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 3
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buildings of more or less prominence in other cities. He built the new State House at Indian- apolis, and many fine government buildings in different parts of the country. His last great building, that is now in process of construction, is the new Post-office and Custom-house, at Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Gobel is a director in the Pioneer Fire-Proof Construction Company, also the Peerless Brick Company, at Ottawa, Illinois, and owns large interests in other prominent corporations.
He is a member of the Union League Club, is a Mason in good standing, and belongs to Fort Dearborn Lodge of I. O. O. F.
In religious matters he is a member, with his family, of the People's Church, Dr. H. W. Thomas, pastor, and is liberal in his religious views. In politics he is a Democrat, adhering to his party lines in general politics; in local matters he supports the man whom he deems best suited to fill the office, regardless of party. He is also a
member of the Builders' and Traders' Exchange and Master Mason's Association.
Mr. Gobel was married in 1856 and has four children, Estella G., Harry E., Hattie M. and Charley G.
Mr. Gobel is of medium height, fair complexion, of robust build, and commanding presence ; he is liberal and generous without ostentation, and a man of noble qualities of heart and mind. He gives liberally to all charitable and benevolent institutions, while his private charities are great ; having for many years a large number of men in his employ, he has been kind, courteous and lib- eral with them, and has their fullest confidence and esteem.
Mr. Gobel is widely known, highly appreciated by the business public as a man of sterling char- acter, honest, and honorable in all his dealings with his fellow-men. By his energy, persever- ance, and fine business ability he has been enabled to accumulate an ample fortune.
FELIX KAHN,
CHICAGO, ILL.
F ELIX KAHN is one of Chicago's enterpris- ing and thrifty business men whose suc- cess is the result of his own effort. Beginning life with no capital other than his native abilities, he has risen step by step to a place of prominence and influence, and it may justly be said of him, " He is the architect of his own fortunes."
of age) having an interest in the business. Re- turning to Lacon in 1864, he became a partner with his uncle, Henry Steiner, and himself con- ducted the business, his uncle removing to Chi- cago, till 1867, when he purchased his uncle's in- terest and carried on the business in his own name until 1871.
A native of Duensbach, Wuertemberg, Ger- During the next six years he was a partner with his two brothers at Mattoon. During that time, on May 7, 1875, his brother Moses was lost at sea while en route to the old country, and in 1877 he bought the entire business and conducted it in his own name, and also another store which he had opened, until 1881. He then sold one of the stores and continued the other. During all these years Mr. Kahn had been schooling himself to correct business prin- ciples and habits, and had established a reputation wherever known, as an energetic, thorough-going business manager, prompt, reliable and self-reliant. His progress had been steady, and each year showed a satisfactory increase of capital, and he many, he was born on November 28, 1843, the son of Jacob and Yetta (Steiner) Kahn. His father, who was a prosperous merchant at Wolpert- shansen, Germany, lived to an advanced age and died in 1887. His mother is still living in Ger- many (1892). Felix attended the schools of his native place until his fourteenth year and then spent three years as a clerk in his father's store. In 1860 he immigrated to the United States, and went direct to Lacon, Illinois, and for two years was a clerk in the store of his older brother, Louis, who had settled there some years before. In 1862, he went to Mattoon, Illinois, and filled a similar position in the store of other broth- ers for two years, the last year (being thene now felt that he must have wider scope for the
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exercise of his abilities and employment. It was with a purpose of gratifying his laudable ambi- tion that he closed out his business at Mattoon in 1882, and became the head of the well-known firm of Kahn, Schoenbrun & Company, manufac- turers of fine clothing.
Their establishment is located at the southeast corner of Market and Adams streets, Chicago, and is one of the largest and best-equipped, not only in Chicago, but also in the entire West. During the decade that Mr. Kahn has resided in Chicago, he has taken high rank among commercial men and is a recognized leader in his class. As a finan- cier he excels; cautious and careful in his in- vestments, conservative in his judgments, his counsels are sought and his opinions carry convic- tion. He stands high, not alone in the business world, but also socially, and counts among his friends and associates many of Chicago's most elegant, refined and substantial citizens.
He has been a member of the Masonic Order for many years, and is also connected with the Stand- ard Club, one of the most highly cultivated social organizations of Chicago. He is also a member of Sinai Congregation, and in religion, as in other
matters, entertains liberal views. He is especially tolerant of the opinions of those who honestly differ with him, and in all his intercourse and dealings with others, is charitable and just. As a rule he affiliates with the Democratic party in political affairs, but is not bound by the party ties, and in this, as in everything else, chooses to exer- cise his own judgment, and what he esteems the right and duty of every true citizen; votes for the candidate best fitted for the office without regard to what party he belongs to.
Mr. Kahn was married October 7, 1877, to Miss Carrie Kaufman, a daughter of Louis Kauf- man, of Greenville, Illinois. They have four children, viz., Louis and Moses, who are twins, and Harry and Ella, and it is in his cheerful home, surrounded by his bright, happy family, that Mr. Kahn finds his highest enjoyment. He is a man of quick perception and keen observation and in his wide travels in this country and on the Con- tinent he has acquired a vast amount of varied and useful information.
His personal and social qualities are of a high order, rendering him an agreeable companion and a true friend.
DAVID G. HAMILTON,
CHICAGO, ILL.
D AVID GILBERT HAMILTON is pre- eminently a Chicago man. He comes of a sturdy race, and is the son of Polemus D. and Cynthia (Holmes) Hamilton. His father was a native of Wales, in Erie county, New York, and in 1834, while yet a single man, settled in Chicago. He was a carpenter by occupation, and plied his trade with other pioneer builders of that city, " not despising the day of small things." In 1836 he returned to his native place where, on May 12 of the following year he was married. He at once returned to Chicago, and was there joined by his young wife and his father's family on August 11, 1838. He was a skillful work- man, and there were constantly increasing demands in the aspiring young city for his ser- vices. Besides constructing buildings, he employed his handicraft to supply the needs of navigation, and built the first vessel launched on Lake Mich-
igan, at Chicago. He had a genius for meeting new demands, and became one of the leading builders in the city. He died at Chicago in 1891. His wife's decease occurred in 1872.
Our subject's grandfather, David Hamilton, was a native of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, whence he went, when a boy, to Massachusetts. He subsequently resided in Cayuga county, New York, and during the exciting times attending the settlement of the " Holland Purchase," he located in Erie county, where Polemus D. was born. Both he and our subject's maternal grandfather came of patriotic, revolutionary stock, and both were engaged in the war with England in 1812.
David G. was born in Chicago on January 10, 1842, in a house located on the premises now known as No. 126 South Clark street, where, afterwards, for many years he had his place of business. The virgin mud in front of his father's
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D. G. Hamilton.
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door, at that date, would have rivalled that of many unpretentious Illinois towns. Beginning life in the very heart of the city, David felt its great pulsations with his first knowledge of the world. His education was begun in private schools, and upon arriving at mature boyhood, he entered the Chicago High School, from which he was graduated in 1862, prepared to enter college. In September, 1862, he entered the Freshman Class of Asbury University, since changed to De Pauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, and was graduated in 1865. He received the degree of A. M. in due course. Returning to Chicago, he began the study of law, in the Law Department of the University of Chicago in 1866, and was graduated in 1867. He was afterwards president of the Board of Trustees of this University. During all these early years of study he spent his vacations with his father, and he not only mastered the carpenter's trade, but also the methods of systematic business in con- ducting large enterprises-a training as important, and practical, and useful for his future success, as much of that which he obtained from the curriculum of the schools. His proficiency and skill led to business association with his father before completing his studies, and together they carried out many important building enterprises.
Following his graduation in 1867, he opened a law office on the very spot where he was born (126 South Clark street), and continued there for nearly twenty years. His office was destroyed in the great fire of 1871, but he returned to the same location a few months later, on the completion of a new building. In his law practice Mr. Hamilton's specialty was the examination of titles and managing estates and trusts, a branch of business for which his careful and exact business training pre-eminently fitted him. In 1868 Mr. Hamilton coupled with his law practice the business of mortgage investments, and was joined by Mr. R. K. Swift in this department, under the firm name of D. G. Hamilton and Co. This partnership was dissolved in 1871, and Mr. Hamilton has since continued the same business, removing his office in 1885 to its present location, 94 Washington street.
In 1880 he became president, in the nature of a receiver, of the Anglo-American Land and Claim Association, a corporation organized for coloni-
zation of lands in Texas, and also for the con- struction of railroads in that state. It had partially completed a line of railway there, which subsequently became a part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé system. After success- fully closing up the affairs of the association, he gave his undivided attention to matters in Chicago.
In 1885 he became identified with the street railway interests of Chicago, and has taken an active part in their management, having been a director in the Chicago City Railway for four years. He is now (1892) president of the board of directors of five of the leading street railway companies of St. Louis, as well as manager of other industries employing a large force of men and millions of capital. Although he has applied himself closely to study and business ever since his boyhood, Mr. Hamilton early learned that "it is not all of life to live " even in the mighty whirl of Chicago business. A wise and pious mother early took him to the First Methodist Church Sunday-school (close by his birthplace). The Bible truths were accepted by his keen intellig- ence, and loved for the sake of the truth and of humanity as he grew to maturity. The same devotion as to study and business was given to Sunday-school work, and he became active in pushing the missionary enterprise into the sub- urbs-then at Clark and Twelfth streets. Sub- sequently to the great fire he united with the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, out of which grew the Immanual Baptist, under the direction of Rev. George C. Lorimer, D. D., now (1892) under the pastoral care of Dr. H. O. Gifford. He has been connected with its business manage- ment almost from its organization, and is chair- man of its board of trustees. As a Mason, he has taken all the degrees in the York, and all but one in the Scottish Rites. He filled the different chairs in the York Rite. For pleasure and observation, he has made three visits to Europe and traveled extensively on that continent. In politics he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has always been a republican on national questions.
On December 9, 1870, he married Mary Jane Kendall, daughter of Dr. Lyman Kendall, of Chicago. Mrs. Hamilton is a native of Mont- pelier, Vermont. She subsequently resided at
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Worcester, Massachusetts, whence her father removed to Chicago in 1857. She was educated there, and graduated from the High School in in 1863. She united with the Second Baptist Church, where she was active in Sunday-school and missionary work, and is now connected with the Immanual Baptist Church. Two children
bless this marriage-Bruce, sixteen and Adelaide, eleven years of age. Mr. Hamilton, now in the prime of life, rich in the wisdom of experience and managing large business interests requiring much travel, still has sympathy with every good cause and a gentlemanly regard for all who properly seek his attention.
VINCENT LOMBARD HURLBUT, M.D.
CHICAGO, ILL.
V INCENT LOMBARD HURLBUT was born June 28, 1829, in West Mendon, New York. The ancestors of his mother, Sabrina Lombard, were Vermont people, and his father, Horatio Nelson Hurlbut, is descended from Thomas Hurlbut, of Saybrook and Westmore- land, Connecticut, who came to America as early as 1637. His only sister, Arozina Lucinda, now deceased, was the wife of Major Toby, an old and highly esteemed citizen and prominent Ma- son of Chicago. While he was yet a child, his parents removed to Jefferson, Ohio. He made good use of the local schools, and was graduated with honor from the Jefferson Academy. Choos- ing the medical profession at the age of seven- teen, he pursued his studies under the guidance of his father, an old and eminent physician, and also attended lectures at the Medical Col- lege of Cleveland, Ohio, where he was the re- cipient of special attention from Prof. Horace A. Ackley.
In 1851, going to Chicago with his father, he matriculated at Rush Medical College, and was graduated therefrom in 1852. He very soon com- menced a practice, the great and continued suc- cess of which is shown in the affectionate regard entertained for him in this community. It is shown in such tributes as that paid him by the board of the Woman's Hospital, which, when he would have retired after two years of service as surgeon in that institution, would not accept his resignation, and in the high rank he holds in medical societies and institutions, both at home and abroad, his relations with all being of the closest and his official position of the most hon- orable character. Dr. Hurlbut is a member of Chicago Medical Society, Chicago Medico-Legal
Society, Illinois State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.
Catholicity is what Emerson calls culture. Cer- tainly Dr. Hurlbut is eminently possessed of it. Standing in the forefront of his profession, he is a close student of new discoveries and progress in the science of medicine, and yet finds time to devote to many other branches of popular interest and inquiry. He has given much atten- tion to the rise, character and progress of Free- masonry, is an enthusiastic member, and in the highest station which the craft affords has gained a national reputation. Previous to the great Chi- cago fire of 1871 he had collected one of the finest Masonic libraries in the country, containing many rare volumes, which were lost and can never be recovered. Dr. Hurlbut first became a Mason in 1860, in Waubansia Lodge, No. 160, and during the same year was exalted to the degree of Royal Arch in Washington Chapter, No. 43. He was created a Knight Templar in Apollo Commandery, No. I, and, afterwards, in the Occidental Consistory and its co-ordinate and subordinate bodies, took the Scottish Rite de- grees to the thirty-second, inclusive. The thirty- third degree he took at Boston, Massachusetts, in the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspec- tors General of the thirty-third degree, and last degree of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rites for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America; Grand East, Boston, Massa- chusetts, north latitude 12°, 21', 22"; east longi- tude 5°, 59', 18"; in the annual session on the 6th day of the month Gyzar, 5626, answering to 18th day of May, 1865.
Since his connection with the Masonic frater- nity Dr. Hurlbut has filled the most important
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positions, being, in 1863-64 and in 1867, Com- mander of the Apollo Commandery of Knights Templar, and also Commander-in-Chief of the Occidental Sovereign Consistory of Chicago, as well as charter member and official of the Royal Order'of Scotland, and charter member and Mas- ter of St. Andrew Lodge. In 1867 he was elected Grand Commander of the State of Illinois, hold- ing office one year, and for a term of three years, beginning with 1870, was Illustrious Deputy of the Supreme Council, thirty-third degree, for the district of Illinois. Finally, in 1871, he was elected Grand Generalissimo of the Grand En- campment of Knights Templar, at Baltimore, and on the expiration of this term, in 1874, was elected Deputy Grand Master of the Grand En- campment of Knights Templar, at New Orleans.
Dr. Hurlbut has never married, being devoted to his studies and the duties of his profession.
Nevertheless, he is a man of fine social qualities, having been for years a notable figure at the fa- mous game dinners given by Mr. John B. Drake, of the Grand Pacific Hotel, of Chicago. He was brought up in the Congregational Church, but is now a Universalist, and in his religious belief liberal, conscientious and firm.
As to the personal character of Dr. Hurlbut, we quote from a more extended article by Henry H. Hurlburt, of Chicago : "In the prime of man- hood, affable, genial and intelligent, unselfish and generous to a fault, he is the royal prince of com- panionship and fellowship, and is justly held in high esteem by all who have proved his profes- sional ability." And further, and aside from all professional merit, let it be said that in this man, so warmly patriotic, so gentle-hearted and unos- tentatious, we recognize a noble representative of American chivalry.
ORSON V. TOUSLEY,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
TT is strange how often trifling circumstances will change the whole current and the whole bent of one's career. Circumstances over which he had no control (and they certainly were by no means trifling) caused the subject of this sketch, Orson V. Tousley, to take up an altogether dif- ferent profession to what he had intended. His choice of a profession fell upon the law, but cir- cumstances caused him to become engaged in the scholastic. Thus what the ranks of one profes- sion lost, the other was the gainer thereby.
Born in Clarendon, Orleans county, New York, in 1833 ; his parents were well-to-do farmers and determined to avail themselves of every opportunity which the times afforded for the education of their children, but alas, they had both died before our subject had reached his thirteenth year, leaving him and his two sisters to the care of relatives. The guardian of young Tousley had peculiar views on the subject of education. He believed that its chief aim should consist in repression of the spirits - in holding boys down, as it were-and accord- ingly his ward was sent to Oberlin, Ohio. Here our subject spent two years of preparation for college, and here it was he imbibed sentiments
which foreshadowed the earnest and entrenched Republicanism which has always been such a distinguishing feature in his life. Afterwards entering the junior year of Williams College, Massachusetts, he graduated from this institution with the class of '54-the late President Garfield and Senator Ingalls being, by the way, schoolmates of his, for they were at Williams together. Upon leaving college Mr. Tousley entered the law office of Messrs. Hill, Porter & Cagger, at that time probably the most celebrated law firm in the state of New York. After graduating from the Albany Law School he went west with a view of securing a place of settlement. But the financial crisis of '57 was at hand, its shadows had been deeply cast, and at length it burst, spreading desolation and ruin in its path, sweeping away the fortunes (aye, and even the all of many) of thousands. His inheritance swept away, his intentions frustrated, and even his prospects seemingly blighted, Mr. Tousley, upon recovering from the shock-and we may well imagine it was a shock, and of no · slight degree, either-determined to take to teaching temporarily, it being his intention at this time to resume his profession of the law at
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some future period, and as soon, in fact, as circum- stances would warrant. Then came his marriage to Miss Susan S. Toll, of Medina, New York (and a descendant of the old Knickerbocker stock), and after teaching in Tennessee, Indiana and Wiscon- sin, in various capacities, in the fall of 1869 he removed with his family to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and here he has ever since resided, being well known throughout scholastic circles of the west.
Thus owing to the loss of his patrimony by a disastrous crisis (financial), and other events follow- ing in rapid succession, his whole career was changed, for he never returned to the law.
Shortly after his arrival in Minneapolis he became the principal of its high school, and two years later, upon the death of the superintendent, the board of education elected Mr. Tousley as his successor, and he continued in this position until the summer of 1886, when he tendered his resigna- tion and went abroad for study and travel. With few interruptions, barring the period which he spent abroad in the foreign civil service - Pres- ident Arthur appointed him United States consul at Trieste, afterward being transferred to Leipsic, Germany,- the whole fifteen years was earnestly devoted to the fulfillment of the many arduous and responsible duties connected with his office,
and the result was gratifying to both the board of education and himself alike. He has been regent of the University of Minnesota and wields a large influence in educational matters throughout the state.
Though for the past five years Mr. Tousley has been without visible employment; he has, however, not been idle, for he has been devoting himself to special lines of study, with the expectation, so his friends say, of putting the fruits of his investiga- tions in a treatise on sociology. His public lectures and platform utterances, etc., of which the press of this city spoke so highly when his name was suggested as Chief of the Bureau of Liberal Arts, in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition, are generally so well known as to need no further comment here.
As one of the Commissioners from the Prairie State, Orson V. Tousley is another illustration - if such were needed -of the careful and judicious manner in which the Commissioners from the various states were selected, for his selection was a wise one, and one which cannot but result in much good, not only to the state, but to the citizens thereof, also. For he is a man of wide and liberal views, of great culture and of (admit- tedly) great ability and energy.
JOHN ERASMUS HARPER, M.D., A.M.
CHICAGO, ILL.
TOHN ERASMUS HARPER was born on January 21, 1851, in Trigg county, Kentucky. The Harpers are descendants of an English family that settled in America prior to the Revo- lution, one branch in Virginia, the other in Caro- lina. Our subject is one of the latter branch, which later united with that of Virginia, in which state, in the valley of Dan River, Penn county, his great-grandfather, Jesse Harper, settled. The family has been for generations distinguished in scientific pursuits. Plain, hospitable, religious people, strict advocates of temperance, and liberal supporters of all institutions of learning, the Harpers were of the kind that make our best American citizens. During the Revolution not a few of them were numbered with our heroes- such men as brave Colonel Harper, of Virginia.
Dr. Harper's grandfather was a successful and scientific farmer, widely known in Virginia as " Little Berry Harper." The father of our sub- ject, Robert W. Harper, at the time of the late Civil War, was an extensive slaveholder in south- western Kentucky, near Fort Donaldson. He had many relations in the Confederate army, and was himself in Forrest's Brigade. Dr. Harper, then a lad of ten years, spent two years near the scenes of some of the most noted battles of south- western Kentucky and Tennessee, having been within hearing distance of the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, and retains a child's profound impres- sion of the horrors of war.
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