The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 49

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

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cuit Courts for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, embracing the | conducted with skill and care. Ile is a man who has car- States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He has pub- lished already five volumes of cases thereto appertaining. These reports are accompanied with foot notes and refer- ences which give an additional value to his works. He is generally regarded as a rising young man in the profession.

ried his business activity into public life, and has by his wise counsel and his practical support done much to im- prove the material prosperity of the place of his residence. He is generally respected for his capacity as a merchant and banker, and for those social qualities which always lend a charm to his presence in the affairs of private life.

SOOLD, CHARLES H., Banker, was born in Churchville, Moore county, New York, July 16th, TEARNS, OWEN E., Homoeopathic Physician, was born in the town of Phelps, Ontario county, New York, August 20th, 1827, his parents being Joel and Nancy (Edmonston) Stearns. He was educated at the Phelps High School, and upon leaving this institution commenced the study of medicine, for the practice of which he developed early an inclination. He entered the Homoeopathic Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, pursued its full course, and graduated with a fine record in 1850. In the spring of the following year he removed to Freeport, Illinois, where he began his practice and soon acquired a substantial reputation for skill and efficiency, and secured a very large and lucrative patron- age. He was subsequently elected Vice-President of the first Homeopathic Medical Society of northern Illinois, being then quite young in the profession. He has at all times a deep interest in movements for promoting and per- fecting the existing systems of popular education, and is now President of the Board of Education of Freeport, having been a member of this body six years. In a very great measure to his cfforts is due the high standard attained by the schools of that city. Both professionally and socially he stands in high estimation, and ever since his residence in Freeport has been regarded as one of its leading citizens. Ile is one of the senior practitioners of that placc, and the success of his labors has to a very large degree popularized the system of homeopathy. 1816, being the son of Henry L. Goold, a clothier. His early education was obtained mainly in the common schools of his neighborhood. He quitted them, however, when quite young, to engage as a clerk in the dry-goods business in Genesee county, New York, remaining in this capacity until the year 1841. He then took a stock of goods successively to Louisiana; to Hannibal, Missouri; to Rock Island, Illinois; and Flint, Michigan ; making sales at each place and then moving on to other sections. These ventures, mainly, were in the in- terests of other persons who employed him, and their result was generally satisfactory. His early career proved him to possess business talent of no common order, and the experi- ence which daily he gained in the discharge of weighty responsibilities placed upon him by his enrployers rendered his subsequent and self-conducted mercantile career one of profit and honor. In 1845 he moved to Lemont, Illinois, and entered the service of contractors engaged in construct- ing the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and in November of the same year went to Morris, remaining in the same connection until that great public improvement was completed. In 1846 he was married to Laura A. Baker, of Genesce 'county, New York. In the following ycar he entered mer- cantile business in Morris, in company with John P. Chapin, of Chicago, and erected the first warchouse and the first store of any size in that town, and bought the first grain which was ever shipped from it. For a time he served as Postmaster of Morris. After continuing the grain business for four years with much success, he sold out his interest and was led by circumstances into a regular land and rcal OIINSON, HON. MADISON V., was born in Green county, Ohio, January 7th, 1817. Ilis parents were Dr. Joseph Johnson, Professor of Medicine and Dean of the Faculty of St. Louis College, and Hannah (Adair) Johnson, both of whom were natives of Virginia. He was educated at the St. Louis University, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1839, at Louisville, Kentucky. After practising IS42 and settled at Shawneetown. In 1843 he went to Galcna, where he has since permanently resided. For many years he has been occupied by a very extensive busi- ness, and as a defending lawyer in criminal cases has been especially successful. He is prominent and influential in political affairs, but has never held any office but that of estate business, in which he has engaged ever since. There are probably few men in Illinois who have conveyed more land than he has. IIe has become one of the most prom :- nent insurance men of the State, having been the first to issue a policy in the town of Morris. He has been, ever since its organization, a stockholder and officer in the Grundy County National Bank, and in 1871 became its President, retaining that position at present. He is one of in this State for a brief period he removed to Illinois in the School Trustees of Morris, and President of the Morris Bridge Company. There are no enterprises for the im- provement of that place or its county which have not re- ceived his hearty co-operation and support. He has acquired an ample fortune by industry alonc. His prosperity is the result, not of any adventitious aid, but of business enterprise

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Presidential Elector, although at different times nominated for several important positions-once as Governor of the State-all of which he has declined. During the war he was importantly identified with all the peace measures. He was the author of the Peaee Resolution passed at one of the largest mass meetings ever held during the war, at the State capitol ; and as a part of the history of the country, and par- ticularly as embodying his views, it is deserving of record in this connection :

Resolved, That the further offensive prosecution of the war tends to subvert the Constitution and government, and entail upon the nation all the disastrous consequences of misrule and anarchy. That we are in favor of peace upon the basis of a restored Union, and for the accomplishment of which we propose a national convention to settle upon terms of peace which shall have in view the restoration of the Union as it was, and the securing by constitutional amendments such rights to the States, and the people thereof, as honor and justice demand.

Such movements, and his known opinions in such matters, led to his arrest in August, 1862, and he was confined, first in the Inner Temple, and later in Fort Lafayette. He was subscquently removed to the House of Detention, New York, and then to Fort Delaware. The arrest aroused con- siderable feeling in the State, and through the influence of his friends he was at length released unconditionally. Im- mediately after his discharge he entered an action against those connected with the arrest, which resulted in his own vindication and their condemnation, and in addition to this, a confession was spread on the records of the injustice of the arrest. In 1873 he organized and promoted the estab- lishment of the Galena & Southern Wisconsin Railroad Company. The line extends from Galena to Platteville, and is intended to be completed as far as Madison, Wiscon- sin, in order to reach the zine mines of that State, and to place Galena directly in the route of traffie to this mineral- bearing region of the Northwest. He was its President during the construction of the road, and has since taken a warm interest in its prosperity and successful management. He is a lawyer of unusual capability, and has conducted to successful issues many cases of peculiar difficulty and im- portance.

OUGHTON, HORACE HOSKINS, Printer, Jour- nalist, and Postmaster of Galena, was born in Springfield, Vermont, October 26th, 1806. At the age of six years he was left fatherless and in poverty. From his ninth to his eighteenth year he lived with Enos Brown, a farmer, whom he served faithfully, and who was a faithful friend to him. In October, 1824, he went to Woodstock, Vermont, to learn the printing business of Rufus Colton, the publisher of the Woodstock Overseer. There he worked as an apprentice for three years, receiving as compensation his board and fifty dollars per annum. In 1827 his apprenticeship expired,

and he secured employment as journeyman printer for Richard Boylston, at Amherst, New Hampshire. In the spring of 1828 a proposition was made to him to take charge of the Vermont Statesman, at Castleton, Vermont. On arriving there he found that the office had been disposed of to a Mr. Bush, and he decided to proceed to New York city. He there secured work at once in the office of Harper & Brothers, where he remained for several months. He was then employed on the old Central Gazette of Lang & Turner. It was a morning paper, and the work was per- formed chiefly in the night, and for this reason he soon after relinquished his position in its office. He then worked in Boston, and in September, 1828, had another invitation to go to Castleton and take charge of the Statesman, accepted it, and controlled its publication until 1834. He was then, as he has ever since been, a conscientiously ardent politician, was an enthusiastic and inflexible supporter of Henry Clay and his party, and " would have sunk his own personal cxistence if that would have elected him to the Presidency in 1832." He rapidly became an influential leader of political opinion, and where his paper circulated the locality espoused Republicanism with noted earnestness. He was in all probability the first one who conceived the idea of printing the first sides of a newspaper at some central point, and sending the sheets so prepared to be published in other places. In that way he published the Vermont Statesman ; the Rutland Herald ; the Voice of the People, at his native town, Springfield; the American, at Middlebury; and the Gazette, at Vergennes, at the same time. His idea in this was to lessen the expense of the business of publishing newspapers in country towns, to give the readers more news, both general and local, and to thus neutralize in a measure the overpowering force of the eity papers of New York in that section of the country. In 1834 he took with him to New York a power printing press, some parts of which were and have since been of great value to his craft. It was the frst printing press ever seen in New York with the con- trivanee attached of throwing off the sheet after it was printed, by means of fingers, now attached to all the large power presses. By means of that invention the Adams Power Press became a complete book press, and the Hoe machine and other eylinder presses were greatly improved. While residing in New York he formed a resolution to re- move to the West, and being without money-his invention proeuring him no pecuniary recompense-he travelled on foot from this city to Philadelphia, where, however, he failed to seeure employment. He thence walked to Down- ingtown, where he found work, and laid aside sufficient money to meet liis eurrent expenses on the long journey of some five or six hundred miles to Marietta, on the Ohio river, a distanee which he traversed afoot. He went by the way of Baltimore, Harper's Ferry, and the National road. On his arrival at Marietta he found himself in possession of sufficient funds to pay his passage in a steamboat to Cinein- nati, where he worked at his trade until the ensuing spring.

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He then moved to Louisville, but disliking the atmosphere | Illinois. IIe was here engaged in the service of the Illinois of slavery, passed on to St. Louis, where he found employ- Central Railroad Company on the construction of their road, and on its completion went to Chicago. In the summer of 1854 he finally settled in Sterling. Here he again worked for the railroad contractors, and afterwards on the building of the dam across the Rock river at this point. In 1855 he established himself in business in partnership with Thomas M. Russy, opening a grain warehouse and dealing in coal, and also running an express. He soon bought out his part- ner's interest, and then continued the business alone until 1864. He had previously (in 1860) also established a small banking business, which grew until in 1864 he finally quit the grain and coal business and devoted himself exclusively to banking. IIe continued the private bank until 1871, in which year it was merged in the First National Bank of Sterling, in which he became Cashier. He was the first City Treasurer of Sterling, and held the office for several years. He also served as School Director for eleven years. In 1860 he was married to Helen McCune, of Sterling, who died in 1871. ment in the office of the Missouri Republican. He subse- quently removed to Galena, Illinois, and there engaged in mining for lead at New Diggings. In the following fall hc returned to Galena to prepare a syphon with which to take off the water from some ranges in the vicinity. Sylvester M. Bartlett was at that time supporting in his paper-the Northwestern Gasette and Galena Advertiser-IIugh E. White, of Tennessee, for the Presidency. Harrison and Webster also were candidates, and Mr. Bartlett was about to change the political tone of his paper to that of neutrality. Van Buren was then the Democratic candidate, and against him Ilenry A. Wise, of Virginia, delivered in Congress a powerful and scathing philippic. "I told Mr. Bartlett that I would set up that speech in type without charge if he would publish it. Ile assented, and the effect was such that nothing more was ever heard about neutrality of the Gasette." Soon after this event he became associated with Mr. Bartlett as part proprietor of the Gazette, becoming ultimately, by the payment of $1500, as he thought, solc owner and controller. An irregularity in the transaction, however, compelled him subsequently to pay a sum exceed- ing in amount the compensation received by Mr. Bartlett. In 1842 he sold the Gazette office to W. C. E. Thomas, now of Green Bay, accepting a mortgage on the same for a part of his pay. In the following year he reassumed the control of the paper, and in 1848 was again its sole proprietor, and remained connected with it, as whole or part owner, until 1863, when he disposed of his entire interest to Brown & Shaw. He was subsequently a resident for some time of the Pacific slope, returning finally to Galena, where he tem- porarily resumed his old occupation of printing. At the present time he is postmaster of Galena, and one of the most widely known and respected men in Joe Daviess county and the surrounding region. Of him it was said in " Har- per's Magazine " of April, 1866: " There appeared among the miners, in the spring of 1835, H. H. Houghton, a printer from Vermont, who has since made his impress upon the mining region as editor of the Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser. Commencing his career 'prospecting as a miner,' he ' drifted' into the editorial chair, which he has occupied (1866) since the autumn of 1835, and is thus the oldest editor in the State of Illinois, respected for his ability and his private virtues."

ANBORN, WILLIAM A., Banker, was born in Cattaraugus county, New York, January 13th, 1832. His parents were Joseph T. Sanborn and Annie B. (Blaisdell) Sanborn. He received a common school education. In 1852 he went to Chicago, and in the fall of the same year returned to New York. In 1853 he again moved West to La Salle,

ORRAIN, JOHN, Secretary and Director of the Galena & Southern Wisconsin Railroad Company, was born July 29th, 1812, in Germantown, Penn- sylvania, being the son of John and Lydia (Shew- ell)- Lorrain. His father, a French Huguenot, was a prominent dry-goods merchant of Philadel- phia, and his mother's father, Stephen Shewell, was a heavy shipping merchant of the same city. An aunt of his mother married Benjamin West, the celebrated historical and Scriptural painter, and a sister of his mother became the wife of Leigh Hunt, the author. He was cducated in Ger- mantown, and upon leaving school, about the year 1829, he became Assistant Engineer on the Germantown Railroad. In 1830 he was engaged in laying out the Beaver Meadow Railroad from Beaver Meadow to Mauch Chunk. Subse- quently he surveyed twenty-seven thousand acres of land for Paul Beck, and after this surveyed sixty-one thousand acres near Pottsville for Stephen Girard. In 1832 he came to Galena, Illinois, and became a clerk in a store. Hc parti- cipated in the Black Hawk war during the same year. In 1838 he entered into business on his own account as a wholesale grocer, and continued it until 1858, when he pur- chased the Galena Gas Works, of which he is now half owner. He still manages these works. He is Secretary and Director of the Narrow Gauge, or Galena & Southern Wisconsin Railroad Company, and is extensively engaged in lead mining, being part owner of the Illinois & Wisconsin Mining Company. For more than forty years he has been connected with mining operations, and has himself been actively engaged in it. He is a man of large means, of keen business qualifications, and of irreproachable charac- ter.

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UFORD, GENERAL JOIIN, of the United States | a fine disciplinarian, a brilliant strategist, and a courageous -- leader. While firm as a commander, he was kind to his subordinates, and by his gentleness as well as by his bravery won their enduring affection. Army, was born at Versailles, Kentucky, March 4th, 1826, being the son of Colonel John Buford, who removed to Rock Island, Illinois, and be- came a member of the State Senate. In 1844 he was sent by his father to West Point, from which he graduated in 1848, and entered the cavalry service. He had for this service a decided preference, and distinguished YERS, PHILIP, Lawyer and Real-Estate Opcrator, Was born, November 28th, 1830, in Kingston, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Thomas and Saralı (Borbidge) Myers. His pa- ternal grandfather (whose name he bears) and grandmother, Martha (Bennett) Myers, were among the sturdy patriots of the Revolution, amid the thrilling scenes of which they spent their earlier years at Wyoming, and when full of days were there laid to rest " on Susquehanna's side." His father was at one time Sheriff of Luzerne county, and is now a resident of the city of Williamsport in the same State. Philip enjoyed the educational advantages afforded by the Wyoming Sem- inary at Kingston, where he was fully prepared to enter an advanced class in Dickinson College at Carlisle. He matriculated in that institution in 1849, and graduated there- from in the class of 1851, receiving the degree of A. B., and subsequently that of A. M. in course. After leaving college he became one of the professors in the Wyoming Seminary, where for three years following he taught the classics and mathematics, and during this time became a pupil of the late Chief Justice George W. Woodward, with whom he read law. In August, 1855, he was admitted to practice at the bar at Wilkesbarre, in his native county. Shortly after this he removed to Iowa, where for a time he became engaged in the location of lands and in other real estatc interests, and then settled at Oskaloosa, in that State, and commenced the practice of his profession. Here, in 1857, he formed a copartnership with the Hon. Samuel A. Rice, then Attorney-General of Iowa, which association was continued with great harmony and success until its dissolution by reason of the war in the fall of the ycar 1862, when General Rice entered into the service of the United States for the suppression of the Rebellion. He died in 1864 from wounds received in the service. In November, 1866, Mr. Myers was married at Ottawa, Illinois, to Miss Mary Isabella Cowen of that city, and in the spring of 1868 they removed to Chicago, where they still reside. Mr. Myers has confined his attention there mainly to real estate in- terests, city and country, and has not actively resumed the practice of the law. IIe has, however, for several years filled a chair as one of the professors in the Union College of Law at Chicago, the college constituting the Law De- partment of the University of Chicago and the Northwestern University. Professor Myers is also an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association of that city, and one of its Board of Trustees, and fills a similar position in himself in his career as a soldier. He was promoted in the 2d Dragoons, now the 2d Regiment of United States Cavalry. Intellectually and physically, he was destined to attain honorable eminence in his chosen profession. In early youth he was a splendid horseman, an unerring rifle- shot, and a person of wonderful nerve and composure. He served under General Hasing as First Lieutenant and Quartermaster on his Sioux expedition in 1855, and dis- tinguished himself in the action of Blue Water. At the breaking out of the late Rebellion he was Captain in the 2d Dragoons, stationed in Utah. He returned East with his troop in 1861, under orders to report at Washington, District of Columbia. He was then made Assistant In- spector-General, with the rank of Major, in which capacity he served until July, 1862, when his superior abilities for a cavalry command caused him to be promoted to Brigadier- General in command of a brigade of cavalry in the army of Virginia. In less than ten days after his elevation he gallantly led his troops into battle at Madison Court House, Virginia. After a series of successful engagements, he was made Chief of Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. This occurred in September, 1862. IIe engaged in the actions at South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg, in this capacity. In May, 1863, he led a successful raid within ten miles of Richmond, to the southwest, and in the fol- lowing June had command of both cavalry and artillery in a battle at Beverly Ford, where he achicved a triumph. Then followed numerous engagements, which were crowned with the victory at Gettysburg on July 1-3d, 1863. Hc enjoyed successively the friendship and confidence of the several commanders of the Army of the Potomac, Mc- Clellan, Burnside, Hooker and Meade. His last action was at Bristol Station, October 14th1, 1863. Soon after this he was prostrated by disease occasioned by two years of constant exposure, beginning in the march from Utah and continuing until November, 1863. Hc went to Washington on sick leave, and died there December 16th, 1863. Be- fore his death he had the satisfaction of finding his gallant and valuable services rewarded by his promotion to the position of Major-General of volunteers. His death was the occasion of general mourning. It was the wish of his brothers to have his remains interred at Rock Island, but they acceded to the wishes of the rank and file of the Ist Cavalry Division, which he commanded, and by which he was beloved. IIis surviving comrades buricd his remains at West Point, and erccted a monument which commemo- rates his services and death in his country's cause. He was | the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church there. He was

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for some years a Director of the Washingtonian Home for [ by the Chicago Medico-Historical Society, under whose the Reformation of Inebriates, and has ever taken an active part in all matters pertaining to the cause of religion and temperance. With a strong p.edilection for agriculture and its interests, as well as for all things touching real estate, its uses and development, he is thoroughly identified with the great agricultural West, in whose natural metropolis he has of late years made his home.

ACKSON, ABRAHAM REEVES, A. M., M. D., was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 17th, IS27. His father was Washington Jackson and his mother Deborah Lee Jackson. He rc- ceived his education entirely in the public schools of his native city, and graduated at the Central High School in 1846, subsequently receiving from that insti- tution the degree of Master of Arts. Purposing to embrace the profession of engineering, he entered the machine shops of Merrick & Towne as an apprentice, but after remaining there eight months he resolved to study medicinc. Ac- cordingly he became the pupil of Dr. John Wiltbank, who was at that time Professor of Obstetrics in the Medical De- partment of Pennsylvania College. From this institution he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1848. He commenced the practice of his profession in the village of Kresgeville, Monroe county, Pennsylvania, where he remained one year. He then removed to Col- umbia, Warren county, New Jersey, where he stayed less than a year. He next settled at Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pennsylvania, where he was actively engaged in practice over twenty years. In the summer of 1862 he entered the United States Army in the capacity of contract Surgeon, and was appointed Assistant Medical Director of the Army of Virginia. After occupying this position about three months, he was attacked with typhoid fever and was obliged to re- turn home. In 1867 he accompanied the Quaker City Ex- cursion from New York to the Mediterranean and the Holy Land as Ship's Physician. In May, 1870, he removed to Chicago, Illinois. Soon after commencing the practice of his profession in that city, he conceived the idea of estab- lishing a free hospital, to be devoted exclusively to the treat- ment of diseases peculiar to women, and, enlisting the support of a number of prominent men and women, he worked energetically to attain the end in view ; ultimately, September Ist, IS71, a charter was granted incorporating the " Woman's Hospital of the State of Illinois." To this institution he was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief. In the winter of 1872 he was appointed Lecturer on Diseases of Women by the Faculty of Rush Medical College; and in the following spring, as a testimonial of appreciation of his services and abilities, the same institution conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D. In the spring of IS74 he was elected editor of the Chicago Medical Register

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 49

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