Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 19th ed., Part 61

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : La Salle Book Co.
Number of Pages: 908

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415

A. C. DUCAT.

GEN. ARTHUR C. DUCAT.

G EN. ARTHUR CHARLES DUCAT was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 24th of Feb- ruary, 1830. His father, Mungo Moray Ducat, was a gentleman who traced his lineage from a very ancient Highland family, renowned in the annals of Scotland. He was a native of Cupar Angus, but in early life removed to New Lawn, County Dublin, Ireland, where he also possessed large estates. His wife, Dorcas Julia Atkinson, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and died in Downer's Grove, Illinois, in Novem- ber, 1889, aged eighty-six years. Her father was an Englishman, of Cambridgeshire.

Arthur C. Ducat was educated at private schools in his native city, and at the age of nineteen years came to America with the inten- tion of becoming a civil engineer. He pursued that profession for some years on important rail- road lines and other public works. This occupa- tion'was abandoned when he was tendered the position of Secretary and General Surveyor of the Board of Underwriters of Chicago, which position he accepted and occupied until the opening of the Civil War. In the mean time he began to mani- fest a keen interest in the affairs of the city, and organized, drilled and disciplined the Citizens' Fire Brigade, a semi-military and armed body of citizens. Their duties were to attend fires and save and guard property and life. This action also had a deeper meaning, for Ducat had resolved to abolish the old "volunteer" fire department and

introduce a new one in its place on a paid and disciplined basis, employing steam fire-engines. He was obliged to protect the first engines brought to Chicago from the demonstrations and attacks of mobs, incited by the bad element of the volunteer department, which he did by the aid of his fire brigade. He wrote the ordinances estab- lishing and substituting steam engines for the old hand machines, and enlisted the vote of the Com- mon Council to adopt it.

Upon the beginning of hostilities between the North and the South, he was one of the first to offer substantial aid in support of the Government. His taste had led him to the study of military history and science, and he knew as much of the art of war as a lieutenant fresh from West Point. The roar of the first guns had scarcely ceased before he had raised and offered-first to the State of Illinois and then to the National Government -a corps of three hundred engineers, sappers and miners. Many of these men were professionals who had seen service and understood the details of field and permanent fortifications, and works connected therewith, the rapid construction of bridges, roads, etc. The Government was not aware, however, of the struggle before it and per- haps thought that engineers would not be neces- sary. So Ducat was chagrined and disappointed by the rejection of what he foresaw would be a much-needed service. Notwithstanding this re- fusal, he immediately enlisted as a private, and

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A. C. DUCAT.

in April, 1861, became a member of the Twelfth Illinois Infantry. He was without political, gov- ernmental or family influence, and resolved to do his duty and depend upon his merits for promo- tion. Although a good horseman, he selected the infantry arm of the service, as he believed it would do most of the fighting. His regiment was among the first that seized the important strategic point of Cairo and supported General Lyon in taking possession of the arsenal at St. Louis. It was not long before Ducat's military acquirements and capabilities were appreciated. Within a month he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, and afterwards appointed Adjutant of the regiment. Upon the expiration of the three months for which he had enlisted, he was again enrolled for three years in the same regiment, and appointed Captain of Company A. The Twelfth formed a part of the brigade that first occupied the sacred soil of Kentucky, taking possession of Paducah in August, 1861. Here he was pro- moted to be Major of his regiment, and in the month of April following, at Fort Donelson, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel. In August, 1862, he was appointed to the command of the grand guards, pickets and outposts for the Army of the Tennessee. When Major-General Ord was appointed to the com- mand, Ducat was ordered to his staff, and when Major-General Rosecrans relieved General Ord, Ducat was attached to the staff of the former. At Rosecrans' great battle of Corinth and the subse- quent pursuit of the enemy, he served as acting Chief of Staff and Inspector-General, and so con- ducted himself as to receive the warmest con- gratulations of his superior officers, not only for bravery, but for efficiency, making most important suggestions as to movements, and carrying them out with great success.

Subsequently he was directed by the general in command to conduct a flag of truce to the enemy at Holly Springs, Mississippi, a distance of over seventy-five miles, through a country infested with a superior force of guerrillas and the enemy's cavalry, who were not to be depended upon to recognize a flag of truce. He succeeded, and dis- played as much tact and discretion in the im-

portant negotiations entrusted to him as in the field. He was afterward detailed to arrange with General Burnside the Knoxville campaign, rep- resenting General Rosecrans on that occasion.

When Major-General Rosecrans took command of the forces known as the Army of the Ohio (which subsequently became the Army of the Cumberland), Colonel Ducat was ordered to ac- company General Rosecrans and named as acting Chief of Staff and acting Inspector-General. In this important and responsible position he ren- dered the most efficient service in re-organizing, equipping, disciplining and drilling the army, in raising the siege of Nashville, and in opening the railway from that city to Louisville. He was afterward appointed by the War Department In- spector-General of the Fourteenth Army Corps, and after the battle of Stone River and the or- ganization of the Army and Department of the Cumberland, he was appointed Inspector-General of that army and department (the most military of the staff positions), in addition to which he had charge of the grand guards, pickets and out- posts, and the organization of the signal corps of the army. When it is recollected that Ducat was a self-educated soldier, his selection from among the many able and experienced men who had made war their profession is a distinc- tion indicating a high degree of merit. He or- ganized the Bureau of the Inspector-General on a system substantially new, but adapted to secure the greatest efficiency and discipline of a great army in the field. At first his strict and rigid exactions rendered him unpopular, but as soon as results began to manifest themselves in the greater efficiency of the troops, their sanitary condition and military spirit, he became, among officers and men, one of the most popular officers of that army. He formulated and put in practice a system of picketing and outposting an army which highly distinguished him. When General Rosecrans was relieved and Maj .- Gen. George H. Thomas took command, Ducat was ordered to the staff of the latter, in which capacity he served until he left the service at the close of the war, respected and beloved by all.

Many of these facts are obtained from an a fi-

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A. C. DUCAT.

cle written by General Rosecrans, who also said of himn: "I regard him as an extraordinary mau, * * * an excellent tactician, * * a soldier by nature; so much so, that he never exacted the credit he easily merited, nor the promotion given to less able and more plodding men."

The following is from the pen of General Grant: "His services have been very valuable and have been highly appreciated." General Thomas wrote: "One of the most able and use- ful of the army staff and cannot well be spared." General Sheridan characterized him as "an officer of high standing and distinguished merit." Another writer on the war says: "Ducat was early distinguished for his thorough knowledge of military details, his organizing powers and his executive ability; but especially for his sleepless vigilance and activity, that mastered all details of topography and the movement of hostile armies."

The late President Garfield, Quartermaster General Meigs, Major Generals Ord, Palmer, and others, addressed the war department, recom- mending the higher promotion of Ducat, but the lack of influence at headquarters, together with his own indifference regarding promotion, seemed to prevent him from receiving appointments to higher commands. He was always fully con- tented in any capacity in the army to which he was appointed.

Soon after the close of hostilities, the Home In- surance Company, of New York, appointed him to superintend its business in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, and shortly afterward he became its general agent in Chicago. His career as an act- ive underwriter was eminently successful, his popularity and acquaintance throughout the West being of great advantage to his employers. The firm of Ducat & Lyon, of which he was the head, carries on a general fire-insurance business. The business under his control has always been successful and profitable. One of the standard works of America is "Ducat's Practice of Fire Underwriting," which he brought out in 1857.

Before the great fire he was chairman of the committee that organized the celebrated Fire Insurance Patrol of Chicago. He remained

chairman of the Patrol Committee five years after the fire, and infused into it the esprit du corps and military spirit that have characterized it and brought about the extension of the fire limits to be co-extensive with the city limits -an important work, adroitly managed in the face of great opposition. He was chairman of the committee which framed the new building law after the great fire, and, in conjunction with Frederick Baumann, wrote the most elaborate and well-digested building law in this or any other country. The Board of Local Fire Under- writers was organized on the basis of his recom- mendation, in the capacity of committee for that purpose, to which position he was appointed soon after the great fire.

In 1873 there was a movement in Illinois to re- organize the National Guard of the State. The advice of General Ducat on this subject was sought, and the military code upon which the present efficient Guard was organized is the prod- uct of his brain and pen, for which he was made major general and its commander. In 1886 he was elected commander of the Illinois Comman- dery of the military order of the Loyal Legion. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public, and of the Masonic order, being identified with Apollo Commandery, Knights Templar; and a member of the Chicago Club. He was always a staunch Republican, though never a candidate for civil office. He was married to Miss Mary Lyon, daughter of William Lyon, Esq., of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Her death occurred in Chicago, October 26, 1890, at the age of forty- three years. In 1892 he was married to Miss Alice Jane Soutar, daughter of P. J. Soutar, an eminent lawyer of Dunfermline, Scotland. Six of General Ducat's children survive. Arthur C., Jr., a graduate of West Point, is a lieutenant in the United States Army; Kate, the second child, is the wife of C. P. Stivers, of Chicago; and Mary, Reginald, Elizabeth and Alice complete the family, whose members are communicants of the Episcopal Church, in which General Ducat was reared. The latter died January 29, 1896, at his home in Downer's Grove.

418

DANIEL WARREN.

12 ANIEL WARREN, one of the pioneers of passed away at his home in Warrenville in 1866, Illinois, deserves more than passing notice aged eighty-six years. in this record. He was the representative of one of the oldest American families, which will always live in history because of the brave general who lost his life at the battle of Bun- ker Hill. Daniel Warren was a successful busi- ness man, who came West to embrace the op- portunity to secure a large landed estate at small original outlay. He was a native of Massachu- setts, born about 1780, near Concord, the scene of the first conflict of arms in behalf of colonial in- dependence and American liberty.

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

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

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

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF P''"

CHARLES C. P. HOLDEN

MRS. C. C. P. HOLDEN

LIBRARY OF THE NIVERSITY OF ILLIN

419

C. C. P. HOLDEN.

CHARLES C. P. HOLDEN.

HARLES C. P. HOLDEN was born at Gro- C ton, New Hampshire, August 9, 1827. His father's name was Phineas H., and his mother, prior to her marriage, was Miss Betsey Parker. His genealogical record shows his earliest American ancestor to have been one Richard Holden, who, in 1634, with his brother Justinian, came from Ipswich, England, in the sailing-ves- sel "Francis," settling in the locality which after- ward became Watertown, Massachusetts. Mr. Holden's maternal grandfather was Lieutenant Levi Parker, a patriot who served in the army of the Revolution, taking part in the battle of Bun- ker Hill and not returning to his fireside until after the surrender of Cornwallis. He chanced to be with Washington at the time of Arnold's trea- son and Andre's capture, and served as one of the guards at the execution of the gallant British officer who was punished as a spy, and whose conspicuous bravery Lieutenant Parker sincerely admired.

Mr. Holden's father, with his family of nine children, came West in 1836, reaching Chicago June 30. With hired ox-teams he at once set out for the prairie, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of Government land, selecting as a location Skunk's Grove, on the "Sauk Trail," in the edge of Will County, thirty miles south of the future city. He was the first settler in that region, his nearest neighbor being two miles and a-half distant, and his children being compelled to walk three miles across the trackless prairie to receive instruction in the rude log hut which served as a schoolhouse.

Among such surroundings Charles rapidly de-

veloped great physical strength. When not more than ten years old he drove a breaking team of five yoke of oxen, his father holding the plow, and was able to do all that usually fell to the lot of farmers' boys in those early days. When he was fifteen, his father placed him in Sweet's gro- cery store, on North Water Street, near Wolcott, now North State Street, where for six months he worked hard for his board. At the end of that time, however, his employer presented him with a pair of cassimere pantaloons, which the young clerk highly prized.

In the spring of 1847 his patriotic ardor, no less than his love of adventure, prompted him to en- list in Company F, of the Fifth Regiment of Illi- nois Volunteers, and after serving until the end of the Mexican War he was mustered out of serv- ice at Alton, Illinois, October 16, 1848. He immediately secured employment in the book store of A. H. & C. Burley, where he remained until March, 1850. On the 19th of that month he joined a party which set out from Old Fort Kearney, Missouri, for California. The route was overland, and the pilgrims took up their weary journey with two teams. They reached Hangtown July 12 and at once began mining on the Middle Fork of the American River. Young Holden spent two seasons on this stream, pass- ing the second at Coloma Bar. In the fall of 1851 he began farming and stock-raising at Napa Valley, which pursuits he followed until Decem- ber 1, 1853, when he turned his face eastward. He took passage on the steamship "Winfield Scott," bound from San Francisco for Panama, but the vessel was wrecked in a fog on the reef of Anna Capa Island, at midnight, December 2. As soon as the grinding of the ship's bottom on

* This sketch is taken from the "History of Chicago," by per- mission of the publishers Munsell & Co.

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·C. C. P. HOLDEN.

the rocks aroused the three hundred or more pas- sengers to a comprehension of their danger, they buckled on life preservers, promptly given them by the officers, and anxiously awaited their sup- posed fate. They recalled the doom of the ill- fated "Independence," which had gone to the bottom a few months before with four hundred souls on board. The officers of the "Winfield Scott" did their duty nobly, the furnace fires were promptly extinguished and the first boat- loads of impatient, terror-stricken voyagers were landed on the shelving rocks, which, however, seemed a veritable haven of refuge. The pass- age to these rocks was perilous, but every one was safely transported. The stranded passengers and crew, however, underwent torments of hun- ger and thirst upon a barren ledge until rescued, seven days after the wreck, by the steamship "California," which carried them to Panama. The "Scott" was abandoned to the pitiless buffet- ing of the elements and ultimately went to pieces. Neither cargo, express matter (except the money ), mail nor baggage was rescued. The destitute passengers made the best of their way across the isthmus and were taken to New York by the Pacific Mail steamer "Illinois," landing January 3, 1854. Mr. Holden returned to Chicago, reach- ing this city March 18, 1854, precisely four years (lacking one day) from the date of his departure.

The next important event in his life was his entry into the service of the land department of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which occurred February 20, 1855.

Seven months later-on September 17, 1855 -he was married to Miss Sarah J. Reynolds, daughter of Isaac N. and Rue Ann Reynolds, of New Lenox, Will County, Illinois. Mrs. Hol- den was the granddaughter of Abraham Holder- man, of Holderman's Grove, Illinois, where he settled in 1830.

Mr. Holden has been a prominent figure in Illinois politics since 1858, when he went as a delegate from Chicago to Springfield to the Re- publican State Convention. The train that car- ried the delegation was decorated with a banner bearing the legend, "For United States Senator, Abraham Lincoln." It was after the adjourn-

ment of this convention that the great commoner uttered those memorable words:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot endure per- manently, half slave, half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

Mr. Holden was elected a member of the city council in April 1861, he representing the old "fifth ward," and continued a member of the municipal legislature until December, 1872. Dur- ing his protracted term of service he had an eye single to the city's good. He worked as did few of his confreres, "public office" being, in his esti- mation, a "public trust." Measures of genuine improvement-not for his own ward, but looking to the benefit of all Chicago-found in him an ardent champion. The improvement of streets was one of his cherished hobbies, of which he never lost sight. In this connection due credit should be given to Mr. Holden's labors. The water supply received his thonghtful considera- tion, and it was largely through his efforts that the present system of abundant distribution through- out the city took its inception and received its im- pulsive force. While a member of the council he was constantly agitating this question. He was the advocate of pure water, and plenty of it, for every man, woman and child within the corporate limits. Indeed had it not been for him and others like him, Chicago would have been, to-day, as poorly supplied with water as some of her sister western cities. It was through his persistent la- bor that the city authorized the building of the second tunnel under the lake, with its extension, besides the construction of the waterway ending at Ashland Avenue and Twenty-second Street.

As to Mr. Holden's influence in this regard, see proceedings of the common council for 1869 and 1870, pp. 87, 91, III, and page 690, Pro- ceedings 1868-9.

During the dark hours of the nation's history, Mr. Holden was conspicuously loyal. His vote, his voice and his efforts were always in support of the Union. His vote as a municipal legislator

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C. C. P. HOLDEN.

was always in behalf of aiding the National Gov- ernment with men and money. In 1862 he raised a company for the Eighty-eighth regiment of Illinois Volunteers, his brother, Levi P., being elected its captain. In 1864, when a draft was ordered in case the quota of troops allotted to Chicago was not furnished throughi voluntary en- listment, lie determined that there should be no draft in his ward-the Tenth. He organized a "Ward Draft Association" and was chosen its president. The members worked with a will, and the sum of $51,912 was raised wherewith to pay bounties to volunteers, thus warding off what Mr. Holden was inclined to regard as a threat- ened disgrace. Mr. Holden furnished three rep- resentatives for his family for the army-Harris Durkee, for his wife; Frederick A. Hausmann, for his sister-in-law, Rowena P. Reynolds; and Alonzo C. Ide for himself.

His part in civic affairs has always been a prom- inent one. He was marshal of the city council on the occasion of the reception of the remains of President Lincoln on their way to their final rest- ing place at Springfield, and chairman of the com- mittee named to secure the attendance of General Grant at the great fair held at Dearborn Park, July, 1865. It was he who introduced the reso- lutions which were adopted by the council relative to Lincoln's funeral .*

At the time of the great fire of 1871, he was president of the council, and rendered valuable service in bringing order out of chaos and secur- ing succor for the destitute. A detailed account of his efficient work at that trying period may be found in Andreas' History of Chicago, Vol. II, pp. 761-772.1 At the next municipal election both the great political parties-Republican and Democratic-placed Mr. Holden in nomination for the mayoralty, each also nominating a full ticket for the other city offices. But there was an element in the community which was of opinion that political considerations ought not to be re- garded at such a time, and in consequence a com- plete "citizens'?' ticket, known as the "fire- proof," was nominated, containing the names of

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 19th ed., Part 61

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago : La Salle Book Co. Number of Pages: 908

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : La Salle Book Co.
Number of Pages: 908