USA > Illinois > The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century > Part 26
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ROSSEAU, JULIUS, Lawyer, was born in Franklin county, New York, December 17th, 1834, his parents being Julius and Mary Ann (Jarus) Brosseau. IIe was sent early to the public schools, and, after passing through their various grades, entered and completed the prescribed courses of study in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, New York. In 1859 he removed to the West, locating in Flint, Michigan, where in the follow- ing year he commenced to read law with William Newton, under whose preceptorship he was thoroughly prepared for practice. In the fall of 1861 he was admitted to the bar, and entered at once upon the active duties of his profes- sion, which he followed with much success until 1864. He attained during this time great personal popularity, not only for his ability as a lawyer, but for his public spirit, which was shown on many occasions, and was elected to the responsible office of Recorder, the duties of which he ably and acceptably fulfilled. In 1864 he removed to Saginaw, Michigan, and during his residence there was elected Recorder, and for three terms City Attorney. In 1870 hc settled in Kankakee, Illinois, where he has since resided, continuing in the practice of his profession, which
ing his second term as City Attorney for Kankakee, and has distinguished his administration by the successful prosecution of some of the most important causes which have engaged the attention of the courts of that section. He was married, in 1860, to Carrie Yakeley, formerly of New York.
OMERS, WILLIAM D., Lawyer, was born in Rockford, Surrey county, North Carolina, Janu- ary 22d, 1814, his parents being W. T. and Nancy (Smallwood) Somers. His early educa- tion was conducted at his home, and was unusually thorough and practical. He removed to Urbana, Illinois, in 1840, and commenced to read law with Judge David Davis, under whose guidance he was prepared for admission to the bar, which took place at Springfield, in 1846. Since that time he has continued to practice at Urbana, and has won his way to the front rank of the profession by his constant researches, which have rendered him one of the best read lawyers of Illinois. He is a practitioner of the olden time, when Lincoln and Davis, and others of like talent graced the profession of that State. He was the first licensed lawyer in Urbana, and his sterling integrity, his conscientious fidelity to the interests of his clients and his distinguished ability as an advocate and counsellor soon won for him a very large patronage, which he has ever since retained. He has been active in promoting all movements for the intellectual and material advancement of the community in which he resides, and has always retained the highest public esteem. Ile was married, in 1842, to Catherine P. Carson, of Philadelphia, who still lives.
GRANT, CHARLES E., Vice-President of the Farmers' Bank, of Galesburg, was born in the State of New York, in 1813, being the son of Nathan and Elizabeth (Fellows) Grant, who came from Stonington, Vermont. His educa- tion was conducted at Troy, New York, and upon the conclusion of his career at school he entered into active life as a clerk in a mercantile house. When twenty years of age he became captain of a boat running between Troy and New York, and continued in this capacity until 1840, when he was promoted by the management of the same line to the position of superintending the purchase and sale of cargoes. By industry and economy he soon acquired considerable means, and invested a portion of them in property in the West. In the fall of 1859 he moved West and settled upon an estate near Galesburg, Illinois, which he had purchased some time before. Ile engaged at once in farming and dealing in grain. In this
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business he from the first met with the most encouraging | until October, 1858. At that time he received a call to success, and materially increased his transactions. IIe is the First Presbyterian Church, of Chicago, which he accepted; and in the duties of this position has been engaged up to the present time, being highly esteemcd by the people of his parish for the kindly qualities of his heart and his Christian refinement. now one of the heaviest grain dealers in his section of the State, and his careful management of his business secures to him the fullest and most profitable returns. In 1869 he became one of the organizers of the Farmers' Bank, of Galesburg, and subscribed for a very large amount of its stock, which he still holds. This has become a valuable investment, owing to the wisdom displayed in the manage- ment of the institution, which soon became one of the most prosperous and substantial in the West. In 1872 he was chosen its Vice-President, and continues at the present time to ably administer the duties of the office. In 1864 he aided very materially in the organization of the First National Bank, of Galesburg, and is now one of its directors. IIe is a gentleman who enjoys the highest public esteem, as much for his fine social traits as for his public spirit and enterprise as a business man. Ile was first married, in 1835, to Jane Dun, of New York, who died in 1852. In 1854 he married Mary Russell, of War- rensburg, New York, who is still living.
ITCHELL, REV. ARTHUR, was born in Hud- son, New York, August 13th, 1835, and is the son of Matthew Mitchell, a merchant and manu- facturer of that city. His early education was derived from the public schools and academies of Iludson, and from a boarding school at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and was completed by a col- lege course at Williams College, which he entered at the early age of fourteen, graduating four years later, in 1853. lle then went to Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsyl- vania, as a tutor, where he remained for one year. He then went abroad, and, having it already in his mind to become a minister of the gospel, he extended his trip to the lands of the East, Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Turkey, returning, after an absence of fourteen months, to New York city, where his father had in the meantime removed his business and his family. IIe here began his theological studics, entered the Union Theological Semi- mary and completed a three years' course of study, and was ordained as a minister. He was then married to Harriet E. Post, daughter of Alfred C. Post, M. D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical College of New York University. About this time he was called to the pastorate of the Third Presbyterian Church, of Richmond, Virginia. He re- mained there till the breaking out of the rebellion, when he returned North, and was called to the pastorate of a church in Morristown, New Jersey ; the onc formerly min- istered to by Rev. Albert Barncs. In the fall of 1863 he again went abroad and revisited the lands of the East, and studied for a while in Germany. Returning home he resumed his labors in Morristown, where he remained
ONES, FERNANDO, Real Estate Operator and Compiler of Abstracts of Titles, was born, May 26th, 1820, in Forrestville, New York, and is the eldest son of William and Anna (Gregory) Jones. The family removed to Buffalo in 1826, and to Chicago in 1835. He remembers sceing Lafayette when he visited the United States, in 1825; and the formal opening of the Erie canal, when a barrel of water from the Atlantic ocean was poured, with much ceremony, into Lake Erie. He was also present at the breaking of ground for the Illinois & Michigan canal, in 1835, which connects Lake Michigan with the waters of the Mississippi. His father was largely engaged in mer- cantile pursuits and in real estate transactions in the early days of Chicago, and held many prominent positions in political offices and benevolent enterprises in his day; and was noted for his sterling honesty and strong good sense. The " Jones School " was so named in his honor. His son has likewise been largely engaged in real estate and build- ing operations, but he is chiefly known for his connection with questions of titles to real estate in Chicago and Cook county. Prior to the great fire of 1871, he had prepared a complete set of "Abstract Books," showing, in a con- densed form, all the conveyances of real estate, tax sales, estates and judgments in all the courts. When the publie records were all destroyed, these books (with others of the same character which had been saved) became the only means of showing the evidences of title to real estate, as originally shown by the public records. These books were saved in huge fire-proof vaults. Had they been destroyed, it would have been as great a disaster to the public as the destruction of the buildings by the fire. The evidences of title furnished by these books and memoranda enabled the owners of the land to borrow money wherewith to rebuild, and to dispose of their property with nearly the same facility as previous to the disaster. The firms who united their books and business after the fire were Jones & Sellers, Chase Brothers and Shortall & Hoard. These gentlemen have reason to be proud of the confidence evinced by the public in their honor and probity-holding, as they did, such vast interests in their hands-being no less than the cvidences of title to millions upon millions of real estate property. Mr. Jones has been an alderman and a super- visor of the city of Chicago; a trustee of the Hospital for the Insane, at Jacksonville; he has also held the same position in the Chicago Orphan Asylum and in the Chicago
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University, and has been likewise interested in the schools | which he wrote to Mr. Rockwell, asking him to purchase and hospitals of the city. He was married, in 1853, to Jane Graham, a lady who is as well known for her advo- cacy of the right of the ballot for women, as by her interest in everything that pertains to the higher education, useful- ness, and independence of her sex. Their family consists of two children ; a daughter of sixteen and a son of seven years.
ATHROP, DIXWELL, Geologist, was born No- vember 9th, 1796, in Griswold, Connecticut. His father, Dixwell Lathrop, served in the Federal army throughout the Revolution, and afterward received a pension from the government. He was a shoemaker by trade. Ilis mother's name was Eunice Davis. He was a direct descendant of John Dixwell, the famous regicide. During his earlier years he attended the common school. From the age of fourteen to eighteen he worked upon a farm. At eighteen he was ap- prenticed to a house carpenter, with whom he served two years, in Norwich, Connecticut ; subsequently working as a journeyman at his trade for seven years in that vicinity. November 17th, 1823, he was married, in Plainfield, Connect- icut, to Esther Shepard of that place. He then became a builder, and was selected as overseer of the factory build- ings at Norwich Falls, Connecticut, which duty he fulfilled for three years. In 1834 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and worked at his trade. In 1835 Hon. John Rockwell, an old friend of his, sent him to invest cash for him in government lands in La Salle county, Illinois, directing him to locate several different farms in the neighborhood of the terminus of the then proposed Illinois Michigan Canal. Becoming by this means naturally a land agent for Mr. Rockwell, he removed his family thither in 1836. When he came here, in 1835, there was no town, or indication of onc, nor anything whatever on the present site of the city of La Salle, except one hut. In 1837 and 1838 he went East, gathered up a colony of about 120 from Massachu- setts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and brought them West, most of them accompanying him to his new location. They here laid out a town, where it was supposed that the business from the terminus of the new canal would centre, and Mr. Lathrop became owner of one-twelfth of the town site. They soon discovered it was not the right point, and were obliged to vacate and move a mile farther south. This entailed great loss on Mr. Lathrop, and he was obliged to turn his attention to the raising of cattle and sheep upon the wild prairies. His wife died February 12th, 1839. IIc was married again, May 6th, 1841, in La Salle, to Saralı Foster of New Hampshire. In a few years he began to turn his attention to the coal cropping out here and there, and indicating to his mind vast deposits underlying the country. He bought works upon geology, and studied the matter long and thoroughly; as a result of
other tracts, with a view of developing a coal trade; pro- posing that they work it together and he should himself receive half of the profits. This was done, and the tracts he had selected were purchased, and in not a single one of them did they fail to find coal. They entered into this business; digging it, however, from side hills where it cropped out, but sinking no shafts. Mr. Lathrop continued to be the superintendent of this business and the land agent of Mr. Rockwell until July, 1866, when he was visited with a stroke of paralysis from which he has never com- pletely recovered. He thus became. the pioneer in the great coal interests of La Salle county, Illinois, and a well- read and practical geologist. He is also a successful bee culturist, their habits having been with him the subject of long and patient study. Ile is an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences at Ottawa, Illinois, and of a like insti- tution at Davenport, Iowa. For many years he has been a Deacon of the Congregational Church at La Salle, and was one of the original five who first constituted that church. He is a man highly respected among his townsmen for his integrity and general worth of character.
AMES, EDWARD, Banker, was born in Vernon, Oneida county, New York, February 16th, 1803. Ilis father was IIczekiah Eames, a clothier. The son's chief education was derived from the common school. After arriving at manhood he resided in Utica, New York, where he was mar- ried, February 16th, 1832, to Maria Broadwell. For two years subsequently he kept a hotel at Sanquoit, New York, after which he filled for many years the positions of Deputy Sheriff and Sheriff of Oneida county, until, in 1857, he moved to Ottawa, Illinois, where he almost immediately entered upon a banking business. In this, as President of the house of Eames, Allen & Co., afterward the National City Bank of Ottawa, he was engaged until his death, which occurred from paralysis of the heart, January 30th, IS71, in the sixty-third year of his age. Ile was stricken down suddenly in the midst of his labors. He possessed excellent business ability, and had by his labor raised the bank to a position of importance and prosperity. Ile came of a family possessing peculiar ability in this linc, two of his brothers also being successful bankers. He was also President of the Illinois River Bridge Company of Ottawa. His family was large, containing eight children, but one of whom is now living-a daughter. Ilis life, though not marked by great cvents, was one of untiring activity in business, which reaped for him a large fortunc. In private character he was a man of irreproachable integrity, strong religious convictions, and a genial disposition. He was very generally csteemed in the city.
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.
ALLACE, WILLIAM HIERVEY LAMME, | strength the foe was beaten back; his division stood, with General and Lawyer, was born in Urbana, Ohio, Hurlbut's, for a time between the army and ruin; but with- out support that isolated advance had to be abandoned, and a retreat became inevitable. At this critical juncture Gen- eral Wallace was shot through the head and fell from his horse insensible, and, as was supposed, dead. His brother- in-law, Cyrus E. Dickey, and three orderlies, attempted to carry him off the field; but being hotly pressed by the enemy, and two of the orderlies being wounded, they sadly laid him down on the field. The next day the Union soldiers regained the ground, and he was found barely alive. The enemy had covered him with a blanket, and with another made a pillow for his head. He was rc- moved to Savannah, Tennessee, where he lingered until the roth, and died, his wife watching by his dying bed. He was partly conscious during those last days, but owing to his wound unable to converse. His remains were con- veyed to Ottawa, and interred in a grove near his beautiful residence, " The Oaks," on the bluff north of the city. An immense concourse followed his remains to the grave, where they were interred with Masonic rites, the old torn battle-flag of the IIth Illinois being carried in the proces- sion. The bar of the State, through Judge Purple, pre- sented resolutions to the Supreme Court of Illinois in honor of his memory, to which Chief-Justice Caton replied, and a copy of these proceedings was sent to the widow of the de- ceased. The general had for many years been Master in Chancery. In one of their journeys East, as they were about to board a vessel, the gang-plank gave way and pre- cipitated his wife and many others into the waves, when her husband at once plunged in and rescued her. He was one of a family notable for the many representatives it sent to the war, and his memory is 'affectionately cherished by his fellow-townsmen. July 8th, 1821. Ilis father, John Wallace, was a carpenter by trade, a man of refinement and culture, and well educated. He was one of the founders of the Rock River Seminary of Illinois. In 1833 the family moved to Deer Park, Illinois, where father and son were engaged in farming. In the year 1839 they removed to Mount Morris, Ogle county, Illinois. At the age of nineteen this son entered Rock River Seminary, becoming at once a pupil and a tutor in mathematics. He also studied surveying, and was engaged occasionally in practical surveying. He continued in this institution until the age of twenty-three. In December, 1844, he went to Springfield, Illinois, with the intention of studying law in the office of Abraham Lincoln, but there meeting T. Lyle Dickey, afterward Judge, he, after a few months at Spring- field, went to Ottawa, Illinois, to study law with him. At the close of two years of study here he was admitted to the bar of the State in 1845. He practised law in Ottawa until the war with Mexico broke out. In June, 1846, he was mustercd into the Ist Illinois Regiment, as Orderly Ser- geant of Company I. A few weeks later he was promoted to a Second Lieutenancy, and soon after to the position of First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the regiment, and fought by the side of Colonel IIardin when the latter was killed at Buena Vista. At the expiration of his term of enlistment he returned to Ottawa and resumed his profession, in part- nership with John C. Champlin. In 1850 he was appointed Deputy United States Marshal of La Salle county, and was engaged in compiling the census of that county. February ISth, 1851, he was married to Martha Ann Dickey, eldest daughter of Judge T. Lyle Dickey of Ottawa. In 1852 he was elected State's Attorney for the Ninth Judicial District of Illinois, which office he held for four years. From the year 1852 he was associated in the practice of law with his father-in-law, as a member of the firm of Dickey, Wallace & Dickey. When the rebellion broke out he responded at once to the country's need, and in May, 1861, was chosen Colonel of the 11th Illinois Regiment of three months' vol- unteers. They were sent to Villa Ridge, Illinois, and thence to Bird's Point, Missouri, which post he was placed in command of. Ilis duties were both complicated and dangerous, testing both his military and legal skill. In January, 1862, hc marched his regiment to Fort Jefferson, Kentucky. February Ist he was placed in command of a brigade in McClernand's division, and marched to Fort Henry. On the 12th his brigade marched to Fort Donel- son, and took part in the severe fighting of the 13th, 14th, and 15th. After this fighting he was appointed Brigadier- General ; the confirmation of the appointment reaching him at Pittsburgh Landing, whither he had gone. Ile was placed in command of the Ist Division of the Army of the Tennessee by General Grant. His division was in the heat of the battle on the 6th of April. Four times in massed
WIFT, MILTON HOMER, Banker, Mayor of Ottawa, Illinois, was born in Kent, Litchfield county, Connecticut, October 3d, 1815. His father, Homer Swift, was a lawyer. His mother was a woman of strong character, of extensive reading, and of more than ordinary mental power and culture. When he was but five years old his father died, and he was taken to Seneca county, New York, where he lived three years. He then returned to Kent, attended district school, and soon after went to New Preston, Con- necticut, and lived in the family of an uncle, Johnson C. Hatch, a physician of prominence, where he stayed until twenty years old. At that period he began reading law with Origen S. Seymour, at Litchfield, Connecticut ; grad- uated at the age of twenty-two, and was admitted to the bar of Connecticut. He then took a trip through the West, and in September, 1838, opened a law office in Ottawa, Illinois. In 1842 he became Assignee in Bankruptcy for La Salle county, Illinois, under the bankruptcy act of that
ular; Puis 'a Pluta alpha.
No. N. Bylow
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year, being nominated for the position by Abraham Lincoln; this position he held for more than two years. He was married in Ottawa, April 14th, 1847, to Susan W. Miles, of Boston, sister of Mrs. Judge Leland, of Ottawa. They have two children, a daughter at home, and a son at the University of Michigan. Mr. Swift continued the practice of law in Ottawa from 1838 until 1857, when, on account of the health of some of his family, he took up his residence for two years in the East, at Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1859 he returned with his family to Ottawa, where he had steadily continued his business attachments and interests, and where they have ever since resided. In January, 1867, he relinquished his profession and was chosen President of the First National Bank of Ottawa, of which he was one of the original projectors. He is at present Mayor of the city of Ottawa, filling the office for a second time, and is highly respected throughout that community.
WEET, ELLIS L., Lawyer, was born in Maine, July 3d, 1839. Ilis parents are Lorella Sweet, and Mary W. (Bailey) Sweet. His education was acquired at the Farmington Academy, and, upon the termination of his course of studies in that institution, he decided to embrace the legal profession. He then commenced the study of law, in 1858, under the supervision and able guidance of Hannibal Belcher, a resident of Farmington. Severing his connection with this tutor, he moved to the West in 1859, and resumed his studies under the directions of Hon. Daniel Mace, then residing in Lafayette, Indiana. In the spring of 1860 he moved to Champaign, Illinois, and was there admitted to the bar in the ensuing fall. Immediately beginning the active practice of his profession, he rapidly acquired an extensive and remunerative clientage. During his resi- dence in Champaign, his natural talents and abilities, effectively developed by a thorough course of primary training and subsequent well-directed study, have enabled him to assume a leading position among his professional colleagues ; he has been retained in a large number of suits of considerable public and private importance, which he has conducted with patient skilfulness and vigor; and in the famous " Texas Cattle Suit," in which was involved an immense sum of money, and for whose prosecution the most prominent practitioners of the State were engaged, his conduct ealled forth warm commendations, both from his brethren at the bar, and from the public in general. He has twice been Mayor of Champaign, and upon each occasion discharged with entire satisfaction to all interested the onerous duties attached to that position. The social and political interests of his adopted State and county have always engrossed a great share of his attention, and in all movements and enterprises, having for their end the ad- vancement of the common welfare, he is an earnest and active but unostentatious agent.
YFORD, WILLIAM HEATH, M. D., was born March 20th, 1817, in the village of Eaton, Ohio, and is the son of Ilenry T. and Hannah Byford. During his infancy his parents removed to the Falls of the Ohio river, now New Albany, whence, in 1821, the family changed its place of residence to Hindostan, Martin county, Indiana. Here, while William was in his ninth year, his father died, and, through stress of eircumstances, he was compelled to aban- don the course of elementary studies which he had been pursuing in the neighboring country school. Five years later he was apprenticed to a tailor in Palestinc, Illinois, with whom he remained two years, then entered the employ of another tailor, at Vincennes, Indiana, where, during the ensuing four years, he not only worked diligently at his trade, but, with the aid of books bought or borrowed, mas- tered the structure of his native tongue, acquired a knowl- edge of the Latin, Greek, and French languages, and studied with especial care physiology, chemistry, and natural history. About eighteen months prior to the expiration of his term of apprenticeship, he decided to devote his life and energies to the study of medicine, and subsequently placed himself under the professional guidance and guardianship of Dr. Joseph Maddox, of Vincennes, Indiana. After the lapse of a year and a half, consumed in arduous and inces- sant study, he passed the required examination, and began the practice of his profession in Owensville, Gibson county, Indiana, August 8th, 1838. In 1840 he removed to Mount Vernon, Indiana, and in 1845, after having attended lec- tures, applied for and obtained a regular graduation and an accredited diploma from the Ohio Medical College. In 1847, after resuming his practice, which had been tempor- arily interrupted by his studies, he performed, and published an account of that surgical operation denominated the " Cesarean Section." " This was followed by contributions to the medical journals which attracted the attention of the medical community, and gave their author a respectable reputation for literary acquirments, intellectual penetration, and scientific knowledge." In October, 1850, he was elected to the Chair of Anatomy, in the Evansville, Indiana, Medical College, which he filled with ability for a period of two years, when he was transferred to the Chair of Theory and Practice in the same institution. In that responsible capacity he acted until the extinction of the college in 1854. During his professorship in Evansville, he was one of the editors of a medical journal of acknowl- edged merit, and, until its publication was discontinued, contributed valuable articles to its columns. In May, 1857, he was elected Vice-President of the American Medical Association, then assembled at Nashville, Tennessee. In the following autumn he was called to the Chair of Obstet- rics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Rush Medical College, at Chicago, vacated by Dr. John Evans, the talented physician, and United States Senator from Colorado. This position he occupied for two years, when,
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