USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 34
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On June 6, 1876, General Guest was united in marriage to Miss Louise M. David, a daughter of Colonel John S. David, who was a native of Kentucky and in pioneer times became one of the prominent citizens of Burlington. There he built the first warehouse on the Burlington river front. Colonel David extensively operated in real estate and also built in the earlier days a number of city blocks. His labors contributed largely to the growth and development of Bur- lington. General and Mrs. Guest had one son, Lyman, who with his mother and Charles A. Schlichter continue the business affairs of the Guest Piano Company.
General Guest was a devoted adherent of the Episcopal church, of which he was a member and of which he served for some time as vestryman and warden. Politically he was a republican but had no desire for political honors. He was very prominent in the Masonic order, being a member and past master of Malta Lodge, No. 318, A. F. & A. M .; and also holding membership in Iowa Chapter, No. 1,
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R. A. M .; and St. Omar Commandery, No. 15, K. T., of which he was a past commander ; and he was also a past grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Iowa. He was one of the foremost men in the distinguished body of Knights Templar and was widely known throughout the state as one of the leading Masons.
With the death of General Guest on November 11, 1906, there passed from the ranks of Burlington's citizens one of its most success- ful and best known men-a man who had contributed largely toward the growth and prosperity of the city and state and one who had given a high example of public-spirited American citizenship. His mem- ory will live with his many friends, who sincerely loved him for his honorable character and who cherished his type of manhood. To his widow and son he left a name which confers distinction upon them.
EDWIN C. BOCK, D. D. S.
Dr. Edwin C. Bock is engaged in the practice of dentistry in Fair- field but is well known in Burlington, his native city. He was born February 25, 1879, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Wiemer) Bock. His boyhood days were spent in Burlington and to the public- school system of that city he is indebted for the educational privileges which he enjoyed in his earlier youth. He afterward attended Elliott's Business College and then, determining upon the practice of dentistry as a life work, he matriculated as a student in the Chicago College of Dental Surgery in 1897 and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1900. Soon afterward he located for practice in Fair- field, where he has since remained. His entire time has been devoted to his profession and he is now a member of the Southeastern Iowa Dental Association and the lowa State Dental Association. He keeps in touch with the most advanced processes and employs scientific methods in his practice. He possesses, too, that mechanical skill and ingenuity which are so necessary to the dentist and his increasing ability has brought to him a constantly growing practice. He is con- scientious in the performance of all his professional service and his. ability has won for him high encomiums from the laity and from his professional brethren.
In 1903 Dr. Bock was united in marriage to Miss Clara Gregg, who was born near Fairfield, Iowa, January 14, 1877, a daughter of James and Elizabeth ( Billingsley) Gregg. Her father, a Civil war
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veteran, is now a retired farmer of Jefferson county. Her mother died four years ago. Dr. and Mrs. Bock have two children, Elizabeth and Laura. His political indorsement is given to the republican party, while his religious faith is that of the Congregational church, to the teachings of which he loyally adheres.
WILLIAM F. WEIBLEY.
William F. Weibley, an architect, following his profession in Burlington since the 10th of May, 1909, with offices in the Tama building, was born in Harper, Iowa, April 26, 1875, a son of Christ- opher and Louise (Crumb) Weibley. The father was a native of Germany but in early manhood left that country and made the long voyage across the briny deep to the new world. He was a miller by trade and followed that pursuit in early manhood but afterward gave his attention to farming for many years. He is now deceased but his widow survives and makes her home in Burlington.
William F. Weibley is a graduate of the college at Mount Pleas- ant and also attended Armour's School of Technology in Chicago. He qualified for the profession of an architect and has since been active along that line. He is a member of the Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He settled first in Mount Pleasant but on the 10th of May, 1909, removed to Burlington and opened his present office. He thoroughly understands the scientific principles which underlie his work as well as all the practical phases of the busi- ness and his plans combine beauty, utility, comfort and convenience. A number of the fine structures in this city are monuments to the skill and ability which he has achieved in the line of his chosen profession.
On the 5th of September, 1905, Mr. Weibley was united in mar- riage to Miss Ethel Cowan, a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and they have two daughters, Mildred and Anna Louise. In politics Mr. Weibley is not strongly partisan. His preference is for the republican organization but he does not hesitate to vote for the man rather than the party, according to the dictates of his judgment. Something of the nature of his recreation is indicated in the fact that he is a mem- ber of the Launch Club and he exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the Masonic fraternity, of which he is a member. He is equally loyal to the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he belongs. Those with whom he has come in contact have
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reason to respect him because of his upright life and because of his discharge of his duties according to the dictates of his conscience and his judgment.
CHARLES ENDE.
Burlington is the center of a large brewing business and in this connection the name of Charles Ende has become well known. More- over, he has long been accounted one of the substantial citizens of Des Moines county and is one of the honored veterans of the Civil war, having served throughout the period of hostilities between the north and south.
Mr. Ende is a native of Germany, his birth having occurred in Schwarzenfels in the electorate of Hesse, October 29, 1837. The first fourteen years of his life were spent in that country and in 1851 he crossed the Atlantic to the new world with his father, a brother and two sisters. Earlier generations of the family, however, had been represented on American soil. With the Hessian troops in 1776 there came a cousin of Charles Ende's grandfather and in the storm- ing of Fort Washington he was seriously wounded, while at Trenton he was taken prisoner. During his captivity he married a lady of this land and in 1783 took his bride back to Cassel, Germany, but, becoming homesick, she induced her husband to return with her to her native land. This, apparently, was not a difficult task, as he seemed to have become attached to America during his seven years' forced sojourn upon this side of the Atlantic. After his return to the new world he, in the course of time, ceased all correspondence with his relatives in Germany and therefore all trace of their descend- ants has been lost.
In 1845 Carl B. Merz, an uncle of Charles Ende, established his home at Beardstown, Illinois, and in 1853 became a resident of Bur- lington, where he published the first German newspaper in Iowa. Several years afterward he took up his abode upon a large farm near Sigourney and resided upon his property there until he was called to his final rest in 1902, when eighty-eight years of age. Two years after his arrival in America, Fritz von Ende sailed for New Orleans, where he arrived in 1847. He afterward became a resident of Green- ville, Texas, where his descendants still live. The record of the family in the direct line of Charles Ende shows that his grandfather, Carl von Ende, was a minister of the Reformed church at Netra, a
CHARLES ENDE
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small town in Hesse-Cassel. A contemporary biographer, speaking of the ancestors of Charles Ende, said that the Rev. Carl von Ende "had six sons, Mr. Ende's father, Ferdinand von Ende, being the youngest. Two of his brothers were officers in the Hessian con- tingent of Napoleon's armies, and both fell in battle, one in Spain and the other in Russia. A third served in the campaign of 1815, as volunteer in a battalion of sharpshooters, largely recruited from the students of the School of Forestry, which he was attending at that time.
"Conrad Merz, the grandfather of Mr. Ende on the mother's side, born about 1775, completed his studies in the Catholic Seminary in Fulda, and later become private secretary to the bishop. In 1810, when Prince Carl von Dalberg was made grand duke of Fulda by Emperor Napoleon, Mr. Merz received an appointment in the finance department of the new government. This position he held until 1815, when the great political changes of that period caused him to resign. He retired in his prime on a liberal life pension, granted by the Bavarian government, and became a gentleman of leisure. He died in 1860.
"Ferdinand von Ende, Mr. Ende's father, was born in 1803, at Netra, where he was reared, and began his education in the com- mon schools. From there he went to a higher school at Eisenach, and subsequently graduated from the gymnasium at Cassel, the capi- tal of the electorate of Hesse. Thus being properly qualified, he was matriculated as a student of law in the State University at Marburg. After having obtained his degree of Doctor Juris, he prepared for and successfully passed the state examination incumbent upon an aspirant for government office. In due time he was appointed to a position on the judiciary, which he retained until 1851. During his term of service he was repeatedly promoted, and at the close of his official career was associate judge of one of the higher courts. Polit- ical troubles, so prevalent all over Germany in those days, and from which the electorate of Hesse was by no means exempt, caused him to resign and emigrate to the United States, preferring to live in a land of liberty that promised a better future for his children.
"Ferdinand von Ende was united in marriage to Miss Nanny Merz, of Fulda, in 1836. She died in the year 1847, leaving four children who reached mature years, and one who died an infant, soon after the mother. Mr. Ende's father spent the first winter near Beardstown, Illinois, and in the spring of 1852 moved to Des Moines county, Iowa, where he purchased a farm about two and a half miles from Burlington. There he resided until 1864, when, after about Vol. II-22
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a year's sojourn in St. Louis, he took up his abode in this city, and lived retired from that time until his death, which occurred in 1885."
During the period of his residence in his native county Charles Ende largely devoted his time to the acquirement of a public-school education and after coming to the United States his attention was given to the work of the home farm until 1855. He was afterward employed in Pittsfield, Quincy and Galesburg, Illinois, and in Des Moines, Henry, Lee and Decatur counties, Iowa, between the years 1855 and 1860. In the spring of the latter year he left Burlington for St. Joseph, Missouri, where he expected to join a wagon train en route for the newly discovered gold fields of Colorado. He was accompanied on the trip as far as Hannibal, Missouri, by his brother Fred, whose destination was Greenville, Texas, and they did not meet again until after the war, at which time Mr. Ende learned that his brother had been forced to serve in the Confederate army for nearly three years, while he was fighting with the Union troops. Charles Ende met all of the hardships and privations incident to travel across the plains and through the mountains at that early period, but also enjoyed the delights which nature and outdoor life of- fer. He remembers seeing many buffaloes, while game of various kinds was most plentiful. For the first time they met Indians at Fort Kearny and afterward passed through several Indian villages, the red men, however, seeming perfectly peaceable. In fact, they seemed to be pleased to welcome their visitors, who bestowed upon them little gifts, including tobacco, matches and bread. The purpose of the trip did not find fulfilment, for Mr. Ende did not win a fortune in the gold fields of Pike's Peak. In December, 1860, on the return trip, he crossed the Missouri river at Omaha, arriving at Burlington about Christmas. He then proceeded to Chicago and two months later accepted a position as a farm hand near Galesburg, Illinois, where he was living at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war.
On the 7th of September, 1861, his patriotic spirit aroused by the continued attempt of the south to overthrow the Union, he offered his services to the government and at Burlington became a private of Company F, Fifth Iowa Cavalry. He remained at the front until after the close of hostilities and was then mustered out with the rank of first lieutenant August 11, 1865. He was with the Western Army, operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Missis- sippi. The regiment to which Mr. Ende belonged left Benton Bar- racks, St. Louis, for Fort Henry, in February, 1862. It remained stationary in the vicinity of Forts Heiman, Henry and Donelson till June, 1863. While stationed at the above-named places the regiment
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was principally engaged in fighting bushwhackers and partisan ran- gers and in scouting. Engagements during this period were as fol- lows: August, 1862, Rolling Mills, near Fort Donelson; September, 1862, Clarksville, Tennessee; October, 1862, Wagner's Landing, Tennessee ; November, 1862, Garrettsburg, Kentucky ; January, 1863, Waverly, Tennessee ; February, 1863, Fort Donelson. In May, 1862, when out on a scout, Mr. Ende was taken prisoner, and with a num- ber of other comrades sent to Jackson, Mississippi, where they were paroled and brought into the Union lines near Corinth under a flag of truce, in charge of Major Thompson, ex-secretary of the interior under President Buchanan. General Halleck, ignoring the obliga- tions of the parole, ordered the men to report for hospital duty at once and when they refused upon the plea that such would be a vio- lation of their parole, sent a platoon of infantry with bayonets fixed to drive them to work.
In June, 1863, the regiment was transferred to Murfreesboro, where it joined General Rosecrans' army. July 3, 1863, the regiment was again detached and after a week of escorting trains to the front, ordered to McMinnville. During the short stay with the main army it had seen some hard service. October, 1863, the regiment partici- pated, under General Crook, in the pursuit of Wheeler. Upon this occasion, the battalion to which Mr. Ende's company belonged made a very successful charge on Wheeler's rear guard, at Sugar Creek, taking a number of prisoners. January 6, 1864, Mr. Ende reenlisted and returned from veteran furlough to Nashville, March 30, 1864. May 26th he was detached with thirty men to garrison a blockhouse erected for the protection of a railroad bridge over Richland creek, near Pulaski, Tennessee. July 10, 1864, he joined, with his com- mand, General Rousseau at Decatur, Alabama, and took part in the expedition to Montgomery. The regiment had barely returned when it was ordered out again on the disastrous McCook raid. Here Mr. Ende had a little extra experience. Having lost his horse in crossing the Chattahoochee river, he was left behind and it took him ten days to reach his command at Marietta, Georgia. After the fall of Atlanta, the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, which at that time was attached to Kil- patrick's division, received orders to proceed to Louisville to be re- mounted, and then return to Nashville. When Hood began his advance upon Nashville the regiment was ordered to Columbia, where it soon encountered the enemy. After a short skirmish the command was relieved by infantry and sent ten miles up Duck river to guard fords. The day following the regiment distinguished itself by cutting its way out through a vastly superior force that had sur-
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rounded the brigade. During the battle of Franklin the regiment was scouting on the right flank.
Mr. Ende could not participate with his regiment in the battle of Nashville, since he had been appointed judge advocate of a gen- eral court martial convened by order of General Wilson, command- ing the cavalry corps of the military division of the Mississippi. It took about two months to try the cases which had accumulated. His task completed, Mr. Ende was relieved, and rejoined his regiment at Gravelly Springs, Alabama, where General Wilson was assem- bling three divisions of cavalry and making preparations for the last and most successful raid of the war. The Fifth Iowa Cavalry was assigned to Alexander's Brigade of General Upton's division. After the cessation of hostilities the Fifth Iowa was stationed for some time at Macon, Georgia; then at Atlanta, from whence it was ordered to Nashville; at which place, after having been mustered out August II, 1865, the regiment embarked for Clinton, Iowa, and there was paid off and disbanded. He was among those who were detailed from his regiment to act as guard when Jefferson Davis was taken from Atlanta to Augusta, Georgia, where he was transferred to an- other command that conducted him to Fortress Monroe. Mr. Ende was never wounded, although often in the thickest of the fight in some of the most hotly contested engagements of the war, and with a most creditable military record he returned to the north when hostilities were ended.
In November, 1865, Mr. Ende took up his permanent abode in Burlington, where he has since made his home, and soon afterward he became proprietor of a brewery as a partner of his brother-in-law. The business was established at No. 1307 Mount Pleasant street and has since been continuously conducted, save for a period of three years, during which time the firm acted as agents for the Lemp Brewery of St. Louis. The partnership was dissolved in Septem- ber, 1902, and Mr. Ende has since been alone in the ownership and control of the business. He has a well equipped plant, representing an investment of twenty-five thousand dollars, and the liberal pat- ronage which he receives has made the business a profitable one.
On the 3d of October, 1869, at Liberty, Missouri, Mr. Ende was joined in wedlock to Miss Thusnelda Louise Leopold, a native of Liberty and of German parentage, her father and mother having come to the United States in 1834. Mrs. Ende passed away in 1902 and her grave was made in Aspen Grove cemetery. By her marriage she had become the mother of four children. The eldest, Carl, com- pleted a course in the State University of Iowa and was afterward
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graduated from the Gottingen University of Germany, which con- ferred upon him the degree of Ph. D. Since 1899 he has been in- structor in chemistry in the State University of lowa and is now a professor in that institution. He married Miss Alice Ankeney. August, the second son, following his graduation from the State Uni- versity of Iowa, completed his studies in Cornell University of New York, pursuing a special course in mathematics. He afterward be- came instructor in mathematics in the State University of Iowa, but is now assistant manager of his father's business. Marie, the only daughter, is the wife of John D. York of Chicago. Henry, the youngest one, is in Burlington, connected with his father.
Mr. Ende belongs to the Turn Verein. In 1866 he became a char- ter member of Matthies Post, G. A. R. His political allegiance is usually given to the democratic party, but he is not bound by party ties, and for four years he represented the second ward on the city council, acting during both terms as chairman of the police commit- tee. He is now in the seventy-eighth year of his age but is a remark- ably well preserved man and in spirit and interest seems yet in his prime.
HUGH B. ALLEN.
Hugh B. Allen, a partner in the retail shoe establishment of Neff & Allen, is a representative of one of the old pioneer families of Des Moines county. He comes of Scotch ancestry, tracing his lineage down from Hugh Allen, his great-grandfather, who came from the land of hills and heather to the new world in 1820 and settled first in Ohio. He was the father of Robert Allen, who was also born in Scot- land and accompanied his parents on their emigration to the new world. In 1839 he first visited Des Moines county and in 1842 took up his permanent abode within its borders. He followed farming but was also a carpenter by trade and carried on business along both lines, thus contributing to the early commercial development of the city. He also became a prominent factor in public affairs, filling the office of justice of the peace, and was twice chosen to represent his dis- trict in the state legislature, where he left the impress of his individ- uality upon the laws enacted during those sessions. He voted with the republican party, which found in him a stalwart and earnest cham- pion. In connection with political affairs he always subordinated partisanship to the public welfare and personal aggrandizement to
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the good of the community. He married a Miss Wasson and after her death wedded a Miss Ripley. His son, Frank Allen, was a native of Des Moines county and throughout his entire life continued his residence within its borders, but in 1899 was called to his final rest. His widow survives and yet makes her home in Burlington. In their family were three children, Hugh B., Pearl and Sabine.
Hugh B. Allen attended the high school of Burlington and devoted two years of his early life to farming. Since that time, how- ever, he has been connected with the shoe trade. He opened a shoe store in the Garman block in June, 1912, and conducted it until the 28th of August, 1913, when he became a partner of George H. Neff in the ownership and conduct of the shoe business which they are now carrying on. They are both well known young business men of the city and success is attending their efforts, for they are reliable in their dealings and have ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement.
On the 10th of April, 1913, Mr. Allen was united in marriage to Miss Florence N. Sutton. He holds membership with the Elks and with the Ibis Club. Politically his preference is for the republican party yet he casts an independent ballot, voting according to the dic- tates of his judgment. He is well known in the city and his circle of friends is almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance.
JOHN H. TROXEL.
John H. Troxel is one of the oldest merchants of Burlington. It is seldom that a man of his years continues active in trade, yet old age need not suggest as a matter of course idleness or want of occupation. On the contrary there is an old age which grows stronger and broader mentally and morally as the years go on and gives out of its rich store of wisdom and experience for the benefit of others. Such is the record of John H. Troxel, who has passed the seventy-ninth milestone on life's journey and yet is still connected with commercial interests in Burlington. He was born in Pennsylvania, August 30, 1835, a son of Joseph and Sarah ( Forney) Troxel, who were also natives of the Keystone state. They were descended from old families of Pennsyl- vania, of Scotch and German descent. They continued to live in the east until the early '70s, when they removed westward to Burlington, where their remaining days were passed.
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John H. Troxel was reared in Pennsylvania and was about twenty-nine years of age when he came to Iowa, since which time he has made his home in Burlington. He had learned the cabinet- maker's trade in early life and here worked for a Mr. Prugh. While thus engaged he carefully saved his earnings until his industry and economic expenditures brought to him sufficient capital to enable him to engage in business on his own account. Accordingly in 1874 he and his brother Joseph opened a furniture store in Burlington and for fifteen years conducted the business, their success growing with the development of the city. His brother Joseph sold out in 1889 but John H. Troxel still remains an active factor in the world's work, being at the head of the business which he has now long wisely and successfully conducted.
In 1856 Mr. Troxel was married to Miss Katherine Gingrich, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1835, and they became the parents of four children : Elizabeth, the widow of Edward Rankin; Emma, who is the widow of Charles Greene and has two children; Albert, who works for his father ; and William, who is also associated in busi- ness with the subject of this review.
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