USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Political history of Chicago (covering the period from 1837 to 1887) Local politics from the city's birth; Chicago's mayors, aldermen and other officials; county and federal officers; the fire and police departments; the Haymarket horror; miscellaneous > Part 11
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BROCK. L. M'VICKAR.
Brockholst Livingston McVickar, who, as " Wild Ed- gerton," is familiar to a large portion of the reading public in America and Europe, is Secretary of the Health De- partment. Mr. McVickar was born on St. Valentine's Day, 1842, in the city of Buffalo. The father of our sub- ject, who was a prominent physician, brought his family to central New York in the interest of his rapidly growing practice, and when fourteen years of age, Brock. was placed in the Rensselaer Polytechnic School of Troy, N. Y. Hav- ing graduated, he followed civil engineering for several
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years. He was afterward appointed private secretary to the superintendent of the Illinois Central Railroad. With this corporation he remained in various capacities up to 1864, when he accepted a position on the staff of Rear- Admiral Gregory, in the iron-clad navy department of New York. In the meantime he was busy in literature. In 1870 he published " Railroad Life in America," and subse- quently "Wreath of Evergreens." At the close of the war he went abroad, but soon returned to accept a position on the Northwestern Railroad; lecturing in the meantime upon "Paris under the Empire" and kindred subjects. When Hon. H. D. Colvin was elected Mayor, he entered the Water Department, and when Dr. McVickar, his father, now dead, became Commissioner of Health he was appointed his secretary. He has continued Secretary of the depart- ment ever since.
The following are attaches of the office : Medical In- spector South Division, E. W. Sawyer ; West Division, G. Garrett; North Division, J. M. Hall.
Louis Merki, Clerk ; M. K. Gleason, Register.
Health Officers : Louis Merki, T. P. Mahoney, William Crowley, Samuel Wilson, A. F. Bradley, Walter Smitlı, Daniel O'Connor, Joseph R. Gorman, John Daley, Daniel Sullivan, Michael Lavin, James Wilmot, Thomas Flood, Patrick Wall, Hon. Dennis Considine, Solomon Marks, James Trew, William Harder, Thomas Sweeney, George R. English, W. H. Gunning, Joseph Gruenhut, chief of Tene- ment Department, James Carney, A. F. McCarty, Frank McCormick, George Rodgers, W. F. Dillon, Alex. Mon- teath, Thomas Randall, C. J. Schulz, W. Majeski, John Manna, William Madden, C. Botthof, M. McNulty, Thomas Healey, J. J. McMahon, William E. Langdon.
HERMAN LIEB.
General Lieb, the ex-Chief of the Water Department, was born in the canton of Turgau, Switzerland, in 1826.
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On the paternal side he is of Swiss origin, and on the maternal side Danish. At the age of nineteen he went to Paris, France, and entered, in company with his brother, a mercantile life. In 1848 he joined the Garde Mobile, and in February and June of that year participated in all of the battles fought in the streets of Paris. In 1851 he came to America, and in 1856 he settled in Decatur, Ill., and remained there until the war of the Rebellion. He now enlisted in the Eighth Illinois Infantry under General Oglesby. He was present at Fort Henry, Fort Donel- son, Shiloh, and the siege of Corinth. Appointed a Cap- tain, he accompanied Logan's division to Vicksburg in charge of the skirmishers, and when the " Bend" was at- tacked he was wounded in the left leg. Under orders from General Grant, General Lieb raised a colored regiment of heavy artillery, and for meritorious service was soon ap- pointed Inspector General of the department of the Mis- sissippi. Mustered out, Mr. Lieb went to Springfield and founded the Illinois Post, a German Republican paper, and two years later he came to Chicago, and, with Mr. Brentano, started the Abend Zeitung. Subsequently he started the German American and the Union, and he is now conduct- ing another German paper, known as the Chicago Demo- crat.
JOHN W. LYONS.
The Cashier of the City Department of Public Works, was selected by Mayor Harrison entirely unsolicited ; nor was his preferment due to political influence. His past record in the service of the municipality alone induced his Honor to appoint him. Mr. Lyons was born at Sandusky, O., June 13, 1852. When he was two years of age the family came to Chicago, and when John was twelve years of age he was sent to Eastman's Business College. Leaving there, he entered the law office of Blodgett & Winston, the former of whom has presided for so long, and with so
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much satisfaction, on the United States bench. The lat- ter is one of the foremost members of tho Chicago bar. Finding the law incongenial, our subject secured employ- ment as a messenger boy for the old Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad office, and soon, although very young, became telegraph operator for the same road. His next occupa- tion was that of time-keeper for J. S. Lyons, his father, engaged in the reconstruction of the same road. Subse- quently he became a clerk in the Michigan Central Rail- road office, and, rapidly winning the confidence of his su- perior officers, was appointed assistant cashier in 1871, and served up to 1879, when he became Assistant Cashier of the City Department of Public Works. He assumed his present position on the resignation of John Hise, cashier, December 19, 1881.
A quite romantic incident is recorded in the career of Mr. Lyons. A cousin visiting him in this city so highly extolled the merits of a young lady residing in Kenton, Hardin county, Ohio, that our subject opened a correspond- ence with her. It was not long before he visited Kenton, met her, and after three days of a personal acquaintance made her his wife. Mr. Lyons considers the event the most fortunate of his life.
E. ESTELLE GILBERT.
E. Estelle Gilbert was born at Philadelphia. When he was five years of age his father was killed by a fall from a building, placing the family in rather saddening circum- stances. At the age of six years he was sent to Girard college, where he graduated at the age of sixtecn. He was now bound to a farmer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but ran away and entered the army, April 19, 1861. He enlisted in Company C, Ninety-nintlı Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Volunteers. He fought in Gettysburg, Hagerstown, the Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and it might be said participated in all the engagements fought
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by the army of the Potomac, being wounded in both knees and arm and rising to the captaincy. He was stationed at Point Lookout, Maryland, at one time as acting assistant quartermaster. Mustered out, he at once came to Chicago and entered the paper warehouse of Gilbert & McCann. The firm dissolving, he was appointed water inspector and served as such until after the great fire. He was at this time appointed a clerk in the water office by Commissioner Prindiville, and assumed charge of the North Division books. On the election of Mr. Harrison as Mayor he was appointed Chief Clerk in the water office. He has the un- bounded confidence of his superiors and his associates and the respect of the general public.
The following is the roster of the water office: Super- intendent, J. P. Hand; Chief Clerk, John M. Furmin; Cashier, John W. Lyons; Assistant Cashier, John C. Cullen; Registrar, W. J. Maher; Assistant Registrar, E. E. Gilbert and J. Lynch; Clerks, M. O'Brien and R. Bunman; Messengers, Hugo Schuepff and Charles E. Gil- bert; Assessor, Thomas Pattison; Assistant Assessor, C. J. Vogell; Assessor's Clerks, F. H. Braumer, O. Foerster, J. E. Pettibone, P. M. Nichols and G. D. Philps; Draughts- men, Arthur Erbe, F. Hildebrand, G. A. Buner and Lud- wig Pechmann; Permit Clerk, H. G. Naper; Assistant Clerks, J. B. L. Lemoine and D. W. Rowland; Plumbing Inspectors, J. E. Ward, James Jordan, James Clancy, Emil Biedermann, M. G. O'Connor, William Forristal and L. T. Barclay; Tap Inspector, G. A. Kerndl; Tappers, T. Waters, Daniel Dore, John Harrison and John Doyle; Meter Clerk, William H. Reed; Assistant Meter Clerks, J. B. Lewis, G. O. Rictor and Gus. Vernit; Collectors, W. J. McNamara, Joseph Schofield and L. G. Pope; Rate Takers, L. Collins, Pat Lynch, Mike Riordan, L. Altpeter, D. Mackey, H. G. Prell, J. O'Donnell; Expressmen, M. D. Coulahan, Pat. Railey,
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JOHN COMISKEY.
This gentleman, well known of late years as the anti- machine politician, was born in Crosserlough, Cavan, Ire- land, in 1826, and in 1848 he came to New Haven, Conn., and interested himself in the lumber business. In 1853 he came to Chicago, and had charge of the incoming freight on the Rock Island road until 1863, when he engaged his services to Shufeldt & Croskey, the prominent distillers. He then became connected with the Fort Wayne cattle-yards as superintendent of shipments. His first political experience, it may be said, was in the Inter- nal Revenue Service under Gen. Wallace, acting under the administration of Andrew Johnson. On the election of Gen. Grant, Mr. Comiskey, being a Democrat, was removed. In 1870 he was employed as a book-keeper by Henry Greenebaum, the successful banker of that period. In 1875 he was appointed Clerk of the Board of Cook County Commissioners. In 1878, on the expiration of his term of office, he entered the book trade. He then entered the service of the city and is now book-keeper in the city treasurer's office.
Mr. Comiskey has served eleven years in the City Council. He was first elected in the spring of 1859 to represent the tenth ward. At this time there were only ten wards in the city. A subdivision of the wards compli- cated aldermanic politics forthwith. In 1861 he was elected to represent the seventh ward; also in 1863 and '64; in '66, to represent the eighth ward, and in '68 to rep- resent the ninth ward. In the last year of his term in the Council he was elected as President, the first time the office was created. For a quarter of a century Mr. Comis- key has figured prominently before the public. His voice has always been heard on the side of reform. His inde- pendence of character is well known. Among the most . notable of his recent achievements was his introduction of
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the Hon. John F. Finerty to the people of the second district, which, although overwhelmingly Democratic, elected Mr. Finerty to congress independently.
CHARLES E. FELTON.
The present Superintendent of the House of Correc- tion of Chicago is another of the many officials whose biography has never been written; but may well be, as it will show a life of business activity and official success not often equaled in the histories of the so-called office-holders of our cities. It is said of him that he never received an unfavorable criticism from the press, during a continuous public service of twenty-three years, twenty-one of which were as the Superintendent of penal and correctional in- stitutions.
Mr. Felton was born Sept. 18, 1831, in Barre, Worces- ter County, Mass .; consequently is fifty-two years old. His ancestry, on his father's side, he traces back in direct line to Nathaniel Felton, who migrated from England in 1631, and settled at Salem, Mass. From that source nearly all of the Feltons now in this country may well claim ori- gin. His mother was of English and Scotch descent, dat- ing back, however, as settlers in America on her father's side-a Johnson - nearly two hundred years. Hence, if any man now holding office in this city can make claim to being an American by ancestry and by birth the subject of this sketch surely may do so.
Mr. Felton's early life was devoted to the art preserva- tive; at the age of fourteen years he was installed as printer's devil, in an obscure country printing-office, at Barre; but not liking the routine of an office-sweep and carrier-boy, he early took the several degrees in the mysteries of the art, and we find him occupying the position of " sub " on the New York Tribune in the winter of 1849; and, in 1850, he had taken Horace's advice and gone west, stopping at Cincin-
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nati, where he was employed as foreman of the job depart- ment of the Chronicle and Atlas. Leaving Cincinnati as a sort of printer's tramp, lie passed the winters of 1850-51 in Indianapolis, Ind., and Columbus, Ohio, on state work, and the summers at Buffalo, N. Y., the latter of which places he afterward made his home, until called to occupy the position he now holds. During his residence at Buf- falo he was several years foreman of the book and job de- partments of the Commercial Advertiser, the then finest job printing establishment in the West, if not in the coun- try; and afterward was in business for himself until health failing him he was elected as Superintendent of the peni- tentiary in that city. He held the office of City Alderman one term, was nine years Superintendent of the peni- tentiary at Buffalo; and is now serving his twelfth year as General Superintendent of the House of Correction of this city, making a continuous official life of twenty-three years.
As a prison officer, Mr. Felton is humane almost to a fault, it being said that scarcely a single one of the more than one hundred and twenty thousand inmates he has had in his charge has any but the kindest feelings toward him; and the industries of his prison, as established and maintained by him, have made that department so nearly self-supporting that, for several years, no moneys have been asked for the maintenance of our city prisoners.
In politics Mr. Felton is a Democrat; in administration he is strictly non-partisan; in religion, a Churchman, but very liberal in his views. Though fifty-two years of age, he is a lover and patron of out-door sports of all kinds, and is said to be one of the best field and trap shots in the state. Twice he has held the office of President of the State Sportsman's Association of this state.
JOHN M'CARTHY.
John McCarthy, Harbormaster, was born in the parish
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of Skull, Cork, in 1836. In 1847 he came to Syracuse, N. Y., and from that date up to the present, it may be said, has navigated the Western lakes.
JOHN M. BROWN.
The Chief Clerk in the Street Department, John M. Brown, was born in Chicago, March 15, 1858. He made a very creditable record at school in the Jesuit Parish, and when quite young entered the service of his father, a well- known and much respected contractor, now dead. In 1879 he was appointed Chief Clerk.
The following gentlemen are also connected with the Street Department :
John E. Stearns, Chief Inspector, Sewerage. Assistant Engineers-A. M. Hirsch, H. A. Edwards, J. B. Mueller, A. W. Cooke, J. S. Larkin. Rodmen -James T. Finn, Timothy B. Lynch, James Flinn, William Gallagher, Robert E. O'Connor. John W. Carroll, Collector. Side- walk Inspectors - Michael Dyer, M. Smith, P. D. Toomey, Patrick Carney, H. Hart, Morgan Murphy, P. McCarthy, William F. Crowse ; Michael Heaney, General Inspector: Thomas P. Hickey, Inspector Street Cleaning. General Inspector of Street Paving- Adam Boetinger. Street Foremen - Anton Berg, Michael McNamara, Joseph Law- ler, Peter Kearns, Anton Detmer, Philip Hillinger.
CHICAGO JUSTICES AND TOWN OFFICERS.
GEORGE A. MEECH.
Police Magistrate Meech was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1824, and graduated from Yale in 1843. He subse- quently taught school, and read law at the same time. He finished his studies in Boston. In 1849 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and was subsequently elected Judge of the Probate Court for the Norwich district. Resigning, he came West, and was elected shortly City Attorney, and afterwards City Assessor. He was practicing law in 1879, when, at the request of bankers and other prominent citi- zens, he was appointed a Justice. Subsequently he was selected by Mayor Harrison to preside at the Armory Court, where he has proved himself a friend to unfortu- nates and a foe to criminals. His appointment was unani- mously indorsed by the press of Chicago.
GEORGE KERSTEN.
In a comparatively brief period of time Justice of the . Peace and Police Magistrate George Kersten has made great strides in public favor. Respected by the masses to begin with, his career on the bench up to date has made prospects for him which are decidedly enviable. He was born in Chicago in 1853, and educated in the Franklin School and Eastman's Business College. He first engaged in the cigar business, and became really popular, it might be said, when he conducted a first-class sample room at Clark street bridge, where Max Romer is now doing so well. Mr. Kersten was appointed Police Court Clerk for the North Side in 1880, and at once began reading law. He was made Justice of
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the Peace and Police Magistrate in 1883. He belongs to the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Forest- ers ; is Shooting-Master of the Chicago Sharp-Shooting Association ; was one of the originators and President of the Cook County Democratic Club, and belongs also to the Algonquins.
JUSTICE WHITE.
Justice White was born in 1845 at Shellsburg, Wis. In 1847 the family came to Ogle county, and our subject pre- pared for college at Rockford. In 1870 he graduated from Beloit College and in 1872 graduated from the Albany University. He was admitted to the bar at New York in 1872. In 1873 he came to Chicago and associated him- self with J. Y. Scammon in the treatment of important insurance cases. Among other public deeds he organized the Western Law and Collectors' Association.
ORLIN P. INGERSOLL.
The Police judge who presides in the West Chicago Avenue district is a thorough American and an old-time attorney. Gifted with a keen sense of justice, he has ex- hibited time and again merciful instincts, which reflect much credit upon him.
DANIEL SCULLY.
Justice Daniel Scully, who will ever be remembered as the "old West-Side police magistrate," was born in the city of New York, March 28, 1839. In 1841 his parents removed to a farm in McHenry county. He worked in the fields for a short time, but agricultural pursuits did not suit our ambitious subject. He devoted himself to teach- ing school in 1860 and soon became convinced that he could learn something more himself. Accordingly he came to Chicago and went to St. Mary's of the Lake, and graduated after two years of hard study in the scientific
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and commercial departments. In 1863 and 1864 the jus- tice studied law in the Chicago Law School under the con- trol of Judge Booth. On graduating he received a hand- some compliment from the principal, being the only one out of a class of thirty-four who had not worked in a law office. As soon as Mr. Scully was admitted to the bar he made a tour of Iowa and Minnesota, but failing to find a favorable locality to practice his profession, he came to Chicago. He was appointed police magistrate and suc- ceeded himself repeatedly. He is at present in his old position as police magistrate in the third precinct. He has frequently been spoken of as a candidate for mayor.
PETER FOOTE.
The facetious but earnest ex-police magistrate of the first precinct police court was born in the North of Ireland, April 1, 1840. He might have been fooled on that par- ticular 1st of April, but he congratulates himself on the fact that he has been fooled very seldom since. Coming to America as an infant, his early life was spent in New York City, where he attended the public schools, and graduated in St. John's College, which ranks with Har- vard and Yale, as master of arts. He completed the ninc years' classical and scientific course in seven years, cap- turing the majority of the prizes. In 1862 he came to Chicago in company with the lamented Dr. McMullen, afteward Bishop, and accepted the professorship of classics in St. Mary's of the Lake. Among his pupils were Lieut- enant Nugent, who died on the field beside Colonel Mul- ligan; Justice Prindiville and many other prominent men. He completed his legal studies in the Chicago Law School, of which ex-Judge Booth was professor, and immediately received his diploma from the Supreme bench at Ottawa. Two years previous to the great fire he was professor of law at Notre Dame University, and on his return was ap-
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pointed a justice under Carter Harrison. He was created magistrate at the first precinct police court. He is now pushing a most flourishing justital business on Madison near Clark street.
CHARLES ARND.
Charles Arnd was born in Bernhard's Bay, Oneida County, New York, January 26, 1855. He traces his an- cestry back three hundred years through a line of distin- guished Germans. His father took an active part in the American Civil War. Directly after the conclusion of a successful college course he embarked for Europe and traveled extensively through that country, gleaning what benefit he could in Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris from col- lege and other lectures on law, history and languages. In 1877, when 22 years old, he came to Chicago. He was admitted to the bar in 1878 and was building up a lucra- tive practice when, in 1880, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace to fill a vacancy on the North Side.
DAVID J. LYON.
The subject of this short history was born in the city of New Orleans, January 4, 1843, and gained his early education in the Jesuit College of the Crescent City, and later, at the Woodstock Academy, Vermont, to which state his parents removed while David was a lad. In 1862, when only nineteen years old, he showed liis extreme loy- alty to the Union, notwithstanding his southern birth, by enlisting as a private in the Twelfth Vermont regiment of infantry, having given up bright prospects at home to join the Federal ranks. The regiment of which he formed a part was in the second Vermont brigade, which took such a gallant part in the battle of Gettysburg. Young Lyon was mustered out of the service in August, 1864, his term of enlistment having expired. He came direct to Chicago after leaving the army and commenced the study of law,
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for which profession he early exhibited a fondness, with the Hon. A. D. Rich. He afterward attended the law university of Chicago, studying under Judge Booth, and graduated in 1867 a promising candidate for legal laurels. Soon after leaving the university he formed a law partner- ship with the Hon. E. B. Sherman and next with George K. Clark. The fire of 1871 terminated the latter partner- ship, and Mr. Lyon then began practicing for himself alone, meeting with the most flattering and well-deserved success. He became the solicitor for the Chicago, Indian- apolis and Air-Line Railroad Company, and proved a most valuable man for that responsible position. In 1883 he was nominated for a Justice of the Peace, and his confirma- tion quickly followed. In a very few months he was doing almost as large a business as any of his older competitors on the South Side, his well-known legal acumen proving a magnet for the representatives of the bar. Justice Lyon is a prominent Republican, Odd Fellow, Mason and Knight of Pythias. He was nominated for Alderman in 1873, and for the Legislature in 1878, but was not sufficiently desir- ous of holding office to take a particularly active part for himself in either campaign. In 1882 he was elected an honorary member of the Garibaldian Legion, as a token of the appreciation of the able and eloquent address delivered by him in Haverly's Theater, on the occasion of the cere- monies which took place there immediately following the death of the great Italian hero. Mr. Lyon was married to Miss Alice Packard, of Rochester, Vt., in 1867, but his wife and only child died in September, 1880.
Henry Schultz, clerk for Justice D. J. Lyon, was born July 20, 1859, in Chicago. He was educated in the Kin- zie school. On July 25, 1875, he was employed by Peter Foote, police justice at the armory, and remained there until May 12, 1879. From June, 1879, to March, 1880, he served Justice Summerfield. From this latter date
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until July 12, 1883, he was employed by Justice T. B. Brown, now deceased, and the immediate predecessor of Justice Lyon. He is one of the most skillful attaches of justice courts in the city.
JOHN K. PRINDIVILLE,
a son of Redmond Prindiville, the veteran mariner and ex-Commissioner of the Board of Public Works, who set- tled in Chicago in 1836, was born October 28, 1851, in Chicago. He attended school in Hathaway's Private Academy, northwest corner of Monroe and Clark streets, and subsequently graduated from Seton Hall College, South Orange, New Jersey, in 1868. He then went into the oil and paint business and made a success of it. Hav- ing read law in 1870 he was admitted to the bar by the Su- preme Court. In 1872, under Charles Kern, who was then Sheriff, he was appointed Deputy, and in 1876 he was ap- pointed Justice of the Peacc, the position he now holds. He is a staunch Democrat.
C. W. WOODMAN.
Charles W. Woodman, Justice of the Peace, was born in Aalborg, Denmark, in 1844. At the age of 14 he went to sea, and followed it for eight years, going as far as 68 degrees north and 60 south. He visited Europe, Asia Africa and America; he saw the lonely tomb of the great Napoleon on the Island of St. Helena, and stood within a stone's throw of the ducal palace where the Duke of Mont- pensier slot the Prince of Bourbon. He served in 1863 and '64 in the American navy. In 1865 he came to Chi- cago, and up to 1870 followed the lakes and was engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1871 he graduated in the law department of the Chicago University, and has practiced ever since. When Lincoln was assassinated Mr. Woodman had a hard time of it, as he was about alone on shipboard in sympathy with the President. He has been active in
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