History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 38

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

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ism and in those circles looking to historical research and to the development of artistic tastes, his influence has been widely and beneficially felt.

It is fitting that Mr. Gunther, at one time a resident of Peru, should find mention in the his- tory of La Salle county. His life record began March 6, 1837, in Waldberg, a beautiful town located in the celebrated Black Forest district of Wurtemberg, in southern Germany. His parents were John M. and Anna Marie (Frey) Gunther, also natives of Wurtemberg. They were of old Lutheran Protestant stock of Wurtemberg and the father was born about 1798, while the mother's birth occurred in 1800 and she well remembered the French invasion into her own country. In the year 1842 the parents with their family took passage on a sailing vessel for Amer- ica and after a voyage of fifty-two days from Havre landed at New York, whence they made their way to Columbia, Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania. In 1848, however, they established their home in the mountainous district of Som- erset county, Pennsylvania, and in that locality Charles F. Gunther continued his education, which had been begun in Lancaster county. He attended private schools and while still a young lad entered upon active work, receiving a re- muneration of twenty-five cents per day for a daily trip of twenty miles and return in carry- ing the United States mail on horseback over the mountains. He was not prompted to this task so much by a desire to secure the wages as by his love of adventure and travel, which have characterized his entire life, bringing him into touch in later years with the most important places of interest upon the globe-not those alone traversed by the regular tourist but those districts wherein are seen the home life, manners and customs of various nationalities.

Mr. Gunther became a resident of Illinois, when, in the spring of 1850, he accompanied his parents on their removal to Peru, the westward journey being made by way of the Pennsylvania canal to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi river to St. Louis and on to the headwaters of the Illinois river. In Peru Mr. Gunther continued his education as a stu- dent in private and public schools and in the early '50s entered upon his business career at a clerk in a general store. He was afterward employed in a drug store and took up the study of medieine but did not continue therein and his next position was that of manager of the post- office at Peru. Each successive step in his busi- ness life has been a forward one, bringing him a broader outlook and wider scope of activity. On leaving the postoffice he became an employe in the banking house of Alexander Cruickshank, who represented in Peru the famous banking

firm of George Smith & Company of Chicago. For five years he continued in the bank and during the last two years was cashier of the institution. Ever watchful of opportunities for advancement, he recognized the possibilities of- fered by the south to ambitious young men. He had become intimately acquainted with lead- ing business men of that section of the country and resigning his bank cashiership in the early fall of 1860 he went to the south, visiting many of its leading cities and eventually deciding upon Memphis as a favorable location. There he accepted a position with Messrs. Bohlen, Wilson & Company, the leading ice firm in the south, with which he continued until the events of the Civil war caused practically a suspension of all business in that portion of the country. Mr. Gunther thinking, as did thousands of others, that the war would be of short duration, re- mained in Memphis and accepted a position offered by the Confederate government as purser on an Arkansas river steamer, the Rose Doug- las. He served the Confederacy for nearly three years, doing duty on all southern waters. For a short time he served on land and was captured in a cavalry charge by the Kansas "Jay Hawk- ers" in northern Arkansas. Most of the time, however, was spent on the steamer in transport- ing troops, conscripts and supplies until the Rose Douglas was captured and burned at Van Buren, Arkansas, by General Blunt's army. Mr. Gun- ther upon being liberated, was courteously entertained at the headquarters of the acting general and also at the headquarters of his successor, General Scofield, and was given a safe conduct to the north, after which he returned to his old home in Peru. His natural activity of life prevented any long residence there without occupation and after three days he temporarily accepted a position as teller in a bank at Peoria. Soon after this, however, he entered upon his connection with the confectionery business, which has continued to the present time, becoming a traveling sales- man for C. W. Sandford, a wholesale confec- tioner of Chicago, for whom he sold goods through the eastern, western and southern states. He was the first commercial traveler from Chi- cago who went into the south following the Union armies and placed large amounts of goods in the cities of the reconstructed south. He also represented the firm in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. It was while employed as a traveling salesman that he first visited Europe, where he acquainted him- self in the various foreign languages, so that in later years he was enabled to converse at ease with those of his customers who have been reared on the other side of the Atlantic.

Following his return to his native land Mr.

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Gunther again made his way to Chicago and ac- cepted a more remunerative offer from Thomp- son, Johnson & Company, wholesale grocers. After two years' connection with that house, however, he resigned to become the Chicago representative of Greenfield, Young & Company. the leading wholesale confectioners of New York, and this was the step which immediately preceded his entrance into the line of business with which his name has since been synonymous.

The Gunther confectionery cstablishment had its beginning in the fall of 1868, when he opened a retail store at No. 125 Clark strcet, then in the heart of the business district of the city. He met with almost immediate success in trade and was enjoying a large and growing patronage, when, on October 9, 1871, in the great fire which swept over the city, his store was destroyed. He was largely crippled financially as were hundreds of other merchants in the city, but with the resolute and determined spirit which has gained for Chicago "I will" he made arrangements to resume business at the corner of Twentieth and State streets, opposite the location at which Mar- shall Field & Company were then doing business. In the spring of 1872 he removed to 78 Madison street in the McVicker Theater Building, this move proving most advantageous. His busi- ness grew rapidly and he continued there until 1889, when he erected his fine building at No. 212 State street-an establishment which has be- come world famous. In the beauty of its inter- ior adornment and arrangement, in the attractive- ness and quality of its service, the store is unsur- passed and the appropriateness of his business motto, "Not how cheap, but how good," is rec- ognized by all. Mr. Gunther was the pioneer in the manufacture and introduction of the cara- mel, a confection which has become known throughout the world. In many other ways hc has been a leader in his department of commercial activity, seeking out new and attractive methods that please the esthetic taste as well as the palate of his many patrons. His industry, energy and progressiveness have been crowned with success and through successive stages in con- formity with the highest standard of commercial ethics Charles Frederick Gunther has worked his way upward from a humble clerkship. in a general store until he ranks with the millionaire merchants of the western metropolis.

Mr. Gunther was married in 1869 to Miss Jennie Burnell, of Lima, Indiana, and they have two sons, Burnell and Whitman. Burnell is now a captain in the First Regiment, Illinois National Guards.

Mr. Gunther has attained the highest rank in Masonry since he became affiliated with the fraternity in Peru, Illinois, in 1860. He has

taken the various degrees of the York and Scot- tish rites, including the thirty-third and last degree of the northern jurisdiction. He also belongs to the Mystic Shrine, while his social relations include membership in the Union League, Germania, Caxton and Iroquois clubs and is president of the last named. He also be- longs to the Manufacturers' and Commercial clubs and is a trustee of the Chicago Historical Society and the Academy of Science. His polit- ical allegiance was for many years given to the republican party but his endorsement of the prin- ciples for which Grover Cleveland stood led him to ally his forces with the democratic ranks and his opinions have been a decisive factor on more than one occasion of public policy and public concern. He could undoubtedly attain high polit- ical honors had he aspirations in that direction. As it is his recognition of the duties and obliga- tions as well as the privilege of citizenship, have led him to receive the proffered candidacy for a member of the city council on two occasions and his official service has become a matter of record. He stood for reform and improvement, for opposition to misrule and graft in all munici- pal affairs and his attitude in support of a clean, honorable city government was a telling force for civic virtue. In the spring of 1900 he was elected city treasurer, receiving a vote in excess of that given to the mayoralty candidate who has long been considered one of the most respon- sible of Chicago, and Mr. Gunther gave a bond of twenty-two million five hundred thousand dol- lars. In 1879 he was a member of the commis- sion which visited Mexico and devised methods to open up better trade relations with the sister republic. On that tour, which was one of con- tinual ovation, he secured much useful informa- tion. The result of the commission's work was to secure for American merchants the advantages derivable from trade relations with the southern republic and his suggestions in relation thereto have borne rich fruit in later years. He filled the office for two years and is still greatly inter- ested in the questions involving the welfare of municipal policy and progress of the city.

Mr. Gunther would be entitled to the praise and gratitude of his fellowmen had he done nothing else worthy of note than making his superb collection of curios, relics, invaluable manuscripts and paintings. He has found great delight in travel, because of his keen interest in anthropological and ethnological subjects as well as in later-day progress of the races. He is not the casual observer who brings away a transitory impression for his broad reading and study has made him familiar with the world's history and the value of the material and tangi- ble evidences of human progress. He has visited

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the occident and the orient, "Darkest Africa," and all the portions of enlightened Europe. He speaks French, German and Spanish fluently and is perfectly at home in all of the capitals of the continent. Mr. Gunther has indulged his innate love for historical research to the fullest extent and has secured the finest collection in the United States, this containing manuscripts of the most ancient writers of the world and from the stone rolls of the Assyrian and Babylonian pe- riod and in fact parchment and writings on the papyrus from the days of the earliest Pharoarhs down to the present time. He undoubtedly pos- sesses the rarest and finest collection of Bibles, in the world, including the famous Martha Washington Bible, also that of Washing- ton's sister Betty, together with the first New Testament printed in the English lan- guage at Worms, Germany. printed by Tin- dal about 1528, and all of the first Bibles printed on the American continent, including the Elliot Indian Bibles and the first German Bible by Sauer in 1743 and the first American Bible by Atkinson, 1782. He also owns his- toric manuscripts of all nations many centuries past, including an autograph of Shakespeare, which is the only one in America, and original manuscripts of Goethe, Schiller, Michael An- gelo, Fasso, Galileo, Moliere, and many others, also original manuscripts of all the world's fa- mous writers, poets, musicians, clergymen and politicians, including the original manuscripts . of Home, Sweet Home, Auld Lang Syne, Old Grimes, Lead Kindly Light, Star Span- gled Banner, Hail Columbia, Dixie, etc. He has also all the earliest maps of America from 1507 up and the first edition of the cosmographic of Martin Waldseemuller, which gave the name of America to the new world. His collection of paintings is price- less and includes a portrait of Chevalier Bayard dressed in armor, by G. Dupres ; a portrait of Betty Washington, only sister of George Wash- ington, by Westmuller; Shakespeare; Lafayette on his second visit to the United States in 1825, by Rembrandt Peale; the Washington family, by Gilbert Stewart; Benjamin Franklin; and two original portraits of George Washington, by Rembrandt Peale. One of these is in uniform and is the only one of the kind, Washington hav- ing sat expressly for this painting to the artist Peale in September, 1795. He also has nine other fine portraits of Washington, making eleven in all, and these portraits together with many others adorn the walls of his beautiful store. He has equally interesting relics of Abraham Lin- coln and of all other famous historical charac- ters and he was president of the Libby Prison I6

War Museum Association, which purchased and transported to Chicago the celebrated Libby Prison and placed therein the finest collection of interesting war relics on the American continent. This collection of interesting war relics is the private property of Mr. Gunther. He also has one of the documents that ceded the great Louis- iana territory to the United States, the other orig- inal document being in the archives of the French republic.

Mr. Gunther as a man is ever found to be gen- ial and unostentatious and the accumulation of wealth has never affected his treatment of the less fortunate friends of his earlier years. Stand- ing today at the head of one of the leading busi- ness enterprises of its kind in the country, exert- ing an influence in public affairs in Chicago, he has found that success is ambition's answer and yet has not concentrated his attention and energies upon business affairs to the extent of excluding other interests but has given time and thought to a multiplicity of interests which have led to a well-rounded character, making him one of the strongly representative and notable Americans.

ADAM W. MECAY.

Adam W. Mecay, a farmer and gardener resid- ing on First avenue in South Ottawa, is a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 18th of January, 1842, his par- ents being John and Katherine Mecay. He came west with his father and grandfather in 1854 when a young boy of twelve years and has since lived in Ottawa. His father was a carpenter and millwright and died in Ottawa in 1884, at the age of seventy-nine years, having long survived his wife, who passed away in Pennsylvania in 1846.

Adam W. Mecay pursued his education in Pennsylvania and in Ottawa and afterward learned the carpenter's trade under the direction of his father. In 1889, however, he turned his attention to gardening, which he has since fol- lowed and he now owns twenty-eight acres of arable and productive land on the south edge of Ottawa which is very valuable. He has fifteen acres planted to asparagus and ships the crop to Chicago. He also does some farming and his business is carefully conducted, bringing to him success. The products of his garden are unsur- passed for quality and size and he therefore finds a ready sale on the market for all that he pro- duces. His business is now quite extensive and he deserves much credit for what he has ac- complished.

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Mr. Mecay was married to Miss Eliza M. Cunningham, a native of Belfast, Maine, born in 1846. She came to Illinois when sixteen years of age in 1862 with her parents, James O. and Lucetta A. ( Wilson) Cunningham, who located in South Ottawa. Her father was a tanner and followed that trade while in the east. Both are now deceased, the former having died in October, 1892, and the latter in July, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Mecay have three children, two sons and a daughter: Rufus A., Jessie E. and Glenn. All have been high-school students and the daughter has been educated in music.

In his political views Mr. Mecay is a republican and cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He was warden of the county jail here for six years and had three watchmen under him. He has also served as school director for some years but otherwise has held no public positions. During the Civil war he enlisted in 1862 as a private in Company I, One hundred and Fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for three years and was mustered into service at Ottawa, proceeding from there to Louisville, Kentucky. His first engagement was at Hartsville, Ten- nessee, where he was captured and taken pris- oner. He was at one time identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is now connected with the Modern Woodmen camp, No. 3. at Ottawa. He is a self-made man, well.known and well liked by many citizens in this part of the county and from a humble position in the business world he has steadily worked his way upward until he has now attained a comfortable competence and is annually conducting a profit- able business.

JUDGE CHARLES BLANCHARD.

Judge Charles Blanchard, who for twenty-two years has sat upon the district bench and has won recognition as one of the ablest circuit judges of Illinois, claims New England as the place of his nativity. He was born in Peacham, Vermont, on the 31st of August, 1829, and his boyhood days were spent upon a picturesquely lo- cated but somewhat sterile New England farm, the financial returns of which were not sufficient to enable the father to provide his children with more than meager educational privileges. The son, however, was ambitious for intellectual training and acquirements and worked earnestly and persistently in his youth in order to gain a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of a tuition in a more advanced institution of learn-

ing. He therefore became a student of Peacham Seminary and when his education was completed he determined to try his fortune in the west, having heard favorable reports concerning its great business opportunities. In 1848 therefore with a capital of but forty dollars he started for the Mississippi valley, arriving in Peru, Illinois, with but five dollars. He had, however, educa- tional qualifications that enabled him readily to se- cure a school and he began teaching in Granville, Putnam county, Illinois, and later was a teacher in Hennepin, Illinois, his actual connection with educational work covering a period of three years. His leisure hours during that period were devoted to the study of law and going to Springfield he successfully passed an exam- ination before Judge Treat, which secured his admission to the bar on November 7, 1851.

This, however, was but an initial step and there were many days of hardship and trial be- fore the young lawyer. Although admitted to the bar he had no law library and he resorted to school teaching in order to gain a sum suffi- cient to enable him to purchase his law books. He then located for practice in Hennepin and afterward removed to Peru, La Salle county, where he continued as an active member of the bar until he took up his residence in Ottawa in 1861. He had the usual experience of the novitiate in professional life but gradually he demonstrated his ability to handle important liti- gated interests involving complex legal problems and his clientage grew in volume and importance. From November, 1864, until December, 1872, he served as state's attorney for the district comprising La Salle, Bureau and Kendall coun- ties, giving uniform satisfaction by the prompt and impartial manner in which he discharged the duties devolving upon him. He then re- tired from office as he entered it, with the confi- dence and good will of the general public, and resumed his law practice in Ottawa. Through recognition of his ability he was appointed, on the Ist of August, 1884, as one of the judges of the ninth judicial circuit by Governor Hamilton to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Goodspeed. At the ensuing election, in June, 1885, he was chosen for the full term of six years and in 1891, 1897 and 1903 was again elected, so that he has served for the fourth reg- ular term and at the close of his present term he will have sat upon the bench for twenty-six years.

His decisions indicate strong mentality, careful analysis, a thorough knowledge of the law and an unbiased judgment. The judge on the bench fails more frequently perhaps, from a deficiency in that broad-mindedness which not only com-

CHARLES BLANCHARD.

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prehends the details of a situation quickly and that insures a complete self-control under even the most exasperating conditions than from any other cause; and the judge who makes a suc- cess in the discharge of his multitudinous delicate duties is a man of well rounded character, finely balanced mind and of splendid intellectual attain- ments. That Judge Blanchard is regarded as such a jurist is a uniformly accepted fact.

JOHN STUART.

John Stuart, whose name is on the roll of the honored dead in La Salle county, was for many years a prominent figure in business and political circles in the city of La Salle and made a record which is an example well worthy of emulation. His life was as the day with its morning of hope and promise, its noontide of activity, its evening of successful and accomplished effort ending in the grateful rest and quiet of the night. He knew difficulties, experienced ob- stacles, wrought along lines of untiring activity and enterprise and in course of years won not only success but also an untarnished name.

The life record of John Stuart began on the 24th of June, 1826, in a little hamlet in county Roscommon, Ireland. His educational advantages in youth were limited. He was not the only member of the family that came to the new world, for his brother, Patrick Stuart, at one time postmaster, is still living in La Salle, in which city his sister, Mrs. Bridget Cum- mings, yet makes her home, while another sister, Mrs. Catherine Black, is living in Parnell, Iowa. In the year 1847, when twenty-one years of age, John Stuart decided to cross the Atlantic to enjoy the broader business opportunities of the new world, of which he had heard very favor- able reports. He first settled in Vermont, but after three years spent in New England came to La Salle, where he resided continuously for fifty-five years. His business interests, which ultimately became extensive, had small begin- nings. He was first engaged in the drayage business and when his capital permitted, he en- tered mercantile circles as proprietor of a gro- cery store on First street. For thirty-five years he conducted that establishment, enjoying a large and constantly increasing patronage which came to him in recognition of his business enterprise, his earnest desire to please his patrons and his reasonable prices. In 1872, in conjunction with Nicholas Duncan and Lawrence Christopher, he sank the Union coal shaft and from that time

until 1894 was treasurer of the Union Coal Com- pany, which in the latter year sold its business to the La Salle County Carbon Coal Company. At that time Mr. Stuart became the first presi- dent of the newly organized State Bank and re- mained at the head of the institution until his death. In the meantime, in 1886, he became interested in the lumber trade and for the ten succeeding years was at the head of the lum- ber business which is now owned and conducted by W. H. Hunter. Other business enterprises felt the stimulus and benefited by the wise coun- sel and activity of Mr. Stuart, who extended his efforts into various fields of labor and where- in his work was usually attended with grati- fying financial results. During the last nine years of his life he concentrated his attention upon his banking interests and the management of his large real-estate holdings, for as the years had gone by he had made judicious investments in property from time to time.

On December 3, 1854, was celebrated the mar- riage of John Stuart and Margaret Glynn, with whom he traveled life's journey happily for al- most a half century. They were separated by the death of the wife on the 2d of January, 1894. They had two daughters: Mary Ann, now the wife of N. W. Duncan; and Eliza J. Stuart, who was her father's constant companion and aid in the evening of life. The parents were communicants of St. Patrick's church and in his last years Mr. Stuart was attended by the Rev. Father T. A. Shaw, the venerable pastor of that church. Politically Mr. Stuart is a democrat and his fellow townsmen frequently called him to public office. He served at different times as city treasurer, collector and alderman and the cause of education found in him a warm friend, for during many years of active service on the school board he did effective work for the cause of public instruction. He manifested in his official duties the same enterprise and fidelity which characterized the discharge of his private business interests. He passed away Sep- tember 30, 1905. at the age of seventy-nine years. The La Salle Daily Tribune said of him: "With the passing of Mr. Stuart La Salle loses one of the last of its representa- tives in the 'old guard' of successful business men. These men were in a class by themselves. Born poor, they slowly but surely worked them- selves up by hard, conscientious labor at what- ever enterprise they entered. There was nothing of the sensational in their lives, none of the ostentatious display or vulgar affectation which characterizes present day wealth in many in- stances. These men were and desired to be

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History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 38

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