USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 71
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EDWARD FEUTZ. For a number of years one of the citizens whose business ability and ac- tivity have been valuable factors in the prog- ress and prosperity of Highland, Mr. Edward Feutz has had a career which has been a dis- tinct influence in the history of his home city and of Madison county.
Mr. Feutz was the organizer and is now the president of the East End Bank of High- land. He is one of the leading contractors for the building of roads and similar improve- ments. His principal business and the one he has been engaged in for a number of years is the Highland Marble Works ; which was incor-
He has been one of the influential Repub- licans of his end of the county, and has held offices of trust and honor. For eight years he was town clerk, was supervisor of Helvetia township nine years, leaving that office to ac- cept the appointment of live stock inspector at East St. Louis. Governor Tanner appointed him to this position, in which capacity he served two and a half years. In 1902 he was elected to the office of county clerk of Madison county, and completed his second term in 1910. Few citizens of the county have had a more active and useful career.
He is a native of St. Jacobs township, where he was born June 13, 1855, being a son of Fred and Agatha (Ruedy) Feutz, both of whom were among the pioneer Swiss settlers of this county. His mother came to this coun- try when a young girl, and his father at the age of twenty-four. The latter was born in 1825 and was a prosperous farmer of this county. There were five sons and five daugh- ters in the family, and four sons and one daughter are still living.
Edward Feutz was reared on the farm and educated in the district school until the age of eighteen. He left the farm when nineteen and became a clerk in a general store at Grant Fork, where he remained two years. He has earned all his advancement by hard work and the mastery of all the problems in his business. In 1877 he became an employe of the Kuhnen hardware store at Highland, and was with that concern two and a half years, after which he was engaged in the sewing machine business, and then took up the marble and tombstone business, which has since been his principal pursuit. He is affiliated with Highland Lodge, No. 583, A. F. & A. M., and is a member of the German Evangelical church.
He married in 1878 Miss Louise Siedler, of Highland. Their children, all of whom have attended the Highland schools and have also ยท been trained in music, are : Leona, the wife of M. J. Schott; Felton, who married Cora Mooney ; Ella, wife of Calvin Blattner ; Edna, wife of Albert . Steiner ; Helen, who married Orville Bardill ; and Warren and Iola, at home.
THOMAS STALLINGS. Among the younger members of the Madison county bar, one of the most successful as a lawyer and promi- nent in citizenship of his home city is Thomas Stallings, of Granity City. He began prac- tice here in 1900, and is one of the profes-
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sional men who have been identified with this thriving industrial center since its incorpora- tion as a city, in 1896.
Mr. Stallings represents an old and well known family of southwest Madison county. His birthplace was Stallings Station, a local- ity named for the family. He was born there May 22, 1868, a son of Harrison and Mary A. (Varner) Stallings. The grandfather was Henry Stallings, who was a pioneer settler of this county. Harrison Stallings was a pros- perous farmer and stockman in Leef town- ship.
After receiving his early education in the county schools Thomas Stallings attended Shurtleff College and the University of Illi- nois at Urbana. Ile began the study of law at Washington University, where he was graduated in 1898, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He then attended the law department of McKendree College, at Lebanon, where he was graduated in 1899, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. His establishment in practice at Granity City was soon followed by his active connection with much of the legal business of that locality, and he now has a large general practice. He has also served the city as corporation coun- selor, having been in that office from 1905 to 1907, and is at the present time acting in the same capacity. Mr. Stallings is a Republi- can in politics. He is a member of the Madi- son County Bar Association, and is promi- nent in Association work. He is also a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, Granity City Lodge, No. 877, of St. Clair Lodge of Per- fection, East St. Louis, Illinois, of Oriental Consistory of Chicago and of the Order of the Eastern Star. His fraternal relations also extend to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Granity City Lodge, to the Modern Woodmen of America, to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Granity City, to the Tribe of Ben Hur and to the Brother- hood of American Yeomen.
JULIUS MARTI. The men who succeed in any enterprise in life, the generals who win their spurs on the field of battle, the financiers who amass wealth are the men who have con- fidence in themselves and the courage of their convictions. There is a time in every man's life when he reaches the conclusion that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide and that though the world is full of good no good thing comes to him without self-reliance and the power to gain results. The man who trusts himself and who plans well his part on the
stage of life is a success. A strong and sterling character is like an acrostic-read it forward or backward or across-it still spells the same thing. Among the essentially representative and successful business men of Highland, Julius Marti holds a foremost position. In company with his father he owns the Highland Lumber Company and the S. Marti Lumber Company, and in addition to these interests he is a heavy stockholder in the State & Trust and the First National Banks, of Highland.
A native of Illinois, Julius Marti was born at Peoria, on the 28th of May, 1866, and he is a son of Sebastian and Anna (Gunnr) Marti, the latter of whom is deceased and the former of whom is living at Highland, having reached the venerable age of seventy-eight years. Julius Marti is the fourth child in a family of five and he was seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Ilighland, in 1873. He was educated in the public schools of this place and in 1887 went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was en- gaged in various lines of work for the ensuing two years, returning to his home at Ilighland in 1888. In the latter year he became asso- ciated with his father in the lumber business, and so successful have they been in that line of enterprise that they now own two of the most prominent lumber yards in Madison county, the same being conducted under the firm names of The Highland Lumber Com- pany and the S. Marti Lumber Company. Mr. Marti and his father own the land on which the yards are located, and the subject of this review has full charge of both concerns, the father being practically retired. Mr. Marti is a stockholder in the State & Trust Bank and in the First National Bank in this city and he is also financially interested in a number of other important concerns of a local order.
In the year 1891 Mr. Marti wedded Miss Bertha Snider, who was born at Highland and who is a daughter of Fredolin Snider, long a prominent and influential citizen in this place. Mr. and Mrs. Marti are the fond parents of three children, whose names and respective ages, in 1911, are here entered,-Frieda, four- teen years ; Gertrude, eleven years ; and Julius, Jr., six years.
Mr. Marti is a valued member of the Ger- man Turners Society, the Singers and the Sharpshooters. In politics he gives an earnest support to Republican principles, believing that the platform of that party contains the best elements of good government. He is a man of broad intelligence and remarkable bus-
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iness ability and in the various walks of life he has so conducted himself as to command the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men, who honor him for his sterling in- tegrity and worth.
FRED SCHRUMPF. A man who has won the respect and regard of his fellow man by the industry and thrift with which he has carried on his business relations, and by the kind heart and hand always out to welcome the stranger, is Fred Schrumpf. Living now in comfort- able retirement on his farm, his past life has been an active one, not only in business and in the civic life of the town, but he also served three years as a soldier of his country. Al- though his was a faithful service, cheerfully rendered, and he received an honorable dis- charge at the end of his term of enlistment, yet he never applied for a pension, content to receive as his reward the satisfaction of a gratified patriotism.
Fred Schrumpf was born in Germany, at Wiesbaden on the Rhine, in 1836, the son of William and Christina Schrumpf. The death of the mother left the father with the care of ten children. Three years after our subject's arrival in this country the father joined him here. When he was seventeen Fred Schrumpf answered the call of the New World, and came to America, locating in St. Louis, where he worked at the wagon making trade, and he also spent three years at Perryville, Missouri. In the fall of 1857 the young German married Johanna Klopf, a daughter of George and Barbara Klopf. Mrs. Schrumpf was born in ' Germany, and came to this country with her parents when she was thirteen years of age. Her father was a farmer living near Perry- ville, Missouri, and she was one of eight chil- dren. Of this large family only the two eldest, Mrs. Schrumpf and her brother, Henry, a farmer near Saline, are now alive.
Mr. Schrumpf owned a farm of two hun- dred acres, and after his marriage he bought eighty acres of improved land. Comforts and luxuries were few, but the young people were ambitious and with the frugality and thrift inherited from their German forebears they were soon on the road to success. At the har- vest time the husband, cutting the grain with a cradle, was followed by his strong, energetic. young wife, who bound it into bundles. At. meal time while she was in the house prepar- ing dinner he shocked the grain. In such happy comradeship the years passed. Their first two children died in infancy, but two others, Henry and Barbara, who were born at that place are
living. There was not a blot on their page of happiness, until when the war cloud arose in the South. Many of the farmers went to the front, and those who remained behind were never certain at what hour they would be called upon to do guard duty, and on such oc- casions how long they would have to be away from their farms. This unsettled state of af- fairs kept the section in a constant state of un- rest, so Mr. and Mrs. Schrumpf decided to sell their farm and locate in another part of the country. Their fine improved land only brought six dollars an acre during these hard times, but they were glad to sell and to come to Madison county. They bought eighty acres of land four miles from Highland and settled here in 1864. Four more children, Peter, Lou- ise, William and Christina were born to them in Madison county. Here they have seen great success, and prosperity has come to them in full measure. They have been able to give their children a good education and see them settled to useful lives.
The children all married and have families of their own. Henry married Lena Tontz, and they had a number of children, who have set- tled as follows : Lulu is the wife of a minister near Chicago; Olga, who taught for two years at Highland, is now meeting with much suc- cess in her profession at Saline; Rose is also a popular teacher of Saline; Hannah is a teacher of music ; Lena is a student at Carbon- dale and the three youngest, Gladys, Viola and Henry, remain at home. Barbara Schrumpf married Otto Augustine, and their children are Louisa, John, Selma, Lillian, Otto and Henry. Peter Schrumpf took for a wife Rose Am- buehl, and they have six children, Erma, Ella, William, Ida, Hilda and Herbert. Louisa Schrumpf became the wife of John Hirsche and went to live in Texas, where five children were born to them, Elma, Fred, Myrtle, Ray- mond and Lillian. William Schrumpf mar- ried Jennie Bailey, and with two children, Freda and Una, live in Nebraska. The young- est, Christina, married Edward Grese, and their children are Freda, Wilmar and Hanna. Thirty grandchildren to rise up and call them blessed, surely Mr. and Mrs. Schrumpf have much for which to be thankful.
Knowing from observation what conscien- tious attention Mr. Schrumpf paid to all the duties of his farm, and how interested he was in anything pertaining to the welfare of the children of the district, his neighbors elected him school director, a position which he ably filled for twelve years. He was one of the
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men who insisted that in order to bring pros- perity to the country side good roads were necessary, so he was elected and served for twelve years as highway commissioner, at the same time performing the duties of clerk of commissions. His English education made him an invaluable friend to his fellow country- men, so whenever an office of vital importance to them was vacant he was always the first one to be suggested.
Mr. and Mrs. Schrumpf have always been members and have contributed liberally to the support of the German Evangelical church in Highland, and for years Mr. Schrumpf has occupied the position of first elder in the church. Politically he has been a Republican ever since he was able to vote. With the true German idea that one of the truest services one could give one's country was to fight for her, he served in the Missouri militia for three years.
In the comfortable home of the Schrumpfs they often contrast their lives and that of their children with the circumstances of their younger days, when they went to school in an old log cabin that had a puncheon floor made split logs, and in place of a window a piece of a log cut out to let in the light, a nice sort of ventilation for the winter time. They have had many hard tasks and some suffering, but through it all have kept smiles on their faces and a welcome in their hearts for their poorer brother. The respect and affection of the section in which they live is theirs in fullest measure, and the rest which has come to them after a long and strenuous life is a well earned one.
FRANK LORENZ. Coming to America in his infancy, Frank Lorenz has found this country an ideal homeland, and with the passage of years has succeeded most admirably in every venture to which he has devoted himself. The greater part of his time has been given to farm and stock raising, with some dairying, and he is now retired from the activities of life, his declining years attended by the ease and freedom from care to which he is so justly en- titled after his long and busy life.
Frank Lorenz was born in Hassen, Ger- many, on April 5, 1835, the son of John J. and Margaretta Lorenz, who immigrated to Amer- ica in 1841. John Lorenz realized that Amer- ica offered many advantages to a man in his position which the Fatherland denied, and he determined to make a home for his family in America. He immigrated in 1841 and in 1843 he was able to send for his family, con-
sisting of the mother and seven children : Char- lotte, Martha, Mary, Emile, John, Elizabeth and Frank. They landed in New Orleans on New Year's morning of 1844, being forty-eight days in passage, and their trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, where the husband and father was to meet them, required fourteen days to make. The father had prepared a comfortable home for them near to where he was employed in the city as a gardener, and they lived there for two years, removing then to Carondolet, where they remained for eight years. The Iron Mountain Railroad then was put through the locality and Mr. Lorenz sold his land at a good figure, after which he moved to Madison county, and was able to buy a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, as a result of his previous transac- tion. His new place was in a most favor- able location, being but one mile north of Highland, and the family industriously set about making a comfortable home and improv- ing the land so that it would yield abundantly. Frank Lorenz remained at home as his father's assistant, and then he and his brother bought the farm. In 1857 he married Louise Hanslee, a native of Switzerland, born in 1839, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Hanslee, who came to America when their daughter was but a young girl. Mr. and Mrs. Lorenz took up their married life in the home of Frank Lor- enz's father, and he continued to work on the home place as before his marriage, working the farm so skillfully and practically that he pros- pered in a most pleasing manner. They were the parents of six children, three of whom died young, the remaining being John W., Edward and Lily. John W. was graduated from the Highland high school, the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale, and from the St. Louis and Chicago Medical Colleges. He is now a prosperous physician and surgeon, practicing in Evansville, Indiana, in which city he is also the proprietor of. a modern drug store. He married Sophia Werhly, and they have two children, Irene and Julia. Edward remained on the old homestead, and in his father's re- tirement is engaged in superintending the work on the farm, with a splendid degree of success. He has been twice married. His first wife was Emily Sharer, and his children by that mar- riage are Jennie, William and Louisa, the lat- ter being deceased. He married in later years Julia Werhly, and their children are: Frances, deceased ; Nellie, Edna and Curtis. Lily, the only daughter of Mr. Lorenz, married Louis
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Metz, a retired farmer living in Highland. They have two children, Louisa and Lily.
Mr. Lorenz has been twice married. In 1899, on August 12, his first wife passed away, and in November of 1904 he married Miss Bertha Marti, born in Highland, in 1859, the daughter of Sebastian and Anna (Gunnr) Marti, natives of Switzerland, who immi- grated to America in 1857 and settled in High- land, where their daughter Bertha was born. Mr. Marti was a mechanic by trade, and later the exigencies of his calling took him to Belle- ville, where he remained about three years, thence to Peoria, and in 1869 he returned to Highland, where he has resided ever since. They were the parents of Emma, Anna, Emil and Julius, all of whom were educated in the public schools of Highland, the sons, Emil and Julius, completing courses in the Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri. In January, 1898, the mother of the family died, and she is still mourned by all who knew and loved her.
Mr. and Mrs. Lorenz are members of the German Evangelical church of Highland, where they are active and enthusiastic in all branches of the work of the church. Mr. Lor- enz is and always has been a Republican. He cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, and has adhered continuously to Republican prin- ciples since that time. Mr. Lorenz has es- tablished a residence on Church and Washing- ton streets in Highland, where he now resides. LOUIS MILLER. From small beginnings Louis Miller has worked his way upward to a position where he is recognized as one of the prosperous and progressive business men of Highland, where he is the owner of a large brick yard. There is both lesson and incentive in reviewing the salient points in the career of a man who in spite of sickness, disappoint- ments and discouragements has so husbanded his resources as to attain to such a degree of success. Such men honor the country, and Mr. Miller has won the right to be classed among the representative men of his community. He was born in Highland, Illinois, July 30, 1862, and is a son of Quirian and Walburga (Gringes) Miller.
Quirian Miller was born at Constance, on the shores of Lake Constance, Baden, Ger- many, near the line of Switzerland, and from that country immigrated to the United States in 1847, being accompanied by his first wife and eight children. Landing at New Orleans, he was unfortunate enough to be making the trip at the time of the terrible cholera plague, which visited the family, taking the mother Vol. II-24
and five of the children. Thus bereaved, in a strange country, of whom language he knew not a word, Mr. Miller took his three mother- less little ones, Theodore, Richard and Ap- plonia, to St. Louis, and subsequently removed to St. Jacob, Illinois, where his three brothers, who had preceded him to this country, had settled. Later, when the Civil war broke out, Richard and Theodore, being seventeen and nineteen years old, respectively, enlisted in the Union army, serving in some of its fiercest battles and returning broken in health and with shattered nerves. Among their engagements were Gettysburg, Wilderness and Antietam, and their army experiences left scars that did not heal for many years. In 1849 Quirian Miller was married to Walburga Gringes, who was born at Stockach, Rhine, Germany, and immigrated to America in 1848, when twenty- three years of age. Their marriage was sol- emnized at St. Jacob, from whence they came to Highland, and here spent the remainder of their active lives. Six children were born to them: Mary, Lottie, John, Julia, Hannah and Louis, and all attended the Highland schools, their parents working industriously that the children might be given good educational ad- vantages.
Like his brother and sisters, Louis Miller attended the public schools, but did not secure much schooling, as he lost his father when he was but eight years old, and when he was ten years of age started to work in a brick yard at seventy-five cents per day. He was ambi- tious, steadfast in his efforts, and ever had in mind the object of establishing himself in an independent position, and his work was there- fore of a most satisfactory nature. Being economical and industrious, he was soon the proud possessor of a bank account, and with a view of bettering himself went to work in a yard at Edwardsville. While there, however, he received notice that the bank at Highland which held all his earnings had failed, and he lost all his small capital that had been so dearly earned. Following that loss he was at- tacked by typhoid fever, which, owing pos- sibly to the tax he had put on his strength so early in life, nearly caused his death, and when he finally recovered he found himself not only without means, but two hundred dollars in debt to his doctor. At first it seemed to Mr. Miller that he was too discourged to continue the struggle against adverse circumstances, but his mother, with kindly encouraging advice, spurred him to another effort, and the result has been the gaining by Highland of one of its
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busiest industries. When he had paid off his debts and could see his way clear to do so, Mr. Miller leased the brick yard from his em- ployer, and subsequently became its owner by purchase. Filled with energy, enterprise and progressive ideas, he has built up the business year by year, and placed himself in the inde- pendent position that he had dreamed about so many years before.
On November 29, 1888, Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Louisa Vuag- niaux, who was born near Greenville, Bond county, Illinois, in 1868, daughter of Samuel and Louisa (Mury) Vuagniaux, natives of Switzerland. Mrs. Miller has one brother living, Louis. After their marriage they set- tled down in Highland, and here seven chil- dren have been born to them : Emily, Fremont, Irene, Reynold, Ludwig, Edna and Lorene, the last-named being born on Christmas Day, IQUI. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are firm believers in the value of education, and have given their children excellent advantages not only in a lit- erary way, but in a manner that has fitted them to take any station in life. Mr. Miller is a member of the Catholic church, while his wife and children are adherents of the German Evangelical faith. Politically he supports Re- publican principles, but he has not cared to enter the field of politics and contents himself with discharging only the duties of a good and public-spirited citizen. In 1906 he erected a handsome, modern residence on Park avenue, Highland, a building of two stories, and con- structed of the brick manufactured by Mr. Miller. In addition to his large brick yard he owns, with five others, a rice farm of four hundred and eighty acres situated in Stuttgart, Arkansas. During the long years that he has been engaged in business here he has seen some wonderful changes take place in High- land, and can recall many reminiscences and anecdotes of the early days. A connecting link of the time when Indians stopped at the old Switzerland Hotel and there gave their war-whoop to the infinite terror of the women and children of the neighborhood, and the day of the railroad, the automobile and the aero- plane, Mr. Miller has always stood for all that is best and most honorable in business, and holds the esteem of a wide circle of friends, not only of his own but of later generations.
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