FOR a score of years, more or less, George S. Carmichael was recognized as an unusually successful man of affairs, in Chicago, and one who combined with rare business sagacity, broad culture and a nobility of character which endeared him to a large circle of friends and associates. He belonged to the class of men whose coming to Chicago may be said to have marked the beginning of the most progressive era of the city's history, and through whose enterprise and activity the transition from town to metropolis was brought about. Trained in a conservative business school these men were apt students of men and markets, quick to adapt themselves to the conditions by which they found themselves surrounded in a western city, and prompt to grasp opportunities for advancing their individual interests and promoting general prosperity at the same time. That they were men of superior capacity has been demonstrated by their achievements, and a great city as well as private fortunes, are the monuments which they have built to themselves.

Of this class of men Mr. Carmich

ael was a typical representative. Born in Sullivan County, New York, April 27th, 1827, he grew up in a rural community, and his early education was obtained in the country schools. At thirteen years of age he was a pupil of the late Hon. William Bross-when that distinguished journalist and politician was a school teacher in New York State-and at a later date he was a student at Middletown Academy. Having completed an academic education, he began reading law with Judge James Stryker, a noted lawyer and jurist of New York State. It was not long, however, before his law studies were temporarily laid aside at the request of his father, an extensive publicworks contractor, and one of the builders of the Hudson River Railroad. Becoming associated with his father while the railroad was in process of construction, he gave his time and attention entirely to the keeping of books and accounts until 1849, when the elder Carmichael died suddenly of cholera. After the death of his father the responsibility of administering upon the estate and settling its affairs devolved upon him.

He

Thoroughly in love with the profession, he became recognized by his associates at the bar and the general public as a lawyer of fine attainments and high character, but failing health compelled him to enter a less arduous and exacting field of labor. therefore relinquished his practice and came west, locating first at Alton, Illinois, where he remained one year. At the end of that time finding his health much improved, he accepted a proposition which came to him from Phillip Bros., commission merchants of Chicago, to join them in a business which they believed could be largely extended through his influence and assistance. A partnership was accordingly formed, and Mr. Carmichael removed to Chicago, where he became an active member of the Board of Trade, and was soon recognized as one of the most sagacious and far seeing members of that famous body of traders. The knowledge which he had gained as a student and practitioner of law aided him materially in the successful conduct of a business which speedily grew to large proportions, and which yielded to him and his partners a golden harvest. His marked success

in the business in which he first engaged in Chicago, led to his identification with numerous other enterprises, which became important factors in contributing to the growth and development of the city, one of the institutions, with the building up of which he had much to do, being the old Fifth National Bank of Chicago-now the National Bank of America-of which he was long a director.

From the time he became a resident of Chicago up to the date of his death-which occurred October 2nd 1878-Mr. Carmichael was one of the most active, energetic and forceful citizens of the western metropolis, and one whose influence and usefulness continually increased. Somewhat reticent and reserved in his manner naturally, it was only when occasion demanded that he gave expression to his views upon matters of public policy and general interest. When the occasion presented itself, however, he expressed himself with a clearness and forcefulness which left no one in doubt as to his position. Whatever the question which presented itself, he seemed intuitively to grasp the situation, and to reach correct conclusions by the shortest and most direct route. An eminently successful business man, he was at the same time a close student of social, economic, and political questions, and one who continually surprised even his most intimate friends by the breadth of his information

and the extent of his knowledge Seeking nothing in the way of selfpreferment, his fitness for important trusts impressed itself upon those who came in contact with him, as a natural consequence of association, and suggestions of political and other honors came to him unsought and unsolicited. An earnest and aggressive Republican in politics, he was active in promoting the interests of the party, because he believed in its principles and policies, and not because he was ambitious for political distinction. He was regarded, however, as a man who would reflect credit upon himself and his constitu

ency in any official capacity, and his name was under consideration in connection with congressional honors at the time of his death in 1878.

Broad minded, liberal, and progressive, George S. Carmichael is held in kindly remembrance among the men who have contributed most to the greatness of Chicago. His widowwho before her marriage in 1864, was Miss Harriet K. Brush, a daughter of Colonel I. E. Brush, and sister of C. F. Brush, the noted electrician of Cleveland, Ohio-is still a resident of the city, with which her husband was so long conspicuously identified. HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

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IN the long series of articles published in this Magazine under the heading Chicago Pioneers " series, by the way, in which an earnest effort has been made to place on record so much as might be of interest to their descendants, to the future historian, and to the general public, concerning the early settlers of one of the most famous of American cities, more or less extended biographies have at one time or another been published of nearly all the men who were prominently identified with the city during the earlier years of its history. Interesting personages, these founders and builders of a great city,

and especially interesting are those who still survive to look back over a period of such wonderful commercial and industrial development, as to be without a parallel in history, and who looking backward can say "all of which I saw, and part of which I was."

In the year 1837 Chicago had just begun to be a municipality. The first city election had been held, and the first officers elected under the city charter had been duly installed, but there was little outside of this to entitle the place to recognition as a city, so that those whose acquaintance with it began as far back as that year may be said to have been witnesses