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 27
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 27
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108
OHN R. SCHMAHL. Active among the jun- iors of the mercantile fraternity of Au- rora is the subject of this sketch, whose busi- ness experience, thongh short, has been marked with a progressive spirit and upright con- duct. He was born in Wheeling, Cook Co., Ill., June 21, 1854. His parents, Jacob and Charlotta (Harth) Schmahl, located in Aurora in 1868. and there the father carried on the grocery business
until 1880, when he sold his interest to John R., who had been associated with him as clerk and assistant manager. The father, who is now ripe in years, was born in Jugenheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, June 30, 1822, and is a son of Philip Henry and Catherine (Weiss) Schmahl.
At the age of twenty-one Jacob Schmahl came to America, landing in New York City. He stayed for a time in the State of New York, and was there united in marriage with Miss Charlotta Harth, born in Partenheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, De- cember 20, 1820. Together the young couple set out for the West, and in 1845 located on a farm in Cook County, where they were blessed with pros- perity, and reared a family of two sons and two daughters: Catharine died at the age of eighteen, and is buried in the cemetery at Wheeling; Jacob is a farmer of Sac County, Iowa; Lydia is the wife of L. P. Dietrich, in the coal business at Au- rora; and John R. The latter has remained with his parents, and succeeded his father in the busi- ness. He is married to Maggie Hem, a daughter of John Hem, a farmer of Oswego Township, Ken- dall Co., Ill., a native of Bairen, Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Schmahl are the parents of one son- Myron Roy. The family are attendants of the Methodist Church. Mr. Schmahl is a public- spirited business man and citizen, active in meas- ures for the material good of his adopted city.
C HARLES COOPER ADAMS. The subject of this biographical sketch was born in Catherine, Chemung Co., N. Y., April 21, 1834, and is the son of Enos and Eliza (Arnold) Adams, the former a native of Windham County, Conn., whose ancestors were early settlers of that State, and the latter a daughter of William Arnold, of Rhode Island; the families were neigh- bors, their properties being on the line between the States. Our subject in early life was trained to his father's business, that of wagon-maker, and at the age of twenty years came west, locating in Aurora. In 1857 he went to Kansas, where he followed carpentering until 1862, when he re- turned to Aurora. While in Kansas he took an active interest in the principles of the Free-Soil
300
KANE COUNTY.
party, and did service under its banner with Col. James Lane, in the border troubles. After return- ing to Aurora he applied himself to building, and has left memorials of his workmanship in many of the fine residences with which that city abounds. Mr. Adams was married while in Kansas to Miss Maroa Brainerd, daughter of Obadiah Brainerd, of Warren, Ohio, and the union has been blessed with three sons: Frank, editor of the Castalia Record and Republican, Dakota; John Q., in the rubber stamp business, in Aurora; George, a tele- graph operator in the office of the Aurora, Joliet & Northern Railroad, at Aurora. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are members of the Methodist Church.
M RS. LEONARD HOWARD. This lady, a native of Hanover, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., was born May 18, 1811. Her parents dying when she was ten months old, she was taken to live with an aunt, who, in turn, gave her into the hands of a good, kind woman, Mrs. Sarah Groesbeck Buttrick, under whose motherly care the child grew to womanhood, and after her marriage she amply repaid the kindness shown her by taking her foster-mother into her home, where she spent the remaining portion of her life in peace and comfort.
Our subject, whose maiden name was Caroline E. Smith, was married January 27, 1828, to Leon- ard Howard, and by this union became the mother of fourteen children, six of whom are now living: Sarah A., now Mrs. George C. Bunker, of St. Charles; Bryant B., foreman of the Illinois Central Railroad shops at Amboy, Ill .; Celia M., now Mrs. George H. Wheeler, of Richland, Minn. ; Julia H., now Mrs. Addison Bishop, of Chicago, Ill. ; Aaron, foreman of the Illinois Central shops at Clinton, Ill., and Florence, at home. The genealogy of the Howard family in this country dates from Thomas Howard, a native of Kent, England, who came to this continent in 1634. Leonard Howard was born in Sharon, Vt., August 13, 1805, of English-Irish extraction. His mater- nal grandfather, Alexander Brown, born near Lon- donderry, Ireland, and a twin brother of the latter, Thomas, served in the Revolutionary War, one as
a drummer, the other as a fifer. When he was thirteen years of age Mr. Howard was apprenticed to one Theodore Coburn, a bricklayer, with whom he remained seven years. In 1836 lie moved to Chicago, where he worked on the first stone-front store in the city. In 1837 he came to St. Charles, and here carried on the business of contractor and builder, and was the first proprietor of the Howard House. He held many official positions in St. Charles with credit to himself and the satisfaction of the people, having served two years as deputy sheriff of Kane County, probate judge, justice of the peace, township trustee, director of public schools, etc.
H ALLEY J. HINES. Among the early settlers of Virgil Township is this gentle- man who was born May 5, 1818, in Erie County, N. Y. His father, Ezra Hines, was a native of New York State, where he was a well-to-do farmer. Halley J. obtained a common- school education, leaving home when thirteen years old. December 19, 1843, he married in his native State a farmer's daughter, one of an interesting fam- ily of nine children, and in 1845 they came west. Mr. Hines first purchased land in Kaneville Town- ship, but subsequently removed to Virgil Town- ship. What lumber he required in those days he obtained in Chicago, whither he hauled his grain.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hines were born seven children, but one now living, a widow, at home with her parents. Mr. Hines is a Republican, and has at different times held the office of school director. He owns a good though small stock and grain farm on Section 36.
HARLES L. HOYT. The ancestors of the Hoyt family for four generations are traced back to the northern part of Maine. They were of that persecuted race of men who fled for liberty to these then inhospitable sliores. In the family tree the first mention of them, in this country, in giving an account of their whereabouts, states that the great-grandfather came down from the north, and settled in Danbury, Mass. He married in the last-named place, and lived there until his death. He was an only son, and he had
Q LHml
PHOTO BY D. C. PRATT.
303
KANE COUNTY.
an only son, born in Danbury, who was the grand- father of the Hoyt brothers of Aurora. The father, Charles Hoyt, was born in 1797, and spent the early years of his life in Danbury. When about twenty years of age he left Danbury and went to South Lee, in that State, where he mar- ried, in the year 1817, Temperance Perry, a native of the latter place. By this marriage three sons were born in the order following: Lyman A., Charles L. and Lucius P. The last two mentioned are now citizens of Aurora, and are of the Hoyt Brothers Company. The family removed to Madison, Geauga Co., Ohio, where Mrs. Hoyt died in 1830. In 1832 Charles Hoyt married Susanna Foote, and by this union there was born an only child, now Mrs. Frances E. Reynolds, of Aurora. The two younger sons. Charles L. and Lucius P. did not come in company with the family, but alone, in a long, tedious overland trip soon after that occupied nearly four weeks, and joined their father here. When Mr. Hoyt had made his permanent home in Aurora, he at once commenced the erec- tion of his mill, and opened a general merchandise store. This mill soon became a noted institution of the town, and was called the Black Hawk Mills, built on the grounds now occupied by his sons as the Hoyt Brothers Company; the store was just north of the present Hoyt Block on the west side. The mill and store were large and prosperous con- cerns, and soon the proprietor was widely known as one of the leading important business men of Kane County. He was a skilled machinist, as were his ancestors for generations preceding him, each in turn as they came down possessing rather unusual talents in this line. And thus from father to son, passing down a long line, they were valu- able men in the remarkable development of this country in the invention and use of machinery, and in the marvelous application of skill in the great variety of useful manufactures, He amassed a large property for that day, and retired from act- ive business as early as 1857. 'He was born De- cember 3, 1797, and died February 29, 1876, aged seventy-nine years. His education was only prac- tical, and centered upon the one idea of scientific mechanism, and to this he added a business educa- tion and talent that all tended to make him a
strong, practical and useful citizen in the commun- ity in which he lived.
Charles L. Hoyt was born May 10, 1824, in South Lee, Mass., son of Charles and Temperance (Perry) Hoyt, the second child in a family of three sons. When but three years of age he was taken with his father's family to Madison, Ohio, and when nine years old his parents moved to Ohio City, immediately opposite Cleveland, where he attended the public school up to 1839, and then about two years at the preparatory school of Sam- uel Bissell, Twinsburg, Ohio, a small town about six miles north of the then Western Reserve College. His school days were over at the young age of seventeen years, and he came to Aurora in the fall of 1840, where he commenced the practical work of life in his father's store. Here he was in con- stant employment about nine years, and in the vo- cation he gained the groundwork of a thorough business education. The bookkeeper under whom he worked was no less than Phil A. Hall, who aft- erward became a railroad employe. He was a master of his work, and with his aid, as well as the care and control of his father, Mr. Hoyt gained lessons he now regards as the important part of his life in the valuable educational portion of it. His actual home has been in Aurora since his first arrival here. However, in 1852, he went to Cali- fornia, where he was actively employed the next four years, trading mostly in the mining districts. He saw much of the rough mining, and even the rough city life of those eventful days in the Gold- en State, where men developed rapidly, and where societies sprang like mushrooms in the night; where peace and order only sometimes came from the dreadful teachings of the vigilantes or other spontaneous organizations that, as happened at times, delivered the blow without the preliminary inquiry in regard to the criminal's offense.
Mr. Hoyt came back to his Aurora home in 1856, and engaged in mercantile trade, continuing to sell goods until 1861. At the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he, soon after the organi- zation of the army, became employed in the com- missary department of the army of the Cumberland, spending his time mostly at Nashville, Murfrees- boro and Chattanooga, and was present at Lookout
304
KANE COUNTY.
Mountain and Mission Ridge during the time of the engagements at those places. He was con- nected with the service of the army for nearly two years. Again he returned to Aurora, and for the next six years was engaged in insurance and real estate business. In 1869 he purchased an interest in the factory he is now carrying on, the firm name at the time becoming R. L. Carter & Co. The factory had been operated for some time by Mr. Carter. In 1870 the brothers Charles L. and Lucius P. Hoyt purchased Mr. Carter's interest, and the firm name became Hoyt Bros. In 1873 the insti- tution was incorporated under the name of Hoyt Brothers Manufacturing Company, the entire stock being owned by the brothers and Willis, a son of Charles L. Hoyt, and in this style it is at present operated. To the concern have been made important additions in buildings, machinery and facilities for making the most extensive and costly machines for nearly all kinds of woodwork. One completed machine the writer saw, that had been put up by this company, was estimated to be capable of turning out nearly 2,000 feet per hour of sized, planed, tongued and grooved, and dressed flooring each hour it is operated to its full capacity. The great workshop looks like a forest of machinery, with its flying wheels, great lathes and planers that are fashioning so noiseless- ly the many and strong machines that are sent out from this leading American factory. Large as it is, it is already becoming too limited for the rapidly increasing business, and the large block of ground of the company will soon be practically in- closed in shops and buildings of the concern.
Charles L. Hoyt and Mary Gray, daughter of Nicholas and Catherine Gray, of Montgomery, Kane County, and born October 23, 1824, were married in September, 1847. Mr. Gray was from the Mohawk Valley, but was born in Germany, November 15, 1800. He was among the first set- tlers in this part of Illinois, a farmer, in his ear- lier life having followed the trade of tanner and currier; as he was a man of strong and positive character, he impressed his influence upon his times as much as any citizen of his adopted county. Of the marital union of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Hoyt is an only son, Willis, who was
born in Aurora, August 25, 1848. He attended the public schools of his native city, and then was a student at the Military Academy at F'ulton, two years, pursuing chiefly the branches of a practical business education. Owing to the loss of health he returned to his home a short time prior to his graduation, and entered the employ of his father, where he has since continued. He was united in wedlock with Jennie L. Budlong, April 14, 1874, and by this union was born Allen G., April 16, 1876. Mrs. Willis Hoyt is daughter of J. J. Bud- long, and was born in Aurora, December 25, 1853.
RRIN DAY POWELL. This gentleman is the popular and efficient president of the Aurora National Bank. His birthplace is Roxbury,
Delaware Co., N. Y., where he was born August 23, 1829. He was reared on the farm, and obtained in the public schools and academy a lib- eral education. At the early age of sixteen years he was prepared to teach in the district schools, and for several years was thus employed at various points in the State of New York. Afterward he was sometime occupied in farming, to which he added merchandising, and his tastes and talent soon found him entirely engaged in mercantile pursuits. In either occupation he was soon known to be prompt and diligent in whatever duty devolved upon him.
In time he was attracted by the interesting report that reached him of the great West, and he wound up his affairs in the old native State, came and located in Illinois in 1864, fix- ing his permanent home in Aurora. Here he en- tered upon the business of grocery merchant, be- ing thus engaged about eighteen months. He then left this line, and became a lumber dealer, after carrying which on for one year, he opened a general dry goods store. In this he was also quite successful, and he continued to attend exclusively to this branch of trade until 1880. In that year the Aurora National Bank was organized. He was one of the large subscribers, and when they elected its first officers he was made vice- president, as well as a member of its board of direct- ors. He was actively engaged in this office, in
305
KANE COUNTY.
the business affairs of the bank, and upon the demise of the president of the institution, Dr. O. D. Howell, he was elected to fill the vacancy, a' position he has since occupied uninterruptedly.
Mr. Powell is well and favorably known throughout Kane County; a prominent man in business circles, and in financial matters a safe and conservative adviser and friend. In his position as the head of one of the strong financial institu- tions of the county, he deals fairly and liberally with the business men of the locality, and wields the power entrusted to his hands for the best good of the public. The children of Mr. Powell are Carrie (united in marriage with J. P. Grant, attorney and counselor at law of Stamford, N. Y.), and Charles (a clerk in the Aurora National Bank).
J ACOB MILLER. Among the many public- spirited citizens of Aurora, who aided mate- rially in the growth and development of its social and industrial life, is the one whose name heads this biographical notice. Mr. Miller was born in Amonaburg, Hesse-Cassel, Germany, December 3, 1826, his parents being Casper and Christina (Braun) Miller. The father was by pro- fession a musician, and his opportunities were of a good order for rearing his family well. Jacob received a literary training in the schools of the place of his nativity, and at Frankfort-on-the- Main, where in early life he became apprenticed to the trade of tobacconist, obtaining a thorough knowl- edge of the business. At that place he grew to manhood, and served his regular term of three years in the army.
In 1854 he came to America, landed in New York City. Almost immediately he came west to Chicago, visited Elgin and Aurora in that year, and decided to locate in the former place. After three years of successful business life there he opened a branch in Aurora, and soon after sold his interests in Elgin, and removed to Aurora, where he began the manufacture of cigars, and dealt in tobacco. The business has gradually grown, until now it is the largest establishment of the kind in Aurora. Mr. Miller, throughout his business ca-
reer, has established a reputation for fair dealing and good citizenship, second to none, and has been identified with many enterprises calculated to bene- fit his adopted city. He was one of the stock- holders of the Union National Bank, and acted as a director until the concern was merged into the German American Bank of Aurora; holding a di- rectorship in the latter bank until it was discontin- ued. When the Civil War was in progress Mr. Miller gave proofs of his ardent patriotism for his adopted country in an unmistakable manner by his liberal contributions and active work in support of the Union cause. He has oftentimes been request- ed to become a candidate for office, but has im- peratively declined.
In 1867 he built the substantial brick block on Broadway which bears his name, and in which he carries on his manufactory and business. In 1873 he purchased and rebuilt his present elegant resi- dence on Main Street, beautifying the grounds, etc. He formed a marital union here with Sophia Buse, of Nassau, Rhine Province, Prussia, and has been blessed with a family of four sons and two daughters. John W., the eldest son, is associated with his father in the tobacco business; Martin is a mechanical engineer; Frederick is a workman at the cigar business; William is now prosecuting a thorough course of commercial study in Chicago; Louisa, the eldest daughter, is the wife of Harry Cooper, of the firm of Cooper Bros., of Aurora, and Sophia, the youngest daughter and fifth child, is still in the domestic circle. Mr. Miller is a F. & A. M. of long standing, and a Sir Knight in Aurora Commandery. He is the owner of a finely equipped farm of 420 acres in De Kalb County, to which he retires during the summer season.
ʻ
EON HIRSCH, dealer in fine clothing and gents' furnishing goods, Aurora, was born in Niederbronn, France, August 3, 1836, a son of Solomon and Ella (Kahn) Hirsch, former of whom was a manufacturer of fine soaps as well as a merchant. They reared a family of two sons and two daughters, Leon being the fourth child. He received an excellent business training with his father, and obtained in the place of his
306
KANE COUNTY.
nativity a good education. At the age of sixteen he left the parental roof, and set out for the New World, landing at the port of New Orleans in 1853. Thus, while a mere boy, he was in a strange land, without knowledge of the prevailing language of the country or of its customs; but youth, resolution and courage were his in abundance, and he set en- ergetically and industriously to work to attain that success for which he had come so far. He re- mained in the South engaged in mercantile pur- surits until the beginning of the great Rebellion, when he went North to New York City, and subse- quently, in 1861, located in Aurora, establishing his present business the same year. In politics he is a pronounced Democrat, but in all municipal matters is liberal and enterprising, and this has secured to him the respect and confidence of many adherents of the Republican party, which has re- sulted in his being elected to various positions of public trust. He is now assistant supervisor of Aurora; has been treasurer of the Aurora Mercan tile Association for many years, and has been a di- rector since its foundation of the Home Building and Loan Association of Aurora. He is a worthy member of the I. O. O. F. and encampment, and has represented both branches in State and na- tional conclaves. He is also a member of the Mutual Aid Society, and represented the Aurora branch in the Grand Lodge.
Mr. Hirsch was married in Chicago to Miss Eva Stiefel, a native of Gruenstadt, Germany, by whom he has two sons and one daughter, Solomon and Albert M., young men of clever ability, who assist their father in his mercantile business, and Fannie, a young lady of estimable attainments, still bright- ening the home circle. Mr. Hirsch is a stock- holder in many prominent interests in the city, and is a thorough-going, public-spirited citizen.
AMES D. FOX was born in Pitcher, Che- nango Co., N. Y., November 26, 1837. He received but a common-school education, ex- cept that from the fall of 1856 to that of 1857 he was at what was then called "New York Central College," at one time a thriving institution under the auspices of Gerritt Smith and the abo-
lition party. It was located at a place called Mc- Grawville, a small village six miles south of Cortland, Cortland Co., N. Y., but owing to the unpopularity of abolitionism it went down a short time before the breaking out of the War of the Re- bellion.
In the fall of 1857 Mr. Fox came west, and commenced school teaching on the west side of Fox River, at North Aurora. He soon after commenced reading law with the late C. J. Metzner, and was en- gaged in legal studies until about June, 1863, when on the third day of that month he was appointed second lieutenant of Company H, Sixteenth Illi- nois Volunteer Cavalry, by Gov. Yates. He re- mained in active service, and was on duty every day from that time until January 3, 1864, when the command to which he belonged, overwhelmed by numbers, was captured at Jonesville, Va., after an all day's fight. He then remained in Confed- erate prisons until February 27, 1865, having been in the meantime confined in Libby prison, and in stockades at Mason and Savannah, Ga., Charles- ton and Columbia, S. C., and several other places, a short length of time. After his parole he re- sumed Jaw studies in the office of his old tutor, C. J. Metzner, and June 19, 1865, while waiting for his discharge from the army, he was admitted to the bar. Mr. Fox has been in business in Au- rora ever since, meeting with good success.
OHN B. CHASE. The well-known druggist and pharmacist of Aurora, who bears this name, was born at Chester, Geauga Co., Ohio, February 10, 1845. His parents were Moses and Nancy (Kent) Chase, both natives of New York State, who had located in Ohio. The former was a tanner by trade, but on his removal to Wisconsin, in 1855, became a farmer, living at Lodi in that State. At this place John B. was reared. He was learning the drug business as a clerk when the Civil War broke out, and, although but a lad. he determined to fight in defense of his country. After several unsuccessful applications for enlistment, refused on account of his youth, he was ultimately accepted, and was enrolled in Company D, Forty-second Wisconsin Volunteers,
Van Liens
PHOTO BY D. C. PRATT.
309
KANE COUNTY.
and saw service in that regiment. On his return, he located in Madison, Wis., working at his old business there until 1868, when he removed to Aurora, which has since been his home. He worked as an employe there until 1872, when he embarked in business for himself, in which he has been successful.
Since taking up his residence in Aurora, Mr. Chase has been united in marriage with Marie E., daughter of the late honorable W. W. Wilcox. They have one son and one daughter, Winslow Wilcox and Florence. Mr. Chase's business activ- ities are not confined to his drug trade. He is a prominent stockholder in the Prindle Manufactur- ing Company, of which he is both secretary and treasurer, and he took an active part in the build- ing up of the Wilcox Manufacturing Company. He has served the city as assistant supervisor and supervisor for four years; also city treasurer for three years. He is a F. & A. M., and a member of the G. A. R. He and his wife are attendants of the Congregational Church. An active, enter- prising citizen, and a man of strictest probity, Mr. Chase commands the respect of every one with whom he comes in contact.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.