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ENRY SHERMAN BOUTELL, lawyer, legislator, member of the United States house of representatives, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 14, 1856. He is the oldest surviving son of Mayor Lewis Henry and Anne Greene Boutell. He comes of an old New England family, dating back to 1630, at which time James and Alice Boutell, his earliest American ancestors, came from England and settled at Lynn, Massachusetts. On his mother's side he is descended from Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, for whom he is named.

He removed to Chicago, in 1863, with his parents, and was given a substantial common school education, later entering the academy of Northwestern university, at Evanston, Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1872, and from the College of Liberal Arts in 1874, at the age of eighteen. In the next year he entered Harvard university where he remained two years, receiving the degrees of A.B. in 1876, and A.M. in 1877, the latter for studies in civil and international law. Returning to Chicago, he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1879, and shortly thereafter began practice as junior member of the firm of Boutell, Waterman & Boutell, of which his father was the senior member.

Mr. Boutell began to interest himself in public affairs about 1884, though he had previously been private secretary of the lieutenant-governor of the state. When the municipal election law for Illinois was being drafted in this year, he took great interest in its preparation and was one of the citizens' committee which drafted the measure, and in November he was elected a member of the legislature, as a Republican, from the sixth senatorial district. During his term occurred the political struggle for the election of John A. Logan to the United States senate, and he was one of the "103" who voted for him. At the end of the session he resumed the active practice of law, and during the ensuing decade won a commanding place at the Chicago bar. On November 23, 1897, he was elected a