Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899, Part 12

Author: La Salle Book Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : La Salle Book Co.
Number of Pages: 910

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Benjamin C. Miller was born April 30, 1846, in Rushville, Indiana, and went with his parents early in life to Montgomery County, in the same State, receiving his primary education at Ladoga. In the spring of 1862, when he was barely six- teen years of age, he ran away from school at Battle Ground, Indiana, and enlisted as a private in the Eleventh Indiana Cavalry, then in camp at Indianapolis, preparatory to service in the Civil War. As this enlistment was made with- out the consent of his father, the latter was en- abled to claim him, which he did, and conducted the ambitious boy back to school. Before the father had reached home on the return from this duty, the son was again in camp, and he was this time permitted to have his way. He joined Company K, of the Eleventh Cavalry, of which

he was made Sergeant, and participated in the service of that organization until December 19, 1863, before the completion of his eighteenth year, when he was mustered out as a First Lieu- tenant.

One day soon after this, a handsome young man, some six feet, six and one-half inches in height, bronzed by exposure in the line of military duty, and dressed in the handsome uniform of a Lieu- tenant, called at the home of his parents in La- doga. On learning the number of his regiment, they plied him with questions about Company K, and inquired if he knew young Benjamin Miller. He replied in the affirmative. At this moment his favorite dog came into the room, and, upon being spoken to by his young master, gave the most extravagant expressions of joy, bringing tears to the eyes of Mrs. Miller, who could scarcely forgive herself for failing to recognize her son until after this faithful animal had shown her his identity.

Entering Rush Medical College of Chicago, young Miller was graduated with honor on the 9th of February, 1869. He passed the competi- tive examination, and was appointed House Phy- sician and Surgeon of Cook County Hospital, serving a year and a-half. He was then made County Physician, in which capacity he served two years. He was immediately made Superintendent of Public Charities, having charge of the County Hospital, Insane Asylum and Alms House. After filling this position about eighteen months, he was appointed Sanitary Superintendent of . Chicago by Mayor Medill, and was continued in that office by Mayor Colvin. During this period he was very useful in the community by his skill- ful management of tlie cholera epidemic of 1873. In 1875 he was made Surgeon, with the rank of Major, on the staff of Gen. A. C. Ducat, Com- mander of the Illinois National Guard. In 1876 Dr. Miller resigned the position of Sanitary Su- perintendent and went abroad. He spent about a year in studying in hospitals at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Scotland, and London, England. Returning to Chicago, with added knowledge from these observations, he was enabled to com- mand a large share of the most difficult and re-

J. M. HANNAHS.

munerative medical and surgical practice of the then metropolitan city. In 1889 he was ap- pointed by the United States Government a Pen- sion Examiner, and continued to fulfill the duties of this position until his death.

December 24, 1872, Dr. Miller was married to Miss Etta Barnet, of Chicago. She, with one daughter, survives him. The latter, Miss Mary Etta Miller, is a bright Chicago girl. She is possessed of marked literary and artistic tastes, and her work as a pen-and-ink artist has attracted considerable attention. Mrs. Miller is a daugh- ter of the late George Barnet, a sketch of whose

career will be found on another page of this work.

Dr. Miller's character was summed up in a few heartfelt and well-chosen words by his con- temporary, Dr. Pagne, as follows: "A man of extraordinary talent and attainments was Dr. Miller. While City Physician, he inaugurated the system of newsboys' picnics and outings. His friends were many, by reason of his greatness of heart. Chicago loses a good citizen, and the pro- fession an able member."

The last sad rites over his remains were con- ducted by South Park Masonic Lodge, and his body was interred in Oakwoods Cemetery.

JAMES M. HANNAHS.

AMES MONROE HANNAHS, one of the oldest residents of Chicago, having come here as early as 1836, is a descendant of an old and influential New England family, which originated in Ireland, the family name having been spelled in that country Hannah. The great-grandfather of James M. Hannahs was the first member of the family to leave his native land for the New World. He settled in Litch- field, Connecticut, where he was an active and influential citizen, and later became a zealous patriot. On the breaking out of the War of the Revolution, that contest with the Mother Coun- try which tried the mettle of her sons so sorely, he made his adopted country's cause his own, and was made a member of the Committee of Safety formed at that time.

Daniel Hannahs, son of the foregoing, and the grandfather of the subject of this notice, was a soldier in the War of 1812. He was wounded at

the battle of Queenstown, and for his services enjoyed a pension from the Government until his death, which occurred in 1842. Leaving Con- necticut, he moved with his family to central New York, settling in the wilderness near the Mohawk River. Undaunted in courage, and of a fine, soldierly physique, he was well fitted by nature for the Herculean task of founding a home in the primeval forests, and in his wife he found a willing helpmate. The latter was Elizabeth Gordon, a cousin of Lord George Gordon, the hero of the "Gordon Riots" of 1798, for his leadership in which he was imprisoned in Lon- don and tried for treason, but finally acquitted.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Hannahs became the parents of four children, all sons: Chauncey, Marvin, William and Daniel. Of these, Marvin removed to Albion, Calhoun County, Michigan, in 1835, and became one of the leading men in that locality, and in later years his son George

J. M. HANNAHS.

was elected State Senator from Michigan. Will- iam, another son of Daniel Hannalis, became a prosperous woolen merchant of New York City. His son, a law student, immediately after his graduation from Yale College, raised a company of cavalry in New York City, in the first month after the Civil War opened, and took the field. He was made Captain of this company, but, sad to relate, was killed in Virginia, in May, 1861.

Chauncey Hannahs, the father of James Mon- roe, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in the year 1791, and removed with his parents to New York State, assisting his father in clearing up his farm. In later years, in this same lo- cality, he engaged in the foundry business. In 1835 he removed to Wisconsin, then considered in the very far West, and located on Government land in Kenosha County, where the rest of his days were spent, liis demise occurring in 1873, from old age. While living in New York State lie had been Captain of an artillery company, and the title then gained lie ever afterwards bore. In person large and strong, he delighted in out- door pursuits, and the pioneer life which he chose on leaving his old home in the East was one well suited to him in every respect. In his early life he had been an ardent Whig, but on the formation of the two great parties of Repub- licans and Democrats, he allied himself with the latter, and proved an equally earnest champion of its principles. In his religious leanings he was a Presbyterian, his wife being of the same faith. The latter was born in the year 1793, in Oneida County, New York, a daughter of Enlos Nichols, a pioneer of that county, where he lived in a covered wagon until he could erect for liim- self a house in the wilderness. He later became a pioneer of Lake County, Illinois, near the Wis- consin State line, and his family thus became neighbors of the Hannahs family.

Mrs. Chauncey Hannalis died on the old home- stead in Kenosha County in 1882, also from old age. She had been the inother of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Ann Doolittle, William H., James M., Thomas J., Francis G., Frederick, and Adeline, who died at the age of fourteen years. A strange and shocking fatality occurred in this

family, no less than six deaths taking place with- in twenty-two months, three children dying with- in three days of each other. All who now sur- vive are James M. and his brother, Francis G.

The subject of this sketch was born June 26, 1821, in Herkimer County, New York, and re- ceived a common-school education in a little schoolhouse on the banks of the historic Mohawk River. On leaving school he entered his father's foundry to learn the business, and after coming to Chicago he followed the trade of a foundry- man in connection with a partner, the firm name being Hannahs & James. He continued thus en- gaged until he entered the employ of Wahl Brothers, manufacturers of glue, with whom he remained for twenty-five years, during part of that time representing the firm in New York City. After leaving Wahl Brothers he was act- ively engaged in promoting elevated railroads in Chicago, on a new principle.

July 3, 1851, in Cook County, Illinois, Mr. Hannahs married Miss Matilda Irislı, a dangh- ter of Perry Irish, and a native of Holley, New York. Several children were born of this mar- riage, but all died in infancy. Mrs. Hannahs died September 19, 1885, in Chicago.

Mr. Hannahs has been for over forty years a consistent member of the Baptist Church. In re- gard to politics he is a Republican, having been a stanch Abolitionist previous to the war. He is a strong believer in the efficacy of free silver, and champions his cause with great ardor. While in the employ of Wahl Brothers, his business led him to travel extensively throughout the United States, and he has hosts of friends up and down the country, as well as in Chicago. Like many other Chicago business men, he was at one time a farmer in Cook County, but lie yielded to the superior attractions of city life and sold his farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he had bought for $3 per acre. He has many reminiscences of early days in Illinois, and has contributed many interesting articles to Chicago newspapers, de- scribing the scenes and incidents of early days in this locality, and noting the stupendous changes wrought in the face of the country since lie came here, a pioneer of 1836.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Jacob Forsyth

JACOB FORSYTH.

JACOB FORSYTH. In every community, no matter how small, the intelligent observer will find men who have risen above their fellows, both in fame and fortune, by sheer force of character and the ability to seize fortune at the tide. Though to the casual onlooker there often has seemed an element of "luck" in the chances of prosperity which have come to them, a closer observer will see that it has more often been the fortunate meeting of the man and the opportunity; -the opportunity may, perhaps, have occurred a hundred times before, but the man who should seize it, and by his ability and energy force results from it, has never before appeared.

Jacob Forsyth, an old resident of Chicago, and one of its leading citizens, exemplifies the truth of the foregoing in a marked degree. Born in the North of Ireland, of Scotch descent, he possesses those fortunate characteristics which have placed so many of his countrymen on the highroad to success-honesty, ambition, energy and resistless tenacity of purpose. Overlooking the daily dis- couragements, disappointments and hardships of their life, they keep ever before them the high object of their ambition; and if failure instead of success is their portion, it is through no weaken- ing of their powers by self-indulgence or idle re- pining.

In the days of King James I. of England there sprang up a class of men known as "under- takers," who, in consideration of certain grants of land, undertook to locate a specified number of settlers upon the vast tracts of vacant ground in northern Ireland. It was at this time that a great emigration was made from Scotland to this region, and gave to the world that sturdy, industrious

and highly moral class of people called Scotch- Irish. Prior to the siege of Londonderry, an epoch in the history of northern Ireland, the an- cestors of Jacob Forsyth settled in what is now the county of Londonderry. They were a rural people, and, as near as can be learned at the present time, were engaged in agriculture.

To John Forsyth and his wife, Margaret Cox, was born a son, whom they christened Jacob. The latter married Elizabeth Haslette, and their son John was the father of the subject of this sketch. John Forsyth married Mary Ann Kerr, a native of County Londonderry, who was the daughter of Alexander Kerr and Anne Osborne, the latter of English descent. The Kerrs were of Scotch lineage, and very early in Ireland. The parents of Alexander Kerr were Oliver and Elizabeth (Wilson) Kerr.

The father of Mr. Forsyth was an intelligent farmer, and the possessor of a small landed property. Anxious that his son should have the "schooling" which is the ambition of most of his countrymen, he sent him to a celebrated private academy, the principal of which was a famous Greek and Latin scholar and a renowned mathematician, in his vicinity. Possessing the studious inclination and the quick perceptions of an apt scholar, the youth profited greatly by his attendance here, and the proficiency he ac- quired in penmanship- gained for him his first position in America.

Jacob Forsyth was born January 12, 1821, at the old town of Limavady, near the present rail- road station and thriving village in County Lon- donderry, Ireland, known as Newtown, Limavady. Filled with the ambitious spirit which builds

JACOB FORSYTH.

cities and develops the commercial possibilities of the world, he set out for the United States at the age of fifteen years. Settling in Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, he there first found employment as copying clerk and errand boy for the great com- mission and forwarding house of Forsyth & Com- pany, a member of which firm was a near relative. The firm was the oldest commission house in the city, and owned a large fleet of steamers, running on various western rivers. In those days the copying book had not been invented, and all let- ters had to be copied by hand, and this work fell to young Forsyth. By the interest he took in his work, and the care with which everything entrusted to him to do was performed, he soon won his way into the confidence of his employers, and was promoted from one responsible position to another, until he had attained that of head bookkeeper.

Mr. Forsyth remained with Forsyth & Com- pany for fifteen years altogether, and at the end of that time his abilities had become so well known outside of the concern that he was offered several other advantageous positions. Accepting one of these, he became the Through Freight Agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with head- quarters in Chicago, and by this means became a permanent resident of this city in 1857. After a few years' service in this capacity, he accepted the position of General Western Agent for the old "Erie" Road.

About this time, his business giving him op- portunities for observing the prevailing real-es- tate· conditions, he became impressed with the excellent opportunities to buy land cheaply; and with a premonition of the growth of the city, and the consequent rise in land values, he resigned his position and began to invest largely in real estate. His wife had inherited a large amount of land in Lake County, Indiana, from her brother, George W. Clarke, who died in 1866, and to this Mr. Forsyth added by purchasing the holdings of small owners in the vicinity, until he had ac- quired ten thousand acres, a large estate for this land of comparatively small holdings. He had the shrewdness to buy this so as to form one im- mense tract, arguing that one large tract would

possess more value than the same amount in scat- tered portions. During subsequent years he ex- perienced much annoyance and was caused many years' litigation in his efforts to expel squatters from the tract. They were very numerous around Lakes George and Wolf at the time, and their dislodgment was a matter of much difficulty. Mr. Forsyth was in litigation for five years before he finally obtained redress, and during this time read book after book on land decisions and the question of riparian rights, on which he is now one of the best-posted men in the country, and able to give information to many an intelligent attorney in that line of practice.

When, finally, a decree was pronounced in his favor, he sold eight thousand acres of his land to the East Chicago Improvement Company for one million dollars, one-third of which sum was paid down. The company, however, failed to meet subsequent payments, and as a compromise the present Canal and Improvement Company was formed in 1887. From this Mr. Forsyth ac- cepted as reimbursement part cash, a large amount of bonds, and some stock in the company. In 1881 he bought another large tract on the lake shore, lying directly north of the present site of East Chicago, and in 1889 he sold a por- tion of this to the Standard Oil Company, and on it has since been built its large plant, known as Whiting. The limits of the city of Chicago having been extended to the Indiana line, across which lies Mr. Forsyth's land, the latter has been consequently enhanced in value, and has been greatly benefited thereby.

At Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Mr. Forsyth mar- ried Miss Caroline M. Clarke, daughter of Robert Clarke, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, who has borne her husband nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of whom are living. The family occupies a handsome, comfortable house on Michigan Avenue, and the home is per- vaded by an air of taste and refinement which is not always an element in the homes of the rich.

In politics Mr. Forsyth is a Republican, a stanch advocate of his party's men and principles, though, owing to the stress of his extensive busi- ness interests, he has never found it convenient

T. T. PROSSER.

to take an active part in political affairs. Had he done so, and brought the same energy and discernment to bear that he has displayed in the management of his private interests, it is safe to say that he would have made his mark in the political world, as he has made it in the business affairs of his adopted city.

In appearance Mr. Forsyth is a large, well-

proportioned man, with a kindly, shrewd face, the true index of a man who has lived an honest, helpful and kindly life. Though bearing the weight of seventy-five years and the responsi- bilities which the possession of great wealth al- ways brings, he is elastic in mind and body, and bids fair to live to an extreme old age.

TREAT T. PROSSER.

REAT T. PROSSER. There are few tasks more difficult than to sketch the life of an inventor. The world is so jealous of inno- vation and improvement upou established meth- ods, so wedded to the past, and withal so disin- clined to recognize the brilliancy of more prac- tical genius, that the man who discovers de- ficiencies in practical mechanics and supplies them often goes to his grave unrewarded, even by the gratitude of the world he has benefited. He hears the name of the warrior, of the statesman, of the poet; even of the politician, in every household or business mart, but often his own, if mentioned at all, as of one who is building cas- tles in the air.

But gifted innovators, while deeply feeling the lack of appreciation, have often adopted the sen- timent of Keplar, who said: "My work is done; it can well wait a century for its readers, since God waited full six thousand years before there came a man capable of comprehending and admir- ing His work." Now and then, however, genius is so practical, and its fruits contrast so brilliantly with what has preceded, that it compels almost instantaneous recognition and homage, and among the fortunate possessors of the latter class was the subject of this article, the late Treat T. Prosser.

The Prossers are of Welsh descent, but the Treats, from whom Mr. Prosser was descended on the maternal side, were English. The first ancestors of the former family to come to America were two brothers, who came from Wales some time prior to the Revolutionary War, in which supreme contest two of their descendants partici- pated, and one met his death. The family lived on Prosser Hill, just outside of Boston, and it was in the Prosser barn that the members of the historic Boston "tea party" disguised themselves as Indians, previous to throwing the tea over- board into Boston Harbor. Grandfather John Prosser was one of the two members of the family mentioned previously as having served in the struggle with the Mother Country. He married Bethia Truesdale, daughter of a Connecticut phy- sician, and had eight sons and one daughter.

Of these children, Potter A. Prosser, the father of Treat T., married Eliza, a daughter of Timo- thy Treat, whose son, a physician, became famous through the services he rendered during the great cholera epidemic. The Treat family came from Pitminster, Somerset, England. Richard Treat was baptized in 1584. Among the prom- inent descendants are Gov. Robert Treat, and · Rev. Samuel Treat, of Pitminster. The father's birth occurred August 11, 1793, and the mother

T. T. PROSSER.

was born March 29, 1798. Their marriage was solemnized on the 5th of November, 1818, and of their union were born five children. The mother, a woman of many domestic virtues and lovable traits of character, died at the compara- tively early age of fifty-five years, but the father lived to the great age of ninety-six.

Treat T. Prosser was born in the little town of Avon, New York, January 22, 1827. His youth and early manhood were passed in his native State, and his early education was received in its common schools. After reaching his majority he attended the academy at West Avon, feeling the need of a more thorough school training before starting out to earn his own way in life. Always handy in the use of tools, at the early age of fourteen he had been engaged at the trade of a millwright, in which he soon became a proficient workman. But while his hands were busily engaged at this work, his thoughts were wander- ing out upon the whole broad domain of mechan- ical science, and his studies at the academy were for the purpose of fitting himself for the career to which all his talents and his inclinations urged him.

From the young millwright developed an inventor of agricultural implements of great value; of a superior system of machinery for the manufacture of bolts; of universally recognized improvements upon steam engines; of a practical and widely used machine for pegging boots; of coal machinery; of the Prosser Cylinder Car, and of many other mechanical devices, which either are 110w, or will become in the future, of great benefit to mankind. He drew the plans for the Chicago Hydraulic Company, which built the first water-works system in Chicago.

I11 1851 Mr. Prosser came to Chicago, and the wisdom of his choice of a location was demon- strated long ago. No other city has ever opened such welcoming arms to men of genius as lias she, nor out of her own prosperity rewarded them so bountifully. The great fire of 1871 found him among its victims, and he lost the greater part of . the accumulations of years; but financial loss is one of the minor evils to a man who has within himself the power to mould, in a great measure,

his own destiny, and is no mere inert mass, lying helpless under the buffetings of the winds of ill- fortune. The energy which was one of the marked points in his character asserted itself, and his days were ended in the prosperity he deserved.

From 1851 until the date of his death, Decem- ber 11, 1895, Mr. Prosser made Chicago his home, with the exception of two years spent in the Rocky Mountains, six years in Boston, and a short vacation spent in Europe. He was the first man to introduce the steam engine and the quartz-mill into the Rockies, the engine being constructed of material shipped from the East, the boiler being literally built in that wild region. While in Europe he was elected a member of the Society of Mechanics of England and Scotland, an honor which speaks of his high merits as a mechanical engineer.

In West Bloomfield, New York, September 26, 1849, Mr. Prosser married Miss Lucy J. Phillips, and of their union two children were born: Henry Blinn Prosser, of Chicago; and Mary Augusta, wife of Oscar E. Poole, of Lakeside, Illinois. Mrs. Prosser was the daughter of Isaac Webster Phillips, a relative of the famous Web- ster family, his mother being a sister of Noah Webster's father. Isaac Phillips was a native of Hartford, Connecticut, but removed to West Bloomfield, where he served as Justice of the Peace, and was commonly known as Judge Phil- lips. He came to Chicago late in life, and died at the home of Mrs. Prosser, at the age of sev- enty-two years. His wife, whose maiden name . was Laura Miller, reached the advanced age of ninety-two years.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899, Part 12

Author: La Salle Book Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : La Salle Book Co. Number of Pages: 910

Author: La Salle Book Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : La Salle Book Co.
Number of Pages: 910