USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 104
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years, and after that removed to Collinsville, where he took care of his mother-in-law, an aged lady. He still resides in Collinsville and has arrived at the advanced age of eighty-one years. He is a respected and widely known man. His wife died on the 21st of October, 1900.
George Wendler spent the usual number of years at school, gaining his educational dis- cipline behind a desk in the district school- room. When he became fifteen years of age he began farming in earnest, and under the direction of his father became versed in the many departments of agriculture. At an early age he found it necessary to enter the battle of life upon an independent footing and with fine courage and perseverance he overcame many difficulties, his present good fortunes being the logical outcome of well-directed labor, sound judgment and untiring effort. He owns eighty-one acres of land in the American bottom, all under a high state of cultivation. He started out with absolutely nothing and has made everything himself. His reputation for honesty and fair dealing has been a valuable factor in his success and he now finds himself honored by his colleagues and influential in the affairs of the township. Mr. Wendler owns the old sawmill, pictur- esque and more than a century old, for it was built as early as 1800. Upon his land is also the first corn mill, run by water power, dating from the same early period, the pioneer settlers having come for a radius of forty and fifty miles to grind their corn there. The remains of some old buildings attest to the fact that the farm was one of the earliest habitations in the locality. Cohoke creek bears unmis- takable evidence that it was used at a very remote day as a water power, and Indian relics are abundant.
On November 8, 1891, Mr. Wendler was happily married to Louise Gerfen, then living in Troy, a daughter of Henry Gerfen, who was a soldier in the Franco-German war. He came here shortly thereafter, at first alone, and then returning for his family, of whom Louise was a member, her birth having oc- curred in the Fatherland (in Westphalia). Mr. and Mrs. Wendler are the parents of six children, as follows: George, Erwin, Walter, Otto, Kenneth and Rosa (deceased). The two older sons have acquired an excellent business training in the Commercial college at Collinsville.
Mr. Wendler gives heart and hand to the
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men and measures of the Republican party and is a member of the German Evangelical church.
LOUIS GERBIG. Upon the agricultural roster of Collinsville township, Madison county, ap- pears the name of Louis Gerbig, an honored and respected citizen, and one of the most prominent of local Republicans, who at the present time is a member of the Republican central committee. Mr. Gerbig was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, on March 29, 1868, and is the son of August and Louise (Niemann) Gerbig. As is indicated in his name, he is of German descent, the percentage of German-American citizens in this section being large and no doubt accounting in large measure for its prosperity. The father, Au- gust Gerbig, immigrated to the United States from Germany at the age of twenty-one years, and upon landing on our shores came first to St. Louis. He farmed in the vicinity of that city and devoted his energies principally to dairying. He married in the year 1866 and after that event he and his wife remained in St. Louis county for eleven years. They then removed to Illinois, and located near Poag's Station, but that did not prove their perma- nent home, since they eventually removed to the old Poag place. Here the father still resides, but the mother has passed to her eternal rest. The five children born to the union of these worthy people were as fol- lows: Louis, Mary (deceased), August, Annie (wife of William Hockriver), and William.
When a youth Louis Gerbig decided to fol- low in his father's footsteps in the matter of a life work and he has never regretted this early settling of his career, for he is now a successful and representative farmer. He was bereft of his mother when about four- teen years of age and at about that time he forsook childish things and began to be a farmer in earnest, affording assistance to his father and becoming familiar with all the de- partments of agriculture. He is at present living on the well-known old Judy farm and occupies the old homestead.
Mr. Gerbig was happily married January 9, 1895, to Hannah Fink, daughter of Louis Fink, of St. Louis county. The five children born to this union are all living and are as follows : Arthur, Huldah, Louisa, Herbert and Clara.
Mr. Gerbig is a valued member of the Brockmier Evangelical church and was at one time a director in the same. As before men-
tioned, he is a Republican in politics but is admirably liberal in his views on all questions. He has given great efficiency in the important office of road overseer, which he has held for the past four years. As a member of the Re- publican central committee, he represents Dis- trict No. 6, Collinsville township, and he is prominently identified with all public affairs.
THEODORE W. LANGE. In the year 1842 there came to this country from Germany Frederick Lange and his family, consisting of Christina Blake Lange and three children. These latter were Hannah, now the widow of Reverend Fink; Louise, whose husband was E. F. W. Meiland, and C. W. F. Lange, the father of Theodore and whose life is briefly outlined in this sketch. One can but reflect somewhat regretfully upon the changed char- acter of immigration in the last quarter of a century. It is charged that we, who have ourselves been benefited by the opportunities of America, wish to deny the same chance to others, but this is only a partial view of the case. The people who came to our land in the middle of the nineteenth century brought with them standards of living and ideals of education as lofty as those first pilgrims, who founded schools almost before they built themselves houses and who never lost sight of the ultimate purpose of life-that of building up character. The thousands who came to America from northern Europe in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century were of the same stamp. They came to become a part of this civilization and the strength and power of their physical and moral makeup has added untold force to American life and character. There is still opportunity in Amer- ica, but as of old, it is only for those who can compete with the flower of our present civili- - zation. Such were the ancestors of Theodore Lange, and the achievements of these citizens prove their value to the land of their adoption.
Frederick Lange went first to St. Louis after arriving in America, but he remained there only a short time before moving to a farm . in Jarvis township, Madison county. About three years later he bought the old Lange homestead, which he farmed until his son, C. W. F. Lange, was married. When the young man began life for himself and married Mary Krome, his father and mother gave the farm into his charge and returned to St. Louis, where they spent the rest of their lives. The family of this couple consisted of thirteen children, nine of whom are now liv- ing. Alwine is the wife of the Reverend
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Ernst Totzki, of Philadelphia; Hannah be- came Mrs. William Schoettle; Martha, Mrs. Louis Meier ; Tabia married Carl Voge, and Christina, Otto Seibers. The sons are Fred, Alfred, Carl and Theodore. The mother of this family died at Edwardsville in 1910. Her husband, now seventy years of age, still re- sides in that city, and is alderman of the Fourth ward. He is a man respected by all who know him, who has given to the state not only his own loyal citizenship, but has trained his children to worthily carry on the advancement of the American ideal.
Until fourteen years of age, Theodore Lange attended the German school at Pleasant Ridge. After this he spent one year in the township school at Elm Grove and the same period in the Webster school in Collinsville. At Walther college in St. Louis he took a year's course in high school subjects, and then returned to the farm and worked there until he was twenty-seven.
On April 9, 1893, Mr. Lange set up his own home on the farm where he still resides. He took with him to that home the young woman who has been his companion and helpmate for nineteen years, as well as the mother of his five children, Anna Meier Lange. All the children are living and have received the ad- vantages of education. Their names are Fred, . from the beginning of their wedded life they Theodore, Jr., Rudolph, Clara and Bertha.
Mr. and Mrs. Lange are active members of the Trinity Lutheran church of Edwardsville and they have brought up their children in the same faith. Mr. Lange's interest in the public schools has made him president of the board of education at Maryville for the last two years. Politically his views are those of the Democratic party. Most of his attention is given to farming his hundred and ten acres in Collinsville township, but nevertheless he is deservedly regarded as one whose interest in the public welfare is in no whit lacking and who contributes his full share to the progress and prosperity of his section.
WILLIAM J. ROBERTS. One of the most in- teresting and at the same time most essential chapters in the history of Madison county is concerned with the Mississippi river, which forms the county's western boundary and which, especially in early years, was the coun- ty's principal transportation highway and the scene of many picturesque incidents and activi- ties. Though the waters of the river still roll in flood and low stage along the banks, very much as they have through all the years of civilization, yet the Mississippi's importance to
the commerce and daily interests of Madison county's people has been decreasing. The summer excursions are now about the only remnant of the great traffic once borne on these waters, and most of the old activities and the men concerned in them have passed away.
One of the last to retire from this stage of action was Captain William J. Roberts, who for half a century piloted the ferry boat be- tween Venice and St. Louis. In 1911, after the completion of the Mckinley bridge, the operation of the ferry ceased to be longer profitable, and the boat was drawn to its final moorings and its faithful pilot came ashore to spend the rest of his years in the quiet activi- ties of a retired citizen.
William J. Roberts is a native of Wales, where he was born in 1839, a son of William and Emma (Geps) Roberts. The other chil- dren of the family were John, Ephraim and Joseph. All the family came to America in 1849, locating in St. Louis, where the father was connected with the gas light company for a number of years. All the children were educated in the schools of St. Louis, and William, after school days, remained at home assisting his father until 1863. In that year he was married to Miss Charlotte Buell, and were residents of Venice. Mrs. Roberts was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1843, a daughter of Samuel and Mary (Woods) Buell, her par- ents being substantial farming people. But before moving to Illinois her father had been a printer in the city of Philadelphia, and one of the prized possessions in the Roberts' home at Venice is a Bible printed at Philadelphia in 1834 by Samuel Buell. Mrs. Roberts had two brothers, John and David Albert.
Mr. Roberts became pilot of the ferry at Venice in 1862, and his regular occupation for forty-nine years was in the pilot house of this boat. Thousands of people who were his passengers came to know him, and these as well as all the citizens of Venice acquired a confidence in his skill and judgment which never an accident or failure on his part im- paired. Through storm and sunshine, low water and historic floods, winds and treacher- ous currents, he piloted his boat from one haven to another with never a loss of life through the entire period. To the people of Venice he acted often as guardian against the imminent ravages of the river. They relied on his judgment implicitly, resting in peace as long as he assured them of safety, but when he
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gave the word to move they never delayed but sought safety in the higher levels of the town or the upper floors of their own homes.
Mr. Roberts was deprived of the compan- ionship of his good wife on the 3d of May, 1877, and she was laid to rest in the Belle- fontaine cemetery of St. Louis. She had lived to help educate and give a mother's care and counsel to her children, of whom there were six, four sons and two daughters, named as follows: Mary, William ( deceased), Emma, Joseph, Henry and Edward. Of these, Jo- seph married Miss Ursula English. Mary is the wife of Thomas Callahan, a farmer near Lodi, Illinois. Emma became the wife of Louis Gerdes, who was a shipping clerk in the May Stern Furniture Company of St. Louis. His death occurred June 21, 1892, and since that time his widow has been housekeeper for her father at their home in Venice. She has one son, Louis, who was born December 25, 1890. The two unmarried sons also live with their father, so that his declining years have all the kindly attention and care which make old age among the pleasantest periods of life.
As a citizen he has long enjoyed the confi- dence and esteem of his townsmen, and by them he was elected a member of the first town board. Since his retirement from the river service he has served as truant officer. He and his family have long been members and faithful supporters of the Methodist church in Venice. His political support has always been given to Democratic principles. During the existence of the Knights of Honor organization in Venice he was a member, but has had no other fraternal association. Through a long career he has witnessed many changes in the life around him, and his serv- ice has given him many interesting reminis- cences of events and people of the past. He has borne a character of honesty and industry, and is one of the most respected men of his community.
HAUTELMANN FAMILY. When the first settlers of Madison county came to this local- ity they found none of the present day de- velopments which now seem so essential. All of the land was wild, some in prairie, other parts covered with dense timber and a por- tion under water, and it was a mighty task to turn the virgin sod, fell the mighty forest trees and drain the pestilent swamps which were not only useless, but bred various dis- eases, and yet these old-time pioneers proved equal to their work. While all did not live to see their hopes materialized, all laid a sound
foundation, upon which the remarkable struc- ture of civilization has arisen, and to them is due the initial credit. One of the families to whom belongs the distinction of having com- menced this good work is that bearing the name of Hautelmann, members of which have been prominent in the various walks and occu- pations of life.
The founders of the Chouteau township branch of the family, William and Christina ( Wegener) Hautelmann, were born in Ger- many, and came to the United States as young people, locating in this township March 3, 1878, on rented land. After some years of hard, faithful work in the new country they were able to save enough to make the first payment on a tract of eighty acres, on which the improvements consisted of a little log cabin. At the start there were many things to discourage them, many disappointments and set-backs, and on numerous occasions a whole year's work would be swept away by a rise in the river, or the crops would not prove up to expectations, and it seemed as though success were very far away. Hard, untiring, uncomplaining work, however, finally brought its reward, and soon the young couple were able to see that they had accomplished some- thing and were ready to build and move into a more comfortable home. Each year, as the finances would allow, Mr. Hautelmann would add to his farming machinery and his stock, and he constantly made additions and improve- ments to his buildings, eventually, with the assistance of his capable wife, making one of the finest homesteads in this part of the county. He raised large crops, found a lucrative and ready market for his dairy products in the nearby cities and shipped his stock to various points, establishing himself more firmly each year among the progressive and successful agriculturists of his day. As the children came each added his or her help to their par- ents, and were given educational advantages of an advanced nature, attending what was known as the Atkins school, on Chouteau Island, and the German Evangelical school at Nameoki, of which the parents were members for many years. Mr. Hautelmann was claimed by death in 1909, and was buried in St. John's cemetery, Nameoki, the Rev. Plass- mann, pastor, speaking comforting words to his bereaved ones. He was an excellent agri- culturist, a true type of the sturdy German- American pioneer, an honest and upright busi- ness man, kind neighbor and loving husband and father, and his death removed from the
James 'emple!
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community one more link that had bound it to the past.
Mrs. Hautelmann, who survives her hus- band and is one of the best known and well beloved ladies of the Island, still remains on the old homestead, tenderly cared for by her sons, William and Henry, and her daughter, Sophia, whose training has eminently fitted her for the duties of the position which she now holds. The sons have inherited their father's progressive spirit and have super- intended the operation of the farm since his death. They have been well known members of the Republican party in this section, and Henry is connected with Mitchell lodge, Modern Woodmen of America. They have lived up to their training as honest, indus- trious citizens, and are worthy representatives of a family than which no other in Madison county is more highly esteemed.
GENERAL JAMES SEMPLE. When, nearly a century ago, Madison county was a civil juris- diction comprising at first nearly all the coun- try north to Canada and later still a large portion of the present state of Illinois, Ed- wardsville, its county seat, was the home or the gathering place of many distinguished men who at that early day or later in the history of the country and state took a prominent part in public affairs. Among these, on the pages of history, stands no more distinguished nor hon- orable name than that of General James Semple.
Like many Illinois pioneers, he was by birth a Kentuckian. He was born in Green county of the Blue Grass state on January 5, 1798. Probably no family that has been associated with the history of Madison county has a longer and more substantial line of ancestry than the Semples. A Norman soldier, Guil- laume de Sempill, followed William the Con- queror on his victorious invasion of England in 1066. The tradition is that this invader left the court of the Conqueror and accepted from the King of Scotland a splendid estate in Renfrewshire, Scotland, which thenceforward for many generations was the family seat, and where the Semples had their castles and do- mains and were members of the Scotch peer- age. The illustrious annals of the family in Europe can be only mentioned in this sketch. Most of the Semples were active in the pro- fession of arms and public leadership, but the father of the first American settler was a minister of the church-Rev. James Semple of Long Dreghorn, Ayrshire. His son, John Semple, the grandfather of General Semple,
immigrated in 1752 to Virginia, where he acquired a large fortune and founded in King and Queen county an estate which he named Rosemount.
John Walker Semple, the oldest son of this Virginia planter, during his early life in Vir- ginia attained such prominence as to be elected several times to the legislature. He was a pio- neer in spirit, however, and fascinated by the romantic wonders of the western country which Boone and his followers had opened up, he joined a party of friends and relatives, passed over the mountains, journeyed down the Ohio on flat boats, and finally settled in Green county, Kentucky, where two years before the close of the century the oldest son, James, was born. Afterwards the family moved to Clin- ton county, Kentucky, where John Walker Semple had his permanent home, a place which he named in honor of the struggle for national independence, "76."
The mother of General Semple was Lucy (Robertson) Semple, also of Scotch ancestry. A woman of remarkable force of character and practical ability, possessed of keen intel- lect and great vitality, she was one of the finest types of the pioneer mothers of the west. It is related that she even argued her own law cases in the courts when no lawyers could be found. From her, General Semple inherited probably as much of the qualities which made his own career notable, as from his father.
The lack of facilities for education was per- haps the chief disability under which the early settlers of Kentucky and other parts of the middle west labored. But young James Sem- ple, though the oldest of nine children, was more fortunate than many other children, both on account of his own eagerness to acquire knowledge from every possible source and be- cause he was able to be under the tutelage of his uncle, Isaac Robertson, a graduate of Princeton College, who supplemented the meager advantages which the lad was offered in the schools of Greensburg, Kentucky.
During his youth he mastered the trade of tanner, but had no taste for the work and never seriously followed it. When he was sixteen, near the close of the second war with England, he joined the army under General Jackson, and two years later was elected an ensign in a Kentucky militia regiment.
His early life was laid in a fortunate period, that "era of good feeling" after the close of the War of 1812 and before political thought had become embittered in the issues of slavery. Patriotism and high standards of public and
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private life were then intimate and insistent ideals before every young man, and in this atmosphere, and with the training of the old Jeffersonian school of Democracy, young Semple became easily and naturally identified with public affairs.
He located at Edwardsville in 1818, the year Illinois was admitted to the Union, but nine months later returned to Kentucky, where he married Ellen Duff Green, a niece of the distinguished politician of that name. A year later he and his young wife located at Chariton, near the western border of settle- ment in Missouri, where he engaged in busi- ness. Here, soon after his settlement, he was elected a commissioner of the loan office, to which was attached a good salary, and very fine prospects had opened up before him. Just then his young wife died and this loss, for the time, shattered all his plans. Previ- ously he had designed to devote himself to the profession of law, and this aim alone re- mained to guide him through his days of gloom, so that he threw himself with ardor into the study. Through these years, and through all the years up to the time of her death, he maintained his beautiful devotion to his mother, and from Chariton he wrote to her that he had one hundred and fifty-eight law books in his room, a good collection for an impecunious young man of that period, and that he was devoting every spare moment to their perusal. From Chariton he soon moved to Louisville, to continue his studies and also to practice the law. He had been ad- mitted to practice in Missouri in 1824. In 1822 he had been elected a colonel in a Mis- souri regiment.
In 1828, after several years' experience at Louisville, being now well advanced in his profession, General Semple again located at Edwardsville, which was henceforth his home until his removal to Alton in 1837. He rose rapidly to prominence in the law and in the momentous public affairs of the period. He was a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, both of whom valued his acquaintance and were proud to call him a friend. His knowledge of law was profound and his insight into the most abstruse and complicated problems was notable. Before trial court or jury he was a brilliant speaker, and in the preparation of brief or argument so thorough that his exposition of points was considered unequaled for lucidity.
Through Mr. Semple ran a strong vein of patriotism, an underlying basis of courage and
romance that found its happiest expression in military service. Upon the breaking out of the Blackhawk war, though Governor Ed- wards had commissioned him adjutant, he enlisted as private, but was subsequently com- missioned adjutant in the mounted volunteers, and afterwards made aide-de-camp to General Whiteside, and became a colonel and later a brigadier general in the state troops. The war had broken in considerably upon his career, and when he returned home he found open to him an avenue that was at once allur- ing and satisfying-in political activities.
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