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

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
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Electricity," " Eye Headaches," " Eye Reflexes," "Tumors and Malformations of the Lids," "The Pupil in Health and Disease," "Ocular Neo¬ plasms," "The Ophthalmic and Aural Complica¬ tions of Scarlet Fever,'' and "Cataract Extrac¬ tion."
Prominent in the Masonic Order, he is a mem¬ ber of the following organizations: Cleveland Lodge, A. F. A. M.; Washington Chapter, R. A. M.; Apollo Commandery, Oriental Consistory and Medinah Temple.
In 1876 Dr. Buffum married Miss Evelyn Bar¬
rett Sprague, a lady of high social standing in Jamestown, New York, and a granddaughter of the noted Abolitionist, William H. Tew. Two children have been born to them—Howard E. and Natalie S.
Dr. Buffum is a man of powerful mentality and iron will, strongly attached to his profession. Yet, with all the student's love for books, keenly appreciative of art, with the cosmic views of a traveler in many lands, he ranks to-day not only as one of the foremost professional men of this country, but also as a polished man of the world.
COL. W. THOMAS  BLOCK,
CHICAGO,   ILL.
CHICAGO has many young men who by various causes have risen to eminence and distinction ; men who have not yet reached the meridian of life, but who have already shown marked ability and great executive capacity, and among that number is the subject of this sketch. Col. W. T. Block, secretary of the great Grant Locomotive Works Company.
Col. Block comes of distinguished ancestry, and is of French and German descent. He'is a native of Pennsylvania, being born at Marietta', Lancaster county, on January 6th, 1853. ^^ is the son of A. B. Block, merchant, a native of France, who died in 1853, ^^<^ ^^ Barbara A. Brobst, his wife, a descendant of Philip Brobst, who emigrated from Saxony and settled in Berks county. Pa., in 1694, and daughter of Solomon Brobst, one of the contractors in building the Pennsylvania canals and various bridges over the Susquehanna river, and grand-daughter of Chris¬ tian Brobst, born 1767 and died 1849, who was an ensign in First Company, Second Battalion, Lt.- Col. Henry Spyker, in the Revolutionary War, and who settled in 1790 in Catawissa, Columbia county. Pa. He built the first flouring-mlll in that county. He was one of the projectors of various internal improvements in the State, and was actually the first promoter of the railroads In the United States.
From the history of Columbia county. Pa., we find the following:
" The canal svstem was of inestimable value to
the commonwealth, and infused new vigor in the various communities located on its route, but there were regions inaccessible to this mode of transportation, the mineral wealth of which de¬ manded equal facilities for shipment. It was out of this demand that the first railroad grew, and Pennsylvania shares with Massachusetts the honors of inaugurating a system to which the nation so largely owes its phenomenal develop¬ ment.
" The first railroad in Pennsylvania was com¬ pleted in 1827, from Mauch Chunk to Summit Hill, but Christian Brobst, of Catawissa, had five years earlier taken a broader view of the useful¬ ness of the railroads. He was a man of limited school training, but nature had endowed him with rare foresight and reasoning power of high order. It is said that the number of rafts floating down the river first attracted his attention, and anxious to build up the place of his residence, he began to reckon the advantage which would accrue if all this traffic could be made to pass through Catawissa to its final destination. He took actual account of the river traffic and compiled statistics and arguments which commanded the attention of capitalists. His energy did notecase with this, however. Once assured of the advantage of a railroad he proceeded to demonstrate its practicability. He was not a civil engineer, but with some knowledge of the method employed, gained by observation, by his own ingenuity he equipped   himself   for  the   work,   and ran out a