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 26
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annual rental of $67,400. Mr. Owings' success is the result of keen foresight, close calculation, unfaltering courage and honest, manly daring. He has taken great risks and won, where men of less nerve would have failed. Personally he is a man of genial nature, of fine appearance and pleasing address.
He was married in 1877 to Miss Jeannette A. Levis, a daughter of George A. Levis, of New Orleans. Mrs. Owings was one of the belles of
her city, and, besides her remarkable beauty, is a woman of unusual personal charms. Through her husband's adversities, she was to him a con- stant inspiration, helping him with true womanly fortitude to bear his misfortunes, aiding with her counsels and cheering with her hopefulness, and now enjoys with him that prosperity which has come as the fruit of their labors. Their family consists of a daughter only, Eugenie M. Owings.
ABRAHAM KUH,
CHICAGO, ILL.
TO have attained success and position of business and social prominence, by pa- tiently pursuing a fixed purpose, is an achievement of which any man might justly feel proud. Abraham Kuh has made his way in the world, and what he is must be attributed to his own efforts. He set his mark high, has worked with an honest and manly purpose, and accomplished most satisfactory results.
He is a native of Redwitz, Bavaria, Germany, and was born May 7, 1834, the son of Jacob and Ida (Lang) Kuh. He was educated in the schools of his native place, leaving school at the age of fourteen. When he was nineteen years old he left home and came to the United States, and during his first six months clerked in the store of his brother Isaac, who was then in business in New York city. Leaving New York he went to Dubuque, Iowa, and there spent three years clerking in the clothing house of Messrs. B. Wolf and Co., receiving a salary of three hundred dol- lars the first year, four hundred the second, and five hundred and fifty the third. He was econom- ical with his money, and with a capital of seven hundred dollars which he saved, he went to Fort Madison, Iowa, and began business on his own account, and in three years made about three thousand dollars.
Thus far his plans had prospered and his busi- ness success was all that he could expect ; but his next business venture was less fortunate. Going to St. Joseph, Missouri, he opened a clothing store and started in hopefully; but reverses came and he lost nearly all he had accumulated ; but
nothing daunted, he paid his liabilities dollar for dollar, and, with a brave heart and sixty-two dol- lars left after paying his debts, turned his steps toward Chicago. This was in 1861. The whole country, agitated by the war of the Rebellion just opening, was still suffering from the financial panic of 1857-9, and western banks especially were in a precarious condition.
Mr. Kuh began buying uncurrent money, and in forty days, with his capital of sixty-two dollars, accumulated one thousand dollars in these un- current funds. He next engaged in merchant tailoring, and during the following three years retrieved much of his losses. His business train- ing and experience having been in the line of buying and selling clothing, he was not satisfied until again engaged in that line, and it was this desire that led to the establishment of the cloth- ing house of Leopold, Kuh and Company, which did a thriving business for some fourteen years. In 1878 Mr. Kuh withdrew from the firm, selling his interest in the business, and feeling much the need of rest and recreation. spent eighteen months in Europe, visiting his old home and many other places of interest. Upon his return in 1880 he opened a wholesale clothing house on Fifth avenue, which was afterwards removed to Market street, and again to the corner of Franklin and Jackson streets. The business is conducted under the firm name of Kuh, Nathan and Fischer; Mr. Kuh's partners being Messrs. Nathan and Fischer, whose portraits and sketches appear in other parts of this work, and is one of the largest and most flourishing and stable clothing houses in the west.
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While giving personal attention to the affairs of his firm, Mr. Kuh has, at the same time, been largely interested in other matters. He is a stockholder in the Chemical National Bank and the German Opera House, the Street's Stable Car Company, and other public and private enter- prises.
He is a generous contributor to charitable ob- jects, and is a director of the Old People's Home, of Chicago. Mr. Kuh is a man of high personal qualities, social in his nature and fond of good fellowship. He is a man of correct principles, and high minded in everything he does; he is strong in his friendships, and scorns to do a mean act, and in all his dealings and intercourse with his fellow men strives to do as he would be done by.
He is one of the charter members of the Stand- ard Club, one of the wealthiest social organiza- tions of Chicago, whose club-house at the corner of Michigan avenue and Twenty-fourth street is a model of architectual .beauty and elegance.
In his two visits to the old world, and his ex- tensive travels through the United States, Mr. Kuh has acquired a wide range of practical and interesting facts, and being a clever conversa- tionalist, is a most agreeable companion.
He is not a man of strong religious sentiments, but broad and liberal in his views, believing that no creed is large enough to cover or contain all
truth. Heis a charter member of Sinai congrega- tion, whose house of worship is located at the corner of Indiana avenue and Twenty-first street, and takes a commendable interest in its work.
In political matters, as in religious, Mr. Kuh insists on his right to think and act for himself, and is bound by no party ties ; he holds men in higher esteem than any party, and in casting his ballot, supports the candidate whom he believes best fitted for office, regardless of the party name by which he may be called. He is not a poli- tician.
In 1861 Mr. Kuh married Miss Caroline Leo- pold, a daughter of Mr. L. Leopold, a prominent merchant of Chicago. They have one daughter, now Mrs. E. Buxbaum.
Such is a brief outline of a life that has pursued the even tenor of its way through prosperity and misfortune alike; never over-elated by success, never cast down reverses. Of a cheerful, hopeful temperament, possessing a genius for hard work, with a firm faith in his ability to do, and strong in the belief that right doing must lead to a happy ending, he has labored patiently and per- severingly, and lives to enjoy, not only an ample fortune, but also (what to him is more highly prized), the unbounded confidence and love and esteem of all who have come within the range of his influence.
ADLAI THOMAS EWING,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this sketch is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors. His parents, Jno. Wallis Ewing and Maria Mcclellan Stevenson, were natives of North Carolina, but for many years resided in Christian county, Kentucky. In 1833 they became residents of McLean county, Illinois, where Adlai Thomas was born on the 5th day of February, 1846. Mr. Ewing's father was a man of marked personality and great force of character. His mother was the grand-niece of Doctor Ephraim Brevard, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was the first renunciation of British authority by American colonists. Mr. Ewing is the young_ est of a family of five sons and one daughter,
and is a splendid illustration of the possibili- ties under American institutions, opened to every young man of intelligence, integrity and energy.
He was educated at the Illinois State Normal University, studied law in Bloomington, Illinois, with his eldest brother, the Hon. James S. Ewing, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. The same year he commenced the practice of his profession in Chicago, and since that time has been an ac- tive and able member of the Chicago bar. Three of Mr. Ewing's brothers, James S., William G. and Henry A., are lawyers of acknowledged ability, and for many years have occupied leading posi- tions at the bar of Illinois and Kansas.
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Although Mr. Ewing, from his early manhood, has been a consistent and persistent advocate of the doctrines of the Democratic party, he has never sought political preferment. He assisted in organizing the Union Club, one of the leading and most wealthy social clubs of Chicago, and was also a charter member of the famous Iro- quois Club, of which he has been an officer al- most continually since its organization, having served successively as secretary, vice-president and president.
He was appointed by President. Harrison one of the United States Commissioners for Illinois to conduct the World's Columbian Exposition, and at the request of Hon. James G. Blaine, Sec- retary of State, called to order the first meeting of that distinguished body. Mr. Ewing was elected a member of the Committee on Perma- nent Organization of the Commission, and was afterwards made a member of the Executive Committee, and also a member of the Committee on Fine Arts.
He was one of the earliest and foremost pro-
moters of the great sanitary and commercial en- terprise of connecting, by abundant water way, Lake Michigan with the Gulf of Mexico, and to his intelligent and untiring labors in this behalf, as much as to those of any other man, is due the incalculable advantages in peace and war that will result to Chicago and the country at large from this stupendous triumph of engineering skill. Hc was the original promoter of the beautiful boule- vard now connecting Union Park with Douglas Park, in the city of Chicago. Mr. Ewing is a man of great energy and force, and although he has given much time and thought to matters of purely public and general interest, he has been provident and wise, and has accumulated a hand- some fortune. He is a man of fine ability, many accomplishments, equitable temperament, and genial, sunny disposition.
He was married in 1879, at Buffalo, New York, to Miss Kate Hyde, a lady of rare intellectual gifts and personal graces. Four children, three daughters and one son, have been born of this marriage.
WILLIAM LOWRY COPELAND, M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
W TILLIAM L. COPELAND was born in 1851 at St. Catherines, Ontario, the son of William L. Copeland, a highly respected citizen, a native of Ireland, and Dency P. (Moore) Copeland, a native of New York. He has three brother's and two sisters. Arthur, a young man of exalted character and serious religious convic- tions, is a resident of Aurora, Illinois, and sec- retary of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion of that city. The other two brothers re- side in Winnipeg, Manitoba, one of whom, Charles, is Provincial secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of that placc. Onc sister is the wife of Mr. W. J. McCalla, a well- to-do merchant of St. Catharines, Ontario, and the other resides with our subject in Chicago. His father's death, which occurred in 1887, was the first death in a family of eight brothers and sisters since 1813, a remarkable instance of family longevity.
Dr. Copeland was educated in the common
schools of Upper Canada, said to be the most per- fect common-school system in the world, and in the St. Catharines Academy. In 1872 he was grad- uated at McGill Medical College, Montreal, and went abroad to acquire clinical instruction in the hospitals of Europe. He studied in St. Thomas Hospital of London, also in the Berkshire Hos- pital for one year. Returning to Canada, his father influenced him to remain there, and he opened an office in his native town, and succeeded in building up a large and lucrative practice. But the advantages and opportunities of a small city were not sufficient to satisfy his ambition, and consequently, about 1879, he removed to Chicago, and was soon afterward appointed one of the at- tending physicians at the dispensary of the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. At the present time (1892) he is professor of anatomy in the Chi- cago College of Dental Surgery, and examining physician for the Chosen Friends. He is a mem- ber of the American Medical Society, the Chicago
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Medical Society, and the Chicago Pathological Society.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. A Republican in political belief, he is yet non-parti- san, and in casting his ballot has regard for prin- ciple and men rather than party. From youth up, he has possessed remarkable equanimity of demeanor and a full command of nerve, and is thereby peculiarly adapted for the practice of medicine. A man of excellent principles, he is held in high esteem, especially by those who know him best. Although one of the old-school,
orthodox practitioners, he is entirely free from prejudice in his attitude toward the representatives of other schools of medicine.
In 1876 he was married to Miss May St. John, an accomplished and popular lady, the daughter of the late Samuel St. John, a well- known citizen of St. Catharines, Ontario. Mrs. Copeland is a sister of Professor L. St. John, one of the founders of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of Chicago. They have two daughters, aged, respectively, nine and sixteen years.
JAMES W. TUOHY,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE remarkable success of him whose name heads this sketch was the result of perse- vering and well-directed effort in the line of his native talents. He had a purpose in life, and worked with a will for its attainment. He was born in Carey, Ireland, near the Lakes of Kilar- ney, on the 8th of July, 1849. He was the son of Edward and Elizabeth (Crenin) Tuohy. When James was fifteen years of age he came to the United States, whither his father had preceded him some years. The mother, now seventy-three years of age, resides at Utica, La Salle county, Illinois, where our subject passed his boyhood. He received such education as the district school afforded, and at an early age accepted a clerkship in the dry-goods store of Mr. Dennis Lynch, of Utica. From Utica he removed to Streator, where he was in the employ of D. Heenan and Company. The next step in his successful carcer was to enter into partnership with Mr. F. Shields, of Braidwood, Illinois, under the firm-name of F. Shields and Company, and where he developed remarkable aptitude for mercantile pursuits. In 1873, when but twenty-four years of age, he pur- chased Mr. Shields' interest, assuming full con- trol of the business. A little later he established a second store, at Wilmington, Illinois, both of which he conducted with great success, winning for himself the title of the "boy merchant." Desiring a wider field of operations he disposed of his business at Braidwood and Wilmington in 1880, and removed to Chicago, locating in the
West Division of the city. He opened a store at the corner of Madison and Peoria streets, where he continued until 1883, and then pur- chased from Carson, Piric, Scott and Company their dry-goods establishment at the corner of Clark and Erie streets, on the North side. This was conducted as a department store, and under his able management came to rank among the leading retail houses of the Northwest. The encouragement Mr. Tuohy had . received thus far in his business caused him to further extend his field of operations. Accordingly, in 1886 he opened a store, in a building designed and erected especially for his use, at the corner of Madison and Wood streets. Upon the removal of Messrs. Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company from the West Side in the spring of 1877, Mr. Tuohy, with characteristic foresight, secured their former stand on West Madison street. The department store which he opened there became one of the most extensive in the city. This immense establish- ment, together with his other three stores, he conducted with marked ability and eminent suc- cess until his deccase, which occurred June 9, 1890. Stricken down in the prime of his man- hood and in the midst of prosperity, when long- cherished hopes were being realized, his early death was a shock to his extensive circle of busi- ness friends who had predicted for him still greater achievements, and to his immediate family an irreparable loss. Mr. Tuohy enjoyed the reputation, both in Chicago and throughout the
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Northwest, of being careful, far-sighted and shrewd in the conduct of his own affairs, and up- right and honorable in dealing with others.
On October 6, 1874, Mr. Tuohy was married to Miss Nellie Cavanaugh, of Ottawa, Illinois, who survives him. Mrs. Tuohy is a woman of unusual executive ability. Such was the confidence re- posed in her by Mr. Tuohoy that he made her his sole executrix, and in the successful manage- ment of the estate she has proved herself most worthy of the charge. She is a graceful, attract- ive woman, and an agrecable, bright conversation- alist. The remainder of the family consists of one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, twelve years of age, an extremely bright, beautiful girl, who promises much as an accomplished woman ; James W., aged ten; Walter Grant, aged five;
Arthur Cavanaugh, aged two, and Paul, the baby of the family, making a happy group of bright, intelligent children.
He was a good husband, kind father, and staunch friend; he was conscientious and gener- ous, contributing largely to the advancement of Christianity. To deserving charities his hand was always open, as many representatives of Chicago's churches and institutions can testify ; witty, fond of a joke, and hospitable in his home, he took an unusual interest in and devoted much time to the welfare and advancement of his chil- dren. To those who knew his worth he needs no eulogy ; speech cannot express the love of his friends. The flowers of Calvary cemetery now bloom and fade over that epitome of all that is mortal engraven upon the plate of the casket.
CHARLES WARRINGTON EARLE, A.M., M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
A1 PRIL ye 30th, 1639. Wc, whose names are underwritten, doe acknowledge our- selves the legel subjects of his majestie, King Charles, and in his name doe hereby bind our- selves into a civill body politicke, unto his lawes according to matters of justice."
Among the twenty-ninc names affixed to this quaint document which appears in the records of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is to be found that of onc Ralph Earle. Ralph Earle was an English- man, who with his wife, Joan, came from Exeter in 1634, and founded a family which is to-day conspicuous in mercantile and professional life in every State of the Union. Sprung from this" stock, and of it an honored branch, is Charles Warrington Earle, born in Westford, Vermont, April 2, 1845. When he was nine years old his father, Moses L. Earlc, removed from Vermont to Lake county, Illinois. Mr. Earle was an ambi- tious farmer, and his son experienced all the ad- vantages, as well as the disadvantages of being "a farmer's boy." His early education was much retarded and interrupted by the demands of farm work, yet the strength and endurance gained in the fields more than made up for it in after years. For seven years he labored, dividing his time between the farm and the school-room.
When the first call for volunteers came in the war of the rebellion, this sixteen-year-old boy was ready to offer such an amount of brawn, muscle and enthusiasm as would have done honor to many a man. Persuading his father to allow him to enlist, he became a member of the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which was mustered into service in the summer of 1861. This regi- ment was enlisted for "three months' service," but when the recruits reached Freeport they were informed that enough "three months' men " had already been sent on, and that they could either return to their homes or cnlist for three years. It did not take them long to decide, and soon they were attached to Gen. Fremont's corps, then oper- ating in Missouri. In the fall of 1861 our young volunteer was disabled, sent home, and put into the Academy at Burlington, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1862, unable to resist the call of Presi- dent Lincoln for three hundred thousand men, he enlisted in the Ninety-sixth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This regiment, under the command of Gen. Gordon Granger, was first em- ployed to guard the cities of the Ohio from the threatened attacks of Gen. John Morgan. It began active service in Tennessee under Gen. Rosecrans. At Franklin, Tennessee, Orderly-
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sergeant Chas. Earle was promoted to second- lieutenant of his company, and in the battle of Chickamauga he commanded it. In that battle the loss of the company was thirty-five out of forty-five ; Lieutenant Earle was slightly wounded, and in the report of his regimental commander was especially commended for brave conduct. Years afterward, at Kingston, Jamaica, Colonel George Hicks, in an address, speaking of the services of the Ninety-sixth, said : " I found that I had now but.a very few men with me, and I should have thought that I had wholly strayed from my regiment were it not that I had with me the colors of the regiment, together with the commander of the color company, the intrepid boy lieutenant, lion-hearted, fearless, unflinching Charlie Earle, whose name must be inscribed high among the highest on the roll of Chickamauga heroes." On the day following the battle, Lieu- tenant Earl's company was assigned to picket duty on Missionary Ridge, below which the Union forces were gathering for the battle of Chatta- nooga. Through the cowardice of a staff-officer they were left unrelieved, and fell into the hands of the Confederates as prisoners of war. On the the night of October 1, 1863, Lieutenant Earle was consigned to Libby Prison, where he re- mained until that wonderful escape through the tunnel, February 9, 1864. The story has often been told of the six awful days of wading through swamps, terrorized by men and hunted by dogs, until with indescribable emotions they came in sight of Union troops. Returning soon to his regiment, Lieutenant Earle was rapidly ad- vanced through the ranks respectively of first- lieutenant, captain, adjutant, and finally aid-de- camp and acting assistant inspector-general on the staff of Gen. W. C. Whittaker, and at the close of the war was breveted Captain of the United States Volunteers for gallant and merito- rious conduct at the battles of Chickamauga, Re- seca, Kenesaw Mountain, Franklin and Nashville.
In 1865 he recommenced his studies at Beloit College, Wisconsin. After a studious sojourn of three years, he matriculated at the Chicago Med- ical College, graduating in 1870, one of the two honor-men of his class. Dr. Earle commenced practice in the office of the celebrated Professor William H. Byford, of whose advice and friend- ship he was the favored recipient.
In 1870 the Woman's Medical College was organized, with Dr. Earle as professor of physi- ology. For the past fifteen years he has been professor of diseases of children, and treasurer in the same institution, and upon the death of Dr. Byford became its president. He was one of the founders of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is now president of the faculty and professor of obstetrics. He is also professor of. operative obstetrics in the Post-Graduate College and Hospital of this city. He is a member of the Illinois State Medical Society ; of the Amer- ican Medical Association ; of the Pediatric So- ciety ; of the Chicago Medical Society, and of the British Medical Society. He is an honored mem- ber of the G. A. R., and Loyal Legion ; also a member of The Irving, a prominent literary club of the city.
Notwithstanding the enormous demands of his practice, Dr. Earle has been the author of many articles on a wide range of medical subjects, which have attracted attention in this country and in Europe. A course of study in the hospitals of Florence, Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London, re- sulted in a valuable series of essays on obstetri- cal subjects. Owing to his occupancy of the chair of diseases of children in the Woman's Medical College, Professor Earle has been enabled to publish many important papers on Pediatrics. He contributed to the Chicago Medical Society a paper entitled "Diphtheria and Its Municipal Control," after reading which he offered the fol- lowing resolution, which was passed with only one dissenting vote: "Inasmuch as the conta- giousness of diphtheria is recognized by the great majority of medical practitioners : Resolved, That the commissioners of health will be justified in placarding or otherwise designating the houses infected with this disease."
For eighteen years Dr. Earle was chief physi- cian in the Washingtonian Home, where he made a close study of inebriety, and arrived at important conclusions concerning its treatment, which he has embodied in some of the most prac- tical publications ever issued on that subject.
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