University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

Page 13 text:

As in Freeport so in Hyde Park, Mr. Hibbard soon identified himself with local interests. He was one of the organizers of the First Presbyterian Church which he served continuously in some capacity, in later years as a ruling elder .and as president of the board of trustees. For fifteen years he was a member of the Board of Education, and for five its president. During his administration of this office he gave especial attention to the development of a well-organized school system, and to the founding of a public high school to be conducted upon the most advanced and scholarly methods. For this school a commodious building was erected under his personal supervision. Long ago the expanding city absorbed the suburban hamlet. Hyde Park ceased to be a municipality and became only a location filled with all the embellishments of a city. By this transformation, however, it lost much of the charm which in the early days was its chief attraction. In january, IS7O, upon the nomination of Chief justice Chase, Mr. Hib- bard was appointed by judge Drummond, of the United States District Court, to be the Register in Bankruptcy for the judicial district of Northern Illinois. The position was recognized at the time as one of much importance, involving as it would the large business which would be furnished by a metropolitan city g but its full significance did not appear until after the great fire of 1871, which brought an appalling number of bankruptcies in its train. The proper discharge of the duties of this ofiice demanded legal ability, judicial equipoise, and business capacity, each of a high order, and each were admirably displayed by the in- cumbent. The business demanded his exclusive attention until, in 1878, the law which established this form of procedure was repealed. After that date no new cases in bankruptcy were recognized, but the final adjustment of cases already before the office was often deferred for many years, and some were prob- ably not finished even at the time of his decease. In all, Register Hibbard settled about three thousand cases. He distributed more than iI3,000,000, and in so doing signed more than 1oo,ooo checks. Some debtors, supposed to be insolvent, paid their obligations dollar for dollar. The business of the Register involved not only legal questions of great moment, but also an infinitude of detail. Everywhere pitfalls beset the feet of an officer who lacked either method or industry. Opportunities for personal gain were abundant and to some would have been alluring. Register Hibbard's business habits and his firm integrity protected him from either form of danger. U. S. judge Blodgett's answer to a question asked him concerning Mr. Hibbard was that it was remarkable that during all the years that Mr. Hibbard IO

Page 12 text:

50,000 people, engaged in a lively contest for a supremacy which was not yet assured. The young attorneys became impatient and discouraged, and in 1854 the firm removed to Freeport, Illinois. At the end of two years, Mr. Jameson returned to Chicago. Mr. Hibbard remained in Freeport, having formed a part- nership with Martin P. Sweet, one of the leading lawyers of Northern Illinois. He soon developed a useful acquaintance with municipal affairs. He drafted a charter for the city 3 procured its passage by the legislature 3 became city clerk and city attorney g was appointed a master in chancery 5 and was president of the board of education. His foothold upon the ladder of success was now well established. In 1855 he married his former assistant in the high school, Miss Jane Noble daughter of tl1e Hon. Williaiii Noble of Burlington, a lady whose native ability and varied accomplishments eminently fitted her to be his life-long companion and coadjutor. To them were born three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, NVilliam Noble, graduated at the University of Vermont, and in medicine at Chicago. He married Miss Mary Barker and began the practice of medicine at Hyde Park, Ill. He died suddenly just as he was entering upon a career which promised ability and usefulness. The second son, Grenville Benedict, died in infancy. The third, John Denison, graduated at the University of Mich- igan and is a member of the firm of John Davis 81 Co., of Chicago. He married Miss Josie Davis. The daughters, Edith Nash, Mary Grace, and Katherine Raymond survive. The youngest married Lincoln McMillan, a rising jour- nalist. In the spring of 1860,at the solicitation of his former partner, Mr. Hibbard returned to Chicago and became a member of the firm of Cornell, jameson and Hibbard. This firm was dissolved in 1865 by the election of Mr. jameson to be a judge of the Superior Court of Chicago, a position which he occupied with eminent success for eighteen years. After this withdrawal of judge jameson, Mr. Hibbard associated himself with james I. Noble and Myron B. Rich in the firm of Hibbard, Rich SL Noble, which continued in business until 1870. When Mr. Hibbard returned to Chicago in 1860, he looked about for some place where he could make a quiet suburban home. Such a place he found at Hyde Park, then a suburb of Chicago. Here he acquired the larger part of a block of land, upon which he erected a convenient house, overlooking the many- visaged waters of Lake Michigan. -On this property he lived until his death, in the latter twenty-three years in a more comniodious residence, erected from plans perfected by himself and his wife. 9

Page 14 text:

had performed the duties of Register not a single complaint had been made to him of his oiiicial conduct, nor a motion made to retax his costs in any case. After 1878, Mr. I-Iibbard did not return to the practice of law, but gave his time and thought to the various business enterprises in which he had become interested. For many years he had held official relations with the American Insurance Company as treasurer or vice-president. It was due to his courage and financial aid, with that of others, that, after the great fire had brought the institution to the verge of the bankruptcy which had engulfed all other Chicago insurance companies, this one was tided over its temporary distress, and was en- abled to enter upon a new era of prosperity. From 1872 to 1887 he was a director in the National Bank of Illinois. In 1887 he became president ofthe Fort Dearborn National Bank, which post he resigned in 1889. I-Ie was afterwards president of the American Bronze Company, which produced works of art of a high order, and he was actively engaged in other enterprises of more or less moment. In earlier days he had an interest in the publication of the American Law Register. I-Ie was one of the early owners of the Chicago Daily Republican, edited for a time by Charles A. Dana, which subsequently developed into the Inter-Ocean. The scholarly impulses of his earlier years animated him through life. Particularly was he interested in the rapid advances of the sciences, which char- acterized the times. Nothing of this nature escaped his inquiry. Hence his interest in the Chicago Academy of Sciences, in the Astronomical Society, in the Botanical Garden, as well as in numberless schemes for applying scientific discoveries to practical affairs. I-Ie was a student oi literature, a lover of music and of the arts of design. I-Iis home was embellished with evidences of a culti- vated taste and aesthetic spirit. These instincts made him one of the earliest supporters of the movement which builded the Art Institute of Chicago, and found him at home in the Literary Club, and in various musical associations. His interest in education was thoroughly catholic as it was fundamental. It concerned not merely the public schools of the communities among which he dwelt, but every phase of higher education, He had been for nearly twenty years, and until his death, a valued trustee of his alma mater, the University of Vermont of whose commencements he had attended more than thirty. He was also a trustee of the Lake Forest, Ill. University. In religious matters he was a consistent, practical, work-a-day Christian. While he was a constant attendant upon the services of the church, and ready to serve whenever service was needed, the clearest evidence of his abiding faith in the eternal verities appeared in his daily walk and conversation-in a just, upright and conscientious life. As said the apostle to the gentiles, I will show II