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 28
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In 1880 he aided in locating and building the South Florida Railway for its owners, the Boston Herald, and organized its operating service, and subsequently was manager of the land depart- ment of the Texas & St. Louis Railway. Recent- ly he has been engaged with a syndicate of Chi- cago German capitalists in establishing a railway in Arkansas and Louisiana, which he, by tact and great business ability, profitably disposed of, in the summer of 1890, to an English syndicatc.
Major Barbour has during his career been the originator and manager of many large schemes and operations, for which work he seems peculiar- ly adapted. In January, 1891, he accepted an ap- pointment in the Department of Publicity and Promotion in the World's Columbian Exposition,
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a position in which his journalistic talents, varied experience and tact in management, has made him peculiarly useful.
He is the author of several books of great merit in their richness of description and cleverness of diction, as well as in cleverness of illustration by the author, who is a skillful artist.
Major Barbour is a most entertaining talker, his conversation being replete with original ideas, thrilling incidents and sparkling with wit and bon mots. He is at the same time a sound and logical reasoner. He is a man of genial tem- perament, jovial and social, and has a host of friends and admirers.
He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary Lewis, a most estimable lady, and has two children. His daughters, both charming and attractive, are named respectively Grace May and Francis E .; the eldest, now in her nineteenth year, is a stu- dent in the University of Michigan, and a young woman of superior mind, and the youngest, an accomplished girl of sixteen years, has accom- panied her father on many of his travels, and is a delightful conversationalist and a fine musician.
Major Barbour is an experienced sportsman and an expert horseman. He is also a linguist of no mean attainments, and is at home alike in backwoods or salon.
MAJOR JOHN M. SOUTHWORTH,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE subject of this article is an able lawyer, with that grasp of mind which enables him to readily apprehend the true issues of a case and to detect false analogies. After he has investi- gated a subject his conlusions are almost invari- ably found to be correct. A man of great nerve force, equable temper, and invariably courteous to all.
He was born in Bradford, Vermont, in 1839. His father was Epenetus Southworth, connected with ties of blood with an ancestry notable in New England annals; he died in 1869 at Crystal Lake, McHenry county, Illinois. His mother, before marriage, was Miss Phebe Sawyer, now living in Woodstock, Illinois. On the paternal side the ancestry is traceable back to good old English families, and in New England to the first Massa- chusetts colonies, with a relationship to the distin- guished Governor Bradford, the first governor of Massachusetts-he of Thanksgiving fame; on the maternal side related to the Websters, as John M.'s grandmother was a first cousin of the illustrious Daniel Webster-an ancestral tree fruited with rich deeds and examples. But John M. Southworth is a man who did not depend upon his ancestry to carry him through life or to success. In the independence of his nature and consciousness of inherent intellectual power, he chose to make his own way in the world. He was like one the poet alludes to :
" Being not propped by ancestry, whose grace Chalks successors their way, neither allied To eminent assistance, but spider-like, Out of his self-drawing web he gives us The force of his own merit, makes his way."
The family consisted of three brothers and one sister. The eldest brother, William S., is con- nected with the courts in Oregon ; the youngest brother, George Mckean, died in Chicago in 1880. The sister (Sue) is married to Judge Seneca Smith, and lives in Portland, Oregon. The mother has recently gone there to spend the winter, and perhaps to remain longer with her children, William and Sue. The youngest brother was a brilliant, promising young man, possessed of many excellent and high traits of character, and was universally esteemed. Insidious disease worked its inevitable and fatal results, and carried him away before his time-as it seems to the vision of man. He was deputy sheriff and clerk of the court in McHenry county under John M., and held other important positions in Chicago and elsewhere. He married a niece of the late ex-Governor Andrew Shuman, who died ten months after marriage.
When John M. was seventeen years of age the family came west, and eventually located in McHenry county, when the former completed his education and taught school two years.
In April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the
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Seventh Illinois Regiment, three months' service -the first regiment organized for the Rebellion, there having been six in the Mexican War-subse- quently he joined the famous Eighth Illinois Cavalry. He was commissioned lieutenant and served to the end of the war in the Army of the Potomac, participating in the many battles in which that regiment and army were engaged, and the his- tory of both are too well known to need repetition in this connection. He made a good record as a soldier, and returned to civil life and has made an exceptionally good one since. He was compli- mented on account of his meritorious and valiant military services with a brevet major's commis- sion. On his return to McHenry county he was elected sheriff and served with marked credit and satisfaction ; later clerk of the circuit court, and in the meantime read law and was admitted to practice in 1873. Soon after he was appointed one of the commissioners of the Joliet Peniten- tiary, which position he held several years, and performed the important duties of the same with signal fidelity and ability. He was more than a commissioner in name. He, from a philanthropic and statesman-like standpoint, sought to, and did ameliorate and lessen the severity of prison punish- ment. By a firm stand taken by him, and without the then sanction of the State Executive, but afterwards acquisced in, the administration of affairs at that prison was changed, and largely through his efforts they were modified.
In all the penal institutions in the State the dictates of a higher humanity now prevail. His literature on the subject of prisons and prison dis- cipline is preserved, and has a place with such and kindred literature, and many of the principles thus early advocated by him are now approved and in force.
He is the author, and secured the passage in the legislature of the " Habitual Criminal Act," the workings of which have been salutory in controlling the habitual and dangerous criminal classes. In 1886 he framed and secured the pas- sage in the Legislature of the "Police Pension Bill," which is admitted by the highest police and other authorities to be a wise and beneficial measure. He has received merited public recog- nition for his sagacity and philanthropic motives in what he has done to better the condition of his fellow-men in such and other ways. Hc, of
course, has mingled in politics, but not of the politicaster order, but higher and better politics, which should enlist the interest and efforts of every true and patriotic citizen. He is original and stateman-like in what he proposes and dis- poses in his political movements. In 1880 there was a close and hard-fought contest in this State in the canvass to select a candidate for the presi- dential nomination by the Republican party. It was " Grant or Blaine," so far as this State was concerned, with Grant in the lead, and his friends disposed to overide and ignore all opposition.
It was Major Southworth, a delegate from the then Fourth Congressional District, who moved in the Congressional district sub-convention to nom- inate two delegates to the State convention for election to the national convention ; who moved that the district convention elect two delegates direct and issue credentials to the national con- vention, which was done, and the delegates ad- mitted. It is believed that this is the first in- stance on record of such action. It was sub- sequently agitated and tried in New York and other States, and adopted by the National Re- publican Committee. The conception was Major Southworth's, and is considered a cure for some political evils of tyrannical bossism, and is there- fore a salutory reform in political methods. This was but in keeping with his general reform in- clinations in other directions.
A few years ago he came to Chicago, and en- gaged in the practice of the law with General John F. Farnsworth, the former colonel of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, and continued two years, since which time he has been alone, successfully en- gaged in general practice.
He has prosecuted and defended in some im- portant litigations, which he has generally carried to a result in favor of his clients. One of the celebrated cases was the Joseph C. Mackin ballot- forgery, which Mr. Southworth worked up to a successful culmination, and the criminals, Mackin and Gallagher, served terms in the penitentiary as punishment. To enumerate all the important cases he has been associated with since he has been in practice would require too much space ; suffice it to say, he has been successful and con- tinues to be.
He possesses the essential elements in the make- up of his character-capacity and individuality,
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which are usually a guarantee of success. He has taken a merited high rank at the Chicago bar. He is a man true to every friend and every en- gagement, and exacts equal fidelity ; and is a man of many excellent traits of character and high worth. He is painstaking and persevering in prosecuting litigation, and hence has the con- fidence of his clients.
When the present (Harrison) administration came into power, it was supposed a change would be made in the office of United States district attorney for this district, and a large number of the friends of Major Southworth, with one ac- cord and with unaminity, pointed to him as the proper man for the position. In furtherance of this idea and conviction of the fitness of the ap-
pointment, petitions and letters of recommenda- tion poured in upon our United States senator, and the authorities who sought to control the ap- pointment, which were strong and high tributes to his ability, worth, character and qualifications, and of themselves an encomium on the man. They all bore testimony to his superior ability as a lawyer, his exemplary character as a citizen and a man and his always unswerving devo- tion to the principles of the Republican party. These testimonials were from some of the best and most prominent men in Illinois. Major Southworth is proud of his native State; has been a member of the Vermont Association about ten years, and has just closed a term as its president.
DANIEL J. SCHUYLER,
CHICAGO, ILL.
A MONG the old Knickerbocker families known to fame through history, song and legend, none are more justly celebrated than that of the Schuyler race. Over two centuries and a half ago Philip Pieterson Van Schuyler, the first of the name in this country, was among the Dutch immigrants who, leaving their native Holland, settled where the city of Albany, the capital of the Empire State, now stands. His children were fast advancing toward manhood when the New Netherlands were made a present (immi- grants, natives and all) by King Charles II to his beloved brother, the Duke of York. An English fleet was dispatched across the Atlantic to im- press on Governor Stuyvesant the not very wel- come intelligence that it was incumbent upon him to acquiesce in that arrangement. The terri- tory passing, by royal mandate, into English hands, and its name being changed to the now world-famous one of New York, in honor of the proprietor. The Schuylers took a very promi- nent part in the conduct of colonial affairs.
When Albany became an incorporated city in 1686, the first mayor of the town was a Schuyler, who continued in office eight years, and was after- ward president of the king's council in New York, acting governor, a member of the New York As- sembly and commissioner of Indian affairs.
He was a man of iron will and strong character, and while in the capacity of Indian Commissioner obtained an unbounded control over the leading spirits of the Five Nations. He was also of sub- tle intelligence and keen perception, for while the French and English were contending over the apportionment of the Iroquois country, he took five of the Iroquois chiefs to England for the purpose of impressing them with the greatness of the English nation and detaching them from the French. He succeeded in convincing the In- dians that it would be greatly to their interest to aid the English in driving the French out of the country.
General Philip Schuyler was the next of the name to render important service to our nation, and endear his name to every true American by his actions in the struggle for independence, be- ing conspicuous as a soldier and as a statesman during the revolutionary period. A general in the field, a member of the Continental Congress, and, afterwards, United States Senator from New York, he was noted for his bravery and devotion to the cause of liberty, and did much to lay the solid foundations of our great Republic. He has been styled "the father of the canal system of the United States," for his life-long advocacy of the development of the resources of the country
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through a skillfully planned system of internal improvements. The Schuylers are scattered through the States of New York and New Jer- sey, and they are also in the States further west the descendants of the illustrious colonist, Philip Pieterson Van Schuyler. One branch of the family located just before the Revolution, in or near Newark, New Jersey, and to this particular branch belongs Daniel J. Schuyler, the subject of this sketch. He is the son of John Jacob Schuy- ler, who married Sally A. Davis, of Huguenot ancestry on her mother's side, and a woman of fine mental qualities and unusual force of charac- ter. She was born in New York State, and lived near the village of Minaville, Montgomery county, at the time of her marriage.
The grandfather of John Jacob Schuyler had settled on a tract of land within three miles of what afterward became the town of Amsterdam, and his son and some of his grandsons grew up on this farm, which is still in the family. Here Daniel J. Schuyler was born, February 16, 1839. From his father he inherited the sturdy physique, the industry, the integrity and force of character of the Schuylers, and from his mother a corre- spondingly healthy, vigorous, and active intellect. While his father looked after his physical training in the early years of his life, his mother watched with jealous care his mental development, and missed no opportunity of aiding him to add to his store of knowledge.
While yet a pupil in the county school he de- veloped a remarkable turn for literature, and had soon perused all the books within his reach. He familiarized himself with history, among his favorites being Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," Irving's works, and volumes of biography and travel. He won some renown in letters, as a writer of poetry and essays for the village news- paper. He delivered a thrilling address on John Brown's crusade against slavery, soon after the famous abolitionist ended his career, and from this time he was looked upon as a young man of more than average ability in a literary and foren- sic way. At seventeen years of age he attended the academy near Schenectady for six months. leaving for an interval to work upon the farm; he returned and continued his schooling at the academy at Amsterdam, and later, at Franklin. Delaware county, New York. He entered as a
sophomore in Union College, Schenectady, re- maining here until 1861.
His mind for some time had been made up as to the selection of a profession, law being his choice, and resolving to begin at once, he left col- lege at the end of the junior year and entered the office of Francis Kernan, in Utica. Mr. Kernan's record is too well known to need much comment, he being the man who defeated Roscoe Conkling for Congress in 1872, and served with him in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Under the preceptorship of this eminent lawyer and politician, Mr. Schuyler pursued his legal studies until January. 1864, when he was admitted to the bar. Hc immediately came west and began to practice before the Chicago courts in January, 1864. His entire professional life has been spent in Chicago, and he has achieved in twenty-seven years the promise of his young and vigorous manhood. He came here with the qualifications that have never failed to win dis- tinction, genuine ability. industry, and sterling integrity. Like all young men who enter upon a lawyer's career, he had to place himself upon trial before the public and await the public verdict as to the extent of his talents and the measure of his trustworthiness. This verdict, always uner- ring, came early in his existence and was a strong endorsement of his fitness for the calling he had chosen.
In 1872, Mr. Schuyler became associated in practice with the late Judge George Gardner, and this partnership continued until Mr. Gardner was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Court of Chicago, in 1879. A partnership was then formed between Mr. Schuyler and Mr. C. E. Kremer, and the firm as thus constituted has continued in existence up to the present time, the senior member. Mr. Schuyler, engaging in general practice, and the junior member paying special attention to the department of admiralty. While Mr. Schuyler has been engaged in gen- cral practice, still he has devoted himself largely to commercial, corporation, and fire insurance law, and in the domain of the latter his opinions are regarded by insurance men as authority. In this branch of the law it has been his fortune to meet with satisfactory success, both in the argu- ment of questions of law before the court and the trial of cases before juries, many of which
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cases have involved large amounts and intricate questions both of law and fact.
He was married in 1865 to Miss Mary J. By- ford, second daughter of the late Dr. Wm. H. Byford, one of the most distinguished of west- ern physicians, and their union has been blessed with four children, two surviving.
In politics, always a staunch and aggressive member of the Republican party, he has taken an active interest in promoting the interest of his party, both by word and example, and never seeking his reward but in a conscientious knowl- edge of his work and the courage of his convic- tions. A member of the University Club, he is
not less esteemed as a citizen than as a lawyer, and his kindly impulses and charming cordiality of manner have rendered him exceedingly popu- lar among all classes of people. The judgment which the world passed upon Daniel J. Schuyler in his early years of practice has never been set aside nor in any degree modified. It has, on the contrary, been emphasized by his careful conduct of important litigation, his candor and fairness in the presentation of cases, his zeal and earnest- ness as an advocate, and the generous commen- dation which he has received from his contempo- raries, who unite in bearing testimony as to his high character and superior mind.
JOHN BARTON PAYNE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
T HE first English emigrants to Virginia were a superior race, with enlarged views of gov- ernment, liberty and law. From these ancestors sprang men in great numbers renowned for honor and patriotism, unsurpassed in statesmanship, and famous for scholarship and oratory. A worthy and typical representative of those men is the subject of this sketch.
John Barton Payne was born on January 26, 1855, at Pruntytown, Virginia. His ancestors may be traced back two hundred and fifty years to the reign of Charles II. of England. About the year 1640 the progenitor of the Payne family came from England to the colony of Virginia, and his descendants are widely scattered over the Old Dominion and other Southern States. The great-grandfather of our subject, Francis Payne, was a valiant American officer in the Revolution- ary War. His grandson, Amos Payne, the father of John Barton, was a graduate of Transylvania University, and was a practicing physician of con- siderable celebrity.
John Barton's youth was spent in Orlean, Fauquier county, Virginia, where he received a thorough English education, and he afterwards pursued a classical course under private tutors. In 1874 he began the study of the law while he was acting as assistant clerk of the courts at Prunty- town, Taylor county. He completed his law stud- ies early in 1876, and in August of that year passed
an examination before three judges, and was licensed to practice-commencing practice at once. Even at that early age Mr. Payne had at- tained a wide reputation as an orator, and his speeches in behalf of Tilden and Hendricks were considered among the best made in that cam- paign. He was then made acting chairman of the Democratic county committee, and was also a de- legate to the senatorial and congressional conven- tions from Taylor county.
In March, 1877, he removed to Kingwood, Pres- ton county, West Virginia. His business was soon quite extensive, and he was retained in many important cases. In 1878 he was elected chair- man of the Democratic executive committee of Preston county, which position he held for several years. October 17, 1878, he was married to Miss Kate. Bunker, daughter of the late Judge Edward C. Bunker. He then took a leading part in poli- tics ; he was temporary chairman of the Grafton convention of 1880; chairman of the Preston de- legation in the Fairmont congressional conven- tion ; a member of the congressional executive committee and a delegate to the Martinsburg State convention. Then he supported the Hon. Charles J. Faulkner ยท for governor, and was ten- dered the position of presidential elector, which he declined. In the presidential canvass which followed, the eloquent voice of Mr. Payne was again heard, as the champion of Hancock.
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He was elected, by the bar, special judge of the circuit court of Tucker county in May, 1881, to hear and decide a chancery cause, to which the regular judge was a party. Mr. Payne has had" the management of many very important cases, among which is a notable one in which he called in question the constitutionality of the law giving a landlord's lien preference over chattel exemp- tions. He obtained an injunction from the cir- cuit court on that ground, which was affirmed by the supreme court of appeals, where it was ably argued by Mr. Payne in June, 1880. He was elected mayor of Kingwood in January, 1882. After retiring from that office he removed to Chi- cago, where he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession up to the present time (1892). Mr. Payne has steadily advanced to the front, and the numerous important cases in which he has figured, have given him a wide celebrity as an astute lawyer and an eloquent advocate. It takes a brilliant man to build up a high reputation in the legal profession in a large city, and that is what the tact, skill, energy and legal acumen of Mr. Payne has already done. On June 26, 1890, a banquet was given by the State Association at the Palmer house, to the members of the National Commission of the World's Columbian Exposi- tion. Among other pleasant things said by the Chicago Times of the next morning, is the follow- ing : "There were in all three hundred and forty gentlemen at table, of this number one hundred and six were state and national commissioners ; to them were assigned the places of honor; they were made to feel that they were the welcome and privileged guests, not alone of the State Associa- tion, but of Chicago, nor are they likely to forget the splendor of the surroundings and the extra- ordinary social eclat with which the hospitality of Chicago was inaugurated. Those only who know what a rich and varied setting the Palmer can give to even an ordinary banquet, can fully appreciate what a jeweled and lustrous frame-work, radiant with beauty and color, it can provide for a great fete. Such an occasion was the celebration of last night." The banquet was preceded by an informal reception in the grand parlor. In thesc beautiful rooms, the notables of many States repre- sented in the commission, were made acquainted with the notables of Chicago. Chief Justice Fuller, surrounded by well-known public men,
and greeted heartily by many old Chicago friends and neighbors, made the center of an interest- ing group, with him were Judge Gresham, Judge Harris, of Kentucky; ex-Senator Palmer, of Michigan ; ex-Governor Walker, of Connecticut ; Judge Thomas Moran, President Lyman J. Gage, E. G. Keith, Edwin Walker, the Hon. R. E. Goodell, the Hon. Erskine M. Phelps, Judges Gary, Anthony, Driggs, McConnell, and others equally prominent in professional and social circles. Fully an hour was spent in this reception and the assembly had grown so large as to fill the grand corridor. Quite a bevy of ladies attired in stylish and costly demi-toilet, indulged their curi- osity in taking a peep at the notable public nien in the throng ; later the ladies were rewarded with a glimpse of the splendors of the banquet hall, as the decidedly distinguished looking company sat at the table. Ushered by Judge Driggs, chair- man of the reception committee, and John Bar- ton Payne, chairman of the banquet committee, the head of the column passed in to dinner in the following order: Chief Justice Fuller with Judge Harris, . Judge Gresham with Senator Palmer, President L. J. Gage with Bishop Fallows and Judge Thoman with Vice-President Thomas B. Bryan. The decoration effects and banquet ser- vice combined to make a scene marvelously beau- ful. The president's tables was placed at the south end of the room, the arch above it festooned with national colors and draped with curtains of delicate smilax. This verdant drapery formed a back-ground for a splendid bust of Columbus. Masses of palms and feathery ferns sprang from the foot of the noble columns which support the richly illuminated ceiling of the splendid room ; these fluted columns gilded, as they are, were lus- trous in the glow of the electric radiators massed in the great chandeliers which depend from the center panels of the ceiling. The display of floral beauty was something superb, and the air of the room was heavy with exquisite fragrance. From the chandeliers depended immense balls of roses and the base of the gilded columns were covered in masses of color blazing peonies. For all these color effects an abundance of palm, fern and tropical plants afforded a vernal back-ground and a delightful frame. The great room was ablaze with light and festooned with ropes of roses. The snowy tables were tinted with delicate shades of
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