USA > Illinois > Kane County > The Biographical record of Kane County, Illinois > Part 16
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On September 3, 1856, Mr. Wilcox married Miss Lois A. Conger, at Galesburg, and in 1858 they built their first house, now No. 456 Douglas avenue, Elgin, where they have since resided. It has ever been an ideal home to their family, and the center of a most generous and genial hospitality. Six children have been born to them, name- ly: Dwight Conger; John Hill; Gertrude; Marie, now Mrs. Robert Fuller Fitz, of Boston, Massachusetts; Frank Conger; and Marguerite. Frank C. and Gertrude died in infancy, and John H. in 1892.
About 1856 a military company was or- ganized in Elgin, of which Mr. Wilcox was a lieutenant, and for two years the " Con- tinentals " under the drill and discipline of the lamented Col. E. E. Ellsworth, who was killed at Alexandria, Virginia, early in the war, was the crack military company of northern Illinois. In 1855 Mr. Wilcox opened an office in Elgin and soon acquired a good clientage, and a fair reputation as a
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popular speaker and rising young lawyer. Upon the president's first call for troops he at once began arranging his business, pre- paratory to enlisting.
In August, 1861, Mr. Wilcox became a member of a military company and was chosen its captain. It became Company K, Fifty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, . and upon the organization of the regiment he was chosen its lieutenant-colonel, was subsequently promoted to the colonelcy, and by the president was commissioned brevet brigadier general of volunteers. He served with his regiment in its cam- paigns, marches and battles until the spring of 1864 when he resigned. At request of the governor and adjutant-general of the state, he commanded the camp of organiza- tion of the One Hundred and Forty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and practically gave the summer and fall to the enlistment and organization of troops and the political campaign resulting in the second election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency.
Mr. Wilcox then resumed his law prac- tice with flattering success although greatly handicapped by an impaired hearing, re- sulting from injury received at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi. In 1865 he became one of the original incorporators of the First National Bank, serving over twelve years as a director, and for a time vice-president of the bank. In 1869, with others, he in- corporated the Elgin. City Banking Com- pany, the first savings bank in Elgin, and served about ten years as one of its officers. In 1866 he was elected and served one term as mayor of the city. He served a number of years on the public library board, and while its president had the Elgin library designated by the congressman of this dis- trict to receive all public documents issued
by the government, including the unique and very costly war records of both the Fed- eral and Confederate governments. He served several years as director and as pres- ident of the Elgin Agricultural Society. For over a quarter of a century he has been a member of the board of trustees of Elgin Academy, and several years its president. From 1843 to 1854 his father was a mem- ber of the same board.
Up to 1871 Elgin had but one railway, and the excessive charges for passengers and freight were exasperating. The charges on a box of tea or upon a piano were heav- ier from Chicago to Elgin than from New York to Chicago. Committees, of which General Wilcox was a member, were sent by meetings of citizens at various times to confer with the railway authorities, hoping for favorable concessions, but failing to ob- tain relief, the movement took form in the organization of the Chicago & Pacific Rail- way Company, in 1871, and he became a member of its board of directors and its general solicitor. They constructed its road to Byron, Illinois, on the west bank of the Rock river, where it succumbed to the com- bined opposition of the Illinois Central, the Chicago & Northwestern, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads, and failed, its property passing by lease to the last named road, which has since extended the line and completed the road, giving the peo- ple the benefit of frequent and convenient trains at liberal rates, with a prompt and generous service in all respects. Mr. Wil- cox lost a comfortable fortune and over six years of hard service in this enterprise, but has had the satisfaction of knowing it has resulted in immeasurable good to his fellow townsmen and to a large section of the country along its line.
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In 1877 Mr. Wilcox was appointed post- He transmitted the money contributed by the generous people to famine-stricken Ire- land, and to the sufferers in Armenia. In- deed it would be difficult to recall any gen- erous movement in aid of education, charity or patriotism, of which he has not been an active factor. master of Elgin, having by reason of his deafness abandoned his chosen profession. In 1882 he embarked in the fuel trade and warehouse business, and is now dealing in coal, wood, sewer pipe, etc. He was one of the incorporators of the Elgin Loan & Homestead Association, and was for five years on its board of directors. He out- D R. JAMES MCELROY, a well-known veterinary surgeon residing at the cor- ner of Brook street and Jefferson avenue, Elgin, has made his home in Kane county for fifty-four years, arriving in pioneer days. Elgin, which is now a great manufacturing city and railroad center, was at that time only a small station on the stage line be- tween Galena, Rockford, Hazel Green and try round about was still in its primitive condition. The difference between the past and the present can scarcely be realized, even by those who were active participants in the development of the county. The present generation can have no conception of what was required by the early settlers in transforming the wilderness into a well set- tled and highly cultivated county. lined the organization of the Elgin Patriotic Memorial Association, and prepared its arti- cles of incorporation. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, but under stipulation that his comrades shall not ask him to take any office, though he has served as representative to both state and national encampments a number of times; been on staff of the commander-in-chief; and is now' ' 'Dubuque, and the greater part of the coun- representing the department of Illinois on the committee "in charge of patriotic exer- cises in public schools," by appointment of the commander-in-chief. On every " Me- morial day he is called upon to address the people, and at the schools and at patriotic assemblages he is a frequent speaker. He is a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion, and of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee.
General Wilcox's views are broad and kindly; he loves, every church and Christian work. He is a devoted Universalist, and has been an active member and officer of the parish since its organization. For twen- ty-five consecutive years he was superin- tendent of the Sunday-school. He has ever been a stanch friend of the Elgin Woman's Club, of which his estimable wife was one of its inc. . rporators and its president during the first eight years of its work, which in- cluded the appropriation of over twenty-two hundred dollars in aid of the Elgin Academy and the erection of the Sherman hospital.
Dr. McElroy was born in the eastern part of Ireland, December 3, 1814, a son of Tarame and Elizabeth (Cody) McElroy, and in his native land acquired his literary education and also studied pharmacy in Dublin, graduating in 1836. He has since successfully engaged in the practice of vet- terinary surgery. On coming to the new world in 1840, he first located in Albany, New York, from there removed to Schen- ectady, later to Syracuse, that state, and then was for three years with Mr. Howlet, coming with him to the west to buy horses. Since 1844 Elgin has been his home and post office address, although he has spent
LIBRARY Of THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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JAMES MCELROY.
MRS. JAMES MCELROY.
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LIBRARY Of THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.
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some time at other places, being in the em- and William Cox, each of them locating in ploy of Frink & Walker, and Moore & New York city or state. John Cox married Davis, in Milwaukee, for eight years.
In 1840 Dr. McElroy was united in mar- riage with Miss Elizabeth Smith, who was born December 17, 1816, and departed this life January 27, 1894, at the age of seventy- eight years. Six children were born to them, five sons and one daughter, namely: Tarrence, who was married and died at the age of thirty-six years; John, who was mar- ried and died at the age of thirty-two; Ed- ward, who for the past five years has been engaged in buying horses for the United States government; James, a conductor on the Iron Mountain railroad, at Texarkana, Texas; and Mary Elizabeth, who is now her father's companion and housekeeper.
Although eighty-four years of age Dr. McElroy appears much younger as he is still able to attend to his professional duties; his eyesight is undimmed, and his natural force of character unabated. Nature deals kindly with those who disobey not her laws, and the Doctor attributes his good health to the important fact that he has always been tem- perate in all things, dissipation of every kind having been studiously avoided. He possesses many of the admirable character- istics of the Irish race, being of a genial, jovial disposition, fond of wit and humor, and generous almost to a fault. Courteous and companionable, he has made many warm friends in his adopted country and has the respect of all who know him.
BENJAMIN COX, now living a retired life at No. 418 Mountain street, Elgin, traces his ancestry back to John Cox, who came to America long prior to the Revolutionary war, accompanied by two brothers, Thomas 8
Elizabeth Palmer, and .they became the parents of the following named children: John, William, Jamieson, Thomas, George, Clark, Henry, Joseph and Stephen, and a daughter, Elizabeth.
David Cox, Sr., the paternal grandfather of our subject, was born in New York city, October 9, 1767. He married Judith Corn- ing, of Beverly, Massachusetts, who was born October 2, 1767. In early life he fol- lowed the sea, but later located on a farm at Wilmot, New Hampshire, where his death occurred at an advanced age. In their family were three sons and three daughters-David, John, Benjamin, Judith, Betsy, who died in infancy, and Betsy the second.
David Cox, Jr., was born October 21, 1790, at Beverly, Massachusetts, and at Wilmot, New Hampshire, married Lydia Bean, by whom he had three children, two now living -Benjamin, our subject, and Lydia, now the wife of D. O. Carter, of Painesville, Ohio. Eliza, the deceased, was the wife of Horace French. Early in the present century he moved west, locating in Mantua, Portage county, Ohio, where he died in 1838, in the forty-eighth year of his age. His wife survived him until May 10, 1877, dying at the age of eighty-one years. They were both members of the old-school Baptist church. After the death of her hus- band Mrs. Cox married again, her second husband being Enoch Colby, of Concord, Ohio, where he died. During the war of 1812 David Cox, Jr., was called out as a soldier to help defend Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but as the British did not land, his regiment was disbanded.
The maternal grandfather of our subject,
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Jeremiah Bean, was a native of Salisbury, New Hampshire, and by occupation was a farmer. He married Mehitable Garland, also of Salisbury, New Hampshire, by whom he had a large family. In the war of 1812 he served his country against the British, and was wounded in the ankle at the battle of Plattsburg. He died at an advanced age.
Benjamin Cox, of whom we now write, was born in Wilmot, New Hampshire, De- cember 28, 1819, and is the son of David Cox, Jr., and Lydia (Bean) Cox. He was reared on his father's farm in New Hamp- shire until sixteen years old, assisting in the farm labor when old enough to work, and attending the district schools three months in winter and three in the summer each year. He then accompanied his parents to Ohio, where he continued to assist in farm work until the death of his father, when he learned the manufacture of women's shoes at Lynn, Massachusetts.
On the 19th of July, 1841, he married Miss Susan Bell, daughter of James and Betsey (Spangler) Bell. By this union were four children-Jennie C., Helen E., Jay M. and Charles B. Jennie C. married C. Mor- ris Jennings, and they have one daughter and one son, Mildred and Benjamin. They reside in Union, Illinois. Helen E. mar- ried Samuel Monroe, by whom she has two children, Ella and Frank E. Her home is in Elgin. Jay M. died at the age of . twen- ty-one. Charles B. lives in Juarez, Mexico, where he is trainmaster for the Mexican Central railway. He married at Turner Junction, now West Chicago, Illinois, Mary Alice Trull, and they have three children, Clara B., Helen E. and Benjamin Trull. Mrs. Susan Cox died July 8, 1884, aged sixty-one years and twenty-four days. She was a devout member of the Methodist
church, and died in the full assurance of faith.
For his second wife, in June, 1885, Mr. Cox married Mrs. Esther (Gardner) Marsh, widow of Mason M. Marsh, and daughter of Dwight and Cynthia (White) Gardner, na- tives of Massachusetts, who removed to New York in childhood and were there mar- ried. A brother of Mrs. Cox, Dwight Fos- ter Gardner, now resides on the old home- stead on which his father and grandfather lived and died. Her marriage with Mason M. Marsh was celebrated in Madison coun- ty, New York, in 1857. He came first to Elgin in 1850, where his death occurred. Mr. 'and Mrs. Cox now reside in a large and comfortable home, No. 418 Mountain street, which was erected by him in 1870. In his religious belief Mr. Cox is a Universalist.
In 1842 Mr. Cox left his Ohio home on a prospecting tour. Believing that in Illi- nois the opportunity for advancement was greater than in the place where he then re- sided, he came to this state, and being favorably impressed with Kane county, pur- chased a claim of one hundred and twenty- three acres from another party, and subse- quently entered the same, paying the gov- ernment price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In the spring of 1843 he returned to Ohio, and in the fall of the same year came back with his wife and baby in a one-horse wagon. On that farm, which lies two miles west of Elgin, and to which he later added forty-three acres, he lived until his removal to the city, in 1870.
On his arrival in Kane county, Mr. Cox had but about ten dollars in cash, and for a while worked for other persons for fifty cents per day, husking corn, and taking his pay in corn. The horse with which he made the journey to Illinois he traded for a
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yoke of oxen, with which he farmed until business man of Chicago; M. K., is a mer- he could purchase a span of horses. As soon as he got his horses he commenced hauling his wheat and other grain to Chi- cago.
Farming in Illinois, in pioneer days, was not an easy job. It required hard work. Mr. Cox was not averse to work, and toiled early and late, sowing and reaping. Suc- cess crowned his efforts, and in 1870 he was enabled to retire from active labor and take life more easily. In the meantime, as stated, he had increased the size of his home farm, and had purchased a farın of ninety-three acres in Union township. In addition to these farms and his family residence, he owns the house in which his daughter lives in Elgin. For more than half a century Mr. Cox has been a resident of Kane coun- ty. His face is a familiar one in and around Elgin, and few men have more loyal and steadfast friends.
C HARLES E. LEWIS, the well-known superintendent of the Carpentersville branch of the New York Condensed Milk Company, has occupied that position since the plant was established at that place in 1888. He is a native of Sharon, Litchfield county, Connecticut, born September 3, 1847. His father, Hon. Miles B. Lewis, was also a native of Connecticut, born in Bridgeport in 1811. He there grew to man- hood, and in 1832 moved to Sharon. His marriage with Miss Maria Kelsey was cele- brated at Milford, Connecticut. She was a native of that state and was a woman of great refinement and lovable disposition. There they continued to reside and reared their family of nine sons and one daughter. Of their children William S., is a retired
chant of Duchess county, New York; Charles E., our subject; Eliza, who married Allan Brown, of Sharon, Connecticut, but who removed with her husband and family to Iowa in the spring of 1868, where both have since died.
The Lewises are of Welsh origin, three brothers coming from Wales at a very early day, one locating in New York, another in Pennsylvania, and the third in Connecticut. Miles B. Lewis is a direct descendant of the one who located in Connecticut. He was a man of more than ordinary ability and served two terms in the Connecticut legislature at the time P. T. Barnum was a member of . that body. His death occurred in the spring of 1893. His good wife yet survives, and is now eighty-four years of age and a well preserved old lady.
The subject of this sketch remained at home until eighteen years of age and there received a good common-school education and learned the milk business, the family be- ing intimate with the Bordens, pioneers in that business. In the Borden factory at Wassaic, New York, he received his first lessons in the milk industry. Leaving home he came to Kane county and began working on the farm of Cornell & Wilder near Elgin, with whom he remained about ten months, although he only intended working for them two weeks, that he might give them instruc- tions in the care of milk. From Cornell & Wilders he drifted around for quite a while working at anything he could find to do that was honorable. -
In the spring of 1869, Mr. Lewis was married at Elgin, Illinois, to Miss Marilla Reaser, a native of Kane county, and a daughter of Anthony Reaser, of one the pioneer settlers of Plato township. She re-
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ceived a good education in the schools of Elgin, and for some time previous to her marriage engaged in teaching. By this union were three children, as follows: Susan, now the wife of R. W. Church, who is con- nected with the condensed milk factory at Carpentersville; Ella, who is engaged in the millinery business at Nunda, Illinois; and Frank H., who holds a position in the fac- tory with his father.
Soon after marriage Mr. Lewis moved to Crystal Lake, McHenry county, and took charge of the farm of S. S. Gates, where he remained one season. He then determined to go where he could get a farm of his own without much expense. Accordingly, in 1870 he moved to Pottowatamie county, Kansas, and took up a claim of one hun- dred and sixty acres and at once commenced its improvement. In due time he had as fine a farm as was in the neighborhood, but in 1876 he sold out and returned to New York, locating in Wassaic, Duchess county, and engaged with Mr. Borden in the con- densed milk business at that place. He re- mained there until 1882 when the company sent him to Elgin as an operator on the vacuum-pans. In that position he continued until the erection of the factory at Carpen- tersville, when he received the appointment as its superintendent, which position he still continues to hold to the entire satisfaction of the company and its many patrons. The capacity of the factory has been increased until it is now one of the best in the coun- try, and to its work Mr. Lewis gives almost his entire time and attention.
Since taking the superintendency of the factory, Mr. Lewis has purchased residence property in Dundee, and has now one of the nicest homes in the place. Politically he is a Republican, with which party he has been
identified since casting his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant in 1868. While pre- ferring to have others serve in official posi- tions, Mr. Lewis served for three years as a member of the town board, with which he was connected on the institution of the water works. While on the board he was chair- man of the finance committee and looked carefully after the finances of the city.
Fraternally Mr. Lewis is a Master Ma- son and also a charter member of Silver Leaf camp, No. 60, M. W. A. Religiously he and his wife are members of the Congre- gational church of Dundee and take a com- mendable interest in the work of the church and its various auxiliary societies.
For a third of a century Mr. Lewis has been identified more or less with the inter- ests of Kane county, and has endeavored to contribute his share to its growth and de- velopment. He is well known throughout Kane and adjoining counties as a man of good business ability and exemplary habits, enjoying the confidence and respect of all, and it is with pleasure that he has given representation in the Biographical Record of Kane county.
C LINTON F. IRWIN, of the firm of Irwin & Egan, attorneys at law, Cook block, Elgin, enjoys an enviable reputation in the legal fraternity of Kane county, hav- ing the past eighteen years built up a prac- tice that many older attorneys might ear- nestly desire. He was born in Franklin Grove, Lee county, Illinois, January I, 1854, and is a son of Henry and Ann Eliza- neth (McNeal) Irwin, the foriner born in the north of Ireland, and the later in Pennsyl- vania. Of their three children, Clinton F. is the only one now living.
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The paternal grandfather of our subject, Henry, Irwin, was a native of County Antrim, Ireland. On coming to America he lived for a time in Canada, and in 1836 came to Illi- nois, settling in Franklin Grove, Lee county, where he improved a farin and there died in 1853, at the age offifty-seven years. He was the father of three sons and nine daughters.
The maternal grandfather, Thomas Mc- Neal, was a native of Bedford county, Penn- sylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. By oc- cupation he was a farmer, following that calling during his entire life. He also moved to Illinois at an early day and settled near Dixon, where he died at an advanced age. In his family were three sons and one daugh- ter. His youngest son entered the army in defense of the Union and was killed at the battle of Perryville.
Henry Irwin, Jr., was but a small child when he came with his parents to Canada. When twelve years of age he went to Lee county, Illinois, where he married Ann Eliza- beth McNeal. In 1859 he came to Kane county and located at Maple Park, where he engaged in the hotel business and in run- ning a meat market. He died in 1880, at the age of fifty-four years. His wife sur- vived until February, 1894, dying at Elgin at the home of her son, at the age of sixty- one years. They were originally members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Dur- ing the dark days of the Rebellion Henry Irwin enlisted as a member of Company C, Seventy-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until early in 1865, when he was transferred to the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry-Grant's old regi- ment-which was sent to Texas. The war ending, he was discharged after serving two years and eight months.
Clinton Fillmore Irwin was six years of
age when his parents removed to Maple Park, Kane county. In the public schools of that village he received a common-school education, which was later supplemented by attendance at Wheaton College ,and the Valparaiso (Indiana) Normal. Before at- taining his eighteenth year he commenced teaching in the public schools and continued to be thus successfully engaged until he was twenty-five years old. While yet teaching he commenced reading law in the office of W. H. H. Kennedy, of Maple Park, but the last three years studied alone. After pass- ing a successful examination he was ad- mitted to the bar in 1879, at Chicago, and at once commenced the practice of his pro- fession at Maple Park. He there continued until 1883, when he removed to Elgin, and, forming a partnership with Robert S. Egan, they have since engaged in active practice with fine success.
Mr. Irwin was united in marriage No- vember 3, 1880, with Miss Julia Helen Egan, daughter of William and Bridget (Sanders) Egan. By this union four chil- dren have been born: William Henry Har- rison, Clayton Franklin, Mary Mildred and Clinton Francis. The second named died in early childhood on the 28th of June, 1890. Religiously Mrs. Irwin is a member of the Catholic church.
Mr. Irwin is a member of the Odd Fel- lows, Knights of Pythias, Modern Wood- men, Maccabees and United Workmen. Politically he is a Republican, the principles of which party were instilled into him from his birth, which was the year in which the Republican party came into existence. In 1896 he stumped a great portion of the states of Illinois and Indiana, spending about two months in that work. He deliv- ered addresses at Sycamore, Batavia, Ge-
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