History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 22

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 22

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Mr. Armstrong constructed the Illinois and Michigan Canal most of the way from Ottawa to Utica, while his brother, William, constructed the same through Ottawa to Rutland. In 1833 Mr. Armstrong purchased a large farm in Brook- field township, in this county, and Vienna town- ship in Grundy county, where with the exception of some time spent as contractor of said canal, he resided for nearly seventy years. He was a large cattle-dealer, driving many large droves to Chicago every year, and later the first to ship cattle by rail.

He was ever a public man. Was president of the Morris, Illinois River Bridge Company, and of the Seneca Bridge Company, and owned the ferry boats at both of these points before the bridges were constructed across the river; was a large stockholder in the said bridge companies, and it was he who caused these companies to cease to collect toll for crossing their bridges and who induced the counties to purchase them.

He was always loyal to his country and with his sons rendered valiant services for the Union cause in the war of the Rebellion. He spent much of his time and money during the period from 1861 to 1865 as a recruiting officer, and for three months was with the boys in blue at the front, for which attention the Fifty-third Illinois Infantry presented him with a beautiful sword, which it is needless to say was highly prized by him.

Mr. Armstrong was a politician and affiliated with the democratic party. He was supervisor of his township for a quarter of a century; was chairman of the county board for fourteen years ; was chairman of the building committee, which committee had charge of the construction of the Court House and jail of this county. He was a member of the Legislature of this state for many years, serving his people in that capacity in the 14th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th General Assem- blies ; was defeated by Owen Lovejoy for Con- gress in the '50s and yet retained the friendship of that gentleman to the last.

When Mr. Armstrong settled upon his land in Brookfield there was but one house between his home and Ottawa, and that was the home of Ambrose Trumbo. Land sold for $1.25 per acre, and the choice land was timber with building

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stone and springs of water. The prairie land was not considered of much value. There was no coal dreamed of and fuel and building ma- terial must be had, besides the prairies were too cold, so the timber land was taken first.

Mr. Armstrong was a life-long friend of Sen- ator William Reddick, and was appointed by the latter as executor of his last will. Mr. Reddick's estate was ably and honestly administered upon by Mr. Armstrong in the latter's old age.

Mr. Armstrong and wife had nine children : John G., now deceased ; Capt. William, of Pueblo, Colorado : Julius C., D. D., Congegational minister of Chicago; Permelia Eliza Crotty, of Burlington, Kansas; Joseph L., of Seneca ; Marshall N. Armstrong, attorney-at-law, of Ottawa; Susan I. Loughlin, of Chamberlain, South Dakota ; James E:, principal of Englewood high school; and Charles Gould Armstrong, of New York city.

Mr. Armstrong lived upon his large farm, which was always kept in the best order until his death at the age of ninety years ; his excel- lent wife having departed this life a few years before. In his prime he had a remarkable faculty for remembering the names, as well as the faces of people whom he had met, and it was said of him that he could recognize and call by name more people than any other man in La Salle county ; hence it was perhaps that he was always sure to get a larger vote when running for office than his colleagues.

It may be said with the utmost truth that Mr. Armstrong had as much, if not more to do and played as large a part in forming the his- tory of this part of the State of Illinois, as any other man of his generation, and the best thing that can be said of him is that, he was a thor- oughly honest and scrupulously upright man ; and that everyone who had to deal with him was the better for having known him.

JUDGE JOIN DEAN CATON.

John Dean Caton, ex-Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of Illinois, born in Monroe, Orange County, New York, March 19, 1812, came to this county in 1842. His father, Robert Caton, was a farmer and Quaker preacher ; had sixteen children born to him, all of whom grew to ma- turitv. He died when John Dean, his fifteenth child. and twelfth son, was but three years old. The subject of this sketch came to Chicago in 1833, when that place contained but two hundred inhabitants. Here he commenced the practice of law, and for want of better accommodations, was compelled to receive, hear and advise his clients on a log or dry-goods box, or upon the river

bark. With the exception of one gentleman, who preceded him by a few days, he was the first resident lawyer who brought a case into the Court of Record of Cook County. He soon after made a journey of three hundred miles, on horse- back, to Granville, Illinois, where he was ad- mitted to the bar of the State. The exposure to which he was subjected on this trip prostrated him with a severe illness, from which he did not recover until the close of the year. Early in January, 1834, he conducted the first United States post coach that ever went through Ottawa, and reached its destination safely. He was really the only man then to be found who had been over the route and knew the way. In July, 1835, Mr. Caton went to New Hartford, near Utica, New York, where he married on the 29th of the same month, Laune Adelaide Sherrill, of that place. Returning to Chicago he engaged in his profession with so much earnestness that after a few years his health gave way, and he re- moved to Plainfield, Illinois, to recuperate his overworked brain and system. He purchased a farm of fifteen hundred acres near this place, where he followed for a number of years the dual profession of farmer and lawyer, which restored him to robust health and strength. In 1842 he was appointed by Governor Carlin as Supreme Judge of the State for the winter term, being then only thirty years of age. There were nine of these judges, each holding a Circuit Court in the summer, and together constituting in the winter a General Supreme Court. His circuit embraced twelve counties, including La Salle, and at Ottawa, the county seat of that county, he took up his residence immediately upon his ap- pointment. In 1858, by resignation of Chief Justice Scates, he became Chief Justice and con- tinucd in this distinguished capacity until 1864. when he resigned. For nearly twenty-two years he served the state in its highest judicial tribunal. He still owned and managed a farm of fourteen hundred acres at Plainfield, one of the finest in Will County. Was president and principal own- er of an extensive glass factory at Ottawa. Attached to his fine residence in Ottawa was a beautiful park of about one hundred and thirty- five acres, in which he kept deer, comprising every species known to North America, and many others from foreign countries. After re- tiring from his profession in 1864, he traveled in every section of his own country, visiting the Pacific coast three times. He visited Europe twice, traveling extensively in England, Scot- land, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, stopping for a time at Hammerfest, the most northern town in the world. He was author of several deservedly popular

MRS. ELSIE STRAWN ARMSTRONG.

GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG.

REV. GEORGE MARSH.

S. R. LEWIS.

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works, which do credit to his reputation as a ripe scholar and racy writer. Among some of the most noted are, "Origin of the Prairies," "American Deer," "Summer in Nor- way," and an exhaustive work on the "American Cervus." In 1874 he purchased a residence in Chicago, where he passed his winters, living in the summer at his beautiful home in Ottawa. There was no man in Illinois, perhaps, who stood higher in the estimation of the public, as a jurist and civilian. His fame was not confined to his own state; but he was widely known to both hemispheres as a scholar and an author.

HON. T. LYLE DICKEY.

Hon. T. Lyle Dickey was born October 2, 181I, in Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky. In 1826, at the age of fifteen years, he entered the Ohio University, where he remained a close student for four years. He then entered the senior class of Miami University, and graduated with honor from that institution in 1831. December 6, 1831, he was married to Miss Juliet Evans. After his marriage he taught school in Ohio and Ken- tucky with great success. In the winter of 1834 he came to McDonough County, Illinois, where he made the acquaintance of Hon. Cyrus H. Walker, who, becoming attached to the young and ambitious teacher, induced him to commence the study of the law. His progress in this branch of study was so great that he practiced law at Macomb before he was regularly admitted to the bar, and attained considerable renown. In 1835, at the age of twenty-four years, he was duly ad- mitted to practice in the courts of Illinois. After this he removed to Rushville, Illinois, where, in addition to his legal business, he edited a thriv- ing Whig paper. Here he became largely in- terested in real-estate speculations, which proved disastrous, owing to the panic of 1837, and for many years afterward he was financially crip- pled by being required to meet large notes, the majority of which carried interest at twelve per cent. In 1836 he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, where he soon built up a large and lucrative practice as an attorney. He remained in Ottawa in the peaceful pursuit of his profession until 1846, when the Mexican war occurred. He then raised a splendid company of men from the city and surrounding country, of which he was com- missioned captain, and which was afterward at- tached to the First Regiment, Illinois Volunteers. He was obliged to resign on acount of ill health and he returned home and resumed his practice of the law. He was elected judge of the Cir- cuit Court, which then comprised twelve coun- ties, but after four years of judicial service he .

resigned and again resumed the practice of an attorney. He came to Chicago in 1854 and opened a law office, but continued his residence at Ottawa. On December 31, 1855, he had the misfortune to lose his wife, who died after an illness of several weeks. It was not until 1858 that he was enabled, by dint of hard application to business and the practice of the closest econ- omy, to pay all his indebtedness, but he did so, and settled with his creditors in full, paying both principal and interest. In that year, with his mind relieved from its weighty load, he returned to Ottawa, resolved to take life easier. During the year 1858 Judge Dickey, although heretofore an ardent Whig, warmly espoused the cause of Stephen A. Douglas during his famous contest with Lincoln, and delivered a number of eloquent and forcible addresses in various parts of the state.

He became connected in business with W. H. L. Wallace, of Ottawa, and his son Cyrus E. Dickey, and the firm transacted a large legal business until 1861, when the rebellion broke out. Judge Dickey immediately set about form- ing a regiment of volunteers, which was mus- tered into the service as the Fourth Illinois Cav- alry, and the judge was commissioned its colonel. For two years Colonel Dickey was an active and intrepid soldier. He took part in the capture of Fort Henry, and led the brilliant advance at Fort Donelson. At the battle of Shiloh he took an active part. Both of his sons and General W. H. L. Wallace were with him during this des- perate struggle, and General Wallace was killed during the engagement. In 1862 he was ap- pointed to the position of chief of cavalry on the staff of General Grant and was placed in com- mand of Memphis, Tennessee. He also partici- pated in the battle of Iuka. After this he as- sumed command of the four brigades of cavalry in General Grant's army. He was engaged in a desperate encounter with General Pemberton far in advance of his supports for four days, on the retreat from Tallahassee. At one time he se- lected six hundred men and engaged in an ex- tensive and successful raid through a region of country swarming with Confederate soldiers, and returned safely and without losing a man. The celebrated raid of Grierson in 1863, during which the railroads around Jackson, Mississippi, were completely destroyed, was suggested and organ- ized by General Dickey.

In the latter part of 1863 he resigned his com- mission and returned home, where he formed a law partnership with John B. Rice. In 1866 Judge Dickey was the Democratic candidate for Congressman-at-large. In 1868 he was appointed Assistant Attorney-General of the United States,

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and had full charge of the Government suits of the court of claims. His labors in that branch of litigation of the United States Supreme Court were performed with great ability and with un- diminished fidelity. He was frequently compli- mented by the judges of the Supreme Court for the thorough and able manner in which he per- formed his arduous duties. Among the more important cases which were tried in the Supreme Court during Judge Dickey's term was the Floyd acceptance case, and although opposed by Jere Black and Judge Curtis, Judge Dickey was sus- tained by the court. He held this position for about two years, when his health failed him, and he resigned and spent the succeeding winter among the tropic groves of Florida. He married again in 1870, and his second wife was a Mrs. Hurst, of Prince Ann, Maryland, after which he returned to Ottawa and again began the prac- tice of the law. In December, 1873, he removed to Chicago. In December, 1875, he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy. The manner in which he fulfilled the duties of this trying and responsible position was so sat- isfactory that in 1879 he was nominated as an independent candidate, and so great was his per- sonal popularity that he was elected over Thomas Dent, a most worthy gentleman and the regular nominee of a party that was then in the ascend- ancy. After that time he remained upon the bench of the Supreme Court of Illinois, which position he so ably filled for nearly ten years. Perhaps no other judge upon the bench has gained the popularity and universal respect which justly belongs to Judge T. Lyle Dickey.

Possessed of a wonderful memory and with a remarkable power of analysis, his judgments were always received with profound considera- tion, and his opinions on important cases have generally been sustained.

As a lawyer he was a most brilliant advocate. His arguments were lucid, logical, and possessed of an aptness of illustration that carried with them all the elements of conviction. His power of quick and telling repartee was marvelous. In the social circle Judge Dickey was universally a favorite. Genial, whole-souled, intellectual, and with a fund of humor that was almost boyish in its exuberance, he was warmly welcomed at the firesides of our best and wealthiest citi- zens. Perhaps no one in Chicago had as many warm and devoted personal friends as Judge T. Lyle Dickey.

In his decease, which occurred July 22, 1885, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, the city and state lost an able jurist, an eminent citizen, and a legal counselor whose place will be difficult to fill. So-

ciety mourns the loss of the most genial and cour- teous of gentlemen, and the hearts of many friends are sad at the demise of one of the warm- est and most thoroughly friendly spirits in this active, bustling and progressive age.

COLONEL CUSHMAN.

Colonel Cushman was born at Freetown, Mass- achusetts, May 13, 1813. He was educated at the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, Norwich, Vermont. He was only eighteen years of age when he began his mer- cantile career at Middleboro. October 18, 1823, he married Othalia Adaline Leonard, of Middle- boro, and one year after removed to this county, engaging in the business of a country merchant and also running a mill at Vermillionville. His wife died in 1835, leaving a daughter fourteen months old, who also died the same year. His second wife was a sister to the late Samuel B. Gridley. She bore him one child and died in 1841. His third and last wife was a daughter of Hon. Cæsar A. Rodney, of Delaware, whom he married in Springfield in 1843. Possessing talents of the highest order for instituing and successfully conducting large enterprises, he was identified with nearly every movement having for its object the development of the resources of this city and county. Many of his financial schemes were vast and complex, and, through the exercise of a foresight and judgment rarely equaled, he accumulated a colossal fortune, amounting at one time to not less than three mil- lions of dollars. For many years, no matter to what he turned his attention, or in what he in- vested money, he met with unbroken success, and his credit was as sound as that of any man in the state. Mr. Cushman was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1842, and again in 1844, serving his constituents credit- ably. This was the only office held by him. He was a Democrat in politics.

He took an interest in military affairs early in life, and was adjutant of a regiment of Massa- chusetts militia. Governor French commissioned him "captain of the Ottawa Cavalry, Fourteenth Odd Battalion," June 24, 1847, which commission he held several years. He was commissioned colonel of the Fifty-third Regiment, Illinois Vol- unteers, September 23, 1861, and resigned Sep- tember 3, 1862. His regiment was a part of what was known as "Cushman's Brigade," com- posed of the Fifty-third, Cogswell's Battery and Ford's company of cavalry.

Mr. Cushman organized and was the owner of the Bank of Ottawa, which became the First Na- tional Bank of Ottawa in 1865.

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When the change was made he retained $25,- 000 in stock, which he transferred to his son William, who became its cashier. He was also principal stockholder in the bank of Cushman & Hardin, Chicago, which flourished for several years after his removal to that city. He was one of the leading spirits of the Hydraulic Com- pany and principal owner of the stock of the Gas Company. He built and for many years op- erated the Ottawa Machine Shops and Foundry. He speculated largely in lands, not only in this county but also in the vicinity of Chicago, nota- bly at Riverside. He likewise dealt in Chicago real estate and had large lumber interests in Michigan. He was one of the builders of the Chicago, Paducah & Southwestern Railroad and a member of the firm of Cushman, Force & Co., which constructed the O. O. & F. R. V. R. R., under contract.

Colonel Cushman's career as a successful busi- ness man and speculator ended with the Chi- cago fire, by which he lost $500,000. From that on misfortune succeeded misfortune, and heavy losses followed each other at quick intervals. His large fortune soon melted away in spite of his efforts to check and turn the current of his reverses. The calamities destroyed his health and impaired his mental faculties, culminating in softening of the brain. He passed a portion of the summer of 1878 in the East, without, how- ever, receiving any material benefit. He was brought back to Ottawa in August, a wreck in body and mind. During the last six weeks of his life he was unconscious. He died October 28, 1878, leaving a wife and five children -- two sons and three daughters.

REV. GEORGE MARSH.

Rev. George Marsh was born in Walpole, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, November 23, 1796, and died in Brookfield, La Salle County, Illinois, December 10, 1877. At the age of eleven years he began the study of Latin under Master Joseph Hall, afterward attending Williams Col- lege. When twenty years old he began teaching in Sutton, Massachusetts, at twelve dollars per month and board. His father died that year. The ancestral home was of Colonial design, with many fire-places. During the year 1817 he taught school in Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, and Westboro, Worcester County, Massachusetts. In 1818 he began study for the ministry with Rev. George Bourne, in Westchester County, New York. During this time he became pro- ficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was licensed to preach by the Windham County As- sociation of Connecticut in 1825, and preached his first sermon in Dr. Backus church in Wood-

stock, Connecticut. In June, 1826, he went to New York city and became one of the faculty in the school of which Prof. James B. Requa was principal, whose sister he afterward mar- ried. Here he belonged to the Spring Street Presbyterian Church, Dr. Samuel H. Cox, pas- tor, whom he often assisted in the church ser- vice. He was for nine years a director of the New York Tract Society, and for three years superintendent of the New York Orphan Asy- lum. In the spring of 1835 he and his wife removed to Brookfield, La Salle County, Illinois, where he settled on section 16. He was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and for a timc represented the American Home Mission- ary Society. He was the founder and pastor of the Brookfield Presbyterian Church, seeing it grow from a small membership, meeting at their homes and in schoolhouses, to large congrega- tions and a commodious church building. He taught the only school in Brookfield for many years. He was afterward Deputy Superintendent of Schools for that part of the county. He was town clerk, and township treasurer for many successive terms, his education and experience being of great value. For nearly forty-three years he lived among his people, a conspicuously upright and pure life, always ready for any service he could render, sympathizing with those in trouble and affliction, and rejoicing with the prosperous and happy. He officiated at funerals in a sympathetic way unequaled, and those who heard him never forgot his quotations from the scriptures, and the added words of comfort and consolation. He was very popular with young people, and in the marriage service made the twain one in such an impressive way that it real- ly added to their happiness, no possible computa- tion can be made of the influence of such a life, it is far-reaching. Among those who received their earliest and most lasting impressions from this faithful friend, teacher and pastor are men and women in every walk of life, and in all parts of the country, clergymen, teachers, authors, business men, men of influence in political life, and mothers who have instilled his teachings into their children's lives, so there are many to call him blessed and revere his memory.

They had six children, three of whom died in infancy in New York city, and three born in Illinois are still living: George, in Washington, D. C., and John J. and Mary E. A. in Marseilles, Illinois.

GEORGE H. RUGG.

The great services to the people rendered by George H. Rugg are not known as they should be.

George H. Rugg was born in Lancaster, Mas-

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sachusetts, in 1823. He came with his parents to Illinois in 1838, and located with them on Grand Prairie. By using the carpenter and blacksmith tools of his father, he became mechanically ex- pert in that sort of a general way that so often leads to invention, and was thus well fitted to undertake the improvements that the necessities of agriculture at that time demanded.

In the spring of 1845 Mr. Rugg, then in his twenty-second year and living on his father's farm at Grand Prairie, about nine miles south- west of Ottawa, conceived the idea of building a reaper. There was but one reaper in that county at that time, a Hussey, brought from Ohio the year before. Mr. Rugg picked up a wheel in Joliet and got some castings made in Chi- cago; "and to show how small Chicago was then," said he, "there was but one foundry in the place and that not in blast. I was informed that if I wanted to make many castings they would make a melt, and they did so, fitting them up as I directed." The cutting device was pat- terned after Hussey's, but, as the driving wheel was much bigger, "I had." quoting from Rugg's statement. "to make a different attachment which was a reach attached with a bolt, as wagon tongues are fastened to a wagon ; and to hold the cutters to the right height I had a chain I could shorten or lengthen, to make the machine cut high or low, as desired. This device of a hinge reach was never patented, although in use at the present day, and no mowing machine could ever be used without it." But it is the cutting device we are tracing, so will return to it. Mr. Rugg cut one hundred and twenty acres with his ma- chine in 1845. The Hussey cutting device, which he was then using, was a scalloped sickle or knife, with smooth-edged sections, reciprocating or vi- brating through double closed guards. It did not cut well unless sections were kept sharp, and it clogged in the guards when the grain was damp. In order to overcome these difficulties, in the harvest of 1846 Mr. Rugg made a scalloped sickle, the sections of which he serrated-"cut- ting the serratures so that the teeth point in a parallel, or nearly so, with the line in which the sickle is designed to move." With this sickle in the machine and operating through double guards the cutting was perfect ; and when, soon after it was put in combination with the open double guard, which was patented by Hussey, the perfect grain cutter was at last produced, that is, one that cut perfectly and did not clog.

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History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 22

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