USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 42
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
ness. This was their course in business col- lege and a good one it proved to be. August completed it, as it were, in his seventeenth year and determined to start out for himself. With a young friend and schoolmate, Julius Adams, he rented a farm of one hundred and twenty acres at Stahlings. Here they worked for six years and throve so well that they be- came the envy of many of the older farmers, The partnership might have been continued but for the formation of a new relation. Au- gust Kahle found a handsomer and more at- tractive partner in the person of Miss Sophia Engelmann. Miss Engelmann was a native of Chouteau township, the daughter of Henry and Mary (Weitkamp) Engelmann. Mr. Engelmann, like Christian Kahle, had been born in Hanover, Germany. The fathers were friends and the young people, school- mates, and the new partnership seemed a wise one from every viewpoint. Mr. Engelmann was the father of seven children : Henry, Wil- liam, Mary, Carrie, Herman, Anna and Sophia, but being a large land owner there was ample to provide well for all.
On April 16, 1885, August Kahle took his newly found life partner back to the old homestead. This they laid out anew into fields, orchards, and vineyards, leaving a goodly portion for house and grounds, In 1889 there came to them a son, whom they called Louis, for Mr. Kahle's brother. This young son received his elementary education at the same district school his father had at- tended. He was confirmed in the German Evangelical church by Rev. Plassmann, his father's old pastor, but unlike his father and his father's father, he was destined to be reared in town. When he had finished the work of the district school his parents left the farm to go to Granite City. There his father purchased the hardware business now known under the firm name of A. J. Kahle & Son. At the time of writing the business is con- ducted largely through the son Louis and is one of the best known hardware concerns of the state. Mr. Kahle has erected, also, a large double residence of pressed brick at 2138 D street. Here the parents and son live, still under the same roof. They have been life members of and generous donors to the Ger- man Evangelical church and are among the few active and invaluable citizens in their thriving little city. Although a successful merchant and influential townsman, Mr. Au- gust Kahle's heart still remains in the open country. There is not, perhaps, in the entire
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state a man so well versed in the land condi- tions of Madison county. For five years he treasurer of "The Elm Slough Cutoff Levy and Drainage District." For nineteen years he was school director and clerk of the school board. For seventeen years he was presi- dent of the board of highway commissioners. There is not a foot of highway in Madison county with which he is not familiar. Under Jacob Kuhn and Joseph Hutz, he was deputy sheriff and never was there a better, for, aside from his fearlessness and his desire for jus- tice, there was no nook nor cranny in the county where a prisoner could hide from Au- gust Kahle, so well did he know the lay of the land.
Mr. Kahle has always been a stalwart Re- publican, but his motto is, fill the office well, with a Republican if possible, but at all costs, with a man who will serve the people.
Quite recently Mr. Louis Kahle brought home to the double brick house an attractive young bride, Miss Merle Hueber, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hueber, of Granite City. They were married on January 18, 1911.
MRS. SOPHIE ESPENSCHIED. Madison county is indebted to her German-American families more than to those of any other na- tionality for her splendid standing among the agricultural communities of the Mississippi valley. In that list none stand higher than the Espenschied and Moeller families, Mrs. Es- penschied, as a maiden, being representative of the latter. An able manager and a faith- ful wife and mother, as well as a pleasant and Christian neighbor, she is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, born in 1856 to William and Wilhelmina (Finke) Moeller, natives of Ger- many who immigrated to this county when ag- riculture in the southwest was still in its early infancy. From St. Louis the family migrated to Madison county, the five children being born in Missouri and Illinois. Of these, William died when he was twenty-one and Louisa when she was seventeen-the living being Mary, Minnie and Sophie (Mrs. Espen- schied ).
With the other children of the Moeller family, Sophie obtained her education at the German Lutheran school of Alhambra and the West District school, and was married June 27, 1877, to Philip H. Espenschied. Her de- ceased husband was born in Germany in 1849, and at the age of four years was brought by his parents to the United States; the other children of the family were Valentine and Jacob. Philip obtained a good education and
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in his young manhood was united in marriage to Miss Anna Halbe, who died when their only child, Henry, was four years of age. For his second wife he wedded Miss Sophie Moel- ler, who bore him a large family of children. During the years when the little ones were growing up around the good and faithful par- ents the family circle was one of both sun- shine and shadow, for amidst smiles and laughter the Angel of Death came down to claim seven of the dear children; those who remain are: Minnie, who married Louis Nun- gesser and still lives at Alhambra; Fred J., who married Miss Mary Eilers, also resides in that place and is the father of Leo and Clara, as well as of one who died in infancy ; Henry, who married Miss Ida Figge and is the father of one child, Anna; Phillipina, Louis, Edward and Amanda. The father of this family, a good, honored and Christian man, passed away on May 7, 1908, following a long illness, which he bore with the patience and fortitude taught by his religion. Both he and his wife had passed through the many hardships incident to pioneer life before the days of railroads (when the nearest produce market was St. Louis), but their industry and every-day bravery had overcome them and solved the many hard problems of establishing a prosperous home and, at the same time, rear- ing a large family in ways of usefulness and morality. The father lived to see the good fruits of his life-work. and his mourning widow is still in the enjoyment of the affec- tion and care of those children who owe so much to her loving care and wise training. The sons, Louis and Edward, are successfully superintending the home farm, whose well tilled fields show their industry, faithfulness and skill. The daughter, Phillipina, remains at home, assisting her mother in the duties of the household and giving her the affectionate support of a loving child.
Louis and Edward Espenschied represent as fine a type of honest, industrious and capable young manhood as the township of Alhambra affords. Strictly temperate and honorable, they command the confidence of the com- munity. and are a high credit to themselves and their parents.
ROY S. BARNSBACK, M. D., who represents one of the oldest and most prominent families of Madison county, was born in the city of Edwardsville, September 12, 1874. Soon after completing his preparatory education in the Edwardsville high school he took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. E. W. Fiegen-
baum. Later he entered the medical depart- ment of Vanderbilt University and was grad- uated with the degree of M. D. in 1898. His professional career since that date in Ed- wardsville has been attended with flattering success and he is in the front rank of the physicians and surgeons of the county. He is the physician and surgeon for the East St. Louis & Suburban Railway and for the Alton & Granite City. He is a member of the Madi- son County Medical Society, the State Medi- cal Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. Fraternally he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Red Men and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he is a member of the Commercial Club of Edwardsville.
Dr. Barnsback is a son of Julius G. and Mary O. (Smith) Barnsback. The Barnsback fam- ily originated in Germany, and the records mention various ancestors who were prominent in religious, public and business life. George F. J. Barnsback, the founder of the Madison county family of the name, was born in Ger- many in 1781, and in 1797 immigrated to America. He subsequently returned to his native land, but in 1809 was again in America and soon afterwards bought lands in Madison county and for a number of years was a resident of the county. Hle married Mary Minter, and, their ten children, among whom was Julius G., were most of them residents of this county and are still numerously repre- sented in this part of the state. Julius G. Barnsback was born in this county about 1833. and was for many years a justice of the peace and a substantial citizen.
Dr. Barnsback married, in 1902, Miss Minnie W. Whitbread, a daughter of James and Minnie (Rinne) Whitbread, of Edwards- ville.
G. CURTIS ELLIS. A young man of much energy, ability and enterprise, G. Curtis Ellis is one of the leading electrical contractors of Madison county, having already established a substantial business in Edwardsville, at No. IOI Vandalia street. Born July 19, 1882, in Kentucky, he was brought up in Clinton. Hickman county, and was educated in the public schools, being graduated from the Clin- ton High School.
After receiving his diploma at the high school, Mr. Ellis went to Memphis, Tennessee, and for four years was in the employ of the Mills Electric Company, acquiring in the meantime an accurate knowledge of his chosen trade. Going then to New Orleans, he fol- lowed his trade in that city two years, and
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
the following two years he traveled as a jour- neyman, visiting different towns and cities. Opening a shop in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1902, Mr. Ellis worked as an electrician on nearly all of the World's Fair buildings erected between that time and 1904, and was after- wards, for eighteen months, inspector for the Kinloch Telephone Company. Going then to Alton, Illinois, Mr. Ellis was there employed at his trade until 1909, when he came to Ed- wardsville in search of a permanent location. Buying the interest of John Donacher, who was engaged in the electrical supply business, he formed a partnership with Henry Turk, and for a short time carried on business as head of the firm of Ellis & Turk. He has since bought out his partner, and is carrying on business alone, filling large and valuable contracts, and dealing extensively in electrical supplies of all kinds.
Mr. Ellis married, in 1908, Miss Minnie Boeker, of Edwardsville, a daughter of the late Chris. Boeker, a native of Germany. Fra- ternally Mr. Ellis is affiliated by membership with the Knights of Pythias.
J. ROSENBERG. It is not only among . the agriculturists of Madison county that the in- fluence of the German-American is felt to be one of the most powerful factors in the progress of the county, but also in the realm of commerce. Mr. Julius Rosenberg, the pro- prietor of the five and ten cent store of Gran- ite City, was born in the town of Amelunxen, Westphalia, in 1863. There his father. Jo- seph Rosenberg, followed the calling of a merchant. Four boys, William, Jacob, Al- bert and Julius, and three girls, Helen, Pauline and Fanny, made up the family of Joseph and Johanna (Maierbach) Rosenberg, and all the children attended the excellent schools of the fatherland.
They were an ambitious family, and the oldest brother, William, had gone to America when he grew to manhood and settled in St. Louis, where he had established a prosperous business. At the age of eighteen Julius Rosen -- berg decided to join his brother in this coun- try and on October 28, 1881, landed in New York. He came directly to St. Louis and re- mained there for some time working for one of the large firms of the city.
Five years after coming to America Mr. Rosenberg married a young lady of St. Louis and began his wedded life in that place. His bride was Miss Matilda Goldberg, born in Kingston, New York, in 1870. Her parents, Samuel and Rosa (Mandel) Goldberg, had
emigrated from Austria to New York, where her father had followed the mercantile occu- pation. Later he moved to St. Louis and was in business there. It was in this city that his four daughters, Emma, Sarah, Dora and Ma- tilda, grew up and went to school.
The two years following his marriage Mr. Rosenberg spent in the grocery business in St. Louis. In 1888 he and his brother went to Texas and there established a store of their own. The brother liked the location and de- cided to remain in the Southwest, but Julius Rosenberg returned to St. Louis after a few months and remained there until 1890. In that year he moved to Madison county and engaged in business there for three years.
Mr. Rosenberg is a man of discernment and foresight and long before it was apparent to the majority he saw the possibilities for a city of importance where there was only a corn field and a few frame buildings of a small village. He purchased from the Nie- dringhaus Company the first lot ever bought in Granite City, and then proceeded to dem- onstrate to the people round about his appar- ent fitness for residence in an insane asylum by erecting upon his lot a three-story brick building. It is safe to say that the construc- tion of Noah's ark did not afford the Ante- deluvians more derisive amusement than did Mr. Rosenberg's brick store to the people of Madison county. But unlike the poor ancients who were not permitted even to hear Noah say, "I told you so," the citizens of this county have lived to appreciate the wisdom of Mr. Rosenberg's venture. Three years later the town was incorporated and.as Mr. Rosenberg had bought the first lot in the city, so his youngest child, Pearle, was the first child born in Granite City. Pearle is the youngest of five children, her older brothers and sisters being Helene, William S., Leonie L., and Herbert B.
The education of their children has been a matter in which Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg have taken the greatest interest, and the children have displayed an aptitude and an application in their studies which has been most gratify- ing. William and Leonie both graduated with honors from the Mckinley high school of Granite City. Helen was for two years a stu- dent in Hardin College, Mexico, Missouri. Herbert and Pearle are both in the high school at present, the former being a senior and his sister a junior. After his graduation from high school, Herbert will enter the University at Champaign and take an agricultural course.
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
Mr. Rosenberg has always been a strong supporter of the Republican party and has been active in the public interests of the town. When the city was incorporated he served as councilman from the First ward, and for two terms was mayor of the city. In lodge cir- cles he is well known, being a member of the Masonic order in Venice lodge, No. 835, and also affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Honor. He and Mrs. Rosenberg are members of the Jewish church of St. Louis, the temple being situated on King's Highway and Mor- gan street.
As a pioneer in the commercial life of Granite City, Mr. Rosenberg is naturally most interested in all which makes for the improve- ment of the town which he has watched grow from an inconsiderable hamlet to a thriving centre of trade. His handsome store is one of the principal establishments of the town and is so well conducted and so finely equipped that the large and growing business its pro- prietor has built up is really not surprising. Not only in business, but as a friend and neighbor, Mr. Rosenberg enjoys the regard of the community, an honor which his wife shares with him.
F. W. BRUNNWORTII. A true representa- tive of German-American industry, prosperity and citizenship, standing for the element which is so largely at the basis of the prac- tical progress of southern Illinois, F. W. Brunnworth resides on one of the finely-im- proved country homesteads of Alhambra township, which is but one of the results of his forethought and skill. He was born in Hamel township, in the year 1865, and is a son of Henry and Sophia ( Buettemeyer) Brunnworth, natives of Germany, who emi- grated from the Fatherland at an early day. The husband was first employed by a Mr. Barnspeck and for several years thereafter worked for other farmers in the vicinity of Pleasant Ridge, where he met and married Sophia Buettemeyer. In her he found an in- dustrious, true and worthy helpmate, and, in time, they were enabled to purchase a farm in Hamel township, although the following twelve children blessed their married life. Mary, Louis (deceased), John, Caroline, Charles (deceased), Henry (deceased), So- phia, Gottlieb (deceased), Gottlieb, Fred, one who died in infancy and F. W. (of this biog- raphy). Mr. and Mrs. Henry Brunnworth were moral, as well as intelligent parents, and were as careful to have their children con- firmed in the Lutheran faith of their forefa-
thers as to give them a thorough secular education. They first studied in the German parochial schools of the neighborhood and completed their education in the English es- tablishments.
F. W. Brunnworth made his home with his parents, working for different farmers, until four years after his marriage, when he moved upon a farm a mile west of Alhambra, which he eventually purchased. This fine country estate comprises three hundred acres and, dur- ing the passing years, Mr. and Mrs. Brunn- worth have diligently and tastefully improved it. Beautiful shade trees and thrifty fruit trees have been planted and cultivated; con- venient and large farm buildings have been erected; the latest agricultural and live stock methods and appliances have been utilized, and for years the Brunnworth place has been considered one of the most valuable and at- tractive homesteads on the old state road, known as the Alton and Greenville road and running between Hamel and Alhambra.
Mr. and Mrs. Brunnworth are also the par- ents of twelve children-Paul, Alma, Walter, Fredoline, Agnes, Henry, William, Martha, Olga, Victor, and two who died in infancy. The children are being well educated in both German and English, and no family as a whole enjoys a more universal respect. The adult members are all identified with the activities of the German Evangelical church of Hamel.
Mr. Brunnworth's marked success and stal- wart character have so commended themselves to his fellows that he has been called to serve them in not a few positions of public responsi- bility, including those of school director ( nine years), highway commissioner and supervisor. In his political views he may be classified as a liberal Democrat.
PETER BERNHARDT. Ranking high among the prosperous and respected citizens of Ed- wardsville is Peter Bernhardt, the subject of this brief sketch, wherein are recorded a few of the more important events of his life. A native of Madison county, Illinois, he was born July 30, 1868, coming from thrifty Ger- man stock. His father, Peter Bernhardt, Sr., a native of Germany, immigrated to the United States in 1848, in early manhood. Al- though he was a stone mason by trade, he followed farming the larger part of his life, first renting land near Troy, Madison county, Illinois, and afterwards buying a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in that vicinity, it being located in Jarvis township. There he carried on general farming with excellent pe-
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
cuniary results until his death, in 1904. His wife, whose maiden name was Anna M. Schwerdfeger, died on the home farm in 1901.
Passing the days of his boyhood and youth on the parental homestead, Peter Bernhardt attended the district schools of Jarvis town- ship until nearly fourteen years of age. The ensuing four years he assisted his father on the farm, obtaining a practical knowledge of agriculture. Desirous then of making use of his mechanical talent and ability, he decided to learn the trade of a blacksmith, and en- tered the shop of William Miller, at Saint Louis, for that purpose. At the end of a year, matters proving very disagreeable, Mr. Bernhardt left his employer, and the following two years worked for the Yeakel Carriage Company, in the same city. Coming from there to Madison county, Illinois, in 1891, he and his brother Fred opened a shop at Col- linsville, and there for seven years did black- smithing and general repairing, and also handled agricultural implements, carrying on business under the firm name of Bernhardt Brothers. Selling his interest in the concern to his partner in 1898, Mr. Bernhardt estab- lished a smithy at Edwardsville, on Park street. He is a skilled mechanic, and is one of the leading men of his trade in this part of the county, being an adept in every depart- ment known to a blacksmith.
Mr. Bernhardt has developed the inventive talent with which he was by nature liberally endowed, among the more useful and practical of his inventions being the "King Potato Planter," which has been thoroughly tested in its workings, and is now manufactured and sold by the Bernhardt Manufacturing Com- pany, which is incorporated. This company was organized with a capital of thirty thou- sand dollars, the following-named gentlemen being elected as officers: Peter Bernhardt, president; Charles Gerling, vice-president ; John Stolze, treasurer; and Edward Stolze, secretary. The planters have proved a boon to potato growers, and are sold throughout Illinois and neighboring states, as well as in the immediate locality, the yearly sales being large.
Mr. Bernhardt married, in 1893, Anna M. Widicus, who was born in Saint Clair county, Illinois, where her parents, Andrew and Ann B. (Renner) Widicus, located on coming to this country from Germany. Daniel, the only child born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bernhardt, lived but ten months.
REV. JONATHAN GISLER, the beloved pastor of the German Methodist Episcopal church of Granite City, has the distinction of having served as minister of the gospel for a longer period in this city than any other pastor. When his first term under the old limitations of. the church had expired he was sent to an- other field, but three years later the confer- ence, obeying the urgent requests of this con- gregation, returned him to Granite City, where he has been the faithful and energetic laborer in the Master's vineyard ever since.
A native of Switzerland, born at St. Gal- len, March 20, 1867, he is the son of a min- ister of the same denomination in Switzerland. His parents were Henry and Rosine (Schaub) Gisler, and the other children in the family were David, Gideon, Lydia and Martha. Jonathan was schooled in his native land dur- ing his youth, and after coming to America he spent four years in the Central Wesleyan College at Warrenton, Missouri, being gradu- ated from that institution. His studies for his profession were carried on for a year in the Garrett Biblical Institute of Evanston, Illi- nois, and also in Moody's Institute of Chi- cago. He was ordained at St. Joe, Illinois, by Bishop Merrill, and for a number of years has been a member of the St. Louis German Methodist Episcopal conference.
One of the first and most important steps in his active career was his marriage, in 1893, at. Decatur, Illinois, when Miss Anna Witze- mann became his wife. She was born in De- catur in 1865, a daughter of John and Hen- rietta (Stumpe) Witzemann. Her brothers and sister are: Albert C., Wesley L., Carl and Lydia, all the children having been edu- cated at Decatur. After his marriage Rev. Gisler and his bride made their home at Han- nibal, where he had his first pastoral appoint- ment, for two years, and was then transferred to Peoria, where he remained three years. From Peoria he came to Granite City. When the conference limit of six years in one loca- tion expired, he was given the charge at DeSoto, Missouri, and three years later re- turned to Granite City, where he has now been minister for six years. .
Granite City, when he first came here as the representative of his church, was just be- ginning its growth to urban importance. He organized his church with eighteen members, and for the first three years he held services in the Emerson schoolhouse. Rev. Gisler is known as one of the able organizers of his
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
denomination, and his success in Granite City speaks well for this ability. A city with a shifting population such as this industrial center presents many difficulties to steady prosperity in any religious organization. Through his work he has added two hundred members, and he has been able to maintain a membership of one hundred. From being one of the weaker branches of the church, he has made it a vigorous, self-sustaining body, with an efficiency as an institution for the welfare of the community. In 1900 a large brick building was erected as a church home, and in 1903 the congregation gave the min- ister a parsonage adjoining the church.
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