Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 2nd ed., Part 63

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book & Engr. Co.
Number of Pages: 808

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The eldest member of the family, in whom the readers of this volume are especially interested, well deserves representation in the history of his adopted county. He acquired his education in the public schools, and remained on the Emerald Isle until 1832, when, with his father, he boarded a sailing-vessel and became a resident of Canada.

485

EVERITTE ST. JOHN.

There he began working on a farm, receiving $7 per month for his services. He was thus em- ployed until 1835, when he resolved to seek his home in Illinois, and in the spring of that year started for Chicago. He made the first part of the journey on foot as far as Burlington, Vt., and by way of the Canal and Lakes to Detroit, from whence he came on foot to his destination, a dis- tance of three hundred miles.

For two months Mr. McEldowney worked in the New York Hotel stable. He has cut hay where the court house of Chicago now stands, and has witnessed almost the entire growth and devel- opment of Cook County. On the Ist of July, 1835, he took up his residence at Thorn Grove, now Chicago Heights, and made a claim of four hun- dred acres of land on sections 28 and 29, Bloom Township, for which he paid the usual Govern- ment price of $1.25 per acre. His first home was a log cabin, built on the site of the present town, and there he lived in true pioneer style. His farming was done with crude machinery, and he worked early and late in order to make a start. His enterprise, perseverance and industry were at length crowned with success, and at one time he was the owner of a very valuable farm of five hundred and twenty acres. He acquired a hand- some competence, which now enables him to rest from business cares.

On the 15th of July, 1856, Mr. EcEldowney

married Miss Ann Wallace, daugliter of William and Elizabeth Wallace, and a native of Ireland, born June 4, 1814. They have eight children. Dorothy, who was born March 28, 1838, became the wife of James Hunter, and died June 28, 1870; Mary A., born May 17, 1840, is the wife of Samuel McDowall, an attorney at law, engaged in practice in Salt Lake City; William J., born June 30, 1843, is President of the Chicago Heights Bank; Martha E., born May 19, 1846, died Feb- ruary 27, 1867; James H. was born May 20, 1848; Margaret J., born May 13, 1850, died on the 6th of July following; Rebecca, born October 8, 1851, is the wife of William J. Campbell, an attorney at law; and Andrew W., born February 6, 1854, completes the family.

Since the organization of the party, Mr. Mc- Eldowney has been a stanch Republican in poli- tics, and has been honored with several local offi- ces. He has served as Supervisor, and for the long period of twenty years was Justice of the Peace, proving a capable and efficient officer. In 1886, he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 7th of September, and was laid to rest in Bloom Cemetery. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, to which Mr. McEldowney also belongs. His life has been well and worthily passed, and throughout the community in which he has so long made his home he has the high regard of all.

EVERITTE ST. JOHN.

VERITTE ST. JOHN, General Manager of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- road, was born at Sharon, Litchfield County, Conn., February 4, 1844. Both parents were natives of that State and of English lineage. When four years old, his father died, and his mother, though left with a large family of chil-

dren, managed to provide for their physical com- fort and gave each a public-school education. Ambitious to begin a career of usefulness, at an early age the subject of this biography began to earn his livelihood by becoming a clerk for his elder brother, who filled the combined offices of Postmaster, station agent, Town Clerk and gen-

486

EVERITTE ST. JOHN.

eral store-keeper of the village. Here, and in his mother's home, were imbibed in a large degree those principles of industry, economy and perse- verance which have characterized the man, and which are essential to the successful management of an extensive railway system, or other large en- terprises.

Through the medium of the local gossip, which had its natural center at the village postoffice, he heard much of the success of other young men who had left the Nutmeg State to seek their fortunes in the great West, and becoming inocu- lated with the western fever, at the age of seven- teen years he resigned his position as his broth- er's assistant and went to Quincy, Ill. Here he became a clerk in the general ticket office of the Quincy & Toledo Railroad, at a salary of $30 per month. When that road was consolidated with the Great Western Railroad, of Illinois, he was transferred to a similar position at Springfield, with a slight increase of salary. One year later, having received an offer of a better position from the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, he came to Chicago, and on the 4th of July, 1863, began his career with that corporation. His steady appli- cation and untiring energy soon attracted the at- tention of his superiors, and secured promotion to a more responsible and lucrative position. Suc- cessively he became Chief Ticket Clerk and Gen- eral Ticket Agent, occupying the latter position for fourteen years. At the expiration of that period, he was appointed General Ticket and Passenger Agent of the road, and six months later became Assistant General Manager, while still holding the former position. In July, 1887, he was made General Manager of the lines east of the Missouri River, and the duties of that office were supple- mented by those of Assistant General Manager of the lines west of the Missouri River. On the Ist of April, 1889, he assumed the position of General Manager of the entire system, bringing to the discharge of his duties the ripened experience of a quarter-century of active railroad labors.

With the growth and development of the great West, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- road system has grown, and in many localities has preceded the development of its tributary terri-

tory. Mr.St.John has constantly striven to improve and perfect every department, and to that end has devoted much of the time given by others to recreation, having often given, for many years, twelve to fifteen hours per day to his work. His industry has been something phenomenal, and it is a source of wonder to his acquaintances that he has not given way in physical vigor under the assaults made by his own ambition and industry. He is remarkably free from all ostentation and those assumptions of exclusiveness often affected by men in high and responsible positions, and is among the most approachable and genial of men. Having conquered by labor his own elevation, he can sympathize with all wlio labor, and his latch- string is always out to the humblest employe who has a grievance, or a request to make.

As Chairman of the General Managers' Asso- ciation, Mr. St. John bore no small part of the re- sponsibility in overcoming the great sympathetic strike of 1894, in which the American Railway Union, composed largely of switchmen, and others identified and unidentified with railroad opera- tions, sought to compel the railroads of the country to abandon the use of Pullman cars, be- cause of an alleged grievance of members of the union against the Pullman Palace Car Company. The principle thus sought to be set up being wholly un-American, and not acknowledged by thinking people, the railroads set about carrying on their own business according to existing con- tracts with the Pullman Palace Car Company, and for the accommodation of the traveling pub- lic. The false principle was set up, and an at- tempt made to force the railroads and the public to accept it, that the strikers had a right to pre- vent, even by force, anyone from operating the roads by fulfilling the duties and service they had left. The General Managers met every emer- gency, and by co-operation soon secured men to operate trains; and the National Government protecting its mails and inter-state commerce, de- lays were averted, and as speedily as possible the resumption of traffic, both passenger and freight, thereby secured. All this was not accomplished until much valuable property, chiefly the cars of the railroads and their freight, belonging to ship-

487

C. H. McCORMICK, JR.

pers all over the country, had been destroyed by fires set by strikers and their sympathizers. By their firm position and prompt action in securing the most ready and valuable protection, the Gen- eral Managers won, and received the admiration and thanks of law-abiding people everywhere, and also made more certain and intelligible the principle that every American citizen has the right to undertake any honorable employment he wishes, and that no class can rightfully cut off the privileges of the rest of the world to secure its own selfish ends.

As Chairman of the Railway Finance Commit- tee of the World's Columbian Exposition, he en- abled that association to add nearly $1,000,000 to its treasury. He has been for years connected with many important railway associations, as fol-

lows: Chairman of Executive Committee of the Trans-Missouri Freight Association; Chairman of Western Railroad Weighing Association and Inspection Bureau; Chairman of the Chicago Car Service Association, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Western Freight As- sociation.

Mr. St. John was happily inarried in 1869 to Miss Emilina B. Lamson, of Andover, Mass. They occupy a pleasant home on Rush Street, Chicago, where is stored his library of over one thousand choice volumes. He is a communicant of the Episcopal Church; a member of the Union League Club, and of Waubansee Lodge No. 160, A. F. & A. M .; Past Eminent Commander of Montjoe Commandery, No. 53, K. T., and ex-President of the Sons of Connecticut.

CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, JR.

YRUS HALL McCORMICK, Jr., is the eldest child of the great inventor of the reaper, Cyrus H. McCormick. His mother is Nettie Fowler McCormick. He was born on the 16th of May, 1859, in Washington, D. C., where his parents lived for several months while his father was securing patents on his reaper. At an early age, young McCormick entered the pub- lic schools of Chicago, and at the age of eighteen was graduated from the High School at the head of his class. He at once entered Princeton Col- lege and became a member of the Class of '79. In the autumn following, he entered the business of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, and served in several departments in order that he might obtain a knowledge of its various branches. On the death of his father in 1884, he was elected to succeed him as President of the company, and has continued in that position up to the present time.

On the 5th of March, 1889, Mr. McCormick was married at Monterey, Cal., to Miss Harriet Brad- ley Hammond, a niece of Mrs. E. S. Stickney, of Chicago. They have three children, two sons and a daughter.

For several years Mr. McCormick has been a director of the Merchants' Loan & Trust Company, of Chicago. Since June, 1889, he has been a inember of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Uni- versity. He is also Secretary of the Board of Trustees of McCormick Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, and was for several years the first Vice-President of the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago. In the summer of 1889, he spent some time in Paris in the inter- est of the company's exhibits at the International Exposition, and was soon after decorated by the President of France "Officer of the Merite Agri- cole." In speaking of this honor, the Courier d' Illinois said: "This is one of but a few instances

488

ALBERT WINGATE.

where that decoration has been bestowed upon a citizen of the United States, it being rarely con- ferred upon a foreigner."

Cyrus H. McCormick, who has inherited many of his father's qualities of head and heart, is a gentleman whose education and business training

have fitted him to fill the responsible position to which he has been called. Under his manage- ment, the great manufacturing industry has de- veloped successfully, and its output of harvesting machines is the largest in the world.

ALBERT WINGATE.

- LBERT WINGATE, one of the highly re- spected and prominent citizens of Worth Township, was born in Hallowell, Me., June 15, 1817, and is a son of Paine and Mary (Page) Wingate, The family is descended from John Wingate, who was a planter at Hilton's Point, now Dover, N. H., in 1657. He was a native of England, and the founder of the family in Amer- ica. One of his ancestors was the Sheriff who committed the famous John Bunyan, author of "Pilgrim's Progress," to jail. The name Wingate, according to a popular legend, originated with a powerful warrior, who during the siege of an an- cient castle tore its gate from its fastenings and bore it away on his shoulders, thereby allowing his comrades to obtain an entrance. Members of the Wingate family were numerous in many parts of England and Scotland as early as the twelfth century, although the name was spelled in several different ways. They occupied many leading positions, becoming prominent in various walks of life. Descendants of the family were living in Bedfordshire, England, in the early part of the nineteenth century. Descendants of John Win- gate still own his original homestead near Dover, N. H. He became one of the principal house- holders of that place, was a leading and influen- tial citizen, and took an active part in the service during King Philip's War. His second wife, Saralı Wingate, was a daughter of Anthony Tay- lor, a native of England.

One of their sons, Joshua Wingate, was born in Hampton, N. H., and became Colonel of a regiment of New Hampshire militia. He took a prominent part in the siege of Louisburg in 1745. He wedded Mary Lunt, and his death occurred in 1769, at the advanced age of ninety years. His wife passed away three years later, also at the age of ninety. Their son Paine, the eldest in the family of eleven children, became a Congregational minister, and for sixty years was pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Amesbury, Mass. He wedded Mary Balch, and his death oc- curred in 1786, aged eighty-three years. His wife also reached that age, passing away in 1789. Joseph, the youngest son of Rev. Paine Wingate, was born in Amesbury, Mass., and about 1800 removed to Hallowell, Me., where he died in 1826, at the age of seventy-five. His wife, Judith, was a daughter of Elder James Carr. By their mar- riage they became the parents of ten children, of whom the father of the subject of this sketch was the fifth in order of birth. He cleared and de- veloped a farm near Hallowell, where he spent his entire life, being called to the home beyond Jan- uary 12, 1849, in his sixty-third year.

The gentleman whose name heads this record spent the days of his boyhood and youth in Hallo- well, and in 1842 emigrated to Cook County, driving across the country with a team. The journey was accomplished in six weeks, and he settled on a farm on section 28, Worth Township,

489

C. H. FELTON.

but subsequently removed to section 27, where lie now resides. For thirty-four years he lived on the first farm, and placed it under a high state of cultivation, making many excellent improvements upon it. He arrived in Cook County four years before the first school districts were organized, and for several years he held the three offices of Township Treasurer, Township Trustee and School Director. He was one of the leading spirits in the development of the educational in- terests of this locality, and has ever taken a prom- inent part in promoting those enterprises calcu- lated to advance the general welfare.

Mr. Wingate was married, June 29, 1842, to Rhoda, daughter of Lowell and Lois Mitchell. She was a native of Chesterville, Me., and died May 30, 1864, at the age of forty-five years and two months. Mr. and Mrs. Wingate had a fam- ily of five children: Levi Page, who died at the age of four years; Elizabeth, who died at the age of eighteen; Mary Caroline, wife of J. M. Green,

of Blue Island; Levi Albert, who is engaged witli the Plano Manufacturing Company of West Pull- man; and Mrs. Martha Alice Trumble, of Worth Township.

Mr. Wingate cast his first Presidential vote for William Henry Harrison, and is a member of the Chicago Tippecanoe Club. On the organization of the Republican party hejoined its ranks and lias since been one of its stalwart supporters. He has also served as Assessor and Highway Commis- sioner of Worth Township, in connection with the other offices before mentioned. He has never failed to keep an obligation or agreement, and al- though constantly in debt for thirty-three years, he was never dunned, sued nor refused a loan, a fact which indicates the confidence and trust re- posed in his personal integrity. He possesses a remarkable memory, is considered an authority on matters of local history, and his evidence is of- ten required in court, especially on questions per- taining to early surveys and titles to real estate.

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 lie 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 pension 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 the 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 liis 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 niar- 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. Felton'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,

491

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.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 2nd ed., Part 63

Author: Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book & Engr. Co. Number of Pages: 808

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book & Engr. Co.
Number of Pages: 808