USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 19
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JOHN J. ruary, 1870, son of Joseph and Mary Stream. He
was educated in the public schools of the city, and
STREAM. while engaging in business affairs pursued a course at the Chicago College of Law, from which she graduated in 1892.
PUBLIC LUFFY
ASTOR, LENGX AN TILDEN, FOUNDATIONS
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leo, G. Philhick
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Mr. Stream's business career was begun as an office boy for Charles Counselman & Co., brokers and elevator men, and has ever since been identified with the Counselman interests, through all changes of part- nership and name. He is now the practical manager of their affairs, in this capacity being president of the South Chicago Elevator Com- pany and of the Chicago Grain and Elevator Company (operating elevators along the line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway in Iowa). In the wide prosecution of these interests he utilizes his membership in the Chicago Board of Trade, Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce and St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, and is a leading figure in the commerce of the west.
Mr. Stream's wife was formerly Martha Avery Clarke, to whom he was married in Rock Island, Illinois, and one child, Edna, has been born to their union. The family resides at No. 48 Groveland Park. Mr. Stream's political affiliations are with the Republican party, and he is a member of the Union League and Illinois Athletic clubs. In his religious faith he is an Episcopalian.
George Albert Philbrick, for many years intimately and prominent- ly identified with the public and industrial affairs of the town of
GEORGE A. Cicero, is of English origin, the family name being PHILBRICK. descended from De Philbrique, the Norman ancestor who fought at Hastings ( 1060). In both England and the United States the Philbricks have always been identified with the conservative, substantial middle class, which has proved the ulti- mate salvation of both great nations. The American founder of the family was Thomas Philbrick, a ship carpenter who in 1630 came from Lincolnshire and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. One branch of the family was afterward planted in New Hampshire, Simon, the father of our subject, being born in Ossipee, that state, in 1801. From Ossipee he removed to Corinna, Maine, where he passed the remainder of his life as a farmer, and a moral and deeply religious man. He was a prominent Free Will Baptist, his house being thrown open freely to the clergymen of that denomination. As he was amiable and lovable, as well as just, substantial and religious in the highest sense of the word, his death on June 19, 1876, was deeply and widely mourned. Three children were born to his marriage with Lovica Young, who survived him until 1888.
George A. Philbrick, son of the above mentioned couple, was
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born at Corinna, Maine, on the 28th of January, 1832. He obtained his education in the schools of Corinna and Foxcroft, teaching for sev- eral years in Maine, Delaware and Maryland before coming to Illinois to follow the same vocation in this state.
Mr. Philbrick came to Illinois in 1857, and for seven years taught in the state-one year in Adams county and six years as principal at Hamilton, Hancock county. In 1864 he became a bookkeeper for Gafford & Co., Iowa pork packers, and in 1865 located in Chicago. In 1868-9 he taught school in that portion of Cicero now included within the city, and during a portion of the time filled the office of town clerk. From that time until the present, or for a period of four decades, he has been one of Cicero's most influential citizens. His services as town clerk extended over four and a half years, and he has served either as treasurer of the school board, or treasurer of the school fund, since April, 1874. During this unusual term of service as school treasurer Mr. Philbrick has handled something like $8,000,- 000 of the public funds without a serious complaint as to prompt- ness, and none whatever as to honesty.
Says one account of Mr. Philbrick's services: "Investiture with office of public responsibility and trust is, however, but one of many ways in which his fellow-citizens have attested their faith in his keen intelligence, his sound business sense and his unquestionable integrity. Upon the organization of the Cicero Building and Loan Association in 1886, Mr. Philbrick was elected a director. For four years he was the company's treasurer, and was its secretary from 1891 to 1901, when he resigned. He is a man of rare mental endowment, his per- spicacity and memory being particularly remarkable. At the time of the great Chicago holocaust of 1871, he was invested with many finan- cial responsibilities of weighty and intricate character, and during the months which followed that disaster these qualities were exemplified in a notable degree. At that time he was town clerk and ex-officio secretary of the Board of Trustees of Cicero; secretary of the Chicago Asphalt Company, secretary of the treasurer of the Chicago & Joliet Gravel Company ; secretary, treasurer and supervisor of the town, and secretary of the Union Park Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Chicago. In all these capacities he was the principal keeper of accounts, and in the fateful blaze of October, 1871, more than $1,500.000 evidences of in- debtedness, in the form of books of original entry and negotiable or as-
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signable documents which had been under his care, were destroyed. Yet so accurate was his recollection that he was able to name both debtors and the amounts of their obligations, and, while there were necessarily many uncollectable accounts, in no case was the accuracy of his statement of the same, from memory, seriously or successfully disputed. This may fairly be called a triumph of mind over matter, and its parallel can scarcely be found in the commercial annals of any city in the world."
On October 25, 1855. Mr. Philbrick wedded Miss Mary Hinds Stevens, daughter of Nathaniel H. and Betsy (Hinds) Stevens, of Dover, Maine. Mary A. Philbrick, the child of this union, is now the wife of Oliver W. Marble, an architect of Sandusky, Ohio. Mrs. Philbrick passed away May 30, 1906. The deceased was a firm be- liever in Christian Science, and her husband retains his faith in its tenets. The wife and motlier was also an ardent worker in the temn- perance cause, and was one of the three women who prevented the introduction of the saloon in Austin. In 1855 Mr. Philbrick was ini- tiated as a Mason in- Penobscot Lodge, at Dexter, Maine. For ten years he was connected with Union Park Lodge of Chicago, and is at present a member of Cicero Chapter No. 180, R. A. M., and of Siloam Commandery. He was treasurer of Cicero Chapter from 1878 to 1903.
The financing of large enterprises has become a noteworthy specialty in metropolitan communities, and few stand higher in the
CLEMENT L. Chicago field than Clement Laverne Boon. By the
logic of education and experience he has attained
BOON. such standing, for he has not only enjoyed a train- ing in the law but in the detailed handling of investments and securi- ties. He is a native of Hamilton, Madison county, New York, being the son of William H. and Sarah C. (Staples) Boon. Clement L. graduated from the Hamilton public schools and later became princi- pal of Lowell's Commercial College, of that place. This position he held for two years, devoting all his spare time to the study of law under Hon. Neri Pine, of Binghamton. Later he entered the law office of Hon. Alexander Cummings, and in May, 1877, was admit- ted to the New York bar.
After engaging in general practice for some time Mr. Boon ac- cepted the position of private secretary and general agent for Hon.
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Sherman D. Phelps, of Binghamton, and thus became familiar with his large banking and other interests, acquiring at the same time valuable general information as to the judicious and successful con- duct of such affairs. After the death of Mr. Phelps he removed to the west and was engaged until 1893 in the handling of investments for large English and Scotch companies. In the year mentioned Mr. Boon came to Chicago and has since conducted a large business in the handling of municipal bonds and the capitalization of gas, electric light and traction companies. For several years he has been engaged almost exclusively in financing traction and steam railways and handling high-grade securities, the style of his house being C. L. Boon & Company.
Frederic William Upham has been long recognized as a Chicagoan not only of substantial and broad usefulness, but possessed of those
FREDERIC W. special talents founded on common sense which
UPHAM. the community can always rely upon for the fur-
therance of its best practical interests. Irrespective of politics or occupation, his ethical standard of life is high, while as a business man and an exponent of Republicanisin his personal char- acter has had a tendency to honor both fields of activities.
Mr. Upham was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on the 29th of Janu- ary, 1861, a son of Calvin H. and Amanda E. (Gibbs) Upham. The early educational advantages which he received in his native city were supplemented by attendance at Ripon (Wisconsin) College, and leaving that institution in 1880 he entered the employ of the Upham Manufacturing Company, of which his uncle, William H. Upham (governor of Wisconsin from 1895 to 1897) was president. His relations with that . corporation were continued until 1894, during which period he served in all capacities from lumber inspector to general manager. In the last named year he removed to Chicago and organized the Fred. W. Upham Lumber Company, of which he has since been the president. He is also senior member of the firm Upham and Agler, hardwood lumber merchants; vice-president of the Peabody Coal Company and the Pawnee Railroad Company, the Peabody Mining Company and the Southern Illinois Mining & Wash- ing Company.
As a Republican, Mr. Upham is an active, honorable and reliable worker in party and public affairs, and has served as its representative
Frederic W. Wshow
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PUPLIC LIRARY
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1
PUBLIC
LO BARY
ASTOR, IL N'YAND
Diban
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in many important positions, both in Wisconsin and Illinois. He was a delegate from the Eighth Wisconsin district to the National Repub- lican convention at Minneapolis in 1892, and served as alderman from the Thirty-second ward of Chicago in 1898. He resigned the latter office at the following November election, by which he became a member of the Cook County Board of Review. He entered upon the duties of that position on the Ist of January, 1899, and has con- tinued as its incumbent by subsequent elections to the present time. No property owner needs to be told that there are few positions which require greater patience, fairness and broad judgment than that which Mr. Upham has so creditably filled. His firm and high standing with the Republican party has been further verified by his recent selection as chairman of the local committee of the national managing body.
The family relations of Mr. Upham connect him with the Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and he belongs to the following clubs : Mid-Day, Union League, Chicago, Chicago Athletic, Hamilton, Lincoln, Marquette, Commercial, Germania, Press, Glen View and South Shore. Mr. Upham's wife was formerly Miss Helen Hall, to whom he was married at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His residence is at No. 100 Astor street.
In the reorganization of the Chicago Board of Education follow- ing the election of Mayor Busse in 1907, no appointment gave more general satisfaction than that of Daniel Ross Cam-
DANIEL R.
CAMERON. eron, who for twenty-two years had been closely and influentially identified with the public systems of education, both of the city and the county. As a man his mind had always been open to the consideration of proposed improvements in methods of teaching and general administration, and, as one of the staunch business men of the city who for nearly forty years had guided a rapidly expanding business through perils both usual and unusual, he had faithfully considered all educational questions from the standpoint of general utility. For the sake of being thought radical or original Mr. Cameron never pursued a course which might jeopardize the best interests of practical education for the masses of the children who depended upon the public systems of instruction; therefore because of his long and valuable experience and his thought-
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ful conservatism the public generally hailed his appointment as a wise municipal act.
As is demonstrated by his name, Mr. Cameron is of ancient Scotch ancestry. but was born in Summerstown, Ontario, Canada, on the 19th of August, 1836, his parents, who were also natives of the Dominion, being Daniel and Isabella (Ross) Cameron. Various members of his mother's family have also been conspicuous in the annals of Scotland, and both Camerons and Rosses number some of the great divines, scientists, educators and statesmen of America and Great Britain. In 1848 the parents removed with their family to Fort Covington, Franklin county, New York, where they spent the remainder of their long and honorable lives, the father dying at the age of eighty-four and the mother at seventy-three.
Owing to the better educational advantages which he could there obtain. Daniel R. Cameron was educated in the schools of Williams- town, Ontario, until he was sixteen years of age, evincing in his youth those qualities which distinguish his nationality and his character as a man-marked mental power, indomitable perseverance and a faculty of inspiring in others the confidence of success which he always felt himself. At the age of sixteen he returned to Fort Covington and there taught school for a year; then became a clerk in the store of W. L. Streeter, and after Mr. Streeter's retirement from business, he entered the employ of Manning & Tuthill, of that place. After being connected with this firm for five years he resigned his position and formed a partnership with James Cameron, his brother. and under the style of James and D. R. Cameron a business in general merchandise was profitably conducted from 1857 to 1860, when the latter formed similar relations with Mr. Ware. In 1863 D. R. Cam- eron closed his business at Fort Covington and came to Chicago.
Mr. Cameron's first business connection in Chicago, formed soon after his arrival, was for a short time with the Chicago & North- Western Railway and then with Culver, Page and Hoyne, the sta- tioners, and he remained with them as a salesman until 1870. His experience with this house covered the uncertain periods both of the later years of the Civil war and Reconstruction, when the fluctuations of values and the alternate depressions and "booms" tested the in- genuity and endurance of the best business men of the country. The training was invaluable, and in 1870 he determined to test his own
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capabilities in an independent venture by forming partnership in the same line with William A. Amberg, who, for several years, had been a bookkeeper for Culver, Page and Hoyne. At No. III Madison street they established the firm of Cameron, Amberg & Company, and in October of the following year their stock of stationery, tools, type, implements and machines were all swept away by the great fire. But after three days they resumed business at Nos. 12 and 14 West Ran- dolph street, where they remained two years and became well estab- lished. In 1873 the establishment was again removed to 84 Lake street, and in 1878 their growing business was again interrupted by fire.
Cameron, Amberg & Company then re-established themselves at Nos. 71-3 Lake street, where they have since remained, increasing their manufacturing facilities with the growing demands, improving their machinery, keeping pace with the various new conveniences in- troduced to the business world in the lines of record books and furnishings, and in every way meeting and, in many respects, over- taking their keenest competitors. The building is 40 by 170 feet in dimensions and five stories high, and is wholly occupied by the various departments of the concern, the trade of the house being both retail and wholesale.
For the average man the founding and development of a sta- tionery, printing and book-manufacturing business, which has reached a commanding position in those lines, would be considered a suffi- cient achievement for the employment of all his energies of mind and body. But Mr. Cameron is not an average man, and during his residence in Chicago has never failed to reserve a portion of his strength and means for the furtherance of elevating public move- ments. He was long interested in the cause of public education, and proved its useful friend in many ways before receiving official recog- nition from the county and city authorities. He was for six years a member of the Cook County Board of Education, and his longer service on the city board commenced in 1890, under appointment by Mayor Cregier. Since then he has served almost continuously on the Chicago Board of Education, having been twice its president, chair- man of the high school for many years, vice-president, chairman of school management, and a member of every committee of importance within the organization. Is it any wonder that there is no man on
Vol. III-13.
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the board whose services and judgment are considered of higher value to the progress of higher education than those of Daniel R. Cameron ?
Mr. Cameron is a staunch Democrat and takes a constant interest in the political issues of the times. He was a charter member of the Iroquois Club, although not now identified with the organization. At the present time he has membership in the Chicago Athletic Asso- ciation and the St. Andrew's Society, of the latter having twice served as president. He stands very high in the social circles and associa- tions of the Scottish elements of the city, and, as must be inferred from the above brief review of his work, is one of Chicago's most prominent business men and useful public characters. Besides his city residence, he has a beautiful home in Altadena, California, where he spends his winters.
Charles Ambrose Plamondon is one of those citizens of the younger generation who has always been proud to give his best talents and
CHARLES A. most faithful service to the upbuilding of his
PLAMONDON. adopted city, and as Chicago is one of the great cities typical of modern progress his broad and use- ful work therein stamps him as a representative American. Neither has he been cramped as a money maker and simple business man, but has given his strength and clear thoughts to the higher cause of public education and enlightenment.
Mr. Plamondon is a native of Ottawa, Illinois, born on the 14th of September, 1856, his parents being Ambrose and Cecelia (Higgins) Plamondon. At the age of sixteen, after he had passed through the public and high schools of Chicago, he entered the employ of his father, who was a leading business man of the city and founder of the A. Plamondon Manufacturing Company, established in 1859 and large manufacturers of machinery. Ambrose Plamondon was so closely concerned with the founding of Chicago's infant industrial life that a sketch of him follows this.
When the elder Plamondon died, February 19, 1896, Charles A. Plamondon was chosen head of the A. Plamondon Manufacturing Company, and has continued to be its president, his brother George having served as vice-president. Charles A. is also vice-president of the Saladin Pneumatic Malting Construction Company, and is a director of the Fort Dearborn National Bank. His father was one
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of the incorporators of the latter institution, serving on its directorate until his death, when he was succeeded by the son. For a year Charles A. Plamondon also acted as president of the Illinois Manu- facturers' Association, of which he has long been a director, and, besides his identification with the public library and the school board, has been honored with prominence as a representative Chicagoan upon several noteworthy occasions. In May, 1900, following the sinking of the Spanish fleet in Manila bay, he was made chairman of the Dewey reception committee, and in 1903 served as chairman of the Chicago Centennial committee, which so fittingly observed the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the first white men on the site of the city.
Mr. Plamondon commenced his four years' service as a member of the Chicago Public Library Board in 1899, and was president in 1901 and 1902, being re-appointed in 1902 and serving until Decem- ber of that year. His work in this capacity was of the utmost prac- tical value. Resigning from the library management, he at once became identified with the working members of the Chicago Board of Education. He served as chairman of the Finance committee, was a member of various other important committees, was vice president of the board for one year and many times mentioned for the presidency. In all the perplexing problems of mingled education and finance which have come before that body he has evinced an enthusiasm in their right adjustment and a broad grasp of situations which have always earned attention and leadership.
In May, 1879, Mr. Plamondon married Miss Mary L. Mackin, daughter of James Mackin, of Leland, Illinois, one of the honored pioneers of Illinois. The five children of this union are Marie, Char- lotte, Blanche, Charles Ambrose, Jr., and Harold. Mr. Plamondon is a Republican in politics, and identified with the Union League, South Shore Country and Chicago Automobile clubs, and the Chicago Athletic Association.
Ambrose Plamondon, the father of Charles A., was one of the most prominent characters associated with the formative period of AMBROSE Chicago's business and industrial activities ; and it
PLAMONDON. is to the everlasting credit of such pioneers that they were faithful to the rugged work of laying the foun- dations of its industrial development and its commercial greatness, to
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the utmost limit of their strength and capabilities. In stanch material prosperity, they thereby formed a firm basis for the expansion of the higher life, as illustrated in the development of educational, charitable and benevolent institutions, whose wide and continued usefulness rests, after all, on the solid foundation of money. The thoughtful reader of local history cannot but observe that the later-day contributions to this higher municipal life-contributions both of means and sterling personality-have come largely from the descendants of the early business men of Chicago. So that in more ways than one their work will be pronounced good by generations of the present and future.
Ambrose Plamondon, who was of this type and class, was born in Quebec, Canada, in the year 1833, and after there receiving a liberal education settled at Oswego, New York, where he learned the mill- wright's trade and, in 1853, married Miss Cecelia Higgins. Three years later he came west and superintended the erection of the Ottawa (Illinois) Starch Works, subsequently building several flour mills in the western states. In 1859, at the age of twenty-six, he formed a partnership with a Mr. Palmer, as Palmer and Plamondon, mill- wrights. the business being established in a small building on West Water street, Chicago, and the joint capital of the firm was one thou- sand dollars, experience, ability and determination. The combination won. At first their millwright work was largely among the distilleries and grain elevators, but with time. incessant effort and the natural expansion of a rapidly growing city, the business extended to the manufacture of pulleys, gearing and shafting. In 1864 the firm moved into quarters now included in the site of the Plamondon Company's great plant, Mr. Palmer severing his connection with the business four years later. The style was then ( 1868) changed to A. Plamondon & Co., and retained until 1877, when the A. Plamondon Manufactur- ing Company was incorporated, with A. Plamondon as president. Charles A. Plamondon as vice president, and George Plamondon as secretary and treasurer. As stated, at the death of his father in 1896, Charles A. became president and his brother, George. vice president.
During the later years of his life, Mr. Plamondon permitted the active duties of the management to be assumed by his sons, under whose management the works have been vastly extended and the spe- cialty of power-transmitting machinery developed into a strong feature
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of the business. The elder Plamondon also became widely known as the organizer and president of the Saladin Pneumatic Malting Con- struction Company, which developed an extensive business in the erec- tion of malt houses under a new system, for which the company took its name. As president of the Chicago Pneumatic Malting Company he himself engaged in the malting industry, in which his younger son, Alfred D., was actively associated with him.
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