USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume III > Part 9
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Born on a farm near Genoa, Cayuga county, New York, on the 9th of August, 1837, Mr. Hughitt is the son of Amos and Miranda Hughitt, his ancestors on both sides of the family having been of agricultural stock. The boy attended faithfully to his farming duties until he was fourteen, but at that age decided that he would break away from the ancestral vocation. He therefore went to Auburn, the county seat, and secured a place as a messenger boy in a telegraph office. Before he was seventeen he was an expert operator. being one of the first in the United States to receive messages by sound. When he first came to Chicago, in 1854. he found a place with the
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Illinois & Mississippi River Telegraph Company, and afterward with the St. Louis, Alton & Chicago railroad, now the Chicago & Alton, his duties in the latter connection being both those of a telegraphic operator and a trainmaster. His next railroad service was as train- master for the Illinois Central, in charge of the southern end of the road, stationed at Centralia, and his executive feats in the forwarding of troops during the imperative times of the Civil war materially ad- vanced his reputation and his prospects. By 1864 he had advanced to the general superintendency ; was assistant general manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in 1870; general manager of the Pull- man Palace Car Company in 1871-2, and on March Ist of the latter year was appointed general superintendent of the Chicago & North- western Railway. Four years later he became its general manager. and was its vice president and general manager from June 2, 1880, to June 2, 1887, when he became president of the great system which he had done as much as any one man to organize and expand. In 1882 he had become president of the Chicago. St. Paul. Minneapolis & Omaha Railway, and two years later was chosen to the presidency of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad. He is still at the head of these lines, as well as president of the St. Paul, Eastern Grand Trunk Railway and Sioux City & Pacific, and director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, Northern Trust Company and Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Aside from taking so large a share in the splendid development of the Northwestern Railway System, perhaps Mr. Hughitt's most useful work-certainly that which has earned him the most gratitude-is his institution of a pension system for the benefit of employes who have been in the service of the road for twenty years, have become physically disabled between the ages of sixty-five and sixty-nine, or who wish to retire at the age of seventy. The system went into effect January 1, 1901. The pension allowed is based upon a fixed per cent of the wages received by the applicant during the last ten years of his service. It is estimated that the innovation will eventually cost the company $200,000 per annum.
Mr. Hughitt's wife was formerly Belle Barrett Hough, of Rock Island, Illinois, and for many years the family residence has been at Lake Forest. Mr. Hughitt is domestic and enjoys the companionship of a few chosen friends. He does not enjoy general society, and the only club with which he has been especially identified is the Commer-
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cial, of which he has served as president. Mr. Hughitt was at one time a Democrat, but since the death of his political ideal, Stephen A. Douglas, has allied himself with the Republican party.
Frederic Adrian Delano, for the past two years president of the Wabash Railroad Company, is one of the best known practical rail- road men in Chicago. For twenty years he was in the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
FREDERIC A. DELANO.
Railroad, with headquarters either at Aurora or Chicago, rising steadily, strictly on his merits, from the position of apprentice machinist to that of general manager of the great system. Botlı as an engineer and an executive officer there is no one of his years who has a finer record for practical and valuable railroad work than Mr. Delano.
A native of Hong Kong, China, where he was born on the roth of September, 1863, Mr. Delano is the son of Warren and Catherine Robbins (Lyman) Delano. He is of that diverse stock from which spring strong, active men, his ancestors on the paternal side being French Huguenots and English Pilgrims, the latter settling near Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 and thereafter. His mother's fore- fathers were Englishmen and Scotchmen, who came to Boston and Salem, at various periods from 1630 to 1700. Mr. Delano's thor- ough education embraced a training of six years in the Adams Acad- emy of Quincy, Massachusetts, and four years in Harvard College, obtaining his A. B. from the latter in 1885.
It is a tribute to Mr. Delano's strength of character that such a thorough literary discipline did not unfit him for the rough and prac- tical work of life; but with him, as it should be with all young men, his thorough education enabled him to take up his work more intelli- gently and with greater conscientiousness. Soon after his graduation from Harvard he entered the locomotive repair shop of the C., B. & Q. R. R. at Aurora, Illinois, as an apprentice machinist, and con- tinued thus employed for two years. In July, 1887, he was placed in charge of the bureau of steel rail inspection, tests and records, and in April, 1889, was promoted into the general administrative department of the company, as assistant to the second vice-president. After holding that position until July, 1890, he assumed the even more responsible office of superintendent of terminals at Chicago, discharging its duties with conscientious ability until 1899, when he
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became superintendent of motive power. Serving in the latter capac- ity for two years. he was appointed general manager of the entire systern and continued to direct its operations from July 1, 1901, to January I. 1905. In this position Mr. Delano so demonstrated his powers as a general officer as to attract the attention of the Wabash Railroad management. and he assumed the first vice-presidency of that company May I. 1905. and soon afterward became president cf the system. Besides being the guiding force of this important line, he serves as director of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad and of the Hamilton National Bank. In January. 1908. Mr. Delano was appointed a member of the Harbor Commission of the city of Chicago by Mayor Busse. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. American Institute of Mining Engineers. Western Society of Engineers. and the University, Union League, Mid-Day and Literary clubs. of Chicago.
Married November 22. 1888, to Miss Matilda Peasley. Mr. Delano has become the father of four daughters: Catherine. Louise, Laura and Matilda. In religion he is a Unitarian, and is liberal and charitable in all his views.
Harry Irving Miller. president of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, is a native of Cleveland. Ohio. born on the 12th
HARRY I. of January. 1862. being a son of Jolin F. and
MILLER.
Almira G. Miller. His thorough and broad educa-
tion embraced tutelage at Russell's College, New Haven. Connecticut : at Mount St. Mary's. Emmitsburg. Maryland, and Cornell University. He began railroad work in the employ of the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg. becoming a clerk in the superintendent's office at Richmond. Indiana. Subsequently he filled various positions in the engineering department of that line, and in 1888 was appointed superintendent of the Richmond division. He became superintendent of the Louisville division of the Pennsylvania Company in 1890: superintendent of the main line division (Van- dalia ) in April. 1894: general manager of the Vandalia Line. with headquarters in St. Louis. in June. 1901 : general manager of the Chicago. Rock Island & Pacific Railway, with office at Chicago, from December 15. 1903. to March I. 1905. when he became vice-president and general manager of Chicago & Eastern Illinois and Evansville &
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Terre Haute railroads, and November 1. 1906, he was made presi- dent of these properties.
At Richmond, Indiana, Mr. Miller wedded Miss May B. Bur- bank, and the child born to them is Alvin Ford. The family residence is at No. 234 Lincoln Park boulevard. Mr. Miller is a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. His general social affiliations are with the Chicago, Union League, Chicago Athletic, South Shore Country, Exmoor and Glen View clubs.
Edward Payson Ripley, president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, as well as president and director of
EDWARD P. fifteen other railroad corporations and director of
numerous railroad, mining and manufacturing en-
RIPLEY. terprises, is one of the great traffic managers of the world. He was born in Dorchester, now a part of Boston, Mas- sachusetts. October 30. 1845, his family being of English descent and one of the oldest in New England, being founded in the Old Bay state as early as 1630. Mr. Ripley's father, Charles P., was a native of Vermont, but removed to Dorchester when a young man and there resided as a merchant until his death in 1866. In 1843 he married Miss Anne Payson, who was a member of the same family as the distinguished scholar and divine, Rev. Dr. Edward Payson.
Mr. Ripley graduated from the Dorchester High School, and at the age of seventeen became a clerk in a Boston dry goods store. In 1869 he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Company as a freight clerk in the Boston office, and in the following year became connected with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company in a more responsible position. Two years later he was made the New England freight and passenger agent with headquarters in Boston; in 1876 was appointed general eastern agent, and in 1878 was promoted to be general freight agent with headquarters in Chicago. In 1887 the office of traffic manager was created by the management of the Chi- cago. Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and Mr. Ripley chosen to fill the position. In the following year he was advanced to the office of general manager, which he resigned June 1, 1890, and on the following August was elected third vice-president of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, his offices being in Chicago. On January 1, 1896, Mr. Ripley resigned that position to assume the presidency of the great system of which he is still the head.
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Mr. Ripley has always concentrated his abilities on the business of his life, and has ventured little outside the field of railroading; and as that, in his case, has virtually covered the United States, he has found full scope for them. He was very prominent, however, in securing Chicago as the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, and was one of its leading members of the committee on ways and means and transportation.
On October 4, 1871, Mr. Ripley married Miss Frances E. Har- ding, daughter of Wilder Harding, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and they have four children: Alice H., Frances P., Robert H. and Fred- erick C. Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ripley have resided at Riverside, Illinois. Socially he is a member of the Chicago, Mil- waukee and Topeka clubs, the Metropolitan and Lawyers of New York, the Santa Barbara of Santa Barbara, California, and the Cali- fornia of Los Angeles.
Abraham Calvin Bird, third vice-president of the Gould railroads, for more than forty years an influential working factor in the railway systems of the west, and for about half of that
ABRAHAM C.
BIRD. period prominently identified with the management of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, is an Illinois man, born near Pittsfield, Pike county, March 4. 1843. He is the son of Rev. William H. and Eliza E. Bird, who were natives, respectively, of Kentucky and South Carolina. When eighteen years of age he left his school and farm work to enlist in Company D, Twenty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry. On Novem- ber 28, 1862, he re-enlisted for three years in the regular army, becoming a private in K troop, Fourth United States Cavalry, his term of service carrying him to the termination of the Civil war. The Fourth United States Cavalry formed a part of General Wil- son's cavalry corps, and Mr. Bird participated in such engagements as Belmont, Stone River, Chickamauga, Franklin, Nashville and At- lanta, closing his active service with the army of observation on the Rio Grande at the time French troops occupied Mexico.
Upon being mustered out of the army November 28, 1865, Mr. Bird returned to Illinois, and in the winter of 1865-6 began his long and progressive railroad career as a night watchman for the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad (now the Big Four) at Pana, Illinois, being soon advanced from this position to truckman and station bag-
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gage man at the same point. After fifteen months he became bill clerk and cashier, and when he had filled the latter place for two and a half years was transferred to the general freight office of the com- pany as claim clerk. In this capacity his abilities were brought more into general notice, and within less than two years he was offered the chief clerkship in the general freight office of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway, which he filled from April, 1872, to July, 1874. His next advancement was to the office of general freight agent of that corporation, which he held until November, 1879, when he assimmed the same relations with the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad, since reorganized as the Wabash Railroad. On January 1, 1880, Mr. Bird became superintendent of freight traf- fic of the road named, and three years afterward he accepted the still more responsible position of general freight agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. In February, 1889, he was appointed its freight traffic manager, and in December, 1895, general traffic manager of the entire great system. On December 30. 1899, Mr. Bird was elected third vice-president of the company, and discharged the duties of this important executive office with such ability as to gain the admiration of the managers of the Gould lines. who offered him the vice-presidency of the roads controlled by them, which he accepted.
On the 24th of October, 1867, Mr. Bird married Miss Sarah E. Lippincott, of Duquoin, Illinois, and four daughters and three sons have been born to them. Two of the latter died in infancy. Mr. Bird's tastes are essentially domestic, and he has a beautiful home in Evanston. His outside social relations are with the Union League. of which he has been a member since 1888, and vice-president in 1899, while he is fraternally associated with Masonry, having taken all the degrees of the York and Scottish rites except the thirty-third degree of the latter. He has always been a Republican and is identified, in his religious faith, with the Presbyterian church.
From brakeman to freight traffic manager of the great Santa Fe System within a period of eighteen years, and since 1905 third vice-
WILLIAM B. president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
Railroad Company, is but an epitome of the bril-
BIDDLE. liant railroad career of William Baxter Biddle. He is a native of the state of Wisconsin. born in Beloit, November 12,
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1856, a son of Charles H. and Alice (Coffman) Biddle. The paternal side of his family is of English origin; the maternal. of German. William B. received his education in the Beloit public schools, and soon after attaining his majority became a brakeman on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road. Soon afterward he was appointed station agent, and from 1882 to 1886 was chief clerk in the general freight office of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad (included in the Santa Fe system) : next assistant general freight agent of the same road and division freight and passenger agent, and (in 1888) assistant general freight agent of the entire system. In 1890 he became assistant freight traffic manager of the system. and four years later was ad- vanced to the head of the department. This position he held until March 1, 1905, when he was elected third vice-president of the Chi- cago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company.
On November 23. 1880. Mr. Biddle was united in marriage to Miss Ella Frost, of Beloit. Wisconsin, and the children born to them have been Robert C., Wheldon F. and Walter C. The family home is at No. 4531 Greenwood avenue. Mr. Biddle is a member of the Union League, Mid-Day, Kenwood and Midlothian clubs and the Chicago Athletic Association.
John Nicholson Faithorn, long a prominent railway official, is a native of England. born in London, March 21, 1852. The family
JOHN N. moved to Chicago in 1873 and in that year he com- FAITHORN. menced his railway service by accepting a clerkship with the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, with which company he remained until 1882 in various capacities in the local and general freight office, being chief clerk of the general freight office at the time he severed his connection with that company. From 1882 to 1885 he was auditor of the Southwestern Railway Associa- tion, and for the succeeding two years served as commissioner and arbitrator of the Western Railway Association. He was chairman of this asociation and a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Western Trunk Line Association from 1887 to 1890. On Octo- ber 1, 1890, he became chairman of the Southwestern Railway and Steamship Association, remaining as commissioner of the Western Trunk Line Association, and continued in these capacities until De- cember 31. 1892. On January 1, 1893, he became vice-president and general manager of Street's Western Stable Car Company, managing
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its business for five years, during a portion of which period he was general manager of the Wisconsin & Michigan Railway Company. In November, 1898. Mr. Faithorn was elected to the presidency of, the St. Louis, Peoria & Northern Railway, and retained that position until the company became non-operating, and in August, 1899, was chosen president and general manager of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad. In July, 1902, he was also clected vice-president of the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, retaining meanwhile his position as president of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company. In December. 1905, he resigned the vice-presidency of the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, and has since continued as the president of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company.
On January 1, 1873, Mr. Faithorn was united in marriage with Miss S. Levett. and the children of their union are Edith Maude and Walter Ernest. The latter is manager and treasurer of the Faithorn Company, of which his father is the president. The elder Faithorn is a member of a number of well known clubs, including the Chicago and Chicago Athletic. He is also a Knight Templar.
Walter Ernest Faithorn, treasurer and manager of the Faithorn Company, is a native of Chicago, born on the 6th of November, 1879, the son of John N. and Sarah (Levett ) Faithorn.
WALTER E.
FAITHORN. The father became prominent in railway circles be- fore associating himself in the printing business with his son, and a sketch of the father's career precedes this. Walter E. received his education in the Norwood Park public school, a private institution in St. Louis, Missouri, and in the Princeton-Yale and Kenwood preparatory schools of Chicago; also, after his graduation from the last named, at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale Uni- versity, in 1901 obtaining his degree of Ph. B. from the institution named.
Mr. Faithorn served as a civil engineer on the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad, of which his father is president, from September. 1901, to February, 1903, and since the latter date has been connected with the Faithorn Company in his present capacity. He is a Repub- lican in politics, but, as a bright and progressive young business man. has given little attention to such matters. Besides actively and suc- cessfully superintending the printing establishment mentioned, he is manager of the Railway Journal, and therefore finds abundant scope
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for his energies and abilities. As to social affairs, he is a member of the Berzelius Society, New Haven, Connecticut, and of the Calumet, University and South Shore Country clubs.
William Henry McDoel. president of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway. is a native of Goffstown, New Hampshire, born on the 28th of March, 1841, son of Joseph and Ann
WILLIAM H. McDOEL. (Clogston) McDoel. He was educated in the public - school of his native town, and at the age of twenty (September 7. 1861) entered the service of the Great Western Rail- road of Illinois in a minor clerical capacity, and later was appointed agent for the same road at Tolono, Illinois. In 1864 he became agent of the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway at State Line, Indiana, and in the following year located at Keokuk, Iowa. as general agent of the same line. After holding that position for ten years he accepted the western agency of the Blue Line, with headquarters at Quincy, Illinois, and three years thereafter became general freight agent of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, filling the position last named from 1878 to 1884. Shortly afterward he went to Kansas City, Mis- souri, to assume the duties of southwestern freight agent of the Chi- cago. Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and since July 1, 1884, has been identified with the Louisville. New Albany & Chicago and its successor, the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville road.
In 1884 Mr. McDoel was appointed general freight agent of the road named above, after two years in that capacity became traffic man- ager, and after filling the latter position for five years, on April 15. 1891, was promoted to be general manager. In April, 1894. he was elected vice-president of the road ; was receiver in 1896-7 ; vice-presi- dent and general manager in 1897-9. and since April 25th of the latter year has acted as president. He is also president of the Indiana Stone Railroad Company and of the Kentucky & Indiana Bridge and Rail- road Company, as well as a director of the American Trust and Say- ings Bank.
On the 12th of September, 1865, Mr. McDoel was united in mar- riage with Miss Rebecca Lucas. and the daughter born to this union is now Mrs. Mary ( McDoel) Kenly. The second marriage of Mr. McDoel was at Kenosha, Wisconsin, December 27. 1898, to his present wife (formerly Katherine R. Neff). The family residence is at Gen- eva. Illinois. Politically, Mr. McDoel classes himself as a Gold Demo-
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crat, and has membership in the Chicago, Union League, Midlothian, Chicago Golf and South Shore Country clubs.
Judge Elisha Chapman Field, vice president and general solicitor of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad Company, has been ELISHA C. FIELD. a substantial adornment of both the bench and cor- poration bar for many years. He is a native of Por- ter county, Indiana, born April 9, 1842, being a son of Thomas J. and Louise ( Chapman ) Field, natives of New York who migrated to Indiana in 1836 and spent the remainder of their days in the Hoosier state. Elisha C. Field was graduated from what is now known as the Northern Indiana Normal School in 1862, but pre- ferring the law to pedagogy soon afterward entered the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan, by which he was honored with his professional degree at the completion of his course in 1865.
Judge Field entered practice at Crown Point, Indiana, in the year mentioned above, and in 1868 was elected prosecuting attorney of what was then the ninth district of the state. Upon the expiration of his term in that office he was elected to a seat in the Indiana legislature. His career as a legislator brought him into general notice, and his subsequent practice at the bar added to his reputation as an able de- bater, a versatile and substantial lawyer, and a genial, earnest and sterling citizen. All of these qualities gave him the ideal judicial stamp, which was formally placed upon him by popular vote in 1879, when he was elected to the bench of the thirty-first circuit of Indiana. The record of his first term was signally endorsed by his re-election without opposition in 1884, and his continuation upon the circuit bench until 1889. In that year he resigned to accept the general solici- torship of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad, retaining the office under the administration of its successor, the Chicago, In- dianapolis & Louisville Company. In 1907 he was chosen to the vice presidency .of the latter company, which, in connection with the general solicitorship, he still holds with characteristic zeal, faithful- ness and professional ability. He is also vice president of the Indiana Stone Company and a director of the Consolidated Stone Company.
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