Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
The book Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois published in 1901, is available online for free viewing. Excerpts follow:
William K ACKERMAN
Railway President and financier was born in New York City on Jan 29 1832, of Knickerbocker and Revolutionary ancestry his grandfather, Abraham D. Ackerman, having served a Captain of a company of the famous "Jersey Blues" participating with "Mad" Anthony Wayne in the storming of Stony Point during the Revolutionary War, while his father served as Lieutenant of Artillery in the War of 1812.
After receiving a high school education in NY Mr. Ackerman engaged in mercantile business, but in 1852 became a clerk in the financial department of the Illinois Central Railroad. Coming to Chicago in the service of the Company in 1860, he successively filled the positions of Secretary, Auditor and Treasurer until July 1876 when he was elected Vice President and a year later promoted to the Presidency voluntarily retiring from this position in August 1883, though serving some time longer in the capacity of Vice President.
During the progress of the World's Colombian Exposition at Chicago (1892-93) Mr. Ackerman served as Auditor of the Exposition, and was City Comptroller of Chicago under the administration of Mayor Hopkins (1893-1895). He is an active member of the Chicago Historical Society, and has rendered valuable service to railroad history by the issue of two brochures on the "Early History of Illinois Railroads," and a Historical Sketch of the Illinois Central Railroad."
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, pages 9-10
John McGregor ADAMS
Manufacturer, was born at Londonderry N. H., March 11, 1834 the son of Rev. John R. Adams, who served as Chaplain of the fifth Maine and One Hundred and Twenty-first New York Volunteers during the Civil War. Mr Adams was educated at Gorham Me. and Andover, Mass. after which going to New York City, he engaged as clerk in a dry goods house at $150 a year. He next entered the office of Clark & Jessup, hardware manufacturers, and in 1858 came to Chicago to represent the house of Morris K. Jessup & Company. He thus became associated with the late John Crerar, the firm of Jessup & Co. being finally merged into that of Crerar, Adams & Co. which with the Adams & Westlake Co. have done a large business in the manufacture of railway supplies. Since the death of Mr. Crerar, Mr Adams has been principal manager of the concern's vast manufacturing business.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, page 10
William BLAIR
Merchant, was born at Homer, Cortland County, N. Y. May 20, 1818. Being descended through five generations of New England ancestors. After attending school in the town of Cortland, which became his father's residence, at the age of 14 he obtained employment in a stove and hardware store, four years later(1836) coming to Joliet, Illinois, to take charge of a branch store which the firm had established there. The next year he purchased the stock and continued the business on his own account. In August, 1842, he removed to Chicago, where he established the earliest and one of the most extensive wholesale hardware concerns in that city, with which he remained connected nearly fifty years. During this period he was associated with various partners, including C. B. Nelson, E. G. Hall, O. W. Belden, James H. Horton and others, besides at times, conducting the business alone. He suffered by the fire of 1871 in common with other business men of Chicago but promptly resumed business and within the next two or three years, had erected business blocks, successively on Lake and Randolph Streets, but retired from business in 1888. He was a Director of the Merchants National Bank of Chicago from its organization in 1865, as also for a time of the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company and the Chicago Gaslight & Coke Company, a Trustee of Lake Forest University, one of the Managers of the Presbyterian Hospital and a member of the Chicago Historical Society. He died in Chicago, May 10, 1899.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, page 50
Philo CARPENTER
Pioneer and early druggist was born of Puritan and Revolutionary ancestry in the town of Savoy Mass. Feb. 27, 1805. He engaged as a druggist's clerk at Troy N. Y., in 1828. He came to Chicago in 1832 where he established himself in the drug business, which was later extended into other lines. Soon after his arrival he began investing in lands, which have since become immensely valuable. Mr. Carpenter was associated with the late Rev. Jeremiah Porter in the organization of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, but, in 1851, withdrew on account of dissatisfaction with the attitude of some of the representatives of the denomination on the subject of slavery, identifying himself with the Congregationalist Church, in which he had been reared. He was one of the original founders and most liberal benefactors of the Chicago Theological Seminary, to which he gave in contributions, during his life time, or in bequests after his death sums aggregating not far from $100,000. One of the Seminary buildings was named in his honor "Carpenter Hall." He was identified with various other organizations, one of the most important being the Relief and Aid Society, which did such useful work after the fire of 1871. By a life of probity, liberality and benevolence, he won the respect of all classes, dying, August 7, 1886.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, page 80
Charles Gates DAWES
Comptroller of the Treasury was born in Marietta, Ohio on August 27, 1865. He graduated from Marietta College in 1884, and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1886. He worked at civil engineering during his vacations finally becoming Chief Engineer of the Toledo & Ohio Railroad. Between 1887 and 1894 he was engaged in the practice of law at Lincoln, Nebraska but afterwards became interested in the gas business in various cities including Evanston, Illinois which became his home. In 1896 he took a leading part in securing instructions by the Republican State Convention at Springfield in favor of the nomination of Mr. McKinley for the Presidency and during the succeeding campaign served as a member of the National Republican Committee for the state of Illinois. Soon after the accession of President McKinley he was appointed Comptroller of the Treasury a position which he now holds. Mr. Dawes is the son of R. B. Dawes a former Congressman from Ohio and the great-grandson of Manasseh Cutler who was an influential factor in the early history of the Northwest Territory, and has been credited with exerting a strong influence in shaping and securing the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, Pages 605-606
Col. George M. MOULTON
A soldier and building contractor he was born at Readsburg, VT. On March 15, 1851, and came early in life to Chicago, and was educated in the schools of that city. By profession he is a contractor and builder, the firm of which he is a member having been connected with the construction of a number of large buildings, including some extensive grain elevators. Colonel Molton became a member of the Second Regiment Illinois National Guard in June, 1884 being elected to the office of Major, which he retained until January 1893 when he was appointed inspector of Rifle Practice on the staff of General Wheeler. A year later he was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, a position which he occupied at the time of the call by the President for troops to serve in the Spanish American War in April 1898.
He promptly answered the call, and was sworn into the United States service at the head of his regiment early in May. The regiment was almost immediately ordered to Jacksonville, Fl. remaining there and at Savannah, GA. until early in December, when it was transferred to Havana, Cuba. Here he was soon after appointed Chief of Police for the city of Havana, remaining in office until the middle of January 1899 when he returned to his regiment, then stationed at Camp Columbia, near the city of Havana. In the latter part of March he returned with his regiment to Augusta, Ga. where it was mustered out on April 26, 1899, one year from the date of its arrival at Springfield. After leaving the service Colonel Moulton resumed his business as a contractor.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, Pages 607-608
William Harvey WELLS
An educator born in Tolland Conn. on Feb. 27, 1812 and lived on a farm until 17 years old, attending school irregularly, but made such progress that he became successively a teacher in the Teachers' Seminary at Andover and Newburyport, and finally Principal of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass. In 1856 he accepted the position of Superintendent of Public Schools for the city of Chicago, serving till 1864 when he resigned. He was an organizer of the Massachusetts State Teachers' Association, one of the first editors of "The Massachusetts Teacher" and prominently connected with various benevolent, educational and learned societies. He was also author of several textbooks, and assisted in the revision of "Websters Unabridged Dictionary." He died on Jan. 21, 1885.
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, Page 583
Samuel WILLARD, MD AM LLD
He is a physician and educator, was born in Lunenberg VT. on
Dec 30, 1821 the lineal descendant of Maj. Simon Willard, one of
the founders of Concord, Mass. and prominent in "King Philip's
War," and of his son, Rev. Dr. Samuel Willard, of the Old South
Church, Boston and seventh President of Harvard College.
The subject of this sketch was taken in his infancy to Boston,
and in 1831, to Carrollton, Ill. where his father pursued the
avocation of a druggist. After a preparatory course at Shurtleff
College, Upper Alton, in 1836 he entered the freshman class in
Illinois College at Jacksonville but with drew the following
year, and reentering college in 1840 and graduating in the class
of 1843 as a classmate of Dr. Newton Bateman, afterwards State
Superintendent of Public Instruction and President of Knox
College, and Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, now of Elmira N. Y.
The next year he spent as tutor in Illinois College, when he
began the study of medicine at Quincy, graduating from the
Medical Department of Illinois College in 1848. During a part of
the latter year he edited a Free-Soil campaign paper (The
Tribune) at Quincy and later The Western Temperance Magazine at
the same place. In 1849 he began the practice of his profession
at St. Louis, but the next year removed to Collinsville, Ill.
remaining until 1857 when he took charge of the Department of
Languages in the newly organized State Normal University at
Normal. The second year of the Civil War (1862) he enlisted as a
private in the Ninety-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but
was soon after commissioned as Surgeon with the rank of Major
participating in the campaigns in Tennessee and in the first
attack upon Vicksburg. Being disabled by an attack of paralysis
in February 1863 he was compelled to resign, when he had
sufficiently recovered accepting a position in the office of
Provost Marshal General Oakes, at Springfield, where he remained
until the close of the war. He then became Grand Secretary of
the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows for the State of Illinois a
position which he had held from 1856 to 1862 remaining under his
second appointment from 1865 to 1869.
The next year he served as Superintendent of Schools at
Springfield, meanwhile assisting in founding the Springfield
public library and serving as its first librarian. In 1870 he
accepted the professorship of History in the West Side High
School of Chicago which with the exception of two year
(1884-86), he continued to occupy for more than twenty-five
years, retiring in 1898. In the meantime Dr. Willard has been a
laborious literary worker having been for a considerable period,
editor, or assistant-editor, of the "Illinois Teacher" a
contributor to "The Century Magazine" and "The Dial" of Chicago,
besides having published a "Digest of the Laws of Odd
Fellowship" in sixteen volumes, begun while he was Grand
Secretary of the Order in 1864 and continued in 1872 and 1882. A
Synopsis of History and Historical Chart, covering the period
from B. C. 800 to A. D. 1876 of which he has had a second
edition in course of preparation. Of late years he has been
engaged upon a Historical Dictionary of Names and Places" which
will include some 12,000 topics, and which promises to be the
most important work of his life.
Previous to the war he was an avowed Abolitionist and operator
on the "Underground Railroad," who made no concealment of his
opinions, and on one or two occasions, was called to answer for
them in prosecutions under the "Fugitive Slave Act." His friend
and classmate the late Dr. Bateman, says of him "Dr. Willard is
a sound thinker a clear and forcible writer of broad and
accurate scholarship conscientious, genial and kindly, and a
most estimable gentleman."
Contributed May 2000 by Cristy Thompson, Page 590
