USA > Illinois > The biographical encyclopedia of Illinois of the nineteenth century > Part 93
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| locate in a village near by and go into general practice. This step he has since regretted very much; nevertheless, his first year's practice was a success, and he can look back upon it now and see no great errors in diagnosis or treat- ment. Two years afterwards he removed to Falmouth, Massachusetts, and at once went into a large and successful practice, where he remained for two years, with the excep- tion of the lecture season of 1846-47, which he spent at the Medical College at Worcester, Massachusetts, and gradu- ated therefrom. In IS53 he went West and located in Quiney, Illinois, where he soon acquired a large practice, and is now one of the oldest and most widely-known phy- sicians in that portion of the State. He has been for many years an active member of the Adams County (Illinois) Medical Society, and is also a member of the American Medical Association. During the late war he filled the very responsible position of Surgeon to the Board of Enrol- ment of the Provost Marshal's Bureau, Fourth District, Illinois, and discharged its duties in such a manner that at the close of the war, in the published reports of this depart- ment, he was mentioned as the model Surgeon of the ser- vice. He was also eoramissioned Pension Surgeon, and performed the duties of that office in Quincy for several years. He is a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity, and has taken all the degrecs known to that order but one. He is still in active practice, in his fifty-fifth year, keeping up with the advancement of the profession, and performing an amount of labor that few men of forty could accomplish.
RUMBULL, HON. LYMAN, Lawyer, ex-Judge, and United States Senator, was born in Col- chester, Connecticut, October 12th, 1813. His preliminary education was acquired at the Bacon Academy, in his native town, which in those days was one of the best institutions of learning in New
England. While in his sixteenth year he became engaged in teaching in a district school, and at twenty years of age removed to Georgia, where he assumed charge of an acad- emy at Greenville. While pursuing this vocation he em- ployed his leisure time in studying law, purposing to embrace ultimately the legal profession. After liis admis- sion to the bar in Georgia, in 1837, he removed to Illinois, settling in Belleville, St. Clair county. In IS40 he was elected a representative in the State Legislature from that county, and before the expiration of his term was, in 1841, appointed Secretary of State of Illinois. After serving in this office for two years he resumed the practice of his pro- fession, in which he speedily acquired an eminence and distinction that placed him among the ablest leaders of the bar in this State. The Seeretaryship of State was tendered him by Governor Carlin and taken from him by Governor Ford. He subsequently sought the Congressional nomina- tion from Belleville, twice, but on each occasion met with
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failure. He was then a candidate for United States Sen- Mr. Green, of Missouri, that when a territorial government, which, at the time of acquisition, was under a law prohibit- ing African slavery, becomes incorporated with the govern- ment, without any action of the people there, or any desire to have the existing laws changed, the existing state of things should be continued. When, on the 11th January, a resolution was offered in the Senate by Mr. Hunter, of Vir- ginia, authorizing the retrocession by the President of the forts and arsenals within any State upon the application of the Legislature, or a convention of the people of such State, taking at the same time proper security for their safe-keeping and return, or payment for the same, he at once offered an amendment approving the act of Major Anderson in aban- doning Fort Moultrie and taking possession of Fort Sumter. In his subsequent reply to the member from Mississippi who asserted the right of a State to withdraw from the Union, he spoke with bitter warmth, and in a few terse sentences exposed the sophistry of his opponent's arguments : " He has a most singular way of maintaining the Constitution. What is it? Why, he proposes that the government should abdicate. If it will simply withdraw its forces from Charleston, and abdicate either in favor of a mob or of the constituted authorities of Charleston, we will have peace ! etc." In the discussions which arose concerning the reso- lution declaring legal the acts which had been done by the President in the after recess of Congress, he objected on tl.e ground that no declaration could make legal acts which were illegal, and "was disposed to give the necessary power to the administration to suppress this rebellion." His subsequent expression of his views of the object of the war also were admirably and fearlessly expressed. In the Thirty-seventh Congress he took a prominent part in the discussions relating to the following measurcs: on the Transfer of Certain Suits to the United States Courts, cn the Discharge of State Prisoners, and on Compensated Emancipation in Missouri. In the Thirty-eighth Congress he was prominent in the debates resulting from the produc- ator and Governor, a nomination for which offices, however, he did not succeed in securing. In 1846 he was nominated for Congress, and here again met with a defeat. In IS4S, finally, he was nominated and elected one of the Justices of the State Supreme Court, under the new Constitution, and in 1852 was re-elected for nine years, but resigned in 1353. While on the bench he distinguished himself by admn'rable acuteness of discrimination, accuracy of judg- ment, and thorough familiarity with organic and statute laws. In 1854, after his resignation, he was clected a representative to the Thirty-fourth Congress from the Belle- ville district, then embracing a wide extent of country. Before taking his seat in the House, however, the Legisla- ture elected him to the Senate of the United States for the term of six years, commencing March 4th, 1855, and ending in 1861. During his term of service he served as Chair- man of the Committee on the Judiciary, and as a member of the Committees on Public Buildings and Grounds, on Indian Affairs, etc. During the stirring political contests which attended the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, he took a bold stand against the policy and doctrines of the old Democratic party, with which he had been actively and prominently identified, and espoused the cause of freedom, of which he became a zealous and efficient defender. In all questions bearing upon slavery he placed himself in direct and irreconcilable opposition to his colleague, Mr. Douglas, more especially in his famous popular sovereignty plan of settling the question in dispute in the Territories and future States. With such eminent and powerful ability did he hold in check and combat the measures and opin- ions of his opponents on this measure, that he at once gained a national reputation as a statesman of extraordinary powers. In 1860 he advocated ably and earnestly the elec- tion of Abraham Lincoln, and in the opening of the succeed- ing year, immediately previous to Lincoln's inauguration, and when the war of the rebellion had virtually opened, he tion of the following measures : on the Oath of a Senator, was one of the leaders in the Senate of the Union party, on Colored Voters in Montana, on Amending the Constitu- tion, and on Confiscation. And, among other measures arising under varying circumstances in ensuing sessions, he took a leading and influential position in relation to the fol- for a third term in the Senate of the United States. As lowing : on Trials by Military Commission, on the Electoral Vote of Louisiana, on the Admission of a Senator from Vir- ginia, on the Government in Louisiana, on the Validity of Certain Proclamations, on Repeal of the Amnesty Clause, on Reconstruction, on Allowing Drawback at Boston, on and was fearless and outspoken in his advocacy of prompt and decided measures for the maintenance of the Union. In 1851 he was re-elected for a second term, and in 1867 Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate-a po- sition which he has held uninterruptedly since 1861-he framed and advocated some of the most important acts which were passed by Congress during and since the war. Ile was one of the first to propose the amendment to the | Louisiana Affairs, and on the Louisiana Government Bill, etc. Also, he advocated with notable ability the acts estab- lishing and enlarging the Freedman's Bureau, and elo- quently defended the Civil Rights Bill. He voted for the acquittal of President Johnson on the articles of impeach- ment. He resided in Belleville, Illinois, until 1849, when he removed to Alton, in the same State, and subsequently, in
Constitution abolishing slavery in the United States, a proposition which passed Congress and was ratified by the requisite votes of two-thirds of the States. In the Thirty- sixth Congress the increasing difficulties of the country were considered by the Senate, and when the bill to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Arizona came before that body, he sustaincd the view, in opposition to , IS63, to Chicago. As an orator he is devoid of imagery
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and ornateness of diction, but as a clear, close, and system- atic thinker, with an excellent memory and a wide and varied knowledge of public affairs, and an extensive ac- quaintance with law, he was among the most formidable debaters of the Senate.
FOORE, CLIFTON H., Lawyer, was born in Lake county, Ohio, October 26th, 1817. His parents were Isaac Moore and Philena (Blish) Moore. Ilis earlier education was acquired in his native State, and in 1840 he commenced the study of law in Tazewell county, Illinois, under the in- structions of Bailey & Wilmot. In July, 1841, he was admitted to practise, and in the following month established his office in Clinton, the county-seat of De Witt county, where he has since permanently resided, successfully en- gaged in professional labor. He is the oldest practitioner at the bar of De Witt county, and possesses an extensive practice. For many years he acted as Postmaster of Clin- ton, and was a member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1869-70. Hle was married in August, 1845, to Elizabeth Richmond, of Tazewell county, who died in April, 1872. He was again married, in 1874, to Rose Onstein, of Lorain county, Ohio.
IEFFENBACHER, PHILLIP L., M. D., was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, February 6th, 1830. Ile is the eldest son of Daniel and Catherine (Long) Dieffenbacher. His parents emigrated to the West in 1837, and settled in what was then part of Tazewell (now Mason) county, Illinois. He remained at home and helped improve a new farm until 1849, when he returned to Penn- sylvania for the purpose of attending school. He entered the Newville Academy, a preparatory school to the Jefferson College at Canonsburg, where he finished his preparatory cducation. In 1351 he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Drs. P. HI. and S. H. Long, of Mechanics- burg, Pennsylvania. In 1853 he entered the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and graduated in the spring of 1855. He then established his office in Mount Joy, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and there began the practice of his profession. In the spring of 1856 he re- turned to the West and located in Ilavana, Illinois. In 1857 he was married to Frances A. Parmelee, of Lockport, New York. In 1862 he entered the United States service as First Assistant Surgeon of the $5th Regiment of Illinois Infantry, and was promoted to Surgeon, with rank of Major, in June, 1863. He served with this body until the close of the war, when he returned to Havana, where he has since resided, constantly occupied in the duties con- nected with his profession, in which he makes surgery a
specialty. Ile performed the operation of resection of the shoulder joint for gunshot wound, successfully, in 1860, just before the war. He is a member of the State Medical Society, also of the Mason County Medical Society, of which at the present time he is Vice-President. He is United States Pension Surgeon for Mason county. Ile was married a second time, in 1874, to MI. M. Mitchell, of Bath, Illinois.
OLK, LEONARD W., Sculptor, was born in Wellstown, Montgomery (now Hamilton) county, New York, November 7th, 1828, descending from the earliest settlers in that State. His father, Garret Volk, was a marble cutter, and his mother, whose maiden name was Gesner, came from the historical family of Anneke Jantz Bogardus. Leonard was one of a family of four sisters and eight brothers, and a great portion of his youth was spent on a farm at Berkshire, in Massachusetts, to which his father had retired after his engagement on the marble work on the old City Hall of New York. He worked hard, suffered many hardships, and had to pick up his education at the winter sessions of a country school. The frequent migra- tions of the family from point to point interfered materially with his studies, which, at times of unusual progress in the various common school branches, he was compelled to sus- pend, suffering the loss in the interim of the headway he had made in study. Ilis final school experience was at Lanesboro', Massachusetts, graduating from his common school pupilage in 1844. At the age then of sixteen he entered the marble factory run by his father and elder brother, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Icarn the trade of a marble cutter. When he had obtained considerable skill as an apprentice he went to Springfield, in the same State, working there and subsequently at Pittsfield as a journey- man. At the suggestion and request of another brother, alsosa marble cutter, he went to Bethany, New York, where he formed the acquaintance of an accomplished young lady who seven years after became his wife. He was employed for some time as a journeyman at Batavia, Rochester, Albion, and Buffalo, and during this period the family of Miss Bar- low moved to St. Louis, to which place, in 1848, he himself moved on the receipt of an offer of fifty dollars a month from an establishment in that city. He was stimulated to unusual exertion and study by two aims : to secure the love of the object of his admiration, and to become something more than a skilful carver in marble of ornamental work and lettering. He was ambitious to be more than this-to enjoy the success and the reputation of a sculptor in the fullest and broadest interpretation of that word. He was aware that the road to this eminence was a difficult one, paved as it generally has been from the ontset with discour- agements cven to those possessing in the highest degree artistic taste and genius. Once resolved, he commenced
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the basis of his future career, hoping for and very often | Judge Douglas generously came to his assistance, and he doubting the result of this venture. He commenced to went energetically to work. One of the first of his brilliant productions was a bust of his benefactor. In 1858, a year memorable for the exciting campaign for the United States Senatorship between Douglas and Lincoln, Mr. Volk was commissioned to execute a life-size statue of the former, and this order he executed rapidly and with striking fidelity to the original. This statue was the nucleus of the first Fine Art Exposition of the Northwest, which Mr. Volk organized in 1859, and which was held in Burch's building, at the corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue. Of this exhibi- tion he was the Superintendent, by the appointment of the Board of Directors, and in all its artistic details he mani- fcsted the finest taste and discrimination. He spent the winter of 1860 in Washington, and published a " statuette " of Douglas, who was then looked upon as the coming President, which was made from sittings in Chicago. Mr. Lincoln, shortly after, while in that city, redeemed a prom- ise he had previously made, to sit for his bust, and the work was conducted in Mr. Volk's studio, in Portland Block. The sculptor produced an admirable copy, which was afterwards cut in marble, and in 1866 disposed of to the Crosby Art Association, with the understanding that it should be sent to the great Paris Exposition Universelle, held in the ycar 1867. This was done, and it was received among the artists of Europe as one of the finest marbles in this exhibition. During the Presidential campaign of 1860, the busts of both candidates, reproduced by Mr. Volk, were sent to all sections of the country, but with, unfortunately, indifferent pecuniary success. Most of the winter of 1861- 62 was spent by him in the Chicago Art Union; but the breaking out of the rebellion materially interfered with the benefits which, under the sway of tranquillity, would have resulted to local artists from this association. Mr. Volk was among the first to enlist when Sumter was fired upon and President Lincoln made his call for troops. The regi- ment to which his company was attached was never filled up, however, and he and his comrades were disbanded. During the military and naval movements from St. Louis and Cairo he and some brother artists commenced the painting of a panorama of the war, but he withdrew his in- terest before its completion. His next undertaking was the organization of the Douglas Monument Association, in which he was aided by Rev. William Barry, D. A. Gage, and others. He was selected as Secretary, and the association accepted his plan for the proposed monument, the corner stone of which was laid with imposing ceremonies in the autumn of 1865. The work of erecting that imposing tribute to the great statesman was left entirely under his supervision, and all its details were by him carried out with great care and skill. At the request of the widow of Sen- ator Douglas he took charge of the grounds of the latter's estate in the southern part of Chicago, and took up his own residence in a cottage, at Cottage Grove, once occupied by Mr. Douglas. With a keen sympathy for those struggling draw and model in clay, and one of his first efforts was a bust of Dr. J. K. Barlow, designed from a daguerreotype. IIe produced this in the fond hope that Miss Barlow might see and admire it and applaud his skill. His hopes were more than realized. His conscientious study was guided by artistic taste and nice discernment, and his progress, which surmounted, through the impulse of never-failing energy, unusual obstacles, was unusually rapid. He made a life-size copy of IIart's bust of Henry Clay, the first of its kind in marble ever executed west of the Mississippi river, and which he subsequently sold in Louisville, Kentucky. After this achievement he was commissioned by Archbishop Kenrick to cut two alto rilievo medallions, from an ivory miniature of Major Biddle and his wife, for their mauso- leum. While in his new departure he was artistically suc. cessful, his pecuniary encouragement was small and discour- aging, and he was obliged to return to his old trade as a marble carver and letterer. This he prosecuted with much zeal, laying by enough to carry him to Italy, where hc might see the rare creations of the old masters, and draw from them not only inspiration but renewed vigor. In this profession he was one of the first to embark west of Cin- cinnati. About this time, in 1852, he was married to Miss Burlow, and for some time thereafter worked at Galena and Rock Island, Illinois. At Galena his studio was visited by the late Senator Douglas, who was a relative of his mother, and who, discerning in the young artist the evidences of an artistic talent, generously extended him the aid of his great personal influence and advice. He urged Mr. Volk to go to Chicago, as a locality more bountiful in opportunities for displaying his genius. Mr. Volk, however, first gave St. Louis another trial, and met with discouragement. Thence he went to Rock Island, where, two years after his first meeting with Senator Douglas, he again saw him. The latter offered to furnish the means to send him to Italy, and this friendly proposition was accepted. Mr. Volk removed to Chicago in 1855, where he determined to settle; and then, leaving his wife and only child in the care of his brother, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he set sail for Europe in September of that year, from New York. Hc spent nearly eighteen months in Italy in the study of the sublime works of art in the great galleries, churches, and studios, and was received cordially in the " Eternal City " by Craw- ford, Randolph, Rogers, Bartholemew, Jues, and Mozier, artists whose names are familiar wherever modern sculpture is known. While occupying Mr. Jues' studio Mr. Volk modelled his first statue-that of Washington Cutting the Cherry Tree-and this artistic creation was highly com- mended by his brother artists. His visit was saddened by the announcement by letter of the death of his child. He left Rome in January, 1857, for home via Florence, Leg- horn, Gibraltar, and New York, and in June of that year arrived in Chicago with but five dollars in his pocket.
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against the adversities he himself encountered, he is active | Infantry. He did good service as a soldier, and became in doing all that can benefit young artists battling for suc- eess. He succeeded in obtaining subscriptions for the pur- chase of George P. A. Healey's (the eminent portrait painter) private gallery of paintings, which were placed in the keeping of IIon. J. Y. Scammon, to be held in trust for the subscribers. He started a chartered association for the purpose of opening a public art gallery, with this fine col- lection as a nucleus, and, with the generous assistance of a number of public-spirited gentlemen, he secured the lease of the old Walker mansion, at the corner of State and Washington streets, which was opened as an Art Building, with studios, and here for a long time he had his quarters. From this place he went to his own marble-front building, on Washington street between Wells and Franklin, designed and erected by him for art and business purposes, being joined in this enterprise by his friend, Dr. Edmund C. Rogers, a brother of the famous sculptor. IIe has paid great attention to designs for monuments for parks and cemeteries, and among his productions is the Firemen's Monument at Rosehill, and several military monuments, one of which was ordered by Dan Rice, the showman, and erected by him at a cost of over $5000, at Girard, Pennsyl . vania, in honor of the soldiers of Erie county. Mr. Volk was the chief organizer and manager of the art galleries which formed so conspicuous a feature of the two Chicago Sanitary Fairs, one in 1363 and one in 1865, for the aid of sick and wounded soldiers. A great demand sprung up during the war for copies in plaster of his bust of Lincoln, and it was infringed upon by parties in New York and elsewhere, and justly indignant by the infringement of Ital- ians in Chicago, he entered their shops and broke their moulds and casts, for which they prosecuted him for tres- pass, but failed to get satisfaction. IIe has, by the most persistent vigor, achieved success after the most dismaying failures and under the most discouraging circumstances. The recognition of his genius as a sculptor is general, and he is quoted as one of the leading artists of the country, a distinction which he has earned, and which is the just re- ward of his labors.
Quartermaster and Adjutant of his regiment. At the close of the war he returned home, and in the fall of 1848 began the study of law in the office of his uncle, Alexander M. Jenkins, formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois. In November, 1849, he was elected Clerk of Jackson county. He still pursued, though somewhat desultorily, his legal studies, attended a course of law lectures in Louisville, and having received his diploma in 1857, he commenced the practice of his profession with his uncle. In the meantime he had by his popular manners and high abilities won an excellent place in public cstccm, and in 1852 had been elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Third Judicial District, a position he held until 1857. IIe had also, in the fall of 1852, been chosen a member of the State Legislature, and been three times re-elected-in 1853, 1856, and 1857. In 1856, also, he had been returned as a Presidential Elector. In the year following the formation of his partnership with his uncle, in 1858, he became a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and was elected. So well did he serve his constituents, and so thoroughly did he secure their confidence, that he was re-elected in 1860. Up to the time when it was manifest that the South would precipitate a struggle and seek to overthrow the Union, he had been an ardent Democrat, and in the Presidential campaign of 1860 he carnestly espoused the cause of Stephen A. Douglas. As soon, however, as he saw the Union endangered he promptly declared that in the event of Abraham Lincoln's election he would " shoulder his musket to have him in- augurated." While serving in the Thirty-seventh Congress, on the called session, in July, 1861, he joined the troops that were marching through Washington to meet the enemy. Ile fought in the ranks at the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and was among the last to leave the field. Subsequently believing he could serve his country better in the field than in its legislative halls, he resigned his seat, and in Septem- ber, 1861, entered the army as Colonel of the 31st Regiment of Illinois Infantry. IIis command first encountered the foe at Belmont, where Colonel Logan had his horse shot under him. He led his regiment in the attack upon Fort IIenry. In the assault on Fort Donelson he received a severe wound, which incapacitated him for some time for active service. Immediately, however, he was at all fit for duty he reported to General Grant, at Pittsburgh Landing, and in March, 1862, was made a Brigadier-General of vol- unteers. Subsequently he bore a prominent part in the movement against Corinth. In Grant's northern Mississippi campaign General Logan commanded the 3d Division of the 17th Army Corps, under General McPherson, and his skill and bravery were so distinguished as to lead to his promotion to the rank of Major-General of volunteers, his commission bearing date November 26th, 1862. He par- ticipated in the struggle at Port Gibson, and contributed in no small degree to the victory there won. At the battle of
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