USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 24
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In politics Mr. Owens is a stanch Democrat, and a leading mem-
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ber of the Iroquois and Jefferson clubs. He is also identified with the Ashland Club, and fraternally with the Knights of Columbus and the Order of Foresters. His professional membership is with the Chicago and Illinois Bar associations, in both of which organizations he is a leading member. In fact, in professional, public and Catholic church circles, as well as in general social and club life, Mr. Owens wields a wide and strong influence.
One of the most genial, cultured and forceful members of the Chi- cago bar, Frederick Wilmot Pringle has for a number of years been
FREDERICK engaged in a large, lucrative and growing practice,
W. PRINGLE. embracing corporation, real estate and municipal law. Of late years he has been especially identified with the official life and general progress of the town of Cicero, which includes the flourishing western suburbs of Austin, Oak Park, Berwyn, Clyde, Hawthorne and Morton Park. Mr. Pringle's residence is in Oak Park, where his pleasant home is the center of much social and intellectual activity.
Frederick W. Pringle is a native of Ontario, Canada, born at Napanee on the 17th of June. 1864, the son of Ira and Eliza J. (Lapum) Pringle. His parents were also born in the Dominion, where they continue to reside. The father, who is now retired from active business, was a farmer and a manufacturer.
Mr. Pringle attended the public schools of Napanee and the Napanee Collegiate Institute. Through his connection with the rail- road business he became interested in the study of the law, first seri- ously pursuing it at Topeka, Kansas, while in the employ of the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe Company. From 1886 to 1888 he was a student in the office of Hon. George R. Peck, then general solicitor of that road, after which he attended the Columbia Law School, New York, completing a full course in that institution. For two years after his graduation he was in the employ of the railway service, do- ing a large amount of work for the Trans-Missouri and Western Passenger associations.
In 1889 Mr. Pringle was admitted to the bar of Missouri, and in the following year, upon motion, to the bars of Kansas and Illinois. In January, 1891, he commenced his practice in Chicago by associat- ing himself with the firm of Hanecy and Merrick and later with that of Miller and Starr. In December, 1892, he became connected with
Frederick W. hanife
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Cohrs, Green and Campbell, in 1896 became a member of the firm of Green, Pringle and Campbell, and in 1897 of Green and Pringle, tlie senior member of the last named being John W. Green, formerly corporation counsel of Chicago. Since the death of Mr. Green in 1905 Mr. Pringle has successfully practiced alone.
In May, 1896, Mr. Pringle was appointed attorney for the town of Cicero, and during the year completed the work, begun in 1895, of compiling and revising its general ordinances. At the end of his two years' term, owing to his familiarity with the legal business of the town, he was retained as special counsel in nearly all its important litigation, and in May, 1898, was reappointed town attorney. Since May, 1902, he has acted as attorney for the village of Oak Park, having promptly and ably conducted the affairs of his office since the incorporation of the village. He is generally recognized as high au- thority on town and municipal law, and is now president of the Mu- nicipal Attorneys' Association for the counties of Cook, Lake and DuPage. In a wider sense he is one of the successful and progressive lawyers of the Chicago and western bar.
Among the many cases which Mr. Pringle has carried to a suc- cessful conclusion and which are especially worthy of mention are the following : The Cicero Lumber Company vs. the Town of Cicero (51 N. E. Rep., 758) ; Gray vs. the Town of Cicero, decided by the supreme court in December, 1898. The Lumber Company case is of extreme importance not only to all cities and villages and incorporated towns in the state but also to the park boards in Chicago and other large cities. The opinion holds to be constitutional the pleasure-drive- way acts of 1898, under which cities, villages and towns may establish boulevards by converting old streets into pleasure drives, and restrict- ing their use to such purposes. This was the first time the constitu- tionality of the act had been presented and decided by the supreme court, and the principle thus established applies to the various park boards as well as to civic corporations. Among other cases which have enlisted Mr. Pringle's services in the supreme court are: Town of Cicero vs. McCarthy (172 Ill., 279) ; Doremus vs. the People ( 173 111., 63) ; Gross vs. the People ( 173 111., 63).
In politics Mr. Pringle is a Republican, and is active in the work of the Hamilton club. He is also a leader in the Colonial Club of Oak Park, of which he was president in 1903 and 1905. As a mem-
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ber of the legal fraternity he is connected with the Illinois and Chi- cago Bar associations, is a Mason in good standing, and altogether an active factor in social, club and fraternal life.
In 1890 Frederick W: Pringle was united in marriage to Miss Grace D. Hale, of Topeka, Kansas, his wife being a daughter of George D. Hale, who for many years was one of the leading men of the state capital. Mr. Hale was especially interested in the historical and fraternal organization, Society of the Sons of the American Revo- lution, being at one time president of the Kansas association. His death occurred October 30, 1903. Mrs. Pringle's mother, Frances (Cook) Hale, is a native of Mansfield, Ohio, and is now a resident of Chicago. To Mr. and Mrs. Pringle have been born the following : Everett Hale, Wilfrid Ira, Alden Frederick and Henry L. B. Pringle. Mr. Pringle has always taken a deep interest in religious matters, be- ing especially identified with the work of the Second Congregational church, of Oak Park, of which he served for some years as trustee. The family home is the center of an intellectual and cultured social circle, and Mr. Pringle's large and choice private library is the well- spring of much domestic and neighborhood enjoyment. Such home surroundings and influences are largely responsible for that broad outlook and mental vigor which Mr. Pringle evinces in his professional labors, and which have lifted him so far above the plane of the average metropolitan practitioner.
Commercial law is so great a legal field that the practitioners of the large cities of America have been obliged to divide it into several
C. CLARENCE specialties. One of the most important of these is POOLE. patent, copyright and trademark law, which in these days of abundant invention, authorship and commercial piracy, has itself assumed huge proportions. To make a . success in this legal domain requires untiring patience, keen business judgment and a broad knowledge of mechanics, commercialism and the practical affairs of men and women. It is, in fact, doubtful whether any branch of the law which has been specialized demands so wide a range of practical knowledge as this. To have acquired emi- nence in it, as has Mr. Poole, is therefore high tribute to precise and thorough practical wisdom, coupled with good judgment in apply- ing it.
Charles Clarence Poole, senior member of the firm Poole and
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Brown, was born in Benicia, California, November 27. 1856, and is a son of Charles H. and Mary A. (Daniels) Poole. His father was a native of Salem, Massachusetts, who was born in 1825 and died in Washington, District of Columbia, in the year 1880. Educated at West Point as a civil engineer, his entire life was passed in the service of the United States government. Charles H. Poole was a grandson of Manasseh Cutler, a chaplain in the colonial army during the Revo- lution, a member of the commission which founded Marietta, Ohio. and a leading agent in the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, receiv- ing the honor of incorporating the anti-slavery provision. In later life he was a member of Congress from Massachusetts, and died at Hamilton, that state, in 1823.
In a direct line Mr. Poole is descended from John Poole, of Read- ing, Massachusetts, who came to the colonies from England in 1632. Among his distinguished ancestors were also the early colonial Gov- ernors Dudley and Bradstreet, of the Old Bay state. As the father's profession kept the family much in Washington, Mr. Poole received his preliminary education in the public schools of that city, and, under private instruction, completed a course in civil engineering, so that when he was eighteen years old he secured employment in connection with surveys under the war department. He was thus engaged in 1874 and 1875, and relied upon the profession as a means of liveli- hood, more or less, while engaged in the study of law, both privately and as a student of the Columbian (now George Washington) Uni- versity. Mr. Poole graduated from that institution in 1882, having to his credit a prize essay on "Trade Marks." That year marks his admission to the bar, his coming to Chicago, and the commencement of his long active practice in the specialty in which he has become a leader. He is now recognized as one of the most successful patent lawyers in the country.
In 1885 Mr. Poole formed a partnership with Major Taylor E. Brown, under the firm name of Poole and Brown, and their associa- tion has since continued to their mutual advantage. In 1891 the senior member was admitted to practice before the United States supreme court, in which tribunal much of their litigation is conducted. Mr. Poole's standing in his specialty is indicated by his recent presi- dency of the Chicago Patent Law Association.
In 1884 C. Clarence Poole was united in marriage to Miss AAnne, Vol. 11-16
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daughter of the late Dr. William F. Poole, author of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, and librarian of the Chicago Public and Newberry libraries, and Mrs. Frances (Gleason) Poole. Mrs. Poole is a Massachusetts lady, born at Melrose, and is widely known and admired in Evanston society. Their family consists of Frances, Charles H., Clarence Frederick and Dorothy. Outside his home and his immediate circle of friends, Mr. Poole's social connections are chiefly with the Union League, Illinois Athletic and Chicago Literary clubs.
James Edgar Brown is not only a man of high social standing and literary attainments but a lawyer of sound judgment and breadth
JAMES E. of view. Mr. Brown was born in West Virginia in
BROWN. 1865, and made such rapid progress in his studies
that he was a teacher in the public schools when only a youth of seventeen. Thus engaged from 1882 to 1885, he commenced his collegiate education in the latter year by entering the State University for a four years' course. During this period his lit- erary talents were recognized by the bestowal of a number of prizes for the superiority of his work along these lines, and in his senior year he served as a, university tutor and captain of a company in the cadet corps. He was, in fact, what students are pleased to admiringly call a typical "all-around university man."
After his graduation from the University Law School in 1891, and a year spent in travel, he located in Chicago, where he has since practiced with much success and honor to himself and his profession. He has also gained standing by his contributions to current literature, and become well known as a man of originality and force in political and public affairs. In other words, he has continued his collegiate record as a citizen of striking and versatile abilities and influential ac- tivities. He is a most active member of the Hamilton Club, and is an associate editor of The Hamiltonian, its official organ. He is also identified with the Colonial Club, the new Illinois Athletic Club, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, the Y. M. C. A. and regent of Garden City Council, Royal Arcanum. His professional membership is with the Cook County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Asso- ciation, and he has a most extensive acquaintance and a well estab-
JAMES E. BROWN
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lished reputation for integrity, ability and good fellowship wherever he is known.
In June, 1906, Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Ade- laide Coolbaugh, one of the two surviving daughters by his second marriage of the Hon. William F. Coolbaugh, a famous banker of the last generation. For years she had been living abroad with her mother and sister, devoting herself to the study of languages, history, archa- ology and kindred subjects. Her elder half-sisters, recently deceased, had both been the wives of distinguished Illinois lawyers-Chief Jus- tice Fuller, of the United States supreme court, and the late Benjamin F. Marsh, member of Congress.
The marriage occurred in Rome and immediately afterward the bridal couple made a comprehensive tour of the continent. Their journey included fully fifty places of historic and scenic interest. From Italy they proceeded through Switzerland to Paris, thence to Brussels and Waterloo, and finally from Cologne down the Rhine, and so on through Germany to their point of embarkation at Bremen. Having a fluent command of French, German, Italian and Russian, aside from personal reasons Mrs. Brown was able to add to the in- trinsic interest of the tour by her facility of extracting information from all classes in whatever locality they chanced to be. Local pub- lications of standing were enriched with several contributions from Mr. Brown's pen soon after his return from Europe. The Chicago Tribune published a highly instructive article on the relative prevalence of crime in European and American cities. As the data was collected from official sources, the paper caused widespread discussion, the conclusion being not at all flattering to the national pride. The follies of our customs service were treated plainly and instructively in a paper published in the Evening Post, while several articles of a descriptive nature evinced close powers of observation and an unusual command of language. His descriptions of the trip down the Rhine, "The Eternal City," "Italian Customs," "Switzerland," and of the great Stadium at Rome appeared in The Hamiltonian and other publica- tions and were in his best vein.
William F. Coolbaugh, the father of Mrs. Brown, had one of the many-sided careers possible in the early days of the middle west, was one of the great bankers of Chicago and one of those heroes who dragged the city from the ruins of its great fire and made a stronger
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and more cosmopolitan municipality. He was one of a large family of sons born to Moses Coolbaugh, a Pennsylvania judge of Dutch extraction. At the age of twenty William F. came to Burlington, Iowa, then a frontier town, and became a factor in the new settle- ment. He kept a general store, dealt in real estate, and developed into a banker and a politician. He became president of the Burlington & Missouri Railroad and state senator, but was beaten in his race for the United States senate by James Harland, afterward justice of the United States supreme court. This defeat, even by such a worthy opponent, seemed to cure him of all political ambition, for he never entered another contest, although the friend and adviser of many leading statesmen, and refused the cabinet portfolio offered him by President Grant. Instead he devoted himself steadfastly to his bank- ing interests, and in 1862 removed to Chicago, for which city he pre- dicted a great future; and under the sorest stress of panic and fire his faith in it never wavered.
When the national banking act was passed Mr. Coolbaugh's pri- vate bank became the Union National, and for years stood as perhaps the leading institution of its kind in the west, eager to push forward in every legitimate way the development of the city and the country. Mr. Coolbaugh was an organizer and afterward president of the Chicago Clearing House, whose founding was a notice to the financial world that the city considered herself cosmopolitan as well as metro- politan. He had always been an ardent student of finance, and his handiwork in this regard shows in both the constitutions of Illinois and Iowa. But his reading was not confined to this specialty, but he collected a large general library, and the marginal notes upon his books show how carefully he read them. He was also widely known as a graceful speaker, and the older generation still remember his eloquent addresses of welcome to distinguished visitors and at the dedicatory exercises of public institutions.
The Chicago fire of 1871 brought Mr. Coolbaugh to the front as a leader of the men who strove for the rebuilding of the ruined city, and his house on the edge of the burnt district was the nightly meet- ing place for the informal junta that took command of the homeless and distracted people. He used his wide acquaintance to obtain sup- plies and money and urged General Sheridan, in defiance of the state government, to bring in the necessary troops for the protection of
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life and property. When he called a meeting of bankers and urged them to resume business one naturally advanced the objection, "But we have nothing upon which to resume." Mr. Coolbaugh's reply should be classic of Chicago spirit, "Then, gentlemen, we must resume upon nothing." A block of buildings had been finished for him and the keys turned over on Saturday, and on Sunday all was burned to the ground. with his own bank. At the end of the week he sent for the architect and told him to redraw the plans and commence rebuild- ing as soon as the ruins were cold. The architect thought the owner's brain was affected by his losses, but obeyed his orders; the building's. were reconstructed, and the Union Bank moved into the corner one before the roof was on, at the expense of a bad wetting of its ingrain carpet by a passing storm.
The after years saw Mr. Coolbaugh at the height of his influence, but a greater disaster than the great fire was at hand. The Union National long withstood the assaults of the terrible panic of 1873. but was finally forced to suspend by the crash of its eastern corre- spondents. It resumed, but its prestige was fatally impaired, and its president never recovered from the blow. For years he had over- worked himself, and now rest and travel were in vain. He made ex- tensive tours in the west and accompanied his lifelong friend, Gen- eral Grant, upon a portion of his historic trip around the world. But his health and energy were both broken, and his tragic death followed his return.
Although still a young man, Nathan William MacChesney, senior member of the law firm of MacChesney, Becker and Bradley, has
NATHAN W. made a substantial professional record, and has MACCHESNEY. evinced a marked breadth and versatility in busi- ness, in literature and in public affairs. He was born in Chicago, June 2, 1878, a son of Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Brunson MacChesney (A. M., M. D.), of Ohio, and Henrietta (Mil- som) MacChesney, M. D., of London, England. His first American ancestors came from Scotland in the colonial period, settling in Vir- ginia, and his grandfather, for whom he was named, was a lieutenant in the War of 1812 and afterward became an Illinois pioneer and one of the founders of Knox College. The father, Alfred B. MacChesney, received his education at that institution and at the University of Michigan, and, after studying medicine in the east, was identified
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with Bellevue Hospital Medical College and several medical schools of Chicago. His wife (the mother of Colonel MacChesney) was the daughter of a member of the faculty of Oxford University, England, a regular graduate in medicine and connected with various hospitals in both New York and Chicago, although never engaged in active practice.
Nathan William MacChesney attended grammar and high schools in Chicago and in 1898 graduated from the University of the Pacific. He then entered the University of Arizona, from which he graduated in 1899 (having spent a portion of the period as an instructor), and had also for the two previous years acted as press correspondent in California, Arizona and New Mexico. After graduating from the University of Arizona he pursued special studies at Leland Stanford University, University of California, University of Denver and the University of Chicago, and commenced his professional studies at the Northwestern University Law School in 1899, soon afterward be- coming a lecturer on American constitutional history for Chautauqua circles in California, Arizona and Minnesota. In the meantime he had become associated with his father in business, continuing to be thus connected during the progress of his law studies at the North- western University and the University of Michigan, where he gradu- ated with the degree of LL. B. in 1902. He has been admitted to the bars of Illinois, Michigan and New York, as well as the United States supreme court, and is in partnership with Herbert E. Bradley, also a young and talented member of the profession, and Frederick W. Becker, continuing the firm of Carter and Becker established in 1858. In 1903 Colonel MacChesney pursued post-graduate studies in the Northwestern University Law School, and there are few lawyers in Chicago whose education and experience have been more thorough, broader or more varied than his.
The firm of which Colonel MacChesney is the senior member stands high in business, real estate and corporation matters, and has the legal management of many large interests. He is secretary and director of the Building Managers' Association of Chicago; secretary and director of the Excelsior Printing Company; secretary and di- rector of the Hilton Lithographing Company; director of the E. C. Frady Manufacturing Company; Owners' Realization Company ; treasurer of the Northwestern University Law Publishing Associa-
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tion ; attorney for the Chicago Real Estate Board, and general counsel for the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges. In 1905-7 he was a partner in the firm of Holt, MacChesney and Cheney, dealers in real estate and bonds, and owners and agents of the Manhattan building, and he still has large property interests in Chicago, includ- ing extensive holdings in MacChesney's Hyde Park Homestead Sub- division, MacChesney's Subdivision and MacChesney's Columbian Ex- position Subdivision. He was made an honorary member of the Building Managers' Association in appreciation of his large services to the property interests of the city.
Even before he became of voting age Colonel MacChesney was an earnest and active Republican of the progressive Roosevelt type. He has been especially interested in the labor question, and during the past few years has served on a score of arbitration committees, be- ing also a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines on mat- ters connected with the problem. He has spoken under the direction of the national Republican campaign committee in Illinois and Michi- gan, as well as in the southwestern states, and is an active member of the local organizations, being at the present time a committeeman in his ward and chairman of the Seventh District Republican Club. In 1900 he participated actively and effectively in the gubernatorial cam- paign for Judge Carter, organizing the Law and Medical Students' clubs, and in the mayoralty contest of 1905 he made over one hun- dred speeches for Harlan, and has been similarly energetic and promi- nent in behalf of other candidates for city and state offices. He holds no public office, though he has declined numerous appointments. In the field of professional education he is well known as a lecturer in several of the law schools and a writer on legal and other subjects connected with property and corporation management. He is also the donor of the MacChesney prizes at the Northwestern University Law School, and was one of the founders and is now an associate editor of the Illinois Law Review. He was the delegate of Pacific University to the recent ceremonies attending the opening of the Graduate School of the University of Illinois. Colonel MacChesney takes an active interest in church and settlement work and other philanthropic and religious movements of the city. He is a director of the Young Men's Presbyterian Union of Chicago, a trustee and vice president of South End Center, a social and educational settle-
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ment in South Chicago, and was chairman of the constitutional com- mittee in the convention which recently formed the Presbyterian Brotherhood of Chicago.
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