USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 21
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Judge Goodrich has a wide and influential connection with the
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historic fraternities, being a Knight Templar Mason and a member of long and good standing with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Knights of Pythias. He is also identified with the Chi- cago Athletic, the Iroquois and the Washington Park clubs.
Edward Fisk Gorton is well known both as an able lawyer and as being one of the most progressive and satisfactory mayors who ever
EDWARD F. GORTON. presided over the affairs of any of Chicago's grow- ing and cultured suburbs. He is a native of Ashta- bula, Ohio, born May 6, 1854, the son of Anson and Ellen (Fisk) Gorton. His father was a Canadian, of Toronto, and died in Lake Forest, Illinois, July 4, 1897, at the age of seventy- two years. During the active years of his business life the elder Gorton was engaged in the express business, first with the Adams and later with the Wells-Fargo companies. Mr. Gorton's mother was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, and died there May 7, 1854.
This is a branch of the Gorton family that was founded in Amer- ica by the non-conformist Samuel Gorton in 1636. Coming to the new world to enjoy religious freedom, he was imprisoned in Boston for heretical teaching, and finally took refuge in Rhode Island, where he associated with Roger Williams. In 1643 he and his followers were led to Boston, tried as "damnable heretics" and sentenced to hard labor in arms. His claim to land on the west side of Narra- gansett bay was finally confirmed and he spent his remaining years in comparative quiet, recognized as the founder and head of a re- ligious sect that endured a hundred years. His descendants now number some ten thousand, including many prominent figures both in church and state.
The preparatory steps for the professional education of Edward F. Gorton were taken in the schools of Rochester. In November, 1872, he became a resident of Chicago, and in 1874 entered the Union College of Law, from which he was graduated on the 9th of June, 1876. In his class were such men as Hempstead Washburne, William B. Conger, Adrian Honore, David L. Zook, Judge Wing, Arnold Heap and Wallace DeWolf; he had good company, but none of his associates has made a more substantial reputation both as a lawyer and man of affairs than Mr. Gorton. Admitted to the bar on June 9, 1876, he first formed a partnership with William P. Conger, one of his class-mates, under the firm name of Conger and Gorton.
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This harmonious and mutually advantageous connection continued until Mr. Conger's death in February, 1887. His association with Walker Blaine, son of the great Maine statesman, also endured until the death of the latter in 1889. Since that year Mr. Gorton has been engaged in a constantly growing independent practice, which has been both profitable and reputation-building. Although his profes- sional career has been extended along general lines, he is known as an especially thorough and astute real estate lawyer.
In politics, Mr. Gorton is a Republican, and well served his party, as well as established an individual reputation in the independent and business-like performance of his duties as mayor of Lake Forest from 1895 to 1902. Under his administrations the already beautiful little city underwent many important improvements, and had he con- sented Mr. Gorton could undoubtedly have had a life tenure of office. His years of residence at Lake Forest covered the period from 1892 to 1906, prior to the former year his home being in Hyde Park. In 1906 he transferred his home to near Geneva, Kane county, Illi- nois, where he now enjoys all the invigorating influences of country life, and in his beautiful residence there retains all the culture of the city. Since his admission to the bar in 1876 he has had his law office in Chicago, although gravitating more and more beyond the wear of the city in the fixing and development of his domestic and social activities. It is such men who are of the wearing and expan- sive kind. Mr. Gorton's wife was formerly Miss Fannie L. Whitney, to whom he was married June 9, 1879.
Senior member of the widely-known firm of Cratty Brothers and Jarvis, Thomas Cratty is one of the most forceful members of the Chicago bar, and for years has been credited with
THOMAS
CRATTY. standing in the front rank of jury lawyers. The elasticity of his mind, his keen faculties of percep- tion and analysis, and his mastery of the principles of the common law have made him a remarkably striking and successful advocate. If there is a close legal point involved in any issue his examination of authorities bearing upon it is exhaustive. With a thorough knowl- edge of the case in all its bearings and unerring and ready application of the principles of the law, his addresses before court and jury are necessarily models of clearness and convincing logic. Quick to per- ceive and guard the weak phases of his own case, he never fails to
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assault his adversary at the point where his armor is defective. In a word, Mr. Cratty has developed to quite a remarkable degree the necessary talent of the modern court lawyer, to think and act both quickly and powerfully "on his feet."
Mr. Cratty is a native of Champaign county, Ohio, and of Irish lineage, his great-grandfather having emigrated from the north of Ireland to Pennsylvania in the year 1760. Representatives of the family were prominent factors in the public life of the Keystone state, and the grandfather, a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania. was a Revolutionary soldier. William Cratty, the father, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1805, but in 1814 removed to Ohio, and in April, 1826, was united in marriage to Miss Candis Bennett, a native of Rhode Island, who was herself born on Christ- mas day of 1805. William Cratty was so pronounced an anti-slavery man that it is said his enemies once fixed a price upon his body, dead or alive, if delivered south of the Allegheny river. For many years he was an energetic and industrious farmer, but spent his last years in a well-earned retirement from labor, his death occurring in 1897. His wife passed away January 27, 1875. The deceased were es- teemed members of the Presbyterian church, of kindly and noble character, and were the parents of four sons and eight daughters.
Thomas Cratty spent his boyhood days on the home farm, and, although he snatched his education from the labors attendant upon such a life, he was so 'strong mentally, as well as physically, that he was qualified to teach at an early age. He was thus engaged as a frontier teacher until the fall of 1854, when he went south with the dual purpose of obtaining recreation and of studying the institution of slavery. This personal observation determined his opposition to it, and he joined the new Republican party. In 1856 he resumed farming, but the loss of his property in 1860 forced him to abandon that occupation and led him to undertake his long-cherished plan of becoming a lawyer.
Leaving behind him forever the old family homestead. Mr. Cratty came to Chicago and at once entered the Chicago Law School, from which he was graduated with honors in 1861. During this period he lived in a little rented room, and was his own housekeeper. He had no money to pay his tuition, and to his professor gave his note which was to be paid out of his first lawyer's fees. In spite of these
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drawbacks he ranked high as a student, and was always cheerful and confident of the future.
With one volume constituting his library, Mr. Cratty opened his first law office in Elmwood, Peoria county, Illinois, but, although the road to success was rough and discouraging, he had been inured to hard labor from childhood, and with intelligently directed industry and persistency fought his way to eminence. In the fall of 1863 he removed to Peoria, where he entered into partnership with Hon. W. W. O'Brien, with whom he was associated for three years. In Janu- ary, 1872, was organized the firm of Cratty Brothers, of Peoria, its junior member being Josiah Cratty, who was admitted to the bar in that year. They developed such a large and profitable business that the senior member determined to seek even a broader field in Chicago. Mr. O'Brien had preceded him thither, and on May I, 1880, they again formed a partnership under the firm name of O'Brien and Cratty. After five months in this connection, Mr. Cratty became a member of the firm of Tenney, Flower and Cratty, which was dis- solved May 1, 1882, and for a time the junior was alone in business. Subsequently he was a member of the firms of Cratty Brothers, Jarvis and Cleveland (1884), Cratty, Jarvis and Cleveland, and Cratty Brothers, Jarvis and Latimer. Of the last named he was the senior member, and it included, besides his brother Josiah, William B. Jarvis and W. D. Latimer. The legal business of the firm was largely devoted to corporation law.
Thomas Cratty has been connected with several important busi- ness interests outside his profession. From 1871 to 1873 he was associated with Leslie Robinson in the publication of the Peoria Re- , view, a daily, weekly and tri-weekly Republican newspaper, which in the campaign of 1872, supported Horace Greeley for the presidency. The plant also comprised an extensive steam job office, and blank book manufactory and bindery, but on account of the too heavy de- mands upon his time, Mr. Cratty was obliged to dispose of his in- terest in the enterprise. He has also been financially interested in the Elmwood Paper Manufacturing Company, the Chamber of Com- merce Association of that city and the Merchants' Exchange, and actively promoted the Peoria public library. At an earlier day he assisted in organizing the teachers' institute of Knox county, and
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Josiah Catty
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while a busy and prosperous practitioner in Peoria was law lecturer for several years in Cole's Commercial College.
Mr. Cratty has been a life-long Republican, although giving the liberal movement within the party headed by Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner, his hearty and influential support. He was one of the organizers of the Washington Park Club, of Chicago, in 1883, and is a member of the Union League, Marquette, Irish-American and Veteran Union clubs. He is also identified with the Peoria Law Library, the Chicago Bar Association, the State Bar Association, the Chicago Law Institute and the Chicago Real Estate Board.
Josiah Cratty, since 1884 one of the leading attorneys of Chicago, member of the firm of Cratty Brothers and Jarvis, came to Chicago
JOSIAH from Peoria, where he had studied law with his
CRATTY. brother, Thomas, and become known for his thor- ough ability and sound business judgment before his removal to the city. That the legal ability of America is broad- ening from the technical limits of the profession and allying itself more and more with business, was a recent observation of the Eng- lish ambassador, James Bryce, and Mr. Cratty's success in corpora- tion law and business organization is a case in verification of the judgment of that acute student of American affairs. For more than twenty years Mr. Cratty has given attention to the practice demanded of the corporation attorney, and has organized many of the largest corporations in the middle west, in many of which he is an active director and official. The law firm of which he is a member has spa- cious offices on the fifteenth floor of the Fort Dearborn building.
Mr.,Cratty, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, August 16. 1846, was a son of William and Candis ( Bennett) Cratty, and came of North Irish stock, the date of the emigration of his great-grand- father from Ireland to America being 1760. In Pennsylvania the family took part in public affairs, and the grandfather served in the Revolutionary war. William Cratty, the father, who was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1805, became an Ohio settler when only nine years old, and in that state married Miss Candis Bennett in April, 1826. A pronounced anti-slavery man, he was many years an active worker in connection with the "underground railroad" when that institution was in its flourishing days, so suc- cessful in aiding the cause of the abolishing of human slavery in
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America. He spent his life as an energetic and industrious farmer, and was the father of twelve children. His wife died in 1875, and he survived until 1897. They were both stanch Presbyterians.
Mr. Cratty was reared on a farm in Ohio and Illinois, receiving a public school education, and when eighteen years old, in 1864, en- listed in Company L, Fifth New York Cavalry, which regiment com- posed a part of Custer's Corps. In this command he saw service in all the battles that were fought up and down the Shenandoah val- ley in 1864-65, and at the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, was at the point where Sheridan joined his warring forces at the end of his famous ride from Winchester town. After this fight Mr. Crat- ty's regiment was Sheridan's body guard. He received his discharge at Winchester, Virginia, in July, 1865. He was never wounded, but had two horses shot from under him. From the close of the war un- til he began studying law with his brother in Peoria, he was engaged in teaching Illinois public schools. A successful examination before the supreme court at Springfield January 6, 1872, allowed him to begin practice, and his career as a lawyer has been uninterrupted since that time.
He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, the City Club, the Chicago Press Club and Oak Park Club, the Phil Sheridan G. A. R. Post, Chicago Commercial Associa- tion, the Commercial Law League of America and the Royal Ar- canum. In politics a Republican, and a member of the Congrega- tional church. He married in 1875, Miss Libbie M. Earing, who died in 1887, leaving a son, Paul Jones, and a daughter, Theo Candis. His present wife, to whom he was married in April, 1892, was Miss Kate E. Jabine, of Springfield, Illinois.
A native of stirring, progressive Chicago, Joseph E. Bidwill, Jr., clerk of the circuit court of Cook county, has the distinction of being
the youngest man ever elected to a county office in
JOSEPH E. BIDWILL, JR. the United States. He was born July 1, 1883, in what is now a part of the Eleventh ward, compos- ing a portion of the populous west side, which wields so potent an influence in the civic affairs of Chicago. Joseph E. Bidwill, his father, is also a native of Chicago, where for years he has been one of the most substantial men on the Board of Trade, and a grain ex- pert second to none. His long service on the State Grain Inspec-
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tion Board and his graduation, through all the official positions, to the rank of chief grain inspector (serving thus from 1901 to 1904) marks him as master of his great business, and his record is in some respects without parallel in the history of the trade. He also held the position of railroad and warehouse commissioner, and has been for many years a strong factor in municipal, county and state poli- tics, never shirking his duties as a reliable and working Republican. In 1896 he served as a delegate to the national convention, and has long been a stanch member of the Chicago central and Cook county Republican committees.
Joseph E. Bidwill, Jr., received a thorough education at the St. Charles parochial school, the Joseph Medill grammar school, from which he was graduated, St. Ignatius College and the old English high and manual training school, being graduated from the last named in 1900. He subsequently took a special course at the Lewis Institute, and, having completed his· school work, enjoyed a valuable year of legal experience in the office of Winston and Meagher. From 1902 to January, 1906, he was in the employ of the Chicago National Bank as general clerk and bookkeeper, and until the following fall was connected with N. W. Harris and Company, bankers. His cour- tesy and practical business and executive ability, coupled with his uncompromising and inspiring Republicanism, had already brought him so favorably to the notice of the leaders of the party that in June, 1906, he had become its nominee for the position which he now admirably fills, and to which he was elected on November 6th by the decisive plurality of 40,000. Socially and fraternally, Mr. Bidwill is identified with the Hamilton Club, the Illinois Commercial Men's Association, the Knights of Columbus, Fort Dearborn Club and Catholic Order of Foresters. In the administration of the af- fairs of the office he has been most fortunate and successful and in the chancery department, where the work was two years behind, he has it brought down to date.
A rising young man of public affairs and at present clerk of the criminal court, Abram J. Harris, is one of those of foreign birth, but
ABRAM J. of Chicago training, who have so truly absorbed HARRIS. the best spirit of the city and the times. He was born in Poland on the 15th of September, 1867, at- tending the schools of his native country until he was eleven years of
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age. When he came to Chicago in 1880, he continued his education in the schools of this city, and as a young man engaged in the real estate and insurance business. This active line of work threw him in contact with the people of his community, and a general recogni- tion of his popular qualities was soon followed by an acknowledg- ment of his ability and powers of initiative.
In politics Mr. Harris has always been an unwavering Republi- can, the official recognition of his party dating from 1897. In that year Governor Tanner appointed him assistant chief factory inspector, which position he held until 1902. During that period, until 1901, he was also a member of the International Factory Inspection Asso- ciation, serving that body for two years as vice president and for a like term as secretary. In 1903 Mr. Harris was honored with the nomination for state senator, but failed of election. In 1904, how- ever, he was elected to represent his ward (the Ninth) in the city council, and in 1906 was chosen to his present position by the hand- some plurality of 35,000. In the conduct of the affairs of his office he not only evinces his good business training and executive talents, but has inaugurated a civil service era, thoroughly believing, as he does, in the justice as well as good policy of retaining those who, by length of service and efficiency, are in line for continuous promotion.
Outside of business, politics and the public service, Mr. Harris is recognized as a suggestive and forcible writer, his subjects being founded upon experience and therefore treated with the more prac- - tical value. Among other topics which he has treated in a manner to attract most favorable comment are "The Evil of the Sweat Shop, and Its Remedy," and the "Abolishment of Child Labor." His so- cial, fraternal and charitable relations are with the Wiley M. Eagan Chapter No. 126, A. M., the A. F. and A. M. (Keystone Lodge), B. P. O. E., National Union, K. of P., B'nai B'rith, I. O. B. A., and the Order of the Western Star, also the Illinois Athletic and Hamil- ton clubs. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Chicago Orphans' Home, and is actively identified with the Associat- ed Jewish Charities and various other kindred organizations. In 1900 Mr. Harris was united in marriage with Miss Sara S. Benson, of Indianapolis, Indiana, by whom he has had three children-Arnold B., Ellenore M. and Lillian Florence. Thus his progressive and
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promising career has been rounded out in the way most fitting to the true American citizen, who, whatever his many activities, is an- chored to wife, children and home.
Until five years ago one of the most successful criminal lawyers of Chicago and Cook county was Kickham Scanlan, and he won his
reputation by several notable cases in which he ap-
KICKHAM SCANLAN. peared as counsel either for the defense or prosecu-
tion. It is said that Mr. Scanlan on several occa- sions took cases that seemed "forlorn hopes" and brought them to a successful issue. His management of evidence, his tact before a jury, and unusual powers in pleading have often come to notice in the courts and contributed to a deservedly high reputation in the Chicago bar. During the last five years, however, he has been engaged al- most exclusively in the trial of civil cases, acting as attorney for a number of large corporations. During the time he was sought as counsel in criminal cases, he was attorney in such famous cases as the two Cronin trials, the McGarigle case, the Ohio tally-sheet frauds (in which Allen G. Thurman was associate counsel), and the Milling- ton poisoning case at Denver.
Mr. Scanlan was born in Chicago October 23, 1864, but the fam- ily having moved shortly after to Washington, D. C., he attended the common and high schools of that city, and completed his higher stud- ies under private tutors and at Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana. In 1882, then eighteen years of age, he came to Chicago and for three years was in the employ of William P. Rend, the well- known coal operator. His law studies, begun in 1886, in the office of Mills and Ingham and at the Chicago College of Law, were com- pleted by graduation from the latter institution, with honors, in 1889. He thus had the advantage of thorough theoretical instruction and the association of two of the most eloquent, versatile and successful criminal lawyers of the western bar. Almost at once on his admis- sion to the bar in 1889 he became identified with practice that brought him into legal prominence.
Mr. Scanlan married, in 1890, Miss Sadie Conway, daughter of Michael Conway, late fire inspector of Chicago. In social and pri- vate life Mr. Scanlan is cultured and companionable, and a man of strengthi, breadth and sterling character.
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A successful corporation lawyer must not only be an alert and broad member of his profession, but a keen and far-seeing busi-
GEORGE W. ness man. His is pre-eminently the domain of prac-
KRETZINGER. tical law, in which hard fact and solid logic, fertil- ity of resource and vigor of professional treat- ment are usually relied upon, rather than ingenious theory and the graces of oratory. When to these qualities are added the graces of oratory, and the humor, geniality and unfailing courtesy of a gen- tleman, the main traits have been set forth of the prominent and popular railroad lawyer. George Washington Kretzinger, LL. D., at the head of the law firm of Kretzinger, Gallagher, Rooney and Rog- ers.
As a railway attorney Mr. Kretzinger is the general counsel of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway Company and chief counsel of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Com- pany; also one of the chief attorneys for the Grand Trunk Railway System. In 1891 he incorporated the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoe- nix Railway Company of Arizona. His professional and social life also embraces a membership in the American and Chicago Bar As- sociations and the Hamilton, Twentieth Century and other clubs. He is a strong and valued Republican, but has never been an aspirant for office or public preferment of any kind.
The salient facts of Mr. Kretzinger's life are that he was born in Plymouth, Ohio, on the IIth of August, 1846, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Oglesby) Kretzinger. Before he was fifteen years of age he commenced his service in the Union army, and served with bravery throughout the Rebellion. Educated at the Otterbein Uni- versity, Ohio, which later conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., he came to Illinois, studied law, was admitted to the bar and prac- ticed with Judge R. L. Hannaman of Knoxville, that state, thus con- tinuing until 1873. In the year named he came to Chicago, where he made a fine record as a corporation lawyer.
On August 28, 1878, Mr. Kretzinger was united in marriage with Miss Clara Wilson, and their son, George Wilson Kretzinger, was born July 9, 1880. The latter attended school at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; the University of Chicago, from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1901; after-
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ward attended Harvard College, which, in June 1904. conferred upon him the degree of LL. B., and in August of that year was ad- mitted to the Massachusetts bar. In December. 1904, he was ad- mitted to practice before the illinois bar, and is now engaged in pro- fessional study and work under the direction of his father.
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