HUGH LAUDER. Prominent in business circles, recognized as a man of force
and ability in public life and well qualified for the administrative duties
of official positions, a welcome addition and an ornament to every social
gathering, and universally commended for his uprightness and integrity in
all the relations of life, Hugh Lauder, of Carbondale, has his standing in
the community based on stable and enduring ground secured by merit, which he
has amply demonstrated during his residence of thirty-one years in the city.
He is a native of Ohio, the great state which rivals and almost equals
"the Mother of States and of Statesmen" in the number of presidents she has
given to the Union, and was born in Trumbull county on July 15, 1840. His
parents were. John and Eliza (Jackson) Lauder, natives of Pennsylvania. The
father was an industrious and skillful blacksmith, and passed the greater
part of his life working at his forge. But he was a man of very moderate
estate in worldly wealth, and was able to give his son nothing beyond a
common country school education, and a limited one at that.
But the
son was game and accepted his portion with cheerfulness and gratification
that it was as good as it was. He began the battle of life for himself at
the age of fifteen by driving cattle from Trumbull county, Ohio, to Chester
county, Pennsylvania, which he continued for six years, making two trips
each way every year. When he reached the age of twenty-one he contracted
with a butcher to drive a meat wagon to the mining towns in his native state
and Pennsylvania, and after performing this arduous, trying and sometimes
dangerous work for a time with great fidelity and good business sense, he
became the purchasing agent for his employer, buying cattle, sheep and hogs
in large numbers.
In 1861 he enlisted in the Union army, in Company
C, Nineteenth Ohio Infantry, for the period of four months, his regiment
being a part of the 75,000 troops asked for by President Lincoln in his
first call for volunteers. He took part in the battle of Rich Mountain,
Virginia, and soon afterward the term of his enlistment expired. He then
arranged to join the Second Ohio Cavalry as its commanding officer, but was
prevented from carrying out his intention by illness. When his health was
restored he engaged in buying live stock on his own account, and his
operations in this kind of merchandising lasted until 1877, without
interruption by other business.
In that year he started a mercantile
enterprise of a different character at New Bedford, Pennsylvania, which he
conducted for seven years, but during that period also kept on dealing in
live stock on the same scale as before. In 1880 he located in Carbondale,
and here he saw fine opportunities for carrying on a profitable business of
a different kind from any in which he had hitherto been engaged. He bought
timber land in Williamson, Jackson and Alexander counties and manufactured
lumber. The land cost him from two to twenty dollars an acre, and in every
case he found the timber worth considerably more than the purchase price of
the land.
For twenty-five years he ran his mills, always farming the
land he denuded of its timber, and throughout that time also kept on dealing
in live stock, feeding numbers of cattle, sheep and hogs for the markets
every year. His business in all departments was extensive, the lumber
industry being of such magnitude that at one time he was obliged to build
his own tramways a distance of six miles in order to get his timber out
response to the demands on his resources. He is not now so largely and
variously engaged in business, but he still owns farms and superintends
their cultivation and improvement.
Notwithstanding the great extent
and exacting nature of his several lines of business, Mr. Lauder has found
time and always had the disposition to take an active part in the affairs of
the city and county of his home, and contribute his share of impulse,
direction and material aid to all worthy projects designed to promote their
progress and improvement. He served two terms as alderman from his ward in
Carbondale and two as mayor of the city, winning the approval of the people
by his course in each of these offices. He is now one of the trustees of the
Southern Illinois Normal University by appointment of Governor Deneen, and
secretary of the board by the choice of its other members.
His
political faith is pledged and his campaign services are given ardently to
the Republican party, to which he adheres from conviction, as he has never
been eager for official station or the cares and responsibilities of public
life. The offices he has held before and the one he is holding now all came
to him without his seeking them, and because he was deemed capable of
filling them with benefit to the interests over which they gave him
supervision, and it was well known that he would fill them with credit to
himself.
Mr. Lauder was married in Trumbull county, Ohio, in
February, 1862, to Miss Harriet Nelson, a daughter of W. S. and Temperance
Nelson, of that county, where the father was prominently engaged in dairying
on a large scale. Mr. Lauder has long been a member of the Presbyterian
church, and is now an elder in the congregation to which he belongs, and one
of its most faithful and appreciated workers and supporters.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 567-568.