USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 8
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Frank George Kuhls spent his boyhood days in Breese, his education being secured in the parochial schools, and he also spent one year in St. Joseph's College, Tentopolis, Effingham county. Subsequently he took a medieal course at Washington University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1898, immediately after which he returned to Breese and began practice. Thoroughly abreast of the times, Dr. Kuhls is a close student and thinker, and is a subscriber to the leading medical journals of the country and holds membership in vari- ons medical associations. He specializes in diseases of women and has handled some very complicated and discouraging cases with complete success. He has an enviable reputation in his profession, and is equally favorably known as a business man, having interested himself in the real estate field and dealt in considerable property in the vicinity of Brees for a number of years. His political support is given to the Democratic party, but like his father he has never cared for publie preferment. Ho and his wife are well known members of the Catholic church and Have many friends in its congregation.
In 1900 Dr. Kuhls was married to Miss Anna Kline, of Carlyle, Clin- ton county, Illinois, and five children have been born to this union, namely : Viola, Adolph, Angeline, Anna and Lonise.
Vol. 111-4
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DR. WILLIS E. LINGLE, for several years past identified with the medi- cal profession in Union county, is the representative of a family which has been closely allied with the history of that county since its organiza- tion. Born April 23, 1872, he is the son of George W. Lingle, who was born in 1850, on the old farmstead in Cobden, Union county, and he still lives in Union county. The father of George W. Lingle and the grand- father of Willis E. Lingle was Henry Lingle, a native of North Caro- lina and a man of German extraction. He came to Union county about 1820, in company with a number of other homeseekers from the Caro- linas. At one time in the early history of that county Henry Lingle owned a traet of one hundred and twenty acres of farm land, which constitutes the present site of Cobden. When the Illinois Central Rail- road passed through that region in 1855, Mr. Lingle sold his entire hold- ings to that company, realizing a handsome profit on the transaction, after which he moved out seven miles northeast of the present town site of Cobden and bought a farm of five hundred aeres. Henry Lingle was always a man of action. Ile was a veteran of the Mexican war, winning for himself a splendid record during his service. He passed away in recent years, but his wife, Elizabeth (Vansel) Lingle, still lives. George Lingle, their son, is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and forty aeres, ninety acres of which are a portion of the old Lingle estate. He was a prosperous man, ambitions and energetic. He married Amelia C. Brooks, a daughter of Larkin Brooks, a native of North Carolina, and who operated a planing mill, the only mill of its nature in Union county for many years. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. George Lingle four children were born. They are : Willis E., of this review, a practicing physician of Cobden ; Fred Lee, of Alto Pass, also a practicing physician ; George Mel- vin, who is on the home farm, married Miss Laura Crawshaw, daughter of Abe Crawshaw, a well known stock farmer of Jackson county; the daughter is Naomi.
Dr. Lingle attended school in his home county and at the Normal at Carbondale; in 1890 he matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in March, 1894. He began practice in Makanda, where he was interested in a drug store, remaining there one year. The following two years he practiced at Degonia, Jack- son county, and in 1897, came to Cobden.
On January 29. 1896, Dr. Lingle married Miss Mary Estella Patter- son, daughter of Gabriel W. Patterson of Makanda, a prominent mer- ehant and grain dealer of that place. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Lingle, Leland Patterson and Kathryn.
WILLIAM HENRY HUBBARD, state's attorney at Greenville, Illinois, and one of the members of the legal profession in Southern Illinois, was born June 29, 1849, in Castile. Wyoming county, New York, and is a son of William Henry and Elvyn Phelps ( Wells) Hubbard.
William Henry Hubbard, the father, was born at Hopewell, Ontario county. New York. July 17, 1822, and was reared on the farm of his father. Pliny Hubbard, on which he resided until 1861. In that year he became general agent for the Hubbard Mowing Machine Company, with which he was associated until 1868, and the family then moved to Syracuse, New York. A few years later Mr. Hubbard removed to a farm eighteen miles from Syraense, at Pompey. Onondaga county, New York, and in 1874 traded this property for a farm and store at Ferry in Oecana county, Michigan. In 1879 Mr. Hubbard traded his Michi- gan interests for property in South Evanston, Illinois, and during the remainder of his life he made his home in South Evanston and Chicago, becoming a dealer in real estate and aceumulating considerable prop-
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erty. His death occurred October 11. 1899, when he was on a trip to Depere, Wisconsin. On June 12. 1846, Mr. Hubbard was married at Webster, New York, to Miss Elvyn Phelps Wells, a direct descendant of General Israel Chapin, of Revolutionary fame, and there were five children born to this union : Wells Foster, born May 10, 1847: William Henry, Jr .. June 29, 1849; Charles P., January 23. 1851 : Frank L., July 10, 1855; and Nellie Eva, now Mrs. R. W. Hodgson, of Kingman, Kan- sas, July 10. 1859. William Henry and Mrs. Hodgson are the only sur- vivors. Mrs. Hubbard died October 2. 1904, dying in the faith of the Universalist church. Mr. Hubbard was a stanch Democrat in his politi- eal views, and a prominent Mason.
William Henry Hubbard spent his early life in the East, receiving his education in the public schools of his native state and commencing to read law when he was about twenty years of age. He was admitted to the Syraense bar in 1871. and there was engaged in practice until 1889. As a lad Mr. Hubbard had learned the printer's trade. and on going to Centerville, Michigan. in 1889, he purchased a printing office and edited the St. Joseph county Republican, but in 1890 moved the plant to Carbondale. Illinois, where he established the Jackson county Republican, which was consolidated with the Free Press in 1893. and conducted by Mr. IFubbard until 1897. In that year his health failed, and in December he went to Seattle, Washington, where he remained un- til January, 1904, when he returned to Illinois, settled in Greenville, and established himself in a large and lucrative law practice. Mr. Hub- bard is a stanch Republican in political matters, and in Oceana county, Michigan, served as state's attorney. Shortly after locating in Green- ville he was elected justice of the peace, and in November, 1908, he was elected to the office of state's attorney of Greenville, an office which he has held to the present time. Mr. Hubbard belongs to the Masonic order and to the Presbyterian church.
On June 27, 1867. when not yet eighteen years of age, Mr. Hubbard was married to Miss Imogene Ide, daughter of Darius and Mary Ide, of New York, and she died July 30. 1888, in Syracuse, having been the mother of two children : Mary Evelyn and Charles W. Mary Evelyn was educated in the Southern Illinois Normal School, at Carbondale. and is now the wife of Frank E. Watson, of Greenville; while Charles W., who was also a student of the normal school, is engaged in the com- mission business in this eity.
Mr. Hubbard has contributed the force of a potent personality and consistent civie patriotism to every enterprise which has contemplated the upbuilding of his adopted city, and he has always been energetic. eager, enthusiastic, broad-minded and ready to do large things in a large way. Education, charity and religion have all found a place in his heart, and he can truly be said to be one of his community's most representative men.
CARL BAKER, M. D. One of the representative physicians and sur- geons of Williamson county. Illinois, Dr. Carl Baker is well upholding the prestige of the honored name which he bears. He is descended from a fine old North Carolina family, his great-grandfather. Jonathan Baker. having been a native of the Old Dominion commonwealth, where the Baker family were founded in the colonial epoch. Carl Baker, in his professional work, is associated with his father, Dr. Griffin JJ Baker. who is a native son of Williamson county and who has been engaged in the practice of medicine in this section of the state for over thirty four years. Father and son are now located at Herrin, where they control a
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large and lucrative practice and where they are esteemed as eitizens of intrinsic loyalty and publie spirit.
Jonathan Baker, great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was a native of North Carolina, whenee he removed, with his family to Tennessee. Among his children were: George, who died un- married; Abel, who passed his deelining years in Williamson county, Illinois, where he died at the patriarchal age of ninety years; Benja- min J., who died at Paragould, Arkansas; Jonathan Aaron was the grandfather of Dr. Carl, of this notice; Jaeob D. is the father of Mar- tin Luther Baker, of Marion, Illinois; Rachel became the wife of Ezekiel Clark and passed away in Williamson county; Ann married Louis Cross and died near Chester, Illinois; and Casander became the wife of Wil- liam Rodden and passed her life in Missouri.
Jonathan Aaron Baker was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in 1821, and in 1836 he accompanied his parents to Benton county, Tennessee, where he was reared and educated and where was solemnized his marriage, in 1847, to Miss Mathilda C. Sanders. In 1850 he removed to Illinois, settling in Williamson county, where he was identified with agrienltural pursuits until the time of his death, in 1875. Ilis cherished and devoted wife died in 1873. Their children were: Alonzo P., a medical practitioner at Herrin ; Dr. Griffin J., father of Dr. Carl, of this notice; Dr. Miles D., of Anna, Illinois; and Belle and Vir- gil, who passed away in childhood.
Dr. Griffin J. Baker passed his boyhood and youth on the old pa- rental farm in Grassy Preeinet, Williamson county, where he was born May 27, 1851. He made the most of such educational advantages as eame his way and at the age of seventeen years began to teach a country school. He was identified with the pedagogic profession in Williamson and Jaekson counties for a number of terms, during which time he was applying himself diligently to the study of medicine under the able pre- ceptorship of an older brother. Subsequently he was matriculated as a student in the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, in which he was gradnated as a member of the elass of 1878, with the degree of Doctor of Medieine. Ile initiated the practice of his profession in Southern Wil- liamson county, where he remained until 1906, when he came to Herrin to practice medieine with his son, Dr. Carl Baker. In 1872 Dr. Griffin J. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Lney A. Allen, a daughter of Isaae and Martha J. (Bayless) Allen, originally of Tennessee. Con- eerning the five children born to Dr. and Mrs. Baker the following brief data are here inserted,-Rhoda M. died as Mrs. George L. Roberts, and is survived by two sons, Paul and Henry Roberts, who reside with their maternal grandparents at Herrin; Dr. Carl is the immediate subjeet of this review; Ada died at the age of eighteen years, and two children died in infancy.
Dr. Carl Baker was born at Cottage Home, Grassy Preeinet of Wil- liamson county, Illinois, April 25, 1877. He received his preliminary educational training in the publie schools of his native place and when seventeen years of age entered the preparatory department of the Southern Illinois Normal University, at Carbondale. For four years he was a student in the medieal department of the Northwestern Univer- sity at Chieago, being graduated in that excellent institution in 1906. Immediately after graduation he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he performed serviees as interne at the Salt Lake City Hospital. In the following year he came to Herrin, where he has sinee been associated with his venerable father in medical work. Both Dr. Griffin J. and Dr. Carl Baker are appreciative and valued members of the Southern Illi- nois Medical Society and of the American Medical Association. Dur-
Ởred &.Rapp.
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ing the long years in which Dr. Baker, Sr., has been a member of the medical profession he has done considerable scientific research work and in ISSS he returned to his Alma Mater, the University of Missouri, for post-graduate work. Ilis professional career excites the admiration and has won the respect of his contemporaries, and in a calling in which one has to gain reputation by merit alone he has advanced steadily until he is acknowledged as the superior of most of the members of the pro- fession in this part of the state, having long since left the ranks of the many to stand among the successful few. In their political convic- tions Drs. Baker are stanch supporters of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while they have no time for participation in public affairs they are ever active in pro- moting progress and improvement.
At Carbondale, Illinois, October 20, 1902, Dr. Carl Baker married Miss Lena Baird, the second child of William and Belle (Church) Baird. Mr. Baird was a gallant soldier in the Union ranks during the Civil war and after the close of hostilities located at Carbondale. Dr. and Mrs. Baker have one daughter, Ceeil May.
FREDERICK G. RAPP. Columbia possesses one of the first requisites for success, a publie spirited mayor, Frederick G. Rapp. the incumbent of that offiee now serving upon his second term and having made a record for efficiency which is indeed pleasant for all concerned. In the business world he is known as a particularly successful insurance and real estate man, representing some of the most important eompa- nies. He is also known as an educator and for eighteen years di- reeted the "young idea" in the public schools of Monroe county. In truth, his services were such as to make it a matter of general regret when he entered a new line of endeavor.
Mr. Rapp is a native son of the state and is very loyal to all its in- stitutions. Ile was born in Central City, December 6. 1871, and is of German extraction, his father, the Rev. John T. Rapp, having been born in 1835 in Germany. At the age of thirty years he came to the land of the stars and stripes. He had prepared for the ministry of the Evangelieal church in his native country and upon coming here he located at Nashville, Illinois, and was minister of the Evangelical church for the space of five years. He then removed to Central City and Centralia. having congregations in both places, He was married to a young countrywoman to whom he had been betrothed in Germany,- Miss Mary Scherbart-his fiancee joining him in Nashville, Ilinois. where the marriage took place. To their union five children were born, Frederick G. being the third in order of birth. Martha, now Mrs. Heineman. of St. Louis, and the subject alone survive. Rey. Mr. Rapp spent the remainder of his life in Centralia, his demise occurring in 1876, when. Frederick was a lad only five years of age. He was well known and very generally respected and his untimely death was a matter of deep regret in many quarters. He was a thent speaker, pos- sessing, in truth, the gift of oratory which was exceedingly useful to him in his good work. His widow, who still survives, making her home in St. Louis, was a second time married, becoming the wife of Benjamin Findling, a teacher in the parochial schools of the Evangel- ieal church. The family subsequently removed from Central City to Waterloo where Mr. Findling had been engaged as principal of the Evangelical school, and there they resided until IsSS, when they went to St. Louis, where the step-father had accepted the principalship of St. Matthew's school and remained in such capacity until his death, in 1909.
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The earliest childhood of Frederick G. Rapp was passed in Central City, the removal to Waterloo, as previously mentioned, having been just following his mother's marriage. He was edneated in the paro- chial and public schools of Monroe county and was graduated from the high school at Waterloo in the year 1888. Then removing with the family to St. Louis, he became a teacher in St. Mathew's school, of which his step-father was principal. He remained in that city until 1890, when he came to Monroe county and, having successfully passed the examination which made him eligible to teach in the public schools, embarked in this work and for eighteen consecutive years taught in the schools. He was conscientious and enlightened in his methods and in this as in all else to which he has put his hand he was successful, the community ever congratulating itself upon the possession of in- structors of his type. However, in 1908 he severed his connection with pedagogical affairs and entered the real estate and insurance business, in which he is now engaged. He has built up a large and constantly growing business and is district agent for several fire and life insurance companies.
Mr. Rapp entered upon his career in the mayoralty in 1909 and is now serving his second term. He has given the town a elean, strong administration and has done much towards bringing about a number of things conducing to the general welfare. He was, for instance, in- strumental in securing the electric line from St. Louis to Waterloo, and lie is in all things thoroughly progressive. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Eastern Star. Hle is very loyal to the best interests of Columbia ; he purchased the land upon which is located the waterworks and electrie light plant ; he is busy with plans for an extensive waterworks and sewer- age system, and is very proud of the fact that Columbia has the finest streets and sidewalks in Monroe county. In addition to his other publie services he is also secretary of the school board. He is indeed one of the most prominent of Columbia's residents and assuredly is one of its most valuable citizens.
Mr. Rapp laid the foundations of a happy household and congenial life companionship when, on April 26, 1896, he was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Snyder, danghter of H. Snyder, of this place. They share their delightful home with two children, Viola and Walter. Mr. Rapp is Republican in politics, having given his support to the "Grand Old Party" since his earliest voting days.
ROBERT K. DEWEY. Having the distinction of being one of the old- est continuous residents of Greenville, Robert K. Dewey has been an important factor in stimulating the growth and prosperity of the city, and a brief review of his long and useful life cannot fail to be of in- terest to the people of this section of Southern Illinois, and we are therefore pleased to place before the readers of this volume an out- line of the chief events of his aetive career. Coming from honored New England ancestry, he was born Angust 25, 1830, in Lenox. Massachu- setts, one of the most beautiful spots in the Berkshire hills, where Dame Nature fashioned scenery exquisite in its variety and marvellous in its quiet beauty.
His father, Oliver Dewey, whose birth occurred in the same town, July 24, 1805. was brought up on a farm, and as a boy and youth at- tended the publie schools and the Lenox Academy. An excellent scholar, he prepared for college, but on account of delicate health did not matriculate. Soon after attaining his majority he was oppointed deputy sheriff, an office which he filled for the next twenty-five years.
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Coming then with his family to Illinois, he took up land in Aurora, Kane county, and was there engaged in general farming for a long time. On retiring from active pursuits he came to Greenville, and sub- sequently lived with his son Robert during his remaining years, pass- ing away March 4, 1901. In June, 1829, he was united in marriage with Eliza Sabin, a native of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, her birth there occurring on June 4, 1907. She died in Sandwich, De Kalb county, Illinois, December 23, 1886. They were both devoted members of the Congregational church, and in polities he was a steadfast Repub- lican. Six children were born of their union, as follows: Robert K., the special subject of this sketch; Edmund S., deceased ; Hannah J., wife of C. II. Sabin; Oliver B., deceased; Charles A .; and Myra E., wife of Andrew Beveredge.
Spending the first twenty years of his life in the Berkshires, Robert K. Dewey obtained the rudiments of his education in the public schools of Lenox, and subsequently continued his studies in the old academy in which his father had previously been a pupil. Coming to Ilinois in 1851, he taught school in Troy, Madison county, for a time, and in 1854 located permanently in Greenville, Bond county, which has since been his home. Taking up surveying, a profession in which he was an ex- pert, Mr. Dewey followed it many years, and superintended the laying ont of almost all of the town site of Greenville. He served as county surveyor many terms, and still does much surveying in this section of the country.
In 1861 Mr. Dewey offered his serviees to his country, but was de- nied enlistment on account of sickness. He enlisted. however, in 1864 as quartermaster sergeant of the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Hlinois Volunteer Infantry. His brother, the late Edumind S. Dewey, served during the war as captain of a company belonging to the One Hun- dred and Thirtieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, while his brother Oliver was a private in the Tenth Illinois Cavalry. His other brother, Charles A. Dewey, tried to enlist, but was rejected, as the forefinger of his right hand was missing.
Returning to Greenville at the elose of the war, Mr. Dewey cou- tinued as a surveyor until 1871, when he accepted the position of book- keeper in the First National Bank of Greenville, and retained it for ten years. Being made county surveyor in 1884, he held the office continu- onsly until the last election, in 1908, when he refused to run again. Since that time Mr. Dewey has been actively engaged in the real es- tate and insurance business, and also does considerable surveying.
A prominent and active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Mr. Dewey has belonged to this organization for over three score years, and has the distinction of being the oldest Odd Fellow in Southern Illinois. A zealous worker in the efforts to advance the good of the order, he has held the highest office of the order in the state. in 1872 having served as grand patriarch. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he has held all of the office. Politically he is an active supporter of the principles of the Repuli can party, and religiously, true to the faith of his ancestors, he is a Congregationalist.
JAMES HARLEY ALLAO. Possessing munch legal talent and abihty, and well versed in the intricacies of the law, James Harley Allio bas served several years as city attorney of Greenville, and is also master of clan eery for Bond county. A native of Pennsylvania, he was born Mas 5. 1871, in Clarion county, which was also the birthplace of His father. the late Levi Allio.
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A son of John Allio, Levi Allio's birth occurred on the home farm December 17, 1849. Succeeding to the occupation in which he was reared, he was engaged in tilling the soil in the Keystone state until 1879, when he located on a farm in the eastern part of Bond county, Illinois. In 1900 he migrated to Mississippi, and was there a resident until his death, September 25, 1911. He was a steadfast Republican in polities and a member of the Christian church. He married, in 1869, Aurilla Cornish, a daughter of Henry and Susan Cornish, prosperous members of the farming community of Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and to them seven children were born, of whom James Harley is the eldest child. The mother is still living in Mississippi.
Having laid an excellent foundation for his future education in the rural schools of Bond county, James Harley Allio subsequently at- tended Effingham College, in Effingham, Illinois, and Greenville Col- lege, in Greenville, Illinois. He afterwards took a post graduate course in law at Bushnell College, there receiving the degree of LL. B. In Mount Vernon, Illinois, in 1897, he was admitted to the bar, and at once resumed his labors as a teacher, a profession which he had previously followed in Bond county for eleven years. Opening an office at Green- ville in 1903, Mr. Allio has since been here successfully engaged in the practice of law, at the present time, as previously mentioned, serving as city attorney and as master in chaneery. He is likewise carrying on a successful work in the loan, real estate and abstract business, having a large patronage in each.
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