USA > Illinois > DuPage County > History of Du Page County, Illinois (Historical, Biographical) > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
79
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
not exceeded by any other paper, although it was interdicted in many of the Southern States, where, could its editor have been found, he would have been lynched on the spot.
When the convention of 1860 met at Chicago to nominate a Republican candidate for Presi- dent of the United States, all eyes were turned toward Mr. Greeley, who seemed to hold the key to the situation ; nor was this hypothesis a false one. At that time, there were substantially but two candidates in the field-Seward and Lincoln. Mr. Seward stood high in the estima- tion of his party both East and West, and his record was untarnished by any political act that would not bear the closest scrutiny. Moreover, he was well versed in all the affairs of State, having been Governor, Senator and Foreign Minister, and his soundness on the vital issues essential to the fulfillment of the Republican doctrines was not to be questioned. These qualifications would seem to give him an assur- ance of success, and would certainly have done so' but for the influence of Mr. Greeley. Some years before this period, a rupture broke ont between Mr. Seward and Mr. Greeley, growing ont of a complaint on the part of the latter that the former had neither appreciated nor re- warded him for his services in the great Whig cause, in which the two were co-workers. As to this quarrel between these two distinguished and estimable statesmen, the public were, in the main, reticent, but, at the convention of 1860, it was in vain that Mr. Seward's friends tried to win over the great journalist-he cast his -in- fluence in favor of Mr. Lincoln, and turned the scale.
In this sketch of Mr. Greeley, it would be un- timely to state the conditions that placed Mr. Lincoln in a position so high that only Mr. Greeley's influence was necessary to make him the winner over the great statesman opposed to him, and we will pass to the next point in Mr. Greeley's life. When the rebellion broke out, he first proposed to let the seceding States go
in peace under a belief that they would soon be glad to come back into the Union, but he did not long hold to this theory, and advocated a vigorous prosecution of the war.
Omitting a record of his acts till 1872, let us look on both sides of the question which made him accept the nomination of the Democrats to be run by them as their candidate for the Presi- dency. First, he did not accept a plank in their platform which could in any way, even by implication, compromise his life-long teachings of Whig and Republican doctrines. The whole Democratic party virtually abandoned their ground and threw themselves at his feet-he whom they had ever affected to despise. As far as the substance went, this was a sufficient vindication of Mr. Greeley's course; but, in theory, it looked otherwise to many who had been his friends. He was accused of apostacy, and made the butt of unsparing ridicule beyond the power of his hitherto philosophic mind to bear. He sank rapidly beneath his load of humiliation, and died shortly after the election a victim to despair.
His funeral was one of the most impressive ever known in New York, and every tongue that, but a few days before had spoken ill of him was now softened into charity for him who had ever been thie great-the honest-the fearless mouthpiece of the Republican party.
John G. Fee was born in Bracken County, Ky., in 1816. When a young man, he was ostracized by his parents for advocating anti- slavery sentiments. He organized three anti-slavery societies in the face of fierce op- position, and, continuing his efforts in this direction. he became the victim of violent mobs in 1856 and later. He was repeatedly threatened with death if he did not leave the State, but still he continued his labors. Dur- ing the war, he helped to establish various col- ored schools in Kentucky. He was one of the founders of Berea College, and is now pastor of a church at that place.
80
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
John Brown was born in Torrington, Conn. May 9, 1800, of good old Puritan stoek, being fifth in descent from Peter Brown, who landed in the Mayflower in 1620. As a boy, he was an industrious, museular, hardy and a capable worker in the great hive of industry that char- acterized the age of his youth. But he never was a boy except in years, for he felt the responsibilities of manhood from a tender age. From his earliest recollections he entertained a great aversion to slavery, and, in 1854, this trait in his eharacter began to take action as the Kansas border opened a field for it. Four of his sons had settled there, eight miles from the village of Osawatomie, near the border. Here they became an object of great aversion to the border ruffians from Missouri on their father's account as well as their own, being Free-State men, and, in obedience to their eall, their father came the next year-1855-with arms and ammunition to defend them. During the next year, he had several successful en- counters with the pro-slavery raiders who came across the line to commit depredations on the Free-State men, and soon gained a repu- tation which made him hated and feared by his adversaries in the irregular style of warfare that was then going on in Kansas. Thirty men were now under his command at Osawat- omie, and were suddenly attacked by a force of five linndred Missourians. Their advance was so sudden that half of his men were cut off and taken ; but, with the remainder, Brown made a glorious retreat, fighting his pursuing army as he fled before them, and inflicting severe losses upon them. For this gallant action he gained the sobriquet of "Osawat. omie Brown."
Six weeks later, he held command of the forces to defend Lawrence against a greatly su- perior force of the enemy ; but the latter dared not make the attack against so obstinate a leader.
These exciting events only served to whet
the edge of his sword for new encounters against the slave power, against which his whole life and soul and strength was pitted, and he laid his plans accordingly.
He had read of insurreetions among slaves, and fully believed that if a respectable nueleus of strength eould be established in their midst, an army could soon be improvised from them, who would gather force, like, a whirlwind, and sweep through the South. Under this belief, so inspiring to his hungry soul, he contemplated seizing the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, where from 100,000 to 200,000 stand of arms were usually stored.
He was about a year maturing his plans, and all things being ready on his part, he, at the head of twenty-two men, seventeen of whom were white and the remainder colored, made the attack at 10 o'clock Sunday night, on the 16th of October, 1859. The three watchmen of the arsenal were taken prisoners, and the town of Harper's Ferry fell into his hands. Private houses were entered, and all arms found therein were taken. The next morning, he had sixty prisoners in his eamp, many of whom were work- men in the employment of the United States.
As soon as the temporary stupor caused by his andacity had passed away, the citizens of the surrounding country began to gather to the scene, while, unfortunately for Brown, no recruits came to his standard except six or eight slaves who had been compelled to do so. An attaek was now made npon the arsenal, which was kept up till the next day at noon, with losses on both sides.
Brown's forces were now all killed or mortally wounded but three, who still held the engine house to which they had taken refuge. At 7 o'clock, the door of their " last resort " was battered in, when Brown, still fighting with the courage of Charles XII at Bender, fell beneath a sabre stroke, receiving two bayonet thrusts after he was down, and the victory over this strange man was won.
سي
83
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
Now came his greatest triumph. Senator Mason, of Virginia, and Gov. Wise confronted him ; but his bearing was dignified and cheer- ful. Nor did he lose those masterly qualities of his mind, which challenged the respect of his enemies even till his death. His trial was put off till the 31st on account of his weakness from his wounds.
In the defense which followed, he refused to allow his connsel to put in the plea of insanity, but he placed his defense solely on the moral points in the case, and firmly justified his course to the last. He was found guilty by the court of the several charges brought against him, and hung on the 2d of December.
During the preparations, he was the calmest one of the thousands assembled to witness the last end of this hero.
That he was an offender against the laws of Virginia no one can question, and his justifica- tion by the almost entire press and people of the North was one of the many proofs that the higher law is stronger than any that man can make when the public will demands its exe- cution.
" John Brown's body lies moldering in the dust ; His soul is marching on !''
became the song of the war, to be chanted by thousands of voices in concert, falling upon un- willing ears like the voice of a ghost, as the Northern soldiers marched through the South. He drew the first blood in the war that was hastened by his death, and only began in a small way, what was soon to be carried on un- der the forms of law on a far grander scale.
His widow visited Chicago in August, 1882, and was received with public honors.
Charles G. Finney was born in Litchfield, Conn., August 29, 1792-died in Oberlin, Ohio, August 16, 1875-became President of Oberlin College in 1852, and held the position till 1866. The college over which he presided was noted for being a nursery of Abolitionists, from its first organization, under his rule.
A brief sketch of Lane Seminary may be con- sidered as exemplary to show the growing anti-slavery sentiment that was destined first to split asunder churches, colleges and ulti- mately, for a time, the nation itself. It was established at Cincinnati in 1832 as a theo- logical school, when theology by many people in America recognized slavery as a patriarchal institution, justified in the Old Testament by precedent and not explicitly forbidden by the new. Dr. Lyman Beecher was President of this institution, and Calvin E. Stone held the chair of Professor of Biblical Literature, and it was the first of its kind established in the West on a footing of the first grade. It was patronized by the best representatives of the orthodoxy of the country. But, unfortunately for Lane as for other "solid" institutions of the country. there was at that time subtly creeping into the public conscience a disintegrating "heresy," so called, and the very attempts that the found- ers of these various institutions made to sub- due the " heresy " (while in the germ cell) only served to cultivate it into a vigorous growth. What could these perplexed fathers do in this dilemma? If they gave full freedom to the young mind to discuss anti-slavery sentiments. the sturdy old leaders both in church and in State would be obliged to come in collision with the interests of their Southern associates, whose tenacity as advocates for slavery forbids its merits to be questioned under penalty of the severance of all ties of friendship and alliance. Hence, free discussion must be forbidden, in order to retain the good will and patronage of southern co-workers in religion as well as poli- ties.
Pending this dilemma, in Lane Seminary many of its earnest students became thoroughly convinced of the impolicy and wickedness of slavery through the teachings of Garrison, as well as by the discussions in their own lyceum on the subject, and formed themselves into an anti-slavery society. When the preamble and E
84
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
resolutions of this society were read to their President, the venerable father acknowledged the truth and force of them, but averred that it was nntimely to agitate the subject, and in- sisted that they should desist from so doing. This requisition the zealons students refused to comply with, but published their sentiments to the world through the press. The matter now became serious. Many papers took sides one way or the other, and the students unex- peetedly became famous. They were extolled as heroes by the Abolitionists, and branded as fools, and threatened with mob violence by the Kentucky slaveholders and their Cincinnati friends. The Trustees of Lane Seminary be- held the opening of this issue with consterna- tion. Lane Seminary was a " hot-bed of aboli- tionism." went forth the cry. Summary meas- ures must be taken to arrest this impression so fatal to the success of this institution. Ac- eordingly, new rules were made ; the students must not make publie addresses against slavery ; must disband their anti-slavery society, and the executive committee were empowered to dis- charge any student from the institution with- out notice or trial. Tyranny over minds could go no further. All but the victims of this gag law were satisfied, and in their transeient honr of triumph the authors of it thought they had settled the whole matter. It is justice to the memory of Asa Mahan, one of the Trustees, to state that he protested against these despotie rules, but he was powerless to prevail against them. He then informed the students of the substance of these laws, and heartily sympa- thized with them in opposition to them.
The first step taken by the Trustees under the new regulations was to make an order to dismiss Theodore D. Weld and W. T. Allan from the institution, whereupon H. B. Stan- ton, then a student of Lane, and since Seere- tary of War, called the attention of the students to the situation, saying, "The question now is, can we, under the new laws, remain in the in-
stitution ? Let all who answer in the negative rise to their feet." Three-fourths of the stu- dents promptly rose and bade good-by to Lane, leaving her with a mill-stone around her neck that soon sunk her to rise no more, and her fate became that of all parties, politicians and institutions that only know enough to step in other people's tracks and follow them to de- struction, because they happen to be big ones. And here it may be meet to say that repub- liean institutions, to be consistent with their principles, should accept no political rule or dogma or faith, except on its positive merits, regardless of what interested parties may say or pretend to. As long as they do this, and dispense even-handed justice to every interest and every individual, so long will such a gov- ernment stand, if it is to the end of time, and it is not too much to add that no government, of whatsoever form, ever went into decadence that had not by its contempt for the rights of its own subjects, deserved first their apathy and lastly their antagonism.
Rufus Lumry was of French Huguenot an- cestry. He was born in Rensselaerville, N. Y., at the close of the last century. He united with the Methodists, and became a minister among them at his maturity. In 1835, he took radi- cal anti-slavery grounds at Princeton, Ill., for which he was arraigned before the conference and required to desist. This his conscience forbade. and he severed his connection with the church and joined the Wesleyans. Subse- quently he was condemned to suffer death on board a steamboat, for preaching abolition sentiments, and given half an hour for prep- aration. He was calmer than his acensers, for he told them he was ready, but would not re- lent, while they reconsidered and did not kill him. He was a co-worker with Owen Lovejoy, Z. Eastman, I. Codding and others, and with them was kicked, buffeted and despised by the populace. The year 1862 found him in Colo- rado, pursuing his work of reform, where he
85
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
was accidentally drowned in crossing a mount- ain torrent.
H. H. Hinman was born in Connecticut in 1822, graduated at Willoughby Medical Col- lege in 1846; came to Illinois in 1849, was or- dained to the ministry and went as a mission- ary to Africa in 1860. In 1866, he returned and labored as a home missionary in Wiscon- sin till 1873, and the next year came to Wheat- . on, Ill. His first vote for President was for Birney in 1844. He always took radical ground on the slavery question, advocating its universal and unconditional abolition by the Government. He helped organize the first Republican party, and start their first paper in Livingston County. He always assisted fugi- tive slaves to get their liberty, and did not con- sider himself a violator of law by so doing, as he looked upon all laws to enslave them as void. He believes in Divine Law as the true basis of civil law-in the prohibition of the liquor traffic-the suppression of secret societies, and the substitution of international arbitration for war. Mr. Hinman's home is in Wheaton, III.
J. C. Webster. The pastorates of ministers in " ye olden time," were longer than they are now. Rev. Josiah Webster presided over his flock at Hampton, N. H., about thirty years, and during this term of ministerial service, his son, Jesse C. Webster, was born. It was in January, 1810. From him he inherited his Congregationalism, and his love for the ministerial calling. Even in that day, slavery was abhorred by benevolent men, and young Jesse also inherited this sen- timent from his father, who, with prophetic vis- ion, said that slavery was destined to be " blot. ted out in blood."
Mr. Webster graduated at the theological institution at Andover in 1832. About this time, a member of the British Parliament came to the place to lecture, named George Thomp- son. To the conservative element, he was a fire-brand, but many conscientious young men did not view him in that light, and Mr. Web-
ster was one of these. He identified himself with the agitators, and was reproved by the professors of Andover for it, and even rebuked for walking arm in arm with Rev. A. A. Phelps because he was a coworker with Thompson. Mr. Webster left the seminary with its parting blessing, cum grano, and soon after delivered an abolition lecture, getting pay for the same in eggs, unsavory as they were, hurled at his head. He next became pastor of a Congrega- tional Church at Hopkinton, Mass., and during his long term there, advocated the cause of the slave and became President of the American Church Anti-Slavery Society, the object of which was the exclusion of pro-slavery senti- ments from the church. From that day to the present, he has been true to the cause, and like other Abolitionists has become noted for what was once considered a weakness, and he has recently been honored with the title of D. D. His home is Wheaton, Ill.
James B. Walker is one of the well-preserved specimens of the pioneer preacher, editor and Abolitionist, so few of whom are now among us to take us back to early days when men had not sought out so many inventions to subordi- nate true merit to the control of pretentious purposes. He was born in Philadelphia in July, 1805, but by the death of his father, which took place before his birth, his mother was thrown into the generous household of her parents, who lived twenty miles from Fort Pitt (now Pitts- burgh), and here young James' first resolutions fastened upon his childish mind to live, and grow from the log cabin in which he dwelt to the varied positions which he has honored in his long and eventful life
He began his career elad in garments spun, woven, cut and made by his mother, on the frontier with the first rudiments of science dis- tilled into his mind in a log schoolhouse by a pedagogue with a rod in one hand and a spell- ing-book in the other, and when the former was once used on him, Mr. Walker still remembers
86
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
the rueful looks and illy-concealed indications of sympathy which little Sarah Trovillo mani- fested on the occasion, which a thousand-fold atoned for the disgrace of the whipping which only hurt for a few minutes, while Sarah's inno- cent regrets often call back the flowers of spring to blossom again in midwinter.
Having graduated at this school, young James was set to work in a nail factory in Pittsburgh, where he passed the red-hot iron rods from the furnace to the workmen. While thus employed, a benevolent gentlemen, visiting the shop, saw something in him that attracted his attention, and gave him a silver half-dollar. It made him feel richer than he has ever felt since.
During these tender years, Mr. Walker says he felt afraid to pass the house of a certain blacksmith in the night because he was an infi- del
Having remained at work in the nail factory till the din of hammers there impaired bis hearing for a time, he was mercifully taken from the place and set to work as a store boy at Hookstown, near the borders of Virginia. It was a rough place, and was universally known by the epithet of " The Devil's Half Acre." Mr. Walker speaks of the disgusting scenes of drunkenness and fighting that he saw during his two years' residence at the place, sometimes disfiguring and crippling those en- gaged in them for life.
The next change in the life of young Walker was to apprentice him to Messrs. Eichbaum & Johnston, who published the Pittsburgh Gazette-the first newspaper published West of the Alleghany Mountains. It was edited by Morgan Neville. This occupation opened up a new field for the genius of the young lad, whose talents had hitherto been wasted on pursuits for which he was neither mentally nor physic- ally fitted. Here he remained five years, in which time be learned the printer's trade, and received the religious teachings of the
Scotch Secession Church, of which his mother, whose home was now at Pittsburgh, was a member. Mr. Walker speaks of early Methodism, as it was then, as follows : " The men wore a coat of the Quaker form, and the women all wore the Quaker, or Methodist bonnet. To be a Methodist in those days, was to come out from the world in a sense not understood at the present time. When a young woman was converted, all orna- ments were laid aside."
While at work on the Gazette, Mr. Walker says he sent a contribution to the Evening Post, of Philadelphia, which was rejected, but be reserved the same for publication in a paper of his own, which acquisition-long ago a reality-seemed even then a distant possibility in his ambitious imagination.
Mr. Walker's next change was to go to New York City. He made the journey on foot-300 miles in ten days, carrying his pack swung from a staff across his shoulder.
From thence he went to Philadelphia, and, like Benjamin Franklin a century before him, followed type-setting. After remaining here awhile, he again returned to New York, and obtained employment for a short season, in the capacity of clerk for the celebrated M. M. Noah, who had established the first daily paper ever issued in New York. Its first name was Noah's Ark, which was subsequently changed to the Courier and Enquirer. His term of service, however, soon ceased with Mr. Noah, as he sold out his paper and became Judge of the Court of Sessions. On parting with young Walker, he gave him a letter recommending him to Mr. Booth, a celebrated star actor. His son, in 1865, was the murderer of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Boothi treated the young appli- cant with deserved attention, but informed him that there were so many applicants from young men wishing to try their fortuncs on the stage, that he could not give him any encourage- ment.
87
HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.
Mr. Walker's means now became exhausted, and he sold a cloak to get money to pay a washing bill. He crossed the ferry to Hobo- ken, and started into the country on foot, not knowing whither he was going. Ile was soon overtaken by a farmer, who gave him an invi- tation to ride. In conversation with him, he learned that a schoolmaster was wanted in his district. He obtained the situation, and with it relief. Mr. Walker, having finished his en- gagement, subsequently returned to the West and bought a half-interest in the Western Courier, a paper published in the Western Reserve, Ohio.
Soon after this, he made the acquaintance of John Brown, Theodore Weld and other early Abolitionists, and espoused the eause in which these men were engaged, in which cause he was the victim of a determined mob at Hud- son, Ohio, while he was a student at the West. ern Reserve College at the place, which was shortly after his connection with the Western Courier. He had been invited to give an anti- slavery lecture at the Congregational Church. It was known beforehand that violence would be resorted to to prevent it, and the preacher, either through fear or from other motives, did not attend. He might have been like the hunter who saw an animal in the woods that, in the bushes, looked some like a calf and some like a deer, and prudentially fired at it with such an aim as to miss it if a calf aud hit it if a deer. In like manner, many preachers took safe ground in the pioneer days of aboli- tionism. But, whatever were the motives of the minister in question, his wife nailed her colors to the masthead and boldly took her seat in the church. Young Walker "laid on " heavy and unsparing. The mob outside hurled stones, battered the doors, broke in all the windows, and, not content with this, threw fire through the apertures. By this time the audi- ence had all fled, but Mr. Walker and the hero- ine wife of the minister were the last to leave
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.