Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Bissell, Martin C 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 3, 2007, 1:04 am

Author: Genealogical/Biographical Publishing Co

MARTIN C. BISSELL. Through a life that was prolonged to an advanced age Mr. 
Bissell proved himself to be an active man of affairs and a successful 
financier, managing every enterprise that he undertook in such a way as to 
bring it to a fortunate termination. Having made his home in this city for 
many years and owning valuable property interests in this locality, he became 
well known by the people of the town, and was by them recognized as a man of 
unusual force of character. At his death, which occurred April 12, 1888, a 
portion of his estate was left to relatives and the remainder was bequeathed 
to the Swedenborgian Church, of whose teachings he was an ardent supporter.

The Bissell family came from France to New England in an early day. Noah 
Bissell, who was a Vermonter, possessed the quality of divination to a 
remarkable degree and foretold the day and hour when his spirit would leave 
its earthly tenement house. Aaron, a son of Noah, served in the war of 1812 
and spent his early life near Rutland, Vt. From there he moved to the vicinity 
of Burlington, the same state, and after the war of 1812 settled in Oneida 
County, N. Y. His son, the subject of this article, was born in Huntington, 
Chittenden County, Vt., in June, 1802. When the family removed to New York he 
worked on a farm for $4 a  month. At fourteen years of age he secured 
employment with a farmer in Pompey, Cayuga County. This man, who was a 
Presbyterian of the old school, became convinced that the boy was one of the 
elect and decided to educate him for missionary work, so sent him to a 
Presbyterian school at Homer. The officers of the school concluded to take the 
boy, but said they must have absolute control of him, but the parents refused 
to give their consent to this, so Mr. Bissell's future was changed.

Learning the mason's trade at Lansing, N. Y., he afterward worked at Ithaca 
and on the Champlain canal locks, and was foreman in the construction of 
masonry at Rochester. While working on the canal at Elmira, N. Y., he married 
Miss Eliza Wells, in 1826. Later he had a contract for masonry on the 
Allegheny canal at Cuba, Pa. On the completion of that work he moved to Cass 
County, Mich., and bought a farm, where he lived for three years.   

However, agricultural pursuits were not congenial, and he returned to 
contracting. He constructed a section of the Michigan Central Railroad, later 
had a contract on the Illinois Central, meantime making Bloomington, Ill., his 
home. Later he had contracts in Iowa and Missouri. The year 1854 found him a 
resident of Joliet, where he afterward made his headquarters, although his 
business interests required his almost constant presence in other places. As a 
railroad contractor he was successful. Possessing great energy and force of 
will, he was fitted for the work of superintending large contracts and 
overseeing a corps of men. During all of the years in which he engaged in 
railroad contracting he had many experiences incident to life upon the 
frontier, in the midst of primeval surroundings. He never forgot his 
experiences during the cholera epidemic in 1854, and particularly one trip 
that he made by canal boat from Pekin to Chicago, when half of the men on the 
boat died of that dread disease.

Aside from his contracting business Mr. Bissell had other interests. At one 
time he owned a store at Niles, Mich., which was managed by Giles Heath with 
flattering success. His property interests were valuable, and included a farm 
near Chicago, another near Cassopolis, Mich., and many tracts of land in 
Illinois and Iowa, besides a large amount of real estate in and near Joliet. 
He and his wife were childless, and on the death of the latter, which occurred 
December 30, 1889, their valuable estate was inherited by relatives and by the 
church to whose doctrines they had long adhered. He was a man of original 
ideas, very outspoken in the expression of his opinion, and possessing the 
courage of his convictions. At a time when the principle of abolition was very 
unpopular he was known as a "black Abolitionist," which in the minds of many 
was next to being a "black man." He did not flinch in the face of much 
opposition. He stood beside Frederick Douglass in Young's (now Werner's) hall 
in Joliet and introduced him to the audience in the spirit of one who believes 
all men to be brothers. Though skeptical in business matters, requiring every 
proposition to be submitted to the severest test, in religion he presented a 
phase of character directly opposite, and accepted, fully and completely, the 
transcendental teachings of the New Church, in which faith he lived and died.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present

Biographical Publishing Company; Chicago 1900

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