The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
through the Nashville campaign. In 1865 he was assigned to duty on the staff of General A. J. Smith, Sixteenth Army Corps, Acting Provost Marshal, and served till the close of the war, making for himself a brilliant record. After the close of the war he was commissioned first- lieutenant in the regular army, but resigned, and next engaged in cotton raising in Alabama. Two years later, in 1867, he returned to Chicago, leav¬ ing his plantation in charge of an overseer, and there associated himself with Mr. John Jackson, under the firm name of Jackson 8z: Sexton, in a stove foundry. This firm was succeeded by that of Messrs. J. A. & T. S. Sexton, and was con¬ ducting business at No. 176 Lake street at the time of the great fire of October 8-9, 1871. In 1872 the firm was changed to Cribben, Sex¬ ton & Co., and the increase of business justi¬ fied the erection of spacious warerooms at Nos. 75 and "]"] Lake street, and then followed the purchase of the McArthur Iron Works, at Nos. 52 to 58 Erie street, where they began the man¬
ufacture of stoves and grey enamel hollowware. The firm is at present (1892) composed of Henry Cribben, James A. Sexton and  Will H. Cribben.
Colonel Sexton takes an active interest in Grand Army affairs, and is the Past Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Illinois. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, the Chicago Union Veteran Club and the Veteran Union League, and is a Mason of high degree.
There is no better attest of Colonel Sexton's popularity and worth, and the universal satisfac¬ tion with which his candidacy for the postmaster- ship was received, than in the fact that in the great city of Chicago, where presidents may be said to be made, and the party of which he is a member has so many calls upon the administra¬ tion for political favors, he found no one willing to be his earnest competitor. " That the man deserved the office and that the office deserves the man," has been demonstrated by the reforms that have been inaugurated in all departments of the office and the perfect discipline that prevails.
ALEXANDER  L.  DEWAR,
CHICAGO,   ILL.
ALEXANDER L. DEWAR, a prominent banker of Chicago, and cashier of the American Exchange National Bank, was born at Glasgow, Scotland, on August 6, 1852.
His father, Plummer Dewar, was a native of the West India Islands but was of Scottish parentage, being able to trace his ancestry back for several centuries. His mother was Eliza Pew Dewar, a lady of English extraction but a resident of Jamaica, where his parents were married. Shortly after this marriage our subject's parents removed to Scotland, locating at Edinburgh, but later remov¬ ing to Glasgow where Alexander was born. In 1855, when our subject had reached the inter¬ esting age of three, the Dewar family moved to Canada, where he passed his boyhood and ob¬ tained his school education. His first business experience was in the same business as he is now in, and in 1868 he became a clerk in the British Bank at Hamilton, Ont. Even at that time Mr. Dewar manifested great ability and fulfilled his duties  so  faithfully   that   his   promotions   were
rapidly made, and in a short time he stood so well with the directorate of the institution that he, at the age of nineteen, was sent to New York to fill the position of teller (a very high position) in the branch of the bank in that city. He continued in the employment of the British Bank until 1875 when he returned to Canada to accept a position with the Bank of Commerce, located at Montreal, with branches at Toronto and Woodstock; he occupied a prominent posi¬ tion with this bank in Canada for some years, and in 1881 was delegated to manage a branch of the Bank in Chicago, which he did satisfactorily, and continued its controlling spirit until 1886, when the bank transferred its surplus capital to New York and discontinued the Chicago business.
Then Mr. Dewar organized the American Ex¬ change National Bank, transferring the business he controlled whilst with the old concern to the new organization. Mr. Dewar has always been the cashier of the bank, and it is conceded by the banking   houses to be largely due to his   inde-