The Biographical Dictionary of America/Altgeld, John Peter

ALTGELD, John Peter, governor of Illinois, was born in Prussia in 1848, and early in life came to America with his father's family, who settled on a farm near Mansfield, Ohio. His education was scanty, and at the age of sixteen he volunteered in the army, engaging in the final campaigns of Grant. He served with his regiment until it was disbanded at Columbus, O., and then worked on his father's farm, studied in the library of a neighbor and at a private school at Lexington, O., and for two years taught school. He then left home and travelled from state to state earning a precarious livelihood, until, in 1869, he reached St. Louis, where he studied law, and removing to Savannah, Mo., in 1870, he was admitted to the bar. In 1874 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county. In October, 1875, he resigned and removed to Chicago, Ill. In 1876 he was a candidate before the democratic caucus of the state legislature for United States senator. He was fairly successful in his law practice, and his first surplus of $500 he invested in a city lot, which he soon sold at a handsome profit. During the succeeding five years he accumulated a moderate sum, and in 1882 he made a real estate deal which astonished even Chicago. He bought seventy-five acres of land in the suburbs for from $2,500 to $3,000 an acre, making a payment down of $30,000 in cash. Two-thirds of the cash was supplied by a friend in Lake View, and the remainder Mr. Altgeld borrowed from other friends, until he found himself in debt nearly $200,000. He subdivided the property, had the streets improved, and afterwards sold out the land at an immense profit. This was the largest real estate transaction that had ever been made in Chicago, and it contributed greatly to Mr. Altgeld's reputation as a shrewd business man. He subsequently bought $225,000 worth of property in a single purchase, and borrowed at one time $380,000 to improve the same. The Unity building was erected in 1895, and his entire holding of Chicago real estate was estimated in 1896 to be worth from one to five millions of dollars. In 1886 Mr. Altgeld accepted the democratic nomination for the office of judge of the supreme court, and though the district was accounted Republican by 12,000 votes, he was elected by a fair majority, a result largely due to the perfect organization of his canvass. In August, 1891, he resigned from the bench. The democratic state convention of April, 1892, nominated him for governor of Illinois. No Democrat had been elected to that office since 1856, but Altgeld began a campaign which was remarkable for its thoroughness, and he carried the election by a good majority. The most notable act of his administration as governor was the pardon of the anarchists who had been condemned to long imprisonment for complicity in the Haymarket murders in Chicago in May, 1886. His action raised a storm of indignant protest from all parts of the country. In July, 1894, the riotous railroad strikers in Chicago and vicinity were in possession of the shops and rolling stock of the roads coming into Chicago, and congested the traffic. President Cleveland sent United States troops to the protection of the roads, and Governor Altgeld protested against the act as interfering with the rights of the state. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 1896, and an unsuccessful independent candidate for mayor of Chicago, 1899. He is the author of "Our Penal Machinery and its Victims"; "Live Questions." He died at Joliet, Ill., March 12, 1902.