Chicago City (part 40 of 57)

The house was completed at a cost of $600 and was dedicated January 4th, 1834, Mr. Porter preaching the sermon from the text, " The sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, 0 Lord of Hosts, my King and my God." By December the church had been increased by the addition of fifty-two members, and assumed self-support.

In the spring of 1855 Rev. Mr. Porter was chosen by the Presbytery of Ottawa delegate to the general assembly which was to meet at Pittsburgh. After the adjournment of the assembly, Mr. Porter was married, June 15, 1835, at Rochester, New York, to Miss Eliza Chappell. The union was in all respects a most happy one. Henceforth she was a " help meet" indeed; she entered into all the work of her husband; and while fulfilling all domestic duties - having brought him nine children - she was teacher, hospital nurse, officer of the Sanitary Commission, and ever active in the varied work of a missionary upon the frontiers of civilization, submitting to its privations without murmuring, and rejoicing in all the advances of religion and education.

Miss Chappell was herself of distinguished lineage,claiming on her father's side a Huguenot ancestry, and on her mother's lineal descent from Elder Brewster, a passenger in the Mayflower. She was born at Genesseo, New York, November 5th, 1807, and having become a teacher, and especially interested in infant schools, she was induced by Robert Stuart, agent of the American Fur company at Mackinaw, to establish a school on the island, which she started in 1830, and another ut St. Ignace soon afterwards. She came to Chicago from Mackinaw with Mrs. Seth Johnson in June, 1833, and established an infant school. She afterwards opened a girls' school in the Presbyterian church, and was the first public school teacher in Chicago. In the winter of 1834-5 she resigned her school into the charge of Miss Ruth Leaveuworth and returned to her New York home, with the purpose and result already mentioned.

His mission, Jike that of John the Baptist, was to be a forerunner - " the voice of one crying in the wilderness" - a kind of breaking plow upon the prairie, to tear up the matted sod and prepare the ground for a milder culture. He accepted a call to the Main street Presbyterian church of Peoria, where he remained until the beginning of the year 3838, and then spent two years with a church at Farmingtou.

These were exciting times in the churches and in the community. Mr. Porter was an ardent anti-slavery man, preaching, when opportunity offered, fervid discourses against the "sum of all villainies," sometimes at no little peril to his personal safety. At one time, in the fall of 1837, he preached an anti -slavery sermon at the opening of the Synod of Illinois at Springfield, where he was menaced by a pro-slavery mob. When the synod ajourned he, with many of the ministers, went to Alton on horseback, where they held ananti-slavery convention to sustain Mr. Elijah Lovejoy in his defense of the liberty of the press and free speech, a short time before the assassination of that^ martyr for liberty.

During his pastorates at Peoria and Farmington the churches were blessed with revivals, and were greatly strengthened. Throughout these years he did evangelistic work at Knoxville and Galesburg. In 1840 he accepted a call to Green Bay, where some of his early friends from Mackinaw had organized a church. This was his longest pastorate, lasting for eighteen years. Here several of his children were born and two of them found early graves. In 1858 Mr. Porter asked the "Presbyterian and Congregational Convention of Wisconsin" to dissolve his relation with the Green Bay church, which was done against the desire of a majority of the church. While in attendance at the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, which was held that year at Chicago, he accepted a call to become pastor of the Edwards Congregational church of this city. Thus, after twenty-seven years of most faithful labor in the Congregational fold, he was restored to his own denomination, in association with which he remained until the close of his life.

Mr. Porter's happy second pastorate in Chicago was interrupted by the war, and the patriotic purposes of the Northern beligerents, enlisted the warmest sympathies of his nature. The connection of Mr. Porter with the religious life of Chicago, the record of which was perpetuated by himself in a paper prepared for the Historical Society in 1859, giving a review of the first quarter century of her history, has been given with such detail, that it will be necessary to condense the narrative of his subsequent career into space too restricted to give more than a glance at the high dev-otion, abundant energy and happy results of its more than twenty years of incessant labor.

In March, 1861, Governor Yates commissioned Mr. Porter as chaplain of Colonel J. D. Webster's regiment of Illinois light artillery, in which his son and nephew had enlisted ; two other nephews had also joined the Union ranks. From this time until he was mustered out, August 1, 1865, at the close of the war, his labors were incessant and indefatigable. Accompanied most of the time by his wife, who was an almoner of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, he followed the Union army with the enthusiasm of a hero, the zeal of a propagandist, and the kind and gentle ministry of a "good Samaritan."

The self-denying and devoted service of these stirring years, though their detail is preserved in the annals of the time, none but the recording angel knows in the breadth and tenderness of their ministry. He preached to the soldiers, strengthening their courage and soothing their passions, consoled the wounded, sick and dying with the sweet and holy influences of religious faith, taught the freedmen, edified the languishing churches, and in every way brought the influence of religion to soften and assuage the hardships and trials of the soldier's hard and perilous life. Cairo, Paducah, Pittsburgh Landing, Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburgh, Atlanta, Marietta, Savannah, Newbern, Washington and Louisville were halting places and witnesses of his devotion. During the time he made several visits to the North, stimulating the military preparations, and organizing measures for sanitary relief of the men at the front. At Memphis, in 1863, Mr. and Mrs. Porter opened the first school which was established for the instruction of the freedmen, and he preached during the winter of 1863-4 in the Presbyterian church at Vicksburgh, while he performed at the same time the duties of hospital chaplain.

After his discharge in 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Porter spent some months in visiting their friends in Chicago and Green Bay, at which time he received a call, which he desired to accept, to a pastorate at Prairie du Chien, but the Sanitary Commission desired him to take charge of supplies for three regiments of the army that were stationed on the Mexican border, to avert any encroachments which might be made by Maximilian's government. He accordingly went to Brownsville, Texas, where he was attached to the soldiers' hospital, where he preached, while Mrs. Porter, with Miss Garey, who had accompanied them from Chicago, opened a school for colored soldiers.

Returning to Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Porter were given a cordial and flattering reception by their Chicago friends at the Sherman House. He then accepted a call to the Congregational church at Prairie du Chien, where he remained for two years, until a delegation from Brownsville induced him to return there, where his aid was needed to rebuild a church which had been destroyed by a tornado, and to preach. He was accompanied by the Misses Grant, who aided Mrs. Porter in establishing at Brownsville the Rio Grande Seminary for boys and girls. There he remained until 1870, when he was appointed post chaplain at Fort Brown. While he preached Mrs. Porter taught. In 1873 he was assigned to duty at Fort Sill,

Indian Territory, from which he obtained a leave of absence the next year, to accompany Mrs. Porter, who had been prostrated with malarial fever, to the North.

In the winter of 1876 he was ordered to report for duty at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, where Mrs. Porter joined him. In November, 1876, he received a visit from his daughter, Mary Harriet, who had returned after a nine years' absence as a missionary in North China, and who remained with her family until the following March. Mr. Porter obtained a leave of absence and accompanied his daughter, who awakened a new missionary fervor throughout the churches by her vivid portrayal of the needs of the heathen world in the far Orient. After enjoying a pleasant family re-unior. at Beloit in 1879, he returned to his post of duty at Fort Russell, from whence he went to San Francisco, California, to witness the embarkation of his son, Rev. Dr. Henry D. Porter, and his wife, a daughter of President Chapiu, of Beloit College, on their way to their station as missionaries in China. Mr. and Mrs. Porter remained in California a little more than a year, during which he did effective evangelistic work at Santa Barbara and Sonoma. He returned to Chicago in 1880, enjoying a leave of absence until June 30th, 1882, when he was retired from the army on account of having reached an age entitling him to discharge from active service. Mr. and Mrs. Porter attended the semicentennial of the First Presbyterian church in Chicago in 1882, in good health and full enjoyment of life. He had now reached the age of seventy-eight years, a period when men are expected to lay aside the harness and enjoy the quiet of the green pastures, and live beside the still waters of private life. Thenceforth he had a home with his son in Detroit, and at times at Beloit, with his daughter, who had returned from her missionary service to minister to her mother, whose health was declining.

away at Santa Barbara, California, where she had gone for relief from physical ills, on the 1st of January, 1888. Mr. Porter lingered, in declining health, until July 25th, 1893, when, at the ripe age of eighty-nine years, he joined his wife and five departed children "beyond the river" dying at his daughter's home in Beloit.

Mr. Porter received the honor of the doctorate from his Alma Mater - Williams College - and certainly the degree was never more worthily bestowed. The surviving children of Dr. and Mrs. Porter are James W. Porter, of Chicago; Edwards W. Porter, of Detroit, Michigan; Henry D wight Porter, D. D., and Mary Harriet Porter, the last two missionaries in China, Miss Porter since 1868, and Henry D. Porter since 1872.

Dr. John Taylor Temple

This most accomplished gentleman, learned in his profession, a versatile devotee of science, a pious and public spirited man, as well as active and energetic in business, was one of the earliest, and for many years a very prominent, citizen of Chicago.

He was a native of the State of Virginia, born in 1804. His education, which was liberal, culminated in his graduation in medicine from Middlebury College, at Castleton, Vermont, December 29, 1830. Pour years before he had married a daughter of Eev, Dr. Staughton of Philadelphia, and on his arrival in Chicago, July 4, 1833, was accompanied by a wife and four children. He came with a contract obtained at Washington to carry the mail from Chicago to Port Howard, Green Bay, which he at once undertook. He also put in operation in 1834 a stage line from Chicago to Peoria which, according to the advertisement of the line, left Chicago at 4 a. m., arriving at "Juliet," as the name was then spelled, at 2 p. m., and reaching Ottawa the first day, completing the trip to Peoria in two days. The first passenger carried over the route was John D. Caton, between whom and Dr. Temple there grew up an intimacy, as the young lawyer obtained a desk in the office and a sleeping room in the attic of the Temple building, which Dr. Temple had put up in 1833. The stage line was operated until 1837, when it was sold, and Dr. Temple resumed the practice of his profession at No. 4 Lake street. The versatility of his character led him into other extensive business engagements. He excavated three sections of the Illinois and Michigan canal, and with Mr. John M. Van Osdel applied new machinery for pumping water into the stream. He was proficient in the sciences, being equally expert as a geologist, botanist and chemist;; and was impelled by a restless activity, and had a discrimination of mind which enabled him to grasp the salient point of an argument or of a discovery. Whatever enterprise he undertook engrossed for the time, all his powers, and was prosecuted with all his energies. He was withal a devotee of field sports, enjoying in his trips over the unsettled country the diversion which the abundant game of the forests and teeming waters offered to his skill. In an early excursion through the pathless wilderness he discovered copper in the Lake Superior region. At an early day ( 1845) he ventured upon an overland trip to the Pacific coast, anticipting by a number of years the famous expeditions of the " Argonauts" who flocked to that El Dorado when the discoveries of gold offered the incentive of greed to the adventurous spirits of the East.

Returning in our narrative of this most energetic life to the period of his arrival in Chicago, we find that four medical practitioners had preceded him, some by only a few months. In July, 1833, there were settled in Chicago Drs. Elijah D. Harmon Valentine A. Boyer, Edward S. Kimberly and Philip Maxwell. With Dr. Temple, all these were physicians of the regular school. The meagre population that clustered about the palisades of Fort Dearborn in the summer of 1833, estimated at about 350 souls, most of them robust people of active habits and temperate lives, furnished scant business for five doctors. Dr. Temple had his mail route as a source of income, and employed his surplus energies for the advantage of the community. He must have acquired popularity speedily for at the election held at little over a month after his arrival for the choice of the first board of trustees of the town, he received twenty-five out of twenty-eight votes. Finding the settlement without any place of public worship and destitute as well of a place for schools, Dr. Temple, soon after his arrival, set on foot a subscription, heading it with $100, and in a few weeks had erected, near the corner of Franklin and South Water streets, the "Temple" building. It was a two-story frame structure, the lower floor being set apart for religious purposes and the upper for a school, and cost about $900. With the exception of Rev. Jesse Walker's log house at Wolf Point, it was the first house built for religious, worship in Chicago. It was used by the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists alike.

On this respect the Baptist denomination began its ecclesiastical career in Chigago and its mission of usefulness in the new settlement under more favorable circumstances than did a majority of the Protestant organizations which found a home in Chicago about the same period. Through the munifience and personal exertions of Dr. Temple, the missionary found a house of worship already erected and waiting for him .

Dr. Temple was a Baptist, and soon found a few others of like faith scattered through the community. He opened a correspondence with the Baptist Home Missionary Society and secured the appointment of a missionary for Chicago, and on the 19th of October, 1833, the First Baptist church was organized, Dr. Temple and his wife being among the fourteen who joined in the covenant. Dr. Temple was interested in education as well as in religion. In December, 1834, he was elected a delegate to attend a State educational convention held at Vandalia, and made the long and tedious trip to join with other advanced friends of education in concerting measures for the promotion of popular instruction in the new State. The next year he was chosen treasurer and a member of the executive committee of the Chicago Bible Society. In 1835 he served upon the board of health, which was organized to take measures against the spread of the 'cholera, which had invaded and was making havoc in the little community.

Dr. Temple was a member of the first board of trustees of Rush Medical College, founded in 1837. He did not long maintain his standing with the regular school of medicine. About 1842 he fell under the influence of the doctrines of Hahnemann, and after careful study and experiment became a convert to the homeopathic school. He was not constituted to hide his light under a bushel, but took up the new system with an enthusiasm which was characteristic of all his undertakings. He even went so far as to go to Galena and commence practice. Afterwards he removed to St. Louis, where, besides practicing, he founded the St. Louis School of Homeopathy. Here he died February 24th, 1877, having attaind the age of seventy-three years.

He left five children, four daughters and one son surviving him. The eldest daughter, Leonora M., married Hon. Thomas Hoyne, one of Chicago's most bfffiiant lawyers and most honored citizens. She was prominent in the charitable and social life of Chicago for sixty years, and passed away in the fall of 1893. The surviving children are Elizabeth, Marcella and Josephine and John Howard Temple. Two daughters, Virginia and Martha, and one son, Staughton, died during Dr. Temple's lifetime. Staughton served during the war of the rebellion in the Union army, attaining to the rank of major in one of the Missouri regiments.

Grant Goodrich

Here is another of the men of the past who seem at once a reproach and an encouragement to us of the present. We can not be mistaken ; there surely was a spirit of duty and self-sacrifice among our fathers which is so rare as to be almost phenomenal among ourselves. He was an anti-slavery man when that creed brought hatred if not persecution. He was a volunteer fireman when that meant hard, dangerous, unhealthy unpaid service. He was an organizer of the first temperance and Bible societies when that meant the giving of time and money - both then scarce and precious. He was a founder of the church society which has done more good outside its borders than any other in the city. He was a payer of old debts from new earnings when richer men " lay down" in comfortable bankruptcy. In short he was a man whom no good work failed to secure as a helper, whom no misfortune could daunt or depress, whom no unfriendliness could drive to vindictiveness or impatience, whom no trial could affect to the lessening of his faith in heaven, in humanity or in himself. Goodrich, Skinner, Scammon, Arnold, Hoyne, Manierre - all these men were of the little band who practiced law before 1840 in the infant settlement. It is possible that there is an equal number of men of like spirit among us to-day ; but it is impossible to conceive of what a Utopia or Arcadia Chicago would not be if such men had multiplied in proportion to her growth in population and riches. The millennium would surely be at hand.

Judge Goodrich came by his noble qualities through lineal inheritance. He was seventh in direct descent from William Goodrich, who immigrated to New England in 1630. (The name, Goodrich, is among the oldest patronymics in our language, St. Godric, Abbott of Croyland, being mentioned in the Saxon chronicle hundreds of years before the Norman conquest of 1066.) To quote from

Among the descendants of William Goodrich were several who rendered useful service to their country in time of need. One of them was with Starke at the battle of Bennington; another supplied bullets, cast from the lead of his own dwelling, to the Continental troops in Boston; another was a member of the corporation of Yale College soon after its foundation; another served through the Revolutionary war and was present at the surrender of Burgoyneat Saratoga; another was at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill and was with Washington when he marched his victorious army into New York. "Peter Parley" (S. G. Goodrich) was a near relative of the subject of this sketch.

His father was Colonel Gideon Goodrich, who served in the militia during the war of 1812, and represented Saratoga county in the New York legislature.

Grant Goodrich was born in Milton, Saratoga county, August 7th, 1811. To remedy a constitutional tendency to consumption, the youth was sent to sail the lakes for two years on a vessel belonging to his brother, an experiment which strengthened his hold on life and gave him some practical training which was useful to him in later years. He had excellent early teaching in the common branches of learning, and finished his general education at the Westfield academy in Chautauqua county, where he graduated in 1830. He next studied law, and in 1834 came to Chicago, when the village consisted of the fort, eight frame houses and less than 1,000 inhabitants. Here, in 1836, he formed a partnership with Giles Spring, which continued unbroken until the latter was in (1849) elected to the bench. The firm did a good business in spite of the personal infirmity of Judge Spring, this being to a large extent offset if not counterbalanced by the unexceptionable conduct of the junior partner, Goodrich. His next association was with Buckner S. Morris. This lasted but a short time, after which Mr. Goodrich practiced alone, and later with W. W. Farwell and with Sidney Smith. In 1857 he went to Europe for his health, and in 1859 he was elected a judge of the superior court, then newly formed. On the expiration of his term he returned to practice with his old firm. In 1874 he retired from active practice and spent the remaining years of his life in the care of his property and in attention to the many philanthropic and religious enterprises with which he was connected.

Deep and accurate knowledge of law and practice, native shrewdness and ability, and unswerving integrity made Judge Goodrich an excellent and successful lawyer and an admirable judge. High personal character, firm religious convictions, a kind heart and a strong sense of duty made him a valuable citizen. One striking example of his conscientiousness is to be found in the fact that in 1837, when he, with the rdst of the world, was utterly unable to pay his debts, unlike the rest of the world he refused to throw off the load by joining in the general insolvency. He set himself to work to meet his obligations, at whatever cost to himself, and within the next ten years succeeded in paying off the whole ; those wherein he had been involved by others as well as those of his own personal incurring. And when he died his fortune bore but poor proportion to those of men holding different principles!

He was one of the founders of the First Methodist church, and the splendid property at the corner of Clark and Washington streets was saved to the use of this society largely through his efforts. When it became a question of leaving that spot, and seeking a place further from the business centre, he opposed it vigorously and successfully. A business building, containing a place of worship in its upper part, was built; and from that day to this the income from rents has not only maintained service in that part of the city (which is entirely devoid of any other religious sanctuary) but has poured

Judge Horton, in his memorial address, among other fervid tributes to Judge Goodrich's worth and public services, speaks thus of his help toward the cause of education :

He was actively interested in the first common school convention, and in 1842 was one of the board of school inspectors. He was one of the first board of trustees of Rush Medical College, which was incorporated March 2, 1837. When this college was fully organized and opened for the admission of students he was chosen secretary, and, as it is said, has signed every diploma certifying to the degree conferred by that college, which must number thousands. He prepared the charter of the Northwestern University at Evanston, was one of the incorporators: and a member of the board of trustees from the first to the time of his death - He was a wise counsellor, a good lawyer, an able jurist, a friend of education, a generous and publicspirited citizen, a consistent Christian and an honest man.

To the good works in the cause of his beloved church should be added the early, late and constant service he rendered to the Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston, being president of the board of trustees from its foundation up to the time of his death.

Anti-slavery Whig, and union Republican were the only political creeds to which Judge Goodrich ever subscribed. He was a member of the Union Defense committee and later a director of the Freedmen's Aid society. He was an ardent temperance advocate, helped in the formation of the Washingtonian Home, and, as has already been mentioned, was one of the founders of the first temperance societies in Chicago. He married, in 1836, Miss Juliet Atwater, at Westfield, New York. Five children were born to them; Horace A., Mary F., George D., Walter G. and Charles H. Charles died in 1881. Mary became Mrs. Maguire, and is now a widow.

Jonathan Young Scammon

A nation or city has no possession so valuable as its great men - living or dead, for they inspire it with those impulses which lead to noble achievements. Of the many sons of New England included among those who sought their fortunes in the West in those early days when Chicago was yet a mere village, there was none who proved a greater factor in the city's growth, development and business interests than Jonathan Young Scammon. From the year 1835, when he first came to Chiciigo, until his death in 1890, he was identified with every step of her progress. Endowed by nature with a broad and many-sided mind, as well as vigorous physique, the heritage of a long line of Puritan ancestors, he stood prominent among her citizens, and the story of his life is in a sense a history of the city.

He was born July 27, 1813, in Whitefield, Lincoln county, Maine. His father, the Honorable Eliakim Scammon, was for many years a member of the Maine legislature. Ilia mother, Joanna Young, was the daughter of David Young, who was a soldier in the war of the revolution and a pioneer settler in East Pittston. He acquired an ample education in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, the Lincoln Academy and Waterville College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This college (then known as Colby College) subsequently conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. As so many of our successful and eminent men have done in youth, to meet tuition expenses he taught school, and thus fitted himself to become, as he soon did, a leader of men, not only at the bar but also in the financial world, as a layman in the church, and as a philanthropise and man of public spirit in general affairs.

Upon the completion of his college education, he entered the law office of the Honorable John Otis in Hallowel, Maine, under whose direction he studied law until he was admitted to the bar of Kennebec county, in 1835. Having resolved to locate somewhere in the West, in September of that year he left his native State,and making the journey by way of the lakes in a steamer, he came to Chicago. As he often related afterwards, there was little at that time to attract him to the place. There was no harbor and the steamer could only land its passengers by means of small boats. Although it claimed 3,000 inhabitants, the actual population of Chicago was but half that number, and its municipal organization was that of a town or village. Its site was a marsh, and the winding way from the river landing to the old time Saugenash tavern, where he first made his stay, lay through mud and prairie grass. The weather had been stormy, and so uninviting was the prospect that after the clouds dispersed he determined to resume his journey. On the eve of his departure, however, the clerk of the circuit court, Colonel Eichard J. Hamilton, who had met him and become impressed with his abilities, urged him to remain and act as his assistant or deputy, being desirous of relinquishing the active duties of his office. This offier proved tempting to Mr. Scammon, inasmuch as it suggested opportunities to ground himself in the local laws of Illinois and the practice of its courts, and he at once accepted it, with the privilege of occupying the clerk's office as his own, for such law business as might fall within his reach. He thus became the first deputy clerk of the Cook county circuit court.

The bar of Chicago at that period, though it had scant employment apart from the few disputes that arose out of the entry of lands at the land office, numbered several names that became famous in after years. Among them were Arnold, Caton, Morris, Goodrich, and Hoyne. In the latter part of the following year, Mr. Scammon formed a law partnership with Buckner S. Morris, which continued for eighteen months. Another year he practiced alone. In 1839 he became associated with Norman B. Judd in a law partnership that lasted for eight years, and became the leading firm at the bar. Both were able men, and Mr. Scammou made his mark as a practitioner of ability and judgment, scarcely second to any of his compeers. Aboiit the time he entered upon this partnership, he published a revised edition of the statutes of Illinois, and was appointed reporter of the supreme court. In this capacity he prepared the four volumes of reports of decisions of that tribunal, known as Scammon's reports.

In 1849 he formed a law partnership with Ezra B. MoCagg, who had been his law clerk. In 1850 Samuel W. Fuller was admitted to the firm, which remained unchanged until the fire of 1871 threw everything into confusion. Meanwhile, Mr. Scammon had entered into other enterprises, which gradually withdrew his attention from the law, leaving the active work of the office to be done by his able partners.

He soon saw the great and pressing need of a free school system in Chicago. It is difficult to imagine that at this time many of the holders of real estate in Chicago were opposed to the establishment of such a system because of the taxes it would entail. He became the foremost of the early agitators for free education. A bill was passed by the legislature, in 1835, for public schools, accompanied, however, with the proviso that it should be first accepted by popular vote in Chicago before it became a law. Upon a vote being taken the land speculators proved to be in the majority , a fact which killed the bill; but Mr. Scammon's efforts were not relaxed. Chicago applied in 1837 to the legislature for her charter as a city. He then procured the adoption in it of a clause providing for free schools. Even then the law proved ineffectual. Public opinion was against it and had to be educated in its favor. He became a candidate for election to the common council, but was defeated upon this issue. However, in 1839 he was appointed school inspector, when his efforts were successful and the schools were established and provided with a systematized government. It is said the opposition to them was great. In 1814 the Dearborn school was erected, its site being on Madison street opposite McVicker's theatre. The following year the mayor, in his inaugural address, recommended to the common council its destruction. But in that year Mr. Scammon was elected to the common council. As a champion of public schools, he not only saved the Dearborn school from the assault of enemies, but also secured the construction of two other schools, one upon the north and the other on the west side, the latter being known at the present time as the Scammon school. It was thus, in the face of bitter opposition, that the system which is to-day the city's pride was inaugurated, and Mr. Scammon is its father. But for his aggressive and persistent warfare in its behalf, many years would have elapsed before it would have been inaugurated.

He also interested himself in higher education, organizing, with others, the Astronomical Society, to which he contributed 4 $30,000 for the erection of an observatory and paid from his own purse the salary of a director. He was the founder of the Halinemann hospital and one of the most interested originators of the Academy of Sciences. In various other associations for the cultivation of science, literature and art, he bore a conspicuous part. He had scholarly tastes, was familiar with several of the modern languages, as well as the ancient classics, and made frequent use of his pen in contributions to the press on a variety of topics.

Probably his most important service in the material interests of Chicago was promoting the entrance of railroads from the East, and devising and organizing a system of western rail connections. In co-operation with William B. Ogden and John B. Turner, the nucleus of the present Chicago and Northwestern railway system was undertaken. This was a triumvirate of which any city might be proud. Mr. Ogden brought to the combination a keen appreciation of the need of railroads, a solid judgment, a financial strength, and indomitable energy. Mr. Turner contributed a knowledge of practical railroad building acquired in executing similar work at the East, while Mr. Scammon supplied skill in financial management, legal knowledge and an enthusiasm which stimulated the faint hearted, overcame opposition and carried the enterprise to success. The Galena and Chicago Union railroad was the outcome of the sagacity and persistent labor of these men. At this day, when a promoter has but to rub the Aladdin's lamp of accumulated capital to run a new line of railroad anywhere, it is difficult to appreciate the sacrifices and labor which. were required to start the pioneer line from the lakes to the Mississippi. A paper read by Mr. Scammon at one of the railroad openings of a later day shows, in the glowing words of an actor in the drama, the obstacles overcome and the success achieved.

Next to his accomplishments as a lawyer, it was as a banker that Mr. Scammon established a high reputation for ability and skill, and built up his private fortune. In 1837 he was appointed attorney of the State Bank of Illinois, that had about that time established a branch in Chicago, under a charter granted by the State legislature. This employment drew his attention to the abuses which the loose administration of banking interests had introduced into the channels of trade, and the need of a sound and stable banking system. A few years later he revived a charter which had been granted to the Chicago Marine and Fire Insurance company, and obtaining additional banking powers he established the Marine Bank, of which he was a principal stockholder, and was made president. At the outset the capital was only $25,000, but it had such success under his able management that in 185? it had been increased to $500,000, and the bank held a leading position among the financial institutions of the country. He interested himself in obtaining a reformation of the banking laws, made war upon the "wild cat" currency which hud flooded the West, and procured the enactment of a free banking law with secured circulation and specie redemption, which wasa financial success until the rebellion depreciated the securities on which it was chiefly founded.

In 1857, after more than twenty years of incessant labor, which had brought him a high reputation and an ample fortune, Mr. Scammon thought he might retire from active business. Placing his banking interests under what he believed to be safe management, he embarked with his family for an extended European tour. He was absent for three years. On his return he found that a defalcation had impaired the resources of his bank, and brought it to the verge of bankruptcy. This imposed upon him an unlocked for responsibility. He took hold of the institution, and set himself to regulate and settle its embarrassed affairs. In 1861 he established a private bank, which he conducted until it was swept away in the great fire of 1871. In this catastrophe he suffered, in common with most of the active business men of Chicago, serious losses. The accumulations of years were annihilated at a blow. It is related that when the bankers had gathered among the smouldering ruins of their places of business to consult upon a course of action, it was his cheering words that revived their drooping spirits and stimulated them to re-establish business and resolve to pay a percentage of their deposits to their impoverished customers.

Mr. Scammon entered upon the work of reconstruction with a boldness taught by the wonderful success of the past. He made investments on his judgment as to the future course of improvement and business, some of which were not immediately remunerative. His credit was unimpaired, and he contracted obligations beyond his present means, on the faith of stability of business and the probable prosperity of the community. Among other enterprises, he established the Merchants' National Bank, of which ho was president. It is said that during the three years succeeding the fire he invested $1,500,000 in various enterprises. His enthusiasm outran his prudence, as subsequent events proved. The panic of 1873, so ruinous to credits, and especially to the banking interests of the country, brought disaster and destroyed the margin of security which the fire had spared. Mr. Scammon was compelled to succumb to the inevitable, and to give his attention to extricating his tangled estate from its involved condition. It was a long and arduous struggle, maintained wich fortitude. He scorned to take advantage of the bankrupt act to obtain release from his obligations. He at once resumed the practice of law, and after years of struggling and suffering, succeeded in saving a comfortable margin for the support of his declining years.

A sketch of Mr. Scammon's life would be very incomplete which did not take account of his political relations. Ho was intensely interested in public affairs, not so much for personal aggrandizement as from the bent of inclination and ambition to discharge all the high duties of citizenship. He was a Whig, an ardent supporter and admirer of Henry Clay, and inclined to the free soil wing of that great party when the slavery question divided its adherents into opposing factions. Upon the organization of the Republican party he became one of its strongest and ablest advocates. He had a wide acquaintance among public men, and was on terms of confidential intimacy with Mr. Lincoln. His fitness for public service brought many solicitations to accept office, which were generally declined, but in one or two exceptional cases were accepted. Thus in the early period he served as an alderman of the first ward. In 1848 he was the Whig candidate for congress, but was not successful in the canvas. He served in the State legislature at the eventful war sessions of 1860-18G1 . He was a delegate to the Republican National conventions of 1804 and 1872.

It was his interest in the dissemination of sound political principles that led him to establish the most influential newspapers of the city.

As early as 1842 he published the American, a Henry Clay organ. He was interested in the inception of the Tribune and the Evening Journal, and in 1872 established the Inter Ocean, a paper which to-day for enterprise and influence is inferior to none published in Chicago, or elsewhere in the land.

Upon religious, as on all other subjects, he had positive and pronounced opinions, but without bigotry or bitterness. While he maintained his own views, he was tolerant of those held by others, and maintained the right and utility of free discussion.

Mr. Scammon was educated a Methodist, but from reading the writings of Immanuel Swedenborg he became a devout adherent of the doctrines contained in them. In 1843, together with his wife and Vincent S. Lovell, he organized a church in Chicago for the propagation of those doctrines, and under a provision of the law regarding towns laid out along the Illinois & Michigan canal he received a grant of land for it. From this small beginning the church so formed has grown in numbers, wealth and influence, and largely owes its prosperity to the devotion and support which, throughout his life, he gave to it.

Soon after coming to Chicago in 1837 Mr. Scammon married Miss Mary Ann Haven Dearborn, of Bath, Maine., and established a home. Four children were the fruit of the union, of whom one died in infancy. A son, Charles Tufant, born in 1840, who became a successful lawyer, died in 1876. Florence married Mr. A. D. Reed, and resides in South Carolina. Arianna Evans Scammon, who remains unmarried, also resides at the South. The first Mrs. Scammon died while on a journey abroad in 1858. On the 5th of December, 1867, Mr. Scammon was again united in marriage with Mrs. Maria Sheldon Wright, daughter of General William. B. Sheldon, of Delaware county, New York, and a sister of Mrs. Mahlon D. Ogden. She survives him, and is still a resident of Chicago.

The later years of Mr. Scammon's life were spent in comparative retirement. The family home was alovely cottage, "Pern wood Villa," occupying a shady lawn near Jackson Park, which was a heritage of Mrs. Scammon. Here was enjoyed an ideal life of affection and refined social intercourse. He had long been in the front rank in the battle of life. He had shared in the feverish life of the great city, and mingled in its fierce competitions. In the evening of his life he looked calmly over the years of his earlier conflicts and later struggles, neither embittered by their controversies nor disheartened by their reverses. He enjoyed the reminiscences of the past, in which he had been so conspicuous a figure.

Lemuel Covell Paine Freer

L. C. P. Freer was born September' 18, 1813, at North East, Dutchess county, New York. His father was a tanner, and young Freer worked at the business in his earlier days. He had the usual advantages of the common schools, which he improved and added to by a careful, persistent course of reading. He also taught school, with the usual experiences of country school teachers, and for a time was clerk in a small country stor.e. At the age of twenty-two he married Esther Wickes Marble, who died after more than forty years of wedded life. In 1836 he came West and settled in Chicago. After a short experience in trading, followed by a failure, he moved out upon a farm near Bourbonnais Grove, where he built a house with his own hands. He underwent the customary experience of pioneers in the West, and after a time returned to Chicago and took up the study of the law in the office of Henry Brown. Almost at the outset of his professional career he began practice, taking justice cases, collections, etc., until he soon had all the business to which he could attend. He formed a partnership with Calvin De Wolf, afterward with the Honorable John M. Wilson, and later with George A. Ingalls.

He was admitted to the bar of Chicago, July 9th, 1840, and soon after was appointed master in chancery by Judge George Manierro, of the circuit court, which office he held for a number of years. In the latter position it is said he ofcen performed the work of two men, frequently working late in the night to keep up with the press of business. In those days stenographers were not known, and all testimony taken before the master had to be recorded and his reports written out in longhand, but his work was always satisfactory to courts and lawyers ; and the great length of time he retained the position, and the universal satisfaction given by him in the discharge of his duties, indicate how ably he performed the requirements of the office.

Mr. Freer had for many years, aside from his duties as master, a large practice, mainly in real estate law and questions of land titles. On account of his extensive knowledge of early transactions in real estate and his wide experience, his opinion was generally regarded as conclusive without further question. He excelled in cross-examination of witnesses, but, his practices, being mostly in real estate matters, he did not become so prominent as a lawyer as he might if he had pursued other lines.

Aside from his law practice, Mr. Freer, after a few years, was very fortunate in business; his high character for probity uml honorable dealing, his personal honesty and excellent judgment led him into the path of a successful career and won for him promi

All through the anti-slavery agitation, Mr. Freer was foremost in the counsels of the champions of human rights. He was well acquainted with Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Parker Pillsbury, Salmon P. Chase, Frederick Douglas, Henry Bibb and many other eminent abolitionists, and his activity in the cause at one time led to a* price being placed on his head by one of the southern States. It is said that he was instrumental in securing the escape of many slaves, and on one occasion chased a slave-catcher nearly across the State.

His name is found as a signer to the call for a public meeting to consider the war situation, which was held January 5, 1861, one of the largest public meetings ever held in Chicago, and he was among the first to add

In business life he was generous and helpful to those who were struggling for a start, and frequently made sacrifices in enabling men to retain their property, when an opposite course would have been more to his personal advantage. In private life he was kind, genial and companionable, given much to books, and always an entertaining conversationalist. For many years he was president of the board of trustees of Rush Medical College, the annual meetings of which body were held at his office.

Charles C. P. Holder

Charles C. P. Holden was born at Groton, New Hampshire, on August 9, 1827. His father's name was Phineas H., and his mother, prior to her marriage, was Miss Betsey Parker. His genealogical record shows his earliest American ancestor to have been one Richard Holden, who, in 1634, with his brother Justinian, came from Ipswich, England, in the sailing vessel "Francis, "settling in i lie locality which afterward became Watertown, Massachusetts. Mr. Holden's maternal grandfather was Lieutenant Levi Parker, a patriot who served in the army of the revolution, taking part in the battle of Bunker Hill and not returning to his fireside until after the surrender of Cornwallis. He chanced to be with Washington at the time of Arnold's treason and Andre's capture, and served as one of the guards at the execution of the gallant British officer who was punished as a spy, and whose conspicuous bravery Lieutenant Parker sincerely admired.

nine children, came west in 1836, reaching Chicago on June 30th. With hired ox-teams he at once set out for the prairie, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of government land, selecting as a location Skunk's Grove, on the "Sank Trail," in the edge of Will county, thirty miles south of the future city. He was the first settler in that region, his nearest neighbor being two and a half miles distant, and his children being compelled to walk three miles across the trackless prairie to receive instruction in the rude log hut which served as a school-house. Among such surroundings Charles rapidly developed great physical strength. When not more than ten years old he drove a breaking team of five yoke of oxen, his father holding the plow, and was able to do all that usually fell to the lot of farmers' boys in those early days. When he was fifteen, his father placed him in Sweet's grocery store, on North Water street near Wolcott (now North State) street, where for six months he worked hard for his board. At the end of that time,

In the spring of 1847 his patriotic ardor, no less than his love of adventure, prompted him to enlist in Company F., of the Fifth regiment of Illinois volunteers, and after serving until the end of the Mexican war he was mustered out of service at Alton, Illinois, on October 16, 1848. He immediately secured employment in the book store of A. H. & C. Burley, where he remained until March, 1850. On the nineteenth of that month he joined a party which set out from Old Fort Kearney, Missouri, for California. The route was overland, and the pilgrims took up their weary journey with two teams. They reached Hangtown on July 12th, and at once began mining on the Middle Fork of the American river. Young Holden spent two seasons on this stream, passing the second at Coloma Bar. In the fall of 1851 he began farming and stock-raising at Napa Valley, which pursuits he followed until December 1, 1853, when lie turned his face eastward. He took passage on the steamship Winfield Scott, bound from San Francisco for Panama, but ihe vessel was wrecked in a fog on the reef of Anna Capa Island, at midnight, on December 3d. As soon as the grinding of the ship's bottom on the rocks aroused the three hundred or more passengers to a comprehension of their danger, they buckled on life preservers promptly given them by the officers, and anxiously awaited their supposed fate. They recalled the doom of the ill-fated "Independence," which had gone to the bottom a few months before with four hundred souls on board. The officers of the "Winfield Scott" did their duty nobly, the furnace fires were promptly extinguished and the first boat-loads of impatient, terrorstricken voyagers were landed on the shelving rocks, which, however, seemed a veritable haven of refuge. The passage to these rocks was perilous, but every one was safely transported. The stranded passengers and crew, however, underwent torments of hunger and thirst upon a barren ledge until rescued, seven days after the wreck, by the steamship "California," which carried them to Panama, The " Scott" was abandoned to the pitiless buffeting of the elements and ultimately went to pieces. Neither cargo, express matter, except the money, mail nor baggage was rescued. The destitute passengers made the best of their way across the isthmus and were taken to New York by the Pacific Mail steamer "Illinois," landing on January 3, 1854. Mr. Holden returned to Chicago, reaching this city on March 18, 1854, precisely four years (lacking one day) from the date of his departure.

The next important event in his life was his entry into the service of the land department of the Illinois Central company, which occurred on February 20, 1855.

Seven months later - on September 17, 1855 - he was married to Miss Sarah J. Reynolds, daughter of Isaac N. and Rue Ann Reynolds, of New Lenox, Will county, Illinois. Mrs. Holden was the granddaughter of Abraham Holdermau of Holderman's Grove, Illinois, where he had settled in 1830.

Mr. Holdeu has been a prominent figure in Illinois politics since 1858, when he went as a delegate from Chicago to Springfield to the Republican State convention. The train that carried the delegation was decorated with a banner bearing the legend,. "For United States Senator, Abraham Lincoln." It was after the adjournment of this convention that the great commoner uttered those memorable words:

" A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

Mr. Holden was elected a member of the city council in April, 1861, he representing the old " fifth ward," and continued. a member of the municipal legislature until December, 1872. During his protracted term of service he had an eye single for the city's good. He worked as did few of his confreres, "public office" being, in his estimaniation, a "public trust." Measures of genuine improvement - not for his own ward, but looking to the benefit of all Chicago - found in him an ardent champion. The improvement of streets was one of his cherished hobbies, of which he never lost sight. In this connection due credit should be given to Mr. Holden's labors. The water supply received his thoughtful consideration, and it was largely through his efforts that the present system of abundant distribution throughout the city took its inception and received its impulsive force. While a member of the council he was constantly agitating this question. He was the advocate of pure water, and plenty of it for every man, woman and child within the corporate limits. Indeed had it not been for him and others like him, Chicago would have been, to-day, as poorly supplied with water as some of her sister western cities. It was through his persistent labor that the city authorized the building of the second tunnel under the lake, with its extension, besides the construction of the waterway ending at Ashland avenue and Twenty-second street.

As to Mr. Holden's influence in this regard, see proceedings of the common council for 1869 and 1870, pp. 87, 91, 111, and page 690, Proceedings 1868-9.

During the dark hours of the nation's history, Mr. Holden was conspicuously loyal. His vote, his voice and his efforts were always in support of the Union. His vote as a municipal legislator was always in behalf of aiding the National government with men and money. In 1862 he raised a company for the Eighty-eighth regiment of Illinois volunteers, his brother - Levi P. - being elected its captain. In 1864, when a draft, was ordered in case the quota of troops allotted to Chicago was not furnished through voluntary enlistment, he determined that there should be no draft in his ward - the tenth. He organized a "Ward Draft Association" and was chosen its president. The members worked with a will, and the sum of $51,912 was raised wherewith to pay bounties to volunteers, thus warding off what Mr. Holden was inclined to regard as a threatened disgrace. Mr. Holden furnished three representatives for his family for the army - Harris Durkee, for his wife; Frederick A. Hausmann, for his sister-in-law; Rowen P. Reynolds and Alonzo C. Ide for himself.

His part in civic affairs has always been a prominent one. He was marshal of the city council on the occasion of the reception of the remains of President Lincoln on their way to their final resting place at Springfield, and chairman of the committee named to secure the attendance of General Grant at the great fair held at Dearborn Park, iu July, 1865. It was he who introduced the resolutions which were adopted by the council relative to Lincoln's funeral.*

At the time of the great fire of 1871, he was president of the council, and rendered valuable service in bringing order out of chaos and securing succor for the destitute. A detailed account of his efficient work at that trying period may be found in Andreas' History of Chicago, vol. II, pp. 761-772. f At the next municipal election both the great political parties - Republican and Democratic - placed Mr. Holden in nomination for the mayoralty, each also nominating a full ticket for the other city offices. But there was an element in the community which was of opinion that political considerations ought not to be regarded at such a time, and in consequence a complete "citizens'" ticket, known as the "fire-proof" was nominated, containing the names of Joseph Medill for mayor and David A. Gage for treasurer. The "fire-proof" ticket was elected. A history of this administration, which presented some unfortunate features, may be found in Vol. I, Chapter XI.

Previous to this - in March, 1869 - Governor Palmer had appointed him a West Chicago park commissioner, and reappointed him in 1871. He accepted the trust, and with his brother commissioners laid out the magnificent system of parks and boulevards which has so largely aided in building up the great "west side." He resigned from the board in 1878.

In 1873, he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who for a lifetime had been his counsellor, his help-meet, and the honored mistress of his happy home. She passed away on July 26, after a lingering illness and was laid to rest at Rosehill. It was a source of regret to both Mr. and Mrs. Holden that the latter's youngest sister, Rowena (who had been a member of the family since 1858), was not at home during this protracted sickness, she being absent on an extended tour through Europe and the Orient. An adopted daughter - Sarah J. - remained to sustain and comfort him in his bereavement.

In February, 1873, Mr. Holden left the employ of the Illinois Central railway, after eighteen years' consecutive service, during which period he had aided in selling more than 2,000,000 acres of the corporation's lands. He then took a prominent part in the construction of the Chicago and Illinois River railroad, running from Joliet to Coal City, the charter and organization of which he virtually controlled; he disposed of his interest in this company, whose line ultimately became a part of the Chicago and Alton system.

In 1874 he was elected a couutv commissioner, and on July 4, 1877, as president of the board, laid the corner stone of the county court house.

His investments in real estate proved fortunate, and he has erected several blocks, among them one at the corner of Monroe and Aberdeen streets and another at 298 to 302 West Madison street.

Mr. Holden's adopted daughter (Sarah J.) was married on February 17, 1885, to Mr. George M. Sayre, and now resides at Elmira, New York. They have two children, Charles Holden and Gracie. Some three years later, on July 11, 1888, he was married for a second time, his bride being Miss Thelena N. McCoy, daughter of Henry M. and Mary (Lakin) McCoy, who was born at Port Perry, Canada.

Mr. Holden's mother passed away September 23, 1869, and his father on February .23, 1872. They died on the farm they had located in 1836. His sister, Mary E. (Mrs. J. W. Freer), died November 28, 1845, and his sister, Sarah Ann C., on February 13, 1847.

In his social relations he is a member of several well-known organizations, among them the Illinois State Association, of Veterans of the Mexican War, the Sons of the American Revolution, the California Pioneers' Association of Chicago, the Old Settlers' Society of Cook County and the German Old Settlers' Association. By the latter organization he was presented with a gold medal in 1888. At the age of sixty-seven Mr. Holden still retains his mental and physical faculties unimpaired, hale and hearty in his declining years, one of the distinguished products of Chicago's cosmopolitan influence.

Charles Newton Holden

Charles N. Holden was a native of the State of New York, born at the little village of Fort Covington, Franklin county, on the 13th of Match, 1816. He was the oldest son of William C. Holden, a New Hampshire farmer, who emigrated to northern New York and engaged in the lumber business for several years previous to the war of 1812. The war broke up his business, when he volunteered in the patriotic force, and, marching sixty miles through the forest, was engaged in the battle of Plattsburg. At the close of his service he returned to his home, and, marrying Sarah Brayuord, settled down on a farm.

Charles was brought up on a farm, assisting in the hard work of clearing the forest and subduing to cultivation the intractable soil. He attended the common school, where he was an apt scholar, and with mingled work and study, among the rude yeomanry of that new region, learned self-reliance and the practical arts of an independent and industrious life. He engaged in teaching school, and then was employed for a time as clerk in a country store. By some impulse, as unaccountable, perhaps, as the instinct which prompts the birds of passage in their periodic flight, he sought to better his condition in the far off and indefinable "West."

With only forty dollars, the savings of his youthful toil, he turned his back, with a brave heart and resolute purpose, upon the home of his childhood, and after some months of tedious travel through river and lakes arrived in Chicago in July, 1837, with ten dollars of his little capital unexpended. Times were dull here, the panic of that year having prostrated budding speculations and infant industries, so that he was unable to find employment, and he pushed on to Will county, where an uncle had already taken up a farm. There he entered a land claim and spent the remainder of the season in improving it, and hired out as a laborer for farmers in the neighborhood.

Later in the fall he returned to Chicago, where he found employment as clerk in a retail store. The following spring he entered the employ of Major John H. Kinzie, who was manager of the Lake Michigan Lumber company, probably in the mixed capacity of clerk and laborer. At the end of a year he had saved three hundred dollars, with which, and a liberal credit, he opened a store on Lake street, after taking a partner, in a log building, which was known as the "little red store." The business which he thus began

In 1848, in company with others, he erected one of the finest business blocks in the city, in which he continued merchandising until 1852, when he retired from the firm, purchasing from his partners their interest in the realty. This lot he held during his life, and left at his decease as a part of his estate. Purchased for a few thousand dollars, such has been the increase in real estate values that the property is now valued at not far from $300,000. The following appreciative narrative of Mr. Holden's public career was published some time since in the Magazine of Western History.

"For some time after this his attention was given to real estate transactions; but in 1856 he united, with Thomas Church and others, in the organization of the Firemen's Insurance company. Of this corporation he be came the secretary - a position which he held for ten years. He also served for twenty years as treasurer of the Firemen's Benevolent Association, and received from this organization at different times some very flattering testimonials of their esteem and regard.

"Beginning with 1855, when he was elected a member of the board of aldermen - to become recognized at once as a valuable member of that body - much of his time was devoted to public affairs and the transaction of official business. In 1857 he was elected city treasurer, and also served as a member of the city board of education, in which capacity he labored with great zeal and earnestness to elevate the character of the schools and add to their usefulness. His services in behalf of the educational interests of the city were flatteringly recognized at a later date in the naming of one of the handsome school buildings in his honor. In recognition of this delicate compliment, Mr. Holden placed in the hands of the proper authorities a fund of one thousand dollars for the purchase of books for such indigent pupils of

''In 1867 the general assembly of Illinois created the office of commissioner of taxes of Chicago, and Mr. Holden was chosen to fill the position, which he held until 1874.

"In 1869 he was appointed by Governor Palmer one of the three trustees to take charge of the work of building the Northern Hospital for the Insane, to be located at Elgin. This splendid institution was completed in 1875, at a cost of half a million dollars; the manner in which the work was carried on reflecting credit upon those who shouldered the responsibility of guarding the public interests in connection therewith.

"Mr. Holden began taking a lively interest in politics about the time the Republican party was formed, was prominent in its counsels for many years, and remained devotedly attached to the organization as long as he lived. He was one of the ardent friends and admirers of Lincoln, a promoter of the movement to nominate him for the presidency in 1860, and a member of the committee of arrangement for the National Republican convention of that year. The famous wigwam in which that historic convention was held was designed by, and built under the directions of this committee.

"With Stephen A. Douglas and other eminent citizens of the city, Mr. Holden was associated in the establishment of the University of Chicago. He became a member of the first board of trustees of that institution, and was also a life member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Astronomical Society, connected with it.

"His interest in various benevolent and charitable enterprises was not less active than his interest in public affairs and educational matters. A devoted member of the Baptist church, he was particularly interested during the later years of his life in extending its influence and building up its educational institutions.

gave largely of his means to various church and benevolent enterprises - his largest gift, perhaps, of this character being a donation to the Baptist Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, a suburb of Chicago, which constituted an important part of the handsome endowment of that institution! What contributed even more than his generous aid to the upbuilding of this institution, was his earnest and intelligent labor in its behalf. In this, as in every work with which he became identified, his admirable executive ability enabled him to accomplish the best results attainable with the means at his command. Broadly liberal in his views, his charitable, benevolent and religious work was not limited to the demands which came to him from his own church, but to every commendable enterprise he gave a helping hand when it was in his power to do so."

Mr. Holden's life was cheered and his labor in- behalf of education and charily aided by his wife, who was Miss Frances Woodbury, of whom a separate sketch is given in this work.

Mr. Holden was endowed with no uncommon talent. He aspired to no great things. He had industry, economy, a fair education, and good business ability. He was animated by a sincere and lofty purpose to make the most of his opportunities, and had consecrated himself in early life to the service of the Divine Master, to whom he felt accountability for the use he made of his powers and the gifts of fortune. He took his humble place among the toilers of the infant city, grew with its growth, and shared in its unwonted prosperity. While he labored to build up his own fortune, he toiled with no less assiduity to foster institutions of education and charity, which became fountains of living waters, to fructify and freshen the arid wastes of city life for all time to come.

Such men deserve to be held in remembrance for their good deeds and unselfish lives, and for the "good that lives after them." Mr. Holden's life closed in Chicago September 30, 1887.

Mrs. Frances Woodbury Holden

No history of Chicago, especially of its early years, is complete which fails to make account of its pioneer women. Leaving homes of co^mfort and refinement in the East, they braved the dangers and endured the privations of frontier life, animated by the devoted love of woman for the man of her heart, and full of enthusiasm for rearing in the new land of the West the institutions of religion, education and charity which should transform that terra incognita into a land of refinement, and cover the wild prairies with the bloom and beauty and fragrance of peaceful and happy homes. While our minds are thrilled by the stirring narratives of the enterprise and deeds of the pioneer in trade, in manufactures, in the professions and in politics, our hearts swell with emotion at the mention of the names and the abundant works of their companions in courage and in toil.

The roll of these noble women of the first decade embraces many notable names. We recall spontaneously such as Eliza Chappel (Mrs. Jeremiah Porter), Leonora Temple (Mrs. Thomas Hoyne), Maria E. Boyer (Mrs. L. P. Hilliard), Ann Thompson (Mrs. Philo Carpenter), Ann W. Germain (Mrs. Stiles Burton), while the names of many others of equal merit and devotion are embalmed in the grateful memory of their neighbors and of their posterity. They were not of that class of women of a later period who clamor for the suffrage, and for equal opportunity in business and the professions, however just may be the claims and aspirations of the latter. The pioneer women of Chicago came to found homes, and to rear children who should be fit to carry on the noble work which their fathers founded. They were domestic women, conscious of their feminine charms, not unmindful of the duties of hospitality, nor careless of the claims of social life. Yet with lofty aspirations and noble devotion they founded churches, opened schools, organized charities, and brought the sweet and tender influence of their affections and sympathies to soften the lot of the unfortunate and lowly.

Among those pioneer women was Frances Woodbury, who became the wife of Charles N. Holden, whom she survives, after a life of fifty-eight years passed in Chicago. Though content to perform the humble duties of a housewife, and to train up her children with pious devotion, her life has been redolent with the perfume of good deeds, performed without ostentation. Her American ancestry is traceable to John Woodbury, who emigrated from Somersetshire, England, and settled in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1624. The branch of the family from which she springs removed before the revolutionary war to New Hampshire, where her progenitors became distinguished citizens.

Some incidents in the family history are romantic, as the following: In the early part of the struggle of the colonies for independence, John Woodbury and Levi Perkins were on board of a coasting vessel from one of the New Hampshire ports, when they were captured by a British cruiser and sent to London, where they were confined as prisoners of state in Newgate until peace was declared. This was before Howard, by his portrayal of the horrors of penal institutions, had let sunlight and fresh air into British prisons, and their lot was dismal and cheerless. On their liberation and return to their New Hampshire home, they were objects of patriotic reverence, aud thrilled the hearts of listeners by their recital of the barbarities of English prisons. Their long companionship in hardship had made them comrades, and they married each the sister of the other.

Jesse Woodbury, the father of Mrs. Holden, was a son of this John Woodbury, while Nancy Perkins, her mother, was a daughter of the same Levi Perkins. She is granddaugh- ter of both the revolutionary captives. The father of Honorable Levi Woodbury, a former justice of the supreme court of the United States, was brother to this John Woodbury of the ' revolution. Members of the family intermarried with such notable New Hampshire families as the Hancocks, the Goffs, and the Goves, and filled eminent positions in business and professional life.

After the war of 1812, which greatly blighted the prosperity of northern New England, Jesse Woodbury removed to New York and settled at Fort Covington, or the " French Mills," as it was then known, in Franklin county. There Frances Woodbury was born on the 12th of July, 1820. It was a rural settlement, remote from any large town, and in the most primitive social condition. Her father was a merchant and operated mills. The young girl passed her childhood in this wild region, with only the most meagre opportunity for education, but, endowed with vivacious spirits and an active mind, she made the most of her slender privileges, acquiring the rudiments of learning and imbibing a taste for a broader culture. In the same neighborhood a young farmer, who became, in later years and in a far remote region, her husband, and who was some four years her senior, was pursuing his toilsome and rather hopeless avocation. At times he had seen and stealthily admired the spirited maiden, perhaps as she came and went from the schoolhouse, or, perchance, with bare feet and flushed face, returning from the blackberry patch with full basket, and glances of mutual admiration had passed between them. But their paths were soon to become widely divergent, and the youthful fancy was quickly dispelled by the hard condition of their lives. Young Holden joined the column of emigrants to the far West, while Jesse Woodbury, with his family, set out for Texas, to care for the estate of a deceased brother. Having reached Chicago, in 1836, he decided to leave his family in the care of his grown-up sons, and prosecute the remainder of his tedious journey alone. He never returned, having contracted a fatal disease among the malarial regions of the South. The Woodbury family left in Chicago consisted of the mother, two daughters and two sons. The latter made the best shift they could, with slender means but brave hearts, to care for the disconsolate family. One day, as the young Frances, then sixteen years old, was listlessly gazing at the passers along the street, she recognized the almost forgotten features of the young man whom she had known at her eastern home. The recognition was mutual, for each had treasured the memory of an acquaintance that had inspired more than a transient admiration. It was not long before intimacy ripened into love, and promises of marriage were exchanged. But young Holden was penniless,and Miss Woodbury was too sensible and prudent to entrust her future to one who had no home in which to shelter her. Four years passed, while the young man, inspired with the desire to place this fair rose from the granite hills of New Hampshire upon his bosom, toiled, with incessant application and fair success, to gain sufficient means to make her his wife.

The marriage took place in 1841. By this time Mr. Holden had become established in business as a merchant, and had a good prospect of success. He procured a humble home and the two set up housekeeping. Their residence was near the corner of Dearborn and Madison streets, where they remained for fifteen years. In the meantime children came to cheer and brighten the household, seven in all, who were nurtured and trained with pious care. Three of these died in infancy or early life. The others, now grown to maturity, are William H. Holden, a lawyer in Chicago, Jesse Milton Holden, an architect and a resident of Oakland, California; Charles Newton Holdeu, a Chicago banker, and Frances Louisa, wife of James H. Forsy, a merchant at Englewood.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Holden in early life had professed a Christian faith and connected themselves with Baptist churches. In Chicago they joined the Firat Baptist church and remained in its fellowship until the quickened consciences of a majority of the members, revolting at the apathy of the church towards the "sum of all villainies," slavery, prompted them to join in organizing another church. "Forty of us," said Mrs. Holden, "on our knees joined in a covenant to found a free and untrammeled church." The Tabernacle Baptist church was the outcome, which prospered in material and spiritual interests until it was re-organized as the Second Baptist church.

While Mr. Holden was a church officer and attentive to all the duties of his position, Mrs. Holden taught in the Sunday school, attended all the social meetings, aided the mission and charitable work of the church, and in all respects was an active and efficient co-worker with her husband in all good works.

She was endowed with great spiritual energy, unceasing activity, and the faculty of stimulating the latent powers of others, yet she had a singularly self renunciatory spirit. She organized others into effective working bodies, while she herself declined positions of prominence, seldom allowing her name to appear in official connection with the work which she set on foot.

Among the more prominent objects of her care and devotion were the Chicago Orphan Asylum, Home of the Friendless and Washingtonian Home, besides an educational semnary for ministers, and the Western Baptist Home Missionary Society. The latter she insisted, with strong pertinacity, upon separating into two departments, one to care for the destitute regions of the East, and one to do a like work for the West, and was successful in bringing the Western branch to a point of thorough organization and practical efficiency.

During the war her labors were unceasing for the welfare of the soldiers and their families. She was at the head of the Baptist department of Christian and sanitary work. The needs of the freedmen especially appealed to her sympathetic heart.

Mrs. Holden, although deprived of liberal scholastic advantages in her youth, was an intellectual woman. She made the study of history an object of dilligeut pursuit, especially that which illustrated Biblical subjects. The dynasties of long departed nationalities, the ruins of Mesopotamia and the sacred places of the Holy Land were to her familiar subjects. Her reading only strengthened and confirmed her faith in evangelical religion and in the inspiration and verity of the Holy Scripture.

She was a not infrequent contributor to the papers of her denomination, as well as to the secular press of the city. She even ventured into verse, having composed on one occasion a poetical address to the firemen, which appeared in the journals of that time. She was fond of travel, visiting remote and unfrequented parts of the country, as the plains, the upper Mississippi and the region north of Lake Superior. Among her manuscript productions are voluminous notes of "Three months on the plains," and a "Visit to Minnesota," when that now popular State was almost a terra incognita. Among her rambles throughout the country she has twice visited the Pacific coast, and many times traveled through the South and over the country along the Atlantic coast. She has a country home at Charlevoix, Michigan, where she spends a portion of each summer. While her husband was an alderman of the city, she enjoyed an official excursion to the cities of the Dominion, where she met and made the acquaintance of many of the notables of that country.

Enough has been said to show that the life of Mrs. Holden has been an active and conspicuous one. She is a strong character, possibly eccentric in appearance, but possessed of uncommon spirit, energy and force. Her long life in Chicago, her abundant labors, her varied experiences and unwonted activity have scarcely abated the vivacity of her disposition or the energy of her character. At the age of seventy-four she is still alert, active and interested in passing events.

Calvin De Wolf

This venerable man, now in his eightieth year, is one of the few survivors of the pioneers of Chicago. His residence here is cotemporaneous with the city government, now fifty seven years old. He has seen nearly the whole of the marvelous growth of Chicago, and has borne a conspicuous part in all her busy life.

He is a native of the State of Pennsylvania, born in the town of Braintrim, Luzerne county, on the 18th of February, 1815. His parents were Giles M. De Wolf, a native of Pomfret, New London county, Connecticut, and Anna (Spaulding) DeWolf, whose birth place was Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont. Soon after his birth the family resided a few years at Cavendish, Vermont, but when he was five years old returned to Braintrim, and a few years afterwards his father purchased a farm in the wilderness of Bradford county, which the son, who was one of the oldest of thirteen children, helped to clear and cultivate. His parents were pious people, giving their children careful home training and inspiring them with an ambition to make the best use of their limited opportunities. He acquired the rudiments of learning in the common school, and studied mathematics and surveying with his father, who was a man of good education, while he obtained books and studied Latin under a private teacher. At nineteen years of age he taught school near his home, and the following year in Orwell.

In the fall of 1837 he came to Chicago, with but a few dollars in his pocket and poorly clad, and sought employment as a teacher, but without success. He then traveled afoot through the Fox River country, and obtained a school at Hadley, Will county, Illinois. The next spring he returned to Chicago, where he engaged in teaching, but was obliged to take his pay in certificates, which were not readily convertible into cash. He next found employment as collector for the meat market of Funk and Doyle.

In the summer of 1839 he entered the law office of Spring & Goodrich, but his reading was interrupted by the necessity of earning a living, to meet which he again resorted to the school room.

In May, 1843, he submitted himself for examination as a candidate for the bar. The examiners were Hon. Richard M. Young, judge of the supreme court, assisted by J. Y. Scammon and Buckner S. Morris, who approved him and admitted him to practice.

During the next eleven years he practiced at the Chicago bar, with such success as his sturdy character, industry and good attainments merited. During this time - about 1846 - he had so far established himself that he married, and made a home. The lady who became his wife was Miss Frances Kimball of Norwich, Connecticut, the daughter of an old and very respectable family.

In 1854 he was elected justice of the peace. This, the humblest judicial office known in the ad ministration of the law, proved in his hands a very important and useful one. He continued to hold it continuously for twenty-five years, through six terms, four of which were by popular election and two by appointment.

During his terms of office the almost incredible statement is made that he heard and disposed of 90,000 cases, a number greater than is recorded of any judicial officer at that period in the State of Illinois, If true, it is a proof of uncommon industry and ability to despatch business quite in contrast with the dilatory proceedings of some of the higher courts of the present day. The members of the bar who practiced before him respected his ability and attributed to him candor and honesty.

During this time lie was twice elected an alderman, serving in the city council from 1856 to 1858, and from 1866 to 1868- He was chairman of the committee for revising the municipal code, recommending the system which followed George Manierre's and which has prevailed up to the present time.

Mr. DeWolf is a Presbyterian, having membership in the Sixth Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder. He has always been greatly attached to his denomination, and is an active worker in all its religious and mission work.

His intellectual character is marked by strong qualities and positive convictions, which are tempered by kindly feeling and sympathy with the weak. In former years, before the war, when opposition to slavery caused a man to be proscribed in politics and persecuted by the church, he was an avowed abolitionist and co-operated in all antislavery efforts. He was secretary of the first anti-slavery society in Chicago, of which Rev. Flavel Bascom was president and George Manierre treasurer.

When the Western Citizen was established with Z. Eastman as editor and publisher, as an abolition organ, Mr. DeWolf was treasurer of the fund which was raised for its support.

His home was long reputed to be a station on the under-ground railroad, and his children remember when at night dusky faces would peer through the window panes, seeking aid and protection. He had the privilege of suffering for his convictions, as well as the honor of being singled out for punishment, having been indicted by the grand jury of the United States district court in 1860 for the crime of " aiding a negro slave, Eliza, to escape from her master." With three others who were in the same condemnation, he was placed under $3,500 bonds for his appearance. The case was continued until the autumn of 1861, when it was " nolle pressed," a time having come when opposition to slavery was neither odious nor a cause of reproach.

After the expiration of his judicial term, Judge DeWolf resumed the practice of law, in partnership with his son, Wallace L. De- Wolf. He was regarded as a safe counsellor, and the firm had a large clientage among the property holders and wealthy men of the vicinity.

In common with his fellow sufferers, Mr. DeWolf suffered serious losses by the great fire of 1871, but immediately made greater investments than before, and in the growth of the city and enhancement of values soon retrieved them.

With advancing age, though in good health, buoyant spirits and elastic step, he has gradually withdrawn from active work, and enjoys the leisure and dignity that are justly accorded to the aged.

He is fond of flowers and gardening, and finds delight in simple and healthful employments. He has a home at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, on the Gulf of Mexico, where he spends the winter months, returning to Chicago with the birds and blossoms.

Mr. and Mrs. DeWolf have three children; Lucy Ellen, wife of Robert B. Bell; Frances, wife of Milo G. Kellog; and Wallace L. De- Wolf; all residents of Chicago.

Hugh Thompson Dickey

Judge Dickey first visited Chicago in 1836, and four years later determined to make the young western city his home. For more than forty years - during her formative and maturing period - he was a leader at the bar and prominent in Christian, literary and financial institutions of the growing metropolis. For many years he occupied a seat upon the circuit court bench, and to the end of his life he cherished an abiding affection for the city of his adoption.

His first business connection in Chicago was with Edward G. Evan, with whom he remained in partnership for two years. The first mention of his name in association with public affairs occurs in the records of the Illinois militia, in which he was appointed first lieutenant in 1840, his commission dating from December 18, 1841.

His literary taste, as well as his public spirit, led him as early as January, 1841, to meet with a number of gentlemen to form a library association. The first president of the organization was the late Walter L. Newberry, who bequeathed his valuable homestead, -with the half of his immense estate, for the establishment and endowment of the Newberry Library. As Mr. Newberry was not a literary man, but engaged from boyhood in mercantile pursuits, it is not improbable that his impulse to endow a library arose from his association with Judge Dickey in this early library enterprise. Mr. Dickey succeeded as president of the association in 1842. It had a humble beginning, being supported at the start by voluntary contributions, chiefly of its own members. Its first collection of books scarcely exceeded one hundred volumes,but six years later it had upon its shelves nearly five thousand books.

Upon the establishment of the Cook county court in 1845, Mr. Dickey was appointed its judge. The court soon found its calendar crowded with business, and its presiding judge gained the plaudits of the press and the respect and confidence of the bar. Said one of the journals of the day : "Judge Dickey has, during the session of the court, shown himself a good lawyer, a sound reasoner and a dignified, impartial judge." A little later another remarked : " He has made his court very popular, and the bar would not consent to dispense with it or him on any terms whatever," The following year we have this testimony from the press : "Judge Dickey grows in popularity every succeeding court he holds. His dignity and well balanced legal mind commend him to all who have anything to do with the court." One of his decisions, interpreting the fugitive slave law, was widely quoted because of the deep learning and the thorough grasp of the subject which it showed. Judge Skinner once remarked of him that he considered him to have had " the best legal mind in Illinois."

Although a Democrat in politics, he was chosen judge of the ninth circuit practically without partisan opposition, in September, 1848, and took his seat in December following. This office he filled with conspicuous ability until the expiration of the term in 1853.

Meanwhile, he participated in other enterprises not incompatible with the judicial office. He became one of the trustees of the "Illinois General Hospital of the Lake," upon its incorporation in 1849.

From 1850 to 1871 he was president of the Chicago Gas Light & Coke company. In 1857 he became a director of the Chicago Marine, and in 1863 of the Mutual Security Insurance companies. For several years also he was one of the directors of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway company.

At the time of the great fire he occupied a house in "Terrace Bow," between Van Buren and Congress streets, one of the finest blocks in the city, where resided such men as William Bross, Isaac Cook and J. Young ten," Judge Dickey returned to his native city, New York, where he made his home on Fifth avenue in 1885. There he died on June 2, 1892, at the advanced age of eightyone.

Dr. Edwin Judson

The period from 1832 to 1840, in Chicago, was prolific in pioneers. There were first pioneers in settlement, all of whom, save two or three sturdy veterans, have passed away. Next came pioneers in trade, then those who established professions. The minister and lawyer came first, and close behind them followed the doctor. It was only after the little village had grown to some maturity that practitioners in special lines came here to seek for patronage and a livelihood.

Dr. Judson was a pioneer in dentistry, having arrived in the infant city in the month of November, 1840, and, taking board and lodging at the Tremont House, began to practice his art in the parlor of that hotel. He was a native of Connecticut, born at East Hartford on the 22d of February, 1809. The Judson family was among the early families of New England, of sturdy Puritanic faith, and numbers among its descendants many eminent men. The branch to which Dr. Edwin Judson belonged had inhabited a homestead at East Hartford, that passed from father to son for two or three generations. At the beginning of the present century, its proprietor was Deacon John Judson, a substantial farmer of the town, and one of the pillars of the Congregational church. He married a Miss Alford, like himself of an old and respectable family, and among the children born to them was the subject of this sketch. His early life corresponded, in its outward relations, to that of well-born youth of that period. It was expected of the boys, as soon as they had reached maturity, that they should take part in the farm work, but not so as to neglect the school and the church. The farmer, though his income might be small, and he and his boys the only laborers, was as high in social position as the highest. The minister, the lawyer and the doctor of the neighboring village did not disdain to meet him on equal terms, and he and his family were peers of the best. As he grew out of his boyhood Edwin was sent to a neighboring academy, where he acquired a good " English education."

It is quite difficult to account for the influence which prompts a young man to adopt one line of pursuits in preference to all others. No doubt reason and observation are exercised with much deliberation and anxiety in the choice of a calling, but there is a bias of natural adaptation of taste and predilection, which, perhaps unconsciously, leads one to his "heaven-ordained" lot.

Young Judson chose the calling (at that period it had scarcely risen to the dignity of a profession) of dentistry, and repairing to the neighboring city of New Haven, he entered the office of a leading practitioner and gave himself to a study of its principles and practice, until he was competent to receive the license that enabled him to enter into the profession on his own account.

Before settling down to business, Dr. Judson made a tour of observation in the West. It was about the year 1830, when the Western Eeserve of Ohio was the promised land of Connecticut emigrants, but where cities were in embryo, and farms as yet a part of the primeval forest. Such lake ports as Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit were aspiring villages, while Chicago and Milwaukee were yet only military and trading posts. He did not find any place offering sufficient promise of pat- ronage in dentistry to tempt him to settle in it, but he observed the signs of promise - "The first low wash of waves, Where yet shall roll a human sea," - and received such impressions of the as yet undeveloped resources of the West, as made him an attentive observer of its progress, and perhaps gave him a longing to make some part of the region his future home. Keturning to the vicinity of his birth he began the practice of his profession and continued it with diligence and fair success.