The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 33

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

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TEVENS, JUSTUS, Merchant and Farmer, was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, latterly called Webster, January Sth, 1819, his father, John Stevens, being both a merchant and farmer. His early education was first conducted at the common schools of the district in which he re- sided, but he subsequently attended for some years Part- ridge's Military School, at Norwich, Vermont, from which he graduated when twenty-one years of age. In 1842 he removed to Princeton, Illinois, where he engaged in mer- cantile pursuits, and by diligence, fair dealing and enter- prise, obtained a large degree of success. On June 9th,

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1842, he was married to Lurena McConihe, of Merrimack, | for home consumption. Ile attributes his success as a New Hampshire. He continued in the mercantile business in Princeton for twenty years. In 1862 he entered upon a career of farming upon an extensive scale. His estate con- sists of Sooo acres, which he entered in 1852; and he has, by large and judicious expenditures and careful manage- ment in the development of all its resources, rendered this one of the model farms in the great West. He has always manifested a deep interest in all educational movements, and has been active in the promotion of improvements in the system observed in the common schools of his section. Ile is one of the directors of the High School and Town Supervisor.

CROGIN, LEVIN POLK, Farmer and Stock- Breeder, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, March 30th, 1823. Left an orphan while in his seventh year, he was bound out to a farmer whose subsequent decease causcd his removal to a neighboring farm, where he was employed until he had attained Ris twelfth year. IIe was then sent to live with a brother-in-law, also a farmer, with whom hc remained for nearly four years, attending school meanwhile in the winter months. Subsequently he hired himself as a farm hand, at a salary of $12 per month, and was thus employed under three different men for a period of three years. For several years after this he was stricken down with intermittent chills, and was totally unable to continue his labors. Upon attaining his majority the executor of his father's estate could not deliver to him his portion of the paternal effects, having used the trust for his own benefit, a sum of money amounting to about $1200; the case result- ing then went into the Chancery Court, where it remaincd about three years, at the expiration of which period judg- ment was given for the heirs, four in number. He then received, in lieu of the $1200, a tract of 523 acres situated in Lexington township, McLean county, Illinois, this event occurring in 1848; January 15th, in the ensuing year, he removed to that section, and since then has permanently resided there. IIe began at once to make rails, to fence in, break and cultivate his farm, fencing in in the first season about eighty acres, also building a house and prepar- ing for cultivation forty acres of ground. IIe was thus occupied year after year in improving his estate until, at the lapse of the sixth year, every acre was fenced in and under cultivation. In the meantime he engaged in raising stock, which was sold to neighboring drovers at a fair profit. As an agriculturist he has met with singular and merited success ; his crops during twenty-five consecutive seasons have averaged rather more than fifty bushels per acre, while it is conceded that the average crop of corn to the acre throughout the State will not exceed thirty bushels; and his principal business lies in corn, hay and pasturage ; wheat and oats he has also raised, but chicfly

cultivator to his thorough system of working the soil, always putting in seed at the proper time and ploughing deeply; also to his subsequent careful attention to the growing crops. Shallow ploughing, an error only too common in our country, is carefully avoided by him, while the leading team of his plough is invariably selected from among his strongest animals. The entire extent of his low lands, tracts usually neglected as " waste land," is properly drained in the wet season, and, with the exercise of a little care, furnish either excellent and nutritious pasturage or plenteous crops. He is also an extensive breeder of the cattle known as " graded stock," which attain an average weight of 1550 pounds each, and in particular cases 1900 pounds ; deals largely in horses and in hogs, and to all of these occupations gives a careful and unremitting super- vision. IIe is prominently identified with the public interests of his town and county; was formerly an ardent Abolitionist, and ultimately a Republican, and upon the organization of that party was a member of the convention. In all matters relating to the cause of temperance, to the spread of religion and to the social and political advance- ment of his fellow-citizens, he is a prime mover and generous supporter. At the present time, also, in addition to his other numerous occupations, he is interested in banking. He was married, December 25th, 1848, to Sarah E. Holmes, formerly a resident of Morgan county, Illinois; he has five children living, three sons and two daughters.

AMILTON, WILLIAM, M. D., was born in Chittenden county, Vermont, in 1833, his parents being Dr. Jamin Hamilton and Elizabeth Little. He was educated in the academy in his native village and at a similar institution in Bakersfield, Vermont. At the age of seventeen he com- menced the study of medicine in his father's office and under his instruction. In the fall of 1851 he attended his first course of medical lectures at the then flourishing medical college in Castleton, Vermont, since removed to Burlington, Vermont. In the spring of 1853 he attended his second course at the Woodstock Medical College, and early in the year 1854, when his parents removed to Albany, New York, he entered the medical college in that city and graduated in June of that year. Very soon after graduating he removed to Knox county, Illinois, where a married sister and many friends and acquaintances had preceded him. He very soon succeeded in gaining the confidence of the public and in establishing a large practice. In 1862, when a call for more troops was made, he re- ceived the appointment of First Assistant-Surgeon of the 102d Illinois Infantry ; and in the following year, while in the field in Tennessee, was promoted to Surgeon of said regiment, which position he held until the close of the war.

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Upon his return from the arduous labors of the camp to the | of that portion of the ligament which remains untorn." peaceful pursuit of his profession, he located in the thriving city of Galesburg, Illinois, where he has since resided and where he has attained an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon. In the last-named branch of his profession he may be said to be almost without a rival in the district where he resides. He is a permanent member of the American Medical Association, and a member of the Mili- tary Tract Medical Society since its organization, in IS66, and during the year ending July, 1875, was its President.

6 GUNN, MOSES, A. M., M. D., was born, April 20th, IS22, in East Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York. His parents, Linus and Esther (Bronson) Gunn, were from Massachusetts, and among the earlier pioneers of western New York. His preliminary education was acquired in the academy located in his native town; and subsequently, passing the regular medical course at the Geneva Medical College, he graduated from that institution in 1846. Lo- cating himself at Ann Arbor, Michigan, he immediately commenced there the active practice of his profession, and continued thus occupied until 1853. While here he also instituted courses of lectures on anatomy, "illustrated by dissections upon the recent subject," distinguishing himself in this manner by becoming the pioneer of a new move- ment in that section of our country. The lectures were attended by the university students at Ann Arbor, by many medical students, and also by several of the practising physicians resident in the vicinity ; and were continued for a period of three years, Dr. Gunn in the meantime attend- ing scrupulously to an extensive and growing practice. In 1849 a medical department was organized in the Michi- gan University, at Ann Arbor, and he was at once called upon to fill the Professorship of Anatomy and Surgery, and the first class was assembled in October, IS50, with ninety- two attendants. In the winter of IS51-52 he made a series of dissections and experiments with a view to deter- mine what particular tissue opposes our efforts to reduce dislocations of the hip-joint. The results of these investiga- tions were laid before the medical classes of the university during that and the following winters. They were also embodied in a paper laid before the Detroit Medical Society, in the summer of IS53, and published in the Peninsular Medical Journal in September of the same year; in that paper occurs the following paragraph : " The principle, then, I would seek to establish is this: that in luxations of the hip and shoulder the untorn portion of the capsular ligament, by binding down the head of the dis- located bone, prevents its ready return over the edge of the cavity to its place in the socket; and that this return can be easily effected by putting the limb in such a position as will effectually approximate the two points of attachment

In 1853 he removed his residence and private practice to Detroit, Michigan, but still continued his connection with the university at Ann Arbor. In 1855 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, Geneva Col- lege. In Detroit he practised successfully for a period of time extending over fourteen years, going meanwhile to Ann Arbor twice per week during six months of the year for the purpose of delivering his lectures on surgery, having in 1854 been transferred to the chair pertaining exclusively to that branch. In performing this arduous labor he had within that time travelled a distance of fifty-six thousand miles; and, in justice, it may also be mentioned that the medical class which assembled at this university in the winter of 1866-67, the last year of Dr. Gunn's connection with it, numbered five hundred and twenty-five attendants- claimed to be the largest number of medical students assembled in the United States during that year: truly an admirable testimony to Dr. Gunn's learning and ability when it is remembered that the first class consisted of but ninety-two attendants. September Ist, IS61, he entered the United States service, in order to acquire a thorough and practical experience in military surgery, and remained in service for one year; he was with General Mcclellan through the Peninsular campaign, and rendered upon several occasions most efficient aid. During that term he obtained three weeks' leave of absence, which time was devoted to giving a course of lectures on surgery, that course consisting of fifty finished and elaborate discourses. In the spring of 1867 he was called to the chair of Surgery in the Rush Medical College, of Chicago, which position he accepted, and since that time has filled with marked and unusual ability, while engaged at the same time in an active surgical practice. Whether considered as lecturer, scientist, or surgeon, Dr. Gunn has repeatedly and through- out a long and varied career evinced the possession of superior qualities, profound acquirements and talents only too rare. He was married, March 2d, 1848, to Jane Augusta Terry, a native of New York, and subsequently a resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

ALLOWS, SAMUEL, D. D., was born in Pendle- ton, near Manchester, England, December 15th, IS35, being the son of Thomas and Anne Fal- lows. His father was a cotton goods manufac- turer, employing in his mills at Warrington several hundred operatives, and both his parents were distinguished for their piety. A reverse of fortune induced the migration of the family to Wisconsin, in 1848, where they found a homestead near Marshall, in Dane county. Up to the period of this removal from England Samuel had enjoyed rare educational facilities, and had prepared for admission to the Manchester grammar school

Galaxy Pub. Co. Philadelphia.

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as a preliminary to his matriculation in an English uni- versity. In the interior of a comparatively new country these opportunities failed him; but his keen desire for knowledge enabled him, without an instructor, to obtain a thorough knowledge of mathematics and a tolerably familiar acquaintance with the Latin and French languages. At ninetecn he entered the preparatory department of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, and for a portion of the following year attended Lawrence University, at Apple- ton, Wisconsin. IIe soon, however, returned to the University of Wisconsin, and graduated with high honors in three ycars. During this collegiate career he supported himself by teaching school and acting as Town Super- intendent of Medina. Having been admitted in his eighteenth ycar to the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was soon licensed to exhort, and then to prcach, and during his junior and senior years at the university acted as assistant- pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Madison. He joined the West Wisconsin Conference on probation in the fall of 1857. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Osmon C. Baker on April 10th, 1859, and in the following June ended his career in the university, graduating as the vale- dictorian of his class. While assistant-pastor at Madison, he served also as Assistant-tutor of Languages and Mathe- matics in the university. Upon leaving this institution he became Vice-President of Galesville University, Wisconsin, remaining in this position two years, when he resigned to prosecute a post-graduate course in philology and philosophy at Harvard. The lack of proper facilities there at that time induced his return West, carrying back with him a very large and complete philosophical library. On Sep- tember 9th, 1860, he was ordained elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by Bishop Levi Scott, and in October, 1861, was transferred from the Northwest Wisconsin Con- ference to the Wisconsin Conference, and stationed at Oshkosh. In .September, 1862, he was elected Chaplain of the 32d Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers, serving with that command in the Southwest. He resigned in 1863, and was appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Appleton, and was elected to, but declined, the chair of Natural Sciences in Lawrence University. In the spring of 1864 he was mainly instrumental in organizing the 40th Wisconsin, better known as the " Normal Regiment," being composed largely of teachers and students, and was appointed its Lieutenant-Colonel. In January, 1865, he organized and became the commanding officer of the 49th Wisconsin Regiment, being very soon after assigned to the charge of the post at Rolla, Missouri. Subsequently he took command of the Second Sub-district of Missouri, with head-quarters at Rolla ; was made Post Commander at St. Louis ; was assigned to the charge of the First Sub-district of Missouri, and in October of 1865 was breveted Brigadier- General for meritorious services. In the following No- vember he was mustered out, with his troops, and was appointed immediately to the pastorate of the Summerfield

Church, Milwaukie, where he remained three years, when he filled the pastoratc of the Spring Street Methodist Epis- copal Church, in the same city. In July, 1870, he became Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wisconsin, at the urgent solicitation of Governor Fairchild, and during his incumbency of that office, which covered a period of three years and a half, won the commendation of the press and people for his intelligence and zeal in the discharge of his important duties. His great aim and his achievement was the unification of the educational systems of the State; and, in recognition of his invaluable services in the causes of popular instruction and religion, Lawrence University, in June, 1872, conferred upon him the degree of D. D. For cight ycars he served as Regent of the University of Wis- consin, and in 1867 was tendered, but declined, the Pro- fessorship of Logic and Rhetoric in that institution. For ten years he acted as Secretary of the Wisconsin Confer- ence, and upon his removal to Illinois received a handsome service of silver from that body as a testimonial of its appreciation of his labors. In September, 1873, he was clected President of the Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, and entered upon his duties in 1874, the keys of the institution being given him during the inaugural ceremonies by Governor Beveridge, of Illinois. On April 9th, 1860, he was married to Lucy B. Huntington, daughter of Rev. William P. Huntington, A. M., M. D., and niece of Bishop F. D. Huntington, D. D., Bishop of the Protest- ant Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. In personal appearance Dr. Fallows is lithe, graceful and finely organ- ized. As a logician and pulpit orator he has few, if any, superiors. Under his direction the Wesleyan University has flourished beyond the hope of many of even its most sanguine friends.

IDWELL, ORLANDO B., Merchant and Banker, was born in Berks county, Massachusetts, July 22d, 1829. Ilis parents were Barnabas Bidwell and Betsy (Curtiss) Bidwell. His education was acquired at Williams College, located in Wil- liamstown, Massachusetts. Upon abandoning school life, at the completion of his allotted course of studies, he was temporarily employed in travelling as an agent for a silk house. In 1855 he removed to Freeport, and there established himself in the wholesale notion busi- ness, in partnership with L. Z. Farwell, under the firm-name of Bidwell & Farwell. From that business he retired in 1870. In 1864, the date of the establishment in Freeport of the First National Bank, he became prominently iden- tified with the organization of that institution; was from the beginning a director, and in 1870, on his withdrawal from mercantile business, was elected to its Presidency, an office which he still retains and whose duties he performs with thoroughness and ability. In 1871 he was elected a member of the Board of Education of Stephenson county.

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He is, to a certain extent, still interested in mercantile busi- ness, having a share in the profits of a notion house located in Denver City, Colorado. He is one of the most influential citizens of Freeport, and by his undeviating rectitude in all his relations, public and private, business and social, has won the esteem and confidence of all with whom he has been brought into contact.

LLEN, WILLIAM JOSHUA, Judge and Lawyer, was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, June 9th, 1828. His father, Willis Allen, was also a Ten- nesscean, and settled at Illinois, in IS29; his mother, Elizabeth (Joincr) Allen, was a native of North Carolina; his grandfather, John Allen, a veteran of the war of 1812, was killed at New Orleans, Lou- isiana. His earlier and elementary education was acquired at the common schools in the neighborhood of his home, and he was subsequently for two years an inmate of the boarding school at Tamarawa, Illinois, then controlled by B. G. Roots. Upon abandoning school life, he became employed in the county and circuit clerk's office, during IS46 and 1847. While therc, having resolved to embrace the legal profession, he began the study of law, which he prosecuted with diligence and assiduity. After leaving the office of the county clerk, he entered the law school at Louisville, where he was in regular attendance throughout the winter of IS47 and IS48. He was then licensed to practise law, and in June of the latter year established himself at Metro- polis City, Massac county, where he was professionally oc- cupied during the ensuing five years. At the expiration of that time he removed to Marion, in the same State, where he had passed many of his earlier years, and became asso- ciated with his father, Willis Allen, then practising at that place, in connection with whom he rapidly secured an ex- tensive clientage. In IS54 he was elected to the Legislature from the countics of Johnson and Williamson, and acted with that body until the spring of 1855, when he resigned his position as a member. Ilis resignation was the result of his appointment as United States District Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, in which capacity he acted until the spring of 1859, residing in the meanwhile at Marion, where he was engaged in legal practice associated in part- nership with John A. Logan. This latter position he also ultimately resigned, and was elected Circuit Judge of the twenty-sixth judicial district, succeeding his father in that office. The circuit judgeship was occupied by him until June, IS61, and in the performance of its attendant functions he exhibited the possession not only of sound judgment and inflexible rectitude, but also of admirable moderation and knowledge of a varied and valuable character. In the fol- lowing November, he was elected a member of the Constitu- tional Convention, and served prominently with this body until the termination of its labors. In IS62 he was chosen

to fill the unexpired term of General John A. Logan in the Thirty-seventh Congress. Subsequently he was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress, with which he served as an active coadjutor until the close of the term for which it had been selected. Prior to this, in 1860, he was a Delegate from the State of Illinois to the Charleston and Baltimore Con- vention, serving efficiently as a member of the committee on credentials. Also in 1868 he was appointed a Delegate to the New York Convention, serving as a member of the com- mittee on resolutions, and again in IS69 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, with which he acted until its dissolution. From 1865 until 1874 he resided permanently in Cairo, and since then has lived in Carbon- dale, where he possesses not only an extensive and remuner- ative clientage, but also the confidence and esteem of the entire community. During the past quarter of a century he has occupied a leading and influential position in the State, and has been instrumental in securing to it, and in a par- ticular manner, to his county, the many benefits arising from a rapid and profitable development of the resources, natural and artificial, of the country in general. A skilful and learned jurist, and an upright and able statesman, his is a record free from stain or shadow. He was married in De- cember, IS58, to Miss McKeen, formerly a resident of Williamson county, Illinois.

UNNING, CHARLES WINTHROP, M. D., was born at Auburn, New York, April 15th, 1828. His father, Lucian Dunning, was engaged in mercan- tile pursuits, and died about IS34; his mother, Mary (Tuttle White) Dunning, is still living, at the age of sixty-nine. He was educated at the Gam- bier College, Ohio, and upon abandoning school life began the study of medicine under the instructions of Dr. G. W. Hotchkiss of Nashville, and Professor Joseph N. McDowell of St. Louis. After the completion of his allotted term of probation, he graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the State of Missouri, in 1850. He subse- quently accepted the position of Assistant Resident-Surgcon at the Hotel for Invalids, a private hospital, established in St. Louis. He continued occupied in that institution for a period of two years, and then removed to Centralia, Illinois, which was his home for about four years. Thence he moved to Cairo, in the same State, ultimately his permanent resting- place. Throughout 1861 and IS62 he had charge of the United States Hospital at Mound City, Illinois, from where he returned to Cairo, there remaining until 1865. In 1863 he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago; this professorship, however, he declined. In 1865 he was appointed Professor of Physiology and Materia Medica for the Medical Department of the University of Missouri, and this professorship also, in conse- quence of business at Memphis, he was compelled to decline.

Paraxy Pub to Philod

John Al Addang

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The possessor of a high order of natural talent, fully devel- oped by a thorough course of elementary training and sub- sequent study, experience and research, he is widely known as a skilful practitioner, and a man of varied attainments. In addition to his customary duties attendant on the large practice conducted by him, he is often called beyond the bounds of his usual circle in order to give his attention to cases of a peculiar or aggravated nature. In politics he has from his earliest days been a zealous Democrat, and is an able upholder and defender of his party's principles and actions. He has been an enthusiastic Freemason all his life ; has been twice elected and served as Eminent Commander of Cairo Commandery, No. 13, Knights Templar, and is at present holding the above position. He was married in 1849 to Amanda Shannon, of Sparta, Illinois, by whom be- fore her decease in 1859 he had one son, who is living. Subsequently he was again married, to Ellen O. Dashiell, who is still living, and by whom he has had one child, a girl, also living.

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 33

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