Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 47

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 47

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HINSDALE, a village in Du Page County and popular residence suburb, on the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railroad, 17 miles west-south- west of Chicago. It has four churches, a graded school, an academy, electric light plant, water- works, sewerage system, and two weekly news- papers. Population (1890), 1,584; (1900), 2,578.

HITCHCOCK, Charles, lawyer, was born at Hanson, Plymouth County, Mass., April 4, 1827; studied at Dartmouth College and at Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1854, soon afterward establishing himself for the prac- tice of his profession in Chicago. In 1869 Mr. Hitchcock was elected to the State Constitutional Convention, which was the only important pub- lic office that he held, though his capacity was recognized by his election to the Presidency of that body. Died, May 6, 1881.

HITCHCOCK, Luke, clergyman, was born April 13, 1813, at Lebanon, N. Y., entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1834, and, after supplying various charges in

that State during the next five years, in 1839 came to Chicago, becoming one of the most influential factors in the Methodist denomination in Northern Illinois. Between that date and 1860 he was identified, as regular pastor or Pre- siding Elder, with churches at Dixon, Ottawa, Belvidere, Rockford, Mount Morris, St. Charles and Chicago (the old Clark Street church), with two years' service (1841-43) as agent of Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris-his itinerant labors being interrupted at two or three periods by ill-health, compelling him to assume a super- annuated relation. From 1852 to '80, inclusive, he was a delegate every four years to the General Conference. In 1860 he was appointed Agent of the Western Book Concern, and, as the junior representative, was placed in charge of the depository at Chicago-in 1868 becoming the Senior Agent, and so remaining until 1880. His subsequent service included two terms as Presid- ing Elder for the Dixon and Chicago Districts; the position of Superintendent of the Chicago Home Missionary and Church Extension Society ; Superintendent of the Wesley Hospital (which lie assisted to organize), his last position being that of Corresponding Secretary of the Superannu- ates' Relief Association. He was also influential in securing the establishment of a church paper in Chicago and the founding of the Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical Institute. Died, while on a visit to a daughter at East Orange, N. J., Nov. 12, 1898.

HITT, Daniel F., civil engineer and soldier, was born in Bourbon County, Ky., June 13, 1810 -the son of a Methodist preacher who freed his slaves and removed to Urbana, Ohio, in 1814. In 1829 the son began the study of engineering and, removing to Illinois the following year, was ap- pointed Assistant Engineer on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, later being employed in survey- ing some sixteen years. Being stationed at Prairie du Chien at the time of the Black Hawk War (1832), he was attached to the Stephenson Rangers for a year, but at the end of that period resumed surveying and, having settled in La Salle County, became the first Surveyor of that county. In 1861 he joined Colonel Cushman, of Ottawa, in the organization of the Fifty-third Illinois Volunteers, was mustered into the service in March, 1862, and commissioned its Lieutenant- Colonel. The regiment took part in various battles, including those of Shiloh, Corinth and La Grange, Tenn. In the latter Colonel Hitt received an injury by being thrown from his horse which compelled his resignation and from

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which he never fully recovered. Returning to Ottawa, he continued to reside there until his death, May 11, 1899. Colonel Hitt was father of Andrew J. Hitt, General Superintendent of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and uncle of Congressman Robert R. Hitt of Mount Morris. Originally a Democrat, he allied himself with the Republican party on the breaking out of the Civil War. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and prominent in Grand Army circles.

HITT, Isaac R., real-estate operator, was born at Boonsboro, Md., June 2, 1828; in 1845 entered the freshman class at Asbury University, Ind., graduating in 1849. Tlien, removing to Ottawa, Ill., he was engaged for a time in farming, but, in 1852, entered into the forwarding and com- mission business at La Salle. Having meanwhile devoted some attention to real-estate law, in 1853 he began buying and selling real estate while continuing his farming operations, adding thereto coal-mining. In May, 1856, he was a delegate from La Salle County to the State Convention at Bloomington which resulted in the organization of the Republican party in Illinois. Removing to Chicago in 1860, he engaged in the real-estate business there; in 1862 was appointed on a com- mittee of citizens to look after the interests of wounded Illinois soldiers after the battle of Fort Donelson, in that capacity visiting hospitals at Cairo, Evansville, Paducah and Nashville. Dur- ing the war he engaged to some extent in the business of prosecuting soldiers' claims. Mr. Hitt has been a member of both the Chicago and the National Academy of Sciences, and, in 1869, was appointed by Governor Palmer on the Com- mission to lay out the park system of Chicago. Since 1871 he has resided at Evanston, where he aided in the erection of the Woman's College in connection with the Northwestern University. In 1876 he was appointed by the Governor agent to prosecute the claims of the State for swamp lands within its limits, and has given much of his attention to that business since.

HITT, Robert Roberts, Congressman, was born at Urbana, Ohio, Jan. 16, 1834. When he was three years old his parents removed to Illinois, settling in Ogle County. His education was acquired at Rock River Seminary (now Mount Morris College), and at De Pauw University, Ind. In 1858 Mr. Hitt was one of the reporters who reported the celebrated debate of that year between Lincoln and Douglas. From December, 1874, until March, '81, he was connected with the United States embassy at Paris, serving as First Secretary of Legation and Chargé d'affaires ad

interim. He was Assistant Secretary of State in 1881, but resigned the post in 1882, having been elected to Congress from the Sixth Illinois Dis- trict to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of R. M. A. Hawk. By eight successive re-elec- tions he has represented the District continuously since, his career being conspicuous for long serv- ice. In that time he has taken an important part in the deliberations of the House, serving as Chairman of many important committees, not- ably that on Foreign Affairs, of which he has been Chairman for several terms, and for which his diplomatic experience well qualifies him. In 1898 he was appointed by President Mckinley a member of the Committee to visit Hawaii and report upon a form of government for that por- tion of the newly acquired national domain. Mr. Hitt was strongly supported as a candidate for the United States Senate in 1895, and favorably considered for the position of Minister to Eng- land after the retirement of Secretary Day in 1898.

HOBART, Horace R., was born in Wisconsin in 1839: graduated at Beloit College and, after a brief experience in newspaper work, enlisted, in 1861, in the First Wisconsin Cavalry and was assigned to duty as Battalion Quartermaster. Being wounded at Helena, Ark., he was com- pelled to resign, but afterwards served as Deputy Provost Marshal of the Second Wisconsin Dis- trict. In 1866 he re-entered newspaper work as reporter on "The Chicago Tribune," and later was associated, as city editor, with "The Chicago Evening Post" and "Evening Mail"; later was editor of "The Jacksonville Daily Journal" and "The Chicago Morning Courier," also being, for some years from 1869, Western Manager of the American Press Association. In 1876, Mr. Hobart became one of the editors of "The Railway Age" (Chicago), with which he remained until the close of the year 1898, when he retired to give his attention to real-estate matters.

HOFFMAN, Francis A., Lieutenant-Governor (1861-65), was born at Herford, Prussia, in 1822, and emigrated to America in 1839, reaching Chica- go the same year. There he became a boot-black in a leading hotel, but within a month was teaching a small German school at Dunkley's Grove (now Addison), Du Page County, and later officiating as a Lutheran minister. In 1847 he represented that county in the River and Harbor Convention at Chicago. In 1852 he removed to Chicago, and, the following year, entered the City Council. Later, he embarked in the real-estate business. and, in 1854, opened a banking house, but was

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forced to assign in 1861. He early became a recognized anti-slavery leader and a contributor to the German press, and, in 1856, was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor on the first Republican State ticket with William H. Bissell, but was found ineligible by reason of his short residence in the United States, and withdrew, giving place to John Wood of Quincy. In 1860 he was again nominated, and having in the meantime become eligible, was elected. In 1864 he was a Repub- lican candidate for Presidential Elector, and assisted in Mr. Lincoln's second election. He was at one time Foreign Land Commissioner for the Illinois Central Railroad, and acted as Consul at Chicago for several German States. For a number of years past Mr. Hoffman has been editor of an agricultural paper in Southern Wisconsin.

HOGAN, John, clergyman and early politician, was born in the city of Mallow, County of Cork, Ireland, Jan. 2, 1805; brought in childhood to Baltimore, Md., and having been left an orphan at eight years of age, learned the trade of a shoe- maker. In 1826 he became an itinerant Metho- dist preacher, and, coming west the same year, preached at various points in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. In 1830 he was married to Miss Mary Mitchell West, of Belleville, Ill., and soon after, having retired from the itinerancy, engaged in mercantile business at Edwardsville and Alton. In 1836 he was elected Representative in the Tenth General Assembly from Madison County, two years later was appointed a Commissioner of Public Works and, being re-elected in 1840, was made President of the Board; in 1841 was ap- pointed by President Harrison Register of the Land Office at Dixon, where he remained until 1845. During the anti-slavery excitement whichi attended the assassination of Elijah P. Lovejoy in 1837, he was a resident of Alton and was re- garded by the friends of Lovejoy as favoring the pro-slavery faction. After retiring from the Land Office at Dixon, he removed to St. Louis, where he engaged in the wholesale grocery busi- ness. In his early political life he was a Whig, but later co-operated with the Democratic party ; in 1857 he was appointed by President Buchanan Postmaster of the city of St. Louis, serving until the accession of Lincoln in 1861; in 1864 was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, serving two years. He was also a delegate to the National Union (Democratic) Convention at Philadelphia in 1866. After his retirement from the Methodist itinerancy he continued to officiate as a "local" preacher and was esteemed

a speaker of unusual eloquence and ability. His death occurred, Feb. 5, 1892. He is author of sev- eral volumes, including "The Resources of Mis- souri," "Commerce and Manufactures of St. Louis," and a "History of Methodism."

HOGE, Joseph P., Congressman, was born in Ohio early in the century and came to Galena, Ill., in 1836, where he attained prominence as a lawyer. In 1842 he was elected Representative in Congress, as claimed at the time by tlie aid of the Mormon vote at Nauvoo, serving one term. In 1853 he went to San Francisco, Cal., and be- came a Judge in that State, dying a few years since at the age of over 80 years. He is repre- sented to have been a man of much ability and a graceful and eloquent orator. Mr. Hoge was a son-in-law of Thomas C. Browne, one of the Jus- tices of the first Supreme Court of Illinois who hield office until 1848.

HOLLISTER, (Dr.) John Hamilton, physi- cian, was born at Riga, N. Y., in 1824; was brought to Romeo, Mich., by his parents in in- fancy, but his father having died, at the age of 17 went to Rochester, N. Y., to be educated, finally graduating in medicine at Berkshire College, Mass., in 1847, and beginning practice at Otisco, Mich. Two years later he removed to Grand Rapids and, in 1855, to Chicago, where he held, for a time, the position of demonstrator of anat- omy in Rush Medical College, and, in 1856, be- came one of the founders of the Chicago Medical College, in which he has held various chairs. He also served as Surgeon of Mercy Hospital and was, for twenty years, Clinical Professor in the same institution; was President of the State Medical Society, and, for twenty years, its Treas- urer. Other positions held by him have been those of Trustee of the American Medical Associ- ation and editor of its journal, President of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the Chicago Congregational Club. He has also been prominent in Sunday School and church work in connection with the Armour Mission, with which he has been associated for many years.

HOME FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS, (FE- MALE). The establishment of this institution was authorized by act of June 22, 1893, which appropriated $75,000 towards its erection and maintenance, not more than $15,000 to be ex- pended for a site. (See also State Guardians for Girls.) It is designed to receive girls between the ages of 10 and 16 committed thereto by any court of record upon conviction of a misdemeanor, the term of commitment not to be less than one year, or to exceed minority. Justices of the

HOME FOR JUVENILE FEMALE OFFENDERS, GENEVA.

MANZ CHICAGO

Main Building.

Custodian Building. ASYLUM FOR FEEBLE MINDED CHILDREN, LINCOLN.

Asylum Band.

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Peace, however, may send girls for a term not less than three months. The act of incorporation provides for a commutation of sentence to be earned by good conduct and a prolongation of the sentence by bad behavior. The Trustees are empowered, in their discretion, either to appren- tice the girls or to adopt them out during their minority. Temporary quarters were furnished for the Home during the first two years of its existence in Chicago, but permanent buildings for the institution have been erected on the banks of Fox River, near Geneva, in Kane County.

HOMER, a village in Champaign County, on the Wabash Railway, 20 miles west-south west from Danville and about 18 miles east-southeast from Champaign. It supports a carriage factory ; also has two banks, several churches, a seminary, an opera house, and one weekly paper. The region is chiefly agricultural. Population (1880), 924; (1890), 917; (1900), 1,080.

HOMESTEAD LAWS. In general such laws have been defined to be "legislation enacted to secure, to some extent, the enjoyment of a home and shelter for a family or individual by exempt- ing, under certain conditions, the residence occu- pied by the family or individual, from liability to be sold for the payment of the debts of its owner, and by restricting his rights of free alienation." In Illinois, this exemption extends to the farm and dwelling thereon of every householder hav- ing a family, and occupied as a residence, whether owned or possessed under a lease, to the value of $1,000. The exemption continues after death, for the benefit of decedent's wife or hus- band occupying the homestead, and also of the children, if any, until the youngest attain the age of 21 years. Husband and wife must join in releasing the exemption, but the property is always liable for improvements thereon .- In 1862 Congress passed an act known as the "Homestead Law" for the protection of the rights of settlers on public lands under certain restrictions as to active occupancy, under which most of that class of lands since taken for settlement bave been purchased.

HOMEWOOD, a village of Cook County, on the Illinois Central Railway, 23 miles south of Chi- cago. Population, (1900), 352.

HOOLEY, Richard M., theatrical manager, was born in Ireland, April 13, 1822; at the age of 18 entered the theater as a musician and, four years later, came to America, soon after forming an association with E. P. Christy, the originator of negro minstrelsy entertainments which went under his name. In 1848 Mr. Hooley conducted

a company of minstrels through the principal towns of England, Scotland and Ireland, and to some of the chief cities on the continent; re- turned to America five years later, and subse- quently managed houses in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and New York, finally locating in Chicago in 1869, where he remained the rest of his life,-his theater becoming one of the most widely known and popular in the city. Died, Sept. 8, 1893.

HOOPESTON, a prosperous city in Vermilion County, at the intersection of the Chicago & East- ern Illinois and the Lake Erie & Western Rail- roads, 99 miles south of Chicago. It has grain elevators, a naii factory, brick and tile works. carriage and machine shops, and two large can- ning factories. besides two banks and one daily and three weekly newspapers, several churches, a high school and a business college. Population (1890), 1,911; (1900), 3,823; (1904), about 4,500.

HOPKINS, Albert J., Congressman, was born in De Kalb County, Ill., August 15, 1846. After graduating from Hillsdale College, Mich., in 1870, he studied law and began practice at Aurora. He rapidly attained prominence at the bar, and, in 1872, was elected State's Attorney for Kane County, serving in that capacity for four years. He is an ardent Republican and high in the party's councils, having been Chairman of the State Central Committee from 1878 to 1880, and a Presidential Elector on the Blaine & Logan ticket in 1884. The same year he was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress from the Fifth District (now the Eighth) and has been continuously re- elected ever since, receiving a clear majority in 1898 of more than 18,000 votes over two competi- tors. At present (1898) he is Chairman of the Select House Committee on Census and a member of the Committees on Ways and Means, and Mer- chant Marine and Fisheries. In 1896 he was strongly supported for the Republican nomina- tion for Governor.

HOUGHTON, Horace Hocking, pioneer printer and journalist, was born at Springfield, Vt., Oct. 26, 1806, spent his youth on a farm, and at eight- een began learning the printer's trade in the office of "The Woodstock Overseer"; on arriving at his majority became a journeyman printer and, in 1828, went to New York, spending some time in the employment of the Harper Brothers. After a brief season spent in Boston, he took charge of "The Statesman" at Castleton, Vt., but, in 1834, again went to New York, taking with him a device for throwing the printed sheet off the press, which was afterwards adopted on the

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Adams and Hoe printing presses. His next move was to Marietta, Ohio, in 1834, thence by way of Cincinnati and Louisville to St. Louis, working for a time in the office of the old "St. Louis Republican." He soon after went to Galena and engaged in lead-mining, but later became associated with Sylvester M. Bartlett in the management of "The Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser," finally becoming sole proprietor. In 1842 he sold out the paper, but resumed his connection with it the following year, remaining until 1863, when he finally sold out. He afterwards spent some time on the Pacific slope, was for a time American Consul to the Sandwich Islands, but finally returned to Galena and, during the later years of his life, was Postmaster there, dying April 30, 1879.

HOVEY, Charles Edward, educator, soldier and lawyer, was born in Orange County, Vt., April 26, 1827; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1852, and became successively Principal of high schools at Farmington, Mass., and Peoria, Ill. Later, he assisted in organizing the Illinois State Normal School at Normal, of which he was President from 1857 to 1861-being also President of the State Teachers' Association (1856), inem- ber of the State Board of Education, and, for some years, editor of "The Illinois Teacher." In Au- gust, 1861, he assisted in organizing, and was com- missioned Colonel of, the Thirty-third Illinois Volunteers, known as the "Normal" or "School- Masters' Regiment," from the fact that it was composed largely of teachers and young men from the State colleges. In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and, a few months later, to brevet Major-General for gallant and meritorious conduct. Leaving the military service in May, 1863, he engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D. C. Died, in Washing- ton, Nov. 17, 1897.

HOWLAND, George, educator and author, was born (of Pilgrim ancestry) at Conway, Mass., July 30, 1824. After graduating from Amherst College in 1850, he devoted two years to teaching in the public schools, and three years to a tutor- ship in his Alma Mater, giving instruction in Latin, Greek and Frenchı. He began the study of law, but, after a year's reading, he abandoned it, removing to Chicago, where he became Assist- ant Principal of the city's one high school, in 1858. He became its Principal in 1860, and, in 1880, was elected Superintendent of Chicago City Schools This position he filled until August, 1891, when he resigned. He also served as Trus- tee of Amherst College for several years, and as a

member of the Illinois State Board of Education, being President of that body in 1883. As an author he was of some note; his work being chiefly on educational lines. He published a translation of the Æneid adapted to the use of schools, besides translations of some of Horace's Odes and portions of the Iliad and Odyssey. He was also the author of an English grammar. Died, in Chicago, Oct. 21, 1892.

HOYNE, Philip A., lawyer and United States Commissioner, was born in New York City, Nov. 20, 1824; came to Chicago in 1841, and, after spending eleven years alternately in Galena and Chicago, finally located permanently in Chicago, in 1852; in 1853 was elected Clerk of the Record- er's Court of Chicago, retaining the position five years; was admitted to the bar in March, 1856, and appointed United States Commissioner tlie same year, remaining in office until his death, Nov. 3, 1894. Mr. Hoyne was an officer of the Chicago Pioneers and one of the founders of the Union League Club.

HUBBARD, Gurdon Saltonstall, pioneer and Indian trader, was born at Windsor, Vt., August 22, 1802. His early youthi was passed in Canada, chiefly in the employ of the American Fur Com- pany. In 1818 he first visited Fort Dearborn, and for nine years traveled back and forth in the interest of his employers. In 1827, having em- barked in business on his own account, he estab- lished several trading posts in Illinois, becoming a resident of Chicago in 1832. From this time forward he became identified with the history and development of the State. He served with distinction during the Black Hawk and Winne- bago Wars, was enterprising and public-spirited, and did much to promote the early development of Chicago. He was elected to the Legislature from Vermilion County in 1832, and, in 1835, was appointed by Governor Duncan one of the Commissioners of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Died, at Chicago, Sept. 14, 1886. From the time he became a citizen of Chicago, for fifty years, no man was more active or public-spirited in promoting its commercial development and general prosperity. He was identified with almost every branch of business upon which its growth as a commercial city depended, from that of an early Indian trader to that of a real-estate operator, being manager of one of the largest pack- ing houses of his time, as well as promoter of early railroad enterprises. A zealous Republican, he was one of the most earnest supporters of Abraham Lincoln in the campaign of 1860, was prominently identified with every local measure

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for the maintenance of the Union cause, and, for a year, held a commission as Captain in the Eighty-eighth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, known as the "Second Board of Trade Regiment."

HUGHITT, Marvin, Railway President, was born, August, 1837, and, in 1856, began liis rail- road experience on the Chicago & Alton Railway as Superintendent of Telegraph and Train-de- spatcher. In 1862 he entered the service of the Illinois Central Company in a similar capacity, still later occupying the positions of Assistant Superintendent and General Superintendent, re- maining in the latter from 1865 to 1870, when he resigned to become Assistant General Manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. In 1872 he became associated with the Chicago & North- western Railroad, in connection with which he has held the positions of Superintendent, General Manager, Second Vice-President and President- the last of which (1899) he still occupies.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 47

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