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 36
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By his death the city of Chicago lost one of its most prominent and respected citizens, a man be- loved and esteemed by all who knew him.
CALVIN DE WOLF,
CHICAGO, ILL.
ALVIN DE WOLF was born February 18, had, with three months of winter school cach year C'
1815, at Braintrim, Luzerne county, Penn- sylvania, being the oldest son, who survived in- fancy, of a family of thirteen children. His father, Giles M. De Wolf, was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1782. His grandfather was also a native of the same town. The ancestors of this family of De Wolfs came from Holland and settled in Lyme, Connecticut, about 1650, but were originally Huguenots from France, and were driven to Holland by religious persecution. His mother, Anna Spaulding, was born in Cavendish, Vermont, in 1786, and was a descendant of Ed- ward Spaulding, who settled in Chelmsford, Massa- chusetts, about the year 1633. The De Wolf family removed to Vermont in 1817, but returned after a few years to Braintrim, in 1821, and in 1824 settled in Pike, Bradford County, Pennsyl- vania. Here a home was "cleared " in the " beech woods," and support secured. Calvin worked on the farm, and made muscle, if not money, in removing the timber from the soil. He improved such opportunities for study as he
during his minority. His father and a private tutor had aided him to considerable proficiency in Latin, the higher mathematics and surveying. He had taught school previous to 1836, when he went to the Grand River Institute, a manual labor school in Ashtabula county, Ohio. For one and a half years he sustained himself well in his studies, and in securing a livelihood. Then, by taking charge of a shipment of fruit, he " worked his way " to his future home.
On the 31st of October, 1837, he reached Chicago, with no capital except his own brain and brawn, and no friend in the city. After unsuccessful efforts, traveling as far as the Fox River on foot, he finally secured employment as teacher at Hadley, Will county, Illinois, having only a "York shilling" left for pressing needs. He returned to Chicago in the spring of 1838, and took a hand at various occupations before getting an opening to study law with Messrs. Spring & Goodrich. Two years more were spent in teaching during his law studies before
Calvin Delroll
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his admission to the bar in 1843. His close attention to duties for eleven years gave him a successful practice and plenty of friends.
In 1854 Mr. De Wolf was elected justice of the peace, and for a quarter of a century, by re-elections and appointment, administered that office with marked ability. Over ninety thou- sand cases came before him for decision. Some of these became of great interest and importance through appeal to the higher courts. One be- came of national repute, being carried to the Supreme Court of the United States. "Judge " De Wolf's warrant took into custody a slave- hunter, S. F. Nuckolls, and meanwhile " Eliza " escaped. In 1856 he was elected alderman and made chairman of the committee which revised the city ordinances. He was alderman also from 1866 to 1868, and had a large share in improving the city government. He was twice a member of the Board of Supervisors of Cook county. From early manhood he was a zealous and consistent Abolitionist ; was secretary of the first society formed in Chicago by that body of philanthro- pists. The Rev. Flavel Bascom, D. D., of hal- lowed memory, was president. He was also one of the founders of the Western Citizen, estab- lished by the State society as an anti-slavery organ.
In 1860 Mr. De Wolf, for his action as magis- trate already noted, was indicted by the United States District Court for "aiding a negro slave, called Eliza, to escape from her master, one Ste- phen S. Nuckolls, of Nebraska." A part of one of the counts of the indictment is inserted here, as a relic of Charles Sumner's "barbarism " inflicted on young Chicago, to wit :
The grand jurors of the United States of America chosen, selected and sworn, and charged to enquire of crimes and offenses within and for the Northern District of Illinois, upon their oaths present : That heretofore, to wit, on the first day of September, A. D. 1858, a certain negro female slave called Eliza, a person lawfully held to service or labor in the Territory of Nebraska, being the property of one Stephen F. Nuckolls, of the said Territory of Nebraska, the person to whom such service or labor was then due, did escape into Illinois, and was pursued, claimed, seized and arrested by the said Nuckolls, and said slave was lawfully under the control of said Nuckolls, etc., and that one Calvin De Wolf, late of said district, together with divers ; to wit, one hundred other persons to the jurors aforesaid as yet unknown and with force and arms unlawfully, knowingly and willingly did rescue the said negro slave Eliza, etc., he, the said Calvin De Wolf then and there well knowing, etc. (the alleged facts as set forth),
and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America and of the people thereof.
(Signed) H. S. FITCH,
U. S. District Attorney.
(Endorsed) "A TRUE BILL."
(Signed) W. L. NEWBERRY, Foreman.
Filed November 19th, 1860. (Signed) W. H. BRADLEY, Clerk.
As a matter of fact, Mr. De Wolf states that he was not present at the time Eliza was rescued ; but the grand jury, knowing his sentiments, found the indictment on general principles. They knew that he was an uncompromising Abolitionist and had the will to do the act. He was held to bail with five or six others in the sum of twenty- five hundred dollars each. He filed a motion to quash the indictment, on the ground that slavery did not exist in Nebraska. The South, and pro- slavery Northerners, claimed that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise carried slavery into all the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitu- tion. The motion never reached a hearing. The case never reached a trial, but was dismissed in December, 1861, by E. C. Larned, U. S. District Attorney.
When Eliza was taken from her master, the police interfered and took both to the "lock-up " for disturbance of the peace. While Nuckolls was in the "lock-up" Mr. De Wolf issued a war- rant, on the affidavit of George Anderson, against Nuckolls for an attempt to kidnap. The war- rant was never served, and Mr. De Wolf never saw Nuckolls or Eliza.
In 1879, after closing his long service as justice of the peace, Mr. De Wolf resumed the practice of law, and has continued in professional work, but spends most of his time in the management of his private business.
In June, 1841, he married Frances Kimball, of Chicago, a native of Preston, Connecticut. Five children were born to them-Ellen L., now Mrs. R. B. Bell, of Normalville, Cook county, Illinois ; Anna Spaulding, who went in 1877 to New, Orleans as a missionary teacher of the colored children, and died at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in September, 1878; Mary Frances, now Mrs. Milo G. Kellogg, of Chicago; Wallace L., now secretary of the Metropolitan Investment Com- pany of Chicago, and dealing in real estate, and Alice, who married Mr. L. D. Kneeland, and died in March, 1882, at Kokomo, Colorado.
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Mr. De Wolf and wife are members of the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. For some years, as an elder, he has nobly rounded out a Christian life, beginning actively with his
carly years. Now in the ripeness of his wisdom. and in affluence, he enjoys the confidence and high regard of all with whom he has business or social relations.
GEORGE WILLARD,
CHICAGO, IL.L.
M R. WILLARD graduated from the Union College of Law in 1865 ; was soon after admitted to the bar and is now in the twenty- sixth year of a continuous practice in Chicago. At the present time he is attorney for the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company and its two Chicago connections known as the "Fort Wayne" and "Pan Handle" lines. Also for the New York, Lake Erie and Western and the Northern Pacific Railroad companies and the American and Red Star steamship lines. In 1870 he was appointed attorney for the North Chicago Rolling-Mill Company, and local attorney for the Chicago and North-Western Railway Company, hokling the latter until 1875, and the former until 1889. He served one term as attorney and two terms as treasurer of the village of Hyde Park ; was six years master in chancery of the Circuit Court of Cook county, and five years secretary and treas- urer of the Western Railroad Association.
Mr. Willard is known as a modest, kind-hearted. charitable gentleman, but firm of purpose and conviction. His capacity for hard, continuous work is very great, as is his zeal and ambition for success. Few lawyers now at the Chicago bar have tried, unaided, a greater mimber of cases than Mr. Willard.
Mr. Willard in 1864 enlisted as a private in the ninety-day service and served as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-second Regiment Illinois Volunteers, for a period of about six months, and until the regiment was mustered out of the service in the fall of that year.
Mr. Willard is a native of the village of Natural Bridge, Jefferson county, New York, and a direct descendant of Major Simon Willard, who was born in Horsmonden, Kent county, England, and emigrated therefrom to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1634.
COL. LOREN H. WHITNEY,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE gentleman whose name heads this article is widely known as an able lawyer, a brave and gallant soldier, and an author of considerable repute. He is a native of Ohio, and is a fair type of the men who have so ably and honorably rep- resented that great commonwealth wherever men of learning, cloquence and scientific attainments were needed, or the tented field required them. He was born in Berlin, Eric County, Ohio, Sep- tember 12, 1839, the eldest son of James WV. Whit- ney, who came from Yates County, New York, and settled in Berlin in 1825, and married Miss Betsey Harper, a young lady of fine natural abilities, a relative of the famous Harper Broth-
crs, New York. In 1848 the family moved to DeKalb County, Illinois, where Loren attended school until he was about sixteen years old, when, lured by the glowing accounts of Mississippi, he joined a number of young men of his neighbor- hood in a resolution to go to that State and seek a fortune ; but when the time came to go all changed their purpose, excepting young Whitney, who started on foot, with staff in hand and car- pet-bag, alone, and with but one dollar and sev- enty-five cents in his pocket. His father refused him assistance, hoping to deter him from going, but he was not made of the stuff that yields. In two and a half days he walked to Peru, seventy
.
Are AF Bry Put Lou Mu00
I Willard
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miles from home, and after paying for a meal he balanced his cash account, and found but ten cents in his favor. Something had to be done. He offered his services to the engineer of a little steamer lying at the wharf, and about to move out. He represented that he could do anything and everything, and was engaged as boy of all work, with the stipulation that he would be paid whatever his services were considered worth. He continued in this employment five weeks, and was paid twenty-eight dollars, and promised fifty dol- lars per month to continue, but declined the offer and went to Bolivia county, Mississippi, where he passed the winter. He contracted with a planter to throw up a levee on the banks of the Missis- sippi and made a handsome profit on his con- tract. He went across the plains to California in 1855, with a company of gold-hunters, and there worked a gold mine and made money enough to enable him to return and gratify his young ambi- tion to pursue a college course of study, complet- ing a four-years' course in two years. He was a bright and apt student, always among the fore- most in his class. He then entered the law office of the late Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, at Belvi- dere, Illinois, and subsequently attended Asbury University, Indiana, and still later was admitted to the bar, the committee that examined him com- plimenting him highly on his proficiency, though he had read law but one year. When the war broke out he was practicing his profession, but entered the army as captain in the Eighth Regi- ment, Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, one of the best regiments in the Army of the Potomac. When Gen. McClellan advanced on Manassas Gap, Capt. Whitney, at the head of Sumner's Cavalry, led the way. While sitting on a "Quaker cannon " at Manassas he conceived the idea of writing for the press, but before an hour's thought concluded to write a full history of the war, and carried that purpose into execution, and his first volume was published in 1863. He served with valor in the Peninsula campaign, and in the battles around Richmond, and was offered the position of major on Gen. Sumner's staff, but declined it to accept a colonelcy, as he supposed, of one of the new regiments from his state; but when he returned it proved to be a lieutenant-colonelcy that was in- tended, and he declined it, but was instrumental afterward in organizing two more regiments which
went to the field. During this time he wrote and published the first volume of his history of the War of the Rebellion, a work which will compare favorably with the best of the many histories of that great conflict. It is a clear setting-forth of the inciting causes and philosophy of the Rebel- lion, and an accurate and full history of the facts and incidents attending its prosecution and cul- mination.
Governor Yates requested him to organize an- other regiment of infantry, which he did in three weeks' time, and being made its colonel, led it to. the front in Mississippi. In 1864 he was put in command of a force sent out to intercept and drive away Gen. Forrest, who, at the head of a large force of cavalry, was committing depreda- tions on our railroad and telegraph lines and de- stroying our communications, and Col. Whitney was not defeated in a single contest with that noted rebel leader, though he had many fights and skirmishes, and succeeded in driving him away. Thence he went to Missouri with his com- mand and was engaged against Gen. Price in 1864. During his service he participated in twelve great battles and forty skirmishes, and was wounded twice. As an evidence of the appreci- ation of his bravery, and of the esteem in which he was held as an officer and man, his officers and men presented him with an elegant sword, case of pistols and a field glass. The sword, blood- stained, is still retained as a reminder of the great conflict.
In 1866, when returning from Washington, where he had been to settle his accounts, he be- came acquainted with Miss Mary Munson, who was on her way home from college, and a year later married her.
After leaving the service he settled at Chicago in the practice of his profession, and has been successful, standing well at the bar as an honor- able and faithful attorney and counselor.
In 1875 he went to Topeka, Kansas, and while there wrote a compendium of Kansas Reports, making an octavo volume of nine hundred pages, which added to his reputation as an able and thorough lawyer. He was solicited to run for congress while there, but declined, and returned to Chicago in 1877, and renewed the practice of the law, and is now (1892) so engaged.
Of Col. Whitney the Bench and Bar of Chicago
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says: "Hle is a stalwart Republican, a fluent, ready, graceful speaker, and his voice is heard in advocacy of the principles and platform of that party in all important campaigns. He hasa com- manding presence, is six feet two inches in height, the regulation height of a genuine Buckeye, and is one who, even on first sight, leaves the impres- sion of being more than an ordinary man in all respects. He stands well in the community and has the confidence and esteem of all who know him intimately. Ile is yet a young man, but his
life work up to the present time, in so far as it is known and read of men, is to his credit."
In July, 1882, he presided at the Cook County Convention which elected delegates to the Repub- lican State Convention, and in the following fall was nominated for the legislature from the Twelfth Ward, but declined to be a candidate, although he received the largest majority of anyone ever nominated in that ward.
Col. Whitney is prominent in Grand Army cir- cles, and is a true friend of every worthy cause.
JAMES H. WALKER,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T THE subject of this sketch, James H1. Walker, was born in New York City, March 23. 1844. His father was the son of a British officer, his mother the daughter of an Irish squire. His brothers all had liberal educations. The oldest is the Episcopal bishop of North Dakota, and the other two are lawyers in the city of New York. His sisters graduated with high honors at the Packer Institute, Brooklyn.
At the age of fourteen, Mr. Walker left Trinity school, after having qualified for Columbia College, and entered the employ of A. T. Stewart & Co., New York, at a salary of $50 per annum. That great house was then the foremost mercantile in- stitution of the land, and was distinguished by the high integrity of its founder, and the strict business methods of its organization. To be in its employ was considered an honor, and to have been educated in its methods was considered a guarantee of correct and thorough business prin- ciples. On entering that house, James H. Walker, the boy, found himself in the lowest and poorest position, and at the " beck and call " of all above him. His duties commenced at half-past seven in the morning, and continued with but half an hour's intermission for dinner, till the close of business, which was from six to twelve o'clock at night, according to the necessities of the season ; for in those days the busy seasons were short, and the rush of business, of necessity, compelled very long hours while it lasted. Besides, the facilities which render business so easy now were then wanting. There were no elevators, no tele-
phones, and the telegraph was but little used. By tireless energy and attention to his duties, the boy soon became noticed as reliable and always on hand. He adopted the habit of taking his lunch with him to the store and eating it in his department, so as to be available when needed.
In the fall of that year the panic of 1857 swept over the country and destroyed a large number of the commercial houses in New York. Economy became the order of the day among those which stood. Mr. Stewart thinned out his force as largely and as expeditiously as possible, but Jas. H. Walker was retained, under the impression that his serv- ices would be useful even at such a time as that. The boy worked his way up gradually to be stock clerk, assistant salesman, salesman on the road, and finally, in 1863, he became a general sales- man. He speedily became the largest salesman in the house, and, in 1865 was placed in charge of a department. This department was managed so satisfactorily that in 1868 another department was added, and he went abroad as European buyer for the house. He conducted his depart- ments with conspicuous profit and success, and in 1874 Mr. Stewart, acknowledging his large and critical experience in all the European markets, desired him to take charge of his Manchester house, under power of attorney, on the retirement of one of his partners.
In September, 1876, A. T. Stewart & Co. hav- ing decided to open a large wholesale house in Chicago, Mr. Walker was selected to take charge of that house, acting under their full power of at-
Very Truly Yours La HT Hacker
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torney. This business he conducted for them for four and one-half years, successfully and satisfac- torily, and then foreseeing the retirement of A. T. Stewart & Co. (Mr. Stewart having died), Mr. Walker decided to go into business for himself, starting his present house January 1, 1882. The firm of James H. Walker & Co. has been a suc- cess from the start, and is the first instance on record in this country of a house starting new and fresh, on a large scale, and doing a business the first year of over five million dollars. The history of all other houses has been that of a small beginning and gradual growth. This house started on a large and broad scale from the first, and has steadily grown year by year. Besides the very large wholesale house, it has a retail house doing a business of millions of dollars per annum. Its employés number altogether over twelve hundred. It has offices in New York,
Manchester and Paris, and connections with all parts of the world.
Mr. James H. Walker is an active member of many clubs and other organizations ; among others, the Chicago Commercial Club, the Chi- cago Club, the Chicago Athletic Club, the Union Club the Twentieth Century Club, the Reform Club of New York, governing member of the Art Institute, and several others. He has long had a large collection of paintings, which is of high merit, and his library is rich in historical works and books of literature and the fine arts.
In 1865 he was married to Miss Emeline Tate, of New London, Conn., the descendant of an old colonial family, prominent in the Revolutionary War. The homestead in New London has been the residence of her family for over one hundred and fifty years. Mr. and Mrs. James H. Walker have three children, two sons and a daughter.
GEORGE SAWIN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this biography is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and was born April 14, 1834. He is the fourth son of John and Char- lotte (Lash) Sawin, and is of Scotch ancestry upon his father's and of Welsh upon his mother's side.
From his father he inherited a sturdy physique, and the industry and integrity of the Scotch, and from his mother the fine conscientiousness and up- rightness of spirit for which the Welch are noted.
During his boyhood George attended school in the little town of Chelsea, Massachusetts, where his parents resided for many years. After leaving this school, he attended an institution under the charge of one William D. Swan, and was gradu- ated therefrom. With a predilection for study and books, he was not long in making the choice of a profession, deciding upon the law as being most congenial to his tastes. Accordingly, when about eighteen years old, he entered the office of Mr. Samuel E. Guild and Hon. Geo. S. Hilliard, both prominent lawyers at the Boston bar. He studied under their preceptorship about two years, but just before finishing his course he was compelled by failing health to relinquish his studies. He thereupon made an extensive trip through the
Southern and Western States. In 1854 he settled in Chicago.
In 1855 he took a position in the mercantile house of Messrs. W. and S. L. Mills, as credit-man for the States of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.
In 1856 he associated himself with Adam Car- lyle in a real estate enterprise, and laid out the town of De Soto, on the Mississippi river, in Bad- axe county, Wisconsin, where he invested all his possessions in a sawmill, warehouse, icehouse and other improvements. All was lost during the financial panic that swept over the country in 1857, and Mr. Sawin found himself penniless. Returning to Chicago, he took employment in the dry goods house of Messrs. Stacy & Thomas, with whom he remained until 1859, when they went into liquidation. He then became a clerk in the postoffice under Hon. Isaac Cook, post- master, and being on the night service, he had some time each day for study, which he improved in the law office of Hon. James P. Root, and by indomitable energy and close application, fitted himself for examination and was admitted to practice in both the State and Federal courts.
He first formed a partnership with Gilbert C.
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Walker, who was the first governor of Virginia after the war, and the Hon James P. Root, under the firm name of Root, Walker & Sawin. Hle was afterwards succesively in the firms of Sawin & Mattocks, Storrs, Kellogg & Sawin, and Chase, Munson & Sawin.
At the opening of the civil war he enlisted in the Fifty-eighth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, and in December, 1861, left Chicago for Fort Henry as quartermaster of that regiment. Except a short time spent in Springfield, upon the reorganization of his regiment, after being liberated from Libby prison, he was constantly in the field, serving a great portion of the time on the staffs of Generals Smith, Morrow, Dodge and Sweeney. He was in the Sixteenth Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, and was in the Red River expedition as acting Major on the staff of Gen-
eral Morrow. In the bloody battle of Pleasant Hill he led a brigade and had two horses killed under him. He was with Gen. Sherman in the celebrated " Meridian Raid." During his whole service Mr. Sawin was noted for his bravery, and received the sobriquet of " The Fighting Quarter- master." After the war he resumed his profession at Chicago, and has since continued it uninterrupt- edly and achieved satisfactory success.
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