Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698

USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I > Part 36

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FULLER, Melville Weston, eighth Chief Jus- tice of the United States Supreme Court, was born at Augusta, Maine, Feb. 11, 1833, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1853, was admitted to

the bar in 1855, and became City Attorney of his native city, but resigned and removed to Chicago the following year. Through his mother's family he traces his descent back to the Pilgrims of the Mayflower. His literary and legal attain- ments are of a high order. In politics he has always been a strong Democrat. He served as a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1862 and as a member of the Legislature in 1863, after that time devoting his attention to the practice of his profession in Chicago. In 1888 President Cleveland appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, since which time he has resided at Washington, although still claiming a residence in Chicago, where he has considerable property interests.

FULLERTON, Alexander N., pioneer settler and lawyer, born in Chester, Vt., in 1804, was educated at Middlebury College and Litchfield Law School, and, coming to Chicago in 1833, finally engaged in real-estate and mercantile business, in which he was very successful. His name has been given to one of the avenues of Chicago, as well as associated with one of the prominent business blocks. He was one of the original members of the Second Presbyterian Church of that city. Died, Sept. 29, 1880.

FULTON, a city and railway center in White- side County, 135 miles west of Chicago, located on the Mississippi River and the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railways. It was formerly the terminus of a line of steamers which annually brought millions of bushels of grain down the Mississippi from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, returning with merchandise, agricultural implements, etc., but this river trade gradually died out, having been usurped by the various railroads. Fulton has extensive factories for the making of stoves, besides some important lumber industries. The Northern Illinois College is located here. Popu- lation (1890), 2,099; (1900), 2,685.

FULTON COUNTY, situated west of and bor- dering on the Illinois River; was originally a part of Pike County, but separately organized in 1823 -named for Robert Fulton. It has an area of 870 square miles with a population (1900) of 46,201. The soil is rich, well watered and wooded. Drain- age is effected by the Illinois and Spoon Rivers (the former constituting its eastern boundary) and by Copperas Creek. Lewistown became the county-seat immediately after county organi- zation, and so remains to the present time (1899). The surface of the county at a distance from the

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river is generally flat, although along the Illinois there are bluffs rising to the height of 125 feet. The soil is rich, and underlying it are rich, work- able seams of coal. A thin seam of cannel coal has been mined near Avon, with a contiguous vein of fire-clay. Some of the earliest settlers were Messrs. Craig and Savage, who, in 1818, built a saw mill on Otter Creek; Ossian M. Ross and Stephen Dewey, who laid off Lewistown on his own land in 1822. The first hotel in the entire military tract was opened at Lewistown by Tru- man Phelps, in 1827. A flat-boat ferry across the Illinois was established at Havana, in 1823. The principal towns are Canton(pop.6,564), Lewistown (2,166), Farmington (1,375), and Vermont (1,158).

FULTON COUNTY NARROW-GAUGE RAIL- WAY, a line extending from the west bank of the Illinois River, opposite Havana, to Galesburg, 61 miles. It is a single-track, narrow-gauge (3-foot) road, although the excavations and embankments are being widened to accommodate a track of standard gauge. The grades are few, and, as a rule, are light, although, in one instance, the gradient is eighty-four feet to the mile. There are more than 19 miles of curves, the maxi- mum being sixteen degrees. The rails are of iron, thirty-five pounds to the yard, road not ballasted. Capital stock outstanding (1895), $636,794; bonded debt, $484,000; miscellaneous obligations, $462, 362; total capitalization, $1,583, - 156. The line from Havana to Fairview (31 miles) was chartered in 1878 and opened in 1880 and the extension from Fairview to Galesburg chartered in 1881 and opened in 1882.

FUNK, Isaac, pioneer, was born in Clark County, Ky., Nov. 17, 1797; grew up with meager educational advantages and, in 1823, came to Illi- nois, finally settling at what afterwards became known as Funk's Grove in McLean County. Here, with no other capital than industry, per- severance, and integrity, Mr. Funk began laying the foundation of one of the most ample fortunes ever acquired in Illinois outside the domain of trade or speculation. By agriculture and dealing in live-stock, he became the possessor of a large area of the finest farming lands in the State, which he brought to a high state of cultivation, leaving an estate valued at his death at not less than $2,000,000. Mr. Funk served three sessions in the General Assembly, first as Representative , in the Twelfth (1840-42), and as Senator in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth (1862-66), dying before the close of his last term, Jan. 29, 1865. Originally a Whig in politics, he became a Repub- lican on the organization of that party, and gave

a liberal and patriotic support to the Government during the war for the preservation of the Union. During the session of the Twenty-third General Assembly, in February, 1863, he delivered a speech in the Senate in indignant condemnation of the policy of the anti-war factionists, which, although couched in homely language, aroused the enthusiasm of the friends of the Government throughout the State and won for its author a prominent place in State history .- Benjamin F. (Funk), son of the preceding, was born in Funk's Grove Township, McLean County, Ill., Oct. 17, 1838. After leaving the district schools, he entered the Wesleyan University at Blooming- ton, but suspended his studies to enter the army in 1862, enlisting as a private in the Sixty-eighth Illinois Volunteers. After five months' service he was honorably discharged, and re-entered the University, completing a three-years' course. For three years after graduation he followed farming as an avocation, and, in 1869, took up his residence at Bloomington. In 1871 he was chosen Mayor, and served seven consecutive terms. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1888, and was the suc- cessful candidate of that party, in 1892, for Repre- sentative in Congress from the Fourteenth Illinois District .- Lafayette (Funk), another son of Isaac Funk, was a Representative from McLean County in the Thirty-third General Assembly and Sena- tor in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth. Other sons who have occupied seats in the same body include George W., Representative in the Twenty- seventh, and Duncan M., Representative in the Fortieth and Forty-first Assemblies The Funk family have been conspicuous in the affairs of McLean County for a generation, and its mem- bers have occupied many other positions of im- portance and influence, besides those named, under the State, County and municipal governments.

GAGE, Lyman J., Secretary of the Treasury, was born in De Ruyter, Madison County, N. Y., June 28, 1836; received a common school educa- tion in his native county, and, on the removal of his parents, in 1848, to Rome, N. Y., enjoyed the advantages of instruction in an academy. At the age of 17 he entered the employment of the Oneida Central Bank as office-boy and general utility clerk, but, two years afterwards, came to Chicago, first securing employment in a planing mill, and, in 1858, obtaining a position as book- keeper of the Merchants' Loan and Trust Com- pany, at a salary of $500 a year. By 1861 he had been advanced to the position of cashier of the

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concern, but, in 1868, he accepted the cashiership of the First National Bank of Chicago, of which he became the Vice-President in 1881 and, in 1891, the President. Mr. Gage was also one of the prominent factors in securing the location of the World's Fair at Chicago, becoming one of the guarantors of the $10,000, 000 promised to be raised by the city of Chicago, and being finally chosen the first President of the Exposition Company. He also presided over the bankers' section of the World's Congress Auxiliary in 1893, and, for a number of years, was President of the Civic Feder- ation of Chicago. On the assumption of the Presidency by President McKinley, in March, 1897, Mr. Gage was selected for the position of Secretary of the Treasury, which he has con- tinued to occupy up to the present time (1899).

GALATIA, a village of Saline County, on the Illinois Central Railroad, 40 miles southeast of Duquoin; has a bank; leading industry is coal- mining. Population (1890), 519; (1900), 642.

GALE, George Washington, D.D., LL.D., clergyman and educator, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y., Dec. 3, 1789. Left an orphan at eight years of age, he fell to the care of older sisters who inherited the vigorous character of their father, which they instilled into the son. He graduated at Union College in 1814, and, hav- ing taken a course in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, in 1816 was licensed by the Hudson Presbytery and assumed the charge of building up new churches in Jefferson County, N. Y., serving also for six years as pastor of the Presby- terian church at Adams. Here his labors were attended by a revival in which Charles G. Fin- ney, the eloquent evangelist, and other eminent men were converts. Having resigned his charge at Adams on account of illness, he spent the winter of 1823-24 in Virginia, where his views were enlarged by contact with a new class of people. Later, removing to Oneida County, N. Y., by his marriage with Harriet Selden he acquired a considerable property, insuring an income which enabled him to extend the field of his labors. The result was the establishment of the Oneida Institute, a manual labor school, at Whitesboro, with which he remained from 1827 to 1834, and out of which grew Lane Seminary and Oberlin and Knox Colleges. In 1835 he con- ceived the idea of establishing a colony and an institution of learning in the West, and a com- mittee representing a party of proposed colonists was appointed to make a selection of a site, which resulted, in the following year, in the choice of a location in Knox County, Ill.,including the

site of the present city of Galesburg, which was named in honor of Mr. Gale, as the lead of the enterprise. Here, in 1837, were taken the first practical steps in carrying out plans which had been previously matured in New York, for the establishment of an institution which first received the name of Knox Manual Labor Col- lege. The manual labor feature having been finally discarded, the institution took the name of Knox College in 1857. Mr. Gale was the lead- ing promoter of the enterprise, by a liberal dona- tion of lands contributing to its first endowment, and, for nearly a quarter of a century, being intimately identified with its history. From 1840 to '42 he served in the capacity of acting Professor of Ancient Languages, and, for fifteen years thereafter, as Professor of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. Died, at Galesburg, Sept. 31, 1861. -William Selden (Gale), oldest son of the preced- ing, was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., Feb. 15, 1822, came with his father to Galesburg, Ill., in 1836, and was educated there. Having read law with the Hon. James Knox, he was admitted to the bar in 1845, but practiced only a few years, as he began to turn his attention to measures for the development of the country. One of these was the Central Military Tract Railroad (now the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy), of which he was the most active promoter and a Director. He was also a member of the Board of Supervisors of Knox County, from the adoption of township organization in 1853 to 1895, with the exception of four years, and, during the long controversy which resulted in the location of the county-seat at Galesburg, was the leader of the Galesburg party, and subsequently took a prominent part in the erection of public buildings there. Other positions held by him include the office of Post- master of the city of Galesburg, 1849-53; member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1862, and Representative in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly (1870-72); Presidential Elector in 1872; Delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1880; City Alderman, 1872-82 and 1891-95; member of the Commission appointed by Gov- ernor Oglesby in 1885 to revise the State Revenue Laws; by appointment of President Harrison, Superintendent of the Galesburg Government Building, and a long term Trustee of the Illinois Hospital for the Insane at Rock Island, by appointment of Governor Altgeld. He has also been a frequent representative of his party (the Republican) in State and District Conven- tions, and, since 1861, has been an active and leading member of the Board of Trustees of

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Knox College. Mr. Gale was married, Oct. 6, 1845, to Miss Caroline Ferris, granddaughter of the financial representative of the Galesburg Colony of 1836, and has had eight children, of whom four are living. Died Sep. 1, 1900.

GALENA, the county-seat of Jo Daviess County, a city and port of entry, 150 miles in a direct line west by northwest of Chicago; is located on Galena River, about 412 miles above its junction with the Mississippi, and is an intersecting point for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the North- western, and the Illinois Central Railroads, with connections by stub with the Chicago Great Western. It is built partially in a valley and partially on the bluffs which overlook the river, the Galena River being made navigable for ves- sels of deep draught by a system of lockage. The vicinity abounds in rich mines of sulphide of lead (galena), from which the city takes its name. Galena is adorned by handsome public and priv- ate buildings and a beautiful park, in which stands a fine bronze statue of General Grant, and a symmetrical monument dedicated to the sol- diers and sailors of Jo Daviess County who lost their lives during the Civil War. Its industries include a furniture factory, a table factory, two foundries, a tub factory and a carriage factory. Zinc ore is now being produced in and near the city in large quantities, and its niining interests will become vast at no distant day. It owns an electric light plant, and water is furnished from an artesian well 1,700 feet deep. Galena was one of the earliest towns in Northern Illinois to be settled, its mines having been worked in the lat- ter part of the seventeenth century. Many men of distinction in State and National affairs came from Galena, among whom were Gen. U. S. Grant, Gen. John A. Rawlins, Gen. John E. Smith, Gen. John C. Smith, Gen. A. L. Chetlain, Gen. John O. Duer, Gen. W. R. Rowley, Gen. E. D. Baker, Hon. E. B. Washburne, Secretary of State under Grant, Hon. Thompson Campbell, Secretary of State of Illinois, and Judge Drum- mond. Population (1890), 5,635; (1900), 5,005.

GALENA & CHICAGO UNION RAILROAD. (See Chicago & Northwestern Railway.)

GALESBURG, the county-seat of Knox County and an important educational center. The first settlers were emigrants from the East, a large pro- portion of them being members of a colony organ- ized by Rev. George W. Gale, of Whitesboro, N. Y., in whose honor the original village was named. It is situated in the heart of a rich agricultural district 53 miles northwest of Peoria, 99 miles northeast of Quincy and 163 miles south-

west of Chicago; is an important railway center, being at the junction of the main line with two branch lines of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroads. It was incorporated as a village in 1841, and as a city by special charter in 1857. There are beauti- ful parks and the residence streets are well shaded, while 25 miles of street are paved with vitrified brick. The city owns a system of water- works receiving its supply from artesian wells and artificial lakes, has an efficient and well- equipped paid fire-department, an electric street car system with three suburban lines, gas and electric lighting systems, steam-heating plant, etc. It also has a number of flourishing mechan- ical industries, including two iron foundries, agri- cultural implement works, flouring mills, carriage and wagon works and a broom factory, besides other industrial enterprises of minor importance. The manufacture of vitrified paving brick is quite extensively carried on at plants near the city limits, the city itself being the shipping-point as well as the point of administrative control. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company has shops and stockyards here, while considerable coal is mined in the vicinity. The public buildings include a courthouse, Govern- ment postoffice building, an opera house, nine- teen churches, ten public schools with a high school and free kindergarten, and a handsome public library building erected at a cost of $100,- 000, of which one-half was contributed by Mr. Carnegie. Galesburg enjoys its chief distinction as the seat of a large number of high class liter- ary institutions, including Knox College (non- sectarian), Lombard University (Universalist), and Corpus Christi Lyceum and University, and St. Joseph's Academy (both Roman Catholic). Three interurban electric railroad lines connect Galesburg with neighboring towns. Pop. (1890), 15,264; (1900), 18,607.

GALLATIN COUNTY, one of three counties organized in Illinois Territory in 1812-the others being Madison and Johnson. Previous to that date the Territory had consisted of only two coun- ties, St. Clair and Randolph. The new county was named in honor of Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury. It is situated on the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, in the extreme south- eastern part of the State, and has an area of 349 square miles ; population (1900). 3,836. The first cabin erected by an American settler was the home of Michael Sprinkle, who settled at Shaw- neetown in 1800. The place early became an important trading post and distributing point.

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A ferry across the Wabash was established in 1803, by Alexander Wilson, whose descendants conducted it for more than seventy-five years. Although Stephen Rector made a Government survey as early as 1807, the public lands were not placed on the market until 1818. Shawneetown, the county-seat, is the most important town, having a population of some 2,200. Bituminous coal is found in large quantities, and mining is an important industry. The prosperity of the county has been much retarded by floods, particu- larly at Shawneetown and Equality. At the former point the difference between high and low water mark in the Ohio River has been as much as fifty-two feet.

GALLOWAY, Andrew Jackson, civil engineer, was born of Scotch ancestry in Butler County, Pa., Dec. 21, 1814; came with his father to Cory- don, Ind., in 1820, took a course in Hanover Col- lege, graduating as a civil engineer in 1837; then came to Mount Carmel, White County, Ill., with a view to employment on projected Illinois rail- roads, but engaged in teaching for a year, having among his pupils a number who have since been prominent in State affairs. Later, he obtained employment as an assistant engineer, serving for a time under William Gooding, Chief Engineer of the Illinois & Michigan Canal; was also Assistant Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk of the State Senate in 1840-41, and held the same position in the House in 1846-47, and again in 1848-49, in the meantime having located a farm in' La Salle County, where the present city of Streator stands. In 1849 he was appointed Secretary of the Canal Trustees, and, in 1851, became assistant engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad, later superin- tending its construction, and finally being trans- ferred to the land department, but retiring in 1855 to engage in real-estate business in Chicago, dealing largely in railroad lands. Mr. Galloway was elected a County Commissioner for Cook County, and has since been connected with many measures of local importance.

GALVA, a town in Henry County, 45 miles southeast of Rock Island and 48 niiles north- northwest of Peoria; the point of intersection of the Rock Island & Peoria and the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railways. It stands at the summit of the dividing ridge between the Missis- sippi and the Illinois Rivers, and is a manufac- turing and coal-mining town. It has eight churches, three banks, good schools, and two weekly newspapers. The surrounding country is agricultural and wealthy, and is rich in coal. Population (1890), 2,409; (1900), 2,682.

GARDNER, a village in Garfield Township, Grundy County, on the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, 65 miles south-southwest of Chicago and 26 miles north-northeast of Pontiac; on the Kanka- kee and Seneca branch of the "Big Four," and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern R. R. Coal-mining is the principal industry. Gardner has two banks, four churches, a high school, and a weekly paper. Population (1890); 1,094; (1900), 1,036.

GARDNER, COAL CITY & NORMANTOWN RAILWAY. (See Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Rail. way.)

GARY, Joseph Easton, lawyer and jurist, was born of Puritan ancestry, at Potsdam, St. Law. rence County, N. Y., July 9, 1821. His early educational advantages were such as were fur- nished by district schools and a village academy, and, until he was 22 years old, he worked at the carpenter's bench. In 1843 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., where he studied law. After admis- sion to the bar, he practiced for five years in Southwest Missouri, thence going to Las Vegas, N. M., in 1849, and to San Francisco, Cal., in 1853. In 1856 he settled in Chicago, where he has since resided. After seven years of active practice he was elected to the bench of the Superior Court of Cook County, where he has sat for thirty years, being four times nominated by both political parties, and his last re-election-for a term of six years, occurring in 1893. He pre- sided at the trial of the Chicago anarchists in 1886-one of the causes celebres of Illinois. Some of his rulings therein were sharply criticised, but he was upheld by the courts of appellate jurisdic- tion, and his connection with the case has given him world-wide fame. In November, 1888, the Supreme Court of Illinois transferred him to the bench of the Appellate Court, of which tribunal he has been three times Chief Justice.

GASSETTE, Norman Theodore, real-estate operator, was born at Townsend, Vt., April 21, 1839, came to Chicago at ten years of age, and, after spending a year at Shurtleff College, took a prepar- atory collegiate course at the Atwater Institute, Rochester, N. Y. In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Nineteenth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, rising in the second year to the rank of First Lieutenant, and, at the battle of Chicka- mauga, by gallantry displayed while serving as an Aid-de-Camp, winning a recommendation for a brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy. The war over, he served one term as Clerk of the Circuit Court and Recorder, but later engaged in the real- estate and loan business as the liead of the exten- sive firm of Norman T. Gassette & Co. He was a

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Republican in politics, active in Grand Army circles and prominent as a Mason, holding the position of Eminent Grand Commander of Knights Templar of Illinois on occasion of the Triennial Conclave in Washington in 1889. He also had charge, as President of the Masonic Fraternity Temple Association of Chicago, for some time prior to his decease, of the erection of the Masonic Temple of Chicago. Died, in Chi- cago, March 26, 1891.

GATEWOOD, William Jefferson, early lawyer, was born in Warren County, Ky., came to Franklin County, Ill., in boyhood, removed to Shawneetown in 1823, where he taught school two or three years while studying law; was admitted to the bar in 1828, and served in five General Assemblies-as Representative in 1830-32, and as Senator, 1834-42. He is described as a man of fine education and brilliant talents. Died, Jan. 8, 1842.

GAULT, John C., railway manager, was born at Hooksett, N. H., May 1, 1829; in 1850 entered the local freight office of the Manchester & Law- rence Railroad, later becoming General Freight Agent of the Vermont Central. Coming to Chi- cago in 1859, he successively filled the positions of Superintendent of Transportation on the Galena & Chicago Union, and (after the consoli- dation of the latter with the Chicago & North- western), that of Division Superintendent, General Freight Agent and Assistant General Manager; Assistant General Manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; General Mana- ger of the Wabash (1879-83) ; Arbitrator for the trunk lines (1883-85), and General Manager of the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific (1885-90), when he retired. Died, in Chicago, August 29, 1891.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698