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Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois ( BA - BI )

Biographical and Memorial Edition of the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume I,
by Newton Bateman, LL.D. and Paul Selby, A. M. and Special Authors and Contributors
Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company Publishers, 1915.

BABCOCK, Amos C., was born at Penn Yan, N. Y., Jan. 20, 1828, the son of a member of Congress from that State; at the age of 18, having lost his father by death, came West, and soon after engaged in mercantile business in partnership with a brother at Canton, Ill. In 1854 he was elected by a majority of one vote, as an Anti-Nebraska Whig, to the lower branch of the Nineteenth General Assembly, and, in the following session, took part in the election of United States Senator which resulted in the choice of Lyman Trumbull. Although a personal and political friend of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Babcock, as a matter of policy, cast his vote for his townsman, William Kellogg, afterwards Congressman from that district, until it was apparent that a concentration of the Anti-Nebraska vote on Trumbull was necessary to defeat the election of a Democrat. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln the first Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Fourth District, and, in 1863, was commissioned by Governor Yates Colonel of the One Hundred and Third Illinois Volunteers, but soon resigned. Colonel Babcock served as Delegate-at-large in the Republican National Convention of 1868, which nominated General Grant for the Presidency, and the same year was made Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, also conducting the campaign two years later. He identified himself with the Greeley movement in 1872, but, in 1876, was again in line with his party and restored to his old position on the State Central Committee, serving until 1878. Among business enterprises with which he was connected was the extension, about 1854, of the Buda branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad from Yates City to Canton, and the erection of the State Capitol at Austin, Tex., which was undertaken, in conjunction with Abner Taylor and J. V. and C. B. Farwell, about 1881 and completed in 1888, for which the firm received over 3,000,000 acres of State lands in the "Pan Handle" portion of Texas. In 1889 Colonel Babcock took up his residence in Chicago, which continued to be his home until his death from apoplexy, Feb. 25, 1899.



BABCOCK, Andrew J., soldier, was born at Dorchester, Norfolk County, Mass., July 19, 1830; began life as a coppersmith at Lowell; in 1851 went to Concord, N. H., and, in 1856, removed to Springfield, Ill., where, in 1859, he joined a military company called the Springfield Greys, commanded by Capt. (afterwards Gen.) John Cook, of which he was First Lieutenant. This company became the nucleus of Company I, Seventh Illinois Volunteers, which enlisted on Mr. Lincoln's first call for troops in April, 1861. Captain Cook having been elected Colonel, Babcock succeeded him as Captain, on the re-enlistment of the regiment in July following becoming Lieutenant-Colonel, and, in March, 1862, being promoted to the Colonelcy "for gallant and meritorious service rendered at Fort Donelson." A year later he was compelled to resign on account of impaired health. Died at St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 12, 1911.



BACON, George E., lawyer and legislator, born at Madison, Ind., Feb. 4, 1851; was brought to Illinois by his parents at three years of age, and, in 1876, located at Paris, Edgar County; in 1879 was admitted to the bar and held various minor offices, including one term as State's Attorney. In 1886 he was elected as a Republican to the State Senate and re-elected four years later, but finally removed to Aurora, where he died, July 6, 1896. Mr. Bacon was a man of recognized ability, as shown by the fact that, after the death of Senator John A. Logan, he was selected by his colleagues of the Senate to pronounce the eulogy on the deceased statesman.


BAGBY, John C., jurist and Congressman, was born at Glasgow, Ky., Jan. 24, 1819. After passing through the common schools of Barren County, Ky., he studied civil engineering at Bacon College, graduating in 1840. Later he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1845. In 1846 he commenced practice at Rushville, Ill., confining himself exclusively to professional work until nominated and elected to Congress in 1874, by the Democrats of the (old) Tenth District. In 1885 he was elected to the Circuit Bench for the Sixth Circuit. Died, April 4, 1896.



BAILEY, Joseph Mead, legislator and jurist, was born at Middlebury, Wyoming County, N. Y., June 22, 1833, graduated from Rochester (N. Y.) University in 1854, and was admitted to the bar in that city in 1855. In August, 1856, he removed to Freeport, Ill., where he soon built up a profitable practice. In 1866 he was elected a Representative in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, being re-elected in 1868. Here he was especially prominent in securing restrictive legislation concerning railroads. In 1876 he was chosen a Presidential Elector for his district on the Republican ticket. In 1877 he was elected a Judge of the Thirteenth judicial district, and re-elected in 1879 and in 1885. In January, 1878, and again in June, 1879, he was assigned to the bench of the Appellate Court, being presiding Justice from June, 1879, to June, 1880, and from June, 1881, to June, 1882. In 1879 he received the degree of LL.D. from the Universities of Rochester and Chicago. In 1888 he was elected to the bench of the Supreme Court. Died in office, Oct. 16, 1895.



BAILHACHE, John, pioneer journalist, was born in the Island of Jersey, May 8, 1787; after gaining the rudiments of an education in his mother tongue (the French), he acquired a knowledge of English and some proficiency in Greek and Latin in an academy near his paternal home, when he spent five years as a printer's apprentice. In 1810 he came to the United States, first locating at Cambridge, Ohio, but, in 1812, purchased a half interest in "The Fredonian" at Chillicothe (then the State Capital), soon after becoming sole owner. In 1815 he purchased "The Scioto Gazette" and consolidated the two papers under the name of "The Scioto Gazette and Fredonian Chronicle." Here he remained until 1828, meantime engaging temporarily in the banking business, also serving one term in the Legislature (1820), and being elected Associate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Ross County. In 1828 he removed to Columbus, assuming charge of "The Ohio State Journal," served one term as Mayor of the city, and for three consecutive years was State Printer. Selling out "The Journal" in 1836, he came west, the next year becoming part owner, and finally sole proprietor, of "The Telegraph" at Alton, Ill., which he conducted alone or in association with various partners until 1854, when he retired, giving his attention to the book and job branch of the business. He served as Representative from Madison County in the Thirteenth General Assembly (1842-44). As a man and a journalist Judge Bailhache commanded the highest respect, and did much to elevate the standard of journalism in Illinois, "The Telegraph," during the period of his connection with it, being one of the leading papers of the State. His death occurred at Alton, Sept. 3, 1857, as the result of injuries received the day previous, by being thrown from a carriage in which he was riding. — Maj. William Henry (Bailhache), son of the preceding, was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, August 14, 1826, removed with his father to Alton, Ill., in 1836, was educated at Shurtleff College, and learned the printing trade in the office of "The Telegraph," under the direction of his father, afterwards being associated with the business department. In 1855, in partnership with Edward L. Baker, he became one of the proprietors and business manager of "The State Journal" at Springfield. During the Civil War he received from President Lincoln the appointment of Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, serving to its close and receiving the brevet rank of Major. After the war he returned to journalism and was associated at different times with "The State Journal" and "The Quincy Whig," as business manager of each, but retired in 1873; in 1881 was appointed by President Arthur, Receiver of Public Moneys at Santa Fe., N. M., remaining four years. Prior to 1899 he removed to San Diego, Cal., there engaged in newspaper work, and, under the administration of President McKinley, was Special Agent of the Treasury Department. Died March 12, 1905. — Preston Heath (Bailhache), another son, was born in Columbus, Ohio, February 21, 1835; served as a Surgeon during the Civil War, later became a Surgeon in the regular army and has held positions in marine hospitals at Baltimore, Washington and New York, and has visited Europe in the interest of sanitary and hospital service. At present (1899) he occupies a prominent position at the headquarters of the United States Marine Hospital Service in Washington.—Arthur Lee (Bailhache), a third son, born at Alton, Ill., April 12, 1839; at the beginning of the Civil War was employed in the State commissary service at Camp Yates and Cairo, became Adjutant of the Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteers, and died at Pilot Knob, Mo., Jan. 9, 1862, as the result of disease and exposure in the service.



BAKER, David Jewett, lawyer and United States Senator, was born at East Haddam, Conn., Sept. 7, 1792. His family removed to New York in 1800, where he worked on a farm during boyhood, but graduated from Hamilton College in 1816, and three years later was admitted to the bar. In 1819 he came to Illinois and began practice at Kaskaskia, where he attained prominence in his profession and was made Probate Judge of Randolph County. His opposition to the introduction of slavery into the State was so aggressive that his life was frequently threatened. In 1830 Governor Edwards appointed him United States Senator, to fill the unexpired term of Senator McLean, but he served only one month when he was succeeded by John M. Robinson, who was elected by the Legislature. He was United States District Attorney from 1833 to 1841 (the State then constituting but one district), and thereafter resumed private practice. Died at Alton, August 6, 1869. — Henry Southard (Baker), son of the preceding, was born at Kaskaskia, Ill., Nov. 10, 1824, received his preparatory education at Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, and, in 1843, entered Brown University, R. I., graduating therefrom in 1847; was admitted to the bar in 1849, beginning practice at Alton, the home of his father, Hon. David J. Baker. In 1854 he was elected as an Anti-Nebraska candidate to the lower branch of the Nineteenth General Assembly, and, at the subsequent session of the General Assembly, was one of the five Anti-Nebraska members whose uncompromising fidelity to Hon. Lyman Trumbull resulted in the election of the latter to the United States Senate for the first time—the others being his colleague, Dr. George T. Allen of the House, and Hon. John M. Palmer, afterwards United States Senator, Burton C. Cook and Norman B. Judd in the Senate. He served as one of the Secretaries of the Republican State Convention held at Bloomington in May, 1856, was a Republican Presidential Elector in 1864, and, in 1865, became Judge of the Alton City Court, serving until 1881. In 1876 he presided over the Republican State Convention, served as delegate to the Republican National Convention of the same year and was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in opposition to William R. Morrison. Judge Baker was the orator selected to deliver the address on occasion of the unveiling of the statue of Lieut.-Gov. Pierre Menard, on the capitol grounds at Springfield, in January, 1888. About 1888 he retired from practice, dying at Alton, March 5, 1897. — Edward L. (Baker), second son of David Jewett Baker, was born at Kaskaskia, Ill., June 3, 1829; graduated at Shurtleff College in 1847; read law with his father two years, after which he entered Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar at Springfield in 1855. Previous to this date Mr. Baker had become associated with William H. Bailhache, in the management of "The Alton Daily Telegraph," and, in July, 1855, they purchased "The Illinois State Journal," at Springfield, of which Mr. Baker assumed the editorship, remaining until 1874. In 1869 he was appointed United States Assessor for the Eighth District, serving until the abolition of the office. In 1873 he received the appointment from President Grant of Consul to Buenos Ayres, South America, and, assuming the duties of the office in 1874, remained there for twenty-three years, proving himself one of the most capable and efficient officers in the consular service. On the evening of the 20th of June, 1897, when Mr. Baker was about to enter a railway train already in motion at the station in the city of Buenos Ayres, he fell under the cars, receiving injuries which necessitated the amputation of his right arm, finally resulting in his death in the hospital at Buenos Ayres, July 8, following. His remains were brought home at the Government expense and interred in Oak Ridge Cemetery, at Springfield, where a monument has since been erected in his honor, bearing a tablet contributed by citizens of Buenos Ayres and foreign representatives in that city expressive of their respect for his memory. — David Jewett (Baker), Jr., a third son of David Jewett Baker, Sr., was born at Kaskaskia, Nov. 20,1834; graduated from Shurtleff College in 1854, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. In November of that year he removed to Cairo and began practice. He was Mayor of that city in 1864-65, and, in 1869, was elected to the bench of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit. The Legislature of 1873 (by Act of March 28) having divided the State into twenty-six circuits, he was, elected Judge of the Twenty-sixth, on June 2, 1873. In August, 1878, he resigned to accept an appointment on the Supreme Bench as successor to Judge Breese, deceased, but at the close of his term on the Supreme Bench (1879), was re-elected Circuit Judge, and again in 1885. During this period he served for several years on the Appellate Bench. In 1888 he retired from the Circuit Bench by resignation and was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court for a term of nine years. Again, in 1897, he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Carroll C. Boggs. Soon after retiring from the Supreme Bench he removed to Chicago and engaged in general practice, in partnership with his son, John W. Baker. He fell dead almost instantly in his office, March 13, 1899. In all, Judge Baker had spent some thirty years almost continuously on the bench, and had attained eminent distinction both as a lawyer and a jurist.



BAKER, Edward Dickinson, soldier and United States Senator, was born in London, Eng., Feb. 24, 1811; emigrated to Illinois while yet in his minority, first locating at Belleville, afterwards removing to Carrollton and finally to Sangamon County, the last of which he represented in the lower house of the Tenth General Assembly, and as State Senator in the Twelfth and Thirteenth. He was elected to Congress as a Whig from the Springfield District, but resigned in December, 1846, to accept the colonelcy of the Fourth Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, in the Mexican War, and succeeded General Shields in command of the brigade, when the latter was wounded at Cerro Gordo. In 1848 he was elected to Congress from the Galena District; was also identified with the construction of the Panama Railroad; went to San Francisco in 1852, but later removed to Oregon, where he was elected to the United States Senate in 1860. In 1861 he resigned the Senatorship to enter the Union army, commanding a brigade at the battle of Ball's Bluff, where he was killed, October 21,1861.



BAKER, Jehu, lawyer and Congressman, was born in Fayette County, Ky., Nov. 4, 1822. At an early age he removed to Illinois, making his home in Belleville, St. Clair County. He received his early education in the common schools and at McKendree College. Although he did not graduate from the latter institution, he received therefrom the honorary degree of A. M. in 1858, and that of LL. D. in 1882. For a time he studied medicine, but abandoned it for the study of law. From 1861 to 1865 he was Master in Chancery for St. Clair County. From 1865 to 1869 he represented the Belleville District as a Republican in Congress. From 1876 to 1881 and from 1882 to 1885 he was Minister Resident in Venezuela, during the latter portion of his term of service acting also as Consul-General. Returning home, he was again elected to Congress (1886) from the Eighteenth District, but was defeated for re-election, in 1888, by William S. Forman, Democrat. Again, in 1896, having identified himself with the Free Silver Democracy and People's Party, he was elected to Congress from the Twentieth District over Everett J. Murphy, the Republican nominee, serving until March 3, 1899. He was author of an annotated edition of Montesquieu's "Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans." Died March 1, 1903.



BALDWIN, Elmer, agriculturist and legislator, was born in Litchfield County, Conn., March 8, 1806; at 16 years of age began teaching a country school, continuing this occupation for several years during the winter months, while working on his father's farm in the summer. He then started a store at New Milford, which he managed for three years, when he sold out on account of his health and began farming. In 1833 he came west and purchased a considerable tract of Government land in La Salle County, where the village of Farm Ridge is now situated, removing thither with his family the following year. He served as Justice of the Peace for fourteen consecutive terms, as Postmaster twenty years and as a member of the Board of Supervisors of La Salle County six years. In 1856 he was elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives, was re-elected to the same office in 1866, and to the State Senate in 1872, serving two years. He was also appointed, in 1869, a member of the first Board of Public Charities, serving as President of the Board. Mr. Baldwin is author of a "History of La Salle County," which contains much local and biographical history. Died, Nov. 18, 1895.



BALDWIN, Theron, clergyman and educator, was born in Goshen, Conn., July 21, 1801; graduated at Yale College in 1827; after two years' study in the theological school there, was ordained a home missionary in 1829, becoming one of the celebrated "Tale College Band," or "Western College Society," of which he was Corresponding Secretary during most of his life. He was settled as a Congregationalist minister at Vandalia for two years, and was active in procuring the charter of Illinois College at Jacksonville, of which he was a Trustee from its organization to his death. He served for a number of years, from 1831, as Agent of the Home Missionary Society for Illinois, and, in 1838, became the first Principal of Monticello Female Seminary, near Alton, which he conducted five years. Died at Orange, N. J., April 10, 1870.



BALLARD, Addison, merchant, was born of Quaker parentage in Warren County, Ohio, November, 1822. He located at La Porte, Ind., about 1841, where he learned and pursued the carpenter's trade; in 1849 went to California, remaining two years, when he returned to La Porte; in 1853 removed to Chicago and embarked in the lumber trade, which he prosecuted until 1887, retiring with a competency. Mr. Ballard served several years as one of the Commissioners of Cook County, and, from 1876 to 1882, as Alder¬man of the City of Chicago, and again in the latter office, 1894-96. Died June 27, 1905.



BALTES, Peter Joseph, Roman Catholic Bishop of Alton, was born at Ensheim, Rhenish Bavaria, April 7, 1827; was educated at the colleges of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, Mass., and of St. Ignatius, at Chicago, and at Lavalle University, Montreal, and was ordained a priest in 1853, and consecrated Bishop in 1870. His diocesan administration was successful, but regarded by his priests as somewhat arbitrary. He wrote numerous pastoral letters and brochures for the guidance of clergy and laity. His most important literary work was entitled "Pastoral Instruction," first edition, N. Y., 1875; second edition (revised and enlarged), 1880. Died at Alton, Feb. 15, 1886.



BALTIMORE & OHIO SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY. This road (constituting a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system) is made up of two principal divisions, the first extending across the State from East St. Louis to Belpre, Ohio, and the second (known as the Springfield Division) extending from Beardstown to Shawneetown. The total mileage of the former (or main line) is 537 miles, of which 147 1/2 are in Illinois, and of the latter (wholly within Illinois) 228 miles. The main line (originally known as the Ohio & Mississippi Railway) was chartered in Indiana in 1848, in Ohio in 1849, and in Illinois in 1851. It was constructed by two companies, the section from Cincinnati to the Indiana and Illinois State line being known as the Eastern Division, and that in Illinois as the Western Division, the gauge, as originally built, being six feet, but reduced in 1871 to standard. The banking firm of Page & Bacon, of St. Louis and San Francisco, were the principal financial backers of the enterprise. The line was completed and opened for traffic, May 1, 1857. The following year the road became financially embarrassed; the Eastern Division was placed in the hands of a receiver in 1860, while the Western Division was sold under foreclosure, in 1862, and reorganized as the Ohio & Mississippi Railway under act of the Illinois Legislature passed in February, 1861. The Eastern Division was sold in January, 1867; and, in November of the same year, the two divisions were consolidated under the title of the Ohio & Mississippi Railway.—The Springfield Division was the result of the consolidation, in December, 1869, of the Pana, Springfield & Northwestern and the Illinois & Southeastern Railroad—each having been chartered in 1867—the new corporation taking the name of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern Railroad, under which name the road was built and opened in March, 1871. In 1873, it was placed in the hands of receivers; in 1874 was sold under foreclosure, and, on March 1, 1875, passed into the hands of the Ohio & Mississippi Railway Company. In November, 1876, the road was again placed in the hands of a receiver, but was restored to the Company in 1884. — In November, 1893, the Ohio & Mississippi was consolidated with the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad, which was the successor of the Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore Railroad, the reorganized Company taking the name of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway Company. The total capitalization of the road, as organized in 1898, was $84,770,531. Several branches of the main line in Indiana and Ohio go to increase the aggregate mileage, but being wholly outside of Illinois are not taken into account in this statement.



BALTIMORE & OHIO & CHICAGO RAILROAD, part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad System, of which only 8.21 out of 265 miles are in Illinois. The principal object of the company's incorporation was to secure entrance for the Baltimore & Ohio into Chicago. The capital stock outstanding exceeds $1,500,000. The total capital (including stock, funded and floating debt) is $20,329,166 or $76,728 per mile. The gross earnings for the year ending June 30, 1898, were $3,383,016 and the operating expenses $2,493,452. The income and earnings for the portion of the line in Illinois for the same period were $209,208 and the expenses $208,096.



BANGS, Mark, lawyer, was born in Franklin County, Mass., Jan. 9, 1822; spent his boyhood on a farm in Western New York, and, after a year in an institution at Rochester, came to Chicago in 1844, later spending two years in farm Work and teaching in Central Illinois. Returning east in 1847, he engaged in teaching for two years at Springfield, Mass., then spent a year in a dry goods store at Lacon, Ill., meanwhile prosecuting his legal studies. In 1851 he began practice, was elected a Judge of the Circuit Court in 1859; served one session as State Senator (1870-72); in 1873 was appointed Circuit Judge to fill the unexpired term of Judge Richmond, deceased, and, in 1875, was appointed by President Grant United States District Attorney for the Northern District, remaining in office four years. Judge Bangs was also a member of the first Anti-Nebraska State Convention of Illinois, held at Springfield in 1854; in 1862 presided over the Congressional Convention which nominated Owen Lovejoy for Congress for the first time; was one of the charter members of the "Union League of America," serving as its President, and, in 1868, was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated General Grant for President for the first time. After retiring from the office of District Attorney in 1879, he removed to Chicago, where he was engaged in practice until his death, June 23, 1902.



BANKSON, Andrew, pioneer and early legislator, a native of Tennessee, settled on Silver Creek, in St. Clair County, Ill., four miles south of Lebanon, about 1808 or 1810, and subsequently removed to Washington County. He was a Colonel of "Rangers" during the War of 1812, and a Captain in the Black Hawk War of 1832. In 1822 he was elected to the State Senate from Washington County, serving four years, and at the session of 1822-23 was one of those who voted against the Convention resolution which had for its object to make Illinois a slave State. He subsequently removed to Iowa Territory, but died, in 1853, while visiting a son-in-law in Wisconsin.



BAPTISTS. The first Baptist minister to settle in Illinois was Elder James Smith, who located at New Design, in 1787. He was followed, about 1796-97, by Revs. David Badgley and Joseph Chance, who organized the first Baptist church within the limits of the State. Five churches, having four ministers and 111 members, formed an association in 1807. Several causes, among them a difference of views on the slavery question, resulted in the division of the denomination into factions. Of these perhaps the most numerous was the Regular (or Missionary) Baptists, at the head of which was Rev. John M. Peck, a resident of the State from 1822 until his death (1858). By 1835 the sect had grown, until it had some 250 churches, with about 7,500 members. These were under the ecclesiastical care of twenty-two Associations. Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist Indian missionary, preached at Fort Dearborn on Oct. 9, 1825, and, eight years later, Rev. Allen B. Freeman organized the first Baptist society in what was then an infant settlement. By 1890 the number of Associations had grown to forty, with 1010 churches, 891 ministers and 88,884 members. A Baptist Theological Seminary was for some time supported at Morgan Park, but, in 1895, was absorbed by the University of Chicago, becoming the divinity school of that institution. The chief organ of the denomination in Illinois is "The Standard," published at Chicago.



BARBER, Hiram, was born in Warren County, N. Y., March 24, 1835. At 11 years of age he accompanied his family to Wisconsin, of which State he was a resident until 1866. After graduating at the State University of Wisconsin, at Madison, he studied law at the Albany Law School, and was admitted to practice. After serving one term as District Attorney of his county in Wisconsin (1861-62), and Assistant Attorney-General of the State for 1865-66, in the latter year he came to Chicago and, in 1878, was elected to Congress by the Republicans of the old Second Illinois District. His home is in Chicago, where he holds the position of Master in Chancery of the Superior Court of Cook County.



BARCLAY, a village in Sangamon County, on the line of the Illinois Central Railroad, 9 miles northeast of the city of Springfield; in a coal-mining district. Population (1910), 252.



BARNSBACK, George Frederick Julius, pioneer, was born in Germany, July 25, 1781; came to Philadelphia in 1797, and soon after to Kentucky, where he became an overseer; two or three years later visited his native country, suffering shipwreck en route in the English Channel; returned to Kentucky in 1802, remaining until 1809, when he removed to what is now Madison (then a part of St. Clair) County, Ill.; served in the War of 1812, farmed and raised stock until 1824, when, after a second visit to Germany, he bought a plantation in St. Francois County, Mo. Subsequently becoming disgusted with slavery, he manumitted his slaves and returned to Illinois, locating on a farm near Edwardsville, where he resided until his death in 1869. Mr. Barnsback served as Representative in the Fourteenth General Assembly (1844-46) and, after returning from Springfield, distributed his salary among the poor of Madison County. — Julius A. (Barnsback), his son, was born in St. Francois County, Mo., May 14, 1826; in 1846 became a merchant at Troy, Madison County; was elected Sheriff in 1860; in 1864 entered the service as Captain of a Company in the One Hundred and Fortieth Illinois Volunteers (100-days men); also served as a member of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly (1865).



BARNUM, William H., lawyer and ex-Judge, was born in Onondaga County, N. Y., Feb. 13, 1840. When he was but two years old his family removed to St. Clair County, Ill., where he passed his boyhood and youth. His preliminary education was obtained at Belleville, Ill., Ypsilanti, Mich., and at the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor. After leaving the institution last named at the end of the sophomore year, he taught school at Belleville, still pursuing his classical studies. In 1862 he was admitted to the bar at Belleville, and soon afterward opened an office at Chester, where, for a time, he held the office of Master in Chancery. He removed to Chicago in 1867, and, in 1879, was elevated to the bench of the Cook County Circuit Court. At the expiration of his term he resumed private practice.



BARRERE, Granville, was born in Highland County, Ohio. After attending the common schools, he acquired a higher education at Augusta, Ky., and Marietta, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in his native State, but began the practice of law in Fulton County, Ill., in 1856. In 1872 he received the Republican nomination for Congress and was elected, representing his district from 1873 to 1875, at the conclusion of his term retiring to private life. Died at Canton, Ill., Jan. 13, 1889.



BARRINGTON, a village located on the northern border of Cook County, and partly in Lake, at the intersection of the Chicago & Northwestern and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, 32 miles northwest of Chicago. It has banks, a local paper, several cheese factories and a milk-bottling plant. Pop. (1890), 848; (1900), 1,162; (1910), 1,444.



BARROWS, John Henry, D. D., clergyman and educator, was born at Medina, Mich., July 11, 1847; graduated at Mount Olivet College in 1867, and studied theology at Yale, Union and Andover Seminaries. In 1869 he went to Kansas, where he spent two and a half years in missionary and educational work. He then (in 1872) accepted a call to the First Congregational Church at Springfield, Ill., where he remained a year, after which he gave a year to foreign travel, visiting Europe, Egypt and Palestine, during a part of the time supplying the American chapel in Paris. On his return to the United States he spent six years in pastoral work at Lawrence and East Boston, Mass., when (in November, 1881) he assumed the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Dr. Barrows achieved a world-wide celebrity by his services as Chairman of the "Parliament of Religions," a branch of the "World's Congress Auxiliary," held during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Later, he was appointed Professorial Lecturer on Comparative Religions, under lectureships in connection with the University of Chicago endowed by Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell. One of these, established in Dr. Barrows' name, contemplated a series of lectures in India, to be delivered on alternate years with a similar course at the University. Courses were delivered at the University in 1895-96, and, in order to carry out the purposes of the foreign lectureship, Dr. Barrows found it necessary to resign his pastorate, which he did in the spring of 1896. After spending the summer' in Germany, the regular itinerary of the round-the-world tour began at London in the latter part of November, 1896, ending with his return to the United States by way of San Francisco in May, 1897. Dr. Barrows was accompanied by a party of personal friends from Chicago and elsewhere, the tour embracing visits to the principal cities of Southern Europe, Egypt, Palestine, China and Japan, with a somewhat protracted stay in India during the winter of 1896-97. After his return to the United States he lectured at the University of Chicago and in many of the principal cities of the country, on the moral and religious condition of Oriental nations, but, in 1898, was offered the Presidency of Oberlin College, Ohio, which he accepted, entering upon his duties early in 1899. Died June 3, 1902.



BARRY, a city in Pike County, founded in 1836, on the Wabash Railroad, 18 miles east of Hannibal, Mo., and 30 miles southeast of Quincy. The surrounding country is agricultural. The city contains flouring mills, pork-packing plant, a large creamery; also has two local papers, two banks, three churches and a high school, besides schools of lower grade. Population (1890), 1,354; (1900), 1,643; (1910), 1,647.



BARTLETT, Adolphus Clay, merchant, was born of Revolutionary ancestry at Stratford, Fulton County, N. Y., June 22,1844; was educated in the common schools and at Danville Academy and Clinton Liberal Institute, N. Y., and, coming to Chicago in 1863, entered into the employment of the hardware firm of Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., now Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., of which, a few years later, he became a partner, and later Vice-President of the Company. Mr. Bartlett has also been a Trustee of Beloit College, President of the Chicago Home for the Friendless and a Director of the Chicago & Alton Railroad and the Metropolitan National Bank, besides being identified with various other business and benevolent associations.



BASCOM, (Rev.) Flavel, D. D., clergyman, was born at Lebanon, Conn., June 8, 1804; spent his boyhood on a farm until 17 years of age, meanwhile attending the common schools; prepared for college under a private tutor, and, in 1824, entered Yale College, graduating in 1828. After a year as Principal of the Academy at New Canaan, Conn., he entered upon the study of theology at Yale, was licensed to preach in 1831 and, for the next two years, served as a tutor in the literary department of the college. Then coming to Illinois (1833), he cast his lot with the "Yale Band," organized at Yale College a few years previous; spent five years in missionary work in Tazewell County and two years in Northern Illinois as Agent of the Home Missionary Society, exploring new settlements, founding churches and introducing missionaries to new fields of labor. In 1839 he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, remaining until 1849, when he assumed the pastorship of the First Presbyterian Church at Galesburg, this relation continuing until 1856. Then, after a year's service as the Agent of the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church, he accepted a call to the Congregational Church at Princeton, where he remained until 1869, when he took charge of the Congregational Church at Hinsdale. From 1878 he served for a considerable period as a member of the Executive Committee of the Illinois Home Missionary Society; was also prominent in educational work, being one of the founders and, for over twenty-five years, an officer of the Chicago Theological Seminary, a Trustee of Knox College and one of the founders and a Trustee of Beloit College, Wis., from which he received the degree of D. D. in 1869. Dr. Bascom died at Princeton, Ill., August 8, 1890.



BATAVIA, a city in Kane County, on Fox River and branch lines of the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads, 35 miles west of Chicago; has water power and several prosperous manufacturing establishments employing over 1,000 operatives. The city has fine water-works supplied from an artesian well, electric lighting plant, electric street car lines with interurban connections, two weekly papers, eight churches, two public schools, and private hospital for insane women. Population (1900), 3,871; (1910), 4,436.



BATEMAN, Newton, A. M., LL.D., educator and Editor-in-Chief of the "Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois," was born at Fairfield, N. J., July 27, 1822, of mixed English and Scotch ancestry; was brought by his parents to Illinois in 1833; in his youth enjoyed only limited educational advantages, but graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville in 1843, supporting himself during his college course wholly by his own labor. Having contemplated entering the Christian ministry, he spent the following year at Lane Theological Seminary, but was compelled to withdraw on account of failing health, when he gave a year to travel. He then entered upon his life-work as a teacher by engaging as Principal of an English and Classical School in St. Louis, remaining there two years, when he accepted the Professorship of Mathematics in St. Charles College, at St. Charles, Mo., continuing in that position four years (1847-51). Returning to Jacksonville, Ill., in the latter year, he assumed the principalship of the main public school of that city. Here he remained seven years, during four of them discharging the duties of County Superintendent of Schools for Morgan County. In the fall of 1857 he became Principal of Jacksonville Female Academy, but the following year was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, having been nominated for the office by the Republican State Convention of 1858, which put Abraham Lincoln in nomination for the United States Senate. By successive re-elections he continued in this office fourteen years, serving continuously from 1859 to 1875, except two years (1863-65), as the result of his defeat for re-election in 1862. He was also endorsed for the same office by the State Teachers' Association in 1856, but was not formally nominated by a State Convention. During his incumbency the Illinois common school system was developed and brought to the state of efficiency which it has so well maintained. He also prepared some seven volumes of biennial reports, portions of which have been republished in five different languages of Europe, besides a volume of "Common School Decisions," originally published by authority of the General Assembly, and of which several editions have since been issued. This volume has been recognized by the courts, and is still regarded as authoritative on the subjects to which it relates. In addition to his official duties during a part of this period, for three years he served as editor of "The Illinois Teacher," and was one of a committee of three which prepared the bill adopted by Congress creating the National Bureau of Education. Occupying a room in the old State Capitol at Springfield adjoining that used as an office by Abraham Lincoln during the first candidacy of the latter for the Presidency, in 1860, a close intimacy sprang up between the two men, which enabled the "Schoolmaster," as Mr. Lincoln playfully called the Doctor, to acquire an insight into the character of the future emancipator of a race, enjoyed by few men of that time, and of which he gave evidence by his lectures full of interesting reminiscence and eloquent appreciation of the high character of the "Martyr President." A few months after his retirement from the State Superintendency (1875), Dr. Bateman was offered and accepted the Presidency of Knox College at Galesburg, remaining until 1893, when he voluntarily tendered his resignation. This, after having been repeatedly urged upon the Board, was finally accepted; but that body immediately, and by unanimous vote, appointed him President Emeritus and Professor of Mental and Moral Science, under which he continued to discharge his duties as a special lecturer as his health enabled him to do so. During his incumbency as President of Knox College, he twice received a tender of the Presidency of Iowa State University and the Chancellorship of two other important State institutions. He also served, by appointment of successive Governors between 1877 and 1891, as a member of the State Board of Health, for four years of this period being President of the Board. In February, 1878, Dr. Bateman, unexpectedly and without solicitation on his part, received from President Hayes an appointment as "Assay Commissioner" to examine and test the fineness and weight of United States coins, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress of June 22, 1874, and discharged the duties assigned at the mint in Philadelphia. Never of a very strong physique, which was rather weakened by his privations while a student and his many years of close confinement to mental labor, towards the close of his life Dr. Bateman suffered much from a chest trouble which finally developed into "angina pectoris," or heart disease, from which, as the result of a most painful attack, he died at his home in Galesburg, Oct. 21, 1897. The event produced the most profound sorrow, not only among his associates in the Faculty and among the students of Knox College, but a large number of friends throughout the State, who had known him officially or personally, and had learned to admire his many noble and beautiful traits of character. His funeral, which occurred at Galesburg on Oct. 25, called out an immense concourse of sorrowing friends. Almost the last labors performed by Dr. Bateman were in the revision of matter for this volume, in which he manifested the deepest interest from the time of his assumption of the duties of its Editor-in-Chief. At the time of his death he had the satisfaction of knowing that his work in this field was practically complete. Dr. Bateman had been twice married, first in 1850 to Miss Sarah Dayton of Jacksonville, who died in 1857, and a second time in October, 1859, to Miss Annie N. Tyler, of Massachusetts (but for some time a teacher in Jacksonville Female Academy), who died, May 28, 1878. — Clifford Bush (Bateman), a son of Dr. Bateman by his first marriage, was born at Jacksonville, March 7, 1854, graduated at Amherst College and later from the law department of Columbia College, New York, afterwards prosecuting his studies at Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris, finally becoming Professor of Administrative Law and Government in Columbia College—a position especially created for him. He had filled this position a little over one year when his career—which was one of great promise—was cut short by death, Feb. 6, 1883. Three daughters of Dr. Bateman survive—all the wives of clergymen.—P. S.



BATES, Clara Doty, author, was born at Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 22, 1838; published her first book in 1868; the next year married Morgan Bates, a Chicago publisher; wrote much for juvenile periodicals, besides stories and poems, some of the most popular among the latter being "Blind Jakey" (1868) and "Aesop's Fables" in verse (1873). She was the collector of a model library for children, for the "World's Columbian Exposition, 1893. Died in Chicago, Oct. 14, 1895.



BATES, Erastus Newton, soldier and State Treasurer, was born at Plainfield, Mass., Feb. 29, 1828, being descended from Pilgrims of the Mayflower. When 8 years of age he was brought by his father to Ohio, where the latter soon afterward died. For several years he lived with an uncle, preparing himself for college and earning money by teaching and manual labor. He graduated from Williams College, Mass., in 1853, and commenced the study of law in New York City, but later removed to Minnesota, where he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1856 and was elected to the State Senate in 1857. In 1859 he removed to Centralia, Ill., and commenced practice there in August, 1862; was commissioned Major of the Eightieth Illinois Volunteers, being successively promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, and finally brevetted Brigadier-General. For fifteen months he was a prisoner of war, escaping from Libby Prison only to be recaptured and later exposed to the fire of the Union batteries at Morris Island, Charleston harbor. In 1866 he was elected to the Legislature, and, in 1868, State Treasurer, being re-elected to the latter office under the new Constitution of 1870, and serving until January, 1873. Died at Minneapolis, Minn., May 29, 1898, and was buried at Springfield.



BATES, George C., lawyer and politician, was born in Canandaigua, N. Y., and removed to Michigan in 1834; in 1849 was appointed United States District Attorney for that State, but removed to California in 1850, where he became a member of the celebrated "Vigilance Committee" at San Francisco, and, in 1856, delivered the first Republican speech there. From 1861 to 1871, he practiced law in Chicago; the latter year was appointed District Attorney for Utah, serving two years, in 1878 removing to Denver, Colo., where he died, Feb. 11, 1886. Mr. Bates was an orator of much reputation, and was selected to express the thanks of the citizens of Chicago to Gen. B. J. Sweet, commandant of Camp Douglas, after the detection and defeat of the Camp Douglas conspiracy in November, 1864—a duty which he performed in an address of great eloquence. At an early day he married the widow of Dr. Alexander Wolcott, for a number of years previous to 1830 Indian Agent at Chicago, his wife being a daughter of John Kinzie, the first white settler of Chicago.



BATH, a village of Mason County, on the Jacksonville branch of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway, 8 miles south of Havana. Population (1890), 384; (1900), 330; (1910), 475.



BAYLIS, a corporate village of Pike County, on the main line of the Wabash Railway, 40 miles southeast of Quincy; has one newspaper and wagon factory. Pop. (1900), 340; (1910), 385.



BAYLISS, Alfred, Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born about 1846, served as a private in the First Michigan Cavalry the last two years of the Civil War, and graduated from Hillsdale College (Mich.), in 1870, supporting himself during his college course by work upon a farm and teaching. After serving three years as County Superintendent of Schools in La Grange County, Ind., in 1874 he came to Illinois and entered upon the vocation of a teacher in the northern part of the State. He served for some time as Superintendent of Schools for the city of Sterling, afterwards served as Principal of the Township High School until 1898, when he was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction and re-elected in 1902, serving two consecutive terms. On retirement from the Superintendent's office in 1907, he became Principal of the State Normal School at Macomb, Ill., but died August 26, 1911.



BEARD, Thomas, pioneer and founder of the city of Beardstown, Ill., was born in Granville, Washington County, N. Y., in 1795, taken to Northeastern Ohio in 1800, and, in 1818, removed to Illinois, living for a time about Edwardsville and Alton. In 1820 he went to the locality of the present city of Beardstown, and later established there the first ferry across the Illinois River. In 1827, in conjunction with Enoch March of Morgan County, he entered the land on which Beardstown was platted in 1829. Died, at Beardstown, in November, 1849.



BEARDSTOWN, a city in Cass County, on the Illinois River, being the intersecting point for the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railways, and the northwestern terminus of the former. It is 111 miles north of St. Louis and 90 miles south of Peoria. Thomas Beard, for whom the town was named, settled here about 1820 and soon afterwards established the first ferry across the Illinois River. In 1827 the land was patented by Beard and Enoch March, and the town platted, and, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, it became a principal base of supplies for the Illinois volunteers. The city has six churches and three schools (including a high school), two banks and two daily newspapers. Several branches of manufacturing are carried on here—flouring and saw mills, cooperage works, extensive fishing and packing interests, two button factories, one shoe factory, large machine shops, and others of less importance. The river is spanned here by a fine railroad bridge, costing some $300,000. Pop. (1890), 4,226; (1900), 4,827; (1910), 6,107.



BEAUBIEN, Jean Baptiste, the second permanent settler on the site of Chicago, was born at Detroit in 1780, became clerk of a fur-trader on Grand River, married an Ottawa woman for his first wife, and, in 1800, had a trading-post at Milwaukee, which he maintained until 1818. Ho visited Chicago as early as 1804, bought a cabin there soon after the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812, married the daughter of Francis La Framboise, a French trader, and, in 1818, became agent of the American Fur Company, having charge of trading posts at Mackinaw and elsewhere. After 1823 he occupied the building known as "the factory," just outside of Fort Dearborn, which had belonged to the Government, but removed to a farm on the Des Plaines in 1840. Out of the ownership of this building grew his claim to the right, in 1835, to enter seventy-five acres of land belonging to the Fort Dearborn reservation. The claim was allowed by the Land Office officials and sustained by the State courts, but disallowed by the Supreme Court of the United States after long litigation. An attempt was made to revive this claim in Congress in 1878, but it was reported upon adversely by a Senate Committee of which the late Senator Thomas F. Bayard was chairman. Mr. Beaubien was evidently a man of no little prominence in his day. He led a company of Chicago citizens to the Black Hawk "War in 1832, was appointed by the Governor the first Colonel of Militia for Cook County, and, in 1850, was commissioned Brigadier-General. In 1858 he removed to Nashville, Tenn., and died there, Jan. 5, 1863. — Mark (Beaubien), a younger brother of Gen. Beaubien, was born in Detroit in 1800, came to Chicago in 1826, and bought a log house of James Kinzie, in which he kept a hotel for some time. Later, he erected the first frame building in Chicago, which was known as the "Sauganash," and in which he kept a hotel until 1834. He also engaged in merchandising, but was not successful, ran the first ferry across the South Branch of the Chicago River, and served for many years as lighthouse keeper at Chicago. About 1834 the Indians transferred to him a reservation of 640 acres of land on the Calumet, for which, some forty years afterwards, he received a patent which had been signed by Martin Van Buren—he having previously been ignorant of its existence. He was married twice and had a family of twenty-two children. Died, at Kankakee, 111., April 16, 1881. — Madore B. (Beaubien), the second son of General Beaubien by his Indian wife, was born on Grand River in Michigan, July 15, 1809, joined his father in Chicago, was educated in a Baptist Mission School where Niles, Mich., now stands; was licensed as a merchant in Chicago in 1831, but failed as a business man; served as Second Lieutenant of the Naperville Company in the Black Hawk War, and later was First Lieutenant of a Chicago Company. His first wife was a white woman, from whom he separated, afterwards marrying an Indian woman. He left Illinois with the Pottawatomies in 1840, resided at Council Bluffs and, later, in Kansas, being for many years the official interpreter of the tribe and, for some time, one of six Commissioners employed by the Indians to look after their affairs with the United States Government. — Alexander (Beaubien), son of General Beaubien by his white wife, was born in one of the buildings belonging to Fort Dearborn, Jan. 28, 1822. In 1840 he accompanied his father to his farm on the Des Plaines, but returned to Chicago in 1862, and for years past has been employed on the Chicago police force.



BEBB, William, Governor of Ohio, was born in Hamilton County in that State in 1802; taught school at North Bend, the home of William Henry Harrison, studied law and practiced at Hamilton; served as Governor of Ohio, 1846-48; later led a Welsh colony to Tennessee, but left at the outbreak of the Civil War, removing to Winnebago County, Ill., where he had purchased a large body of land. He was a man of uncompromising loyalty and high principle; served as Examiner of Pensions by appointment of President Lincoln and, in 1868, took a prominent part in the campaign which resulted in Grant's first election to the Presidency. Died at Rockford, Oct. 23, 1873. A daughter of Governor Bebb married Hon. John P. Reynolds, for many years the Secretary of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, and, during the World's Columbian Exposition, Director-in-Chief of the Illinois Board of World's Fair Commissioners.



BECKER, Charles St. N., ex-State Treasurer, was born in Germany, June 14, 1840, and brought to this country by his parents at the age of 11 years, the family settling in St. Clair County, Ill. Early in the Civil War he enlisted in the Twelfth Missouri regiment, and, at the battle of Pea Ridge, was so severely wounded that it was found necessary to amputate one of his legs. In 1866 he was elected Sheriff of St. Clair County, and, from 1872 to 1880, he served as clerk of the St. Clair Circuit Court. He also served several terms as a City Councilman of Belleville. In 1888 he was elected State Treasurer on the Republican ticket. Died Jan. 2, 1908.



BECKWITH, Corydon, lawyer and jurist, was born in Vermont in 1823, and educated at Providence, R. I., and Wrentham, Mass. He read law and was admitted to the bar in St. Albans, Vt., where he practiced for two years. In 1853 he removed to Chicago, and, in January, 1864, was appointed by Governor Yates a Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the five remaining months of the unexpired term of Judge Caton, who had resigned. On retiring from the bench he resumed private practice. Died, August 18, 1890.



BECKWITH, Hiram Williams, lawyer and author, was born at Danville, Ill., March 5, 1833. Mr. Beckwith's father, Dan W. Beckwith, a pioneer settler of Eastern Illinois and one of the founders of the city of Danville, was a native of Wyalusing, Pa., where he was born about 1789, his mother being, in her girlhood, Hannah York, one of the survivors of the famous Wyoming massacre of 1778. In 1817, the senior Beckwith, in company with his brother George, descended the Ohio River, afterwards ascending the Wabash to where Terre Haute now stands, but finally locating in what is now a part of Edgar County, Ill. A year later he removed to the vicinity of the present site of the city of Danville. Having been employed for a time in a surveyor's corps, he finally became a surveyor himself, and, on the organization of Vermilion County, served for a time as County Surveyor by appointment of the Governor, and was also employed by the General Government in surveying lands in the eastern part of the State, some of the Indian reservations in that section of the State being set off by him. In connection with Guy W. Smith, then Receiver of Public Moneys in the Land Office at Palestine, Ill., he donated the ground on which the county-seat of Vermilion County was located, and it took the name of Danville from his first name—"Dan." In 1830 he was elected Representative in the State Legislature for the District composed of Clark, Edgar, and Vermilion Counties, then including all that section of the State between Crawrford County and the Kankakee River. He died in 1835. Hiram, the subject of this sketch, thus left fatherless at less than three years of age, received only such education as was afforded in the common schools of that period. Nevertheless, he began the study of law in the Danville office of Lincoln & Lamon, and was admitted to practice in 1854, about the time of reaching his majority. He continued in their office and, on the removal of Lamon to Bloomington in 1859, he succeeded to the business of the firm at Danville. Mr. Lamon—who, on Mr. Lincoln's accession to the Presidency in 1861, became Marshal of the District of Columbia—was distantly related to Mr. Beckwith by a second marriage of the mother of the latter. While engaged in the practice of his profession, Mr. Beckwith was for over thirty years a zealous collector of records and other material bearing upon the early history of Illinois and the Northwest, probably becoming the owner of one of the most complete and valuable collections of Americana in Illinois; was also the author of several monographs on historic themes, including "The Winnebago War," "The Illinois and Indiana Indians," and "Historic Notes of the Northwest," published in the "Fergus Series," besides having edited an edition of "Reynolds' History of Illinois" (published by the same firm), which he had enriched by the addition of valuable notes. During 1895-96 he contributed a series of valuable articles to "The Chicago Tribune" on various features of early Illinois and Northwest history. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Fifer a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, serving until the expiration of his term in, 1894, and was re-appointed to the same position by Governor Tanner in 1897, in each case being chosen President of the Board." Died Dec. 22, 1903.



BEECHER, Charles A., attorney and railway solicitor, was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., August 27, 1829, but, in 1836, removed with his family to Licking County, Ohio, where he lived upon a farm until he reached the age of 18 years. Having taken a course in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, in 1854 he removed to Illinois, locating at Fairfield, Wayne County, and began the study of law in the office of his brother, Edwin Beecher, being admitted to practice in 1855. In 1867 he united with others in the organization of the Illinois Southeastern Railroad projected from Shawneetown to Edgewood on the Illinois Central in Effingham County. This enterprise was consolidated, a year or two later, with the Pana, Springfield & Northwestern, taking the name of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern, under which name it was constructed and opened for traffic in 1871. (This line—which Mr. Beecher served for some time as Vice-President—now constitutes the Beardstown & Shawneetown Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern.) The Springfield & Illinois Southeastern Company having fallen into financial difficulty in 1873, Mr. Beecher was appointed receiver of the road, and, for a time, had control of its operation as agent for the bondholders. In 1875 the line was conveyed to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad (now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio), when Mr. Beecher became General Counsel of the controlling corporation, so remaining until 1888. From that date he continued to be one of the assistant counsel of the Baltimore & Ohio system. His later home was in Cincinnati, although for over a quarter of a century .he had been prominently identified with one of the most important railway enterprises in Southern Illinois. In politics Mr. Beecher had always been a Republican, and was one of the few in Wayne County who voted for Fremont in 1856, and for Lincoln in 1860. He was also a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Illinois from 1860 for a period of ten or twelve years. Died April 11, 1904.



BEECHER, Edward, D. D., clergyman and educator, was born at East Hampton, L. I., August 27, 1803—the son of Rev. Lyman Beecher and the elder brother of Henry Ward; graduated at Yale College in 1822, taught for over a year at Hartford, Conn., studied theology, and after a year's service as tutor in Yale College, in 1826 was ordained pastor of the Park Street Congregational Church in Boston. In 1830 he became President of Illinois College at Jacksonville, remaining until 1844, when he resigned and returned to Boston, serving as pastor of the Salem Street Church in that city until 1856, also acting as senior editor of "The Congregationalist" for four years. In 1856 he returned to Illinois as pastor of the First Congregational Church at Galesburg, continuing until 1871, when he removed to Brooklyn, where he resided without pastoral charge, except 1885-89, when he was pastor of the Parkville Congregational Church. While President of Illinois College, that institution was exposed to much hostile criticism on account of his outspoken opposition to slavery, as shown by his participation in founding the first Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society and his eloquent denunciation of the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy. Next to his brother Henry Ward, he was probably the most powerful orator belonging to that gifted family, and, in connection with his able associates in the faculty of the Illinois College, assisted to give that institution a wide reputation as a nursery of independent thought. Up to a short time before his death, he was a prolific writer, his productions (besides editorials, reviews and contributions on a variety of subjects) including nine or ten volumes, of which the most important are: "Statement of Anti-Slavery Principles and Address to the People of Illinois" (1837); "A Plea for Illinois College"; "History of the Alton Riots" (1838); "The Concord of Ages" (1853); "The Conflict of Ages" (1854); "Papal Conspiracy Exposed" (1854), besides a number of others invariably on religious or anti-slavery topics. Died in Brooklyn, July 28, 1895.



BEECHER, William H., clergyman — oldest son of Rev. Lyman Beecher and brother of Edward and Henry Ward—was born at East Hampton, N. Y., educated at home and at Andover, became a Congregationalist clergyman, occupying pulpits at Newport, R. I., Batavia, N. Y., and Cleveland, Ohio; came to Chicago in his later years, dying at the home of his daughters in that city, June 23, 1889.



BEGGS, (Rev.) Stephen R., pioneer Methodist Episcopal preacher, was born in Buckingham County, Va., March 30, 1801. His father, who was opposed to slavery, moved to Kentucky in 1805, but remained there only two years, when he removed to Clark County, Ind. The son enjoyed but poor educational advantages here, obtaining his education chiefly by his own efforts in what he called "Brush College." At the age of 21 he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, during the next ten years traveling different circuits in Indiana. In 1831 he was appointed to Chicago, but the Black Hawk War coming on immediately thereafter, he retired to Plainfield. Later he traveled various circuits in Illinois, until 1868, when he was superannuated, occupying his time thereafter in writing reminiscences of his early history. A volume of this character published by him, was entitled "Pages from the Early History of the West and Northwest." He died at Plainfield, Ill., Sept. 9, 1895, in the 95th year of his age.



BEIDLER, Henry, early settler, was born of German extraction in Bucks County, Pa., Nov. 27, 1812; came to Illinois in 1843, settling first at Springfield, where he carried on the grocery business for five years, then removed to Chicago-and engaged in the lumber trade in connection with a brother, afterwards carrying on a large lumber manufacturing business at Muskegon, Mich., which proved very profitable. In 1871 Mr. Beidler retired from the lumber trade, investing largely in west side real estate in the city of Chicago, which appreciated rapidly in value, making him one of the most wealthy real estate owners in Chicago. Died, March 16, 1893. — Jacob (Beidler), brother of the preceding, was born in Bucks County, Penn., in 1815; came west in 1842, first began working as a carpenter, but later engaged in the grocery business with his brother at Springfield, Ill.; in 1844 removed to Chicago, where he was joined by his brother four years later, when they engaged largely in the lumber trade. Mr. Beidler retired from business in 1891, devoting his attention to large real estate investments. He was a liberal contributor to religious, educational and benevolent institutions. Died in Chicago, March 15, 1898.



BELFIELD, Henry Holmes, educator, was born in Philadelphia, Nov. 17, 1837; was educated at an Iowa College, and for a time was tutor in the same; during the War of the Rebellion served in the army of the Cumberland, first as Lieutenant and afterwards as Adjutant of the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, still later being upon the staff of Gen. E. M. McCook, and taking part in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns. While a prisoner in the hands of the rebels he was placed under fire of the Union batteries at Charleston. Coming to Chicago in 1866, he served as Principal in various public schools, including the North Division High School. He was one of the earliest advocates of manual training, and, on the establishment of the Chicago Manual Training School in 1884, was appointed its Director—a position which he has continued to occupy. During 1891-92 he made a trip to Europe by appointment of the Government, to investigate the school systems in European countries.



BELKNAP, Hugh Reid, ex-Member of Congress, was born in Keokuk, Iowa, Sept. 1, 1860, being the son of W. W. Belknap, for some time Secretary of War under President Grant. After attending the public schools of his native city, he took a course at Adams Academy, Quincy, Mass., and at Phillips Academy, Andover, when he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, where he remained twelve years in various departments, finally becoming Chief Clerk of the General Manager. In 1892 he retired from this position to become Superintendent of the South Side Elevated Railroad of Chicago. He never held any political position until nominated (1894) as a Republican for the Fifty-fourth Congress, in the strongly Democratic Third District of Chicago. Although the returns showed a plurality of thirty-one votes for his Democratic opponent (Lawrence McGann), a recount proved him elected, when, Mr. McGann having voluntarily withdrawn, Mr. Belknap was unanimously awarded the seat. In 1896 he was re-elected from a District usually strongly Democratic, receiving a plurality of 590 votes, but was defeated by his Democratic opponent in 1898, retiring from Congress, March 3, 1899, when he received an appointment as Paymaster in the Army from President McKinley, with the rank of Major.



BELL, Robert, lawyer, was born in Lawrence County, Ill., in 1829, educated at Mount Carmel and Indiana State University at Bloomington, graduating from the law department of the latter in 1855; while yet in his minority edited "The Mount Carmel Register," during 1851-52 becoming joint owner and editor of the same with his brother, Victor D. Bell. After graduation he opened an office at Fairfield, Wayne County, but, in 1857, returned to Mount Carmel and from 1864 was the partner of Judge E. B. Green, until the appointment of the latter Chief Justice of Oklahoma by President Harrison in 1890. In 1869 Mr. Bell was appointed County Judge of Lawrence County, being elected to the same office in 1894. He was also President of the Illinois Southern Railroad Company until it was merged into the Cairo & Vincennes Road in 1867; later became President of the St. Louis & Mt. Carmel Railroad, now a part of the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis line, and secured the construction of the division from Princeton, Ind., to Albion, Ill. In 1876 he visited California as Special Agent of the Treasury Department to investigate alleged frauds in the Revenue Districts on the Pacific Coast; in 1878 was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket in the strong Democratic Nineteenth District; was appointed, the same year, a member of the Republican State Central Committee for the State-at-large, and, in 1881, officiated by appointment of President Garfield, as Commissioner to examine a section of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in New Mexico. Judge Bell is a gifted stump-speaker and is known in the southeastern part of the State as the "Silver-tongued Orator of the Wabash."



BELLEVILLE, the county-seat of St. Clair County, a city and railroad center, 14 miles south of east from St. Louis. It is one of the oldest towns in the State, having been selected as the county-seat in 1814 and platted in 1815. It lies in the center of a rich agricultural and coal-bearing district and contains numerous factories, including agricultural implements, flouring mills, a nail mill, glass works and shoe factories. It has five newspaper establishments, of which four issue both daily and weekly editions. Its commercial and educational facilities are exceptionally good. Its population is largely of German descent. Population (1890), 15,361; (1900), 17,484, (1910), 21,122.



BELLEVILLE, CENTRALIA & EASTERN RAILROAD. (See Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis (Consolidated) Railroad.)



BELLEVILLE & CARONDELET RAILROAD, a short line of road extending from Belleville to East Carondelet, Ill., 17.3 miles. It was chartered Feb. 20, 1881, and leased to the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company, June 1, 1883. The annual rental is $30,000, a sum equivalent to the interest on the bonded debt. The capital stock (1895) is $500,000 and the bonded debt $485,000. In addition to these sums the floating debt swells the entire capitalization to $995,054 or $57,317 per mile.



BELLEVILLE & ELDORADO RAILROAD, a road 50.4 miles in length running from Belleville to Duquoin, Ill. It was chartered Feb. 22, 1861, and completed Oct. 81, 1871. On July 1, 1880, it was leased to the St Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company for 486 years, and has since been operated by that corporation in connection with its Belleville branch, from East St. Louis to Belleville. At Eldorado the road intersects the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad and the Shawneetown branch of the St. Louis & Southeastern Railroad, operated by the Louisville & Npshville Railroad Company. Its capital stock (1895) is $1,000,000 and its bonded debt $550,000. The corporate office is at Belleville.



BELLEVILLE & ILL1NOISTOWN RAILROAD. (See St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad.)



BELLEVILLE & SOUTHERN ILLINOIS RAILROAD, a road (laid with steel rails) running from Belleville to Duquoin, Ill., 56.4 miles in length. It was chartered Feb. 15, 1857, and completed Dec. 15, 1873. At Duquoin it connects with the Illinois Central and forms a short line between St. Louis and Cairo. Oct. 1, 1866, it was leased to the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company for 999 years. The capital stock is $1,692,000 and the bonded debt $1,000,000. The corporate office is at Belleville.



BELLMONT, a village of Wabash County, on the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Railway, 9 miles west of Mount Carmel. Population (1880), 350; (1890), 487; (1900), 624; (1910), 550.



BELT RAILWAY COMPANY OF CHICAGO, THE, a corporation chartered, Nov. 22, 1882, and the lessee of the Belt Division of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad (which see). Its total trackage (all of standard gauge and laid with 66-pound steel rails) is 93.26 miles, distributed as follows: Auburn Junction to Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Junction, 15.9 miles; branches from Pullman Junction to Irondale, Ill., etc., 5.41 miles; second track, 14.1 miles; sidings, 57.85 miles. The cost of construction has been $524,549; capital stock, $1,200,000. It has no funded debt. The earnings for the year ending June 30, 1895, were $556,847, the operating expenses $378,012, and the taxes $51,009.



BELVIDERE,an incorporated city, the county-seat of Boone County, situated on the Kishwaukee River, and on two divisions of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 78 miles west-northwest of Chicago and 14 miles east of Rockford; is connected with the latter city by electric railroad. The city has twelve churches, five graded schools, and three banks (two national). One daily and one semi-weekly paper are published here. Belvidere also has very considerable manufacturing interests, including manufactories of sewing machines, bicycles, automobiles, besides a large milk-condensing factory and two creameries. Pop. (1890), 3,867; (1900), 6,937; (1910), 7,253.



BEMENT, a village in Piatt County, at intersection of main line and Chicago Division of Wabash Railroad, 20 miles east of Decatur and 166 miles south-southwest of Chicago; in agricultural and stock-raising district; has three grain elevators, broom factory, water-works, electric-light plant, four churches, two banks and a weekly paper. Pop. (1900), 1,484; (1910), 1,530.



BENJAMIN, Reuben Moore, lawyer, born at Chatham Centre, Columbia County, N. Y., June 29, 1833; was educated at Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.; spent one year in the law department of Harvard, another as tutor at Amherst and, in 1856, came to Bloomington, Ill., where, on an examination certificate furnished by Abraham Lincoln, he was licensed to practice. The first public office held by Mr. Benjamin was that of Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1869-70, in which he took a prominent part in shaping the provisions of the new Constitution relating to corporations. In 1873 he was chosen County Judge of McLean County, by repeated re-elections holding the position until 1886, when he resumed private practice. For more than twenty years he has been connected with the law department of Wesleyan University at Bloomington, a part of the time being Dean of the Faculty; is also the author of several volumes of legal textbooks.



BENNETT MEDICAL COLLEGE, an Eclectic Medical School of Chicago, incorporated by special charter and opened in the autumn of 1868. Its first sessions were held in two large rooms; its faculty consisted of seven professors, and there were thirty matriculates. More commodious quarters were secured the following year, and a still better home after the fire of 1871, in which all the college property was destroyed. Another change of location was made in 1874. In 1890 the property then owned was sold and a new college building, in connection with a hospital, erected in a more quiet quarter of the city. A free dispensary is conducted by the college. The teaching faculty (1896) consists of nineteen professors, with four assistants and demonstrators. Women are admitted as pupils on equal terms with men.



BENT, Charles, journalist, was born in Chicago, Dec. 8, 1844, but removed with his family, in 1856, to Morrison, Whiteside County, where, two years later, he became an apprentice to the printing business in the office of "The Whiteside Sentinel." In June, 1864, he enlisted as a soldier in the One Hundred and Fortieth Illinois (100-days' regiment) and, on the expiration of his term of service, re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Illinois, being mustered out at Savannah, Ga., in January, 1866, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Then resuming his vocation as a printer, in July, 1867, he purchased the office of "The Whiteside Sentinel," in which he learned his trade, and has since been the editor of that paper, except during 1877-79 while engaged in writing a "History of Whiteside County." He is a charter member of the local Grand Army Post and served on the staff of the Department Commander; was Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue during 1870-73, and, in 1878, was elected as a Republican to the State Senate for Whiteside and Carroll Counties, serving four years. Other positions held by him include the office of City Alderman, member of the State Board of Canal Commissioners (1883-85) and Commissioner of the Joliet Penitentiary (1889-93), member of the Republican State Central Committee and (1911) is serving as U. S. Pension Agent.



BENTON, county seat of Franklin County, on Ill. Cent, and Chi. & E. Ill. railroads; has electric-light plant, water-works, saddle and harness factory, two banks, two flouring mills, shale brick and tile works, extensive coal mines in vicinity; has two weekly papers. Pop. (1900), 1,341; (1910), 2,675.



BERDAN, James, lawyer and County Judge, was born in New York City, July 4, 1805, and educated at Columbia and Yale Colleges, graduating from the latter in the class of 1824. His father, James Berdan, Sr., came west in the fall of 1819 as one of the agents of a New York Emigration Society, and, in January, 1820, visited the vicinity of the present site of Jacksonville, Ill., but died soon after his return, in part from exposure incurred during his long and arduous winter journey. Thirteen years later (1832) his son, the subject of this sketch, came to the same region, and Jacksonville became his home for the remainder of his life. Mr. Berdan was a well-read lawyer, as well as a man of high principle and sound culture, with pure literary and social tastes. Although possessing unusual capabilities, his refinement of character and dislike of ostentation made him seek rather the association and esteem of friends than public office. In 1849 he was elected County Judge of Morgan County, serving by a second election until 1857. Later he was Secretary for several years of the Tonica & Petersburg Railroad (at that time in course of construction), serving until it was merged into the St. Louis, Jacksonville & Chicago Railroad, now constituting a part of the Jacksonville division of the Chicago & Alton Railroad; also served for many years as a Trustee of Illinois College. In the latter years of his life he was, for a considerable period, the law partner of ex-Governor and ex-Senator Richard Yates. Judge Berdan was the ardent political friend and admirer of Abraham Lincoln, as well as an intimate friend and frequent correspondent of the poet Longfellow, besides being the correspondent, during a long period of his life, of a number of other prominent literary men. Pierre Irving, the nephew and biographer of Washington Irving, was his brother-in-law through the marriage of a favorite sister. Judge Berdan died at Jacksonville, August 24, 1884.



BERGEN, (Rev.) John G., pioneer clergyman, was born at Hightstown, N. J., Nov. 27, 1790; studied theology, and, after two years' service as tutor at Princeton and sixteen years as pastor of a Presbyterian church at Madison, N. J., in 1828 came to Springfield, Ill., and assisted in the erection of the first Protestant church in the central part of the State, of which he remained pastor until 1848. Died, at Springfield, Jan. 17, 1872.



BERGGREN, Augustus W., legislator, born in Sweden, August 17, 1840; came to the United States at 16 years of age and located at Oneida, Knox County, Ill., afterwards removing to Galesburg; held various offices, including that of Sheriff of Knox County (1873-81), State Senator (1881-89) — serving as President pro tem, of the Senate 1887-89, and was Warden of the State penitentiary at Joliet, 1888-91. He was for many years the very able and efficient President of the Covenant Mutual Life Association of Illinois, and is now its Treasurer.



BERGIER, (Rev.) J., a secular priest, born in France, and an early missionary in Illinois. He labored among the Tamaroas, being in charge of the mission at Cahokia from 1700 to his death in 1710.



BERRY, Orville F., lawyer and legislator, was born in McDonough County, Ill., Feb. 16, 1852; early left an orphan and, after working for some time on a farm, removed to Carthage, Hancock County, where he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1877; in 1883 was elected Mayor of Carthage and twice re-elected; was elected to the State Senate in 1888 and '92, and, in 1891, took a prominent part in securing the enactment of the compulsory education clause in the common school law. Mr. Berry presided over the Republican State Convention of 1896, the same year was a candidate for re-election to the State Senate, but the certificate was awarded to his Democratic competitor, who was declared elected by 164 plurality. On a contest before the Senate at the first session of the Fortieth General Assembly, the seat was awarded to Mr. Berry on the ground of illegality in the rulings of the Secretary of State affecting the vote of his opponent.



BERRY, (Col.) William W., lawyer and soldier, was born in Kentucky, Feb. 22, 1834, and educated at Oxford, Ohio. His home being then in Covington, he studied law in Cincinnati, and, at the age of 23, began practice at Louisville, Ky., being married two years later to Miss Georgie Hewitt of Frankfort. Early in 1861 he entered the Civil War on the Union side as Major of the Louisville Legion, and subsequently served in the Army of the Cumberland, marching to the sea with Sherman and, during the period of his service, receiving four wounds. After the close of the war he was offered the position of Governor of one of the Territories, but, determining not to go further west than Illinois, declined. For three years he was located and in practice at Winchester, Ill., but removed to Quincy in 1874, where he afterwards resided. He always took a warm interest in politics and, in local affairs, was a leader of his party. He was an organizer of the G. A. R. Post at Quincy and its first Commander, and, in 1884-85, served as Commander of the State Department of the G. A. R. He organized a Young Men's Republican Club, as he believed that the young minds should take an active part in politics. He was one of the committee of seven appointed by the Governor to locate the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home for Illinois, and, after spending six months inspecting various sites offered, the institution was finally located at Quincy; was also Trustee of Knox College, at Galesburg, for several years. He was frequently urged by his party friends to run for public office, but it was so much against his nature to ask for even one vote, that he would not consent. He died at his home in Quincy, much regretted, May 6, 1895.



BESTOR, George C., legislator, born in Washington City, April 11, 1811; was assistant document clerk in the House of Representatives eight years; came to Illinois in 1835 and engaged in real-estate business at Peoria; was twice appointed Postmaster of that city (1842 and 1861) and three times elected Mayor; served as financial agent of the Peoria & Oquawka (now Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad), and a Director of the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw; a delegate to the Whig National Convention of 1852; a State Senator (1858-62), and an ardent friend of Abraham Lincoln. Died, in Washington, May 14, 1872, while prosecuting a claim against the Government for the construction of gunboats during the war.



BERWYN, a city (suburb of Chicago) on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Illinois Central Railroads; is a popular residence section; has one local paper. Pop. (1910), 5,841.



BETHANY, a village of Moultrie County, on Peoria Division Ill. Cent. Railroad, 18 miles southeast of Decatur; in farming district; has one newspaper and four churches. Pop., mostly American born, (1890), 688; (1900), 873; (1910), 859.



BETTIE STUART INSTITUTE, an institution for young ladies at Springfield, Ill., founded in 1868 by Mrs. Mary McKee Homes, who conducted it for some twenty years, until her death. Its report for 1898 shows a faculty of ten instructors and 125 pupils. Its property is valued at $23,500. Its course of instruction embraces the preparatory and classical branches, together with music, oratory and fine arts.



BEVERIDGE, James H., State Treasurer, was born in Washington County, N. Y., in 1828; served as State Treasurer, 1865-67, later acted as Secretary of the Commission which built the State Capitol. His later years were spent in superintending a large dairy farm near Sandwich, De Kalb County, where he died in January, 1896.



BEVERIDGE, John L., ex-Governor, was born in Greenwich, N. Y., July 6, 1824; came to Illinois, 1842, and, after spending some two years in Granville Academy and Rock River Seminary, went to Tennessee, where he engaged in teaching while studying law. Having been admitted to the bar, he returned to Illinois in 1851, first locating at Sycamore, but three years later established himself in Chicago. During the first year of the war he assisted to raise the Eighth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, and was commissioned first as Captain and still later Major; two years later became Colonel of the Seventeenth Cavalry, which he commanded to the close of the war, being mustered out, February, 1866, with the rank of brevet Brigadier-General. After the war he held the office of Sheriff of Cook County four years; in 1870 was elected to the State Senate, and, in the following year, Congressman-at-large to succeed General Logan, elected to the United States Senate; resigned this office in January, 1873, having been elected Lieutenant-Governor, and a few weeks later succeeded to the governorship by the election of Governor Oglesby to the United States Senate. In 1881 he was appointed, by President Arthur, Assistant United States Treasurer for Chicago, serving until after Cleveland's first election. His last home was near Los Angeles, Cal., where he died May 3, 1910.



BIENVILLE, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur le, was born at Montreal, Canada, Feb. 23, 1680, and was the French Governor of Louisiana at the time the Illinois country was included in that province. He had several brothers, a number of whom played important parts in the early history of the province. Bienville first visited Louisiana, in company with his brother Iberville, in 1698, their object being to establish a French colony near the mouth of the Mississippi. The first settlement was made at Biloxi, Dec. 6, 1699, and Sanvolle, another brother, was placed in charge. The latter was afterward made Governor of Louisiana, and, at his death (1701), he was succeeded by Bienville, who transferred the seat of government to Mobile. In 1704 he was joined by his brother Chateaugay, who brought seventeen settlers from Canada. Soon afterwards Iberville died, and Bienville was recalled to France in 1707, but was reinstated the following year. Finding the Indians worthless as tillers of the soil, he seriously suggested to the home government the expediency of trading off the copper-colored aborigines for negroes from the West Indies, three Indians to be reckoned as equivalent to two blacks. In 1713 Cadillac was sent out as Governor, Bienville being made Lieutenant-Governor. The two quarreled. Cadillac was superseded by Epinay in 1717, and, in 1718, Law's first expedition arrived (see Company of the West), and brought a Governor's commission for Bienville. The latter soon after founded New Orleans, which became the seat of government for the province (which then included Illinois), in 1723. In January, 1724, he was again summoned to France to answer charges; was removed in disgrace in 1726, but reinstated in 1733 and given the rank of Lieutenant-General. Failing in various expeditions against the Chickasaw Indians, he was again superseded in 1743, returning to France, where he died in 1768.



BIGGS, William, pioneer, Judge and legislator, was born in Maryland in 1753, enlisted in the Revolutionary army, and served as an officer under Colonel George Rogers Clark in the expedition for the capture of Illinois from the British in 1778. He settled in Bellefontaine (now Monroe County) soon after the close of the war. He was Sheriff of St. Clair County for many years, and later Justice of the Peace and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He also represented his county in the Territorial Legislatures of Indiana and Illinois. Died, in St. Clair County, in 1827.



BIGGSVILLE, a village of Henderson County, on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 15 miles northeast of Burlington; has a bank and one newspaper and a brick yard; considerable grain and live-stock are shipped here. Population (1890), 487; (1900), 417; (1910), 400.



BIG MUDDY RIVER, a stream formed by the union of two branches which rise in Jefferson County. It runs south and southwest through Franklin and Jackson Counties, and enters the Mississippi about five miles below Grand Tower. Its length is estimated at 140 miles.



BILLINGS, Albert Merritt, capitalist, was born in New Hampshire, April 19, 1814, educated in the common schools of his native State and Vermont, and, at the age of 22, became Sheriff of Windsor County, Vt. Later he was proprietor for a time of the mail stage-coach line between Concord, N. H., and Boston, but, having sold out, invested his means in the securities of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and became identified with the business interests of Chicago. In the '50's he became associated with Cornelius K. Garrison in the People's Gas Company of Chicago, of which he served as President from 1859 to 1888. In 1890 Mr. Billings became extensively interested in the street railway enterprises of Mr. C. B. Holmes, resulting in his becoming the proprietor of the street railway system at Memphis, Tenn., valued, in 1897, at $3,000,000. In early life he had been associated with Commodore Vanderbilt in the operation of the Hudson River steamboat lines of the latter. In addition to his other business enterprises, he was principal owner and, during the last twenty-five years of his life, President of the Home National and Home Savings Banks of Chicago. Died, Feb. 7, 1897, leaving an estate valued at several millions of dollars.



BILLINGS, Henry W., was born at Conway, Mass., July 11, 1814, graduated at Amherst College at twenty years of age, and began the study of law with Judge Foote, of Cleveland, Ohio, was admitted to the bar two years later and practiced there some two years longer. He then removed to St. Louis, Mo., later resided for a time at Waterloo and Cairo, Ill., but, in 1845, settled at Alton; was elected Mayor of that city in 1851, and the first Judge of the newly organized City Court, in 1859, serving in this position six years. In 1869 he was elected a Delegate from Madison County to the State Constitutional Convention of 1869-70, but died before the expiration of the session, on April 19, 1870.



BIRKBECK, Morris, early colonist, was born in England about 1762 or 1763, emigrated to America in 1817, and settled in Edwards County, Ill. He purchased a large tract of land and induced a large colony of English artisans, laborers and farmers to settle upon the same, founding the town of New Albion. He was an active, uncompromising opponent of slavery, and was an important factor in defeating the scheme to make Illinois a slave State. He was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Coles in October, 1824, but resigned at the end of three months, a hostile Legislature having refused to confirm him. A strong writer and a frequent contributor to the press, his letters and published works attracted attention both in this country and in Europe. Principal among the latter were: "Notes on a Journey Through France" (1815); "Notes on a Journey Through America" (1818), and "Letters from Illinois" (1818). Died from drowning in 1825, aged about 63 years. (See Slavery and Slave Laws.)



BISSELL, William H., first Republican Governor of Illinois, was born near Cooperstown, N. Y., on April 25, 1811, graduated in medicine at Philadelphia in 1835, and, after practicing a short time in Steuben County, N. Y., removed to Monroe County, Ill. In 1840 he was elected a Representative in the General Assembly, where he soon attained high rank as a debater. He studied law and practiced in Belleville, St. Clair County, becoming Prosecuting Attorney for that county in 1844. He served as Colonel of the Second Illinois Volunteers during the Mexican War, and achieved distinction at Buena Vista. He represented Illinois in Congress from 1849 to 1855, being first elected as an Independent Democrat. On the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, he left the Democratic party and, in 1856, was elected Governor on the Republican ticket. While in Congress he was challenged by Jefferson Davis after an interchange of heated words respecting the relative courage of Northern and Southern soldiers, spoken in debate. Bissell accepted the challenge, naming muskets at thirty paces. Mr. Davis's friends objected, and the duel never occurred. Died in office, at Springfield, Ill., March 18, 1860.

For corrections or additions, please contact me: Sandy Bauer

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