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 32
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He next accepted a situation as traveling sales- man for the wholesale confectionery of C. W. Sanford, of Chicago, and became one of the first representatives of Chicago that sold goods throughout the South. He placed large amounts of goods in the cities of the reconstructed South and he also represented the firm in the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. It was while employed as a traveling salesman that he made his first trip to Europe and so familiarized himself with European lan- guages and customs that he was afterward en- abled to converse fluently with those of his cus- tomers who had been reared on the other side of the Atlantic.
Tempted by an increased salary he next. en- tered the employ of Thompson, Johnson and Co., wholesale grocers on South Water street. He represented the house in the West for two years, but finding the business uncongenial he re-
turned to the line in which he had become so prominent, and became the Chicago representa- tive of Messrs. Greenfield, Young and Co., the leading New York confectioners, for whom his travels covered the New England, Middle and Western States.
In the fall of 1868 he opened a retail store at No. 125 Clark street, Chicago, on his own account, it being the first establishment opened in Chi- cago introducing high grade confections.
Mr. Gunther was the first confectioner to man- ufacture and introduce the famous caramels as now made and sold throughout the United States and Europe, a fact in which he takes a justifiable pride.
The general conflagration of 1871 totally de- stroyed his establishment and left him absolutely without resources, but with characteristic enter- prise he immediately reopened business in a small way and soon recuperated his losses, and was re- warded with great subsequent success.
Mr. Gunther has a decided inclination for ad- venture and travel, and has visited all the ex- positions of note in Europe, and he has traveled in every country from the land of the "midnight sun" to Constantinople and Damascus; he has also journeyed to the Holy Land, through Egypt, Syria and the countries lying adjacent to the Mediterranean, including Morocco, Algeria, Tri- poli, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey. He speaks French, German and Spanish fluently, and he is perfectly at home in all of the capitals of Europe.
In 1879 Mr. Gunther was one of a commission organized to make a tour of Mexico with a view to opening trade relations between the two repub- lics, that up to that time had been very incon- siderable. On that tour, which was one contiual ovation, he acquired much useful information. The result of the commission's work was to call the attention of our merchants to the advantages derivable from trade relations with this sister republic, which at that time had no railroad con- nections with the United States.
Mr. Gunther has indulged his innate love for historical and scientific research to the fullest ex- tent, and has secured the finest historical collec- tion in the United States. This collection com- prises manuscripts of the most ancient writings of the world, from the stone rolls of the Assyrian of
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the Babylonian period, and in fact, parchments and writings on papyrus from the days of the earliest Pharaohs down to modern times. He undoubtedly possesses the rarest and finest collec- tion of Bibles in the world, including the famous Martha Washington Bible, also that of Washing- ton's sister Betty, also the first New Testament printed in the English language at Worms, Ger- many, by Tindal, about 1528, and all of the first Bibles printed on the American continent, includ- ing the Elliot Indian Bibles, and the first German Bible, by Sauer, 1743, and the first American Bible by Atkinson, 1782. He also owns historic man- uscripts of all nations of many centuries past, in- cluding an autograph of Shakespeare and origi- nal manuscripts of Goethe, Schiller, Tasso, Michael Angelo, Gallileo, Moliére, and many others ; also original manuscripts of all the world's famous writers, poets, musicians, kings, queens, clergy- men and politicians, including the original manu- scripts of " Home Sweet Home," "Old Lang Syne," "Old Grimes " and " Lead, Kindly Light." He also has all the earlist maps of America from 1507 up, and the first edition of the Cosmographie of Martin Waldseemüller which was the first book that gave the name of America to the New World ; also a large number of relics of George Washington, covering his entire career, as well as of Abraham Lincoln, and of all other American historical characters.
Ilis collection also includes the famous portrait of Columbus by Sir Antonio Moro, painted about 1552, from two miniatures then in possession at the Palace of Pardos, Spain. Washington Irving pronounced this the best and truest likeness of Columbus extant, and used an engraved copy of it (afterwards destroyed by fire) as a frontispiece for his second revised English edition of his " Life of Columbus." The collection also con- tains six original portraits of Washington, in- cluding the first ever made of him, by the elder Peale, and the only portrait in existence of Wash- ington's sister Betty and her husband.
One of the greatest attractions that is at present on exhibition in Chicago, and one that will doubtless excite the interest of the many thousands that will visit the Columbian Expo- sition, is the War Museum contained in the celebrated Libby Prison, that was several years ago removed to Chicago from Richmond, Vir-
ginia. This vast undertaking was successfully accomplished by Mr. Gunther, associated with Mr. W. H. Gray and other public-spirited men of Chicago, and to them Chicago is indebted for the finest collection of war relics on the American continent. The great collection of interesting and historical war relics with which the Libby Prison is filled is the private property of Mr. Gunther, and is loaned by him to the associa- tion.
Mr. Gunther is president of The Libby Prison War Museum Association, also a prominent mem- ber of the Chicago Historical Society, and a trustee of the Academy of Science. Hte is a member of the Union League and Iroquois Clubs. He became a Master Mason in Peru, Ill., in 1860, and during his thirty-one years' membership he has passed through many degrees, including the Knights Templar, Oriental Consistory (thirty- second degree) and Sovereign Grand Inspector- General of the thirty-third and last degree of the Northern Jurisdiction, U. S. A. He is also a member of the Mystic Shrine.
In 1869, he was married to Miss Jennie Bur- nell, of Lima, Indiana. They have two sons- Burnell, now a student at Berlin, Germany, and Paris, twenty years old: and Whitman, aged eighteen. Mrs. Gunther is a highly educated and refined woman, active in charitable and religious work. Mr. and Mrs. Gunther are active members of Grace Episcopal Church.
In politics, Mr. Gunther had been for many years affiliated with the Republican party, but being fully in sympathy with Mr. Cleveland's views on the tariff, supported that gentleman for the presidency. He believes in "tariff for rev- enue only."
As a business man, Mr. Gunther has been enter- prising, energetic and always abreast of the times. and has been rewarded by an ample fortune. llis business motto has always been, "Not how cheap. but how good?" He undoubtedly has the largest retail trade in fine confections of any house in the United States, and his store is not surpassed in beauty or arrangement by that of any of its kind in the world. Mr. Gunther has attained to a position of prominence through his own exer- tions, and may justly be proud of what he has wrought. He is a man of generous impulses and gives liberally of his time and money to all worthy
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causes, and in everything that he does tries to make the world brighter and better. He is loved
by his friends and highly esteemed by his fellow- citizens.
JAMES D. MARSHALL,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONGST Chicago's representative men who have materially aided in the advancement and prosperity of the city, few are better known, and none are more worthy of a place in this work than is the subject of this sketch.
James D. Marshall was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., October 24, 1824. He is of Scotch de- scent, his father coming to this country from Paisley, Scotland, in the year 1796. James re- ceived the rudiments of education at the public schools of his native town. When he became six- teen years of age his parents decided to prepare him for a professional calling, and accordingly sent him to Fort Covington, N. Y., where he pur- sued a special academic course of three years, graduating at the end of that time.
He next entered the office of Dr. Pierce at Madrid, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and there began the study of medicine. This sedentary life did not find favor with one of his active dis- position ; relinquishing, therefore, the study of medicine, he next entered the employ of Allen Lincoln, a tanner, at Fort Covington, N. Y., where for the next succeeding two years he occu- pied his time in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the business. Completing his apprenticeship, he shipped for a time as a sailor on the Great Lakes in the employ of E. G. Merrick, but subse- quently tiring of this life.
His keen perception enabled him to early fore- see the immense possibilities that awaited the City of Chicago, and in 1849 he directed his steps to the Garden City, which place was destined to be- come the field of his future operations. The sum total he possessed was but $40. His capital did not, however, consist of money. A plentiful supply of brains and a strong determination to succeed were the qualifications he possessed. He found Jerome Beecher, whom he had formerly known in New York, and from him obtained em- ployment in the tannery business. His next em- ployer was Walter S. Gurney, who afterwards be-
came Mayor of Chicago. He remained with Mr. Gurney until 1853, when he resigned to enter into partnership with Wm. L. Gray and Robert B. Clark, the latter being a brother of the present collector of customs. The firm of Gray, Marshall and Co. was then established. They continued in business until the death of Mr. Clark, which oc- curred in 1864, after which the firm became Gray and Marshall.
They established the first exclusive sole leather tannery in the West. The business continued to prosper until the fire of 1871, after which Mr. Gray withdrew to establish the Hide and Leather National Bank of Chicago, of which he is now the President. Mr. Marshall then assumed entire control of the business.
During a period of nineteen years of partner- ship between Messrs. Gray and Marshall, so har- monious did they agree that no dispute or differ- ence ever occurred.
While Mr. Marshall's success and fortune are the result of his own sterling integrity, yet he at- tributes much of it to the counsel and business abilities of his friend and former partner, Mr. Gray.
Under Mr. Marshall's direction, the business steadily advanced, until his trade extends (as it does to-day) throughout the United States. Thus we have practical proof of a man begin- ning with $40, overcoming all obstacles and emerging from life's stern battle triumphant and victorious.
A remarkable fact in connection with his forty- two years' residence in Chicago is during that time he has never been confined to his home a single hour by sickness or accident.
In Masonic circles he is well and favorably known and is a member of Covenant Lodge, Co- rinthian Chapter, and St. Bernard Commandery. Ever since his installation he has taken an active interest in all things pertaining to the welfare of the order.
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In religious faith, a Presbyterian ; for more than twenty-five years a member of Dr. Goodwin's congregation.
He has traveled much, as is evidenced from the fact that he has visited every city of importance in America and Nova Scotia, believing in seeing and knowing his native country rather than foreign ones.
In June 24, 1854, he was married to Miss Ade- line Barker of Babcock's Grove, Illinois, and was called to mourn her loss on the fifth anniversary of their marriage. The result of this union was one daughter, now married to Mr. Arthur Gray, of Chicago. Mr. Marshall did not again marry until February, 1861, this time to Mrs. Augusta A. Hall of Chicago.
They have two children, viz., George A., who is a prosperous leather merchant on Lake street, this city, and who married Miss Dona Wheeler, an accomplished young lady of Marshall, Michi- gan, and Charles Gray, connected with his father's business, both of whom bid fair to follow in the honorable paternal footsteps.
In manner Mr. Marshall is pleasing and courte- ous, but of strong determination, withal possess- ing a kind, sympathetic disposition. He is a phi- lanthropist in the best sense of the word, and one of the few who give unostentatiously. A barrel of flour or stock of provisions given to some needy family is a favorite mode of his bestowing charity.
Ile has made an untarnished record and un- spotted reputation as a business man; upright, re- liable and honorable. In all places and under all circumstances he is loyal to truth, honor and right, justly valuing his own self-respect as infi- nitely more valuable than wealth, fame or posi- tion. In those finer traits of character which combine to form that which we term friendship, which endear and attach man to man in bonds which nothing but the stain of dishonor can sever, which triumph and shine brightest in the hour of adversity-in these qualities he is royally en- dowed. Few men have more devoted friends than he; none excel him in unselfish devotion and unswerving fidelity to the worthy recipients of his confidence and friendship.
WILLIAM HEATH BYFORD, LL.D., M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
W ILLIAM HEATH BYFORD was born on March 20, 1817, in the village of Eaton, Ohio, and was the son of Henry T. and Hannah Byford. The family is of English ex- traction, and has been traced back to Suffolk. His father, a mechanic of limited means, to bet- ter his condition, removed to the Falls of the Ohio River, now New Albany, whence, in 1821, he changed his residence to Hindostan, Martin county, Indiana, where he suddenly died, leaving a widow and three children. William, the eldest. in his ninth year, was compelled to give up his studies, which he had pursued with signal success for three or four years in the neighboring country school, in order to help his mother in the support of the family. For the next four years he worked at whatever he could find to do, and his scant earnings often dropped into the lap of his wid- owed mother like blessings from above. At the end of that time his mother moved to Crawford county, Illinois, and joined her father. After
working two years on his grandfather's farm, the condition of the family being somewhat im- proved, it was decided that William's wish to learn a trade should be gratified. Accordingly, he set out on foot for the village of Palestine, several miles distant, and on reaching it presented him- self at a blacksmith shop and asked the smith if he would undertake to teach him how to shoe horses and become a skillful worker in iron. The blacksmith declined to have anything to do with him, and the would-be apprentice continued his tramp from one shop to another, with no better success, until he finally caught sight of a tailor's sign, and concluded to try his luck with the clothes-maker. He had no particular fancy for this occupation, but he had come to town to make all necessary preparations for learning a trade, and he was determined not to return home before the accomplishment of his purpose. The tailor, whom Dr. Byford always mentioned as "a kind-hearted, Christian gentleman, by the name of
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Davis," received the young man kindly, and when he started home that night it had been agreed that he should be received by the tailor's family as an apprentice, provided a certain Methodist minister in the neighborhood would recommend him as "a moral and industrious boy." The rec- ommendation secured, he was soon installed as an apprentice, and held the position for two years, when Mr. Davis removed to Kentucky. During the ensuing four years he finished learning his trade in the employ of a tailor at Vincennes, Indiana. The boy was now twenty years old. While serving his apprenticeship he devoted all his spare time to study, and day after day, while working on a garment, he had concealed some old text-book, bought or borrowed, which contributed to his stock of knowledge. In this way he mas- tered the construction of his native tongue, ac- quired some knowledge of the Latin, Greek and French languages, and studied with especial care physiology, chemistry and natural history.
About eighteen months before the expiration of his term of apprenticeship, he determined to devote his life to the study and practice of medi- cine, and subsequently placed himself under the professional guidance of Dr. Joseph Maddox, of Vincennes, Indiana. Soon after the expiration of his term of apprenticeship, he was examined, according to a custom then prevailing in Indiana, by three commissioners appointed for the pur- pose, who certified that they were satisfied with his acquirements and authorized him to engage in the practice of medicine. At once he began the practice of his profession at Owensville, Gib- son county, Indiana. This was on August 8th, 1838. In 1840 he removed to Mount Vernon, Indiana, where he associated himself with Dr. Hezekiah Holland, whose daughter he afterwards married. He remained in Mount Vernon until 1850. During this period he attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati, and in 1845 he applied for and received a regular graduation and an accredited diploma from that institution.
In 1847 he performed two Cæsarian sections, and wrote an excellent account of the operations. One of these patients survived the operation for some days, but ultimately died from peritonitis, presumably due to an error in diet. This was followed by contributions to the medical journals
which attracted the attention of the medical community, and gave their author a respectable reputation for literary acquirements, intellectual penetration and scientific knowledge.
In October, 1850, he was elected to the chair of anatomy in the Evansville Medical College, Indi- ana, and two years later he was transferred to the chair of theory and practice of medicine, which he held until the extinction of the college, in 1854. During his professorship in Evansville he was one of the editors of a medical journal of merit. In May, 1857, he was elected vice-presi- dent of the American Medical Association, then assembled at Nashville, Tennessee, and in the following autumn he was called to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the Rush Medical College, at Chicago, vacated by Dr. John Evans, the talented physician and Uni- ted States senator from Colorado. This position he held for two years, when, together with several associates, he aided in the organization of the Chicago Medical College. In this institution he occupied the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, and continued to hold the professorship of diseases of women and children until 1879, when he was again called to Rush Medical College to fill the chair of gynecology, especially created for his occupancy. In 1870 he became one of the founders of the Woman's Medical College, of Chicago. He was made president of the faculty, and also of the board of trustees, and both of these positions he held up to the day of his death. He was prominently identified with the organization of the American Gynecological Society, having been elected one of its first vice-presidents, and its president in ISSI. Dr. Byford was the prime mover in the successful organization of the Chicago Gyneco- logical Society, and through his personal efforts maintained it during its struggling infancy until it had attained its high standing in the profes- sion.
Dr. Byford was married, October 3, 1840, to Mary Anne Holland, daughter of Hezekiah Hol- land, by whom he had five children, two sons, the late Wm. H. Byford, Jr., M. D., and Dr. Henry T. Byford, the distinguished gynecologist, of Chi- cago, and three daughters, Mrs. Anna Byford Leonard, Mrs. Mary B. Schuyler and Mrs. Maud B. Van Schaack. Mrs. Byford died in 1864. She
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was a woman of rare Christian piety. In 1873 he married Miss Lina W. Flersheim, of Buffalo, N. Y., who survives him. The only child of the second union died in infancy.
Dr. Byford won merited fame as a prolific writ- er and as an authority in gynecology. Beginning with his paper on Casarian section, published in 1847, he has contributed much of permanent value to every phase of the subject. In 1864 he published his first book, entitled, "Chronic In- flammation and Displacements of the Unim- pregnated Uterus," which is also the first medical work attributable to a Chicago author ; second edi- tion, 1871. In 1866 appeared his " Practice of Medicine and Surgery Applied to the Diseases and Accidents of Woman," which is extensively used as a text-book, and which passed through its fourth edition in 1888. " The Philosophy of Do- mestic Life" was published in 1869, followed, in 1872, by his text-book on " Obstetrics," which passed through a second edition the following year. During a term of years he was associated with Dr. N. S. Davis, Sr., in the editorial man- agement of the Chicago Medical Journal. Later, he became editor-in-chief of the Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner, and published under the auspices of the Chicago Medical Press Associa- tion. There are many measures in practice with which his name is intimately connected ; for cx- ample, the use of ergot in fibroid tumors of the uterus; drainage per rectum of pelvis abscesses that have previously discharged into that viscus ; abdominal section for extra uterine pregnancy, proposed long before the days of Tail; the sys- tematic use of the slippery-elm tent.
Dr. Byford was richly endowed with an inven- tive faculty, which found expression in the inven- tion, modification and improvement of many val- uable surgical instruments. As a teacher in the lecture room, at the bedside or in debate, Dr. Byford's utterances were always characterized by simplicity, clearness and pertinency. No wonder, then, that his clinics were always over- crowded with students and practitioners, and that his slightest word invariably received a de- gree of attention all the more flattering because involuntary.
But perhaps it was as a practitioner that he achieved the greatest measure of success ; wisdom and enormous experience created his vantage-
ground as a consultant. It will be remembered that for more than twenty-five years he was a general practitioner, before he devoted himself exclusively to gynecology. Even then, the scope of his specialty included other organs than the womb. Like Trousseau, he was very exact in keeping his appointments. Throughout his ca- reer he was a rigid adherent to the code of ethics, because he believed its precepts both reasonable and right.
It has long been customary to regard compen- sation in money as one criterion of success in the practice of medicine. Dr. Byford's professional income during the last twenty years of his life varied from twenty-five thousand to thirty thou- sand dollars per annum, and he bequeathed to his family, along with the heritage of a spotless name, a handsome fortune, well invested.
He was not an extremist ; he rode no hobbies. None the less, his life had certain clearly defined and fondly cherished purposes. They were all nobly sustained. One of these was the advocacy of the medical education of women. In this cause he was the pioneer in the West. To it he gave freely of his time, of his influence, of his wealth. Another was the establishment, in Chi- cago, of the Woman's Hospital. To-day this institution, with one-third of its beds free, flour- ishes a monument to his persistent effort.
He loved young men ; counsel, encouragement, recommendation, money -- all were freely given, as if he were the debtor. Back of all his skill of hand and wisdom of professional judgment, there was a wonderfully large and generous heart. He died May 21, 1890, at the age of seventy-three years. For the last three years he showed symp- toms of heart disease that culminated in a fatal attack of angina pectoris.
He continued in active practice and in full pos- session of all his faculties to the end. On the Saturday preceding his death he performed ab- dominal section for the removal of the append- ages, on account of fibroid tumors of the uterus, and on Tuesday, the day of his fatal illness, he attended to his usual professional duties. Among the people of the city of Chicago, of the State of Illinois, and, indeed, of the whole Northwest, the name of Byford has been a household word for more than a quarter of a century. By the mem- bers of his profession he was as universally be-
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