USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 90
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16, 1910, after which he engaged in practice with his brother; Rachel, married to a Mr. Kortge, and lives near West Salem on a large farm; Sarah lives at home with her mother on the old home farm; Mrs. Rebecca Schultz, who lives on a large stock farm near West Salem; and Stella is the wife of Dr. Frank Leslie, of Carmi, Illinois.
DR. T. C. WEBER, who is a native of West Salem, born in this place on April 14, 1870, on the farm of his father, is doubtless one of the best known men in Edwards county. Certain it is that he occupies a place of prominence among the foremost men of the county, and is regarded as one of the leading men in his profession, in which he is making rapid progress. He is the son of Mathias and Mary Elizabeth (Ely) Weber. Mathias Weber was a native born German, his birth occurring in Baden, Germany, on December 4, 1828, and he was the son of John Weber, of Baden, Germany. He came to America when he was yet in his 'teens, and to the day of his death was a true and loyal citizen of his adopted country. He gave valued service through two wars-the Mexican war and the Civil war, and was in every way a valuable citizen and a man highly esteemed and respected among his fellows.
Dr. T. C. Weber was reared on the farm of his father, and his early education was similar to that of his brothers and sisters. He worked on the farm as a boy and attended the district schools, and while in his teens he attended the Southern Collegiate Institute of Albion. When he was twenty-four years old he entered Barnes University at St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated from that institution on April 7, 1897, at that time receiving his degree of M. D. He began the practice of his profession at Parkersburg, Illinois, and continued there until May 1, 1905, when he went to Chicago and took a post graduate course in the Chicago Polytechnic. In October, 1905, he sold his practice in Parkers- burg and moved to West Salem. He then entered Washington Uni- versity at St. Louis, where he completed a course of study, and on April 17, 1907, he established a finely equipped surgical and medical office in West Salem. Ilere he is making a specialty of the treatment of tubercular diseases, and is especially attentive to surgery. His office is fitted with the latest in X-Ray and electrical appliances, and he is in every way prepared to cope with the most unusual conditions. He is assisted in his work by his brother, Dr. William C. Weber, a recent graduate of Barnes Medieal University of St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Weber is a student of the best and most advanced methods in the medi- cal and surgical world, and is making splendid progress in his chosen profession. Ile is a member of the County, State and American Medi- cal Associations, and his professional reputation is a matter of more than local scope. He is a member of a number of fraternal orders, among them being the Masonie order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen, Ben Hur and the Loyal Americans. Ile is a member of the Christian church.
On October 13, 1897, Dr. Weber was united in marriage with Miss Della B. Mason, the only daughter of Jacob T. Mason, one of the oldest residents of Edwards county. Dr. and Mrs. Weber became the parents of two children, Loy and Roy, both of whom died in infancy.
CHARLES SUMNER PIER. Among the large class of people who, even in this practical and materially purposive age, care deeply about the unseen things that are eternal, one hears frequent expressions of regret that there is nowadays little "ministerial timber" of a sort that is virile in intellect and personality. and at the same time forcible in the more intangible affairs of the spirit. Such a complaint is refuted by one ex-
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ample at least in the minds of those who know Charles S. Pier, who is the energetic pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Charleston, Illinois. Many of those to whom he is a personal friend, comforter or guide will be interested in a perusal of his family history and the record of his educational and professional career.
As both the Christian name and surname of Reverend Pier indicate. his family, in its paternal line, was originally French. The founder of the family in America, the great-great-grandfather of our subject, was a resident of New Jersey before and during the war of the Revolution. in which he probably participated. His son, Bernard Pier, of Pater- son, New Jersey, was a sergeant of the I'nited States army in the War of 1812. He married Jane Rutan, the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, who during his seven years' service was wounded in the thigh, but nevertheless continued his patriotie activity as soon as the wound was healed. The marriage of his daughter with Bernard Pier brought into the latter family a strain of Holland blood. Rynier Pier, a son of Jane Rutan and Bernard Pier, married Eliza Bailey. In 1850 the family left New York City, where Mr. Pier (grandfather of Charles S. Pier) was a wheel-wright and came to live in Perry county, Illinois. where at that time the country was wild and unbroken, covered with wild prairie grass and alive with abundant game. He found it con- venient to combine his former vocation with farming in this sparsely settled region. Ilis son, John Pier, had been born before the migra- tion of the family from the eastern metropolis, being a small child at the time the life of Illinois began. He attended the country school. Jater pursuing a course in the high school of Sparta. For a time thereafter he enjoyed the intellectual satisfaction of teaching, but later relinquished that profession for the pursuit which seems over most fascinating in a new land. After his marriage, in 1870, to Miss Sarah Jane Braden, a lady of Randolph county and a daughter of Irish parents -- he settled upon a farm in Six Mile Prairie in Perry county. Here it was that he lived until the age when he retired to Sparta, where he died. Ile had lived an active, useful life. He was a Republican in politics and for twelve years had given public service as a highway commissioner with- ont intermission. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church at Cutler, Illinois. His death occurred in 1910, although his father is still living in Sparta, at the age of ninety-two years.
On his father's farm in Six Mile Prairie Charles S. Pier was born in 1877. The only other member of the family in his generation was William R. Pier, who is a farmer in Perry county, Ilinois. Charles Sinner Pier was fortunate in a childhood spent in the wholesome nir of "God's out-of-doors." after which he passed to the Sparta high school and then to Knox College, at Galesburg. Ilinois. In 1901 he was grad- uated from the latter institution with the degree of A. B. During his course he was notably active in college literary work und oratory, serv- ing as an editor and business manager of the college weekly periodical published under student auspices and representing his alma mater in the inter-collegiate oratorical contest. His moral and religions enthu- siasm found outlet in various ways, particularly through the college Y. M. C. A., of which he was elected president. His vigorous physical manliness is attested by the fact that for two years he played on the college football team.
After the completion of his literary education Mr. Pier entered McCormick Theological Seminary. Chicago, Ilinois, where he studied for three years, being graduated with the class of 1901. Ihis first pas- torate was that of the First Presbyterian church of I'nion City, Indiana. Here he remained in ministerial service for tive and a half years, when
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he accepted a call to the First Presbyterian church of Charleston, Illi- nois, a congregation of 600 members and the leading church of its de- nomination in this part of the state. While presiding over his former charge Reverend Pier had so stimulated interest in churchly ideals that a new edifice had been erected and left without a debt to mar its record. A similar task has been accomplished in the larger city to which he has come. The church in Charleston is a beautiful structure, erected at a cost of $45,000.
It may be said without exaggeration that Rev. Pier is one of those clergymen who do not measure religious values by such externalities as mere material effect nor by impressive figures. To him the church is a symbol with the inner truths of religion which are synonyms with the great truths of ethics and morality. His dream is of a church universal-hence his activity in home mission affairs, in which he is particularly active in the presbytery of the Mattoon distriet. His dream is also of a church triumphant in the altruism which is such an inherently Christian characteristic-hence his influence in the church benevolences over which he also presides in the Mattoon presbytery
A narrow eleaving of his existence from that of the men about him has never been characteristic of Charles Summer Pier. He-is of that age and class of live clergymen who know that the greatest life of service is not lived in the cloister and pulpit alone. While in college he was a member of the college fraternity of Phi Delta Theta and is also a member of the Masonic order. Although social prominence has ever been readily offered him, he is essentially demoeratie in spirit, as be- eomes a brother of men.
Mrs. Pier was formerly Miss Florence Hook, the daughter of Wil- liam and Mary (St. John) Hook, the former of English ancestry. She is a graduate of the Union City high school and is an aecomplished musician. She and Reverend Pier were united in marriage on January 27. 1910. They have one ehild, a baby daughter named Ruth Constanee. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pier have many Friends in Charleston and its vicin- ity, both in the Presbyterian church and without its membership or con- gregation.
WILLIAM A. VICTOR is one of the phenomenal forces of energy in Pulaski county today. Few young men have done battle with the world with such sturdy determination to wrest from it substantial results as has he, and out of the elements of his nature he has won to himself a place among the suceessful men of his locality, in addition to the hearty esteem of a large circle of acquaintances.
Born in Pulaski county, on a farm near to Grand Chain, Mr. Victor was born on October 1, 1876. He is the son of George Victor, who has been identified with the agricultural interests of Pulaski county since the early seventies, and who was born at Newark, Ohio, August 12, 1849. His father, Dr. Ferdinand Victor, practiced medicine in Cairo, Illinois. for a number of years, and was a resident of Illinois during the best part of his life. George Victor was content to live the life of a modest farmer, and he has lived thus in the contentment and quiet of the farm. He was thrice married, and has reared a goodly family of sons and daughters to brighten his declining years. Hle first married Miss Mattie Hanks, a native of Pennsylvania, and she died in 1894. Two children were born of this union. They are Wil- liam A., the subject of this brief review, and Cora, the wife of Dr. O. T. Hudson, of Mounds, Illinois. Mr. Victor later married Miss Ellen Stokes. They became the parents of three children: Oliver, Nora and Etta. Ilis present wife was formerly Malinda Revington, and her
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children are Glenda, Nina and June. As intimated above, Mr. Victor has never been a man of public activity, but has rather led a home life. giving his attention to his farm and his family. He has always shared in the Republican faith, but holds himself the master of his own ballot. regardless of party interests, and he has never evinced any ambition to participate in the political skirmishes at primaries and elections in any other capacity than that of a voter.
William Victor is the eldest son of his father, and until the approach of his majority he was not more than a wide-awake, but carefree farm lad. He was educated in the well-known schools of Dixon and Normal. Illinois, and his first real work was as a teacher of rural schools. He followed the pedagogie art for five years, and during the closing years of that work he became interested in selling life insurance during the summer vacation months. He succeeded so well at his vaca- tion time labors that he decided it the part of wisdom to abandon his teaching and to enter the life insurance business in deadly earnest. Ile first became a solicitor for the Franklin Life of Springfield, Illinois, one of the popular old-line life insurance companies, and he occupied that position for some years, throwing his every energy into the work and making so admirable a record that the company appointed him general agent for the twenty-fifth congressional district of Illinois. llis promotion was well justified and his accomplishments as the head of the force in his district soon proved the fact. He handled his body of solicitors with such tact and shrewdness that the business of the com- pany made rapid advances and in 1902 Mr. Victor stood first man of the company in Ilinois and seventh man of all the force .- a fact which is eloquent of the splendid ability of the young man. In 1902 he won the special prize of a gold watch for the salesman taking the most appli- cations during a six weeks' contest, which was a fast and furious one that tried the mettle of the finest and most capable solicitors in the Franklin forees. In 1908 Mr. Victor tired of the strenuous activities of the past ten years, and he cast about for a suitable business opening in which he might settle down. He eventually engaged in the hay, grain and commercial paper business in the community of his birth, and there he has since been busy conducting the affairs of his ever growing business and in sharing the public life of his town. His interest in that respret had never taken a political turn until in the campaign of 1910, when his activities in Republican contest over the nominee for the office of county superintendent of schools resulted in the shelving of an old office-seeker and saved the political life of a young and ambitions teacher who had amply demonstrated her fitness to manage the work of public education in her county.
On November 29, 1899, Mr. Vietor was married to Miss Olive Doty. daughter of Dr. Monroe Doty, who has been practicing medicine here for many years. Dr. Doty comes of one of the earliest families of Jackson county, and nothing could be more titting than that a few words be said here of him and his family. Dr. Monroe Doty is the grent grandson of Ephraim Doty, a soldier of the American Revolution and a partier- pant in the historic "Boston Tea Party." This old veteran came to Illinois when the shades of evening were gathering about him and he sleeps in a cemetery in the neighborhood of Murphysboro. Wilham. his son, came to Illinois from Tennessee when a young married man and engaged in farming, and in Jackson county was born James T Doty. his son, and the man who became the father of Dr. Monroe Dots, father of Mrs. Victor. The Doty's of this family seem to have started westward from New Jersey. The sons of Ephraim Dois were Daniel and Wil- liam. William married one Miss Tedford, who died and left children :
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Robert, for many years a merchant of De Soto, Illinois, and who finally died there; James T., the father of Dr. Monroe Doty; Naney, who be- eame the wife of Thomas Steele; Ephraim; John; Daniel; Elizabeth, who married James Cox, and Jane, who married Sabram Pate. Wil- liam Doty's history was made chiefly as a farmer near Vergennes. He served as sheriff of Jackson county on the Democratic tieket, and he died during the war, at the age of eighty-one years. His son James was a cripple and was thus deprived of active connection with the stir- ring events of that time. JJames Doty married Caltha Stone, a native of Tennessee. The Stone family came out to Illinois in 1828, when Caltha was a small child, and there passed the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Doty died in 1905, surviving her husband by many years, his death occurring in 1868. Ten children were born of their union. They were named as follows: Susan, who died in Jackson county as the wife of John Beasley; William, who also passed away there; John, who never reached years of maturity: Dr. Monroe, still surviving; Levi, a farmer of Vergennes, Illinois; Sarah, who married Thomas Blaeklock and lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma; Richard, of Jackson county; Dr. James Perry, who died in Union county ; Jane and Robert E., both of Murphysboro, Illinois.
Monroe Doty began his active career by work as a country school teacher, spending nine winters at that work during the late sixties and early seventies. Following this he seeured a elerkship in a drug store, and it was there he came in touch with the influenees which induced him to embrace a professional eareer. His first knowledge of medical principles he obtained from the pharmaceutical books which were an accessory to the drug business, and when he was ready for a course of lectures he entered the Memphis Hospital Medical College in 1884 and was graduated therefrom in 1886. Taking up the practice of his profes- sion, Dr. Doty first located at Herrin's Prairie, moving later to Mill Creek, Union county, and in 1887 established himself in Grand Chain, which town has known him and his good works since that time. He is a member of the Pulaski County and the State Medical Societies, and leads a quiet life, devoted to the care of his patients and the interests of his family. Dr. Doty was married in JJackson county, on March 3, 1872, to Miss Nancy Heape, a danghter of Lysias Heape, a former resi- dent of Perry county, Illinois, where Mrs. Doty was born on December 12, 1853. Mr. Heape married Martha Griffith, and their children were Zerilda, who married George Morgan, Mrs. Doty, Robert, John, George and Lysias. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Doty are John M., a travel- ing salesman, Mrs. Olive Victor, and Clara, the wife of Joe Gaunt, residents of Grand Chain.
SAMUEL HALLIDAY. It is a pleasure for the writer to take up the eareers of men who through long years of residence in Southern Illinois have by their upright lives and splendid deeds won for themselves the enduring respect and regard of their fellow-citizens. Major Edwin W. Halliday was so conspicuously identified with the affairs of Cairo for nearly forty years that it is meet, now that his work here is finished and he is now retired to his California home, to set forth some of the es- sentials of his active and successful life, that the reader and student of events and men of local renown may not be deprived of the knowledge of one character who made his influence felt in building a commercial mart at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Major Halli- day was born in Meigs county, Ohio, June 11, 1836, a son of Samnel Halliday, who served as auditor of Meigs county for thirty-five years.
Edwin W. Halliday left the parental roof as a youth, equipped with
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a fair education and bent on hewing his path among the alnost un- blazed courses of the Ohio Valley. He chanced to enter upon a career of steamboating on the Ohio river and made himself so useful that he was soon given the position of clerk on a packet that ran those waters, his river career only terminating when his zeal to get into the military contest between the north and south urged him to enlist. Not- withstanding the origin of his birth, he chose sides against his home and entered the Confederate army, becoming a member of General N. B. Forest's cavalry, and won a major's commission before the doom of the Confederacy was sealed at Appomattox. When there was no longer need of his services as a soldier, Major Halliday sought a business op- portunity in Cairo, where some of his four brothers had already located. and with one of them, W. P., he engaged in the merchandise business here. While snecess came to him as a merchant, his old love for the river seemed to force him again into some feature of its trade and he engaged in business at the wharf, establishing a wharf-boat company, putting a fleet of tugs and other boats in service to do the local "switch- ing." subsequently. in 1873, incorporating the wharfboat company and remaining its president until he removed from the state. His foresight enabled him to discover the future of rapid transit in Cairo, and at a critical stage in the affairs of the company which promoted the street railway he took over its stock and for many years owned and operated the system. He witnessed the growth of this and the Cairo City Elre- trie Light and Gas Company, which he brought into existence, into a valuable property, and in 1903 he sold these holding to the W. P. Halliday Estate. He was a large owner of the stock of the Halliday Hotel and new life sprang into it when the magic touch of the Hallidays was applied. From early life the Major seemed to regard a dollar as a measure of personal energy spent in its acquirement and he felt it his bounden duty to apply his accumulations where they would yield returns that would be productive of the best results to the com- munity at large. His life was strikingly domestic. in that when he was not at business he was with his family. He made his sons his com- panions, and when they were ready he took them into business with him and taught them the scheme of life as it had unfolded itself to him. He declined proffers of public office, as did all of his brothers except Thomas W., who was mayor of Cairo for ten or twelve years. He was not a member of any fraternity and never joined the church, although he was liberal in supporting movements of a religions nature.
Major Halliday was married during the war to Miss Emma Wither- spoon, and both now reside in their home at San Diego, California. Their children were: Miss Alice, who resides in San Diego; Samuel. a prominent business man of Cairo; Edwin L., president of the Cairo Ice and Coal Company: Mrs. Walter HI. Wood, whose Imsband is the senior member of the firm of Wood and Bennett Company, of Chiro; Mrs. J. 1. Jennelle, Jr., of Seattle, Washington ; Mrs. Edward L. Gilbert, of Cairo: Miss Martha, living at San Diego, California ; Mrs. E. L. Kendall, of Chicago: and Fred D., who is secretary and treasurer of the CHlohe Milling Company, of San Diego, California.
Samuel Halliday, the major's first son, succeeded him as president of the Cairo Wharfboat Company, and is the senior member of the firm of Halliday & Phillips. He was born at Columbus, Kentucky. Septem. ber 4, 1869, and has resided in C'airo since IST1. After being educated in the high school he became associated with his father's interests as a youth and in 1901 was made president of the wharthat company On February 25, 1895. Mr. Halliday was married to Miss Nelhe B. Gilbert, daughter of Miles Frederick Gilbert, one of the leading mem- V.1. 3-39
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bers of the Cairo bar, and one ehild, Louise, has been born to their union, June 20th, 1899.
JEROME FOSTER BEAN. During the past decade many of the farmers of Johnson county have turned their attention to specializing along eertain lines, and have met with unqualified success in fields that here- tofore have been invaded only as side issues, prineipal among these being the raising of hogs. This industry has been pushed forward rapidly in late years, and among those who have found that this can be made a remunerative oceupation are Jerome Foster Bean and James Monroe Bean, of Grantsburg township, owners of some fine farming property, and enterprising agriculturists and stock-raisers who have made a study of their chosen vocation and follow it along scientifie lines. They are sons of James and Mary (Glass) Bean, and grandsons of Henry Bean, a native of Tennessee, who brought his family to Illinois in 1833 and spent the rest of his life in Gallatin county.
James Bean was born in 1833 while the family was migrating from Tennessee to Illinois, and he was reared on the pioneer tarm in Galla- tin county. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in Company D. Twenty-ninth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served three years and three months, and on his return again took up farming. Mr. Bean was the type of citizen who started in life without a dollar and rose to a place of prominenee among his fellows. Over- eoming all discouragements and hardships, hewing straight to the line of honesty and integrity, believing in a fair and honorable method of dealing in all things, he accumulated more than 600 acres of land, and when he retired, in 1907, was one of the most highly esteemed men of his community. At that time he removed from Gallatin to Johnson county, but did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his years of toil, as his death oeenrred April 20th of that same year. Mr. Bean was a total abstainer as to liquor and tobacco, was never heard to utter an oath, and was very religions and serious minded. His word was as good as a bond. and on many occasions he was foreed to deprive him- self of all but the necessities of life on account of having to settle for a friend's notes, which his kindness of heart had cansed him to endorse. A stalwart, sturdy pioneer, in his death Southern Illinois lost a man whose place will be hard to fill and one whose career is worthy of emu- lation by the youth of any land. Nine children were born to Mr. Bean and wife, namely : James Monroe; Mrs. Alice Nazarene Nelson ; Jerome Foster; Mrs. Margaret Josephine Hemphill ; Mrs. Faustine Ellen Willis; Logan Grant, who died at the age of nineteen years; Sherman Henry ; Mary Rosabel, who died at the age of four years; and Mrs. Susan Cath- erine Hatfield. The mother of these children, who was a daughter of James Glass, of Pope county, died in 1897, at the age of fifty-five years.
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