The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 75

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

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ATHIAM, JOIIN F., Attorney-at-Law, was born in Johnson county, Illinois, May 26th, 1831. His father, Carter Latham, a native of Tennessee, emigrated to this State in 1815, at which date it ranked only as a Territory, and engaged in farm- ing, stock-raising, and in general agricultural pursuits. His mother, Rebecca (Fisher) Latham, was a native of Johnson county, where she was married. In carly boyhood he attended the common schools located in the neighborhood of his birthplace, and after acquiring the ru- diments of an elementary education, abandoned his studies and became engaged in farming, at which he continued until 1857, when he commenced the study of medicine. | intrepid sustainer of the government and its war measures.

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In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Beveridge a Notary | died in the year 1821. Milton first attended the primitive Public. He was married in 1854 to Nancy E. Andrews, of Williamson county, the daughter of a poor widow with two other children. She died in 1863. In 1864 he was again married, to Sarah R. Westbrook, of Saline county. By his first marriage he had six children, all of whom are dead. By his second he has had three children, two of whom are living.

CROBERTS, SAMUEL, the first native Illinoisan ever elevated to the position of United States Senator from Illinois, was born April 12th, 1799, in what is now Monroe county, his father residing on a farm. IIe received a good English educa- tion from a private tutor. At the early age of twenty he was appointed Circuit Clerk of Monroe county, a position which afforded him opportunities to become fami- liarized with forms of law, which he eagerly embraced, pursuing at the same time a most assiduous course of read- ing. Two years later he entered the law department of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, where, after three full courses of lectures, he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He commenced the practice of law in competition with such men as Kane, Reynolds, Clark, Baker, Eddy, McLean and others. In 1824, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected by the Legislature one of the five circuit judges. As Judge he first publicly ex- hibited strong partisan bias. In 1824 he had been a violent convention advocate, and now, in defiance of a release by the Legislature, he assessed a fine against Governor Coles for settling his emancipated slaves in Madison county, with- out giving a bond that they should not become a public charge. In 1828 he was elected a State Senator; in 1830 appointed United States District Attorney for the State ; in 1832 Receiver of the Public Moneys at the Danville land office ; and in 1839 Solicitor of the General Land Office, at Washington. On December 16th, 1840, he was elected United States Senator for a full term, commencing March 4th, 1841. Ile died March 22d, 1843, at Cincinnati, on his route home from Washington, in the vigor of intellectual manhood, at the age of forty-four years.

ARTLEY, MILTON, Judge of the County Court of Gallatin county, was born in Floyd county, In- diana, on January 7th, 1819. His father, Heze- kiah Bartley, was a native of Virginia, who emi- grated to Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1798, whence he moved to Floyd county, Indiana. After the birth of Milton, he returned to Kentucky, where he is now living. The family is of English extraction. His mother was born in North Carolina, and with her father moved to Indiana, was there married to Mr. Bartley, and

schools of that State, then entered the Mount Marine Academy, and finally St. Mary's College, Kentucky. On leaving college he was engaged in teaching school, and at the same time pursued the study of medicine, which he abandoned for that of the law, beginning to read under the guidance of Judge Calhoun. Moving to Union county, Kentucky, he continued his studies under IIiram McElroy, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky in 1847. Being too poor to purchase a library, he continued to teach school to enable him to make the necessary purchases. In Sep- tember, 1847, he moved to Shawneetown, Illinois, and here continued to teach school for one year. Ile was then li- censed to practise in this State, commenced business in 1850, and has been engaged in the same ever since. In politics he was originally a Whig, then attached himself to the Democratic party, of which he was a member until the war, when he became a War Democrat. Since that time he has been thoroughly conservative. In 1854 he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and served out that term. In 1860 he was chosen a member of the Constitutional Con- vention from the counties of Gallatin and Saline. In 1863 he was appointed State's Attorney by the Governor, and served out the unexpired term of Thomas Smith. Ile was elected Judge of the County Court in 1868, and re-elected in 1872; this office he still fills. He was married in 1853, at Shawneetown, to Symphorosa Durbin, and has four boys living.

ORD, THOMAS, elected Governor of Illinois in 1842, was born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1800. His father, Robert Ford, was killed in 1802 in the mountains of Pennsylvania by Indians, and his mother was left in indigent circumstances, with a large family, mostly girls. With a view to better her condition, she, in 1804, moved to Missouri, where it had been customary by the Spanish gov- ernment to give land to actual settlers, but upon her arrival in St. Louis, she found the country ceded to the United States, and that liberal policy no longer in vogue. She finally removed to Illinois, and settled near Waterloo, but the following year moved closer to the Mississippi bluffs. Ilere the boys received their first schooling, for which they walked three miles. The mother was a woman of superior mental endowments, joined to energy and determination of character. She inculcated in her children those high-toned moral principles which distinguished her sons in public life. The mind of Thomas gave early promise of superior en- dowments, with an inclination for mathematics. ITis pro- ficiency attracted the attention of the Hon. D. P. Cook, in whom young Ford found an efficient patron and friend. Through Cook young Ford turned his attention to the law. He attended Transylvania University one term, and on his ·return alternated his law-reading with teaching school. In

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1829 Governor Reynolds appointed him Prosecuting Attor- | made by Mr. Douglas in Chicago on his return from ney. In 1831 he was re-appointed by Governor Reynolds ; after that he was four times elected Judge by the Legislature without opposition, twice a Circuit Judge, Judge of Chicago, and as Associate Judge of the Supreme Court. Ford was assigned to the Ninth Judicial District, and while holding court in Ogle court, was notified of his nomination for the Governorship. He immediately resigned his office, accepted the nomination, and entered upon the canvass. In August he was elected. The offices which he held werc unsolicited. As a lawyer Governor Ford stood deservedly high, but his cast of intellect fitted him rather for a writer upon law than a practising advocate in the courts. As a judge his opinions were sound, lucid, and able expositions of the law. As a man he was plain in his demeanor. He lacked the sanguine and determined boldness and decision of character requisite to fit a man for a great political leader. As an author he deserves special consideration in having left a legacy in the form of a history of his State. His writings show a natural flow of compact and forcible thought. He died November 2d, 1850, at Peoria.

ILSON, CHARLES L., Journalist, was born in Fairfield county, Connecticut, and there obtained his education. He never enjoyed the advantage of a collegiate course, but secured a thorough common school and academical education, which he supplemented with a wide and various eulture obtained by extended reading and judicious observation. In September, 1835, he went to Chicago as clerk in a mer- cantile house, and subsequently removed to Joliet, where he remained for a time, serving in a similar capacity. In 1844 his brother, Richard L. Wilson, became editor of the Evening Journal, a paper started in that year as a cam- paign journal, advocating the election of Henry Clay to the Presidency. It was decided to continue the publication of the Journal, and in 1845 Charles Wilson became as- sociated with his brother in the editorial management of it. In 1848 his brother was appointed Postmaster by President Taylor, and Charles became sole proprietor as well as editor of the Evening Journal, a position which he has ever since continued to hold. Under his conduct his paper was the leading organ of the old Whigs in Illinois, and supported the principles of that party so long as the or- ganization was maintained anywhere, and afterwards fought the Know Nothing party with force and zeal. When the Republican party was formed, Charles Wilson was one of its earliest organizers. He was also a member of the Republican State Convention of 1858. He was a personal and political friend of Abraham Lincoln, and in that con- vention he offered the resolution, which was adopted, "that Abraham Lincoln was its first, last, and only choice for United States Senator in place of Stephen A. Douglas." It was by his advice that Mr. Lincoln replicd to the specch

Washington ; and, afterwards, it was also by his advice that Mr. Lincoln challenged Mr. Douglas to the never-to- be-forgotten discussion which lasted through that memor- able campaign. During that discussion Mr. Lincoln often sought his advice as to the course to be taken, and governed himself, in no small degree, by the suggestions made to him. In the eontest which followed for the nomination of Presidential candidate, Mr. Wilson warmly advocated, through his paper, the claims of William H. Seward, with whom his relations were even more intimate than with Abraham Lincoln; but, though greatly disappointed when the choice of the convention fell upon Mr. Lincoln instead of Mr. Seward, he at once urged the hearty ratification of the nomination, and it was through his influence that Mr. Seward subsequently went West to urge the election of Mr. Lincoln. In 1861, after President Lincoln's in- auguration, one of his first foreign appointments was that of Charles L. Wilson as Secretary of the London Lega- tion. In this position he served for three years, when he resigned, owing to the demands upon him of the business of his newspaper. Ever since he has devoted himself exclusively to his journalistic labors, and has reaped large and substantial rewards. As a writer, he is ready, keen, and strong, dealing rather in brief, telling paragraphs than in long articles. He has never married.

HIELDS, JAMES, elected United States Senator from Illinois in 1849, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810, and emigrated to this country in 1827, settling in Illinois three years later. In seven years time, without being naturalized, he was sent to the Legislature from Randolph county. He was appointed Auditor by Governor Carlin, and in 1843 he was elected a Supreme Judge. Under President Polk he was Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington. In the Mexican war he entered by favor of the President as Brigadier-General, and was a fortunate soldier. Borne from the field of Cerro Gordo shot through and through, and reported at home as killed, he recovered in time to take a conspicuous part in the triumph of Ameriean arms under Scott, in the valley of Mexico. In this latter campaign, such was his soldierly conduct that the State of South Carolina voted him a handsome and costly sword. In 1849, on his return homc, he was elected to the United States Senate. Having only been naturalized in October, 1840, nine years had not elapsed, which time was required by the Constitution of the United States to render him eligible to a seat. His seat was therefore declared vacant. On a called session, convened at a time after Shields was eligible by being nine years naturalized, he was again elected and served until the expiration of his term. He subsequently took

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up his home in Minnesota, and in 1857 was elected to | day he has enjoyed similar success. His establishment represent that State in the United States Senate, in which position he served two years. During the late war he was a General in the Union army. Since then he has moved to Missouri, which is now his home.

TOLP, ALLEN W., Manufacturer, was born in Aurora, Kane county, Illinois, September 25th, 1842. He is the son of Joseph G. and Temper- ance (Duston) Stolp. His education was ob- tained principally in the public schools of Aurora, although he attended the Bryant & Stratton Com- mercial College, in Chicago, about three months. In 1858 he left school and entered the counting room of his father, an extensive woollen manufacturer, as clerk, and in that capacity he remained several years, and now is associated with him in the business. In 1873 he was United States Commissioner to the Vienna Exhibition, and spent several months in visiting the important places in the old world, deriving much benefit therefrom. He was the originator of the Aurora Library Association, organized in 1865, and advanced the first money for procuring books. The library now contains some 3000 volumes and is in a prosperous and thriving condition. At an early age he manifested an interest in political matters, and has labored earnestly in the support of the Republican party, and is Chairman of the Republican District Committee. He has been delegate to numerous State and county conventions, discharging the duties of his official position with an energy and success that have placed him in the front rank among the politicians of the section. He is a man who possesses qualifications for responsible positions far above the average, and bids fair to make a high mark. He is still unmarried.

ARROLL, CHARLES, Merchant, and Candidate for State Treasurer in 1874, was born in Lynch- burg, Virginia, on February 25th, 1833. His father was a native of Dublin, Ireland. Emi- grating from his native land he settled in Vir- ginia, where he married Judith M. Williamson, a native of that State. Charles Carroll was educated at Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky. On leaving college he commenced the study of the law with Albert G. Caldwell, of Shawneetown, Illinois, at which place he had lived before going to college. He abandoned the study of law after devoting four years to it, and engaged RAWFORD, SAMUEL KNOX, Physician and Surgeon, was born in Millersburg, Holmes county, Ohio, January 22d, 1835. His father, Hugh B. Crawford, a Lieutenant in the war of 1812, was a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, descending from Irish and Scotch in merchandising with John D. Richeson as his partner. This firm continued together until 1868, when it was dis- solved, and he engaged in business on his own account. The firm of Richeson & Carroll was a very successful one, the business transacted being very large and lucrative. Since embarking in operations by himself to the present | ancestry .. His mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca

is the largest in his line in Shawneetown. In politics he has always affiliated with the Democratic party; in 1874 he was the party's candidate for State Treasurer, and with his entire ticket was d defeated. Mr. Carroll has been identified with this section in all that tended to its pros- perity. He was a stockholder in the Evansville & Cairo Packet Line, and the Evansville & New Orleans Packet Line. He was also one of the original projectors of the Illinois Southeastern Railway Company, and assisted in the building of it; it is now the Springfield division of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. This enterprisc he assisted until its completion, and was connected with it for some time after it was successfully at work. He was married in August, 1856, to Elizabeth K. Eddy, daughter of the IIon. Henry Eddy, of Shawneetown, who has figurcd promi- nently in the affairs of the State.

URNETT, WARNER E., County Clerk of Saline county, Harrisburg, Illinois, was born in Saline county, Illinois, on June 30th, 1832. His father, John M. Burnett, when but a boy, moved from Virginia, where he was born, to Kentucky. At a later day he moved to Illinois, where he mar- ried and settled on a farm in Gallatin county. He was a member of the Legislature during the session of 1844. Ile died March, 1873, at Raleigh in this State. Warner was educated at the common schools of this county. On leaving them he became engaged in mercantile business, first as a clerk; but after a few months he started on his own account, and was actively employed until 1868. In that year he was elected Circuit Clerk of Saline county ; he filled the position four years. In 1873 he was elected County Clerk of Saline county, which office he now fills. In the capacity of a court official, he has at all times given satisfaction, and the members of the bar and the citizens of the county congratulate themselves in having his ser- vices. Mr. Burnett is a bachelor. In politics he has always been a Democrat, yet he was elected to the office he fills by the combined votes of both parties, the Repub- licans having endorsed his nomination, which was made by the Democratic party, an unusual proceeding, which evi- dences the high esteem in which he is held by all citizens.

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Knox, was born and raised in the same section of Pennsyl- vania, and was a lineal deseendant of the old Knox family of Seotland. He was educated at the Fredericksburg (Ohio) High School. He finished the junior year and was ready to enter the senior elass of the University of Miehi- gan, when he eommcneed the study of medicine under the direction of Timothy H. Baker, M. D., at Wooster, Ohio. He attended one course of leeturcs at the Starling Medieal College, at Columbus, Ohio; another at the medieal de- partment of the University of Michigan, and from this insti- tution took his graduating degree of M. D. in 1861. In the summer of this year he received elinical instruction under Drs. Flint and Clark, at Bellevue Hospital, New York, and spent the ensuing winter at Philadelphia in attending a course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College. In Janu- ary, 1862, he was called home to Millersburg, and suc- eeeded Dr. Thomas MeEbright in a large and luerative pretiee, that gentleman having accepted the surgeoncy of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In May of that year he was examined at Columbus, and made Surgeon of Ohio volunteers. Reporting to Surgeon John Moore, United States Army, at Cincinnati, for duty, he was assigned as Medieal Director of the hospital steamer "Sunny Side," and on this vessel made two trips to Pittsburgh Landing. Ile was then constituted Surgeon of the 50th Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, organized at Camp Dennison, Ohio, with John R. Taglan as Colonel, and served in this capacity until a short time prior to the eonelusion of the war, when its rem- mant was consolidated with a remnant of the 99th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was then assigned as Staff Surgeon United States Volunteers, and was detailed by order of General John M. Schofield, commanding the Army of the Ohio, and the Twenty-third Army Corps, as Chief of the Operating Board for the second division of that corps. Upon reporting, with detail, to Division Surgeon John M. Lawton, Surgeon United States Volunteers on General Haskall's staff, he was assigned his appropriate place. Ile served in this position from the commencement of what is called the "Atlanta campaign," until the Army of the Ohio was ordered from Nashville, Tennessee, to Washington, District of Columbia, in 1865, being then detailed as Staff Surgeon to Brigadier-General Joseph T. Cooper, of Tennes- sce, serving thus until the 26th day of April, 1865, when Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the capital of North Carolina. Upon his return from the field he moved West, and on July 20th of the same year settled in Monmouth, Illinois, where, on November 2d of the same year, he was married to Maria Irvine, youngest daughter of the late Rev. Samuel Irvine, D. D., of Fredericksburg, Ohio. He is a

ARTWRIGHT, JAMES H., Lawyer and Soldier, was born in Maquoketa, Iowa, December Ist, 1842, and is a son of Rev. Barton H. Cartwright and Chloe J. Benediet. His early education was obtained in the common schools and at Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris. At the break- ing out of the war of the rebellion, though he was yet a boy, he enlisted as a private and served about seven months, at the end of which time he returned home and resumed his studies. In April, 1864, he again enlisted, this time as Captain in the 140th Regiment of Illinois Infantry, and served faithfully about seven months, most of the time in Tennessee. Soon after returning home he entered the Michigan University Law School, and graduated in 1867, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. In 1870 he was ap- pointed General Solieitor of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad, and holds that position at the present time. He is also a Director of the Chieago, Rockford & Northern Railroad. In 1873 he was elected Mayor of Oregon, and served in that eapaeity two years, discharging his duties to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. Mr. Cartwright's present position in society is due to his own energy and persever- ance, and among the young men of the great West who have carved a name and reputation by their own industry he stands in the front rank. In 1873 he was married to Hattie Holms, of Oregon, and has one daughter.

RENCH, AUGUSTUS C., elected Governor of Illinois in 1846, was born in the town of Hill, New Hampshire, on August 2d, 1208. He was the descendant in the fourth generation of Nathan- iel Freneh, who emigrated from England in 1687, and settled in Saybury, Massachusetts. In early life young Freneh lost his father, but continucd to receive instruction from an exemplary and Christian mother until he was nineteen years old, when she also died, confiding to his care and trust four younger brothers and one sister. He discharged his trust with parental devotion. His education in early life was such mainly as a common school afforded. For a brief period he attended Dartmouth College, but from peeuniary causes and care of his brothers and sister he did not graduate. He subsequently rcad law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and shortly after removed to Illinois, set- tling first and practising his profession at Albion, Edwards county. The following year he moved to Paris, Edgar county. Here he attained eminence in his profession, and entered public life by representing that eounty in the Legis-

member in good standing of the Warren County (Illinois) lature. A strong attachment sprang up between him and Medical Society, of the Military Tract Medical Society, of Stephen A. Douglas. In 1839 French became Receiver of the United States Land Office at Palestinc, Crawford county, at which place he resided when clevated to the guberna- torial chair. In 1844 he was a presidential eleetor, and as such voted for James K. Polk. After the expiration of his the Illinois State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association. He is Lecturer on Anatomy, Physi- ology, and Hygiene in Monmouth Medical College, and is esteemcd as a skilled and experienced practitioner.

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term of office as Governor he occupied for some years the professor's chair of the law department of Mckendrce College, at Lebanon, and did not reappear in public life, except as a meniber of the Constitutional Convention of 1862. He was an honest and conscientious man in all his transactions, and the State was fortunate in securing his ser- · vices just at the time it did. He was zealously devoted to the best interests of the State, ever acting for the public good without regard to personal advantage or aggrandize- ment. It was mainly by his efforts that the credit of the State was restored, and its condition when he quitted the helm, in 1852, is the foundation on which her present pros- pcrity is based. Governor French died in 1865, at his home in Lebanon, Illinois.

ILBURN, REV. WILLIAM HENRY, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 26th, 1826. His father was a merchant, but meeting with reverses, removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1838, and is still living there. Wil- liam was an active, robust boy, possessed of per- fect faculties, both bodily and mental ; but at the age of five met with an accident which resulted in his blindness. He was playing with another lad in an open lot, engaged in throwing at a mark, when his companion, in lifting his hand to cast a piece of iron hoop, or something of the kind, inad- vertently struck the edge of it into Milburn's cye. From this accident, however, the eye recovered without injury to vision, except that the scar formed a slight protuberance which interfered with sight downward, but not direct or up- ward. This protuberance the physician decided to burn off with caustic ; an operation which, twice repcated, was hard for the boy to bear. He begged for relief, and at last re- sisted, declaring that he could not endure it. Upon this the physician seized him in his arms, forced the caustic upon the wound, and in the struggles both eyes of the poor boy were dashed with it. As a remedy he was confined in a dark room, and both eyes were kept bathed with a solu- tion of sugar of lead for two years, during which time the pupils became permeated with depositions of lead, and light was shut out, with the exception of the left upper corner of the right eye, through which narrow aperture objects were visible. By placing a projecting shade over the eye, the hand convexly shaped beneath it, and leaning the body for- ward at an angle of forty-five degrees, Milburn was able to read; seeing, however, only one letter at a timc. By this slow process, and with the aid of friends who read to him, he was obliged to get his education. Cut off from most sports, he became absorbed in reading, and day after day would sit in the constrained posture necessary to sce, poring over books often twelve hours out of the twenty-four. His constitution was so good that it did not suffer under this confinement and unnatural attitude until he was nineteen

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The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century, Part 75

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