American Biography

William Passmore Carlin was a soldier, born in Greene county, Ill., Nov. 24, 1829. He was graduated at West Point with the rank of brevet 2nd lieutenant of infantry in 1850, and assigned to duty at Fort Snelling, Minn. He was in active service during the Sioux expedition, and also in the Cheyenne and Utah campaigns, as 1st lieutenant, which rank he received in March, 1855.

In 1858 Carlin marched to California, where he remained in service for two years. In 1861 he received the rank of captain, and entered the volunteer service as colonel of the 38th Illinois volunteers. He was present at the defeat of Gen. Jeff Thompson at Frederickton, Mo., after which he commanded the district of southeastern Missouri. In October, 1862, he won, at Perryville, Ky., the promotion to brigadier-general of volunteers. He took part in the Tullahoma campaign, and the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.

In November, 1863, Carlin was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for distinguished service at Chattanooga; and in February, 1864, as major of the 16th United States infantry, was engaged in the Georgia campaign and at the surrender of Atlanta. On Sept. 1, 1864, at Jonesboro, Georgia, he won the brevet of colonel in the regular army; and for his faithful and efficient service in the march to the sea, the surrender of Savannah, and the invasion of the Carolinas, he was made, in March, 1865, brevet major-general U. S. volunteers, and in the same month received the rank of brevet brigadier-general U. S. army.

At the close of the war he was brevetted major-general of the regular army. He left the volunteer service in August, 1865, and was engaged in frontier duty during the Indian troubles, and in April, 1882, was made colonel. He was retired as brigadier-general, in 1893. He died on a train in Montana, Oct. 4, 1903.

A. C. Kantzler is [written 1884] a dealer in groceries and meats in Grand Crossing, Cook County Illinois. The business was established in 1878 by Kantzler & Kuhr. Mr. Kantzler has run the business alone since October 1883. He occupies a handsome brick building, the store-room being 22×65 feet in area, with a large ice-house in addition. He carries a stock of some $3,000, and is doing a large and increasing business–in fact, the leading one in town.

A. C. Kantzler was born in Saxony, Germany. His parents settled in Blue Island, Cook Coounty, Illinois, in 1856. Finishing his education, he learned the trade of butcher, afterward engaging in business in Blue Island until he removed to Grand Crossing. He was married at Blue Island, September 25, 1870, to Miss Mina Werner. They have three children–Hermann, Edward and August. Mr. Kantzler is a member of the K. of H. of Grand Crossing, and the I.O.O.F. In 1882 he was delegate to the Republican county convention.

John B. Hamilton was a surgeon, born at Otter Creek, Jersey county, Illinois on December 1st 1847. He attended Hamilton grammar school and was graduated from the Rush medical college, with an M.D. in 1869. He was engaged in general practice from 1869 to 1874. In 1871 Mr. Hamilton married Mary L. Frost.

Hamilton was assistant surgeon with the rank of first lieutenant in the U.S. army from 1874 to 1876, and served at St. Louis barracks in the department of the Columbia at Fort Colville. He resigned from the army in September 1876, to enter the U.S. marine hospital service as assistant surgeon. He served in New York city and Boston Massachusetts from 1876 until 1879. He was promoted to surgeon in June 1877, and in April 1879, was appointed supervising surgeon-general as successor to Gen John M. Woodworth. He then began the reorganization of the service, and helped persuade congress to pass a law placing the marine corps upon practically the same footing as the medical corps of the army and navy.

During his incumbency of the office he succeeded in having the national quarantine acts passed, and managed the campaign against two epidemics of yellow fever, receiving the thanks of the legislature of the state of Florida in 1889. In June 1891, when congress refused to make the salary of his office the same as that of the surgeon-generals of the army and navy, he resigned his commission as surgeon-general of the marine hospital corps and resumed his place as surgeon in the corps.

Dr. Hamilton was in charge of the U.S. marine hospital, Chicago Illinois from 1891 until 1896, when he resigned rather than be transferred to San Francisco, on which the secretary of the treasury insisted. He was superintendent of the state asylum for the insane at Elgin Illinois in 1897-98.

Outside his official life he was professor of surgery in the University of Georgetown; surgeon to Providence hospital; professor of the principles of surgery and clinical surgery in Rush medical college; surgeon to the Presbyterian hospital; professor of surgery in the Chicago polyclinic and consulting surgeon to St. Joseph’s hospital. In 1887 he was secretary-general of the Ninth international medical congress held in Washington, and in 1890 he was a delegate from the U.S. government to the International medical congress held in Berlin. He received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Georgetown in 1889, and was made an honorary member of the Société Francaise d’Hygiène of Paris in 1890.

Dr John B. Hamilton died at Elgin Illinois on December 24th 1898.