A 'prophet' from Pike County
By Ginny Privitar
MILFORD — William Bross was an imposing figure, censorious, and very religious. He considered Milford rather uncivilized.
"While the town was very prosperous in all its early history, the morals of the people were at a very low ebb," wrote Bross, who had risen from a childhood in Milford to become editor of The Chicago Tribune and lieutenant governor of Illinois. "When my father moved there from New Jersey, in 1821 or 1822, there certainly were not as many righteous men in the town as there were in Sodom. The stores were all open on the Sabbath, and the streets were full of teams loaded with lumber from the back districts, or with those from New Jersey exchanging their produce for lumber. In fact, Sunday was the great market and gala day of the week. Horse-racing, gambling and drinking were rife, and at general trainings, elections and other public occasions, personal encounters and black eyes were only too common. Fortunately for myself, at least, I was too young, and had too good an example and instruction at home to be anything more than a valiant spectator on all such occasions.”
In 1958 The New York Times said his "extravagant brows and flowing beard gave him the appearance of an Old Testament prophet.”
Tragedy displaces familyBross was born in Montague Township, N.J., the eldest of the 11 children of Deacon Moses Bross and Jane Winfield Bross, born just a few minutes before his twin, Stephen Decatur Bross. Their father was in the lumber business. When William was nine, the family moved to Milford in anticipation of the construction of the Delaware & Hudson Canal near Shohola, for which they furnished lumber. Bross attended Milford Academy there.
He was educated at Williams College in Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated in 1838. An October 1913 account in the Independent Republican said he was educated to become a preacher at the expense of the Presbyterian Church but chose to be a teacher instead.
The account said his first job was at the Chester Academy, but it seems likely he taught in Pittsfield first, while still a student. Then in the autumn of 1838, he taught at Ridgebury Academy in New York. He taught in Chester for five years, beginning in 1843. He left for Chicago in 1848.
He married Mary Jane Jansen of Goshen in 1839 and together had four sons and four daughters. Only one child, his daughter Jesse, outlived him. One source said four sons and three daughters are buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
The 1913 Independent Republican account said that in March 1848, his only child at the time, a daughter, died in Chester after a brief illness. This so afflicted him, "he resigned as principal of the Chester Academy, sold all of his household goods at auction, and ten days after his child’s death” left with his wife for Chicago. Other accounts say he had visited Chicago and liked his prospects there so much, he returned to stay.
Guided by scriptureHe remained a lifelong booster for Chicago, the West, and the expansion of the railroads. He wrote several books and pamphlets.
He started out in Chicago as a bookseller. In 1849, he founded the Prairie Herald Newspaper and, two years later, with John L. Scripps, founded the Democratic Press.
In 1858 the paper merged with the Chicago Tribune and became known as the Press and Tribune. In 1860 the name changed again, to the Chicago Daily Tribune. It became the leading paper of the West.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Bross helped raise the 29th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry. It was commanded by his brother, Col. John A. Bross, who was killed during the Siege of Petersburg on July 30, 1864.
He served as Illinois' lieutenant governor from 1865 to 1869. When asked what maxims most helped him achieve success, Bross said, “The Proverbs of Solomon and other Scriptures.”
He was an important backer for the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for President and ardent supporter of the Union cause in the Civil War.
To memorialize his son Nathaniel, who died in 1856, he entered into an agreement with the trustees of Lake Forest University and donated a large sum to accumulate interest in perpetuity. After each decade, money was to be spent to buy books for the school.
It’s said that in later life he visited Orange, Sussex, and Pike counties — the scenes of his early life.
According to the Milford, Pennsylvania, Walking Tour published in 2002 by the Historic Preservation Trust of Pike County, Bross while lieutenant governor donated to the First Presbyterian Church of Milford its bell tower and "town clock." The book also notes that he was the first signer of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.
A fortune for his daughterBross died on Jan. 27, 1890, and left a fortune of more than $1 million, mainly to his daughter, Jesse Bross Lloyd, who had married a Chicago journalist. However, the provisions of his will were so difficult to comprehend, that not until Mrs. Lloyd died did the courts determine his intent, and the estate passed to her son.
A memorial for ancestor Tom Quick
William Bross’ maternal great-grandfather was Jacobus Quick, brother of Tom Quick, the "Indian Slayer of Pike County." Sentiments were different more than a century ago, when many considered Tom Quick a hero. Bross wrote about him and contributed money for a monument to his honor. The monument was attacked in 1997 and repaired in 1999, but not re-installed because the public perception of Quick’s actions had changed over time.
What hasn't changed is the perception of politics as bad business. Looking back on his Milford days, Bross wrote:
"Our politics are now thought to be bad enough, but they are decency and honor compared with what was everywhere seen in the early days of Milford. Candidates were plenty, and as King Caucus had not yet moved upon the polls — at least he had never been heard of in Pike County — each one boldly nominated himself. Standing on the counter, notably, of the old French store was a bottle of apple-jack, old rye brandy, in fact, that could not fail to suit the tastes of the multitude, with the name of the candidate who furnished the liquor. These bottles were kept full, and the candidates, ever watchful, would meet each arriving voter, and with the choicest blandishments, lead him by the arm to the counter and his bottle. The quality of the fluid being high-brandy, for instance in proportion to the dignity and the profit of the office-hunter's seeking — so it was that the man that had the longest purse and shortest conscience was sure to be elected.”
Editor's note: Pamela Chergotis contributed to this article.