USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 15
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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
Mr. Winston has lived in Chicago since childhood, obtaining his early schooling there, and at the age of sixteen entering Yale Col- lege, from which he graduated in 1877 as Bachelor of Arts. He was
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a student in the Columbia Law School, in 1878 was admitted to the Illinois bar and in that year became associated with his father as a member of the firm of F. H. and F. S. Winston. Three years later he received his first important advance in the profession by his ap- pointment as assistant corporation counsel, conducting its duties with such credit that in 1884 he was made corporation counsel. As the head of that important legal department for two years he served the city with such devotion to its interests and such thorough and adroit knowledge that his resignation was considered a severe loss to the municipal administration. Such a course on Mr. Winston's part was made necessary by his father's retirement from active practice and his departure for the Orient to assume his duties as minister to Persia. At that time the younger Winston succeeded to much of his father's practice, and he has since added so much by his own initiative and as a result of his own fine abilities, that he has virtually assumed the high position as a corporation lawyer which Frederick H. Winston maintained for so many years. In 1886 he became solicitor for the Michigan Central Railroad, and still retains that connection. He is also counsel and director of the Union Stock Yards and Transit Com- pany, general solicitor of the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, a director of the Chicago Breweries, Limited, counsel and director of the Chicago Consolidated Brewing and Malting Company, general counsel of the Chicago Junction Railroad Company, director of the Standard Trust Company of New York, a director of the Stock Yards Savings Bank and of the United States Brewing Company. He is also the legal representative of all the above corporations. Since 1903 he has been the senior partner in the firm of Winston, Payne and Strawn, whose offices are in the First National Bank building, and which stands among the most substantial and progressive of combi- nations of legal talent formed within recent years.
Mr. Winston was married June 26, 1876, at Philadelphia, to Miss Ada Fountain, and their children are: Mervyn, now Mrs. Dwight Lawrence; Garrard B. and Hampden. Mr. Winston is a member of the Chicago Historical Society and of the Chicago, Union, Mid-Day. Chicago Athletic, Chicago Golf, Caxton and Saddle and Cycle clubs. His residence is at 576 North State street, in a finished and beautiful district near Lincoln Park, and his family is considered among the really cultured society of the city.
Vol. II-10
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John P. Wilson, one of the western leaders in the promulgation and development of corporation and real estate law, is one of the mem-
JOHN P. bers of the profession who has always been en-
gaged in large affairs and yet who persistently con-
WILSON. veys the impression that his personality is larger than his performances. His creative identification with the Sanitary District and the World's Columbian Exposition, two of the most far- reaching enterprises with which the name of even Chicago is asso- ciated, has perhaps more than any other phase of his professional life brought to the realization of the public Mr. Wilson's masterly knowledge of the law, his deep penetration into their foundation principles, and the broad and high qualities of his mind abundantly able to apply them to circumstances and affairs without parallel in the previous history of municipalities.
John P. Wilson, the senior member of the firm of Wilson, Moore and McIlvaine, Chicago, was born on a farm in Whiteside county, July 3, 1844, the son of a Scotchman, Thomas Wilson, and his wife, Margaret Laughlin. He began his education in the district schools, then attended Knox College at Galesburg, where he graduated in 1865, and after two years divided between the study of law and teach- ing school was admitted to the bar in 1857. He came to Chicago the same year, and for forty years has been the permanent member of a succession of law firms. The firm of Borden, Spafford and McDaid, which he first entered, was dissolved after a short time, and for two years he continued practice with John Borden. In 1870 Spafford, McDaid and Wilson was organized, and after various changes the firm became Wilson, Moore and McIlvaine, of which, as stated, Mr. Wilson is senior partner. In corporation and real estate law the firm is one of the strongest in the country.
Mr. Wilson's connection with the Sanitary District and canal, an enterprise which is the strongest assurance of comparative health to a cosmopolitan community of which history furnishes any example, commenced long before it was organized or the first shovelful of dirt had been scooped from the earth. The law establishing the dis- trict was drafted by him, and that there should be no doubt of the legality of the action of the board under the law steps were taken to test its validity before the courts. Judge O. H. Horton sustained the law in the circuit court, and his decision was affirmed on appeal to
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the supreme court. The Sanitary District had been established by vote of the people in November, 1889, and the first board elected a few weeks later. Throughout the conduct of the case upon which depended its existence as a legal body the Sanitary District board was represented by Mr. Wilson, and the final judicial decision was somewhat in the nature of a triumph for his ability, skill and original foresight.
So, also, in 1890, when the World's Columbian Exposition was in its early formative period, simply a great coming event, casting its shadow before, Mr. Wilson was elected its general counsel, and personally supervised the drafting of the constitutional amendment and the legislation passed by the special assembly session of that year necessary to bring into being this great international event of educa- tion and fraternization.
Such broad intellectual powers as are thus illustrated seem all the more striking in view of Mr. Wilson's retiring and scholarly dis- position. He has confined himself to the quieter sides of life and aside from the earnest performance of his professional duties has seldom crossed the threshold of public affairs. He is a member of the Chicago, Union League and University clubs.
On April 25, 1871, Mr. Wilson married Miss Margaret C. Mc- Ilvaine, daughter of J. D. Mcllvaine, and their children are Margaret C., Martha, John P., Jr., and Anna M. The family residence is at No. 564 Dearborn avenue.
Elijah Bernis Sherman, LL. D., who as a lawyer, writer, orator, critic and citizen fills a conspicuous place in Chicago, is a descendant of Samuel Sherman, who came from England in E. B. SHERMAN. 1637 and settled in Connecticut. General William Tecumseh Sherman and Hon. John Sherman have traced their lineage to the same ancestor. Ezra Sherman, grand- father of Elijah Bernis Sherman, removed from Connecticut to Ver- mont near the beginning of the nineteenth century. His son, Elias Huntington Sherman, married a granddaughter of Rev. Peter Wor- den, a distinguished patriot and pioneer preacher who holds a place of honor in the early history of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. Their son, Elijah Bernis Sherman, was born in Fairfield, Vermont, June 18, 1832, and inherited his full share of the energy, courage, self-reliance and ambition which characterized his ancestors.
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Until his majority he lived and toiled on a farm, acquired a common school education, and at nineteen began teaching a district school. His boyhood comprehended the almost invariable conditions from which the energy of our large cities is each year recruited. He had ambition without apparent opportunity, a taste for literature without access to it, a predisposition to thoughtfulness without the ordinary scholastic channels in which to employ it. But what he then sup- posed were limitations upon his life were in reality the highest oppor- tunities. With nature for a tutor and himself and his environment for studies he found a school from which the city-bred boy is barred and whence issue the men who in city and country make events.
Having fitted for college at Brandon and Manchester, Mr. Sher- man entered Middlebury College in 1856 and was graduated with honors in 1860. Early in 1862 he resigned as principal of Brandon Seminary and assisted in raising a company of the Ninth Vermont Infantry ; enlisted as a private and was elected second lieutenant upon the organization of the regiment. In September, 1862, the regiment was captured at Harper's Ferry, paroled and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago, to await exchange. After more than three months had passed he tired of enforced idleness and in January, 1863, resigned his commission and entered the law department of the Chicago Uni- versity, from which he was graduated in 1864. In 1884 he was invited to deliver the annual address before the associated alumni of his alma mater and selected the law for his theme. The address was a masterly presentation of the majesty and beneficence of the law, its supreme importance as a factor of civilization, and a severe arraign- ment of the defective administration of the criminal law by the tribunals of the country. The trustees of the college conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D., a distinction more highly prized because the college has conferred the degree upon few of its gradu- ates who have attained eminence. Since 1894 Mr. Sherman has been one of the trustees of the college and actively interested in its admin- istration.
Family tradition and personal experience made Mr. Sherman a stanch Republican. His father was an ardent Abolitionist, his home being a station on the Underground Railroad, where fugitives on their way to Canada found a refuge, appearing under cover of night, and disappearing as mysteriously as they came. In 1876 Mr. Sher-
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man was elected to the Illinois house of representatives, taking at once a leading position in that body, which numbered among its mem- bers some of the most prominent men in Illinois. As chairman of the committee on judicial department he assisted in securing the passage of the act establishing appellate courts, and his personal and profes- sional character made him one of the most influential supporters of General Logan for re-election to the United States senate. In 1878 Mr. Sherman was re-elected to the general assembly and became chairman of the committee on corporations and a member of the con- mittee on militia. The act organizing the Illinois National Guard had been passed in 1877, and at the legislative session of 1879 it was amended, amplified and largely brought into its present shape. The important part in this work taken by Mr. Sherman was recognized by Governor Cullom by his appointment to the position of judge advo- cate of the first brigade with the rank of lieutenant colonel, in which office he served until 1884. Aside from his service in the state legis- lature, he has never held or desired any political office.
Mr. Sherman's duties as master in chancery of the United States circuit court commenced under appointment of Judges Harlan, Drum- mond and Blodgett in 1879. In that capacity his penetrating judg- ment and judicial acumen have had full and continuous exercise and have established his high character as a chancery judge and won the general approval of attorneys and those who have brought matters before him for adjudication. In 1884 Mr. Sherman was appointed chief supervisor of elections for the northern district of Illinois, and supervised the congressional elections until the time of the repeal of the law ten years later. At the November election of 1892 he ap- pointed fourteen hundred supervisors who registered two hundred and sixty-seven thousand voters, made inquiry as to their right to vote, scrutinized the votes cast and made return to the chief super- visor as to the results. The delicate duties of this· responsible position were performed so ably and fairly that the chief supervisor received unstinted commendation.
Mr. Sherman was one of the founders of the Illinois State Bar Association, which was organized in 1877, and was its president in 1882. He became a member of the American Bar Association in 1882 and was its vice president from Illinois in 1885 and 1899. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the William B. War-
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ren Lodge, Chicago Commandery and Oriental Consistory. In Odd Fellowship he has come into special prominence, having been grand master of the grand lodge of Illinois and grand representative to the sovereign grand lodge. His patriotic impulses and military service drew him to membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and the Illinois Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He was one of the founders of the Union League Club and is still one of its most hon- ored members. He has been for many years a member and an officer of the American Institute of Civics, a society comprising citizens of every state of high character and commanding influence. He is also a member of the National Municipal League.
His fondness for good literature and literary companionship induced him to become a member of the Philosophical Society, the Saracen, Alliance, Oakland Culture and Twentieth Century clubs. Of several of these he was made president and contributed greatly to their usefulness. Mr. Sherman is fond of belles lettres and delights in the exquisite charm of the masterpieces of literature. He has written many essays which give proof of excellent literary ability and taste. His style is unique and vigorous, enriched by a chastened fancy and glowing with gentle and genial humor.
Proud of the Green Mountain state and cherishing its memories glowing with the radiance of heroic deeds, Mr. Sherman recalls with pardonable pride what his ancestors wrought and what a noble heri- tage has been bequeathed to the sons and daughters of New England. It naturally follows that he was president of the Illinois Association of the Sons of Vermont before its merger into the New England Society of Chicago, and he has served two years as president of the latter society. In his introductory address he chanted the praise of New England and of the men and women who have made her annals glorious and her name resplendent, while human hearts shall beat responsive to heroic deeds. Touching the objects of the society he said :
"Let others meet to chant the praises of science. We assemble i11 the name of a pure sentiment. The votaries of science may smile at our supposed weakness; we, in turn, may deride their affected wis- dom, remembering that science has given us none of the words that touch the heart and unseal the deep fountains of the soul-friendship and patriotism, piety and worship, love, hope and immortality. The
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sweet solace of the matchless trinity-mother, home and heaven-is neither the blossoming of reason nor the product of scientific re- search, but the efflorescence of a divinely implanted sentiment. Sci- ence, indeed, is the primeval, barren rock ; but sentiment disintegrates its flinty surface, converts it into fertile soil, gives the joyous sunshine and the falling rain, brings from afar the winged seed, and lo! the once sterile surface is clad with pleasing verdure, rich with ripening grain, fragrant with budding flowers, and vocal with the hum of living things."
In kindly remembrance of his college life and affiliations and yielding to the unanimous wish of the annual conventions, he has been elected honorary president of the national society of the Delta Upsilon fraternity for thirteen years. In 1894 he delivered a scholarly address at the convention held in Chicago on "Scholarship and Hero- ism," a few sentences of which will illustrate this eloquent appeal to the young men who are to control the destinies of the morrow :
"Scholarship holds in equilibrium the instrumentalities and agencies of civilization, even as gravitation reaches its invisible arm into infinite space and bears onward in their harmonious orbits un- counted worlds, while it cares tenderly for the tiniest grain of sand on the seashore and softly cradles in its bosom the fleeciest cloud which floats across the sky. From the serene heights where scholar- ship sways its benign scepter its message has come to you, at once an invitation and an imperative summons. You have been bidden to join the shining cohorts of the world's greatest benefactors. You have obeyed the divine mandate. You have taken upon yourself the tacit vows of heroic living. You are dedicated to the exalted service of scholarship; its sanctions demand your instant and implicit obedi- ence. Consecrated to this ennobling service, this priesthood of hu- manity, let not your footsteps falter, nor your courage fail. Stand firm, remembering the words of the Master: 'No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.' If heroic impulse comes to men in humble life, surely it can come no less to those whom culture and scholarship have broadened and en- riched and ennobled. If opportunity for heroic endeavor comes to those whose lives run in narrow channels, much more does it come to those to whom the world is indebted for its advancement and im provement."
While declaring that scholarship and heroism are allied powers of civilization and joined by divine edict, Mr. Sherman paid a beautiful
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tribute to the humble heroes and heroines who have lived and died in obscurity :
"While I have thus emphasized the heroism of true scholarship, and cherishing as I do a feeling of profound reverence and admiration for the great heroes who through the ages have wrought grandly for humanity and achieved enduring renown, whose inspired utter- ances and shining deeds have been graven upon imperishable tablets and who have bequeathed to us and all coming generations the inesti- mable legacy of their illustrious example, I must yet confess a doubt whether the most magnificent exemplars of heroism have not been found in the humbler walks of life, among those who in their sim- plicity of soul and modest grandeur of character never dreamed that in all the essentials of true manhood and womanhood they held high rank in heaven's untitled aristocracy. How many heroic souls, ob- scure and unknown, whose names have perished from remembrance, were wrought and fashioned in nature's divinest mold and have made their lives sublime by gracious deeds of beneficence and self-abnega- tion. As the most delicate and fragrant flowers are often found nestling modestly among the dead leaves, or peeping timidly forth from some shady bower, so the most resplendent virtues blossom and diffuse their sweet aroma beside the lowliest and roughest paths trod- den by bruised and bleeding feet. The rose may seem to add pride to peerless beauty ; the lily to minimize its delicacy by a tacit demand for admiration ; but the shy arbutus yields its unrivaled fragrance only to the earnest wooer who seeks it with loving care in the hidden nook where it was planted by fairy hands and perfumed by the breath of dainty dryads. God has vouchsafed to the world no choicer bless- ing than the unconscious heroes and heroines who give to earth its greatest charm, and without whose presence heaven would suffer irreparable loss."
In 1866 Mr. Sherman was married to Miss Hattie G. Lovering, daughter of S. M. Lovering, of Iowa Falls, Iowa. Mrs. Sherman is a woman of excellent judgment, self-poised and self-reliant, has read widely of the best literature, and is held in high esteem by all who know her. She is a member of the Chicago Woman's Club, of the Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the founders of the patriotic society, the Dames of the Loyal Legion, and is now presi- dent of the national society of that order.
Bernis Wilmarth Sherman, their only son now living, was gradu- ated from Middlebury College in 1890, from the Northwestern Uni- versity College of Law in 1892, and is now assistant city attorney.
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He is a member of the Loyal Legion and the Chicago and Illinois State Bar associations. He is a man of sterling character and has achieved an excellent reputation as a lawyer, a man and a citizen.
Lockwood Honore, since 1903 judge of the circuit court of Cook county, comes of a family which holds a remarkable position in the LOCKWOOD material, professional and cultural development of the south and west. He is a son of Henry Hamil
HONORE.
ton and Eliza ( Carr) Honore, being of French an- cestry on the paternal side, and of English on the maternal. Jean Antoine Honore. the great-grandfather, was a native of Paris, France. born in 1755, and the descendant of an old and aristocratic family. This founder of the American branch was educated for the priest- hood, but as he was an ardent democrat both by temperament and from intimate contact with Lafayette embarked for the United States as soon as he had attained his majority, bringing with him a consid- erable patrimony to Baltimore, Maryland, where he settled in 1781. Here he obtained prominence and deep respect, and in 1806 removed to Louisville, Kentucky, where he took a large part in the develop- ment of the pioneer commerce of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He was proprietor of the first line of steamboats which plied between Louisville and New Orleans, and for many years was recognized as an energetic, able and enterprising citizen, marked for both practical ability and the pleasing, courtly bearing of his race. He died in Louisville in 1843, among his surviving children being Francis, who had been born in Baltimore in 1792. The latter spent his life as a country gentleman on his beautiful plantation near Louisville, and married Matilda Lockwood, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Captain Benjamin Lockwood, of the United States army. . 1 child of this harmonious union is Henry Il. Honore, father of the judge, who was born in Louisville, February 19. 1824. His early years were spent in acquiring a thorough education, and in home life upon his father's plantation, alternated by visits to his energetic grandfather in Louisville. After his marriage he engaged in the wholesale hardware business in Louisville, but the tales told by his maternal uncle, Captain Lockwood, who had visited Chicago in the early days of Fort Dearborn, so attracted him to the growing lake port that in 1855 he permanently located in this city. Here he lias since remained, his investments in real estate having long since made
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him independent, and his continued interest in Chicago's parks and boulevards having greatly contributed to develop its unrivaled sys- tem.
Lockwood Honore was one of six children, and was born in Chi- cago on the 7th of September, 1865. After passing through its pub- lic schools, he was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy, and became a student at Harvard University. In 1888 he graduated from that institution with the degree of A.B., and later pursued a course at the Harvard Law School, from which he received the LL. B. in 1891 (also A. M.). Mr. Honore at once engaged in the general practice of his profession in Chicago, and continued thus until elected to the circuit judgeship in 1901. His record at the bar and upon the bench has but added to the substantial credit and popularity of the family name.
Judge Honore was married August 12, 1902, to Miss Beatrice Crosby, and one child, Bertha Honore, has been born to them. The family residence is at No. 68 Cedar street. Judge Honore is a mem- ber of the Chicago, University, South Shore Country, Saddle and Cycle, Chicago Golf and Iroquois clubs. He is the youngest member of the family which is so interwoven with the business and social annals of the city. Under the name of Honore Brothers, his three brothers conduct a large real estate business; his elder sister, Bertha, is the widely known and honored Mrs. Potter Palmer, while his younger sister, Ida, is the wife of Brigadier General Frederick D. Grant, grandson of the great commander and president, and himself high in military and diplomatic life.
Williston Fish, street railway man, lawyer and author, was born at Berlin Heights, Ohio, January 15, 1858, a son of Job and Annie Elizabeth (Peabody) Fish. His ancestry is mostly WILLISTON FISH. English but partly Holland Dutch. The earliest Fish of the family in this country was Thomas Fish, who was born at Warwickshire, England, and who came to this coun-, try in 1637, settling at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1643. At nearly the same time W. Fish's mother's earliest American ancestors came from England to Rhode Island. Annie Elizabeth Peabody herself was born at Newport, Rhode Island, and lived there until she was twelve years old, when her family moved to Geauga county, Ohio. Job Fish was born at Hartland, New York., and came at the age of
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