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 26
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rapidly made, and in a short time he stood so well with the directorate of the institution that he, at the age of nineteen, was sent to New York to fill the position of teller (a very high position) in the branch of the bank in that city. He continued in the employment of the British Bank until 1875 when he returned to Canada to accept a position with the Bank of Commerce, located at Montreal, with branches at Toronto and Woodstock; he occupied a prominent posi- tion with this bank in Canada for some years, and in 1881 was delegated to manage a branch of the Bank in Chicago, which he did satisfactorily, and continued its controlling spirit until 1886, when the bank transferred its surplus capital to New York and discontinued the Chicago business.
Then Mr. Dewar organized the American Ex- change National Bank, transferring the business he controlled whilst with the old concern to the new organization. Mr. Dewar has always been the cashier of the bank, and it is conceded by the banking houses to be largely due to his inde-
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fatigable efforts and firm policy that the bank occupies so prominent a position amongst the leading banking houses of the country as it now does. Mr. Dewar is a young man of thirty-nine, and his success stands out prominently as a shin- ing example of what honesty and integrity com- bined with foresight and firmness have accom- plished for a number of our prominent citizens.
In 1875, Mr. Dewar was married to Miss Grace M. Mackenzie, of Hamilton, Ont .; his wife is a descendant of an old Scotch family. The couple are blessed with seven handsome children, four boys and three girls; their names and ages are: Fred, aged sixteen ; Harold, aged fourteen ; Elsie, aged eleven ; Maud, aged nine ; John, aged seven, and Nellie, the youngest daughter, a sweet child of five, and Arthur, the baby.
Mr. Dewar's political creed is strongly Repub- lican. He believes that the legislation of the Re- publican party has always been such as to im- prove the condition of the people, and ever since he has become a citizen of this, the country of his adoption, he has been a stalwart follower of the doctrines of Garfield and Blaine. In religion Mr. Dewar is a Presbyterian.
Mr. Dewar is a man of quiet tastes and habits ;
he has been tendered positions both in social clubs and in public institutions, but having only a limited amount of time to spare away from his business, in which he takes a personal pleasure, and having no desire to appear conspicuous, he has always refused, knowing the place for a man to find true happiness is in the bosom of his family ; he deems the spot where a man can most truly find pleasure and true content to be that place sanctioned by God, man's heaven on earth, within the family circle of his home; and our subject outside of his business affairs has one supreme thought and that is, to increase the happiness of his family, if it be possible to do so.
Such is his biography. He is a man who is honored and respected by all of his acquaint- ances, with a clear record, holding a high position amongst the representative business men of Chi- cago, esteemed for his business ability, and re- spected for his integrity by all that know him ; with a cheerful home and a happy family, he is a living example of what honesty of purpose and attention to business, combined with a forcible character and a high sense of the honorable, can accomplish, and does accomplish, to force men to a high position in the business community.
WILLIAM M. DALE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
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the subject of this sketch in his life-time, his name has for many years been a familar one. He was born in Kilmarnock, County of Ayr, Scotland, on February 10, 1842. He received a good English education at the academy in his native town, and after leaving school became an apprenticed druggist there. He served four years in that capacity, and then went to the city of Glasgow and spent four years more as a drug- gist's apprentice. Having now acquired a thor- ough and practical knowledge of pharmacy, he went to the town of Kinross, Scotland, and estab- lished himself in busines on his own account, meet- ing with good success from the start. However, his enterprising spirit, energy and ambition de- manded a broader field of action, and it was to gratify this that he closed out his business in the
WING to the conspicuous place attained by year 1865, and left Auld Scotland to try his for- tune in the then enterprising and thriving young city of the West. Upon his arrival in Chicago, Mr. Dale was for a short time in the employ of Messrs. Buck & Rayner, pharmacists, after which he established the firm of Dale & Heiland, and located in business at No. 155 South Clark street, where he continued until the great fire of October 8 and 9, 1871. During the following year the business was conducted on the West Side, but upon the completion of a new building, was re- established at the old stand and there continued until 1879, when Mr. Dale established his cele- brated pharmacy, so widely and popularly known, at the northeast corner of Clark and Madison streets. He continued to conduct this with marked success until his decease, which occurred at Charlevoix, Michigan, on July 30, 1887.
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Mr. Dale was a man of marked personal traits, and possessed qualities of mind and heart that greatly endeared him to a very wide circle of friends. As a business manager he was prompt, enterprising, far-sighted and judicious, and had a firmness and decision of purpose that never rested with anything short of honorable success. He was a man of generous impulses, charitable and kind, and gave liberally to worthy objects. In social circles he was a prominent character, and was especially a favorite in the Scotch society of
Chicago, and by all who knew him, esteemed an upright and honorable citizen.
Mr. Dale was married on June 1, 1869, to Miss Mary Walker, of Glasgow, Scotland, who, with five children-William Wallace, Christina, Alice, Jessie and Margaret-survive him. Since her husband's decease, Mrs. Dale has continued the business, having associated with herself, as part- ner, Mr. - - Sempill, formerly an employé of Mr. Dale's, under the firm name of Dale & Sempill.
CHARLES TRUAX,
CHICAGO, ILL.
C HARLES TRUAX was born on Septem- ber 24, 1852, at Milton, Rock county, Wisconsin. The first of this gentleman's family in America was Mr. Phillippe De Truex, who settled at New Amsterdam (now New York), in 1633 (see records "Dutch Manuscripts" at Al- bany, N. Y., vol. 2, p. 27) ; and his son, born on April 21, 1642, was the first white child born on Manhattan Island. £ Several members of this family immigrated to America in 1623 on account of the persecutions of the Huguenots in France.
The parents of the subject of our sketch-Dr. Galloway Truax and Mary (Stiles) Truax-were pioneer settlers in Jackson county, Iowa. The former, an old and highly respected physician and expert chemist of Maquoketa, Ia., now re- sides at Ravenswood, a suburb of Chicago. The family have a decided predilection for medicine and surgery. A brother, Dr. H. E. Truax, prac- ticing at Auburn Park, enjoys a good practice. Two sisters, Mrs. H. L. Heberling and Miss Fannie Truax, are residents of Chicago.
Mr. Truax's early education was limited to what might be acquired in the common schools of the day. At the age of sixteen he commenced an apprenticeship in the drug business with his father, but failing health compelled him to aban- don it at twenty, and going West, he spent two years "roughing it ;" and during that time, being of a scientific turn of mind, he collected many geological specimens and other materials for a private museum of natural history, which he has in his cozy, comfortable home at Ravenswood.
While in the West he had many interesting and thrilling experiences on the plains as a cowboy. The ambition of his early days, to job goods, re- turned with his health, and upon returning to Maquoketa in 1875, he entered into partnership with his father, and commenced a brilliant busi- ness career as junior partner of G. Truax and Son, dealers in physicians' supplies. In 1880, finding the shipping facilities of Maquoketa in- adequate for their increasing trade, he sold out his interest in the business and removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he established and conducted a business in his own name. Two years later Mr. C. W. Bassett, of Cedar Rapids, became a partner in the business, which was thereafter con- ducted under the firm name of Charles Truax & Co. In 1884, their trade having greatly increased east of the Mississippi, the firm removed to Chi- cago for the same reasons that induced Mr. Truax to remove to Cedar Rapids.
In 1887, Dr. F. C. Greene, an ambitious and highly respectable physician of Chicago, and a member of the Chicago Medical Society, was ad- mitted into the firm as a partner and the business was incorporated without change of name, and since that time they have enjoyed as before a highly prosperous business.
Mr. Truax, the subject of this sketch, is to-day at the head of the largest physicians' supply house in the world, located at Nos. 75 and 77 Wabash avenue, Chicago, and employing over one hun- dred and forty people. Mr. Truax may justly claim the honor of having been the pioneer in
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successfully developing this branch of business in the United States. In the summer of 1888 he went to Europe on a pleasure and business trip, visiting England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Ger- many and Austria. While abroad he received an invitation to address the British Medical Society, an honor which no other tradesman has ever been accorded by that august body. He has traveled extensively in his own country, and made several trips to the Pacific slope.
Mr. Truax is a member of many secret socie- ties, but takes particular pride in masonry. He was made a Master Mason in Mt. Herman Lodge, No. 263, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1881, and was honored by being elected Senior Warden within eight months after his initiation ; exalted to the Royal Arch degree in 1882, in Trowell Chapter, No. 49, and created a Knight Templar in 1883 in Apollo Commandery, No. 26, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is at present a member of Evanston Commandery, No. 49, and also a noble of the Mystic Shrine. As founder of Ravens- wood Lodge, Chicago, No. 777, in 1886, he was W. M. for three years. Mr. Truax is also a mem- ber of the American Pharmaceutical Society. He is considerable of a sportsman, his favorite sport being brook trout fishing. He has made such a remarkable record during the past three years that a leading railroad corporation has had it printed in circulars for distribution, as an adver- tisement among the sportsmen of the Northwest. He attends the Universalist church, and in poli- tics has always been a Republican. None of the family, however, have had political aspirations.
He was married February 6, 1876, to Miss Mary Wolff, the daughter of Mr. P. A. Wolff, of Maquoketa, Iowa, a prominent Democratic politi- cian. He has been unusually happy in his domestic life, and is the happy father of three beautiful children, viz .: Edith, Ruth and Carl.
Mr. Truax is a man of much ingenuity, having invented many valuable improvements in surgical instruments. He has delivered addresses before the National Association of Railway Surgeons at Kansas City, Missouri, and at Buffalo, New York, and also before the Mississippi Valley Medical Society, at St. Louis, on amputations from the standpoint of a surgical instrument maker, and kindred topics.
His career has been eminently successful, and he has the proud satisfaction of knowing that it is attributable to his own energy, industry, per- severance and honorable dealing. He is the architect and builder of his own fortune. Com- mencing in business for himself in a small way, he has grown with it, and been from the start the inspiring, directing and controlling spirit at the helm. While he cannot be said to be exactly a self-made man, since his father is an educated physician, chemist and pharmacist, and the son had the advantage of parental · tuition, yet he owes what he is to himself essentially, and is an example of manly independence and self-reliance.
Notwithstanding his success, while yet young, he has none of the pretense of a vain man and none of the hesitancy of a weak one, but moves about his business with the fullest consciousness of his ability to manage and conduct it in detail.
FRANK CATLIN GREENE, M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of our sketch was born at Mans- field, Ohio, in the year 1857. He is de- scended from Britons, who immigrated to this country a century ago, and settled in New Bed- ford, Massachusetts. Dr. Greene's father, Mr. H. N. Greene, removed to Mansfield, Ohio, where he was for several years engaged in the jewelry busi- ness. In 1870 he removed to Philadelphia, where better facilities for business were offered, and was here engaged in banking until 1883, when he re-
tired from business and traveled for several years until he located in Chicago in 1886. Mr. Greene was a prominent man in Mansfield, especially in religious circles. He was of the Episcopalian per- suasion, and was an earnest and zealous worker in the cause, holding high official positions in the church ; he was also deeply interested in Sunday- school work, being at one time superintendent of a school in Philadelphia.
Mrs. Emma (Catlin) Greene, mother of Dr.
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Greene, comes of very sturdy and rugged stock, tracing her ancestry to the early settlers of New York city. Mrs. Greene was a very literary woman, spending much time in study and re- search, but was withal a model housewife and very much devoted to husband and children.
Dr. Greene has one brother-David Russell Grene-a resident of Chicago, and a member of the Chicago Stock Exchange. He has also one sister - Marie Pauline Greene - a brilliant and charming young society lady. She is quite young, having made her debut only last season. Miss Greenc has strong literary tastes, is an art con- noisseur and a devotee of Delsarte, the study of his " poetry of motion" contributing in no small degree to her graceful and charming manner. She formerly studied under Boucicault and De- Mille.
Dr. Greene acquired his early education in the public schools of Mansfield, and later took a three years' course in Peddie Institute, Hightstown, New Jersey, finishing in 1877, and, having to some degree pursued the study of medicine previously, he then entered the Jefferson Medical College, from which he graduated in 1880 with high honors, and received the degree of M. D. at the age of twenty-one. For eighteen months there- after he prosecuted his studies and practiced in the Charity Hospital, New York City. Not being satisfied with his store of medical information, and desiring further study, he crossed the Atlantic and matriculated in Heidelberg University, re- maining three years, at the end of which time, 1884, he received a certificate from that institution. Upon returning to the United States he located in Chicago, intending to practice medicine for which he was so well prepared ; but this life was not to his taste, and, in 1886, he entered the firm
of Charles Truax and Company, physicians' sup- plies, with which firm he is still connected, the firm name being changed in 1891 to Charles Truax, Greene and Company. This house is the largest of its kind in the world, and ships goods to all parts of America and Europe, handling specialties which can be obtained nowhere else on the globe.
Dr. Greene has traveled quite extensively both in Europe and the Orient, as well as in his own country. He spent four years in Europe, the greater part of the time, however, being consumed in study and research. He has always had a fondness for athletic sports of all kinds, his rugged constitution and fine physique bearing testimony to the beneficial results of such exercise. He is especially fond of hunting and yachting, at which sports he spends much of his leisure time.
Religiously, Dr. Greene has always coincided in his father's views, adhering to the Episcopalian church. In politics, following in the footsteps of his worthy parent, he casts his ballot for the Re- publican party. Dr. Greene holds membership in many of the leading aristocratic clubs, such as the University Club, Sunset Club and Twentieth Century Club. In 1882 he was made a Mason in Continental Lodge, No. 297, in New York City.
Dr. Greene is one of the few examples we have of professional men who have made successful business men. He is a typical, ambitious, pro- gressive, enterprising young Chicagoan of which our city is so justly proud. He has been emi- nently successful in his business career, and his prospects from a financial standpoint are excep- tionally bright. Dr. Greene is quite a society leader, being of a genial disposition, generous im- pulses, hospitable and very popular among those with whom he is best known.
MALCOLM MCNEIL,
CHICAGO, ILL.
M ALCOLM McNEIL is prominent among the self-made men of Chicago. He was born on September 12, 1832, in Ardrie, Scot- land, where his father, Daniel McNeil, had been engaged in business as a merchant and operator of coal mines located in that vicinity. His
mother, whose maiden name was Jane Crichton, was a shrewd business woman, and, foreseeing better prospects in America for her children, Mal- colm and John, and their sister, Anna, she caused the business in Scotland to be wound up, and in 1848 the family embarked for the United States.
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After an ocean voyage of six weeks, and a ten days' journey west from New York, they reached their destination, the village of Dundee, in Illinois.
Our subject spent his early manhood in assist- ing his parents on the farm, near Dundee. He managed this, his first enterprise, with care and skill, and thus early in life displayed the ability for conducting business affairs that has since made him conspicuous among Chicago's successful merchants.
Tiring of the monotony and routine of farm life, and desiring a broader field for the employ- ment of his abilities, he in 1858 turned his atten- tion to mercantile pursuits. He first opened a grocery store at Elgin, Ill., but later enlarged his business and became a dealer in general merchan- dise, dealing in everything usually handled by a merchant in a small town, such as groceries, hard- ware, dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, hats and caps, and millinery goods.
Good judgment and careful attention to busi- ness, which have been characteristic of him throughout his career, made his business in Elgin a wonderful success, so that he controlled the largest trade in that city.
In 1871, the destruction of Chicago by fire drew the attention of the mercantile world to the advantages of that city as the future great dis- tributing center of the United States. Among those who with foresight and grit determined to cast their future with this great undeveloped mar- ket, was Malcolm McNeil. He pictured to him- self the advantages to be found there, and dis- posed of his business interests at Elgin, but still retained possession of his two farms, which he still holds, deeming them good financial invest- ments.
In the year 1872, he organized the wholesale grocery house of McNeil & Higgins, composed of Malcolm McNeil, J. McNeil and Charles Higgins, which for twenty years has continued upon its prosperous course. During all this time, Malcolm McNeil, with a steady hand, hopeful heart and clear brain, has directed its affairs, and been its controlling spirit through all the financial troubles that have swept over our country, until now, when it has reached its present mammoth propor- tions, he can look over his business career of nearly a quarter of a century, and feel the satis- faction of knowing that his record is above re-
proach. Naturally, this firm entering a field where houses with an already established reputa- tion virtually controlled the business tributary to Chicago, found no little difficulty in obtaining a foothold. Mr. McNeil was always ready to adapt himself to circumstances, and at the outset of his career as a Chicago jobber, personally carried a line of samples, and solicited trade among the merchants of Illinois, and can tell the trials of a traveling man representing an unknown house.
At the present time (1892), the McNeil and Higgins Company (an incorporated institution since 1888), with a paid-up capital of $500,000, is as widely and favorably known as any wholesale grocery house in the West, and its army of travel- ing salesmen, more than fifty in number, dispose of a great bulk of goods in a territory reaching over the entire West and Northwest. The house has always appreciated faithful service, and, upon its incorporation under the laws of the State, re- warded four deserving young men by presenting them with fifty thousand dollars' worth of stock therein. Since its incorporation our subject has been the presiding officer of the company.
To a nature as active and ambitious as Mr. McNeil's, the advantages of investments in re- sponsible financial institutions became apparent. He is a large stockholder and a director in the Chemical Trust and Savings Bank, whose direc- tors, appreciating his ability as a financier, and knowing that he held the esteem and confidence of the community, elected him president of that institution, an office which he filled until the stress of his other business affairs compelled him, much to his regret, to decline a re-election. He was one of the organizers of the Columbia Nation- al Bank, and became one of its directors upon its organization. Mr. McNeil has been twice mar- ried. First, in 1859, to Miss Catherine Dempster, who was the first white child born in Dundee, Illinois. She was a daughther of A. R. Dempster, Esq., and a niece of William Dempster, well known as a musical composer, being the author of " The May Queen," "Irish Emigrant's Lament," and more than fifty other compositions. Mrs. Mc- Neil inherited musical tastes, and was in all re- spects a true helpmate. She died after eleven years of happy married life, her only child, named Daniel, dying at the age of four years.
In 1870, Mr. McNeil was married to Miss Orel
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Martin, daughter of Charles Martin, of Wayne, Illinois. Of seven children who have been born to them, six are now living, viz: Nora, Ella, Gor- don, Marvin, Charles and Jeanie. Mr. McNeil is a member of the Baptist denomination, and a zealous worker in the cause of religion, ever ready both with purse and heart to assist any enter- prise tending to better his fellow men.
Mrs. McNeil, who is in entire sympathy with her husband in all his worthy deeds, is an active worker in the church, and a leader in benevolent
enterprises. She is charitably disposed, and com- bines all of those graces that are commendable in a happy wife and mother, and is loved by all that know her.
In politics Mr. McNeil has always been a strong Republican, but at present belongs to that great body of business men who are known as Tariff Reform Republicans. Mr. McNeil's life has been a success, and amply illustrates what may be ac- complished by one who has ambition, foresight and grit, combined with an honest purpose.
JOHN H. S. QUICK,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this sketch is a well known and justly eminent member of the Chicago bar. He is not one of the many who have risen from obscurity into the blaze of ephemeral prosperity, but he has risen to a high position as a lawyer and a citizen by a gradual and constant advance, every successive step having been wisely and happily chosen ; a career no less honorable to himself than useful to others.
Mr. Quick is a native of New Jersey, and was born on 13th day of January, 1837. His father was John S. Quick, formerly an enterprising and prosperous merchant of New York City, and his mother was Mary (née Roberts), a lady of many womanly virtues.
Mr. Quick received the rudiments of his educa- tion in the grammar school of Columbia College, New York, and later attended the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Conn. He entered Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and there pursued his higher studies in literature and the languages, graduating with honor in the class of 1858, and is the president of the alumni association of that college.
Full of a desire for learning, and the highest branches of culture and education, he went to Europe and attended lectures at the university in Leipsic, Germany, an institution of world-wide renown. Returning to New York, he read law with the firm of Messrs Scudder and Carter, com- posed of Henry J. Scudder and James C. Carter. He finished his course in jurisprudence and was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1862.
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