Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois, Part 14

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, IL : Chapman Brothers
Number of Pages: 632

USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois > Part 14
USA > Illinois > Scott County > Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois > Part 14

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During his first term in Congress he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Expenditures in the Treasury Department; in his second term, on the Committees on Foreign Affairs and on Territories ; and in his third term he succeeded Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, to the Chairmanship of the latter. He intro- duced a bill in the House, to aid in the execution of law in Utah, which caused more consternation among the Mormons than any measure had previously, but which, though it passed the House, failed to pass the Senate.

The Republican Convention which met May 25, 1876, nominated Mr. Cullom for Governor, while the other contestant was Gov. Beveridge. For Lieuten- ant-Governor they nominated Andrew Shuman, editor of the Chicago Journal. For the same offices the Democrats, combining with the Anti-Monopolists, placed in nomination Lewis Steward, a wealthy

farmer and manufacturer, and A. A. Glenn. The result of the election was rather close, Mr. Cullom obtaining only 6,800 majority. He was inaugurated Jan. 8, 1877.

Great depression prevailed in financial circles at this time, as a consequence of the heavy failures of 1873 and afterward, the effect of which had seemed to gather force from that time to the end of Gov. Cullom's first administration. This unspeculative period was not calculated to call forth any new issues, but the Governor's energies were at one time put to task to quell a spirit of insubordination that had been begun in Pittsburg, Pa., among the laboring classes, and transferred to Illinois at Chicago, East St. Louis and Braidwood, at which places laboring inen for a short time refused to work or allow others to work. These disturbances were soon quelled and the wheels of industry again set in motion."

In May, 1880, Gov. Cullom was re-nominated by the Republicans, against Lyman Trumbull, by the Democrats; and although the former party was some- what handicapped in the campaign by a zealous faction opposed to Grant for President and to Grant men for office generally, Mr. Cullom was re-elected by about 314,565, to 277,532 for the Democratic State ticket. The Greenback vote at the same time was about 27,000. Both Houses of the Legislature again became Republican, and no representative of the Greenback or Socialist parties were elected. Gov. Cullom was inaugurated Jan. 10, 1881. In his mes- sage he announced that the last dollar of the State debt had been provided for.

March 4, 1883, the term of David Davis as United States Senator from Illinois expired, and Gov. Cul- lom was chosen to succeed him. This promoted Lieutenant-Governor John M. Hamilton to the Gov- ernorship. Senator Cullom's term in the United States Senate will expire March 4, 1889.

As a practitioner of law Mr. C. has been a member of the firm of Cullom, Scholes & Mather, at Spring- field; and he has also been President of the State National Bank.

He has been married twice,-the first time Dec. 12, 1855, to Miss Hannah Fisher, by whom he had two daughters; and the second time May 5, 1863, to Julia Fisher. Mrs. C is a member of the Method- ist Episcopal Church, with which religious body Mr. C. is also in sympathy. -

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John A Family

179

GOVERNORS OF ILLINOIS.

John M. Hamilton,

OHN MARSHALL HAMIL- TON, Governor 1883-5, was born May 28, 1847, in a log house upon a farm about two miles from Richwood, Union County, Ohio. His father was Samuel Hamilton, the eldest son of Rev. Wm. Hamilton, who, to- gether with his brother, the Rev. Samuel Hamilton, was among the early pioneer Methodist preachers in Ohio. The mother of the subject of this sketch was, before her marriage, Mrs. Nancy McMorris, who was born and raised in Fauquier or Lou- doun County, Va., and related to the two large families of Youngs and Marshalls, well known in that commonwealth; and from the latter family name was derived the middle name of Gov. Hamilton,

In March, 1854, Mr. Hamilton's father sold out his little pioneer forest home in Union County, O., and, loading his few household effects and family (of six children) into two emigrant covered wagons, moved to Roberts Township, Marshall Co., Ill., being 21 days on the route. Swamps, unbridged streams and innumerable hardships and privations met them on their way. Their new home had been previously selected by the father. Here, after many long years of toil, they succeeded in paying for the land and making a comfortable home. John was, of course,

brought up to hard manual labor, with no schooling except three or four months in the year at a common country school. However, he evinced a capacity and taste for a high order of self-education, by studying or reading what books he could borrow, as the family had but very few in the house. Much of his study he prosecuted by the light of a log fire in the old-fashioned chimney place. The financial panic of 1857 caused the family to come near losing their home, to pay debts; but the father and two sons, William and John, "buckled to" and perse. vered in hard labor and economy until they redeemed their place from the mortgage.

When the tremendous excitement of the political campaign of 1860 reached the neighborhood of Rob- erts Township, young Hamilton, who had been brought upin the doctrine of anti-slavery, took a zeal- ous part in favor of Lincoln's election. Making special efforts to procure a little money to buy a uniform, he joined a company of Lincoln Wide-Awakes at Mag- nolia, a village not far away. Directly after the ensuing election it became evident that trouble would ensue with the South, and this Wide-Awake company, like many others throughout the country, kept up its organization and transformed itself into a military company. During the ensuing summer they met often for drill and became proficient ; but when they offered themselves for the war, young Hamilton was rejected on account of his youth, he being then but 14 years of age. During the winter of 1863-4 he attended an academy at Henry, Marshall County,

180

JOHN MARSHALL HAMILTON.

and in the following May he again enlisted, for the fourth time, when he was placed in the 14Ist Ill. Vol. Inf., a regiment then being raised at Elgin, Ill., for the 100-day service. He took with him 1 3 other lads from his neighborhood, for cnlistment in the service. This regiment operated in Southwestern Kentucky, for about five months, under Gen. Paine.

The following winter, 1864-5, Mr. Hamilton taught school, and during the two college years 1865-7, he went through three years of the curriculum of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. The third year he graduated, the fourth in a class of 46, in the classical department. In due time he received the degree of M. A. For a few months he was the Principal of Marshall " College " at Henry, an acad- emy under the auspices of the M. E. Church. By this time he had commenced the study of law, and after earning some money as a temporary Professor of Latin at the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, he entered the law office of Weldon,' Tipton & Benjamin, of that city. Each member of this firm has since been distinguished as a Judge. Admitted to the Bar in May, 1870, Mr. Hamilton was given an interest in the same firm, Tipton hav- ing been elected Judge. In October following he formed a partnership with J. H. Rowell, at that time Prosecuting Attorney. Their business was then small, but they increased it to very large proportions, practicing in all grades of courts, including even the U. S. Supreme Court, and this partnership continued unbroken until Feb. 6, 1883, when Mr. Hamilton was sworn in as Executive of Illinois. On the 4th of March following Mr. Rowell took his seat in Con- gress.

In July, 1871, Mr. Hamilton married Miss Helen M. Williams, the daughter of Prof. Wm. G. Williams, Professor of Greek in the Ohio Wesleyan University. Mr. and Mrs. H. have two daughters and one son.

In 1876 Mr. Hamilton was nominated by the Re- publicans for the State Senate, over other and older competitors. He took an active part " on the stump" in the campaign, for the success of his party, and was elccted by a majority of 1,640 over his Democratic- Greenback opponent. In the Senate he served on the Committees on Judiciary, Revenue, State Insti- tutions, Appropriations, Education, and on Miscel- lany ; and during the contest for the election of a U. S. Senator, the Republicans endeavoring to re-

elect John A. Logan, he voted for the war chief on every ballot, even alone when all the other Republi- cans had gone over to the Hon. E. B. Lawrence and the Democrats and Independents elected Judge David Davis. At this session, also, was passed the first Board of Health and Medical Practice act, of which Mr. Hamilton was a champion, against co much opposition that the bill was several times " laid on the table." Also, this session authorized the location and establishment of a southern peni- tentiary, which was fixed at Chester. In the session of 1879 Mr. Hamilton was elected President pro tem. of the Senate, and was a zealous supporter of John A. Logan for the U. S. Senate, who was this time elected without any trouble.

In May, 1880, Mr. Hamilton was nominated on the Republican ticket for Lieutenant Governor, his principal competitors before the Convention being Hon. Wm. A. James, ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Judge Robert Bell, of Wabash County, Hon. T. T. Fountain, of Perry County, and Hon. M. M. Saddler, of Marion County. He engaged actively in the campaign, and his ticket was elected by a majority of 41,200. As Lieutenant Governor, he presided almost continuously over the Senate in the 32d General Assembly and during the early days of the 33d, until he succeeded to the Governorship. When the Legislature of 1883 clected Gov. Cullom to the United States Senate, Lieut. Gov. Hamilton ·succeeded him, under the Constitution, taking the oath of office Feb. 6, 1883. He bravely met all the annoyances and embarrassments incidental upon taking up another's administration. The principal events with which Gov. Hamilton was connected as the Chief Executive of the State were, the mine dis- aster at Braidwood, the riots in St. Clair and Madison Counties in May, 1883, the appropriations for the State militia, the adoption of the Harper high-license liquor law, the veto of a dangerous railroad bill, etc.

The Governor was a Delegate at large to the National Republican Convention at Chicago in June, 1884, where his first choice for President was John A. Logan, and second choice Chester A. Arthur; but he afterward zealously worked for the election of Mr. Blaine, true to his party.

Mr. Hamilton's term as Governor expired Jan. 30, 1885, when the great favorite "Dick " Oglesby was inaugurated.

W Fifer

JOSEPH W. FIFER.

183

Joseph DO. Fsifer.

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JOSEPH WILSON FIFER. This distinguished gentleman was elected Governor of Illinois November 6, 1888. He was popularly known during the campaign as "Private Joe." He had served with great devotion to his country during the Re- bellion, in the Thirty-third Illinois Infantry. A native of Virginia, he was born in 1840. His parents, John and Mary (Daniels) Fifer, were American born, though of German de- scent. His father was a brick and stone mason, and an old Henry Clay Whig in politics. John and Mary Fifer had nine children, of whom Joseph was the sixth, and naturally with so large a family it was all the father could do to keep the wolf from the door; to say nothing of giving his children any- thing like good educational advantages.

Young Joseph attended school some in Vir- ginia, but it was not a good school, and when his father removed to the West, in 1857, Joseph had not advanced much further than the "First Reader."

Our subject was sixteen then and suffered a great misfortune in the loss of his mother. After the death of Mrs. Fifer, which occurred in Missouri, the family returned to Virginia, but remained only a short time, as during the same year Mr. Fifer came to Illinois. He settled in McLean County and started a brickyard. Here Joseph and his broth- ers were put to work. The elder Fifer soon bought a farm near Bloomington and began life as an agriculturalist. Here Joe worked and attended the neighboring school. He alternated farm-work, brick-laying, and going to the district school for the succeeding few years. It was all work and no play for Joe, yet it by no means made a dull boy of him. All the time he was thinking of the great world outside, of which he had caught a glimpse when coming from Virginia, yet he did not know just how he was going to get out into it. IIe could not feel that the woods around the new farm and the log cabin, in which the family lived, were to hold him.

The opportunity to get out into the world was soon offered to young Joe. He traveled a dozen miles barefoot, in company with his brother George, and enlisted in Company C, 33d Illinois Infantry ; he being then twenty years old. In a few days

184

JOSEPH W. FIFER.

the regiment was sent to Camp Butler, and then over into Missouri, and saw some vigorous service there. After a second time helping to ehase Priee out of Missouri, the 33d Regiment went down to Milliken's Bend, and for several weeks " Private Joe" worked on Grant's famous ditch. The regi- ment then joined the forces operating against Port Gibson and Vieksburg. Joe was on guard duty in the front ditches when the flag of surrender was run up on the 4th of July, and stuck the bayonet of his gun into the embankment and went into the city with the vanguard of Union soldiers.

The next day, July 5, the 38d joined the force after Johnston, who had been threatening Grant's rear; and finally an assault was made on him at Jackson, Miss. In this charge "Private Joe" fell, ter- ribly wounded. He was loading his gun when a iniuie-ball struck him and passed entirely through his body. He was regarded as mortally wounded. Ilis brother, George, who had been made a Lieu- tenant, proved to be the means of saving 'his life. The Surgeon told him unless he had iee his brother Joe could not live. It was fifty miles to the nearest point where ice could be obtained, and the roads were rough. A comrade; a MeLean county man, who had been wounded, offered to make the trip. An ambulanee was secured and the brother soldier started on the journey. He returned with the ice, but the trip, owing to the roughness of the roads, was very hard on him. After a few months' care- ful nursing Mr. Fifer was able to come home. The 33d came home on a furlough, and when the boys were ready to return to the tented field, young Fifer was ready to go with them; for he was determined to finish his term of three years. He was mustered out in October, 1864, having been in the serviee three years and two months.

" Private Joe" came out of the army a tall, tanned, and awkward young man of twenty-four. About all he possessed was ambition to be some- body-and pluck. Though at an age when mnost men have finished their college course, the young soldier saw that if he was to be anybody he must have an education. Yet he had no means to ena- ble him to enter school as most young men do. He was determined to have an education, however, and that to him meant success. For the following

four years he struggled with his books. He entered Wesleyan University Jan. 1, 1865. He was not a brilliant student, being neither at the head nor the foot of his class. He was in great earnest, how- ever, studied hard and came forth with a well- stored and disciplined mind.

Immediately after being graduated he entered an office at Bloomington as a law student. He had already read law some, and as he continued to work hard, with the spur of poverty and promptings of ambition ever with him, he was ready to hang out his professional shingle in 1869. Being trust- worthy he soon gathered about him some influen- tial friends. In 1871 he was elected Corporation Counsel of Bloomington. In 1872 he was elected State's Attorney of MeLean County. This office he held for eight years, when he took his seat in the State Senate. Here he served for four years. His ability to perform abundance of hard work made him a most vamed member of the Legisla- ture.

Mr. Fifer was married in 1870 to Gertie, daugh- ter of William J. Lewis, of Bloomington. Mr. Fifer is six feet in height and is spare, weighing only 150 pounds. He has a swarthy complexion, keen black eyes, quiek movement, and possesses a frank and sympathetic nature, and naturally makes friends wherever he goes. During the late Guber- natorial campaign his visits throughout the State proved a great power in his behalf. His happy faculty of winning the confidence and good wishes of those with whom he comes in personal contact is a souree of great popularity, especially during a polit- ical battle. As a speaker he is fluent, his language is good, voice elear and agreeable, and manner foreible. His manifest earnestness in what he says as well as his tact as a publie speaker, and his elo- quent and forceful language, makes him a most valuable campaign orator and a powerful pleader at the bar. At the Republican State Convention, held in May, 1888, Mr. Fifer was chosen as its eandi- date for Governor. lle proved a popular nominee, and the name of " Private Joe" became familiar to everyone tliroughout the State. Hle waged a vigorous campaign, was elected by a good majority, and in due time assumed the duties of the Chief Executive of Illinois.

Morgan and Scott Counties,

ILLINOIS.

INTRODUCTORY.

HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to per- petuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age and the duty that men of the pres- ent time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In bio- graphical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number re- maining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preser- vation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.

To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to perserve the memory of their lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory has been in propor- tion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhu- mations made by the archeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people

to perpetuate the memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks were for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monu- ments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea- to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the ex- treme, give but a faint idea of the lives and charac- ters of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity ; the mausoleums, monuments and statues are crum- bling into dust.

It was left to modern ages to establish an · intelli- gent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost un- limited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing.

To the present generation, however, we are in- debted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.

The scythe of Time cuts down all ; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his chil- dren or friends may erect to his memory in the ceme- tery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.

To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits, for the same reason we col- lect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone: to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.

Robert Huckenbull

MORGAN COUNTY.

191

BIOGRAPHICAL.

® OBERT HOCKENHULL. This esteemed and highly respected eitizen. is widely and favorably known'to the people of Jackson- ville. He was born in the town of Bun- bury, Cheshire, England, on the 23d of November, 1816, and is the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Woodward) Hoekenhull, and the eldest of their family of three children." The other two children, John and Sarah, are now deceased.

The genealogy of the Hoekenhull family is trace able through many generations, and in days gone by, the male members were prominently identified with the local and political affairs of Cheshire, offi- eiating as Sheriffs, and occupying other positions of responsibility and trust. Robert, our subjeet, eame to the United States in the spring of 1838, and traveled extensively over the Western Con- tinent. The prairie land of Illinois appeared to him the most pleasant streteh of country he had found, and he resolved to make his future home here. Six months after his arrival he returned to England, where he remained the following seven months. Finally persuading his parents to allow him funds to invest in the United States, he re- turned hither, accompanied by his brother, John, in the spring of 1839. They eame directly to this eounty, and Robert established himself in the drug trade at Jacksonville, his brother John aeting as elerk until 1845. The latter then seeured a half- interest in the business, but it soon reverted to its former owner.

Mr. Hockenhull continued in the drug trade until 1865, when he sold an interest in his business to J.

W. Young and S. B. Hardy, and at onee formed a eo-partnership with Edward R. Elliott & Samuel R. King for the purposes of banking, under the firm name of Hoekenhull, King & Elliott. This institu- tion has taken its place among the leading banking houses of the country, and is recognized as one of the most substantial, conservative, yet enterprising and publie-spirited financial concerns in the eoun- try.

The marriage of Mr. Hockenhull and Miss Matilda McMaekin, was celebrated in 1847, and to them were born the children named as follows: Eliza- beth, Margaret, who died in infaney, Jennie, Sarah, John N., and Robert M. Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. M. A. Halsted, of Jacksonville; Jennie ınar- ried Mr. T. J. Hook, of Jacksonville; Sarah mar- ried Rev. William J. Harsha, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, at Omaha, Neb .; John mar- ried Miss Aspasia La Salle, of Orange, N. J .; Rob- ert M. married Miss May Weagley, of Jacksonville. The sons are both connected with the banking house.

Mrs. Matilda ( MeMaekin) Hoekenhull was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pa., and was the fifth in a family. of nine children. She came with her par- ents to Jacksonville, in 1836, and after fulfilling in a most creditable manner the duties of a wife and mother, departed this life in the spring of 1882. Iler family was of Scoteh aneestry, and possessed in a marked degree the reliable and honest ehar- aeteristies of that nationality. Mr. Hoekenhull was married a second time to Miss Rebeeea Rust, of Jacksonville, this event oceurring in June, 1884.

192

MORGAN COUNTY.

Mr. Hoekenhull during his early manhood voted with the old Whig party, and upon its abandonment cordially endorsed Republican principles. He was very conseientious regarding the right of suffrage, and refused to vote until he had been a eitizen of the United States for seven years. He has become fully identified with the interests of his adopted country, and claims that he has the advantage of the native-born eitizen in that he is an American by choice, while the other is an American from force of eireumstances. Providence has blessed him with a competence, as a result of his labors. He has given liberally of his means for the estab- lishment of worthy institutions, among them the Presbyterian Academy, and the eliurch of that de- nomination, with which he is connected, while he has also assisted in the ereetion of the Illinois College building, and two Presbyterian Church buildings that were destroyed by fire. He has been a Trustee of the Illinois College for many years, and occupies a leading position among thie men who have contributed to the growth and development of Morgan County.

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Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois, Part 14

Author: Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, IL : Chapman Brothers Number of Pages: 632

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, IL : Chapman Brothers
Number of Pages: 632