William J. Young 1827-1896

YOUNG, ELDERKIN, WILSON, HANCOCK

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 12/31/2002 at 09:45:56

The Clinton Weekly Age Vol. 26 No. 24 Friday June 12, 1896 p. 3 W.J. Young is dead. Such words passed swiftly over the city Monday evening, from one person to another, telling of the end of life of a man widely known; a man who by reason of great energy and marked financial ability became one of the millionaire kings of America; and the recognized lumber king of the great Mississippi Valley. For years - since 1858 - his home had been in Clinton. Great saw mill interests of his had been here, and for Clinton he possessed all the love for home so strong a nature could give. It was his home. Here he had laid the foundation of the immense fortune. Here his children had been raised. Here business and social intimate friends were, and here he returned, from many a fatiguing business trip, to be greeted by the love of his early life, the wife of his active years. Here he rested, what such an energetic man of great physical powers could rest; and here he did deeds of charity, acts of benevolence, that were not confined to Clinton, but relieved distress in many a town he probably never saw. His was a nature that delighted to give for the good it would do - not for the fame it would bring the giver, for his injunction to many a committee or person asking assistance for another, was that he be not mentioned. He had many thousands at the command of his pen, thousands he had gathered together, and of those thousands he gave thousands for charity. But he sleeps that quiet sleep, and his home on Seventh avenue is hushed with the presence of death; the blinds are drawn, the family are face to face with the greatest sorrow they have ever known. A chair is vacant; the husband and father is dead. Not alone does the sorrow fall on the family. Friends were many. In business circles last night the first greeting were followed by words of the man who was gone; in homes the conversation reverted, to something of his life. In church circles he will be greatly missed. He was considered a pillar there - especially to the First M.E. church, to which society member of his family belonged. Esther Young M.E. church, he builded and furnished, and dedicated to the church work in the name of his wife, and when the chimes wring out, it will be in tones of sorrow, as though each member of his family, for whom they are named, were speaking to the city. Benevolent societies, hospitals and others will remember him for the generous acts he has done for their maintenance. When the services are held that precede the laying of his remains in the great tomb in Springdale, there will be cessation from business, and a cortege of hundreds paying a last mark of respect to one whom to know was to respect. W.J. Young was born in Belfast, Ireland, February 27, 1827. He came to America in 1846, and labored at different work. At one time he clerked in a grocery at $2 per month. While there he gathered some knowledge of bookkeeping. He became bookkeeper for a railroad contractor, and becoming a contractor himself; drifting into railroading, so that previous to his coming to Clinton he was general freight agent of the Cincinnati, Logansport and Chicago railroad. Leaving this he came to Clinton June 7, 1858, thirty-eight years and one day to his death. Here he engaged in conducting a lumber yard and in May 1860, began the erection of a saw mill here, and the 15th of August of the same year was cutting lumber, this mill growing into two of the largest saw mills in the world, one said to be the largest. He was heavily interested in pine lands north, in banks here and in other ways, selling his logging interests two years ago, since which time he had run his mills only to cut special orders, or dress up shipments from the great stock in the yards. Politically he was a man of no aspiration. He served one term as mayor of Clinton, being elected without opposition, and he had deep interest in the schools, and in the improvement of the city. In 1858, the same year he came to Clinton he was married to Esther Elderkin, in Richmond, Indiana. He leaves to mourn his death, a widow, three daughters and three sons: Mrs. Esther Wilson of Chicago; W.J. Young, Jr., of Clinton; Mrs. Mary Hancock, of Dubuque; Miss Jane Young, Courtland Hershey Young and Edward Ames Young of Clinton. The funeral services will be held Thursday morning at 10:30, from the late residence, to which service friends of the family are invited. Those wishing to do so may view the remains Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 5.
The Clinton Weekly Age Vol. 26 No. 24 Friday June 12, 1896 p. 3 part two Isaiah III. .1.2.3: - For behold, the Lord of Host doth take away the stay and the staff. The mighty man and the prudent; and the honorable man and the counselor. The above text so appropriate, was taken by the Rev. S.C. Bronson of Burlington, at the service over the casket of the late W.J. Young Thursday forenoon, when hundreds gathered in and about his late residence on Seventh avenue to do honor to his memory; to pay the last token of respect to the earthly casket of clay. His remarks were brief, but heart-felt and tender, for the divine stood beside the bier of a man whom he had leaned on for counsel and advice when he had charge of the church here. He was assisted in this duty by Rev. J.A. Truesdale, of Chicago, a pastor of the First M.E. church in the late '60s, and by Rev. Mr. Miller, of Des Moines, also a pastor of the same church, way back in the early '70s. Each of these spoke words of comfort and consolation' words of wisdom and advice to the living. Two touching hymns were rendered at the house by Prof. W.L. McArthur, tenor; Miss Eliza Rogers, soprano; Mrs. F.M. Carson, contralto; Mr. Robt. Arnold, basso - "Lead Kindly Light," and "Jesus My All." The spirit of sorrow permeated through the house, where grief stricken relatives, and friends of years bowed their heads in the presence of death, as the benediction fell upon them, and the sorrow was noticeable on the lawn, in the avenue, into the park across the paving where hundreds stood in silent respect to the memory of a great man - "The mighty man and the prudent; the honorable man and the counselor." When the house services had ended, out into the bright sunlight, out under a beautiful blue June sky, they bore the casket, foremen of different departments of the great mills of W.J. Young & Co., being selected to bear the precious burden. They were: John L. Duff, W.J. Brown, Wm. Mitchell, James Donahue, J. Loring Pollock, John Taylor, Wm. Lundgren, R. Truesdale. Tenderly they carried the body to the funeral car between two line of honorary pall bearers: Joseph C. Young, S.B. Gardiner, Wm. D. Walden, Edward H. Thayer, Julson Hyde, Phillip Howes, J.B. Johnson, Oliver Messer, E.A. Wadleigh, Judge C.W. Chase, Chancy Lamb, Dr. P.J. Farnsworth, Col. Milo Smith, John Morris, Peter Barr, John Smith, Capt. J.D. Fegan, Hon. L.A. Ellis, Wm. Taylor, Fred P. Wilcox. With heads bowed low with sorrow these men with whitening crown saw the remains of a long time friend and business associate pass them, and impressive it appeared to the young people present. Under the direction of Mr. C.C. Coan and Hon. L.B. Wadleigh, to whom the family had given the care of all arrangements, assisted by Mr. A.O. Champlin in charge of the carriages, the procession formed rapidly to begin the march to the grave, in the following order: Carriage of pall bearers. Seven carriages of honorary pall bearers. Funeral car. Landau with ministers. Landau with family. Landau with choir. Landaus and carriages of friends. Thus the solemn cortege proceeded, over sixty teams being in line - a line extending a mile in length. "At the mausoleum, just as the casket was passing through the door the noon bells and whistle from the city marked the activity of the world - the world of business the dead had been so prominent in. Then the impressive Methodist Episcopal funeral service was followed as it had been at the house, after the casket had been borne up the marble walk, fringed with bright colored cut roses, and deposited in the imposing tomb that had been erected on the sightly place in new Springdale. Then a prayer, a few words, the chanting of the Lord's Prayer, a benediction, and the mourning friends turned away into the bright world, saddened for them while memory retains its power. The death of the widely known honored man brought friends from many places to attend the funeral services, among those from out of town being. Mrs. John T. Hancock, Dubuque, Miss Adele Hancock, Dubuque, Frank Hancock, Dubuque, Mrs. and Mrs. Frederick Weyerhaueser, St. Paul, Chas. Weyerhaueser, St. Paul, Mr. and Mrs. Suiter, Cedar Rapids, Rev. Mr. Brush, Dubuque, President King, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, H.M. Young, Chicago, Rev. Emery Miller, Des Moines, Rev. J.A. Truesdale, Chicago, Rev. S.C. Bronson, Burlington, Robert Quayle, Chicago. The esteem in which the departed was held was noticeable about the city in the forenoon of the day the body of W.J. Young was laid to rest by the banks remaining closed until noon, and the mills of C. Lamb & Sons, Curtis Bros. & Co., W.T. Joyce, The Clinton Lumber Co., the Fish Bros. Wagon Works and others. That fate that seems to rule unkindly at times prevented one of the dearest friends of the deceased from being present at the obsequies George W. Forest, who has been the head of the office force of the W.J. Young & Co. business for years, a man whom Mr. Young trusted most completely, and whom he looked upon with great esteem, found it imperative a few days before Mr. Young departed, to travel to endeavor to recuperate his health. No immediate fear of the final rapid dissolution was felt when he left, so he answered nature's call and went east. Telegrams have been sent him, letters have been written, yet to the time of the funeral messages had not reached him, no word had come from him that he had heard of the demise. One can readily feel the shock that will come to the hearted George Forrest when he does learn that he can see the familiar face no more on earth.