Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 84

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 84

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January 14, 1826, by the General Assembly, Mr. Hamilton was confirmed as Justice of the Peace for Jackson County, and March 31, 1827, he was admitted to the Bar. In 1829 he is 011 record as one of the itinerant lawyers who rode the circuit of the southern counties, deriving a meagre and precarious subsistence from the few and scattered clients who fell to his share in those early days in Illinois, when the cases were rare and fees were small. The Brownsville branch bank closed its career about this time, Mr. Hamil- ton retaining to the last, as far as known, his po- sition of Cashier, the duties of which, especially in those later years, were neither exhaustive nor remunerative.

He now turned his eyes toward northern Illi- nois, and was elected by the General Assembly as the first Probate Judge of the new county of Cook, January 29, 1831. His friend, Judge Young, of the Fifth Judicial District, appoint- ed him Clerk of Cook County Circuit Court, and Governor Reynolds, who was also especially interested in his welfare, commissioned him as Notary Public and Recorder. He arrived in Chi- cago early in March, being present at the organ- ization of the county on the 8tli of the month, and removed his family (which consisted at this time of his wife and two children, Richard N. and Sarah A.) from Brownsville in August. In October he was appointed Commissioner of School

Lands for Cook County, and the school fund re- inained in his charge until 1840. As an illustra- tion of the backward condition of Chicago at the period of his arrival, he used to refer to the lim- ited inail facilities, saying that special care was used in reading the older papers first, that they might be properly advised of the events in the outside world in the order of occurrence. He re- sided with his family in Fort Dearborn for some time after his arrival, and there his second daugh- ter, Eleanor, was born, February 14, 1832. This daughter, now Mrs. E. H. Keenon, is still a resi- dent of the city, and is stated to be the first child of purely American parentage born here; she is certainly the oldest woman living a native of the city. The eldest daughter is the widow of Col. Henry A. Mitchell, who died from the effects of a bullet wound received at the battle of Perry- ville, in the Civil War. He had previously com- manded a revenue cutter on the Great Lakes, and was Provost-Marshal at Covington, Ken- tucky, after he was wounded.

The year that witnessed his daughter's birth saw Mr. Hamilton appointed Clerk of the Coun- ty Commissioners' Court, which office he held until 1837. Besides discharging the duties of his various offices, which were more numerous than remunerative, he took a pioneer part in tem- perance work, and in 1832 co-operated energetic- ally with Colonel Owen, the Indian Agent, and other influential men, in keeping the Indians in this section from joining the hostile bands in the disturbances of that year. Public-spirited in the highest degree, he was the first of thirty-seven volunteers who, on May 2, 1832, "promised obe- dience to Capt. Gholson Kercheval and Lieuts. George W. Dole and John S. Hogan, as com- manders of the militia of Chicago, until all appre- hension of danger from the Indians may have subsided." Later in the month, with Capt. Jesse B. Brown, Joseph Naper and twenty-five mount- ed men, he scoured the Fox River country to carry succor and encouragement to the scattered settlements. Unfortunately, they did not arrive at Indian Creek until the 22d of the month, the day after the terrible massacre by the Indians at that point. Here they found thirteen dead bod-

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ies, those of members of the families of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew, terribly mangled. The com- pany escorted some of the refugees to Chicago, where a much larger number had sought refuge as early as the rotlı. Colonel Hamilton (whose title seems to liave been one of courtesy, due to the fact of his identification with the state militia for some years) was one of the commissioners appointed to supply them with food and shelter, and was indefatigable in his efforts in their belialf. He moved his family into the old agency-house about this time, the fort being crowded with ref- ugees, and being occupied after July by the troops who had arrived to take part in the Black- hawk War.

In the spring of 1833, in conjunction with Colonel Owen, Colonel Hamilton employed John Watkins to teach a small school, near the old agency-house, where he still resided, but which he soon abandoned for his own house, built on what is now Michigan Street, between Cass and Rush Streets, where he lived for nineteen years. He was one of the voters for the incorpora- tion of Chicago August 5, and for its first Board of Trustees five days later. He was a subscrib- ing witness to the Indian Treaty of September 26, and his claim of $500 was allowed. The claims allowed against, and paid in behalf of, the Indians at that time aggregated in their entirety about $175,000. In October, as Commissioner of School Lands, in compliance with a petition signed by the principal · residents of the place, he authorized the sale of the Chicago School Section. November 13 of that year, in virtue of his office as Probate Judge, he performed a marriage cere- mony between John Bates, junior, and Miss Har- riet E. Brown. He was one of the original sub- scribers to the first Chicago newspaper, which appeared November 26, and in December he ad- vertised $10,000 to loan, which was probably part of the net cash proceeds of the sale of school lands two months before. In 1834 he was Pres- ident of the Board of School Trustees, and with characteristic energy labored tirelessly in the in- terest of the early schools of Chicago. In1 con- junction with Hiram Pearsons, he laid out four hundred and twenty acres at Canalport, adjoin-

ing what is now Bridgeport, which, judging from the first preliminary survey, they supposed would be the actual terminus of the Illinois & Michi- gan Canal, but which the final survey passed by and left comparatively worthless.

In 1834 Colonel Hamilton suffered a deep be- reavement in the death of his first wife, soon after the birth of her fourth child, who was named Diana B. in memory of her mother. Mrs. Ham- ilton was highly esteemed as an intelligent and zealous Christian lady, one who suffered the hard- ships of pioneer life uncomplainingly, and proved a devoted wife and mother. She was a member of the first Methodist Church of Chicago, in whose behalf she took an active and efficient in- terest. March 25, 1835, the Colonel married Miss Harriette L. Hubbard, sister of Henry G. Hub- bard, of Chicago. Mrs. Harriette Hamilton died February 7, 1842, leaving one child, Henry E. She had lost an infant daugliter named Pauline August 21, 1839, and another of the same name about two years before. The son is now famil- iarly known as "Colonel Hamilton," as it were, by right of inheritance.

About 1834 the subject of this sketch became largely interested in outside lands, being also probably the most extensive owner in the county and the whole Northwest. These lands were often purchased on joint account with non-resi- dents, and perhaps at the time withı no larger in- terest on his part than a commission for the transaction of the business, but they were usually made and recorded in his name for greater con- venience in transfer and negotiation. About 1835 he became a candidate for election as Recorder, and published the following card in answer to certain cavilings about his many offices:

"In 1831 I received the appointment of Clerk of Circuit Court, Judge of Probate and Notary Public. I then moved to Chicago, and found that nobody wanted these offices. Soon after, the gentleman holding the position of Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court resigned, and I was appointed. The office of School Commis- sioner was then held by Col. T. J. V. Owen, who resigned. Up to September, 1834, that of- fice has yielded me in all about $200; notary

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fees have not exceeded $50; probate fees have not amounted to more than $50. I have not re- alized from all offices, including that of Recorder, during four years more than $1,500. The whole number of instruments recorded, including a large number of Receiver's certificates for lands pur- chased at late sales, have been to July 1, 1835; about thirteen hundred, at seventy cents each."

At the August election of 1835 he was elected Recorder by six hundred two votes, and removed his office, toward the end of October, to the new building recently erected by the county on the public square. In December he became a Di- rector in the Chicago branch of the new State Bank. The offices he held at this time were: Judge of Probate, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Clerk of Commissioners' Court, Recorder of Deeds, Notary Public, School Commissioner and Bank Commissioner. He continued to discharge the various duties of these offices, with the help of deputies and clerks in the more exacting ones as the volume of business in each required. As Clerk of the Circuit Court, his first deputy was Henry Moore, in 1834, succeeded by J. Young Scammon in 1835. Solomon Wills, who had married the sister of his first wife, became his deputy in 1836, and was succeeded in 1837 by George Manierre, who gave way to Thomas Hoyne in 1839. All these were lawyers, and nearly all young men, who served as his assist- ants until the professional business of each suc- cessively required his entire attention.

Colonel Hamilton was elected a member of the new Board of School Inspectors for the city of Chicago May 12, 1837, in recognition of his serv- ices and interest in the early schools, and of his position as School Commissioner. Pinched by the financial depression of 1837, he weathered the storm without becoming bankrupt, or failing to meet his financial obligations. In 1840 he was nominated Alderman of the Sixth Ward by the Democrats, and was elected; and the same year he was chosen a delegate to the State Democratic Convention held at Springfield.

In contemporary notices of the press Colonel Hamilton appears frequently as an active mem- ber in public meetings of the period on all ques-

tions of social, political, educational and religious interest, and he was frequently chosen on com- mittees of all sorts for the furtherance of public business, being apparently one of that worthy class of men who suffer themselves to be over- worked rather than shirk the responsibilities of active citizenship. He was prominent in the meeting held in memory of President Harrison in 1841, and was no less active in the reception given the same year to Governor Carlin in Chi- cago. Meanwhile the time had arrived for re- linquishing some of his offices, the increased du- ties of which had now made them too unwieldy even for superintendence by one individual. In 1835 he liad ceased to be Judge of Probate, in 1837 Clerk of the Commissioners' Court, and in 1839 Recorder of Deeds. In 1840 William H. Brown was elected School Agent, an office which entitled him to the care of the school funds of Chicago, which therefore passed out of the care of Colonel Hamilton with the close of that year. He still, however, retained his position as Com- missioner of School Lands for the county, for he is found to have advertised section 16, township 41, for sale August 9, 1841, as such. On the reorganization of the judicial system in 1841, Cook County fell within the circuit of Associate- Justice Theophilus W. Smith, who appointed his son-in-law, Henry G. Hubbard, to replace Col- onel Hamilton, who resumed the practice of law, his clerkship terminating March 12, 1841.

About 1843 the Colonel formed a law partner- ship with J. S. Chamberlaine, which was, how- ever, dissolved in 1845, and in 1846 his firm be- came Hamilton & Moore, Francis C. Moore be- ing the junior member. In 1847 this partnership was also dissolved, and he remained alone until his retirement from practice, which took place in 1850. In 1849 he was elected Alderman from the Ninth Ward, upon the resignation of Samuel Mckay, and in 1850 and 1851 as his own suc- cessor. He was Presidential Elector on the Dem- ocratic ticket in 1852, and in 1856 he was a can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor on the same ticket, which was, however, defeated by the Repub- licans.

His appearance as a candidate for the above

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J. F. HENROTIN.

office seems to have closed his long, useful and honorable public career. December 26, 1860, he died of paralysis, in his sixty-second year. Five children and his widow, his third wife, whom he married in 1843, survived him. She was for- merly Mrs. Priscilla P. Tuley, of Louisville, Ken- tucky, and the mother of the present Judge Tuley, of Chicago. Colonel Hamilton was buried on the 28th of December, 1860, with Masonic hon- ors. He had long been a member of the Ma- sonic order, and stood high in its counsels and honors, having been an officer in the first grand lodge in Illinois. At a memorial meet- ing of the Bar held on the same day, Judge Morris said: "There is scarcely a lawyer here now - but owes much in his early life to Colonel Ham- ilton. He took every young practitioner who came here by the hand, and helped him to busi- ness and practice." Judge Wilson said: "Mr. Hamilton was a gentleman remarkable in many particulars; of very high notions as a gentleman, and of unusual sympathies." Judge Manierre re- ported a series of resolutions, from which the fol- lowing are extracted: "His death has removed one of our most distinguished citizens and pio- neers, and the oldest member of the legal frater- nity; we take pleasure in bearing testimony to

the high character of the deceased as a man and a citizen. His life was a career of active useful- ness. He was foremost in all public enterprises for the advancement and prosperity of the com- munity. We remember with pleasure the social and genial qualities of our deceased brother. He was a zealous friend; his heart was warm and his hand ever ready. In losing him the com- munity has lost one of its most valued citi- zens, and this Bar one of its most respected mem- bers." Twenty years after death he was char- acterized by Hon. Thomas Hoyne as being "of a generous and open nature, a good citizen, and a kind man, and one of those men who were then shaping the destinies of the state."

During the last years of his life Colonel Ham- ilton lived on the West Side, in a residence he had erected himself, "on Madison, west of Bull's Head," afterward the southwest corner of Hoyne Avenue. He devoted the remaining years of his life largely to beautifying this place, which was then regarded as a suburban home. Towards the close of 1860 he became a member of the South Presbyterian Church, the denomination with which he had most intercourse in early life, and to which his wife belonged. .

DR. JOSEPH F. HENROTIN.

R. JOSEPH FORTUNAT HENROTIN was among the early physicians of Chicago, and endeared himself to a large number of citizens, especially on the North Side, by his brave and unselfish labors during the cholera epi- demic of 1849 to 1855. At that time there was a large German settlement between State Street and the lake shore, north of Chicago Avenue,

known as New Buffalo, the gratitude of whose denizens toward the "good French Doctor," as they called him, was unbounded. Without stop- ping to inquire about the certainty of his fees, when many others had left the city in alarm, Dr. Henrotin went among the poor and rich alike, carrying good cheer and healing balm to the stricken ones. His success in exterminating the

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J. F. HENROTIN.

scourge gave him at once a very large practice, and he acquired what is a large fortune to be gained in medical practice in a few years. It was only his lack of a thorough knowledge of our lan- guage that prevented his taking the prominence in the professional and literary world that he de- served. He was a ripe scholar, and his diction in French was considered an ornament to the language. His reports to his native Government while serving as Consul are still preserved as models of elegance, clearness and practical value.

Joseph Fortunat Henrotin was born in Tellin, Belgium, March 17, 1811. . His grandfather was a farmer at that place. His father, Dr. Clement Henrotin, was a graduate of the Medical Univer- sity of Paris, France, to which place he walked in youth, because of the limited means of transporta- tion in that day and region, to gain an education in medicine. While there he befriended and en- couraged young Dubois (who afterward became the French Court Physician) to take up the study of the healing art. Dr. Clement Henrotin prac- ticed medicine sixty-five years at Tellin, where he died, full of honors, at the age of ninety-six years. His wife was Miss Rossion.

Joseph F. Henrotin pursued his elementary studies in his native town, and entered the Uni- versity of Liege, Belgium, from which he gradu- ated at the age of twenty-two. He then spent three years in further study in the Belgian hos- pitals, being a pupil and friend of Dr. Seutin, the inventor of the starch bandage, who secured his appointment, at the age of twenty-five, as sur- geon in the national army, with the privilege of further pursuing his investigations and studies in the hospitals. He continued to hold this position for nearly twelve years, at the end of which time he resolved to come to America.

He arrived in Chicago in the autumn of 1848, and, as above related, soon acquired a large and remunerative practice. This was general through- out the city, but most of his work was done on the North and Northwest Sides. Having placed himself in independent circumstances by eight years of arduous and incessant labor, he returned to his native land, in 1856. A year later he was appointed by the Belgian Government to

be Consul to the Northwestern States of this country, and returned to Chicago, leaving several of his children abroad to be educated. In 1858 he was commissioned by Belgium to make a spe- cial inspection of the states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota and report on their adaptability as homes for Belgian emigrants. In the fulfillment of this charge he traveled throughout the states named, rendering a prompt and exhaustive re- port to his Government. For this service he re- ceived the thanks of the Belgian Parliament, 011 account of its practical value and literary merit, and copies of the report were widely distributed over Germany and other neighboring countries, as well as throughout Belgium. He continued to serve as Consul until his death, which occurred March 17, 1876, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of his birth. He was succeeded in office by his eldest living son, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. Dr. Henrotin was a heavy sufferer by the great fire of 1871, but par- tially recovered from his loss before his death.

In the fall of 1840, Dr. Henrotin married Adele Kinsoen, a native of Tournai, Flanders, born in 1821, and daughter of Henri Kinsoen, who had a contract to furnish the Dutch army with sup- plies. A brother of Henri Kinsoen was a noted portrait painter, who numbered the members of the French Court among his patrons. Both were natives of Bruges, Belgium, as was Mrs. Henro- tin's mother, Josephine Brice.

Besides his widow, Dr. Henrotin left eight children. The eldest son, Henry, was killed at the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Civil War, while serving in Taylor's Battery. All the living, save the sixth, who is engaged in business in Havre, France, are residents of Chi- cago. . Following are their names: Charles; Mar- garet, Mrs. James H. B. Daly; Dr. Fernand; Adolph; Mary; Victor; Fortuni, wife of George Le Jeune; and Louise, now Mrs. Maurice Pin- coffs. Mrs. Henrotin survived her husband many years, dying, widely mourned, November 29, 1893. She was an able helpmate to her husband, whom she nobly aided in his labors among the cholera sufferers, and was held in high regard by all who enjoyed her acquaintance.

W. M. COULTER.

583

WILLIAM M. COULTER.

ILLIAM MITCHELL COULTER, one of the survivors of the war with Mexico, re- siding in Chicago, is a native of the Key- stone State. His birth occurred in Oliver Town- ship, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1823. He is a son of Irwin Coulter and Mary C. Mitchell. The latter was the daughter of an Irish gentleman named George Mitchell, who was born near Belfast, Ireland. He married a Scotch lady named Elizabeth Thompson, and they emi- grated to America previous to the Revolutionary War. Mr. Mitchell became one of the first set- tlers in Mifflin County, on the banks of the Juniata river. He cleared and improved a large farını, and became one of the most prominent citi- zens of that county.

Irwin Coulter, whose Christian name was given him to perpetuate the family name of his mother, was a native of Mifflin County. His father, David Coulter was born in the North of England, but became a loyal citizen of Pennsylvania dur- ing the colonial days. Soon after the beginning of the Revolutionary conflict, he enlisted under General Washington, and afterwards became the captain of his company. He was wounded while doing gallant service at the battle of the Brandy- wine. The rifle which he carried into that war and the sword which he wore in his official capac- ity are still preserved in the family. Irwin Conl- ter succeeded to the ownership of the Mitchell homestead, where his death occurred about 1830, at the age of forty-nine years. Both the Coulter and Mitchell families were ardent adherents of the Presbyterian Church, and exhibited many ad- mirable characteristics, being firm in the support of principle and fearless in defense of their con- victions.

Willianı M. Coulter passed his boyhood in liis

native county and, at an early age began to take an active part in local political affairs. He was frequently chosen as a delegate to local and State conventions of the Democratic party, and helped to nominate several Governors of the common- wealth. When the United States Government called for volunteers to help prosecute the war with Mexico, he enlisted as a member of Company D, of the Eleventh United States Infantry. After being drilled for a time, with other recruits, near Corpus Christie on the coast of Texas, they were sent forward to join General Scott's army at Puebla, Mexico. As Scott's limited force did not permit him to leave any garrisons at places he had vanquished, the recruits were forced to fight their way over the route previously pursued by the main army. One of their duties was to escort a pay train, loaded with many thousands of dollars in gold sent to pay Scott's army. The Mexicans having knowledge of this fact, made desperate efforts to capture the train, and the whole course of the journey was almost a con- tinuous battlefield. At the National Bridge, the enemy lay in ambush, and made extraordinary ef- forts to destroy the little band of devoted Ameri- can troops. Several wagons, containing accoutre- ments and supplies of the soldiers, were thrown over a high precipice in the struggle and des- troyed, and Mr. Coulter narrowly missed accom- panying one of these wagons in its fall. The at- tack was repulsed, and a portion of the knapsacks and other paraphernalia was recovered next day. The train was turned over to General Scott at Puebla in June, 1847, without the loss of a dollar. after many days of struggle in its defense.

After joining the main army, Mr. Coulter par- ticipated in the battles of Contreras Mountain, Cherubusco, Chapultepec and the numerous fights

T. E. HILL.

58.1

about the gates of Mexico. It is a matter of his- tory that the American troops, in a strange land, -far from their base of supplies, conquered im- mensely superior numbers throughout their march and triumphantly entered the city of Mexico on the 13th of September, 1847, having traversed more than a thousand miles of distance, over mountain ranges and across lava beds and other regions supposed by the Mexicans to be impass- able. At the capture of Molino del Rey, where the Mexicans were engaged in casting cannon, most of his superior officers having been killed or disabled, Corporal Coulter took command of a company, and held possession of the foundry un- til Lieutenant U. S. Grant came up and received the swords of the captured Mexican officers, who refused to deliver them to a non-commissioned officer. For his gallantry on this and other oc- casions, he was made Second Sergeant and re- ceived honorable mention by Maj. John F. Hun- ter, commanding the Eleventh regiment. Mr. Coulter gives a very graphic description of a brief engagement on the 19th of August, where eight thousand mounted Mexican lancers rode down upon three brigades of American infantry, with the evident intention of overwhelming them. The lancers were quickly repulsed by the infan- try, formed in a hollow square, with fixed bayo- nets, who reserved their fire until the enemy came within close range. So deadly were the volleys

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, 8th ed., Part 84

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