Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 36

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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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 St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad, 40 miles southeast of Duquoin. It has a bank and a news- paper. Population (1880), 674; (1890), 519.

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 head 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.

GALENA, the county-seat of Jo Daviess County, a city and port of entry, 180 miles west-north- west of Chicago, on the Galena (or Fever) River, five miles above its junction with the Mississippi, and an intersecting point for three railroads. It is built on bluffs overlooking the river, which, through a system of lockage, is rendered navi- gable for vessels of deep draft. Rich mines of sulphide of lead (galena) abound in the vicinity, from which the city takes it name. The high and broken character of the site renders Galena picturesque, and the city is adorned by handsome public and private buildings and a beautiful park, in which stands a fine bronze statue of General Grant, who was a resident here at the beginning of the Civil War. The river supplies an abun- dance of water power, and various descriptions of manufacturing are carried on, notably of lumber, furniture and carriages, hot water heaters woolen goods, flour, pottery and castings. There are also extensive lead and zinc smelting works and a considerable pork-packing interest Besides commerce over the trunk lines, Galena enjoys a large trade by water in zinc ore, pig lead, grain, flour, pork, provisions and manufactured goods. Galena was one of the earliest towns to be settled in Northern Illinois, Thomas H. January having located there and engaged in trading with the Indians in 1821. Many men of distinction in State and national affairs came from that city, including Col. Henry Gratiot, a pioneer of French family; Elihu B Washburne, Minister to Paris during the Franco Prussian War; Gen. John A. Rawlins, General Grant's Chief of Staff, and later Secretary of War; Gen. E. D. Baker and Thompson Campbell, afterwards statesmen on the Pacific coast, and many more The city is the seat of a German-English College. Popula- tion (1880), 6,451; (1890), 5,635.

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. It is one of the most important railway centers in the State, the Chicago, Bur. lington & Quincy, with various branch lines, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe lines intersect- ing here, while the city is also tapped by the Ful- ton County Narrow-Gauge Railroad. Galesburg was originally granted a special charter, but is now incorporated under the general law. The governmental power is vested in a Mayor and a Board of fourteen Aldermen, chosen by seven wards. There are beautiful parks and the resi- dence streets are well shaded, while there are twenty miles of street paved with vitrified brick. Both gas and electric lighting systems are in use. The city has an efficient and well-equipped paid fire-department, an excellent water supply, and an extensive and well managed street-car system, electricity being the traction power. While Galesburg cannot be called a manufacturing cen- ter, it boasts several flourishing mechanical in- dustries. The manufacture of vitrified paving brick, of excellent quality, is extensively carried on at plants not far from the city limits, the city itself being the shipping point, as well as the point of administrative control. There are two foundries, agricultural implement works, flour- ing mills, carriage and wagon works, and a broom factory, besides other industrial enterprises of minor importance. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Company has shops and stockyards here. Coal is mined in the vicinity. There are handsome business blocks, a fine opera house and numerous smaller public halls, five banks, nine- teen churches, and ten public schools, including a high school, with a well appointed manual training department. Knox College (non-secta- rian), Lombard University (Universalist), and Corpus Christi Lyceum and University, and St. Joseph's Academy (both Roman Catholic) are situated here. Population (1880), 11,437; (1890), 15.964; (1899) estimated, 20,500.

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 (1890), 14,935. 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 miles north- northwest of Peoria; the point of intersection of the Rock Island & Peoria and the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railways. It stands at the suminit of the dividing ridge between the Mis- sissippi and the Illinois Rivers, and is a manufac- turing and coal-mining town. It has two banks, excellent schools, and two weekly newspapers. The surrounding country is agricultural and wealthy, and is rich in coal. Population (1880), 2,148; (1890), 2,409.

GARDNER, a town in Greenfield Township, Grundy County, on the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, 65 miles south-southwest of Chicago and 26 miles north-northeast of Pontiac. It is connected with Coal City by a branch railroad. Coal-min- ing and the manufacture of soap are principal industries. It has a bank, five churches and a weekly newspaper. Population (1880), 786; (1890), 1,094.

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 las 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 head of the exten- sive firm of Norman T. Gassette & Co. He was &

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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.

GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. The following is a list of the General Assemblies which have met since the admission of Illinois as a State up to 1898-from the First to the Fortieth inclusive- with the more important acts passed by each and the duration of their respective sessions:

FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY held two sessions, the first convening at Kaskaskia, the State Capi- tal, Oct. 5, and adjourning Oct. 13, 1818. The second met, Jan. 4, 1819, continuing to March 31. Lieut-Gov. Pierre Menard presided over the Sen- ate, consisting of thirteen members, while John Messinger was chosen Speaker of the House, containing twenty-seven members. The most important business transacted at the first session was the election of two United States Senators- Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas, Sr .- and

the filling of minor State and judicial offices. At the second session a code of laws was enacted, copied chiefly from the Virginia and Kentucky statutes, including the law concerning "negroes and mulattoes," which long remained on the statute book. An act was also passed appointing Commissioners to select a site for a new State Capital, which resulted in its location at Van- dalia. The sessions were held in a stone building with gambrel-roof pierced by dormer-windows, the Senate occupying the lower floor and the House the upper. The length of the first session was nine days, and of the second eighty-seven- total, ninety-six days.

SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY convened at Van- dalia, Dec. 4, 1820. It consisted of fourteen Senators and twenty-nine Representatives. John McLean, of Gallatin County, was chosen Speaker of the House. A leading topic of discussion was the incorporation of a State Bank. Money was scarce and there was a strong popular demand for an increase of circulating medium. To appease this clamor, no less than to relieve traders and agriculturists, this General Assembly estab- lished a State Bank (see State Bank), despite. the earnest protest of McLean and the executive veto. A stay-law was also enacted at this session for the benefit of the debtor class. The number of members of the next Legislature was fixed at eighteen Senators and thirty-six Representatives -this provision remaining in force until 1831. The session ended Feb. 15, having lasted seventy- four days.

THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY convened, Dec. 2, 1822. Lieutenant-Governor Hubbard presided in the Senate, while in the organization of the lower house, William M. Alexander was chosen Speaker. Governor Coles, in his inaugural, called attention to the existence of slavery in Illinois despite the Ordinance of 1787, and urged the adoption of repressive measures. Both branches of the Legislature being pro-slavery in sympathy, the Governor's address provoked bitter and determined opposition. On Jan. 9, 1823, Jesse B. Thomas was re-elected United States Senator, defeating John Reynolds, Leonard White and Samuel D. Lockwood. After electing Mr. Thomas and choosing State officers, the General Assembly proceeded to discuss the major- ity and minority reports of the committee to which had been referred the Governor's address. The minority report recommended the abolition of slavery, while that of the majority favored the adoption of a resolution calling a convention to amend the Constitution, the avowed object

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being to make Illinois a slave State. The latter report was adopted, but the pro-slavery party in the House lacked one vote of the number neces- sary to carry the resolution by the constitutional two-thirds majority. What followed has always been regarded as a blot upon the record of the Third General Assembly. Nicholas Hansen, who had been awarded the seat from Pike County at the beginning of the session after a contest brought by his opponent, John Shaw, was un- seated after the adoption of a resolution to reconsider the vote by which he had been several weeks before declared elected. Shaw having thus been seated, the resolution was carried by the necessary twenty-four votes. Mr. Hansen, althoughi previously regarded as a pro-slavery man, had voted with the minority when the resolution was first put upon its passage. Hence followed his deprivation of his seat. The triumph of the friends of the convention was celebrated by what Gov. John Reynolds (himself a conven- tionist) characterized as "a wild and indecorous procession by torchlight and liquor." (See Slavery and Slave Laws.) The session adjourned Feb. 18, having continued seventy-nine days.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 36

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388