Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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Copyright.  All rights reserved.

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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Col. Lorenzo P. SANGER (deceased), Joliet; was born in Littleton, N. H., March 2, 1809. When 
but a small boy, he accomanied his father's family to Livingston Co. N. Y., at that time a 
vast wilderness in the then Far West, and, like other pioneers, could only obtain the common 
log schoolhouse education in the winter, and in summer worked on a farm or in a saw-mill. 
When the Erie Canal (termed at that time, in derision, "Clinton's Ditch ") was begun, his 
father, David SANGER, took a contract on the Canal, at Rochester, and afterward at Black 
Rock, about 1824, where he remained until the Erie Canal was completed. At this time but 
three steamboats were runnin on Lake Erie, and Lorenzo P. SANGER went on the Pioneer as 
steward. In the fall of 1826, his father removed to Pittsburgh, Penn., and engaged in heavy 
contracts on the Pennsylvania Canal, and continued until completed, finishing near Johnstown,
Lorenzo having charge of a part of the work. When about 20, he took a contract to build a 
lock near Livermore, Penn., and was known as the "boy contractor." When this was finished, 
he went into the mercantile business at Blairsville, Penn. He married Rachel Mary DENNISTON, 
of Denniston's Town, Westmoreland Co., Penn., Feb. 3, 1830, and, the same year, removed his 
store to that place. About 1831, he joined J. Noble NESBIT at Freeport, Penn., in sinking a 
salt-well. After drilling several hundred feet, they struck a large flow of salt water, and 
with it what the salt men termed "that infernal American or Seneca oil," since known as 
petroleum; and as the value of the oil was not then known, the well was abandoned and he 
lost all. From Freeport he went on the,Beaver Canal and built a lock and dam twelve miles 
above Beaver, at the mouth of Kanakanessing Creek. When this was completed, he removed to 
Miamisport, Ind., and engaged in heavy contracts on the Indiana Canal. His work was on the 
Indian Reservation, and was completed amid many Discouragements, the country being almost a 
wilderness and very unhealthy. In 1835, he started in the then fashionable way of traveling, 
via., on horseback, to St. Joseph, Mich., and joined Gen. Hart L. STEWART, now of Chicago, 
in merchandising and warehouse business, and steamboating on the St. Joseph River. At the 
letting of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, in June, 1836, Stewart, Sanger & Wallace contracted 
to dig Sections 156 and 157, on the heavy rock excavation above Lockport, Ill. The next 
season, he removed permanently to Illinois, and followed the Canal to La Salle, where he 
built look No. 15. He next formed a company and took the contract to improve the rapids of 
Rock River at Sterling, Ill. In March, 1843, he joined Smith GALBRAITH in a line of stages 
from Chicago to Galena, via Dixon, and the next year purchased Galbraith's interest. While 
at Galena, he was elected State Senator. In 1847, Frink & Walker, Sanger & Co., Davis & 
Moore, and Neil, Moore & Co. united and formed the Northwestern Stage Co., embracing Michigan, 
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, Mr. SANGER removing to St. Louis and taking 
charge of the western division until 1851, at which time the firm of Sanger, Camp & Co. 
contracted to build the western division of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, after completing 
which, Sanger, Stewart & Truesdail took the contract for building the North Missouri Railroad 
from St. Louis to Macon, Mo. Both of these roads were heavy enterprises, through comparatively 
new countries, and involved the engaging of hundreds of subcontractors. Both have become 
important trunk lines. In 1857, the State of Illinois let to Lorenzo P. SANGER and Samuel K. 
CASEY, under the firm name of Sanger & Casey, the contract to build the State Penitentiary at 
Joliet, and in June, 1858, leased to them the convict labor of the State, the convicts being 
then confined in the Penitentiary at Alton, the commerce and discipline of the latter being 
in charge of W. A. STEEL until July, 1860, when the last of the convicts were removed by him 
to the new Penitentiary at Joliet. During the last named year, he removed to Joliet, and, in 
1862, to a farm one mile northwest of the city. Having, during his busy life, been the employer 
of tens of thousands of men, and the nation at this time being in the midst of the war of the 
rebellion, President Lincoln wrote to Gov. YATES to send Mr. SANGER a commission as Colonel 
and request him to join the army in Tennessee and Kentucky for staff duty or whatever his 
health would enable him to do. This was done, and Col. Sanger immediately threw up his 
business and joined the army in Kentucky, where he remained until his health was almost 
entirely gone, when he was compelled to return home in a prostrated condition, from which 
he never fully recovered. In 1865, Col. SANGER and W. A. STEEL, under the firm name of 
Sanger & Steel, opened quarries north of and adjacent to Joliet, which proved to be the 
best limestone yet found in America. and which they developed into a very large business, 
employing from three to four hundred men and a hundred horses, the canal and railroad also 
passing through their works. Though Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois 
patronized their works largely, the United States Government was their heaviest customer 
for material to build the Rock Island Arsenal, Marine Hospital in Chicago, Custom Houses 
at Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wis., etc. The same year, 1865, Sanger, Steel & Co. took 
the contract to deepen the twenty-one rock sections of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. This 
was to remove solid limestone sixty feet wide and ten feet deep, the object being to remove 
permanently the hillock in Chicago and Jack's lock near Lockport. Col. Sanger died in 
Oakland, Cal., where he had gone for the benefit, of his health, on March 23, 1875, and was 
buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Joliet. He had three children - Maj. W. D. SANGER, who served 
as an aid on Gen. SHERMAN'S staff in the late war, and died in St. Louis in November, 1873; 
Frances Louise, wife of Hon. W. A. STEEL, of Joliet, and Henry A. SANGER, now of Florence, 
Ala. Col. Sanger, although a man of unyielding purpose and rugged character, was kind-hearted 
in his public dealings, and exceedingly tender in the private and domestic relations of life.