USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 57
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In 1867 Mr. A. L. Webster, of Danville, in company with G. B. Yeomans, engaged in the hardware trade in Danville. They remained in business together about four years, when G. B. sold his interest in the business to his brother, Charles T. Yeomans. This firm continued to do business together about three years, when they dissolved partnership, Mr. Yeomans taking the light and shelf hardware, and Mr. Webster retain- ing the heavy. From this time until February of 1879 he was engaged in the heavy hardware trade, which is almost entirely a jobbing trade. At the date above mentioned he sold out to the firm of Giddings & Patterson, they becoming his successors and occupying a new building which he has just completed, located at the corner of Main and Frank- lin streets. Mr. Webster is a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio. For sixteen years he has been engaged in the hardware trade, a part of this time in Ohio and at Aurora, Illinois. At present he is engaged in' set- tling up old accounts relating to his business in Danville.
L. T. Dickason, the present mayor of the city of Danville, is a native of Marion county, Ohio, where most of his early life was spent. In 1861 he entered the Federal army, in the war of 1861-5, enlisting in Co. H,
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4th Ohio, three-months service. After serving this term he reenlisted in Co. D, 64th Ohio, three-years service. He participated in many of the heavy battles, being engaged at the battles of Shilolı, Perryville, Stone River, the siege of Corinth and the battle of Chickamauga, being severely wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, on account of which he was discharged from further service, though he had served nearly his full term of enlistment. In 1867 he came to Vermilion county, where he has since resided, being one among the most active business men of the county. For a time he was engaged in buying and shipping grain, being located at Fairmount. Moving from there to Danville, he soon became very popular politically, and is now enjoying his "third term" of mayorship. He is also very extensively engaged in the coal and timber trade, in company with Charles L. English. They give in all employment to about four hundred men, their timber contracts with the different railroad companies amounting to hundreds of thousands per year, and extending over several different states.
Charles W. Gregory, postmaster of Danville, is a native of Bloom- ville, Delaware county, New York. He was born on the 11th of No- vember, 1833. His father, Henry W. Gregory, was born in New Bedford, Westchester county, New York, where he served for many years at the trade of a blacksmith and carriage-maker. He made the first blister-steel axes in New York state. These celebrated Max- well & Gregory axes, are known all over the country. He followed farming in his latter days. He was in the war of 1812 as fife-major. He died in Danville, Vermilion county, on the 18th of September, 1873, at the age of seventy nine. When Mr. Gregory, our subject, was but ten years old his father moved on a farm, where he remained until he was abont seventeen years old, when he was connected with a sur- veying party as roadsman, in surveying the New York & Erie railroad. He followed surveying about four years; he lost one eye from this. Mr. Gregory gave up surveying, and then commenced to learn tele- graphing. He went to Canada and served the Great Western railroad as telegraph operator about three years and a half, and then, in 1856, he came to Illinois and went to Springfield, where he was engaged in helping to erect a telegraph line from Tolono to Danville. He then received an appointment as telegraph operator at Danville, also acting , as express and ticket agent. Here he remained abont one year, and then accepted a similar position at State Line, where he remained until 1862, when he received from Abraham Lincoln an appointment as mail agent on the Toledo & Wabash railroad, running from State Line to Springfield. He held this position about five years and a half, when he came to Danville and entered the mercantile business, which he
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continued up to 1873. In 1875 he was appointed by Gen. U. S. Grant postmaster of Danville. This position he has held ever since. Mr. Gregory was married in 1865, to Miss Charlotte A. Neher, of New York, danghter of Anther Neher. By this marriage they have had three children, one of whom is deceased.
William C. McReynolds, Danville, book-keeper in the Danville Mills, was born in Edgar county, Illinois, on the 16th of September, 1825, and is the son of the Rev. John W. and Lean (Morgan) McRey- nolds. His father was a Methodist preacher, and was born in Culpepper county, Virginia. From there he moved to Allen county, Kentucky, and then to Indiana. He then removed to Edgar county, Illinois, where he was among the first settlers of that county. . When Mr. Mc- Reynolds was but a few months old his parents moved to Indiana and remained there until he was ten years old, when they returned to Edgar county. Here he remained until he was abont twenty-four years old, when he embarked in the mercantile business in Paris, Illinois, and Terre Haute, Indiana. He then went to Rushville, where he was made cashier of the Rushville Bank, a branch of the Indiana State Bank. Here he remained about seven years. He then went to Chicago, where he embarked in the commission business, which he followed about one year, when he came to Danville, in 1867, and here entered the coal business. He then went into the mill business, in which he is now engaged as book-keeper in the Danville Mills. This is one of the largest flour mills in this vicinity, and was erected by Daniel Kyger. N. Henderson & Sons commenced building it in 1854, and it was com- pleted in 1856; this was the first steam flour mill in Danville, and the second one in Vermilion county. Mr. MeReynolds is a democrat in politics. He was elected alderman in 1875, and reelected in 1877-79. He married in Danville to Miss Elizabeth M. Pearson, of New York, daughter of the Hon. John Pearson. By this marriage they have nine children-five boys and four girls.
Mary Gattermann, Danville, proprietor of the garden on the Cov- ington road, was born in Germany, on the 25th of Angust, 1845, and is the wife of the late William Gattermann, who was born in Germany in 1835, came to America in 1857 and landed in New York. He was en- gaged in the manufacture of soda-water. In 1867 he came west with his wife and located in Danville. Here they remained until 1871, when they went to New York, and afterward returned to Danville and purchased the present place, where he commenced to make improve- ments. Ile first paid some three hundred dollars for the property ; since then he made all the improvements, amounting to some five or six thousand dollars. He was a soldier in the late war, and did good
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service: he was also a soldier of the New York state militia, being a member of the 3d New York Militia; he was also a member of the German Aid Society and a member of the Turn Verein Society. He died in 1878, and was buried on the 1st of January.
Ernest and L. Blankenburg, Danville, proprietors of the Ætna House saloon and billiard room, were born in Germany. Ernest Blankenburg was born on the 6th of October, 1843. He emigrated to America and landed in New York in 1867, and came direct to Dan- ville, first commencing work as a clerk in a dry-goods store. Here he remained about four years, when he entered the saloon business. L. Blankenburg was born on the 11th of July, 1853, and emigrated to America in 1867. He came direct to Danville and commenced clerk- ing in a retail grocery store, and afterward in a wholesale grocery house. From there he entered the saloon business in company with his brother. These gentlemen keep one of the leading saloons and billiard rooms in the city, located in the basement of the Etna House.
H. A. Coffeen, the enterprising bookseller of Danville, was born in Gallia county, Ohio, on the 14th of February, 1841, being now thirty- eight years old. His parents, Alvah P. and Olive Coffeen, have lived in Champaign county, Illinois, on a farm near Homer, since 1852. They gave their children a good collegiate education, and this, with good habits and character, was the stock with which they started in life. Henry A. Coffeen, the second son, whose portrait appears in this work, started for himself at the age of eighteen as a school teacher, using such means as he could thus earn in furnishing his scien- tific course, receiving his diploma at the age of twenty-two. He con- tinned teaching, at constantly advancing salaries, until he was twenty- seven years old, lastly at Hiram College, in Ohio, as teacher of natural sciences, and at Bement, Illinois, as superintendent of a fine graded school that he developed at that place. We extract the following reference to Mr. Coffeen's singular abilities as an educator from Judge Speare's "History of Bement": "Mr. Coffeen was a superior instructor for young men and young ladies. The course of study was most thor- ough and diversified. All his plans of inculcation were of a character to lead the student of abstruse science interestingly on, affording a wide range of thought. giving strength and vigor to mind, and with his pleasant, forcible and peculiar faculty drove the roots of moral and sci- entific subjects so deeply into the minds of the most stupid, that the same could not be eradicated ; but to-day his reflex influence is most strikingly apparent, and will reach far down into the future. Such teachers are rectifiers of society, like a fountain of pure water sending limpid streams through fertile fields, from which many parched tongnes
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of the thirsty world may be slaked." This brief extract from Judge Speare's eulogy upon the character and abilities of Mr. Coffeen serves also to show the thoroughness and spirit with which he engages in what- ever work there is before him. In an earnest, unflinching manner he stands by the convictions of a clear head and pure purpose in every department of life, and considering this his success as a merchant has been somewhat singular, for he turns neither to the right nor the left either for men or parties, in his pursuance of what he believes to be right. It is generally found that less decided minds succeed best as merchants. Besides building up one of the finest bookstores in the country, he has accumulated some additional property, and is developing a fine fruit farm, or garden, on the north side of the city. He takes a lively inter- est in the political movements of the times, but from an independent standpoint rather than as a partisan. He has been a member of the Grand Lodge of Illinois Knights of Honor ever since it was organized, and has for two years represented his state in the Supreme Lodge meetings at Nashville and Boston, commanding the respect and confi- dence of the supreme assemblage as well as that of his own state. The first history of Vermilion county, a little book of considerable merit, published in 1871, owes its publication to the pen and enterprise of Mr. Coffeen. Charles A. Pollock is now associated with him in the book business, and their store is one of the finest in the city, as will be seen by reference to an interior view of their store, given on another page of this work.
A. HI. Doane, Danville, freight and ticket agent for the Wabash road, is a native of the State of Wisconsin. He has now been engaged at the railroad business since 1862. His parents, F. W. and Angeline (Holmes) Doane, were natives of the State of New York. His father was a railroad man, having first begun the business when roads were built with the old strap rail. He was killed while running a passenger train over the same road with which A. H. is now connected, though at that time it was known as the Great Western road. A. H. first began the business at Tolono, Illinois, in the employ of the Illinois Central road. For a time he was on a switch-engine, and then did office work for awhile. From Tolono he went to State Line, and there was check clerk in the employ of what was then the Toledo, Wabash & Western road. After a time he again entered the employ of the Illi- nois Central road, though he remained with them but about one year. Quitting the business of railroading, he tried hotel keeping, but in May, 1868, he accepted a position with the then Toledo, Wabash & Western. For eleven years he has filled the position of ticket agent. In addition
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to this he also does the freight business, his ticket receipts amounting to about $30,000 per year ; the total receipts are about $180,000.
H. K. Gregory, Danville, dealer in railroad timber, though a young inan, has probably been as extensively engaged in contracting as any man of his age in Vermilion county. He is a native of Broome county, New York. In 1868 he, with his people, came west, locating at Danville. His father died in 1871, aged seventy-nine years. His mother now resides with him, and is now eighty-four years old. H. K. and his brother, C. W. Gregory, were for several years associated to- gether in furnishing large supplies of ties, posts, bridge timbers, etc., to the different lines of railroad in progress of construction. Among them was a contract for supplying the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western road, between Crawfordsville and Urbana. They dissolved partnership in 1872. Afterward Mr. H. K. Gregory became associated with J. Knight for three years in the same line of business. During this time they put out about six hundred thousand ties. This was on a contract in the construction of the L. B. & M. R.R. He then did business alone until the winter of 1879, when Mr. W. H. Alexander became his partner. Mr. Gregory is now a man but little past thirty years of age. His standing in the community as a business man and an honorable citizen cannot be questioned by any.
George W. Abdill, Danville, hardware, was born in Warsaw, Ken- tucky, in February, of 1838. When two years old he was taken by his people to Perrysville, Indiana. and there he remained a resident until he came to Vermilion county, Illinois, in 1868. His father, I. Abdill, who is now a resident of Danville, was one of the early settlers of Perrysville. For many years he was engaged in the hardware trade and in the man- ufacture of tinware, at which he used to do a large business, supplying about thirty-two points between Terre Haute and La Fayette, and em- ploying about ten men in the manufacture of this line of goods. George W. has been familiar with the hardware trade, as he says, " since he has been large enough to black a stove." In later years he became a partner with his father in the business, the firm being known as I. Abdill & Son ; this partnership lasting about ten years, or until the firm of Abdill Bros. began business in Danville in 1868. The firm is composed of George W. and E. C. Abdill, and they located at No. 57 Vermilion street where they have erected a fine building twenty- three feet front by one hundred deep, two floors and basement, all well stocked with goods in the line of hardware, stoves, tinware, oils, glass, paints, etc. etc. George W. is a very active member of society, giving liberally to any enterprise pertaining to the public good and especially to the churches, he being a very active member of the M. E.
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Church, and a man who has hosts of friends among all classes of people.
Anselm Sieferman, Danville, eigar maunfacturer, was born in Baden, Germany, on the 10th of November, 1836, and is the son of Joseph and Mary Ann (Adam) Sieferman, of Germany. In 1853 he started for America, and landed in New York on the 15th of August of the same year. He came direct west and located in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he first commenced to work in a machine-shop, remaining some three years, when the shops closed. In 1861 he commenced in the tobacco business in Cincinnati, and followed this there until 1868, when he came to Danville, which has been his home ever since. He here commenced the tobacco business, and has in his employ three hands. In 1879 he was elected alderman of the first ward, which office he still holds. He was married on the 1st of September, 1859, to Agatha Kreuzburg, of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. They have one child. Mr. Sieferman !has taken a very active part in the welfare of the city of Danville, and ranks as one of its leading German citizens.
W. E. Shedd, Danville, hardware merchant, of the firm of Yeomans & Shedd, is a native of Ohio, and has now been in the hardware trade about ten years, most of which time has been spent in Danville. He was three years with the firm of Webster & Yeomans; two years with the hardware-jobbing house of Pratt & Co., of Buffalo, New York, and the present firm was organized in January, 1875. During the war of 1861-5 he, at the age of sixteen years, entered the Union army, en- listing in Co. C, 15th Ohio Vol. Inf., three-years service. Like many another Union soldier he has a tale to tell of southern prisons, he hav- ing with others spent five months in the famous Andersonville prison. Yeomans & Shedd's business house is located on West Main street, and is twenty feet front by one hundred deep, and stocked with a gen- eral line of hardware. They do not seem to complain of hard times or poor trade, and the indications are that they are doing their share of the business that is done in Danville.
C. R. Dwight, Danville. dentist, though not the oldest of the city, is certainly one of the leading and most popular. His popu- larity has been earned by a straightforward, honorable course in his professional life and by his pleasant and courteous treatment of his now large circle of friends. Ile is a native of Cattaraugus county, New York, though he left there when quite small, and came west with his people, they locating in Peoria county, Illinois. This was as early as 1839. In 1858 he began the study of dentistry, but gave it up to enter the Federal army in the war of 1861-5, enlisting in Co. B, 92d Ill. Inf., three-years service, from Byron, Illinois. He served
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his full term of enlistment, and returned to Illinois somewhat broken down on account of long and hard marching. Regaining his health, he again took up and finished the study of his profession at Rockford, Illinois. He first began his practice in Rochelle, Illinois, in 1867, re- maining there two years, when he removed again, locating permanently in Danville. He is a member of the Illinois State Dental Society, and has made frequent contributions to the different journals of the day, treating upon his profession. Though he has been a resident of the city of Danville but about ten years, he has probably as few enemies and as many friends as any man in the city.
Jolın Lane, Danville, was born in Eugene, Vermilion county, Indi- ana, on the 3d of November, 1839, and is the son of Enoch W. and Christina (Washburn) Lane. His mother died at Eugene on the 15th of January, 1841, being but twenty-eight years of age. His father, John Lane, was born on the 21st of May, 1798. He was raised in Pickaway county, Ohio, and in 1829 moved to Engene, Vermilion county, Indiana, where he was engaged at his trade as cabinet-maker. He died in Eugene on the 12th of December, 1875. Mr. Lane, the subject of our sketch, was raised and received his schooling at Eugene. On the 17th of May, 1869, he left the scenes of his boyhood. At that time there were no railroads from Eugene to Danville, so he started on foot and walked from Eugene to Danville, where he has remained ever since. He was married to Miss Julia Davis on the 1st of November, 1870, by whom they have had three children.
The firm of C. B. & J. R. Holloway, Danville, is one of the leading dry-goods and carpet houses in this vicinity. It is located on the north- west corner of Main and Walnut streets. These gentlemen commenced business in Danville in 1869, and ever since have constantly improved in trade. Cornelius B. Holloway was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1826. His experience in the dry-goods business has been very ex- tensive, having entered a dry-goods store with his father in Smyrna, Harrison county, Ohio, when he was a boy. He came to Danville in 1862, where he has resided ever since. Jesse R. Holloway was born in Winchester, Virginia, and moved to Vermilion county with his parents at an early day. He settled near Georgetown, where he was engaged in the dry-goods business for some twenty years, being among the first dry-goods merchants of that place. He came to Danville and was connected with the Vermilion County Bank for several years, and then returned to the dry-goods business, which business he has con- tinned in ever since. They erected their present store at a cost of some $18,000, and are doing a business amounting to some $50,000 per year.
The leading house in the manufacture of boots and shoes is that of
Ving Friday la different
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E. P. Doll, No. 121 East Main street, Danville. He has now been engaged in this business abont two years. When he began business in 1877 he was in company with Mr. Smith, but later he purchased Mr. Smith's interest in the business and has since been conducting it alone. He gives employment to about five men, on an average, and manufactures per annum about $5,000 worth of goods. His style and manufacture of goods has gained so much of a reputation that he is not troubled with any old or dry stock on hand. He is a man who has had nearly twenty years' experience in the boot and shoe trade. His trade has increased so much now as to warrant him in the use of machinery so far as can be done without the durability of the goods being lessened. He is a native of Ashland county, Ohio, and has the energy and enter- prise about him that we usually find about a man who has been de- pendent upon his own resources. Should no misfortune befall him he will yet be known as one of the largest manufacturers and dealers in his line.
Edward Jones, Danville, engineer, who is holding quite a responsi- ble position with the Ellsworth Mining Company, is a native of Bri- erley Hill. South Staffordshire, England. He was born in 1842. The early part of his life was spent and his education received in that country. He also learned the trade of an engineer with the British Iron Com- pany. In 1868 he came to the United States and stopped at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for six months, where he was engaged with Marshall, Graft & Co. Then he went to Sharon, Pennsylvania, for about a year and a half, and in 1870 came to Danville, and in January, 1876, began work for A. C. Daniel, who is manager of the Ellsworth company. Mr. Daniel tells us that for over three years Mr. Jones has never but once failed to blow the whistle regularly at 6.40 and 7.00 o'clock A.M., and that onee was forgetfulness, as he was at his post as regular as at any time. He does his own firing, and keeps the machinery in order himself, and is a healthy, robust "Johnny Bull," free from intemperate and other bad habits ; a man always ready for duty and competent to attend to it. This fact is apparent to Mr. Daniel, who has concluded in this instance that he has the right man in the right place.
George W. Daines, Danville, real estate agent, though not so old a resident as many of the citizens of Danville, is yet a man well known in the city and in the county. He is a native of Miami county, Indiana. His home has been in Danville since 1870. From 1870 to 1876 he was general western agent for the American Lubricating Oil Company. Leaving the road in 1876, he opened a real estate office in Danville. his office being in Gernand's block, on Vermilion street. Here he is preparing to do a more extensive business in the real estate trade, 30
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which he has already pretty well worked up. This, in connection with his insurance business and his own real estate which is on the market, warrants us in classing him among the leading business men of the city. In the fall of 1878 he added to the city plat what is known as Daines' addition. He has already built a number of new residence buildings. He is constantly improving property in different parts of the city, and were all the real estate holders of Danville equal to him in enterprise and improvement, the city would soon outstrip herself.
William Whitehill, the subject of this sketch, a cut of whose establish- ment appears in this work, is the leading manufacturer of buggies and carriages in the city. He began business in Danville in 1871, under circumstances that would have made many men hesitate before invest- ing money, the competition being more than commonly strong; but understanding that " opposition is the life of trade," he opened his fac- tory with a full understanding of the difficulties to be surmounted. The result has been success; this has been accomplished by giving ICAKRITO EFACTDAY to his patrons the very best line of goods possible for the money in- vested. He has acquired for his work now such a reputation as any dealer or manufacturer may well feel proud of. He is a native of Summit county, Ohio. In 1856 he came to Attica, Indiana, and WHITEHILL'S CARRIAGE SHOPS. there began learning his trade,
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