USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 32
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in the common council ; in June, 1891, was appointed member of the library board; in 1894 a member of the board of education, and on May 28, 1907, was reappointed a member of the board of education, his term expiring in 1908. When Mr. Gunderson was on the board of education in 1894, he became deeply concerned in the welfare of truant children. He, therefore, introduced a resolution, which was adopted, asking that the legislature enact a law that should provide a parental school to the children of the city, by which truants could be taken from evil associates on the street and kept under proper con- trol. Several years afterward the law was enacted by which was founded the Parental School of Chicago.
Mr. Gunderson also became much interested in the Reformatory School at Pontiac, Illinois, to which children of fourteen and over were sent by the city magistrates, when convicted of misdemeanor. Discovering that the only work provided for the juvenile inmates was the making of brick and shoes, he introduced into the board a resolution asking that the legislature enact a law providing for a regular system of manual training therein. Within three months such a law was passed, and before his death Mr. Gunderson had the satisfaction of knowing that only twenty-five per cent of the former inmates returned to the school (instead of seventy-five per cent, as before), the remainder having become thoroughly grounded in some useful trade and been transformed into a useful and moral member of the community.
In 1863 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Gunderson and Miss Emily C. Olson. Two sons and a daughter were born to their union. George O., the elder, was not only associated with the deceased in his real estate and maufacturing enterprises, but is the founder of large interests himself. He was married June 15, 1887, to Miss Julia A., daughter of O. B. Jacobs, a well-known lumber dealer. Seward M. Gunderson. the second son, has been most actively con- nected with real estate and building operations as a member of the firm of S. T. Gunderson & Sons. He was married October 10, 1894, to Abigail C., daughter of Murdoch Campbell. The daughter, Ida Mabel Gunderson, is a higlily educated and accomplished young lady, being a graduate of the Misses Grant Seminary and the Chicago Mu- sical College (from which she received a teacher's diploma). Be-
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sides being a brilliant musician, she possesses considerable artistic talent as a painter in oils and water colors, and is accomplished along other lines. In 1896 she was married to Chas. A. Danz, a commis- sion merchant.
During the later years of his life Mr. Gunderson traveled exten- sively, both in his adopted country and abroad, thereby collecting useful and interesting information and imbibing those liberal ideas that come with contact with the world. Several times he journeyed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes to the gulf, and thence to Mexico. In 1888 and 1902 he went to Europe, visiting England, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and France, study- ing the people and visiting points of beauty and historic interest. In May, 1902, when he and his wife took their last trip through Eu- rope, he was very anxious to see the midnight sun at its highest, and he arrived at the summit of North Cape on the 26th of June, of that year. He returned along the northwestern coast of Norway, through all the fjords, and traveled overland from Ode to Christiania, thence to Stockholm, and returned from Stockholm on the Gota canal, to Gotenberg. In 1900 Mr. Gunderson went to Cuba, and in January, 1905, he took a Mediterranean trip. Leaving New York on Febru- ary 2, 1905, he visited the following places: Funchal, Smyrna, Vil- lefranch, Queenstown, Cadiz, Caifa. Gibraltar. Jaffa, Algiers, Alex- andria, Valetta, Naples, Athens, Rome, Pompeii, Jerusalem, Nice and Monte Carlo. He returned, via Liverpool. In February, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Gunderson visited old Mexico and the Pacific coast.
In his fraternal relations, Mr. Gunderson was best known as a Mason of long and honorable standing. In 1868 he was initiated into the order as a member of Kilwinning Lodge No. 3,III, A. F. & A. M .; Chicago Commandery No. 19, K. T .; Oriental Consistory, and Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He was also one of the founders of the Masonic Orphans' Home, and served as its trustee for three years. As to social organizations, he is identified with the Menoken. Lincoln and Skandinavian Literary clubs. The de- ceased was a life-long member of the Lutheran church, and, despite the extent of his business and public duties, he found time to devote to the cause of Christianity and its upbuilding. He was not only a reformer in the cause of public morality, but he was charitable and
PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Quanto Taffy
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benevolent toward the young and dependent. Although he supported many public charities with his means and counsel, he perhaps gave more in a quiet and unostentatious manner, seeking never the praise of men.
Oren B. Taft is a native of New York, having been born at Me- dina, on the 19th of June, 1846, son of Joel F. and Jane E. (Britt)
OREN B. Taft. When but ten years old, his father having
died the year previous, he removed with his mother
TAFT. and only sister to Illinois, to a place which after- ward became the town of Paxton, to accept the offer of a home with an uncle.
He had virtually no educational advantages, having attended dis- trict school for a few terms only in a desultory way by reason of fre- quent changes in location, which, with the advantage of three terms (1861 and 1862) at the old Chicago University, was the extent of his educational training, except that which was self-obtained.
In later years the development of a student's characteristics and the satisfaction he found in intellectual pursuits led him at times to doubt whether commercial affairs should ever have occupied his chief interest. He has given much of his spare time to the consideration of certain fundamental problems which are as yet unanswered in science and philosophy and has written more or less upon these sub- jects. Circumstances, however, led toward business and when Mr. Taft had reached the age of seventeen, his practical knowledge was so precise that he was appointed to take charge of the office of clerk of the circuit court of Ford county, and retained the position from 1863 to 1868. It was in the days when lawyers "rode the circuit." the boy at that time making the acquaintance of such men as David Davis, afterward chief justice under Lincoln; Joseph G. Cannon, afterward speaker of the house; Ward Lamon, Voorhees and others.
In the meantime, during and following the Civil war, he was, though young, identified as one of the leaders in the settlement and development of central Illinois from what was a vast, unsettled prai- rie. One room in his own home, in the crude beginning, served as postoffice, railroad station, lumber office and real estate office, while these were awaiting better quarters.
During this period his own savings had been invested in real es- tate, which netted him a few thousand dollars. His experience in
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this development period of what was known as the grand prairie, or central Illinois, led him to consider the possibilities and future of the whole Mississippi valley, and with something of its future in mind. in 1869 he located in Chicago and became connected with the business with which he ever since has been identified. In this year he was associated with D. K. Pearsons and in 1876 became a mem- ber of the firm of D. K. Pearsons & Co. In 1880 Mr. Pearsons re- tired from the firm and all active business, and since that year it has been conducted by Mr. Taft in association with H. A. Pearsons.
The original house was established in 1865, with Illinois for its field of operation; since that it has been extended to include the whole Mississippi valley from Canada and the Red River of the North, to and including the black lands of Texas. It is generally con- ceded that no other house in its own line has for so many years con- tinuously been so large and important a factor in supplying funds for the settlement and development of lands in the middle west as this one, under the direction of Mr. Taft and his associates in busi- ness. He is among the Chicago leaders and is recognized as one of the best judges in the west of agricultural properties. He has never been aggressive in the accumulation of money. yet has been favored with his fair share, but has felt the desirability, in a period of such tremendous commercial strides, of a conservatism and the stricter methods of business which give to a country stability in its growth. With this in view, Mr. Taft has spent considerable time in Europe at different periods, acquainting himself with the methods of old- established financial institutions which have the special feature of being closely supervised by their own governments in their custody of the funds placed with them for investment. Mr. Taft's purpose has been that of giving to this country in its earlier stages the advan- tages of this experience of these foreign methods of safety. With no similar laws in the United States whereby to act. the nearest ap- proach being that of those states permitting state banks to lend upon real estate, Mr. Taft organized and is president of the Pearsons-Taft Land Credit Company, the first and only bank as yet in the United States organized for the exclusive purpose of applying and enforcing the principle prevailing in Europe, which requires complete publicity and places under state audit and examination the investment of mnon-
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eys upon what are, in Europe, known as "land credits" and in this country as farm mortgages.
Like much of the rest of Mr. Taft's business life, this, as pioneer work, is quite as much intended for the advancement of proper meth- ods in the important matter of investing moneys as for any pecuniary personal gain which could be gotten from it in the immediate present. It is largely a work of education in establishing sound financial meth- ods where very loose ones otherwise prevail in what is one of the largest and most important moneyed features in this country.
In politics Mr. Taft is a Republican, evincing a lively and prac- tical interest in all measures designed to advance the material and civic welfare of the city. He not only believed he did not have the requisites, but had no inclination toward political preferment. He is a member of the Municipal Voters' and Legislative Voters' leagues, and is also identified with the Union League, Midlothian and City clubs. He is associated with the work of the Plymouth Congrega- tional church and resides with his family in Chicago in the winter. and has his summer home at Midlothian, Illinois. His wife, to whom he was married at Paxton, Illinois, June 20, 1867. was formerly Miss Frances E. Schlosser. Their three children are Oren E., Ina M. and Harry Lee.
Oren Edwin Taft, vice president of the Pearsons-Taft Land Credit Company, was born at Paxton, Ford county, Illinois, October
OREN E. 28, 1868, and is a son of Oren B. and Frances
(Schlosser ) Taft. Mr. Taft received his educa-
TAFT. tion at the Douglas School, Manual Training School and the Harvard School, all of Chicago, and at Yale University, from which latter institution he received the degree of Ph. B. in 1889.
In 1891 Mr. Taft was chosen secretary of the Pearsons-Taft Land Credit Company, of which his father is president, and later was advanced to the vice presidency. This firm conducts an invest- ment banking business, all of its loans being based upon farm mort- gage security. Mr. Taft belongs to the University, Bankers' and Midlothian clubs, and is a progressive figure both in business and social circles. On April 25, 1894. in New York City, he was married to Miss Josephine Stewart of that city, and they have become the parents of Florence Stewart and Frances Josephine Taft. The family residence is at No. 66 Cedar street.
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Harvey T. Weeks, now retired from active business, has been identified with Chicago affairs in many ways that call for historical
HARVEY T. mention. In real estate and finance and street rail-
WEEKS. way development has been the principal field of his efforts. Those familiar with the traction situation of twenty years ago will remember that as president of the Chicago Horse and Dummy Railroad Company, to which office he was elected November 20, 1884, he built and financed that line, which was soon afterward changed to the Chicago Passenger Railway. About the only business connections that he still retains are with street railways, being a director of the West Chicago Street Railway Company. Per- haps his most notable achievement was the management of the great Masonic Temple enterprise after the death of Norman T. Gassette in 1891. He financed the building operations, brought the affairs of the association to a condition of permanent stability and finally turned them over to the association on a basis of substantial growth and assured profits. Mr. Weeks also was the principal organizer of the Bankers National Bank during the early nineties, and it was through his personal efforts that the larger part of the original capital for that institution was secured. Among his other activities of public interest that should be mentioned was his appointment by the late Governor Altgeld as one of the commissioners for the West Side Park System, serving thus from 1894 to 1896.
Mr. Weeks was born in Lockport, Will county, Illinois, in 1842, a son of Joseph M. and Martha (Lane) Weeks, and was educated in the public schools of that place. In 1860, after working for a time in a plow factory and a general store in Lockport, he came to Chi- cago, where he has since resided almost continuously-an energetic, able and useful citizen. Among his first employments in Chicago was that which he found with A. L. Hale & Co., wholesale furniture dealers, and after leaving them was for a short time clerk in the general store of Charles Mears at Pentwater, Michigan. In August, 1862, he interrupted his business career to enlist in the Chicago Mercantile Battery, and was with that organization until the close of the Civil war. He was then appointed postmaster at Lockport, receiving his commission from President Andrew Johnson. After serving about a year he resigned and returned to Chicago, where he rejoined his former employers, A. L. Hale & Co., the furniture manu-
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facturers and dealers. A year later he entered the real estate and building business, which was thereafter his regular vocation. In 1874 he formed a partnership with the late Carter H. Harrison, Sr., a firm that was well known in real estate circles in Chicago during the seventies.
Mr. Weeks is one of Chicago's prominent Masons, being a mem- ber of Garden City Lodge, a Shriner, and a member of the Consistory in the thirty-second degree work. He. also has membership with the Illinois, Union League and Chicago Athletic clubs, and is popular in social organizations as well as in business circles. In June, 1870, Mr. Weeks married Miss Joanna E. Marcy, of Cape May, New Jersey. Their home is at 199 Ashland boulevard.
The principal member of the well known real estate firm of Harvey T. Weeks & Co., who conduct the business founded by Mr. Weeks, Sr., is Harvey T. Weeks, Jr., who was born in Chicago, November 12, 1879. After finishing preparatory school work at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, he entered Yale University, graduating with the class of 1901, and then took courses in property law at the Harvard Law School. On his return to Chicago in 1902 he entered the firm of Harvey T. Weeks & Co., becoming junior partner. This firm does a large business in managing estates of non- residents, and have a reputation as tax experts, especially, in Chicago.
Mr. Weeks, Jr., is a member of the Chicago Athletic, the Uni- versity, and the Yale clubs, both in Chicago and New York, and is a life member of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club. In 1906 he married Miss Edith E. Beggs, of Iola, Kansas, daughter of John I. Beggs, of Belfast, Ireland, a retired manufacturer of woolen goods. They reside in the Lakewood, Pine Grove avenue and Sheridan road.
Harry James Farnham, senior member of the real estate firm of Farnham, Willoughby & Co., is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
HARRY J. and was born May 14, 1875, being the son of E.
FARNHAM. W. and Emma J. (Dykins) Farnham. In his boy- hood his parents came to Chicago, in whose gram- mar and high schools he was educated, supplementing this mental training with a business course. When he was sixteen years of age he entered the employ of Marshall Field's wholesale house, where he remained for a year.
Mr. Farnham's connection with the real estate business dates
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from November. 1892. when he joined the firm of Aldis, Aldis & Northcote, with whom he remained until January, 1899. For about a year he was then manager of the renting department of Henry A. Knott & Co., and since December 1, 1899, has been a member of the firm of Farnham, Willoughby & Co., which he founded. The business of the firm is chiefly devoted to real estate transactions in the business district and the management of business property, and in these lines it is a Chicago leader. Personally, Mr. Farnham is a . prominent member of the Chicago Real Estate Board and the Build- ing Managers' Association.
On September 3. 1897. Mr. Farnham married, in Chicago, Miss Alice S. Dickinson, and their child is a daughter, Ursula Mae Farnham. The family residence is at No. 2400 Kenmore avenue. Mr. Farnham is a Republican in politics, thirty-second degree Mason, Knight Templar and Shriner, and a member of the National Union. He is also identified with the Chicago Athletic Association, Union League, Hamilton, Edgewater Country and Edgewater Golf clubs.
Edward Mckean Willoughby, of the well known real estate firm of Farnham, Willoughby & Co., is a native of Buffalo, New York, EDWARD M. born March 3, 1874, the son of Ferson M. and WILLOUGHBY. Amie C. (Robinson) Willoughby. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Chicago and at the Highland Military Academy. Worcester, Massachusetts. After leav- ing school in the east. he entered the employ of Willoughby, Hill & Co., the Chicago clothiers, and afterward went to St. Louis to as- sume the management of the property interests of C. L. Willoughby. He then made another transfer of his operations to the east, locating in Boston, where he engaged in real estate for three years. Subse- quently he came to Chicago, became connected with Aldis, Aldis, Northcote & Co., and in 1899 associated himself with H. J. Farnham in the firm of Farnham, Willoughby & Co. The scope of their business embraces dealings in real estate investments and the man- agement of office buildings and other downtown properties. Some idea of the extent of their business in the latter line may be gained by the statement that they are agents for the Masonic Temple and the following other buildings: Illinois Life, Schiller, Chicago Sav- ings Bank, Borland, Ohio, Willoughby. Atwood, Cable, Athenaeum, Wolff, Firmenich and Brentano. Personally Mr. Willoughby is a
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member of the Chicago Real Estate Board, the Building Managers' Association, and the Chicago Association of Commerce.
On October 27, 1898. Mr. Willoughby married Miss Harriet M. Gobel, and they have one child, Dorothy Mae. In politics he is a Republican and is a Mason of high standing, belonging to the thirty- second degree, a Knight Templar and Shriner, being a member of St. Bernard Commandery No. 35, and also a member of the National Union. He is a member of the Union League Club, the Chicago Athletic Association and the Edgewater Country Club, and resides at No. 2452 Kenmore avenue.
Of the younger class of real estate "hustlers," Adolph Ferdinand Kramer is a native of Chicago, and was born October 11, 1870, being
. ADOLPH F. the son of Ferdinand and Bertha (Stein) Kramer.
Charles Stein, his maternal grandfather, was born KRAMER. in Austria in 1825, and came to the United States when sixteen years old, the trip consuming sixty-four days. He located in New York City, where he remained until 1852, when he came to Chicago. Here he was engaged in the dry goods business and the manufacture of shirts, retiring just before the fire of 1871. After graduating from the Douglas School, Adolph F. Kramer for a time attended the Chicago Manual Training School, but showing a decided bent for business entered the wholesale dry goods house of Eisinger & Kramer, of which his father was a partner. Ferdinand Kramer was, in fact, one of the old-time dry goods merchants of the "ante-fire" period, and died in 1902. At the age of seventeen Adolph F. became a stock boy in the business mentioned, and in 1888 secured a connection with Schlesinger & Mayer, the well known re- tail dry goods dealers. Five years with that concern raised him to the head of the men's furnishing department, when (in 1893) he resigned his position to establish himself in the real estate business.
On the Ist of November, 1893, Mr. Kramer became associated with Arthur W. Draper and formed the present firm of Draper & Kramer, whose business covers real estate, mortgage loans and rent- ing. Aside from his energetic participation in the partnership trans- actions, Mr. Kramer is prominently identified with the Chicago Realization Company (of which he is president ), a corporation or- ganized in 1904 for the purpose of dealing in various classes of assets. He is a member of the Chicago Real Estate Board and treasurer
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for 1908. In politics he is a Republican. His business offices are at 115 Dearborn street.
Mr. Kramer was married, in Chicago, November 1, 1899, to Miss Ray Friedberg, and the two children of their union are Ferdi- nand, born August 10, 1901, and Laura Ray Kramer, born June 30, 1905. Mrs. Kramer's father, Cass Friedberg, was long a manu- facturer at Leavenworth, Kansas. It may be added that Mr. Kramer is a member of Sinai Temple Congregation, and, outside the domestic circle, is socially identified with the Standard Club. He has a pleasant residence at 2912 Prairie avenue.
James Bartlett Hobbs, whose name is connected with insurance, real estate, commission, and the Board of Trade, and with a long list of charitable, religious, educational and similar
JAMES B. HOBBS. organizations. came to Chicago in 1856. In that year Chicago had eighty-five thousand inhabitants, its position as a grain shipping port was just being established, its packing interests were at the beginning, and in many other respects it was a memorable year in which Mr. Hobbs became permanently identified with this city. For half a century he has been an active figure in the commercial and moral development of the western metropolis.
In 1857 he entered the commission business, becoming one of the ninety-six commission firms listed in that year. For thirty years, until his retirement in 1887, his career was continuous and successful. He became a member of the Board of Trade when it had just assumed a dignified and useful position in Chicago's commerce, and in 1883. at one of the most important periods of the Board's history, he was elected its president. During the past ten or fifteen years Mr. Hobbs has been connected with real estate and insurance. The National Mutual Church Insurance Company, of which he is presi- dent. is a foremost company in this department of insurance, having about $31,000,000 of insurance. When the company was started about eight years ago it had a borrowed capital of $5,000, so that its record is naturally a matter of pride to Mr. Hobbs and associates. Recently Mr. Hobbs has become president and one of the organizers of the National American Fire Insurance Company of Chicago, a conservative company that enters the general field of fire insurance under the prestige of the same methods which have made the National
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Mutual Church Insurance Company so successful. In real estate Mr. Hobbs has been especially interested in north shore property, mainly in the development of Waukegan as a lake port, being presi- dent of the North Waukegan Harbor and Dock Association.
As one of the most substantial citizens of Chicago, Mr. Hobbs has had the Christian forethought to donate a goodly portion of his means to the extension of religious and charitable enterprises. He is one of the most prominent Methodists in the west, having been honored with all the offices to which a layman in that church is entitled. The various organizations with which he is actively con- nected may be mentioned to indicate the scope of his interests during later years. They are, namely: Chairman of the board of trustees of Grace Methodist church, besides being on several committees and connected with the Sunday school as teacher of a Bible class. Mem- ber of the board of trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Chicago, which board has contributed during the past few years nearly $700,000 to the interest of Chicago Methodism. President of the Chicago City Missionary and Church Extension Society, from which nearly all the one hundred and sixty churches in the three districts centering in Chicago have received assistance. Member of the board of trustees of the Northwestern University. President of the Chicago Deaconess Home. President of the Lake Bluff Orphanage. Vice president of the Wesley Hospital. Member of the board of trustees of the Old People's Home. Vice president of the Chicago Training School for city, home and foreign missions. Presi- dent of the Layman's Association of Rock River Conference. Vice president of the Superannuates' Association of Rock River Confer- ence. Delegate to the general conference meeting at Baltimore, May, 1908.
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