Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States, Part 19

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Illinois > Kane County > Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States > Part 19
USA > Illinois > Kendall County > Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

S IDNEY B. LEMON, an influential citizen of Campton Township, is a native of Ware, Hampshire Co., Mass., born March 2, 1816, the son of Samuel and Jerusha (Barber) Lemon. The father was a native of Massachusetts, the mother of Connecticut. In his native town Mr. Lemon received his education, it being limited to the common school, and that only in the winter

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months, working on his father's farm during the summer.

In 1842 Mr. Lemon married Miss Almira B. Snow, a native of his own town, and a daughter of James and Ruth (Bruce) Snow. She died a few years after marriage, at the age of twenty-five. Subsequently Mr. Lemon married her sister, Martha A. Snow. By this marriage there were four children born: Fred E., Alfonzo B., Herbert I. (who died in early life) and Luther E. In 1854 Mr. Lemon came west, and bought of George C. Moor the place where he now resides, at which time there were no improvements on the farm. Here he lived in a log house, and improved the place as fast as his means would permit, adding to it acre after acre until he had about 600 acres of fine improved land, which is divided into two farms, one of which, 330 acres, is managed by his son, Fred E., who married Miss Matilda Miller, of Plato, and the other farm is managed by his son, Alfonzo B., who married Miss Ada Abby, of Batavia. The two farms are well stocked, having 100 head of fine-graded cattle and twenty-six blooded horses, of various breeds-Norman and Clydesdale. In 1875, Mr. Lemon buried his sec- ond wife, who died at the age of forty-two, on the 4th of March. He is a Democrat, and takes a keen interest in the affairs of State. He is not a mem- ber of any church, but is always ready with an open purse to assist in supporting such institutions, being benevolently and charitably disposed.

P ORTER S. BOWDISH. The Bowdish family, from whom the subject of this sketch is descended, were originally from the State of Connecticut, where they lived for generations. Mr. Bowdish's father, Joseph, and grandfather, John, were both natives of that State, and farmers by occupation, the former of whom became a resident of Otsego County, N. Y., afterward moving with his family to Blackberry Township, Kane Co., Ill., where they settled.

Porter S. Bowdish was born in Otsego County, N. Y., June 10, 1833, and obtained a thorough, practical agricultural training on his father's farm. September 8, 1861, he enlisted in defense of the

Union cause, in Company I, Eighth Illinois Vol- unteer Cavalry, and in it remained on active service until the expiration of his term of enlistment. He was honorably discharged from the army March 7, 1863, and returned to Kane County, where he re- entered the Arcadian field of peaceful pursuits.

March 5, 1865, Mr. Bowdish became united in marriage with Mary Miller. Mrs. Bowdish dying, our subject then married, July 2, 1874, Eliza J. Cronk. Mr. Bowdish was formerly a resident of Blackberry Township, and took a leading part in its affairs, being officially connected with it for eight or nine years in various relationships, among others, two terms as township collector. Since his residence in Kaneville Township Mr. Bowdish has responded to the call of his fellow citizens by serv- ing his township for two terms as collector, also as school director, and at the present time is president of the school board-in all of which positions he has proved himself a thorough and efficient public official. £ In politics he is a straight Republican.

H ON. GEORGE P. LORD was born in Le Roy, Genesee Co., N. Y., March 26, 1819. He is the son of William and Emily (Ely) Lord, formerly of Lyme, Conn., whence they moved to Le Roy in 1814. Both the families of Lord and Ely were among the pioneers in the infancy of the American colonies. The Lord family is very extensive, reaching back to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. A gentleman of this name, connected with the Genealogical Society in Boston, who has spent a great amount of time in tracing out the genealogy of this family, reports that he has traced out 40,000 Lords and their descend- ants.

Joseph Lord, the grandfather of the subject of this memoir, had thirteen children, who lived to have large families, the youngest, of whom was William. Joseph Lord died in Lyme, Conn., in 1786. William Lord had nine children: William R., Harriet E., David E., Frederick H., Josiah Griswold, George P., Theodore Dwight, Sarah P. and Thomas D. All of the sons are dead except- ing George P. The two daughters still survive.

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Harriet E. married James S. Walling (now de- ceased), and she is living with her daughter, Mrs. Sardius D. Westcott, in Perrysburg, Ohio. The other daughter, Sarah P., married Spencer Stone, and they are living in Buffalo, N. Y. Although the Ely family may not have as extended a geneal- ogy as that of the Lords, still their numbers are by no means inconsiderable, for at a gathering a few years since not less than 2,000 to 3,000 of that family and their descendants were present. There were many notable men at that gathering, Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, being one of them. Mr. Lord's mother died in 1825, when he was but six years old, and his father afterward married Thankful Parmelee. He died 'in 1862, leaving his widow, who is now nine- ty-three years old, and is living with her daughter, Mrs. Stone, in Buffalo, N. Y.

Mr. Lord lived with his father on the farm (attending the district school in the winter) until he was fourteen years old, when he went into his uncle's store in Palmyra, N. Y., for the purpose of fitting himself for mercantile pursuits. The lim- ited facilities for obtaining an education, which he had in his youth, made it necessary for him to spend all his leisure time in study. After three years he returned home, and from there went to Buffalo, where he spent a year in a dry goods store, going from there to New York City, where for some years he was clerk in the establishment of Mr. Arthur Tappan. He was afterward a partner in the house of Alfred Edwards & Co., who suc- ceeded Mr. Arthur Tappan in business. In 1855 Mr. Lord moved west to Chicago, and for ten years was engaged in the grocery business with Reynolds, Ely & Co., then the largest house in that line of business in Chicago. He remained with that firm until his health failed, in 1865, when he came to Elgin, and for eighteen months he was not in a condition to attend to active bus- iness pursuits. In the fall of 1866 he was solic- ited by the superintendent of the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railroad to take the position of purchasing agent for that road, which he did, and while there, during the following year, he was in- duced by the directors of the Elgin National Watch Company to accept the position of business man-

ager for that corporation. The business of watch making in this country was then comparatively new (entirely new in the West), and the situation of that corporation was such as to require that its business should be judiciously and energetically managed. In order to secure the co-operation of capitalists, many puzzling problems had to be solved. It appeared to be difficult for men of means to see where the skilled labor could be found that would be required in watch making, and, if that difficulty could be overcome, how it would be possible for the watch company to compete with the products of the cheaper labor of Europe.

Mr. Lord relates that, soon after he was installed as business manager of the watch company, he was interviewed by two of the leading capitalists of Chicago, who visited the factory for the purpose of ascertaining its prospects of success. They had great doubts as to the ability of the company to procure labor sufficiently skilled for the business of making watches, or that it could compete with the products of foreign cheap labor, and they ex- pressed those doubts in quite unmistakable terms. They inquired where the employes of the factory came from, to which Mr. Lord replied they came from their homes in Elgin and the surrounding country, and that there was no difficulty in procur- ing labor, or in making that labor so efficient as to be able, with their improved machinery, to com- pete with the cheap labor of the world. He said to these gentlemen: "Consider for a moment that there are 164 parts in an Elgin watch, and that a watchmaker who had spent seven years (eighty- four months) in learning his trade, and claimed to be an expert watchmaker, had in fact spent but two weeks on each part of the watch; that by a proper classification of work, so soon as a person had become familiar with the workings of a ma- chine, that in two weeks they would become as ex- pert in making any one piece of a watch as a watch- maker who had spent years in learning a trade." In order to illustrate his position, Mr. Lord took the gentlemen to the wheel cutting machine, where a young lady was cutting wheels, and, as the fly cutter traveled up and down, cutting the teeth of the wheels that were on the spindle, Mr. Lord asked the young lady "How many wheels are

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there on the spindle?" she replied, "twenty." "How many wheels do you cut a day ?" she re- plied, "2,000." " What are you paid a day ?" she replied, "$1.25." Turning to the gentlemen, Mr. Lord said, "That young lady can cut more wheels in a day, and cut them better, than any expert watchmaker in Europe, and you cannot hire an expert watchmaker, even in that land of cheap labor, for $1.25 per day." Thus in one brief ob- ject lesson Mr. Lord settled once for all that spe- cial feature of the "labor question," and all sub- sequent experience proves that it was settled upon a substantial basis.

Under Mr. Lord's management the business and success of the watch company rapidly devel- oped, and its fame spread throughout the United States, until it has now (in 1887) become one of the largest watch manufacturing establishments in the world, turning out 1,500 watches per day. For many years it has paid ten per cent dividends, and this year it divided $1,000,000 among its stockholders. Mr. Lord remained with this com- pany for nine years, when he retired and gave his time to his own private affairs. To have been with this company in its early struggles, and to have so shaped and systematized its business affairs as to insure its ultimate development and success, and to have that fact recognized by his fellow citizens, cannot but be very gratifying to Mr. Lord.

After leaving the watch company, Mr. Lord engaged extensively in dairying, another of Elgin's industries which have made that city famous throughout the whole country. So potent is Elgin's influence in this department of agriculture that the market price of butter in all the principal cities in the United States is regulated by the price at which "creamery butter" is sold on the "Elgin Board of Trade." While Mr. Lord is not directly interested in the butter business (he sells his milk to the Milk Condensing Company), he has always been a fearless champion of honest butter. He took the first open stand against adul- terated butter, by introducing a set of resolutions (condemning the adulterated article) into the Northwestern Dairyman's Association, in 1880, which were unanimously adopted by that body, and were telegraphed all over the country, being

afterward published in England, and on the Con- tinent. Not satisfied with mere resolution, he en- gaged in active efforts to have the matter brought before Congress, and, while the question was be- fore that body, he called the attention of every member of both the House and the Senate to the importance of enacting such laws as would pro- tect the dairy industry of the country against fraud and deception. He claimed that the govern- ment had no more right to grant parties a " patent " for counterfeiting the products of the farm, than it had to give patents for the counterfeiting of the money of the country; and also that the business of manufacturing and selling counterfeit products of the soil, if persisted in, would demoralize the business of the country. These arguments were presented by Mr. Lord to every member of Con- gress during the pendency of the bill, which after- ward became a law, requiring oleomargarine and its twin sister in fraud, butterine, to be sold on their own merits.

Since his residence in Elgin, Mr. Lord has served as mayor of the city, and on the board of supervisors of the county, and he is now president of the board of water commissioners; president of the school board; a trustee of the Elgin Acad- emy, and treasurer for the Illinois Northern Hos- pital for the Insane. In 1846 Mr. Lord married Marcy B. Hendee, daughter of Homer and Huldah (Washburn) Hendee. Mr. and Mrs. Lord buried their two sons in the beautiful Greenwood Ceme- tery, before coming west. On her father's side, Mrs. Lord was related to President Wheelock. of Dartmouth College, and on her mother's side she was descended from Capt. Miles Standish. Though for many years in feeble health, Mrs. Lord was widely known, and her influence for good was felt by her friends and correspondents in at least thir- teen different States in the Union. Mr. and Mrs. Lord were members of the Presbyterian Church.

D EAN FERSON, at present the oldest living settler of St. Charles Township, was born in Bradford, Sullivan Co., N. H., April 25, 1810. When he was four years of age his parents, Alexander and Abigail (Brown) Fer-

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son, removed to Newport, and in the spring of 1818 to Windsor County, Vt.

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In 1830 Dean Ferson went to New York State, remaining near Troy about a year, when he re- turned to Vermont. In 1833 he started for the West, spent the winter of that year at Ottawa, Ill., and in May, 1834, came to St. Charles Township, where he took up the claim upon which he still resides. He received a common-school education, and was for some time engaged as a teacher. His name is interwoven with the history of St. Charles City from its infancy. Politically he was a Whig, then a Republican, and is now an ardent Prohi- bitionist, but has never sought nor held office. For twenty-five years he was a member of the Congre- gational Church.

September 14, 1836, Mr. Ferson married Miss Prudence C. Ward, daughter of Calvin and Abby (Morse) Ward. [See sketch of L. C. Ward.] Their children are Abby, Maria, Kirk, Sampson and Frank. Mrs. Ferson was born at Palmer, Mass., in 1812, and came to Illinois with her par- ents in 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Ferson have lived happily together for fifty-one years, and are much esteemed by all who know them.

R EV. THOMAS RAVLIN (deceased) was one of the early settlers of Kaneville, born in Essex County, Vt., in 1780, of Irish- Scotch and English parentage. On his father's farm, among the rugged hills of his native State, his boyhood and young manhood were passed. From youth he was of a studious nature, constantly in pursuit of knowledge, and, becoming early impressed with the truths of Christianity, his researches led him into the illim- itable fields of theology. His education was en- tirely self-obtained, and in lieu of preceptors or tutors, college halls or professors, he was gifted with a most tenacious memory. On attaining to man's estate he became a Baptist preacher, a call- ing he subsequently followed at various places in his native State and New York. In 1824 he moved to Essex County, N. Y., and thence, in 1832, to Chautauqua, same State. For many years Mr. Ravlin also traveled as a missionary

through portions of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1845 he moved with his family to Illinois, locat- ing as the first Baptist preacher in Kaneville, and three miles southeast of where the village now stands preached in a schoolhouse as pastor of the Baptist Church. His term of usefulness here, however, was but short, for the reverend gentle- man passed away in September, 1846, and was the first person buried in Kaneville Cemetery. He married Hannah Whitman, born in 1785, a native of Massachusetts, of German descent, who died at Kaneville in 1869. At the time of his settlement here Mr. Ravlin's family consisted of his wife and seven children: John W., Narcissa, Catharine E., M. M., Emily C., Needham N. and N. F.

N EEDHAM N. RAVLIN. The gentleman here named is one of the most widely known, respected, well-to-do citizens of Kaneville Township. He was born in Shoreham, Ad. dison Co., Vt., March 8, 1823, a son of Rev. Thomas and Hannah (Whitman) Ravlin (whose sketch appears above), and came with them to Kaneville in 1845, of which place and vicinity he has been a resident up to the present time. Our subject was married, in 1849, at Blackberry, to Frances A. West, a native of England, born in 1831. She came with her parents to the United States in 1837. To Mr. and Mrs. Ravlin have been born the following named children: Warren W., born in 1851; Martin B., born in 1857; Alta J., born in 1866; Frank W., born in 1869, and Grace, born in 1873.

Mr. Ravlin has always taken a prominent part in the affairs of his township, socially, financially, and politically. He has since 1856 been a warm supporter of the principles as represented by the Republican party, and influential in its councils in his township and county. As a public man he has served the people of Kane County, in some posi- tions of trust and honor, for upward of thirty-five years, with scarcely any intermission, which of itself is a strong indication of the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens. He was the first postmaster appointed at Kaneville; was elected and served as township trustee three years;

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subsequently as township clerk, and in 1857 was elected supervisor, which responsible office be held until 1860; then continuously from 1861 to 1875; then from 1876 to the present time (1887); and with the exception of five years he acted as chairman of the board of supervisors, from 1865 to 1887. He was also elected a school director in 1858, serving until 1870. He was appointed by Gov. Oglesby a member of the Illinois State board of equalization, 1867-68, and in the latter year was elected from Kane County as a representative in the Twenty-sixth Illinois General Assembly. As a solid and reliable Republican no one can be said to have interested himself more devotedly for the good of the cause, or for the benefit of the entire community. He worked earnestly for the nomination of Gen. Grant in 1880. Mr. Ravlin is a member of the Baptist Church. He resides near Kaneville village on his farm of 250 acres, highly improved and cultivated, embracing some of the most valuable land for agricultural pur- poses in Kane County, and at a reasonably low valuation worth $75 per acre.

W ALTER S. FRAZIER, a prominent manufacturer and business man of Aurora, was born in the village of Fabius, Onondaga Co., N. Y., August 31, 1835. His father, William J. Frazier, was a clothing merchant of that place for many years, but came to the West with his family, and located in Batavia, Kanc Co., Ill. His wife's maiden name was Matilda Winegar, and both were natives of New York. Walter S. passed his youth at Fabius, and received an academical education in institutions in Onondaga County, and at Homer Academy, Cortland Co., N. Y. At the age of eighteen he took a position as salesman in a dry goods store in Syracuse, holding the same for five years, and subsequently was a bookkeeper. In 1857 he came west, and located in Chicago, where he soon entered the office of the city comptroller, of which he was afterward made chief clerk, re- taining this position for about five years, when he was appointed by the city board of public works clerk of special assessments. In 1863 he was the

nominee on the Republican ticket for the office of clerk of the recorder's court, an important and lucrative office, but the Democratic ticket was elected that year by a small majority. In 1865 he was elected clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois, and gave such system to the records and files of the office as they had not before had, and was given the credit at the expi- ration of his services, by members, State officers, and the press of the capital city, of having been the most thorough and efficient clerk that ever had officiated in that branch of the Legislature. At the close of that session, in recognition of his courteous and efficient services, he was presented with a valuable gold watch and chain by the mem- bers of the House; the presentation speech by Judge Platt, of Jo Daviess County in behalf of the members appears in the House Journal of that session. Quite recently (1886) a writer in the Chicago Tribune referred to the "excellence, fidelity and precision" with which the proceed- ings and journal of that session had been kept.

In the fall of 1866, not feeling assured as to his health, Mr. Frazier bought a farm on the river road between Batavia and Gencva, in Kane Coun- ty, and after thoroughly rebuilding the dwelling and outbuildings, he removed his family there. Hc sold that place in 1870, and came to Aurora, where he was soon elected, and served efficiently a term as member of the board of education. For some years he was in no active business, but, as a recreation, bred and reared fine road and trotting horses, selling one animal of his development, the noted trotter "Brother Jonathan," which made a record of 2:20, or thereabouts, for $12,000. While thus engaged one of his drivers represented the necessity of having a cart in which to break and drive the young maturing stock, and suggested where one could be bought. After looking it over Mr. Frazier said that he would devise and build something better, and after some experiments he built a heavy, rather cumbersome two-wheeled vehicle; but imperfect as it was it was destined to go into history as the forerunner of what was soon to be widely known as the "Frazier Road-Cart." With all its imperfections it was a great improve- ment on any similar vehicle then known to horsc-

Engraved by Smart

AS. Frageer

Photo by D C. Pratt.

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men and road-drivers, and immediately it attract- ed the attention of this class of visitors to Mr. Frazier's place. Its usefulness and superiority was so evident, that many who saw it asked per- mission to duplicate it, one gentleman having taken it forty miles in order to have one made like it.

Such incidents as these eventually impressed upon the mind of the inventor the importance of his invention, and in earnest he set about the work of developing all there was in it. In 1880 he perfected its form, secured letters patent, and named it "Road-Cart," being the first applica- tion of that name to vehicles. In 1881 he com- menced their construction in a small way in a building on Water Street between Fox and Main, just in rear of the present Hotel Evans, placing a salesman on the road with a sample "Road-Cart." Orders coming in thick and fast he was quickly obliged to increase his facilities for filling them, and in the summer of 1881 he leased for a term of years and occupied the large four-story stone buildings and premises on Downer Place, formerly used for a wagon shop, but which had'lain idle for twenty years. With even these largely increased facilities he was not able for the following four years to keep up with mail orders. His lease then about expiring he purchased the extensive grounds and buildings, and has since added a fifth story to the principal building. The factory is said to be the most extensive in the world for the manufac- ture of two-wheeled vehicles, and the "Frazier Road-Cart " is a household word throughout the United States, while European orders are not in- frequent. The price of the carts ranges from $20 for a cheap "run-about" two-wheeler, to $150 for an elegant lady's village cart. The business is continually extending, and Mr. Frazier has added some lines of four-wheeled work. January 1, 1885, he associated with him in business his two sons, Walter S., Jr., and Edward S., under the firm name of W. S. Frazier & Co. The establish- ment furnishes employment on an average to 100 hands the year around, and its phenomenal suc- cess has stimulated the starting of similar factories all over the United States. *

Mr. Frazier has done much to improve and beautify Aurora. In 1885 he erected a large three-story store and office building on the south- east corner of Downer Place and River Street. It is built of St. Louis pressed brick, and is at this writing by far the finest appearing and best con- structed block in the city. In the fall of 1886 he built a block of five handsome stores, running west from the bridge on the south side of Downer Place. Mr. Frazier is prominent and influential in shaping and directing political affairs in his city, county and district, and for several years has been chairman of the Republican Congressional District Committee, the counties of Kane, De Kalb, Lake, McHenry and Boone forming the dis- trict. He seeks no preferment for himself, but has always been found ready to assist such worthy aspirants for political advancement as have sought his aid and advice, with judicious counsel and help. On the organization of the Merchants National Bank of Aurora, he was elected a director of its management, a position he still holds in that institution.

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Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States, Part 19

Author: Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co.
Number of Pages: 1040