|
NAVIGATION
Cook County
Biographies
Names A to B
Names C to G
Names H to M
Names N to Z
Online
Biographies
Illinois
Histories
Michigan
Histories
New York
Histories
Also see [ Railway Officials in America 1906
] NEW
Privacy Policy for
OnlineBiographies
|
ZEBINA EASTMAN, who for the last nine years of his life resided in Maywood, was born in Amherst, Mass., September
8, 1815. His father’s name was Abijah Eastman, and his mother’s Rebecca (Hall) Eastman. Abijah Eastman was a prominent
citizen of Amherst, and a consistent and devoted Christian. Both the father and mother of Zebina died when he was
quite a child, the former in 1819. the latter in 1820, and he was then placed under the guardianship of Israel
Scott, Esq., of Hadley, Mass., an estimable gcntleman. Becoming intcrested in literature, and convinced that the
Press was the most potent factor of reform, young Eastman determined to make journalism the profession of his life.
As a preparatory step to his future career he entered the Amherst College printing office, at the age of fourteen,
to learn the printer’s trade. In this office he was rapidly promoted, and made numerous friends, among them Isaac
C. Pray, afterward distinguished as a journalist in connection with the New York Herald. Remaining in this office
eighteen months, he entered the Hadley Academy, at Hadley, Mass., to prepare for college, but on account of his
health failing him he was obliged to forego his proposed course in college, and he became associated with his old
friend Isaac C. Pray, who had become editor of the Hartford Pearl. At the age of nineteen he went to Fayettville,
Vt., where he published the Vermont Free Press two years. In 1837 he left Vermont, and became associated, in 1838,
with Benjamin Lundy, who, after the murder of Lovejoy, had been invited to come to Illinois as his (Lovejoy’s)
successor. Among the fearless men who aided in encouraging Dr. Lundy to come to Illinois were Rev. Flavel Baseom,
Dr. C. V. Dyer, Philo Carpenter, Robert Freeman, and Calvin DeWolf. Benjamin Lundy began the publication of the
Genius of Universal Emancipation at Lowell, LaSalle County, Mr. Eastman soon afterward becoming associated with
him. Lundy died in 1839, and Mr. Eastman continued the publication of the Genius about one year, thus becoming
the head and front of the Liberty party movement in Illinois. In June, 1840, he went to Vermont to be married,
and during his absence in the East the Genius of Universal Emancipation was suspended. Upon his return to Lowell
in the fall after a four months’ sojourn in Chicago, he resumed the publication of the paper but under a different
name— The Genius of Liberty. In 1842 the publication of the Genius of Liberty ceased, and a committee from the
anti slavery circle in Chicago prevailed upon Mr. Eastman to come to that city, and the result was the establishment
of the Western Citizen. He continued the publication of this paper until 1853. In 1854 the paper became the Free
West, and in 1856 was merged into the Chicago Tribune. From 1845 to 1854 he was connected with the publication
of the Daily News; was editor of the Liberty Tree from 1846 to 1848, and of the Daily Times from 1852 to 1853.
In 1857 he was editor of the Chicago Magazine. He was the author of and read numerous papers before the Chicago
Historical Society of which he was a member, among them '' The Regicides," the "Black Code of Illinois,"
and one on the " Formation of the Republican Party," showing that it had its birth at Rockford, Ill.,
in June, 1854. Mr. Eastman became the personal and political friend of Abraham Lincoln, who recognized his personal
worth and patriotism by giving him an honorable foreign appointment, making him consul at Bristol, England, which
positioo he held from 1861 to 1869. In 1870 he moved to Elgin, where he lived until November, 1874, when he moved
to Maywood. While in Elgin he was without regular business, but wrote almost continuously for various papers. In
1874 he was one of the organizers of the re-union of the anti-slavery men of the Northwest, and was made its secretary.
Since this time he was engaged in writing for various publications, until, in October, 1882, he commenced to write
on the History of Chicago, by A. T. Andreas, and was engaged on this history up to within two weeks of his death,
which occurred June 14, 1883. In January. 1883, he went to Florida hoping to obtain relief from bronchial troubles,
which hope was realized, and in May he returned to Chicago,: bnt his strength was insufficient to withstand the
insidious encroachments of a chronic affection-inflammation of the bladder, from which, after an illness of two
weeks, he died. Mr. Eastman was married June 29, 1840, to Mary Jane Corning, of Burlington, Vt., who survives him,
and by whom he had five children, four sons and one daughter. Two of them survive, Mrs. I. S. Bartlett, now of
Wyoming Territory, and Sidney C. Eastman, a lawyer of Chicago.
FROM:
History of Cook County, Illinois
From the earliest period to the present time.
BY: A. T. Andreas
A. T. Andreas, Publisher
Chicago 1884.
|
|