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 33
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loved for personal qualities as he was esteemed for professional eminence.
[The above, with the exception of the para- graph referring to Dr. Byford's inventions in surgical instruments, is copied from the Amer-
ican Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, Vol. XXIII, No. 6, 1890, and was written by Dr. W. W. Jaggard, an accomplished and successful physician and obstetrician, of Chicago.]
LEVI ZEIGLER LEITER,
CHICAGO, ILL.
L. Z. LEITER was born in 1834, of well-to- do, Calvinistic Dutch parents, in the town of Leitersburg, Washington county, Maryland, founded by his ancestors. Here he received a good education, and afterwards spent several years in a country store, that universal educator of so many of our prominent men. When eight- een years of age he became dissatisfied with his quiet surroundings, and determined to seek a wider field for the exercise of his energies.
In 1853 he turned his face westward, first stop- ping at Springfield, Ohio, where he entered the store of Peter Murray, a prominent merchant, and remained one year. This place not furnish- ing the desired field, he pushed on to Chicago, . arriving there in the summer of 1854. Here he entered the employment of Messrs. Downs & Van Wyck, where he remained until January, 1856, when he entered the wholesale house of Messrs. Cooley, Wadsworth & Co., in which he continued, through its various changes, until Jan- uary Ist, 1865, when, with Marshall Field, who entered the house at the same time, and who, with young Leiter, had secured an interest in the busi- ness, in consideration of their valuable services, on January Ist, 1865, sold their interest to John V. Farwell, and purchased a controlling interest in the business of Potter Palmer, which was con- tinued for two years as Field, Palmer & Leiter, and then as Field, Leiter & Co., until January Ist, 1881. By the exercise of rare intelligence, based upon the soundest principles, the business was rapidly increased until it occupied the leading position in the country.
On January Ist, 1881, Mr. Leiter, having large real estate and other interests, and longing for freedom from the daily duties of an exacting business, sold his interest to his partners, that he might devote more of his time to his family, to
travel and to his choice library, which is one of the best private collections in the United States.
Mr. Leiter has never sought nor held a public office, but from boyhood he has been a diligent student of politics in its highest sense, and no one has a wider range of intelligence concerning the principles of our government and of legislation which would affect the welfare and industries of our country.
For many years Mr. Leiter was a director of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and gave much time and patient study to the wise distribu- tion of charity; and not only in this enterprise, but in all intelligently directed charities, he has been an honest worker and a liberal contributor when he could be convinced that money and time would produce more good than harm. The Amer- ican Sunday School Union has always been one of his favored instrumentalities of good to his fellow-man. With a keen insight into the spring which lies behind human action, he has never courted popularity, but preferred at all times, in speech and action, to do his whole duty to his fellow-man and the community in which he lived.
In the rebuilding of Chicago, since the fire of 1871, Mr. Leiter has been one of the most pro- gressive and important of its citizens. He has erected many handsome office and store blocks in the business district, and is still engaged in extensive building operations, one of them being the magnificent structure on State street between Van Buren and Congress streets.
Of temperate habits and strong physique, with great powers of application and endurance, Mr. Leiter, in his active business career, confined him- self so closely to his business that he was enabled to turn off a quantity of work which would have killed any ordinary man.
In all which goes to advance the social and
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educational, as well as the business interests of Chicago, Mr. Leiter has been a moving spirit. His great means, as well as bis keen business sagacity, have been enlisted in many worthy enter- prises. He was the first president of the Com- mercial Club, and is now a leading member of the Iroquois, the Chicago, the Calumet, the Union, the Washington Park and the Union League Clubs. Mr. Leiter took an active interest in the reorganization of the Chicago Historical Society after the great fire, and contributed liberally to its building fund, and for the purchase of books. The debt which had hampered the Society was also lifted by the co-operation of Mr. Leiter with Profs. Mark Skinner, E. H. Sheldon, D. K. Pear- son, S. M. Nickerson, Thos. Hoyne and others, and the Society placed upon a sound basis. Mr. Leiter was also the president of the Chicago Art Institute in 1885, succeeding Mr. George Armour,
who was its first executive. For many years, in fact ever since its organization, Mr. Leiter has been a heavy stockholder in the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, and is now one of the directors of that institution.
After the great fire of 1871, when everyone was damaged by loss of insurance capital, Mr. Leiter was instrumental in inducing the Liver- pool, London and Globe Insurance Company to re-establish its agency here, and also to make this one of its departments, thus giving confidence to other reliable companies to re-establish their busi- ness here, and enable business men to protect themselves against the hazard of fire. Mr. Lei- ter's great aim has been to be a model citizen, and not to accumulate great wealth, believing, with Goldsmith :
" Ilì fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. Where wealth accumulates and men decay."
LAURIN P. HILLIARD,
CHICAGO, ILL.
L AURIN PALMER HILLIARD was born at Unadilla Forks, Otsego county, N. Y., October 11, 1814. His parents were Isaiah and Keturah (Palmer) Hilliard. His father, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of Con- necticut, was left an orphan in early boyhood, and soon entered on a somewhat adventurous career as a "sailor-boy," first in the cabin and finally as a fully-equipped seaman. With other sailors he paid his twenty-five cents to inspect Robert Fulton's original little steamer and joined in predicting the results-wise and otherwise. His " protection paper," No. 3.123, U. S. A., to insure against seizure and impressment by the British on the high seas, is in the possession of Edward P. Hil- liard, of Chicago. Upon attaining his majority, he left New York City and invested his savings in unimproved land near Unadilla Forks, where he soon afterward married Miss Keturah, daugh- ter of his neighbor, Jonathan Palmer. Mr. Pal- mer also was of New England ancestry, which is traced to Walter Palmer, who came to America in 1629, from Nottinghamshire, England. He built the first dwelling in Charlestown, Mass. In 1653 he moved to Stonington, Conn., where he
died in 1661, and was buried at Wequetsquock Cove. In 1881 a reunion of the Palmer family was held at Stonington, and nearly two thousand of the descendants were present. At that gathering the origin of the family name was traced to the Crusades. Many pilgrims to the tomb of Christ, from the days of Peter the Hermit to the close of the fourteenth century, on their return, worc palm-leaves in their hats or carried staves from palm branches. Hence, it is said, they were called "palm-bearers " or " palm-ers." In Spen- cer's Fairie Queene and in Shakespeare these allu- sions to the palmers are found. Jonathan Palmer was of the sixth generation from Walter, which places our subject, Laurin Palmer Hilliard, in the eighth.
Our subject's boyhood was spent on his father's farm. He was educated in the public schools and at Hamilton College. When about eighteen years of age he entered the store of Charles Walker, at Burlington Flats, near his native place, receiving no salary for the first year and fifty dollars for the second. His success led to a partnership in a new establishment at Unadilla Forks. While there, Mr. Walker's brother took
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a stock of goods to Chicago, and the good report of the venture then impressed Mr. Hilliard with the advantages of that place. He closed out his business and, with a few hundred dollars, started West, via canal boat, stage and steamer, from Utica to Buffalo, Dunkirk and Detroit, and reached Chicago in the spring of 1836. His first night was spent at a log tavern on the west side, but he afterward stayed at the "Green Tree Ho- tel." He visited various towns in Illinois and Wisconsin, and on invitation of an old friend, who was interested in projecting a town at Mani- towoc River, he joined the equipped. party on the schooner "Wisconsin," and was present at the time the original town site of Manitowoc was laid out.
Returning to Chicago, he started a little store, taking produce in exchange for goods. He re- turned to the East in the fall of 1836, and a brother-in-law of Mr. Walker, his former partner, took charge of the store, and shipped East the country produce-one of the earliest ventures in Chicago's great specialty. The following spring, Mr. Hilliard returned to Chicago. He entered, first, the employment of Peter Cohn, an old French trader, then with his successors, Taylor, Breese & Co. He was afterwards with Clifford S. Phillips, a leading merchant. During the sum- mer of 1837 he made a trip on horseback into Wisconsin to report on lands to Eastern inves- tors. He found the town site of Madison with few finished improvements, aside from a log boarding-house, and wild game about the four lakes made it a " hunter's paradise."
After being several years in charge mainly of Mr. Phillips' large business, he again joined his former partner, Mr. Walker, who had begun mer- chandising in Chicago. Money was still scarce, but the business prospered and increased by the exchange of goods for country produce, which was shipped east. The firm also started ship- building, first buying a disabled schooner, which they repaired and christened the "C. Walker." They next, as part owners, built the "Independ- ence," said to be the first propeller constructed on Lake Michigan. Her first trip was made in March to Green Bay, whither she went after ice, the winter having been an open one. While there, cold weather gave Chicago plenty of ice, and the propeller was frozen in and loaded with
ice cut to give her a channel for the return trip. The fair schooner, " Maria Hilliard," also was built by the firm. Mr. Hilliard afterward suc- ceeded to the business, and continued both branches until 1849, when his store, at the corner of Lake and Franklin streets, was burned. The following year he organized the firm of Hilliard and Howard, and occupied yards in the lumber business where James H. Walker and Co.'s whole- sale house now stands. With the exception of a few years in public office, he continued in the lumber trade until 1873. The financial disasters, then general, forced a suspension of trade. For- tunately, he had invested in a large tract of land twelve miles south of Chicago, and having wisely planned for railroad connection with his farm, he removed his family thither, when his city resi- dence was destroyed in the great fire of 1871. By concerted action with other property-owners, their efforts resulted in the suburban villages of Washington Heights, Longwood, Beverly Hills, etc., all now within the city limits. So the city went out to Mr. Hilliard's home, absorbed his " farm," and is giving him increasing wealth and comfort to crown his long and useful career. .
Mr. Hilliard was virtually a " charter member" of the Republican party, and was conscientiously active for its success against the aggressions of slavery. In 1861 he was elected clerk of Cook County Court, and served the four years' term with great acceptance. He, with other patriotic citizens, issued the first call for a public meeting, in 1861, to aid the government in suppressing the great . rebellion, and served on the financial committee then appointed.
In 1848, he was active in securing the organi- zation of the Chicago Board of Trade, and when accomplished, in April, he was made a member of the first board of directors, and in 1853 was chosen secretary and treasurer of the institution. In those days, the Board had neither the fascina- tion nor wealth of to-day, and it is said that to secure even a respectable attendance the secre- tary was accustomed to set out, at noon, a lunch- eon of crackers and cheese. Mr. Hilliard was also a director for several years of the Chamber of Commerce, and identified with many other important public enterprises. He was general agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, when Mr. C. B. Wright was president,
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and Mr. H. E. Sargent general manager, and did much to send emigration into the Red River Valley.
In religious faith, he has been a consistent Episcopalian, and in 1844 he, with about twenty old settlers, organized Trinity Episcopal Church. He became a member of the board of trustees, was also vestryman and warden, and active for its prosperity until his change of residence necessita- ted change in his church relations.
He was initiated into the Oriental Lodge of Masons in 1845. He long held its offices, became an honorary life member in 1874, and is now its senior member. He was made a Knight Templar
in 1854, and has taken thirty-two of the consistory degrees.
In 1843, he married Mrs. Maria E. Beaubien. She was the daughter of John K. Boyer, who was widely known in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois as a public works contractor. He settled in Chi- cago in 1833. His son, Dr. Valentine A. Boyer, began the practice of medicine in the city that year, and was the oldest resident physician when he died, in 1890. Two sons cheer the advanced years of Mr. and Mrs. Hilliard. Edward P. is a resident of Chicago, and succeeds to the real estate business of his father. William P. has made a home at St. Paul, Minnesota.
HON. LEROY DELANO THOMAN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
L EROY DELANO THOMAN was born July 31, 1851, in Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio. His parents were Jacob S. and Mary Ann (Sonedecker) Thoman, both of whom were na- tives. of the Buckeye State, and of Swiss line- age. The paternal ancestors immigrated to the United States about 1680 and settled in Mary- land and Pennsylvania, and the maternal in 1690, settling in Virginia. His progenitors were of robust physique, healthy and strong, and en- dowed with great mental force. The family were always noted for their devout and pure Christian lives. His mother was a daughter of · Rev. Henry Sonedecker, a minister of the Ger- man Reformed Church, a man of great learning and a profound thinker and able preacher, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1792, and was a pioneer in church work at Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio. He died in 1851 at North Lima, Ohio. Our subject's mother was born at Wooster in 1824. She is a woman of strong Christian character, and devoted to her children, home and church. Since the death of her husband, which occurred in 1878, she has made her home with her son, the subject of this sketch. His father was born in 1817, and had a fair education, and was a great reader, with broad and liberal views. From his fifth to his sixteenth year Leroy lived on a farm. He received a common school education, and also pursued an
academic course of two years at South Whitley, Indiana. Ile applied himself diligently to his studies, and began teaching school at the age of sixteen, and was principal of the public schools at Piper City, Illinois, for nearly three years. He improved his spare time in the study of the law, and in 1872, at the age of twenty-one, was ad- mitted to the bar at Columbia City, Indiana. Immediately after his admission he was ap- pointed deputy prosecuting attorney for the Ninth Judicial District of Indiana. He resigned this office in February, 1873, and removed to Youngstown, Ohio, and engaged in the practice of law until 1875, when he was elected judge of the Probate Court of Mahoning county, and was re-elected in 1878. Judge Thoman, from 1875 to 1883, was actively identified with the Demo- cratic party of Ohio and was a member of the State Executive Committee for several years. He was chairman of the Democratic State con- vention in 1880, and the same year was the candi- date of his party for Congress, but was defeated in the election by the Honorable William McKin- ley, Jr., the present Governor of Ohio. He was heartily supported before the Democratic State convention for Governor in 1881. He was ap- pointed in February, 1883, by President Arthur as the Democratic member of the United States Civil Service Commission under the Pendleton law, and served in that capacity for some three years,
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and then resigned. He removed to Chicago in the spring of 1888, and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession.
Judge Thoman was a member of the Executive Committee having in charge the securing of the World's Columbian Exposition for Chicago, and was largely instrumental in securing the Ohio Congressional vote. As a public speaker Judge Thoman has a national reputation. He delivered the annual address before the literary societies of Oberlin College in 1888, and was one of the judges of the literary and oratorical contest of Washing- ton and Jefferson College in 1887. In Chicago he has frequently spoken at banquets, and is a popular post-prandial speaker. The most notable of his Chicago speeches were those at the Doug- las banquet given by the Iroquois Club, April 23, 1888, his subject being "Progressive Politics;" that at Farwell Hall on April 30, 1889, his sub- ject being "The beginning of the Second Cen- tury of Constitutional Government ;" that at the Union League Club banquet on the evening of April 30, 1889, his subject being "Thomas Jeffer- son," and at the Sunset Club in March, 1891, on "Municipal Civil Service Reform." In the in- terest of the Columbian Exposition he spoke at Atlanta, Chattanooga, Fort Worth, Dallas, Little Rock, and other places, and was invited to speak at the Delmonico dinner, December 21, 1891. He presided at the historic banquet given to the National Commission of the World's Columbian Exposition, at the Palmer House, June 26, 1890.
In his religious belief he is a Presbyterian.
Judge Thoman has always been a Democrat, but fearless and independent in party action.
He has been twice married. His first wife was Mary E. Cripps, of Youngstown, Ohio, to whom he was married in March, 1876. Mrs. Thoman died in December of the same year. His second wife is the daughter of Hon. James M. Smith, of Lebanon, Ohio, judge of the Circuit Court, First District, whom he married February 25, 1892.
Judge Thoman is prominent in Masonic circles, being a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason of the thirty-second degree, and also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Union League, the Chicago Athletic and the North Shore clubs. He is president of the States Columbian Association and also president of the Ohio Society of Chicago.
Judge Thoman is the attorney for several im- portant corporations. He is lecturer on Private International Law in the law department of the Northwestern University. He is also a member of the Committee on Law Reform of the World's Congress. As a lawyer he is noted for his care, skill and faithfulness to his clients. As a public speaker, his clear voice, distinct articulation, well- chosen language and evident sincerity render him a popular and successful advocate. He devotes himself almost exclusively to his profession, and while his comprehensive and well-trained mind and large experience and knowledge of men fit him for doing any work ably, it is as an advocate that he is most conspicuous, his appeals to court and jury often being masterpieces of oratory.
JAMES FRAKE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T 'HE subject of this sketch is a prominent member of the Chicago bar. He has great versatility of talent. Exactness and thorough- ness characterize all of his attainments. With a multiplicity of learning everything is brought to bear on his life-work as a lawyer. Vigilant, zeal- ous and industrious, how could he be otherwise than successful?
James Frake was born in the town of Lough- borough, Leicestershire England, March 20, 1841, and is the son of George Frake, who immigrated
to America in 1844, and settled at Wheeling, Cook county, Illinois. His decease occurred on his farm in the month of March, 1846. The mother of our subject afterward married Mr. John Henley, a farmer of Northfield, Illinois, with whom James lived until he was eighteen years old. He then determined to have an edu- cation and with no other resources than his own energy and fortitude he started out to prepare the way for his future life. He entered the pre- paratory school connected with the Northwestern
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University at Evanston, and during his academic career supported himself ; and so resolute was he in his purposes that he reduced his expenses to the lowest possible figure by boarding himself, and on graduation day in July, 1866, he was at the head of his class and carried off the highest honors, and that too, although during nearly all the time he was at school he suffered from ill health, which did not improve until several years after he entered upon the practice of his chosen profession.
After graduation he taught school one year and then went abroad. Upon his return he attended the Chicago Law School, from which he was grad- uated in 1869. In May of that year he was ad- mitted to the Illinois bar by the Supreme Court, and since then has steadfastly and conscientiously devoted himself to his profession. Beginning with nothing he has accumulated a handsome property, and now enjoys a large and lucrative practice.
In June, 1874, Mr. Frake was elected a mem- ber of the board of Trustees of the Northwestern University, and still holds that position. llc was chosen secretary of the joint board of man-
agement of the Union College of Law, which he held several years. In January, 1879, he was ap- pointed a member of the Chicago board of educa- tion, being called upon to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Joseph S. Dennis, resigned.
Mr. Frake has been twice married. First in 1869 to Miss Melinda Doty, of Frankport, Will county, Illinois. She died in 1873, and he after- wards married Evelyn M. Allen, of Elk Grove, Illinois, daughter of Mr. John Allen, Sr. They have one son and one daughter living.
Mr. Frake is a member of the Centenary Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
He has a mind subtle and refined, and inclined to be judicial in its nature ; capable of hearing both sides of a question and drawing correct con- clusions. He is remarkable for clearness, and although possessing a vivid imagination he is in- clined to be practical, logical and consistent. These qualifications have been for a long time recognized by the members of the bar and many others, and Mr. Frake has been mentioned as an available man for one of the judgeships of Cook county.
DANIEL KIMBALL PEARSONS,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T 'HE life-history of him whose name heads
this sketch most happily illustrates what may be attained by faithful and continued effort in carrying out an honest purpose. It is the story of a life whose success is measured by its usefulness-a life that has made the world brighter and better.
Daniel K. Pearsons is a native of the Green Mountain State, and was born at Bradford on April 14, 1820, the son of John and Hannah (Putnam) Pearsons. His father was a farmer by occupation, and settled in Vermont more than a century ago. His mother belonged to the Israel Putnam family, her father, John Putnam, having been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. She was a woman of marked New England character- istics, and the mother of nine children. She lived to an advanced age, and recounted with pleasur- able pride the scenes of her early life, when she spun the yarn and wove the cloth to clothe her
entire family. She died at Holyoke, Massachu- setts, at the age of ninety-three years. Daniel received the rudiments of his education in the common schools. From his sixteenth to his twenty-first year he taught school during the win- ter months and then pursued a course of studies at Woodstock and at Dartmouth Medical College. After his graduation, he remained a short time in Vermont, and then established himself in his pro- fession at Chicopee, a thrifty manufacturing town near Springfield, Massachusetts. He met with gratifying success in his practice, but was not sat- isfied, his ambitions and aspirations leading him to desire and seek a broader field for the exercise of his powers.
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