USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 39
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William Sooy Smith is a native of Tarlton, Ohio, born on the 22nd of July, 1830, son of Sooy and Ann ( Hedges) Smithi. He worked his way through the Ohio University, from which he grad- uated in 1849 with the degree of A. B., and afterward made A. M. In the year of his graduation he was appointed a cadet of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and four years later grad- uated a distinguished member of his class. After serving in the artil- lery branch of the. regular army until June, 1854, finding army life in time of peace too dull and inactive, he resigned as first lieutenant to enter the profession of civil engineering. This marked the date of his coming to Chicago, his first work here being in connection with the engineering service of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, be- ing soon afterward appointed assistant engineer to Colonel Graham, United States engineer in charge of the harbor improvements of Lake Michigan. Being obliged to discontinue such work on account of serious illness, from 1855 to 1857 he conducted a select school at Buffalo, New York ; engaged again in professional labors in 1857-9, and in 1860-I served as chief engineer for a company engaged in the construction of an iron bridge across the Savannah river for the Savannah & Charleston Railroad Company. When he was working on bridge construction in his early career he took up the pneumatic process for building subaqueous foundations when it was in its infancy and developed it, introducing new methods and inventing improved machinery to take the place of the crude plant previously employed, and so initiated and perfected the system which is in use today. While
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thus employed the Civil war broke out and he fled to the north, at once entering the volunteer service as lieutenant colonel.
General Smith was mustered into the military service as colonel of the Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry upon the organization of that regiment at Camp Dennison, Ohio, on the 26th of June, 1861, shortly afterward proceeding with it into western Virginia. There. in the summer and fall of that year, he remained in command of it. his regiment forming a part of the armies under Mcclellan and Rose- crans. During this period he participated in the engagements at Car- nifix Ferry and Laurel Creek (part of a general movement in pursuit of the Confederate forces under General Floyd) and was highly com- mended for his soldierlike qualities both by General Rosecrans and his brigade commander, General Benham, winning special mention in official reports for gallant and meritorious conduct in action. Shortly afterward the Thirteenth Ohio was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was incorporated with Buell's Army of the Ohio and formed a part of the general Union advance through Kentucky and Tennessee. He participated in the capture of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, in February, 1862. During this advance, as an engineer he repaired the railroad from Bowling Green to Nashville and was placed in charge of the repairs of the railroads there. In the discharge of these duties he was left at Nashville when his regiment marched with General Buell to re-enforce General Grant on the Tennessee river, but after a few days induced his superior offi- cers to order him to join in the active movements of the campaign. Then joining the Army of the Ohio at Savannah, Tennessee. April 6. 1862, he was assigned to the command of the Fourteenth Brigade, Fifth Division, which he commanded on the following day at the battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh. The division occupied the center of Buell's army, was assailed by superior forces and, although losing heavily, maintained its position during the day. Colonel Smith's brigade was engaged almost constantly from eight o'clock A. M. to three o'clock P. M., twice charging and driving the enemy from his position and capturing and holding six pieces of artillery. In his offi- cial report General Crittenden, the division commander, thus speaks of his part in this historic battle: "Colonel W. S. Smith, commanding the Fourteenth Brigade, joined his command but a day or two previous to the battle. He brought his command well into the fight and was
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eminent for his service throughout the day." Shortly after the battle of Shiloh, Colonel Smith was granted a short leave of absence on ac- count of sickness. On April 16, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers and was assigned to the superintendence of the repair of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad between Corinth and Decatur, Mississippi. In July he was temporarily assigned to the command of the Third Division, then lying at Huntsville, Alabama, and soon afterward was placed in command of all the guards on the Nashville & Decatur, Nashville & Chattanooga and Memphis & Charleston railroads, acting under the direct orders of General Buell. He was also placed in command of the Seventeenth Brigade, in Au- gust, and in the following month with the progress of the campaign against General Bragg in Kentucky, was sent forward to Bowling Green to assume command of the Twenty-eighth Brigade. He com- manded the Fourth Division in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in October, 1862, and in the subsequent pursuit of Bragg's army, his division leading the advance. The pursuit was discontinued October 28th, and in the following month General Smith assumed command of the Union cavalry at Bowling Green, which was then threatened by the Confederate General Morgan. Later he attended the Buell court of inquiry at Cincinnati, Ohio, as a witness for the defendant ; and in March, 1863, was placed in command of the First Division, Sixteenth Corps, and Grierson's Brigade of cavalry, Department of the Tennessee, with headquarters at LaGrange. General Smith argued for offensive operations with the cavalry branch of the service, declar- ing that only in this way could the raiding of the enemy be checked. As long as the north remained on the defensive, repelling at great cost and destruction of property the incursions of the enemy, the latter would continue this kind of warfare; but let the Union cavalry execute a raid into southern territory and such campaigns as Morgan's would lose much of their effectiveness, if not altogether cease. General Grant was convinced of the soundness of this argument, and, with his au- thority, General Smith was the first to put into execution an extensive cavalry raid. Grierson's raid into Mississippi, ordered by General Smith and made under his direct instructions, was pronounced by General Grant to be one of the most brilliant cavalry exploits of the war which will be handed down in history as an example to be imi- tated. Still in command of this division, he participated in the final
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assault on Vicksburg; took a leading part in the advance on Jackson, Mississippi, and in November, 1863, was appointed by General Grant as his chief of cavalry for the Division of the Mississippi, with head- quarters at Chattanooga, and was continued in that position by Gen- eral Sherman. In April, 1864, under the latter appointment all the cavalry of the Division of the Mississippi was placed in command of General Smith. As a supporting force of General Sherman's expedi- tion against Meridian, Mississippi. General Smith moved his three brigades of cavalry into Mississippi, but failed to join Sherman and returned to Memphis because he had to wait for Waring's brigade at Colliersville, Tennessee, the point at which the cavalry was con- centrated, ten days after the time fixed for his departure from that point, this by General Sherman's express and positive instructions that he should not start without that brigade, as it would be too weak and get licked, as Sherman expressed it. Part of this lost time was made up by marching, but the cavalry under General Smith was sixty miles north of Meridian when General Sherman set out from that point on his return march. General Smith had nothing to do but to return to West Tennessee, covering his retreat by stubborn fighting at each favorable position and inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy in killed, wounded and prisoners. His forces destroyed two million bushels of corn, two thousand bales of Confederate cotton and thirty miles of railroad ; captured two hundred prisoners and three thousand horses and mules, and by hard fighting rescued several thousand ne- groes who had taken refuge with his command. Two colored regi- ments were organized consisting almost wholly of these refugees. Shortly after his return from this raid he commenced the re-organiza- tion of the cavalry in preparation for Sherman's campaign in Georgia ; but about the commencement of this campaign he was obliged to re- sign his commission on account of a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which the surgeons declared totally disabled him for fur- ther active service. He thereupon tendered his resignation, saying he would not continue to enjoy rank and pay for services which lie could not render. In July, 1864, his resignation was accepted with marked expressions of regret from his superiors, and his honorable and signal service of three years and six months in behalf of the Union cause was thus brought to a close.
When partially recovered from his illness he resumed the prac-
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tice of civil engineering in Chicago. As engineer and contractor he has accomplished much important and very difficult work and earned an international reputation as an expert in the line of subaqueous foundations and bridge construction, both substructures and super- structures.
One of General Smith's wonderful engineering feats was the con- struction of a heavy stone wall surrounding Waugoshance Light House at the western entrance to the straits of Mackinac on a sub- merged reef of rocks two and one-half miles from shore. The light house stands on a foundation consisting of wooden cribs filled with stone. These cribs rose ten feet above water and where exposed to the atmosphere the timber was rotting and the cribs were being broken away by violent wave action in time of storms, and so the destruction of the light house (one of the most important on the lakes) was threatened. The United States had plans prepared for building a protection of cribs filled with stone entirely around the ยท light house and appointed General Smith engineer to superintend the work. He suggested building a massive drift bolted stone wall around the house, resting upon an iron pneumatic caisson sunk to and into the bed rock and filled solid with first-class concrete. The wall to be built to a height of ten feet above water and the space between the wall and the light house tower to be filled with concrete and paved with heavy stone. His suggestion was adopted by the Light House Board and the work was done under his superintendence, making it as firm and durable as the pyramids, and at a cost $60,000 less than that estimated for the perishable crib work that had been planned. It took three summers to do this work and during the prevalence of heavy gales the seas beat over it, driving the workmen into the caisson and light house for protection. It was done without the loss of a single life and without any serious accident. The General's great works are all characterized by symmetry, strength, durability and economy of construction, such as to entitle him to the high rank he holds among civil engineers and other first-class nations at home and abroad. He also designed and built the first steel railroad bridge in the world over the Missouri river at Glasgow, over the protest of nearly the entire profession of civil engineers in the United States. It stood extraordinary tests and proved so satisfactory in actual use that its example was at once followed and steel instead of iron
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bridges came into general use. Steel also took the place of iron in buildings, and so the steel age was inaugurated. He also planned and built many of the great bridges across the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Savannah, Susquehanna and other large rivers of this country, both substructures and superstructures.
Although now in his seventy-ninth year, and retired from the physical activities of the profession of which he has been a leader for so many years, General Smith is frequently employed in consulta- tion on difficult problems and works.
In 1884 General Smith married Miss Josephine Hartwell and they have had one son, Gerald Sooy Smith. Charles Sooy Smith, a son by a former wife, is also a civil engineer of high standing, and shares with his father the honor of introducing to the world the so-called "freezing process" in connection with subaqueous foundation work. The family residence has long been in Riverside, Illinois.
F. C. & R. M. Shankland, civil engineers, are specialists in de- signing the steel work and foundations for modern commercial and E. C. SHANKLAND. industrial buildings. The employment of steel skel- ctons, though of comparatively recent origin, has revolutionized commercial architecture, and their durability under strain and the fire-resisting qualities have been proved under the most rigorous tests during the last few years. Mr. Shankland has been identified with this department of building in Chicago for nearly twenty years, a period in which practically every steel skyscraper of note in the city has been constructed. As engineer to the firm of Burnham & Root. architects, from 1889 to 1894, as engineer of construction and chief engineer of works for the World's Columbian Exposition, 1891-93, and as engineer to and member of the firm of D. H. Burnham & Company, architects, from 1894 to 1898, he designed the construction and foundations of many of the largest and most characteristic structures of Chicago's architecture. From 1898 to date he has been senior member of E. C. & R. M. Shankland, a firm that has much important construction work to its credit, some of the largest and best known being: The Coliseum, LaSalle station, palace for Crown Prince of Japan, Tokio, Japan ; Tennessee Trust, Memphis : Union Bank. Winnipeg, Manitoba : addi- tion to Fisher building, and the Corn Exchange Bank.
In 1896 Mr. F. C. Shankland received a Telford gold medal and
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Telford premium from the Institution of Civil Engineers for a paper presented on steel skeleton construction in Chicago. His professional affiliations are with the following well known bodies: American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers, Western Society of Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, International Society for Testing Materials, Uni- versity Club of Chicago, Engineers Club of Chicago, and Press Club of Chicago.
Edward Clapp Shankland was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1854, a son of Edward Russell and Emeline Frances (Clapp) Shankland. He is a direct descendant in the ninth genera- tion of Roger Clapp, who came from England on the Mary and John and landed at Nantucket, May 30, 1630. His early education, begun in the Dubuque, Iowa, high school, was continued through the Iowa State Agricultural College, through Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he graduated in 1875, and at the Rensselaer Polytech- nic Institute, Troy, New York, where he graduated as civil engineer in 1878. In 1904 his alma mater, Cornell College, conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. From 1878 to 1883 Mr. Shankland was in the employ of the United States government in the improve- ment of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, being stationed in charge at Lexington, Missouri. From 1883 to 1888 he was assistant engineer for the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, Canton, Ohio, and since then has been identified with Chicago as related above.
Mr. Shankland married, July 19, 1881, at Oasis, Iowa, Miss Harriet S. "Graham. Their children are Ralph Graham, Andrew Daniel and Mary Emeline. Their home is at 4808 Champlain avenue, and his business address the Rookery.
Ralph Martin Shankland, member of the firm E. C. & R. M. Shankland, widely known as experts in the designing and construct-
RALPH M. ing of steel buildings, is a native of Dubuque, Iowa,
SHANKLAND. born on the 8th of September, 1863, son of E. R. and Emeline F. (Clapp) Shankland. In 1888 he graduated from the engineering department of the University of Michigan with his degree of B. S. (M. E.), and two years afterward came to Chicago to reside and practice his profession.
When Mr. Shankland located in Chicago in 1890 he at once became identified with the engineering department of Burnham &
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Root, which, with the death of the latter, became D. H. Burnham & Company. He was thus employed until September, 1898, when he became associated with his brother, Edward C. Shankland, in the formation of the firm, as noted above.
On the 14th of November, 1894, Mr. Shankland married Miss Justine M. McNeil, and in December, 1895, was born their son, Ralph Holmes Shankland. The family resides at the Windermere Hotel. In his professional membership Mr. Shankland is identified with the American Society of Civil Engineers and Western Society of Engineers, and in his general social relations has connection with the Kenwood, Homewood and University clubs.
It is only within the past decade that one of the great problems of bridge construction and river and canal navigation has been fully solved. All navigable streams which passed
WILLIAM
SCHERZER. through the great cities of the world were crowded and impeded by their commerce-bearing craft, and in the vicinity of bridges, where so much valuable space was occupied by central piers, the condition was one of great congestion, if not of positive blockade. It was reserved for a Chicago engineer, the late William Scherzer, to furnish the type of bridge which should obviate all these difficulties ; and the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge, so familiar now to residents of this city, is being rapidly introduced into all sec- tions of the United States, as well as into all European countries; into India, Egypt and other portions of Asia and Africa; and into Mexico and South America.
William Scherzer, the inventor and patentee of what is acknowl- edged to be one of the most useful mechanisms of the generation, was born at Peru, LaSalle county, Illinois, on January 27, 1858. His parents were William and Wilhelmina Scherzer, both of whom came from Germany during the revolution of 1847-8. The father was highly educated, both technically and artistically, had received the further benefit of broad European travel, and when he came to the United States was in a position to establish himself as a valuable citizen of any community. At the time of his arrival Chicago did not appeal to him as a home city, and he therefore located at Peri, which was then the terminus of the Illinois & Michigan canal, then nearing completion, and the head of navigation of the Illinois river. the most important northwestern section of the great Mississippi sys-
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tem. He here engaged successfully in various commercial enterprises, but so drained his energies that he died at the early age of forty-one years, leaving a widow with three sons and one daughter.
William Scherzer, the second son, was first educated in the public schools of his native city, at an early age giving evidence of unusual talent in both art and mathematics. Three years under a private tutor prepared him for an European university, and at the age of eighteen his mother sent him to the Polytechnicum, at Zurich, Switzerland, in order to pursue the four years' course in civil engi- neering. His college career was marked by not only brilliancy in scholarship but in athletics, and he carried away many prizes for both mental and physical prowess and agility. In 1880 he graduated with honors, and upon his return to the United States was engaged as an engineer by the Mathiessen & Hegeler Zinc Company, with whom he remained for three years. He was with the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Company from 1883 to 1885, and with the Keystone Bridge Company and the Carnegie Steel Company for the following eight years, when he established an office in Chicago as a consulting engineer.
It will thus be seen that prior to coming to Chicago Mr. Scherzer had enjoyed a remarkably broad experience and thorough training in the building of railroad bridges and in structural steel work, so that he was fully prepared to solve a problem which was sorely vexing the public and the local transportation companies. In the early nine- ties one of the most difficult questions which confronted the Metro- politan West Side Elevated Company was how to carry its four tracks across the Chicago river, between the Jackson street and Van Buren street swing bridges, in order to reach the heart of the city. Another swing bridge was obviously impractical, as in revolving. it would strike the adjacent swing bridges. A pivot bascule structure was all but decided upon, when Mr. Scherzer was brought into the consultation. As the railroad was nearing completion, the situation was critical and pressing; and it is remarkable that Mr. Scherzer should have risen so fully to the occasion and produced a design so complete and satisfactory in every detail. Shortly before his death, July 20, 1893, he completed plans for a four-track rolling lift bridge between Jackson and Van Buren streets, and a bridge of the same type to take the place of the center-pier swing structure at Van Buren
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SCHERZER ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE ACROSS THE CHICAGO RIVER AT STATE STREEET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MODERN BASCULE BRIDGE ON THE ROUTE OF THE DEEP WATERWAY FROM THE GREAT LAKES TO THE GULF OF MEXICO AND PANAMA CANAL
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street. The complete success of these pioneer structures, which were finished in the spring of 1895, laid the foundation for the extensive and world wide business which has been developed through Albert H. Scherzer, younger brother of the deceased, whose biography also appears in this work.
The following quotation adds another chapter to the brilliant career of the lamented engineer, who passed away at the early age of thirty-five years: "A favorite occupation of William Scherzer was the study of astronomy, and it was his earnest desire to assist in the development and improvement of astronomical instruments and de- vices. His early decease enabled him to accomplish comparatively limited results in this direction. In association with Professor George W. Hough, he invented and patented improvements in astronomical domes, of which he constructed one for the observatory at Evanston, Illinois, one at Cincinnati, Ohio, and another at Denver, Colorado. He had completed plans for some extremely large domes, but his decease prevented their execution." The deceased was unmarried. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Western Society of Engineers, Society of Engineers for Western Pennsylvania and the American Society for the Advancement of Science, besides being identified with the University Club of Chicago and a number of social organizations.
The invention of the late William Scherzer has been of great benefit in the advancement of commerce and civilization. It has facilitated and made possible the opening and development of the great rivers, canals and waterways throughout the world for the passage of the largest vessels of commerce.
Albert H. Scherzer, president and chief engineer of the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company, was born at Peru, LaSalle county,
ALBERT H.
Illinois, on the 22nd of July, 1865, being the
SCHERZER. youngest child of William and Wilhelmina Scherzer.
His parents came to that place from Germany dur- ing the revolutionary movements of 1847. The father-a highly cul- tured and enterprising man-engaged in various commercial enter- prises. There he died, in 1865, at the comparatively early age of forty-one years, leaving to his widow the care of their three sons and daughter. Before the eldest son. William, had completed his civil
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engineering course at the Polytechnicum, Zurich, the mother went to Europe with the three remaining children. Albert had already made some progress in the Peru (Illinois) high school, and after a short season of European travel he became a student at the Technical High - School of Zurich.
After completing his course in the Swiss institution named above, Albert H. Scherzer returned to the United States and, after complet- ing his course at the high school, became identified with the Illinois Zinc Company of Peru, one of the largest firms in the world engaged in the smelting and rolling of sheet zinc. He remained with the company for eight years, devoting himself industriously to the prac- tical duties of his various positions, as well as to the study of literature and the law. In 1890 Mr. Scherzer came to Chicago and entered the Union College of Law, graduating therefrom two years afterward with the regular degree of LL. B. He at once entered into practice, his professional work including identification with the law department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company.
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