USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899 > Part 15
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Recovering his health, he again entered Rush Medical College in 1864, and two years later com- pleted the course. He subsequently entered Bennett Medical College, from which he received a diploma in 1878. In 1866 he began the practice of medicine at Jefferson Park, and has continued to reside there ever since. In 1867, without any solicitation on his part, he was elected by the County Board to the post of County Physician and superintendent of the insane paupers sustained by the county. Through his vigorous protest against the mixture of insane with the other wards of the county, the board was induced to appropriate money for a building to be devoted exclusively to the care of the insane. This was begun in 1868, and on the first day of the year 1871 Dr. Fonda installed the patients in his charge in their new quarters. At the end of four years'
service he retired and resumed his private practice at Jefferson, in which he has since continued with the ever-increasing confidence and respect of the community.
Dr. Fonda has been somewhat active in the conduct of local affairs, and the promotion of the common welfare. In1 1874 he was elected a mem- ber of the village board of Jefferson, of which body he was immediately made president and continued four consecutive years in this position. He was for many years health officer of the vil- lage, which was co-extensive with the town of Jefferson, until it was merged in the city of Chi- cago, and was again a member of the village board from 1884 until 1886. During the first year of this service he was president of the board, but refused that office during the second year, in order that he might be active on the floor in the discussion of many important movements then pending. For many years he was County Phy- sician in charge of the medical relief of the poor outside of public institutions. In 1889, when Jefferson was annexed to the city of Chicago, Dr. Fonda was elected one of the first alderinen from the twenty-seventh ward, and in the following April he was re-elected and served two years. In political matters he has always acted with the Republican party, having allied himself with it in 1856, and although he has sometimes voted for individuals not on his party ticket, he has ever remained true to its principles. In recent years he has made numerous addresses on political and economic subjects, which have been received with much applause.
Dr. Fonda is still a member in good standing of the Lutheran Church at Gardnersville, New York. On a visit to the scenes of his early life, made in the fall of 1897, he attended worship at this place, where he met but one person that he had previ- ously known. After an absence of forty years this visit to his childhood home, although a very pleasant one on the whole, was much saddened by the absence of familiar faces. In the midst of family connections numbering thousands, he was still among strangers.
Dr. Fonda was for many years connected with Hesperia Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted
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Masons, of Chicago, and was a charter member of the first Masonic Lodge in Jefferson. He is now connected with Wylie M. Egan Lodge, Washington Chapter, Siloam Council, St. Ber- nard Commandery, and Medinah Temple, of the Mystic Shrine. He was for many years con- nected with Home Lodge No. 416, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Chicago, and is a mem- ber of George H. Thomas Post No. 5, Grand
Army of the Republic. He is Grand Medical Examiner of the Independent Order of Mutual Aid of the State of Illinois.
Mrs. Fonda passed away in 1890, at the age of fifty-five years, leaving one child, Carrie Azubah, who resides with her father. Dr. Fonda is yet in possession of sound health, and a vigorous intel- lect, and has many years of usefulness both as a citizen and physician before him.
REV. LEROY J. HALSEY.
EV. LEROY JONES HALSEY, D. D., LL. D. On the 28th day of January, A. D. 1812, Leroy Jones Halsey was born in Cartersville, Goochland County, Virginia, on the banks of the James River, twelve miles from · Richmond, the first-born son of John and Lucy (Tiller) Halsey. His paternal ancestry is traced back through the Virginia and North Carolina settlements to a New England stock of the date of 1640. He was acquainted with the hardship of straitened circumstances in his early childhood. When he was less than five years old his father met with reverses by too generously becoming liable for another man's debt. It deprived him of his business and his home, and forced his emi- gration to the far southwest to begin life anew. He located at Huntsville, Alabama.
Leroy was always of a studious habit. He ac- quired the rudiments of knowledge at home, and from the few books and periodicals available he had gained much information before he went to school. At school learning was a pleasure to him. Study was a delight, and this love of ap- plication and research so early manifested was characteristic of his entire collegiate and théo- logical course, and remained with him through life. The days spent in the classic shades of the old Green Academy at Huntsville were among the happiest of his youth.
At the age of nineteen he left his home in Huntsville to enter the University of Nashville, at Nashville, Tennessee, where he was matricu- lated in the autumn of 1831, and entered the junior class. His education had been begun and was prosecuted from first to last with the ministry of the Gospel definitely in view.
In the summer of 1834 he was graduated, and after a visit to his home he returned to Nashville and taught a select school for a year, from the proceeds of which he repaid his college debt, and then accepted the position of tutor in the college. At the same time, in November, 1835, he placed himself under the care of the Presbytery of Nash- ville as a candidate for the Gospel ministry. Having served as tutor for a year he accepted the appointment of substitute professor of languages in place of a professor who was to be absent for a year.
These three years succeeding graduation, one spent in private teaching, and two in college work, were beneficial in fixing and testing scholar- ship, and also from a financial point of view. They enabled him to discharge his debt and to accumulate a fund sufficient to defray the expense of a theological course.
Retiring from these pleasing associations in the summer of 1837, after a brief visit to his home he journeyed eastward by stage coach and steam-
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boat until, at Frederick, Md., he had his first view of a railway train, and thence through Bal- timore and Philadelphia, his first experience of railway travel, as far as Trenton, N. J. On the 9th day of November he entered the Theological Seminary of Princeton.
On the 29th day of September, 1840, the semi- nary life of Dr. Halsey ended with his gradua- tion. He had been licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick on the 5th day of August pre- ceding. He immediately began his journey to the West, stopping in Philadelphia to preach in several of the churches there and to receive his commission from the Board of Missions assign- ing him to missionary labor in the bounds of the Presbytery of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
This work continued for more than two years, when its widely known success and the growing reputation of Dr. Halsey brought such urgent calls to wider fields that he was constrained to give them heed. The one which proved the most attractive was the one which showed the greatest need. A recently organized congrega- tion in the city of Jackson, the capital of Missis- sippi, was seeking for consecrated leadership and preaching power. They were without a house of worship, with little numerical or financial strength, but with united and zealous purpose and with a growing and influential community around, in crying need of Gospel privileges and influence and work. He accepted their call, and removing to Jackson, was ordained by the Pres- bytery of Mississippi and installed pastor on the 2 1st day of March, 1843.
A commodious house of worship was soon provided. The congregation grew and the work enlarged. This prosperous work continued for five years. During this pastorate, on the 24th day of April, 1844, he was married to Caroline Augusta Anderson, of Pendleton, South Carolina, a granddaughter of Gen. Robert Anderson of Revolutionary fame.
His well-known success in Jackson led to his being called to undertake a similar work in Lou- isville, Kentucky, where a small colony of Presby- terians desired him to lead them in the work of founding and establishing a church. Satisfied of
the importance of the enterprise, and undismayed by its prospective difficulties, he accepted their call and entered upon the work in the autumn of 1848.
The church grew rapidly under his ministry. A comfortable house of worship was speedily pro- vided, and very soon the congregation, in point of numbers and ability and efficiency, took rank with the older churches of the city.
Here he conducted a happy, useful and success- ful pastorate for ten years, in connection with the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church, the same organization that, in a different locality, is still ac- tive, strong and prosperous, under the name and title of the Warren Memorial Church.
In 1859 he was appointed by the General As- sembly to the Chair of Ecclesiology, Sacred Rhetoric aud Pastoral Theology in the Presby- terian Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which the same assembly located at Chicago, on the basis of an endowment of one hundred thou- sand dollars donated by the late Cyrus H. Mc- Cormick, of this city. The institution is 110w known as McCormick Theological Seminary.
He entered upon his work in Chicago in the autumn of that year. The city then contained a population of barely one hundred thousand. The seminary was domiciled at first in a rented build- ing at Clark and Harrison Streets. Two years later it found temporary quarters in the base- ment of the North Presbyterian Church at Cass and Indiana Streets. The present location, at North Halsted Street and Fullerton Avenue, was first occupied for seminary purposes in the winter of 1863 and 1864.
Dr. Halsey continued his active labors in the seminary for thirty-three years, terminating them only in 1892, when he was eighty years old. In addition to the labors of the pastorate and of the professor's chair he was a faithful and in- fluential helper in the councils of the church; he responded to invitations for addresses on public occasions, and was a frequent contributor to the columns of the press. In 1858 he published his first book, "The Literary Attractions of the Bible," a work of classic merit, which holds and will continue to hold an assured place among the
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preserved gems of English and American litera- ture.
After Dr. Halsey came to Chicago his voice and pen occupied a wider sphere than that of the seminary alone. He preached often and in many pulpits all over the land and always with great acceptance. I11 1860 he issued "Life Pictures from the Bible," a work that has held, and will always hold with those who possess it, an eminent place among the delineations of Bible character. In1 1861 appeared "The Beauty of Immanuel," an exposition of the life, character, person, work, offices and glory of the Christ whom he loved and adored, a work most stimulating to piety and helpful to devotion.
In 1866 he published, in three large volumes, through the Lippincott press, the "Life and Works of Philip Lindsley, D. D.," a labor of love, preserving to posterity the literary produc- tions of one of the most accomplished educators of his day. In 1871 appeared from his pen "The Memoir of Lewis W. Green, D. D.," and in 1881 a volume entitled "Living Christianity," a brief, clear and strong presentation of the fundamentals of Christian faith and the essentials of Chris- tian duty.
About this time he became Professor Emeritus and continued to give regular instruction in the matters of church government and the sacra- ments. His pen was by no means idle, for in 1884 he published a very instructive and edifying book on "Scotland's Influence on Civilization," and in 1893 there came from his pen the work into which he had poured the affections of his heart and the accumulated events and emotions of thirty years, "The History of the McCormick Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church," an octavo volume of five hundred pages.
Dr. Halsey lived to be eighty-four years old, dying June 18, 1896.
One of the large privileges of human life is to dwell in immediate touch with great and good men. The very presence, the example, and the teachings of such men, tend to form the character, to guide the thinking, to elevate the taste and to direct the activities of whole communities. Be-
neath their kindly but potent influence, society is rounded out into fairer proportions, the pur- pose to accomplish noble ends becomes more de- cisive, sympathy expands and deepens, and life is found, more and more, to be truly worth the living. One of the noblest of this high class was the subject of this sketch.
For thirty-seven years Dr. Halsey lived in Chicago. He entered on his work in that city in the zenith of his powers. Long and painstak- ing education had fitted him to exercise with commanding ability the sacred office to which he had been chosen. He had reached first rank as a preacher and pastor before he entered on the re- sponsible task of training young men for the ministry, and he came to this new work ripe in learning, mature in piety, skilled in administra- tion, familiar with the best methods of profes- sional education, intimately acquainted with the foremost churchmen of the period, ardent in the cause of a world-wide evangelization, embalmed in the confidence of the influential communion, which he represented, and in every way well fitted to advance the important enterprise to which he stood committed.
At the time of his entrance to Chicago Dr. Halsey was called to lay the foundations upon which varied structures should be raised. Society was hardly formed, and his influence was felt in directing it along lines of Christian refinement. There was but one Presbyterian Church on the North Side, and that near the heart of the city. He early helped plant another and then others as the years went by.
McCormick Theological Seminary was but just opened in Chicago. Its maintenance and develop- ment and permanent establishment had yet to be provided for.
Few men have ever been called to so large and so varied a work in so important a center and at such an epoch-making period. For this impos- ing undertaking he had the equipment requisite, whether we consider it on the side of a large and unhesitating faith in the sublime truths which he came to teach and defend, or in the steady cour- age for the day of small things to be fostered in a period of unrest and conflict-or of conspicuous
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talents fitted to meet the diversified calls arising from the extensive task-or of sublime patience in the midst of the fluctuations and discourage- ments incident to the sure establishment of a young institution in the center of a comparatively new section of our great country.
In the prosecution of these wide ranging labors Dr. Halsey laid his formative hand on a larger number of men than any other theological teacher of the Presbyterian Church in the West. His early colleagues soon passed on-one in less than two years, to his heavenly home-the others to important fields elsewhere.
Dr. Halsey remained undaunted at his post in sunshine and in storm, when rude war rolled un- checked over the land, when peace once more
settled on a still united nation. Under all the changes of an eventful period he stood fast, the one commanding figure in the changing scene, around whose person the destinies of the institu- tion revolved, and in whose lone hand its inter- ests often reposed. And ere yet unseen hands with gentle touch closed his eyes to earthly sight, to be re-opened so soon amid the splendors of mediatorial glory he had witnessed the triumphs of the cause to which he had devoted so many years of his life, in the establishment of a semi- nary of sacred learning, equal in its equipments to any in the land, and full to overflowing with in- genuous youth in preparation for the noble work of preaching the Gospel in every tongue and to every land under the sun.
THOMAS GOODE.
HOMAS GOODE, one of Chicago's most worthy pioneers, now living in rest and re- tirement on Racine Avenue, was born April 18, 1816, in the Parish of Enfield, in Mid- dlesex, near London, England. He is a son of Thomas and Maria (Head) Goode, the former a native of Warwickshire, and the latter of Middle- sex, England.
Thomas Goode, senior, was an orphan from the time he was a small boy, and was sent to London, where his eldest brother lived, and where he learned the trade of baker, at which he worked for many years. He had seven children that grew to maturity, three of whom came to America with their parents. John and Thomas came in 1845, sailing from London, and upon arriving in New York, they went to Albany by boat, and from there proceeded to Buffalo by the canal. From Buffalo they came to Chicago by the old steamer "Madison."
In 1859 Thomas Goode visited England, and
when he returned to America his parents accom- panied him, spending their last years in Chicago. The father died in 1870, his wife having preceded him by three years. Edward, a younger brother, came to the United States about 1864, and stiil resides in this city, and John Goode makes his home in Florida.
Thomas Goode received only an ordinary educa- tion in the schools of his native land, which were then much poorer than now, and was early em- ployed in a greenhouse, in the cultivation of flowers and plants.
In 1840 Mr. Goode married Miss Ellen Colpus, and their first three children were born in Eng- land. Soon after coming to Chicago he bought property on the West Side, in Carpenter's Ad- dition, and later, bought twelve acres in North Chicago, afterwards Lake View. Here he raised vegetables extensively for the city market, and through his prudence and industry, and the great growth of the city, became wealthy. He sold
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some of his land to a railroad company, and the remainder mostly in lots. He retired from active business about ten years ago. Mr. Goode is an ardent Republican, but has never been willing to accept any public office himself. He is an ad- herent of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Mr. Goode has been married twice. By his first wife he had six children, two of whom died in infancy. Those of his children living are: Edwin Peto; Jane, wife of John M. Gibson; La-
vinia and Rowland T. The mother of this family died about 1879. In 1891 Mr. Goode married Miss Margaret M. Gubbins, a native of the city of Chicago.
Mr. Goode has lived many years in his present location, and has many friends. He is one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of this part of the city, where, during his long residence, he has proven his sterling qualities of mind and heart.
GEORGE N. POWELL.
G EORGE NELSON POWELL, one of Chi- cago's pioneers, came to the West in 1833. He was descended from English and Welsh ancestry, and his lineage has been traced back to Thomas Powell, who was born in August, 1641 (probably in Wales), and died at Westbury, Long Island, December 28, 1721. A descendant of his in the fourth generation, Obadiah Powell, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
Obadiah Powell died in Saratoga County, New York, at the age of nearly one hundred years. Some time previous to the Revolutionary War he removed thither from Dutchess County, in the same state, with his wife Betsy, taking all their belongings on the back of a pony. Like his Quaker ancestry, he was opposed to war, and was much censured during the Revolutionary struggle because of his non-combatant position, and most of his personal property was confiscated. He was steadfast in his convictions, however, and lived to be one of the leading farmers in the com- munity. At the age of ninety-eight years he husked several baskets of corn, which he carried on his shoulder to the loft of his carriage-house.
He was the father of three sons and eight daugh- . ters, all of whom lived to extreme old age, and his house was the favorite gathering-place of his descendants. His son, Frost Powell, lived until 1840 in Dutchess County, New York, where he married Katharine Nelson, who was of Dutch descent. In 1840 he removed to Waterford, Ra- cine County, Wisconsin, where he died a few years later.
His son, George N. Powell, whose name heads this article, was born August 13, 1807, in Dutchess County, New York. He received the best edu- cation that the locality afforded at that time, and early in life became a general contractor. Being convinced that the West offered great business opportunities, he removed in 1833 to Chicago. Here he rented a tract of land from Archibald Cly- bourn, and engaged in farming and gardening. In 1836 he located in what was afterwards known as Jefferson Township, making claim to the nortli- east quarter of section thirty-six, which he pur- chased at the land sale of 1838. He at once com- menced the improvement of a farm on this land, which was then in a state of nature, and for sev-
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eral years kept a public house for the entertain- ment of travelers. While still in the prime of life, and apparently having many years of active usefulness before him, he was stricken with cholera and died August 18, 1850. Besides being a careful and successful business man he was ever active as a citizen and took a great interest in pub- lic affairs, affiliating in politics with the Dem- ocratic party.
March 22, 1835, Mr. Powell married Miss Ara- mesia Harmon, who was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, February 27, 1820. Her par- ents, Henry Harmon and Mary Ann Horn- barger, were natives of that state, and the chil- dren of Revolutionary soldiers. Henry Harmon enlisted as a soldier in the War of 1812, but peace was declared before his services were called for. He died October 29, 1829, and his widow mar- ried Jacob Miller. In 1832 this couple came to Chicago, where Mr. Miller worked as a carpen- ter. In 1849 he made the overland journey to California, and died there in the fall of that year. His widow died December 27, 1876, in Minne- sota. The family arrived in Chicago at the time of the Black Hawk War, and took refuge in Fort Dearborn. The daughter, Aramesia, was but twelve years of age at that time, and received her education and grew to womanhood in the pioneer settlement. She has been an observant witness of the marvelous growth of Chicago from a mere hamlet of log huts to the second city in the land.
George N. and Aramesia Powell were the par- ents of six children, the first of whom, George W., died in childhood. John Frost, the second, is a prominent citizen of Waukegan, Illinois, where for some years he was largely engaged in manufacturing. He is especially active and in- fluential in the municipal affairs of that city, where he served many years as alderman, and was Mayor three terms. He is largely interested in Chicago property. William H., the third son, was a dealer in real estate in Chicago from 1870 until his death, in August, 1896. He married Elizabeth J. Ritchie, who bore him a son, George H. Powell, now engaged in the real-estate bus- iness in Chicago. Mrs. Elizabeth J. Powell died in 1886.
Daniel N. and Mary C., the fourth and sixth, are deceased. A sketch of the fifth, Perry P., appears below. In 1862 Mrs. Powell married Theodore Mismer, a native of Strasburg, which was at the time of his birth, in France, but now belongs to Germany. They have one daughter, Clara, now the wife of Fred C. Irwin, of Chicago.
Perry Polk Powell, the youngest son of George N. and Aramesia Powell, was born January 11, 1845. He remained at home assisting in the cultivation of the farm and attending the district school until he reached the age of seventeen years. At that time the Civil War was stirring the martial spirit of every patriotic American, and young Powell was no exception to the rule. Though still very young, he enlisted, July 6, 1862, in Battery A, First Illinois Light Artillery. In the fall of that year he took part in the Vicks- burg Campaign under General Sherman, and celebrated his eighteenth birthday by participat- ing in the Battle of Arkansas Post. On account of sickness he was discharged August 7, 1863, but on his recovery re-enlisted in Battery G of the First Illinois Light Artillery, and was discharged at the close of the war at Memphis, Tennessee.
After farming for one year in Cook County, Mr. Powell removed to Blairstown, Iowa, where he carried on a general store for about two years. . He then returned to Cook County, and has since followed farming and gardening. In 1870 he also engaged in the real-estate business, in which he has been very successful. He has given his hearty support to the Republican party and was a member of the first board of trustees of Jeffer- son after its organization as a village. He was initiated into Masonry in July, 1867, in Lincoln Lodge No. 199, at Blairstown, Iowa. He is a member of Winfield Chapter No. 42, Royal Arch Masons, and is Past Commander of Winfield Com- mandery No. 15, Knights Templar, both of Win- field, Kansas. He is also a member of Siberd Post No. 58, Grand Army of the Republic, De- partment of Kansas. Mr. Powell was married January 10, 1872, to Miss Mary E., daughter of Thomas and Christie McGregor. Three children have blessed this union, named in order of birthi, Maud, Frank and Ethel.
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