The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 55

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

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AVAGE, REV. GEORGE S. F., D. D., Financial Secretary and Treasurer of the Chicago Theologi- cal Seminary, was born in what is now Cromwell, Connecticut, June 29th, 1817. He was early left an orphan, both parents dying before he was fifteen years old. At the age of fourteen he united with the church, and seven years afterward was led to devote his life to the ministry, and entered the class of 1844 at Yale. After graduation he spent one year in theological studies at Andover, Massachusetts, and two years at New Haven, graduating in August, 1847. On September 28th, 1847, he was ordained as a home missionary at Middletown, Connect- icut, and on the same day was married to Elizabeth P. Prudden. The next day he left for the West, with a com- mission from the American Home Missionary Society to any open field of labor in northern Illinois or in Wisconsin. The following November he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Congregational Church at St. Charles, Illinois, where he remained for twelve years; nearly four hundred being added to the membership during that period. For four years of the time he was connected with the religious press, as Corresponding Editor of the Prairie Herald and the Con- gregational Herald, published in Chicago. In 1859 he was " drafted " from the pastorate, which he greatly preferred to any other work, into the service of the American Tract Society of Boston, as Secretary for the West, and removed to Chicago, January Ist, 1860, where he has ever since re-

sided. He continued in this service ten years, devoting most of his time during the four years of the war to sani- tary and religious work in the army, in camps, hospitals, and on battlefields. In 1870 he became the Western Secre- tary of the Congregational Publishing Society, continuing in that relation two years, when he accepted the post of Finan- cial Secretary (and since has been appointed Treasurer also) of the Chicago Theological Seminary, which position he now holds. As supplementary to his official duties, he pub- lished and was for three years Associate Editor of the Con- gregational Review, which after the great fire was merged in the New Englander. As a Trustee of Beloit College for twenty-five years, and a Director of the Chicago Theo- logical Seminary from its first inception in 1854, he has sought the interests of higher education in the West. In 1870 he received the honorary degree of D. D. from Iowa College. To a friend he wrote, after the great fire : " I have been privileged with an abundance of hard work, which I have greatly enjoyed ; and although I have twice been ' cleaned out ' by fires, the last of which-the great fire of Chicago in 1871-swept away home, library, the fruits of study for all the past, and the accumulated household treasures of many years, I have wanted for no needful good thing, and live in blessed hope, through Christ Jesus, of an eternal inheritance in the better land." He has a general oversight of the affairs of the seminary, beside duties at the installation and ordination of ministers, which require his presence in many localities outside of the city, and which make him well known throughout the Northwest.

LOOMFIELD, GENERAL IRA J., Teacher, Lawyer and Soldier, was born, November 27th, 1835, in Butler county, Ohio, and is a son of John Bloomfield, a descendant of Governor Joseph Bloomfield of New Jersey. In the spring of 1837 his parents removed to Fulton county, Illinois, where in youth he endured the hard labor and privations incident to a frontier settlement, but which gave him a vigorous constitution, and laid the foundation of those habits of industry and frugality for which he is still distinguished. He there received such education as could be obtained in the common schools of a new country, but having a good memory he read attentively everything within his reach, which inspired him with a strong desire for a better education. He frequently requested to be sent away to school, but his father only possessed small means, and insisted that if his son was worth an education he could obtain it himself, otherwise it was useless to expend any money upon him. In the summer of 1854, having cut with a cradle forty-five acres of grain for his father, and worked ten days in harvest for the neighbors, for which he received fifteen dollars, his father gave this money, the balance of his time, and what few books and clothes he possessed, and

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he started out in life intent upon acquiring a good educa- tion. By alternately teaching and going to school, he ob- tained a fair English education, and some knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and for several terms at- tended the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. On his re- turn to Illinois he stopped at Bloomington, where he learned of a vacancy in the IHigh School, made application and was at once chosen Principal, and subsequently Superintendent of the city schools; he there remained until the outbreak of the Rebellion. He then enlisted as a private soldier, and rose by promotion through the several grades to that of Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers, taking part in all the marches, battles, sieges and campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, including the capture of Island No. 10, Corinth, Vicksburg, Atlanta and Savannah; the march with Sherman to the sea, and the return through the Caro- linas, ending in the grand review at Washington, District of Columbia ; and was finally honorably mustered out of service at Louisville, Kentucky, July 20th, 1865, after a little over four years constant service. He was engaged in twenty- eight hard-fought battles, besides almost innumerable skir- mishes ; had two horses shot under him in battle, and was himself twice wounded. After the close of the war he re- turned to Bloomington, where he studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar. In the spring of 1867, without any solici- tation or even knowledge upon his part, he was appointed United States Pension Agent at Springfield, Illinois, a posi- tion which he held for two years, and was then appointed Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the State of Illinois. - In April, 1871, he resigned, and resumed the practice of his profession in Bloomington, which he has since pursued with marked ability and success. In the winter of 1864, while home on veteran furlough, he married Kate I., daughter of Dr. Philip Young of Bloomington, his affianced bride before the war began. Their family consists of two interest- ing daughters, one of nine and two years of age. They possess a comfortable home, a reasonable competence, and a large circle of pleasant friends and acquaintances.

PRAGUE, ALBERT A., Merchant, was born in Randolph, Vermont, May 19th, 1835. IHis father was a farmer and general produce dealer. He first attended common school, then fitted for col- lege at Kimball's Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and entered Yale, where he graduated in 1859. It is a wholesome sign for a city when two of the heaviest grocery houses of the West are presided over by men of such education as A. A. Sprague and Franklin Mc Veagh, both graduates of Yale. Hle then assisted his father for a period, and in the spring of 1862 went to Chi- cago, and in company with Mr. Stetson started a wholesale grocery business. In the fall of 1862 he was married to Miss Atwood, of Royalton, Vermont, by whom he has one

child living, having lost two. After the first year the firm was changed to its present name and style of Sprague, Warner & Co. They were burned out in the great fire, and resumed business the very next day. Their business has grown to enormous proportions, having increased steadily from $200,000 per annum to its present figure of $2,500,000 ; they are doing, perhaps, the heaviest country trade of any house in the city. He is a Director of the Chicago Relief Association ; for many years was a member of the Third Presbyterian Church, and is now of the Ashland Avenue Presbyterian Church of Chicago. He is a gentle- man of high-toned integrity, having the respect of his com- peers in trade, and has brought the business steadily up to its present importance by his guidance and management, assisted by two of the most competent partners that could be selected ; his brother having a remarkably keen business ability, and Mr. Warner, the son of a banker, having been thoroughly trained in the school of finance; thus making a strong team, which may be looked upon as the coming grocery house of Chicago, if not already such ; all arc men of integrity and Christian character.

AMLIN, HON. JOHN, Pioneer Trader, Merchant and Banker, was born in Wilbraham, IIampden county, Massachusetts, October 25th, 1800. His father, John Hamlin, was formerly engaged in farming and agricultural pursuits. His education was acquired in the neighboring common schools of his native State, and also in a private academy, where he was a student during one term. In the summer months, while in his boyhood, he was engaged in laboring on the paternal farm, attending in the winter season the sessions of the public school. Upon the attainment of his sixteenth year he engaged in an itinerant trading business, selling notions of various kinds. In the spring of 1819 he moved about from place to place thus employed, and settled finally in Sangamon county, Illinois, where he opened a general store, and for eighteen months was engrossed in that busi- ness. In March, 1822, he took up his residence at Peoria, Peoria county, in the same State, where, with a few excep- tions, he has ever since permanently resided. In 1823 he entered the service of the American Fur Company, and re- mained in its employ during the ensuing three years, being stationed for two summers in Chicago. He subsequently opened a store at Peoria, the first ever established in that place, and continued in mercantile life until 1844. He was a resident of Chicago when, excepting the garrison of the fort, two families constituted the entire population of the place : viz., those of John Kinzie and John B. Banbean. He was then Justice of the Peace for Fulton County, which at that date included Peoria and Chicago. While engaged in mercantile business he erected a flouring mill on the Kickapoo river, the first one built in the county, and

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operated it for three years. Afterward selling it, he con- | taken to the White House by Senators Harlan and Brown- structed a steam flouring mill, controlling that also for a similar period. He built the first frame house and also the first brick house in Peoria. During the progress of the Black Hawk Indian war he supplied teams for the govern- ment, and organized at Peoria a company for home defence. In 1834 he was elected State Representative from Peoria, Chieago, and all the intermediate country. He was after- ward twice elected State Scnator. For eighteen years he was Treasurer of the Peoria School Board. At the present time he is a partner in the Peoria Savings Bank, and has been a stockholder and director of the Second National Bank of Pcoria, and in earlier times was one of the three County Commissioners of Peoria county. It was he also who in the infancy of Chicago joined in marriage the Indian agent Alexander Wolcott and the daughter of the pioneer John Kinzic. IIc was married, in April, 1827, to Cynthia Ann Johnson, a former resident of Springfield, Illinois.

GREGG, PATRICK, Physician, was born in Mayo, Ireland, February 12th, ISIo, being the son of John and Margaret Gregg. He was early in- structed in a private school, and subsequently hc entercd Trinity College, Dublin, and after pur- suing its course, matriculated in the Royal College of Surgeons, where he studied for two years. In 1832 he emigrated to New York, and went from there to Philadel- phia, where he studicd medicine at the University of Penn- sylvania and at Jefferson Medical College. Hc graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1834. After his graduation he removed to western New York, in Allegheny county, where he practised one year, and then started West, stopping first at Pittsburgh, then in sundry other Western citics, and finally, in 1836, settled in Rock Island, Illinois. Here he resumed his practice and continued it successfully until the breaking out of the rebellion. His patronage covered many counties, and in the fulfilment of his duties as a physician he attained a high reputation for carc and skill. In 1857-58 he was Mayor of Rock Island, and served with general acceptance in this office. In 1861 he raised a company of volunteers, and was commissioned Captain by Governor Yates in February, 1862. He joined the 58th Regiment Illinois Infantry, with his command, and participated in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, Tennessee. In the latter action he was captured by the enemy and sent as prisoner of war to Corinth. Thence he was taken to Mem- phis, to Mobile, and finally to Selma, Alabama, where he was imprisoned. He was again removed to Talladega, and again back to Selma. While a prisoner he was sent on parole with Major Stone, of the 14th Iowa Regiment, and Major Miller, of the 23d Missouri Regiment, to Washing- ton, District of Columbia, to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. They arrived in Washington in 1862, and were [ the list. This removed his parole, and he was not obliged

ing, and introduced to President Lincoln. Their mission as prisoners on parole was stated to him, and with that smile which was peculiarly his own, he said : " Well, gen- tlemen, you seem to be kind of plenipotentiaries from the court of Jeff Davis. This matter of exchange," he contin- ued, " is at present of much importance, and requires a call of the Cabinet, and it may be discussed in Congress. In the meantime you can go home and see your families." Then Mr. Harlan, who was then at the head of the Senate Naval Committec, presented a paper to Mr. Lincoln, which proved to be a petition for the pardon or reprieve of a sailor or marine who committed a murder on board a national vessel. The President scanned it closely and said : "Mr. Harlan, this paper, numerously and doubtless re- spcctably signed, assigns no reason, gives no mitigating cir- cumstances why I should interfere. I assure you I am extremely averse to the taking of human life if it can be avoided. There is timc, Mr. Harlan, between now and the period fixed for the execution, to get up another paper, with a recommendation of the court before which he was tried, and for proof of any extenuating circumstances which may justify my interference, and I will give it earnest attention." Then, with a facial expression indicative of the most pain- ful anguish, hc said : "Mr. Harlan, when coming out of the room in which lay my darling boy I was met at the threshold by a petition for the pardon of Nathaniel Gordon [a slave dcaler, executed in New York, February 18th, 1862]. In vicw, Mr. Harlan, of the heinousness of the crime, and my duty to humanity, I could not grant the praycr." And with tears streaming his cheeks, he contin- ucd : "And may heaven avert from me such another ordeal !" On the release of Messrs. Gregg, Stone, and Miller from the Confederate prison, on parole, they called at the White House, and General Prentiss addressed the President bricfly, saying : " Mr. President, we are very anxious to be exchanged, so that we may return to the field and get some satisfaction for our sufferings and the indignities heaped upon us while in rebel hands." The President replied : "General, I am as desirous as you or anybody else can be that our brave boys should have the opportunity you speak of; but "-and at the same time jingling a lot of coin in his breeches pocket-" we have not got the small change just now to make the exchange, but hope to have it soon." This conversation occurred soon after Harper's Ferry was surrendered by Colonel Miles, giving the rebels a larger preponderance of prisoners than the Union forces had. After their first interview with the President Mr. Gregg and his companions returned to Richmond in accordance with the terms of their parole, and the exchange of prisoners was not finally agreed upon. Meanwhile the prisoners at Selma had been removed to Madison, Georgia, to which place he and his comrades very soon made their way. While en route the exchange was concluded and he was included in

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to remain in Madison, but did so for some time in order that | manufacturing business; but being unsuccessful, returned to he might be with his son, who was also a prisoner of war at Rock Island in 1872 and repurchased an interest in the Argus, which he still retains. Mr. Danforth is a man of fine culture, with excellent qualifications for successfully conducting a newsy and enterprising paper. This he has made the Argus, and it has become one of the most influcn- tial journals in that section of the country. He is highly respected by his fellow-citizens for the ready support which he gives to all needcd improvements, and for his ability as a journalist. that place. IIc stayed at Madison two months, and then, when a general exchange went into effect, left for the North. In December, 1862, he was appointed Surgeon of the 23d Illinois Infantry, with rank of Major, and served until the fall of 1864, when he returned home and was ap- pointed Surgeon to the rebel prisoners at Rock Island. In September, 1865, the Western Armory was established at Rock Island, and was made a military post. He was chosen Post Surgeon, and has continued in that capacity ever since. He was married in IS41 to Sarah L. Whcelock, of Win- chester, New Hampshire. He was a delegate to the National Medical Association. He is one of the oldest settlers in the northwestern section of Illinois, and is highly estcemed as a practitioner, in which he has shown great skill and knowledge, and as a private citizen is active at all times in promoting all improvements for the intellectual and material benefit of the community in which he resides. IIc has done much to advance the interests of his profession, and is now onc of its leading members in the West.

ANFORTH, JOSEPH BAKER, JR., Editor, was born in Barnard, Vermont, August 31st, 1819, being the son of Joseph and Levinia (Eastman) Danforth. He was educated at the common schools of his native place, finishing his studies by an academical course. Until 1841 he was cn- gaged in his father's store. In that year he went to Boston and entered a dry-goods house, and in the following year returned to Barnard, where he started in mercantile busi- ness on his own account. For some time he filled the office of Postmaster. In IS45 he bought a half interest in the establishment of the Vermont Patriot, his partner being Charles G. Eastman, and he was engaged exclusively in the management of that journal until 1851. In this year he sold out his interest to his associate and removed to Rock Island, where he engaged in the hardware business, only briefly, however-selling out in the same year. In 1852 he purchased a half interest in the Rock Island Republican, a weekly newspaper, and during the same year he was clected Alderman of the city. In 1353 he became sole proprietor of that paper, and in 1855 changed its name to the Rock Istand Argus, having previously started a daily journal. From 1852 to 1356 he was Aide to the Governor of Illinois, with the rank of Colonel, and in 1856 he was a member of the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati. In the following year he was appointed Purser in the United States Navy, and was sent to the coast of Africa, where he served two years. In 1857 he sold the Argus on credit, and in I859, upon his return from Africa, he resumed the manage- ment and proprietorship of that sheet. In 1869 he again sold out and went to New York, where he engaged in a under it up to the present time; the only changes in the

USE, WILLIAM LEE, Capitalist and Ice Dealer, was born in Danville, Caledonia county, Vermont, March 9th, IS35, being the son of John Huse, hotcl-keeper. He attended school for one ycar in Danville, and in 1842 removed with the family to Chicago, where he entered the public schools and remaincd in them until his sixteenth ycar. To finish the studies he had so arduously pursued in the common schools, hc was placed in a select school for one year, acquiring for a youth of his age a substantial as well as pol- ished education. When seventeen he became a clerk in the wholesale grocery and commission house of H. G. Loomis, of Chicago, in which he remained eighteen months, fulfil- ling his new duties with intelligence and satisfaction to his employers. In 1853 he went to Peru, Illinois, and entered upon a clerkship in the forwarding and commission house of J. D. Harmon & Co., remaining with this firm also for the term of eighteen months, when he stepped into a new field of enterprise by becoming Captain of a steamboat ply- ing between La Salle and St. Louis. For four years he was engaged in this business, having been the Captain of several boats, and having further, in 1856, purchased one which he ran for three years. While in this linc of occupa- tion he had frequently towed ice down the Mississippi from the North, and learned that there existed a fine opportunity for a profitable business in the sale of ice in the city of St. Louis, and in 1860 embarked in it, associating with him in this enterprise his former employer, Mr. Loomis. They commenced at once the shipment of ice from the lakes to St. Louis, and in the fall of 1860 and 1861 built large storage houses in St. Louis holding five thousand tons. During the first year they passed in this commercial venture they handled eight thousand tons of ice, and were convinced by the result that their opinion of the remunerative charac- ter of the business was a just one. The trade, under the energy and life which they infused into it, increased with great rapidity, and in 1863 it was found necessary to pur- chase a steamer to tow their ice-laden barges down the river. Prior to this their towage was done by outside par- ties. In 1865 James L. Huse, brother of Mr. Iluse, and William Loomis were admitted into the partnership, the firm taking the title of Huse, Loomis & Co., and continuing

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membership having been the retirement of William Loomis and the admission of Luther Loomis, in 1875. The busi- ness has now grown into immense proportions through the rare business ability and ripe experience of its originator, William Lee Huse. He has given it his close attention, and at the most advantageous moments enlarged its facili- ties and scope of operation, until its aggregate annual trade is not surpassed on the line of the Mississippi. The firm is now engaged in putting up and shipping to the wholesale dealers at the various distributing points south of Peru, Illinois, more ice than is shipped by all the other dealers in the West. During the winter of 1874-75 they forwarded to St. Louis 35,000 tons ; to New Orleans 15,000 tons ; to Mem- phis 15,000 tons; to Cairo 3000 tons; to Columbia, Ken- tucky, 3000 tons; to Paducah, Kentucky, 1500 tons; to Evansville, Indiana, 1000 tons ; to Henderson, Kentucky, 1000 tons; to Nashville, Tennessee, 3000 tons; to Little Rock, Arkansas, 3000 tons; to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1000 tons, and to miscellaneous cities and towns an addi- tional 15,000 tons. Their shipments were all by water, using their own steamboats-now numbering six-for tow- ing fifty large barges. Their annual product and sales now reach 100,000 tons per annum, surpassing the aggregate of all the other large western dealers, and they employ during eneh winter and spring, in cutting, storing, packing, and shipping ice from Peru, La Salle, and Kingston, Illinois, and at Louisiana, in Missouri, about five hundred men. But their enterprise was not confined to eutting ice in the rivers and natural lakes, where the product was of varying quality. They secured lakes for their sole use, cxerted every precaution to render the water as pure as possible, and now send to the South the finest ice which it is possible to find in the northern belt of States. Mr. Iluse, while closely witehing the growing interests of this business, has found time to enter into other profitable mercantile and in- dustrial pursuits, as well as aetively participating in the civil affairs of his section. Twice he was clected to the Mayor- alty of Peru, serving each time with distinetion. He is now President of the Peru Bridge Company and of the La Salle and Peru Horse Railway Company. He is a large owner in the Peru Plow Factory, which is managed by the firm of Brewster, Dodge & Huse, and gives constant employment to seventy-five artisans. It is one of the most flourishing industries in that eity. IIe was a prominent promoter and an original director of the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, which revolutionized the method of shipping heavy produets and freights from the Northwest to the South, and at the same time greatly eheapened the process. He is still a direetor. In addition to all these large and varied pursuits he supervises the management of one of the finest farms in that section of the country, upon which he has many valuable trotters. He is a man of untiring industry and of the highest order of business eapacity. Ile has a quick and appreciative sense of humor, and his animation of spirits and social qualifications of no ordinary degree have

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 55

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