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 36

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 36
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 36

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Edwin Leland Lamson grew to manhood at the place of his birth, and, arriving at the age of nineteen, the civil war having broken out, and de-

mands being made for artisans in the manufacture of all kinds of military ordnance, he engaged in that business, being occupied during the war at Windsor, Vt., Norwich, Conn., and Providence, R. I. In 1867 he came west and located at Au- rora, where he turned his attention to railroad work, and, after "firing" for nineteen months, was put in charge of a locomotive. He has since held a continuous record as an efficient and cau- tious engineer with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, excepting about one and one-half years spent at Rochelle, Ill. (1878 -79), in charge of the water works of that city.

He was united in marriage with Sarah M., daughter of Rev. Stephen T. Allen, of the Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Lamson are the parents of two sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and one daughter are now living: Lizzie Le- land, Allen LeRoy and Henry Horton. The de- ceased are Eva Ellsworth and Abby Blanchard,. the former of whom died when aged ten years, and the latter when aged eighteen months; they are buried in Spring Lake Cemetery.

The father of Mrs. Lamson was a native of Heath, Mass., and in direct lineal descent from the family of Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame; he lived a useful, Christian life in this western country, and died in 1878, while serving as rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, of Chicago. Mrs. Lamson, her daughter and eldest son hold commun ion with the church of her worthy father, and she is likewise a member of its Ladies' Guild. Mr. Lamson is in membership with Division 32 of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers; he is a F. & A. M.

OHN F. IRWIN. The family of which this gentleman is a member trace their descent to three brothers, who came to this continent in the last century, and settled in what was then called New Amsterdam. From there came the paternal grandfather of Mr. Irwin, who was a revolutionary soldier, killed at Yorktown, just before the surrender of Cornwallis. He was one of Gen. Armstrong's command, known as "Washington's Light Body Guard." A gener- ation later the father of our subject was a soldier

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in the War of 1812, and an uncle was killed at the battle of Lundy's Lane. His parents were William and Phœbe (Hubbard) Irwin, the former born in New Jersey. He was a stone cutter and carver by trade, and did some work on the prison at Auburn, N. Y. They were married at Green- bush, in the State of New York.

John F. Irwin was born in Lewis County, N. Y., November 20, 1815, and spent his boyhood days on a farm, where he early developed a fond- ness for mechanical pursuits. He was fortunate to have access to a good library, and oftentimes, when the other members of the family were asleep, he might have been found poring over the pages of some scientific or mechanical work. Desirous of learning the builder's trade, he, at the age of twenty, began an apprenticeship at Buffalo. In 1837 he went to Detroit, but, finding no work at building, he entered the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, and was placed in charge of work, which he completed satisfactorily. He returned to Buffalo, and in June, 1840, came to St. Charles, Kane County. In 1842 he removed to Chicago, where lie entered the employ of A. C. Wood, one of the leading contractors of the city.

In the following year he commenced business for himself, which proved successful, and, when railroads entered that city, he turned his attention to that class of buildings, and erected the first shops built in the city, at the corner of Halsted and Kinzie Streets, for the Chicago & North-West- ern Railroad Company, after which he built the shops for the Rock Island Railroad Company, at Twelfth Street. He then erected the large freight depot for the Michigan Central and the Illinois Central, at the foot of Lake Street, and the Illinois Central shops at Twelfth Street, including other works. In 1857 he went south, and did contract work for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, until the war broke out, when he returned to Chicago. In 1884 he returned to St. Charles, where he has since resided. He is a great reader, and the range of topics with which he is conversant is extensive.

On Christmas Eve, 1844, Mr. Irwin married Elizabeth Penny, a native of Devonshire, England, born April 26, 1819, and in that year brought by her parents to this country. Mr. and Mrs.

Irwin have had seven children, of whom three, Clara E., Homer H. and Leslie H., are deceased. The survivors are Ella J., Walter P., Frank W. and Lizzie. In politics Mr. Irwin is a supporter of the Republican party, and a champion of prohi- bition and woman suffrage. Under President Lincoln's administration he held the office of mail clerk for a considerable time.

N. ANNIS, an esteemed and influential representative farmer and stock raiser, is the proprietor of a farm of 555 acres located on Sections 31, 32 and 33, Blackberry Township. He was born in the house where he now resides, June 7, 1852, a son of David W. and Prudence (Morrill) Annis, both Vermonters, who came to Illinois in 1834 and 1835, respectively. Taking up a claim in Blackberry Township, Kane County, they resided on it until 1867, when they removed to Kaneville Township. The father, who was born September 10, 1812, died September 14, 1877. A curious coincidence of events in his life is the fact that he was born, married and died in the month of September; he came to Illinois, took up a claim, received title for his land, and removed from the old homestead, all in September; in fact, all the important events of his life occurred in that month! His widow is now residing in Kaneville Township, with her daughter, Mrs. F. W. Belden, and is now seventy-five years of age, having been born September 12, 1812. They were among the first pioneers to settle in this region. At first they received their mail at Chicago, forty-five miles distant, and once a month Mr. Annis would walk to the city for it. He was a prominent and pro- gressive citizen; was once a member of the board of equalization, and could never be induced to accept of any other office.

Mr. J. N. Annis was married August 28, 1878, to Lucy Elizabeth Stevens, who was born in Kendall County, Ill., January 19, 1858, daughter of George W. and Edna K. (Kendall) Stevens, also pioneers of this State. The father died May 26, 1885; her mother is yet living, now sixty-three years of age. Ever since their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Annis have resided on their farm. Their

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children are Sarah, born April 27, 1880, and David W., born March 17, 1882. Politically Mr. Annis is an Independent Democrat. He has been a member of the school board for the past five years.

U RIEL MALCOLM SMITH was born on Caldwell's Manor, Canada, November 23, 1818, and is a son of Nathan and Phœbe (Huxley) Smith, the former a native of Massachusetts, and the latter of Vermont. Uriel at the age of twenty-one came west, and June 2, 1841, located in Burlington Township, Kane County, Ill., where he took up and improved 160 acres of land, adding subsequently forty acres, upon which he farmed successfully for several years. Here he married Lorain Godfrey, a daughter of Stephen and Rhoda (Blanchard) Godfrey, natives of Vermont, and pioneers of 1839 in Burlington Township, this county. Mrs. Smith was a worthy help-meet to her husband in his pioneer life. They have no children of their own, but have adopted a son, Alphonso Adelbert Smith, now foreman mechanic in the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railroad shops at Aurora. He is married to Laura Bradshaw, of Demorestville, Canada, and they have one danghter-Pearl.

Mr. Smith, besides his agricultural interests in Burlington Township, devoted a goodly amount of his time and means to the support and development of its social and political interests. He was among the first active adherents of the Free Soil party of the county, and upon the birth of the Republican party allied himself to it with spirit and enthusiasm, taking a leading part in its support for many years. He served as supervisor of the township, six years, and was known as an able advocate of the town- ship's interests in the councils of Kane County. He also served as justice of the peace of the town- ship, and was a member of the school board of his district for several years; he was township trustee, and filled other minor official positions. On the breaking out of the civil war, Mr. Smith, although incapacitated for field service, rendered hearty aid to the administration in support of the Union cause. He has been a F. & A. M. for over thirty years. Of his nine brothers and four sisters, Emily is the

wife of Stephen Ellithorpe, of Burlington Town- ship, and Lorenzo is a farmer, of same township; the others living are Elizabeth, now Mrs. Henry Sawyer, in Taylor County, Iowa; John, in Syca- more, Ill .; L. G., grain inspector, in Chicago; William, in Delaware County, Iowa; Silas, in Kansas; Mary, in Iowa; and Frank, postmaster of Sycamore, Ill. A few. years since Mr. Smith retired from farm life on account of the ill health of Mrs. Smith, and selected Aurora as their place of abode, where they have a handsome residence, on North Root Street. They are enjoying the fruits of their hard labor in pleasant compan- ionship and comfort, and are well liked by those who know them.

S. KIBLING, one of the most progressive farmers of Blackberry Township, owns a fine stock, grain and dairy farm of 110 acres on Section 20. After coming to Illinois, in 1855, from Vermont, he sojourned for a short time in Kaneville Township, and then located on the farm he now occupies. He is the eighth child in the family of nine children of Jacob and Sarah (Sly- field) Kibling, and was born in Vermont August 14, 1826. His father, also a native of the Green Mountain State, and a soldier in the War of 1812, fell a victim to cancer, and died January 9, 1858, aged seventy-two years; his widow died in 1867. Both were respected members of the Christian Church.

Mr. Kibling has been twice married. His first wife, nec Ellen Smith, whom he married July 5, 1848, was born in Vermont October 1, 1830, and died February 26, 1854, leaving one child, Eliza Adella, born July 14, 1849, who married Hicks Frydendall, and died at Batavia, Ill., May 27, 1877, leaving three children. February 21, 1855, Mr. Kibling married Lucinda Boyce, who was born in New Hampshire, February 5, 1832, daughter of Adam and Mary (Lovering) Boyce. The father came to Illinois in 1855, settling in Blackberry Township, this county, carried on farming, and died June 17, 1874; he was born July 25, 1789. Mrs. Kibling's mother, who was born February 1, 1793, died January 1, 1885, aged nearly ninety- two years. Adam Boyce served in the War of

Henry KWhitford ms.

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1812, for which he received a pension and a land grant.

Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Kibling have resided on their farm. In 1878 he erected the Bald Mound Creamery, and conducted it until 1883, when he sold it. He is now treasurer of the Bald Mound Creamery Company, and a stockholder in the Second National Bank, at Aurora, besides owning extensive farm interests here and con- siderable property in Nebraska. His five children are Leslie J., a farmer in Blackberry Township; Fred B., Nellie S., John H., and George H., at home.

H ENRY KYRKENDALL WHITFORD, M. D., is a physician of large practice and wide reputation, who has earned his suc- cess in life, beginning when a boy, not more than nine years of age, in the endeavor to climb life's ladder. He has long been a resident of Elgin, and occupies the professor's chair of principles and practice of medicine, pathology and clinic medicine in Bennett Medical College, Chi- cago. For the past nineteen years he has filled this position, and during all that time has not neglected his large and lucrative practice in Elgin and vicinity. His long professional life was years ago an entire financial success; but this has not satisfied his higher ambition. Since November 28, 1866, when he first occupied the professor's chair in Bennett College, in his busiest days, he has been making notes, formulating chapters, and building toward completion his treatise, now nearly ready for publication, entitled "Principles and Practice of Medicine." The work will be issued the early part of the year 1888, and will be a vol- ume of about 600 pages. It is understood that this book will be the crowning ambition of the Doctor's professional life, and his many Æsculapian friends will give it a generous reception.

The subject of this biographical memoir is the son of David M. and Elizabeth (Lease) Whitford, born in Medina, Ohio, February 9, 1829. David Whitford was a prominent member of the bar in that State, a man of clever forensic and literary attainments. He removed to Michigan in the pioneer days of that State, and was there in the

noted panic commencing about 1838-39, when Michigan "rag money" and "store tickets" flowed in such streams, as currency, and finally when bankruptcy swept over the country like a besom of destruction, he suffered in fortune. He had taken a comfortable competence for that day with him to Michigan, but it, with that of thou- sands of others, was swallowed up in the financial maelstrom, and this affected his health to that degree that the family of young children were thrown, when young, largely upon their own re- sources.

Henry K., when only nine years of age, went to a neighbor farmer named Roode (this good man and his wife he now remembers with the fondest affection), and, during the busy season on the farm, worked for the sum of $4 a month the first year, $5 the next, and $6 the third. In the winters he was chore boy, and thus paid his board, and went to school. Even before the lad was old enough to earn a dollar a month he had fixed his determi- nation to some day be a doctor, and, considering the beginning, there was never a stronger illus- tration of the old saying: "Where there's a will, there's a way." The cordiality that grew be- tween the boy and the good people with whom he had lived and labored, was evinced in long years after when the Doctor returned to the near village where they lived, and delivered a lecture. The good man had loaded a wagon with his family, and driven several miles to hear him. After their joy- ous greeting, almost as though he had been one of their own children, the old gentleman asked: "How much do you get for this evening's work ?" When told the sum was $40, he was greatly pleased, and remarked: "Do you remember when you worked for me for $4 a month?" This inci- dent is a pleasant lesson to the youths of the land. The young boy's ambition, when so young, to some day be a physician, made him diligent at school and at home, where he would read and study at all possible hours; and when he found anything treating of medicine, he would study it eagerly. It was perhaps his studious hours which made him as a boy what is sometimes called puny, of delicate frame and small stature, although he comes of a race of men strong and

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vigorous, and above the medium in strength and size. His grandfather, Whitford, is still living (1887) at the remarkable age of one hundred and six years.

His studious habits had prepared him when a mere youth to commence school teaching, and for some years he followed it, all the time reading medicine, and in vacations he would be found in the offices of various physicians. He was soon prepared to practice, but his youth and slender person were make-weights to his success, and the community soon came to call him "the boy doc- tor." He kept himself always busy, teaching, lecturing, practicing and studying as best he could, meeting every obstacle (and they were many) resolutely, and with a self-reliance that was admirable. In the depths of the young man's struggle to rise to the surface, before he had matriculated in his profession, he was fatally stricken-fell dead in love, and married. Under the circumstances this wild plunge in the most im- portant affair of the average life is the best illus- tration of his complete faith in himself, and instead of the new responsibility changing his determina- tion to make a physician of himself, it only stimu- lated him to go forward, trusting in his own re- sources to meet the emergency as it came. The circumstances of their married life, and how the young couple finally went to the Eclectic Medical College, Cincinnati, where he graduated, are fully given in the sketch of Mrs. Dr. Whitford, and the record is far more interesting than the average tales of fiction that tell of the struggles and tri- umphs of imaginary heroes. The Doctor has now reached that eminent success in life when these reminiscences of days in which it was a severe struggle return to his recollection, like a rather pleasant dream. His fight with adversity was a long one, but his triumph was complete. In social and public life he and family are most highly es- teemed, and, so far as anything like emphatic poli- tics enters into his composition, it is his radicalism on the subject of temperance. He has invested largely in Elgin city property, and has erected some handsome buildings. He is a Sir Knight in Bethel Commandery, F. & A. M. He is a charter member of the National and Illinois Eclectic Socie-

ties, and honorary member of the State Eclectic Medical Societies of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minne- sota and Iowa.

S USAN K. WHITFORD, M. D. A brief biography of this woman, the struggle and triumphs of her younger days, will bear an important lesson to the women of America, especially to the bright and quick-witted girls en- tering upon their separate paths of work, and where their resources may be taxed to win the place that their laudable ambition tells them is theirs by right divine. Eminent women of this century have moved gallantly upon the strongholds of the long-entrenched enemies of their plainest natural rights, and have, time and again, on the fo- rum, in the pulpit, in the medical professor's chair, in female conventions, and societies for botlı sexes, as well as in the pages of some of the bright- est minds in literature, confounded and put to shame the ancient fossils who lean to the relic of primeval barbarism which preaches the inferiority of woman. In this noble band of women it is not always those gifted in prose and poetry, in the gifts of oratory or wielding the trenchant pen, that are the real powers in striking the fetters from the oppressed, but here as elsewhere it is more apt to be that more retiring and little self- asserting person whose life is a great demonstra- tion of the truth which commands both recognition and respect. It is not a question of the inferiority or the superiority of men and women, but simply the far greater and purely practical question of throwing from their shoulders those burdens that would and have curtailed their rights and closed the avenues to their exertions in the line of use- fulness and independence. Those women are great heroines who lead their sisters up out of the val- ley, and show them the broad perspective that is before them, and who, by the lesson of their lives, teach them to be useful, to work where their deft hands and quick brains tell them they can do man- kind and themselves the most good.

Susan K. Daggett Whitford was born in Col- chester, Vt., July 3, 1836. When she was four years of age her parents removed from their place of nativity to Kane County, Ill. Her parents were

Susan Whitford M.Q.

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Nathan and Eliza (Chamberlain) Daggett, the father a native of Vermont, and the mother of New Hampshire. Nathan's parents were John and Mary (Dean) Daggett. Mrs. Whitford's maternal grandparents were William and Rosalinda (Mc- Intyre) Chamberlain, the grandfather a native of Connecticut, and the grandmother of Vermont. Nathan Daggett was born January 3, 1808. When he came to Illinois he purchased Government land in Elgin Township, on which he and family worked and struggled along among the other hardy and industrious pioneer farmers of the county. He worked hard, prospered well, and was a prominent and influential man during his life. He died in Elgin, to which place he had retired from his farm, in 1871. Mrs. Daggett was born October 24, 1810, and is now residing at Udina, being married, for the second time, to Alvah Hall, of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Daggett were married in Burling- ton, Vt., in 1831. They had one son and four daughters. The eldest was the son, Edgar, born January 27, 1833, killed instantly by lightning, August 20, 1850, at Plato, Kane Co. Then fol- low Susan K., the subject of this sketch; Emily, born in 1839, died at the age of three years; Ange- lina E., born May 24, 1842; Emily (second), born May 27, 1845, died December 28, 1872, leaving a daughter, who is with her aunt, Mrs. Whitford. Angelina E. married Daniel W. Coan, and is now a widow, in Elgin.

Susan K. was but four years of age when she came with her parents to Illinois, and grew up amid the surroundings of pioneer farm life. When but little more than an infant she walked two and a half miles to the primitive log schoolhouse. She relates her recollections of the first fourth of July celebration she ever attended. Her family were above the average of well-to-do farmers. They went to the meeting in a sled pulled by a yoke of oxen, and the number of this kind of family char- iots about the place of meeting was great. When they had "alighted," as one old polite pioneer in- vited a lady occupant of one of the sleds to do, they noticed a rather well-dressed lady coming from the direction of the woods near at hand. She came up and spoke to Mrs. Daggett, and confi- dentially told her that she, too, had ridden to the

celebration in her sled, but had stopped and hid it in the brush, not being aware that every one came in that style. The next time, she said, she would drive up to the front door and "alight " there, and show them that she was as well off as anybody. In these primitive surroundings Susan grew to womanhood, attending school a little more than the average farmer's daughter of that day. When fourteen years of age she one day fell in company with some older girl friends, who were on their way to be examined for school teachers. İn her playful mood she went with them, and took her seat with the others, and would answer questions, merely trying the experiment of how much she knew of the school books, and not dreaming of get- ting a certificate. Imagine her surprise when the superintendent, Father Brewster, presented her with a certificate to teach school. She turned the play to reality then, and began to teach. She taught, and continued to attend school; was in attendance at the schools in Lockport, and after the family moved to Elgin, was a pupil in the schools of that place.

She was married in Elgin, June 6, 1855, to Dr. Henry K. Whitford. That is, he became a regular physician after their marriage, and the story of how this young couple, after they had two children demanding their care, succeeded in pass- ing through the preliminaries of their professional life, is deeply interesting. He had read medicine considerably, but had never graduated. His young wife induced him, as their means were the most limited, to rig up a wagon, and, putting a few household effects in it, start on the long journey to Cincinnati, to attend the Eclectic Medical Col- lege. They were six months on the journey, and all this time lived and kept house, even doing tbe washing and ironing with no other shelter than the wagon. They would stop, and while she was washing, ironing and baking for their future jour- ney, he would add a small mite to thier capital by lecturing in the country schoolhouses and small hamlets on the way. When they reached the end of their journey they sold their team, and the last few miles rode on the railroad, their few household goods following. The first night in Cincinnati they rented the room where they lived until he

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graduated, and the first cool October night they spent in this room on the bare floor with nothing but the clothes they had on. In this little dark room the medical student, wife and two children lived, the wife and children during this time scarcely seeing the sunlight. His eyes were not strong, and he would attend college during the day. At night the wife would assist him, and read the books and lessons of the day aloud, while he would listen. The glad graduation day finally came, and the devoted woman says that in all her life she felt no equal thrill of joy like that of being loosened from the long imprisonment of that stu- dent room. When he graduated, and had paid his bills, there was just seventy-five cents in money as their fortune left.

They soon earned sufficient to return to their Elgin home, and the young doctor opened an of- fice. Soon his patients came to know that she was a splendid nurse, and, in the absence of her husband, an excellent doctor, generally, and she was taxed continually, giving her time freely to all sufferers. After a while she saw that circum- stances actually compelled her to be so much in the sick room that she determined to prepare her- self for these duties. She attended Bennett's Ec- lectic Medical College, of Chicago, and, ten years after she had so joyfully seen her husband gradu- ate, she received her diploma as physician and surgeon. Returning to her home, she engaged in the practice of her profession. She then only realized the unjust and unfair prejudices that ruled the community. She was made to realize the difference in practicing as a gratuitous nurse and as a regular physician. She entered upon the new struggle with that resolute determination that can not fail, and, although it was a long and severe one, her complete victory is as rich compensa- tion as was ever given as a crown of triumph to any one in any cause. She has settled, let us hope for- ever, the question of woman's divine right to cure pain, ease suffering and minister to disease; that there are avenues in professional life where woman is not only the equal, but the superior of man. For this, the girls now living and those to come owe Mrs. Dr. Whitford an everlasting debt of gratitude and esteem.

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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 36

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