CHAPTER XIX.

HON. WILLIAM BROSS.

WILLIAM BROSs, the subject of this sketch, whose name is familiarly connected with the growth and material progress of the North-west, is emphatically a self-made man.

His success in life has grown out of his own internal energy, unassisted by extraneous aids or mere adventitious circumstances. Remarkable strength of will, force of character, and honest directness of purpose have been alone the elements which have enabled him to rise from humble beginnings and win an honorable and distinguished place among men. In the space at our command, we must pass briefly over the principal events of this stirring, busy life; but, perhaps, these very events will tell the story of that life, and furnish the example for others to follow, better than whole pages of comment or moralizing.

He is the oldest son of Deacon Moses Bross, now a resident of Morris, Illinois, and was born in an old log-house, in the North-west corner of Sussex county, New Jersey, about two miles from Port Jervis.

The first nine years of his life were spent in that locality, at the end of which time his family removed to Milford, Pa., where he remained until manhood, engaged in the active life of the lumberman. He commenced his classical education, at the Milford

Academy, in 1832, and, two years later, entered Williams College, from which he graduated with high honors in 1853. During the next ten years he filled the position of public instructor at various academies in his native State and achieved an enviable success as a teacher.

One year after his graduation he took to himself a wife, the only daughter of the late Dr. John J. Jansen, of Goshen, New York. After nine years of married life, and ten of teaching, he made the first great change which led to his after success, by removing to Chicago, where he arrived May 12, 1848, as the active partner in the bookselling firm of Griggs, Bross & Co. His connection with this firm lasted about a year and a quarter, when the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Bross made his debut in newspaper life by publishing the Prairie Herald, a religious newspaper, in conjunction with Rev. T. A. Knight. In 1852, the year which first saw Chicago start upon its unexampled commercial career, he shared all the activities of the time, was not slow to perceive the greatness in store for his adopted city, and determined to aid in making that growth a healthy one, and in placing Chicago among the great commercial centres of the country. The result was the establishment of the Democratic Press in connection with the late John L. Scripps, Postmaster of Chicago during Mr. Lincoln's administration, the first number of which was issued in 1852, and appeared as a conservative Democratic sheet, reflect ing the political principles of Mr. Bross himself.

When the Republican party was formed, in 1854, he became one of its earliest adherents, and the politics of the paper were changed accordingly. But politics were only a secondary element in the paper. With his untiring energy he speedily made it the commercial organ of the North-west, and devoted it to the building up of Chicago and the West. All his spare time was devoted to the gathering of statistical facts, and these appeared not only in other columns of the Press, but in pamphlets which were scattered broadcast, and had the effect to direct the attention of capitalists to Chicago. With his keen, well-nigh prophetic foresight, he grasped the whole future of Chicago, and wrote powerful articles on her railroad connections, and her lake commerce, and on the systems of canals which were to connect her with tide-water, and find a European market for the products of the West.

In 1855, he was elected a member of the Common Council, and served in that capacity for two years, paying special attention to the commercial development of the city.

The panic of 1857 seriously affected the Dem ocratic Press, and, on the first day of July, 1858, it was consolidated with the Tribune, under the style of the Press and Tribune, a name which was drop. ped two years after for the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Bross has worked devotedly on the Tribune, and the results and manner of that work are well known throughout the West.

During the war he took no uncertain part upon

the side of uncompromising loyalty and determined opposition to the overthrow of the Government. He gave liberally of his means to the prosecution of the war. His voice was always heard to encourage and support. Believing Mr. Lincoln to be the friend of liberty and humanity, and the proper person to conduct the ship of state through the troubled waters, he labored assiduously, both in the columns of the paper and upon the stump, for his election. He exerted himself day and night in canvassing Southern Illinois for that purpose, which, owing to the large element of Southern population in the lower counties, was inclined to favor the rebel cause. When Mr. Lincoln was elected, and the storm of secession set in, he gave all his energies to the work of recruiting, and contributed liberally of his means to that direction. He also took a very active part in the organization of the Twenty-ninth U. S. reg. iment colored volunteers in Illinois and neighboring States, which was commanded by his brother, the late lamented Colonel John A. Bross, who was killed at Petersburg, Va.

The people of the State of Illinois appreciated his efforts in behalf of the Union cause, and elected him their Lieutenant-Governor, on the ticket with the gallant General Oglesby, by a majority of more than thirty thousand. In the discharge of the duties of his office, and especially as presiding officer of the Senate, he was prompt, vigorous and decided, and brought to that office a rare dignity and cour tesy which commended him even to the bitterest of partisans.

In 1865, in company with Hon. Schuyler Colfax and others, he made the overland journey to California, during which journey he informed himself on details of the Far West and the Pacific coast. The results of that trip have appeared in the columns of the Tribune and in numerous lectures which have been delivered all over the West, before the Chamber of Commerce of New York, the Illinois Legis lature, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and other societies. After his western tour he also made the tour of Europe, visiting Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Naples, and Genoa, his vivid im pressions of which have also been sketched in very entertaining Tribune letters.

During his eventful life, Mr. Bross has not been. spared severe family afflictions. He has had four sons and four daughters, and of these only one of the latter is living. The rest sleep in the beautiful Rosehill Cemetery, where the parents have raised a touching monument to their memory.

It would be useless to give here a personal descrip tion of Mr. Bross. Probably every one of the readers of this volume is familiar with his genial face, his strong, symmetrical appearance, and few have not felt the greeting of his firm, cordial hand. His main characteristic is strong, sound, sterling, practical common sense, which has stood him in good stead, as he has worked his way up from that humble log-cabin of his boyhood to his present high and honorable position. He is yet but fifty-four years of