USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 41
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Field & Gano and his other old friends in Cincinnati, and the ad- miration they have for his wonderful success, is constantly mani- fested. Mr. Scanlan has always been so fortunate as to gain the good will and confidence of those with whom he had dealings; in Springfield, in Xenia and in the Cincinnati schools he is still re- membered and spoken of in the kindliest manner; and in Gano, among the people of every race and condition, he is not looked on as merely an honest and kind hearted real estate agent, but rather as a friend and advisor, to whom the people come when in trouble and in want of counsel, and he has been designated as the Father of Gano.
When in Cincinnati he was a promoter of literary and social clubs among the Catholics; he was at one time president of the Central Catholic Committee, composed of delegates from every Catholic society, whose main object was the support of the Orphan Asylum; he was also a member of the Board of Education; and in Chicago he was for a time an active member of the Columbus Club. Though thoroughly independent in politics, he has re- cently favored the platform of the Republican party. In 1872 he visited Europe, devoting most of the trip to England, Ireland and France.
In 1876, Mr. Scanlan married Margaret Boulger, the attractive and amiable daughter of James Boulger of Cincinnati. Five chil- dren were the fruit of this most happy union, four of whom are living. This lady died on July 7th, 1887, from the result of a sad accident on the 4th of July preceding, and their once happy home was broken up and the children scattered. Two years after he was again married, this time to Joanna Walker, a bright Chicago lady, who has been a most devoted wife to him, and there were born from this last union two children, a boy and a girl.
As a young man, and indeed up to the present time, Mr. Scan- lan has been an ardent devotee of gymnastic exercise as a means
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of development and health, and still adheres to the practice. His tastes, however, are largely literary and musical; for five years he acted as organist in Father Tighe's Church on Oakland Boulevard; he is also much interested in university extension, and has been an- active promoter of the Catholic summer school.
At the close of this somewhat comprehensive sketch, it is al- most unnecessary to say that Mr. Scanlan possesses abilities of no mean order, united to a versatility of genius not usually met with, while to those qualities he adds a perseverance and industry which have, to a great extent, overcome all difficulties. His disposition is genial, his manner pleasant and invariably courteous, and there is consequently no reason for wonderment that he is possessed of so large a number of devoted and appreciative friends.
JOHN J. CALLAHAN.
A representative of the younger generation of American Irish- men of energetic mind and industrious habits, thrifty in their lives and full of determination to succeed in the world, is John J. Callahan.
He was born in Chicago, December 20th, 1865, and is the son of Patrick and Margaret Callahan, both of whom are natives of County Kerry. They had come to America in 1863, settling in Chicago, where Patrick Callahan has been engaged in the lumber business since that time.
John J. Callahan received his education at the Sacred Heart school at West Eighteenth Street, taking the ordinary business course of studies. His schooling over, he went to work for the
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wholesale house of Field & Leiter, with which he stayed for six months only in the capacity of stock clerk, then going into the lumber market, in which he remained for four years. For the following eight years he kept books for Thomas R. Lyon, at Robey and Blue Island Avenue, and then started with the Globe Lum- ber Company as secretary and treasurer, a position he gave up two years later, in 1894, to take one of greater responsibility, that of President of the same Company, which he still retains.
Mr. Callahan is by religion a Roman Catholic. In his political views he belongs to the Democratic party. He is a member of the National Benevolent League, in which he holds the honorable position of Treasurer to the Society.
THOMAS O'CONNELL.
The subject of the present biographical sketch, Thomas O'Con- nell, has for thirty-eight years been actively identified with the re- markable growth and upbuilding of Chicago. He came to this city at the age of twenty-one years, practically without friends or capi- tal, and is a splendid example of the self-made man, whose indom- itable will and tireless energy have been rewarded with an honor- able position among the foremost business men of Chicago. One by one he has forced aside the barriers that obstruct the way to suc- cess, until to-day he stands within the charmed circle, rich in honor and wealth, one of the most honored as well as devoted sons of a mighty city.
Thomas O'Connell was born in Limerick, Ireland, February 15th, 1837, his parents being John and Elizabeth (Hays) O'Connell.
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The father, who in the old country followed the occupation of a farmer, emigrated to the United States in 1846, settling in Penn- sylvania, where he engaged in coal mining and railroad building. In 1858, he came to Chicago and died here in 1881. At all times he had been prominent in Irish affairs, and according to his means, his purse had been open to assist in any movement whose purpose was Ireland's betterment. Ilis wife, Elizabeth O'Connell, came of a good Cork family, and seven weeks after her husband departed this life she followed him to the grave.
The subject of the present sketch was but ten years of age when with his parents he came to the United States and located at Pine Grove, Pa., where he attended the public schools until he was six- teen years of age. He then engaged with his father in the coal mining and railroad business, and after the removal of his parents to Chicago in 1858 he accompanied them, and secured a position as superintendent with the Chicago Union Lime Works, remaining with that concern for thirty years. In 1890, he associated his sons with him, and the Keys & Thatcher Quarry on the West Side of Chicago was purchased. At that time the income was small, but good management soon made the quarry a very paying proposition, and now the business of the Artesian Stone Co .- which is the cor- poration name of Mr. O'Connell's company, and which deals in crushed and building stone, lime and cement-amounts to over a half a million dollars a year.
Mr. O'Connell is in religion a devout Catholic, and belongs to the congregation of St. Patrick's Church. In his political views he has always been a Democrat, and, while in no sense of the word an active politician, he possesses considerable influence in his ward, and at times, when he considers a worthy candidate is being put forward for an office, he goes heartily to work in the campaign. He is a member, and one highly valued and respected, of the Catholic Benevolent Legion.
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Mr. O'Connell, despite the heavy calls made upon his time by business, still finds sufficient leisure to show himself a public- spirited citizen and a benevolent and practical sympathizer with the charitable work of this city, as well as eager and willing to assist his brethren across the sea.
Mr. O'Connell married Miss Susan O'Laughlin, a native of Clare, Ireland, and who had been raised in the State of Wiscon- sin. She was of a prominent Irish family, and an uncle of hers, Sir Michael O'Laughlin, has held several prominent positions under the crown in Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell have had a family of seven boys and one girl.
LUKE O'TOOLE.
Luke O'Toole, the well-known superintendent of Post Office Station K., was born in 1848 in County Carlow, Ireland, of which his father, Patrick O'Toole, and his mother, were both natives.
The subject of this sketch received his education in the national schools of Ireland, and came to the United States in 1868, when a little over nineteen years of age. He settled in Chicago, and found his first employment in some brick yards, and later in a packing house. In 1876, he started in business for himself, and, meeting with considerable success, retained until 1893. In that year he was appointed superintendent of Station K., by Post Master Hes- ing, taking charge January 1st, 1894, and, having carried out his duties for over three years to the entire satisfaction of the public, as well as his superiors in the department.
Mr. O'Toole is a Roman Catholic in his religious views, and in his political affiliations a Democrat.
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He was married to Miss Annie Brown, daughter of William Brown, a brick manufacturer of this city. They have four children living, two boys and two girls.
Of thoroughly domestic tastes, Mr. O'Toole finds the best con- tentment and enjoyment in his own household; in his official posi- tion he has always been courteous, as well as attentive, and has made for himself a large circle of friends.
MILES JOSEPH DEVINE.
As compared with many of the biographies in this work of men who have, in the legal profession, attained to great eminence and secured for themselves high reputations, as well as material wealth, the subject of this sketch is but a beginner in the field. Yet of none of the younger generation can it be more truthfully said, that the foundation for what of success, of popularity and of honor the future has in store, has been more firmly, perseveringly and with greater wisdom laid than in his case.
Miles J. Devine is not yet thirty years of age (he was born at Chicago, November 11th, 1866), and has already a large clientage and a very enviable reputation as a successful lawyer, the first at- tributable to the fact that from his early boyhood he has possessed the faculty of making and keeping friends, his life being ordered and governed by those principles which men recognize as sound, just and right, and the second to the natural ability, enabling him to quickly grasp his subject, apply the points of law applicable to his case with a flow of eloquence, a conviction of manner and sound-
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ness of argument which usually results in a verdict in his favor. There is, perhaps, no man within ten years of his age whose reputa- tion is greater as a court lawyer, more especially in criminal cases, than is Mr. Devine's before the Chicago bar.
His father is a native of Ireland, and came to America about 1846, when sixteen years of age. Patrick Devine married, in 1861, Elizabeth Conway, a sister of Very Rev. Father Conway, Vicar General of the Chicago Diocese, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1836. To them have been born nine children, of whom four were sons. Three sons and three daughters, with both their parents, still survive.
It was the wish of Mr. and Mrs. Devine that Miles J. should be- come a priest of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and his studies until 1885 were all directed to that end. In 1876 he attended St. Patrick's Brothers' School, his uncle, Father Conway, being then the priest of the parish. Later he spent two years at St. Francis Seminary at Bay View, Wisconsin, and for four years he was a stu- dent at the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, at Niagara Falls, New York. In the latter year he came to the determination that he pos- sessed no vocation for the priesthood, and thereafter his studies were directed to the law, which held for him peculiar attractions, and, to his ideas, furnished a fitter field for the employment of such intellectual and oratorical gifts as nature had endowed him with. He also attended Lake Forest University, and in 1887 entered the Chicago College of Law, from which he graduated in June, 1890. On his admission to the bar, a partnership was formed with Mr. J. B. O'Connell, under the firm name of Devine & O'Connell, with of- fices in the United States Express Building.
In 1893 Mr. Devine was appointed Assistant Prosecuting Attor- ney by Mayor Harrison, and was continued in this position under Mayors Hopkins and Swift until August, 1895, when he resigned in the interest of the increasing private practice of the firm. An
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enviable reputation was gained by Mr. Devine in his able conduct of a number of celebrated cases which came up for trial during his incumbency of this office, among which might be named the "lumpy jaw" cattle cases in 1894, the Craig burglary, and the prosecution of the cases for the violation of the registration laws.
His practice is largely confined to the criminal side, and in the six years' existence of the firm its members have undertaken the defense in no less than eighteen murder cases, Mr. Devine having charge of their conduct before the courts. Perhaps the most cele- brated of these was the John Carrig case, which attracted public attention to a greater extent than any other of a like character in recent years.
In politics Mr. Devine is an ardent Democrat, and even as a boy was an active worker for his party's interests. When sixteen years of age he stumped Lake, McHenry and Boone Counties for E. M. Haines, late Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, and, by his eloquence and the force and power of his argument, won many votes for the cause, and gained for himself the soubriquet of "The Boy Orator." In 1894 he was nominated on the Populist ticket for Senator of the Fifteenth Senatorial District, but declined the honor. He has been a frequent delegate to city, county and state conventions of his party, among them the state convention of 1894, which placed Franklin MacVeigh in nomination for United States Senator. Last fall he received the nomination of the Gold Democrats from the Fourth Congressional District.
Mr. Devine was nominated by the Democrats of the City of Chi- cago for City Attorney at their convention March 11th, 1897, after one of the hottest campaigns ever known to political history. To this important office he was elected by the largest plurality ever given to a candidate for this office, beating his Republican oppon- ent, Roy O. West, the most popular candidate on the Republican ticket, by nearly 3,800 votes.
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It must also be said of Mr. Devine that he is a devoted advo- cate and worker for Ireland's cause, and is a member of several of the leading Irish societies, among them the Catholic Order of For- esters and the Irish National Alliance. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. In religion a Roman Catholic, Mr. Devine is, with his family, a regular attendant of the Church of the Holy Name, on the West Side.
He was married September 20th, 1884, to Miss Emma, daughter of Samuel and Ophelia Gamash, of Lake County, Ill. To them have been born four children, as follows: Miles J., Paul P., Leo Jerome and Mabel Ruth.
BERNARD CURTIS.
Any representation of the American Irish of this city would be strangely incomplete were it wanting in reference to this well- known and most highly respected old-time citizen. He was born in County Louth, Ireland, in 1837, his parents being Patrick and Kate (Meade) Curtis. They came to the United States in 1868, settling in Grinnell, Iowa, where Mr. Curtis owned and operated a farm, and moving later to Creston, in the same state, where Patrick Curtis died in 1887, and was followed by his wife in 1892.
Mr. Curtis, who was not in his youth much favored in the way of educational advantages, for he had to assist his father on the farm, attended the national schools in Ireland. When, however, his majority was reached, he came to the United States, and taking up railroad construction work for an occupation on the Rock Island Railroad, then being built, until the town of Grinnell was reached,
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where he engaged in the grain and lumber business until 1872, at which time he decided to settle in Chicago. Trading in grain was then taken up, and that occupation he has since followed with considerable success, and is now an extensive operator on the Board of Trade.
In Iowa City, Iowa, he was married, in 1868, to Catherine Long, and they have had six children, of whom there are now five living, four girls and a son.
A Roman Catholic in his religious views, Mr. Curtis is in his politics as regards national affairs a Republican. He has traveled extensively over the United States, is a man of considerable in- formation on all general matters of interest, is generous and kindly in his disposition, and in all ways a true-hearted, noble American citizen.
HON. THOMAS A. MORAN.
Thomas A. Moran is a native of Bridgeport, Conn., where his father, Patrick Moran, a native of Ireland, was long in business. He was born October 7, 1839, and was seven years old when his father removed, with his family, to Bristol, Kenosha County, Wis., and became a farmer in the midst of that then new country. As a boy and youth he aided in the work of carrying on the farm until he was nineteen, going to school as circumstances favored, usually dur- ing the winter months. Meantime he read all the books at hand, and in a general way availed himself to the utmost of every means of mental improvement at his command. He supplemented his common school education by several terms' attendance at Liberty
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Academy, at Salem, three miles from his home, and then engaged for a time in teaching school. He took an active and prominent part in debating "clubs" and "schools," and achieved more than a merely local reputation as an apt, ready, and well-informed debater. When about twenty years old, he began the study of law in the office of J. J. Pettit, at Kenosha, continuing under the direction of Judge I. W. Webster. He paid his expenses during this period principally by school teaching. In 1862, owing to the illness of his father, young Moran returned to the farm and managed it for a season, and dur- ing that year the father died; the farm was sold and the family removed to Kenosha. In 1864 his mother died, and in the fall of that year the young man entered the institution now known as the Albany Law School, at New York, where he was graduated in May, 1865, when he was admitted to practice. As a student, Judge Moran foreshadowed his brilliant success at the bar, and high hon- ors were predicted for him by members of the faculty, with whom, as with his fellow students, his personal traits made him popular.
In November, 1865, he came to Chicago and engaged in the prac- tice of his profession, for a time in the office of H. S. Monroe. Later he was a member successively of the firms of Schoff & Moran, Moran & English, and Moran, English & Wolf, and he was at the head of that last mentioned when he was elevated to the bench. During this period of fourteen years the court calendars and the books of his own office showed most conclusively that he had a greater num- ber of cases in the courts of record than any other lawyer at the bar. While his practice was general, he was so especially successful in jury trials that two of the most eminent judges of the Circuit Bench pronounced him one of the most powerful jury lawyers at this bar. The practice in debate and oratory in which he so de- lighted and excelled in his youth, and his experience in the courts, gave him fluency of speech, ready command of language, accuracy of expression and grace in diction, which combined to make him
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a notably forceful and eloquent advocate-terse, logical, vigorous, and often ornate. His energy, industry, patience, sagacity, and in- tellectual compass and vitality made him an opponent to be both dreaded and respected in any case in which he was actively con- cerned.
In the fall of 1879 he was elected a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County for a term of six years. He was re-elected in 1885 and again in 1891. After having served with great distinction seven years as judge of the Circuit Court, he was assigned by the Supreme Court, in accordance with the statutory provision, to the judgeship of the Appellate Court of the First District of Illinois, and served in that position until he resigned his office in March, 1892. His record as an appellate judge, in the estimation of the bar of northern Illinois, is not surpassed by that of any other judge of that court. So uniformly were his opinions based upon the soundest legal and equitable principles, so much in accordance were they with the spirit of our institutions and civilization, and so logi- cal, condensed and correct were they that often they were adopted as the language of the Supreme Court. His experience as a judge embraced the common law, chancery, and criminal branches of the court, in each of which he achieved honor and won the commenda- tion of the bar and the public. Always self-contained and self- poised, of patient and courteous bearing, an attentive, careful, and most respectful listener, even to the humblest pleader, he dis- charged his high functions without ostentation and with conspicu- ous ability. Since his voluntary withdrawal from the bench and his resumption of private practice, his great professional learning and ability have connected him with many of the most important cases which have appeared before the courts. He is now in the full vigor of his genius. At the present time Judge Moran is the head of the well-known firm of Moran, Kraus & Mayer (Thomas A. Moran, Adolph Kraus, and Isaac H. and Levy Mayer), with offices at 836
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Unity Building. In politics he has been a lifelong Democrat, in- fluential as such, but never an aspirant for any political office. He began his political career as a mere stripling, an ardent admirer of Stephen A. Douglas, and in full accord with the liberal Democ- racy of which that eminent statesman was the champion-and he has been one of the strong, wise spirits of his party from that day to this; always conservative, yet patriotic, working with voice, pen, and influence, through victory and defeat, with singular consis- tency, for the public good along the lines of public policy he has been constrained to indorse and to advocate.
He has been one of the most prominent, useful, and active mem- bers the Iroquois Club has had since it was first founded as the exponent of the local Democracy. He was also one of the organizers of the Sheridan Club and of the Catholic Library Association, and is a member of the Columbus Club and of the Bar Association.
He was united in marriage in 1868 to Miss Josephine Quinn, of Albany, N. Y., and by her is the father of eight children living: Alice, Thomas W. (now a student of law in his father's office), Mar- garet, John P., Eugene, Josephine, Arthur, and Kathryn. The judge and his family reside at Forty-seventh Street and Vincennes Avenue.
JOHN F. CREMIN.
This gentleman comes fairly within the representative class of younger men, who in Chicago have most successfully developed and administered real estate interests of the first importance. Al- though but just now in the very prime of life, Mr. Cremin, of the well-known and responsible firm of Cremin & Brenan, has been
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fully abreast of the ever-varying tide of real estate values and real estate changes within the phenomenal modern growth of Chicago for the last seventeen years. In the management and disposition of the interests committed to his care, he has steadily and legiti- mately achieved a prominence as a citizen and professional man which is an indisputable proof, alike of worthy ambition, untir- ing industry and unswerving integrity. It is a place in the esti- mation of his fellow citizens rarely gained within a comparatively short space of time and which is not only a just source of pride to the members of his family and his most intimate associates, but also of gratification to his many friends and well wishers in Chi- cago.
John F. Cremin, son of Joseph Wallace and Anne (Carroll) Cre- min, was born in New York City June 23, 1856. After graduating from the public school he finished his education with the Jesuits. On July 1, 1878, he was married in New York to Miss Kathrine Muldoon, daughter of the well-known builder of that name. In 1880 he came west, settled in Chicago and started in the real estate business in the old Chamber of Commerce Building, and about twelve years ago formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas Brenan under the firm name of Cremin & Brenan, which partner- ship still continues and constitutes one of the most enterprising and highly reputable firms in this city. They have been connected with many of the large down-town sales and leases, and have sub- divided and improved hundreds of acres on the west side between Garfield Park and Oak Park. Mr. Cremin resides in his handsome and elegantly appointed home in Austin, and prizes above all things in life the society of his interesting family, which includes six children. He sustained an irreparable loss in the death of a daughter in the spring of 1895, a beautiful girl of fifteen, who was highly accomplished and blessed with a sweet and sunny disposi- tion, which made her the idol of all who knew her.
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