The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 6

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

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TURTEVANT, JULIAN MONSON, D. D., LL.D., was born at Warren, Litchfield county, tion was inaugurated. One year after, Rev. Edward Beecher Connecticut, July 26th, 1805, his parents having being selected as President of the college, he was chosen Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, holding that position until 1844, when he was elected to succeed Rev. Mr. Beecher in the Presidency of the institution. Since then he has confined his instruction to mental and moral science. Despite the numerous obstacles encoun- been Warren Sturtevant and Lucy Tanner, both natives of the same place. He is a descendant of Samuel Sturtevant, who was a farmer in the old Plymouth Colony in 1642. During his childhood his father removed to what is now Summit county, Ohio, and

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l. T. Miller

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

tered, the college has steadily grown in influence and [ moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he was admitted to the popularity, and now holds very high rank among our dis- bar, and where he has since resided, and conducted one of the most successful practices in northern Illinois, occupying a prominent position in the several courts of that section. Hle is regarded as a safe, honest, and reliable counsellor, and in private life is esteemed and respected by all who know him. Since his residence in Rockford he has been actively identified with the educational and moral interests of his adopted home ; and was for several years a member of the School Board of the city, and President of the County Sunday School Association. Personally, he is a genial, modest, unassuming man, of kindly disposition and winning manners; he is prominent in every enterprise looking to the development and improvement of the city, and the time others would spend in political affairs he gives to the ad- vancement of temperance and other moral enterprises which tend to make his fellow-men wiser and better. He was married in 1854 to Anna A. Robinson, of Enfield, Massa- chusetts, a graduate of the Mount Holyoke Female Semi- nary, and has a family of three children, one son and two daughters. He occupies a pleasant residence in the northern portion of the city. tingnished American educational institutions. It has a large and talented faculty ; is under the constant process of amplification to meet growing necessities, and shows yearly a decided increase in the students attending. It has an interest bearing fund of $130,000, and the aggregate value of all its property is from $250,000 to $300,000. It already counts among its alumni many of the most distinguished men of the State, prominent as statesmen, jurists and clergy- men. In 1840 Dr. Sturtevant's wife died. He subsequently married her younger sister, Hannah R. Fayreweather, who still survives. Three of his sons have graduated at Illinois College, one of whom is now a Congregational preacher in Denver, Colorado, and one a tutor in the institution. The third. died at the age of thirty-seven. Dr. Sturtevant has written voluminously for the periodicals, and his articles in the religious weeklies, " The Advance," " Independent," " The Congregationalist," " The New Englander " (quar- terly), and others, show him to be a writer of no ordinary culture. His style is smooth and fluent; his reasoning is clear and powerful; his descriptions the choicest specimens of word-painting. In 1863 he visited England and Con- tinental Europe, and as this was during the Rebellion he had frequent opportunities for ascertaining with much pre- cision the character of forcign sentiment regarding the North and South. Upon his return he delivered frequently and finally published a lecture on " British Feeling and its Causes." This discourse was republished in England, at the instance of Richard Cobden. Many years ago he re- ceived the degree of D. D. from the University of Mis- souri, and three years ago the degree of LL.D. from Iowa College.

AYLOR, HIORACE W., Lawyer, was born, Feb- ruary Ist, 1823, in Granby, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and is a son of the late Willard Taylor, a farmer in moderate circumstances, and who died in 1834. He was thus left at an early age dependent upon his own efforts. When fifteen years old he was apprenticed to the blacksmith trade, but after serving for four years he determined to abandon it, as he desired to possess a better education than could be gained by following such a pursuit. He worked his way unaided through the preparatory course previous to his entering col- lege, partly at the Amherst Academy and partly at Warren, Massachusetts. In 1844 he matriculated at Amherst Col- lege, where he maintained a high rank of scholarship, and graduated in 1848 with a rank among the first in his class, receiving in 1851 the degree of A. M. From 1848 to IS57 he was engaged in teaching, one year at Williston Seminary, at East Hampton, in his native State, and seven years at a Young Ladies' Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland. While at the latter city he became a law student, and in 1857 re- I which has since been successfully conducted by Dr. HI. M.

ILBUR, C. T., Physician and Superintendent of the Illinois Institution for the Education of Feeble-Minded Children, was born, May 18th, 1835, at Newburyport, Massachusetts, his father being the Rev. ITervey Wilbur, a Congregational clergyman, who was one of the pioneers in the establishment of Bible-classes, and who was probably the first to compile and publish a Bible-class text book in this country. He engaged in many literary and scientific labors, and was the author of a popular work on Astronomy, the compiler of a Reference Bible, and a lecturer upon natural history and astronomy. His son was fitted for college in the public schools of Newburyport, but failing health com- pelled him to cease close mental application for a time, and at sixteen he entered a mercantile house in Boston, and re- mined thus engaged until his twenty-first year, when in IS57 he commenced the study of medicine. While a student he became connected with the New York State Asylum for Idiots as teacher, and was led to the investigation of the various forms of dementia by an elder brother, Dr. H. B. Wilbur, who established in 1848 the first institution for the care of idiots in the United States, at Barre, Massachusetts, and who was at this time Superintendent of the institution at Syracuse. In 1858 he was called to assist in the organiza- tion of the Ohio State Asylum for Idiots, at Columbus, and was for some time employed as its Assistant Superintendent. In 1859, in May of which year he was married to Miss L. C. Peyton, an assistant in the same institution, he went to Lakeville, Connecticut, and rendered invaluable labors in the establishment of a School for Feeble-Minded Children,

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

Knight. In 1860 he took his degrces at the Berkshire Medical School, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and removed to Marietta, Ohio, where he commenced the practice of medicine and achieved decided success. In 1861 he en- tered the volunteer service, was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon of the 59th Ohio Infantry, served in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, under General Buell, and par- ticipated in the battle of Shiloh, and all the skirmishes and engagements incidental to the siege of Corinth. The 59th was the first regiment to enter that town. Resigning his post June 22d, 1862, on account of the malarial fever he had contracted in service, he returned home to recruit his health, and on the 18th of the following August was com- missioned as Assistant Surgeon of the 95th Ohio Infantry, becoming Surgeon June 14th, 1864, and serving with this regiment until the mustering out in August, 1865. He par- ticipated with this command in the battles at Jackson, Mississippi, May 14th, 1863; Vicksburg, Mississippi, from May 18th to June 22d, 1863; Jackson, Mississippi, from July 10th to the 18th, 1863; Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi, June 10th, 1864; Tupelo, Mississippi, July 13th and 14th, 1864; Old-Town Creek, Mississippi, July 15th, 1864; Nash- ville, Tennessee, December 15th, 16th, 1864; and at the siege of Spanish Fort, Alabama, from March 27th to April 8th, 1865. After the capture of Mobile the regiment marched north to Montgomery, Alabama, where they received the news of the capitulation of Lee. In September, 1865, Dr. Wilbur removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, and was selected for his ripe experience and learning to take charge of the Illinois Institution for the Education of Feeble-Minded Children, and under his wise and thoughtful management the most gratifying results have crowned the labors of this noble charity. In 1870 he received the degree of Master of Arts from the Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, Il- linois. Ile has during his medical career closely studied the most practical methods of ameliorating the condition of the feeble-minded, and the application of the fruits of his experience has been fortunate in very many cases. The school which he now has in charge has accomplished, and is still accomplishing, so much that is beneficial to the State that the Legislature of Illinois has taken favorable action for the erection of larger and more appropriate buildings, to cost not less than a quarter of a million.

RANT, ULYSSES S., eighteenth President of the United States, was born, April 27th, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Ohio, descending from Scotch ancestry. He passed his boyhood in the village of Georgetown, Ohio, whither his parents removed in 1823, and by the appointment of Hon. Thomas L. Harmer, Congressman, entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1839. His name originally was Hiram Ulysses but the certificate of appointment to the academy

was made out for Ulysses S., and the latter has been ever since recognized as his name. IJe graduated in 1843, hav- ing in his studies shown a marked proficiency in mathe- matics. He ranked twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, and was made a brevet Second Lieutenant of infantry, being attached very soon after as supernumerary Lieutenant to the 4th Regiment, stationed at that time in Missouri. In the summer of 1845 he accompanied this command to Texas, where it joined General Taylor's army, and on September 30th was made a full Licutenant. His first service on the field of battle was at Palo Alto, May 8th, 1846, and subse- quently he participated in the engagements at Resaca de la Palma and Monterey, and at the siege of Vera Cruz. In April, 1847, he was appointed Quartermaster of his regi- ment, and for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Molino del Ray, September 8th, 1847, he was made a First Lieu- tenant on the field. He was brevetted Captain for his con- duct at Chapultepec, to date from that engagement, which occurred September 13th, 1847. After the capture of the City of Mexico he returned with his regiment. In 1848 he married Julia T. Dent, sister of one of his classmates. In 1852 he accompanied his regiment to California and Oregon, and while at Fort Vancouver, August 5th, 1853, was commissioned full Captain. On July 31st, 1854, he re- signed and removed to St. Louis, cultivating a farm near that city and .engaging in business as a real estate agent. In 1859 he was employed by his father in the leather trade at Galcna, Illinois. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion he took the command of a company of volunteers, with whom he marched to Springfield, Illinois, being there retained as an aid to Governor Yates, and acted as mustering officer of Illinois volunteers until he became Colonel of the 21st Regiment, his commission dating from June 17th, 1861. He joined his regiment at Mattoon, organized and drilled it at Caseyville, and then crossed into Missouri, where it formed part of the guard of the Hannibal and Hudson Rail- road. He was on July 31st placed in command of the troops at Mexico, forming part of General Pope's force, and on August 23d was promoted Brigadier-General of Volunteers, the commission dating back to May 17th, and assumed at once the command of the troops at Cairo, who were re- inforced shortly after by General McClernand's brigade. On September 6th he seized Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, and Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumber- land, on the 25th. IIis proclamation to the people of Pa- ducah announced that he had nothing to do with opinions, but should deal only with armed rebellion, its aiders and abetters. He checked the advance of the Confederate General Jeff Thompson on October 21st, 1861 ; this being accomplished at the battle of Fredericktown, Missouri. When Halleck assumed command of the Department of Missouri in the following December, Grant was assigned to the control of the District of Cairo, which was then one of the largest districts in the West. In February of 1862, at the head of 15,000 men, he started on his memorable march

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U.s. Grant

GENERAL TILY: SE TFANT

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

for the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, the former of which commanded the Tennessee river, and the latter the Cumberland. The gun-boats of Commodore Foote, assisted by Grant's army, compelled the surrender of Fort Henry on February 6th. Fort Donelson was only captured after a severe engagement on February 15th, in which the land forces under Grant distinguished themselves. The title of " Unconditional Surrender Grant," which he bore through- out the war, dates from this event. His terms of capitula- tion to the rebel General Butler being, " No other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." The capture of this stronghold, and a very large portion of its defenders, may be regarded as the first substantial triumph of the Federal arms. Grant became the hero of the day, and the admiration of his martial skill was no less general than the admiration for the terse and pointed manner in which he couched the terms of capitulation. He was com- missioned Major-General of Volunteers for his great services rendered in these engagements, the commission dating from February 16th, 1862, and in a very few days an army of 40,000 men, which had been sent up the Tennessee by General Halleck, was placed under his command. The memorable battle of Pittsburg Landing commenced at day- break on April 6th, 1862, when Grant's army which was preparing for an attack on Corinth was itself surprised by an overwhelming force under General A. S. Johnston and routed from its camp with heavy loss. Grant did not arrive on the field until 8 A. M., when he succeeded in re-forming the lines, and having been reinforced during the remainder of the day by General Buell, renewed the battle himself on the following morning, completely defeating the enemy at every point and recovering the prisoners and stores which had been lost on the previous day. In a few days he began the siege of Corinth, to which the Confederate troops had retreated after the battle, and in the latter part of May, 1862, succeeded in driving them from that stronghold. By the recall of Halleck to Washington on July 11th Grant became commander of the Department of Tennessee, with his head- quarters at Corinth, and on September 17th he ordered an advance from that place to intercept General Price, who had concentrated a large force at Iuka. Here on Septem- ber 19th a hot battle was fought, and a complete victory for the Federal arms gained. Grant pushed to the Ohio river to obstruct General Bragg's force, leaving General Rose- crans in command of Corinth, where he was attacked by the Confederates, Priee and Vandorn, and succeeded in re- pulsing them with heavy loss. General Buell with a por- tion of Grant's command intercepted Bragg at Perryville October Sth, and routed his command in a hot engagement, and compelled his retreat to East Tennessee. The fall of 1862 was devoted by Grant to efforts for the reduction of Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the Mississippi, which were un- successful. In December he moved his army down the east side of the river, defeating in the ensuing April the | brought him before the impregnable rifle-pits of Cold Harbor,

enemy in the actions of Raymond, Jackson, Champion's Hill and Big Black, and preventing the junction of the Con- federate Johnston's forces with those of Pemberton at Vicks- burg. On May 18th, 1863, he laid siege to that city, and on July 4th it fell into his hands, together with 27,000 pris- oners of war. For that strategic action he was promoted to the rank of Major-General in the regular army, and in the succeeding October assumed the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which then comprised the de- partments commanded by Sherman, Thomas, Burnside and Hooker. His reinforcement of Sherman on the Big Black river enabled that General to drive the Confederate forces under Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi. Chattanooga being threatened by Bragg, Grant concentrated his forces for its defence, carrying by assault the Confederate positions on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, respectively, on November 24th and 25th. Upon the retreat of Bragg's forces Grant sent relief to Burnside, then at Knoxville, which was closely invested by Longstreet, who was quickly com- pelled to retreat. Congress in its session of 1863-64 passed a resolution providing that a gold medal be struck for Gen- eral Grant in honor of his achievements, and returning thanks to him and his army. New York and Ohio passed similar measures. On March Ist, 1864, Congress revived the grade of Lieutenant-General, and President Lincoln at once nominated General Grant for the position, the Senate confirming the nomination on the following day. On his arrival in Washington March 9th, 1864, Grant received his commission from the President, and on the 17th issued his first general order announcing that he had assumed com- mand of the armies of the United States, with his head- quarters in the field, and until further orders with the Army of the Potomac. This was the first time during the Rebel- lion that one General commanded all the national troops ; and with nearly 700,000 men at his disposal, Grant planned two campaigns which were to be directed simultaneously against vital points of the Confederacy. One of these cam- paigns was to be under General Meade, with orders to operate against Richmond, then defended by Lee; the other to be under General Sherman, and to be directed against Atlanta, defended by General Johnston. At midnight on May 3d, 1864, the advance was made towards Richmond, and the army under Grant of 140,000 men pushed into the Wilderness and commenced that series of terrible engage- ments which are better known as the Seven Days' Fight. Lee was apprised of this movement on the 4th, and boldly taking the offensive tried to strike the Federal forces on their march. The immediate result was a bloody battle, which temporarily foiled Grant's attempt to interpose his army between Lee and Richmond. He made a second ad- vance by the left flank, being again met by Lee at Spottsyl- vania, and after a terrible struggle, which was only a partial success, he repeated the movement and was again con- fronted by Lee on the North Anna river. A fourth advance

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOP.EDLA.

and after an unsuccessful assault on thesc, he once more | government, and the people. Although their report was moved his army by the left flank, crossing the James river, favorable to annexation, the Senate refused to confirm the treaty. During 1872, the last year of his first term as Presi- dent, the Court of Arbitration, which, with the approval of the English Government, had been appointed to decide the Alabama claims, concluded their labors at Geneva on Sep- tember 14th, awarding the gross sum of $15,500,000, to be paid by the British Government to the United States for damages to American commerce by Confederate cruisers fitted out in British ports. The treaty with Great Britain providing for this international arbitration was negotiated by the cabinet appointed by President Grant. The President enforced the provisions of the 14th amendment to the Con- stitution, and on October 17th, 1871, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the northern counties of South Carolina, which had been the scene of what are called the Ku-klux outrages. In the same year he appointed a Commission on Civil Service Reform, which devised a plan for rendering the civil service of the Government more efficient; this, after trial, has been abandoned. On June 5th, 1872, the National Republican Convention, at Philadelphia, renominated Presi- dent Grant by acclamation, Henry Wilson, of Massachu- setts, being selected as nominee for Vice-President. Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown were the candidates of the Liberal Republicans and Democrats. The result of the election was a popular majority for Grant of 762,991 over Greeley. The Forty-second Congress doubled the President's salary, making it $50,000 per annum, increasing the salaries of the Vice-President, Speaker of the House, Justices of the Supreme Court and Ileads of Departments 25 per cent. sending a despatch to the Government at Washington, " I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." llis losses in the campaign from the Rapidan to the James, covering the period from May 3d to June 15th, amounted to 54,551 in killed, wounded and missing, while Lee's losses were about 32,000. When Grant made his first advance towards Richmond, he announced that fact by despatch to General Sherman, who then opened his cam- paign against Atlanta, and commenced his historic " March to the Sea." Grant's flanking movements being foiled, with Lee still in the open field before Richmond, with which hic had constant communication, the problem of the war in Grant's estimation was narrowed down to the siege of Peters- burg, which he now began. While this siege was in pro- gress there were other diversions of the campaign in Mary- land and Virginia, in which Sheridan figured prominently. Johnston in Georgia was unable to check the advance of Sherman, and his successor in command, Gencral Hood, was compelled to evacuate Atlanta and lost his army before Nashville. The sicge of Petersburg ended after the Federal victory at Five Forks. In April, 1865, Richmond was evacuated by the Confederates, and Lee retreated westward toward Danville closely pressed by Grant, who finally com- pelled his surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, Sherman forcing Johnston's surrender only a few days before. These unconditional surrenders of the only two Confederate forces then organized in the field virtually closed the war. On July 25th, 1866, Grant was commis- sioned General of the United States Army, Congress having created the rank for him. On August 12th, 1867, he acted as Secretary of War ad interim, when President Johnson suspended Secretary Stanton from office, holding the posi- PRINGER, GEORGE ATWELL, Real Estate Dealer and Operator, was born, May 15th, 1815, in Hallowell, Kennebeck county, Maine. He is a son of the late Moscs Springer, a captain in the merchant service, who in the year 1799 lost a vessel, captured from him by the French authori- ties off the West Indies; he himself was taken prisoner and discharged. The heirs arc at present endeavoring by legal process to recover this claim from the United States Gov- crnment, with whom the French Government long ago made a settlement for it, as there was no rightful pretext for its seizure. The son attended school in his native town until he was eighteen ycars old, when he went into his brother's storc at Gardiner, in the same State, and remained therc three years. In 1836 he sailed for the Bermuda islands, where his brother's vessc's werc constantly plying, and be- came a clerk in a store there; but returned to the United States the following year, and found employment in a dry- goods store in New York city. In the autumn of 1838 hc went to Boone county, Kentucky, where he became a school teacher. He next repaired to St, Louis, where he entered into partnership with Nathan Starnes in the wholesale and tion until January 14th, 1868, the Senate having refused to sanction the removal of Mr. Stanton. President Johnson desired Grant to retain the office notwithstanding the action of the Senate, but the Gencral closed a tangled correspond- ence relating to the affair in a tersc and very plain letter announcing his refusal. The National Republican Con- vention on May 21st, 1863, at Chicago, madc, on the first ballot, the unanimous choice of General Grant as its nominee for President of the United States, selecting Schuyler Col- fax as his associate on the ticket. The result of the electoral vote was as follows : Grant and Colfax, 214; Seymour and Blair, 80. President Grant after his inaugural commenced to carry out the policy of reconstruction of the lately rebel- lious States which Congress had mapped out. In 1871 hc urged the annexation of Santo Domingo, and secured to the United States a lease of the Peninsula and Bay of Samana for fifty years, but it being claimed that the treatics con- cerning Santo Domingo had not been confirmed by a popular vote of its people, President Grant, in conformity with a rc- solution of Congress, appointed a commission to visit Santo Domingo and report upon the condition of the country,

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 6

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