Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Munroe, Hon George H 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 3, 2007, 12:56 am

Author: Genealogical/Biographical Publishing Co

HON. GEORGE H. MUNROE. In a career honorable alike to himself and the city 
long his home, Mr. Munroe has displayed those traits of character without 
which success is impossible. Few citizens have done more than he toward the 
development of Joliet and particularly toward the improvement of Chicago 
street, the building up of which is largely due to his efforts. From the time 
he reached his majority to the present he has been an important factor in 
Joliet's business enterprises, and his name is intimately associated with a 
number of well-known concerns, notable among these being the Western Stone 
Company, of which he is vice-president and a large stockholder; also the 
Joliet National Bank, of which he is a director and one of the largest 
stockholders. With his brother, Edwin S., he conducts a real-estate and 
mortgage, banking and general trust company's business, and has platted 
numerous additions and subdivisions, probably twenty in all.

Near Watertown, N. Y., Mr. Munroe was born, September 24, 1844, being a son of 
George Munroe, whose sketch appears on another page. He was five years of age 
when the family settled on a farm in this county, and his education was 
obtained mostly in the public schools of the town of Florence and in private 
schools in Wilmington and Joliet. From an early age he showed that he 
possessed great energy and determination of character, and while still a mere 
youth he filled the position of deputy sheriff efficiently for a period of two 
years. In the year 1865 he became connected with his father, George Munroe, in 
the establishment of the firm of G. Munroe & Son, of which he was a member 
until the death of his father in 1890 caused its dissolution. It is said that 
he is the largest holder of real estate in Joliet to-day, and certainly the 
firm of Munroe Brothers is by far the largest real-estate firm in the city. In 
addition to his other interests he has had the two most important 
receiverships in the county. In 1868, when the state penitentiary changed from 
the contract system to state accounts, he was appointed receiver of the 
Illinois Manufacturing Company, which had the lease and all of the business 
there at the time. He settled the affairs of the company, made the sale to the 
state, and divided about $250,000 net among the stockholders. He also acted as 
receiver of the Joliet Enterprise Company, his management of which and of 
other large trusts added to his already high reputation as a financier.

Fraternally Mr. Munroe is connected with Matteson Lodge, A. F. & A. M. St. 
John's Universalist Church, of whose board of trustees he was for many years 
the president, has received the benefit of his practical business experience, 
and he was the leading spirit in the erection of the large auditorium on the 
corner of North Chicago and Clinton streets. He assisted in organizing the 
Joliet Business Men's Association and was one of its presidents. He is a 
member of the Union League and Marquette Clubs of Chicago and the Stone City 
Club of Joliet. His marriage, in this city, united him with Miss Eva Weeks, 
only daughter of Judge Charles H. Weeks. Mrs. Munroe was educated at Miss 
Skinner's private school at Naperville, Ill. She is a lady of culture and 
refinement and is among the leaders of society in this city, where her tact as 
hostess and her rare qualities of head and heart have secured her lifelong 
friends. The home of Senator Munroe have been brightened by the presence of 
two children: Esther, now the wife of Jesse J. Shuman, of Cleveland, Ohio, and 
George Fuller Munroe.

Any review of the life of Mr. Munroe would be incomplete without considerable 
mention of his service in the state senate and his devotion to the interests 
of his fellow-citizens. He has never been an office-seeker nor a politician, 
in the ordinary acceptance of that word. At the same time he is an ardent 
Republican, pronounced in his support of party principles. In 1894 he was 
elected to the state senate, succeeding a Democrat and receiving a majority of 
more than twenty-five hundred, the Democratic city of Joliet giving him a 
majority of eleven hundred. In the thirty-ninth general assembly he was 
chairman of the committee on waterways and drainage, and a member of the 
judiciary, appropriations, canals and rivers, farm drainage, mines and mining, 
fees and salaries, printing, state library, and arts and sciences committees. 
On the convening of the fortieth general assembly he was again made chairman 
of the committee on waterways and drainage, in which capacity he secured 
valuable concessions and improvements for the local interests along the great 
waterway and through the Illinois valley. In this assembly he was the second 
member on the Republican steering committee, and a member of the committee 
appointed to visit state educational institutions. He was also a member of the 
committees on railroads, finance, revenue, insurance, penal and reformatory 
institutions, canals and rivers, agriculture and horticulture, labor and 
manufacture, county and township organization, state library, and arts and 
sciences. Among the important measures which were secured through his efforts 
may be mentioned the following: a bill for amending rights of eminent domain, 
compelling corporations to pay expenses in condemnation cases, where they 
failed to take the property; the parole law; an amendment to the general 
banking laws of the state, throwing greater safeguards around the bank for the 
benefit of its depositors; the amending of the school laws of Joliet, 
increasing the number of school inspectors; the establishment of the Woman's 
Relief Corps home at Wilmington, this county, now a fine and thriving 
institution; and the establishment of a female prison on separate grounds from 
those of the Illinois state penitentiary. When the Humphrey bills were brought 
before the senate he was largely instrumental in creating that strong public 
sentiment against the bills which made their ultimate success impossible. It 
was largely due to his watchfulness that the sanitary drainage district did 
not secure a single change in their interest from the original bill; two tax 
bills only were passed permitting the trustees to tax their district for more 
funds and in both of these bills suitable amendments in behalf of the valley 
people were added, one for the necessary amount of water and the other 
requiring swinging bridges, thus making it a navigable channel. At the 
expiration of his term as senator he was not a candidate for reelection. There 
were many who desired him to become a candidate for governor, but, with 
characteristic unselfishness, he threw his influence toward securing another 
Will County citizen, Hon. E. C. Akin, as nominee for attorney-general.

The life of Senator Munroe furnishes an example worthy of emulation by the 
young men of this generation, many of whom have occasion to remember his 
fatherly interest in their personal or business affairs. To those who study 
the history of Joliet in the years to come his name will always stand out 
pre-eminently as its most public-spirited citizen. It is to such men as he 
that Joliet owes its present prosperity. When the city was far smaller than 
now and few anticipated its steady growth and development, he always had the 
greatest faith in its future, and that firm faith was never shaken by times of 
financial depression. It has been a privilege to witness the realization of 
many of his hopes, although in his opinion the city has before it a future 
even greater than its past. To promote its progress and to advance the 
interests of its citizens have formed no small part of his work in life, and 
while he has labored quietly and unostentatiously, he has labored none the 
less effectively in the promotion of enterprises that will conserve the 
permanent welfare of the city. 

Few people realize the true value of a thoroughly honest and capable public-
spirited citizen of the Munroe type, of which this great republic has none too 
many. Though able to fill any office in the gift of the people, his modesty 
has been a bar to the realization of ambitious hopes. A future generation will 
fondly look on the portraits of such men and study their character in the 
annals of local history. Then the unselfish work of Senator Munroe in the 
Republican party, in his state and in Joliet, will be given greater praise; 
his noble effort to secure a home for the Woman's Relief Corps at Wilmington 
will be better understood, and his conscientious work in the affairs of the 
drainage canal more thoroughly appreciated, and will then be given unstinted 
praise.

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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