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 74
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 74
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After returning to civil life, he applied him- self to the business learned from his father, and has since carried it on continuously and successfully. He is an active member of Post No. 20, G. A. R., at Aurora, serving both as adjutant and com- mander of the Post, and in the State Department as A. D. C. He received, as a compliment for his services, from his comrades of the G. A. R., on the occasion of his last retirement as commander, a valuable badge, suitably inscribed, which is especially prized. Mr. Denny has served as alderman from the Eleventh Ward. He is a director of the Loan and Building Associa- tion; a stockholder in the Aurora National Bank; member of the City Library board; secretary of the Aurora Hospital Association; member of the I. O. O. F. and Select Knights; member of the A. O. U. W., and has been an active and useful citizen in many other respects.
Mr. Denny was married, in 1861, to Miss Mary Elliott, of Aurora, who lived only until the fol- lowing year, and lies at rest in Spring Lake Cem- etery. He was next united in marriage at Ray-
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mond, Miss., with Miss Mary Nix, of that place. He has but one child, an adopted son, George Burton Denny. Mrs. Denny takes an active interest in the affairs of the G. A. R., and is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps, No. 10. Mr. and Mrs. Denny are members of the First Congregational Church of Aurora.
A LPHONSO L. GODING was born April 12, 1828, a native of Maine. His parents, Jonas and Patience (Hathaway) Goding, were New Englanders of the genuine old Puritan stock. His father died in 1863, at the age of seventy -six years, and his mother, in 1862, aged seventy-four years. From both sides they in- herited a strong and sturdy vitality, like the old oaks in their native forests, several of the ancestors nearly reaching the centenarian's mile-post on life's highway; the grandmother Hathaway lacked only eight days of arriving at the age of one hun- dred years. They were a strong, stern, patriotic race, loved their religion and liberty, and, deep in their hearts feared only God, and hated the devil. The grandfather gave to the sacred cause of inde- pendence seven years of faithful service in the Revolutionary army, and the father was a soldier in the War of 1812-15. Thus the spirit of patri- otisın was well implanted in the family.
Alphonso L. was one of a family of fifteen chil- dren, twelve of whom grew to maturity. He re- mained at the home of his parents on their farm until he attained his majority. The entire family, like most of the farmers of the older States, were industrious and frugal. In connection with the farm, his father kept a hotel in Brighton, Mass., for abont thirty years; and at one or the other of these employments the children, commencing even at a tender age, could find some work to do. Their opportunities for education, however, were not great, it being nothing more than the average of that of farm boys in the vicinity; but the lessons which the children learned in thrift and economy were the cause of each one in this intelligent family, even in the limited time they spent in the schoolroom securing the solid foundation of a fair English education.
Alphonso L., the ninth child, well improved the opportunities afforded him. November 28, 1847, is the date of his marriage with Lydia M., daughter of Jeremiah and Fidelia (Chase) Chand- ler. The Chandlers and Chases were of New Hampshire nativity, and on both sides the names are connected with some of the most prominent of American citizens. Jeremiah Chandler was an uncle of the late Hon. Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, and Fidelia Chase was a cousin of Chief Justice Chase. Mr. and Mrs. Goding have had seven children: Alphonso C., at home with his parents; Flora C., who became the wife of J. W. Wamsley, of Kaneville; Josephine, who died some years ago; Ella M., who became Mrs. George Phelps, of Chicago; Horace L., now deceased; Frederick W., a physician in Rutland, Ill., who graduated at the Chicago Medical College in the class of 1880; and Oscar W., now in the lumber business with his father.
In 1862 Mr. Goding, with his family, arrived in Chicago, having quitted permanently the land of his nativity. At that time his entire possessions comprised a house full of children, $6 in money, and a second-hand suit of clothes, which had originally cost in Boston only $7. He gave but little time, therefore, to speculative dream- ing, but went to work to win his family's bread. He opened a commission live stock busi- ness in Chicago, which he kept for the next six years. In 1868 he made a tour of observation into Kane County, and, being pleased with its fine soil, he removed to a point near the village of Kaneville, and commenced farming. In time his health failed, and he sold his farm and. removed to the village of Elburn, where he opened an extensive lumber yard, and soon had all the business he could attend to. His prosperity was marked from the day he commenced, and he soon grew to be one of the prominent business men in that busy village. He is favorably known throughout the county as a fair dealer and an enterprising citizen. For six successive years he served on the board of commissioners, and for six years was commis- sioners' treasurer. He and his family belong to the Baptist Church, in which Mr. Goding has served as, and at present is, Sunday-school superintendent.
A. S. Sadmy
PHOTO BY D. C. PRATT.
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When in Kaneville he was for a number of years one of the church trustees. Politically, his sym- pathies are with the Republican party.
Mr. Goding has long stood as one of the repre- sentative and responsible citizens in his part of the county. As a fair representative in social life and in business circles, his standing and reputation are unexcelled. In all these, and in political matters of local import, his voice and influence have been sought by his neighbors. A man of retiring nature, yet full of true Christian charity for the faults. of his fellow men, and with a spirit of enterprise and liberality that has promoted the good of his neigh- bors, Mr. Goding stands high in public esteem.
OHN H. PEASE. Among the men who located in the now prosperous city of Aurora, when it was but a small hamlet on the prai- rie, was the father of John H. Pease, who settled there in 1835, and helped to lay the founda- tions of what proved to be a leading industry in later years. His name was Anson Pease, and his wife was Sarah Ann (Johnson) Pease. Both were natives of Tompkins County, N. Y., whence they removed to Ohio in the early days of its settlement, remaining there until 1835, when they came to Aurora, and established a permanent home. Mr. Pease was a millwright by trade, and his prac- ticed eye saw at once the capacity of Fox River to furnish power. He was not disappointed in the result, and found ample employment at his trade until his death. His widow still survives at a ripe old age.
John H. Pease was born at Painesville, Ohio, in August, 1834, and was therefore but a year old when his parents removed to Aurora, where his entire life since has been passed. Until eleven years of age he attended school, but was then put to work in a general store, to fit him for a mercan- tile life. He remained in that position some years, and thoroughly mastered the requirements of the business. He subsequently purchased an interest in the dry goods store of Holmes Miller, forming a partnership which continued uninterruptedly for twenty-one years, being finally dissolved only because of the disability of Mr. Pease, whose close
application to business had undermined his health, and was the means of bringing on the chronic rheu- matism from which he has suffered for years. Mr. Pease is a man of too much energy to be satisfied with a condition of inactivity ; so after giving up mer- cantile life he turned his attention to the manufact- uring interests of Aurora, in several of which he is interested. He is junior member of the firm of Hill & Pease, manufacturers of doors, sash and blinds. This firm, in October, 1SS1, also started and operated successfully the first electric light plant, by a system of towers, in the United States, under a contract for five years. This plant attracted the notice of many people from surround- ing cities, as well as from the Pacific coast, who sent delegations to Aurora to investigate the work- ing of electric lighting apparatus. Mr. Pease is president of the Wilcox Manufacturing Company; a stockholder in and director of the First National Bank of Aurora.
He is married to Helen M., daughter of Jona- than and Rebecca (Chamberlain) Forsyth, and they have one child, Edwin Anson Pease, now fit- ting himself for a business career at the Chicago Commercial College. The parents are both mem- bers of the People's Church. Mr. Pease's life has been more than ordinarily successful, a fact due to his adherence to the lessons learned in the stern school of experience, from his early boyhood, and to the principles of integrity and unswerving hon- esty, which have ever been his distinguishing char- acteristics.
H ENRY COX was born in Butternuts. Otsego Co., N. Y., February 21, 1826, a son of Richard and Clarissa (Caulkins) Cox. The former of whom was a son of Joseph Cox, a native of England, who settled in the State of New York in early times. Clarissa (Caulkins), mother of Henry Cox, was a native of Connecticut. Among the first settlers in Gilbertsville, in the town of Butternuts, were Abijalı. Gilbert, Joseph Cox, Betsey Nichols and John Marsh. They built their log-house in the year 17SS, and next spring the first wedding took place, the principals being Jo- seph Cox and Betsey Nichols. The Coxes were mechanics, and Henry, in early manhood took up
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carpenter and joiner work. He learned the trade and worked at it through his native State, until the year 1856, when he came to Aurora. He had married in New York Mills, N. Y., Miss Phoebe Howland, of Otsego County, N. Y., the daughter of Albert and Maria (Keyes) Howland, of Otsego County, N. Y., and whose ancestry dates back to John Howland, of Plymouth Rock fame.
After coming here Mr. Cox worked for himself at his trade for a time, and in 1863 engaged with Carter & Pinney in their extensive manufacturing interests, working at carpentering, pattern making, etc. He has followed the fortunes of that institu- tion through its changes until recently, when he felt compelled to abandon work on account of suffering caused by a broken leg, which had been twice fractured. Mr. and Mrs. Cox having no children of their own adopted a daughter, Ida May, to whom they gave parental care and a thorough literary and musical training. She is now the wife of Louis E. Reese, a wood machinist in em- ploy of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- road Company. They are the parents of two children: Annie May and Herbert Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Cox are now enjoying the fruits of a useful and industrious life.
K A. BURNELL was born August 6, 1824, in Chesterfield, Hampshire Co., Mass., and served a four years' apprenticeship to house building and architecture in North- ampton, Mass., after which he worked as a jour- neyman one year. For a dozen years he was a con- tractor and master builder, producing during that time some of the finest blocks and houses in that goodly city, which bear testimony to his ability. In December, 1854, with his wife and four chil- dren, he moved to Davenport, Iowa, having long been drawn to the West, because of its promise as a field of Christian usefulness. After a sojourn of a year and a half at Davenport and vicinity he removed to Central Wisconsin, to a land of trees, locating at Ripon, Fond du Lac County, in ad- vance of the railroad. A small house was erected late in November of that year. The day promised
snow, and shingles were laid by lantern until 10 o'clock at night, which was well, as four inches of snow covered the roof the next morning, remaining until February of the next year. That winter was known as "the cold winter," but the family lived comfortably in their one finished room.
Mr. Burnell's only brother went to India in 1848 as a missionary, and, except for the uncertain health of his wife, our subject would have accepted a call as a missionary, to South Africa. The Massachu- setts Sunday-school Society, appointed him as their missionary for the State of Wisconsin, and he entered upon a life of Christian work in his thirty-third year.
In the second year of his service he visited all the Fox River towns and cities of Kane County, and was impressed with their exceeding desirable- ness as a place in which to live. The society was pleased with his success, and asked him to take Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, in addition to Wis- consin; he made Beloit, Wis., his home, and Illi- nois a leading part of his field. Mr. Lincoln's call for 75,000 men found him in Sycamore, De Kalb Co., Ill., in meetings with D. L. Moody. Immediately following the battle of Shiloh he went to Cairo. Wisconsin's Christian Governor, Hon. L. P. Harvey, who, with his staff was en route for Shiloh, found Mr. Burnell, and invited him to join their party to the front. After three days among the broken regiments, the sick and dying soldiers, the Governor asked Mr. Burnell to give him three months to work, especially among and for the Wisconsin soldiers. Conditional upon the Massachusetts Society's consent, Mr. Burnell accepted the offer, and Gov. Harvey commissioned him for three months, thinking the war would end in that time. The last writing by this good man was commending Mr. Burnell to railroad and steamboat managers, using these words in part: "I have long known Mr. K. A. Burnell, and I know of no living man of greater fidelity, and more deserving, in the work he represents, of any and all civilities and concessions coming within the compass and command of the management." Two hours after this writing, the glare of a deck light blinding his eyes, he stepped overboard and was drowned. This introduction gave Mr. Bur-
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nell over three years' experience in the service of the Christian Commissions.
At the close of the war he had pressing invi- tations to take a superintendency of States, under the American Sunday-school Union, and to have charge of city missions in the large cities. He ac- cepted the invitation to Milwaukee, rather than Brooklyn or Montreal, as he had become so fully identified with the West. The work in Milwaukee was a combined city and Bethel mission, and in- cluded the secretaryship of the Y. M. C. A. With the latter, Mr. Burnell was from the first fully identified, and was leading in the organization of the Davenport, Iowa. Association, the second organi- zation in the West, Chicago being the first. After four years in Milwaukee a home was made in Aurora, which had been the early abiding place of the present Mrs. Burnell, their first meeting being at Memphis, where she was engaged two years as matron of the Adams Hospital, and later of the Christian Commission Home. For eighteen years, save a three years' absence in Chicago, Mr. Burnell has been a citizen of Aurora, and is fully identified with it. So fully was he imbued with the spirit of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion work, that his first effort in Aurora was the work of urging the erection of the Y. M. C. A. building on the Island, the second building devoted to that object in Illinois. A Woman's Christian Association was an outgrowth, and has been vigor- ously kept up with widening usefulness. These hard-working women have sustained an industrial school weekly in the association building, and the effective W. C. T. U. has also made it their head- quarters. In all this woman's work, and in the details of church work, Mrs. Burnell has lent a helping hand. Soon after locating in Aurora, Mr. Burnell was importuned to take the presidency of the Sunday-school work of Kane County. Having secured hearty co-operation, a canvass of the county was made, and every home visited outside of the township and city of Aurora. The canvass was so effective in many ways, so promotive of Sunday-school work, that Kane was declared the banner county, in the State Sunday-school con- vention held in Aurora, in June, 1872.
Mr. Burnell's evangelistic work, since locating
in Aurora, has been in a large part west of the Mississippi River, and, indeed, in the past, reaches west of the Missouri River. He has had detailed evangelistic campaigns with a co-operating evan- gelistic committee in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, South and Central California, Washington Territory and Montana. He has had evangelistic campaigns where sparseness of popu- lation and want of right material prevented the formation of a committee in Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Dakota and Oregon. He has made eight round trips to California, passing over the first completed track in 1869; three trips to Central California, three to the Puget Sound region, and two to the orange groves of the southwest Pacific. Under the direc- tion of a Y. M. C. A. State committee he spent three consecutive winters in his native State of Massachusetts, one in Connecticut and one in Ohio. The first singing tour of Ira D. Sankey was in meetings in Pennsylvania, under the direction of Mr. Burnell. This was a short time prior to Mr. Moody's first meeting with Mr. Sankey. During and since the war he has had meetings in every Southern State, except Florida and the Carolinas; in every Territory, except Nevada, and in every one of the other States. His early leaning to foreign missions created longings to make the tour of the world, which he did in 1877 and 1878, spending thirty days in Japan, forty-two in China, one hun- dred and twelve in India, nine in Egypt, fifteen in Palestine, fifteen in Syria, five in Constantinople, five in Athens, sixty-five in other parts of conti- nental Europe, thirty-five in England, twenty-five in California, and ninety-two days on twenty steam- ships. The detailed and definitely appointed one hundred days in India, with three days' services in over thirty places, involved 6,000 miles of travel. He was accompanied by his brother, who went to South India in 1848, and, understanding the Tamil, Manhatta and Bengalee languages, was an admira- ble interpreter. Mr. Burnell's identity with all good enterprises and benevolent work in Aurora is well known. Though in sight of Amherst College when a boy, his was a jack-plane and architectural graduation. He is an intense Chautauquan, and is secretary of the class of 1887, the "Pansy Class,"
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which graduated at Chautauqua, May 17, 1887. The class graduated 5,000 members, and Mr. Bur- nell thinks it may be better all in all to be one of so large a company as he enters his sixty-third year, than to have been one of thirty who gradu- ated at Amherst in his twenty-first year. There are more "Chautauqua " readers in Kane County than in any other county in the State (save Cook), and Mr. Burnell and his fellow Chautauquans have plans for Kane County that promise a sus- tained organization in every agricultural township of the 18x30 miles square. Mr. Burnell has been a diligent reader of the hundred-year-old Hamp- shire Gazette, of his native county, fifty-five years. With an average living of four years in Fond du Lae, Rock and Milwaukee Counties, Wis., Cook County (Chicago), and two years in Scott County, Iowa, for desirableness of home living, all in all, he thinks Kane County is the place to live in. He is deeply interested in perpetuating the history of the county, and believes this generation will prof- itably hand it down to those coming, for "one generation goeth and another eometh."
S AMUEL MCNAIR, M. D., Elburn, is an able and experienced representative of his profession. He was born in Erie County, Penn., February 8, 1823, son of David and Nancy (Smith) McNair, the former of whom, of Scoteh descent, came to America from Ireland when nine years old, and died in 1851, in Erie County, Penn., aged seventy-six years. He served under Gen. Harrison in the War of 1812. His widow died in 1857, also in Erie County, Penn., at the age of sixty-seven years. The father of David was Robert McNair, who was born in Edin- burgh, Seotland, but, when a young man, removed with his father to Ireland. He was a weaver by trade, and beeame the proprietor of a woolen man- ufactory. Before leaving Edinburgh he was skilled in the art of feneing, and taught sword ex- ereise to cavalrymen. He was the son of William McNair, who was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, and was an A. M. and M. D. graduate of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. William McNair spent his
life in the practice of his profession, first at Edin- burgh, and afterward in Ireland.
Dr. Samuel McNair was the ninth of twelve ehildren. all of whom reached years of adultship. Of the eleven others there are living Nancy (Me- Nair) Platt, Dr. Robert MeNair, Thomas McNair, Hannah (MeNair) Miller, Harvey McNair and John S. MeNair; those dead are Sally (McNair) Rogers. Eleanor (MeNair) Wilson, William McNair, David McNair and Mary Jane (McNair) Williams.
In 1844 the subject of this eommemorative sketeh came to Kaneville Township, this county, and purchased a farm with money earned at work- ing as a farm hand after coming to Illinois. In 1850 he commenced the study of medicine, and the following year he attended anatomieal leetures under Prof. Hard, at Aurora; then, in 1852-53, he took a course at the Eclectic College, Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1856 entered Rush Medieal College, Chicago, from which he graduated in 1859, and has sinee taken a post-graduate course in the same college. In the spring of 1860 he removed from Kaneville to Elburn, where he still resides.
On November 24, 1856, the Doctor married Ann Osborn, a lady of English descent, who was born in Ripley, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., December 15, 1831, daughter of Platt Smith and Mary Ann (Platt) Osborn, both natives of Kingsbury, Wash- ington Co., N. Y., and both of whom departed this life in Sherman, Chautauqua Co., N. Y .; the father, born Mareh 26, 1798, died April 20, 1882, and the mother born Mareh 18, 1802, died July 31, 1845. Mrs. McNair was the third of the ten children born to Platt Smith and Mary Ann (Platt) Osborn, all of whom lived to maturity. The other living members are Lucretia (Osborn) Graves, Rev. David Osborn, Harriet (Osborn) McCalmont, Isa- dore (Osborn) Brown, Dr. Harris Burnett Osborn, James Whitehill Osborn and Mary Ann (Osborn) Benedict. Two have died-Cynthia Ann Osborn and Platt Smith Osborn.
To Dr. and Mrs. MeNair four children have been born, as follows: Rock and Rush. July 1. 1860 (Rock died April 20, 1872; Rush is a gradu- ate of the Northi-Western University, at Evanston, and also of the Chieago Medical College, class of 1887); Earle, September 30, 1863, died September
Samuel Me Nair, M.D.
FROM PHOTO TAKEN IN 1870.
-
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30, 1864; and Samuel Platt, May 31, 1866, died March 2, 1867.
Since his location in Elburn Dr. McNair has been coroner two years, and a member of the school board six years. For twenty years he carried on mercantile business in addition to the practice of his profession. He employs a part of his time in the management of his agricultural in- terests, being the owner of 427 acres of land, four- teen town lots, and the pleasant and commodious residence he occupies. He has been interested in the erection of public buildings, and substantially aided in the establishment of a mill in his village. In behalf of all moral efforts of his fellow citizens, Dr. McNair has always exerted his influence, and often has taken the lead. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, Mrs. McNair of the Meth- odist Episcopal.
F ERRIS J. MINIUM. It is perhaps true that those men, who by their labor and brains plan, superintend and construct the buildings in a city, are more closely identi- fied with its prosperity, and more permanently memorized by their handiwork, than any other class of citizens. Of this class of men there are none whose name and whose skill are better known than that of Ferris J. Minium. He was born at Saegerstown Crawford Co., Penn., September 30, 1839, a son of Henry and Hannah (Peiffer) Min- ium, both of old Pennsylvania - Dutch stock. Henry Minium was reared in Crawford County, in youth learning the carpenter's trade, and for many years he was largely interested in contract- ing and building in his native State.
However, having visited the West, and becom- ing satisfied that better advantages existed in that locality for men of energy and brains, he, in 1850, became a resident of St. Charles, Kane Co., Ill., where for over thirteen years he carried on busi- ness, and many of the buildings erected by him speak well for his industry and ability. In 1864 he came to Aurora, and since that time Ferris J. Minium, either alone or in partnership with his father, has erected many of the finest business and private buildings in Aurora. Among thiese may be mentioned the First Methodist Episcopal
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