The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 115

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

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but at that time concluded that his path lay more clearly and rightfully with the itincrancy than with the university. On being called a second time to the post, however, he de- cided to accept it, and has continued up to the present time (1875) to discharge its functions with his usual zeal and ability. Since his incumbency the number of students at the university has increased threc-fold-in 1874 the attend- ance was 1035, at present it is about 1200-and he has added to the institution the Colleges of Technology, of Literature, of Art and of Law, and also a Woman's Collegc. It is now the largest and wealthiest university of the denomi- nation, and is the most extensive church college in the United States ; while its head possesses so thorough an in- fluence over the students that, when he lectures on logic, mental and moral science, they would miss the midday meal rather than losc a sentence of his discourse. After the great fire in Chicago in 1871 he held the position of Senior Pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Communion, and in this capacity had the general superintendence of the churches in the city. With his usual energy he took a very active part in the raising of funds for the rebuilding of the church edifices after that memorable disaster, and in the city of Philadelphia alone secured for the purpose, chiefly by his own exertions, the sum of forty thousand dollars. The fund thus obtained was the means of retaining the Garrett Biblical Institute in the hands of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While the Chicago relief movements were in operation he declined to go on committees, but he was really a leader in nearly every important effort. Although still a young man, he holds a high position in his denomination, and his future career seems destined to be eminently useful and brilliant. IIe is greatly in demand among the people of his communion, and has received invitations to the pastorates of the greater portion of the leading churches of the Methodist Episcopal sect. He was the youngest white delegate to the General Conference in Brooklyn, New York, and on this occasion received nearly enough votes to elect him to the Episcopate. He was put forward by many leading men as a candidate for the Bishopric, and nothing but his youth defeated the movement. He was also one of three delegates to the Methodist Episcopal Church South on "Fraternity," the others being Dr. Albert S. Hunt and General Clinton B. Fisk. As an author his most pretentious work is his answer to Dr. Colenso's book, which became very popular and had an extensive sale. It is a brightly written, logical produc- tion, and exhibits an unusual amount of learning and general argumentative ability. He is also widely known as a writer on miscellaneous subjects. He was married, May 25th, 1863, to Esther Ann Warner, of Lawrenceville, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, who died in August, 1866. She was his classmate in the Genesee College, and was a woman of extraordinary talent and learned acquirement, being a proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and German. He was again married, October 7th, 1868, to Mira A. Hitch- cock, daughter of Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, the senior agent of

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the Western Methodist Book Company. He has two chil- | trial, and delivered before a crowded audience in Chicago. dren, a son and a daughter, and is also the father by adop- tion of two other children, a boy and a girl.

He became in demand all over the land for lecture engage- ments, and was urged to lecture in Boston by Charles Sum- ner, but declined the invitations to attend to the claims of his professional duties. Ile is an avowed Infidel, and his work, " The Gods," attracted wide notice and the general criticism of the religious press East and West. He stands among the foremost men of Illinois, marked by great legal talent, forensic skill and rhetorical finish ; versed in nearly every department of science, highly cultivated in literary taste, abstemious in personal habits, rarely gifted in conver- sational powers, and enjoying the high regard of his fellow- citizens. He was offered a Generalship during the war, but would not accept a position and responsibility for which he had not an adequate military education. He was married in 1872 to Eva Parker, of Groveland, Illinois, by whom he has two daughters.

NGERSOLL, COLONEL ROBERT G., Lawyer, was born in New York city in 1833. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, at that time preach- ing there ; afterward he settled near Oberlin, Ohio ; again in Wisconsin, and later in Williamson county, Illinois. Robert G., who during these family changes had enjoyed but imperfect educational advantages, here began to study law, and was admitted to the bar of the State before he became of age. He opened a law practice in Marion, Illinois, and within a year was a candidate for the office of District Attorney, and soon after for Congress, though unsuccessful. After a practice here of three years he removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he resumed his pro- fession, in partnership with his brother, Hon. E. C. Inger- soll, for six years member of Congress from the Fifth Dis- ULLOM, HON. SHELBY M., Lawyer, was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, November 22d, 1829. His father removed with him, when scarcely a year old, to Tazewell county, Illinois. Until he had attained his nineteenth year he was engaged in working on the paternal farm in sum- mer, and in the winter months attended a neighboring school. During ten months of this time he was employed also in teaching school. He then left home, and became a student at the Mount Morris University, but at the close of his second year there was obliged to leave on account of his health. Returning to his home he remained there until his energies were recruited, when he entered the office of Stewart & Edwards, at Springfield, Illinois, and commenced the study of law. He was in a short time admitted to prac- tise, and was immediately elected City Attorney, which office he held for one year. In the ensuing Presidential campaign of 1856 he was placed on the electoral ticket for Fillmore ; and also nominated for the State Legislature by the Fillmore and Fremont parties, uniting, and was elected. At the meeting of the Legislature he was voted for by the Fillmore adherents for Speaker of the House. In 1860 he was again clected to the Legislature from Sangamon county, and was then ehosen to fill the office of Speaker. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln on a commission with Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts, and Charles A. Dana, afterward Assistant Secretary of War, to proceed to Cairo, Illinois, for the purpose of examining into the ac- counts and transactions of quartermasters and commissary officers, and pass upon claims allowed by them against the government. He was afterward a candidate for the State Scnate, and for a seat in the Constitutional Convention, in a Democratie district, and was defeated. In 1864 he was nominated by the Union party of his district for Congress ; and although the district at the last previous election had trict of Illinois. He was engaged mainly in criminal cases, in which he acquired an extensive practice and high repu- tation. As a Douglas Democrat and a political speaker on the issues of those days he became widely known as an able and finished orator. At the breaking out of the rebellion he organized several regiments, of one of which, the 12th Illinois Cavalry, he became Colonel, accompanying it into the service. He was engaged in the battle of Corinth, where he was made a prisoner, and exchanged ; and was in several other engagements. After a service of two and a half years he resigned from ill-health, returned home and resumed his profession at Peoria, engaging mainly in civil practice. In this also he attained a wide practice and distinguished suc- cess. Ile became Attorney-General of the State of Illinois in 1867, and was also at one time a candidate for the Gov- ernorship. He again entered the field as a political speaker in the Presidential contest of 1868; and Senator Fessenden, who heard him repeatedly, pronounced him " the most ac- complished and fertile speaker he had ever heard." His prac- tice has more recently been turned especially to railroad law, in which he is unquestionably one of the ablest practitioners in the country, enjoying an immense and lucrative business. No lawyer in the State, out of Chicago, and but few in that city, has as large a practice in that department. His brother at length retired from the firm, which underwent various changes. He at one time associated with himself Judge Sabin D. Pulutaugh, afterward Eugene McCune, and then Captain George Pulutaugh. The firm-style is at present, Ingersoll & Pulutaugh-Colonel Ingersoll and Captain Pulutaugh. Colonel Ingersoll has also engaged in the field of literature and of public lectures, and has published a book, " The Gods," containing a lecture on the gods ; one delivered at Peoria at the Humboldt centennial ; another de- livered at Thomas Paine's anniversary ; and still another on " Heretics and Heresies," suggested by the Patton-Swing | been Democratic by about fifteen hundred majority, yet he

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was elected by a majority of seventeen hundred, thus de- | being Major-General Bartlett, at one time minister to feating HIon. John Stewart, with whom he had read law. ITis first speech in Congress was in answer to Mr. IIarding, of Kentucky, who had spoken bitterly against the Union party of the country, and, among other things, had said that " It was time a little posting was donc." The following is a short extract from that speech : "Sir, we are willing that the items of the account shall be called over, the long col- umns added together, a balance sheet struck, so that the people may see at a glance how the matter stands. And may I call upon the loyal people to hold to strict accounta- bility the party who is the debtor, as appears from a posting since the beginning of the accursed rebellion. . . . And as we proceed in the performance of our responsible duties, let us stand by that old maxim, 'Let justice be done though the heavens shall fall.'" IIe was renominated by the Union party of his district in 1363, and was elected by more than double his first majority. In the deliberations and doings of this, the Fortieth Congress, he took an active and prom- inent part. On one occasion, in participating in a discussion on a measure for the protection of American citizens abroad, he said : " To-day there are about two million people in our country from the German States, and about the same num- ber from Ireland, that land of persecution. During the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1336, there were 330,705 emigrants came to this country ; and during the last fiscal year ending Jane 30th, 1357, there were 310, 114. . . . And as they come full of hope and courage, they expect soon to gather beneath the protecting branches of the tree of liberty and enjoy the blessings of a free government. Shall this nation, as in days past, still say, Come? Shall our consuls and emigrant agents abroad still continue to point out to those oppressed millions the advantages and glories of this country, its lands, its institutions, its government ? Shall we con- tinue our naturalization laws upon our statute books ? Shall we invite men-honest men -- to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and renounce all alle- giance to the sovereign over the land of their nativity ? Sir, the answer to these questions depends upon the action of the government in protecting or failing to protect its people. Our duty is plain, sir. It is to declare the position of the American government, and see that the government stands by and maintains that position, in the protection of the rights of naturalized citizens whom we have invited to our shores, and who have sworn allegiance to our country," etc.

ARTLETT, REV. WILLIAM ALVIN, D. D., was born in Binghamton, New York, December 4th, 1832. Ilis father was Joseph Bartlett, a farmer, sheriff, canal commissioner, and other- wise in public life. His mother's name was Deborah Cafferty. He was the oldest of a family of ten children, including nine brothers, the next younger

Sweden. IIe attended the common school and academy, and then entered IIamilton College, and, after some diffi- culty, which resulted in his " rusticating " for a while at Cazenovia Seminary, which institution in later years re- quested him, as an alumnus, to deliver an address at its fiftieth anniversary, he finally graduated from Hamilton College in 1852, at the age of nineteen, with high honor, taking the valedictory, though the youngest and smallest in his class. He next went to Staunton, Virginia, and taught languages for a short time. IIe had already studied law at college, and was ready for admittance to the bar, but turned aside from this vocation to the ministry, and entered Union Theological Seminary, of New York, where he continued for two years, and then went abroad to complete his studies under Tholuck and other great teachers at the Universities of IIeidelberg, Berlin and Halle, matriculating at the latter at the end of two years. Ile then returned, and, though merely licensed, began preaching to a church at Owego, New York, where he remained about one year, and was regularly or- dained. In 1353 he became pastor of the Elm Place Con- gregational Church, of Brooklyn, New York, where he en- tered upon the career which has made him a distinguished preacher and pastor. The First Brooklyn Tabernacle was built for him, with a scating capacity of two thousand, and was well filled. This resulted in building the Elm Place Church, of which he continued pastor for over ten years. It was a large and prosperous church, with a mutual attach - ment of pastor and people ; and here he expected to do his life-work. But a young friend and relative, Rev. Lewis E. Matson, had been called to the Plymouth Church of . Chicago, and Dr. Bartlett was invited to preach the dedica- tion sermon. After Mr. Matson's death Dr. Bartlett ac- companied his remains on their return to Chicago, delivered the funeral address, and supplied the pulpit a few Sabbaths, while visiting in the vicinity. From these circumstances grew his call to the Plymouth Church of Chicago, of which he is now pastor. He received an immediate call from them, to his great surprise, which he at once declined, as being permanently and happily settled, as it seemed, for life, at Brooklyn ; having indeed just built a new residence there. But the call was repeated and pressed so urgently that he at length resigned, accepted the new field, and removed to Chicago in 1869. He had in these years, in common with others of his Brooklyn compeers, acquired celebrity and a handsome income outside of his parish duties in the lecture field, where he was equally popular. After the great fire of Chicago Plymouth edifice was sold, and the congregation moved farther south, uniting in worship with the South Congregational Church; these were afterward merged in one organization, and a new Plymouth Church was built, a remarkably fine stone edifice, with the most complete ap- pointments, modelled on a new and unique plan, the result of the study and planning of himself and his wife, an artist, Charlotte A. Flanders, of Milwaukee, to whom he was

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married in 1859. It is the largest church auditorium in the city, seating two thousand people. His health being some- what impaired, he went abroad with his wife, to remain during the building of the new church, having laid its corner stone two days before their departure. After revisit- ing the old professors and the familiar scenes of his student life, they reached Berne, Switzerland, where his wife, a woman of the most robust health, was stricken down with heart disease, and died within four days, September 12th, IS74. He returned with her remains, and resumed his labors. The new church was dedicated, July 4th, IS75. Here, as in Brooklyn, he is a man of recognized power and ability, and equally endeared to his people.

LANCHARD, JONATHAN, President of Whea- ton College, was born in Rockingham, Vermont, January 19th, ISII. Brought up on those rugged hills on a farm, one of a large family, he was early inured to labor, and obtained the rudiments of an English education at the district school, one mile from his home, to which in winter he waded through drifts of snow or wintry storm, unmindful of wind or weather, so eager was he in the pursuit of knowledge. He obtained his academical education at the Chester Academy, and also enjoyed advantages of private tuition in the classics, under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Burnap, after- wards of Lowell, Massachusetts. He entered Middlebury College in 182S. Close application to study, with irregular and insufficient exercise, injured a naturally fine constitu- tion and clouded the commencement of liis student life. Ilis finances were low, but, though among strangers, nothing daunted, he worked his way through with success. In college he developed poetical talent of a high order. After graduation, in 1831, he was appointed Preceptor of Plattsburg (New York) Academy, where he taught success- fully two years. All through his course after his conversion to God, when sixteen years old, he labored as opportunity offered in Sunday-schools and in school-house meetings, as well as in what were known then as three-days meetings ; also in helping in the temperance work by exhortations and addresses, and his services were highly appreciated in many places. Feeling called to the work of preaching the gospel, he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, and studied there, in the days of Professors Stuart and Woods, two years. While in this seminary, agitation on the slave question was aroused by the lectures of George Thompson, and young Blanchard's interest being awakened, on looking into the subject he discovered, as he says, " that the American churches, Andover included, were chloroformed by the slave power," and he decided that he must either quit the ministry or crouch and whine before slave masters, unless he were bold enough to fight

for his convictions. His own words are : " I had no par- ticular taste for counterfeiting money for a living, but I would much sooner have attempted it than make a counter- feit of religion, by standing at the communion table with slavery shouldering in loving fellowship by my side. I saw, too, that many of the Abolitionists were dropping Christ and the Bible, and grappling with the mightiest human evil, with nothing but humanity to lean or look to for help." Impressed that he had a duty to God and his country to perform in resisting that giant wrong, he left the seminary and went to New York city, where Arthur and Louis Tappan, with other kindred spirits, sent forth with their advice and blessing the never-to-be-forgotten band cf seventy Abolition lecturers, who with the faith of apostles and zeal of martyrs went forth to revive the doctrine of the Revolutionary fathers, that " God had created all men free and equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- piness." Blanchard was one of that band, and the field assigned him was Pennsylvania. In spite of mob violence; in spite of the coldness of professed friends, and the open and bitter violence of sworn enemies, an overruling Provi- dence protected him, in some instances in a most remark- able manner, and he pressed his way through county after county, rousing attention by lectures, getting the Eman- cipator and other Anti-slavery papers into circulation, scattering the seed in tracts, some of them illustrated with touching pictures of the miseries of the slave and the cruelties incident to American slaveholding. His labors culminated in an Abolition convention, called in Harris- burg, and attended by such men as Thaddeus Stevens, Julius Le Moyne, Andrew Graydon, James Wier, Samuel Cross, the historian Grimshaw, the sainted Lunely, Louis Tappan and others, from Pennsylvania and New York, and the meeting was a success and wonderfully helped on the cause of freedom in the Keystone State. Thaddeus Stevens was much interested in Mr. Blanchard's labors; at one time, after talking a while, he said to him, " You must need money in this work," took out his wallet and, self-moved, handed him ninety dollars. Mr. Blanchard revered Stevens always, and visited and prayed with him on his death-bcd. Mr. Blanchard held two public debates during the ycar with opponents of Abolition, one in Washington, Penn- sylvania, and the other in Pittsburgh, both able efforts. Closing that work, Lane Seminary, then a rising institution, with Lyman Beecher at its head, attracted Mr. Blanchard to its halls to complete his course in theology. Frce thought and free speech were then the order of the day there (after some of the choicest spirits had been driven away by attempted gag-law), and well was the privilege improved, and that school of the prophets was for a time a hot-bed of Abolition principles. John G. Fee there had his eyes opened, under Mr. Blanchard's teaching, to the crime of slaveholding, and with the loss of all things washed his hands from all connection with that sin. While a student

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in the seminary Mr. Blanchard received a call from Cincin- nati to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church on Sixth street near Main. He was married in Middlebury, Ver- mont, September 17th, 1838, to Mary A. Bent, a native of that place, and in two weeks ordained over the above- named church, where he remained until 1846. The church was torn by internal dissensions and in debt when he took charge of it; but by the blessing of God over four hundred members were received into its bosom under his labors, the church building was refitted, the debt paid entirely, and a united and affectionate people mourned his departure as that of a father and a friend. Kind to himself and family as kind could be, the separation was painful. But he was " apt to teach," and always felt that he should be connected with some literary institution where lasting impressions for good might be made on the minds of the young and rising generation. While pastor in Cincinnati, in the spring of 1843, Mr. Blanchard was, at Mr. Tappan's suggestion, seconded by such men as S.ilmon P. Chase, Dr. G. Bailey, Harvey Hall and others, appointed a delegate to the Second World's Anti-slavery Convention in London, which he attended, and of which he was chosen American Vice- President. He also took an active part in the World's Peace Convention, held about the same time in the same city. While in London and vicinity, where he formed many interesting acquaintances, he met the President of Knox College, Illinois, and through him became interested in that institution, little dreaming he should so soon be at its head. Mr. Blanchard was thirty-five years old when, with his wife and two children, after the close of the debate against slaveholding with Dr. N. L. Rice, and cheered by a wonderful revolution in that great city on the whole question of human rights, a river steamer borc him and his family from the scene of labors, trials and joys almost un- equalled, towards the West, to the wide green prairies of Illinois, to undertake the Presidency of Knox College, to which he had been elected. Stopping Saturday evening to spend the Sabbath at Cape Girardeau, they were frozen in and detained several weeks; but after a tedious journey of six weeks the desired haven was gained. As President of this young college for fourteen years, rising from a state in which college orders could not command more than seventy-five cents on a dollar to a handsome property, at its close, of near half a million, the mind to understand must have witnessed the untiring industry, the prayer, the faith and Christian zeal which, with God's blessing, worked out such wondrous results; in the face, too, of the opposition of " the world, the flesh and the devil." Fourtecn classes of ladies and gentlemen completed their course under his Presidency, many of whom now fill posts of high honor and usefulness. President Blanchard was sustained in his work in Galesburg by ardent friends there, whose work and labor of love will ever be held by him in hallowed re- membrance; and of those abroad J. P. Williston, Esq., of Northampton, Massachusetts, who gave unsparingly be-

cause he believed in the principles of the college, and Judge Phelps of Vermont, a family connection and friend, deserve special mention in this outline. God raised them up to sustain his truth and his cause in dark and trying times, and most nobly did those brave men fulfil their mission and ministry of love and duty. Religious differ- ences, aggravated by designing men, between the Congre. gationalists and Presbyterians, led President Blanchard to resign the Presidency of the college, but by unanimous request he continued to act as President another year, and then was called to become pastor of the oldest and largest church of the then city of Galesburg. But the Lord seemcd to call him away to another field. Just before the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, Wheaton College, an insti- tution founded in prayer by the Wesleyans, earnestly called him to be its President. That college stood pledged against slavery, against all the secret orders as well, of which Mr. Blanchard had been through all his course the decided opponent. It has prospered the fifteen years he has been at its head, " by the support of God and good men," and a most interesting community cluster in anel around it. The college buildings, finely situated, possess massive architectural beauty. They were planned and completed, as were tho e at Galesburg, under his oversight and guidance. The President i; also connected with the oldest and most widely circulated Anti-secresy paper in the land, The Christian Cynosure, which circulates from Maine in the east to California in the west, and from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south. It is accomplishing its object. The number of seceding Masons is rapidly in- creasing. President Blanchard is now, at sixty-four years of age, in the enjoyment of vigorous health, though some- times impaired by overwork. Of a family of twelve chil- dren eight survive, five of whom are happily married, and ten grandchildren live to fulfil the promise and cheer the paternal mansion with their childish glee and infantile prattle. Whatever opposition President Blanchard has en- countered abroad, for his reform views, he has always had the comfort of a checrful and hearty co-operation at his own home, which is more than many reformers enjoy. His eldest son already bears aloft the banner the father has so ably lifted to the breeze, and with others of the family form a band of efficient workers in the cause of God. In sum- ming of President Blanchard's record, we find him to have been a good student, a devoted Christian minister, an edu- cator of a high order, an almost endless writer for the press, a powerful leader in several legitimate reforms and a friend and advocate of all true reforms; a public speaker whose utterances on important occasions East and West are familiar to multitudes, and many of them have been pub- lished to the world. Like the rest of humanity, compassed about with infirmity, not considering himself to have al- ready attained perfection, he is still pressing on toward the mark for the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 115

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