Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 81

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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NORTHERN ILLINOIS NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution, incorporated in 1884, at Dixon, Lee County, Ill., for the purpose of giving instruction in branches related to the art of teaching. Its last report claims a total of 1,639 pupils, of whom 885 were men and 744 women, receiving instruc- tion from thirty-six teachers. The total value of property was estimated at more than $200,000, of which $160,000 was in real estate and $45,000 in apparatus. Attendance on the institution has been affected by the establishment, under act of the Legislature of 1895, of the Northern State Normal School at DeKalb (which see).

NORTHERN PENITENTIARY, THE, an insti- tution for the confinement of criminals of the State, located at Joliet, Will County. The site was purchased by the State in 1857, and com- prises some seventy-two acres. Its erection was found necessary because of the inadequacy of the first penitentiary, at Alton. (See Alton Peni- tentiary.) The original plan contemplated a cell-house containing 1,000 cells, which, it was thought, would meet the public necessities for many years to come. Its estimated cost was

$550,000; but, within ten years, there had been expended upon the institution the sum of $934,- 000, and its capacity was'taxed to the utmost. Subsequent enlargements have increased the cost to over $1,600,000, but by 1877, the institution had become so overcrowded that the erection of another State penal institution became positively necessary. (See Southern Penitentiary.) The prison has always been conducted on "the Auburn system," which contemplates associate labor in silence, silent meals in a common refec- tory, and (as nearly as practicable) isolation at night. The system of labor has varied at differ- ent times, the "lessee system," the "contract system" and the "State account plan" being successively in force. (See Conviet Labor.) The whole number of convicts in the institution, at the date of the official report of 1895, was 1,566. The total assets of the institution, Sept. 30, 1894, were reported at $2,121,308.86, of which $1,644,- 601.11 was in real estate.

NORTH & SOUTH RAILROAD. (See St. Louis, Peoria & Northern Railway.)

NORTHERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution for the education of teachers of the common schools, authorized to be established by act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1895. The act inade an appropriation of $50,000 for the erection of buildings and other improve- ments. The institution was located at DeKalb, DeKalb County, in the spring of 1896, and the erection of buildings commenced soon after- Isaac F. Ellwood, of DeKalb, contributing 820,- 000 in cash, and J. F. Glidden, a site of sixty- seven acres of land. Up to Dec. 1, 1897, the appropriations and contributions, in land and money, aggregated $175,000. The school was expected to be ready for the reception of pupils in the latter part of 1899, and, it is estimated, will accommodate 1,000 students.

NORTHWEST TERRITORY. The name formerly applied to that portion of the United States north and west of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi, comprising the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon- sin. The claim of the Government to the land had been acquired partly through conquest, by the expedition of Col. George Rogers Clark (which see), under the auspices of the State of Virginia in 1778; partly through treaties with the Indians, and partly through cessions from those of the original States laying claim thereto. The first plan for the government of this vast region was devised and formulated by Thomas Jefferson, in his proposed Ordinance of 1784, which failed

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of ultimate passage. But three years later a broader scheme was evolved, and the famous Ordinance of 1787, with its clause prohibiting the extension of slavery beyond the Ohio River, passed the Continental Congress. This act has been sometimes termed "The American Magna Charta," because of its engrafting upon the organic law the principles of human freedom and equal rights. The plan for the establishment of a distinctive territorial civil government in a new Territory-the first of its kind in the new republic-was felt to be a tentative step, and too much power was not granted to the residents. All the officers were appointive, and each official was required to be a land-owner. The elective franchise (but only for members of the General Assembly) could first be exercised only after the population had reached 5,000. Even then, every elector must own fifty acres of land, and every Representative, 200 acres. More liberal provisions, however, were subsequently incorporated by amendment, in 1809. The first civil government in the Northwest Territory was established by act of the Virginia Legislature, in the organization of all the country west of the Ohio under the name "Illinois County," of which the Governor was authorized to appoint a "County Lieuten- ant" or "Commandant-in-Chief." The first "Commandant" appointed was Col. John Todd, of Kentucky, though he continued to discharge the duties for only a short period, being killed in the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782. After that the Illinois Country was almost without the semblance of an organized civil government, until 1788, when Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed the first Governor of Northwest Territory, under the Ordinance of 1787, serving until the separation of this region into the Territories of Ohio and Indi- ana in 1800, when William Henry Harrison became the Governor of the latter, embracing all that portion of the original Northwest Territory except the State of Ohio. During St. Clair's administration (1790) that part of the present State of Illinois between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers on the west, and a line extending north from about the site of old Fort Massac, on the Ohio, to the mouth of the Mackinaw River, in the present county of Tazewell, on the east, was erected into a county under the name of St. Clair, with three county-seats, viz .: Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher. (See St. Clair County.) Between 1830 and 1834 the name North- west Territory was applied to an unorganized region, embracing the present State of Wisconsin, attached to Michigan Territory for governmental

purposes. (See Illinois County; St. Clair, Arthur; and Todd, John.)

NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE, located at Naperville, Du Page County, and founded in 1865, under the auspices of the Evangelical Asso- ciation. It maintains business, preparatory and collegiate departments, besides a theological school. In 1898 it had a faculty of nineteen profes- sors and assistants, with some 360 students, less than one-third of the latter being females, though both sexes are admitted to the college on an equal footing. The institution owns property to the value of $207,000, including an endowment of $85,000.

NORTHWESTERN GRAND TRUNK RAIL- WAY. (See Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway.)

NORTHWESTERN NORMAL, located at Gene- seo, Henry County, Ill., incorporated in 1884; in 1894 had a faculty of twelve teachers with 171 pupils, of whom ninety were male and eighty-one female.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, an impor- tant educational institution, established at Evanston, in Cook County, in 1851. In 1898 it reported 2,599 students (1,980 male and 619 female), and a faculty of 234 instructors. It embraces the following departments, all of which confer degrees: A College of Liberal Arts; two Medical Schools (one for women exclusively); a Law School; a School of Phar- macy and a Dental College. The Garrett Bibli- cal Institute, at which no degrees are con- ferred, constitutes the theological department of the University. The charter of the institution requires a majority of the Trustees to be mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the University is the largest and wealthiest of the schools controlled by that denomination. The College of Liberal Arts and the Garrett Biblical Institute are at Evanston; the other departments (all professional) are located in Chicago. In the academic department (Liberal Arts School), pro- vision is made for both graduate and post-gradu- ate courses. The Medical School was formerly known as the Chicago Medical College, and its Law Department was originally the Union Col- lege of Law, both of which have been absorbed by the University, as have also its schools of dentistry and pharmacy, which were formerly independent institutions. The property owned by the University is valued at $4,870,000, of which $1,100,000 is real estate, and $2,250,000 in endow- ment funds. Its income from fees paid by students in 1898 was $215,288, and total receipts from all sources, $482,389. Co-education of the sexes pre-

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vails in the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Henry Wade Rogers is President.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL, located in Chicago; was organized in 1859 as Medical School of the Lind (now Lake Forest) University. Three annual terms, of five months each, at first constituted a course, although attendance at two only was compul- sory. The institution first opened in temporary quarters, Oct. 9, 1859, with thirteen professors and thirty-three students. By 1863 more ample accommodations were needed, and the Trustees of the Lind University being unable to provide a building, one was erected by the faculty. In 1864 the University relinquished all claim to the institution, which was thereupon incorporated as the Chicago Medical College. In 1868 the length of the annual terms was increased to six months, and additional requirements were imposed on candidates for both matriculation and gradu- ation. The same year, the college building was sold, and the erection of a new and more commo- dious edifice, on the grounds of the Mercy Hos- pital, was commenced. This was completed in 1870, and the college became the medical depart- ment of the Northwestern University. The number of professorships had been increased to eighteen, and that of undergraduates to 107. Since that date new laboratory and clinical build- ings have been erected, and the growth of the institution has been steady and substantial. Mercy and St. Luke's Hospital, and the South Side Free Dispensary afford resources for clinical instruction. The teaching faculty, as constituted in 1898, consists of about fifty instructors, in- cluding professors, lecturers, demonstrators, and assistants.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY WOMAN'S MEDICAL SCHOOL, an institution for the pro- fessional education of women, located in Chicago. Its first corporate name was the "Woman's Hospital Medical College of Chicago," and it was in close connection with the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children. Later, it severed its connection with the hospital and took the name of the "Woman's Medical College of Chicago." Co-education of the sexes, in medicine and surgery, was experimentally tried from 1868 to 1870, but the experiment proved repugnant to the male students, who unanimously signed a protest against the continuance of the system. The result was the establishment of a separate school for women in 1870, with a faculty of six- teen professors. The requirements for graduation were fixed at four years of medical study, includ-

ing three annual graded college terms of six months each. The first term opened in the autumn of 1870, with an attendance of twenty students. The original location of the school was in the "North Division" of Chicago, in tem- porary quarters. After the fire of 1871 a removal was effected to the "West Division," where (in 1878-79) a modest, but well arranged building was erected. A larger structure was built in 1884, and, in 1891, the institution became a part of the Northwestern University. The college, in all its departments, is organized along the lines of the best medical schools of the country. In 1896 there were twenty-four professorships, all capably filled, and among the faculty are some of the best known specialists in the country.

NORTON, Jesse O., lawyer, Congressman and Judge, was born at Bennington, Vt., April 25, 1812, and graduated from Williams College in 1835. He settled at Joliet in 1839, and soon became prominent in the affairs of Will County. His first public office was that of City Attorney, after which he served as County Judge (1846-50). Meanwhile, he was chosen a Delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention of 1847. In 1850 he was elected to the Legislature, and, in 1852, to Con- gress, as a Whig. His vigorous opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise resulted in his re-election as a Representative in 1854. At the expiration of his second term (1857) he was chosen Judge of the eleventh circuit, to fill the unexpired term of Judge Randall, resigned. He was once more elected to Congress in 1862, but disagreed with his party as to the legal status of the States lately in rebellion. President Johnson appointed him United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, which office he fille.I until 1869. Immediately upon his retirement he began private practice at Chicago, where he died, August 3, 1875.

NORWOOD PARK, a village of Cook County, on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad (Wis- consin Division), 11 miles northwest of Chicago. Population (1890), 616.

NOYES, George Clement, clergyman, was born at Landaff, N. H., August 4, 1833, brought by his parents to Pike County, Ill., in 1844, and, at the age of 16, determined to devote his life to the ministry ; in 1851, entered Illinois College at Jack- sonville, graduating with first honors in the class of 1855. In the following autumn he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York, and, having graduated in 1858, was ordained the same year, and installed pastor of the First Presby- terian Church at Laporte, Ind. Here he remained

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ten years, when he accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, III., then a small organization which developed, during the twenty years of his pastorate, into one of the strongest and most influential churches in Evans- ton. For a number of years Dr. Noyes was an editorial writer and weekly correspondent of "The New York Evangelist," over the signature of "Clement." He was also, for several years, an active and very efficient member of the Board of Trustees of Knox College. The liberal hent of his mind was illustrated in the fact that he acted as counsel for Prof. David Swing, during the cele- brated trial of the latter for heresy before the Chicago Presbytery - his argument on that occasion winning encomiums from all classes of people. His death took place at Evanston, Jan. 14, 1889, as the result of an attack of pneumonia, and was deeply deplored, not only by his own church and denomination, but by the whole com- munity. Some two weeks after it occurred a union meeting was held in one of the churches at Evanston, at which addresses in commemoration of his services were delivered by some dozen ministers of that village and of Chicago, while various social and literary organizations and the press bore testimony to his high character. He was a member of the Literary Society of Chicago, and, during the last year of his life, served as its President. Dr. Noyes was married, in 1858, to a daughter of David A. Smith, Esq., an honored citizen and able lawyer of Jacksonville.

OAKLAND, a village of Coles County, at the junction of the Terre Haute & Peoria and the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railways, 15 miles northeast of Charleston. The district is agricultural, and the town has a bank and a newspaper. Population (1880), 727; (1890), 995.

OAK PARK, a village of Cook County, and popular residence suburb of Chicago, 9 miles west of the initial station of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, on which it is located; is also upon the line of the Wisconsin Central Rail- road. The place has numerous churches, pros- perous schools, a public library, telegraph and express offices, banks and two local papers. Population (1880), 1,888; (1890), 4,771.

OBERLY, John H., journalist and Civil Serv- ice Commissioner, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 6, 1837; spent part of his boyhood in Allegheny County, Pa., but, in 1853, began learn- ing the printer's trade in the office of "The Woos- ter (Ohio) Republican," completing it at Memphis, Tenn, and becoming a journeyman printer in

1857. He worked in various offices, including the Wooster paper, where he also began the study of law, but, in 1860, became part proprietor of "The Bulletin" job office at Memphis, in which he had been employed as an apprentice, and. later, as foreman. Having been notified to leave Memphis on account of his Union principles after the beginning of the Civil War, he returned to Wooster, Ohio, and conducted various papers there during the next four years, but, in 1865, came to Cairo, Ill., where he served for a time as foreman of "The Cairo Democrat," three years later establishing "The Cairo Bulletin." Although the latter paper was burned out a few months later, it was immediately re-established. In 1872 he was elected Representative in the Twenty-eighth General Assembly, and, in 1877, was appointed by Governor Cullom the Democratic member of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, serving four years, meanwhile (in 1880) being the Demo- cratic candidate for Secretary of State. Other positions held by him included Mayor of the city of Cairo (1869); President of the National Typo- graphical Union at Chicago (1865), and at Mem- phis (1866); delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore (1872), and Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee (1882-84). After retiring from the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, he united in founding "The Bloomington (III.) Bulletin," of which he was editor some three years. During President Cleveland's administration he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission, being later transferred to the Commissionership of Indian Affairs. He was subsequently connected in an editorial capacity with "The Washington Post," "The Richmond (Va.) State," "The Con- cord (N. H.) People and Patriot" and "The Wash- ington Times." While engaged in an attempt to reorganize "The People and Patriot," he died at Concord, N. H., April 15, 1899.

ODD FELLOWS. "Western Star" Lodge, No. 1, I. O. O. F., was instituted at Alton, June 11, 1836. In 1838 the Grand Lodge of Illinois was instituted at the same place, and reorganized, at Springfield, in 1842. S. C. Pierce was the first Grand Master, and Samuel L. Miller, Grand Sec- retary. Wildey Encampment, No. 1, was organ- ized at Alton in 1838, and the Grand Encampment, at Peoria, in 1850, with Charles H. Constable Grand Patriarch. In 1850 the subordinate branches of the Order numbered seventy-six, with 3,291 members, and $25,392.87 revenne. In 1895 the Lodges numbered 838, the membership 50,544, with $475,252.18 revenue, of which $135,018.40

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was expended for relief. The Encampment branch, in 1895, embraced 179 organizations with a membership of 6,812 and $23,865.25 revenue, of which $6,781.40 was paid out for relief. The Rebekah hranelı, for the same year, comprised 422 Lodges, with 22,000 members and $43,215.65 revenue, of which $3,122.79 was for relief. The total sum distributed for relief by the several organizations (1895) was $144,972.59. The Order was especially liberal in its benefactions to the sufferers by the Chicago fire of 1871, an appeal to its members calling forth a generous response throughout the United States. (See Odd Fellows' Orphans' Home.)

ODD FELLOWS' ORPHANS' HOME, a benevo- lent institution, incorporated in 1889, erected at Lincoln, Ill., under the auspices of the Daughters of Rebekah (see Odd Fellows), and dedicated August 19, 1892. The building is four stories in height, has a capacity for the accommodation of fifty children, and cost $36,524.76, exclusive of forty acres of land valued at $8,000.

ODELL, a village of Livingston County, and station on the Chicago & Alton Railway, 82 miles south-southwest of Chicago. It is in a grain and stock-raising region. Population (1880), 908: (1890), 800.

ODIN, a village of Marion County, at the cross- ing of the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Rail- ways, 244 miles south by west from Chicago. There are two newspapers and a bank here. Population (1880), 724; (1890), 817.

O'FALLON, a village of St. Clair County, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, 18 miles east of St. Louis; the region is agricultural. The town has a bank and a newspaper. Popula- tion (1880), 923; (1890), 865.

OGDEN, William Butler, capitalist and Rail- way President, born at Walton, N. Y., June 15, 1805. He was a member of the New York Legis- lature in 1834, and, the following year, removed to Chicago, where he established a land and trust agency. He took an active part in the various enterprises centering around Chicago, and, on the incorporation of the city, was elected its first Mayor. He was prominently identified with the construction of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, and, in 1847, became its President. While visiting Europe in 1853, he made a careful study of the canals of Holland, which convinced him of the desirability of widening and deepen- ing the Illinois & Michigan Canal and of con- structing a ship canal across the southern peninsula of Michigan. In 1855 he became Presi-

dent of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, and effected its consolidation with the Galena & Chicago Union. Out of this consoli- dation sprang the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- way Company, of which he was elected President. In 1850 he presided over the National Pacific Railroad Convention, and, upon the formation of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, he became its President. He was largely connected with the inception of the Northern Pacific line, in the success of which he was a firm believer. He also controlled various other interests of public importance, among them the great lumbering establishments at Peshtigo, Wis., and, at the time of his death, was the owner of what was probably the largest plant of that description in the world. His benefactions were numerous, among the recipients being the Rush Medical College, of which he was President; the Theological Semi- nary of the Northwest, the Chicago Historical Society, the Academy of Sciences, the University of Chicago, the Astronomical Society, and many other educational and benevolent institutions and organizations in the Northwest. Died, in New York City, August 3, 1877. (See Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.)

OGLE, Joseph, pioneer, was born in Virginia in 1741, came to Illinois in 1785, settling in the American Bottom within the present County of Monroe, but afterwards removed to St. Clair County, about the site of the present town of O'Fallon, 8 miles north of Belleville; was selected by his neighbors to serve as Captain in their skirmishes with the Indians. Died, at his home in St. Clair County, in February, 1821. Captain Ogle had the reputation of being the earliest con- vert to Methodism in Illinois. Ogle County, in Northern Illinois, was named in his honor .- Jacob (Ogle), son of the preceding, also a native of Virginia, was born about 1772, came to Illinois with his father in 1785, and was a "Ranger" in the War of 1812. He served as a Representative from St. Clair County in the Third General Assembly (1822), and again in the Seventh (1830), in the former being an opponent of the pro-slavery convention scheme. Beyond two terms in the Legislature he seems to have held no public office except that of Justice of the Peace. Like his father, he was a zealous Metho- dist and highly respected. Died, in 1844, aged 72 years.

OGLE COUNTY, next to the "northern tier" of counties of the State and originally a part of Jo Daviess. It was separately organized in 1837, and Lee County was carved from its territory in

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1839. In 1890 its area was 780 square miles, and its population 28,710. Before the Black Hawk War immigration was slow, and life primitive. Peoria was the nearest food market. New grain was "ground" on a grater, and old pounded with an extemporized pestle in a wooden mortar. Rock River flows across the county from north- east to southwest. A little oak timber grows along its banks, but, generally speaking, the sur- face is undulating prairie, with soil of a rich loam. Sandstone is in ample supply, and all the limestones abound. An extensive peat-bed has been discovered on the Killbuck Creek. Oregon, the county-seat, has fine water-power. The other principal towns are Rochelle, Polo, Forreston and Mount Morris.

OGLESBY, Richard James, Governor and United States Senator, was born in Oldham County, Ky., July 25, 1824; left an orphan at the age of 8 years; in 1836 accompanied an uncle to Decatur, Ill., where, until 1844, he worked at farming, carpentering and rope-making, devoting his leisure hours to the study of law. In 1845 he was admitted to the bar and hegan practice at Sullivan, in Moultrie County. In 1846 he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Fourth Regi- ment, Illinois Volunteers (Col. E. D. Baker's regi- ment), and served through the Mexican War, taking part in the siege of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo. In 1847 he pursued a course of study at the Louisville Law School, graduating in 1848. He was a "forty-niner" in California, but returned to Decatur in 1851. In 1858 he made an unsuccessful campaign for Con- gress in the Decatur District. In 1860 he was elected to the State Senate, hut early in 1861 resigned his seat to accept the colonelcy of the Eighth Illinois Volunteers. Through gallantry (notably at Forts Henry and Donelson and at Corinth) he rose to be Major-General, being se- verely wounded in the last-named battle. He resigned his commission on account of disability, in May, 1864, and the following November was elected Governor, as a Republican. In 1872 he was re-elected Governor, but, two weeks after his inauguration, resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate, to which he was elected by the Legislature of 1873. In 1884 he was elected Governor for the third time-being the only man in the history of the State who (up to the present time-1899) has been thus honored. After the expiration of his last term as Governor, he devoted his attention to his private affairs at his home at Elkhart, in Logan County, where he died, April 24, 1899, deeply mourned by personal

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 81

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