USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 4
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After his return from Galena, Mr. Hoyne was elected probate justice of the peace, and held that office until it was abolished in 1848 and succeeded by the county judgeship. Although a firm Democrat, he became a Free Soiler. In 1848 he was a presidential elector, and stumped the northern half of Illinois in support of Van Buren and Adams. In 1853 he received from President Pierce the appointment of United States district attorney for Illinois, which greatly benefited, him professionally. He supported Judge Douglas on the Kansas- Nebraska bill, and as a Democratic orator of established reputation actively participated in the presidential campaign of 1856. In April, 1859, he entered upon his duties as United States marshal, and in 1860 superintended the census for the northern district of Illinois. No man in the west was more patriotic and broadly useful during the Civil war, than Thomas Hoyne. He was a very active member of the Union Defense Committee, and with tongue and pen, to the utmost limit of his powers, assisted in the preservation of the cause. He was nominated by acclamation for Congress in the Chicago district in 1870, but declined to run. Two years later he was a presidential elector on the ticket which had put forward Horace Greeley, the friend of his youth, to lead the Liberal Democracy.
In the early seventies Mr. Hoyne commenced a vigorous agitation to further the purification of local politics, and in the spring of 1876 led the reform movement as a candidate for mayor on the Citizens ticket. He was elected by a majority of thirty-three thousand, the largest at that time ever given a municipal chief magistrate in Chi- cago. Mayor Colvin contested the election, and the circuit court sustained the regular Democratic candidate. Although it was be- lieved that he might have appealed to the supreme court with every prospect of success, Mr. Hoyne considered the outcome so unjust that he never after would consent to be considered a candidate for office. As a private citizen, however, he was Chicago's devoted friend, and his support was always proffered for any measure which he believed to be for her advancement.
In 1859 Mr. Hoyne assisted to found a chair of international and constitutional law in the University of Chicago, of which he was for years the friend and adviser, and which, in 1862, conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He also secured the great Lalande telescope and was the chief promoter and first secretary of the Chicago Astronomi-
POOLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
Thor. Mo . Hoyme-
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cal Society. He was a life member of the Mechanics' Institute, the Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Historical Society, and by con- tributions and other active work, furthered their best interests. In June, 1873, when the University of Chicago and the Northwestern University formed the Union College of Law, Mr. Hoyne was chair- man of the board of trustees in behalf of the Chicago University for 1873-74, and in 1877 was chosen president of the joint board of management, holding that position at the time of his death.
He was also one of the most active in founding and fostering the free public library, of which he wrote a most interesting historical sketch in 1877. Of his other writings, of particular interest to pio- neers of Chicago, may be mentioned "The Lawyer as a Pioneer," covering the period of the Illinois and Chicago bar from 1837 to 1840, which were the years of his introduction to the community in which he afterward became so commanding a figure.
In the midst of many and absorbing activities, Mr. Hoyne was still a vigorous man of his sixty-six years. But in the summer of 1883, he decided to take an eastern tour of rest and recreation, plan- ning to descend the St. Lawrence and pass on to the refreshing beau- ties of the White Mountains. But on the evening of July 27th, three days after he left Chicago, he was killed in a railway collision at Charlton, Orleans county, New York, and his body was brought back for burial in the mourning city of his adoption. His funeral services at St. Mary's church were attended by the lowly who loved him, by his professional brethren of the bench and bar, by city and county officials, and by representatives of civic and educational organi- zations. One of the founders of a great city had passed away, and the city did him the honor which was his due.
In the person of Thomas M. Hoyne, who has practiced so long and so ably at the Chicago bar, is linked the Chicago of the past and
THOMAS M. HOYNE.
the present. Although born in Galena, Illinois,
while his pioneer father, Thomas Hoyne, was tem- porarily residing in the niining town to avoid the hard times then so prevalent in Chicago, Thomas M. was brought back to this city while still an infant, and thereafter both father and son were parts of its progressive life.
In these later years Thomas M. Hoyne has continued the sub- stantial work begun by his father in the conduct of a leading law Vol. II-3
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firm, which, although engaged in professional business of a general nature, has been led by the logic of events which follow in the wake of a rapidly-developing city to give much of its attention to commer- cial and real estate transactions; and there is no agency which is more powerful to conserve the substantial growth of such a city than such an ably-conducted firm as that of Hoyne, O'Connor and Irwin, of which Thomas M. Hoyne is now the senior member. After the death of Thomas Hoyne, in 1883, the firm became Horton and Hoyne and so continued untly 1887, when Oliver H. Horton was elevated to the bench. The firm of Hoyne, Follansbee and O'Connor then came into existence, and in 1899 Thomas M. Hoyne, Maclay Hoyne (his son), John O'Connor and Harry D. Irwin organized the co- partnership of Hoyne, O'Connor and Hoyne, which continued until January 1, 1907, when Maclay Hoyne withdrew. Since that date the style of the firm has been Hoyne, O'Connor and Irwin.
Thomas M. Hoyne obtained his early education in the public schools of Chicago and at a German school on the north side. As he was born July 17, 1843, he was nineteen years of age when he graduated from the old Chicago high school. He made his first practical start in life as a draughtsman for a New York concern en- gaged in the manufacture of engines and machinery, at a salary of $2.50 per week; but within a year he returned to Chicago and grad- uated from the law school of the old University of Chicago in 1866. In the following year he commenced his long legal career in Chicago. For forty years he had his office at No. 88 LaSalle street, removing in 1907 to the Stock Exchange building.
Under the act of 1901 Mr. Hoyne became a candidate for one of the three additional circuit judges of Cook county, but although he received a large plurality vote, the supreme court declared the law unconstitutional. In 1904 he was again nominated for judge of the superior court, but was defeated. These were Mr. Hoyne's sole movements toward public preferment, but while he has never been prominent in politics he has always taken the interest of a typical American in public affairs. He was one of the founders of the old Chicago Democratic club, which in 1881 was succeed by the Iroquois club. Of the latter he was president in 1897, and still retains in it an active membership. He has long been an honored member of the Illinois State and the Chicago Bar associations, the Chicago Law
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Institute and the Law Club, having also served as president of the last-named organization. He was twice president of the Northwest- ern Law School Alumni Association, and outside of his success as a practitioner, is recognized as a large figure in the fraternal and educational circles of the profession.
In 1871, Thomas M. Hoyne was married to Jeanie T. Maclay, daughter of Moses B. Maclay, a well-known New York lawyer, and the warm relations of friendship inaugurated with the family when the elder Hoyne was a youth were thus cemented into a closer union by this happy matrimonial alliance of the son. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Hoyne, Maclay Hoyne, also tends further to per- petuate the gratitude which the elder Hoyne warmly cherished throughout life for the many kindnesses which he had received from the Maclay family.
Judge Arba N. Waterman, author of the Historical Review of Chicago and general editor of these volumes, has been a resident
A. N. of Chicago since 1866. Born at Greensboro, Ver- WATERMAN. mont, February 5, 1836, a son of Loring F. and Mary (Stevens) Waterman, he received his educa- tion in the schools of his native state. The degree of A. B. was granted him by Norwich University, and the University of Vermont has given him the degree of LL. D. He studied law in the Albany Law School, which at the time occupied a pre-eminent position among the law schools of America. In the Civil war he was lieutenant colonel of the One Hundredth Illinois Volunteers; at the battle of Chickamauga, his horse was killed under him, and he was afterward wounded. After the war he began practice in Chi- cago. The Chicago bar at that time was distinguished for the versatile ability and brilliant character of its members. Judge Manierre, Cory- don Beckwith, Samuel Fuller, Alfred W. Arrington, Joseph E. Gary, John M. Wilson, Francis H. Kales, Erastus S. Williams, Thomas Hoyne, B. T. Ayer, and many others, long since gone, were then leaders in affairs as well as in the courts and bar.
In 1887 Mr. Waterman was elected a judge of the circuit court of Cook County, and was later assigned as judge of the appellate court of the first district. After sixteen years' service on the bench, Judge Waterman resumed practice in 1903, and is now a member of the firm of Waterman, Thurman and Ross. Judge Waterman is active in Grand Army affairs, is a member of Grant Post No. 28, of the Loyal Legion, and was president of the Grand Army Hall and
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Memorial Association 1901-02. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Public Library. His club connections are with the Hamilton, Chicago Literary and Irving. Judge Waterman was married in Chicago, December 16, 1862, to Miss Eloise Hall.
The death of Ezra Butler McCagg in the summer of 1908 served to remind the present generation, for a second time in this year, of
EZRA B. the passing from life of men who were intimately
McCAGG. identified with the affairs of the older Chicago. · None of the prominent names of the bar before the war now represent living and active men. Mr. McCagg, who was in his eighty-third year when he died, had associations with all the famous men of the city and state. Born and educated for his pro- fession in New York, he came west in 1846 and joined J. Young Scammon, with whom he had a partnership for a number of years. His public services had a wide scope, though he was never to a con- siderable extent identified with practical politics. During the war he was president of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission. The crea- tion of Lincoln Park was due in part to him, as he was the first president of the park board of trustees. At different times he was connected, as trustee, with the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the In- sane, with the University of Chicago, with the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Astronomical Society. The Chicago His- torical Society recalls his services as an active member and contrib- utor to its early growth. Outside of his profession, his interests were literary, he had a splendid private library, though many of his most valued possessions were destroyed in the fire of 1871, and he was a writer in the field of general literature and political economy.
Judge James B. Bradwell was one of the venerable and truly ven- erated fathers of the Chicago bar and of the city itself. Judge Brad- well was a practical man of affairs, skillful, far-
JAMES B. BRADWELL. seeing and reformatory. He was an originator of actualities as well as an originator of good and new movements.
Born April 16, 1828, James B. Bradwell was a native of Lough-« borough, England, his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth (Gut- ridge) Bradwell. Sixteen months after his birth the family crossed the ocean to America and first located in Utica, New York, where they remained until 1833, when they came west by wagon and boat
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to Jacksonville, Illinois. There they remained until May, 1834, when they boarded a prairie schooner drawn by a span of horses and a yoke of oxen and covered the two hundred and fifty miles to Wheeling. that state, in twenty-one days. ' Arriving at their destination, they located upon a farm and here the boy mowed the rank prairie grass, cradled grain, split rails, broke the tough sod, and pluckily did the other stern duties required of a sturdy pioneer's son. His life de- veloped a muscular body and a strong, practical mind, and a stern realization of the fact that progress even in the land of broad oppor- tunities, meant hard work and unceasing vigilance in the perception and seizing of the chances for personal advancement.
Neither was the boy slow to perceive that a good education se- cured a continuous advantage in favor of those who not only pos- sessed it but used it. His first instruction was received in a small coun- try log house near Wheeling, now in Cook county, and later he at- tended Wilson's academy, Chicago, in which Judge Lorenzo Sawyer was an instructor. Still later he attended Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, while pursuing his course there sustaining himself by work- ing in a wagon and plow shop, sawing wood and welcoming any other manual labor which would assist him in the realization of his ambition to "work himself through college." Eventually he accom- plished his purpose, and, among the greatest of his drawbacks was not the lack of work, but the fact that he was obliged to take much of his pay in store orders, many of which he was forced to discount heavily for cash. This experience made so strong an impression on him that he has ever since maintained with remarkable vigor that the laborer is not only worthy of his hire, but should receive one hundred cents on the dollar for his services.
After finishing his education the judge began the study of law, and during this preparatory period of his life his ingenuity and de- termination were again put to a severe and triumphant test. While plowing through his law books he worked at various trades as a jour- neyman, displaying much skill and exhibiting a high degree of invent- ive genius. So apt was he in all branches of mechanics, it is stated, that, if necessary, he could earn his living in any one of seventeen trades. Much of his work was conducted in Chicago, and it is said that he invented a half-tone process which produced the first cut of that kind ever made in the city. He was an expert photographer and
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continuously maintained his interest in that mechanical art, his stand- ing among the representatives of today being recognized by his se- lection as chairman of the committee of World's Congress Auxiliary on Congress of Photographers.
In 1852 Judge Bradwell was admitted to the practice of his pro- fession, and the same year married Miss Myra Colby, famous after- ward as Myra Bradwell, the founder of the Chicago Legal News, the first paper of its kind in the west and the first to be edited by a woman in the world. Her career, both as editor and lawyer, was not to be inaugurated until many years after their marriage. After their union they removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where the two conducted the largest select school in that city for about two years. They then re- turned to Chicago, where Mr. Bradwell commenced the permanent practice of the law, and the development of a judicial and public ca- reer of broad usefulness. From 1854 until the first year of the Civil war he steadily advanced in his profession, and became prominent in local politics because of his eloquence as a speaker and his high social and conversational powers.
In 1861 Judge Bradwell entered the field of politics in earnest and was elected county judge by a large majority, his term being for four years. He was re-elected in 1865, and effected several important reforms in court procedure. As a judge of this court he so distin- guished himself by the fairness of his opinions, the courtesy of his manner and the improvements in procedure, which facilitated the dis- patch of business, that his services are yet recalled with pleasure and admiration by the older members of the bar. In 1873 he was sent to the lower house of the legislature and was re-elected in 1875, distin- guishing himself as a speaker and an advocate of much-needed laws and reforms. Among other measures he introduced and secured the passage of the bill making women eligible to school offices, and throughout his long public life was a champion of granting rights to women equal to those possessed by men.
Judge Bradwell presided at the American Women Suffrage Asso- ciation at its organization in Cleveland and was chairman of the arms and trophy department of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission and Soldiers' Home Fair, held in Chicago in 1865. He was president of the Chicago Rifle Club, for four years holding the best record for rifle shooting in Chicago. He served as president of both the Chicago
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Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association, being for many years historian of the latter. In its earlier years he was also president of the Chicago Press Club-in fact, it mattered not with what organization or movement he was identified, his popularity and power of initiative brought him into the class of leaders. He was one of the founders of the Union League Club and the first president of its board of directors. In Masonry he took all the degrees and occupied many high positions in that ancient and honorable order. Judge Bradwell, at the time of his death, was president and director of the Chicago Soldiers' Home and secretary and director of the Chicago Legal News Company, which controls the publication which his wife founded and of which she was so long the head.
Judge Bradwell died in 1908, being among the last of what may properly be called our early settlers. For seventy-three years lie was one of Chicago's most useful, and for a great part of the time one of its most prominent citizens.
Mrs. Bradwell died in February, 1894, the mother of four chil- dren : James and Myra, both deceased; Thomas, a justice of the peace since 1887 and Bessie, wife of Frank A. Helmer, a well-known practicing lawyer of Chicago.
The late Myra C. Bradwell, who passed away in Chicago, Feb- ruary 14, 1894, when she had just entered the sixty-third year of her
MYRA C. noble and inspiring life, was for years recognized
BRADWELL. as one of the most remarkable women of the coun- try, and one of her most remarkable traits was that, through all her public conflicts and triumphs she retained her char- ity, her tenderness and womanliness. Bishop Samuel Fallows, him- self a soldier militant, yet overflowing with human sympathy and the spirit of forgiveness, and a natural friend to a kindred soul, had this to say of her: "The ideal creation of the poet or the artist's imagi- nation in the presentation of perfect womanhood has rarely been ac- tualized in flesh and blood as in the character of this honored woman. The beauty of holiness, which is the beauty of wholeness, you will remember, was the conspicuous beauty of her character. It was the blending of strength and winsomeness, of gentleness and firmness, of tact and persistency, of the low, sweet voice so much loved in woman, with the ringing words for truth and justice and the enfranchisement of her sex, which are to reverberate through the ages forever, of the
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faithful performance of every home duty with the larger service to her country and her race."
Considered more strictly from the standpoint of her public char- acter, the American Law Review, among hundreds of other tender and enthusiastic reviews of Mrs. Bradwell's life work, describes her "as a worthy pioneer in the great movement to give to woman equal rights before the law and equal opportunities to labor in all voca- tions ; as one of the most remarkable women of her generation, dem- onstrating by her life work what women can do in activities hereto- fore monopolized by men; as exemplifying great sagacity, enterprise and masterful business ability in building up one of the most flourish- ing printing and publishing houses in the west; as a woman of learn- ing, genius, industry and high character; as a gentle and noiseless woman whose tenderness and refinement made the firmness of her character all the more effective; as one of those who live their creed instead of preaching it, and as a noble refutation of the oft-times ex- pressed belief that the entrance of woman into public life tends to lessen her distinctive character."
The late Charles C. Bobbey, an eminent lawyer and man of liberal and generous mind, pronounced the high encomium upon her that, all things considered, she was at the time of her death the foremost woman of her time in the department of civil law and jurisprudence ; and added: "She was the first to demonstrate the capacity of women to master the science of law, and while few women have become, or are likely to become, practicing lawyers, the influence of her ex- ample on the great body of intelligent women has been of inestimable value in the formation of an enlightened public opinion that all intel- ligent women should have some knowledge of the civil laws which affect their interests, in order that they may know when their rights are in danger and may be prompted to seek such aid and protection as the occasion may require. Although Myra Bradwell seemed to be only in the prime of life when she died, her career was so public and so useful that it seems a long one, measured by the events in which she took a conspicuous part. Throughout it all she commanded to a wonderful extent the respect of eminent lawyers, judges and states- men."
The facts of the life which presents such a bright and inspiring record to women and men alike are that Myra Colby was born in
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Manchester, Vermont, February 12, 1831, her father, Eben Colby, being the son of a Baptist minister of New Hampshire. The family records show that Anthony Colby, the first of the name to settle in America, came to Boston from England in 1630. Her paternal grand- mother was a lineal descendant of Aquilla Chase, who founded a fam- ily in the United States which produced such men as Bishop Philan- der Chase, of the Episcopal church, and Salmon P. Chase, chief justice of the United States supreme court. On her mother's side she was a descendant of Isaac Willey, who settled in Boston in 1640, and two members of the family are known to have fought in the ranks of the patriots at Bunker Hill. From both families flowed to her the blood of distinguished men and strong women, and nurtured a character which blossomed into a beautiful and hardy plant in the great west of America.
In her infancy Myra Colby was taken to Portage, New York. where she remained until her twelfth year, when she came west with the other members of the family. Her relatives were all staunch abolitionists and personal friends of the Lovejoys, so that a hatred of slavery, inequality and injustice in all their forms was implanted early and deeply in her breast. When a mere girl she evinced the student in her mental composition, balanced by a keen, logical and practical mind, and mellowed by the imagination of a poet for those higher things not of the earth. She studied the advanced branches at Kenosha, Wisconsin, and at a seminary in Elgin, Illinois, after- ward making a successful record as a teacher.
On May 18, 1852, Myra Colby was united in marriage to James B. Bradwell, who had just been admitted to practice, and the union proved ideal not only domestically, but as a means of strengthening her hands for the accomplishment of her individual aims. Until her death parted them, Judge Bradwell was her fellow worker in the great issue of the Civil war, with its measures of national relief, and when afterward she took up the study of the profession in which she became eminent her husband encouraged not only her individual ef- forts, but stood by her side as a champion of her sex for equal rights with men. Both large characters in the public eye, the idea never oc- curred to their countless friends and admirers of either overshadow- ing the other. Standing both in the sunshine of marital love, such comparisons would have been odious and impossible.
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Both Judge Bradwell and Mrs. Bradwell were moving spirits in the Soldiers' Fair of 1863, the Northwestern Sanitary Fair of 1865 and the second Soldiers' Fair of 1867, organized for the benefit of soldiers and their families. The Sanitary Fair, held in Bryan Hall, was an especially prominent event in the work of relief, Judge Brad- well being president of the committee on arms, trophies and curiosi- ties, and his wife secretary and really the active organizer of the feature which proved the great financial success of the enterprise. When the war was over she assisted in providing the home for the maimed and dependent veterans, of which her husband was presi- dent. During this period she was also very active in philanthropic work among the poor of the city, helping to establish a sewing ex- change where the needy were given an opportunity to earn a liveli- hood.
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