Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 65

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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had ever been witnessed in this country. In Illi- nois, Peoria, Decatur, Braidwood, East St. Louis, Galesburg, La Salle and Chicago were the prin- cipal points affected. In all these cities angry, excited men formed themselves into mobs, which tore up tracks, took possession of machine shops, in some cases destroyed roundhouses, applied the torch to warehouses, and, for a time, held com- merce by the throat, not only defying the law, but even contending in arms against the military sent to disperse them. The entire force of the State militia was called into service, Major- General Arthur C. Ducat being in command. The State troops were divided into three brigades, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals Torrence, Bates and Pavey. General Ducat assumed personal command at Braidwood, where were sent the Third Regiment and the Tenth Battalion, who suppressed the riots at that point with ease. Col. Joseph W. Stambaugh and Lieut .- Col. J. B. Parsons were the respective regimental commanders. Generals Bates and Pavey were in command at East St. Louis, where the excitement was at fever heat,. the mobs terrorizing peaceable citizens and destroy- ing much property. Governor Cullom went to this point in person. Chicago, however, was the chief railroad center of the State, and only prompt and severely repressive measures held in check one of the most dangerous mobs which ever threatened property and life in that city. The local police force was inadequate to control the rioters, and Mayor Heath felt himself forced to call for aid from the State. Brig .- Gen. Joseplı T. Torrence then commanded the First Brigade, I. N. G., with headquarters at Chicago. Under instructions from Governor Cullom, he promptly and effectively co-operated with the municipal authorities in quelling the uprising. He received valuable support from volunteer companies, some of which were largely composed of Union veter- ans. The latter were commanded by such ex- perienced commanders as Generals Reynolds, Martin Beem, and O. L. Mann, and Colonel Oweu Stuart. General Lieb also led a company of veterans enlisted by himself, and General Shaff- ner and Major James H. D. Daly organized a cavalry force of 150 old soldiers, who rendered efficient service. The disturbance was promptly subdued, transportation resumed, and trade once more began to move in its accustomed channels.

2. THE STRIKE OF 1894 .- This was an uprising which originated in Chicago and was incited by a comparatively young labor organization called the American Railway Union. In its inception it

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was sympathetic, its ostensible motive, at the outset, being the righting of wrongs alleged to have been suffered by, employés of the Pullman Palace Car. Company. The latter quit work on May 11, and, on June 22, the American Railway Union ordered a general boycott against all rail- road companies hauling Pullman cars after June 26. The General Managers of the lines entering Chicago took prompt action (June 25) looking toward mutual protection, protesting against the proposed boycott, and affirming their resolution to adhere to existing contracts, any action on the part of the strikers to the contrary notwithstand- ing. Trouble began on the 26th. The hauling of freight was necessarily soon discontinued; sub- urban traffic, was interrupted; switching had to be done by inexperienced hands under police or military protection (officials and clerks some- times throwing the levers), and in the presence of large crowds of law-defying hoodlums gathered along the tracks, avowedly through sympathy with the strikers, but actually in the hope of plunder .: Trains were sidetracked, derailed, and, in not a few instances, valuable freight was burned. Passengers were forced to undergo the inconvenience of being cooped up for hours in crowded cars, in transit, without food or water, sometimes almost within sight of their destina- tion, and sometimes threatened with death should they attempt to leave their prison houses. The mobs, intoxicated by seeming success, finally ven- tured to interfere with the passage of trains carrying the United States mails, and, at this juncture, the Federal authorities interfered. President Cleveland at once ordered the protec- tion of all mail trains by armed guards, to be appointed by the United States Marshal. An additional force of Deputy Sheriffs was also sworn in by the Sheriff of Cook County, and the city police force was, augmented. The United States District Court also issued a restraining order, directed against the officers and members of the American Railway Union, as well as against all other persons interfering with the business of railroads carrying the mails. Service was readily accepted by the officers of the Union, but the copies distributed among the insurgent mob were torn and trampled upon. Thereupon the Presi- dent ordered Federal troops to Chicago, both to protect Government property (notably the Sub- treasury), and , to guard mail trains. The Gov- ernor (John P. Altgeld) protested, but without avail. , A few days later, the Mayor of Chicago requested the State ,Executive to place a force of State: militia at his control for the protection of

property and the prevention of bloodshed. Gen- eral Wheeler, with the entire second division of the I. N. G., at once received orders to report to the municipal authorities. The presence of the militia greatly incensed the turbulent crowds, yet it proved most salutary. The troops displayed exemplary firmness under most trying circum- stances, dispersing jeering and threatening crowds hy physical force or bayonet charges, the rioters being fired upon only twice. Gradually order was restored. The disreputable element subsided, and wiser and more conservative coun- sels prevailed among the ranks of the strikers. Impediments to traffic were removed and trains were soon running as though no interruption had occurred. The troops were withdrawn (first the Federal and afterwards those of the State), and the courts were left to deal with the subject in accordance with the statutes. The entire execu- tive board of the American Railway Union were indicted for conspiracy, but the indictments were never pressed. The officers, however, were all found guilty of contempt of court in having dis- obeyed the restraining order of the Federal court, and sentenced to terms in the county jail. Eugene V. Debs, the President of the Union, was convicted on two charges and given a sentence of six months on each, but the two sentences were afterward made concurrent. The other members of the Board received a similar sentence for three months each. All but the Vice-President, George W. Howard, served their terms at Woodstock, McHenry County. Howard was sent to the Will County jail at Joliet.

LACEY, Lyman, lawyer and jurist, was born in Tompkins County, N. Y., May 6, 1832. In 1837 his parents settled in Fulton County, Ill. He graduated from Illinois College in 1855 and was admitted to the bar in 1856, commencing practice at Havana, Mason County, the same year. In 1862 he was elected, as a Democrat, to represent the counties of Mason and Menard in the lower house of the Legislature; was elected to the Cir- cuit Court bench in 1873, and re-elected in 1879, '85 and '91; also served for several years upon the bench of the Appellate Court.

LACON, a city and county-seat of Marshall County, situated on the Illinois River, and on the Dwight and Lacon branch of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, 130 miles southwest of Chicago. A pontoon bridge connects it with Sparland on the opposite bank of the Illinois. The surround- ing country raises large quantities of grain, for which Lacon is a shipping point. The river is navigable by steamboats to this point. The city

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has grain elevators, woolen mills, a manufactory of shawls, marble works, two canning factories, a carriage factory and a National bank It also has water works, and is lighted by electricity. There are seven churches, a graded school and two weekly newspapers. Population (1880), 1,814; (1890), 1,649; (1898) estimated, 2,400.

LA FAYETTE (Marquis de), VISIT OF. An event of profound interest in the history of Illi- nois, during the year 1825, was the visit to the State by the Marquis de La Fayette, who had been the ally of the American people during their struggle for independence. The distin- guished Frenchman having arrived in the coun- try during the latter part of 1824, the General Assembly in session at Vandalia, in December of that year, adopted an address inviting him to visit Illinois. This was communicated to La Fayette by Gov. Edward Coles, who had met the General in Europe seven years before. Governor Coles' letter and the address of the General Assembly were answered with an acceptance by La Fayette from Washington, under date of Jan. 16, 1825. The approach of the latter was made by way of New Orleans, the steamer Natchez (by which General La Fayette ascended the Mis- sissippi) arriving at the old French village of Carondelet, below St. Louis, on the 28th of April. Col. William S. Hamilton, a son of Alexander Hamilton, and at that time a Representative in the General Assembly from Sangamon County, as well as an Aid-de-Camp on the staff of Gov- ernor Coles, was dispatched from the home of the latter at Edwardsville, to meet the distinguished visitor, which he did at St. Louis. On Saturday, April 30, the boat bearing General La Fayette, with a large delegation of prominent citizens of Missouri, left St. Louis, arriving at Kaskaskia, where a receptiou awaited him at the elegant residence of Gen. John Edgar, Governor Coles delivering an address of welcome. The presence of a number of old soldiers, who had fought under La Fayette at Brandywine and Yorktown, consti- tuted an interesting feature of the occasion. This was followed by a banquet at the tavern kept by Colonel Sweet, and a closing reception at the house of William Morrison, Sr., a member of the cele- brated family of that name, and one of the lead- ing merchants of .Kaskaskia. Among those participating in the reception ceremonies, who were then, or afterwards became, prominent factors in State history, appear the names of Gen. John Edgar, ex-Governor Bond, Judge Nathaniel Pope, Elias Kent Kane, ex-Lieutenant-Governor Menard, Col. Thomas Mather and Sidney Breese,

a future United States Senator and Justice of the Supreme Court. The boat left Kaskaskia at midnight for Nashville, Tenn., Governor Coles accompanying the party and returning with it to Shawneetown, where an imposing reception was given and an address of welcome delivered by Judge James Hall, on May 14, 1825. A few hours later General La Fayette left on his way up the Ohio.

LAFAYETTE, BLOOMINGTON & MISSIS- SIPPI RAILROAD. (See Lake Erie & Western Railroad.)

LAFLIN, Matthew, manufacturer, was born at Southwick, Hampden County, Mass., Deo. 16, 1803; in his youth was clerk for a. time in the store of Laflin & Loomis, powder manufacturers, at Lee, Mass., later becoming a partner :in the Canton Powder Mills. About 1832 he engaged in' the manufacture of axes at Saugerties, N. Y .; which proving a failure, he again engaged in powder manufacture, and, in 1837, came to Chi- cago, where he finally established a factory -- his firm, in 1840, becoming Laflin & Smith, and, later, Laflin, Smith & Co. Becoming largely interested in real estate, he devoted his atten- tion chiefly to that business after 1849, with great success, not only in Chicago ' but' else- where, having done much for 'the" develop- ment of Waukesha, Wis., where he erected one of the principal hotels-the "Fountain Spring House"-also being one of the original stock- holders of the Elgin Watch Company :. Mr. Laflin was a zealous supporter of the Government during the war for the preservation of the Union, and, before his death, made a donation of $75 ;- 000 for a building for the Chicago Academy of Sciences, which was erected in the western part of Lincoln Park. Died, in Chicago, May 20, 1897!

LA GRANGE, a village in Cook County, and one of the handsomest suburbs of Chicago, from which it is distant 15 miles, south-southwest, on' the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The streets are broad and shaded and there are many handsome residences. The village is lighted by. electricity, and has public water-works, seven churches, a high school and a weekly paper! Population (1880), 531; (1890), 2,314. SCATTI 1; ;

LA HARPE, a city in Hancock County, on the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway, 70 miles west by south from Peoria and 20' miles south-south- east of Burlington, Iowa. Brick, tile and cigar's constitute the manufactured'output. "La Harpe has two banks, five churches, a graded 'and a high school, and two newspapers. Population (1880), 958; (1890), 1,113.

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LAKE COUNTY, in the extreme northeast corner of the State, having an area of 490 square miles, and a population (1890), of 24,235. It was cut off from McHenry County and separately organized in 1839. Pioneer settlers began to arrive in 1839, locating chiefly along the Des Plaines River. The Indians vacated the region the following year. The first County Commission- ers (E. E. Hunter, William Brown and E. C. Berrey) located the county-seat at Libertyville, but, in 1841, it was removed to Little Fort, now Waukegan. The county derives its name from the fact that some forty small lakes are found within its limits. The surface is undulating and about equally divided between sand, prairie and second-growth timber. At Waukegan there are several maufacturing establishments, and the Glen Flora medicinal spring attracts many in- valids. Highland Park and Lake Forest are resi- dence towns of great beauty situated on the lake bluff, populated largely by the families of Chicago business men.

LAKE ERIE & MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD. (See Lake Erie & Western Railroad.)

LAKE ERIE & WESTERN RAILROAD. Of the 710.61 miles which constitute the entire length of this line, only 118.6 are within Illinois. This portion extends from the junction of the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway, on the east side of the Illinois River opposite Peoria, to the Indi-, ana State line. It is a single-track road of standard gauge. About one-sixth of the line in Illinois is level, the grade nowhere exceeding 40 feet to the mile. The track is of 56 aud 60-pound steel rails, and lightly ballasted. The total capital of the road (1898)-including $23,680,000 capital stock, $10,875,000 bonded debt and a float- ing debt of $1,479,809-was $36,034,809, or $50,- 708 per mile. The total earnings and income in Illinois for 1898 were $559,743, and the total expenditures for the same period, $457,713. - (HISTORY.) The main line of the Illinois Division of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad was acquired by consolidation, in 1880, of the Lafayette, Bloom- ington & Mississippi Railroad (81 miles in length), which had been opened in 1871, with certain Ohio and Indiana lines. In May, 1885, the line thus formed was consolidated, without change of name, with the Lake Erie & Mississippi Railroad, organ- ized to build an extension of the Lake Erie & Western from Bloomington to Peoria (43 miles). The road was sold under foreclosure in 1886, and the present company organized, Feb. 9, 1887.

LAKE FOREST, a city in Lake County, on Lake Michigan, and a station on the Chicago &

Northwestern Railway, 28 miles north by west of Chicago. It is the seat of Lake Forest Univer- sity, is a purely residence town and one of the most beautiful suburbs of Chicago, largely in- habited by families of culture and wealth. Popu- lation (1880), 877; (1890), 1,203.

LAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY, an institution of learning comprising six distinct schools, viz. : Lake Forest Academy, Ferry Hall Seminary, Lake Forest College, Rush Medical College, Chi- cago College of Dental Surgery, and the Chicago College of Law. The three first named are located at Lake Forest, while the three profes- sional schools are in the city of Chicago. The college charter was granted in 1857, but the institution was not opened until nineteen years later, and the professional schools, which were originally independent, were not associated until 1887. In 1894 there were 316 undergraduates at Lake Forest, in charge of forty instructors. Dur- ing the same year there were in attendance at the professional schools, 1,557 students, making a total enrollment in the University of 1,873. While the institution is affiliated with the Pres- byterian denomination, the Board of Trustees is self-perpetuating. The Academy and Seminary are preparatory schools for the two sexes, re- spectively. Lake Forest College is co-educational and organized upon the elective plan, having seventeen departments, a certain number of studies being required for graduation, and work upon a major subject being required for three years. The schools at Lake Forest occupy fifteen buildings, standing within a campus of sixty-five acres.

LAKE MICHIGAN, one of the chain of five great northern lakes, and the largest lake lying wholly within the United States. It lies between the parallels of 41° 35' and 46° North latitude, its length heing about 335 miles. Its width varies from 50 to 88 miles, its greatest breadth being opposite Milwaukee. Its surface is nearly 600 feet above the sea-level and its maximum depth is estimated at 840 feet. It has an area of about 20,000 square miles. It forms the eastern bound- ary of Wisconsin, the western boundary of the lower peninsula of Michigan and a part of the northern boundary of Illinois and Indiana. Its waters find their outlet into Lake Huron through the straits of Mackinaw, at its northeast extren- ity, and are connected with Lake Superior by the Sault Ste. Marie River. It contains few islands, and these mainly in its northern part, the largest being some fifteen miles long. The principal rivers which empty into this lake are the Fox,

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Menominee, Manistee, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Grand and St. Joseph. Chicago, Milwaukee, Racine and Manitowoc are the chief cities on its banks.

LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILWAY. The main line extends from Buffalo, N. Y., to Chicago, Ill., a distance of 539 miles, with various branches of leased and proprietary lines located in the States of Michigan, New York and Ohio, making the mileage of lines operated 1,415.63 miles, of which 862.15 are owned by the company-only 14 miles being in Illinois. The total earnings and income in Illinois, in 1898, were $453,946, and the expenditures for the same period, $360,971 .- (HISTORY.) The company was formed in 1869, from the consolidation of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana, the Cleveland, Painesville . & Ashtabula, and the Buffalo & Erie Railroad Companies. The propri- etary roads have been acquired since the consoli- lation.

LAMB, James L., pioneer merchant, was born in Connellsville, Pa., Nov. 7, 1800; at 12 years of age went to Cincinnati to serve as clerk in the store of a distant relative, came to Kaskaskia, Ill., in 1820, and soon after engaged in mercantile business with Thomas Mather, who had come to Illinois two years earlier. Later, the firm estab- lished a store at Chester and shipped the first barrels of pork from Illinois to the New Orleans market. In 1831 Mr. Lamb located in Springfield, afterwards carrying on merchandising and pork- packing extensively; also established an iron foundry, which continued in operation until a few years ago. Died, Dec. 3, 1873.

LAMB, Martha J. R. N., magazine editor and historian, was born (Martha Joan Reade Nash) at Plainfield, Mass., August 13, 1829, received a thorough education and, after her marriage in 1852 to Charles A. Lamb, resided for eight years in Chicago, Ill., where she was one of the prin- cipal founders of the Home for the Friendless and Half Orphan Asylum, and Secretary of the Sanitary Fair of 1863. In 1866 she removed to New York and gave her after life to literary work, from 1883 until her death being editor of "The Magazine of American History," hesides furnish- ing numerous papers on historical and other sub- jects; also publishing some sixteen volumes, one of her most important works being a "History of New York City," in two volumes. She was a member of nearly thirty historical and other learned societies. Died, Jan. 2, 1893.

LAMBORN, Josiah, early lawyer and Attor- ney General; born in Washington County, Ky.,

and educated at Transylvania University; was Attorney-General of the State by appointment of Governor Carlin, 1840-43, at that time being a resident of Jacksonville. He is described by his contemporaries as an able and brilliant man, but of convivial habits and unscrupulous to such a degree that his name was mixed up with a nuni- ber of official scandals. Separated from his family, he died of delirium tremens, at White- hall, Greene County.

LAMOILLE, a town of Bureau County, on the Mendota and Fulton branch of the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railway, 9 miles northwest of Mendota. It is in a farming and stock-growing region. The town has a bank and a newspaper. Population (1880), 488; (1890), 516.

LAMON, Ward Hill, lawyer, was born at Mill Creek, Frederick County, W. Va., Jan. 6, 1828; received a common school education and was engaged in teaching for a time; also began the study of medicine, but relinquished it for the law. About 1847-48 he located at Danville, Ill., subsequently read law with the late Judge Oliver L. Davis, attending lectures at the Louisville Law School, where he had Gen. John A. Logan for a class-mate. On admission to the bar, he became the Danville partner of Abraham Lincoln -the partnership being in existence as early as 1852. In 1859 he removed to Bloomington, and, in the Presidential campaign of 1860, was a zeal- ous supporter of Mr. Lincoln. In February, 1861, he was chosen by Mr. Lincoln to accompany him to Washington, making the perilous night jour- ney through Baltimore in Mr. Lincoln's company. Being a man of undoubted courage, as well as almost giant stature, he soon received the ap- pointment of Marshal of the District of Columbia, and, in the first weeks of the new administration, made a confidential visit to Colonel Anderson, then in command at Fort Sumter, to secure accurate information as to the situation there. In May, 1861, he obtained authority to raise a regiment, of which he was commissioned Colonel, remaining in the field to December, when he returned to the discharge of his duties as Marshal at Washington, but was absent from Washington on the night of the assassination-April 14, 1865. Resigning his office after this event, he entered into partnership for the practice of law with the late Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania. Some years later he published the first volume of a pro- posed Life of Lincoln, using material which he obtained from Mr. Lincoln's Springfield partner. William H. Herndon, but the second volume was never issued. His death occurred at Martins-

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burg, W. Va., not far from his birthplace, May 7, 1893. Colonel Lamon married a daughter of Judge Stephen T. Logan, of Springfield.

LANARK, a city in Carroll County, 19 miles by rail southwest of Freeport, and seven miles east of Mount Carroll. The surrounding country is largely devoted to grain-growing, and Lanark has three elevators and is an important shipping point. Manufacturing of various descriptions is carried on. The city has two banks (one National and one State), eight churches, a graded and high school, and a weekly newspaper. Population (1880), 1,198; (1890), 1,295.

LANDES, Silas Z., ex-Congressman, was born in Augusta County, Va., May 15, 1842. In early youth he removed to Illinois, and was admitted to the bar of this State in August, 1863, and has been in active practice at Mount Carmel since 1864. In 1872 he was elected State's Attorney for Wabash County, was re-elected in 1876, and again in 1880. He represented the Sixteenth Illi- nois District in Congress from 1885 to 1889, being elected on the Democratic ticket.

LANDRIGAN, John, farmer and legislator, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1832, and brought to America at one year of age, his parents stopping for a time in New Jersey. His early life was spent at Lafayette, Ind. After completing his education in the seminary there, he engaged in railroad and canal contracting. Coming to Illinois in 1858, he purchased a farm near Albion, Edwards County, where he has since resided. He has been twice elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives (1868 and '74) and twice to the State Senate (1870 and '96), and has been, for over twenty years, a member of the State Agricultural Society- for four years of that time being President of the Board, and some sixteen years Vice-Presi- dent.

LANE, Albert Grannis, educator, was born in Cook County, Ill., March 15, 1841, and educated in the public schools, graduating with the first class from the Chicago High School in 1858. He immediately entered upon the business of teach- ing as Principal, but, in 1869, was elected Super- intendent of Schools for Cook County. After three years' service as cashier of a bank, he was elected County Superintendent, a second time, in 1877, and regularly every four years thereafter until 1890. In 1891 he was chosen Superintend- ent of Schools for the city of Chicago, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Superin- tendent Howland-a position which he continued to fill until the appointment of E. B. Andrews,

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 65

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