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 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
451
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
twelve more than the highest number of votes. given to Mr. Depew.
On the morning of the 2d of July the deadly bullet of the assassin, Guiteau, struck down the President of the United States, James A. Garfield, and the heart of the nation was thrilled with horror. In the presence of this awful calamity the people stood awe-struck and dumb, and sad- ness, mourning and a fearful sense of insecurity spread all over the land. The effect of this appalling tragedy upon the minds of men need not be described here. The story has been told in letters of fire. To many it seemed as if a serious crisis had been reached in the life of the Republic, but in the calm that ensued men saw with clearer vision, and reason and confidence were soon restored again, and mingled with the prayers of the people for the preservation of the life of their President. The New York legislature had adjourned upon the announcement of the tragedy, and when it reassembled, the more thoughtful men of the Republican party felt that the senatorial contests should be brought to a close as decently and speedily as possible. Mr. Depew was the first to point out the duty of the hour, and, after the fortieth ballot had shown his undiminished strength, he withdrew from the field. In his letter to the convention he said : " Neither the State nor the party can afford to have New York unrepresented in the national councils. A great crime has plunged the nation into sorrow, and in the midst of the prayers and the tears of the whole people, supplicating for the recovery and weeping over the wound of the President, this partisan strife should cease." To those who had fought with pride and unquench- able zeal under his flag, he made grateful and touching acknowledgment, and said : "Their de- votion will be the pride of my life, and the heri- tage of my children." On the 8th of July, Mr. Depew having withdrawn, a caucus of the Repub- lican members was held, and the number present, as we have already stated, was only twelve more than the highest number of votes cast for Mr. Depew. The Hon. Warner Miller was nominated by the caucus, and the nomination was ratified in joint convention on the forty-eighth ballot. Mr. Conkling's successor was not elected until the 22d of July. After fifty-five ballots had been cast, a meeting of the Republicans was held, and it was
resolved to meet in caucus at three o'clock in the afternoon of the day named. On the call of the roll, Elbridge G. Lapham received sixty-one votes, Roscoe Conkling twenty-eight, and the nomina- tion of the former was made unanimous. An hour later Mr. Lapham was elected United States Senator; and thus was brought to a close the great dual contest for the places made vacant by the resignations of Senators Conkling and Platt.
In 1884 the Republicans of all factions in the Legislature, being in a majority of nearly two- thirds, tendered the United States Senatorship to Mr. Depew, but he had become committed to so many business and professional trusts he felt compelled to decline the honor. In 1882 William H. Vanderbilt retired from the presidency of the New York Central, and the management was reorganized. Mr. James H. Rutter was made president, and Mr. Depew second vice-president. Upon the death of Mr. Rutter, in 1885, Mr. Depew was elevated to the presidency, and is now the executive head of one of the largest and most prosperous railroad corporations in the world, with untold wealth at his back, and with an influence commensurate with the vast interests of the great Vanderbilt system of railroads, and not even circumscribed by these limits.
This sketch of Mr. Depew would fall far short of doing him justice if it failed to take into account the warmth and depth of his social nature, the inflexible probity of his character, and his broad and generous sympathies toward his fellow-men. He has an abundant measure of the affectionate nature which distinguished Henry Clay, and which made him the idol of such a circle of friends as no other American statesman could ever boast of. He is loyal to his friends, and they are unswerving in their devotion to him ; he is tolerant of men's convictions while firm in maintaining his own ; he delights in speaking well of others, and, above all, finds infinite satisfaction in doing good. While he has back of him enor- mous wealth, and can count among his friends the noblest in the land, he is never unmindful of the claims of the less fortunate who are entitled to his consideration.
Mr. Depew was married to Elise Hegeman on the 9th of November, 1871, and has one child, a son. Notwithstanding the constant demands upon his time and best thoughts by public affairs,
452
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
by the many railroad and financial corporations in which he is an active director, and by the socic- ties and clubs of which he is always a welcome
attendant, it is in his own home, with his wife and family, that his large-hearted and large-minded manhood finds its favored sphere and chief delight.
DR. JOHN E. GILMAN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
W HEN the great fire swept away the city of least important result of this united effort has
Chicago, in 1871, it made room for a new city. It was not the resurrection of the old Chi- cago which followed that memorable conflagra- tion, but the evolution of a new metropolis, differing from and in every respect immeasurably the superior of the old one. It is true the new city has some of the distinguishing characteristics of the old one, but there are just enough of them to clearly establish the fact of a common origin. In appearance the Chicago which disappeared in flame and smoke a little more than twenty years ago, was a provincial town compared with the magnificent city which we find occupying the same site to-day. Compared with the massive business blocks of the present city, the buildings in which the trade of the old Chicago was carried on were very shabby structures, and the fine residences of twenty years ago would hardly be regarded now as fairly respectable tenement- houses. What were looked upon at that time as business enterprises of vast magnitude, would scarcely attract passing notice to-day, and the influence of the old city upon the trade and commerce of the country was small compared with what it now is.
While Chicago has been making such strides in the march of progress as have no parallel in the history of cities, a corresponding change has taken place in the character of its citizens. The men who have built up the new city of Chicago, are the men who were tried by the ordeal of fire in 1871, and demonstrated at that time that they were men of irrepressible force and energy, of iron nerve and indomitable courage.
To have lifted the stricken city out of its own ashes and placed it on its own footing would have been a great undertaking; but to lift it to the much higher plane which it now occupies, has been a Herculean task, only accomplished by the united effort of all loyal Chicagoans. Not the
been what may be called its reflex action upon those who participated in it, and the people of Chicago generally, having been compelled by force of circumstances to make a long, strong pull together, and having witnessed the magnificent results of that effort, have gotten into the habit of working unitedly and harmoniously for any- thing which promises to contribute to the growth, importance or attractiveness of the city. This is the secret of success which has attended the efforts of Chicago to secure national political conventions and other similarly attractive gather- ings, when brought into sharp competition with other cities of the country within the past ten years. It is also the secret of success which has crowned the efforts of the metropolis of the West to secure the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892-93.
It may be said, therefore, that when we look at the Chicago of to-day and compare it with the Chicago of 1871, we discover that the fire not only burned away the old, ugly and unsightly buildings, and made room for those which are models of their kind, but it also scorched to death the petty rivalries, jealousies and bicker- ings of her business and professional men, and made room for the broad liberality which char- acterizes their dealings with cach other at the present time.
Nowhere is this spirit of liberality more notice- able than among those professional gentlemen who are generally supposed to be, above all others, inclined to serious disagreements and bit- ter controversies-the gentlemen of the medical profession. It is said by those who are in a position to know, that in no other city in the United States do the different schools of medi- cinc affiliate to the same extent that they do in Chicago. The beginning of this era of good feel- ing in the medical fraternity of Chicago, like many
Maya.
yours Truly DEGilman
455
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
other beneficent influences, dates back to the fire. It was at that time, when the tempest of flame swept over the city, leaving thousands of people homeless and destitute, when chaos reigned every- where, and when the sick and suffering were driven into the streets, to huddle together here and there without food, medicine or shelter, that a prominent allopathic physician, and a young, but promising homœopathic practitioner proffered their services at the same time to the citizens' committee, which had undertaken to restore order, to care for the sick and distressed, and relieve as far as possible the general distress. When the committee on "sick and hospitals " was regularly organized, Dr. H. A. Johnson, the physician above alluded to, was made chairman of the committee, and Dr. John E. Gilman, the homœ- opathic physician, became secretary of the same committee.
The time had been in Chicago, as in every other city, when gentlemen representing these two antagonistic schools of medicine could not have met each other half way on a single proposition, or acted three-quarters of an hour harmoniously together. The great fire had, however, touched the medical profession of Chicago and burned away its prejudices and its unreasonable bitter- ness, along with the other rubbish of the old Chicago.
The causeless bickerings and foolish dissensions were for the time being buried in the ashes of the metropolis, and there has never been any- thing like a general resurrection of the old ani- mosities. Side by side, and shoulder to shoulder, the two physicians at the head of this important committee worked together almost day and night to relieve the sick and suffering, and their ex- ample was followed by their professional brethren of both schools. The work on hand had to be done under great difficulties. It was not in the power of the physicians themselves to furnish the medicines needed; it was not in the power of those who became their patients to supply them- selves with medicine, because in many instances all their earthly possessions had been licked up by the fire, and they had not the means even to procure a night's lodging or a loaf of bread. The city government undertook to assume the re- sponsibility of caring for all such unfortunate sufferers, but the ability of the city to discharge
the obligation thus assumed was very gravely questioned.
Chicago was looked upon by many as a ruined and bankrupt municipality, and not every one who had the ability to honor the city's drafts was willing to do so. In conversation with the writer, recently, Dr. Gilman said that when he made out the first order for drugs which it was absolutely necessary his committee should have, and sent it to the drug house of Fuller & Fuller, this being the only drug house in that part of Chicago known as the "South side," which had not been destroyed by fire, he had grave doubts of having his requisition honored, and his confidence in the magnanimity and generosity of Chicago business men was vastly increased when Mr. O. F. Fuller, the senior member of the drug firm, came in per- son to deliver, not only the drugs ordered, but such other medicines in addition as he had rea- son to believe would be needed by the com- mittee.
It was the untiring efforts, the unflagging zeal of Dr. Gilman in this work, which brought him prominently before the public, won for him the kind regard of his brother practitioners, without regard to the school to which they happened to belong, and at the same time secured to him that large measure of confidence in his skill and ability as a physician and surgeon which laid the founda- tion for the splendid practice he has since built up. That he should have achieved success in his profession, or in any other calling to which he had turned his attention, seems perfectly natural to those who know the man, who have noted his diligence, his industry, and his remarkable capa- city for so directing all his efforts as to accom- plish the greatest amount of work in a given time. Those who know the history of the Gilman family could hardly excuse anything short of complete success in one of its representatives.
Although Dr. Gilman himself was born at Harmer, Ohio, a suburb of Marietta, in 1841, he comes of the old Puritan family which a some- what noted historian has said "influenced for a century and a half the political, ecclesiastical, social and financial history of New England." It was in 1638 that the first Gilman came over from England and became the American progenitor of this noted family. Beginning with Nicholas Gil- man, who was a moving spirit in the American
456
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Revolution, the Gilmans of New England have ever since been prominent in public life. For eleven successive years John Taylor Gilman was governor of New Hampshire, just before the close of the last century, and for three successive years at the beginning of the present century he occu- pied the same position, making in all fourteen years that he served the people of his State in the capacity of chief magistrate of the common- wealth. At the same time his brother, Nicholas Gilman, was serving as a member of the Conti- nental Congress, and later as a United States Senator from the same State.
President D. C. Gilman, of Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Chandler Robbins Gilman, an author of note, have been the members of the family most prominently before the public within the last quarter of a century.
On the mother's side, Dr. Gilman is descended from the Fay, another old Massachusetts family. His mother and the late Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, who was postmaster-general in Presi- dent Hayes cabinet, and before that minister to Russia, were born on the same day, on adjoining farms, near Westborough, Massachusetts, in 1814, at a time when the fathers of both were absent from home, serving in the second war with Great Britain.
There were eleven children in the Fay family and three of the daughters married physicians. It was a sister of Dr. Gilman's mother who in- augurated the movement to build and maintain at the public expense the homes for orphan chil- dren which are now so prominent a feature of the public charities of Ohio and other states. This lady, Catharine Fay by name, was for many years a missionary among the Choctaw Indians, and when the missionaries were driven out of the Choctaw country, shortly before the late war of the Rebellion, she returned to Ohio and at her own expense built the first orphan home in that State, at the town of Lawrence, on the Little Muskin- gum river, in Washington county. She after- wards induced the legislature to take action, which led to the building of similar institutions in almost all, if not all, the counties in Ohio.
As his more remote ancestors had been among the earliest settlers of New England, his imme- diate ancestors were among the first to find their way into what was then the wild West, the un-
broken wilderness on the banks of the Ohio river, where the first settlement was made in the Buck- eye State.
His grandfather settled at Belpre, opposite Blennerhassett's Island, the picturesque spot which was supposed to have served as the head- quarters for those turbulent and restless spirits, engaged in Aaron Burr's conspiracy. Afterward he removed to Kentucky, where some members of his family still reside, his son, Dr. George Gil- man, having been for many years a prominent physician of Lexington.
It was within a few miles of Belpre that Dr. Gilman was born ; but when he was five years old he returned with his father, Dr. John C. Gilman, to Westborough, Massachusetts, where the latter engaged in the practice of his profes- sion. It was the intention of the father that his three sons should follow in his footsteps, so far as the choice of a profession was concerned, and he shaped their studies to that end.
Two of the sons drifted into the profession which had been chosen for them, but the third engaged in railroad business, in which he has been decidedly successful.
William L. Gilman, an elder brother of the subject of this sketch, after practicing medicine for some years, entered the ministry, and is now at the head of a church in Denver, Colorado. There was nothing irksome to John E. Gilman as a boy, about the calling chosen for him by his father. His studies were to him a source of plea- sure, and the assistance which he was called upon, from time to time, to give his father in his surgi- cal and other practice, increased his interest in what he looked forward to as his life work. When he was seventeen years of age his father died, and he afterwards studied with his brother, then practicing medicine at Marietta, Ohio, and also under the direction of Dr. George Hartwell, of Toledo, Ohio. He finished his course of study in Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, and im- mediately thereafter commenced the practice of medicine in this city.
The measure of his success as a practitioner has already been alluded to. And it is only necessary to add to what has been said, that as a writer and an educator he has become equally prominent. His contributions to journals and periodicals have covered a wide range of subjects and have been
457
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
by no means confined to the field of medicine. He has literary talent of a high order, and as an art critic has been prominently identified with the Chicago press.
Notwithstanding the multiplicity of his pro- fessional duties, he has found time to devote him- self, quite extensively, to art matters, and some years ago was one of the leading spirits in build- ing up and maintaining the Crosby Opera House Art Gallery, one of the finest art galleries Chicago has ever had; at the same time he edited, in com- pany with Mr. Joseph Wright, the Chicago Art Journal.
Hahnemann Medical College, the most noted of all the homeopathic educational institutions west of the Allegheny Mountains, has recognized his ability as a physician by selecting him to fill the chair of "Physiology, Sanitary Science and Hygiene," a position which he has held since 1 884.
In 1860, Dr. Gilman was married to Miss Mary D. Johnson, who, although residing in the West
at the time of her marriage, was, no less than her husband, a Puritan as to lineage.
The farm upon which Mrs. Gilman was raised at Westborough, Massachusetts, was acquired by purchase from the Indians by the Johnson family, and descended from father to son until her father, having no sons to hand it down to, allowed the old place to pass out of the family.
Although not a drop of anything but Puritan blood runs in the veins of the Gilman family, the Chicago representative of the old New England stock, while revering the general nobility of char- acter of his ancestry and the class of God-fear- ing, liberty-loving men to which they belonged, is by no means blinded to their faults, and some clever criticism, in verse, of their old-time creeds and customs, have been among the products of his pen.
[The above sketch is from the Magazine of Western History, September, 1890, Vol. XII, No. 5, and over the signature, Howard Louis Conard.]
JOHN M. DUNPHY,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MAN'S life-work is the measure of his suc- cess, and he is truly the most successful man who, pursuing an honorable purpose, attains the object of his endeavor. The life-history of him whose name heads this sketch illustrates what can be accomplished by continued and faithful hard work.
John M. Dunphy is a native of New York, and was born at Utica, October 2, 1834, the son of Martin and Mary (Hickey) Dunphy. His father was a successful and prominent builder in Utica. John received the usual common school educa- tion, and at the age of sixteen his father appren- ticed him to learn the mason's and contractor's business. He served an apprenticeship of four years, completely mastering the details of his vocation. Then for a year he worked as a jour- neyman mason in Utica. Upon attaining his majority he resolved to go West and try his for- tune in a new country, and worked at his trade in various cities in the West until 1858, when he settled in Chicago, where he has since made his
home. He secured work at once as foreman for Mr. R. E. Moss, a contractor and builder, with whom he remained until 1863, when he started in business on his own account as a contractor and builder. He was reasonably successful from the start, having all the work he could attend to. Among the many prominent struct- ures now existing as memorials of Mr. Dunphy's work may be mentioned the Cathedral of the Holy Name, St. James' Church, the residences of Mr. George M. Pullman and Mr. B. P. Moulton, St. Dennis Hotel and others of a like character.
Mr. Dunphy has always taken an active inter- est in politics, and is an earnest and popular Democrat. In the spring of 1879 he was nomi- nated for the office of Collector of the West Town, and was elected by a decided majority. Again, in the spring of 1883, he was elected City Treasurer by a good majority. In 1889 Mr. Dun- phy was appointed by Mayor Cregier Commis- sioner of Buildings, in which capacity he served with credit until the spring of 1891.
458
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Mr. Dunphy was married, in 1859, to Miss Mary Doyle, daughter of J. Edward Doyle, of Dublin, Ireland. Three sons and one daughter have blessed this union. The only surviving son, John J., is associated with his father in business.
Mr. Dunphy is a member of the Cook County
Democratic Club, also the Wahnatons and the Irish-American Club. In stature he is of me- dium height and rather stout. He has a genial nature and is an agreeable companion, and a man of great popularity among his wide circle of friends.
JOSEPH HOWARD BUFFUM, M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
O NE of the favored few, to whom success has come carly, is Joseph Howard Buffum, who was born August 24, 1849, in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania. To the public schools of that city he owes the foundation of a very thorough education, having passed through the entire course of study of those institutions, graduating from high school at the age of eighteen. His first purpose was to become an engineer, and with that purpose in view he studied civil engineering for a year. Finding this choice ill-advised, he turned instinct- ively to the medical profession, and with a view to preparing himself for it, in 1869, entered Cor- nell University, at Ithaca, New York. His prep- aration for college was so complete that he entered the sophomore class and was graduated three years later. During that time he derived great benefit from a special course under the direction of the distinguished scientist, Prof. Burt G. Wilder. Leaving the University, he spent one year in study at Hahnemann Medical College, of Philadelphia. He then returned to New York and was graduated from the New York Homeo- pathic Medical College in March, 1873.
Dr. Buffum began his career as a general prac- titioner in his native city, Pittsburgh, where, in three years, he built up a practice most creditable to so young a man. While there he did good service as attending physician to the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, improving his opportun- ities to study diseases of eye and car. In 1876 Dr. Buffum removed to New York City, and fur- ther pursued his favorite study in the Ophthalmic College of that city, and was graduated as a sur- geon of the eye and ear. He soon became resi- dent surgeon of the New York Ophthalmic Hospi- tal, and was made lecturer on diseases of the eye in the New York Ophthalmic Hospital College.
In 1880, owing to the death of Prof. W. H. Woodyatt, the chair of diseases of the eye and car was left vacant in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. The faculty unanimously chose Dr. Buffum to fill it, whereupon he took up his residence in Chicago, and is now the manager of that institution, and has, besides, an extensive private practice. He gives a free public clinic weekly at the hospital, and in his specialty is con- sulted by patients from all parts of the country. Dr. Buffum's eminence in this branch of medical science was further demonstrated when the Amer- ican Society of Homeopathic Oculists, at its annual meeting held at Indianapolis, in 1882, chose him as its presiding officer. He is a mem- ber of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and many other medical and scientific societies throughout the country.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.