Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 83

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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PARIS & DECATUR RAILROAD. (See Terre Haute & Peoria Raitroad.)

PARIS & TERRE HAUTE RAILROAD. (See Terre Haute & Peoria Railroad.)

PARKS, Gavion D. A., lawyer, was born at Bristol, Ontario County, N. Y., Sept. 17, 1817;

went to New York City in 1838, where he com- pleted his legal studies and was admitted to the bar, removing to Lockport, Ill., in 1842. Here he successively edited a paper, served as Master in Chancery and in an engineering corps on the Illinois & Michigan Canal; was elected County Judge in 1849, removed to Joliet, and, for a time, acted as an attorney of the Chicago & Rock Island, the Michigan Central and the Chicago & Alton Railroads; was also a Trustee of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Jackson- ville; was elected Representative in 1852, became a Republican and served on the first Republican State Central Committee (1856); the same year was elected to the State Senate, and was a Commissioner of the State Penitentiary in 1864. In 1872 Mr. Parks joined in the Liberal-Repub- lican movement, was defeated for Congress, and afterwards acted with the Democratic party. Died, Dec. 28, 1895.

PARKS, Lawson A., journalist, was born at Mecklenburg, N. C., April 15, 1813; learned the printing trade at Charlotte, in that State; came to St. Louis in 1833, and, in 1836, assisted in estab- lishing "The Alton Telegraph," but sold his interest a few years later. Then, having offi- ciated as pastor of Presbyterian churches for some years, in 1854 he again became associated with "The Telegraph," acting as its editor. Died at Alton, March 31, 1875.

PARK RIDGE, a suburban village on the Wis- consin Division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 13 miles northwest of Chicago. Popu- lation (1880), 457; (1890), 987.

PARTRIDGE, Charles Addison, journalist and Assistant Adjutant-General of the Grand Army of the Republic, was born in Westford, Chittenden County, Vt., Dec. 8, 1843; came with his parents to Lake County, Ill., in 1844, and spent his boy- hood on a farm, receiving his education in the district school, with four terms in a high school at Burlington, Wis. At 16 he taught a winter district school near his boyhood home, and at 18 enlisted in what became Company C of the Ninety-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, being mustered into the service as Eighth Corporal at Rockford. His regiment becoming attached to the Army of the Cumberland, he participated with it in the battles of Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign, as well as those of Franklin and Nashville, and has taken a just pride in the fact that he never fell out on the march, took medicine from a doctor or was absent from his regiment during its term of service, except for four months while recovering from a gun-shot

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wound received at Chickamauga. He was pro- moted successively to Sergeant, Sergeant-Major, and commissioned Second Lieutenant of his old company, of which his father was First Lieuten- ant for six months and until forced to resign on account of impaired health. Receiving his final discharge, June 28, 1865, he returned to the farm, where he remained until 1869, in the meantime being married to Miss Jennie E. Earle, in 1866, and teaching school one winter. In 1869 he was elected County Treasurer of Lake County on the Republican ticket, and re-elected in 1871; in January of the latter year, purchased an interest in "The Waukegan Gazette," with which he remained associated some fifteen years, at first as the partner of Rev. A. K. Fox, and later of his younger brother, H. E. Partridge. In 1877 he was appointed, by President Hayes, Postmaster at Waukegan, serving four years; in 1886 was elected to the Legislature, serving (by successive elections) as Representative in the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh General Assem- blies, being frequently called upon to occupy the Speaker's chair, and, especially during the long Senatorial contest of 1891, being recognized as a leader of the Republican minority. In 1888 he was called to the service of the Republican State Central Committee (of which he had previously been a member), as assistant to the veteran Secre- tary, the late Daniel Shepard, remaining until the death of his chief, when he succeeded to the secretaryship. During the Presidential campaign of 1892 he was associated with the late William J. Campbell, then the Illinois member of the Republican National Committee, and was en- trusted by him with many important and confi- dential missions. Without solicitation on his part, in 1894 he was again called to assume the secretaryship of the Republican State Central Committee, and bore a conspicuous and influ- ential part in winning the brilliant success achieved by the party in the campaign of that year. From 1893 to 1895 he served as Mayor of Waukegan; in 1896 became Assistant Adjutant- General of the Grand Army of the Republic for the Department of Illinois-a position which he held in 1889 under Commander James S. Martin, and to which he has been re-appointed by succes- sive Department Commanders up to the present time. Mr. Partridge's service in the various public positions held by him, has given him an acquaintance extending to every county in the State.

PATOKA, a village of Marion County, on the Western branch of the Illinois Central Railway,

15 miles south of Vandalia. There are flour and saw mills here; the surrounding country is agri- cultural. Population (1890), 502.

PATTERSON, Robert Wilson, D.D., LL.D., clergyman, was born in Blount County, Tenn., Jan. 21, 1814; came to Bond County, Ill., with his parents in 1822, his father dying two years later; at 18 had had only nine months' schooling, but graduated at Illinois College in 1837; spent a year at Lane Theological Seminary, another as tutor in Illinois College, and then, after two years more at Lane Seminary and preaching in Chicago and at Monroe, Mich., in 1842 established the Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago, of which he remained the pastor over thirty years. In 1850 he received a call to the chair of Didactic Theology at Lane Seminary, as successor to Dr. Lyman Beecher, but it was declined, as was a similar call ten years later. Resigning his pastor- ship in 1873, he was, for several years, Professor of Christian Evidences and Ethics in the Theological Seminary of the Northwest; in 1876-78 served as President of Lake Forest University (of which lie was one of the founders), and, in 1880-83, as lecturer in Lane Theological Seminary. He received the degree of D.D. from Hamilton Col- lege, N. Y., in 1854, that of LL.D. from Lake Forest University, and was Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly (N. S.) at Wil- mington, Del., in 1859. Died, at Evanston, Ill., - Feb. 24, 1894.

PAVEY, Charles W., soldier and ex-State Auditor, was born in Highland County, Ohio, Nov. 8, 1835; removed to Illinois in 1859, settling in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, and, for a time, followed the occupation of a farmer and stock- raiser. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the Eighti- eth Illinois Volunteers for the Civil War, and became First Lieutenant of Company E. He was severely wounded at the battle of Sand Mountain and, having been captured, was confined in Libby Prison, at Salisbury, N. C., and at Danville, Va., for a period of nearly two years, enduring great hardship and suffering. Having been exchanged, he served to the close of the war as Assistant Inspector-General on the Staff of Gen- eral Rousseau, in Tennessee. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1880, which nominated General Garfield for the Presi- dency, and was one of the famous "306" who stood by General Grant in that struggle. In 1882 he was appointed by President Arthur Collector of Internal Revenue for the Southern District, and, in 1888, was nominated and elected State Auditor on the Republican ticket, but was de-

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feated for re-election in the "land-slide" of 1892. General Pavey has been prominent in "G. A. R." councils, and held the position of Junior Vice- Commander for the Department of Illinois in 1878, and that of Senior Vice-Commander in 1879. He also served as Brigadier-General of the National Guard, for Southern Illinois, during the railroad strike of 1877. In 1897 he received from President Mckinley the appointment of Special Agent of the Treasury Department. His home is at Mount Vernon, Jefferson County.

PAWNEE, a village of Sangamon County, at the eastern terminus of the Auhurn & Pawnee Railroad, 19 miles south of Springfield. The town has a bank and a weekly paper. Popula- tion, 300.

PAWNEE RAILROAD, a short line in Sanga- mon County, extending from Pawnee to Auburn (9 miles), where it forms a junction with the Chicago & Alton Railroad. The company was organized and procured a charter in December, 1888, and the road completed the following year. The cost was $101,774. Capital stock authorized, $100,000; funded debt (1895), $50,000.

PAW PAW, a village of Lee County, at the junction of two branches of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railway, 8 miles northwest of Earl- ville. The town is in a farming region, but has a bank and two weekly papers. Population (1890), 850.

PAXTON, the county-seat of Ford County, is situated at the intersection of the Chicago Divi- sion of the Illinois Central and the Lake Erie & Western Railroads, 105 miles south by west from Chicago, and 49 miles east of Bloomington. It contains a court house, two banks, six churches and two weekly newspapers. It is also the seat of Augustana (Evangelical Lutheran) College, which was founded in 1860. It is an important shipping-point for the farmn products of the sur- rounding territory, which is a rich agricultural region Besides brick and tile-works and flour mills, factories for the manufacture of carriages and plows are located here. Population (1880), 1,725; (1890), 2,187.

PAYSON, a village in Adams County, 15 miles southeast of Quincy; the nearest railroad station being Fall River, on the Quincy and Louisiana Division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway; has one newspaper. Population (esti- mated), 550.

PAYSON, Lewis E., lawyer and ex-Congress- man, was born at Providence, R. I., Sept. 17, 1840; came to Illinois at the age of 12, and, after passing through the common schools, attended

Lombard University, at Galesburg, for two years. He was admitted to the bar at Ottawa in 1862, and, in 1865, took up his residence at Pontiac. From 1869 to 1873 he was Judge of the Livingston County Court, and, from 1881 to 1891, represented his District in Congress, being elected as a Republican, but, in 1890, was defeated by his Democratic opponent, Herman W. Snow. Since retiring from Congress he has practiced his pro- fession in Washington, D. C.

PEABODY, Selim Hobart, educator, was born in Rockingham County, Vt., August 20, 1829; after reaching 13 years of age, spent a year in a Boston Latin School, then engaged in various occupations, including teaching, until 1848, when he entered the University of Vermont, graduat- ing third in his class in 1852; was appointed Pro- fessor of Mathematics and Engineering in the Polytechnic College at Philadelphia, in 1854, remaining three years, when he spent five years in Wisconsin, the last three as Superintendent of Schools at Racine. From 1865 to 1871 he was teacher of physical science in Chicago High School, also conducting night schools for work- ing men; in 1871 became Professor of Physics and Engineering in Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege, but returned to the Chicago High School in 1874; in 1876 took charge of the Chicago Acad- emy of Sciences, and, in 1878, entered the Illinois Industrial University (now University of Illinois), at Champaign, first as Professor of Mechanical Engineering, in 1880 becoming President, but resigning in 1891. During the World's Colum- bian Exposition at Chicago, Professor Peabody was Chief of the Department of Liberal Arts, and, on the expiration of his service there, assumed the position of Curator of the newly organized Chicago Academy of Sciences, from which he retired some two years later.

PEARL, a village of Pike County, on the Kan- sas City branch of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, 14 miles west of Roodhouse. Population (1890), 928.

PEARSON, Isaac N., ex-Secretary of State, was born at Centreville, Pa., July 27, 1842; removed to Macomb,' McDonough County, Ill., in 1858, and has ever since resided there. In 1872 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, and re-elected in 1876. Later he engaged in real-estate and banking business. He was a member of the lower house in the Thirty-third, and of the Senate in the Thirty-fifth, General Assembly, but before the expiration of his term in the latter, was elected Secretary of State, on the Republican ticket, in 1888. In 1892 he was a candidate for re-election,

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but was defeated, although, next to Governor Fifer, he received the largest vote cast for any candidate for a political office on the Republican State ticket.

PEARSON, John M., ex-Railway and Ware- house Commissioner, born at Newburyport, Mass., in 1832-the son of a ship-carpenter; was educated in his native State and came to Illinois in 1849, locating at the city of Alton, where he was afterwards engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements. In 1873 he was ap- pointed a member of the first Railway and Ware- house Commission, serving four years; in 1878 was elected Representative in the Thirty-first General Assembly from Madison County, and was re-elected, successively, in 1880 and '82. He was appointed a member of the first Board of Live-Stock Commissioners in 1885, serving until 1893, for a considerable portion of the time as President of the Board. Mr. Pearson is a life- long Republican and prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. His present home is at Godfrey.

PEARSONS, Daniel K., M.D., real-estate oper- ator and capitalist, was born at Bradfordton, Vt., April 14, 1820; began teaching at 16 years of age, and, at 21, entered Dartmouth College, taking a two years' course. He then studied medicine, and, after practicing a short time in his native State, removed to Chicopee, Mass., where he remained from 1843 to 1857. The latter year he came to Ogle County, Ill., and began operating in real estate, finally adding to this a loan busi- ness for Eastern parties, but discontinued this line in 1877. He owns extensive tracts of timber lands in Michigan, is a Director in the Chicago City Railway Company and American Exchange Bank, besides being interested in other financial institutions. He has been one of the most liberal supporters of the Chicago Historical Society, and a princely contributor to various benevolent and educational institutions, his gifts to colleges, in different parts of the country, aggregating over a million dollars.

PECATONICA, a town in Pecatonica Township, Winnebago County, on the Pecatonica River. It is on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, mid- way between Freeport and Rockford, being 14 miles from each. It contains a carriage factory and a machine shop, a bank, five churches, a graded school, and a weekly newspaper. Popu- lation (1880), 1,029; (1890), 1,059.

PECATONICA RIVER, a stream formed by the confluence of two branches, both of which rise in Iowa County, Wis. They unite a little north

of the Illinois State line, whence the river runs southeast to Freeport, then east and northeast, until it enters Rock River at Rockton. From the headwaters of either branch to the mouth of the river is about 50 miles.

PECK, Ebenezer, early lawyer, was born in Portland, Maine, May 22, 1805; received an aca- demical education, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Canada in 1827. He was twice elected to the Provincial Parliament and made King's Counsel in 1833; came to Illinois in 1835, settling in Chicago; served in the State Senate (1838-40), and in the House (1840-42 and 1858-60); was also Clerk of the Supreme Court (1841-45), Reporter of Supreme Court decisions (1849-63), and member of the Constitutional Convention of 1869-70. Mr. Peck was an intimate personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, by whom he was appointed a member of the Court of Claims, at Washington, serving until 1875. Died, May 25, 1881.

PECK, Ferdinand Wythe, lawyer and finan- cier, was born in Chicago, July 15, 1848-the son of Philip F. W. Peck, a pioneer and early mer- chant of the metropolis of Illinois; was educated in the public schools, the Chicago University and Union College of Law, graduating from both of the last named institutions, and being admitted to the bar in 1869. For a time he engaged in practice, but his father having died in 1871, the responsibility of caring for a large estate devolved upon him and has since occupied his time, though he has given much attention to the amelioration of the condition of the poor of his native city, and works of practical benevo- lence and public interest. He is one of the founders of the Illinois Humane Society, has been President and a member of the Board of Control of the Chicago Athenæum, member of the Board of Education, President of the Chicago Union League, and was an influential factor in securing the success of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, serving as First Vice-Presi- dent of the Chicago Board of Directors, Chair- man of the Finance Committee, and member of the Board of Reference and Control. Of late years, Mr. Peck has been connected with several important building enterprises of a semi-public character, which have added to the reputation of Chicago, including the Auditorium, Stock Ex- change Building and others in which he is a leading stockholder, and in the erection of which he has been a chief promoter. In 1898 he was appointed, by President Mckinley, the United States Commissioner to the International Expo-

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sition at Paris of 1900, as successor to the late Maj. M. P. Handy, and the success which has followed his discharge of the duties of that position, has demonstrated the fitness of his selection.

PECK, George R., railway attorney, born in Steuben County, N. Y., in 1843; was early taken to Wisconsin, where he assisted in clearing his father's farm; at 16 became a country school- teacher to aid in freeing the same farm from debt; enlisted at 19 in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, later becoming a Captain in the Thirty- first Wisconsin Infantry, with which he joined in "Sherman's March to the Sea." Returning home at the close of the war, he began the study of law at Janesville, spending six years there as a student, Clerk of the Circuit Court and in prac- tice. From there he went to Kansas and, between 1871 and '74, practiced his profession at Independ- ence, when he was appointed by President Grant United States District Attorney for the Kansas District, but resigned this position, in 1879, to return to general practice. In 1881 he became General Solicitor of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, removing to Chicago in 1893. In 1895 he resigned his position with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to accept a similar position with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, which (1898) he still holds. Mr. Peck is recognized as one of the most gifted orators in the West, and, in 1897, was chosen to deliver the principal address at the un- veiling of the Logan equestrian statue in Lake Front Park, Chicago; has also officiated as orator on a number of other important public occasions, always acquitting himself with distinction.

PECK, John Mason, D.D., clergyman and edu- cator, was born in Litchfield, Conn., Oct. 31, 1789; removed to Greene County, N. Y., in 1811, where he united with the Baptist Church, the same year entering on pastoral work, while prosecuting his studies and supporting himself by teaching. In 1814 he became pastor of a church at Amenia. N. Y., and, in 1817, was sent west as a mission- ary, arriving in St. Louis in the latter part of the same year. During the next nine years he trav- eled extensively through Missouri and Illinois, as an itinerant preacher and teacher, finally locating at Rock Spring, St. Clair County, where, in 1826, he established the Rock Spring Seminary for the education of teachers and ministers. Out of this grew Shurtleff College, founded at Upper Alton in 1835, in securing the endowment of which Dr. Peck traveled many thousands of miles and col- lected $20,000, and of which he served as Trustee

for many years. Up to 1843 he devoted much time to aiding in the establishment of a theolog- ical institution at Covington, Ky., and, for two years following, was Corresponding Secretary and Financial Agent of the American Baptist Publi- cation Society, with headquarters in Philadelphia. Returning to the West, he served as pastor of sev- eral important churches in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. A man of indomitable will, unflag- ging industry and thoroughly upright in conduct. for a period of a quarter of a century, in the early history of the State, probably no man exerted a larger influence for good and the advancement of the cause of education, among the pioneer citi- zens of all classes, than Dr. Peck. Though giving his attention so constantly to preaching and teaching, he found time to write much, not ouly for the various publications with which he was, from time to time, connected, but also for other periodicals, besides publishing "A Guide for Emi- grants" (1831), of which a new edition appeared in 1836, and a "Gazetteer of Illinois" (Jackson- ville, 1834, and Boston, 1837), which continue to be valued for the information they contain of the condition of the country at that time. He was an industrious collector of historical records in the forin of newspapers and pamphlets, which were unfortunately destroyed by fire a few years before his death. In 1852 he received the degree of D. D. from Harvard University. Died, at Rock Spring, St. Clair County, March 15, 1858.

PECK, Philip F. W., pioneer merchant, was born in Providence. R. I., in 1809, the son of a wholesale merchant who had lost his fortune by indorsing for a friend. After some years spent in a mercantile house in New York, he came to Chicago on a prospecting tour, in 1830; the fol- lowing year brought a stock of goods to the embryo emporium of the Northwest-then a small backwoods hamlet-and, by trade and fortunate investments in real estate, laid the foundation of what afterwards became a large fortune. He died, Oct. 23, 1871, as the result of an accident occurring about the time of the great fire of two weeks previous, from which he was a heavy sufferer pecuniarily. Three of his sons, Walter L., Clarence I. and Ferdinand W. Peck, are among Chicago's most substantial citizens.

PEKIN, a flourishing city, the county-seat of Tazewell County, and an important railway cen- ter, located on the Illinois River, 10 miles south of Peoria and 56 miles north of Springfield. Agriculture and coal-mining are the chief occu- pations in the surrounding country, but the city itself is an important grain market with large

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general shipping interests. It has several distill- eries, besides grain elevators, malt-houses, brick and tile works, lumber yards, planing mills, marble works, plow and wagon works, and other important manufacturing industries. Its bank- ing facilities are adequate to its large trade, and its religious and educational advantages are ex- cellent. The city has a public library, and sup- ports three daily and four weekly papers. Population (1880), 5,993; (1890), 6,347.

PEKIN, LINCOLN & DECATUR RAILROAD. (See Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway.)

PELL, Gilbert T., Representative in the Third Illinois General Assembly (1822) from Edwards County, and an opponent of the resolution for a State Convention adopted by the Legislature at that session, designed to open the door for the admission of slavery. Mr. Pell was a son-in-law of Morris Birkbeck, who was one of the leaders in opposition to the Convention scheme, and very naturally sympathized with his father-in-law. He was elected to the Legislature, for a second term, in 1828, but subsequently left the State, dying elsewhere, when his widow removed to Australia.

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. As to oper- ations of this corporation in Illinois, see Calumet River; Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago; South Chicago & Southern, and Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railways. The whole num- ber of miles owned, leased and operated by the Pennsylvania System, in 1898, was 1,987.21, of which only 61.34 miles were in Illinois. It owns, however, a controlling interest in the stock of the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway (which see).

PEORIA, the second largest city of the State and the county-seat of Peoria County, is 160 miles southwest of Chicago, aud at the foot of an expan- sion of the Illinois River known as Peoria Lake. The site of the town occupies an elevated plateau, having a water frontage of four miles and extend- ing back to a bluff, which rises 200 feet above the river level and about 120 feet above the highest point of the main site. It was settled in 1778 or '79, although, as generally believed, the French missionaries had a station there in 1711. There was certainly a settlement there as early as 1725, when Renault received a grant of lands at Pimi- teoui, facing the lake then bearing the same name as the village. From that date until 1812, the place was continuously occupied as a French village, and is said to have been the most impor- tant point for trading in the Mississippi Valley. The original village was situated about a mile and

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 83

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