USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
157
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
long and patient clerkship was at length rewarded with a partner- ship in the mercantile house of Jessup, Kennedy & Co. The training of his business and intellectual faculties also appear to have always progressed together, and while still a resident of New York he served as president of the Mercantile Library Association. Mr. Cre- rar came to Chicago in 1862, as representative of the railway supply firm mentioned, and soon after established himself as head of the house of Crerar, Adams & Co., engaged in the same line of business. Pleasant and genial, Mr. Crerar was still a man, of decided views and outspoken in their expression, although affable in their presen- tation. His energy and broad judgment went far toward the build- ing up of the great house which he founded, and he was also promi- nent in the development of such institutions as the Pullman Palace Car Company, the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, the Illinois & Joliet Railroad Company, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company. As his business and financial interests expanded, his higher nature also broadened and found expression in his generous contributions of both personal strength and means to such causes as are represented by the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, Chicago Presbyterian Ilos- pital, Chicago Orphan Asylum, Chicago Historical Society and the Young Men's Christian Association. The Second Presbyterian church of Chicago also partook of his bounty and gained the advan- tage of his counsels through his connection with it as trustee and elder. The only public position which he ever held was that of elect- or from the First district of Illinois at the presidential election of 1888. At his death, in the following year, his remains were interred in Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, where, also, were buried his parents and two brothers. Upon the tablet which marks his grave is inscribed "A just man and one that feared God," but to these characteristic traits of his Scotch character were added those of a fine culture, which came from his deep study and enjoyment of literature, art and music, and the broad sympathy possessed by one whom the world had not soured but mellowed.
158
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Bryan Lathrop was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on August 6, 1844. Alexandria was at that time in the District of Columbia.
BRYAN His father, Jedediah H. Lathrop, was born in New
LATHROP. Hampshire, but spent his early life in Buffalo, New
York, and his later years in Washington, D. C. His mother, Mariana Bryan, was a Virginian. He was at Dinwid- die's School preparing for the University of Virginia at the beginning of the Civil war, and his subsequent education for several years was under private tutors in Germany and France.
He became a resident of Chicago in June, 1865, and was for some years a partner of his uncle, the late Thomas B. Bryan, in the real estate business founded by the latter in 1852. For many years his attention has been given mainly to the management of estates as ex- ecutor or trustee, and 'to public interests.
Mr. Lathrop is president of the Graceland Cemetery Company, president of the Chicago Orchestral Association and trustee of the Art Institute, and of the Newberry library, and for two years was president of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. In politics he is a Republican, with independent tendencies, the only office which he has held of a public nature being that of commissioner of Lincoln Park.
Mr. Lathrop was married in Washington, D. C., on the 21st of April, 1875, to Miss Helen Lynde, daughter of Judge Asa O. Aldis, and resides at 77 Bellevue place. He has served as president of the University Club, and the Saddle and Cycle Club, of Chicago, and is a member of the Chicago, Chicago Literary, Chicago Golf, Onwentsia, the Cliff Dwellers and South Shore Country clubs of this city, as well as of the Chicago Historical Society. He is also a member of the Century Club, of New York, and of the Metropolitan Club of Washington.
John Frederick Eberhart, A. M., LL. D., first superintendent of schools for Cook county, perhaps the oldest life member of the National Education Association and now approaching his eightieth year, is
not only one of the most venerable figures in the
JOHN F.
educational field, but one whose labors as a pioneer,
EBERHART.
in all the gradations from kindergarten to normal, have placed him among the real founders of the splendid educational systems of the west. He was born in Hickory township, Mercer
Jehm F. Eberhart
HE ORY YORK POBLAR LIBRARY
LOEK TOWN CATIONS
159
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of January, 1829, son of Abraham and Esther ( Amend) Eberhart.
Dr. Eberhart is the descendant of a very old European family, and furnishes an excellent illustration of the value of good blood and breeding. The genealogical records show that as early as 1266 an Eberhart officiated as Bishop of Constance. On the 13th of March, 1265, was born Eberhart the Noble, who was the most daring and successful warrior of Wurtemberg, was of royal family, and estab- lished the present kingdom, with Stuttgart as its principal city. After the Thirty Years' war in Germany, many representatives of the family came to America, and their descendants are now found in every locality, with many variations in the spelling of the name, but a strong similarity in characteristics and appearance. In both Europe and America, they have furnished many preachers and teachers, and are leaders in every community where found. In 1727 Joseph Eber- hart came from Switzerland and settled in Pennsylvania, locating in what is now Lower Milford township, Lehigh county, in 1742, and becoming a prosperous farmer. Before his death, in 1760, he divided his one thousand acres of land between his six sons. He was active in organizing and sustaining the Great German Reformed church and reached an advanced age.
When John F. Eberhart was eight years of age the family removed to Big Bend, Venango county, and here his time was divided between work upon the farm and at the winter school. At the age of sixteen he commenced to teach his first school, which was located at the mouthi of Oil creek, on the site of the present Oil City, his salary there being $8.50 per month, with "board" divided among his patrons. During the following summer he took special lessons in writing and drawing, thereby qualifying himself to teach those specialties, which accom- plishments proved a valuable aid to him in working his way through college. After spending two terms at Cottage Hill Academy, Ells- worth, Ohio, he entered Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom July 2, 1853.
In the most strenuous and literal sense of the word, Dr. Eberhart "worked" his way through college, but, notwithstanding this double burden of hard study and self-maintenance, he took high rank among more than three hundred pupils, both as a student and an athlete. . 1 proof of his standing in the latter capacity was that he was one of two
160
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
students who was able to lift a brass cannon in the Meadville arsenal weighing nine hundred pounds. Among the alumni of this college may be mentioned William H. Mckinley, Governor. Loundes of Mary- land, Postmaster General Gary and Judge Worthington, of Peoria. On September I, following his graduation, he became principal of the seminary at Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and among his pupils, who afterward attained distinction, was Hiram W. Thomas, founder and many years pastor of the People's church, Chicago. To the great mutual regret of principal and students, as well as the management of the institution, Mr. Eberhart was compelled to resign before the close of his second year and start for the west, on account of ill health.
Mr. Eberhart arrived in Chicago April 15, 1855, but soon pro- ceeded to Dixon, Illinois, where he spent the summer in hunting, fishing and other out-door recreation. This started him on the road to good health, which he maintained in after years largely through his custom of spending a portion of each season in out-door sports. While at Dixon he edited the Dixon Transcript, and also bought an interest in the publication, but soon abandoned the journalistic field of politics. He then lectured for a time before various institutions of learning on chemistry, natural philosophy, meteorology, astronomy and kindred topics, after which he traveled for a year in the interest of various school-book publishers, and then assumed the publication and editorship of the Northwestern Home and School Journal, in Chicago. During the three years in which he filled this dual position, which so forcibly demonstrated his rare combination of executive ability and scholarly acumen, he conducted many teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, being employed in the Badger state by Dr. Henry Barnard, then chancellor of the Wisconsin State University, and afterward the first United States Commissioner of Education. In Illinois he held the first institutes in many of the north- ern and central counties, and assisted in establishing a graded system in most of the larger cities. This work brought Dr. Eberhart into intimate contact with many distinguished educators of the west, and also marked him for signal preferment in Chicago and Cook county.
Dr. Eberhart had become especially identified with the formula- tion of free-school principles into the laws of Illinois. In 1855 he first attended the state legislature to assist in the founding of the
161
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
present law, which was passed in the following year, and for sixteen years thereafter was present at every session to further necessary amendments and those required by the advancement of the times. He was also present at the constitutional convention of 1870, in the same faithful capacity, and, as he adds, "Legislation was always kept ahead of public intelligence and sentiment, and thus served in itself as an educator." In 1859, when the public schools were without either system or efficiency, Dr. Eberhart was elected school commissioner for Cook county, the title of his office being soon afterward changed to superintendent of schools. This position he continued to hold consecutively for ten years. Although there were twice as many teachers outside of Chicago as within, there was little interest shown in the country schools. The compensation of the new commissioner was two dollars per day for one hundred days, but he took a horse and buggy and commenced to make the rounds of schools, which had been heretofore virtually neglected. At the end of the one hundred days he found that his transportation expenses had eaten up his salary, but he went right on with the good work. The second year the board of supervisors made the compensation three dollars per day for two hundred days. He was also allowed one dollar for each certificate issued and two per cent commission on all school moneys paid out. The supervisors, through the superintendent's persistence and persuasiveness, also voted fifty dollars for holding the first session of the Cook County Teachers' Institute at Harlem (now Oak Park) on April 11, 1860. It was attended by seventy-five teachers; another institute was held in the fall, at Englewood, and thereafter two each year. Frequent meetings of teachers were also held in different parts of the county ; a standing committee on education was appointed from the members of the board of supervisors, of which Paul Cornell, of Hyde Park, was first chairman, and, emboldened by his progress, Dr. Eberhart finally asked the county board for $600 with which to defray the expenses of a "three-months' teachers' institute," which was but a familiar name for a County Normal School. The matter was referred to the standing committee on education, and finally was enthusiastically taken up by E. J. Whitehead, then a young attorney who had been chosen to its chairmanship. The latter at length reported to the board of supervisors a resolution for the appropriation of $2,500 per annum for two years to be applied to an experimental normal Vol. I-11.
162
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
school. Largely through the instrumentality of Heber S. Rexford, Blue Island secured the location, and in September, 1867, the school was opened with Professor D. S. Wentworth as principal. Two years afterward the institution was transferred to Englewood, and in Sep- tember, 1870, it took possession of the present Normal School build- ing. The original intention of the institution had been to fit teachers for the country schools, which formed the most lax portion of the county system, but it soon became evident that it was destined to have a wider field; and the great credit for pointing out its broader destiny undoubtedly lies with the head of the county educational system, Dr. Eberhart, who retired from office in December, 1869. He had no further official connection with the schools until 1878, when he was chosen a member of the County Board of Education. As president of that body, he found himself in a position to exert his influence in favor of adding a kindergarten department to the Cook County Normal School, and, with Mr. Wentworth, the principal, and Albert G. Lane, county superintendent, as most worthy allies, he finally suc- ceeded in the incorporation of the Chicago Free Kindergarten Train- ing School as a part of the general normal system. Its first class graduated in December, 1881. Dr. Eberhart was also instrumental in amending the educational law of the state so that free kindergartens could be established in connection with the common schools. So far as known the first kindergarten founded under this provision was that established at Chicago Lawn, Dr. Eberhart being at that time president of the school board of directors. This closed a very impor- tant phase of Dr. Eberhart's career as an educator, and it has been thus characterized by Professor W. L. Steele, president of the Illinois State Teachers' Association :
"The Hon. John F. Eberhart did valiant service for the cause of education by carrying the gospel of the free school to those who had never heard of it, by warming into life and activity those grown luke- warm, by preaching the doctrine of union graded schools to the larger towns where their educational energies were being dissipated by the independent system, by organizing county institutes, and by his educa- tional paper, the Northwestern Home and School Journal. A veritable missionary was he."
The late Dr. Bateman, state superintendent of public instruction in 1867-8, gives Professor Eberhart special praise for his work in
163
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
connection with the Cook County Normal School, speaking of the Blue Island institution as "the pioneer," and concluding: "In this practically demonstrating the feasibility of this new and most suc- . cessful mode of increasing the supply of superior teachers, Cook county has rendered the state a very eminent service." Orville T. Bright, county superintendent of schools, in his report for 1896-8, says : "Mr. Eberhart's entire time was given to the schools. He was a college graduate and a man of great force of character. He estab- lished regular and thorough examinations and conducted successful teachers' meetings and institutes. Mr. Eberhart drafted the law making possible .the establishment of the county normal schools, and toward the close of his last term secured action from the county supervisors of which the Cook County Normal School was the result. In 1862 the 'first report of the Cook county schools by the commis- sioner' was issued, and an interesting document it is, containing thirty-five pages. The first report for Cook county, like the present issue, pleads for school libraries and for the adornment of school- houses. 'The schoolhouse should be made as much like the home as possible, the children should love it,' sounds familiar enough now. It was not so common forty years ago. And this: 'I am often beset by persons requesting a third grade certificate for some special district, at the same time setting forth that the scholars are all small and backward-they know they can teach them, etc. It is my honest con- viction that it requires better qualifications to teach a primary school well than it does to teach a more advanced school; and had I the employment of teachers, if I should make any difference in salaries, it would be in favor of primary teachers.' This also was very advanced ground forty years ago, and speaks volumes for the splendid work of the first Cook county superintendent."
Among the other important works with which Dr. Eberhart was identified while actively engaged in the educational field were those which included his participation in the organization of the Illinois State Teachers' Association in 1855; the drafting of the state law authorizing the establishment of county normal schools; organization of the State Association of School Superintendents in 1860, of which he was president; and his prominent identification with the American Institute of Instruction and of the National Teachers' Association. In its earlier years he was a very active member of the last named
164
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
association, and in 1864 at a meeting held in Ogdensburg, New York, with his Chicago friend and co-worker, S. H. White, he was received as a life member. At that convention he was chairman of the nominating committee, and was appointed by the association to respond to the address of welcome delivered by the eminent United States Senator King in behalf of the citizens of Ogdensburg. Not only Professor White, but others who joined at the time as life mem- bers, have all passed away, and at the convention of the association held in Cleveland, in June, 1908, Dr. Eberhart was the Nestor of those present at the proceedings.
It is also due to Dr. Eberhart to state that the school section (640 acres) in township 38, range 13, Cook county, was not sold at from $10 to $20 per acre, as was the case with other school lands in the county, and that the beautiful grounds of the Normal school consist of twenty acres, instead of the one and one-half acres which were originally offered.
At different times during his educational career Dr. Eberhart received offers of important positions, such as professorships or presi- dencies of leading institutions. In 1855 he was offered the presidency of the college at Naperville. Early in his career he was also called to St. Louis to assist in the organization of its first high school, and at the conclusion of his work was proffered the principalship. In 1866 Senior Sarmienta, generalissimo of the revolutionary armies, who finally established the Argentine Republic, visited the United States to study its government, especially its public school system. Meeting Mr. Eberhart at a convention of the National Educational Association he became the intimate and admirer of the young American educator and offered him the national superintendency of schools of the Argen- tine Republic. But neither then, nor at a later date, did he see fit to abandon the splendid work undertaken and accomplished in Cook county. After a quarter of a century of devotion to this cause he turned his attention to operations in real estate, became the chief pro- moter of Norwood Park and Chicago Lawn, and handled thousands of lots and hundreds of acres of city and suburban property. He still resides in the latter, is a large land-holder and an honored citizen, but his strongest title to the gratitude of Cook county and the state of Illinois rests in his invaluable work as a founder and developer of their public and normal school systems of education.
165
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Dr. Eberhart has retained his love for out-door sports, and was, until a comparatively recent period, an expert with both shotgun and rifle, having brought down every kind of game from a moose to a water fowl, and landed every kind of fish from a 700-pound shark to a two-ounce trout. He was the founder of the Nippersink Club and its president during the twenty years of its existence. The organi- zation, which was limited to twenty-five members, embraced such men as S. M. Moore, Marshall Field, Eugene S. Pike, Colonel George R. Clark and Messrs. Reid and Murdoch. Mr. Eberhart was also an early member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was one of the founders of the People's church, over whom Dr. H. W. Thomas presided until his retirement from the active ministry. Dr. Eberhart was at one time president of the board of trustees of that organiza- tion, and his creed, as defined by himself is as follows: "I trust in an All-Wise Creator and Disposer of Events, and I believe in the religion of Jesus Christ, as epitomized in His Sermon on the Mount : 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.'"
On December 25, 1864, Dr. Eberhart was married to Miss Matilda C. Miller, daughter of the late Joseph C. Miller, who came to this country from Toronto, Canada, when his daughter was an infant. Mrs. Eberhart was educated in the schools of Aurora and Chicago, and is the mother of four children, the eldest of whom, John J. Eberhart, is his father's partner in the real estate business.
A typical German-American in his relations to the business world, the field of letters and public affairs, Otto C. Schneider, retired to- OTTO C. SCHNEIDER. bacco manufacturer and now in the second year of his service as president of the city board of edu- cation, is one of Chicago's many-sided citizens who never tires of laboring for its advancement. He is a native of Kusel, Rhenish Bavaria, born on the 5th of December, 1856. son of Chris- tian Ludwig and Dorothea (Emrich) Schneider. His father, who was editor and publisher of a newspaper in the Fatherland, died in 1860, and the mother in 1865. The family is of old and distin- guished ancestry, it being traced in an unbroken line to 1585.
Otto C. Schneider partially completed his education before com- ing to the United States, attending the Latin school in his native city until he was fourteen years of age. One of his first steps after
I66
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
locating in Chicago was to take a short course at the well-known Dyrenfurth's College in 1870. He then became an apprentice in a drug store, removing to St. Louis after the fire of 1871 and com- pleting his training in that city. Completing a course in the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1875 he passed the required examina- tion for registry before the Missouri State Board of Pharmacy. In November, 1877, Mr. Schneider returned to Chicago, being then within a month of his majority. Two years later he opened a drug store on the corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, which he con- tinued for about four years. Disposing of that business, he com- menced the manufacture of tobacco, his entrance into this field being determined largely by his marriage to a daughter of August Beck, well known in that line. In 1892 he bought out the firm of Au- gust Beck & Co., and remained sole proprietor of a large and prof- itable tobacco plant until 1899, when he sold the concern to the American Tobacco Company. The succeeding three years were passed at Wiesbaden, the famous hot springs resort in Germany, and in 1902 he returned to Chicago to devote his energies and talents to its betterment in many lines of work and thought.
Mr. Schneider was first appointed a member of the Chicago Board of Education in 1895, this period of his service being concluded in 1898. Under appointment by Governor Tanner, he served as Lin- coln Park commissioner the first ten months of 1899, or until his retirement from business and his departure for Europe. Since 1906 he was a member of the Special Park Commission, and in May, 1907, he commenced his present term of service on the board of education under appointment by Mayor Busse. He has been successively elect- ed its president May 29th and July 16, 1907, and July 15, 1908, and no incumbent of the office has given more disinterested or effi- cient service. A man of signal business and executive ability, as well as of broad education and thorough culture, he has donated his entire time gratuitously to the school system of Chicago, being regularly at his desk from 9 o'clock a. m. until 4 o'clock p. m. daily. Among the many improvements in the educational department which stand. to his credit are the establishment of free telephone service for the entire public school system, by which the city has been saved $20,000 annually; the suppression of fraternities and sororities of the high schools; the expansion of the compulsory feature to cover the paro-
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ACIDE, L NOX AND TILDEH FOUNDATIONS
R. B
Very truly yours, AT Nightingale.
167
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
chial and private schools of the city; a thorough investigation of the physical and sanitary condition of the public school buildings, with resulting safeguards and improvements, and a vast improvement in the financial condition of the board, including an advancement in salaries from first-year grade teachers to assistant superintendents.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.