USA > Illinois > Ford County > Historical Atlas of Ford County Illinois > Part 13
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Hon. Calvin H. Frow is the son of Robert and Anna S. Frew, and a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He was raised on a farm, and devoted much of his time to reading, when not en- gaged in farm or other labor. When seventeen years old, he began teaching school, paying & share of his wages to his father, and using the remainder to pay his own expenses at the high school, and at Besver Academy in Pennsylvania, and later, at the Vermilion Institute in Ohio. In 1862, he became the Prin- cipal of the high school at Kalida, Ohio, and occupied a similar
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FORD COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
position in the high school at Young America, Ill., in 1863-64. ! time began and completed his preparatory study of the law under In this way he paid indebtedness incurred in obtaining his edu- the supervision of Messrs. Kinnear & Moffett, attorneys, in Pax- ton. In May. 1882, he was admitted to the bar by the Appel- late Court at Springfield, Ill. For six months thereafter he studied and worked in his profession in the office of IIon. Calvin HI. Frew, of Paxton. He then opened an office and practiced on his own account. At the spring election of 1883, he had the honor to be elected to the office of City Attorney for the city of Paxton, after a close contest, Milton H. Cloud, an older and more experienced lawyer, being his opponent. Messrs. J. II. & J. B. Patrick, older brothers of Mr. Patrick, are prominent at- torneys at Clarion, Penn. Both of his parents are yet alive, and reside at the old homestead in their native State. both having been born in Westmoreland County, Penn. He has three broth- ers and one sister living. He has succeeded to his present posi- tion by his own individual effort, and therefore is entitled to whatever credit belongs to those who work their way up from what is generally termed the lower walks in life. cation, and at same time pursued his preparatory study of law. In the spring of 1865, he settled in Paxton, and there pursued his study in the law until the following December, when he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois. In 1868, less than three years after his admission to the bar, he was elect- el to the General Assembly from Ford and Iroquois Counties. During his first term as a member of that body, he' became distinguished on account of his, then supposed, unconstitutional and radical views touching the power of the State to regulate the charges of the railway companies for the carriage of passengers and freight. On January 19, 1869, he introduced and supported by an able argument the following resolution: " Resolved, that all privileges. powers or prerogatives acquired by railroad com- panies of the State Government are subordinate to the general welfare of the people or community where constructed, and that the right of the State to exercise a reasonable control over such companies is one of which no power can divest the people." The doctrine embodied in this resolution has since become the settled law of the land, having been declared such by the Supreme Court of Illinois, as well as by the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1870, he was re- elected by a large majority from the counties of Ford and Kankakee. During this term also, he took an active part in securing amendments to and the passage of some of the most beneficial statutes of the State now in force. In 1878, he was elected a third time to the Legislature, this time representing the counties of Ford and Livingston; one of the most important laws passed by the Legislature at this session was that requiring the foreclosure of trust deeds and mortgages in court instead of by advertisement, the passage of which Mr. Frew urged with his usual zeal and force. In public life Mr. Frew has always been diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving his constituency with that earnestness and fearlessness characteristic of men of bold, independent mind. And although his professional business has necessarily been much neglected, on account of his time and labors in the public service, he still holds a very handsome practice.
F. L. Cook, our present State's Attorney, is a native of New York, but has been a resident of Illinois for more than thirty years. Besides having a good common school education, he at- tended Eureka College in Woodford County and Knox College at Galesburg, Ill., for more than five years. His father having enlisted in the Union army, his son had to quit college to oversee his business affairs, that of grain buyer and railway agent at Kappa, Woodford County, Ill. This he did from 1862 to 1866. In the fall of the latter year he went to the National Capital as an employe of the State, to collect soldiers' claims, where he was engaged for three years. He then acted as private secretary for Senator Cullom, then a member of the lower house of Con- gress from Illinois, afterward as Clerk of the two House Commit- ties on Territories and Foreign Affairs during the years 1869, 1870, 1871, as well as having charge of the payment of U. S. Marshals in the census office. In June, 1871, he gradu- ated from the Columbia Law School, D. C., but had been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the Dis- trict in the May preceding. In March, 1872, he was ad- mitted to practice in Illinois, and located at Paxton as a law- yer, soon thereafter. The City Council appointed him its attorney to fill the unexpired term of J. C. Patton, deceased, and in 1877, he was appointed Master in Chancery for this county by Judge O. T. Reeves. At the general election in 1880, he was elected State's Attorney for Ford County. In the dis- charge of his professional and official duties, he has shown himself intelligent, competent, fearless and faithful. Possessing a cool. deliberate judgment, guided by a liberal education and a thorough knowledge of his profession, his theory and practice is to let no guilty man escape.
Charles H. Yeomans, one of the first settled and most suc- cessful attorneys in Gibson City, was born in Delaware County, N. Y., December 2, 1846, and came to Illinois in 1850. In July, 1871, he graduated from Ripon College, Wisconsin, and received the degree of A. B., and in 1879 the degree of A. M. from the same institution. While pursuing his classical course at Ripon, he also read law under the supervision of Hon. Jesse Dobbs, at Ripon, and during vacations in the office of Hon. C. II. Wood, at Onarga, Ill. In October, 1870, he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar, and to the Illinois bar in 1872 at Ottawa, Ills., having located at Gibson the preceding July. By close at- tention to his professional business and untiring fidelity to his clients' interests, he has secured a full share of law business, as well as the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He has held the office of City Attorney for his adopted city, and mem- ber of the Board of Education. He is public-spirited and enter- prising. taking an active part in whatever movements are inaugu- rated for the social or commercial advancement of the young and flourishing city of his adoption so fortunately located in the fer- tile valley of the Sangamon River.
J. Rheese Patrick, fourth son of Mr. A. C. and Mrs. C. H. Patrick, was born March 4, 1858, at Rural Valley, in Arm- strong County, Penn. During his boyhood days, until he was fifteen years old, he attended the common schools of his neighbor- hood in winter time, and worked at the carpenter's trade during his vacations. Subsequently he took the full classical course of study at the Glnde Run Academy, located at Dayton, Penn., and in the spring of 1879, completed the post-graduate course in that institution, which entitled him to enter the sophomore class in college. In the fall of 1879, he engaged to teach the public school at Pellsville, Vermilion Co., Ill., as Principal, which po- sition he occupied for three successive years, and in the mean-
Dr. Lockhart Brooks Farrar was born at Langdon, Cheshire County, N. H., August 29, 1822. The death of his father oc- curred when the subject of this sketch was about four years old. Ilis mother then removed with her family to Walpole, N. H., where his boyhood and early manhood years were passed. After attending the common schools and different academies in his na- tive State, he taught school for some years in various towns in New Hampshire and Vermont. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. George Smith, of Walpole, and completed his preliminary course in his profession with the late Dr. Hubbard Groves, of Nashua, N. H. His first course of lectures was taken at Woodstock, Vt., but he received his diploma from the Berkshire Medical College, of Massachusetts, commencing in 1848. He practiced his profession for three years at Hollis, N. HI., then moved to Manchester, Mass. The winter of 1854-55 he spent at the Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, and at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, and in the hospitals of those cities. In the spring of 1856, he came to Illi- nois, and to Paxton in the full of 1858. In 1868, he began the study of law, and in 1871, took the law diploma from the Michi- gan University, and was admitted to the Illinois bar the same year. IIe opened a law office at Paxton and practiced that pro- fession for about four years, and then returned to the practice of medicine, which he still pursues at this point. In law, as well as medicine, the Doctor is well read, and possesses a much larger fund of information on other scientific subjects than is commonly found among professional men.
S. P. McLean, now associate editor of the Kankakee Times, was born May 9, 1852, in Hancock County, Va. He resided in Carrollton, Ohio, half a dozen years, and then removed to Ver- mont, Ill., in 1860. He was taught the harness-maker's trade by his father, and thereby earned the money to give him a good college education. He read law with Gest & Pooks, of Rock Isl- and, Ill., was licensed to practice on examination by the Supreme Court of Illinois, at Ottawa, in September, 1877, and in the fall of the same year came to Paxton and formed a law partnership with Hon. John Pollock, under the firm name of Pollock & McLean. A year later, Pollock retired from the practice of the profession, and McLean continued the business. At the spring election, in 1879, he was elected City Attorney for the city of Paxton, which position he held, in addition to a good general practice, until May, 1880, when he resigned the City Attorney's office, boxed his law library and entered journalism, beginning as reporter on the Bloomington, Ill., Daily Mail. As a news-
paper man he is a " Bohemian," having been engaged in reporto- rial and editorial work in the last three years, on the Sedalis (Mo.) Bazoo, the Great Southwest, of St. Louis, the Decatur Herald, Bloomington Mail, Lincoln Times, and other sheets, and as before stated is at present employed as editor of the Kankakee Times, and where his friends jokingly say he was put under bonds to stay for at least a year as a condition precedent to his employ- ment. He is quite spicy and versatile as a writer, and holds the usual adjustable political notions of newspaper reporters. He is a hard worker and liable to earn all the cash he carols from news- paper labors. On July 18, 1881, he was united in marriage with Miss Nealy Bruyn, eldest daughter of W. H. Bruyn, of Paxton, Ill.
S. P. Rady, attorney at law, at Gibson, Ill., was born in Floyd County, Ind., in 1853. Until he was fifteen years old he worked on his father's farm in the summer season and attended the district school of his neighborhood during the winter. At the age of fifteen he became an assistant teacher in the High School in Galena, under his brother, William Rady. For the next nine years he taught school a part of the time and attended school the remainder of the time. While so engaged he went to Heartsville University, Ind., and the National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated there in the scientific course in 1877. For three years thereafter he was Principal of the High School at Lonadeser, Ky. Some time afterward he accepted the Principalship of the Gibson City Public School, which he held for one year. He has now been practicing law over two years, and has now quite a respectable business for a beginner.
1878, he went to Terre Haute, Ind., where he read law in the office of Doris & Doris, for eighteen months, and in 1881 came to Paxton, Ill., and resumed his law studies in October of the latter year, under the supervision of A. Sample. On the 23d day of November, 1863, he was admitted to the bar, after a rigid examination by a committee of three eminent lawyers, appointed by the Appelate Court of the Third District, then in session at the State Capitol, to examine applicants for admission. His knowledge of his chosen profession in thoroughness and extent is undoubtedly equal to if not above the average of beginners. He certainly deserves much credit for the determination he has shown to succeed, for it must be remembered that during most of the time he has been engaged in preparation for the law practice, he has earned a livelihood for himself and family at the barber's chair, and only acquired his present knowledge of law and other subjects while others slept.
John HI. Moffett, one of the youngest and most successful members of our bar, was born in Clayton, Adams County, Ill., February 25, 1857. In 1859, he emigrated with his parents, to Bloomington, Ind, and in the spring of 1865, to Paxton, Ill .; here he graduated from the public school, standing at the head of his classes, in 1875. Desiring more extended education, he repaired to Monmouth College in the fall of the same year, and there studiously applied himself until the spring of 1877, during which time the Inte Dr. David A. Wallace, was President of that flourishing and popular institution of learning. In May, 1877, he began his investigations of the intricacies of the law in the office of John R. Kinnear, then one of the leading lawyers of the Ford County bar, and in January, 1880, admitted to prac- tice. He immediately formed a partnership with his preceptor under the firm name of Kinnear & Moffett, which lasted until May, 1883, when Mr. Kinnear took his departure for Seattle, W. T. Since then he has conducted as resident partner the law business of the firm of Tipton & Moffett. During the years 1881-82, he held the office of City Attorney for the city of Pax- ton. Studious in his habits, prompt and accurate in business transactions, methodical and thorough in the preparation of his cases, he enjoys a very respectable share of the law and collection business in Ford and surrounding counties, and is by no means a briefless lawyer.
Biographies of Hugh P. Beach, County Judge; Merton Dunlap, County Clerk; and Alexander McElroy, Esq., mem- bers of the Ford County bar, appear elsewhere in this work.
FORD COUNTY NEWSPAPERS.
BY EDGAR X. STEVEN".
The history of the newspapers of Ford County, and especially those of Paxton, has been one of successes and reverses. of hard. struggle for existence, and brilliant victory in the face of defiant opposition. The newspaper business is an occupation in which is brought into play some of the best and keenest qualities of a man's nature, and in which may also be displayed, on occasion, some of his lowost characteristics. It, in fact, may be represent- ed as a battle, in which the cohorts are brought face to face with one another in a war of words, and in which he who holds the best command of himself and his forces is sure to prevail. The hosts of sin are encamped on one side and the forces of good upon the other, and the weal or woe, the destiny of a town or city, or it may be of a nation, may rest upon the conduct of a single newspaper. It is a potent factor for good or ill in any commu- nity, which is an all-important reason that it should be in the hands of men of brain, who have the good and not the ill of the community at heart, and who will work for its upbuilding and best interests.
The first paper established in Ford County of which we have any record was the Ford County Union, started in the year 1864, and which had a precarious existence of only a few months, when it was purchased by N. E. Stevens, in February, 1865. He changed the name to the Paxton Record, and has continued its publication ever since. The policy of the paper has been un- compromisingly Republican from its very foundation, even from the time when the country was closing a war that threatened its very life blood. Through nineteen years of changing life, through seasons of adversity, of bitter strife and debate, as well as in the more pleasant times of peace, it has steadily pressed forward un- til the present time, and now stands on a firm basis of assured prosperity, demonstrating the fact that a continuous policy is the best for a country newspaper. In 1881, Mr. Stevens associated with him his son, Edgar N. Stevens, and the paper has been con- tinued since under the firm name of N. E. Stevens & Son, with . no change in the policy of the paper. The paper now occupies a building of its own on North Market street, a good location, and is enjoying a season of unwonted prosperity.
The Ford County Liberal, conducted by Charles D. Sibley, was the next paper issued in Paxton. The first number was pub- lished on the 17th day of August, 1872. It was an eight-column folio, neatly printed and ably edited. In October of the same year, Thomas Wolfe became associated with Mr. Sibley in the editorial management of the paper, and in the following month took full possession. The aim of this sheet is to furnish a live. local paper, that should chronicle all the news of the day, and at the same time furnish its Liberal and Greenback friends with arguments for their cause. The office was on a paying basis.
James Henry Lott, who is the latest accession to the Ford County bar, was born May 7, 1855. at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina. His father is of mixed blood, being equally Indian and African, and was a free man, and carpenter by trade. His mother is a quadroon, and was a slave, and by descent a granddaughter of the late Gov. Pickens, of that State. Henry went to Boston in 1865, as valet to Col. Nutt, of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Colored Volunteers, and in the fall of the same year came to Tuscola, Ill., where he attended the public schools until 1878, and in the meantime learned the barber's trade. In | when, in October, 1874, under the management of Messrs. Wolfe
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& Dodd, the building occupied and its effects were burned. The paper was never resurrected.
The Ford County Blade was the child of a day, started by Messrs. Creed & Doxsey, of Bloomington, on the 1st day of July, 187ti, upon the supposition that Paxton needed another local paper and to awaken a deeper interest in politics among the Dem- ocratic fraternity in this immediate vicinity. This firm published a neway local paper for the brief term of twenty-four weeks, but was finally obliged to succumb to the inevitable. On the 9th day of December, of the same year, the last paper was issued. The failure to establish a paper was ascribed to the fact that the bus- iness was not here to support two live papers-evidently a sensi- ble conclusion. Among others to whom credit was given by this firm for favors shown, was Mr. Stevens, of the Record.
Nearly a year elapsed before the next paper appeared, when another firm from Bloomington put in the material for a job and newspaper office. Messrs. Holmes & Colvin christened their paper the Ford County News, and on the 3d of November, 1877, started out from a Republican standpoint to publish a paper well tinged with that doctrine, and also to make it replete with general local matter. The last issue appeared on the 19th of January, 1878, these parties having found that the field of Republicanism in the county was well occupied.
The Weekly Standard. by the same publishers, appeared on the 26th of January, 1878." Like the two other papers last mentioned, it was a five-column quarto, and, in reality, a contin- uance of the News, but cspoused the Greenback cause. The Standard was longer lived than its immediate predecessors, and hung on with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause until 1879, when it succumbed to the inevitable, the field not being broad enough for its proper support.
The first edition of the Appeal was published on the 26th of November, 1879. The main reason for its appearance was based upon the supposition of its editor that we had entered upon seven years of prosperity, an hypothesis which has long since been proven a fallacy. It was an organ of the Greenback party, with Thomas Wolfe as editor, and B. F. Hill, publisher. After an ephemeral existence of forty-one weeks, about the 1st of Sep- tember, 1880, the property was purchased by J. C. Dunham, who, in January, 1881, changed the name of the paper to the Eastern Illinois Register, and has since continued its publication in this city. The policy of the paper was announced as Greenback, although its editor and proprietor is said to be a Bourbon of the old school, and has strong leanings in that direction when elec- tion time is near at hand, although at other times his views are not so pronounced.
The Gibson Enterprise is now in its second volume. P. A. Coal is editor and proprietor. The Enterprise is a thorough Republican paper, and is devoted to the best interests of the city and county. Its success is assured. Having a desire to furnish a newspaper that not only gives the general news of the day, but the home news as well, Mr. Coal is applying himself earnestly to the work before him. His experience in establishing the Sibley Index on a substantial basis has been of much practical use to him in his newspaper work at Gibson City. His province is to build up whatever he has to do with, and to further the prosperity of his city, county and political party, the Enterprise is apply- ing all honorable means.
The Pan Handle Advocate was started April 20, 1883, by F. H. Robertson. During the succeeding summer, Judge Beach succeeded Mr. Robertson in the proprietorship of the paper, and in less than one year has increased its circulation to about 600. It is a six-column quarto. It has been an independent journal, a paper expressly for the people, clean, straightforward and thor- oughly representative, social, religious, political, industrial, etc. In short, it aspires to be the family paper per se. Published at Piper City, III.
Burt E. Burroughs, of Cabery, is publishing the Cabery En- quirer, which is now approaching the completion of the first vol- ume. Mr. Burroughs publishes a newsy, local paper at Cabery, and the advertisers of that village make good use of his columns to show forth the value of their goods. Mr. Burroughs publishes a very creditable paper, which is an honor to the place.
The first number of the Sibley Index was published about January 1, 1880, and the paper is now in its fifth volume. P. A. Coal was and still is the proprietor. H. W. Rodman is now the editor. The paper is a neat, five-column quarto, and well up with the demands of the day for a good local paper. The cit- izens of Sibley furnish a good advertising patronage, and the paper is well supported. Since writing the above, the Index has passed into the hands of M. T. Hyer, who is proving himself to be fully competent to successfully conduct an excellent paper. The Gibson Enterprise was the first paper ever published in Gibson. It was started by N. E. Stevens in the month of May, 1872, to supply the needs of the town for & local paper. The printing was done at the Record office in Paxton. On the 1st of November, 1873, the Enterprise was purchased by Walter Hoge, who changed the name to the Gibson Courier. In size it was a seven column folio ; in politics. independent. Mr. Hoge ran the paper until February, 1875, when the property was pur- chased by E. Lowry, who took possession March 1, 1875, and has managed the paper ever since. In politics, it has always been Independent, though generally favoring the Republican party and candidates. November 1, 1878, it was changed to a five- column quarto, and in November, 1882, to a six-column quarto, and has remained such to this day. Mr. Lowry furnishes a good local paper, aiming to keep the people apprised of what is going on at home.
NOTE .- The foregoing is contributed by Elgar N. Stevens.
FORD COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
THE PIPER CITY "ADVERTISER."
This paper was founded by Henry Allnutt, the present editor and proprietor, who had located in Ford County in 1870, on a Pella Township farm. Removing to Piper City in 1873, he pur- chased a quarto novelty press, twenty-five pounds of brevier, twenty-five pounds of long primer type, a few fonts of job type and other material, and opened a job office. In June, 1876, the Advertiser, a four-column folio, was first issued. The subscrip- tion list, starting with 193, rapidly increased. January, 1877, the paper 'was enlarged to a four-column quarto. In 1879, a larger press and more material were added, and the paper printed as a six-column folio.
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