USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 19
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The son of David Y. and Esther ( Rambo) Custer, Jacob R. Cus- ter was born near Valley Forge, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of May, 1845. His parents were natives of Montgomery county in that state. The father was born on the 26th and the mother on the 29th of January, 1815. David Y. Custer was a farmer and a miller, a dual occupation common in the east where the farms were small. His death occurred at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in March, 1895. His children consisted of two sons and one daughter, of whom Jacob R. is the sole survivor.
As a boy Mr. Custer was an ambitious student whose outlook was early directed to other fields than those limited by his immediate surroundings. Fortunately, his uncle, Dr. Abel Rambo, a well known educator of those days, was at the head of Washington Hall, an edu- cational institution located at Trappe, Pennsylvania. Here, under the tuition of this able educator, young Custer remained three years preparing himself for college. The knowledge there acquired was not only firmly fixed by unvarying application but by the teaching of school during the winter months. The Civil war which raged during his preparatory course was brought to his very door. For several months covering the invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederates and the battle of Antietam, in 1863, he was enrolled as a member of the state militia. In the fall of 1864 he entered Pennsylvania Col- lege, at Gettysburg, becoming a member of the sophomore class and completing his course in 1867, when he graduated with third honors and the degree A. B.
Mr. Custer had already determined on a legal career, and in the fall of 1867 began his professional studies in the office of William F. Johnson, an able lawyer of Philadelphia. After spending a year as an office student, he entered the Albany Law School, graduating therefrom in May, 1869, and being forthwith admitted to practice in the courts of New York. In the fall of the same year he became a resident and practicing lawyer of Chicago, where he has won promi- nence both as an attorney and a man. He had the education, the energy, the self-reliance, the all-around ability and the adaptability to succeed in a city where these qualities were at a premium, and he therefore made rapid and permanent progress.
Mr. Custer's independence and self-reliance were forcibly indicated in the fact that, coming thus to a large, strange and untried city, he
4
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sought no professional alliance, but bravely and confidently entered upon an individual practice. He occupied offices for four years with Arba N. Waterman, afterward judge of the circuit and appellate courts of Cook county. He continued to practice alone for nearly ten years, or until June, 1879, when he became associated with the late Hon. William J. Campbell. This mutually profitable and harmo- nious association was dissolved only by the death of Mr. Campbell in March, 1896. Mr. Custer subsequently formed a partnership with Joseph A. Griffin and John M. Cameron, under the present, name of Custer, Griffin and Cameron.
In 1880 Mr. Custer was appointed master in chancery of the superior court of Cook county, serving in that capacity with signal efficiency until his resignation in 1892. From 1882 to 1890 he also served as the attorney for the sheriff of Cook county, his incumbency covering the terms of Sheriffs Hanchett and Matson. He is known as a strong trial lawyer and an able advocate, and his individual and partnership clientage has been drawn from the larger and representa- tive corporations and prominent business men.
Mr. Custer has given his attention entirely to practice in the civil courts. Among the most notable cases in which he was retained men- tion may be made of the following: The suits of Armour, Swift and Morris versus the Union Stock Yards & Transit Company, in the cir- cuit court, to restrain the defendant from interfering with the deliv- ery of stock to the plaintiffs at their yards and over the tracks of the defendant company; also the suits of the smaller packers against Armour, Swift and Morris and the Union Stock Yards & Transit Company and the Chicago Junction railways and Union Stock Yards Company of New Jersey, for the purpose of enjoining the fulfilment of an agreement under which the New Jersey company was to pay Armour, Swift and Morris, under certain conditions, three million dollars of its income bonds. Some of the most eminent counsel of Chicago, New York and Boston were engaged in the litigation, which was finally compromised. Mr. Custer was also connected with numerous suits brought by the attorney-general against the Chicago gas companies for the purpose of dissolving an alleged trust : also with a number of the suits against the gas companies, within the same period, brought in the state and federal courts, for the purpose of perventing consolidation, for the appointment of receivers, etc. He
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was also principal counsel in the suits brought by the attorney-general to 'enjoin the public warehousemen of class A from storing their grain in their own warehouses and mixing it with the grain of others. This litigation was conducted in the circuit and state supreme courts, Mr. Custer appearing for the defendants. More recently Mr. Custer was principal counsel for the Columbus Construction Company in its liti- gation with the Crane Company which was protracted for years in the United States circuit court, circuit court of appeals and supreme court of the United States. He has also been counsel for the admin- istrator and trustee of the Estate of William T. Baker in the adminis- tration thereof, and in the varied complicated and important litigation connected therewith:
Aside from his college fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, Mr. Custer is identified with no secret order. He is a member of the Union League and Calumet clubs. Of the latter he was president for three years. His wife, to whom he was married December 1, 1879, was formerly Miss Ella A. White, daughter of Charles B. White-the latter ior many years a member of the firm of White, Swan & Co., extensive lumber dealers. Mrs. Custer is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has borne her husband two children-a son, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Esther Rambo, who died October 6, 1900, at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Custer lives at 3928 Grand Boulevard.
Henry Herbert Kennedy, a prominent corporation lawyer who has been practicing in Chicago for more than twenty years, is a native HENRY H. KENNEDY. of the Hawkeye state, having been born in Wash- ington county on the 6th of June, 1861. His promi- nence in Congregational circles is a filial tribute to the memory of his father, who for forty years was a leading clergy- man of that denomination. He is the son of Rev. Joseph R. and Deborah (Wilcox) Kennedy, the former being a native of Augusta, Ohio, born in 1828, and a graduate of Oberlin College. The father's death occurred at Tacoma, Washington, on the 23d of September, 1906. The mother, who was born in Connecticut, is still a resident of that city, and all of their four children are living.
Mr. Kennedy was educated in the public schools of his native state and at the Iowa College, Grinnell, from which he graduated in 1883, and which honored him, three years later, with the degree of A. M. For about a year thereafter he was connected with the Grin-
Heury if. Kennedy
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جدير بالتسسيول
O.S. Calhoun
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nell Herald, but finding his mind gravitating strongly to the legal field, he decided upon a course in the law department of the Univer- sity of Michigan, from which he secured his professional degree of LL. B. In the year of his graduation Mr. Kennedy became a resi- dent of Chicago, and for the succeeding five years was in the law office of Moses and Newman. In 1890 he became associated with the law firm of Moses. Pam and Kennedy, now Moses, Rosenthal and Kennedy, enjoying therefore the advantage of a membership in a firm which has an extensive practice of more than forty years' standing. In this connection he has now been known for years as one of the most reliable and successful corporation lawyers in the city.
In politics Mr. Kennedy is known as a stalwart Republican. He is a member of the Union League Club, has been president of the Congregational Club, and is a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions. As a leader in Congregationalism his services both as lawyer and a broad minded man are eminently useful.
On June 15, 1892, Henry H. Kennedy was married to Miss Min- nie G. Perkins, of Grinnell, Towa, and they have become the parents of one child-Herbert H. In his domestic and social relations he but rounds out his character as a typical American citizen of cosmo- politan Chicago.
Although but a few years a resident of Chicago, Hon. William James Calhoun is well known to the fraternity of this city, and freely
WILLIAM J. recognized as a leader of the state bar, having en- CALIIOUN. joyed a successful practice at Danville for nearly a quarter of a century before coming to the metropolis. As his professional work took him into all the courts of Illinois he was as much at home in Springfield and Chicago as in Danville. and his reputation was further extended by his prominent participation in the Mckinley campaign of 1896 and his later service as a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
William J. Calhoun was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. October 5, 1848, the son of Robert and Sarah ( Knox) Calhoun. The parents were both of Scotch-Irish descent, the father belonging to the Scotch clan of Colquhon, one branch of which emigrated to Ireland and gave rise to the Calhouns of America. Mrs. Calhoun's father was James Knox, for many years an officer in the British army who emigrated
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to the United States and became a resident of Pittsburg. Captain John Knox, the great-grandfather, was also identified with the Brit- ish military service, participated in the French and English wars, and was the author of what was known as "Knox's Diary," being- a personal narrative of such historical value that frequent reference to it is made by Francis Parkman and other writers upon that period. In his early life Robert Calhoun was a merchant but because of broken health retired to a farm near Youngstown, Ohio, where he died in March, 1866, his wife having passed away at Mount Jackson, Pennsylvania, in 1858.
In 1864, when sixteen years of age, William J. Calhoun ran away from home, and, after being twice rejected on account of his youth, finally succeeded in joining the Union forces as a member of the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Man- derson, lately United States senator from Nebraska. At the con- clusion of the war and his honorable discharge he became a student at the Union Seminary, Poland, Mahoning county, Ohio, at which institution President Mckinley received the bulk of his education. There William J. Calhoun remained a student for about three years, and became acquainted with the future chief executive and the mem- bers of his family. Coming to Illinois in the spring of 1869, he first located at Arcola, Douglas county, where resided his maternal aunt, the wife of Dr. F. B. Henry. There he taught school, worked on the farm and finally commenced the study of the law. In March, 1874, he removed to Danville, and completed his studies under the direction of Hon. J. B. Mann. After being admitted to the bar, in January of the following year, he immediately entered into partner- ship with his former professional preceptor, forming the firm of Mann and Calhoun, afterward changed to Mann, Calhoun and Fra- zier. These formed one of the strongest combinations of legal talent in eastern Illinois.
In the fall of 1882 Mr. Calhoun was elected to the general assem- bly of Illinois, and in the autumn of 1884 became state's attorney of Vermilion county. In the fall of 1889 he entered into partnership with Judge M. W. Thompson, now circuit judge of Vermilion county, under the firm name of Calhoun and Thompson. Mr. Calhoun was appointed general attorney for the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Com- pany in 1892, and while giving his entire time to the service of that
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company maintained his Danville office under the firm name of Ca !- houn and Steely. Until the approach of the national campaign of 1896, in which his old schoolmate, Mckinley, was the nominee of his party for the presidency, he abandoned politics and gave his entire time to the practice of his profession. In that fierce contest Illinois was a crucial state, the triumph of the Republicans largely depending upon carrying it. Mr. Calhoun headed his delegation from Vermil- ion county, and was selected to marshal the Mckinley forces on the floor of the nominating convention, and its three days' session re- sulted in the choice of his friend and the national prominence of his champion.
Soon after the inauguration of President Mckinley conditions in Cuba assumed a most aggravating form, and among other incidents which severely strained the relations between Spain and the United States was the imprisonment of Dr. Ruiz as an alleged revolutionist, and the injuries subsequently inflicted upon him which caused his death. General Fitzhugh Lee, the consul at Havana, represented to the United States government that Dr. Ruiz was a naturalized Ameri- can citizen, had been foully dealt with, and requested an investigation. A commission for that purpose was appointed, consisting of Senor Congosta, on the part of Spain, and Consul Lee for the United States, Mr. Calhoun being designated as special counsel to conduct the case in behalf of this country. The latter arrived in Havana in May, 1897, and remained for several weeks assisting in the investiga- tion. The Spanish authorities claimed that Ruiz committed suicide by butting his head against the iron door of his cell, causing a fatal attack of congestion of the brain, but their contention was by no means sustained, and the Spanish government finally made an award in favor of the widow and children of the deceased, admitting that, whatever the cause of his death, he had been imprisoned contrary to the terms of the existing treaty between the two countries. But before the award was paid, the Maine was blown up. the Spanish- American war ensued, and the unfortunate family of Ruiz never recovered anything.
Upon his return from Cuba Mr. Calhoun was tendered the posi- tion of comptroller of the currency, but declined the office and re- turned to the practice of his profession. In May. 1898. he accepted a membership on the Interstate Commerce Commission, to succeed
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William R. Morrison, whose term had expired. He remained in this position of national responsibility until October, 1899, when he re- signed to establish himself in Chicago.
When Mr. Calhoun became a resident of this city he associated himself in the firm of Pam, Calhoun and Glennon, which was later changed to Calhoun, Lyford and Sheean. Besides his private practice in this connection he has been appointed legal representative of a num- ber of railroad companies and other corporations. He is now acting as western counsel for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company and engaged in the general practice of his profession. Since coming to Chicago he has joined such well known clubs as the Chicago, Union League, Saddle and Cycle, Onwentsia and Exmoor.
William J. Calhoun was united in marriage to Miss Alice D. Harmon, of Danville, who died August 17, 1898. Two children were born to them: Marian, who married Philip C. Stanwood, of Boston. and Corinne, who became the wife of W. H. Gray, Jr., also of that city, where both the daughters reside. In December, 1904, Mr. Cal- houn married as his second wife Miss Lucy Monroe, of Chicago, a lady well known in the literary and social circles of the city.
The family homestead of the Ashcrafts was very near the coun- try covered by the initial operations of the Army of the Potomac and
EDWIN M. the Civil war, and several of them fought among the
ASHCRAFT. Union ranks. Edwin M. Ashcraft, the Chicago law-
yer who has become so favorably known through his two decades of practice here, was born on a farm near Clarks- burg, Harrison county, West Virginia (then Virginia), on the 27th of August, 1848. He is the eldest of the family of two sons and two daughters, born to James M. and Clarissa (Swiger) Ashcraft, and received his early education in the public schools of his native locality and at the Wheeling University. Subsequently he studied at the State University, at Normal, Illinois, and during 1867-9 taught school, devoting his leisure hours to the study of law.
In January, 1873, Mr. Ashcraft passed his examination before the supreme court of the state sitting at Springfield, was thus admitted to practice at the Illinois bar, and at once opened an office at Van- dalia, Fayette county, that state. His success was so prompt and decisive that before the end of the year he had been elected prosecut- ing attorney of the county, creditably performing the duties of that
EMAshcraft
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office for three years. During that period his reputation became so firmly fixed and materially expanded that in 1876 he was put forward by the Republicans as their nominee for Congress from the sixteenth district. Although unsuccessful in the campaign, his great popularity was demonstrated in that he reduced the normal Democratic majority from five thousand to fourteen hundred. His opponent in the contest was W. A. J. Sparks, who served as land commissioner under Presi- dent Cleveland.
Mr. Aslıcraft continued in the prosecution of a growing practice at Vandalia until 1887, in April of that year removing to Chicago and associating himself with Thomas and Josiah Cratty, under the firm name of Cratty Brothers and Ashcraft. On June 1, 1891. he with- drew from that partnership and formed the firm of Ashcraft and Gor- don. In 1900 he associated himself in practice with his sons, Raymond M. Ashcraft and Edwin M. Ashcraft, Jr., adopting the firm name of Ashcraft and Ashcraft. Both before and after coming to Chicago the senior Ashcraft has been recognized as one of the strongest trial lawyers in the state, and his standing has been such that for years he has been able to refuse those cases which do not appeal to his sense of justice. He is a leading member of the Illinois State Bar Associa- tion, has served as president of the Chicago Bar Association, and is generally honored both for his worth as an attorney and a man.
On March 16, 1875, Mr. Ashcraft was married to Miss Florence R. Moore, daughter of Risden Moore, of Belleville, Illinois, by whom he has had the following children : Raymond M., Edwin M., Jr., Florence V., and Alan E. Although a member of the Hamilton and the Union League clubs, Mr. Ashcraft is domestic in his tastes and finds his truest happiness in the home circle. He is not a member of any church, but contributes liberally to approved works of charity and benevolence. Whether considered as lawyer or man he is straight- forward, fair minded and forceful.
Raymond M. Ashcraft, member of the law firm of Ashicraft and Ashcraft, is a native of Vandalia. Fayette county, Illinois, born on
RAYMOND M. the 9th of January, 1876. Hle is the son of Edwin
ASHCRAFT. M. and Florence R. (Moore) Ashcraft. The prac- tice of the firm is of a general nature and substantial proportions.
Raymond M. Ashcraft received his primary education in the Van- Vol. 11-13
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dalia schools, in 1884-6, and through the public system of Chicago during 1887-92. After pursuing a higher course at the Chicago Manual Training School from 1892 to 1894, he commenced the sys- tematic study of the law at the Northwestern University, from which he was graduated in 1897 with the degree of LL. B. In the follow- ing year he took a post graduate course at Lake Forest University, receiving a similar degree from that university; so that he has laid a solid groundwork for his professional future.
In the employ of the firm of Ashcraft and Gordon from 1894 to 1900, being admitted to practice in June, 1897, and since 1900 has been associated with his father as a partner. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Chicago Bar Association and of the Delta Chi collegiate fraternity, and in his religious convictions is a Presby- terian. He was married at Chicago, August 3, 1901, to Miss Char- leta Peck, and has one daughter, Charleta Jane, born December 8, 1906. Mrs. Ashcraft is a daughter of Charles Peck, one of the founders of the Academy of Design and a well known artist of early Chicago. Mr. Ashcraft's resides in Chicago.
E. M. Ashcraft, Jr., who has been a member of the above firm since 1900, was born at Vandalia, Illinois, September 21, 1877. He EDWIN M. ASHCRAFT, JR. was a pupil in the Vandalia schools during 1884-86, then in the Chicago public schools until 1892, and for the following three years was a student in the Chicago Manual Training School. In 1900 he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. from the law department of the University of Michigan. He had been admitted to the bar in the preceding October, 1899, and since entering the firm with his father and brother has met with gratifying professional advancement. Mr. Ashcraft mar- ried in Chicago, October 9, 1903, Miss Anna L. Strawbridge, and their son, now two years old, is E. M. Ashcraft III. Mr. Ashcraft is a Republican and a member of the Delta Chi fraternity.
Nowhere is the value of thorough preparation in professional life more evident than in the domain of the law; in the legal field the
HARRY P. university is a vital necessity, if the young man rea-
WEBER. sonably hopes to reach the plane of a broad practice,
to get beyond the small courts and the region of pettifogging. "Be sure you're right; then go ahead," is a maxim which need not alone be posted in business houses. Hurry, feverish
Ham P.Weten
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haste without forethought, is fatal to the lawyer as well as to the merchant.
Still a young man, Harry Perkins Weber prepared himself with patience and thoroughness before he ventured into the activities of his profession, with the result that in the few years of his actual practice he has made noticeable strides toward eminence. A native of Kingston, Adams county, Illinois, where he was born November 9, 1869, he is a son of John and Rose ( Perkins) Weber. The father was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and now, at the age of sixty-five years, resides at Barry, Pike county, Illinois, where he is engaged in the banking business. The mother, a native also of Kingston, Illinois, is sixty years of age. From the public schools of his home town the son under review passed into the Illinois State Normal University, entering the high school department, from which he graduated in 1889.
Mr. Weber's legal education commenced in the Columbian Law School, Washington, D. C., from which in 1893 he received the degree of LL. B., and in the following year that of LL. M. Not yet satisfied with his professional training, he entered in the fall of 1894 the Harvard University Law School, pursuing at the same time supplementary courses in the academic department, and taking the degree of LL. B. in 1897. He had already obtained a broadening experience in the official life of the national capital as private secretary to the First Comptroller of the United States Treasury, holding that position from 1891-4. In 1896 he came to Chicago, and until July, 1898, was a member of the firm of Catlin, Moulton and Weber. It should be stated that Mr. Weber was admitted to practice by the supreme court of the District of Columbia in 1894, and by the state supreme court in Illinois in 1895. In the sum- mer of 1898 Mr. Weber went to Honolulu, H. I., and for about a year was engaged in practice there under the firm name of Monsarrat and Weber, and in 1899 became Assistant Attorney General of the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to Chicago he again became a resi- dent of the city in the winter of 1899-1900, and since 1901 has been a member of the well known firm of Shope, Mathis, Zane and Weber, recently reorganized under the firm name of Shope, Zane. Busby and Weber.
Mr. Weber's education and experience have admirably fitted him
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for general practice, which he has followed to a large extent, although he has perhaps obtained his strongest standing in the specialty of municipal and corporate securities, and in this line he ranks as one of the leading bond attorneys in the United States. He has been identified with some of the most important litigation of late years at the Chi- cago bar, illustrated by such cases as The City of Chicago vs. The State Board of Equalization, Elkins vs. The City of Chicago, the Ninety-nine Year Traction Litigation and the $75,000,000 Street Railway Certificates Case. By the consideration of these facts at this point it will be realized how rapid and substantial has been his pro- fessional progress. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, as well as of the Law, University, Harvard (Chicago), Quadrangle and Lake Zurich Golf clubs.
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