Chicago City (part 44 of 57)

He became State's attorney of his district in 1853 and State senator in 1857. He helped Stephen A. Douglass to the United States senatorship in the memorable contest between him and Mr. Lincoln, and in the same year (1859) he moved to Chicago. From that time forward his history is identified with that of the Chicago bar. There is no volume of the reports of the supreme court of Illinois, since 1855, when his name first appeared therein as counsel, in which he is not named as counsel in one or more cases; and in those of the United States BUpreme court he is nearly as frequently mentioned as any other western lawyer. Were a comparison instituted among lawyers in general practice, to prove which of them all enjoyed the largest measure of public confidence as a manager of cases calling for deep knowledge of law and practice, readiness of resource, energy of action and power of logical argument, the name of W. C. Goudy would be found very near the head, if not absolutely the leader.

He stood equally high in the counsels of the Democratic party; not as a candidate for office or as a loud-mouthed advocate, but rather as a strong, unseen power near the throne. It is said that Mr. Cleveland owed his nomination in 1892 largely to Mr. Goudy's quiet, shrewd management. As to office, there was none in the gift of the administration or of his party which he would have willingly accepted, except, perhaps, that of a seat ou the supreme bench of the United States; and, further, it is known that he might have had that high honor years ago, if it had not been that his loyalty to his friend Melville W. Fuller moved him to withdraw in his favor.

A matter very interesting to the public was the well known Kingsbury-Buckner case, which Mr. Goudy conducted to a successful issue and in which his success was due to a certain life-long habit of action, which always led him to examine for himself every vital point in question, and to give up no search as hopeless until he had himself exhausted its possibilities.

The Kingsbury tract is a strip of land lying along the north branch, between Kinzie street and Chicago avenue, next west of the dewberry addition, which itself is west of the Kinzie addition adjoining the lake. The two heirs to the great estate were Lieutenant Henry Kingsbury and his sister Mary. The latter having married Colonel Bolivar Buckner, of Tennessee,and so beingclassed among the rebels at the breaking out of the war, deeded her share of the property to her brother Henry, in full and well placed trust in his honor. Henry, in order to insure, in case of his death, the due execution of the unexpressed trust, made a will in her favor. In 1861, he married Miss Taylor (niece of ex-President Zachary Taylor), and, taking the colonelcy of a Rhode Island regiment, bravely met his death at the battle of Antietam, in attempting at the head of his men to storm the deadly stone bridge, which still goes by his name.

Henry's well-meant will would now have taken care of his sister's interest but for one circumstance: a child was born to his widow a few months after his death, and by law the birth of a child to a testator annuls any will he may have made. The case of course, bristled with difficulties, seeing that the deed, duly signed, sealed and recorded, gave no hint of any trust. In vain did the claimants, under Mr. Goudy's urgency, try to find some written word of Kings - bury to support the theory of the trust. General Buckner could only say that they had searched everywhere, and no such thing existed. "Did Colonel Kingsbury correspond with anyone?" Yes; he wrote twice a week to his mother; but every letter had been examined. Still, the systematic lawyer was unsatisfied, and insisted on looking over the letters himself. He and General Buckner traveled all the way to Lynn, Connecticut, and visited the old lady, who would have been very glad to see justice done her daughter, but could only insist that she had examined every one of Henry's letters, finding nothing.

Mr. Goudy asked to see the letters, and she brought in a basketful and emptied them in a heap on the floor, saying that there was only one letter wherein Henry even spoke of the matter. Which was the letter? She soon picked it out from the mass, and Mr. Goudy read it over, remarking quietly: "This is all I want." The letter spoke of the property as "belonging to Mary." The mother could only explain that she had been told that what was necessary was a declaration by Henry that he held it in trust for his sister.

The result is well known. The property, which, by the way, included the ground upon which now stands the magnificent, sky-scraping "Ashland Block," on the northeast corner of Clark and Randolph streets, was restored to its rightful owners, and the wish and intent of the heroic young soldiermartyr carried out to the letter, all through a lawyer's unwillingness to trust any eyes but his own.

After the preparation of Mr. Goudy's biography to this point, came the startling news of his death. It occurred on April 27, 1893. He had been ailing somewhat and confined to his home for three weeks, but had recovered sufficiently to go to his office on that day. He was observed to be pale and apparently suffering, yet he did not complain, but after dictating a letter had an interview with General McArthur, an old client. The latter observed that he was fainting and helped him to a lounge where he died without recovering the power of speech; heart disease being the immediate cause of death. The journals of the following dav published lengthy and laudatory articles on Mr. Goudy's life and character, and his friends, personal and political, gained a new sense of his power in feeling the greatness of their loss.

He left surviving him a widow and two children - William J. and Clara. The son chose his father's profession, in which he attained eminence. He died in the summer of 1894, leaving a widow and one daughter, Helen. Miss Clara Goudy married Ira J. Geer, a distinguished member of the Chicago bar, and has one son, William. She is noted for her charitable labors, earnest, intelligent, devoted, yet private and inconspicuous.

Joshua Cuyler Knickerbocker

The city of Chicago has been rarely called upon to mourn the loss of a distinguished citizen whose death occasioned as widespread sorrow as did that of the Honorable Joshua C. Knickerbocker. It has been the privilege of but few men in this, or any other, community to become the centre of as wide a circle of personal friends or to attach to themselves, by the indissoluble chains of effectionate esteem, so many men and women of widely varying fortune and social rank.

1837, of parents whose ancestors had learned to love freedom in the land where liberty of conscience may be almost said to have had its cradle - Holland. For several generations, however, the progeny of the first Knickerbockers to seek American shores had been native-born citizens of the United States and residents of the State of New York.

David Knickerbocker, the father of the future judge, came west in 1844, settling on a farm in Alden, Mcllenry county, Illinois. Both Judge Knickerbocker's parents died in 1874, leaving four grown children surviving them: Joshua C., Isaac, yet living at the old McHenry county homestead; Hannah M., the wife of Prentice Bowman, of La Porte, Blackport county, Iowa; and John J., a distinguished practitioner, at the Chicago bar.

Between the ages of seven and nineteen, Joshua C. attended the common schools of Alden, in which he was a teacher from 1856 to 1859. While serving McHenry county in the capacity of pedagogue, he devoted his spare hours to the study of law. He pursued his professional studies after coming to Chicago in 1863, completing them in the office of James B. (afterward Judge) Brad well. He first opened an office in the Metropolitan block, and meeting with a success beyond his expectations, he summoned his brother, John J., to enter into partnership with him in 1867. The firm was "burned out " in the great holocaust, losing, among other property, a valuable library, but at once opened another office in the Bryan Block.*

Judge Knickerbocker's letter to his brother upon this subject is worthy of more than a passing notice, as illustrating the character of the man. At that time the future eminent lawyer [John J.] was at work upon a farm, although - after a course of study in his brother's office - he had been admitted to the bar. The elder brother, having determined his course in his own mind, caused cards to be printed, containing the names of "J. C. and J. J.Knickerbocker" as partners. These cards he sent to his surprised brother, accompanied by a statement that there was enough professional business in Chicago for both, and that he [Joshua] stood ready to hire all the hands necessary to ao his brother's current work. This was the origin of the firm of J. C. and J. Knickerbocker, which later attained no little eminence.

Judge Knickerbocker's character afforded an illustration of the highest type of moral manhood. His integrity was of that grade which positively repelled those who sought his friendship but whose honesty was confined within technical lines. It was with this ideal (of which he never lost sight) that he began practice, and it was to his unswerving fidelity thereto (even more than to his recognized ability) that he owed the unquestioning, unfailing confidence, not only of his clients but also of his fellow citizens at large.

His first entry into political life was made in 1864, when he was elected a member of the board of supervisors of Cook county. One year afterward (in 1865) he represented the first ward in the Chicago city council, and was re-elected in 1867. While serving as a member of that body in 1868, he was elected to the legislature, from a district ordinarily considered close, by a majority of 2,000, and one year later he was the Republican nominee for the office of county judge. Owing to causes more or less local in their nature, his party ticket was overwhelmingly defeated, and he went down in the general cataclysm.

His ability to rise above partisan affiliations when he considered an issue of principle involved was exemplified in 1870, when, although always a consistent Eepublican, he supported the Democratic candidate for the supreme court bench - the late Honorable William K. McAllister - for the reason that he regarded the nominee of his own party as too much identified with trusts and corporations to render his elevation to the judiciary desirable. That his course in this campaign was purely dictated by conscientious conviction is conclusively shown by the fact that when, seven years later, he himself was invested with the judicial ermine he disposed of every share of stock which he owned in local corporations, believing that a judge should never be liable to come into business contact with possible litigants before his court. His career as a legislator was especially marked by his fearless and able condemnation of, and active hostility to, what was then popularly designated as " the lakefront steal." Despite his earnest opposition, the general assembly gave to a great corporation riparian rights worth millions of dollars; yet he lived to read the opinion of Justice Harlan, of the United States supreme court, sustaining his position and righting a great wrong. In 1875 he was appointed by Governor Oglesby a member of the State board of education, and reappointed to the same position in 1877.

The probate court of Cook county was created in the latter year, and Mr. Knickerbocker was elected to fulfill the arduous and important duties devolving upon its judge. To this task he brought not only a natural aptitude but also the fitness acquired through long years of experience in an extensive practice in probate matters. Judge Knickerbocker had an intuitive grasp of affairs; his ability to detect a sophistry was keen and quick; and no specious excuse could ever cloak a dishonest device. His clear intellect readily saw through the often complicated entanglements attendant upon wills and heirships, and his terse, simple decisions brushed away, at a touch, the technicalities with which counsel too frequently seek to befog the real issue involved. It has been aptly said of him that he was "the father of the probate system of Cook county." It was he who drafted the act permitting the settlement of estates valued at less than $2,000 without the payment of court costs by the widow of the deceased, and it was he who inaugurated the existing system of settling small estates, as far as practicable, in the office of the probate clerk. So universal was the faith of the people in his integrity and ability that he was twice honored by re-election to a position second to none in its farreaching influence, by the common suffrages of both partisan supporters and political opponents.

Judge Knickerbocker never married, yet such was his genial temperament, his absolutely unselfish disposition and his unsullied purity of life that, as one of his panegyrists said of him after his death, "he had a home in every household where he was known."

His spirit of bonhomie rendered him fond of meeting congenial friends in the unconventional intercourse which club life affords. He was a pioneer member of the Calumet club, as well as of the Union League. As a sportsman he found few equals among gentlemen. His aim was well-nigh unerring, and it was almost a proverb at the shooting boxes of the Tolleston and Neepenauk hunting clubs (of both of which he was an esteemed member), that when Judge Knickerbocker failed to "bring in a bag," no one else need go out.

It was at the Calumet club house that he received the paralytic stroke which resulted in his death in the early morning hours of January 5, 1890. The circumstances attending his sudden demise were of a character particularly distressing to his friends. The premonitory symptoms appeared while he was engaged in a game of pool the previous afternoon. Leaving the billiard room for the cafe, in quest of a glass of water, he staggered and almost fell. To the anxious friends who went to his assistance he reremarked that he felt sure that he had been smitten with paralysis. No time was lost in notifying his brother and some of his most intimate friends of his condition, and medical aid was summoned with the utmost haste. But within thirty minutes consciousness had been lost, never to be regained. The eminent physicians around his death bed decided to resort to trepanning as the last means by which to bring their patient back to life, but the operation proved unsuccessful, and in less than twelve hours after the angel of death had first called him his spirit had crossed the shadowy line which separates time from eternity.

the feeling of personal loss than often falls to the lot of public men. Resolutions of regret were adopted by the city council, the bar association and by the other organizations to which the eminent jurist had belonged. But far more precious to the relations who survived him were the unconscious tributes dropped upon his bier in the tears of the widow whose wrongs he had righted and of the orphan whose rights he had guarded.

His obsequies took place from the Second Presbyterian church on the afternoon of January 7, and were of that simple character which would have been most consonant with hia wishes. During the morning hundreds viewed the face of the man whom all Chicago loved; as calm in its last repose as it had been when, in infancy, those kindly eyes had closed in response to the lullaby sung by a tender mother. Rev. Drs. S. J. McPherson and II. W. Thomas conducted the services, the latter preaching the sermon. The building was filled as seldom before, civic officers and day laborers, merchant princes and mechanics, the millionaire and the poor man in threadbare garments, touching one another within its doors. A long cortege followed the hearse to Oakwoods, where the remains of Judge Knickerbocker were interred.

Perhaps this necessarily imperfect sketch can best be closed by an extract from the eloquent words pronounced by Dr. -Thomas over his bier: "Such is the tribute of truth to truth, and the honor that man pays to nobility in man."

Samuel W- Allerton

The growth of a great industry in a community is an epitome of the development of the city itself; for a city is but an aggregation of industries about which gather a vast army of men with their families, who are in some way connected with the carrying on of these business operations. This great city of Chicago, with its multiform industries and far reaching commerce, owes its marvelous growth and prosperity to its position as a distributing centre of the products of a vast country, and its concentration of production. A typical branch of its business, and one of the leading sources of its wealth , has been the preparation and distribution of the animal products of the farms which cover the broad prairies of the West. The growth and extent of the packing business are marvelous, and express the productive powers of the wide region tributary to it. Who that visits the stock yards, where are gathered, from thousands of farms, cattle, hogs and sheep, filling whole trains, and inspects the slaughter and packing houses where they are prepared to be sent out to all parts of the world as food, can fail to be impressed with the magnitude and importance of this industry? During the year 1892 over three and a half million head of cattle and nearly seven million hogs were received in Chicago, of which over two and a half million head of cattle, and five and a quarter million hogs were slaughtered and packed in the city.

It is not too much to say that Samuel W. Allerton has contributed more than any other man to the establishment and development of this business in Chicago and throughout the West. When he first began to operate in Chicago there was no local market for cattle and hogs. They were shipped through to New York and other eastern markets. Through his efforts a market was established here, and afterwards packers started their business.

When, more than forty years ago, he opened his prairie farm, stocking it with cattle, and sought a market for his stock among the butchers of the infant Chicago, he little thought that he would, while yet an active man of business, become the head of a company which would in that same town gather cattle and hogs from the farms of many

States, and send their product, prepared for the choicest food of man, to all the markets of the world; and yet the Allerton Packing company, of which until recently he has been president, is but one among many firms that through their food preparations have made Chicago famous throughout the world. Mr. Allerton is a native of Dutchess county, New York, born in 1829. His early home and training were on a farm, and his education only such as the common schools afforded. He early developed a fondness for live stock, and before his majority had already become a farmer, and had secured profits in stock raising which were the wonder and envy of the neighboring farmers, whose range was confined to crops and the dairy. After a few years he seemed to have an intuitive feeling that the prairie country of the great West afforded better scope for raising stock than the narrow farms of eastern New York, and after visiting Buffalo and Cleveland, he finally settled in Piatt County, Illinois, and opened aM prairie farm. His stock was brought tojl Chicago for sale, and gradually his operations were enlarged to buying and gelling stock. This led, by gradual but natural steps, to the establishment of a live stock market, and finally to the packing business, which has grown to such immense proportions. More than ordinary enterprise and sagacity were required to take advantage of the opening opportunities and waiting markets, and establish packing houses in neighboring cities and stock yards throughout the West. Mr. Allerton was equal to the occasion, and extended his business to St. Louis, Omaha, Kansas City and other points.

The profits of his vast business developed such prudence and good judgment in their management that Mr. Allerton became an investor and manager in great financial institutions. He has long been a director in the First National Bank of Chicago, the leading bank in the West, in the Chicago City Railway company, and in a number of other important institutions. He was also a member of the board of managers of the Columbian Exposition. These positions and trusts have not been secured by self-seeking or importunity, but have sought one who had shown rare intelligence and fidelity in the management of his own affairs.

Mr. Allerton is a quiet, unassuming man, wise in action, prudent in conduct, but free and generous in the use of his large accumulations. He is keenly alive to public events, and exerts no small influence in the shaping of political and public policies. He is a Republican, and a proinounced advocate of protection for the building up of home industries and the advantage of labor. Articles in the public press from his pen discuss economic and financial questions with the clearness of a practical man and no little cogency and literary ability.

In his domestic relations Mr. Allerton has been happy and fortunate, having been twice married, first in 1860 to Miss Paduella W. Thompson, of Peoria, by whom he has two children, a son and daughter; and again, after her death in 1880, to her sister, Miss Agnes C. Thompson, who now, with the children, shares his elegant and happy home on Prairie avenue.

The death of Dr. Charles T. Parkes, which occurred at Chicago on the 28th of March, 1891, was a grievous affliction to a peculiarly lovely and beloved family circle. It was a positive loss to medical education, the removal from scenes of active practice of a most skillful surgeon, and the termination of one of the most careful and discriminating careers in scientific surgery, that has illustrated the present era of progress. The termination of a useful life is sad, even when its strength has waned and its days of activity have passed. When such a life is cut short at the zenith of its power, while its gathered experience and matured faculties are still capable of years of useful activity, it seems to be a calamity, which raises one of the most inscrutable problems of our human life. Why should the good die young? Why should the beautiful and gifted not be allowed to pass the threshold of life ? Why should a life richly endowed with intellect, and matured by study be cut off while still capable of its most fruitful labor? If death ends all, these would indeed be unanswerable problems. A future life is needed to save so much endowment from everlasting loss. It is an alleviation that, as in the present case, the ground gained by original research is occupied, and the additions made to the sum of human knowledge in one of the most difficult departments of professional attainment, are utilized by scores and hundreds of younger men, who as students have received instruction from the departed, and will carry his discoveries onward from the point where he left them to still higher results.

Perhaps even medical men need to be reminded by shining examples that there is a limit to physical endurance ; that even in the cause of scientific research and professional labor enthusiasm may incite -their votaries to tax their powers beyond their strength, and that the penalty of intemperance in noble pursuits is as inexorable as when indulged in the gratification of passion or ambition or greed.

Dr. Parkes was marvelously endowed with bodily, mental and moral qualities of the highest order. He had a splendid physique. His stature was above six feet, his weight exceeded two hundred pounds, and his form was broad-shouldered, full-chested, well proportioned and somewhat portly. His features were well rounded, his brow massive, his nose rather straight, and his expression that of penetration mingled with gentleness and lon- Jiommie. These gave him an air of dignity, refinement and good nature, which commanded respect, while inspiring confidence and affection. His mind was active, deliberative and judicial. He had a quick perception and a marvelously intuitive judgment, which rendered him almost unerring in diagnosis. He was firm, though kindly, confident in his own conclusions, yet open to every suggestion of a new or unexpected character. He had a gentle touch and steady nerve, which, amid the excitement and responsibility of a delicate surgical operation, carried his koife unerringly to the nicest line of safety, dividing almost the " soul from the spirit." With this rare combination of qualities he had an enthusiasm for his calling, not for personal success so much as for truth and duty, which enabled him to concentrate all his powers upon a case in hand, and exhaust all the resources of skill and knowledge. Is it any wonder that his professional career was exceptionally brilliant and successful ?

It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. Parkes had reached the foremost rank of operating surgeons of his own time and country, and was excelled by few at any time in other lands. He had visited the various countries of Europe, studied under the most eminent surgeons, observed their methods, and brought back the newest discoveries and the most successful methods of the best practitioners.

This wealth of study, observation and experience was freely communicated in the class room to students who received his demonstrations and inculcations with confidence and veneration, and this great skill was exercised in the hospital and clinic for the relief of suffering and the restoration of the stricken without compensation.

The professional engrossment of Dr. Parkes allowed him little time for the indulgence of his social gifts. The busy doctor is cut off from many of the recreations which freshen and inspire the lives of other men. When occasion offered he was the most genial of men. The social circles where he sometimes

Dr. Parkes was the youngest of a family of ten children born to Joseph Parkes, who was English born, but resident at the time of the birth of his son in Troy, New York. He was a commercial man of intelligence and enterprise, engaged in the manufacture of iron. His son, Charles Theodore, was born August 19, 1842. The family removed to Pennsylvania during his childhood, and afterward resided at St. Louis, and came to Chicago in 1860, when Charles was eighteen years old. Business reverses of the family had taught him the necessity of self-reliance, and inspired a courage and ambition to carve out his own fortune. He had imbibed in the common schools a love of learning, which impelled him to seek a liberal education. With this view he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and passed through the first two years of the college course.

At this time his inclinations led him to select the medical profession for his life work, and turned his attention while in college to the scientific studies most consonant with that calling.

The quiet course of scholastic life flowed on for nearly two years, when it was interrupted at Ann Arbor, as it was in all the colleges throughout the land, by the shrill clarion of war. The country called its stalwart sons from the field, the workshop and the counter, as well as from halls of learning, to the upholding of its menaced Union, and the protection of its flag; and hastening with troops of other patriotic young men, the student at Ann Arbor put on the uniform of a soldier, and enrolled his name among the country's heroic preservers. He did not stop to bargain for place, but stood in the ranks as a private. It was in 1862 that he enlisted, joining the 117th regiment of Illinois Infantry. His military service continued until the close of the war, a little over three years. It was not uneventful, for who among the thousands who went to the front failed in thrilling adventures and hair breadth escapes? He stood in line in the fiery ordeal of battle, dragged his tired frame through long and fatiguing marches, and endured the monotony and privations of the winter's camp and summer's bivouac. He saw his comrades borne away from the field to the hospital covered with grime and blood, and perchance looked into the field hospital, where the surgeons were plying their art amid the agonies of the bleeding and mangled victims of war's barbarity.

The young volunteer shrank from no duty, for he earned promotion and came out of the war with the sword and insignia of a captain. We do not follow the incidents of this war service, for Dr. Parkes in recalling them was wont to say that so far as concerned his life work they were wasted years. The glory of his life comes not from battles fought and victories won, but from the peaceful, though not bloodless victories over sickness, deformity and disease.

Upon his discharge he did not resume the interrupted curriculum of the college, though in after years the university recognized his scholarship by decorating him with herdegree of Master of Arts. He came to Chicago and began the study of medicine with Dr. Rea, professor of anatomy in Rush Medical College, as a special student. He graduated from Rush College in 1868, and was at once appointed demonstrator of anatomy in that institution. At the same time he opened an office in Chicago for the practice of his profession, and soon found himself in a large and lucrative business. Seven years afterward/ /e was made professor of anatomy. Thisf/osition he held for twelve years, during which period he taught that branch with an enthusiasm and devotion unsurpassed in this or any other country. Thousands of physicians in the West, by their sound practice of surgery, attest to the thoroughness of the teaching and discipline, in their early student days, of this earnest instructor. One of the classes graduating at the college, that of 1881, presented to Dr. Parkes a beautifully engrossed testimonial of their appreciation of his instruction, containing an exuberant expression of their love for a man who, by his gentle manner and inspiring thoughts, had irradiated their path through the dry details of anatomical study.

In 1887 he was elected professor of surgery in Rush Medical College, as successor to Professor Moses Gunn. Soon after assuming the vacant chair he was selected to deliver a memorial address before the faculty and students of the institution, which is a graceful tribute, in elegant diction and appreciative thought, to his distinguished predecessor. Some passages are strikingly applicable to his own case, and may with great pertinency be quoted as applying to himself:

"The man who would inscribe his name high on the walls of the temple erected in commemoration of the deeds of great surgeons, alongside the scroll bearing the name of Moses Gunn - upon the reading of which all men will gladly pay the obeisance of honor and respect - must be a perfect master of the construction and functions of the component parts of the human body ; of the changes induced in them by the onslaughts of disease; of the defects cast upon them as a legacy by progenitors; of the vital capacity remaining in them throughout all vicissitudes of existence. He must be, at the same time, wise in human nature, wise in the laws of general science, and wise in social amenities.

"Most men, in any vocation,come sooner or later to en joy some one portion of their work more than all the rest. The treasure of Professor Gunn's heart, professionally, was his free surgical clinic; the work he most loved was done here, and the doing of it gave him the most happiness. No possible combination of circumstances, except absolute physical disability, or absence from the city, seemed powerful enough to keep him out of the well known arena at the appointed hour of his coming. Who can ever estimate the good done by this man, in this one department of labor; farther, all of it done for charity's sake. His best efforts, his accumulated knowledge, his manhood's energies, his bodily strength given away for years as freely and bountifully as the air we breathe is given us."

Dr. Parkes held the position of professor of surgery until the day of his death, at which time he was also treasurer of Rush Medical College. He was one of the attending surgeons of the Presbyterian Hospital and professor of surgery in the Chicago Polycfinic. He was the surgeon in charge of St." Joseph's Hospital, consulting surgeon in the Hospital for "Women and Children, and surgeon-in-chief of the Augustana Hospital. He was at one time president of the Chicago Medical Society, and later of the Chicago Gynecological Society.

It illy becomes a non-professional writer to venture upon an estimate of the surgical accomplishments of his subjects. It will be more satisfactory to give the words of a cotemporary and professional brother. In a memorial paper Dr. J. H. Etheridge says of his friend, Dr. Parkes: "Each week throughout the year, up to the time of his demise, he conducted three surgical clinics, which, for variety and extent, were pronounced by physicians competent to judge of such matters, without a parallel in the annals of medical college teaching. Everything from surgical advice to the gravest surgical operations was presented in his clinics. The marvelous revelations of the possibilities of modern antisepsis conspired to bring success to such work before1 audiences. He was the pioneer of laparotomists before large classes of medical students. His memorable reports of thirty abdominal sections in the amphitheatre of Rush Medical College will be recalled by the members of the profession. It was no uncommon thing for him to open a clinic with a laparotomy, and, subsequently, to perform from three to eight minor operations,besides disposing of as many more dispensary patients in one afternoon. I once saw him perform a laparotomy, a thigh amputation, a knee resection, and four minor operations in one clinic. There seemed to be no limit to bis capacity for work at such times. His giant proportions, his commanding presence, his masterful, rapid work, and his wonderful acumen, made him a veritable son of Anak among teachers of surgery.

"During the summer and fall of 1883, he began a series of experiments in intestinal surgery which revolutionized existing ideas on that branch of surgical achievements. Up to that time surgery treated gunshot wounds of the abdomen expectantly. His extended experience in laparotomies led him to inquire, 'Why cannot surgery at once and fully avail to place such injuries within the reach of the operative art?' His first publication of experiments on dogs was based on work performed on thirty-nine animals. The dog, after being anaesthetized, was shot through the abdomen; a laparotomy followed, the perforations of the intestines being found and closed, under thorough antisepsis. The number of recoveries in his animals astounded the medical profession, and led to further experiments in all parts of the world. He made his first report on his new work at the meeting of the American Medical Association in Washington, in 1884. He exhibited three specimens of intestines in successful cases, preserved from dogs slain after their recovery. He took with him to that meeting a small living dog, from which he had removed five feet of intestine that had been perforated by bullet-holes so numerous that resection was necessary. His later and more complete reports of this work have been translated and published in the medical literature of all countries of the globe.

"As the pioneer in the surgical treatment of wounds of the intestines his name will be handed down through all future time. He laid the foundation for the rational treatment of penetrating gun-shot wounds of the abdomen. Truthfully might he have exclaimed, in the words of Horace, "Exegi monumentum aere perennium." It can be claimed, without refutation, that his experimental and clinical contributions to this department of surgery constitute the indestructible monument which all nations will concede to his name. It was his great life-work."

Dr. Parkes was a fluent reader of the German and French tongues, and was thus enabled to familiarize himself with the valuable professional literature which appears in the medical journals of those countries. He went abroad in 1878, and spent some months in study under the eminent surgeons of England, France and Germany. Again, ten years later, he made a second visit to the hospitals and infirmaries of the old world, and in 1890 he attended the World's Medical Congress held in Berlin.

Dr. Parkes' literary work began with a very important paper read at a meeting of the American Medical Association held in Washington, District of Columbia, in May, 1884, on gunshot-wounds of the abdomen, based upon original experiments and! demonstrations - the first work of its kind in this country. Of late years his writing consisted chiefly of the report of clinical cases of great interest and in the publication of his clinical lectures. During the past few years he had begun to accumulate material for a work on abdominal surgery and one on general surgery, but unfortunately these works were not near enough completion to be available for publication. It was his habit to unbend his mind from the absorbing thought of professional and professorial work in the perusal of the best works of modern fiction. He was fond of literature, and his writings show a style founded upon the choicest models.

He was fond of fishing and hunting, and it was his custom to devote a month of each summer when not engaged in travel, in sports of the field and forest. He was a member of a fishing club whose seat was upon the Restigauche, in New Brunswick, where in the primeval forest, with congenial companions, he found restoration and diversion in luring the salmon from the depths of the crystal stream. At other times he visited the woods

Dr. Parkes was fond of social life, and was greatly prized in the circles which he found time to frequent. The social club, and the Masonic fraternity, in which he had reached an exalted rank, divided the scant time which he could devote to such pleasures and companionships, butAe was too much engrossed in study and work to be often found in these congenial circle meetings.

Throughout his entire prof essional life Dr. Parkes enjoyed the pleasure and consolation of a home of domestic peace and love. He married in 1868 at Troy, Illinois, Miss Isabella J. Gonterman, daughter of an excellent Kentucky family, that had settled at an early day in Illinois. His elegant home was on Lincoln avenue, not far from the park, where the family enjoy every comfort which good taste and unstinted expenditure could provide. The family is composed, besides Mrs. Parkes, of a son, Charles Herbert, and daughter, Irene Edna Parkes, who are just approaching the threshold of adult life, and completing courses of liberal education. During the summer of 1890, Dr. Parks sent his family abroad, that the children might have the advantage of learning continental languages from native teachers. It was during their absence that the fatal illness that closed his earthly career seized him. It was pneumonia, following a severe attack of la grippe, and despite the most careful and assiduous attention of his brethren of the profession, in a few days it overcame his vital power, and brought his manly form to the tomb.

John Crerar

This successful merchant and most estimable and genial man was born in the city of New York in 1827. His father was a native of Grief, Perthshire, Scotland, and died in the city of New York, July 23, 1827, when the son was a few months old. His mother's maiden name was Agnes Smeallie, also of Scotland. No paternal relatives were known to remain, and none on the side of the mother except cousins residing in New York. It is presumed that the family was in moderate circumstances, and that the son was left to make his way in the world with little financial aid. His career of business ability and success, like that of another Scotch lad, the late A. T. Stewart, shows that this need not prevent the attainment of the highest rewards in mercantile life. Doubtless the thirty-five years of residence in his native city were marked by patient application at school and through a long clerkship, until he became a partner in the prominent mercantile house of Jessup, Kennedy & Co. He attained prominenc'e both in business and social circles, and possessed a wide acquaintance and many attached and lasting friends. His standing is attested by the fact that he became president of the Mercantile Library Association, of which he was a member in New York.

Mr. Crerar came to Chicago in 1862 as representative of the railway supply firm, and soon after established himself in the same business as the senior member of the well known firm of Crerar, Adams & Co. Besides his large private business, he gave his financial skill and business sagacity to the management of a large number of important enterprises and trusts, among which were the Pullman Palace Car company, the Chicago and Alton railroad company, the Chicago and Joliet railroad company, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, the Liverpool, London and Globe insurance company, of all of which he was a director and of some, at one time and another, president. Among the organizations of a charitable nature which received his fostering care and pecuniary aid, were the Chicago llelief and Aid Society, Chicago Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago

Orphan Asylum, Chicago Historical Society and Young Men's Christian Association. Prominent associations of a social character to which he belonged were the Chicago Literary and the Calumet clubs.

In religious faith he was a Presbyterian, a member and regular attendant of the Second Presbyterian church, of which ho was an elder and trustee and a munificent supporter.

After the great fire of 1871 he became a member of the Belief and Aid society. The contributions from the New York Chamber of Commerce and other donors in aid of the sufferers by that great calamity, were entrusted to him.

The only public position which he held was that of elector from the first district of Illinois at the Presidential election of 1888. He was possessed of refined and simple tastes, enjoyed art, literature and music, and was of a genial and happy temperament, sympathetic and companionable. He had a strong personality, entertained positive convictions, and was immovable in his adherence to what he deemed the course of duty.

His business partner and intimate associate during the greater part of his life in Chicago, Mr. J. McGregor Adams, testified to his character and worth in these appreciative and feeling words : " He was a high-souled, generous man, liberal in all things, and one whose friendship was a thing to be prized and to be proud of. He was a philanthropist of the noblest type, and did a wonderful amount of good in a quiet way. For twentyfive years he and I have been business partners^ and during that long period we never had a quarrel or dispute in any way. To his employes he was always the same, pleasant, genial and approachable. Frank and outspoken, and decided in his views, he never hesitated to express them, though it was always done in an affable manner. He had a vein of quiet humor that made him a very companionable man. Full of fun and anecdotes, he dearly loved a good story."

During the last years of his life he resided at the Grand Pacific hotel, where he was wellknown for the regularity of his habits, his genial good nature and admirable personal qualities.

His death occurred at Chicago on the 19th of October, 1889. His remains, at his request, were interred in Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, where repose the ashes of his parents and two brothers, the only members of his immediate family. Upon the tablet which marks his grave is engraved the fitting epitaph: "A just man and one that feared God."

Mr. Crerar never married, and left no posterity to inherit his estate and perpetuate his name. He made the public his heir, and erected a monument which will endure after marble has crumbled to dust, and the fame of mere earthly deeds shall have faded from the memories of men. By the provisions of his carefully prepared will he left the greater portion of his estate, amounting to two and a half million dollars, for the founding and maintenance of a free public library. A million dollars were bequeathed to religious, historical, literary and benevolent institutions, one hundred thousand dollars for the erection in Chicago of a colossal statue of Abraham Lincoln, and six hundred thousand dollars to relatives and friends. Thus, while society endures and sacred trusts are administered with fidelity, the free public library will send its refreshing streams of instruction and wholesome entertainment through the avenues, streets and lanes, where will dwell an ever-increasing population, and bring to them, in reverent recollection, when all other voices of eulogy are silenced, a reminder of the sagacious merchant and kind-hearted philanthropist who was its founder.

The charitable devises for the library in Mr. Crerar's will have not yet been carried into effect, on account of a contest which was instituted, attacking the validity of certain provisions, and which, having passed through three courts, has now - June, 1893 - been decided in the court of last resort, sustaining the instrument in every particular.

Louis Wahl

It is a fact, which would hardly be credited were it not borne out by the inexorable tables of the census, that the number of Ohicagoans of German nativity and parentage exceeds that of American lineage. Those of German extraction comprise nearly thirty-two per cent, of the entire population, while the American-born citizens exceed by a fraction twenty-four per cent. The former outnumbered the latter by more than seven and a half per cent. In view of this large predominance of the German element in the population, it is well worth while to consider its character, and trace the influence which it has exerted on the institutions and life of the city. This can best be done by an examination of individual lives.

Of the prominent citizens of Chicago born in the Fatherland, who have been long identified with its business, and its political and social life, the late Louis Wahl may be taken as a fair and typical representative. He came here in mature life, was a resident for thirty years, during which he conducted one or more important industries, bore an honorable and useful part in the conduct of public affairs, adorned social life by his genial spirit, and set before the community an example of enterprise in business, integrity in office, urbanity in manner, and moderation and virtue in the conduct of life.

Mr. Wahl was born in Grunstadt, in the Rhine Phalz, on the 27th of October, 1830. His father was a man of fine attainments and marked business ability, who held the position of head forester in his native province. In 1845, he emigrated with his family to America, and settled at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The son was then fifteen years old. He had lived in the Fatherland long enough to acquire a perfect knowledge of the idioms spoken there - both German and French - but not long enough to receive any but the rudiments of education, or to acquire inveterate prejudices that would hinder his development into a broad-minded American citizenship. His education was completed in the common schools of Milwaukee, and his character moulded by the urbanity and sympathetic qualities that his parents had imbibe'd amidst the institutions and cultivated society of their native land.

Before entering on a business career, or perhaps to aid him in the choice of a place of residence and an occupation, in 1852 he set out to see something of the extent and resources of the country. At St. Joseph, Missouri, he fell in with a train that was making up for the overland journey to the Pacific coast. Joining it in the capacity of a driver, he had charge of four yoke of oxen,and made the long trip across the plains and over the mountains in ninety-three days without serious accident, but with plenty of tedious labor, hardship, and no little exciting incident. Arriving in California, he located a placer claim at a mining camp known by the suggestive title of Hangtown, and began a toilsome quest for gold. His success was only moderate, but sufficient to keep him at work for a year. At the end of that time his brother, who had been sent out by his anxious family to bring him back, after having fruitlessly sought him in Australia, by a happy accident found him at his claim, and, abandoning the search for gold , the brothers returned together to Milwaukee.

About the year 1854 the two brothers joined their father in setting up a glue manufactory in Milwaukee, under the style of G. Wahl and Sons. They did a prosperous business for several years, building up a large trade, which extended over a wide area. About 1862 they decided to remove the business to Chicago, and their father not accompanying them, they established here the house of Wahl Brothers. They built a large glue factory, and continued the business with much energy and satisfactory pecuniary results. About the time of his removal to

Chicago Mr. Wahl married, at Detroit, Michigan, Miss Phebe Grace Wilson, a cultured lady from Troy, New York, and together they founded a home which they occupied for the next thirty years, and raised an interesting family.

In 1855 the glue factory was destroyed by fire, and instead of rebuilding, the interests of the brothers were sold to Mr. P. D. Armour. After retiring from their long established business, they engaged in the manufacture of brick, which has become one of the largest establishments of its kind in the United States. In a city where building is going on as extensively as it is in Chicago the consumption of bricks is enormous. Suitable material in inexhaustible quantity exists in the vicinty. In later years the art has been greatly improved by the introduction of machinery and a better understanding of the nature and proportion of ingredients, so that the business is among the most extensive and important of the many kinds of manufacturing that are carried on in the busy city.

Like all enterprising Chicagoans who had an early residence in the city, Mr. Wahl profited by judicious investments in real estate. His experience among the mines in California, and his observations while traversing the mountain districts had given him an insight into mining, and he yielded to the fascinations of the business. For years he was interested in mines throughout the mining region from Georgia to California, making some lucky and some losing ventures. At one time he owned the "Terrible" mine at Leadville, Colorado, which was sold to an English syndicate. Whether, on the whole, this business added to his estate or the contrary, is doubtful. At all events it yielded plenty of excitement, and tended to introduce into what might otherwise have been a monotonous life, a spice of romance.

Mr. Wahl, like most of his countrymen who had experienced the oppression of absolutism in their native land, under the inspiration of such compatriots as Schurz and

Siegel had conceived a hatred of slavery and its abettors, and allied himself with the Republican party. He was not a partisan in the sense of seeking personal promotion and gain, for he persistently declined to become a candidate for any elective office, but took a deep interest in public affairs, was intelligent concerning the effect of public policies and the aims of public men, and desired to promote good government and the welfare of the community. He had a sympathetic pity for the victims of misfortune, and even for those whose lives were sullied by crime. He was, in consequence of his fitness, selected to bear important responsibilities in the administration of the local government, which he did not shrink from discharging, and took upon himself the burdens with a conscientious desire to fulfil all their obligations.

In 1871 he was appointed by the mayor of Chicago one of the inspectors of the house of correction. Soon after his appointment the institution was thoroughly reorganized, and many improvements made in its management. Before that time the prisoners had spent their time in idleness, and their support had been a heavy burden on the taxpayers. Mr. Wahl and his colleague introduced prison labor. The success of the new system was such that no appropriation for the support of the institution was asked after 1875. He was reappointed inspector by successive administrations, regardless of partisan considerations, and continued to hold the office to the time of his death.

From 1873 to 1876 he was a member of the Board of Public Works of Chicago, one of the most important and responsible trusts in the city government. From 1883 to 1885, he served as a commissioner for the south side parks, than which no department of the municipal government has conferred upon the public more substantial advantages, in the promotion of health and the cultivation of the sense of beauty in the masses.

Relief and Aid Society, an agency that dispensed the munificent bounty of a sympathizing world, and did more than any other to mitigate the sufferings caused by that unparalleled calamity. Mr. Wahl's efforts in administering these official trusts were to elevate them alike above politics and sectarian jealousy. He was particularly interested in the boys and young men committed to the prison. He was an earnest advocate of the Industrial Training School, and did much towards its organization and promoting its efficiency.

In his private life he was charitable and helpful towards those in need. He made no ostentatious display of charity, but took every opportunity to dispense gifts from his purse, as well as kindly advice and cheering sympathy. It is a rare occurrence, at the funeral of a public man, that those in the humble walks of life ask the privilege of a last look upon the unconscious face, and drop a tear of gratitude and love upon the bier. Though a busy man, Mr. Wahl found time for the improvement of his mind and the culture of his affections by reading and in travel. He was an accomplished linguist, reading and speaking with fluency the English, German and French tongues, and having a passable knowledge of the Spanish. He was a keen lover of music and the drama, having been conspicuous as one of the directors of the first opera festival that was ever held in Chicago.

Mr. Wahl's death occurred on the 25th of Apr.il, 1892. His surviving family consists of Mrs. Wahl and three daughters, Misses Eva and Lillian Wahl, and Mrs. Martin, all occupying the pleasant homestead on Indiana avenue.

Lyman Trumbull

The name of Lyman Trumbull is an honorable one among the list of great statesmen who have been conspicuous in the second great era of American history. To Washington and Hamilton, Jefferson and Franklin, Madison and Jay, and their scarcely less distinguished compeers, belongs the imperishable honor of having founded the American Union. To Lincoln and Seward, Grant and Washburn, Trumbull and Morton, with others of almost equal fame, will be ascribed by impartial history the scarcely less important achievement of preserving it amid the secession of States, supported by the armed forces of rebellion throughout one half of the country, and of establishing the National unity on the imperishable basis of liberty and equality to all men.

While Virginia had the honor of being called in the first period of the republic the "mother of Presidents," a scarcely inferior honor belongs to Illinois in having furnished the most brilliant leaders in the struggle for the preservation of the Union. Other States indeed supplied great men for the crisis, but what other displays upon her " Battle Abbey" roll such a galaxy of great names as Lincoln, Grant, Washburn, Trumbull, Douglass, Logan, Sheridan, Palmer and Yates? While the battles for the Union and freedom raged at the South and the plans of the government were formed at Washington* the " storm centre " of the great conflict of ideas seemed to gather in the Prairie State, and radiate thence to the utmost boundaries of the Nation.

The martyred President was the great civil leader, and General Grant the invincible commander; but both would have been powerless but for the "war governors", who rallied their people in massive ranks to furnish the heroic soldiers, and the Congress of stalwart patriots who voted all the needed supplies, sustained the public credit and infused into every avenue of opinion a lofty patriotism, which breathed from the lips of the statesmen who rallied round the President and held up the arms of the general. Among these men of undaunted courage, high resolve and lofty enthusiasm, none were more prominent or energetic than Lyman Trumbull, for eighteen years a senator of the United States from Illinoisand connected with every official act of Congress in support of the government, from the first gun at Sumter to the surrender of the Confederacy at Appomatox. The author of many measures and the eloquent advocate of every needed demand of the war, he stood at his post, invincible as the heroic soldiers in the field, and, with unflinching courage and abiding faith, awaited the issue, with no thought or expectation other than the triumph of the Union and the guarantee of liberty to every man covered by the flag. Among the names of heroic statesmen that history will not allow to pass into oblivion will be that of the senator from Illinois. When the names of Lincoln and Grant are mentioned, the memories of men will recall those of Trumbull and Yates as their invincible stay and support.

The growth of the fruit, - from the tiny bud, through opening and fragrant blossom, the quickening of its vital forces by the dust of pollen, kissed on its swelling sides by the sunlight, moistened by the dew, and buffeted by the storm, unto the ripeness of luscious perfection - is no more surely marked by the watchful eye of the gardener, than is the upbuilding of human character traced by the student of history - from the cradle of its infancy, the blossoming of its beautiful youth, the invigoration of education, to the mature man, endowed with virile power to benefit and bless mankind, - through all the stages of its development, environment, education, and experience, to the " consummate flower " of human nature. The life of Judge Trumbull is a striking example of one unconsciously but unerringly maturing for a great career.

He was a scion of a noble house. The Trumbull name is one of the distinguished ones of New England, eminent for generations in public affairs, in literature and in art. His grandfather, Benjamin Trumbull, D. D. , was a chaplain and captain in the revolutionary army. Governor Jonathan Trumbull was the personal friend and confidential adviser of General Washington, who, in cases of difficulty or on occasions of perplexity, was wont to say, "Let us consult Brother Jonathan." Hence, tradition has it, arose the cognomen of the Yankee Nation, " Brother Jonathan." The world will not forget the painter Trumbull, so long as his portraits of revolutionary patriots adorn historic walls.

The descendant of such an ancestry, Lyman Trumbull was born at Colchester, New London county, Connecticut, October 12, 1813. His parents were Benjamin and Elizabeth (Mather) Trumbull. Mrs. Trumbull was a descendant on her father's side of .Keverend Increase Mather, and on her mother's side of Colonel Samuel Selden, of the colonial army and of the ninth generation in descent from John Eogers, the martyr, who was burned at the stake in Smithfield in 1555. He was one of a family of eleven children, all but two of whom grew to adult life. He grew to manhood amid the rough hills of central Connecticut, and finished a not too liberal education at an academy in his native place. When not more than sixteen years old he engaged in teaching school in districts near his home. In one of these, while earning ten dollars a month and "boarding round," he used to walk every Saturday afternoon thirteen miles to his home, and, rising at three o'clock Monday morning, return. At twenty years of age he left the associations of his youth and the friends of his boyhood, to seek self support in the South. Leaving New York in a sailing vessel, he reached Charleston, South Carolina, whence he made his way to Greenville, Georgia, where he had charge of an academy as teacher. In this employment he spent three years while he studied law with Hiram Warner, afterwards judge of the supreme court of Georgia and member of Congress, and prepared himself for admission to the bar. Upon examination he was licensed to practice in Georgia in 1837. We know not what influence brought him from the South to settle in Illinois, unless it was a conviction born of observation of the "course of empire," that the trend of emigration and national growth was toward the West. He left Georgia in 1837, making the journey from that State to Illinois on horseback and passing through the country then inhabited by the Cherokees, with whom he passed one night, staying with Chief Eidge, who was a man of some education, owning a large plantation and living in a two-story log house. He traveled alone over the Cumberland Mountains into the valley of the Tennessee, coming north through Murfreesboro and Nashville, Tennessee, and arriving at Vandalia, Illinois, while the legislature was in session. In company with Governor Kinney and others he journeyed from Vandalia to Belleville,Illinois, where he was detained the fourth of April by a snow-storm, the snow falling over a foot deep. From Belleville he traveled on horseback to Jacksonville, where he obtained a license from Judge Lockwood to practice law in Illinois. He pursued his journey, still on horseback, from Jacksonville to Springfield, thence by Tremont and La Salle to Chicago, then a village of four or five thousand inhabitants. From Chicago he traveled through Michigan and thence on to Connecticut. Returning to this State in the autumn of 1837, he settled in Belleville, St. Clair county, in the " Egypt " of Illinois, where he put out his modest sign as attorney and counsellor at law. His advent to public notice and more than local fame was not rapid. He traversed the southern circuit, attending the courts of the neighboring counties, where he was known as a solid lawyer, of sound judgment and logical power,rather than for brilliancy or eloquence. His qualifications for attracting popularity were not showy; he was rather taciturn than voluble, retiring rather than self-asserting, and preferred the fame that follows solid attainments to that attracted by ephemeral acts. In his characteristics he greatly differed from Abraham Lincoln, whom he often met upon the circuit, whose wit and faculty of homely illustration made him the life of every social circle that he entered. But there was a substratum of common thought and principle animating alike the two men, albeit one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, which drew them together and established a mutual esteem. This mutual confidence, all unconsciously to either, eventually placed the one in the senate and the other in the Presidential chair.

At the time when he entered the public arena his personality was dignified but not striking. He was of medium stature, sparely built, with clearly cut features, a prominent forehead, and eyes made more searching than common by eyeglasses that were seldom absent. His manner was reserved, his habits abstemious, and his bearing that of a man of philosophical thought rather than that of a popular leader. Ambitious he doubtless was, but it was rather the ambition to merit than to secure promotion.

In 1840, the era of the great political revolution which, however, did not reach the region where he lived, he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the house of representatives of the State legislature from St. Clair county. This introduction into public life was followed by his appointment by Governor Carlin as successor to Stephen A. Douglas as secretary of State of Illinois, from which office he was removed by Governor Ford in 1843, because he did not agree with the latter in sanctioning the suspension of specie payment by the Illinois banks. His political career seemed about to suffer an eclipse. He was unsuccessful in an attempt to obtain a nomination as governor of the State. In 1846 he made a race for Congress but was defeated. In the mean time he was diligently practising law in partnership with his brother, George Trumbull. In 1848 he was more fortunate, being nominated and elected a justice of the supreme court. His associates on the bench were Samuel H. Treat and John Dean Caton. To this position he was re-elected in 1851 for a term of nine years, retiring by resignation in 1853, in consequence of impaired health. His judicial reputation was of the best. He was universally esteemed as an able and upright judge. This reputation was sustained by a fullness of learning and a solidity of judgment, that are shining qualities upon the bench. No State has ever had abler judges upon her court of last resort than when that of Illinois was ornamented by Treat, Caton and Trumbull. The opinions prepared by him are to be found in Volumes XI to XIV of the Illinois Eeports.

Politics were now assuming a new drift. The agitation of the status of slavery in the territories had arisen and began to engross public attention. The measures which Senator Douglas defended with so great ability and zeal raised opposition in his own party, where crevasses began to open in the solid ground of political organization. Democrats, once united in partisan zeal and action, began to drift apart. Judge Trumbull opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and was elected to Congress from the Alton district on the anti-Nebraska ticket. In 1854 he attended and participated in a great political debate at Springfield, where Lincoln and Douglas, Calhoun and Singleton discussed the burning issues of the day.

As the time for the election of a senator of the United States in 1855 approached, the lines of alienation among members of the Democratic party became more clearly drawn. Men fell apart by a sort of political sentiment. When the legislature met in joint session General Shields, who had been one of the senators from Illinois for the last term, was the Democratic nominee, and received forty-one votes. Abraham Lincoln received forty-five, and Lyman Trumbull five, while eight were divided among several candidates. The five votes for Judge Trumbull stood firm, determined to bring over a majority to their favorite. As the balloting proceeded, Mr. Lincoln's vote fell off and Judge Trumbull's increased, until, on the ninth ballot, Mr. Lincoln advised his friends to vote for Judge Trumbull, who received the fifty-one votes necessary to elect.

Thus was accomplished a political revolution in Illinois, out of which grew in due time the Republican party and the eventual elevation of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. Six years later Senator Trumbull was reelected by a vote of fifty-four against thirtysix for Samuel S. Marshall. In 1869 he was again elected by acclamation of the Republicans, the Democratic vote being given to Judge T. Lyle Dickey. He was again a candidate in 1873 ; but, having drifted into antagonism to the radical element of his party, was defeated by Governor Oglesby, the vote being for Oglesby, eighty-four, to sixty-two for Senator Trumbull.

Senator Trumbull represented the state of Illinois for three full terms - in all eighteen years. He took his seat in that august body when forty-three years old, and at his retirement had reached the age of sixty-one. His term embraced the period of his fullest maturity of manhood, and called forth all the latent power of a strong intellect and an unbending will.

When secession reared its gory head in the national councils, Senator Trumbull instinctively sided with the supporters of the Union. He was one of the strongest supports of President Lincoln, and exerted every power of his strong nature to uphold the government in every measure deemed necessary for the prosecution of the war. He was the author of many of the great measures that led up to emancipation. When the confiscation act was under consideration he proposed an amendment forfeiting the title to slaves who had been employed in aid of armed secession, and as chairman of the judiciary committee of the senate, he reported the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, which forever put a seal upon the "peculiar institution." The Freedman's Bureau and Civil Rights acts received their form and derived their spirit from his moulding mind.

When the war was over, the Union saved, and a nation was consolidated out of discordant States, the policy of reconstruction divided those who had acted together throughout the great conflict. Senator Trumbull was inclined to a conservative position, and could not acquiesce in the radical measures that were proposed by such party leaders as Thaddeus Stevens and Governor Morton, but he advocated, and as chairman of the judiciary committee of the senate reported, most of the bills under which the rebel States were ultimately restored to their former relations in the Union. The freedmen had his sympathy, and their elevation to the rank of citizenship his best endeavor; but he could not accept the theory that with all their ignorance and brutality they could be at once entrusted with the ballot and be given controlling political power in many of the reconstructed States. However party spirit may have been incited to condemn his attitude at the time, subsequent events have made it evident that his views were in accordance with true statesmanship.

Just before the expiration of Senator Trumbull's last term, the opposition to General Grant's re-election in the Republican party, as an exponent of the most radical policy, became pronounced, and at the National Convention held in Cincinnati, in 1872, Senator Trumbull received a large vote as the conservative candidate for the Presidency, but was set aside in favor of Horace Greeley.

Upon retirement from the senatorship, his political sympathies, originally with the Democracy, carried him back into affiliation with that party. In 1880 he was made by acclamation Democratic candidate for Governor of Illinois, but was defeated at the polls by Governor Cullom. He was now approaching the age when men put off the harness of active work. He had, upon his retirement from the senate, taken up his residence in Chicago. Henceforth he resumed, in some measure, practice at the bar, especially as a counsellor. He has been an interested spectator of the course of public events, and his calm and judicious views have had no little influence in shaping both party and public policies.

Although Judge Trumbull climbed the ladder of preferment without the aid of scholastic degrees, he has, after having earned the distinction by the force of his character and attainments, twice received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, once conferred by McKendree College, Illinois, and once by Yale College.

In June, 1843, Mr. Trumbull married in Springfield, Illinois, Miss Julia Maria Jayne, daughter of Doctor Gersham and Sybil Jayne. Mr. and Mrs. Trumbull were the parents of six boys, three of whom died in infancy. Walter, the eldest surviving son, married, in 1876, Miss Hannah Mather Slater. They had three children. Lyman, the eldest, named for his grandfather and bearing a strong resemblance to him, died in 1881. Walter S. and Charles Lamb Trumbull are still living with their widowed mother, Walter Trumbull having died in 1891. Perry Trumbull married, in 1879, Miss Mary C. Peck, the daughter of Judge E. Peck. They have four children, Julia Wright, Edward Arthur, Charles Perry and Selden Trumbull. Henry Trumbull, still unmarried, lives with his father.

Mrs. Trumbull died in Washington, D. C., August 16, 1868, and November 3, 1877, Mr. Trumbull married, in Saybrook, Connecticut, Miss Mary J. Ingraham, daughter of John Dickinson and Almira W. Mather Ingraham. Two daughters, Mae, who died when within a few days of her sixth birthday, and Alma, now ten years old, were the children of this second marriage.

Sidney Breese

This man, distinguished alike as statesman and jurist, occupied a pre-eminent place in the councils of the State of Illinois for nearly sixty years, during the first century of her history. Not alone by native talent and devoted service was he eminent, but also by inheritance of qualities which had raised his ancestry above the level of the ignoble and common herd. His great grand-father, whose name he bore, was the son of a parish rector, born at Shrewsbury, on the border of Wales,hiinsslf a descendant of an ancient line of chiefs and patriots. He was a partisan of the deposed house of Stuait, and no doubt constrained by persecution for his political opinions, emigrated to America and settled in New York City about 1756. There he married and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was an eccentric character as is evident from a quaint epitaph composed by himself and inscribed upon his tomb in Trinity Church burial ground.

Arthur Breese, his son, and father of Sidney, was a native of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, a lawyer by profession, and settled in Whitesboro,0neida County,New York, in 1794, where he became eminent as a lawyer and was for many years clerk of the supreme court of New York. He married Catherine Livingston, daughter of Henry Livingston of Dutchess County, New York, a great grandson of Robert Livingston, the first proprietor of the manor of Livingston. This alliance infused into the Breese family the choicest blood of New York aristocracy of the colonial and revolutionary period.

Sidney Breese was born at Whitesboro on the 15th of July of the last year of the last century. He entered Union College at Schenectady,New York, then under the guidance of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, whose wonderful gifts inspired so many young men of the period with high aims and practical qualities, lifting them r,o the most exalted positions in church and state. He graduated in 1818.

Among the friends of hisyouth and school companions was Elias Hart Kane, who had settled in the old town of Kaskaskia, Illinois, in 1816, practicing law. Allured by the glowing representations of his school fellow, he accepted an invitation to join him, and read law in his office at Kaskaskia, and was admitted to practice in 1820, and soon settled at Brownsville, JacksonCounty, Illinois, before the future State had emerged from its territorial condition. His early career at the bar was not encouraging, and he contemplated abandoning the profession altogether.

The year following his settlement, he accepted an appointment as postmaster at Kaskaskia ; a year later he was rescued from an ignoble career by the selection of Governor Bond, who, recognizing superior qualities in the young lawyer, appointed him prosecuting attorney of the second Illinois circuit. He also held the office of United States district attorney by appointment from President Adams. His brightening prospects and assurance of pecuniary support led him to assume family responsibilities, and he led to the altar,September 4,1823, Miss Eliza Morrison, second daughter of William Morrison, of Kaskaskia, a prominent and enterprising merchant who had been a resident of Illinois since 1790.

He held the position of prosecuting attorney for five years. After relinquishing it he became reporter of the supreme court of Illinois and in 1831 prepared and published Breese's Reports of the decisions of the supreme court, which was the first volume ever published in the State.

"Inter arma leges silent," is one of the aphorisms of the law. The Black Hawk war breaking out and threatening the infant settlements of Illinois with devastation, and ex- posing its inhabitants to the tomahawk and scalping knife of the pitiless savages, Mr. Breese put off for a season the toga and buckled on the belt of a soldier.

He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Third regiment of volunteers, and served with honor until the close of the war. Having added to the discipline of the schools the experience of fifteen years' practice at the bar in a new region and stirring period, he was upon the threshold of a higher career. In 1835 he was elected judge of the second circuit and entered upon the laborious duties of a nisi prius judge. These were so satisfactorily discharged that after six years upon the circuit, he was elected to the more dignified and responsible position of judge of the supreme court. Hardly had he time to become settled upon the bench, when he was called to lay aside for a season the ermine and eater upon a more exalted civil station. He was chosen by the Illinois legislature to represent the State in the United States senate for a full term of six years, commencing March 4, 1843. His principal competitor was the late Stephen A. Douglas, whom he defeated on the nineteenth ballot of a heated contest by a majority of one vote.

In estimating Judge Breese's services in Congress, account should be taken of the period in the history of the country in which they were employed. It was the dawn of a new development in national expansion.

The compeer of Lincoln and Douglas, a forerunner of Washburne and Logan, he was destined to teach the statesmen of a contracted and contented caste, a new gospel of enterprise and glory which should spread the institutions of a free republic across the continent and plant them along the border of Mexican States and settle them upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Judge Breese had peculiar qualifications for this work from a long residence upon the frontier, alliance with a family that had opened commerce along the Santa Fe trail, and an enthusiastic comprehension of the needs and capacities of the country; as early as 1835 he had written a remarkable letter advocating the opening of a commercial route by canal and rail from Lake Michigan to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, which was the first public suggestion of a novel enterprise, as well as pointed out the means, by aid of public loans, for the accomplishment of so stupendous an undertaking. No sooner was he settled in his seat in the senate than he introduced measures for the advantage of the public of his State. He procured the passage of a bill for the sale of the mineral lands, opening the lead mines of the State to the free access of the miners. At his instance the exemption of lands from taxation for five years after their sale was repealed, thus adding a large and available resource to the public treasury. His mind grasped the larger measures of national interest, for which the time was ripe. He advocated our title to Oregon, to the line of 54P 40', espoused the annexation of Texas, and stood undaunted by the prospect of war with Mexico. These measures, the subject of violent opposition at the time, at least among the statesmen of the Atlantic seaboard, who failed to comprehend the magnificent destiny of the Republic, have marked after the revolution, and before the rebellion, the greatest era of the government.

Probably the most comprehensive and far reaching subject whicli employed his thoughts culminated in the drafting and presentation of a report in favor of a land grant by congress for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific. Indeed Judge Breese may be credited with the organization of the policy of laud grants in aid of internal improvements, the first fruit of which was the Illinois Central railroad, and the full fruition, the Union, Central, Southern and Northern Pacific railroads. However much the system may have been abused and perverted, there can be no doubt of its great advantage in securing these and other national highways, and the consequent opening of a continent to settlement and civilization.

The year following the expiration of Judge Breese's term in the senate, he was elected to the state legislature from the district composed of Bond, Montgomery and Clinton counties, and to compensate for the apparent decline' in dignity he was chosen speaker of the house.

Five years later he was again elected circuit judge, and in 1857 was restored to the bench of the supreme court, where he continued to give patient attention to the arguments of counsel and to pronounce opinions which have illustrated the judicial history of Illinois, through the remainder of his life.

scholar, possessing in a marked degree the graces of diction, a profound jurist, a gentleman of the old type, of untarnished honor and unquestioned integrity, a useful citizen and an honored man. Says one who was himself an accomplished lawyer and an eminent diplomat, "His opinions will live as long as the jurisprudence of the State shall endure."

His qualities were not of the dazzling and brilliant kind which give ephemeral fame, but rather profound, solid and practical, entitling him to a niche in the temple of fame.

The professional career of the lady which it is proposed briefly to sketch, embraces a period of thirty years, all of which have been passed in Chicago. It possesses some features of unique interest inasmuch as it was the means of breaking through the barrier of professional bigotry, which had before her coming excluded women from practicing the healing art in a professional way. To her example, winning, by assiduous attention to her professional calls and by profound knowledge of the art and skill in its practice, a place among the reputable practitioners of medicine and surgery, no less than by her persistent efforts to open the doors of professional preferment to deserving and properly trained women, is due the rapid advance which the last quarter of a century has shown, in granting to women the privileges accorded to the other sex of ministering to the ills and accidents of humanity. Custom and prejudice are so rooted in the habits and intertwined in the thoughts of mankind, that like the devils of Galilee they go not out without prayer and fasting. The great declaration of independence, the charter of American liberties, proclaimed the equality in civil rights of mankind, but it requires a bloody ordeal to compel the recognition of those of the black man. To remove the barrier which shut out women from professional employments, in some of which, especially in some departments of the healing art, they have better adaptation than the other sex, has required a longer if less obstinate struggle. At this day, when colleges all over the land open their doors to co-education, not only in professions but in letters as well, and when women are found at the bed-side of the sick, without question of the propriety and fitness of the employment, it seems strange that so long a controversy was required to open the doors of opportunity to them. In Chicago and the West it will appear that the influence of Dr. Thompson was a potent factor in bringing about the beneficial change.

She is a native of Washington county, New York, a daughter of Col. John Harris Thompson, who was a member of an old and respectable family, long residents in New York. Her mother was Calista (Corbin) Thompson. Her early education was liberal, like that of daughters of well-to-do people in the rural districts of the country at that time, though directed hy no thought of a course different from that of other young ladies. After the studies of childhood were completed she attended the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute and Troy Conference Academy, at West Poultney, Vermont. The accomplishments taught in ladies' schools developed her native artistic taste, and gave her an inclination to pursue art in its higher branches. She, however, adopted a more practical course, and became a teacher, being employed in the public schools and also for a time in select schools.

Among other subjects to which her attention was directed as a teacher were physiology and anatomy. Better to qualify herself for imparting these branches of knowledge she determined to attend a course of lectures at the New England Female Medical College. From a study of physiology and anatomy to a general study of medicine, the transition was easy and natural. She determined to qualify herself by a thorough study of the science for the practice of medicine. With this view she attended a second course of lectures at Boston. She then spent a year in Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's Infirmary for women and children at New York city, where she not only assisted in the medical department of this hospital, both in indoor and outside practice, but was allowed to fill all spare moments in attending clinics at numerous other hospitals and dispensaries of New York. Returning to Boston she regularly graduated from the New England Female Medical College, receiving the degree of M. D. in 1863. To anticipate the course of events so as to bring together the entire professional training which Dr. Thompson received, after she had been in Chicago several years she made application that several women who desired to obtain a medical education be allowed to attend a course of lectures at the Chicago Medical College, which having been granted, she entered that institution herself and received its diploma, being the only woman who has ever graduated from a Chicago Medical College of the regular school, other than the Woman's Medical College.

Soon after her graduation at Boston Dr. Thompson came to Chicago to establish herself in practice. She came among strangers, with no social prestige, and in the face of prejudice, and among a community intensely devoted to material pursuits sought employment as a physician, relying upon her own ability and skill to win a way to employment and recognition. Her subsequent experience, during the earlier years, was not free from embarassment and annoyance, but was less unpleasant than she had anticipated. Her intelligence, culture and thorough knowledge commended her to all with whom she came in contact, and she received the kindly aid and encouragement of some of the most eminent physicians of the city.

Before coming to Chicago she was told that she would "get no counsel there." Instead, the right hand of fellowship was extended to her by the best physicians, and in a short time she was invited to join the Chicago Medical society, then the State society, and was solicited to read a paper before the American Medical society in 1886, which she did, hers being the first read by a woman in that body. She is also a member of the International Medical society.

Dr. Thompson naturally devoted herself to the treatment of women and children, to whom the sympathies of her sex attracted her, and gradually brought a goodly number of patients under her treatment, and bv degrees won a place as a practitioner of medicine among the distinguished members of the profession. But the emoluments and fame arising from a limited and private practice did not fill her purse,nor did her acquired success satisfy her ambition. Her mind was of a constructive type. She saw the need of institutions for the systematic treatment of the weaker and more depraved classes of the community and for the education of nurses and physicians of her own sex. With humanitarian purposes, directed by her exceptional opportunities to discern the need of the city, she set about providing such institutions. Out of her efforts and influence, received by sympathetic women in high social positions and aided by men of wealth and influence, among whom were some of the leading physicians of the city, arose the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, and the Women's Medical College, two now well established, largely patronized and most useful institutions of Chicago. The rise and growth and beneficent influence of these institutions, which are sketched in appropriate chapters of this history, illustrate the thoughtfulness, influence, fidelity and good judgment which Dr. Thompson brought to the work of their foundation and administration. Since its establishment in 1865 she has been attending physician of the hospital, and is now head physician and surgeon of its large staff. She has occupied a chair in the college since its establishment. and at present is clinical professor of gynecology. Dr. Thompson has given her special attention to surgery, and for many years has performed various operations in abdominal and pelvic surgery with skill and more than average success. Indeed her reputation for skill has passed beyond the boundaries of her city and State. She has been summoned from distant points to perform major operations of a difficult and delicate character.

In her efforts to procure the recognition of women in the higher departments of employment, she has claimed for them nothing on the score of gallantry or sympathy, recognizing that the only path to genuine and lasting success is through thorough preparation and fitness for any and all callings to which women may aspire. She has only claimed for them equality under like conditions. Her own example is a stimulating one. She has risen to influence a.nd obtained recognition through solid merit, founded upon good natural abilities, ripened by liberal scholastic training and matured by thorough scientific study and long,continuous and assiduous practice.

With all these acquisitions Dr. Thompson has fully preserved the innate delicacy of her womanly nature, and is none the less a lady because she has become a physician and professor.

When, thirty years ago, Dr. Thompson put out her modest sign asking professional employment, she was the only woman physician in the city. It is through her influence and efforts, in the main, seconded, of course, by the trend of public opinion, that now hundreds of women compete for the patronage of the public as physicians and surgeons and occupy, unchallenged, the highest walks of professional employment.

John J. Herrick

The distinguished advocate, a brief outline of whose life and career is here given, was a rative of Illinois, and received his earliest educational training in the schools of Chicago. His ancestry was of English stock, although the name became prominently connected with the early colonial history of New England. His great-grandfather, Jacob Herrick, belonged at once to the " church militant" and the "church triumphant", having served as an officer in the American army during the revolutionary war, and later as the pastor of a Congregational church at Durham, Maine. Here was born and here lived the grandfather of the Chicagoan, also named Jacob, and here, too, was born his father, Dr. Wm. B. Herrick, a professor in Rush Medical college for thirteen years, and the first president of the Illinois State Medical society.

Mr. Herrick's mother was Martha J. Seward, a daughter of John B. Seward, of Montgomery county, whom Dr. Herrick married after making his home in Illinois, and John J. was born in Hillsboro, in the same county, on May 25, 1845.

When he was twelve years old his father placed him at an academy at Lewiston Falls, Maine, where he was fitted for Bowdoin college, from which seat of learning he graduated in 1866. After leaving his alma mater he came to Chicago, and for a year taught Echool at Hyde Park, then a suburban village. His predilection was for the legal profession, and in 1867 he matriculated at the Union College of Law, at the same time entering the office of Higgins, Swett and Quigg. He graduated from the law school in 1868, and was honored by being chosen to deliver the valedictory oration.

Although duly admitted to the bar, however, he remained in the office of the firm with whom he had studied until 1871, when he began active practice on his own account. He soon attracted a numerous clientage, and although so young, alike in years and professional experience, was employed in several important cases. Among these may be mentioned the suits growing out of the ouster of Michael Evans and other southtown officials from office in 1876 on the ground of allegedly fraudulent election, and the litigation consequent upon the failure and suspension from the B>mrd of Trade, of the well known commission house of John B. Lyon and Co., in 1878.

In the latter year he formed a partnership with the late Wirt Dexter, then, and until his death,one of the leaders of the Chicago bar. Two years later (in 1880) Mr. Charles L. Allen was admitted to membership in tht) firm, and its name was changed to Dexter, Herrick & Allen. Mr. Dexter died in May, 1890, and three years afterward Herrick & Allen received as a partner Mr. I. K Boyesen, the style of the co-partnership thereupon becoming Herrick, Allen & Boyesen.