History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 77

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 77
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 77
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 77

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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lican. He owns a residence property on Center street, Cairo.

FREDERICK KORSMEYER, wholesale to- bacconist, Cairo, is a native of the principality of Lippe, Germany, and was born March 4, 1836. His father, William Korsmeyer, also a native of Germany, and a farmer by profession, having married Miss Julia Schafer, of Germany, reared a family of seven children, of whom Frederick is the third. The family emigrated to the United States in 1854, with the exception of Frederick, who remained two years later, in order to complete his mercantile training in the business house of Henry Gerhard, in the town of Holzminden. The family settled near Evans- ville, Ind., and, with the exception of the par- ents and one daughter, who are deceased, are at this time residents of the United States. Soon after coming to Indiana, which was in 1856, Mr. Korsmeyer obtained a position in the dry goods house of Rose Bros., of Evans- ville, where he remained for some months, but after worked two years in a general store near the home of his parents, conducted by a Mr. John Decker, whom he bought out at the end of the second year, and conducted the business himself for about two years, this being his first business undertaking. He was married in 1859 to Miss Adelia Lemcke, of Evansville, but a native of Hamburg, Germany. She was born November 11, 1839, and is a daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Lemcke. Preferring to re- side in the city, they, in 1861, removed to Evansville, selling his stock of goods, and for a time was employed in the business house of Schroeder & Lemcke, and after employed as clerk on a steamboat. In 1864, he came to Cairo, and engaged in the retail tobacco trade, associated with Alexander Lemcke, as Lemcke & Co. Mr. Korsmeyer conducted this business for three years, when he purchased the interest of Lemcke, since which time he has been sole proprietor, and since 1878 has done a wholesale trade, and now employs two traveling sales-

men. Business on corner of Smith and Levee streets. He is a member of the Masonic order, Cairo Commandery. They have a family of three children, viz .: William, Elizabeth and Alexander.

FRANK KRATKY, baker and confectioner, on Commercial avenue, between Fourth and Sixth streets, Cairo, Ill., is a native of the town of Predbor, Bokemia, Germany, and was born on the 23d of March, 1834. He is the fifth of a large family of Wenzel and Anna (Lehovetz) Kratky, both of whom were born in Germany, where the father still lives, the mother having died in 1873. Frank Kratky was reared to manhood in his native country, and was for ten years a soldier in the German Army. In 1863, he left the old country and came to New York City, and thence to Mexico, where he remained about four years engaged in the bakery business in the City of Mexico. He came to Cairo, Ill., from Mexico, in 1868, since which time he has conducted a bakery and confectionery store at that place. In 1879, he sustained a loss of about $2,000 by fire, and the same year erected the two-story brick house on Commercial ave- nue, which he now occupies. He was married in the city of St. Louis, April 20, 1873, to Miss Laura Weber, daughter of Ambrosias Weber and Dora (Tier) Weber. She was born at Kal- ter-Vasser, Germany, July 11, 1852, and came to the United States with her parents in 1865. They settled in St. Louis, where the mother is still living in her sixty-second year, and where the father died January 4, 1883, at the age of sixty-three. Mrs. Kratky is the second of a family of five children of these parents. Mr. and Mrs. Kratky have a family of six children, of whom four are deceased. Emma Kratky was born in Cairo, Ill., on the 6th of February, 1874, and Rosa H. Kratky, born in Cairo, May 28, 1881. The family are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Kratky's parents were members of the Catholic Church, as was also the father of Mrs. Kratky, her mother belonging to the Lutheran Church.

BIOGRAPHICAL:

CHARLES LAME, carpenter, is a native of Philadelphia, Penn., and was born May 31, 1811. He is a son of Caleb and Margaret Lame, both natives of New Jersey, and is the young- est and only surviving one of a family of five children. The father was a soldier in the Trip- olian war, serving three years with Decatur and Com. Bainbridge. He died at Phila- delphia in 1812. The mother survived him until 1850, and died in the same city. Charles was reared, educated and learned his trade in Philadelphia, where he made his residence until coming to Cairo in 1863, and where, in October, 1834, he married Miss Hannah Rose, daughter of William Rose, Sr., a manufacturer of Philadelphia. She was born in Philadel- phia on the 29th of February, 1812, and is a direct-lineal descendant of the family of Will- iam Penn. Mr. Lame has engaged in his trade since he was twenty-one years old, and is still actively engaged, though he is now seven- ty-two years old, and maintains his youthful vigor to a great extent. He came to Cairo, Ill., in 1863, and has continually resided there since. His family consists of five children, of whom but two are now living-William R. Lame, the oldest, is a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; John and Charles Lame, each of whom died in infancy, and Margaret K., wife of E. C. Ford, of Cairo, Ill., and Annie M., deceased wife of E. A. Burnett, of the Cairo Bulletin. Mr. and Mrs. Lame are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church of Cairo. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Family residence on Tenth street, between Washington and Commercial avenues.

CHARLES LANCASTER, lumber dealer, Cairo, Ill., was born in St. Clair County, Ill., on the 15th of August, 1836. The father, Levi Lancaster, was of English parentage, though born in Virginia in 1801. He came to Illinois and to St. Clair County in 1822, and there mar- ried Elizabeth Terrey, by whom he had seven children, Charles being the fifth, and besides

whom there is another member of the family in Cairo, Sarah, wife of Robert S. Lemmon. Levi Lancaster, Charles' father, died in Hastings, Minn., where he had gone for health, in 1859. The mother died in 1841, in St. Clair County, Ill. Charles was educated in the common schools of St. Clair County and in Collinsville, and learned the trade of carpenter in Minne- sota and in Peoria, Ill. He came to Cairo, Ill., and engaged at his trade in 1862, and until 1874 was chiefly employed as ship car penter. In 1874, he began the lumber busi- ness, though on a very limited scale when com- pared with the present business. He has asso- ciated with him Newton Rice, and in 1881 they established a large planning-mill, in which they employ regularly several workmen. In addi- tion to their mill, preparation is now being made to erect a large warehouse. In Febru- ary, 1868, Mr. Lancaster was married to Miss Sarah Hodge. She was born in Kentucky March 4, 1846. Their family consists of Min- nie, born October 27, 1868; Pearl L., born June 4, 1873 ; Mabel, born November 12, 1876, aud Geraldine L. Lancaster, born December 16, 1878. Mr. Lancaster is a member of the I. O. O. F., Knights of Honor, and the Amer- ican Legion of Honor.

THOMAS LEWIS, lawyer, Cairo, was born on the 9th of July, 1808, in Somerset County, Ohio. His parents were Thomas Lewis and Susan McCoy, the former of Welsh descent and the latter of Scotch, and both natives of New Jersey, where they married and reared a family of eleven children, Thomas being the ninth and the only member of the family now living. He received the benefits of a common school edu- cation in his native county, and at the age of sixteen an apprenticeship to the trade of shoe- maker, which he completed. Soon after he completed his trade, he started a wholesale boot and shoe manufactory in the city of Brunswick, N. J., which business he conducted successfully for seven years, employing a large

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number of workmen. In 1836, he came West to look out a location for a future home, and as a result of which he settled the year follow- ing in Springfield, Ill., where he again em- barked in the boot and shoe trade. Having a natural fondness for law, to which he had given considerable study, he decided to adopt the profession, and in 1845 was admitted to prac- tice. Though he has not been a prominent practitioner, he has been associated with some of the best talent of Springfield, and in the meantime was engaged in various business en- terprises of magnitude. He came to Cairo, Ill., in 1863, and established the Cairo Demo- crat, which he conducted for some years, re- turning to Springfield in 1869 to engage in ed- itorial work. Since 1875, he has been a resi- dent of Cairo, and that year organized the Al- exander County Bank. In 1867, he organized the " Widows' and Orphans' Mutual Aid Soci- ety," of which he is now Secretary. He is a stockholder in the Cairo Street Railway, which he organized, in connection with Messrs. Strat- ton and Goldstein. Mr. Lewis was married in New Jersey to Miss Margaret A. Van Nor- strand, of New Jersey. She was born October 4, 1810. They celebrated their golden wedding on the 4th of April, 1882. Have a family of three children-Adaline, wife of S. D. Ayers, of Kansas City; William T. Lewis, of Kansas; and Albert Lewis, a resident of Cairo.

HON. DAVID T. LINEGAR, lawyer and present member of Legislature of Illinois, was born in Milford, Clermont Co., Ohio, February 12, 1830. His father, Thomas Linegar, was of German ancestry, and his mother, Hannah Thompson, was of English origin. His parents in 1840 removed from Ohio to Indiana; there he acquired a common school education, and with a fixed determination to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he qualified himself for the duties of a teacher, and during his four years' experience in that capacity, availed him- self of the opportunity thus afforded to read

law. He subsequently entered the office of Hon. L. Q. DeBruler, of Rockford, Ind., and in 1856 was admitted to practice. In 1858, he located for practice in Fairfield, Ill., where he remained until 1861, coming in that year to Cairo, Ill., which has since been his home. Here he has been associated with some of the ablest lawyers of Southern Illinois. He was reared under Democratic influences, but has not been a strict partisan, but has acted with that party whose political policy most nearly harmonized with his own. From 1854 until 1874, he was in the Republican ranks, and from 1861 to 1863 was Postmaster at Cairo. In 1872, he was the Republican Presidential Elector of Illinois for the State at large, and cast his vote for Grant. He was elected to the Illinois Legislature in 1880 as a Democrat, and is now serving his district with credit and acceptance. He was married in Newburg, Ind., August 24, 1853, to Miss Emma Hutch- ens. They have two children, viz .: Luella and Lucretia Linegar.

ANDREW LOHR, Cairo, Ill., was born on the 20th of December, 1831, in Prussia. His father, Henry Lohr, was a native of same kingdom, and was a soldier in the Prussian Ar- my, participating in the famous battle of Wa- terloo in 1815. He was married to Miss Cath- erine Sticher. They reared but one child, the subject of these lines. The father and mother both died in the old country, the former in 1850, and the latter in 1854. Andrew, at the age of fourteen, was compelled to provide for his own sustenance, and for several years both before and after coming to Cairo, worked by the month. He was married in Germany in 1857 to Miss Catherine Steckhahn, who was born in Germany on the 28th of September, 1837. They came to the United States in 1858, and on the passage was born their only child, Hermine, wife of Harry Schulze, of Cai- ro. She was born September 5, 1858. They came directly to Cairo, and for some months

BIOGRAPHICAL :

Mr. Lohr worked for $8 per month. He soon became the possessor of a cow, and began the milk business on a small scale, but by adding to his herd of dairy cows, he soon built up a desirable trade. He next fitted up a dray, which proved a profitable investment, and thus he worked his way until 1861, when he sold his stock of horses and cows, and bought a soda factory, which he has operated ever since with abundant success. In 1858, he erected a small house at a cost of $300. This building was destroyed by fire on the 7th of December, 1861, just three years from the day on which he moved into it. He next erected a $4,000 brick building, which he now occupies as a family residence. He has erected some substantial briek buildings in connection with his manu- factory. Besides, he owns a large amount of city real estate elsewhere. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, having been a trustee since its organization, and for some years Su- perintendent of the Sabbath school. He is a member of the Arab No. 2 Fire Company, and has been three years its President, and the present Vice President. Mr. Lohr is in poli- tics a Democrat, and has served the Second Ward for three years on the Board of City Council. Mrs. Lohr died in Cairo, in June, 1879, and in August of the following year he was married to Miss Amanda Hahn. She was was born in Saxony, Germany, September 14, 1860. This union resulted in two daughters, Rosa and Emma Lohr, the former born on the 19th of August, 1881, and the latter October 7, 1882. Hermine Lohr was married to Harry Schulze on the 21st of November, 1878, and is the mother of three children, viz .: Ida, born Oc- tober 10, 1879; Herman, born July 10, 1881, died June 8, 1832, and Harry Schulze, born November 7, 1882.

WILLIAM LONERGAN, merchant, Cairo, Ill. The writers of this book are largely in- debted to the man whose name heads this sketch for much valuable information that per-

haps could have been obtained from no other source. Mr. Lonergan was born May 20, 1833, in Pottsville, Penn. His parents, Michael and Bridget (Riley) Lonergan, were both of Irish birth. They were married in Pennsylvania, and had three children, William being the eldest. His father died while he was vet a small boy, and as a consequence he was de- prived of many of the advantages which are the common enjoyment of most boys, especial- ly those that are the result of education. Al- though he was deprived of the benefit of even a common school, yet by application to study and by elose observation, he has been able to succeed very well, and now manages his mer- cantile business without the aid of a book- keeper. He came to Cairo in 1852, and has been engaged in various business enterprises ever since, the past nineteen years in the flour and commission trade. He has had a large experience as a steamboat man, and during the late civil war was mate on the boat used as Gen. Grant's flag-ship and headquarters. He was married in 1858 to Miss Mary Kinney, who was born in Louisville, Ky., but reared in Cairo- by Robert H. Cunningham. They have had eight children, the three oldest of whom are deceased. Their names are Michael, William E., John K., Alice, Mary, Margaret, Frank and Thomas Lonergan. The family belongs to the Catholic Church of Cairo. Mr. Lonergan en- joys the enviable reputation of never having been intoxicated. He has served the county as Constable and the city of Cairo on the Board of Councilmen.

WILLIAM LUDWIG, manufacturer and dealer in harness and saddles, at No. 121 Com- mercial avenue, Cairo, Ill., was born June 22, 1854, in Hanover, Germany, but came to the United States with his parents, Henry and Sophia Ludwig, when three years old. His parents are both natives of Hanover, and are still living at Warrington, Ind., where they set- tled when they first came to America. Will-

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iam is the youngest of their family of seven children, and was educated in the public schools of Warrington, Ind. He took the trade of harness-maker and saddler at Fort Branch, Ind., in which business he has since engaged. He came to Cairo in 1872, and in August of that year established a harness shop, which he has conducted ever since with varied success. He now carries a $4,000 stock of harness and saddles, in addition to which he is dealing in hides, tallow, wool and furs. He was married, December 31, 1876, in Cairo, Ill., to Miss Thakla Whittig, daughter of Carl Whittig, a noted musician who died some years ago in Cairo, hier mother having previously died in Memphis of yellow fever. They had three daughters, one of whom is a resident of Pittsburgh, Penn., and one of Golconda, Ill. The Ludwig family has been represented in Cairo by a daughter, wife of William Beerwart, who was well and favorably known in Cairo, and intimately connected with the business and official interests of the city. He died on the 3d day of February, 1879, at Evansville, Ind., where his wife and four children now live.

JACOB MARTIN, book-keeper, Cairo, Ill., was born in Londonderry, Ireland, April 21, 1836. His father, Hugh Martin, was born in Ireland March 30, 1801, where he died Sep- tember 11, 1837. His mother, Hannah Liv- ingston, was also of Irish birth, dating from the 4th of May, 1803. She and family came to the United States in 1841, and located at Cincinnati, Ohio, where, on the 13th of May, 1878, the mother died. Jacob was educated in the city of Cincinnati, and acquired proficiency in the science of book-keeping, and in early manhood came to Mound City, Ill., as book- keeper and secretary for the Mound City Em- porium Company. For the past eighteen years, he was been in the employ of the Halli- day Bros., in the capacity of book-keeper and financial secretary. He was married, October 4, 1863, to Miss Amarala Arter, daughter of

Daniel Arter, whose portrait will be found else- where. The record of Mr. Martin's family is as follows: Amarala (Arter) Martin, born May 2, 1837; Edith L., born October 20, 1864; Lau- ra I., born November 25, 1871, died October 25, 1873; Jacob P., born March 22, 1877, and died June 24, same year; and Jessie V. Mar- tin, who was born on February 7, 1879, and died April 16, 1881.

JAMES S. MCGAHEY, lumber dealer on corner of Twentieth street and Washington avenue, was born at Jackson, Mo., on the 7th of December, 1834. His father, Edwin McGahey, was a native of North Carolina, born in 1804, where he grew to manhood, and married Elea- nor MeNeely, also of same State, and born in 1803. They emigrated to Missouri in 1832, and settled at Jackson, where he for many years followed farming and dealing in mer- chandise. J. S. McGahey is the fourth of a family of eight children born to these parents. The father died in Murphysboro, Ill., in 1874, and the mother in Missouri in spring of 1845. Edwin C., the sixth member of this family, has for several years been in Anna, Union Co., Ill. J. S. McGahey was reared on the farm, and ed- neated in the common schools of his native State, and married in Duquoin, Ill., September 2, 1862, to Miss Carrie E. Dyer, daughter of Dr. L. Dyer, of that place, and one of the old physicians of Southern Illinois. Mrs. McGa- hey was born in Martinsburg, Knox Co., Ohio, on the 23d of September, 1837. Their family consists of four children, viz .: Laura, Eleanor, born in Vergennes, Jackson County, Ill., on the 18th of August, 1863; Clara D., born in Du- quoin, Ill., September 19, 1865; Marcus H., born in Pulaski County, Ill., September 29, 1869, and Ruth Lee McGahey, born in Cairo August 2, 1873. From 1862 to 1868, he en- gaged in the produce business at Duquoin, and from there went to Pulaski County, where he engaged in the lumber business. He came to Cairo and established a lumber trade in 1871,

BIOGRAPHICAL:

since which time it has been his permanent home. He is a member of the Widows' and Orphans' Mutual Aid Society, and is its present President; also a member of the American Le- gion of Honor. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gahey are members of the Cairo Baptist Church. Family residence on Twenty-eighth and Poplar streets. Dr. Lewis Dyer, father of Mrs. McGahey, was born in Manchester, Vt., on February 24, 1807, and reared to manhood in Vermont, and when a young man taught school to secure funds with which to qualify for his chosen pro- fession, that of physician. He graduated from different medical institutions in the East, and while a young man came to Ohio, where for a time he was physician and surgeon for the Kenyon College in Knox County. He was married in Vermont to Miss Lau- ra A. Purdy, a native of Vermont, on De- cember 24, 1828. She was born at Manches- ter, Vt., January 21, 1810, and died in Illinois on the 27th of August, 1858. Mrs. McGahey is the fourth of a family of seven children born to these parents. The father was for three years a surgeon in the late war, entering as Regimental Surgeon of the Eighty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, from which he was pro- moted to Brigade, and finally to Division Sur- geon. He is still a resident of Duquoin, Ill.

JAMES W. MCKINNEY, of Cairo, Ill., Cap- tain of the Illinois Central Transfer, is a native of Beaver County, Penn. He was born on the 21st of December, 1839, and is a son of Charles Mckinney and Permelia Lytle. But little can be learned of his parents, his mother dying when he was but nine years old, and his father when he was twelve. He was then left an or- phan in childhood, and reduced to the necessity of supporting himself, which he managed to do quite handsomely.

About the time of the death of his father, be became a cabin boy on the steamboat Irene, running on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Penn., to Wheeling, Va. He continued to serve as cabin boy until strong

enough to assume the duties of a deck hand. He rapidly worked himself into the position of pilot, receiving his first license to that position in 1861. In 1862, he was appointed to the po- sition of post pilot at Cairo, and Captain of the boat Champion No. 2. He continued in this position until September, 1865, and during the war made some very perilous trips on the Mis- sissippi River. At the last-named date, he was employed as Captain of the Illinois Central R. R. Passenger Transfer from Cairo to Columbus, Ky., and during a period of eight years made 12,040 round trips, never meeting with the slightest accident. Since 1873, he has been Captain and pilot of the company's transfer boat at Cairo. He is a member of the A., F. & A. M .- Royal Arch and Knights Templar. Mr. Mckinney was married in Champaign, Ill., March 17, 1873, to Lulu J., daughter of D. W. and Tabitha Robinson, of Effingham, Ill. She was born in Lima, Allen Co., Ohio. They have had six children, three of whom aredead: Fannie S., James W., James W., Jr., William H. G., Josie Bell, and Clarence Wilbur. They own a city residence at No. 20 Twentieth street, be- sides a valuable property on corner of Ninth and Cedar streets.

HERMAN MEYERS, dealer in cigars and to- bacco, 62 Ohio Levee, Cairo, Ill., was born in the city of Hanover, Germany, on the 29th of May, 1835. At the termination of his school years, he adopted the trade of locksmith and machinist, serving an apprenticeship thereat of four years. In 1853, he came to the United States and located in Chicago, Ill., where he engaged to work in the machine shops of Se- ville & Sons, who had a contract for the first locomotive engines ever built in Illinois. He was afterward employed in the Wright Reaper Factory, and finally in 1855 he opened a cigar manufactory in Chicago, which he operated with varied success until the panic of 1857, when he was compelled to seek other fields, He next located at Davenport, Iowa, from

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whence he went to St. Louis, where he became associated in business with his brother-in-law, William Meyers, and enjoyed a successful bus- iness until the breaking-out of the civil war, when he came to Cairo, Ill., in 1861, and opened a manufactory there, and is now the oldest tobacconist in the city. Here he has a very lucrative trade, as his brands of cigars are of the best quality on the market. He was married on the 9th of August, 1863, and has a family of nine children, of whom two are dead.

WILLIAM M. MURPHY, a native of Ad- ams County, Ohio, and present Postmaster of Cairo, was born on the 24th day of September, 1836. His parents, R. S. Murphy and Rachel Kelley, were natives of New Jersey, but came with their parents to Ohio while young. The grandfather of our subject was the original set- tler on land now occupied by the city of Cin- cinnati. R. S. Murphy and Rachel Kelley were married and reared their family in Adams County, Ohio, where they still reside. William M. was educated in the common school of his native county, and in a college of Cincinnati. He first came to Cairo in 1858, when he en- gaged as salesman in the dry goods firm of Kelley Bros., with whom he remained until the breaking-ont of the rebellion. He became a member of the Eighty-first Ohio Regiment and was mustered in as private in Company H, from which he was mustered out as Captain in May, 1865, at the city of Cincinnati. He participated in all the active service incident to the siege of Atlanta, and Sherman's march to the sea. From the close of the war until 1869, he was con- nected with J. H. Kelley in hotel business, but that year entered the office of revenue depart- ment as clerk. In 1870, he was made Chief Deputy Collector of the district, which position he filled until March 1, 1883, when he received the appointment of Postmaster under Presi- dent Arthur. He is a member of Masonic fra- ternity, holding the position of Captain Gen- eneral of the Cairo Commandery, No. 13.

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 77

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 948

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948