Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 952

USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 103

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Mr. Myers was married February 21, 1885, to Miss Agnes E. Reynolds, who was born at Quiney, Illinois, and they have had eight children born to them, namely : Mable, who is the widow of F. E. Rupp, of Quiney; Lillian E., who is the wife of Edward Skinner, of Quincy; Margaret E., who is the wife of William Browner, of Quincy; Agnes, who is deceased; and John, Frederick, Edmund and Lawrence, all of Quiney and attending high school and eol- lege.

In politics Mr. Myers is a republican. On numerous occasions he has been ehosen for party promotion, but being a very busy man he has accepted few honors of a political nature, although at present the Sixth Ward is profiting through his business ability and judicious citizenship. He is a member of the Rotary Club, and fraternally is identified with the Elks, the Woodmen of the World and Modern Woodmen of America.

SAMUEL H. BRADLEY. Around the name Bradley has eentered many of those activities and influences which have given strength and character to. the community of Mendon. The Bradleys are a family of leaders, were among the first to build churches, support sehools, uphold law and order, in addition to the routine tasks of the pioneer involving the clearing of the forests, the draining of the swamps, and the supplying of business facilities.

It is necessary to go back into the dim pioneer past, more than eighty-five years, to note the first arrivals of the Bradley family in this eounty. The heads of the family were Samuel and Elizabeth Bradley, who both had the same family name and were distantly related, being descendants of Isaae Bradley, who came from England to America in 1674 and settled at New IIaven, Conneetient, in 1683. Daniel Bradley, grandfather of Samuel H. Bradley, served as a patriot soldier of the Revolution, and a diary which he kept during part of his serviee is still carefully preserved by his descendants.

In 1831 Samuel and Elizabeth Bradley left their old home in Connecticut, and after a long journey fraught with many hardships reached Adams County, and in the spring of 1832 bought land two miles west of the present Village of Mendon. Samuel Bradley was one of the leaders in a notable colony of New England people, which ineluded also Col. John B. Chittenden. They brought with them their New England sturdiness of character and their devotion to religion, and it was at a little log cabin of Samuel Bradley that the first meet- ing was held February 7, 1833, for the organization of a Congregational Church in Mendon. This ehureh organization was finally effected in the home of Colonel Chittenden February 20th of the same year. Thus was established one of the oldest Congregational churches in Illinois, and one of the most im- portant eenters of religious activity in Adams County. The Bradley family have always been keenly interested in this ehureh, and the late Samuel H. Bradley was a liberal contributor in time and money to the building of the reeent church edifice.

Samnel and Elizabeth Bradley when they came to Illinois were aecom- panied by their five children, Daniel, Charlotte, Sarah. Elizabeth and Grace Ann. Charlotte was born February 23, 1808, and died February 9, 1897. Sarah was born February 15, 1815, and died March 20, 1903. Elizabeth was born September 12, 1817, and died November 23, 1892, the wife of John L.

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Arnold. Grace Ann, the youngest daughter, was born February 15, 1820, and married Marvin B. Harrison, by whom she had two children, Marvin B. and Henry S. Mrs. Harrison died a few years ago.

The only son of Samuel and Elizabeth Bradley was Daniel Bradley, who was born at East Haven, Connecticut, in 1810, and had just reached his ma- jority when he accompanied the family on its westward migration to Adams County. He bought land adjoining his father's farm on the west and made it his home until the spring of 1852, when he moved to the Village of Men- don. There he became one of the leading merchants, and in the spring of 1866 bought an interest in the flouring mill later known as the Pearl Mill of Mendon. He was principal owner of that mill at the time of his death, which occurred January 26, 1867. In his character Daniel Bradley has been de- scribed and is remembered by some of the older residents of Adams County as a man of strict integrity, honorable in all his transactions, acting always from principle rather than policy, generously benevolent and public spirited, and seizing every opportunity to encourage and assist in enterprises that would advance the true interests of the community. He began voting as a whig, later was stanchly allied with the free soil party and in 1854 attended the famous Bloomington Convention which organized the republican party in Illi- nois. He returned from the convention and took an active part in organizing the party in Adams County. In 1834 he united with the Congregational Church at Mendon, and was one of its most active supporters and faithful workers the rest of his life.

In 1834 Daniel Bradley married Miss Josephine Brown, a native of Rens- selaer County, New York, and daughter of Daniel and Hulda (Tanner) Brown. She was a direct descendant of Stephen Hopkins, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620 and was one of the signers of the Mayflower compact. Mrs. Daniel Bradley was a niece of Jeremiah Rose and Rufus Brown, both of whom were among the earliest settlers of Quincy. Rufus Brown for a num- ber of years kept the log hotel which later became the Quincy House, and was finally supplanted by the Newcomb. It was in this pioneer tavern that Miss Josephine Brown lived from 1831 to 1834, when she married Daniel Bradley and went to live in their log cabin on the prairie. She was also of Revolution- ary ancestry, having had two grandfathers in the colonial army. Mrs. Dan- iel Bradley died April 10, 1896, at the age of ninety years.

The children of Daniel Bradley and wife were seven in number: Sarah, born August 23, 1836, married W. W. Benton, of Mendon, and died August 7, 1866. The second in the family is Samuel II. Bradley. Ellen, born Novem- ber 14, 1840, is now the only survivor of her generation living at Mendon. She made her home with her mother and brother Samuel and is still occu- pied at the old homestead where she has lived since 1876, the house having re. placed one that was destroyed by wind and which occupied the site of the family home established in 1856. Augustus C. Bradley was born October 1, 1842, and died August 29, 1859. Amelia, born January 29, 1846, died in infancy. Josephine B., horn June 11, 1847, is a resident of Galesburg, Illi- nois, and married in 1868 E. S. Kimball. She has two children, Edith B. Kimball, who was born March 16, 1874, married December 6, 1899. George M. Strain, and has two children, George Bradley Strain and Josephine Brown Strain. Daniel B. Kimball, born December 1, 1878, married December 23, 1903. Laura E. Dolbear. They have one daughter, Florence. Daniel B. Kim- ball is now a major in the Quartermaster's Department of the United States army. Daniel A. Bradley, the youngest of the family, was born February 26, 1855. and died at MePherson, Kansas, in 1905. He married November 29. 1876, Laura Young daughter of Dr. Peter and Caroline V. (Miller) Young. Doctor Young is now deceased and his widow and daughter, Miss Bradley, live at Mendon.

Samuel H. Bradley, who was born in Mendon Township October 11. 1838, and died March 3, 1913, possessed and exemplified many of the splendid vir-

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tues of his ancestors, and his life meant much to his native county. As a young man he was associated with his father in the store and in 1866 became partner in the milling business, and he gradually extended his enterprise un- til he was one of the chief dealers in grain, coal and other products in that part of Adams County. He continued a grain merchant until his death.

Samuel Il. Bradley should be especially remembered as the first volunteer from Mendon sworn into the United States service on Lincoln's first call fol- lowing the fall of Fort Sumter. He enlisted in April, 1861, under Gen. B. M. Prentiss as a member of Company A under Capt. John Tillson in the Tenth Illinois Infantry. Later he was first sergeant of Company A, under Capt. Henry A. Castle, in the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Infantry, under the command of Col. John Wood. For many years Mr. Bradley was an hon- ored member of Mendon Post, Grand Army of the Republic.

He was also active in public affairs, and for eighteen years was a member of the board of supervisors. For fourteen years that service was consecutive until he resigned in June, 1904. He was an uncompromising republican in pol- itics, and rendered many services to his party. For all the activities that made him a public character he was modest and had few ambitions to satisfy beyond the rendering of service conscientiously and to the extent of his ability. He stood high in Masonry, being affiliated with Mendon Lodge No. 449, An- cient Free and Accepted Masons; Mendon Chapter No. 57, Royal Arch Masons ; was a district deputy grand master; was a member of El Aksa Commandery No. 55, Knights Templar, at Quincy, and Mendon Chapter No. 153, Eastern Star.

CHARLES H. WITTLER. There are a number of men in Adams County whose careers might be taken as an illustration of the truth that it is not lack of op- portunity or any quality of political or social conditions, or any other ordinary practice, that stand in the way of successful accomplishment. One of these is Charles H. Wittler, of Ellington Township, who has raised himself into the class of independent farm owners though he began life with practically no capi- tal and has shown a degree of enterprise, initiative and good judgment that are sure to reward any man who keeps working steadily along one line.

Mr. Wittler has a farm of eighty acres in section 9 of Ellington Township. It is all improved except a ten aere woodlot. He has fields that produce corn, wheat and oats, clover and timothy, has a large stock and grain barn 36 by 42, and other outbuildings, and his home is a very comfortable two-story, twelve-room brick house. This is the only farm Mr. Wittler ever owned. Ile bought it in 1909 from Harry Morton, now living in Quincy. Many of the improvements have been made under Mr. Wittler's ownership, and it is with well justified pride that he views his accomplishments. He is a stock man, keeping Hereford cattle, and also good horses and hogs. His neighbors estecm Mr. Whittler not only for his material accomplishments but also for his high moral ideals, his record as an honest, fair dealing gentleman, and those quali- ties have given him a reputation all over that part of the county.

Mr. Wittler is a son of the late John Frederick William Wittler, whose career is rehearsed on other pages. He was born in Ellington Township March 10, 1879, and attended the old Washington School District. Mr. Wittler is an all around genius in mechanical lines, and that of course has been a big factor in his success as a farmer. He is a good painter, and has the ability to repair practically all his own machinery.

On November 23, 1904, in Quincy, he married Miss Sarah E. Allen. She was born near Carthage, Illinois, September 4, 1883, but grew up in Elling- ton Township and also attended the Washington schools. She has lived in Adams County since she was four years of age. She was three years old when her father died, and her mother afterward married O. C. Miller. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are now retired farmers in the Village of Columbus, both active members of the Christian Church and Mr. Miller is a republican. Mrs. Wittler has

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two brothers, Charles and Clarence, the former a farmer in Honey Creek Town- ship and has three children, Virginia, Helen and Otis. Her brother Clarence is a rural mail carrier out of Coatsburg, and is married and has a daughter. Dorothy. Mrs. Wittler's mother by her second marriage has several chil- dren : Cyrus Miller, who is married and has two children; Elmer, a widower with two sons; Elizabeth, wife of Jack Easton, of Galesburg, Illinois, and mother of two sons; and Lawrence Miller, who works for Mr. Wittler.

Mr. and Mrs. Wittler are the parents of three young children: Irma Viola, born October 14, 1905, now in the sixth grade of the public schools; Eleanor Flora, born May 15, 1909, a student in the fifth grade; and Richard Charles, born August 4, 1915. The family are members of the Ellington Presbyterian Church. In politics Mr. Wittler is a democrat.

FRED SCHRADER. As a practical man of affairs there is no better known resident in Liberty Township than Fred Schrader, whose home is on a farm 31% miles southwest of Liberty Village. Mr. Schrader is doubtles most widely known over Adams County because of his extensive operations as a thresher- man. He knows the threshing business in every detail, and has handled and used almost every type of outfit since the flail and threshing floor yielded to power machinery for separating grain from the straw.

Mr. Schrader was born in Melrose Township February 2, 1854. His fa- ther, Theodore Schrader, a native of Germany, came to Adams County when a young man and married Barbara Wolf, daughter of Jacob Wolf. They then settled on the Wolf farm and Theodore eventually bought it. He died there when about forty years of age. He and his wife had four children: Frederick, Jacob, Henry and Sophia. Barbara Schrader afterwards married William Manigold.

Fred Schrader remained at home to the age of twenty-six. From the age of seventeen he had an active experience in threshing for twenty years. He was first associated with his father, and at the age of twenty-three he bought a half interest in an outfit, and later conducted it with his stepfather and brother. The first outfit he ever owned was horsepower, and he wore out sev- eral machines, and always bought the most improved type. His field of opera- tions covered all of Melrose and Fall Creek townships, and he threshed grain up and down the river bottoms for miles. For seven years Mr. Sehrader lived on a rented farm in Richfield Township. After he was married he lived three years in Richfield Township, then moved to Liberty Township on the Butts place, and lived there seven years. His health becoming impaired, he lived a year near Liberty, and then bought a small place near that village. Six years ago he bought his present farm, the Wash Enlow farm of seventy-five aeres. On this farm he has reeonstructed all the buildings, has a large new hay barn, and has every improvement needed for comfort and business efficiency. Ile raises some high grade live stock. Mr. Schrader has never been an office seeker, though he served as a member of the school board at Liberty. He is a demo- erat.

At the age of twenty-seven he married Miss Caroline Neumann of Rich- field Township. She was four years his junior. Their oldest child, Cina, who died at the age of twenty-two, was a music teacher and played the organ in the Liberty Lutheran Church. Harry is a resident of Burton Township and by his marriage to Pearl Whitman has two children, Grace and Elsie. Louis. at home, married Ethel Fusselman and has three children, Merel, Floyd and Cloyd, the last two being twins. Lottie married James Rice and has one child, Gladys. The family are members of the Lutheran Church at Liberty.

EDWARD HOPKE is a native of Adams County, has spent his life here as a successful agriculturist, and his work as a business man, his relations as a eiti- zen and in all other respects have brought him a wealth of community esteem, which he enjoys as a resident of Riverside Township.

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He was born July 4, 1855, fourth in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to Frederick and Lovina (Dusterhaus) Hopke. Five of their children are still living, all residents of Adams County except Fred, a retired farmer in Schuyler County.

Frederick Hopke, the father, was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1844. Two years later he located in Adams County. He was then a young man, and had come to America on a sailing vessel. He responded to the call of patriotism in behalf of his adopted land and enlisted as a soldier in the Mexican war. After getting his honorable discharge he went to work as a wage earner at Quincy, and his frugality and industry brought him a success- ful status as a farmer. He bought eighty acres of land in Ellington Township, and lived there until his death on July 20, 1876. His last resting place is marked by a monument in Woodland Cemetery. He and his wife were active members of the Salem Lutheran Church. His wife was born near the City of Berlin, and was a young woman when she embarked on a vessel which after eleven weeks of sailing brought her to New Orleans. From there she came np the Mississippi to Quincy. She always recalled that voyage up the river, since the steamboat frequently could make no headway against the current and had to be towed by a horse. Her death occurred July 11, 1882.

Mr. Edward Hopke grew up and attended the schools of Adams County and since reaching his mature years has been an agriculturist. His knowledge of farming conditions here covers a period of over forty years. On May 24, 1883, he married Miss Pauline Oblander. Two sons and two daughters were born to their marriage, both daughters now deceased. The sons are Edgar George and Arthur A. Edgar G. had a common school education, a business course in the National Business College and the City Business College, and is now employed in the civil service at Denver, Colorado. He married Mabel Fultz, and their two children are Bettie and Leon. Edgar is a republican, and he and his wife are members of the Christian Science Church. The son Arthur has for eleven years been connected with the examiner's office in the civil service department at St. Louis. He married Miss Mary Super, and their son, Daniel Arthur, is a young stenographer.

Mrs. Hopke was born at Quincy October 11, 1861, daughter of Andrew and Vesselonia (Busman) Oblander. Her father was a native of Baden, Germany, and came to the United States as a young man. He was educated both in the German and English languages, and followed the trade of wagon maker. He died March 5, 1900. He and his wife were members of the Swedenborgian Church. His wife was a native of Friesland, Holland, and was a small girl when she came to the United States. For six years she lived in New Orleans and from there came to Quincy. She is still living at the age of eighty-two, bright and active, and makes her home with her two children. Catherine and Fred, in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Hopke was third in a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters, but the only ones still living besides herself are her brother and sister in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Hopke was educated in the common schools. Mr. and Mrs. Hopke have one of the good country homes, situated a mile from the city limits.

In politics Mr. Hopke is independent and votes for the man rather than the party. His official service has been done as road commissioner and six years as school director. He is a member of the Memorial Lutheran Church at Quincy. Mrs. Hopke is a member of the Ladies' Aid Union Society and the Missionary Society of the same church, but much inclined towards the faith of the Christian Science.

THOMAS T. LAWLESS. A citizen whose record has an appropriate place in every history of Adams County was that of the late Thomas T. Lawless, who bore an unsullied reputation as a man and citizen, was an honored veteran of the Union army in the Civil war, and for many years was a successful and prosperous farmer.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Sale Hi R Heelalfy

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He was born in Grant County, Kentucky, March 21, 1834, of old Virginia stock. His parents were John and Margaret (Skirvin) Lawless. When their son Thomas was two years of age, in 1836, the family came to Adams County, making the journey with teams and wagons and settling as pioneers in Gilmer Township. There John Lawless bought a tract of Government land near the Mount Pleasant Church, erected the usual log cabin, and he and his family lived with all the simplicity and with many of the hardships of pioncer exist- ence. Jolin and his wife died there, he in 1865 about the close of the Civil war, and she in 1868. Both were of the Baptist faith.

Thomas T. Lawless was one of ten children. As he grew to manhood he saw much of the development which was changing his locality from a frontier into settled peace and industry. He had to work hard from carly boyhood and managed to get in a few terms of school in the log schoolhouses of that day. Before he was twenty he set out on his own account and drove an ox team across the plains to California. For four years he was in that country of romance and adventure, working as a gold miner, and then returned to the States across the Isthmus. With what he had accumulated in California he bought land and settled down to a successful carcer as a farmer. From this quiet vocation he was called by the march of armed forces to put down the rebellion. In 1862 he enlisted in the Seventy-Eighth Illinois Infantry, one of the chief regiments recruited from Adams County. He served as a private, and participated in the Grand Review at Washington at the close of the war and was mustered out in that city in June, 1865. He was in many battles, including that of Missionary Ridge, where he was captured by the enemy. He spent many months enduring the hardships of a southern prison. For a time he was kept at Richmond, but his chief place of imprisonment was the notori- ous Andersonville, where he suffered many of the agonies so often recounted in stories of that place.

On returning to Adams County Mr. Lawless resumed his occupation as a farmer and later bought the 160 acres in section 12 of Gilmer Township which now bears the many evidences of his careful and judicious handling and culti- vation. That was his home for twenty-five years and he died February 28, 1897. He was a republican and held several minor offices.

In December, 1872, in Burton Township, he married Miss Ann M. Fergu- son. Mrs. Lawless was born in Burton Township April 11, 1846, and obtained her education there. She still owns and operates the home farm, with the aid of her son. She is a daughter of John and Emily J. (Pollock) Ferguson, natives of Ohio, but married in Edina, Missouri. They had a farm in Burton Township, and lived there until their death when past eighty years of age. During their last years they were members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Lawless' father was a whig and republican. Mrs. Lawless has a brother Rus- sell, a farmer in Burton Township, married and with three daughters. Clara. her sister, is the wife of James Lawless, a farmer in Gilmer Township, and has a family of five sons and two daughters. Her sister Helen is the widow of Dr. David Landon, who was at one time a physician to the Soldiers' Home and died in Liberty Township. Mrs. Landon has a daughter.

Mrs. Lawless is the mother of three sons. John Y., the oldest, lives on a farm near his mother's place. He married Nellie Wagner, and their daugh- ters are Ethel R. and Hazel J. Frank Lawless now operates the home farm for his mother. Howard is an elevator manager and livestock dealer at Lo- raine in Adams County. He married Mary Grubb, of Liberty Township, and has a daughter, Helen J., born in 1914. The family are all members of the Methodist Church.

THEODORE HELIIAKE. Quincy produced in the modern generation few busi- ness men of higher standing and of more solid achievement on the score of indi- vidual effort than the late Theodore Helhake, upon whose carcer death set an untimely seal October 10, 1918. In the commercial life of the city he was gen-

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erally recognized as one of Quiney's most active, most enterprising, most thor- oughly loyal young citizens. A native of Quiney, here he grew to manhood. Here he commenced his business career that in a few short years placed hin in the forefront of the most prominent and successful merchants. Here were his inter- ests and here he died in the very years when his usefulness was beginning to be fully appreciated.

In his passing there was sineere sorrow throughout the community. To many homes he had been a generous benefactor. It is said of him that he had never refused a worthy appeal, but the extent of his benefactions will never be known so quietly were they bestowed. The modesty that characterized his daily life marked his helpfulness to those about him. His affection for children was pro- verbial. To the little ones in the orphan homes he was a personal friend and to him a child in need made an appeal not to be denied.

Born in Quiney, June 11, 1883, Theodore Helhake was a son of Mr. and Mrs. William O. Helhake and a grandson of Theodore Duker. He attended St. Boniface School and later a school in St. Louis and at the age of twenty began his business career as a clerk in the store of the Miller Shoe Company, in this city. In a few years his abilities secured his promotion to the position of man- ager, and there were probably few details of the shoe business which were not a part of his intimate knowledge and experience. C. B. Miller, of Columbia, Mis- souri, had organized the company in 1902, the store being located at 515 Maine Street. In 1913 Mr. Miller and Mr. Helhake took up all of the stock of the company, the title being changed to the Miller, Helhake Shoe Company, and the large four-story building at 506 Maine Street was purchased for the rapidly mcreasing business two years later. In 1916 Mr. Helhake became the sole owner of the business with the exception of a few shares of stock in the company retained by Mr. Miller. At the time of his death this progressive young business man was conducting one of the largest establishments in his line in western Illinois.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 952

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 952