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Clan Munro USA
Genealogy Pages
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 1844 - 1912 (67 years)
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| Name |
George Henry Munroe [1, 2, 3] |
| Born |
24 Sep 1844 |
Brownville, , New York, USA  [1, 2] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
1 Jul 1912 |
Joliet, Will Co., Illinois, USA [2, 3] |
| Person ID |
I48020 |
Munro |
| Last Modified |
11 Sep 2006 |
| Father |
George Munroe, b. 4 Apr 1821, Lanark, , Lanark, Scotland , d. 5 Sep 1890, Joliet, Will Co., Illinois, USA (Age 69 years) |
| Mother |
Sarah M. Hentze, b. 30 Apr 1822, Brownville, , New York, USA , d. 30 Oct 1895, Joliet, Will Co., Illinois, USA (Age 73 years) |
| Married |
22 Dec 1842 |
Brownville, , New York, USA [4] |
| Family ID |
F7745 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Eva S. Weeks, b. 18 Jul 1849, , , Illinois, USA , d. 27 Sep 1915 (Age 66 years) |
| Married |
2 May 1869 [2] |
| Children |
|
| Last Modified |
20 Jan 2009 |
| Family ID |
F16321 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
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The following is from a newspaper article that appeared in the Joliet Herald-News, 17 Jun 1971 - p. 14
Realtor, politician gave name to Munro Street
by Elmer F. Ott
Herald-News Writer
Munro Street was named for George H. Munroe, Joliet realtor, bank executive and state senator.
Munroe Street starts at 427 S. Chicago St. and goes west. It is mostly residential.
Munroe was born near Watertown, N.Y., Sept. 24, 1844, the son of George Munroe, whose family can be traced to the year 1050 in the extreme north of Scotland. During the 17th century some members of the family served in the ill-fated army of Charles I.
George H. Munroe was five years old when his family settled on a Will County farm. He attended public schools in Florence Township and private schools in Wilmington and Joliet. He later served as a deputy sheriff for two years.
In 1865 he became associated with his father in G. Munroe and Son, which existed until the death of his father in 1890. He and his brother Edwin conducted a real estate and mortgage, banking and trust company and platted numerous additions and subdivisions in the city. He was a vice president and large stockholder in the Western Stone Quarry and director and one of the largest stockholders in the Joliet National Bank.
Munroe also was reported to have had two of the most important receiverships in the country. The state penitentiary in 1868 changed from the contract system of operation to state accounts and he was appointed receiver of the Illinois Manufacturing Co., which held the lease and all business at the prison. He settled the affairs of the company, made the sale to the state and divided about $250,000 among the stockholders.
He was also receiver for the Joliet Enterprise Co., which he managed with other large trusts.
Munroe, with his practical business experiences, is reported to have been the leading figure in construction of the large auditorium at Chicago and Clinton Streets which still stands today.
The elder Munroe had managed a woolen mill near the Jefferson Street bridge. In 1862 he was elected County Sheriff for a term. In 1865 he and his son George H. were partners in a grocery business and for 10 years occupied a building at Chicago and Jefferson Streets. For the next six years he conducted business in the Opera House building. In 1884 they built the first large building on Chicago and Cass Streets. This later became the Munroe Hotel.
George Munroe Jr., an ardent Republican, was elected to the state senate in 1894.
The then Democratic City of Joliet elected him with a majority of more than 1,100 votes. In the 39th and 40th general assemblies he was named chairman of the committee on waterways and drainage. Several important bills were passed through his efforts including the establishment of the Women's Relief Corps home at Wilmington and the removal of the women's prison from Joliet.
When his term of office expired, he was asked to seek the office of Illinois governor, which he declined nor did he seek reelection as state senator.
Historians claim that few people realize the true value of a thoroughly honest and capable public-spirited citizen such as Munroe.
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The following is from a newspaper article dated 20 Feb 1994.
Daring and Dastardly
One of the most daring and cold-blooded attempts at murder in this locality was the event that startled the citizens of Joliet last Wednesday morning. Happily the accompanying news afforded immense relief.
Shortly after midnight George Munroe and wife were awakened by feeling an unusually cold air in their sleeping room, and hearing foot steps in the dining room. Supposing their son Ed was entering the house no alarm was experienced. Mr. Munroe arose, however, to attend to the fire, after which he lighted a match and started for the dining room to ascertain the time. As he passed through the doorway an arm was raised before him and distant a revolver was fired almost full in his face. Instinctively Mr. Munroe dodged his head slightly as the arm was raised before him, and this slight motion saved him his life. The ball whizzed by him and was imbedded in the door casing, while his face was filled with powder.
His cries of murder immediately alarmed the household, and the would-be again hastily fled without either attempting another shot or waiting to know the effect of his murderous attempt.
The villain had cut a pane of glass from a window and after gaining entrance had cautiously opened wide the outer door to afford easy escape. He is described as a man of low stature, and as he made his hasty exit, he appeared somewhat deformed and his gait an awkward one.
The theory entertained by Mr. Munroe is that the prowler was in search of the keys to their grocery establishment, and as his movements demonstrated, was prepared to secure them at all hazards. His face was masked, but Mr. Munroe believes that he can identify his assailant if the opportunity occurs.
Numerous are the congratulations of friends extended Mr. Munroe and family, and indeed, they have cause to rejoice at the exceedingly narrow escape.
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The following is from a short booklet titled, "In Memoriam - George Henry Munroe" by his friend, William Grin ton - 1912
...in 1862, eighteen years of age, [George was] acting as his father's deputy, and known as "The Boy Sheriff" of Will County. In those war times the Sheriff's duties were strenuous and hazardous; desperadoes and desperate characters of high and low degree swarmed about the City; the police department crude and inefficient; thus the Sheriff had jurisdiction over the undesirable citizens. "Bounty Jumpers" came to the Provost Marshal's headquarters to fill the demand for substitutes; get their bounty, then set their wits to work devising schemes to "Jump;" good horses had to be carefully guarded, and horse thieves caught. The young Deputy had to have his nerve and wits at all times ready for quick action for most of those desperate characters he had to contend with were gun-men and an officer who crossed their path was in as much danger as he would have been hunting Bushwhackers and Guerrillas in the enemy's country.
It was a rigid school in which he learned self reliance, self discipline, self control and tact and in after years he made good use of the training, along other lines; always masterful and quick to act, he would cut a knot instead of wasting time untying it to save the string.
About the year 1868, convict labor at the State Prison was under contract with a syndicate and the business had become so tangled and unsatisfactory that it was necessary to close out the concern. Mr. Munroe, only twenty-four years of age, at the time, was appointed Receiver to wind up the business and distributed about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of proceeds. His judicial fairness, and the general satisfactory manner in which he handled the whole deal, gave him the prestige of being a young man of unusual business ability.
In the "Panic of '92-'93" the Joliet Enterprise Co. failed, and Mr. Munroe was appointed Receiver. The affairs of the company were in a complex and complicated condition and those panic days were hard ones for doing business, but in a reasonable time he had the whole matter cleaned up and the proceeds distributed.
Mr. Munroe was raised on a farm and always felt the lure of the land; he understood farmers and counted many of them his life long friends. He was one half Scotch and a living embodiment of the adage: "The Scotch never give up." When the big freeze ruined many orange groves down in the land where the palm tree grows, many discouraged orange growers abandoned their groves and let them go back to wilderness and jungles, but Mr. Munroe immediately began planting and grafting orange trees and in a few years had a large acreage of profitable orange groves with fruit of the finest quality.
Mr. Munroe was a man of vivid imagination; a man who saw visions; but not a visionary man, in the usual acceptance of the term. He saw visions then backed up his visions with persistent know how and hard work, until they became realities. He imagined Chicago street, the main business street of Joliet; then became an enthusiastic pioneer, blazing the trail with business blocks. As the agent of Horace Weeks, he had contracted with a syndicate to erect a theatre building; it had made but a small payment on the contract; the Iroquois Theatre fire came just at that time; it looked like dark days for new theatrical enterprises--the panic stricken syndicate disappeared.
Mr. Munroe's imagination carried him beyond the panic; he immediately put men to work completing the structure for the theatre; rented it before it was finished to a responsible tenant and it has proven to be a profitable investment for both landlord and tenant.
Mr. Munroe imagined that the north east corner of Scott and Clinton streets which his firm, as agents, had for sale, was the logical, available site for the Government Building; he went to work and pulled the strings that put it there. Again he imagined that the south west corner of Scott and Clinton streets, which his firm, as agents, had for sale, was the best available corner for the City Hall; the City bought the corner. He and his brother happened to own two hundred acres of land in Lockport Township, and when the State of Illinois decided to build a new Penitentiary he imagined that two hundred acre farm was the best site that came within the limitations of the law. The State of Illinois now owns that land and is preparing to erect thereon the most modern, model Penitentiary in the world.
St. John's Universalist Church owned a quarter of a block on the corner of Chicago and Clinton streets, with only a small, old stone church building on it. The corner had become valuable for commercial purposes; a combination church and business block was decided on but the matter of financing the proposition was not an easy one; the society had no money and church loans were not looked upon with much favor by mortgage bankers, but a Life Insurance Company consented to make a building loan, provided a certain number of responsible men would guarantee the payment of the loan, in addition to the mortgage on the property. Guarantors were secured under an express agreement that the block should be placed in Mr. Munroe's charge, as agent, to handle; which he did from the time the building was erected to the time of his decease, and there always was the most perfect harmony between him and the Trustees. The first few years of panic and general hard times made the question of making the income pay fixed charges a difficult problem, but it was done, until better times brought better income, and soon St. John's Universalist Church will have a surplus income and be the richest church in Joliet.
For years, the territory east of the City had suffered from overflows of Spring Creek. Mr. Munroe imagined what that territory would be, with Spring Creek deepened, widened and walled. He took the lead in working up the proposition, and, with Samuel J. Drew handling the legal end, won out, despite the frantic efforts of obstructionists, the Railroads, the City, and the Highway Commissioners. As long as Spring Creek flows the new channel will be a monument to the memory of the Commissioners and their attorney.
More than twenty years ago, Mr. Munroe imagined a greater Joliet; imagined that the City Limits, fixed in '52, should be extended farther east, and took the lead in working on the proposition, A mass meeting was held, on Cass street, opposite Oakwood. The obstructionists, with their attorney, came and first tried to break up the meeting; then voted down the annexation. Mr. Munroe, as the leader of the annexationists, had to stand the brunt of the battle; stand the invective and sneers of the hired speaker until he had almost incited the mob to acts of violence, but Mr. Munroe stood, undaunted, with eyes flashing; holding himself well under control. A few of his friends, fearful of possible violence to him escorted him to his home. Politics blocked the annexation; it would have changed the political situation in the City of Joliet, and thus there is, to this day, the anomalous condition of a large part of Joliet outside the City Limits, and the U. S. census necessarily does Joliet injustice.
Mr. Munroe had the inherent virtues or faculties of kindness and friendliness; he made friends wherever he went, and he remembered them--and they remembered him. He not only considered men from his point of view but tried to put himself in their places and thus acquired a reputation for fairness and tactfulness. He treated all with respect, no matter how strenuous the contest or how wide the difference of opinion. He was broad-minded enough to concede even when he had the power to force.
He knew how to play the game of life and loved to play it with all the intensity of his nature. He had always taken a hand in politics, as a side-issue, but at one time he friends considered he would be just man to look after the interest of the Desplaines and Illinois River Valley and guard it from encroachments of the Sanitary District. He was elected Senator and served one term but could not afford to neglect his business and pull the strings for a re-election.
The final analysis of Mr. Munroe's well-rounded character and active well-spent life discloses large percentages of forcefulness, resourcefulness, broadmindedness, sincerity, fidelity, perseverance, beneficence, suavity, tact and know-how. Had he been educated for the law, this fine combination of elements would have placed him in the front ranks of the profession.
Once we were in a library looking for a certain book we had been discussing when Mr. Munroe said, with a tone of regret in his voice and a wistful look in his eyes; "I don't know much about books, I never had time to read--I wish I know what is in them."
Only those behind the curtains know of the many acts of beneficence on the part of Mr. Munroe in helping men with his "know how' to save them from sinking.
"Said one: "To serve a friend--I'd go with him to the gates of Hell."
Said the other: "I'd go in."
This the language of hyperbole--somewhat exaggerated, but it illustrates the kind of a man Mr. Munroe was, in the matter of serving his friends; he would go farther than the other man.
Mr. Munroe's last and greatest vision was The Lakes-To-The-Gulf Deep Water Way. He was not alone in seeing this vision, millions of others saw it and Mr. Munroe was one of the galaxy of leaders in rounding up the sentiment; rounding up the influence that would, in good time, make this great vision a reality. At the great Deep Water Way Convention in the fall of 1911, Mr. Munroe's friends were proud to see him among the Generals, men of his class, but they knew that his health was poor and his enthusiasm for the cause was working him far beyond his physical strength.
Since the death of Mr. Munroe, one incident of a well remembered excursion, insistently comes back. At Palm Beach the distances were too long for walking and we engaged a colored man with his bicycle and basket phaeton to wheel us around; the tour of magnificent hotels and other points of interest had been made and we started "Down the Jungle." Passing the Flagler Cemetery, an inscription over the gateway attracted our attention; it read: "There is nothing so common as death." We stopped our man and sat there, in the bright southern sun-light; scarce hearing the never-silent waves breaking on the beach of the near-by ocean, and mused and pondered on the deep and sad significance of the epigraph, so aptly chosen, for the gateway to that Silent City of Graves.
On his pages of remembrances, as his years on earth go by, one man will read, in bright letters, the episodes, the incidents and happenings of care-free, happy days of idleness on the Eastern Coast of Florida; from the antiquities of Old St. Augustine and New Smyrna, through the modernities of Daytona, Palm Beach and Miami; and the man who is yet living, will, in fancy, be again with Mr. Munroe; breathing the odors of orange groves; hear the rustling of the plumes of Palm trees, stirred by soft southern breezes; hear the ancient legends and traditions of the Minorcans, at New Smyrna; catch glimpses of the Everglades; watch the remnants of the Seminoles, loafing around the stations; on the spot, read the pathetic history of Ponce de Leon's futile expedition; be again on Biscayne Bay, and float on the Halifax and the Indian River.
William Grinton - Joliet, Illinois, March first, 1912
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Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA [5, 6, 7]
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| Sources |
- [S147] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Michael William, Michael William Tinnon, Membership application for Michael Tinnon dated 1 Jan 2002 (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, Family Group Record for George Munroe and Sarah Hentze - 1 4 Jul 1998 (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, Handwritten notes (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, Pedigree Chart for Edwine Marie Munroe dated 13 Jul 1998 (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, Joliet Herald-News - 17 Jun 1971 - p. 14 (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, Newspaper article dated 20 Feb 1884 (Reliability: 3).
- [S35] Clan Munro files - Tinnon, Edwin M., Edwin M. Tinnon, In Memoriam - George Henry Munroe (Reliability: 3).
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