1815; received an ordinary English education in Ohio, mainly in private schools; came with the
family to Mercer county; learned the carpenter's trade, and worked at it for several years, doing
some of the first work of the kind in Keithsburg, in 1845. The first court house in Mercer county
was built in 1839, by Mr. Cabeen and Abram B. Sheriff, they receiving $1,400 for the job. It was
located at Millersburgh, then the county seat. During this period our subject was also opening,
in Ohio Grove township, a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he sold in 1858 to his
uncle, Richard Cabeen, who still owns it.
Since 1845 our subject has been a resident of Keithsburg, and a year or two later became a
clerk for Noble and Gayle, general merchants, and was holding that post when, in 1848, he was
elected clerk of the circuit court, an office which he held until 1856. In 1862 his constituents in
Mercer and Henderson counties elected him to the legislature, where he served one term, being
chairman of the committee on miscellaneous business, and a member of two or three other com-
mittees. For a long period Mr. Cabeen has been largely interested in real estate, and wild as
well as improved lands, of which he has between three thousand and four thousand acres, situ-
ated in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. He is one of the most reliable, straightforward and success-
ful business men in the village. He helped to organize the Farmers' National Bank of Keithsburg,
in the spring of 1871, and from that date has held the office of vice president. Since January i,
1880, when the bank surrendered its charter, it has been a private corporation. It is a stanch
institution, with a capital of $100,000. Its president is William Drury, who has a sketch in this
book. It is now called the Farmers' Bank of Keithsburg.
46 UNITED STATES FtrOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Cabeen has always voted the democratic ticket; is a Universalist in religious belief, and
is a member of Robert Burns Lodge, Number 113, of the Illinois Chapter, Number 17, and of the
Galesburgh Commandery, Number 8. His wife was Miss Lucy Wilson, daughter of William and
Sarah (McHerron) Wilson, she being a native of Danville, Pennsylvania. They were married
June 26, 1849, and have had three children: William S., merchant, married to Miss Lou Demp-
ster; Sarah E., wife of Tom A. Marshall, druggist, Keithsburgh, and Boyd W., who died in
infancy. ^
MAURICE J. CHASE, M.D.
GALESBURGH.
MAURICE JAMES CHASE, thirty-two years a medical practitioner, belongs to the old New
Hampshire family of Chases. The town of Cornish, where he was born, March 4, 1826,
was ceded to his great-great-grandfather some time during the first half of the eighteenth cen-
tury, when what is now Sullivan county was little more than a wilderness, inhabited by Indians
and wild beasts. Benjamin C. Chase, the father of our subject, was a second cousin of the late
Salmon P. Chase, chief -justice of the supreme court of the United States, and a native of Cornish.
Benjamin C. Chase married Eliza Royce, a native of Claremont, New Hampshire, and Maurice
was the fourth child in a family of five children. He was educated at Kimball Union Academy,
Plainville, New Hampshire; studied medicine at Franklin, same state, with Doctor L. M. Knight;
attended two courses of lectures at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, one course at
Woodstock, Vermont, and received his diploma from the latter institution in 1850. Doctor Chase
practiced the allopathic system one year in Boston, Massachusetts, two years in Truro, same state,
and one year at Newport, Indiana, and then changed to the homoeopathic method of treatment.
He practiced one year in Muncie, Indiana, three years in Macomb, Illinois, and in 1859 settled in
Galesburgh, where he is meeting with marked success. He loves his profession, is thoroughly
wedded to it, and ignores everything likely to distract the attention or absorb valuable time. He
has nothing to do with politics except to vote, being a republican; accepts no civil offices, and
connects himself with no secret societies. Being of a studious turn of mind, he gives his leisure
time to fresh medical works and periodicals. He uses neither tea nor coffee, and in his practice
makes no use of alcoholic liquors. His manners are those of a polished gentleman.
Doctor Chase was married March 15, 1849, to Miss Lucy F. Crocker, of Falmouth, Massachu-
setts, and they buried two children in infancy, one being killed by a fall, and have two living.
Ella is the wife of Arthur Conger, post trader at Fort Union, New Mexico, and Henry M. is a
clerk for his brother-in-law. Doctor and Mrs. Chase are members of the First Church of Christ
(Congregational), and prominent factors in Galesburgh social circles.
SAMUEL W. RAYMOND.
OTTAWA.
SAMUEL WARD RAYMOND, treasurer of La Salle county, and a resident here for fifty-five
years, was born in Woodstock, Vermont, May 8, 1815, his parents being Barnabas and Mary
(Mayo) Raymond. His father, a carpenter by trade, and a soldier in the second war with the
mother country, was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, and his grandfather, John Raymond,
a soldier in the French and Indian war, was of Huguenot blood, the family fleeing from France
to England, and thence to the United States. The Mayos are of Welsh lineage.
Young Raymond was educated in the district schools of his native town; was on a farm until
fifteen years of age, and subsequently spent seven years in a store at Morrisville, Vermont. He
came into this county June i, 1837, making his home at first in Peru, and for two years was
engaged with an engineering party on different roads under the old internal improvement system.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 47
Afterward he ran a ferry part of the time, and was keeping a hotel in 1847 when he was elected
recorder of the county, and moved from Peru to Ottawa. He held that office two years (1847 to
1849), and was then county clerk for eight years. After being out four years he was elected to the
same county office, holding it four years more, when he retired and went into the grain business.
In 1871 he was elected county treasurer, and has held that office for twelve years. No safer, better
man could be trusted with the finances of the county, and for aught we know Mr. -Raymond may
die in that office. During the forty-five years that he has been in the county he has been in public
life more than half of them, and has discharged the duties of the several offices which he has held
to the satisfaction of his constituents. He is a democrat, of independent proclivities, and very
popular, as his history would indicate, with all parties, La Salle being of late years a republican
county.
Mr. Raymond is an Odd-Fellow, past noble grand, and was at one time chief patriarch of
the encampment.
July 24, 1849, Mr. Raymond married, at Peru, Miss Floretta Lewis, a native of Dryden,
Tompkins county, New York, and they have eleven children, having never had a death in the
family. William, the eldest son, is married and living in Ottawa; Frances is the wife of A. M.
Hoffman, Ottawa; Susan E. is the wife of John A. Carton, banker, Ackley, Iowa, and Eliza C. is
the wife of Samuel A. Reed, attorney-at-law, Eldora, Iowa. The others, Mary H., Charles H.,
Emma, Samuel W., Jr., Floretta, Carrie and Walter, are at home or living in Ottawa. Mr. Ray-
mond, as is here seen, has reared a large family, and he has given all his children a fair education,
two or three of the youngest still pursuing their studies. He has stock in the First National Bank
of Ottawa, and is in comfortable circumstances, his accumulations being the result of his own
industry. The rectitude of his public life, his social qualities and his neighborly kindnesses have
greatly endeared him to the citizens of Ottawa and to the people generally of La Salle county.
JOHN I. SMITH, M.D.
SHANNON.
JOHN ISAAC SMITH, son of Rev. John Smith, and Margaret (Blackburn) Smith, was born
near Chatham, county of Kent, Canada West, now Ontario, June 29, 1843. His father and
mother were also natives of that province. When he was two years old the family came to Illinois,
and settled in Stephenson county, where the mother died in 1859. His father died in October,
1879, after having been a Methodist preacher between thirty and forty years. John was taught to
read and write by a younger sister, and was kept on his father's farm until nineteen years of age,
when, in August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the 92d regiment, Illinois infantry, and served
three years. He was shot in the left elbow at the capture of Atlanta, Georgia, leaving him with
an anchylosed joint. While laid up he read medicine, and as soon as he could be of service, he
was placed in charge of three wards of the Mound City, Illinois, Hospital, remaining there until
mustered out in the autumn of 1865.
The next year he entered the college at Fulton, Whiteside county, and studied for two years;
subsequently read medicine with Doctor F. W. Byers, of Lena, Stephenson county; attended lec-
tures at Rush Medical College, Chicago; lost his little library and his apparatus in the great fire
of October,' 1871, and received his diploma from Rush in January, 1872. Early in the following
month he settled at Shannon, Carroll county; entered at once upon a liberal practice, and has
made a brilliant success in his profession, his rides not unfrequently extending from fifteen to
twenty miles, and sometimes even thirty from his home, and that too, in a thickly settled country,
with half a dozen villages and small cities within twelve or fourteen miles of Shannon. The doc-
tor has an unusually choice medical library, of which he makes the best of use, and consequently
is a growing man. He pays a great deal of attention to the study of surgery, of which he seems
to be very fond and in which he excels, although he makes a specialty of no one branch of medi-
48 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
cal science. He has repeatedly operated with complete success in strangulated hernia, hare lip,
talipes, tracheotomy, lithotomy, and other difficult cases of surgery, and his uniform success has
extended his reputation over a wide district. The doctor has more business than any one man
should think of attending to, and will be obliged, at no distant day, to lessen his rides or they
will lessen his days. He never has less than five horses, and usually keeps from seven to nine.
Doctor Smith married in June, 1877, Miss Wealthy Ann Taber, daughter of Oliver P. Taber,
of Lanark, Illinois, and we believe they have no issue.
EDWIN C. ALLEN.
OTTAWA.
EDWIN CUTLER ALLEN, banker, and mayor of the city of Ottawa, is a son of Asa K. and
Lucy (Cutler) Allen, and was born in the city of Rochester, New York, in November, 1820.
His grandfather, Philip Allen, a revolutionary soldier, was a native of Vermont. The Cutlers
were a Massachusetts family. Edwin received a high school or academic education in his native
city; came thence as far west as Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he was a clerk in a bank. From
Michigan he pushed westward into Wisconsin, and was in mercantile life at Allen's Grove (named
for his father and uncles) until 1852, when he came into La Salle county, and was cashier of a
bank at Peru for three or four years.
In 1856 Mr. Allen settled in Ottawa and commenced the banking business in the firm of
Eames, Allen and Company. In 1865 the National City Bank of Ottawa was organized and
opened, and he is the vice president and principal manager of that stanch institution. He is one
of the best financiers of the city.
Mr. Allen was city treasurer for several years, and is now (1882) at the head of the municipal-
ity, making a public-spirited and efficient chief magistrate. He is a republican, and a man of a
good deal of influence in his party. Many years ago he was an active and prominent Odd-Fellow,
but since coming to Ottawa has rarely attended a meeting of the order.
The wife of Mayor Allen was Mary C. Champion, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, their
marriage bearing date July 20, 1845. They have four children, Katie, Edith C., Emma and Edwin
C., Jr. The family attend the Congregational Church, of which the parents are members and
liberal supporters.
HON. REUBEN ELLWOOD.
SYCAMORE.
THE subject of this biographical notice is one of the most enterprising citizens of Sycamore,
and was born in Minden, Montgomery county, New York, February 17, 1821, his parents
being Abraham and Sarah Ellwood. Reuben finished his education at the Cherry Valley Acad-
emy, and in early life engaged extensively in raising broom corn and in the manufacture of
brooms at Glenville, Schenectady county, where he remained for eight or nine years.
In 1857 Mr. Ellwood came to Illinois, and settled at Sycamore, De Kalb county, engaging in
the hardware trade, dealing also, at the same time, in real estate. About 1870 he engaged in the
manufacture of agricultural implements, believing that such industries would aid in the devel-
opment of the city of Sycamore as well as accrue to his own pecuniary interests. In 1875 he
commenced to build what is now known as the factory of the R. Ellwood Manufacturing Com-
pany, in which he invested $50,000, and which was completed in October, 1875, and gives employ-
ment to about one hundred and twenty workmen.
Mr. Ellwood was a prominent politician of the republican stripe while a resident of the Empire
State, being a member of the board of supervisors while living at Glenville, a member of the
legislature in 1851, and a presidential elector in 1856 on the Fremont and Dayton ticket. Since
K U.Conpor Jr 4 "a
ny R.D.William G i Br MY"
UNITED STATES BIOGKAPH1CA I. DICTIONARY. 51
coming to this state he has been equally as active as a politician, and his republican friends in
De Kalb county have not been slow to recognize his fitness for high official positions, he being in
1868 their unanimous choice for representative to congress. In 1882 he was nominated for that
office and carried every county in his district by a large majority. He is a practical business man
and will make a valuable member of congress.
He was appointed United States assessor in 1866, and held that post till the office was abol-
ished. He was the first mayor of Sycamore, and has been a foremost citizen in various public
works and projects for the advancement of the city. Says a writer who has long known Mr.
Ellwood:
" He is a man of great enterprise, of positive traits of character, indomitable energy, strict
integrity and liberal views, thoroughly identified in feelings and acts with the growth and pros-
perity ot the town, county and state."
The wife of Mr. Ellwood was Miss Eleanor Vedder, of Schenectady county, New York, they
being married August 8, 1850. They have had six children, three sons and three daughters.
D. HENRY SHELDON.
CHICAGO.
D HENRY SHELDON'S forefathers were stanch Puritans, and mostly settled about Massa-
. chusetts Bay before 1634, but holding Baptist sentiments. They, with others, were ban-
ished, and followed Roger Williams. Among the earliest proprietors, settlers and civil officials of
Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and contiguous Rhode Island, were Governor Brenton, .Shear-
man, James, Rogers and Sheldon, ancestors of the subject of this sketch. It is remarkable
that Mr. Sheldon's family claims direct descent from John Rogers, the first English martyr, who
was burned in 1555, and kindred with the last one, John James, a Baptist clergyman, who was
hanged in 1660. It is not surprising that the descendants of such stock should push into the
Canaan of which their forefathers were defrauded. On leaving Leyden, the Pilgrims purposed
to pass the colony at Manhattan, sail up the Hudson, beyond the Dutch authority, and locate
around and beyond that outmost trading post, since called Albany; but not wishing a distinct-
ively English colony in a country which they hoped to control, the Dutch bribed the pilot to land
his precious charge on a distant, inhospitable shore. A hundred years later, the progenitors of
our subject spied out the promised land, and in 1767 the Rhode Island Baptists raised the stand-
ard of the Gospel on the Bottenkill, New York.
In 1777 Samuel Sheldon's ample homestead on the Hudson was sheltered by the cannon of
Fort Saratoga, which, from an eminence in the rear, aided the American troops on the opposite
bank to force the surrender of Burgoyne. In those revolutionary struggles both the grandfathers
of our subject were officially engaged. That was more than a hundred years ago. Fort Sara-
toga, or Fort Clinton, as it was also called, has long since disappeared. The family still occupy
the estate on which the old proprietor, though an extensive landholder, was among the first to
free his slaves, and to refuse intoxicating drinks to those in his employ.
Here the grandparents of our subject, Samuel Sheldon and Tabitha Rogers, his wife, reared a
thrifty family. One of the sons, Caleb, married Mary, daughter of David Tefft and Ruhamah
James, and our subject is their youngest child. John, a major of artillery, married Jane, daughter
of General DeRydder of the old Dutch colony. The sons occupy not only the Sheldon but the
adjoining estate, which has been in the DeRydder family since 1685. The old Dutch and Eng-
lish blood are merged and forgotten. Elizabeth married Moses Cowan, and their sons are mer-
chants in New York city and Chicago. Susan became the wife of Doctor Hiram Corliss, a Nestor
in the profession. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married Rev. Sabin McKinney. Their son, Rev.
Albert H. Corliss, is father of Sheldon Corliss, a distinguished lawyer. William and George are
inventors, and enjoy a more than national reputation. When the latter, George H. Corliss, of
6
52 UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Providence, had placed the gigantic motive power in the centennial machinery hall, at Philadel-
phia, 1876, he affirmed, "that engine shall not move on the Lord's day."
Of Mr. Sheldon's family are Henry A. Tefft, justice of the supreme court of California; Charles
R. Ingalls, justice of the supreme court of New Y6rk; Lieutenant-Colonel E. F. Norton, killed in
the battle of Chancellorsville; Lieutenant H. S. Taber, of the engineer corps, United States
military academy, at West Point; Rev. J. A. Tefft, missionary to Africa, etc.
D. Henry Sheldon was born March 12, 1830. An accident in boyhood rendered his father
almost totally deaf; yet, despite the misfortune, he acquired a competency. But his kind heart
could never refuse a favor. He became surety for several friends; the financial crisis of 1837
followed, and other men's debts swept away a fortune he could never restore. The loss of his
wife proved a crowning calamity.
The church in Union village, New York, was one of the oldest in the state. Its historian says:
" Bottskill Baptist Church has never shrunk from the performance of a disagreeable duty. Here
Rev. Nathaniel Colver, D.D., led to advanced ground on the questions of slavery and temperance.
Rev. William Arthur, D,D., followed, and was greatly blessed. Jn March, 1844, he led a rejoicing
band through the broken ice, and, without stopping, baptized more than sixty persons in the
warmer flood beneath." Among them was the lad of whom we write. At fifteen he undertook
to support and educate himself. He resided with his unc'le, Doctor Corliss; collected accounts,
looked after help, rose from bed at midnight to care for the physician's horses, and otherwise
provided for board, clothing, tuition and books, while attending the academy in Union village.
Among his school fellows was his pastor's brilliant, genial, true-hearted son, Chester A. Arthur,
since President of the United States.
Through a kinsman who had been a professor there, Henry hoped to obtain a place in the
military academy at West Point; but the needs of home compelled him to abandon the project,
and aid in the care of and marketing for a large farm. At seventeen he accepted a position with
a gentleman whose extensive business included a general store. Soon becoming disgusted with
the petty routine of the counter, he was transferred to outside duties. Discovering how most of
the profits were made, at the end of his trial month he threw up his situation, and commenced
some independent operations, which were successful from the first. That success was his misfor-
tune, for it developed a taste for speculation. The year 1849 found him on the shores of Lake
Michigan, where he selected and developed land with good returns, and on the death of his father
he turned over his accumulations for the use of others, and again commenced empty-handed.
From this time he began a new life, under the influence of one of the truest and noblest of
Christian characters, of rare attainments and culture. March 12, 1854. he married Augusta,
daughter of Rev. David Searle and granddaughter of Hon. James McCall, all of New York state.
In a few months Mr. Sheldon passed an examination and entered the sophomore class of the Uni-
versity of Rochester, and thus came under President M. B. Anderson, LL.D., so renowned for his
marvelous power to draw out a young man's better self, and arouse him to earnest endeavor. Mr.
Sheldon loved him as a father, spending three years in the institution, and graduating in 1857
with the degree of bachelor of science.
Having prepared himself for a civil engineer, our subject went upon the Saint Paul, Minnesota
and Pacific railroad survey, under Colonel Dale, member of congress for Delaware. The only
vacant position on the corps, when he reached Saint Paul, was axeman, which Mr. Sheldon
accepted, and soon rose through five grades to a position next to the colonel's. The panic of
1857 stopped the work, and when two years later, it was resumed, Mr. Sheldon was tendered his
previous position, but declined, as he had become a real-estate dealer in Saint Louis.
While in Rochester Mr. Sheldon discovered much of the workings of the beneficiary system,
both in the university and the theological seminary. One painful incident suggested a future
course. In the university was a brilliant, high-spirited, consecrated young man from the West,
with great self reliance and perseverance, but no available friends. His funds being exhausted,
through over exertion and privations nature gave way, and he crept back to die. A timely loan,
to be paid back in after years, would have saved a man of great promise.
UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
53
This painful incident led Mr. Sheldon to consider whether he could not be of slight service tc
this class of persons, and having some funds at his command, he lent them to empty-pursed
promising young men. As soon as the money was returned by one, it went to another. The
loans were at a small per cent, and without security, yet not a dollar of principal or interest was
ever lost. Most of those thus aided are now very prominent as clergymen and educators.
While a resident of Saint Louis, Mr. Sheldon was pressed to become interested in a neighbor-
ing university, to which a small theological class was attached. He appreciated the need of a
well equipped school for ministers in the Mississippi Valley, but felt that for many reasons a more
northern locality would be desirable, and, though intending to remain in Saint Louis, in 1859 he
made a will bequeathing $10,000 to a Baptist theological seminary for the Northwest, probably
to be located in Chicago; and at that time, if any others entertained such a project he was not
aware of it.
At the breaking out of the war, in 1861, he removed to this city. He became interested in the
Baptist Theological Seminary, located at Chicago, which was chartered in 1865, and has been a
member of the board of trustees and executive committee to the present time. Rev. Nathaniel
Colyer, D.D., his father's old friend and pastor, who had done able service in Philadelphia and
Boston, gathered, and, assisted by Professor J. C. C. Clarke, for two years instructed the first
classes of this theological seminary.
Mr. Sheldon executed his own will by paying over his bequest, largely augmented, and also his
loan fund, to the infant institution. In 1867 he made his home among the groves of Kenwood,
south of Chicago, a location very retired then, but now having all the advantages and convenien-
ces of the city, besides being surrounded by over a thousand acres of parks and boulevards.
Mr. Sheldon's business has been mainly real estate. His only child, Verna Evangeline, is in
Wellesley College, Massachusetts.
JOSEPH STOUT, M.D.
OTTA WA.
ONE of the oldest and most reputable physicians and surgeons in La Salle county, is Joseph