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

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
597
object of this consolidation being misunderstood by the public, great injustice was done the several abstract firms, both by the press and by Individuals, who in newspaper articles charged that the com¬ bination was for the sole purpose of creating a monopoly in the abstract business. So general was this feeling that the Illinois Legislature passed a law limiting the fees for title searches. For¬ tunately for the public, these unjust charges were groundless and against men of well-known in¬ tegrity, whose honesty, ability and accuracy had never been questioned and could not now be successfully attacked. They stood true to their trust and loyal to Chicago, and refused to sell their books at any price to a syndicate, which, had a sale been made, would have withdrawn them from their legitimate uses and made them solely a source of personal profit. The result can be imagined when it is remembered that these books contained the only evidences of title to real-estate worth more than seven hundred mill¬ ion dollars.
Mr. Chase has taken an active interest In Ma¬ sonic affairs and is held high In the estimation of that Order. When he settled in Chicago in 1852, there were but two Masonic lodges in the
city, viz., the La Fayette and Oriental. He was secretary of Oriental Lodge ten years, and held the same office in La Fayette Chapter two years.
He is an Episcopalian in religious faith; he was an earnest participant in the Reformed Episcopal movement and is an active member of Christ Church congregation, under the care of Bishop Charles Edward Cheney.
He became a Republican in 1856, when General John C. Fremont was nominated for the presi¬ dency upon the organization of that party, and has been a staunch advocate of the principles of the party ever since.
On June 14, i860, he married Miss Ellen Marian Sherwin, of Chicago ; she Is a niece of the late William Rickcords, Esq., who was well known in Chicago in the "forties" as the popular landlord of the old Lake House, and later for a number of years, as proprietor of the old Sherman House. They have four children, viz., Samuel M., Bessie L. B., Lucy B. and Horace Stanley.
Mr. Chase has been closely identified with the history-and growth of Chicago for the past forty years, and with unlimited faith in its future, has improved his opportunities and been very success¬ ful as a business man.
WILLIAM  VAUGHAN  JACOBS,
CHICAGO,  ILL.
w
E probably could not find a finer type of the Chicago business man than we have in the subject of this sketch. Coming to this city when only twenty years of age, William Vaughan Jacobs has worked himself gradually forward to the front rank of energetic public-spirited men. He is the original founder of the villages of Brookllne and Burnside ; vice-president of the Calumet Electric Street Railroad Company, and a man of enterprise, ability and success.
During eighteen years no young man has con¬ tributed more to the phenomenal growth of this city than Mr. Jacobs. He was born June 19, 1853, at West Chester, Pennsylvania, and was the third son of a family of three sons and three daughters. His brothers were C. Hamilton Jacobs, a member of the Seventy-second Illinois Infantry, who died before Vicksburg in  1863 ;   and   Colonel   J.  E.
Jacobs, now of Baltimore. His parents were Thomas B. Jacobs, and Mary (Elliott) Jacobs, daughter of Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, of the United  States Navy.
William Vaughan was educated at the Military Academy of West Chester, where he distinguished himself by his application to study and his love of field sports. Having completed his course in his seventeenth year, he was sent to the banking house of Messrs. Kirk, MacVeagh & Co., where he was Initiated into business life and methods. In April, 1873, he came to Chicago and took a position in the banking house of Lunt, Preston & Kean, and subsequently was offered and accepted the position of private secretary to Mr. Paul Cornell, the founder of the largest village in the world—Hyde Park.
In 1876, Mr. Jacobs went  into the real estate