USA > Illinois > The makers of Illinois; a memorial history of the state's honored dead > Part 6
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89
James Clark
continued his farm work, bringing his fields to a high state of culti- vation. In 1837 he took a contract for the building of a part of the Illinois & Michigan eanal, which included the extension of the waterway through two miles of solid rock. It was regarded as a piece of very difficult engineering at that time, but in 1848 the work was successfully completed. As the years passed his indefatigable industry had won him sueeess and in 1845 he had replaced his log eabin -his first home in La Salle county-by a substantial and handsome residenee, which for years was regarded as one of the finest homes in his section of the state.
As time passed on Mr. Clark extended his efforts to various busi- ness fields and thus became a factor in public prosperity as well as a man of individual suceess. There had been established in Utica an enterprise for the manufacture of cement to be used in the con- struetion of the loeks of the eanal, the projeetors of this undertaking having been George Steel and Hiram Norton, who had come hither from Canada but who had eondueted operations upon a very modest seale. Mr. Clark purchased the eement works and in 1845 he began the manufacture of hydraulic eement. The investment proved a profitable onc and constituted the nueleus of the large fortune which our subject acquired. The great industry, which he founded so many years ago, has now grown to be one of the most extensive of the sort in the Union. His wisdom and judgment were shown not alone in the establishment of this enterprise but in conducting its affairs con- seeutively toward the maximum of sueeess, his business and executive ability having been of the most pronouneed type. In 1883 Mr. Clark decided that it was expedient to expand the business facilities by the organization of a joint stock company, and this was effeeted. He beeame president of the company and N. J. Cary, seeretary and treasurer. This business was pushed forward with increased vigor and became, and is, one of the most important industries of the state. Another feature of his intense and intelligently direeted activity was his serviee as agent of the Roek Island Railroad at Utiea. He was appointed to the position on the establishment of the station and so continued until his death. No projeet or movement that looked to the upbuilding of the eity failed to receive his indorsement and many times his active support.
In his business activities Mr. Clark gave evidence of the posses- sion of qualities which his fellow townsmen recognized as of worth in public affairs and accordingly he was ealled to office. Presidential appointment made him the first postmaster of Utica, in which posi- tion he continued for fourteen years. He filled the office of member
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James Clark
of the board of county supervisors for eleven years, and during the period of the Civil war was a member of the democratic county cen- tral committee. In 1870 he was elected member of the state legisla- ture from La Salle county and was so serving at the time of the great Chicago fire, which caused the governor to call an extra session. The twenty-seventh general assembly, in which he sat, was in session for two hundred and ninety-three days, as the laws were revised during that period. Mr. Clark acted as a member of the committee on canals and on other committees of equal importance, bringing to bear in those connections the same practical business ability and sturdy com- mon sense which have characterized him in private life. He thus became a power in insuring wise legislation and gained the hearty indorsement of his constituents.
Mr. Clark was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife on the 12th of August, 1877. They had become the parents of four children, the two eldest of whom were born in Ohio and the other two in Illi- nois. John L., born July 8, 1832, is living retired in Ottawa. James, born November 4, 1833, died August 4, 1845. Charlotte, born April 29, 1838, is the widow of John B. Peckham and resides in Danville. Ann W., born December 31, 1841, passed away March 27, 1848. In 1877 Mr. Clark wedded Mrs. Mary J. Cary, who was born in Jeffer- son county, New York, December 25, 1833. Her father was a clergy- man of the church of the Latter Day Saints and removed with his family to Illinois. It was in Batavia, that state, that his daughter Mary became the wife of Charles A. Cary, November 28, 1850. They had two children, Norman J. and Charles A. Mary J. Clark was a remarkably gifted woman. A poet of marked ability, she was also the author of prose works of high standard of excellence. She pos- sessed a brilliant intellectuality and a charming personality, being a woman of great spirituality and one who had made deep researches into the great truths of life. Such a woman could not but be an able and devoted helpmate for even the most exalted of mankind, and the affection existing between Mr. and Mrs. Clark was a deep and abiding one. Mrs. Clark was an excellent business woman, as well as a bril- liant writer, and during her husband's life she was his confidential adviser and helper in all his complicated business affairs, and he held her judgment and opinions in the highest estimation. After his death she ably carried on the business of the Utica Cement Works and also worthily used the large fortune left her by her devoted husband. She retained her abode in the beautiful Clark homestead, which is pic- turesquely located upon the bluff overlooking the town of Utica. The home is a most attractive one and is a landmark for the surrounding
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James Clark
country. Mrs. Clark enjoyed the respeet and admiration of the peo- ple of Utiea and worthily bore the honors of an honored name until her death, which occurred October 3, 1906. Mr. Clark belonged to the Masonie fraternity and exemplified in his life its beneficent prin- ciples. He was called to the Home Beyond July 2, 1888, and a life of activity, usefulness and honor was thus ended. Another biographer has said of him:
"His pathway was ever upward, both in a spiritual and a temporal sense. As this review shows, he was distinctively a self-made man- one of nature's noblemen whom no foree of circumstances could prostrate or draw into obscurity. His friends were many and on the list were numbered many of the representative men of the state, and his demise was the cause of widespread regret, while a community mourned the loss of one of its truest and best eitizens."
JAMES T. HARAHAN
James T. Harahan
T HE magnitude and complexity of interests handled by James T. Harahan indicated him to be a most masterful man, resourceful, alert and determined. He worked his way continuously upward in rail- way circles until he stood at the head of one of the most important systems of the entire country, and then, when he had placed this upon a carefully systematized basis, he turned its management over to others and retired to private life. Throughout the long years of his business activity he was associated with railway interests and it seems appalling that the man who used every effort to safeguard the interests and lives of railroad patrons as well as to successfully manage the financial interests of the roads with which he was connected should at length meet his death in a rail- road disaster. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1841, and subsequent to the period devoted to the acquirement of an education he joined the Union army as a member of the First Massachusetts Infantry. He took part in all of the desperate fighting in the vicinity of Richmond and was afterward transferred to the Fourth New York Light Artillery, serving with that organization until he entered the employ of the government in the railroad transportation of troops and equipment around Alexandria. He was employed by the Orange & Alexandria Company at that place for about two years and through the succeeding two years was in the service of the Nashville & De- catur Railroad at Nashville, Tennessee. In 1866 he became connected with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, spending four years in that connection with headquarters in the different towns along the route. In 1870 he took charge of the Shelby Railroad and from 1872 until 1879 was road master of the Nashville & Decatur Railroad. This was followed by two years' service as superintendent of the Memphis & New Orleans division of that road. In 1883 he was made general superintendent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad south of De- catur, so continuing for about two years, when he was made general manager of the entire line. From January until April, 1885, he was general superintendent of the Pittsburg division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but resigned that position to become assistant general
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James U. Marahan
manager of the Louisville & Nashville, and was promoted to the po- sition of general manager in October, 1885. He thus continued until 1888 and from that time until November, 1890, he was successively assistant general manager of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and general manager of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway. On the 1st of November, 1890, he assumed his duties as second vice president of the Illinois Central Railway Company and was elected to the presidency in 1906. He then continued at the head of one of the most important railway systems of the country until his retirement, and as such became recognized as one of the masters of railroad man- agement and development in the world. The steps in his orderly pro- gression are easily discernible. He continually moved forward, his activities constantly increasing, his outlook continually broadening. He held within his grasp every phase of railway management and found ready solution for the most intricate problems of railway con- trol. He never faltered in what he undertook, for his plans were based on good judgment and a thorough understanding of the condi- tions and the opportunities of the situation. At length he had reached an age and a financial position where he deemed it fitting to retire and he therefore put aside the more active cares of railway manage- ment, having in the meantime won a place among the prosperous resi- dents of the new world.
Mr. Harahan was twice married. He first wedded Miss Mary Kehoe, of Maysville, Kentucky, who died in 1897, and on the 19th of April, 1899, he wedded Miss Mary N. Mallory, a daughter of Captain W. B. Mallory, one of his old-time friends of Memphis, Tennessee. His family numbered two sons and two daughters: Wil- liam J., general manager of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; J. T., who is associated with a Chicago manufacturing company; Mrs. A. N. Dale, of Memphis, Tennessee; and Mrs. Mary Shirley, of Chicago.
Mr. Harahan was a valued member of various clubs and social organizations of Chicago and the southwest. He was connected with the Homewood Country Club, of Chicago; the East End, Gentle- men's Driving and Noonday Clubs, of St. Louis; the Pendennis Club, of Louisville, Kentucky; the Tennessee Club, of Memphis; and the Boston and Pickwick Clubs, of New Orleans. Deepest regret was felt in the membership of these organizations when the news came that on the 22d of January, 1912, Mr. Harahan had lost his life in a railroad disaster caused by the collision of two trains. He had at- tractive social qualities, combining a charming, gracious manner with
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James C. Darahan
decision of eharaeter, and his splendid reeord gained for him the admiration and high regard of all. The qualities which he displayed in his business career were of a most vital eharaeter, keeping him in touch with the world's progress and finding tangible expression in one of the most important features of the world's work.
Perhaps the greatest results of his life's labors were manifest in the south. In faet his work in that seetion of the country was one of his greatest achievements, unequalled perhaps by the efforts of any other individual. It was indeed a most wonderful task that Mr. Harahan accomplished in the south for while he was engaged in pro- moting railroad interests there he recognized the conditions of the country and through a love of humanity entered upon a work, the effects of which are immeasurable. It has frequently been said that he was responsible for the great development and prosperity now found on the other side of the Mason and Dixon line. It was his work with and among the southern people that put the south onee more on her feet, enabling her to recover from the devastation and ravages of the war. In the building of railroads he made possible the great industrial awakening and development of that seetion of the country and where poverty had previously existed, where planta- tions had been laid waste, slaves freed and property destroyed there sprung up manufacturing and industrial interests, working a revolu- tion in the method of life. His labors cheeked the tide of adversity and as it rolled baek there followed in its wake a prosperity which has kept on growing and growing to the present day. Mr. Harahan eame into elose touch with the people, studied their needs and their oppor- tunities, spoke a word of encouragement here, gave material assist- anee there and all along the line stimulated progress, improvement and ambition. Although a northern man and a Union soldier at the time of the Civil war, he recognized no south and no north after hos- tilities had eeased but only one country with one flag and one pur- pose. It was one of his greatest desires to unite the two seetions and when death ealled him the people of the south, including the great Confederate body, requested that his remains be taken south and buried, to rest forever among them. This last great tribute shows that his work was not without suecess. Indeed there is no name spoken with more love, respect and veneration among southern peoples than that of James T. Harahan.
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BENJAMIN F. SHAW
Benjamin F. Shaw
HE record of Benjamin F. Shaw, of Dixon, honors T the name of journalism. He entered upon news- paper publication at a period when the purpose of journalism had its educational feature in addition to the dissemination of general and local news and had not been tinged with that commercial spirit which seeks through sensationalism to stimulate the curiosity of the public without regard to wrong impressions which, like tares, grow up and choke out the good seed. He never deviated from the high principles which he set up or lowered his standards because he con- sidered it expedient or profitable to do so. At the time of his death he was perhaps the Nestor of the Illinois journalists, having for many years been editor and proprietor of Dixon's oldest newspaper. He was born in Waverly, New York, March 31, 1831, and passed away September 18, 1909. His ancestry was traced back to William Bradford, who kept the log of the Mayflower and later became the first governor of Plymouth Colony. His grandmother on the pater- nal side was the last surviving of those who suffered from the Wyom- ing massacre of 1778, her father and two brothers having been killed in the battle which preceded the massacre. His mother's father, Major Zethon Flower, was a soldier of the Revolution and one of the last survivors on the pension roll of that war, dying at the advanced age of ninety-six. His parents, Alanson B. and Philomela (Flower) Shaw, were natives of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and died when their son Benjamin was a young lad. His brother, Alonzo Shaw, removed westward to Tipton, Iowa, and in 1841 returned to the east for his father's family, then living at Towanda, Pennsylvania, so that Benjamin F. Shaw spent a portion of his youth upon the frontier region, where the work of civilization and progress scemed scarcely begun. He was not yet fourteen years of age when he began carrying the mail in a section of country adjoining Tipton-a section which was then a wilderness infested with Indians and robbers. The following year-1845-he went to Rock Island, where he began learning the printer's trade, which he followed continuously for about fourteen years. Within that time, or in 1851, he removed to Dixon. The first
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Benjamin F. Shaw
paper published in that city was the Dixon Telegraph and Lee County Herald, established on the 1st of May, 1851. Mr. Shaw secured employment in the office and on the 21st of January, 1852, when he had just passed his twenty-first birthday, he became manager of the paper. On the 30th of April, 1854, he purchased the Telegraph and at a later period purchased the Transcript, consolidating the two papers under the former name. Various changes occurred in news- paper ownership in Dixon, but through a long period Mr. Shaw remained owner and editor of the Telegraph. In 1859, however, attracted by the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, he went to Colorado. He did not meet with the success he anticipated in the mines there and returned to Illinois. He remained for but four months in Colorado and while there had to resort to his trade and set type on the Rocky Mountain News. In April, 1860, he purchased the Amboy (Ill.) Times, of which he remained editor until January 6, 1870. In 1871 Mr. Shaw again became sole proprietor of the Telegraph and remained at its head until his death. In November, 1883, he extended the scope of his business by the establishment of a daily which he called the Evening Telegraph and which has proved one of the most successful papers of the state outside of Chicago. In 1868 he was Washington correspondent for the Chicago Evening Journal, but through the greater part of his life his energies were concentrated on the publication of the Telegraph in his weekly and daily editions, and as the years passed on its circulation and its advertising patronage increased. Improvements were added to the plant in keeping with modern newspaper publication and the office was splendidly equipped with all the accessories necessary to issuing a high-class paper; pre- senting the most attractive forms of the printers' art.
Throughout all the years Mr. Shaw was an ardent supporter of the republican party and took just pride in the fact that he had been one of its organizers. In February, 1856, he was an active participant in the meeting, held in Decatur, of Illinois editors who were opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The political questions and issues of the day were earnestly discussed and the editors' meet- ing resulted in calling a convention to meet in Bloomington in June of the same year. It was at the latter meeting that the republican party had its real organization and nominated the first state ticket. On that occasion Mr. Shaw was in consultation with Abraham Lincoln as a member of the committee on resolutions. In his capacity of jour- nalist he was brought into contact with many of the distinguished men of that and later periods and had personal acquaintance with the prominent political statesmen and leaders of Illinois. Few men not
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Benjamin F. Shaw
active in polities and seeking the rewards of offiee have had more inti- mate, aceurate and comprehensive knowledge of the politieal situa- tion and the questions of the day. Mr. Shaw held some loeal offices but he regarded journalism as his profession and his real life work. In 1859 he was elected clerk of the eireuit court and was reelected to that position, his term expiring in 1868. The following year he was eonneeted with the internal revenue department and was appointed by the government to locate the asylum for the insane at Elgin. In 1876 he was appointed state canal commissioner and served for six years as one of the three commissioners who had charge of the Illinois and Michigan canal and the Rock River improvement work. He acted as seeretary of the first meeting held in the interests of the Hennepin canal. In 1891, without his solicitation, he was appointed postmaster of Dixon and served for the full term of four years. In 1899 he was again ealled to that offiee and by reappoint- ment served until his death, filling the position altogether for twenty- two years. He was interested in all matters of publie progress and improvement, and from the time of its organization until his death was viee president of the O. B. Dodge publie library. Progressive public measures which he deemed practicable always received not only his personal indorsement but the support of his paper, and it was well known that the Dixon Telegraph was at all times the cham- pion of advancement and improvement. He stood as a high type of publie-spirited citizenship, and never weighed a question of eivie or personal honor in the seale of poliey.
Mr. Shaw was united in marriage to Miss Annie E. Eustace, a sister of Judge John V. Eustaee and a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Eustace, a Presbyterian clergyman, who was a native of Dublin, Ireland, and who married Fannie Olmstead. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw had three sons: Fred, of Denver, Colorado; Eustace, deeeased, who for some years was his father's associate in business; and Dr. Lloyd L. Shaw. Mrs. Shaw passed away February 6, 1905, and four and one half years later Benjamin F. Shaw departed this life. He was a member of the Elks Lodge and of the Dixon Club. There was, perhaps, in Dixon no man more widely known and nonc who had labored more loyally for the interests of the eity and state.
1
Stark
Verne Diram Stark
A S MANAGER of the Illinois Printing Company, Verne Hiram Stark oceupied a prominent position in the business cireles of Danville, but it was his social nature, more than all else, that established him in the high regard of his fellow townsmen. So strongly was he entrenched in the good-will and friendship of those who knew him that it would be difficult to find a resident of the eity who could claim more true friends. No one was in his company for even a few moments without feeling better therefor, so greatly did he shed around him the sunshine of life.
Danville elaimed Mr. Stark as a eitizen for forty years and dur- ing three decades he was connected with the Illinois Printing Com- pany. He was one of the native sons of this state, his birth having oeeurred in Marshall in 1861. His father, James W. Stark, removed from that city to Danville about 1871 and there resided for a number of years. During that period he was recognized as an authority on Odd Fellowship, having more than a loeal reputation among the lodges. At length he removed with his family to Kansas.
Verne H. Stark, then a youth in his teens, decided to remain in Danville and found employment as clerk in the store connected with the business of the Illinois Printing Company. His educational opportunities had been those afforded by the public schools but in the school of experience he learned many valuable lessons and came to be known as one of the well informed men of the city, keeping in close touch through reading and observation with the world's work along many lines. Nature endowed him with the quality of sociability and his deep and sincere interest in his fellows led to the formation of extensive friendships. His personal following proved a valuable asset in his business and supplied the first stepping stone to the pro- motions that rapidly came until finally he had reached the position of manager of the extensive business of the Illinois Printing Company. He had worked his way upward from a humble place, carrying with it but a small salary, through all the intermediate positions until he was in control of the business, bending his efforts to administrative direction and executive guidance. At the time he became connected
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Verne Diram Stark
with the company George W. Flynn, W. R. Jewell and Mr. Wood- mansee were at its head and were also owners of the Daily and Weekly News. Mr. Stark early displayed the qualities of close application, unfaltering industry and ready adaptability. He made it his pur- pose to faithfully execute every task entrusted to his care and thus proved his worth for larger responsibilities. The company, believing that he would prove valuable as a commercial traveler, sent him out on the road and again he was a success, obtaining for the house some large and important contracts in other cities as well as in Danville. He seemed to have no difficulty in having a contract renewed, for he never misrepresented a fact in business and his straightforward deal- ing and understanding of every phase of the business enabled him to so present the matter to prospective customers as to win their patron- age. When other representatives of the company failed or there seemed to be unnecessary delay in securing a contract, Mr. Stark was the man selected to meet the emergency and was always found equal to the occasion. . The Commercial News, writing of this, said: "Mr. Stark is asserted to have had a variety of methods of obtaining con- tracts, but nothing could beat the health-giving laugh and the sincere handshake that invariably formed a part of the preliminaries to busi- ness. As a mixer it is conceded that Verne Stark had few equals and no superiors in Danville. There was nothing artificial about his man- ner; he was simply bubbling over with good nature and kindness toward everybody. Truly it may be said of Verne Stark that he was a 'lover of his fellowman,' who carried sunshine and good cheer wherever he went." About 1890, when Mr. Jewell withdrew from the firm to devote all his time to editing and publishing the Daily and Weekly News, his interest in the Illinois Printing Company was taken over by Miss Mary Jones and Mr. Stark, and when the com- pany was reorganized Mr. Stark was made manager, thus being given voice in its management and the shaping of its policy. In 1897 occurred the marriage of Verne Stark and Miss Minnie Wilcox, of Danville, who survives him. They occupied an attractive home at No. 1122 North Vermilion street, one of the most beautiful of the city. Mr. Stark had reached a position where it seemed that he had every- thing to live for-a charming wife, an elegant home, a legion of warm friends and financial assets adequate for all the comforts and some of the luxuries of life. Death called him, however, on the 27th of November, 1911, when he was yet in the prime of life, being but fifty years of age. Every one who knew him was glad to call him friend. He had a circle of acquaintances that extended widely over his sec- tion of the state and wherever he was known he was held in the high-
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