USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 81
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Dr. George Hoffman spent his minority in Maeystown and was educated liberally in the public schools there and at Waterloo. Ilis parents being natives of Germany, he rapidly acquired a fluent speak- ing and reading knowledge of the German tongue and one of his first acts upon approaching manhood was to become assistant teacher of Ger- man in the Maeystown schools. As a youth he thoroughly familiarized himself with the principles of merchandising in his father's store and early developed a taste for business there. About the time he attained his legal majority he became interested in the subject of pharmacy and for a short period was a student in the College of Pharmacy at St. Louis. He completed this profession in a practical way, as required by Missouri law, in a drug store in the eity and subsequently he took up the prepa- ration for medicine in the St. Louis College of Physicians and Sur- geons, being graduated in that excellent institution as a member of the class of 1896. He initiated the active practice of his profession at Campbell Hill. Illinois, and after residing in that place for a period of eleven years, removed to Chester, establishing himself in the latter city in 1907. He is renowned as one of the finest physicians and surgeons in Randolph county and he also holds prestige as a particularly capable business man at Chester. Hle is interested in various financial ventures of broad scope and importance, thus gratifying his penchant for com- mercial pursuits acquired in childhood. He was the chief partner in the Dyer furniture business in Willisville while a resident of Camp- bell Hill, and he also opened and operated a mine at Willisville. Illi- nois, the mine being now operated under lease. In Chester he is one of the partners in the Chester Furniture Company. has considerable stock in the Chester Water & Power Company and is a stockholder in the First State Bank here. His professional connection are with the Randolph County Medical Society. the Southern Illinois Medical So- ciety, the Illinois State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
In his political allegiance Dr. Hoffman is a stalwart in the ranks
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of the Republican party, and while a resident of Campbell Hill he was there a participant in some of the local political battles. He de- feated the Democratic incumbent of the office of supervisor in his pre- cinet and won his election by a good lead against long political odds. After serving for one year on the board, however, he found himself chafing under the restraint put upon him by political friends and he resigned the office with his ambition for public service gratified. He belongs to the Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of Masonry, is a Modern Woodman of America, and in religions matters is a devout member of the German Evangelical church, to whose good works he is a liberal contributor.
In Chester, Illinois, on the 13th of November, 1902. Dr. Hoffman was united in marriage to Miss Dora Ebers, a daughter of former Sheriff William Ebers. Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman have three children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth: Ebers, Sabilla and Ohmer.
EDWARD MAEYS. Although still a young man, being somewhat under thirty years of age at this writing. Edward Maeys is forging ahead in the business world, and has already amply demonstrated that he possesses no slight ability in that sphere. As manager of the mer- cantile business which his father has conducted at intermittent periods since 1858. he has given evidence of a splendid capacity with reference to managerial details and the manifold duties attendant upon a po- sition such as he holds.
Edward Maeys was born in Maeystown, Illinois, on March 12, 1884. lle is the son of JJacob and Christine (Driemeyer) Macys. The father was born in Oggenheim, New Bavaria. Germany, on October 4. 1828, and came to America with his parents when a mere babe. The Maeys family located in Pennsylvania in 1832, where they remained for about nine years, after which they removed to St. Louis. Their stay in that city was but short. and they moved into Illinois, where the eller Marys became interested as a l'armer. They seenred a farm near the present site of Maeystown, and in 1845 the father died, leaving his son JJacob the head of the home. He continued with the farming for some years. when he ventured into the saw-mill industry and built a saw mill. The little mill which he erected and operated was the means of establishing the town named Maeystown, ont of deference to the man whose industry and enterprise had brought about its existence.
In 1856 Jacob Maeys married Barbara Fisher. She died on JJanuary 9, 1880, leaving him three children, and on Angust 11. 1Ss1. he con- tracted a second marriage, when Christine Driemeyer became his wife. Two children, Edward and Charles, were born of this latter union. Shortly after his first marriage Mr. Marys opened a general store in the little town which represented the center of his industrial activities. and soon thereafter he gave up the saw-mill business, devoting himself to the store, which he continued to conduct until 1893, when he sold out to his brother William. After ten years he bought back the busi- ness, and he is still the virtual head of affairs, although much of the vares of administration rest with his son Edward, who is the acting manager of the business.
. Mr. Maeys has been prominent in this section of the state for many years. He is a Democrat in his political convictions, and has served his town and county in various official capacities since his early life. At one time he was county commissioner, and as a school director has done especially good work for his town. Mr. and Mrs. Maeys are members of the Evangelical church, and are active in its various departments. Mr
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Maeys is a director of the Waterloo State Bank, and was postmaster of Maeystown from 1860 to 1893.
Edward Maeys, now the manager of his father's extensive business interests, passed his early years as an attendant at the Maeystown pub- lie sehools. Following his gradnation therefrom he entered the Bryant & Stratton Commercial College of St. Louis, where he took a full and complete course of instruction. Returning to his home on the comple- tion of his college course, he became engaged as a grain buyer for the Nanson Commission Company, and he served for four years in that capacity. Following the termination of his connection with that com- pany he was agent at Maeys Station for the St. Louis & I. M. Railroad for some little time, but on October 1, 1907, he entered his father's store as manager of the establishment, and in that position he has done most efficient work, relieving his aged father of the cares of the business, with which he was actively connected for so many years.
Like his father, Mr. Maeys is a loyal Democrat, and he shares in the family faith as well, being a member of the Evangelical church. He has been secretary of the Farmers' Telephone Company, of which or- ganization the Maeys Company is a stockholder. Mr. Maeys is as yet unmarried.
Charles Mayes, the brother of Edward, was born on January 12, 1886, at Maeystown, Illinois, and, like his brother, attended the Maeys- town public schools in his boyhood. He later entered Walters Commer- eial College of St. Louis Missouri, from which he was gradnated in 1903, thereafter entering his father's store as a clerk at Maeystown. He is now the manager of his father's store at Maeys station, and is giving evidence of possession of the family traits of good business ability which have characterized the activities of his father and his brother Edward. He is a Democrat and a member of the Evangelical church, in common with other members of the family.
On December 23, 1908, Mr. Maeys was married to Miss Leona Struebig, of Waterloo, Illinois.
AUGUST REICHERT. Among the numerous Pulaski county farm- ing men who have achieved a high degree of success in their chosen industry and who have contributed no little share to the progress of the county in a substantial way, August Reichert takes foremost rank. His operations in an agricultural way have been as important to the community as to himself, and his constant application of the zeal and industry which is the birthright of the true German have been valu- able factors in the sum of his accomplishments.
Angust Reichert is a native of Illinois. He is the son of German parents who settled in St. Clair county when they immigrated from the Fatherland. The father, Jacob Reichert, was born near Heidel- berg in the German state of Baden in 1828, and when he grew to young manhood and immigrated to America he was followed hither by his aged parents, in the hope of bettering their condition in another land. Jacob Reichert. Sr., the grandfather of August Reichert, died in St. Clair county in 1863 at the age of eighty years. Jacob, Jr., was one of six children, the others being Joseph, John, Catherine, who married J. F. Weist, Agnes, who became Mrs. Philip Koestore and is now de- ceased, and Therese, who married John Ditzel. The wife of Jacob Rei- ehert, Jr., and the mother of August was Frieda Hammann, and he was one of eight children born to them. They were: Theresa, who married Charles Arnold and passed away as a resident of St. Clair county ; John Frederiek, who is another of the more successful farmers of the Grand Chain district ; August, previously mentioned; Jacob, a resident of
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Freeberg, Illinois; John, of Seattle, Washington: Rosa, of St. Clair county ; Mary, who died as the wife of Edward Cole, of St. Louis; and Frieda, who married Fred Ilenslet, of San Diego, California. The mother of this sturdy family lived to see fifty years of wedded joys and sor- rows, and she passed quietly away at the home of the family in St. Clair county in February, 1902, on her golden wedding anniversary. The father, Jacob Reichert, Jr., saw his first glimpse of the United States at New Orleans in 1848, and he worked his passage up the Missis- sippi river to St. Louis as a fireman. fle located near Freeburg. Ilinois. and passed many years as a farmer, moving by stages from the small tiller of the soil to the position of a more prosperous agriculturist, and becoming known as one of the solid men of his community. In later years he entered into the brewing business and conducted a brewery at Freeport with much success for a number of years. He passed away in 1901. at the age of seventy-three years, his well beloved wife follow- ing him in the next year.
When August Reichert began to cast about for a means of liveli- hood for the future he was fairly well equipped in an educational way. He had attended the common schools and the Catholic school at Free- burg as a boy and youth, and the business of farming which he decided to make his interests might well be conducted with such knowledge as he possessed. His later life, however, bears evidence that he has per- mitted no opportunity to escape which might add to his knowledge of business, and he has been a close student of the science of modern agri- culture, so that the passing of years has produced a man of excellent ability, who has accomplished a success worthy of any man's effort. When Mr. Reichert came down to Pulaski county as a young man he brought all his worldly possessions of stock and farming implements in one car, and he had in addition fifteen dollars in coin of the realm. In St. Louis he sold one of his mules for one hundred and sixty dollars and with this he made the first payment on his farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which traet formed the nucleus of his now extensive estate. The land was partly timbered, and there were stumps in plenty and some little frontier improvements. That portion of Pulaski county. while in an old and settled section of linois, was yet in a most primi- tive state. Few settlers had pitched their tents there permanently until after the close of the rebellion, and the farming done by them even then was carried on in a most shiftless and half-hearted manner. It ro- quired the vim and vigor of such men as August Reichert and his brother, John Frederick, to bring that neglected section up to the high standard made possible by its natural excellence and the splendid facili- ties for agricultural prosperity which the whole district affords. These truly admirable traits of vim and vigor, industry and courage, Were thoroughly implanted in the character of August Reichert, and he ap- plied them in lavish measure to the work of redneing his new farm to that state at which it might justly be regarded as a home He multi- plied his little handful of stock until his herds assumed a nice propor- tion : he fed his corn to his hogs and raised more hogs; he grazed his cattle and winter and summer disposed of his marketable stuff. He was able to meet his payments on his land promptly, and bought more land adjacent to his original quarter section, tenant labor making them prodnetive for him. He built barns and sheds for the comfort of his stock and completed a long line of valuable improvements in his prop erty when he built his present handsome residence, which is a model of excellence and is typical of the best in country homes. His farm has increased to an average of seven hundred and sixty acres and it provides a home for a goodly number of tenant families and gives labor Vol ITI-35
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to many people. In brief, the horoscope of August Reichert read from the stars at the time he began his career in Pulaski county could hardly have been so glitterig an account as his actual achievements show it. Grand Chain has always been his principal trading point, owing to its nearness and its numerous other conveniences. He encouraged the es- tablishment of a bank at the little town by taking generously of its stock, and he is also a member of the Grand Chain Mercantile Company, one of the leading concerns of the place, and has in many ways exerted a beneficial influence upon the town and surrounding country. Mr. Reichert has always been an adherent of the Democratic party and has given his hearty support to the cause. He will always be found to have an opinion and voice in matters concerning the welfare of his com- munity, and his influence may be depended upon to further the cause of justice and honor at all times.
Mr. Reichert was married on September 6, 1880, to Miss Lonisa Ranth, the daughter of Fred Ranth, a German immigrant and a farmer. A fine family of eleven sturdy sons and daughters have been reared in the Reichert home. They are: Lena, the wife of Ed. Merchant, of Kansas City, Missouri ; John A., who married Clara Roach and is one of the successful Grand Chain farmers; Frederick married Lncy Stevers, and they are located in the near vicinity of the old home; Adam, Angust, Robert, Ida, Katie, Clara, Parmelia and Alene are yet in the shelter of the parental home.
HOSEA H. MOORE, M. D. Numbered among the foremost citizens of Fairfield is Dr. Hosea HI. Moore, a retired physician, who is now de- voting his entire time and attention to his extensive agricultural in- terests. A native of Illinois, he was born November 18, 1842, in Wash- ington county, being the next to the youngest child in a family of sixteen.
His father, Hartwell Moore, was born in Virginia in about 1797. As a young man he moved to Kentucky, from there coming, in the 'twenties, to Illinois. Loeating in Washington county, he took up land and was there engaged in tilling the soil until his death, in 1863. He married Cynthia Wright, a native of Kentucky, and of the sixteen children born of their union ten grew to years of maturity, as follows: Mrs. Naney (Roundtree) Hawkins, Mrs. Jane Christian, Mrs. Lucinda Wheeler, Mrs. Elizabeth Sawyer, Mrs. Mary Roundtree, John, Nathan- iel, Thomas W., Sidney and Hosea II. Mrs Hawkins, Thomas W. and Hosea are the only members of the family now living.
Brought up in Washington county, Hosea H. Moore received good educational advantages, in the spring of 1865 being graduated from the medical department of the University of Michigan, with the degree of M. D. Immediately beginning the practice of medicine in Washington county, Illinois, he remained there until 1878, when he entered Me- Kendree College, where in addition to taking the regular course in surgery he studied elocution, in 1882 being there gradnated with the degree of B. S. Settling in Wayne county, Illinois, in that year, Dr. Moore purchased land in Massillon township, and in addition to look- ing after his farming interests was there engaged in the practice of his profession for a score of years, being quite sneeessful as a physician. In 1897 the Doctor removed to Fairfield, and having retired from the active practice of his profession is bnsily employed in supervising his two farms, one of which. containing four hundred and eighty-five aeres, is located in Massillon township, while the other farm of seventy acres lies near Fairfield.
The Doctor is one of the directors of the First National Bank of
A.S. Lightwer
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Fairfield. Hle belongs to Fairfield Lodge, No. 206, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, of Fairfield, and is the present master, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically he is iden- tified with the Democratic party, and has filled various township offices, for a number of terms representing Massillon township on the county board of supervisors.
Dr. Moore married, in 1865, Ellen W. Walker, a daughter of Presley Walker, of Washington county. Five children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Moore, namely : Dalton P., publisher of the Olney Times, is married, and has one child, Eugene W. Moore; William Edgar, a farmer, is married and has three children, Nellie, and William and Sarah, twins; Effie deceased; and Mrs. Mary E. Monts, who has one child, George Albert Moats, and Nellie, who died at the age of nine years. Mrs. Moore was born in St. Clair county, Illinois, September 7. 1844, and was reared and educated in St. Clair and Washington counties. She is a member of the Methodist church.
CAPTAIN ALFRED S. LIGIITNER, retired river man since 1910, and a resident of Randolph, Illinois, at intermittent periods since 1885, but continuously since his retirement, is a man of wide experiences and one of the most interesting men to be found in his section of the country. For fifty-six years he was in the river service, a part of that time ex- tending back to the ante-bellum days, and covering several years of the old regime in the days of Sam Clemens, Horace Bixby and the high-tide of navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. From "cub" pilot to captain is the experience of Captain Lightner, and he has seen diver- sity of service from first to last that is replete with thrilling and often amusing incidents.
Alfred S. Lightner was born at. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on March 23, 1835. His father, Levi L. Lightner, settled in Cape Girardeau when there were only five white families in the place, and he built the first briek house there. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania. in 1806, and he came down the Ohio river on a keel boat ns an emigrant to a new country. He engaged in traffic with the Indians in and about the Cape for some time, and then crossed over to Ilinois and engaged in milling, cutting lumber out of the dense and virgin forests of Alexander county, in which place he took a prominent part in the affairs of the county during its formative period. With the high water of 1844 he returned to the Missouri side of the river. Coming again to Illinois, he joined Jonathan Freeman and platted the town of Thebes. He was mainly instrumental in removing the county seat from Old U'nity to Thebes, and in causing the erection of the old court house which still looks out upon the " Father of Waters" from its lofty site and calls at- tention to its one time importance when, as a public forum, it gave echo to the voices of some of the most brilliant of Illinois men. Levi Light- ner was essentially a leader in political thought and action. In those early days he held many important public offices, and in them all served capably and significantly. He was circuit clerk, county judge and school commissioner. Ile was first a Whig in his political convictions, but later embraced Democracy, and he was an acquaintance of General Logan, John Simons, John Daugherty. Watt Webb and a Mr. Baker. all attorneys and all leading citizens of the state just previous to and during the rebellion. Ile was a man of ripe judgment, an able adviser. and a thorough master of legal forms, and his office was a popular ren- dezvous for persons seeking services along legal and official lines. le was a singularly attractive man, being well informed on the topies of the day and was a brilliant conversationalist. Mr. Lightner was first
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married to a lady of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and five children were born of their union. They were Matilda, Louisa, Julia, Elizabeth and John, all deceased. The second wife of Mr. Lightner was Eleanor Shel- by a daughter of Dr. Shelby, of Nashville, Tennessee, and a niece of Ex- Governor Shelby of that state. The issue of their union were Alfred S., of this review, and Levi L., the latter of whom served in the United States navy during the Civil war and was a pilot and master on the Mississippi river for many years after the close of the war. He passed away at Thebes.
Alfred S. Lightner spent his boyhood chiefly in Thebes, the family home, and there he received an ordinary common school education. In 1854 he went on the river as a "eub" pilot with Pilot John L. Harbin- son on the steamer "Bunker Hill" from St. Louis to Cairo and Paducah. He subsequently became captain of the steamer "George Albree" in 1856. Later he was pilot of the "Tom Jones," of the "Atlanta," the "Philadelphia," the "James H. Lueas," the "Platte Valle," the "G. W. Graham," the "John H. Diekey," the "First City of Alton," the "City of Cairo" the "Marble City," and the "John D. Perry." He was captain of the "Adam Jacobs," the "Emma C. Elliott," the "Buckeye State," the steamer "Oakland," the "Hill City," the "Georgie Lee," and the "Stacker Lee," which ended his river service in 1910.
During the rebellion Captain Lightner was captain of the fleet steamer "Illinois," which transported some of General Grant's men from Bird Point to Fort Henry, his vessel having on board the Twen- tieth Illinois and the Eighth Missouri Infantry, in the command of Col- onels Marsh and Marion L. Smith. After the fall of Fort Henry he took his vessel around to Fort Donelson and later up the river to Pittsburgh Landing. Some months later he was, an officer of the steamer Bonicord, carrying troops to Island No. 10 and Fort Pillow, and at other time he was in the transport service of the government. During all these years he never met with an accident or saw a boat in distress, although he passed over the spot within a few hours where the steamer "Sultan," commanded by Captain Cass. L. Mason, went down with its hundreds of Union soldiers.
During these years Captain Lightner had maintained a home for his his family in St. Louis, but he became anxious to remove his growing family away from the city into the country, and he accordingly ex- changed his city property for the General Miller farm near Perey, Illi- nois, which has represented the family home sinee 1885. There he makes his home now, after his family have reached years of manhood and wom- anhood and have passed out into the world to be makers of history on their own accounts in the various walks of life. The Captain is a man of homelike instinets and enjoys to the utmost the pleasure of a happy home after his half century of fresh-water sailing. He has no interest in polities save as a voter of the Democratic tieket on occasions, and he cast his first presidential vote for Millard Fillmore and his last one for W. J. Bryan.
Captain Lightner has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Amanda M. Crouse, whom he married in St. Louis on April 12, 1859. She was a daughter of Samuel Crouse, of Zanesville, Ohio, and she died in St. Louis. She was the mother of A. Shelby, who died unmar- ried ; Lena Leota, the wife of August Heman, a prominent contractor of St. Louis ; Mollie B., who married J. C. Heman, also a member of the firm of the Heman Construction Company, of that city : Lillian A .. the wife of Charles B. Griffin, who is with the Great Northern Railway Company at Havre, Montana ; William L., a railroad employe at Salt
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Lake, Utah; and Minnie, of New York. The second wife of Captain Lightner was Mrs. Elizabeth Pollock, the widow of Dr. Pollock, of Ches- ter, Illinois. Her father was an old settler of Kaskaskia. IIer chil- dren are John Pollock and Ada, the latter of whom is the wife of David B. Cooper. No children have been born of the Captain's second marriage.
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