Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Hardy, Isaac

Born: 1803-09-22 Vermont

Isaac Hardy was a farmer, logger, contractor, hotelier, and real estate investor. Hailing from Monkton, Vermont, he spent his early years on the family farm. Hardy had few educational opportunities; his only formal schooling was confined to a few winters' study. At the age of twenty-one, he left home for St. Albans, Vermont, where he engaged in the fur trade. He subsequently moved to Quebec and then Three Rivers, Canada, where he worked in the logging industry. Finding success in logging, he moved to Prescott, Canada, finding employment building canals and other public works. Hardy's work on canals brought him to Illinois, where he secured lucrative contracts to work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In January 1841, he married Adaline Cutting, with whom he would have fourteen children. He purchased a large farm on the Vermilion River across from La Salle, where he raised livestock and crops. In addition to his work in agriculture, Hardy built a fleet of canal boats and a steamer to move passengers and freight on the Illinois River to and from St. Louis, Missouri. He constructed a large dock in Chicago and grain elevators at La Salle and other points along the Illinois River between Chicago and St. Louis. In 1849, he built the Hardy House, a hotel in La Salle. He moved to Chicago, where he invested in real estate, accumulating hundreds of acres. In 1851, Hardy moved back to La Salle, where he continued to operate his hotel. In 1860, he owned real property valued at $25,000 and had a personal estate of $5,000. In 1861, Governor Richard Yates offered Hardy the commissary generalship of Illinois, but he declined due to poor health. Hardy supported Henry Clay and the Whig Party and, after the Whig Party collapsed, embraced the Republican Party.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1894), 555-56; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Will County, 13 January 1841, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), La Salle, La Salle County, IL, 61.