USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
1030
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
working. For some months he was a blacksmith in the employ of P. W. Gates, perhaps the pioneer of all Chicago iron workers, and later entered the boiler shops of James W. Cobbs. whose plant was at Canal and Kinzie streets. The foreman of the shops at that time was H. H. Warrington, who afterward founded the Vulcan Iron Works, and a fellow workman. Carlisle Mason, assisted to found the Excelsior Iron Works in 1852. When the latter were put in opera- tion, Mr. Mohr was made foreman of the boiler shop, and after five years was admitted into the firm, remaining connected with the busi- ness for twenty-five years. In 1882. severing his connection with the above named establishment, he associated himself with his son. Joseph, in the firm of John Mohr & Son, manufacturers of boilers, the name assuming its present style. John Mohr & Sons, with the ad- mission of his sons to a participation in the business. The deceased was an energetic, able and yet conservative business man, and his was one of the few large industries of Chicago which passed through the financial storms and depressions of 1893-96 without seeking even temporary financial relief. In 1854 John Mohr was married to Miss Theresa Mayer, a native of France, and of eight children born to their union and today living, five sons are now associated in the busi- ness which he founded.
The late General Charles Fitzsimons was a man of brave, ster- ling and substantial character, making a fine record both as a soldier
CHARLES and a business character. His partnership with FITZSIMONS. Charles J. Connell endured for thirty-seven years.
and during that almost phenomenal period of har- monious association the firm pushed forward some of Chicago's most important improvements in the lines of river, harbor and canal im- provements.
Charles Fitzsimons was a native of New York state, born of Irish parentage, and when a young man, on July 17, 1861. entered the Union army as captain of the Third New York Cavalry, joming the service from Rochester, New York. In May, 1862. he was pro- moted to major of the same regiment, and in October. 1863, was made lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-first New York Cavalry. He was commissioned colonel of this regiment and brevetted brigadier general in February, 1865, and after serving one year on the frontier was mustered out on June 26, 1866.
1031
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
After this continuous and arduous service, General Fitzsimons located in Chicago, and in 1867 formed a partnership with Charles J. Connell for the primary purpose of building wooden bridges and furnishing heavy timber to railroad companies and other constructors. To this end they erected a mill on Magazine slip, Chicago, for the purpose of sawing heavy timber. Many of the contracts taken by the company, even during the earlier period of its existence, were very heavy, one of the most extensive in the way of bridge building being that under which was constructed all the wooden bridges on the Union Pacific Railway between the North Platte river and Salt Lake City. During the prevalence of high prices for freighting lum- ber to Chicago, the firm rafted their timber in the log across Lake Michigan, some of the rafts containing fully a million feet of timber each. The logs were landed at North Pier, and there sawed into such timber as the trade demanded. After the panic of 1873 timber freights were so far reduced that there was no profit in this practice, and it was abandoned. Subsequently they engaged very heavily in the building of what are known as Howe-truss bridges, sold timber to the trade and engaged in dredging and dock building. Upon the dissolution of the firm of Fox & Howard, the oldest firm of dock builders in the city, Fitzsimons & Connell formed a partnership with Harry Fox, and upon his death assumed entire control of the business. As an illustration of the character of the work accomplished by the firm at this period may be mentioned the Fullerton avenue conduit, four thousand feet of the Lincoln Park breakwater, two thousand feet of the government breakwater, the superstructure of Rush street bridge (built in 1884) and five thousand feet of the lake shore pro- tection at what was then known as South Park. Still later the firm entered largely also into the business of pile driving, both in connec- tion with improvements along the water ways and in the work of lay- ing the foundations of large buildings. The business association be- tween Messrs. Fitzsimons and Connell was dissolved only with the death of the General, in 1904. In his decease the city lost a rugged and picturesque figure, a man of abounding energy and ability, strong and versatile in his business relations, approachable and popular, and, in view of the main work of his life, recognized as an important fac- tor in the material development of Chicago and the northwest. Gen- eral Fitzsimons is survived by his widow ( Mrs. Augusta Fitzsim-
1032
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
ons ), who resides in comfort at No. 161 Ashland boulevard, west side.
William Henry Finley was born in Wilmington, Delaware, Jan- uary 22, 1862, of Irish parentage. He was educated in the public schools of his native city, and fitted himself for the
WILLIAM H. profession of civil engineering under private in-
FINLEY. structors. His first engagement was with the Edge Moor Iron Company of Wilmington, Delaware, as draftsman, and he afterward advanced to the position of designer and computer. In 1887 he resigned his position to accept the appointment of assistant engineer of bridges with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- road Company, his duties embracing the superintendence of the de- signing and computing of the road's structures and buildings. In 1892 he entered the service of the Chicago & North-Western Rail- way Company, as engineer of bridges, and in 1900 was promoted to the position of principal assistant engineer of the road, and later to his present position of assistant chief engineer of the system.
Mr. Finley is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Western Society of Engineers (past president), the Engineers' Club, the National Geographic Society and the Fox River Country Club. Married in 1883 to Miss Sarah H. Furry, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, he is the father of four children : Jeanette P., Ralph H., Max H. and Cedric C. The family home is at Ba- tavia, Illinois. .
Oscar Pearl Chamberlain has been chief engineer of the Chicago & Illinois Western Railroad since 1904. This is one of the important
OSCAR P. industrial railroad lines radiating from Chicago. CHAMBERLAIN. Mr. Chamberlain's career as engineer has been one of steady promotion. He was born in Pittstown, Rensselaer county, New York, November 26, 1870, son of Alonzo Bradner and Laura Arceville (Munson) Chamberlain, being a branch of the New England Chamberlains. Educated in the public schools of Auburn, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating from the high school of the latter city in 1885, he pursued his studies in the Towne Scientific School of the University of Pennsylvania dur- ing 1885-89 and graduated in the civil engineering section with the degree of B. S. in 1889. He was successively rodman, transitman and assistant engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad (P. B. & W.
IO33
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
R. R., Grand division), 1889-02. As division engineer of the Chicago Great Western Railroad he first became identified with Chicago dur- ing 1902-04, and during the latter year served a brief time as assist- ant engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, since then being en- gaged in his present duties. Mr. Chamberlain is also chief engineer for Dolese & Shepard Company, manufacturers of crushed stone and lime, whose plants are the most extensive of the kind in Cook county. He has been connected with this firm since 1904. Since June, 1907, Mr. Chamberlain has also been connected with the Union Paving Company as general manager of that corporation.
Mr. Chamberlain is a member of the Western Society of Engi- neers, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, and the Chicago Engineers Club. He is unmarried, and resides in LaGrange, Illinois.
Willard Adelbert Smith, publisher and proprietor of the Railway and Engineering Review, has for over 35 years been engaged in his
WILLARD A. special line of publishing in Chicago, and during
SMITH. that period has been chief of transportation of two
American expositions, and in charge of the Ameri- can section of that department at the last Paris exposition. For his services in connection with these international events, as well as for his general furtherance of transportation development, he has been decorated by two European countries and by the Empire of Japan. It is therefore no 'stretch of statement to again assert that his reputa- tion on matters relating to transportation, whether considered from a theoretical, historical or practical standpoint, is of world-wide scope.
Mr. Smith is a Wisconsin man, born at Kenosha, September 20, 1849, the son of William Harrison and Mehitable ( Allen) Smith. His paternal ancestors came from England in 1640 and settled in New Hampshire, while his mother's family, although also of English descent, founded homes at an early day in New York state. Mr. Smith obtained his elementary education in the common schools of Kenosha, graduated into the high school of Rockford, Illinois, and thence into Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, same state. After com- pleting his literary course at the latter in 1869, with the degree A. B., he entered the law department of the Washington University, at St. Louis, Missouri, from which in 1872 he received the degree of LL. B.
1034
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Later Shurtleff College conferred upon him A. M. and, in 1906, LL. D.
Mr. Smith first entered the publishing business as editor and pub- lisher of the St. Louis Railway Register, in 1871, and two years later bought the Chicago Railway Review, now the Railway and Engineer- ing Review ( weekly), removing at the time to this city, and having since been continuously located here as a publisher.
His identification with the great expositions of the past fifteen years includes his services as chief of the department of transporta- tion. World's Columbian Exposition. Chicago, in 1893; chief of the department of transportation and engineering for the American com- mission to the Paris Exposition of 1900; chief of the department of transportation of the Universal Exposition, St. Louis, 1904. He was a delegate of the state department of the United States government to the International Railway Congress, which met at Paris, in 1900, and at Washington in 1905 : to the International Tramway Congress and the International Association for Testing Materials, Paris, 1900. He was also a member of the Advisory Board which cooperated with the Pennsylvania Railroad System in conducting the important tests of locomotives at the St. Louis Exposition. Mr. Smith was honored with medals from France, Germany and Italy for services in connec- tion with the World's Columbian Exposition, and is the possessor of the famous Tiffany "Transportation Vase." He was decorated as Chevalier Legion of Honor by France; Royal Order of the Crown, Germany, and Imperial Order of the Rising Sun. Japan. In 1907 he was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor of France. He is a member of the Western Society of Engineers, the Master Car Builders' Association and the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association, and an honorary member of the National Carriage Builders' Association, the American Society of Railroad Superintend- ents and the Roadmasters and Maintenance of Way Association. Lo- cally he is identified with the Union League Club, has been a trustee of the University of Chicago almost from its foundation, and chair- man of the Press and Extension Committee, and is a patron and hon- orary curator of the Field Museum of Natural History. He has been for many years a trustee of the Memorial Baptist church, and was for two years president of the Chicago Baptist Social Union.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOP DEHUE ATE TIL DENPOUNDA 10X1
1035
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
On May 1, 1872, Mr. Smith married Maria Curtis Dickinson, of New York, the ceremony occurring at St. Louis. Their children are Mrs. Bruce V. Crandall, of Kenilworth, Illinois, Edith May and Harold Adelbert Smith.
M. A. Donohue, senior member of the firm of M. A. Donohue & Co., Printers, Binders and Publishers, was born in the village of Gort.
County Galway, Ireland, on the 25th of September,
M. A. DONOHUE. 1841. His parents were John and Bridget (Con- nelly) Donohue, who brought him to Philadelphia in 1852. In May, 1856, they came to Chicago, during which year he commenced to learn the trade of bookbinder. In 1861 he engaged in business for himself and he has continued in that line of business up to the present time. In 1863 he married Miss Jane Furey : he is the father of nine children, seven of whom are living.
Charles Frederick Gunther, one of the greatest manufacturers of confectionery and dealers in sweetmeats in the west, has gained a great reputation, and, better still, has demonstrated
CHARLES F. GUNTHER. throughout his busy life that man is not to be com-
mended alone for the riches which he gathers, but rather for the wise uses to which he applies them. His means have enabled him to indulge his love for historic research to the fullest ex- tent, and he has not only visited all the noted regions of the world, thus broadening and verifying his knowledge derived from books, but has gathered collections of manuscript, historic volumes and por- traits, as well as relics of all the American and Civil wars from the Colonial to the Spanish, which serve as object lessons to illustrate the marked civilizations of the old and the new worlds. His treasures comprise manuscripts of the most ancient writings of the world, from the stone rolls of the Assyrian and the Babylonian periods and the papyrus parchments of the Pharaohs, to the present time. He undoubt- edly possesses the rarest collection of Bibles in existence, including a copy of the first New Testament printed in English ( 1528) ; all of the first Bibles printed on the American continent, such as the Elliott Indian Bibles and the Martha Washington Bible and the first American Bible by Atkinson in 1782. The famous Gunther manuscripts include a well authenticated and very rare autograph of Shakespeare, and Moliere and original manuscripts of Goethe, Schiller, Tasso, Michael
1036
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Angelo, Gallileo, Raphael, and many other famous characters of Europe and America-memorials direct from the hands of noted writers, poets, musicians, clergymen, politicians and monarchs. In his galleries are the original manuscripts of "Star Spangled Banner," "Home, Sweet Home," "Old Lang Syne," "Old Grimes," and "Lead. Kindly Light" and many others. Among the maps are the earliest ones relating to America from 1500 up, and the first edition of Martin Waldseemuller's Cosmography, 1507, which for the first time gives the name America to the new world. Of the Gunther portraits per- haps the most famous is that of Columbus by Sir Antonio Moro, paint- ed about 1552 from a miniature then forming a part of the historic museum in the Prado Palace, Spain. Washington Irving, who thor- oughly searched the archives of Spain, pronounced this the best and truest portrait of Columbus extant. The collection also contains four- teen original portraits of Washington, including the first ever made of him by the elder Peale, and the only portrait in existence of Wash- ington's sister Betty and her husband, including the two lost por- traits of George and Martha by Saint Mèmen. The relics of George Washington cover his entire career, and the department of Americana includes also rare memorials of Abraham Lincoln and all other great historic characters.
But the collection for which Mr. Gunther is most widely famed is known as the War Museum, and is the most complete exposition of the horrors and glories of the Civil war extant. This priceless exhibit was protected by him in private quarters for some time, and in the late eighties, mainly through his efforts, the celebrated military prison of the south, Libby, was removed bodily from Richmond, Virginia (where it had been occupied as a tobacco warehouse), to a site selected for it on Wabash avenue, Chicago, and within its historic walls was installed the War Museum. Mr. Gunther was president of the Libby Prison War Museum Association during its existence, and was after- ward president of the company which erected the Coliseum on the site of the former War Museum. This unique collection will, in the near future, be transferred to some park on the west side of the city, in which a fitting building will be erected for its preservation and con- tinuous presentation to the public.
That Mr. Gunther should be the originator of such a collection is all the more unique, in that by force of circumstances his lot during
1037
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
the Civil war was cast with the Confederacy. Born in Wildberg, a beautiful town in the celebrated Black Forest district of Germany, on the 6th of March, 1837, when he was five years of age his parents emigrated to the United States. Fifty-two days were consumed in making the voyage between Havre and New York, and the family finally settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and afterward re- moved to Somerset county, where Charles F. was educated and com- menced practical life as a carrier on horseback of the government mail. his route covering forty miles to Johnstown and return, his compensa- tion being twenty-five cents per day. In the spring of 1850 the fam- ily removed to Peru, Illinois, where the youth's education was contin- ued, as well as his business training. He became a competent drug clerk, studied medicine to some extent, was a postoffice employe at Peru, and still later became connected with the local branch of the famous Chicago bank of George Smith & Co. (Alexander Cruick- shank). After a few years he was made cashier of the institution, but, notwithstanding his bright prospects, located in Memphis, Ten- nessee, with Bohlen, Wilson & Co., the leading ice firm of the south, whose source of supply was at Peru. With the opening of the Civil war and the paralysis of business in the southern states, by being cut off from intercourse with the north by the United States government, and exhaustion of supplies, there was but one thing to do, that was to fall in line for service, and he joined the naval branch of the Con- federate government as a steward and purser, purchasing supplies and transporting troops along all the southern rivers tributary to the Mississippi. By the capture of Memphis and New Orleans, his steam- er, while up the Arkansas river, was blockaded and burned by the Union forces, and he himself made a prisoner of war in the field. Being shortly liberated, he returned to his old home in Peru, and soon after accepted a position with a Peoria bank, subsequently securing a connection with the wholesale confectionery house of C. W. San- ford, of Chicago, as its first traveling salesman from Chicago for the south, with the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. It was while thus employed that he made his first trip to Europe.
Successively, Mr. Gunther entered the employ of Thompson. John- son & Co., wholesale grocers of Chicago; became the Chicago repre- sentative of Greenfield, Young & Co., leading New York confection-
1038
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
ers. and in the fall of 1868 opened a retail store himself on Clark street, thus establishing the first high-grade store of the kind in the city. Among his introductions were the famous caramels, which lie was first to manufacture and made a great American staple. His store was a victim of the 1871 fire, but the interruption to his business was short, and his prosperity has since been continuous. Today his great establishment on State street is filled not only with healthful and ar- tistic forms of confection, but with his rare treasures illustrative of the world's history and its historic characters. In 1879 Mr. Gunther was one of the commission which accomplished so much in opening trade relations between Mexico and the United States, and has for years been recognized as one of the truly representative men of Chi- cago.
Mr. Gunther has taken an active part in the public affairs of his city, and is a leading Democrat. He believes in the democratic doc- trine. "equal rights to all and special privileges to none." and tariff for revenue only. He has served two terms in the city council and one term (1901-05) as city treasurer, having brought the same business- like and energetic spirit into his public career which has made him a leader in the commercial world. He is a Mason of the thirty-third degree (Medinah Temple, Knights Templar) and a member of the following organizations: Union League, Jefferson, Caxton, German- ic, Geographic, Cook County Democratic. Illinois Athletic and Iro- quois clubs, having served as president of the last named; Chicago Historic Society (trustee), Chicago Academy of Sciences (trustee ), the Chicago Art Institute (governing member), and Alliance Fran- caise. Mr. Gunther speaks German. French and Spanish, and con- tinues his studies up to date in the sciences and arts.
In 1869 Mr. Gunther married Miss Jennie Burnell, of Lima. In- diana, and they have become the parents of two children, Burnell and Whitman. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gunther have for many years been active members of various societies for the promotion of the welfare of Chicago, and are as widely honored as they are known.
The founder of the David Bradley Manufacturing Company was a rugged man, of marked force of character. both an originator of DAVID mechanisms and a practical developer of their pos- BRADLEY. sibilities-a combination which is as remarkable as it is strong, when found united in the personality of
1039
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
an honest character of broad caliber. David Bradley was also a man of kindness and systematic Christian philanthropy, and especially de- voted the later years of his life to good private works and the sup- port and extension of public charities.
Born November 8, 1811, David Bradley was descended from Puritan stock, the first of his family to come to America being Wil- liam Bradley, who settled in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1637. Da- vid Bradley's early manhood was spent at Syracuse, New York, where his inventive and mechanical tendencies were applied to the manufac- ture of agriculture implements and stoves. But, with other discern- ing men, he saw that the manufacturing field of the future was to lie adjacent to the territory of greatest development. He therefore came to Chicago in 1835, secured employment in the manufacture of plows. and assisted in the establishment of the first iron foundry in the young city, purchasing and shipping for his employers the first car- load of pig iron that was received in Chicago. The next occupation in his varied early career was that of a farmer in Lake county, Illi- nois, this experience of four years being of decided educational value to him as revealing the imperfections of the old plow and the neces- sity for an improvement in its form and design.
In 1854 Mr. Bradley founded his plow works to manufacture the make known as the Garden City Clipper, which, years before, he had assisted in turning out from the shop of Mr. Pierce, his brother-in- law, who was the original maker of them. During the first year of the enterprise he became associated with Conrad Furst, under the firm name of Furst & Bradley, manufacturers of plows and agricul- tural implements. The little shop on Randolph street, with its an- nual business of $10,000, was soon outgrown, and the nucleus of the mammoth plant on Jefferson, Fulton and North Desplaines streets was erected. Until 1872 the firm name was Furst & Bradley, but at that time it was incorporated as the Furst & Bradley Manufacturing Company, and in 1884 as the David Bradley Manufacturing Com- pany. In 1895 the town of Bradley was built, and its founder re- mained president of the David Bradley Manufacturing Company un- til his death in November. 1899, when he was succeeded by his son, J. Harley Bradley.
1040
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Joseph Harley Bradley, president of the David Bradley Manufac- turing Company, was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on the 30th of Sep-
J. HARLEY BRADLEY.
tember, 1844, and is a son of the founder of the great agricultural implement works on Jefferson,
Fulton and North Desplaines streets. When he was five years of age he was brought to Chicago by his parents, and in this city he was educated. At the attaining of his majority in 1865 he became a partner in the firm of Jones, Ellinwood & Bradley, engaged in the retail implement and seed business. In 1868 he dis- posed of his interest, and, with Harry Banks, organized the firm of Bradley & Banks, their principal sales being of the implements man- ufactured by the elder Bradley. He also withdrew from this con- cern in 1872, and was elected secretary of the Furst & Bradley Manu- facturing Company.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.