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 94
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Books and Stationery and P. M .- Jacob Thress. Agricultural Implements .- Eimer and Crossmann. Saddler and Harness .- Daniel Klein.
Churches .- Catholic, built in 1868, cost $6000; Protestant Lutheran, built same year, cost $5000.
There are seven saloons in the villages.
FLORA
was laid off by Frederick Horn, May 28th, 18-, being part of the S. ¿ of N. E. ¿ of section 11, T. 2S., R. 9 W. in fifty lots. To the original village two additions have been made by the founder, April 23d, 1859, and August 30th, 1864.
Its business is as follows :
Stores .- Christ. Horn, Henry Sensel.
Blacksmiths .- Andrew Franke, Henry Schneider.
Post-master .- C. Horn.
Saloons .- John Dill, Christ. Lindauer.
A Protestant (free) church is located here. Building is frame. Erected 1848.
PADERBORN
was laid off by Valentine Berg, August 18th, 1862, on the N. E. corner of the W. ¿ of section 13, T. 2, S., R. 9 W. It is a small village, having a Catholic church, a general store by Broess, and a half dozen dwelling houses.
Richland precinct was established June 5th, 1837 ; the first elec- tion was held at the residence of Robert Higgins. Nathan Arndt, Edward Tate, and Philip Creamer acted as Judges. It derived its name from the creek which passes through it, and this in turn from the richness of the soil which lay upon either side of it.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Robert Higgins
THE Higgins family are among the old settlers of St. Clair county. Timothy Higgins, the grandfather of the present family, was a native of Maine. In 1816 he came west to Ohio, and settled north of Cincinnati, a distance of twenty miles. In 1818 he came to St. Clair county, Illinois, and located a farm near where Benja- min Higgins, his grandson now lives. He built a log house, and then sent for his family. They came down the river to Shawnee- town, where Mr. Higgins went to meet them. He brought them to the place which he had selected, and there the old pioncer remain- ed until his death in 1845. He married Susan Smith, who was also a native of Maine. She died in August, 1847. By this mar- riage there were four children, all of whom are dead. Robert Hig- gins, his son, was born in Maine, in 1805. Ile was in his thirteenth year when the family settled in St. Clair county. Here he lived until his death, which occurred September 9th, 1879. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, and enlisted three times. He weut out first in Capt. Miller's company, and remained in the service until the power of Black Hawk was broken in the west. He was 364
fond of hunting and spent much of his time in the chase, when deer was plenty in the early times. Altogether he was a man who was calculated to help settle the country in the pioneer era of the state. lle had many friends among the old settlers of St. Clair county. He married Sarah Carr, who was born on Turkey Hill, St. Clair county, Oct. 11th, 1804. Her parents were also among the first settlers of the county and state. She is yet living with her son, Benjamin, and is a hale hearty womau of nearly four-score years. By this marriage there were six children, one son and five daughters. Benjamin, the son, was born near where he now resides, January 5th, 1828. In 1851 he married Eliza, daughter of Jere- miah Phillips. She died in July of the same year, five months later. Mary, the eldest daughter, married Amos Phillips ; they have four children. Rosolva married Jacod Phillips, and also have four children. Deborah is the wife of Nathan Robinson, and have three children. Clarissa is the wife of Joseph McGuire, and have two children. Anna, the youngest, is the wife of Oliver Ritten- house, and have one child.
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
365
George Grossmann
MRS. LOUISA GROSSMANN.
THE subject of this history was born in Hessen Darmstadt, Ger- many, November 7th, 1824. Carl Grossmann, his father, was a farmer, and an officer under the government. In 1832 he emigra- ted to America, landing in Baltimore, and then by land went to Pittsburg, and from there came down to Cincinnati, and to St. Louis, and from there to Belleville, where he remained several days. He there pre-empted forty acres of land near where Squire Gross- mann now lives, and put up a log cabin, and opened a farm There he lived until his death in 1866, except the time when he was on a trip to his native land. He married Elizabeth Barbara Dehn, in Germany. She died in 1864. He had been married be- fore, by which marriage there was one child. By the last marriage there are five children living. He was eight years of age when his father came to St. Clair county. Here he grew to manhood. In his youth he received but four and a half months' schooling. The family was poor, and the children had to help support themselves and family. Schools were also scarce in those days. George re- mained at home until his twenty-second year. He then married Mary Hilger, a native of Hessen Darmstadt. Her father was a soldier for fourteen years under the first Napoleon, and was the largest and most powerful man in Hessen Darmstadt; he came to
Monroe county, Illinois, in 1841. Mrs. Grossmann died in October 1870. By this union there were eight children, six sons and two daughters, all living except George the eldest son. He married Louisa Forgade, by whom he had three children. Louisa the eldest daughter is the wife of Leonard Schanz. Jacob, the next son mar- ried Mary Mitchell. Carl, married Mary Dear Throthers; William, Henry, Mary and Frederick are still at home. In 1872 Mr. Gross- mann married Mrs. Louisa Houting nee Deohald, widow of Bern- hard Houting. She had one child by her first husband, whose name is Bernhard Houting. By the last marriage of Mr. Grossmann, there are two children living, named Louis and Ida Grossmann.
Mr. Grossmann has always been a staunch democrat. He is a popular man in his locality, and has held many offices of local trust. In 1865 he was first elected Justice of the Peace, and is now sery- ing his third term. He has been Deputy Assessor for the past eight years, and has been school director since the present school system was commenced. He has held as many as a half dozen offices at one time, and in all of them he has given good satisfaction and never betrayed any trust reposed in him. He has been an active business man for many years, and altogether is one of the repre- sentative Germans of St. Clair county.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
HON. JOSEPH VEILE
WAS born in Wurtemburg, Germany, Nov. 2d, 1831. In his youth he received a good education in the excellent schools of his native town. He was the eldest of the children. In 1853 he de- termined to come to America. He was attracted here by the hope of improving his condition, and also to escape military duty, so re- pugnant to nearly all German youths. He came to St. Clair in December, 1853, and here found general work on a farm. In 1857, on the 7th of March, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Anna Barbary, widow of Leonard Keeler. Her maiden name was Koch. She had four children by her former marriage. By the latter there are two living. The same year that he was married, he commenced farming on the land belonging to his wife's children. In 1859 he bought the farm on which he still lives. It was raw, unimproved land, and there Mr. Veile has lived, improved the farm and re- mained to the present time. In politics Mr. Veile has been an ac- tive and reliable republican since 1858, when he cast his vote for the members of the Legislature who were pledged to vote for Abraham Lincoln for the United States Senate. From that time to the present, he has remained a firm and consistent member of that political organization. He has frequently held offices of local trust. In 1869 he was elected to the office of county commissioner, which position he occupied until 1874. In 1878 he was nominated and elected to represent St. Clair county in the state Legislature, and in 1880, was re-elected. While a member the first time, he served on the committees on Warehouses, Claims, Fish aud Game and License. In the last legislature he was chairman of the com- mittee on Mines and Mining, and was also a member of the com- mittee on License and Drainage, He was a useful member and practical legislator, and his entire course was endorsed by his constituents. He has been, for a number of years, Notary Public.
His wife, whose maiden name was Anna Barbary Koch, was twice married before marrying Mr. Veile. Her second husband was a Mr. Wallbaum, by whom she had one child, who died in infancy. Mr. Veile's daughter, Louisa, is the wife of Louis Mueller, Jr. Charles, the son, is still at home.
WILLIAM H LAEUFFERT, M. D.,
WAS born in Belleville, St. Clair county, Ills., Jan. 13th, 1855. His father, Jacob Laeuffert, was born in Bavaria, Germany, May 12th, 1811. He came to America in 1833, landing at New Orleans, He came up the river to St. Louis, then to Belleville, and remained here until 1838, then returned to Germany, and in 1839 came back to Belleville, and there made his home until his death, which took place in March 1875. . When he first came to Belleville he traded in cattle ; afterwards, clerked. After returning from Europe he went into the hotel business, in which he continued until 1859, when he erected a building, now the one occupied by Mr. Lebkue- cher as a tin store, and started a saloon, in which he continued un- til 1865. In 1867 he engaged in the grocery trade and run that business for a short time, then operated in real estate and building. A few years before his death he practically retired from business. He married Susana Hemmighoefer, a native of Bavaria, Germany. She was born in 1823, and died in Sept., 1876. There were nine children by this union, three of whom are living. William H. is
the eldest ; Anna, the wife of Henry Strassinger, of Marissa, is the next; and Charles G., of Belleville, is the youngest. Dr. Laueffert was educated in the schools of Belleville, and received private in- struction in the Latin language. At the age of nineteen he com- menced reading medicine in the office of Dr. Berchalmann of Belleville, and afterwards entered the St. Louis Medical College and took three courses, and graduated in 1876. with the degree of M. D .; then went to Europe, and entered the medical department of the University of Heidelberg, afterward went to Strasburg, and Frieburg, and took a course in the medical institutions of those places. He remained in the medical schools of Germany for six- teen months, then returned home to Belleville, and in November, 1879, came to Georgetown, St. Clair county, where he commenced to practice, and where he has continued with great success to the. present. When he returned from Europe he assisted Dr. Rubach of Belleville in his practice, and had charge of the county hospital, and did the surgical work required there for nearly two years. He is now Asst. Surgeon of the 11th regiment, Illinois National Guards. He is an active member of the St. Clair county Medical Society. In politics he is a republican. On the 11th of November, 1879, he was united in marriage to Miss Laura Metzgar, of St. Louis. She is the daughter of John F. and Mimi Metzgar, who were born in Darmstadt, Germany.
Dr. Laeuffert has built up a good, lucrative practice in George- town and vicinity, and much of it is owing to his skill as a physi- cian, and the great interest he takes in his cases. In manner he is a pleasant, agreeable gentleman, and possesses fine social quali- ties.
DR. G. C. BOCK
WAS born in the province of the Rhine, Prussia, February 20, 1816. His father, Charles August Bock, was an eminent physician, and held the position of Medical Doctor under the government. The subject of this biography received his education in the schools of Germany, and was trained for the profession of medicine. He studied under his father, and attended the medical schools at Ber- lin aud Leipsic, and graduated at Giesen in 1844. He then en- tered the military service as surgeon, and during that time passed through the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1848-49. He remained in the service until 1852, when he was sent by the German govern- ment to the German hospital in London, England, as assistant sur- geon. He remained there until 1854, when he came to America, and settled in Chillicothe, Ohio, and remained there until 1858, practising his profession. He then came to Illinois, and settled in Smithton, St. Clair county, and there he has remained to the pres- ent. He was twice married. First in Ohio, by which union there are two children, named Charlotte and Augustus. The son is now studying medicine under his father, and has taken two courses at the St. Louis Medical College, and will take the third one this coming
· year, and graduate. On the 13th of November, 1860, Dr. Bock married Elizabeth Schlaefer, a native of Germany, by which mar- riage there have been ten children, four of whom are living. Their names are-Amelia, Augusta, Frederick, and William Bock. Dr. Bock has been regularly in the practice of medicine since 1844, and in that time has had a wide field and much experience, and is con- sequently well posted in the healing art. He has been very success- ful in his practice.
TENANT HOUSE
FARM RESIDENCE OF D. D. MILLER, Sec.29, T.I S. R.8, (RICHLAND PRECINCT) ST.CLAIR CO., ILL.
OLO HOMESTEAD
TENANT HOUSE
1
RESIDENCE, STOCK & CRAIN FARM OF JOHN NEHRING, Sec. 23,I S.R8.W.(RICHLAND PREGINT ) ST. CLAIR CO. IL.
1
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
367
HEINRECK KEIM
Is a native of Bavaria, Germany. He was born June 1st, 1834. When he was in his thirtieth year he emigrated to America, in company with his uncle. He landed in New Orleans, December 31st, 1847, and came up the river to St. Louis, where he found work on a steamboat plying on the river. He remained engaged in that business for six months, when he procured a situation as clerk in a wholesale hardware store, in which business he continued for three years. He then went into the saloon business in St. Louis, where he remained until 1856; then came to Smithton, and there engaged
in the same business and hotel keeping, and has remained in that business to the present. On the 22d of February, 1855, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Mary Buechel, a native of the province of the Rhine Prussia. She came to St. Louis in 1848, and was there married. By this marriage there are six children living, two sons and four daughters. Anna, the eldest daughter, is the wife of John Daab, of this precinct; the rest of the children are at home. In politics he is a republican, but votes for men often- times regardless of their politics. He is a straightforward, honor- able man, a good, law-abiding citizen, and has many friends in his neighborhood.
ST. CLAIR PRECINCT.
HIS precinct is situated in the south-eastern part of the county, and is bounded on the north by Mascoutah, east by Washington county, south by Athens, and west by Fayetteville precincts. Its entire northern, western and southern boundaries are formed by the Kaskaskia river and Mud creek. The Kaskaskia river, Mud creek, and Little Mud creek, which enters the township from the east, in section 13, flow in a westerly course, emptying into the Kaskaskia in section 16, and together with their small tributaries, water and drain the entire pre- cinct. The timbered lands bordering on these streams furnished the attraction which impelled the first hardy pioneers to the crea- tion of homes in what was indeed a dreary wilderness. The broad prairies, luxuriant in their growth of wild grasses and flowers, and which form the greater part of the township, were passed over by these pioneers as unfit for the habitation of men. Deeply studded woodlands with rippling waters hard by, were looked upon as oases in the vast prairie stretches of Illinois. As early as 1816, the sav- age who returned to the loved banks of the Kaskaska, where his wigwam had long held sentinel, found the pale face in possession, energetic in hewing out a forest home. Undiscouraged by the ab- sence of neighhors ; eager to meet and conquer the hardships inci- dent to pioneer life, Nathaniel Hill, who, far away in North Caro- lina had heard of the fame of the Illinois country, was the first to erect a cabin within the boundaries of this precinct. Soon after, perhaps the same year, there arrived from the mountains of East Tennessee one, who by his great energy and successful invi- tation to others to come also, a person whose name is yet perpetua- ted as that given to the locality, Andrew Free, who brought with him a family of grown sons and daughters. In 1817, Isaac Rainey, then living in Middle Tennessee, brought with him his family, essaying to cross the river and locate in what is now Fayetteville precinct. Owing to floods he was deterred from this, and luckily, found a welcome at the home of Nathaniel Hill with whom he
passed the winter. His first intentions were never carried out. With willing hands he aided Hill in the felling of timber, in hunt- ing and trapping until spring, when he erected a dwelling close by. In 1818, the population of what was already the name of the "Free " settlement, was augmented by the advent of Joshua Pen- nington and family from East Tennessee, and Isaac Allen from Red Bud, Randolph county, a young bachelor, drawn thither by the irresistible charms of Elizabeth Free, to whom he was married March 5th, 1818. This being the first wedding in the settlement entitles it to more than a passing notice. The ceremony was per- formed by Peter Mitchell, a Justice of the Peace, living at the time in Fayetteville precinct; that it attracted great attention, and fur- nished fresh zest to gossip, we entertain not a doubt.
Richard Beasley, Sr., located on Mud creek in 1822. During the same year, or the year following, H. Darter settled on section 13, the present site of the St. Libory Catholic cemetery. David Pulliam erected a cabin on the east side of the Kaskaskia, north of the mouth of Little Mud creek, on section 16, in 1822. Thus, one by one, brave, generous, hardy pioneers gradually redeemed from the wilds of nature this beautiful country. Schools and churches there were none. Occasionally a traveling preacher, bearing the "glad tidings of great joy," was welcomed to their firesides and greeted by all the neighbors who assembled to hear the "old, old story." Such a preacher was Washington Ballard, and also Na- thaniel Powers.
The first birth was that of John Hill in 1817, the second is be- lieved to have been that of Jefferson Rainey, April 20, 1820.
The first death was that of Mrs. Beasley, first wife of Richard Beasley, Jr. Her maiden name was Sallie Curry. They were married June 21st, 1824, and in less than a year death claimed her. The second death was that of Mrs. Free in 1827. She was buried on section 27, three quarters of a mile west from present site of Darmstadt. Jack Baggs was buried about the same time on sec- tion 14, on the east bank of Mud creek.
It is related that Absalom P. Free stole a girl, Patsey Belsher,
.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
from a camp of emigrants on their way to Missouri, and married her. They were married May 1st, 1818. The second marriage in the vicinity.
The advent of a blacksmith, Jared Wilkinson, (colored) was hailed by the farming community gladly in 1831. For several years he enjoyed a monopoly at his trade, the next nearest smithy being far distant, and, at seasons of the year when mostin demand, quite inaccessible. Jared Wilkinson was brought, a slave, from Virginia by his master, Washington Ballard, who gave him his pa- pers of freedom. As illustrative of the lack of educational advan- tages those living in the Free settlement, who would master the three " R's" were compelled to go to Sparta. Jared Wilkinson, ambitious, as he was, to become more proficient in his calling as a preacher (for he was a Methodist preacher, and it is said a good one, as well as a blacksmith) in company with Jefferson Rainey at- tended school at that place. It was not until 1831, that a school was attempted in this precinct, then several neighbors, each contri- buting labor or material, or both, put up a primitive school-house on Little Mud creek, about two miles north-west of Darmstadt. John Campbell was the first teacher. He received $2.50 per scho- lar per quarter, took pot luck with patrons, or boarded around, as it was called, and had fourteen or fifteen pupils.
" Necessity is the mother of invention," so, too, necessity drives to the use of her inventions. A growing community presents growing wants. The idea of going fifteen or twenty miles to mill especially when compelled to do so during the night-time, because of endangering animals to the attacks of myriads of insects with which the prairies swarmed, was repellant, so, when Isaac Rainey, who had returned from a temporary home in Randolph county, built a horse-mill, in 1834, it was regarded as an answer to a great existing necessity. It was a primitive band-mill. Slow but sure. The reader is not asked to credit the story that a hound attracted the attention of a passer-by by his moaning, who found him wait- ing, rather impatiently, until the grist, slowly accumulating, would be sufficient to make a " bite." The dog wanted a square meal, and here was his opportunity.
The first German settlers were Bernard Dingwerth, William Harwerth and Joseph Stempel, who located here in 1833. Of these Mr. Harwerth is still living. Soon after coming, Messrs. Ding- werth and Harwerth built a raft on the Kaskaskia, and furnished a home market by buying up country produce, chiefly chickens, corn and potatoes, and leisurely floating down with the current into the Mississippi, thence to New Orleans, where they sold boat as well as provisions.
In 1835 the first store was opened by Robert G. Shannon and Samuel Foster. This effort was followed up by Conrad Benner in 1844. Benner had followed peddling for several years. His busi- ness grew to such proportions that he was constrained to have an abiding place, hence the store.
Isaac Rainey kept the first post-office, called Mud Creek, at his own house, about 1} miles from Darmstadt. It was afterwards moved to Hermanntown, in 1856. In 1878 the name was changed to St. Libory.
In 1842, William Waeltz opened a blacksmith shop within a mile of Darmstadt, and during the same year, Peter Rodemeyer commenced a smithy within the present limits of the same vil- lage.
The Protestant Lutheran, on section 27, built in 1842, was the first house for public worship. It was a small log building, and, in 1866, gave place to a more commodious brick structure, which was destroyed by lightning the following year. A cemetery, first used
as a burial place in 1839, marks the location of the church. George Heberer was the first to be buried there.
In 1837 the German population had many accessions to their numbers. John C. Eckert, Nicholas Petri, Michael Funch, Wen- del Eckert, Nicholas Worm, among them. Wendel Eckert was married to Mary Perschbacher, March 1st, 1839, by John Stuntz, J. P., notable as being the first wedding among the German popu- lation.
J. G. Eckert had a singular experience with wheat the first sea- son after his arrival. He prepared the ground, as he was accus- tomed to do in the old country, although Jeff. Rainey expostulated with him, foretelling the result, which was a very rank growth of straw, so rank that the wheat fell of its own weight. It only took a man five weeks, using a sickle, to cut twelve acres of it.
In 1836 a proselyting elder from the Mormons, drumming up emigration for Mount Zion, Jackson county, Missouri, came into this township. His urgent appeals and fair promises, coupled with great religious zeal, resulted in numerous converts to the Mormon faith. Many laid aside their Bibles as being full of idle tales, and accepted the book of Mormon as God's revealed will. Among those. to travel Zionward, or, Missouri-ward rather, were George Baggs Free and Thomas Nelson. Nelson soon after returned and told his friends that the scales had fallen from his eyes upon reaching Mt. Zion; he had seen Mormon life in all its hideousness ; fell out with the leaders; had a free fight, out of which he came first-best, and struck a bee-line for his old home. Some never gave up their Mor- mon faith.
Agriculturally, this is an excellent body of land. The streams are skirted with timber, and the land is undulating; the greater part of the precinct is a beautiful prairie, now under a high state of cultivation. The farm-buildings are good, and the farmers in- telligent and enterprising. Population :- census of 1880-1,639. The acreage is 23,895, of which fully five-sixths is prairie. Great crops of the cereals gladden the hearts of farmers, while large num- bers of stock, principally hogs, are annually fattened for the market.
Lack of facilities, furnished 'by railroad transportation, is the great drawback. At one time it was thought proposed improve- ments along the Kaskaskia would obviate this difficulty by giving water communication, but all that has flitted by, as a thing of the past. Tbe precinct was organized, upon petition of its citizens, April 16th, 1870; prior to that time it was a part of Athens.
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