most outrageous and uncalled-for attacks upon the private char-
acter and standing of our most respectable citizens, thereby caus-
ing it to be deserving of unmeasured reprobation ; Therefore,
" Resolved, By this Board of Trade, while disclaiming all
partisan feeling, and being actuated by no other motive than the
public welfare and the fair fame of our city, that the Chicago
Times is unworthy of countenance or support, and that the
directors are hereby requested to exclude it from the reading-
room of the Board.
" Resolved, That this Board knows of no objection to the com-
mercial editor of the Chicago Times, personally, but inasmuch as
his presence on 'Change, to a certain extent, tolerates the paper,
he is hereby excluded from the rooms, as a reporter for said
paper."
In answer to this expression of feeling on the part
of the Board, the Times charged that the resolutions
were introduced clandestinely and forced hastily
through, after a majority of the members had left
'Change, and that they did not fairly represent the
sentiments of a majority of the members of the Roard.
At twelve o'clock of the noon session of the Saturday
following, the matter was again brought up. N. K.
Fairbank, the original mover of the resolutions, arose
and stated that, inasmuch as the Times had charged
that the resolutions had been introduced clandestinely
and smuggled through by fraud, as there was a full
representation of the membership of the Board now
present, he desired to have another expression, about
which there could be no doubt. He therefore moved a
reconsideration of the vote by which the resolutions
were adopted. The motion was seconded, and a
motion to lay upon the table the motion to reconsider,
having been voted down, the original resolutions passed
by an overwhelming vote. For a time this action of
the Board engendered not a little dissension among the
members, it being viewed by not only the friends of the
Times, but others, as a species of persecution on polit-
ical as well as patriotic grounds, which was entirely
foreign and antagonistic to the legitimate objects of
the association. The most earnest protesters took
measures for the organization of a new Board, where
politics should not obtrude, nor persecution for opin-
ion's sake be possible. A room was engaged and a
charter obtained, under which a primary organization
was effected. Better counsels, however, prevailed, and
the old Board suffered no material damage from the
temporary disaffection; on the contrary, as will appear,
the charter then obtained became the organic act under
which the Board was afterward enabled to provide itself
with a permanent location and rooms more adequate to
its growing needs than, under the restrictions of its own
charter, would have been possible.
Miscellaneous War Work. — From January 1,
1863, to the close of the fiscal year, war matters did
not so largely engross the attention of the Roard. One
war meeting was, however, held, which is deemed worthy
of mention, as showing how the Roard cared for its
soldiers after they took the field. It was held Satur-
day evening, February 21, at which time J. L. Ham nek,
chairman of the War Fund Committee, presented an
elaborate report of the moneys and goods received and
disbursed for war purposes, since the committee was
first called to act. Following is a summary of its labors,
as then presented :
The total receipts up to February 14, were $50,375.38 ; total
343
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
disbursements up to the same date, $2g,Sio.4i ; balance on hand,
- 5 4-97-
The items of expenditure were : Paid to one hundred and
ninety families of soldiers of the Board-of-Trade Battery and
regiments. $5,292 ; paid bounty to members of the battery, $9,360;
advanced on allotments to families, $797; sent goods, exclusive of
money and goods raised by contributions on 'Change, $4,52046;
paid for recruiting, $2,415.62. Total expenditures up to October
15. [S62, $22,601.48. Disbursements from October 15 to Feb-
ruary 14. 1S03, $7,208.93. Total disbursements, S29.S10.41.
The report was approved; following which a resolu-
tion, offered bv Murry Nelson, was adopted, authorizing
the committee to offer bounties to recruits for the bat-
tery and the 88th Infantry, which had been decimated
by sickness and by their participation in the recent
bloody battle of Stone River.
Reports were read from the various visiting com-
mittees which had been sent to visit the battery and
regiments.
January 4, G. H. Weeks was sent with packages of
goods and supplies to the battery, then at Bowling
Green, and the SSth, then at Nashville. On the 24th, E.
B. Stevens visited these two organizations, and distrib-
uted large amounts of goods, clothing and supplies for
the sick and wounded, made up by the Ladies' War
Committee, under the supervision of the Board. Med-
icines, stores and rubber blankets were sent to them by
T. Maple. Immediately after the battle of Murfrees-
boro', Mrs. E. O. Hosmer and Mrs. Smith Tinkham
were sent to the hospitals at Nashville and Murfreesboro'
by the Board. They were accompanied by Mr. Adams
and others. W. H. Hoyt was sent with supplies to the
72d, at Memphis, and to the 113th, at Vicksburg.
Among the supplies distributed by Mr. Hoyt, were five
hundred rubber blankets to each regiment.
Soon after this meeting, the attention of the Board
was called to the condition of the Board-of-Trade regi-
ments, then in the field, by Ira Y. Munn, who had re-
cently visited them. He detailed, in a graphic and
most affecting manner, their sufferings from privation,
and told of the sickness then prevailingamong the boys,
more especially those of the 113th, at Vicksburg. His
stirring appeal aroused the sympathies of the Board, and
resulted in the raising of a special fund for their benefit,
independent of the war fund — the work being put into
the hands of a separate committee, leaving them free to
disburse what might be given, without any of the re-
strictions that governed the disbursement of the war
fund, which was in a manner pledged to the continuous
work of supporting soldiers' families, and was not, there-
fore, available for the many urgent calls from the soldiers
in the field. The new movement was started at once, by
the appointment of the Board of Trade Relief Commit-
tee, Murry Nelson, chairman; and $1,000 were subscribed
on the spot. Circulars were distributed throughout the
city and State, calling for donations of fruits and vege-
tables, then much needed, as well as money. Mr. Nel-
son's store became a depot of supplies, to which the
numerous donations were sent, and from which they
were forwarded, as fast as received, to the suffering sol-
diers at the front. Mr. Nelson, on March 27, one
month after the movement was begun, reported as al-
ready received, from Chicago and all parts of the State,
$3,080 in money, and nearly as much more in value,
consisting of vegetables, clothing and sanitary stores.
The labor of this new war agency was continuous there-
after.
Death of Secretary Catlin. — On Sunday, January 18,
•h Catlin, the secretary of the Board, died, after a linger-
ing illness of several months. He had been the statistician of the
Board from the institution 01' its system of publishing annual sta-
tistical reports up to the time of his death, and had won high rank
in his profession, by the fullness and accuracy of his work. Mr.
Catlin was among the earliest settlers in Chicago, arriving in 1836.
After being in business some time, with Houghteling & Shepherd,
in this city, he took charge of their business at LaSalle, where he
was agent for their line of boats, and managed all their financial
affairs at that place. After his return to Chicago, he filled several
positions of trust in leading banking and commercial houses, until
he was elected secretary of the Board of Trade. He inaugurated
the popular system of keeping their books and the publication of
their model Annual Review. Mr. Catlin was a native of Massa-
chusetts, and fifty years of age at the time of his demise.
His death was announced on 'Change, which had
been the scene of his faithful and unassuming labors for
so many years, on the Monday following, at which time
the appreciation and affectionate remembrance in which
he was held by the members of the Board was publicly
expressed in appropriate resolutions. The Board also
erected a handsome monument over the deceased secre-
tary's final resting-place, at Rosehill.
February 26, John F. Beaty was elected secretary,
to fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Catlin's death.
The Chicago Mercantile Association. — During
the latter portion of i860, the business men of Chicago
became convinced that something must be done at once
to purify the commercial atmosphere of the community,
and especially to establish the currency upon a sound
basis. Organization naturally followed, the first de-
cided step in that direction being the appearance of
a call on the 1st of December of that year, signed by
one hundred and fifty of the leading merchants and
firms representing the great commercial interests of the
city. A short time thereafter, a meeting was held to
get an expression of sentiment relative to the banking
laws of the State. The Supreme Court had lately de-
cided that the Legislature had the right to amend the
law, and this enthusiastic meeting, held on December 7,
was designed to influence the action of that body, which
was soon to assemble. Before the end of the month
the Mercantile Association had been formed, with the
following organization: President, G. C. Cook; Vice-
Presidents, Fred Tuttle, W. E. Doggett, C. L. Harmon
and J. V. Farwell; Secretary, Merrill Ladd; Treasurer,
H. W. Hinsdale; Executive Committee, C. G. Wicker,
J. V. Farwell, Nelson Tuttle, E. Hempstead, Clinton
Briggs, H. A. Hurlbut and H. W. King. This body,
when the War of the Rebellion fairly opened, co-oper-
ated with the Board of Trade in all patriotic objects,
and a committee was appointed from these two bodies,
the Young Men's Christian Association and the Union
Defense Committee, to raise a regiment. The muster-
rolls were opened August 5, and in about three weeks
one hundred and fifty-six had joined the company. The
leading subscriber for the association was William E.
Doggett, and the company was at first named the
" Doggett Guards." In the meantime, however, it had
been ascertained that the War Department was willing
to furnish union repeating guns, and consequently the
organization went into Camp Douglas as the Doggett
Guard Battery, and afterward was best known as the
Mercantile Battery; On August 26, the officers were
elected, with Charles G. Cooley as captain, and on the
8th of November the battery left Chicago, as fine a
military company as was ever raised in this city. Its
subsequent brilliant career is traced in the war history.
Currencv and oi'her Reforms. — But the Asso-
ciation firmly held to its original purpose of " cor-
recting" the currency, and even taking up such other
unsavory subjects as the "condition of the Chicago
River." Mr. Doggett succeeded Mr. Cook as presi-
dent, in 1862, but the secretary and the treasurer
remained the same. In January, 1863, the election
resulted in the choice of J. V. Farwell for president.
THE BOARD OF TRADE.
349
Principally through the persistent exertions of the
Mercantile Association and the Board of Trade, which
crystallized the public sentiment of the city and State,
the obnoxious ''wild-cat" currency was driven from
Illinois. The ship canal and public measures, generally,
were vigorously and ably supported. John Tyrell
succeeded Mr. Farwell as president, in January, 1864,
and the next month the Association opened its new and
spacious rooms in the third story of Dickey's building,
opposite the Tremont House. Under President Tyr-
ell's administration, the war against the "stump-tail,"
"wild-cat " currency was continued with renewed vigor.
In April, 1864, the merchants of Chicago held a great
meeting, formally adopting greenbacks as the standard
currency, and calling upon the bankers to do the same.
A month later, although decided opposition was mani-
fested, a majority of the money-changers adopted
United States and National bank notes as legal tender.
Thus it was that the continued efforts of the Association
at last bore fruit. Edwin Burnham became its presi-
dent, in 1865, and Henry W. King in 1866. Mr. King
served nearly two years. The Association gradually
declined, and finally ceased to hold meetings.
The Ship Canal Project. — The subject of enlarg-
ing the Illinois and Michigan Canal sufficiently, in
connection with a proposed enlargement of the Cana-
dian canals, to make a continuous waterway for the
largest lake craft, via the St. Lawrence River, from the
upper Mississippi to the Atlantic, began to be discussed
early in November. The commercial value of such
means of communication to the Northwest, and espe-
cially to Chicago as the lake terminus, could not be
overestimated. Its advantages to the Nation in quel-
ling domestic insurrection was most forcibly brought to
notice, and the need of it made most painfully appar-
ent by the war in which the country was then engaged. It
was believed that the time was propitious for influencing
Congress to undertake the work, both as a war measure
and as an internal improvement for the advancement of
the commercial interests of the great Northwest for all
time to come. On November 15, a committee was
appointed, consisting of eight members, five of whom
represented the Board of Trade, the remaining three
being members of the Mercantile Association. It was
composed as follows : Board of Trade, George Steel,
George Armour, M. C. Stearns, W. D. Houghteling,
and Ira Y. Munn ; Mercantile Association, Nelson
Tuttle, A. Benedict, and John Tyrell. The joint com-
mittee commenced its work at once by sending a strong
delegation to Washington to urge the favorable consid-
eration of the project upon members of Congress, and,
if possible, secure the passage of a bill providing for
the immediate prosecution of the work as a National
undertaking. Owing to the diverse interests and per-
haps local jealousies existing among the representatives
of the various States, it was found impossible to get
Congress to favor the project; and the commission
returned to Chicago, crestfallen but not discouraged,
to report the failure of their mission.
February 24, 1863, a large meeting of the business
men of Chicago assembled at Metropolitan Hall, at
which the joint committee made a most elaborate and
able report and speeches were made by Colonel Foster,
a member of the Washington delegation, and others.
The committee submitted with the report, a series of
resolutions embodying in proper form for action of the
meeting the recommendations contained therein, which,
after a season of effective speech-making, were adopted
by acclamation.
The labors of the delegation sent to Washington
did not prove futile. Though they failed in their pri-
mary object, they succeeded in enlisting the warmest
interest of many influential members, who, on March 2,
issued at Washington a call for a mass convention of
citizens from all the Northern States, to convene in
Chicago on the first Tuesday of the following June,
and inviting the co-operation and aid of all the Boards
of Trade, agricultural societies, and business associa-
tions of the country. The call was signed by Hon.
Edward Bates, attorney-general of the United States,
fourteen members of the United States Senate and
seventy-eight members of the House of Represent-
atives.
Discipline. — The immense volume of trade, and
numerous intricacies of the transactions involved, occa-
sionally developed cases of unmercantile conduct, dis-
honesty, or sharp practice, which were calculated to
bring disrepute upon the Board. Under the then ex-
isting rules, it was necessary to bring complaints before
the full Board for a hearing ; and on the question of
expulsion of any offending member, it was difficult, on
evidence such as could be presented, to get a vote
sufficiently large to expel.
On March 27, two complaints were brought before
the Board. The first alleged that the member named
in the complaint, had attempted to insure a vessel after
he had received positive information that the said vessel
was lost. The plea set up in defense was that the
application to the underwriters was only intended as a
joke. In this case, the motion to expel the offending
member was carried. The second complaint was against
a leading firm, who, having suspicions that some grain
delivered to them by a broker was the property of a
dealer then owing them, gave a check for the grain in
order to get it into their possession, and immediately
after stopped payment on the check, in order to collect
the debt. The broker appeared as the complainant,
claiming that he had been defrauded of his property by
this sharp practice. In this case, the motion for expul-
sion was not sustained. At the close of the proceed-
ings, an amendment to the by-laws, which brought all
complaints for breach of contract under the jurisdiction
of the directors was offered, with the understanding that
it should lay over until the annual meeting.
Some of the firms and individuals who became
members of the Board, about this time are herewith
presented.
Blackman Bros, are commission and brokerage merchants,
and among the oldest and most prominent members of the Board.
They do an extensive business, reaching all over the Northwest,
amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The firm
consists of three brothers, Carlos H., Willis L., and Chester S.,
natives of Chittenden County, Vermont. Their father moved
West in 1857, and settled at' Marengo, 111., and two years later
moved to Harvard, 111., where he engaged in mercantile business.
Carlos H. Blackmail was born in 1S41, and received the prin-
cipal part of his education in Vermont, completing it after coming
to Illinois. He remained at home, assisting his father in the store,
until twenty-two years of age. He came to Chicago in 1S63, and
entered the commission business, becoming a member of the firm
of Linsley, Hanchett & Co. Two years later the firm changed,
and was known by the name and style of Linsley, Blackman & Co.,
which existed until 1S69, when the firm of Blackman Bros, was
formed. Mr. Blackman became a member of the Board of Trade
in 1863. He has been a member of the Committees of Arbitration
and Appeals, and was a member of the Board of Directors one term.
He is also a member of the Chicago Stock Exchange. He was
married in 186S, to Miss Flora Littlefield, of Rockford, 111.
Willis L. Blackmail was born in 1S45, and received his edu-
cation in the public schools of Marengo and Harvard, 111., and
spent his earlv days, and received his business training, in his
father's store. In 1865, he came to this city, associated himself
with his brother in the commission business, and became a member
of the Board the same year. He was married in this city, in 1869,
to Miss Carrie Linsley. They have three children.
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Chester S. BLnkman, the junior member of the firm, was
born in 1S4J. His early days were spent at home, in school, and
assisting his father in his store. In 1S70, when twenty-two years
of age. "he came to Chicago, ami entered his brother's commission
and one year later became a member of the firm, also a
member of the Board of Trade the same year. He was married to
Miss Jennie Diggins, of Harvard, 111., in 1S77.
A: FXAMiEK Bell, foreign commission merchant and dealer
in flour, oatmeal and provisions, is of a mingled Scotch and En-
glish descent, and has marked characteristics of these races in his
sturdy phvsique. On the father's side he is descended from the
Scotch covenanters, who fled from Scotland to escape persecution
in the reign of Charles II.. and took refuge in the north of Ireland.
His great" grandfather was the Thomas Bell mentioned in the ency-
clopaedias as among those liberty-loving seceders from the established
kirk, who left Avrshire, Scotland, and settled in Belfast, Ireland.
On his mother's side, he comes from that Savers family who were
famous in Northumberland, North of England, for their physical
size and prowess. The family moved to Belfast about the same
time that the Bells came from Scotland, and they became intimate
and fast friends, their children intermarrying. Clement Bell — the
father of Alexander — was a butter and provision merchant in Bel-
fast for forty years, bringing up his son to the business. Alexan-
der was born in Belfast on February 2S, 1822, and came to America
in 1 547. He first settled in Cincinnati, where he packed pork for
three vears; but after moving to Racine, Wis., in March, TS50, he
went into the soap and candle business. Afterward he added the
manufacture of potash, pearlash and saleratus| but, business in
that line declining, he began again, in 1S60, to pack pork. In this
he succeeded and moved to Chicago in 1S62, to enlarge his busi-
ness facilities. Henry Milward, a Chicago broker, became a
silent partner, and they did business for one year on Archer Road
as Alexander Bell & Co. In 1863, he built a packing-house on
Archer Road and Wallace Street, which he sold, in 1864, to B. T.
Murphey & Co. In the fall of that year he began to supply Wis-
consin flouring mills with wheat, buying back their flour at a fixed
price; which business he continued for two seasons only. In the
meantime he had built another pork-packing house on Quarry
Street and the Chicago & Alton Railroad, where he packed the
pork crop of that year. He subsequently rented his establishment,
and, in 1876, established his lines of foreign commission in Eng-
land, Ireland and Scotland; and has done a fairly prosperous
business to date. He is particularly fortunate in being able to send
to Ireland and Scotland large shipments of a very superior quality
of oatmeal, so largely consumed in those countries This is manu-
factured expressly for his trade in Iowa, and is fully equal, if not
superior, to the best foreign makes. While living at Cincinnati,
on November 13, 1849, Mr. Bell was married to Miss Jane Ireland.
They have three daughters and two sons, Clement and John. Mr.
Bell is a member of the Fifth Presbyterian Church of this city.
He has never taken part in American politics, and has never been
naturalized; yet, during the war, he stood his chances in three
drafts without a murmur of protest.
ANDREW J. Hoagland was born in Hunterdon County, N.
J., in 1831, and spent his early years on a farm. At fifteen years
of age he became employed in a general store at Flemington, in
the same county, and for eighteen months previous to coming West
was employed in mercantile pursuits in the city of New York. He
came to Chicago August 5, 1850, and entered the employ of R. D.
Jones & Son, dry goods merchants, with whom he remained seven
years. In 1857, he became a member of the Board of Trade, and,
■•mbarked in the provision business, on South Water Street,
buying his meats in St. Louis. In 1S62, he closed out his store,
and engaged exclusively in the commission provision trade. He
built up a large business during the war, and, from 1866 to 1868,
did an immense trade in flour as a commission merchant and for-
warder. He subsequently gave up the flour business, and confined
himself entirely to the provision and grain commission trade. On
I [871, he became associated with A. E. Clarke, under
the firm name of Hoagland & Clarke. The firm did a large and
1 business up to October, 1883, when it was succeeded by
S liil! (J. G. Hill). This firm continues to do a very
large shipping and commission business. He was for twenty-one
years treasurer of the Second Universalist Church (Church of the
• r), and has ever been one of its staunchest and most con-
sistent m
III . . 'â– '. . RoGl ! , If., tli'- son of Dr. G. A. Rogers, was
born in Bath, Steuben Co., N. V., March 27. 1832 At the age
of twelve years, he went to reside with an uncle in Buffalo. There
he spent the years of his youth and early manhood, received his
school education, and learned most thoroughly the principles and
executive details of mercantile business. For thirteen years he was
engaged in the ship chandlery business, and, in 1800, emigrated to
the West, first settling in Clinton, Iowa, engaging in mercantile
business with his father. He came to Chicago April 17, 1863,
became a member of the E if 1 rade soon after his arrival, and