Franklin MacVeagh
(1837-1934)

Franklin MacVeagh was born on a farm in Chester County,
Pennsylvania. He graduated from Yale in 1862 and earned a law
degree from Columbia University in 1864.

MacVeagh practiced law in New York City from 1864 to 1866.
He moved to Chicago in 1866, where he established a whole-
sale grocery company. In 1874 he was the president of the Chicago
Citizens' Association, an influential civic improvement organiza-
tion of that day. He was a Democratic nominee for U.S. senatoi
in 1894, but lost the race in the state legislature. MacVeagh be-
came a Republican two years later. He served as secretary of the
treasury during the administration of William Howard Taft.

MacVeagh became a member of the Literary Club in 1874 anc
served as president in 1906-07. He presented nine papers. A
member of the Club for sixty years, he died on July 6, 1934. He
was the last survivor of the eighty or so men who became mem-
bers of the Club in the year of its founding.

Read before the Club: April 12,1999