USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 44
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HENRY BURKHARDT. Prominent among the more solid and con- servative citizenship of Burkesville, Monroe county, Ilinois, is Henry Burkhardt, who has made that town his home and the center of his business interests for a number of years. There he is rearing a goodly family of promising offspring, is giving them every advantage con- sistent with his means, and is laboring diligently and enthusiastically in his endeavor to give the best service to his home, his town, his county and the commonwealth.
Henry Burkhardt was born August 20, 1870, at Renault, Illinois. He is the son of Conrad and Wilhelmina (Pehl) Burkhardt, who came to America from Germany in 1842, locating in Monroe county at. Renault Grant, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Ilis early education was obtained through the medium of the public schools of Renault, and on leaving school he remained at home on his father's farm until he had reached the age of twenty-two, when he went into the farming business on his own responsibility.
On August 27. 1892. Henry Burkhardt married Miss Julianna Schmidt, the daughter of Nicolaus and Julianna (Junk) Schmidt, both of German origin. Mr. and Mrs. Burkhardt are the parents of five children, all living in the family home. They are Henry W. C .: George T. F .: Margaret J. W .: Alma H. C .; and Otto H. W. The Burkhardt family are of the German Lutheran faith, and Mrs. Burk- hardt is particularly prominent and active in church circles. Mr. Burk- hardt is inclined to be of domestic tastes and tendencies and enjoys home life in the extreme, although he is a man of much publie spirit. and is deeply interested in the affairs of the community. He served
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his town as distriet commissioner in 1808-9-10, and previous to that served as sehool commissioner.
ARMIN B. PINKEL. During the forty-eight years of its existence the general merchandise firm of Armin B. Pinkel has grown from a small, struggling general store, typieal of the country, into one of the largest and most prosperous establishments in Southern Illinois, and its trade, at the start limited to the immediate vieinity, has expanded in com- parison and now covers the whole countryside. The growth and de- velopment of this business has been commensurate with the growth and development of Waterloo, in the confidenee of whose people it is firmly established. The present proprietor, Armin B. Pinkel, a business man of ability and enterprise, is a son of the founder, George Pinkel, and was born September 9, 1864, at Waterloo, the year in which the con- cern was founded.
George Pinkel was born June 14, 1834, at Nordenstadt, in Herzog Thum, Nassau, Germany, and was brought to the United States by his parents in 1837. At the age of sixteen years he commeneed to learn the trade of saddler at Belleville, Illinois, and after following that trade for some time eame to Waterloo and opened a modest general store on the present site of the handsome Pinket Bloek, which latter was erected in 1893. Mr. Pinkel became one of the leading capitalists of Southern Illinois, and was for a long period identified with the State Bank of Waterloo, holding the office of viee-president of that institu- tion until failing health caused him to refuse re-election. His death oeeurred April 10, 1898. Mr. Pinkel married Miss Elizabeth Koechel, who was born at Waterloo, September 12, 1842, and she died May 4, 1877, having been the mother of the following children: Armin B. and Herman, of Waterloo; Albert, cashier of the State Bank of Waterloo; William, who died August 22, 1907, at the age of thirty-eight years; Louisa, who married Dr. Louis Adelsberger; and Mrs. Albert Ganen, wife of the prominent Waterloo merchant.
Armin B. Pinkel was reared in Waterloo, received his education in the public schools of this city, and has spent his whole life here. His entire business eareer has been devoted to the concern of which he is now the sole owner, and which his progressive ideas and inherent ability have helped to develop. He has always made it a practice to handle only the best grades of goods obtainable, and his stoek is as well selected as any to be found in Southern Illinois. Enterprise, industry, fair deal- ing, honest principles, all these traits have combined to make his busi- ness successful, and the reputation that is his after so many years of business is proof of the esteem and respect in which he is held. In ad- dition to his mercantile business Mr. Pinkel is the owner of a farm of three hundred and forty-eight acres, situated thirteen miles southwest of Waterloo, this property being in bottom lands and devoted to wheat and corn. He is one of the most publie-spirited of Waterloo's citizens, and has been the main factor in a number of movements which have eulminated in advaneing the welfare of the municipality.
In 1891 Mr. Pinkel was married to Miss Fannie E. Payne, of Water- loo, daughter of Thomas J. and Margaret ( Rainer) Payne, the former a native of Missouri and the latter of Illinois, and five children have been born to them: Pearl, who is eighteen years of age; Viola, aged sixteen years; Armina, fourteen years old; Esther, who is eleven; and Robert A., the baby, who has only seen one birthday.
JOIIN DAVENPORT, deceased, was the pioneer coal operator of Saline county, Illinois, his residence being . at Harrisburg, where for many
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years he was a prominent factor in financial affairs. Briefly, a review of his life is as follows :
John Davenport was born December 29, 1848, in the coal region of Warwickshire, England. As a boy he worked in the mines of his native locality until he was fourteen. Then he ran away from home and got passage as a stow-away on a vessel which landed him in America. Com- ing direct to Illinois, he found employment as a miner in the vicinity of Belleville, where he remained until coming to Saline county. Here he worked as a miner in the mine in which he afterwards began opera- tions on his own account, which was as soon as he could raise a little money to start with, which, doubtless, was borrowed. And during the thirty years of his career as a mine operator he aeeumulated nearly a million dollars.
It was about 1875 that John Davenport began to dig coal in a small mine on the Ingraham farm, a mile and a half south of Harrisburg, he being a resident of Harrisburg at that time. Here he operated on a small seale for a few years. Then he took the Ledford Slope mine, three miles from Harrisburg, on the Big Four Railroad, both being the No. 7 vein of coal, the first vein found profitable to work, and here he operated on a large seale for several years. He worked the first shaft at Black Hawk mines, a mile and a half west of the Big Four Railroad, on the site of the present O'Gara mines, and at the same time operated the Clifton mines. Also during this time he assumed charge of the New Castle mines, ten miles from Harrisburg, on the Big Four, working No. 3 vein of coal sixty feet below the surface. That was abont 1890, and up to this time it may be said that his work was experimental. It proved a valuable experiment, however, for Saline county. For sev- eral years Mr. Davenport operated under the name of Davenport & Company, but after 1890, with William White and W. H. Alsop, he incorporated, with a capital stoek of $25,000, and with larger capital increased operations. They opened up No. 5 vein of coal three miles west on the Big Four Railroad, going one hundred feet deep with a six to a seventy-five foot vein of fine quality of coal-quality and quantity both increased. The output here was nine hundred tons a day, with a railroad trade; two hundred and fifty men were employed, and the operations covered forty or fifty acres. These mines are still in operation, known as the O'Gara mine No. 14. At the termination of his lease Mr. Davenport turned his attention for a while to another mine he had opened in the meantime, which at present is Saline No. 1. This was his until his death. He had organized the Egyptian Coal & Coke Company, with a capital stoek of seventy thousand dollars and with T. J. Patterson as president, for the operation of the present O'Gara No. 2 and No. 3. Also he organized the Harrisburg Mining Company. now O'Gara No. 4. While a stockholder of each company he took all the coal of both, and had put both on a paying basis. He continued president of the old Davenport Coal Company until his death. In the meantime the stoek of this company had been increased from twenty-five thousand dollars to two hundred thousand dollars. The last mine he started was Saline Company Coal Mine No. 2, five miles south of Harrisburg on the Big Four Railroad, and was superin- tending the sinking of its shaft at the time of his death, the work hav- ing progressed to within ten feet of coal. This is now one of the best paying mines in Southern Illinois. Mr. Davenport invested in a thou- sand acres of coal land in this vicinity, and it was his activity and sue- cess here that induced ontside capital to come in and operate. This land still brings in handsome royalties to his estate. For fourteen years O'Gara No. 14 annually paid dividends of one hundred per eent.
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Mr. Davenport was a director of the City National Bank; was direc- tor and president from its start until his death of the Eldorado State & Savings Bank at Eldorado, and also was one of the original direetors of the State Savings Bank, the first and last named being of Harrisburg.
Mr. Davenport's estate is still undivided and is under the business management of his son, George O. Davenport.
Of his immediate family, we record that Mr. Davenport was twiee married. By his first wife, who was a Miss Dean, he had one son. His second wife was formerly Miss Laura Sweet, daughter of Enos Sweet, a pioneer farmer of Saline county, whose home was five miles southwest of Harrisburg. Mrs. Davenport was born in this eounty and was twenty-one years of age at the time of her marriage. The children of this union are as follows : George O., Dick, Lilie (wife of M. D. Nesler), Clair (wife of S. B. Goodage), Earl and Ann.
HARRY TAYLOR. A man of high mental attainments, talented and progressive, Harry Taylor, of Harrisburg, is well known among the leading educators of Saline county for his efficient work as superin- tendent of the township high school, and has won a more than local reputation in his ehosen profession. A son of Pleasant Taylor, he was born in Saline county, Illinois, and has here spent the larger part of his life.
Mr. Taylor's paternal grandfather, Darins Taylor, was born in Alabama, in 1809, and as a young lad came with his father, John Tay- lor, to Illinois. After attaining his majority he embarked in business at Golconda, Illinois, a thriving little town on the Ohio river, where he fitted ont two flat-boats for the river trade, loading them with grain or provisions and floating them down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where a ready market was found for his cargo. Starting down river with a load of goods in 1850, he was taken ill on the way, and on reaching Vicksburg he boarded a boat coming north, but he died of that dreadful scourge. the cholera within twenty-four hours after reaching his home. Ilis widow, whose maiden name was Brancey Mick, then returned with her children, one of whom was Pleasant Taylor, to Saline county, to the home of her brother, the late Robert Mick, who was the founder and for many years the presi- dent of the First National Bank of Harrisburg. She subsequently cared for her parents as long as they lived. Her mother, however, died not long after her arrival at her old home, but her father, Charles Mick, was a bed-ridden invalid for fifteen long years, during which time she kindly administered to his wants. She died in Harrisburg in 1870. Three of her sons, Joseph, Robert and Pleasant, enlisted for service in the Civil war, Robert and Pleasant serving under General John A. Logan, but Joseph was a vietim of the measles, dying before joining his regiment.
Pleasant Taylor, with his brother Robert, served in the famous "Thirty-first," commanded by General Logan, and in August, 1864, through the unerring aim of a sharpshooter, lost his right arm while fighting in battle near Atlanta. Receiving then his honorable dis- charge from the army, he returned to his Illinois home, and for a time was variously employed. He was subsequently elected treasurer of Saline county, and while at his office in the court house at Harrisburg, was stricken with disease and died at his post, April 21, 1890, his death being deeply deplored throughout the community. He married a young girl who had been brought up in the family of his uncle, Robert Mick, and of their nnion four sons were born, namely : Charles A. Taylor, of
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Harrisburg, an abstractor; Harry, the special subject of this sketch; William, of Harrisburg, a painter and capitalist; and Dan.
ROBERT M. TAYLOR. A worthy representative of an honored pi- oneer family of Saline county, Robert M. Taylor, now living retired from active business at Harrisburg, has long been prominently identi- fied with the agricultural interests of this section of the state, and as opportunity has occurred has given his influence to encourage the es- tablishment of beneficial enterprises. He was born August 16, 1841, on the parental homestead, about ten miles southeast of Harrisburg, a son of Darius Taylor and grandson of John Taylor, who came from the South to Illinois at an early day, settling in Saline county.
Born in 1809, in Alabama, Darius Taylor was a young lad when he came with his parents to Saline county, where the larger part of his life was spent. About 1850 he moved with his family to Golconda, Pope county, Ilinois, and having built a flatboat he began trading in New Orleans, taking grain, provisions and vegetables down the rivers and selling them in that city. Being quite successful in his ventures, he built two flatboats, one of which he loaded with flat rock to be used in the construction of wharves in New Orleans, investing all of his property, including his household goods, in the venture. At Vieks- burg he was stricken with the cholera, and boarded a vessel returning northward, but reached home only twenty-four hours before his death. The young man whom he left in charge of his loaded boats took them to New Orleans, disposed of the cargoes, and returned to Golconda, but as no settlement in regard to the money he received for the goods was ever made the family was left in a state of destitution.
Darius Taylor married Braney Mick, a daughter of Charles Miek, and sister of the late Robert Miek, a Harrisburg banker and a citizen of prominence. Charles Miek and his wife, Susan, were born, reared and married in Virginia, from there coming to Saline county, Illinois, and locating on a farm in Somerset township. He outlived his wife, and for fifteen years prior to his death, in 1855, was a helpless invalid, confined during that time to his bed. After the death of Mr. Darius Taylor, Robert Mick went to Golconda, and brought his sister and her family back to Illinois, and Mrs. Taylor subsequently tenderly eared for her father and mother as long as they lived. She passed to the higher life on July 21, 1870. To her and her husband five children were born, as follows: Charley, who died at the age of twenty-two years ; Robert M., the special subject of this brief biographieal sketch; Pleas- ant, deceased: Joseph, who enlisted for service in the Civil war, and died of the measles at Camp Butler before joining his regiment : and Mary, who died in childhood.
Robert M. Taylor grew to manhood in Saline county, Illinois, and soon after the breaking out of the Civil war enlisted, with his brother Pleasant, in Company G. Thirty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under command of Captain W. A. Stricklin, of Harrisburg, and Colonel John A. Logan, and the two brothers kept together until August. 1864, when Pleasant Taylor was shot by a sharpshooter, receiving a wound that necessitated the amputation of his right arm just below the shoulder, although he persisted in remaining with his comrades until honorably discharged from the army in July. 1865. Very soon after his enlist- ment Robert M. Taylor was taken ill, having first a siege of measles, afterwards snecumbing to an attack of pneumonia, and finally being stricken with typhoid fever. Recovering his health, he rejoined his regiment in time to take an active part in the siege of Corinth, and was afterwards with it in every engagement while marching to the sea, and
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with it took part in the Grand Review, at Washington, D. C. Being mustered out of service on July 19, 1865, he returned to the Mick homestead in Somerset township, where his widowed mother was then living, and to the ownership of which he succeeded. In 1880 Mr. Tay- lor sold that property and purchased two hundred and eighty acres of land in Somerset, where he carried on general farming with most satis- factory pecuniary results until 1910, making a specialty of buying and selling stock. Mr. Taylor still retains the ownership of his farm, but is now living retired at his pleasant home in Harrisburg. He was as- sociated with his unele, Robert Miek, in the founding of the First Na- tional Bank of Harrisburg, one of the most successful financial insti- tutions of Saline county, and of which he and Mr. W. F. Scott are now the only charter members living. Mr. Taylor has been a director of this bank since it started, having been elected to the position twenty- two times.
Mr. Taylor married, in 1871, Frances Jane Colbert, a daughter of Joseph Colbert, of Eagle township, Gallatin county, Illinois, and of their union seven children have been born, namely : Robert W., engaged in farming in Somerset; Mary Etta, wife of B. B. Baker, a farmer in Somerset ; Effie, wife of Dr. E. W. Cummins, of Harrisburg; Ida, liv- ing at home; Bratcher, having charge of the home farm; Dean, wife of Charles Mitchell, who is engaged in farming in Somerset; and Braney, wife of Matthew Parker, of Harrisburg. Mr. Taylor east his first presi- dential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has voted with the Republican party ever since. Both he and his wife are valued members of the United Baptist church of Somerset.
JAMES BORAH WALL, a highly honored and eminently successful man of affairs in and about Cairo, Illinois, is by inheritance and in- stinet a southerner, but he lays just elaim to the rights of a northerner by reason of his northern birth. He is the son of George E. and Flor- entyne (Meeks) Borah, both of whom died when their son, James Borah, was an infant, passing away within a few days of each other. The orphaned boy was reared by Anderson L. Wall, and he assumed the name of his benefactor in his boyhood, going by that name ever sinee.
Anderson L. Wall, the foster father of James Borah Wall of this review, was born in Wayne county, Illinois, in the year 1836. When the War of the Rebellion broke out in 1861 and there came the call to arms he enlisted straightway to fight in the cause of honor and justice. He left the farm home of the family to enlist as a private in Company G, Fortieth Illinois Infantry, and he fought throughout four bloody, bitter years. He was with the army of General Grant when operating through the Cairo eountry and down the Mississippi river. He was engaged in the campaign which resulted in so disastrously overcoming the Rebel forees, and he was in active service at the capture of Vicksburg. Fol- lowing the evacuation of Vicksburg, his regiment was transferred to General Sherman's magnificent band of men, and it was his privilege to take part in the Atlanta campaign and the famous "march to the sea ;" back through the then devastated and suffering Carolinas. when they besieged and captured the army of General Johnston, and thence on to Washington for the Grand Review and final mustering out of the army which marked the close of hostilities.
Peace restored onee more. Anderson Wall settled down to the quiet and uneventful life of the agriculturist, and he prospered very materi- ally in the following years. In the early 'nineties he decided to leave his country place and engage in the real estate and insurance business
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in the nearby town of Fairfield, in which business he was especially successful from the beginning. Mr. Wall was married a few years subsequent to the elose of the war to one Sarah J. Porterfield, a repre- sentative of the Pennsylvania branch of the Porterfields. A danghter was born of their union. The daughter is Mary E., the wife of T. P. Moore, editor of the Olney Times. Following the death of George E. Borah and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Wall adopted the orphaned son of their deceased friends, and James Borah was reared as they would have reared their own son had they been given one.
James Borah Wall was born in Wayne county, Illinois, on July 25, 1877. He passed his early boyhood days in the delightful freedom and happiness which are the attributes of country life, and when a youth of fifteen years his parents removed to Fairfield, where his foster- father engaged in business as heretofore mentioned. Here he attended school, graduating from the Fairfield high school, after which he entered the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. But he was rest- less, and disinelined to the life of a student, and in his junior year he left the university and started on an exploring tour through the north- west, finally bringing up in the Klondyke regions. No sooner did he find himself in the mining camp than the "gold madness" seized upon him, and the young adventurer was fired with the burning ambition to make a "strike" in the richest mining district then known to the eivil- ized world. For five years the glamour of the far famed Eldorado held him enthralled-a willing vietim. During that time he prospected in every known part of the Klondyke distriet, but with only indifferent sueeess. He had the experience of seeing his cabin mate strike pay dirt on a elaim adjoining his own, and he followed many a promising lead . blindly and doggedly, only to have it finally peter out, leaving him al- ways in the depths of despair, but, consistent with the prevailing spirit of the eamp, always ready to take one more chance. After five years of roughing it, in the truest acceptance of the word. James Wall turned homeward. The call of home and friends was stronger than the entice- ments of the golden west, and he found himself longing for a sight of his native state and all who were dear to him. When he finally made his way back to Fairfield, he did so in the conseions knowledge that the only reward of his five years of self-imposed exile lay in the generous fund of experience he had gleaned in the prospector's school of hard knocks, and in the Further knowledge that the greatest opportunities are not always those that lie farthest from us.
Returning home, Mr. Wall engaged with his foster-father in the flourishing business which he found Anderson L. Wall still condneting, and he applied himself with energy and brains to the thorough mas- tering of every detail of the real estate and insurance business. That he succeeded admirably in his ambition is well attested by the faet that in a comparatively short time he found the field of Fairfield too restricted for his efforts, and he accordingly removed to Cairo, Illinois, where he opened offices for the carrying on of a general real estate and insurance business, which has grown apace from that day to the pres- ent time, and James Borah Wall is recognized in Cairo and Southern Illinois as a successful and representative business man.
In 1906 Mr. Wall married Miss Mercedes M. Vincent, a daughter of Francis and Virginia (Verin) Vineent, Mrs. Wall being one of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent.
Mr. Wall is a man of quiet and homelike inclinations. Thus far in his promising career he has not permitted himself to be drawn into any political alliances. As a matter of conseience he casts a straight Republican ballot at the proper times each year, but beyond that he has
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never gone. Mr. Wall is a Pythian Knight and an honored and use- ful member of the Cairo Commercial Club and as a prosperous and honorable man and an all around good citizen the city of Cairo does well to evince pride in him and his achievements.
R. C. FULLER, M. D. He whose name initiates this brief review is a talented and skilful physician and surgeon of Caline county, and has gained not only marked success and prestige in his profession, but has won a place of distinction among the foremost citizens of Carriers Mills, which has been his home for a number of years. A son of H. J. and Mary Jane (Baker) Fuller, he was born April 18, 1872, in Williamson county, Illinois, near Pittsburg, and about nine miles northeast of Marion. His paternal grandfather, Rev. Horace Fuller, was born, bred and married in Tennessee. Coming with his family to Illinois in 1845, he continued his ministerial labors, and having organized the Davis Prairie Missionary Baptist church served, without remuneration, as pastor for a number of years. He died in 1863, when but fifty-eight years of age.
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