USA > Illinois > Will County > Past and present of Will County, Illinois, V. 2 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
During the succeeding winter he worked for his board, and in the following spring he engaged in agricultural pursuits, operating a farm on the shares for four years. He then sold out and worked as a farm hand by the month for a time, after which he once more engaged in business on his own account, this time renting a tract of land, which he operated for five years, or until the prop- erty was sold, which necessitated his removal. Hc then operated another tract of leased land for one year, when, feeling that he was justified in pur- chasing a farm, he bought seventy-three acres, and during the years which have since come and gone he has increased his holding from time to time as his financial resources have permitted, until he is today the owner of two hundred and twenty-seven acres of well improved land on section 4, Jackson township. He has placed his land under a high state of cultivation, has improved it with a good residence and substantial outbuildings for the shel- ter of grain and stock, and now has one of the best farms in Will county. He is practical and pro- gressive in his system of farm labor and each year is rewarded with good crops, thus adding mate- rially to his financial resources.
On the 3d day of February, 1881, Mr. Madison chose as a companion and helpmate for life's journey Miss Christina Jorgensen, likewise a na- tive of Denmark.
She landed in America about six months before the arrival of Mr. Madison. Her natal day was March 11, 1859, and her parents, Peter and Annie (Miller) Jorgensen. She was the fourth in order of birth in a family of ten, of whom only three now survive, her two brothers being George Jorgensen, who resides in Spencer, Illinois, and Peter Jorgensen, who is also a resident of Jack-
son township. The father died in Denmark, after which the mother came to the new world, making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Madison, until her death, which occurred December 1, 1891. Un- to Mr. and Mrs. Madison have been born three sons and one daughter, namely : Neil H., who was born November 18, 1881; Anna M., born May 6, 1883; Arthur, August 8, 1885; and Peter M., Novem- ber 6, 1887.
Mr. Madison has always supported the princi- ples of the democratic party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, although he has never been an aspirant for office, preferring to give his time and attention to his private business affairs, in which he has met with a very gratify- ing measure of success. He is highly respected in the community where he resides, being numbered among the valued and well-to-do citizens of for- eign birth in Will county.
FREDERICK W. WOODRUFF.
The name of Woodruff is inseparably connected with the history of Will county, especially in finan- cial circles. One of the oldest banking institutions of the city owes its existence to George Woodruff, father of Frederick, who was for many years presi- dent of this bank. The son was born September 10, 1841, at Plainfield, Illinois, his parents being George and Dorothy Woodruff, pioneer residents of Will county, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. His education completed, he entered business life at the age of twenty-three years, as cashier of the First National Bank of Joliet, filling that position until the death of his father in October, 1882, when he was elected president and remained at the head of the institution until his own demise on December 24, 1906. The name of Woodruff has ever been synonymous with honesty and uprightness in business and like his father before him, Frederick Woodruff was accorded a prominent position in the regard of his contemporaries in business circles in Joliet. He was prompt in meeting all engagements, never incurred an obligation he did not fill and wrought along lines of business integrity as well as activity.
On the 30th of September, 1880, was celebrated the marriage of Frederick W. Woodruff and Miss
561
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY.
Nellie Davis, of Rockford, Illinois, who still sur- vives him. They have four children: George, Florence; Frederick W .; and Gertrude. The fam- ily are well known socially in Joliet and the oldest son is his father's successor in the bank.
CLIFTON WING JORDAN.
Clifton Wing Jordan, the subject of this sketch, is one of the best known life insurance men in northern Illinois. In 1894 he became the general agent of the Union Central Life Insurance Com- pany of Cincinnati, Ohio, having charge of the ter- ritory embraced in Will and Grundy counties. He has made a marked success of his business and has built up a large clientage among the heavy insur- crs in his district.
Mr. Jordan was born on his father's farm at White Willow, Kendall county, August 24, 1860. He received his education from his mother and in the schools of Morris, Illinois. He started in business with his father, who was a large dealer in agricultural implements with headquarters at Morris and branch stores in Joliet and eighteen other towns in this vicinity, and later he went on the road representing the Avery Corn Planter Company of Peoria. This business took himn ex- tensively over the western states.
On December 12, 1888, he married Miss Julia E. Ray, only child of Lieutenant Governor Lyman B. Ray, of Morris, and granddaughter of Judge J. N. Reading, prominent at the Morris bar for many years. In the spring of 1889 Mr. Jordan came to Joliet to live. He was for several years in the state grain inspector's office in Chicago and resigned to take his present position with the Un- ion Central Life Insurance Company. He is a member of several clubs and is one of the founders of the Commercial Club of Joliet. Mr. Jordan has two children: Celia Reading, born July 29, 1892; and Lyman Ray, born December 10, 1893.
Mr. Jordan is the oldest son of William A. Jor- dan who came to Kendall county in 1847 when the prairie was unsettled. He was among the first to realize that the open prairie and not the timber along the streams was the choicest land of north- ern Illinois. He located a farm, called it White Willow. after trees of that name planted by him-
self. The government made his house a postoffice and him the first postmaster. In 1867 he moved to Minooka and established the agricultural im- plement business above mentioned. In 1870 he moved to Morris, the county seat, where he had lo- cated one of his implement houses. He was very active in business and in the public affairs of his city and was postmaster at Morris for four years. In 1886 failing health caused him to retire and he went to Daytona, Florida, where he lived until 1897, when he returned north and died at his son's home in Joliet, October 13, 1897.
On November 1, 1853, William A. Jordan mar- ried Annie Eliza Spooner Wing at Ottawa, Illi- nois. They had seven children four of whom lived to man and womanhood. Kate Dayton, born April 25, 1858, married Dr. Myron H. Hewett; ('lifton Wing, born August 24, 1860, married Julia E. Ray; Anna Maria Freeman, born March 25, 1867, married Dr. E. D. Chapman; and Frank Ross, born July 9, 1869, is unmarried.
The Jordan family has been in America many years. The first known of them, a native of Ire- land, came to New York, early in the eighteenth century. He had a son, William Jordan, who was born September 2, 1751, at North Castle, West- chester county, New York. He married Ruth Fer- ris, who was born January 29, 1755. He was in the American revolutionary army and held the rank of major. He died June 10, 1833. He had eleven children, of whom Allen Jordan, grand- father of our subjeet, born February 3, 1799, was the youngest. Allen Jordan was a lawyer of un- usual talents, practiced twenty-one years at Hud- son, New York, but a paralytic stroke compelled him to give up active practice and lie came west with his son Willian A. and settled in Kendall county, Illinois, moved to Plainfield in 1866, where he lived until a short time before his death in his ninetieth year. He was, while in New York, a great friend of William H. Seward and when Kendall county was organized into townships, he caused his town to be named after his distinguish- ed friend.
The mother of our subject was Annie Maria Spooner Wing, who came from her native town, Sandwich, Massachusetts, with her widowed moth- er and family to Ottawa Illinois, in 1850. She was a descendent of Deborah, who was the first known Wing to settle in America. Deborah was
562
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY.
the widow of Rev. John Wing, a famous non-con- formist minister, who had lived in Holland and England. In June, 1632, she came with her four sons, John, Daniel, Stephen and Matthew, and af- ter staying some five years in Saugus (now Lynn), they moved to Sandwich, on Cape Cod, and were among the first settlers of the cape. Indeed, it is claimed that Deborah gave the name of their home in England to the new settlement, Sandwich. So far as known, every Wing or Wing descendant of English descent now in America, who settled here prior to the Revolution, are descendents of the Rev. John and Deborah, and it is estimated that they numbered over thirty thousand.
From both his father's and his mother's side of the family, Mr. Jordan inherits the best Ameri- can traditions. He is fond of out-door life and has taken great interest in natural history, par- ticularly flowers and birds native to this section. Largely as a source of amusement, he began a few years ago to collect at his home many species of wild native plants and to watch for the various birds which visited his garden. The result is he has a list and description of more than one hun- dred varieties of birds and an unusually large col- lection of indigenous plants.
LEO H. LEISING.
Leo HI. Leising is one of the wide-awake, ambi- tious and resolute young business men of Will county, living in Goodenow, where he is engaged in the coal, Inmber and grain trade and also in the live-stock business. He was here born in 1881. His father, James F. Leising, a native of Germany, came to the United States abont 1872 and settled in Crete, this county, where he clerked in a store for a time and also became bookkeeper for the Crete Manufacturing Company. Carefully husbanding his earnings, he removed to Goodenow in 1876 and built an elevator, after which he en- gaged in the grain trade in addition to conduct- ing a coal and lumber yard and carrying on oper- ations in live stock. There he remained until 1903, when he went to Chicago Heights, where he had established a similar enterprise in 1901, and where he has since made his home. He has been a very successful business man, carrying forward
to prosperous completion whatever he has under- taken, and now, at the age of sixty-two years, he is most comfortably situated in life, his former labors relieving him of all business anxiety for the future. He is a well educated man, having studied for the priesthood in his native country, and has marked literary taste, manifest in the re- finement and culture which such a taste always engenders. He has filled some local offices but is independent in his political views, nevertheless keeping well informed on the political situation of the country and the issnes which divide the parties. He married Elizabeth Swindeman, who was born in Buffalo, New York. Her father was a native of Germany and a machinist by trade. He died leaving a widow of five children who came to Illinois and settled near Crete. Mrs. Leising was a member of the Lutheran church and died in that faith at Goodenow. in 1899, when forty-six years of age. By her marriage she had become the mother of six children: Henrietta, who died in infancy; Ida, the wife of William Graham, a farmer of Beecher; Ella, the wife of Warren W. Smith, a member of the firm of JJ. F. Leising & Company, of Chicago Heights; Leo 11 .; Augusta, the wife of Lee Graham. with the firm of Leising & Company at Chicago Heights ; and Adeline, who is with her father. Mr. Leising has married again, having in 1902 wedded Mrs. John Rohe, a widow.
Leo H. Leising was reared in Goodenow. He attended the country schools and continued his studies in Chicago Heights, in the Metropolitan Business College at Chicago and in the Cook County Normal School at Englewood. He quali- fied for the business in which his father was en- gaged and at the age of nineteen years entered his father's office in Goodenow. acquiring practi- cal experience in the trade in all its departments. In 1903, upon his father's removal to Chicago Heights, he took charge of the branch here and has since remained as manager, conducting the trade in coal, grain, lumber and live stock. He possesses the spirit of laudable ambition without which effort would cease, and gradually he is work- ing his way upward.
Mr. Leising is a member of the Modern Wood- men camp and of the Mystic Workers lodge at Crete. His political allegiance is given the republican party and he has served as school di- rector, but his energies are concentrated upon
563
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY.
his business affairs, in which he is meeting with signal success. He is a director in the Crete State Bank, and in Goodenow is controlling an enterprise of large proportions and is showing himself thoroughly acquainted with progressive business methods.
WILLIAM C. TROWBRIDGE.
William C. Trowbridge, serving as village clerk and postmaster of Crete, is also a representative of its newspaper interests, being editor and pro- prietor of the Crete Citizen. He was born in Al- toona, Pennsylvania. April 14, 1856, and was the third in order of birth in a family of nine children whose parents were William S. and Henrietta (Kuhn) Trowbridge. The father, a native of the state of New York, was of English descent. He worked in the steel mills at Freedom, Pennsyl- vania, being in charge of the cupola, and in 1869 he removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after which he was connected with an agricultural im- plement manufactory. He had previously served as a soldier of the Civil war, enlisting in a Penn- sylvania regiment in 1863. He participated in important engagements and remained at the front until honorably discharged at the close of hos- tilities. His political views accorded with the principles of the republican party and he was a faithful member of the Episcopal church. He died in 1889 at the age of sixty-two years, while his wife passed away in 1875 at the age of forty- eight years. She was born in Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, was of German lineage and was also a communicant of the Episcopal church.
William C. Trowbridge was educated in the schools of Lewiston, Pennsylvania, after which he learned and followed the printer's trade in that state until 1871. He then made his way west- ward to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he worked at liis trade until 1881, when he removed to Beecher, Illinois, and for seven years there- after was foreman of a large stock journal. In 1888 he came to Crete, where he took charge of the Crete Journal, and in connection with M. J. Tillotson became its proprietor. In 1891 he bought the interest of his partner and conducted the paper alone until 1894, when he moved the
plant to Chicago Heights and established a paper called the Chicago Heights Signal, which he pub- lished until 1898. He then sold ont there and in the fall of the same year returned to Crete, pur- chasing a half interest in the Crete Citizen. In 1899 he became sole owner and has since been edi- tor and proprietor of this paper, which is a five column quarto, republican in politics. It has a good circulation and a fair advertising patronage.
In 1815 Mr. Trowbridge was married to Miss Lelia M. Wilkins, who was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 31, 1856, a daughter of Hiram Wilkins, who was a bridge builder. Mr. and Mrs. Trowbridge have four children: Winona, the wife of Charles A. Wilder, a piano finisher, living in Crete; William Roy, who has charge of the Crete Citizen; Myron E., a student in Morgan Park Academy; and Charles, in school. The parents are members of the Congregational church and Mr. Trowbridge is a Mason and Woodman. He gives his political support to the republican party and for several years has occupied the position of village clerk, while in 1903 he was appointed postmaster and is still acting in that position. His public service has been characterized by an unfal- tering devotion to the duties of the office and in the publication of his paper he has been a stal- wart champion of progressive movements for the benefit of the village.
BENJAMIN B. SAMSON.
Benjamin B. Samson, who since 1880 has been in the service of the Illinois Steel Company and still connected with that corporation in spite of the fact that he has passed the sixty-ninth mile- stone on life's journey, was born in Chicago, Illi- nois, February 24, 1837, near the site of the pres- ent courthouse. This was the year in which the city was incorporated. When only about six weeks old he was brought to Joliet by his parents, Benjamin B. and Amanda (Brown) Samson. The father was born at Batavia, New York, and came west in 1829. He was descended from ancestors who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower and established a home in Vermont. Mrs. Samson was born in the state of Michigan.
564
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY.
In the public schools of Joliet the subject of this review acquired his education, which was some- what limited, for at the early age of twelve years he began to earn his living by work upon a farm. He was thus employed for six years at farm labor and at other work, and on the expiration of that period became connected with the coal business, in which he continued for twelve years. He was then appointed a keeper in the Illinois state pen- itentiary, serving in that capacity until 1880, when he entered the employ of the Illinois Steel Company, at the mills in Joliet. Here he has con- tinued up to the present time, being accounted one of the most reliable and trustworthy repre- sentatives connected with the business at this place.
On the 31st of December, 1857, Mr. Samson was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Miller and unto them have been born a son and daughter, Ella and Frank. The daughter's birth occurred August 3, 1860, and she is now the wife of James Putnam, of Chicago, in which city they reside. Frank, who was born February 20, 1864, married Minnie Me- Ginnis, of Joliet, and they reside here.
Mr. Samson has never sought or desired po- litical preferment. He always votes the straight republican ticket and keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day. Both he and his wife attend the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a great lover of home and when not occupied with business duties and cares prefers to spend his time at his own fireside.
CHRISTIAN SCHRIER.
Christian Schrier is a retired farmer living in Peotone, where he owns a nice home. He was born in Baden, Germany, July 17, 1832. His grandfather on the paternal side was a ship- carpenter and was employed by the German government to build a pontoon bridge across the Rhino, near Strassburg. The father, who also bore the name of Christian Schrier and was a ship-carpenter by trade, died in the fatherland when the son was a lad of only fourteen years. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Fran- cisco Leonard, was a French woman, and her death also occurred in Germany.
Christian Schrier, Jr., acquired his education in Germany, and at the age of fourteen years be- came a sailor, following the Rhine for eleven years. He then emigrated to America in 1857, and after a voyage of twenty-eight days on the Atlantic landed in New York city, whence he went to Long Island, where he was employed from the 5th of July of that year until the follow- ing April. In the east he formed the acquaint- ance of a man by the name of Schmidt, who in- duced him to come to Will county, Illinois, where lived his two sons. Accordingly Mr. Schrier con- tinued his journey westward, locating in this county, where he found employment at farm labor. He was later engaged in the same line by Tobias Fahs, whose daughter afterward became the wife of our subject. Arnold Fahs, a brother of Tobias, lived in Chicago but owned a tract of four hun- dred and forty acres in Will county and Mr. Schrier was employed to manage this land. In the meantime he carefully saved his earnings so that he was at length enabled to purchase a tract of ninety-one acres, this being all wild prairie. He built a house thereon and was engaged in farming through a long period. For twenty years he was also engaged in feeding cattle in addition to carrying on general agricultural pursuits. He prospered in his undertakings and eventually made his farm one of the rich and valuable tracts of this part of the state. He made his home on the farm until six years ago, when he took up his abode in the city of Peotone, where he owns a nice home, but he still retains possession of his farming property, which returns to him a good annual income.
On the 31st of October, 1861, occurred the marriage of Mr. Schrier and Miss Harriet Fahs, who was born in Maryland, a daughter of Tobias and Armita (Willard) Fahs, both of whom were natives of that state. The father removed with his family to Will county in 1857 and was here engaged in farming pursuits. His death oc- eurred in 1900, when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-eight years, while his wife passed away in 1901, having also reached the age of eighty-eight. Mrs. Schrier is one of a family of ten children, of whom seven are now living but she is the only one who resides in Will county be- sides her brother Cornelius Fahs. One brother, David Fahs, has been a minister of the Presby-
565
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY.
terian church for the past twenty years and is lege. Putting aside his text-books when twenty- now located at Independence, Iowa.
Unto our subject and his wife have been born five daughters: Minnie and Hattie J., who are at home; Mamie, the wife of L. Ragle, a resident of Colorado ; Gertrude, who is still under the parental roof ; and Katie, the wife of Walter Porter, a res- ident of Chicago. Mr. Schrier and his family are members of the Presbyterian church, in which he has been an officer for many years. In his politi- cal views he is a republican and for several years served as road commissioner and school director.
When Mr. Schrier first arrived in Will county, Peotone was unknown and he has lived to see the place grow into a prosperous and enterprising little city. Wild game was still plentiful, while deer and other wild animals were seen roaming over the prairies. The homes of the settlers were widely scattered, often being five and ten miles apart. In those early days Mr. Schrier husked corn for fifty cents per day and worked for one man twelve days, taking his pay in hogs at one dollar and half per head. He worked energeti- cally and diligently in former years so that he is now able to live in honorable retirement. He and his estimable wife are highly esteemed in the community where they reside and are active workers in the church.
WILLIAM GEORGE JACKSON.
William George Jackson, who is engaged in farming about two miles from Lockport, was born in the city of Utica, New York, on the 27th of October, 1851. He is descended from English ancestry. His parents were William S. and Fran- ces M. (Hagbin) Jackson, who were married in Utica, New York. They had a family of three sons and one daughter, whom they reared in the Empire state. The father was a butcher by trade and conducted an extensive market business. He remained a resident of the east from the time of his arrival in the new world until his death, which occurred is the city of Buffalo, New York, on the Sth of November, 1903, when he was eighty-six years of age.
William George Jackson supplemented his pub- lic school course by study in a commercial col-
two years of age, he planned to engage in the market business, which has been the regular pur- suit of the family through five generations. Think- ing that he would find better business opportuni- ties in the middle west, he made his way to this section of the country in 1878 and after visiting various localities located in Joliet. He here en- tered the employ of J. J. Culver, proprietor of a meat market, with whom he continued until the latter part of August, 1879, when he established a similar business on his own account. As the years passed by he prospered, although his busi- ness career was not free from the difficulties and obstacles which continually confront any man who enters mercantile life, where competition is rife. In 1884 Mr. Jackson sold his market business to engage in the furniture business. He secured a large and complete stock of goods and opened a store, which he conducted until December, 1896. Ile prospered in the new undertaking, many of his old patrons giving to him their support in this field, and for twenty years he was accounted one of the leading and representative merchants of the city. In the month of December, 1897, how- ever, he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the township of Lockport and on the 1st of March, 1898, took up his abode thereon.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.