USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 35
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GUSTAVE E. Eis. Marion county numbers among her wealthy men who has perhaps surpassed all others in the amassing of a fortune and who is a recognized leader in practically every known local enterprise demanding the application of capital and executive ability, as well as many others of a similar nature in various other sections of the coun- try. As a capitalist Gustave E. Eis is in the front ranks in his city and county. As a good citizen and a family man his position is no less prominent.
Gustave E. Eis was born in Dayton, Ohio, January 6, 1857. Ite is the son of John and Mary ( Engle) Eis, the former a native of France and the latter of Germany. Ile was the son of Henry Eis, who lived and died in France; a tanner by trade, and nieely situated with refer- ence to worldly endowments. He gave his son John a suitable educa- tion, and when he came to America in 1836 he engaged in teaching. Ile first settled in Newark, Ohio, but later removed to Dayton, Ohio. There he married, and was for many years an instructor in the French language in Dayton. Hle enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourth Ohio at the inception of the Civil war and returned home on a fir- lough after three years of service. He met his death shortly there- after by drowning in the Licking river.
Gustave Eis was one of a family of nine children. His maternal grandfather was Frank Engle, a native of Germany, who came to America in 1833. Hle settled in Newark, Ohio, but later moved to Day- ton, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying there at the age of ninety-six. He was a merchant and always prominent in the busi- ness and social life of the city in which he made his home. The educa- tion of Gustave Eis was of necessity of a very meager nature, as the exigencies of fortune made it ineumbent upon him to begin life's struggle alone at the tender age of thirteen years. In Kentucky. where he found himself after some traveling about. he became em- ployed in a cigar factory, and in the eleven years of his residence there he thoroughly learned the trade of a cigar maker. He then ro- moved to Franklin. Indiana, where he remained for three years, and on May 15, 1881, he arrived in Centralia, which has been the scene of his principal operations in the years which have since elapsed. He he- gan his career in Centralia by opening a cigar factory, and he con- tinned in that business until 1910, when he sold out his interests and engaged in the real estate business, which had become particularly at- tractive to him by reason of his extensive holdings of Marion county realty. He deals in real estate, stock and bonds and since he became connected with that line of business the industry has taken on a re- newed activity, as a result of his modern methods and his reputation for square dealing. Mr. Eis has acquired an interest in practically every financial or industrial organization of note in the county. He is a director in the Old National Bank, and holds one twentieth of the stock in that institution. He is a one-fourth owner in the Marion Coal Mine property, and a stockholder of prominence in the Centralia
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Envelope Factory. Ile is the principal stockholder in the Home Building & Loan Association, and has always evinced deepest interest in the operations of the Association as an instrument in the upbuilding of the city. He is heavily interested financially in the Conly Frog & Switch Works at Memphis, Tennessee. He is president of the Wizard Products Company, the largest manufacturers of sweetening eom- pounds in the world. The main factory of this firm is in Chicago, with a prominent branch in Nashville and another in Wichita, Kansas. He is president of the Lead & Zinc Company at Galena, Illinois, and is secretary and treasurer of the Ten Strike Mining Company at Galena, Illinois. This is a particularly rich and productive mine. He is president of the Florenee Lead & Zine Mining Company, another extremely rich property. The company own three hundred and twenty acres in the heart of the lead and zinc distriet, mneh of which has al- ready been proven, and a portion of which is now being worked. The property is particularly rieh in moulders sand, and is considered to be one of the most valuable holdings in the neighborhood of Galena. Mr. Eis is also one of the principal stock-holders in the Glen Ridge Mereantile Company at Junetion City, Illinois. Undoubtedly Mr. Eis is one of the wealthiest men in Marion county today, and his phenom- enal success in the world of finance may be aseribed solely to his own inherent ability.
On September 16, 1884, Mr. Eis married Miss Anna Merkel, a daughter of Edward Merkel, a native of Germany. Four children were born of their union. They are: Clarence M., an instructor of voice in Chicago; Walter R., employed in the office of the Centralia En- velope Factory ; Valette R., also with the Envelope Factory; and Flor- ence M., a student at the Roekford, Illinois, College.
FRED HOFFMEIER is one of the large and successful farmers of Pu- laski county, whose long life has been a checkered one, and who owes his present prosperity to his willingness to work, his elear head and the thrift and honesty inherited from a long line of German ancestors. He began with nothing, depending on two willing arms to conquer for him whatever difficulties he might meet. His youthful optimism and self confidence came out victorious after many battles, and the chroniele of his life should provide an object lesson to Young America today, for if it were followed many of the future failures could well be avoided.
Fred Hoffmeier was born on a farm near Bohmte, near Osnabruck in Hanover, now a part of the German Empire, on the 1st of February, 1846. His father was Clamar Hoffmeier, a farmer, and his mother was Engel Boedeeker. Of their four children Fred was the oldest ; William was lost in the Franco-Prussian war fighting for his Father- land before the gates of Paris: Engel and Louisa married and passed their lives near the place of their birth.
Fred Hoffmeier was sent to the public schools of his native town, but showing no particular inclination for the life of a scholar. at the age of fourteen he was taken from school and put to work on the farm. In this work he spent the years until his majority was passed, and then to evade the military service which he soon would be forced to give his country he came to the United States. Ile sailed from Bremer- haven, and landed in Baltimore. Having no friends and no idea of where to go. he naturally turned towards the western land of promise. He reached Cincinnati, where he spent two years before going to Liv- ingston county, Illinois. Here he first attempted farming, but found it quite different from the same industry in the old country. The cold
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weather during the long winters on his farm near Dwight made him decide to go further south, so he drifted down to Cairo. The climate here was better suited to his constitution, and here he decided to lo- cate. Without funds and with no way to secure any save by the work of his hands, matters looked pretty black to the young German. Hon- est labor did not seem to be in demand, but at last he drifted over to Ullin, and there found employment in the big saw mills that were rapidly denuding the surrounding district of its crowning glory, its for- ests of oaks and poplars, which were the only things that gave the country any valne at that time. This was in 1871 and after his mar- riage in 1874 he decided to try farming again, buying a forty-acre traet of land in the woods, whose sole elaim to being called improved land was that it had heen cultivated to some extent, and that a log cabin homestead had been erected upon it. To this primitive spot he took his bride and they began together to tread the pathway which has at times meandered somewhat crookedly, as Mr. Hoffmeier was forced to turn aside from the straight way that led to his goal in order to meet the constantly changing conditions. His calm faith that ultimately everything would come ont for the best was rewarded, for now he has a good measure of financial independence and knows that none of his household will have to suffer for lack of the material things of life. His clear and practical head managed his finances along sane lines, he never had to ask his wife to sign a mortgage, and he was never swept off his feet into any rash investment by the enthusiasm of others. He coolly examined a proposition, and if it met his approval then his money was freely ponred out, but not impulsively. He actually grubbed his farm of four hundred and seventy acres out of stmnp- land, and today is raising fine erops of grain and many head of stock.
It is not his industry alone that has numbered Fred Hoffmeier among the valuable citizens of Pulaski county. He possesses the spirit of progress along the lines of public enterprise to such an extent that any movement inaugurated for the purpose of establishing new or ad- vanced enterprises always finds him among its leaders. He has ever . felt that edneation was the best gift to a community, and his service as a trustee of his home school has indicated the warm sympathy he felt for public education. In polities Mr. Hoffmeier is a Republican, and has served his party as county commissioner for one term. As vice- president and one of the directors of the First National Bank of Ullin. the peculiar ability of Mr. Hoffmeier as a financier has been brought into full play. The reputation of this bank as being a sound and conserv- ative institution may be traced dircetly to his influence. In religious matters Mr. Hoffmeier is Lutheran and Mrs. Hoffmeier, a Baptist.
On the 24th of December, 1874. Mr. Hoffmeier was married to Miss Ferban Atkins, a southern girl. She was the daughter of Robert Atkins, who was killed fighting for the Union. He was an Alabaman. and this state was the birthplace of Mrs. Hoffmeier. Mrs. Hoffmeier had two brothers. One of these is I. T. Atkins, a farmer near U'llin : the other. Samuel Atkins, has been dead for several years. Mr. and Mrs. Hoff'meier have three children, William : Frederick, who has been graduated from the UHlin high school: and Samuel, who is still a stu- dent there.
A long life nobly spent, the well earned respect of his fellow men. the inborn characteristics of simplicity. a love of the truth and honor. what a heritage this German farmer can hand down to his children. It is of such stock as this that heroes are made. Could he. a poor young German standing on the banks of the Mississippi. not knowing where he would lay his head that night, have looked forward to his
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present comfortable home, surrounded by a happy family, he would have thought he was "fey." Yet it has all come true, and is the work of his own brain and hands, helped by the courage of his wife, who has ever stood by with words of encouragement when things went wrong.
ALBERT W. LEWIS, judge of the first judicial circuit court, Harris- burg, Illinois, looks back to Clinton county Ohio, as the place of his birth, the date being November 30, 1856. His parents, Aquilla and Harriet (Fletcher) Lewis, were both natives of Ohio, the father of Aquilla having at an early day removed from Virginia to the Western Reserve. In 1864 Aquilla Lewis and his family left the Ohio home and came across Indiana and over into Southern Illinois, where he settled on a farm in Saline county, two miles and a half southwest of Harrisburg. Here he devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits for a number of years, until his retirement and removal to Harrisburg, where he died in 1893, at the age of seventy-one years. Politically he was a Republican, and his religions creed was that of the Friends' church. His widow survived him six or eight years. Of their three sons and two daughters, Albert W., the subject of this sketch, is the eldest : Clark, for several years a farmer and merchant of Harrisburg, is deceased; Edgar is proprietor of a hotel in Harrisburg, and the daughters, Ella and Eva, the former the wife of John E. Ledford and the latter of Emmett, are deceased.
Albert W. Lewis spent his boyhood on his father's farm. Two years he attended Wilmington College, at Wilmington, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen he began to teach district sehool. Later he was employed in the Harrisburg school, where he taught two terms, one term being principal. That was in 1881, when the Harrisburg school had only three teachers. Teaching was only a stepping stone to his life work. He took up the study of law at vacation time, and with Mr. Boyer, of the firm of Morris & Boyer, as his preceptor, he pursned his legal studies. In November, 1882, he was admitted to the bar and at onee began the practice of law, at first under his own name and later in partnership with William M. Christy, with whom he was as- sociated for four years in general practice. In 1888 he was elected state's attorney, for a term of four years, and it was while the inenm- hent of this office that the noted Slayton murder case eame up and attracted no little attention throughout the country. James C. Slay- ton, a wealthy farmer, killed one of his tenants, Hugh Morris. Judge Lewis prosecuted the murderer, and he was sent to the penitentiary for a term of thirty-five years. In 1892 Mr. Lewis was honored by elec- tion to the lower house of the state legislature, where he served as a Republican in a Democratic body. Two years later he was made county judge for a term of four years. In 1904 he was again eleeted state's attorney, and when Judge Vickers, of the eireuit court, was eleeted to the supreme bench, the choice fell to Albert W. Lewis as his successor to fill out the term. In 1909 he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which he is now serving. Fraternally Judge Lewis is both a Mason and an Elk.
lle has been twice married. In 1883 he married Miss Fannie Baker, a native of Harrisburg and a daughter of the late Dr. Cornelius Baker, of Harrisburg, a veteran of the Civil war, who died in 1880. Mrs. Lewis died in December, 1900, soon after the birth of her youngest son, leaving a family of seven children, as follows: James B., now a member of the law firm of Dorris & Lewis, of Harrisburg; Aquilla Cornelius, a member of the class of 1912 in the law department of the Michigan State University; Edna, of the elass of 1912 in the Illinois
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State University; Alice, a teacher in the Harrisburg schools ; Arthur, William and Frank. In June, 1909, JJudge Lewis married his present companion, who was Mrs. Maud Rathbone, widow of the late Walter R. Rathbone.
HENRY R. HALL. It seems as if the possession of that thing known as "business ability" fits a man for a successful career in almost any line of work. Henry R. Hall, the prominent lumberman and banker of Sandoval, Illinois, is generously endowed with this gift, and he has been in enough businesses for a half dozen men, winning some degree of success from each attempt, ranging in dignity from that of a shoe- maker to that of a bank president. Perhaps a large measure of his success came to him through hard work, for he was early left fatherless, with the support of his mother and sister devolving upon him, and he early learned the meaning of toil. Ilis early years were one constant struggle, he had little time for recreation of any sort, for during the time when he might have been free from work he was not free from worry. He had the problem of the eare of two women, mother and sister, when the funds at his disposal were not much more than enough for one. In some way though he managed to save a little money, and as soon as he had this small capital to build on he began to rise. The story of his life is one of persevering effort and a determination to con- quer no matter what the odds.
Henry R. Hall was born in Monroe county, Georgia, on the Ist of May, 1842. His parents were of Northern and Southern birth, his Father being Charles Hall and claiming Vermont for his birthplace. His mother was Mary (Swift) Hall, and she was a native of South Carolina. During the thirties they were married in Forsyth, Monroe county, Georgia, where they lived until 1851. From 1851 to 1856 they made their home in Dalton. Georgia, at the end of this time removing to Tennessee. Here the father died in October, 1856, and the widow, finding herself alone and among strangers, took her little family back to Dalton. Charles Hall was a shoemaker by trade, and had never been able to do more than to keep his family in comfortable eireumstanees. Although they had always been poor, affairs were now blacker than ever, but in 1857 they came to Marion county, IHli- nois, and here young Henry secured work and life began to take on a brighter hue. Henry Hall's paternal grandfather was a native of Vermont, and had come west in 1818, settling in Portage county, Ohio. Here he became a farmer, and continued in that occupation until his death. The maternal grandfather of Henry Hall was likewise a farmer. Ile was born in South Carolina and moved to Columbus, Georgia, where he settled on a farm near the now city. Here he spent the re- mainder of his life.
With such an ancestry it is not surprising that young Henry. thrown upon his own resources, should turn instinctively to farming. Ilis education had been obtained in the common schools of Georgia and Tennessee, and since he was only fourteen years old when his father died he had not had the opportunity to learn a trade, so he turned to farming. Ile worked on a farm for five years, and then he learned the shoemaker's trade. He worked at this for two years, after serving three years as an apprentice, and with the aid of his mother and sister succeeded in seraping together enough to enter the business field in a modest way. At Kinmundy, Ilinois, where he then lived. he engaged in the grocery business, gradually working up a good pat- ronage. As his business grew his popularity and good reputation kept pace with it, and in 1872 the people showed their confidence in him
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by electing him sheriff of Marion county. He served in this capacity for two terms, and then served two terms as circuit clerk. He lived at this time in the county scat, Salem, and he remained here until 1886, when he came to Sandoval to manage a coal mine near-by. While living in Salem he had been elected mayor of the town, and was one of its most prominent citizens.
Hle was connected with the coal mining business in Sandoval until 1897, and then he sold out and went into the lumber business. This business has become one of the largest enterprises in Marion county, and it is all due to the force of character and good business methods of the owner. Since entering this field he has branched out into other parts of the county. He now has a lumber yard at Vernon and one at Junction City. All of these various branches are under one firm name, II. R. Hall and Company. Recognition of his abilities as a financier and as a man with a good head for the management of large enterprises came to him with his election to the presidency of the First National Bank of Sandoval. He also holds the same relation to the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Vernon, Illinois. In the politieal world he has always been active, giving his allegiance to the Dem- oeratie party. Although interested in national politics, he believes in keeping one's own "back yard clean," consequently gives all the time that he has to spare for polities in endeavoring to better local conditions. He has been mayor of Sandoval, and during his term of office much was done towards improving civic conditions.
Mr. Hall was married on the 2nd of October, 1865, to Eliza J. Wolfe, a daughter of Joshua and Martha Wolfe. The latter was born in Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Hall was born in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have five children, all of whom are married. Carrie married Charles D. Merritt; Nellie is the wife of D. E. Traey; May married Adis Bryan, a cousin of W. J. Bryan; Martha became the wife of Robert Bellemy ; and Charles W. Hall married Elizabeth Edwards, of Sandoval. Charles W. Hall was edueated in Eureka College, where he spent three years, later attending Bryant and Stratton's Business College in St. Louis, Missouri. He is now in business with his father, and promises to grow into a man of as fine a character and as good business sense as his father. He is the father of two girls and one boy, Henry R. Hall, Jr.
ERWIN DAVIS FOX. As a type of the wide-awake, progressive and enterprising Illinois business man no better example could be found than Erwin Davis Fox, of Keyesport, who deals in general merchandise, hardware, farming implements and lumber, and has also been called to high positions of honor and trust by his fellow townsmen, who have recognized and appreciated his natural abilities. During the years that Mr. Fox has been identified with the business interests of Keyes- port he has displayed those characteristics of industry. integrity and progressiveness that are bound to have a beneficent effeet on the com- mercial activities of any community, and as a public official has brought those same characteristics into play, with the result that he won the admiration not only of those who have belonged to his own party, but of his opponents as well. Mr. Fox is a native Illinoisan, having been born at Hilesburg, Fayette county, August 12, 1878, a son of Julius C. and Maria (Bourner) Fox.
Julius C. Fox was born June 12, 1837, in the Kingdom of Prussia, Germany, and in his native village attended the public schools, after leaving which he entered the University of Berlin, being graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. On coming to America, in 1860, he
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located first in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he took a course in English, and eventually went to Indiana, in which state he practiced his profes- sion for a short time. After following the same line of endeavor at Pleasant Mound, Illinois, for about seven years, Dr. Fox came to Keyesport, and after a short term of practice moved to a farm in Fayette county, where his family grew up. Ile then retired from active life and moved back to Keyesport, where he lived quietly until his death, in 1905, while his widow still survives him and makes her home in this city. She is the daughter of James Wellington Bourner, an Englishman, and has been the mother of four children, as follows: Hermann: Pauline, who married Russell Duloma; Erwin Davis; and Edith. Dr. Fox was a stanch and active Republican in his political views, and served in various offices within the gift of his fellow- citizens.
Erwin Davis Fox spent his early life on the Fayette county farm, and until he was sixteen years of age attended the country schools of that vicinity and the public schools of Keyesport. He was married in June, 1898, to Miss Jessie Davis, daughter of John M. Davis, a native of Wales and one of the earliest residents of Keyesport, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business until his death, in 1903. During the Civil war Mr. Davis served four years and four months, as sergeant of company I, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under General Logan, and had an admirable war record. Mr. and Mrs. Fox have had two children : Shubert and Erwin Davis, Jr.
After his marriage Mr. Fox was engaged in clerking for one year for his father-in-law, and after Mr. Davis' death he carried on the business for several years. Eventually he sold out and purchased the stock and business of William Langham, and under his management it has grown to be one of the largest business concerns in Clinton county. His ability to discern opportunities, and then to grasp and make the most of them, has made his name familiar in the business world of Southern Illinois, but he always recognizes the rights of others and his dealings with his fellow men have been without a blemish. He has been prominent fraternally for some years as a member of the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, in both of which he is extremely popular. It is, perhaps, as a public man that Mr. Fox has come most favorably into the notice of his fellow-citizens, for his prominence is remarkable when it is considered that is a Republican in a strong Democratie county. This, however, has only proved his popularity and the confidence in which he is held, confidence that he has shown to be not misplaced by his admirable administration as mayor, treasurer and postmaster of Keyesport. He is known as one of the leaders of his party in this part of the state, and has served on both the County and State Republican Central Committees.
JAMES MARION LONG, of Stubblefield, engaged at that point in the general merchandise business and also holding the office of postmaster, is one of the well-known and highly esteemed citizens of Bond county. He has spent his entire life in this district and is very loyal to its in- stitutions. His life record began October 26. 1874. on his father's farm situated about a mile and a half north of Stubblefield. His father. Thomas Jefferson Long, was a native Tennessean, his birth having occurred in Knox county, that state. April 19, 1846. llis youth was passed in Tennessee and several years before he attained to his ma- jority the outbreak of the Civil war disturbed the even tenor of life in the United States. He was a patriotie young fellow and uninth- eneed by the sentiment of the section in which he lived and when he
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