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 7
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
In addition, he is president of the United Press -whose main offices are in New York-besides being an active or honorary member of nearly all the leading clubs of Chicago; while he is also a
57
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
member of the famous Clover Club of Philadelphia and of the New York Press Club.
In spite of the repeated enlargements of the Herald's quarters, they have become totally inadequate to meet its ever increasing require- ments, and in the course of a few months this journal will occupy an elegant structure, designed and erected expressly for it. The Evening Post, which Mr. Scott, in conjunction with Mr. Walsh, established in April of last year (1890) already occupies its own building, and as to its success, it is but another example of what Mr. Scott is capable of accomplishing and of the peculiar abilities he so amply possesses in connection with the successful publishing and management of im- portant journals.
Mr. Scott was married April 10th, 1873, to Miss Caroline R. Greene, daughter of Daniel W. Greene, one of the earliest settlers of Du Page county, Illinois.
Mr. Scott having recently been elected a direc- tor of the Columbian Exposition-as is generally known-was offered the presidency of the World's Columbian Exposition, but owing to the enormous pressure he already sustains, in connection with his varied interests, he was forced to decline the same.
Embodying that combination so rarely met with, of the capable editor and the shrewd busi- ness manager, he is thoroughly practical in all departments, and to this fact may, we think, be attributed the phenomenal success which has at- tended his career in the city of Chicago, of which city he is a prominent and leading citizen, while he also ranks as one of the most popular and successful journalists of the country. In manner courteous and affable, he is easily approached, while he possesses an innumerable host of both friends and acquaintances. A typical Chicagoan, he is one who is highly esteemed, and one whose further success may yet be looked for.
EDWIN M. ASHCRAFT,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this sketch was born on a farm near Clarksburgh, Harrison county, Virginia, August 27, 1848, the son of James M. and Clarissa (Swiger) Ashcraft. The family con- sisted of two sons and two daughters, of whom Edwin is the eldest. His brother is connected with the Tacoma Globe, at Tacoma, Washington.
The Ashcraft homestead was very near the seat of the late War of the Rebellion, and several mem- bers of the family fought on behalf of the Union cause. Edwin received his early education in the public schools and afterwards entered Wheeling University, and subsequently studied at the State University at Normal, Ill. During 1867-68 and '69, young Ashcraft taught school, devot- ing his leisure hours to the study of law. In 1873, he passed his examination before the Supreme Court at Springfield, and was admitted to the bar of Illinois, and at once opened an office and began the practice of his profession at Van- dalia, and met with good success from the first.
In 1873, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Fayette county, Ill., and held that office three years. In 1876, he was nominated on the Repub-
lican ticket as congressman from the Sixteenth Congressional District, and although unsuccessful, such was his popularity that he reduced the former Democratic majority of his district from five thousand to fourteen hundred. His oppon- ent in this contest was Mr. W. A. J. Sparks, who served as Land Commissioner under President Cleveland.
Removing to Chicago, April, 1887, he associated himself with Messrs. Cratty Bros., under the firm name of Cratty Bros. and Ashcraft. On June I, 1891, he withdrew from that firm and formed the present firm of Ashcraft and Gordon. Mr. Ash- craft is distinctively a trial lawyer, and from the time of his arrival in Chicago, he has been emi- nently successful, having all the business he can attend to, while his reputation is such that he is in a position to select his cases.
In politics Mr. Ashcraft is a staunch Republican, and he is a member also of the Hamilton Club. He was married in 1875 to Miss Florence R. Moore, daughter of Mr. Risden Moore, of Belle- ville, Ill., by whom he has four children, one of whom is a popular singer at the Woodlawn Epis-
58
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
copalian Church. A man of domestic tastes, he finds his truest happiness in the delights of home, and cares little for political or club life. He is not a member of any church, but contributes liberally to all worthy benevolent and charitable objects.
A tireless worker, persevering and industrious, he never relaxes his energy until the case or the work he has in hand is completed. He is a force- ful speaker, his style of argument being at once
clear, logical and convincing. He never resorts to clap-trap, and indulges but little in flowers of rhetoric, but in a plain, matter-of-fact manner appeals to the good sense and judgment of his auditors. He is a man of broad humanity, strict integrity, and great popularity, and counts among his personal friends men of all classes and ranks, and is justly entitled to be ranked with Chicago's representative men.
EDSON KEITH,
CHICAGO, ILL.
F POR thirty-eight years, he whose name heads this biography has been a resident of Chi- cago, and as such he has taken a prominent posi- tion amongst those who have materially added to the prosperity of the city, and at the same time he has used his most earnest efforts to better the moral status of the people.
In Barry, among the Green Mountains of Ver- mont, on January 28th, 1833, Edson Keith was born. Through his father, Martin Keith, a New England farmer, he traces his ancestry to Scotland, the town of Keith being named after the family, the founders of the American branch of which were among the early settlers of New England.
The childhood days of Mr. Keith were passed by attending the common schools in his native town and assisting his father in his pastoral du- ties as much as his age would permit. He re- sided in Montpelier, Vermont, four years, and in 1854 removed thence to Chicago, where his intro- duction to mercantile life was as clerk in a retail dry goods house. In 1856 he entered the employ of Benedict, Mallory and Farnum, wholesale deal- ers in hats, caps and furs, and remained with that firm as salesman and collector for four years, when he became associated with his brother, O. R. Keith, Esq., and Mr. A. E. Faxon, under the firm name of Keith, Faxon and Co., jobbers of hats, caps, furs, millinery and straw goods. In 1865 Mr. Faxon retired from the firm, and E. G. Keith, a younger brother of our subject, was admitted into co-partnership, the style of the firm becoming Keith Brothers.
In 1879 O. R. Keith withdrew from Keith Brothers and established the wholesale millinery
business of O. R. Keith and Co., which continued until 1884, when the two firms of Keith Brothers and O. R. Keith and Co. were consolidated under the name of Edson Keith and Co. In 1887 the corporation of Keith Bros. and Co. was formed to conduct a wholesale hat and cap business, and our subject became president of that corporation.
Mr. Keith has other large interests, among the most important of which are his connection with the Metropolitan National Bank, of which he is a director, and his interest in the firm of Keith and Co., which controls a large terminal grain elevator. He has at various times been active in real estate transactions, and is one of the most sanguine and enthusiastic believers in the greatness of Chicago. His entire business interests have been so con- ducted as to bring most satisfactory results, and his reputation for straightforward, honest dealing is unchallenged.
Politically, Mr. Keith's sympathies are with the Republican party, but he is not bigoted nor bound strictly to party lines, believing always that the man best fitted for the office should be chosen by the people, whether Republican or Democrat. He is interested in religious matters, but is not a member of any church organization, and is a generous friend of charitable institutions.
Socially, Mr. Keith is much esteemed, and for three years (during which time the new home of the club was erected) he was president of the Calumet Club. He is also a member of the various clubs of Chicago and New York.
In 1860 Mr. Keith was married to Miss Wood- ruff, daughter of one of the earlier settlers of Chicago. Their family consists of two sons. The
Tom
61
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
elder, Edson, Jr., graduated from Yale in 1884, and spent three years at the Columbia Law School, in New York. The younger son, Walter W., is now a student at Yale.
Mr. Keith is a lover of art and a student of literature. He is a friend of the Art Institute, and was vice-president of that institution for sev- eral terms. He has traveled very extensively, making annual trips to Europe, and by ming- ling with the people of the world his mind has been richly stored and his views of life broad- ened.
The Citizens' Association of Chicago owes not
a little of its prestige to the labors of Mr. Keith, who assisted in its organization and for three years was its president.
Such is the biography of one of the foremost men of the West, who owes the high, position he now occupies entirely to his own exertions and his honor and integrity. The teachings of his parents were such as to inspire him with love for truth and honesty, and these teachings, combined with a natural instinct, have made him ever de- spise anything that had the least taint of dishon- esty. He is a most illustrious prototype of the self-made man.
MALCOLM M. JAMIESON,
CHICAGO, ILL.
TT has been said that the study of biography yields to no other subject in point of interest and profit; and while it is true that all bio- graphies, and more especially those of successful men, have much in common, yet the life sketches of no two individuals are alike. Each has its distinctions and various points of interest, and each is accordingly complete in itself.
The subject of this sketch was born on the 27th of May, 1846, and is the son of Egbert and Caroline (Woodward) Jamieson, his mother being a daughter of Theodore Woodward, at one time president of Castleton Medical College, Vermont. His father was an eminent surgeon and a pro- fessor of surgery in both Castleton, Vt., and Albany, N. Y., medical colleges, and subse- quently became surgeon of the First Wisconsin Regiment.
Our subject is one of nine children, of whom four are now living, his only brother being ex- Judge Egbert Jamieson, of Chicago. Young Jamieson received his early education in the public and private schools at Racine, Wisconsin. By the death of his father he was thrown upon his own resources, and at the age of twenty years began life for himself. This was in 1864. Going to Chicago, he obtained a clerkship with the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad Company, which he held some two years. Resigning this position, he entered the dry goods house of S. D. Jackson and Co., as cashier, and remained with them
three years, when the house failed, and through the influence of the senior partner he became teller of the Fourth National Bank of Chicago. Two months later that bank was sold to the Manufacturers' National Bank, and Mr. Jamieson being offered a similar position with that institu- tion, accepted the same and held it until the panic of 1873 compelled that bank to go into liquidation. He then became connected with the First National Bank of Chicago, as teller, and remained with this bank until 1886, when he determined to commence business for himself, associating with himself Mr. William S. Morse, under the firm name of Morse, Jamieson and Co. They opened a banking and brokerage business at the corner of Dearborn and Madison streets. Mr. Morse subsequently withdrew from the busi. ness on account of ill-health, and since his retire- ment Mr. Jamieson, in connection with R. C. Nickerson, Esq., and J. H. Waggoner, late of the firm of W. G. McCormick and Co., has carried on the business under the name of Jamieson and Co., it being at this time (1892) located at No. 115 Dearborn street. Jamieson and Co. are promi- nent members of the New York Stock Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange and Board of Trade. On account of excessive competition Mr. Jamie- son's friends tried to dissuade him from this busi- ness venture, but the success that has attended him has proved the wisdom of his determination. (Mr. Jamieson is vice-president of the Chicago
62
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Stock Exchange and one of its governing com- mittee.) He is also a member of the Union, the Germania, and the Athletic Clubs of Chicago. He has traveled extensively both in the United States and ·Europe.
He holds the views of the Universalist Church in matters of religion, but is liberal in his senti- ments, and accords to others that freedom of choice which he himself would desire.
In political matters he is a Democrat, though he takes no active part in party affairs.
He was married in 1872 to Miss Julia S. Daniels, daughter of William Y. Daniels, of
Chicago. They have three children, viz .: Malcolm M., Jr., William W. and Julia May.
In personal appearance Mr. Jamieson is rather under the medium height, of robust build and light complexion, with a pleasing presence and address. In manner he is courteous and affable, genial and sociable, and possesses the happy facility of making and retaining friends. The architect of his own fortunes, he has by perseve- rance and untiring energy, combined with much native shrewdness and more than ordinary ability, won success, and is numbered amongst the repre- sentative business men of Chicago.
CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK,
CHICAGO, ILL.
THE city of Chicago is now and probably has been the home of as many men who have quietly and persistently, day by day and year by year, wrung practical favors from perverse fortune, as any city on the face of the globe. Though not a native of either this city or State, yet it was in the city of Chicago the subject of this sketch, the late respected Cyrus H. McCormick, resided for thirty-seven years. It was here he erected the mammoth works which to-day bear his name, and although many of his triumphs were undoubtedly won, and much of his success gained, previous to his location in this city, it was, however, in the city of Chicago that Cyrus H. McCormick devel- oped and consolidated his immense enterprises, achieved many of his most brilliant triumphs, and dying bequeathed to posterity a name which will remain a household word during centuries yet to come.
His life history is that of one of the greatest inventors this century has produced. It is the life history of one who has done much for the advancement of civilization, insured the rapid development of this great country, and advanced the interests of our greatest and principal indus- try, viz., that of agriculture, in a manner and by such means as were not even contemplated in the earlier decades of the present century. He added lustre to the name of America by the benefit he conferred upon mankind, while his extensive philanthropy and the objects thereof
will ever remain as a perpetual monument to him whose memory is still green within the hearts of thousands who enjoy the fruits of his genius and whose paths through life have been considerably smoothed as the result of his magnificent liberality to institutions of a benevolent and educational nature.
Cyrus H. McCormick was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, February 15, 1809. His par- ents were both of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, Robert McCormick, was a native of Rock- bridge county, while his mother, Mary Ann (Hall) McCormick, came from the adjoining county of Augusta, in the same State. They had eight children, of whom our subject was the eldest. Owning several farms, with saw and grist mills, together with blacksmithing, carpentering and machinery shops for the repair and renewal of such implements as his business necessita'
possessing, Robert McCormick had more than a merely local reputation for mechanical ingenuity ; an ingenuity which subsequently became so strongly and prominently developed in Cyrus, the subject of our present sketch. Limited in his educational facilities, Cyrus, however, obtained the rudiments of a good common-school education at the "Old Field School House," and by self- application and study added considerably to his knowledge gained therein, for he was naturally bright, possessing as he did a retentive memory and a mind quick of observation and keen of per-
C. N. M Cormick
65
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
ception. He learned surveying at home while recovering from a fever.
Inheritance of traits, characteristics, ability, was developed at an early age in young McCormick, for he was barely fifteen years of age when he constructed a finely-made grain cradle for his own use in the harvest field, a cradle not quite as large as a man's full size, with which he helped to har- vest the crops, keeping up with the others. His invention of a hillside plow, capable of being used either as a right or left hand plow, at the will of the operator (patented in 1831), and two years later his invention of a superior hori- zontal self-sharpening plow showed the mechan- ical bent of his mind, and demonstrated in no uncertain manner his possession of genius, and such as at a subsequent period brought him fame and honors of the highest and most exclusive order.
It had long been an idea with young McCor- mick that machinery should supersede the old- time method of cutting grain by hand labor. Its possibility had often occurred to him. In 1816 his father-who in the meantime had invented several valuable machines, embracing threshing, hydraulic and hemp-breaking, and upon some of which he had obtained patents-put to a practical test a machine of his own invention for the cut- ting of grain, which, while it failed to accomplish its purpose-inasmuch as though performing its work satisfactorily upon standing grain, it was unavailable when the same had lodged-yet ac- complished something of importance, for it was the means of drawing his son's mind to the sub- ject of cutting grain by machinery, and he came to the conclusion that the principle adopted by his father in the construction of his machine was radically wrong. His father's machine had up- right revolving cylinders, provided at their base with knives like sickles. Young McCormick, however, became convinced that the true prin- ciple lay in the construction of a machine which would operate on the grain as a mass, with a horizontal reciprocating blade. To think was with him but to act, and, although remonstrated with by his father for his seeming waste of time and abilities, he could not be diverted from his course. Concluding that the necessary motion to cut the grain could be obtained by means of a crank attached to the end of the reciprocating
blade, he made this one of the principles of the new machine, and having at length matured his ideas, he proceeded to transfer them into wood and iron, and with his own hand, and in his father's shops, young McCormick made every portion of this, his first machine. It consisted of three main features, viz., a vibrating cutting blade, a reel to bring the grain within reach of the blade, and a platform whereon to receive the falling grain. This machine, drawn by two horses, was put to a practical test during the latter part of the harvest of 1831, in a field of oats within a mile or so of the McCormick homestead. Though imperfect, it proved remarkably successful, and we can imagine, though perhaps but faintly, the emotions of its young inventor at perceiving his fondest hopes realized. For there, and in the presence of the neighboring farmers who had con- gregated to witness its trial, young McCormick had the satisfaction of witnessing its triumph, and of receiving the congratulations of those present-his father being among the number- as the problem of cutting standing grain by ma- chinery had at length been solved, and what was hitherto but a dream had now become a certainty. Sometimes, while experimenting, his mother's great interest in the invention led her to go to the field to watch the operation of the machine, riding her own favorite horse-the same on which she rode Sundays to Old Providence Church,
Shortly after this Mr. McCormick engaged in a partnership for the smelting of iron ore, for at this period this industry offered him a larger field for the exercise of his ambition, and also prom- ised to be more profitable than the reaper. The panic of 1837, however, greatly reduced the price of iron, and financial disaster ruined the enter- prise. Equal to the occasion, however, Mr. McCormick determined to sacrifice all his re- sources and to liquidate at any cost his liabilities in connection therewith, by these means main- taining the honor of his name and his character as an upright and honest man. In order to pay up the indebtedness of the iron business, he was forced to part with even the farm which his father had given him, and in doing this he preserved a conspicuous characteristic of his whole life-a stern integrity.
Once more he turned his attention to the reaper. He now started in earnest upon the
66
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
manufacture of the invention over whose improve- ment he had spent so much time and thought in the workshops on the old homestead, and with the assistance of his father and two brothers, William and Leander, achieved important results, considering the disadvantages under which the business was carried on-made, as these reapers were, by hand. In those days there were no railroads and but few steamboats, while it was necessary that the sickles should be manufactured forty miles away, and they had to be carried on horseback. However, notwithstanding the many difficulties which beset them, they succeeded in turning out about ten machines per annum. Con- vinced, however, that as soon as their merits be- came known, the demand would become increas- ingly great, with unremitting energy they kept on manufacturing and improving. In 1844 the first consignment was sent to the Western prairies, the same being taken in wagons from the workshops at Walnut Grove to Richmond, Virginia (a dis- tance of 120 miles), and thence shipped to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati.
With that keen perception which was one of his prominent characteristics, Mr. McCormick saw the possibilities of the great West, and of the enlarged sphere which it seemed to offer, and ac- cordingly, in 1846, he removed the manufacture of his machines to Cincinnati, Ohio, going through the western country himself on horseback, ob- taining farmers' orders for reapers, which he then gave as security to a Cincinnati firm as guaran- tee of payment if they would manufacture his machine under his direction, they having an outfit of shops, etc., for manufacturing purposes, while Mr. McCormick had nothing but his invention. In the same year, and after devising a number of valuable improvements in connection therewith, he obtained a second patent thereon. The McCor- mick reaper had by this time gained a wide and favorable reputation, and demands for same were constantly coming in, while the arrangements which he made with a firm at Brockport, New York, to manufacture the machines on a royalty, with a view of their introduction into the then great wheat fields of Central New York, further stimulated and made necessary an increased out- put. Still continuing to make improvements therein, in 1847-48 he obtained additional patents.
Chicago at this time seemed destined to become what it has since proved to be in reality, viz., the commercial center of the immense agricultural districts of the great Northwest, and in 1847 he removed to this city. The year following his location here, seven hundred reapers were built and sold, and in the following year (1849) the sales amounted to over fifteen hundred. Taking into consideration the unimproved, and, compara- tively speaking, crude iron and wood working machinery of those days, this was a phenomenal achievement, and one worthy of him whose in- domitable energy and remarkable enterprise sub- sequently led to such great results, and became the means of making the name of " McCormick" familiar in every hamlet and section of the coun- try the civilized world over.
About this time his two brothers, William S. and Leander J., became associated with him in Chicago. The success of the reaper being now thoroughly established at home, Mr. McCormick exhibited the machine at the World's Fair in London in 1851, and spent some time in intro- ducing the reaper to the attention of European agriculturists.
The Old World, accustomed as it is, and was even more so at that day, to look askance at any invention which seemed to promise a les- sening of hand labor, or to deviate in any way from old and time-honored conservative cus- toms, was at first somewhat inclined to be preju- diced against its introduction into the field of labor. As it was with the Stevenson locomo- tive, so it was with the McCormick reaper. Both, however, have proved their immense use- fulness, have outlived the prejudice arrayed against them, and have been the means of ad- vancing civilization by leaps and bounds hith- erto undreamed of.
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.