Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 4

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 930

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed. > Part 4

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Robert Parker, son of William, was a cabinet- maker, noted in the section where he lived for his excellent work. He was an ardent adherent of the Baptist faith, and named his son in honor of the famous Dr. Francis Wayland, president of Brown University. He died when this son was but six years of age.

The latter attended the school of his native vil- lage when he was three years old, having pre- viously learned to read, and entered the local academy at the age of seven. When eight years old he read in Porter's Rhetorical Reader, had been through Colburn's Arithmetic, and was taken from school and bound out to William Moore of Goffstown. He spent five years upon a farm, being privileged to attend school only eight or nine weeks in the winter, but considers this one of the most fortunate periods in his primary training. At the age of thirteen years he left the farmi and entered the academy at Mount Vernon, New Hampshire. Here he worked his way along by sawing wood and performing various sorts of manual labor. With the addi- tional money earned on farms in summer he was enabled to pay his expenses at school in winter, and this hard experience served to develop the most sturdy habits of self-reliance and industry.

When he was sixteen years old he attended Hopkinton Academy, and in the winter of 1854-55 he taught school at Corser Hill, now called Web- ster, New Hampshire. At a salary of fifteen dol- lars per month, he presided over a school includ- ing seventy-five pupils, many of them older than himself. The following winter he taught school in Auburn, New Hampshire, and such was his success that he was employed several successive

winters in that town. His first winter's salary was eighteen dollars a month, and this included board on the old-fashioned system of "boarding 'round."

By continuing his plan of farm labor in sum- mer, teaching and attending school, he came, at the attainment of his majority, to the charge of the village school in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and was subsequently at the head of the grammar school of his native village.

In 1858 he went to Carrollton, Green County, Illinois, where, with one assistant, in one room, he superintended the instruction of one hundred and twenty-five pupils, ranging in age from twelve to twenty-five years. Without striking a blow he continued to manage this school two years, where two of his predecessors had been driven out by the insubordination of the pupils.

True to his inherited martial instincts, young Parker sought to enter the service of his country immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities in the Civil War, which occurred while he was at Carrollton. Being unable to secure admission to an Illinois regiment, lie returned to his native state and at once entered the Fourth New Hamp- shire Regiment as a private. Before the regiment was mustered he was elected first lieutenant of Company E, and in the following winter was made captain. The first three years of the war were spent by this command at various points along the Atlantic Coast, in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, participating in the long siege of Charleston.

Early in 1864 the regiment was placed in the command of General Butler at Bermuda Hun- dred, and Colonel Parker was in several great battles during the long campaign of 1864. At Drury's Bluff he lost twenty-eight of his forty- two men. The regiment was under General Grant at Cold Harbor, and took part in the siege of Petersburg. In the Crater fight the Fourth New Hampshire lost fifty men, and immediately thereafter Captain Parker was placed in com- mand. August 16, 1864, at Deep Bottom, he was suddenly called to the command of a brigade, and was severely wounded in the chin and neck while engaged in repelling a second charge of the

F. W. PARKER.

enemy. For many weeks he lay in the hospital, suffering from a crushed windpipe. In the spring of this year his regiment numbered a full one thousand men, and only forty could be mustered at the last charge in the fall.

In October, 1864, he was able to leave the hospital and go home to recuperate. He was active in the presidential campaign of that year, and in December was married to Miss Phene E. Hall, of Bennington, New Hampshire. Having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he joined his regiment after the battle of Fort Fisher, succeed- ing Colonel Bell, who fell in the first attack upon the fort. He marched with General Scofield across North Carolina to meet Sherman. Soon after the junction of forces was made at Cox's Bridge, Colonel Parker was made a prisoner and taken to Greensburg, North Carolina, where he first learned of the failure of armed rebellion, through the surrender of General Lee. For his bravery at Deep Bottom he was made a brevet- colonel.

Colonel Parker was mustered out with his command in August, 1865, and immediately took the position of principal of the grammar school at Manchester, New Hampshire, which he held three years, at a salary of eleven hundred dollars per year. Despite his aversion he was drawn into politics, and determined to move in order to avoid his mistaken friends, for he felt sure he could not succeed in politics and teaching at the same time. He felt that teaching was his mission, aud proceeded to Dayton, Ohio, where he was engaged as a teacher. Here he began to put in practice some of his ideas of reform in education, and, in spite of opposition from parents and teacliers, was sustained by the Board of Educa- tion. In 1871 he took the position of assistant superintendent of the schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota. During this year his wife died, and he resigned his position and went to Europe to study the science of education.

He spent two and one-half years in the Univer- sity of Berlin, Germany, and also took a course of two years in philosophy under a private tutor. During his vacations he visited the schools and art galleries of the continent and made a study of

European geography and history, and returned to America in 1875. His trip abroad was under- taken largely to satisfy himself whether his ideas were in conformity with those of the great thinkers of the world, and he came back fully confirmed in his theories.

In April, 1875, he was made superintendent of the city schools of Quincy, Massachusetts, which were then in charge of a board, including John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams and James H. Slade. The board gave him full authority and co-operated with him in his labors of re-organization. Much opposition was en- countered on the part of teachers, and the con- troversy attracted thirty thousand visitors to ob- serve the workings of the schools of Quincy during the three years Colonel Parker was in charge. In 1880 he was made one of the super- visors of schools in Boston, where he again met opposition from teachers and principals, but he was re-elected. He was offered the superintend- ency of schools at Philadelphia, but refused this to accept the position of principal of the Cook County Normal School.

Here was opportunity to exercise his talent for training teachers, and here he could get near to the children, whom he wished to reach and bene- fit. He entered upon his duties January 1, 1883, and met once more the antagonism of teachers and conservative citizens. But results soon began to demonstrate to these the wisdom of his scien- tific theories, and he was heartily sustained by the school board, and the institution was placed in successful operation in spite of politicians and other enemies to progress.

Colonel Parker is the author of "Talks on Teaching," "Practical Teacher," "How to Study Geography," "Outlines in Geography," tract on "Spelling," and "Talks on Pedagogics." He has visited every state in the Union, and lectured before institutes and conventions in most of them. A few of his lectures may be here mentioned: "The Child and Nature," "The Child and Man," "Artist or Artisan-Which?" "Home and School," "The Ideal School," "Education and Democracy." He is also the editor of a unique publication called the "Cook County Normal

COL. VICTOR GERARDIN.

School Envelope," which shows the development of concentration in the Cook County Normal School, month by month.

In December, 1882, he was married to Mrs. M. Frank Stuart, the first assistant in the Boston School of Oratory. Mrs. Parker is a leading ex- ponent of the Delsarte system of expression, and is a faithful coadjutor of her husband in his noble plans for benefiting the human race. Their

home on Honore Street, Englewood, bears many evidences of her artistic taste in architecture and furnishings. Its library contains over four thous- and volumes, including many in the Norwegian, French, Dutch, German, Italian and Indian languages, which the Colonel reads readily. The lawns and extensive garden furnish him with physical exercise, by way of rest from his mental and literary labors.

COL. VICTOR GERARDIN.

OL. VICTOR GERARDIN, known in Chi- cago as the "Father of the French," was born February 17, 1832, in Baccarat, France, where his father, Joseph Gerardin, was a farmer. The father of the latter, who bore the same name, followed the same avocation in the same locality. The mother of the subject of this sketch, Agatha Math, was a native of the same place, and, like her husband, was a scion of a family that has re- sided there since the eleventh century. Joseph Gerardin, junior, served under the great Napo- leon during the last two years of his campaigning in Europe.

Victor Gerardin was the thirteenth child of his parents and was deprived of his mother by death when he was but three years old. For six years, until he was twelve years of age, he attended the village school and then came to America with a sister who was married. He arrived in New York on the ist of April, 1844, and went to work the next day in a glass factory, where he continued one year. He then entered into an apprenticeship at the hatter's trade, which he continued until he attained his majority. During his early apprenticeship his salary was not suffi- cient for his maintenance, and he supported him- self by selling papers and blacking boots in New York City. He did not neglect at the same time to improve his mind, and rapidly gained a mastery of the English language.

In 1854 he came to Chicago and engaged in business with a partner, the firm being known as Grosset & Gerardin. The senior partner died in 1877, and Mr. Gerardin has continued the busi- liess of hatter alone ever since. He was the first in Chicago to engage in the manufacture of silk hats, and is now the oldest artisan in that line in the city. In the Great Fire of 1871 all his real and personal property went up in smoke. He continued business, however, opening first in the house of a friend within ten days after the fire; and eventually paid in full every dollar of claims against him. His first place of business was 011 South Water Street, where he continued three years, and afterwards remained on La Salle Street between Randolph and Lake Streets, until the fire. For one year thereafter he was located on Canal Street, and has continued ever since at his present location on Clark Street, near Monroe. He was an extensive manufacturer, and previous to the panic of 1873 turned out enough hats to supply the present trade of the Northwest.

Mr. Gerardin has ever been active in promoting social and benevolent labors and has been a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since he was old enough to be eligible, having been initiated in Sincerite Lodge No. 233, of New York City, on the day he became of age. In Chicago he was for many years a member of Union Lodge No. 9, and left that to become a charter member

J. M. KENNEDY.

of Rochambeau Lodge No. 532, the only lodge in Chicago working in the French language, of which he was the principal organizer. This is one of the six lodges in the United States work- ing in that language, and was instituted Novem- ber 12, 1873.

From the Ist of March, 1859, Mr. Gerardin or- ganized the French Mutual Society (Societe Fran- caise de Secours Mutuels) and was its first presi- dent, filling that position for twelve consecutive terms. In 1861 he organized tlie Societe de Bienifaisance, of which he was president at the time of the fire in 1871. After that calam- ity this society distributed fifteen thousand francs to the sufferers. In 1886 Mr. Gerardin or- ganzed the Cercle Francais, of Chicago. All these societies are still in existence except the benevolent society, which was merged in the others when it had accomplished its pur- pose, after the fire. One of Mr. Gerardin's most highly prized treasures is an autograph let- ter from the wife of Marshal McMahon, who was president of the French relief society, acknowl- edging the receipt of funds sent from Chicago for the relief of the French flood sufferers, while McMahon was president of the French Republic.

While a resident of New York City Mr. Ger- ardin served from 1852 until 1854 as a volunteer fireman with Engine Company No. 11. He has been a member of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, since 1877.

In religious faith he adheres to the Roman Cath- olic Church. He was a Republican up to the Cleveland-Blaine campaign of 1884, since which time he has adhered to the Democratic party. October 18, 1876, lie was commissioned colonel of the "Hayes & Wheeler Minute Men of '76," 011 the staff of Gen. John McArthur. During the Civil War he was an ardent supporter of the ad- ministration, and an intense patriot. During the World's Fair he had charge of the Parisian Hat- ters' Exhibit, and had previously served as a member of the committee of one hundred, ap- pointed by Mayor Cregier, to secure the location of that exhibit in Chicago.

He re-visited France in 1864, and again during the Franco-Prussian War, and on the last trip made a tour of England and Ireland. In Janu- ary, 1859, he was married to Marion, eldest daughter of John Magee, of Belfast, Ireland (for genealogy, see biography of Charles D. Magee, in this volume). Five of the nine children of Mr. Gerardin are now deceased. The names of all in order of birth, are: Minnie, Rea, Agatha, Eliza, Victor, Joseph, Walter, Emile and Esther. The third, sixth and seventh died within a period of two weeks, in the year 1875, of diphtheria, and are buried in Graceland Cemetery. Eliza died in 1867, and Emile in 1884. Mr. Gerardin has lived for the last fourteen years in his present residence, which is located at No. 1128 North Halsted Street.

JOHN M. KENNEDY.

9 OHN McMILLAN KENNEDY, for many years a business man of Chicago, now living in retirement at Oak Park, was born in the Parish of Colmonell, Ayrshire, Scotland, Feb- ruary 26, 1815. His parents were Alexander Kennedy and Elizabeth McMillan. The former

was a farmer, a tenant on the family estate which was inherited by his eldest brother. He was born April 7, 1772, and died December 14, 1871, thus lacking only four months of being one hun- dred years old. He was the father of twelve children, of whom the following is the record:

J. M. KENNEDY.

Margaret is the widow of Rev. Andrew Mc- Dowell and resides at Stirling, Scotland; David inherited the family estate, which consists of one thousand five hundred acres, and also the title of Laird of Craig; John M. is the subject of this sketch; Anthony M. was a merchant and planter in Camden, South Carolina, where he died De- cember 17, 1892; Sarah is the widow of George McAdamı and resides in Rickton, Scotland; Robert was a merchant in Camden, South Carolina, where he died in 1896; Mary became the wife of David Denholm, and died in Chicago in 1854; Alexander died in 1852, in England; Elizabeth died in Scotland in 1861; Agnes, wife of David Thorburn, resides at Newton Stewart, Scotland; Jane died at the age of twelve years; and James died at his native place, aged twenty-one years.

John M. Kennedy received a common-school education in Scotland, and at the age of fifteen years, in company with his younger brother, Anthony, sailed from Greenock, Scotland, Oc- tober 10, 1830, in the good ship "Rogers Stewart" for America. After a voyage of fifty days they arrived at Savannah, Georgia, and proceeded by steamer to Augusta, in the same State, and thence by stage to Camden, South Carolina. There they joined a cousin, a merchant, who gave them employment as clerks. The elder brother remained until March 24, 1834, when, in company with Frederick Witherspoon, he made the journey to Fox River, Illinois, on horseback, a distance of one thousand two hun- dred and forty-four miles. On Big and Little Rock Creeks, in what is now Kendall County, they located farms, and there Mr. Kennedy car- ried on farming until November, 1848. At that date he removed to Chicago, and from 1849 to 1852 was engaged in the lumber business. From 1852 to 1857 he did a commission business, which proved very successful, but his accumulations were swept away in the panic of 1857. During the terms of John Wentworth and John C. Haines as mayors of Chicago, from 1857 to 1860, he served as chief of police with much credit, and was urged to serve longer, but refused. For the next five years he was employed by Howe & Robbins, grain dealers, and from 1865 to 1878

dealt in lime as city salesman. In the last-named year he accepted the position of weigh-master on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, which he held until 1887, when advancing years compelled hini to resign. Since that time he has been living in the enjoyment of the period of rest and recreation to which his long years of usefulness so eminently entitle him. In 1890 he built the pleasant cot- tage le now occupies at Oak Park, which has since been his home.

Mr. Kennedy is one of the few men living who have witnessed the entire growth of Chicago as a city. On his first visit to that place he con- sidered it a very undesirable place to live, but later made it his home, wishing to secure skilled medical care for his wife, who was then an invalid. He was afterwards induced to remain in order to gain educational advantages for his children. His reminiscences of early Chicago are very interest- ing. Though he has passed his eighty-second birthday anniversary, his memory is excellent, and he recalls the events of his youth and early manhood quite as clearly as those of more recent occurrence. In earlier years he was opposed to the extension of slavery, and was successively a Whig and a Republican. He cast his first vote for President in 1836, and has therefore voted in sixteen presidential elections. In re- ligious views he has been a lifelong Baptist, and united with the Tabernacle Church of Chicago in 1851. He was a member of this church forty years, though it was afterwards named the Second Baptist Church. For ten years he served as deacon in this organization. Since 1891 he has been connected with the First Baptist Church of Oak Park.

March 30, 1837, Mr. Kennedy was married to Eliza Anın Rogers, a native of Camden, South Carolina, and a daughter of Alexander and Mary (Kelso) Rogers. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were both natives of Pennsylvania, the former of Irish and . the latter of Scotch descent. Seven children were born of this union, as follows: Mary, now the widow of Samuel Ludington, resides with her fatlier; Elizabeth, who was for thirty-eight years a teacher in Chicago, but now retired, also re- sides with her father; Alexander is in the insur-

HENRY WINKELMAN.

ance business in Chicago; Anthony is chief grain inspector of Boston, Massachusetts; John, James and Walter died in childhood. Mrs. Kennedy died in 1851. The subject of this notice was married a second time October 20, 1852, to Rosetta E. Hamilton, a daughter of David and Jerusha (Hulet) Hamilton. Mrs. Kennedy was born near Aurora, Erie County, New York. Her parents removed to Illinois in 1838. Seven chil- dren were born of this marriage, as follows: David, who is a member of the real-estate firm of Kennedy & Ballard of Chicago, and resides at

Oak Park; William E., a railroad man on the Union Pacific Railroad; Hulbert, Ellen Eliza, Albert and Charles died in infancy; Robert B. is employed with his brother in Oak Park, where he resides. The mother departed this life Jan- uary 23, 1892. Mr. Kennedy is blessed by twenty-seven grandchildren and eight great- grandchildren. He has also cared for two orphan nieces, Mary L. Goff, now the widow of John J. Kott, and Agnes D. Kennedy, now Mrs. Frank M. Crittenden, both of whom reside in the city of Chicago.

HENRY WINKELMAN.

ENRY WINKELMAN was born January 3, 1847, in Tedinghausen, Braunschweig, Germany, and is a son of Henry and Eliza- betlı (Klueber) Winkelman, neither of whom ever came to America. John Winkelman, brother of the subject of this sketch, came to America in 1861 and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. His sympathies were on the side of the South in the great civil strife, and he enlisted in the Confed- erate army, and was killed during the war. Mary Winkelman, his sister, came to America in 1863, and afterwards married Henry Kassens. She and her husband reside at Colehour. Henry Win- kelman served in the cavalry service of Germany. He came to America in 1875, and in 1878 went to South Chicago, where he now resides.

Henry Winkelman received all his education in his native country, where he remained until he was nearly twenty years old. The example of his older brother and his sister gave him the desire to come to this country, and when he was able to do so, he emigrated. He reached New York in July, 1866, and located in Brooklyn, where he remained until 1881, being employed

by a grocer until 1872, when he engaged in busi- ness for himself, conducting a meat market.

In 1881 Mr. Winkelman came to South Chi- cago and opened a meat market at No. 10026 Ewing Avenue. Later he bought some property a few doors away and moved his business, and in 1884 he bought property at No. 9801 Ewing Avenue. He moved his business to this place, where he has conducted it since that time, and in 1895 he built the comfortable brick flat which he occupies.

In 1872 Mr. Winkelman married his first wife, Margaret Kolenberg, of Germany, but she died when they had been married less than two years. They had one child, who died when an infant. In 1876 he married his second wife, Miss Annie Kleemeyer.

Mr. Winkelman has become well acquainted with the customs of his adopted country, whose interest he has at heart. In politics he does not follow party lines and prejudices, but votes for the man rather than for the party. He is a suc- cessful business man and enjoys the respect of his friends and neighbors.

LIBRARY OF THE ANIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

HENRY C. FRICKE

(From Photo, by W. J. ROOT)

H. C. FRICKE.

HENRY C. FRICKE.

ENRY CHRISTIAN FRICKE, a vener- able pioneer of Chicago, was born August I, 1815, in Springe, Hanover, Germany. His parents were Gottlieb and Mary (Ohm) Fricke, also natives of Springe, which is an ideal town, surrounded by mountains and having its own municipal government. The ancestry of Mr. Fricke dates back many centuries, its members having lived in the quaint little town of Springe, where they held positions of responsibility and led upright and useful lives, and were educated according to the opportunities of their times.

Mr. Fricke's grandfather was a man of affairs, and occupied and tilled an estate of two thousand acres, for which he paid a yearly rental of two thousand German thalers to the King of Hano- ver. He was well educated, was a brainy man, of good executive ability, and reared a large fam- ily in the good customs of the country. His son, Gottlieb, succeeded to the homestead, and gradu- ally paid off the other heirs. He was industrious and frugal, and reared a family of ten children, two of whom, Henry C. Fricke and the youngest daughter, Louise Tamcke, now reside in Chicago.

The subject of this sketch received the educa- tion afforded by his native town, and, being fond of study, made the best of his opportunities. He was gifted with excellent musical faculties, and was wont to associate with. the best elements of society there, in the study of his favorite art. He became an expert performer on the spinnet, an instrument which was superseded by the piano, and he was among the musical leaders of the place.

When it became necessary for him to select a vocation in life, he decided to become an ac-

countant. He was elected to the office of city treasurer for life, and was subsequently elected burgomaster of Springe, but the Government re- fused to confirm this, because of his free expres- sion of liberal views during the stormy days of 1848. He was too democratic for happy life 1111- der a monarchy, and by this oppressive act Han- over lost a good citizen, while the United States was thereby a gainer. Although the ties which bound him to his native land were strong, he de- termined to seek his fortune in the new world.

May 8, 1853, he left Springe and arrived in Chicago July 24 of the same year. In the fol- lowing November his wife, Fredericka (born Ho- bein), followed with their five children. He soon found employment as bookkeeper in a small shop on La Salle Street, near the present south entrance to the tunnel. The cholera attacked his employ- ers, Braunhold & Sonne, and the care of the en- tire business fell upon Mr. Fricke for a time. Soon after, through the friendship of George Schneider, the well-knowit ex-banker, he received the appointment of delivery clerk in the foreign mail department of the postoffice, a position for which his education and previous business expe- rience especially fitted him. George B. Arm- strong, who has left the impression of his genins on the mail service of the United States and the world, never to be effaced, was then assistant postmaster, and became a warm friend of Mr. Fricke.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 4

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book and Engraving Co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : Calumet Book and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 930