Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 19th ed., Part 72

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

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CHARLES HENRY FELTON.

D HARLES HENRY FELTON, one of the well-known business men of Chicago, now Secretary and Manager of the White Swan Laundry Company (incorporated), was born in Troy, N. Y., February 18, 1840. His ancestors were of English origin, and the founders of the fam- ily in America, who came here in 1636, settled and resided in Salem, Mass. His great-grandfather, · Capt. Benjamin Felton, took a prominent part in the Revolutionary War. He was a brave and valiant officer, as well as a highly educated man, and at the close of the war he was appointed Pro- fessor in a college, which position he held until disqualified by old age. He was a leader in Ma- sonic circles, and was an influential citizen, who was honored with several public positions of trust.

He lived to be eighty years of age, and was the father of ten children.

The grandfather of our subject, Skelton Felton, of Brookfield, Mass., was a lieutenant in the regu- lar army, receiving his commission from President Madison. He served in the War of 1812, and af- ter its close received a pensiou for gallant services rendered. He was also a Professor in a college of Massachusetts for a time. Later he removed to Troy, N. Y., and died at the age of sixty-five years. His children were Amory, Benjamin, Henry, Lucinda, Sarah and Amanda. Only one is now living, who resides in New York. The mother of this family bore the maiden name of Houghton. Her death occurred in the Empire State at tlie ripe age of seventy years.

490

C. H. FELTON.

Amory Felton, father of Charles Henry, was a native of Brookfield, Mass., born in 1813. From his father he received an excellent education, and at the age of nineteen years was Principal of Dud- ley Academy, Brookfield, Mass. Later, he re- moved to Troy, N. Y., and established the whole- sale grocery house of Felton & Mathews. He af- terward went into the iron business, purchasing the Empire Stove Works. He was very success- ful in this enterprise, and left to his family a for- tune. In 1863, at the age of fifty-one years, he was called to his final rest. He married Nancy Boynton, a native of the Bay State, and a descen- dant of Hughes De Boynton, a Norman baron, who went with William the Conqueror into Eng- land. The manor and lands granted to DeBoynton by William the Conqueror in 1067, in the old Kingdom of Wessex, are still in possession of the family. Her mother reached the very advanced age of one hundred and one. The children of this mar- riage are William, Charles, Herbert and Emma Louise. William resides in Troy, N. Y. Herbert is Division Superintendent of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and a graduate of the Polytech- nic Institute of Troy, N. Y .; and Emma Louise is the wife of F. K. Lyon, of Dunkirk, N. Y. Mrs. Fel- ton is still living, at the age of seventy-eight. She is a remarkable old lady, in perfect health, and in perfect possession of her faculties; her eyesight and hearing are good, and no silver threads are yet seen in her hair. Tall and straight, her step is firm and elastic, and she seems not to have passed the prime of life. She is also a well-in- formed lady, extensive reading having made her well informed on the questions of the day.

Mr. Felton whose name heads this record was educated in the common schools of Troy, N. Y., and in Bennington Seminary, of Bennington, Vt., from which he was graduated at the age of nine- teen. During his school days, he manifested a restless spirit, longing to be a locomotive engineer, and would often run away from school, get aboard a locomotive, and try to run it. On completing his education, he remained at home for a while, and then went to Marion, Ala., where he remained for one year. Later we find him in Selma, Ala., where he obtained employment in a jewelry

store. About a year later, as the War of the Rebellion was approaching, and his sympathies were with the North, his residence in the South be- came, in consequence, very unpleasant. He there- fore decided to come to Chicago, and on his ar- rival here, he entered the employ of A. H. Miller & Co., the leading jewelry firm of the city at that time. With them he remained until February, 1862, when he enlisted in Battery L of the Second Illinois Light Artillery, then located at Camp Douglas.

The company was soon ordered to the front, and went to St. Louis, where it received its equip- ment, and from there was ordered to Pittsburg Landing, to reinforce Gen. Grant, but arrived too late to take part in the great battle which occurred at that place. They were actively engaged in the campaign which soon followed under Gens. Grant and Halleck, when they advanced on Corinth, and in the battles of the Grant campaign, including the battles around Memphis and at Jackson, Tenn., Bolivar and Holly Springs, Miss. After re-organizing at Memphis for the siege of Vicks- burg, Mr. Feltou's company was sent to Lake Providence, La., and from this point they started on their march through the interior to Grand Gulf, where they crossed the Mississippi River be- low Vicksburg. Then followed the battles of Raymond, Champion Hills, Big Black River, and the siege of Vicksburg, in which Mr. Felton took part. During the campaign, he received several promotions for gallant services, until he reached the rank of Senior First Lieutenant, and Adjutant of Artillery of the District of Vicksburg, which comprised Vicksburg, Natchez and Milliken's Bend; then followed his promotion as First Assist- ant Provost-Marshal of the city of Vicksburg. About this time, Mr. Felton was recommended by Gen. Logan, of Illinois, and Gen. M. D. Legget, of Ohio, for the position of Adjutant of Artillery on Gen. Grant's staff, the place being then vacant; but as the war was now drawing to a close, he de- cided to resign, but did not do so till all the rebel armies had surrendered, when he returned to Chicago.

On the 25th of September, 1865, in Albany, N. Y., Mr. Felton married Miss Lizzie R. Borthwick,

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C. P. HUEY.

who had been his playmate in early childhood. She is a daughter of Alexander Hamilton and Rachael (Esmé) Borthwick, the former a leading and successful merchant of Albany. Her grand- father was a grandson of Lord Borthwick, of Grands Hall, Scotland. Her ancestors were Scotch-French, and her maternal grandfather was an officer in the French army and came to Amer- ica with Gen. La Fayette. Mrs. Felton was born in Albany, N. Y., and there resided until the age of fourteen. The three succeeding years of her life were passed in a college for young ladies in Lyons, Iowa, and after graduating she returned to her native city. Mrs. Felton is a linguist and a vo- calist of some note, having studied under the best teachers in America and Europe.

In 1865, soon after Mr. Felton left the army, he re-entered the service of A. H. Miller & Co., with whom he continued until 1870, when he en- gaged in the railroad business. He was appointed contracting agent of the Empire Freight Line, which was a part of the Pennsylvania system, and to the duties of that position devoted his energies for ten years, when he became general agent of the Merchants' Dispatch Dairy Line (having charge of the territory west of the Mississippi River) of the New York Central System, in which capacity he served for two years. .

In 1882 Mr. Felton purchased one of the largest

steam laundries in Chicago, successfully conduct- ing the same until 1884, when, accompanied by Mrs. Felton, he went to Europe and located in London, England. He there embarked in the man- ufacture of laundry machinery, and did a prosper- ous business for three years, when he became a financial agent, and dealt in all kinds of Ameri- can enterprises and investment securities. With this business he was connected for five years, and was again very successful. During this period, in company with his wife, he visited and resided in some of the principal cities of Europe. In 1892, he returned to Chicago, and soon after secured an extensive interest in the White Swan Laundry, one of the largest in the city. This corporation, of which he is now Secretary and Manager, is doing a very prosperous business. Mr. Felton is a very energetic and capable man, yet modest and unas- suming, polite and courteous, intelligent and well informed. His views are broad, his understand- ing having been well developed by travel and ex- perience. He is domestic in his tastes, very fond of music, and an admirer of the opera and art. In religious belief, he is independent, and in his political views is a Republican. He keeps abreast with the times in all things, and is well posted on the leading questions of the day. We predict for him the same success in the future, that has crowned his efforts in the past.

CHARLES P. HUEY.

HARLES P. HUEY, who is successfully en- gaged in the practice of law in Harvey, re- ceiving a liberal patronage, was born in Cape Town, Cape Colony, October 3, 1849. His fa- ther, Robert T. Huey, was born and reared in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he made his home until the age of thirty-five, when he entered the British service and became a soldier in the Colonial

army. He was sent with his command to South Africa, and reached Cape Town about 1838. In that place he was united in marriage with Wil- helmina Thomas. At the close of the war he was discharged from the service and returned to Cape Town, from whence he afterwards removed to Port Elizabeth, on the extreme southern coast of Cape Colony, where with his family he resided

492

C. P. HUEY.

for many years, engaged in trading and in various business pursuits. He finally engaged in mer- chandising, and in the interests of that business, and partly for recreation, departed for Liver- pool in 1860. He took passage on a sailing-ves- sel, which was never heard from again, and is supposed to have stuk in mid-ocean, not a pas- senger escaping to tell the tale of the disaster. He left a wife and six children. Anna, the eldest, became the wife of Samuel Slaughter, who is now serving as a County Assessor in southern Utah; Mary is married and resides in northern Mon- tana; Charles is the next younger; Leonard is in the railway service and resides in southern Colo- rado; Nellie is the wife of Ernest H. Price, of Fresno, Cal .; and Walter resides in the same State.

Charles P. Huey began his education in the private schools of Port Elizabeth, which he at- tended until nine years of age, after which he spent two years in the Gray Institute, a large and most excellent school. At the age of ten years he began the study of Latin. . When a child of eleven summers he accompanied the family to America, locating in Salt Lake City, where he attended St. Mark's Grammar School, an Epis- copal institution of learning, for two years. At the age of nineteen he entered a. printing-office and worked as a compositor until 1872, becoming an expert printer. He learned so rapidly that in half the usual time he had completed the regular apprenticeship and was made a journeyman. He then, until the fall of 1873, was engaged in the newspaper and publishing business, and during a part of the time assisted John C. Young, a nephew of Brigham Young, in the publication of a local paper, which was opposed to the system of polyg- amy, and was really the beginning of the great opposition developed in Utah against the system. So bitter was the opposition of the Mormon lead- ers, that the printing establishment was once broken up by a mob and Mr. Young assaulted.

In the fall of 1873, Mr. Huey became a student in the law department of the University of Michi- gan at Ann Arbor, pursuing a two-years course, and graduating with honor in the Class of '75. He at once began practice in Salt Lake City, and

soon acquired prominence in the prosecution of the case of the United States against Rossiter, a prominent Mormon in the employ of Brigham Young, who was bound over under the Poland Law to keep the peace for having threatened with violence John C. Young, the old friend and asso- ciate of Mr. Huey, and who was then local editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, the leading Gentile paper of the city. The case, under the advice of Mr. Huey, was prosecuted before Mr. Pratt, United States Commissioner, who held the accused under bonds. The prisoner's counsel, one of the lead- ing lawyers of Salt Lake City, and attorney for the Mormon Church, appealed to the United States District Court for discharge, under writ of habeas corpus, which, after an able argument by Mr. Huey in opposition to the release, and argu- ments in its behalf by the prisoner's counsel, was denied by the Chief Justice, and the prisoner re- manded to the custody of the United States Mar- shal. Mr. Huey's maiden speech at the Bar won the first signal victory for the anti-polygamist un- der the Poland Law and gained him a well-de- served prominence. He continued in practice in Salt Lake City until 1882.

In 1878, Mr. Huey wedded Mary J. McFerren, of Hoopeston, Il1., and in 1882, on account of his wife's health, removed to Hoopeston, where he practiced law for some time, but was mostly en- gaged in the banking business for six years, in company with his brother-in-law, J. S. McFerren, who is President and chief owner of the First National Bank of Hoopeston. Mr. Huey served as Assistant Cashier until 1889, when he resumed law practice, and also for a year published the Hoopeston Sentinel. He also founded and pub- lished the Danville Sentinel, and in March, 1892, came to Harvey, where for a few months he edited the Harvey Citizen. In the same year, however, he retired from the newspaper field, and has since successfully engaged in law practice.

In politics, Mr. Huey is a Republican, but at local elections subordinates party to the best in- terests of the town, laboring with other promi- nent citizens for temperance, good government, and the material interests of this thriving suburb. He now holds the office of City Attorney. Heis

PLEASANT AMICK.

493

a member of the Episcopal Church, and an active member of Dirigo Lodge No. 399, K. P., which he represented in the State Grand Lodge at Spring- field. He has taken the highest degree in the Odd Fellows' fraternity, and has passed all the chairs in the local lodge. He lias only one child,

James J., who is now nine years of age. Mr. Huey is recognized as one of the most prominent and progressive citizens of Harvey, and in the history of his adopted county he well deserves mention.

PLEASANT AMICK.

LEASANT AMICK, a pioneer of northern Illinois, now engaged in the real-estate busi- ness in Chicago, has for some years been con- nected with the business and official interests of this city, and is recognized as one of its represen- tative men. He was born near Diamond Lake, Cass County, Mich., October 14, 1834, and is a son of Jacob and Rachel (Corron) Amick, natives of Virginia. They removed to Cass County, Mich., previous to 1830. The Amick family is of German origin, and the ancestors were among the pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania. Members of the family afterward removed to the Old Domin- ion, and Jacob Amick was born near the Natural Bridge in Virginia. The Corron family is Eng- lish, and its founders in America settled in Vir- ginia. The mother of Mrs. Rachel Amick was a daughter of James Pinnell, Jr., who came from Lambeth, London. One of his uncles, Rev. Robert Pinnell, served as rector of a church for more than half a century in one of the parishes near London.

I11 1835, Jacob Amick removed with his family to Illinois and located on a farm in Kane County, becoming one of the first settlers of that locality. He was a cooper by trade, and carried on that bus- iness in connection with farming. He was the in- ventor of the grapevine cradle-swath. In 1844, he removed to Chicago, where he engaged in the manufacture of scythes and grain-cradles until

1849, when he went overland to California. There his death occurred, October 25, 1850, at the age of forty-eight years, resulting from an attack of cholera. He was an old-time Abolitionist, being identified with the movement from the beginning, and left Virginia on account of the slavery there tolerated. He was distinguished for his strong convictions and devotion to principle, and had the confidence of all who knew him. He held mem- bership with the Tabernacle Baptist Church, now tlie Second Baptist Church of Chicago, the house of worship being then located on La Salle, between Washington and Randolph Streets. His wife, who was a member of the same church, passed away in 1878, at the age of seventy-two. Of their children, one died in infancy; Mary Elizabeth be- came the wife of Alanson Miller, and died of chol- era in Chicago in 1852; Martha, deceased, was the wife of Joseph Shaw; Pleasant is the next younger; Hiram, who is now living in California, was a member of the Mercantile Battery of Chicago, and for a number of years was Secretary of the Fire Department of Chicago; Myron J., who for many years was a member of the United States army, and did much scouting duty during the Great Rebellion, now resides in New York City.

The gentleman whose name lieads this record was in his tenth year when the family located in Chicago. The house built by his father in 1844 on Curtis Street is still standing. Pleasant Amick,

494

H. T. BYFORD.

his wife, and afterward two of their children, at- tended the Scammon School on Madison Street, the first free-school building in the West Division, of which Prof. A. D. Sturtevant was the Principal, and Pleasant was afterward a pupil in Gleason's Academy. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in a grocery-store ou Clark Street owned by J. B. Doggett, with whom he continued until 1855, when he embarked in business for himself as a member of the firm of Leybourn & Amick, grocers. In 1859, they sold out, and during the war Mr. Amick served as enrolling officer under Col. William James, of Chicago. I11 1864, he was elected Tax Collector for the West Division, on the same ticket with Abraham Lincoln, and served two years. In 1866, he embarked in the real- estate business, which he has followed almost con- tinuously since, being considered one of the best judges of real-estate values in the city. During the three succeeding years he served as City As- sessor, and in 1880 and 1881 he was Assessor of the Town of West Chicago. For fourteen years

he was in the tax department of the West Division, serving in various capacities.

On the 15th of November, 1854, Mr. Amick was joined in wedlock with Julia S. Bishop, a na- tive of Lewis, Essex County, N. Y., and to them have been born three children: Frank S., a real- estate dealer of Chicago; J. Stella; and Mamie, who died at the age of three and a-half years.

Mr. Amick was reared in the faith of the Bap- tist Church, but now holds membership with no religious organization. He is a member of Columbian Lodge No. 819, A. F. & A. M., of Lawndale, and in politics he has been a stalwart Republican since the organization of the party. He is a gentleman of genial and pleasant manner, has an extensive acquaintance among the earlier settlers of Chicago, and feels a keen and abiding interest in their early history. His long residence here makes him familiar with much of its devel- opment, and in the work of advancement he has ever borne his part.

HENRY TURMAN BYFORD, M. D.

ENRY TURMAN BYFORD, M. D., Profes- sor of Gynecology in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of Chicago, and in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School, and of Clinical Gynecology in the Woman's Medical College of Chicago, and ex-President of the Chi- cago Gynecological Society, is a native of Evans- ville, Ind., born on the 12th of November, 1853. He is the second and only surviving son of the late Dr. William Heath Byford, of Chicago, and Mary Ann Byford, his wife, the latter a daughter of Hezekiah Holland, a physician of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and sister of a physician, Andrew Holland.

Dr. William H. Byford, the pioneer gynecol- ogist of Chicago, was a man whose intelligence

and culture, extended observation and experience, fitted him to fully appreciate the benefits of edu- cation, proper environment and morality upon the young, and took such measures as afforded his sons ample opportunity to enjoy them and to pre- pare to enter one of the learned professions.

The subject of this sketch obtained in the pub- lic schools of Chicago his primary education, and at the age of twelve had completed a large portion of the public-school course. He then accompa- nied his elder brother to Europe, where he spent four years (1865-1868) in travel and study. At Berlin, he learned French and German, and also took a full regular classical course including Lat- in and Greek. It would seem that under the

495

H. T. BYFORD.

circumstances he would have labored under in- surmountable difficulties in competition with the pupils of native birth, but at graduation he took prizes in divinity and also in German composition.

Upon his return to the United States, Dr. By- ford matriculated in the University of Chicago, where he contemplated taking higher honors in the classics; but discovering a preference for the sciences, he entered the scientific department of Williston Seminary in East Hampton, Mass., from which he was graduated in the year 1870. En- tering the Chicago Medical College, he took a three-years course, which he completed in 1873, graduating as valedictorian of his class. It is a matter worthy of remark that the college records show that he was marked one hundred per cent. in all branches of medicine taught, except diseases of the eye and ear, which at that time did not re- ceive so much attention as at the present date. During his second year he attended the lectures and demonstrations given to the senior class, and at the end of the year passed a successful exami- nation in all branches and fairly won the position of interne in Mercy Hospital.

The serious illness of his brother in Louisiana requiring Dr. Byford's presence there, interrupted his hospital course, and prevented his delivering the valedictory address to his class at graduation. Although absent from the commencement exer- cises, his extraordinary proficiency and excep- tional standing were distinctly recognized by the faculty, which granted him his degree of Doctor of Medicine without examination, a very unusual act, but one which the circumstances of the case fully justified. One condition was attached to the granting of the degree, and that was that the young graduate, then hardly twenty years of age, should not enter the active practice of medicine un- til he had attained his majority. This was done out of regard for the ethics of the profession, which does not encourage the practice of medicine by minors, however proficient.

The interim between graduation and the attain- ment of his majority was spent by Dr. Byford in at- tendance upon his brother in Colorado, where lie had the satisfaction of seeing him recover. Declin- ing his father's proffered partnership, the young

physician thought it best to begin professional life independently, and associated himself with his col- lege friend, Dr. J. A. St. John, opening an office in one of the less fashionable districts of the city. The brilliant promise of future success which had appeared in the student was fully realized in the practitioner. He was energetic, competent, pop- ular, and successful from the first. In 1879, he visited Europe a second time, and for a year and a-half devoted his time about equally to study in the hospitals and travel for pleasure.

On his return to Chicago, Dr. Byford associated himself with his father, and directed his attention principally to obstetrics and the diseases of women and children, working steadily toward his life ob- ject-the diseases of women and abdominal sur- gery. Although busy with his private practice he has not spent his whole time therein. He has been Curator in the museum of the Chicago Medi- cal College, lecturer on diseases of children in the Chicago Medical College, and lecturer on obstet- rics in Rush Medical College. These positions, however, were relinquished on account of their requiring time that he could not spare from his favorite study and specialty. In December, 1888, he received the appointment to the chair of Gynecology in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medi- cal School, of which he is one of the founders; and the following year he was chosen Professor of Clinical Gynecology in the Woman's Medical College, and upon the death of A. Reeves Jack- son, in 1892, was elected Professor of Gynecology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chi- cago. He has also been Gynecologist to St. Luke's Hospital for several years past and surgeon to the Woman's Hospital. He is a member of the American Medical Association, Illinois State Medical Association, of the American Gynecolog- ical Society, of the Chicago Medical Society, the Chicago Gynecological Society (of which he was President in 1887), of the Chicago Academy of Medicine, and the Chicago Medico-Legal Society.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 19th ed., Part 72

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