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 9
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In 1871, Mr. Coy removed to Chicago and has been attorney for the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company since that time. And as evi- dence of his ability as a legal adviser, it is suffi- cient to say that for twenty years he has had the management of the legal business of that vast corporation, with its complicated system of rail- roads, with a thousand employes handling live stock, the value of which amounts to one-half the entire commerce of Chicago. Yet during that entire time the company has had but one final judgment rendered against it.
Mr. Coy is a Republican and has been active in political matters. He was a Presidential Elector during the campaign of 1872, and voted for Gen. Grant. During the campaign, Mr. Corwin, who was a candidate for Congress from La Salle county in his district, in making his speaking appoint- ments, on every occasion advertised Mr. Coy to speak at the same time and place, and always arranged for him to speak last on account of his ability to interest and hold an audience. The meetings were large and enthusiastic.
On the evening before election, in speaking to some of his friends about his canvass, Mr. Cor- win said: "The most wonderful thing to me is the fact that during the whole two months on the stump after making my speech, I have sat down
and listened to a speech from Mr. Coy, and every evening he has given us something new; and the last evening I was more interested and amused at his speech than on any other occa- sion. It was like listening to a new speaker every evening."
Mr. Coy was married, in 1859, to Miss Julia A. Manchester, who is a lady of much refinement, highly educated and exceedingly accomplished, and who adorns her home with all the graces of true womanhood. They have two sons and two daughters.
Mr. Coy is a man of commanding presence and pleasing address, being six feet in height and well proportioned, and carries in his clear-cut features the marks of intellectual vigor. He is, further- more, a man of broad culture and elevated tastes, and possesses a knowledge of the law and a com- mand of language that give him unusual power as an advocate. He has a genial social nature, enjoys good fellowship and is a most companion- able friend, and by his manly qualities and up- right life has won the highest respect and love of a wide circle of acquaintances and friends. His life has been, in the best sense, a success, and fur- nishes an example of energy, perseverance and loyalty to principle and a noble purpose worthy of emulation.
COL. DANIEL W. MUNN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONG the lawyers of Chicago who have achieved success by their own excellence, ability, and energy, the subject of this sketch occupies a conspicuous place.
He has a wide range of legal learning and is familiar with the theories and technicalities of his profession. He is lucid, logical and eminently practical in making application of the law to the facts, and his judgment is good. His political speeches are often adorned with rhetorical figures, but in his legal arguments he is direct, pointed and strong. His mind is vigorous and active and its rich and varied resources are always at his command. His perceptions are prompt and acute, and he readily separates the practical from the speculative. The light which illuminates his
mind is kindled in his heart, where it shines with brightest luster. He possesses in a high degree that rare talent, genuine wit; it is playful and spirited, elastic and recreative. He can be sarcastic when occasion calls for sarcasm, and ridicule is a formidable weapon in his hands. In his satire there mingles sometimes the sprightli- ness and vivacity of Horace, at others, the serious and terrible severity of Juvenal.
He is a native of the Green Mountain State, and was born in Orange county, in 1834. He began his education in the public schools of his native town, and was afterward graduated from Thetford Academy. He went to Indiana in 1852, engaged in teaching two years, and initiated himself into the theory and practice of the law.
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In 1855 he went to Coles county, Illinois, and continued his legal studies under Judge Stark- weather, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. He first began to practice his profession at Hills- boro, Ill., and soon won the respect of the bar as a young man of ability, and became known as a brilliant advocate.
Impelled by the spirit of patriotism that has always characterized the sons of Vermont, he, in 1862, entered the 126th Regiment Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, as adjutant, and the next year was appointed colonel of the First Regiment Alabama Cavalry, but was compelled to decline the office on account of failing health.
Returning to Cairo, Illinois, he resumed the practice of law, and also edited the Cairo Daily News. In 1866 he was elected to the State Senate, being the first Republican ever elected from that district, and during his four years' ser- vice therc, he made a record of which he may justly be proud. He was placed on several im- portant committees, and his counsels were always sought on all important matters of legislation. His speech on the adoption of the fourteenth amendment was one of the most powerful and forcible efforts ever made before the Illinois Legislature.
He was nominated for Congress in 1871 on the Republican ticket, and made a gallant fight against immense odds, but was defcated by a small majority, greatly reducing the usual sweep- ing Democratic majority of his district. Presi- dent Grant appointed him Supervisor of Internal
Revenue the same year, his jurisdiction extending over Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with head- quarters in Chicago.
As a campaign speaker, Col. Munn has but few equals; lucid, logical and forcible, he is always in demand, and has rendered his party valuable service. In all of the political campaigns in the last twenty years his eloquent voice has been heard in nearly all of the northern States.
He has been eminently successful since coming to Chicago in 1875, and has won a large number of important cases; among these may be men- tioned the Clark-St. Peter murder trial, in which Col. Munn defended and cleared Mrs. Clark, charged jointly with Joseph St. Peter with the murder of her husband, this too, with the police and detective forces earnestly opposing him. The Dunn murder case was another decided vic- tory in the Criminal Court for Col. Munn. Dunn was indicted for killing Elliott, the prize fighter. After a long and hotly contested trial, Dunn was acquitted by the jury.
His most important victory was in the pros- ecution of the hog stealers at the stockyards, which resulted in sending seven persons to the penitentiary, notwithstanding a most powerful array of the most eminent members of the Chi- cago bar on the side of the defendants.
Col. Munn's experience in the Criminal Court is probably greater than that of any other lawyer at the bar in the Northwest, and the court records show an almost phenomenal success for him in criminal cases.
SAMUEL E. GROSS,
CHICAGO, ILL.
S AMUEL E. GROSS was born November II, 1843, at the Mansion Farm, on the banks of the Susquehanna, near the town of Dauphin, Penn., and is the son of John C. and Elizabeth (Eberly) Gross. He is a descendant of Captain John Gross, of Huguenot ancestry, a captain in the Revolutionary War. Captain Gross was our subject's great-grandfather, his captain's commis- sion bearing date November 25, 1776. Captain Gross, after the war, settled in Dauphin county, where he owned large farm and milling properties.
On his maternal side he is a descendant of a sturdy German family, who settled in Pennsyl- vania in 1726, and who have contributed so much to the building up and general welfare of that State. In 1845, Samuel's parents moved from Dauphin county, Penn., to Bureau county, Ill., and later to Carroll county, in which places he received his early education, common school and academic.
In 1861, when but seventeen years of age, Sam- uel enlisted in the Forty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but was shortly mustered out on account
S.S.Gross
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of his being under the limit of age for enlistment. In 1863, while he was attending Whitehall Acad- emy, Pennsylvania, the Confederate armies invad- ed Pennsylvania. His inheritance of patriotic ardor from Captain Gross of Revolutionary fame inspired him to re-enlist, this time in Company D, of the Twentieth Pennsylvania Cavalry, in which he was commissioned first lieutenant June 29, 1863, one of the youngest holders of that rank in the Union service. He served in the pursuit of Lee after Gettysburg, and in special detached service, cavalry scouting and guerilla fighting, through the remainder of 1863.
On February 21, 1864, he was promoted to the captaincy of Company K, in the same regiment, and served with his command through Virginia, in 1864-5, taking active part in the battles of Piedmont, Lynchburg, Ashby's Gap, Winchester, and many other battles, and was mustered out at the close of the war, July 13, 1865.
For a man of his nature and training, no place seemed to offer such attractions as Chicago, which, though yet in its infancy, was rapidly developing, and Captain Gross moved there in 1865, entering the Union College of Law, whence he was gradu- ated and admitted to the bar in 1866. Even ear- lier than this, however, he had begun investing in real estate by buying a few lots, the opening of a business which afterward expanded to huge pro- portions. Without abandoning his law practice, he gave more and more attention to realty, and in 1868-9 he took an active part in the establish- ment of the immense park and boulevard system which is a unique feature of Chicago.
At the time of the great fire of 1871, Mr. Gross had an office at the corner of Clark and South Water streets. During the terrible night of the 8th and 9th of October he held his office as long as it was tenable, then gathered up his legal and business papers, abstracts of title, etc., crossed the river in a row-boat, and deposited them on board of a tug-boat, which evaded the flames and re- turned the precious documents safely three days later. Even before he recovered the papers he had, with characteristic courage, enterprise and activity, recommenced his real estate business.
From 1873 to 1879, dullness reigned in Chicago. Mr. Gross practiced his profession, studied science, art, literature and political economy, and wrote articles which were an important contribution to
the literature of these subjects. He also gave some attention to mechanics and took out several patents for mathematical instruments, improve- ments in street paving, etc. But real estate was his favorite subject. He had an abiding faith in the future of his adopted city, which his later experience has more than justified. The purchase of agricultural land and its transforma- tion into city lots became a pursuit-almost a passion. "New City," in the southwestern sub- urbs; "Gross Park," in the north ; "Brookdale," "Calumet Heights " and " Dauphin Park," in the south ; "Under the Linden," in the northwest- these are only a few of his enterprises. Not con- tent with merely staking out building sites, he built upon them, and houses by the thousand- from cottage to mansion-owe their construction to him.
In 1889 he capped the climax to his enterprise by his institution of Grossdale, west of the city limits, where he transformed over five hundred acres of land (nearly a mile square) from farm to city. Samuel E. Gross will need no finer monu- ment than this to carry his name to posterity. Thirty thousand lots sold, seven thousand houses built, sixteen separate suburban towns and cities instituted and built-these are his trophies. His success is due primarily to his own natural quali- ties, secondarily to his reliance on the passion which exists in every true American to own his home, a passion which Mr. Gross has done perhaps more to gratify than has any other man of any age or country. He has not done this service without reaping the deserved reward, his fortune being estimated to-day (1892) at $3,000,000 or more.
He is engaged in many business and social en- terprises, for instance : Director in the Calumet Electric Railroad and the Chemical National Bank, member of the Chicago, Union, Iroquois, Athletic, Marquette and Washington Park Clubs, patron of the Art Institute, the Humane and other benevolent societies.
He has travelled extensively in Europe and in Mexico, as well as all over his own loved land. In 1889 he was nominated by the " United Working- men's Societies" as their candidate for mayor of Chicago, but declined in view of the magnitude and pressing nature of his engagements.
Mr. Gross married, in 1874, Miss Emily Brown (of English parentage), a lady of personal attrac-
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tiveness and sterling mind. They live in a beauti- ful residence at the corner of the Lake Shore Drive and Division street, now (1892) the fashion- able quarter of Chicago.
Mr. Gross' personal deportment is most genial and popular.
It can be truly said of Mr. Gross that he is the architect of his fortune, as he is a self-made man. Few men are more prominent or more widely known in the great city of Chicago than he; his transactions are on an immense scale, and his
popularity well deserved, as in him are cm- braced the characteristics of an unbending in- tegrity, unabating energy and industry that never flags.
He is public-spirited and thoroughly interested in whatever tends to promote the moral, intellec- tual and material welfare of Chicago. Broad and liberal-minded, he is ever willing to aid those who are less fortunate in life.
He has carved for himself a name that will ever be identified with the history of Chicago.
HON. JAMES R. DOOLITTLE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
AMES R. DOOLITTLE was born during the J presidency of James Madison, the third suc- cessor to Washington. Living through the suc- cessive terms of the last nineteen presidents ; engaged in calling conventions, forming parties and writing platforms, when Blaine, Garfield and Cleveland were boys, he stands to-day, as lawyer, jurist and statesman, at the ripe old age of seven- ty-six, one of the few surviving links of our car- lier with our present national history. Ranked amongst the ablest lawyers in the forties, ap- pointed Judge in the fifties, and elected United States Senator in the sixties, he holds an honored place in the history of this country. Active during two generations in making and adminis- tering the law, carnest in the development of the vast resources of the country, and enthusiastic in the defense of Constitutional liberty, Judge Doo- little enjoys the honor, esteem and confidence of his fellow countrymen.
He was born January 3, 1815, at Hampton, Washington county, New York. His father, Reuben Doolittle, upon emigrating to Genesee county, in Western New York, became a farmer, mill owner, and merchant, in prosperous circum- stances. His mother, Sarah, née Rood, was an estimable lady who devoted herself to domes- tic duties and to the education of her children, and instilling into their minds the principles of honor and virtue. James R. was the eldest son in a family of four boys and two girls. After the usual preliminary education, he was sent to Geneva College, in Western New York,
and early began to show that ability which distinguished him in after years. Gifted with a retentive memory and a clear understanding, com- bined with a genius for hard work and diligent application, he easily led his class, and graduated with honors.
Having chosen the law as a profession, he stud- ied its theory and practice with the Hon. Harvey Putnam, at Attica, New York, and with the Hon. Isaac Hills, of Rochester, New York, and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of New York in 1837. It was not long before the young lawyer was recognized as one of the com- ing men of the profession. His thorough knowl- edge of the principles of common law and his facility in applying them, aided by an extensive and varicd course of reading, a pleasing and musical voice and an casy and fluent delivery, marked him as one destined for certain and rapid preferment.
About this time he removed to Warsaw, Wy- oming county, New York, where his ability was soon recognized and rewarded ; and although a Democrat, he was elected District Attorney by a Whig constituency. Having discharged the du- ties of that important office with satisfaction to the people and credit to himself, Mr. Doolittle, in 1851, went to Racine, Wisconsin, and there prac- ticed his profession, and in a short time was ranked among the ablest lawyers of that State, and retained by Governor Farwell in cases involv- ing the interests of the Commonwealth and intri- cate questions of law. It is unnecessary to say
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HaDoolittle
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that his practice became large and lucrative, and that experience developed the legal ability already recognized.
In 1853, Mr. Doolittle was elected Judge of the First Judicial Circuit in Wisconsin. No higher or more pleasing tribute can be paid to a lawyer than his elevation to the bench. As such, Judge Doolittle accepted it and applied all his knowl- edge and experience to the discharge of his du- ties. In this case the office sought the man, and, what is more, sought the right man. For three years he discharged the important duties of his trust with ability, simplicity and dignity. He had the rare power of combining the " Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re." When he resigned, in 1856, he received the highest encomiums from the press, the people, and the profession. No sooner had Judge Doolittle laid down one honor than another was given to him. In January, 1857, the Legislature of Wisconsin elected him United States Senator, and re-elected him in 1863 to the same office. The period during which he was in the Senate was the most momentous since the founding of the Republic, and may be divided into three epochs: Ist. Before the war, when the question was the extension of slavery. 2d. Dur- ing the war, the period of secession. 3d. After the war, when the issue was reinstatement or reconstruction. Each of these periods was fraught with danger to the Republic, and grave responsi- bilities rested on the representatives of the people. In this crisis, the patriotism, ability and integrity of the young senator soon became conspicuous. Grasping the situation with almost prophetic intu- ition, he used the whole force of his great intelli- gence, the powerful influence of his classic elo- quence, and supplemented both with the untarn- ished honor of his spotless character, in the endeavor to prevent the threatened disruption. When the endeavor to secure peace with honor failed, and the tocsin of civil war smote the ear with its invitation to deadly strife, he, like every patriotic citizen, accepted the challenge and de- voted himself unsparingly to the preservation of the Union. Later, when the terrible struggle, involving the loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives, was over, came the period of rein- statement when the great moral force and patri- otic fire of Senator Doolittle was stimulated to rouse the country to the duty of the hour. His
eloquent and forcible speeches of that time are historic evidence of his foresight and statesman- ship. As a member of the Committee of Thir- teen, appointed by the Senate to devise a plan to prevent disruption, he labored for that object with all his power of mind and body. When war became inevitable, he used his whole strength to defeat the rebel arms. When the war was over, he, as a representative of the people, counselled moderation and reconstruction. Taking the con- stitution for his guide, and acting from sincere conviction, he strove then, as through his whole life, for the eternal principles of truth and justice. If Judge Doolittle were to publish his speeches, they would be read with eagerness as historic evi- dence on many subjects now in dispute. He was chairman of the joint committee appointed to inquire into the condition of the Indians in Kan- sas, Colorado and New Mexico. The published report of this committee is the most exhaustive and valuable that has ever been compiled on the subject.
It would be trespassing on the domain of his- tory to recount here the calls to conventions written, the speeches delivered, the public men with whom he has worked, and the political issues he has originated or supported. It is only neces- sary to add that Judge Doolittle's life has been busy, honorable and useful; and, as expressed by a friend of his, "Like a clear limpid stream where- in you can see the form and color of the peb- bles at the bottom and through whose meander- ing course no sediment appears."
Judge Doolittle is a man of fine physical devel- opment. Even now, at the age of nearly four score, he is a man of powerful build, with pleas- ing and expressive features. His voice is still strong and sonorous. When a younger man he must have been trumpet-tongued. He had the "powers of speech that stir men's blood " and he retains that power still. The annexed por- trait is a good likeness of the Judge at the pres- ent time.(1892), and from it one may conjecture what he was half a century ago. Yet it is not alone the features, the voice, or the figure that challenges attention, but there is a force of char- acter that impresses, an influence that impels, and a magnetism that attracts. No man during the past fifty years has addressed larger masses of people or has addressed, on political subjects, as
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many people. He is a master of the art of rhet- oric. His language is clear, simple and graceful, and he leads his auditors through a long argu- mentative path, decked with classic allusions, that, like flowers on the border of a stream, seem to be native there.
He is very happy in epigram. After Abraham Lincoln's second nomination for the presidency a cabal was formed in this State, with the hope of forcing him to retire. At a mass meeting, where one of the discontents had been the first speaker and had delicately hinted at the desirability of Mr. Lincoln's retirement, Judge Doolittle, who had listened with feelings more easily imagined than described, was called as the second speaker. There was a vast audience of probably twenty thousand people, who listened to the previous speaker in ominous silence. The Judge arose, and in slow, clear, solemn tones, and with his right hand raised to heaven, said : “ Fellow-citi- zens: I believe in God Almighty, and, under Him, I believe in Abraham Lincoln." The spell was broken and the vast audience cheered for fully half an hour. No more was heard of the opposition to Mr. Lincoln.
Ever since Judge Doolittle retired from the Senate, in 1869, though retaining his homestead and citizenship in Wisconsin, he has been engaged in the practice of law at Chicago. His first part- nership was with Mr. Jesse O. Norton, under the firm name of Doolittle & Norton. After the
great fire of October 8 and 9, 1871, he formed a partnership with his son, under the firm name of J. R. Doolittle .& Son. In 1879, Mr. Henry McKey was admitted as a partner in the business, and the firm name became Doolittle & McKey. After the death of Mr. James R. Doolittle, Jr., which occurred in 1889, Mr. Edgar B. Tolman be- came a member of the firm, and since that the firm name has been Doolittle, McKey & Tolman. They have a large general practice.
Judge Doolittle suffered one of the great afflic- tions of his lifetime in August, 1889, when his son, James R., Jr., died. At the time of his death he was a member of the law firm of which his dis- tinguished father is the head. He was an active member of the Chicago Board of Education, and devoted himself unsparingly to the interests of the city and suburban schools. He was a man of great ability as a lawyer, highly accomplished as a scholar, and his kindly gentle nature endeared him to all. By his early death the bar of Cook coun- ty lost one of its prominent members, the School Board one of its most progressive and active members.
After a pure, honorable and useful life, actuated by unselfish motives, prompted by patriotism and guided by truth and justice, Judge Doolittle may in old age rest in the assurance that the people of this country are not unmindful of those who have devoted themselves to their interests. " Palmam qui meruit ferat."
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DANIEL HUDSON BURNHAM,
CHICAGO, ILL.
D ANIEL H. BURNHAM, Chief of Construc- tion of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, is a native of Henderson, Jefferson county, New York. He was born September 4, 1846, the son of Edwin and Elizabeth Burnham, who were natives of Vermont. They were married in New York about 1841. The great-grand- father of our subject was an officer in the Revolutionary army. His mother's paternal, on both sides, were, for many generations, clergy- men. She was a grand-daughter of the cele- brated Samuel Hopkins of revolutionary times, and a cousin of the late Mark Hopkins of
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