USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed. > Part 30
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John George Fenn was reared in Bavaria, where he received the liberal education accorded to every German child, and became master of the cooper's trade, which he followed until he came to Chi- cago. The capital of the entire family on its ar- rival here consisted of about one hundred dol-
LIBRARY OF THE MINIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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REV. F. N. R. PERRY
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REV. F. N. R. PERRY.
lars. The subject of this sketch soon found en1- ployment in a lumber yard, and was so industri- ous and careful of his earnings that he was en- abled to go into business on his own account after three years. At that time he opened a restaurant at No. 229 North Clark Street, and continued there three years, when he bought a lot on the opposite side of the same street, and built a business block, which he immediately occupied. In the Great Fire of 1871 he lost all his posses- sions, including this building and two houses, for which he recovered a very little insurance. However, he had credit and friends, and im- mediately proceeded to rebuild, and continued
the business about eight years on the same site. At the end of this period, owing to failing healthı, he was forced to give up business, and since 1879 he has been living a retired life at his present home. He has never taken much interest in political contests, and is content to leave to others the struggles of practical politics.
August 31, 1863, he was married to Elizabeth Gundermann, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, who came to the United States in 1854. She remained in New York City two years and then came to Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Fenn are Lutherans in religious faith. The former is a member of the Ancient Order of Druids and the Sons of Hermann.
REV. FRANK N. R. PERRY.
EV. FRANK NOEL RANSOM . PERRY, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes at Ravenswood, is a representative of a prom- inent pioneer family of the State of Illinois. His maternal grandfather was Noel Le Vasseur, who was in Chicago when it was but a hamlet. He was the first settler at Bourbonnais Grove, in Kan- kakee County. He donated the site of Saint Vi- ator's College, and was long connected with the growth and development of that section of the State. Noel Le Vasseur came to Chicago witlı Gurdou S. Hubbard, who was his warm personal friend, and who, upon the death of Le Vasseur, went to Bourbonnais Grove to attend his funeral. Father Perry is the son of Albert S. Perry, who came to Illinois from Bridgeport, Connecticut. The subject of this sketch and his brother, Ed- ward H. Perry, are the only surviving members of the family of Albert S. Perry.
Rev. Frank N. Perry was born in Kankakee,
Illinois, February 9, 1862. He pursued a class- ical course of study at the College of Saint Viator's and his theological course in Saint Mary's Sem- inary, at Baltimore, Maryland. He was ordained a priest June 16, 1887, and for about eight years succeeding his ordination lie was assistant priest at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.
The first religious services in the parish of which Father Perry now has charge were conducted by Father Coughlin at Bennett Hall, on the first Sunday in March, 1892. Services were held there until October of the same year, when the present church edifice was ready for occupancy. In May, 1893, on account of ill-health, Father Coughlin resigned pastoral charge of the parislı, and was succeeded by Father Perry. The church was dedicated October 15th of the same year. In May, 1895, the priest's residence was completed. The parish, though comparatively young, is in a prosperous condition.
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R. F. DILGER.
ROBERT F. DILGER.
OBERT FRANK DILGER, a market-gar- dener of Chicago, residing at No. 4183 North Clark Street, is a native of Cook County, born January 13, 1859. He is the second son of Frank Paul and Charlotte (Wollner) Dilger.
Frank P. Dilger was born at 2 o'clock on the morning of April 2, 1828, in Dorndorf, Koen- igreich, Wurtemberg, Germany, and died at Rose- hill, Cook County, Illinois, December 26, 1872, at '11 o'clock A. M. Charlotte Wollner, born March 7, 1831, in Teszin, Mecklenburg-Schwer- in, Germany, died at 2:30 o'clock, November 24, 1869, at Rosehill. Mr. Dilger came to America in 1852, and located immediately at Chicago. Mrs. Dilger came with her parents to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1851, and the next year removed to Chicago. They were married in this city, No- vember 29, 1856. All their children were born at Rosehill, as follows: Frank P., August 26, 1857; Robert F., January 13, 1859; Sophia, April 21, 1861; Mathias P., December 10, 1862; Anna Ma- ria, December 12, 1864. The last-named is the wife of William Volk, a grocer of Chicago. Ma- thias is a florist at Waukegan, Illinois.
Frank P. Dilger enjoyed good educational ad- vantages in his native land, and there learned the carpenter's trade. On arriving in this country lie continued as a journeyman for a short time, and then began the erection of buildings by contract. Many of the farin buildings in the former town- ship of Lake View, in Niles Township, and at Gross Point, were erected by him. He built the first Saint Henry's Church at what is now High
Ridge. In connection with his building opera- tions, he carried on farming and gardening, where the son whose naine heads this article now re- sides. At one time he owned a park at Rosehill Cemetery, which he exchanged in 1860 for eight acres of land, a part of which is now owned by Robert F. Dilger. He took a commendable in- terest in public affairs, but never sought an offi- cial position. He died at the age of forty-five years, in 1872, having survived his wife nearly four years. She passed away November 24, 1869. She was identified with the German Lu- theran Church, while he was a devoted member of Saint Henry's Catholic Church.
Robert F. Dilger was educated in the public schools and has ever been an intelligent reader and observer. He is well informed on the ques- tions that engage public minds, and is a public- spirited and progressive citizen. He grew to manhood in the neighborhood in which he lives, and enjoys the respect and confidence of his con- temporaries. Believing that the Republican party is the exponent and advocate of the truest and best principles of public policy, as compared with other political organizations, he has ever been found among its most faithful adherents.
While a boy Mr. Dilger worked eiglit years for Mr. Nicholas Krausz, of whom extended mention is made in this volume. After arriving at matu- rity, he spent three years in the seed store of J. C. Vaughan, a well-known seedsman and florist of Chicago. He has been self-sustaining since the age of thirteen years, and is essentially a self-
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made man. Being careful of his earnings, he was able, on leaving the service of Mr. Vaughan, to establish himself in business, and has continued ever since with gratifying success.
November 24, 1887, he was married to Miss Maggie Riedel, daughter of Charles and Kathar- ine (Weber) Riedel, natives of Germany. Mrs. Dilger's parents now reside at De Pere, Wiscon- sin. She is the second of their six children. The
others were: Mary, who died at the age of seven years; Charles, now a resident of Tacoma, Wash- ington; Edward, now deceased; Carrie and Lon- ise, the latter also deceased. Mrs. Dilger is the mother of three children, namely: Alois, Elmer and Robert Walter. The family is not connected with any church organization, but is respected and esteemed as among the best moral elements of the community.
HORACE E. ROUNDS.
ORACE E. ROUNDS, editor and proprietor of the Rogers Fark News-Herald, is a native of Enosburg, Vermont, born September 29, 1838. He is a son of Lester and Aurilla (Parker) Rounds, the former being a native of Canada, and the latter of Vermont. The Rounds family is descended from English and Irish ancestry.
Lester Rounds was a gentleman of good edu- cation, acquired in the schools and seminaries of Vermont and New York. He moved to the West in 1840, with his family, and settled in Southport (now Kenosha), Wisconsin, in which locality he was among the first settlers. His fine attainments made him a desirable acquisition to the little frontier settlement, where lie was one of the pioneer school teachers. In 1844 he moved to Ceresco (now Ripon), Wisconsin, founded by the "Fourierites," a society of the community order, originated by Francois Marie Charles Fourier, a French Socialist, whose plans for so- cial reform were never successfully realized. While living in Ceresco, Mr. Rounds was ap- pointed postmaster, which position he held until the phalanx went to pieces in 1848.
In 1850, he, with three others (his brother, J. M. Rounds, William Starr and W. C. Dickerson)
founded the village of Eureka, Wisconsin. Here Mr. Rounds, or "Uncle Lester," as he was familiarly called, established himself in a general mercantile business, in which he achieved con- siderable success. Being fitted by nature and ed- ucation for leadership, he became a sort of public functionary, holding many local offices, such as postmaster, justice of the peace and administrator of estates. In his early life he was an ardent Whig, and later espoused the principles of the Repub- lican party, being one of its most radical de- fenders. He was a man of great goodness of heart, and few men had a greater popularity at home than "Uncle Lester." To him and his de- voted wife were born five children, namely: Ster- ing P., at one time public printer of the United States Government, and a gentleman of the high- est attainments, who died in 1887, aged nearly sixty years; Rhoda A. (Mrs. Albert S. Bolsten, of Sugar Grove, Illinois); Horace E .; Edward Q., who died at the age of three years; and Florence, who died in infancy. Lester Rounds died in 1888, at the age of eighty four years, and Mrs. Rounds in 1882, at the age of seventy-five years.
The subject of this sketch was a year and a-
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half old when his parents settled at the present site of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and received his ed- ucation in Eureka, in such branches as were taught in district schools. In 1854, when fif- teen years of age, he came to Chicago, then a city of only sixty-five thousand people, to learn the printer's trade in the office of his brother Sterling, who was then proprietor of the most important job printing establishment in the city. He remained here six years, and thoroughly mastered the intricacies of the printer's art, also acquiring some proficiency in writing for the Chicago Sunday Leader and Rounds' Printers' Cabinet.
The discovery of gold at Pike's Peak made him ambitious of acquiring wealth by the "short cut," and in 1860 he started for that Eldorado in charge of a train of six wagons drawn by oxen, carrying mining machinery and supplies. Forty- five days were consumed going from St. Joseph to the Gregory mining camp. He remained a year and a-half in Russell Gulch, meeting with poor success, and finally sold the mill and ma- chinery for about one-fifth of its cost. He was a member of a law and order committee, which had for its object the trial and punishment of the many criminals who infested the mining camps, and assisted in preserving order at tlie execution of one criminal and in flogging another for heinous crimes.
From there he went to Denver, Colorado, and with his brother, Sterling P., bought a quarter interest in the Rocky Mountain News, remaining there eighteen months. In 1863 he sold to Gov. John Evans, returned to Chicago, and shortly after went to Eureka, Wisconsin, where he joined his father in the mercantile business, after being rejected as a volunteer for the Union army on ac- count of a temporary physical disability.
In June, 1864, he tried again with better suc- cess and enlisted in Company C, Forty-first Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry, a hundred-day regi- ment, which went at once to Memphis, Tennes- see, in the vicinity of which it became actively engaged in desultory warfare with marauding bands of the enemy, under General Forrest, and other bushwhacking bands. He was at Memphis
when the rebel General Forrest raided that city, and took part in the hot skirmish that followed. He served a month longer than his enlisted termn.
Returning to Eureka, he resumed business with his father for a time, then established the Eureka Journal, the first and only paper the town ever had, conducting the enterprise one year. During this year, 1867, he was united in mar- riage with Miss Hattie N., daughter of LaFayette and Lucy M. Parker, of Racine, Wisconsin. Subsequent to this event, he went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and established the Oshkosh Journal, having for a partner Hiram Morley. This vent- ure proved fairly successful, and after five years of unremitting toil in building up a circulation and acquiring a good advertising patronage, the business was sold to the Oshkosh Northwestern. Returning to Chicago in 1873, he again took a position with his brother, Sterling P., with whom he was associated for ten years. In 1884 he ac- cepted the assistant editorship of Peck's Son, published at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which po- sition he ably filled for two years, doing a large share of the literary work. Succeeding this, he established a job printing office in Milwaukee, which he conducted until 1891, which year dates the establishment of his present paper at Rogers Park, the News-Herald, which is considered to be one of the essential fixtures of the place.
Mr. Rounds is a member of Cumberland Post, No. 737, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he has been quartermaster ever since its forma- tion, except one year, when he was commander. He is a Republican in politics, and cast his first vote for the lamented Lincoln when a candidate for his second term.
To Mr. and Mrs. Rounds have been born four children, three of whom are living: Elinor, wife of Howard D. McLeod, of Muskegon, Michigan; La Fayette and Aurilla. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rounds are members of the Congregational Church, and take an active interest in religious works. It can be truthfully said that much of the progress made by the handsome and thriving suburb of Rogers Park is due in considerable part to the publicity given it by the News- Herald.
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
WILLIAM S. JOHNSTON
(From Photo by W. J. ROOT)
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W. S. JOHNSTON.
WILLIAM S. JOHNSTON.
ILLIAM SKEA JOHNSTON, the well- known carriage manufacturer of Oak Park, comes of that sturdy, God-fearing Scotch lineage which has given so many substantial citi- zens to all the newer parts of the world. He was born January 12, 1841, in the parish of Orphir, in the Orkney Islands. His parents were John and Janet (Skea) Johnston. The former was born in the Shetland Islands, where his ancestors had lived for many generations. His father re- moved with his family to the Orkney Islands, where the son became a blacksmith. Mrs. Janet Johnston died in 1847. She was the mother of nine children, as follows: John, who died in Lon- don in 1848; James, now residing in Oak Park, Illinois; Janet (Mrs. Joseph Haloro), who still lives in the Orkney Islands; Thomas, a blacksmith in Stockton, California; Magnus, who died in childhood; William S., the subject of this sketch; Andrew, a blacksmith and carriage builder, re- siding in Chicago; Archibald, who died in the West Indies in 1867; and one who died in infancy. . John Johnston married, as his second wife, Miss Katherine Wilson, who became the mother of four children, of whom the following is the rec- ord: Ann (Mrs. David Scott) died in Edin- burgh, Scotland; John resides in Oak Park; David died in the Orkney Islands, where Mary (Mrs. Peter Turfis) still resides.
William S. Johnston learned the trade of a blacksmith in his father's shop, where he worked until he reached his majority. His educational advantages were very limited, but he has largely made up for the lack of early advantages by the use of rare business judgment and strong common
sense. In the year 1862 he engaged with the Hudson Bay Company to go to York Factory, located about four miles from Hudson Bay, for five years. There he did various kinds of black- smith work for the Indians, in the interest of the above company, such as making traps, spears and axes, and repairing their guns and other im- plements. For this work he received thirty-six pounds a year and fifty acres of land at the end of the five years. At the end of his term of service he received a grant of a piece of land near Winni- peg, though at that time it was still a wilderness. This he sold and engaged for another year with the same company at Fort Pelley, in what is now Manitoba. He subsequently journeyed down the river to York Factory, where he took passage to London. Thence he went to his old home, and after a short visit, removed to Edinburgh, where he remained eighteen months, working at his trade.
In 1870 he resolved to seek his fortune in the United States, and, having previously married, he came to New York, whence he continued his way to Wilmington, Will County, Illinois, where he worked for about one and a-half years. He re- moved in 1872 to Oak Park and opened a carriage and horse-shoeing shop on Lake Street, in a building which had previously been used as a carpenter shop. Though he received much oppo- sition and even threats from others in the same line of work, he remained at his post and soon Saw his business begin to prosper. After five years he erected a fine building, near the same lo- cation, and continued the business until 1886. During that year he built a more commodious structure on Harlem Avenue, and in 1887 opened
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a carriage shop, taking his two sons into partner- ship. This shop is complete in every detail, and is equipped for doing all work connected with car- riage and wagon building. He has also built a number of dwelling houses at Oak Park.
November 19, 1869, Mr. Jolinston was married in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Miss May Linklator Scarth, daughter of John Stuart Scarth and May Linklator. Mrs. Johnston, who is a lady of cult- ure and refinement, was born at Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, a town famous for its monument to the Covenanters who suffered martyrdom near there, as well as for St. Magnus' Cathedral, the oldest institution of its character in Scotland.
John S. Scarth was the son of a Britishi soldier, and was born on board a man-of-war en route to France from Malta, where his father had been stationed. The latter served twenty-one years in the army, participating in the Battle of Waterloo and many other engagements, and finally retired upon a pension. John S. Scarthi learned the tailor's trade, but spent most of his life as an in- structor in vocal and instrumental music, for
which art he had a peculiar talent. For forty years he was precentor at St. Magnus' Cathedral. He died in Liverpool, England, in 1888, aged seventy-nine years. His wife, who was descend- ed from an old Orkney family, died at the same place in 1875.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have been the parents of six children, of whom two died in childhood. The others are: Ellen (Mrs. Peter L. Petersen), of River Forest; Lillie, who is at home with her parents; John and Archibald, associated in busi- ness with their father. Two nieces, Adelaide and Flora, have also been adopted into the family. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston were members of the Free Church of Scotland, and are now connected with the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Park. In 1893 they made a visit to their old home in the Orkney Islands, and also to many other points of interest in England and Scotland. Fraternally Mr. Johnston is connected with Harlem Lodge No. 540, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with General Grant Council No. 916, Royal Arcanum, both of Oak Park.
WILLIAM H. REEDY.
ILLIAM HENRY REEDY, an enterpris- ing young business man of Chicago, was born in Rock Island, Illinois, September 10, 1861, and is a son of John and Mary (Graham) Reedy. John Reedy was born at Manaugh, near Silvermines, County Tipperary, Ireland, and his wife was a native of the same country. He came to America in 1851, stopping in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he learned the trade of machinist. Three years later he went farther West, and after living temporarily at Muscatine, Iowa; St. Louis, Mis- souri, and other places, finally settled at Rock Island, Illinois, where he worked at his trade in the Deere Plow Works until 1872. In that year
he removed to Chicago, which has since been his home. From 1872 to 1889 he was engaged in the Reedy Elevator Works, and since that time has been retired. Mrs. Mary Reedy died in Chicago April 20, 1897, at the age of sixty-six years. She was a faithful member of the Church of the Holy Name (Cathedral), in which the family has worshipped for many years.
Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Reedy, of whom two died in childhood. The others are: William H., of whom this article is written; Mary, Mrs. C. O. Foltz, Antioch, Illi- nois; John T., employed in the store of A. H. Abbott, Chicago; James W., a machinist in the
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works of the Reedy Elevator Company; Henry J., connected with the Board of Trade firm of Swartz & Dupee; Kate, Mrs. O. J. Walsh, of Chicago; and Graham D., bookkeeper in the of- fice of the Reedy Elevator Company.
William H. Reedy, the subject of this sketch, attended the public schools of Rock Island and also of Chicago. In 1877 he left school and the following year entered the employ of Gardner, Stone & Company, a Board of Trade firm of Chi- cago, with whom he remained one year. In 1879 he became bookkeeper in the office of his uncle, J. W. Reedy, who was engaged in the manufacture of passenger and freight elevators. On the organization of The Reedy Elevator Manufacturing Company in 1885, J. W. Reedy became president and W. H. Reedy secretary and treasurer of that concern. In 1889 the former died and his sister succeeded to his office, but the latter still retains the offices held by him. The business was established in 1864 and has an extensive trade in the West, Northwest and South, and has a branch in New York City.
September 18, 1889, Mr. Reedy was married
to Miss Clara Downey, who was born in Liver- pool, England, and is a daughter of John and Mathilda Sophia (Fowler) Downey. This union has been blessed by four children, named in order of birth, Marie, Clara, Leo and Marguerite. The family is connected with St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church of River Forest. That beauti- ful village has been its home since 1891, and since 1893 it has occupied the elegant residence which was completed in that year. Mr. Reedy has been a Democrat in all National questions, but in local affairs he is independent of party prejudice. He has always been much interested in athletics, being himself well developed physically. In
former years he devoted considerable attention to rowing, having been a member of two well-known boat clubs, the Delaware and the Iroquois. He was also at one time an enthusiastic hand-ball player, and for several years was interested in the game of base ball in a semi-professional way. In 1878 he was one of the first amateur pitchers int Chicago to throw the curved ball, which had been introduced by professionals the previous season.
THOMAS L. HUMPHREVILLE.
HOMAS LIBERTY HUMPHREVILLE is one of the best known citizens of the village of River Forest, whose long years of professional labor have extended his acquaint- ance throughout Cook County. His lineage is traced from some of the oldest and most esteemed New England families, his ancestors on the paternal side, who were doubtless of English origin, having first settled in this country in the vicinity of West Haven, Connecticut.
His grandfather, Lemuel Humphreville, was one of five brothers who resided in that locality. He was a farmer by occupation and served some
time in the Continental army, contracting rheu- matism from exposure on the battlefield, on ac- count of which he was granted a furlough and went home to recuperate. While he was there his neighbors, who were nearly all tories, at- tacked his house at night with stones and clubs, breaking out the doors and windows, and mak- ing it uninhabitable for the time being. His son, Lemuel, then a lad of seven years, was knocked senseless by a stone. Lemuel Humphreville, senior, married a Miss Beecher, a member of the family from which sprang the noted Brooklyn divine of that name. Mr. and Mrs. Humphre-
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ville reared a family of seven daughters and two sons, most of whom were noted for their great longevity, two of the daughters reaching the age of ninety-eight years, and another, Anna Peck, surviving to the age of one hundred and three.
Liberty Humphreville, the second son of this worthy couple, was born at Northfield, Litch- field County, Connecticut, his birthday being identical with that of the nation, July 4, 1776, on account of which fact he was so named by his patriotic father. While a young man he re- moved to Chenango County, New York, and thence to a farm in the town of Pompey, Onondaga County, New York. His death, which was caused by an accident in the hay-field, occurred July 20, 1818. His wife, whose maiden name was Milly Marsh, survived until 1857, passing away in Delphi, New York, at the age of sixty- seven years. She was also a native of Litchfield County, Connecticut, and her parents, Thomas Marsh and Polly Peck, became early settlers in Pompey, New York. Besides Mrs. Humphre- ville, their family included a daughter, Sally, and three sons, Edward, Hiram and Thomas Horatio. The last-named, who was an attorney by profes- sion, was for some years a resident of Chicago. Liberty and Milly Humphreville were the parents of two sons and two daughters: Charles L., who died at the age of twenty-two years; Lucena, Mrs. Charles Jones, who died in River Forest, Illinois, in 1895, at the age of eighty-three years; Olive, wife of Dr. Eli Cook, who died in Delphi, New York; and Thomas Liberty.
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