USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. II > Part 17
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On the 5th day of November. 1848. Captain Detweiller wedded Magdalena Bachman, the marriage being celebrated at the home of his sister in Woodford county, Illinois. Mrs. Detweiller was also a native of France. To this union seven children were born, three of whom are yet living; Thomas H., Amelia MI., and Mathilda E. The son, Thomas H. Detweiller, has since 1903 been the president and manager of the Detweiller Ice Company, and under his capable direction the business has steadily increased. Mrs. Detweiller passed away December 10. 1888, and her death was a severe blow to her husband, as she had ever been in all respects his true helpmate. She was in her home not only a devoted wife and mother, but was a useful member of society, kindly, chari- table and helpful to all who were in trouble or in want. She was active in charitable work and was connected with the Women's Christian Home Mission and with the Women's Relief Corps.
Captain Detweiller died in Peoria on April 2. 1903. He had taken no active part in his business for some years before his death, leaving everything to the management of his son. His life was a laborious one, and beset with as many
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hardships as fall to the lot of most pioneers. Yet, through it all he bore himself honorably and with characteristic geniality and maintained that pleasant kindly character which endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. As an evi- dence of the confidence his fellow citizens placed in his integrity, he was elected six times to the office of city treasurer without his seeking and even against his personal desire. Fraternally he belonged to the Odd Fellows and was a charter member of the Bryner Post, No. 67, G. A. R. and was an active member of the Creve Coeur Club. For thirteen years, he was president of the Old Settlers' Association of Peoria. He cast his first vote for General Taylor for president in 1848 and since the organization of the republican party was ever one of its ardent supporters, believing its principles most conducive to good government. He resided in Peoria for over three-quarters of a century, and during that time he witnessed its development from a village to the present beautiful city and during his life-time contributed his full part to the general growth. It may be said of him, as of very few men, that he had not a single enemy in the city of Peoria, or anyone who entertained aught but the kindest sentiments toward him. His disposition was genial and kindly and his efforts were to help rather than to mar the fortunes of any man or woman. He was a man of decided character and strong convictions, but willing that other men should enjoy the same right and freedom of thought and action which he claimed for himself. Such evenly balanced characters are rare, and when we see them, we cannot refrain from expressing our appreciation of them and our commendation of the men or women who bear them. If there were more men like Captain Detweiller, it would be better for the community, for the state and for the nation.
EDWARD E. BARBOUR, M. D.
There is probably no calling, either in business or the professions which necessitates the possession of so much strict integrity, scruplousness and thorough mastery of detail. on the part of its members, as does the practice of medicine. The physician often holds the lives of his patients in his hands. Upon his skill, his fertility of resource, his calmness in a crisis, life itself depends. Therefore, a doctor should regard his profession as a high and honorable one, and his worthy practice of it, a sacred debt which he owes to humanity. A doctor of this high class is Edward E. Barbour, one of the most able physicians of this city.
Dr. Barbour has offices at 427 Jefferson building, Peoria, and has since 1903 done a general practice, specializing in obstetrics. He was born on the farm of his father in Carroll county, Indiana, January 10, 1869, his father, Reuben D. Barbour, being a prominent agriculturist. Here he was reared close to the heart of nature, and grew to manhood. He attended the public schools and attained proficiency in the common branches of English learning. Later he extended his education by attending night school in Indianapolis and when he had fitted himself to do so, took up the study of medicine on September 15, 1895, which he diligently pursued until March 22, 1899, when he was graduated from the Physio Medical College of Indianapolis, Indiana. After his graduation, he be- gan the practice of his profession in Putnam county, Illinois, where by his pro- fessional skill he achieved success and by his personal magnetism formed many lasting and pleasant acquaintanceships. Desiring a larger field for his chosen life work, in 1903 he settled in Peoria. During that year, he took post-graduate work in the Chicago Polyclinic and since that time has been engaged profes- sionally in this city. He is on the staff of St. Francis Hospital of Peoria, acts
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as health officer at Averyville, a suburb north of Peoria, and is also president of the Averyville board of education.
On August 25. 1802, Dr. Barbour was married to Miss Sadie M. Kendall of Indianapolis, Indiana, a daughter of John M. and Mary ( Willetts ) Kendall. They became the parents of one son, Orville E., who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 25, 1893, and who graduated from Western Military Academy, at Alton, Illinois, in June, 1912. Dr. Barbour's first wife died March 22, 1900, and on December 24, 1901 he was again married. His second wife was Miss Cleopatra Axtell of Tipton, Indiana, a daughter of John Wand and Sarah ( Mc- Farland ) Axtell.
The Doctor is a member of the Peoria City Medical Society, the Illinois- State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Ile has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise belongs to the Knights of Khorassan, and is past chancellor commander of Calanthe Lodge, No. 43 of the Knights of Pythias. He is active in the Independent Order of Red Men and several other fraternal orders, besides being a prominent member of the Y. M. C. A. and the Peoria Association of Commerce. As a citizen, Dr. Barbour is universally esteemed, always sustaining the character of a true man. His business trans- actions, like his professional duties, are always conducted on the principles of strict integrity, and he is kind in his relations and conduct towards all.
JOHN R. GRANT.
John R. Grant, who is serving in his third year as superintendent of streets of Peoria, has made his home in this city for twenty-six years. He has been a life- long resident of the county. He was born on his father's farm in Limestone township, July 19, 1861, and is a son of l'eter and Catharine ( Ritchie ) Grant. The father not only was an agriculturist and owned and cultivated a tract of land in Limestone township but also owned and operated coal mines there. In 1858 he removed from Belleville, Illinois, to this county and was thereafter closely and prominently associated with business interests.
The usual experiences of farm life came to John R. Grant in his boyhood and youth while spending the period of his majority upon his father's farm. He attended the country schools and also a night school but as soon as old enough to begin work he was assigned certain duties on the farm which he performed through the summer seasons and in the winter months worked in his father's coal mines. His boyhood was therefore a period of earnest and unremitting toil and brought to him an understanding of the value and effectiveness of earnest labor. He has devoted a number of years of his life to public service and for some time was employed by the Park board of Peoria before entering upon his present position as superintendent of streets. He has done excellent work in this connection and during his administration many improvements have been made in the thoroughfares of the city.
In 1886 occurred the marriage of Mr. Grant and Miss Catharine Botzenhardt, also a native of this county. They have become parents of five children but Ben. the eldest, was drowned at the age of ten years and Elsie, the youngest, died when about nine months old. Those still living are Fred, Joseph and Janet.
Mr. Grant is a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity and his political allegiance has always been given to the republican party. He has ever taken an active interest in city and county politics and was a delegate to the famous "lock- out" convention at Springfield in 1904. He served on the village board of trus- tees of South Peoria in 1895-6 and through his efforts and influence the village
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was annexed to the city. He has a wide acquaintance throughout the entire county and his circle of friends is an extensive one for his reliability and personal worth and his social, genial nature have gained for him the warm regard of all with whom he has come in contact.
JOHN A. SCHNEIDER.
Jolin A. Schneider is commissioner of buildings at Peoria and for a long period has been identified with building operations in this city. He has filled his pres- ent position since May 4, 1909, under appointment of Mayor Woodruff, and the record which he has made in this connection is most creditable. He was born in 1849, soon after his parents landed in America on their immigration to this country from Germany. He is a son of Bernard and Anna Schneider, who established their home in the Empire state, where the son was reared. He pur- sued his education in the schools of New York city and of Albany, New York. He was a youth of seventeen years when, in 1866, he came to the middle west with his parents, settling in Peoria, at which time he began providing for his own support by working at the leather trade. He spent two years in that way and then began work at the builder's trade, serving an apprenticeship with his brother-in-law, V. Jobst. After completing this apprenticeship he worked as a contractor and builder in Chicago and in the west for five years but returned to Peoria on the expiration of that period and for twenty years was foreman for his brother-in-law in the contracting and building business. He then embarked in the same line of business on his own account and was well known in that con- nection at the time that he accepted his present office. He has erected many substantial structures here and his labors have brought him excellent returns. His knowledge of the trade in all of its departments well qualifies him for the duties that devolve upon him as commissioner of buildings.
In 1880, in St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Schneider was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Renth and unto them have been born two sons, George and Oscar. Fraternally Mr. Schneider is connected with the Masons and the Maccabees and is loyal to the teachings and tenets of those organizations. He started out in life with no special advantages and has worked his way steadily upward by his own merit and capability, reaching a creditable position in business and official circles.
CLYDE E. STONE.
Judicial honors have come early to Clyde E. Stone but public opinion is unanimous in that they are well deserved. Nature equipped him with keen men- tality and he has wisely and conscientiously used the talents which came to him as a birthright. No outside aid or influence has favored him and in a profession where advancement depends solely upon individual merit he has gained distinc- tion and honors. On the 8th of November, 1910, popular suffrage called him to the office of county judge and on the 3d of December following he took his place upon the bench and has since administered the law in the county court.
Judge Stone is yet a young man, having been born in Mason City, Illinois, March 23, 1876. His paternal grandfather, William A. Stone, was one of the pioneers of this state, settling in Menard county in 1835 upon his removal to Illinois from Kentucky. He was, however, a native of Virginia. During the period of his residence in this state he followed farming and aided in replacing the evidence of frontier life by the improvements of modern civilization. His
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son, Claudius L. Stone, was born and reared in Menard county and for thirty- five years engaged in farming in Mason county, after which he put aside the work of the fields and retired to Mason City where he is now filling the position of postmaster. He has ever been a respected, worthy and honored resident of his community, influential in public affairs. He wedded Mary Marot, a native of Illinois, and unto them were born six children of whom four are yet living : Wil- liam E., a practicing attorney of Mason City : Arthur L., who is agent for the Chicago & Alton Railroad at Peoria ; Clyde E., of this review ; and Hal M., who is master in chancery at Bloomington, Illinois.
Spending his youthful days on his father's farm the rural schools afforded Judge Stone his early educational advantages which were supplemented by a course of study in the high school of Mason City, from which he was in due time graduated. He afterward took up the profession of teaching which he followed altogether for six years in Mason county, but regarded this merely as a prepara- tory field for the practice of law. Thinking to find the work of the legal pro- fession more congenial and hoping also to find it more profitable, he entered the University of Illinois for a law course and was graduated therefrom on the Ioth of June, 1903. In May of that year he had been admitted to the bar and in less than a month after his graduation came to Peoria. arriving in this city on the Ist of July. Here he entered into partnership with I. L. Fuller, the pro- fessional relations between them continuing until the Ist of January, 1906, when Judge Stone entered into partnership with Joseph V. Graff, who for sixteen years was a member of congress. They practiced together until Judge Stone's election to the bench on the 8th of November, 1910. From the Ist of June, 1906, until the Ist of January, 1909. he had been first assistant state's attorney. While in college he was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma. the Phi Delta Phi law fra- ternity and the Scholarship fraternity, Theta Kappa Nu, membership in which depends upon the grades made in the class room. As a lawyer Judge Stone soon demonstrated his ability to handle intricate and involved problems of jurispru- dence and to accurately apply the principles of the law to the points in litigation. His preparation of a case was ever thorough and comprehensive, his presenta- tion clear and forceful and his deduction logical. He is seldom, if ever, at fault in the citation of principle or precedent and his success is due above all other things to his indefatigable industry. He enjoyed a large and distinctively rep- resentative clientage until his election to the bench, since which time he has presided in able, dignified manner over the sessions of the court. His decisions indicate strong mentality, careful analysis, a thorough knowledge of the law and an unbiased judgment and, moreover, he possesses that self-control which enables him to lose his individuality, his personal feelings, his prejudices and his peculiar- ities of disposition in the dignity, impartiality and equity of the office to which life, probity, right and liberty must look for protection.
On the 14th of November. 1900, Judge Stone was united in marriage at Havana, Illinois, to Miss Jessie Browning, a daughter of the late Joseph and Lucy E. (Harplanı) Browning. Her father was a native of Massachusetts and was educated in an eastern university and also in study abroad. For some years he was a professor of languages in different educational institutions but later took up the study and afterward the practice of medicine. His wife is a native of Mason county, Illinois, and is still living in the old home in which she was born. Judge and Mrs. Stone have become the parents of two children: Claudia E., four years of age; and Inez Browning, who is but two years of age. Both Judge and Mrs. Stone are people of benevolent spirit and he is serving as a member of the board of directors of the Associated Charities. His recognition of the universal brotherhood of mankind is manifest in his membership in the Masonic fraternity in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree and has also become a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is further connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern
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Woodmen of America, and is popular in all those organizations. When Judge Stone arrived in Peoria on the Ist of July, 1900, he knew no one in this city save his law partner. His individual worth and ability soon won him the respect and confidence of the people of the county and led to his selection for judicial honors. He early demonstrated his ability as an organizer and leader and in his campaign for county judge showed that he could lead what others regarded as a forlorn hope and achieve victory. The same qualities have made him a promi- nent factor in republican circles. He is aggressive yet never to the point of in- fringing on another's rights; it is an aggressiveness of an enterprising spirit and a firm belief in the course which he has followed. That his mind has a strong judicial cast is indicated by the work which he has thus far done on the bench and which indicates a masterful grasp of every problem presented for solution.
COLONEL JAMES POWELL.
A picturesque and interesting figure on the stage of action in Peoria for many years was Colonel James Powell of the United States army, who was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil wars and one of the noted Indian fighters in the cam- paigns which subjugated the red race and led to the extention of civilizing influ- ences into the west. His life history if written in detail would prove a thrilling one, giving a picture of every phase of warfare in which this country engaged save that which brought independence to the nation.
Colonel Powell was a native of Ellicotts Mills, Maryland. He was born May 12, 1831, of the marriage of Samuel and Mary (Kelley) Powell, the former an architect and bridge builder. The son pursued his education in the schools of his native state and from early youth was interested and stirred by tales of military prowess. At the age of sixteen years, therefore, he enlisted in the 'Eleventh United States Infantry for service in the Mexican war, going to the front during the last year of that struggle in the land of Montezuma. Again his patriotic spirit rose paramount to all else when the country became involved in Civil war and in May, 1861, he was appointed second lieutenant in the Eighteenth Ohio Infantry. With that command he went to the front and on the 21st of October, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. Subsequently he was brevetted for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Chickamauga on the 29th of September, 1863. He participated in the Atlanta and Jonesboro cam- paigns and on the Ist of September, 1864, was brevetted major for distinguished gallantry. He was given his captaincy on the 9th of September of the same year. His military duty was of a varied, important and arduous character. At the close of the war he ranked as major and continued in the service of the regular army. In August, 1867, he was brevetted lieutenant colonel for bravery dis- played during the engagement with the Indians at Fort Philip Kearny in Dakota territory. In 1868 he was retired on account of wounds received in battle with the red men. He was one of the most noted officers of the army who participated in the campaigns against the Indians. In General Dodge's Thirty Years of In- dian War are found several accounts of engagements in which Colonel Powell was the commanding officer. Experience not only taught him how to meet his fellow countrymen on the battlefields of the south, where was established the supremacy of the federal government, but also how to meet the wily savage who seldom faces his foe in the open but, skulking behind trees, bushes and rocks, takes his enemy unawares if possible. Colonel Powell became thoroughly acquainted with the methods of warfare as followed by the Indian and it was this which made his work on the western frontier so successful. While guarding a fort in Wyoming he was attacked by a band of Indians and made breastworks of wagon beds behind which his men fought for hours. The official report says that over two hundred Indians were killed but a surveying party says that the Indian
COL, JAMES W. POWELL
PUBLIC
ASTOA, L VAND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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losses were fully eight hundred. It was soon after this engagement that Colonel Powell was retired on full pay. Thus was ended his military service, which dis- played many brilliant features, while at the same time he was connected with much of the difficult and arduous campaigning on the western frontier.
After his retirement Colonel Powell paid a visit to Peoria, intending only to remain a short time, but he and his wife were so pleased with surroundings and conditions in this part of the state that they resolved to remain and he purchased a farm in Putnam county, on which he resided for a few years. Later he disposed of that property and came to the city of Peoria, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred on the 16th of April, 1903. It was wounds which he sus- tained at the battle of Chickamauga that practically caused his retirement from the army.
On the 16th of August, 1861, occurred the marriage of Colonel Powell and Miss Anna M. Stewartson, a daughter of Richard and Anna ( Mitcheson ) Stew- artson, who were natives of England and on coming to America settled in New- buryport, Massachusetts, while subsequently they established their home at Union- town, Pennsylvania. Colonel and Mrs. Powell had an extensive circle of warm friends in Peoria.
His political allegiance was given to the republican party, which was the defense of the Union in the dark days of the Civil war and which he always regarded as the party of reform and progress. He never ceased to feel the deepest interest in military affairs and held membership in the Army of the Ten- nessee, in the Old Sailors and Soldiers Union and in the Grand Army of the Re- public. He ever maintained his soldierly bearing and air of command and yet he was a most genial gentleman, winning friends wherever he went and gaining high regard by reason of his fidelity to all those qualities which in every land and clime awaken respect and confidence. His record is, indeed, a creditable one- veteran of two of the most important wars of the country and four times brev- etted and promoted by the government for gallant, meritorious service during the contest between the north and the south. He was also an active participant in the campaigning against the Indians in Colorado and Wyoming. Then he retired to enter upon the pursuits of civil life and the same spirit of fidelity to duty characterized him in every relaiton to the end.
WILLIAM H. MOORE.
William H. Moore, member of the Peoria bar, has for three terms filled the office of city attorney, being elected to that position for the term beginning in May, 1905, and retiring from the office in May, 1911. Six years before he was first called to the position, he began practice in Peoria, having been admitted to the bar on the 7th of June, 1899. Five days later he arrived in this city and has since been a representative of the legal profession here. Mr. Moore was born on a farm in Douglas county, Illinois, December 31, 1870, and is a son of George W. and Martha ( Shields ) Moore. The father is a farmer by occupa- tion and still makes his home in Douglas county, where for many years he has carried on general agricultural pursuits.
The usual experiences that fall to the lot of the farmer boy came to William H. Moore in his boyhood and youth. After attending the country schools he be- came a pupil in the Normal school at Dixon, Illinois, and during the periods of vacation he worked upon the home farm, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist as he plows and plants the fields and cultivates the crops. He felt that he would prefer a professional to an agricultural life, however, and with this end in view he became a student in the Kent College of Law, at Chicago, where he remained for a year. He also studied under James M. Rice, a lawyer of Iowa, for three years, and also spent V.1. 11-8
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two years as a law student in Dixon, Illinois. As previously stated, he was ad- mitted to the bar on the 7th of June, 1899, and immediately afterward came to Peoria. Here he began practice, proving his merit and ability in the resultant work which he did in connection with the courts. After about six years' prac- tice he was called to the office of city attorney and the excellent work which he did in that position is manifested in the fact that he was twice reelected. In May, 19II, he retired from the office as he had entered it-with the confidence and good will of the great majority. He then joined the law firm of Sucher & McNemar, already well established in business, and to the firm style his name was added, so that the partnership is now known as Sucher, McNemar & Moore. They are engaged in general practice and their work in the courts has given them an enviable reputation.
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