Identifier: chicagohistorybui04curr (find matches)
Title: Chicago: its history and its builders ..
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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mer a native of the Pine Tree state and the latter ofCape Cod, Massachusetts. His father was an able lawyer and of considerableprominence both professionally and politically. In a home of intellectual cultureand natural refinement the son spent his youthful days and his environment de-veloped in him the traits of character that made him ever a most honorable andupright man. Throughout his career he had no false standards of life. He wastaught to regard any honest labor as worthy of respect and when at the age offifteen years he put aside his text-books to enter business circles he sought andsecured a position as clerk in a country store at Eastport, Maine. A little morethan a year passed and he then directed his steps westward. It was his intentionto go to St. Louis and eventually to California, but acting upon his fathers advicehe made his way to Chicago, then a growing and flourishing city of about fortythousand inhabitants. A lad of sixteen years, Avhat did the future hold in store
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H. H. IORTER THE NEW YCiv,. PUDLIC LIBI1AR.Y ASloi:, l.KNO; ANDTXUEa KULNDATiU.NS U L ^ CHICAGO: ITS HISTORY AND ITS BUILDERS 33 for him? He already possessed a considerable knowledge of business and accounts,and moreover there was about him an alert^ enterprising air that at once attractedfavorable attention. He obtained a situation and made his initial step in businessactivity in this city as a clerk in the office of the Galena & Chicago Union RailroadCompany, of which John B. Turner, one of the pioneer railroad builders of thewest, was then president. This road, now one of the main divisions of the North-western railway system, was then but seventy-five miles in length and the trackfor thirty miles out of Chicago was laid with scrap iron that had previously beenused on what is now the New York Central Railroad between Rochester andNiagara Falls. From that time until the close of his active business career Mr,Porter was interested almost continuously in the construction and mana

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