USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 44
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the bar in 1870. The practice of his profession was begun at Little Rock, Ark., where he also wrote considerably for the State Journal. In 1872 he was elected on the Greeley ticket for congressman at large to the Forty-third Congress by the reform Republicans and Democrats. The following year he ran again for Congress, was elected and then defeated by the redistricting of the State under what was known as Baxter's machine. In September, 1875, he re- moved to Chicago and formed a partnership with Judge Walter B. Scates, which continued until 1880, when the firm of Hynes, English & Dunne was organized and at once took its place among the chief legal firms of this city. An extensive business is being done and long since Mr. Hynes might have reached the bench if his ambition lay in that direction.
Mr. Hynes was married in September, 1871, to Jennie W., daughter of Judge George B. Way of Ohio.
In social circles he is at all times in great request, for he is a brilliant and most entertaining conversationalist and a perfect friend.
WILLIAM JEREMIAH QUIN.
William Jeremiah Quin was born in Milwaukee, Wis., March 14th, 1857. Mr. Quin received a primary education at St. Gall's parochial school, Milwaukee, afterwards attending the city high school and finally graduated at the University of Wisconsin. Hav- ing a great love for the drama, he adopted the stage as a profession immediately after leaving the university, but his ambition being of a higher order, he soon drifted into the legal profession. He was
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admitted to the bar in June, 1879, at Milwaukee, practiced there for some time and then came to Chicago. Since 1883 he has been connected with the legal department of Armour & Company, which has practically been under his charge.
For eight years, Mr. Quin was a member of the Sheridan Guards of the Wisconsin National Guard. Several years ago he was a member of the County Republican Committee and is now one of the Executive Committee of the Irish Republican National Committee and legislative officers in Wisconsin Legislature. He has always been a Republican.
Mr. Quin was married August 20th, 1883, to Rachel A. Hogarth of Plymouth, Ind., who died July 8th, 1888. On July 5th, 1889, he was married again to Alice Evans Lyons of New York City, who died October 20th, 1895. There is one child living, a daughter.
Mr. Quin is a man of bright and active intellect and of very pleas- ing personality. That his gifts are of a high order and his success in any sphere chosen but a matter of time, the reputation he bears and the responsible position he holds in such a firm as Armour & Company bears fitting indorsement.
THOMAS J. FAGAN.
This well known and popular sergeant of the Chicago police service was born in Dublin, November 19th, 1859. Of his parents, Patrick and Charlotte (Steele) Fagan, the father, who died a few years ago, was one of the oldest employes of the Great Southern &
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Western Railroad, having been in that service for upwards of fifty years, during which period he filled various positions. He was the last man who spoke with Smith O'Brien previous to the latter's arrest by the English guard, Hulm, at the Limerick Junction Rail- way Station. When asked to assist in arresting O'Brien his answer was simple-"Arrest him? Why what did the poor fellow ever do to me or to mine?" Hulm arrested O'Brien, obtained the blood money, and was in a drunkard's grave inside of a year. The mother is still living in Dublin.
Thomas J. Fagan received a very thorough education and has strongly developed literary tastes. His first schooling was under the Oblate Fathers at Dublin, for many years under the Christian Brothers, and was afterwards under the present member of the English House of Commons, the well known Timothy Harrington. Later, for a year, he studied with a private tutor, Mr. Connellan of Renalagh, Dublin.
For a short time he held a clerkship on the railroad, but decided to embrace the better opportunities offered to energy, ambition and talent in the United States. In 1880 he left the old country and after visiting for a short time in New York and Bermuda he came direct to Chicago. His first employment in this country was with the firm of Harmon & Merriman in the wholesale grocery trade, which was given up two years later to accept a position as sales- man on the road for Gray, Burt & Kingman. Twelve months later he went to Nebraska and opened up a general store, but fortune failed to favor and in 1889 he returned to Chicago. He secured em- ployment as a clerk on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, but in 1891, the opportunity being given him, he went on the Chi- cago police force as patrolman. Every duty of his position was per- formed to the entire satisfaction of his superior officers and he re- ceived promotion to sergeant.
Sergeant Fagan was married in this city in 1893 to Mary Coffey,
.
Thank . Scanlan
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and their home rejoices in a daughter, who, at the time of this writ- ing, is three years old.
A Roman Catholic in his religious views and in his politics an independent Democrat, Mr. Fagan is a member of the Catholic Benevolent Legion and also of a number of insurance societies.
FRANK T. SCANLAN.
Frank T. Scanlan, one of the younger members of a family that have been considerable factors in the life and development of Chi- cago, was born in this city January 12th, 1855. His father, Ed- ward Scanlan, was a native of Castlemahon, County Limerick, Ire- land, who left the old country and came to this city in 1851. Here he started a candy factory on the North Side, at the corner of La Salle and Huron Streets, and it was in the rear of this building that the subject of the present sketch was born. Later the business was removed to South Water Street, five members of the family, under the firm name of Seanlan Bros., forming the concern. Mr. Scanlan was certainly one of the oldest, and in time became one of the largest confectionery manufacturers of Chicago. During the .sixties the firm of Scanlan Bros. was dissolved, and Mr. Edward Scanlan then associated himself with P. L. Garrity, a connection which continued until the death of the former in 1887. Edward Scanlan was married to Ann Higgins in Boston, Mass., Easter Sun- day, March 25, 1853. She was a native of County Cavan, Ireland.
Frank T. Scanlan received his education at the Kinzie and Og- den schools and at the Cathedral College, obtaining all the advan- tages of a good commercial as well as moral training. Shortly 39
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after leaving school he secured a position in the well-known whole- sale grocery firm of Wm. M. Hoyt Co., with whom he remained for twenty-two years, advancing step by step until he became manager and head of the shipping department, a position of much responsi- bility, needing considerable executive ability, as well as constant attention and energy. Naturally Mr. Scanlan was specially inter- ested in all matters connected with shipping and in the men asso- ciated with it, and in 1887 he organized the Shipping Clerks' Coun- cil of the Royal League, with the object of bringing the latter, who were connected with various shipping departments, into closer con- tact for mutual counsel and social intercourse, stated to be the only organization of its kind in the country. It has been successful from the start, and at the present time has a membership list of about two hundred. Both by land and water occasional excur- sions are made by the members of the council, which is looked upon by the leading railroads as quite an important institution. As its originator and projector, Mr. Scanlan has naturally held many im- portant offices in the association, and is now a leading member of the executive committee. At the tenth anniversary, recently held, the souvenir stated, among other warm eulogies regarding him: "Frank T. Scanlan was the nestor, founder, guide, and steadfast friend of the Chicago Shipping Clerks, and to him they owe a debt of gratitude." Eventually he resigned his position with Hoyt & Co., to become a member of the firm of Conklin & Co., of Fifth Ave- nue and Monroe Streets, and after two years and a half in that con- nection he bought out A. W. Long of La Salle and Quincy Streets, and still carries on the business at that location.
Mr. Scanlan has been connected with the Waubansia Club since its organization, and is a member of Cathedral Court 36 of the Catholic Order of Foresters and of the Central Council of the North America Union. He is a Roman Catholic in his religious views, and is a Democrat ip politics. As regards the latter, while always
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ready to aid his party by his counsel and efforts he has never sought or desired political office. Outside of his active business in- terests Mr. Scanlan has devoted a considerable portion of his time and attention to organizations of a benevolent order and object, so much so that there is scarcely a night in the week that he is not in attendance at some meeting of that description, where his good judgment, executive ability and active co-operation are held in the highest value.
Even from this brief sketch it may be seen that Mr. Scanlan is not only a man whose natural abilities have been strengthened and enlarged by a thorough commercial education and business training, but in addition thereto that he has exhibited from his very start in life as a clerk for Hoyt & Co. exceptional industry, united to perseverance and untiring energy. He is of genial tem- perament, unassuming, and at all times courteous manners, and has gained the honor and esteem of numbers of his fellow-citizens by his unswerving honesty of deed and purpose, his liberality, and his kindly interest in all charitable movements.
DANIEL DONAHOE.
The high professional average of the younger element of the legal fraternity in Chicago, as exemplified in the prominence at- tained by a large proportion of its numbers, their marked ability as orators, exhaustive knowledge of the fundamental principles of the law, and the vigor, energy and shrewdness with which they present and try their cases, has made the Chicago bar famous throughout the country, and in comparison with that of other large
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cities, the envy of them all in this respect. The name heading this sketch is that of one of the best known of the generation of lawyers to which we refer, from the fact that his success at the bar has shown him to be possessed of most, if not all, of those qualifica- tions which are requisite to the conduct of a large and varied law practice, and the more than ordinary degree of success which has attended him is merely evidence of his ability to properly apply them in his chosen profession.
Daniel Donahoe was born April 10th, 1855, on a farm in Mc- Henry County, Illinois, where his parents, John and Johanna (Long) Donahoe, had located in 1851, on their arrival in this coun- try from their native place, County Cork, Ireland. William, father of John Donahoe, also from the Emerald Isle, was one of the first settlers of McHenry County, near what is now the town of Huntley, where he died in 1880, at the advanced age of ninety years. He is well remembered by our subject, his grandson.
After a course in the public schools, Daniel Donahoe continued his studies at the Elgin Academy. From Elgin he returned home and worked on the farm until he entered Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana, in 1879, taking the law course, and gradu- ated from that department in 1881. In that year his father died, and, returning home, he continued the superintendence of affairs there until 1882, when he came to Chicago and engaged in the ac- tive practice of his profession in the office of Judge John Gibbons. In 1888 he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Joseph David, under the firm name of Donahoe & David, which continued until 1894. Since then Mr. Donahoe has been the senior member of the firm of Donahoe & Hartnett (his partner being Mr. James Hartnett), with offices in the Ashland Block. Their large practice, while it has been largely in the criminal courts, has now reached that state where it extends to the whole varied field of general litigation, both in the state and federal jurisdictions.
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Among the notable and even famous cases in which Daniel Donahoe figured conspicuously as attorney and counselor, may be mentioned the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad dynamite cases, tried at Geneva, Ill., in 1888; a mysterious murder case known as the Italian "trunk murder," in which Mr. Donahoe, as- sociated with N. C. (now Judge) Sears, successfully defended two of the defendants, securing their acquittal. In the course of the celebrated anarchist trials, Mr. Donahoe was selected by State's Attorney Julius Grinnell, and disposed of an immense volume of important public business which otherwise would have fallen to the care of First Assistant State's Attorney Frank Walker, en- gaged in the anarchist case. The Eugene Dougherty murder case was a notable legal triumph for Mr. Donahoe. The accused, though ably defended by that distinguished lawyer, W. W. O'Brien, was convicted and sent to the penitentiary, from whence, three years afterwards, on purely legal grounds, he was sent back to Chicago for a new trial, at which, defended by the subject of our sketch, he was acquitted. A case famous in the annals of criminal jurisdic- tion, in which Daniel Donahoe achieved very considerable renown, was that of Timothy O'Grady, tried and convicted of the killing of Police Officer Michael O'Brien. Mr. Donahoe, who defended the accused, was positive that it was a case of mistaken identity, and worked incessantly in the matter, even after the man was com- mitted to the penitentiary. He interested Governor Fifer in the case, and finally succeeded in establishing the fact that a man named Dyer Scanlan, who was at large in Chicago when O'Grady was being tried for the crime, was really the guilty person. Scan- lan also was convicted of shooting a member of the police force, and when in the penitentiary confessed the shooting for which O'Grady was imprisoned.
Mr. Donahoe figured prominently in the celebrated Cronin case, on the first trial defending two of the co-defendants, Patrick Sulli-
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van and John Kunze, and also in the second trial of Dan Coughlin, which grew out of the Cronin case. In the defense of Coughlin, which resulted in acquittal, he was associated with Judge Wing. The trial concluded with a masterly summing up of the entire case, the final address of Mr. Donahoe to the jury consuming three entire days. The sensational North Side election cases are others in which Mr. Donahoe took a leading part, commencing with the trial of one "Major" Sampson, with seven other co-defendants, tried for assaulting a man named Dixon at a polling booth on election day, November 6th, 1894. Notwithstanding the relentless prosecution maintained by the Marquette Club and other political organiza- tions, Mr. Donahoe secured their acquittal. In the subsequent trial of Alderman O'Malley and John Santry, on a charge of mur- der, from which the two defendants, after a most bitterly con- tested trial on the part of the state, were not only triumphantly acquitted, but publicly exonerated by the jury, Mr. Donahoe, as- sociated with his law partner, Mr. James Hartnett, successfully defended the latter.
In politics Mr. Donahoe is a consistent Democrat, and from the time of his first vote his sympathy and support have ever been with ยท the Democratic party, of which he is a valued and recognized mem- ber. IIe believes, however, in a great measure of political inde- pendence, and his party allegiance neither has, nor will, lead him to support partisan candidates or platforms as such, without his confidence in the fitness of the one or his convictions as to the jus- tice of the other.
In August, 1886, Mr. Donahoe was united in marriage to Miss Theresa Boyle, daughter of Henry Boyle, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to which place the family removed during the childhood of Mrs. Donahoe. To them have been born two children, Henry, on March 4th, 1888, and Leo, in May, 1892.
Characteristically, Mr. Donahoe is active and aggressive. With
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him to think is to act, and in discharging the duties of the citizen in private life, he is as intolerant of misrepresentation, chicanery and fraud as he would be in meeting such equivocal elements in the course of professional duty. In the defense of right, as in the assistance of the oppressed, his immediate sympathy and support can ever be counted on, and seeking no preferment, either social or political, his entire time is devoted to the interests of his pro- fession and the welfare and happiness of his family.
MARK J. MCNAMARA.
Mark J. McNamara, a bright and very promising young lawyer of Chicago, was born in this city, March 5th, 1872.
The education of the subject of this sketch was received in the public schools of this city, and afterwards at Pio Nono College, St. Francis, Milwaukee County, Wis. After leaving college, he en- tered the employment of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, remaining in the law department for five years, with evi- dent satisfaction to the company. As a young man of enterprise, however, he considered that he could do better with his life than by staying with a railway corporation, so he entered the Chicago College of Law, and, after a two years' course, commenced to prac. tice for himself in this city, and in the three years, since 1893, in his profession, has already made a very creditable reputation.
In proof that his abilities have been recognized may be recorded the circumstance of his nomination by the Sound Money Democrats for the Legislature in the Eleventh Senatorial District, which,
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though he met with defeat, was a decided honor for so young a man.
Mr. McNamara is a Roman Catholic in his religious belief, and was a member of St. Columbkill's Young Men's Catholic Associa- tion for a number of years. A Democrat in his politics, he actively supported, and in the last election voted for, Major Mckinley. He is a lover of music and of literature, and keeps up an extensive reading of all the standard works of the day.
That his tastes are intellectual, and his habits of a very ener- getic character, every action of his life up to the present time for- cibly demonstrates. Before him unquestionably is an honorable and highly successful career.
EDMUND M. LAHIFF.
1
Edmund M. Lahiff, private secretary to Hon. Carter Harrison, Mayor of this city, is a newspaper man of considerable mark in that profession, and for so young a man has had a rather remarka- ble career and has attained no mean reputation and appreciation from the community at large. Ile was born at Whitegate, County Cork, Ireland, in 1863, receiving a first class education at St. Vin- cent's Seminary in Cork City. His father, Patrick Lahiff, was a splendid type of the Irish "country town" merchant. From his mother he got the characteristics of Irish fire and daring that goes with the blood of the Barrys and the Maguires. He was twenty- three years of age when he first came to this country, and his finan- cial resources being exhausted, he was forced to accept whatever
Edward M. Labiff.
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work he could find, and set out by shoveling coal on one of the De- troit docks (W. P. Rend's at Eighteenth Street in that city). After a year on the docks he took charge of one of Mr. Rend's coal yards. Newspaper work was then taken up, and has been followed most successfully by him until his recent appointment by Mayor Harri- son. Mr. Lahiff's journalistic career has been chiefly on the staff of the "Times-Herald" and its predecessor, the "Herald," as a po- litical reporter, in which capacity he has made considerable mark and managed to obtain a wide acquaintance with politicians and public men. In 1894 he went East and spent a year in the employ of the "New York World," and on behalf of that paper hired him- self out to the Carnegie Company as a "scab" worker, in order to gain admission to the fortified works of the firm. Here Mr. Lahiff, along with some forty of the non-union workmen, was the victim of poisoned food, supposed to have been prepared by sympathizers with the strikers, and he was for some weeks seriously ill in a hos- pital. Two years after this Mr. Lahiff accomplished a feat that made him a name among the newspaper men of the country and also made him known to thousands of the reading public, this achievement being quite a lengthy interview with the Rt. Hon. William E. Gladstone upon the leading topics of the day. It was especially notable as being the first instance in which Mr. Glad- stone had consented to an interview with a newspaper representa- tive.
Mr. Lahiff was appointed some months ago as a member of the County Civil Service Commission, a position he resigned to accept his present arduous and important post. For the place, he is a man in all ways most eminently fitted, for, in addition to a pleasing personality, a very courteous manner, a patient and self-controlled temperament, he is also graced with considerable acumen and knowledge of human nature.
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ALEXANDER COLLINS.
The subject of the present sketch, one of this city's best known and most enterprising young lawyers, was born in Chicago October 1st, 1866. Of his parents, Henry T. and Catherine J. (Conway) Col- lins, both were natives of County Meath, which they left for the United States about 1852. For two years Henry T. Collins re- mained in New York and the mother of our subject in Syracuse, and it was about 1858 that each came West and settled in Chicago. He had been a farmer in Ireland, but in this city the grocery business was taken up, and this he followed for a number of years, when he began to trade in hides and tallow. His affairs prospered and he is now retired.
Alexander Collins received his education in the public schools of this city, afterwards taking up the study of law with J. Lisle and Eli B. Felsenthal, with whom he remained for six years, during three of which he also taught school. He was admitted to practice November 13th, 1887, and at once began to do business in the firm of H. E. Cross and Collins, which became afterwards Craft, Cross & Collins. Later Mr. Collins opened an office and continued his pro- fessional business in his own name. His success altogether has been of a very appreciable character; during the administration of , Mayor Washburne his abilities received recognition by his appoint- ment as assistant prosecuting attorney, and he has already taken a high place in the very full complement of legal service in Chicago.
Mr. Collins was married in Chicago April 14th, 1887, to Gertrude Curran, and they have a family of two children.
A Republican always in his political views on national affairs, as regards municipal offices his faith is given to the man most fitted
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for the office, despite any party affiliations. He is a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters and also of the Royal Arcanum, in the latter having filled all the subordinate offices, and being at the pres- ent time a member of the Grand Council.
Mr. Collins has traveled extensively throughout the United States, is a man well informed upon all necessary subjects, is free and generous in his character, pleasant and courteous in his man- ner, and in all ways a good representative of the American Irish in Chicago.
PATRICK CAVANAGH.
In the records of Irishmen in Chicago, there is, perhaps, no name better known or signifying more of patriotism, of true Chris- tianity, of charity and nobility of character, than that of the late Patrick Cavanagh. His death on Wednesday, October 9th, 1895, was a blow to the whole community, and removed from a sphere of great usefulness and honor a man who exemplified in his strong personality the highest type of citizen. The following sketch is from the pen of one of his associates, and in nothing said therein is his character overstated: "Patrick Cavanagh was born in 1842, on a farm near Omagh, County Tyrone, a portion of the Emerald Isle, famous for the production of so many earnest Catholics, where members of the church must understand their faith to uphold it and love it to defend. For a short period after coming to this country, in 1863, he tarried in the Quaker City, but that location proved too quiet for his energetic temperament, and he moved to Detroit. Here he entered business, continuing until 1866, when
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the opportunities of Chicago engaged his attention, and resulted in his permanently locating in the latter city. In connection with Mr. Bodle, he organized the firm of Cavanagh & Bodle, to engage in the wholesale liquor trade. This partnership continued until 1881, when Mr. Bodle withdrew, and the business was subsequently continued under the name of Cavanagh & Co., with offices and ware- rooms at Cass and Kinzie Streets.
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