Grundy-Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Mecham, John B - 


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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com February 20, 2006, 3:58 am



Author: WW Stevens, 1907



Is a native of Mazon, Grundy county, Illinois. He was educated in the common 
district schools, and prepared for college in the Morris Normal and Scientific 
school. He afterwards taught for a year prior to entering the Illinois 
Wesleyan University at Bloomington. He was for a year principal of the Mazon 
High School, and for a similar period principal of the Ashton (Iowa) schools. 
In 1888 he graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan. He 
later pursued a thorough course in the civil law and German philosophical 
classics, and completed a course of graduate work in jurisprudence at the 
Chicago Law School, from which he received the degree of doctor of civil law. 
He afterward became a member of the faculty of the Chicago Law School, which 
position he held for four years. Mr. Mecham has offices in the Cutting 
building.

Mr. Mecham, an able lawyer of Joliet, came to this city in the autumn of 1888 
and was later associated with Judge Benjamin Olin. In October, l889, he formed 
a partnership with Edward B. Crawford, which connection continued until 1891, 
when Mr. Crawford retired from the practice of law to enter the ministry. 
Since then Mr. Mecham has been alone, with offices at No. 203 Cutting 
building. He has been accorded a foremost place among the legal 
representatives of this part of the state.

The Mecham family was first represented in America by Scotch and English 
ancestry who settled in New Hampshire in an early day. Caleb Mecham, a native 
of Vermont, migrated to Mercer county, Pennsylvania. In 1850 he brought his 
family to Grundy county, Illinois, and became a pioneer of Mazon township, 
where he died in 1855. His son, John C., was born in Mercer county, 
Pennsylvania, and was the eldest child in the family. At the time of coming to 
Illinois he was eighteen years of age. He made farming his principal 
occupation and was very successful. He was a member of the Union League in the 
early days of its organization. He is a man highly esteemed for honesty and 
integrity, and in politics always votes with the republican party. In religion 
he is a Methodist. In 1904 he moved to Kenesaw, Nebraska, where he makes his 
home. The lady whom he married bore the maiden name of Eliza Ann Hartford and 
was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, daughter of John and Jane Hartford, the 
father being a native of New York state and the mother of Virginia. After the 
death of her father she, together with her mother and family, in 1844 came to 
Illinois and settled in Kendall county, where two of her uncles, George and 
Clarke Hollenback, had settled in 1829, and who were pioneers of that county. 
She was twice married and by her first union three children were born, of whom 
a daughter, Mrs. J.O. Keitner of Mazon, alone survives. Of the second union, 
three sons were born, namely: Manion, of Moorhead, Minnesota; John B.; and 
Elmer E., who graduated from the Illinois Wesleyan University and is now a 
ministdr of the Methodist Episcopal church of Central Illinois conference.

In Mazon, on the o1d homestead, in Grundy county, Illinois, the subject of 
this sketch was born. As is the common lot of American youths born on a farm, 
he was early taught to work. Passing from the district school, he prepared for 
college at the Morris Normal and Scientific School, and afterward taught for a 
year prior to entering the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington. After 
completing his university course he again took up the profession of teaching. 
For one year he was principal of the Mazon high school and for a similar 
period held the principalship of the Ashton (Iowa) schools. In 1888 he 
graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan. While in that 
school he also pursued a course in political science. He was one of the 
charter members of Michigan Alpha fraternity of Phi Delta Theta and has always 
been a loyal frat.

A constant student of his profession and imbued with the firm belief that to 
be learned in the law one must know the history of the real civilization of 
nations, he pursued a thorough course in the civil law and the German classics 
and completed a course of graduate work in jurisprudence at the Chicago Law 
School, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Mr. Mecham 
is classed as a student of the School of Philosophical Jurists. He became a 
member of the faculty of the Chicago Law School, which position he held for 
four years. As a teacher of law and kindred sciences he is thoroughly 
informed, and his lectures are clear and forceful, enlisting the deepest 
interest of students and making a lasting impression upon their minds.

His keen discrimination and excellent memory enable him to deal skillfully 
with questions of fact and apply them to disputed points of law. In argument, 
where an accurate acquaintance with the principles of law is absolutely 
necessary, he has been signally successful. He is a member of the alumni 
association of the University of Michigan; a member of the Hamilton Club of 
Chicago and of the Joliet Commercial Club; was a delegate to the rivers and 
harbors congress, which convened in the city of Washington, December 6 and 7, 
1906. Fraternally he is identified with Matteson lodge, No. 175, A. F. & A. 
M.; is a stanch republican of the Roosevelt type, who believes in a square 
deal and common honesty with all mankind. The county committee and conventions 
of the republican party have always received his support. In 1899 he was 
elected on the republican ticket to represent the fifth ward in the city 
council, his election being especially noteworthy from the fact that the ward 
usually gives a democratic majority. In the council he served ably as chairman 
of the judiciary committee and member of other committees. Reared in the faith 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, he has given his earnest support to this 
denomination, but always broadminded and liberal toward other church 
denominations, believing in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

The position held by Mr. Mecham among the professional men of Joliet is that 
of a successful business lawyer, a man of scholarship, high moral character, 
sound judgment and unswerving integrity. In business Mr. Mecham has been 
eminently successful. For more than three years he was one of the chief 
factors in ñnancing a large mining company, which is highly successful, and at 
present is president and general manager of the Sultana-Arizona Copper 
Company, a corporation with a most promising future before it. He is prominent 
in both business and social circles and stands deservedly high in the esteem 
of his fellow citizens.

The marriage of Mr. Mecham, which took place in Joliet in June, 1892, united 
him with Maude Frances, daughter of Samuel and Helena Hill, prominent pioneers 
of this city. Mrs. Mecham is a lady of brilliant mind and highly esteemed for 
her noble Christian character. She received an excellent education in Joliet 
and is a graduate of the high school. With an especial talent for music, she 
has devoted much time to this art and is known among her many friends as a 
fine pianist. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Mecham are Samuel Marion, 
Althea Ruth and Louise Hill. 

Source: "Past and Present of Will County, Illinois" by W.W. Stevens, 1907, The 
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, Pages 190, 572-575


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