My Genealogy Hound

MONROE N. LORD. The indefatigable labors of this gentleman in many branches of knowledge have contributed to render him one of the most versatile of Berrien County’s citizens, and his reputation is by no means arbitrarily limited to the immediate vicinity of his home. Throughout the Church of Christ, numbering a million communicants in the United States, he is well known and loved for his work’s sake. During a period covering more than a half-century, he has been an Elder and preacher in that Church, and as he possesses gifts of a high order, force of conviction, earnestness of appeal, and pleasing manners, he has been instrumental in the conversion of many people. He was an intimate personal friend of the late lamented President Garfield, himself one of the most prominent and eloquent ministers of that denomination, and who frequently visited Mr. Lord at his home in Chicago.

A few words with reference to the progenitors of Mr. Lord will be of interest to our readers. His father, Nathan Lord, was a native of Connecticut, and followed the trade of ship-carpenter and millwright at Lyme, that State. At East Haddam, Conn., he married Miss Prudence, daughter of Stephen Beckwith, a farmer residing near that city. During the War of 1812, Nathan Lord served as a Lieutenant, and after its close he removed to Utica, N. Y., and thence, one year later, he went to Buffalo. From there he removed to Middlebury, N. Y., in order to give his children better educational advantages.

The parents of our subject had a family of seven children, of whom five are now living, namely: Dr. I. S. P., a resident of South Pasadena, Cal., and now (1893) eighty-eight years of age; Mrs. Ruth A. Tubbs, of Batavia, Ill., who is eighty-five years of age; Mrs. Elizabeth A. Phillips, M. D., of Albia, Iowa, eighty-two years old; Ella (Lord) Hopson, who has been residing in Nashville, Tenn., with Mrs. Justice Jackson, and is sixty-seven years of age; and our subject, who will be seventy-five in November, 1893. One brother, Stephen Frederick William, was murdered by the Mormons at Council Bluffs, Iowa. The father of this family died at the age of sixty-nine, his death being caused by a cold resulting from exposure. His only sister, Mrs. Luther, reached the advanced age of one hundred and four years. Our subject’s mother’s great-grandfather attained to the advanced age of one hundred and twenty. Both the Lord and Beckwith families are distinguished for longevity, and on the paternal side our subject traces his lineage to the father of Sir Francis Drake.

On the Indian Reservation, about fifteen miles south of Buffalo, the subject of this sketch was born November 2, 1818. He was three and one-half years old when his father moved to Middlebury, N. Y., and be was educated in the academy there. Locating in Attica, be entered a store owned by Thomas Ellis, and there be remained for four and a-half years. He was also for a time a clerk for C. B. Yates, afterward Chief of Police of Chicago. In 1836 our subject went to Chicago, where his father and brother, Dr. Lord, had previously located, and in that city be secured the position of Assistant Superintendent and Pay Master of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, remaining in that place for five years. He next embarked in business with M. M. Kemp, of Batavia, Ill., but after a short time spent there he returned to Chicago and formed a partnership in the hardware business with H. H. Honore, father of Mrs. Fred Grant and Mrs. Potter Palmer. Disposing of his business interests in Chicago, Mr. Lord removed to La Porte, Ind., where for eight years he filled the pulpit of the Church of Christ. In December, 1868, be returned to Chicago and became pastor of the First Christian Church, which is now located on Oakley Avenue, between Adams and Jackson Streets. He officiated as minister of that church for about thirteen years, and at the same time devoted considerable attention to his extensive real-estate interests. Removing from Chicago across the lake, he purchased a farm at Glen Lord, in Berrien County, which he carried on until 1890. He then located on his present farm, where he has a beautiful residence, commanding a fine view of St. Joseph, Benton Harbor and the entire country for miles around, as well as some distance out on the lake. The property is located on section 13, of Benton Township, and in addition to this valuable estate Mr. Lord owns property on the corner of Indiana Avenue and Thirty-eight Street, Chicago, and other localities in that city.

The first marriage of our subject took place in 1841, and united him with Miss Jane L. Austin. They became the parents of seven children, of whom three grew to maturity, namely: Mrs. William B. Smith, who is employed by the firm of Markley, Ailing & Co., wholesale hard ware dealers of Chicago; and Henry C. and A. H., who are in the real-estate business in Chicago, having their office in room 26, Major Block. Mrs. Jane L. Lord died in 1887, and three years afterward Mr. Lord was again married, choosing as his wife Mrs. Agnes W. Beechter, the daughter of William C. and Naomi Wright. Her father was a wholesale leather merchant of St. Louis. Mrs. Lord was born in Ohio.

In 1852 Mr. Lord identified himself with the Christian Church at Chicago at a time when there were but few members of that denomination in the city. Four years later he was ordained a minister of the Gospel. He is a close reader and thoughtful student of the Bible, and has for many years been an Elder in the First Christian Church of Chicago. He has preached in Canada and the majority of the States east of the Mississippi and north of South Carolina, and is widely known and admired as a public speaker. He has frequently been called upon to engage in debates with Universalists, Methodists, and representatives of other denominations.

At the time of the Civil War, Mr. Lord offered his services to the Union, but was rejected on account of his poor health. Politically, he was formerly a Whig, and is now a Republican. Under the administration of President Garfield he served as Postmaster at Glen Lord, and has occupied other positions of trust. As a political speaker he has been no less convincing and successful than as a preacher, and his services have been in frequent demand for years during the National campaigns. He has been identified with the Sons of Temperance and the Temple of Honor.