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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
tive and benevolent. Local self-government was encouraged as far as practicable, and, while the Governors' power over commerce was virtually unrestricted, they interfered but little with the ordinary life of the people.
FREW, Calvin Hamill, lawyer and State Senator, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, educated at Finley (Ohio) High School, Beaver (Pa.) Academy and Vermilion Institute at Hayesville, Ohio.; in 1862 was Principal of the High School at Kalida, Ohio, where he began the study of law, which he continued the next two years with Messrs. Strain & Kidder, at Momnouth, Ill., meanwhile acting as Principal of a high school at Young America; in 1865 removed to Paxton, Ford County, which has since been his home, and the same year was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Mr. Frew served as Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Ford County (1865-68); in 1868 was elected Representative in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, re-elected in 1870, and again . in '78. While practicing law he has been connected with some of the most important cases before the courts in that section of the State, and his fidelity and skill in their management are testified by members of the bar, as well as Judges upon the bench. Of late years he has devoted his attention to breeding trotting horses, with a view to the improvement of his health but not with the intention of permanently abandoning his profession.
FRY, Jacob, pioneer and' soldier, was born in Fayette County, Ky., Sept. 20, 1799; learned the trade of a carpenter and came to Illinois in 1819, working first at Alton, but, in 1820, took up his residence near the present town of Carrollton, in which he built the first house. Greene County was not organized until two years later, and this border settlement was, at that time, the extreme northern white settlement in Illinois. He served as Constable and Deputy Sheriff (simultaneously) for six years, and was then elected Sheriff, being five times re-elected. He served through the Black Hawk War (first as Lieutenant-Colonel and afterwards as Colonel), having in his regiment Abraham Lincoln, O. H. Browning, John Wood (afterwards Governor) and Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame. In 1837, he was appointed Commissioner of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and re-appointed in 1839 and '41, later becoming Acting Commissioner, with authority to settle up the business of the former commission, which was that year legislated out of of
