History of Henry County, Illinois, Volume II, Part 82

Author: Kiner, Henry L., 1851-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : The Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1138

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Mr. Smith was educated in the schools of Galva and when nineteen years of age came to Kewanee, where he entered the employ of what was then known as the Kewanee Electric Light & Motor Company as fireman. So proficient was he, that promotion followed rapidly and the young man was advanced through all the various positions until he is now its manager. He has effected some re- markable changes, completely revolutionizing the plant and methods. When he entered the establishment the capacity was less than one hundred kilowatts, but it is now twelve hundred kilowatts. Even the name has been changed to the Kewanee Light & Power Company, and the plant includes the lighting, gas and electric, power and steam heating as well as the manufacture of ice. The com- pany furnish more then fifty buildings with artificial heat in the business dis- trict, supplying about forty-five thousand feet of radiation. The entire develop-

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ment of this plant is due to the efforts of Mr. Smith after he became manager, and to him is due the credit of establishing the heating and ice-manufacturing plants. The latter was established in response to a demand on the part of the people of Kewanee in 1906 and it has a capacity of thirty-five tons per day and in addition to the trade in Kewanee, five small towns are also supplied with the product of this plant. Mr. Smith is a director of the company and has been for some years. The people of Kewanee cannot give him too much credit for the business foresight and keen appreciation of possibilities which have resulted in the upbuilding of this company, which not only affords luxuries at low prices but gives employment to a number of men and thus increases the commercial activ- ity of the city.

On December 4, 1902, Mr. Smith married Miss Katie Woolley, of Wyom- ing, Illinois, a daughter of the Rev. William Woolley, pastor of the Methodist church. Two sons have been born to them: Ormond Thomas and Morris Walter.

Mr. Smith belongs to the Illinois Electric Association, of which he is now president; is a member of the Illinois Gas Association and the National Gas Association, which connections he finds of value in his business. He also belongs to the Commercial Club, of which he is recording secretary; to the Kewanee Club; and fraternally he is a member of the Elks and the Masonic order. Prom- inent alike in business, social and public affairs, he is a citizen at once popular and useful, filling with credit to himself and with satisfaction to others the multiform duties and obligations imposed upon his willing shoulders by those who recognize his talents and abilities and who appreciate what he has done for the community and for private investors.

CHARLES CLINTON MILLER.

Charles Clinton Miller, a farmer on section 31, Galva township, Henry county, Illinois, was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, June 1I, 1857, and is a son of James and Henrietta (Kemp) Miller. His paternal grandmother died at the age of ninety years. The grandparents on the mother's side, Isaac and Elizabeth (Bonham) Kemp, died in middle life. The former was a native of Maryland and a shoemaker by trade. James Miller, the father of Charles Clinton Miller, was born in Pennsylvania and learned the carpenter's trade. In 1863 he came to Illinois, settling first in Hickory Grove but coming the next year to section 31, Galva township, Henry county. Here he farmed and fol- lowed his trade, and on the farm his son now owns passed away in his seventy- third year. His wife was a native of Maryland and survived her husband a number of years, her death occurring in 1904 at the age of seventy-eight. Both Mr. Miller and his wife were strong adherents of the Methodist church. He was school director and road overseer in the years of his activity and occupied a prominent place in the greenback party. Five children were born to them, three sons and two daughters: Mary, who died young; Charles Clinton ; John; Myra, who married Fred Keeler; and Reuben, who died at the age of six years.

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Mr. Miller has made Galva township his home during all his life. Reared to the work and hardships of the farm, he attended the district school near his home, and then the public school of Galva. Until he reached manhood the paternal farm was his home, but on attaining his majority he started out for himself. For the first few years he rented land and then he removed to the farm of one hundred and five acres he had inherited from his mother. This was but a part of a larger tract of two hundred and sixty-five acres which she had received as a gift from her uncle James M. Bonham. The inherited farm has been Mr. Miller's home to this day, and from it he has gained a comfortable competence.

On the 5th of March, 1884, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Har- riet McDowell, a daughter of William and Caroline (McCoy) McDowell. By birth and ancestry Mrs. Miller belongs to Pennsylvania. Her paternal grand- father, James McDowell, was a native of that state, followed farming, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He married Miss Sarah Brandon and they had the following children: William B., Jane, Nancy, Henderson, Thomas, Sarah, David and James. Mrs. Miller's maternal grandfather was John McCoy, also a farmer of Pennsylvania, who married Miss Elizabeth Mouer, and they had six children : DeWitt Clinton, Jacob Theodore, Winfield Scott, Caroline Emily, Ellen, and one who died in infancy. John McCoy died in middle life, but his wife lived to a ripe old age. Mrs. Miller's parents were also born in Pennsyl- vania and came to Illinois in 1876, taking up their residence near Victoria, Knox county. There the mother died December 12, 1895, at the age of sixty-five years, while the father survived until May 26, 1907, when he died in his eighty-ninth year. Seven children were born to them: DeWitt Clinton; Harriet E .; William W .; Edwin T .; Eva C., the wife of John Mackey ; and two who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Miller's own family consists of four children: Clyde C., Edwin W., Henrietta C., and Charles Linn. The first born is a barber and farmer. The second son is employed in the Hayes Pump & Planter Company works. He married Miss Florence Dunn.

Mr. Miller enjoys pleasant fraternal relations with Galva Lodge, No. 243, A. F. & A. M., and politically affiliates with the republican party. He has not, however, sought public preferment, though for a period of eight years he served as a member of the school board, during which time he proved to his fellow citi- zens that he was man who had their best interests at heart.

HOWARD ALFRED PILLSBURY.

Howard Alfred Pillsbury is now living retired in Cambridge. He was for a long period associated with mercantile interests as a traveling salesman but now gives his attention only to the supervison of his farming interests which in- clude three hundred and sixty acres of land in Andover township-a district in which the family name has been known and honored since the early '30s. Numbered among Henry county's native sons, Mr. Pillsbury was born in An- dover township, February 29, 1856. His parents were Levi and Pauline (White-

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head) Pillsbury, natives of New York and of England, respectively. The for- mer was a son of Caleb Pillsbury, a native of New Hampshire, who removed thence to St. Lawrence county, New York, settling in the vicinity of Potts- dam, where he lived for five or six years. He arrived in Henry county, Illi- nois, in 1836 and died of fever in 1838. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Miss Underhill, passed away in the early '6os. They were the parents of three sons and a daughter : Almira, the wife of William Clark; George B .; Levi ; and Ithamar. The maternal grandfather of Howard A. Pillsbury was born in England and after coming to this country was for a time a reporter on the New York paper published by James Gordon Bennett. He was, however, a lawyer by profession and practiced for a time at Kaskaskia, Illinois. Return- ing to his native land he there spent his remaining days, passing away when well advanced in years. His first wife, who was Miss Ellen Rattcliff, died in St. Louis, Missouri, leaving two daughters: Pauline, who became Mrs. Pills- bury; and Tillie, who married Lemuel Smith, a son of the once famous actor, Sol Smith, for whom Sol Smith Russell, later equally famous on the stage, was named.

Levi Pillsbury followed the occupation of farming and, seeking the oppor- tunities of the middle west, became one of the pioneers of Henry county, settling in Andover township, where his uncle, Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury, had taken up government land. Levi Pillsbury became the owner of three hundred and twenty acres in Andover township, where he was reared to manhood from a youth of fifteen years. His father lived in Linn Grove for many years. After the marriage of Levi Pillsbury his uncle Ithamar placed him upon a farm in An- dover township. This uncle was a very prominent factor in the early life of the middle west, organizing the first Presbyterian church in Burlington, Iowa, in Princeton, Illinois, and in Andover township. He took up large tracts of land which he deeded to the colonists who settled this part of the state and he was instrumental in naming the townships. Following his marriage Levi Pills- bury remained a resident of Andover township until two or three years prior to his death when he removed to Cambridge, where he passed away January 17, 1887, at the age of sixty-six years. His wife died in 1904 at the advanced age of eighty-three years. They were the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters, namely: Ellen, the wife of Charles Cleland, of Portland, Oregon ; Silas W., of Monmouth, Illinois; Lemuel Franklin, of Morgan Park, Chicago; Howard A., of Andover; and Ida, the wife of Charles A. Westerfield, of Omaha, Nebraska.

Howard A. Pillsbury was reared in Andover township on his father's farm and liberal educational privileges were afforded him, for, after attending the village school of Andover and the private school of Professor Waldo in Geneseo, he became a student in the Geneseo Seminary. He then began traveling on the road for Randall Hall & Company of Chicago, representing that house for three years, after which he engaged with the Pattee Plow Company of Mon- mouth, Illinois, as state agent for Texas. He conducted the business of the firm as Texas agent for seven years, after which he entered into business rela- tions with Church & Company of New York, traveling for that house in Cali- fornia and the west for three years. Since that time he has been giving his at-

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tention to the management of his farming interests, being the owner of three hundred and sixty acres of valuable land in Andover township. From this prop- erty he derives a substantial annual income, supplying him with all of the com- forts of life.

On the Ist of October, 1896, Mr. Pillsbury was married to Miss Annie Duer, a daughter of John and Rachel (Townsend) Duer, and a native of Monmouth, Illinois. Mrs. Pillsbury is a graduate of Monmouth College, and after her grad- uation she taught for several years in the public schools of Monmouth, Illinois. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, while her mother was a native of Ohio. John S. Duer was a farmer by occupation and became one of the early settlers of Monmouth, Illinois, where both he and his wife died. The latter was a daughter of John Ferris and Annie (Watson) Townsend, the former a native of Ohio and a member of the Society of Friends or Quakers. The death of Mr. Duer occurred in Monmouth in the fall of 1881 when he was sixty-eight years of age, while his wife survived until 1893, passing away at the age of seventy-five. They were the parents of seven children: Alice ; Lucy, deceased ; Harry ; William ; Thomas ; Margaret, the wife of W. J. Bulkley of Cleveland, Ohio; and Annie, now Mrs. Pillsbury.

In his fraternal relations Mr. Pillsbury is a Mason, holding membership in Cambridge Lodge, No. 49, A. F. & A. M., while in Peoria Consistory he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He has also crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of Mohammed Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Peoria. His political allegiance is given to the democracy, but he has never sought nor desired office. He has, however, served as school trustee of Andover township and is interested in education and all that pertains to the best interests of the community. He possesses the qualities that are always found in the successful traveling salesman-ready adaptability, geniality and a cordial social nature that have rendered him popular with his fellowmen. He has made an excellent record in connection with the various phases of life which his activities have touched and fully merits the rest which he is now enjoying.

THOMAS R. STOKES.

In studying the lives and characters of prominent men naturally the question arises as to the secret of their success. It is interesting to those who are still struggling along the path these captains of industry have already trod to know just what helps they secured and to what they attribute their arriving at their desired goal. One of the men who has been closely associated with the develop- ment of the industrial interests of Kewanee and who has attained to an enviable prominence, although not yet past the very prime of life, is Thomas R. Stokes, general superintendent of the gigantic concern known as the Boss Manufactur- ing Company, of Kewanee.

Mr. Stokes is a native of Kewanee, having been born here, October 11, 1873, a son of Robert W. and Matilda (Gunning) Stokes, the former a railroad man. Thomas R. Stokes was educated in Kewanee and received his initial business

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training as an office boy in the concern with which he now occupies so prominent a position. From the very first he displayed unusual ability and this was recog- nized and the lad was soon promoted to shipping clerk. After this his advance- ment was rapid, for he was placed in charge of the manufacturing of husking gloves for his company, and later was made superintendent of the Kewanee plant. So thorough was he and so completely did he absorb details and so abso- lute was his command of the business that he was eventually made general super- intendent of all the plants and still holds that responsible position.

Mr. Stokes is a member of the Commercial Club; is a thirty-second-degree Mason and a Mystic Shriner, belonging to Medinah Temple of Chicago; and a member of the Anthony Wayne Club, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. His religious affiliations are with the Episcopal church, of which he is senior warden. In all of these social and fraternal relations he displays that complete knowledge of the matter in hand which has advanced him in the business world.

In addition to his other interests, Mr. Stokes is president of the Kewanee Sanitary Supply Company and was one of the originators of this concern. The secret of his success lies undoubtedly in his faithful attention to duty and his never ceasing desire to reach out for more work. When he entered the company as an office boy he was not content with merely performing the duties assigned him but kept adding to his knowledge and increasing his scope of usefulness, and as his superiors were on the outlook for just such men his ability has re- ceived the recognition it deserves.

FRANK E. EDWARDS.

Frank E. Edwards, who as postmaster delivers the mail to the residents of Green River, Colona township, Henry county, Illinois, is also proprietor of a gen- eral store of the town and in the capacity of teacher became known to a large number of the citizens of Henry county. He was born in Hanna township, this county, February 19, 1865, and is a son of Ebenezer and Sarah J. (Ballard) Edwards. The father, who was of Welsh birth, came to America when about sixteen years of age. He made his way to Trumbull county, Ohio, where he obtained employment and where he met the woman who later became his wife and the mother of his children. She was born and reared in that county, and for several years after their union the couple continued their residence there, Mr. Edwards having a position in the coal mines. In 1854 he came with his family to Illinois and after thoroughly looking over the land bought a farm of eighty acres in Hanna township, Henry county. It was an unimproved tract at the time of the purchase, but before he died several buildings and well tilled fields were in evidence as proof of his industry and good management. On it he passed away at about seventy-six years of age.

Frank E. Edwards was the sixth in order of birth in a family of nine chil- dren. The days of his boyhood were passed on the home farm, and his educa- tion was derived from the district school. He was singularly fond of his lessons, and upon completing the prescribed course of study engaged in teaching

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although but nineteen years of age. After one year's experience in that line he attended the Normal School at Normal, Illinois, for one year and then re- sumed his profession, to which he devoted himself for nine years in Henry county. In 1892 he bought the business he now conducts, though for the next three years he did not wholly give up his work as a teacher but taught in the dis- trict schools. In the fifteen years that he has been one of Green River's busi- ness men, he has been very successful. With the patrons of his predecessor as a foundation he has built up a large trade. An agreeable personality wins him customers, but a well stocked store and a constant endeavor to please those who rely upon him retains both the old and the new.

Subsequent to his entrance into the commercial world Mr. Edwards married. Miss Ella C. Cain was the woman of his choice, and the ceremony that united them in wedlock was performed in the city of Geneseo, January 4, 1893. At the time of their marriage Mrs. Edwards' home was in Colona village, which was the place of her birth, as the daughter of Patrick and Mary (LeHeigh) Cain. To Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have been born three children: Alice Lillian, a senior in the Geneseo Collegiate Institute, who looks forward to graduating with the class of 1910; Frank L .; and Thomas Clyde.

Mr. Edwards has ever evinced an active interest in public and political mat- ters and has accepted offices with which the republican voters of Colona town- ship have honored him, having served for several terms as' town clerk and as assessor. In these as in his administration of his duties as postmaster Mr. Ed- wards has proved his earnestness and his devotion to the welfare of the people of the village and township. Fraternally he enjoys relations with two organiza- tions, that of the Odd Fellows, in which he has held the position of chaplain, and is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

JOHN W. ROMIG.

John W. Romig, who has passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey, is a practical, progressive and enterprising farmer, who owns two hundred and forty acres in Cornwall township, on which he lives. He was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, October 16, 1834, and is a son of Gabriel and Fannie (Baltzly) Romig. In 1854 the parents sold their place in Ohio and drove across the country to Henry county, Illinois, where the father secured one hundred and sixty acres which are now included in his son's holdings. The land had not then been broken, however, and there were only two other families in the locality, that of Deacon Hayden, on section 26, Cornwall township, and that of Robert Clement, on section 25, for the agricultural possibilities of this part of the state were just being dis- covered. Gabriel Romig, with the assistance of his sons prepared his land for cultivation, built thereon a board house, and there lived the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1876. His wife survived until 1889, when she too was called to her final rest. The last years of their lives they spent in the home of their son John W. Romig, who cared for them with filial tenderness. They were the

MR. AND MRS. JOHN W. ROMIG

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parents of eight children, namely : Lucinda, who is the widow of Nelson Parish and lives in Atkinson; David, who married and removed to Oklahoma; Sarah, who became the wife of Lewis Hunt and died leaving three children; Daniel, who died at the age of sixteen years; Elias, who resides in Lyons, Kansas; John W., who is the subject of this review; Mary, who is the wife of John Ranft and lives in Annawan township; and Hester, who married John Schwab and lives in Che- rokee county, Kansas.

Reared upon the paternal farm in Ohio, John W. Romig received a fair edu- cation in the district school near his home. When his parents came to Illinois he accompanied them, assisting in breaking the soil and experiencing the hardships of those early years. He was busily employed in general farm work until the in- auguration of the Civil war, when he responded to the call for troops and en- listed as a private in Company I, Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was sent to Camp Butler, Springfield, Illinois, later to Cairo, and finally south, where they participated in the engagements at Belmont, Island No. IO, the sieges of Corinth and Nashville, and in the battles at Murfreesboro, or Stone River, and Chickamauga. In the last mentioned engagement Mr. Romig was wounded and carried the ball for nine months, seeing in consequence a great deal of hospital life, for he was sent first to the hospital at Stevens, Alabama, thence to Nashville, and later to Louisville, Kentucky, and to Madison, Indiana, where the ball came out from the suppuration of the wound. Subsequently he was sent to Quincy, Illinois, and finally to Springfield, where he received his honorable discharge September 3, 1864.

Upon leaving the army Mr. Romig returned to his home in Cornwall town- ship and has since devoted himself to farming. His father deeded him forty acres of land, on which he built a good house where his parents lived until their death, and later he himself bought forty acres of land for ten dollars an acre, selling it afterward for twenty-five dollars. Several years subsequently, however, he bought back that tract, paying sixty dollars an acre for it, while now it is worth one hun- dred and fifty dollars. Mr. Romig's next purchase was eighty acres for which he paid thirty-seven dollars and a half an acre. Later he added forty acres, at fifty dollars an acre, and finally another forty acres, so that now he has a farm of two hundred and forty acres all in one body and lying partly on section 36 and partly on section 25, Cornwall township. On the last addition to his property he built the commodious house in which he is now living. But he also owns one hundred and twenty acres on sections 26 and 27, Atkinson township, and a block and resi- dence in the village of Atkinson, this property being the visible evidence of his life of thrift, industry and careful management.

On the 20th of December, 1892, in Plattsburg, Missouri, Mr. Romig was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Anderson, who was born in Rochester, Northum- berland, England, October 18, 1860, her parents being William and Jane (Ruth- erford) Anderson. She was five years of age when her father died and was ten years of age when she came to America with her mother. They settled first in Stark county, Illinois, where her mother died and later Mrs. Romig came to Cornwall township, Henry county, where Mr. Romig made her acquaintance. She received a good common-school education. Mr. and Mrs. Romig have two sons : John W. who was born July 10, 1897, and Thomas E., February 12, 1900.

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Mr. Romig cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and until 1884 was a stalwart champion of the republican party. Since that date, however, he has given his support to the prohibitionists, as he believes thoroughly in the crusade against the liquor traffic they have inaugurated. But he is not a man who seeks for office in return for party fealty, although he is never remiss in any of the duties of citizenship. At an age when many men put aside the heavier cares and retire he continued to till his fields and derive from them rich harvests, but as his success is the result of his own unabating efforts he enjoys the esteem of a large circle of acquaintances, who know him to be a man of genuine personal worth and upright and honorable life.

JOHN WOODBURY.

John Woodbury, a farmer and stock raiser of Henry county, owns one hun- dred and forty-four acres of land on section 8, Edford township, and though not a native of this state he has since early youth been identified with its farm- ing interests. He was born in the city of Davenport, Iowa, April 8, 1860, and is the son of Daniel and Minerva (Curtis) Woodbury. Both parents were of eastern nativity, the father having been born in Jefferson county, New York, January 26, 1825, the mother in Syracuse, New York, February 26, of the same year. They became acquainted, however, in Gelena, Illinois, and there were married. By occupation the father was a farmer. From Galena, he removed to Davenport, Iowa, and then after a short residence there, returned to Illi- nois, settling upon a farm he had purchased in Rock Island county. For about twelve years that remained his home, and then, upon selling the farm, he went to Nebraska. The change was made with the intention of making that state his home, but the same year he returned to Illinois and again he took a farm in Rock Island county, which his son John helped to cultivate, and he engaged in coal mining at Moline Bluffs as well, continuing in this work for about ten years. In 1883 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Edford township, Henry county, on part of which his son now lives, improved it extensively and passed the remainder of his days there. He had a family of five children : Emma, the wife of Peter Gully, of Moline; John, of this sketch; Sophia, who married Joseph Donald and lives in Moline; Fannie M., who married Joseph Dopler and lives at Moline Bluffs ; and Minnie, who married Calvin Llewellyn, a resident of Edford township. During his life Daniel Woodbury gave his sup- port in political matters to the republican party.

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History of Henry County, Illinois, Volume II, Part 82

Author: Kiner, Henry L., 1851- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : The Pioneer Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1138

Author: Kiner, Henry L., 1851-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : The Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1138