Will County IL Archives Biographies.....ETHERIDGE, EDWARD 
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Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 24, 2007, 8:14 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

EDWARD ETHERIDGE.  After twenty years with the Illinois Steel Company as L. 

foreman in charge of bricklaying, during which time he won and retained the 

confidence of the officers of the company and made an enviable record for 

efficiency, Mr. Etheridge in 1897 resigned his position in order to engage in 

contracting, an occupation that he had followed years before with success.  

During his early connection with this business he built the Centennial block, 

Mr. Fortune's home, the McIntyre residence in Wilmington, the old post-office 

(now the First National Bank building,) and many other substantial blocks and 

houses.   Since resuming work as a contractor he has had the contracts for the 

Boston store, and the buildings owned by Anderson & Flint, Cudahy Packing 

Company   and the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company.

Mr. Etheridge was born in Worcestershire, England, December 6, 1847, a son of 

James and Leah (Shelvock) Etheridge.  His grandfather, Joseph Etheridge, 

engaged in the manufacture of nails in the days when they were made by hand; he 

died when almost eighty years of age.  The maternal grandfather, Thomas 

Shelvock, was a brewer of stout ale.  James Etheridge, who was a bricklayer, 

died at sixty-three years, and his wife was also about the same age at the

time of her death.  Of their twenty-two children, nine attained mature years, 

and eight are living, three sons, Eli, Felix and Edward, being in Joliet.  

Another son, William, who was also a resident of this city, was accidentally 

killed by falling from a buggy.  One of the daughters, Fannie, resides in 

Joliet; another, Mrs. Amelia Phellis, makes her home in Toronto, Canada; and 

the third, Mrs. Mary Ann Ward, is in England, while a son, Arthur, also lives 

in the mother country.



When only seven years of age our subject began to work at the nailer's trade 

with an uncle, remaining with him for six months and being paid only two cents 

per week.  His next work was in a gun barrel plant, after which he worked with 

his father in the brick-laying trade, continuing with him from the time he was 

thirteen until he was eighteen. The next year he spent in Birmingham, England.  

After his marriage to Miss Eliza Sawyer, which took place in Holesowen, August 

20, 1866, he worked at his trade in Staffordshire.  In 1869 he went to North 

Lancashire, and continued there until 1872, when he came to the United 

States.   March 13, 1872, he took passage from Liverpool on a steamer that 

crossed to Portland, Me., from which point he proceeded to Chicago, arriving 

there April 1, and coming on to Joliet June 14. Here he worked as a bricklayer 

with the Joliet Steel Company until 1874, after which he was in the Braddock 

steel works of Pittsburg, Pa., and next assisted in the construction of the 

blast furnaces of the James Green iron works in St. Louis, Mo.   Returning to 

Joliet, he engaged in contracting and building.  In 1877 he became a 

bricklayer, and later foreman with the Illinois Steel Company, remaining in 

this position until he  embarked in contracting.  In national politics he votes 

the Republican ticket.   At one time he was identified with the Knights of 

Pythias and now holds connection with the Sons of St. George.  In religious 

views  he is a Methodist, belonging to the Irving Street Methodist Episcopal 

Church.



Mrs. Eliza Etheridge is a daughter of Zachariah and Sarah (Hacket) Sawyer, of 

whose five children Mary is in England; Henry, Thomas and Emma reside in 

Chicago.   The union of Mr. and Mrs. Etheridge has been blessed by four 

children, namely:  George, a bricklayer, who since 1897 has been a member of 

the firm of Etheridge & Sons; James, who is also a member of the firm; Mrs. 

Sarah Shelback, of Chicago, and Mrs. Martha Sunbaum, of Joliet.


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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