The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 58

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

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AKER, DAVID JEWETT, Lawyer, and Judge of the Twenty-sixth Circuit of Illinois, was born at Kaskaskia, Randolph county, Illinois, Novem- ber 20th, IS34. His parents were David Jewett Baker and Sarah Tenery (Fairchild) Baker. His father was born in Connecticut, and moved to Illinois in ISI9, and for a brief period was United States Senator from Illinois, and during his lifetime was a leading

and prominent lawyer, and the personal friend of Alraham Lincoln, S. T. Logan, and Chief Justice Breese. His cdu- cation was acquired at the Shurtleff College, in Upper Alton, Illinois, from which institution he graduated in 1854. De- eiding subscquently to embrace the legal profession, he en- gaged in the study of law, and was thus occupied during two consecutive years. Ultimately, after passing the re- quired examination, he was licensed to practise law, and since his admission to the bar in 1856, has been constantly and successfully engaged in professional duties, either at the bar, in the office, or on the bench. In November of the latter year he removed to Cairo, where he rapidly secured an extensive and remunerative clientage. In politics he has always been a supporter of the Republican party, and upon various occasions has ably sustained its principles and vin- dieated its course of action. He has held several municipal offices, and from 1864 to 1865 was Mayor of Cairo. In March, 1869, he was elected Judge of the Nineteenth Cir- euit, and in June, 1873, was elected to the Circuit Judgeship of the Twenty-sixth Circuit, an office which he still retains. HIe has performed all public trusts with efficiency and fidelity, and as Judge of the Circuit Court has, by his integ- rity and ability, won the confidence and esteem of the entire bar. Endowed with innate talents of a high order, they have been fully developed by a course of thorough elemen- tary training, and subsequent study, experience and research ; and his rulings and judgments are characterized by sound- ness of logic, clearness of expression, and coneise accuracy. In all matters connected with the social and political status of his State and county he has always manifested a warm and generous interest, and in many ways, while acting in a public eapacity, has been instrumental in eonducing to their onward march and improvement. He was married in July, 1864, to Sarah Elizabeth White.

EXTER, WIRT, Lawyer, was born in Dexter, Michigan, in the year 1833. Samuel Dexter, his grandfather, was not only a lawyer but a states- man. He was a member of the cabinct in John Adams' administration, and Daniel Webster, in his great speech against Hayne, paid a lofty tribute to the great constitutional lawyer. Samuel Dexter and Franklin Dexter, father and uncle of Wirt Dexter, were also lawyers of great prominence. At one time Samuel was a Territorial Judge in Michigan, and subsequently resumed the practice of the law in the town of Dexter, which he had founded. This town was the birth-place of Wirt Dexter, and here he resided until he removed to Chicago somc six- teen years ago. He attended the schools in his native State for a time, and spent a short period at Ann Arbor, but left there before taking his degree, and went to one of the East- ern colleges. For some time before removing to Chicago he was in the lumber business in the Michigan pine regions,

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and he devoted a portion of his leisure time to making po- [ he was called to teach languages in Miami University in litical stump-speeches. His oratorical efforts at this period are said to have combined the characteristics of Methodist exhortation and far-Western cloquence. As we have said, he removed from Michigan to Chicago, and there he en- gaged again in the lumber business for a time. He left that occupation to study law, becoming a student in the office of Sedgwick & Walker. He was admitted to the bar in due course of time, and his progress in his profession has been very rapid. He is now recognized as standing in the front rank of the legal army, and illustrates anew the heredi- tary transmission of talents. He is superior both as an ad- vocate and as an attorney. As an advocate he always speaks well and effectively. His speeches are always full of mean- ing, and are of a character clear, elevated and comprelien- sive. He speaks with an earnestness that convinces his hearers that he is convinced that he is right and fully be- lieves what he is saying. There is never an opportunity for forgetting that it is a gentleman and a scholar of refine- ment who speaks; and the humor that sometimes is displayed in his speeches is never of the low comedy order. Pure, clear and epigrammatic, his best speeches are models. As a counsellor he is profound, able and reliable. He is "learned in the law," but his own originality of mind guides him most surely in his conclusions. He studies his books closely, but rather for corroboration than for author- ity, and appears to regard them rather as witnesses than as judges. He judges the case in which he is interested by the standard of right and wrong, and if he judges it to bc wrong will not engage to support it. Trickery he abom- inates, and litigation, save as a last resort, he discourages. Hle will not advise a suit unless he knows his client to be in the right, and believes a lawsuit to be absolutely the only resource. Men know this, and hence the great confidence with which he is regarded. He has fine social qualities, occupies a high social position, is genial and affable, luxur- ious in his habits, artistic and refined in his tastes, liberal in the extreme, and popular among all his acquaintances.

WING, REV. PROFESSOR DAVID, was born, August ISth, 1830, in Cincinnati. He is of Ger- man parentage, his grandfather being from the province of Alsace, along the disputed frontier between France and Germany, and his father be- ing previously to their living in Cincinnati a resident of New Jersey. In all his early life he struggled with poverty and sickness, and indced has never been pos- sessed of very good health. His preliminary education was obtained in Cincinnati and in Oxford, Ohio. Hc at length entered Miami University, where he graduated in IS52. He then studied theology a year at Cincinnati, when rebuilt church.

1854. Hle filled this professorship for twelve years, when in 1866 he received a call to the pastorate of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, of which church he is still the pastor. He was married in 1854 to Elizabeth Porter, daughter of a physician. They have two children, daughters. During the great fire of 1871 his church and parishioners were completely burned out, and they were very much scattered; so that instead of resuming worship on their old ground, in the North Division, they met for a time with him in Standard Hall, a spacious building be- longing to a Jewish organization, and afterward he preached for a while on the Sabbath in McVicker's Theatre, as being a still more centrally located point. Now, however, they have rebuilt a beautiful church upon their old quarters, and are once more gathercd together as a scattered family might be. For a few years past Professor Swing has been steadily and powerfully growing into public favor as a preacher of the very first order. During his ministrations in the theatre crowded audiences evinced the popular in- terest in him, and at that time his audiences werc largely miscellaneous assemblies, many of his hearers not having been regular attendants upon divine service. He is an eloquent speaker, eloquent in a plain homely earnestness, an utter absence of all staginess, or attempt at oratory, and a manifest entire forgetfulness of self, and a devotion to his work. His voice is not pleasant, nor is his enunciation particularly attractive, and it is hard for a stranger to analyze the impression made in hearing him, or tell the secret of his power ; but the charm is there, as the public have found out long ago ; and by many he is even considered the most eloquent minister in the city. As a man he is exceedingly plain and unassuming in manner. To the world at large, outside of Chicago, he is perhaps best known as connected with the great ecclesiastical trial of " Patton vs. Swing " before the Presbytery, and afterward before the Synod, he being charged with holding doctrines heretical to the Pres. byterian faith. He was, after a prolonged trial, acquitted before the former body, and convicted before the latter of heresy. He is the editor of The Alliance, and as ready in his utterance in the field of literature as in the sacred desk. The people of his church arc warmly attached to their pastor. During all the progress of the famous and trying ordeal through which he passed his Christian bearing and forbearance, and freedom from animosity, won the respect and outspoken sympathy of a large additional circle of friends and admirers. After the rendering of the above verdict, he decided to prevent all occasion for further pro- ceedings by withdrawing from that denomination and en- tering the Congregational body. In consequence of the universal satisfaction with his preaching, after the fire he was urged to occupy some large temple or tabernacle in the hcart of the city, but he declined all such proposals and returned to preach to his old parish on North Side in their

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OONE, HON. LEVI D., M. D., ex-Mayor of | 1836 to Chicago. Herc he ceased practice for a while, be- Chicago, was born, December Sth, ISOS, ncar Lexington, Kentucky. He is a grand-nephew of the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone. The father of the latter emigrated from England, first to Pennsylvania, where Daniel was born, and afterward to North Carolina ; from whence the adventurous spirit of young Boone led him to penetrate still farther into the wilderness, and at last to settle in Kentucky, his wife and daughter being the first white women who ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky river. In this adventurous move he was accompanied by his brother, Samuel, who soon after his arrival was killed and scalped by the Indians. A son of his, named Squire Boone, at length became affianced to Anna Grubbs, of Virginia, and as there was, in the wilderness then composing the westernmost of the two counties into which the entire State of Kentucky was di- vided, no clergyman or authorized magistrate to perform a marriage ceremony, they crossed to the other bank of the river, in the eastern county, where they were married in due form, under the shade of a large tree. Squire Boone became afterward a distinguished Baptist minister of Ken- tucky. Dr. Boone * was the seventh son of this marriage, born while his parents were surrounded by the ravages of Indian warfare ; his father, with the men of the settlement, fighting them in the field, and his mother and the other women defending the garrison with firearms, axes and boiling water. At the battle of " Horseshoe Bend " Boone was shot through the hips, receiving a wound from which he never recovered ; and before he was ten years of age Levi was left fatherless, and his mother a widow without inheritance. Educational advantages were scarce, but hc applied himself, and, with heroic efforts on the part of his mother, he was enabled to complete his medical studies at Transylvania University at the age of twenty-one. In the spring of 1829 he removed to Illinois, spending one year in Edwardsville, and afterward establishing a practice in Hillsboro, Montgomery county. Very soon, however, the people of Illinois were startled with the sound with which his ancestors had been so familiar, the war- whoop of the Indian. The Black Hawk war was upon the country ! Faith- ful to the antecedents of his family, Dr. Boone was the first man from his county to answer the call for volunteers, and at the head of a company of cavalry served out that period of enlistment. At the second levy of troops he enlisted as a private, but was immediately appointed Surgeon of the 2d Regiment of the 3d Brigade, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. In March, 1833, he was mar- ried to Louisa M. Smith, daughter of Hon. Theoph. W. Smith, at one time a Judge on the Supreme Bench of the State. After six years practice in Hillsboro he removed in

ing engaged as Secretary of the Chicago Marine & Life Insurance Company, and subsequently in a contract on the canal. The financial crash following soon after, he re- sumed his profession, in the practice of which he continued without intermission in Chicago until 1862, when failing health required a change of occupation. His retirement caused a general regret among his old patients, and many of the oldest families still clung to him for advice. Of a nature sympathizing and tender, but in critical moments cool and firm, his presence was always hailed in the sick chamber with confidence. He proved himself especially unflinching and faithful in the visitation of cholera. At its first advent he was chosen City Physician, and acted as such for three years. For three terms he was elected an Alder- man, and in 1855, the city having grown during his resi- dence from a population of four thousand to nearly a hun- dred thousand, he was elected its Mayor. The period covered by his term of office was an eventful one for the city, and business was intenscly active. The High and Re- form Schools were put in operation; the grade of the city cstablished, and also its sewerage system; and the famous Nicholson pavement introduced. In 1862 the even tenor of his life was interrupted by an incident untoward in itself, and to a high-minded gentleman like him extremely pain- ful. On a charge of complicity in the escape of a rebel prisoner from Camp Douglas he was placed under military arrest by Coloncl J. H. Tucker, commandant of this post, and for some days confined in the camp, when, at the in- stance of President Lincoln, an order for his release was issued by the Secretary of War. The facts, briefly, were thesc : The doctor, who from the outset of the Rebellion had always proved himself loyal, and in many practical ways had, in common with the citizens generally, become interested for the welfare and relief-not release-of the rebel prisoners then in camp; and having been, at a large meeting held with this end in view, appointed one of the almoners of its charity, he assisted in distributing among them moncy, as well as other comforts. But after the cruel treatment received by Northern prisoners became known, an order was issued prohibiting further kindness of this sort. But the doctor had in the meantime, and before this order was promulgated, gone away on a business tour, and three weeks afterward, during his absence, a clerk of his paid over, on an order from one of the prisoners, as he had been directed to do, a small balance of money which the prisoner's mother had left in Dr. Boone's hands for the relief of hcr son. And out of this simple fact grew the cry of disloyalty and the arrest ! That no such imputation was true was both before and afterward proved by the doctor's abundant efforts in behalf of the national cause, and his personal labors in relieving our own wounded at the front without charge or pay. Ile was also the first man in the city to advocate inducements to enlistment by private bounty, and himself offercd a city lot, or forty acres of farm lands, to the widow

* It will be seen by this account that his grandfather was Samuel, and not Squire, Boone, as was erroneously stated in another account of his life published several years ago.

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of the first volunteer from the city who should fall in his country's defence ; and a widow of one of the soldiers under Mulligan received that bounty from his hand. The above explanation of the arrest, and statements with regard to his patriotism, are no more than simple justice to the man thus wronged. The following copy of a letter received from Colonel Tucker years afterward tells its own story and closes our allusion to this affair :

" NEW YORK, August 17th, 1869. " Hon. L. D. BOONE, Chicago, Illinois.

" MY DEAR SIR :- My attention has been called to some biographical notices of prominent citizens of Chicago, recently published ; among which is a brief sketch of your- self, in which reference is made to your arrest in the sum- mer of 1862, at Camp Douglas, upon a charge of complicity in the escape of a Confederate prisoner. A pleasant duty is suggested to me, my dear sir, by reading the sketch above referred to, and which I hasten to perform by addressing you this hasty note to-day :- that nothing whatever was de- veloped during the investigation of the case referred to which in any way implicated yourself as conspiring for the escape of the prisoner. And, for myself, permit me to say that I never doubted your true and sincere loyalty to the country throughout the entire period of its greatest crisis. "I am, my dear sir, very respectfully,

" Your obedient servant, JOSEPH II. TUCKER, " Colonel commanding Camp Douglas in 1862."

Dr. Boone afterward became Financial Agent of the western department of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Boston, having charge, more particularly, of its investments and securities ; and though now well ad- vanced in years, and at an age when many would retirc from business, he is still actively engaged in the duties of this position. At the age of seventeen he made a profession of religion in connection with the Baptist denomination, and now for half a century has been a member and much of the time an officer of that church; having of late years contributed princely sums toward the erection and mainte- nance of the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, of Chicago, to which he belongs; and where he has also been actively engaged in the Sabbath-school work. He was one of the first to lend his counsel and co-operation to the formation of the University of Chicago, and has been for a long time a Trustee of its General and Executive Boards, and from the beginning a large contributor to its funds. He is also the President and largest stockholder of the Chicago Zinc and Mining Company, in Kansas. His wife is still living, and they have a family of six children, two sons and four daughters ; and ten grandchildren.

HELPS, OTHNIEL B., retired Real Estate Agent, was born in Potter's Hollow, Schoharie county, New York, February 18th, 1821. He is a cousin of Potter Palmer, and was born in the same settlement, which was named after the family, and lies at the intersection of three counties. His father was a farmer, and he worked on the farm summers

land attended school winters until sixteen years of age, when he entered a country store and remained there four years. He then started a tannery establishment in Oswego county, in which he was engaged for ten years. He was married in 1850 to Miss Stecle, of Windham, Greene county. In 1860 he went to Chicago, and entered the dry- goods store of Potter Palmer, in which he was engaged for five years ; at which time Mr. Palmer sold out, and invested heavily in real estate in Chicago, himself residing in New York, travelling in Europe, and otherwise absent much of the time. During all this period, and until quite recently, Mr. Phelps had charge of his interests in the Garden City, superintending the construction of buildings, etc .; when, in the spring of 1874, he retired from active life. Like his cousin he possesses a marked talent for business, and has proved himself useful in the discharge of the responsible positions which he has held.

OODY, DWIGHT L., Evangelist, was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, February 5th, 1837. His educational advantages in youth were very inferior and limited, nor had his religious nature been developed any more than his intellectual en- dowments. At about the age of eighteen he went to Boston to obtain a business training in the establishment of an uncle. He one day went into the church of Rev. Dr. Kirk, where he heard a powerful sermon which convicted him of sin ; he resolved not to go there again. But on the next Sabbath he returned, and the impression was deep- ened. Just then his Sabbath-school teacher called upon him, and to him he unburdened his mind. The result of this talk was the conversion of Mr. Moody. He applied for admission to the church soon after, but was counselled by the committee to delay a profession until he could more clearly apprehend the fundamental truths of Christianity. His parents were Unitarians. About a year later he prc- sented himself again to the committee and was received into the church. Soon after he attended a prayer-meeting, and rose and spoke briefly. At the close of the meeting the pastor took him aside and kindly advised him not to speak in the meetings, but that he might serve God more acceptably in some other way. Other attempts on his part met with similar discouragement from several good people. In the fall of 1856 he went to Chicago, where he entered into business for himself. Desiring to be useful he entercd a Sunday-school and asked that they would give him a class to teach : he was told that they had plenty of teachers, but that space would be given him to teach if he would gather a new class. He accordingly went out upon the streets, and the next Sabbath brought in eighteen boys. This was the beginning of his mission to the masses. IIe enjoyed bringing them in so much, that, instead of teaching the class himself, he handed it over to another teacher, and

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went on recruiting elass after class until the school was filled. Soon after he began to entertain the idea of starting a mission sehool of his own in a neglected portion of the city. Ile consulted the clergymen in that seetion, but they unanimously dissuaded him from the attempt : on further reflection, however, he decided to make the trial, and accordingly with a few associates he began the " North Market Hall Mission," in a hall that was used Saturday nights for daneing, and which they spent the late hours of the night and into the morning in eleaning out for the pur- poses of their sehool. Here the sehool was held for six years, attended both by encouragements and discourage- ments. Finding it an unsuitable place for prayer-meetings or Sabbath services, he rented a saloon that would hold about two hundred persons. In this dismal place, with policemen on guard about the door, he gathered the poor and vieious to teach Christ to them. Little then did he · imagine himself occupying the vast and splendid halls of Great Britain in which he has recently preached the same word. Ile early saw that among such a population the meetings, to be suceessful, must be lively and interesting, and, appreciating the power of song, secured the assistance of a good singer; thus he established a hold, divided the sehool into classes, and then condueted it much in the usual way. The interest on the part of the children soon drew in some of the older people, and conversions began to occur. Mr. Moody urged them to connect themselves with various churches. But they did not feel at home, or contented to do so. Gradually, therefore, he felt constrained to take charge of them and supply them with Christian instruction. About this time the revival of IS57-58 occurred, which led to the formation of the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago, and the establishment of a daily union prayer- meeting. He was very active in this meeting, and at one time when its attendanee had diminished to three or four persons, he, by personal efforts, indueed more than one hundred to join the praying-band. His school and church had steadily inereased, and now the former numbered about | but a few months, until the completion of his church. On

one thousand in attendance. He resolved to give up his business and devote his whole time to the work. When asked how he expected to live, he replied, " God will pro- vide, if he wishes me to keep on ; and I will keep on until I am obliged to stop." And since that time he has de- [ eided to make the attempt ; which they did in several small

elined receiving any salary from any individual or society, trusting solely for his maintenance to what it might be put into the heart of Christian people to give, being himself destitute of private means. And this same resolve has been fully carried out in his recent work in Great Britain. But, while adopting this method for himself, he never pressed it upon others, and is himself the steady friend of and co-worker with the salaried ministry. His work so grew upon his hands, that in 1863 a large building, costing, with the lot, $20,000, was ereeted for him on Illinois street, where he gathered a church of three hundred members, preached Christ to a crowded assembly, and conducted a

flourishing Sunday-school. John V. Farwell, a wealthy Christian merchant of the eity, one of Mr. Moody's oldest friends in the West, and now President of the Young Men's Christian Association, provided him with a house, which was beautifully furnished by other friends, and thus he was eared for, and thus his great work went on, until the sudden shock of the great fire of 1871, which destroyed his church and his home, and he only eseaped with his wife and two children, and his Bible. This Bible he now uses. About five years ago he began that diligent, special study of the Seriptures which has so fully and wonderfully furnished him as an expounder of their truths. To pursue this study he formed the habit of rising at four or five and studying it until breakfast. Five weeks after the fire " The North Side Tabernacle " was begun, and completed in thirty days ; a wooden structure of one story's height, and seating fifteen hundred persons. Here the meetings went on. It was afterward decided to build a larger and more substantial church, costing $100,000, and with twenty-five hundred sittings. And while this should be in process of construe- tion Mr. Moody decided to go to England with Mr. Sankey and preaeh there. The Christian Commission, during the war, found him a hearty, energetic, whole-souled helper. At one time he had charge of the Chicago branch, and afterwards went down to the field, administering to the needy both spiritual and material comfort. In 1865 he was elected President of the Chieago Young Men's Christian Association, and, with the choice spirits around him, brought about a new era of growth and power in that association. He also was the means of infusing a new life and interest into the State Sabbath-sehool conventions. As was mentioned, after the fire he entered upon the work in England : he had been there twice before, originally for the health of himself and family, and had formed those English friendships which led to his being invited to labor in that country ; but he could never see his way clear to do so until just at this time, and went over intending to remain their arrival they found, to their utter surprisc, the two friends both dead upon whose more partieular invitation they had come, and upon whom they had relied to pave the way for them to speak to the people. They, however, dc-

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 58

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