USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed. > Part 23
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155
F. E. R. JONES.
After spending a year in California, Judge Pin- ney returned to Illinois, settling in Chicago, where he has continued in practice since. He is all exceptionally able trial lawyer, and has handled a wide range of cases, many of them taking him to the Supreme Courts of adjoining and distant States. He is, withal, a very modest inan, and gets no more credit than he is entitled to. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and of the Sons of New York. Being an independent thinker, he has not allied himself with any organ- izations other than social ones. In religious faith lie is a Universalist, and attended the Englewood churchi of that denomination as long as he dwelt near it. He was an original Lincoln Republican,
and was for many years an active campaigner, but retains his independence of party lines, and acts in elections according to his faith in respec- tive candidates.
I11 1865, at Albion, New York, Mr. Pinney was married to Miss Mary, daughter of John B. Lee, a prominent citizen of that town, which was Mrs. Pinney's birthplace. She died in 1872, leav- ing a son, William Lee Pinney, now in business at Phoenix, Arizona. In 1874 Mr. Pinney mar- ried Miss Mary E. Bowman, of Shawneetown, Illinois, a native of Kentucky, who has borne him three children, Harry Bowman, Sidney Breese and Nannie E. Pinney, aged, respectively, nine- teen, seventeen and nine years.
FRED E. R. JONES.
RED ELLSWORTH RANDOLPH JONES. To what extent the character of an individ- ual is molded by the circumstances and con- ditions which surround him is a problem that ad- mits of almost unlimited discussion. But no stu- dent of human nature will attempt to deny that the environments of childhood exert a powerful influence upon the life of the future man or wo- man. A thoroughi business training, begun at an early age, and vigorously adhered to in ma- ture years, while it may dwarf some of the finer sensibilities and smother many of the noblest at- tributes of a man's nature, seldom fails to develop a capable, systematic and successful business man.
Mr. Jones was born at Chelsea, Washtenaw County, Michigan, January 18, 1860, and is a son of Aaron C. Jones and Carrie R. Clarke. A. C. Jones was born in New York, and came, during his childhood, with his parents to Michigan. They settled near Adrian, where his father, Ab- ner Jones, became a prominent farmer. The lat- ter was a native of New York. Aaron C. Jones
was a master marble-cutter, but being troubled with weakness of the lungs, which was aggra- vated by the pursuit of this calling, he abandoned it. In 1868 he came to Chicago and engaged in the fire-insurance business, which occupied his attention until the great fire. The spring follow- ing this disaster he contracted a severe cold, which developed consumption and terminated his life. His death occurred in 1874, at the age of forty- five years.
Mrs. Carrie R. Jones, who still resides in Chi- cago, was born in Goshen, Indiana, where her father's death occurred about the time she was eleven years of age. Her mother's maiden name was Randolph, and she was a relative of the noted Virginia family of that name-the Randolphs of Roanoke. Her grandfather, who was a man of considerable means and influence, devoted much time and money to the cause of the American col- onies during the Revolutionary War. During the progress of that struggle he made an expedi- tion to the West Indies in the interests of the Na-
156
B. M. WIEDINGER.
tional Government, leaving his motherless chil- dren in charge of a neighbor and friend. His absence was unexpectedly prolonged, and during this time the neighbor moved across the Ohio River to the western frontier, and the family was never re-united.
The subject of this sketch attended the public school until twelve years of age, at which time, owing to his father's failing health, he was obliged to abandon his studies and begin the bat- tle of life. He obtained employment in the in- surance office of the late George C. Clarke, his first position being that of errand boy. Under the instruction and training of his kind employer, he rapidly developed an aptitude for business and was promoted to more responsible positions. At the age of twenty years he became the bookkeeper and confidential mnan of the concern, with which he continued to be identified until 1893. Few boys of his age had to contend with the stern, realistic problems of life to such a degree as he, but, with the advice and counsel of his employer and aided and sustained by his mother's counsel, he made the most of his opportunities. He at- tended night schools at intervals and subsequently
became a teacher of bookkeeping to night classes at the Chicago Athenæum.
In January, 1893, he was made City Manager in Chicago of the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company, which position he has filled up to this time with credit to himself and the mu- tual advantage of the parties concerned. He now occupies one of the finest suites of offices in the city, being located in the new and modern Asso- ciation Building.
Few people who know Mr. Jones as an able, thorough-going business man are aware that be- neath his calm, sedate and unemotional exterior, there are veins of sentiment, philosophy and enthu- siasm which are seldom allowed to assert them- selves during business hours. His more intimate associates, however, know him as a man of re- fined and cultivated tastes, who has given consid- erable attention to the study of vocal music and other arts. He is a member of the Apollo and Mendelssohn Clubs. He takes little interest in political or other public movements, but feels a deep concern in the development of the intellect- ual and spiritual sentiments of mankind.
BERNHARD M. WIEDINGER.
B ERNHARD MARIA WIEDINGER, an educator of prominence and one of the old- est members of Chicago's German colony, believed in the brotherhood of man and the equal- ity of all before the law, and this brief sketch of his life will show a little of the much he did for the emancipation of the down-trodden from op- pression and slavery, as well as something of his efforts in educating and preparing for the respon- sibilities of after life many of the active and in- fluential citizens of Chicago.
Professor Wiedinger was born at Engen, near Constance, in Baden, Germany, on the 15th of August, 1826. His ancestors, though not titled, were persons of property and influence, and were
among the leading citizens of the municipality in which they dwelt.
Abraham de Santa Clara, a monk and author of distinction some centuries past, was a near relative of Professor Wiedinger's maternal ances- tor of several generations ago. Among the lost- ages shot by General Moreau in the Napoleonic wars, and whose bones were recently interred with great honor, was an ancestor on the inater- nal side. For a political offense another gave up his life under the leaden prison roof of Venice.
His father, George, served as an officer in the French army in the famous Peninsular campaign, and with his brothers was in the Government em- ploy, lie being engaged in arboriculture and viti-
157
B. M. WIEDINGER.
culture, and having charge of a large number of men. George Wiedinger died some time in the fifties, aged seventy-seven. His wife, Apollonia, nee Fricker, died in 1848, at the age of fifty-six. This couple were the parents of thirteen children, only three of whom grew up to years of maturity, all the others dying in early childhood. The eld- est child was George, the second Julius Batiste, and Bernhard was the youngest.
Bernhard Wiedinger obtained at Constance the education afforded by the real school and gymna- sium, and later attended the Heidelberg Univer- sity. There he spent two years, and was noted alike for his knowledge of languages and inusi- cal versatility. The noted rebellion of 1848 broke out while he was a student at the university, he being then twenty-two years old, and enrolled as a soldier. Young Wiedinger had imbibed in his studies a fierce and unquenchable love of liberty, and hatred of all forms of oppression and tyranny, and did not hesitate to cast his lot with the Revo- lutionists and share in the dangers that the up- rising brought to those who participated in it. He saw bloody work, and was several times wounded. A wound which he received in the head was of a serious nature. The collapse of the Revolution brought swift and summary pun- ishment to many who had raised their hands for liberty. Among those who were taken was young Wiedinger. Until two days before his trial all who were tried were sentenced to death and exe- cuted. His punishment was severe, on account of his having been enrolled in the army. He re- ceived a sentence of ten years in prison, seven months of which were spent in solitary confine- · ment. After spending something over a year in prison, by the aid of friends he escaped to Switz- erland, and later went to France. In the latter country, on account of a speech he made at a demonstration by Republicans, he was compelled to leave the political asylum he had sought in Europe, and come to America, where his efforts in the cause of freedom were destined to be far- ther-reaching and more successful than they had been in countries where oppression had crystalized in monarchy.
Arriving in the United States in 1851, he re-
mained for a time at Philadelphia, where he had distant relatives. He at once began to learn the language of the country, and in order to do so in what he thought would be the most successful way, he obtained employment on a farm where he would hear only English spoken. He re- mained on the farm one montlı, and in after life he often jocosely said that in that time he learned just five words, "breakfast, dinner and supper, horse and harness." He was not long, however, in acquiring a knowledge of English. Among his earliest acts was filing a declaration of his in- tention to become a citizen of the republic whose political institutions were so dear to him.
His first permanent employment was as travel- ing salesman for a Philadelphia book house, and in that business he remained for some time and traveled much. He early became an enthusiastic worker in the cause of the abolition of slavery. He was a delegate to the first Republican Na- tional Convention held at Cincinnati in 1854, and stumped the state of Indiana with Oliver P. Mor- ton for that party, speaking in German. Later, he went to Kansas, where he thought his efforts in the abolition cause would be more helpful, and there had charge of a station of the "underground railroad," as it was called, for the aid of slaves escaping from the South. He spent some time in the law office of Sherman & Ewing, and was assistant Secretary of the famous Topeka Con- vention. John Brown numbered him among his band, and when he planned his historic raid on Harper's Ferry sent for him; but he arrived at the place of rendezvous twelve hours too late. In the early part of 1860 he started an abolition paper at St. Joseph, Missouri, but one night a mob visited his office, threw his type and presses into the river, and he was compelled to seek a inore promising field of operations. Coming to Illinois, he recruited a company of one hundred men for the famous Hecker regiment, and was elected Captain. On account of defective sight, caused by injury to his eyes when a child, he was prevented from going to the front.
Soon afterward he came to Chicago and bought out a German school of small proportions and en- gaged in the work of education. He was very
158
B. M. WIEDINGER.
successful as a teacher, and soon had three hun- dred pupils in attendance. Later he organized a company which built a schoolhouse on the corner. of La Salle Avenue and Superior Street. His health failing, he was compelled to give up teach- ing in 1868 and seek outdoor employment. Sub- sequently he gave private lessons, was a clerk in the postoffice for a year, and also held a position in the City Clerk's office for two years. A por- tion of the time between 1868 and 1878, when his health permitted, he was engaged in teaching. He spent a part of this time in the school, but most of the time as a private tutor. In those years, beside the misfortune of bad health, he suffered the loss of his schoolhouse and household goods in the great fire.
In 1865 Mr. Wiedinger was married to Miss Mary D. Moulton, a native of Maine, and a daughter of Judge Jotham Tilden Moulton, of Chicago. Mrs. Wiedinger is a descendant of all- cestors who helped build up the New England States. Her father, born October 8, 1808, was a graduate of Bowdoin College, where the poet Longfellow was one of his teachers. He gradu- ated from Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Wendell Phillips and Charles Sum- ner, with the latter of whom he maintained a life- long friendship. Coming to Chicago in 1852, he bought a third-interest in the Chicago Tribune, which he sold a year later. He lield the office of Deputy Clerk of the United States Court, and United States Commissioner and Master in Chan- cery, which last office he lield until after the fire. His death occurred in 1881. Mr. Moulton was the son of Dr. Jothanı Moulton, and grandson of Colonel Moulton, who died in 1777, after serving one year in the struggle for independence. Mrs. Wiedinger has been a teacher for a large part of her life, rendering valuable assistance to hier hus- band in his profession. She has also written for the press, contributing translations, original stories and poetry.
Mr. Wiedinger left three sons: George T., Bernhard M. and Frank A. The first of these is a lawyer, the second is engaged in real-estate work,
and the third has chosen the newspaper profession.
Mr. Wiedinger was one of those earnest and tireless men whose energies keep them always en- ployed. As a friend of freedom, he took an active part in the great moral struggle that pre- ceded the appeal to arms, in which he was unable to engage on account of physical infirmity, but to the aid of which his most effective assistance in every other way was given. He aided in1 the organization of the Republican party, in order that a bulwark of freedom might be es- tablished, and stood in the forefront of progress of that party till 1888, when he considered the party had gone from the position it formerly oc- cupied, and he then joined the ranks of the Dein- ocracy. As an educator, he took a place among the leading Germans of Chicago, and his worth as a teacher is often testified by the leading Ger- man-American citizens of Chicago, who were liis pupils and life-long friends. He was liberal in his ideas and progressive in his work, and said that, if he had done nothing else, he had made it impossible to have a successful German school in Chicago without having an English teacher in it. In the organization of societies of various kinds he took a leading part. He was one of the or- ganizers and President of the Turners' Associa- tion of Chicago, also one of the organizers of the Schiller Liedertafel, and.its musical director. In recent years a bowling club, composed of his former pupils, assumed the name of "Wieding- er's Boys."
In physique Mr. Wiedinger was a powerful man, and a complete master of the art of self-de- fense. Once, when attacked by three ruffians, he knocked one down with his fist, kicked over an- other, and the third, seeing the condition of his companions, fled for safety. He was a prolific writer in his early years, and the habit of con- tributing to the newspapers he kept up through life. As a friend, a husband and father, he showed those rare characteristics that endeared him to his familiars. His gentle, confiding nature, his do- mesticity and devotion to his family were ap- parent to all.
LIBRARY OF THE MNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
P & Jones
SAMUEL J. JONES.
159
SAMUEL J. JONES, M. D., LL. D.
AMUEL J. JONES,. M. D., LL. D., is a na- tive of Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, born March 22, 1836. His father, Doctor Robert H. Jones, was a practicing physician in the Keystone State for a third of a century, and died in 1863. The mother, whose maiden name was Sarah M. Ekel, is a member of one of the pioneer families of the old town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, of Swiss and Huguenot descent. At the age of sev- enteen, their son Samuel, having finished his pre- paratory studies, in the fall of 1853, entered Dick- inson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated four years later with the degree of A. B. In 1860 he received the degree of A. M., and in 1884 was honored by his alma mater with the degree of LL. D. His choice of a vocation in life was no doubt influenced by his father's successful practice of medicine, and at an early age he determined to follow in his father's professional footsteps. Accordingly, on leaving · college, he began the study of medicine, which lie pursued for three years under his father's super- vision. In the fall of 1858 he matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania, and after pursuing the studies prescribed in the curriculum of the medical department of that institution, took the degree of M. D., in the spring of 1860, just thirty years after the father had graduated from the same university.
The advantages and opportunities for observa-
tion and adventure presented by the United States naval service proved too attractive for the young practitioner to resist, and he became one of the competitors in the examination of candidates for the position of Assistant Surgeon. He success- fully passed the examination, and received his ap- pointment just before the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, and entered upon a life which, for activity, change, excitement and opportunity for acquiring experience, should have fully satisfied his desires in those particulars. He first saw service on board the United States steam frigate "Minnesota," which sailed under sealed orders from Boston, May 8, 1861, as flag-ship of the Atlantic blockading squadron. Three months later he was present at the battle of Hatteras In- let, which resulted in the capture of the Confed- erate forts with fifteen hundred prisoners, and ended the blockade-running there. This was the first naval battle ever fought in which steamships were used and kept in motion while in action. In January, 1862, Doctor Jones was detached from the "Minnesota" and detailed as Surgeon of Flag-Officer Goldsborough's staff, on the expedi- tion of Burnside and Goldsborough, which re- sulted in the capture of Roanoke Island. Later he was assigned to duty as Staff Surgeon under Commander Rowan, and was present at the cap- ture of Newbern, Washington and other points on the inner waters of North Carolina.
160
SAMUEL J. JONES.
Soon afterward Doctor Jones accompanied an expedition up the Nansemond River for the relief of the Union forces engaged in repelling General Longstreet's advance on Suffolk, Virginia. This force was under the command of Lieutenant Cush- ing, of Albemarle fame, and Lieutenant Lamson. In the spring of 1863 Doctor Jones was assigned to duty at Philadelphia, there passed a second examination, was promoted to the rank of Sur- geon, and assigned to duty at Chicago, where, among other duties, he was engaged as Examin- ing Surgeon of candidates for the medical corps destined for naval service in the Mississippi River Squadron. While occupying this position he was ordered to visit various military prisons, and there examined more than three thousand Confederate prisoners who had requested permission to enlist in the Federal service, and who were accepted and assigned to men-of-war on foreign stations. He was ordered to the sloop-of-war "Ports- mouth," of Admiral Farragut's West Gulf Block- ading Squadron, in 1864, and was soon after as- signed to duty as Surgeon of the New Orleans Naval Hospital, where he was at the close of the Rebellion. In the fall of 1865 he was sent to Pensacola, Florida, as Surgeon of the navy yard and naval hospital. In 1866 he was again as- signed to duty at Chicago, where he remained until the marine rendezvous there was closed, in the same year. In 1867 he was ordered to the frigate "Sabine," the practice ship for naval ap- prentices, cruising along the Atlantic Coast, which was his last active service in the navy.
In 1868, after eight years' continuous service, Surgeon Jones resigned to devote his attention to private practice. Not long after he was elected · delegate from the American Medical Association to the meetings of the medical associations of Europe, and was, at the same time, commissioned by Governor Geary, of Pennsylvania, to report on hospital and sanitary matters of England and the continent. He attended the meetings of the societies at Oxford, Heidelberg and Dresden, and in the month of September, at the last place, participated in organizing the first Otological Congress ever held. Combining travel with study, he enjoyed the remainder of the year in visiting
various parts of Europe and investigating medi- cal and sanitary affairs, giving special attention to diseases of the eye and of the ear. On his re- turn to the United States he resumed practice in Chicago in 1868. Soon after he was elected President of the Board of Examining Surgeons for United States Pensions at Chicago, and was also made a member of the medical staff of St. Luke's Hospital, and there established the de- partment for the treatment of diseases of the eye and ear, with which he has since been connected.
In 1870 Doctor Jones was again elected a del- egate from the American Medical Association to the meetings of the European associations, and, during his stay abroad, spent some months in re- search and investigation. In the same year he was elected to the newly-established chair of Ophthalmology and Otology in Chicago Med- ical College, now Northwestern University Medi- cal School, a position he continues to hold. He also established the eye and ear department in Mercy Hospital and in the South Side Dispensary, having charge of each of them for about ten years. For a number of years lie was one of the attending staff of the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago. I11 1876 he was a delegate from the Illinois State Medical Society to the Centennial International Medical Congress at Philadelphia, and in 188r represented the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Medicine at the Seventh International Medical Congress at London. The Ninth Inter- national Medical Congress was held in Washing- ton, District of Columbia, in 1887, and of this Doc- tor Jones was a member. He was President of the section of otology, and was ex-officio a mem- ber of the Executive Committee, whose duty it was to arrange the preliminary organization of the congress.
In 1889 Doctor Jones was elected President of the American Academy of Medicine, whose ob- jects, as stated in its constitution, are: "First, to bring those who are alumni of collegiate, scien- tific and medical schools into closer relations with each other. Second, to encourage young men to pursue regular courses of study in classical and scientific institutions before entering upon the
161
WILLIAM O. KEELER.
study of medicine. Third, to extend the bounds of social science, to elevate the profession, to re- lieve human suffering and prevent disease."
Doctor Jones, as may be inferred from the read- ing of the foregoing recital of liis services in his profession, is an enthusiastic worker and an able physician, whose genial manner and success in practice have made him widely known. His la- bors in the many societies of which he has been a member have been ably supplemented by the product of his pen, which has been directed to- ward raising the standard of the practice of inedi- cine. His writings have frequently appeared in medical journals, and for several years he was editor of the Chicago Medical Journal and Exam- iner, one of the leading periodicals of the country. He has successfully applied himself to acquiring knowledge pertaining to his specialty, and for twenty years has been recognized by both the medical profession and the public as authority on all matters pertaining to ophthalmology and otol- ogy. He has always stood high in the esteem of the profession, and has been active and influential in its councils and deliberations. His fine personal
appearance, genial manners, fund of entertaining conversation, and frank, manly deportment have made him a favorite, both as an individual and a practitioner, and drawn to him a large clientele.
He has never held any political office, but has preferred the reward which has come to him, un- sought, in his profession and in literature and science. He has for a quarter of a century been a member of the Chicago Academy of Science, and he is one of its Board of Trustees. He is also President of the Western Association of tlie Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, and of the Illinois Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest Greek-letter society in the United States, founded in 1776, whose membership has always been restricted and conferred as a recognition of scholarship.
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