USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 42
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As a progressive and publie-spirited eitizen Mr. Abt has shown a vital interest in local affairs and has given his support to those measures and enterprises which have fostered the general good of the community. He served ten years as a valued member of the board of education, in which he was chairman of the finance committee, and in 1910 there was given emphatic evidence of his strong hold upon the confidenee and esteem of the people of the county in his eleetion to the office of county treasurer, for a term of four years. It is unnecessary to state that in the super- vision of the fiseal affairs of the county he is showing the same careful and honorable methods that have conserved his personal success in busi- ness. In polities he accords a staunch allegianee to the Republican party and is well fortified in his opinions. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the German Evangelical Association, to the support of which religious denomination they contribute with consistent liberality. Mr. Aht is a popular factor in the business and social activities of his home city, where he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 3d of December, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Abt to Miss Ottilie Ida Buettner, of East St. Louis, and they have four children,-Ernest, Martha, Paul and Ferdinand.
JAMES WARREN HAMILTON, M. D. For fifteen years a practicing physician and surgeon in Mount Vernon, and since 1909 in charge of the Egyptian Hospital of that place, Dr. Hamilton takes precedence over many of his eonfreres in Southern Illinois by reason of his splendid abil- ity and worthy accomplishments in the field of his profession. His high professional standing is no less important than the esteem in which he is generally held in the city which he has made his home during fifteen years of service, and his ever widening eirele of well-wishing friends is indieative of the genuine worth of the man, aside from his professional capacity.
Born on April 24, 1871, in Waltonville, Illinois, and reared in that place. James Warren Ilamilton is the son of Josiah A. Hamilton, a na- tive of Ohio and the son of Orange Hamilton, also a native of the Buck- eye state. Josiah A. Hamilton eame to Jefferson county, Illinois, in 1836, when he was four years of age. He was born in 1832, and died in Sep- tember, 1896. He passed his life in Jefferson county as a farmer, and in that business was always fairly prosperous. He married Hannah E. Boswell, the daughter of Samuel Boswell, an old pioneer settler and a native of Tennessee, who was justice of the peace in his town for forty years. Josiah A. Hamilton was a veteran of the Civil war, having served one year in Company A, of the Thirty-second Illinois Regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton reared a family of six children of the ten born to them. They are: Orange, a resident of Waltonville; Elenora, who be- came the wife of Daniel R. Webb and died in 1909, leaving two children, Raymond Edward and Ruby May ; Lucretia, who married Leslie C. Man- nen and is still living at Waltonville, Illinois; Vincent, a farmer near Sheller, as is also Charles; and James Warren, a practicing physician at Mount Vernon.
James Warren Hamilton was educated in the common school of his home town, and when he was eighteen years of age be began teaching, continuing with that work for three years. His determination to study medicine was early formed. and in 1892 he entered Barnes Medical Col- lege of St. Louis, and was graduated from that institution in 1895. Dr. Hamilton began the practice of his profession at Ina, Illinois, in Apri!, 1895, continning there for two years. He then located in Mount Vernon.
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in which highly prosperous eity he has remained continuously since then. Ile has taken a number of valuable post-graduate courses in medieine and surgery, the latter being his specialty, and for the past five years has devoted his time entirely to that branch of the work. Dr. Hamilton is a member of the Jefferson County, Illinois, and Southern Illinois Medieal Associations, being president of the latter named society in 1908, and is a member of the American Medical Association, in all of which he is active and prominent. He is a member of the National Association of Railway Surgeons, and is the official surgeon of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Louisville & Nashville and Wabash, Chester & Western. Dr. Hamilton has for some time lectured regularly before the class in Surgieal Diagnosis at the Barnes Medical University of St. Louis, of which he is a graduate.
Since 1909 Dr. Hamilton has been in charge of the Egyptian Hospital, which came into existence in the summer of 1903, and until November, 1908, was conducted at 1919 College avenue. The building was a frame affair, and was partially burned in 1904. It was rebuilt, but one Sunday morning in November, 1908, a second fire, due to defeetive wiring, broke ont, and the hospital was practically destroyed. Early in January, Drs. Hamilton and Gilmore assumed the management of the hospital, and sinee then it has been in their charge. On September 1, 1909, the new hospital was completed and the name changed to the Egyptian Hospital, but the training school, which was established in 1906, has retained the name of the Mount Vernon Training School for Nurses.
The new building is eentrally located on North Eleventh street, one and one half blocks from the public square, and is a model of complete- ness from every standpoint. It is a three-story building built of briek, and is practically fire-proof. On the top floor is situated the operating room, one of the finest in the state, as is also the sterilizing room and nine large, airy rooms for patients. The halls on this, as on the other floors, are ten feet wide, making splendid apartments for eonvaleseents and in- suring plenty of ventilation. On the second floor are situated the doctors' private library, superintendent's room, obstetrical ward and a four bed ward, which is used chiefly for railway injuries. This floor is reserved as much as possible for medical cases and contains nine fine, airy rooms. The first floor, or American basement, contains the offices of Dr. J. W. Hamilton and Dr. W. H. Gilmore, with the laboratory in the front part, while the rear is given up to nurses' quarters, rooms for help, dining room, and kitchen and store rooms. The entire building is heated throughout with hot water furnished by the Citizens' Gas, Eleetrie and Heating Company, and insures a temperature of seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit on the coldest day or night. The operating room has been equipped with sufficient radiation to hold a minimum temperature of eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit. All rooms and halls are lighted with electricity, and the equipment is such that the hospital can offer the best of service at a minimum figure.
The Egyptian Hospital is distinctly a private affair. although the proprietors welcome the patients of other physicians, and they are as- sured the same careful attention that is given to their own private cases. The hospital library is a very complete collection and is equipped with all the standard medical journals and books on nursing. the library being at all times at the disposal of students, and members of the profes- sion not connected with the hospital are free to make use of the library at will. The laboratory is one of the most complete of its kind in the state, and is much in demand by members of the medical fraternity in and about Mount Vernon who wish analyses at any time.
Since the hospital has been under the direct management of Dr.
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Ilamilton it has handled an average of five hundred surgical operations yearly, with a mortality rate of two per cent,-a record which is unsur- passed elsewhere in the United States, attributed directly to the skill of the attendant physicians and surgeons and the conscientious and unremit- ting care of the combined staff of doctors and nurses. The hospital has a state charter, and its nurses' training school in connection with the hospital is thoroughly modern in every respect. The training depart- ment is in charge of Miss Lena Estes as superintendent, and they have accommodations for a class of twelve. The hospital has done a deal of in- vestigating along the lines of vaccine therapeutics, with marked suc- cess, and have specialized in the treatment of tubercular diseases.
The staff of physicians connected with the hospital are Dr. Moss Maxey, in charge of internal medicine; Dr. Wilbur Hawley Gilmore, pathologist and bacteriologist ; Dr. George Tupper. specialist in diseases of eye, ear, nose and throat ; and Dr. Hamilton, manager and surgeon in chief.
While the hospital is under the ownership and control of Dr. Hamil- ton, the policy of the institution in exceedingly liberal to the public and towards other physicians, and the unqualified success of the hospital since it came into the management and ownership of Dr. Hamilton is ample evidence of the ability of the doctor in his professional eapaeity, and of his enviable standing in the community as a man of splendid character and intrinsie worth.
In 1892 Dr. Hamilton was united in marriage with Cora A. Webb. daughter of Daniel R. Webb. Two children have been born to them. They are Clarenee, a student in the St. Louis Medical College, and Wilma Opał, now fifteen years of age and a student in the Mount Vernon high school.
GEORGE W. ZIEBOLD. Men contribute by various services and diversi- fied gifts to the building up of a eity-some by the foundations of law and municipal order; others give themselves to founding churches and schools; still others open up avenues of commerce and furnish facilities for the transaction of business; in a thousand different but converging directions they bend their energies, according to some oceult law of organization, to the common weal. Among all the various lines of activity none has been more promotive of the reputa- tion of Waterloo, Illinois, than the milling business, and the men who are at the head of the large industries here have been the city's real benefactors. Among those who have identified themselves with the milling business in Waterloo, George W. Ziebold occupies a prominent place. As secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Waterloo Milling Company he has charge of one of the largest enterprises of this section, and he has also served as chief exeentive of the eity with such distinction that it was difficult for him to resign the office. Mr. Ziebold was born March 1, 1860, at California. Missouri, and is a son of Gottlieb and Magdalena (Sehnaiter) Ziebold.
The political struggles of some of the European countries have contributed largely to America's best citizenship, and it was thus that this country gained benefits acerning from the activities of Gottlieb Ziebold. Born in Baden, Germany, as a young man he became identi- fied with the movement to secure independence for that country, ally- ing himself and his fortunes with the young band of patriots who were destined to exile. He was forced to flee from his native land in 1848, in which year he came to the United States and located at Pough- keepsie. New York, subsequently going to Ohio and later to Missouri. In 1863 he engaged in the milling business at California, Missouri,
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and in 1867 transferred his activities to Monroe county, Illinois, where the remainder of his life was spent, his death occurring at Red Bud, Illinois, on the 26th of December, 1911, at the age of eighty-nine. He was first married to Miss Magdalena Schnaiter, and they had five chil- dren, as follows: George W .; Nelson G., who died in 1900, at Red Bud, Illinois; Mrs. Joseph W. Rickert, who died in 1900, at Waterloo; Mrs. Mary Bonnet, wife of the famous perfume maker of Geneva, Switzer- land, and Paris, France; and Charles F., one of the most eminent at- torneys of St. Louis, author of the Free Bridge Bill, originator of the well-known phrase "No Bridge, No Bonds," president of the West End Business Men's Association. Gottlieb Ziebold married for his second wife Mrs. Margaret (Schneider) Miller, of Bavaria, and they had three children : Mrs. Anna Ilelber, of Red Bud; and William and Gottlieb, who are engaged in the milling business at that place.
George W. Ziebold secured his education in the schools of Monroe City, Illinois, although the greater part of his knowledge has been gained in later years. Ilis advantages in youth were somewhat limited, but he has been a great reader, a keen observer and a deep thinker, and thus has secured the education which was denied him as a lad. Reared in the atmosphere of the mills, it was only natural that Mr. Ziebold should choose that vocation as his life work, and the posi- tion that he has attained in the commercial world is ample evidence that he chose well. The Waterloo Milling Company was established in 1886 by Mr. Ziebold, and from a small and modest start it has grown into one of the leading industries of the city, having a capacity of 250 barrels per day, and an elevator storage of 75.000. The following well- known brands are sold throughout the southern states: "Monarch," "America," "Blue Seal," "Oneeta." Mr. Ziebold is also president of the G. Ziebold Milling Company, at Red Bud, this mill having a capacity of 400 barrels and storage of 50,000 bushels. Ile is a diree- tor in the Harrisonville Telephone Company, and since June 1, 1900, has been a co-partner in the Commercial Bank of Waterloo. From the beginning of its organization Mr. Ziebold has been a large stock holder in the Central National Bank of St. Louis, one of the strongest and most progressive as well as widely known financial institutions of St. Louis. In January, 1912, he was elected a member of its board of directors, by a unanimous vote.
While Mr. Zieboll's business activities have made him well-known 'in the commercial world, it has been as a public official that the general public has known him best. From 1894 until 1904 he acted as mayor of Waterloo, and upon retiring from that office was nearly elected again, the voters freely scratching their tickets to substitute his name in place of the regular party candidate. During his able administra- tion the electric lighting plant and water works, owned by the city, were installed, and with the hope that he would secure for the city a thorough sewerage system, the voters endeavored to send him back to the chief executive's office even against his wishes. The sewerage sys- tem is still conspienous by its absence. Mr. Ziebold is a member of the Commercial Club, and no movement for the publie or civic welfare is considered complete unless his name is enrolled with its supporters. For nine years he has been an elder of the German Evangelical church, in the work of which he is very active. His wife and children, how- ever, belong to the Roman Catholic faith. Mr. Ziebold's home life has been beautiful and it has been a matter of almost general comment among his neighbors that a cross word has never been heard in his household. Examples are not few of men who have achieved prom- inenee in any one chosen field, but to attain eminence in the realm of
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business, earn the gratitude of the general public in the highest office in its gift, and withal conduct oneself as a true, Christian gentleman, is deserving of more than passing mention.
In 1883 Mr. Ziebold was married to Miss Minnie E. Hoffmeister, of St. Louis, Missouri, daughter of Christian and Margaret (IIemm) Hoffmeister, natives of Prussia, and sister of Christ, Charles, Jacob, John, Fred, Nicolaus and Maximillian Hoffmeister, of whom John, Nieolans and Maximillian are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ziebold have had the following children : George C., who is engaged in business with his father and acts as his assistant; Adina C., who is studying music in New York; Clara M., Evelyn A., Florence M., Maximillian G. and Loretta L. A., who reside at home; and Minnie, who died at the age of seven months.
Although this sketch is brief, Mr. Ziebold's life has been a busy one. The various large enterprises with which he has identified himself have served to take a great deal of his time and attention, but he has man- aged to find leisure moments in which to entertain a hobby, and he and his son George C. are joint owners of one of the finest show stables in Southern Illinois. Here may be found such fine animals as "Forest King," 1354 American Hackney Society, one of the best bred hackneys in the United States; "Blondie Rose," champion five-gaited saddle and high school horse; "Golden King" and "Golden Prince," ear- riage horses which have won prizes all over the southern part of the state and have never been defeated; and "Glory Montrose," daughter of "Artist Montrose," champion of the World's Columbian Exposi- tion. A true lover of fine horse-flesh, Mr. Ziebold is recognized as an authority, and his advice is eagerly sought in equinal matters.
GEORGE C. ZIEBOLD. Among the younger business men of Water- loo, Illinois, none occupies a more prominent place than George C. Zie- bold. Connected with the milling business, as assistant general man- ager of the Waterloo Milling Company, of which his father is general manager. he plays an important role in that industry which has done so much towards building up the city of Waterloo. Ile has enjoyed the benefits of a fine education, and he takes the attitude of the pro- gressive, well-educated, broad minded university man. He is an active and enthusiastie worker for the furthering of the interests of his home town, and although still a very young man is recognized as one of the. leaders in the progressive development of Waterloo. Ile is filled with the enthusiasm of youth, but he is too practical and level-headed to let himself be swept into false channels. In short, he is a fine example of that healthy clean-minded, intelligent class of American young manhood that make American women the envied of all the feminine world.
George C. Ziebold was born in a log house at Monroe City, Monroe county, Illinois, on the 3rd of April, 1886. He is the son of George W. Ziebold. Ilis mother was Minnie F. Hoffmeister, and the marriage of his parents occurred in 1883. George C. Ziebold is the eldest of eight children, seven of whom are living. Lack of space prevents more than this brief mention of his father, who has had a most interesting and successful career, and who is one of the most prominent men in a business, social or political way in Waterloo. On both his father's and his mother's side Mr. Ziebold is descended from German ancestry. and is thus one more example of why we so eagerly welcome members of this nationality into our country.
In the fall of the year in which George C. Ziebold was born his parents came to Waterloo, where Mr. Ziebold, Sr., established the
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Waterloo Milling Company. Here George C. Ziebold grew up, receiv- ing his elementary education in St. Joseph's Academy in Waterloo, and attending the University of Notre Dame, at Notre Dame, Indiana, for his advanced work. lle was a conscientious student at college, but he was not a "grind," realizing that there are more valuable lessons to be learned in college than those from books. He therefore found the time to take an active part in athletics, and was an important mem- ber of the social, literary and musical life of the university. He ac- eordingly returned from college with a broad minded view of the ques- tions of the day, and with a knowledge of men and affairs that could not have been gleaned solely from books. In 1904 he became his father's assistant as general manager of the plant of the Waterloo Milling Company, in which capacity he is still engaged. Under his father's tutelage he has proved to be an able and practical business man, and should the time come when Mr. Ziebold, Sr., should choose to retire he could do so with an easy conscience, for not only is he him- self firmly convinced of his son's ability, but the younger man has won the confidenee of all of the business men of the community.
In politics Mr. Ziebold is a Republican, but he, like most of the thinking men of the day, sees that it has become a question not of parties but of men. The great parties, when it is brought down to a last analysis, no longer stand for great and diverse principles, and therefore Mr. Ziebold believes in voting for the best man for the office, regardless of his party affiliations. This fact, which is typical of the younger generation, is the great hope of the country to-day, and is one reason why the citizenship of men like Mr. Ziehold means so mich to their communities. In his religious affiliations he is a communicant of the Roman Catholic church, and in his religious views he is practical and broad-minded. He is a member of St. Vincent's Benevolent So- ciety. Mr. Ziebold was the prime mover in the organization of the board of charities of the Waterloo Commercial Club and is the chair- man of the board. He is a charter member of the Knights of Comum- bus, being a trustee of the council and past grand knight of Waterloo Council, No. 1334. He is also treasurer of the Waterloo Flower Asso- ciation.
Despite his youth he is a prominent leader in the Waterloo Com- mercial Club. Much of his time has been given to the various projects which this club has set on foot for the development and growth of Waterloo, and he is now treasurer of the club. He is a musician by gift of Nature, and performs on almost every kind of musical instru- ment. He is not only an interpreter of the compositions of others but he has composed musie of considerable merit himself. As director of the Orpheus Orchestra, he has probably done more than anyone else in creating an interest in musie among the young people of Waterloo. He has supervised the production of a number of entertainments, among the most successful being his elaborate production of the comic opera "A Night in Holland." This will long be remembered by all who saw it. and the beautiful production was not only managed by him, but he also selected and perfected the material, designed the costumes, designed and painted the stage effects and the scenery. and contrived the stage lighting. This sounds more like real work than the musical pursuits of most young people, and it was indeed. but Mr. Ziehold finds a true source of reereation in his out-of-door life and with his dogs and horses. Ile is a well-known breeder of blooded horses and dogs, and is not only a member of the American Breeder's Association, but a contributer to the American Breeders Magazine. The "Morning Glory Home." owned by himself and his father, has won a wide reputation for the
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animals that have been bred there. His animals have taken prizes all over the United States, and show the result of intelligent breeding and management. Regardless of the weather, Mr. Ziebold takes a horse- back ride every day, considering this the most healthful, as well as the most enjoyable, of all exercises.
MAURICE J. SEED. The press of Jefferson county has a particularly able representative in the person of Maurice J. Seed, for the past ten years the owner and editor of the Mount Vernon Daily and Weekly Register, the exponent of Republieanism in that county. Sinee Mr. Seed assumed ownership and control of the paper it has inereased in its efficiency and popularity until it is today one of the most reliable publications in the county.
Maurice J. Seed is the son of Thomas H. and Emma (Pope) Seed. He was born December 31, 1871, at Lawrenceville, Lawrence county, Illinois, and was there reared. His father was a native of Lawrenee county, born there June 12, 1843. He was ever a man of action, and during the Civil war he served as sergeant in Company A, of the Sixty- third Illinois Infantry. He was with Grant at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, and took part in the Atlanta campaign under General Sherman, participating in the "mareh to the sea" and the later marchi through the Carolinas, being in active service with his regiment until the close of the war. Thomas II. Seed was a miller by trade, and fol- lowed that business in Lawrenceville and Belmont until 1889, when he bought the Sumner Press, at Sumner, Illinois. In 1902 he sold out his interests there and removed to Mount Vernon, where he has sinee lived. His wife, Emma (Pope) Seed, was born July 29, 1850, in Burlington, Ohio. The mother of Thomas HI. Seed was Sabilla Ryan, the daughter of an old Virginia family, early settlers in that state. Her grandmother was a Zane, of the Zane family, and her people removed to Illinois in 1838. The Seed family is of distinctly Irish origin, the founders of the family having passed their lives in Ireland for genera- tion upon generation. It is known that in 1686, two brothers, John and William Seed, came over from England with William of Orange, and took active part in the famous Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. At the close of the war the brothers settled in eounty Down. where for one hundred and forty-eight years their descendants have dwelt. In 1837 the family removed to America, settling in Illinois. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Seed. They are Maurice J. and Rhoda. The latter named is an instructor of English in the Mount Vernon Township high school, and is a graduate of the Northwestern University at Evanston, of the class of 1906. She is a young woman of fine attainments in educational and other ways, and is most popular in whatever circles she finds herself.
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