USA > Illinois > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 89
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by a persevering and sympathetic wife. The suspicion of dishonesty never rested on his business transactions, but he was in all things an upright and honorahle man and a good citizen. He had origi- nally a good constitution, but through life performed much hard labor and underwent much exposure. After a week's illness, he died of pneumonia on the 8th of March, 1879. His remains now repose in the College Hill cemetery at Lebanon. His two children were both sons. The oldest, Hervey Seiter, was born Jan. 30, 1843, and died on the 10th of August, 1845.
Henry Seiter was born in the town of Lebanon, Sept. 22d, 1845. After attending the district school in the neighborhood of his father's farm, at the age of twenty-one he entered Mckendree Col- lege, from which he graduated in 1870. He also attended a com- mercial college in Chicago. In March of the same year in which he graduated at McKendree, he also graduated at the law school connected with the University of Michigan, the sessions of which he had attended. In September, 1871, in partnership with Rufus Ramsay, he engaged in the banking business at Carlyle. In Au- gust, 1873, under the firm name of Seiter & Ramsay, he entered also into the banking business at Lebanon. This bank was the first ever started in that town. After dissolving his partnership with Mr. Ramsay in 1877, he carried on the banking business at Lebanon till 1880, when he disposed of the bank to the present firm of Baker, Schaeffer & Co. In his politics Mr. Seiter is a warm and active supporter of the principles of the democratic party. He was elected a representative in the state legislature from St. Clair county in 1878, and was one of that body serving on several impor- tant committees. In 1873 he married Alice Radefelt of Lebanon, who died May 9th, 1877. He had two children by this marriage, of whom one, Victor M. Seiter, is living at the age of five. His present wife, whom he married Nov. 22d, 1879, was Mamie Badley of Alton. Her father, William Badley, was a native of Dudley, England. He has one child, Orval Roc Seiter, by this marriage. A view of Mr. Seiter's residence, Emerald Mound, appears among our illustrations. His name is worthy of a place in this work, as one of the representative men of the county.
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"THE MOUND FARM" STOCK & GRAIN FARM OF HENRY SEITER, Sec.8, T.2.N, 6, W. (LEBANON PRECINCT) ST.CLAIR CO.IL.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
PROF. SAMUEL H. DENEEN.
SAMUEL H. DENEEN, Professor of Latin and History in McKen- dree College, is a native of this county, and was born near Belle- ville, December 20th, 1835. His father, the Rev. William L. Deneen, was born near Bedford, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of October, 1798. One of his ancestors was captain of a ship which traded from a French port. The family name is of French origin, and was originally spelled Denesne. When he was two years and a half old the parents of the Rev. William L. De- neen moved to Liberty township, Trumbull county, Ohio. Here be grew to manhood. His opportunities for obtaining an education were limited, but being gifted with a rare natural aptitude for math- ematical studies he mastered all branches of the science of mathe- matics from arithmetic to calculus, with but little help from others. At the age of twenty he went to Vevay, Indiana, where he learned the hatting business, at which he worked for the four following years. Subsequently he taught school. In 1827 he was converted under the ministry of the Rev. George Locke, and in October, 1828, he was admitted to the Illinois conference. His first appointment was Shoal Creek circuit which included the counties of St. Clair, Monroe, Clinton, Marion, Madison, Bond, Jersey, Fayette and Green. His other appointments were Salt Creek circuit, Lebanon circuit, Kas- kaskia circuit, Brownsville mission, Waterloo circuit, Edwardsville, Belleville, Upper Alton, Alton, again at Belleville, Waterloo, and Lebanon.
For nineteen years his cares and labors were those of an itiner- ant minister of the M. E. Church. He had well nigh rounded out his half century of years, when, in 1847, a severe and prolonged attack upon his lungs compelled him to abandon public speaking and to take a superannuated relation as a minister. As soon as his health permitted he engaged in the business of surveying lands, into which he was led by his strong predilection for the science of math- ematics, which had grown with his advancing years. He was county surveyor of St. Clair county from 1849 to 1851, and again from 1853 to 1855. His unusual proficiency in mathematics and the re- markable accuracy of his work as a surveyor received the highest testimonials from those most conversant with the business in which he was employed. In repeated instances the decisions of the courts were determined by the weight of his testimony and the reputation of his work. His services were constantly in demand until he had completed his four score years. He died in Lebanon, Illinois, July 11th, 1879. Mr. Deneen was an able preacher, a profound theolo- gian, a true Christian. As a minister and as a surveyor he was strictly conscientious in all his labors. His long life was char- acterized by active service, eminent usefulness, and spotless integ- rity. He was married in 1831 to Verlinder B. Moore, daughter of Risdon Moore. She was born on the 30th of June, 1802, and died June 30th, 1855. Her father came to Illinois from Georgia. Refer- ence to his history is made elsewhere *. The children of this mar- riage were Risdon Moore Deneen, born July 25th, 1833; and died December 25th, 1864; Samuel H. Deneen, and Sarah A, the wife of the Hon. A. W. Metcalf, of Edwardsville.
The birthplace of Samuel H. Deneen was six miles east of Belle- ville. He entered McKendree College in 1850, and graduated in 1854. The following year he was engaged in teaching school and in prosecuting the study of the ancient languages. In 1855 he was elected tutor in the classics in McKendree College, and in 1858 was made Adjunct Professor of Ancient Languages. His studies now took a wide range over the field of ancient, and more especially, of Roman literature and he read carefully and critically the entire re-
maining works of the principal Latin authors. Iu 1862 he was elected Professor of the Latin language and literature. In the sum- mer of 1862 he enlisted in the Union army and was commissioned adjutant of the 117th regiment, Illinois volunteers. When his regiment entered the field he was appointed Acting Assistant Ad- jutant-General of the third brigade, third division, sixteenth army corps. This portion of the Union army saw service in the States of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Ala- bama. He participated in the marches, skirmishes, and battles of his brigade until the latter part of November, 1864, when he received an honorable discharge from the service on account of sickness.
In 1865 he resumed his labors in the college as Professor of Latin, the duties of which position had been divided among other teachers during his absence in the war. He engaged in his tasks with new vigor. Through his agency another year of Latin was added to the studies required in the classical course. He had sought in every way to render this department of collegiate instruction as ample and thorough as that found in the best American colleges. He has shared in the interest awakened among scholars in the department of comparative philology and has made a study of the modern tongues yet derived from the Latin, viz : the French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. In recognition of his scholarly attain- ments the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon him in 1876 by the Indiana Asbury University.
He was married in 1859 to Mary F. Ashley, daughter of Hiram K. Ashley, who was born in Tennessee, April 12th, 1802, and died at Lebanon, April 20th, 1865. Her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah A. Horner, was born at Lebanon, May 17th, 1819, and died September 5th, 1846, and was the daughter of Nathan Horner, t one of the early settlers of Lebanon. Mrs. Deneen was educated at the Illinois Female College, Jacksonville, Illinois, and the Wes- leyan Female College, Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a graduate of the latter institution. The children of Prof. and Mrs. Deneen now liv- ing are Edward Ashley, Charles Samuel, Sarah Alice, and Florence.
CAPT. LYMAN ADAMS, (DECEASED.)
FORMERLY a resident of Lebanon, was born at Hartford, Con- necticut, in February, 1779 He was connected with the celebra- ted Adams family of New England. His father was a Presbyte- rian minister. At the age of eleven Capt. Adams left home and went on board a ship and became a sailor. He followed a sea-faring life for many years, and became captain of a vessel. He was em- ployed in the merchant trade. After quitting the sea he settled in Baltimore, and, for a number of years, was recorder in the police court of that city. During the war of 1812-14, he commanded a company of militia, raised for the defence of Baltimore, and was present at the battle of Bladensburg. From Baltimore he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and was there employed in the merchandiz- ing and rectifying business.
He left Louisville in the year 1829, came to Illinois, and settled in Lebanon. He opened a dry goods store, and also a hotel. He carried on this hotel, which was called the "Mermaid," for some years. The travel at that time through Lebanon was quite heavy, the town being situated on the main stage line between Cincinnati and St. Louis. His house was well known from Vincennes to St. Louis, and many eminent men were entertained within its walls. At the time Charles Dickens made his journey from St. Louis to the Looking Glass prairie, he stopped over night at this hotel. Ben- ton, and many other public men, were frequent guests. With
t See sketch of Henry H. Horner.
* See the sketch of Risdon A. Moore.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
many of the prominent state politicians of that day, especially those of the democratic school, Capt. Adams was well acquainted. He was himself an active politician, and a strong supporter of the democratic faith. He served as post-master at Lebanon for many years, was, for a long time, justice of the peace, and also acted as Notary Public. He was a man of good business habits, was popu- lar in the community, and well known throughout the county. He died on the second of July, 1851.
His last wife, whom he married in Louisville, Kentucky, was Matilda Glover. She was a native of Kentucky. Her mother, Mrs. Prudence Glover, who formerly resided in Lebanon, is now living in Cincinnati, and was one hundred and one years old on the twenty-first of June, 1881. Capt. Adams had eleven children, all by his last marriage. Of these three are now living. The oldest, Cecelia, is the wife of Dr. Adolph Berger, of Lebanon. The two sons, Albert and Chester Adams, live at Moberly, Missouri, the former a farmer and the latter a physician and drnggist.
CHARLES H. SAGER.
CHARLES H. SAGER, dealer in hardware and agricultural im- plements at Lebanon, is a native of Lancaster county, Ohio, and was born on the 5th of November, 1838. His father, Col. Charles Sager, was born in Hamburg, then belonging to Denmark, on the 10th of June, 1800. At the age of ten he left home, for six years was in the West Indies, and when sixteen came to America. From New York he went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was there employed as clerk in a store, working in the day, and at night attending school. He thus secured a good education, and subsequently tanght school. From Pittsburg he went to Mount Vernon, Ohio, and at that place, on the 23d of September, 1823, married Jane H. Smith. He afterwards lived in Lancaster, Ohio, where he kept a hotel; then moved to a little town named Oak- land, twelve miles from Lancaster. In 1854 went to Washington, Ohio, and in the fall of 1858 came to Leba non, to which place he brought his family the next year. He established the business at Lebanon, which is still carried on by his son, C. H. Sager. He died at Lebanon on the 2d of July, 1877. While a resident of Monnt Vernon, Ohio, he commanded a regiment of home guards, and thus acquired the title of Colonel, which he carried through life. As a business man he was exact, accommodating, honest and reliable, and had the entire confidence of the community. He was first a member of the Lutheran Church, but assisted in the organization of the first Presbyterian Church of Lebanon, in which he was made a ruling elder, and of which he was a strong sup- porter. He was active in Sunday-school work.
C. H. Sager, the fifth of seven children, of whom four, two brothers and two sisters, are now living, resided in Ohio till twenty years of age. He then came to Lebanon with his father, with whom he engaged in business. After his father's death he con- tinued to carry on the store, and is known as an enterprising and successful business man. He carries a full stock of hardware, and deals largely in the latest and most improved kinds of agricultural machinery. He was married in March, 1859, to Amelia Starkel, daughter of Charles Starkel. His children by this marriage are- Emile, C. M Sager, Francis, who died at the age of one year, Edgar Grant, James Richard and Jesse Blanche. He has been a republican in politics. He served one term as treasurer of the City of Lebanon. He is connected with the Odd Fellows and order of United Workmen, and is now a member of the School Board.
SAMUEL G. SMITH
WAS born at Wilmington, Delaware, August 30th, 1809. His father, John Smith, was born in Western Pennsylvania, learned the trade of a tanner and currier, and at Wilmington married Gertrude Gilpin, daughter of Abigail and Vincent Gilpin. The Gilpin fa- mily were Quakers, and lived in Wilmington during the Revolu- tionary war. Mr. Smith's mother was accustomed to relate how at the approach of the British the Quaker families of Wilmington buried their silver. After the battle of the Brandywine several wounded British officers were brought to their house for treatment. Mr. Smith's father had a large tannery in Wilmington, and built the first steamboat (called the Ætna) which ran on the Delaware as a packet between Wilmington and Philadelphia. He also operated a large rolling mill, five miles from Wilmington. Having lost a considerable part of his means by speculation in hides during the war of 1812-14, he removed to the West in 1819, reaching Carlyle in Clinton county July 5th. He built two large hewn log houses on the old Vincennes and St. Louis road, two miles east of Shoal creek, and there kept a hotel for a number of years. In 1831, he settled in this county, near where the Pittsburg railroad descends the bluff, opened two coal pits, and hauled the coal to St. Louis. He subsequently moved to a farm in the Looking Glass prairie, and afterward to Lebanon, where he died.
Samuel G. Smith was married in January, 1835, to Orinda Bank- son. Her father, Col. Andrew Bankson, was in the ranging ser- vice during the war of 1812-14. He was an old settler of St. Clair county, and afterward removed to Clinton county, where he died. Mr. Smith after his marriage was farming in Clinton county till 1846, and then moved to Iowa and settled on the Mississippi, fifteen miles below Dubuque. He there operated a ferry across the river for about twelve years. His first wife died in 1848. On the 2d of May, 1849, he married Mary Ann Peck, the fifth child of Rev. John M. Peck, whose history is referred to elsewhere. In 1858, Mr. Smith purchased the old place, known as Rock Spring, on which Mr. Peck settled in coming to St. Clair county, and has resided there since. Three or four remarkably fine springs on the farm gave the place its name. Mr. Peck's house is still used by Mr. Smith as a residence, and a building is also still standing, in which was published the Western Pioneer, the first religious news- paper in the West. This was one of the first printing offices in Il- linois. Mr. Smith has eight children living : Mary, wife of Benja- min Moore, now living in Kansas ; John F., who died at the age of twenty-five; Gertrude G., wife of Thomas Oliver of Chicago; Andrew Clark Smith, who died at the age of thirty-eight ; George W. Smith of Chicago; William, James O., De Witt Clinton, and Chester P. Smith, who live in this county ; Sarah Ann, the next to the youngest child, died at the age of eleven. Mr. Smith was first a Whig in politics, voted for Clay in 1832, became a republican when the party was first organized, and has belonged to that party ever since.
OLIVER V. JONES.
THIS gentleman, editor and proprietor of the Lebanon Journal, is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Caldwell county, in that state, on the 28th of December, 1824. Both his paternal and ma- ternal ancestors were from England. His grandfather, William Jones, was a resident of North Carolina, and a soldier in the war of the Revolution. His father, Fountain W. Jones, was born in Sum- ner county, Tennessee, and at an early age accompanied his father to Kentucky, and was raised in the latter state. He was married at Dover, Tennessee, to Mary Ann Vanlandingham, who was a native
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
of Kentucky. Fountain W. Jones removed from Kentucky to Illi- nois in 1830, and settled in Gallatin county, near Shawneetown. He volunteered under Gen. Posey in the Black Hawk war, and served in the campaign of 1832. His company was commanded by Capt. Harrison Wilson, father of Gen. James H. Wilson.
The subject of this biographical sketchi was the oldest of a family of nine children. He was six years old at the time of the removal of the family to this state. He was raised in Gallatin county, attend- ing the ordinary common schools, and having such opportunities for instruction as were common at that day. He had determined, however, to secure a good education, and by making rails obtained sufficient means to enable him to enter McKendree College in the spring of 1847. His studies were interrupted by his being obliged to teach school to secure the necessary means to allow him to prose- cute his studies, but he completed the course, and graduated in 1853. After his graduation he was made tutor in mathematics, and was subsequently elected adjunct professor of mathematics and English literature. Afterward, in 1866, he was made professor of mathematics and astronomy. At the time of his resignation, in 1879, he had been connected with the college twenty-six years. During part of the year 1880 he was engaged as a Methodist minis- ter on the Wisetown circuit, in Clinton and Bond counties. For some months subsequently he was a teacher in the Illinois Literary . and Commercial Institute, at Lebanon.
On the 18th of February, 1881, he issued the first number of the Lebanon Journal, which he is now publishing. A newspaper of this name had previously been published in Lebanon. He was married in 1858 to Miss Mary E. Crocker, a native of Lee, Massa- chusetts. By this marriage he had two children living, one son and one daughter. Since 1846 he has been a member of the Methodist church, and since 1867 has been an ordained minister of that de- nomination. He was first a democrat in politics, though in common with a great portion of that party he entertained free-soil sentiments, . and on the organization of the republican party he became a repub- lican.
REV. WILLIAM FLETCHER SWAHLEN, PH. D.
PROF. WILLIAM F. SWAHLEN, PH. D. who occupies the chair of the Greek and German Languages and Literature in McKen- dree College, Lebanon, Illinois, was born at Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, on the 19th of April, 1839. His father, the Rev. John Swahlen, was a pioneer minister of the German Methodist Church, and was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, December 25th, 1808. The family name is spelled in Switzerland, Zwahlen. John Swahlen came to America in 1832, and the succeeding year made his home in Cincinnati, where he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the first member of the German Metho- dist Episcopal Society of Cincinnati-the first organization of the kind in the world. In 1838 he was sent to Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, as a missionary among the Germans, and established the first German Methodist Episcopal Society in Wheeling. In 1839 he built a substantial brick church for his congregation, which was the first German Methodist Episcopal Church edifice ever erected in the world.
From that time the active years of his life were devoted to missionary efforts among the German population. He founded many churches, and was the means of doing much good. He was subsequently stationed at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; was at War- renton, Missouri, in 1842-43; Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 1843-44;
Sidney, Ohio, 1844-6 ; Baltimore, Maryland, 1846-8 ; Newark, New Jersey, 1848-9; New York city, 1849-51; Buffalo, New York, 1861-3; Albany, New York, 1853-4; Baltimore, 1854-6; Brooklyn, 1855-7; Poughkeepsie, New York, 1857-8; Troy, New York, 1858-60; Philadelphia, 1860-2; Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1862-4; Poughkeepsie, New York, 1864-66; was presiding elder of the Philadelphia district, 1866-70, and was stationed in Balti- more in 1870-2. He has since occupied a superannuated relation, except in the year 1876, when he was pastor of a church in Phila- delphia. He is now living at Evansville, Indiana. His efforts were of great service to the cause of German Methodism. A cor- rect estimate of his character and labors can, perhaps, be formed from a remark of Bishop Simpson, in his Encyclopedia of Metho- dism, that "long before the organization of the Church Extension Society, John Swahlen was virtually such an organization in him- self."
He was married in the year 1838 to Ann Taylor Gibbons, a na- tive of Chester county, Pennsylvania, who was descended from one of the early Quaker families, which made their home in Pennsyl- vania shortly after the first settlement of the colony by Penn. Her father was named John Gibbons. Her mother belonged to the Cope family, also connected with the early Quaker settlement of Pennsylvania.
William Fletcher Swahlen was the oldest of two children. He has a sister who resides at Evansville, Indiana. During his early life his changes of residence were frequent on account of the itine- rant labors of his father, but in several eastern cities he had most excellent educational advantages. At Buffalo his instructor was N. P. Stanton, Jr., afterward Secretary of the State of New York. At Albany he attended the Albany Academy, under the principal- ship of George H. Cook and David Murray. At Baltimore he was a student at the Light Street Institute, where he had the benefit of two years' thorough instruction by Asbury J. Morgan. In 1856 and 1857, his teacher was Prof. Charles Anthon, of the Columbia College Grammar School. In the fall of 1858 he entered the Freshman class of the Troy University, of which the Rev. John McClintock, D. D., was then president. In 1860 he became a member of the Sophomore class of the University of Pennsylvania, where he pursued the regular classical course, graduating in July, 1863.
Immediately after his graduation he was elected Adjunct Pro- fessor of Greek and German in McKendree College, and took his place among the regular corps of instructors, in October, 1863. From that date to the present time, he has been uninterruptedly connected with the college faculty. In 1867 he was elected to a full professorship. He was married on the 29th of June, 1873, to Miss Carrie V. Hypes, daughter of Benjamin Hypes, one of the oldest residents of the town of Lebanon. There have been four children by this marriage; Ella Blanche, Walter Gibbons, (now deceased) ; Percy Hypes, and Arthur Essex. Prof. Swahlen, with one exception, is now the oldest member of the college faculty, and has assisted in giving McKendree its reputation for thorough- ness of instruction. In 1870, at the annual session of the Southern Illinois Conference held at Lebanon, he was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal ministry, by Bishop Simpson, and in 1877 was ordained elder by Bishop Thomas Bowman. In 1866 he re- ceived the degree of A. M., both from the McKendree College and the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater ; and in 1877, the degree of Ph. D., from the Iowa Wesleyan University.
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346
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
CHARLES BLANCK, (DECEASED).
AMONG the former prominent business men of Lebanon the name of Charles Blanck deserves to be perpetuated in the history of St. Clair county. He was born at Malchow, in Mecklenburg Schwerin, on the 14th of December, 1833. The family had lived in the town of Malchow for several generations, and there was born Henry Blanck, the father of the subject of this sketch. He carried on the business of a cloth manufacturer. The first thirteen years of Mr. Blanck's life were spent in Germany. At the age of six he began attending a school connected with the Lutheran church, the studies in which he completed before leaving the old country. In 1846 the family emigrated from Germany to America, landing at New Orleans on the 13th of October, 1846. From that place they came immediately to St. Louis, and after living two months in that city, became residents of Lebanon. Here, in the spring of 1847, Henry Blanck established a wool-carding machine, which he carried on for a number of years. He died on the 8th of April, 1876. His widow, whose name before marriage was Elizabeth Profke, is still living at Lebanon, and was seventy years of age in April, 1881.
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