USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 4
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In the above-named year, then nineteen years of age. Mr. Mac- Leish became a permanent resident of this city, first entering the employ of J. D. Sherman and J. B. Shay, dry goods dealers, and remaining with the two houses for six years. In 1864 he became a member of the firm of J. B. Shay & Co., and materially assisted in the expansion of their business for two years. In 1867 he became associated with the house of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., founding their retail business and entering into the active management of it. For a period of forty years he has continued to fill that position. and has proved to be the main force in the development of a great mer- cantile business. With the growth of this enterprise he has also developed into one of the leading citizens of Chicago, fully alive to her higher needs and earnest and efficient in his support of the sub-
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stantial institutions of charity and practical reform for which the city is noted.
Mr. MacLeish is vice president of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago and a trustee of Rush Medical College and the Chicago Manual Training School. In his religious faith he is a Baptist, and is widely known as a leader in the work of that de- nomination, being a member of the Baptist Social Union and vice president of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In poli- tics Mr. MacLeish has been a lifelong Republican, and is an active and popular member of the Quadrangle and Union League clubs. Of the latter, long known as one of the foremost organizations of a so- cial and political nature in the country, he was a nominee for the presidency in January. 1907.
Mr. MacLeish has been married three times. His first wife, to whom he was married in Chicago in 1858, was Miss Lillias Young, and the children born to this union were: Lily Agnes, now Mrs. C. L. Day. and Blanche E. (Mrs. C. K. G. Billings). In 1881 he married as his second wife Miss Marie Louise Little, and one child, Bruce, was born to them. In 1888 Mr. MacLeish wedded Miss Mar- tha Hillard. of Plymouth. Connecticut, and the following children were the fruits of his third marriage: Norman Hillard. Archibald, Kenneth, Isabel Marjoribanks. The family residence is at Glencoe. Illinois.
Daniel Miner Lord, one of the founders of the great advertising house of Lord & Thomas, retired from the main work of his life in
DANIEL M. 1904. but is still engaged in the management of large interests of a financial and industrial nature. LORD. He was born in Newton Corner, Massachusetts, on the 29th of September. 1844, son of Daniel Miner and Eliza ( Hardy) Lord. Obtaining a public school education at home, in 1861 he was prepared to enter college, but owing to the death of his father in an accident he was obliged to relinquish all ambitions for a higher education. Throughout the period of the Civil war he, therefore, engaged in the shipping business. his residence being in New York.
Mr. Lord became a resident of Chicago in October, 1868. and within two years thereafter entered the newspaper advertising field, forming a partnership in that line with the late Ambrose L. Thomas
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For more than thirty years these associates combined their remark- able abilities for organization, promotion and substantial develop- ment, and built up a business remarkable for its extent, profits and originality. On February 1. 1904. he sold his interest in the house to former employes and retired from the business. He is still a di- rector ( former vice president ) in the Metropolitan Trust and Say- ings Bank, and the Sterling Remedy Company ; treasurer and director of the Opaque Shade Cloth Company, and director of the Columbia Shade Cloth Company, Indiana Mineral Springs Company and the Illinois and Indian Oil Company.
On September 21, 1887, Mr. Lord was married to Miss Alice Barbee Tullis, and the following children have been born to them : Arthur D., Alice Tullis, Florence Eliza and Daniel M., Jr. The fam- ily residence is at No. 5450 Cornell avenue. Mr. Lord is independent in politics, and belongs to the Union League, Chicago Athletic ( ex- president ). Chicago Literary, City, Kenwood and Homewood Coun- try clubs. He is also ex-president of the Sons of the American Revo- lution, Illinois branch ; was vice president of the National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, and is ex-vice president of the New England Society.
The sudden death from heart disease of Ambrose L. Thomas. on the Ioth of November, 1906, removed from the world a forceful
AMBROSE L. and lovable personality-one who filled a large
THOMAS. place in the stern activities of business without mak-
ing enemies, because his aggressive methods were conducted in the open and he never spared himself the wear and tear of such competition. It may be added that there are few fields where competition is keener, greater or prosecuted with more severe expen- diture of mental and physical vitality than that of advertising, which he early selected as his province. His abounding success, therefore, convincingly proved his firmness, his persistency and his broad and persuasive abilities. In his more private traits of character, a charm- ing sociability was evident, and his enviable ability to readily draw associates to him was strengthened by those deeper qualities of faith- fulness and honor, which made firm friends of acquaintances and transformed temporary friendships into those of a lifetime.
Mr. Thomas was a native of the Pine Tree state, born in Thomas-
Vol. III-3.
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ton, in the year 1841. When quite young he became an office boy in the employ of the Boston Traveler, where he remained until he associated himself with T. C. Evans in the advertising business. The decade which he thus spent in Boston was a period both of progress and education in his chosen field, so that, when he came to Chicago he was fully prepared not only to develop in the larger territory of the west many plans which had been well matured in the east. but was so firmly grounded in the fundamentals of advertising that he was able to form prompt judgment on the feasibility of new schemes presented. In 1870 he formed the partnership with Daniel M. Lord, which, under the firm name of Lord & Thomas, continued until the retirement of the senior partner February 1, 1904, when Mr. Thomas himself became president. Without detracting from the marked ability of Mr. Lord, it may be said that the services of the deceased in the building of an establishment which had no superior in the world in its line were invaluable, and along this line quote the words of one of his associates uttered at the time of his death : "The advertising world has lost a master, in the death of our executive. His was a grand personality. He made friends all over the country and held them, and that was the secret of his ability to organize and get the most out of the advertising business. He was the prime fac- tor in building up the business, working along lines that he fully ma- tured before coming to Chicago from Boston, and he seemed particu- larly satisfied of late that his efforts had been crowned with success."
Besides actively and successfully guiding the course of this great advertising house, Mr. Thomas was president and director of the Sterling Remedy Company; vice president and director of the Orangeine Chemical Company, and director of the Metropolitan Trust and Savings Bank and the Indiana Mineral Springs Company.
The deceased is survived by his widow and their two daughters- one of whom is Miss Florence Thomas, a graduate of Smith College. Springfield, Massachusetts, and the other, Mrs. Roscoe U. Lansing, whose husband is identified with the First Trust and Savings Bank. The home of the widow and unmarried daughter is still at No. 4722 Woodlawn avenue, which so long was the center of a happy and wholesome life of sociability and domesticity.
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Charles Richard Crane, first vice president of the Crane Company, is a native of Chicago, born on the 7th of August, 1858, son of Rich-
CHARLES R. ard T. and Mary ( Prentice) Crane. He received CRANE. his education in the public schools of this city, and soon after finishing his courses therein entered the Crane Company. He served in various capacities in the mechanical, office and sales departments, so as to become thoroughly familiar with the industry and the business in all their practical details. In 1894 he assumed his present office of vice president. In the manufacture of valves and fitting, the vast Crane plant has no superior in the world. Mr. Crane is also a director in the National Bank of the Republic.
Mr. Crane has taken an active and influential interest in reforma- tory movements of an industrial and civic nature. He has served as president of the Municipal Voters' League and is a member of the American Economic Association. In politics, he is independent.
In 1881 Mr. Crane was united in marriage with Miss Cornelia W. Smith, and the family residence is at No. 2559 Michigan avenue. He is widely known in club circles, having membership in the follow- ing organizations : City Club, Chicago Literary, Chicago, Calumet, University, Chicago Athletic, Iroquois and the Century Club of New York.
In his younger days one of the leading men of the American game and in later years a large managerial figure in the National League,
ALBERT G. also for more than thirty years head of the house
SPALDING. of A. G. Spalding & Co., one of the largest manu- facturers of sporting goods in the world-Albert G. Spalding is perhaps more widely known among all classes of ath- letes and lovers of sports than any other person in the United States. He is a native of Byron, Illinois, son of James L. and Harriet I. (Goodwill) Spalding, and was born on the 2nd of September, 1850. He received a good education in the public schools of Byron and Rockford, Illinois, and at the Rockford Commercial College.
From very early boyhood Albert G. Spalding has been a baseball enthusiast, and at seventeen years of age had attained much local prominence as a player. Joining the Forest City Club of Rockford he did much to place that organization at the head of the amateur
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clubs of the west, and gained national fame as a pitcher. In 1871 he joined the Boston Club of the National League, and for four years was its star pitcher, as well as captain of the club. In 1876 he became a member of the Chicago "White Stockings," and remained with it as manager, secretary and president until 1891. During this period of fifteen years the Chicago club was at the height of its fame. winning the pennant six times-thrice in succession ( 1880-82)- and to Mr. Spalding's energetic management and fine judgment a large share of this signal success has been accorded.
In 1876, soon after joining the Chicago Club, Mr. Spalding asso- ciated himself with his brother, J. Waller Spalding, and his brother- in-law, William T. Brown, in the establishment of a house for the manufacture and sale of sporting goods: and, in view of the wide popularity, as well as the thorough business qualities of all concerned in the enterprise. it has enjoyed a rapid and substantial growth from the first. The business was originally devoted to the sale of goods : was later incorporated with A. G. Spalding as president. and still later the manufacturing branch was added to it. The plant is located at West Fifty-fourth street and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad tracks. The house has also a large establishment in New York, of which Mr. Spalding is in personal charge, although he still spends much of his time in Chicago.
Jacob Louis Kesner. the general manager of the Fair store, build- er and owner of the new Municipal Courts building on Michigan J. L. KESNER. avenue, and largely interested in other down town real estate and ninety-nine-year leaseholds, is one of the first men to be named among those most prominently connected with the improvement of the city "within the loop," and the practical realization of the plans for the "new Chi- cago." As one of the far-sighted and energetic State street mer- chants, he has suggested plans or has actively co-operated with others for the improvement of that great commercial thoroughfare, and those familiar with the many changes for the better that have taken place in that street during the last ten years will recall that Mr. Kes- ner contributed time. money and energy to such improvements.
Though a native of England, Mr. Kesner is, in all other ways, a thorough Chicagoan, and comes by his pride and interest in the
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city because it has afforded him a field in which his own energies might expand without limitation. He was born in London, Decem- ber 30, 1865, son of Louis Jacob and Sarah ( Staal) Kesner. He was a child when his parents came to Chicago, and the old Scammon and Haven schools gave him the foundation of an education. When he was twelve and a half years old he became a cash boy in the Fair store (in July, 1878). As one of the least among a multitude he began in a connection which has continued for nearly thirty years, and resulted in successive promotions from the bundle wrapper to cashier, salesman, floorwalker, buyer, assistant manager, and, on Jan- uary 1, 1895, to general manager of the entire business. While he was earning $2.50 a week at the Fair, he attended a business colloge to acquire the principles of education most useful to him in his career. Since Mr. Kesner became general manager, the Fair has maintained a reputation as one of the world's great department stores, and in this has shown not only a remarkable expansion of business, but also a decided elevation in the standard of its goods and the class of its patronage. The trade is both much larger and better, the artistic feature having been developed in the display and quality of the goods offered, which is in direct line with the progress of the mercantile business throughout the United States.
Mr. Kesner has large and varied real estate interests in the loop district. Best known of these is the handsome building at 148-149 Michigan avenue, where the new municipal courts have quarters for which the city pays $88,000 a year. His activity in making an ideal business way out of State street has been directed largely through the organizations known as the State Street Improvement and Protective Association and the Citizens' Street Cleaning Bureau, of both of which he is president. He is also president of the Strowger Auto- matic Telephone Exchange, and is a director in the Kenwood Trust and Savings Bank. His clubs are the Mid-Day, Illinois Athletic. Hamilton, South Shore Country, Standard, Press, and he affiliates with Chicago Lodge No. 437. F. & A. M. Mr. Kesner married, August 30, 1887, Miss Bettie Frohman, and they have one child. Lu- cile. The beautiful family home is at 4756 Grand boulevard. Mr. Kesner's real estate offices are in the Majestic building.
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Enos M. Barton, president of the Western Electric Company, is a native of Lorraine, New York, born on the 2nd of December, 1842,
ENOS M. son of Sidney William and Fanny ( Bliss) Barton.
He received his education in various public and pri-
BARTON. vate schools of his home locality, pursuing his high- er courses at the University of Rochester, New York.
Mr. Barton's first business experience was as a messenger boy in a telegraph office, his coming to Chicago dating from 1869, when he was twenty-seven years of age, as a member of the firm of Gray & Barton (Elisha Gray and General Anson Stager and Mr. Barton being general partners). In 1872 the Western Electric Manufactur- ing Company was organized, Mr. Barton being secretary and general manager. In 1882 the Western Electric Company was formed to take over the business of the manufacturing company and some other con- cerns, and Mr. Barton became vice president, and in 1887 president. Within the twenty years that he has been at the head of its affairs the business has developed into one of the most extensive and com- plete in its line in the world. When he became president its trans- actions amounted to $2,300,000 annually ; these figures have been in- creased to $69,000,000, for 1906. The number of employes has been over 28,000. Besides being the master force in this vast business, Mr. Barton is a director in the Merchants' Loan and Trust Company. Professionally and personally, he is an associate member of the AAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers and a trustee of the Uni- versity of Chicago.
Mr. Barton has been twice married-first in 1869, at Rochester, New York, to Miss Katharine Richardson, who bore him three chil- dren: Alvin L., Katharine and Clara M. His second wife, to whom he was married in 1899, was Miss Mary C. Rust, of Chicago, and into their household have been born two sons, Malcolm S. and Evan M. Mr. Barton is affiliated with the Republican party and with the following well-known clubs: Chicago, Union League, Commercial, Quadrangle and Hinsdale. His home is at Hinsdale, Illinois.
During the period of the Civil war and before the fire, the firm of Durand Brothers & Powers was a well-known house among Chi- CALVIN DURAND. cago grocers. It was among the first firms to en- gage in the grocery wholesale trade in this city and helped to build up the city's prestige as a wholesale
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center. Just before the war this firm had taken into its employ as clerk, Calvin Durand, who was at that time about twenty-one years old and who was a brother of some of the members of the firm. He was born in Clinton county, New York, May 7, 1840, a son of Cal- vin Durand, a native of Vermont and a farmer by occupation. His education was obtained in the public schools at Keeseville, New York.
The clerkship was cut short by the breaking out of the war. With Lincoln's call for 300,000 three-year men in July, 1862, the entire city was roused to enthusiasm, every important organization contrib- uting its efforts and means for the Union cause. At that time the famous "Board of Trade Battery" was formed and was drilled and equipped so quickly that it had reached the front and taken part in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, by September 9th. Calvin Dur- and went out as quartermaster sergeant of this battery, and served till the close of the war. In 1864 he was made prisoner near Atlanta, Georgia, and spent eight months in Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and several others. Finally, in the month of March, 1865, he was exchanged at Richmond, and, the war closing soon after, he was discharged from service.
Returning to Chicago as a veteran of the war for the Union, Mr. Durand resumed business as a member of the firm which he had entered as a clerk. After the Chicago fire, which caused only a tem- porary cessation of the business, the firm became Durand & Co. Its members were then John N. Durand, Henry C. Durand and Calvin Durand. In 1886 a reorganization was effected, under the name of H. C. & C. Durand, and the business was conducted as such until 1895, when the present firm of Durand & Kasper Company was formed. On the death of Henry C. Durand in 1891 Mr. Calvin Durand was elected president of the company. Throughout all these changes the business has been recognized as one of the largest and most substantial of Chicago wholesale grocery houses. He is also vice president of Watson, Durand & Kasper Company, Salina, Kan- sas.
Mr. Durand is a member of the Union League Club and the On- wentsia Golf Club. His home is in Lake Forest. He is a director in the State Bank of Chicago. He married Miss Sarah G. Downs, daughter of Myron D. Downs, of Chicago. Their six children. one
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son and five daughters, are all married. The son, Henry C., is vice president and treasurer of the Durand & Kasper Company, and a stirring, energetic young business man. He belongs to the Union League and Onwentsia clubs, and lives in Lake Forest.
When Albert Arnold Sprague came to Chicago and established the wholesale grocery house which soon became Sprague, Warner A. A. SPRAGUE. & Co .. the wholesale grocery business was in its infancy. Nine years later, in 1871, according to an historical statement appearing in a former history of Chicago, "the city had achieved such importance .as a distributing center that the wholesale grocery business had proved a somewhat alluring field for capital seeking investment." It is interesting to know that the great house of Sprague, Warner & Co. is really a pioneer in one of the most extensive departments of Chicago's great mercantile enterprises.
The founder of the business and the president of the company is a New Englander by birth and training. It is a noteworthy fact that, among so many successful business men who are described as beginning life in humble circumstances and working from early boy- hood to get their start, Mr. Sprague had the advantages of such en- vironment and scholastic influences as are associated with the best New England homes. Born at Randolph, Vermont, May 19, 1835. son of Ziba and Caroline M. (Arnold) Sprague, he passed his boy- hood on a farm and had excellent educational advantages. From the common schools he entered Kimball Union Academy, where he graduated in 1854, and in the following year became a Yale fresh- man, where he took the regular classical course and graduated in 1859.
A tendency to pulmonary weakness caused Mr. Sprague to aban- don his ambitions for a legal career, and after spending three years in gaining ruggedness and health on the home farm in Vermont he aspired to engage in the business life of the west and came to Chi- cago in the spring of 1862. Without well defined intentions as to his future he was not long in deciding that Chicago was a good field for the wholesale grocery business. He and Z. B. Stetson formed the firm of Sprague & Stetson, so that from the first Mr. Sprague has been the senior member of the company. They did a successful
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business, though on limited capital, and on Mr. Stetson's retirement the next year a new partnership was formed with Ezra J. Warner, a native of Vermont, younger than Mr. Sprague, and who had also recently come to Chicago to begin his business career. In 1864 they were joined by O. S. A. Sprague, a younger brother of the president of the company, who returned from the war and likewise identified his lot with Chicago mercantile affairs. With the addition of this partner the firm of Sprague, Warner & Co. came into existence. and its name and success have continued without change for more than forty years. It is rather remarkable that the men who founded the business are still identified with its active direction, and it is a fact that the character of the men has permeated the entire establishment, which is a solid monument to their business methods. It is no ex- aggeration to state that Sprague, Warner & Co. are the largest wholesale grocers in Chicago, and perhaps in the world. Its particu- lar territory extends from the extreme northern part of the middle states to Georgia and the Carolinas on the south, and also throughout the belt of middle west from north to south, while in the northwest the goods of this house are on sale in every hamlet.
Though never active in practical politics, and finding no allure- ment in the conspicuous side of public life, Mr. Sprague has directed his activity into many other channels than his mercantile enterprise. He has been identified with many corporations, being director of the Chicago Telephone Company and the Edison Electric Light Company. He was one of the organizers and is still a director of the Northern Trust Company, one of the strongest financial institutions in the city. In the field of philanthropy his activity has also been conspicuous. Since 1873 he has been a director of the Relief and Aid Society, of which he was president in 1887-90; is a trustee of the Chicago Or- phan Asylum, the Presbyterian Hospital and Rush Medical College, and a director of the Art Institute. He is a charter member of the Commercial Club, and its president in 1882; and also a member of the Chicago Literary Society; the Chicago, University. Onwentsia, Homewood and Pelee ( Canada ) clubs.
Mr. Sprague married at Royalton, Vermont. September 29, 1862. Nancy A. Atwood, daughter of Ebenezer. Their one daughter is Mrs. Elizabeth S. Coolidge.
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Ezra Joseph Warner, member of the great wholesale grocery house of Sprague, Warner & Co., was born March S, 1841, of an
EZRA J. old and honored New England family. The
WARNER. founder of the American branch was Joseph War- ner, who left England to worship according to his private views, settled in Connecticut, and there died and was buried. It is known that his son Joseph was born in 1685-and there the record ends. Joseph Warner, the fourth of that name, was born in 1725, and his son (also Joseph) was among the pioneer settlers of Sudbury, Vermont. He was a farmer and country mer- chant, and lived and died in that locality.
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