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educational advantages, and graduated at Harvard in 1855. Early in life he decided upon the ministry as his life work and studied theology in the Episcopal Theological Seminary, at Alexandria, Virginia. In 1859 he was ordained and the same year became pastor of the Church of the Advent, in Philadelphia. Three years later he assumed the pastorate of the Church of the Holy Trinity, where he remained until 1870. At the expiration of that time he accepted the pastoral charge of Trinity Church in Boston, where his eloquence and ability attracted much attention and built up a powerful church organization. Dr. Brooks also devoted considerable time to lecturing and literary work and attained prominence in these lines. 

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ILLIAM B. ALLISON, a statesman of national reputation and one of the leaders of the Republican party, was born March 2, 1829, at Perry, Ohio. He grew up on his father's farm, which he assisted in cultivating, and attended the district school. When sixteen years old he went to the academy at Wooster, and subsequently spent a year at the Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He next taught school and spent another year at the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. Mr. Allison then took up the study of law at Wooster, where he was admitted to the bar in 1851, and soon obtained a position as deputy county clerk. His political leanings were toward the old line Whigs, who afterward laid the foundation of the Republican party. He was a delegate to the state convention in 1856, in the campaign of which he supported Fremont for president.

      Mr. Allison removed to Dubuque, Iowa, in the following year. He rapidly rose to prominence at the bar and in politics. In 1860 he was chosen as a delegate to the Republican convention held in Chicago, of which he was elected one of the secretaries. At the outbreak of the civil war he was appointed on the staff of the governor. His congressional career opened in 1862, when he was elected to the thirty-eighth congress; he was re-elected three times, serving from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1871. He was a member of the ways and means committee a good part of his term. His career in the United States senate began in 1873, and he rapidly rose to eminence in national affairs, his service of a quarter of a century in that body being marked by close fealty to the Republican party. He twice declined the portfolio of the treasury tendered him by Garfield and Harrison, and his name was prominently mentioned for the presidency at several national Republican conventions. 

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ARY ASHTON LIVERMORE, lecturer and writer, was born in Boston, December 19, 1821. She was the daughter of Timothy Rice, and married D. P. Livermore, a preacher of the Universalist church. She contributed able articles to many of the most noted periodicals of this country and England. During the Civil war she labored zealously and with success on behalf of the sanitary commission which played so important a part during that great struggle. She became editor of the :Woman's Journal," published at Boston in 1870.

      She held a prominent place as a public speaker and writer on woman's suffrage, temperance, social and religious questions, and her influence was great in every cause she advocated. 

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OHN B. GOUGH, a noted temperance lecturer, who won his fame in America, was born in the village of Sandgate, Kent,

 

England, August 22, 1817. He came to the United States at the age of twelve. He followed the trade of bookbinder, and lived in great poverty on account of the liquor habit. In 1843, however, he reformed, and began his career as a temperance lecturer. He worked zealously in the cause of temperance, and his lectures and published articles revealed great earnestness. He formed temperance societies throughout the entire country, and labored with great success. He visited England in the same cause about the year 1853 and again in 1878. He also lectured upon many other topics, in which he attained a wide reputation. His death occurred February 18, 1886. 

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HOMAS BUCHANAN READ, author, sculptor and painter, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822. He early evinced a taste for art, and began the study of sculpture in Cincinnati. Later he found painting more to his liking. He went to New York, where he followed this profession, and later to Boston. In 1846 he located in Philadelphia. He visited Italy in 1850, and studied at Florence, where he resided almost continuously for twenty-two years. He returned to America in 1872, and died in New York May 11 of the same year.

      He was the author of many heroic poems, but the one giving him the most renown is his famous ''Sheridan's Ride," of which he has also left a representation in painting. 

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UGENE V. DEBS, the former famous president of the American Railway Union, and great labor leader, was born in the city of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855. He received his education in the public schools of that place and at the age of sixteen years began work as a painter in the Vandalia shops. After this, for some three years, he was employed as a locomotive fireman on the same road. His first appearance in public life was in his canvass for the election to the office of city clerk of Terre Haute. In this capacity he served two terms, and when twenty six years of age was elected a member of the legislature of the state of Indiana. While a member of that body he secured the passage of several bills in the interest of organized labor, of which he was always a faithful champion. Mr. Debs' speech nominating Daniel Voorhees for the United States senate gave him a wide reputation for oratory. On the expiration of his term in the legislature, he was elected grand secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman and filled that office for fourteen successive years. He was always an earnest advocate of confederation of railroad men and it was mainly through his efforts that the United Order of Railway Employes, composed of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen and Conductors, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association was formed, and he became a member of its supreme council. The order was dissolved by disagreement between two of its leading orders, and then Mr. Debs conceived the idea of the American Railway Union. He worked on the details and the union came into existence in Chicago, June 20, 1893. For a time it prospered and became one of the largest bodies of railway men in the world. It won in a contest with the Great Northern Railway. In the strike made by the union in sympathy with the Pullman employes inaugurated in Chicago June 25, 1894, and the consequent rioting, the Railway Union

lost much prestige and Mr. Debs, in company with others of the officers, being held as in contempt of the United States courts, he suffered a sentence of six months in jail at Woodstock, McHenry county, Illinois. In 1897 Mr. Debs, on the demise of the American Railway Union, organized the Social Democracy, an institution founded on the best lines of the communistic idea, which was to provide homes and employment for its members. 

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OHN G. CARLISLE, famous as a lawyer, congressman, senator and cabinet officer, was born in Campbell (now Kenton) county, Kentucky, September 5, 1835, on a farm. He received the usual education of the time and began at an early age to teach school and, at the same time, the study of law. Soon opportunity offered and he entered an office in Covington, Kentucky, and was admitted to practice at the bar in 1858. Politics attracted his attention and in 1859 he was elected to the house of representatives in the legislature of his native state. On the outbreak of the war in 1861, he embraced the cause of the Union and was largely instrumental in preserving Kentucky to the federal cause. He resumed his legal practice for a time and declined a nomination as presidential elector in 1864. In 1866 and again in 1869 Mr. Carlisle was elected to the senate of Kentucky. He resigned this position in 1871 and was chosen lieutenant governor of the state, which office he held until 1875. He was one of the presidential electors-at-large for Kentucky in 1876. He first entered congress in 1877, and soon became a prominent leader on the Democratic side of the house of representatives, and continued a member of that body through the forty-sixth, forty-seventh, forty-eighth and forty-ninth congresses, and was speaker of the house during the two latter. He was elected to the United States senate to succeed Senator Blackburn, and remained a member of that branch of congress until March, 1893, when he was appointed secretary of the treasury. He performed the duties of that high office until March 4, 1897, throughout the entire second administration of President Cleveland. His ability and many years of public service gave him a national reputation. 

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RANCES E. WILLARD, for many years president of the .Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and a noted American lecturer and writer, was born in Rochester, New York, September 28, 1839. Graduating from the Northwestern Female College at the age of nineteen she began teaching and met with great success in many cities of the west. She was made directress of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, Ohio, in 1867, and four years later was elected president of the Evanston College for young ladies, a branch of the Northwestern University.

      During the two years succeeding 1869 she traveled extensively in Europe and the east, visiting Egypt and Palestine, and gathering materials for a valuable course of lectures, which she delivered at Chicago on her return. She became very popular, and won great influence in the temperance cause. Her work as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union greatly strengthened that society, and she made frequent trips to Europe in the interest of that cause. 

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ICHARD OLNEY.--Among the prominent men who were members of the cabinet of President Cleveland in his second administration, the gentleman whose name

heads this sketch held a leading place, occupying the positions of attorney general and secretary of state.

      Mr. Olney came from one of the oldest and most honored New England families; the first of his ancestors to come from England settled in Massachusetts in 1635. This was Thomas Olney. He was a friend and co-religionist of Roger Williams, and when the latter moved to what is now Rhode Island, went with him and became one of the founders of Providence Plantations.

      Richard Olney was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1835, and received the elements of his earlier education in the common schools which New England is so proud of. He entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1856, and passed the Harvard law school two years later. He began the practice of his profession with Judge B. F. Thomas, a prominent man of that locality. For years Richard Olney was regarded as one of the ablest and most learned lawyers in Massachusetts. Twice he was offered a place on the bench of the supreme court of the state, but both times he declined. He was always a Democrat in his political tenets, and for many years was a trusted counsellor of members of that party. In 1874 Mr. Olney was elected a member of the legislature. In 1876, during the heated presidential campaign, to strengthen the cause of Mr. Tilden in the New England states, it was intimated that in the event of that gentleman's election to the presidency, Mr. Olney would be attorney general.

      When Grover Cleveland was elected president of the United States, on his inauguration in March, 1893, he tendered the position of attorney general to Richard Olney. This was accepted, and that gentleman fulfilled the duties of the office until the death of Walter Q. Gresham, in May, 1895, made vacant the position of secretary of state. This post was filled by the appointment of Mr. Olney. While occupying the later office, Mr. Olney brought himself into international prominence by some very able state papers. 

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OHN JAY KNOX, for many years comptroller of the currency, and an eminent financier, was born in Knoxboro, Oneida county, New York, May 19, 1828. He received a good education and graduated at Hamilton College in 1849. For about thirteen years he was engaged as a private banker, or in a position in a bank, where he laid the foundation of his knowledge of the laws of finance. In 1862, Salmon P. Chase, then secretary of the treasury, appointed him to an office in that department of the government, and later he had charge of the mint coinage correspondence. In 1867 Mr. Knox was made deputy comptroller of the currency, and in that capacity, in 1870, he made two reports on the mint service, with a codification of the mint and coinage laws of the United States, and suggesting many important amendments. These reports were ordered printed by resolution of congress. The bill which he prepared, with some slight changes, was subsequently passed, and has been known in history as the "Coinage Act of 1873."

      In 1872 Mr. Knox was appointed comptroller of the currency, and held that responsible position until 1884, when he resigned. He then accepted the position of president of the National Bank of the Republic, of New York City, which institution he served for many years. He was the author of " United States Notes," published in 1884. In the reports spoken of above, a history of the two United States banks is

given, together with that of the state and national banking system, and much valuable statistical matter relating to kindred subjects. 

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ATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.--In the opinion of many critics Hawthorne is pronounced the foremost American novelist, and in his peculiar vein of romance is said to be without a peer. His reputation is world-wide, and his ability as a writer is recognized abroad as well as at home. He was born July 4, 1804, at Salem, Massachusetts. On account of feeble health he spent some years of his boyhood on a farm near Raymond, Maine. He laid the foundation of a liberal education in his youth, and entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1825 in the same class with H. W. Longfellow and John S. C. Abbott. He then returned to Salem, where he gave his attention to literature, publishing several tales and other articles in various periodicals. His first venture in the field of romance, "Fanshaw,' proved a failure. In 1836 he removed to Boston, and became editor of the ''American Magazine," which soon passed out of existence. In 1837 he published ''Twice Told Tales," which were chiefly made up of his former contributions to magazines. In 1838-41 he held a position in the Boston custom house, but later took part in the "Brook farm experiment," a socialistic idea after the plan of Fourier. In 1843 he was married and took up his residence at the old parsonage at Concord, Massachusetts, which he immortalized in his next work, "Mosses From an Old Manse," published in 1846. From the latter date until 1850 he was surveyor of the port of Salem, and while thus employed wrote one of his strongest works, "The Scarlet Letter." For the succeeding two years Lenox, Massachusetts, was his home, and the "House of the Seven Gables" was produced there, as well as the ''Blithedale Romance." In 1852 he published a "Life of Franklin Pierce," a college friend whom he warmly regarded. In 1853 he was appointed United States consul to Liverpool, England, where he remained some years, after which he spent some time in Italy. On returning to his native land he took up his residence at Concord, Massachusetts. While taking a trip for his health with ex-President Pierce, he died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, May 19, 1864. In addition to the works mentioned above Mr. Hawthorn gave to the world the following books: "True Stories from History," "The Wonder Book," "The Snow Image," "Tanglewood Tales," "The Marble Faun," and "Our Old Home." After his death appeared a series of "Notebooks," edited by his wife, Sophia P. Hawthorne; "Septirnius Felton," edited by his daughter, Una, and "Dr. Grimshaw's Secret," put into shape by his talented son, Julian. He left an unfinished work called "Dolliver Romance," which has been published just as he left it. 

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BRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth president of the United States, was born February 12, 1809, in Larue county (Hardin county), Kentucky, in a log-cabin near Hudgensville. When he was eight years old he removed with his parents to Indiana, near the Ohio river, and a year later his mother died. His father then married Mrs. Elizabeth (Bush) Johnston, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, who proved a kind of foster-mother to Abraham, and encouraged him to study. He worked as a farm hand and as a clerk in a store at Gentryville, and was noted for his athletic feats and strength, fondness for debate, a fund of humorous
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anecdote, as well as the composition of rude verses. He made a trip at the age of nineteen to New Orleans on a flat-boat, and settled in Illinois in 1830. He assisted his father to build a log house and clear a farm on the Sangamon river near Decatur, Illinois, and split the rails with which to fence it. In 1851 he was employed in the building of a flat-boat on the Sangamon, and to run it to New Orleans. The voyage gave him anew insight into the horrors of slavery in the south. On his return he settled at New Salem and engaged, first as a clerk in a store, then as grocer, surveyor and postmaster, and he piloted the first steamboat that ascended the Sangamon. He participated in the Black Hawk war as captain of volunteers, and after his return he studied law, interested himself in politics, and became prominent locally as a public speaker. He was elected to the legislature in 1834 as a "Clay Whig," and began at once to display a command of language and forcible rhetoric that made him a match for his more cultured opponents. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and began practice at Springfield. He married a lady of a prominent Kentucky family in 1842. He was active in the presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844 and was an elector on the Harrison and Clay tickets, and was elected to congress in 1846, over Peter Cartwright. He voted for the Wilmot proviso and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and opposed the war with Mexico, but gained little prominence during his two years' service. He then returned to Springfield and devoted his attention to law, taking little interest in politics, until the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854. This awakened his interest in politics again and he attacked the champion of that measure, Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech at Springfield that made him famous, and is said by those who heard it to be the greatest speech of his life. Lincoln was selected as candidate for the United States senate, but was defeated by Trumbull. Upon the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Whig party suddenly went to pieces, and the Republican party gathered head. At the Bloomington Republican convention in 1856 Lincoln made an effective address in which he first took a position antagonistic to the existence of slavery. He was a Fremont elector and received a strong support for nomination as vice-president in the Philadelphia convention. In 1858 he was the unanimous choice of the Republicans for the United States senate, and the great campaign of debate which followed resulted in the election of Douglas, but established Lincoln's reputation as the leading exponent of Republican doctrines. He began to be mentioned in Illinois as candidate for the presidency, and a course of addresses in the eastern states attracted favorable attention. When the national convention met at Chicago, his rivals, Chase, Seward, Bates and others, were compelled to retire before the western giant, and he was nominated, with Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate. The Democratic party had now been disrupted, and Lincoln's election assured. He carried practically every northern state, and the secession of South Carolina, followed by a number of the gulf states, took place before his inauguration. Lincoln is the only president who was ever compelled to reach Washington in a secret manner. He escaped assassination by avoiding Baltimore, and was quietly inaugurated March 4, 1861. His inaugural address was firm but conciliatory, and he said to the secessionists: "You have no oath registered in heaven

to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.' He made up his cabinet chiefly of those political rivals in his own party--Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates--and secured the co-operation of the Douglas Democrats. His great deeds, amidst the heat and turmoil of war, were: His call for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the blockading of southern ports; calling of congress in extra session, July 14, 1861, and obtaining four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars for the prosecution of the war; appointing Stanton secretary of war; issuing the emancipation proclamation; calling three hundred thousand volunteers; address at Gettysburg cemetery; commissioned Grant as lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States; his second inaugural address; his visit to the army before Richmond, and his entry into Richmond the day after its surrender.

      Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in a box in Ford's theater at Washington the night of April 14, 1865, and expired the following morning. His body was buried at Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, and a monument commemorating his great work marks his resting place. 

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TEPHEN GIRARD, the celebrated philanthropist, was born in Bordeaux, France, May 24, 1750. He became a sailor engaged in the American coast trade, and also made frequent trips to the West Indies. During the Revolutionary war he was a grocer and liquor seller in Philadelphia. He married in that city, and afterward separated from his wife. After the war he again engaged in the coast and West India trade, and his fortune began to accumulate from receiving goods from West Indian planters during the insurrection in Hayti, little of which was ever called for again. He became a private banker in Philadelphia in 1812, and afterward was a director in the United States Bank. He made much money by leasing property in the city in times of depression, and upon the revival of industry sub-leasing at enormous profit. He became the wealthiest citizen of the United States of his time.

      He was eccentric, ungracious, and a freethinker. He had few, if any, friends in his lifetime. However, he was most charitably disposed, and gave to charitable institutions and schools with a liberal hand. He did more than any one else to relieve the suffering and deprivations during the great yellow fever scourge in Philadelphia, devoting his personal attention to the sick. He endowed and made a free institution, the famous Will's Eye and Ear Infirmary of Philadelphiaone of the largest institutions of its kind in the world. At his death practically all his immense wealth was bequeathed to charitable institutions, more than two millions of dollars going to the founding of Girard College, which was to be devoted to the education and training of boys between the ages of six and ten years. Large donations were also made to institutions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. The principal building of Girard College is the most magnificent example of Greek architecture in America. Girard died December 26, 1831. 

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OUTS J. R. AGASSIZ, the eminent naturalist and geologist, was born in the parish of Motier, near Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland, May 28, 1807, but attained his greatest fame after becoming an American citizen. He studied the medical sciences at

 

Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. His first work was a Latin description of the fishes which Martius and Spix brought from Brazil. This was published in 1829-31. He devoted much time to the study of fossil fishes, and in 1832 was appointed professor of natural history at Neuchatel. He greatly increased his reputation by a great work in French, entitled ''Researches on Fossil Fishes," in 1832-42, in which he made many important improvements in the classification of fishes. Having passed many summers among the Alps in researches on glaciers, he propounded some new and interesting ideas on geology, and the agency of glaciers in his "Studies by the Glaciers." This was published in 1840. This latter work, with his "System of the Glaciers," published in 1847, are among his principal works.

      In 1846, Professor Agassiz crossed the ocean on a scientific excursion to the United States, and soon determined to remain here. He accepted, about the beginning of 1848, the chair of zoology and geology at Harvard. He explored the natural history of the United States at different times and gave an impulse to the study of nature in this country. In 1865 he conducted an expedition to Brazil, and explored the lower Amazon and its tributaries. In 1868 he was made non-resident professor of natural history at Cornell University. In December, 1871, he accompanied the Hassler expedition, under Professor Pierce, to the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 1873.

      Among other of the important works of Professor Agassiz may be mentioned the following: "Outlines of Comparative Physiology," ''Journey to Brazil," and "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States." It is said of Professor Agassiz, that, perhaps, with the exception of Hugh Miller, no one had so popularized science in his day, or trained so many young naturalists. Many of the theories held by Agassiz are not supported by many of the naturalists of these later days, but upon many of the speculations into the origin of species and in physics he has left the marks of his own strongly marked individuality. 

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ILLIAM WINDOM. --As a prominent and leading lawyer of the great northwest, as a member of both houses of congress. and as the secretary of the treasury, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch won for himself a prominent position in the history of our country.

      Mr. Windom was a native of Ohio, born in Belmont county, May 10, 1827. He received a good elementary education in the schools of his native state, and took up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of his profession in Ohio, where he remained until 1855. In the latter year he made up his mind to move further west, and accordingly went to Minnesota, and opening an office, became identified with the interests of that state, and the northwest generally. In 1858 he took his place in the Minnesota delegation in the national house of representatives, at Washington, and continued to represent his constituency in that body for ten years. In 1871 Mr. Windom was elected United States senator from Minnesota, and was re-elected to the same office after fulfilling the duties of the position for a full term, in 1876. On the inauguration of President Garfield, in March, 1881, Mr. Windom became secretary of the treasury in his cabinet. He resigned this office October 27, 1881, and was elected senator from the North Star state to fill the va-

cancy caused by the resignation of A. J. Edgerton. Mr. Windom served in that chamber until March, 1883.

      William Windom died in New York City January 29, 1891. 

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ON M. DICKINSON, an American politician and lawyer, was born in Port Ontario, New York, January 17, 1846. He removed with his parents to Michigan when he was but two years old. He was educated in the public schools of Detroit and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. In 1872 he was made secretary of the Democratic state central committee of Michigan, and his able management of the campaign gave him a prominent place in the councils of his party. In 1876, during the Tilden campaign, he acted as chairman of the state central committee. He was afterward chosen to represent his state in the Democratic national committee, and in 1886 he was appointed postmaster-general by President Cleveland. After the expiration of his term of office he returned to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Dickinson adhered to the "gold wing" of the Democracy, and his influence was felt in the national canvass, and especially in his own state. 

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OHN JACOB ASTOR, the founder of the Astor family and fortunes, while not a native of this country, was one of the most noted men of his time, and as all his wealth and fame were acquired here, he may well be classed among America's great men. He was born near Heidelberg, Germany, July 17, 1763, arid when twenty years old emigrated to the United States. Even at that age he exhibited remarkable business ability and foresight, and soon he was investing capital in furs which he took to London and sold at a great profit. He next settled at New York, and engaged extensively in the fur trade. He exported furs to Europe in his own vessels, which returned with cargoes of foreign commodities, and thus he rapidly amassed an immense fortune. In 1811 he founded Astoria on the western coast of North America, near the mouth of the Columbia river, as a depot for the fur trade, for the promotion of which he sent a number of expeditions to the Pacific ocean. He also purchased a large amount of real estate in New York, the value of which increased enormously All through life his business ventures were a series of marvelous successes, and he ranked as one of the most sagacious and successful business men in the world. He died March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune estimated at over twenty million dollars to his children, who have since increased it. John Jacob Astor left $400,000 to found a public library in New York City, and his son, William B. Astor, who died in 1875, left $300,000 to add to his father's bequest. This is known as the Astor Library, one of the largest in the United States. 

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CHUYLER COLFAX, an eminent American statesman, was born in New York City, March 23, 1823, being a grandson of General William Colfax, the commander of Washington's life-guards. In 1836 he removed with his mother, who was then a widow, to Indiana, settling at South Bend. Young Schuyler studied law, and in 1845 became editor of the ''St. Joseph Valley Register," a Whig paper published at South Bend. He was a member of the convention which formed a new constitution for Indiana in 1850, and he opposed

the clause that prohibited colored men from settling in that state. In 851 he was defeated as the Whig candidate for congress but was elected in 1854, and, being repeatedly re-elected, continued to represent that district in congress until 1869. He became one of the most prominent and influential members of the house of representatives, and served three terms as speaker. During the Civil war he was an active participant in all public measures of importance, and was a confidential friend and adviser of President Lincoln. In May, 1868,

     Mr. Colfax was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with General Grant, and was elected. After the close of his term he retired from office, and for the remainder of his life devoted much of his time to lecturing and literary pursuits. His death occurred January 23, 1885. He was one of the most prominent members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in America, and that order erected a bronze statue to his memory in University Park. Indianapolis, Indiana, which was unveiled in May, 1887. 

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ILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS, who attained a national reputation as an able lawyer, statesman, and cabinet officer, was born at Chelsea, Vermont, July 9, 1840. His parents removed to Wisconsin when our subject was but eleven years of age, and there with the early settlers endured all the hardships and trials incident to pioneer life. William F. Vilas was given all the advantages found in the common schools, and supplemented this by a course of study in the Wisconsin State University, after which he studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practicing at Madison. Shortly afterward the Civil war broke out and Mr. Vilas enlisted and became colonel of the Twenty-third regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers, serving throughout the war with distinction. At the close of the war he returned to Wisconsin, resumed his law practice, and rapidly rose to eminence in this profession. In 1885 he was selected by President Cleveland for postmaster-general and at the close of his term again returned to Madison, Wisconsin, to resume the practice of law. 

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HOMAS McINTYRE COOLEY, an eminent American jurist and law writer, was born in Attica, New York, January 6, 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, and four years later was appointed reporter of the supreme court of Michigan, which office he continued to hold for seven years. In the meantime, in 1859, he became professor of the law department of the University of Michigan, and soon afterward was made dean of the faculty of that department. In 1864 he was elected justice of the supreme court of Michigan, in 1867 became chief justice of that court, and in 1869 was re-elected for a term of eight years. In 1881 he again joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, assuming the professorship of constitutional and administrative law. His works on these branches have become standard, and he is recognized as authority on this and related subjects. Upon the passage of the inter-state commerce law in 1887 he became chairman of the commission and served in that capacity four years. 

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OHN PETER ALTGELD, a noted American politician and writer on social questions, was born in Germany, December 30, 1847. He came to America with his parents and settled in Ohio when two years old. In 1864 he entered the Union army

 

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