USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 2
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But the crowning work of Mr. Peck's life was to be undertaken and accomplished, as an outgrowth of his artistic and cultured tem- perament, although it involved business and managerial abilities of the highest order, and a genius for inspiring that enthusiasm in oth- ers which leads to practical results. From a youth he had been a deep lover of music, and after that epoch in which the energies of the people of Chicago had to be devoted mainly to the establishment of homes and business enterprises, there came a time when attention could be turned to the development of the higher nature. Naturally, Mr. Peck gave a liberal support to all measures for the cultivation of a love of music, and in April, 1885, an opera festival was cele- brated in Chicago, largely through his efforts. This event, then un- equaled in magnitude, clearly demonstrated the need of a large music hall where entertainments of this order could be properly presented. The idea was by no means new to Mr. Peck, but the time now seemed opportune to present it to the public and to the public-spirited citi- zens able to assist him in realizing his ambition.
In the spring of 1886 Mr. Peck delivered a comprehensive ad- dress before the Commercial Club of Chicago, laying before that influential body his project for a grand auditorium, to provide a commodious hall wherein high-class musical entertainments could be given and to furnish every convenience for patrons by the estab- lishment of a hotel in connection. These observations had the effect of stimulating those already interested to the carrying out of the en- terprise. Through the efforts of Mr. Peck a site of one and a half acres was secured between Michigan boulevard and Wabash avenue and the building of the grand structure commenced. It was his plan that the undertaking should not be an affair of the few but of the many, and he desired that the stockholders should represent as many classes as possible. One of the features added to the original plan is the recital hall. capable of seating five hundred persons and de- signed for lectures and musical performances. The question of profit
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was made a secondary one, the main object being the promotion of music. At length the gigantic undertaking was accomplished, and the largest auditorium in America was open to the public. The organ contained therein is one of the grandest musical instruments in the world and cost $55.000. The stage alone cost $200,000, and the entire cost of the building alone was $3,500,000. The formal dedi- cation of the Auditorium was one of the greatest events in the his- tory of Chicago, and occurred in the presence of the president and vice president of the nation, the governors of many states, govern- ment officials of Canada, and official representatives of the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago. On the organization of the Chicago Auditorium Association, Mr. Peck, as a matter of course, was elected president. In the main foyer of the Auditorium hall is a bronze bust of the founder, and on its granite pedestal this inscription: "A trib- ute to the founder of this structure from the stockholders of the Chi- cago Auditorium Association, in recognition of his eminent services as their president ; in behalf of the citizens of Chicago, 1889."
The world now knows what a large part the Auditorium has played in the culture of music. It has been the gathering place of extraordinary national gatherings, and the scene of many brilliant social functions, one of the most noted of the latter class being the grand international ball following the inaugural ceremonies of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1892. As Mr. Peck was the founder of the remarkable enterprise, so for many years he should- ered the main responsibilities of its extraordinary development.
Mr. Peck was also one of the leaders in the establishment of the World's Fair at Chicago, being the first vice president, chairman of the finance committee, and a member of the board of reference and control. His services in the conduct of that notable event were of such value that President Mckinley appointed him United States commissioner general to the Paris exposition of 1900. His appoint- ment dated from July, 1898, and his term of service covered three years, during which period he expended about a million and a half dollars of the government appropriation, and turned back into the treasury a considerable sum on his return to the United States. His administration of the office reflected such honor upon himself and the nation which he represented that France bestowed upon him the highest gift which it is capable of granting to a foreigner. the decora-
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tion of Grand Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor. In this connection, it may be added that Mr. Peck has received testimonials from various other nations, including a gold medal from the Em- peror of Germany, given in recognition of his services as their rep- resentative in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition : so that there are few American citizens who have a wider reputation abroad for broad utility and typical American diplomacy than Mr. Peck.
Mr. Peck's humane tendencies and broad-minded patriotism have been evinced in many ways, but in no more striking manner than a monument in Chicago commemorative of the dead soldiers of the Confederacy. It was the first memorial of the kind erected in the north, and was unveiled on Decoration Day, in the presence of an immense gathering of citizens and soldiery, including Confederate generals and famous military characters of the north, the ceremonies being under the auspices of the First Regiment, Illinois National Guard, and the scene of the notable event Oakwood Cemetery. The military representative of the south invited representative citizens of Chicago, accompanied by the First Regiment, to visit the principal cities of the southern states. This fraternal invitation was heartily accepted and the plan fully carried out under the auspices of the Southern States Association, of which Mr. Peck was the organizer and president.
In 1870 Mr. Peck assisted in founding the Illinois Humane So- ciety ; was president of the Chicago Athenaeum; has served under two municipal administrations as a member of the Chicago board of education, of which he was vice president for five years, and was for many years a trustee of both the old and new University of Chi- cago. He was one of the founders of the Union League Club in 1880, and was its president in 1893. He is also identified with the Chicago, the Chicago Athletic and other clubs. He was also one of the charter members of the Calumet Club and served as its president for two terms, in 1906 and 1907.
Mr. Peck is a man of simple tastes and fond of his home and family. In 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Tilla Spald- ing, daughter of W. A. Spalding, of Chicago, and they have a fam- ily of four sons and two daughters. His city residence is on Michi- gan boulevard, and he has a beautiful villa at Oconomowoc. Wiscon-
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sin. in which locality he indulges his fondness for boating and fish- ing. Notwithstanding his wealth and thorough culture. Mr. Peck has always been outspoken in his defense of the rights of working- men, and he heartily despises all forms of snobbish aristocracy.
As the last surviving member of the group of remarkable men who made the packing industry the largest single interest of Chicago, and NELSON made Chicago the world center of the business, the life of the late Nelson Morris contains a record of
MORRIS. the growth of the business from its infancy to its present mammoth proportions. Before taking up the fascinating narra- tive of the late packer's career. it will be well to state some facts that show the pioneer condition of the industry when Nelson Morris came to Chicago. In pork packing Cincinnati had long held the title of "Porkopolis." and in 1854-55 five times as many hogs were packed in that city as in Chicago. But within ten years the latter city had risen so rapidly that it packed more than twice the number of logs packed at Cincinnati. Similar gains marked the history of beef packing, the number of cattle packed rising from about three thousand in 1848 to fifty thousand in 1859. So, in describing the career of Nelson Morris from the early fifties to the present, it necessarily illustrates the growth of the packing industry throughout the same period.
The foundation of the widespread industries of the late Nelson Morris was laid by his ancestors in the Black Forest of Germany. For generations that was the cattle district of the Fatherland, and there by the early forties the Morris family had become wealthy breeders of live stock. Being a man of democratic and independent character, the elder Morris ignored all property considerations and joined the revolutionary movement against Germany, becoming one of the most earnest supporters of the movement to unite the Black Forest district to the Republic of Switzerland. His political atti- tude made him a pauper and an exile, and eventually was the means of scattering the different members of his family abroad.
Nelson Morris was born in the Black Forest, January 21, 1838. and, due to the misfortunes just recorded, set out for America when twelve years old, one of his companions in the migration being the late Carl Schurz. then famous for his part in the revolution of 1848. Landing in Philadelphia, penniless and virtually friendless, the boy walked all the way to New York and got employment at five dollars
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a month and board to haul charcoal in Lakeville, Connecticut. With the west as his goal. he worked his passage up the Erie canal on a canal boat, remaining in Buffalo some time, and finally, in 1854, in- vested all he had in a railroad ticket to the west and. because he lacked enough to pay the entire passage, walked from Michigan City into Chicago. At that time several stock yards had just been located on the south side near the railroad lines just completed into the city. one of them by John B. Sherman. who had established the Myrick Yards on Cottage Grove avenue, the capacity of these yards being considered something wonderful at the time. In these yards Nelson Morris was employed for the first two years of his Chicago residence. his monthly salary (with board) ranging from five dollars at first to forty dollars in the second year. All that he could save he sent across the ocean to his relatives or laid away for the purchasing of the old family homestead and restoring it to his father. In the mean- time he had begun to buy hogs himself, and did so much better than as a salaried employe that a year later he ventured to purchase cat- tle. This was the beginning of his career as one of the great packers of the world-a beginning which was not aglow with bright colors. In after years he was not averse to telling how he used to kill and dress his own cattle and sleep on the slaughter house floor at night in order to be on hand early in the morning with his beef and pork. The meat business, especially in the early years. had strongly specu- lative features owing to the wide irregularity between supply and demand. and young Morris had his reverses with the rest. At the age of eighteen he was swindled out of the purchase money for a lot of hogs which were contracted for by a smooth New York man. When nineteen he borrowed money with which to make the pur- chase of his first carload of hogs.
Mr. Morris' regular business as a butcher was founded in 1858. his shop being at the corner of Thirty-first street and the lake shore. This was ten years before the establishment of Armour & Co. In 1862 he founded a packing house on a comparatively small scale and during the latter part of the war supplied the Army of the West with beef. In later life he filled contracts for the governments of France, Great Britain, Germany and Japan. He was the pioneer exporter of live cattle to Europe.
In 1866 Mr. Morris commenced business in a building on a por-
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tien of the site now occupied by Morris & Co. at the Union Stock Yards. During the twenty years that elapsed since his arrival in Chicago. his enterprise had expanded into great proportions, but still relied upon fresh meat as its main source of income. As yet only a commencement had been made of the utilization of by-prod- urts, which, through the ingenuity, energy and ability of Nelson Norris more than any other one man, has revolutionized the entire industry. On June 17, 1877, a portion of the present building was opened to replace the original structure destroyed by fire, and two weeks later the Fairbank Canning Company, now, as then, an in- tegral part of the firm, turned out its first "Lion" can. Since that time not only have repeated additions been made to the business, so as to make the term "waste products," as applied to live stock, almost a thing of the past, but packing houses have been erected at East St. Louis, St. Joseph and Kansas City, the combined area of the plants exceeding 150 acres. The East St. Louis plant was built in June, 1889, that at St. Joseph in 1898, and that at Kansas City in 1905.
Nelson Morris' business being the oldest of its line in Chicago, a brief description of its growth, therefore, will represent the prog- ress of the packing industry in the United States. When the first part of the present packing house was opened in 1877 it was divided into four departments-the fresh meat, hides, oleo and canning de- partments. The Chicago plant has now about seventy departments, which include the preparation of all meat food products, from fresh meats to plum pudding, and the manufacture of butterine, glue, tin cans, electric light, and fertilizers, with the transformation of green feathers and hides into merchantable goods, and the storage and sale of eggs and poultry. Connected with most of the departments are complete systems of refrigeration, which are extended to the Morris system of cars organized to transport the products of the different plants throughout the country. The Chicago plant also embraces a hospital, fire brigade, barber shop, printing shop, lithographing es- tablisliment, laundry and architect's office. This, in brief, is a de- scription of the immense business which developed from the little butcher shop on the lake shore through the powerful instrumentality of the Black Forest German, who died at his home on Indiana ave- nue, August 27, 1907.
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One point of Mr. Morris' career deserves notice, namely, that he was always a live stock raiser first and packer second. For years his Polled Angus cattle have been a feature of the markets and live stock exhibits, and his cattle ranches in Texas and Nebraska em- braced, altogether, a princely domain of nearly three hundred and fifty thousand acres. In Texas Nelson Morris will always have a place in the history of the cattle industry, for he was one of the pio- neers in developing high-grade beef cattle to take the place of the old Texas long horns that were a picturesque, but not very valuable product of the ranges for many years. His example and the assist- ance he gave other breeders in introducing pedigreed stock will not soon be forgotten in Texas. Thousands of ranchers knew him per- sonally and with them "Nels Morris" was the familiar but affection- ate title by which they addressed him. The closeness of their rela- tions to the great packer found unique tribute in the fact that several hundred ranchers traveled from distant homes to Chicago in order to attend the funeral of the dead packer chief.
The press of Chicago recognized in Mr. Morris one of the most powerful builders of its commercial greatness, the following being one of the many just eulogies published at the time of his death :
"Because Nelson Morris was the last of the group of men who led in making the meat-packing industry the greatest business inter- est of Chicago, and not only national but international in its scope, his death is an event of civic interest. He was one of Chicago's great builders of wealth and commercial and financial power, standing in the packing industry on a level with Philip D. Armour and Gustavus F. Swift, both of whom he outlived. He was a leader in the work that made Chicago the nation's industrial and commercial metropolis.
"But Nelson Morris' career is even of greater interest because it illustrates so clearly what the American opportunity was and is- what it is that has made this nation the greatest success for the aver- age man ever recorded in history-what is the opportunity that Amer- ican ideals and institutions open to him who has the wit and will to profit by them. Nelson Morris took the poor boy's chance-the chance that America offers to all-and out of it won the success he sought. And that chance is just as large, just as wide open today as it ever was. The conditions of success, the requirements from the seeker, the steps by which he may rise, may not be exactly what they
Vol. III-2.
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were fifty years ago. But the opportunity is just as great, and even greater. The youth who fails in America to attain at least material ease must seek the cause in himself and not in this country or its in- stitutions."
The wealth of the deceased is estimated at about $20,000,000, and besides holding the presidency of the Morris packing interests and the Fairbank Canning Company, he was a director of the First National Bank of Chicago, the First Trust and Savings Bank, the National Live Stock Bank, the Stock Yards Savings Bank and the Union Rendering Company. He was also heavily interested in the National Packing Company and Rothschild & Co. He was one of the original directors of the Chicago City Railway, clung to its sup- port during the uncertain periods of its corporate life, but afterward resigned from the directory although he remained a considerable stockholder.
In 1863 Mr. Morris was married in Chcago to Miss Sarah Vogel, their children being: Edward, Ira N., Gusta ( Mrs. M. L. Roth- schild) and Maud (Mrs. Henry C. Schwab). Nelson Morris' salient characteristic was love for his family, and he was little given to so- ciety life, although in his business relations he was direct and ap- proachable. Fraternally, he was a charter and life member of the Chicago Lodge A. F. & A. M., and was identified with the Standard and Saddle and Sirloin clubs. Although Mr. Morris was one of the great business men and industrial developers of the country, he was generous in many unostentatious ways-in fact, an old-time friend of the packer once contended with energy that Mr. Morris gave away more money and said less about it than any other man in the country.
If there was anyone in the world who envied John V. Farwell for the success which he fairly earned, that person has not yet ap- JOHN V. FARWELL, SR, peared. Although his energy, industry, his keen insight and his clear outlook, might logically and justly have earned him a high position in the busi- ness world, envy and even detraction would surely have been his lot had his success in material things not been mellowed by humanity and generosity and been sanctified by the necessary support which his wealth gave to the moral and religious institutions which claimed so large a share of his life. Reared amid modest circumstances, he rose from obscurity to a position in which he was for years in the bright
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light of a broad public approbation, he never became hardened by the egotism which sometimes cankers the souls of self-made men. With the coming of wealth he did not allow self-indulgence to sap his higher instincts, and throughout life held to the practice of his early youth-of laying aside a portion of his earnings for the maintenance of worthy charities and the church of his faith.
Mr. Farwell was worthy of the ancient and historic family of which he was a representative. His genealogy is traced unbrokenly to Richard Farwell of Yorkshire, England, who, in 1280 (during the reign of Edward I. ), married the heiress of Elias de Rillertone. Henry Farwell came to Massachusetts early in the seventeenth cen- tury, and as one of the first settlers of Concord became the founder of the family in America. The annals of the Colonies show that the Farwells were associated with the advanced matters of their day in every particular ; and that they constituted a hardy and thrifty family, spreading over large sections of the eastern states. John Villiers Farwell (known in life as John V. Farwell, Sr.) was of the seventh generation from the American progenitor of the family, and was born at Campbelltown, Steuben county, New York, on the 29th of July, 1825. He was the third son of Henry and Nancy (Jackson) Farwell, who had removed from Massachusetts in 1820.
Mr. Farwell's early boyhood was passed on his father's New York farm, and when he was thirteen years of age the family re- moved to Ogle county, Illinois. A thorough district school education in the two states was supplemented in 1841 by a course of study at the Mount Morris Seminary, and, in accord with the bent of his mind and his probable future, he paid special attention to mathe- matics, bookkeeping and kindred branches. In the spring of 1845, then in his twentieth year, he decided to test his capabilities in the business field of Chicago. Three dollars which his father gave him (the limit of his surplus) was spent in getting to the big city, although he paid a portion of his expenses by working as one of the hands on a lake vessel laden with wheat. With an empty pocket but a well stocked brain, the young man soon obtained employment in the city clerk's office at twelve dollars a month, with the privilege of reporting the proceedings of the common council at two dollars per meeting. Then, as always, when set to a task he knew nothing but honest work, and when reporting the doings of the city fathers,
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set down their words literally, whether they were elegant or other- wise. His accuracy and minuteness lost him his position, and he soon after divorced himself from public service, virtually for life. For one year he was bookkeeper and salesman for Hamilton & White. dry goods merchants, at a salary of eight dollars per month, and he next entered the employ of Hamlin & Day, in the same line, at an increase of $250 per year. His peculiar aptitude for the busi- ness attracted the attention of . Wadsworth & Phelps, an even more important firm. who engaged him at a salary of $600-liberal com- pensation for a young man of his age and day. In 1850 he became a partner in the firmn, which had assumed the style of Cooley, Wads- worth & Co., and remained unchanged with the incoming of Mr. Farwell.
The establishment of John V. Farwell. Sr .. as an independent dry goods merchant of Chicago and the country. dates from this time (1850). and the house in which he thus assumed a modest proprietary interest was then doing a trade of about $100,000 an- nually. In 1858 the firm's place of business was removed to 42-46 Wabash avenue. The first change in the composition of the original ' firm came in 1862. when Elisha S. Wadsworth retired, and the style was changed to Cooley. Farwell & Co .. with Francis B. Cooley. John V. Farwell and Marshall Field as partners. Mr. Cooley retired in 1864, and Levi Z. Leiter and S. N. Kellogg entered the partner- ship. the firm becoming Farwell. Field & Co. Soon Messrs. Field and Leiter withdrew and became partners of Potter Palmer in the firm of Field, Leiter & Palmer, and in 1866 the membership of the Farwell house was increased by the addition of W. D. and Charles B. Farwell and J. K. Harmon. It was then that the house adopted the familiar name of John V. Farwell & Co. On January 1, 1891, the business was incorporated as the John V. Farwell Company, of which the senior partner remained the controlling. although not active. force until his death at his home in Lake Forest. on the 20th of August. 1908. The deceased had celebrated his eighty-third birth- day on the 29th of the preceding month.
In 1869 the Farwell house removed its place of business to 114 Wabash avenue, a short distance south of its former location, was burned out at this location in 1870 and was rebuilding when the great fire of the following year swept away the uncompleted struc-
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ture. Instead of rebuilding in what was then the wholesale district of Chicago, J. V. Farwell & Co. selected a site in Monroe street. between Franklin and Market streets, remaining there until 1882. when a removal was made to the present location at Market and Monroe streets. This innovation drew the attention of other houses to the unwise business policy of occupying expensive locations and valuable real estate for wholesale purposes. The result was the es- tablishment of the great and distinctive wholesale district of Chicago.
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