The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 69

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

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fully engaged in the practice of his profession, mostly in [ disposed of the same, in 1854, it was estimated between the neighborhood of Cairo, Illinois, to which city he re- moved in the year 1868. IIe is strictly temperate in all his habits, and has ever been a hard student, earnestly endeavoring, as far as lay in his power, to extend the sphere of homœopathy. He has occasionally contributed original articles to the several medical journals, etc., which have attracted considerable attention, and for about two years he travelled for the purpose of lecturing on scientific subjects. He was married in 1863 to Mary Goc, of Xenia, Ohio.

CKERT, THOMAS WILLIAM, Editor and Postmaster, was born on the 6th of November, 1840, in Waterloo, Monroe county, Illinois. His father, John Eckert, settled at Belleville, Illinois, in 1828, where he married Ara Williams, of that place, and subsequently removed to Monroe county. After receiving a common school edu- cation, Thomas entered McKendree College, at Lebanon, and ret ained there until he graduated. After leaving college he began the study of dentistry with Dr. Joseph Payne, of St. Louis. At the expiration of two years he entered into practice with his preceptor. In 1856 he re- moved to Lebanon, Illinois, and there continued the prac- tice of his profession for six years. He then relinquished his practice and purchased the Lebanon Journal, which he has ever since continued to edit. It is now and has been from the beginning a strong and outspoken Repub- lican paper, and its editor has always heen an earnest, able member of that party. In August, 1875, he was appointed Postmaster of Lebanon, and continues in that position. He married on the 30th of May, 1860, Viola Calhoun, and two children make his home happier by their presence.

$18,000 and $20,000. He now removed to Burlington, Iowa, where he purchased an interest in the extensive hardware firm of White & Pierce, which then became known as White, Pierce & Waterman. In 1857 a financial panic occurred, and about the very period when the house had disposed of their entire business to John Craig & Co. Through the dishonest dealings of the last-named firm, everything was lost ; the interest of the junior partner, being $37,000, of course was swallowed up in the wreck, and he returned to Aurora to recuperate his fallen fortunes. Without appearing to be discouraged by this unforeseen accident, he started anew, and in 1859 opened another hardware store under most favorable auspiccs. The build- ing in which the business was in future to be operated was completed in due time with every prospect of success. He was promised the assistance of Hall Brothers, bankers, of Aurora, and Albert Jewett, a hardware merchant of New York; and these were to be members of the new firm. Scarcely, however, had the business fairly started when the war broke out, in 1861, and Hall Brotherso(whose business as bankers was based on Missourieand other Southern State bonds, which all became nearly worthless) collapsed, and carried down their partner with them. Jewett not having actually joined the copartnership escaped the misfortune. Thus again were Mr. Waterman's hopes frustrated, but he remained in the business until he had liquidated all the debts of the concern, dollar for dollar, but he was nearly ruined. In 1867 he closed out his business, and turned his attention to farming. In 1869 a charter was granted to the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Con- pany, and he was selected by the management General Agent of the road. He immediately gave it his personal attention, and in August, 1870, completed the business by disposing of a sufficient amount of stock to warrant the commencement of its construction, the amount raised being $8000 per mile. He is a Director and still continues in the position of General Agent of that road, and which, through his energy and perseverance, has been nearly completed, and is in a most prosperous condition. IIe is also a Director and President of the Chicago, Rockford & Northern Railroad Company, and is indirectly connected with the Chicago & Pekin, and the Chicago & Paducah Railways. The town of Waterman, De Kalb county, was named after him; and, in many other ways, the community has shown its appreciation of his value as a public benefactor. He has been engaged quite extensively, on his own account, in real estate transactions, which have proved pecuniarily beneficial, and he ranks among the wealthiest of the citizens of Aurora. Ile is emphatically a self-made man, and where many others would have failed, he has, by his strong will and determination to overcome all obstacles, shown himself to be possessed of more than ordinary talents. In 1862 he was elected Alderman from

ATERMAN, DANIEL BOWEN, Merchant and Railroad Promoter, was born, April 21st, 1821, in the city of Rochester, Monroe county, State of New York; is a son of Dr. Daniel and Sabra (Pierce) Waterman, and is a lineal descendant of the celebrated Roger Williams, of Rhode Island. His preliminary education was received in the High School of his native city, and completed in the Yates County Academy, which he left in 1840. In that year he went to Aurora, Illinois, where he engaged as clerk to his brother George, who was carrying on the hardware busi- ness, and with whom he remained nine years, excepting a portion of one year when he returned East for the benefit of his health. In 1849 he opened a hardware store in West Aurora, investing about $3000 in the business. IIe carried this on very successfully for five years, during which time his capital increased six-fold, and when he i the First Ward of Aurora, receiving cvery vote in the ward

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except his own, and continued in that office for nine suc- course of a medical college. Hc is an enthusiastic and zealous anatomist, and the museum of the Chicago Medi- cal College is largely indebted to his labors for its many finely articulated skeletons, in the preparation of which he has always shown great pride and unusual skill. In 1867 he was married to Hattie Scarritt, of Alton, Illi- nois. He has contributed many valuable papers to the leading medical journals of the country, which have been most favorably received by the profession. Two of these are very important, not only in research, but in diagnoses given and remedies suggested and confirmed. These are, cessive years ; and to his exertions for the public benefit during that period is due, in no small amount, the present prosperity of the city. In 1871 he was elected Mayor, filling that office one year, but declined a re-election. He is an earnest member of the Republican party, from its inception, and has been a delegate to every State and county convention of that party since 1860. He was mar- ried in 1852 to Ann, daughter of Harry White, of Black- berry township. His only child, a daughter, and the idol of his heart, died of consumption, February, 1875, at the age of twenty-one years, sincerely mourned by all who "New and Old Methods of Treating Lachrymal Obstruc- kncw her.

tions," and " Strabismus : its Phenomena, Pathology, and Treatment."

OYD, HENRY W., A. M., M. D., was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, March 24th, 1843; ARFIELD, RICHARD N., Judge of Saline County Court, Harrisburg, Illinois, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, July 22d, 1820. ITis father emigrated to Kentucky from the State of Maryland, and became a well-to-do farmer of Nicholas county. In 1824 he moved to Hender- son county, and continued prosperously engaged in agri- cultural pursuits up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1838. Richard N. was educated in the common schools of his native State, and upon quitting these at the age of nineteen, commenced farming on his father's estate, which was located on the Ohio, near the mouth of Green river. Ile continued in this occupation until 1853, when he moved to Illinois, purchasing a farm in Saline county. Two years later he was elected County Clerk of that county, and held that office until December Ist, 1865, his father, Wilson P. Boyd, being a well-known practitioner at the bar ; his mother, whose maiden name was Susan Lacey, came from Kentucky. When he was quite young his parents removed to Bloomington, Illinois, and it was here that he received his early education. In 1857 he entered Wesleyan Univer- sity, from which he graduated in 1862, having taken a five years' course, during which he closely applied him- self to all his varied studies. He graduated with the degree of A. M., and commenced at once his preparations for the medical profession, entering the office of Dr. W. H. Byford, of Chicago, to pursue his necessary studies. He attended the course of lectures at the Chicago Medical College in 1862, and then entered the United States service as First Hospital Steward to the 94th Illinois Volunteers. In 1864 he received the appointment of Surgeon to the bringing to the discharge of his duties a rare degree of 14th Illinois Volunteers, and filled this position with ability cxecutive ability. Upon his retirement from this station he returned to his farm, remaining in its management until 1868, when he became a member of the firm of Conover & Weir, merchants, of Harrisburg. He withdrew from this business connection in 1869, and resumed farm labors, retaining to the present time the fine estate he origi- nally purchased. In 1873 he was appointed Mail Agent on the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad, and in the succeed. ing November was elected County Judge of Saline county. His political affiliations have been Republican ever since 1860. Though often importuned to accept party nomina- tions, he uniformly declined until 1873, when his candidacy for the county judgeship was urged by voters of both parties. His election was the result of the joint support of the Republicans and Democrats, a practical evidence of the very high esteem in which he is held by the com- munity in which he resides. During the war he was prominent in his support of the administration. He has achieved a fine reputation as a judge, his decisions and rulings being characterized as the productions of thorough legal research and learning. He is the President of the until the close of the war, in 1865, when he returned to Chicago and completed his course at the Chicago Medical College, receiving his degree of M. D. from that institu- tion in the spring of 1866. He removed to Alton, Illinois, where he resumed the practice of medicine; but as this place did not furnish as extensive a field as he desired, he remained in it only one year; and then, with the aim of more thoroughly perfecting himself in the knowledge of medicine, went to Philadelphia and New York, spending in these cities altogether a year in not only attending lectures, but in availing himself of the valuable oppor- tunities presented in these cities for practice in their hos- pitals. In 1868 he located in Chicago, where he has since been actively engaged in the duties of his profession ; and during that year, also, he became Professor of Anatomy in the Chicago Medical College, filling that chair with dis- tinction until the spring of 1874, when he resigned. Since then he has organized a private school of anatomy, his purpose in this being to afford students a more thorongli opportunity of perfecting themselves in that branch of medical knowledge, than can be obtained in the general Board of Trustees of the town of Harrisburg, having been

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the first to occupy that post. In everything pertaining to the [ and immediately commenced the practice of law. Thence- welfare of that community he takes an active interest. He was married, in June, 1844, to Catharine F. Cheney, daughter of Philip Cheney, of Henderson county. She died, July 4th, 1849. On April 14th, 1852, he married Annie E. Church, who died, June 22d, 1853, in Saline, Illinois.

SAY, EDWARD G., Lawyer, was born in Phila- delphia, September 17th, 1825. His father, John Asay, was a merchant of that city, where he still resides at an advanced age, having long since retired from active business. His education was acquired in the private schools of Jacob Harpel and Rev. William Mann, a Methodist minister and fine classical scholar, father of William B. Mann, ex-District Attorney of Philadelphia ; in those establishments, notwith- standing his delicate state of health, now changed to one of strength and vigor, he progressed rapidly in his studies, and laid a solid foundation of knowledge which after ac- quirements has developed into a cultivated and brilliant scholarship. While in his eighteenth year he commenced preparing for the ministry under the superintendence of Drs. Cooper and Kennedy, both Methodist preachers of culture and celebrity. After remaining under their joint instruction for a period of two years, he entered into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, preaching at Tamaqua and Tremont, in Pennsylvania; Dover, Dela- ware, and Easton, Maryland. In the year 1849 he mar- ried Emma C. Oliver, daughter of James C. Oliver, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, who is still living and actively engaged in many works of public charity. Of this marriage there are three sons living -the eldest engaged in mer- cantile business; the second reading law in his father's office; the third a student at Yale. After preaching for four years he began to suffer so acutely with bronchitis that he was compelled to withdraw from the pulpit. He then travelled to the South, sojourning for a time at Tallahassee, Florida. Upon returning to the North, in 1853, he resigned the ministry, retaining the entire confidence and esteem of his co-laborers in the church, who recognized fully, but with regret, the reasons rendering imperatively necessary the pursuance of this course; and he retained his " parch- ments " up to the year 1858, when, at his own request, they were cancelled. In 1853 he went to New York city, and there engaged in a mercantile affair which occupied a portion of his time; also about this time he commenced the study of law, contributing meanwhile to many of the lead- ing periodicals of the day and making many friends among the resident literateurs. Early in 1856 he passed his ex- amination-the examiners being J. T. Brady, Richard Busteed, and Messrs. Whiting and Gerard-and was ad- mitted to the bar. He shortly after removed to Chicago, Illinois, arriving in that city in March of the same year,

forward until 1871 he did not once leave the city except when called away on professional business. Although pos- sessing a very extensive general law practice, he is noted for his attachment to criminal law, and for his unvarying and brilliant success in its practice. During the first fifteen years of his practice at Chicago he defended over sixty capital cases in different parts of the country, and not one of his clients suffered the extreme penalty of the law-a record which has been rarely surpassed in the criminal law annals of our country. Although gencrously interested in all matters, social, political and benevolent, he is in no sense of the word a political partisan. During the first Presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln he delivered several powerful orations favoring his election, but is en- tirely independent of all party prejudices and influences. Through his knowledge of the law in all its bearings, aspects and minutiæ, his personal characteristics and his reputation for fairness, he exercises a powerful control over a jury, and by his invariable avoidance of the use of those naked technicalities, which are only too often relied on, he wins its confidence and esteem. As a bibliophile he is well known in this country and in Europe. His library, which is the result of a lifetime work, contains many rare books in the various departments of literature, being espe- cially rich in Elizabethian poetry and Shakesperiana as well as Americana. A curious incident has contributed to endear his books to him. In the summer of 1871, being about to start for Europe, with his wife and three sons, on an ex- tended tour, he was considerably puzzled to provide quarters for his books. After debating every suggestion for their storage in Chicago, he called into counsel that emincnt Bibliophilist, Mr. Joseph Sabin, of New York, who at once offered to care for them if sent to him. The books were packed and sent to New York, and kept by Mr. Sabin at his own house, and thus barely escaped the great fire that destroyed every other collection. After an absence of about eighteen months in Europe he returned, with his family, in the fall of 1872, to Chicago, where he resumed the practice of his profession and is as busy as ever.

AVIS, CRESSA K., Attorney-at-Law, was born in Spencer county, Indiana, on November 10th, 1830. His father, Silas Davis, was born in Virginia, and early in life moved to Kentucky; from there to Spencer county, Indiana, and engaged in farm- ing; thence to Dubois county, from which county he was sent to the Legislature for two terms, and was a member when the code was framed. Cressa K. was edu- cated at the common schools of Indiana. In 1852 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Hughes, at Huntingburg, Indiana, and at the same time was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He continued his studies two years, and during

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the course of his studics he assisted his preceptor in his | nizcd as a standard work. In 1874 he entered into part- practice. He concluded, however, to abandon the medical nership with John S. Lcc and M. C. Quinn, under the style of Puterbaugh, Lee & Quinn. He is a perscvering and discriminating student, and his inquiries concerning the theorems, data and principles of law have been uniformly characterized by acute perception and patient investigation. He was married, November 18th, 1857, to Annie E. Masters, a former resident of Pekin, Tazewell county, ly whom he has had three children, two sons and a daughter. profession, not having a fancy for it, and commenced the study of law with General Veatch, of Rockport, carrying it on at intervals only, or rather only a portion of his time, as his pursuits admitted. In i858 he moved to Shawnee- town, and there was licensed as a practising attorney. Ile made that his home and commenced the practice of his profession, continuing there two years, when he moved to IIarrisburg, which is now his home. In 1861 he entered the army as Captain in the 6th Illinois Voluntcer Cavalry, and served until December, 1862, when he resigned and returned to Harrisburg, and resumed the practice of the law, in which he is now actively engaged. Ilis clientage has at all times been a large and lucrative onc. In 1864 he was the Presidential elector from this district on the Democratic ticket ; he has ever been a consistent member of that party. He was married in 1869 to Miss Pearcc, of Harrisburg.

UTERBAUGH, SABIN D., Lawyer and ex-Judge of the Circuit Court, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, was born in Miami county, Ohio, September 28th, 1834. Ilis father, Jacob Puter- baugh, a farmer, moved with his family to a farm near Mackinaw, Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1839, and there engaged in agricultural and mercantile pursuits. In his boyhood he was the recipient of a com- mon school education, and until his eighteenth year was occupied as a clerk in his father's store. He taught school one term, and then removed to Pekin, Illinois, and entered the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and commenced reading law with the late IIon. Samuel W. Fuller. IIc was admitted to the bar in 1856, and at once, in connection with his preceptor, entered upon the practice of his profes- sion in Pekin, where he remained until 1862, Mr. Fuller having in the meantime moved to Chicago. On the out- break of the rebellion he was appointed by Governor Yates first Major of the 11th Regiment of Illinois Cavalry, serving actively until November, 1862, participating in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and various other engagements in western Tennessee and Mississippi. Resigning his commission hc returned home, and at once removed to Peoria, Illinois, and resumed the practice of law and began the preparation of a work on " Common Law Pleading and Practice," which was first published in 1864. In that year he associated himself with Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, with whom he re- mained in practice until 1867, when he was elected Circuit Judge, and held that position until 1873, when he resigned and resumed the practice of his profession. Ile had writ- ten in the meantime another work entitled " Puterbaugh's Chancery Pleading and Practice," which was published in 1874. His Common Law work, having previously gone through two more revised editions, was generally recog-

ARKS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Lawyer, was born in Oakland county, Michigan, October 2d, 1828, and is a son of Calvin C. Parks and Ilarriet Thomas. His father was a well-known and prominent lawyer in Michigan, and subsequently in Illinois, the latter portion of his life being passed in Waukegan, in this State. Benjamin F. was cducated in Michigan University, where he graduated in 1848, subsequent to which he studied law in the office of Ferry & Searles, in Waukegan, being admitted to the bar in 1850. During the same year he located in Aurora, marrying, July 20th, 1851, Maria II. Erskine, of Maine, an estimable lady, to whom he attributes much of his success in life. During the period spanned by the past twenty-five years he has justly been regarded one of the best and most successful lawyers in the Fox river valley, his worth being attested by the people of Aurora clecting him their first City Attorney. Ile was afterwards made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1859, which office he held for four years, discharging the duties of the office with great satisfaction to the people. He was also elected Mayor of Aurora in 1869, and during his mayoralty he was especially active, among other duties, in perfecting arrangements whereby Aurora has to-day one of the best organized and most efficient fire departments of any interior town in the West. Judge Parks was one of the first to respond to the call for soldiers at the beginning of the great civil war. He cnlisted in the service in 1861, holding a Lieutenant- Colonel's commission in the 13th Illinois Infantry, serving

six months in Missouri under the command of General

Wyman. Trained in the school of Democracy from luis boyhood, he remained a rigid adherent to the Democratic party amid all the changing fortunes of that political or- ganization down to the Grant and Wilson campaign of 1872, when he took the stump in behalf of the' Republi- cans, doing gallant and vigorous service for the party in a series of addresses, which were reported and used as cam- paign documents throughout the United States, being regarded as among the most brilliant speeches of the canvass. Possessed of an active temperament, of large and generous impulses, coupled with extensive general informa- tion and versatile talent, it is natural that he would take an active part in the events that largely make up the history

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of his city; and the proud position Aurora occupies to-day in the midst of her sister cities abundantly demonstrates how well his work, in company with his co-laborers in behalf of his adopted town, has been performed. Though ripe in the experience of an exciting active life, Judge Parks is yet a young man in the vigor of his manhood, and his history is largely in the future.

of Bloomington he is an active and generous mover and assistant ; also in movements and enterprises of a moral and religious character he takes a warm interest, contributing with unostentatious liberality to worthy objects of all kinds.

WING, WILLIAM LEE D., United States Sena- tor, was elected, December 29th, 1835, to serve out the unexpired term of Elias K. Kane. The election was a protracted struggle, and not de- cided until twelve ballots had been taken. Gen- eral Ewing, a Kentuckian by birth, was a gentle- man of culture, a lawyer by profession, and had been much in public life. He was appointed Receiver of the Public Moneys at Vandalia. He was Speaker of the State Senate in 1834, and by virtue of that position had been acting- Governor for fifteen days. ITis title of General was of militia origin, and he attained some distinction in the Black Hawk war. He was genial and social, with fair talents, though little originality. IIis term expired in 1837. Under Governor Ford he was elected State Auditor. He died, March 25th, 1846.

OORE, ASA H., Railroad Operator, was born in Rutland, Westchester county, Massachusetts, Oc- tober 28th, 1820. His parents were of Irish- · Indian extraction. His education was acquired in the common schools of his native State; he attended their sessions during two months in each winter, from his twelfth to his seventeenth year, the re- maining ten months being passed in laboring on a farm. In November, 1839, when nineteen years of age, he took the position of railroad conductor on the road extending from Springfield to Worcester, Massachusetts, running the first regular passenger train that had ever been over that road. In this capacity he acted for six years, then accepted a similar position on the Old Colony Railroad-now known as the Old Colony & Fall River Railroad - which he retained for the five years following. He was, at the expiration of that time, appointed to the Assistant Super- ATTESON, JOEL A., elected Governor of Illinois in 1852, was born in Jefferson county, New York, on August 8th, 1808, whither his father had re- moved from Vermont three years before. His father was a farmer in fair circumstances, but a common English education was all that his only son received. Joel first tempted fortune as a small trades- man in Prescott, Canada, before his majority. Thence he returned home, entered an academy, taught school, visited the large eastern cities, improved a farm his father had given him, made, later, a tour South, worked there in building railroads; experienced a storm on the Gulf of Mexico, visited the gold diggings of northern Georgia, whence he returned via Nashville to St. Louis, and through Illinois to his father's home, and married. In 1833, having sold his farm, he removed with his wife and one child to Illinois, and took a claim on government land near Au Sable river, in the present Kendall county. He opened a large farm. In 1835 he bought largely at the government land sales. During the speculative real estate mania which broke out in Chicago in 1836, and spread all over the State, he sold his lands under the inflation of that period and removed to Joliet. In 1838 he became a heavy con- tractor on the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Upon the com- pletion of the job, in 1841, when hard times prevailed, when contracts were paid in State scrip and all public works abandoned, the State offered for sale seven hundred tons of railroad iron, which was purchased by Matteson at intendency of the Northern Indiana & Michigan Southern Railroad, and removed to Laporte, Indiana, in 1852; after a residence of two years in that place he went to Bloom- ington, Illinois, July 31st, 1854; there, under the appoint- ment of Assistant Superintendent of the Chicago & Missouri Railroad-now known as the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad-he resided for a period of two years. He was then appointed to the General Superintendency of the same road, and occupied that office during the ensuing seven years. At the time of his appointment the road was under the control of Henry Dwight, of New York; three months later it passed into the hands of George Matteson, of Illinois; and when entering its employ as Superintendent the concern was virtually in a state of bankruptcy; at the expiration of his term of seven years the entire stock was delivered over to the bondholders. Since his residence permanently in Bloomington he has dealt very extensively in real estate, his purchases in single transactions often amounting to thousands of acres; and his many operations in this business have usually been crowned with great success. In 1865 a street railroad, connecting Bloomington and Normal, a distance of three miles, was built; in 1869 he became the possessor, by purchase, of its entire stock, accessories and appurtenances, and at the present time is its sole owner and controller; that investment has proved to be a highly remunerative one, and the business con- nected with it is steadily assuming larger and more lucrative proportions. In all matters connected with the well-being | a great bargain. This he shipped and sold at Detroit,

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 69

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