USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume II > Part 78
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Unto Mr. and Mrs. Parry have been born two children: Pearl Lettie, who was born January 30, 1892, and is now a student in the Hinckley high school; and Hazel Henrietta, who was born September II, 1897. and is also in school.
Since coming to this county Mr. Parry has been identified with farm- ing interests, and that he has been energetic and diligent is indicated by the fact that he is now the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which is nicely improved, while the fields are under a high state of cultivation. He annually gathers good crops, and he also raises some stock. The secret of his success lies in his unfaltering labor, for he has never been afraid of hard work and has realized that it is the only sure founda- tion upon which to build prosperity. He votes with the republican party. His wife is a member of St. Paul's German church at Hinckley, and they are well and favorably known to the community. Mr. Parry has never had occasion to regret the fact that he decided upon America as a place of residence and he has here won the proud American title of a self-made man.
C. W. GLOVER.
C. W. Glover, who has been identified with Elgin's manufacturing inter- ests for eight years, was the promoter of the Elgin Box Company, and has built up an extensive and growing business. He is a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred at Jeffersonville, July 13, 1865. His education was acquired through the medium of the public schools, and when he put aside his text-books he became a factor in business circles, wherein he has gradu- ally worked his way upward, his power increasing through experience, while each forward step in his career has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities.
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He was for some time associated with the Louisville Coffin Company, at Louisville, Kentucky, and later he engaged with W. H. Hutchinson & Company, of Rochester, New York. Coming to Elgin, he was for some time a representative of the Elgin Silver Plate Company, and a few years ago organized the Elgin Box Company, which has developed under his guidance into an industry of large proportions. He now manufactures coffin hard- ware specialties, and is located at Nos. 66 and 68 River street. His trade is rapidly growing and bids fair to become one of Elgin's leading manu- factories within a few years. He has made his home continuously in the city since 1895. He had become a resident of New Albany, Indiana, in 1866, and in 1881 removed to Louisville, Kentucky.
Mr. Glover has a pleasant home at No. 16 Rugby place. He married a Miss Drummond, and they have three children, two daughters and one son. In all of his business affairs Mr. Glover has been actuated by strong purpose and laudable ambition and has made steady progress toward the goal of prosperity.
EDWARD LAWRENCE HOYT.
Edward Lawrence Hoyt, who, in partnership with his brother, Walter, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this edition, owns and operates a farm of four hundred and twenty acres on section II, Kaneville township, is the son of Jacob N. and Eunice N. (Thayer) Hoyt. The father was born in Concord, New Hampshire, December 15, 1831, where he received a liberal education and continued to reside until he was twenty-two years of age. In 1853 he adventurously set forth to make his fortune in the west, locating first at Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained for some years. Dur- ing the course of the Civil war he, in common with numerous other citizens of the community, was drafted into the army, but paying the necessary price to secure a substitute he was permitted to remain at home. The price of commodities for a few years following the close of the war was very high and with a mind keenly alert to the opportunities of the times Mr. Hoyt determined to take up the work of agriculture. The fame of the rich agricultural resources of this section of Illinois had already reached his ' ears, and following his marriage to Eunice N. Thayer on April 7, 1869, he rented a tract of land near Harristown. Macon county, on which he began farming operations. He brought to bear in this work all the energy, thrift and intelligence that is so characteristic of the New England race, and, being aided by a fertile, productive soil that responded generously to the care and cultivation he gave it, his efforts were crowned with most gratifying success. He remained on this farm for fifteen years, at the expiration of which time he was able to make a sufficient payment to secure title of the four hundred and twenty acres referred to in the opening of this sketch, located three and one-half miles west of Elburn. It was not good fortune but good man- agement that prompted him to make this purchase. Mr. Hoyt began the
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work of equipping it for a model stock and grain farm. He erected a num- ber of large barns, built a silo, divided the farm into fields, pastures and corrals, and altogether invested some ten thousand dollars in improvements, so that it is now one of the best and most up-to-date farms in Kane county. In addition to his extensive business interests Mr. Hoyt yet found time for active participation in public affairs. He held the office of county supervisor for a number of years, also was chosen as representative of his district, which office he filled with great satisfaction to his constituents. He was a stanch Democrat, and attended the Methodist church. of which his wife was a member. Mr. Hoyt was called to his eternal rest on May 7, 1907.
Edward Lawrence Hoyt was born on the farm near Harristown, Macon county, March 24, 1871. He received his education in the district school, leaving it at the early age of sixteen years to enter upon the practical work of aiding his father in the conduct of his farming interests. Eventually the property was jointly purchased by himself and brother, who continue to operate it on the lines laid down by their father, whose methods are well worth emulating. In addition to the work of general farming they also have extensive dairy interests, and are now milking about seventy cows.
On December 24, 1893, occurred the marriage of Edward Lawrence Hoyt and Miss Della Sharp, whose father, now deceased, was a veteran of the Civil war. She has one own brother, Arthur Sharp, who is marshal of Elburn, and two half-sisters, Jessie and Ruth, by her mother's second mar- riage to Joseph E. White, who died in 1903. Mrs. White now resides in Elburn with her two young daughters. Mrs. Hoyt was born in Camtpon township and finished her education in the high school of Elburn. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt, Howard J. was born November 7, 1896; Helen E., April 29, 1899; and Harvey E., July 7, 1907.
In politics Mr. Hoyt is a democrat, and has served as commissioner of highways. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, in which he lias attained the Knight Templar degree; also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Hoyt is one of the most progressive and enter- prising citizens of Kane county, and keeps thoroughly posted on topics of general interest as well as on the questions of the day.
ALBERT J. HOPKINS.
In the long and crowded line of illustrious men of whom Illinois is justly proud, the public life of few others has extended over so long a period as that of Albert J. Hopkins, junior United States senator, and the record of none has been more varied in service, more constant in honor, more fearless in conduct or more stainless in reputation. When he entered upon his work in the national halls of legislation, it was with the fixed purpose that he would be the representative of the people in spirit as well as in name, and he held, moreover, that "a public office is a public trust"- and no trust reposed in Albert J. Hopkins has ever been betrayed in the
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slightest degree. The tangible evidence of his public spirit are many and the records of the house and senate teem with many proofs of his devotion to the national welfare. While unquestionably a stalwart republican, he is too broad-minded a man to be merely a partisan, and too independent to ever be the slave of public opinion. His course has honored the state which has honored him, and he is numbered among those who are today making history-a history of progress that not only meets but anticipates the demands of the time that arise from prevailing conditions.
Mr. Hopkins is one of Illinois' native sons, his birth occurring on his father's farm near Cortland, DeKalb county. His parents, Cyrus B. and Fannie (Larkin) Hopkins, were natives of New York who settled in Illinois during the pioneer epoch in its history, establishing their home in DeKalb county about 1838, only six years after the close of the Black Hawk war, which freed the state from Indian domination and left it open to the settle- ment of progressive people who have builded a commonwealth that, in many respects, leads the entire nation. The usual tasks of the farm fell to Albert J. Hopkins in his boyhood and youth, and following his mastery of the elementary branches of learning in the district schools, he further continued his education in the public schools of Sycamore, where a year's study qual- ified him for entrance into the preparatory department of Hillsdale College, at Hillsdale, Michigan. The following year he began the regular collegiate course in that institution, which he carried forward to his graduation as a member of the class of 1870.
Some years before Mr. Hopkins had determined upon the practice of law as a life work, and indeed his entire career since he has attained man- hood has been connected with the great judicial system of the country, either as a lawyer or lawmaker. The ability which he had displayed in college led to a most flattering offer made him by an academy in Maine that wished him to become its principal, but he never wavered in the path that he had marked for himself, although the proffered position would have brought him much greater pecuniary return than he expected to receive in the immediate future, if he carried out his purpose of preparing for the bar. His initial reading was done in the office and under the direction of C. J. Metzner, of Aurora, then recognized as one of the prominent lawyers of northern Illinois. He applied himself with such untiring zeal that the following year he passed the required examination that secured him admission to the bar and entered upon practice in Kane county.
While the nation knows Mr. Hopkins as one of the ablest working mem- bers in its council chambers, Illinois recognizes him as one of the ablest members of a bar that has long been distinguished for the high rank of its representatives. At the time he entered upon practice, the Kane county bar numbered among its members some of the distinguished attorneys of the state and with them, as one of them expressed it, a law suit was a fight; sham reputations and empty pretense were of no avail in these fierce struggles. There indeed the fittest survived and only the very fit did sur- vive. The young lawyer found it a hard school, but he was there to win and as he measured his strength with the best his mind was developed. His intel- lectual powers were quickened and strengthened and he acquired a readiness
KANE COUNTY HISTORY
in action and fertility of resource and a courage under stress that could have been gained in no other school. He soon won his way to a place, not only among the foremost representatives of the Kane county bar, but of the Illi- nois bar, and in the halls of legislation he has again proven his worth as a representative of the legal profession in his comprehensive knowledge of con- stitutional law and of the grave and complex problems which it involves.
The man who is a student of the law and of the signs of the times. and who keeps abreast with the best-thinking men of the age, must, naturally. be an interested student of politics, for national progress in every line is interwoven with politics. Naturally, his early steps in this direction were taken in connection with the local ranks of the party of his choice, and in 1872 he received the republican nomination for state's attorney of Kane county. He filled that position for four years, discharging his duties with- out fear or favor and standing as a safe conservator of the rights and liberties of the people against lawlessness, disorder and crime. This constituted a stepping stone, not only in his political, but also in his legal career, for it demonstrated to the public an ability that soon drew to him a clientage unequaled by that of any Illinois lawyer outside of the city of Chicago.
The steps in his progression are easily discernible, for they have fol- lowed the faithful performance of duty in one position whereby his powers and ability have been quickened and developed, making him ready for larger responsibilities. In the early days of professional career in Aurora, Mr. Hopkins was married to Miss Emma Stolp, a daughter of James B. Stolp, one of the pioneer residents of that city. The children of this marriage are: Fannie. James, Albert and Mark. Home life has had for Mr. Hopkins an attraction superior to that of anything else, and when official or business duties permit, his hours are always spent at his own fireside in the companionship of his family.
With his little family growing up around him, however, Mr. Hopkins was also attracting public attention by those qualities which have made him a leader in republican circles. In 1878 he was made a member of the repub- lican state committee and in 1884 was nominated by the state convention as a presidential elector. supporting in that year the candidacy of James G. Blaine and John A. Logan. Two years previous his friends had brought him forward as a candidate for congress, but by a narrow margin he failed to secure the nomination. On the death of Hon. Reuben Elwood, congressman from his district, in the summer of 1885, Mr. Hopkins was elected his successor by an astonishingly large majority, and no more thorough endorsement of his labors in congress could be given than the fact that he was elected for eight consecutive terms to represent his district i:1 the lower house, covering a service of nearly eigliteen years. During that period he was connected with much important constructive work done in the cominittee rooms, serving on the committees of merchant marine and fish- eries, postoffice and post roads and ways and means. The last named, recognized as the most important committee of the house, numbered him as a member for fourteen years. From the time of his first election to congress his history has been inseparably interwoven with our national
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annals. He has been the champion of much legislation that has found its way into the statute books of the nation, while time has proven the wisdom of his course and demonstrated his keen sagacity upon matters of vital im- portance to the people at large. The fact that Mr. Hopkins was representing one of the most extensive dairy districts in America led him to the study of questions relative thereto, and always looking for an opportunity to help his constituents, he introduced the first bill in congress to regulate the sale of oleomargarine, a bill which has been of the utmost value to Illinois dairymen as well as to the consumer.
Already largely familiar with the questions of tariff and revenue, when made a member of the ways and means committee, Mr. Hopkins began the most minute and thorough investigation of everything bearing upon the sub- ject, and it would be difficult to find in the entire country one of more wide or accurate knowledge upon this and its subsidiary questions. He was a member of the sub-committee of the republicans that prepared what is known as the Dingley bill and which worked for three months on the bill before it was ever presented to the full committee. Mr. Hopkins took an active and helpful part in the framing of this bill. His position shows that he believes that our chief source of national revenue comes from the tariff on our foreign importations and that this tariff should be so levied as to discriminate in favor of the American workmen, the products of the American shops and the American farmers. In the support of the Dingley bill. Mr. Hopkins took advanced grounds in favor of reciprocity, claiming that the nations should trade freely and reciprocally in commodities that each cannot produce at home, but that the rates of duty on other products should be so adjusted as to protect American interests. He has always contended that a rate should be fixed so as to equalize the cost of the product in the foreign country and this country. His contention has always been that, "give the American manu- facturer an equal chance with the foreigner, and he will outsell him not only on the American market but in the markets of the world."
Organized labor has always counted on Mr. Hopkins as its friend. In this, however, as in all other things, he does not believe in class discrimina- tion but believes strongly in justice, and when he has felt that the rights of the people demanded shorter hours as a day's labor, he has taken a stalwart stand in defense of this position and for the amelioration of other conditions which he has believed to be hard and unjust, feeling that one class is profiting by the oppression of the other. Practical in all that he does he has striven more to secure results through legislation than by popular appeals to the populace. Therefore it naturally followed that his service on the committee of merchant marine and fisheries secured legislation that has improved the condition of the American sailor. His position on the money question is an unequivocal one and, in fact. his speech on the gold standard was such a clear exposition of the principles involved that it was commented on as one of the best made in congress and was widely circulated by the friends of sound money. He has been one of the world's workers, assisting materially in laying the foundation for the stability, progress and substantial growth of the nation. He became recognized in the house through the simple weight of
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his worth and his character as one of its ablest members and was therefore accorded leadership. Many members of the house and people of prominence elsewhere advocated Mr. Hopkins for the speakership as the successor of Thomas B. Reed and he received the support of the Illinois delegation, although Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, was elected. For the last ten years of his service, however, Mr. Hopkins was recognized as one of the most promi- nent and influential members of the house and it followed as a natural sequence that Illinois should wish to make him her representative in the senate of the United States. Accordingly he was chosen by the general assembly as senator from this state, his previous congressional training well qualifying him for the still more onerous duties that devolved upon him as one of the less than ninety senators who represent more than eighty-five mil- lions of people. His work in the upper house has been in harmony with the record which he made as representative. He has labored always for the interests of his constituents and in this connection he put forth most effective effort in securing the establishment of the naval training station on the Great Lakes at Lake Bluff. just north of Chicago, when all of the states with lake frontage desired to capture the prize.
Mr. Hopkins supported the administration's plan for the lock level canal through Panama while a member of the inter-oceanic canals committee and he served as chairman of the fisheries committee and also of the committees on commerce, corporations of the District of Columbia, Cuban relations, enrolled bills, examinations and dispositions of documents, Mississippi river and its tributaries, and privileges and elections. His industry and energy made him a valuable member of these committees and impressed the older members from the start.
On the opening of the fifty-ninth congress. Senator Hopkins took an active part in the discussion of the statehood bill, which was then one of the prominent questions before the senate. He advocated the bill as reported by the committee, providing for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as one state and Oklahoma and Indian Territory as another, being opposed to separate statehood for the two first named because he believed that those sparsely settled sections of the country were not entitled to an equal represen- tation and influence on legislation in the senate with other larger and more populous states. On the day when Senator Hopkins addressed his colleagues on this subject, his opponents tried to worry him by frequent interruptions, but they found that his position was practically an unassailable one. as he was so thoroughly informed on the subject in all of the varying interests which it involved, that his position could not be controverted owing to the reasons and figures which he presented. The records show that the bill provided that Indian Territory and Oklahoma should be admitted as one state but left the question of admitting the other two territories as one state to a vote of the citizens of cach. New Mexico has since voted for and Arizona against joint statehood. This has settled the question of their admission for some time to come.
Senator Hopkins' position on the Smoot case was one which indicated most strongly what is now widely recognized as a salient characteristic with
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him-his championship of what he believes to be right, regardless of any per- sonal or prejudiced views. While Senator Hopkins' record shows that he always favored legislation against polygamy he felt that the senate had no right to unseat a senator who was a Mormon but not a polygamist, and the position which he took in this case placed him in the front rank of American constitutional lawyers and, moreover, showed that he had the courage of his convictions, being fair enough to grant even-handed justice under the consti- tution and laws of our country to an individual, even though that individual differed with him on religious questions. He was brave enough to keep inviolate his oath of office and obey his country's constitution as he saw it, even though the fact was in some quarters unpopular and brought him unfair criticism from those who could not, or would not, see the legal right in the case. President Roosevelt afterward wrote to Senator Hopkins a note con- gratulating him upon his "excellent speech on the Smoot case," adding : "It is not my business, but it is a pleasure to see a public servant show under trying circumstances the courage, ability and sense of right that you have shown."
Senator Hopkins' record on the canal question is one which has received the endorsement of the wisdom which comes with time. He took his stand in support of the lock level canal as opposed to the sea level canal bill sup- ported by the majority of the committee of which he was a member, and judged by the importance and vastness of the project, Mr. Hopkins here registered his greatest triumph during his four years' service in the senate. The amendment which he proposed carried and thus was embodied a policy and plan that had the endorsement of the president, the canal commissioners and the chief engineer and which at length secured the endorsement of the majority of both house and the senate. No question of vital importance to the nation has failed to receive the earnest attention of Mr. Hopkins, who has given to it his zealous support or opposed it with equal force according to the dictates of his conscience and mature judgment. While working for national interests he has at no time been neglectful of the welfare of his con- stituents either in the house or in the senate and has achieved much important work in behalf of the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois in connection with the waterways and other questions affecting the commercial interests of the great center of American trade. His work as a member of the committee on postoffices and postroads was one of far-reaching benefit, for in Chicago, the center of the transcontinental mail interests, he found that there was insuf- ficient service, owing to the limited clerical force of the Chicago postoffice. Tireless efforts in this connection brought the needed changes and improve- ments.
Mr. Hopkins is yet in the midst of a life of great usefulness and has not reached the zenith of his powers and capabilities. His mental characteristics are of the solid and practical rather than of the ostentatious and brilliant order and yet he has never been found lacking when the ready word was needed. He has taken a high rank in the senate and is recognized as one of the readiest and best debaters in that body. He is essentially strong in intel- lect and capable of reaching safe, reasonable and proven conclusions. If he has seemed to take a too advanced stand on a question, the wisdom of his
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