Album of genealogy and biograghy, Cook County, Illinois, 10th ed., Part 85

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago, Calumet book & engraving co
Number of Pages: 916

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biograghy, Cook County, Illinois, 10th ed. > Part 85

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576

GEORGE MCKINNEY.

ticky, led by Uncle Collin Mckinney, went to Texas and settled in Collin County, of which Mc- Kinney is the county seat.

John Mckinney was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, November 2, 1801, and was married there, in November, 1827, to Elizabeth Goode, a native of the same state. In early life he was a farmer, and then spent five years in the office of John Riley, Clerk of Butler County, Ohio; and he later on studied law in the office of Hon. John Pope, in Springfield, Kentucky, who had been a United States Senator, and was afterward ap- pointed Governor of Arkansas by President Jack- so11. Here he obtained a good knowledge of human affairs, but he soon tired of the confine- ment of an office, and returned to farming. He had, before studying law, in 1825, settled his fa- ther's estate in Kentucky. He settled on Gov- ernment land in Illinois in 1832, at a place since known as Mckinney's Grove, in Henderson County, where he pre-empted a large tract of land and lived like a patriarch, surrounded by a large family and a host of friends. In Ohio he had become an Abolitionist, which induced him to settle in a free state. He was quite prosperous as a farmer, and owned eight hundred acres of land. In 1844 he removed to Oquawka, where he became a merchant and pork-packer. Success followed his efforts, and he removed to Aledo, the county seat of Mercer County, Illinois, and en- gaged in banking, with a partner, under the style of Mckinney & Gilmore. After a time he pur- chased the interest of his partner in the banking business. He died at Aledo, rich in years, honors and in this world's goods, January 14, 1892, hav- ing attained the ripe old age of ninety-one years. Elizabeth, his first wife, died at the age of thirty- six years. The following are the children who grew to maturity: Hiram, Ann, Elizabeth, John, George and Collin. Of these, Hiram and John are now deceased. Another son, William, died in infancy. Mr. Mckinney's second wife was Mary M. Stewart. She was the mother of Ade- laide, James, Archibald, Mrs. Mary Bergen and Robert Mckinney, who are yet living.

John McKinney had a personal acquaintance with many of our National statesmen, especially

of the West, among them Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Horace Greeley, Willianı H. Seward, Gov. William Bross, Rich- ard Yates, and others. In early life, at one tinie he occupied the same bed at a hotel with Abra- ham Lincoln, then a young law student. He, at one time or another, entertained most of these people at his home in Oquawka, Illinois.

George Mckinney was partially educated in the public schools of Oquawka, but, tiring of school life, he requested his father to allow hini to learn the printer's trade, which he did, enter- ing as an apprentice, or "devil," in the office of the Oquawka Plaindealer, edited by F. A. Dal- lam, a well-known journalist. After a year's ap- prenticeship, he entered Knox College, at Gales- burg, Illinois, but, having been badly burned by the explosion of a lamp in which burning fluid was used, he was unable to pursue his studies, and hence left the college about the time Pres- ident Blanchard left the institution. Through ill-health, and a love of adventure and roving, which he has retained to the present day, he was induced to accompany his brother-in-law on a trip to New Mexico, visiting Santa Fe and Los Vegas. At the latter place he bought a Mexican mustang, and, joining a wool train, returned to the Missouri River. At Topeka, Kansas, he dis- posed of his pony, and after working a short time in a printing-office, returned home, via the Mis- souri and Mississippi Rivers. Arriving in Oquaw- ka, he returned to the store, filling the position of bookkeeper and clerk. Here Mr. Mckinney was married to Miss Sarah Frances Chickering, daughter of Joseph Chickering, a talented musi- cian and popular citizen of that place. Rev. J. W. Chickering, the well-known divine, was a brother of Mrs. Mckinney's father. Only two of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mckinney survived the period of childhood, namely: Alice and William. The former, Alice, is now deceased, and the other, William, is connected with a Chi- cago business house as bookkeeper.

Before the war the father of Mr. Mckinney had retired front business, and turned the store over to his sons. The eldest, Hiraın, died in Novem- ber, 1861. Another son, Collin, enlisted in the

577

R. J. HAMILTON.

army at the first call for troops, and he was fol- lowed to the field by Jolin. This left only George to manage the store, and, his health fail- ing, he sold the store back to his father, and, ac- companied by his wife, went to California by the Nicaragua route, returning two years later by the Panama route, and locating in Chicagoin the fall of 1864. His healthi began to improve gradually, and he became a member of the Board of Trade. His field of operation was chiefly in the grain- commission business, and for eighteen years he was a well-known figure in business marts. He had the required perseverance, and was rewarded by satisfactory results. He began early to invest in North Shore real estate, and yet owns valuable property there.

In the spring of 1872 he took up his residence at Winnetka, and has been ever since a useful citizen of that suburb. He feels an interest in every movement calculated to further the moral

and material welfare of the community in which he resides. He has always been a Republican in political sentiment, because he believes the Republican party most active in promoting the general welfare of the people, regardless of local or personal factions, but has at times been inde- pendent in his votes, especially when the old par- ties conflicted with his moral ideas of reform movements. Mr. and Mrs. McKinney are char- ter members of the Congregational Church at Winnetka, where both are held in high esteem. Mrs. McKinney was organist for many years in the church and Sunday-school, and she and her husband were active in the early upbuilding of the church. They originally united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Oquawka, and while in California became charter members of the first Congregational Church in Redwood City, and later of the Tabernacle Church of Chicago.

RICHARD J. HAMILTON.

ICHARD JONES HAMILTON, who is famous in the annals of Cook County as its first Circuit Court Clerk, was born at Jones- boro, near Danville, Mercer (now Boyle) Coun- ty, Kentucky, August 21, 1799, his parents be- ing James L. and Sarah (Jones) Hamilton. The father was born in England, but his parents emi- grated to this country when he was only a year old, and settled in South Carolina, on the Savan- nah River. At the age of twenty the father went northward into Kentucky, and after his marriage witlı Miss Sarah Jones, settled near Danville, in that state. Saralı Jones was a daughter of Rich- ard Jones, of Kentucky, whose wife was a Miss Wills, of Maryland. In 1803 he removed to Shelby County, where Richard J. spent liis boy- hood and youth and received his early education,

chiefly at the Shelbyville Academy, then in charge of instructors of some eminence, among others Rev. Mr. Gray and Rev. Mr. Cameron.

Finishing his academic education at the age of seventeen, young Hamilton thien entered a store at Shelbyville, as clerk, and later hield a similar position at Jefferson, devoting altogether some fifteen months to this calling, which seems, low- ever, to have had little attraction for him. In1 1818 he went to Louisville, where he studied law until 1820, then removing to Jonesboro, Union County, Illinois, in company with his friend, Abner Field. The two young men owned a horse jointly, and the journey was made in alternate stages of walking and riding, the horse, which constituted their sole property, being sold on their arrival at their destination. Here Mr.

578

R. J. HAMILTON.

Hamilton taught school for some time, still, how- ever, continuing his law studies at intervals, un- der the direction of Charles Dunn, who had re- cently been admitted to the Bar, and who gained great distinction as a lawyer, finally becoming Chief-Justice of the then territory of Wisconsin.

At its session of 1820-21 the Second General Assembly of Illinois established the old State Bank, and at the first meeting of the Directors at Vandalia, a branch was authorized at Browns- ville, Jackson County, and Mr. Hamilton was appointed its Cashier. In 1822 he was married to Miss Diana W. Buckner, of Jefferson County, Kentucky, but then residing near Jackson, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Mrs. Hamilton was a daughter of Col. Nicholas Buckner, of the historic Kentucky family of that name.

January 14, 1826, by the General Assembly, Mr. Hamilton was confirmed as Justice of the Peace for Jackson County, and March 31, 1827, he was admitted to the Bar. In 1829 he is on record as one of the itinerant lawyers who rode the circuit of the southern counties, deriving a meagre and precarious subsistence from the few and scattered clients who fell to his share in those early days in Illinois, when the cases were rare and fees were small. The Brownsville branch bank closed its career about this time, Mr. Hamil- ton retaining to the last, as far as known, his po- sition of Cashier, the duties of which, especially in those later years, were neither exhaustive nor remunerative.

He now turned his eyes toward northern Illi- nois, and was elected by the General Assembly as the first Probate Judge of the new county of Cook, January 29, 1831. His friend, Judge Young, of the Fifth Judicial District, appoint- ed him Clerk of Cook County Circuit Court, and Governor Reynolds, who was also especially interested in his welfare, commissioned him as Notary Public and Recorder. He arrived in Chi- cago early in March, being present at the organ- ization of the county on the 8th of the month, and removed his family (which consisted at this time of his wife and two children, Richard N. and Sarah A.) from Brownsville in August. In October he was appointed Commissioner of School

Lands for Cook County, and the school fund re- mained in his charge until 1840. As an illustra- tion of the backward condition of Chicago at the period of his arrival, he used to refer to the lim- ited mail facilities, saying that special care was used in reading the older papers first, that they might be properly advised of the events in the outside world in the order of occurrence. He re- sided with his family in Fort Dearborn for some time after his arrival, and there his second daugh- ter, Eleanor, was born, February 14, 1832. This daughter, now Mrs. E. H. Keenon, is still a resi- dent of the city, and is stated to be the first child of purely American parentage born here; she is certainly the oldest woman living a native of the city. The eldest daughter is the widow of Col. Henry A. Mitchell, who died from the effects of a bullet wound received at the battle of Perry- ville, in the Civil War. He had previously com- manded a revenue cutter on the Great Lakes, and was Provost-Marshal at Covington, Ken- tucky, after he was wounded.

The year that witnessed his daughter's birth saw Mr. Hamilton appointed Clerk of the Coun- ty Commissioners' Court, which office he held until 1837. Besides discharging the duties of his various offices, which were more numerous than remunerative, he took a pioneer part in tem- perance work, and in 1832 co-operated energetic- ally with Colonel Owen, the Indian Agent, and other influential men, in keeping the Indians in this section from joining the hostile bands in the disturbances of that year. Public-spirited in the highest degree, he was the first of thirty-seven volunteers who, on May 2, 1832, "promised obe- dience to Capt. Gholson Kercheval and Lieuts. George W. Dole and John S. Hogan, as com- manders of the militia of Chicago, until all appre- hension of danger from the Indians may have subsided." Later in the month, with Capt. Jesse B. Brown, Joseplı Naper and twenty-five mount- ed men, he scoured the Fox River country to carry succor and encouragement to the scattered settlements. Unfortunately, they did not arrive at Indian Creek until the 22d of the month, the day after the terrible massacre by the Indians at that point. Here they found thirteen dead bod-

579

R. J. HAMILTON.

ies, those of members of the families of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew, terribly mangled. The com- pany escorted some of the refugees to Chicago, where a much larger number had sought refuge as early as the Ioth. Colonel Hamilton (whose title seems to have been one of courtesy, due to the fact of his identification with the state militia for some years) was one of the commissioners appointed to supply them with food and shelter, and was indefatigable in his efforts in their behalf. He moved his family into the old agency-house about this time, the fort being crowded with ref- ugees, and being occupied after July by the troops who had arrived to take part in the Black- hawk War.

In the spring of 1833, in conjunction with Colonel Owen, Colonel Hamilton employed John Watkins to teach a small school, near the old agency-house, where he still resided, but which he soon abandoned for liis own house, built on what is now Michigan Street, between Cass and Rush Streets, where he lived for nineteen years. He was one of the voters for the incorpora- tion of Chicago August 5, and for its first Board of Trustees five days later. He was a subscrib- ing witness to the Indian Treaty of September 26, and his claim of $500 was allowed. The claims allowed against, and paid in behalf of, the Indians at that time aggregated in their entirety about $175,000. In October, as Commissioner of School Lands, in compliance with a petition signed by the principal residents of the place, he authorized the sale of the Chicago School Section. November 13 of that year, in virtue of his office as Probate Judge, he performed a marriage cere- mony between John Bates, junior, and Miss Har- riet E. Brown. He was one of the original sub- scribers to the first Chicago newspaper, which appeared November 26, and in December he ad- vertised $10,000 to loan, which was probably part of the net cash proceeds of the sale of school lands two months before. In 1834 he was Pres- ident of the Board of School Trustees, and with characteristic energy labored tirelessly in the in- terest of the early schools of Chicago. In con- junction with Hiram Pearsons, he laid out four hundred and twenty acres at Canalport, adjoin-

ing what is now Bridgeport, which, judging from the first preliminary survey, they supposed would be the actual terminus of the Illinois & Michi- gan Canal, but which the final survey passed by and left comparatively worthless.

In 1834 Colonel Hamilton suffered a deep be- reavement in the death of his first wife, soon after the birth of her fourth child, who was named Diana B. in memory of her mother. Mrs. Ham- ilton was highly esteemed as an intelligent and zealous Christian lady, one who suffered the hard- ships of pioneer life uncomplainingly, and proved a devoted wife and mother. She was a member of the first Methodist Church of Chicago, in whose behalf she took an active and efficient in- terest. March 25, 1835, the Colonel married Miss Harriette L. Hubbard, sister of Henry G. Hub- bard, of Chicago. Mrs. Harriette Hamilton died February 7, 1842, leaving one child, Henry E. She had lost an infant daughter named Pauline August 21, 1839, and another of the same name about two years before. The son is now famil- iarly known as "Colonel Hamilton," as it were, by right of inheritance.

About 1834 the subject of this sketch became largely interested in outside lands, being also probably the most extensive owner in the county and the whole Northwest. These lands were often purchased on joint account with non-resi- dents, and perhaps at the time with no larger in- terest on his part than a commission for the transaction of the business, but they were usually made and recorded in his name for greater con- venience in transfer and negotiation. About 1835 he became a candidate for election as Recorder, and published the following card in answer to certain cavilings about his many offices:

"In 1831 I received the appointment of Clerk of Circuit Court, Judge of Probate and Notary Public. I thien moved to Chicago, and found that nobody wanted these offices. Soon after, the gentleman holding the position of Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court resigned, and I was appointed. The office of School Commis- sioner was then held by Col. T. J. V. Owen, who resigned. Up to September, 1834, that of- fice has yielded me in all about $200; notary

580

R. J. HAMILTON.

fees liave not exceeded $50; probate fees liave not amounted to more than $50. I have not re- alized from all offices, including that of Recorder, during four years more than $1,500. The whole number of instruments recorded, including a large number of Receiver's certificates for lands pur- chased at late sales, have been to July 1, 1835, about thirteen hundred, at seventy cents each."

At the August election of 1835 he was elected Recorder by six hundred two votes, and removed his office, toward the end of October, to the new building recently erected by the county on the public square. In December he became a Di- rector in the Chicago branch of the new State Bank. The offices he held at this tinie were: Judge of Probate, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Clerk of Commissioners' Court, Recorder of Deeds, Notary Public, School Commissioner and Bank Commissioner. He continued to discharge the various duties of these offices, with the help of deputies and clerks in the more exacting ones as the volume of business in each required. As Clerk of the Circuit Court, his first deputy was Henry Moore, in 1834, succeeded by J. Young Scammon in 1835. Solomon Wills, who had married the sister of his first wife, became his deputy in 1836, and was succeeded in 1837 by George Manierre, who gave way to Thomas Hoyne in 1839. All these were lawyers, and nearly all young men, who served as his assist- ants until the professional business of each suc- cessively required his entire attention.

Colonel Hamilton was elected a member of the new Board of School Inspectors for the city of Chicago May 12, 1837, in recognition of his serv- ices and interest in the early schools, and of his position as School Commissioner. Pinched by the financial depression of 1837, he weathered the storm without becoming bankrupt, or failing to meet his financial obligations. In 1840 he was nominated Alderman of the Sixth Ward by the Democrats, and was elected; and the same year he was chosen a delegate to the State Democratic Convention held at Springfield.

In contemporary notices of the press Colonel Hamilton appears frequently as an active mem- ber in public meetings of the period on all ques-

tions of social, political, educational and religious interest, and he was frequently chosen on con- mittees of all sorts for the furtherance of public business, being apparently one of that worthy class of men who suffer themselves to be over- worked rather than shirk the responsibilities of active citizenship. He was prominent in the meeting held in memory of President Harrison in1 1841, and was no less active in the reception given the same year to Governor Carlin in Chi- cago. Meanwhile the time had arrived for re- linquishing some of his offices, the increased du- ties of which had now made them too unwieldy even for superintendence by one individual. In 1835 he had ceased to be Judge of Probate, in 1837 Clerk of the Commissioners' Court, and in 1839 Recorder of Deeds. In 1840 William H. Brown was elected School Agent, an office which entitled him to the care of the school funds of Chicago, which therefore passed out of the care of Colonel Hamilton with the close of that year. He still, however, retained his position as Com- missioner of School Lands for the county, for he is found to have advertised section 16, township 41, for sale August 9, 1841, as such. On the reorganization of the judicial system in 1841, Cook County fell within the circuit of Associate- Justice Theophilus W. Smith, who appointed his son-in-law, Henry G. Hubbard, to replace Col- onel Hamilton, who resumed the practice of law, his clerkship terminating March 12, 1841.

About 1843 the Colonel formed a law partner- ship with J. S. Chamberlaine, which was, how- ever, dissolved in 1845, and in 1846 his firm be- came Hamilton & Moore, Francis C. Moore be- ing the junior member. In 1847 this partnership was also dissolved, and he remained alone until his retirement from practice, which took place in 1850. In 1849 he was elected Alderman from the Ninth Ward, upon the resignation of Samuel Mckay, and in 1850 and 1851 as his own suc- cessor. He was Presidential Elector on the Dem- ocratic ticket in 1852, and in 1856 he was a can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor on the same ticket, which was, however, defeated by the Repub- licans.

His appearance as a candidate for the above

581

J. F. HENROTIN.

office seems to liave closed his long, useful and the high character of the deceased as a inan and honorable public career. December 26, 1860, he a citizen. His life was a career of active useful- ness. He was foremost in all public enterprises for the advancement and prosperity of the com- munity. We remember with pleasure the social and genial qualities of our deceased brother. He was a zealous friend; his heart was warm and his hand ever ready. In losing him the com- munity has lost one of its most valued citi- zens, and this Bar one of its most respected mem- bers." Twenty years after death he was char- acterized by Hon. Thomas Hoyne as being "of a generous and open nature, a good citizen, and a kind man, and one of those men who were then shaping the destinies of the state." died of paralysis, in his sixty-second year. Five children and his widow, his third wife, whom he married in 1843, survived him. She was for- merly Mrs. Priscilla P. Tuley, of Louisville, Ken- tucky, and the mother of the present Judge Tuley, of Chicago. Colonel Hamilton was buried on the 28th of December, 1860, with Masonic hon- ors. He had long been a member of the Ma- sonic order, and stood high in its counsels and honors, having been an officer in the first grand lodge in Illinois. At a memorial meet- ing of the Bar held on the same day, Judge Morris said: "There is scarcely a lawyer here now but owes much in his early life to Colonel Ham- ilton. He took every young practitioner who came here by the hand, and helped him to busi- ness and practice." Judge Wilson said: "Mr. Hamilton was a gentleman remarkable in many particulars; of very high notions as a gentleman, and of unusual sympathies." Judge Manierre re- ported a series of resolutions, from which the fol- lowing are extracted: "His death has removed one of our most distinguished citizens and pio- neers, and the oldest member of the legal frater- nity; we take pleasure in bearing testimony to

During the last years of his life Colonel Ham- ilton lived on the West Side, in a residence he had erected himself, "on Madison, west of Bull's Head," afterward the southwest corner of Hoyne Avenue. He devoted the remaining years of his life largely to beautifying this place, which was then regarded as a suburban home. Towards the close of 1860 he became a member of the South Presbyterian Church, the denomination with which he had most intercourse in early life, and to which his wife belonged.

DR. JOSEPH F. HENROTIN.

2 R. JOSEPH FORTUNAT HENROTIN was among the early physicians of Chicago, and endeared himself to a large number of citizens, especially on the North Side, by his brave and unselfish labors during the cholera epi- demic of 1849 to 1855. At that time there was a large German settlement between State Street and the lake shore, north of Chicago Avenue,

known as New Buffalo, the gratitude of whose denizens toward the "good French Doctor," as they called him, was unbounded. Without stop- ping to inquire about the certainty of his fees, when many others had left the city in alarm, Dr. Henrotin went among the poor and rich alike, carrying good cheer and healing balm to the stricken ones. His success in exterminating the

582

J. F. HENROTIN.

scourge gave him at once a very large practice, and he acquired what is a large fortune to be gained in medical practice in a few years. It was only his lack of a thorough knowledge of our lan- guage that prevented his taking the prominence in the professional and literary world that he de- served. He was a ripe scholar, and his diction in French was considered an ornament to the language. His reports to his native Government while serving as Consul are still preserved as models of elegance, clearness and practical value.

Joseph Fortunat Henrotin was born in Tellin, Belgium, March 17, 1811. His grandfather was a farmer at that place. His father, Dr. Clement Henrotin, was a graduate of the Medical Univer- sity of Paris, France, to which place he walked in youth, because of the limited means of transporta- tion in that day and region, to gain an education in medicine. While there he befriended and en- couraged young Dubois (who afterward became the French Court Physician) to take up the study of the healing art. Dr. Clement Henrotin prac- ticed medicine sixty-five years at Tellin, where he died, full of honors, at the age of ninety-six years. His wife was Miss Rossion.

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Album of genealogy and biograghy, Cook County, Illinois, 10th ed., Part 85

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago, Calumet book & engraving co Number of Pages: 916

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago, Calumet book & engraving co
Number of Pages: 916