Foley, Daniel, was born August 3, 1846, in Kilgarven, Kerry, Ireland. He came to America at the age of seventeen and took employment with the Indiana Central R. R. Co., as laborer. At nineteen he was a foreman, at twenty-three a justice of the peace at Cumberland, now a suburb of Indianapolis, being elected. After two years he resigned to accept a position as a telegraph operator with the B. & O. and the Chicago and Lake Huron R. R. Two years later, he took charge of the Indianapolis end of the Panhandle R. R., as roadmaster, being twenty-seven years old then. He continued in that position until he was thirty-five when he entered into the grocery business. At thirty-eight he was a state representative and at forty and forty-two was elected to the state senate. At forty-four he was a contractor and at fifty-four he organized the American Construction Co. and became its president and is now in the same business doing general contracting. He is also a director of the Fidelity Trust and a stockholder, besides being interested in real estate and other business. He is considered successful financially and in good standing as a citizen of Indianapolis.
French, Charles F., born in Dublin, Ireland, June 26, 1861, of the Frenches of Castle French, Galway, Normans who settled in Ireland with Strongbow and later became prominent as one of the tribes of Galway. Educated in England, he was for a time subaltern in English service and militia. Took up newspaper work in London. Came to the United States in 1892 and interested himself in some unsuccessful electric railway investments. Returned to newspaper work. Was foreign editor on “Kansas City Journal” for a year, then took up residence in Chicago and was engaged editorially on leading dailies of that city and also in magazine work. In 1899 purchased “Iron and Steel,” a prominent trade organ, and two years later, with his wife, Florence French, the well-known critic and writer on musical topics, established “The Musical Leader,” now a weekly paper of world reputation published in Chicago with offices in New York, Berlin, Paris and London, and representatives in all the leading musical centers of this country and abroad. “The Concert Goer” of New York was purchased and combined with “The Musical Leader” in 1905 and this contributed materially to the paper’s success. Mr. French edited and published “The American-Irish in Chicago,” an expensive work, but the best-known history of Irishmen and those of Irish descent in the West. Also “History of Music in Chicago,” etc., and is an occasional contributor as his time permits to the magazines.
With his wife, formerly Florence Burt of London, and a family of six, two boys and four girls, he has his own home at 5850 Rosalie Court. He has a fine library and some notable paintings, old masters in the possession of his family for over a century. Mr. French is a life member of the Press Club of Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Association and the South Shore Country Club. Also of the Lotos Club, New York. With his closest friend, the late Colonel John F. Finerty, he was intimately associated in all the Irish movements of recent years in the West.
Gallagher, James T., was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1857. Educated in Queen’s College, Galway. Came to America in 1880. Studied medicine in Bellevue Medical College, New York; graduated 1888. Moved to Salem, Mass., 1892. Was elected to the board of education, served four years. Moved to Charlestown, Mass., in 1896, where he has since practiced his profession. Published one volume of poems in 1899, and is a popular lecturer on Irish historical subjects.
Gamble, Robert Jackson, LL. D., of Yankton, South Dakota, United States Senator, was born in Genesee County, N. Y., February 7, 1851; removed to Fox Lake, Wis., in 1862; graduated from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., in 1874, and received the degree of LL. D. from that institution in 1909; located at Yankton, S. D., in 1875, where he has since been engaged in the practice of law; was district attorney for the second judicial district of the Territory in 1880; city attorney of Yankton for two terms; State Senator in 1885, under the constitution adopted that year; was elected to the Fifty-Fourth and Fifty-Sixth Congresses, and was elected to the United States Senate, January 23, 1901, and re-elected in 1907. He was married to Miss Carrie S. Osborne in 1884. They have one son, Ralph A., who graduated from Princeton University in the class of 1909. He is a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C.
Garvan, Edward J., appointed last April member of the new Connecticut juvenile commission for one year, has devoted many years to the city’s service. He was born in East Hartford in 1871, the son of the Hon. Patrick Garvan, now of this city. Judge Garvan attended the Hartford Public High school, was graduated from Yale college in 1894 and from the Yale Law school two years later. For four years after beginning practice in Hartford he was clerk of the city court, and was also first clerk and attorney for the Hartford Business Men’s Association. In 1902 he was elected judge of the police court in which position he served five years, up to January 1, 1908. Under his régime two important movements were initiated, namely, the probation system for prisoners and the juvenile court. He resigned as judge to become vice-president of the P. Garvan Co., Inc. He organized the Riverside Trust Company in 1907 and made the nominating speech naming Lieutenant-Governor Everett J. Lake for governor at the last Republican State Convention. He is assistant quartermaster, with the grade of lieutenant, on the Staff of Major Frank L. Wilcox of the Governor’s Foot Guard, and is a member of the Hartford Club, Hartford Golf Club, the Farmington Country Club, the University Club of Hartford, the Twentieth Century and the Republican Clubs. He is not married.