USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 6
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He organized and purchased the Frank Parmelee Transfer Com- pany, of which he is still president. He purchased in 1905 the South Chicago Elevators, with grain capacity of 4,500,000 bushels, and operates the same under the name of J. C. Shaffer & Co., Grain Mer- chants. This grain business here and in Cleveland is the largest cash grain business done by any one firm in the United States. They, combined, purchase 36,500,000.
On December 5, 1888, Mr. Shaffer was united in marriage with Miss Virginia, daughter of Rev. F. M. Conser, of Baltimore, Mary- land, and the two children born to their union are Carroll and Kent. Politically he is a stanch Republican, and in his religious faith is a Methodist. He is a member of the Chicago, Union League, Chicago Athletic, Caxton, Twentieth Century, Press, South Shore Country. Automobile, Mid-Day, Evanston Golf and Glen View Golf clubs of Chicago, and Lotus, Illinois and City clubs of New York; the Columbia Club of Indianapolis, and the Bibliophile Society of Boston. His library is unexcelled as to fine works, and his collection of paint- ings are widely known among noted collections by private parties.
Curtis Nathaniel Kimball, president of the W. W. Kimball Com- pany, manufacturers of pianos, pipe organs and other musical instru-
CURTIS N. ments, is a nephew of the founder of the pioneer
KIMBALL. music house of Chicago. He was born in Wayne township, Mitchell county, Iowa, on the 4th of January, 1862, being the son of David W. and Sarah (Moore) Kim- ball. Educated in district and private schools of his home neighbor- hood, he completed his literary training when he was eighteen years of age, after which he pursued a business course, taking the latter after his location in Chicago in 1879. He then became connected with the W. W. Kimball Company, spending the first seven years in the office and another seven years among the dealers of the house. Since 1893 he has held offices within the company of treasurer, vice- president and president, being elected to the position last named in 1905.
Frederick E. Coyne, who has been a resident of Chicago for nearly a quarter of a century, has been one of its most prominent
FREDERICK E. citizens, both in business and public affairs. He
COYNE.
was one of the pioneers in the establishment of so-called bakery lunches, and still conducts a large
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and prosperous place on Madison street. He has also held two gov- ernment offices, both of which he has honored by his honorable and efficient conduct of their affairs.
Frederick E. Coyne was born in East Orange, New Jersey, in the year 1860. He was educated in the public schools of his native place, and became a resident of Chicago in 1883. After coming to this city he was employed for a short time as a clerk, but, having saved a small capital, started a bakery, later adding several restau- rants to this line and changing his retail bakery into a wholesale con- cern. This, also, he still conducts.
Mr. Coyne has always been a staunch Republican, and active in politics. In 1897 he was appointed collector of internal revenue in Chicago, holding the office for four years and conducting its affairs with the honest and business-like promptness which characterized the conduct of his own affairs. His record was emphatically endorsed by his appointment to the postmastership, made in 1901, and to the multitudinous and intricate details of his new department he brought the same business acumen, foresight- and practical grasp of mind which had earned him the previous successes. He held the Chicago postmastership for another four years, and since 1905 has given his attention to the superintendence of his large and growing private interests. He resides at 795 Warren avenue.
Leander James McCormick, one of the founders of the great Chi- cago manufactory of harvesting machines, was the son of Robert
LEANDER J. and Mary Ann ( Hall) McCormick, and born on
MCCORMICK.
the family estate in Virginia, known as the Wal-
nut Grove Farm, February 8, 1819. The Mc- Cormicks emigrated originally from the north of Ireland, and set- tled in the Old Dominion, and like most of the Scotch-Irish race, were a thrifty, God-fearing people, who trained their children after the strict customs of the Presbyterians of those days. Robert McCormick, the father, also inherited the sturdy mentality of his Scotch fore- fathers, being noted for the extent of his historical and scientific knowledge, as well as for his mechanical genius. Between the years 1809 and 1825 he constructed various reapers and tested them on the family estate. but his machines were not a practical success until the late twenties, when he invented and applied what is known as the vibrating sickle and horizontal reel. A number of these improved
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machines were built previous to 1844; in that year twenty-five were constructed ; in 1845, fifty, and 1846 seventy-five. The elder McCor- mick was a man of great energy and business capacity and developed inany large interests outside of those connected with the manufacture of his inventions; in fact, his affairs were so expanded that the panic of 1837 caused him serious embarrassment, and it required the united efforts of the family to lift the debt from the estate. In the meantime, Leander J. McCormick, who most strongly inherited the mechanical and inventive genius of his father, had become his father's assistant in the shop as well as in the sale of reapers, horse- power machinery, blacksmith's bellows and other tools, and soon after his father's decease, in association with his brother Cyrus HI .. he commenced the systematic establishment of the reaper in the west- ern markets. In 1846 the reaper works were established in Chicago : the first in the west.
In 1847 William B. Ogden and Charles M. Gray joined the Mc- Cormicks in the venture, but remained in the business but a short time. In 1850 William S. McCormick joined the business. From the first Leander was the mechanical power of the enterprise, and in the spring of 1848, he removed his family to Chicago, and assumed the entire management of the manufacturing department, acquiring a one-sixth interest in the business. From 1850 to 1859 he held the same position on a salary. In 1859 he and his brother, William S., became inter- ested in the business to the extent of one-fourth each, the firm becom- ing C. H. McCormick & Bros. At the death of William S., in September, 1865, Leander J. acquired a one-third interest.
By the great fire of 1871 Leander J. McCormick lost not only his home and other valuable property, but his share in the great reaper works, which were then located on the north side, near the mouth of the river. It is due to the energy and practical ability of Mr. McCormick that the new and far more extensive works on the west side were so promptly completed, as he personally planned and superintended their construction. In fact, it will be found that in all the years which covered the establishment and the most remarkable development of the business, it was Leander J. McCormick who met all such crises with his indomitable will, his untiring energy and his genius for practical accomplishment. It was in the apparent seclusion of his workshop that he conceived and tested many of the inventions
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which made the McCormick harvesting machinery a world leader of its kind, and at his death in Chicago, February 20, 1900, he was recognized by those conversant with the facts as one of the greatest promoters of industrial Chicago. During the later years of his life, although Mr. McCormick was vice president of the McCormick Har- vesting Machine Company, he took no active part in the business, and at his final withdrawal in 1889, his former investments in the concern were largely placed in business property in the central district, and at the death of Mr. McCormick his estate, which had vastly increased in value, was placed under the management of his son. R. Hall Mc- Cormick.
The deceased was a man of marked honor in all his business con- nections, and his life outside of that field was founded on the highest plane of probity and broad justice. He was one of the organizers of the South Presbyterian Church, of Chicago, in 1854, but afterwards returned to the mother body, the North Presbyterian church, and died a firm believer in the faith of his family and his boyhood. To the last he retained a warm affection for his native state, and one of his generous acts, for which the Old Dominion will long remember him, was his donation to the University of Virginia of its twenty-six inch telescope, which at that time was the largest in the world, and which has since been continually brought into requisition in the cause of science and higher education.
Robert Hall McCormick, for a number of years a partner in the firm of C. H. & L. J. McCormick and in the incorporated
R. HALL business of the McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company, is the eldest son of Leander J. McCor- MCCORMICK. mick, one of the founders of the great industry with which the family name will always be associated. Mr. McCormick is a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, born on the 6th of Sep- tember, 1847.
He was brought by his parents to Chicago when he was about a year old. He received his education in the preparatory and col- legiate departments of the old Chicago University. In 1871 he en- tered the business of C. H. & L. J. McCormick; August, 1875, he was admitted as a partner, and continued as such until the incorpora- tion of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, August 10.
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1879, when he was appointed assistant superintendent of the manu- facturing department.
During the years 1875 and 1876 Mr. McCormick personally ex- perimented with the self-binder in the wheat fields of the west and southwest, and made, both in reaper and binder, improvements which were adopted and patented by the firm. At the Centennial Exposition in 1876, he was in full charge of the field exhibits of the McCormick harvesting machinery, and under his guidance the self-binder so com- pletely demonstrated its superiority over the other machines on the market as to offer to the agricultural world a revelation in labor- saving machinery.
In 1889 his father and he disposed of their united interests in the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, withdrawing entirely from the business. Their former investments in the harvesting busi- ness were largely placed in real estate, centrally located in Chicago, and selected by R. Hall McCormick. These properties have since greatly increased in value, and on the death of his father he was made sole trustee of the estate.
Mr. McCormick's tastes are as artistic as they are practical and businesslike. He has made a special study of the British school of art, and his residence at 124 Rush street, north side, is embellished with rare specimens of this school. Works from his collection have been exhibited in Washington, Philadelphia. Omaha and other large cities, and his entire collection in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, and also in Boston. In acknowledgment of the latter, he was ap- pointed honorary member of the Copley Society of Boston. He has compiled a biographical and descriptive catalogue of his collection, which has a place in the chief galleries of the United States and Europe. Mr. McCormick is a member of the Chicago, Onwentsia and Saddle and Cycle clubs, of Chicago; the New York Yacht Club, of New York; the Kebo Valley and Reading Room and Swimming Pool Clubs, of Bar Harbor, Maine, where he has an attractive summer home. He was one of the pioneer four-in-hand drivers of the west, having been one of the three who drove their coaches the opening season of the Washington Park Club, in 1884. He is also interested in yachting and automobiling. Mr. McCormick is a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a director of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society.
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On June 1. 1871, Mr. McCormick married Miss Sarah Lord Day, daughter of Henry Day, of the firm of Lord. Day and Lord. New York lawyers, and their children are as follows: Henrietta H., now Mrs. Nelson B. Williams, who resides at Bedford, New York: Eliza- beth D .; Robert Hall, Jr .; Phebe Lord, and Mildred D. McCormick.
Edward L. Ryerson, president of the great supply house for the iron and steel trade, is a son of the founder of the firm of Joseph T.
EDWARD L. Ryerson & Son, under which style the business has
RYERSON. been conducted since he became a partner, nearly thirty years ago. The elder Mr. Ryerson established himself in Chicago as a wholesale iron merchant in 1842, occupying at first small offices and warehouses on South Water street. Later the business was removed to larger warehouses in the block bounded by Lake and Clinton streets and Milwaukee avenue. This site was sold to the Northwestern Railroad Company and will be occupied by the new terminal, the plant of the concern now being a collection of enor- - mous buildings extending over three blocks, from Fifteenth place to Eighteenth street and from Rockwell street to Campbell avenue. Joseph T. Ryerson was a man of not only great ability as an organizer and a promoter, but expended generously of his time and means in the furtherance of charitable movements. He was one of the incorporators of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society in 1857, and was long a director, holding a position on the board at the time of the Chicago fire, and for several years thereafter, which was the period of the greatest activity of the organization. In the 'seventies he was also prominently associated with the management of the Woman's Medical College, the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, and other institutions whose work for good has been substantial and continuous. During anti-war times he was an ardent Free Soiler, and, with other prominent men of the city, gave an enthusiastic reception to James T. Lane when he lectured in Chicago, in May, 1856. He was one of the finance com- mittee appointed by a popular gathering to raise funds for the sending of an Illinois colony to Kansas in the support of the free soil move- ment. He also contributed freely toward the support of the Union cause during the Civil war ; but, as a rule, devoted his time to his large business interests and works of charity rather than to public or political matters.
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Edward L. Ryerson was born in Chicago, November 24, 1854. and after graduating from one of its high schools entered Yale Uni- versity, in which he completed the course which earned him the degree of Ph. B. in 1876. He at once commenced his business career in con- nection with his father's house, and in 1879, upon his admission to partnership, it assumed the style of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son. The business was incorporated under the same name in 1888, and after the death of his father Edward L. Ryerson became president. He has since had a controlling interest in the house, which, through his wise. energetic and enterprising management, has been raised to its present position of eminence. Its present mammoth plant, which centers on Sixteenth street and Campbell avenue, occupies a ground space of three city blocks, with 675,000 square feet of floor space and having a capacity of 150,000 tons. It has been demonstrated that forty-nine freight cars can be handled at one time in its warehouses. The plant has been well described as a huge department store for the iron and steel trade, offering to contractors, builders, shops, etc., quick ship- ments on their requirements. In ordering steel from the mills it often requires several months to secure shipments, as the manufactories carry no material in stock to supply an immediate demand; hence the neces- sity for such a vast supply house as that of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son. The company also handles over one thousand specialties, and has a complete equipment of heavy machinery for making such material as shops would not be able to handle and keep in stock. The steel build- ings are equipped with sixteen high speed traveling cranes of from ten to twenty tons capacity, with a span of one hundred feet. In the center of the largest building, covering nearly two city blocks, is an enormous high speed friction saw for cutting beams. It has a record of severing a steel beam twenty-four inches wide and weighing 100 pounds to the foot in sixteen seconds, which is about the speed of an ordinary buzzsaw cutting through soft pine. With the exception of the specialties mentioned, the house does not manufacture. its main function being as a supply depot, carrying vast stocks of structural steel, plate steel, sheet steel, bar iron and steel, and boiler tubes, ready for the customer at almost a moment's notice. It is one of the greatest institutions of a great city.
As to the more personal relations of Edward L. Ryerson. it may be
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stated that his religious connections are with the Episcopal church. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the following clubs : Chicago, University and Union, of Chicago, and the New York Yacht and University, of New York City. In 1879 he was married at New Haven, Connecticut, to Miss Mary Pringle Mitchell, and their children are Joseph Turner, Mary Mitchell, Donald Mitchell and Edward Larned Ryerson, Jr. The eldest son has been associated in the business of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son for a number of years, and now holds the position of treasurer of the house.
John Austin Hamlin, late proprietor of the Grand Opera House, Chicago, popular and honored in the American field of amusements for thirty-six years, died in this city on the 20th of May,
JOHN A.
HAMLIN. 1908, in the seventy-first year of his age. Before he became noted as a promoter and manager of the- atricals, his name had spread throughout the country in connection with Hamlin's Wizard Oil, and the unique method by which he made a fortune out of this patent and really meritorious medicine, naturally led to his after career in the amusement field. This combination of qualities in his flexible character of an unusual talent for getting busi- ness results through original methods and his keen discrimination of what was both artistic and of enduring popularity is well brought out in a Chicago journal commenting on his decease : "Only in the Amer- ica of the last half-century would it be possible to find, perhaps, a career so varied and embracing so many interests, apparently unrelated and even hostile, as were combined in the life story of John Austin Hamlin. It was a period (above all in the middle west) of transition-a period when types of activity were not sharply defined and a man might touch on the one hand a business calling for the broadest sort of popular advertising and on the other establish more than a casual relationship with the arts. Inasmuch as he did this very thing, Mr. Hamlin reflected perfectly the social flexibility which soon passes out of devel- oped communities, and he already is a figure of history in Chicago.
"Mr. Hamlin did much for the stage in Chicago and the west and his influence always was thrown on the side of what is most enduring and valuable in things theatrical. His views of the playhouse were conservative and he did not care for what is popular and of the moment only. A study of the playbills of twenty-five years ago will show that
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many of the famous stars of that day preferred to twinkle in the firma- ment of which Mr. Hamlin acted as cloud compeller."
The deceased was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Summit county, Ohio, on the 29th of June, 1837, son of Dr. William Starr and Eliza ( Welch ) Hamlin. He was educated in the public schools of Ohio and at Taylor's Academy, Cuyahoga Falls. His father was a pioneer circuit rider, who, while faithfully administering to the souls of men and women, did not forget the bruises, sprains and other hurts of their bodies. When he died he left his son, John A., little except the formula for the oil which he dispensed with his kind and Christian words. This proved the keynote to that son's progress in life. In 1859, when he was twenty-one years of age, he patented the formula and commenced to manufacture the remedy at Cincinnati under the name of Hamlin's Wizard Oil, remaining president of the company thus designated until the time of his death. In the first year of the war he came to Chicago to develop the business, and about this time originated the "medicine show" as his star advertising medium. He employed comedians, ven- triloquists and fakirs to draw the crowds throughout the country, after which the lecturers came upon the stage and sold the oil as fast as they could hand out the bottles. It was one of the most successful advertising schemes of the day and placed the business on a splendid foundation. In 1872, a few months after the great fire, he built the Hamlin Theater in Chicago, which afterward became the Grand Opera House. Of this he had been the sole proprietor for many years. and around it were long clustered his most earnest work and best thoughts for the advancement of legitimate and high-class theatricals.
Mr. Hamlin was an old-time Republican, and a well known mem- ber of the Union League, and also belonged to the Masonic fraternity. In 1860, while a resident of Cincinnati, Mr. Hamlin married Mary Eleanor Hart, and the children of the family are: Harry L., manager of the Grand Opera House; Frederick R., who died after having estab- lished a reputation as a successful producer of theatrical attractions ; Lawrence B., also deceased ; George J., a leading concert tenor ; Herbert W., a lawyer of high standing in Chicago; Robert A., whose death occurred soon after his graduation from Yale University; and Mrs. Bessie F. Clark. The wife of the deceased also survives, and, with the living children, was at the bedside of the veteran and honored citizen when he peacefully passed away from the activities of this life.
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As chairman of the executive committee and vice president of the International Harvester Company. John Jacob Glessner is one of the
JOHN J. active managers of one of the greatest corporations
GLESSNER. in the world. upon which depends in a noteworthy
degree the progress of man's most important indus- try. Without further comment. it is evident that his position is one of eminent responsibility.
Mr. Glessner is a native of Zanesville, Ohio. born in January. 1843. being a son of Jacob and Mary (Laughlin) Glessner. His education included not only a training in the public schools of Zanes- ville. but in the local newspaper business. In 1864 Mr. Glessner first entered business as a manufacturer of harvesting machinery. identify- ing himself with it as a member of the firm of Warder. Bushnell & Glessner, of Springfield. Ohio. He is still vice president of the cor- poration known as the Warder. Bushnell & Glessner Company.
Mr. Glessner became a resident of Chicago in 1870. settling here in order to manage the business of his firm from a point which is near the center of his sales territory, but retaining the factory at Springfield, Ohio. So largely was he credited with the remarkable success of his company that when its business was combined with that of the other leading harvester machinery companies and the In- ternational Harvester Company came into existence, Mr. Glessner was chosen chairman of its executive committee and vice president.
Since coming to Chicago. Mr. Glessner has been called upon as a wise counselor and successful manager of various municipal and charitable institutions, such practical abilities as lie possesses being most necessary requisites in the insurance of the best results in these higher fields of activity. He has served as president of the Citizens' Association. holding the position when that body prepared the drain- age canal bill and secured its passage by the legislature. For about seventeen years he has served as a director of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and has been repeatedly urged to accept the presidency. He is also a trustee of the Chicago Orphan Asylum, Rush Medical College, Chicago Orchestral Association and the Art Institute. He enjoys membership in the Chicago, Union League, Quadrangle. Liter- ary and Commercial clubs, having been president of the last named organization.
In December, 1870. at Springfield, Ohio, Mr. Glessner married
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CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Miss Frances Macbeth, daughter of James R. and Nancy ( Bayard ) Macbeth, and their children are as follows: John George M. and Frances, now the wife of Blewett Lee, general attorney of the Illinois Central Railroad Company.
Eugene Jackson Buffington, president of the Illinois Steel Com- pany, is one of the most prominent business men and managers of
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