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M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
F
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00868 2145
A HISTORY
OF
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and its Principal Interests
BY
George Washington Smith, M. A.
VOLUME III
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1912
1169632
R. 286. Miller
History of Southern Illinois
ERNEST F. MILLER. One of the old and highly respected families of Jackson county, Illinois, members of which have distinguished them- selves in business life and the professions for a number of years, is that of Miller, prominent members of which are found in Makanda, as representatives of the well-known banking firm of R. H. Miller & Son. of which R. H. Miller is president and Ernest F. Miller, cashier. Ernest F. Miller was born on a farm near the village of Makanda, December 19, 1881, and is a son of Robert II. and Mahala (Oakes) Miller, and a grandson of Alexander and Catherine (MeMullough) Miller, the former of Seoteh and the latter of Scotch-Irish descent.
Robert II. Miller was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, February 2. 1837, and was a lad of fifteen years when brought to Illinois. Here he was reared to agricultural pursuits, and on reaching manhood took up that vocation, which he followed for many years. He is now liv- ing on a farm near the old homestead, and his wife, a member of the old Oakes and Zimmerman families of Union and Jackson counties, also survives. They have had three children: Miss Hattie. Charles A .. a well known physician of Macon; and Ernest F. Mr. Miller is a well-known Mason, has been interested in Republican politics, and is a member of the Presbyterian church, with which his wife is also con- neeted. Both are well known and highly esteemed in their community.
Ernest F. Miller's early life was spent on his father's farm, and his early education secured in the public schools and MeKendree and Ewing Colleges. On finishing his education, at the age of fifteen years. he entered the employ of the Jackson State Bank, of Carbondale, was later in the First National Bank of East St. Louis, and eventually be- eame connected with the Diamond Joe line of steamers. Eventually ho became paymaster of the Defiance Box Company, at Defiance, Ohio, but in 1905 resigned this position to engage in the banking business with his father, and this has demanded all of his attention to the present time. Although still a young man, Mr. Miller has been recognized as one of the Republican leaders of his section, and has served as pres- ident of the village board. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, in both of which he is very popu- lar, and his religions connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, in the work of which both he and his wife are active.
In 1907 Mr. Miller was married to Miss Venita Hall, daughter of J C. Ilall. of Mebransboro, and they have had one son, Frederick En gene. During the time the business of R. H. Miller & Son has been operating in Makanda it has firmly established itself in the confidence of the people here, and it is considered one of the solid, substantial in stitutions of this part of the state. The elder Miller has always borne an unblemished reputation in all of his business dealings, and his son has inherited the same high principles that have made his father so
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highly respected. He has been ready at all times to aid by his means and enterprising spirit the building up of this part of Southern Illi- nois, and has many friends in both the business and social fields.
HENRY WILLIAM SCHROEDER. The city of Breese, Illinois, is the home of some flourishing business houses which supply the large contiguous territory with necessities, and one that controls an extensive trade and is constantly enlarging its field of operations is that owned by Henry Wil- Jiam Schroeder, a lumber and building material business. Mr. Schroeder is well known to the citizens of Breese, as he has lived in this city all of his life, his birth having occurred here September 15, 1869.
Mr. Schroeder is a son of Conrad Schroeder, who was born in Hessen, Germany, and eame to the United States at the age of eighteen years, with a brother, John, who was sixteen years old at that time. Loeating in Clinton county, Illinois, they began to follow their trades, Conrad being a wagon maker and John a blacksmith, and soon thereafter each entered business on his own account and became well and favorably known to the business citizens of the city of Breese. Conrad Schroeder married Miss Christina Wiese, of Clinton county, where her father was a prom- inent agriculturist, and they had a family of eight children, of whom five survive : Carrie; Henry W .; Louisa, who became the wife of E. G. Hofsommer; Lydia, who married August Hofsommer ; and Emil J. Mr. Schroeder continued in the wagon making business, in connection with dealing in farming implements, up to the time of his death. His widow, who survives him, resides in Breese and attends St. John's Evangelical church, of which he was also a consistent member. In his political views he was a Republican, but his business interests always demanded all of his time and attention and he never held nor cared for public office.
Henry W. Schroeder spent his boyhood in Breese, where he attended the public schools, later entering the Southern Illinois Normal Univer- sity, and eventually took a course in architectural drawing at Shenk's Architectural Drawing School, St. Louis. Entering an architect's office in St. Louis, Mr. Schroeder continued to follow that line for a time, but eventually went into the carpenter and building business at St. Louis, having learned that trade before he took up architectural work. In 1892 he came to Breese, where he formed a partnership with E. G. Hofsom- mer in the building and contracting business, and this association eon- tinued for five years, when Mr. Schroeder purchased Mr. Hofsommer's interests. Lately, however, he has almost entirely abandoned the eon- tracting business, giving the major part of his attention to dealing in Inmber and building material, and to the manufacture of artificial stone, as secretary of the Breese Artificial Stone Company. This company has extensive yards at Breese, and is one of the largest industries of this thriving eity. In addition Mr. Schroeder is secretary of the Breese Water and Light Company, and takes an aetive and intelligent interest in all matters pertaining to the material welfare of his native city. He is a Republican, but, Jike his father, he has found no time to mix in politics. He attends St. John's Evangelieal church, and is a member of the South- ern Illinois Lumber Dealers' Association and the Concordia Singing Society.
In 1903 Mr. Schroeder was married to Miss Lily Hofsommer, daugh- ter of William J. Hofsommer, of Breese, and four children have been born to this union, namely : Melva, Irma, Margaret and Carl. Mr. Schroeder is an excellent business man, and has demonstrated that a man may he- come successful through the use of honorable and upright business meth- ods. ITis standing as a eitizen is equally high. and personally he is very popular having many warm friends in the city of his birth.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
ROBERT P. HILL. Among the distinctively prominent and brilliant lawyers of the state of Illinois none is more versatile, talented or well equipped for the work of his profession than Robert P. Hill, who main- tains his home and business headquarters at Marion, in Williamson county. Throughout his career as an able attorney and well fortified counselor he has, by reason of unimpeachable condnet and close observ- anee of the unwritten code of professional ethics, gained the admiration and respect of his fellow members of the bar, in addition to which he commands a high place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow eiti- zens. At the present time, in 1911, Mr. Hill is a member of the law firm of Hill & Skaggs, of Marion, and he is representing the Fiftieth dis- triet of Illinois in the general assembly.
The original representative of the Hill family in Illinois was JJohn W. Hill, grandfather of the subject of this review. John W. Hill ac- companied his father to Illinois from North Carolina in an early day and he passed his life in Hamilton and Franklin counties where he was long engaged in agricultural pursuits. Robert P. Hill was born in Franklin county, Illinois, the date of his nativity being the 18th of April, 1874. He is a son of James B. Hill, a fruit commission man at Anna, Hlinois. James B. Hill was born in Hamilton county, this state, in 1844. He was a gallant and true soldier in the One Hundred and Tenth Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry during the war of the Rebellion, having belonged to the Army of the Cumberland. He participated in strenuous contliets at Murfreesboro, Lookout Mountain and Mississippi Ridge and received his honorable discharge from service in 1865. For a number of years he was most successfully engaged in farming operations in Franklin county, Illinois, but in 1899 he located at Anna, where he has since been en- gaged in the commission business. In 1869 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Rebecca Spilman, a daughter of a noted Christian minister, who died at Mulkeytown, this state, at the advanced age of eighty years. Mrs. Hill passed to the life eternal in 1884, and concerning her children, Robert. P. is the immediate subject of this review: James JJ. is cirenit court. clerk of Franklin county, Illinois ; Rebecca A. is the wife of Joseph Webb, a prominent merchant and farmer near Ewing. Ilinois; and W. J. Hill, of St. Louis, Missouri. Two daughters, Sarah and Alice, are both deceased.
Robert P. Hill was reared to the invigorating influences of the old homestead farm in Franklin county and his preliminary educational training was completed by a course in the Ewing, Illinois. College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, duly receiving his degree of Bachelor of Science. While attending college he taught two sessions of county school in the vicinity of his home and after leav- ing college he came to Williamson county, where he was elected principal of the Crab Orchard Academy, serving in that capacity for two years. Being ambitions for legal training. he located at Marion, where he began to read law under the able preceptorship of Messes. D. T. Hartwell and E. M. Spiller. He was engaged in the real estate and life and fire in- surance business while in the embryonic stage as a lawyer. In June, 1906. Mr. Hill went to Chicago, where he passed the state bar examina- tion and where he was admitted to the bar of Illinois. Ile initiated the active practice of his profession at Marion, where for a time he was alone but where he is now associated in a business way with Walter W. Skaggs.
The first public service of an official nature rendered by Mr. Hill was that of police magistrate of Marion, to which office he was elected prior to his admission to the bar. Subsequently he was elected city attorney of Marion, succeeding Hosea Ferrell in the office and serving therein for a period of two years. It was during his ineumbeney as city attorney that the city paying was inaugurated. In 1910 he was nominated as one of the Democratic candidates of the Fiftieth district for representation
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
in the general assembly of the state. The district comprises the counties of Franklin, Williamson, Union, Alexander and Pulaski, and while the district is normally Republican by a wide majority he was elected to the office. His interest in legislation has not taken a wide range but it is shown to be practical by the activity he has manifested in legislating for good roads, to reform the bill of lading practice of railroads and other common carriers, to remove the technicality of "exceptions" in cases on appeal to higher courts of the state and to eliminate the fee evil of the state's attorney's office by placing the incumbent of that position on a salary instead of tempting him with the fee graft, as of old. In the Forty-seventh general assembly Mr. Hill was made a member of the com- mittees on judiciary, judicial department and practice, good roads, mili- tary affairs, railroads and the committee to visit penal and reformatory institutions. He was also selected by his party as a member of the Democratic steering committee.
Mr. Hill's plan for good-roads legislation was agitated in the house and the same resulted in the naming of a committee to meet with a com- mittee of the senate for the purpose of seleeting another committee to investigate conditions and make recommendations to the next general assembly in that connection. Existing laws upon the subject will be re- vised and the element of economy will enter into the consideration of the question by the committee. As chairman of the sub-committee of the house on railroads Mr. Ilill was enabled to report favorably on the "uniform bill-of-lading bill" and he secured its passage through the house. As the end of the session was near the bill was hurried over to the senate, where its friends secured prompt action, and the measure is now a ław.
Mr. Hill introduced a bill to change the court practice of requiring "exceptions" to be made and noted during the trial of a cause before an appeal to the higher courts could be taken and have standing with the body. The bill provides that where any point in a bill is controverted and passed on by the trial judge the party ruled adversely against may take up the case on appeal on a writ of error without reference to form of "exceptions" heretofore required to be made. The bill is now a part of the statutes of 1911.
It has been common knowledge for years that the office of state's attorney should be placed upon a salary basis in order to get the best moral and financial results for the state. The temptation for graft is ever present with the incumbent of the office and it has too frequently been taken advantage of. A bill to abolish the fee evil came over to the house from the senate end of the eapital and Mr. Hill. as a friend of the framer of the measure. fathered it and secured its passage, with the result that it is now a law.
Mr. Ilill in his legal practice is recognized as a particularly able law- ver and among his clients are numbered some of the largest corporations and most influential business concerns in this section of the state. As already intimated, he is a stalwart Democrat in his political affiliations and he is a zealous and active factor in all matters bearing on the party welfare. He is connected with a munber of fraternal organizations of representative character and his religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Baptist church, in whose faith he was reared. He is a man of broad human sympathy and fine mental caliber and is held in high esteem by all with whom he has come in contact.
On the 25th of December, 1901, Robert P. Hill was united in mar- riage to Miss Lora Corder. of Marion. Mrs. Ilill is a daughter of the late Willis Corder, who was born and reared in Williamson county, Illinois, and whose father was a pioneer here. Mrs. Hill is a grand niece of the historic character and frontier lawyer of this county, Anderson P. Cor-
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
der, who was a compeer of Lincoln and other ante-bellum lawyers of Illinois. Willis Corder married Julia Springs, and Mrs. Hill was their only child. Robert P., Jr., born on the 30th of June, 1905, is the issue of Mr. and Mrs. Hill.
WALTER CLYDE SHOUPE. An enterprising and successful journalist, Walter Clyde Shoupe, editor of the Constitution at Carlyle, and a mem- ber of the firm of T. D. Shoupe & Sons, publishers, is widely known throughout Clinton county in connection with his paper, which has the distinction of being the only Democratie paper published in Clinton county, Illinois. He was born at New Athens, Saint Clair County, Illi- nois, March 25, 1876, where his father, Theodore David Shoupe, was then living. His grandfather. Abram Shoupe, a native of Pennsyl- vania, married Catherine Tannehill, who was born and bred in Kentucky, and in 1830 settled in Belleville, Saint Clair county, Illinois, becoming a pioneer of that locality.
One of a family of seven children, Theodore David Shoupe was born in Belleville, Illinois, November 24, 1837. In his youthful days he learned the printer's trade in the office of the Belleville Tribune, which was then edited by his brother, William H. Shoupe, but was later con- dueted by G. A. Harvey. Becoming proficient at the trade, he went to Tamaroa, Perry county, Illinois, and there published the Truc American. In 1871 he purchased the New Athens Era, in Saint Clair county, and published it three and one-half years, after which he worked at the case in the office of the Republican, at Saint Louis, Missouri. On July 4. 1881. he bought a half interest in the Constitution and I'nion, at Carlyle. Illinois, and condneted it, in partnership with R. D. Moore, until 1885. From that time he was in partnership with R. H. Norfolk until Mr. Nor- folk's death, in 1892, when he bought out the heirs of his former part- ner. Admitting then to partnership his two sons, under the firm name of T. D. Shoupe & Sons, he changed the name of the paper to The Carlyle Constitution, under which it has since been conducted. He has made the paper thoroughly Democratie in its principles, and the public has shown its appreciation in a gratifying way, its eireulation being large and emi- nently satisfactory. Although he has outlived the appointed three score and ten years of man's life, Mr. Shoupe is still active both mentally and physically, and puts in full time each day in the office of his newspaper. Ile is indeed a veteran journalist, and is distinguished as the oldest editor in Southern Illinois.
Fifty-three years ago, in 1858, Mr. Theodore D. Shoupe was united in marriage with Louisa J. Moore, who was born in Saint Clair county. Illinois, of pioneer parents, and of the children born of their union tive daughters and two sons are living, both of the sons being associated with him in the publication of the Constitution. Mrs. Shonpe is a faithful member of the Baptist church, and Mr. Shoupe was formerly a member of the Knights of Honor.
Walter Clyde Shoupe was educated in Carlyle, bring graduated from the Carlyle High School with the class of 1890. He immediately began work in his father's printing office yielding. no doubt, to a natural ten- deney toward journalism. lis natural ability in that line brought him rapid promotion, and a few years later, as above stated. he and his brother were both made members of the publishing firm of T. D. Shonpe & Sons, and have retained their connection with the Constitution. The Shoupe family have been associated with the newspaper world for sixty or more years, and the journal which it is now editing is one of the very few Democratic papers of the state which has faithfully supported the principles of the party at all times.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Walter Clyde Shoupe is an intelligent, progressive journalist, and as a staneh Democrat in politics is chairman of the Democratic County Committee. He is now rendering excellent service as master in chancery of Clinton county, and is president of the Carlyle Board of Education. Fraternally he is a member and master of Scott Lodge, No. 79, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons.
NATIONAL STOCK YARDS NATIONAL BANK. In connection with the es- tablishment of the Saint Louis National Stoek Yards and the develop- ment of the live stock industry in Southern Illinois and Missouri it be- came evident to the business interests located at the Stock Yards that a bank was necessary for the proper carrying on of the business.
In 1872. therefore, a private bank was organized by Messrs. Newman and Farr, who carried on the business until 1887. That year the bank passed into the control of Isaac II. and C. G. Knox, who in 1889 ineor- porated the institution under the state law, with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, under the name of the Stock Yard Bank of Brooklyn-the name Brooklyn was ineluded from the little town of Brooklyn adjoining the Stock Yards on the northwest. With the growth of the market and the enlargement of the transactions there it became necessary to increase the facilities of the bank. In 1892 the capital was increased to one hundred thousand dollars, the deposits then being about three hundred and fifty thousand. Mr. C. G. Knox, at this time acting as president of the bank, was also managing officer of the Saint Louis Stock Yards Company. He was a director of the Mechanies-American National Bank of St. Louis, a member of numerous prominent clubs, and a man very highly thought of in social and business eireles in the city of Saint Lonis. There was very great regret manifested by his business associates at his death in 1907. which occurred on ship board in the Gulf of Mexico, terminating a vacation trip to the Panama Canal.
Snelson Chesney, at that time cashier of the bank, was made pres- ident, and in 1908 the bank was reorganized under the National Banking Law as the National Stock Yards National Bank, with a capital of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and a surplus of seventy thousand dollars, the deposits being two million and forty-five thousand dollars.
On the first of January, 1910, Mr. Wright was elected president and Mr. Sullivan, cashier. At the present time the officers are as follows: Wirt Wright, president ; C. T. Jones, vice-president ; M. A. Traylor, viee- president ; O. J. Sullivan, cashier ; H. W. Kramer, assistant eashier; R. D. Garvin, assistant eashier. The directors are as follows: L. F. Swift, Edward Tilden, G. R. Collett, William Cullen, C. M. Macfarlane, C. T. Jones, Wirt Wright, O. J. Sullivan, M. A. Traylor. The bank now has a capital of $350,000 ; surplus and undivided profits of $238,000, and the deposits are about $4.000,000.
Of the active officers of the bank-the president was born at Liberty- ville, Illinois, in 1878 ; was graduated from Beloit College in 1901 and im- mediately entered the office of N. W. Harris and Company, bond dealers in Chicago. After three years' service there he accepted the cashiership of the First National Bank of Edgerton. Wisconsin, remaining there until April 1, 1907, at which time he was elected cashier of the then Stock Yard Bank at the National Stock Yards.
Mr. Traylor, vice-president, is a native of Kentucky, was born in Adair county in 1878, and spent his youth in the mountains of that state, leaving there at the age of twenty for Texas. There he was ad- mitted to the bar and became assistant prosecuting attorney of Hill county. Mr. Traylor practiced law for some years and finally became interested in the banking business and was associated with several banks
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HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
in Texas, ultimately becoming president of the First National Bank of Ballinger. This position he resigned to accept the vice-presidency of the National Stock Yards National Bank.
Mr. Sullivan, cashier of the bank, was born in 1878, in Saint Louis, and received his early education in the Saint Louis schools. Quite early he entered the office of the Mechanics-American National Bank in Saint Louis, and joined the force of the Stock Yards Bank in 1901. He has since filled every subordinate position in the bank. becoming cashier in January, 1910.
JOHN RUF, JR. A worthy representative of the native-born citizens of Carlyle, Illinois, John Ruf, Jr., is well known in the newspaper world, and as editor of the Union Banner, is devoting all his thought and energy to making that journal bright, newsy, readable and clean. He was born January 12, 1879, in Carlyle, and is the third in direct line of descent to bear the name of John Ruf.
Ilis paternal grandfather, John Ruf, the first, was born in tiermany, and was there bred and married. In 1852, soon after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Ruf, he immigrated with his family to America, locating in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he was variously occupied for a few years. Coming to Illinois in 1863, he was a resident of Waterloo until 1878, when he returned to his old home in Germany, where he lived until his death, two years later. He reared four children, of whom his son John, the next in line of deseent, was the second child.
John Ruf, second, or senior, as he now is, was born November 26, 1842, in Braunlingen, Baden, Germany, and in the eleventh year of his age came with his father to the United States. After acquiring a practi- cal education in private schools at Saint Louis he learned the printer's trade, which he followed for seven years, from 1862 until 1869. Going then to California, he worked at his trade a short time, but not con- tent there returned to Missouri. In 1873 he located in Carlyle, Illinois, and for three years was employed on the Clinton County Pioncer. In 1876 he established the Southern Illinois Zeitung, a weekly German paper, and managed it a number of years. In 1886 be purchased a half interest in the I'nion Banner, which had been established a few years earlier by the late J. M. Peterson, whose widow retained the other half in- terest in the paper. In 1888 John Ruf. Sr., bought out Mrs. Peterson's share in the paper, and has since had entire control of the plant. Ile is a stanch Republican in politics, and during the Civil war was a warm sup- porter of the Union. In the spring of 1861 he was enrolled in Company A, Second Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and served until being mustered out with his regiment in August, 1861.
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