The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 104

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770

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UMSTEAD, SAMUEL J., M. D., was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 13th, 1841. He is the son of Samuel A. and Maria (Garber) Bumstead. His father was a Reformed minister, located for many years at Manayunk, and at the present time preaching in Fulton county, Illinois. Samuel moved West with his parents in 1850, attended school, and in 1859 commenced the study of homœopathy with Dr. Cheever, and after attending a regular course at the Homoeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia, grad- uated in the spring of 1862. In August of the same year he entered the army as a private in the 108th Illinois Volun- teers, and in March, 1863, was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the 131st Regiment Illinois Volunteers, serving as such until the close of the war. He then located at Pekin, Illi- nois, where he has since practised, except during an absence of one ycar spent in Vienna acquiring additional knowledge : week he was comfortably re-established and doing as large

of his profession. He has a general practice, but makes a specialty of eye, ear, brain and nervous diseases. He is a member of the American Institution of Homoeopathy ; well read in the literature of his profession, and scientific in his method. He was married, December 25th, 1865, to Sarah E. Sewell, of Illinois.

OOKE, NICHOLAS FRANCIS, M.D., Physi- cian, Professor, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on August 25th, 1829. IIe is de- scended from an old and distinguished Rhode Island family. IIe is a great-grandson of Hon. Nicholas Cooke, the first Continental Governor of the State of Rhode Island. He was long under the private tuition of the venerable Thomas Shephard, D. D., of Bristol, Rhode Island, and was prepared for col- lege by Messrs. Merrick Lyon and Henry S. Frieze-the latter the Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in the University of Michigan, and the author of several valu- able classical works. He studied medicine with Usher Parsons, M. D., of Providence, Rhode Island. IIe entered Brown University as a Freshman in 1846, and was contem- poraneously a student in that institution, though not a class- mate, with Dr. J. B. Angell, the present incumbent of the presidential chair of the University of Michigan. He spent the time from 1849 to 1852 in visiting various foreign coun- tries, acted as the ship's surgeon on board of different ves- sels during his voyages, and finally made a complete circuit of the globe. In 1852 he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania; he also attended the lectures of the Jefferson Medical College, and finally grad- uated, in the spring of 1854, at the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. His conversion to homœopathy was the result of an investigation upon which he entered with a view of taking intelligent ground against it. He entered upon the practice of his profession in his native city in company with A. H. Okie, M. D., the first homoeopathic graduate in America. He removed to Chicago in 1855, where he has since been identified with every great move- ment in the progress of homœopathy in that city, and pos- sesses a practice that is both extensive and laborious. He was married on October 15th, 1856, to Laura Wheaton Abbot, of Warren, Rhode Island, a daughter of the late Commodore Joel Abbot, of the United States navy, by whom he has four children. At the organization of the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, in 1859, he was chosen Professor of Chemistry, and subsequently of Theory and Practice, which chair he filled with great ability and distinction until his resignation, in 1870. Previous to the great fire of October 9th, 1871, his residence was in the northern division of the city, whence, in common with so many thousands, he was driven from house and home by the terrible rapacity of the conflagration. In less than one

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a business as before. He twice received the compliment of by a colored servant girl. S. S. Hayes obtained an elc. an clection to the chair of Theory and Practice, in different medical institutions, accompanied by flattering proposals to remove his residence, but he has felt constrained to reject them. With the opening of the Pulte Homoeopathic College of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the fall of 1872, he appeared as its Professor of Special Pathology and Diagnosis, which chair he still holds, though he retains his extensive practice in Chicago. At a convention of homeopathic physicians, held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 7th, 1873, for the pur- pose of naming three candidates for each of the chairs of Theory and Practice and Materia Medica, in the medical department of the University of Michigan, which, by the action of the Legislature of 1872-73, were awarded to the homeopathic profession, he was the first of the three nomi- nated for the chair of Theory and Practice. He is a promi- nent writer, and has contributed extensively both to general and medical literature. IIe is the author of a work called " Satan in Society, by a Physician," published in 1871, which created a marked sensation. As a lecturer he is both accomplished and attractive.

AYES, HON. SAMUEL SNOWDEN, Lawyer, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, December 25th, 1820. Ilis father, Dr. R. P. Hayes, a na- tive of South Hadley, Massachusetts, was a son of Rev. Joel Hayes, who was for more than fifty years pastor of the Congregational Church at that place. He studied his profession under Dr. Warren, of Boston, and settled in Rome, New York. During the last war with Great Britain he was Surgeon of a New York reg- iment. Samuel's mother, Mary C. (Snowden) Hayes, mar- ried in 1816, was a daughter of Rev. Samuel F. Snowden, a prominent Presbyterian minister of Sackett's Harbor, New York, a native of New Jersey, whose father was one of the founders of Princeton College, having donated to that institution the land now occupied by it. Both the Haycs and Snowden families came to this country at an early day from England ; the former being originally from Scotland, and the latter from Wales. His paternal grand- mother was a lineal descendant of Thomas Bliss, who came from England early in the seventeenth century ; also of Brewer, one of the original Pilgrim Fathers. His grand- mother on the maternal side was aunt of Commodore Breese, and of Sidncy Breese, formerly United States Sen- ator from Illinois, also Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois ; Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, was also her nephew. The Breeses came origin- ally from France, and settled in Oneida county, New York. After leaving the service of his country, Dr. R. P. Hayes settled in Nashville, and in 1831 removed to Cincinnati, where he died in 1837, having been poisoned by arsenic administered to the whole family, from motives of cupidity, important changes made in the school laws. In the legis-

mentary education under Moses Stephens, at Nashville, afterward applying himself to classics and mathematics at Cincinnati, under Alexander Keinnont. At the death of his father he entered a drug store in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was employed as a store boy, and later as prescrip- tion clerk. In August, 1838, he bought a stock of drugs, and removing to the West, settled at Shawnectown, Illinois, where he was engaged in business for over two years. Deciding to enter the legal profession, he then disposed of his interest in that business and catered the office of Henry Eddy, having Hon. S. S. Marshall, recently member of Congress from Illinois, as a room-mate and follow-student. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar and settled in Mount Vernon, Illinois, whence, after a brief residence, he re- moved to Carmi, White county, where he remained in the practice of his profession until the winter of 1850-51, when he moved to Chicago. While a citizen of Carmi he became enlisted in politics, having formed his political opinions after studying the writings of J. B. Say, and the words and actions of Jefferson and Jackson. In 1843 he took the stump in support of the Democratic ticket; and in the Presidential campaign of 1844, which resulted in the elec- tion of Polk and Dallas, canvassed successfully the southern Congressional district for the Democracy. In 1845 he was a delegate to the Memphis Convention, called for the pur- pose of promoting Western and Southern commercial interests and internal improvements. Early in the session he introduced a resolution to the effect that in its procced- ing the convention should approve no measures except those in the support of which both political parties werc agreed, which was unanimously adopted. In his speech he analyzed and condemned certain expressions used in his opening speech by John C. Calhoun, the famous Senator of South Carolina, who was President of the convention and then in the chair. When he had concluded, various mem- bers, with much warmth, controverted his position and defended the expressions referred to. J. C. Calhoun, how- ever, shortly after stated in substance that the position had been well taken and the expressions commented upon care- lessly used, and that it was not his design to favor the conclusions which they would seem to justify, and which had been drawn from them by members of the convention. He and J. C. Calhoun subsequently took a passage for New Orleans by the same steamer, and during a trip of a week remained in constant friendly intercommunication. In the summer of 1846 he was nominated for the State Legislature, and although the Whigs had previously controlled the county, was elected by a handsome majority. In the Gen- eral Assembly he was Chairman of the Committee on Education, which under his management inaugurated sev- eral important measures ; while, in addition to the ordinary business referred to the committee, the State institutions for the blind and for the deaf and dumb were established, and

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lation providing for the funding of the State debt, and in | brilliant career was offered him in the Republican party, the suppression of the Massac riots, he was an influential which sprang up immediately afterward, and owed its rise - mover, originating and procuring the passage of the act to the measure. But he did not favor the abandonment of defining and punishing a new class of offenders arising out the distinctive principle of the Democratic party, which he regarded as cssential to the welfare of the country, and deprecated the formation of sectional parties, which he pre- of the usurpation of judicial power by mobs. In the spring of 1847 he was the first to volunteer for the Mexican war, and raised a company for active service. Owing to the dicted would result in civil war. In 1856, accordingly, he distance from the seat of government the muster rolls were supported Buchanan, who being out of the country at the not received until the quota of the State had been filled. time had not been connected with the Missouri Compromise In the same season an election was held for delegates to a repeal. In 1860 he attended the Democratic Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore to promote Douglas's nomina- tion. After Yancey and other conspirators had succeeded in drawing off most of the Southern delegates and a few Northern sympathizers from the Convention, and making a separate nomination, the chances of the election of Mr. Douglas, the nominee of the majority of the Convention, became almost hopeless ; but notwithstanding the discourag- ing aspect of affairs, he went into the canvass for him with fearless zeal. While the country was on the verge of a civil war his counsels were in favor of great concessions to preserve peace; but, those efforts failing, to resist armed treason with arms, and defend the Constitution with the last man and the last dollar. Before the general elections in 1862 martial law had been declared in the Northern States and the Emancipation Proclamation issued. These measures he believed to be unconstitutional, and conse- quently favored an active political opposition to the party in power. In the Democratic Congressional Convention, held in Chicago, October 14th, 1862, he offered the resolu- tions there adopted, in which the conduct of the adminis- tration was severely criticised and condemned. From time to time he has been honored by notable evidence of the confidence of both political parties and of the general com- munity ; such instances being too numerous to be detailed at length. He has been several times elected to a seat in the National Conventions; has officiated as President of a State Convention of his party ; has been twice appointed a member of the Board of Education of Chicago, where his labors have been greatly instrumental in developing the present admirable school system ; has acted as one of the Trustees of the State Industrial University, to which posi- tion he was appointed by Governor Oglesby. He has also held for three years the office of City Comptroller of Chi- cago, and that of a member of the Commission created by Congress to inquire into the sources of national revenue and revise and recommend improvements. He entered on the office of City Comptroller, by appointment of the Mayor and Common Council, in June, 1862, retiring from office in May, 1865. He was shortly after appointed one of the three members of the United States Revenue Commission, in whose labors he took full part, distinguishing himself particularly by his report upon "the property in the funds and the income derived therefrom as a source of national revenue, the financial system of the United States, the creation of a sinking fund, and taxation in general." The Convention for the Revision of the Constitution, and both parties united in choosing him to act in that body. When the Convention met he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Law Reform, and reported a proposition to simplify and systematize the laws of the State, statutory and common, by the framing of a code ; he also took a leading part in the debates of the Convention, and introduced sev- eral of the clauses which were incorporated into the Consti- tution then framed and still existing unchanged. In the fall of 1848 he was engaged constantly in canvassing for Cass and Butler in southern Illinois; was a successful can- didate for Presidential Elector, also for re-election to the State Legislature. As a token of appreciation of the distin- guished political services rendered by him, he received from Governor French the honorary appointment of Aide- de-Camp, with the rank of Colonel of cavalry. He was then again made Chairman of the Committee on Education. The General Assembly of 1848 and 1849 was long remem- bered for having granted a large number of special charters in open defiance of the Constitution first adopted. The Journal of the House shows that he steadily voted against the majority, exerting himself to the utmost to combat all wrongful measures. Retiring from political affairs, having in the meanwhile removed to Chicago, he devoted himself exclusively to the practice of law, and was employed by the city authorities of Chicago as Councillor and City Solicitor. From that time until Senator Douglas reopened the agita- tion of the slavery question by proposing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he was undisturbed in his seclusion. He had been a warm friend of Douglas, had aided in his election to the Senate, and in his famous controversy at Chicago over the compromise measures of 1850 had sus- tained him against great opposition ; but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was in his opinion a most dangerous measure, and he felt it to be his duty to oppose it with all the energy 'n his power. Accordingly, during the pen- dency of the bill, February 5th, 1854, he delivered his sentiments ably and fearlessly at a mass meeting of citizens held at the South Market Hall. In October, 1855, Mr. Douglas returned to Chicago and addressed a public meet- ing in defence of his course, attacking with severity various prominent anti-Nebraska Democrats. Two days later he was replied to at South Market Hall beforc a vast audience, and his course criticised and denounced in an eloquent and logical oration. Had he becn swayed by selfish motives a

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originality and comprehensiveness of this report, its power- ful argument, its bold and striking enunciation of principles, and the masterly manner in which a scheme is projected and sustained for the payment of the national debt, and the reduction of all forms of taxation to a simple and just plan, have attracted great and favorable attention both in this country and in Europe. He is a large landowner in and around Chicago, has expended several hundred thousand dollars in valuable buildings, and every year contributes largely by his means and abilities to the development and welfare of the city. He was married to Lizzie J. Taylor, eldest daughter of Colonel E. D. Taylor, then of Michigan prominent men of the Northwest.

City, now of Chicago, one of the earliest settlers and most | 1812, he married Elizabeth Ross, with whom his early

YDE, JAMES NEVINS, A. M., M. D., was born in Norwich, Connecticut, June 2Ist, 1840, being the son of Edward Goodrich and Hannah Hun- tington (Thomas) Hyde. His preparation for a collegiate course of study was conducted at Phil- lips Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, and in 1857 he entered Yale College, from which in 1861 he graduated. Ile attended a course of medical lectures at New York City College of Physicians and Surgeons in the winter of 1861-62, and in the following winter attended a course at the University of Pennsylvania, from which, after thorough study in all the departments of the science, he took his diploma of M. D. in the spring of 1863. Hle at once entered the navy of the United States as an Assistant Surgeon, and in 1867 was made Passed Assistant, serving at the Naval Hospital in Washington, District of Columbia. He subsequently served two years on the Mediterranean squadron, and upon the expiration of this period, having spent five years in naval medical duties, during which he won the esteem of line and staff, not only by his skill but by his deportment, he resigned, and in 1868 moved to Chicago, where he has since practised. In 1873 he was appointed Lecturer, in the spring course of Rush Medical College, on Dermitology. In 1365 Yale College conferred on him the degrec of A. M. Ile was married in 1872 to Alice Louisa Griswold. He has a large practice, and has earned the reputation of a careful and thoroughly practical physician.

9 ITCHELL, WICKLIFFE, Lawyer, was born on May 21st, 1789, in the State of New Jersey. He was descended from Robert Kitchell, one of two brothers who came from England in the seven- teenth century and settled in Connecticut. Robert afterwards removed to Newark, New Jersey, and in that region his descendants continued to reside. Early in the present century, however, Asa Kitchell, the father of

Wickliffe, removed with his family to what was then the far West, and Wickliffe reached his majority in the vicinity of what is now Cincinnati, Ohio. School privileges were but limited in those early days, and the hard work of his youth was but little interfered with by his attendance at institutions of learning. He attended school for a few months, and aside from that time his education was entirely such as his own unaided efforts could achieve; but his achievement in that direction was a worthy one. Between the hours of labor, and by the aid of fire-light, he succeeded in making himself a fair scholar so far as the practical business of life was concerned. On the 29th of February, childhood had been passed, and who, with her parents, had emigrated from New Jersey in company with the Kitchcll family. About the year 1814 he removed to southern In- diana, true to the pioncer instincts that had been fostered in him by his early experience and his life-long training. That portion of the country was then an almost unbroken wilderness, and was largely occupied by tribes of hostile Indians, and he and his wife and family were often com- pelled, with other familics, to seek shelter and security in the forts and block-houses that existed here and there in the thinly-settled region. He was elected Sheriff of the county in which he resided, and so was thrown much in contact with lawyers and others in attendance upon the courts. His ambition took a new bent from this intercourse, and he determined to read law. He obtained possession of a few text-books, and these were read to very excellent purpose by the light of log fires and during the enforced leisure of rainy days. At about this time, too, he suffered an experience that confirmed him in his new purpose and at the same time forced the opportunity for study upon him in a painful manner. While clearing ground about his Indiana cabin he cut his foot with an axe so severcly as to lame him for life. After this he studied harder than ever, and was eventually admitted to the bar. In 1817, still controlled by the pioneer spirit, he removed to Illinois, settling in Palestine, Crawford county, where he resided until 1838. From the first he took a deep and very active interest in the welfare and progress of his adopted State, and identified himself thoroughly with its history. He rapidly attained to a leading position in his profession, and from his earliest settlement was recognized and respected as a leading and influential citizen. He was a member of the first Legislature of the State, that met at Vandalia; he was a soldier in the Black Hawk war; was a member of the first General Assembly of 1820-21, from Crawford county ; and was a member of the House of Representatives, from Montgomery county, in 1840-41. His last term was in 1841, when he represented Montgomery county, whither he had removed from Crawford county in the year 1837. In 1839 he was elected Attorney-General of the State, and held that office for one term. From the time of its organi- zation until 1854 he was a distinguished and leading mem-

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ber of the Democratic party. In that year, however, | He is now acting, in conjunction with his extensive prac- objecting strongly to the ground taken by the party on the tice, as United States Pension Surgeon for Tazewell county. In 1866 he was married to Emma Prettyman, of Pekin. He is a gentleman of culture, and is respected by all who know him. slavery question, he abandoned the organization forever. He was always intensely interested in the welfare of his State and country, and notwithstanding his advanced age, when the war of the rebellion was in progress he gave his voice and such deeds as he could to the cause of the Union. Having given half a century of his laborious life to the development of his adopted State; having witnessed and rejoiced in its unexampled growth and prosperity; and having seen the triumph of the national arms over the efforts of treason, he died on the 2d of February, 1869, at the ripe age of eighty years. IIis wife had preceded him six years before. He left three sons, four daughters, and numerous grandchildren, to whom the example of his life is a rich inheritance.

IIITMIRE, ZACHARIAH II., M. D., son of John and Elizabeth (Robinson) Whitmire, was born in Sidney, Shelby county, Ohio, on June 25th, 1823. Ile received his education in the public schools, and afterward passed some years occupied in farming. Beginning the study of medicine in 1847 with his brother, James L. Whitmire, at Metamora, he completed a full course of study at Rush Medical College of Chicago, and graduated therefrom in the year 1850. He began practice at Metamora in association with his brother, and maintained the connection until the past two years. The appointment of Examining Surgeon of the Eighth Congressional District, with his station at Springfield, Illinois, was held by him during the years 1863 and 1864. He is a member of the State and County Medi- cal Societies. He was married in 1852 to Mary, daughter of Rev. E. B. Kellogg, an Episcopal minister. She died in 1855, and in the following year he married Melissa Morse, of the same place.

CHENCK, WILLIAM E., M. D., was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, in 1840, being the son of Ernestus and Ann (Skillman) Schenck. Ile entered an academy at Trenton, New Jersey, at an early age, and fulfilled the expectations of his family by graduating with distinction. Pos- sessed with a strong inclination for the profession of med- icine, he commenced its study, and soon after leaving Trenton matriculated at Bellevue College, New York, from which he graduated in the spring of 1864, taking the degree of M. D. He came West and located in Pekin, Illinois, where he has since resided and practised. By the display of care and a fine degree of skill as a physician he has secured a lucrative patronage and has made his way to a leading position in the profession of that section of the State.

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 104

Author: Robson, Charles, ed Publication date: 1875 Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy Number of Pages: 770

Author: Robson, Charles, ed
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy
Number of Pages: 770