The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 56

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

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attached to him a host of warin personal friends. He is a man of culture, and interests himself in all movements that tend to heighten the intellectual as well as the more material welfare of the people of his city. He was married, October 19th, 1865, to Martha E. Brown, daughter of Rev. Harvey Brown, of New York city.

ELAND, EDWIN SHERMAN, Lawyer and Judge, was born in Dennysvillc, Maine, August 28th, IS12, being the son of Sherman Leland, a prominent lawyer, at one time President of the Senate of Massachusetts, and for the last twenty- three years of his life Judge of Probate of Norfolk county, Massachusetts. When two years of age his family removed from Dennysville, Maine, to Massachusetts, set- tling in Roxbury. Here he attended the common schools, and when twenty years of age commenced to read law in his father's offiee. IIe made rapid progress in his studies, and on September 15th, 1834, was admitted at Dedham to the bar of Massachusetts. He continued one year longer in that State, and then removed to Ottawa, Illinois, where he cntercd upon the practice of his legal profession, having bcen admitted to the bar of Illinois on January 16th, 1836. Ile remained at Ottawa until 1839, and then went to Ore- gon, Ogle county, Illinois, where for four years he practised with eneouraging success. On the 20th of April, 1840, he was married to Margaret B. Miles, of Boston. He returned to Ottawa in 1843, and has resided there ever since. Here he continued his professional dutics, winning a high reputa- tion as an advocate, and being prominent in the trial of all the more important eauses which elaimed the attention of the bench, until 1852, when he was chosen Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, comprising six counties, to fill the unexpired term of Judge Dickey, who had re- signed. He filled this station until the expiration of the term, and then resumed his practiee, which was carried on until 1866. In that year he was appointed by the Governor of the State to fill the unexpired term of Judge Hollister, as Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, and when the period for which he was appointed expired, he was, in June, 1867, elected by the people to the same bench for the full term of six years. His circuit then covered Kendall, Bureau, and La Salle counties. In IS73 he was chosen by popular vote as Judge of the Sixth Judicial Cireuit of the State, embrac- ing the counties of Bureau and La Salle, for another period of six years, and still holds that position. In 1856 he was elected Mayor of Ottawa, being the first Republican in that position, and was for one term Treasurer of Ogle county. He has also been President of the Board of Education of Ottawa, and has been very prominently identified with the development of educational interests in that eity for years. Ile was chosen President of the Judicial Convention held at Chicago more than ten years ago, in which Judge Charles

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B. Lawrence received his nomination. Judge Leland's nime is very closely linked with the origin and formation of the Republican party, if, indeed, he was not the actual projector of that organization. In June, 1854, he drafted, to be circulated for the signatures of those dissatisfied with the position assumed by both of the then existing parties upon the slavery question, a call for a mass meeting to be held at the court-house in Ottawa on the Ist of the follow- ing August. At this assemblage, which was a very large as well as a very distinguished one, he presided, and a plat- form of principles which had been drawn up by him was adopted. A new party was organized, taking its name " Republican " from one of the resolutions adopted at this meeting. At the outset it was simply a State organization ; but the principles which it avowed were affirmed within a short time in every other Northern State, and the result was that it flowered out into a new national party. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Convention of February 22d, 1856, as one of the members of the National Committee which, on March 28th, 1856, at Washington, District of Columbia, called into being the Philadelphia National Republican Convention, in which, on June 17th, 1856, Fremont was nominated for the Presidency. It will be seen from this that to Mr. Lcland is due the credit of hav- ing taken the first practical steps toward the creation of the

new political party in whose subsequent councils his voice was so potential. He has graced the bench for many years, and his decisions-which cover the entire ranges of the law -- are both models of logic and rhetoric. He is a profoundly read jurist, and is ready and accurate, when estimated from a purely legal standpoint, in all his rulings. As a municipal officer he was active in the discharge of all his varying duties, which were fulfilled with no common degree of ability. His record is one of ceaseless civil and professional activity, and his name is held in the greatest respect for his conscientious and able exercise of his judicial functions, as well as for his publie spirit and usefulness as a citizen.

ORRILL, GENERAL JOIIN, was born in Con- cord, New Hampshire, June 3d, 1827, being the son of Marcellus Morrill, a farmer. Ile attended the common schools of his native place and worked upon his father's estate until his thirteenth year, when he removed with his parents to Ottawa, Illinois. In the year 1846, being then but nineteen years old, he entered the army then organizing for the Mexican war. IIe served one year in the Ist Illinois Infantry, par- ticipating in the battle of Buena Vista, in the same company with William, afterwards General Wallace. Returning after this period of campaigning to Ottawa, he commenced in 1343 the running of a canal boat on the Illinois & Mich- igan Canal, working also in a gun shop. In 1849 he beeame involved in the then prevailing gold fever, and

crossed the plains and mountains to California, where he engaged in mining. Meeting with little success in this venture, and gradually failing in health, he determined to return to Ottawa, reaching that place in 1851. He re- commenced his labors in the gun shop, of which in a short time he became proprietor. He soon sold out his interest and purchased a farm in the town of Wallace, near Ottawa. In 1854 he was married to Ann Mitchell, of Ottawa. When the rebellion broke out his old military ardor, which he possessed in no small degree, revived. He raised a company of sharpshooters, of which he became Captain, and with this command was mustered into service in the 64th Illinois Regiment as Company A. In the spring of 1862 they entered the field at New Madrid, Missouri, and proceeded thence to Fort Pillow, thence to Cairo, and thence up the Tennessee river to Hamburg Landing. They led the advance on Corinth, and were in the thickest of that fight. For gallantry and skill displayed in this battle Captain Morrill was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the 64th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on the following recommendation of the general commanding :

" Respectfully forwarded through Major-General Grant, begging him to join in recommending Captain Morrill for promotion to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Yates Sharp- shooters (64th Illinois Infantry). Since the death of Major Matteson the entire charge of this battalion has fallen on Captain Morrill, and he has discharged his duties not only creditably but ably. The command has improved under him, and fought splendidly in the battle of Corinth.

(Signed) "W. S. ROSECRANS, Major-General."'

In January, 1864, he returned North with his regiment on veteran furlough, for the purpose of recruiting his deci- mated ranks. On the 9th of the ensuing February he was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, and shortly after returned to the South, his immediate destination being Decatur, Alabama. From this point he marched to Chat- tanooga, and with his fine command was in Sherman's ad- vance on Atlanta. He was prominent in the battles of Resaca, Rome Cross Roads, Dallas, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, and in the fight at Atlanta on July 22d, 1864, in which he was shot through the shoulder and badly wounded, while in command of a brigade. He was placed in the military hospital at Marietta, where he remained a short time and then returned home on sixty days' leave of absence. Having partially recruited his strength he joined his regiment, though still suffering from his wound, and was assigned to light duty, with orders to report to General Dodge, then in command of the Department of Missouri. IIe was placed in charge of the district of Rolly, Missouri. On March Ist, 1865, for his bravery and distinguished ser- vices, he was brevetted Brigadier-General, remaining in command of his district until the close of the war. Upon his return from the field he resumed his labors upon his farm at Wallace. His wife died July 21st, 1865, shortly after he reached home. On September 27th, 1869, he was

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in no less than forty-two battles and heavy skirmishes, and received, in addition to his serious wound in the shoulder, one other deep flesh wound. His uniform was pierced seven times by bullets which merely grazed the skin. He . was in every battle, nerving the command he led by his own exhibition of dauntless courage and determination. He early in life displayed an inclination for a military career, and when a mere boy drilled a company of his associates. He is a fine disciplinarian, with rare capacity for deploying or mobilizing troops. While he was firm as a commander, he was kind to all his subordinates, whether of the rank or file, and earned their lasting esteem. He is now engaged in agricultural pursuits, and is highly respected as a public- spirited and substantial citizen.

married to Visa Conger, of Prairie Contre, Illinois. His | of Yalc. Graduating in the class of 1856, he immediately record during the war was a brilliant one. He participated after returned home. In the meantime his father had opened a private collegiate institute at Baton Rouge, and he spent the three years following in teaching and studying law. During the last year he attended the Law School of the University of Louisiana, and graduated, valedic- torian, in 1859. In August of that year he went to Memphis, Tennessee, and opened a law office, having barely attained his majority. Notwithstanding his passing a brilliant examination, his extreme youthfulness was greatly against the quick acquisition of a clientage, and he consequently, in 1860, accepted a situation in the office of Master of Chancery, a position he occupied till the war broke out, in 1861. Fifteen days after the fall of Sumter he left Memphis and went to New Haven, Connecticut, and was warmly received by his grandfather, Rev. Dr. Heman Bangs. Naturally this course elicited severe criticism from his Southern friends, but he had imbibed too deeply from old Yale and his New England grandparents the principles of freedom; they had become too thoroughly his own con- victions for him to regard any other consideration than maintenance of what he conceived to be right. So he was loyal to himself and to his country, rather than to mere ties of blood. In June, 1861, he moved to Chicago, began practising law, and has continued to devote himself entirely to his profession. During the war, while his views werc radical in the extreme, he could not bring himself to take up arms against his blood relatives, and so he refraincd from all participation in political discussion or movements. Upon the death of Judge William Mather, in 186S, he was appointed his successor as Master of Chancery, discharging its duties in connection with those of a large and constantly increasing practice. Possessed of large ability, a close and acute reasoner, a diligent student, and guided by the highest principles in all his relations, he bids fair to attain a high position at the bar.

AVENPORT, BAILEY, Mayor of Rock Island City, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 16th, 1823, being the son of Colonel George Davenport. He was educated at the St. Louis University. Ilis father was engaged in the fur trade, originally on his own account, and subsc- quently with the American Fur Company, having his head- quarters on the island at Rock Island, Illinois. ITis sons, including Bailey, all aided him in this business, and upon his withdrawal from the American Fur Company, in IS42, his sons continued to reside on the island, engaging in farming and real estate operations, which were successfully conducted. In 1856 Bailey moved to the city of Rock Island and continued in agricultural pursuits and in real estate business. He laid out additions to Moline and Rock Island. As early as IS32 he, with his brother, broke the first furrow in the State of Iowa, under treaty with the Indians to secure the right. In 1860 he was elected Alder- man from the Third Ward of Rock Island City, and from IS61 to 1865 he was Mayor of that city, being re-clected in 1873 and serving until 1875. In 1874 he was Township Collector of Rock Island township. IIe is a leading agri- culturalist, and is highly csteemed by his fellow-citizens for his public services.

AGRUDER, BENJAMIN D., Lawyer, was born in Jefferson county, ncar Natchez, Mississippi, on September 27th, 1838. IIis early boyhood was spent on his father's plantation, which had been in the possession of the family since the beginning of the present century. From his father, W. II. N. Magruder, a graduate of the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut, and a college professor, he rc- ceived his first instruction, and by him he was prepared for college at the age of fourtcen. Then he became a student duties have become merely nominal, the lines of that com-

ATLIN, THOMAS DEAN, Manufacturer, was born in Clinton, Oneida county, New York, March 12th, 1838, being the son of Marcus Cat- lin, a professor of mathematics in Hamilton Col- lege, Clinton, in which institution he spent the whole of his active career. He first attended the academy in Clinton, where he prepared himself for a col- legiatc course, and then entered Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 1857. In the following year he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, where he was appointed Station Agent, acting in this capacity for five years. Upon the expiration of this term of service he became Secretary of the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, mainly owned by Judge Caton, to whom he was related. For five years he continued in this office, since which time his

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piny having been in 1867 leased to the Western Union Telegraph Company. On October 10th, 1866, he was mar- ried to Helen C. Plant, of Utica, New York. In 1867 the Ottawa Glass Company was organized, and he was elected its Secretary and Treasurer, and now remains in charge of its works. He is a Director of the La Salle County Loan & Trust Company, and for two years was a member of the Ottawa Board of Education. IIe is a valued member of the Christian Church and of society, and is highly esteemed for his private and public services.

ITCHCOCK, CHARLES, Lawyer, was born in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, in 1827. He was educated at Hanover, New Hampshire, graduating at that place in 1851. He then went through the law course at the Cambridge Uni- versity, graduating in 1854. Afterwards he re- moved to Chicago, and has resided there, in the practice of his profession, ever since. He has attained a high position in the front rank of the legal profession, and is among the best known and most highly esteemed of all the lawyers of the Northwest. He is a man of remarkably even develop- ment. His character and abilities are exceedingly well balanced, and no quality has developed at the expense of others. As a lawyer he apparently has no specialty. He is very versatile, and appears to be equally good and equally effective in all departments of his profession. Whatever unevenness there is in his professional character goes to make him a better attorney than anything else. In his office he is a very superior lawyer, and his opinion is of high value. His mind is clear, active, comprehensive, and accurate in all its operations, and arrives readily at reliable and sound conclusions. His habits are methodical, and his well-arranged ideas shape themselves into the sharpest and best-selected expressions, conveying the exact idea in the fewest possible words. His knowledge of the law is deep and comprehensive, and his clear mental processes enable him to make all his knowledge at once available. Hence his opinion, quickly formed, is decisive and valuable. His opinions on commercial law are admitted to have no superior anywhere. His mind is not readily capable of confusion, and no conflict of authorities can involve his conclusions in obscurity. Clearly and without embarrass- ment he thinks his way to the proper conclusion, through no matter what entanglement of antagonistic authorities. He is an excellent advocate, also, though his excellence in this direction is not so marked as in the one just alluded to. Ile is called a fine speaker. He has a clear voice, a grace- ful style, and an imposing presence; but he does not deal in emotions at all. Ile is cold and phlegmatic in his speeches as in his character. He lacks imagination, and the touch of eloquence that impresses the listener as well as convinces him is not present. He is logical, clear, and

forcible, and will generally win the juror who happens to be of an eminently logical temperament. Ile argues supremely ; but most jurors have feelings as well as reason that must be touched, and these he never touches. He is to a very considerable extent a moralist also, but he is first of all a lawyer. He would not engage in an unjust cause unless deceived by his client ; but the first point to which he makes up his mind is the technical, legal bearing of the case, and then comes the consideration of its moral aspects. The moral qualities are subordinate to the legal value of any case, and yet he is by no means unmindful of the moral qualities. Personally he is tall, with a large, portly figure, and is altogether a fine-looking, imposing gentleman. His face does not specially indicate intellect, and expresses energy in repose rather than in action. Ilis eyes are gray and rather sleepy in their expression. His forehead is high, and looks higher than it is because of slight bald- ness. His hair and whiskers are gray. He has fine social qualities, a large fund of available information aside from his legal knowledge, and outside of his profession as well as within it is greatly respected and highly esteemcd.

TILES, ISRAEL N., Lawyer, was born on a farm in Suffield, Connecticut, in 1833. He remaincd here, working on the farm in the summer and going to the district school in the winter, until lie was sixteen years old. Subsequently he read law a year, and at the age of nineteen he removed to Lafayette, Indiana. IIere he resumed his law studies, and soon took a school to teach a few miles out of town. During the day he attended to his duties as school teacher, at night he taught singing school, and together with all the rest kept up his reading of law. The following year he opened a private school, and continued in connection therewith to prosecutc his legal studies until 1855, when he was admitted to the bar. About the time of his admission came the burning of Lawrence, Kansas, and at a public meeting called on account of this calamity, he made a speech that astonished all present by the oratorical ability it displayed. He rose rapidly into prominence after this, and during the Fremont-Buchanan campaign he was to a certain extent a political power. He made sixty-six regu- lar speeches through the country-one of them being de- livered in Music Hall, Boston, and another in Augusta, Maine. For two years subsequently he was Prosecuting Attorney, and afterwards was elected to the State Legisla- turc. When the war broke out he was just getting into a fine legal practice. He married at this time, and raised a company the same month. Some one else managed to obtain the captaincy of his company, and he then enlisted as a private, but was made Adjutant of the 20th Indiana Regiment. At Malvern Hill he was captured, was in Libby Prison six weeks, and was then exchanged. He was

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subsequently made Major of the 63d Indiana Regiment, | ing business (private), continuing it under the firm style then Licutenant-Colonel of the same regiment, and finally of Gould, Dimock & Co., until 1363. The First National Bank of Moline was then established, and upon its organi- zation he was appointed to the cashiership, occupying that office until 1867, when he became the President of this institution, a position which he has since retained. In 1853 he was elected County Judge, serving creditably through the term of four years, and exhibiting admirable qualities befitting the office whose duties he ably fulfilled. From 1857 to 1361 he was Postmaster of Moline, and in IS56 was elected a member of the School Board and Trustee of the Township School Board. At the present time he is Treasurer of the Township School Board. He is not excelled in the county as a financial agent and manager, and his efficient and far-seeing conduct in the transaction of the business of the First National Bank, coupled with a recognized energy and prudence, has won for that institution the entire confidence of the general community. He was married, in 1848, to Alice Chase Moulton, of Vermont, who died in Grand Detour, in the same year. Ile was again married, in 1850, to Hannah M. Dimock. Brigadier-General, his commission dating from the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. When the war ended he removed to Chicago, where he practised law alone until 1867, when he entered into a partnership with Judge McAllister. Two years after this he was elected City Attorney. As will be readily seen, he is a man of extraordinary versatility and energy. In his profession he is more of an advocate than an attorney, and he has few superiors at the Chicago bar in the trial of causes. His management of a case is very adroit, and he has great power and quickness of repartee, and a remarkable ability to avail himself of any sudden emergency and turn it to the advantage of his client. As a ready, fluent, and logical speaker, he has few or no equals of his age in the Northwest. IIc always appcars sincere, and besides his wit and humor has rare pathetic power. In the preparation of his cases he is usually clear and complete, and is carefully armed with all the necessary authorities. He is of slender form, medium height, has rather swarthy complexion, keen, full, dark eyes, and a full, dark beard. IIe converses well, has a talent for pleasant satire, possesses a fine fund of anecdote, and is greatly popular. IIe is still young, and has a fine futurc before him.

OULD, JOHN M., Judge, President of the First National Bank, of Moline, Illinois, was born in Piermont, Grafton county, New Hampshire, February 24th, 1822. His parents were Amos Gould and Nancy H. (Bartlett) Gould. His

education was acquired in the common schools in the vicinity of his home. In early life he was occu- pied in working on a farm, attending school irregularly, and also in his father's tan yard, and in a shoe shop. In IS40 he found employment in a general store, as clerk, and remained there until 1843. In this year he broke his leg, and, during the ensuing twelve months, was conse- quently debarred from taking an active part in labor or business. In 1844 he removed to Grand Detour, Ogle county, Illinois, where, after serving three years as a clerk, he was admitted as a partner in a dry-goods and notion store, remaining associated in that connection for one year. In 1848 he removed to Moline, Rock Island county, in the same State, and formed a partnership with John Deere, manufacturer of ploughs, under the style of Deere, Tate & Gould, which, after an existence of about four years, was dissolved in 1852. Later in the same year he associated himself in partnership with Dewitt C. Dimock, for the making of wood ware, and also the prose- cution of the lumber trade; and in 1868 the business was formed into a joint stock company, with Dewitt C. Dimock, President, and J. M. Gould, Vice-President. In 1857 he, in conjunction with Dimock & Co., commenced the bank-

ELL, KERSEY II., Lawyer, was born, May Ist, 1815, in Chester county, Pennsylvania; is a son of Jesse Fell, formerly of that section, and a descendant of Judge Fell, who emigrated from England to America in 1705. Kersey attended a common school until he attained the age of seventeen ; then entered a boarding school in West Brad- ford township, in his native county; and subsequently taught school. In 1836 he removed to Bloomington, Illinois, where his parents and several of his brothers also became residents previously or subsequently. His first employment there was as clerk in a mercantile establish- ment. While considering the subject of a permanent occupation, and inclining to the study of the law, but doubting his fitness to undertake it without additional education preparatory thereto, he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, who was then studying law at Springfield, and discussed the matter with him. Finding that Lincoln's educational advantages had been consider- ably less than his own, he took Lincoln's advice, and began his legal studies without further preliminaries, occu- pying his leisure hours with the reading of law, while pursuing his former employment for a livelihood. Soon after this time he was appointed Circuit Clerk, with power to organize De Witt county, which was formed from parts of Macon and McLean counties; and the organization being effected, he held the clerkship from 1838 to 1840; when he returned to Bloomington, and was made Deputy Circuit Clerk of McLean county under General Covel. In the winter of 1840-41 he was admitted to the bar, and formed a copartnership with Albert Dodd, a promising

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 56

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