USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 45
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"No Catholic of this city has, according to his means, been a more frequent or generous giver than Mr. Cavanagh, whether the cause was Ireland's aid, church building in missionary countries, local charities or parish calls. His name appears upon the scroll of liberality in the halls of the Catholic University, and many an Irish church is more beautiful by the contributions he has made. IIe has at all times been closely in touch with Catholic life, and few laymen had a wider circle of acquaintances among the hier- archy and clergy-an acquaintance not merely in form, but also in friendship. From its inception to its dissolution, he was one of the most faithful members of the Irish-American Club. He was also a member of the Columbus Club, and a most enthusiastic supporter of Sherman Council of the Young Men's Institute, and one of the most respected members of the Cathedral congregation.
"July 26th, 1871, Mr. Cavanagh was united in marriage to Mar- garet, the amiable and accomplished daughter of Judge John Dil- lon, of Joliet, Illinois. Her brother, Rev. Patrick Dillon, was for some years President of Notre Dame University, and another brother, Father James Dillon, was Vice President of the same in- stitution. To Mr. and Mrs. Cavanagh were born four children. Charles, the eldest son, after completing the university course at Notre Dame, finished his law studies at Harvard, and is with the law firm of Isham, Lincoln & Beales, and since his admission to the bar has made a place for himself among the brightest and most promising of the younger generation of attorneys, and is at present
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the administrator of his father's estate. Thomas is pursuing his studies at Notre Dame, and has won considerable renown for his prowess in athletic sports, as well as in the study rooms. The eld- est daughter, Mildred, graduated with honor at the Sacred Heart Academy, Manhattanville, while her younger sister, Aileen, is pur- suing her studies at the Sacred Heart Academy on North State Street.
"Energetic, and overflowing with vitality and good fellowship, Mr. Cavanagh's circle of friends was limited only by his acquaint- ances, and when the end came, as it did suddenly, his passing away brought regret and sorrow to many, and the magnificent assem- blage which gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Name to pay reverent respect and honor to his memory, was eloquent testimony of the esteem in which he was held in this city, as well as of the number and character of his friends."
JAMES J. EGAN.
Worthily in the front rank of his important and difficult voca- tion, James J. Egan, the well known architect, possesses a very large circle of professional and social friends. The mention of his name irresistibly recalls to those familiar with the toil and ambi- tion which necessarily preceded the building of "Greater Chicago," an immense field of labor successfully and honorably accomplished. Just as the names of some professional and business men who have passed into the history of Chicago, suggest the fulfillment of im- portant enterprises, in this most enterprising of cities, so also the name of J. J. Egan will be identified with the architectural and building interests of Chicago for many years to come.
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The subject of our sketch was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, the 15th of October, 1841. His father was William Egan, a well known builder and contractor, many of whose works exist to this day in the city of Cork, notably the Athenaeum building, the tower of the Cathedral, Bank of Ireland and other buildings. His moth- er's maiden name was Fitzgerald-Mary Fitzgerald, the daughter of a country gentleman, and a woman of the highest personal char- acter and liberal education. To her wise and affectionate training young Egan owed much, especially that invaluable moulding of character which is best achieved in the susceptible period of youth. Mr. Egan's direction of study was mapped out early in his life, and his preparatory education for the professions of engineering and architecture, quite often united in that day, received most careful development and supervision from both his parents. This prepara- tory education was chiefly gained at the private academy of Doctor O'Keefe, a noted scholar of his time and afterwards eminent as a physician and surgeon. In his thirteenth year young Egan attend- ed the Government School of Design and continued his art studies for several years. He entered Queen's University, Ireland- Queen's College, Cork-when but seventeen years old, and in his third year won a scholarship in science. The sudden death of his father led to his leaving college after completing this three years' course, and he thereupon entered the practice of his profession, tak- ing up the affairs of his father's business and completing several works that were in progress at the time of his death. After study- ing for some time with a local architect, Mr. Egan came to the United States, arriving in New York in 1866, where he continued to work as an architectural draughtsman and student, spending about five years with the late I. F. Duckworth, a prominent archi- tect of that time. It was shortly before the "great fire" of 1871 that Mr. Egan arrived in Chicago, and he had but fairly well established his office here when he shared the general fate of being burned out
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and was compelled to begin Chicago life all over again. In connec- tion with another architect, his partner at that time, he was com- missioned to build the old jail and criminal court house building, and from that time to the present J. J. Egan has been continually engaged in the practice of architecture in Chicago. The work which perhaps more than any other brought this accomplished architect most prominently into public view was the Cook County court house building, which with the city hall fills what is gener- ally known as the Court House Square. This great building, hold- ing the courts and the county offices and departments, massive and impressive as it is admitted to be, is nevertheless not at all equal to Mr. Egan's idea and original design, which had to be modified to suit the amount that at the time could be expended upon it. Of churches in Chicago Mr. Egan has designed St. John's, St. Jarlath's, St. James'-in part-St. Elizabeth's, St. Vincent's and Holy An- gels; the De La Salle Institute and St. James High School, Chi- cago, the notable Hotel Ryan, St. Paul, Minn., the Spaulding Hotel, Duluth, Minn., the Catholic Cathedral of Davenport, Ia., and the Catholic Cathedral of San Francisco. There are also many other public and private edifices designed by Mr. Egan and erected under his direct personal supervision; a sufficient number of them to make an interesting chapter of the active duties of his twenty-five years of busy and responsible professional life.
In religion Mr. Egan is and always has been a Roman Catholic, and he has ever been a consistent and sincere friend of the many worthy educational and charitable interests so actively promoted by that church. While abstaining from anything that could pos- sibly be called active political life, he was in earlier years known as a Democrat, in later life he is inclined to take a more independ- ent position and support only those men and principles which, as he estimates them, best represent the general good.
In 1876 Mr. Egan married Miss Margaret M. O'Shea, an event
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which led to a happy domestic life. His marriage, as he once char- acteristically put it, to a personal friend, was in his opinion the best thing he ever did; and he only regretted that it did not hap- pen sooner.
JOSEPH MEDILL.
Beyond all question, pre-eminent in the west is this great Amer- ican journalist, this Nestor of one of the world's greatest papers, the "Chicago Tribune." It was on April 6th, 1823, on a farm situ- ated on the St. John river, in New Brunswick, that Joseph Medill was born of Irish parents, and here he remained until nine years of age, when, with the family, a move was made to Northern Ohio.
He studied law at Massillon, and in November, 1846, was admit- ted to the bar at New Philadelphia, Ohio, a partnership being im- mediately formed with George W. McIlvane, afterward chief jus- tice of the Ohio supreme court. The tastes and inclinations of Mr. Medill, however, were not altogether of the legal order, and in 1849 he moved to Coshocton, Ohio, and began the publishing of the "Weekly Republican." So successful was this venture that he sought a larger field, and in 1852 moved to Cleveland, where he established a daily paper, which he called the "Forest City," and which is still in existence, although it is now known as the "Cleve- land Leader." In 1854 Mr. Medill was one of twelve men who held a meeting in Cleveland and organized as the nucleus of the Repub- lican party. In conjunction with Dr. C. H. Ray, of Galena, he pur- chased, in 1855, the "Chicago Tribune," then a struggling and un- profitable daily. His keen ability and wonderful faculties quickly,
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however, made the paper not only a profitable venture, but a tower of strength, and its power was used to the benefit of the nation. Mr. Medill it was who discovered that noble and grand natured American, Abraham Lincoln, and started him on the road which led to the presidency. Mr. Medill was a member, in 1869, of the constitutional convention, and two years later President Grant ap- pointed him a member of the Civil Service Commission, for which the independence of his character and the breadth of his views emi- nently fitted him. Later in the same year, and immediately fol- lowing the great fire, he was elected by three-fourths of all the votes cast Mayor of Chicago, but two months before the expiration of his term of office he resigned, and went abroad to restore his shattered health. Returning home in 1874, he bought the "Trib- une" outright, and assumed supreme control of its policy and its business. Powerful though his voice has been in the government both of city and the state, Mr. Medill has since that time held no public office.
From 1892 to the present time the greater portion of each year has been spent at Los Angeles, at Southern California. He has two daughters, Mrs. Robert W. Patterson, Jr., whose husband is, after Medill, the master mind of the "Tribune," and Mrs. Robert H. McCormick.
The "Chicago Tribune," with Joseph Medill as its guide, has been a leader of thought, and the views of its editor have for many years been potent in crystallizing public sentiment. It has never manifested any servility; never catered to bosses; never sacrificed principle to policy; never played the sycophant. Indeed, the strong personality of its editor pervades every issue. Regarding Mr. Medill, the words of a Western writer a few years since may be quoted: "In social intercourse he is agreeable and entertain- ing. He indulges little in 'small talk' or airy compliments; nor is he in the least pedantic. His conversation flows from the fullness 40
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of information garnered in many years of thoughtful study and careful observation; it is consequently both interesting and in- structive. In his character are assembled all the attributes essen- tial to greatness in a chosen career, and the habits of his life have conserved these attributes in the highest degree. Original in thought and method himself, he has never been in any sense an imitator of others; and yet his own professional and official career presents an example worthy of the most careful study and emula- tion by others."
JUDGE FRANK SCALES.
One must go back some generations to Ulster to find the Scales in Ireland. On this side of the sea the American representatives of the family settled in North Carolina, where they have increased and multiplied and generally flourished. They are known in Illi- nois and in Wisconsin and at least one, the subject of this sketch, may well claim to be almost universally known in Chicago. He cer- tainly is esteemed and respected by a multitude of friends in pri- vate life, while his popularity in the community generally is best indicated by the fact of his election to the bench, to fill the pecul- ' iarly difficult and responsible place of Judge of the County Court in this, the second city in the United States.
Frank Scales was born at White Oak Springs, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. This county adjoins Jo Daviess County, Illi- nois, where the Scales family has long been known, in fact, Scales Mound, Illinois, was named after the father of the Judge as far back as 1826. This gentleman, Samuel Henderson Scales, settled
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in that part of Illinois when, taken generally, it was a pretty wild sort of a country. He came west from Rockingham County, North Carolina, where he was born about 1804. The mother of the Judge, Mahala (Hammond) Scales, was a daughter of the Hammond fam- ily of Sangamon County, Illinois, living there in 1823. Fighting Indians and settling lands seem to have been the favorite pursuits of the representatives of the Scales family, members of which ac- tively participated in the Seminole, Black Hawk and other Indian wars, and so far as the record shows, Frank, our subject in Chicago, is the only one of the family who up to date has been honored by the distinction of the ermine conferred by the free election of a sovereign people. His early life was on a Wisconsin farm, and the scheme of education was with him primarily commenced at the Catholic Academy of Sinsinawa Mound. In 1864 young Scales came to Chicago and went into regular academic training at the Academy of St. Mary's of the Lake, on the site of the present Ca- thedral of the Holy Name, a well known school, at that time under the direction of the Very Rev. Dr. McMullen. The pursuit of a broader and fuller education took him to the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., where he entered the spring term of 1866. From thence to Georgetown College, District of Columbia, till the autumn of 1868. At this time the serious business of life seemed to open out to the young student with something of a definite plan, and he came to Chicago to study law, entering the office of Knowl- ton and Jamieson, constituted by Judge Knowlton and Egbert (afterwards Judge) Jamieson. He was admitted to the bar in 1870, and then formed a partnership with Judge Knowlton under the firm style and title of Knowlton & Scales. This existed till 1877, after which date Judge Scales pursued the practice of his profes- sion singly, paying special attention to real estate law, his prac- tice being mainly what is known in the legal profession as office practice. A conservative Democrat in his political views, he was
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nominated for Judge of the County Court and in 1890 was elected to the bench for a term of four years. The position of County Judge carries with it, by a special provision of the law, the presidency of the Board of Election Commissioners, and thus is at once apparent, in so large a city as Chicago, with its enormous electorate, how difficult, delicate and also vitally important were the duties which Judge Scales was called upon to discharge. To the integrity of the judiciary he, in the peculiarly trying and delicate position of president of the Board of Election Commissioners-the impartial moderator, so to speak, between the representatives of two or three bitterly opponent parties-brought a clearness of view, a strong sense of right and a fearlessness in the discharge of often unpleas- ant duty, which has served to make his record upon the bench one of those chapters in the history of the Chicago judiciary of which the people have good reason to be proud. After his retirement from the bench, he resumed the practice of the law, with which he yet proceeds in a large and steadily growing clientele.
Judge Scales married June 22nd, 1871, Miss Caroline Bartlett, daughter of Luther Bartlett of Boston, well known as one of the pioneers of Du Page County, Ill., and a representative of a promi- nent New England family. They have one child, Miss Etta Scales.
MAURICE T. MOLONEY.
Maurice T. Moloney, late Attorney General of the State of Illi- nois and one of the best known and most prominent lawyers of the West, was born July 26th, 1849, in the parish of Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. He belongs, however, to the well known
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Moloney family of Clare, which is frequently called the Moloney County. Of his parents, his father Timothy, an engineer and rail- road contractor, married Catherine Enright, and died in 1887. The widow is still living at the age of ninety-two.
Having received a fair classical education at a private school of his native town, the subject of this sketch came to the United States in 1867, studied philosophy at the College of Our Lady of Angels, Niagara Falls, and afterwards took a course at St. Vin- cent's College, Wheeling, Penn., where his studies were chiefly de- voted to theological subjects. In 1870 and 1871 he studied law at the University of Virginia, graduating in the latter year with full honors and the degree of "Bachelor of Law." In the fall of the latter year Mr. Moloney came to Illinois, locating at Ottawa, the county seat of La Salle County, where he commenced the prac- tice of law and continued until 1892, gaining not only much honor and professional success but establishing himself firmly as a recog- nized leader of the bar. For three years of that time he was City Attorney of Ottawa, for four years State's Attorney of La Salle County, and for seven years legal adviser of the County Board of Supervisors. In November, 1892, Mr. Moloney was elected At- torney General of the State of Illinois for four years, and has just completed his term of office. In his official capacity he has proven himself an arduous and able worker, and has accomplished a great many most important results, and has carried through numerous measures that will be of lasting benefit to the community. Among these latter may be mentioned: The dissolution of the Distilling and Cattle Feeding Company, commonly the "Whisky Trust"; the dissolution of the School Furniture Trust; the gigantic Gas Trust of Chicago; the American Tobacco Company, the same being a cor- poration organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey, and being organized for the express purpose of controlling and manipu- lating a dozen other corporations organized for the purpose of man-
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ufacturing cigarettes and other kinds of tobacco, and which con- trols the output of ninety-five per cent of all the manufactured tobacco in the country. This corporation is one of the most con- temptible and odious monopolies of the many odious ones existing in this country. It has practically met its death-blow at the hands of the proceedings instituted by him. The combination among the warehousemen in the city of Chicago, with over $100,000,000 of cap- ital back of it, has been declared illegal, and the warehousemen have been prohibited from dealing or mixing their grain with that of third parties. This was a combination of the millionaires of Chicago and the East, and had for its purpose the regulating, con- . trolling and manipulating the price of grain and other commodi- ties raised by the farming community of the entire Northwest.
It would be impossible in this biographical sketch to enumerate the other important cases instituted and completed by him.
With offices in the Ashland Block, Mr. Moloney has now estab- lished the law firm of Moloney & Scofield, the latter member hav- ing been one of his assistants during his term of office as Attorney General, A firm started under such auspices and with the peculiar advantages and experience of both partners has a prosperous and honorable career assured.
Mr. Moloney is a member of the Columbus, Sheridan and Iro- quois Clubs, and previous to his election to office was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which he was forced to resign, owing to lack of time. In his religious views he is a Roman Cath- olic, and in his political affiliations has always remained an un- swerving Democrat.
In May, 1873, Mr. Moloney was married to Miss Annie J. Gra- ham and they have had eight children, of whom five are living. The two eldest sons are in the railroad business in Chicago, and the youngest is attending the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels at Niagara Falls. The girls are both at the convent school at Ottawa.
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For many years, and more especially during his recently expired term, owing to the heavy nature of his professional duties, Mr. Mo- loney has had very little time for recreations or indeed for anything else. He has, however, at all times, been a most omnivorous reader, and there are few authorities on legal points with which he has not made himself thoroughly familiar. He is a man of splendid constitution, as well as of commanding presence, and though he is at times accused of possessing a somewhat abrupt manner, it is suspected that this was assumed during his term of office to get rid of annoying place hunters who would monopolize the time that should be devoted to the interest of the State. There is, however, no want of courtesy and that his disposition is warm and generous is amply testified to by his capacity not merely for making friends but also for retaining.
REV. W. M. FOLEY.
This young, zealous and very popular priest, who is pastor of the Church of St. Catharine of Genoa, at One Hundred and Eighteenth Street, Glenwood, was born in Chicago, November 11th, 1863, and was brought up in the Annunciation parish on the north-west side of the city. His parents, Lawrence and Catharine (Carroll) Foley, were natives of County Wexford, Ireland, and in the same county an uncle, who has been in the priesthood for forty-five years, is still living. The father and mother of the subject of this sketch came to the United States about 1852, settling in New York, but moving later to Chicago, where they were married in 1857. They are still living, Mr. Lawrence Foley being the proprietor of an undertak- ing establishment on Grand Avenue, near Ashland Boulevard.
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Father Foley's education was received at St. Ignatius' College, where he was a student from 1877 to 1882, afterwards taking a five years' philosophical course in the Catholic University at Niagara Falls. Fully equipped for the duties of the priesthood, he was or- dained in Chicago, June 4th, 1887, and was assigned as assistant to Father Lyman at Pullman. It was some years later that he was transferred to his present mission, and the church he now occupies was built by himself on the site of the old Sharpshooters' Park. An active worker always, Father Foley has not merely assisted, he has also instituted and organized a number of societies for the bene- fit of those under his charge. Among these may be enumerated the Young Men's Society, the Marquette Club, the Sheridan Club in Chicago Heights, the Columbus Club in Harvey, and ladies' societies in each of the above named places. He has been a prominent mem- ber of the Catholic Order of Foresters for the past eight years, hav- ing passed through the various chairs, and also belongs to the Catholic Benevolent Legion.
ROBERT S. SCOTT.
Robert S. Scott, of the firm of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., and one of Chicago's most respected merchants and citizens, was born near Belfast, Ireland, 1838. He received a thorough commercial educa- tion at the best schools of his native town and on leaving school entered the well-known dry goods house of Henry Hawkins & Co. Here, instead of being confined to one department, as is often the case, the young man went through them all, as it was a thoroughly organized department store, so gaining a thorough insight and com-
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Robert Skou
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prehensive knowledge of the business in all its details. After four years of this experience Mr. Scott decided to try the broader field of the new world, and accordingly, in 1856, when eighteen years of age, started from his native shores for America, and came to Illi- nois, where he joined Messrs. Carson and Pirie. The then young men carried on a successful dry goods business at Amboy and Men- dota, Illinois, for seven or eight years, and then came to Chicago in the spring of 1864. They started at 20 Lake Street in that year, now thirty-three years ago, and since that time the gradual but sure advancement and growth of the now famous house to its present proportions is a matter of history. The success of the concern, though rapid, was solid, until to-day the firm ranks third in its line in the country and bears the highest reputation for fair dealing and honorable business methods.
Mr. Scott is very decided in attributing his own and his partners' success very largely to the splendid and substantial business train- ing received in their early youth, and is firmly convinced after all these years of experience that it is hard to improve on many of the old methods of his boyhood's training. Mr. Scott also speaks very warmly and in affectionate terms of his own domestic training, and of the high principles instilled into him when a boy by his father and mother.
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