USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 75
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Mr. Walker is a very prominent lodge man, being by nature of suf- fieient social proclivity to take much pleasure in affiliation with his fel- low men. He is a Mason, belonging to Hermitage Lodge, No. 356, and exemplifies in his own living the ideals of moral and social justice and brotherly love for which the order stands. Ile is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the latter of Mt. Carmel. He attends the Presbyterian church.
LLOYD F. VOVLES. One of the representative men of this section is Lloyd F. Voyles, who is engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan
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business, his operations in this field being extensive and successful. He has made his own way unaided and is one of those valiant people who have triumphed over adverse conditions and pressed forward to the goal of a large and worthy success. He is in a most significant sense a self- made man and integrity and honor have characterized him in all the relations of life. Ile is now a considerable property owner and is prepar- ing to practice law.
Mr. Voyles was born on a farm in Edwards county, March 28, 1871, the son of John Voyles. The father, a farmer by oceupation, was born in Kentucky, in 1845, but located in Edwards county in 1865, and now is living practically retired in Bone Gap. Ile married Mary Elizabeth MeDowell, a native of Virginia, and a daughter of Samuel MeDowell. These worthy people became the parents of five children. The eldest, Edwin, died in infancy previous to the coming of the family to Indiana; Ellen is deceased ; William is located at Shawneetown; Lloyd F., is next in order of birth; and the youngest member of the family, Cordelia, is the wife of J. W. Elliot and resides in Danville.
Mr. Voyles passed the roseate days of youth upon his father's farm and assisted the older man in the farm work of which there is ever a super abundance. He remained beneath the paternal roof-tree until he attained the age of twenty years, but his ambitions did not lie in the line of agriculture and at the age mentioned he secured a position in a local store and earned money to support him while he attended the Bone Gap school. Subsequently he passed the teachers' examination and was granted a teacher's certificate. His early advantages had been meagre indeed and the circumstances of the family had made it impossible for him to obtain even the ordinary common schooling. So greatly did he de- sire an education, however, that he attended school at the age of twenty- three years. He is a constant student and has acquired outside the school room a splendid fund of knowledge and is to all intents and purposes a well-educated man. For the past eight years he has been devoting his spare time to reading law and practicing in the justice's court. Previous to opening his real estate business in January, 1900, he clerked in local stores. He has been wonderfully successful in the real estate business and represents five of the most important insurance companies, doing a large and constantly widening business, and handling loans in addition to the rest. He has a fine farm of eighty acres very near Bone Gap and also has some valuable town property, consisting of an advantageously situated business building and a most desirable residence property.
Mr. Voyles has for a number of years been prominent in public af- fairs. In politics he subscribes to the articles of faith of the Democratic party and his word is of weight in party councils. He is both precinct and senatorial committeeman. He has served three terms as justice of the peace of Bone Gap township, having been first elected in 1900, and twice reelected. Ile has ever proved remarkably faithful to public re- sponsibility and is publie-spirited and helpful in all measures directed towards the public welfare. He is a member of the Christian church.
Mr. Voyles was married January 3, 1899, the lady to become his wife being Lura B. Melrose, of Bone Gap, daughter of Gibson Melrose. They share their pleasant home with one son, Jennings.
WALTER COLYER. A typical American citizen who has made the most of his opportunities is Walter Colyer, of Albion, secretary of that large and important industrial concern, the Albion Shale Brick eom- pany, as well as a former journalist and a man of influence. In addition to his other distinctions he comes of pioneer stock in Southern Illinois, and is one of Edwards county's leading Republicans.
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Mr. Colyer is a native son of this county, his eyes having first opened to the light of day on July 19, 1856, four and a half miles north of Albion on the farm of his father, William Colyer. The father was born in 1822 and his elder sister, Eliza, wife of George Bunting, was the second white child and the first girl born in the Edwards county settlement. William Colyer was the son of Edward Colyer, a native of County Surrey, Eng- land, and he was one of the original settlers of this section, being a mem- ber of the British colony headed by Flower and Birkbeck, who located on English Prairie in the year 1817, founding Albion the following year. This stanch pioneer was a farmer by occupation and his brother, John, built the first briek house in New Albany, Indiana. There were a number of brothers and sisters,-one, William, going south and taking up his residence in Indiana. Edward's sister, Sarah Colyer, became the mother of F. W. Farrar, the famous English author and clergyman.
William Colyer married Sarah Hardy, the daughter of Jonas Hardy of English birth, who came from Leeds, England, and on arriving in this country, located first in Pennsylvania and came to Albion in 1836. William reared two children, Morris and Walter of this review. William journeyed to the Undiscovered Country on February 16, 1909, and his good wife preceded him on October 31, 1907, her years exceeding the psalmist's alotment by eleven years and five months. The Colyers have ever been known l'or a high type of citizenship and it was such as they who laid the paths straight and clean for the progress of civilization in Edwards county.
Walter Colyer received the education provided by the public schools. At an early period in his youth he exhibited an aptitude as a writer, and in 1880, in association with Fred Applegath, he purchased the American Sentinel, this being his first adventure in the realm of the Fourth Estate with which he was to be identified for some quarter century. Other papers with which he was identified were the Albion News, the Edwards County News and the Albion Journal with which he retired from the field. The last named he first published in association with M. B. Harris, beginning March 14, 1884, two years later buying out Mr. Harris and for sixteen years publishing the paper himself. In 1900 he sold the paper to A. H. Bowman and on February 25, 1903, he organized and became president of the Albion JJournal Company and continued in such capacity for several years. He exerted a very definite influence in this important field of newspaper work and through his ably conducted col- nmns assisted in bringing about much of benefit to the community. Mr. Colyer has ever been a stanch adherent of the men and measures of the Grand Old Party and has a record behind him of fourteen years as postmaster, under the administration of Harrison, Cleveland, Me Kinley and Roosevelt, these terms, however, not being continuons, and five and one-half months being under President Cleveland. During his editorial career he was a member of the Republican Editorial Association and he served as a delegate to the convention in 1896 which nominated Presi- dent MeKinley. He has at times been identified with agriculture and for several years was engaged in fruit-growing. He is a man of ver- satility and success has usually crowned any undertaking in which he has been a leader.
In 1902, Mr. Colyer assisted in organizing the Albion Brick Company and for five years served as secretary and salesman of this thriving con- eern. lo has also been engaged in the land business in Mexico and has ten times toured Mexico and in that interesting country soll over tive thousand acres of land and at present is interested in large hollings there. He is president of the Tamesi Plantation Company. However, one of his leading interests is a local one, namely : the Shale Brick C'om-
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pany, which was organized February 21, 1910, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, and a capacity of one hundred thousand ten pound blocks per each ten hour day. This bids fair to become the most complete and modern brick plant in the United States and well known capitalists from several states are interested financially in its fortunes. L. L. Emerson, of Mt. Vernon, is president of the company.
Mr. Colyer holds membership in the Knights of Pythias, of Albion, and the B. P. O. E. of Mt. Carmel. He is director of the State Historical Society and for several years has been a member of the publication com- mittee of the same. He has contributed historical articles of great value to various magazines and to the state publications. He has, in fact, a reputation as an author and historian and he is well-informed as to arch- eological research in Mexico and has written on that subject with author- ity. He is a man of financial standing and one of Albion's most repre- sentative and influential citizens.
S. EUGENE QUINDRY. Among the younger set of steadily advancing business men of Edwards county, S. Eugene Quindry, states attorney for his county and one time editor of one of the popular publications in Al- bion, takes a prominent place, and is eminently deserving of mention in a history dedicated to Southern Illinois and its leading citizens. From the beginning of his career Mr. Quindry has displayed qualities of tact, integrity and business sagacity which have been guarantees of a success- ful future to all who have noted his daily life, and since he turned his attention to the law, his progress has been most pleasing.
Born on January 12, 1880, on a farm in White county, Illinois, S. Eugene Quindry is the son of Alphonse Quindry and his wife, Augusta (Hunsinger) Quindry. The father was a native of France, born in Paris in 1849, and was the son of Joseph and Josephine Quindry. Jos- eph Quindry was a brickmaker and manufacturer and was the owner of a factory in Paris. He had two sons, Alphonse and John, who emigrated to America in about 1870 when they were still in their early manhood. The brothers settled first in Indiana, and there John Quindry remained, but Alphonse, after a brief stay there, moved into White county, Illi- nois. When at home in Paris the young man had been employed in a telescope factory in that city, but on settling in Illinois he secured a piece of land and gave himself up to the business of farming, to which he devoted the remainder of his life, and in which business he was ex- traordinarily successful. Although he possessed practically nothing when he began life on his farm, he prospered with the advancing years, and when he died in 1889 he was the owner of two hundred and ninety acres of valuable Illinois farm land, with all the appurtenances thereto. His wife, who was a native of White county, was a member of one of the largest and best known families in that section of the country. She was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Hunsinger, and she was born in 1848. She is still living on the old homestead in White county, where their seven children were reared, and where some of them still live. The daughter, Josephine, died at the age of eighteen years; John, mar- ried and is living in Arkansas; S. Eugene, is the third born; Flora is the wife of George Simpson, of Wayne, a supervisor of Wayne county ; Charles remains on the old home place, and looks after the farm and home and cares for the mother : Ella died in childhood. Thus five of the seven born to her still remain to brighten the closing years of the life of this worthy mother, and all are leading lives of usefulness and reflect naught but honor upon the good old name they bear.
All received good school advantages, and S. Eugene, after finishing his work in the common schools of his home town, entered the Southern
LOUISA COPELAND
J. P. COPELAND
T
Minnie Lilley Copeland
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Collegiate Institute of Albion, and later attended the University of Mis- souri at Columbia, Missouri. For some little time thereafter he was engaged in bookkeeping and mercantile pursuits in various places, and it was not until 1904 that he decided on a different field of activity and purchased the Carmi Times, which he owned and edited for two years. At the end of that time he sold out the paper and bought an interest in the Albion Journal, of which he was the editor for one year. During the three years of his newspaper work, Mr. Quindry had been making good use of his time hy studying law under able preceptorship, and in 1907, when he severed his connection with the Journal, he was admitted to the bar and immediately took up the practice of his profession in Al- bion. Ile began practice in October of 1907, and in November, 1908, had so far advanced professionally and with the publie that he was elected to the office of states attorney. Mr. Quindry is a member of a number of fraternal organizations, chief among them being the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen. He is a member of the Christian church.
In 1905 Mr. Quindry was married to Miss Constance Coles, a daugh- ter of Frank Coles, Sr. Two children have been born to them,-Frank and Leland.
DR. ERNEST E. BOEWE, since 1905 a practicing dentist in West Salem, is a native product of Edwards county, born in West Salem, July 1, 1885. Ile is the son of Christian and Mary Louise (Knust ) Boewe, Christian Boewe was born in Germany on the sixteenth of July, 1836, and emigrated to America in 1866, when he settled in Edwards county on a farm of 256 aeres, near West Salem. It was after locating here that he married Miss Kmist, who like himself, was a native of Germany. The father died on April 17, 1911, although the mother still lives. Thir- teen children were born to them, of which number six are yet living. Six died in infaney and Amos, a son, died after reaching the age of nineteen years. The others are: Rudolph, a resident of Waukesha, Wis- consin ; Helena, living at Crandon, Wisconsin : Mrs. Carrie Rothrock, of Alturas, Florida : Ernest F., of West Salem; Herbert J. and Albert M. of Bone Gap, Illinois.
Ernest F. Boewe attended the West Salem schools in his boyhood and youth, at the age of eighteen entering the St. Louis Dental College, now the Dental Department of the St. Louis University. He was gradu- ated from that institution on May 6, 1905, after which he initiated active practice in Albion, remaining there but four months. He then located in West Salem, which appeared a desirable location to him, and the suo- eess he has attained there in the ensuing years has amply verified his judgment in that respect. Dr. Boewe is a thorough master of his pro- fession and has acquired a reputation for skill and ability which is fast placing him in the front ranks of the dentists of the day. Fortune has smiled upon him in a financial way and he has come to be the owner of a traet of land in Florida and a half interest in the neighborhood of eleven hundred aeres, in the same state.
Fraternally the doctor is a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masons, as well as the supreme chapter of the Delta Sigma Delta, his college fraternity. He is a Republican, and a member of the Moravian el.urch. On March 28, 1908. Dr. Boewe was united in marriage with Bernice Helen Luther, the daughter of John M. Luther. One son has been born to them,-Howard Luther Boewe.
JAMES P. COPELAND. It has been said in criticism of the modern newspaper that its editorial beliefs are frequently controlled from the
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business office, or at least dictated by the exigencies of the business sit- nation. In this connection also the identity of the editor himself is becoming more and more obseure as the number of the pages and the size of the news headlines grow larger together. An exponent of the older school of journalism, and what many of us prefer to regard as the truer school, may be found at Marion, Illinois, in the person of James P. Copeland, who for many years was actively identified with the journalistic profession of Williamson county. He entered the pro- fession when the "art preservative" and the "Fourth Estate" went hand in hand,-when, in fact, the editor had to know all about the printer's craft as well as to be able to wield a facile pen. The pioneer in the publication of a permanent Republican newspaper, he applied his energies, and his eourage, too, at times, to the crystallization of Republican sentiment into a party organization which won victories and beeame a stable factor in support of both state and national organi- zations of the party. Having served his party well and grown old in a calling which demands the best and most constant efforts of the human brain, he seized upon an opportunity to retire, and is spending his time now in the quieter, if less remunerative occupation of floriculture and gardening.
Mr. Copeland was born in Vienna, Illinois, September 24, 1845, the son of Judge Samuel Copeland, whose father, John Copeland, came to Illinois during the territorial days and settled in Johnson county, soon thereafter moving into Massac county, where he died on the Copeland farm there. He was born in Virginia on September 30, 1775, and when he came to Illinois from Tennessee, where he had spent some years, he brought his slaves with him. He was married in Sumner county, Tenn- essee, to Sarah Short, of Kentucky, and migrated to Illinois in 1816. settling near Vienna. Mr. Copeland taught in the first schoolhouse ever erected in Vienna,-it was a ernde log affair, and in various ways his life in that community was an active one up to his last days. He was the nominee of the slave-holding party as delegate to the constitutional convention for his distriet at one time, and he was always prominent in local polities. Ile passed away on January 2, 1853, his wife having preceded him on June 24, 1849. They were the parents of nine chil- dren : James, who was once a member of the Illinois General Assembly ; Sarah, who died as the wife of John Cooper; John, who was a farmer in Pulaski county; Joshua, who also engaged in farming and left a family in Massac county when he died; Isaac; Jane, who married J. B. Maybury; Alfred ; Louisa, who married W. J. Simpson ; and Samuel.
Judge Samnel Copeland was a mere child when he accompanied his father from Tennessee to Southern Illinois. He received such educa- tion as the neighborhood in which he was reared afforded, and he spent the earlier years of his young manhood on the farm, entering from that work into active political pursuits. Ile was chosen frequently by the Democratic party as an officer of Johnson county, holding variously the offices of sheriff, clerk and county judge, passing away while hold- ing the latter named office. He was a Union man, and abandoned his old party in 1861 to embrace the principles of Republicanism, and died in that faith. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Allen, died at the age of forty-three years. Their children were: Allen, who left a son, now in business in Cedar Vale, Kansas, at his death ; Perry, who died in Massae county, Illinois, leaving a family there; Mary, who be- came the wife of Alex MeLain and died at Vienna, Illinois; Frances, who died unmarried : Samuel, who died in Massae eounty; Richard, a resident of Johnson county; James P., of Marion Illinois ; De Witt C., of Barlow, Kentucky; and two others who died in infancy,-Harriet
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and J. M. In later years Judge Copeland contracted a second marriage, taking for his wife Mrs. Lucinda Fisher, the two children of their union being Alonzo, of Missouri, and Louisa, the wife of one Mr. Pierce, of Baxter Springs, Kansas.
In 1859 James P. Copeland began work in the office of the Johnson County Enquirer, the first paper printed in the county, with JJ. D. Moody as editor. He held this position until the following year, when he left Vienna to accept a place on the Union Democrat at Anna, Illi- nois, and he remained there until the beginning of the Civil war. When troops were called for he enlisted in Company E, Sixtieth Ilinois Regi- ment of Infantry, mustered into the United States service at Anna, Illinois. The regiment reported for duty at Cairo and was soon ordered to Island No. 10, where it was attached to General Pope's command.
After Island No. 10 and New Madrid were taken, General Pope with his division was ordered to report to General Grant at Shiloh for duty. In the siege of Corinth, Pope commanded the left wing of the army. defeating the Rebels at Farmington. Mississippi, before Corinth. When Corinth was taken a division of the army was made and the Sixtieth Ilinois was assigned to the Army of the Ohio, in General Pahner's com- mand, and this division went to Tuscumbia, Alabama, thence to Nash- ville, Tennessee. There it participated in the rout of the enemy in an effort made to capture the capital city, which at that time was held by General Negley's command.
In November. 1862, after the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, General Rosencrans succeeded General Buel in command of the Ohio and another organization was made and known as the Army of the Cumberland. In this command the regiment was attached to the Fourth Corps and after the battle of Stone River was sent to the right wing and hekt that posi- tion during the Tullahoma, Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaign. At Chattanooga the army was again reorganized and the regiment and brigade with which it served were First Brigade, Second Division, Four- teenth Army Corps, and in that command served until the close of the war.
After the battles of Lookont Mountain and Missionary Ridge and the march to relieve Burnside at Knoxville. Tennessee, the regiment went into camp January 2. 1864. at Rossville, Georgia. In February. it re-enlisted and was sent home for thirty days' rest and for recruiting purposes. Before starting home it was engaged in the first battle of Buzzard Roost, Georgia, February 26, 1864. In May. 1861, the second day, the command moved out on the Atlanta campaign. On the Dalton road the Sixtieth Illinois was in advance and met the outpost of the enemy at Ringgold, Georgia, pressing them back over Taylor's Ridge toward Tunnel Hill. Here the real service of the campaign began and the Sixtieth Illinois in that campaign saw service at Buzzard Roost. Resaca. Ezra Church or Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw Mountain, Marietta, Peachtree Creek, Jonesboro, and many other less important actions.
In all these engagements Mr. Copeland did his full part. Einlist. ing as a private, he was promoted to non-commissioned offices until .Inne. 1863, when he was commissioned lieutenant, and heldt that rank when discharged at Atlanta, Georgia, September 23, 1564. He was captured once, but was soon back in line, and was wounded at the battle of Dallas, Georgia, May 30, 1864.
With his return to civilian life, his thoughts recurred to the profes sion whose progress had been interrupted by the outbreak of the war. and Mr. Copeland resumed journalistic efforts in his home town, and eventually became the editor and publisher of the Johnson County Journal, which stands out as his first independent venture. Then, east-
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ing about for a location in which to establish a Republican paper, he chose Marion, in Williamson county. Previous efforts had been made to lodge a Republican paper there, but all had failed, excepting as eam- paign papers, so the outlook was not encouraging when Mr. Copeland launched the Marion Monitor. It thrived, however, in spite of these adverse conditions, and became the first journal of its political faith to successfully assault this citadel of Democracy. Editor Copeland took no middle ground. He nailed the flag to the mast, assumed an attitude of defiance to the opponents of Republican doctrines, and his first edi- torial announcement carved out a course in keeping with the policies and intentions of the editor that left nothing to be inferred.
The Monitor was established in 1874 and in 1887 it was merged in another publication. and The Leader was given birth. E. E. Mitehell, John H. Duncan, W. II. Boles and W. C. G. Rhea were prominent factors on the paper for one year, after which Mr. Copeland became editor and owner. Ile conducted the paper until 1901, with the exeep- tion of a period of four years when he was postmaster of Marion, be- tween 1881 and 1885. In 1901 Mr. Copeland sold the plant to O. J. Page, the present owner and publisher. IIe was loath, however, to abandon the quill, and presently the Record, another Republican weekly, appeared. One year later it too was taken over by Mr. Page, since which time Mr. Copeland has been engaged in the cultivation of plants and flowers within the city on a plot of ground which he acquired when it was a part of the country outside the present city of Marion, but which he has platted and improved in keeping with the existing phase of suburban development. There he eonduets what is known as the Marion Greenhouses, and does a thriving business as a dealer in plants, bulbs, seeds, cut flowers, and as a producer of much of his marketable stock.
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