History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 135

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

USA > Illinois > LaSalle County > History of La Salle County, Illinois > Part 135

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).

for two years as assessor, while for eighteen years he was commissioner of roads. He has been a director of the Mutual Insurance Com- pany for twenty-one years. He believes in good schools and the employment of competent teach- ers and has done effective service in behalf of public instruction, while serving on the school board. He has been a delegate to both county and state conventions for many years and has acted on the advisory committee. He is a di- rector and treasurer of the La Salle Memorial Association, now erecting a monument to the memory of the sixteen white people who were massacred on Indian creek in La Salle in 1832. He and his wife are members of the Union church at Pleasant Hill, and he is president of the church association and they stand for prog- ress and improvement and for advancement along all lines which contribute to the welfare of the county. Mr. Kember has spent his entire life here and has shot deer and wild geese upon the prairies near by. He has turned the first furrows in the virgin soil and thus developed several hundred acres of land. His labors have been of direct benefit in promoting agricultural development and La Salle county knows him as a man worthy of admiration and respect by rea- son of the success which he has accomplished in business and by the methods he has employed in its acquirement. He has also gained public regard through his public spirit in behalf of the matters of progressive citizenship and in many respects his name is synonymous with those qualities which constitute honorable, upright manhood.

MARTIN LUTHER SAMPLE.

Martin Luther Sample, well known as a rep- resentative of hotel interests in northern Illinois, being the proprietor of Hotel Sample and also of the Holmes House at Ottawa, was born in Mor- gantown, West Virginia, October 7. 1867. His parents, Alva and Annis Sample, are natives of Virginia and are now living in Morgantown, West Virginia. The father has followed the oc- cupation of farming as a livelihood. Martin L. Sample pursued his early education in the public schools of Morgantown and later attended the State University, which is located there. His college course covered two years and in the meantime he engaged in teaching in the district schools, entering upon the active work of that profession when but sixteen years of age. On leaving the university he became a student in Smith's Business College, at Lexington, Ken- tucky, and took a post-graduate course. He aft-

1046

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

erward went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the abstract business and sub- sequently became bookkeeper for a crayon por- trait house. Becoming familiar with the business, he was engaged in that line of commercial ac- tivity for fifteen years at Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Minneapolis. In 1900, however, he sold his crayon portrait busi- ness and came to Ottawa, where he took charge of the Holmes House, which he has since suc- cessfully conducted. This hostelry has been greatly improved by Mr. Sample and is the "home" of many of the residents of La Salle county on their visits to Ottawa. He justly makes the claim that this house puts up the best twenty-five cent meal in the county. In 1904, seeing an opportunity to secure the Oliver Hotel, which was badly run down, he took charge, re- modeled and refurnished it and changed the name to the Hotel Sample, which is now the leading commercial hostelry of Ottawa, very popular with the traveling men and tourists.

Six years before taking up his abode in Otta- wa Mr. Sample was married here, on the 14th of October, 1894, to Miss Emma E. Holmes, a daughter of George W. Holmes, who came from Michigan and was proprietor of the Holmes House for a number of years. Mr. Sample be- longs to Occidental lodge, No. 40, A. F. & A. M .; Shabbona chapter, No. 70, R. A. M .; Ottawa commandery, No. 10, K. T., and Mahommed Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Peoria. He is also a member of St. Elmo lodge, No. 70, K. P., and Ottawa lodge, No. 588, B. P. O. E., while of the former he is past chancellor commander. He has held offices in all these different organiza- tions and is a valued and popular representative thereon. Mr. Sample is recognized as a man of marked business enterprise and executive force and in the conduct of the two hotels in Ottawa has displayed thorough familiarity with the wishes and wants of the two classes of patrons who support the Hotel Sample and the Holmes House respectively. His business interests are now prospering and he is regarded as a valuable acquisition to the business circles of the city.

RALPH R. UPTON.

Professor Ralph R. Upton, principal of the high school of Streator, has gained a position of considerable prestige in educational circles and is a broad-minded, cultured gentleman, with high ideals, whose efforts are not confined to in- struction in the branches that constitute a public- school curriculum, for with a just valuation of

the possibilities in his calling he puts forth earnest and conscientious effort to prepare those who come under his guidance for the practical and responsible duties of later life. Ralph R. Upton was born in Portland, Oregon, June 12, 1869, and is a son of the Hon. W. W. Upton, deceased, who successively acted as representative in the legislatures of Michigan, California and Oregon. Wherever he lived he left the impress of his in- dividuality for good upon the public life of the communities and commonwealths with which he was connected. He held other offices of promi- nence and trust, including that of chief justice of Oregon, and made a distinguished record as comptroller of the United States treasury in Washington by appointment of President Hayes and through successive years to the election of Grover Cleveland. His wife, Marietta Bryan, was a representative of the well known Bryan family of western New York and Mr. and Mrs. Upton were natives of the Empire state.

Ralph R. Upton, attending the public schools, of Washington, D. C., passed through successive grades until he completed the high-school course. Later matriculating in Yale University, he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts on the completion of the classical course in 1892 and the following year won the degree of Bache- lor of Law from Columbia University of Wash- ington and the degree of Master of Law from the same institution in 1894. He likewise won other educational honors and added, through a visit to Europe, the knowledge and culture which only travel can bring. His youth was spent actively amid the social and political atmosphere of Wash- ington amid surroundings and environments which cannot fail to leave an impress upon the mind of an intelligent youth and the interest which was then awakened in the great political problems before the country has since been man- ifest throughout the active career of Mr. Upton. In college he developed his latent energies and talents and was somewhat conspicuous in col- legiate circles as president for two terms of the Yale Union and also as organizer of the Yale- Harvard joint debates. He was the first speaker for Yale in those debates in the Saunders The- ater at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and other col- lege and university honors were conferred upon him.

Entering actively into the life-business and professional-of the capital city, he served through one session of congress as private sec- retary to the Hon. Bellamy Storer from the first district of Ohio and to the Hon. J. K. Bromwell of the second Ohio congressional district. For a brief period he was connected with the Wash- ington (D. C.) Evening News and for a time

1047

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

was on the staff of the New York Engineering News. As a representative of educational in- terests he taught in business, high and Central high schools of Washington, also in the night high school and was subsequently principal of the high school at Circleville, Ohio, and later at Chillicothe, Ohio, from which place he re- moved to Streator. As principal of the high school of this city he has contributed to educa- tional progress, maintaining in his own work high ideals and an advanced standard, for which he has labored with effective result to the im- provement of the system of public instruction in this city.

On the 9th of June, 1898, Professor Upton was married to Miss Anna Millar, at Circleville, Ohio. Since the first settlement of the Virginia military grant her family had been prominent in the public life and development of Pickaway county, Ohio, and the Millar lands are held by the present possessors by direct United States patent. Unto Professor and Mrs. Upton have been born two sons and a daughter: Charles Millar, whose birth occurred October 1, 1899; Marietta, December 24, 1901; and Ralph Wil- liam, October 24, 1905.

Professor Upton is and has always been a lib- eral republican in politics and was appointed one of the speakers for the Mckinley-Bryan cam- paign. He has been an earnest and discriminat- ing student of the signs of the times, of political activity and of the great sociological and eco- nomic problems, and is a logical, convincing speaker, strong in argument and forceful in his presentation of his cause. For six years he had charge of school military battalions and raised a company for the Spanish-American war, of which he was elected captain, but business rea- sons prevented his acceptance of military honors. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi and the Phi Delta Phi, college fraternities, while frater- nally he is connected with the Masons and the Elks. Formerly he served as an elder in the Presbyterian church and has been superintend- ent of the Sunday-school at the Park Presbyte- rian church. He is a man of broad scholarly attainments, in whom nature and learning have vied in making an interesting, cultured and hon- orable gentleman.

JOHN CURRIER.

John Currier, one of the honored pioneer resi- dents of La Salle county, came to this section of the state when much of the land was still in possession of the government. He was born in

Plymouth, New Hampshire, April 2, 1814. His father died during the infancy of his son John and the mother, subsequent to her marriage to Captain Oliver Taylor, removed to Thetford, Vermont, where John Currier spent the days of his boyhood and youth between the ages of eight and twenty-one. Attracted by the oppor- tunities of the new and growing west, he came to Illinois in September, 1835, making the jour- ney in company with B. F. Ranstead. They went from Hanover, New Hampshire, to Albany, New York, by stage, thence to Schenectady by rail and on to Buffalo by a line boat on the Erie canal. They proceeded by steamer from Buffalo to Ashtabula, Ohio, by stage to the Ohio river and by boat to Cincinnati, where they remained for about a week. At the last named place they boarded a steamer for St. Louis and from that point proceeded by steamer to a point near Jack- sonville, Illinois. A few days later they continued their journey by stage to Quincy and on to Rush- ville Illinois. In the latter part of February, 1836, they returned to Cincinnati, where for about two years they conducted a saddle-tree factory.

In April, 1837, Mr. Currier started with the family of Mr. Wallace for La Salle county, Illi- nois, by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Illi- nois rivers, reaching his destination and locating in Earl township May 15, 1837. Mr. Currier purchased a tract of timber land and began the development of a farm about three miles east of Earlville. He remained a resident of that locality for many years and was a representative pioneer farmer, who took an active and helpful part in reclaiming a wild region for the purpose of civilization. .

In January, 1838, Mr. Currier was united in marriage to Miss Eliza H. Wallace, a daugh- ter of Major D. Wallace. Her father was one of La Salle county's pioneer residents. He was born at Thetford, Vermont, and spent his youth in the Green Mountain state. He married Anna Hubbard, who was of English descent, while he was of Scotch lineage, and they became the par- ents of eleven children. In the fall of 1836 Major Wallace removed from Thetford to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, and there remained until February, 1838. On his removal to the west he had been accompanied by his family and at the last men- tioned date he and his two sons, Charles and George, purchased a claim in Earl township, be- coming original settlers there. Dr. Wallace, as he was familiarly called, was a man of good education and had a natural love for the study of medicine and, living in the family of a phy- sician for a number of years, he obtained some knowledge of the science and practice of medi- cine and often rendered professional aid of that

1048

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

character during his early residence in La Salle county. He thus became widely known and was one of the prominent and honored early resi- dents. He died November 29, 1856, while his widow survived him until 1866.

It was their daughter, Eliza H. Wallace, who became the wife of John Currier, and upon their farm in Earl township ten children were born to them, seven daughters and three sons, namely : Harriet, now the wife of M. H. Signor, of Earl- ville; Louisa, who is the widow of Millard Fill- more, who died in Californian in 1884, while she makes her home in Earlville and Chicago; Jen- nie, the wife of Gilbert Kipp, of Hooper, Colo- rado; Emma, the wife of Theodore J. Jones, of Esmond, North Dakota; John T., now living in Denver, Colorado; Ella, the wife of J. S. Buck, of Chicago; Arthur, who is living in Riverside, California ; Mrs. George Patterson, of Chicago; Addie, who became the wife of John Cox and died in Earl township in 1906; and E. M. Currier.

For six years Mr. Currier resided on the first farm which he purchased in La Salle county and in the meantime he pre-empted a claim in Earl township, whereon he and his wife resided for many years. They were worthy pioneer people bravely sharing in the hardships and trials of pioneer life and at the same time enjoying its pleasures and duties. For many years they lived to recount the story of frontier experiences here and were numbered among the most worthy pio- neer people of this part of the state. In his po- litical views Mr. Currier was an independent democrat, who cast his first presidential ballot for Martin Van Buren in 1836. He was al- ways interested in everything that pertained to the welfare and upbuilding of his county and gave his co-operation to many movements for the public good. His last days were spent at the home of his daughter in Chicago, where he died in 1898, at the venerable age of eighty-four years. His residence in this county had covered many decades and wherever he was known he was honored as a man of genuine personal worth.

WILLIAM H. FRASER, M. D.

Dr. William H. Fraser, engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in La Salle county, was born near Perth, Ontario, Canada, in 1839 and acquired his early education there under his grandfather. John Halliday, who was the only teacher in the pay of the British government in Canada, being sent as a teacher to the colony at

Perth in 1815. The Doctor afterward attended high school and still later graduated from the Toronto Normal. He afterward taught school in Canada for four years, subsequent to which time he took up the study of medicine in McGill University, Montreal, where he was graduated with the class of 1867. He then went to Edin- burgh. Scotland, and further continued his studies by matriculating in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he re- ceived his diploma the same year, having taken the summer course. He was the first graduate of that college from the new Dominion of Can- ada, which was then only twelve days old. Leav- ing the old world he went to Nova Scotia 011 a visit and while in Liverpool, that country, formed the acquaintance of a young lady, whom he afterward married. His interest in her led him to locate for practice in that place and he was married there in 1869 to Miss Lydia M. Waterman, who is a descendant of the old Water- man family of Massachusetts.

In the spring of 1870 Dr. Fraser removed to Chicago, Illinois, where he practiced until a year after the great fire in 1871. In 1873 he re- moved to La Salle, where he has since maintained an office and practiced with great success, being recognized as one of the substantial citizens and foremost members of the medical fraternity in this city. He was health officer for some time and is supreme medical examiner of the Order of Scottish Clans of the United States and Canada. In addition he has a large private practice which is constantly growing, having been well equipped by thorough preliminary preparation for his chosen field of labor, while in later years he has kept in touch with modern progress in his pro- fession, through constant reading, study and investigation.

Unto Dr. and Mrs. Fraser have been born nine children, five sons and four daughters: Hallie, the wife of Fred Oakes, a banker of South Fram- ingham, Massachusetts; Carrie, the wife of D. WV. Cole, of Cody, Wyoming, who is engineer in charge of the great dam being built for irrigation purposes in that state and by whom she has three children, Marjory, Georgia and Lois; Millera, the wife of S. W. Mason, of La Salle, by whom she has three children, Eleanor, Jean and William Theodore ; William Gordon, who is mas- ter mechanic in charge of the shaft of the Calu- met & Arizona Copper Company of Bisbee, Ari- zona, being a mechanical engineer ; Henry W., who is manager of mill construction in California, operating in the gold mining districts of that state ; Edwin S., at home; Annabell, who was educated at the Leland Stanford University of California and is now a student at the State

1049

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

University at Champaign, Illinois; Malcolm Blaine, a student in the Champaign University ; and Kenneth, who is a graduate of the La Salle township high school, and is now an employee at the great government dam near Cody, Wyoming.

Dr. Fraser and his family attend the Congre- gational church. In his political views he is a re- publican and has served as alderman of La Salle from the fifth ward. His interest in public affairs is that of a public-spirited citizen and while the duties of his profession have made heavy de- mands upon his time and energies he has never been neglectful of opportunities that have enabled him to aid in promoting public progress and im- provement, so that La Salle numbers him among her valued and substantial citizens.

WILLIAM H. MINOR.

William H. Minor, living retired at No. 2910 Indiana avenue, Chicago, was for a considerable period a resident of Streator, and has many friends in La Salle county. His paternal grand- father, John Minor, Sr., was born on the 5th of May, 1747, and was a soldier of the Continental

army, holding a commission. His wife was a sister of General Otho Williams of Revolutionary fame, who served as a general in the war of the Revolution and an oil painting of him now adorns the rotunda of the capitol at Washing- ton. John Minor, Sr., built the first log house west of the Alleghany mountains. It is still standing and is owned and occupied by one of his great-grandchildren. He was a miller by trade, following that pursuit in pioneer times in western Pennsylvania.

John U. Minor, father of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania and was a miller by trade, his father owning the Minor mills. He married Miss Rebecca Maxwell, also a native of Penn- sylvania, and a daughter of Colonel James Max- well, of Greene county, that state, who won his title by active service in the war for independ- ence. He was born in County Armagh, Ire- land, in 1759, of a respectable family in this county, and on the 15th of June, 1775, he landed at Newcastle in the state of Delaware. In Octo- ber following he was appointed a lieutenant of the Sixth Company of the Second Regiment of the Jersey line, commanded by his cousin, Colonel William Maxwell, afterward General Maxwell, who was favorably known throughout America and figures in history as a brave and gallant offi- cer. Unto Mr. and Mrs. John U. Minor were born twelve children, nine sons and three daugh- ters, and with the exception of William H. Minor

of this review all are now deceased. The fa- ther passed away in Pennsylvania at the age of fifty years, while the mother spent her last days in Bloomington, Illinois, where she died at the age of eighty-four years. His political allegiance was given to the democracy.

William H. Minor pursued his education in the public and private schools of his native state and in 1852, when about twenty years of age, went to Peoria county, Illinois. He had pre- viously learned the printer's trade, which he fol- lowed for a few months in Peoria county and then went to Woodford county with his brother James, continuing there for about a year. On the expiration of that period in connection with his brothers James and John he purchased a mill- ing business, in which he continued for about four years. During that time he was married and he afterward removed to Metamora, the county seat of Woodford county, where he pur- chased the Metamora Sentinel, which he edited and published for about three years. He then sold that paper and invested in a farm three miles east of Metamora, where he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits for three years. He resided in Metamora from 1856 to 1858. During that time his brother Abia was sheriff of Woodford county. They had their home to- gether at the jail and as the hotels were very poor they often entertained guests at the jail, including such distinguished sons of Illinois as Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Leonard Sweat, Robert G. Ingersoll, Judge David Davis and others. Mr. Minor also acted as deputy sheriff under his brother while in Metamora.

Leaving the farm in Woodford county, in the spring of 1861, he removed to Bloomington, where he resided until 1864, dealing in horses. He bought army horses over the territory be- tween Bloomington and Fairbury and was also engaged in the hotel business until 1868. He then spent one year in the south, after which he returned to Chatsworth, Illinois, where he con- ducted a hotel for two years. He then removed to Eureka, where he made his home while trav- eling for the Union Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany of Maine as a special state agent. He acted in that capacity for about three years, or until 1874, when he removed to Streator, where he re- sided until 1899. In that year he took up his abode in Chicago, where he now makes his home. While living in Streator he was proprietor of a hotel and also acted as postmaster, being ap- pointed by Grover Cleveland in his second ad- ministration. Because of his activity in busi- ness and public affairs he became widely known in Streator and La Salle county and numbers many friends among his acquaintances there.

1050

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

On the 25th of March, 1856, Mr. Minor was married to Miss Henrietta G. Fredericks, of Woodford county, Illinois, who was born in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1833, a daughter of George W. and Ann (Saulsman) Fredericks. The father was born in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, and died in Peoria county, Illinois, in August, 1887, when eighty-seven years of age. His wife, also a native of Clinton county, Pennsylvania, passed away in Peoria county, in 1868, at the age of sixty-six years. They were married in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, and be- came the parents of three sons and seven daugh- ters, of whom seven are now living: Jane; Mrs. Minor ; Pauline, the widow of Abia Minor, now a resident of Chicago; Rebecca, the wife of S. Doty, of Peoria, Illinois ; Sarah, the wife of Wil- liam Smith, of Chicago; Roxanna, who is the widow of Edward Harris and makes her home in Paris, Illinois ; Benjamin, who is living in Okla- homa and his sister Jane makes her home with him. The father, Mr. Fredericks, was a farmer and miller and resided in Pennslvania until 1854, when he removed to Peoria county, Illinois, where he spent his remaining days in agricultural pur- suits. He held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and gave his political alle- giance to the whig party until its dissolution, when he joined the ranks of the democratic party.

Mr. and Mrs. Minor are the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters, of whom five are now living. James, the eldest, married Cora Madden and lives in Chicago. Edward G., who died August 23, 1887, at the age of twenty- eight years and six months, was assistant sur- geon of the Fourth Regiment of the Illinois Na- tional Guard with the rank of captain. He was graduated in medicine in 1883 at the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, and was quiz master of his class. He became assistant dem- onstrator of anatomy on the staff of Professor Donald McClean. He married Miss Lottie Por- ter, of Chicago, in 1887, and three months later his death occurred. About seven months after his demise there was born unto his widow a son, Edward G., who is now in Detroit, Michigan. He was named for his father and will follow the same profession, expecting now to enter the med- ical department of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor in the fall of 1906. The other mem- bers of the Minor family are: Sallie, who is at home; Nellie, the wife of John Purcell, a resi- dent of Streator ; Frank C. and Fred B., both at home.

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.

History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 135

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855 Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286