Chicago City (part 57 of 57)

The records of the Chicago Clearing House Association, more than those of any individual bank, index the growth of Chicago's banking and business. A central institution for making exchanges and settling balances between the city's banks was first established in 1865, and from the beginning of business on April 6th until December 23rd, the total clearings were about $315,000,000. William F. Coolbaugh was the first president. Mr. Coolbaugh was an influential figure in Chicago banking during the sixties a^id seventies. He opened the banking house of W. F. Coolbaugh & Co. in 1862, and in 1865 this was merged into the newly organized Union National Bank, with Mr. Coolbaugh as president. At its organization the Clearing House comprised nineteen members and in 1870 the Chicago Clearing House Association was formed, which in subsequent years, besides its regular functions, has exercised a large influence in regulating and maintaining high standards of banking.

From less than half a billion dollars in 1866, the clearings of Chicago banks grew to over twelve billions in 1907. The balances alone during the past two or three years have approximated the total amount of clearings in 1870. The figures for ten-year periods will show the expansion of trade and finance :

The total of $12,087,647,870, the amount of clearings for 1907, shows that the increase has been nearly doubled within the past seven years.

The present ofificers of the Chicago Clearing House Association are Joseph T. Talbert, president; H. A. Haugan, vice president, and W. D. C. Street, manager. Mr. Street is also secretary and treasurer of the board.

The members of the Clearing House committee are James B. Forgan, John J. Mitchell, Orson Smith, Ernest A. Hamill and George M. Reynolds. This committee is charged with grave responsibilities and at times is confronted with problems of the most serious nature, affecting financial conditions, financial institutions or individuals.

Second only in volume and strength to New York City, the Chicago Clearing House Association is a strong factor in the world of finance. Conditions could arise under which its action or the position taken by it would have great weight and influence throughout the universe. -

Early in 1907 the association devised a system of examination and supervision of all the Chicago banks enjoying the privileges of the Clearing House, whether members direct or not. Examiners were employed and the plan has met with such endorsement that it is being

Jc Library

John J. Mitchell. It is seldom that history and biography so coincide in illustration of the sententious generalization - "An institution is but the lengthened shadow of a man."

The Illinois Trust and Savings Bank was organized in 1873, only two years after the fire, and during the year of the severest panic ever endured by Chicago banking houses. One of the organizers was William H. Mitchell, who rather reluctantly yielded to the ambition of his son to enter the practical world of business and finance instead of continuing his education through the university, as the father had desired. At the age of twenty John J. Mitchell became a messenger boy in the new bank. Observant, modest, cheerful and capable of unusual and continuous concentration, ambitious and having a quenchless thirst for knowledge, the young man was always looking ahead to duties superior to those which engaged his immediate attention, and, without neglecting the present, he was always in readiness to assume a more responsible position than the one which he filled. In 1875 the bank was moved to Clark street, between Washington and Madison streets, and Mr. Mitchell, then a teller, had already come to be recognized as one of the most popular and thoroughly posted men connected with the institution. In 187S, upon the retirement of L. B. Sidway, president of the bank, and the election of H. G. Powers to succeed him, Mr. Mitchell was advanced to be assistant cashier.

The following two years formed a crisis in the affairs of the bank. The capital stock was reduced from $500,000 to $100,000, and some of the directors favored dissolution of the institution. Mr. Mitchell brought forward a plan for enlargement of the business on a conservative basis, and owing to his influence in the board rooms, his plans were adopted and the downward tendency was stayed. In 1880 Mr. Powers retired from the presidency. Mr. Mitchell was then twenty-six years of age, but because of the ability he had shown in conducting the bank through its critical period, and in spite of the opposition of his father and a few of the other directors (solely on the ground of his age), he was chosen to the head of the bank's affairs, being one of the youngest bank presidents in the history of Chicago banking. Energetic and unhampered work soon had its results, and the deposits of the institution reached $1,000,000 - a wonderful showing for a new bank of those days. In 1888 the business had so increased that larger and more appropriate quarters were demanded, and the ground floor of the Rookery building was chosen. The capital stock had now increased to $2,000,000 - a sum twenty times greater than when Mr. Mitchell first became identified with the bank. For twenty-seven years he has now been at the helm of its affairs, and unimipeded progress has been its record. The home of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank is now the magnificent structure erected in 1897, at the northeast corner of Jackson boulevard and LaSalle street, costing nearly $750,000, and considered one of the handsomest bank structures in the new Chicago.

The president of this bank, who was born in Illinois in 1853, ^^ the son of an eminent Chicagoan. His father, William Hamilton Mitchell, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, March 9, 18 17, his parents having removed from a Scotch-Irish settlement in Pennsylvania, in 1800, and located in the section of the Buckeye state named above. He was a California forty-niner, was a builder of the original line of what is now the Chicago & Alton Railroad, and for many years has been prominent in banking and business affairs of Chicago. John J. Mitchell was reared in the midst of comfort and liberal advantages, and, although the household was old-fashioned, it was progressive and dominated by sound principles, both intellectual and moral. Education, especially, was held by the parents at a high value, and the son, whose life lines are here traced, was sent to the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, at Kent's Hill, when he was sixteen years of age, and after a two-years' course there, entered the Waterville Classical Institute in the same state. It was shortly after this, and without delaying his career for a university education, that he entered the bank just organized in Chicago, and began his connection with finance that has been described.

Besides directing the affairs of this great institution, Mr. Mitcheh is vice president and chairman of the Western Board of Control of the Audit Company, of New York, as well as a member of its ad- visory committee ; trustee of the American Surety Company, of New York; a director of the Chicago & Alton, Kansas City Southern, Mexican Central, Burlington, and Rock Island railroad companies, and also the Pullman Company, the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company, the Union Elevated Company, Western Union Telegraph Company, United States Brewing Company, Commonwealth-Edison Electric Company, Illinois Trust and Safety Deposit Company, Mississippi River Bridge Company, Frank Parmelee Company and the Continental Trust Company and the First National Bank of New York.

Mr. Mitchell was married February 11. 1890, to Louise Jewett. daughter of James R. Jewett, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their children are Gwendolyn, William H , John J., Clarence B. and Louise. Although a member of numerous clubs, Mr. Mitchell is not actively identified with any of them, preferring the domestic recreation in which the home circle participates. The beautiful family residence is at 5012 Woodlawn avenue.

The Mitchells of Chicago, father and son, hold a phenomenal record in the banking history of the country. At the age of fiftythree John J. Mitchell, the younger, has held the William H. ggi^ig of ^he Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, one of the leadmg financial mstitutions of the country, for more than half of the total period of his life, and his father, William H., who was one of its founders, twenty-seven years ago, and even then a man long past middle age who had acquired a standing in the primal development of the west, is still connected with that institution as its first vice president. At the age of ninety-two the senior Mitchell is still a power in the modern .financial world, as he was in the pioneer times of the early fifties, when he was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Alton and a promoter of early packet lines and railroads.

William H. Mitchell was born on a farm in Belmont county. Ohio, March 9, 18 17, the son of James and Elizabeth (McCullough) Mitchell, who were among the earliest settlers of southeastern Ohio. He comes of Scotch-Irish stock, his first American progenitors coming from a Pennsylvania settlement known as Scotch Ridge. The early life of William H. was spent nn his father's Ohio farm, but when he was about twenty-three years of age he made his first business ven- ture by navigating a flat boat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where he disposed of his cargo of flour to such good advantage that within the following eight years he made several similar trips. In 1848 he removed to Illinois and, with his brother, engaged in the transportation of freight from Quincy to New Orleans. Two of these trips, in which flour was taken from the Quincy mills to the southern port, proved so profitable as to really constitute the basis of Mr. Mitchell's fortune. Toward the close of 1848, with his brother, John, he bought the business of the Alton Manufacturing Company, which was engaged not only in milling but in loaning money and trading lands. Under the new proprietorship all but the milling trade was dropped, and that proved very profitable. In 1849 leaving the business in his brother's hands, Mr. Mitchell set out for California by the overland route and ox-team travel, his journey occupying no days, and after spending about fifteen months in trading with the miners, returned home by the Panama route.

Returning to Illinois in 1852, Mr. Mitchell at once became an active promoter and stockholder in the Alton Packet Company, whose steamboats run between St. Louis and Alton, but not long after both he and his brother sold their interests in the enterprise, as well as in the Alton Manufacturing Company. They then engaged in the construction of the Alton & St. Louis Railroad, but before the line was completed it was purchased by the Chicago & Alton Company. While a resident of Alton Mr. Mitchell also engaged quite extensively in farming. He was instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Alton, and was elected president after the death of Isaac Scarrett, its first head. After fifteen years of successful business the bank went into hquidation, having paid good dividends throughout and finally paying its stockholders $1.60 on the dollar.

Mr.. Mitchell's masterly management of the Alton bank brought him into most favorable association with the financiers of Chicago, and in the spring of 1873 ^^ became one of the organizers of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, soon after locating permanently in the city, in 1874, being elected second vice president. At the death of John B. Drake, November 12, 1895, he assumed his present offtce.

In politics Mr. Mitchell has been either a Whig or a Republican, and has been a lifelong Episcopalian - for many years a member of the Trinity church, of Chicago. He is not a club man, the recrea-

Mr. Mitchell has been thrice married - in 1853 to Mrs. N. Small, in 1858 to Miss Barnes, of Wellsburg, Virginia, and in 1868 to Mrs. Jennie L. Plaisted, of Westport, Maine. The surviving children of the first marriage are John J. Mitchell and Mrs. Chauncey J. Blair, while Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Charles Adams, of Kenilworth, is of the second union, and Guy Hamilton, Hortense Lenore and Marguerite Mitchell, of the third.

When, in the spring of 1897, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank completed its palatial home on the northeast corner of LaSalle street and Jackson boulevard, extending north to Quincy, a decided departure was made in the construction of bank buildings in the United States. A classic Greek temple, standing diagonally from the board of trade building, it is located midway in the territory covered by the commercial, financial and mercantile activities of Chicago - a magnificent and fitting memorial of the city's power, as well as of her artistic aspirations and realizations. Unlike most of the great banks of the city and the world, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank is not buried in some massive office building, but stands clearly forth in its own graceful outlines. The credit for this innovation, as well as for many of the original features of the financial policy of the institution which has reached the position of a national power in its field, is chiefly due to the clear mental vision and the untiring energy of John J. Mitchell.

The Illinois Trust and Savings Bank was organized May 7, 1873. The bank commenced business on the northeast corner of Madison and Market streets, with a capital stock of $100,000, its first president being L. B. Sidway. In 1875 a change of location was made to Clark street, between Washington and Madison, and in 1878 it occupied the old Fidelity Bank building on Randolph street. During that year President Sidway retired from the presidency and H. G. Powers assumed the management, thus continuing until the commencement of Mr. Mitchell's administration in 1880. In the meantime the business of the bank had been increasing, although its affairs were in rather a precarious condition when Mr. Mitchell assumed the presidency. On July I, 1873, about two months after its organization, its deposits amounted to $24,058, which, by January ist of the following year.

had been increased to $112,418, while ten years from that time, or January i, 1884, the showing was as follows: Capital stock, $500,- 000; surplus and undivided profits, $50,000, and deposits $2,740,713.

The finances of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank took even greater bounds within the following decade, so that by 1888 it became imperative that more commodious quarters be chosen. The ground floor of the Rookery was selected, as furnishing accommodations which would be ample for any possible future growth. But the institution in all its departments - banking, trust and savings - outgrew the most sanguine anticipations. In January, 1894, its capital stock was $2,000,000, surplus and undivided profits $1,657,642, and deposits $19,258,785.

It became evident, even in the nineties, that the bank must have its own building, with the result that, after several years of preparation and actual construction, the great and beautiful building was finished, now occupied by the bank - a structure not only as fine architecturally as any financial home in the country, but containing all known modern devices to facilitate the transaction of business and insure the health and comfort of employes.

The present officers of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank are as follows : John J. Mitchell, president ; William H. Mitchell, W. H. Reid, Frederick T. Haskell and Chauncey Keep, vice presidents; B. M. Chattell, cashier; J. I. Cooper, F. I. Cooper and E. S. Layman, assistant cashiers; William H. Henkle, secretary, and F. M. Sills, assistant secretary. The directors are Chauncey Keep, William H. Mitchell, J. Russell Jones, John G. Shedd, Henry A. Blair, Charles H. Hulburd, James C. Hutchins, Clarence Buckingham, Frederick T. Haskell, W. H. Reid and John J. Mitchell. John P. Wilson, James C. Hutchins and Max Baird act as counsel for the bank.

The building is faced with Hallowell granite, having Corinthian pilasters at the angles of the corner pavilions, and is two stories on the outside and one story in the center. It has a frontage of a little over 176 feet on LaSalle street, and 167 feet on Jackson and Quincy streets each. The recessed portico on LaSalle street, which is really the only exterior feature of arctitectural note, is 100 feet in length. The chief architectural feature of the interior is the colonnade supporting the gallery front, the ornamental stone being Sienna marble.

In the north gallery are the extensive offices of the trust and real estate department, which is continued around the east side. In the northwest corner is the secretary's room, with retiring and reception accommodations, while the offices and rooms for other officers and the directors occupy the whole of the south gallery except the corridor. The president's room is in the southwest corner, and adjoining it is that of the vice president. A new wood, never before seen in Chicago, called vermilion wood, constitutes the finishing of the bank's interior, and the effect is both rich and delicate. The safety deposit department is installed in the basement. To facilitate the transaction of business, not only is the bank provided with a complete telephone system, but papers, orders and all written messages are transmitted through pneumatic tubes, thus doing away with call boys and messengers. * and his parents came to Chicago m his early lite. His father is a highly educated man, holding a professorship in a higher institution of learning in the Fatherland, and therefore carefully supervised the education of the son. The latter obtained his mental training at home, in the public schools and at the old Chicago University, but entered business life at (|uite an early age. His initial experience was with a stationery and Ixxik house, and his next business connection with Franklin P. Elliott & Co., paper manufacturers, remaining their credit man and l)ookkeeper until June, 1882.

At the time mentioned above Mr. Chattell entered the employ of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank as a general utility man, but after a short trial was made assistant cashier. In February. 1902, he was advanced to the cashiership. which he has since continuously and efficiently filled.

In 1884 Mr. Chattell wedded Miss Laura Condee, and they have one child, Clarence. Mr. Chattell is not bound to any political party and in his religious faith is an Episcopalian. He is a member of the Union Leaene and tlic Universitv and H(^mewood Countrv clubs and popular in both financial and social circles.

He is a native of Colesburg, Delaware county, * Iowa, born August 19, 1857. Educated in the public schools of his native place, in 1874 he commenced to master the printer's trade on the Fort Dodge Messenger, and not only became an expert at that vocation, but a thorough newspaper man. Early in his newspaper career Mr. Roberts acquired political influence, and in 1882 was elected state printer of Iowa, a position to which he was twice re-elected.

Mr. Roberts first won wide attention in the monetary world with his pamphlet, "Coin at School in Finance," which was a reply to "Coin" Harvey's arguments in support of free silver. He also became the author of several books on financial and economic subjects. In 1898 Mr. Roberts was appointed director of the United 'States mint by President McKinley, reappointed in 1903 by President Roosevelt, and in July, 1907, resigned that office to assume the presidency of the Commercial National Bank.

How this selection was viewed by the Chicago public was reflected in the following, quoted from a leading city paper: "The treasury department of the United States government is becoming more and more prominent as a financial educational institution from which are graduated men, most young and mainly reared in the west, into the bank presidencies and other positions of highest trust and responsibility. The selection of George E. Roberts, director of the mint, as president of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago, was not needed to prove this. But citing the instance only serves to emphasize the demand that exists in the more prominent financial institutions of the country for men brought into prominence through their political connections and trained in the rigid school of the federal treasury.

"Another thing worthy of note in this connection is the incentive which this preferment of federal office holders is giving to young, capable and energetic men to enter politics. In the illustrious examples which may be pointed out in Chicago alone are the records of men who have risen to commanding positions through their connection with politics, who might otherwise have plodded along for years as country bankers, lawyers, newspaper men and in other professions.

Through the door of poHtical activity they have entered into the innermost sanctum of the commercial hfe of the country in a comparatively short time."

Aside from the fact that Mr. Roherts' coming to Chicago added a strong factor to its remarkable body of financiers, he settled in the community at a most opportune time ; for soon afterward commenced the financial stringency which culminated in the temporary suspension of cash payments by many commercial and industrial institutions of the city. The Commercial National Bank, headed by Mr. Roberts, accomplished its good part, with the other financial institutions of the city, in the restoration of local confidence, and was an earnest advocate of the proposition to issue clearing house certificates, which proved such an efficacious measure of relief, pending the time when the banks should receive their generous and reassuring quotas of gold and special government issues.

known as the oldest banker in this city. The elder Adsit was born at Spencertown, Columbia county. New York, in the year 1809; arrived in Chicago on the 2nd of April, 1838, and in 1850 established a private bank at No. 37 Clark street. In July, 1856, he removed his establishment to 39 Clark street, where the great fire of 1 87 1 found him, sweeping away not only the building, but all his early books and papers, which would have been of such value to the historian of Chicago's pioneer times. After the fire he removed successively to No. 422 Wabash avenue (near Congress), and to the Mason and Ogden buildings. In January, 1882, Mr. Adsit became vice president of the Chicago National Bank, of which his son, J. M. Adsit, Jr., became assistant cashier. At this time Charles C. Adsit, the other son, was connected with the wholesale grocery house of Banna rd, Lyman & Co.

James M. Adsit, the elder, continued to follow the banking business with marked success until 1885, or a period of thirty-five years, when he retired from active work, being in his seventy-seventh year. He was also active in many of the most useful of the early city in- tastes, culture, sociability and originality. Of late years, especially, his unique residence at Oak Park, Illinois, known as "Pleasant Plome," has been the center of a polished circle of friends and acquaintances, young and old, which has been as remarkable as it has been interesting.

Mr. Farson is a native of Indiana, born in Union City, on the 8th of October, 1855, being the son of Rev. John T. and Harriet C. (Page) Farson. His father was a Methodist clergyman, and Mr. Farson himself is one of the most prominent laymen of the denomination in the state. He received his education in Champaign, Illinois, where his father was at the time located, graduating from the public school system of that city and spending two years in the University of Illinois. In 1876, soon after leaving the state university, he came to Chicago and commenced the study of law in the office of James R. Doolittle, United States senator from Wisconsin.

Mr. Farson was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1880, but after practicing a year embarked in the banking business. His venture so prospered that he has continued in that line ever since. In 1889 he organized the firm of Farson, Leach & Co., his chief associate being Arthur B. Leach. The firm conducted a general banking business, and also dealt in bonds, continuing intact until 1906, when Mr. Farson formed a partnership with his son, John Farson, Jr., under the style of Farson, Son & Co., dealers in investments and securities.

In addition to his identification with this house Mr. Farson is president of the Calumet Electric Street Railway Company, Chicago, and vice president and director of the Rockford & Interurban Railway Company, and vice president of the Knoxville (Tenn.) Gas Company. Mr. Farson has long been an enthusiastic automobilist and naturally has taken a deep interest in the good roads movement, having served as vice president of the national association and being now vice president of- the New York and Chicago Road Association.

He was president of the American Automobile Association in 1906, and served as president of the Chicago Automobile Club in the same year. He is also identified with the Oak Park (111.) Horse Show Association, and belongs to the following clubs : Union League, Chicago, Chicago Athletic, Illinois, South Shore Country, Chicago Yacht, Mid-day (ex-director), Glen View (Chicago) and Lawyers' (New York).

On September i, 1881, Mr. Parson wedded Miss Mamie A. Ashworth, their children being John Parson, Jr., already mentioned as his father's business associate, and William. The family are leading members of the Methodist church, Mr. Parson serving as president of the Illinois State Sunday School Association in 1898, and of the Chicago Methodist Social Union in 1900. He has also been much interested in educational matters, and as trustee is especially prominent in the management of the American University, of Washington, D. C. Mr. Parson is a thirty-second degree Mason and ex-member of the Commandery, Shrine, Knights Templar and Elks.

John A. Lynch, president of the National Bank of the Republic, was born in Chicago, June 11, 1853. He attended the Chicago public schools, was graduated from Dyrenforth Col- JOHN . j^^.^^ ^^^^ entered the commercial world as a member of the firm of H. H. Shufeldt & Co - his father, Thomas Lynch, being at that time head of this pioneer distilling business.

When H. H. Shufeldt sold out in 1891, Mr. Lynch decided to lay aside the cares of business indefinitely, and was making plans for an extended course of travel, when the directors of the National Bank of the Republic (which he had been largely interested in organizing) prevailed upon him to give the benefit of his remarkable executive ability to the affairs of that institution, then in its infancy and needing wise and able management to insure its healthy growth. Once persuaded to undertake the responsibility thus thrust upon him, with characteristic thoroughness and singleness of purpose he gave it his undivided attention, and so effectually that in January, 1902, he was unanimously besought to accept the office of president, which he has filled continuously since that time.

to the financial aspect of business life has been a happy one to him, and certainly it has been to the great advantage of the bank whose affairs he has so successfully administered. Of course, his previous experience has been of great value, especially in a bank doing a strictly commercial business ; and his clear discernment, sound judgment, conservatism of policy and personal integrity have done much toward developing the institution with which he is identified and establishing its substantial growth.

Among the qualities which distinguish Mr. Lynch and especially fit him for the position he occupies are his keen sense of honor and loyalty to the institution over which he presides. Striking evidence of these were afforded during the run on the Chicago banks in June, 1893, when he arose from a sick bed, went to the bank and tendered his personal fortune to meet the demands of depositors. That the spirit of its president has become the spirit of the bank in this respect, was conclusively proved during the recent panic which originated in New York. In November, 1907, the National Bank of the Republic, at considerable expense, imported a million dollars in gold to meet the possible currency requirements of its customers and correspondents, and increased its own circulation an additional million, which was also converted into gold, thus obviating the necessity for calling a single loan or distressing a single customer during the entire period of disturbance.

In appearance Mr. Lynch is young, of marked distinction of bearing, and has a manner at once dignified and gracious. He lives an active life, and every motion is instinct with that quiet, quick precision of purpose which is noticeable in the mental processes by which he decides the various questions presented to him. He is interested in many civic and charitable movements; is president of the board of trustees of St. Mary's Training School (a milHon-dollar industrial institution for boys, located near Des Plaines, Illinois) ; is a member of the Bankers', Chicago, Chicago Athletic, South Shore Country and City clubs, and a governing member of the Chicago Art Institute.

In 1896 Mr. Lynch married Miss Clara M. Schmahl, of Chicago, and they have a handsome home at No. 44 Burton place. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lynch enjoy traveling and spend a portion of each year in the pursuit of their favorite pastime.

Chicago And Cook Coux Tv 469

Lynch ""^' "P°" ^'^^ occasion of the death of this successful and charitable pioneer, who passed away on the 22nd of September, 1893, after a residence in this city of more than forty-eight years. He was born in Ireland sixty-seven years before, and at the age of nineteen came to Chicago where he became connected with one of the old-time distilleries known as the Crosby distillery. He finally came into possession of this establishment and it was known for years as Thomas Lynch & Co. He afterward formed a partnership with H. H. Shufeldt, and the business was conducted under the name of H. H. Shufeldt & Co., at Larrabee street and Chicago avenue, and for many years was one of the most determined opponents in the west of the whisky trust. This position resulted not only in continuous threats of injury to person and property, but several actual attempts, and at least one successful act of violence. In 1898 his distillery was blown up by dynamite and badly crippled, but the damage was quickly repaired. Several attempts were also made to burn it, and although no direct proof was ever obtained as to the culpability of the trust in these lawless acts, this continued succession of misfortunes was at least quite suggestive and suspicious. By the final sale of the Shufeldt & Co. distillery to the whisky trust in 1901. the local triumph of the combine was complete. Mr. Lynch insisted to the last that he was not aware, even then, that he was selling to the combine, but that the ostensible purchaser was Lyman J. Gage, of the First National Bank of Chicago. It is stated that the distilling business, with all its trials and losses, brought him something like $1,750,000, and as he left an estate of more than $1,000,- 000, this is undoubtedly true.

At one time Mr. Lynch was quite prominent in the affairs of the Democracy, and in 1881 was a candidate for the county treasurership. He was a prominent Catholic and a generous giver to the charities of his church. This fine trait of his character was particularly exemplified at Christmas time, when his offerings were unusually large.

at Newton on the 19th of March, 1872, and, notwithstanding his substantial and varied progress, is therefore still a young man. His parents are Bartholomew and Mary (Stork) Lampert, who came to Chicago with their family when Nelson N. was but fourteen years of age. He is a Chicagoan by right of education and training, graduating from the Garfield Grammar School and in May, 1887, first entering the service of the Fort Dearborn National Bank as a messenger boy. He has, therefore, passed his majority with that institution, and has earnestly, ably and faithfully filled every position leading to the vice presidency.

As stated, Mr. Lampert is a strong and prominent figure in Masonry, on December 18, 1907, being unanimously elected illustrious potentate of Medinah Temple. He is past master of Garden City Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and now its treasurer; past thrice illustrious master of Tyrian Council, Royal and Select Masters ; past commander of Apollo Commandery No. i, Knights Templar; a member of Oriental Consistory, and an honorary thirty-third degree Mason. He is also widely known in the social organizations of Chicago, being at the present time treasurer of the Chicago Athletic Association, in his second term of service; director and chairman of the finance committee of the Hamilton Club, and a leading member of the Bankers' and Columbia Yacht Clubs.

ton, and both his father and grandfather were natives of Kentucky, the former, however, spending the greater portion of his life in the Hoosier state.

The early years of William T. were spent upon his father's Indiana farm and in the acquirement of a fair education in the district schools. While still a boy he entered the banking house of

Samuel Allerton

Fletcher & Sharpe, Indianapolis, by whom he was employed for ten years in various confidential relations. This training was of great value to him when he made his next move in the financial field by going to Chicago and becoming identified with the Merchants' National Bank as discount clerk. Later, for six years, he served as cashier of the First National Bank of Ottumwa, Iowa, but returned to Chicago in 1891, and in that year assisted in the organization of the National Bank of the Republic. At the outset he was appointed cashier, became vice president in 1897, and has been active in the management of the institution since its organization.

Mr. Fenton's general standing is deservedly high, and has been fittingly recognized by his fellow bankers by his selection to such positions as the president of the Illinois Bankers' Association, the Chicago Clearing House and the Chicago Bankers' Club. He is also identified with such prominent social organizations as the Chicago, Union League and Mid-Day clubs. Politically, he is a Republican.

In 1 87 1 Mr. Fenton was united in marriage with Miss Mary Inskeep, and their children are Mary Alice and Howard Withrow Fenton. The family residence is at No. 4749 Ellis avenue.

dispenser of compensations. She says "Work, and you shall be fed and clothed," and she adds: "Labor with your head, as well as your hands, and with the years the harvests of plenty shall roll in with ever mcreasing momentum and magnitude."

The successful and broadly useful life of Samuel Waters Allerton is founded upon this philosophy, although he himself disclaims any philosophy of life. He simply says to the country boy: "Get some land with your first savings, work it hard, hang on to it, get married, get a character and then, if you have time and want to spread, come to the city - at the same time, while investing in city enterprises or city property, hang onto your farm or farms." He says to the city boy, to his own son, for instance : "Get an education and then get in touch with a farm somewhere; while you work it, your good returns will not only be coming in, but you will be laying up

Now nearly eighty years of age Mr. Allerton, still vigorous and keen, is a striking example of the philosophy which he has unconsciously followed. He was born in Amenia Union, Dutchess county, New York, on the 26th of May, 1828, and comes of substantial agricultural stock. As he himself says : "When I was a boy and lived on a farm I was considered the best boy to work in Yates county, New York. I had a small interest in the farming and this individuality gave me courage to work for something of my own. With self-denial I saved $3,200, and established a character that enabled me, on my name, to borrow $5,000 more. In this way my credit as a worker was worth more to me than the money which I had worked twelve years to earn. No boy can succeed unless he can build up a character and credit."

Mr. Allerton worked on a farm until he was eighteen years of age, and then began stock raising on his own account, buying also in Wayne county. New York, for the New York markets. But his operations drew him further and further toward the west, and, having already purchased a stock farm in Piatt county, Illinois, he located at Chicago in 1856. He bought his first cattle shipment in the old Merrick yards on Cottage Grove avenue, and as the city had no bank he had to depend upon express shipments of money from New York. In May, i860, upon a sharp decline in the market, he bought every hog in Chicago ($80,000 worth), cornered the market, and, although he was for a time in desperate straits to find a house which would cash his sight draft on New York, he finally got the money of Aiken & Morton at one per cent, and out of the profits of the deal laid the foundation of his fortune as a farmer, a stock dealer and a financier. His experience of this period also suggested to his practical Yankee mind the need of union stock yards and better banking facilities for Chicago.

In the sixties there were three live stock yards in Chicago. In 1865 Mr. Allerton and John B. Sherman commenced to agitate the proposition of a combination of their interests through the public press and among public spirited citizens, especially those connected with the trade. In 1866 their efforts bore results in the firm establishment of the Union Stock Yards, which have perhaps done more for the business and commercial advancement of Chicago than any other enterprise which can be named. Jn the succeechng years Mr. Allerton also became interested in the stock yards at I'ittsburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jersey City (New York yards J. St. Joseph and Omaha. For many years he was president of the Allerton Packing- Company and is now president of the Allerton-Clarke Comjx'iny.

Mr. Allerton was also largely responsible for the establishment of the pioneer bank of Chicago founded untler the national banking law. so widely known as the First National Bank, of which he was an original director and in which he still holds large interests. There are two things which he says he never offers for sale - stock in the First National and Illinois farm lands. It is said that he is now the owner of 40,000 acres of agricultural realty in Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Mr. Allerton's most valuable estate, and one of the model live stock farms of the world, comprises 19,000 acres near Monticello, Illinois. "The Farms," as the place is known, lies in two counties, and there are three railroad stations upon it for the reception of its products and their transportation to market. Although every acre is tilled to perfection, fine hcjrses, cattle and hogs are the chief sources of revenue. "The Farms" house is of brick, simple yet tasteful, and modeled after the typical residence of the English country gentleman. Then there is the Allerton summer home at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, standing at the center of two beautiful farms of eighty acres each, with a velvet lawn in front, and a superb garden, greenhouses, barns and dairy in the rear. A steam launch is ever ready for the family or visitors. One of Mr. Allerton's near neighbors on the lake is R. T. Crane, a king of industry in another line. Mr. Allerton's winters are spent in California, and here again he has shown his artistic tastes and originality, having converted one of the old Spanish mission buildings into a quaint, elegant winter home.

Returning to what Mr. Allerton has done for Chicago, it is not generally remembered that he introduced the cable system of transportation to Chicago, and, although its usefulness has been long outlived, it was a vast improvement over mule and horse transportation. In 1880 he saw the cable at work in San Francisco, and, being a stockholder in the South Side Traction system, induced Superintendent Holmes to investigate the innovation himself, with the result of giving the citv its pioneer rapid transit line. Mr. Allerton is still a director of the Chicago City Railway Company. In addition to filling the positions of trust already mentioned, for so many years, he is a director in the First Trust and Savings Bank, National Safe Deposit Company, North Waukegan Harbor and Dock Company, Weaver Coal and Coke Company, Arcade File Works (president) and Art Marble Company (vice president). He has also large real estate interests in the city.

Mr. Allerton's broad and sound judgment have long been recognized and utilized by the foremost citizens of Chicago, not only in the conduct of large business enterprises and financial institutions, but in matters of public concern. He was on the directory of the World's Columbian Exposition, and in the World's Fair year he was also put forward by his friends for the mayoralty on the Republican ticket. But he was never a politician, and as it was also an "off" year, he failed of election. His ideas as to practical benevolence are well illustrated by his establishment, in conjunction with the late Henry E. Weaver, of the St. Charles Home for Boys, several years ago, the mainstay of that institution and its inmates being agriculture.

Mr. Allerton's first wife, whom he married at Peoria, Illinois, was Miss Paduella W. Thompson, who died in 1880, leaving two children, Robert H. and Katie R. In 1881 he wedded Miss Agnes C. Thompson, the sister of his first wife, who is still living. His ancestral history has brought him membership in the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and his political, social and outdoor proclivities have induced him to join the following clubs : Calumet, Union League, Washington Park, Chicago Golf and Marquette. His Chicago residence is at No, 1936 Prairie avenue. His book "Practical Farming," was published in 1907.

with becoming modesty, he mastered one field after another until he is now a power in finance, real estate, railroad management, and the municipal and political activities which naturally accompany such broad influence in practical affairs.

November 5. 1844, and is a son of Levi and Highly (King) Ream. The Ream family originally came from Germany, the maternal branch being- of intermixed Scotch and German blood. For many generations the American ancestors have resided in Pennsylvania, Mr. Ream's father, until of recent years, having been a Somerset farmer ; he is now a resident of Sacramento, California.

Norman B. Ream was brought up in the section of Pennsylvania named above, and had so rapidly advanced in his studies that he commenced to teach district school when he was only fourteen years of age. As he became absorbed in the new ambrotype process of photography he abandoned his pedagogical aspirations and for three years studied and practiced the art of photography in connection with the more prosaic work of the farm. He then dropped everything for the Union cause and enlisted in the Eighty-fifth Regiment. Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, participating with that command in the McClellan peninsular campaign of 1862 and subsequent operations in the Carolinas, including the siege of Charleston, as well as the operations around Savannah, Georgia. In an engagement near the latter city, Mr. Ream, who had been promoted to a first lieutenancy and was then acting adjutant of his regiment, was so severely wounded as to be incapacitated for service until the following June, about four months. He then rejoined his regiment, which had been transferred to the Army of Virginia, under General Butler, and in almost the first engagement in which he participated was again badly wounded. In the month of August he again joined his regiment, but found that his health had been undermined by repeated injuries, combined with the physical strain incident to incessant campaigning, so that he was soon afterward obliged to accept his honorable discharge and return to his Pennsylvania home.

After taking a course at a commercial college in Pittsburg and clerking for a short time in a general store, Mr. Ream located at Princeton, Illinois, where he served as a clerk in a dry goods store. This was in 1866. His next advance in the business field was to form a partnership with Charles Mosshart, under the firm name of Mosshart & Ream, selling his interest in the business in the followingyear and removing to Osceola, Iowa. For the succeeding three years this was his headquarters for extensive and profitable operations in the grain, live stock and implements business.

In 1 87 1, just before the great fire, Mr. Ream became a resident of Chicago, and locating at the Union Stock Yards engaged in the hve stock commission business, later venturing into the railroad stock market, being for some time a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1888, however, he ceased to operate on the exchanges, profitable as his operations had been, and commenced to invest largely in Chicago real estate, as well as in other city property. His investments in this direction have resulted in the erection of such structures as the Rookery, of Chicago and the Midland Hotel, of Kansas City. He has also obtained large interests in cattle ranches in the west, and farm and timber lands in various parts of the country.

Mr. Ream's wide influence in the management of transportation systems and financial and industrial institutions is but faintly indicated by a mere mention of his directorship in the following : Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, Erie Railroad Company, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, Colorado Southern Railway Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, Seaboard Air Line System, Chicago Uniun Traffic Railway Company, Brooklyn Rapid Transit Compan}^ United States Steel Corporation, First National Bank (Chicago), International Harvester Company, Pullman Company, National Biscuit Company, Central Safety Deposit Company, Federal Trust and Savings Bank, First Trust and Savings Bank, Guaranty Trust Company (New York), Metropolitan Trust Company, National Safe Deposit Company, New York Security and Trust Company, Reliance Com- Ijany, Corn Products Company, Federal Trust Company (Chicago) and Mount Hope Cemetery Association. In politics, Mr. Ream is an independent Republican, and is a member of the Chicago, Calumet, Athletic and Commercial clubs, of Chicago, and the Union and New York, of New York City.

In 1876 Mr. Ream was married to Miss Carrie Putnam, daughtei of Dr. John Putnam, of Madison, New York, and they have five sons and two daughters.

Charles Lawrence Hutchinson represents the modern type of progressive citizenship, which stands for the higher life based on material prosperity; for the clear, practical mind, which itiial innuences. So. while he has been identified actively and influentially for more than thirty years with the Corn Exchange Bank. of which he is now vice president, he is far more than a financier. After being president of the Chicago Art Institute for twelve year^, while it was struggling for a firm foothold in the appreciation and confidence of the community, he secured from the city the imposing lake front site for the installation of a permanent collection of a^-t treasures, which should remain a constant uplifting influence for the incalculable benefit of the present and the future. Since the firm founding of the Art Institute he has continued at its head, and his labors and zeal in its behalf and the public cause have never slackened. Neither has he rested content with doing all in his power to push on the hioh cause of art. to the limit of his abilities and strength, but has been almost equally active in church work, his firm and living faith in the final triumph of good being symbolized by his adherence to Universalism.

Charles L. Hutchinson was born in Lynn. Massachusetts, on the 7th of March, 1854, being the son of Benjamin P. and Sarah M. Hutchinson. His father, who was known for many years as one of the most successful operators on the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as a leader in business, commerce and finance, died in 1900. In 1873 Charles L. graduated from the Chicago high school, and. alter spending two years in the grain and packing house businesses, entered his father's banking house, even then known as the Corn Exchange Bank. The readiness with which he seized upon the intricacies of finance w^as only exceeded by the industry with which he mastered one department after another, until he was made its president. He acted as such for more than twelve years. Although the son of a rich man, his wealth never clogged his activities nor spoiled his unaffected democracy, and, cultured man that he is. he has never shirked work nor been anything but approachable to those wdiose motives and propositions appeal to his sense of justice, manhood and morality. His was among the powerful personal influences which brought the World's Columbian Exposition to Chicago, and which, when located here, kept the great enterprise on a high plane. In the final organization he was chairman of the fine arts committee, and. in that capacity, was largely instrumental in ensuring the permanency of the Chicago Art Institute.

The extent of Mr. Hutchinson's activities and the varied influence which he exercises cannot be better illustrated than by a mention of some of the official positions which he at present Holds. Besides those already mentioned, he is a director of the Northern Trust Company, treasurer of the Auditorium Association and the University of Chicago, trustee of the Carnegie Institution, president, of the Chicago Orphan Asylum, director of the Presbyterian Hospital, and trustee of the Old People's Home. He has also been an active and leading member of the St. Paul's Universalist church for twentyfive years, having been superintendent of its Sunday school. He also belongs to the following clubs : Chicago, University, Union League, Caxton, Literary, of which he is president, Onwentsia, South Shore Country, Cliff Dwellers and Bankers'.

In 1 88 1 Mr. Hutchinson married Miss Frances Kinsley, daughter of H. M. Kinsley, and their home at 2709 Prairie avenue has long been a center of cultured, artistic and charitable life.

27, 1865. He is a son of General Rufus R. and Mary B. Dawes, his father serving in the war of the Rebellion as the brave colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin Regiment, a brilliant unit of the famed Iron Brigade. He was brevetted brigadier general for distinguished services and gallant conduct at the head of his regiment.

Charles G. Dawes was educated in the common schools of his native town and at Marietta College, graduating from the latter institution in 1884, and two years later from the Cincinnati Law School. He had already done considerable work as a railroad civil engineer, and after graduating in law became chief engineer of a small line which is now a part of the Toledo & Ohio Central railroad. In 1887 he removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, and for seven years was there engaged in the practice of the law. Having made a special study of railroad freight rates he was retained by many Nebraska shippers in their suits against the railroads, whose hearings brought about the passage of the Interstate Commerce law. In the pressing of these suits he came into marked prominence as a lawyer, and at the same time obtained high standing as a Republican leader and campaigner.

In 1894 he removed to Evanston. Illinois, having acquired an interest in the local gas company, his activities in this direction afterward extending to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and other points.

Mr. Dawes had long been an ardent admirer of William McKinley, and in 1895 inaugurated the work in Illinois which led the Republican State Convention of 1896 to instruct its delegates to support him for president in the national nominating convention. lie was appointed on the executive committee of the Republican national committee and was regarded as McKinley's special representative. When Mr. Dawes was appointed comptroller of the currency in 1897, his relations with the President became even more confidential, and his businesslike conduct of the affairs of his office, especially his regard for the welfare of depositors in the national banks, met with the cordial approval both of the administration and the general public, irrespective of party. On October i, 1901, he resigned the office to enter upon his campaign for the United States senatorship, but in May of the following year withdrew from the contest and, a few days later, was elected to his present position as head of the Central Trust Company of Illinois. Mr. Dawes was the youngest man who ever held the position of comptroller of the currency ; but in his case comparative youth and inexperience seemed to be no drawback to advancement. His reputation as a financier has been strengthened by his management of the important banking institution of which he is president, while his book, "The Banking Systems of the United States," has for several years been recognized as a standard work.

On January 24, 1889, Mr. Dawes married Miss Caro Dana Blymyer, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and their children are Rufus Fearing and Carolyn. The family ho*me is still in Evanston. Mr. Dawes is a welcome, active and influential member of many clubs, his connection including membership in the Chicago. Union League, Glen View, Evanston, Evanston Country, Evanston Golf, Marquette and Hamilton.

Edward D. Lacey was born in Bennington, Vermont, and died at Charlotte, Michigan, November 6th, 1862, aged nearly fifty-three years. He possessed in a notable degree those qualities of integrity, intelligence and tenacity of purpose for which the people of the Green Mountain state are notable. He removed with his parents to Monroe county, New York, when but ten years of age, and was educated at Henrietta, in that state. He engaged in mercantile business at Chili, New York, and in 1842 removed to Michigan, locating the next year at Kalamo, Eaton county - then a comparative wilderness. He was a man of prominence in that locality, filling many positions of public trust and responsibility, and was a leading spirit in the development and improvement of that section of the state. He was a son of Major Samuel Lacey and grandson of Ebenezer Lacey, natives of Woodbury, Connecticut. The latter served in the Connecticut Line through the Virginia and Pennsylvania campaigns of the Revolutionary war, under Generals Washington and Lafayette, becoming an orderly sergeant in the latter's command. He was a son of Thaddeus Lacey, who moved to Connecticut from Boston, Massachusetts. The first ancestor in America came from the vicinity of Belfast, L'eland, and located in Boston, in 1704.

Samuel Lacey was born at Woodbury, Connecticut, and went with his parents, Ebenezer and Mary (Hurd) Lacey, to Vermont, in 1784. He established the second cloth-dressing works in the state at Bennington, and in 18 18 removed to Monroe county, New York, where he was a prosperous and influential citizen. During the war of 1 81 2 he was major of the First Regiment of Vermont Militia, which was called into service on the northern frontier. He assisted in the first organization of the Whig party at Syracuse, New York, in 1835, and was for many years one of its ablest supporters. He died at Marshall, Michigan, May 9th, 1863, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He married Ruth, the eldest daughter of Anthony .Sigourney, of Oxford, Massachusetts, a Revolutionary veteran who took part in the disastrous campaign of 1776 on Long Island and about New York Cit}^, being twice wounded in battle during that service. He was the fourth in line of descent from Anthony Sigourney, a prominent Huguenot who, with his wife, escaped from Ro- chelle, France, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and became one of the founders of Oxford, Massachusetts. Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, the famous writer and poet, married a descendant of the same family.

The subject of this biography was about seven years old when the family settled in Eaton county, Michigan, where he continued to reside until 1889. He was educated at the public schools and Olivet College. At the age of eighteen years, he began his business career as clerk in a general store at Kalamazoo, Michigan.

In 1857 he returned to his home at Charlotte, Michigan, and in 1862, in partnership with Hon. Joseph Musgrave, established a private bank which became, in 1871, the First National Bank of Charlotte. He was the active manager of this institution from its organization, officiating as director and cashier, and upon the death of Mr. Musgrave, became its president. He was distinguished for ability and thoroughness in methods, and became identified with many important business interests. He was a director, and for many years treasurer of the Grand River Valley Railroad Company, which he helped organize.

Early in his career his fellow citizens began to recognize his fitness for the discharge of public duties, and his opinion on financial questions has always been accorded great consideration. His first official position was that of registrar of deeds of Eaton county, which he held for four years, beginning in i860. In 1874 the governor of Michigan appointed him a trustee of the State Asylum for the Insane and he continued to fill this position for six years. In 1876 he was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Cincinnati, and from 1882 to 1884 was chairman of the Republican state central committee of Michigan. He also served as the first mayor of Charlotte, and assisted in inaugurating its excellent system of public improvements. In 1880 he was elected to Congress from the Third Michigan district, and served two terms. He was nominated by acclamation and elected by a vote far ahead of his ticket in each instance. He declined to accept the candidacy for a third term, but in 1886 became a candidate for the United States senate, in which he was unsuccessful, although he showed great strength and popularity.

roads, and coinage, weights and measures ; but he was distinguished chiefly through the abihty displayed in the consideration of financial questions. In the Forty-eighth Congress he attracted wide attention by a masterly speech on the silver question. His address on the use of silver as money, delivered before the American Bankers' Association in Chicago in 1885, was received with marked attention, and increased his popularity among financiers. His prominence in monetary circles caused him to be recommended by friends in Michigan, New York, Boston and Chicago for the position of comptroller of the currency, to which he was appointed in 1889. This office, so far as regards national finance, is second only to that of secretary of the treasury. His administration, extending from 1889 to 1892, covered one of the most critical periods in the history of the national banking system. He pursued a vigorous and yet conservative policy, keeping in view the protection of depositors and creditors, and his conduct of the office was endorsed by the ablest financiers. His integrity and ability have always been recognized, and his national reputation caused his services to be sought by many of the leading financial institutions of the country. Believing in the resources and future of Chicago, he resigned in June, 1892, to accept the presidency of the Bankers' National Bank of that city.

On New Year's day, 1861, Mr. Lacey married Miss Annette C. Musgrave, daughter of his business partner, Hon. Joseph Musgrave, of Charlotte, Michigan. Two daughters and a son, named Jessie P., Edith M. and Edward Musgrave, complete the family. Since coming to Cook county the family has resided at Evanston, where it is identified with the First Congregational church. Mr. Lacey is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Union League Club, Bankers Club (of which he has been president), Evanston Club and Glen View Golf Club. He has always been an enthusiastic Republican, and wields a strong influence in the party councils.

Personally, Mr. Lacey is a man of fine physique, ready discernment and pleasing manners. All who have occasion to approach him in regard to social or business matters, are certain of receiving courteous attention, notwithstanding the attention necessarily bestowed upon the financial and business matters of great magnitude entrusted to his management.

Mr. Black v^^as first employed in this city as bookkeeper and cashier for Ross & Rambler, dry goods merchants at No. 41 Lake street, and later with Armour & Co. This period of his career covered a quarter of a century, or until 1881. In March, 1883, he had attained so substantial a standing among the business men and capitalists of the city that he joined others in the organization and incorporation of the Continental National Bank, of which he has been president since. He is also president and director of the Northwestern Safe and Trust Company, and a member of the western board of control of the Audit Company of New York, as well as a trustee of the Prussian National Insurance Company, of Stettin, Germany.

Locally Mr. Black is also a trustee of the Art Institute and the Armour Mission, and a member of the Board of Trade. He has a wide identification with the city clubs, as witness his membership in the Chicago, Union League, Bankers', Union and Saddle and Cycle.

that, he was for several decades one of the financial Chauncey B. p^^^^-g ^f ^he city and the west, and still more, he is accorded unanimous credit of having twice in his remarkable career saved the financial situation in Chicago, restored public confidence and averted a general disaster to its banks and a far-spreading and incalculable financial calamity. Conservative while treading the safe paths of prosperity, he always met the threats of commercial and financial disaster with a confident and brave bearing and was most bold when he seemed to be leading a forlorn hope. Moreover, in his character as friend, father and husband he was helpful, tender and thoughtful, combining in his character the strength and gentleness which spell the true man and gentleman.

and parents were all natives of the town of Blanford. In 1814 the family removed to Cortland county, New York, where the boy remained until he was eleven years of age. From that period until he attained his majority Chauncey lived with an uncle, working on a farm near his native town and afterward rejoining the family in Cortland county. In 1835, without business experience, but with a strong body and a strong character, the young man came west and commenced to locate and sell lands in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Guided only by the imperfect maps then furnished by the public land offices, he rode over this vast territory on horseback, and thus gaining intimate knowledge of the property which he offered for sale was enabled to do a "land office business" until 1837, when, by the withdrawal of such lands by presidential proclamation he was obliged to abandon this profitable field. In. the fall of that year he associated himself with his brother, Lyman, in the grain business in Michigan City and the operations of the firm covered a large territory, as Michigan City was then the only shipping point to eastern markets. The Blair brothers built hundreds of miles of plank road into the interior of Michigan and Indiana in order to bring the produce to their warehouse and store, but the later building of the railroads destroyed the monopoly and dissipated their business. While at Michigan City Mr. Blair organized a bank, whose notes had a wide circulation through the west and south, and he also became largely interested in the old State Bank of Indiana, finally purchasing a controlling interest in the Laporte branch and being elected president. His experience of several years in these connections induced him to seek a more promising field, and in 1861 he located in Chicago, where he opened a private banking house. In 1865 he organized the Merchants' National Bank of Chicago, becoming its president, as he was its principal stockholder. His management of its affairs was masterly, and at the time of the great fire of 1871 it was ranked among the most reliable financial institutions of the northwest.

A natural financial crisis followed the wholesale destruction of property in 1871, and although but one of the nineteen city banks had a home, Mr. Blair firmly dissented from the decision of a majority of the presidents that the institutions suspend payments. He announced his intention of keeping his doors wide open and paying dol- lar for dollar, and following his example, the banks commenced to pay out small sums for immediate use. As financial assistance gradually came from outside sources the situation cleared up, and Mr. Blair was hailed as the savior of the day. Again he stood like ri rock to avert the storm which beat against the Chicago banks in September, 1873, when the great financial house of Jay Cooke & Co. went down in New York. Then came the failure of Henry Clews & Co., of the metropolis, and the failure of the Union National of Chicago, precipitated the panic into the financial circles of this city. On the 26th of September the local bankers held a meeting in which they favored at least temporary suspension, Mr. Blair standing alone in his determination to meet all obligations. The meeting finally adjourned without definite action, and on the following evening had decided to stand by Mr. Blair and their city's credit. As in 1871 many wealthy merchants and several of the stanch New York banks again came to the assistance of Chicago, in response to her determined stand, first advocated by Mr. Blair.

In 1844 Mr. Blair wedded Miss Caroline O. De Groff, of Michigan City, who died in 1867. A family of six children was born to them, five sons and one dauo^hter. Two of the former, George G. and William S., are deceased, while Chauncey J., Henry A. and Watson F. have become prominent as Chicago financiers and are all identified with the Corn Exchange Bank, which is the successor of the Merchants' National, founded by their father. The daughter, Harriet, is the widow of the late John J. Borland, of this city.

and he perhaps more than any other citizen averted a financial catastrophe in this city which seemed imminent as results of the great Chicago fire and the Jay Cooke failures in 1871 and 1873. respectively. The elder Blair was a Massachusetts man. and in 1833. then twenty-five years of age, came west and entered into a profitable career of land speculations, the scope of his operations covering Michigan. Indiana and Illinois. With the proceeds of these land deals and in association with his brother Lyman, in the fall of 1837 he opened a store in Michigan City, Indiana, under the firm name of C. B. & L. Blair. The business was confined to dealings in grain, Michigan City then being the principal shipping point to the eastern markets. In the development of their transactions the firm built hundreds of miles of plank roads into Michigan and Indiana, and while here Chauncey B. Blair also organized a bank and became its president. He also became largely interested in the old State Bank of Indiana, and later was elected its president. With the building of railroads and the strong indication that Chicago was to be a grand center of transportation and general development, Mr. Blair transferred the field of his operations to that city, whither he removed in 1861. Four years later he organized the Merchants' National Bank, of which he remained the principal stockholder and president up to the time of his death, January 30, 1891.

The deceased was married in 1844, and his wife died in 1867, having become the mother of five sons and one daughter. Of this family Chauncey J., Henry A. and Watson F. are living, as well as Harriet, who is the widow of the late John J. Borland, of Chicago.

Chauncey J. Blair was educated in the public schools of Chicago, and first became connected with the Merchants' National Bank in 1879. He was identified with that institution in various capacities until 1888, when he succeeded his father as its president. In the spring of 1903 the, bank was consolidated with the Corn Exchange National Bank, of which Mr. Blair was elected president. He is also president of the Kennicott Water Softener Company and a director of the South Side Elevated Railroad Company. Mr. Blair takes a deep and practical interest in the charities of the city, and has served for some time as vice president of the Chicago Home for the Friendless. He is a Republican and a member of the following clubs : Bankers', Chicago, Union League, Washington Park, Chicago Athletic, Casino (Edgewater), Caxton, Homewood, Onwentsia, Quadrangle and Saddle and Cycle.

On October 26, 1882, Mr. Blair was married to Miss Mary A. I. Mitchell, by whom he has had the following children : Italia Mitchell, Chauncey B., Mildred M. and William M. The family home is at 4830 Drexel boulevard.

strong physical and mental fiber, honesty, conservatism, farsightedness and cordiality, tinctured with proper dignity, are all a part of his ancestry, breeding and training. But the most valuable estimates of a man's personality are those given in the words of his associates. Lyman J. Gage, ex-secretary of the United States treasury, one of the leading financiers of the world, so long an incumbent of the position now filled by Mr. Forgan and in close touch with him during the years that he was identified with the management of the Northwestern National Bank, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has this to say : "I take pleasure in saying that James B. Forgan's long training as a banker has given him a thorough knowledge of the business; that his perceptions are almost intuitive, and that he has filled with honor to himself and with satisfaction to his constituents every position of financial trust that he has occupied. He has the close, firm intellectual grasp so characteristic of the Scotch people, from whom he descended. His energy and power of application are very great."

The following, taken from the Reviczv, a publication issued by employes of the First National Bank, gives a further idea of Mr. Forgan's personality, as well as of the character of the great institution of which his is the guiding mind : "Perhaps no one connected with the bank has a more complete mastery of its every detail than James B. Forgan, and his training in European and American banking institutions places him in the front rank as an authority on questions of finance. While it is of course impossible for him to keep in close touch with all of the 550 employes of the bank, that he has a deep interest in their welfare is best evidenced by the pension fund, now amounting to about $350,000, which has been established under his direction and which is the first undertaking of this nature by a bank of the United States. That he has been successful in the training of young men in the profession is shown by the rapid promotion to official positions of his former employes in Minneapolis and the frequent inquiry made of him for official timber by other institutions. He expects from his employes absolute rectitude in their business and private life, and applies the same rule to the bank's customers. He is a firm believer in organization, thorough investigation and the keeping of systematic records of everything pertaining to the bank's business. His chief strength is his decision of character, ability to analyze men and situations at a glance, and love of truth."

A resume of the main facts in the life record of Mr. Forgan is explanatory of such characteristics as those set forth above. He was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, on the nth of April, 1852, the son of Robert and Elizabeth Forgan. In conformity with the thoroughness of education which is a racial trait of the Scotch, by attendance at Madras College, St. Andrews, and the academy at Forres, Scotland, he became well grounded in all those studies demanded by the requirements of the average practical life, and when quite young commenced his apprenticeship in banking with the Royal Bank of Scotland, at his native place. After remaining there for about three years, he had made sufficient progress to pass the regular civil service examination required for entrance to the Bank of British North America, and from London was sent successively to Montreal, New York and Halifax. In the last named city he transferred his allegiance to the Bank of Nova Scotia, first accepting a position therein as paying teller and being subsequently promoted to be manager of one of its agencies and soon after inspector of its branches. Altogether he remained in the service of the Bank of Nova Scotia for a period of thirteen years, and while holding his last position (inspector) established a branch at Minneapolis, Minnesota, of which in 1885 he assumed the management. In 1888 he became cashier of the Northwestern National Bank of that city, and as the presidency of the institution was more honorary than active its practical management fell to Mr. Forp-an. His genius for finance was evinced bv the readiness with which he mastered the details of the national banking system of the United States, with which, until he came to Minneapolis, he had enjoyed but a theoretical familiarity.

The Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis was a correspondent of the First National Bank of Chicago, and Mr. Forgan's conservative and successful management of its affairs soon attracted the attention of the management of the latter institution, who, in 1 89 1, after a thorough investigation of his career, offered him the position of second vice president. Shortly after his arrival in Chicago, on January i, 1892, to accept his new and larger responsibilities, occurred the death of Mr. Symonds, the first vice president of the First National Bank, and Mr. Forgan was promptly advanced to the vacancy. By unanimous vote of the directors of the bank, he was elected president on January i, 1900, succeeding Samuel M. Nickerson, who had followed Lyman J. Gage when the latter had been appointed secretary of the treasury in 1897.

Mr. Forgan's activities outside of those which arc identified with the great interests of the First National Bank are barely indicated by the statement that he is a director of the Chicago Title & Trust Company, Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, Guarantee Company of North America, Metropolitan West Side Elevated Company and American Radiator Company. He is also a member of the western board of control of the Audit Company of New York.

James B. Forgan was married October 19, 1875, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Miss Ellen Murray, and their children are: Robert D., Jessie Wilhelmina, Donald M. and James B., Jr. Elizabeth May died in infancy. Mr. Forgan is domestic in his tastes and democratic in his ideas. His chief sport and recreation is golfing, in which he is a true Scotch enthusiast, being one of the founders of the Chicago Golf Club, the first to organize in the west. He also has membership in the Chicago, Union League, Union Bankers', Commercial and Exmoor clubs.

Thirty years ago he had a small private banking enterprise in his home town of Marion, Illinois. For twelve years his enterprise and ability fostered this business to successful proportions, until, in November, 1890, he founded the First National Bank at Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and became its president. A country banker's influence and fine integrity are often counted a greater asset to a great city bank than the more highly skilled talent of local men, and the success with which he had conducted his institution at Mt. Carmel caused his selection as cashier of the Fort Dearborn National Bank on August I, 1892. He was identified with this institution over fif- teen years, having become vice president in January, 1897, and president in January, 1903. During this time the Fort Dearborn National came to rank among the large and most prosperous of Chicago banks. Its deposits in 1892 were about two million dollars; in 1906 they increased to nearly twelve million, and the record of the bank in other departments of its business showed corresponding strength.

On June i, 1908, Mr. Goddard was elected vice president of the State Bank of Chicago, one of the oldest state banks of the city, having been established in 1879. With a capital stock of a million dollars, surplus one million, and deposits aggregating nineteen millions, its strength among state banks entitles it to first rank, and it is also recognized as one of the pillars of integrity in the entire financial district of the city.

To his position with the State Bank Mr. Goddard was able to bring the skill and experience of thirty years in the business, and also the financial character and integrity tested by the intensity of action and moral strictness of the great Chicago financial center. He had the advantages of a country training, and has always been loyal to his home town of Marion, where he was born June 22, 1854. He came of a pioneer family in this part of Illinois, his parents, James T. and Winifred (Spiller) Goddard, the former a Virginian and the latter a native of Tennessee, having settled there in 1832. His father was a merchant at Marion, but losing both father and mother when he was a boy, Leroy A. had to struggle in a self-dependent way for all his advancement. When still a boy he became assistant to the town printer, but after seven months forced issues with his employer and left the printing office, and later became a clerk in a village store, where he had the routine duties always connected with such employment. Mr. Goddard's education was obtained in the Marion schools, but only through the winter terms. In all his associations, both in early life and in the larger circles of later years, he has been identified with the progressive and moral forces of the community in which he lived. When twenty years old he was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school at Marion, and remained so for seven years, being also president of the board of trustees of the same church.

Mr. Goddard's active entrance into business life began when he reached his majority and received the benefit of a small inheritance, with which he bought a half interest in a small store. After continu- ing for several years among Marion's merchants he turned to banking, and thenceforward has advanced to increasing success in this career. Marion still regards Mr. Goddard as one of its citizens, and he has shown his appreciation of this honor in various ways, especially by his interest in the city and county schools, having established and donated prizes for an annual oratorical contest in the schools of the county. Of Mr. Goddard, one who for years has been in close if not affectionate intimacy with him says :

"He has always been a willing worker and never shirked anything, no matter what the work might have been ; I think possibly his greatest forte is his habitual willingness to lend a full hand in any part of the work. He has a remarkable faculty for sympathetic consideration for those associated with him, commanding their respect and confidence, especially for those who are beginners ; he never treats anyone as a servant, but more as a partner. He is absolutely devoted to the interests of those who appeal to him, is remarkably unselfish and is utterly devoid of contentiousness."

In January, 1908, Mr. Goddard was elected president of the Union League Club of Chicago, of which organization he had been an energetic member for some years. Fraternally he is one of the leading Masons of the United States, having attained the thirty-third degree and filled most of the stations in the various Masonic organizations. His interest in Masonic affairs has been active and continuous from the time he became twenty-one years old. He attained the master's degree in Ancient Craft Masonry on December 16, 1875, and among his honors and services since that time was for two terms grand master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois; also was Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter, and is now treasurer of the Grand Lodge. He has membership, honorary and active, with half a dozen blue lodges in Chicago and elsewhere, and belongs to Chevalier Bayard Commandery No. 52, Knights Templar. Though a Republican, j\Ir. Goddard's active connection with practical politics began and ended soon after he attained majority, when at the age of twenty-one years he was elected treasurer of Marion, followed two years later by his election as mayor, serving two terms. In this way he served his home city six vears, but declined further honors. At the present time he is trustee, by appointment of Governor Deneen, of the Northern State Normal School at De Kalb. Mr. Goddard was married at Vincennes,

Indiana, November 14, 1888, to Miss Anna Bridenthal, daughter of. Colonel and Mrs. H. B. Bridenthal. Mrs. Goddard is a member of the Chicago Woman's Club, is active in benevolent and charitable affairs, and is well known in educational and literary circles. Their sympathies are mutual and harmonious in whatever is broadest and best in all lines of thought.

formed - its streets unpaved, and its water and sewage systems things of the future. But there was electrical vigor in the atmosphere and the young German remained and became an energetic factor in its mercantile and financial development, his sons following in his footsteps. Neither did Mr. Greenebaum rest content with the making of this record, for he early participated in the liberal and charitable movements of his faith, and became one of the founders of the Sinai Congregation, whose religious and reformatory forces have of late years been so wisely guided by Dr. Emil G. Hirsch. Of this noted divine, deep scholar and good, earnest man, Mr. Greenebaum is a great admirer, and has been his strong and faithful supporter.

Elias Greenebaum was born in Eppelsheim, Grossherzogthum, Hessen, Germany, on the 24th of June, 1822, the son of Jacob and Sarah Greenebaum. He received not only a thorough education in the public schools of his home neighborhood, but pursued courses in the agricultural, commercial and trade schools of Kaiserlantern, thus acquiring a training by which he could readily move in the cultured circles or among the practical people of the world. His education was especially adapted for progress in such a land of diversified industries as the United States, and was pursued with that ultimate destination in view. In September, 1847, M^- Greenebaum emigrated to America, first locating at Uniontown, Ohio, whence, after remaining there for some six months, he removed to Chicago, becoming a resident of this city April 14, 1848.

Mr. Greenebaum began business in Chicago as a merchant in general merchandise, but on January i, 1855, established a bank which he conducted until a comparatively recent period. He early became impressed with the stabihty of the city's growth and therefore of the vakie of its real estate as financial security. As land which, on the whole, was constantly increasing in value, was the general foundation of his business, its history is a record of substantial advancement and solidity.

On March 3, 1852, Elias Greenebaum married Miss Rosina Baum and their children are as follows : Henry Everett, Aloses Ernst, Emma E. (Mrs. Gutman), and James E. The sons, who obtained their business training under their father, afterward became members of the banking house of Greenebaum Sons, which was founded thirty years ago and is among the substantial financial institutions of the city.

J\Ir. Greenebaum always thoroughly appreciated the value of an education as an asset in the capital of a practical man, but has never held official position save as school agent in 1856. At the age of eighty-five he is now retired from the strenuous activities of life, but as a wise counselor of the highest character he is in constant demand by those interested, as he is, in all forward movements pertaining to the city.

assurance of business and financial success. Even among those who have made literature their profession there are but few in the west who wield a more polished or trenchant pen than Mr. Head, and he is one of the most prominent of Chicago's citizens identified with its manufacturing and financial interests.

A native of Paris, Oneida county, New York, born on the J4th of January, 1835, Franklin H. Head is the son of Harvey and Calista (Simons) Head, both the maternal and paternal families having resided in that locality for generations. Going back to earlier American times, it is found that, on the maternal side, he is a lineal descendant of those historical Mayflower characters, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and that another of his noted Mayflower paternal ancestors was Samuel Warren.

College, New York. He was graduated from the latter institution in 1856 with the degree of B. A., three years afterward received his Master's degree, and in 1896 was honored with LL. D. In 1858 Mr. Head graduated from the law school of his alma mater, and, after spending a year in European travel and study, settled at Kenosha, Wisconsin, and associated himself with Orson Sherman Head, his uncle, in the firm of O. S. and F. H. Head. The partnership transacted a good law business for about nine years, when, on account of failing health, the junior partner was compelled to withdraw, and going to the west made a number of investments in the cattle and mining properties of Utah and California. He lived in Utah for about four years, and while there was entrusted by the Republican national administration with the supervision bf the state's Indian affairs.

Mr. Head then returned to the States, coming to Chicago and entering into partnership with Wirt Dexter and N. K. Fairbank in the manufacture of lumber and charcoal iron, the plant being at Elk Rapids, Michigan. While exercising a general supervision over the enterprise, he resided at Evanston, Illinois, for several years, but with the acquiring of insurance, banking and manufacturing interests in Chicago he removed to the city, where he has lived since 1895. For a number of years Mr. Head served as president of the Chicago Malleable Iron Company, and as director of the American Trust and Savings Bank and of the Northwestern National Bank. He is vice president of the Continental Casualty Company and the Protection Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Chicago, and director of the Fay-Sholes Company, Street's Western Stable Car Line and the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway Company. Aside from purely business, financial or industrial organizations, his connection is most prominent with the Bush Temple Conservatory, of which he is the president. He is also president of the Chicago Historical Society and of the Twentieth Century Club, and a member of the National Historical Association. Of the notable honors conferred upon Mr. Head are a directorship in the Columbian Exposition, a judgeship in the Paris Exposition of 1900, and the decoration of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, by France, in 1901. For many years he has been among the most popular members of the city clubs, having twice served as president of the

Mr. Head's contributions to current literature have been varied and original. He has dealt largelv with commercial and financial questions, of which he is one of the national masters, such standard magazines as the Forum, Nezv England Magazine and Current Topics gladly opening their columns to him. He has also become a familiar and valued contributor to the newspaper press, while his more i)retentious works of authorship include the following : "Shakespeare's Insomnia and the Causes Thereof," "A Notable Lawsuit," "The Boodling of Dante," "A Brief Biography of John Fiske," and the "Legends of Jeckyl Island."

On June 14, i860, Mr. Head wedded Miss Catherine P. Durkee. who died in 1892, the mother of three daughters: Elizabeth, living at home; Margaret, now Mrs. Herbert J. Perkins, of Edgewater; and Catherine, Mrs. George W. Breck, whose husband is the director of the American Art Academy at Rome. INlr. Head lives in an elegant home at No. 2 Banks street, which is the center of a vigorous life of practical and intellectual activities fairly typical of the Chicago of todav. bv no means "mn-cu solelv to commerce and trade.