early in its history and served as its president in 1850. Although now in his eighty-second year, he still appears regularly "on change," and participates actively in the proceedings from time to time.

Before leaving New York to settle in the west, he was married to Miss

Julia Smith of that city, and their family of five sons grew to manhood in Chicago, where four of them still reside. The fifth son has been for nearly twenty years identified with the grain trade of Baltimore, Md. HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

OF English origin, the Ellis family was transplanted to America, and became identified with New England during the colonial period of its history. Abner Ellis represented the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, in which place he was born, in the provincial congress of 1774 and 1775, was one of the patriots who was active in providing supplies for the continental forces in 1775-76, and at a later date served as a member of the Massachusetts legislature. Charles Mayo Ellis, a noted lawyer and one of the early abolitionists of Boston, Calvin Ellis, a distinguished physician, George Ellis, an eminent clergyman and General Theodore Gunville Ellis, who achieved distinction in the war of the rebellion, all of the same city, were members of the Massachusetts family, who have shed luster upon the name within the present century. Branches of the family extending into Maine and New Hampshire and Connecticut have also contributed to

the large number of its illustrious representatives. To this old New England stock Joel Ellis, one of the early settlers and for nearly fifty years one of the active business men of Chicago belonged. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, in 1818, his father, Benjamin Ellis, having emigrated to that State from. Connecticut early in Connecticut early in the century. Reared on a farm in a newly and sparcely settled region of country, Joel Ellis grew to manhood without having enjoyed such educational advantages as he would have liked, and the early years of his manhood were devoted, in a measure, to the process of self education which developed so many of the western pioneers into successful men of affairs. While, however, he began life for himself with a limited knowledge of books, of the sciences taught in the schools, and of the most approved methods of conducting business, his industrial training had not been neglected. Industry

and steady habits were his distinguishing characteristics. He was a strong, energetic and self-reliant young man, full of courage and hopefulness, and confident of his ability to take care of himself under any circumstances, when he left his native State for the great west in 1838.

He was accompanied on the way by a young man who had taught the country school at which he had been a somewhat irregular attendant, and during the voyage from Buffalo to Chicago by way of the lakes, he embraced the opportunity to add as much as possible to his store of that kind of knowledge which he thought would be of most service to him in a business career.

When he reached Chicago in the fall of 1838, he found the city suffering from the dullness and business stagnation which had followed the monetary panic of 1837, and notwithstanding his willingness to turn his hand to whatever he could find to do, he was unable to obtain any employment in the little city. An uncle of his, Samuel Ellis, had however preceded him to Illinois and was engaged in farming in what is now one of the finest residence portions of the southern division of the city, then half a dozen miles or more from the town. Joining his uncle he hired out to him as a farm laborer and remained with him two years.

Within that period he formed the acquaintance of Archibald Clybourn, then actively engaged in various en

terprises, and in 1840 became associa ted with him in business. At Mr Clybourn's residence he became ac quainted with Miss Susan Galloway. a daughter of James Galloway who had imigrated from Ohio to Illinois. in 1826, and who had spent a winter on the site of Chicago, several years before the town had an actual exist. ence.

Mr. Ellis and Miss Galloway were married in 1844, by Rev. W. E. Man ley, pastor of the first Universalist church established in the city, and began house-keeping in a little cct tage, located in the immediate neigh borhood of the site now occupied by the splendid building of the Union League Club. In those days this location was suburban, and Mr. Ellis had made sufficient progress towards the accumulation of a fortune, to enable him to build the comfortable cottage, in which he established his first homestead.

From 1840 to 1858, he was engaged in business with Mr. Clybourn, and then went into the retail meat business on his own account, furnishing supplies largely for the hotels, and to vessels running out of Chicago. About 1865, he engaged in the commission with Thomas Armour, in which he was successful beyond the most sanguine expectation of his earlier life. In the spring of 1871, having made many paying investments and accumulated a fortune, the care of which demanded a large share of his attention, he decided to retire

from active business and give himself up to the enjoyment of a luxurious country home.

He accordingly removed to the village of Jefferson, then some distance beyond the city limits, where he purchased a considerable body of land, and erected a handsome residence, which is still conspicuous among the elegant suburban homes which have been built up around it, in later

years.

Scarcely had he begun to feel at home in the midst of his new surroundings, however, to enjoy the quiet and restfulness to which he felt himself entitled after thirty years of active business life, when a crushing blow fell upon him in the fall of 1871. It was at that time that "riches took to themselves wings" in Chicago and flew away in the great fire. Fortunes were burned up, the savings of years were dissipated, and the fruits of industry scattered to the four winds. Among the greatest sufferers from the conflagration were many of the earlier settlers of Chicago, who had started down the shady side of life's path way, and who lacked the physical vigor to successfully renew the strug

ple for fortune, which they had once abandoned, satisfied with what they had accomplished. Mr. Ellis, like hundreds of others, found himself deprived of his source of income, and was obliged to turn his attention again to business. Successful in retrieving a portion of his losses only, he continued to be actively engaged in business affairs until 1885, when failing health drove him again into retirement.

His death occurred on the 29th of October, 1886. His wife, two daughters and one son, all of whom live within Chicago, or within the immediate vicinity of the city, are the surviving members of his family.

A quiet, modest and unassuming man, who during his long residence. in Chicago gave his attention mainly to private affairs, he was never an aspirant for political or other preferment, and consequently came less prominently before the public than some of his contemporaries, but he was nevertheless one of the most useful and highly esteemed citizens of Chicago and a conspicuous figure among the pioneer settlers.

HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

The rapid development of a frontier settlement in a most forbidding and unsightly location-far remote from established centres of trade and civilization-into a great city, is one of those remarkable evolutions which awakens one's interest in all the agencies that have contributed to so wonderful a result, and especially in the personality of those who witnessed the foundation-laying of the metropolis.

A few persons. are still living in Chicago who were here in 1835, when the red men, finally abandoning all claims to the surrounding territory, set out for their reservation beyond the Mississippi river; and those who came within a few years thereafter, can well remember when various kinds of wild animals-the original inhabitants of the prairies-made themselves quite at home, in what is now the most densely populated portions of the city. As if by magic, these persons saw a city spring into existence, and as if though the machinations of an evil genie, they saw it disappear in 1871. Again they saw it spring from its own ashes into a stateliness, a splendor, and a greatness undreamed of before.

Such have been the shifting scenes in the lifetime of the Chicago

pioneeers, and few of those still living have been more intelligent observers of what was all the time going on about them, or borne a more conspicuous part in the great work of advancement, than Devotion C. Eddy, one of the numerous sons of New York, who became identified with the city in its infancy.

Mr. Eddy is a descendant of the Rev. William Eddy, who was born at Bristol, England, 1550, and was educated at the University of Cambridge, and St. Johns and Trinity Colleges. He received the degree of Master of Arts, from Trinity College and was married in 1587, in Cranbrook, to Mary Fortin. In 1591 he became Vicar of St. Dunstans church of Cranbrook, County Kent, England, and retained the Vicarship up to the date of his death in 1616. His biographers have said of him that he was 'a pious, methodical gentleman,a strict churchman,noted for his judicious counsels, his serviceable advice to parishioners, and his denunciations of immorality in every form.”

His son Samuel, who was born in England in 1608, came to America with his brother, John in 1630, in the good ship" Handmaid." He had been married prior to his departure from England and was accompanied to the

new world by his wife. He was the bearer of official despatches to the Governor of Plymouth, and afterward became a conspicuous member of the Colony, which he defended at various times against the Indians, with a small body of troops which he had raised for that purpose.

A grandson of the pilgrim Samuel Eddy-Obidiah by name-married Abigail Devotion, of Huguenot ancestry, and their son Constant married Mary Winslow, at Swansea, Massachusetts. Their son Devotion Eddy, married Mary Sherman, a sister of Captain Sherman of revolutionary fame, and had two sons, Tisdale and Gilbert, who as boys were on a privateering vessel belonging to their father, at the beginning of the war of the revolution. One of the sons, Gilbert, was taken prisoner by the British, and confined for a year in a prison ship at Halifax, where he suffered great hardships. So great was the suffering of the prisoners at times, on account of a lack of sufficient food, that they threw out of the port-holes of the vessel fish hooks made from bent pins and attached to strings, with the hope of thus ensnaring an occasional fish. No sooner were these poor devices dropped overboard, however, than the lines were cut by the British guards, who sought to contribute as much as possible to the misery of the unfortunate Americans. Being returned to his home through an exchange of prisoners at the end of a year of confinement, Gilbert Eddy,

still a boy, became a substitute for his father-who had been drafted-in the revolutionary army, and participated in the historic battles at Saratoga and Bennington. In the war of 1812 he was commissioned a division commander, and rendered important service in behalf of the National cause at the battle of Plattsburg. Afterward he served as a member of the New York State Legislature, and was chosen a presidential elector from . that state, as a supporter of John Quincy Adams.

Tisdale Eddy, while aboard a privateer as a boy, got his first taste of warfare, in a short but spirited engagement with an English merchant vessel, loaded with contraband goods, which was disabled and brought into the port of New London and turned over to the authorities, as one of the prizes captured by the privateer. He served with distinction in the war

1812, and was collector of customs for the port of Champlain, and colonel of the 45th Regiment of the New York State Militia.

It was Col. Eddy who became the father of Devotion C. Eddy, the Chicago lawyer, financier and early settler. Col. Eddy married Elizabeth Button, a daughter of Judge Simeon Button of New York State, and became a farmer in Pittstown, Rensalear county of that State. He was also the proprietor and operator of flouring and other mills located on one of the tributaries of the Hudson river which flowed through that pic