USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 2nd ed. > Part 25
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The subject of this biography received his primary education in private schools, and after- ward became a student in the academy of Albany. In the spring of 1857 he came to Chicago and soon after secured employment as a clerk in the insurance office of Higginson & James. Thisline of business was then in its infancy, and the most sanguine enthusiasm could not have foreseen the extent to which that industry would be developed. He went to work with a will, and his fidelity, thoroughness and aptitude soon won the confi- dence and good-will of his employers. In 1863 he became one of the partners of the firm of Alfred James & Company, which continued to transact business for about three years. Their place of business was at the southeast corner of South Water and Clark Streets, which location was the center of the insurance business at that time. He afterward formed a partnership with Freder- ick P. Fisher, a relation which continued for ten years, during one of the most important eras of the insurance business in the West. At the end of that period the present firm of Edward M. Teall & Company was formed, Cyrus A. Hardy, a trusted clerk of the former firm, being the jun- ior member. Mr. Teall is one of the Directors of the Westchester Fire Insurance Company of New York, and in addition to serving the local interests of that corporation the firm represents several leading insurance companies of other cities. The business in its charge is conserva- tively and honorably conducted, and the firm en- joys the confidence of the public and of under- writers to a remarkable degree. Mr. Teall is President of the Chicago Fire Underwriters' As- sociation, and has been for a number of years.
On the 11th of June, 1862, Mr. Teall was mar- ried to Miss Katherine Mead, of New York City, daughter of Isaac H. Mead and Rachel Van Voor- hees Demorest. Mrs. Teall's maternal grand- father was also a native of New York City, being a scion of a very old and well-known family of that municipality. Mr. Teall has been for many
227
A. G. BURLEY.
years a member of the Third Presbyterian Church of Chicago, in which he officiates as Trustee and Elder. He is a member of the Illinois Club, and Deputy Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars of the State of Illinois, which he helped to organize. He is also a member of the Illinois Society of Sons of the American Revolution, and still preserves the Teall coat-of-arms granted to the family by George I. in 1723. He has been
often urged to enter the arena of politics, has been tendered important nominations by the Re- publican party, of which he is an active and dis- tinguished member, but prefers to devote hinself to his business, home and social duties. For rec- · reation, he and his wife have always spent the summer at their beautiful farm and summer home in the Berkshire Hills, Stockbridge, Massachu- setts.
ARTHUR G. BURLEY.
A RTHUR GILMAN BURLEY. The year 1812 is a national epoch, for at that time the United States, for a second time within the easy memory of man, started in to chastise the British Lion. What events of world-wide significance have transpired during those more than eighty intervening years ! To think of it is like a dream: to have predicted it, would have re- sulted in that day in an inquirendo de lunico pro- ceeding concerning the lack of brain matter in the bold transgressor of common sense who should prophesy. Two years later, Robert Fulton was making his (the very first) steamboat trial upon the Hudson River. Then came steain as applied to locomotives, which has done more than any- thing else in so rapidly opening up the great in- terior and West of our immense country, where- as, before, ox-carts and canal-boats were the most approved forms of transportation of chattels, prior to the advent of the "prairie schooner," which shortly preceded the "Union Pacific." The telegraph, reapers, thousandfold manufac- tories, electric light and locomotion (not to men- tion scores of other wonderful economic and utili- tarian inventions of more recent date within the present century), all cry out that, in point of actual comfort and intelligent means of effecting
business ends, the world has since that year 1812 done almost more than had been done in the hundreds and thousands of years which had pre- ceded. And all this within the memory of liv- ing men; yes, within the memory of one now liv- ing in our midst, who, wonderful to relate, like Gladstone, an octogenarian, is still in the harness of active business life. We who live in Chicago know what that means in this day. Honor to whom honor is due !
Arthur Gilman Burley, the subject of this sketch, was born in the aforesaid year of 1812, upon the fourth day of October, at Exeter, New Hampshire, unto James and Charlotte I. (Gilman) Burley, his father being the Cashier of the Exeter Bank.
The Burleys are regarded Down East as "good stock;" that seems to be the prevailing opinion in our city, from all that is thus far known of them in our midst. The first by the name who came to our shores was Giles Burley, who, withı his wife, Elizabeth, settled at Ipswich, Massachu- setts, in the year 1648. Here, in 1664, he took the proper oath and became a "commoner." He was also a "planter," and lived eight years of his useful life upon Brooke Street of that ancient town, and owned "Division Lot No. 105, on
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A. G. BURLEY.
Great Hill, Hogg Island," in that vicinage. He had a son, Andrew Burley, who was born at Ipswich, September 5, 1657. The latter married Mary, a daughter of the rather celebrated Roger Conant. Upon the death of his father, while in childhood, he was bound out (as was the old cus- toni) to one John Brown. He was called in records "husbandman and yeoman," and bore the rather dignified title of "Cornet." He had a so11, Ho11. Andrew Burley, who was born at Ipswichli in June, 1694. His career was replete with hon- ors, including among others the positions of Jus- tice of the Court of Sessions and Representative to the State Legislature in the years 1741 and 1742. He acquired, and left intact, a large es-
tate. He was twice married; first, to Lydia Pengry, by whom he had six children; secondly, to Mrs. Hannah Burnham. He had a son, An- drew Burley, Jr., who married a Mrs. Hannah Cogswell (a daughter of his father's wife). He graduated at Harvard College in 1742, and lived on Brooke Street in Ipswich (near the location of his first American progenitor), upon land for- merly granted to Governor Dudley's son Samuel.
He left a son, James Burley, who was by trade a cabinet-maker, also an officer in the Revolu- tionary War. The latter married Susannah Swazey, and died in Exeter, New Hampshire, leaving a son, James Burley, Jr., who has been already noticed as the father of the subject of this sketch.
Arthur Gilman Burley received for his educa- tion the best that the common schools of his na- tive Exeter had to offer, which information was somewhat rounded out by a supplementary year at the Exeter Academy. He resolutely turned his young face toward the distant West at the age of twenty-tliree, reaching his future home, Chi- cago, on tlie seventeenth day of May, 1835. (Sixty long years ago. Imagine the appearance at that time of the country which is at present covered by our fair city ! How many of the comers of that day are yet in the fleshi ?)
Mr. Burley first worked as clerk for John Hol- brook in a boot and shoe shop for about two years. In 1837 he went to New York City, to buy for his brother-in-law, Stephen F. Gale, a
stock of books and stationery (one of the very first to be imported among us), and remained with Mr. Gale for about two years following.
In 1838 the crockery business of the North- west was founded by Mr. Burley, who bought from the State Bank of Illinois a stock of such goods, his place of trade being then located at the corner of La Salle and Lake Streets. He has been in that business ever since, a period of over fifty-seven years, and is now regularly on duty at the old stand.
He was burned out in 1842, and then moved to No. 105 Lake Street, later to No. 175 on the sanie thoroughfare, where, in 1852, he was joined by a brother-in-law, Mr. John Tyrrell, who came on from New Hampshire to enter into a partnership. This still continues in operation, being incor- porated under the firm style and name, "Burley & Tyrrell, Importers and Dealers of Crockery, Chicago."
They had built their own quarters at No. 48 Lake Street about 1857, but, fortunately, had disposed of the same before the time of tlie Great Fire in 1871. They still had their store located therein, which, of course, went up in smoke and down to the ground in ashes. After this fire they had a temporary office at the corner of State and Sixteenth Streets; then occupied a store for about three years at the corner of Van Buren and Wabash; then removed to No. 83 State Street; and finally to Nos. 42, 44 and 46 Lake Street, which premises they continue to occupy at this time. Having found it cheaper to rent, they have never cared to build.
Mr. Burley also had the misfortune of having his home burned up in 1874, when he was living below Harrison Street. He is now, as for a long time, cosily situated at No. 1620 Indiana Avenue.
Although an unostentatious man, Mr. Burley has been a very prominent figure in social and business matters for very many years. Few in- deed, if any, can antedate him in this relation. He aided in the formation of the First Unitarian Church (since called the Messiahı) in 1836, one of the oldest and foremost in the entire North- west, and of which he has always been a most in- terested and conspicuous member.
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R. R. CLARK
In politics, he has always been, since the days of the Whigs were no more, a consistent Re- publican, but in no sense or wish a public charac- ter. A true exemplifier of the best principles of Free Masonry, with which he affiliated as early as 1848, he has never cared to go to the height of degrees his proficiency and long service would have richly entitled him to, and undoubtedly have brought choice flowers of honor in their train, but he has been Treasurer of Oriental Lodge for forty-two years. He was also for a time much interested in the mysteries of Odd-Fellowship.
Not at heart a club man, he has nevertheless been a member of the Calumet, as he is at present upon the roll of the Chicago Club. Very do- mestic in habits, he is not frequently found in the
circle of club habitues. In public affairs and whatever promotes the business and social good and welfare of the community, Mr. Burley always is an interested, and usually a participating, citi- zen. Young in enthusiasm, certainly lie bears his laurel of years gracefully, as we will sincerely hope he may long live to do.
Upon the twenty-fourth day of September, 1849, Mr. Burley was joined in marriage with Welthy- an Loomis Harmon, who comes of a good old- time Down-East family. It is regretted that no children have been born to them to perpetuate the name and further the noble traits the family has conspicuously borne up to this time in the history of our country.
ROBERT R. CLARK.
OBERT RODMAND CLARK, an early resi- dent of Lake View, now a part of Chicago, is descended from English ancestors and was born in Clarkson, Monroe County, New York, May 24, 1831. His great-grandfather, William Clark, came from England and located first on the Hudson River, at Albany, New York, later re- moving to the Mohawk Valley. He was pos- sessed of some means, and dealt in realty during his residence in America. His son William had large holdings of lands and farms in central New York, and was one of the first American import- ers of Morocco leather, having his headquarters at Utica, New York, his native place. He was among the first settlers of Monroe County, and the town of Clarkson was named for him and another settler of the same name, though no rela-
tive, who located there in the same year. He died there at the age of sixty-eight years. Five of his seven children, four sons and a daughter, grew to maturity.
The third of these, William L. Clark, born in Utica, was about twenty years old when his par- ents moved to Clarkson. He married Cornelia Stewart, a native of Wyoming County, New York. Her parents, Daniel and Sallie (Fish) Stewart, were children of native Scotch parents, and were born in Chemung County, New York. She lived to the age of eighty-two years, passing away at the home of her son in Lake View in 1886. William L. Clark was an extensive farm- er, but lost heavily in speculation in later life. He was an upright man, and reached the age of seventy-two years, dying in Lake View in 1876.
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R. R. CLARK.
He was affiliated with the Universalist Church, · while his wife adhered to the Presbyterian teach- ings of her fathers. They were the parents of three children. The eldest, Sallie, is the widow of George B. Marsh, now residing in Chicago; and the youngest, Laura, is the wife of Charles L. Bassett, of LaPorte, Indiana.
Robert R. Clark is the second child of his par- ents. He combines in a happy degree the sturdy qualities of physical and mental make-up of his ancestors. When a mere boy he determined to recover his father's lost homestead as a home for his parents, and before he had reached the age of twenty years had accomplished his purpose. Previous to the age of sixteen years he had the educational advantages afforded by the common schools, and he then went to Michigan, where he found employment as a school teacher. Return- ing for a short time to the home farm, he became, in his eighteenth year, check clerk on board the steamer "Empire State," plying between Buffalo and Chicago, then the finest vessel on the Lakes. He was subsequently on board the "Wisconsin" one year, and returned, as chief clerk, to the "Empire State," where he continued five years. He also served on the "Southern Michigan" and "Western Metropolis," all these boats being the property of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. The last two only ran from Buffalo to Monroe or Toledo, where they connected with that portion of the railroad completed from Chi- cago to those points. Mr. Clark was on board the steamer "Northern Indiana" when it burned on Lake Erie, one beautiful morning, off Point au Place, with a loss of between four and five hundred passengers. Being a good swimmer, he remained on board until the fire had swept to the stern of the vessel (because of its propulsion toward the shore), and after entering the water saved several passengers by giving up to theni doors which he had wrenched from the staterooms for his own use. He was finally picked up by a boat bound for Buffalo, and made his regular trip out of that port on another vessel the night of the same day. When the "Golden Gate" was
wrecked on the bar at the mouth of Erie Harbor, a short time later, Mr. Clark was on board, and was saved with all the rest save one, who tried to swim ashore in the midst of the wreckage. The wreck was continually swept by the waves, but it was safer than the choppy bay, full of the floating cargo of the ."Golden Gate." All who remained on board were safely conveyed to shore by a Government vessel in the morning. With the exception of one year, which was spent as re- ceiver in charge of the ticket office at Buffalo, Mr. Clark continued in the marine service until he settled in Chicago in 1857.
Having made some successful investments in Chicago during his previous visits here, he de- cided to settle here, a resolution which was, prob- ably, strengthened by lis marriage, in 1857, to one of Chicago's fair daughters. This was Miss Blanche, only daughter of the late Daniel Elston, one of Cook County's most worthy and honored pioneers. In 1859 Mr. Clark turned his atten- tion to the fuel trade, and later dealt in lumber, but his chief occupation has been the handling of realty. For the last twenty years he has made a specialty of leasing residence property to others who would improve it, and has been largely in- strumental in building up what was formerly a suburb known as Lake View, now a part of the great metropolis in name as well as in fact. He has naturally taken a keen interest in the moral and material welfare of that section, and has act- ively participated in the government of the town and village of Lake View. In political affilia- tion he is found with the Democratic party on national issues. In religious belief he is ex- ceedingly liberal, and very independent in all thought and action. His early experience taught him self-reliance, and his history should serve as a worthy example to the ambitious young man. He is still the owner of the old homestead in New York. Mr. Clark is fond of hunting, and is a member of the Poygan Shooting Club, whose members spend much of the duck-hunting season on Lake Poygan, in Wisconsin.
231
G. M. PULLMAN.
GEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN.
EORGE M. PULLMAN was born in Brocton, Chautauqua County, New York, March 3, 1831, and is the third child of James Lewis and Emily Caroline Pullman. The father was a native of Rhode Island. Emily C. Pullman was the daughter of James Minton, of Auburn, New York. She was a good wife and mother, and assisted her husband in implanting in the minds of their children the best moral principles, while inculcating habits of industry and careful study. The father was a builder and house-mover, and George early began to observe his methods, while assisting in his operations. Some very useful ap- pliances of the business are the invention of the elder Pullman. He died in 1853, and the respon- sibility of head of the family fell upon George, who was the eldest unmarried son. Through alınost forty years of her widowhood, he was the stay and loving aid of his mother, who passed away in May, 1892, after seeing all her seven chil- dren occupying responsible and useful positions in life.
Royal H., the first-born, is pastor of the First Universalist Church of Baltimore. His interest in public affairs is demonstrated by the fact that he was the candidate of his party for Congress in 1890. Albert B., who died in 1893, occupied up to 1882 responsible positions in the Pullman Palace Car Company, which is the creation of his younger brother, George. James M. Pullman, D. D., is pastor of the Universalist Church at Lynn, Massachusetts, the leading parish of that sect in America. Charles L. was, until Septem- ber, 1894, contracting agent for the Pullman Com- pany, but is now engaged in other business in Chicago; and Frank W. was Assistant United States District Attorney of New York, where he died in 1879. Helen A. is the wife of George
West, of New York; and Emma C. is the wife of Doctor William F. Fluhrer, chief surgeon of Belle- vue Hospital, New York.
George M. Pullman was always of a practical turn of mind, and was a diligent student of branches which were calculated to fit him for a business life. He enjoyed the benefit of a com- mon-school education, and is remembered as an industrious and hard-working pupil. At the age of fourteen, he undertook to sustain himself, his first employment being that of a clerk at $40 per year. Neither his remuneration nor his tastes or habits were likely to lead him into dissipation, and he seems to have done his work with credit to himself and satisfaction to his employer. At the end of the year he joined his eldest brother, who had a cabinet-making shop at Albion, New York. This pursuit was well calculated to pre- pare him for the subsequent conduct of the larg- est building and furnishing enterprise in the world, though he was, probably, wholly uncon- scious of his future at that time. He persevered and was faithful, because it was part of his nature, as well as the natural result of his teachings and early surroundings. He continued in the cabinet work until the death of his father, in 1853. The long illness of the head of the family, who wasted away in gradual decline, had exhausted the means of the common purse, so that the widow was con- fronted with the necessity of providing for her- self and her minor children. In doing this, she was not left to battle alone, for her son George at once took up the responsibility of head of the household and relieved her of financial burdens.
The Erie Canal was about to be enlarged, and the commissioners had asked for bids for raising or removing many buildings along its banks. Young Pullman was the successful bidder on some
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G. M. PULLMAN.
of these contracts, and so well did he manage his enterprise that he was enabled to maintain the family in comfort, and arrived in Chicago in 1859 with a capital of $6,000 as the result of his sav- ings. About this time the courts decided that Chicago had the power to grade the streets, and he quickly found ample employment in raising the buildings to correspond with the grade. Probably but few of the modern residents of the city know that the streets of the South Side are some ten feet above the original prairie level, and that the buildings standing in 1856 had to be raised that distance to meet the street level. In 1860 Mr. Pullinan was occupying a lot of two hundred feet front, at the corner of Washington and Franklin Streets, with his machinery and ap- pliances, and a small one-story building for an of- fice. He was full of the spirit of push and prog- ress which animated Chicago in those days, and did not hesitate to enter upon undertakings of great magnitude. Among these was the lifting of the entire block of brick buildings facing the north side of Lake Street, between Clark and La Salle. This was successfully accomplished by the aid of six thousand jackscrews, without in- terruption to the business conducted in the struc- tures, or the breaking of a single pane of glass or a yard of plaster.
A recent writer says: "His true mission was the creation of the sleeping-car system. * Nowhere else has the matter of splendid, ingen- ious, artistic appliances for indoor comfort been carried to such a pitch as in the devising and constructing of the palace car, of which thousands have been built; and each year, if not each day and each car, brings a studied advance on its pre- decessor. Giving his days to labor and his nights to restful travel, a man may spread his field of usefulness over a continent, without the sapping of his strength or the shortening of his days."
The idea of the sleeping-car came to him one night while observing his fellow train-passengers buying head-rests from a vendor to mitigate the discomfort of an all-night ride. Soon after, he took passage on one of the " night cars" of the time, and while seeking repose on the comfortless
shelf provided, evolved the idea of the modern sleeper. His knowledge of cabinet-making here came to his aid, and he inet and overcame many difficulties in the preparation of a model. The general plan varied but little from the present form, having comfortable berths that could be put away during the day, leaving a coach suitable for day travel. In 1859 he secured from the Chicago & Alton Railway two old passenger coaches to experiment with, and in an unused railway shed, on the present site of the Union Passenger Station at Chicago, he worked to realize his idea, wholly at his own expense. The result was the first pair of real "sleepers" in the country, which were put in successful operation on the night trains between Chicago and St. Louis.
This result did not deter him from an under- taking which he had for some time contemplated, namely, a trip to the gold fields of Colorado. After three years of mining, he returned to Chi- cago very little richer in purse, but with addi- tions to his stock of experience. He now set to work to improve his original design of sleeping- cars, which no one had had the shrewdness to take advantage of during his absence. The cars which he had remodeled were too small and not of sufficient strength to carry out his ideas, and he set to work to construct one especially for the purpose. The car must be higher, the berths wider, and more taste and elegance employed in its furnishing. At an expenditure of one year's time and $18,000 in money, he produced the first real "palace car." It was named the " Pioneer," and is now stored in honorable retirement at Pullman; but it was found to be too high to go under some of the viaducts spanning the rail- roads, and the wide steps would not pass the platforms of many stations. It began to look as if he must build a railroad to accommodate his invention. Just at this time the body of the martyred President, Lincoln, was to be brought from Washington to his native state, and the obstacles to the passage of the "Pioneer " were removed, in order that it might be employed in that sad funeral journey. It formed a part of the train which took the body to its last resting- place at Springfield. From that time the eastern
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G. M. PULLMAN.
roads were open to it and its counterparts. The present wide use of the Pullman sleepers, in Europe as well as in America, is too well known to need comment. The history of the Pullman Palace Car Company is almost as well understood, though many who enjoy the facilities for comfort- able travel afforded by it know little of the labors of its founder in establishing a happy and desira- ble home for its employes at Pullman.
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