Joseph Thatcher Torrence (1843 - 1896)

Born 15 Mar 1843 in Mercer, Pennsylvania, United States

Husband of Elizabeth (Norton) Torrence — married 11 Sep 1872 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Died 31 Oct 1896 at age 53 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

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Biography

Joseph Torrence was born in Appalachia, in Pennsylvania.

Joseph Torrence was a Pennsylvanian.

Joseph was born in 1843.

Joseph Worked as a Blacksmith.

Books

Private Joseph Torrence served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: August 5, 1862
Mustered out: January 7, 1863
Side: USA
Regiment(s): Co. A 105th Regiment Ohio Infantry

Corp. Joseph Torrence was Wounded in Action during United States Civil War.

The Story of a Thousand by Albion Winegar Tourgée, Appendices, published by S. McGerald & Son, 1896

Enlisted in Company A of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry on August 5, 1862 at age 21 as corporal. He was wounded at the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky on October 8, 1862. He was discharged on January 7, 1863 at Louisville for disability from his wound.

Newspapers

Cleveland Daily Leader, (Cleveland, Ohio), 1862-Dec-23, page 1

Ohio Soldiers in the Perryville Hospitals.

Among the patients remaining in the Perryville hospitals, December 15th, were the following of the 105th Ohio: ...

Jos. Terrance, Corporal, company A, right leg fractured. ...

"Chicago Tribune", (Chicago, Illinois), 1895-Dec-8, page 46

Gen. Torrence and his daughter, Mrs. Kinsley McGoun, arrived on Thursday from New York. Mrs. McGoun will spend ten days at her father's residence on the Laiee Shore drive.

"The Pittsburgh Press", (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 1896-Nov-8, page 1

GEN. TORRENCE TWICE MARRIED.

It is Probable His Ten Millions Will be Contested.

Youngstown, O., Nov. 7. -- (Special) -- The late Gen. Torrence, who died In Chicago, leaving an estate of $10,000,000, married here, when a young man, Miss Margaret Mountain. In 1866 he was granted a divorce. The couple had one child, a son. who was given to the mother. After Torrence removed to Chicago he married a second time, and leaves two daughters.

Tne fact of the first marriage was kept from the daughters until after his death, and then they declined to believe it. This afternoon a brother of Gen. Torrence came here and secured a copy of the divorce decree. It is probable that the son by the first wife will ciaim a portion of the estate.

“Chicago Tribune”, (Chicago, Illinois), 05 Nov 1944, page 70

When Chicago Was Young

By Herma Clark

Letters From Martha Freeman Edmond to her friend Julia Boyd of New York.

Chicago, Nov. 1, 1896

… One of our important citizens died yesterday in his home on Lake Shore dr. and Bellevue pl. This was Gen. Joseph T. Torrence, who had risen from humble beginnings to be one of the wealthy men of the state. At the time of his death he was one of the most influential figures in the steel industry. Born in Pennsylvania, he left school at the age of 10 and began to learn the blacksmith’s trade, but soon became an assistant foreman in an Ohio blast furnace. In 1862, as a very young man, he enlisted in the 105th Ohio infantry, was wounded and received a discharge. About twenty-five years ago, he came to Chicago to build a furnace for the Chicago Iron company and has made his home here ever since. He organized steel companies — always successful — bought a thousand acres of land in Lake co., Ind., where East Chicago is being developed; started the Chicago and Calumet terminal railroad, beginning a system of belt lines around the city.

In 1877, when he was a brigadier general in the Illinois National Guard, he was made dictator of Chicago, in order to quell the riots during the railroad strikes. He accomplished this without much bloodshed and with little property damage.

His life had its tragedy. His wife who was a Miss Norton, was thrown from her carriage about five years ago and killed. His only child Mrs. Kinsley Magoun lives in New York, and he has few intimate friends, but has been much alone in his grey stone castle surrounded by a high iron fence. It always seemed to me quite forbidding. His funeral is to be held at the Fourth Presbyterian church with Dr. Thomas C. Hall officiating…

“The Times”, (Munster, Indiana), 31 Oct 1982, page 3

Joseph Thatcher Torrence built the Calumet Region's first steel mill in 1875, operated an early steel mill in Hammond, organized the beltline that was the lifeline of Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting, designed and built East Chicago, and experienced more excitement before he was 20 than Eugene Field did in a lifetime.

Torrence was born March 15, 1843 in Mercer County, Pa., the son of James and Rebecca Torrence, Pennsylvania natives. When he was just 9 years old, his parents, determined their son be properly educated, packed him off to a distant relative in Sharpsburg, Pa. to work in a blast furnace there. He then went to Brier Hill (Youngstown), Ohio, where he learned all of the operations of what passed for a steel mill, became a blacksmith, and, because of his splendid physique, by the age of 16 was made assistant foreman.

In August 1862, he enlisted in the 105th Ohio Infantry, and was quickly made a non-com. In his first major battle (Perryville) one of the bloodiest of the Civil War he fought gallantly and was wounded not once but four times, so severely he was knocked out of the war and given an army pension.

While recuperating, this natural born hero who became the Gallahad or possibly the Lancelot of the Calumet Region, arose from his sick bed to pursue another adventure, one that involved the colorful Confederate raider, John Hunt Morgan.

Morgan had a genuine talent for hit-and-run guerrilla warfare, and was then conducting a series of imaginative raids, harassing and confounding Union forces.

Moving with uncanny quickness and traveling with his own telegraph operator Morgan not only kept himself informed of Union plans but misled the Blue Jackets regarding his own position. As a result, Union troops often found bridges they expected to cross burned, critical supply trains captured, and railroad tracks demolished.

Finally, Morgan attempted his most audacious excursion of all an extended raid through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

Panic broke out everywhere along the Ohio River, and finally Indiana and Ohio turned out thousands of volunteers to chase the fox Morgan, and eliminate him from the neighborhood. That was enough for Torrence. Crippled or not, he saw his duty and was bound to do it. Dragging himself out of his recovery bed, and gritting through the pain, Torrence took command of a large volunteer force and joined the hunt.

Shortly after Torrence and his troops took the field, Union forces surrounded Morgan. Cautiously. They had done that before only to discover that Morgan had not only escaped, but had destroyed transportation facilities and usually captured Union troops.

Not this time.

Out of troops, out of horses, out of fire power, and out of luck, Morgan finally surrendered to Union forces led, in part, by a crippled 19-year-old named Joseph Thatcher Torrence, the man destined to become the knight errant of the Calumet Region, and the hero for whom not even a pre-school Is named In the Region.

Sources

Census

"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCG2-83Y : 13 December 2017), Joseph Terrence in entry for James Terrence, 1860.

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXNJ-4WC : 15 September 2017), Jos T Torrence, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district ED 28, sheet 228C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,186.

Marriage

"Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N76Y-9VM : 10 March 2018), Joseph T. Torrence and Libbie Norton Or Norten, 11 Sep 1872.

Military

"United States Civil War Soldiers Index, 1861-1865," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FS9G-GTT : 4 December 2014), Joseph Torrence, Corporal, Company A, 105th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, Union; citing NARA microfilm publication M552 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 110; FHL microfilm 882,323.

"United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NHDJ-Q4W : 24 March 2016), Joseph Torrence, 1863.

Death

Find A Grave: Memorial #53141061