History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 49

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698

USA > Illinois > Madison County > History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches > Part 49

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ROBINSON S. SAWYER, was born in Alton, Ill., in 1845. After acquiring a preliminary education in the public schools of his native eity, he attended Shurtleff College one year. In the fall of 1867 he began the study of law in the office of his father, Seth T. Sawyer, and read till 1870, when having successfully passed examination he received license to practice. In January, 1871, he entered into partnership with his father for the general practice of law, the firm name being S. T. and R. S. Sawyer.

E. BREESE GLASS, Master in Chancery for Madison county, is a native of St. Clair county, Ill. Having com- pleted the studies pursued in the public schools of his native county, he entered Shurtleff College at Upper Alton in 1864 and took a four years' Latin course. After leaving college he studied law one year at Leavenworth, Kansas, and soon afterward entered the law office of Levi Davis, Sr., (Upper Alton, III.) with whom he studied till he was admitted to the bar in 1870. Mr. Glass first opened a law office in Upper Alton, but upon being eleeted States Attorney in 1872 re- moved his office to Edwardsville where he has since remained in the practice of his profession. He was appointed Master in Chancery in 1879, and still holds that office by re-appoint- ment.

WILLIAM H. JONES was born in St. Louis, in 1849. When twelve years old, he graduated from the academic depart- ment of the Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., and shortly afterward attended Columbia College, New York. In 1868, under the direction of Judge David Gillespie of Edwardsville, he commenced reading law and after a thorough course of study was examined and admitted to the bar in 1871. Mr. Jones is attorney for the Toledo, Cincinnati and St.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Louis R. R. Company, and has had a good general practice of law at Edwardsville since 1878.

W. F. L. HADLEY was born in Madison county, Illinois, June 15, 1847. Mr. Hadley attended the district schools of his native county until the fall of 1863, when he entered McKendree College at Lebanon. He graduated from that institution in 1867, in the scientific coarse, including Latin. In 1870, he entered the law department of Michigan Uni- versity, at Ann Arbor ; graduated in the spring of 1871, and in the following fall opened a law office in Edwardsville. He practiced by himself till May 1874, when he formed a partnership with Hon. Wm. H. Krome. He is a successful lawyer, and ranks among the leading attorneys at the Madi- son county bar.

THOMAS J. RICHARDSON received his early education in the common schools of Clinton county, Ill., and also attend- ed Shurtleff College two years. He read law privately, and subsequently took a law course in the University at Louis- ville, Ky. After his admission to the bar of Illinois in 1870 he began practice at Carlyle, Clinton county, and was Mas- ter in Chancery for that county from 1871 to October 1874, at which time he resigned and removed to St. Louis to prac- tice law. In August, 1878, he returned to Illinois and loca- ted at Highland, where he has since been engaged in a general practice. Mr. Richardson is an industrious, careful lawyer, and a man of good abilities.

EDWARD PHILLIPS, a native of Madison county, received his education in the public schools of Edwardsville and at Shurtleff College, Upper Alton. Having decided to adopt the legal profession as his life work, he entered the law office of Hon A. W. Metcalf of Edwardsville in 1869, and after studying a year was admitted to practice. Since his admission to the bar he has continued in the practice of law with the exception of five years, during which time he was engaged in the lumber business.

JOHN D. HEISEL a native of Germany, came to America at the age of twenty-one, and settled in Burlington county, New Jersey, in 1853; after living there five years he came west, and in 1870 began the study of law in the office of I. B. Randle of Edwardsville. In 1871 he was licensed to practice law in the courts of Illinois, aud immediately formed a partnership with his former preceptor, I. B. Randle. This partnership lasted till 1872, when Mr. Heisel was elect- ed Circuit Clerk of Madison county, and served two terms. In 1880, he resumed the practice of his profession.

CYRUS HAPPY was born near Du Quoin, INl. In 1864 when only nineteen years old he enlisted in the 18th Illinois Infantry and served his country as a soldier till be was mus- tered out at the close of the war. He entered McKendree College in the fall of 1866, and in June 1869 graduated from that institution, having taken the scientific course, including Latin. He commenced the study of law in September 1869 in the office of Gillespie & Springer, and continued a stu- dent in the office till 1871, when he was admitted to the bar. Soon after his admission he entered into partnership with Judge David Gillespie, one of the law firm with whom he had studied. This partnership lasted till 1879, when he

opened a law office by himself. In 1881, he and Mr. C. N. Travous formed a partnership, which still continues.

Mr. Happy is a man of acknowledged ability, a good lawyer and an able speaker.

WM. P. BRADSHAW is a native of Illinois, his father having emigrated to this State in 1812. He attended the public schools of his native county (Wayne), and finished his literary education at McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill., graduating from that institution in 1869. While on his father's farm prior to his entering college, he devoted his evenings to the study of law, afterward continued his legal studies under Prof H. H. Horner, of McKendree College, and in 1869 entered, as a student, the law office of Dale & Burnett, at Edwardsville, where he remained two years. In 1871, admitted to the bar, he immediately opened an office in Edwardsville and practiced by himself till 1874, when he became the partner of Hon. A. W. Metcalf, the style of the firm being Metcalf & Bradshaw, which still continues. Mr. Bradshaw was an active and influential member of the State Republican Central Committee. He is engaged in a general practice, but especially excels as a jury lawyer, in which capacity he has few equals of his age in this part of the State.

CLAY H. LYNCH received a common school education in the district schools of his native county ( Madison), and at the age of twenty-one commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. David Gillespie. Having read law two years, in 1870 he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which institution he graduated in 1871. Soon after finishing his course he opened a law office and practiced two years, at the end of which time he quit law and engaged in the grain trade. In January, 1881, he resumed his legal practice, and now bids fair to make a successful attorney.

JOHN W. COPPINGER was born at Alton in 1852. He received his elementary education in the cathedral schools of his native city. From 1864 to 1866 he was a student in St. Mary's College, at Perryville, Mo. He then attended the University of Notre Dame, at Notre Dame, Ind., from which he graduated in the scientific course. From 1870 to 1872 he read law in the office of John H. Yager at Alton, and during a portion of the time attended the St. Louis Law School. In 1872, he was admitted to the bar, and com- menced the practice of law.

HENRY S. PETTINGILL, now engaged in the practice at Edwardsville, was born in Madison county, Ill., April 25th, 1850. When fifteen years of age, he entered Shurtleff' College, at Upper Alton, Ill., to take a four years' scientific course. During his senior year he left college and entered the law office of Dale & Burnett, at Edwardsville, and there applied himself to his studies till 1869, when he entered the law de- partment of the University of Michigan. After his gradua- tion in law, in 1873, he opened an office in Peoria, but after remaining there only a few months he went west, and traveled through the western states and territories till 1877, at which time be returned and opened a law office in Carroll- ton, Illinois. In 1878 Mr. Pettingill removed his office to

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Edwardsville, where he has since been successfully engaged in the practice.

THOMAS FAWCETT, of Venice, is a native of Ireland, and received his literary education at the Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. He studied law with the celebrated James T. Brady, of New York City, and L. H. Hite, of East St. Louis. In 1874 he was admitted to practice at Terre Ifaute, Ind., and in 1876, became a member of the Madison county bar. He prefers the practice of criminal law.

JOHN F. MCGINNIS was born in Ireland, September 15th, 1849. When he was two years old, his father emigrated to America, and settled at Alton, Illinois. He was sent to the cathedral schools of Alton, till he was prepared to begin the study of law, when he entered the office of N. A. Mortell, Esq., St. Louis. In 1874 he was admitted to prac- tice in the courts of both Missouri and Illinois, and, at once opened an office in Alton, where he has since continued in the practice of his profession, being a part of the time city attorney,

JAMES E. DUNNEGAN was born in 1853, at Alton, Ill. His early education was acquired in the cathedral schools of that city. At a comparatively early age he began to read law in the office of John Orr Lee in St. Louis, and after ac- complishing a full course of study, was admitted to the bar in St. Louis, in 1873. After remaining there two years he removed to Alton, and opened an office. He has since that time been engaged in a successful general practice of his profession. He is at present city attorney of Alton, and bids fair to gain an enviable reputation among his brethren of the bar.

EDWARD C. SPRINGER, who was born in Edwardsville, Ill., May 7, 1854, received his early education in the public schools of that city. On arriving at manhood, he decided to make the practice of law his life work, and entered the office of Messrs. Irwin & Krome in 1874. During 1875 Mr. Springer passed one term in the Ann Arbor law school, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in 1876 was admitted to the har on passing examination before the supreme court at Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Mr. S. commenced practice in June, 1876, and immediately formed a partnership with Judge Irwin, of Edwardsville. He is still a member of the firm known as Irwin & Springer ; is engaged in a general prac- tice, and has a good prospect for a rich reward for labors iu his chosen profession.

BENJ. R. BURROUGHS, a native of Charles county, Mary- land, received private instruction till 1864, when he was sent to Charlotte Hall college, St. Mary's county, Maryland, which institution he attended three years, and graduated in the Latin and scientific course. From 1873 to 1875 he pur- sued the study of law in the office of Krome & Hadley, at Edwardsville, and in the fall of 1875 entered the senior class of the Union college of law at Chicago. In June, 1876, he received the degree of LL. B. from that institu- tion, and immediately opened a law office at Edwardsville, where he continued to practice alone till 1878, when he entered into a law partnership with Frank W. Burnett. The firm of Burroughs aud Burnett continued in business

till 1881, at which time Mr. Burnett removed to Springfield, Illinois. Mr. Burroughs has since practiced alone. He is considered a good lawyer.

THOMAS E. FRUIT was born in Madison county, Illinois. He received his early education in the district schools of this county, and in 1872 entered Lincoln University at Lin- coln, Illinois, taking a Latin and scientific course, gra- duating in June, 1877. The same year he entered the law office of Messrs. Irwin & Springer, Edwardsville, and was examined in February, 1880. Having passed the examina- tion required, he was admitted to the bar in June, 1880. Immediately after his admission Mr. F. opened a law office in Edwardsville, Illinois, with Hon. David Gillespie (not in partnership), and continued with him till the death of the latter, August, 1881, since which time he has been in prac- tice by himself. In April, 1881, he was elected city attor- ney, and still holds that office. Mr. Fruit is engaged in a general practice of law, and his prospects for an extended practice are good.

HERMAN RITTER received his education in the University at St. Louis ; read law with Gillespie and Happy, and at- tended the law department of the University of Michigan. After completing his law course at Ann Arbor, in 1878, he was admitted to the bar in Illinois, and has since been en- gaged in practice at Edwardsville.

GEORGE F. McNULTA was born in Alton, Ill., in 1859. He attended the schools of Alton till he was fourteen years old, when he was sent to Notre Dame University at Notre Dame, Indiana, where he took the scientific course of study. From 1876 to 1879 he read law in the office of Charles P. Wise, and then attended the St Louis Law School, graduat- ing in 1880. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of Missouri and also that of Illinois. He immediately opened a law office in Alton.

C. N. TRAVOUS, a young lawyer of Edwardsville, until nineteen years old lived on a farm near Shiloh, St. Clair county, Ill, and there received his preliminary education. During the four years preceding his study of law he taught school in Madison county. In June, 1879, he entered the law office of Gillespie and Happy, at Edwardsville, and de- voted the next two years to the preparation necessary for his admission to practice. He was examined before the Su- preme court at Mt. Vernon, in February, 1881, and ad- mitted to the bar. Since June, 1881, Mr. Travous has been associated with Mr. Cyrus Happy in the practice of law at Edwardsville.

JOHN BERRY was born in Huntingdon county, Penna., in 1853. He studied law in the office of Hon. Win. S. Skeech of Baltimore, Md., four years, and in 1877 was admitted to the bar of that state. In 1878 he was licensed to practice in Pennsylvania. He afterwards opened an office in Baltimore county, Md., and remained there till 1881 when he came to Collinsville Ill., where he has since been engaged in a gen- eral practice.

The list of prosecuting attorneys of this county with the dates of their respective terms of office, will be found in the chapter on Civil History.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

CHAPTER XI.

- THE PRESS.

Edwardsville Spectator, The Star of the West, Illinois Re- publiean, Illinois Corrector, The Crisis, Illinois Advocate, Western Ploughboy, Alton Spectator, Alton Telegraph, Tri- Weekly Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, Alton Telegraph and Democratie Review, Alton Telegraph and Madison County Ree- ord, Alton AImerican, Alton Observer, The Illinois Temperance Herald, Alton Commercial Gazette, The Altonian, Western Pioneer and Baptist Standard Bearer, Voice of Illinois, The Sueker, The Western Weekly Mirror, Sovereign People, The Star of Bethlehem and Candid Examiner, The Protestant Monitor, Alton Mirror, The Presbytery Reporter, The Madison Record, The Alton Courier, The Alton National Democrat, Madison County Enquirer, The Weekly Madison Press, Madison County Advertiser, Madison County Courier, The Sueker Life Boat, The Vowarts, Illinois Beobachter, Freie Presse, Missouri Cum- berlund Presbyterian, Ladies' Pearl, The Good Templar, The Alton Banner, Western Cumberland Presbyterian, Cumber- land Presbyterian, Our Faith, Erzaehler, Highlund Bote, Madison County Bote, The Intelligeneer The Union, High- lund Union, Edwardsville Republican, The Collinsville Ar- gus, Liberal Demoerat, Our Times Edwardsville Times, The Temperance Banner, Alton Demoerat, Daily Demoerat, The Troy Weekly Bulletin, The Morning News, The Christian News, Qui Vive, College Review, Collinsville Weekly Herald, Madison County Sentinel, The Little Epicopalian, Banner of the Cross, Madison County Anzeiger, Edwardsville Demo- erat, The Ilighilund Herald, The Collinsville Stur.

AN finds his greatest good and highest happiness iu associations with his fellow- meu. His constitution demands com- panionship, and history teaches that in all ages and in all parts of the earth, men have grouped themselves into fami- lies, clans and nations. Protection has not been the sole object of these com- pacts and has not often been their chief incentive, for society is not man's crea- tion but his divinely instituted state. The reasons for its existence antedate Adam's birth, and are manifested in those primitive instincts which guard and potentially guide in the formation of human character.

The power to think is the grandest of God's creations, and the ability to communicate thought is scarcely less noble. These capabilities are distinctively human attributes, and in exercising them the race has attained its present degree of civilization. Society presupposes two parties, one to influence and one to be influenced. The thinking portion of a com- munity is its motive power, and when thoughtful leaders can readily impart a proper understanding of their deductions they secure unanimity of purpose and harmony of action

from their followers. Indeed, he only is worthy of leader- ship who can communicate to others the good that is in him- self and who is constantly accumulating a supply of that which is good to communicate.

There must be a medium between him who directs and those who are guided ; a communicator, or, transmitter. Language is the transmitter of thought. Early in his exist- ence man learned to associate sounds aud ideas, to group sounds expressive of ideas, to make the former symbols of the latter. Another progressive step was taken when arbi- trary sounds became conventionally the exponents of ideas, and words became their signs. These are the footprints of the child's mastery of speech, and vestiges of the method by which humanity came into possession of a vocal language.

Primeval man could not send the products of his reflective faculties beyond the limit of his voice, which was his chief instrument of language. " Necessity is the mother of inven- tion," and the demand for a medium which would carry thought farther than mere vocal utterance and retain it longer, led to the use of visible representation of ideas. Undoubtedly these at first were ideographic, that is pictorial and symbolic. Gradually the pictures and symbols were abridged both in delineation and numbers, as a matter of convenience, and these abbreviated forms became conven- tional signs of spoken language. Thus originated phonetic writing, that in which the elementary sounds of language are represented by distinct and distinguishable characters called letters. These letters arranged in their customary order constituted the alphabet.

The Egyptians ascribe the introduction of writing to Thoth, their god of intelligence ; the Greeks assigned the honor to Cadmus, the mythical founder of Boœtian Thebes, aud the Scandinavians claim the discovery as belonging to their god, Odin. While its authorship is thus traditional and fabulous, no one doubts that the art was carried from Egypt to Phonicia and thence to Greece and other states. The Egyptians could never entirely disassociate the idea and its symbol, but the Phœnicians, rejecting the ideograms, retained the symbols and modified them so as to represent elementary sounds, and devised the first alphabet, which was centuries in advance of hieroglyphics, and when fairly comprehended furnished a facile instrument of communication.

Men naturally desire the preservation of their best thoughts, and instinctively seek those instruments which are available and in themselves pleasing. Thus only can the rise of sculpture, painting and literature be accounted for, and a nation which does not possess these arts is essentially barren of culture. The innovation of letters facilitated authorship by removing much of the toilsome and time-con- suming labor of literary composition. The introduction of the alphabet, called for a reading public, and the combination rendered erudition popular and potential. From this point literary progress was comparatively rapid ; books multiplied somewhat speedily, and the knowledge of the few leavened the intelligence of the masses. There were book stores in Athens, at least, as early as the Peloponnesian war, 431-464 B. C .; and ruling prices were reasonable since bookmaking , was largely the product of slave labor. There were famous

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

libraries in ancient as in modern times Pisistratus, the Athenian tyrant, 560 B. C., is credited with having collected a vast library which he generously opened to the public, and the famous Alexandrian library, instituted by Ptolemy Soter, is a matter of history. Towards the end of the Roman republic, books cost little if any more than at present, and libraries of from 30,000 to 60,000 volumes were not uncom- mon. Civilization kept pace with literature. The Greeks learned never to do anything too much, and in language, art and eloquence, they have never been excelled. A Roman citizen was better than a barbarian king, because such citizenship was a pledge of the resources of the empire in defense of Roman liberty, a pointed illustration of the highest function of any governmental policy.

The onward march of human progress was rudely checked when hordes of northern and Asiatic barbarians invaded Rome's dominions, sacked her capitals, destroyed her collec- tions of literary and artistic culture, despised her refinement in manners and living as types of effeminacy, and ruth- lessly demolished the landmarks of the race's growth. Europe but slowly recovered from these devastations. For centuries she loitered on the borders of barbarism, and so debased was her condition that men speak of the Dark Ages as the saddest in history. It was during this period that Roger Bacon wrote " Slowly has any portion of the philoso_ phy of Aristotle come into use among the Latins. His natural philosophy and his metaphysics were translated in my time and interdicted at Paris up to the year 1237, because of their assertion of the eternity of the world and of time. Without mathematical instruments no science can be mastered, and these instruments are not to be found among the Latins, and could not be made for two or three hundred pounds. Thescientific works of Aristotle of Avicenna of Seneca, Cicero and other ancients cannot be had without great cost ; their principal works have not been translated into Latin, and copies of others cannot be found in ordinary libraries or elsewhere. I could never find the works of Seneca, though I made diligent search for them twenty years and more."

This was the seed time of modern civilization. A pious zeal for rescuing the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel Turks led to the Crusades, which although they failed to effect that for which they were planned, planted, the humanizing germs of commercial intercourse, constitutional liberty, and spiritual growth. The development and expansion of these germs helped to clear the murky intellectual atmosphere of its almost universal cloud of iguorauce, and men began to step into the light of reason, justice and charity. Then were seen the streakings of the morning light of modern history, and the dawn followed when the skilled copyist of abbey and mona-tery gave way to the printer and his art. The invention of printing is encircled with uncertainty. A pretty Dutch tradition tells us that Laurentius Coster, a worthy Hollander of Haarlem, in idle amusement carved some letters on a piece of bark or wood, and admiring his handiwork wrapped it in a piece of paper and laid it aside while he slept. On awakening he found that rain had moistened the paper and that the letters he had cut on the

wood had been impressed upon the paper. This happy ac- cident suggested a principle and its practical application, aud ere long Coster invented a process for taking impres- sions from blocks, upon each of which the contents of a page were engraved. The story asserts that at Coster's death his apprentice, Johann Gutenberg, stole a part of the office, transported it to Mentz, and there commenced business after securing the friendship and partnership of Johann Faust, a wealthy goldsmith. German authorities deny the truth of this tradition, and claim that Gutenberg was the real inventor. They assert that he had an office in Strausburg as early as 1436, and movable types not later than 1438.

The introduction of a beneficient reform is slow and dis- couraging ; it has to overcome lack of facilities, bigotry and prejudice. Printing, or to be more exact, typography, de- manded another art, that of paper-making. It is true that paper was known and manufactured in Europe two hundred years or more before typography was invented, but the quantity was insufficient for the printer's demands, and the quality was ill adapted to his art. Parchment and vellum were commonly used by copyists, but have never been popu- lar with printers, since they wear types rapidly, and stub. bornly resist ink. In addition to these drawbacks it is to be remembered that these materials were very expensive and their sources limited. We are told that the first printed Bible required the skins of more that three hundred sheep The church was the patron of literature, and was most powerful in moulding public opinion. A no inconsiderable source of revenue was book-making, the work of training copyists and illuminators who, in the main, were monks. These monks did not of course surrender their pleasant and lucrative employment unwillingly, and uncomplainingly, and did not hesitate to prejudice the masses agains the innova- tion of printing. But the most serious impediment was the lack of an intelligent and reading public. Many kings even could not read, and not a few bishops and archbishops could not sign their own promulgations. Indeed, the scri- vener's art was in such ill repute that the crusaders exposed to public ridicule the pens and ink stands they found in Con- stantinople, when that city fell into their hands, as the igno- ble arms of contemptible students.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 49

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698