USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 21
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Mr. Kavanagh was elected city attorney of Des Moines in 1882, and re-elected to the same office in 1884. He was chosen as Dis- trict Judge of the Ninth Judicial District of Iowa in 1885, but this position the Hon. John Gibbons, recognizing that such supe- rior qualifications needed more scope for action, induced him to resign, and coming to Chicago they went into partnership, the firm being then known as Gibbons & Kavanagh. When Mr. Gib- bons was elected judge of the Circuit bench, Mr. Kavanagh found it necessary to form a new partnership, and his firm is now Kava- nagh & O'Donnell. He has made choice of no special branch of the law, for he possesses that mental grasp which makes it an easy matter for him to discover the salient points in any case, and consequently a general practice is carried on by the firm.
Among his professional brethren Marcus Kavanagh is held in the very highest regard, for his acquirements command their re- spect and confidence, while his courteous manner under all cir- cumstances, and yet entirely devoid of ostentation, has given him a wide range of warm personal friends, who hold him in the high- est esteem for his many manly qualities.
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Some reference is required to Col. Kavanagh's record as a sol- dier. Since his earliest years, military matters have always been to him of absorbing interest. At Niagara University he was un- der military instruction for five years. And while studying law in Iowa City he was under Captain Chester of West Point, a soldier who was unusually competent to instruct in the art of war.
Elected Major of the Third Regiment, Iowa National Guard, in Des Moines, and afterwards its Lieutenant Colonel, so soon as he arrived in Chicago he was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Sev- enth Infantry. Through all the trying riot times of the summer of 1894, the Seventh Regiment did noble service, and the police being engaged in the suburbs, it was for a couple of weeks the only force for the protection of the city.
Owing to the heavy pressure of his professional duties, and also to the hard feeling in the regiment, rendering harmony among the officers an impossibility, Lieutenant Colonel Kavanagh re- signed his command in the fall of 1895. On April 12th, 1896, how- ever, he was unanimously elected to the position of Colonel of the regiment, which had been lately vacated by Colonel F. T. Colby, and his installation was made an occasion of such hearty approval as well testified to his popularity in the Seventh Regiment.
In religion Mr. Kavanagh is a Catholic; in politics he belongs to the Republican party. As an Irishman, a pride to the land of his father, and an honor to the country to which he owes his birth and which his father adopted, he is in constant request as a speaker at the great national and patriotic gatherings.
Colonel Kavanagh is a man of dignified and commanding ap- pearance, his countenance is frank and pleasing-he looks as he is-every inch a soldier. His career has been an active and an honorable one, and he has proven himself one of those men who add dignity to and elevate any enterprise with which they are
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connected. A conscientious and thorough lawyer, he is also an advocate, logical, forcible and convincing; while as a soldier he has demonstrated the possession of those rare qualities that make the born leader; the ability first to obey, and then to govern.
JAMES J. O'TOOLE.
James J. O'Toole was born October 23d, 1860, in Greenbush, N. Y. He was the son of Patrick O'Toole, a native of Kings County, Ireland, and a civil engineer by profession, who had come to this country in 1858, and of Bridget O'Toole, who was a native of the same county. They came to Chicago in 1860, where the father died in 1880, and the mother in 1864.
James O'Toole received his education in the public and paro- chial schools of Chicago, leaving at the age of thirteen to help his parents in the support of the family. His first work was as a butcher in one of the slaughter houses of the Chicago Union Stock Yards, but his industrious habits soon obtained recognition and he was promoted to the position of foreman, and later to that of shipping clerk.
He gave up work in the packing house in 1889, upon receiving the nomination for the Legislature from the Second Senatorial Dis- trict. He was elected, and held the office until 1891, when he was appointed Chief Deputy Clerk of the Appellate Court, First District, Illinois. While holding this office he attended the Chicago Evening College of Law, from which he graduated and was admitted to the bar in July, 1893. Appointed to the office of Justice of the Peace,
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for the town of Lake, in August, 1893, he was recommended for re- appointment by the Judges of the Circuit, Superior and County Courts of Cook County, in July, 1895, but was rejected by Governor Altgeld. Justice O'Toole at once claimed this action was irregular, and not in accordance with law, and consequently refused to vacate the office. From the office of the State's Attorney of Cook County, quo warranto proceedings were instituted to oust him, and the case came up before Hon. John Gibbons, of the Circuit Court, who, by his decision sustained Mr. O'Toole's position, as did also the Appel- late and Supreme Courts of the State. In the trial he was himself of great assistance to the attorneys.
The Governor of Illinois had refused in the same irregular man- ner to accept several other Chicago Justices, who were appointed at the same time as Justice O'Toole, and they had vacated the of- fices, but as soon as Judge O'Toole's position was sustained by the courts, these at once resumed their various positions.
Judge O'Toole was a member of the School Board, District No. 6, Town of Lake, Ill., from May 2d, 1887, to January, 1889. Of the . Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Ancient Order of United Work- men, and the Independent Order of Foresters, he is an old time member. In religion, he is a Catholic; in politics a Democrat, and a firm believer in the single tax, the inheritance tax, and the in- come tax, as well as that free trade and free silver is for the best interest of our country.
He was married, February 6th, 1884, to Katie Kelly, of Chicago, and they have had four children-Henry, James, Helen, and Syl- vester.
Judge O'Toole is a man of slight build, fair complexion, and medium height. That he possesses great ability, the position he has achieved conclusively shows, and no one can gainsay his character for just decisions and for fair and honest treatment to all men. Socially, he is a very agreeable companion, for his personality is a
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most pleasing one. He is a man of large information on all the leading subjects of the day, and never tires of helping and assisting others less fortunate than himself. There are, indeed, few men in this vast city who possess more or truer friends than the HIon. James J. O'Toole.
JOSEPH PATRICK RAFFERTY.
A young American Irish lawyer, who already stands well and is daily progressing among his fellows, is the subject of the present sketch, Joseph Patrick Rafferty, who was born in Chicago, June 11th, 1866. His father, John Rafferty, was of gallant Tipperary stock, and had come to the United States some time in the forties. He settled first at Seymour, Conn., and about 1854 moved to Chi- cago, where for some years he was employed as foreman of Dake's Bakery. He married a lady of an old Limerick family and died in 1879.
In his youth Joseph Patrick Rafferty attended the school of the Holy Family parish, and later went to St. Viateur's College, grad- uating from the latter in 1885. At once he entered the Union Col- lege of Law, graduating there with the degree of LL. B., and re- ceiving his license to practice in 1887, opened an office and set to work.
His ability as a lawyer soon brought him a very good practice, but regardless of the fact that his growing business made him a very busy man, ample time was found by him to assist in doing good for his fellowmen. In 1890 he was prominent in the organi- zation of the Continental League and the American Constitutional
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Rights League, both of which are non-sectional and non-political. Of the Archdiocesan Union of Catholic Young Men's Societies he has held the office of president. He was president of the Damen Club, named after the noble Jesuit missionary; for two years was chief ranger of St. Rose of Lima Court of the Catholic Order of For- esters; for three years was one of the auditors of the High Court, and is prominently mentioned in connection with the office of High Chief Ranger. He was Prefect of the Young Men's Sodality of Holy Family Jesuit parish.
Mr. Rafferty is a Roman Catholic and a member of the con- gregation of the Jesuit Church of the Holy Family.
In his political views he is a Democrat, and has made himself so prominent in his district that the nomination for the Legislature from his district-the Fifteenth-could be obtained by him at any time desired.
DR. THOMAS FRANCIS O'MALLEY.
Dr. Thomas Francis O'Malley was born in Limerick, Ireland, on May 15th, 1860, and is of a family which is one of the oldest and most respected in the south of Ireland. His father, a man of splendid physique, was noted both for his strict honesty and his ardent patriotism. He died a few years since, but the mother of our subject, still hale and hearty, resides in the old homestead.
With that religious devotion characteristic of so many Irish parents, Thomas Francis O'Malley was selected at an early age as a candidate for the priesthood and was sent to the Diocesan Sem- inary, Limerick, where he received a thorough classical education.
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He then went to St. Patrick's College, Thurles, where his philo- sophical studies were pursued, after which he encountered the ordeal immortalized by William Carleton of "Going to Maynooth." Young O'Malley, like Carleton in former days, came to the con- clusion that the study of theology and the desires of his parents were not in exact consonance with his own ideas, and he left May- nooth, having in mind, as he acknowledges, the words of Alex- ander Pope:
"Know well thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man."
Forthwith he came to America, arriving here in 1883, and en- tered Rush Medical College, where, after a three years' course, he graduated with high honors. At once he started into the practice of medicine, and in a short time gained the reputation of a suc- cessful practitioner, and was in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice. A close reader and an ardent student, he always keeps himself well abreast of the times. To his thorough conversance with all new theories and discoveries connected with the science of medicine can be attributed in a great extent the suc- cess he has achieved in his chosen profession.
Dr. O'Malley is prominently connected with many social and benevolent societies, in all of which he is exceedingly popular. He at present holds the position of high medical examiner of the Cath- olic Order of Foresters, enjoying the unprecedented honor of having been re-elected four times in succession at the National Conven- tions. He is a member, among others, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen; the Independent Order of Foresters; as well as several medical societies. For several years also, he was a con- spicuous figure as Surgeon Major of the Old Hibernian Rifles, now the Seventh Regiment.
A great lover of natural scenery, he has traveled extensively through this country, and two years ago revisited the "Old Sod"
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and made a tour on the continent. He is intensely interested in Irish affairs and is ever ready to take a hand in any movement for the betterment of his down-trodden fellow countrymen.
Like most men of his profession, he takes very little active part in American politics, though he is always ready to help a friend. He has never sought political preferment, though his immense pop- ularity and strict integrity would almost insure him any office he would have a right to seek. Kindly in disposition, courteous in manner, in appearance he is the very personification of vigorous manhood. As yet unmarried, though enjoying a large practice, he stands forth prominent among his fellow countrymen in Chi- cago, a man of noble parts and with a past record giving eminent promise of great future achievement.
JOHN F. SCANLAN.
The subject of this sketch, Hon. John F. Scanlan, is the young- est of the four Scanlan Brothers, Edward, Michael, Mortimer and John, so well known in Irish and business circles of Chicago, and also the youngest son of Mortimer and Catherine (Roche) Scan- lan of Castlemahon, County Limerick, Ireland. He was born in 1840. His father was a farmer and came of a family that has lived in the south of Ireland for centuries. His mother belonged to the La Roche family, who came to Ireland from the south of France some four hundred years ago. The Scanlan family ar- rived in Boston the winter of 1848, where they spent two and a half years. In 1851 they moved to Chicago. His father died in Ireland and his mother died in Chicago in 1858.
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In 1851 the subject of our sketch entered the school connected with the College of St. Mary's of the Lake, corner of Huron and State Streets, then a suburban district. In 1856 he was appren- ticed to the trade of ornamental wood carving, and in 1859 and 1860 he decorated some of the prominent buildings in New Or- leans and Memphis, leaving the latter city in time to avoid the boundary pickets of the Confederacy. Arriving in Chicago, he joined his brothers in the wholesale confectionery business, one of the largest of the kind in Chicago, then being conducted by them.
Believing that the performance of one's duty to country is obedience to God, when the spirit of revolution swept over the Irish race, at home and abroad, in the latter part of the fifties, the Scanlan Brothers threw themselves, their fortune, influence and personal energies into the Fenian Brotherhood, then the hope of Ireland, and for ten years few questions of interest to the Irish people were considered without they being consulted. The first convention of that organization was held in Chicago, and it was here the historic Irish National Fair was held, in the old Brian Hall, now the Grand Opera House.
In 1862, John F. Scanlan entered the Union Army and was commissioned captain of Company B, Sixty-seventh Illinois Volun- teers. His services over, he returned to the confectionery busi- ness. In 1872 he was elected as a member of the Twenty-eighth General Assembly of the Illinois Legislature. In 1868, his studies led him into the subject of Political Economy, and in the course of his investigation he discovered, as he thinks, the cause of Ire- land's troubles. In the preface to his work published on that sub- ject, "Why Ireland Is Poor," he tells of his conversion to protec- tion politics.
"Why are Irish national efforts failures?" The Irish language was spoken during the revolution as much as the English; who
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knows it? The '48 movement and Fenianism gave great souls to humanity, but only the incense of their suffering remains. The army, law and pulpit in almost every nation are adorned by Irish bravery, eloquence and devotion, yet Irish efforts are not what the world calls success. What is the cause? No race is accorded more praise for their heroism in war, in vale or hilltop; where death reaps its greatest harvest, where dash, daring and bravery are wanted most, few fall nearer to the cannon's mouth than the Irish soldier. When principle demands painful sacrifices, Ire- land's sons have given evidence that none are more willing to live, and, if needs be, to die for it; yet, with all these facts, the results of our national aspirations have been failures. This is charged to racial defects. Always loath to believe that we had failed from race defects, I looked through our limited libraries and found a record of Kings, Wars, Chiefs and Religion. Had we a national, political or domestic economy? I could find but little trace of it.
About this time, an American friend handed me the work of that brilliant Irish-American, Henry C. Carey, "The Slave Trade, Foreign and Domestic," and requested me to read it, particularly the chapter on Ireland. I did so; it opened up a new world to me. Following up that train of thought and study, investigating tra- ditions, social conditions, personal experiences, and every avenue of Ireland's checkered career, I was forced to the conclusion that our failures came from national poverty, which destroyed the power of association, and national poverty came through the destruction of Irish industries, and our industries were destroyed, not by the force of the English Army, but by English Free Trade, through the Act of Union; in other words, force having failed to crush the national spirit, the school where the head and hand were instructed and the stomach filled-the Nation's industries-were destroyed. In the destruction of Ireland's industries, the people lost the power of association to a large extent among themselves,
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and almost entirely with the outside world. This was a gigantic step downwards. They lost the school of mechanism-the fac- tory-and then passed away from the people the aid and use of modern invention, another step. They lost their commerce, which destroyed the school of diplomacy, hence, dwarfed national efforts, another step. Their government was transferred to England, then the school where Irish statesmen were educated was closed, another step. Then the home market was lost. All the above were but incidents in capturing the citadel-the home market that England wanted-then diversified labor and the power of com- mercial exchange passed beyond the Nation's control, followed by the slavery of national poverty. Then it was that "a darkness that could be felt" fell on the land and has since paralyzed the peo- ple's efforts."
To be convinced meant action. Mr. Scanlan, having discov- ered the cause of national poverty, at once threw himself into the battle of protective tariff economy. Satisfied that free trade in this country would be as destructive here as it was in Ireland, and believing that the Irish-American people could do no greater ser- vice to America than to stamp out free trade, he became a promi- nent speaker and a well-known figure in every national political battle for the past twenty-five years. He is regarded as an authority on that subject, and as one of the most eloquent speakers in the country.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat, reporting one of his speeches, said:
"In the Illinois campaign to date the speech of John F. Scan- lan, author of 'Why Ireland Is Poor,' stands first in effectiveness. It was delivered at Mattoon a couple of nights ago. For two hours and a half Mr. Scanlan held his audience, which filled the Opera House to the doors, spellbound. He is the Wendell Phillips of to-day. He has the same easy, quiet manner, and the same mar-
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velous mental dexterity in arraying facts until his conclusions are forced irresistibly upon his hearers. His whole speech was de- voted to the tariff issue. One of the most entertaining passages, which made eyes glisten and throats choke up, was that about Ireland's unhappy experience with free trade."
Mr. Scanlan has written two works on this subject, "Why Ire- land Is Poor" and "Light on the Tariff."
In 1883, Mr. Scanlan seeing the need for an insurance benevo- lent association, especially adapted to the Catholic people, estab- lished "The Catholic Order of Foresters," and for six years gave that organization almost his entire time, planting, welding and uniting its various parts on a broad business basis, until the or- ganization has now extended its branches across the northern part of this continent, from Quebec to the Pacific coast, counting among its fifty thousand members some of the best citizens of all nationalities in the country. At the Fifth Annual Convention, at the close of his official duties, he was presented with a beautifully engrossed set of resolutions, on behalf of the organization, thank- ing him for his grand work and proclaiming him "Father of the Catholic Order of Foresters,"
In 1862, Mr. Scanlan was married to Teresa M. Lawler, daugh- ter of Joseph Lawler and sister of the well-known Congressman, the late Frank Lawler. Mr. Scanlan has four sons and five daugh- ters.
Under the old firm name of Scanlan Bros., he conducts a real estate business in this city, and while that is his business, he also is a constant contributor to the press; he delivers lectures on special subjects, particularly is he in demand at patriotic demon- strations and Grand Army celebrations.
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ANDREW J. RYAN.
Andrew J. Ryan was born in Chicago, December 29th, 1869, and is the son of William F. and Ellen (Farrell) Ryan. His father was a native of Tipperary, Ireland, who came to the United States in 1858, settling at Schenectady, N. Y., where he was in the railroad business for a few years. He later removed to Chicago, where he died in 1874, but his wife-the mother of the subject of this sketch -- still lives in this city.
Andrew J. Ryan attended the public schools of Chicago until he was nine years of age, when his ambition to be doing something for himself, and that feeling that he ought to assist in the support of the family, his father being dead, determined him to seek em- ployment. His first work was with the firm of Field, Leiter & Co., in their retail store in the capacity of errand boy. After two and a half years he gave this up to go into the employ of the Farmers' Review, a paper published in Chicago, and with this journal he remained two years as errand boy and then resigned to accept a position with Lyon & Healy as department cashier. From time to time he was promoted until when he left this firm in 1893, after a term of service of ten years, he was in the very responsible position of credit man. During the time he was with Lyon & Healy he at- tended the Night Law College of the Lake Forest University, from which he graduated June 1st, 1891. In 1893 he determined he would be his own master, and opening up a law office began the practice of his profession. Eminent success has crowned his efforts, and having held the position of Attorney for the Town of West Chicago, Mr. Ryan now represents legally several large corpora-
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tions and has also a very lucrative general practice, having been connected with some most important suits.
Mr. Ryan was married, August 26th, 1896, to Miss Nellie T. Cahill, the well known contralto singer of St. Patrick's Church.
For five years he was State Secretary of the Catholic Benevolent Legion, and has also assisted to organize and place on a solid foun- dation several other benevolent enterprises. In religion he is a Roman Catholic and a member of the congregation of the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, while in politics he is a Democrat.
Mr. Ryan, though yet a young man, has shown such ability and such ready grasp of affairs that his friends, whose name is legion, confidently expect to see him in the near future numbered among the brightest ornaments of the legal profession in Chicago.
CAPTAIN PATRICK LINANE TOUHY.
Captain Patrick Linane Touhy, one of the best known and most popular Irishmen in Chicago, was born in County Clare, Ireland. His father was a man of considerable prominence in the section of the country in which he lived, while his mother came from the Leonards, a noted family of high standing, who made the strongest objections to her marrying Leonard Touhy, not considering his position justified the connection.
The subject of this sketch attended school in his native town until he was twenty years of age, when perceiving that as a younger son he had no hopes of obtaining any sufficiency from his father's fortune, and determined to seek his own fortune he sailed for Amer-
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ica. Landing in New York employment was secured in a carpet house, where he remained some years, until hearing of the oppor- tunities offered by the little giant city of the West-Chicago-he de- termined there to cast his lot, and in association with his brother, started in the wine and spirit business.
Shortly afterwards he married Catherine Rogers, of Rogers Park, and at once retiring from the business, took up his residence in that suburb. For the purpose of subdividing and selling the large amount of land his wife had inherited from her father, Mr. Philip McGregor Rogers, the first settler of that section, Mr. Touhy, in 1871, formed a stock company. This undertaking met with remarkable success, and one of the finest and most prosperous additions to Chicago has been by him built up.
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