S.R. Durand: "I know very little about my grandfather, Loyal Root Durand, who died when he was only 31 years of age. He was born September 4, 1840 on his parents' farm in Berlin, Connecticut. He was one of the youngest of a large family; or, I might say, the second family of his father, Samuel Durand, Jr. The first family consisted of nine children, born between 1814 and 1828. Samuel Durand Jr.'s first wife, Eloisa (Lewis) Durand, died in 1832 and he was remarried in 1834 in Berlin, Connecticut to Rebecca Root, daughter of Asahel and Hannah (Goodrich) Root. Rebecca was born October 21, 1801; so she was 32 years of age at the time she became a second mother to this large family of children. Like one of his older half-brothers, Henry Smith Durand, Loyal Root Durand went to work at the age of 16 in a store in Hartford, Connecticut. After two years, at the urging and with the help of [a] brother who had been successful in business in Racine, Wisconsin, he went to Milwaukee and became established in the general fire and marine insurance business. During his early years in this business, he became the main supporter of his parents, four sisters, and one younger brother. By that time, his father was in his seventies and was no longer able to make his once-prosperous wheat farm pay [off] due to much lower prices being offered for wheat shipped from the middle west to the east. During this time, Loyal Root Durand paid to have his youngest sister, Hannah, educated at a private girls' finishing school in Massachusetts. Loyal Root Durand married Maria Elizabeth McVickar on September 3, 1866 in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee. He as well as his new father-in-law, Dr. Benjamin McVickar, had been among the founders of this church. In writing about my grandmother, I have told what little I know about their short married life. As a young man in his twenties, my grandfather quickly became a highly successful and respected businessman in Milwaukee. In 1865 and 1866 he was president of the Young Men's Association, which maintained the library that had been founded by his father-in-law and six others in 1848. This library was the forerunner of the public library in the city. After his father's death in 1870, Loyal Root Durand brought his mother, four sisters, and younger brother to Milwaukee and provided for them. He established the younger brother, William Timothy Durand, in the insurance business. My grandfather in 1870 and 1871 was one of the seven directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and also Vice President of the Musical Society. His firm of Helfenstein and Durand was the leading insurance agency in the city. They represented eleven of the largest insurance companies in the country, and wrote up to $200,000 on single risks. Letters I have from my grandfather to his wife indicate that he was often in the east on business. [In the aftermath of] the great Chicago fire in October of 1871, my grandfather spent many long days in Chicago, helping the insurance companies he represented there settle claims quickly so that people who had lost homes would have funds for their [own] support. After six weeks of day-and-night work, he died as a result of extreme exhaustion and exposure on November 19, 1871. At the time of his death, he had been offered the presidency of the Northwestern National Insurance Company (later the NN Corporation). Had he lived, he undoubtedly would have remained an outstanding leader in his community for many more years. A newspaper article of November 22, 1871 describes the funeral of Loyal Root Durand in St. Paul's Church on the previous day. It detailed how the businessmen of Milwaukee walked two by two, preceding the hearse from the church to the cemetery, which at that time was near to where the public library is today. It states that the funeral was one of the largest and most solemn ones ever held in the city. After describing the flower decorations of the church and the service, the account concludes as follows: 'the deceased was an universal favorite with all that knew him, and his acquaintances were very numerous. He was free from all ostentation, generous-hearted, plain in speech, blunt in expression, kind in his disposition, a good citizen, a firm friend, a fond husband and father. He was an example for all young men. He had, as a businessman, a fine career before him, gathering friends steadily and in an honest and upright manner; of no young man in Milwaukee could it be said that he possessed better prospects for an independence, so far as worldly matters are concerned. An all-wise but inscrutable God has seen fit to take him away, and today the yet young man, whom but as yesterday was among us and mingling with us in the apparent fullness of robust strength, sound health, and a prospective long life before him, is now in the grave, hidden from our sight, but not forgotten, his memory deeply cherished as one of Nature's nobleman - an honest man. As one of the many who knew him well and intimately - knew well the sterling qualities of which he was made up, and the generous, manly impulses that governed all his actions - as we saw the body of our friend leave the church, we called to mind the prayer of an ancient funeral form, when an invocation at its close was offered up to the Creator, that he 'form another citizen as virtuous as this hath been.' This final sentence of the newspaper account about my grandfather impresses me with [its correlation to] my father Loyal Durand. Only three and one-half years old at the time of his father's death, [he] grew up to have all the virtues and sterling qualities of his father, and to become one of the most honored men in Milwaukee for his many fine services in the public interest. In a letter my great-grandfather, Dr. Benjamin McVickar, wrote to a cousin in the east telling of the death of his daughter's husband, he mentioned that his son-in-law recently had not only purchased a home for his family, but had also provided one for his widowed mother and his sisters. Moreover, he had left his wife well protected with life insurance and other legacies, and had arranged that for a number of years she would receive an income from his insurance business. He left other legacies for his mother and sisters. This was quite remarkable in view of the fact that his whole business career had been for only a dozen years."

Facts about this person:

Burial November 21, 1871 Milwaukee, Milwaukee Co., WI