The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 105

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

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cCREA, SAMUEL HARKNESS, Commission Merchant, was born on August 16th, 1826, at Goshen, Orange county, New York, where his parents, coming from Scotland, had settled six years before. In 1839 he went with the rest of the family to Rochester, New York, a place then considered to be in the far West. Here, after acquiring such education as he could obtain at the common schools, he was apprenticed to the trade of tinsmith. As soon, however, as his probationary term was up he quitted the business and never resumed it afterwards. In the year 1846 he went to Canada, and there he remained for a period of three years. In 1849 he went from Canada to California, among the first of the crowd of gold hunters. His first winter on the Pacific coast was spent, not in dig- ging gold, but in the lumber-carrying trade on the Bay of San Francisco. In the year 1850 he entered upon the search for gold, and for the next two years he followed actively the business of gold miner. Moderate success at- tended his efforts, and he won, perhaps, more than the average return of gold. Ile was among the first to wield the pick in what is now Calaveras county, California. He returned to the United States in 1852, and went directly to Louisiana, where he superintended the construction of the New Orleans & Opelousas Railroad, now the Morgan Road. IIe had his head-quarters on Bayou de la Fourche, in the heart of the sugar region. The climate there was of the most trying and disagreeable character conceivable, being only a little less abominable than that of the Isthmus of Panama. IIeretofore it had been found impossible to retain any one there at the work longer than a few weeks, except on compulsion. The strong spirit of the new Super- intendent, and his powerful constitution, wrought a change in the history of the enterprise. He stayed there for nearly two years, leaving only when the work had been completed and there was no longer any necessity for his services. During his stay he displayed great tact, unfaltering decision of character, and a. very large amount of courage, all of which were needed in dealing with the rough and scarcely civilized gangs of workmen by whom the road was built ; and furthermore, when he left the region that had been supposed to be ruinous to the constitution of the white man, it was with health in no degree impaired. From Louisiana he went to Illinois. He went first, in November, 1854, to Rockford, where he took part in the construction of the Dixon Air Line Railroad. Thence he removed to Sterling, where he remained for a short time, and in 1855, when the railroad had been completed to that point, he went to Mor-

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rison, Whitesides county, and there engaged in the grain Homoeopathic College of Philadelphia, which he filled with and lumber business. The first sixteen car loads of grain cxemplary fidelity during several years. Hc was then trans- ferred to the important chair of the Homoeopathic Institute and Practice of Medicine, which he also ably occupied. Ile removed in 1856 to Chicago, and secured a large and in- creasing practice. On the organization of the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, lie was elected to the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, which he filled from 1859 to 1869, his experience and wisdom aiding largely in the acquisition of the high reputation which this school has since attaincd. When resigning this chair, he was elected President of the college. To him is largely due the pos- session of its present commodious buildings, and its high standing as a medical school. He had always acted as Treasurer of the college, and his wise management and financial tact admirably maintained the credit of the school. As General Superintendent of the Scammon Hospital he in- fused into it the new elements of success. He has served as President of the Illinois Ilomœopathic Medical Associa- tion, and of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. Ile is the author of a popular manual of homoeopathic practice, a treatise on diseases of the nervous system, and another on diseases of the chest. Fcw have done more to extend the knowledge of homeopathy and to commend it to the world. He is an exemplary Christian gentleman, active and liberal in his church, of which he has been a member for forty years. that left Morrison for Chicago were shipped by him. He remained at Morrison for seven years, and then, in the year 1862, he removed to Chicago. Notwithstanding his re- moval to Chicago, however, he retained his business inter- ests in Sterling until 1871, and in Morrison until 1874. In Chicago he entered into the commission business, and the house of McCrea & Co. became one of the most extensive commission houses in Chicago. Grain, provisions, and flour constitute the chief objects of the firm's dealings, but in connection with these interests a moderately large lumber business is also carried on. The firm own five or six lumber yards at different points in the northern part of Illinois, and keep them supplied principally from Chicago, while grain is collected at all of those points and forwarded to Chicago to be sold either for the firm or on commission. Aside from his regular business the head of the firm, since his removal to Chicago, has been an active man in a variety of directions. In 1866 he became a Director of the Board of Trade, a position which he held until 1868. In that year he was elected First Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and in 1870 was elected to the position of President of that body. In 1871-72 he was a member of the Com- mittee of Appeal, the chief executive authority of that Board. He has, moreover, becn four times a delegate from the Chicago Board to the National Board of Trade since its organization ; and was a delegate from the Chicago Board to the Convention at Boston which organized the National Board of Trade. He has been a Director of the Traders' Insurance Company of Chicago since the time of its organiza- tion. He has been, and still is, an active and influential member of the Republican party, but, owing to his exten- sive business occupations, has never held office, except that while living in Morrison he was a member of the Board of Supervisors. IIc was also a delegate to the Republican State Convention. He was married in 1856 to Caroline Isabel Johnson, daughter of Danicl H. Johnson, of Cook county.

MALL, ALVAN EDMOND, M. D., Physician, was born, March 4th, 1811, in Wales, Lincoln county, Maine, his parents, of Scotch descent, being among the earliest settlers of that town. His father, Hon. Joseph Small, was several times elected member of the State Legislature, and held other prominent positions of trust and responsibility. His academic education was received in Monmouth, Maine. In 1831 he commenced the study of medicine, and graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsyl- vania. He settled in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and established a practice, which he relinquished in 1845 for one in Philadelphia, where he remained eleven years. In 1849 he was appointed to the chair of Physiology in the

UDLAM, REUBEN, M. D., Physician, was born in Camden, New Jersey, October 7th, 1831. He is the eldest son of Jacob W. Ludlam, M. D., who during a period of thirty years sustaincd a high reputation for probity and professional skill. Un- der the guidance of his father Reuben prepared himself to receive the full benefits of medical study in the University of Pennsylvania. At the close of his third course of lectures he was graduated in that institution in March, 1852. In the following autumn he removed to Chicago, where from that time he has been so exclusively occupicd by his duties that in twenty years he has been absent from his post but twenty-five days. He early espoused the cause of homœopathy-giving in his adhesion to the system one year after his graduation. When the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago was organized in 1859 he was elected to the chair of Physiology, Pathology and Clinical Medicine. He filled this responsible position for four years to the entire satisfaction of the institution and the students. He was trans- ferred to the chair of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children, which he still holds. Aside from qualifica- tions in the minute and thorough acquaintance with his sub- ject as a teacher, Dr. Ludlam is distinguished for the sin- gular perspicuity of his thoughts, the ease with which he elucidates his points, and the force with which he impresscs them on the minds of his students. His lectures are purely

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extemporaneous-no notes being before him-and are re- markable for their systematic and practical character. During several years Dr. Ludlam was an associate editor of the North American Homeopathic Quarterly, published in New York. For seven years he has been and still is in charge of the obstetrical department of the United States Medical and Surgical Journal, an able quarterly pub- lished in Chicago. In March, 1863, he published the first medical work ever written and published in the Northwest, consisting of "A Course of Clinical Lectures on Diph- theria," which attained great popularity. His specialty in his profession is that of the diseases of women and children, in which he has made a high reputation. His private and consulting practice is very extensive. IIe has the charge of the women's department of the Scammon Hospital. He has recently given to the public a work entitled " Clinical and Didactic Lectures on the Diseases of Women," which is used in all the homœopathic colleges as a recognized authority both in this country and in Europe. In 1868 hc was appointed to the professional charge of the Homœo- pathic Infirmary for Women, in New York city; and in 1870 was unanimously elected to the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the New York Homoeopathic Medical College. Both of these appoint- ments he was constrained to decline, finding it difficult to relinquish a field of labor in which he had won a com- manding position. In 1869 he was chosen President of the American Institute of Homœopathy, at its session in Bos- ton, on which occasion he delivered the annual address. Ile subsequently served the society as its general Secretary. He was the first President of the Chicago Academy of Medicine, and is an honorary member of several domestic and foreign learned societies. During the year that fol- lowed the great fire of Chicago he was the representative member of the homoeopathic school in the Medical Board of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, having in charge the health of sixty thousand sufferers by that terrible calamity. In this capacity he did much to allay the bitter- ness of partisanship and to bring about a proper state of feeling among all classes and schools of physicians, who, however differing in their modes of practice, are all labor- ing for the common good.

IBBARD, REV. JOHN RANDOLPH, was born about the year 1815. His father and grandfather, besides two paternal and one maternal uncles, were also clergymen. Ile was educated in the Presbyterian Church, and while yet a minor bc- came a minister of the United Brethren Church, travelling their circuits and preaching often from twenty to thirty sermons in a month. It was while travelling as a minister of this church that he first met with the writings of the New Church, and having received the doctrines

taught therein he became a member of the New Church in 1839, at the age of twenty-four years, and in June of that year was ordained a minister at the Western Convention, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since that period his whole life has becn steadfastly devoted to teaching. He primarily taught a school in Rutland, Meigs county, Ohio, preaching in the meantime as opportunities presented themselves. In 1841 he removed to northern Ohio, and, May 30th, 1842, was ordained as a pastor and missionary also, at a convention in Cincinnati. Attracted by one of his sermons, published in the Precursor, a New Church periodical published in Ohio, the members of the New Church in Illinois formed an association and invited him to visit this State, proposing that he should remain permanently with them, if, upon ac- quaintance, his ministry proved agreeable to both parties and likely to be useful to the church. He accepted the invitation, made a missionary visit in 1843, and in the following year removed to Illinois to reside, making his home principally in Canton and Peoria, but preaching in various other places in the State. The results of his labors soon manifested themselves in the formation of a Pcoria society and a more general reception of the doctrines of the church of which he was a teacher. At the General Con- vention in New York, in June, 1847, at the request of the Illinois Association, he was made an ordaining minister ; and in 1849 he camc to Chicago and made this place his permanent home, becoming the pastor of that society which, under his ministry, has grown to be one of the most prosperous socicties of the New Church in the world. He came to Illinois as a minister for the whole New Church in the State, and has always been recognized as its general or superintending minister within the Illinois Association. His superintending dutics have, on invitation, been ex- tended more or less to Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minne- sota, Michigan and Indiana; for, though claiming no authority beyond the bounds of the Illinois Association, he has deemed it his duty to help the brethren in neighboring States as far as they desired and his ability would permit. There are now active societies of the New Church in Canton, Peoria, Chicago and Henry, and smaller ones in several other places, which are greatly indebted to the services rendered by this efficient and zealous worker in the New Jerusalem field. IIe has been Vice-President of the General Convention, and has always taken an energetic and influential part in its proceedings. Through his efforts the liturgy has been much improved, and he has been greatly instrumental in the establishment of the New Church newspaper, The New Jerusalem Messenger, and the New Church Publishing House in New York. " The gospel to him is found in the doctrines of the New Church. They come down into his mind as a revelation from heaven, explained through the rational mind of Emanuel Swedenborg. He regards Swedenborg as authority, and has no patience with those who would amend his writings. While teaching that nothing can do a man any good except

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what he receives freely and understands rationally, yet he insists at all times that the word of God and the writings of Swedenborg are the only sources of authority in religion in the New Church." During the winter, or the lecturing season, he preaches twice a day, morning and evening ; when at home, in the Temple, and in the afternoon in the Free Church. While occupied in missionary trips to the country he has at times a student who fills his pulpit during his temporary absence.

ORE, JOHN C., Educator, Merchant and Presi- dent of the Commercial Insurance Company of Chicago, was born in Ossipee, New Hampshire, on the paternal homestead, March 22d, 1822. His parents, Ezekiel Dore, a substantial farmer, and Abigail Dore, were descendants of the old Puritan stock. His early years were spent in hard labor, his educational advantages being very limited. At the age of thirteen he was sent to school, and progressed so rapidly in his studies that before he had attained his seventeenth year he was pronounced capable of teaching district school. After years of arduous application to his books he entered Dartmouth College, where he soon became noted for his studious habits, and rapidly won for himself the unusual distinction of being equally perfect in all the portions of the curriculum, graduating with high honor in 1847. He then rcmoved to Boston, where he engaged in teaching for several years, securing finally the position of Principal of the Boylston School, which under his regime became the embodiment of method, and was often cited as a model. His fame reaching Chicago, then occupied in evolving order out of the chaos of independent tuition, the office of Superintendent of Public Schools of the City of Chicago was created, in November, 1853, and he was invited by the Board of School Inspectors to fill the position. Accepting the offer he at once removed to Illinois and entered on the duties of his office. Ile found here seven public schools, with three or four thousand pupils, while at least twice that number of children of suitable school age were without any means of instruction. There was an entire absence of a fitting plan of operation, or a complete and systematic method. He then applied himself energetieally to the work of reconstruction ; made a personal examination of the pupils ; and on the results of this inquiry based a system of classification similar to that used in the Boston schools. The value of that elassification was soon made manifest in the increased efficiency of the teachers and the more rapid advancement of the scholars. His appointment was among the last important acts of the Board of School Inspectors, for soon after his arrival in the city it was superseded by the Board of Education, which has since governed the schools, subject only to the Common Council in pecuniary matters. On consultation with the superintendent, the

Board decided to add to the number of schools and also to build a High School, the erection of which was commenced the following year. The plans of general arrangement for this and the Foster, Brown, Moseley and one or two others, were furnished by him. The High School was intended to comprise three departments-the English High, the Nor- mal and the Classical; and at that early day a Model School was projected in connection with the Normal De- partment for the more thorough preparation of teachers for their work. After two years of incessant and efficient labor he resigned his position, leaving, in the place of the con- fusion he had found, an enlarged, systematized, graded and competitive organization, an admirable solution of the great educational problem. He then engaged in mercantile pur- suits, in the lumber business, and has since been known as a large operator in this material, and one of the most prominent members of the Board of Trade. In 1866 he was elected President of that Board, and for several years past has been the President also of the Commercial Insur- ance Company. As a member of the Board of Under- writers he has won special distinction for his ability in the management of difficult questions and the unvarying recti- tude of his course. Shortly after relinquishing his position as Superintendent of Public Schools he was chosen a member of the Board of Education, and served in that capacity for four or five years, and during one year was President of the Board. One of the finest school-houses in Chicago now bears his name. He was married in 1850 to Annie B. Morton, daughter of Dr. Alvah Morton, a leading physician of Ossipee, New Hampshire.

WENS, JOHN E., M. D., son of John and Martha J. (Black) Owens, was born in Cecil county, Maryland, on October 14th, 1838. He received his general education at the schools near home and in Baltimore. In the year 1858 he com- menccd the study of medicine with Drs. J. and Thomas D. Dunott, practitioners in Elkton, Maryland, re- maining with them about two years. In 1860 he entercd the Jefferson Medical College, graduating in the spring of 1862, after which he received an appointment in Blockley Hospital for one year. During the spring of 1863 he moved to Chicago, and until 1864 acted as Surgeon in the Military Hospital, when he began a general practice, con- fining himself principally to surgery. For the past six years he has been engaged as Surgeon for the Illinois Central Railroad, and is at present Attending Surgeon to St. Luke's Hospital, of Chicago. He contributes articles to medical publications, chiefly on the science of surgery. In the fall of 1872 he was elected to lecture on Surgery at Rush Medical College, of Chicago, during the spring course, having formerly leetured in the same course on the Diseases of the Urinary Organs. He is a rising man, en-

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joying an excellent reputation, particularly as a surgeon. [ in delicate health and often confined to his bed. In 1849 He was married in 1869 to Sophia Jamor, of Maryland.

WETT, LEONARD, Lawyer, was born on August 11th, 1825, in the town of Turner, Oxford county, Maine. His father was a farmer in comfortable circumstances, and gave him the benefit of a liberal education. Until he was twelve years old he worked upon the farm, which was situated in a wild mountainous region, and in the winter attended the public school in the neighborhood. About this time he commenced the study of Latin and Greek, walking to Turner Village, a distance of three miles, through the snow and reciting his lessons to Rev. Thomas R. Curtis, a Baptist clergyman there. At fifteen he commenced a preparatory course at North Yarmouth Academy, and at seventeen entered Waterville Collegc. This institution he left at the commencement of the senior year, and entered the law office of Howard & Shipley, at Portland, Maine, where he remained as a law student for two years. At the expiration of this time he started for the South, with the intention of commencing the practice of his profession there. At that time the Mexican war was in progress, and after visiting the Gulf States and passing up the Mississippi, he entered the service as a private soldier in the 5th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers and started for Mexico. Ile was upon the line of Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico, and served in the capacity of Orderly Sergeant, but practically in command, of a com- pany, the commissioned officers having been incapacitated by wounds and sickness, and his command continued by sufferance. Here, after passing through all the phases and stages of a soldier's life, except death, he was taken sick at Vera Cruz, in May, 1848, and remained in the hospital on the main plaza of the city for five weeks, when the war closed. In June, 1848, he was brought to New Orleans on board the sail vessel " Robert Morris," in company with one hundred and twenty-six sick soldiers. The vessel was without a surgeon or proper medicines and had only four days' rations. Shortly after leaving Vera Cruz it became becalmed in the Gulf, was out thirteen days. During this passage, which was one of suffering and deprivation, about one-quarter of the soldiers died. From New Orleans they were taken immediately to Jefferson Barracks, four miles below St. Louis, where Mr. Swett, after a month's deten- tion by reason of sickness, was discharged and started on his journey back to Maine. At Peoria he had a relapse, and after some two weeks confinement his physician ad- vised him to go back from the river, and in July, 1848, he arrived at Bloomington, which thereafter, until his removal to Chicago, became his home. The disease thus contracted clung to him for ten years, and during that time he was

Mr. Swett commenced the practice of the law. During his residence at Bloomington lie was connected with many prominent cases, and became widely known throughout the State for his ability and success as an advocate. He practised on the same circuit with Stephen T. Logan, Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart, V. F. Linder, Edward D. Baker, Edward Hannegan, and other prominent lawyers of that day, and while being trained in that school was recognized as one of the leaders. Ile also took an active part in the politics of the time. In 1852 he canvassed the Third Congressional District as Whig elector; and upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise united in the forma- tion of the Republican party. In the great cause of re- sisting the aggressions of slavery, he canvassed the State, partially in 1854, and generally in 1856, 1858, and 1860, in the capacity of Congressional elector, or elector at large. The Eighth Circuit was presided over by Judge David Davis, and Mr. Lincoln was the most prominent character among the lawyers who practised there. This caused Mr. Swett to unite in their infancy in those efforts which re- sulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. Before his name became public in connection with the nomination, Mr. Swett conducted a correspondence on the subject with prominent men of the country; and took a conspicuous part in the combinations in the Chicago Con- vention which gave him the nomination. During the war he was most of the time in Washington, and sustained towards Mr. Lincoln relations of the closest intimacy and friendship. He held no office, although a mission to Peru and others were tendered him. During this period he was intrusted from time to time with the most delicate and important confidential missions. For instance, when General Fremont set up in Missouri a sort of independency and proclaimed that he was on the eve of a great battle near Lexington, Mr. Lincoln gave Mr. Swett the order for his removal, with powers discretionary and dependent upon certain facts, as to whether or not to deliver it. In 1865 Mr. Swett removed to Chicago, having previously formed a law partnership with Judge Van HI. Iliggins and Colonel D. Quigg, and this association continued for several years. ITis previous reputation and ability brought him at once into prominence and insured him a lucrative practice. Since Judge Higgins retired, Mr. Swett has practiscd alone, and has been retained in the most prominent criminal and civil cases which have arisen, and is unquestionably at this time one of the most prominent members of the Chicago bar. IIe devotes himself almost exclusively to his profession; and while his comprehensive and well- trained mind, and enlarged experience and knowledge of men fit him for doing any work ably, it is as an advocate that he is most conspicuous. He is a clear reasoner, and applies to every subject strong, logical powers. His mind is eminently analytical. In the argument of a point of

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 105

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