History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 154

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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The subject of this sketch was bred on a farm, and would quite likely have followed the vocation of a farmer, had not an acci- dent, which occurred when he was a youth of ten years, deprived him of the full use of his left hand.

Subsequent to the accident he pursued his studies with a view to following a profes- sion. He received an academic education at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary. Kent's Hill. Readfield, and Lincoln Academy, New Cas- tle, Maine. He entered Waterville College (now Colby University) in the class of 1831. He received the degree of LL. D. from that institution in 1865. After leaving college he studied law in Hallowell, Maine, in the office of Hon. John Otis. Having completed his legal studies he was admitted to the Bar in Kennebec County, and immediately after started on a tour of observation with a view to settlement West. He arrived in Chicago September, 1835, after a tempestuous and dangerous passage, on the steamboat " Penn- sylvania," at that time plying between Buffalo and other Lake Erie ports, and occasionally making the round trip to Chicago, via Green Bay. The steamer anchored outside the bar, and the passengers, Scammon among them, were landed in a skiff or yawl under the south end of a bridge which crossed Dearborn Street, from whence they made their way, through the tall prairie grass, across what is now the heart of the city, to the Sanganash Hotel, then located on Market Street, near Lake.

Through letters to Mr. Henry Moore, then an attorney of the town and Deputy Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. under Colonel Richard J. Hamilton, who then held most of the offices in the county, he made the acquaintance of the latter gen- tleman. The Circuit Court commenced its session not long after Scammon's arrival. and, on the solicitation of Mr. Moore, whose private business prevented his further service as Deputy Clerk, he consented to remain temporarily and fill the position during the session of the court. Thus Mr. Scammon began active life in Chicago in 1835, in the

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BANKS AND BANKING.

office of the Circuit Court of Cook County. His services were appreciated by Colonel Hamilton. He was subsequently appointed Deputy .Clerk, in place of Moore, who resigned his claim to the official position, and was allowed to open an office as an attorney at law in the somewhat contracted precincts of one corner of the Clerk's office, having been admitted to the Bar of Illinois December 7, 1835. The young lawyer grew rapidly into favor, and filled, during the succeeding two years, many offices of trust and respon- sibility under Colonel Hamilton, who was then Clerk of the Circuit Court, Clerk of the County Commissioner's Court, School Commissioner, Recorder of Deeds, not- ary public, and bank commissioner. He continued studiously to apply himself to the duties of his profes- sion. December 5, 1836, he entered into a copartner- ship for the practice of law with Buckner S. Morris. The firm had a successful and increasing practice for eighteen months, when it was dissolved. For a year after the dissolution Mr. Scammon practiced alone. In I$39 he again entered into a copartnership with Nor- man B. Judd. The firm existed until 1847, and, during its continuance, ranked as one of the strongest and most reliable legal firms in the Northwest. Mr. Scam- mon, up to this time, had devoted his energies and attention assiduously to his profession and had attained the foremost rank as a practitioner in Cook County and throughout the State of Illinois. Subsequently, in 1849, he entered into a law partnership with Ezra B. McCagg, who had previously been his confidential law clerk. This copartnership remained unbroken until 1856, when Mr. MIcCagg went to Europe, and Mr. Samuel W. Fuller assumed charge of the law office, and conducted the business under the name of Scam- mon & Fuller. Mr. McCagy, returning home in 1857, and entering into the active business of the office, the name of the firm became Scammon, McCagg & Fuller, and so remained until after the great fire of 1871.

From the dissolution of the partnership with Mr. Judd, although continuing to practice and to be retained in many important suits, he became more identified with the public affairs of the commonwealth, and more engrossed in private business. His dissolution of that copartnership was consummated on account of his inter- est in railroad matters, which largely absorbed his atten- tion at that time, he being then one of the projectors and builders of the Galena & Chicago Union Rail- road .* In 1837, while known exclusively as a lawyer, he was, without solicitation on his part, appointed attorney of the State Bank of Illinois. He also held the position of reporter of the Supreme Court of Illi- nois from 1839 to 1845. during which time the Court Reports were published in a style of excellence hitherto unknown in the West, and not inferior to like publica- tions in the Eastern States.

Subsequent to 1857 Mr. Scammon became so prom- inently engaged in the business interests of Chicago and the State as to overshadow for years the well- earned and merited prominence which he had attained in his profession. He was identified with the earliest efforts to establish the common-school system in Chi- cago, being appointed one of the school inspectors in 1839, and remained a member of the school board until I845, t when he was nominated as an Alderman from the First Ward. His candidacy was opposed by some on account of his " building big school-houses," as it was expressed, he being the strong advocate of expenditures for school purposes, considered at that

time prodigal in the extreme, and far beyond the pres- ent or prospective wants of the city. He was elected by a most flattering vote, and in his new office helped to lay the broad foundations o' the present magnificent school system of the city.

Mr. Scammon was, however, more strictly identified with the financial institutions of the State than with any other department of its material progress. He had, by the knowledge gained through his legal connection with banks as an attorney, become an expert in all the details of the various theories of banking then in vogue, and, naturally, his attention became directed to that business. The amended Constitution of 1848 permitted the general banking law of 1851 to be passed. He was, at the time the law passed, the president and leading stockholder of the Chicago Marine & Fire Insurance Company, an institution performing all the functions of a bank, except that of issuing currency. Soon after the passage of the act and its adoption by popular vote, he established, under its provisions, the first institution under the general law called the Marine Bank. His bank was considered the strongest and most reliable of the State banks established under the law, and under his direction was so conducted as to not only vindicate the law, but bring it into especial favor throughout the State, where a strong prejudice had previously pre- vailed against banks, and especially against State bank- ing .* He became the open and fearless antagonist of all who sought to evade the banking law. The illegal or irregular bankers were indicted in January, 1853, under a law then recently enacted, which drove illegal banking from the city and State, or forced it to seek cover under the ægis of law. This act was framed by him, and passed through his advisement.

In 1857, having accumulated an ample fortune, he decided to temporarily retire from active business and to take a rest, after his arduous and successful career of nearly a quarter of a century. He accordingly sailed for Europe where he remained for about three years. On his return in 1860, and finding that through mismanagement or misfortune, or both, the Chicago Marine & Fire Insurance Company, which he had left the strongest institution of its kind in the West, was on the verge of bankruptcy, he immediately re-assumed its personal management and plunged anew with his accustomed energy into the vortex of Chicago business of which this great monetary institution was the center. Success crowned his efforts, as always before. The institution regained its former prestige, as the lead- ing monetary institution of the city, and so remained, under his management, until the destruction of the Illinois currency, in consequence of the depreciation of South- ern State stocks, upon which it was in part based, com- pelled a general suspension of banks which had received and held that currency on deposit. Mr. Scammon then opened a private bank, settled up the affairs of the okl institution, and re-organized it. and made it again a prosperous institution until the destruction of the city by fire in October, 1871. The enormous and unex- pected losses then incurred, followed by the business panic of 18;3. rendered it expedient to wind up its affairs, and it ceased business in 1874.

In things temporal, the tide which "taken at its flood leads on to fortune," oftentimes at its ebb, kaves the hitherto fortunate mortal stranded on the shore among the wrecks of his former possessions. From causes over which Mr. Scammon had little control. disaster in worldly affairs became his lot, against which

* Mr. scammon'socane timm with the banking of the city further appears in the topical history of banking.

· sre article on Railroads.

t See Schools.

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

he struggled with such energy, determination, fortitude and philosophy as evinced a type of character more exalted and more worthy of emulation than is often evolved from a life of uninterrupted success. At the time of the great fire Mr. Scammon was possessed of a vast fortune, was a banker of the highest standing both as to executive ability and commercial integrity, and was possessed of almost unlimited financial credit throughout the country. As a lawyer he stood in the front rank, and as a man of affairs in the great public enterprises which concerned the welfare and prosperity of the city and State, he ranked as one of the foremost.

Full half a million dollars of his property vanished in the smoke and flames of the great conflagration. His banks, his warehouses, his stores, and his home, all disappeared in the general ruin.

But his courage remained undaunted, and his credit unimpaired. He immediately set about the task of rebuilding, with his full share of that wonderful delirium of energy which characterized the renovation of the destroyed city. In fifteen months he expended more than one million dollars in rebuilding the new Chicago. Much of the capital required was necessarily borrowed, either on the personal credit of Mr. Scammon or on such collateral security as his property, remaining after the fire, enabled him to offer. The panic of 1873 depreciated the value of his securities, although it did not decrease the amount of his debts, and his monetary credit became so impaired as to leave him hopelessly involved. Out of the wreck something may be saved to him who builded the ship, but, perhaps, nothing beyond what would be required to earn the same anew.

Losing his fortune, Mr. Scammon still retained all of himself that is imperishable, and has since that time borne himself as a Christian philosopher and as a true man should. His reputation, save that ephemeral form which is measured by dollars and re-acts on itself when the dollars vanish, is unsullied. He is (1884) engaged in practice as a lawyer in Chicago, taking little part in public affairs outside the duties of his profession.

The active years of his life identified him with nearly every branch of Chicago development. He was the first professed receiver in northern Illinois of the doctrines contained in the religious writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and organized the first "Church of the New .Jerusalem " west of the lakes. He was the first homeopath in Chicago. He was also one of the first organizers and directors of the Chicago & Galena Rail- road, and the acknowledged leader in the State bank reform of 1851, being the managing head of one of the first banks organized under its provisions. Although engrossed in business, he ever took an active interest in politics. He, however, was never an office-seeker or an office-holder in a political sense, though the Whig candidate for Corngess in the Chicago District in 1848, and was elected and served as a member of the State Assembly in 1860-61. In politics he was formerly a · stanch Whig, and, on the disintegration of the party became, and has since continued, an unswerving Repub- lican. In the interest of that party he established the Inter-Ocean* in 1872.

This sketch, treating of the public and civil life of Mr. Scammon, although giving the reader an idea of the many paths of usefulness through which he won the gratitude and respect of his fellow-citizens, does not touch upon the deeper and broader traits of his char- acter, which are known only to such as have been drawn to him within his Church, his large circle of personal friends, and his family. The inner and better life of a

true man is seldom written. It is more fitting that it be engraved in the hearts and cherished in the memories of those whose lives have been intimately interwoven with his own.

While in affluent circumstances his public as well as private benefactions were bountiful to the full measure of his ability. The Hahnemann Homeopathic Society received from him as a free gift a commodious hospital. The Chicago Astronomical Society and the Dearborn Observatory owe their existence mainly to Mr. Scam- mon. He was elected the first president of the Society. built, at a cost of $30,000, the Observatory, and paid the salary of its director until the fire of 1871. On his retirement from the presidency of the Society in IS82, the following was placed on the records :

" The Hon. John Young Scammon having resigned the office of President of the Chicago Astronomical Society, which office he has held from the organization of the Society in 1862 to the present time, the directors take this occasion to express their sense of obligation for his untiring interest in the success of the Dearborn Observatory, and for the munificent benefactions he has bestowed upon it.

" It is to Mr. Scammon that the Society is indebted for the tower of the Observatory, which he furnished the means to erect at a cost of $30,000.

" Mr. Scammon also made a generous contribution toward the purchase of the Great Refractor, and, in the early history of the Society, the salary of the director · was for a considerable period paid entirely by the same liberal hand.

"Whenever a history of Chicago shall be written in which justice shall be done to those who have made our city what it is, then will the name of J. Y. Scammon be found to occupy an honored place in the records of those whose benefactions have contributed most to the growth and prosperity of the city and its institutions."

Mr. Scammon was married in Bath, Me., July -. 1837, to Miss Mary Ann Haven Dearborn. They had four children, two of whom survive. One daughter died in infancy.

Charles Trufant was born July 7, 1840. His youth was spent in Chicago. He was graduated from the Chicago University and soon after entered the service as a Lieutenant in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry. He was subsequently appointed on the staff of General Steele, and served through the war, bearing himself as a true and brave soldier throughout. At the close of the war he commenced the study of law in the office of that eminent lawyer and statesman, Hon. George Evans, Portland, Me. In 1869, having completed his legal studies and been admitted to the Bar, he entered into a copartnership with Robert T. Lincoln, who had been a law student in the office of Scammon, McCagg & Fuller. The career of the promising young firm was cut short by the failing health and early death of young Scammon. He died August 23, 1876.

Of the two surviving daughters, Florence A. D). (now Mrs. J. S. Reed , was born in Chicago November12, 1844. She now resides in South Carolina. Arianna Evans Scammon was born April 2, 1848, and is now a resident of New York City. Mrs. Scammon died at Soden, Nassau, Germany, ten miles from Frankfurt-on- the-Main, July 9, 1858, where she was buried, and over her remains rests an appropriate marble monument.

On December 5, 1867, Mr. Scammon married Mrs. Maria Sheldon Wright.

WILLIAM H. BROWN was born in Connecticut about 1795. His father was a native of Rhode Island and by profession a lawyer. He practiced for twenty-five

. See History of Chicago Journalism in later volume.

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BANKS AND BANKING.

years in Auburn, N. Y., and toward the end of his life removed to New York City. Young Brown studied law with his father, with whom he also practiced for a short time, and then removed to Illinois Territory, where he was licensed to practice September 28, 1817. He took up his residence in Kaskaskia as early as December, 1818, and in the spring of 1819 was appointed Clerk of the United States Court for Illinois, a position he held until 1835. On the change of the State capital in 1820, he removed to Vandalia, where he purchased a half interest in "The Illinois Intelligencer," established in 1815, and the first newspaper published in illinois, of which he became the editor. In December, 1822, he married Harriet C., daughter of Colonel John Seward, of Montgomery County, Ill.

In February, 1823, the pro-slavery faction in the Legislature by the high handed methods, which became historic, secured the passage of a resolution submitting to the people a call for a constitutional convention, the covert purpose of which was to legalize slavery in the State. Mr. Brown's partner in the Intelligencer was William Berry, a pro-slavery member of the Legislature; and at this critical juncture in presence of so well de- fined an issue, their views could not well be harmonized. Mr. Brown's interest was bought out, but before the close of the year the paper, in other hands, was again brought under the influence of free principles, and for eight months before the general election did good service in securing the memorable victory for freedom of August 2, 1824. In that contest Mr. Brown was one of the working force which revolutionized the public opinion of the State in that pivotal epoch of its history.

In October, 1835, he removed to Chicago, having been appointed cashier of the branch of the State Bank which was to be established here. December 5, 1835, he formally announced the names of the officers of the bank, which thereupon became an institution of the ambitious and speculating town. In 1836 Mr. Brown gave evidence of taste and wealth by building a ten thousand dollar residence on the northwest corner of Pine and Illinois streets.

In 1840 he was elected School Agent by a majority of one, on the Whig ticket, having offered to serve with- out salary. For thirteen years he filled that office with marked efficiency and general acceptance. In that relation, and as one of the Board of Inspectors he con- tributed largely to the increasing success of the schools

of Chicago. December 8, 1840, he delivered a lecture before the Lyceum on " The Early History of Illinois;" and January 20, 1842, one on "The Social and Legal Rights of Women."

In 1845 Mr. Brown formed a partnership with Alfred Cowles, a lawyer, and in 1846 he was one of the syndicate who bought the charter of the Galena & Chi- cago Union Railroad from the estate of E. K. Hubbard, deceased. In 1857 he built a more costly residence than before on Michigan Avenue, keeping well to the front in that class of expenditure by an outlay of $30,000.

In 1860 he was nominated for the State Legislature by the Republicans, and worked hard for the success of the party in the State and Nation. He was elected and acquitted himself with credit in that position, being especially marked for his zeal in the support of the national administration throughout the Civil War. De- cember 5, 1864, he delivered a lecture before the Chi- cago Historical Society, of which he had been the first president, 1856 to 1863, on the "Early Movement in Illinois for the Legalization of Slavery."

At the close of the war, Mr. Brown retired from active business pursuits ; and, in 1866, accompanied by Mrs. Brown, he went to Europe, partly for recreation and partly in the hope of recruiting his failing health. In Amsterdam he was taken ill with small-pox, and while convalescing was struck with paralysis, of which he died June 17, 1867. All his children, four sons and one daughter. with their mother, survived to mourn his loss, surrounded by the regret and respect of the whole community.

On three critical occasions in the life of the State, the city, and the Nation, respectively, Mr. Brown was not only on the right, but also the victorious side ; and he has deservedly taken high rank among his fellow- citizens as a philanthropist, a friend of education and a patriot. The public cannot minutely discriminate between good fortune and victorious choice; and, if it could, there is no doubt that Mr. Brown would be entitled to its applause on the higher ground. intel- lectually, he was not great, but his talents were respect- able ; and though perhaps opinionated and stubborn, as the wont of successful men, he was esteemed for his kindness of heart by those who knew him best .*

* If a more extended analysis of Mr. Brown's character be thought desir- able, see Dr. Patterson's tribute to his memory .- Fergus 6, p. xi., etc.

TRADE, COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.

PRIMITIVE PERIOD-1833 TO 1848.

Chicago has now the largest trade and the most extended commerce of any inland city in the world. It is the most important primary market in the world for cereals, live stock, and all their manufactured products, such as flour, pork, lard, beef, tallow, etc.

The commerce of Chicago began quite early, as the . reader well knows who has read the history of the American Fur Company and the Government Factories, both of which had agencies there at a very early time in its history. Chicago had nothing to export, except furs and peltry, until 1833. Up to that time there were no products of husbandry raised west of Lake Michi- gan in sufficient quantity to more than supply the wants of the resident people. The records prior to that date showed that each vessel which arrived at the port of Chicago brought passengers and provisions, and took little back. Indeed, the balance of trade was most sadly against the port. When the first modern mer- chants established themselves in Chicago, they did not look for any profit from an export trade, but entirely from the sale of goods brought from the East. Among them were flour, wheat 'for seed), beef, pork, and nearly all the ordinary necessities of life.

It is stated by Judge Caton that, as late as 1836, during the fall, an actual scarcity of provisions prevailed, and quite a panic set in among the inhabitants. Some of the merchants-all, in fact, but George W. Dole- put up the price of flour, of which they held but small stocks, to the exorbitant price of $28 per barrel. Mr. Dole, who held the largest stock, not only refused to take an interest in this first "Chicago corner," but actually broke it by refusing to sell to these extortionate dealers, while he, himself, continued to sell at retail, at the old price of Sr1, until further supplies arrived.

From 1832 to 1838 the incoming settlers consumed nearly all the products of those who had come before them. Those who had raised crops in 1833 found a ready market for their surplus among the comers of 1834, who, in turn, found an equally urgent demand for their products in the increasing throng of emigrants of the succeeding year. The early trade and traffic in furs, or the correlative barter of goods in exchange for them, could hardly be classed even as the beginning of Chicago commerce. The Factory at Chicago and the agents of the American Fur Company show in their records all that will ever be known of early Chicago commerce. The vast commerce of the city to-day has no connection with 't whatever. The Indian trade was virtually extinct before the American commerce which now centers at Chicago had begun. Only a single man Gurdon S. Hubbard became identified with the modern commerce and trade of the city, who had been connect- ed with the rude Indian traffic which centered in Chicago in the earlier times.

The beginning of what is now the vast trade and commerce of Chicago dates back to the spring of 1833. at which time the first invoice of what might be termed the first products of civilized industry was shipped from

the port of Chicago to an Eastern market. The slaughtering of cattle and swine seems to have furnished the first surplus products for export. The early history of that branch of industry has been told elsewhere. George W. Dole made the first shipment of beef in bar- rels in the spring of 1833, which is believed to be the first consignment of Western products to Eastern mar- kets, excepting furs, peltry, and hides, ever shipped as a commercial venture from Chicago. The bill of lading read as follows:

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 154

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340