USA > Illinois > Kendall County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 17
USA > Illinois > Will County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 17
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After coming west Mr. Bethel followed his trade for five years along the Fox River. In 1857 he purchased a farm in Grundy County, which he operated in addition to building bridges, etc. For about two years during the Civil war he was connected with the Citizens' civil engineering corps, attached to the army of the Cumberland, as foreman and master mechanic, engaged in building and repairing railroad bridges. Since then he has devoted himself exclusively to farm- ing. In 1875 he removed from Grundy County to his present home in the town of Na-au-say, Kendall County, where he owns and operates a farm of two hundred and forty acres of good land, with fine buildings, and here he engages success- fully in growing grain and raising stock. He finds good markets at towns of this vicinity for all the products of his farm.
When the Republican party was formed Mr. Bethel identified himself with it, but in 1873 he joined the liberal movement. For about three decades he has served his district as a school director, and at the same time has used his influ- ence along all lines of progress. He is identified with the Patrons of Husbandry and the Sons of Temperance. Of the latter he became a member at the age of eighteen, and has faithfully kept the pledge ever since. A boyish pledge would not be regarded by many as binding, and his faithful keeping of it shows the character of the man, indicating his high regard for the truth, for his word and for what he believes to be a
worthy cause. In religion he is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is very active in all Grange matters, working hard as committeeman and delegate. He is a believer in all movements tending, in his opinion, to better the interests of the farmer. In his character the principle of honor is strongly marked. He has a hatred for wrong and oppression wherever found. He is honored by all who know him for his upright- ness of character; a man who after carefully forming his opinion never swerves from what he considers right; a man who dares to be true to his convictions.
HARLES HENRY PLUESS. Those pub- lic-spirited citizens whose sound judgment has promoted the progress of their commu- nity and whose energy has brought an enlarged activity to every line of labor, deservedly occupy positions of prominence in local history. A vol- ume wherein reference is made to leading men of Kendall County would be incomplete were no mention made of Mr. Pluess, of Millington, who is ranked as one of the most progressive men, not only of the village, but of the county also. As banker and merchant he is identified with the most important activities of the town. His suc- cess is of his own making. Accustomed to enter- prises of magnitude, he is distinguished in busi- ness by breadth of views, quickness of perception and promptness of action, which qualities have been the means of bringing about his present high standing as a financier and business man.
Mr. Pluess was born in Prairie du Sac, Wis., March 23, 1861, a son of Jacob and Mary (Beh- rens) Pluess, natives respectively of Canton Aar- gal, Switzerland, and Hamburg, Germany. His father came to America in young manhood, crossing the ocean in 1853 in an old sailing vessel that consumed thirteen weeks in the voyage to New York. He went to Ohio, but six months later proceeded to Wisconsin, where he opened a shoemaker's shop and built up a large business, employing five or six men. He continued at the head of that business until he retired in 1885. Through his labors during those years he accum-
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ulated a competency and is now comfortably situ- and fuel. This beautiful home is presided over ated. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion a member of the German Evangelical Church.
In Wisconsin, in 1857, Mr. Pluess married Mary Behrens, by whom he has three children: Rosa, wife of Jacob Meisser, who lives in the old home town; Charles H .; and Julius, who was born in 1863 and died in 1882, in Chicago, where he had previously been employed by the firm of J. H. Walker & Co.
The education of our subject was begun in public schools and completed, after a year as clerk in a local bank, in a business college. In 1879 he went to Chicago and entered the wholesale dry-goods house of A. T. Stewart & Co., where he remained until 1882, afterward taking a posi- tion with James H. Walker & Co. In August, 1884, he came to Millington and started a general mercantile business in company with Stephen H. Conger, a former schoolmate, under the firm name of Pluess & Conger, continuing in the same until December, 1888, when he sold his interest to his partner. Afterward he engaged as commercial traveler for a grocery house. On the death of his former partner he returned to Millington and bought back the business, which he has since conducted. His stock is valued at about $10,000, and his sales amount to about $30,000 annually. He is also a member of a mercantile firm in New- ark, his partner being a young man who was clerk in his employ for ten years. In the store at Newark there is also a complete assortment of merchandise. In 1892 he bought the only brick business building in Millington, and here he has since conducted business. January 1, 1895, hie formed a partnership with Walter Finnie and opened the Bank of Millington, the first institu- tion of the kind ever organized in this place. The venture has proved a very successful one, and is also a great accommodation to the resi. dents of the village. There is a branch of the bank in the store at Newark. In 1898 he erected a modern and beautiful residence, which is one of the most attractive in the entire county; it is equipped with the best improvements, including hot and cold water, furnace, and gas for lighting
by Mrs. Pluess, an accomplished lady, who was Addie Finnie, daughter of Thomas Finnie, and who became the wife of Mr. Pluess June 22, 1892. In politics our subject is an active Re- publican and takes a warm interest in everything affecting the welfare of his party, but the demands of his business are such as to leave him no leisure for office-holding, although he would reflect credit upon his constituents in any position. He is a member of Sheridan Lodge No. 735, A. F. & A. M., at Sheridan, and Sandwich Chapter No. 107, R. A. M., at Sandwich.
6 B. LARSON. Some of the most enter- prising citizens of northern Illinois are of . Scandinavian birth or parentage. Com- bined with the admirable traits of their country- men, they have the self-reliance and determina- tion that are distinctively American; hence, as a rule, they attain a fair degree of success. As a representative of that race in Kendall County, mention belongs to Mr. Larson, the successful and popular merchant of Millbrook, and a resi- dent of Kendall County since 1877. In the sketch of his brother, B. B. Larson, mention of the family will be found. He was born in Vos, Nor- way, September 17, 1847. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to learn the dyer's trade, and served five years at the same, after which he engaged in business on his own account in Tuesse, Norway, for four years.
When he was twenty-five years of age, in 1872, Mr. Larson came to America. His first location was in Chicago, where lie carried on a tailoring shop. From there he went to Milwaukee. In the spring of 1877 he came to Millbrook, and, in company with K. B. Olson, bought the busi- less he has since conducted. In 1880 he bought out his partner, since which time he has been alone. He carries a line of general merchandise and groceries, and lias in stock a full assortment of dry-goods, boots and shoes, clothing, etc. He lias enlarged his building by two additional rooms, in one of which lie has his stock of gro-
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ceries and in the other clothing. In 1885 he started in the grain business, which he carried on with his brother, Bernell B., for two years, but the de- tails of the work consumed too much of his time, and he turned the business over to his brother.
The Republican party has received the support of Mr. Larson ever since he became a citizen of the United States, and he has frequently been a delegate to county conventions. For six years he held the office of school trustee. In religion heisa Methodist. October 20, 1877, he married Louise, daughter of Charles Gilmore, of Milwau- kee, Wis. Her father came to America in 1840, and for a great many years was a captain on the lakes. Mr. and Mrs. Larson lost one son, Clar- ence, when he was eleven years of age. Their only surviving son, Alfred, assists his father in the store.
OHN V. D. BRONK, whose home is located in section 35, Na-au say Township, Kendall County, comes from one of the representative old New York state families. His father, Ephraim Bronk, was reared in that state and there plied his trade of shoemaking until 1836, when he came to Illinois, making the long and tedious trip chiefly by way of the great lakes. Here he took up eighty acres of land, now in- cluded in the homestead of our subject, and by arduous labors reduced the place to cultivation. The house which he erected at that early day is yet standing in a good state of preservation, and the timbers of hewn wood and the studding of hand-sawed lumber are so hard to-day that it is practically impossible to drive a nail into them. He devoted his chief attention to the raising of grain, and much of this product he hauled to Chicago markets, the railroads and even the Illi- nois & Michigan canal not yet having been con- structed. The Indians were very plentiful in this locality during the first years of his residence here, but they were peaceable. Deeply inter- ested in educational matters, he did mnuch for the cause, and this district was named in his honor. He served as a justice of the peace, and polit- ically was identified with the Democrats until
the spirited campaign of 1860, when, after hav- ing heard a debate between Lincoln and Douglas at Ottawa, he became a firm adherent of the Re- publican party. He married a New York lady, Charlotte Van Dalson, and of their seven children two are deceased. Joseph V. resides in this county, while Peter lives in Will County, Il1. The honored father was called to his reward in 1864.
John Van Dalson Bronk, who was born in this township August 27, 1844, received the limited educational advantages of his day and remained at the old homestead as long as his father lived, relieving him of a great share of the care of the place during his last years. He continued to manage the farm until 1892, when he removed to Joliet, where he engaged in the livery busi- ness for three years. Finally he decided that the comparatively free and independent life of the farmer was much to be preferred, and, disposing of his business, returned to the scenes and occu- pations of his youth. He has been blessed with prosperity in his undertakings, and has added to his possessions until he now owns two hundred and forty acres, much of this being planted in corn and oats. While he was numbered among the citizens of Joliet he erected a handsome resi- dence, which he still owns, leasing it to respon- sible tenants. In 1898 he built a commodious, modern house on his own farm, and every ap- pointment of the place is convenient and up-to- date.
Thirty.one years ago the marriage of Mr. Bronk and Miss Kate I. Van Dyke, daughter of John Van Dyke, of this township, was solem- nized. Two of their five children have entered the silent land. Those now living are: Lucina, wife of William Cryder; Clara G., wife of Sacia Spangler, both of Will County; and Eva, who lives with her parents.
Politically Mr. Bronk is a stanch Republican, and, while he never has desired public office, has served as road commissioner. He is a Mason of the Knight Templar degree, belonging to the Plainfield Lodge and to the Joliet Commandery. In company with the other members of his family he favors the doctrines of the Universalist Church.
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
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HENRY J. HOLM.
ENRY J. HOLM, who is manager of the creamery at Goodings Grove, Homer Town- ship, came to this county in 1881 and began the cultivation of the one hundred and forty acres comprising his present homestead. By good management and energy he brought the place under excellent cultivation. As necessity de- manded, he erected farm buildings. In 1896 his barn burned down and he built the one he now uses, a substantial building with basement 32x60 feet in dimensions; also a corn crib 24x32. His barn is so large that it will accommodate eighty tons of hay at one time. The stock are given . stalls in the basement. He engages in the raising of cattle and in the dairy business, milk- ing eleven cows. Largely through his efforts a creamery was started. He was the first to sub- scribe for stock and furnish money for the enter- prise, and he now has quite a sum invested in the business. Besides being manager of the cream- ery he is secretary and treasurer of the company. All products are shipped to Chicago, where Elgin prices are paid. It is due to his management and good judgment that the business has been made so profitable, returning to its stockholders divi- dends that are larger than was first anticipated. The quality of the butter is so excellent that it always commands a high price. For instance, in September, 1899, they turned out eight thou- sand eight hundred and sixty-eight pounds of butter, which sold at an average price of twenty- two and one-lialf cents per pound, this making the cash receipt from seven thousand seven hun- dred and twenty-nine pounds sold outside of the community $1,749, an estimate that gives an idea of the dimensions of the business and ex- plains the reason for the high rating of the stock.
Mr. Holm was born in Kensington, Ill., Feb- ruary 9, 1857. His father, John, a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prussia, came to Amer- ica at eighteen years of age, spending six weeks on the water. He proceeded at once to this county, where he was employed on farms. Later he sawed wood for the Illinois Central Railroad, making about $1,600. With this money he bought land in Worth, Cook County. The place was raw prairie and required considerable effort to get under cultivation. Being industrious he prospered. The property that he first purchased is now worth many hundred times what he paid for it. By adding to his holdings he became the owner of three hundred and sixty-five acres, comprising a valuable farm, on which he still re- sides. He has served as commissioner and is a Republican in politics. In religion he believes in Lutheran doctrines. , While living in Kensington he married Carolina Hock, also from Prussia. They have five children, viz .: Henry J .; Mrs. Mary Handorf, of Marley, this county; Dora, wife of Dan Laufer, of Homer Township; Fred, who superintends his father's farm; and Carrie, wife of Paul Hampel, of Washington Heights.
The life of our subject has been passed in Cook and Will Counties. He remained at home until his marriage, April 11, 1881, which united him with Louise, daughter of Henry Sahs, of Oak Lawn. She died in 1896, leaving five children, Henry, Louise, Alice, Cora and Carrie. Since 1891 Mr. Holin has been a member of the board of school directors. His political views are in accord with the platform of the Republican party. He is a director of the Homer Mutual Fire In- surance Company, an organization which has proved of great benefit to the farmers of this
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township. Reared in the Lutheran faith, he has always favored its doctrines and supported its enterprises.
LFRED T. CORBIN, a leading business man of Plainfield, is the proprietor of an establishment in which he carries a com- plete assortment of dry-goods, groceries, hats and caps, etc. In addition to this business he has other interests of varying degrees of importance and value. He owns a half interest in a hard- ware store in Phoenix, Ariz., of which his son- in-law is the manager. He also has shares in the Bankers' Mining & Milling Company, which owns a mine on Bull Mountain, at Cripple Creek, Colo., and also has mining interests at Leadville, that state.
The father of our subject, Elihu Corbin, was born in Rutland, Vt., and in boyhood accom- panied his parents to Cleveland, Ohio, where he grew to manhood. For a time he carried on a boot and shoe business in Cleveland, after which, with a partner, he operated a tannery. The excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California reached him and he determined to seek in the far west a fortune. In 1850 he went to the Pacific coast overland and remained a year, when, his brother-in-law being taken sick, he started east with him via Panama, but the sick man died before home was reached. Resuming the shoe business, Mr. Corbin manufactured shoes of his own leather and built up a good trade in Cleveland. However, desiring to seek another location, he sold out in 1852 and came to Plainfield, Ill., November 5, where he pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres, a portion of which is now in the city limits. He platted the land in town lots and sold it as opportunity afforded. On the remainder he engaged in gen- eral farm pursuits, and added to it from time to time. Finally retiring, he established his home in the town. On the Republican ticket he was elected justice of the peace, which office he held for more than a quarter of a century. During
the Civil war he held office as deputy United States marshal. In religion he was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His life was devoted to various pursuits, and in each he seemed to meet with success. As a farmer he was thorough and painstaking, as a business man energetic and up-to-date. From 1860 to 1862 he carried on a mercantile business in Plain- field, but, preferring agricultural pursuits, he sold out. When he died in 1895 he was eighty- two years of age.
The mother of our subject was Elisa A. Fish, a native of Groton, Conn., and now a resident of Plainfield, Ill. In spite of her eighty-three years she is quite active. Of her nine children four are deceased. Hannah is the widow of Capt. D. Sullivan, who was a captain in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry during the Civil war; Emma M. is the widow of E. Holbrook, of Batavia, Ill .; and Mary E. resides with her mother. The youngest of the family is Louis D., who clerks for his brother. Another son, Ed- ward W., was a merchant in Colorado and died there, but is buried in Plainfield. Mrs. Eliza A. (Fish) Corbin is a granddaughter of Ebenezer Fish, a soldier in the Revolutionary war and for six months a prisoner-of-war. His son, Eben- ezer, served during the second war with England. He walked the entire distance from Connecticut to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1811, and settled in that place, where he became a prominent citizen, and one of the founders of Methodism, giving the site for two churches. He died in 1880, aged ninety- three years. His wife was Johanna Stanton, of Stonington, Conn.
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In Cleveland, Ohio, our subject was born Jan- uary 6, 1843. He was nine years of age when the family settled in this county. Two years later he secured work as a clerk in Plainfield. He continued steadily in business, with the ex- ception of the time spent in a commercial college in Chicago. In 1870, with two partners, Mr. Corbin engaged in the mercantile business in Plainfield. His partners were G. N. and W. H. Chittenden; the former sold his interest to his partners in 1887. Three years later our subject bought his partner's interest and has since man-
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aged the store. During the mining excitement in Montana he spent three years in that territory (1864-67), and besides mining took up a ranch. Fraternally he is a member of Plainfield Lodge No. 536, A. F. & A. M. In politics he is stanchly, though not actively, a Republican, and has held various township and city offices, to which he was elected on the party ticket. His marriage united him with Miss Laura A. Pratt, daughter of the late S. S. Pratt, who was a mer- chant in Plainfield. They are the parents of one daughter, Grace, who married Charles H. David- son, a hardware merchant in Phoenix, Ariz .. They have one son, Harold Corbin Davidson.
M AJ. EDWIN S. MUNROE. The largest real-estate firm in Joliet is that of Mun- roe Brothers, composed of ex-Senator George H. and Maj. Edwin S. Munroe, who since 1896 have conducted a mortgage, loans, in- surance, real-estate and general trust company's business, with offices in the Munroe hotel block. Since 1898 they have laid out the Munroe & Kelly subdivision, west of Henderson avenue, and the Munroe & Melchior and the Munroe & Norton additions, while prior to this the senior member of the firm platted many subdivisions while doing business under the firm name of G. Munroe & Son, including the Ridgewood ad- ditions to Joliet. It is doubtful if any individual or organization has accomplished more than they in the development of property interests and the advancing of real-estate values; lience their work possesses permanent merit.
In Florence Township, this county, the sub- ject of this sketch was born September 29, 1857, a son of George, and a brother of George H. Munroe, to whose biographies the reader is re- ferred for the family history. His education was obtained in public schools primarily and was completed in Northwestern University, which lie attended from 1874 to 1876, having applied to this purpose his earnings while assisting his fatlı-
er in the grocery business in Joliet. While at- tending the university he was very closely con- nected with the work of building the gymnasium and presenting it to the college; and as secretary and treasurer he was one of the leading members of the board of directors having the work in charge.
-Upon leaving the university Mr. Munroe be- came salesman and bookkeeper for his father's grocery, and later traveled for the house. In January, 1881, he became traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery house of John Roper & Co. Four years later he severed his connection with them in order to accept a position as commercial traveler with Reid, Murdoch & Co., the largest wholesale grocery house in Chicago, and he con- tinued with them for eleven years, until 1896. Meantime he had been extensively interested in Joliet real estate. Purchasing thecorner of Chicago and Clinton streets, where the Joliet National Bank stands, he built the Ed S. Munroe block in 1882, and from that time to this his real-estate interests have constantly enlarged and broadened. He occupies the homestead on East Cass street, built in 1887 by his father. There, with his wife and three children, George M., Edwine M. and Stanley M., he has a pleasant home in which his leisure hours are passed. He married Marie, daughter of Gallus Muller, who came to Joliet just before the Chicago fire and was chief clerk for the Illinois penitentiary for over twenty years.
In 1876 Mr. Munroe entered the Illinois Na- tional Guard, becoming a private in Company B, Tenth Battalion. At the formation of the Twelfth Battalion, two years later, he was made quartermaster, with the rank of lieutenant, and continued in that capacity for eight years, the battalion meantime becoming the Fourth Regi- ment. In 1886 Governor Fifer commissioned him major of the regiment, and lie continued as such until the reorganization of the guard and the merging of the Fourth into the Third Regi- ment. He was called into active service at the time of the Braidwood strike of 1877, the LaSalle trouble of 1878, the Joliet and Lemont strikes of 1885, and the Braidwood labor troubles of 1889.
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He is a member of the Veteran Roll of the Illinois National Guard. Politically a Republican and interested in the success of his party, he is never- theless in no sense of the word a politician, his time being fully occupied with the cares of his constantly increasing business. Socially he is a member of the Union Club of Joliet. In religion he is connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is secretary of the board of trustees, and is a delegate representing Rock River Conference in the General Conference to be held in Chicago in 1900, which is the supreme organization of the entire Methodist Episcopal Church throughout the world.
ENRY H. LICHTENWALTER. Since his settlement in this county Mr. Lichten- walter has been known not only as a sub- stantial farmer, but also as a progressive citizen and an earnest Christian. Although he started for himself with very little means (having only $68 at the time he came to Illinois), he has be- come one of the large land owners of Jackson Township, and his name is synonymous with successful agriculture. He is the owner of six farms, aggregating eleven hundred acres. This large property represents the results of honest in- dustry and frugality, traits that have always been very noticeable in his character. Besides his farming and stock interests he acts as local agent for the Greengarden Mutual Insurance Company.
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