USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 35
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Mr. Case's great prominence as a Congregationalist centers in his work in behalf of the First Congregational church of Chicago. of which he has been a deacon and a trustee for many years. He was also superintendent of its Sunday school for thirteen years. As stated, he has been a trustee of Wheaton (Ill.) College, one of the best-known denominational institutions in the country, since 1890, and is one of the honored corporate members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Mr. Case has a wide and honorable connection with local insti- tutions of a charitable, reformatory and literary character. He was president of the Washingtonian Home Association for a quarter of a century, and for a number of years president of the Newsboys' Home and director of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. He is a charter member of the Irving Literary and the Gnosis Literary so- cieties, and was actively connected with the former for thirty years and with the latter for ten years. He was also one of the founders of the Union League Club, of which he is still a member.
Mr. Case has either been a Whig or a Republican all his life, and for quite a period of his middle age was active in politics, serving as alderman of his ward in 1875-76. It was at the request of a large body of business men that he consented to run for the common council, and while a member of that body put through many measures
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of practical benefit to property owners. When he commenced nis service there were only four water mains in some of the principal streets of the city, but, through his efforts, they were not only in- creased in number but in capacity. Thus was adequate fire protec- tion furnished thousands of tax payers of the city.
On March 25. 1852. Mr. Case wedded Miss Laura P. Farns- worth, daughter of Andrew Farnsworth, of Bakersfield, Vermont. but has had no children. In the year of his marriage he came to Illinois, so that, for fifty-seven years he has been identified, in a marked degree, both with its business and higher progress.
Lyman Dresser Hammond, senior member of the firm of L. D. Hammond & Co., fire underwriters, and who was born in Amherst.
Massachusetts, October 31, 1844. is of English an-
LYMAN D. HAMMOND. cestry, one of his paternal grandfathers having em- igrated to Massachusetts in 1636.
Mr. Hammond is the son of Salem and Julia Ann (Johnson) Hammond. Having finished the work in the public schools of his native town, Mr. Hammond took a course at Hopkins' Academy, Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1866 he came west and settled in War- saw, Illinois, and entered the grain business. On September 18. 1869, he came to Chicago, and entered the office of C. H. Case, in- surance, and was employed there for six years. In 1875 Mr. Ham- mond was appointed Chicago agent for the British America Assur- ance Company of Toronto, which is still represented by the above- named firm.
At Hadley, Massachusetts. November 21, 1871, Mr. Hammond was married to Harriet E. Barstow. They are the parents of two children : Luther S., who married Miss Ethel J. Magee, of Chi- cago, and is junior member of the firm of L. D. Hammond & Co., and Julia Elizabeth, now Mrs. G. J. McBride, of Highland Park. Mr. McBride is western manager for Cumner. Jones & Co., of Bos- ton.
In politics Mr. Hammond is a Republican, and in his religious faith a Congregationalist. He is a member of the Kenwood, Home- wood and Union League clubs; Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, New England Society. His residence is Hotel Windermere.
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Joseph H. Lenehan, general agent of the Phenix Insurance Com- pany of New York, at Chicago, was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and is
JOSEPH H. a son of Baltholomew D. and Mary A. Lenchan. He
LENEHAN. was educated at Dubuque, and then, after finishing
school, he entered the insurance field. After being connected with the agency business for a time he became a special inspector for one year for mutual insurance companies of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in 1887 was appointed Illinois state agent for the Insurance Company of North America. In 1892 he assisted in or- ganizing the western department for the Palatine Insurance Com- pany of Manchester, England, and six years later he was appointed assistant western manager of the North British and Mercantile Insur- ance Company of London, England. In 1899 he became assistant general agent for the company which he now represents, and the year following. 1900, was appointed to his present position. He was hon- ored by the Illinois State Board of Fire Underwriters with the office of the president, in 1890, and in 1897 was elected president of the Fire Underwriters' Association of the Northwest.
Mr. Lenehan was married in 1883, at Dubuque, Iowa, to Margaret Littleton. They have three children: Margaret, Francis Littleton, and Mary Calista. He is a member of the Union League, Glen View Golf, Chicago Athletic, South Shore Country, Homewood Golf and Mid-Day clubs, and resides at 4515 Greenwood avenue.
Of the fire insurance managers of Chicago, one of the oldest, in experience, and best known, is Wiley Jones Littlejohn, now and WILEY J. for the past thirteen years western manager of
LITTLEJOHN. the North British and Mercantile Insurance Com-
pany of London and Edinburgh. Boin in Fayette county, Tennessee, a son of Wiley Jones and Margaret (Chisholm) Littlejohn, he was reared and educated in the middle south, gaining his education in private schools in Memphis, Tennessee, and in the University of St. Louis (Mo.).
His first experience in the insurance business was obtained in the agency of H. A. Littleton, at Memphis, in 1866. Beginning there when quite young, he later succeeded to the business of the agency and continued as local agent until 1876, when he was ap- pointed general agent and manager of the Merchants' Insurance
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Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1880 the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company appointed him supervisor and adjuster in its western department. In this work, which necessitated his traveling over a large part of the west, Mr. Littlejohn gained a great deal of valuable experience, and an enviable acquaintance. From supervisor and adjuster he was promoted, in the same company, to be assistant manager of the western department, and in 1894 was advanced to the position which he is now filling. This long and varied experience, dating from the period when he was learning the rudiments of the business, to the present, when he is busied with the management of a large force of solicitors and agencies, makes him one of the most ca- pable fire insurance men in the west. He is an ex-president of the Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska State Board of Fire Underwriters, and of the Fire Underwriters of the Northwest.
Besides belonging to the Union League and Mid-Day clubs of Chicago, Mr. Littlejohn is a member of the Glen View and the Evans- ton Country and University clubs. His residence is in Evanston. He was married in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1873, to Mary Louise Poston.
William A. Alexander, for more than twenty years engaged in the insurance business as senior member of the firm of W. A. Alexan-
WILLIAM A. der & Company, and also heavily interested in
ALEXANDER. North Shore real estate, is a native of Mississippi,
born in Corinth, May 2, 1858, the son of James Madison and Elizabeth (McCord) Alexander. Mr. Alexander's father was a Virginian, of an old and patriotic family ; was descended from staunch Scotch Presbyterians, was himself a clergyman of that denomination, and at the time of his son's birth was president of the Presbyterian College at Carrollton, Mississippi. In the war of the Rebellion he joined the Union army as chaplain, was afterward pro- moted to be colonel of the First Alabama Regiment, and was in charge of the contraband camp at Corinth, Mississippi.
W. A. Alexander was reared on a plantation, and when he came to Chicago, as a young man, was placed in charge of the Business Fidelity and Casualty Company, organizing the Employers' Liability departments and making other radical improvements. Since that time (1885) he has been wholly engaged in casualty and liability insur-
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ance, although he has judiciously invested in real estate along Sheri- dan Road and the North Shore. He was largely instrumental in laying out that famous pleasure drive, and is now vice-president of the Sheridan Road Association. Mr. Alexander is also founder of the Exmoor Country Club, at Highland Park. He was a liberal supporter of the World's Columbian Exposition, being chairman of the liability insurance committees and director of the Midway attrac- tion known as the Streets of Cairo. In addition to his real estate and insurance interests, Mr. Alexander is trustee of the George A. Fuller estate, and is ex-president of the Drexel Railway Supply Company.
In December, 1896, Mr. Alexander was united in marriage to Miss Maude Julia Greene, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moshier T. Greene, of Chicago. He is a member of the Southern Society, and of the Union League, Chicago, Onwentsia, Exmoor and Chicago Golf clubs. Fraternally, he is a thirty-second degree Mason, and his religious connections are with the Presbyterian church. In poli- tics, he is a Republican.
Wade Fetzer, member and manager of the firm of W. A. Alexan- der & Company, extensive dealers in casualty and liability insurance,
WADE and himself probably the largest insurance writer
FETZER.
of his age in the United States, is a native of Ottumwa, Iowa, where he was born November 22,
1879. His parents are William H. and Henrietta (Clark) Fetzer. His father is a prominent citizen at Ottumwa and for twenty years has been active in the Republican politics of that state.
Mr. Fetzer was educated in the public and high schools of his native city, and became a resident of Chicago in 1897, on the 27th of September of that year entering the employ of W. A. Alexander & Company, general western agents of the Fidelity Casualty Company of New York. From a simple clerkship, he was rapidly promoted to be cashier, head bookkeeper, office manager and special agent. In 1901 he was made state agent for Illinois, and spent two years in the organization of the business in this state, with marked success. In 1902 he was received into the firm of W. A. Alexander & Com- pany and made active manager of its business.
On. June 1I, 1901, Mr. Fetzer married Miss Margaret Spilman, also a native of Ottumwa, and three children have been born to them :
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John C., William Melville and Margaret. His wife's parents were Thomas P. and Almira (Randell) Spilman, and her father is con- nected with the large packing firm of John Morrell & Co. and is a prominent citizen and politician in Iowa.
Mr. Fetzer's residence is at Hinsdale, Illinois, where he has taken a leading part in the village affairs, having served as trustee and in other positions of honor. He is also prominent in club and social life, being a director of the Hinsdale Club, a life member of the
WADE FETZER.
Hamilton (Republican ) Club, and is also a member of the Union League, the Chicago Athletic, the Mid-Day and Commercial clubs.
Sherwood Dickerson Andrus, who has been in the insurance busi- ness for more than thirty-six years, was assistant manager of the
SHERWOOD D. Providence Washington Insurance Company until ANDRUS. May I. 1908. when he was appointed special agent for the middle west of the Commonwealth Insur- ance Company of New York.
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A native of the Empire state, Mr. Andrus of this review was born in Watertown, Jefferson county, on the 5th of April, 1855, the son of Merritt M. and Angelica F. Andrus. First passing through the public schools of his native town, he afterward pursued a higher course at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and when only sixteen years of age began his insurance career by entering the office of the Northern Insurance Company, at Watertown. Seven years in that position decided him to seek a wider field of possibilities in the west.
In 1878, when Mr. Andrus became a resident of Chicago, he secured the position of assistant cashier at Sprague, Warner & Com- pany, the wholesale grocers, and remained with that house for seven months. In 1884, after various employments, he returned to the insurance field by accepting the special agency of the Sun Fire Office of England for the state of Illinois. In 1886-90 he was with the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Company of England, his territory covering Illinois and Indiana, and after an employment of three years in that capacity he was appointed daily report examiner for the western department of the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, being thus engaged until 1893, when he assumed the position of special representative of the Providence (R. I.) Washington Insurance Company for the states of Illinois and Tennessee. He was promoted to be assistant manager in Chicago, January 1, 1906.
While a young man at Watertown, New York, and just before coming to Chicago, Mr. Andrus was much interested in military affairs, in 1876-8 being sergeant of Company C, Thirty-ninth Regi- ment, N. Y. N. G. As a Mason he is a member of Auburn Park Lodge No. 736, A. F. & A. M., and also belongs to Fidelity Council No. 74, Royal League, Normal Park. The clubs with which he is identified are the New Illinois Athletic, Friendship and Adelphian. In politics he is a Republican, and in religious belief an Episcopalian.
On June 18, 1888, Mr. Andrus was married to Mrs. Laura J. Stebbins, and the family residence is at 5344 Drexel boulevard.
Charles Nelson Bishop, city manager of the Northern Assurance Company of London, was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is the CHARLES N. son of the late Rev. Hiram Nelson Bishop, rector BISHOP. of St. John's Protestant Episcopal church, this city. He was educated in the public and high schools of
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Chicago, and when seventeen years of age became a clerk for the fire insurance agency of Thomas & W. A. Goodman. After spending three years in this employment, in 1875 he entered the service of The Spectator, an insurance journal published in New York. A year later he was appointed manager of the western department of that publication, as well as of The Firemen's Journal, and his headquar- ters were transferred to Chicago. He retained these positions for five years, and spent ISSo-5 in Colorado, as a miner and editor and proprietor of The Summit County Leader.
In 1885 Mr. Bishop was admitted as a partner to the local fire insurance agency of H. H. Brown & Company, and this connection continued until ISS9, since which time he has held his present posi- iton of city manager for the Northern Assurance Company of Lon- don. His business office is at No. 159 LaSalle street.
Mr. Bishop is one of the old and honored members of the Chicago Board of Underwriters, having been connected with it since 1885, and is now serving as its vice-president. He is chairman of the Dean Schedule Committee, a member of the High Pressure Water Commission, and is otherwise identified with its leading committees. He is also the present chairman of the Fire Insurance Patrol Com- mittee, and has been associated with that superbly organized system since 1892. As to the social organizations, Mr. Bishop is a charter member both of the Illinois Club and the Chicago Athletic Associa- tion, and served for years as secretary of the former. He is also a member of the Oak Park Club, his residence being in that western suburb.
In 1903 Mr. Bishop was married to Miss Anna Z. Robbins, daughter of Dr. A. B. Robbins of Denver, Colorado, who was a pioneer of that city, and who died in 1903.
Charles Merritt Cartwright, widely known as a journalist in the field of insurance, is a native of Waynesville, Ohio, born on the 2nd CHARLES M. of November, 1869, son of Seth Levering and CARTWRIGHT. Emma F. Cartwright. His early education was acquired in the country schools of his home neigh- borhood, and in 1886 he graduated from the Waynesville High School. As his first intention was to assume educational work, he attended the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, but later entered Princeton University, graduating therefrom in 1894 with
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the highest honors, among others, the Boudinot fellowship in history.
After leaving college Mr. Cartwright joined the reportorial staff of the Chicago Inter Ocean, in 1895 becoming the insurance editor of that journal. In 1898, after having made a fine reputation in his department, he became editor of the Western Underwriter, then pub- lished in Cincinnati. In 1899 the management opened a Chicago office, and since 1900 Mr. Cartwright has served as manager of the Western Underwriter Company, as well as its vice-president. Since January, 1904, he lias also acted as insurance editor of the Chicago Tribune, and is otherwise recognized as one of the foremost authori- ties in insurance matters in the United States.
On August 28, 1902, Mr. Cartwright was united in marriage with Miss Kathryn B. Abbott, and one child has been born to them, Stan- ley Levering Cartwright. Mr. Cartwright's home is in Evanston. In politics, he is a republican, and in religion, an Episcopalian.
Since 1873 Charles Ernest Affeld has been the junior member of the insurance firm of Witkowsky & Affeld, which year also dates CHARLES E. AFFELD. the commencement of his membership with the Chicago Board of Trade. Now in his sixty-fifth year, he can look back over both a long and honor- able business career, as well as an active and creditable record as a soldier of the Civil war. Mr. Affeld was born in Stettin, Prussia, March 10, 1843, the son of Carl Gottlieb and Louise Agnes (Dinse ) Affeld. His parents brought him to Chicago in October, 1847, and in the Dearborn School of this city and at Bryant & Stratton Busi- ness College he received the education which fitted him for the prac- tical duties of life. After spending some time in the law office of Arrington & Dent, in May, 1861, he enlisted in Battery B, First Illinois Light Artillery, in which he served the first three-months term and the long period of three years. His battery was attached to the Fifteenth Army Corps, and, until July, 1864, he participated in all its marches and engagements, including the battles of Belmont, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth, Haynes' Bluff, Arkansas Post, Champion Hills, siege of Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, Big Shanty and Kenesaw Mountain, when his time was out and he came to Chicago. During the balance of the war period Mr. Affeld was a clerk in the recruiting department of the provost mar- shal's office.
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After the Civil war Mr. Affeld was identified with the book busi- ness for two years and commenced his long career in the insurance field in 1868. For three years thereafter he was a broker, and in 1872-3 was surveyor for the New York Underwriters' Agency, and in the latter year organized the well known firm of Witkowsky & Affeld. He has been a member of the Chicago Board of Under- writers since its organization, and is identified with George H. Thomas Post, G. A. R. He has long been a resident of the north side, and his name is associated with some of its prominent institu- tions, such as the Academy of Sciences (at Lincoln Park) and the Germania Maennerchor. He has been trustee of the former and a leading member of the latter, belonging also to the Union League and City clubs.
Married in Chicago in July, 1868, to Miss Helen Waite, Mr. Affeld has become the father of the following children: Helen Eme- lia, Charles Ernest, Jr., William C. and Olive L. His residence is at No. 1824 Diversey boulevard.
Thirty-one years ago Amos Joseph Harding organized the west- ern department of the Springfield ( Mass.) Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company, with headquarters in Chicago, and as
AMOS J. HARDING. its general manager ever since has developed a splen- did business. He has not only created and de- veloped a new department in one of the old-line insurance companies. but has been a leader in all western organization, and is now recog- nized as one of the most prominent insurance figures in this section of the country. His standing cannot be better delineated than by reference to the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his com- ing to Chicago, which was celebrated by his fellow managers in a dinner at the rooms of the Union League, of which organization he was one of the founders. "At that dinner," says The Insurance Field, "modesty will sit enthroned in the seat of honor. There is no more modest man than General Harding. His name rarely appears in pub- lic connection, for he is slow to use words and when he does speak he is the soul of brevity. Yet he is a most genial and delightful com- panion to those who know him well, and possesses a keen sense of humor that illuminates his character. He has been in his unostenta- tious way a power for good in western organization. He has been so long prominent in underwriting that he might of his history almost
Agstarting
TH PUBLIC TILAWAY
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say with Cæsar : 'All of which I saw and much of which I was a part. He was a founder of the Western Insurance Union and was once its president. After the Chicago fire he was supervising agent of the Phenix of Brooklyn for four years, and was appointed general agent of the Springfield twenty-five years ago. In that position he has made a fine record. If there is any salient point in his nature except his modesty, it is his loyalty. No man ever was a stancher friend, and during the quarter of a century he has managed the Springfield it is difficult to recall an employee who has left his service. He has lived up to the poet's summary that 'there are no tricks in plain and simple faith.' And that is a great epitaph of character."
From a memorial volume ("A Half Century's History") issued by the company with which the best business years of Mr. Harding's life has been identified, is taken the following additional testimonial : "Mr. Harding is a man of strong self-reliance, taking without hesita- tion any responsibility which the exigencies of duty may demand, earnest and conscientious in the discharge of duty. He is a man of few words, and, while of genial nature and appreciative of approba- tion and good will, does not hesitate to speak with direct frankness when the occasion demands."
The commencement of this faithful and useful life was on a farm in Morrow county, Ohio, on the 2nd of May, 1839. Amos J. Harding is a son of Chauncey C. and Rachel (Story) Harding, his ancestors having settled in the Massachusetts colonies as early as 1623. He is the eighth in descent from William Harding, who in that year settled at Weymouth Landing, Plymouth colony, and when Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts he was followed by three grand- sons of the former, one of whom was a direct ancestor of Amos J. On the maternal side he is eighth in descent from William Story, who came from Norfolk county, England, in 1634, and settled in Ipswich, Essex county, Massachusetts, several of the great-great- grandfathers and great-grandfathers serving in both the Revolution- ary war and the conflicts of the colonists with the Indians.
"In the course of their migration from New England westward," says J. Sterling Morton's "History of Nebraska," "the Harding fam- ily first settled in the Wyoming valley. Pennsylvania, and one of them, Captain Stephen Harding, had command of Wintermost Fort at the time of the Wyoming massacre in July, 1778, when several of the
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family were killed, and a near relative, Frances Slocum, five years old, was carried off by the Indians. She remained in captivity, and her whereabouts were unknown by her surviving relatives for fifty years, when she was found living on an Indian reservation near Peru, Indiana. She was then the widow of an Indian chief. She died about 1860, and a monument to her memory, erected by the Slocum and Harding families, was unveiled near Peru in 1901."
Mr. Harding obtained a good education in the common schools of his neighborhood and at Ohio Central College, but at the age of seventeen relinquished his duties as a student and commenced to teach. After saving $140, however, he decided that his career did not lie in the pedagogical field, but in the stirring and miscellaneous activities of the far west. Locating in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on the 28th of April, 1857, he secured employment as a clerk in a gen- eral store; but even in that capacity he had not found his clew to success, and after a few months resigned his position. He was then appointed storekeeper of a drug firm which had failed, engaging later in various employments, in the midst of which he was engaged in the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859.
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