USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 36
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In 1858, under the direction of N. S. Harding, the first fire in- surance agent in Nebraska, he commenced the study and practice of his present business, or profession, and at once found it greatly to his liking. About the same time he became a government surveyor, and was so engaged in northern Nebraska for three successive seasons. He also engaged in the book and stationery business, in connection with his insurance. In these varied lines (and perhaps in others not mentioned) Amos J. Harding obtained a broad and practical experi- ence in business and with business men, and at the breaking out of the Civil war added a new chapter to his life history.
When the Civil war broke out in 1861 Mr. Harding's name was the third on the enlistment roll of Nebraska City, but when his com- pany was ready to be mustered in at Omaha he was seriously ill with pneumonia and was sent to Ohio to die. To the surprise of all he recovered in time to join his regiment in Missouri. For two years he served as a private in the First Nebraska Volunteers, and in 1863, on account of his familiarity with military law and courts martial, he was transferred to the department of military justice, St. Louis district. Early in 1864 he was promoted to the rank of first lieuten-
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ant, in the Sixth Missouri Cavalry, and assigned to duty as district judge advocate on the staff of General Clinton B. Fisk, in command of the St. Louis district, serving in that capacity, and also as district provost marshal, until the spring of 1865. In May of that year he accompanied General Fisk to Nashville and was assigned to duty as solicitor for freedmen's courts for Kentucky and Tennessee, and in this capacity established courts in Memphis, Clarksville, Chattanooga and Nashville. At Nashville Mr. Harding, as judge, sat in the first case in the history of Tennessee in which a black man ever gave court testimony against a white man. He had been promoted to the rank of captain in March, 1865, but, tiring of army life, after the close of the war he resigned and returned to Nebraska in October of that year.
In 1864 Mr. Harding cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln, and from that time to the present has acted with the Republican party. He served five times as a delegate from Otoe county to terri- torial and state conventions, and in 1868 was a delegate to the Repub- lican national convention. He never held but one political office, that of commissioner of registration in Otoe county.
When Mr. Harding returned from his military and judicial duties of the war times to Nebraska City he was pressed to enter journalism, and did considerable newspaper work; but his inclinations turned him to the insurance business, and by 1868 he had built up a large local business. In that year he added field work for the Home Insurance Company of New York, continuing thus for four years. In 1872 he was appointed western special agent for the Phenix Insurance Com- pany of Brooklyn, New York, and another four years were passed in this service. His excellent showing in this capacity attracted the attention of the representatives of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and when it decided to organize a western de- partment the undertaking, and the position of manager, was offered to Mr. Harding, with the result that he became a strong personal ele- ment in the development of western insurance. In 1879 he became one of the founders of the Western Insurance Union, of which he has served both as vice president and president. In ISSo the late Marshall Field became a director of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company, and so continued until his death, at which time Mr. Harding was unanimously elected to succeed him on the board of directors.
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In 1864, at St. Joseph, Missouri, Mr. Harding married Miss Eliza Cowden, and the children born to them have been Lucien E., of the Chicago law firm of Bates and Harding; Albert Dean, who died in infancy : Rachel Helen, who married Edward M. Ray, a St. Joseph business man: John Cowden, general adjuster in the western depart- ment of the Springfield company; Dwight Story, engaged in the rail- way supply business in New York City. The senior Mr. Harding resides at Evanston. . He is a member of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Union League Club, the Loyal Legion, and Society of the Army of the Tennessee.
Specifically, Lyman Azariah Walton is vice president of the Equi- table Trust Company and, generally, a successful manager of numer- ous large interests embracing chiefly fiduciary cor-
LYMAN A. WALTON.
porations, railways, and gas and electric companies.
He is a native of New York, born at Alexandria Bay. on the 30th of September, 1861, son of Charles and Harriet ( Truesdale) Walton. His education was practical in its nature, in- cluding a preparatory training in the public schools of his native town and a course in the Normal School at Potsdam, New York, while in 1880-81 he was a student at the Rochester Business College. His previous experience as a clerk in a general store at Alexandria Bay had convinced him of the value of a broad and thorough commercial education.
After graduating from the Rochester Business College. Mr. Wal- ton secured a position as a bookkeeper at the Union Stock Yards Na- tional Bank (now the National Live Stock Bank), Chicago, and for the succeeding four years continued in this position. From 1885 to 1890 he resided in Kansas, serving as cashier of the First National Bank of Anthony in 1885-7 and cashier of the Wichita National Bank in 1887-90. Since the latter year he has been connected with the Equi- table Trust Company, as cashier, secretary, secretary and treasurer and vice president, being elected to the last named and present office in 1900. He is also a director of the Litchfield & Madison Railway Com- pany and the Illinois Southern Railway. Mr. Walton has been a leader in the later development of Chicago's grand system of public parks, being now a member of the Outer Belt Park Commission. He is also a commissioner of the South Park Board, being appointed in March, 1902; reappointed for the full term on March 20. 1904, and
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serving as president in 1905-6. His politics are firmly Democratic.
On the 5th of June, 1884, Mr. Walton wedded Miss Abigail Wood- worth, and their children are as follows : Harriet W., Louise F. and Mark W. The family home is at No. 5737 Woodlawn avenue. Mr. Walton's club connections are with the Quadrangle. Chicago and Mid-Day.
George Warner Montgomery, a business boy and man of Chicago for a period of forty-eight years and connected with the insurance
GEORGE W. field during all but a decade, is one of the most
prominent of its figures in the west. Born in Gen-
MONTGOMERY. esee county, New York, on the 26th of June, 1842, he is a son of Alva and Sally (Kent) Montgomery. After receiving his education in the public schools of his native county, when seven- teen years of age he located in Chicago, and for two years thereafter was employed as a bookkeeper in a wholesale drug house. His next employment in this city was with a firm of packers, with whom he remained until 1862, when he enlisted in the famous Mercantile Battery of Chicago, serving therein until his honorable discharge in March, 1863. He was with Sherman on his march to the Talla- hatchee river, and at the first battle of Vicksburg, being thereafter incapacitated and sent home to recuperate. Thus leaving the service because of ill health, after it had been partially restored he accepted the position of cashier in the Chicago office of internal revenue, sub- sequently becoming associated with a dry goods house until 1867.
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In the latter year Mr. Montgomery commenced his career as an insurance man, becoming a partner of O. W. Barrett, and continued in the connection noted until 1873, when the firm of Williams & Montgomery was formed. Within about a year Mr. Montgomery founded an independent business as George W. Montgomery & Com- pany, which continued until 1898, in which year M. L. C. Funk- houser, who had been associated with the firm for fourteen years, was received into the partnership under the style of Montgomery & Funkhouser. This firm, of which Mr. Montgomery is still senior partner, are general agents of the Farmers and Merchants Insurance Company of Lincoln, Nebraska (of which Mr. Montgomery is presi- dent ) ; Concordia Fire, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Firemen's Insur- ance Company, of Newark, New Jersey; Jefferson Fire Insurance Company, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Lloyd's Plate Glass
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Insurance Company, of New York. Personally, besides being presi- dent of the Farmers and Merchants Insurance Company of Lincoln, Mr. Montgomery is at the head of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of the same city, and director of the Nebraska Underwriters Insur- ance Company of Omaha, Nebraska. He is also well known in club life, being identified with the Chicago, Calumet, Illinois Athletic and South Shore Country clubs, now being vice-president of the first named. His business office is at No. 159 LaSalle street and he resides at the Chicago Club.
Danford Morse Baker, third vice-president of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, of California, was born in Stafford, Con-
DANFORD M. necticut, on the 20th of August, 1862, being the BAKER. son of George and Emeline (Morse) Baker. He received his education in the public schools of his native town, and began his business career as a youth of eighteen, when he became a clerk in the office of the Travelers' Insurance Company, at the headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut. He re- mained with that company until 1890, when he joined the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, being first connected with its Kan- sas City office for three years.
In 1893 Mr. Baker came to Chicago as general agent for Illinois of the above named company, and in 1906 was elected third vice- president, with headquarters at Los Angeles, California, where he at present resides. Mr. Baker was formerly president of the Life Underwriters' Association of Chicago. Fraternally, he is a member of the Garden City Lodge No. 141, A. F. & A. M., and while a resident of Chicago was actively identified with the Union League and Mid-Day clubs. In politics, he is a Republican. On January 8, 1890, Mr. Baker married Miss Clara Louisa Gabel, and their two children are Bessie E. and Danford M. Baker, Jr.
Isaac John Lewis is one of the oldest men connected with the fire insurance business in Chicago, having been engaged in that field
ISAAC J. for forty-two years and representing one company
for a period of over four decades. He was born
LEWIS. in Mahaska county, Iowa, June 9, 1845, the son of William and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Lewis. His parents were both natives of Cardiganshire, South Wales, his father having been born
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at Lladrod and his mother at Aberystwith. They both came to this country in early life and in 1836 were married at Palmyra, Portage county, Ohio. In the early boyhood of Isaac J. the family removed to Burlington, Iowa, where they resided until 1857 and then located at Cleveland, Ohio. In these two cities therefore the boy received the bulk of his education. In 1863, then eighteen years of age, he commenced his insurance career as an employe of Coe & May, an old and substantial Cleveland firm.
Mr. Lewis became a resident of Chicago in October, 1866, as a representative of the Cleveland Insurance Company and the Com- mercial Mutual Insurance Company, also of that city. Two years afterward he secured the local business of the Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company, which he has continuously represented and developed. Mr. Lewis' office was burned out in the great fire of October, 1871, and the Detroit company which he represented also suffered heavy losses, but the latter was one of the very few insur- ance organizations which paid its losses in full. The first four years of his career in Chicago were spent as a member of the firm of C. H. Hinkley & Company. Later, he became associated with Magill and Hall, vessel agents, the firm being known as Magill, Hall and Lewis. After a year the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Lewis continued the insurance business independently until 1871, when he formed a connection with J. L. Hathaway, of Milwaukee, under the firm name of Lewis and Hathaway. The fire of 1871 dissolved the partnership, but Mr. Lewis continued the business, and in 1873 the firm of Lewis and Prindiville was formed. Since its dissolution, a year later, Mr. Lewis las conducted an independent office as a fire and marine insur- ance agent and an adjuster of losses. The business men of Chicago owe him a special debt of gratitude, as it was chiefly due to his efforts that the Fire Insurance Patrol was organized, financed and placed on a permanent and expansive basis. It was established only after a hard struggle, in which as secretary and active member of the patrol committee Mr. Lewis proved one of its strongest champions. On June 18, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Anna F. Loud, and their residence is at 3335 Indiana avenue. Mr. Lewis is a Mason in good standing.
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For about twenty-three years prominent in the insurance circles of Chicago, and also one of its best known military figures, Metellus
M. L. C. L. C. Funkhouser is the junior member of the firm, FUNKHOUSER. Montgomery and Funkhouser, one of the leading firms in the west engaged in fire and plate glass insurance and bonds of suretyship. He was born in St. Louis, Mis- souri, on the 17th of January, 1864, the son of Robert Monroe and Sarah Johnson (Selmes) Funkhouser, both of whom are deceased. From the age of eight to that of sixteen he was in attendance at the St. Louis public schools, entering business life in 1881. For three years, in St. Louis and New Orleans, he was engaged in various lines of commercial activity, removing from the former city to Chi- cago in 1884.
Soon after coming to this city he secured a connection with George W. Montgomery & Company, general insurance agents, and in 1898 was admitted to a partnership under the firm style of Mont- gomery & Funkhouser. The firm has large insurance interests in Nebraska. Mr. Funkhouser being vice-president of the Farmers and Merchants Insurance Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, and a director in the Nebraska Underwriters Insurance Company of Omaha, Ne- braska. He also holds a directorship in the Farmers and Merchants Bank, of Lincoln. Nebraska.
Major Funkhouser's military service commenced in connection with the Chicago Hussars, of which he was a lieutenant from 1889 to 1894. He became captain of the Chicago City Troop (afterward Troop C, First Cavalry, Illinois National Guard) in 1894, and served thus for four years, becoming captain of Company K, First Infantry, United States Volunteers, in 1898, and as such entering the war with Spain. Before the conclusion of hostilities he was promoted to be assistant adjutant general, First Brigade, Third Division, Fifth Army Corps, and from 1898 to 1900 was captain of Company K. First Infantry. Illinois National Guard. Since the latter year he has been major of the First Battalion, First Infantry, Illinois National Guard. He was president of the Illinois branch of the Society of the Army of Santiago de Cuba. and is treasurer of the Military Order of Foreign Wars of the United States.
At Kirkwood, Missouri, on the 20th of April, 1886, Major Funk-
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houser was united in marriage with Miss Eugenie J. Mermod, and to their union have been born four children, viz. : Julia Mermod, Louis Burrows, Eugenie Mermod and Mary Mermod Funkhouser. The family resides at No. 817 Hinman avenue, Evanston.
Major Funkhouser is a thirty-second degree Mason, and belongs to the St. Bernard Commandery. He is also a leading club man, holding membership in the Chicago Club, Union League, Press Club, Chicago Athletic Association and Illinois Athletic Club. Outside of the insurance field, however, he is best known as a military leader, and to the public at large he is more familiar in the latter connection than in the former.
Charles Egbert Rollo, member of the fire insurance firm of Rogers & Rollo, is one of the old-timers in this line, having been a
CHARLES E. steady figure in the field for a period of more than
ROLLO. forty-two years. He is the son of Ralph C. and Jeannette (Chester) Rollo.
Mr. Rollo's first business experience was with the Merchants Insurance Company, of Chicago, with which he held several minor positions from 1865 to 1871. For the twenty-six years covering the period from 1872 to 1898, he conducted a fire insurance business alone, and in the latter year became associated with Charles M. Rogers and Louis C. Rollo, thus forming the present firm of Rogers & Rollo. Mr. Rollo has given the closest attention to the business in which he has become so well known, although he is a man of social tastes and a welcome member of the Illinois Club. He resides at No. 235 Ashland boulevard.
Beginning his business life as a messenger boy in the insurance office of Rollo & Naghten, Chicago, more than thirty-five years ago,
CHARLES M. Charles Marshall Rogers has advanced to a promi-
ROGERS. nent place in the province of fire insurance, and is now the senior member of the well established firm of Rogers & Rollo. He was born in Philadelphia April 30, 1856, and is a son of Charles Marshall and Rebecca (Deacon) Rogers. He was educated in the public schools of the Quaker City, but came to Chi- cago as a boy looking for advancement.
Mr. Rogers remained with Rollo & Naghten for eight years, se- curing continuous promotion and a thorough fund of experience.
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During the years covering 1880-4 he was manager for A. H. Darrow, and from 1884 to 1899 conducted a fire insurance agency alone. In the latter year he joined L. C. and C. E. Rollo in forming the present firm of Rogers & Rollo. The members of this strong co- partnership act as general agents for the American Central Insurance Company of St. Louis, Mercantile Fire & Marine of Boston, Penn- sylvania Fire of Philadelphia, Phenix of Brooklyn and Germania Fire of New York.
Mr. Rogers was married in Chicago, in 1877, to Miss Hattie Merchant, and their children are Grace L. and Charles M., Jr. The family home is at 1039 Forest avenue, Evanston. Mr. Rogers is a member of the Evanston and Edgewater Golf clubs. He is a Repub- lican in politics and an Episcopalian in his religious belief.
Nils Anton Nelson is one of the most prominent Scandinavian- American citizens of Chicago, being especially well known in insur- ance, building and loan organizations. He is a na-
NILS A.
NELSON. tive of Halland, Sweden, born on the 15th of Janu- ary, 1860, son of Borge and Johanna ( Anderson); Nelson. He comes of good agricultural stock, and his father still lives upon the old family homestead in the fatherland. Nils was educated in the public schools of his home neighborhood, and in 1881, at the age of twenty-one, emigrated to the United States and located at Batavia, Illinois. There he worked upon a farm, attended night school, learned the machinist's trade and otherwise prepared himself for broad and practical work in the country of his adoption. In 1885 he came to Chicago, and rounded out his education by an attendance of eighteen months at the Metropolitan Business College.
Thus thoroughly prepared for the activities of a metropolitan com- munity, Mr. Nelson secured a position with one of the largest com- mission houses on the Chicago Board of Trade, being placed in charge of its grain receiving department. He was thus employed from 1886 to 1896, when he resigned his responsibilities to give his attention to the affairs of the Svea Building and Loan Association, and to a gen- eral real estate, loan and insurance business. The association named had been organized in 1892, with Mr. Nelson as president, and in 1895, he had been elected secretary, which made him its executive head and active manager. Its business expanded so rapidly and ab-
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sorbed so much of his time, within four years of the founding of the enterprise, that he found it impossible to continue his relations with the board of trade. He still retains the secretaryship as well as a position on the directorate, and has the satisfaction of superintending and developing the affairs of the safest and largest organization of the kind among the Scandinavians of the city, if not of the north- west. Its assets in real estate amount to about $206,000.
The Chicago Cemetery Association, owners of Oak Hill Cemetery. located at Kedzie avenue and 119th street, was incorporated January 25; 1902, the grounds being dedicated October 19th of that year. The cemetery lies about a mile southwest of Morgan Park and West Pullman, and is being rapidly and beautifully improved. Up to the present time about $40,000 has been expended, and some 2,000 burials have taken place, the cemetery being valued at $112,000. Mr. Nelson was one of the prime movers in this large public enterprise, was the first secretary of the association, in which office he still continues. A capital of $100,000 has been fully paid in.
The Scandia Life Insurance Company was organized by Mr. Nel- son and Edwin A. Olson, and was incorporated on the 5th of Decem- ber, 1904. In April of the following year the company re-insured all the risks of the Scandia Mutual Life Insurance Company, also of Chicago, thereby greatly increasing its business. At the last report of the Scandia Life Insurance Company there were 9,560 policies car- rying $10,000,000 insurance, and the surplus of assets over liabilities amounted to $625,000. Of this flourishing organization the following are the officers : N. A. Nelson, president ; C. H. Boman, secretary ; L. G. Abrahamson, treasurer; E. P. Strandberg, vice president, and Ed- win A. Olson, attorney and agency manager. Mr. Nelson is also a member of the board of directors of the Insurance Company of the State of Illinois, being elected in 1908.
Besides being identified with the above notable institutions, Mr. Nelson is secretary and director of the Nelson Wheel Company, which was organized in 1907 for the purpose of manufacturing "auto" wheels with solid tires, the springs of the machine being a part of the wheel.
In 1895 Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Adelia H. M. Olson, of Chicago, daughter of Herman Olson, a dry goods merchant, who for
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the past twenty-five years has been located at Nos. 5726-8 Wentworth avenue. Three sons have been born to this union, Byron Le Roy (ten years of age), Norman Anthony (six), and Stanley Everett Nelson (two years old). The family home has long been at No. 543 West Sixty-first place.
Mr. Nelson has been a leader in much of the religious and chari- table work of his home locality for many years. For fifteen years he has been active in the church work of the Swedish Lutherans of the Englewood district, having served as a deacon in their religious or- ganization and superintendent of the Sunday school. He is a direc- tor in the Englewood Hospital and in the Innermission, the latter be- ing a Swedish charitable association.
Henry Grant Buswell, for more than twenty years in the service of the Home Insurance Company of New York, and now Cook county
HENRY G. manager, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey,
BUSWELL: March 4. 1865. He is the son of Henry L. and Isa- bella (Smith) Buswell, was educated in the public schools of his native city and began his insurance career in New York.
Mr. Buswell's inaugural connection with the business was in the employment of the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society of New York City. In 1885 he became a clerk in the home office of the Home Insurance Company of New York, and, after advancing through various positions, came to Chicago, in June, 1903, as local manager of its interests. Mr. Buswell is a member and treasurer of the Chi- cago Board of Underwriters.
On the 8th of October, 1890, Mr. Buswell was united in marriage with Miss Josephine del Risco, at Brooklyn, New York, and their union has resulted in four children-Josephine, Walter, Marian and Florence. The city home is at No. 1334 Hinman avenue, Evanston, and the country home at Center Moriches, Long Island. While a resi- rent of New York, Mr. Buswell took much interest in military mat- ters, being for ten years connected with the Twenty-third Regiment, New York National Guard, a Brooklyn organization. Mr. Buswell and his family are members of the Congregational church of Evans- ton and socially he is a member of the Union League Club, Evanston Country Club, and Moriches, Long Island, Yacht Club.
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