USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 8
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In June, 1886, he connected himself with Messrs. Salomon & Zeisler of this city, and during the trial of the Anarchist case and until the decision of the same in the Supreme Court, had charge of the firm's civil business. That they were pleased with his ser- vices is best shown by the fact that during that period he had com- plete charge of the running of the office, the interviewing clients, and charging and collecting fees in the premises. After the dis- solution of the firm of Salomon & Zeisler in the spring of 1887, Mr. Walsh continued his connection with Mr. Moses Salomon, and which lasted until the election of the latter to the State Senate in 1892. Mr. Walsh then severed his connection with Mr. Salomon, and a partnership was formed in February, 1893, with James A. Brady, under the name of Walsh & Brady. This partnership lasted but a very short time, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, since which time Mr. Walsh has practiced alone. Ilis office is now in the Chamber of Commerce, where he occupies joint-
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ly with Mr. Thomas W. Prindeville a splendid suite of offices. While connected with Mr. Salomon, the latter represented the Central Labor Union, and questions of the most complicated na- ture, involving almost every branch of the law, were continually coming up. During this period, Mr. Walsh studied very hard, and his vigorous constitution enabled him to do an immense amount of work without abatement of energy. Scarcely a day passed that he was not in court on some matter, by reason of which, and the possession of an excellent memory, he acquired a great proficiency in the rules of pleading and practice, so essential to the success of the modern lawyer. Nearly all of the briefs in Mr. Salomon's cases during the period Mr. Walsh was connected with him were written by the latter, and the association of the two men ripened into friendship which happily still exists. During these years, while connected with these firms, Mr. Walsh adopted the precaution to retain his own clientage, so that he had an extensive business when he formed the partnership with Mr. Brady. Since then it has grown rapidly. At the last term of the Supreme and Appellate Courts, he had four cases in each court. Among his clients he numbers the Suess Ornamental Glass Co., the Cantwell Eagle Brewing Co., Julius Bauer & Co., Royal Wine Co., Charles Creamery Co., Chicago Handle Bar Co., Madden Brothers, M. Naughton, McNulty Brothers, etc. His business is that of a general practitioner, and although not what is generally called a brilliant man, he possesses in a very high degree what are commonly known as common sense and a level head. His success, coming to him as it does, without the aid of influential friends or relatives, is accounted for by him solely on the ground that he works hard and faithfully, and that he has never swerved from the line of absolute integrity.
Like most young lawyers, Mr. Walsh takes considerable inter- est in politics. Three times he has been elected by acclamation
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president of the Twenty-fifth Ward Democratic Club. He usually attended county conventions as a delegate, and was a delegate to the last two Democratic state conventions. Although frequently solicited to run for office, up to the present time he has steadily refused. He has been urged by his friends to become a candidate for judge, but this also he has declined, holding fast to the theory that the office should seek the man and not the man the office.
Mr. Walsh was a prominent member of the Irish Literary So- ciety in Memphis and helped to organize the Young Ireland So- ciety in Chicago. Deeming all secret organizations subversive of individual liberty, he has not sought membership in the ranks of such societies, but he is a member of the Catholic Order of For- esters and of the Columbus Club.
Mr. Walsh resides at 4108 North Ashland Avenue, Rogers Park, and is a member of St. Jerome's Church. He was married in 1888 to Maud Washington, formerly of New Berne, N. C., and daughter of John N. Washington, who was a grandson of Louis Washington, uncle of George Washington. Of their marriage four children have been born, of whom three are living.
The Very Rev. William Walsh, now of Jackson, Tenn., for- merly of Chattanooga and Memphis, is a brother of the subject of this sketch. Father Walsh went through the fevers of 1878 and 1879 in Memphis, establishing there the celebrated Camp Father Mathew, and has the distinction of being now the only surviving priest of the terrible scourge of that time.
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HENRY MARSHALL COBURN.
Henry Marshall Coburn was born in the town of Lyons, Cook County, Illinois, October 15th, 1855. He is the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Chittick) Coburn, his father being a native of Crane, County Wexford, Ireland, born there in 1824. The grandfather of our subject took an active part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and was a direct descendant of General John Coburn, who accom- panied Cromwell from England. Henry Coburn left Ireland in 1848, and coming to America, first settled in upper Canada, after- wards moved to Illinois, where he located in Dupage County, and later to Cook County, where he still lives. He married Miss Chit- tick, a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland, a lady who among her ancestors numbers the Marshalls and Hamiltons of Scotland, and in compliment to the first named, her son was given his mid- dle name.
Henry Marshall Coburn received his early education in the common schools of his native town and at the Englewood high school. The latter was left in 1877, and for three years he taught in the public schools of Cook County, devoting at the same time whatever hours he had to spare to the study of law, which he had determined to make his profession. He assisted also in the editing of the New Era, a journal established by his brother, John J. Coburn-of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this volume- and with such successful results that a large circulation was en- joyed and the attention of journalists all over the state attracted. Fearless in its attacks on some of the political rings in local affairs, the course it pursued led to many exciting episodes, in which both of the young men necessarily prominently figured.
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Henry Marshall Coburn was admitted to the bar in 1887, and was later granted a license to practice before the United States Court and the Court of Appeals. An office was at once opened in Chicago, and from the beginning of his professional career good success has attended his efforts, more especially in his criminal practice. He has a record extending all over the western states and has frequently been called to Colorado, Indiana, and others, to try important cases. To the first named he went to conduct the defense of the celebrated "Silver Bar Case," being afterwards re- tained to resist the celebrated Captain Tabor in the Boulder-Min- gle fight, to which a great deal of attention was attracted. As counsel, he has figured in numerous cases, some of which have become precedents, and in a great many others, while his name has not appeared, the law has been defined by him and the plan of defense or attack laid down. He devotes himself to a practice of a decidedly general character, but it is before a jury that he is particularly strong, for he seems to understand instinctively what points should be most prominently brought forward, and how wit- nesses should be dealt with in order to convey the best impres- sion. As a consulting lawyer, he also does a large business, and keeps in his office for ready reference an index of all new points of law decided upon by the courts of last resort. For this reason he is frequently consulted by some of the leading lawyers in the profession and is seldom at a loss for a sound authority in point. Such success as his efforts have achieved have of course not been without good pecuniary return, and besides the enjoyment of a large professional income, he has been able to make some excellent investments.
A Democrat always, Mr. Coburn takes a great interest in the politics of the ward in which he lives-the 30th-and when impor- tant matters are under discussion, is always called upon to speak.
Mr. Coburn was married, July 17th, 1890, to Adeline, daughter
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of Captain Palmer, prosecuting attorney of the Citizens' League of Englewood. They have a beautiful and refined home at No. 5522 Sherman Street, where it is the delight of Mr. and Mrs. Co- burn to welcome their numerous friends.
JOHN T. KEATING.
If to be known to every Irish American in Chicago and de- servedly respected and esteemed not merely for his own personal qualities, but also for the able work he has done in this country for suffering Ireland, be to deserve a place among representative American Irish, then surely no one better deserves such than John T. Keating, state president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
In the fair city of Cork, near the chiming of the famed Shan- don bells, on July 7th, 1853, Mr. Keating was born. His father, Daniel Dominick Keating, was a business man engaged in butter exporting and, as well as his mother, formerly Kate Tyrell, was of good Irish origin. Not unblessed with fortune, they were able to give their son a thorough education. He was sent first to Mil- liken's private school at Cork, later entering Rockwells College at Tipperary, and completing his schooling at the French College, Black Rock, near Dublin.
At the age of seventeen he found employment in one of the leading mercantile houses in Cork, the well known Clery & Company, a few months later starting in business for himself at Middleton. He was successful in his efforts, but from his earlier years the cause of Ireland had strongly appealed to him, and at seventeen he was already guild warden of the Young Men's So-
Jour Keating
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ciety of Cork, and a sympathizer with the secret political move- ments, which he hoped might obtain her freedom. The conse- quence was precisely similar to that which befell his close friend and fellow worker in the cause, John F. Finerty, and his activity in the cause of Irish liberty necessitated his leaving Ireland. It was while the troubles of the Land League were in full force in 1882 that Mr. Keating started for America, and after a short stay in the East he came to Chicago. He soon found a situation with the firm of M. W. Kerwin & Company, and two years later was engaged by the well known firm of Dallamand & Company as superintendent.
As during the seventies he had been closely associated with the Amnesty Association, on his arrival in Chicago he immediately connected himself with the Hibernians. His progress in that organization was rapid. In 1890 he became president of Division 36 in Hyde Park and held that position for six years. He was unanimously elected state president of the order at the biennial convention at East St. Louis in 1894 and re-elected in May, 1896, at Danville, Ill. There is no state officer who can point to such a showing as him or who has been so instrumental in the material progress of the order. For the great Irish day at the World's Fair he was secretary of arrangements, as also of the new Irish movement which resulted in the formation of the Irish National Alliance, and he received and cared for several thousand delegates with absolutely no hitch in any of the details. He was one of the pioneers of the Irish Employment Bureau and takes great interest in its working.
Mr. Keating is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, in which he has held office; of the Catholic Foresters since 1886; was district ranger of St. Cecilia's Court in 1888, and was vice presi- dent of the United Irish Society for a couple of terms in 1894 and 1895.
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In political views he is a Democrat and was active in his party and an attendant of all ward organizations until the gang rule of 1894 estranged him.
He was married, October 25th, 1877, to Margaret Frances Stampe, a native of County Cork, and their union has resulted in seven children, Kate, Nell, Madge, Dominick, May, Anna and Esther.
Mr. Keating is a Roman Catholic, and in addition to his sev- eral friendly societies, is an active member of the Columbus Club.
HARVEY B. HURD.
Harvey B. Hurd is so well known as one of Chicago's most dis- tinguished, most useful, and most highly esteemed citizens, that it may seem almost supererogatory to republish the record of his life. At the same time such a record must be acceptable to many who may not have had the opportunity of acquaintance with his early struggles, although fully conversant with his success and achievements.
Harvey B. Hurd was born February 14th, 1828, in the town of Huntington, Fairfield County, Conn. His father, Alonson Hurd, was a member of the notable Hurd family of New England, who are of English descent, and many of whom have distinguished records not only in New England but throughout the United States. On his mother's side he was of Irish and Dutch extraction and unquestionably the union of the warm and impulsive blood of Erin with that of sturdy England and the Puritans in a large
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measure accounted for his future brilliant career. When only fourteen years of age, on May 1st, 1842, Harvey started out on foot for Bridgeport, carrying the whole of his personal property ยท in a pocket handkerchief and armed only with the meager educa- tion obtained from the district school near his father's farm, which he had attended during the winter months. What he did possess, however, for his capital were grit, perseverance, and good princi- ples, and employment was quickly found as an apprentice in the office of the old Bridgeport Standard. In that position he re- mained for about two years, ever attentive to his business and at the same time losing no opportunity of gaining knowledge and advancing his education. Towards the close of 1844, having with several other young men come to Illinois, he entered Jubilee Col- lege, in Peoria County, but on account of some misunderstanding between himself and the president of the college, he only stayed about a year, when he left and went to Peoria with the object of finding employment, either at printing or any honest work. Un- successful in his efforts, he decided to come to Chicago, and made the journey in one of the old baggage stages, arriving January 7th, 1846. A place was obtained in the office of the Evening Jour- nal, and later with the Prairie Farmer, in the meantime taking every opportunity of reading law, and in the fall of 1847 en- tering the law office of Calvin De Wolf, where he made such rapid progress that the following year he was admitted to the bar.
His first law partner was Carlos Haven, afterwards State's Attorney, and he later associated himself with Henry Snapp, who afterwards represented the Joliet district in Congress. From 1850 to 1854 he was associated with Andrew J. Brown, and from 1860 to 1868 with Hon. Henry Booth. In the latter year Mr. Hurd re- tired from active practice. For some time he had devoted special attention to real estate enterprises, and the firm of Brown & Hurd had considerable transactions in that direction, especially in the
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village of Evanston. Mr. Hurd was indeed among the first to build in that place, and was the first president of the Village Board. He commenced building his present residence in 1854, and while then looked on as quite a mansion, it still holds its own among the most handsome residences in that charming suburb.
In the commercial prosperity of Chicago Mr. Hurd has always taken the greatest interest, and more especially in its sanitary advancement and development. He is duly credited with being the father of the new drainage system, by which the sewage of the city instead of being discharged into Lake Michigan, the source of water supply, is to be carried into the Illinois River by means of a capacious channel across what is known as the Chicago divide. While Mr. Hurd was not the first to suggest such a channel, he is the originator of the plan of erecting a municipality distinct from the City of Chicago, and to him is certainly due the credit of hav- ing put the project into such practical shape as to insure its suc- cess. The undertaking is now in a fair way to be accomplished, and when it is, will unquestionably be regarded as among the most important achievements of the age.
Mr. Hurd was the author of the "Hurd bill" introduced in the Legislature of 1886, and did much to promote its passage at the session. These efforts were the means of a legislative commission being appointed to further investigate the subject and take action in its behalf, and the bill reported by that commission and passed in 1887, though differing in some respects from the original "Hurd bill," was the same in all important particulars, and was supported before the Legislature by Mr. Hurd and his friends.
Mr. Hurd was the chief factor in the organization of the dis- trict and the adoption of the act of the people, and it was passed by an almost unanimous vote at the November election in the year 1887. He has not ceased to devote his energies to the success of the plan in the broad scale he originally designed. In 1862 Mr.
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Hurd accepted the position of lecturer in the Law Department of the University of Chicago, which he filled most acceptably until compelled by his various other duties to relinquish the work. In 1874 he was again elected to a chair in the Law School, which had become the Union College of Law. This was a thoroughly con- genial position to Mr. Hurd, and in his academic work he mani- fests the same invaluable traits that characterized his professional and public life, imparting to his classes a thorough understanding of principles, as well as systematic and methodical habits. In 1869 Mr. Hurd was appointed, by Governor Palmer, one of three com- missioners to revise and rewrite the general statutes of the State of Illinois. Both his colleagues soon had to withdraw, leaving him the bulk of the work, which he completed five years later, and the final chapters of which were adopted by the Twenty-eighth General Assembly, which adjourned April, 1874. That body ap- pointed Mr. Hurd to edit and supervise the publication of the re- vision, which he accomplished the following September to the entire satisfaction of the people of the State. The success of the work was immediate, and Mr. Hurd has since been called upon to edit nine subsequent editions, each of which has been com- mended by the most eminent jurists.
Mr. Hurd's love of liberty and deep sense of justice made him a most zealous abolitionist, and he took an active part in the stir- ring events that took place in Chicago before and after the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill. When emigration societies were formed in the free States to promote settlement of free soil settlers, and a Na- tional Kansas Committee was organized at the historic Buffalo Convention to protect these settlers, Mr. Hurd was made secretary of the committee and of its executive committee, which was com- posed of General J. D. Webster, George W. Dole, and himself, with headquarters at Chicago. He had for his assistant Horace White,
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afterwards editor of the Chicago Tribune. It is a matter of his- tory that by his management of the contest on the part of the North and at last by the liberal shipment of seeds to Kansas in the spring of 1856, and other energetic measures, Mr. Hurd was instrumental in retaining the free soil settlers in Kansas, who finally outnum- bered and prevailed over the pro-slavery element.
When chairman of the law reform committee of the Illinois State Bar Association, in 1889, he brought forward a recommen- dation in favor of a change in the laws of descent and wills, so as to limit the amount one may take by descent or will, and which has attracted considerable attention, its object being to break up the large estates by distributing the same among a greater num- ber of kinsmen. He was also at the head of the commission ap- pointed to investigate as to the desirability of introducing the Torrens system of registration in the State of Illinois.
Since that time he has not allowed his name to be used in connection with any official position, having no aspiration towards further honors that might come to him through politics, far pre- ferring the comparatively quiet life of a retired lawyer with its greater leisure for indulgence in literary tastes. He has inter- ested himself in a number of charitable and philanthropic move- ments, among which may be mentioned the Children's Aid Society of Chicago, and the Conference of Charities of Illinois, an organi- zation composed of all charitable societies and of both of which he is president.
Mr. Hurd was married May, 1853, to Miss Cornelia A. Hilliard, daughter of the late Captain James Hilliard of Middletown, Conn., who bore him three children-Eda, now Mrs. George S. Lord; Nel- lie, now Mrs. John A. Comstock; and Hettie, who died in 1884. This lady died in 1856; and November 1st, 1860, he married Sarah, widow of the late George Collins-she died January, 1890. In July,
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1892, he was married to Mrs. Susannah M. Van Wyke, since de- ceased.
Mr. Hurd is not only a man of great knowledge and high at- tainments, as his record shows, but is also possessed of most genial disposition and courteous and kindly manners, which, it is almost unnecessary to say, gains and retains the affection and esteem of all who know him.
DR. ANTHONY F. CONROY.
The West of Ireland is well represented among the leading citizens of Chicago in all professions, and in every branch of busi- ness. In that of dentistry, Dr. Anthony F. Conroy, who was born May 4th, 1868, in the City of Galway, Ireland, and who came to this country in 1886, has already taken leading rank.
IIis parents were Patrick M. and Ellen Conroy. His father, also a native of Galway, died in February, 1890, at the age of fifty- five, while his mother is still living in the old homestead. ITis grandfather, Patrick Conroy, was one of the largest land owners in the county, and is remembered as the oldest man who ever lived in County Galway. He died there at the great age of 108 years.
Ilis early education was sound and thorough; the Irish schools are second to none in the world in their teaching of youth. Arriv- ing in the United States, he entered the University of Minnesota, and later connected himself with the Bennett College, and the Harvard Medical College, both Chicago institutions. Afterwards Mr. Conroy joined St. Paul's College of Dentistry, where he grad- uated in medicine in 1890, and after four years' course, also in
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dentistry. In order to support himself during his studies, he worked during the day, first in a law office, and then as book- keeper in a wholesale general store at St. Paul, reading law at nights.
He demonstrated the possession of business abilities of the very highest order, utilizing his slender capital to such good pur- pose that before he was twenty-one he had cleared over $13,000 in real estate deals.
While in St. Paul, Dr. Conroy was a member of G Company, Hibernia Rifles, and on removal to Chicago joined, and is a very active member of the Seventh Regiment. Since his first coming to this country he has also been associated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
FREMONT HILL.
That a young man while still in the early thirties should have been able to display such marked abilities as to obtain a foremost place among the leading engineers of such a city as Chicago- the capital of the Western world-speaks beyond fear of question to the possession of great and unusual business faculties and abil- ities. Partner with Louis Enricht, the choice of the Republican party for county surveyor, the firm of Hill & Enricht are trans- acting an enormous business and has since it was formed five years ago, carried out work of such description as to entitle it to a posi- tion second to none in the West.
Fremont Hill was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 10th, 1863. llis father, Alfred Hill, who was born in Marietta, Ohio, and
Fremont The
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died in 1881, was well known as the largest contractor in that state. Starting out without means or other advantages, he at- tained a foremost position. The mother of the subject of this sketch, Martha J. (Wainwright) Hill, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., of Irish descent. The grandfather of Mr. Hill was a mem- ber of the first party to cross the Alleghany Mountains and settle in the Northwest Territory, where the Hill family are largely rep- resented. His maternal grandfather established the first great academy west of the Alleghany Mountains. Up to the age of eighteen, young Hill attended the public schools, graduating with honors in 1881 from the Hughes School of Cincinnati, Ohio. The profession of engineering had been early decided upon, and in the interim between examination and Commencement day young Ilill eagerly embraced an opportunity of practically entering upon his chosen work. He had pursued a course of practical engineering at school, and was offered a flattering position on the Cincinnati Northern Railroad, then under construction. He was desirous of knowing his profession thoroughly, however, and by his own re- quest was appointed an axeman under Division Engineer George Dorr. This piece of work lasted until the following February, and while his late school companions were enjoying the honors and applause of Commencement, he was making steady progress in the field of practical work. The Hughes School has since forwarded him a special diploma. He went through all the steps, becoming chainman, levelman, and transitman before ten months had passed.
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