USA > Illinois > The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century > Part 60
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ability. The best qualities of an attorney and an advocate he combines in himself. He can prepare his own brief with a perfection that exhibits not the slightest flaw, and can try his case with a masterly ability that almost insures success. In fact, his failures in the trying of cases have been very rare indeed ; and while he was on the Recorder's Bench his decisions, with onc exception, when taken to the Supreme Court, came back sustained. He possesses a clear, logical, sincere, common-sense eloquence which has proved more successful with juries than all the tricks of pretentious rhetoric. Of his character the two controlling elements are unswerving integrity and kindly humanity. In his practice that side of a case alone which he believed to be the right side was the one to which his services were given. He worked from conscientious convictions always, and this fact was so well known and so distinctly recognized that the mere knowledge of his identification with a cause gave in the minds of jurors and spectators a certain weight to the side he represented. His deep conviction that his was the right side communicated itself to all others in a greater or less degree. The same qualities that marked his professional career are invaluable in his performance of the judicial duties. His personal character is without reproach. So high is it that it has shielded him from the attacks of even political partisanship. He rarely goes into general society, but his social instincts are strong, and of the company of personal friends he is exceedingly fond. He is intensely domestic, and in the delights of hom" he finds his highest happiness. His personal appearance is attractive. He is of medium height ; his figure is well proportioned ; his fore- head is massive; his mouth is small and sensitive; his eyes blue, large, and lustrous, and his face, smoothly shaven, is fine and kindly in all its expressions.
CALLISTER, HON. WILLIAM K., Judge of the Supreme Court, was born on a farm in Salem, Washington county, New York, in 1820. He remained on his father's farm until he was about eighteen years of age, when he left it to enter college. Ill health prevented his completing his course here, and he was compelled to leave the institution without graduating. Some time was then given up to hunting, fishing, and general out-door life for the purpose of restoring his broken health. This was con- tinued until he was twenty-one years of age, when he com- menced the study of the law in the office of a lawyer named EMENT, COLONEL JOHN, Capitalist, was born, April 26th, 1804, at Gallatin, the county seat of Sumner county, Tennessee ; his parents having been David and Dorcas (Willis) Dement. In ISI7, when a lad of thirteen years, he re- moved with his father to Franklin county, Illi- Henry, in Wayne county. His studies were concluded in Yates county, and at their completion he removed to Albion. There he remained for ten years in the steady practice of his profession. During this period he was brought in con; tact with the best legal minds in the State of New York, and this intercourse afforded him a discipline and an experi- nois, and pursucd agricultural labors upon his father's
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farm. When he attained his majority, the confidence of the people in his integrity and ability was attested by his election (in 1826) to the office of Sheriff. His duties were not only those of a Sheriff, but that of a Collector and Treasurer of public funds. In IS28 he was elected to represent Franklin county in the Illinois Legislature, and by a re-election served four years consecutively in that position. By three successive elections by the General Assembly, he served six years as Treasurer of the State, and most acceptably fulfilled his duties to the people of the entire State. During his incumbency he wound up the affairs of the old State Bank. Having made Vandalia, then the State capital, in Fayette county, the place of his resi- dence, he was elected to represent that county in the State Legislature during the term of 1836-37, and resigned the State Treasurership for this purpose, and turning over his books and accounts to the Finance Committee of the General Assembly, which were audited and found correct. In 1837 he was appointed Receiver of the Land Office at Galena, which was, in 1840, removed to Dixon, Illinois, by President Jackson, and held the position through Van Buren's term. He was removed by President Harrison, and reinstated by President Polk; was again removed by Presi- dent Taylor, and again reinstated by President Pierce, and held the position until the decline in business resulted in the removal of the records to Springfield under Buchanan's
administration. IIis reputation gained in the execution of the duties as an executive of the Land Office was that of an able financier, and an incorruptible man. In 1844 he was elected Presidential Elector for James K. Polk against the late Hon. Martin P. Sweet for Henry Clay. While acting as State Treasurer he made three campaigns in the Black Hawk war, once as Captain of a company, once as Major, and finally as special aid to Governor Reynolds, with the rank of Colonel. He was a member of three State Constitutional Conventions, first in that of 1847-48, next in that of 1862, and finally in that of 1868, and bears the singular honor of having been in all the conventions called to revise the Constitution of Illinois, since the forma- tion of the State Government in ISI8. He served in each with distinguished usefulness and lasting credit. In that cf 1847-48 he was Chairman of the Committee on Legis- lation. In the convention of 1862 he again held this im- portant chairmanship, and in the last convention, as Chair- man of the Committee on Right of Suffrage, he pioncered that piece of statesmanship which provided that if the " Fif- teenth Amendment " to the Federal constitution should be ratified and adopted in accordance with the prescriptive rule of that constitution, the new constitution of Illinois should be made to conform to it by striking out the descriptive and invidious word " white" as the legal prefix to the phrase " male citizens." This was the new departure advocated by him as one of the leading Democrats in the Illinois Con- stitutional Convention of 1868. He has been four terms elected Mayor of Dixon, and was twice nominated and
elected when absent from home. From 1826 to the present time he has filled many positions of public confidence with- in the gift of the people of the State, and the administra- tion of the State and Federal Governments, and has built up a reputation for unimpeachable integrity and for rare in- telligence and ability which very few men can flatter them- selves in possessing. He is now in his seventy-second year and is still full of life and activity, always exhibiting the same interest in the social and material prosperity of the community in which he resides that has invariably characterized him. He has amassed a large fortune, and shares its ample income not only with his family but with society, to whose charitable institutions he contributes liber- ally. In 1835 he was married to Maria Louisa Dodge, daughter of Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin. His eldest son, Henry Dodge Dement, is a member of the State Legis- lature and a prominent business man who enjoys the estecm of the public.
ERRELL, ANSELL ALPHONZO, Merchant and Manufacturer, was born in Exeter, Otsego county, New York, October 19th, IS31. His parents were Lyman Terrell and Sarepta (Cone) Terrell. He was the recipient of a common school education. On the completion of his allotted course of studies, he entered, as clerk, in a dry- goods store at New Berlin, Chenango county, New York. In IS48 he was apprenticed to learn the cotton cloth manufacturing business, the making of print goods, calicoes, etc., and continued at this until 1854. In this year he went to Northampton, Massachusetts, and was engaged by the Bay State Tool Company, manufacturers of hoes and edged tools, as Superintendent of the finishing department of their works. In that capacity he acted until I856, when he went West to Grand Detour, Illinois, and entered a dry-goods store as clerk, continuing thus occupied until IS59. He then removed to Sterling, and established himself in business in a partnership connection with H. G. Harper, firm of Terrell & Harper, in the grocery trade, adding afterward dry goods, notions, etc. Ilis time and energies were thus employed until 1869, at which date he disposed of his entire interest in the business to his associate. In 1862 he had been appointed by the govern- ment, Collector of Internal Revenue, and officiated in that capacity until 1870, when he resigned, and became en- gaged in the organization of the Sterling School Furniture Company, which in the course of the year was put into working order, he being appointed Treasurer and General Manager, with William L. Patterson as President. He has been a member of the Board of Supervisors, and of the City Council, and from 1863 to 1866 was a School Director. The Sterling School Furniture Company is the most extensive manufacturer of school furniture in the world. The production is about 30,000 school seats per
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annum, while the trade in miscellaneous furniture is cor- | Mr. Clarkson has a countenance indicative of great intel- respondingly large, the value thereof being about $150,000. Half a million feet of lumber is annually consumed-ash, walnut and cherry-and 350 tons of iron. The Company's productions are distributed throughout every State in the Union, and its trade, prosperous from the beginning, has now assumed enormous proportions. He is one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Sterling, and is re- spected and esteemed as a man of thorough business capacity, enterprise, and of unswerving rectitude in all his relations, mercantile and social.
ligence and energy. He has a high reputation as a jurist. He prepares his cases with extreme fidelity to the interests of his clients, regardless of the labor involved or time con- sumed, and when on trial conducts them carefully and thoroughly. His address is remarkably effective when speaking to a jury, but his chicf excellence appears in his arguments delivered to the bench. All his forensic efforts are not only eloquent and rhetorical, but they evince a pro- found knowledge of the law and its subtleties, and the action of a thoroughly logical mind. He has achieved dis- tinction in carrying to a successful end dramatic and trade- mark copyright cases, and is the only lawyer in Chicago who has an extensive practice in this line. His business is not narrowed down to any one or a few of the many branches of the legal profession. In all he is largely engaged, and has secured a merited reputation for his varied gifts, his scholastic culture, and his earnestness in prosecuting the issues he is retained to press to a conclusion. In his pro- fessional and private life he has the respect and the cordial support of the community in which he resides.
LARKSON, JOSEPH P., Lawyer, was born, in IS28, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a place since made famous by the memorable battles in July, 1863. He entered Pennsylvania College in that place at a very early age, and graduated with high honors in the year 1844, being then but six- teen years old. He became a tutor, and afterwards As- sistant Professor of Latin in St. James College, Washington county, Maryland, an institution under the control of the Episcopal Church, and remained there until 1851. During this period he studied law at Hagerstown, in the same State, where in 1851 he was admitted to the Maryland bar. In ERRYMAN, JAMES LAFAYETTE, M. D., A. M., was born in Claiborne county, East Tennessee, April 11th, 1831. His ancestors were prominent in the early colonial days of this country ; one was secretary to Lord Baltimore, and another secretary of the Colonial Assembly of Virginia ; still another participated notably in the early Indian wars. His grandfather fought under General Wayne in the struggle for independence. Both branches of the family are of English extraction, and their residence in North America dates back over two hundred years. His father was Charles Madison Perryman ; his mother, Louisa I. (Cullensworth) Perryman, was the daughter of a well- known officer who was actively engaged in the Revolution- ary war. He was educated at the McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, and at the termination of his course of studies took the degree of A. M. Upon relinquishing his preparatory student life he began the study of medicine under the instructions of Drs. W. W. and I. Roman, of Belleville, and attended the Universities of St. Louis and of the State of Missouri, graduating finally from both of those institutions. He afterward attended lectures at the Jefferson College, Philadelphia, and the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons at New York city. He then entered at once upon the active practice of his profession at Belle- ville, St. Clair county, Illinois, in 1853. He devotes his time and attention chiefly to surgery, and for many years past has performed nearly all the surgical operations in this locality. He has always been a Democrat, but pays little attention, however, to political affairs and movements. October of this year he removed to Chicago, where he has since resided, was admitted to the Illinois bar, and was ad- mitted to a partnership with Buckner S. Morris, one of the oldest lawyers of the State. Shortly after they associated with them Robert Hervey, also a well-known practitioner in Chicago, and the firm thus constituted remained in exist- ence until the election of Mr. Morris to the bench of the Circuit Court. Hervey & Clarkson continued business until 1856, when the firm was dissolved, and the latter with Lam- bert Tree, now Judge Trec of the Circuit Court, formed a partnership which continued until 1865. Subsequently Mr. Clarkson associated with C. Van Schaack, and the firm of Clarkson & Van Schaack still exists, with a patronage and a reputation which few other law firms enjoy. Their client- age has been a large, influential and lucrative one, and their general practice has been unusually successful. In 1873 Mr. Clarkson received the nomination for the Judgeship of the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois, and was warmly supported by all the English press of the city, and though it was generally admitted that his character and ability was of the highest order, the ticket upon which he was named was defeated and he shared its misfortune. He is a brother of Bishop Clarkson of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, who is his senior by two years, and who was his school- mate and class-mate throughout his collegiate course. They graduated together. Their father, who died in 1871 at the advanced age of seventy-one years, was the son of a clergy- man of the Church of England. He established himself in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and raised a large family, whose name and connections are well known throughout that State. [ During the civil war he gave his attendance to all soldiers
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brought to Belleville. He has been Secretary to the St. Clair Medical Association, and is an honored member of the Southern Illinois Medical Association. He has been lately engaged in land speculations, in which he has met with great success. Hc was married in 1857 to Virginia A. Bradsby, a former resident of Lebanon, Illinois, whose father, Judge Richard Bradsby, was among the first settlers of the State of Illinois.
RAWFORD, HON. JOSEPH, Surveyor and Banker, was born, May 19th, ISII, in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, his parents being John and Catherine (Cassidy) Crawford. At the age of eleven years he removed with the family to Hunt- ington, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Ile was educated in the common schools of that section, and after- wards by continued study and constant self-application made such thorough progress that in 1831 he commenced teaching, and was employed as a teacher for four years. In the meantime he applied himself to the study and acquire- ment of the theory and practice of surveying, and on the 4th of April, 1835, he started for the " far West," which at that time was considered an extremely adventurous under- taking. In due time he reached Illinois, passing through Chicago and Dixon to Galena, and finally returned to Dix- on's Ferry, and located on a farm in the valley of Rock river, between Dixon and Grand Detour, in May, 1835. In addition to his farming, he immediately commenced business as a surveyor, and has actively followed it up to the present time. He has been very successful in this civil profession, which required not only the nicest precision and skill but also a large share of physical stamina, ability and endurance. His employment in making surveys and loca- tions for individuals and corporations, and officially for the government, has been varied and important, he having made the original surveys for all the towns and villages on Rock river between Rockford and Rock Island. In 1836 he was appointed Deputy County Surveyor for all the north- western part of Illinois, especially for the location of roads and the laying out of village plats. In the same year he was elected County Surveyor of Ogle County, which then included Whitesides and Lee also, which latter county was organized and set off from Ogle in 1839; and in 1841 he was elected and served as one of the three County Com- missioners of the new county. He was elected County Sur- veyor of Lee County at the time of its organization, and acted in that capacity for some eighteen years. He was twice elected to the Legislature of Illinois, representing with distinction the counties of Lee and Whitesides during the sessions of 1849, 1850, 1853 and 1854. On the 16th day of September, 1852, he married Mrs. Huldah (Bow- man) Culver, and has since resided in the town and city of Dixon. In connection with his profession as surveyor, he was for many years engaged as a land agent and dealer in
real estate, principally farming lands, and operated exten- sively for himself and others in the location, purchase, sale and settlement of lands in northern Illinois and throughout Iowa, and this has given him great prominence in that sec- tion, where he is widely known as a man of enterprise, of unusual business sagacity, and of exact and unimpeachable honesty and integrity. His surveys, made at an early day, are so remarkable for their accuracy that they are accepted as indisputable and the acknowledged standard in their locality. He was one of the principal promoters of the Lee County National Bank, which was organized in 1865, and became its President, which responsible position he still holds. He was elected Mayor of the city of Dixon in 1873 and 1874, and again in 1875, just forty years after his first settlement at " Dixon's Ferry," which then consisted of only a log-cabin and a flatboat, and he still retains the con- fidence and respect of the people among whom he has so long lived and labored. He early appreciated the advan- tages and the possibilities of development of the fertile prairies of Illinois and Iowa, and to his sound judgment and foresight, and his timely aid and encouragement, many prosperous men of that region owe the foundation of their success and fortune.
HETLAIN, AUGUSTUS L., General United States Army and United States Consul, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 26th, 1824, of Franco-Swiss parentage. Ilis parents two years previous to his birth had emigrated from Neuf- chatel, Switzerland, the place of their nativity, to St. Louis. In 1826 his father moved to the lead mines, in the vicinity of what is now the city of Galena, Illinois, and engaged in mining and smelting lead ore, following at the same time, to some extent, agricultural pursuits. He re- ceived a liberal education from his parents, and rewarded their generosity by a close attention to his studies, in which he soon became proficient. In 1850 he engaged in mer- cantile business in Galena, and was prosperous in all his mercantile enterprises. He sold out in 1859 and went to Europe, where he remained one year. Upon his return he entered actively into the exciting campaign of 1860, as an earnest and eloquent supporter of Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency. He was a ready debater, with the rare ability of presenting the grave issues involved in that canvass in a clear and intelligent manner, and he did much to secure the election of Mr. Lincoln. He was tendered by the latter the appointment as Consul to Leipsic, but the breaking cut of the war induced him to decline this honor and enlist as a soldier. He aided in raising a company, being elected its Captain, and when the 12th Illinois Infantry was organ- ized he was commissioned by Governor Yates as its Lieu- tenant-Colonel. In September, 1861, he was placed by General C. F. Smith in command of Smithland, Kentucky, where he was stationed until January, 1862, when he re-
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joined his regiment, and accompanied it with General | States Consul to Brussels, Belgium, repairing thither in Smith in the campaign of the Tennessce river. IIe led May, 1869. He remained in Brussels three years, and then resigned the consulate. Returning home, he took up his residence in Chicago. In the autumn of 1872 the " Home National Bank " of Chicago was organized, and commenced business with General Chetlain as its President. His carecr has been a remarkably varied and honorable one. His soldierly qualities, his ability as a brilliant tactician, his valor in action, his excellence as a disciplinarian and an administrator, could not fail to achieve for him a high dis- tinction in the profession of arms. He is a gentleman of fine culture, and of the most pleasing address. He is not alone a leading military man, but a leading civilian, who gives no inconsiderable part of his attention to those matters which most intimately concern the material and moral in- terests of the community. the 12th at Fort Donelson, and that regiment held the ex- tremc right of the line. It acquitted itself with great valor, and sustained a heavy loss in dead and wounded in that battle. For gallantry displayed in this action Lieutenant- Colonel Chetlain was promoted to the Colonelcy of the regiment, and commanded it at Shiloh, where it was in the very thickest of the fight, and lost about onc-fourth its num- ber in killed and wounded, including several officers. At Corinth his command made a brilliant assault upon a much larger force of the enemy, and received very honorable mention from its brigade commander, General Oglesby. Colonel Chetlain was placed in charge of Corinth, and re- mained there until May, 1863, and upon being relieved was complimented by General G. M. Dodge in general orders for his faithfulness and efficiency. While there he assisted actively in raising the first regiment of colored troops or- ganized in the West, north of New Orleans. This was ORRIS, RALPH S., Mining Operator, Farmer, Cattle Breeder, etc., was born in Harford county, Maryland, February 16th, 1817. His father, Edward Norris, was a farmer; his mother was Rebecca (Lee) Norris. His education was ac- quired at the common schools in the neighbor- hood of his home, and at the termination of his allotted course of studies he secured employment as a clerk in a country store at Hampstead, Baltimore county, Maryland. In 1834 he removed to Baltimore, and was similarly occu- pied in a wholesale grocery store. In 1837 he left the latter city, and settling in Galena, Illinois, entered the Galena Branch of the State Bank of Illinois as bookkeeper. In IS38 he relinquished his position in that institution, and en- gaged as bookkeeper in the store of G. W. Fuller. In 1840 hc established himself on his own account in the mining and smelting business-which formed the chief occupation of the majority of the early settlers in Galena and the lead- mine district-and in this business still retains an interest. In 1846 he was appointed one of a Board of Arbitration to hear and determine claims in a part of the lead-mining district, where many conflicting claims had grown up, owing to the lands having been withheld from market and leased by the government for mining purposes, thus con- flicting with the agricultural interests, and assuming a threatening attitude in the approaching land sale in April, 1847. In 1854 he purchased a farm, and since then has continued his farming and agricultural operations. In 1862 he was elected to the County Treasuryship, and still offi- ciates in this capacity. Prior to that time he was also an Alderman from IS46 to 1852. He is a Director in the Galena & Southern Wisconsin Railroad, known as the narrow-gauge road, and was interested in the formation of the " Merchants' National Bank of Galena." In 1864 he became Cashier of the " Bank of Galena," and during his retention of the treasuryship performed the duties of the County Treasuryship through his son, William E. Norris, afterwards known as the 55th Regiment United States Colored Troops. He was early convinced that the black men could fight, and of necessity must fight before the Re- bellion was crushed. In December, 1863, he received his well-earned promotion to the position of Brigadier-General, and, at the suggestion of General Grant, the War Depart- ment placed him in charge of the movement for the organ- ization of colored volunteers in Tennessee. In 1864 his labors in the fulfilment of this responsible duty extended over the State of Kentucky, and in January, 1865, he had under his command 17,000 colored troops. Of this force one brigade did heroic fighting at Nashville, and put to flight the doubts of many that the blacks had the capacity for a martial career. For his efficiency in this service Brigadier- General Chetlain received the rank of Major-General by brevet. General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General of the United States Army, in the summer of 1865, when making his general report to the War Department, speaks of General Chetlain as follows : " Brigadier General Chet- lain reported to me, and I assigned him as Superintendent of Recruiting Service in West Tennessee, and afterward in the entire State. He proved a most valuable officer, for I found him to possess both intelligence and zeal, with a rare qualification for the organization of troops. He never failed in any duty he was assigned, either as Superintendent or as an Inspector, to which latter duty I assigned him, and I am gratified that he was subsequently rewarded by a Brevet Major-General." From January to October, 1865, General Chetlain commanded the post and defences of Memphis. From October, 1865, to February, 1866, he commanded the District of Talladega, Alabama, and closed here an honor- able and highly meritorious service under the national flag. In the spring of 1867 he received the appointment of As- sessor of Internal Revenue for the District of Utah, with head-quarters at Salt Lake City. After filling this office for two years he was appointed by President Grant as United
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