Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II, Part 35

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 35

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY

tor of the harness shop, and is today the oldest merchant who has continuously carried on a business in New Douglas.

On the 14th day of December, 1875, Mr. Douglas was married to Miss Magdalina Er- hardt, daughter of Abergast Erhardt, who be- gan life at Baden, Germany. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, all of whom are living .- Adolph F., Bertha E. (wife of Louis Rumpf), Robert and Alma ( wife of Joseph Begemann, a resident of Edwardsville, Illinois). Adolph, the eldest son, learned the harness trade in his father's shop, and is now engaged in the harness and saddlery business at Mount Olive, where he lias resided for the past eleven years. The other son, Robert, is also following in his father's footsteps and is now in his parent's shop at New Douglas.

Mr. Douglas and his family are all members of the German Lutheran church, and Mr. Douglas himself has held membership in the New Douglas church for the past thirty years. He has at various times been trustee of the church and for a long term held the responsi- ble position of treasurer, but he now resists all efforts to persuade him to hold office, rightly feeling that he has done his share in carrying the responsibility. His political sympathies are with the Democratic party and he has been elected on that ticket at various times to the offices of trustee and treasurer, his terms of service being characterized by forceful, progressive administration. Ar. Douglas is a man of pleasing address and per- sonality, a man who has made all that he pos- sesses and he is now not only the oldest mer- chant, but he has lived at New Douglas longer than any other resident and has well earned the approbation and appreciation which he to- day enjoys.

E. B. YOUNG. One of the substantial citi- zens of Madison county, who has made a name throughout this section of the country for lib- eral, broadminded citizenship and sterling business integrity, is E. B. Young, prominent as a dairyman and stock-breeder and the owner of one of the best equipped and most scientifi- cally conducted farms in the region. Mr. Young was born on January 4, 1861, the son of Henry and Sarah J. (Brewer ) Young. The father. Henry Young, was a native of Hart- ford, Connecticut, and the son of Elisha Young, a sturdy old sea captain and a native of the British West Indies. Henry Young was an agriculturist, who came to the state of Illinois at the age of sixteen, in 1842, and re-

mained here until his death, at the age of sixty-five, in 1892, Hle settled in Godfrey, Illinois, and spent his entire life in active farming. By his first marriage he became the father of four children, Albert, George, Mary and Charles Young. He was later married to Miss Sarah J. Brewer, a daughter of William Brewer, a native of Virginia. Her mother was a member of the distinguished Delaplaine family, fine old French stock and descended from the Marquis de Lafayette. The Dela- plaines were among the first families of the city of St. Louis, and it is interesting to note that the grandmother Delaplaine of E. B. Young, the subject of this brief sketch, at one time owned the property upon which now stands the court house of St. Louis. She had come to that city as a child of six months, and she passed away at the advanced age of ninety- two years. Sarah Brewer Young, the mother of E. B., was born in Brighton, on July 12, 1833. and is still living, with much of the en- thusiasm of her youth, though in hier seventy- eighth year.

The early life of E. B. Young was spent on the home farm. He attended the district schools, and after their preparatory training entered the State Normal University at Nor- mal, Illinois. He took the teacher's course in 1884, and subsequently taught school for fif- teen years in Foster township, in which he still owns two hundred acres of land.

In 1904 Mr. Young bought the two hundred acre tract which he at present occupies, and established himself in the dairy business, in which his talents for scientific management and up-to-date breeding methods have wrought him success of the finest type. He is known throughout the region as a man whose pro- ducts are as fine as man and nature could make them. He keeps a herd of fifty Hol- steins, and has at the present writing one hun- dred and fifty head of cattle. He keeps only thoroughbred cattle of pure breed, buying and selling Holstein cattle to the dairy trade. He recently made a purchase of twenty-one head from the celebrated Hartman stock farm of Ohio, and has among his herd ten head from the Lake Mills farm of Wisconsin, another farm well-known to the high grade dairyman. Mr. Young has made a specialty of the most modern methods of getting and caring for dairy products. No new experiments are tried in the country, nothing new is written on dairying that escape his notice, and his own management is thus made to gain the best re-

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY

sults possible. Mr. Young fills a daily contract of two hundred gallons for the Walker-Gor- don laboratories of St. Louis. He has three modern silos for the storage of fodder, and he feeds entirely in his barns and on a lot. His large barns are models throughout the county. The main dairy barn is one hundred by thirty- six, the second barn, sixty by thirty-six, is used for the young stock, and the horse barn is eighty by thirty-six. Mr. Young employs seven men constantly. Most of them are mar- ried and live in cottages erected on the estate. Besides having a wide reputation for its Hol- steins, Mr. Young's farm is known for its fine German Coach and Percheron horses. He has about thirty head all of the time, breeding about ten fine specimens as an annual average.

In 1885 Mr. Young was united to Miss Nel- lie Struper, the daughter of I. H. Struper, and she died in 1906. The present Mrs. Young, whom Mr. Young married in 1910, was the attractive daughter of the late Robert Miller of Upper Alton. Her maiden name was Miss Agnes Miller.

Mr. Young is a member of the Baptist church of Foster. Politically he is an adher- ent of the Republican party, although he is by no means what is known as "a party man," for he is an independent and progressive thinker, and often votes independently.

EDWARD GRUEN, farmer and stockman of Olive township, represents one of the families whose good citizenship and industry in busi- ness have been among the important factors which have made Madison county one of the richest and most prosperous sections of the state. He is a native of this county and was born in Helvetia township in 1872.

His parents were John and Elizabeth (Lem- pach) Gruen. The former, for many years one of the highly respected citizens of the county, died in 1905, and his widow now makes her home with her daughter, Louise Bertsch, in Christian county. John Gruen was born in Germany, and his wife in Switzerland, the latter coming to America with her parents when a year old. They were married at Highland and began life near there. In their family were the following children: John, Charles, George, Mary, Louise, Paulina, Emma, Anna, Matilda and Edward of this sketch.

The last named, like his brothers and sis- ters, attended school in the Kyle district and also at Saline, and remained at home with his parents until he was married. He married at

Highland in 1900 Miss Emma Malan. She was born in St. Rose township, Clinton county, in 1870, being a daughter of Bartholomew and Jennie (Combe) Malan. Her father was a native of Italy and her mother of Switzerland, and after coming to America they were mar- ried in the Baptist church at Sebastopol, Illi- nois. They spent most of their active lives as farmers of Clinton county, where they pros- pered, and later retired to Highland, where they lived for fifteen years and where Mr. Ma- lan died March 19, 1911. His widow lives in Highland with her daughter Rebecca. The Malan family consisted of Henry, Stephen, Rebecca, Mary, Jennie, Freda and Emma.

Mr. Gruen and wife commenced their wed- ded life on a rented farm near Saline, and for several years worked very hard and gave such a good account of their thrift that in 1905 they bought a fine farm in Olive town- ship three miles north of Alhambra. Their place consists of eighty acres of fertile land, with a comfortable two-story house and good barns and other buildings. Many of the im- provements in the farm and the buildings have been made since they bought, and among other things they planted a fine orchard of apples, peaches, plums, cherries, now beginning to bear, and it promises to be one of the best fruit orchards in the vicinity. Mr. Gruen raises some fine grades of Holsteins. He is a careful, progressive farmer, pursues this great vocation in a business manner, and is a good type of the latter day successful agricultur- ist. With all his industry he believes in liv- ing while he lives, and lightens the burden of routine labor for himself and family by recre- ation when the opportunity presents. In this way he makes country life pleasant and profit- able, and his farm is a cheerful place for his children.

Mr. and Mrs. Gruen are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Alhambra and are liberal supporters of every good work for the benefit of their community. Mr. Gruen takes an active part in Sunday-school work. As the father of children and a citizen who devotes himself seriously to community af- fairs, he has been elected and served six years as school director. In politics he is one of the stanch Prohibitionists of the county, believing that through party organization are offered the most effective means of ridding the coun- try of the evils of the liquor traffic. The pres- ence of a citizen like Mr. Gruen, who is a kindly neighbor and an active factor for up-

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lift in the community, and with whom honesty and reliability are cardinal principles, means much for the continued welfare of both his township and county.

Mr. and Mrs. Gruen are the parents of four children : Florence, Henry, Louis and Elmer, aged respectively ten, six, three and one years. The two oldest are pupils in the Big Rock school.

WILLIAM C. GATES, An active, enterpris- ing and prosperous business man of Alton, Illinois, William C. Gates is fast building up an extensive mercantile trade, his position among the successful merchants of the city being noteworthy. A son of William C. Gates, Sr., he was born in Alton, September 28, 1868, and has here spent his life, as a loyal, law- abiding citizen aiding in every possible way the growth and development of the city.

William C. Gates, Sr., was born in Tennes- sce, and as a boy came with his mother, who in early life was left a widow with two small children, to Girard, Macoupin county, Illi- mois. He there received excellent educational advantages, and in early manhood entered upon a professional career and taught school in Madison and neighboring counties, making teaching his life work, although he was for a while employed in a railroad office and in other work of a clerical nature. He spent his last years of life in Alton, dying at the age of fifty-six years. He married Mary Michaels, who was born in Richmond, Vir- ginia, a daughter of William Michaels, who was born in Virginia, of German ancestry. She survived her husband, passing away in 1904. She reared children as follows : Anna M., wife of James Stewart, of Saint Louis; Ella, who married John Rutledge, a son of Captain Wal- ton Rutledge, of whom a brief account is given elsewhere in this work; Laura, wife of Philo K. Blinn, who is employed in the agri- cultural department of the United States gov- ernment ; William C., the special subject of this brief sketch; Perl B., of Colorado; and James, who died in Denver, Colorado, at the age of twenty-eight years.

At the age of fourteen years William C. Gates, who had acquired a practical education in the public schools, entered the employ of Pierson & Carr, dry goods merchants in Al- ton, and was with that firm as a clerk for about twenty years. He was subsequently en- gaged in the dry goods jobbing trade for five years, when in 1907, he established his present dry goods business, which he is conducting

with signal success, his patronage being ex- tensive and highly remunerative.

In 1893 Mr. Gates was united in marriage with Lulu M. Miller, who was born in Belle- ville, Illinois, a daughter of A. F. and Emma ( Weigler) Miller and granddaughter of Es- quire Weigler, a citizen of much prominence and influence. Five children have been born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gates, namely : Hallie, Alice, Wilfred, Gladys and Dorothy. Mr. Gates is a member and its financial secre- tary of the National Union, the only organiza- tion with which he is associated.

FREDERICK C. VOGT, M. D., one of the able representatives of his profession in Madison county, is the only physician of the village of Livingston, and has the confidence and patron- age of a large portion of the residents of Olive township. Dr. Vogt's carlier career was distinguished by active service in the Spanish- American war, and he is one of the few resi- dents of this county who were actual partici- pants in that war.

Up to the time he was fifteen years old he lived on his father's farm near Springfield, where he was born January 29, 1881, and where he had pursued the regular courses of the district schools. At that age he left home and became a naval apprentice in the U. S. navy. Two years later he was serving on one of the vessels under the command of Admiral Dewey, and was in the Philippines throughout the war and until 1901, when he was honorably (lischarged, having risen to the rank of gun- ner's mate.

A veteran of what is probably the last of our national wars, he returned home and in the fall of 1902 entered the Marion-Sims- Beaumont Medical College, where he pursued the full course of study and was graduated an M. D. in 1906. For two years and a half he was engaged in practice at Springfield, and in January, 1909, became the first physician of Livingston, where he has since been success- fully engaged in practice. He is a member of the Madison County and the Illinois State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He is also a member of the Ma- sonic Lodge, No. 177, A. F. & A. M., at Staun- ton. He is a Democrat, but takes no active part in politics. Mrs. Vogt, his wife, who be- fore her marriage was Miss Churchill Russell, a direct descendant of the noted John Alden, who came over from England in the Mayflower with the Pilgrim Fathers, is a highly cultivated woman, a graduate of the Missouri State Nor-

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mal School, and was a resident of St. Louis at the time of their marriage. She is a member of the Episcopal church. The Doctor and his wife have become the parents of two children, F. C. Jr., who died in infancy, and Virginia Alden.

Dr. Vogt is the son of August and Henri- etta (von Meins) Vogt. His father, for many years a prosperous farmer and now retired, was born in Berlin, Germany, and was educated for the Lutheran ministry. He came to the United States about the close of the Civil war. His wife, whom he had known in Ger- many, was also a native of Berlin and of a prominent family, and had come to this country with her parents when she was a young girl. They renewed their acquaintance and were married, and then located near Springfield and engaged in farming. The homestead, of two hundred and ten acres, is twelve miles west of Springfield. The father was a man of quiet- unassuming character, but was a good business man and stands high in his community. The four children were as follows: Mary, the wife of E. C. Bartz, of Springfield; W. C., a merchant of Springfield; August Jr., a mer- chant in San Diego, California; and Dr. F. C.

CHARLES HUETTO. The man who is engaged in an occupation because he believes it is best suited to his tastes and abilities is sure to be successful in his undertakings. Mr. Huetto, when he first commenced life on his own responsibilities, chose another career than that which he is now following, and the very fact that he made the change is proof that his first choice was a misfit. He has long been doing the work for which he is suited by nature and early training, and he has prospered.

Mr. Huetto was born in Germany, May 23, 1848, and is the son of Charles and Sophia Huetto, both born in the same fine old Father- land, educated and married there. Mr. Huetto, Sr., was a farmer and was desirious of doing more than eke out the bare living that it was possible for him to make in his native land. In 1857, therefore, he immigrated from Ger- many to America, and was accompanied by his wife and their only son, Charles. On land- ing in the United States the little family went direct to Madison county, of whose agricul- tural possibilities they had heard. There they purchased eighty acres of land in Russell town- ship, and there Father and Mother Huetto spent the residue of their days. Mr. Huetto, Sr., died in 1876 and his widow survived him more than a quarter of a century, her demise having occurred in 1902.

Charles Huetto, Jr., remembers little of the

German home where he was born and spent the first nine years of his life, nor does he have much recollection of the long voyage to Amer- ica, but he can readily recall the school in Fort Russell township where he received his edu- cation. He remained at home with his parents, assisting his father with the farm work and attending school, until he was sixteen years of age, and then, believing that he did not care to be a farmer, he learned the blacksmith trade and subsequently worked at blacksmithing for a period of seventeen years, or thereabouts. In 1881 he returned to the farm where he had spent his boyhood days, and concluded to en- gage in agricultural pursuits for the remainder of his life. His father had died five years before Mr. Huetto, Jr., made this decision, so that when he came back to the old place it was with the intention of undertaking its en- tire management. He added seven and three- quarter acres to the original tract of land which his father had purchased, thus making a farm of eighty-seven and three-quarters acres.

In 1881, the year that Mr. Huetto came back to the farm, he was married to Miss Anna Tietje, who was born in Old Ripley, Illinois, October 18, 1865. She is a daughter of Claus and Mary (Kinney) Tietje, the father a na- tive of Germany and the mother born in Switzerland. They immigrated to America separately, made each other's acquaintance in the state of Illinois, later were married and settled at Old Ripley, where all their children were born and were educated in the district school. Six of these children are dead,- William, Mary, Amelia, Salvenia, Ferdinand and Clara. The five living are Anna, Emma, Louise, Claus and Dora. Mr. and Mrs. Tietje were good, industrious citizens and carefully trained their children to be worthy, useful members of the community. Their daughter Anna on her marriage to Mr. Huetto immediately began to put in practice the precepts of her worthy parents. Her mother-in-law maintained her residence in the home which she had assisted to build up and son and daughter-in-law were alike ten- derly devoted to the widow during the twenty- one years of their life in the same household. Mr. and Mrs. Huetto, Jr., became the par- ents of seven children,-Charles, Henry, William, Sophia, Albert, Edward and Nora. The sons received their education at the Lib- erty Prairie district school; Sophia was edu- cated in Taylorville and is a graduate of the German Lutheran school in East St. Louis; Nora received her German education at Car-

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penter and attended the public school in East St. Louis, where she received a thorough Eng- lish training. Prosperous as Mr. Heutto has been, and happily as the years have sped, for the most part, yet the family has experienced deep sorrow. On Christmas morning, 1904, the eldest son, Charles, was killed in a col- lision on the Southern Illinois Railroad, be- tween Mount Carmel and Maud. The young man was twenty-two years old, and his death was a sad shock to his family. Four months later, April 29, 1905, Henry, the second son, died, and January 11, 1911, the third son, William, was summoned to the life eternal. The other four children remain at home with their parents, assisting in the duties of home and field. Mrs. Huetto is an honored worker in the German Lutheran church at Carpenter, always ready to aid the pastor, the Rev. Reith, in the various activities of the church. All of her children were confirmed in the German Lutheran faith.

Mr. Huetto is a Democrat in political views, but does not blindly vote with his party; on the other hand he gives his support to the man who, he believes, will do the best for the peo- ple. Mr. and Mrs. Huetto have arrived at a stage where they can enjoy the fruits of their labors as they dwell in their pleasant home, situated on a hill, from which they can over- look a vast expanse of country and the town of Carpenter, three miles distant. The whole Huetto family is held in high esteem by their neighbors.

WILLIAM F. NIEDRINGHAUS. When one pauses to consider what is being done in the manufacturing world, a feeling of wonder and admiration cannot but follow. The truths of science and the skill of the mechanic are em- ployed by the man of initiative spirit who sees the possibilities of combining the two into new elements, producing something better than the world has hitherto had. Such was the work of William F. Niedringhaus in the business world and he occupied a most conspicuous and notable position in business circles as the re- sult of his development of an enterprise that has now grown to world-wide proportions.

Mr. Niedringhaus was born in Westphalia, Germany, and his early business education was in the line of the manufacture of tinware. The great work of his life, however, in a business way was in connection with the steel and enameling interests. He was the first man to introduce into this country enameling on sheet iron and he became the founder of an indus- try which is today an important source of

revenue in the business of the country. In con- junction with his brother F. G. he established the old St. Louis Stamping Company in St. Louis and was the first to produce in a prac- tical way in the United States the manufacture of tin plate. Owing to the growth of this department in conjunction with the enameling interests, and realizing that better opportuni- ties for manufacturing interests might be de- veloped outside the corporate limits of St. Louis, he and his brother Fred G. founded and built the town of Granite City, Illinois, laying it out upon the most modern lines of town building and providing it with all the advan- tages known in cities of large proportions and of long time growth. The various plants un- dler his control were built in Granite City on a much larger scale, so that at the time of his (leath these companies, under the name of the National Enameling & Stamping Company, em- ployed upwards of four thousand people. Other interests were organized there under his leadership and carried forward to success un- dler his control. Ile was the director general of the National Enameling & Stamping Com- pany ; also president of the Granite City Gas Light Company ; also one of the original pro- moters of the American Steel Foundry, now employing twenty-three hundred men, and the Commonwealth Steel Company, employing twenty-five hundred men in Granite City ; also a director of the Granite City National Bank and the Granite City Realty Company. He had the satisfaction of seeing the gradual growth of the city which he had founded to hold a population of twelve thousand people, with churches, public schools and a hospital.

Mr. Niedringhaus seemed to possess almost intuitive perceptions concerning opportunities. nor did he wait for mere favoring chances to institute his business concerns, but carried them forward to prosperity through the weight and force of his own character and ability. He had the faculty of drawing to him a corps of assistants whose energy and business discrim- ination proved a valuable supplement to his own. He did not limit his activities to ma- terial interests, his labors reaching out in large benefits to his fellow men. He was an active member and one of the trustees of the Lindell Avenue Methodist Episcopal church. Perhaps the death of no business man of St. Louis has caused more uniform regret than that of Wil- liam F. Niedringhaus. When he passed away the following well known tribute to his char- acter was written: "It is good to stop now and again in the midst of stress and hurry and

Mm F. Sie dringhaus.

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turmoil that go to make up life as we live it and consider the character of one who has quit the scene, to estimate his plan of life and to draw from it more clearly than we possibly could from mere theories a conclusion as to what makes this life of ours worth the living. The passing of William F. Niedringhaus gives those who have known him such a pause, and we who step aside from the quick march of our daily duties to do honor to his memory will at the same time pay tribute to a life whose theory and practice went hand in hand. This theory of life was the simple, but difficult one that duty to God, neighbor and self were one and the same, and the record of his long and busy years shows not only the discharge in full of that duty, but a force and serenity that could come only from a nature as gentle as it was strong, joined to a conscience as sensitive as it was tireless. The community knows, in part, of his public spirit, his liberality, where any measures for the public good were con- cerned, his readiness to aid in every way what- ever would advance the public welfare.

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Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II, Part 35

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 868