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

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
659
The destruction of many of his buildings by the Chicago fire brought him to this city in 1873. From that date he did not engage actively in busi¬ ness, but confined himself to the management of his own large private interests. He died in Chi¬ cago in 1888. His wife (Miss Isabella Soulard, before her marriage) is still a resident of Chicago, as are also his three sons and four daughters.
Mr. Corwith was a man of great business ability and foresight, who saw the vast resources and pos¬ sibilities of the West, where he was for fifty years a prominent figure, and who in his own business
ventures, and in the assistance and the advice which he gave to others, helped more than any other man of his time to open up and to encourage western trade and commerce.
He was a genial gentleman of the old school, wise in counsel, faithful in friendship and gen¬ erous in help, honorable in all his dealings, unas¬ suming in manner, liberal and kind in his estimate of others. He has passed away after a busy and useful life, leaving not only a large fortune, but an honored name and a spotless reputation, as an In¬ heritance to his children.
JAMES L   HOCH,
• CHICAGO,   ILL
JAMES J. HOCH was born in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, August 11, 1854, and is the son of William Hoch, who was a prosperous farmer in that county. He attended the public school in Milwaukee, and in 1868 studied in St. Francis College, near that city. In 1870 he en¬ tered St. Vincent's College, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom in 1873. Having determined to enter the legal profession, he removed to Chicago immediately after graduating, and entered the office of James Ennis,   and   began   the   study of  law.    He   was
admitted to practice January 4, 1878 and since that time has been actively engaged In practice with good success.
In politics Mr. Hoch is a Republican, although he takes no active part in political affairs, being too closely allied to his business, and finding his professional work his chief pleasure.
Mr. Hoch married in 1882, and has quite an interesting family. He is of German extraction, and exceptionally popular in Chicago and vicinity, owing to his amiability and close attention to business.
COL.   H.  A.  WHEELER,
CHICAGO,  ILL.
HARRIS ANSEL WHEELER, the only son of John Douglas and Sarah (Jones) Wheeler, was born at Orrington, Maine, July 30, 1850. He attended the public schools until in his seventeenth year, when he entered the em¬ ployment of F. M. Sabine, of Bangor, Maine, in the wholesale and retail dry goods business, as book-keeper. In 1869, he went to Detroit, Michi¬ gan, and was employed by Allan Sheldon and Company, wholesale dry goods, until 1871, when he returned to Maine, having especially in view a desire to obtain an appointment in the United States army, and feeling that it could be accom¬ plished more readily from his native State.    He
received an appointment as second lieutenant, March 4, 1872. During the interval after his re¬ turn from Detroit he was employed as a clerk in the First National Bank of Bangor. He resigned from the army, January i, 1874, and returned to his former position in the bank at Bangor, where he remained until January of 1878, at which time he assumed the financial management of the Michigan Military Academy, at Orchard Lake, Michigan, representing the interests of Governor John J. Bagley, of Detroit. In 1880, when Gov¬ ernor Bagley retired from his connection with the school, Mr. Wheeler went to Chicago, and became private secretary to   N.   K.   Fairbank, a position