USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume II > Part 41
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John Edward McJilton is largely a self-educated man. He attended the district school of his neighborhood during his youth, but his time was largely occupied in assisting his father in the work of the home farm, on which he remained until reaching the age of twenty-two years, and the greater part of his education has come through experience, observation and mingling with men of affairs. When he was one year past his majority he became a renter of land in Kansas, whence he had been taken by his parents, and for three years gathered crops on property in that state thus secured. At the end of that period he came to Champaign County, where he had been given a forty-acre farm by his father-in-law. He farmed his father-in-law's land for seven years, and in the meantime purchased an additional thirty-five acres, for which he went into debt, but subsequently cleared off his indebtedness. Being at that time the owner of seventy-five acres, with good prospects for' success in his under- takings, Mr. McJilton decided to establish a home of his own, and Febru- ary 11, 1886, was united in marriage with Miss Augusta Heyer. They became the parents of five children, of whom the following still survive: Alva W., educated in the common schools and one winter at a business college at Marion, Indiana, now a successful agriculturist and stockman of East Bend Township, Champaign County, independent in politics, voting rather for the man than the party, a member of the Christian Church, as was his first wife, Ethel Bryan, by whom he had one daughter, and mar- ried for his second wife Nellie Williams, who attends the same church ; Elsie, educated in the common schools, married Ernest Mink, an agri- culturist of Champaign County, Illinois, has one son, Lyle, and is a member of the Christian Church; Leslie, who is in the third year of high school at Fisher; and Hazel, who is in the sixth grade of the common school at Fisher.
Mrs. McJilton is a native of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, and was born March 5, 1860, being a daughter of William and Sophia Heyer. Her father was a native of Saxony, Germany, and after receiving a good education in his native land, came to the United States when still a young man. He was an agriculturist by vocation, and a man of unusual bril- liance of mind and intellect, one of his favorite subjects being history, upon which he was exceptionally well informed. On first coming to America he located in Wisconsin, where he gained success both as an agri- culturist and a manufacturer of cheese, and in the latter connection was the owner of a factory, in which Mrs. McJilton assisted her father when
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a child. After leaving Wisconsin Mr. Heyer beeamc one of the earliest settlers near Fisher, and here the remaining years of his life were passed in the pursuits of the soil, lie becoming the owner of 395 aeres of good Champaign County land. He died in 1896, at the age of sixty-five years, in the faith of the German Lutheran Churel. Mrs. MeJilton was edu- cated in the publie schools of Champaign and has made her home here since girlhood. She is a member of the Domestie Seienee Society at Fisher, and is generally popular among the ladies here, but finds her chief interests in her home.
Mr. MeJilton embarked in the lumber business in Fisher in 1908 and has steadily built up an excellent tradc. He now earries a complete and up-to-date line of lumber and all kinds of building material, and his treatment of his patronage, as well as of the publie in general, is such as to accord him a place in their confidence and esteem. While the greater part of his attention is now given to his lumber business, he has by no means given up his interest in agricultural matters, for he is the owner of 180 aeres of land in Champaign County, eighty aeres in Gratiot County, Michigan, and twenty aeres in Florida. He also owns his own home at Fisher, a comfortable and hospitable residence, where his numer- ous friends always find a warm welcome. With Mrs. MeJilton, he belongs to the Christian Church, in which he is a deaeon, and in addition to religion, he is a friend of education and has served in the capacity of school director. In every way he is entitled to be numbered among the representative men of Champaign County.
WILLIAM H. THOMPSON of Ogden first knew Champaign County in the years just before the outbreak of the Civil War, when most of this section of Illinois was a country of swamp and prairie and when its mag- nificent development had hardly begun. Mr. Thompson's individual eareer has been a factor in the improvement and development of Champaign County farm land, and out of that work he has acquired a commendable degree of prosperity that now enables him to live in comfort and plenty.
Mr. Thompson was born at Waynesburg in Greene County, Pennsyl- vania, a son of Andrew J. and Catherine . (Shape) Thompson. He was one of a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters, who received their education in the district sehools. In 1859, when William H. Thompson was fourteen years of age, the family eame to Illinois and set- tled east of Homer in Champaign County. They were pioneers here and William H. Thompson grew up acquainted with the hardships and priva- tions endured by the early settlers.
At the age of twenty-one he married Valencia Rice. She was born in the Blue Grass State of Kentucky. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Thompson located at Burr Oak, Illinois, on rented land. There they began to earve the future according to their own desires and ability, and for a number of years they lived on a virgin prairie looking out over a seene of high prairie grass alternating with wet sloughs. Mr. Thompson by his first marriage became the father of three children. The daughter Ora Lee died at the age of ten months. The other two children are Frank E. and Stella. Both of them were educated in the distriet schools. Frank is a farmer in Livingston County, Illinois, and married Clara . Shinn. Stella is the wife of Charles Dubois and they live in Chicago.
About twenty-five years ago Mr. Thompson moved to Ogden Township and bought forty aeres of land at $42.50 an aere. It had few improve- ments and at the time was considered a part of the wooded district of Champaign County, but by thorough drainage it is now high and dry and every foot of the ground is susceptible of cultivation. Mr. Thompson has
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placed many farm improvements, including the planting of fruit and shade trees and the building of a commodious and attractive home and barns. He also owns forty acres in Vermilion County.
In October, 1878, Mr. Thompson married for his present wife Lizzie (Hayes) Huckin. She was born in Ohio, daughter of William and Mary (Burnett) Hayes. Her parents were born and reared in Ireland and came to America with two children, one of whom died immediately after they landed. While they lived in Ohio two other children were born, and when Lizzie was three years of age they migrated to Illinois, more than sixty years ago. At that time there was no Ogden and the entire country was a vista of prairie and swamp. Mrs. Thompson attended the public schools at Ogden and at the age of eighteen married Albert Huckin. The one. child of that union, William Huckin, was born October 7, 1873. In October, 1874, while digging a well on his farm, a bucket fell into an excavation and injured Albert Huckin so seriously that he died fifty-six days later.
To Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were born six children, four sons and two daughters. Their names are Milton Winfield, Esther May, Ida Bell, Grover Cleveland, George and Herman. Both daughters died in early girlhood. The other children were well educated at Ogden and also in the University of Illinois.
Mrs. Thompson's son by her first marriage, William Huckin, graduated from Rush Medical College at Chicago and is now a practicing physician at Wasco, Oregon. He married Augusta Anderson of South Dakota, and they have one child, Augusta Lizzie.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's oldest son, Milton, is a graduate of the University of Illinois, and is now connected with the Chamber of Com- merce at Madison, Wisconsin. He married Beatrice Rogers. The second son, Grover Cleveland, is a successful farmer at Barney, thirty miles south of Fargo, North Dakota. He married Inez Alverson of Oakwood, and has a son and two daughters, Ray, Mildred and Helen Esther. George Thompson, a farmer in Ogden Township, married Lula Goss. The young- est son, Herman, who was born December 10, 1896, is still at home, a student in the Ogden High School and planning to complete his training in Urbana.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Ogden and he has been honored with the office of trustee for niany years and is always among the most liberal supporters of the churchi and of any movement for the benefit of the community. His public spirit as a citizen has caused his fellow citizens to call upon him as school director and ditch commissioner. Mr. Thompson is affiliated with the Court of Honor and the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Thompson is now seventy-two years of age, but is quite as active as the average man of forty, and drives his car about the country with the careful skill of a veteran chauffeur. His automobile is one evidence of his having kept step with the progress of the times, and as he drives about he can overlook country whose development has taken place almost under his eyes and almost altogether within his own generation.
ROBERT ALLEN STURGEON. For more than a quarter of a century Robert Allen Sturgeon has been a resident of Champaign County, and during this time it has been his fortune to have built up a prosperous business, to have established an extremely creditable record as a public official and to have made a lasting place for himself in the confidence of. the community through honorable conduct of the activities of life. In the difficult field of realty operation Mr. Sturgeon has achieved standing
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and reputation, and in the office of justice of the peace has proven a conscientious and efficient official.
Robert A. Sturgeon was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, October 29, 1861, being the third in a family of five sons born to Samuel and Margaret J. (Wilson) Sturgeon, all of these children surviving. His brothers are: William S., who is engaged in business at Chicago, Illinois, is married; Samuel W., who is married and engaged in agricultural opera- tions in the vicinity of El Paso, Woodford County, Illinois; James F., who is married and a resident of El Paso, where he is cashier of the Woodford County National Bank, a graduate of Knox College, and admitted to practice in the courts of Illinois; and Charles B., a resident of Peoria, Illinois, where he is identified with the United States Mail service.
Samuel Sturgeon was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and there received his education in the public schools and upon reaching his major- ity adopted the vocation of agriculturist. He continued to reside in the Keystone state until 1858, in which year he removed to Tazewell County, and there continued as a tiller of the soil until 1868, when he went to Woodford County. There he purchased a farm, developed and cultivated it, and continued actively engaged in farming and stockraising until 1895, when, he retired and passed on the heavier labors of the homestead to younger shoulders. From that time until his death, in. 1908, he lived quietly in his comfortable home near El Paso, where he was widely known and highly respected. His first presidential vote was cast in support of a candidate of the Whig party, but he saw the birth of the Republican organization and thereafter was always a loyal and active supporter of the Grand Old Party. He was always ready to tender his abilities to his community in positions of public trust, and his fellow citizens, having confidence in his ability and judgment, frequently took advantage of this willingness and elected him to act in offices of preferment. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Masonic order, and both he and Mrs. Sturgeon were members of the Presbyterian Church, which they joined at Peoria and of which they continued devout supporters all their lives. Mrs. Sturgeon was born near the Susquehanna River in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and there received good educational advantages, attending the common schools and . the Dauphin Academy. Her parents having died when she was still a girl, she was left in charge as a "little mother" to care for three of her brothers and sister, and nobly she performed this loving task, guiding them to honorable manhood and womanhood. She met and married Mr. Sturgeon in Pennsylvania, and in death they remain united, for they both lie at peace in the cemetery at El Paso, where a handsome and appropriate stone marks their final resting-place ..
Robert Allen Sturgeon was about seven years of age when his parents removed to Woodward County, and there he secured his education in the district schools and the El Paso High School, subsequently attending the Illinois State Normal School for one year. His first work on his own account consisted of working farms on shares, and his cash capital was small indeed. After several years of this kind of work he embarked in the grain business at Elliott, Illinois, a venture in which he remained for two years, and in which he was reasonably successful, but in 1890 he disposed of his interests at that point and removed to Dewey, where he also lived for two years. The year 1892 marked his advent in Fisher, where he first engaged in the grain business and became well and favor- ably known in commercial circles of the city. However, in the meanwhile he had become interested in realty matters and was convinced of the future prosperity of Champaign County. He began dealing in a small
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way in real estate, and his business in this line soon grew to such pro- portions that he was compelled to give it all his attention, and he accord- ingly disposed of his grain enterprise. In 1900 Mr. Sturgeon was elected justice of the peace of Fisher, and during the seventeen years that he has held this office he has acted as counsel and adviser to his fellow citizens in a manner that has left no doubt as to his ability, tact and judgment, as well as his general usefulness to the community.
Mr. Sturgeon was married June 12, 1895, to Miss Lucy Leota Elliott, who, like himself, believes in the advantages of good educational facilities and in fitting children for the higher walks of life. The elder of their two daughters, Margaret E., did two years of work in the Fisher schools, graduated from the Champaign High School, and then taught success- fully for two years in the schools of Champaign County. Her first wage was $55 per month, which was raised in the second year to $65, and in September, 1916, she entered the Illinois State University, where she is now a student. The other daughter, Carol Elliott, is in the second year of high school.
Mrs. Sturgeon is a native of Ford County, Illinois, born December 18, 1872, was educated in the Elliott schools, and for four years was a successful teacher. She is a daughter of Samuel and Anna (Crawford) Elliott, natives of Ohio, the former of whom, a farmer and stockman and later a pioneer grain merchant, laid out the town of Elliott. He was a stanch Republican, and both he and Mrs. Elliott were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Sturgeon also belongs to this church, and is likewise a popular and active member of the Domestic Science Society.
Always a stanch Republican from the time he attained his majority, Mr. Sturgeon cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine, the Plumed Knight, and has supported every candidate of that party since. As noted, he has been justice of the peace since 1900, and since 1902 has been township assessor of Brown Township, having held both offices con- tinuously. He has likewise served in the capacity of village clerk, and at various times has been a delegate to conventions of his party. Frater- nally a member of Sangamon Lodge No. 801, A. F. & A. M., he has filled all the chairs in that lodge, and is at present secretary, a position which he has held for a number of years. He is likewise a member of Camp No. 2534, Modern Woodmen of America, which he joined at the time of its organization. His religious belief makes him a Presbyterian, and he has always been a good friend of education, with four years' experience as a teacher to give him a knowledge of the needs of the public schools. The Sturgeon home at Fisher is one of the comfortable residences of the community, where hospitality reigns, and its occupants are numbered among the people who give strength and stability to this thriving Cham- paign County village.
FREDERICK ROSE is in the grain business and handles his share of the grain that comes to Homer. He has been connected with the grain trade for the better part of his active career, and came to Champaign County about ten years ago, and his name and his enterprise are now known throughout that rich and splendid farming district surrounding Homer on all sides.
Mr. Rose was born in New York City, November 3, 1861, a son of Henry and Anna (Smith) Rose. Both parents were natives of Germany and his father came to America in 1846. He had served an apprentice- ship at the blacksmith's trade in Germany and he worked at his trade in this country both in the East and West. In 1864 he located in LaSalle
basl. H. Gehrke
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
County, Illinois, and subsequently took up the business of farming. Both parents are now deceased. There were four children: Henry of Zion City, Illinois; Mary, wife of August Beck of Ford County, Illinois; George W. of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Frederick.
Frederick Rose grew up on his father's farm in LaSalle County and received a common school education. At the age of twenty he left home and engaged in the merchandise business at Melvin, Illinois. Four years later he concentrated his attention upon the grain trade and from Illinois removed to Boswell, Indiana, where he bought and conducted an elevator for seven years. Following that he was in the grain business at Brookston, Indiana, for nine years, and in 1907 came to Homer and bought the old elevator of the town. He tore down this structure and replaced it with a modern grain elevator with a capacity for 100,000 bushels.
Mr. Rose married, March 6, 1885, Miss Margaret Jackson, who was born in Cook County, Illinois, near Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Rose have five children : Edward J. and Eva J., twins, the former a grain merchant at Champaign, and the latter the wife of William Mudge of Urbana; Leslie, who died in infancy; Frederick M., a dentist at Homer; and Henry H., who is associated with his father in business. Mr. Rose is a Republican in politics and he and his family are members of the Pres- byterian Church.
CARL HENRY GEHRKE has been a resident of Champaign for thirty-three years and many years ago he established a bakery which has grown and prospered, every year seeing additional equipment and increased trade, until the Gehrke Illinois Bakery now does an immense wholesale and retail business extending all over this section of Illinois. His business success consists in building up this large plant, and along with his prosperity has come the esteem of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Mr. Gehrke was born in the city of Velpke, Province of Brunswick, Germany, June 18, 1852, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Schultz). Gehrke. Both parents were born, lived and died in Brunswick, Germany. . His father was a stone cutter by trade, while the grandfather, Henry Gehrke, was a school teacher. Mr. Gehrke thus represented the substantial stock of German citizenship, many of whose virtues his own life has amplified. Henry Gehrke and wife had eight children : Henry, now deceased; Carl H .; Herman, also a resident of Champaign, Illinois; Otto, deceased; August and Mary, still in Germany ; Minnie, wife of Henry Schroeder, of Sidney, Illinois ; and Alvina, still in Germany.
The compulsory system of education in Germany requires a boy's at- tendance at school until fourteen. At that age Carl Henry Gehrke left school to begin an apprenticeship in a baker's shop at Helmstead. Having completed the apprenticeship he returned to Brunswick, his home town, and then gave three years to his country as a member of the Black Hussars, a noted organization of the German army. After his military service he engaged in the bakery business at Magdeburg, Germany, for three years, and then returned to Brunswick and followed his trade until 1884.
Mr. Gehrke came to the United States and located in Champaign, Illinois, in 1884, and the first five years he spent in the city he worked as a journeyman baker. With this experience in American business life and with some capital representing his modest savings, he started a shop of his own at 207 East Clark Street. He has been continuously in that location for over a quarter of a century, and he has invested a large amount of capital in the construction and equipment of a modern two-story brick sanitary bakery known as Gehrke's Illinois Bakery. He has taken the greatest of pride in maintaining the high standard of his products and has
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been as careful in his attention to the technical side of the business as to the commercial end of it. Mr. Gehrke is strictly independent in politics. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of St. Peter's Lutheran Church.
On January 25, 1881, three years before he came to America, he mar- ried Miss Sophie Bank, of Schoppenstedt, Germany. Mrs. Gehrke died January 2, 1913, the mother of five children : Robert C. is associated with his father in business. Otto C. was accidentally killed when struck by an Illinois Central train while driving one of the Jewel Tea Company's wagons on January 27, 1917. He had married Mary E. Short, but had no issue. Alma is the wife of John Ross, of Champaign. Jennie is the wife of Harry Havens, of Champaign. Amanda is the wife of Albert E. Hend- ricks of Urbana.
Robert C. Gehrke, who is associated with his father in business, is one of the progressive men of Champaign and is not only doing well in business but is rapidly becoming an important influence in local affairs. He was born in Brunswick, Germany, May 4, 1884, and was brought to America in early infancy. He attended the public schools of Champaign, took a course in a business college, and then joined his father in the Illinois Bakery. He has since become competent to assume the heavy responsibili- ties of that plant and thus relieve his father in a measure.
In politics he is an active democrat and served as alderman from the fourth ward until the adoption of the commission form of government on May 1, 1917. Robert C. Gehrke is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Loyal Order of Moose and is a member of St. Peter's Church. On August 14, 1902, he married Anna T. Lynch, of Quincy, Illinois. They have two children, Robert, born June 21, 1903, and Miriam, born Octo- ber 28, 1906.
CHARLES CHRISTOPHER LIESTMAN. There was a time when farm life in Illinois was one of continuous hard work and more or less social exclusion, but no better proof is needed to mark the change than is afforded in Newcomb Township, Champaign County, by such careful and progressive agriculturists as Charles Christopher Liestman. With a finely improved estate of 160 acres, located in a section of the county where public spirit is shown in fine roads prevailing, Mr. Liestman for many years has proved that farming is now not only one of the most profitable of occupations but the most independent. He belongs to an old pioneer family of the state, extended mention of which will be found in the present work, in the biographical sketch of Mrs. Adam Kroner.
Charles C. Liestman was born in Piatt County, Illinois, July 8, 1878, the fifth in a family of twelve children born to Ludwig and Frederica (Karston) Liestman, who moved to Cliampaign County when Charles C. was a child. He grew up on the home farm and attended the public schools, afterward assisting his father and giving his time until he was . twenty-three years of age. Hc has always devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and has conducted his different undertakings with so much energy, coupled with intelligent judgment, that they have been success- ful. In addition to general farming and raising cattle and stock, for twenty-three years he and his brother Herman have harvested all through this section for the same parties each season and also have operated their first class harvesting outfit in Piatt and McLean counties.
Mr. Liestman married February 18, 1902, Miss Anna Leischner, who was born in Piatt County, Illinois, October 12, 1882. Her parents were Nicholas and Jolianna Leischner, who had eight children, the six sur- vivors being: Herman, who lives in Piatt County on a farm, married
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