consistent, and valuable as precedents. The court never attempted to change any rules of practice or of law to meet any demands of political or popular prejudice. Judge McCulloch is the only one of the three now surviving. He has always been held in the highest esteem as a citizen, a man, a lawyer and a Judge. In every respect his record has been one worthy .of imitation. --John S. Stevens.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
EDWARD DICKINSON McCULLOCH.Edward Dickinson McCulloch, lawyer, was born in Peoria, Illinois, November 5, 1860, the son of Hon. David and Mary Fulton (Hemphill) McCulloch. He attended the Peoria primary and high schools, graduating from the latter in 1878, after which he took a classical course in Lafayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1882. In the fall of the same year he began the study of law in the office of Stevens, Lee & Horton, continuing until the early part of the year 1885, when he was admitted to the bar. In August of the same year he was admitted to partnership with his father, Judge David McCulloch, under the firm name of McCulloch & McCulloch, and this copartnership still exists.
In 1889 Mr. McCulloch was chosen Secretary of the Peoples' Loan and Homestead Association of Peoria, a position which he has occupied continuously to the present time; was also appointed Collector of Special Assess- ments for the city of Peoria, by Mayor Miles, in 1893, continuing in office two years. In 1898 he was elected Representative in the General Assembly for Peoria County, and was re-elected in 1900. During the session of 1899, he served as Chairman of the House Committee on Elections, and, in 1901, of the Revenue Committee, besides being a member of the Committees on Judiciary, Judiciary Department and Practice, Building Loan and Homestead, and others of more or less importance. For the latter term he was also a member of the "House Steering Committee"— a position of prominence, as, representing the Republican majority of the House, it exerted a controlling influence in reference to some of the most important measures coming before that body.
As may be readily inferred from his early training and association, Mr. McCulloch is a thorough-going Republican in politics, and a Presbyterian in religious, belief and affiliation. While in college he was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. Among local fraternity associations, he is a member of the Illinois Lodge of Free Masons; the Peoria Consistory; Mohammed Temple of the Mystic Shrine; Peoria Lodge of Elks; and Charter Oak Camp of Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. McCulloch is a young man in the prime of life, of good attainments and high character. In his official life he has been open, straightforward and honorable. He is a believer in merit and fitness for office holding, rather than supposed political services. His career in the Legislature was honorable and influential, and he was recognized as one of the substantial, high-minded and honorable members of the House. He is quiet and unostentatious in manner, but always applies himself with energy and fidelity to the duty at hand. He is regarded in the community as one of the substantial, progressive and growing young men of the city.
In 1894 Mr. McCulloch was married to Emily S. Allen, formerly of Terre Haute, Indiana, and they have one daughter, Henrietta W., born October 16, 1806. Mrs. McCulloch's father was the late James M. Allen— familiarly known at his home as "Que Allen"—& prominent attorney of Terre Haute, who was twice elected Judge of the Superior Court of that State (corresponding to the Circuit Court in Illinois), and who died in 1892 while serving as Mayor of his home city. Mrs. McCulloch is a musician of recognized ability, and has been prominently identified with the musical interests of Peoria.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
LEWIS ALBERT McFADDEN.Dr. Lewis Albert McFadden comes of an old colonial family of Scotch-Irish extraction. His ancestors were influential men in colonial days and during the early years of the new Republic, and served in the Revolutionary War and that of 1812. His father, John McFadden, was born in Pennsylvania in 1807. December 19, 1837, he married Miss Rachel McCormick, also a native of Pennsylvania, who was born in 1819. The young couple inherited the old homestead, a large farm within six miles of Pittsburg, and here their lives were spent and their family of seven, sons and three daughters born. The father died February 11, 1870, and his widow, August 25, 1873. Of the seven sons, two died in childhood, and one, Joseph Dixon McFadden, was killed in the Chatsworth railroad disaster, August 10, 1887. Three brothers of the Doctor are now living -William McCormick McFadden, engaged in fruit raising in California and President of the Fruit and Nut-Growers' Association of Southern California; John Wilkinson McFadden, general merchant at Virginia, Missouri, and Matthew Thomas McFadden, retired farmer, living in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Of the three sisters one died of brain fever in girlhood. The other two still survive—Mrs. Mary Anneta Tombes in Los Angeles, California, and Mrs. Sarah Jane Pendleton in Placentia, California.
Dr. McFadden's paternal grandfather, John McFadden, came to the United States from Belfast, Ireland, in 1765, at the age of fifteen. Two brothers had preceded him to the United States, one settling in New York, where he raised a large family; the other, after a short residence in Virginia, settled in Maine, where several of his descendants are living. John McFadden settled in Western Pennsylvania, where he married Miss Mary McMichaels, who was a native of that State of Scotch-Irish extraction. The young couple purchased three large and valuable farms near the present city of Pittsburg, then a frontier post (Fort Duquesne), deep in the Indian country and much exposed to Indian attacks. The sister of grandmother McFadden was killed in the pasture within a few paces of her home during an Indian raid, while a young boy was killed by her side in the same foray. John McFadden died November 7, 1836, aged seventy years, and his widow, June 21, 1850, aged eighty-six.
Dr. McFadden's maternal grandfather, William McCormick, was born at sea while his parents were on the voyage from the North of Ireland to the United States. The family settled in Western Pennsylvania and, when the boy grew up, he married Miss Margaret Wilkinson of the same neighborhood. They set up an inn (or tavern, as it was then called) on the road to Fort Duquesne from the south, which was much patronized by influential men of the State, and William McCormick became quite a power in the political affairs of the day; also served as an officer in the War of 1812. His wife was a sister of General Wilkinson, a distinguished military officer of the United States at that period. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, Wilkinson was a medical student, but joined a rifle company before Boston in 1775, soon afterwards becoming Captain of a New Hampshire Company. He was with Arnold in Canada in 1776, and served as Adjutant-General of the staff of General Gates a year later. The next year he was Secretary of the Board of War, but quarreled with Gates and resigned. In 1791 he led a regiment against the Wabash Indians; in 1792 he became Brigadier-General, and commanded the right wing of Wayne's army at the battle of the Maumee—was also Governor of Louisiana in 1805-06, in the meantime being employed to thwart the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, in which he was successful. With his headquarters in New Orleans he conducted operations against the Spaniards, in 1813 captured Mobile, and later fought the British in Canada and on the northern frontier. He spent the latter years of his life in Mexico, dying in 1818 near the City of Mexico.
It will be seen that Dr. McFadden comes of the sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, which was driven into exile from the north of Ireland, about the middle of the eighteenth century, by the discrimination of the English Parliament against Irish commerce and Irish industries—a short-sighted policy on the part of England that gave to the United States many a good citizen and many a good sword and trusty rifle in the wars of 1776 and 1812. Born on the family homestead within six miles of Pittsburg, March 30, 1848, Dr. McFadden attended the common school of the district until eighteen years old, when he took a course in the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. After finishing his work here he went to West Virginia, where he taught several terms, part of the time being Principal of the schools at Newhaven, At the age of twenty-two he entered College at Marietta, Ohio, two years later entered Mount Union College, and. in 1879, matriculated in the Miami College, taking a progressive course, and graduating from the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1881. Since receiving his diploma he has practiced continually, for the last fifteen years being a resident of Peoria. In 1886 he took a special course in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. McFadden's first location after leaving college was at Aurora, Texas, where he began practice. The next year (1882) the city was incorporated, and so popular had the Doctor become during his short residence there, that he was elected Alderman by the highest number of votes cast for any candidate on either ticket. His political duties and practice kept him busy until he removed to Virginia, Missouri, where he enjoyed a large and lucrative prac- tice, and was appointed Postmaster bv President Cleveland during his first term of office.
In 1887 Dr. McFadden moved to Peoria, soon found himself enjoying a good practice and, in 1888, unknown to himself, was nominated (by James Dolan) a member of the Board of Health and appointed by unanimous vote of the City Council. The next year he was unanimously appointed County Physician by the Board of Supervisors at a salary of $1,500 a year; at the end (of his term, was unanimously reappointed for two years at a salary of $1,800, and re-elected in like manner and for a like term two years later. During President Cleveland's second term, in 1894, the Doctor was appointed Pension Examiner, and chosen by his associates Chairman of the Board, serving in this capacity until the change of administration. In the spring of 1896 he was elected Alderman of the old First Ward, and was re-elected in 1808, being the only Democrat ever chosen in this ward after the reorganization of the city. He closed his service in the City Council by moving out of the Ward before his second term had expired, having bought a fine residence at 305 North Madison Avenue.
In October, 1901, Dr. McFadden was appointed bv Mayor Bryan Health Commissioner for the City of Peoria; in addition to this, is also High Physician for the Independent Order of Foresters for the State of Illinois, which office he has held since 1897. He belongs to a large number of secret societies and fraternal insurance orders; is a Free Mason and a Knight of Pythias; a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, a Knight of the Maccabees, a member of the National Union, of the order of Knights and Ladies of Security, of the Royal Circle, Court of Honor, Fraternal Army of America, Royal Neighbors, and several other organizations, for all of which he is examining physician. He is also examining physician for the Phoenix Life Insurance Company and the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company. The Doctor is Vice-President of the Peoria Medical Association and an active member of the State Medical Association, as well as a member of the medical staff of the St. Francis Hospital.
On December 24, 1872, Dr. McFadden married Miss Rachel V. Richie of Apple Grove, Ohio. Four children have been born of this union: Una May McFadden, born April 29, 1878; Goldie Beatrice McFadden, born March 30, 1883; Thomas J. McFadden, born August 4, 1891, and Walton Clark McFadden, born August 1, 1885, died June 15, 1893, of diphtheria. Dr. and Mrs. McFadden joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at an early age, and have been members ever since.
The ability and success which have characterized Dr. McFadden's professional and political career, indicate that he inherits, in a remarkable degree, all the sturdy characteristics of his ancestors. He is known as one of the most conservative and successful physicians in this section of the State. By energy, sympathy and attention to business, he has made a friend of every man and woman who knows him, and his kindly help in time of affliction has brought a ray of hope into many a Peoria home. He has the reputation of having rendered more gratuitous medical service in this city than any other physician; is always ready at the call of the sick, whether the patient be wealthy or penniless, and it is to this generous, kindly characteristic that he owes much of his well-deserved popularity. He has gained his present prominence as a physician and in civic affairs by his sterling and manly qualities, as well as by hard work, and there is not a citizen of Peoria who deserves better the success and reputation he has achieved than does Mr. McFadden.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
THOMAS McGlFFIN McILVAINE.To have and deserve the name of "Good Physician," in any community, is as honorable a monument as man can desire. The term "Good," as used in this connection, is comprehensive, embracing character, conduct and qualification. Dr. Thomas M. Mcllvaine was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, August 17, 1853, the son of William Brown and Margaret (McGiffin) McIlvaine—both natives of Pennsylvania, the former of Lancaster County and the latter of Washington County. Dr. Mcllvaine's greatgrandparents, on, the paternal side, were George and Sophia (Duffield) McIlvaine, both natives of Philadelphia, who settled in Lancaster County, at an early day, where Mr. Mcllvaine received the deed for the land which he occupied directly from the Colonial Government. He was also a soldier in the War of the Revolution. Robert Mcllvaine, a son of George and Sophia McIlvaine, born in Lancaster County, married Sarah Slemmons, a native of Philadelphia, and their immediate descendant was William Brown McIlvaine. Dr. Mcllvaine's great-grandfather on the maternal side was Nathaniel McGiffin, born in Dublin, Ireland, who married Margaret Duncan, a native of Glasgow, Scotland. They became residents of Washington County, Pennsylvania, where their son Thomas McGiffin was born. The latter married Maria Norton, a native of Newtown, Connecticut, and they became the parents of Margaret McGiffin, who married William Brown Mcllvaine, already mentioned as the father of Dr. Thomas M. McIlvaine. Thomas McGiffin was, in his day, a very prominent lawyer of Washington, Pennsylvania, as well as a life-long and intimate personal friend of Henry Clay, and, for some time, a law-partner of the great Kentucky statesman. Dr. McIlvaine's father, Rev. William Brown McIlvaine, was an eminent Presbyterian clergyman of Western Pennsylvania during the middle of the last century, serving as pastor of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, at Pittsburg, from 1828 to 1870—a period of forty-two years. His career was the more notable in view of the fact that he spent his whole ministerial life in charge of the same church, going to it upon his entrance upon the ministry and remaining with it up to the time of his retirement. Such pastorates were rare, even in his day, but, when they existed, they indicated a close bond of union between pastor and people that was creditable to both. It was after the manner of the early pastorates of New England and Pennsylvania, when the old pastor married the sons and daughters, baptized the children and buried the fathers and mothers. There was something touching in the affection which grew up between pastor and people in, isuch pastorate's. Unfortunately they are rare now. Rev. Mr. McIlvaine was a Director in the Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and served as Secretary of the Presbytery and Synod of Pittsburg for many years. As the history of his pastorate shows, he was a man of great influence, not only with his own congregation but with the church in general.
After taking a partial course in the Western University at Pittsburg, Dr. Mcllvaine came to Peoria in 1869, and later completed his college course at Monmouth College, Illinois, graduating there with the honors of the Latin oration in 1873. He then became a teacher for one term in the Peoria High School, after which he spent two years (1874-75) as a student in Germany. In 1876 he received the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater, after which he spent some time (1876-77) in the grain business at Grand Ridge, La Salle County. He then began the study of medicine with Dr. J. L. Hamilton, of Peoria, which he continued at Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he graduated in 1881. Since then he has been actively engaged in the practice of both medicine and surgery in Peoria, and has enjoyed a very extensive patronage. From 1882 to 1884 he served as Health Officer for the
city of Peoria; has also been a director of the Public Library and a member of the Board of Education, for which he has been eminently well-fitted by his literary tastes and scientific training, as well as by his opportunities for observation abroad. He has been an industrious collector of rare old books, coins and works of art, and is the owner of many valuable old medical works and Elzevir editions of the classics. He was also a prime mover in the organization of the Cottage Hospital and the Peoria Art League.In 1876, Dr. McIlvaine was married to Emma Florence Hamilton, a daughter of Dr. John L. Hamilton, one of Peoria's oldest and most highly esteemed physicians, and to them were born three children: Anna Kirk (married to W. B. Tobias), Margaret McGiffin, and Emma Florence. Mrs. McIlvaine died March 29, 1895. On December 15, 1899. he married, as his second wife, Mrs. Jessie Cobleigh, and they have one child, Sophia Elizabeth.
Dr. McIlvaine is a Republican in politics and a pew-holder in the Second Presbyterian Church. He is prominent in Masonic circles as a member of Peoria Lodge No. 15, A. F. & A. M., and of the Peoria Consistory—his connection with the latter dating from 1888; is also a member of the Creve Coeur Club, and the Country Club of Peoria.
Deeply interested in all that pertains to the welfare and prosperity of Peoria, Dr. McIlvaine has given much attention to matters of a public character, as well as those connected with his profession. A portion of his time has been given to editing a Medical Magazine with marked ability and success. To his efforts and unremitting labor is largely due the new Library Building. One of the busiest of Peoria's public men, he has accomplished much for the good of the city and its institution's, especially its public schools. The success which has attended his professional career, has been due in a marked degree to the courage and tireless energy which have been his prominent characteristics. He has been a close student, and has kept fully abreast of the advances made in the science of medicine and surgery. His professional knowledge is as exact as it is comprehensive, and his practical skill and judgment have been exceptional. His cheerful disposition assures for him a hearty welcome in all the social circles of the city. A hard worker in his profession, answering to the call of rich and poor alike, he conforms, in the fullest extent, to the description of the "Good Physician."
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ELLEN BARKER McROBERTS.As one of the native born of Peoria, Mrs. McRoberts has passed her days in close proximity to the many unfold- ing interests of the last half century, and through the medium of the progressive and forceful lives of her father and husband, has watched over and felt a keen personal interest in the city's growing commercial and general prosperity. She was born October 29, 1843, a daughter of Gardner Thurston Barker, whose extensive services in behalf of his adopted city are recalled with pride and appreciation by all who know the value of admirable citizenship and its accompanying large accomplishment. Her mother was Helen (White) Barker, a daughter of Elial and Mary B. (Lewis) White, natives of Massachusetts, the former born at Medway, December 21, 1794, and the latter at Amherst, February 9, 1799.
The education of Mrs. McRoberts was acquired at Maplewood, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after which she con- tinued to live with her parents in Peoria. Her marriage with William McRoberts, who was born near Belfast, Ireland, in August, 1824, and who was a son of William McRoberts, also a native of Ireland, occurred in Peoria, December 13, 1866. Mr. McRoberts emigrated to the United States when a young man, and after locating in Cincinnati, Ohio, entered the employ of Boyle, Miller & Company, distillers. From a comparatively obscure beginning he worked himself un to be a partner in the concern, and gained a wide knowledge of the distilling business. After his marriage he became a partner of Gardner Thurston Barker, continuing in the distilling business until his death in January, 1875. To Mr. and Mrs. McRoberts were born two sons, of whom William Gardner is a graduate of Cornell University, and at present engaged in the practice of law in Peoria, and Walter is a traveler and author.
Mrs. McRoberts is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in religious belief is affiliated with the Episcopal church.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
FRANK MEYER.The large volume of business carried on by the F. Meyer & Brother Company and also by the Meyer Furnace Company, is the best possible indication of the enterprise and successful striving of Frank Meyer, who is one of Peoria's self-made men, as well as a typical German-American. Born in Norden, Northern Germany, November 8, 1844, Mr. Meyer came to America with his parents when barely thirteen years of age, the journey being undertaken in a sailing-vessel bound for New Orleans. Arriving at their destination, the little party came up the river to Peoria, reaching the city, May 28, 1858, after a voyage occupying eight weeks.
For several terms Mr. Meyer attended the public schools after coming to Peoria, but it was his fate to early face the responsibility of caring for himself, and he therefore hired out to a farmer in Woodford County, his remuneration for services rendered being five dollars per month. The following year he secured a position in the city without any pay at all, and, in return for hustling on an active scale, was permitted to continue his studies at the public schools. The next year he worked in a grocery store; and, in the end, had at least something to show for his industry. In common with most boys reared partially or wholly in Germany, he was inclined to learn a trade. He therefore engaged himself as an apprentice to a tin-smith for three years, and at the end of that time, continued for a couple of years in the employment of his instructor as a journeyman. He was particularly fortunate in his chosen occupation, and before he had reached the age of twenty-one years had managed to save $200, and embarked in a small way in a little tin manufacturing establishment upon the site of the present store of the F. Meyer & Brother Company. By reason of his unusual powers of application, thrift, and his economy in manner of living, he was enabled, at the end of a couple of years, to add to his tin-stock a supply of general hardware and stoves, and from then until the present time he has continued to advance, and to represent the best in his line in the city. From the very first he had no financial or other assistance, and for twelve years managed his entire business alone, at the end of that time associating in partnership with himself his brother, under the firm name of F. Meyer & Brother. In 1892 the business was incorporated under the name of F. Meyer & Brother Company, with F. Meyer as Presi- dent. The business of this company is entirely separate from that of the Meyer Furnace Company, of which Mr. Meyer is the President and chief promoter. After thirty-four years of hard work he has much to show for his pains, and has most diversified interests in different parts of the city, being, among other responsibilities, one of the stock-holders of the Dime Savings Bank. From time to time much property and real estate have come into the possession of Mr. Meyer, and he is still the owner of some very desirable city business buildings. In politics he has never sought official recognition, but has nevertheless held many positions of responsibility and trust, including that of member of the Peoria School Board, which he occupied for four years.
On March 16, 1867, Mr. Meyer married Anna Maria Janssen, and of this union there are four children: George F., who was born December 31, 1867, and married Amelia Miller, January 20, 1897; Anna F., who was born July 18, 1869, and September 15, 1892, married Edward Krumsieg; Sophia, who was born June 28, 1871; and Matilda D., who was born August 24, 1873, and married William E. Bruninga, June 25, 1894. Mr. Meyer has, to an unusual degree, the confidence of the business world of Peoria, and the persevering and industrious traits which have won success in the past, are indicative of an even greater prosperity in the future.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
BENJAMIN FULLERTON MILES.Benjamin Fullerton Miles, physician (deceased), was born at Glen Connell, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1825, the son of John George and Juliana (McConnell) Miles. His father was a lawyer of decided ability as well as a man of strong patriotism, of uprightness and honesty of character, and, in the course of his professional career, had the management of a number of large estates, which he handled with great success; while his mother was noted for her literary attainments and the wide scope of her information. On the maternal side Dr. Miles was descended from Major Matthew McConnell, who was an officer in the Army of the Revolution, and later one of the founders and Treasurer of the Order of the Cincinnati, organized by officers of the Revolutionary War, headed by George Washington, "to perpetuate their friendship, and to raise a fund for relieving the widows and orphans of those who had fallen during the war"—a sort of counterpart, for that period, of the Grand Army of the Republic composed of soldiers of our late Civil War. Major Matthew McConnell's wife was Ruth Hall—a cousin of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush—who received a vote of thanks from the Continental Congress for her care of American prisoners in Philadelphia while that city was in the hands of the British.
Benjamin F. Miles attended Dartmouth College for a time and finally graduated in 1847 at Marshall College, Pennsylvania, where he was valedictorian of his class, later taking a course in medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical College. After leaving college he served for a time as a civil engineer in surveying the route of the Pennsylvania Railway through the Allegheny Mountains. Subsequently he made a voyage to England as the ship's doctor on a sailing vessel, and after his return engaged in the practice of medicine for a time at Camden, New Jersey.
About 1853 Dr. Miles came to Peoria, making the journey by way of Chicago, and from La Salle by steamboat. Here he was engaged for some time in the drug business, first as partner with the late Col. William A. Thrush, afterwards with the late Dr. A. W. H. Reen and still later being in the same business alone. During the last few years of his residence in Peoria he conducted an insurance agency business.
Dr. Miles was married twice, first on May 29, 1855. to Sarah Perkins Hancock a sister of the late Jonathan Hancock, and, for the second time, on February .3, 1891, to Mary A. Rice. of Paxton, Illinois. Five children were born of the first marriage, namely: John George, John B.. James H., Mary Perkins and Elizabeth H. Of the second marriage there was no issue.
In religious belief and affiliation Dr. Miles was a Presbyterian, and a charter member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Peoria. Politically he was identified with the Republican party.
Dr. Miles' life terminated in the city of Chicago, where he died April 22, 1899, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Of genial temperament and refined tastes, he was always a gentleman. An extensive reader he possessed a large fund of valuable information on general topics. In his domestic and social relations he was a good husband, a kind father, and a useful and public-spirited citizen.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
NATHANIEL COFFIN NASON.Nathaniel Coffin Nason, founder of the "Peoria Transcript," and publisher of several periodicals, was born at Gorham, Maine, April 4, 1827. His father, Rev. Reuben Nason, was a Congregational minister, a graduate of Harvard University, and Preceptor of Gorham Academy from its foundation in 1806 to 1834, except from 1810 to 1815, when he had pastoral charge of a church. Having removed to Clarkson, New York, in 1834, to establish a similar institution at that place, he soon afterwards died, leaving his widow, Martha Coffin Nason, who, with a large family of children, returned to Gorham. There the son, Nathaniel Coffin, received an education in the preparatory branches sufficient to admit him to college. When a lad of fifteen years he left home on May 31, 1842 for Jacksonville, Illinois, where his uncle, Nathaniel Coffin, after whom he had been named, was Treasurer and Financial Agent of Illinois College. For this journey he was placed in charge of Edmund Mann, who was coming to Trivoli Township. The trip was made from Portland to Boston by steam-boat, from Boston to Albany by rail, from Albany to Buffalo by the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Chicago by the steamer Great Western, from Chicago to Peru by stage-coach, from Peru to Peoria by Frink and Walker's steamer "Frontier," on which Henry Detweiller was serving his apprenticeship as pilot. Arriving at Peoria they put up at the Clinton House, kept by John King, where the young man became acquainted with Lord Morpeth, then making a tour of this country, and who inquired of him particularly about the route over which he had travelled. From Peoria young Nason went by the steamer "Embassy" to Pekin, where he had a brother, a civil engineer who had been one of the corps who, a few years before, had laid out the railroad projected by the State from Bloomington to Pekin. From Pekin he went by steamer to Meredosia, and thence to Jacksonville by the only railroad then in the State. He then became a member of the family of his uncle, and entered the Freshman class in Illinois College, where he remained until the completion of his Sophomore year in June, 1844. He taught school during vacation and afterwards until 1845, when he went to Mississippi to assist his oldest brother, who was conducting an academy at Middleton in that State. After teaching one year there, he spent the two following years teaching in private schools, during which time he occupied much of his leisure time in a newspaper office at Carrollton, writing and setting type for exercise. This was his introduction into his life-work.
Early in 1848 he became a partner in the publication of the paper, the "Whig Flag," in which he remained for about one year. Returning to Illinois in February, 1840. his employment alternated for the next year between working in a printing office at Pekin, teaching school, and clerking in the store of Paul N. Rupert at Wesley City. On January 7, 1850, he began work for Pickett & Davis, publishers of "The Peoria Register," and was there at the time their establishment was wrecked, as elsewhere related; was sent by Pickett & Davis to Chicago, where he printed for them the Township Organization Laws and Forms prepared by Hon. Onslow Peters; worked some in the office of the "Chicago Evening Journal," and returned to Peoria in the latter part of March. His employment for the next three years alternated between Rupert at Wesley City and the publishers of the "Peoria Republican."
In the spring of 1854 he was visited at Wesley City by William Rounseville, Grand Master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with a view of starting an Odd Fellows' Magazine at Peoria. After due consideration the enterprise was deemed feasible, and, armed with a letter of introduction and recommendation from Edward J. Cowell, a book-seller of Peoria, to L. Johnson of the type-founding firm of L. Johnson & Co., Mr. Nason went to Philadelphia in June of that year for the materials needed to print the proposed magazine and such other books and pamphlets as might offer, and to do the lighter classes of job printing—the only press purchased being a super-royal hand press with self-inker. In those days of slow transportation his purchases were shipped through Pennsylvania by canal, down the Ohio and no the Mississippi to St. Louis and up the Illinois by boat to Peoria, where they arrived about the middle of July. The office was established on the third floor of a new brick building, now No. 202 Main Street, where it remained until the fall or winter of 1855, when the business was enlarged by the starting of the "Transcript" when a removal took place to the second and third floors of a building on the upper corner of Fulton and Water Streets, afterwards the site of the Metropolitan Hotel and now the J. W. Franks & Sons Publishing House. Of Mr. Nason's connection with the founding of "The Transcript," and the publication of "The Memento," "The Illinois Teacher," and "The Christian Sentinel," a full account will be found in the chapter on "The Press."
Mr. Nason has been prominently connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from an early day. Soon after his return from the South in 1849, he became a member of Covenant Lodge, No. 48, at Pekin, and in 1852, a charter member of Fort Clark Lodge, No. 109, afterwards a charter member and the first Noble Grand of Central City Lodge. No. 163, of Peoria, and its first representative in the Grand Lodge. He was elected Grand Scribe of the Grand Encampment of Illinois in 1864, and, in 1869, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, retiring from the former office in 1874, and from the latter in 1886. In the fall of 1886 he removed to a farm which he purchased, near Shelbyville, Illinois, where he now resides.
He was a charter member and first Chancellor Commander of Calanthe Lodge, No. 47, Knights of Pythias, and for some years an active member, both as representative and in important offices, of the State Grand Lodge.
He was a charter member and first Dictator of Lake Lodge. No. 715. Knights of Honor: participated in the organization of the State Grand Lodge in September, 1877, when he was elected Grand Treasurer, which position he has held continuously since, now serving his twenty-fifth year in that capacity.
He was a charter member and first Regent of Ajax Council, No. 216, of the Royal Arcanum, and assisted in organizing the State Grand Council, of which he was one of the first Board of Trustees.
He retired from the printing and publishing business in 1881.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
RICHARD NEWSAM.Richard Newsam, Coal Mine Operator, was born at Chorley, Lancashire, England, November 11, 1843, the son of John and Sarah (Blakely) Newsam. The father was born in Yorkshire, and the mother in Chorley, Lancashire. John and Anna Newsam, the paternal grandparents of Richard, were born in Yorkshire, while Matthew Blakely, the maternal grandfather, was a native of Lancashire. John Newsam, the father, was a cotton spinner, but also worked in the mines. Richard Newsam went to work in the mines when a boy, and had so little opportunity to attend school that he may be regarded as self-educated. He continued mining until he became foreman or super- intendent, when, recognizing the restricted opportunities for advancement, he left his native country and came to the United States, whither his brother, Frank, had preceded him in 1860. remaining for a time in Pennsylvania, whence he came to Kingston Mines, Illinois. Richard Newsam came to Kingston Mines in 1869, and has remained in Peoria County to the present time. He began mining at Kingston Mines, but later became Superinten- dent of the Orchard Mines. In 1874, in connection with his brother, Frank, he leased these mines, and thus they began business on their own account. Having bought his brother Frank's interest, however, he began business for himself. Later, with his brothers, John and Thomas, he took on the Mapleton Mines, the Black Diamond or Buckeye Mines, the Kingston Mines, the Millard Mines, the Maplewood Mines at Farmington, the Hanna City Mines and the Star Mines, the four last mentioned being on the Iowa Central Railroad. Later on he bought out the interest of his brother John, and Richard and Thomas have since been partners, and are now running the Kingston Mine, the Reed City Mine, the Maplewood Mine at Farmington, the Hanna City and Star Mines. He and his brother, Thomas, now operate five mines, employing about 500 men, and put out fifty cars of coal per day, doing three times the business of any other operator in Peoria County.
In connection with mining, Mr. Newsam has paid great attention to the burning of coal, and has developed a method of firing engines that saves from one-sixth to one-fourth the coal ordinarily used. He calls it the single-shovel method. He is probably the only coal miner in the world ever invited, by a railroad company, to instruct its engineers and firemen how to fire engines. This he did for the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad, and not only saved the amount of coal mentioned, but greatly abated the black coal smoke nuisance, so that the engines appear almost smokeless, developing at the same time more power and greater speed. His methods were adopted by the B., C. R. & N. road, and, in six months in, 1897-1898, the road saved $14,483 in coal bills, and ran its engines 117,618 more miles. In effect, he decreased the coal cost from seven to five cents a mile. His methods, which he taught by firing an engine many days with his own hands, have been investigated by other roads, and pronounced the best and cheapest known. With it there is little smoke or cinders to annoy the passengers, which is a vast boon in the summer season alike to the traveling and the general public. Mr. Newsam is an authority on mines and mining, and has been a member of the State Board of Mine Examiners for a number of years, serving for some time as President of the Board.
Mr. Newsam was married at Henley, Lancashire, England, May 20, 1866, to Frances Wolestenholme, daughter of John and Ellen Wolestenholme, both natives of England. Mr. and Mrs. Newsam are the parents of thirteen children, seven of whom are living: Margaret Ann, the wife of Herbert Wilson; Sarah and Helen, deceased; John, who has charge of the store at Kingston Mines; Frank, Martha Ellen, George and Emma, deceased; Richard, who is working in the mines at Kingston; Thomas, who is Superintendent of the Maplewood Mines at Farmington, Illinois; Mary Ellen and Cora, who live with their parents; and William, who is a machinist in the Toledo, Peoria and Western shops at Peoria.
Mr. Newsam is a Republican and a thirty-second degree Mason, having joined the order in 1878, and is .also a member of the Mystic Shrine. Since first coming to .this country, he has made eight visits to his native land, England, the first being made in 1882. Sometimes he has gone alone, but several times he has taken his wife and children.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
Aaron Samuel Oakford, President and Manager of the largest mercantile house in the State outside of Chicago, was born October 28, 1845, in Peoria County, Illinois. His father, Aaron Oakford, was a native of Pennsylvania, coming to Peoria County about 1838. His mother, Sarah Wilson, was born in England. Her family were among the earliest settlers in Peoria County.
Young Oakford received his education in the Peoria Grammar and High Schools. He entered as a clerk the retail grocery, store of H. H. Potter (afterwards Potter & White), where he remained until January 1, 1868, when the mercantile establishment, which has reached such extensive proportions, was established by Joseph F. Henry, Aaron S. Oakford and George Wright, under the firm name of J. F. Henry & Company. January 1, 1870, Henry and Oakford purchased Mr. Wright's interest, and the firm name was changed to Henry & Oakford, the retail trade was very largely increased, and to it was added a wholesale department. From these modest beginnings the business grew into a wholesale trade of large proportions. On January 1, 1872, Mr. H. H. Fahnestock became a member of the firm, and the name was again changed to Henry, Oakford & Fahnestock. They then discontinued the retail business and confined themselves exclusively to the wholesale trade. In 1874 Mr. C. J. Off was admitted to the firm, but retired in 1877. The business continued to increase so rapidly as to compel the firm, from time to time, to move to larger quarters, until 1877, when Easton's Commercial Block was built expressly for the business of the firm. In January, 1881, Oakford and Fahnestock purchased Mr. Henry's interest in the firm.
The business outgrew the quarters then occupied by the firm; and in 1887 they became the owners of the mam- moth four-story warehouse on Liberty, Commercial and Washington Streets. A few years later they erected a large warehouse on Water and Commercial Streets. The firm, by its industry, sagacity and integrity, has built up the largest wholesale grocery trade in the State of Illinois outside of Chicago, affording a marked exemplification of the success of high standard business methods.
Mr. Oakford has always been recognized as not only one of the leading business men of Peoria, but a man of the highest integrity in every walk of life; a man whose word has always been as good as his bond. He has been prompt and ready in his response to calls for worthy objects, and no man in the city to-day ranks higher for moral worth, personal character and business sagacity than A. S. Oakford.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
MOSES PETTENGILL.Moses Pettengill, one of the most prominent citizens of early Peoria, was the son of Benjamin and Hannah Pettengill, born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, on April 16, 1802. His father was a prominent farmer and an influential man, and, in his day, filled many offices of responsibility and trust, in his native town and county, and was also a member of the State Legislature. He was a neighbor of New Hampshire's greatest son, Daniel Webster, and lived about two miles from the birthplace of the eminent statesman and about three miles from his country-seat on the Merrimac, where he used, in later years, to spend his seasons of rest from the turmoil of politics and the active duties of statesmanship and of his profession, and where Mr. Pettengill knew him intimately. The senior Mr. Pettengill died in 1853. Moses lived on the farm, attending school and an academy till the age of twenty years.
He then taught school till 1827, when he gave up that pursuit and engaged in mercantile business in Rochester, New York. This continued only about nine months, when a fire put a speedy end io his business career in that place. During the balance of that year he travelled most of the time, visiting Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburg, Wheeling, Columbus and Sandusky, and returning again to Rochester, and finally to New Hampshire, his native place. In the summer of 1830 he established himself in mercantile business in Brockport, New York, remaining four years, when he sold out and came to Peoria.
When Mr. Pettengill reached Peoria, on the last Saturday in December, 1833, he found about thirty log-cabins and three frame dwellings, the population being about one hundred and fifty. There were about four log-cabins above Washington Street, and John Hamlin had built a frame house near the corner of Main and Perry Streets.
In January, 1834, Mr. Pettengill purchased of Alva Moffatt, a man who had built a saw-mill near the southern part of the city, the lot on the corner of Washington and Main Streets where the Peoria National Bank now stands, paying $200 down and giving his note for $100 payable in one year. When the year came round the lot was worth $1,000.
After the above purchase Mr. Pettengill returned to New York and moved his family, arriving in Peoria on the 1st of June, 1834. They came on a sail vessel by the way of the lakes and were about two weeks from Detroit to Chicago. In order to get a place for his family to live in, Mr. Pettengill bought a lot with a log-cabin on it, which is the same lot now containing a block of stores erected by Mr. Pettengill in 1855, just above the Peoria National Bank. It was a small log-cabin chinked and plastered between the logs, and although a rude and unpretending home, was one they were glad to get at that time in Peoria.
In the fall of 1834, in company with Jacob (afterwards Judge) Gale, he opened the first hardware and iron store in Peoria. The partnership lasted about a year, when Mr. Pettengill bought out Mr. Gale's interest, and continued the business, alone and with other partners, for thirty years, till 1864. Mr. A. P. Bartlett was partner with him from 1836 till 1843.
Mr. Pettengill worked his way into a very extensive business in the hardware line, disposing of goods at various other young towns in this section of the State, and making the business upon the whole the basis of a successful mercantile career. He was always a conscientious man in business and had a reputation for honor and integrity unsurpassed by anv citizen of Peoria. He was always a temperance man, and at an early time, when many were selling liquors in connection with their other business, he was circulating the temperance oledge. Mr. Pettengill was always governed by the principle of making his money by fair and legitimate means. At an early day he espoused the anti-slavery cause, and suffered odium and even persecution on account of his opinions. The murder of Lovejoy at Alton aroused his indignation, as not only a base and cowardly act, but an outrage on the principles of free discusaion, which the abetters of slavery seemed determined not to tolerate. In those days the few anti- slavery men and women who came to this country with fixed ana conscientious opinions on the subject, had to suffer in a righteous cause. Mr. Pettengill and his wife and some others of the early settlers were of that number; but they stood firmly to their orinciples and have lived to see them almost universally accepted— by War, to be sure, and in many instances, accepted-as a necessity; but still there is a general acquiescence in that order of Providence which blotted out the institution, and no longer any strife or bitterness occasioned by it.
Mr. Pettengill was a man of remarkably pacific disposition, although firm and decided in what he believed to be right and just.
In 1862 he built a residence on the west bluff overlooking the city, which was destroyed by fire in 1865. In 1868 the elegant and substantial mansion, now owned by Samuel M. Clark, was erected on the same grounds.
Mr. Pettengill was twice married, first to a distant relative, Miss Lucy Pettengill, on the 23d of May, 1833, by whom he had two children; both died young. On the 17th of May, 1865, he married Mrs. Hannah W. (Bent) Tyner, formerly of Middlebury, Vermont.
In December, 1834, he and his first wife were among the original eleven who united to form the First Presbyterian Church. In 1847 this church adopted the Congregational polity by a vote of sixteen to six. It is now the First Congregational Church of Peoria.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
ALFRED AARON PHELPS.Biography is only interesting to the general reader when it is the life-story of some individual in whom, by reason of his or her achievements, the world feels curiosity or interest, or when it is the story of a life lived on a plane, or with an environment, different from the commonplace. Hence, the lives of adventurers, explorers, pioneers, great warriors or mariners have always been of absorbing interest to most people. Alfred A. Phelps. of whom we write, has had some experiences unique and unusual, and a brief recital of them cannot fail to be of interest to all who know him and, in fact, to any reader of this book. Mr. Phelps was born in Galesburg, Illinois, February 14, 1849, and comes of good old New England stock, his first American ancestor having landed on these shores in 1620. On both the paternal and maternal sides they were distinguished for their patriotism and valor in the War of the Revolution. His father, Royal Aaron Noble Phelps, was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1819, and was one of the pioneer settlers of the "Military Tract" in Knox County, in 1836. His mother, Sarah Jane (Adams) Phelps, was a native of Marysville, Ohio. The elder Phelps encountered all the experiences of the average pioneer, together with some that were perhaps a trifle unusual. He was at that time a teamster, hauling freight to and from Peoria, Oauawka and Chicago. He used to haul dressed hogs to Peoria, where he sold them for $1.00 each if they weighed one hundred pounds or more. If they weighed less, they did not count, but had to be "thrown in for good measure." He ran the first threshing machine that ever operated in Knox County. It was one of the first machines invented for that purpose, and was known as the "Ground-hog" thresher. This machine, as many old settlers will remember, threw the grain, chaff and straw all into a heap, the straw was raked away by hand, and the chaff was separated from the grain by hand tanning-mills. Their pay was taken in wheat as toll; they then hauled the toll to Chicago, 168 miles, to get their pay in money.
Mr. Phelps helped to build the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway and, later on, ran a planing mill on Cedar Fork in Galesburg, where the Santa Fe Passenger Depot is now located. In 1856 he purchased a quarter-section of prairie land in Sparta Township, which he improved and cultivated with such success that it became known throughout the length and breadth of the State as the "Phelps Premium Farm"—Mr. Phelps having received the highest premium ever given by the Illinois State Board of Agriculture for the best cultivated and improved farm in the State.
Alfred A. Phelps spent his boyhood on this farm, working summers and going to school winters, and, at the age of sixteen, had everything arranged to enter West Point as a cadet, but at the last moment his father refused his consent and informed the young man that he had decided for him to be a farmer; consequently he was taken out of the Preparatory Department at Knox College, where he had been a student, and was compelled to teach school two years. The young man having had his ambition thwarted and his most earnest aspirations blocked, chafed under the restraint imposed and, arriving at the age of twenty, he determined to break away from parental control, see something of the world and map out a future for himself. He went to Cleveland, Ohio, and there and in Cincinnati succeeded in interesting a number of other adventurous young men in a trip to the extreme southern part of South America, a great excitement having developed about this time over the alleged discovery of rich diamond fields in that section. They organized a company of thirty men, all "jolly good fellows," went to New York City and embarked on the steamship "Ocean Queen" for Aspinwall, touching at the Bermuda Islands and Cuba. Arriving at the Isthmus, they made up a pack-train and started overland through South America for Cape Horn. little realizing the difficulties of such a trip through an untraversed and unbroken tropical wilderness. After some two months of enervating and discouraging travel through swamps and jungles, among snakes, scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas, they became footsore, weary and greatly discouraged by the time they had reached the borders of Chili. To add to the difficulties and dangers of the expedition, they learned that an insur- rection of the most violent kind was then in progress in Chili. Mr. Phelps, with fifteen companions, becoming thoroughly disheartened, resolved to abandon the expedition and, consequently, one night they deserted the rest of their fellows and traveled westward to the Pacific Ocean. As good luck would have it, they struck a small Spanish town on the shores of the Pacific, sold their ponies and burros, and took passage on a schooner back to the west side of the Isthmus of Panama, where they embarked on the steamer "Montana." bound for San Fran- cisco. In conversation with other passengers on board the boat, they were led to believe that Arizona was a good mining region for both gold and silver. They were told that the Indians were "some bad," but that their party was strong enough to fully protect themselves. Fired with the ambition to seek their fortunes in the hidden treasures of the mountains, they induced the captain to man a life-boat and land them on the shores of the harbor at old San Diego. After forty-five days on salt water, and two months in the wilds of South America, they were glad to be placed in even as near a civilized and habitable land as the wilds of Arizona, and to be once more within the confines of the United States.
At San Diego, which then consisted of about a dozen adobe houses, they joined a Government wagon-train and walked the entire distance through Southern California and Arizona to the White Mountains in Western New Mexico, a distance of six hundred miles. The snakes and other poisonous reptiles and insects were almost as bad as in South America, but the climate was perfection, and they all reached the alleged gold-fields in splendid health, but only to find the conditions altogether different from what they had been led to expect. Instead of the Indians being a little bad, and instead of gold and silver being easily accessible, the Indians were exceedingly hostile and there were none of the precious metals to be found. At this time, the "Old Gray Fox," General Crook, arrived in that section, with the Twenty-first United States Infantry and the Third and Fifth Cavalry, to attempt to subdue the hostile Indians. Mr. Phelps organized the men he had with him and succeeded in enlisting enough more to make a company of seventy-five men, calling them the "Arizona Volunteers and Explorers," and tendered their services, through General Crook, to the Government service. He was commissioned a Captain by Governor Stanford and, for eighteen months, they served in active warfare against the Apaches, when, quiet having been in a measure restored, they disbanded. Captain Phelps had by this time taken a great liking to a soldier's life, and especially life on the plains, and so for six years he was constantly on the go, scouting over mountain and plain, from Mexico to Alaska, under Generals Crook, Granger and Howard. He was in the Modoc War when Generals Thompson and Canby were killed; and, it is perhaps needless to add, experienced hundreds of hair-breadth escapes. He crossed the Rocky Mountains thirty-nine times and, at the close of his experience as scout, his "log-book" showed more than 104,000 miles of travel. He was mustered out of the army in the spring of 1876, just prior to the Custer massacre.
Returning to old Illinois, which then seemed to him, after his wild West experiences, like a Garden of Eden, he settled down to the more humdrum existence of ordinary life and citizenship. About 1881 he came to Peoria, laid out the first addition, built the first twelve houses, and started the village of Averyville. This was in connection with his cousins, R. H. and C. M. Avery. He has seen this village grow from a hamlet of twenty-five or thirty people to over 2,000 inhabitants. For over six years he was in mercantile business at 2210 North Jefferson Avenue, con- ducting a grocery and meat market. He spent two years in railroading on the Union Pacific Railway. He has been Assessor of Richwoods Township nine years, Justice of the Peace in Averyville ten years, School Treasurer of Richwoods Township four years, and is now the incumbent of all three offices.
'Squire Phelps, as he is popularly and familiarly known, was married on January 15, 1879, to Miss Addie M. Cable, daughter of Ezra and Martha Jane (Lattimer) Cable, pioneers of Warren County. They have four children: Leonard A., Bertha L., Sarah L. and Richard E.
'Squire Phelps is, in many respects, a unique character. He is a man of fine personal appearance, straight and athletic, and, notwithstanding his rough frontier experiences, is remarkably well preserved and youthful in appearance for one who has crossed the half century line. He is a man warm in his friendships, earnest, if not impulsive, in temperament, and his friends are limited only by the extent of his acquaintance.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
DAVID CHOATE PROCTOR.David Choate Proctor, son of John and Luanda Gould Proctor, and youngest of the Proctor brothers in Peoria, was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, September 9, 1832.
The Proctor family removed from Manchester- by-sea, Massachusetts, to New Hampshire in 1798, and were descendants of John Proctor, of England, who came to this country in 1635. The Proctor and Choate families were connected and long associated in Essex County, Massachusetts— whence his name. His school days were passed in Henniker and in Andover, Massachusetts. At an early age he came West, and between 1850 and 1856 he was a clerk in the trading house of Major Henry at Fort Smith, Arkansas, the simple life of the frontier and its picturesque scenes having great attractions for him. His duties required him to make occasional journeys into the Indian Territory, and he often recalled the incidents and adventures of those days of the Redman, the bison and the Pony Express. In September, 1856, he came to Peoria, and went into the wholesale grocery business with Mr. Joseph W. Parrish. In 1867 with Mr. Richard Culter, 'he established the business incorporated as the "Culter and Proctor Stove company," which they conducted with excellent success, and with which he was connected during the rest of his life.
May 5, 1869, Mr. Proctor married Miss Sarah Storrs, only child of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Storrs, of Brooklyn, New York. Their three children were born in Peoria, and two of them still live here, while the youngest is a resident of New York City. In 1880 Mr. Proctor's health failed, and he went to Brooklyn, New York, for medical treatment, but was never able to return. His death occurred there December 17, 1880, and the following spring his remains were brought to Peoria and interred in Springdale Cemetery, his grave being upon the hill whose extensive and lovely prospect he used to enjoy.
David Choate Proctor was rare and noble in, person and character. His ideals were high. To be—not to seem was his principle of life. Faithful to every trust, genuine, generous and sympathetic, he scorned pretence and ostentation. He was always solicitous for the prosperity of Peoria and enthusiastic about its natural advantages, desiring that the beauty of its commanding line of bluffs should be appreciated and preserved. A favorite plan of his was for a continuous; drive along the brow of the bluffs from Kickapoo Creek to Prospect Heights, thus giving the city a matchless boulevard. No Peorian would have greater pride in its present progress than he.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
EZEKIEL ALLEN PROCTOR.Ezekiel Allen Proctor, son of John and Edna (Dean) Proctor, was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, October 5, 1819. His education was that of the time in the common schools and academy of his native town.
In 1840 he came West, stopping at Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis, but not finding satisfactory business, from the latter city he took a boat up the Illinois River to Lewistown, near which place he taught school for one term. From there he came to Peoria, where his brother, Francis Proctor, joined him and where both settled perma- nently. Peoria had then but seven or eight hundred inhabitants, with no outside communication except by river and the stage-coach. Herds of deer were occasionally seen on the near prairie, and wolves howled nightly in the swamps and ravines. There was little money in circulation and all business was dull.
Mr. Proctor met the privations and hardships incident to the early settlers with courage and resolution.
In 1843 he began the manufacture of agricultural implements and his brother. John C. Proctor, was his partner in this business from 1844 until 1859. Later, he was for years one of the directors, and afterwards President of the Mechanics and Merchants Bank of Peoria. For sometime, however, he has had no active business in the city, but has given his attention to his farms and to stock-raising. He married, January 18, 1850, Miss Emily Powell, of Lawn Ridge, Marshall County, Illinois. Their children and grandchildren are all residents of Peoria. Esteemed by all who know him, of strict integrity, enterprising and independent, yet unassuming, Mr. Proctor has always been ready to do amply his part in whatever would contribute to the prosperity of the city he has seen grow from small beginnings to its present size and importance.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
I. FRANCIS PROCTOR.Francis Proctor, elder brother of E. Allen and John C. Proctor, was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, July 31, 1817. For generations, the Proctor family, in both of its branches, has been identified with New England history. Francis Proctor's great-grandfather, Isaac Proctor, was a native of Ipswich, Massachusetts, as was his wife, Lucy Proctor, nee Goodhue. Their son, Lieut. John Proctor, was born at Manchester, Massachusetts, and married Hannah Cogswell, whose birthplace was Essex (Ipswich) in the same State. They were the parents of Francis Proctor's father, Capt. John Proctor, who was born in Manchester-by-the-Sea, July 7, 1788, and married Edna Dean, a native of Hamilton, Massachusetts, born in the same year as her husband. Edna (Dean) Proctor's parents were Captain Israel and Edna (Dodge) Proctor, both of whom were natives of Hamilton, Captain Proctor's immediate ancestor (and great-grandfather of the Peoria Proctor family on the maternal side) being Israel Dean, also a native of Hamilton, married Anne Storrs, whose birthplace was Mansfield, Connecticut. From this genealogical record may be traced the name of Edna Dean Proctor, the gifted poetess of New England and sister of the Proctor brothers of Peoria, who inherits her name from their mother.
Mr. Proctor's education was obtained at his birthplace and in Keene, New Hampshire. In 1838, he left Henniker and taught school in New Jersey, Indiana, and in Mississippi, until 1841, when he came to Peoria, and bought a quarter section of land on the West Bluff. Here he engaged at first in stock-raising and afterwards in growing choice fruit. In March, 1843, he was married in Peoria to Loville Aiken. who waborn December 6, 1816, in Deering, New Hampshire. Mrs. Lovilla Proctor died August 27, 1881. Their children were Henry Francis and Edna Dean (Mrs. Field).
Upright, independent and honorable in all his dealings, Mr. Proctor is a man of quiet tastes and habits, yet always intelligently interested for the best good of the community, and always ready to do generously his part as a citizen. From his pleasant home on the Bluff, with its commanding outlook, he has seen the city gradually extending and covering the green prairie below, where, in the early years of his residence, only herds of cows were feeding. His son, Henry Francis Proctor/was a soldier in the Civil War, enlisting (August, 1861), at the age of seventeen years, in the Forty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and giving continuous, faithful, exemplary service until he was killed, June 6, 1864, in a skirmish with guerrillas in Arkansas, as the regiment was returning from the Red River expedition. His body was brought to Peoria and buried in its beautiful cemetery, and his grave is one of those that Decoration Day sees heaped with flowers. He was a young man of such excellent character and promise, that his death was deplored by all who knew him, in the army and at home.
Mr. Proctor's only grandchild is Francis Proctor Field, who was born in Peoria, August 7, 1876, and is now a student of medicine in New York City. When the Spanish War came, in 1898, he left Columbia University to enter the army with the Twenty-second Regiment New York National Guard, of which organization he was a member, and remained with the army until the war was over, when he resumed his studies.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
JOHN C. PROCTOR.In looking over the list of the older persons represented in this biographical collection, it is a pleasure to find some who still survive. John C. Proctor is one of these, still in active business, and as attentive to it as at any time during his business career. He was born on the 11th day of October, 1822, in Henniker, New Hampshire, the son of John and Edna Dean Proctor. His education was acquired in the schools of his native town. While the schools of his day were not quite what they are at present, yet the common schools of New England gave all persons an opportunity to become comparatively well educated in the common English branches. It was because of the advantages of the common schools of New England that so many of her sons and daughters, scattered over the whole country, have always proved a success.
In 1841 Mr. Proctor left New Hampshire for the State of Mississippi. A year later he removed to the State of Illinois, and for a time taught school in Fulton County. In 1843 he came to Peoria, and in the following year com- menced the manufacture of agricultural implements with his brother, E. A. Proctor, which business was carried on successfully until 1850. John C. Proctor then engaged in the lumber business in Peoria, and has continued in it from that time to the present.
He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Peoria, in 1863, was elected its President in 1875, and still continues in that position.
Mr. Proctor is a rare man. His temperance in all things, and his care for his personal welfare have enabled him to engage constantly in exacting business without evidencing any of the wear and tear so often seen in business men. He has rarely ever been ill, and. when in the city, has devoted himself daily to the conduct of his business. He is a man of excellent Judgment. His advice and assistance have been sought as often and as generally as that of any man in the city of Peoria. He has, without niggardliness or meanness, dishonesty, oppression, fraud or wrong- doing, accumulated a large fortune, and is the owner of many farms in the State of Illinois. Frugal, temperate and careful in his habits, he has been a liberal contributor to the charities of the city and to the churches. He has been on the right side of every question affecting the education or morals, or the religious training of the residents of Peoria. He has built, at his own expense, the Cottage Hospital, and placed it in the hands of a corporation for the benefit of the present generation and those to come, thereby erecting, in this one act, a monument to his memory, infinitely more enduring and more valuable than any notoriety that could possibly come from mere political preferment. He has been a successful business man, and his example can be cited to the rising and future generations, as in every way worthy of imitation and emulation. He has not made his money by wild speculation or by oppressing anybody else. It is the result of painstaking, persistent work, of sound judgment, of a careful, temper- ate and worthy life. No one except himself really knows of the manifold acts of kindness and charity which have characterized his career. The writer of this sketch personally knows of many instances where, through his faith in human nature and his desire to be helpful, he has saved from ruin men who were pushed and oppressed by others intent only upon worldly gain, regardless of the means used for its acquirement—men who deceive themselves, but do not deceive their fellows.
Mr. Proctor is a brother of Edna Dean Proctor, and he has two brothers still living in Peoria—Francis and Ezekiel —both older than himself, and both remarkable for their retention of all their mental and physical faculties. They are of good, sterling New England stock. They brought with them, from New England, correct ideas of morality, education and religion. They have adhered to their principles, and the result, in their lives, shows the value of the stock and early training of New England.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
NORMAN H. PURPLE.Norman H. Purple was born March 29, 1803, in Otsego County, New York. His father was a native of Con- necticut, a carpenter by trade and a farmer by occupation. Judge Purple received an ordinary common-school education, supplemented by study in an academy, then common in New England and New York State. He commenced the study of law with Judge N. B. Eldred, in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, but completed his study in the County of Tioga, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. In 1837 he removed to Peoria and settled down to the practice of his profession. At that time there were a number of able lawyers in Peoria and in other cities in Central Illinois. Judge Purple immediately took a prominent position as a lawyer, and secured at once a lucrative practice. He was well read in the law, had been a diligent student of jurisprudence, and hence laid a broad foundation for the technical work of the lawyer. He was industrious, painstaking and accurate.
From 1840 to 1842 Judge Purple held the office of State's Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Peoria, Kendall, Kane, DeKalb, Ogle, Bureau, Stark, Marshall, Putnam and LaSalle. In 1844 he was chosen a Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket, and, in 1845, received from Governor Ford, an appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, to which he was formally elected by the Legislature in December, 1846. During his incumbency in this office he presided in the courts of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, embracing the western part of the State, making his home at Quincy. Upon his retirement from the bench by the adoption of the Constitution of 1848, he returned to Peoria, and resumed practice there, which he continued for the remainder of his life. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1862, representing Peoria and Stark Counties in that body, with Julius Manning as a colleague.
In 1849 Judge Purple published an edition of the Real Estate Statutes of Illinois, embracing the acts of the Legis- lature relating to descents, limitations, judgments, executions, partition, dower, conveyances and revenue—a most valuable volume for practitioners of that period. There was much litigation then, and for some years subsequently over land titles in the Military Tract. Judge Purple was, perhaps, at the head of the Illinois bar as a real-estate lawyer. He had given the subjects pertaining to estates very careful and thorough investigation, and was authority upon all subjects relating to land titles. This he followed, in 1856, with a compilation of the General Statutes of the State, which became widely known to the profession as the "Purple Statutes." Subsequently he undertook a similar compilation and classification of the laws enacted between 1857 and 1864, but the completion of this work was interrupted by his death. These works prepared while Judge Purple was upon the bench or in active practice, gave evidence of his industry and zeal in this branch of his profession. He was extremely methodical in all that he did and his work was always done with neatness and dispatch.
Judge Purple was not an eloquent orator, as were some of his associates in the city during his active career, but no man at the bar surpassed him in the ability of clear, concise, logical statement of a case. His success before a jury did not depend upon his ability as an orator, but largely upon the logical clearness and force with which he made his opening statement to the jury. In fact, at times, with a good cause, his case was won with his opening statement. He became the leading practitioner in the central portion of the State, in the United States Court, and maintained a decided prominence in this branch of the business so long as he lived.
He had the respect and confidence of the Judges. He had infinite respect for the law, and he never indulged in any of the tricks of the profession for his success. No man ever entertained more thorough contempt for another than Judge Purple did for any lawyer who would stoop to trickery or dishonesty in a law-suit. Any lawyer caught in anything under-handed, dishonest, secretive or outside the legitimate rules of practice was forever detested by Judge Purple. He was the soul of professional honor, and entertained a profound reverence for the law, and respect for all who labored to administer it in its purity.
During the period of his active practice in Peoria, Judge Purple was associated in a partnership capacity and at different times with the following members of the Peoria bar: Halsey O. Merriman and George T. Metcalfe before his elevation to the Supreme Bench, and, at a later date, with Ezra G. Sanger, Lorin G. Pratt and Alexander McCoy - the latter being his partner at the time of his death, which occurred in the city of Chicago, August 9, 1863.
On January 3, 1831, before coming to Peoria, Judge Purple was married to Ann Eliza, daughter of Hon. Ira Kilburn, of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Six children were the fruit of this union, two of whom survive at this time: Mrs. Ida Robinson, of this city, and Frank H. Purple, of Colorado.
Judge Purple's rank in the profession in Illinois was in the very front, and in some departments he was easily the superior of his professional brethren. His office work was a model of neatness and order. His method of putting away and keeping his papers furnishes an excellent example for all young men. He had a place for everything, and insisted upon everything being in its proper place. He was methodical in all his habits, and the soul of punctuality in all his business engagements. He was im. patient with all who failed to keep their promises, or were not punctual in meeting engagements. He had no use for a coward or a liar, and none for a pettifogger. Towards all such he indulged in biting sarcasm, in the use of which he was a master. He was friendly and helpful to all young men, honorable, honest and upright, and would lend them a helping hand. As a lawyer, we may safely say that be stood second, to no practitioner in Illinois.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
SABIN D. PUTERBAUGH.Sabin, D. Puterbaugh, jurist and author, was born in Miami County, Ohio, September 28, 1834. His father, Jacob Puterbaugh, moved with his family to Illinois, in 1839, and settled on a farm near Mackinaw, Tazewell County. Here the son grew up, receiving a common school education, and, in 1854, taught school two terms at Hopedale, the following year removing to Pekin, where he became Deputy Circuit Court Clerk, and entered upon the study of law. In January, 1857, he passed an examination before a committee of which Abraham Lincoln was a mem- ber, and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court, at once becoming a partner of Hon. Samuel W. Fuller, then of Pekin, and State Senator from that District. Mr. Fuller having removed to Chicago in 1858, the firm of Fuller & Puterbaugh was dissolved, and, in 1860, Mr. Puterbaugh formed a partnership with John B. Cohrs, which lasted until the fall of 1861, when having enlisted in the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, Mr. Puterbaugh was commissioned by Governor Yates First Major of the regiment under Col. Robert G. Ingersoll.
Going with his regiment in February, 1862, to Camp Benton, near St. Louis, Major Puterbaugh was soon after detached with the First Battalion to join General Grant in the advance up the Tennessee, but later was rejoined by the remainder of the regiment just before the battle of Pittsburg Landing, in which they took part. While reporting with two companies of the Eleventh Regiment to General Prentiss on the morning of April 6, 1862, the first day of the battle of Shiloh, Major Puterbaugh and his command were about the first to receive the fire of the enemy in that historic conflict, sustaining considerable loss in men and horses. The regiment afterwards took part in the ad vance on Corinth, and, in July, 1862, Major Puterbaugh was ordered with two companies to Bolivar, Tennessee, after which they were engaged in scouting through West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, during which they had several skirmishes with the rebels. They also took an active part in the battle of August 30th, near Bolivar, and Major Pumended for their part in that affair by General terbaugh and his command were especially com- Leggett in his report. The regiment was also present at the battle of Corinth of October 3d and 4th, 1862, and joined in the pursuit of the rebel forces under Generals Price and Van Dorn after their repulse.
In November, 1862, Major Puterbaugh tendered his resignation and, returning home, immediately removed to Peoria, where he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1864 he formed a partnership with the Ingcrsoll brothers—Hon. E. C. and Col. Robert G.—under the name and style of Ingersolls & Puterbaugh. This was continued until June, 1867, when Mr. Puterbaugh was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, serving until March, 1873, when, within a few months of the expiration of his term, he resigned and resumed practice—a few months later removing to Chicago, where, for nine months he was engaged in practice and in the preparation of his legal works for publication. Then returning to Peoria (October, 1874), he was in partnership some three years with John S. Lee and M. C. Quinn, and still later with his son, Leslie D. Puterbaugh —now Judge of the Circuit Court—until the election of the latter Probate Judge in 1890.
Judge Puterhaugh was author of "Puterbaugh's Common Law Pleading's and Practice," which was first published in 1863, but of which five other editions were issued between 1866 and 1888. In 1874 he published Puter- baugh's Chancery Pleadings and Practice," of which a second edition was published in 1876. and a third in 1888. In 1882 an edition of the latter work, especially adapted to the statutes of the State of Michigan, was published, with a second edition in 1890. During the ante-Civil-War period Judge Puterbaugh was a Democrat, but, with the firing on Fort Sumter, he espoused the cause of an undivided Union and the Republican party. He was chosen a Presidential Elector in 1880, and assisted in casting the vote of Illinois for James A. Garfield for President and Chester A. Arthur for Vice-President.
On November 18, 1857, Judge Puterbaugh was married at Pekin, Illinois, to Miss Anna E. Rye, who still survives him, together with their three children: Leslie D. and Walter Puterbaugh, and their sister, Frances L., now Mrs. Blanchard H. Lucas. Judge Puterbaugh's death occurred at the National Hotel in the city of Peoria, September 25, 1892.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
FRANK MAXIMILIAN REINHART.No name has been more prominent in connection with) the musical history of the city of Peoria, than that of Professor Frank M. Reinhart, for nearly twenty years a leading teacher of various branches of instrumental music, as well as, during the same period, Peoria's most widely known and accomplished church organist. Mr. Reinhart, besides inheriting a taste for musical art, is a native of a country famous for its distinguished musicians and composers, having been born in Wurzburg, Bavaria, April 4, 1842. His father, Joseph Anton Reinhart, was born in Trenfurt-on-the-Main, Bavaria, in 1806, and graduated at Wurzburg in the school of Professor Froelich, one of the most celebrated musicians of his time, and soon established a reputation for himself as a skilled physician and teacher. In 1838 the elder Reinhart was married to Ursula Rothenhofer, who was born in, Retzstadt, Bavaria, in 1813. After spending some years in Wurzburg, during which he was engaged in teaching, he came to America with is family, in 1850, locating at Peru, Illinois, where he resumed the teaching of music in all its branches, including both instrumental and vocal, and in which he spent the remainder of his life, dying there in 1889. His wife survived only about four years after coming to America, dying in 1854. While attending the public schools of Peru, Mr. Frank M. Reinhart received his musical education solely under the instruction of his father, and, at the age of sixteen years, began traveling with various concert companies. This he continued until 1862, when he came to Peoria and immediately entered upon a career as a teacher of instrumental music, which proved conspicuously successful. A matter of interest in connection with Mr. Reinhart's professional life in Peoria, is the fact that his first pupil after locating here was Miss Laura Bradley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tobias S. Bradley, as a monument to whose memory, in large part, Bradley Institute was established by her bereaved mother a few years ago. Besides giving instruction upon the piano, violin and other instruments, Professor Reinhart officiated for some time as organist of the First and Second Presbyterian churches, and, later, for some ten years, in the same capacity in the Universalist church. One of the notable periods in his career was between 1864 and 1872, while serving as conductor of the famous Spencer's Band, which gained such a wide reputation, under his efficient leadership, during the war period, and, for some twenty years, was probably the most widely known band in the State.
While Professor Reinhart's most noteworthy achievements as a musical artist were probably as a performer upon the organ, piano and the violin, he proved himself a master upon nearly every other style of instrument in popular use. A competent and appreciative critic, in one of the local newspapers—Mrs. Theo. Rees Marsters, in the "Peoria Herald-Transcript"—speaking of his qualities as a musician, a couple of years ago, said of him:
"As a pianist, Mr. Reinhart is best known to Peorians; his rare touch, brilliant execution, and artistic interpretation making him one to be remembered by all who have heard him. But he also played the violin with grace, skill and much beauty of tone; he was equally successful with the viola and cello; was an accomplished and brilliant organist, and, I believe I have heard him play every band instrument in existence from the cornet to the French horn, and play every one as well as if he had given, his entire attention to that one instrument. His knowledge of these instruments was by no means confined to the playing of them, however, for he understood the range, capacity and possibilities of each, and excelled in arranging music for different combinations of instruments."
About 1878 a threatened nervous trouble compelled Mr. Reinhart to withdraw from the position he had so long held as a church organist, and two years later he gave up teaching and appearing in public entertainments. Nevertheless, he has still maintained his interest in the art to which he devoted so many years of his life with such signal ability and success, and enjoys, in an eminent degree, the respect of his many former pupils, and the lovers of music generally, who remember with pride and admiration his achievements of a score and more years ago.
Mr. Reinhart was married on April 8, 1885, to Miss Annie Kidder, the only daughter, as well as the youngest and, at present, only surviving child, of Alvan Kidder, a prominent and successful business man and real estate operator of Peoria, who died November 19, 1871. Mr. and Mrs. Reinhart reside in the pleasant home occupied during his life by her father on Sixth Avenue, Peoria. In politics Mr. Reinhart is a Democrat.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
PERCIVAL G. RENNICK.Whether as an educator, politician, or promoter of the all-around well being of Peoria, Mr. Rennick has evinced a conscientious regard for the best interests of all with whom he has been associated, and an uncompromising devotion to principle as rare in the holders of public trust as it is admirable and far reaching in its effect. To his credit, also, is the fact that his career has been marked by an unusual appreciation of the opportunities by which he was surrounded, and in the grasping and utilizing of which he has proved himself the competent builder of his own fortunes. Far from reaping an easily won and immediate success, and thus forswearing those moulding attributes of persistence, industry and patience, the distance from his father's farm in Stark County, Illinois, where he spent his early years, to his present position as Collector of Internal Revenue of the Peoria District, has been traversed studiously, thoughtfully, and with ever increasing mental and moral strength. A prime factor in the forma- tion of his character and ambitions has been the example set by the large thought of his parents, Francis and Sarah (Cousins) Rennick, the former of whom emigrated from the North of Ireland when eighteen years of age, and upon locating in Montreal, engaged for a time in the grain business. His parents afterwards removed to the United States and settled on a farm near Toulon, Stark County, Illinois, where they successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising.
As the youngest son in his father's family, Percival G. Rennick, who was born March 4, 1864, was educated in the public schools of Stark County, and .after graduating from the Toulon high-school completed the course at the Northern Illinois Normal College. Subsequently he engaged in educational work as Superintendent of the graded schools of his county, and at times had charge of the schools of Castleton and Wyoming. The better to gain a practical insight into the intricacies of a great profession, he read law for two years under a private tutor. From early youth he took an active interest in the undertakings of the Republican party, and while still in his teens, the young educator became a force in the politics of Stark County, and, soon after attaining his majority, was chosen a delegate to the Republican County Convention. His excellent services in the interests of his party proved to be far-reaching and of more than local significance, and attracted the attention of Julius S. Starr, at that time Collector of Internal Revenue of the Peoria District. It thus happened that, soon after Mr. Rennick's removal to Peoria, in 1889, he was tendered and accepted the position of Inspector of Internal Revenue, a responsibility resigned at the end of four years to become bookkeeper for the wholesale establishment of the Wilson Grocery Company. In 1896 he was appointed Deputy Circuit Clerk, a position maintained with unusual credit until assuming the duties of his present office. As Chairman of the Republican County Committee Mr. Rennick was instrumental in greatly increasing the prestige of his party in Peoria County, and was recognized as one of the most energetic and helpful workers. He was twice elected Chairman of the County Central Committee, and was also elected Chairman of the Fifth Supreme Court Judicial Committee. So pronounced was his administrative and organizing ability during the conduct of three different campaigns, and so thoroughly in touch was he with Republican principles and issues, that when the position of Collector of Internal Revenue of the district of Peoria became vacant, there was practically no opposition in his way. And to Mr. Rennick it is a pleasant remembrance that one of the last official acts of that great citizen and statesman, William McKinley, was his .appointment of Mr. Rennick to the office which he now occupies.
April 10, 1800, Mr. Rennick married Jennie Gharrett, daughter of B. F. Gharrett. of Castleton, Illinois. Although not affiliated with any particular church, Mr. Rennick was baptized into the Episcopal Church, of which he was a constant attendant in his youth. Fraternally he is both prominent and popular in Peoria, and is identified with various well-known organizations, being a charter member of the Redwood Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, a member of the Independent Order Odd Fellows—which he joined when twenty-one years of age—and of the Masonic order, with which he became associated two years later. He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. For seven or eight years he has been a director of the Workingmen's Loan and Homestead Association. In 1899 he was active in recruiting Troop G, First Illinois Cavalry, of which he served as Second Lieutenant, until forced by his arduous civil duties to resign in 1900.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
WILLIAM REYNOLDS.William Reynolds was born at Roxbury, Pennsylvania, a small town situated at the foot of the Kittochtinny Mountain which borders the beautiful Cumberland Valley, and extends from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the Pbtomac in the State of Maryland. This valley was originally settled by Presbyterians from the North of Ireland, who have transmitted to their descendants a character for stalwart manhood, patriotism and fidelity to religious principles which has made them leaders in every community with which the have become identified. No one community took a firmer stand nor furnished a more patriotic contingent of soldiers for the achievement of our independence than did the inhabitants of this valley.
Rev. Robert Cooper, the great-grandfather of William Reynolds, was at that time pastor of the Middle Spring Church, and not only rallied his congregation to enlist in the service of their country, but went as chaplain with a company composed of members of his own congregation. His son, John Cooper, was a man of fine scholarship, and for years conducted a classical school known far and wide as "Hopewell Academy," situated near the Conooguinet, or "Long Crooked River," which flows through the valley, the Middle Spring being one of its chief conflu- ents. Sarah Kearsley Cooper, the eldest daughter of John Cooper, became the wife of John Reynolds of Rox- bury, whose father, William Reynolds, and grandfather, John Reynolds, had both been elders in the Middle Spring Church. William Reynolds, the eldest of their children, was born in the year 1830. When he was six years old his parents removed to Peoria, where they resided during the remainder of their lives. Of the eminent piety and use- fulness of this devoted couple it would be superfluous to speak, for their names are embalmed in the history of the Presbyterian Church of the city.
Of the labors of William Reynolds in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association of Peoria, of his work in the United States Christian Commission and of his agency in the founding of the Calvary Presbyterian Church of Peoria, mention has been made in other parts of this work. While yet engaged in labors abundant and, as he wished it might be, with his armor on, he was overtaken by death at Louisville, Kentucky, on September 28. 1897.
Immediately after his death testimonials as to his useful Christian life began to pour in, not only from this country but from foreign lands. These testimonials have been published in a small souvenir volume—the most enduring monument to his devoted life.
In the year 1854, William Reynolds was united in marriage with Martha Brotherson. daughter of P. R. K. Brothel-son and Frances B. M. Brotherson, with whom he lived in happiest wedlock for forty-two years. A valuable epitome of his career was furnished by one of his co-workers, B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, from which the following extracts are taken:
"His conversion occurred during the great revival of 1857 and 1858, and was manifest to all. The wonderful public meetings held during that season brought converts into active service. Mr. Reynolds' near companion at that time was Mr. Alexander G. Tyng, whose wife, Mrs. Lucie B. Tyng, is a sister of Mrs. Reynolds, and whose active Christian work has endeared her name to all Christians in this State. Mr. Tyng was the son of Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D., of New York, who for many years was a leader in Sunday-school work, from whom the son inherited his natural abilities, and by whom he was trained for wide usefulness. Thus, at the beginning of his Christian life, Mr. Reynolds was turned towards the work that he loved unto the end. Another link, and an impor- tant one in the chain, was formed about a year after his conversion, when, with his wife, Mr. Reynolds visited Philadelphia and listened to a sermon by Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, brother of Mr. A. G. Tyng, from the text —'Quench not the Spirit.' This sermon was greatly blessed to Mr. Reynolds, who, to use his own expression, 'received a quickening.'
"It should be remembered that the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago grew out of the revival, and was organized in the spring of 1858, and that the Illinons State Sunday School Association held its first convention the year following, 1859. Mr. Reynolds' business led him frequently to Chicago, and, in 1860, he became ac- quainted with Mr. Moody and his Mission Sunday School. He occasionally visited the Noon-day Prayer Meeting of the Y. M. C. A., then held in the Clark Street Methodist Episcopal Church block, and it was there that the writer .first met him.
"In 1861, at the beginning of the war, Mr. Moody, Mr. Tuthill King and the writer, were appointed the 'Army Committee' of the Chicago Y. M. C. A., and began holding meetings with the soldiers who stopped here on their way to the front. Similar meetings were held in the East, ;and these led to the organization of the United .States Christian Commission. Mr. Reynolds entered enthusiastically into this work, and his campaign in Morgan County, with Chaplain (now Bishop) McCabe, will long be remembered. He also visited the army at the front, and did much to encourage and maintain religious work among the soldiers. It was in connection with the Christian Com- mission that he became acquainted with its chairman, Mr. George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, with Morris K. Jessup and William E. Dodge, of New York, Edward S. Tobey and Charles Demond, of Boston, Bishop Janes and Samuel Crozier, of Philadelphia, John V. Farwell and others, of Chicago. The State Reform School, at Pontiac, was established by act of the Legislature of 1867, and Mr. Reynolds was a member of the first Board of Trustees. In connection with this work he visited other similar institutions, and rendered valuable service.
"In 1864, when it was hoped that the war was drawing to a close, Mr. Moody urged that every effort be made to deepen the interest in Sunday-school work in this State. The convention of that year was to be held in Springfield, and Mr. Moody, Rev. J. H. Harwood and the writer reached that city Saturday morning to hold some meetings preparatory to the convention; these were held morning and evening, and a number of persons were converted. When the convention met Tuesday morning there were manifest tokens of the Spirit's presence and power. This was the first State Sunday-school Convention attended by Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Tyng was chosen President, and from that meeting forward these brothers were united in their devotion to this work. The convention grew in power, and at Decatur, in 1867, a tabernacle was built to accommodate two thousand people. Mr. Reynolds was elected President, the enthusiasm was great, and five thousand dollars was pledged for the work. A canvass of the whole State was planned and counties were divided among the committee, Mr. Reynolds taking the southeastern counties.
"For many years the National Sunday-school Convention had been suspended, but, in 1868, a National Conven- tion of the Y. M. C. A. was held in Detroit, and was attended by many prominent Sunday-school workers. The suggestion was made that a National Sunday-school Convention be held the following year, and a committee was appointed to arrange for it. This convention met in Newark, New Jersey, in 1869. It was attended by many great leaders; the three secretaries of that convention were Rev. (now Bishop) J. H. Vincent, Rev. H. Clay Trumbull and B. F. Jacobs. Among the delegates from Illinois were William Reynolds, Rev. Edward Eggleston, A. G. Tyng and others. From that day Mr. Reynolds became prominent in the National and International Sunday-school Work. Many will remember him in Indianapolis in 1872, when the International Lesson System was adopted and the first lesson committee appointed, of which Mr. A. G. Tyng was a member.
"Mr. Reynolds continued his work in Illinois, attending County Conventions in different parts of the State. In 1880 the State Convention was held at Galesburg. The Association was then twenty-one years old, and a great meeting was planned. Messrs. Moody, Sankey, Whittle, McGranahan, Morton. Farwell, Miss Lucy J. Rider and many others were on the program. Messrs. Whittle and McGranahan held meetings for ten days previous to the convention, and many came from nearly all parts of the State. Mr. Reynolds was elected President for the second time because of his eminent fitness for this place. At this meeting delegates were appointed to the Robert Raikes Centennial to be held in London, England, that year.
"In 1881 the International Sunday School Convention met in Toronto, Ontario. At that convention the present plan of International Sunday School W'ork was inaugurated. Mr. Reynolds was Chairman of the Nominating Committee and was prominent in the convention.
"In 1884, at Louisville, he rendered great service, and was especially useful in the debate on the temperance question, and the proposed instructions to the Lesson Committee But his work was chiefly in this State until the year 1887, when the International Sunday School Convention met in Chicago. At that meeting Mr. Reynolds was elected President, and his splendid ability as a presiding officer was seen, and his influence over men was recognized. Following this convention he was urged to accept the position of Field Superintendent of International Sunday School Work for the United States and British North American Provinces. After much consideration he gave up his business, and that year he entered upon the great work of his life. For more than ten years he has visited the States, Provinces and Territories, and his words have been inspiring and helpful. He has been permitted to organize some State Associations and to revive others that were ready to die. He has rendered great service in securing contributions from business men, and for the past two years addressed special meetings in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Louisville, Providence, Toronto and St. Louis. Men prominent in the councils of the Nation and of many States have responded to his appeals.
"He was permitted to render a remarkable service during the Columbian Exposition held at Chicago in 1893. Among the many buildings dedicated to Agriculture, Art, Commerce, Education, Electricity, Horticulture, Manu- factures, Mining, Music, Science. Transportation and many other things, one building stood for the religion of Jesus Christ—it was the International Sunday School building. It was, in some respects, a model Sunday-school building, and it was thought best to have daily meetings during the week, and services on the Lord's Day, in this place. Mr. Reynolds took charge of this building and superintended the work, his principal helper being Mr. W. A. Burnell, well known to many. Rev. Mr. Pierson and wife held evangelistic meetings there, and Mr. Moody and others made addresses. These meetings and services were very helpful and were much enjoyed. Nations and States, Arts, Commerce, Manufactures and Science had chosen representatives there, but the special represen- tative of evangelical religion and organized Sunday School work was our beloved brother, William Reynolds.
"In my estimation, his place is with Illinois' greatest men. He was of princely form and manner, bold and coura- geous, but gentle as a child. He was a leader of men. If greatness consists in influencing others, and if it is measured by the number influenced and the result of that influence on their lives, William Reynolds was very great. His work has called him to every State and every Canadian Province from Newfoundland to Florida, across to California and up to Vancouver's Island. In hundreds of cities men who are themselves leaders have been in- fluenced by him, and millions of children have been, and will be, helped by his life and his words. No other American has spoken to such companies in so many places, and certainly no one has ever presented a more important subject that the moral and religious training of our children and youth. There are few men whose death would be mourned by such a multitude of good people in America as William Reynolds'."
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902
LESLIE ROBISON.Leslie, son of James and Isabella (Leslie) Robison, who came to this country from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was born near Detroit, Michigan, August 8, 1834. Mr. Robison's father first settled in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, then went to Detroit, and from there removed to a farm at Leslie, in Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County, in this State. Leslie Robison attended the common schools at Leslie and later a select school in Tremont. From there he went to Knox College in Galesburg, and then to Yale College, where he graduated in the classical course in 1858. Upon his return to Peoria he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar at Springfield, Illinois, January 6, 1860. He was introduced to the Court by the illustrious Lincoln, an honor of which Mr. Robison is justly proud. He practiced successfully for twenty years, but, owing to large business interests, was compelled to retire. His father-in-law, Col. Charles Ballance, owned large tracts of land in the City of Peoria, which became involved in law and debt. Mr. Robison took charge of these interests and by his legal ability, sound judgment and energy managed the property in such a way that Mr. Ballance was enabled to leave, at his death several years ago, a very large and valuable estate.
Mr. Robison has acquired for himself, through hard work, good management and conservative judgment, a com- fortable fortune. He is still as actively engaged in business and devotes as much time and energy to it as at any time in his life. He was elected Mayor of Peoria on the Republican ticket in 1876-77, and was a director of the Peoria Gas Light & Coke Company for twenty-five years, and President for five years. Has also been a director in the firm of Nicol, Burr & Company, engaged in the foundry and machinery business, since 1882; and President of and a director in the Peoria General Electric Company for several years, and is now President of and a director in the Gipps Brewing Company, and has been since 1891.
Mr. Robison was married in Peoria, January 7, 1864, to Miss Julia Ballance, three children being born in them: Charles Webb. Leslie and Willis B. Charles Webb, the oldest son, alone survives. Mrs. Robison died May 12, 1871. On June 27, 1872, Mr. Robison married Miss Elizabeth Rutherford, daughter of William and Isabella Rutherford, of Peoria.
from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, Volume II, 1902