HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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two years later enlisted in the Union army, being re-enlisted Aug. 10, 1862, in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. His regiment became part of the Western Army, and with it he participated in many fierce and bloody struggles, being in the siege of Vicksburg, the Black River campaign, the battles of Champion Hills, Port Gibson, Ring-gold, Jackson, Spanish Fort, and others less important. He was mustered out at Chicago in August, 1865, and after three years of devoted service for his adopted country, he returned to Batavia, at once resuming his trade, and making that city his home to the present time. In 1866 he married Miss Anna Perry, of Batavia.
GEORGE RATHZ, Catholic clergyman, Batavia, Ill., was born in the City of New York, July 19, 1851. His parents came to Illinois in 1856, where the son received his early education, graduating from the High School at the age of sixteen. He then took a classical course at St. Francis' Seminary in Milwaukee, Wis., and was later graduated from the theological department of that institution. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Foley, of Chicago, June 26, 1877, and appointed curate of St. Jar-lath's church in Chicago, where he remained until he was appointed first pastor of St. John's church at Savanna, Ill. While on this charge he built two churches and one pastoral residence. From there he was transferred to South Chicago, and became pastor of St. Peter and St. Paul's church. He paid off a part of the debt on this church, built a Sisters' residence and enlarged the schools. In 1898 he was sent to the Holy Cross church at Batavia, and it has prospered greatly under his administration. He began the building of the present handsome church in Batavia in 1896, and it was dedicated the following year. Gothic in style, and of solid stone, it is one of the noblest structures in the Fox River Valley.
NBEDHAM N. RAVLIN (deceased), farmer, Kaneville, Ill., born March 8, 1823, in Shore-ham, Vt., came to Kane County, Ill., with his parents in 1845, where his father secured one hundred acres of public land, on a portion of which the village of Kaneville now stands. After the death of the father, Needharn N. Rav-lin bought out the other heirs, and during his .,active years added other tracts to it until he became an extensive land-owner. He was the first postmaster at Kaneville, and in 1868 was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. For twenty-seven years he was Supervisor for Kaneville Township. He served as School Director, Town Clerk and Trustee, and was a man of much influence in the councils of the Republican party, of which he was an active and devoted member. He was married in 1849 to Miss Frances A. West, who was born in England, and came to the United States in 1831. They have had a family of three boys and two girls. Mr. Ravlin was a member of the Baptist church and the Masonic fraternity. He died Dec. 8, 1899.
CHARLES W. RAYMOND, Elgin, Ill., born in the city where he now resides, Oct. 21, 1852, son of George B. and Mary (Weston) Raymond; educated in the public schools of Elgin and St. Anthony Military Academy (St. Anthony, Minn.); was engaged in the lumber trade in Elgin until 1893; elected County Clerk of Kane County in 1894 and filled that office until 1898; was President of the Board of Water Commissioners of Elgin. Since 1898 he has been in the hardwood lumber trade in Chicago. Mr. Raymond was married in 1875 to Miss Agnes R. Graham, daughter of Charles and Isabella (Campbell) Graham, of Elgin.
FRED H. RAYMOND, lawyer, Elgin, Ill., born in Philadelphia, Penn., March 29, 1867, and when one year old came west with his mother, who first established her home in Elgin, but later in Woodstock. Here the son attended public school and, until sixteen years of age, lived on a farm. He very justly regards himself a self-educated man. In 1884 he went to Kansas, where he remained two years, making extensive trips in the meantime into Colorado, New Mexico and other portions of the Southwest. In the spring of 1886 he came back to Elgin, where he took a place with the National Watch Factory, which he held until 1892. For a time he devoted his attention to the oil business in Elgin, and was later engaged in business in Chicago. From 1893 to 1895 he was the traveling representative of a Chicago piano house, when he began the study of law with Frank W. Joslyn, of Elgin, and, after three years' study, was admitted to the bar in 1898, and soon became junior partner in the.firm of Joslyn & Raymond. In 1902 Mr. Raymond opened an office in Chicago, and the following
