Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 60

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 60

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413

MARTINUS PETERSEN.

& Price Baking Powder Company in the capacity of traveling salesman, and later went with Heuer & Brockschmidt, now Aug Heuer & Sons, dealers in furniture and upholsterers' supplies, as travel- ing salesman. In 1873 he settled in Rogers Park, then a straggling village of four houses, on the prairie.

Mr. Haskin was a man of good abilities. He had a natural talent that made up in good part for the lack of advantages in his early life. He was a close observer of people and events, and a great reader. His memory was excellent, retain- ing and digesting all that he read. He had won- derful aptness of speech, making use of all that he read. Although not cultured in graces of rhet- oric, he possessed a natural oratory that was both effective and pleasing. As a platform speaker he was in demand at political and social gatherings. As a Democrat he was prominent in the local councils of the party, and upon the political ros- trum he carried the flag of Democracy to victory in many exciting contests. August 2, 1881, he was elected to the office of justice of the peace for the town of Evanston, a position he creditably filled until his death. He was widely known and respected by a host of friends and acquaintances.

Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Has- kin, Middleton A. and Roy H., both promising young men. Mr. Haskin died June 30, 1883. Mrs. Haskin is a daugliter of Oliver H. and Ade- line (French) Ellithorpe, who settled in Kane County, Illinois, about fifty-five years ago. The Ellithorpes are a very old English family, and are closely allied to the Oglethorpe family, of whom General Oglethorpe, the founder of the State of Georgia, is the most famous member. The first one of the family to emigrate to this country was Ichabod Ellithorpe, who came in the year 1710, and settled in Connecticut. His grandson, John Ellithorpe, grandfather of Mrs. Haskin, was a soldier of the War of 1812, and took part in the battle of Lake Champlain. Oliver Ellithorpe, her father, was born in Sheldon, Vermont, November 21, 1814, and died in Elgin, Illinois, June 30, 1889. Mrs. Ellithorpe is still living. She is a daughter of Isaac French, an English-Canadian, and a soldier in the English army. Mrs. Has- kin's great-grandfather, Timothy Chapman, was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, enlisting at Stratford, Connecticut, April 15, 1777, as a ser- geant in Col. Heman Swift's Connecticut regi- ment, and served throughout the war.

MARTINUS PETERSEN.

M ARTINUS PETERSEN, one of the most progressive Danes of our great metropolis, and a hardworking, useful citizen, was born in Hillerslev, near Thisted, in Northern Denmark, September 19, 1859. He is the son of Peter Christian and Karen Marie (Christiansen) Petersen, natives of Denmark. Martinus was the first one of his family to emigrate to the United States, and he came to Chicago in Jan- mary, 1879. His first work was shoveling coal in South Chicago, at which he was occupied only

a short time; then he went to Dwight, Illinois, where he worked on a farm three months, but did not like this employment. With the excep- tion of the three months spent at Dwight, he has lived continuously in the city since arriving here.

In 1881 he became clerk in a grocery store for Hans Heinsen. This is the store at which he is himself 110w located, Nos. 9176 and 9178 Harbor Avenue. He worked for Heinsen until 1890, by which time he had saved sufficient money to join him as a partner, and the firm of Petersen &

414

M. C. MAGNUSSEN.

- Company was then formed. This firm continued to do business until 1895, when Mr. Heinsen bought the business and Mr. Petersen again worked for him. April 14, 1896, Mr. Petersen bought out Mr. Heinsen, and the establishment has since been conducted under the name of M. Peterson & Company, with Mr. Petersen as sole proprietor. He comes of an industrious family, and has three brothers in Chicago, namely: Charles, who is a merchant tailor; Nels, a shoe- maker; and Arthur, who is connected with the fire department of South Chicago, in which city all three reside.

September 20, 1884, Mr. Petersen married Miss Anna Margerita, daughter of Nels Jacobsen.

They have two children, Peter Christian, aged eleven years, and Matilda, aged five years. Mr. Petersen is a member of Court Denmark No. 219, Independent Order of Foresters. In politics he is not controlled by party lines, but always de- cides for himself the relative fitness of candidates, independent of party. He is a valuable resident of the community, and sets a good example of thrift and energy. He has practically built up the grocery trade which he controls from the be- ginning. Mr. Petersen has been doing a profit- able business and has accumulated a considerable amount of money. He also owns a handsome three-story and basement flat building at Nos .. 9120 and 9122 Mackinaw Avenue.

MEINERT C. MAGNUSSEN.

M EINERT CONRAD MAGNUSSEN was born December 5, 1850, in Emmelsbuell, Schleswig, Prussia, and is the son of Carl and Brigetta (Bonnigsen) Magnussen. He is the only one of his family who came to America, and reached Chicago on the 28th of October, 1872. In the old country he liad served the time of ap- prenticeship as a general painter, and was skilled at his trade. He first worked for Dahinden & Schroeder on Milwaukee Avenne, and stayed with them three months. In the fall of 1873 he went to South Chicago to live. He did general work for Mr. Oemich and also worked for William Kratzenburg. In 1875 he returned to Chicago and lived on Milwaukee Avenue, near Carpen- ter Street. He at this time worked at graining and ornamenting chairs for Herhold & Company. 'He continued there till February, 1882, when he returned to South Chicago and bought a lot at No. 9143 Superior Avenue. The same spring he built a shop and started business for himself. He

does general painting and contracting, and is conducting a prosperous business.

In 1874 Mr. Magnussen married Ingeburg Heinsen, daughter of Nicholas and Anna (Han- sen) Heinsen. Mrs. Magnussen was born Octo- ber 11, 1850, and became the mother of the fol- lowing children: Brigetta Johanna, born Sep- tember 9, 1875; Anna, April 24, 1879; Clara Nic- olina, February 11, 1887; Meinert Conrad, Feb- ruary 22, 1889; Arthur Henry, April 25, 1890; and Nellie Irene Maria, November 11, 1892. Four children died in infancy, Nicholas and Carl -Mau- rice, and two not named.

Mr. Magnussen is a member of the Old Set- tlers' Society, and of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He is not confined by party lines in politics, but favors the man he thinks to be most worthy and best fitted for office. He is a repre- sentative of the sturdy class of people who fur- nish the bone and sinew of a nation in time of peace or war.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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415

A. C. DUCAT.

GEN. ARTHUR C. DUCAT.

G EN. ARTHUR CHARLES DUCAT was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 24th of Feb- ruary, 1830. His father, Mungo Moray Ducat, was a gentleman who traced his lineage from a very ancient Highland family, renowned in the annals of Scotland. He was a native of Cupar Angus, but in early life removed to New Lawn, County Dublin, Ireland, where he also possessed large estates. His wife, Dorcas Julia Atkinson, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and died in Downer's Grove, Illinois, in Novem- ber, 1889, aged eighty-six years. Her father was an Englishman, of Cambridgeshire.

Arthur C. Ducat was educated at private schools in his native city, and at the age of nineteen years came to America with the inten- tion of becoming a civil engineer. He pursued that profession for some years on important rail- road lines and other public works. This occupa- tion was abandoned when he was tendered the position of Secretary and General Surveyor of the Board of Underwriters of Chicago, which position he accepted and occupied until the opening of the Civil War. In the mean time he began to mani- fest a keen interest in the affairs of the city, and organized, drilled and disciplined the Citizens' Fire Brigade, a semi-military and armed body of citizens. Their duties were to attend fires and save and guard property and life. This action also had a deeper meaning, for Ducat had resolved to abolish the old "volunteer" fire department and

introduce a new one in its place on a paid and disciplined basis, employing steam fire-engines. He was obliged to protect the first engines brought to Chicago from the demonstrations and attacks of mobs, incited by the bad element of the volunteer department, which he did by the aid of his fire brigade. He wrote the ordinances estab- lishing and substituting steam engines for the old hand machines, and enlisted the vote of the Com- mon Council to adopt it.

Upon the beginning of hostilities between the North and the South, he was one of the first to offer substantial aid in support of the Government. His taste had led him to the study of military history and science, and he knew as much of the art of war as a lieutenant fresh from West Point. The roar of the first guns had scarcely ceased before he had raised and offered-first to the State of Illinois and then to the National Government -a corps of three hundred engineers, sappers and miners. Many of these men were professionals who had seen service and understood the details of field and permanent fortifications, and works connected therewith, the rapid construction of bridges, roads, etc. The Government was not aware, however, of the struggle before it and per- haps thought that engineers would not be neces- sary. So Ducat was chagrined and disappointed by the rejection of what he foresaw would be a much-needed service. Notwithstanding this re- fusal, he immediately enlisted as a private, and

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A. C. DUCAT.

in April, 1861, became a member of the Twelfth Illinois Infantry. He was without political, gov- ernmental or family influence, and resolved to do his duty and depend upon his merits for promo- tion. Although a good horseman, he selected the infantry arm of the service, as he believed it would do most of the fighting. His regiment was among the first that seized the important strategic point of Cairo and supported General Lyon in taking possession of the arsenal at St. Louis. It was not long before Ducat's military acquirements and capabilities were appreciated. Within a month he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, and afterwards appointed Adjutant of the regiment. Upon the expiration of the three months for which he had enlisted, he was again enrolled for three years in the same regiment, and appointed Captain of Company A. The Twelfth formed a part of the brigade that first occupied the sacred soil of Kentucky, taking possession of Paducah in August, 1861. Here he was pro- moted to be Major of his regiment, and in the month of April following, at Fort Donelson, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel. In August, 1862, he was appointed to the command of the grand guards, pickets and outposts for the Army of the Tennessee. When Major-General Ord was appointed to the com- mand, Ducat was ordered to his staff, and when Major-General Rosecrans relieved General Ord, Ducat was attached to the staff of the former. At Rosecrans' great battle of Corinth and the subse- quent pursuit of the enemy, he served as acting Chief of Staff and Inspector-General, and so con- ducted himself as to receive the warmest con- gratulations of his superior officers, not only for bravery, but for efficiency, making most important suggestions as to movements, and carrying them out with great success.

Subsequently he was directed by the general in command to conduct a flag of truce to the enemy at Holly Springs, Mississippi, a distance of over seventy-five miles, through a country infested with a superior force of guerrillas and the enemy's cavalry, who were not to be depended upon to recognize a flag of truce. He succeeded, and dis- played as much tact and discretion in the im-

portant negotiations entrusted to him as in the field. He was afterward detailed to arrange with General Burnside the Knoxville campaign, rep- resenting General Rosecrans on that occasion.

When Major-General Rosecrans took command of the forces known as the Army of the Ohio (which subsequently became the Army of the Cumberland), Colonel Ducat was ordered to ac- company General Rosecrans and named as acting Chief of Staff and acting Inspector-General. In this important and responsible position he ren- dered the most efficient service in re-organizing, equipping, disciplining and drilling the army, in raising the siege of Nashville, and in opening the railway from that city to Louisville. He was afterward appointed by the War Department In- spector-General of the Fourteenth Army Corps, and after the battle of Stone River and the or- ganization of the Army and Department of the Cumberland, he was appointed Inspector-General of that army and department (the most military of the staff positions), in addition to which he had charge of the grand guards, pickets and out- posts, and the organization of the signal corps of the army. When it is recollected that Ducat was a self-educated soldier, his selection from among the many able and experienced men who had made war their profession is a distinc- tion indicating a high degree of merit. He or- ganized the Bureau of the Inspector-General on a system substantially new, but adapted to secure the greatest efficiency and discipline of a great army in the field. At first his strict and rigid exactions rendered him unpopular, but as soon as results began to manifest themselves in the greater efficiency of the troops, their sanitary condition and military spirit, he became, among officers and men, one of the most popular officers of that army. He formulated and put in practice a system of picketing and outposting an army which highly distinguished him. When General Rosecrans was relieved and Maj .- Gen. George H. Thomas took command, Ducat was ordered to the staff of the latter, in which capacity he served until he left the service at the close of the war, respected and beloved by all.

Many of these facts are obtained from an arti-

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A. C. DUCAT.

cle written by General Rosecrans, who also said of him: "I regard him as an extraordinary man, * * an excellent tactician, * * a soldier by nature; so much so, that he never exacted the credit he easily merited, nor the promotion given to less able and more plodding men."

The following is from the pen of General Grant: "His services have been very valuable and have been highly appreciated." General Thomas wrote: "One of the most able and use- ful of the army staff and cannot well be spared." General Sheridan characterized him as "an officer of high standing and distinguished merit." Another writer on the war says: "Ducat was early distinguished· for his thorongh knowledge of military details, his organizing powers and his executive ability; but especially for his sleepless vigilance and activity, that mastered all details of topography and the movement of hostile armies."

The late President Garfield, Quartermaster General Meigs, Major Generals Ord, Palmer, and others, addressed the war department, recom- mending the higher promotion of Ducat, but the lack of influence at headquarters, together withlı his own indifference regarding promotion, seemed to prevent him from receiving appointments to higher commands. He was always fully con- tented in any capacity in the army to which he was appointed.

Soon after the close of hostilities, the Home In- surance Company, of New York, appointed him to superintend its business in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, and shortly afterward he became its general agent in Chicago. His career as an act- ive underwriter was eminently successful, his popularity and acquaintance throughout the West being of great advantage to his employers. The firm of Ducat & Lyon, of which he was the head, carries on a general fire-insurance business. The business under his control has always been successful and profitable. One of the standard works of America is "Ducat's Practice of Fire Underwriting," which he brought out in 1857.

Before the great fire he was chairman of the committee that organized the celebrated Fire Insurance Patrol of Chicago. He remained

chairman of the Patrol Committee five years after the fire, and infused into it the esprit du corps and military spirit that have characterized it and brought about the extension of the fire limits to be co-extensive with the city limits -an important work, adroitly managed in the face of great opposition. He was chairman of the committee which framed the new building law after the great fire, and, in conjunction with Frederick Baumann, wrote the most elaborate and well-digested building law in this or any other country. The Board of Local Fire Under- writers was organized on the basis of his recom- mendation, in the capacity of committee for that purpose, to which position he was appointed soon after the great fire.

I11 1873 there was a movement in Illinois to re- organize the National Guard of the State. The advice of General Ducat on this subject was sought, and the military code upon which the present efficient Guard was organized is the prod- uct of his brain and pen, for which he was made major general and its commander. In 1886 he was elected commander of the Illinois Comman- dery of the military order of the Loyal Legion. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public, and of the Masonic order, being identified with Apollo Commandery, Knights Templar; and a member of the Chicago Club. He was always a staunch Republican, though never a candidate for civil office. He was married to Miss Mary Lyon, daughter of William Lyon, Esq., of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Her death occurred in Chicago, October 26, 1890, at the age of forty- three years. In 1892 he was married to Miss Alice Jane Soutar, daughter of P. J. Soutar, an eminent lawyer of Dunfermline, Scotland. Six of General Ducat's children survive. Arthur C., Jr., a graduate of West Point, is a lieutenant in the United States Army; Kate, the second child, is the wife of C. P. Stivers, of Chicago; and Mary, Reginald, Elizabeth and Alice complete the family, whose members are communicants of the Episcopal Church, in which General Ducat was reared. The latter died January 29, 1896, at his home in Downer's Grove.

418

DANIEL WARREN.

13 ANIEL WARREN, one of the pioneers of Illinois, deserves more than passing notice in this record. He was the representative of one of the oldest American families, which will always live in history because of the brave general who lost his life at the battle of Bun- ker Hill. Daniel Warren was a successful busi- ness man, who came West to embrace the op- portunity to secure a large landed estate at small original outlay. He was a native of Massachu- setts, born about 1780, near Concord, the scene of the first conflict of arms in behalf of colonial in- dependence and American liberty.

In early life, Mr. Warren went to western New . came ornaments of Chicago society. The pio- York, and opened the first store in Fredonia, Chautauqua County, that State. He afterward lived about fourteen years in Westfield, same county. While a resident of New York, he be- came acquainted with the Naper brothers, who settled the present prosperous town of Naperville, in Du Page County, Illinois. Naturally, when he decided to locate in the West, he called upon them, at their Illinois home, and at once found a satisfactory location about halfway between Na- perville and the present town of Warrenville. This was in the spring of 1833, while Chicago was scarcely thought of as a city, and certainly, its present marvelous development undreamed-of by the wildest speculator on human destiny. In a few years, Mr. Warren sold out his claim and moved to the present site of Warrenville, where he built a sawmill and laid out a town. He also secured nearly a section of land, and made farm- ing his principal industry until advancing years caused his retirement from active life. In all his undertakings, he was assisted by his only son, Col. J. M. Warren, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume. The father

passed away at his home in Warrenville in 1866, aged eighty-six years.

Nancy Morton, who became the wife of Daniel Warren, and the mother of a son and seven daughters, was born in Orange, Worcester Coun- ty, Massachusetts, on the ninth day of February, 1785. When nine years old, she went with her parents to Madison County, New York, and was the favorite companion of her brother, Rev. Sal- mon Morton, a well-known pioneer clergyman of western New York. That she was a woman of refinement and graces of mind is shown by the character of her daughters, several of whom be- neers were largely dependent upon their own re- sources for amusement and culture, and the youth of the time were fortunate whose parents brought educated and refining influences with them. Mrs. Warren took a keen delight in the lives of her offspring, and lived to a great age, retaining her faculties to the end, which came February 4, 1873, and she was buried on the eighty-eighth anniversary of her birth.

Following are the names of the children of Daniel and Nancy (Morton) Warren: Philinda, widow of P. H. Fowler, now in her ninety-first year, residing at Warrenville; Louisa, married Frederick Bird, and died at Rockton, Illinois; Julius Morton (see biography elsewhere in this volume); Sarah, wife of Abel Carpenter, died in Chicago; she was one of the first teachers in this city, in a select school; Harriet, Mrs. C. B. Dod- son, lived at Geneva, Illinois, where she died; Mary and Maria were twins, the former now re- siding in Chicago, being the widow of Jerome Beecher, and the latter died in the same city, while wife of Silas B. Cobb; Jane married N. B. Curtiss, a prominent business man of Peoria.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

CHARLES C. P. HOLDEN.

MRS. C. C. P. HOLDEN

LIBRARY OF THE HNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

C. C. P. HOLDEN.

419

CHARLES C. P. HOLDEN.

C HARLES C. P. HOLDEN was born at Gro- ton, New Hampshire, August 9, 1827. His father's name was Phineas H., and his mother, prior to her marriage, was Miss Betsey Parker. His genealogical record shows his earliest American ancestor to have been one Richard Holden, who, in 1634, with his brother Justinian, came from Ipswich, England, in the sailing-ves- sel "Francis," settling in the locality which after- ward became Watertown, Massachusetts. Mr. Holden's maternal grandfather was Lieutenant Levi Parker, a patriot who served in the army of the Revolution, taking part in the battle of Bun- ker Hill and not returning to his fireside until after the surrender of Cornwallis. He chanced to be with Washington at the time of Arnold's trea- son and Andre's capture, and served as one of the guards at the execution of the gallant British officer who was punished as a spy, and whose conspicuous bravery Lieutenant Parker sincerely admired.

Mr. Holden's father, with his family of nine children, came West in 1836, reaching Chicago June 30. With hired ox-teams he at once set out for the prairie, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of Government land, selecting as a location Skunk's Grove, on the "Sauk Trail," in the edge of Will County, thirty iniles south of the future city. He was the first settler in that region, his nearest neighbor being two miles and a-half distant, and his children being compelled to walk three miles across the trackless prairie to receive instruction in the rude log hut which served as a schoolhouse.

Among such surroundings Charles rapidly de-

veloped great physical strength. When not more than ten years old he drove a breaking teanı of five yoke of oxen, his father holding the plow, and was able to do all that usually fell to the lot of farmers' boys in those early days. When he was fifteen, his father placed him in Sweet's gro- cery store, on North Water Street, near Wolcott, now North State Street, where for six months he worked hard for his board. At the end of that time, however, his employer presented him with a pair of cassimere pantaloons, which the young clerk highly prized.

In the spring of 1847 his patriotic ardor, no less than his love of adventure, prompted him to en- list in Company F, of the Fifth Regiment of Illi- nois Volunteers, and after serving until the end of the Mexican War he was mustered out of serv- ice at Alton, Illinois, October 16, 1848. He immediately secured employment in the book store of A. H. & C. Burley, where he remained until March, 1850. On the 19th of that month he joined a party which set out from Old Fort Kearney, Missouri, for California. The route was overland, and the pilgrims took up their weary journey with two teams. They reached Hangtown1 July 12 and at once began mining on the Middle Fork of the American River. Young Holden spent two seasons on this stream, pass- ing the second at Coloma Bar. In the fall ot 1851 he began farming and stock-raising at Napa Valley, which pursuits he followed until Decem- ber 1, 1853, when he turned his face eastward. He took passage on the steamship "Winfield Scott," bound from San Francisco for Panama, but the vessel was wrecked in a fog on the reef of Anna Capa Island, at midnight, December 2. As soon as the grinding of the ship's bottom on

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 60

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