Oscar Dudley

     Oscar Dudley was a native of Vermont. Coming West at the age of 16 years, he located in Wisconsin, and a year afterwards entered the army, serving during the war in the 16th Wisconsin Regiment and 10th Minnesota, remaining in active duty three years. After leaving the army he educated himself for a teacher in a commercial college, and, in 1866, established such a college in Jefferson City, Missouri. From there he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in 1867 established the Minneapolis Business College, at which time the publisher of THE HUMANE JOURNAL made his acquaintance. In 1873, on account of failing health, he sought a chance of climate and came to Chicago. Here he became interested in the work of the Illinois Humane Society, and, in June, 1877, connected himself with the work, as the Society's Agent, which position he holds at the present time.

     In person Mr Dudley was above medium height, with hazel eyes and brown hair and beard, which as yet scarcely show a line of silver. In disposition he is genial and humorous, and, among his familiar friends, carries little of that sternness which make culprits and wrong-doers seek to hide away from him. The name of Mr. Dudley is synonymous with that of the Humane Society, and a threat to abusers of the dumb in this city to report them to this gentlemen scarcely ever fails to have the desired affect. It has required a brave man to engage in his work. Mr. Dudley has often received bruises while in the discharge of his duty, and on various occasions his life has been threatened, as the penalty for "meddling" where a man has over-loaded his animals and beaten them cruelly because they could not do an impossible thing. But these incidents have never caused to swerve from his duty. His works early and late, ferreting out abuses, arresting offenders and causing their imprisonment and fine before the police or criminal courts. He is seldom hasty in his judgement, and searches the whys and wherefores of every case with a deliberation, that seldom finds him mistaken; and so temperate has been his management that in many cases the persons whom he has prosecuted have become his best friends. The preserved reports of the Illinois Humane Society furnished a noble record for his faithful champion of "those who cannot speak for themselves." A long list of the little children owe their preservation from a life of crime to Agent Dudley. The Society's records of the year just past show that out of the one-hundred and eighty-six children rescued from "conditions of cruelty, neglect and extreme destitution," one-hundred and thirty-two owe their relief to the exertions of Mr. Dudley. He has often taken destitute children to his own home, fed them from his own table, and provided them with money from his on pocket to relieve their urgent necessities

     The distressed animals that he released from suffering by one way or another are by far too numerous to mention, and would require the space of a good-sized volume. Of course the society and it's agents must depend largely upon the efforts of citizens to inform them of many outrages, of which they could not be cognizant in any other way; but, after the first step is taken, there are often difficulties and delays in securing witnesses who are willing to testify in a court to what they have seen, and even with the most industrious efforts on the part of the agent the criminal sometimes does not received his just dues until after the lapse of weeks

    &nbspHe died after 1887, our first animal rights activist.