History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 77

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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On the 15th of December, 1853, Mr. Tower was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Mel- vina James, a daughter of Jonathan and Sophia (Bunker) James. The mother was a daughter of Lieutenant Enoch and Sally (Wiggin) Bunker and Enoch Bunker was a son of Joseph and Sarah (Noble) Bunker, who owned Bunker Hill. Joseph Bunker, of Barnstead, New Hamp- shire, born in 1738, enlisted for service in the Revolutionary war May 8, 1779. He owned the, ground upon which the battle of Bunker Hill was fought and participated in that engagement. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Tower therefore are directly descended from Revolutionary an- cestry and are entitled to membership with the Sons and

Daughters of the American Revolution.

During the first year after his marriage Mr. Tower engaged in farming on the shares for his father. The succeeding year the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy and the Illinois Central Rail- roads were built through La Salle county to Chicago and prices thereby raised, so that the farmer could make money. At first Mr. Tower rented land from his father at one dollar per acre and he paid twenty-five per cent interest on the money which he borrowed in order to buy

a team. He continued his farming operations actively year after year and in 1872, while hoeing in his garden one day and using a rake the idea came to him that a pulverizer could be made for general farm work. A man of action, he at once went to a blacksmith shop and had such an implement made out of old buggy springs. It proved successful and he secured a patent thereon. By 1873 he found that it could be made with adjustable knives and such a device was accordingly patented in that year. Con- tinuing his study and invention, the second de- vice was followed by a plow that completely revolutionized the methods of cultivating corn and with slight variation the same tool is now in use all over the corn belt. In 1881 the old farm was sold, and in 1880 Mr. Tower purchased four hundred acres and later one thousand acres of Iowa land which the family still own. In 1883 he traded his brother a half interest in his patents for a half interest in his planing mill with the understanding that it was to be refitted as a plow factory. This was done and the Tower Plow factory was placed in operation. It proved a paying venture, the demand for the output being large from the beginning, while the growth of the business was continuous. Its suc- cess may be indicated by the fact that in 1901 Mr. Tower sold his interest in the concern for sixty-five thousand dollars and retired to private life to spend a quiet old age with his wife in their fine home in Mendota. During the ex- perimental stage of the plow business he worked hard to demonstrate the value of his invention to the farmers, even making exhibits at the county and state fairs. The worth of this device soon became known and it has been largely adopted, his cultivator being now made and handled by the large implement firms all over the country. Mr. Tower thinks it a conservative estimate when he says that his invention saves to the farmer a million dollars annually. His Iowa land has in- creased in value, having been purchased at from twelve and a half to sixty dollars per acre, while at the present time it is worth from eighty to one hundred and twenty dollars per acre. His farming interests consist almost entirely of the raising of corn and in this he has been very successful. As the years have passed and he has prospered in his undertakings Mr. Tower has given farms and money to his children, so that all are now comfortably situated in life.

Unto our subject and his wife have been born three children : Charles, now engaged in the grain business in Des Moines, Iowa; Emma, at home ; and Louis, a farmer in Iowa.

Mr. Tower is now enjoying the evening of life free from vexing cares and distressing cir-

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cumstances. His life has been well spent, his work well done and the results prove his capac- ity and ability. He joined the Congregational church at the age of twenty-four years but as there was no church of that denomination in Mendota at the time he located here he joined the Presbyterian church, of which he is now a member. He has always been known as a very pious, charitable man, true to his honest con- victions, considerate in his judgment of others and liberal in his treatment to those less fortu- nate than himself. He is a man of enterprise, positive character, indomitable energy, strict in- tegrity and liberal views, whose life is exemplary in many respects, so that he has the esteem of his friends and the confidence of those with whom he has had business relations.

W. S. CHERRY.

W. S. Cherry, who, after thirty-years' connec- tion with the Chicago, Wilmington & Vermillion Coal Company as mine superintendent, is now living retired in Streator, is of that type of the builder and organizer who, following the trial blazed by the early pioneer ; the genius who, while finding the magic realm open forthwith be- came its exploiter to its renown and his own profit. coining its wealth of minerals, lumber, cat- tle and grain and thus developing the natural re- sources of the country until its commercial and industrial prominence is a recognized value in the growth of the middle west. Of this class of men Mr. Cherry is a worthy representative. He has wrought along lines of great good and no man in La Salle county is spoken of in more favorable terms than he by his contemporaries and business associates and by the hundreds of men who have been in his employ. Of Irish birth, possessing the adaptability, enterprise and ingenuity characteristic of his race he possesses also the spirit of determination and perseverance which have been the dominant factors in the up- building of the middle west and stands today as a worthy representative of that class of American men who, while working out their individual prosperity. also promote the general good.

Mr. Cherry was born in County Monehan, Ireland. July 9. 1837, but was only three years of age when his mother crossed the Atlantic to Vir- ginia, whence they removed to Pennsylvania in 1843. He is a son of William and Henrietta (Sloan) Cherry, both of whom were natives of Ireland. His father died in Ireland in early manhood. after which W. S. Cherry was brought

to the new world by his mother and grandfather. In the family were four children, all of whom passed away with the exception of Mr. Cherry, who is the youngest. The mother died in Phil- adelphia at the age of forty-three years.

Mr. Cherry acquired his education in the schools of the east, attending private and select schools, and in 1856 he went with his older brother to Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in anthracite coal mining, there lay- ing the foundation of the knowledge that has guided him in his subsequent career. Watching with interest the progress of events in the south prior to the Civil war, at the outbreak of hostili- ties he went to Philadelphia, where he offered his services to the navy and became an engineer upon one of the government ships. He had many very interesting experiences during the seven years he was in the navy and for about three years sailed along the South American coast, being stationed at Buenos Ayres for a long time. In 1869 he retired from the government employ and returned to Philadelphia, where, in connection with Tryon Rickert & Company, he engaged in the manufacture of white lead and paint, the factory being at Wilmington, Delaware.

Attracted by the opportunities of the west, however, Mr. Cherry came to La Salle county in 1871, establishing his home in Streator, where he has now resided for almost thirty-five consecu- tive years, save for a brief period passed in Col- orado. He entered the employ of the Chicago, Wilmington & Vermillion Coal Company as mine superintendent and later was made general mine superintendent, acting in that capacity until 1889. He then went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, as general manager and vice president for the Grand River Coal & Coke Company. with which he was connected until 1892. Returning to Streator he resumed his old position as general mine su- perintendent with the Chicago, Wilmington & Vermillion Coal Comapny and so continued until 1904, when he resigned. He was a pioneer in introducing modern mining methods. When he reached Streator the mines here were being worked with little system or method. It seemed that coal was taken out where it could be ob- tained in easier manner and the balance of the vein was allowed to go to waste. Mr. Cherry at once started upon the work of reform in this direction and introduced the mining machine of steam and electric haulage, improved hoists, scientific ventilation and drainage. He made a close and thorough study of mining in every de- partment not only as regards the best methods of working the coal deposits and taking the prod- uct from the mines but also in regard the best

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conditions for the men. He was the inventor of a number of different devices that are now in general use in mining operations and was among the first to introduce machinery put upon the market by others. It has been said that out of his life could be written the history of scientific mining in Illinois. The company prospered by reason of his practical methods, his improved plans and processes and his unfaltering applica- tion and diligence. Moreover, he has the ability to understand and handle men and has worked upon the plan of justice and liberality regarding his employes as human beings and not as ma- chines. One who was long in his service as a miner and afterward became an operator said: "I have sat on opposite sides of the table with Mr. Cherry many a time discussing trade differ- ences and I have always found him upright, hon- orable, reasonable, willing to grant any just claim that the state of the trade would permit. We have differed it is true and we have fought but it was usually over matters that were of his control, but he was always personally fair, courte- ous, considerate and manly in his treatment of the representatives of the working men and in those days let me tell you gentlemanly treatment was a good deal more rare than it is now from an employer. *

* * The immunity from strikes that Streator enjoyed for many years, the relatively good condition of work and wages, the superiority of Streator miners as a class-all of these were due in considerable measure to the influence of Mr. Cherry and the esteem in which he was held by the miners, myself and my asso- ciates included. When he told us a thing we believed him, because we knew he wouldn't lie to us, and that confidence in a man's word goes a long way in settling a difference." It was Mr. Cherry who was instrumental in organizing the Miners' Institute, whereby many miners were as- sisted in securing a scientific education and thus through his help and encouragement many Streator miners now hold state certificates and fill important positions as mine inspectors and super- intendents of mines. After thirty-two years' connection with the Chicago, Wilmington & Vermillion Coal Company Mr. Cherry resigned his position to enjoy a well earned rest. The feeling between employer and employe perhaps cannot be better indicated than by quoting from the resolutions passed by the Local Union, No. 800, U. M. W. A., at that time and who said :

"Whereas, We, the members of Local Union, No. 800, U. M. W. A., have sustained intimate relations with him during these years, often under trying circumstances in the settlement of griev- ances, and in the adjustment of delicate and difficult trade disputes of many kinds and charac- ter ; and,

"Whereas, We, as trades unionists believe that the personal qualities of the superintendent or boss are hardly of less importance than proper economic conditions in promoting right relations between employer and employed; therefore, be it

"Resolved, That we, the members of Local Union, No. 800, U. M. W. A., do hereby declare and set forth our appreciation of the character and services of Superintendent William S. Cherry. Especially do we wish to express our appreciation of his high character as an honor- able and straightforward man, whose word we have never hesitated to accept and who in all these years has never knowingly broken a prom- ise made in good faith to his workmen and who has never by evasion or subterfuge tried to escape the carrying out of an agreement once honestly made :

"And we also desire to record our appreciation of his uniform and unfailing courtesy, whether in · dealing with individual workmen or with com- mittees. Mr. Cherry was always approachable, always considerate, always open-minded and rea- sonable. He always met us frankly man to man, without condescension or patronage, and with- out a suggestion of the exasperating supercilious- ness which too often accompanies a little brief authority and which sometimes creates more hard feeling than an actual trade grievance. While inflexibly firm in maintaining the rights of his company as he understood them, he was never arrogant or arbitrary in their enforcement but always ready to give explanations and reasons for his position and willing to submit his case for adjudication in the manner provided in our annual agreement.

"We believe that in these formative years of our organization these personal qualities of Mr. Cherry-his firmness, reliability and integrity- have been important factors in putting our joint trade agreement on a practical working basis, with a minimum of friction and we therefore feel it due to ourselves and him to place on record our admiration and appreciation of his many sterling qualities as a manly and honorable man and a fair and just employer." The Union also presented him with a handsome gold-headed cane in token of their esteem.

Mr. Cherry brought with him to his work in the west the discipline and executive ability ac- quired by years of service in the American navy. He grasped with firm hand the multifarious de- tails of a position which touched intimately the lives of two thousand employes and occupying a trying middle position between the miners and their employers he comported himself so that he won the esteem of the former without forfeit- ing the confidence of the latter. A man of fine technical education himself, he sought to in-

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the surrounding districts. He has resided here for more than eleven years, having located in Marseilles in the fall of 1894. He was born in Monroe county, Missouri, March 29, 1867, and was there reared, acquiring his education in the common and high schools, together with a three year's course in University of Missouri. He aft- erward taught for one year in Monroe county, Missouri, in the old home school in which he had formerly been a student, but he regarded this service merely as a step to other professional la- bor and took up the study of medicine, pursuing his first course of lectures in the University of Virginia in 1891, where he remained two years. He then entered Rush Medical College of Chi- cago, where he did some special work and took the senior year work in that institution. He afterward did post-graduate work in the Chi- cago Polyclinic and also clinical work in Cook county, being a member of the bedside clinic class. On completing his studies in Chicago, Mr. Sterrett returned to Missouri, spending the summer in recuperating after arduous study and close application. In the fall of that year he came to Marseilles, where practically he entered upon the work of the profession. Here he has built up an excellent practice. £ He succeeded Dr. Montgomery and now has a business of large volume, his practice extending for miles around. He keeps abreast with the progress made by the medical fraternity and in his efforts to perfect himself in his chosen calling has at- tained a high degree of proficiency which is mani- fest in the excellent result which attend his ef- forts for the alleviation of human suffering and the restoration of health. He is a member of the La Salle County and State Medical Societies and has prepared addresses for the different meetings of those organizations. For one year he was president of the La Salle County Society.

Dr. Sterrett was married in Racine, Wiscon- sin, in 1901, to Mrs. Lydia Adams Humphrey, a native of Marseilles, Illinois, who was reared and educated in Sandwich, Illinois, and in Ra- cine, Wisconsin. She was first married to F. V. Humphrey, a native of Chicago, and by her former marriage she had one child, Vinette Humphrey. Two children have been born of the second marriage, Corinne Adams and Mar- garet Aileen.

Dr. Sterrett is identified with the democracy, but at local elections does not adhere to par- tisan ties, but votes for the man he believes best qualified for the office regardless of party ties. He has never aspired to public office, preferring to give his undivided attention to his practice and the only position that he has ever held was in the direct line of his professional service, for dur-

ing three or four years he acted as health of- ficer. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge at Marseilles, in which he has passed all the chairs and is a past chancellor commander. He is also connected with several other fraternal insurance orders, of which he is likewise examining physician. A young man of enterprise and laudable ambition, he is a con- stant and discriminating student, whose efficiency is continually augmented by his research and in- vestigation.

REV. THOMAS HOUGAS.

Rev. Thomas Hougas, living on section 14, Miller township, has had a successful business career, resulting in the acquirement of a well improved and valuable farm of two hundred and eighty acres, yet the accumulation of wealth has not been the sole aim and end of his life, for he has devoted much time to the work of uplifting his fellowmen as a minister of the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, and his influence has been of no re- stricted order. On the contrary his labors have been a power for good in uplifting his fellowmen and inculcating those principles which work for justice, mercy, truth and uprightness.

His life record began in Rutland township, this county, on the 2d day of December, 1836. His father, Goodman Hougas, was a native of Nor- way and when a youth came to America, cross- ing the Atlantic about 1825. He spent eleven years in New York and was married there to Miss Julia Madland, a native of Stavanger, Nor- way. Seeking a home in the middle west, in 1831 Mr. Hougas cast in his lot with the pioneer resi- dents of La Salle county. Few indeed were the settlers then residing within its borders and the land was largely in its primitive condition, the prairies being covered with their native grasses, while along the streams stood the timber as vet uncut. The rivers, too, were unbridged and few roads had been laid out. Only here and there was a little cabin to show that the work of reclamation had begun and that the settlers had undertaken the task of subjugating the wild land and extending the frontier. Goodman Hougas opened up a farm in Rutland township, whereon he reared his family, but he died in 1849, at the comparatively early age of forty-nine years and his wife passed away when but thirty-six years of age. He was an elder in the church of the Latter Day Saints and was deeply interested in its work. After the loss of his first wife he married again. In the family were eleven chil- dren, of whom four are now living: Thomas, of

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this review; Daniel, who is living in Pottawat- tamie county, Iowa ; John, also of Iowa ; and Mrs. Caroline Bower, of Sheridan, Illinois. Three of the children died in infancy, while Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis, Mrs. Sarah Selee, Mrs. Julia Rich- ards and Mrs. Isabella Lewis died after reaching adult age.

Rev. Thomas Hougas was reared in La Salle county and is indebted to the public-school sys- tem for the educational privileges he enjoyed, al- though the schools of that period were very primitive in comparison with those of the present day. He has largely supplemented his education by reading, observation and experience. He was trained to farm labor and early came to a realiza- tion of the value of thrift and industry as factors in an active business career. Owing to the com- paratively early death of his parents he was thrown upon his own resources and the success which he has achieved is the result of his per- sistent effort and enterprise.

On the 3d of January, 1858, in what is now Miller township, Mr. Hougas was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Elizabeth Teal, a native of New York, who was born in Dutchess county, near Poughkeepsie, and was a daughter of Edward Teal, an early settler of La Salle county, who located in what is now Miller town- ship in 1849. Mrs. Hougas was reared and educated here, remaining at home with her par- ents until her marriage. The young couple be- gan their domestic life where they still reside. Mr. Hougas purchased the property, erected good buildings and has transformed the farm into a valuable tract of land. To his original holdings he added from time to time until he now owns two hundred and eighty acres of valuable land in the home place, together with the farm of one hundred and seventy acres near Marseilles and his wife has two hundred and fifty-six acres of land in Clay county, Illinois. He keeps every- thing about the farm in excellent condition and raises good crops and stock. He is likewise one of the stockholders of the Farmers Grain & Ele- vator Company, and his business affairs have been capably managed, his success resulting from careful supervision, unremitting diligence and enterprise. He has never been known to take advantage of the necessities of his fellowmen in any trade transaction, his business integrity standing as an unquestioned fact in his career.

As the years have passed Mr. and Irs. Hougas . have become the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. Joseph, a farmer. of Miller township, is married and has six children. Daniel, who is married and has eight children, is a farmer of Manlius township. Alma, living in Manlius township, is married and has

three children. John B., residing in Nebraska, is married and has six children. George, living in Marseilles, is married and has four children, Charles M., who is married and has one son, resides upon the old homestead farm. Emma Jane became the wife of Oliver Hayer, Jr., and died in 1897, at the age of thirty-nine years, leaving four children. Ida is the wife of Wil- liam Gallup, a resident farmer of North Dakota, and has seven children. Susan is at home. Nellie, the daughter of Mrs. Gallup, has resided with her grandparents from early childhood. The two members of the family who have passed away are Nathaniel, whose death resulted from an accident when he was two years old, and Zenus Melvin, who died in infancy.

Rev. Hougas was one of the founders of the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints in Miller township. He was or- dained to the ministry about 1862 and served as presiding elder here for thirty-six years. He has been very active and earnest in church and Sunday-school work and his labors have been of direct and permanent benefit to the cause. Firm in his belief, he has as a minister of the gospel interpreted the teachings of Christ as he under- stands them, and his influence has ever been on the side of moral development. Politically he has always been a stanch republican since cast- ing his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lin- coln in 1860. He has never missed a presidential election since that time and in community affairs he has been active, having served as township trustee and in other offices. For many years he has been a member of the school board and has frequently been a delegate to the county con- ventions. In a review of his life we note many sterling traits of character which are worthy of emulation and while successfully carrying on business interests he has never allowed his laud- able desire for financial progress to dwarf the finer sensibilities of his nature or make him less sympathetic for the wrong, the sorrows and the hardships of the world.

AARON K. STILES.

Aaron K. Stiles, a resident of Streator, who for the last fifteen years was president, manager and largest owner of the Streator Gas & Light Company, and for many years prominent in man- ufacturing and other enterprises in northern Illi- nois, was born in Canada, near the Vermont line, March 23, 1834, the son of Ashel Stiles and Fanny (Smith) Stiles, both natives of Rut- land county, New York. In their family were

A.K STILES

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PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

two sons and four daughters, and three of the daughters are now living, but his father and mother are both dead. Mr. Stiles, the subject of this sketch, came to Chicago in 1849. After spending about one year in De Kalb county, to which place his parents had removed, he returned to Chicago and was for nearly one year engaged with a surveying party that surveyed the Illinois Central Railway in 1851.

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History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 77

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