USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 40
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John J. Long came in 1842. He was born September 8, 1841. Married Delia A. Sapp in 1873; the latter born October 21, 1846. They had two children.
J. I. Taylor located here in 1847, a native of Kentucky; married a daughter of Cyrus Langworthy. In person he was said to resemble Abraham Lincoln. Was noted as a strong jury lawyer, and could tell as good a story as Lincoln or anybody else. No man more enjoyed his boon companions. He was largely self-made and self-educated, and by strength of intellect and force of character won his way in life. He was possessed of much versatility of talent, as he made the tour of Europe and published a book of his observations and travels, and here, although without a particle of training as an author, he was much more successful than the aver- age writers upon this somewhat hackneyed subject.
Mr. Taylor returned to Europe, taking his daughters there to educate them, and died in Geneva.
Judge Samuel Richmond came here in 1850. He was in the practice here about five years and then went to Lacon, Marshall Co. He was elected Circuit Judge, and died about 1873.
About the same time came John M. Grimes from Belmont, Ohio. He remained here ten years and then removed to Chicago, and practiced there quite successfully about five years and died. His body was brought to Princeton for burial. His family now reside here. He was known for one of the jolliest, best fellows in the world, and was noted for telling some of the most comical anecdotes on himself.
John Porter, Jr. was from Pennsylvania; came 1854. Remained here six years and then returned to his native State. He en- listed in the army and was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry. After he came out of the army he went to Springfield, Mass., and en- gaged in the general insurance business. Quitting this he again came to Princeton. He is now traveling and lecturing on tem- perance.
In the winter of 1856-57 the bar of Prince- ton consisted of Milton T. Peters, J. I. Tay- lor, George W. Stipp, Milo Kendall, Judge M. Ballou, Levi North, C. L. Kelsey, Charles J. Peckham, William M. Zearing, C. P. Al- len, Joseph S. Williams, J. M. Grimes, Will- iam A. Fraser, J. Porter and George O. Ide. J. J. Herron was a native of Cumberland County, Penn. Was a graduate of Jefferson College. He came to Princeton in 1862, and entered into partnership with J. I. Taylor. He is now often spoken of as one of the most forcible lawyers ever in the county. He was twice elected to the State Legislature, in 1876 and 1878. He died in February, 1878, in Princeton. His widow, two sons and three daughters reside here.
Col. Robert Winslow came in 1856. He
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was some time in partnership with Milton T. Peters. He was from Chicago; was noted for great assiduity and had fair success in his cases. He raised a regiment, had it stolen from him, and quit the army and located in Lacon and formed a partnership with Judge Richmond.
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George O. Ide came from Springfield, Mass., in 1856. He commenced life here a school teacher; was one year in the Circuit Clerk's office. He had prepared himself for the prac- tice of law before coming West. In 1857 he formed a partnership with Milo Kendall. This lasted fourteen years. He then went to Chicago and entered into partnership with S. G. Paddock, where he is still in the practice. A man of excellent attainments, a close and industrious student, very strong and emphat- ic in his opinions, and was regarded as one of the best chancery lawyers in the circuit.
About the same time came G. Gilbert Gib- ons from Pennsylvania. He remained here until 1875, and then went to Chicago, where he continued in the practice until his death, two years ago. He was of German descent, and a fine lawyer. He was nervous, quick, genial, clever and able, and his entire ac- quaintance are ready to certify that he was the most companionable of men. His suc- cess in Chicago was complete, and his death just upon the threshold of his great promise was extremely sad.
Another Princeton lawyer who went to Chicago was William M. Zearing. He was a Bureau County boy. His family lived near Dover, and he was a clerk in a store, and between times in compounding pills he bor- rowed Blackstone of Milo Kendall and read law. He was admitted to the practice, but his tastes were for speculation in real estate. He went to Chicago and made a fortune in that growing city.
George L. Paddock commenced the prac-
tice here and removed to Chicago. While here he was in partnership with J. I. Taylor.
Charles Baldwin came in 1857. He at once took a prominent position in the county, and soon was also a prominent politician. His· personal popularity was great. He was elected to the Legislature and the State Senate, and as a legislator he was honored with the important position of Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He soon became a prominent business man, and his important business and political affairs absorbed his entire time to the exclusion of his law prac- tice. He was a college graduate, dignified and elegant in bearing and devoted to his business affairs. His widow and four chil- dren are residents of Princeton.
Lyman Kendall studied with his uncle, Milo Kendall. He was licensed by the Su- preme Court of Illinois, and located in Des Moines, and from there to Port McHenry, where he died, aged twenty-nine years. He was regarded here and in Iowa, where he prac- ticed law, as the most brilliant and profound young lawyer at the bar. He married Miss Anna Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris, who with her young son now makes her home with her father.
Lyman Kendall was born in Barnett, Vt., August, 1840. He came West when quite young, and was reared in the family of his uncle, Milo. He was educated in the com- mon schools of Princeton. After his sad death, his partner, Mr. McHenry, in con- versation with Milo Kendall, told him that young K. was the best office lawyer he ever knew; that his court papers were as nearly perfect as it was possible to make them, and that his briefs in the Superior Courts were so complete a presentation of the case that there was nothing more needed on the final trial. In the prime of his useful and brilliant young life he was stricken down, leaving an
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aching void, not only in his own family, but in a wide and numerous circle of devoted friends and admirers.
Judge G. W. Stipp, whose complete biog- raphy appears elsewhere, is one of the pres. ent Circuit Judges, and among the oldest members of the bar now in Princeton. On the bench or at the bar, he is everywhere recognized for his integrity and great abili- ties.
James S. Eckels, of the present firm of Eckels & Kyle, is a native of Cumberland County, Penn. Graduated in Jefferson Col- lege, August 3, 1853. He was reared on one of the stony farms of Pennsylvania, where he faithfully toiled until nearly twenty- one years of age. After graduating, he taught school, and read some law. He taught in an academy in his native State; and in February, 1857, graduated in the Albany, N. Y., law school. Located in Prince- ton, June 16, 1857. He would impress the stranger as a man of books, cultured, and a life-long student, a brain-worker. He is recognized by his brethren of the bar as a ripe scholar, able lawyer, of the finest social and companionable qualities. Twice he has been a candidate for Congress in a largely Republican district, and his personal strength has always sent him ahead of the ticket in the race. His Democracy and temperance have always been his strong political char- acteristics.
His son, J. Herron Eckels, is considered for his age a very able and brilliant lawyer. He is located in Ottawa.
John T. Kyle was born in Mifflintown, Penn. He graduated in Jefferson College in 1854, and in 1856 graduated in the Eaton Law School. He came to Princeton in com- pany with James S. Eckels, and the two have been continuously in partnership.
Hon. Owen Lovejoy was a licensed attor-
ney, but was so little known in this capacity that this will be news to some of his own acquaintances. He read law at home, and about the time he quit ministrations of the church and entered political life he was li- censed an attorney.
Owen G. Lovejoy, his son, is now one of the members of the Princeton bar. He en- tered Milo Kendall's office as a student in 1870. At that time Kendall & Ide were partners in the practice. Mr. Lovejoy was licensed to practice in 1873, and is now a partner with his preceptor, Mr. Kendall. Although Mr. Lovejoy is comparatively young in the practice, he is already recog- nized by all the bar as a sound lawyer, and the most industrious student in the county, and, as his abilities are of a high order, it is only a question of time when he will take his place at the head of his profession.
WV. A. Johnson is the sole representative in North Princeton of the profession since W. L. Henderson has moved away. He is on the threshold of his professional life, and already has received a generous recognition at the hands of his fellow-lawyers and the public. We have no hesitation in predicting for him a useful and successful career in his chosen profession.
C. C. Warren has twice been State's Attor- ney for Bureau County, being first elected in 1872 and again in 1880. His present term is about to expire, and he will at once re- move to Iowa, and go into the practice there. He studied law under Blackwell & Walker (Judge), and began practice in Rushville. He went to California, and was there eleven years, and located in Princeton in 1870. He is everywhere recognized as one of the ablest attorneys ever in the county.
Richard M. Skinner is yet a young man- a Princeton home-made lawyer-and yet has already served one term as State's Attorney
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for the county. He and his younger brother, George, are one of the best firms in the coun- ty, and their large and lucrative practice is and will continue to grow (see biography).
The following is the present bar in Prince- ton: Judge M. Ballou, Milo Kendall, James Eckels, John T. Kyle, John Scott, Richard M. and George Skinner, H. M. Trimble, Capt. R. R. Gibons, Owen G. Lovejoy, W. A. Johnson, M. U. Trimble, Judge S. M. Knox, Judge G. W. Stipp, W. W. Stipp, T. C. Clark, J. S. Williams.
Judge Knox has retired from the practice, and is a real estate dealer. He was County Judge in 1861. Gradually changed to a real estate operator, and has handled a large quantity of the Union Pacific Railroad lands. His success here has been rather phenomenal, and he has now acquired quite a fortune. A gentleman noted for suavity of manners and strong and versatile talents, and in every way deserves the success in life that has crowned his efforts.
John Scott is one of the rising lawyers of this bar. He is active, indefatigable, and of varied talents. At the bar, in the literary societies, on the stump, or in the columns of the county paper, he is equally at home in all of them. And to all these many pastimes he is a farmer as well, and here he again is full of push, pluck and vim. An argument in court, a lecture or essay in a society, a pungent political or polemical article in the local paper, or a speech from the hustings, either or all at once, are ever ready to hand with John Scott. And from the zest with which he encounters them all, we judge that busy action is the pleasure of his life (see biography).
George Sparling was once a Princeton at- torney. He was one of the considerable number who went to Chicago.
Judge Starr Smith was here at one time.
Before coming here he was a judge in Ar- kansas. He left here in 1876.
Col. Murray also once practiced here. He died in Indiana. His family is still in the county.
Col. T. J. Henderson, the present and for the past eight years a Member of. Congress, came from Stark County. He has again just been re-elected to Congress, where it now looks as though he had a lease at will. His power and popularity are fully attested, not only by his neighbors, but by the people of the district in the overwhelming majorities they always give him at elections (see biog- raphy).
Judge Jesse Emmerson, of Buda, has long been one of the leading members of the bar. He came to the county when a boy, with his family, who are among the old and leading people of the county. In 1873 he was elected County Judge, a position he filled with emi- nent ability. His popularity and influence are fully attested by the fact that he has always been a Democrat, and yet was elected to the most prominent office in the county against an overwhelming political majority. As a lawyer, able, honest and just, he worthi- ly stands at the head of the profession. In social and private life he is yet more widely and better known, and universally respected. When the writer first met Judge Emmerson it was an easy matter to under. stand the secret of his popularity and fair fame among all the people. He found him an open, genial, social and perfect gentle- man. His pleasant greeting, his frank and manly manners, his broad and pleasant face, lit with warmth and kindness, could not be mistaken. They are the open sesame to the world's warm respect and abiding confidence.
With but two exception, the writer will long gratefully and kindly remember the cor- dial manner of his reception among the
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many men that his duties required him to interview in Bureau County. Among so many, to find but two ill-bred human porcu- pines is a little remarkable; because every where there is a class of men that neither clothes nor money will change from the two- legged hogs that they were originally made. In some places are more, of course, than in others. Having found but two in the whole county, it is palpable that there is a very small crop here. These lonely boors should be carefully kept alive, as a contrast for the rising generation to contemplate the wide difference between gentility and meanness.
Harry Fulton was at one time a lawyer in Tiskilwa. He died there some years ago. Also, at one time in Tiskilwa, was a lawyer named Flagg. He was from Bloomington. He soon left the county. Judge C. C. Wil- son was once in Tiskilwa. He was appointed by Grant, Chief Justice of Utah.
At Lamoille was a lawyer named Heming- way. He continued to practice until he died in that place. C. H. Bryant was for some time in this place, and went to California.
Charles A. Barry located in Wyanet in 1858, from Kane County. He left and located in Missouri.
W. H. Bigelow was at one time in Buda, but he left there in such a hurry that we failed to get a card of particulars.
Presidential Electors .- In the Illinois list of Presidential Electors who at different times have cast the vote of the State for President, the first was Milton T. Peters, in 1856; the vote was given to James Buchanan. In 1868 Thomas J. Henderson was an elector from the county. The vote was for Grant.
Representatives .- The Representatives in the State Legislature in the sessions of 1838- 40 were William H. Henderson, Putnam and Bureau Counties.
1840-John Hamlin, Senator, was the rep-
resentative from the counties of Peoria, Put- nam, Marshall, Bureau and Stark. W. H. Henderson was again the Representative.
1842-44-John H. Bryant and Cyrus Langworthy, Representatives. Mr. Bryant represented Peoria, Stark and Bureau. Mr. Langworthy represented Bureau and Stark. This came of the complications in redistrict- ing the State, and Mr. Bryant was the " mem- ber at large." In this assembly W. W. Thompson was the Senator.
1844-46-B. M. Jackson and Judge Ben- jamin L. Smith were the Representatives. The latter from Bureau County.
1846-48-Peter Sweat, of Peoria, was the Senator; Thomas Epperson, of Bureau, and Samuel Thomas, of Stark, were the Repre- sentatives.
1848-50 --- Melanchthon E. Lasher, Repre- sentative. Bureau and LaSalle Counties then constituted the district.
1850-52-Abraham L. Phillips, of Leeper- town, Representative. No member from Bureau 1852-54.
1854-Owen Lovejoy, Representative.
1856-58-Thomas J. Henderson, of Stark County, Senator; George M. Radcliffe, Rep- resentative; is in Princeton, publishing the News.
1858 -- John H. Bryant, Representative.
1860-Joseph W. Harris, Representative; is living in the county.
1862-Daniel R. Howe, Representative; be was a preacher in the Christian Church; has left the county.
1864-W. C. Stacy, of Princeton, was a member of the lower House. He has gone to Iowa. He was again elected. Stephen G. Paddock was Clerk of the House in 1866-68. In the sessions of 1868-70 James H. Paddock, Third Assistant Secretary of the Senate.
1868-70-Lorenzo D. Whiting, Represent- ative.
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1870-72-Senator L. D. Whiting, who was re-elected 1874, 1878 and 1882, and is the present member. He has earned the title of the " Father of the Senate."
This year, Robert Hunter, of Tiskilwa, was the Representative.
1872-74-Jacob R. Mulvane was elected Representative.
1874-76-J. H. Moore, Tiskilwa, and J. J. Herron, Princeton were Representatives.
1876-78-J. J. Herron and Charles Bald- win, of Princeton, were elected.
1878-80-Alfred G. Scott, of Sheffield, and Simon Elliott, Princeton, were elected.
1880-82-Simon Elliott and Alfred G. Scott, of Sheffield, Representatives from Bu- reau.
1882-84-John H. Welsh, Tiskilwa, Rep- resentative; John Lackey and James T. Thornton, were from Stark and Putnam Counties.
Congress-John T. Stuart, first Member. John Wentworth represented the district from 1843 to 1845; his first term. Again from 1845 to 1847; then 1847 to 1849. Jesse O. Norton was the Member from 1853 to 1855, and again from 1855 to 1857.
Owen Lovejoy entered Congress March, 1859, and continued in the seat until his death, 1864.
May 20, 1864, Ebon C. Iugersoll entered Congress to fill the vacancy caused by Love- joy's death. Ingersoll was then elected the three succeeding terms.
Bradford N. Stevens, of Tiskilwa, was elected in 1870, and served two years. The only Democrat ever elected in the district. He defeated E. C. Ingersoll.
Franklin Corwin, of Peru, served from 1873 to 1875.
Col. Thomas J. Henderson entered Con- gress in March, 1875, and has been continu- ously re-elected since. His term of office
for which he has just been re-elected will expire March, 1877.
In the Thirty-second General Assembly, James H. Robinson, of Walnut, was Third Assistant Door-keeper.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE PRESS-THE BUREAU ADVOCATE-THE PRINCETONIAN-POST- HERALD - YEOMAN- DEMOCRAT-REPUBLICAN-TRIBUNE-PA- TRIOT-NEWS - MOTOR-TIDINGS - PRESS - REGISTER - INDE- PENDENT-CALL-HOME GUARD-TIMES-AND AROUT WHO RAN THEM, ETC., ETC., ETC.
TN the progress of civilization the important and commanding event was the inven- tion of movable types-cutting in wood the letters of the alphabet, in such shape that they would by inking and pressure make their impression upon paper, and then by making each letter separate and movable, it was at once seen that they were susceptible of com- binations and words, or at first, names could thus be transferred to paper, and the opera- tion could be indefinitely performed. A few of the world's best men looked upon the thing as an interesting curiosity, but of no
practical use. It was ingenious, they thought, but that was all. Eventually a few sheets were actually printed, each type being inked and separately pressed upon the paper in its proper place to spell out the words. But the pen could work so much faster that no one dreamed there was anything practical ever to come of the types. In examining the subject now, it seems almost marvelous that there were a few minds that even at that day saw something of the possibilities that these movable types had in store. And they kept on experimenting with the curious toy, until eventually the idea came to make the type stationary and press the paper on the type, 18
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and this idea grew, until now we have the perfected Hoe press-the most wonderful piece of machinery in the world. Nothing perhaps in mechanics come so near the workings of the mind as this press. Your morning paper that you open while still damp was a few minutes ago a part of a great roll of paper much like a roll of carpet that you may see in a carpet store. This wonderful press takes this great roll of paper, feeds itself, inks itself, prints both sides of the paper, folds each paper nicely, counts them at the rate of 40,000 an hour, and delivers them to the addressing clerk, where another machine prints the name and address of the subscriber. The whole done quicker than the pen could write any one letter on the sheet of paper that is thus, like the lightning's flash, converted from a roll of white paper into a great newspaper which tells the story around all the world up to the very latest minute. If, reader, you have never yet seen one of these marvelous pieces of mechanism, make it a point the next time you go to a city to look at one. It will enlarge your ideas of this world, give you a new respect for the immortal geniuses that conceived these won- ders, and who have slept in unmarked and unknown graves these long centuries, while a dull and stupid race of men have been con- structing wonderful mausoleums to the mem- ory of the most contemptible shams the world ever saw-human butchers-political swash- bucklers-asses with iron jaws, that, unfort- unately never produce mules, because the progeuy of many are as prolific as themselves, and thus they fill the world.
The press is the Third Estate in this coun- try; it has been called the palladium of American liberties. One thing is quite cer- tain, that the wisest thing our forefathers did was to establish a " free press," nominal- ly if not actually. True, it is absolutely free
so far as Government is concerned, but some- times it is not free from military dictation or from mob violence and rule, and the in- stances, though rare, have occurred when a foolish, violent and fanatical public sentiment has crushed out the truth and suppressed the true friend of mankind-the local press. But for these gross wrongs the press is able to say, for every outrage it has received, it has perpetrated outrages in return, often with compound interest. To the wisdom of the founders of our Government we owe the blessings of a free press, and this meaus free speech, free schools, free religion, and supremest of all, free thought; for here is where the world has suffered most, because a man's thoughts are the noblest part of him --- it is this that makes him superior to the ox, and, therefore, it is here he can suffer the greatest wrongs-here where wrongs may be inflicted that are ineffaceable, incurable, shocking. It has been the strength and activity of thought that has given us all the blessings we enjoy-all that marks the dif- ference in us and the dull savages who once possessed this fair land-those wretched breeders of savagery and stupid suffering, something of whose mode of life may be drawn from the fact that they would bury the live wife in the same grave with the body of her dead husband. This is a historic fact, although it occurred among a prehisto- ric people. They had no free speech, free press or free thought. They may have had a strong, a great military government at one time-a government with a hand of iron and speech of lead, and they may have worshiped that government as dutiful children may a cruel father, but they never had a free thought, except of the basest and meanest kind, and they were, therefore, a despicable people and had none of that civilization that eventuates in a free press.
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One of the greatest men the world has pro- duced has said: "The types are as ships which sail through the vast seas of time and make ages to participate of the wisdom, illu- minations and inventions, the one of the other; for the image of men's wits remain in books exempted from the wrongs of time, and capable of perpetual renovation; neither are they fitly to be called images, because they generate still and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite action and opinions in succeeding ages. We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued 2, 500 years or more without the loss of a syllable or letter? during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities have decayed or been demolished. That whereunto man's nature doth most aspire, which is immortality or continuance, for to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; to this buildings, foundations and monuments; to this tendeth the desire of memory, fame and celebration, and in effect the strength of all other human desires."
Do not the types do infinitely more than this? Are they not the true source of man's highest and purest enjoyment in this world ? To the healthy and tolerably cultivated mind is there any pleasure so great, so enduring, as the acquisition of new truths ? It supplies the mind its most gracious food. It is the perennial fountain of information and knowl- edge where the thirsty mind may drink deeply-drink draughts of which all the nectar of the gods were but dirty puddle water. And it is not alone to the mind thirsting deeply for knowledge that its bless- ings are confined, but it gives equally and freely to all-the thinker, the worker, the idle, the dissolute, the rich, the poor, the
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