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 48
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In 1857 he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and for six years was engaged with his brother, Mr. J. W. Griswold, in the cloak manufacturing business. In 1863 they removed to Chicago, where they continued the manufacture of ladies' and children's cloaks under the firm name of J. W. Griswold & Co. The business of this firm
constantly increased from its start, in 1857, and has grown to be one of the largest of its kind in America. Since the retirement of Mr. J. W. Griswold, in 1886, the management has become more aggressive, and there are no more energetic, popular or better merchants in the cloak trade than his successors, Mr. Edward P. Griswold and Mr. P. B. Palmer; cach of whom having been brought up in the business, are thoroughly conver- sant with all of the details of what is considered the most difficult lines of manufacture. It has been the aim of the firm from its very start to the present time to manufacture only garments that could be depended upon for style, and that would give satisfaction in the wear. The popularity of the house with its customers is a well known-fact, which is due to the universal satisfaction which their garments have given. No firm has a better record, and it has been established longer than any other house in this country, passing through the financial crises of 1857 and 1877, and the great Chicago fire of 1871. While thousands of firms were stranded and others settled at various per- centages of their indebtedness, this firm always met all of its obligations, paying one hundred cents on the dollar.
As a citizen, no man stands higher than Ed- ward P. Griswold. While he is modest in his de- meanor and unostentatious, he is always in the front rank in all matters of reform. He is a deacon in the First Presbyterian Church, and a
yours Truly E. P.Suswolds
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man who has bettered the world by having lived in it.
He belongs to the Union League and Hamil- ton clubs, and is a member of the Citizens' Asso- ciation and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Mr. Griswold was married in the year 1865 to Miss Mary Browning. They have four chil- dren -two sons and two daughters- Edward Browning, Mary Maude, Grace and Harold Griswold.
JOSEPH EIBOECK,
DES MOINES, IOWA.
A MONG the few journalists who have won distinction in writing for the press in both the two leading languages in the United States is Joseph Eiboeck, the present editor and proprietor of three journals-the Iowa Staats-Anzeiger, Der Haus-Schatz and Sonntags-Post, of Des Moines, Iowa. He was born in Szeleskut (Breitenbrunn), Hungary, on the 23d of February, 1838, and is the only child of Joseph and Marie Eiboeck. When quite young his father was killed in a duel. At six years of age he was taken to Vienna, the capital of Austria, and placed in an educational institute. His boyhood days were passed in the stormy days of the revolution of 1848-49. Re- siding in the heart of the city, within a stone's throw of the great St. Stephan's Church, he was a youthful but eager eye-witness of the exciting and often harrowing scenes of that eventful pe- riod. It was there, doubtless, upon the barricade immediately in front of his parental home, with the banners flying, the black-red-and-gold cock- ades worn exultantly and the vivats of liberty and equality resounding, as speaker after speaker harangued the multitudes and aroused them to their duties as citizens and patriots, that he drank in that spirit of freedom and an antagonism to all forms of oppression with which his nature has been imbued all his life.
After that sanguinary revolution his stepfather, Paul Kiene, who participated in that struggle, was forced into exile, and with his family came to America in the spring of 1849, settling in Du- buque, Iowa. Soon after coming there, Joseph entered the office of the Miner's Express as an apprentice under Col. Wm. H. Merritt, where he learned the printer's trade and the English lan- guage at the same time. While an apprentice and journeyman printer he applied himself during his leisure hours to study, with great assiduity,
and qualified himself for the position of teacher, in which occupation he was engaged for several years. It is worthy of note here, that the first time he ever saw the interior of a common school in the United States was when he entered one as teacher, after having successfully passed a thor- ough examination, and that was two years before he was of age.
In 1859 he purchased the Elkader (Clayton county, Iowa,) Journal, an English paper, which he edited and published for thirteen years. He was also the founder of the Elkader Nord Iowa Herold, a German weekly, which he conducted for a time, in addition to his other paper. In 1872 he sold out and devoted himself to the com- pletion of the history of Clayton county, upon which he had been engaged for some years. Thereafter, partly for his health but mainly for information, he traveled extensively in the United States and Territories, visiting the Pacific Coast and the upper portion of Mexico. In 1873 he was appointed an honorary commissioner from Iowa to the World's Fair at Vienna, and after discharging the duties of his mission made a tour of the Continent, visiting the principal cities of Europe. Upon his return to Iowa he prepared and delivered some very interesting and instruct- ive lectures upon his observations abroad.
In February, 1874, not long after his return from his European tour, Mr. Eiboeck purchased the Iowa Staats-Anzeiger, which he has continued to publish ever since, covering a period of seven- teen years, during which time he has made it one of the leading German papers of the Northwest. The paper is a large, nine-column folio, and al- ways contains from two to three columns of edi- torials in English print on the leading political issues of the day, an innovation on the custom of publishers of German papers which has proved a
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marked success. He has made the Iowa Staats Ansciger noted as the leading exponent of the principles of personal liberty as opposed to all sumptuary legislation. In addition to the paper mentioned he edited the Herald of Liberty and the State Independent for several years, and is now also editing and publishing the Haus-Schatz and the Sonntags-Post, two popular local German liter- ary papers. But it was not as a journalist alone that Mr. Eiboeck attained distinction. Being able to speak in both English and German, he has been, each year for many years, called into the political campaigns of not only his own State, but repeatedly into Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, Illi- nois, Minnesota and Dakota, where he has done effective work for his party.
On the 15th of September, 1863, Mr. Eiboeck was married in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Miss Fannie Garrison, an American lady, a native of Detroit, Michigan. They have one child, a daughter --- Marie, now the wife of S. C. McFarland, editor of the Marshalltown Times-Republican.
Politically Mr. Eiboeck was a Republican until 1872, when he joined the independent party and was a delegate to the Cincinnati convention which
nominated Horace Greeley, but since that time he has acted enthusiastically with the Democrats. In 1878 he was nominated for the office of Audi- tor of State against Gov. Buren R. Sherman, and came within a few thousand of his election, at a time when the Republican majority ranged from thirty to fifty thousand.
He is a member of Capital Lodge, No. 110, A. F. and A. M., of Corinthian Chapter, No. 14, R. A. M., and of Temple Commandery, No. 4, Knights Templar. He also belongs to Jonathan Lodge, No. 137, I. O. O. F., the German Turner Association, and was during its existence for two years, president of the Des Moines Press Club.
In addition to his journalistic and political work Mr. Eiboeck is also engaged in literary work in both English and German. He is a fluent and forcible writer, and bold and courageous as he is, he is also courteous and gentlemanly toward all, and thus has won many warm friends among the intellectual people of the Northwest, both Ger- mans and Americans, who admire his firmness and his untiring efforts in behalf of individual liberty.
Mr. Eiboeck is one of the commissioners to the World's Columbian Exposition from Iowa.
CHARLES S. CRANE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONG the early settlers whose skill and en- terprise have made him widely known among the leading manufacturing interests of Chicago, was Mr. Charles S. Crane. He was born at Passaic Falls, Paterson, N. J., March 21, 1834, and is the son of Timothy B. and Maria (Ryerson) Crane.
His paternal ancestors are traced to the original May Flower colony, which settled at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. His father, Timothy B. Crane, learned the carpenter's trade in Litchfield, Conn., and became a contractor and builder in New York City.
He erected a mansion for Governor Dewitt Clinton and enjoyed intimate personal relations with him. He removed to Passaic Falls to en- gage in milling business, and erected saw and flour mills in New Jersey. He married Miss Teller, a descendant of the original Knickerbocker colony,
from Amsterdam. Subsequently he married Miss Maria Ryerson, sister of the late Martin Ryerson, of Chicago, there being four children, Charles S. the youngest of the family. In his boyhood days he attended school at Paterson, during this time working before school hours, and after school hours were over returning to his work. At the age of sixteen he went to Lockport, N. Y., and learned the trade of moulding, and returned to Paterson after finishing his trade. He worked as a moulder in Danforth's Locomotive Works, after which he came to Chicago, in 1855, and en- gaged in business with his brother in the manu- facture of brass goods, under the firm name of R. T. Crane & Bro.
In 1859 they built and operated a foundry in connection with their other work. In 1865 they manufactured largely in iron pipe, the first being made west of Pittsburg, and the same year they
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erected works for the manufacture of malleable iron. About this time they organized a stock company and changed the name to the North- Western Manufacturing Company, which they re- tained until 1872, about this time Mr. Crane re- tiring from the company, after which the name of the company was changed to the Crane Bros. Manufacturing Company, which grew to be one of the largest and best institutions of the kind in the country.
In 1871 Mr. Crane assisted in the organization of the Wright & Lawther Oil and Lead Manufac- turing Company, being its vice-president, and in 1885 filling the office of president.
He engaged in the dock and dredging business as a general contractor in 1873, carrying it on with his other business until the present company was incorporated in 1877.
Mr. Crane took an active interest in public affairs and was a widely known and highly re- spected citizen. Mr. Crane was married on Sep- tember 23, 1857, to Miss Eliza J. Beyea, of Pater- son, N. J. There were two children, Frank R. and Charles B. The youngest son, Charles B., died a few weeks prior to the death of his father, which occurred September 8, 1887.
He was a member of Cleveland Lodge, No. 2II, A. F. & A. M .; Washington Chapter, No. 43, R. A. M .; Siloan Council, No. 53, R. & S. M .; Chicago Commandery, No. 19, K. T .; the Orien- tal Consistory, S. P. R. S., No. 32, and was a member of the conclave of the Knights of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine.
He leaves a widow, Mrs. Eliza J. Crane, and one son, Frank R. Crane, who succeeds him in his business affairs.
HENRY C. NOYES,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE gentleman whose name heads this sketch is a native of the Green Mountain State, and was born at Derby Line, Orleans county, January 22, 1846, the son of Adam S. Noyes, a banker, who removed to the West and settled at Rockford, Illinois, in 1858, but returned to Boston in 1867. Our subject had five brothers and a brother-in-law in the Union army during the war of the rebellion. He, himself, entered the army in 1863, and served gallantly until he was mus- tered out. He was six months in the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Milligan.
He received his primary education in the public schools, and subsequently entered Beloit College. In 1866 he entered the law department of Michi- gan University, and was graduated therefrom in the spring of 1869, and admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of his pro- fession at Chicago. He has been engaged in numerous suits in connection with railroads and other large corporations, and is considered one of the foremost corporation lawyers in Chicago. He is attorney for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the Manhattan Life In- surance Company of New York, and other large
corporations. Mr. Noyes keeps abreast of the current decisions of the courts, and is thoroughly versed in all of the laws relating to practice in the State and Federal courts. He is an excellent advocate, and his management of his cases in court is masterful. .
Mr. Noyes won laurels in the case of Henry W. Price, a well-known business man of Rockford, Illinois, and his nephew, Charles H. Fox, against Lewis E. Maddaugh and the heirs of George W. Noble, before Judge Tully, in the circuit court of Cook county, in October, 1889, which case was appealed to the Supreme Court and there af- firmed. Its decision established a trust of forty years' standing (a much longer time than the re- port of any case shows in any Western State), and it was only won by the energy and persever- ance of the counsel in charge of the case. It was bitterly contested. Associated with Mr. Noyes, for the complainants, was J. C. Garver, of Rockford, and the well-known firms of McCagg and Culver. Messrs. Goudy and Green appeared for the defendants. Mr. Noyes proved that for a number of years prior to 1848, William H. Price was engaged in the planing mill business near the corner of Clinton and Randolph streets. In Sep-
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tember, 1848, his brother-in-law, Geo. W. Noble, a carpenter, came to Chicago and went to work for Mr. Price as a day laborer. When the gold excitement in California broke out, in 1849, Mr. Price made arrangements with Noble to hold his property in trust until his return, and started out to seek his fortune in California, having arranged with Noble to maintain his family, and to receive therefor one thousand dollars per year. Mr. Price died on the isthmus before reaching the golden shores, in December of that year. Noble re- ceived and suppressed the news of Mr. Price's death from Mrs. Pricc. Ile procured books, deeds and private papers belonging to Mr. Price from the widow, and never returned them, and declined to support the family after the first year. Mrs. Price was obliged to sew for a living, and the children were thrown upon the world to shift for themselves. To further carry out his scheme, Noble had Mrs. Price sent cast, and immediately had the property placed in his own name, and circulated a story that Price was still alive ; that he had eloped with a woman to Texas, thus seek- ing to show that he obtained the property hon- estly. Mrs. Margaret Price died in the State of New York, in 1867, still under the false belief that her husband was alive. She left as heirs her son, Henry W. Price, and Charles H. Fox, the complainants. It was not until Noble's death, in 1886, that they learned of the fraud and com- menced this suit.
Noble left no will, and the property being in his name, descended to the defendants. As a defense, counsel set up laches, and introduced in evidence a receipt purporting to be signed by W. H. Price, October 20, 1849, which acknowledged the receipt of three hundred and fifty dollars in settlement in full to that date. Mr. Noyes took the evidence of several experts to show that the signature was a forgery. A number of witnesses swore that in conversations with Noble the latter admitted that he was simply taking care of Price's property and business. Mrs. Hopkins testified that Noble, after obtaining the papers from Mrs. Price, told her that he had "the deadwood on Bill Price" and intended to keep it. Summing up the entire testimony, the court came to the conclusion that Noble held the property only in trust. Considering the time that had elapsed and the necessary confidential nature of that trust,
the disappearance of Price, the infancy of the children, their absence from Chicago, the poverty of the family, and other circumstances in evi- dence, the court said the case was proven by as much positive testimony as could be expected under the circumstances; as to the defense of the lapse of time-something near forty years-it is sufficient to say there is no statute of limitations which will run against a trust. The case was referred to a master in chancery for an account- ing, and decree was entered charging the trust with all of the rents received from the property, and allowing the trustee one thousand dollars for the first year's services, and establishing the title to property of the present value of one hundred and ten thousand dollars in favor of the com- plainants, and an accounting for rents for forty years, which amounted to sixty thousand more.
The following case illustrates, to some degree, the shrewdness of Mr. Noyes in the management of his cases in court. It was the case of James 11. Keeler against R. S. Reynolds, of Utica, N. Y. The plaintiff made a contract with the de- fendant by which he was to sell the latter's fee in the property at the southwest corner of Lake street and Fifth avenue, and the lien of an ad- joining lot. The contract provided that Keeler should keep for his commission all that the prop- erty brought over one hundred and ten thou- sand dollars. Ile found an intending purchaser in the late Conrad Seipp, who was to pay one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. When the negotiations were about closing, Mr. Seipp backed down. Mr. Keeler claimed that the sale was defeated by Reynolds, who came to the con- clusion that he could get more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, or that he could deal directly with Mr. Seipp and save the com- mission. Reynolds claimed that he had nothing to do with stopping the negotiations, but that one Mr. Lanz, of Lanz, Owen & Co., went to Mr. Seipp and told him that Keeler was making fifteen thousand dollars out of him. Seipp there- upon refused to carry out the contract.
The evidence was very close on the point of Reynold's agency in breaking off the negotia- tions. Judge Gresham, before whom the case was being tried, required Mr. Noyes to show that Reynolds knew of the action of Lanz in going to Seipp. At this point in the trial Mr. Noyes re-
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quested to be allowed to sit where he could see defendant while giving his testimony. This was effected by changing the position of the counsel at the tables. A telegram from a brother of Mr. Reynolds to Mr. Lanz, relating to the case, escaped the notice of the defendant's attorney, who had removed a bundle of papers from the table. Mr. Noyes then occupied his keen eyes, and concluded that those papers contained valu- able evidence, and ordered them read to the jury. Those letters and telegrams showed that Rey-
nolds had been advised to break off the deal with Seipp. Judge Gresham instructed the jury that Reynolds had conspired to prevent the sale to Seipp, and being deprived of the fifteen thousand dollars which he would have earned by the sale, Keeler had a right to recover that sum, and the jury so found.
In politics, Mr. Noyes is a Republican. He married, June 19, 1873, Miss Angelia A. Elmer, formerly of Belville, Ontario. They have one son and one daughter.
GEORGE W. WHITFIELD, M.D., D.D.S.
EVANSTON, ILL.
T "HE subject of this biography, a native of Massachusetts, was born near Boston in 1855, and is the only child of the Rev. John Whitfield and Martha (Kemp) Whitfield. His parents are both natives of England, and the father now (1890) eighty-four years of age, is vigorous and well preserved. He was born in 1806, and traces his ancestry to the Rev. George Whitefield and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He has always been prominent as a clergyman, and especially active in the temper- ance cause, participating in the first temperance movement in England. The mother of our sub- ject was born at Richmond, London, England, the daughter of an excise officer, and belongs to a family many of whom are government officials ; others are connected with the army or navy and many are in the ministry. She has always taken the deepest interest in benevolence and doing for others and is still extensively engaged in chari- table work. The parents settled in Aurora, Illinois, during the son's boyhood and there George received a common school and academ- ical education. He was afterwards employed as a book-keeper, and while yet in his teens opened an art store at Aurora. For some time after attaining his majority he was on the west- ern plains. In 1879, being then twenty-five years of age, he settled in Chicago, and began his studies and laboratory work preparatory to entering the dental profession. In the fol- lowing year he opened an office for practice and at the same time matriculated at Rush
Medical College. Five years later he graduated from the Chicago Dental College with the de- grees of D. D. S., and in the following year, 1886, was graduated from Rush Medical College with the degree of M. D., continuing during these years his office practice.
Dr. Whitfield has made a special study of electricity and its practical application, and has invented several important instruments now in general use. He takes a special pride in the ap- pointments of his office and has what is recognized as one of the best appointed offices in this State. Dr. Whitfield is professor of electrical therapeu- tics in the dental department of the Northwestern University, and holds membership in the Chicago Dental Club, the Odontographic Society, the Chicago Electric Club, and was a delegate to the Ninth International Medical Congress.
Dr. Whitfield was for five years a member of Company D, Third Regiment Illinois National Guards, and was with his regiment at Braidwood during the riots of 1887. He has held the posi- tion of aural surgeon at the Protestant Orphan Asylum, Chicago, and was assistant surgeon under the celebrated Dr. Gunn, prior to that gentleman's death in 1887.
Dr. Whitfield has always had a fondness for athletic and aquatic sports ; is a lover and a judge of good horses, and by his healthful indulgence in out-of-door amusements has not only pre- served, but greatly developed the vigorous con- stitution inherited from his parents. He is a man of fine physique, commanding presence and
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pleasing address, and withal a courteous gentle- man, cultured and refined. In his profession he has become known for his original methods of operation, and wherever known has not failed to impress himself upon others by his upright character and independence of thought and
action. In political matters he holds to no par- ty, believing in supporting and upholding men and principles rather than political organiza- tions.
Dr. Whitfield is unmarried and resides at Evanston with his father and mother.
ALEXANDER H. REVELL,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A LEXANDER H. REVELL was born in Chicago, January 6th, 1858, and is there- fore, at the time of this writing, not yet thirty- five years of age. It is at about this time in a man's life that, in most biographies, he begins to show the promise that in later life ripens into fruition. But in Mr. Revell's case, although his years would seem to indicate that his great life battles were yet before him, there is a long and honorable list of struggles to be recorded, many a victory to be marked and a final achievement to be shown such as would creditably mark a life career of double the number of years. The story of Mr. Revell's life is thoroughly American, thor- oughly Chicagoan, indeed. It is a record of victo- ries snatched from apparent defeat, of compelling adverse Fate to be his slave and not his master. It is a glowing example of what honesty and perseverance, when animated by indomitable will, can do.
His father was the late David James Revell, and his mother, who is still living, is Margaret Revell, née Dorgan. At the time of his birth his parents lived on Van Buren street, very near where the Board of Trade building now stands. Mr. Revell, the elder, was a grocer and had a large business. He is remembered by many old Chicagoans as a man of sterling worth and untiring energy. Be- lieving fully in the great future of Chicago, Mr. Revell invested his earnings in houses which he built on leased grounds. The great fire of 1871 swept away the carnings of years, and a few months after the conflagration he died.
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