Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 62

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 62

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four years. They had five sons and two daugh- ters. The third son, Ellis Sweet, who was born November 20, 1770, died May 7, 1848, at the age of seventy-eight years. He married Mary Fuller, who was born in 1775, and died January 2, 1854, at the age of seventy-nine years. He became the owner of his father's farm, in the year 1822. During the War of 1812, he entered the United States service, and was promoted to the rank of Colonel, commanding a regiment during that struggle. He and his wife became the parents of five children, two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Loring Sweet, was born August 7, 1796, and died July 6, 1881, at the age of eighty- five years and eleven months. He was married, June 7, 1828, to Elizabeth Berry Allen, who was born in 1809, at Canton, Oxford County, Maine, and died in Farmington, March 28, 1875, at the age of sixty-six years. Her father was a Revolu- tionary soldier, and lived to the age of one hun- dred and three years. Five sons and three daugh- ters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Loring Sweet, the subject of this sketch being the fifth son and seventh child.

John Allen Sweet laid the foundation of his ed- ucation in the public schools and academy of his native town, and at the age of twenty-one years graduated from the State University. It was his intention in early life to qualify himself for the practice of law. Coming West in 1868, at the age of twenty-two years, he studied law for about two years, and for several years following applied

427

E. W. CASE.

himself at intervals to legal study, giving his at- tention chiefly to its bearing upon trade and commerce.

In 1872, Mr. Sweet became connected with the wholesale dry goods firm of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company, of Chicago, assuming charge of their collection and legal departments, and after six years' service, or in 1878, he was promoted to the exclusive charge of the credit, legal and collection departments of this firm, and has occupied that position up to the present time, having retained his present connection for nearly a fourth of a century, and in his particular line of business lie has earned the reputation of being the most suc- cessful man in the trade, being admittedly with- out a peer as a credit manager.

In appreciation of his ability, integrity and long and faithful service, the firm rewarded hin with a general partnership, to which he was ad- mitted on the first of January, 1892. Mr. Sweet is thoroughly known among bankers and business men of Chicago, the seat of the keenest commercial competition, where only the fittest can survive, and enjoys a most enviable reputation as a manly, straightforward and safe business manager. In speaking of him, the Inter Ocean recently said: "In appearance, Mr. Sweet is tall and symmet-

rically proportioned. He is genial, affable and courteous, and has a faculty of making and re- taining friends. He is a natural physiognomist, and has rarely been known to make a mistake in reading men's characters. It is to these qualities that his success in a most important department must be largely attributed. He is an indefatigable worker, and is as well known as a man of grand business capacities among the commercial circles of New York, as lie is here in Chicago, wliere he has lived and labored."

Mr. Sweet is a member of the Chicago Athletic Club and prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of Chicago Commandery and Oriental Consistory, having taken the thirty-second degree. On the 18th of June, 1878, he was married to Miss Mary Stevenson, daughter of John W. and Caroline C. Stevenson, of Sandusky, Ohio, where Mrs. Sweet was born, October 2, 1855. They have had two children: Fred Kent Sweet, born September 26, 1879, and died December 1 of the same year; and Jolın Allen Sweet, Junior, who was born April 27, 1881 The family is in com- munion with St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, and holds a desirable position in social circles.

ELISHA W. CASE.

LISHA W. CASE. The New England Yankee never forgets the home of his child- hood. Wherever he may wander, and in whatever situation he may be placed, visions of his native hills and dells are retained in his mind, and these scenes always recall many little acces- sories which contributed their share towards the

comfort and delight of the youthful mind or body. The typical New England homestead is no less famous for its Christian principles, and the sturdy characters which it has trained and sent forth to leave their impress upon every important institu- tion of the great West, than for its culinary tri- umphs and the superior quality of the pastry

428

E. W. CASE.

found upon its hospitable boards. And who knows to what extent the memory of the latter has served to keep alive the recollection of precepts and teachings which have helped to mould the characters of many of the best men and women of the present day?

Elisha W. Case, whose name is identified in the minds of hungry people with one of the most popular articles of daily consumption, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in January, 1833. He is the youngest son and ninth in a family of ten children born to Jolin Case and Diana Congdon. The Case family is one of the oldest in Connect- icut. Their first American ancestor came, while a young man, from England, and was married in Connecticut, about 1657, to Sarah, daughter of William Spencer. Several successive generations of their posterity have lived in the same locality, and the name is still one of the most common ones to be found in that state.

John, father of Elishia W. Case, was a son of Samnel and Susannalı Case. During his youth he became a sailor, and while on board a whal- ing vessel was taken prisoner by a Britishı man-of- war, whose officers claimed him as a subject of the Crown, and he was pressed into the naval service. He made an ineffectual attempt to es- cape, for which he was severely flogged. He finally succeeded in eluding his captors, and re- turned to the United States in time to enlist in the War of 1812, and rendered valuable service at the battle of New London. After the war he learned the trade of a machinist and was em- ployed for many years in the railroad shops at Norwich. With the exception of a few years spent in Washtenaw County, Michigan, this place continued to be his home until his death, which occurred in April, 1847, at the age of six- ty-two years. His wife's deathı took place about eight years earlier.

At the age of fourteen years, his father having died, Elislia W. Case left home and went to New York City, where he learned his trade in the or- iginal Connecticut pie bakery. In 1854 he came to Chicago and, taking advantage of the wide- spread reputation which everywhere existed for New England cookery, he began the manufacture

of "Connecticut pies" on Milwaukee Avenue, near Halsted Street. This was the first exclu- sive pie bakery in the city. The people employed were all natives of the Nutmeg State, well versed in the culinary art, and the superior quality of their wares, which far surpassed anything previ- ously offered in this market, created a demand for them which has been continuously increasing to the present time.

About 1859 the "Mechanical Bakery" began doing business on Clinton Street. Mr. Case be- came the foreman of the pie department of the concern, which filled large contracts for supplies for the Union army. In 1869 he severed his connection with this establishment and became a member of the firm of Case & Martin, which built a large bakery at the corner of Wood and Wal- nut Streets, where the business of exclusive pie- baking was resumed and has ever since been con- ducted. Upon the death of Mr. Martin in 1890, Mr Case became the sole proprietor, and contin- ned to conduct the enterprise until June 1, 1894, when the Case & Martin Company was incorpor- ated.

The fame of their Connecticut pies is well known to everybody in Chicago and many adja- cent cities and towns, and there are few people who cannot testify to their excellence as appeas- ers of appetite. Their goods, which are for the most part hand-made, are prepared from formulas 11sed by the best Connecticut cooks, and such is the demand for this particular article of dessert that about one linndred people are employed in its production, and they turn out from ten thou- sand to eighteen thousand nine-inch pies per day.

Mr. Case is the inventor of the pie wagon which is now used by nearly all bakers and which he began to employ in 1872. He lias contrived a number of articles and appliances which are useful in his business, and, though he lias spent considerable time and money in experiments, has never patented any of his ideas, some of which have been adopted and patented by others.

June 1, 1851, Mr. Case was married to Eliza Jane Baldwin, daughter of William and Char- lotte Baldwin, of Braufort, Connecticut. Of

429

C. T. NICHOLS.

their five children, one died in infancy, and Ever- ett passed away at the age of twenty-five years. The names of the survivors are John M., Elmer G. and Edna J., the latter the wife of P. M. Vermass, all of Chicago. The family is connected with the Western Avenue Baptist Church, in which soci- ety Mr. Case has been a Deacon for twenty-five years. He has voted for every presidential call- didate nominated by the Republican party, and

though he refrains from political agitation he always endeavors to fulfill his duty as a citizen. In private and social circles as well as in business affairs, he has maintained a reputation for stabil- ity and integrity, which causes him to be among the best known and most highly esteemed citi- zens of this great city, the growth of which has been almost identical with that of liis business.

CLIFFORD L. NICHOLS.

C LIFFORD L. NICHOLS, of Blue Island, the efficient and well-known Superintendent of the Illinois Division of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, was born in Wyanet, Ill., on the 30th of November, 1856, and is a son of David T. and Hulda G. (Barry ) Nichols. The father came to this State in 1839, taking up his residence in the then town of Chicago, where he carried on a harness-shop for several years. In 1846 he removed to Kane County, Ill., where he was engaged in the same line of business for some time. In1 1850 he crossed the plains to California, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific Slope, but returned to Illinois the following year, as he did not find that wealth was as easily ob- tained in the West as reports had indicated. In 1853 he removed to Wyanet, Bureau County, where he opened a harness-shop, and in 1854 he became agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at that place, continuing with that company in the same capacity, with the ex- ception of two years, up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 10th of December, 1893, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. He was born in Broadalbin, N. Y. His wife, who is a native of Madison, N. Y., still resides in Wyanet.

The gentleman whose name heads this record attended the public schools until fourteen years of

age, when he began to learn the art of telegraphy in his father's office. In 1876, having mastered the business, he left Wyanet and secured a posi- tion as operator, train dispatcher and ticket agent elsewhere. He was employed at various points on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad until 1880, when he entered the employ of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad as train dispatcher. From time to time he won promo- tion as the result of his faithful and meritorious service, until he had become Superintendent of the Eastern Division. Later he was made Super- intendent of the Kansas City Division, and with the exception of a short period remained with that company until 1890, as Superintendent of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Road. He then be- came connected with the Chesapeake & Oliio, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads. In 1892 he engaged with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company as chief train dis- patcher at Horton, Kan., and in August, 1893, he came to Blue Island as Superintendent of the Illinois Division of that road, which position he now fills.

Mr. Nichols was married in1 1878 to Miss Mabel E. Frans, daughter of Harry B. Frans, of Gales- burg, Ill., and a native of California. They now have four children, Earl, Jessie, Ethel and Allan.

4,30

ALONZO HUNTINGTON.

Å LONZO HUNTINGTON, who was born at Shaftesbury, Vermont, September 1, 1805, and died iu Chicago, November 17, 1881, was a Vermonter of good old stock. Capt. Amos Huntington, of the Revolutionary army, was his grandfather, and, like Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a great-grandson of the first of the name in America. Samuel was also President of the Con- tinental Congress, Chief Justice of Connecticut, Governor of Connecticut, and (1789) recipient of two electoral votes at the first Presidential elec- tion. Alonzo was also grand-nephew of Gov- ernor Galusha, of Vermont. His father owned and operated a marble quarry, in which business young Alonzo took his share of work and respon- sibility, even while laying the foundation of his education; his higher teaching being deferred to that of an elder brother, whom his service at home helped through Union College.

In spite of this sacrifice, he managed to secure a fair degree of good practical culture, and, so grounded, he studied law in Buffalo under the Hon. I. T. Hatch, and was there admitted to the Bar. He came to Chicago in 1835, became State's Attorney in 1837, and administered his office so well as to be re-elected in 1839, serving until 1841. His most noteworthy case in this connec- tion was the prosecution of John Stone for the murder of Lucretia Thompson, which ex- cited great interest, and elicited from the Ameri- can remarks which the presiding judge (Pearson) thought demanded prosecution for contempt of court. A suit was accordingly instituted by the State's Attorney under the orders of the court. It had no result, except the usual one of calling down the united voice of the press on the head

of the prosecutor, who had simply done his of- ficial duty and obeyed orders.

His term of office ended, Mr. Huntington re- sumed practice, wherein (as in his official life) his qualities and attainments assured success. His manners were dignified, yet cordial; his standing as a man and citizen flawless; his relations in private and family life kind, generous and de- · voted. Many know that by lis energy, ability, foresight and self-denial he gained a handsome fortune; few have any idea of the burden of duty he was taking so voluntarily on his strong shoul- ders. During much of his later life he was the stay and support of his father, mother, two brotli- ers and a widowed sister, besides his own con- siderable family; the whole 'load sustained with an heroic cheerfulness that either felt no weari- ness, or concealed what it felt. Three genera- tions carried wholly by one inflexible conscience and faithful heart!

Mrs. Huntington was also of distinguished descent, being granddaughter of Gideon Olin, one of the founders of Vermont and a member of Congress (1803-7); a niece of the late Abraham Olin, a member of the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh United States Congresses, and Judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and a lineal descendant of the Quaker- ess, Mary Dyer, who suffered religious martyr- dom on Boston Common in 1660. She was a sis- tor of Dr. Charles V. Dyer, the celebrated wit and humorist of the early days of Chicago, whose engaging qualities she shared and transmitted to her children, of whom two survive their parents: Frances, Mrs. Benjamin M. Wilson, and Henry Alonzo, late Brevet Major in the United States army, a brave soldier in the Union War, and still distinguished in literary and social life.

431

EDWIN PARDRIDGE.

DWIN PARDRIDGE, one of the most re- maturity, namely: Asa, Ambrose, Abiah, Anson, were interested in farming, and were highly re- spected and prospered in life. markable characters ever connected with . Julia and Lydia. All were born at Grafton, the Chicago Board of Trade, passed away at his residence on Prairie Avenue on the morn- ing of April 17, 1896, in the sixty-first year of his age. The Chicago Tribune said: "The his- tory of Mr. Pardridge's sixty years has few paral- lels. He was a man of the clearest perceptions, and his strong convictions and the nerve with which he backed them inade him a marked man. Since 1869 he has been a familiar figure in local commercial circles, and for the last ten years, during which time he had devoted himself almost exclusively to speculation, his name and fame were world-wide. Probably no man as merchant and operator has been called upon in the West to meet such odds and face such opposition; and those who knew him are agreed as to luis busi- ness acumen, courage, common sense and kind- liness of heart."

Mr. Pardridge exemplified in a marked degree the sturdiness of character handed down by a long line of New England ancestry. The pro- genitor of this family came from England, and first settled in Massachusetts early in the history of that colony. Thence the line extending to this subject was transferred to Grafton, near Troy, New York, where his grandfather was a thrifty farmer. He was a man of large stature, and reached a green old age. He was twice married. His first wife, Miss Smith, of an old New York family, was the mother of eleven chil- dren, and died at the age of fifty years. She was a woman of great thrift and economy, and a devoted mother. Six of her children reached

The youngest son, Anson, was reared on the old homestead, where he remained until he had attained his majority. He then went to Durham- ville, Oneida County, New York, where, after four years of patient labor, he was enabled to set- tle down upon a farm. He married Miss Amanda Field, a native of Leyden, Massachusetts, a daughter of Jolin Field, a Revolutionary soldier, who reached the age of eighty-two years. His father and two brothers immigrated from Wales before the French and Indian War, and settled in Massachusetts. His wife, Silence Lincoln, was a native of that State, and was, no doubt, a scion of the same family as the late martyred President, whose family was of English descent and located in Massachusetts. Anson Pardridge was born June 10, 1804, passed his entire life upon a farm, and died April 28, 1877. His wife was born in the same year as himself, November 23, and died January 26, 1890. She was a de- voted member of the Baptist Church, and was the mother of five children, Anson, Marion, Edwin, Charles W. and Ellen. The eldest daughter is the wife of Charles J. Stokes, and the other of Charles Oscar Gleason, all residing in Evanston. The elder son remained on the home farm until 1877, when he removed to Chicago, where he now resides. The younger son has been inter- ested all his life in the dry-goods trade, and is now in Chicago.

Edwin Pardridge was born at Durhamville,

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EDWIN PARDRIDGE.

New York, October 24, 1835. His life was an independent one, and his success was achieved en- tirely through his own unaided efforts. His educa- tion was supplied by the district schools, and lie very early began his mercantile career, in which he laid the foundation of his fortune, in .a village store near his home. After working five years in a general store at Lyons, New York, he en- gaged in the dry-goods business at Buffalo, in partnership with his youngest brother. This con- tinued until 1869, when he came to Chicago. He was ambitious and desired a larger field of opera- tions. His first store was located at Lake and State Streets, and in its conduct he showed the same discriminating judgment and mastery of de- tail which later characterized his operations on the Board of Trade. In 1870 he formed a part- nership with his brother, Charles W. Pardridge, to continue the business.

The great fire of 1871 destroyed this store, which was then on Wabash Avenne. After that disaster they built the Boston Store, and pur- chased the adjoining one at Nos. 112-116 State Street, which was known as Pardridge's Main Store. He finally reverted the Boston Store to his partner, Charles W. Pardridge, and retained the main store. He also had a dry-goods store in Detroit at the time of his demise. He had started and operated numerous other stores, but liad largely abandoned trade to gratify his pas- sion for speculation. He made careful invest- ments of his profits, and soon after the fire he was the owner of one hundred rented houses. His faith in local real estate continued, and when he died he had more than seven hundred tenants in flats, houses and store property. Beside this, he conveyed much property to members of his family to provide against the possible disasters of speculation.

Mr. Pardridge operated upon the Board of Trade for about twenty years, and for the first five years, as is the case with inost beginners, he was a buyer, and was much of the time a loser. He was attracted to speculation by the success of a few very wealthy men who had acquired their property in this manner. He was not an im- pulsive, but a systematic and persistent, operator.

He formulated a plan which he ever afterwards fol- lowed. He became a seller, and though he often took great risks, and even approached seeming recklessness, and on a few occasions narrowly escaped bankruptcy, lıis gains far exceeded liis losses and justified the soundness of his plan. The fortunes Mr. Pardridge won and lost through his boldness in plunging became the gossip of the world. He used to say that it did not require much education to make a speculator, but it needed plenty of cool common sense. Mr. Pard- ridge's clear foresight was emphatically shown in August, 1892, when May wheat was selling at $1.06 per bushel, and the majority of traders were predicting that it would reach $1.50. Mr. Pardridge said that it would sell for eighty cents per bushel, and it became the case of one man against the world, for all the speculative trade at home and abroad believed in higher prices. Though he lost nearly three-quarters of a million dollars during that summer, he stuck to his pre- diction, which was verified before the following March, and the speculative world, which had laughed at him, was forced to pay him tribute to the extent of millions of dollars.

He was never exacting in times of stringency, and it is well known that he could have closed out many houses by exacting the margins due him. He never attempted to corner the market, but contented himself with putting in prac- tice his theory of short selling. His fame be- came world-wide, and between 1890 and 1894 his movements meant a great deal more than the crop reports or the amount of exports. As seen on the floor of the board, Mr. Pardridge was a modest, unassuming man, and while he could play like a wizard with millions of dollars as if .they were so many pennies, he was one of the most plainly dressed men on the board. His most pronounced characteristic was dogged de- termination, though it was never expressed in his face.

Mr. Pardridge had few intimate friends on the board, but this was principally because he did 110t care about casual friends. His chief friend and supporter was A. J. Cutler, whose biography will be found in this volume. Scores of traders

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H. D. BAKER.

remember with gratitude how Mr. Pardridge saved them from bankruptcy by timely loans. These kind acts lie was accustomed to do without ostentation, and he never desired to hear them mentioned. He practiced silent charity, and never permitted his left hand to know what his right hand did. The poor and unfortunate were special objects of his bounty, and many cases of his liberality hitherto unknown have come to light since his death.

The tension under which Mr. Pardridge lived as an operator undermined his constitution, and his deathı resulted from Bright's Disease, after three months of almost constant suffering. But his vitality was something remarkable. A few weeks before his death Mr. Cutler called at his home, but learned that he was unable to talk about anything pertaining to business. The next day he was thunderstruck on receiving orders from Mr Pardridge to sell wheat, and within a day or two the latter was seen on the floor of the exchange.

July 10, 1861, Mr. Pardridge was married, near Durhamville, New York, to Miss Sarah Swallow, a native of the town of Verona, Oneida County, New York, and a daughter of William and Mary (Hicks) Swallow, both natives of England. The father was nineteen years old when he came to this country, and was known as an energetic business man of Durhamville. His wife came to the United States when eleven years of age. They were active members of the Methodist Church, and were highly respected by the people of Durhamville, at which place they ended their days in peace and quiet contentment.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 62

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