Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Edgar County, Part 8

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell
Number of Pages: 876

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BATAVIA, a city in Kane County, on Fox River and branch lines of the Chicago & North- western and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads, 35 miles west of Chicago; has water power and several prosperous manufacturing establishments employing over 1,000 operatives. The city has fine water-works supplied from an artesian well, electric lighting plant, electric street car lines with interurban connections, two weekly papers, eight churches, two public schools, and private hospital for insane women. Population (1900), 3,871; (1903, est.), 4,400.

BATEMAN, Newton, A. M., LL.D., educator and Editor-in-Chief of the "Historical Encyclo- pedia of Illinois," was born at Fairfield, N. J., July 27, 1822, of mixed English and Scotch an-

1833; in his youth enjoyed only limited educa- tional advantages, but graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville in 1843, supporting him- self during his college course wholly by his own labor. Having contemplated entering the Chris- tian ministry, he spent the following year at Lane Theological Seminary, but was compelled to withdraw on account of failing health, when he gave a year to travel. He then entered upon his life-work as a teacher by engaging as Principal of an English and Classical School in St. Louis, remaining there two years, when he accepted the Professorship of Mathematics in St. Charles Col- lege, at St. Charles, Mo., continuing in that position four years (1847-51). Returning to Jack- sonville, Ill., in the latter year, he assumed the principalship of the main public school of that city. Here he remained seven years, during four of them discharging the duties of County Super- intendent of Schools for Morgan County. In the fall of 1857 he became Principal of Jacksonville Female Academy, but the following year was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, having been nominated for the office by the Republican State Convention of 1858, which put Abraham Lincoln in nomination for the United States Senate. By successive re-elections he con- tinued in this office fourteen years, serving con- tinuously from 1859 to 1875, except two years (1863-65), as the result of his defeat for re-election in 1862. He was also endorsed for the same office by the State Teachers' Association in 1856, but was not formally nominated by a State Conven- tion. During his incumbency the Illinois com- mon school system was developed and brought to the state of efficiency which it has so well main- tained. He also prepared some seven volumes of biennial reports, portions of which have been republished in five different languages of Europe, besides a volume of "Common School Decisions," originally published by authority of the General Assembly, and of which several editions have since been issued. This volume has been recog- nized by the courts, and is still regarded as authoritative on the subjects to which it relates. In addition to his official duties during a part of this period, for three years he served as editor of "The Illinois Teacher," and was one of a com- mittee of three which prepared the bill adopted by Congress creating the National Bureau of Education. Occupying a room in the old State Capitol at Springfield adjoining that used as an office by Abraham Lincoln during the first candi- dacy of the latter for the Presidency, in 1860, a

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

close intimacy sprang up between the two men, which enabled the "School-master," as Mr. Lin- coln playfully called the Doctor, to acquire an insight into the character of the future emanci- pator of a race, enjoyed by few men of that time, and of which he gave evidence by his lectures full of interesting reminiscence and eloquent appreciation of the high character of the "Martyr President." A few months after his retirement from the State Superintendency (1875), Dr. Bate- man was offered and accepted the Presidency of Knox College at Galesburg, remaining until 1893, when he voluntarily tendered his resignation. This, after having been repeatedly urged upon the Board, was finally accepted; but that body immediately, and by unanimous vote, appointed him President Emeritus and Professor of Mental and Moral Science, under which he continued to discharge his duties as a special lecturer as his health enabled him to do so. During his incum- bency as President of Knox College, he twice received a tender of the Presidency of Iowa State University and the Chancellorship of two other important State institutions. He also served, by appointment of successive Governors between 1877 and 1891, as a member of the State Board of Health, for four years of this period being Presi- dent of the Board. In February, 1878, Dr. Bate- man, unexpectedly and without solicitation on his part, received from President Hayes an appoint- ment as "Assay Commissioner" to examine and test the fineness and weight of United States coins, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress of June 22, 1874, and discharged the duties assigned at the mint in Philadelphia. Never of a very strong physique, which was rather weakened by his privations while a stu- dent and his many years of close confinement to mental labor, towards the close of his life Dr. Bateman suffered much from a chest trouble which finally developed into "angina pectoris," or heart disease, from which, as the result of a most painful attack, he died at his home in Gales- burg, Oct. 21, 1897. The event produced the most profound sorrow, not only among his associ- ates in the Faculty and among the students of Knox College, but a large number of friends throughout the State, who had known liim offi- cially or personally, and had learned to admire his many noble and beautiful traits of character. His funeral, which occurred at Galesburg on Oct. 25, called out an immense concourse of sorrowing friends. Almost the last labors per- formed by Dr. Bateman were in the revision of matter for this volume, in which he manifested

the deepest interest from the time of his assump- tion of the duties of its Editor-in-Chief. At the time of his death he had the satisfaction of know- ing that his work in this field was practically complete. Dr. Bateman had been twice married, first in 1850 to Miss Sarah Dayton of Jacksonville, who died in 1857, and a second time in October, 1859, to Miss Annie N. Tyler, of Massachusetts (but for some time a teacher in Jacksonville Female Academy), who died, May 28, 1878 .-- Clifford Rush (Bateman), a son of Dr. Bateman by his first marriage, was born at Jacksonville, March 7, 1854, graduated at Amherst College and later from the law department of Columbia Col- lege, New York, afterwards prosecuting his studies at Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris, finally becoming Professor of Administrative Law and Government in Columbia College-a position especially created for him. He had filled this position a little over one year when his career- which was one of great promise-was cut short by death, Feb. 6, 1883. Three daughters of Dr. Bate- man survive-all the wives of clergymen .- P. S.

BATES, Clara Doty, author, was born at Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 22, 1838; published her first book in 1868; the next year married Morgan Bates, a Chicago publisher; wrote much for juvenile periodicals, besides stories and poems, some of the most popular among the latter being "Blind Jakey" (1868) and "Æsop's Fables" in verse (1873). She was the collector of a model library for children, for the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893. Died in Chicago, Oct. 14, 1895.

BATES, Erastus Newton, soldier and State Treasurer, was born at Plainfield, Mass., Feb. 29, 1828, being descended from Pilgrims of the May- flower. When 8 years of age he was brought by his father to Ohio, where the latter soon after- ward died. For several years he lived with an uncle, preparing himself for college and earning money by teaching and manual labor. · He gradu- ated from .Williams College, Mass., in 1853, and commenced the study of law in New York City, but later removed to Minnesota, where he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1856 and was elected to the State Senate in 1857. In 1859 he removed to Centralia, Ill., and com- menced practice there in August, 1862; was com- missioned Major of the Eightieth Illinois Volunteers, being successively promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, and finally brevetted Brigadier-General. For fifteen months he was a prisoner of war, escaping from Libby Prison only to be recaptured and later exposed to the fire of the Union batteries at Mor-

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

ris Island, Charleston harbor. In 1866 he was elected to the Legislature, and, in 1868, State Treasurer, being re-elected to the latter office under the new Constitution of 1870, and serving until January, 1873. Died. at Minneapolis, Minn., May 29, 1898, and was buried at Spring- field.

BATES, George C., lawyer and politician, was born in Canandaigua, N. Y., and removed to Michigan in 1834; in 1849 was appointed United States District Attorney for that State, but re- moved to California in 1850, where he became a member of the celebrated "Vigilance Committee" at San Francisco, and, in 1856, delivered the first Republican speech there. From 1861 to 1871, he practiced law in Chicago; the latter year was appointed District Attorney for Utah, serving two years, in 1878 removing to Denver, Colo., where he died, Feb. 11, 1886. Mr. Bates was an orator of much reputation, and was selected to express the thanks of the citizens of Chicago to Gen. B. J. Sweet, commandant of Camp Douglas, after the detection and defeat of the Camp Doug- las conspiracy in November, 1864 -- a duty which he performed in an address of great eloquence. At an early day he married the widow of Dr. Alexander Wolcott, for a number of years previ- ous to 1830 Indian Agent at Chicago, his wife being a daughter of John Kinzie, the first white settler of Chicago.

BATH, a village of Mason County, on the Jacksonville branch of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway, 8 miles south of Havana. Popu- lation (1880), 439; (1890), 384; (1900), 330.

BAYLIS, a corporate village of Pike County, on the main line of the Wabash Railway, 40 miles southeast of Quincy ; has one newspaper. Popu- lation (1890), 368; (1900), 340.

BAYLISS, Alfred, Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born about 1846, served as a private in the First Michigan Cavalry the last two years of the Civil War, and graduated from Hillsdale College (Mich.), in 1870, supporting himself during his college course by work upon a farm and teaching. After serving three years as County Superintendent of Schools in La Grange County, Ind., in 1874 he came to Illinois and entered upon the vocation of a teacher in the northern part of the State. He served for some time as Superintendent of Schools for the city of Sterling, afterwards becoming Principal of the Township High School at Streator, where he was, in 1898, when he received the nomination for the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, to which he was elected in November follow-

ing by a plurality over his Democratic opponent of nearly 70,000 votes.

BEARD, Thomas, pioneer and founder of the city of Beardstown, Ill., was born in Granville, Washington County, N. Y., in 1795, taken to Northeastern Ohio in 1800, and, in 1818, removed to Illinois, living for a time about Edwardsville and Alton. In 1820 he went to the locality of the present city of Beardstown, and later estab- lished there the first ferry across the Illinois River. In 1827, in conjunction with Enoch March of Morgan County, he entered the land on which Beardstown was platted in 1829. Died, at Beardstown, in November, 1849.

BEARDSTOWN, a city in Cass County, on the Illinois River, being the intersecting point for the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern and the Chi- cago, Burlington & Quincy Railways, and the northwestern terminus of the former. It is 111 miles north of St. Louis and 90 miles south of Peoria. Thomas Beard, for whom the town was named, settled here about 1820 and soon after- wards established the first ferry across the Illi- nois River. In 1827 the land was patented by Beard and Enoch March, and the town platted, and, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, it became a principal base of supplies for the Illi- nois volunteers. The city has six churches and three schools (including a high school), two banks and two daily newspapers. Several branches of manufacturing are carried on here-flouring and saw mills, cooperage works, an axe-handle fac- tory, two button factories, two stave factories, one shoe factory, large machine shops, and others of less importance. The river is spanned here by a fine railroad bridge, costing some $300,000. Population (1890), 4,226; (1900), 4,827.

BEAUBIEN, Jean Baptiste, the second per- manent settler on the site of Chicago, was born at Detroit in 1780, became clerk of a fur-trader on Grand River, married an Ottawa woman for his first wife, and, in 1800, had a trading-post at Mil- waukee, which he maintained until 1818. Ho visited Chicago as early as 1804, bought a cabin there soon after the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812, married the daughter of Francis La Fram- boise, a French trader, and, in 1818, became agent of the American Fur Company, having charge of trading posts at Mackinaw and else- where. After 1823 he occupied the building known as "the factory," just outside of Fort Dear- born, which had belonged to the Government, but removed to a farm on the Des Plaines in 1840. Out of the ownership of this building grew his claim to the right, in 1835, to enter seventy-five

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

acres of land belonging to the Fort Dearborn reservation. The claim was allowed by the Land Office officials and sustained by the State courts, but disallowed by the Supreme Court of the United States after long litigation. An attempt was made to revive this claim in Congress in 1878, but it was reported upon adversely by a Senate Committee of which the late Senator Thomas F. Bayard was chairman. Mr. Beaubien was evidently a man of no little prominence in his day. He led a company of Chicago citizens to the Black Hawk War in 1832, was appointed by the Governor the first Colonel of Militia for Cook County, and, in 1850, was commissioned Brigadier-General. In 1858 he removed to Nash- ville, Tenn., and died there, Jan. 5, 1863 .- Mark (Beaubien), a younger brother of Gen. Beaubien, was born in Detroit in 1800, came to Chicago in 1826, and bought a log house of James Kinzie, in which he kept a hotel for some time. Later, he erected the first frame building in Chicago, which was known as the "Sauganash," and in which he kept a hotel until 1834. He also engaged in mer- chandising, but was not successful, ran the first ferry across the South Branch of the Chicago River, and served for many years as lighthouse keeper at Chicago. About 1834 the Indians trans- ferred to him a reservation of 640 acres of land on the Calumet, for which, some forty years after- wards, he received a patent which had been signed by Martin Van Buren-he having previ- ously been ignorant of its existence. He was married twice and had a family of twenty-two children. Died, at Kankakee, Ill., April 16, 1881. -Madore B. (Beaubien), the second son of General Beaubien by his Indian wife, was born on Grand River in Michigan, July 15, 1809, joined his father in Chicago, was educated in a Baptist Mission School where Niles, Mich., now stands; was licensed as a merchant in Chicago in 1831, but failed as a business man; served as Second Lieutenant of the Naperville Company in the Black Hawk War, and later was First Lieutenant of a Chicago Company. His first wife was a white woman, from whom he separated, after- wards marrying an Indian woman. He left Illi- nois with the Pottawatomies in 1840, resided at Council Bluffs and, later, in Kansas, being for many years the official interpreter of the tribe and, for some time, one of six Commissioners employed by the Indians to look after their affairs with the United States Government. - Alexander (Beaubien), son of General Beau- bien by his white wife, was born in one of the buildings belonging to Fort Dearborn, Jan. 28,

1822. In 1840 he accompanied his father to his farm on the Des Plaines, but returned to Chicago in 1862, and for years past has been employed on the Chicago police force.

BEBB, William, Governor of Ohio, was born in Hamilton County in that State in 1802; taught school at North Bend, the home of William Henry Harrison, studied law and practiced at Hamilton; served as Governor of Ohio, 1846-48; later led a Welsh colony to Tennessee, but left at the out- break of the Civil War, removing to Winnebago County, Ill., where he had purchased a large body of land. He was a man of uncompromising loyalty and high principle; served as Examiner of Pensions by appointment of President Lincoln and, in 1868, took a prominent part in the cam- paign which resulted in Grant's first election to the Presidency. Died at Rockford, Oct. 23, 1873. A daughter of Governor Bebb married Hon. John P. Reynolds, for many years the Secretary of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, and, during the World's Columbian Exposition, Director-in-Chief of the Illinois Board of World's Fair Commissioners.

BECKER, Charles St. N., ex-State Treasurer, was born in Germany, June 14, 1840, and brought to this country by his parents at the age of 11 years, the family settling in St. Clair County, Ill. Early in the Civil War he enlisted in the Twelfth Missouri regiment, and, at the battle of Pea Ridge, was so severely wounded that it was found necessary to amputate one of his legs. In 1866 he was elected Sheriff of St. Clair County, and, from 1872 to 1880, he served as clerk of the St. Clair Circuit Court. He also served several terms as a City Councilman of Belleville. In 1888 he was elected State Treasurer on the Republican ticket, serving from Jan. 14, 1889, to Jan. 12, 1891.

BECKWITH, Corydon, lawyer and jurist, was born in Vermont in 1823, and educated at Provi- dence, R. I., and Wrentham, Mass. He read law and was admitted to the bar in St. Albans, Vt., where he practiced for two years. In 1853 he removed to Chicago, and, in January, 1864, was appointed by Governor Yates a Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the five remaining months of the unexpired term of Judge Caton, who had resigned. On retiring from the bench he re- sumed private practice. Died, August 18, 1890.

BECKWITH, Hiram Williams, lawyer and author, was born at Danville, Ill., March 5, 1833. Mr. Beckwith's father, Dan W. Beckwith, a pio- neer settler of Eastern Illinois and one of the founders of the city of Danville, was a native of Wyalusing, Pa., where he was born about 1789,

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

his mother being, in her girlhood, Hannah York, one of the survivors of the famous Wyoming massacre of 1778. In 1817, the senior Beckwith, in company with his brother George, descended the Ohio River, afterwards ascending the Wabash to where Terre Haute now stands, but finally locating in what is now a part of Edgar County, Ill. A year later he removed to the vicinity of the present site of the city of Danville. Having been employed for a time in a surveyor's corps, he finally became a surveyor himself, and, on the organization of Vermilion County, served for a time as County Surveyor by appointment of the Governor, and was also employed by the General Government in surveying lands in the eastern part of the State, some of the Indian reservations in that section of the State being set off by him. In connection with Guy W. Smith, then Receiver of Public Moneys in the Land Office at Palestine, Ill., he donated the ground on which the county-seat of Vermilion County was located, and it took the name of Dan- ville from his first name-"Dan." In 1830 he was elected Representative in the State Legisla- ture for the District composed of Clark, Edgar, and Vermilion Counties, then including all that section of the State between Crawford County and the Kankakee River. He died in 1835. Hiram, the subject of this sketch, thus left fatherless at less than three years of age, received only such education as was afforded in the com- mon schools of that period. Nevertheless, he began the study of law in the Danville office of Lincoln & Lamon, and was admitted to practice in 1854, about the time of reaching his majority. He continued in their office and, on the removal of Lamon to Bloomington in 1859, he succeeded to the business of the firm at Danville. Mr. Lamon-who, on Mr. Lincoln's accession to the Presidency in 1861, became Marshal of the Dis- trict of Columbia-was distantly related to Mr. Beckwith by a second marriage of the mother of the latter. While engaged in the practice of his profession, Mr. Beckwith has been over thirty years a zealous collector of records and other material bearing upon the early history of Illinois and the Northwest, and is probably now the owner of one of the most complete and valuable collections of Americana in Illinois. He is also the author of several monographs on historic themes, including "The Winnebago War," "The Illinois and Indiana Indians," and "Historic Notes of the Northwest," published in the "Fer- gus Series," besides having edited an edition of "Reynolds' History of Illinois" (published by the

same firm), which he has enriched by the addition of valuable notes. During 1895-96 he contributed a series of valuable articles to "The Chicago Tribune" on various features of early Illinois and Northwest history. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Fifer a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, serving until the expiration of his term in 1894, and was re-appointed to the same position by Governor Tanner in 1897, in each case being chosen President of the Board.

BEECHER, Charles A., attorney and railway solicitor, was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., August 27, 1829, but, in 1836, removed with his family to Licking County, Ohio, where he lived upon a farm until he reached the age of 18 years. Having taken a course in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, in 1854 he removed to Illinois, locating at Fairfield, Wayne County. and began the study of law in the office of his brother, Edwin Beecher, being admitted to prac- tice in 1855. In 1867 he united with others in the organization of the Illinois Southeastern Rail- road projected from Shawneetown to Edgewood on the Illinois Central in Effingham County. This enterprise was consolidated, a year or two later, with the Pana, Springfield & Northwest- ern, taking the name of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern, under which name it was con- structed and opened for traffic in 1871. (This line-which Mr. Beecher served for some time as Vice- President-now constitutes the Beards- town & Shawneetown Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern.) The Springfield & Illi- nois Southeastern Company having fallen into financial difficulty in 1873, Mr. Beecher was appointed receiver of the road, and, for a time, had control of its operation as agent for the bond- holders. In 1875 the line was conveyed to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad (now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio), when Mr. Beecher became General Counsel of the controlling corporation, so remaining until 1888. Since that date he has been one of the assistant counsel of the Baltimore & Ohio system. His present home is in Cincin- nati, although for over a quarter of a century he has been prominently identified with one of the most important railway enterprises in Southern Illinois. In politics Mr. Beecher has always been a Republican, and was one of the few in Wayne County who voted for Fremont in 1856, and for Lincoln in 1860. He was also a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Illinois from 1860 for a period of ten or twelve years.

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

BEECHER, Edward, D. D., clergyman and educator, was born at East Hampton, L. I., August 27, 1803-the son of Rev. Lyman Beecher and the elder brother of Henry Ward; graduated at Yale College in 1822, taught for over a year at Hartford, Conn., studied theology, and after a year's service as tutor in Yale College, in 1826 was ordained pastor of the Park Street Congregational Church in Boston. In 1830 he _became President of Illinois College at

Jacksonville, remaining until 1844, when he resigned and returned to Boston, serving as pastor of the Salem Street Church in that city until 1856. also acting as senior editor of "The Congregationalist" for four years. In 1856 he returned to Illinois as pastor of the First Con- gregational Church at Galesburg, continuing until 1871, when he removed to Brooklyn, where he resided without pastoral charge, except 1885- 89, when he was pastor of the Parkville Congre- gational Church. While President of Illinois College, that institution was exposed to much hostile criticism on account of his outspoken opposition to slavery, as shown by his participa- tion in founding the first Illinois State Anti- Slavery Society and his eloquent denunciation of the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy. Next to his brother Henry Ward, he was probably the most powerful orator belonging to that gifted family, and, in connection with his able associates in the faculty of the Illinois College, assisted to give that institution a wide reputation as a nursery of independent thought. Up to a short time before his death, he was a prolific writer, his productions (besides editorials, reviews and con- tributions on a variety of subjects) including nine or ten volumes, of which the most impor- tant are: "Statement of Anti-Slavery Principles and Address to the People of Illinois" (1837); "A Plea for Illinois College"; "History of the Alton Riots" (1838); "The Concord of Ages" (1853) ; "The Conflict of Ages" (1854) ; "Papal Conspiracy Exposed" (1854), besides a number of others invariably on religious or anti-slavery topics. Died in Brooklyn, July 28, 1895.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Edgar County, Part 8

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Number of Pages: 876

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell
Number of Pages: 876