USA > Illinois > The makers of Illinois; a memorial history of the state's honored dead > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
However, Governor Edwards aeted promptly when an emergency arose, and by his orders companies of militia, ealled "Rangers," at- taeked and destroyed several Indian villages, without mueh regard to their hostility or friendliness, in the neighborhood of Peoria lake, and elsewhere during the fall of 1812. The settlers were so much exasperated against the red men that they did not take mueh pains to diseriminate between friends or foes. The battle of Tippecanoe had been fought in the previous November, in which the Indians suf- fered a severe defeat, but on the 18th of June, 1812, war had been deelared by the United States against Great Britain, and the tribes generally sympathized with the British and received encouragement from them. Later in the summer the garrison at Fort Dearborn had evacuated that post but most of them were massaered on the retreat. Thus the unrest among the Indians reached an acute stage which ealled for vigorous measures on the part of the territorial executive.
307
308
Rinian Cowards
The "Rangers," however, carried on an aggressive campaign. All the troops that could be mustered up for the war against the Indians were about three hundred and fifty men. Governor Edwards was the commander and under him were brave and enterprising officers, one of whom was Captain Samuel Judy whose company of scouts were the terror of the Indians. On one occasion an Indian and his squaw approached the advance under Captain Judy's company for the purpose of an interview, and were mercilessly shot down, the cap- tain explaining his cruel action by saying that he and his scouts had not left their homes merely to take prisoners. To show the temper of the whites in these wars with the tribes we note that Governor Rey- nolds in his history comments upon these operations as "doing much good in checking the aggressions of the Indians."
A treaty with the Indians was concluded at St. Louis on August 24, 1816, between Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois Territory, William Clark, governor of Missouri Territory and Auguste Chou- teau, a citizen of St. Louis, on the part of the United States; and the chiefs and warriors of the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies, on the part of those tribes. This treaty ceded a tract of land in which a large portion of the city of Chicago is now located.
Edwards county in Illinois was formed during the territorial period, November 28, 1814, and named in honor of the governor. In a sketch of Edwards, E. B. Washburne says of him: "Able, inde- pendent, outspoken he disdained all the acts of the ordinary politician: never descended to the low level of the demagogue, nor appealed to the passions or prejudices of the people." Although he has been charged with having aristocratic tendencies he was magnanimous and incorruptible. His son, Ninian W. Edwards, married Elizabeth P. Todd, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. A daughter married Daniel P. Cook, an eminent statesman of the time, a sketch of whom is given elsewhere.
Ninian Edwards died at his home in Belleville, on July 20, 1833, of cholera, the disease having been contracted through self-sacrificing efforts to assist sufferers from the epidemic.
John Dean Caton
T HE first term of the circuit court held in Cook county was in May, 1834. On this oceasion John D. Catou, then a young man just entering upon the practice of law, had a case before the court and in later years he related that he remembered that the case was "Num- ber onc on the docket of the circuit court of Cook county," and he believed that this was "the first case ever tried in Chicago in any court of reeord."
In 1871, Judge Caton made his last appearance in court. It was at the trial of a ease in the Cook county circuit court, held at Chicago on July 26th, of that year. At the conelusion of his argument in the case, Judge Caton took oceasion to refer to the early days of his practice. "It is now more than thirty-eight years," he said, "since I commenced my professional career in the little hamlet where this great eity now stands. Its site was then covered with wild grass, or native and tangled shrubs, while the river was broadly bordered with aquatic vegetation, leaving a deep channel along its center of clear and whole- some water, which was used exclusively for culinary and drinking purposes. Our two hundred and fifty persons were sheltered in rude eabins or small dwellings, and our only streets consisted of winding tracks along the banks of the river, or leading away to the interior.
"Clients were then searce, but as there were but two of us to do the business, the only rivalry between us was as to who could most zealously serve his elient with the greatest courtesy and kindness to each other. The late Judge Spring, who was then my social com- panion and my only professional competitor, has long sinee elosed his professional eareer, and passed beyond the preeincts of earthly eourts, but not until he saw gathered around him a bar distinguished for numbers as well as for its learning. How great the change which these few years have wrought! How few are left of those who lived here then! Their numbers ean be told on the fingers of a single hand. With what a throng are their places filled, among whom they are scarcely missed, except by a few old friends who knew them long ago.
"The village has grown into a great eity, where hundreds of thou- sands are lastening with busy steps through the thronged streets, in- tent upon the aeeomplishment of individual enterprises, which ag-
309
310
John Dean Caton
gregate into a great whole and make the wonder of the commercial world. * * * This, then, was the only court of record to settle the suits of contending parties, and a single judge, in three days' session, could close the business of the year. Now, seven judges, in almost perpetual session, are unequal to the task.
"Judge Young was your honor's first predecessor, and he here held the first court of record in which I ever appeared professionally. Gov- ernor Ford was the States' Attorney in attendance, and also from abroad appeared Ben. Mills, whose smooth flow of eloquence exceeded that of any man to whom I ever listened. There was also William L. May, of Springfield, and James M. Strode, of Galena. James H. Collins had now joined our ranks at home, and he, with Mr. Spring and myself, then represented in this court the Chicago bar. Though their numbers were but few, many of them have filled large pages in . the history of our state, and their names will long be remembered even outside our professional circle. I succeeded Judge Ford upon the supreme bench when he was elected governor, less than ten years after the time of which I speak, and I sat upon that bench with Judge Young after he had served a term in the senate of the United States; and, in 1846, I sat upon the bench which your honor now oc- cupies, in his place, when he was kept away by sickness. Of all these not one is left! I was the youngest of them all, and I stand here alone, the last representative of the court and bar of Chicago of thirty-eight years ago."
In the reminiscent address of Judge Caton here referred to a striking contrast is drawn, between the two periods of which he speaks, the period of the early '30s in Chicago and the year 1871. It was less than three months before the great fire in Chicago when he made this address. "It seems to me but as yesterday," he continued, "when we all first met together in an unfinished loft of the old Mansion House, just north of where the Tremont now stands; and yet the changes about us have been such as, in other times and other countries, cen- turies would not have accomplished. * * *
"The incident to which I have referred may serve to explain why I have felt a desire, after a lapse of thirty years, to appear again, and, probably for the last time in this court, in the simple capacity of a lawyer. Here I commenced my professional life; in this court I first appeared as an advocate. This was the first court of record which I ever addressed, and before it I first addressed a jury. The place, too, has its pleasing associations. Although for many years official duties required my residence in another city, yet Chicago was my first western home, and has ever seemed more than half a home to me.
311
John Dean Caton
The uniform kindness, cordiality and support which I have ever re- ceived from her eitizens, as well those who came after I left as those who were my neighbors before, have made me always feel at home here; and the respeet and consideration which the bar of this eity has ever manifested toward me have most keenly touehcd my sensibilities, and left an indelible impression on my mind. Again have I appeared in the Cook county cireuit eourt, and have done the best I could re- specting a elient's eause. Again have I rceeived a patient and at- tentive hearing, and now with gratified satisfaction I retire, deeply sensible of the indulgenee shown me, wishing your honor and my pro- fessional brethren long and happy lives, crowned with honor and use- fulness."
John Dean Caton, lawyer and jurist, was born in Monroe county, New York, March 19, 1812. Left to the eare of a widowed mother at an early age, his childhood was spent in poverty and manual labor. He attended the academy at Utica where he studied law between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one. In 1833, he removed to Chicago, and soon afterward he was lieensed to practice law.
When in 1837 it was proposed to incorporate Chieago as a eity young Caton was chosen a member of a committee to prepare a draft of a eity charter which was adopted by popular vote, and authorized by an aet of the legislature, Mareh 4, 1837. The other members of the committee of five who drew the charter were, Ebenezer Peek, Theophilus W. Smith, Peter Bolles, and William B. Ogden. Mr. Caton served as an alderman in the newly formed eity eouneil, and in 1842 he sat upon the beneh of the state supreme court, and remained in that position for twenty-two years. During this period he oceu- pied the position of chief justice part of the time.
Later in life Judge Caton beeame interested in the construction of telegraph lines, having in the meantime changed his place of resi- dence to Ottawa. The telegraph system bore the name of the "Caton Lines," which eventually were merged with the Western Union Tele- graph Company. Mr. Caton acquired a large fortune in the course of his business operations, and on retiring from the supreme beneh he devoted the remainder of his life to his private affairs, to travel, and to literary labors. Among his published works are "A Summer in Norway," "Miscellanies," and "Early Beneh and Bar of Illinois." Judge Caton died in Chicago, July 30, 1895, in the eighty-fourth year of his agc.
Charles B. Farwell
HARLES B. FARWELL'S residence in Chicago C began in January, 1844, when he arrived from Ogle county in Illinois, where his father was engaged as a farmer. He was born in New York state, on July 1, 1823, and obtained his education at the Elmira Academy in his native state. From 1849 to 1853 Mr. Farwell was a clerk in the banking house of George Smith, who after- ward became a multi-millionaire; and in 1864 he beeame a partner in his younger brother's wholesale dry-goods firm. Mr. Farwell became active in politics, and in 1870 was elected a member of congress, serv- ing thereafter three terms. In 1887 he was elected United States senator to fill the remainder of the term of John A. Logan, who had died the previous year, thus serving four years in the senate. He con- tinued his connection with the house of John V. Farwell & Com- pany until his death on September 23, 1903.
An undertaking of a unique character was engaged in by the brothers, Charles B. and John V. Farwell, in 1883, which, although it was a gigantic transaction in Texas lands, was distinctly a Chicago enterprise, and is entitled to a place in this history. The state of Texas was the possessor of a vast tract of territory in the "Panhan- dle," which in the old geographies was described as the "Llano Esta- cado," or "Staked Plains." The lands thus designated on the maps of that period were considered of little value except for grazing pur- poses, where herds of long-horned cattle formed the chief product of the country.
"If we can get the man with the money to build our Capitol," it was said, "we will give him all the lands he wants up therc," meaning the lands in the Panhandle. The man was found in John V. Far- well, one of Chicago's leading business men, who made the state of Texas a proposition to the effect that he would erect a Capitol build- ing at Austin, the capital city of the state, and take in payment the lands in the Upper Panhandle, a proposition which the state gladly accepted. The land thus acquired by the Farwells, Charles B. Far- well having joined with his brother John in the enterprise, amounted to three million five hundred thousands acres, located in six coun- ties. This was equivalent to an area larger than the state of Con-
313
314
Charles B. Farwell
necticut, and was appraised at an average of one dollar an acre, at that time considered a liberal valuation for the lands.
The Farwells entered into the contract, and the building was erected to the entire satisfaction of the state authorities, a building that was considered a fair equivalent to an outlay of five millions of dollars. The Capitol building at Austin, it is said, is the seventh largest building in the world, the third largest in the United States, and one of striking architectural beauty. It was honestly built and stands as a monument to the integrity as well as the shrewdness of the men who erected it, and no criticisms have ever been made in regard to it.
The proprietors of the lands thus acquired have profited by this transaction "beyond the dreams of avarice." Lands in the Panhandle began to be sought for and the prices rose by degrees, though land was always for sale at a fair market value. The extensive tracts over which great herds of cattle formerly ranged were reduced in size and more limited areas were made use of to better purpose in the care of improved stock, and, later still, large sections of the lands were di- vided into farms which have since become highly productive.
Towns sprang up in numerous places, railroads were built to make an outlet for the products of the lands, and to-day, although more than two-thirds of the entire territory thus acquired by the Farwells has been disposed of at steadily rising prices, there is still left a mil- lion or more acres, none of which can be obtained at less than fifteen dollars per acre.
People called the Farwells "visionary" when they closed the bar- gain for these lands and entered upon the construction of the great building that the state of Texas received in payment for them. "The building and completion of the State Capitol," says C. F. Drake, writing in the Manufacturers' Record, "was in itself an undertaking from which most men, even of Mr. Farwell's wealth, would have shrunk, taking the chances to recover his money; and it is doubtless true that he never realized to what great figures his profits would run. It was the largest, perhaps the most unique real estate deal ever con- summated in the history of the United States, by which one man ac- quired title to so vast an area, and drawing so largely upon his imagina- tion, took such immense speculative chances for financial returns."
To-day there stand a large number of towns and cities on this ex- tensive tract, some of them having a population of ten or fifteen thou- sand inhabitants; there are four railroad lines crossing it, which give transportation facilities to the products of the farms and cattle ranches of the territory within the original tract.
Henry Demarest Lloyd
F 3ROM the time, when, on the night of his graduation from Columbia University, young Henry Demarest Lloyd attacked the principle of industrial monopoly in his commencement "oration," to the last of his struggles-that for the municipal ownership of Chi- cago's street railways-his life history is the story of the radical thought of America at the time.
He was born in New York city in 1847, the son of a minister of the Dutch Reformed church. His patriotism and deep religious feel- ing directed his attention to social reform when he was still very young. In 1872 he came to Chicago, after having participated in active work against the corruption of Tammany in New York. He was given a position on the Chicago Tribune, then under the editorship of Horace White, and his brilliant editorials on financial and industrial questions furnished new material for thinkers and writers all over the country. His work through these years of study and newspaper writing pointed to the fact that the new crusade was not for religious liberty, not for political liberty, but for industrial liberty. As a result of his convic- tion that a crisis was imminent between the very rich and the poor, he became filled with the idea, says his biographer, "that to organize this struggle was the grandest political mission to which any man or body of men could be committed."
In summarizing Mr. Lloyd's life work a commentator says, "Henry Demarest Lloyd was the pioneer and leader of the great movement that has disillusioned Americans and probably has saved them from an abominable industrial despotism. He began at a time when the deadly spirit of complacency and self-satisfaction (which for some reason is supposed to be patriotic) was most upon us; and after he had lighted up the situation as it really was, his countrymen were never again able to ignore it. Hc planted the secd; his fortunc, very unusual in such men, was to see the tilth in a thousand places and in ways of which he had never dreamed.
"One could hardly reconstruct in one's mind now the conditions that existed when Mr. Lloyd came upon the stage. The belief in the loveliness and perfection of everything was almost universal and un- challenged. All the records (and results) of rapid fortune-making
315
316
Denty Demarest Lloyd
were joyously accepted as so many evidences of the country's great- ness and superior qualities. Strange as it may now seem, we actually looked upon the swelling monopolies with pride; they were evidences of American 'smartness'; and we were prepared to resent any re- flections upon the methods of sacred business as implying a lack of the proper devotion to one's country. No man, therefore, could have addressed a more unpromising audience than that to which Mr. Lloyd first spoke and no man could have addressed it more wisely."
In the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1881, was published an article by Mr. Lloyd called "The Story of a Great Monopoly," in which he presented the evils wrought by the railroads and attacked the Standard Oil Company. It was the first time monopoly had had so open and complete an attack, and the charges he made were unanswerable. This article and succeeding ones opened the eyes of thousands of peo- ple, and owing to their accurate, carefully set forth facts and con- clusions, the events of the times were interpreted in a new light.
In 1886 Chicago was the scene of a terrible manifestation of the unrest and disturbance which had spread over the country as a result of the conflict between capital and labor. The Haymarket riot and bomb-throwing occurred in 1886, and a year and a half later four anarchists were hanged as a punishment, being innocently condemned as is generally agreed today. At the time of the trial of the anarchists Lloyd defended them, publicly and actively. What of courage and heroism this meant at a time when the sensational conduct of the trial, the fury of the press and the fearless speeches of the prisoners had terrorized the country, no one but those who braved the prejudice and popular ignorance of those days can know. When only a few beside the workers had not lost their judicial sense and had courage to pro- test, Lloyd was also one who later, bravely came out to plead for the pardoning of those anarchists whose death sentences had been com- muted to imprisonment. This course demanded of him the finest courage, alienating as it did many friends, and placing him on a lonely though splendid promontory of political and social views.
In countless ways he helped the cause of labor and built up a new conscience in American life. He did splendid devoted work in the late '80s for the locked-out miners of Spring Valley, Illinois, and wrote a rousing article in their behalf which he called "A Strike of Millionaires Against Miners"; he worked for the strikers at the time of the Pullman strike of 1894; he was active in arranging the Labor Congress at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893; in the midst of his struggle against the issuing of a street railway franchise in- imical to the interests of the public of Chicago, he died in 1903.
317
Denry Demarest Lloyd
As a last word from this one who is among the finest examples of an American citizen, it is well to quote a bit from his Labor Day speech of 1898:
"On some Labor Day a new spiritual revelation will deseend on the congregation of the workers, which will revoke the aneient eurse against labor, and in setting all to labor for others as they would that others should labor for them, will make labor free, fruitful and re- eiproeal, and therefore the greatest of earthly blessings, the surest foundation of law and order, and the highest aet of worship in the religion of love and the golden rule, making man the ereator of a diviner life 'on earth as it is in heaven'."
Benet Atumiston
Bennet Tumiston
MERICA is ready to aeeord the fact that the strong- A est, best and most virile strain in her citizenship has come from New England. Conditions were such there in the dawn of American history, as to draw out and develop those qualities which count for most as factors in the world's work and the descendants of New England's native sons have featured largely in the upbuilding and progress of the middle west. Livingston county, Illinois, owes not a little of her progress to that elass of men who came to her from New England, ineluding Bennet Humiston, who was born in Litch- field county, Connecticut, September 6, 1830. He represented an old English family early founded on American soil and actively con- nected with the work of development and improvement in that section of the country as the years went on. The fatlier also bore the name of Bennet Humiston, and was born in Litchfield county, while the mother, who bore the maiden name of Emily Warner, was likewise a native of that part of the state.
The boyhood and youth of Bennet Humiston was passed in the uneventful round of farm life-a long season of labor in the fields and a shorter season of educational training in the publie sehools. Later he had the opportunity of attending a private academy at Warren, continuing, however, to live with his parents until he attained his majority. The year 1852 witnessed his arrival in Illinois. He had been persuaded to seek a home in the middle west through the influ- enec of his old-time friend, Apollos Camp, who in the previous year had removed to Livingston county for the benefit of his health. Mr. Humiston and Mr. Camp became owners of an entire seetion of land in Esmen township, the greater part of which had as yet not been placed under the plow, being eovercd with native prairie grasses. The following spring Mr. Camp was joined by his wife and son but his daughter Harriet remained in the cast to continue lier education, joining the family a year and a half later. Following her arrival in Illinois she attraeted the favorable and interested attention of Mr. Humiston, who sought her hand in marriage and on the 22d of May, 1856, they were united in the holy bonds of wedlock. They began their domestic life on the farm ad joining her father's property and
321
322
Bennet Dumiston
there Mr. Humiston continued to give his attention to the cultivation and improvement of the fields and to stock-raising, both branches of his business bringing to him success. In 1876 he removed to Pontiac and while living in that city managed his important agricultural and business interests. He became prominently known as a breeder of Norman horses, cattle and hogs. He took great interest and felt great pride in his beautiful thoroughbred horses and at times owned one hundred or more. He maintained a high standard of stock-rais- ing and won wide reputation as a breeder, his opinions being accepted as authority on matters of stock-raising in his section of the state for many years. In other matters of business, too, his judgment was sound and his discrimination keen. He had comprehensive knowl- edge of realty values and his investments were made with rare wisdom and discretion. He added to his original holdings from time to time until he became the owner of sixteen hundred acres of land, all still in the possession of his widow who likewise inherited a considerable acreage from her father. A contemporary biographer has written: "The people of Pontiac have a continuous reminder of this early landsman and his partner, Mr. Camp, for three additions to the city have been platted from the land, to the cultivation of which they de- voted their rugged energies. In 1875 Mr. Humiston erected the family residence which was the most beautiful and costly home at that time in Livingston county. As a landmark it is invested with the distinction of long association with passing events and about its lines is a certain pride and nobility attainable only by the things that are strong, dependable and useful."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.