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. 2 > Part 19
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In September, 1888, Chas. Tobey died, and Frank became president. In 1890, they doubled the capacity of their warerooms by renting the adjoining building known as " My Block."
Mr. Tobey has thus seen the firm, beginning in the little store of 1200 square feet in 1857, grow to the present proportions of the Tobey Furni- ture Company, requiring for its business more than four acres of floor space, its trade extending to every state and territory in the union, with occa- sional foreign shipments. In fact, it is without doubt, the largest and most widely known retail furniture house in the country, if not in the world. In carrying on the business, Mr. Tobey is ably assisted by the present active manager, Mr. H. M. Wright, a man of marked business ability and energy.
The house demands the strictest integrity on the part of its employés, and absolute justice to all patrons. In all its history there has been no strike. One of the teamsters, Mr. Chris. Brown, who hauled goods for the young firm in 1857, is still in the employ of the company. Mr. J. W. Wight, one of the directors of the company, has been associated with the house since 1859.
Outside his business Mr. Tobey has taken live- ly interest in and has contributed liberally to philanthropic and charitable movements. In re- ligion he might be called a disciple of Theodore Parker, believing in the deed, rather than the creed. He helped organize the Society for Ethi- cal Culture in Chicago, and has generously devoted time and money to its support.
His politics may perhaps be best described by quoting his own remark that, "Statemanship
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found its highest ideal in Charles Sumner, who labored always for righteousness and abso- lute justice."
He has been an active promoter of the eco- nomic conferences in Chicago, which brought the
laborer and capitalist together and led to a better understanding between them. The distinguishing qualities in Mr. Tobey's character, and with which his name is always associated, seem to be integrity, charitableness and a high sense of justice.
EDWARD TURNER JEFFERY,
CHICAGO, ILL.
E DWARD TURNER JEFFERY is a na- tive of Liverpool, England, and was born on April 6, 1843. His father, W. S. Jeffery, was a mechanical engineer of prominence in England, and at the time of Edward's birth was chief en- gineer in the British navy, and had charge of the first steam propeller introduced in the British service. His mother was born in Downpatrick, Ireland, but her maternal ancestors were of Scotch descent. The family was prominently connected with the revolution of 1798, and our subject's great-grandfather, named Bailey, was captured and barely escaped hanging. When Edward was very young his father died, and two years later his mother remarried and immigrated to the United States, settling at Wheeling, Virginia. Here Edward attended private schools and formed those habits that have so greatly con- tribued to his success in life. When leaving his school to remove to Chicago in September. 1856, his tutor, in bidding him good-by, remarked that he had shown greater application and more vigorous energy than any other scholar he ever had; he also presented him with an algebra, geometry, arithmetic, elements of chemistry and natural philosophy. In October, 1856, when a lad of thirteen, he entered the employ of the Illi- nois Central Railroad Company. He entered the office of Samuel J. Hayes, superintendent of ma- chinery, where he was employed two months; he was then put to work in the tin and coppersmith shops as an apprentice. He served there four months, and was then sent to Detroit as an ap- prentice in the Detroit Locomotive Works, where he remained about fifteen months, and obtained a very good general knowledge of the workings of engines. He was then fifteen years old, and returned to Chicago. He next went to work in a stave factory on Clark street. His employ-
ment necessitated his presence in the drying kiln, which was heated to a temperature of about one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit, and not being suited with the place he, on July 5, 1858, applied for a position with the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and was put to work in the shops, but was soon transferred to Mr. Hayes' office, and was given a position as an apprentice at mechanical drawing. This seemed in every way perfectly suited to him, and he became en- thusiastic in his work, and then determined to fit himself thoroughly for the profession of a mechanical draughtsman and engineer. He com- menced a series of systematic studies that occu- pied his time for a period of ten years, embrac- ing all the special as well as general studies. So ardent and ambitious was he that up to the time he was eighteen years old, he was given the privi- lege to study or work, as his inclination prompted. He thus combined the theoretical with the practical, and by the time he was nine- teen years old he was on the rolls of the company as one of the regular mechanical draughtsmen. At twenty he was placed in full charge of the mechanical drawing department. He applied himself to study during the week, in the evenings and on Sundays, and when he was twenty-five years old few men of his age had so liberal an education. When placed in charge of the me- chanical drawing, Mr. Jeffery was also made pri- vate secretary to the superintendent of machin- ery. At twenty-eight he was made assistant superintendent of machinery by Mr. John Newell, then president of the road. Mr. Newell was thoroughly acquainted with the capabilities of Mr. Jeffery, and being himself a self-made rail- road man, he was not slow to open the way to energetic and deserving employés. For the fol- lowing six years Assistant Superintendent Jeffery
The Century Puchishing & Engraving Co Chicago.
Cel. Jeffery.
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was one of the most active men connected with the road. He shouldered the burden of respon- sibilities and discharged the duties with the high- est credit to himself. His long experience in mechanical drawing, combined with his constant practical work in the shops, enabled him to gain such a knowledge of the details of railroad man- agement that there was little, if anything, about railroading that he did not learn. Mr. Jeffery is one of the best posted men in railway mechanics in the world. On May 4, 1877, he was promoted to the office of general superintendent of the Illi- nois Central Railroad system, in which capacity he served until December 15, 1885, when he was appointed general manager of the entire line, a rare promotion for one of his age.
In 1885 the International Congress was held, and Mr. Jeffery, as the representative of the Illi- nois Central Railroad Company, was the sole American representative there.
In 1889 he resigned his position as general manager of the Illinois Central Railroad, and was immediately tendered numerous positions of prominence with leading railroad corporations. In October, 1891, he was elected president of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, with headquarters at Denver, and entered at once upon his duties, to the great regret of his hosts of friends, who dislike to have him leave Chicago. Declining them he yielded to the solicitations of the executive committee of the preliminary or- ganization of the World's Columbian Exposition to make a trip to Paris to examine into the details of the Paris Exposition. He spread the news of the projected exposition in the United States In April, 1877, Mr. Jeffery married Miss Vir- ginia Osborne Clark, daughter of the Hon. James C. Clark. They have two bright, happy children, viz .: James Clark, an apt scholar, twelve years old, and Edna Turner, still younger. broadcast, and the articles published in the Paris- ian papers at his suggestion were translated and published throughout Europe and Great Britain. He returned to the United States in the latter part of December, 1889, and, at the solicitation of the In social circles Mr. Jeffery is much esteemed ; he is vice-president of the Calumet club, and an active member of the Chicago and Iroquois clubs. Politically he is a Democrat, and believes that the two great questions of the day, outside of popular education and purity of the ballot-box, are first, the remonetization of silver under an interna- tional agreement, if it can be brought about ; and secondly, a revision of the tariff, in conformity with citizens of Chicago, went to Washington and made an argument before the special committee of the United States Senate in behalf of the ad- vantages of Chicago as the city in which the World's Columbian Exposition should be held. The array of facts and figures presented by him in his argument showed him master of the situa- tion, and his effort went far toward securing for his city the location of what promises to be the . the views expressed by ex-President Cleveland. world's greatest exposition ..
Mr. Jeffery has always been known as an able public speaker, and during his connection with the Illinois Central Railroad he made many argu- ments before State Legislatures and other execu- tive bodies. In 1888, upon the invitation of the
Common Council of New Orleans, he delivered an address upon " The best method of increas- ing the commerce of New Orleans." The council tendered him a vote of thanks, and ordered ten thousand copies of his address printed and scat- tered broadcast throughout the land.
Upon the permanent organization of the World's Columbian Exposition he was made a director, and became vice-chairman of the Build- ings and Grounds Committee, ex-Mayor Cregier being chairman. At the last election he was re- elected to the board, and was made chairman of this (the most important) committee. He is also a member of the Board of Reference and Control. He is one of the most earnest and zealous work- ers in the directorate, and has been influential in its councils in shaping the course of the gigantic enterprise. Mr. Jeffery was the controlling spirit and president of the Grant Locomotive Works, and a trustee of the Grant Land Company. But in 1891 he resigned from the first-named of these offices, and expects to be relieved of his duties in connection with the other.
Mr. Jeffrey has been urged to accept nominations for several political positions, among them being a tender of the nomination for the State Senate. However, he has never desired political prefer- ment, and has always declined. He was promi- nently mentioned as an available candidate for
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the mayoralty, but refused to go before the people.
Mr. Jeffrey's career has been one of unusual success, which may be attributed to his intense
energy, constant application, extensive reading, honesty of purpose, candor of expression, integrity in all business relations, proper regard for the rights of others, combined with great native ability.
HON. EDWARD S. LACEY,
CHICAGO, ILL.
E DWARD S. LACEY, President of the Bankers' National Bank of Chicago, is a native of Chili, Monroe county, New York; was born on November 26, 1835, to Edward D. and Martha C. Lacey. When he was seven years old his parents moved to Michigan, and in the spring of 1843, settled in Eaton county, where he had his home until May 1, 1889.
His father was a man of considerable promi- nence and filled numerous offices of trust. His grandfather, Samuel Lacey, was an orderly ser- geant under La Fayette, and major of a Vermont regiment of infantry in the war of 1812.
Edward S. received his education in the public schools and at Olivet College, and at the age of eighteen became a salesman in a general store at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he remained until he was twenty-one. In 1857 he returned to Charlotte, Michigan, and in 1860 was elected register of deeds, which office he held for four years. In 1862, he, in partnership with Hon. Joseph Musgrave, formerly of Ashland, Ohio, established a private bank, which was succeeded in 1871 by the First National Bank of Charlotte, of which he was a director and cashier, and of which he subsequently, upon the death of Mr. Musgrave, became president.
During his entire connection with this bank, he was its active manager .. From the commence- ment of his business career, Mr. Lacey has been an exceedingly busy man and has been closely identified with many important matters. He was a director in the Grand River Valley Railroad Company from its organization, and for many years was its treasurer. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Bagley a trustee of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane and held that office six years, when he resigned. In 1876 he was a dele- gate to the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, and from 1882 to 1884 served as
chairman of the Republican State Committee of Michigan. As the first mayor of the city of Charlotte, he contributed largely to its system of public improvements.
In 1880 Mr. Lacey was elected to Congress from the Third District of Michigan, and re- elected in 1882; he received the nomination each time by acclamation, and in cach instance ran far ahead of his ticket at the election. His desire to return to private life led him to decline a third term in Congress, but in 1886 he yielded to the solicitations of friends and became a candidate for the United States Senate, but, while showing strength and popularity, was unsuccessful. In Congress he took a prominent part. He was on the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and also on that of Coinage, Weights and Meas- ures, but gave his attention chiefly to questions of finance and came into prominence among students of monetary matters through a very able speech which he made on the silver question in the Forty-eighth Congress. Among his numer- ous addresses on financial questions, that on the use of silver as money, before the American Bankers' Association at Chicago in 1885, brought him into special prominence among the bankers of the country.
Recognizing the peculiar fitness for the posi- tion on account of his many years of banking experience and familiarity with public affairs, Mr. Lacey's friends, comprising prominent citi- zens and financiers of his own State, of New York and Chicago, urged his appointment as Comptroller of the Currency and, upon their sug- gestion, the office was tendered to him and he entered upon its duties May 1, 1889. His pre- decessors had, without exception, been men of high character and ability, and yet it may be said as a matter of simple justice that none of them more thoroughly mastered the details of the
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office than did Mr. Laccy. His administration covered, perhaps, the most critical period within the history of national banking (the Baring fail- ure and its wide-spread and disastrous effect upon credits and securities) and to his wise judgment, prudent action and. undaunted courage in the management of the banks of this country, busi- ness interests are largely indebted for the favor- able outcome. It is a matter of note that, in his official management, Mr. Lacey always made a personal supervision of every important detail a paramount duty. In relation to the national banks of the country, he pursued a policy both vigorous and conservative, tending always toward the protection of the depositors and creditors, and it is a noteworthy fact that his policy received very general endorsement.
He carefully studied the details of his office and introduced many reforms. He aimed to secure every possible safeguard, exercising always a sound discretion in construing such restrictions as, owing to local conditions, would embarrass and. annoy bank officers and their customers, without corresponding benefits to the public.
Mr. Lacey is a man of decided convictions, to which he is faithfully and fearlessly obedient.
His intrepid integrity is universally recognized. While modest and unassuming in private life, he becomes aggressive in an emergency, never fail- ing to have perfect command of his best faculties. He is a man of attractive personality, and by his courteous manner and manly bearing readily makes and retains friends. He is in the prime of life, has a vigorous, active mind and sound phys- ique, and dispatches business without fatigue.
The office of Comptroller of the Currency is second only in importance to that of the Secre- tary of the Treasury. This office was so ably and satisfactorily filled by Mr. Lacey, coupled with the enviable national reputation as a finan- cier previously acquired, that his services were eagerly sought after in moneyed centers. Several large banks thus located made him attractive offers to take the presidency. He was, however, most attracted by Chicago and its wonderful possibilities ; hence, on June 30, 1892, he re- signed to accept the presidency of the Bankers' National Bank. His successful achievements and conspicuous abilities give the fullest assurance that those who were instrumental in placing him in control of its affairs and interests made no mistake.
HON. WALTER Q. GRESHAM,
CHICAGO, ILL.
W ALTER QUINTIN GRESHAM, a native of Lanesville, in Harrison county, Indiana, was born on March 17, 1833, to William and Sarah (Davis) Gresham. His father, a farmer by occupa- tion, and also a cabinet-maker, was born in Ken- tucky, September 17, 1802. He was a man of fine physical proportions, with qualities of mind and heart that not only made him conspicuous in his community, but also won for him universal confi- dence and esteem. He was a colonel in the mil- itia. In 1833 he was elected sheriff of Harrison county, Indiana, on the Whig ticket, with but slight opposition. He was fatally shot in 1834, by a desperado, whom he was attempting to ar- rest. At the time of his marriage to Sarah, a daughter of Mr. John Davis, in November, 1825, she was but eighteen years old. He took her to his farm in Indiana, and she still lives on the old
homestead with an unmarried daughter, a hale and active woman, happy and cheerful in the en- joyment of the loving regard of her children and friends. Our subject's grandfather, George Gres- ham, was a native of Virginia, and was born near Petersburg, October 9, 1776. He went with the Penningtons to Mercer county, Kentucky, when a young man, and in 1801 married Mary Penning- ton. In 1809 he removed to Harrison county, Indiana, with his brother-in-law, Dennis Penning- ton, and took up a large tract of land on Little Indian Creek, where Lanesville now stands, and became a prosperous farmer. Our subject's ma- ternal grandfather, also, was a native of Virginia, whence he removed to Kentucky and thence to Indiana. He was of Welsh ancestry.
Walter passed his boyhood on his mother's farm ; he had few school privileges prior to his six-
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teenth year, but was possessed of a studious mind and a thirst for knowledge. He had long cher- ished the hope that he might attend Corydon Seminary, an educational institution near by. Through the aid of his elder brother, Benjamin, who had just returned from the Mexican War, and Mr. Samuel Wright, who was county auditor, and who gave young Gresham a position in his office where he could earn enough to pay his board, his hope was realized and he was enabled to spend one year at the County Seminary and one year at the State University at Bloomington. Thus equipped, he secured a position in the county clerk's office at Corydon, and devoted his leisure to the study of law under the direction of Judge William Porter, who took a deep interest in him. In this way he studied and worked some three years, and in 1854 was admitted to the bar, and became a partner with Mr. Thomas C. Slaughter, who afterwards became Judge of the circuit court. Upon the formation of the Republican party in 1855, he allied himself with it, and entered heart- ily into the exciting political campaigns that fol- lowed. After the nomination of John C. Fre- mont for the presidency, in 1856, at the Phila- delphia convention, to which his partner was a delegate, young Gresham stumped Harrison county for the " path-finder," with the result that more Republican votes were cast in that county than in all the rest of the district between New Albany and Evansville. As a speaker at the bar or on the stump, he became noted for his clear, forceful and exact statements that never failed to carry conviction, while as a lawyer he was studi- ous and pains-taking and conscientious.
In 1860 he was elected to the general assembly of Indiana from Harrison county, overcoming the democratic majority of five hundred in the county, by a personal canvass of every school dis- trict in the county. In the legislature he was chairman of the committee on military affairs, and as such introduced and secured the passage of the militia bill. He was skilled in military tactics, and for some time was captain of a' com- pany at Corydon called the "Spencer Rifles," and upon the opening of the civil war he was ap- pointed by Governor Morton lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-eighth Indiana regiment, but before it entered the service he became colonel of the Fifty-third regiment. This was in December,
1861. His military record is one of which he may justly be proud ; his regiment was ordered to St. Louis, whence, after the fall of Donelson, it was sent to join General Grant at Savannah, Tennessee, where it was assigned to Veatch's brigade in Hurlbut's division ; with his regiment, Colonel Gresham participated in the siege of Corinth, and afterward was engaged in numerous expeditions south of the Memphis and Charleston railroad. He was in the North Mississippi cam- paign with Grant's army, and afterwards was stationed at Memphis till 1863. Later he joined General Grant's forces at Vicksburg. Colonel Gresham's conduct had won the admiration of his superior officers-particularly General Grant, who with General Sherman recommended his appoint- ment as brigadier general, which was made on August 11, 1863, and he was put in command of the post of Natchez and later succeeded General Crocker in command of the district of Natchez. His judicious government of that city attracted the friendship of all parties. In the spring of 1864 he was put in command of a division in the seventeenth corps of the Army of Tennessee, to participate in the Atlanta campaign. His sol- dierly demeanor strongly commended him to Gen- eral McPherson, who commanded the army, and General Frank Blair, who had command of the corps, and he was active in the numerous engage- ments of that campaign until July 20. On that day, in the battle of Leggett's Hill, he was severly wounded by a bullet which struck his leg below the knee. On the following day, under the per- . sonal direction of General McPherson, he was carried to the railroad station, and thence taken to New Albany, where he was confined for more than a year, nursed by his faithful wife. He was obliged to use crutches several years.
After the close of the war he resumed his pro- fession at New Albany ; he was nominated for Congress in 1866, and while he won many Demo- cratic friends, he (the district was overwhelm- ingly Democratic) was defeated at the polls by Mr. M. C. Kerr. During that year he was ap- pointed financial agent of the State, and so con- tinued until 1869. When General Grant became president, he tendered General Gresham the col- lectorship at New Orleans, which was declined. He went to Washington in the interest of a friend whose appointment as district attorney of Indiana
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he sought ; and when in an interview with President Grant, he was informed by him that he himself had already been selected for that office, General Gresham replied that under no circum- stances could he accept it. In December, 1869, the president appointed him United States dis- trict judge for Indiana, an office which he ac- cepted and honored until April, 1882. At that time, upon the death of Postmaster General Howe, who was a member of the cabinet of President Garfield and his successor, President Arthur, Judge Gresham was tendered and ac- cepted the office thus made vacant, and filled it in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory to the public. Near the close of President Arthur's term, he became secretary of the treasury, vice Secretary Folger who had died, and in all his connection with the cabinet, was one of the president's most valued advisers. He withdrew from the cabinet in October, 1884, and in December following, was appointed United States circuit judge to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Drummond, at Chi- cago. This high position is one for which he is eminently fitted. Learned in the law, a thorough scholar and close reasoner, with a high sense of jus- tice and an appreciation of the responsibility and dignity of his office, his rulings and decisions are characterized by accuracy, promptness, directness and uniform firmness. His endeavor is to do justice regardless of who the litigants before him may
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