USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 17
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On the 3rd of November, 1885, Mr. Raymer was united in marriage with Miss Mary Gallagher, and the three children born to their union are Abigail Mercy, Alice Veronica and Ellen May Ray- mer. A lover of the domestic circle, he also enjoys a broad social intercourse through his identification with such organizations as the Illinois Athletic (director), Mid-Day and Westward Ho clubs, and the Chicago Association of Commerce.
For nearly thirty years Edward William Bailey has been the head of the leading commission, grain and provision business styled E. W.
Bailey & Co., with headquarters in Chicago, and
EDWARD W. BAILEY. a branch at Montpelier, Vermont. He is sole pro-
prietor of the Chicago house, but has partners in the Vermont branch, whose business embraces a wholesale and retail trade in flour and grain and the operation of grain mills at Mont- pelier and Swanton, Vermont.
Mr. Bailey is a Vermonter, born at Elmore, LaMoille county, on the 31st of August, 1843, being the son of George W. and Rebecca (Warren) Bailey, who were both natives of Berlin, in the Green
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Mountain state. The Bailey family is of Scotch lineage. The youngest of ten children, Edward W. Bailey obtained his education in the public and Washington county grammar schools of Mont- pelier, and at the age of seventeen commenced to assist his father in the management of the home farm, on which he remained until 1869. In that year he purchased a grocery store at Montpelier, and, in the following year, added a grain mill to his business.
In 1879 Mr. Bailey came to Chicago and formed a partnership with V. W. Bullock for dealing in grain on commission, and three years thereafter he became sole proprietor of the business, retaining his connection with his Montpelier enterprises. In Chicago Mr. Bailey occupies large and convenient offices at No. 72 Board of Trade. During the panic of 1893 he met with business reverses, but has since cleared off all indebtedness, and is stronger than ever both as a com- mercial factor and a citizen. His high standing on the Board of Trade has been signally acknowledged in many ways, but in no more forcible manner than by his election to a directorship and vice presi- dency of that body.
On May 26, 1870, Mr. Bailey was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Carter, the ceremony occurring at Montpelier, Vermont, and the children born to them have been as follows: George C. and Mrs. Mary Blanchard (Bailey) Meyer. The family residence is at No. 23 Oakwood avenue. In politics Mr. Bailey is a Republican. He is a member of the Union League and South Shore Country clubs, and is also identified with the New England Society. His religious views are liberal, and he was for many years an earnest member of Professor David Swing's church.
Paul Blatchford, secretary of the Central Supply Association (manufacturers and jobbers in water, steam and gas supplies) and
PAUL of the Chicago Metal Trades Association, is a BLATCHFORD. native of Chicago, eldest son of Eliphalet W. and Mary E. (Williams) Blatchford. After obtaining a preparatory education in this city, he became a student at Amherst College, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1882 with the degree of A. B. For eighteen years after leaving college he was actively engaged in the lead works of E. W. Blatchford & Co., as ' secretary and assistant manager, withdrawing in 1900 to assume his present office as secretary of the Central Supply and other em-
TN& NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR LENOX AND TELOFS FOUNDATION* L
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ployers' and manufacturers' associations. He also enjoys the fol- lowing official connection with the institutions named: Secretary of the Chicago Metal Trades Association (since 1903), also holding a similar position with the Employers' Association of Hotel Men of Chicago, and the Paper Box Manufacturers' Club.
In 1887 Mr. Blatchford was united in marriage with Miss Frances V. Lord, of Bangor, Maine, and the following children have been born to them: John, Dorothy L., Barbara and Charles L. The pleasant family residence is on North Euclid avenue, Oak Park, Illinois. In view of his genealogy, Mr. Blatchford is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, being its governor in 1907-8, also Sons of Colonial Wars and Sons of the American Revolution. He is an old and prominent Mason, and is identified with Oak Park Lodge, Cicero Chapter, R. A. M., Siloam Commandery, K. T., and Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Uni- versity, Westward Ho, Caxton and Amherst clubs of Chicago, being a director in the last named. In politics he is a Republican.
Joy Morton, a leading merchant, financier and director of large and varied commercial interests in the west, and a well known resident
JOY of Chicago for nearly thirty years, is the eldest son of the late Hon. J. Sterling Morton, a pioneer MORTON. in the development of the western Mississippi val- ley, orginator of Arbor Day, now generally observed by all states of the Union, and which has done so much to clothe their broad ex- panses with refreshing, ornamental and valuable groves, of untold benefit both to the present and the future.
When twenty-two years of age the elder Morton wedded Caroline Joy French, of Detroit, and in November, 1854, migrated to Ne- braska, near Nebraska City, and there founded a frontier homestead, which came to be known as Arbor Lodge. It was here that their son Joy, who was born on the 27th of September, 1855, was educated and reared, his early schooling being received at Talbot Hall, an Episcopalian boarding school near his home. While still a lad he engaged with his brothers as freighter on the plains, and at the age of sixteen became an errand boy in the Merchants' National Bank of Nebraska City. He had been promoted to the tellership of that insti- tution at the age of nineteen, and soon acquired an interest in the bank, which he still retains. Railroading next claimed his attention,
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and for several years he was identified with the treasurer's office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Omaha, and the supply department (of which he was the head ) at Aurora, Illinois. In 1879 he came to Chicago as a member of the firm of E. I. Wheeler & Co .. then the oldest and largest salt house in Chicago. Upon the death of Mr. Wheeler in 1885, he became the head of the firm, whose name was changed to Joy Morton & Co., the "company" being Mark Mor- ton, a brother. For more than twenty-nine years this extensive and constantly increasing business has been Mr. Morton's main concern, although he has enjoyed a wide and prominent connection with the management and promotion of many other extensive enterprises. He is president and director of the Great Western Cereal Company, director of the American Trust and Savings Bank and the Railway Exchange Bank, president and director of the Morton-Gregson Com- pany, director of the Western Cold Storage Company, director of the Corn Products Refining Company, the American Hominy Com- pany and the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, and president of the International Salt Company of Illinois and the Hutchinson-Kan- sas Salt Company.
Mr. Morton was married in Omaha, Nebraska, September 23, 1880, to Miss Carrie Lake, daughter of Judge B. Lake, and they have two children-Jean, born in 1883, and Sterling, in 1885. Mr. Morton is a member of the Chicago Historical Society, and is also identified with the Commercial, Chicago, Midlothian, South Shore and Caxton clubs. of Chicago; Chicago Golf, of Wheaton, Illinois, and the Lawyers' and Transportation clubs, of New York. His business office is in the Railway Exchange building, Chicago.
Thomas Edward Wilder, president of Wilder & Co. (incorporated in 1907), leading tanners and wholesale jobbers of leather, is a
native of Lancaster, Massachusetts, born on the
T. EDWARD WILDER. 15th of August, 1855, being a son of Charles Lewis and Harriet Ellen (Harris) Wilder. He obtained the foundation of his education in his native town, chiefly at the Lancaster Academy, afterward pursuing a course at the Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated with the degree of B. S.
Mr. Wilder never entered into practice as an engineer, but after teaching school for about a year came to Chicago in 1875 and ob-
Sincerely yours. Edward Wilder
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOE INHOA AND
..
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tained a clerkship with Walker, Oakley & Co., well known tanners. Under the style of T. E. Wilder he established a leather commission business in 1878, and in the following year formed the firm of John- son & Wilder, manufacturers of cut soles. This was succeeded by Wilder & Hale in 1880, and in 1887 the business assumed its present name, Wilder & Co., with himself as senior partner and John E. Wilder as junior. The business covers a number of specialties, as besides tanning and wholesale jobbing the firm manufactures cut sole and shoe bottom stock. For years the Wilder brothers had followed the co-operative plan in the conduct of their business with the best financial and most harmonious results, making it a practice to see that their employes prospered with them. In December, 1906, they an- nounced a dissolution of partnership, stating the following: "The purpose of the dissolution is for the formation of a stock company, the better to enable the recognition of meritorious service rendered by the young men who will become interested in the new company as stockholders and directors, and, besides such, to recognize in a profit sharing proposition those whose service and loyalty to the business may warrant." On January 2, 1907, Wilder & Co. was transformed into a corporation, with a paid-in capital of $400,000, and the fol- lowing officers: T. Edward Wilder, president; John E. Wilder, vice president ; Charles Perkins, treasurer ; Ralph D. Griffin, secre- tary: Messrs. Wilder and Perkins, Frank A. Gould and Louis W. Crush, directors. Besides being president of the business which he founded, he is vice-president of the Wilder-Manning Tanning Com- pany, of Waukegan, Illinois, and chairman of the J. W. & A. P. Howard Company, Limited, of Corry, Pennsylvania, tanners of sole leather. In February, 1908, he was elected general secretary of the Chicago Association of Commerce, having since the organization of that body been a member of its publicity and other important com- ยท mittees. No public spirited citizen of Chicago need be informed of the good work which has been accomplished by the association named.
Mr. Wilder is also vice president for the state of Illinois of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and in view of this office, as well as of his position as member of the executive committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce, he has been very active in promoting the great project of a deep waterway from the Great
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Lakes to the Mississippi valley. He is one of Chicago's far-seeing citizens who has long realized its vast possibilities, and is also con- fident that the project will be fully realized within the span of his life.
In 1880 Mr. Wilder was united in marriage with Miss Anna G. Tucker, daughter of William F. Tucker, of Chicago, and the children born to them have been as follows: Marjorie, now Mrs. William H. Emery, whose husband is also engaged in leather manufacturing; Edward Tucker, Erskine Phelps, Harold, Paul and Harris Emory. The family has long resided in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Mr. Wilder is most popular as a citizen and a social factor. He has served as president of the school board at Elmhurst, and is now president of the New England Society of Chicago, and otherwise has been active in public affairs. He has also been president of the Elmhurst Golf Club, and, as to city clubs, has long been identified with the Union League and Chicago Athletic Association. In politics he has always been a Republican, and his religious faith is Unitarianism.
Edward Burgess Butler, one of the founders of the firm of But- ler Brothers, is the pioneer of what has come to be known as the wholesale mail order business. Mr. Butler is a na-
EDWARD B.
BUTLER. tive of Lewiston, Maine, born on the 16th of De- cember, 1853. the son of Manly Orville and Eliza- beth (Howe) Butler. When he was six years of age the family re- moved to Boston, where he obtained a grammar and high school edu- cation, working between school hours in a grocery store. At the age of sixteen he left school and after filling various minor positions with a wholesale dry goods and notion house became a commercial traveler. being at this time but eighteen years of age. For the suc- ceeding five years he received a thorough training in selling mer- chandise in the United States and Canada.
In 1877 Edward B. Butler formed a partnership with his brother, George H., and under the title of Butler Brothers, they started busi- ness as wholesalers of notions and small wares. In the following year they were joined by the third brother, Charles H. Butler. Their early inauguration of the "five-cent counter plan," by which thous- ands of articles were retailed at a uniform price, has proved the foundation of the modern department store. Their second radical departure from the business methods then prevailing was the selling
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of their goods by catalogue. Instead of sending out traveling men to solicit trade, they issued a comprehensive catalogue styled "Our Drummer," which, being the first of its kind, and growing with the business, has been the most original and complete of all mercantile publications, and has taught hundreds of jobbers the use of printer's ink.
Mr. Butler is president of the corporation formed in 1887 and still known as Butler Brothers, although the brothers who were asso- ciated with him in the establishment of the great business are both deceased. There are now great distributing houses in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis, these four establishments em- ploying more than six thousand men and transacting an annual busi- ness of nearly $40,000,000. Coolness and clearness of judgment and a remarkable power of organization and management are imperative- ly demanded in the chief executive of such a business-qualities emi- nently developed in Edward B. Butler. He is also a director in the Corn Exchange Bank, is a trustee in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Municipal Museum, and has always been active and influen- tial in the broad movements of public education and charity. In 1893 he served as chairman of the ways and means committee of the World's Columbian Exposition, being also chairman of the Bureau of Admissions and Collections. Later, for two years, he was the active head of the Civic Federation of Chicago. For many years he has served as president of the Illinois Manual Training School Farm for Boys at Glenwood, and is a director of the Chicago Orphan Asy- lum, City Homes Association, Chicago Bureau of Associated Chari- ties, Chicago Refuge for Girls, First State Pawners' Society and the Hull House Social Settlement. He was one of the first supporters of Hull House, in the early nineties having erected and donated a building in the furtherance of its objects, which contained a picture gallery, a reading room and a branch of the public library. Besides being identified with the Commercial and Merchants' clubs, Mr. But- ler also belongs to such social organizations as the Chicago, Union League, University, Midlothian, Cliff Dwellers and the South Shore Country clubs.
In 1880 Mr. Butler was united in marriage with Miss Jane Hol- ley, of Norwalk, Connecticut, and their residence is at No. 3408 Michigan avenue.
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James Elliott Defebaugh, editor and proprietor of the American Lumberman, has been prominently connected with trade journalism JAMES ELLIOTT in Chicago for more than twenty-five years, and for DEFEBAUGH. nearly the entire period with publications identified with the lumbering interests. He is a native of Williamsburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, born on the 28th of March, 1854, son of James Elliott and Elizabeth Ann (Kinney) Defebaugh. After receiving a common school education, at the age of fourteen he commenced to learn the printer's trade, spending three years in its mastery. From 1869 to 1875 he held a case on the Pittsburg Ga- sette, was afterward in the office of the Daily Patriot at Harrisburg. Pennsylvania, for a time, and in 1876 was assistant cashier of the Philadelphia Times.
In 1877 Mr. Defebaugh came to Chicago, first working at his trade in the offices of R. R. Donnelley and the Chicago Inter-Occan, and after four years in his old field of employment accepted a posi- tion with the Young Men's Christian Association as secretary of the Burlington (Iowa) branch. In 1882 he returned to Chicago, where, for the succeeding three years, he acted as representative of the Shoe and Leather Reporter, of New York, and other eastern trade publica- tions. In 1885-he became acting secretary of the Lumberman's Ex- change of Chicago and Lumber Manufacturers' Association of the Northwest, during the absence in Europe of George W. Hotchkiss, the regular official, continuing his connection with eastern and south- ern trade journalism.
In 1886 Mr. Defebaugh founded The Timberman, a weekly trade journal, and in connection therewith in 1893 to 1906 became respon- sible for the business and editorial management of The Young Men's Era, the international official organ of the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Defebaugh also acquired by purchase, in 1887. the weekly Lumberman's Gasctte, of Bay City, Michigan, established in 1873, and the same was absorbed by The Timberman. On Janu- ary 1, 1899, a consolidation of The Timberman and The Northwest- ern Lumberman, owned by W. B. Judson, was accomplished. and Mr. Defebaugh became president and editor and Mr. Judson mana- ger of the consolidated paper, which became known as The Ameri- can Lumberman. In the spring of 1906 Mr. Defebaugh acquired. by purchase, Mr. Judson's half interest in the property and has since
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been owner and director of its business and editorial policy. As at present constituted, the journal is one of the world leaders in its special province of journalismn.
In 1883 Mr. Defebaugh married Miss Annie E. Carhart, of Chi- cago, and of the three children born to them-Carl W., Jay Carhart and Harold Elliott-the last two mentioned are now deceased. The family residence is at No. 5344 Ellis avenue. Mr. Defebaugh has, since its organization, been identified with the work of the Chicago Commercial Association. He is also identified with the Midlothian, South Shore, Press, Union League, Hamilton, City and Illinois Ath- letic clubs, and has for many years been a member of the board of managers of the Young Men's Christian Association, of Chicago. Presbyterianism is his religious faith, and he has been for twenty- seven years a member, and for many years an elder and trustee, in the Forty-first Street church. He is a trustee of the Illinois College, located at Jacksonville, Illinois.
Charles Henry McConnell is president and proprietor of the Eco- nomical Drug Company, one of the largest houses of the kind in the country. He is a native of Dublin, Ireland, where
CHARLES H.
McCONNELL. he was born on the 12th of October, 1841, a son of James Kenny and Sarah (O'Neill) McConnell. The father was an expert accountant and bookkeeper. The family. consisting of the parents, two sons and a daughter, emigrated to New York City in 1847, remaining there a year and then removing to Charleston, South Carolina. After remaining in that city about the same length of time, the home was again transferred, the residence being in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for some five years. Then the fam- ily located in Detroit, and there the homestead remained for a period of twenty years.
Charles H. McConnell was educated in the public schools of De- troit, and also served his apprenticeship in the Tribune office, under Henry Barns, one of the pioneer newspaper men of the west, as well as an influential Republican politician. In 1862, however, the young man was drawn from that field to the more exciting theater of the Civil war, and went to the front as a private in Company B, Twenty- fourth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. For three years the command with which he was identified was a portion of the famous Iron Bri- gade, Army of the Potomac, the records of the war department show-
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ing that for the entire period of the Rebellion no other brigade in the Union armies suffered so great a loss in killed and wounded, in pro- portion to the actual strength of the organization. Mr. McConnell received an honorable discharge in Detroit, Michigan, on the 8th of July. 1865, and retains as a priceless memento of that memorable per- iod, a handsome diamond set in a gold pendant, recording the fact that he carried the colors of his company from Gettysburg into the Wilderness.
Mr. McConnell reached home from the war at eight o'clock at night, and the following morning at seven o'clock was working at his "case," later in the day assisting in the "make-up," and doing whatever else was required of a master of his craft. In 1866 he took charge of the job rooms of the Detroit Post, in which capacity he de- veloped a fine trade, especially in the specialty of show printing.
On the 4th of March, 1873, Mr. McConnell came to Chicago and established the National Printing Company, whose leading specialty was also show printing. Of this concern, which employed fifty men, he was secretary, treasurer and active manager, and in 1883 (the most successful year) the business amounted to $200,000. J. H. Haverly, the famous amusement manager, was one of its first and heaviest patrons. Unfortunately he invested too extensively in Colo- rado mines, and in the year named his ventures in that line culminated in the swamping of his legitimate business. In self-preservation Mr. McConnell was compelled to assume the management of Haverly's Theater in Chicago, the California Theater in San Francisco, Haver- ly's Theater in Brooklyn, and several other houses of amusement con- trolled by Mr. Haverly. This enormous responsibility in an unfami- liar field netted to Mr. McConnell a total loss of $320,000, and in 1884 he met with another loss of $250,000 by the burning of his print- ing establishment. But he had learned a lesson in the Civil war, which was never to acknowledge permanent defeat; so that within a few years he was again firmly on his feet, and in June, 1892, established the Economical Drug Company, which was the first in the city, and perhaps in the west, to retail drugs at cut prices. In the founding and development of this policy Mr. McConnell has established one of the leading houses of Chicago.
On May 31, 1868, Mr. McConnell married Miss Clara Virginia Chope, and one child, Cora Edith, has been born of this union. The
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION. R L
arthur M. Barnhart-
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family residence is at No. 4417 Ellis avenue. Mr. McConnell is a member of the Pharmaceutical Association, is identified with the Chi- cago and Illinois Athletic clubs, and is prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic. In the fraternity named he is past commander of Columbia Post, and in 1904-5 served as chief of staff to John C. Black, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Arthur Middleton Barnhart, president of Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, proprietors of one of the largest and most complete type foundries in the world, was born at Hartfield,
ARTHUR M.
BARNHART. Chautauqua county, New York, and is a son of Peter and Sarah ( Herrick) Barnhart (deceased). In 1865, with his brothers, George W., Warren and Alson E., he established himself in Iowa as a newspaper publisher, continuing in that field for about eight years. During that period the four brothers founded the Iowa State Leader, at Des Moines, which, about two years ago, was consolidated with the Iowa State Register, and at the same time owned the Muscatine Courier, Marshalltown Advance and Independence Conservative, all Iowa newspapers.
In 1868, with the above mentioned brothers, Mr. Barnhart estab- lished himself in Chicago, although for five years thereafter he and his brothers continued actively in the Iowa newspaper field. First establishing himself in Chicago in the newspaper advertising business, he soon perceived that there would be a great field for a thoroughly equipped and well managed type foundry, which should meet the rapidly increasing demand for type and printers' supplies from news- papers, publishing houses, and many other sources originating in such an expanding territory as Chicago and the west. In 1869, with his brothers, George W., Warren and A. E. Barnhart, and Charles E. Spindler, he purchased a small plant known as the Great Western Type Foundry, the business being later incorporated as Barnhart Brothers & Spindler. The enterprise has had a phenomenal growth, and its business and reputation extend throughout the world. The present officers of Barnhart Brothers & Spindler are as follows : Arthur M. Barnhart, president; Alson E. Barnhart, vice president ; W. H. French, secretary, and M. W. Barnhart, treasurer. The house has branches in St. Paul, Seattle, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Washington (D. C.) and New York; also representatives in Nottingham (England), Manila (Philippines), India, China, Africa,
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