The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 12

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

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this was acted upon by him. He purchased the entire tracts of land embraced in the several claims and conveyed the separate parcels to the owners, thereby saving mueb trouble and costly litigation. Immediately after his retire- ment from business he made the tour of Europe, visiting the principal cities of Great Britain and the Continent, and returned home much benefited by the trip. Sinee his resi- dence in Elgin he has been prominent in public affairs, and still holds many positions of honor and trust; among others he is Alderman of the Second Ward ; Vice-President of the Home National Bank; President of the Public Library of Elgin, and was one of the originators and founders of that institution. IIe is also one of the Trustees of the Chieago University, and also of the Theological Seminary in the same eity. IIe has taken an energetic part in political movements, first as an old-line Whig, and latterly as a Republican, laboring earnestly to promote the success and advancement of that organization. Financially he has been one of the most successful merchants in the North- west. He owns considerable real estate in Elgin and vieinity, and has recently ereeted a handsome residenee on the east side of the city at a cost of $20,000. He was mar- ried, in December, 1844, to Mary A., daughter of Dr. Root, of Elgin, and has three sons and one daughter.

ILLSBURY, HON. NATHANIEL JOY, Lawyer and Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Cireuit of Illinois, was born, October 21st, 1834, in York county, Maine. His parents were in moderate circumstances. The facilities for obtaining an education in that seetion were then very meagre, being limited to but four weeks in the year at the district school; but during some winters he obtained the privilege of attending other schools in adjoining districts, paying for the same as if it were a private school. In 1850 he was employed in the York corporation, a manufacturing com- pany at Saco, Maine, where he remained until the spring of 1855, when, broken in health by reason of hemorrhage of the lungs, he repaired to Illinois, hoping that by change of residence and another elimate he might recuperate his wasted strength. In 1858 hc removed to Livingston county, where he opened up a farm, on which he resided until April, 1863. He then entered the law office of Samuel S. Flem- mning, at Pontiac, the shire town of the county, as a law student, and made rapid progress in his reading, and was admitted to the bar after pursuing the usual course pre- seribed. He thereupon commeneed the practice of his pro- fession, in which he had a marked degrec of success. In IS69 lie was elected as one of the delegates from the Forty- fourth District-composed of the counties of Lasalle and Livingston-to the Constitutional Convention. In June, 1873, at the first election for judges under the new constitu-

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

tion, he was elected Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Cir- cuit of the State, composed of the counties of Livingston, Iroquois, and Kankakee, which position he yet retains. He is regarded by the community where he resides as a man of great legal ability and a most estimable citizen.

APEN, LUMAN W., Merchant and Bank Cashier, was born, September 13th, 1807, in Cayuga county, New York. When he was fourteen years old his parents removed to Western New York, at that period only on the borders of civilization, the country being very sparsely settled and many of the inhabitants Indians. Opportunities for education were meagre, but he was taught both by his mother and by the schools in session during the winter season. His father had been deprived of his eyesight several years before his son's birth, and to aid in the support of the family the latter taught school three winters before attaining his majority. In 1828 he went to Seneca Falls, New York, and was employed as a clerk in a dry-goods store, where he con- tinued eighteen months and then entered into business on his own account. About a year afterwards he removed to Union Springs, Cayuga county, and became junior member of the firm of Hoskins & Capen. In 1855, after having been nearly twenty-five years a member of that firm, he made a three months' tour of the West and Northwestern States and Territories, with a view of settling, and finally decided to locate at Bloomington, Illinois, where he has since resided. For one year he was engaged in farming, and afterwards became interested in the crockery and glassware business at Bloomington and Decatur, in connec- tion with his eldest son, most of the time importing their goods. In the spring of 1869 he disposed of his interest in these two establishments, and in the autumn of the same year became Cashier of the Phoenix Savings, Loan, and Trust Company's Bank, which position he still hoids. While a resident of New York State he joined the Presby- terian Church at Union Springs, and shortly afterwards was elected Ruling Elder and Treasurer, both of which offices he has held for many years. He has also been a delegate to sundry synods and presbyteries, and also has been several times a Commissioner to the General Assembly. During the existence of slavery he was an acting station agent of an " underground railroad " at Union Springs for several years. He was appointed during the rebellion, by the Common Council of Bloomington, almoner of the funds devoted to the relicf of soldiers' families and widows, and the duties consumed the greater part of his time. At the close of the war he received a public vote of thanks for his services. He was also intrusted with the distribution of the funds raised by the county for the same object. He has been at all times a most humane, generous, and useful citizen, ever active in promoting the welfare and happiness

of those needing sympathy and assistance. He was mar- ried in 1830 to Sibbel Hoskins, sister of his partner in business ; she died in 1842. He was a second time weddcd, in 1844, to Eliza Munger, of Auburn, New York.

EIRCE, HON. WILLIAM PALMER, Legislator .and Physician, of Le Mont, Cook county, was born in Villenova, Chautauqua county, New York, on March 25th, 1830. He was educated at the Academy, now State Normal School, at Fredonia, in the same county, and pursued the study of medicine and surgery with his father, the late Hon. Austin Peirce. He graduated in the University of New York city in the class of 1852, and in the fall of that year commenced practice at Coldwater, near Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he remained until 1856. Believing from the inten- sity of sectional feeling prevailing in the South by reason of the Kansas troubles, that he foresaw a great collision at arms in the near future, and being under an unpleasant espionage on account of his outspoken Union sentiments, he removed to Illinois, and settled at Lisbon in Kendall county. On the 18th of December, 1856, he was married to Mary HI. F. Rood, eldest daughter of Levi H. Rood, of Sheridan, La Salle county. On the breaking out of the rebellion Dr. Peirce at once commenced raising and drilling a company for the military service in defence of the Union, and on the 15th of July, 1861, enrolled it as Company D, 36th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He served in the capacity of Captain of his company until, in 1862, the necessity for a greater increase of the medical and surgical force of the service became so apparent and pressing that he felt it his duty to accept a detail as Assistant Surgeon of his regiment, and soon afterwards a promotion to the posi- tion of Surgeon of the 88th Illinois Infantry, more commonly known as the "Second Board of Trade Regiment." Through the partiality of his brigade commander, the late General William A. Lytle, and in defiance of the rule of seniority, he was selected as Brigade Surgeon, and was by the side of that brilliant and irrepressible soldier when he received his fatal wound on the bloody field of Chicka- mauga, September 20th, 1863. Dr. Peirce was then de- tailed for service on the Operating Board of the 2d Division 4th Army Corps, at the sanguinary engagements at Chatta- nooga, Missionary Ridge, and the campaign against At- lanta, and continued to act in that capacity, or as Brigade Surgeon of the Ist Brigade of that Division, until the close of the war. Although during his military service he was called upon, by reason of service in different capacities, to become accountable for large quantities of property, con- sisting of quartermasters' supplies, ordnance, tents, and camp equipages, hospital supplies and instruments, trans- portation for the sick and wounded, etc., etc., amounting in all to hundreds of thousands of dollars; yet so accurate

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

were his accounts that at the close of the war he was able | at Indiana Asbury University, Greencastle, Indiana, where in a few weeks to settle with the Auditor of the Treasury, he graduated in 1852. He accepted the offer of a position in the faculty of the Indiana Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, and entered upon its duties in October, 1852. In April, 1856, he was selected as Principal of the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, located at Jacksonville, and upon his arrival he found it disorganized by acrimonious controversy, its pupils scattered, its faculty broken, and the entire fabric under a heavy cloud of embarrassments. Out of this general wreck, by skill and undaunted labor, he re-erected the institution upon a sounder basis, secured ncw and better buildings, established a wholesome discipline, and adopted a course of study which was most adapted to the peculiar needs of the unfortunates for whose benefit the charity was intended. The State .now grants it a liberal support, and the last report of an examining committee of the Legislature was of the most favorable character, and flattering in its tribute to the talent and energy of its principal, whose efforts of pen and voice were directed towards arousing popular sympathy for the inmates of the institution. He was President of the International Sabbath-School Convention, which, in 1872, held its triennial meeting at Indianapolis, and was selected as a member of the International Committee, whose duty it is to designate a seven years' course of study in the Sacred Scriptures. In 1865 he succeeded in establishing by legis- lative aid an experimental school for the education of feeble- minded children, and became its superintendent. He has been an active Sabbath-School worker, and was one of a few gentlemen who secured the adoption of a general sys- tem of county associations of Sabbath-Schools. In 1871 his alma mater, Indiana Asbury College, conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D. He was married May 2d, 1854, to Ellen M. Phipps, daughter of Isaac Phipps, a prominent citizen of Indianapolis, and is the father of five children. and obtain his receipt in full for every article which had passed through his hands. In 1866 he was selected to represent his county in the State Legislature. IIis service in that capacity was characterized by faithfulness and in- flexible integrity. Two years subsequently the nomination was again pressed upon him and was sternly refused; but i- 1869 he was almost unanimously chosen as a delegate to the Convention of 1869-70, called to revise the State Consti- tution. In that memorable body his industry, faithfulness, and skill in debate soon gave him prominence, and many clauses and sections in that model instrument bear the impress of his genius. The questions relating to the power of municipalities to vote aid to corporations for the purpose of building railroads, were, after several weeks of angry debate, settled by him in a half hour's speech, and the Con- vention with great unanimity adopted, and the people subsequently ratified his separate clause upon that subject, now a part of the present State Constitution. His most remarkable public document was a report to that Conven- tion as Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, relating to the power of a State to limit or restrict, by con- stitutional provision or otherwise, the power of its Legisla- ture to act upon proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States. This question was discussed so clearly and logically in his paper as to call out commenda- tions from many of the best thinkers of the State. In 1870 he was elected a member of the State Senate, in which body he took a leading pert, serving on some of the mnost important committees, and was at once acknowledged as belonging in the front rank in that body. Dr. Peirce is First Vice-President of the Illinois State Medical Society, and was recently the Chairman of the Committee on Sur- gery. His report in that capacity, published in " The Transactions " for 1874, is a model of close and logical reasoning. Ile has also written with great clearness upon fractures and malpractice.

ILLETT, PHILIP GOODE, LL. D., Principal of the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, was born in Madison, Indiana, March 24th, 1833, his father being Samuel Trumbull Gillett. His mother's family were among the founders of the first settlements on the James river, Virginia. His father was early attached to the United States navy, and during his attachment to the Mediterranean squadron visited the Holy Land, where he received religious impressions which changed the tenor of his life. Ife resigned from the service and enrolled him- self as an itinerant of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for thirty-five years, up to the present time, has faithfully pursued this higher calling. Ilis son Philip was educated finally retired from active business life. During the Black

ANN, DANIEL, Surveyor of Customs at Galena, was born, April 3d, 1799, in Harford county, . Maryland, and is a son of John and Susannah (Reinhardt) Wann. His father was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. He received his educa- tion in the common schools, and in 1812 became a clerk in a country store. He subsequently went to Balti- more, where he was variously employed until 1821. In 1825 he was established in business there, having associ- ated himself with E. Litle as general merchants, which firm lasted for four years. After the dissolution of the co- partnership he removed to Galena, Illinois, where he embarked in a general mercantile business, and also com- menced mining and smelting : in the latter he was very extensively engaged. He continued his operations, being frequently engaged in various pursuits, until 1838, when he

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

IIawk War of 1831-32, he served in the militia. He was | a lawyer he is one of the most successful in the Northwest, chairman of the commission appointed by the government for surveying and adjusting titles to the town lots of Galena. He filled the office of Mayor of the city during 1842 and 1843. In 1853 he was appointed Surveyor of Customs for the port of Galena, and remains in that position, having been retained through all the different administrations.

and financially his career has been eminently prosperous. The present firm with which he is connected is regarded as the ablest in the county, and acts as counsel for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and also for the Elgin National Watch Company, in all cases in that section. The senior partner is an eloquent speaker, kindly in his feelings, courteous in all the relations of life, firm and gentle, just and honorable in his dealings, a ripe scholar, and an accomplished gentleman. He was married, in 1860, to Ellen Bundy, of St. Charles, and has two children.

OTSFORD, RICHARD NICHOLS, Lawyer and Judge, was born October 28th, 1830, in Newtown, Fairfield county, Connecticut, and is a son of Austin N. and Volucia (Glover) Botsford. When he was eleven years old his father died, and he GATES, ROSWELL WILDER, Real Estate Bro- ker, was born August 29th, 1834, in Antwerp, Jefferson county, State of New York, and is the eldest child of America and Caroline (Wilder) Gates, the former a native of New Hampshire, and the latter of Vermont. In 1838 the family removed to Aurora, Illinois, and there he was educated, but was obliged at the age of fourteen years to leave school on account of a severe attack of inflammation of the eyes, which rendered him almost totally blind for a period of six months. When sixteen years old he entered the dry-goods store of J. S. Hawley as a clerk; after remaining there about a year he effected an engagement with the firm of Anderson, Boutwell & Co., dry-goods and grocery merchants, as book-keeper and cashier, but owing to ill-health was obliged to change his business when he had been in their employ nearly twelve months. In the spring of 1856 he went to California, where he sojourned nearly three years, during a part of which time he was in the employ of the Pacific Express Company. On the failure of the company he turned his attention to the mining regions, but as this occupation and its concomitants did not agree with his taste he returned to Aurora in the autumn of 1858. During the two ensuing years he was occupied in settling the estate of his grandfather, the late Roswell Wilder, whose bio- graphical sketch appears elsewhere in this volumc. Subse- quently he took the agency, for Kane county, of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company, and was very success- ful in that business for eight years. In 1868 he retired from this employment and turned his attention to real estate transactions, combined with the study of law, and, although he has not been regularly admitted to the bar, he has made himself fully competent to plead a case. In his real estate operations he has been remarkably successful and accumu- lated a respectable competence. In 1860 he was elected Alderman of the second ward of Aurora, and held the posi- tion for four consecutive years. The "city " was then in its infancy, and much mental and physical labor devolved on the members of its municipal government, as well as a large amount of responsibility concerning the future welfare was thus deprived at an early age of his natural guide and protector. His preliminary studies were in the schools of his native town ; in 1845 he entered the Hobart Academy, at Hobart, New York, where he remained three years, and where by his close application to study he laid the foundation of that success which has attended him in latter years. He then returned to Connecticut, and subse- quently entered the State Normal School at New Britain to prepare himself for the profession of teacher; he passed two years in that institution, receiving a thorough training by the best faculty in the State. Having determined to make the Western country his field of action, he located at St. Charles, Kane county, Illinois, in 1851, and commenced his career by teaching in the public schools of that town. He subsequently taught in Missouri and elsewhere until 1856, when he began the study of the law with C. C. Cope, at Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. Hle then returned to St. Charles, where he pur- chased the printing-office there, and edited and published the St. Charles Argus for about a year. Subsequently he disposed of the concern, and opened a law-office in partner- ship with D. L. Eastman, in which both were very success- ful. At the expiration of this time his partner died, and he then associated with him S. S. Jones, who is now the edi- tor and publisher of the Religio-Philosophical Journal of Chicago. This partnership lasted until 1865. Mean- while, in 1861, R. N. Botsford was elected Judge of the Kane county court, and held the office four years, during which time many important cascs were tried before him, and his decisions were generally satisfactory to the public. After his retirement from the judicial bench he continued the practice of law alone until 1867, when he removed to Elgin and formed a copartnership with Joseph Healy. The firm has subsequently been known as Botsford, Barry & Healy; also, Botsford, Barry & Lovell ; and, at the present time, Botsford, Barry & Wilcox. He has always been an active politician, and has delivered many able addresses during various campaigns. Being reared in the school of Democracy he has adhered to that party through all its varying fortunes, and has contributed much to its aid. Astand prosperity of the community. In 1869 he was elected

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

City Clerk, which office he held for three years. Hc was one of the originators of the Aurora Agricultural and Horti- cultural Society, which was incorporated during the last- named year, and of which he has been the secretary from its commencement. He was one of the founders of the Aurora City Library; and in all matters of public interest has ever been among the foremost. He has been a delegate to nearly every county and State convention since 1860; and at the present time is a Justice of the Peace, and United States Commissioner. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, and is a man of very high standing in social and business life. IIe was married in IS71 to Hermione L., daughter of Hiram Hill, of Aurora.

HEATON, CHARLES, Lawyer, was born May 29th, 1829, in Warren, Bristol county, Rhode Island, and is a son of Nathan M. and Content (Maxwell) Wheaton. His father was a promi- nent merchant in Warren, and spared no pains in the education of his son, who, at an early age, displayed a great fondness for reading, and was allowed every advantage that could be obtained. He was educated at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, where he gradu- ated in July, 1849, with high honors. He subsequently read law with Benjamin F. Thomas, at Worcester, Massa- chusetts, and was there admitted to the bar in 1851. He practised there until 1854, when he removed to Illinois, locating first at Batavia, where he sojourned for five years, and thence proceeded, in 1859, to Aurora, opened an office there, and continued his practice with unequalled success up to the present time. In 1864 he was elected Mayor of the city on the Prohibition ticket, but after holding the office one month resigned the position, the board of alder- men being composed of " License men," and in antagonism to his principles, and he could not occupy the executive chair under such a state of things; for being a consistent temperance man, desirous of putting a stop to the sale of ardent spirits in Aurora, he only accepted the office of Mayor with the understanding that he was to have full power. He was Supervisor of the town for five years, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1870. In 1873 he opened an office in Chicago, and has since divided his time between that city and Aurora. Since his residence in Aurora he has contributed much towards promoting the interests of the community. His position in society and in his profession is of the highest grade, and financially he ranks among the affluent men of the city. In personal appearance he is somewhat below the medium height, of light complexion, with a sharp, pierc- ing blue eye, and is possessed of an active, restless dispo- sition. He was married in July, 1860, to Sarah H. Brewster.

ALMER, JOHN MCAULEY, Lawyer and Soldier, was born on Eagle Creek, Scott county, Ken- tucky, September 13th, 1817. His father, Louis D. Palmer, emigrated to Kentucky from North- umberland county, Virginia, in the year 1793, and was married in 1813 to Ann Tutt, a native of Culpepper county, Virginia. The ancestors of the family were from England, and among the earliest settlers of Vir- ginia. The elder Palmer (a soldier in the war of ISI2) removed to Christian county at the time of the birth of John McAuley Palmer. Here his childhood was spent, attending a neighboring school in winter and rendering assistance upon the farm in the summer. He here received a common school education. His father, an ardent Jackson man, was also an earnest opponent of human slavery, and thoroughly impressed his opinions upon his children, the family being at that time known as warm anti-slavery Democrats. In 1831 the opinions of the elder Palmer determined him to emigrate to the free States, and in that year he removed to Madison county, Illinois, and settled about ten miles from Alton. The labor of improving the farm occupied the time until 1833, when the death of the mother broke up the family. In the spring of 1834 John McAuley and his elder brother, Elihu, who has since be- come a minister of the gospel, and is noted for his learning and eccentricities, entered Alton College, which was organ- ized and opened upon the " manual labor system." They were almost without money, but in its place were possessed of most sanguine hopes. Several months were thus spent, and in the fall of 1835 he graduated for the want of money to further prosecute his studies. From this time until the spring of 1839 he spent his time in a variety of ways. For a while he worked with a cooper, then he became a peddler, and finally, in the fall of 1838, being then in Fulton county, Illinois, he was invited to take charge of a district school near Canton, where he taught " two quarters " to the appar- ent satisfaction of his patrons. During this time he had been a constant reader of history, poetry, novels, sermons, and newspapers, and had amassed a respectable but most illy arranged store of knowledge. In the summer of 1838 he cast his first vote for the Democratic ticket, the late Senator Douglas being a candidate for Congress. The acquaintance of the rising statesman, by inflaming young Palmer's ambition and spurring him to effort, probably gave stability to his purpose, and tended to shape his future course in life. During the winter of 1838 he obtained a copy of " Blackstone's Commentaries " and commenced a desultory reading, with a view to the study of law, and in the spring of 1839 he entered the office of John L. Great- house, then a lawyer of considerable standing at Carlinville, Macoupin county. On arriving at Carlinville, having walked thither from St. Louis, his entire stock of money consisted of $14, and his wardrobe an indifferent suit of clothes and an extra shirt. IIere he found his brother Elihu, who was married and preaching to a congregation

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 12

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