Person:James Waller (8)

Information on James B. Waller

From "The American Biographical Dictionary":

JAMES B. WALLER.

CHICAGO.

THE Waller family of Virginia were descended from the English family of that name, of which Sir William Waller, the distinguished parliamentary general in the time of Cromwell, and the poet, Edmund Waller, were members.

A member of the English family immigrated to America about the time of the restoration, and settled in Spottsylvania county, Virginia. Two of his descendants, John and William Edmund Waller, became eminent in that county as Baptist preachers. John was a man of great eloquence, and during the persecution of Dissenters by the Church of England in the latter part of the last century, he was imprisoned by reason of the excitement produced by his efforts. This did not silence him, however. He persisted in his holy work, and preached through prison bar's to large and enthusiastic crowds, so that his persecutors found it best to release him.

His younger brother, William Edmund, remained in the ministry over fifty years, and was very highly esteemed. He was the father of five sons, two of whom were also Baptist ministers, and all of whom resided in Kentucky. One of them, named Richard, was the father of C. S. Waller, who was assistant auditor of Kentucky for a number of years, and recently a commissioner of public works for Chicago, an office he is well known to have filled with distinguished ability and success.

The youngest son, William S. Waller, was cashier of the Bank of Kentucky, at Frankfort, and at Lexington, for upwards of forty years, and died in 1855. His four sons removed many years ago to Chicago. One of them, William, died in 1880, and the others, Henry, James B. and Edward Waller, are still residents of this city. The latter, the youngest, was from 1853 to 1866 an active member of the late firm of Lees and Waller, of New York, who ranked high among the first merchants of that city, and who acted there as agents of the Bank of California, when it was most successful and prosperous.

The second son of William S. Waller was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, January 20, 1817. His boyhood was spent in that city, and on his father's farm in the suburbs. His early education was under the personal supervision of his mother, by whom he was taught the English branches. At the age of eleven he entered the classical school at Frankfort of Keen O'Harra, a teacher of large reputation in Kentucky and adjoining states, and afterward, in 1830, entered the preparatory department of Center College, at Danville, Kentucky, where he remained until 1834. In 1835 he entered the junior class of Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in the fall of 1836, at the age of nineteen. His parents having designed him for the law, upon his return from Oxford he entered at once upon its study in the law department of Transylvania University, in Lexington, and received his diploma from that institution in 1838. He was admitted to the bar the same year, and began the practice of the law at Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he remained for several years, in partnership with Warner L. Underwood, who became a member of congress from that district, and whose brother, Judge Underwood, was for many years a member of the United States senate from Kentucky. In 1842, while in successful practice at Bowling Green, he received a proposal from Hon. Thomas F. Marshall, then in congress as a representative from the Ashland District, of a law partnership at Lexington. He accepted the offer, and for about two years they practiced together at the same bar with Hon. Henry Clay, Chief-Justice Robertson, and other distinguished lawyers. Thomas F. Marshall was at that time the most brilliant member of the Kentucky bar, and one of the most celebrated orators of America, and the influence of his brilliant genius over his young law partner was marked, and did much to fashion and develop his natural gifts as a public speaker. A personal acquaintance also with Henry Clay, and an enthusiastic admiration of the genius of that great man, was not without its formative influence upon him. With the natural gifts with which nature had endowed him, heightened by the favorable associations of his early life, and developed by a thorough education, Mr. Waller was prepared for a brilliant career in his chosen profession. He was, however, of a retiring disposition, domestic in his tastes, and studious in his habits, added to which he lacked the inspiration which'is born of poverty and necessity. Hence he became eminent as a counselor rather than brilliant as an advocate, and for twenty years he stood high in his native state as an attorney and counselor at law. But at length an event took place which, by adding largely to his fortune, and also demanding the larger portion of his time, curbed his ambition for forensic or political honors, and finally caused his entire withdrawal from the bar. This was the sudden death of his brother-in-law, R. S. C. A. Alexander, a gentleman of great wealth, owner of the celebrated farm of Woodburn, Kentucky, and the fine old estate of Airdrie, Scotland.

Mr. Waller became united in marriage in February, 1847, to Miss Lucy Alexander, the daughter of Robert Alexander, formerly in the private office of Benjamin Franklin at the court of France, and for many years subsequently president of the Bank of Kentucky at Frankfort, Kentucky, of which Mr. Waller's father was for over forty years cashier. He was a man of fine literary attainments, and very elevated character, and the union of the two families by this marriage was looked upon as a very fortunate and happy event. Upon the death of his brother-in-law, which occurred in December, 1867, Mr. Waller and a brother of his wife, A. J. Alexander, entered as executors upon the administration of his immense estate in trust for the heirs. Mr. Alexander died a bachelor, and his property was left by will to his brother John and his two sisters and their children. To the management of this estate the later years of Mr. Waller's life have been mainly devoted. Withdrawing entirely from the practice of his profession, he spent the time unused in the care of his estate, in the rearing and education of his large family of children, in the congenial pursuit of learning, and the pleasing pastime of literary effort.

In 1849 Mr. Waller visited Chicago for the first time, bringing with him a considerable sum of money for investment in real estate. This he did so satisfactorily that his own fortune is quite competent for any probable strain upon it. He brought with him letters of introduction from Henry Clay and other prominent Kentuckians, which insured him a most flattering reception among the foremost men of the city, and gave him the "inside track" in his intended investments. He did not, however, settle here at that time, but returned again to Kentucky and to the practice of his profession.

In 1851 and 1852, with his family, he visited Airdrie, Scotland, making the tour of England, also, and spending some time at the home of Mrs. Waller's uncle, in London, Thomson Hankey, the then governor of the Bank of England. On his return he again resumed his practice, and it was not till six years later, in 1858, that he removed to Chicago with his family. After becoming finally settled here, he entered into - a copartnership with his brother Edward, and brother-in-law, James Lees, who were commission merchants in New York city, to open a general commission business, under the firm name in Chicago of Waller and Company, and of Lees and Waller in New York. This firm continued in business for several years, during which the partners had made money, and Mr. Waller's fortune was considerably increased. But it was thought prudent during the dark days of the war in 1863 to dissolve, and avoid the immense risk of the future. Mr. Waller accordingly withdrew from the firm.

Mr. Waller was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and has always been prominent in its councils and a foremost man in Bible and Sunday-school work. His present church connection is with the Fullerton Avenue Church, Rev. H. N. Collison, pastor. It is not, however, as a Presbyterian that Mr. Waller ranks high. He is a man of much reading, deep thought, and independent in his opinions. He is very familiar with his Bible, and will not receive any doctrine he does not believe to be plainly taught in it.

In politics Mr. Waller was in early life a staunch whig, as his friendship for Henry Clay would indicate; but about 1858 he became a supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, and still remains a conservative democrat, or, as he is wont to term it, a democrat of the Jeffersonian school. A tariff for revenue only, and the reserved rights of the states as opposed to the centralizing tendency of the times, are two of the most important planks in his platform. Although often solicited to take active part in politics, and the nomination tendered him of some of the most important offices in the gift of the people of the state, he invariably declines, and prefers the substantial joys of private life to the doubtful and short lived honors of a public career. A number of his large family of two sons and seven daughters are now married and well settled in life, and there remains for the parents only the quiet enjoyment of a well earned competence and its generous distribution to the needy and suffering, who have learned to expect it at their hands.

Nothing serves so clearly to show the true character of a man as the treatment of his dependents and inferiors; and it is important in this direction to note Mr. Waller's conduct toward the slaves that came to him by inheritance. His conduct was so fatherly and truly Christian that, although he gave them full liberty at any time to leave him and secure their freedom by emigrating to the states of Ohio or Indiana, which lay just across the river, and taking wife and children along, yet he never could persuade them to do so, but they remained with him, contented and happy, as long as he resided in Kentucky. And to this day his former slaves look to him for counsel and assistance in all their troubles. He frequently receives letters couched in the old language of the slave, saying, "Massa, please send me forty dollars; my craps turned out bad dis yeah," or something similar. And it is not too much to say that the sweetest pleasures of his later years come of his ability to minister to their needs, who were his playmates in childhood and his willing servants in early manhood.

In any biographical sketch of Mr. Waller there are three productions of his pen which necessarily claim our notice, and by which his ability must be judged as a writer. These productions are entitled, "The True Doctrine of State Rights, with an Examination of the Records of the Democratic and Republican Parties in Connection with Slavery," published in 1880; "Reminiscences of Benjamin Franklin as a Diplomatist," published in 1879; "The Right of Eminent Domain and the Police Power of the State," published in 1871. It is not intended, indeed it is impossible, in a sketch so brief as this, to review by a critical examination any one of these productions. In it, however, it is but just to the author of such of a work as "The True Doctrine of State Rights," that some at least of the testimonials he has received in its favor from every part of the country should be given to the public.