Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899, Part 66

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

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899 > Part 66

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of the country, that it soon became famous, and visitors wondered and admired. The latest inven- tions and improvements in machinery and farm implements were always at hand, and his noble herds were his pride. His home was beautiful in all its appointments and pervaded by an atmosphere of culture and refinement. His large library was ever at the disposal of his neighbors and friends.

General Capron was in every sense a pro- gressive man, and was always foremost in advancing better methods. He was, at this time, much interested in the State Fairs, feeling that they should have the influence of the best agri- culturists of the land. In 1858 he was appointed by the United States Government as General Superintendent of the United States Fair, which was held in Chicago in September of that year. The fair was at that time considered a great event, and to this day is spoken of as a notable success. He had on exhibition his famous herd of forty-two Devons and a large number of his blooded horses, many of which won first premiums. About this time he decided to make a change of home, and moved to another farm near Peoria, Illinois.

Soon the war broke out, and his two eldest sons quickly enlisted. Governor Yates requested Gen- eral Capron to drill and prepare cavalry troops for the field, as that branch of the service was much needed. He therefore raised and drilled three cavalry regiments, and in 1862 went out him- self in charge of the last one, the Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry. He was soon promoted to the command of a brigade.

After the war General Capron was appointed Commissioner of Agriculture by President Grant. At this time the department was located in dark, dingy quarters in the Interior Department. Gen- eral Capron felt that it was a disgrace to the great interests it represented, and spared no efforts until he had secured appropriations for a building. He was given full charge of plans, and in due time the stately Agricultural Building, with its beautiful grounds, gave to the department a home befitting its dignity. In General Capron's cor- respondence is found a letter from Secretary and

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A. B .· CAPRON.

Adjutant-General Dent, in which he says: "When Sheridan met his beaten, demoralized army near Winchester, Virginia, and turned it right about and on to victory, he did what you have done with the Agricultural Department of the United States."

In April, 1871, while still at the head of this department, he was waited upon by certain high officials of the Japanese Government, who pre- sented to him their plans and wishes in regard to the development of the agricultural and mineral resources of the island of Yesso, a very important possession of Japan, and invited him to accept a position as Commissioner and Adviser under their Government. This he decided to do, and his resignation being accepted by the President, he sailed in September, 1871, for Japan, where he entered upon this great work with his usual energy and earnestness. The island of Yesso, about two-thirds the size of the State of Illinois, was turned over to him as the site of his ex- perimental farms, mills and railroads. He de- veloped the gold and coal mines, and did such re- markable work and showed such grand results, as to win the lasting gratitude of the Emperor and his people. When General Capron took leave of the Emperor at his castle in Tokio, Japan, in 1875, the Emperor made use of the fol- lowing language in his parting address: "In- deed your services were valuable and deserve my highest appreciation, and it is hardly a matter of doubt that the future progress of the island, the fruit of your labor, will much advance the hap- piness of my whole empire."

A year after his return to this country the Hon. John A. Bingham, American Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan, in a letter to General Capron says: "Kuroda, Kido and others of the Ministers of State have spoken most kindly of you and said your name would live in the grateful remembrance of their people. Rely upon it, you may well commit your name to the present and future generations of Japan. Long after you shall have joined those who have gone before you, when Yesso shall be covered with cattle and sheep and fields of golden wheat and corn, and its mountains clothed to their summits with the

purple vine, will it be said of you, "This was the work of General Capron.'"

On January 16, 1884, General Capron was in- formed by the Charge d' Affairs that His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, had been pleased to confer upon him the decoration of the Second Order of the Rising Sun. This was the first time the order had ever been conferred upon a foreigner. The lacquer box in which the decoration is en- closed is said to be eight hundred years old. By right of inheritance his son, Col. A. B. Capron, is now in possession of the decoration.

The latter, as purchasing agent of his father, shipped to Japan machinery, horses, cattle, sheep and seed-grains. He sent over a great variety of fruit trees, and the Japanese were trained in the art of pruning and grafting. The shipments in- cluded the best strains of Morgan, Hambletonian, and Kentucky thorough-bred horses and all the choicest varieties of domestic animals. Every- thing flourished even beyond the most sanguine expectations.

General Capron remained four and one-half years in Japan, and then took up his residence in Washington, where he enjoyed nearly ten years of peaceful retirement from the activities which had engaged him beyond the allotted years of man.

His son, Col. Albert B. Capron, has a military record both unique and brilliant. The firing of the first gun roused the patriotic blood of this boy in his quiet home on the Illinois farm, and quickly he responded to the first call of his coun- try. He was soon after stationed at Benton Bar- racks, Missouri. His first taste of battle was when General Lyon ordered five hundred to cross over and seize the guns just unloaded on the opposite side and intended for the rebels at Camp Jackson, numbering three thousand infantry. It was a sharp contest, but the guns were secured and General Lyon's prompt and masterly action saved St. Louis to the Government.

Under Siegel's command he participated in the severe battle of Wilson Creek, August 8, 9 and 10, 1861, when they were under almost contin- uous fire during the three days.

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A. B. CAPRON.

The death of the brave General Lyon at the head of his command made a deep impression on this young soldier. At this time he was trans- ferred to the Thirty-third Infantry, where for eighteen months he was Color-Bearer.

When, in 1862, his father went into the field, it was his wish to be transferred to his father's com- mand. His older brother, Horace, was also transferred from the Eighth Illinois Cavalry. Soon, too, his youngest brother, Osmond, a mere lad, joined theni, and now father and sons were together united in the one grand effort to protect their country's honor.

His brother, Capt. Horace Capron, was killed in an engagement with the Cherokee Indians at Cedar Cove, in North Carolina, February 2, 1864. He was a gallant soldier, and his untimely tak- ing-off was a loss to the service and to his many friends. He was buried at Peoria, Illinois, and a monument was erected to his memory by his de- voted company. While a Sergeant, he received a bronze medal for capturing a rebel flag, with this inscription:

THE CONGRESS

To FIRST SERGEANT HORACE CAPRON, JR., COMPANY G, EIGHTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY, FOR GALLANT CONDUCT AT CHICKAHOMINY AND ASHLAND, JUNE, 1862.

Albert B. Capron rode beside his brother in the last charge, and took command of the company at his death. One of the most thrill- ing of his army experiences was his night ride of one hundred miles through the enemy's line, bearing dispatches from General Burnside in Knoxville to General Wilcox at Cumberland Gap. It was a hazardous under- taking. Twenty brave men had already failed in the attempt. When he returned General Burnside, overcome with emotion, said, "You have won your spurs," and presented him with a pair of his own spurs. Colonel Capron still guards them sacredly. He was also one of the cavalry brigade, led by his father, which helped to capture Gen. John Morgan and his entire com- mand, after a ride of nineteen hundred miles in thirty-one days. He participated in twenty-three general battles, beside a great many skirmishes

and sharp cavalry actions. Two horses were shot under him while in action. He and his command were under fire for one hundred days on the march to and siege of Atlanta, Georgia, at which place he was taken prisoner.

His last service of the war was under General Sheridan on the Texas frontier, where he was in expectation of proceeding to Mexico to help in relieving the people of that country of the pretended sovereignty of Maximilian. Happily, the Mexicans were able to drive out the invader, and the Monroe Doctrine continued to rule in the Americas. Colonel Capron was three times made a prisoner, and received three severe wounds in the service of his country.

He was brevetted Major at the close of the Civil War. A few years since he was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of General Lawler, Com- mander-in-Chief of the Grand Army, with the rank of Colonel.

Before his employment as purchasing agent for the Japanese Government, he was engaged in mercantile business at Kenosha, Wisconsin. He came to Chicago in 1872, and has since resided in this city, on the North Shore. For more than twenty years he has been a member of the Board of Trade, and carries on a general grain commis- sion business. In business he pursues the same energetic and straightforward course which won him distinction in military circles, and he is held in the highest regard by his social and commercial associates.

Colonel Capron was married at Kenosha, Wis- consin, October 20, 1869, to Miss Amelia Doo- little, daughter of Alfred W. and Ann Urania (Hannahs) Doolittle, natives of Oneida County, New York.

Their union has been blessed with three chil- dren: Horace Mann, born in Kenosha, Wiscon- sin, August 27, 1872; Florence, born in Evanston, Illinois, November 18, 1873; Albert Snowden, born in Winnetka, Illinois, February 8, 1877. Their home is now in Winnetka, Illinois.

The head of the family has always been a loyal and earnest supporter of Republican prin- ciples, and he is now a member of the Illinois Commandery of the Loyal Legion.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Henry Weber

HENRY WEBER.

455

HENRY WEBER.

ENRY WEBER, one of the most successful manufacturers of Chicago, a thoroughly self-made man, is among the large number of industrious and prosperous citizens given to Chicago by German ancestors. His birth took place in that unfortunate disputed territory which has alternately belonged to France and Germany -being now in possession of the latter country. September 15, 1822, when Mr. Weber was born in the village of Hochweiler, Canton Soultz, Elsass, the locality was in possession of the French, and he was, therefore, by birth a French- man, though his ancestors were among the most sturdy Germans. They had long resided in Al- sace, and several members of the family were soldiers under the first Napoleon. Michael Weber, father of Henry, was a farmer of Hochweiler, where he reached the age of seventy-eight years. His second wife, mother of the subject of this sketch, Helena Langenbrunn (Studi) Weber, died at the age of sixty-seven years. Both she and her husband had reared good-sized families by former marriages.

Henry Weber received a scanty education un- der the French system. He was made of the am- bitious stuff which peoples and develops nations, and he early resolved to join his fortunes with those of the free land across the seas, of which he had heard through a friend who had visited the United States. At the age of eighteen, he joined a party of five young men, including the one before referred to, who had been in America, and together they came to New York. They sailed from Havre, France, on an English sailing-vessel commanded by Captain Thompson, and after a voyage of thirty-three days they arrived in the harbor of New York, a very speedy voyage for

that day. On the way they maintained them- selves, and took turn about in cooking.

In New York they separated, and Mr. Weber went to Lyons, New York, where he served a three-years apprenticeship at wagon-making, be- coming a skillful workman, and able to compete with any man in his line of work. Having com- pleted his term of indenture, Mr. Weber went to Detroit, Michigan, and found employment. But he did not long remain there. He determined to locate in the growing and enterprising town of Chicago, then beginning to attract notice through its favorable location and the enterprising char- acter of its citizens. On the 26th of June, 1844, Mr. Weber arrived in Chicago, where he has ever since made his home, and in the develop- ment of whose commercial, social and moral in- terests he has borne 110 unimportant part.

Like another distinguished German citizen, who is now deceased (Andrew Ortmayer, whose biography appears in this volume), he at once found employment with the pioneer wagonmaker of Chicago, Mr. Joseph O. Humphrey. Here he continued one and one-half years, at the end of which period, being then twenty-three years of age, he engaged in business for himself, having as a partner Mr. Jacob Gauch. . With a capital of $250, they built a small shop on Randolph Street, near La Salle, and began working up a business, boarding themselves in the building in the mean time. Later, they boarded at the New York Hotel, an hostelry well known to the old residents of the city. In 1849 Mr. Gauch was seized with the gold fever and went to Cali- fornia. His partner, who was satisfied with the slow but certain gains of business in Chicago, purchased Mr. Gauch's interest, and continued

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HENRY WEBER.

to manage the growing industry alone until 1883, when a company was incorporated to continue it, with his sons as partners. This is known as the Weber Wagon Company, and turns out all- nually twelve thousand wagons and four thou- sand bob sleds, and employs a large number of inen. Mr. Weber was for inany years a member of the old "Number Two" volunteer fire com- pany, which did good service in the early days, when steam was unknown in Chicago as a power to be used in subduing fires.

In 1852 Mr. Weber was enabled to purchase land for the location of his works. At the north- west corner of Lake and Union Streets he se- cured ground, ninety by one hundred and forty feet in area, on which he built three frame buildings. These were all two stories in height, one being occupied as a dwelling and the others for a fac- tory. He was among the first manufacturers on West Lake Street, and was uniformly success- ful, laying the foundation for a large business, which furnished a livelihood to many families. In the spring of 1871 he erected a fine four-story brick building on this site, which escaped the fury of the great fire in the autumn of the same year, and was at once occupied by profitable tenants.

In 1886 the factory was removed to Eighty- first and Wallace Streets, where superior railway facilities were secured, and here it is now con- ducted by Mr. Weber's sons, who have taken from his hands and mind much of the labor re- quired in its management. The founder very appropriately occupies the position of President of the company, with W. H. Weber as Secre- tary and Treasurer, and George A. Weber as Superintendent. The product is shipped to nearly every State of the Union, and enjoys a reputa- tion for reliability such as has always been at- tached to the name of its worthy maker from the beginning.

On the roth of August, 1887, a fire destroyed nearly all the plant except the lumber-yard, but no time was lost in repining, and, with the in- surance which careful foresight had previously provided as an assistance, its owners were en- enabled to start with an entirely new outfit of

machinery, and the business was soon a greater success than ever before. The plant is now one of the largest and most complete of its kind in the United States.

With the arrival of the year 1849, Mr. Weber felt that he was warranted in assuming the re- sponsibility of a householder, and on the 4th of November in that year he married Miss Eliza- beth Schoeneck, a German girl, who arrived in Chicago with her parents the same year as him- self. She is a daughter of Adam and Elizabeth Schoeneck, all natives of Mainz, Germany, who set- tled on a farm on the North Branch of the Chicago River, about fifteen miles from the city. Mrs. Weber was in every way fitted to be the wife of the sturdy young mechanic, and proved a worthy helpmeet to her enterprising husband. The little home on Fifth Avenue was kept scrupulously neat and tidy, and Mr. Weber's success is in part due to her good management and many good traits of character. Six children came to bless their home, namely: Elizabeth, now the wife of T. Wasserstrass; Louise, Mrs. Albert Kaempfer; William H. and George A., before mentioned; Mary M., who died at the age of twenty-nine years; and Emma, wife of Henry Rietz, all of Chicago.

The family is connected with the German Lu- theran Church, and in political action its head is thoroughly independent, affiliating with the best elements in both parties in national and local af- fairs. He is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, being one of the oldest living members of Germania Lodge No. 182, and is a charter mem- ber of Harmonia Lodge No. 221, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Weber has richly earned his success in life, and enjoys his well-earned competence in the comforts of home life and the society of his many friends. His example may afford a good lesson to the young man of to-day, who needs to be impressed with the value in business of indus- try and unswerving integrity.

In this connection, a brief mention of the pres- ent managers of the Weber Wagon Company is appropriate and desirable. To them is due, in a great measure, the marvelous growth and pros-

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W. W. FARWELL.

perity of the business. It requires more than ordinary talent to conduct successfully a business involving a capital of nearly half a million dollars, and yearly increasing in volume. All the de- tails are carefully watched by the superintendent in the construction department, and by the busi- ness manager in the office. The continued sub- stantial development of the concern in the face of the financial stringency of 1894 and 1895 is es- pecially worthy of note, and the year 1895 is re- corded as the most prosperous in its history.

The factory gives employment to a large number of men, many of whom have grown gray in the service of Mr. Weber and his sons, some of them having been in the con- tinuous employ of Mr. Weber more than forty years. The high esteem in which the founder and present managers are held by their employes is a strong testimonial to their executive ability and upright character, and their course is worthy the emulation of every employer of labor. A personal interest is shown in every man on the pay roll and in those dependent upon him, and no man is ever discharged except for indolence or inefficiency. Consequently a strike, with its train of misfortune for all concerned, was never known in the establishment. The members of the com- pany do not enter into any outside speculations, but confine themselves to their legitimate field of operations, which fact is entitled to credit for much of their prosperity.

George A. Weber, the superintendent of the works of the Weber Wagon Company, was born

in Chicago, and completed his education in the West Side High School of that city. He is gifted with a taste and talent for mechanics, and at the early age of sixteen years he entered the fac- tory of his father to master its mechanical details. Here he made quite as rapid progress as he had previously shown in his studies, and he steadily rose to the position of superintendent, which he has filled since.

William Henry Weber, business manager of the Weber Wagon Company, was born April 21, 1855, in the city which now numbers him among its most substantial and respected citizens. He was educated in the Chicago West Side High School, and took a thorough course of business training in Bryant & Stratton's Business College. After one year's connection with the wholesale dry-goods firm of Stettauer & Weiman, in 1879, at the age of twenty-four years, he entered the service of his father, with whose business he has ever since been identified. With his natural apt- itude, and as a result of his careful training, he readily fitted in with the office management of the concern, and soon came to be its responsible head. He attends strictly to business, his only recreation being an occasional hunting trip of a few days' duration, and to him is due much of the credit for the high commercial standing of the house. Being of a genial nature, he comes naturally to possess the respect and cordial good- will of all with whom he comes in social or busi- ness relations.

WILLIAM W. FARWELL.

ILLIAM WASHINGTON FARWELL, who graced the Bench of Cook County for nine years, and was an honored member of the Chicago Bar forty years, was descended from good old English stock. His ancestors were among the early pioneers in the settlement and

civilization of the New World. Henry Farwell came from Somersetshire, England, and located in Connecticut with the founders of that colony, and bore his part in sweeping away the wilder- ness which then occupied all New England and in developing a Christian community. He had a

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W. W. FARWELL.

son and grandson named Isaac. Thomas, son of the last-named, was born in Mansfield, Connecti- cut, and practiced agriculture in that State. His son, John Farwell, also born in Mansfield, was the father of Judge William W. Farwell.

John Farwell was possessed of the same spirit which led the Pilgrim Fathers to seek a home under new conditions, in an untried world, and, moved by this pioneer instinct, he went to Mor- risville, New York, in his young manhood and opened up a farm in that then new region. He was a highly respected citizen, and served as Postmaster at Morrisville for many years. His wife, Elmira Williams, was, like himself, a na- tive of Mansfield, Connecticut, and was a dangh- ter of Amariah Williams, supposed to have been of English lineage. The marriage of this couple took place in their native town, and they began housekeeping at the new home of Mr. Farwell in Morrisville. Their children, five in number, were named as follows: John William, Benjamin Franklin, William Washington, Thomas Lyle and Elmira Jane.

William W. Farwell, third child of his parents, was born in Morrisville, New York, January 5, 1817. His early life did not differ much from that of other farmers' sons in that day and region. He made the most, however, of his educational opportunities, passing through the primary schools and academy of his native town1, and entered Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York, in 1833. Before attaining his majority, in 1837, he was graduated from that old and solid institution of learning with credit to himself and his Alma Mater.

He at once began the study of law in the office of Hon. Otis P. Granger, of Morrisville, whose danghter he subsequently married. He finished his legal studies at Buffalo, New York, and was admitted to practice by the Superior Court at Rochester, in that State, in 1841. After practicing law with success for seven years in his native village, he felt the promptings of the an- cestral enterprise, and determined to cast in his lot with those fearless and energetic spirits who were just then developing the nucleus of the wonderful city on Lake Michigan, whose future

greatness was beyond the predictions of their wildest fancies. Arriving in Chicago in 1848, he set out the next year for California, and re- mained in that modern El Dorado one year, re- turning to the East by way of Panama and New York City.

At Morrisville, New York, on the 12th of February, 1851, Mr. Farwell led to the marriage altar Miss Mary Eliza Granger, who was born in Morrisville, November 8, 1829. Hon. Otis P. Granger, father of Mrs. Farwell, was a native of Suffield, Connecticut, his birth occur- ring February 21, 1796, and bore in his veins the blood of the early English settlers of that State. He was a graduate of Williams College, Class of 1816, and became a noted lawyer in cen- tral New York. He studied for his profession in the office of Talcott & Maynard, and later with John Bradish, of Utica, New York, and was ad- mitted to the Bar July 21, 1821. He practiced his profession in Morrisville, New York, until 1827, when he was appointed Surrogate of Madison County, New York, and filled that position thir- teen years. He passed away at Morrisville at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. His first ancestor in this country was Launcelot Granger, who was born in the West of England and was brought to America when fourteen years old. Mr. Granger's wife, Elvira Gates, was a native of Morrisville, daughter of Abiather and Lois (Holt) Gates, who were natives of Massa- chusetts. Mrs. Gates was a descendant of Nich- olas Holt, who came from England to Connecti- cut in the early days of that colony.

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Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois, Volume 1899, Part 66

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