Born in 1855 in Wolviston, County Durham, England, Madden immigrated to the United States in 1869 with his parents, who were born in Ireland. They settled near Lemont, Illinois. He attended public school in Chicago and graduated from Bryant and Stratton Business College in 1873. He also graduated from an engineering trade school.
Madden served as president of the Quarry Owners' Association of the United States 1885–1889. He served as vice president and director of the Builders' and Traders' Exchange of Chicago in 1886 and 1887.
Illustration of Madden, circa 1893
A member of the Republican Party, he was elected and served several years as a member of the Chicago City Council 1889–1897. He served as presiding officer of that body 1891–1893 and chairman of the finance committee for seven years. He served as chairman of the Republican Committee of Chicago 1890–1896.
Madden continued to serve in several leadership positions in business: as president of the Western Stone Co. 1895–1915. He served as a director of the Metropolitan Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago 1895–1910.
After having been nominated for reelection to the Seventy-first Congress, Madden died in 1928 at age 73 in the Committee on Appropriations meeting room of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He was buried at Cass Cemetery, near Hinsdale, Illinois, as was his wife Josephine six years later. Today Cass Cemetery is located in incorporated Darien, Illinois.
Legacy
In 1935, the Madden Dam on the Chagres River in the Panama Canal water system was named after him, as was the reservoir behind it, Madden Lake. That was renamed by Panama as Lake Alajuela.[2]
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