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 21
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In 1878 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. In 1889 he helped to organ- ize the association known as Sons of New Hamp- shire, and for two years served as its president.
He is a member of the Chicago Club, the Chicago Literary Club, and the Chicago Histor- ical Society ; and since 1879 has been president of the Western Railroad Association.
In stature, Mr. Ayer is little less than six feet in height, and well proportioned ; he has a well- shaped head, and blue eyes; his features are strong, clear-cut and regular, and his whole bear- ing are indicative of a cultured and high-minded gentleman.
In 1868 Mr. Ayer married Miss Janet A. Hop- kins, a daughter of Hon. James C. Hopkins, of Madison, Wisconsin, who was . United States District Judge for the Western District of Wis- consin. They have four children, Walter, Mary Louisa, Janet and Margaret Helen.
FRANK RICHARD GREENE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONG the many bright and promising young men of Chicago, who, step by step, have worked their way to the front by their own energy, ability and force of character, none is more deserving of honorable mention than the subject of this sketch.
Frank Richard Greene was born at Newport, Ohio, on June 8, 1859, and is the son of James B. and Melissa (Wood) Greene. He is descended from a line of distinguished ancestors, and is a direct descendant of General Nathaniel Greene, of revolutionary fame. His grandfather, Richard Greene, was one of the pioneers who settled near
Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, when Ohio was known as the "Northwest territory," Marietta being the first settlement in that territory. Our subject's father was a well-to-do farmer of Washington county, Ohio, and a prominent and influential citizen, and still lives on the old homestead, where his father, Richard Greene, settled in 1788. He was a soldier in the late war of the rebellion, and was a member of the general assembly of Ohio in 1866 and 1867.
Frank spent his boyhood on his fathers's farm, attending the district schools and helping in the farm-work, and when old enough, pursued a
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course of study at Marietta College, Ohio. His father had a large family to support, and in order to relieve him of a part of the burden, Frank left school at the age of seventeen years to start in life for himself. Being offered a clerkship in a bank at Marietta, he accepted it and remained with the institution some five years, being pro- moted from time to time, until he became teller and head book-keeper. When about twenty-two years old he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he held important and responsible positions with various commercial houses. He went thence to St. Louis, Missouri, and later to St. Paul, Minne- sota, where he was assistant cashier for the Northern Pacific Railway Company for two years. In 1885 Mr. Greene located in Chicago, and entered the employ of Messrs. Weaver, Tod and Company, coal merchants, remaining with them five years as confidential book-keeper. He re- signed his position in March, 1890, to assume the duties of auditor for the Chicago City Railway
Company. He filled that position until January, 1891, when he was elected secretary of the com- pany, and was re-elected in January, 1892.
Mr. Greene united with the Baptist denomina- tion when a boy, and for some fourteen years has been a devoted and earnest worker in religious and church matters, and takes an active interest in whatever tends to the betterment of his fellow- men. In political sentiment he has always been a Republican. He takes a deep interest in polit- ical matters, but is in no sense a politician.
Mr. Greene was married September 24, 1891, to Miss Berinthia M. Thompson, of Monticello, Illi- nois, a lady of education, culture and refinement, and many womanly graces.
Though young in years, Mr. Greene has at- tained to a place in the confidence of the business world that few men of his years reach, and by his upright character and straightforward manly conduct, holds the high esteem of all who know him.
WILLIAM E. W. JOHNSON,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE career of him whose name heads this sketch is one of which any man might well be proud. Possessed of an indomitable will and untiring energy, he has accomplished much ; that which most men strive for-honor and wealth-he has attained. His history is interesting in show- ing how he has risen from obscurity to promi- nence in the city of his adoption.
William E. W. Johnson was born in Philadel- phia, November 7, 1850, the son of Charles F. and Mary A. Johnson. He was sent to the public schools in his native city until the age of four- teen, and by studious habits mastered the rudi- ments of a good education, but was compelled to leave school at this early age and begin the battle of life. He went to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and secured a position as clerk in a United States recruiting office, where recruits for Indian wars were being enlisted. From there he went to Des Moines, Iowa, where he sold books for a year. He next secured employment in a hardware store, and beginning at the bottom he worked his way up until he attained the position of salesman.
In 1871 Mr. Johnson returned to Philadelphia, where he secured a position with the large pack- ing firm of Washington Butchers Sons, as head teamster and storage clerk. He was ambitious and his rigid training stood him in good stead. He applied himself closely to his work and by his faithfulness, and industry and efficiency, gained the confidence of his employers, and in a short time was appointed superintendent, and held that position until 1885. During that year the house opened a branch in Chicago, and placed Mr. John- son in charge of it, and at the same time he was given an interest in the Chicago branch of the business. He conducted the business successfully until July, 1889, when he associated himself as a partner with Mr. B. F. Cronkrite in the real-es- tate business, though he did not engage actively in the business until six months later. After clos- ing the affairs of his former business, he engaged with his accustomed zeal and enterprise in the affairs of his new firm, which under its able man- agement has come to be one of the foremost real- estate firms in Chicago.
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In politics, Mr. Johnson is a Democrat, but he is in no sense a politician.
He is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, and a life member of the Manhattan Athletic Club of New York City.
Mr. Johnson is interested in many enterprises. He is president of the Western Rolling Stock and Equipment Company of Chicago.
Although Mr. Johnson did not have the ad-
vantages of a thorough education in early life, he has been a careful observer of men and events, and devotes much time to reading; and he has acquired a large fund of valuable information that renders him a most interesting conversationalist and companion.
Yet in the prime of life, he has attained to an enviable place as -a business man, and may justly attribute his success to his own merit.
LOUIS KISTLER,
CHICAGO, ILL.
OUIS KISTLER, lawyer and advocate, was 1 born June 25, 1835, in Strasburg, Germany, being the eldest son of Andrew and Mary Kistler. His father was a brave soldier in the Napoleonic wars, and died in 1845 from the effects of wounds and exposure. At ten years of age, therefore, Louis was left virtually alone, his mother being in no position to assist him. The next year he came to America, and settled in Rochester, New York. He immediately set about to earn his own living, making at the same time persistent efforts to master the English language; and by his own original resources succeeded, by dint of effort, in pursuing a classical course of study at the Syracuse University, from which institution he graduated with honor in 1858. He then became a teacher in Greenwich Academy, Rhode Island .; and, in 1862, he revisited Europe for the purpose of pur- suing a course of higher study at the University of Berlin, at the same time carefully scrutinizing the social, commercial and political condition of the land of his birth. Returning in 1864 to America, the land of his choice and adoption, he accepted a position in the Northwestern Univer- sity at Evanston, as professor of the Greek lan- guage and literature, and as professor of political science-his term of service covering fourteen years-which position, in 1878, he resigned, and commenced the active practice of the law in Chi- cago, having remarkable and unvaried success with a constantly growing clientage. The prac- tice of the law absorbs his time and talent.
His staunch character and recognized ability made him prominent in Republican circles ; and as president of the German-American Republican
Club, he made one of his characteristic extempo- raneous speeches of welcome to the Hon. James G. Blaine, at the Grand Pacific Hotel, on October 25, 1884, which is considered one of the political " gems" of that marvelous campaign. It is here given as a model of its kind ;
" Mr. Blaine,-We are pleased to meet you. As men coming from the various walks of life, and representing the German-American Republicans of Chicago, the metropolis of the northwest, we ex- tend to you a cordial greeting. We are ac- quainted with your long and varied career as a public servant. Your course as a member and speaker of the House of Representatives, senator and member of the great and lamented Garfield cabinet, and as the historian of those great na- tional events that have rendered the name and fame of our country a household word among the great nations of the civilized world, commands most truly our confidence and respect. During your long and honorable public service, given to the country of our choice and adoption, you have been distinguished from all other men in public life, as the typical American statesman-broad and liberal in your own views, seeking your country's highest and best interests, and never losing sight of those fundamental principles of the American con- stitution, which stand forth so prominently as the great bulwark of protection to every American citi- zen in his personal rights and his personal liberty. Being zealous of our own personal liberty in the country of our choice and adoption, and being fully identified with its great and varied interests, we hail you as the great leader and champion of our aspirations. Your earnest and persistent ad-
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vocacy of protection to the great industries of our loved land, now far dearer to us than the land of our fathers ; your broad statesmanship ; your love of liberty-all these inspire in us the belief that your administration of the national government will be the beginning of a new era in our national growth and prosperity. You, sir, and our gallant Logan, are the chosen leaders in this grand march of our national prosperity. You have our hearti- est support. Please accept our presence as an in-
dorsement of your life, character and public ser- vices. In the name of the German-American Re- publicans of Chicago, we bid you a most hearty wel- come to the queen among the cities of the lakes."
Mr. Kistler speaks the English language with purity, power and a faultless accent, and is greatly devoted to American institutions and American interests. He is prominently connected with the orders of Odd-Fellows and Masons, and takes great interest in their welfare.
GEORGE M. PULLMAN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
TN this practical and utilitarian age, he deserves and receives the esteem and admiration and praise of his fellow-men, the work of whose hand secures the greatest good to the greatest number. When judged by what he has done, by the last- ing benefits which his genius and enterprise have conferred upon all classes, he whose name heads this sketch must be ranked among the world's greatest philanthropists. George M. Pullman is one of Chicago's most distinguished citizens. He is a native of the village of Brocton, Chautauqua county, New York, and was born on March 3, 1831. His father, James Lewis Pullman, was a native of Rhode Island ; he was a mechanic by occupation, and a man of great force of character and influence in his community ; and withal was known for his fair-mindedness, his pure-hearted- ness and his loyalty to what he believed to be right ; he died on November 1, 1853. His mother, Emily Caroline (Minton) Pullman, was a woman of rare good sense and womanly virtues ; she was a daughter of James Minton, of Auburn, New York.
Our subject has four brothers and two sisters, viz .: Rev. Royal H. Pullman, pastor of the First Universalist Church of Baltimore; Albert B. Pullman, for many years connected with the Pullman Palace Car Company, but now engaged in other business; Dr. James M. Pullman, a Uni- versalist minister at Lynn, Massachusetts ; Charles L. Pullman, connected with the Pullman Palace Car Company ; Helen A., the wife of Mr. George West, a merchant of New York city, and Emma C., the wife of Dr. William F. Fluhrer, a promi-
nent surgeon of New York city. His brother, Frank W. Pullman, a lawyer, who was assistant United States District Attorney at New York, died in 1879.
George M., aside from careful home training, received a good common-school education, and while yet a boy disclosed that independence and self-reliance and manly persistence that have characterized his subsequent life and been such important factors in his remarkable success. He was full of original ideas, and had much inventive genius ; and best of all had a practicality in his ideas, and a perseverance and constancy in utiliz- ing them, that enabled him to turn them to good account, His introduction to business life was as a clerk in a store near his home when fourteen years old, for which he received an annual salary of forty dollars. His elder brother, Royal H., was conducting a small cabinet-making establish- ment at Albion, New York, at this time, and at the end of his first year in the store, George took a place in his shop to learn the cabinet-making trade ; a most important step as subsequent events disclosed. While yet in his teens he be- came a partner with his brother, and they were reasonably prosperous. But upon the death of his father, the care of his mother and younger brothers and sisters largely devolved upon him, and he found it necessary to increase his income. With his other acquirements he had gained a considerable knowledge of mechanics and engi- neering, and when, about this time, the State of New York advertised for bids to widen the Erie Canal and raise the buildings along its line, he
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secured a contract : and so successfully did he accomplish the work that he was soon ranked with the leading contractors in that particular line of business, and found no difficulty in getting all the work he could do.
But a wider field was opening for him. Chi- cago was about to engage in an undertaking re- quiring at its head a man of just his type and ability. The city authorities had decided, for sanitary reasons and in order to secure cleanliness, to raise the grade of the streets in the business portion of the south division some six feet, and in order to accommodate themselves to the new order of things, owners of buildings found it necessary to raise them to the street grade. Mr. Pullman learned of the situation, and, with a capital of six thousand dollars, removed to Chi- cago and bid for and secured some of the largest contracts for raising the buildings in the whole- sale district along Lake and Water streets. This was in 1859. The buildings were large four and five-story structures of brick, iron and stone, and to raise them bodily seemed impossible, and a long siege of confusion and interruption of busi- ness was looked for. What was the happy sur- prise of those who had feared the worst when they saw one after another of these massive struc- tures lifted to the required height, and at the same time saw their business going on day after day with comparatively little inconvenience and as though nothing had happened. This success- ful achievement was regarded as a marvel of engineering skill, and increased the reputation and fame of the man who had accomplished it.
Mr. Pullman's next engineering experiences were in Colorado, whither he was attracted, with the thousands of others, upon the discovery of gold there. He spent three years among the mines, and made considerable money.
Prior to going to Colorado, he had imperfectly carried out a long cherished plan of lessening the discomforts of traveling. The introduction of sleeping accommodations in railway coaches had met with little encouragement owing to the ill- suited contrivances that had been used. Mr. Pullman was quick to see that comfort was an indispensable requisite, and that the more the luxuries afforded the greater would be. the de- mand for such accommodations. To illustrate his theory, he, in the spring of 1859, had fitted up
two old passenger cars belonging to the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, to be used as "sleepers." The novelty and ingenuity and feasi- bility, combined with the elegant taste of his plan, attracted favorable consideration and com- ment. It was the perfection of his work thus begun, that he determined upon when he returned to Chicago from Colorado in 1863.
With the aid of able assistants he set about his task with a will, sparing no expense in giving ex- pression to his ideas, greatly to the surprise and discomfiture of many of his friends who looked upon his venture as foolishly extravagant and im- practical. After many months' labor and an ex- penditure of eighteen thousand dollars, he pro- duced his first car ready for service. It was a marvel of beauty and comfort and luxury, and was called by its owner, the "Pioneer." "The Pull- man Palace Car, viewed simply as a stationary miniature palace, would be a wonder of architec- tural and artistic beauty. But it is a thing of a thousand mechanical devices ; a vehicle and house ; a kitchen, dining-room, parlor, office, sleeping-room and boudoir, all in one. To have made this alone would have ranked Mr. Pullman as an inventor of world-wide celebrity." The " Pioneer " made its first trip as a part of the train which bore the remains of President Lin- coln from Washington to their final resting place at Springfield. Soon afterward it was called into requisition on the occasion of Gen- eral Grant's return to his Galena home; and not long before it ceased to be regarded simply a luxury, and was demanded by the traveling pub- lic as a necessity, and all the leading railroads in the country were ready to gratify the wishes of their patrons. This popular demand was a vindi- cation of Mr. Pullman's advanced idcas, that the public would be willing to pay for whatever would remove the discomforts of travel and add to it the comforts and luxuries of home, and it is in fur- therance of those ideas that has come the vesti- bule train of more recent years.
The demand for these cars led to the organiza- tion of the Pullman Palace Car Company, Febru- ary 22, 1867, whose operations had become so extensive in 1880 that new works and larger and more improved facilities were required. Here was offered an opportunity of testing a plan which he had long cherished of building a town,
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to comprise the necessary shops, stores, markets, places of amusement, houses for his workmen and their families, school-houses and churches, all to be under the care of the company. Four thou- sand acres of land were bought along and near the western shore of Lake Calumet, some twelve miles south of the then limits of Chicago, and five miles inland from Lake Michigan, with which it is connected by the Calumet River. The land was first prepared by a thorough system of drain- age into Lake Calumet, whence the town site gradually rises. Streets were laid out and im- proved, bordered on either side by grass plats, beds of flowers and rows of elms. The shops of the company, built of pressed brick and stone and roofed with slate, are artistic in design and models of convenience for their various uses ; and, sepa- rated as they are by broad avenues and well-kept lawns, they present a view beautiful and unique. These, covering some thirty acres of land, are separated from the southern or residence portion of the town by a broad boulevard with handsome dwellings. From this, running southward, are five broad avenues, which bear the names Ste- phenson, Watt, Fulton, Morse and Pullman, and along which stand the cottages occupied by the workmen employed in the works. There are nearly eighteen hundred houses, of a great variety of artistic designs, and they rent for prices vary- ing according to size, location, etc. The Arcade building, erected at a cost of three hundred thou- sand dollars, is occupied by the theatre, the post- office, the bank, the library and the stores of the town, which latter open onto an interior court with galleries, and which, under the electric lights at night, resemble a brilliantly illumined bazaar. In the center of the town is a massive tower, the center of the water and sewerage systems. Other notable structures are the Hotel Florence, the several churches and school houses, all models of elegance and good taste in architectual designs, and provided with every modern convenience and appliance requisite to comfort and sanitary com-
pleteness. Improvements are constantly being made, and at the present time (1892) nearly eight million dollars have been expended in bringing the place to its present state of completeness. The power for the shops, which began operation in April, 1881, is furnished by the celebrated Cor- liss engine used at the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia. The inhabitants number over twelve thousand, and the social, moral and intel- lectual character of the place is greatly superior to that of the average industrial town. Taken all in all, it is a most remarkable illustration of practical philanthropy, and the wonderful success that has attended the enterprise from its incep- tion verifies the theory of its originator and pro- moter : " That beauty and culture have an economical value, and that the working classes are capable of appreciating and appropriating the highest ministries of excellence and art."
Professor David Swing, speaking of this "New alliance between capital and labor," said : “ A sense of harmony predominates. Each detail is in proper place and proper porportion. The build- ings for labor are not joined to the fireside. Home and shop, and church and opera house, and library and railway station, are where each should be, and instead of making a discord they verify to the full the definition of him who said that ' Architecture was frozen music.' Here the stores are as numerous as the population demand ; the churches pay some regard to the souls that need transformation from sin to goodness ; the theatre is adapted to the number of those who need hours of laughter and merriment; the library fits the community as neatly as a glove the hand of the lady ; even that strange invention of man in his estate of sin and misery-the saloon-is subjected to the eternal fitness of things, and, inasmuch as a community, however large, needs no saloon at all, that is the number laid out by the thoughtful architect and built by the founder. It receives its due proportion of time and money. But the ma- terial symmetry of this new city is only the outward emblem of a moral unity among the inhabitants. Unity is a common bond of interest and feeling, a bond great enough to hold men together, but not strong enough to cramp human nature in any of its honorable departments."
The Pullman Palace Car Company is the largest railroad manufacturing interest in the world. It employs a capital of forty million dollars, and has assets exceeding forty-five millions. It has in its service, according to its last report, two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine cars ; employs thir- teen thousand eight hundred and eighty-five per- sons, whose annual wages aggregate three million three hundred and thirty-one thousand five hun-
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dred and twenty-seven dollars and forty-one cents, being an average of six hundred and ten dollars and seventy-three cents per capita. During 1891 about five and a half million passengers were carried, and the aggregate distance traveled was about one hundred and eighty-seven million miles.
Although Mr. Pullman has been, and is, the moving spirit of this gigantic enterprise, he has at the same time been largely interested in im- portant interests. Among these may be men- tioned the Eagleton Iron Works, of New York, and the New York Loan and Improvement Com- pany, of which he was president, and which was organized in his offices in that city in 1874-75, and built the Metropolitan Elevated Railway on Second and Sixth avenues. In this company he was associated with Mr. Jose F. DeNavarro and Commodore Garrison, each owning one-third of the stock. The project was strenuously opposed by the street railway companies of New York and some of the most influential citizens, who sought to defeat it by every process known to the law. Finally the company's cause was sustained by the higher court, when all but one hundred days of the time stipulated in the company's charter for having the road in operation had expired. Noth- ing daunted, the projectors went to work with a will, calling to their aid all the available help they could secure, and in ninety-six days had their road in operation. He has been interested in the Nicaragua canal project since its inception.
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