USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 8
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Mr. Dixon's prominence as a Republican was made generally evi- dent by his service in the state senate as representative of the first Illinois district. He has also served on the staff of Governor Richard Yates with the rank of colonel. As stated, he is a presidential elector from the first Illinois district, also served as a member of the com- mittee on arrangements to prepare for the reception of the delegates to the Republican national convention of 1908. This work was thor- oughly and systematically accomplished even to the smallest detail. and all the arrangements met with the hearty approval of all con- cerned. Mr. Dixon is identified with the Union League Club. Chi- cago Club, Chicago Athletic Association, University Club, City Club, Twentieth Century Club and the Hamilton Club. He has been a lead- ing spirit in the political and reformatory work inaugurated by the
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organization last named, of which he is a life member and first vice president, as well as chairman of its political action committee. He has also been chairman of the entertainment committee and secretary of the club, and at the time of the peace jubilee held in honor of President Mckinley, acted as secretary of the banquet. Mr. Dixon has been active and influential in all movements tending to civic re- form, and was a delegate to the Chicago charter convention of 1907. He retains an active membership in the Illinois State Bar Association, and belongs to the Masonic order and Knights Templar.
On March 2, 1903, Senator Dixon was united in marriage with Miss Marion E. Martin, and his residence is at No. 2706 Michigan boulevard. The two children born to this union are Marion Martin and George William Dixon, Jr. Mr. Dixon is a leading Methodist, having served as superintendent of the Sunday school of the First Methodist church for many years and president of the Chicago Meth- odist Social Union in 1901-02.
Thomas John Dixon, general manager of the Arthur Dixon Trans- fer Company, was born in Chicago, September 9, 1869, and is a son of Arthur and Annie (Carson) Dixon. His father
THOMAS J. DIXON. has been a prominent citizen of Chicago for more than forty-five years and his biography precedes his sons' in this work. Thomas J. completed the grammar and high school courses in Chicago, after which he entered the Northwestern University at Evanston, but finished only his junior year, as he was anxious to enter business. He at once entered the employ of the Arthur Dixon Transfer Company, and has advanced to his present position through sturdy work and real ability. The great and increas- ing volume of business transacted by the company makes his position far from a sinecure. in fact, continuously more arduous in its duties.
In 1894 Mr. Dixon was united in marriage with Miss Dora Alice Moon, a native of Michigan, and they have two children, Arthur and John Wesley Dixon. Mr. Dixon is a Republican and in 1905-06 represented the Second ward in the city council. His social member- ship is with the Union League, Hamilton and Chicago Athletic clubs, and in his stanch Methodism he upholds the family record. In Ma- sonry he is a Knight Templar of the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite.
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The late William Gold Hibbard was one of Chicago's merchants who have made her both gigantic in the world of trade and highly honored in the higher fraternity of practical helpful- WILLIAM G. HIBBARD.
ness and charity. He died a wealthy man, but he had given generously not only to upbuild the great house which he founded but to assist into paths of honorable labor those who were able to work and those who were thrown helpless upon the world.
William G. Hibbard, who at his death, October II, 1903, was still president of the widely known hardware house of Hibbard, Spencer. Bartlett & Co., was born at Dryden, Tompkins county, New York, in the year 1825. His parents were Joel Barber and Eliza (Gold ) Hib- bard, who sent him to the academy at Cortland, that state, where he obtained the bulk of his education. In 1849, then twenty-four years of age, he came to Chicago, first entering the employ of Stimson and Blair, dealers in hardware. He not only thoroughly learned the busi- ness, but saved a small capital by six years of economy so that he was enabled to become part proprietor of a store himself. In 1855 he formed a partnership with Nelson and Fred Tuttle and George M. Gray, the resulting firm being known as Tuttle, Hibbard & Co. Two years later the building was destroyed by fire, and the young merchants removed to larger and more favorable quarters at No. 32 Lake street. In 1865, after eight years of prosperous trade at the new location, Messrs. Tuttle and Gray retired, their interests being purchased by Mr. Hib- bard and F. F. Spencer. Thus, as Hibbard and Spencer, was laid the foundation of the modern house. The name was afterward changed to Hibbard, Spencer & Co. by the admission of A. C. Bartlett, who had been in the service of Tuttle, Hibbard & Co. since 1864. Contin- ued expansion of business necessitated a move. in 1867, to Nos. 92-94 Michigan avenue, and there, in the midst of their prosperity, they were found by the great fire of 1871. But on the 10th of October, early in the morning, less than twenty-four hours after their store was swept away, they resumed business with the hot remnants of their stock at Mr. Hibbard's private residence, No. 1701 Prairie avenue. This is said to be the quickest resumption of business after the fire. For about seven months the firm occupied a one story wooden shed on the Lake Front, between Washington and Randolph streets, and by the middle of June moved into their rebuilt store, at the old number,
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No. 32 Lake street. Since then frequent additions of office and ware- house accommodations have resulted in a massive structure which occupies the block between State, South Water, Wabash and the river. In 1882, under the advice of Mr. Hibbard, the business was turned over to a stock company known as Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., of which he remained president up to the day of his death.
Mr. Hibbard is recognized as one of those broad-gauge type of business men whose ideas of their functions do not rest on the basis of mere justice, but whose policy always inclines toward the co-opera- tive and generous. Those who proved by their faithfulness that they merited his confidence were advanced according to their abilities, and after the incorporation of the company rewarded with shares in the business. Such was both generous and wise treatment, and was in line with the advanced thought of the day. He also took a most prac-" tical interest in the good works of organized charity, one of the many public institutions of this character in which he was especially inter- ested being the Foundlings' Home of Chicago, of which he was presi- dent for many years.
In 1855 Mr. Hibbard wedded Miss Lydia Beekman Van Schaack, a daughter of H. C. Van Schaack, a prominent lawyer of Manlius, Onondaga county, New York, and descendant from some of the most aristocratic and substantial Dutch pioneers of the Empire state. Of the eight children born to this harmonious union, six are still alive, two of the sons, William G. and Frank Hibbard, being prominently identified with the business founded by the deceased. The widow is also living, one of the best known of Chicago pioneers.
To be the witness of the growth of a business house from small be- ginnings to one which has a world-wide scope is to be the observer of A. C. BARTLETT. quite a wonderful and imposing sight in the prac- tical world; but to be both a witness and an active and leading factor in such a remarkable development is an experience accorded to but few men. This development of a great business can only be partially compared to the rising of a monumental building under the supervision of master minds; for, while in both cases those who have the responsibilities of the construction watch and direct with honorable pride the countless details which must be mastered and forwarded in the working out of the general plan, those who rear the structure of a vast business are building with the ever
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shifting material of humanity instead of with iron, steel, stone and bricks. Immeasurably greater, therefore, is the genius of the man who deals with men and women, molding them to his purposes; who, in the guiding of his enterprise to the heights of superiority, is obliged to meet fierce competition and new conditions-than the architect or the builder, who depends for success upon the exact sciences and solid. substantial, dependable material.
Among those in Chicago to whom this comparison legitimately applies is A. C. Bartlett, president of the corporation of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., which operates one of the largest hardware houses in the world, its mammoth establishment on State street be- tween South Water and the Chicago river, being one of the most con- veniently arranged and finely constructed buildings for its purposes in existence. It is a fitting outward manifestation of the extent and per- manence of the business itself. As would be expected, the presiding genius of this great business is a strong, broad, accurate man, en- dowed with remarkable mental concentration and a fine logical mind ; but, what is remarkable in business men of his caliber, he is also cul- tured and polished, an attractive writer and an easy, effective public speaker. His hard, common sense, which has brought him eminence in the business world, is also refined and mellowed by his generosity and benevolence.
Mr. Bartlett evidently inherited some of his business ability from his father, but none from his grandfather, who was notoriously a "poor manager." Born at Stratford, Fulton county, New York, June 22, 1844, he comes of brave, sturdy families, who were widely known pioneers of the central part of the state north of the Mohawk river. Colonel Ichabod Bartlett, his paternal grandfather, made a good officer in the Revolutionary war, but when it came to the more prosaic cam- paign of life he lacked the persistent industry which wins the average success. The family being in rather needy circumstances, one of the sons, Aaron, with the other children, obtained little schooling; it is said that a year covered the educational period of his life. This boy. who was born in 1800, was reared on his father's small farm and his experience there, as well as a short independent venture in the same line, induced him to abandon agriculture and become a partner in a country store. Unlike his brave father, he possessed a good head for business and gained such ground that he associated himself with
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Isaac Hyde, of New York City, in the erection and operation of a sole leather tannery, the resulting firm of A. Bartlett & Co. becoming quite well known in central New York.
Nathaniel Dibell, the maternal grandfather, of A. C. Bartlett, was a sturdy, thrifty New Englander, who went to New York shortly after his marriage, bought and improved a large farm, raised a family of eight girls, lived comfortably and happily, was honest and popular, served the public in various official capacities, and altogether passed what may be called an uneventful but eminently useful and honorable existence. His daughter Delia, who was born September 3, 1806, married Aaron Bartlett, and their only son was Adolphus C.
The boy attended the village school of his native Stratford until after his father's death, January 1, 1854, when, at the age of ten, he came with his mother to Salisbury Centre, in the adjoining county of Herkimer. There he attended the common schools until his sixteenth year, after which he enjoyed the benefits of mental training for one year at the Dansville academy and for two years at the Clinton Liberal Institute, both New York institutions. As his health became somewhat delicate he abandoned his intention of mastering even more advanced courses, and, after teaching one winter and being employed as a clerk in a country store for one summer, took a course in a commercial col- lege preparatory to adopting a business career.
When Mr. Bartlett came to Chicago, at the age of nineteen, his plan was to enter a wholesale house, obtain the necessary experience. and then embark as a merchant in some small village, using as capital a few thousand dollars which his father had left him. With this end in view he entered the employ of the hardware store of Tuttle, Hib- bard & Co. as a general utility boy, with promise of a nominal salary. But his eyes were open and his brain was busy, and the more he saw of the business life of the bustling city the better he liked it; his original intention to do business in a small place in a modest way ยท gradually and completely oozed away. At the end of the first year the firm name was changed to Hibbard and Spencer, and three years later, then twenty-three years of age, he was given a silent interest in the business. At the conclusion of another three years Mr. Bartlett was received into the firm as a general partner ; on January 1, 1877. the style of the firm was changed to Hibbard. Spencer & Co., and, upon the incorporation of the business January 1, 1882. to Hibbard,
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Spencer, Bartlett & Co., with Mr. Bartlett as secretary of the corpora- tion. Upon the death of Mr. Spencer in 1894 he became vice presi- dent, and assumed the presidency January 1, 1904, Mr. Hibbard's death having occurred in the preceding October.
A simple mention is all that can be accorded Mr. Bartlett's connec- tions with the business, financial, educational, social, political and charitable institutions of Chicago; but that mention is sufficient to in- dicate the great breadth and variety of his activities and how vast is his influence for the material progress and higher good of the city. He has been a member of the Chicago board of education and is a trustee of Beloit, (Wis.) College and the University of Chicago. He is a charter member of the Commercial Club, an ex-director of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company and a director of the First Na- tional Bank, Northern Trust Company, Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company. He has also served on the directorate of the Chicago Athenaeum, and since 1873 has been a director of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. He is a trustee of the Art Institute ; president of the Home for the Friendless, vice president of the Old People's Home, and has been a director of the Orphan Asylum. He is a mem- ber of the Chicago Club, and his Republicanism is indicated by his membership in the Union League Club.
Mr. Bartlett was married to Mary H. Pitkin, who died December 19, 1890, the mother of Maie Bartlett Heard, Frederick Clay and Florence Dibell. His second wife, to whom he was united June 15, 1893, was formerly Abbey H. Hitchcock, daughter of Bailey H. Hitch- cock, a brother of the late Charles Hitchcock of Chicago. By this marriage there has been one child-Eleanor Collamore.
Col. Isaac Leonard Ellwood, although occupying a magnificent homestead at De Kalb, in the Illinois county by that name, is a man of
ISAAC L. broad and public character, widely known through-
ELLWOOD. out the state, and especially in Chicago, where his in-
dustrial and landed interests have long made him a familiar figure. It is therefore eminently proper that he should be fit- tingly represented in a work of this character, which aims to fairly represent the forces which have contributed to its advancement and present standing.
Isaac L. Ellwood is a native of Salt Springville, Montgomery county, New York, born August 3, 1833, and traces his ancestry
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to Thomas Ellwood, the noted London Quaker, born in 1639 and chiefly educated by the poet Milton. It is a matter of history that Thomas Ellwood suggested to Milton the writing of "Paradise Regained" when "Paradise Lost" was submitted to him for criticism. This eminent member of the Ellwood family has been honored by the Quakers of the old and the new world, John G. Whittier having con- tributed a memoir to the record. The first of the family to establish himself in America was Richard Ellwood, who in 1748 settled with his family near St. Johnsville, in the Mohawk valley, New York. His stone residence is still standing in a good state of preservation near the line of the New York Central Railroad. Richard Ellwood died a few years after coming to this locality, leaving four sons and two daughters. Isaac Ellwood, the grandfather of the Colonel, died on a farm near Fort Plane, one of his three sons, Abram, was father of Isaac L. Abram Ellwood married Sarah Delong, daughter of James Delong, a native of France, and they became the parents of seven sons, six of whom have attained prominence in Illinois. There were also three daughters in the family.
Isaac L. Ellwood spent his early years attending the public schools of Montgomery county, New York, and as driver of a team on the Erie canal. Later he obtained a clerkship with the management, and was also employed as a salesman, but in his eighteenth year struck for the gold fields of the Pacific coast, with the rush of '51. By hard work and frugality he managed to collect a small capital, with which he returned east and in 1855 established a hardware store in De Kalb. He also branched out as an auctioneer, and his suavity and keenness combined brought success in both vocations. But the foundation of his fortune was laid when he formed a partnership with Joseph F. Glidden, and established the manufactory of barbed wire whose products were introduced to all the civilized countries of the world, and the Glidden Barbed Wire stood for years as the best which the market afforded. In 1876 Mr. Glidden sold his interest in the busi- ness to the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company, of Massa- chusetts. which combined with Colonel Ellwood to push the enterprise to even greater proportions. Through the latter's knowledge of the earlier phases of the business, his familiarity with the original pat- ents and his wide business influence, all inventions on both the wire and machinery were so wisely consolidated as to prevent further litiga-
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tion and make the manufacture absolutely safe. Upon this solid foun- dation of legal security and confidence the business took even more as- tonishing strides, until it was one of the most successful industries of the country. Later Mr. Ellwood became sole owner of the business, which was reorganized under the name of the I. L. Ellwood Manufac- turing Company. As the railroads and farmers alike commenced to use the wire, the territory under his style of fence was soon increased by thousands of square miles. He then extended the scope of his in- dustry by establishing a wire drawing plant at De Kalb, and at about the same time commenced the extensive manufacture of wire nails and woven wire fencing. These enterprises have also grown to unusually large proportions, and, with his barbed wire plant, were absorbed in late years by the American Steel and Wire Company.
Colonel Ellwood has become well known as a public character in the state, and has been largely concerned in the growth of higher edu- cation. In 1895 he spent several months at Springfield, and was most influential in securing the legislation which resulted in the establish- ment of the Northern Illinois State Normal School at De Kalb. When the school was located he platted the so-called I. L. Ellwood addition and built thereon several club houses and residences for the accommo- dation of the school management, and this section has since become one of the most desirable resident districts of the city. Colonel Ell- wood has been an unvarying Republican, has been a liberal contributor to party support, and his influence as a man and a citizen has been broad and elevating. On June 5, 1902, he commenced his four years' service as a railroad and warehouse commissioner, and has served on the staffs of Governor Tanner and Governor Yates, by which circum- stance he has received the title of colonel.
On January 27, 1859, Mr. Ellwood was married to Miss Harriet Miller, daughter of William A. Miller, of De Kalb, and four sons and three daughters have been born to them. Two sons died in infancy, and Mrs. John H. Lewis has also passed away. The living children are as follows : William L., Mrs. Harriet Mayo, Mrs. Mary Lewis. Mrs. Jessie Ray (Denver, Colorado), and E. Perry Ellwood. The eldest son, William L., was for several years engaged in the breeding and importation of French draft horses, making annual trips to France in the interest of his business. At present he has charge of the Ell- wood stock farms, located near De Kalb, and containing 3.400 acres
Vol. III-6.
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of highly improved land and supplied with all the modern improve- ments. In addition to this estate, Colonel Ellwood is the owner of 400.000 acres of land in Texas, which is rapidly being developed and increased in value. The handsome family residence at De Kalb is surrounded by spacious and well kept grounds, one of its unique at- tractions being a deer park. A splendid summer resort is also main- tained at Palatka. Florida.
James Theodore Harahan, president of the Illinois Central Rail- road Company, is recognized as one of the masters of railroad man-
JAMES T. agement and development in the United States, and therefore a world-leader in this field. He was born
HARAHAN. in Lowell. Massachusetts, in the year 1843. his father being born in Scotland and his mother in Massachusetts. At the outbreak of the Rebellion. although Harahan was then but seven- teen years of age, his appearance was so mature that he was passed into the First Massachusetts Infantry, and served with it in the des- perate fighting around Richmond. He was afterward transferred to the Fourth New York Light Artillery, and served with that organiza- tion until he entered the employ of the government in the railroad transportation of troops and equipment around Alexandria. His spe- cial duties were on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, and as the Confederate guerrillas were very active in this locality his induction into the work which became the serious business of his life was ac- companied by not a little danger and excitement.
After the war Mr. Harahan entered the service of the Nasliville & Decatur Railroad, with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee, and from 1866 to 1870 he was employed by the Louisville & Nashville road, with headquarters in the different towns along the route. Then he took charge of the Shelby railroad; was roadmaster of the Nash- ville & Decatur Railroad from 1872 to 1879. and within the following two years superintendent of the Memphis and New Orleans divisions of that road. In 1883-4 he was general superintendent of the Louis- ville & Nashville railroad south of Decatur, and the following year became general manager of the entire line. He then accepted the gen- eral superintendency of the Pittsburg division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, resigning this position to become assistant general manager of the Louisville & Nashville, and within a few months being pro- moted to be head of the road. From October. 1888. to November,
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1890, he was successively assistant general manager of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and general manager of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway. On November 1, 1890, he assumed his duties as sec- ond vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and was elected president in 1907.
Mr. Harahan has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Mary Kehoe, of Maysville, Kentucky, who died in 1897. On April 19, 1899, he married Miss Mary N. Mallory, the daughter of an old- time friend, Captain W. B. Mallory, of Memphis, Tennessee. The children born into the Harahan household have been as follows : Wil- liam J. Harahan, general manager of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; J. T. Harahan, Jr., with a Chicago manufacturing com- pany ; Mrs. A. N. Dale, of Memphis, and Mrs. Mary Shirley, of Chi- cago. Mr. Harahan has a broad connection with the clubs of Chicago and the southwest, those claiming his membership being the Home- wood Country, Chicago, East End, Gentleman's Driving, Noonday (St. Louis), Pendennis (Louisville), Tennessee (Memphis), and the Boston and Pickwick clubs (both of New Orleans). Mr. Harahan's Chicago residence is at 3358 Michigan boulevard.
Marvin Hughitt is more than seventy-one years of age, and yet the honored president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Com-
MARVIN pany, is still in the field as one of the most energetic, HUGHITT. keen and progressive masters of transportation in the world. He has been a resident of Chicago since 1854, and he is as proud of it as a great center of the railroad world as the city is proud of him for accomplishing such a giant's share of the work necessary to bring about this triumph.
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