USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of representative men of Chicago, Minnesota cities and the World's Columbian exposition : with illustrations on steel. V. 1 > Part 15
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Two years later (1854) he decided to go West, and accordingly located at Oskaloosa, Iowa,
opening there the first exclusively hardware store in that State, west of Davenport. He remained there nine years, and in 1864, settled in Chicago, and shortly afterward organized the well-known firm of Seeberger and Breakey. Since the retire- ment of Mr. Breakey in 1885, the business has been conducted under the style of A. F. Seeber- ger and Co. In 1885, Mr. Seeberger was appointed by President Cleveland Collector of the port of Chicago, which office he filled with ability and general approval for four years and five months, until his successor was appointed. He is a director, and for a time was president, of the Chi- cago Edison Company, and has been director and president of the Interstate Exposition Company.
He has also been president of the Chicago Orphan Asylum for a number of years, and dur- ing the existence of the Charity Organization So-
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ciety, now consolidated with the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, he was also its president. He is prominent in social affairs, and a well-known member of the Commercial, the Chicago, the Iro- quois and the Calumet clubs. He was married August 26, 1856, to Miss Jennie L. Cooper, a daughter of Charles Cooper, a prominent manu- facturer of machinery at Mount Vernon, Ohio. They have three children, viz .: Charles D., Louis A. and Dora A., and have a beautiful home at No. 2017 Michigan avenue.
Mr. Seeberger is treasurer of the World's Columbian Exposition, and a member who, by reason of his extensive business knowledge, his conspicuous ability and broad, cosmopolitan ideas, is invaluable in assisting in the manage- ment of the affairs of that stupendous enter- prise.
Mr. Seeberger is a member of Trinity Episco- pal church, and for many years a member of its vestry. He is a generous giver, and supports with a liberal hand all charitable enterprises.
CHARLES M. HENDERSON,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this sketch is a typical Chi- cagoan. He was born March 21, 1834, at New Hartford, Litchfield county, Connecticut, the son of James F. and Sabrina (Marsh) Hender- son. On the paternal grandmother's side, he is descended from a branch of the noted Cotton Mather family, while on his mother's side he is descended from Roswell Marsh, a soldier of revo- lutionary fame, who was present at the execution of Major André. He was educated in the public schools of Connecticut and at the age of sixteen became a school teacher, teaching four months, receiving a salary of sixteen dollars per month.
Having heard of Chicago, whither his uncle had gone some years before, he, in 1853, being then nearly nineteen years old, went thither and ob- tained employment in the then well-known boot and shoe house of C. N. Henderson and Co. Serving through all departments-as salesman, buyer, clerk, etc .- he gained a thoroughly practi- cal knowledge of the business, and on the death of his uncle six years later (1859) he succeeded to his business, and organized the firm of C. M. Henderson and Co., into which Mr. Wilbur S. Henderson was admitted as a partner in 1863, the house being then located at No. 32 Lake street, Chicago. Five years later the business was interrupted by a disastrous fire, but the firm at once sought a new location at Nos. 58 and 60 Wabash avenue, and the house was doing a prosperous business when overtaken by a second calamity, this time being the great fire of October 8th and 9th, 1871, by which the city was laid
waste. This time they were but one amongst the many who were not only entirely burnt out, but, in many cases, completely ruined. But Chi- cago's business men and citizens of those days, like those of to-day, were men of enterprise, of sterling worth, and true grit. They did not sit repining, they had strong faith in Chicago's future, and they went to work clearing away the ruins, and replacing their ruined structures with handsome, commodious and, in some cases, fire- proof buildings.
The firm of C. M. Henderson and Co. werc among the first to re-establish themselves after the fire, and since that time their business has in- creased and their reputation extended until they are by far the best known house in the trade throughout the West. From a small trade the business has developed under the skillful and careful guidance of its head, Charles M. Hender-
son, until it has become the largest combined manufacturing and jobbing boot and shoe house in the United States of America, and it is still growing. This house of C. M. Henderson and Co., being an incorporated body, has three ex- tensive factories in active operation and employs from eight to nine hundred people. Their sales- rooms and offices are in the handsome six story building at the corner of Adams and Market streets, Chicago. The adoption of the trade- mark of the wonderful "Red School House" shoes was based on the old New England " Red School House," in one of which Mr. Henderson received his early education.
C. M. Henderson
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In 1874, Mr. Henderson was one of the found- ers and organizers of the Citizen's Association, an association formed by several of our most prominent citizens for the purpose of purifying municipal government and lessening jobbery and crime. To this cause Mr. Henderson contributed large sums of money, as he was then, as he is now, an earnest believer in a firm, well directed and judiciously administered city government, and an avowed enemy of corruption, jobbery, and lax discipline. He was repeatedly urged to become the president of this association, but declined, aiding, however, in the adoption of the present city charter. He was also instrumental in the re- organization and improvement of the Chicago Fire Department, which to-day is one of the most thoroughly practical, best disciplined and best equipped fire departments in the world.
The cause of suffering humanity has always found in Mr. Henderson a practical sympathizer and one who is ever ready to aid. He was mar- ried in 1858 to Miss Emily Hollingsworth, a daughter of James Hollingsworth, a well-known and successful business man of Chicago. Of this marriage there are three children.
Mr. Henderson is a member of the Union League, the Commercial, the Chicago and Calu- met Clubs, and has a wide social acquaintance. He has been for twenty years a member of the
Presbyterian Church, and has been president of the Young People's Mission Association for fif- teen years, and for ten years was superintendent of the Railroad Chapel, and two years president of the Young Men's Christian Association. Numerous other positions of honor and trust have from time to time been tendered him, but his business and other engagements have been such that he has been compelled to decline them. He is one of the trustees of Lake Forest University, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Home for Incurables.
In politics he is a Republican, though ill-health has prevented his taking such an interest in his party as he might otherwise have done. But the local party has always found in him a true friend, whose practical sympathy and help have been cheerfully given when needed. Mr. Henderson is a thorough business man, enterprising, straight- forward, clear-headed and upright, and in his long career in Chicago has made a record of which he may justly be proud. He is a liberal supporter of worthy charitable, benevolent and educa- tional institutions, generous to a fault, whole- souled and a thorough gentleman. A man of great detail, accurate and prompt, of much deter- ination in public affairs, Charles Mather Hender- son is a fair representative of the men who have made Chicago what she is to-day.
REV. JOHN HENRY BARROWS,
CHICAGO, ILL.
EV. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, is called by the Golden Rule, of Boston, "one of the foremost pulpit orators of America." The church, of which he has been the pastor since 1881, is the historic and mother church of the city. It was organized on June 26, 1833, by Rev. Jeremiah Porter. Its first meetings were - held in the carpenter's shop, in Fort Dearborn. Its pastors have been, Rev. Jeremiah Porter, Rev. John Blatchford, Rev. Dr. Flavel Bascom, Rev. Dr. Harvey Curtis, Rev. Dr. Z. M. Hum- phrey, Rev. Dr. Arthur Mitchell, and the subject of this sketch.
John H. Barrows was born July 11, 1847, in
Medina, Michigan. His father, the late Profes- sor John M. Barrows, came of New England stock, a race of teachers, and was educated in the Troy Polytechnic Institute, and in Oberlin College. His mother, Catharine Payndre Moore, was also an early graduate of Oberlin. Both his parents were persons of marked and noble character. In his college life at Olivet, Michigan, Dr. Barrows was noted for his enthusiasm in the study of lit- erature, history and the classics, and for his eager interest in public and national questions. He was graduated from Olivet in June, 1867, in the same class with his brother, Rev. Walter M. Bar- rows, D. D., afterward an eminent Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society. He
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studied theology at Yale, Union and Andover seminaries. While at Union he became a mem- ber of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, and was a rapt student of the marvellous pulpit oratory of Henry Ward Beccher.
After two years and a half of home missionary and educational work in Kansas, he preached for a year in the First Congregational Church in Springfield, Illinois. This experience was fol- lowed by twelve months of travel in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and the lloly Land. He supplied for a time the American Chapel in Paris, where he made hosts of refined and serviceable friends, and enriched his intellectual and other resources. Returning to America, after studies at Andover, he became the pastor of the Eliot Congregational Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When temporarily driven out of the church edifice, Dr. Barrows dis- closed ability to hold and sway the popular mul- titude with a strictly Gospel theme, while preach- ing to great audiences in the City Hall in that large manufacturing city. There he learned the joy of utterance in an eager, expectant, popular assembly. As if to be tested at every point before entering upon his Chicago field, his tact in church administration was tried in the Hercu- lean task of casting off what seemed an over- whelming debt from the Maverick Church in East Boston, of which he was the pastor before coming to his great work in the West. The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago showed their great eagerness to secure Dr. Barrows by contributing $5,000 toward the liquidation of the debt on the East Boston church.
Since his coming to Chicago, in October, 1881, twelve hundred members have been received into the church, and the chapel connected with it, of which Rev. Charles M. Morton is the faithful pastor. In 1883 occurred the semi-centennial celebration of the founding of the First Church, which led to the preparation by Dr. Barrows of an elaborate historical volume, giving the “ Ec- clesiastical Antiquities" of the city, a book highly praised by such experts as Dr. Shedd, of New York, and the late Dr. Dexter, of Boston. Dr. Barrows has taken a prominent part in all mis- sionary and reformatory enterprises in the city ; he has become a favorite speaker at college commencements, on the lecture platform, at
temperance, missionary and Christian Endeavor conventions and before the great gatherings at Chautauqua, New York. He has also become noted as a speaker at soldiers' meetings. Of the Grand Army Memorial service in 1883, the Chicago Daily News says : "Thousands of pco- ple thrilled to the very heart were loath to leave the precincts wherein dwelt the wondrous ora- tory of the great preacher."
Among Dr. Barrows's famous lectures are those on "Samuel Adams," "James Russell Lowell," " Hugh Miller," "Rembrandt," "Shakespeare," " John Stuart Mill," " Jerusalem " and " Wendell Phillips." His address on " America," given at the opening of the Spring Palace, Fort Worth, Texas, before the Presbyterian Social Union of St. Louis, and before the Synod of Indiana, is among the most notable home-missionary and patriotic discourses.
Dr. Barrows has published many sermons, which have had a wide circulation. Among the more noteworthy of these have been discourses on " The Perfection of the Bible," " The Nation and the Soldier," "The Nation's Hope," " Re- ligion the Motive Power in Human Progress," "Christian Manhood," " Reason in Temperance," "Christ and the Poor," "Martin Luther," "Christian Hospitals," "The World of Books" and " Municipal Patriotism." His address in 1885, at the Sixty-first Anniversary of the Ameri- can Sunday-School Union, was distributed in many thousand copies all over the country. In this year, also, he spoke in Music Hall, Boston, at the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the American Board. His address called forth from Dr. Wm. M. Taylor, of New York, the saying : "Dr. Barrows keeps eloquence on tap."
Dr. Barrows is the pastor of a very strong and benevolent church, whose gifts to various good causes average more than one hundred thousand dollars a year. In 1886 his people kindly sent him to Europe, where he enjoyed four months of physical and mental recuperation. While in London he preached before the great Mildmay Conference. For four years Dr. Barrows, sup- ported by his generous people, carried on a Sun- day evening preaching service in Central Music Hall, Chicago. In 1890 he published a volume entitled " The Gospels are True Histories," which has received warm commendations for its literary
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qualities and its power and effectiveness, from well in hand, his mental movement is toward men like Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, Dr. Richard S. Storrs, Dr. Francis E. Clark, Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, and many others. During the last two years he has preached in the evening at an elaborate praise service held in the First Presby- terian Church. This service, conducted by the eminent organist, Mr. Clarence Eddy, has been a delight, inspiration and education to great num- bers. Dr. Barrows takes an enthusiastic interest in whatever concerns the intellectual and moral progress of the Queen City of the West. He is a favorite and frequent speaker on social occa- sions, and is now serving as chairman of the Com- mittee on Religious Congresses, to be held dur- ing the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. He is the originator of the great plan of holding a Parliament of Religions, to which representa- tives of all the great historic faiths have been invited. In this effort to bring together, in friendly conference, Brahmans, Buddhists, Mos- lems, Parsees, Confucians, Jews, and representa- tives of the great churches of Christendom, Dr. Barrows has secured the co-operation of religious leaders of all lands. The importance of this movement can hardly be overestimated. Its ob- jects are to bring into conference leading repre- sentatives of the great historic religions of the world: to show what and how many important truths they hold and teach in common; to pro- mote the spirit of true brotherhood among the religions of the world; to secure from leading scholars, representing all faiths, accurate state- ments of the effects of their respective religions upon the literature, art, commerce, government and domestic and social life of the peoples among whom these faiths have prevailed ; to show what light each religion has afforded or may afford to the other religions of the world ; to furnish a per- manent record of the condition and outlook of religion among the leading nations; to discover what light religion has thrown on such great questions as temperance, labor, education, etc.
From an elaborate article in the Pulpit Treas- ury, of New York, of June, 1884, we make the fol- lowing extracts : "Dr. Barrows' peculiar function is to preach. It is at the altar that his lips are touched. His extraordinary gifts are all arranged along the line of power in spoken speech. After his homiletic matter, which is always choice, is
powerful expression. His sentences are polished shafts. His multifarious contributions to the public prints force themselves out into attention by way of the platform and the pulpit, where all his work takes on its peculiar animation. Some passages, for example, in his famous sermon on 'Eternity,' after being once felt by an audience, can never be forgotten. Even his voice, which is of a rich and peculiarly resonant quality, con- tributes toward a magical effect. There is some- thing magnetic about his personal presence. He is noticeably tall and lithe in form. His phys- ique, at first sight, does not indicate such enormous endurance as he seems to possess. Perhaps no preacher in America carries to-day a heavier ministerial responsibility. His pulpit work has all the elaboration and finish of the most closely written sermon, and yet has the power and magnetism of extemporaneous utter- ance, for it is usually given without a scrap of a note. The pulpit is sometimes pushed aside and he stands out like the lamented Phillips, whom in style and bearing he resembles. In the lecture field he has few equals. His prose-poem on ' Samuel Adams, the Hero of the Revolution ' is well-nigh unrivalled as a model in classic English. When a man develops such eloquence and power in the pulpit, a great door and effectual is soon opened unto him. To Dr. Barrows it is at the Central Music Hall, Chicago. Here flock together on Sabbath evenings the great unchurched to hear him. Very often it has been necessary to turn people away, so overflow- ing is the spacious house. The service exactly fits the niche in the popular need. The fact that a thousand young men are frequently present, to say nothing of twice as many others besides, is an inspiration to any orator; and yet this mar- vellous ministry is as far from being sensational as the zenith from the nadir. Dr. Barrows de- termined at the start that his Music Hall min- istry should be, first of all, evangelical. It is not orthodoxy that' the people object to, but dullness. The music is both choral and congre- gational, and hence is superlatively attractive. The people crowd in. The last service always seems the best. The poor have the Gospel preached unto them. Dr. Barrows has come to the first place among the young preachers .of the
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day by dint of vitalized, consecrated personal power. He seems to have felt from his youth the presence of destiny. It is the stirring of
mental and spiritual energy. Being by divine right a prince of the pulpit, he has at length come to reign in his kingdom."
JOSEPH RUSSELL JONES,
CHICAGO, ILL.
OSEPH RUSSELL JONES was born at J Conneaut, Ashtabula county, Ohio, on the 17th of February, 1823. His father, Joel Jones, was born at Hebron, Connecticut, May 14th, 1792, and after marrying Miss Maria Dart, the daughter of Joseph Dart, of Middle Haddem, Connecticut, removed with his young family to Conneaut, Ohio, in 1819.
Joel Jones was the sixth son of Captain Samuel Jones, of Hebron, Connecticut, who was an officer in the French and Indian war. The latter held two commissions under George II of England. He returned from the wars and settled in Hebron, where he married Miss Lydia Tarbox, by whom he had six sons and four daughters. Nine of the ten lived to reach maturity. Samuel, the eldest son, was a lawyer, and practiced his profession for many years at Stockbridge, Mass. He was a man of fine cultivation. In 1842 he published a treatise on the "Right of Suffrage," which is probably the only work of the kind ever pub- lished by an American author. From another brother descended the late Hon. Joel Jones, the first president of Girard College, the late Samuel Jones, M. D., of Philadelphia, and Matthew Hale Jones, of Easton, Pennsylvania. From a third brother descended Hon. Anson Jones, second President of the Republic of Texas. The family are now in possession of a letter written by Cap- tain Samuel Jones to his wife at Fort Edward, dated August 18th, 1758. One hundred and ten years prior to the date of this letter, his ancestor, Captain John Jones, sat at Westminster as one of the judges of King Charles I. Colonel John Jones married Henrietta (Catherine), the second sister of Oliver Cromwell, in 1623, and was put to death October 17th, 1660, on the restoration of Charles II. His son, Hon. William Jones, sur- vived him, and one year before his father's death married Miss Hannah Eaton, then of the Parish of St. . Andrews, Holden, Epenton. He subse-
quently came to America with his father-in-law, the Hon. Theophilus Eaton, first governor of the colony of New Haven, Connecticut, where he held the office of deputy governor for some years, and died October' 17th, 1706. Both him- self and wife are buried in New Haven, under the same stone with Governor Eaton.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the subject of this sketch is connected by direct descent with the best blood of the Puritan fathers, and came honestly by the virtues which have characterized and adorned his private and official life. His father died when he was but an infant, leaving his mother with a large family and but slender means for their maintenance. At the age of thirteen, young Jones was placed in a store at Conneaut, his mother and other mem- bers of the family at the same time removing to Rockton, Winnebago county, Illinois. This, his first clerkship, gave to his employers great satis- faction. He remained with them for two years. when he decided to follow his family and seek his fortune in the West. When the leading mem- bers of the Presbyterian church were apprised of his determination to depart from them, they endeavored to prevail upon him to remain, offer- ing to provide for his education for the ministry. He, however, declined their generous offer, but not without sincere and grateful acknowledge- ments of their great kindness, and, taking passage on board the schooner " J. G. King," he made his first landing at Chicago, on the 19th of August, 1838. Thence he proceeded to Rockton, where he remained with his family for the next two years, rendering such service to his mother as his tender years and slight frame would permit. In 1840, he went to Galena, then the largest and most flourishing city in the Northwest, determined to better his condition, but as his entire available capital amounted to only one dollar, his first appearance upon the scene of his future successes
H C Cooper Jr & CE
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was not encouraging. He was glad to accept at a very small salary a clerkship, which he filled for about six months, after which he entered the employ of one of the leading merchants at Galena. Young Jones found in this association appreciative friendship, agreeable surroundings, hearty encouragement, and ample scope for his business talents and ambition. Contact with the enterprising spirits of that region soon developed in him those qualities which have since so highly distinguished him as a man of sterling worth and remarkable ability. His employer, perceiving his superior qualifications, his ready adaptability to the requirements of his position, his impertur- bable good nature, self-possession, foresight and sagacity, advanced him rapidly, and finally to a partnership in the business, which was continued successfully and profitably until 1856, when the co-partnership was dissolved. In 1846, while still engaged in the mercantile business, he was ap- pointed secretary and treasurer of the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company. This highly im- portant position he held for fifteen years, giving entire satisfaction to the company. In 1860, he was nominated by the Republican party and elected member of the twenty-second General Assembly from the Galena District, composed of the counties of Jo Daviess and Carroll. He soon became one of the most active and influential members of the legislature, and was prominently identified with many measures of great public interest so that his conduct as a Representative received the high approval, not only of his own district, but of the whole State.
In 1861, Mr. Jones was appointed by President Lincoln to the office of United States Marshal for the northern district of Illinois. This ap- pointment required him to change his residence to Chicago, and brought him in contact with other and larger interests than those which had previously claimed his attention. In 1863 he organized the Chicago West Division Railway Company, was elected its president, and by his systematic and skillful management, soon brought it to a high condition of prosperity. In the midst of his exacting duties, he found time to take part in various other commercial and manufacturing enterprises, all of which added to his ample fortune, and brought him into notice as one of the most successful and influential men of Chi-
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