USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. II > Part 81
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Frank J. Quinn received his early education in the German ward and high schools of Peoria, and acquired his B. A. degree at St. Viateur's College at Bourbonnais Grove, Illinois. Upon his graduation he spent some time as a reporter on various Peoria newspapers. He was admitted to the bar in 1892, and spent the years between 1893 and 1897 as assistant to Richard J. Cooney, then states attorney of Peoria county. Since that time, he has been engaged in the general practice of law in Peoria as a member of the law firm of Quinn,
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Quinn & McGrath. Mr. Quinn is possessed of a mind capable of grasping the most intricate details of a case, and of apprehending at once its vital points. He has a breadth of vision and a soundness of judgment found only in con- junction with extraordinary talent. His most prominent characteristic, how- ever, is his gift of oratory. Possessed of a commanding presence, a clear, beautiful, and well modulated voice, a logical and clearly defined train of thought, and a command of the English language which finds its outlet in lumi- nous and beautiful words, Mr. Quinn has gained for himself more than a local reputation as an orator. His gift has won more than once a case for him in the course of his legal career, and his inherent Celtic qualities of enthusiasm and abounding vitality are valuable assets to him in his professional life. Mr. Quinn takes a great interest in the cause of education and was for several years a member of the Peoria school board and a director of the Peoria public library. He belongs to several fraternal insurance organizations, is a promi- nent Knight of Columbus, a member of the Creve Coeur Club, and connected with the Peoria Association of Commerce. Politically, he is a loyal democrat, voting always with that party, and believing firmly in the principles for which it stands. His opinions are solicited and heeded in local and state politics and his name has been mentioned as a democratic possibility for governor of Illi- nois.
Frank J. Quinn was married in Peoria, August 22, 1893, to Miss Jennie McAvoy of this city, and their married life has been a happy one. Mr. Quinn has long been recognized as one of the most promising and rising professional men of Peoria, a man of high ideals, native intelligence and broad capacity, who has done much in the course of his career to raise the standard of legal attainment to a higher plane-beyond commercialism.
GEORGE W. BLACK.
George W. Black, an able young attorney, conducting a general law practice with offices at No. 1116 Jefferson building since January 1, 1908, was born at Oakland, Illinois, June 23, 1882. His parents were W. J. and Melissa D. Black. The father was for many years a grocer at Oakland. He was a veteran of the Civil war, volunteering in 1861 when the war cloud arose, in the Fifty-fifth Illi- nois Infantry, with which he served for three years. His death occurred in November, 1904, when he was sixty-five years of age, while the mother passed away August 18, 1900, at the age of fifty-four years. Both are buried in Rose- dale cemetery at Oakland. On the paternal side the family is of Scotch-Irish origin, while the maternal ancestors for centuries lived in Virginia, where they were plantation owners.
George W. Black is indebted for his early education to the public schools of Oakland and was graduated from the high school in the class of 1899. He then entered the University of Illinois at Champaign, graduating from that institu- tion in 1903 with the degree of A. B. Being in need of means with which to continue his education he had previous to this time taught in the high school at Oakland. Following his graduation from the University of Illinois he became principal of the Monticello high school, a position which he filled for two years with distinction to himself and satisfaction to the board of education. Having conceived a well defined taste for the law, he entered the law department of the University of Chicago, where he pursued his studies with unremitting energy, graduating in the class of 1908 with the degree of J. D. and also receiving the honorary title of "Cum Laude." Immediately after his graduation he began the practice of law in the city of Chicago, where he remained one year. Hav- ing been offered the position of assistant attorney for the Illinois Traction Com-
GEORGE W. BLACK
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
L. HOX AND TLD M A NCATIONS.
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pany, he settled in Peoria and discharged the duties that devolved upon him in that connection with credit to himself and satisfaction to the company. In Jan- uary, 1911, he resigned his position for the purpose of becoming a general prac- titioner of the law and as such he has met with gratifying success. He is a member of the Peoria Bar Association and is active in his participation therein.
The political allegiance of Mr. Black is given to the republican party, and in his fraternal connections he is a blue lodge Mason and also holds membership in the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He has been very successful in the practice of his profession and he is not only popular with his associates of the bar but enjoys an excellent reputation as a lawyer and a citizen in the city and county of Peoria, where he is well known.
GEORGE W. KATZING.
George W. Katzing, who from his early youth has been engaged in the con- fectionary business in Peoria, is one of the city's native sons, his birth having occurred at 809 Fourth street on the 2d of December, 1859. His father, Louis Katzing, was born and reared in Berlin, Germany, whence he emigrated to the United States, locating in Peoria in 1845. This was some years prior to the advent of the first railroad and Mr. Katzing found employment as engineer in the old still houses then in operation. Here he subsequently married Miss Elizabeth Schaffenberg, a native of Germany, and they became the parents of three children: George W., our subject : Mrs. Charles Wegan, whose hus- band is engaged in the insurance business in Detroit, Michigan; and Louise, who is associated in business with her brother and presides over their attrac- tive home on Grand View drive.
The entire life of George W. Katzing has been passed in Peoria, in whose public schools he pursued his education to the age of eleven years. He then laid aside his text-books and became errand boy for Fred Eynatton, the jeweler. His duties there were quite varied and among other things he was entrusted with the responsibility of winding the tower clocks on the old court house, Hale chapel and the Congregational church, the importance of which task he fully appreciated and enjoyed. He remained in the service of Mr. Evnatton for eighteen months, at the expiration of which time he severed his connection with the jewelry business and found employment in an ice cream plant. This occupation engaged his attention for several years, when he withdrew from it and for several months clerked in a dry-goods store, but at the expiration of that time again became identified with the ice cream and confectionary busi- ness. As this line appealed to him more strongly than anything else with which he had been connected, he decided to apply himself to the mastery of its every detail and adopt it for his life vocation, appreciating the opportunities it afforded financially. From early childhood he had been trained in habits of thrift and industry and as he was an ambitious youth naturally he aspired to have an establishment of his own. With this thought as an inspiration he was stimulated to unusual efforts and ultimately acquired the means to engage in business for himself. It was necessary for him to begin in a small way but he possessed business sagacity, and realized that the best way to develop his enterprise was to offer a superior article at a moderate price. By this means he met with little difficulty in establishing a reputation and as his circumstances warranted enlarged his business. He has used intelligence in the direction of his endeavors and has been rewarded with corresponding suc- cess. His is now one of the oldest and best established concerns of the kind in the city and he enjoys an extensive patronage. He has a most attractive and finely equipped parlor at 326 Main street and numbers among his customers many of the best people of the town.
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Neither Mr. Katzing or his sister have ever married and they have always made their home together and they are also associated in business. He has been very much interested in poultry for many years and has at his home some fine fowls in which he finds much enjoyment and takes great pride. Fraternally, Mr. Katzing is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is a man of many substantial qualities who is accorded the esteem and respect of a large circle of acquaintances. During the long period of his connection with the commercial interests of the city, he has always manifested the highest principles and strictest integrity in all of his transactions. He is in every sense of the word "self-made," as he has been practically self-supporting from the age of eleven years, his achievements being entirely attributable to his unceasing energy, practical ideas and sound judgment.
STACY B. HART.
Tile well known manufacturer of Peoria, Stacy B. Hart, is president of the Hart Grain Weigher Company and the Hart Foundry Company. These firms have the distinction of employing more men and disbursing a greater amount of money in wages than any other firm in the city of Peoria. The offices and works of the concerns of which he is president are located at No. 100 Eaton street, where they have been maintained since the organization of the company in October, 1889. He was born in Deavertown, Morgan county, Ohio, December 6, 1847, the son of James W. and Mary Hart.
The early youth of Mr. Hart was passed in Ohio and his education was acquired in the schools of that state. In 1863 he came to Peoria and here the subject of this review continued his educational pursuits for a time, after which he began working for James Selby & Company, manufacturers of corn-planting machinery. He remained with that firm for fourteen years, attaining great proficiency in the work and showing such skill that by the time he was twenty years old he had charge of practically the entire factory. He has shown great executive ability in the handling of business and men, and today is at the head of the largest factory in the city.
On the 4th of January, 1865, Mr. Hart volunteered as a soldier in the Fed- eral army for service in the Civil war. He served under A. J. Smith, major general of the Sixteenth United States army corps, and was at the siege and capture of the Spanish Fort, the principal defense of Mobile, which fort was the last stronghold of the Confederacy. He marched from there to Mont- gomery, Alabama, where he spent the remainder of the time he served in patrol duty. He was honorably mustered out of service at the expiration of his time of service.
The inventive genius of Mr. Hart has been one of his most valuable assets. In the fall of 1878 he invented a grain drill which he named the Union drill, and formed a partnership with Frank Hitchcock, who for twelve years was sheriff of Peoria county, embarking in the business of manufacturing the machinery which he had invented. This association was continued until 1886, when, on account of a fire which destroyed the plant and embarassed the man- ufacturers, the concern was sold to Selby Starr & Company, which firm was later succeeded by the Peoria Drill & Seeder Company. His next example of creative genius was the invention of a grain weigher for threshing machinery and upon perfecting his invention he was successful in organizing 'a company for its manufacture, he being the president of the concern. The business has grown rapidly, three hundred men being now employed in the works which occupy practically an entire block of land. In order to meet the constantly increasing demand for the plant's output, plans are now being matured for a material increase in the producing capacity of the works.
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Mr. Hart is a republican and has served as a member of the city council. Ile is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the consistory and Shrine, and he also holds membership relations in the Royal Arcanum and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Socially he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Creve Coeur Club. It falls to the lot of few business men to have had a more varied career than that of Stacy B. Hart, who is a living example of what may be accomplished by a wide-awake business man of ability in this great republic. Catastrophe did not daunt his courage but with persistence and skill, after suffering losses which would have discouraged the ordinary man he recouped his fortune by creating the greatest manufacturing business at present in Peoria. Although his name is a house- hold word in Peoria and Peoria county his acquaintance and reputation are not confined by county lines but extend to all parts of the grain-producing sections of the United States and Canada.
ROBERT H. STOUT.
Robert H. Stout is the superintendent of the Peoria division of the Pru- dential Insurance Company in which executive power and administrative ability are brought into play in the conduct of a business which is growing in volume and importance. He has been a resident of Peoria for only five years but is well established as a representative business man of this city. He was born in Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, September 16, 1869, and is a son of Patton and Malinda ( Tucker) Stout, who were farming people. The son was reared in Georgetown and attended the local schools. Throughout his entire life, since the completion of his education, he has been connected with insurance interests and his advancement in this connection is due to his individual merit and fidelity to duty. He started in insurance .circles as a solicitor with the Prudential Insurance Company of America, which he has represented for eighteen years. He was appointed assistant superintendent of Cincinnati in 1894, and in 1901 was advanced to the position of superintendent of the Cin- cinnati district over which he had, charge until 1907. In that year he was transferred to Covington, where he remained until September, 1907, when he came to Peoria. As superintendent at this place he has nine assistants under him and forty seven agents. Of his assistants four are located in Peoria, one in Canton, one in Pekin, two in Burlington and one in Champaign, Illinois. Since making his initial step in the business world he has thoroughly familiar- ized himself with every phase of the insurance business and has by reason of his ability and trustworthiness been advanced to a position of prominence. It is undeniable that life insurance is playing an important part in human affairs today. As a medium for thrift and an investment furnishing protection to the family it stands alone. As the safeguard of millions of homes it has done much to tide families over an hour of adversity. The Trade Journal wrote: "In this great work humanity is doing for itself through the medium of life insurance no company stands more firmly entrenched in the public mind than the Prudential Insurance Company of America, the company with the 'strength of Gibraltar.' Established only thirty-six years ago the Prudential is today the living embodiment of a great success won through enterprising business methods, liberality to policy holders, a strong reliable brand of life insurance and fair dealing to all. The Prudential today has offices in nearly every city of importance in the United States and Canada. It entered Illinois in 1886 and commenced operations in Peoria in 1888. The company's business in the Peoria district compares favorably in proportion to size to that of any other district of Illinois. The Prudential met with success in this field from the
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first. The business which the Prudential had in force here at the end of the first year amounted to eight hundred and forty-five policies for seventy-three thousand dollars life insurance. Now the company has over fifty-two thousand policies in this territory on a population in Peoria and nearby towns of about one hundred and twenty-five thousand. The total amount of insurance in force in this district is over six and one-half million dollars. The Prudential has its office in Peoria in the Masonic Temple building, in charge of Superin- tendent Robert H. Stout, with a staff of nine assistant superintendents and forty-seven agents. The territory covered by Peoria agents includes Peoria, Bloomington, Canton, Pekin, Champaign and adjacent towns. Superintendent Stout has been in the Prudential's service for eighteen years and was formerly in Covington, Kentucky. He has with him ten members of the Prudential Old Guard, which means these men have been with the company for five years or more. He succeeded Superintendent J. H. Monteith in September, 1909, Mr. Monteith having been promoted to division manager in the home office at Newark, New Jersey. The total payments to policy holders in the Peoria district since the company started business here amounts to over one-half mil- lion dollars. The Prudential issues a great variety of life and endowment policies and was the first company to successfully introduce a monthly income policy by which a wife receives a stipulated, guaranteed monthly income after the death of her husband. The Prudential has over ten million policies in force in the entire United States and Canada and was the first company to introduce industrial life insurance in America."
In 1894, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Stout was united in marriage to Miss Edith Gertrude Thompson, of Ripley, Ohio, and unto them have been born three children, Ethel, Lillian Marie and Edith G. During their residence in Peoria they have become firmly entrenched socially as well as in business circles, the hospitality of many of the best homes of the city being cordially extended them. While Mr. Stout is preemnently a business man he is not neglectful of his obligations in other directions and where the welfare and interests of the city are involved he always cooperates heartily on the side of progress, reform and improvement.
WILLIAM S. PARRY.
For thirty years William S. Parry has been associated with Clarke Brothers & Company, distillers and blenders, of Peoria, of which he is now the secretary and treasurer. He entered the employ of the company when a youth of seven- teen years and gradually worked his way upward through intermediate positions until on the incorporation of the business in 1899 he was chosen to his present office. Even then he was but thirty-five years of age. He was born in this city on July 8, 1864, a son of Stephen Parry, who at one time was a well known, active and successful contractor here. In his youthful days the son, after he put aside his text-books, became connected with Clarke Brothers & Company, to the interests of which he has devoted the greater part of his time and attention to the present day. He thoroughly acquainted himself with the business as he worked up through successive positions and year by year his responsibilities and duties increased until, when papers of incorporation were taken out, he was named as secretary and treasurer of the company. What this means may be determined somewhat in the fact that this is the largest exclusive distillery of whiskey in the world. Their business is one of notable magnitude, the output covering a very wide territory. The plant is splendidly equipped with all up-to- date improvements and the processes of manufacture are of the most modern kind. The house has always held to a high standard concerning the excellence
WILLIAM S. PARRY
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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of its product and its business methods conform to strictly honorable trade rela- tions.
In 1892 Mr. Parry was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Stevenson, of Jacksonville, Illinois. He is exceptionally well known in Masonic circles and has taken all of the degrees of the York and Scottish Rites except the thirty-third degree. He is now a Knight Templar, a member of the Consistory and also a member of the Mystic Shrine and he has held all of the offices in the varions branches of Masonry, serving as thrice illustrions master of the council, as highi priest of the chapter, as eminent commander of the commandery and as M. P. sovereign of Red Cross lodge of Constantine. He is also a trustee of Mohammed Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs likewise to the Knights of Pythias lodge, in which he has served as master of exchequer. He belongs to the Creve Coeur Club and the Peoria Country Club and he has a beautiful home at No. 60.4 Moss avenue, which is the most beautiful and exclusive street in Peoria. To start out comparatively empty-handed and work upward to a position among the most successful business men of the city requires qualifications of a superior order. and yet his ability is such as any man may cultivate ; his career, therefore. serving as a source of inspiration to those who desire to attain success.
HON. L. O. EAGLETON.
Strong purpose and laudable ambition actuated the life of Hon. L. O. Eagleton at the outset of his career, as was manifest in his efforts to secure an education and prepare himself for the prominent position to which he has attained as an attorney at law. Since entering upon active practice his prog- ress has been continuons and he is now accounted one of the foremost repre- sentatives of the Peoria bar. He has practiced in this city since 1897, includ- ing four years' service as probate judge. He was born upon a farm in Jasper county, Illinois, February 22, 1868, his parents being William and Sarah ( Kern ) Eagleton. The father was a farmer and large stock buyer, raiser and shipper, his operations in that line exceeding those of any other resident of that part of the state. He died in 1876 but the mother is still living.
Upon the home farm the Hon. L. O. Eagleton was reared, with the usual experiences of the farm boy who divides his time between the acquirement of an education in the district schools, the pleasures of the playground and the work of the fields. In early manhood he took up the profession of teach- ing, which he followed for three years, first having charge of a rural school. afterward becoming a village school teacher and later securing the position of principal of the school at Enfield, White county, Illinois, where he remained for a year. In the fall of 1891, with four other young men from Jasper county, he entered the McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, and during their col- lege days they "batched" and practiced strict economy in order to make their way through school. In the summer of 1893 Mr. Eagleton sold school supplies in order to pay his way through college the succeeding year. He completed his course in McKendree in the class of 1894, winning the Bachelor of Science degree and then with the same determination that had made him master his course, he entered upon the study of law at the Northwestern Law School, through which he worked his way, graduating therefrom in the class of 1897. He then returned to Peoria with Frank Fulton, a fellow classmate at the Northwestern, and they entered into a partnership which continued for a year. Mr. Eagleton afterward practiced alone for a time but is now senior partner of the law firm of Eagleton & Stone, his associate being Hon. Claud U. Stone, member of congress. The firm is accorded a large and distinctively represen-
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tative clientage and their work before the courts has been of a most important character.
Mr. Eagleton has continually proven his ability to cope with the intricate problems of the law, to correctly analyze his case and to arrive at sound and logical deductions and conclusions. In 1906 he was elected to the office of probate judge on the democratic ticket, at which time Colonel James M. Rice, the editor of this volume, was a candidate for the same office before the pri- maries. At that time Judge Eagleton and Colonel Rice were occupying the same suite of rooms in the old Young Men's Christian Association building, where Colonel Rice still has his offices. During their entire campaign, in which they were political opponents but warm professional and personal friends, they used the same office and employed the services of the same stenographer-a notable example of broad-mindedness, transcending all mere difference of opin- ion, each with a recognition of the individual worth of the other. Judge M. M. Bassett became the nominee of the republican party. He had served the people as state senator and was a probate judge and a candidate for reelection. Judge Eagleton was elected although the county was normally about two thousand republican. He continued to preside over the probate court for four years, his term expiring in December, 1910, when he resumed the practice of law and has since been recognized as one of the foremost representatives of the Peoria bar.
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