USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 33
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On January 7, 1891, Mr. Brown wedded Miss Mary Lois Roby, and the children born to them have been as follows: Kilburn Roby and Mary Lois. The family residence is at No. 4860 Washington avenue. Mr. Brown is interested in a number of outside enterprises, being a director of the Central Howard Association and the Kenil- worth Sanitarium. In politics he is a Republican, and in his religious belief a Presbyterian. He stands high in Masonry, being a member of Montjoie Commandery, Knights Templar and a Shriner, and is identified with the Union League, University, Hamilton and Chicago Press clubs.
John Wilson Hill is one of the prominent Chicago lawyers en- gaged in the fields of patent and corporation practice, and is also
JOHN W.
a leading Republican who is particularly identified
HILL. with the strong movement to reform the manage-
ment of the charitable institutions of the state. He is an Illinoisan, born at Ottawa, on the 9th of May, 1857, being a son of Isaac and Sarah A. (Wilson) Hill. He obtained his pre- liminary education in the public schools of Gilman, Illinois, and Frankfort, Michigan, after which he spent a year in the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, that state. As teaching was not to his special liking, the young man entered the lumber business, making himself master of it, from the felling of the trees to the selling of the manu- factured product. On account of heavy losses by fire the firm with which he was connected became financially involved, and Mr. Hill was appointed the trustee to close up the business.
While engaged in the responsible duties noted, Mr. Hill com- menced the study of law. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1890, taking his examination in open court, all the members of the bar present being permitted to participate in it. In the following year he located in Chicago, and until January, 1898, was associated with his brother, Lysander Hill, in the practice of his profession. He then practiced alone for some time, and later formed the firm of Hill and Hill, of which his son, Roy W., is the junior partner. The practice of the firm, whose reputation is high and substantial, is virtually confined to patents, trade marks and copyrights.
Since 1905, John W. Hill has earnestly and ably represented the sixth district in the state assembly, and few have served in the Illinois legislature who have so quickly established a reputation so
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broad and striking as his. In the 1907 session he served as chair- man of the revenue committee, and in 1908 was appointed chairman of the legislative committee appointed to investigate the charitable, reformatory and penal institutions of the state. His business and legal training, with his established character for fairness and broad judgment, made the selection most acceptable to both political parties, and during the progress of the investigations his fearless probing of abuses with the unpartisan and judicial nature of his decisions, sig- nally marked him as a man of unusual strength, both of mentality and conscience.
The committee was appointed January 14, 1908, and reported to the legislature May 5, 1908, consuming practically four months time, during which Chairman Hill devoted his entire time to the work, to the neglect of his private business. The committee served without pay, receiving only actual traveling expenses. On May 5, 1908, the committee, which was non-partisan, consisting of three Republicans and three Democrats, brought in a unanimous report severely criticising the management of the state institutions and rec- ommending important changes, including a state colony for epileptics and a state hospital for tuberculosis patients.
The committee also recommended the passage of a bill aimed to improve both the custodial and business management of the state institutions, which after one of the most remarkable and spectacular debates ever heard in the general assembly, lead by Mr. Hill, passed the house but was killed in the senate, the latter body refusing to consider it. This action on the part of the senate at once determined Mr. Hill to take the fight into that body at the next general as- sembly.
In the meantime the speaker appointed Mr. Hill chairman of a special commission to examine the commitment laws of the various states and countries and to recommend the enactment of laws that would correct the laws relating to the commitment and grading of prisoners in the state reformatory and penal institutions. The com- mission consists of nine well known men in public life, including Judge Richard S. Tuthill, and Judge Julian W. Mack.
In making his campaign for election to the senate, Mr. Hill meeting with opposition in certain directions, with characteristic en- ergy and independence, at once promulgated his platform as follows :
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"If I am elected, I pledge the people of the Sixth Senatorial Dis- trict and of the whole state, that I will use every effort to secure the passage of laws that will: First, take the state institutions out of politics ; second, insure to every inmate of our state institutions a plenty of good, clean, wholesome food; third, insure every inmate of our state institutions kind and humane treatment; fourth, insure adequate medical care and attention for every inmate; fifth, correct the act committing prisoners indiscriminately to the various reforma- tory and penal institutions without regard to the offense committed; sixth, secure the grading of the inmates of the state reformatory and penal institutions based upon their criminal experience and record."
In his fight for the nomination Mr. Hill encountered a fearful opposition and was defeated by a few hundred votes.
On September 28, 1878, Mr. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Ida E. Watson, and their child, Roy Wilson Hill, has already been mentioned as a member of the law firm of Hill and Hill. The senior is a thirty-second degree Mason and an Odd Fellow of high degree. He is also identified with the Hamilton, Exmoor, City, Illinois Athletic and Church clubs and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. In his religious faith he is an Episco- palian, having served for many years as vestryman of the Church of Our Saviour.
William M. Copeland, lawyer, was born at Kent, Jefferson county, Indiana, August 16, 1859, a son of Dr. William H. Copeland and
WILLIAM M. Ladema H. (Chambers) Copeland. He received COPELAND. his education at Independence Academy, Kentucky, Hanover College and at the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which last named institution he resigned to study law. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar at Madison, In- diana, where he practiced his profession until 1894, when he removed to Chicago. At the age of twenty-two he was nominated and elected on the Republican ticket from his native county to the house of repre- sentatives of the Indiana legislature, where he served two terms (1882 to 1886), being the youngest man ever elected to the Indiana legislature. He there made one of the most brilliant political records for a young man that has ever been made in the history of the state in the halls of the legislature, and was, from his entrance into that body, one of its leaders, being a member of the ways and means and
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William Il. Copelauch
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other prominent committees. He was also chairman of the joint house and senate committee appointed at the session of 1883 to visit the cities, towns and districts of Southern Indiana which were over- flowed during the great flood of that year in the Ohio valley, and it was due to his energy, he being the only member of the original house and senate committee that weathered the hardships of the mid- winter trip through to the end, that the cities of Jeffersonville, New Albany, Madison, Aurora and Lawrenceburgh were all visited and that the carefully itemized report of the actual condition of the over- flowed cities, towns and farms along the Ohio river was made, includ- ing the recommendation that $100.000 be appropriated for the suf- fering caused by the flood, all of which was prepared by Mr. Copeland from a personal inspection of the flooded district, whose report the legislature did him the honor to adopt by appropriating $100,000 for the flood sufferers, in preference to the report of the senate com- mittee, made from hearsay reports, which was against any appropria- tion whatever. He was one of the pioneers in the Indiana legislature in the movement for the appointment of a state commission to select a uniform system of school books to be used throughout the state in the common schools. The books were to be provided by the state and furnished to pupils at cost of publication and distribution, and to poor children of the state free of cost. Afterwards this step resulted in such a law being enacted in Indiana, which law for many years has annually saved the people of Indiana thousands of dollars. He is the father of cheap railroad fare agitation and legislation in Indiana, having secured while a member of the Indiana legislature the passage of his bill through the house reducing railroad fares in that state only to have it strangled in the senate a few years prior to the enact- ment into a 'law of a similar measure by the Indiana legislature and also by the legislatures of a large number of other states, including Illinois.
His political encounter during the session of 1883 with Col. Horace Heffren, the Democratic leader of the house, including the exciting scenes in the house connected therewith arising out of the discussion of the Metropolitan Police Bill in which certain Demo- cratic leaders in the house denounced the Republican lieutenant gov- ernor, an ex-Union soldier, the presiding officer of the senate, on account of certain of his rulings, as "a brainless coward, a revolu-
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tionist and a dictator," to which Mr. Copeland replied by branding Heffren, the Democratic leader, who had been accused by the Repub- lican press of Indiana as having been one of the leaders in the trea- sonable organizations known as "Sons of Liberty" and "Knights of the Golden Circle" in Indiana during the Civil war, as "a rampant, unrepentant and unhung ex-Son of Liberty and Knight of the Golden Circle," which won for Mr. Copeland the appellation of "The Plumed Knight of the Ohio," was graphically described at the time by "Strebor," correspondent of the New York World, and published in the leading papers of the country. Probably no act of the session of 1885 met with more universal approval on the part of the people of the state, regardless of party, than Mr. Copeland's resolution driving from the floor of the house the convicted and disgraced John M. Goar, trustee of the Knightstown Soldiers' Orphans' Home, whom the legislature had failed to remove from office up to that time, although its committees had found him guilty of the most outrageous and criminal relations with the inmates. This action precipitated Goar's removal from office and it was said at the time to be the only case in the history of the state where a resolution was ever passed by either branch of the general assembly excluding from its halls an officer of one of the state institutions. At the session of 1885, in the election of a United States senator, on the part of the house of representatives, the honor of placing in nomination the Republican candidate, Governor Albert G. Porter, and making the principal speech in his behalf, was conferred on Mr. Copeland.
Since 1894 Mr. Copeland has been located in the practice of his profession at Chicago, his practice being largely in the federal courts, not only in Illinois, but also in New York, and many other states of the Union, his clients being located in nearly every country of Europe as well as in North and South America. His record in the legal profession has been quite as marked as was his early career in politics, for he has not only been unusually successful in his practice, but has won cases that had previously been lost by some of the most dis- tinguished lawyers in the United States and in England. He is a Knight Templar, a Shriner and a thirty-second degree Mason. Mr. Copeland married in 1885 Miss Clara Bruning, of Madison, Indiana. Both Mr. and Mrs. Copeland are lovers of art and have traveled
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together extensively abroad. Residence: 1028 Sheridan Road. Law offices in the Marquette Building, Chicago.
Harry L. Fearing, one of the younger and promising members of the Chicago bar, is the junior in the firm of Pringle and Fearing, HARRY L. FEARING. with offices in the Merchants' Loan and Trust Com- pany building, its specialty being corporation, real estate and municipal law.
Mr. Fearing is a native of Davenport, Iowa, his birth occurring April 18, 1868, and his parents are George and Mary ( Stewart) Fearing. He received his preliminary education in the Davenport and Iowa City public schools and pursued the higher branches at the Iowa State University. Later he removed to Chicago and attended the law department of the Northwestern University and the Union College of Law.
Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1895, Mr. Fearing has since been engaged in a practice which has brought him both standing and good pecuniary results. He remained alone for twelve years, or until May, 1907, when he became associated with Frederick W. Prin- gle, as above stated. Mr. Fearing is a Republican and always a wel- come member of the Colonial Club, of Oak Park, Illinois, which is his place of residence. He is the father of one child, Kenneth, born July 28. 1902.
Fred A. Busse was elected to the mayoralty in the spring of 1907. In the mayoralty, as in the postmastership, he was noted as
FRED A. the man who could get results, and he chose his as- BUSSE. sistants and advisers purely from the standpoint of practical efficiency, which primarily implied indus- try, faithfulness, honesty and experience. In fact, throughout his entire public career, from North Town clerk to mayor, Mr. Busse has evinced, in a marked degree, that faculty possessed by men of large and successful affairs of bringing around him able co-workers and inspiring them with his enthusiasm and determination to get the greatest and best results from the matters in hand.
Fred A. Busse was born on the north side of Chicago, on the 3rd of March, 1866, and the forty-one years of his life have been spent in that division of the city. He comes of good, industrious German stock, and his father, Gustave Busse, was for years a well- known hardware merchant, winning honorable distinction and a cap-
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tain's commission in the Civil war. His mother, a woman of great force of character, is well known in charities and social work. As a boy it is said that he was more noted for his energy than for his studiousness, but early assisted his father in his hardware business, and commenced to educate himself in the hustle of practical life. For years he was associated with his father in that line, but as his ac- quaintance and personal influence extended, and his Republicanism increased in strength, he discovered his strength as a political leader. He was neither a good speaker and had no genius for organization, but his hearty, inspiring personality made him a natural leader of men. After severing his connection with his father's interests Mr. Busse went into the teaming business, and it is said that the basis of the latter was the bequest to him of a horse and wagon which had been left by an old expressman whom he had befriended. Afterward he entered the coal business, was secretary and treasurer of the Northwestern Coal Company, later president of the Busse-Reynolds Coal Company and is now president of the Busse Coal Company, having by unremitting labor, straightforward dealings and splendid business ability established one of the largest retail coal concerns in Chicago.
Mayor Busse's first experience as an office holder was acquired in 1891, when he was elected clerk of the town of North Chicago. After serving one term he became a bailiff in Judge Brentano's court, where he remained a year or two, and was deputy under Sheriff Gilbert two years. This was followed by a term of service as chief clerk in the North Town collector's office, and by his election in 1894 and 1896 to the lower house of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth general assem- blies. Two years later he was sent to the state senate.
Mr. Busse's executive force and his personal integrity, so evi- dent in the management of large business interests, made him state treasurer in 1902 and caused his appointment as postmaster of Chi- cago in December, 1905. Familiar with the handling of men, in his administration of the government office he carried out one of his long-settled policies-that, in order to get the best results from em- ployes, it is necessary to make their surroundings healthful and as pleasant as practicable. He, therefore, removed the money-order division, with its one hundred and sixty employes who handled $200,- > 000,000 of the people's funds, from noisy and ill-ventilated rooms
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over the driveway on the first floor, to sunny, airy quarters on an upper floor. Through his initiative light and air were brought into the postoffice basement, where the mail bags are handled, performed the same service for the employes of the registry division and worked other practical reforms which added to the comfort and, therefore, the efficiency of the postal service. He also increased the working force and inaugurated the system of forwarding mail from the six railroad depots of the city without hauling it down town and back. He established the system of delivering outgoing mail to the railroad depots through the Illinois Tunnel Company's conduits, thus increas- ing the facilities and reducing the time of hauling mail. These were all simple business reforms, and yet they had never been introduced before.
Mr. Busse's eagerness to be doing something is shown in precipi- tating himself into the mayor's office before the first meeting of the council, when the chief executive is usually first inaugurated ; but his act of being sworn into office by a Democratic city clerk was emi- nently characteristic of the man. He immediately collected around him strong, reliable and practical men as his legal advisers and mem- bers of the municipal cabinet, making almost immediate changes in the composition of the police and school departments, which he thought were for the smooth running and efficiency of the city serv- ice ; and from the first to last his administration has but carried out; to the best of his ability, the promises of his speech of acceptance.
Mayor Busse retains his interest in the extensive coal business which he established, giving the bulk of his time outside of that oc- cupied by the mayoralty to its superintendence. He is the member of the Republican state central committee representing the Ninth dis- trict, and also a member of the Cook county central Republican con- mittee. Socially and fraternally he is identified with the Germania Mænnerchor and the Masonic order (thirty-second degree), and with the Hamilton, Marquette and Chicago Athletic clubs.
For a quarter of a century John P. Hopkins has been a progres- sive, and for much of that period, a prominent factor in the business
JOHN P. and political activities of Chicago. His standing
HOPKINS. as a citizen is firm and broad, and as a leader of the Democratic party his reputation has extended into national influence. Ex-Mayor Hopkins is a native of Buffalo, New
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York, born on the 29th of October, 1858, being a son of John and Mary (Flynn) Hopkins. Until 1871 he obtained his education in St. Joseph's College, of that city, and he then became an apprentice in the machinist's trade with the David Bell Company of Buffalo, being thus employed for two years and a half. This employment was followed by two years as weighmaster with the Evans Elevator Com- pany, which terminated his residence in the east.
In December, 1880, Mr. Hopkins came to Chicago, and in the following March entered the employ of the Pullman Palace Car Com- pany. He remained with this corporation for more than seven years, and was finally advanced to the paymastership, which he resigned in September, 1888, in order to devote himself to a business enterprise which he had already established. In 1885 he had founded the Ar- cade Trading Company, at the town of Pullman, and as its secretary so developed the enterprise that he decided to give it his undivided attention. After 1888 the business was greatly enlarged and com- pletely reorganized as the Secord and Hopkins Company, which eventually controlled and conducted eight stores. Besides being the organizer and promoter of the extensive mercantile enterprise men- tioned above, Mr. Hopkins has served as president of the Wisconsin and Michigan Railway and a director in the Chicago and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company. At the present time he is largely inter- ested in the manufacture of automatic machines and tools, being pres- ident of the Aurora (Ill.) Automatic Machine Company (chair- man of its executive committee) and chairman of the executive com- mittee of the Independent Pneumatic Tool Company of Chicago.
Since coming to Chicago in his twenty-third year, Mr. Hopkins has been active in Democratic politics, and attained some prominence in the public affairs of Hyde Park before its annexation to the city. In 1885 he served as treasurer of the town, and from 1884 to 1889 was school treasurer of township 37, range 14. But his first really notable political work was the organization and management of the campaign which resulted in the annexation of Hyde Park, Lake, Cicero, Jefferson and Lake View. His official position was chair- man of the annexation committee, and as much as any one man he may be credited with the fathership of Greater Chicago. In 1890-92 he served as chairman of the Democratic campaign committee, and in 1894-95 was mayor of Chicago, filling out the term made vacant
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by the death of Carter H. Harrison, Sr. He was one of the organ- izers and for four years was president of the Cook County Demo- cratic Club: was a delegate to the national Democratic convention of 1892; delegate-at-large to the national (gold) Democratic conven- tion of 1896, and vice chairman of the national (gold) Democratic committee in 1896; chairman of the state Democratic central com- mittee in 1901-04, and delegate to the national Democratic conven- tions of 1900 and 1904.
Mr. Hopkins is prominent in the work of the Catholic church. and a leader in fraternal circles. His membership in organizations of the latter nature embraces the following: Ancient Order of United Workmen, Catholic Order of Foresters, Catholic Benevolent Asso- ciation, Royal Arcanum and Knights of Columbus. He is also iden- tified with the Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago Athletic Association, Germania Maennerchor and the Mid- Day and South Shore Country clubs, of this city, as well as the Man- hattan and Tilden clubs, of New York.
Under the modern conditions and organization, the fire depart- ment of a great city like Chicago is one of the most important in the municipal service, and its management requires rare
JAMES HORAN. abilities of an executive nature, good diplomatic powers in the handling of a large force of men so that the vast machine may run without retarding friction, the bray- ery of a fearless soldier and the broad judgment of an able general. All of these traits were possessed in an eminent degree by the late la- mented Daniel J. Swenie, who had a world-wide fame as a fire fighter and who for years was held up before the departments of the country as an ideal chief. It was under this faithful hero and genius for. the work which he so thoroughly understood that James Horan, the present head of the Chicago fire department, received his first train- ing in a responsible position.
Chief Horan joined the ranks of the "fire laddies" in December, 1881, when he had barely attained his majority. For twelve years he served faithfully and rose through several intermediate grades be- fore he became battalion chief under Swenie in 1893. For another ten years he fought fires and took an important part in the adminis- tration of the department under his superiors, and in August, 1903. was advanced to the position of third assistant marshal. In October.
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1904, he was promoted to be second assistant marshal and in March, 1905, reached the next grade of first assistant. On July 10, 1906, he was appointed by Mayor Dunne chief of the department, succeed- ing John Campion, and Fred A. Busse, who became mayor in April, 1907, had the wisdom to retain Mr. Horan in office.
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