USA > Illinois > Kendall County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 68
USA > Illinois > Will County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 68
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The thoroughness of the researches which Dr. Curtiss has made in the realm of bacteriology and in hygiene have brought him into promi- nence. After long years of study, investigation and experiment, he came to the conclusion that disease is incurable, but its prevention is possi- ble, and therefore he has advocated hygiene and prevention rather than cure. Logically, he prac- tices the prevention of disease and is an ardent hygienist. In explanation of his theory and in proof of its validity, he has contributed papers frequently to medical journals, and these have been studied by members of the profession throughout the entire country. Recently con- siderable attention was attracted to him through his letter to Andrew Carnegie, inviting him to invest a princely adequate sum of money in the erection of a great technical school where people might be taught the science of hygiene and longevity. I11 1882 he was elected to the chair of bacteriology and hygiene, and the chair of general pathology in tlie College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. After he had com- menced to lecture there he took up the germ theory as being the true cause of disease. The other twenty members of the faculty at first op- posed his theory, but in time they were converted to the principle; meantime, however, the strug- gle was a hard one for him, as he was denounced by many, and only the influence of Dr. Senn, the famous surgeon, saved him from being asked to resign. After ten years in the college he with-
drew to private life. Like all discoverers of new ideas, he has made enemies in his professional career, but he has also made many warm friends and, by his originality of thought and force of character has won for himself an honorable po- sition in the world of thought.
RASTUS W. WILLARD, of Lockport, superintendent of the lands of the Illinois and Michigan canal, is a member of a family that has been identified with American history since the early part of the seventeenth century. The first of the name in this country was Maj. Simon Willard, who was born in County 'Kent, England, and settled in Boston, Mass., about 1630, afterward serving as com- mander of expeditions in the early wars and taking a prominent part in many historic move- ments. Nor were his descendants less patriotic than he. One of them, Ambrose Willard, a native of Massachusetts and a farmer of that state, served during the war of 1812, defending the American interests in that conflict. He at- tained the age of eighty-three years. His son, Erastus H. Willard, M. D., who was born in Worcester, Mass., accompanied his parents to New York in boyhood, and later became a phy- sician. In 1848 he was elected a member of the state senate. During the existence of the Whig party he affiliated with its members, and after its disintegration became a Democrat. He died at his home in Spencer July 18, 1886.
The marriage of Dr. Willard united him with Mary S. Moses, who was born in Livingston County, N. Y., in 1808, and was reared in Lima, in the home of her grandfather, a leading educa- tor of that city. Her father was killed when she was a mere child. She died in 1880. Like her husband she always adhered to the Presbyterian faith. Of the ten children born to their union six are still living. Erastus W., the subject of this sketch, was born in Belmont, Allegany County, N. Y., October 22, 1838. Between the years of
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twelve and sixteen he was a student in the academy near his home. In January, 1856, he canc west to Illinois and secured a clerkship in a drug store in Wilmington, Will County, re- maining there for several years. Returning to New York he opened a grocery at Friendship, but when the Civil war broke out he gave his mother a bill of sale for the store and enlisted in the Union army. He was a non-commissioned officer, belonging to Company E, Twenty-third New York Infantry, but was soon transferred to a position as hospital steward. Later he received a commission as first lieutenant of Company G, Sixty-fifth New York Infantry. At the close of his time he was mustered out of service at Almira, N. Y., after which he took the enroll- ment of his town and served as assistant provost- marshal until 1863.
Deciding to again seek a home in the west Mr. Willard returned to Wilmington, Ill., in Septem- ber, 1863. The following year when President Lincoln called for men to enlist for one hundred days in order to relieve soldiers, he went out as first lieutenant of Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Infantry. The regiment was ordered to Leavenworth, Kans., where Mr. Wil- lard served on the court martial for two months. He then took his company to Paola, thence re- turned to Leavenworth, and at the expiration of the time of service went back to Springfield, Ill. During the Price raid he went to Missouri and remained there for two weeks, after which he again went to Springfield and was mustered out of the service.
On resuming the pursuits of civic life Mr. Willard engaged in the drug business at Wil- mington, where he remained until 1886. He came to Jolict and established a drug business, which he conducted for years. After selling out his store he was for six months editor of the Daily Press, which was then one of the leading papers of the city. A prominent Republican, he served as a member of the state central committee in 1892, 1894 and 1896, and acted as chairman of the committee on organization in 1896 and 1898. He served as chairman of the Will County cen- tral committee in 1892 and 1896. In 1884, when
he took charge of the Republican committee, the county had been giving Democratic majorities for several years, but under his management an enthusiasm in behalf of the Republican party was developed. In 1880 he did the entire work for the Republican cause in the county, and secured John A. Logan to come to Wilmington and make a speech. Under the administration of Governor Tanner in February, 1897, he was appointed to superintend the landed interests of the canal, and at the same time established his home in Lockport, where he has since resided.
Fraternally Mr. Willard is connected with Lodge No. 208, A. F. & A. M .; Joliet Chapter No. 27, R. A. M .; Joliet Commandery No. 24, and for three years was master of the lodge, for some years served as high priest of the chapter, and for two years was eminent commander of the commandery. He assisted in organizing the Grand Army post in Wilmington and was elected its first commander; afterward, on removing to Joliet, he identified himself with the post of this city.
June 28, 1871, Mr. Willard married Miss Jessie R. Duck, of Wilmington, by whom he has three children, Francis D., Edward H. and Jessie.
M ICHAEL C. HALEY, a pioneer of Man- hattan Township, was born in Ireland in 1842, and at two years of age was brought to America by his parents, Martin and Catherine (Curry) Haley. Not long afterward his father died in New York while still a young man; the mother passed away at the home of her son, July 30, 1895, and their only daughter, Bridget, is also deceased, so that our subject is the only liv- 'ing member of the family. He was rcared by his uncle, Thomas Haley, whom he accompanied to Illinois at twelve years of age, and with whom he remained until grown. In 1862 he enlisted in Company D, Ninetieth Illinois Infantry, in which he served for eightcen months, and was then honorably discharged on account of wounds
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
received at Jackson, Miss., July 13, 1863. Re- His attention was chiefly directed to general turning to his uncle's home, he was for a time unable to engage in active work, but as soon as he had regained his strength he began farming for himself. In 1864 he bought forty acres from the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Three years later he bought his present farm of eighty acres, on which he has since made improvements and engaged in general agricultural pursuits. Besides this place he owns one hundred and sixty acres in Kit Carson County, Colo.
In his political opinions Mr. Haley is a Repub- lican, and has worked actively for his party. For several years he served as deputy sheriff under Sheriffs Houston, Piepenbrink and Francis. Dur- ing most of the years since 1864 he has been con- stable of the township. In Goddard Post, G. A. R., at Manhattan, he is an active worker and senior vice-commander. He assisted in the organization of the Anti-Horse-thief Association, of which he has since been captain. October 16, 1864, he married Margaret, daughter of John Murphy, of Joliet. One child blessed their union, a son, William M., who died at the age of twenty-nine years. Mr. Haley has been a hard-working man, and with the assistance of his wife has be- come the owner of valuable property, which rep- resents years of industry and tireless application on his part.
ELSON E. HAZELTON. The entire life of Mr. Hazelton has been passed on the family homestead in Wesley Township, where he was born. His father, Charles R., a native of Bennington, Vt., removed to Ohio in early life, thence years afterward went to Aurora, Ill., and about 1852 settled in Wesley Township, where he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. The subsequent years of his busy life were passed here. The principal development of his township took place under his immediate obser- vation. From an uncultivated prairie he saw it changed to a garden spot, worthy to be compared with the finest places in his native New England.
farming, although he bestowed some attention on stock-raising. From time to time he added to his possessions until he owned about six hundred acres, all representing his unaided efforts. His success was even more gratifying than his fondest hopes had painted, for when he left Vermont, a poor youth of eighteen, and started for a strange section of the country, he had not dared to hope that he would be in later years a large land owner. He was spared to a very advanced age, being eighty-nine at the time he was called from earth, November 14, 1898. His first wife died in Ohio, leaving two sons, Norman and George. Afterward he married a widow, Mrs. Annie (Van Fleet) Ball, by whom he had five children, namely: Ella, wife of William Mellen; Vesta, who married Amasa Bell; Ida, wife of Charles Walton; Susan, Mrs. Thomas B. Reid, of Kansas; and Nelson E., of this sketch. The widowed mother, at the age of seventy-five years, is a re- markably well-preserved old lady, keen, active and vigorous; she is living on a part of the old homestead.
Born in 1862, our subject passed the years of youth at the old homestead, carefully reared under the supervision of his parents. He re- ceived common-school advantages, and these, aided by reading, observation and experience, have made him a well-informed man. He has followed the uneventful life of a farmer, having taken charge of the home farm at the age of twenty-one, and now he cultivates three hundred and twenty acres, besides buying and selling stock. In 1899 he erected on the old home place a residence that is without doubt the finest in the township, being modern in its appointments and artistic in appearance, while its furnishings are of a character that indicate the refined tastes of the family. It contains not only the necessities but also the comforts of modern life. While he was more fortunate than some young men in that he was given a start in life by his father, yet, had it not been for his energy, good judgment and in- dustry, he could not have attained the success now his. His farm work is invariably conducted in a thorough and progressive manner. He raises
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
large quantities of grain, averaging three thou- sand bushels of corn and seven thousand bushels of oats each year.
Like the other members of the Hazelton family, Mr. Hazelton is a Republican, but not a poli- tician nor a partisan. Fraternally he is con- nected with the Modern Woodmen of America. May 21, 1885, he married Jennie, daughter of John W. Raymond, of Kankakee County. They have two daughters, Nellie and Genieve. The family occupy a high position in the social life of the community and always lend substantial aid to educational and charitable enterprises.
ERDEN BUCK, who is one of the success- ful business men of Joliet, is a son of George A. Buck, a pioneer of this city. He was born in Manhattan, Will County, in 1869, on the 9th of February, and spent his early childhood years in that place, but in 1880 came to Joliet, where lie attended the high school until the close of the junior year. His first employ- ment, for which he was paid $5 a week, was as collector and night operator for the Chicago Tele- phone Company, a position that required him to work twenty hours out of the twenty-four. After six months in the position lie became an employe of Paige & Benson, owners of a grocery and a coal and ice business. At first he was connected with the ice department. Soon A. W. Hays and Chester Paige succeeded J. D. Paige in the gro- cery business, while Paige & Benson remained in the ice and fuel business. In 1888 Mr. Buck bought Chester Paige's interest in the grocery, which was conducted under the title of A. W. Hays & Co., the location being in the old opera house block, on the corner of Chicago and Clin- ton streets. When that building was burned down, in 1892, the business was removed across the street to the Auditorium block, where Mr. Buck has since carried on a large and profitable trade, at No. 302 Chicago street.
In 1894 the firm opened a coal and building
material business on Cass street, where they dealt in sewer pipe, drain tile and fuel. Marchi 9, 1898, Mr. Buck bought his partner's interest, and has since been sole proprietor of the coal yards, at Nos. 511-513 Cass street. He has a building 40X132, with yards in the rear, and carries in stock all kinds of pressed brick manu- factured in the United States, also sewer pipe, drain tile, etc., in which he conducts an exten- sive business. He is president of the Retail Mer- chants' Association of Joliet, and stands high among the business men of liis city, where he is known as a man of unusual enterprise and sound judgment. As a Democrat, he has been active in politics, and has served as treasurer of the city Democratic committee. For one term he hield the office of township collector. Fraternally lie is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America.
The marriage of Mr. Buck, which took place in Joliet, united him with Miss Inez Paige, daugh- ter of J. D. Paige, superintendent of the Joliet fire department. One son blesses their union, George Paige. Mrs. Buck is a Universalist in religious belief, and, while Mr. Buck is not con- nected with any denomination, he is in sympathy with all movements for the uplifting of humanity. He is a progressive citizen and earnestly favors measures for the benefit of Joliet, in whose future as a commercial center lie has the greatest faith.
ALTER D. STEVENS is one of the enter- prising business men of Joliet, where since 1896 he has been proprietor of a car- riage repository. He occupies a three-story building, 66x60 feet, furnished with every mod- ern equipment, including elevators, etc., and stocked with Babcock buggies, Ariel bicycles and vehicles of all kinds. The location, on the cor- ner of Van Buren and Joliet streets, is convenient and central. As a business man he has already gained a name and place among the people of Joliet. Active and judicious, he uses sagacity in
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
all of his business dealings, and shows keen judg- ment in both buying and selling. His honorable dealings have won for him the confidence of the people.
The father of our subject, J. W. Stevens, was born in Gaudhurst, England, and coming to America, became a business man of Joliet in 1848, opening a dry-goods store on Jefferson street. Two years afterward his wife joined him, crossing the ocean on the sailing vessel "Irving," which landed in New York after a voyage of thirty days. Her brother-in-law, Capt. R. J. Doughty, was owner of the vessel on which she crossed. From New York she pro- ceeded by rail to Buffalo, thence via the lakes to Chicago and canal to Joliet. She was born in County Kent, England, and bore the maiden name of Harriet Deverson. Her father, Daniel Deverson, also a native of County Kent and a farmer, die 1 there at eighty-six years, while her mother, Annie, daughter of Stephen Stokes, a far.ner, spent her entire life in the same county, where she died at eighty-four years. There were twelve children in the family, but only four are living. Harriet, who was next to the youngest of the twelve, is the only member of the family in America. Possessing considerable business ability, as soon as she joined her husband in Joliet she began to assist him, and for some time car- ried on a millinery business in connection with his dry goods store. After his deatlı, in 1859, she continued at the head of the entire establish- ment. In 1861 she was a second time married, becoming the wife of Frank Bush, who was born in Whitehall, N. Y., a son of Stephen and a brother of J. E. Bush. He came to Illinois about 1854, and with his brother, Henry, engaged in cattle dealing and the wholesale meat business. He owned a farm of one hundred and thirty acres adjoining the city. He died November 10, 1897. The following year forty acres of his farm was sold to Joliet for a park and was named Bush park.
In 1871 Mrs. Bush bought a store on Jefferson street, where she continued business until 1892, and then sold both the stock of goods and the building. In 1863 she bought a beautiful home
on the corner of Western avenue and Hickory street. She has built many tenement houses both on the east and west sides, and built the Bush block on the corner of Exchange and Bluff streets. In 1892 she erected the Strobridge build- ing, corner of Van Buren and Joliet streets. She still owns ninety acres of land adjoining Bush park, and this she superintends. To her first marriage three sons were born, Walter D .; Irving D. (in Alaska), formerly the first secre- tary of the Joliet Stove Works, afterward en- gaged in the manufacture of agricultural imple- ments, and for thirty years one of the prosperous and prominent business men in Joliet; and En- gene, an assayer of great ability and promince, in Leadville, Colo. Four children were born of her second marriage, namely: Hattie, wife of Peter Shutts, attorney, of Joliet; Luella, at home; Charles Franklin, who is agent for the Wells- Fargo Express Company, at Des Moines, Iowa; and Arthur Willis, formerly manager of the Jo- liet Gas Company.
At the time his mother came to Joliet our sub- ject was two years old. He was born in Dover, England, September 28, 1848, but the only home he remembers in connection with his early child- hood is Joliet. During the war he was sent to school in England and spent five years in Can- terbury Academy, after which he shipped in the English merchant marine service under an uncle, who was a captain engaged in the Mediterranean trade. Returning to Joliet lie engaged in the grocery business as a member of the firm of Car- son & Stevens, after which he was in the lumber business with Frank Bush & Co., then engaged in the book and stationery business alone. In 1873 he went to Georgetown, Colo., where at first he was interested in prospecting and mining, but soon turned his attention to the insurance and real-estate and mining business. In 1879 he went from Georgetown to Leadville, where he engaged in the same business. While in the west he traveled through the coast country and in British Columbia. Returning to Joliet in 1 893 he was first connected with his brother Irving D., but in 1896 he started in business alone.
In politics Mr. Stevens has always affiliated
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
with the Republicans. From 1873 to 1893 lie served as a delegate to every state Republican convention in Colorado. For one term he was assessor. He also served as police magistrate and ex-officio mayor of Georgetown. He is well-informed regarding public affairs, although he has not been so active in Illinois as in Col- orado, for his attention is quite closely given to business matters, and lie has little leisure for participation in politics.
YRUS A. LEWIS. No man has done more for the development of the agricultural in- terests of New Lenox Township than has Mr. Lewis, and few are better known that he. Since he came to this county in 1850 and settled upon his present farm he has transformed the raw prairie land into a valuable and highly-cul- tivated tract, having purchased, soon after his arrival, one hundred and sixty acres at $4 an acre, to which lie has since added until he now owns four hundred acres of fine land, devoted to general farm products. He also owns city prop- erty and is a director in the Joliet National bank.
Mr. Lewis was born in Decatur, N. Y., July 19, 1824, a descendant of ancestors who came from Wales and settled in Hartford County, Conn. His father, Justus Lewis, a native of Connecticut, removed to New York in an early day and settled in the woods, where he cleared a farm. Upon that place he made his home for sixty years. During the Revolutionary war he was stationed at West Point, on the Hudson, and helped to forge and lay the chain across the river for the purpose of preventing the enemy from coming up stream. He died when eighty-six years of age. His wife was Candace Spencer, of Connecticut, who died in 1843, at the age of forty- three years. They were the parents of four chil- dren, viz .: Coridon S., deceased; Marilla, widow of A. B. Cornwell; Jane, deceased; and Cyrus A.
Educated in the common schools of New York,
Mr. Lewis remained at home until his removal to Illinois in 1850, and since then he has been identified with the history of this county. He has held a number of township offices and has always been a stanch Republican. By his mar- riage, in 1847, to Emeline Seward, a native of New York, he has seven children. The oldest son and second child, Spencer, went to China in 1881 as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church and is now superintendent of the West China mission. Since going to that country he has twice returned to America to visit relatives, and. his two children are now attending school in Chicago. The other members of the family are as follows: Mary, wife of William Greenwood; Candace, who married Calvin Armigast; Nellie, Mrs. Julian Barnes; C. Almon, Sherman and Jennie, Mrs. Henry Lantz.
In the organization of the Grange Mr. Lewis took an active part and he served as its master for several years. A man of firm religious con- victions, he has long been a leading member of the Ottawa Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Joliet, and for some years officiated as a trustee. All movements for the benefit of the community receive his sympathy and support. The pros- perity which he has attained is solely the result of individual application and effort. When he began to work he received $4 a month at car- pentering, and from that small beginning he has worked his way forward to a position of financial prosperity and an assured standing as a farmer and a citizen.
ILLIAM E. DAVISON, who is well known as a successful merchant tailor of Joliet, was born near West Woodburn, thirty miles north of Newcastle-on-Tyne, County Northumberland, England, on Christmas day of 1862. His father and grandfather, both of whom bore the name of Walter Davison, were natives of the same county as himself. His father, who was engaged in farming and also in the manu- facture of shoes, made his home at Laurel cot-
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
tage, a beautiful place near West Woodburn, and there he died in May, 1866, when our subject was little more than three years of age. In re- ligion he was a Presbyterian. He had married Margaret Brown, who was born at Davy Shield Hill, two miles from the famous battlefield of Chevychase. She was a daughter of Thomas Brown. She survived her husband ten years, dying in March, 1876. Of her six children, John Adam, was head bookkeeper for a large wallpaper manufacturing establishment at New- castle-011-Tyne until his death in 1871; Jane Ann lives at Ridsdale, Northumberland; Margaret is the wife of Ralph Nesbit, of Ridsdale; Thomas J. succeeded his older brother as bookkeeper in the wallpaper house, remaining there until he died in 1891; Walter Robson is yardmaster for the Michigan Central Railway Company at Joliet.
The youngest member of the family was Will- iam Edward, of this sketch. He was reared at Laurel cottage. When twelve years of age he completed the studies in the government school. August 20, 1875, he was apprenticed to the tailor's trade at East Woodburn and after his mother died he went to live with his employer, with whom he remained during the rest of his five years' apprenticeship, when he worked for George Handyside at Cambo, England. I11 18So he went to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he pursued his trade. The next year he secured work at his trade in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, where he remained for more than two years. In the spring of 1884 he took passage from Liverpool on the "Adriatic." April of the same year found him in Joliet, where he spent the summer. In September he entered the em- ploy of Ely, of Chicago, and there learned cut- ting. In 1887 he returned to Joliet, which he had selected as his permanent location. In part- nership with John W. Hudson, who had come to America with him in 1884, he started in busi- ness, the firin name being Hudson & Davison. After one year on North Chicago street, Mr. Davison purchased his partner's interest, contin- uing at the same place until August, 1889, when he secured his present location in the Clement building, No. 107 South Ottawa street. Here
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