USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. II > Part 31
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between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1878 Colonel Taylor was commissioned by Governor Cullom colonel of the Seventh Regiment of the Illinois National Guard and in 1898 was chosen colonel of the Provisional Regiment organized in Peoria for service in the Spanish-American war. This regiment was never called for active duty but the quality of its members was such that it would not have been lacking in valor had it been placed on the firing line. Many of its members had been, like Colonel Taylor, in military service before and all were actuated by a spirit of patriotism that was most marked. During the later years of his life Colonel Taylor was engaged in the real estate and loan business, to which he devoted his energies until his death.
On the 15th of October. 1860, at Trivoli, Illinois, was celebrated the marriage of Colonel Taylor and Miss Mary Bartlett Bourne, a daughter of Melatiah T. and Mary Loring Bourne. Their three children are : Alice L., who is the wife of Charles E. Bunn, of Peoria : Laura B., the wife of Herbert Walker, of Chicago; and Isa Dean. The family has long been prominent in this city, its members occupying a creditable position in social circles. Colonel Taylor was a republican in his political views and never faltered in his support of a principle or measure which he deemed to be for the best interest of the community at large. His life was always actuated by high and noble purposes and he was a devoted member of the Congregational church. He stood as a splendid type of the progressive,
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patriotic citizen, honored wherever known and most of all where he was best known. The simple weight of his character and ability carried him into impor- tant relations. Every trust reposed in him throughout his entire life was faith- fully fulfilled. His name stood as a synonym for those qualities which men most admire and which are most effective forces in good government and in the civilizing processes of the world.
FRANCIS GRANT MINOR.
The name of Francis Grant Minor has almost continuously since the Ist of December, 1888, been on the roll of officials of the city or county of Peoria and his long continued service as a public officer stands in incontrovertible proof of his ability and fidelity in discharging the duties that have devolved upon him. He is now serving as sheriff of Peoria county and it is well known that neither fear nor favor can swerve him from a course which he believes to be right. He was born in this city, October 18, 1852, a son of John Minor, who came here from Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1850. He was a miller by trade and followed that business during the period of his residence in Peoria, which continued to the time of his death in 1865. He married Martha Near, who, like her husband, was a native of western Pennsylvania. They became the parents of five children, all of whom are still living.
At the usual age Francis Grant. Minor began his education in the old First Ward schoolhouse which stood on the site now occupied by the Smith Hotel, his teacher being E. F. Baldwin, the present editor of the Peoria Evening Star, while later he was instructed by J. E. Dow, who was afterward city superintendent of schools. When his schooldays were over he crossed the threshold of the busi- ness world by securing a position of trust in the Mechanics' National Bank which later became the Merchants' National Bank, entering that institution on the IIth of December, 1871. That he was faithful and capable is indicated by the fact that he continued with the bank until the Ist of December, 1888, and through intermediate positions was promoted to one of considerable responsibility. He severed his connection with financial circles, however, to enter public life in the position of circuit clerk of Peoria county, to which he had been elected in the previous November. His four years' term won him high commendation hy reason of his loyal and efficient service and upon his retirement from that office in 1892 he was appointed oil inspector by Mayor Philo B. Miles, acting in that capacity during the Miles administration. Mr. Minor became connected with the coal trade when, on Christmas day, 1895, he entered the employ of Stephen Wolschlag, a prominent coal operator.
Mr. Minor was called to the office of sheriff in November. 1910, and is the present incumbent in that office. His determination to enforce the laws through- out the county was soon evident and in this he won the approbation of every right- minded and law-abiding citizen. He has done everything in his power to suppress crime and vice and it is well known that conformity to the law is the only thing that can win his favor. He is never hesitant in the discharge of his duties but fearlessly and promptly administers justice according to the demands of his office and his record has gained him high commendation throughout the county.
In 1879 Mr. Minor was united in marriage at Peoria to Miss Pauline Prusch- witz, who was born in this city and is a daughter of Ewald Pruschwitz, who came from Germany and in Peoria engaged in the cabinet-making business. Mr. and Mrs. Minor are the parents of three children: John R., a farmer residing near Elmwood; Ewald F., who is farming in Milbrook township; and Francis G., who is serving as deputy under his father in the sheriff's office.
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Mr. Minor gives his political allegiance to the republican party, believing that its principles contain the best elements of good government. In matters of citizenship he takes a progressive stand and whether in office or out of it seeks the welfare and development of his community. His labors in behalf of public advancement have always been of a practical character. He has a wide acquain- tance among the leading citizens of Peoria county and the social qualities of his nature have gained him a wide circle of friends.
CHARLES RINDFLEISCH.
Charles Rindfleisch is the mayor of Hanna City, now serving for his third term, and to the discharge of the duties of the office he brought the same spirit of carefulness, enterprise and integrity that has characterized his business career. He has resided here for eight years, establishing his home in this district about the time the village was incorporated. His birthplace was a farm in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, near Cleveland, and his natal day was March 25, 1861. His par- ents, Frederick and Angie Rindfleisch, were both natives of Germany but the mother died when her son Charles was only seven years of age. His youthful days were spent upon the home farm near Cleveland where he remained until he had attained his majority, working in the fields through the summer months and acquiring his education during the winter seasons in the public schools. When he had reached manhood he decided to seek his fortune in another quarter and in 1882 came to Peoria county, where he began to work as a farm hand for Val Ulrich with whom he continued for two years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Chevenne county, Kansas, where he homesteaded a farm. There he lived for ten years, after which he returned to Peoria and rented a farm in Logan township, from his brother Fred, who is now deceased. This property was situated about a mile from Hanna City. He continued its cultivation for two years, after which he rented the James Bowling farm in Limestone township, upon which he lived for three years. He afterward worked in the dairy of O. J. Bailey for two years and then came to Hanna City where he has now resided for eight years or almost continuously since the incorporation of the town. He is now proprietor of the restaurant here and also purchased the grain elevator which he has since operated. His business activities as well as his official service make him a leading and representative citizen.
In 1892 Mr. Rindfleisch was united in marriage in Kansas to Miss Mary Gallup and they now have two children, George and Ida, both at home. The family are well known in the locality where they reside and have a large circle of friends who entertain for them warm regard. Mr. Rindfleisch is a member of the Modern Woodmen camp and is loyal to the teachings of that order. Ile is popular with his fellow townsmen who manifest their confidence in his ability and in his public-spirited citizenship by choosing him for the position of chief executive of the town, a position which he has occupied for six years.
GEORGE W. VAN FLEET.
George W. Van Fleet is a splendid representative of that class of enter- prising young business men who recognize and utilize opportunities and coordin- ate forces into a unified and harmonious whole. From a humble position in connection with insurance interests he has steadily advanced to the presidency of the Peoria Life Insurance Company which had its inception in 1902. He
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has made his home in this city since 1907, and throughout the entire period has managed and controlled the interests of the corporation of which he is now the head. He was born upon a farm in Van Buren county, Iowa, in 1874, and in his youthful days attended the country schools, after which he engaged in teaching for several years. Desirous, however, to further promote his own. knowledge he entered Callahan College at Des Moines and afterward became a student in Drake University of this city. He is a graduate of the former in- stitution and he has remained throughout life a student of the questions, in- terests and conditions which are of vital significance in the business world and in the public life of state and nation. He became identified with insurance interests as a representative of the Northwestern Life Association with head- quarters at Minneapolis, being appointed to the position of superintendent of agencies. He spent three years in that connection and then entered the service of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. Again he was at the head of the agency department, continuing with that company for seven years, and afterward spent two years as general agent for the state of Connecticut with the headquarters at New Haven. On the expiration of that period he came to Peoria and is now president and general manager of the Peoria Life Insurance Company. As previously stated, this was organized in 1902 and its present officers are : George W. Van Fleet, president ; Emmet C. May, vice pres- ident ; and O. B. Wysong, secretary and treasurer. This was incorporated as a stock company with an authorized capital of five hundred thousand dollars and a paid-in capital of one hundred thousand dollars. This concern was established by Messrs. E. C. May, Warren Sutliff, E. J. Case and E. N. Woodruff and on the Ist of August, 1907, Mr. Van Fleet became identified with the corporation as vice president and general manager. He then reorganized it as a stock com- pany and one year afterward was chosen to the presidency. His safe, con- servative business policy has placed it on a par with many older insurance com- panies and he has instituted a plan of expansion that has resulted in rapid and substantial growth. Today there are one hundred and forty agencies over Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Michigan and a large volume of business is written annually.
In 1898 Mr. Van Fleet was united in marriage to Miss Anna May Locke, of Farmington, Iowa. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons. He belongs to the Creve Coeur Club of Peoria, the Peoria Association of Commerce and the Union League Club of New Haven, Connecticut. He is widely recognized as a man of excellent business ability who readily discriminates between the essential and nonessential. His theories find justification in immediate and suc- cessful action and his executive force enables him to capably control a con- stantly growing corporation.
CHARLES KNETZGER.
Charles Knetzger is proprietor of large lumberyards of Peoria, and is also well known in financial circles as one of the directors of the Illinois National Bank. His identification with the lumber trade here covers a period of twelve years, prior to which time he had been in business in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a native of Wisconsin, his birth having occurred in Germantown, November 10, 1862. His parents were Leonard and Beatrice (Weber) Knetzger. His youthful days were passed in Naperville, Illinois, and there he attended the parochial schools of the Catholic church, after which he started out in the busi- ness world in a very humble capacity. He worked at the shoe bench and learned the shoemaker's trade under his father, whom he thus assisted until twenty years of age. Feeling that his education was not sufficient to enable him to advance as he desired in the business world, he then entered St. Joseph's College at
CHARLES KNETZGER
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Teutopolis, Illinois, and later took up the profession of teaching, which he fol- lowed for a time. He was also employed in a grocery store at Duquoin, Illinois, and when his labors had brought him sufficient capital to enable him to start out in business for himself, he opened a cigar store at Duquoin. Later he re- moved to St. Louis, where he continued in the same line of business for four years but afterward returned to Duquoin and accepted the position of book- keeper with a mining company. Subsequently he spent two years as cashier in the Duquoin bank, and then again went to St. Louis, where he remained for eight years and gained his experience in the lumber trade, being connected with a lumber firm of that city. He left St. Louis in 1900 to become a resident of Peoria, and here bought out the old Rogers lumberyard. He now deals in all kinds of building materials and his yard covers an acre and a quarter of ground. He has a large lumberyard and a shed with a capacity for two million feet of lumber and has built up a big business, handling oak, maple and beech hardwood flooring, white pine, redwood, cypress, spruce and other finishing materials.
On April 8, 1891, Mr. Knetzger was united in marriage to Miss Anna MI. Reis, of Belleville, Illinois. They are very prominent members of the Catholic church and Mr. Knetzger is also well known in connection with the Knights of Columbus. Business interests and activities have claimed the greater part of his time since he started out in life on his own account, and without assistance from others he has worked his way steadily upward, realizing that energy, in- dustry and perseverance are substantial qualities in the attainment of success.
R. W. MORRIS.
R. W. Morris, who is numbered among the substantial farmers and represen- tative citizens of Logan township, was born in Rosefield township in 1860. He is the son of Henry Morris, who was born in Lancashire, England, in 1808. and his wife, Ann (Wrigley) Morris, also a native of Lancashire. The parents were married in England, September 11, 1836, and together with the paternal grandparents, James and Betty ( Manock) Morris, came to America in 1841. They took passage on a sailing vessel to New York city, being six weeks in crossing the ocean, and thence came by the water route to Illinois, where they located in Peoria county. They intended to homestead at Rock Island but found Peoria county very inviting and the grandfather entered eighty acres of land there, for which he paid a dollar and a quarter per acre and in due time received the title for same, written on sheepskin parchment and signed by President James K. Polk. The grandparents resided on this tract of land dur- ing the remainder of their lives, the grandfather dying in 1842, at the age of seventy-five, and his wife in 1845, at the age of sixty-five. The father, Henry Morris, rented a tract of eighty acres of land in Peoria county and tilled the same with an ox team. At the death of his father he was made executor of the estate and purchased the shares of the other heirs. He later purchased the adjoining eighty acres, owning in all a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He remained on his homestead until the fall of 1881, when he moved to Elm- wood, where he died on the Sth of June, 1883, at the age of seventy-four years, seven months and eight days. In his family were eleven children, of whom six are now living, R. W., of this review, being the youngest.
R. W. Morris was reared under the parental roof and worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-one years of age. At that time he took full charge of the homestead which he had rented, until 1900, when he bought out the other heirs. In 1902 he purchased eighty acres on sections 8 and 9. Logan town- ship, and in 1903 he sold the old home place and bought forty acres on section 17 of Logan township, so that he now has a farm of two hundred and twenty
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acres in all. All of this except thirty acres, which is in pasture land, is under a high state of cultivation, and he raises yearly seventy acres in corn, forty-five acres in wheat and forty acres in oats. He has about one hundred head of hogs and eight head of horses. On his farm, which is situated two miles from Hanna City, are the very best improvements including an excellent house and barn.
On the 30th of January, 1889, Mr. Morris was united in marriage to Miss Ida Alice Morby, and they are the parents of one son, Clyde, who was born August 16, 1894, and died January 2, 1895. In politics Mr. Morris casts his vote with the republican party. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church and they enjoy a large circle of friends and acquaintances and are held in the highest regard by all who know them.
WILLIAM DOREY.
William Dorey is at the head of one of the well known productive industries of Peoria-The Advance Bottling Works, manufacturers and bottlers of soft drinks. His life record had its beginning on the 17th of October, 1871, Peoria being his native city. He was left an orphan by the death of his parents when only six months old and was adopted by a family that reared him. His youth- ful days were passed in this city and he attended the public schools, thus ac- quiring his education. He afterward engaged in driving a team and later be- came a street car conductor. He turned from this to enter the ice business and subsequently he engaged in dealing in coal. His next venture was in the feed business and at one time he dealt in gasoline and oil but sold out in that line to engage in the liquor trade, in which he continued in Peoria for six years. ning the manufacture and bottling of soft drinks at No. 313 Warner avenue. On the expiration of that period he entered his present line of business, begin- When he started in this line on the 28th of November, 1909. Frank E. Holland was associated with him in a partnership relation but Mr. Dorey has since pur- chased his partner's interest and is now sole proprietor. During the summer months he keeps three wagons in continuous use and two in the winter season. He manufactures the famous A. B. C. ginger ale and other popular soft drinks, conducting his business under the name of The Advance Bottling Company, a name that has become synonymous to the trade with the excellence of the prod- uct and straightforward dealing. Mr. Dorey is also engaged in the gas drum business for drawing beer from kegs.
In 1891 occurred the marriage of Mr. Dorey and Miss Mamie L. Jones, of Decatur, Illinois, and they have six children : Myrtle, the wife of A. H. Miller ; Earl; Chester ; Theodore; Luella; and Harold. Mr. Dorey holds membership with the Order of the Moose but is not otherwise prominent in fraternal circles, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business affairs. Gradually he has worked his way upward and is now at the head of an enterprise that is bringing him good returns.
HON. SAMUEL A. KINSEY.
Hon. Samuel A. Kinsey, former mayor of Peoria and president of the Kinsey & Mahler Company, brass founders, has been a resident of this city since 1856. He was born in Morris county, New Jersey, February 15, 1827, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Pomp) Kinsey. The father was a merchant of Easton, Penn- sylvania, and died at Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania. Captain Ingham Kinsey, the
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great-grandfather of Samuel A. Kinsey, of this review, participated in the strug- gle for independence, as did several other members of the family. Lieutenant Samuel Kinsey, in the Maryland line, under the command of General Small- wood, was an ancestor, as was John Kinsey, one of the commissioners sent out by the proprietor of West Jersey, in the ship Kent in 1677. On his mother's side he is a descendant of the Rev. Nicholas Pomp, a native of Danzig, who was educated at Halle and was sent to America by the synod of Holland about 1760. His son, Thomas Pomp, was a German Reformed church preacher who for fifty- seven years was pastor of a church in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Samuel A. Kinsey at the age of sixteen years was bound out as an appren- tice to learn the machine and pattern-making trade. He served his time and worked in various places as journeyman until 1852. Then he began contracting and building railroads, in which business he engaged for four years. In 1856 he came west and took charge of the Peters foundry and machine shop at the corner of Walnut and Water streets, Peoria, which position he held until 1860, and then went into business for himself in the brass foundry, pattern and model- making business. In 1866 this was consolidated with the interests of John C. Mahler, a coppersmith, who was the surviving partner of the firm of Loker, Seiler & Company who in 1850 established the business from which has grown the present Kinsey & Mahler Company.
Samuel A. Kinsey, out of the fifty-six years of his residence in Peoria, has spent twenty-four in public life, eight years as alderman, two as mayor, ten as trustee of the Peoria Driveway and Park system, and four years as president of that department. He was a whig and since the organization of the repub- lican party has been one of its supporters. He was a member of the Dutch Re- formed church in Philadelphia. His wife was Lydia Ann Emery, who passed away May 23, 1909. Their children were six in number. William, Warren, Nellie, Blanche, Ada and Samuel, Jr.
EDWARD LOUIS NOTHNAGEL.
Edward Louis Nothnagel, a veteran of the Civil war, a public official whose record in office has been creditable and an engineer whose work in that field has been of an important character, is now serving as justice of the peace in Peoria. He was born in the city of Washington, Tazewell county, Illinois, March 11, 1843, and his father, Edward Adolph Nothnagel, was a native of Hes- sen, Germany, and in early manhood studied medicine. He located for practice in Peoria in 1835 but afterward removed to Tazewell county, where he long fol- lowed his profession. He was married there to Catherine Trautman, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, who died when her son Edward L. was four- teen years of age. In their family were six children, Edward, George, Elijah, Mary, Lydia and William.
The first named was a pupil in the city schools of Washington, Illinois, but ere the completion of the full course there he put aside his text-books. The country was engaged in civil war and he felt that his first duty was to the Union. Although but eighteen years of age he enlisted as a member of Company E, Seventeenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and served for three years, one month and four days. During that period he participated in a number of im- portant engagements and was always faithful to his duty whether on the lonely picket line or on the firing line. When the war was over and the country no longer needed his aid he returned to Illinois and secured a position as railroad engineer in the operative departments of the Northwestern and Wabash rail- roads. His mechanical turn of mind and his ability found further expression in thirteen years' service as hoisting engineer at the coal banks. His life has thus
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been an active one, for he has always been busily employed in mechanical pur- suits save when in office. He first filled the position of constable and was afterward deputy sheriff under Cyrus J. Berry. He is now filling the position of justice of the peace and his decisions are strictly fair and impartial, winning him golden opinions.
Mr. Nothnagel has been married twice. In Chicago, in 1866, he wedded Elizabeth Laura McGuire, and unto them was born a son, Charles Edward, who is now in the employ of the American Express Company at Chicago. In 1875 Mr. Nothnagel wedded Mary Hagemier, and unto them have been born three children, of whom two died in infancy while one is yet living, Mrs. Eliza- beth Zink, a resident of Peoria. Mr. Nothnagel belongs to Bryner Post, G. A. R., and to the Charter Oak Camp, M. W. A. In politics he has always been an active republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, and in matters of citizenship he is as true and loyal to his country today as when he followed the old flag on southern battlefields.
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