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 24
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About a year before the completion of the Capitol, he originated a plan for the ceremonies of the dedication of the Capitol building, organiz- ing an association among the citizens of Austin for this purpose, and was elected secretary and general manager, and one of the directors. Under his management, the dedication of the Capitol was celebrated by an interstate and international military encampment, and international band con- test in May, 1888, which was considered the most
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brilliant and successful affair of the kind ever given in the Southwest. There was a large attendance of military companies from neighbor- ing States, and the President of Mexico sent military representatives, and one of his famous bands of music to honor the occasion. So suc- cessfully did Colonel Dickinson carry out this vast undertaking that the citizens of San Antonio, Texas, immediately organized an International Fair association and elected him secretary and general manager, and he prepared for them the first Texas-Mexican Exposition which was given at San Antonio in November, 1888. This was regarded by the people as the best arranged and most attractive exposition of the products and resources of Texas and Mexico that had ever been held in the State. He remained in San Antonio as secretary and general manager of this ExpositionAssociation until he visited Chicago at the time that city entered the contest for the location of the World's Fair. His services were immediately engaged, and he was sent to inter- view members of Congress in several States on behalf of Chicago, and met the Chicago committee in Washington in December, 1889, and remained with them until Chicago was victorous in the contest.
When the bill had passed, creating the World's Columbian Exposition, and providing for two commissioners from each State, Colonel Dickinson was appointed by General L. S. Ross, Governor of Texas, as the Democratic commissioner to re- present that State.
The commission held its first meeting in the city of Chicago -on June 26, 1890, and on the following day Colonel Dickinson was unanimously elected secretary, for which position his experience and ability pre-eminently fitted him. In 1885 Mr. Dickinson was appointed a Colonel on the staff of Governor John Ireland of Texas.
By education and conviction, Colonel Dickinson is a staunch Democrat and his been such from his youth up. He is an ardent believer in the principles of his party, but has great charity for those who differ with him politically.
In his religious convictions he is an Episcopalian, his family having been members of that church for several generations.
He is a man of commanding presence. Five feet ten and a half inches in height, of considerable personal magnetism, courteous and dignified in manner, kind-hearted, and generous, and always attracts those who come within the circle of his influence. Colonel Dickinson has never married.
JAMES P. KETCHAM,
CHICAGO, ILL.
J AMES P. KETCHAM was among the suc- cessful business men in the Garden City. Few were more closely identified with her larger interests than James P. Ketcham. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 17th day of No- vember, 1837, son of Samuel and Roseanne (Py- ott) Ketcham. His father was a shoe manufacturer, and was a native of Pennsylvania, as was his wife. In 1852 they removed to Ohio and remained there one year, and then settled at Muscatine, Iowa. There James received his primary educa- tion in the public schools, and afterward attended the academy of which Mr. George B. Dennison was principal. He then entered the employ of Messrs. Dinsmore & Chambers, lumber dealers. He was entrusted with the management of a branch establishment in Marengo, Iowa. He
conducted the affairs of the firm with ability, and learned the details of the business, and in about one year later, in 1861, he purchased the entire business and launched out for himself. For twelve years he continued alone in the lumber trade, building up a very large business and every year increasing his capital. In 1866 he admitted his younger brother William, to a partnership and in 1872, leaving him to carry on the business, removed to Chicago. He first bought the lumber yard of Messrs. Jillett & King, at Taylor street, near the Rock Island depot, and remained there seven years. He then located at the intersection of Blue Island and South Hoyne avenues.
He was chairman of the Board of Supervisors at Marengo, Iowa, for three years, and a member of the general assembly and of the Senate of
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Iowa, one term in each. He was formerly a mem- ber of the Illinois Club, but withdrew. He was a member of Cleveland Lodge of the Masonic Order, and Washington Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.
He was a staunch Republican, but of late years took little interest in politics other than to vote at all important elections.
In 1863 he married Miss Agnes A. Adams at Marengo, Iowa. She is a daughter of Mr. Noel Adams, formerly of Utica, New York. One son,
the fruit of this marriage, survives, viz .: Frank Ketcham, twenty-six years of age.
Mr. Ketcham was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was church treasurer for five years. He was a man of genial temperament, socially in- clined, broad and generous in his views, pleasant in manner, and gave largely to charities and worthy objects.
He was of medium height, robust in build, light complexion, and of a fine presence and ad- dress. He died February 16, 1892.
AMOS GRANNIS,
CHICAGO, ILL.
O F those whose active lives are coeval with Chicago, and whose trials and triumphs are interwoven in her history, is Amos Grannis. He was born April 17, 1825, in Attica, Genesee county, New York. His father was Samuel John- son Grannis; his mother, Clarissa (Ford) Grannis, who died when he was four years of age, His ancestors came from the Highlands of Scotland early in the seventeenth century. The family records note the marriage of Edward Grannis, of Hartford, to Elizabeth Andrews, of Farmington, Connecticut, May 3, 1654, and the birth of their son Joseph, March 31, 1657. More than a cen- tury later another Edward Grannis is enrolled as one of the citizens of Hartford, who declared for liberty and independence in the year 1775 ; enlist- ing in the conflict that followed, he received the martyr's crown during the last year of the Revo- lutionary war. His widow lived to the age of ninety-four years. Their children were a daugh- ter, and a son, Samuel Johnson Grannis, the father of Amos. Samuel J. was born in Fair Haven, Connecticut. He moved to Marcellus, New York, thence to Batavia and Attica, follow- ing the trade of tanner, currier and shoemaker. August 25, 1836, he, with six children, left Attica for Chicago, taking a steamer at Buffalo for Erie, Pennsylvania. There he was joined by his eldest son Samuel W. Grannis, who still lives in Chi- cago, and his wife and infant child. Taking pas- sage on the steamer Governor Marcy, they en- countered rough weather and decided to proceed over-land from Detroit. A farmer-tavern-keeper
was engaged to take the party of ten to Chicago, where they arrived, after ten days of rough expe- riences over corduroy roads and sand hills, on September 25, 1836-just one month after they started from Attica-happy and hopeful, with less than ten dollars for their necessities. They had a hearty welcome from a daughter, resident for a year in the little city. The next day they were taken by Henry Grannis, a brother of Amos, to the claim he had made two years previous. This claim adjoined that . of Mr. Mancell Talcott, about a half mile from the Desplaines river, now in the town of Maine. Here, in a log house, for two years, the family experienced the usual hard- ships of frontier life. One house only was in sight. Prairie wolves were numerous. At this time Amos was eleven years old and worked on his brother's farm. The monotony of this life was varied in 1840, when his sister, Amanda M., was married to Elisha B. Lane, who leased the farm of Abram Gale, near Oak Park, where Al- bert Grannis Lane, the present popular superin- tendent of schools, was born. In a log house, three miles distant across a bleak prairie, he at- tended school three months during each of three winters, which was all the schooling he had after his fourteenth year. Several years later he left the farm and worked at Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the Peshtigo Lumber Company. Returning to Chicago, he learned the carpenter and joiner's trade with Messrs. Boggs and Webster, receiving thirty dollars the first year, thirty-five dollars the second, and sixty dollars the third. Afterward
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he engaged with Peter L. Updike at one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, the current wages then, and paid two dollars and fifty cents a week for board and lodging.
In 1850, on Christmas eve, at the age of twen- ty-five, Mr. Grannis married Miss Jane Taylor, daughter of Mrs. Mary Taylor, now eighty-eight years of age and living in their family. Rev. Dr. Tucker, then pastor of the First Baptist Church, officiated at their marriage. The ceremony was in a house on Lake street, near State, owned by Mosely and McCord, known generally in those days as two rich old bachelors, who boarded at the Tremont House. Six children have blessed this marriage and cheered a happy home.
In 1851 he commenced business on his own ac- count, and from small beginnings worked his way upward, step by step. To secure a home, he leased a lot on Adams street where the Post-office now stands, and built a neat cottage for about eight hundred dollars, paying from six to seven- teen dollars per thousand for lumber. With the expansion of his business, some investments were made which caused him much concern during the financial panic of 1857. With wise conservatism, he made prompt sacrifices to save his good name and business standing. He paid dollar for dollar, and with undiminished credit moved steadily for- ward to a large business for that time, as a lead- ing contractor and builder. The style of archi- tecture then was rather primitive, if not crude. Only the plainest buildings were erected, chiefly balloon frames, except in the business portions where brick was used. The principal architects were J. M. Van Osdel, E. Burling, W. W. Boy- ington, and later, Asher Carter. From about 1854 to 1860 the style and character of buildings began to show marked improvement. Dwellings, as well as business blocks, were finer and more elaborate. Quite a rivalry sprang up among ar- chitects in making new, elegant, and most suit- able designs. Following 1860, the civil war checked building and many other enterprises for several years. With the revival of business, building was brisk and the style of architecture advanced in beauty and richness, in keeping with the general prosperity. The great fire of 1871 swept away the finest improvements, and to re- place those, there began an era of building un- surpassed by any other city in the world.
Before the fire Mr. Grannis had erected some of the most notable buildings, as for example, the Rock Island Depot, Trinity Methodist Church, Grace Episcopal Church, the old Nixon Block, the Exchange Block, and others. Though a heavy loser, like others, from the great calamity, it brought subsequent compensation, and Mr. Gran- nis found his resources of character and skill in unusual demand; and soon retrieved his losses. Among the buildings now standing which were erected by him, are the Rock Island Depot, the American Express Company's Building, the Gran- nis Block, St. Caroline's Court, the Calumet Block, etc. Also fine residences for John B. Sher- man, W. F. Tucker, Geo. E. Adams, and oth- ers ; also many suburban residences amounting in one year, at Riverside, to eighty thousand dollars.
The improvements in architecture have con- tinued until a complete revolution has been wrought from foundation to top. Fine, solid buildings, not twenty years old, are out of date and style, and are being replaced with modern structures combining the Romanesqe and Re- naissance in distinctively American designs. The present style of sky-scraper buildings, twelve to eighteen stories in height, have necessitated the help of the engineer to determine the required foundations, borings being essential when it is sixty feet to hard-pan. The ancient system of piling relied on at the building of the Chicago Court-house, the bed of concrete as under the Chi- cago Post-office and the pyramidal plan of stone are now virtually displaced by the isolated pier system, viz., a bed of concrete on solid clay, then several layers of steel rails crossing each other, all embedded in concrete. On the center of these rest the piers that support the superstructure, which is a frame work of steel, all parts being riveted together, and thus in every respect mate- rially changing the old style of architecture.
Mr. Grannis has been active in promoting pub- lic interests. He helped to organize and is now treasurer of the Chicago Mechanics' Institute ; he is a charter member of the Building and Traders' Exchange, of which he was treasurer for several years. He is now treasurer of the Ma- sonic Building and Loan Association, and a di- rector in the Globe National Bank. About 1867, Mr. Grannis became a Mason, and is still promi-
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nent in that Order, and has held its most impor- tant offices. For three years he was master of Home Lodge, No. 508 ; and was advanced regular- ly through Chicago Chapter, No. 127. He held the office of treasurer in these bodies continuously for fifteen years. In 1868 he became a member of Apollo Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar, and of Oriental Consistory S. P. R. S. and Scot- tish Rite. In 1881 he was chosen eminent com- mander of Apollo Commandry, No. I. He is now (1892) one of the directors and vice-president of the Masonic Fraternity Temple Association. He was for several years trustee and chairman of the executive committee, and vice-president of the Northwestern Masonic Aid Association, the largest of its kind in the world, having over fifty- five thousand members. He is now its treasurer.
Though not a politician, his convictions have kept him in the Republican party from its organ- ization. He served as Alderman from the Fourth
Ward of Chicago, from 1878 to 1880. In 1886 he was elected a member of the Reform Board of County Commissioners to serve an unexpired term of three months; in November he was re- elected to succeed himself.
Religiously, although not a member of any church, he has always attended and aided the Methodist Episcopal, and is now a trustee of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Dr. Frank M. Bristol, pastor.
Sterling integrity of character, correct and safe judgments, open-handed generosity and sympa- thetic helpfulness, a genial frankness in conversa- tion, an unselfish interest in the prosperity and success of his acquaintances, a willingness to contribute time, money, and his best thought to enterprises and schemes for public and private good, are the personal characteristics that have made Amos Grannis a fitting type of the pro- gressive, public-spirited Chicago citizen.
WM. F. SINGLETON,
CHICAGO, ILL
T HERE are few better-known men in the west than William F. Singleton, the subject of this sketch. He was born on the 5th day of May, 1840, at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. His an- cestors came from England to South Carolina in colonial days, and his great-grandfather was a colonel in the Continental Army, and distin- guished for courage and ability. Our subject's father was Richard M. Singleton, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Ann McAfee. She was a lady of admirable qualities.
William received the rudiments of his education in private schools in the village where he was born. He was of a studious nature, and capable of acquiring knowledge very rapidly-his mind be- ing logical and his memory very retentive. He attended Center College at Danville, Kentucky, for one year, and then entered Jefferson College, but at the end of a year he left, and was enrolled as a student at the University of Virginia. He pursued the course there for two years with suc- cess and credit, and had entered upon his grad- uating year, when his studies were cut short by the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion.
Fired with martial ardor and a desire to prove his love for the Confederacy, he left his books and took up the sword in defense of Southern rights, in which he firmly believed. He enlisted in Company C, made up of the University students, and served in Stonewall Jackson's brigade until the fall of 1862, when he was transfered to the Southwestern Army of Tennessee and Kentucky, and continued in this division until the close of the war.
He then began the study of the law in Harrods- burg, Kentucky. In 1865 he was married to Miss Gertrude Magoffin, daughter of ex-Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky. In 1866 he removed to Illinois and located in Kankakee county, and en- gaged in farming and stock-raising on a large scale. In 1870 he secured the passage of a drain- age law in the State of Indiana, having the co- operation of General George W. Cass, and other prominent owners of marsh land along the Kan- kakee river. As a result of that law, those lands which formerly were valueless have been reclaimed.
In the year 1878 Mr. Singleton organized a land
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improvement company called "The Lake Agri- culture Co," for the purpose of improving a large tract of land, consisting of about 18,000 acres, and owned by General George W. Cass, Mr. W. R. Shelby, Mr. J. P. Williams and him- self, and was the general manager of that com- pany until 1885.
He removed to Evanston, Illinois, in 1884, to secure better educational advantages for his children, and in 1887 began to organize a life in- surance association, based on the requirements of total abstinence from the use of alcholic liquors. In 1889 this company was incorporated as "The Total Abstinence Life Association of America," with Mr. Singleton as president. He has held this position ever since, and has devoted most of his time and energy to its interests; he has watched it from its infancy to its present vigorous growth, and may well be proud of his work. The association is now well-known to the public, and has a unique experience in this respect-it has paid
every death-claim in full since its incorporation in 1889. Its growth has been very rapid, and it has a most enviable reputation for prompt pay- ment of losses and equitable treatment of mem- bers, and of all who have business relations with it.
In 1869 Mr. Singleton joined the Red Ribbon temperance movement, and soon after became identified with the Prohibition party, and has been an ardent supporter of this party ever since. He has represented his party in several conven- tions, state and national, and took part in that of 1888, which nominated General C. B. Fisk for president. He is strong in his temperance prin- ciples, but of a broad and catholic mind, neither prejudiced nor bigoted, and full of the milk of human kindness.
He is of courteous manners, social tempera- ment, and has a host of friends. In personal ap- pearance he is of medium height, straight, robust and of a fine presence.
GEORGE WYNNE SAUL,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONG the few men of this city, who, while still in their early manhood, have reached a position of eminence in the community, none are more deserving of prominent mention than is George Wynne Saul.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 16, 1858, and to-day, at the age of thirty-four, he has, through his own exertions, reached the eminent position of president of a railroad com- pany.
His early life was passed in the city of his birth. Here he obtained his earlier school edu- cation in the public schools; afterwards complet- ing his course of study in the Cincinnati High School. At the age of eighteen he began his business career by accepting a position as assist- ant book-keeper and shipping clerk in a whole- sale grocery establishment ; here he remained for over two years, at the end of which time he be- came connected with the railroads of the west. His first position in this connection was as clerk and private secretary to C. S. Cone, Jr., in the passenger department of the Ohio and Missis-
sippi Railroad. The next year we find him in the employ of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Day- ton Railroad Company, in the transportation de- partment. For eight years he remained with this corporation, during which time he occupied vari- ous positions in the various departments of oper- ation and traffic, and thus obtained a practical knowledge of all the different branches of rail- road affairs. He filled all positions that were entrusted to him to the satisfaction of his supe- riors, and in 1888 he was tendered the position of general manager of the Fort Wayne, Cincinnati and Louisville Railroad. While occupying the position of general manager of the Fort Wayne, Cincinnati and Louisville Company, he was also general manager of the Whitewater Valley Rail- road. In 1889 he became general manager of the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad. On March 1, 1890, Mr. Saul became connected with the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company as general manager, and on June 3, 1890, as an appreciation of his ability and fitness for the position, he was elected president of that com-
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pany. This is surely a remarkable record. He stands to-day as the youngest president of an important railway company on the continent ; and, to use the language of one of his ac- quaintances, "Mr. Saul is undoubtedly the most competent railway official of his age in the Uni- ted States, and he certainly has a bright future before him."
Mr. Saul is one of the forty-five of Chicago's representative citizens who compose the Direc- tory of the World's Columbian Exposition, and another noteworthy fact is that he is the young- est member of the board. He is a member of the Transportation and Grounds and Buildings committees, and, as an active member of the lat- ter committee expresses it, "Mr. Saul is one of
the most active and useful members of that com- mittee."
In 1884 he was married to Miss Lillian Leon- ard, of Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Saul are blessed with two bright children, a girl and a boy, named Jane and Thomas, and in the circle of his home, in the society of his wife and children, he finds the only true happiness-that of a loving hus- band and father.
Such is the biography of a man who has reached a position of prominence, while still in his younger manhood, that few in life ever attain ; and it is certainly true that his success is de- served, as he has always transacted the business affairs with which he was entrusted in such man- ner as to merit the approval of all interested.
SIEGFRIED M. FISCHER,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T 'HE career of him whose name heads this biography illustrates most forcibly the possibilities that are open in this country to earnest, persevering young men, who have the courage of their convictions, and the determina- tion to be the architects of their own fortunes. It proves that neither wealth nor social position, nor influential friends, are essential to the attain- ment of eminent usefulness, honorable distinction and true success.
Siegfried M. Fischer is a self-made man in the fullest sense of that often misused term. He was born in Neustadtl, a small town near Carls- bad and Marienbad, Austria, June 2, 1847, his parents being Solomon and Theresa (Hirsch) Fischer.
His early education was obtained in the public schools of his native country. At the age of thirteen he determined to seek his fortune in the United States, and during the next two years we find him a resident of New York city. Here he obtained a position as errand-boy, and supple- mented his daily tasks by attending the night schools.
In 1863 he removed to Chicago, and became a clerk in a retail dry goods house on Randolph street. At the end of six months he took a position in Milwaukee, where he remained during
the year 1864, after which he returned to Chicago and entered the retail dry goods establishment of Schoenfeldt Bros., on North Clark street. Some six months later he entered the establishment of Mr. A. Louis, a retail clothier, located at No. 221 South Clark street, on the site of the present Post- office. While clerking for Mr. Louis he displayed great aptitude for business and firmness of character, so that, although but twenty-one years of age, Mr. Louis took great interest in him, and later, when he decided to open a place of business in Marshalltown, Iowa, he admitted Mr. Fischer as a partner, and put him in charge of the business there. The enterprise was crowned with suc- cess, and after four years' residence in Marshall- town, Mr. Fischer returned to Chicago and became a partner in the wholesale clothing house of A. Louis and Company, which had been organized by . Mr. Louis after the Chicago fire of October, 1871, and by which he suffered heavy losses. In this firm Mr. Fischer was credit-manager.
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