USA > Illinois > The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century > Part 13
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in Carlinville. This brother, like himself, careless of money, but full of hope, advised him to remain in that place and pursue his studies, offering to board him with rather an indefinite understanding as to the payment in return, and accordingly, as we have stated, he entered the office of Mr. Greathouse. In less than two months after this, at the request of leading Democratic politicians, he became a candidate for the office of County Clerk. He engaged actively in the canvass-becoming involved in local politics to such an extent that he has never since been able to extri- cate himself-but was defeated by a majority of 121 votes. In December, 1839, he obtained a license to practice as an attorney and counsellor at law. Judge Douglas took much interest in the application, and wrote the license, which is still carefully preserved. Upon his return to Carlinville he was not at once successful, and the only reason that he did not seek a new home was from inability to pay his debts. Often since then has he said that this early poverty lies at the foundation of whatever success he afterward attained. In 1840 he participated in the canvass for President, sup- porting Mr. Van Buren. In December, 1842, he was mar- ried. In 1843 elected Probate Justice of the county. In 1 847 he was elected to the Illinois State Constitutional Con- vention, and at the same election was defeated for Probate Justice by a combination formed against him. In 1848, his victorious competitor having resigned, he was again elected by a large majority. In 1849 the new Constitution was adopted and he was elected County Judge, in which office he continued until 1851, when he was elected to the State Senate. In 1852-3-4 he attended the sessions of that body. In the latter year he opposed the Nebraska bill. In 1855 he was re-elected to the Senate, and warmly supported many important measures, such as the free school system, homestead law, etc. In 1856 he was a member and Presi- dent of the first Illinois Republican State Convention, held at Bloomington. Ile was also a delegate to the National Republican State Convention, and advocated the nomina- tion of Judge McLean, though personally preferring Fre- mont. He entered actively into the canvass, cxerting him- self for Fremont, having resigned his seat in the State Senate, upon the ground that, having changed his political connections after his election, self-respect and a proper regard for the true principles of a representative government de- manded such a course. In 1857 and '58 he was engaged in State politics, and in 1859 was nominated for Congress but was defeated. In 1860 he was elected Elector-at-Large on the Republican ticket, and cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Congress at Washington, and favorcd measures of compromise adopted by the conference. When the second call for troops was made he came forward as a common citizen and soldier, regardless of great home interest, and was unani- mous'y elected Colonel of the 14th Illinois Volunteers. After moving with his command from Jacksonville to sundry points in Missouri, he was assigned the command of a
brigade by General Hunter, which formed part of General Pope's expedition to Milford, which captured a large num- ber of rebel prisoners. On the 20th of October he was commissioned Brigadier-General. IIe commanded a di- vision and took part in the operations before New Madrid and Island No. 10. After the capture of Island No. 10 General Pope's forces proceeded down the river to Fort Pillow, which was bombarded for some days without any definite result. On the 20th of April they landed at Ham- burg, on the Tennessee river, and General Pope in re- organizing his corps assigned General Palmer to the com- mand of the Ist Brigade, Ist Division of the Army of the Mississippi, composed of the 22d, 27th, 42d 'and 5Ist Illinois, and Hikock's Battery. After seeing a great deal of active service he was taken very ill, and on the 29th of May was ordered home by General Pope, where he con- tinued until the Ist of August, when he took part in the efforts made to raise troops, and under the authority of the Governor of Illinois organized the 122d Illinois Regiment at Carlinville. On the 26th of August he left home, and on the Ist of September reached Tuscumbia, Alabama, where he was assigned by General Rosecrans to the com- mand of the Ist Division of the Army of the Mississippi, and ordered to join Buell-the Ist and 2d Brigades were concentrated at Decatur under General Palmer, and reached Athens the 6th of September. After active operations in this neighborhood, they arrived in Nashville on the 11th of September. During the so-called blockade of Nashville by the rebel forces of Wheeler, Morgan and other com- manders, for a period of several weeks, Generals Negley's and Palmer's forces were the occupants and defenders of the city. In the awful scenes of Stone river General Palmer acted a conspicuous part, which was personally recognized and complimented by General Rosecrans. For the gal- lantry and skill displayed by General Palmer upon this oc- casion, in connection with his career as a patriot and sol- dier, he was nominated and confirmed as Major-General, his commission dating from the battles at Stone river.
ROWN, HON. WILLIAM SCOTT, Lawyer, was born at Lyons, New York, January 29th, 1821, and moved to Chicago in 1835, while it was yet a little frontier village. IIe received a good classi- cal education at Genesee Seminary, in Living- ston county, New York, and the college of that name at that place subsequently conferred on him the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts. He completed his legal studies, which he had commenced in early youth, with the celebrated firm of Butterfield & Collins, at Chicago, and was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, Judges Theo- philus W. Smith and Stephen A. Douglas of the Supreme Court, the two greatest men that ever lived in the State of Illinois, signing his license. IIe delivered the first 4th of
8
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July oration ever pronounced in Cook county, in which [ student with him in the sophomore class of Bowdoin Col- Chicago is situated, and the address was published in pam- phlet form by the then publishers of the Tribune newspaper. Thinking the prospect for business in the future was better farther West, he emigrated to Jackson county, Iowa, in the spring of 1843, and was clected Judge of that county the following October. He delivered the first 4th of July oration and the first agricultural address ever pronounced in that county, the former at a place called "Goodnough's," near the Maquokata, and was published by the Miner's Ex- press, at Dubuque, the only newspaper then in northern Iowa; the latter in the little log court-house at Andrew, the county seat. He returned to Chicago after two years' absence and was elected City Clerk. On the breaking out of the unpopular Mexican War he materially aided in rais- ing three companies of volunteers, and one whole company, of which he was elected Captain ; but being subsequently appointed by President Polk Assistant-Commissary of Sub- sistencc, with the same rank, he proceeded to Mexico in that capacity. On his return, at the close of the war, he was appointed by Governor French Division Inspector of the First Division of Illinois State Militia, with the rank of Colonel. In 1855 he made the tour of Europe, an l im- proved and enriched a fine taste and highly cultured mind by visiting the public libraries, museums and galleries of art of the principal capitals of the Old World. He early joined the Masonic fraternity ; was the first Knight Templar made in the State of Illinois, and is a past-grand lecturer and orator. Ile is possessed of a genial disposition and social qualities of a high order, which have enabled him to win "troops of friends," whom he has retained by his in- tegrity, generosity and unsullied honor. He spends the most of his time at his country residence, the town of Le Mont, famous for its stone quarries and "Athens marble," of which he is one of the proprietors. There he enjoys his otium cum dignitate as becomes a gentleman and a scholar.
ILSON, HON. JOHN M., ex-Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Chicago, was born in Hills- borough, New Hampshire, on November 12th, ISO2. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, a man of rare energy, being a farmer and merchant, and one of the wealthiest men in the State. His mother, a sister of General John McNeil, who served with honor in the war of 1812, was ancestrally a Highland Scot. His early education was such as was common to New Eng- land boys of his day ; his time was divided between work- ing upon a farm and attending the district school until he reached the age of fourteen, when he was sent to an academy preparatory to entering Dartmouth College in 1819. Ill health caused him to leave before the close of the first year, but on recovering in some degree he, at the earnest solici- tation of his friend, Franklin Pierce, became a fellow-
lege. Again he was obliged to leave his books, and finally to abandon his cherished plan of acquiring a classical edu- cation, and return to Amherst, New Hampshire, where his mother, then a widow, resided. A prolonged tour so far re- established his health that he found himself able to resume study, and he entered the office of Edward Parker, of Am- herst, where he remained a little over one year, when he became a student in the Law Department of Yale College, completing two terms with great credit, and then returncd to Amherst to finish his legal studies. IIe was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced practice at Lowell, Massa- chusetts, and before the expiring of a year formed a partner- ship with Hon. John A. Knowles, which continued until 1835, when the junior member of the firm elected to go West, finally settling at Joliet, Illinois. For a short interval he was in partnership with John C. Newkirk, and subse- quently joined Judge Ilugh Henderson, continuing with him for several years, during which time he gained the reputation of being the best lawyer at the Will county bar, if not in northern Illinois. His health, never robust, suf- fered so much in consequence of his sedentary habits that he removed to Chicago in 1847, where the climate and cessation from office labor proved so beneficial that in the following year he felt justified in resuming his profession, and ultimately became a partner of the IIon. Norman B. Judd. This firm at once took rank as one of the best in Chicago. Both were lawyers of the highest order of talent and perfectly trustworthy, and their business was conse- quently extensive and remuncrative. During the last few years of their practice they devoted nearly all their time to railroad business, being the attorneys of the Michigan Southern, Rock Island, and Chicago and Northwestern Railways. This partnership was dissolved in consequence of the election of Judge Wilson to the bench of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, in which position he re- mained until the name of the court was changed in 1859 to the Superior Court of Chicago. Ile was sole Judge of the former court, but the business being altogether too extensive for one man to transact, he was given, by the law changing the name and some of the functions of his court, two Asso- ciate Judges, his own position being that of Chief Justice. He has often been solicited to become a candidate for the Supreme bench, but he has uniformly declined, and when the nomination was formally tendered to him, at the time Judge Caton stood for re-election, he published a letter in the Chicago Tribune refusing to respond to the requisition. Of Judge Wilson it was written by the late Judge Arring- ton : " The crowning characteristic of his intellect is its severity and continuity of logic. All the evolutions of his mind appear to run in regular and systematic sequences, so that it would not be a difficult task to take any one of his published or manuscript opinions and throw it into a series of formal syllogisms by merely supplying the suppressed premises. The form of his habitual thought secms cast in
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the Scotch rather than the English mould, since it is nearly always and pre-eminently deductive. It is, however, this peculiarity which qualified him for the exalted position he occupied as a Judge, because the inductive logic can find no place in the actual administration of jurisprudence, and the solution of all legal problems offered to the considera- tion of courts must of necessity be effected by pure deduc- tion." The Supreme Court of Illinois have paid him the unparalleled compliment of adopting six of his published opinions as their own, and by the universal accord of the profession and of the people he has been placed as first and foremost among the judiciary of the State. Judge Wilson married Martha A. Appleton, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1838, who still survives, but three of their children sleep under the sod ; a son and a daughter are still spared to cheer their declining years. He attends the service of the Epis- copal Church, but he, in consistence with his character, holds most liberal views on Christian doctrine and ecclesias- tical polity.
full practice; and his subsequent career up to the present time has been one of unvarying success and reputation. In all the civil courts of the city-occasionally only in the criminal-and in all departments of practice he has borne an honorable part, and maintained among lawyers as well as in the community a high position. In some instances, as in the Wilkinson-Tribune libel suit, in the civil court, and in the Zeigermeier murder case-one of the very ro- mances of crime-in the criminal tribunal, he made a dis- play of his powers, brilliant and notable enough of them- selves to gain a life reputation. In those classes of cases which admit of appeals to the feelings he is particularly impressive and effective before juries ; while in his argu- ments to the bench he is capable of the closest and most cogent reasoning. ITis bricfs in the Supreme Court are unusually strong, full, and able. ITis zeal for his client's cause enlists all his faculties and industry, and his honorable ambition is only for rightful success. Those who know him best are his warmest friends, while they realize and highly estimate his qualities as a man. He is scrupulously honest and fair, without a suspicion of his integrity either in or out of his profession. IIe is a man of a general and liberal reading beyond the limits of the law; whilst he i; genial and companionable in the extreme. IIe has a striking and commanding presence, and, adhering to the traditional costume of the historical members of the pro- fession, recalls in his appearance the gentleman of the old school. He is now in the maturity of his powers, and yet promises many years of success and honorable distinction before legal tribunals.
VANS, E. W., Lawyer, was born, 1817, in Frye- burg, Oxford county, Maine. He passed his early life there, and in its academy prepared for Dartmouth College, which institution he entered at the age of eighteen, and whence, after acquir ing a solid scholarship, he graduated in 1838. He studied closely and zealously for his profession i> the office of Judge Horace Chase, of Hopkinton, New Hamp- shire, and when ready for admission to the bar, in 1840, turned his face westward, and reached Chicago, where he received his credentials for the practice of the law. That place was then an obscure town, scarcely even a germ of ONNEY, CHARLES CARROLL, Lawyer, was born, September 4th, 1831, in Hamilton, New York. He passed his childhood at his father's farm on Bonney Hill. When seventeen years of age he commenced teaching, and at the same time began to study law, and continued to teach in district and academic schools, and to pursue the study of his chosen profession until nearly ready for admission to the bar. He removed to Illinois in 1850, and located "at Peoria, where he established an academic school called the Peoria Institute. On attaining his majority he was ad- mitted to the bar, and commenced practice in the office of Judge Onslow Peters, and continued a successful general practice until 1860, when he removed to Chicago to find a larger and more congenial professional field. Since he be- came a resident of Illinois he has always been very promi- nently before the State in some public capacity. In con- nection with Governor French, Professor Turner, Judge Skinner, Dr. Roe, and some other men of note, he was active and prominent in establishing the present educational system of Illinois. Since 1854 he has advocated a con- vention to secure uniformity of the statutes of the several the present great city ; and neither in population nor promise foreshadowed its subsequent marvellous growth and emi- nence. It was also at that period suffering from the paralyz- ing effects of the notable Treasury Circular of 1836-7, which so disastrously affected the country, and more especially the Northwest. As may be supposed, he discerned a more promising field for a career at the bar at Kenosha, Wiscon- sin, where he located and commenced the business of his life. He embarked with his whole soul and strength in the practice of his profession, and was often engaged in most important litigation, by which he acquired an exten- sive and lucrative patronage. During his residence of nearly twenty years in that city he gained a reputation which ranked him among the leading lawyers of the State. His devotion to his profession was exclusive ; and he never could be induced to enter the political arena. He was known only as a lawyer, and of course his triumphs and successes were professional, and rewarded him well with fame and profit. In 1859 Chicago again became his home, where he was welcomed to the ranks of the legal fraternity by the few of its members of 1840 who had remained. He was not long in establishing himself in the city in a large and i States in relation to negotiable paper, conveyances, etc.
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Ile was one of the first to support, both in speeches and letters, the constitutional prohibition of special legislation ; and some years before the war he procured the passage of resolutions in popular conventions favoring a National cur- rency, under a National law, in place of the " wild-cat " system of State banks. In 1857 he took a leading part in defeating the project of granting to a private corporation the control of the Illinois river; and he was engaged in some of the earlier cases on municipal subscriptions to rail- roads, taking the ground that they were unconstitutional. Since 1861 he has repeatedly advocated the appointment of commissioners to represent the people as to railroad and other private corporations, with summary judicial determi- nation of questions concerning their respective rights and duties. It was he who first raised and argued the consti- tutionality of the excise tax on judicial process, and other State proceedings ; and he was likewise the first who stated the powers of the courts under the suspension of the habeas corpus, and presented the view which was reproduced two years later by Mr. Binney of Philadelphia. In politics he is a Democrat, and was very active in this direction until his removal to Chicago, since which period he has given up all active participation in political matters. During the Rebellion he was a War Democrat ; wrote articles for the public press, and made public addresses in favor of sup- pressing the Rebellion and restoring the Union. His pref- erence seems to be for equity business rather than that of the common law, with a partiality for patent and corpora- tion cases ; and, though a skilful pleader and practitioner, he aims rather towards the settlement of a case than to favor litigation. He is an author of some notc, having written and published a " Treatise on the Law of Railway Carriers;" another on " The Law of Marine, Fire and Life Insurance ; " and essays on many other legal subjects. IIe also cdited in a very finished and scholarly manner the poetical works of the late Judge Arrington. His published addresses em- brace orations on Frecmasonry, and a variety of educational, political and legal subjects ; and he is a frequent contributor to the magazines and daily press of articles of a legal, financial and literary nature. Ilis essays on " The Ad- ministration of Justice," " The Characteristics of a Great Lawyer," and " Criminal Insanity," attracted wide atten- tion. He is a lover of his profession, by which he has ac- quired a competence, and has a devotion for it scarcely equalled by any of his co-laborers at the bar. Hc is a coun- sellor of the Supreme Court of the State, and of the United States ; is familiar from actual practice with nearly every de- partment of jurisprudence, and ranks as one of the leading lawyers and public speakers of Chicago and the Northwest. IIe is industrious in the extreme, and though laboring hard as a lawyer yet finds time to cultivate literature, and to in- form himself thoroughly concerning all the current questions of the day. He is a public lecturer and writer on govern- ment, law reform, medical jurisprudence, cducation, the laws of morals and religion, etc. In style he is precise,
incisive and clear, and is, moreover, a ready speaker, writer and conversationalist. He is a member of the New Church, as founded by Swedenborg; has been very active in con- nection with Sunday-schools as a teacher and writer, and as President of the State Sunday-school Association, and has published, among other things, a small pamphlet on the interpretation of the Bible. He belongs to the fraternity of Freemasons, and is a member of the order of Knights Tem- plar. He received some time since from the Masonic Uni- versity of Kentucky the degree of Doctor of Laws, and, in a lecture on Freemasonry, ranks it as the noblest and most venerable of institutions of learning. He was married to Lydia A. Pratt, at Troy, New York, in 1855, and his hand- some residence in Chicago is well known as a social and literary centre.
YER, LEWIS, M. D., Physician, was born in Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vermont, Feb- ruary 24th, 1807. His father was a native of Rhode Island and a Revolutionary soldier. Ilis mother came from Connecticut. His literary cducation was obtained in the New England academies, and his medical studies were pursued at the Berkshire Medical Institute, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in the winter of 1828. He had been bred a farmer, but immediately upon graduation he entered upon the practice of his profession. After practis- ing a few years in his native State he emigrated to Ohio, where he was appointed Physician to Kenyon College and Theological Seminary, located at Gambier, Knox county. That field for professional labor not being sufficiently wide, he moved to Mount Vernon, in the same county, and there opened an office (it being the most cligible) with the Hon. Columbus Delano, the one dispensing physic and the other the law. While in Mount Vernon, and in connection with his profession, he edited the Whig newspaper of the place. In this county he practised for many years, his home being part of the time in Mount Vernon, and at another in Fredericktown. The doctor has been an active man through all his life, and in politics has always been prom- inent. In early days he was a decided Whig, and for twenty-five years his political texts were such as promul- gated by the celebrated National Intelligencer. He was a member of the State Convention which was called to con- sider what should be done in reference to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The Whig party, it will be remem- bered, split upon this question, and the doctor sided with the part opposcd to its repeal, which carried the day. Upon the organization of the Republican party he at once bc- came an adherent, and to that party he has ever been loyal. From Ohio he moved to Iowa, but the climate acting un- favorably upon his wife and daughter, after a residence of two years, he abandoned the idea of making that his home. Ile then located in Perry county, Illinois, in the fall cf
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1857, and engaged in the practice of his profession. His | be very glad to assign him to duty, as I need his services practice here was very successful and laborious, and during greatly." To this arrangement assent was promptly given, and until the order for his reinstatement was received he was constantly on duty of the most responsible and arduous nature. With this incident passed away all ill-feeling, and the doctor was respected and loved by his men, as few others in the command. At the end of the war, when the history of the command was called for, he was assigned that duty, and it is part of the report of the Adjutant- General of the State. His conduct during the service was that of an honorable, worthy, determined soldicr and surgeon, and it is one of the bright records handcd down in the history of the Illinois troops. At the close of the war he returned to Duquoin, and resuming his pro- fession, he was not long in building up a very large and lucra- tive practice, which he still enjoys. He has ever been the friend of education, and for a time occupied the position of President and Director of the Board of Education. He was married in 1828 to Laura A. Purdy, of Vermont, by whom he had four daughters and two sons. The latter, with their father, true to their lineage, served in the late war, and helped to perpetuate the nation their ancestor had fought to create. the first four years of his residence he was at all times a leading spirit. When the war broke out he was very active, and his services were needed and called for on every occa- sion, either to address a meeting, be its chairman, or cheer up the doubting ones. IIc was instrumental in raising many soldiers. In 1862 he was sent to Springfield, on public business, by his town. While there the Governor of the State intimated that he wished him to accept the position of Surgeon, in one of the regiments being formed, stating that so many young and inexperienced physicians were being ap- pointed that such men as Dr. Dyer were needed. After passing the necessary examination before the State Medical Board, he was appointed Surgeon of the Sist Illinois, on August 26th, 1862. The regiment left the State for the field and arrived at Humboldt, Tennessee, in October, IS62, when he was placed upon the operating staff of the division, in which position he served two years, when he was made Sur- geon-in-Chief, appointing his own staff. While upon this duty his work was of course responsible and very laborious, and the fact that he was the oldest Surgeon on the staff tended to increase his duties very much. An episode in his career while in the army should in justice to the doctor be here narrated. His regiment, likemany others, being com- posed of some turbulent spirits and discordant elements, E MOTTE, WILLIAM H., A. M., President of Illinois Female College, Jacksonville, was born, July 17th, 1830, near Danville, Kentucky. In 1832 his parents removed to Central Indiana, where his childhood and early manhood were passed under the educating influences which bear upon a member of the family of an "itinerant Methodist preacher." He completed his studies and graduated with merit and honor from the Literary and Classical department of the Asbury University of Indiana in 1849. After being occupied a few months in a district school, he was elected a teacher in the Indiana Institution for Educating the Deaf and Dumb, Indianapolis, where he continued for fourteen years ; and both from natural fitness and earnest devotion to a chosen work acquired exceptional expertness and skill in that most difficult branch of instruction. A number of prominent and skilful educators of deaf-mutes received their first lessons from him. He served with much satisfaction, during the war of the Rebellion, under commission from Governor Morton, as State Military and Sanitary Agent, at Washington, D. C., in which capacity he did much towards relieving the sufferings of soldiers in hospitals and those returning from prisons. At the close of the war he was elected President of the Indiana Female College, at Indian- apolis, where he remained until solicited to take charge of the Illinois Female College, at Jacksonville, in 1868. His success in teaching is due quite as much to his skill as a disciplinarian as to his scholarship and conscientious de- votion to a chosen profession. No railway schedule is more among officers as well as men, things did not always move harmoniously at the commencement of its service. Two or three officers of the line having become hostile to the doctor, they secretly trumped up a false and malicious charge against him, and succeeded in having it sent on to the Secretary of War. So soon as this became known to him, he at once sought to ferret it out, and repair- ing to General Grant's head-quarters, then at Milliken's Bend, Mississippi, General Rawlings, Chief of Staff, on searching the records, found that such a document had been received and forwarded to Washington about a month pre- viously. On hearing the doctor's statement, General Grant directed his Adjutant-General to issue an order to General McPherson to commence a court of inquiry forthwith to in- vestigate said charge, and the doctor was instructed to de- liver this order in person. The court of inquiry exculpated the doctor wholly. Its proceedings, together with a strong letter from General McPherson, were forwarded to the War Department, whereupon he was at once reinstated. But in the meantime an order dismissing the doctor reached the command. At dress-parade in the evening, when the order was read to the regiment, Surgeon Dyer, who was present, remarked that this was not the end of the matter. He at once tore off his shoulder straps and repairing to General McPherson's head-quarters said, " General, I have come to you, if it is proper to do so, to volunteer my services to carry a musket in the ranks." The General gave him his hand, but before he could reply the Medical Director spoke up and said, " General, if the doctor wishes to volunteer, I shall | accurately arranged or promptly followed than the pro-
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